She caught the hand and kissed it rapturously. Miss Armitage held up the face with her hand under the chin.
“No, you haven’t gained any.”
“I think I did at first, but Jack was so troublesome, and the old lady, Aunt Hetty, wants one to read her to sleep and sometimes it takes so long.”
“You surely are not helping with her?”
“Oh, only reading and answering her bell. She’s somehow so nice when you wait on her. 183 I think, like the rest of us, she’s so glad to be back. One day she gave me a dollar and said I must spend it for candy, but I haven’t yet. Do you think I ought to have told Mrs. Borden?”
“Why, not necessarily.”
“I’m not so very fond of candy. There’s a beautiful book of fairy stories in a store down town that I’d like. Only Jack takes every thing, and he keeps asking if I haven’t a penny when we go out. His mother doesn’t give him pennies to spend, and a very good thing, too.”
“What kind of books do you read to the old lady?”
“Well, you see it’s this way, she reads on pages and pages and puts in a mark, then I go on where she left off and so I don’t get the real sense of the story. They seem to have a good deal of trouble. I’d rather read about little girls who went to their grandmother’s and had nice times, and beautiful verses full of music such as you used to read.”
Miss Armitage laughed pleasantly. “We’ll have some nice reading again. And you ought to go to school.” 184