“When is she coming?”
“To-morrow.”
“Are you glad?”
“No. Are you?”
“I don’t care. I wonder how long she will stay. I know Mother said a week, but I dare say she’ll ask her to stay longer as she did last year.”
“Well, I know she’ll be tiresome, and I shall be glad when she goes away.”
“I’m going to sleep now.”
“Oh, Martha, how soon you always do go to sleep! I’m not a bit sleepy yet.”
A snore from the other little bed soon showed Betty that further talk was hopeless. She would have liked to chatter longer, but Martha had a way of falling asleep at the most interesting points, and Betty knew it would be useless to try and rouse her now.
So she resigned herself to her own thoughts with a sigh. Kitty was coming to-morrow! Coming before Martha and she had had any enjoyment of their country life together, for the children had only just left London. Coming to spoil all their plans and games with her tiresome ways, just as she had done last year. Of course she would insist on being first in everything, on ruling everyone, and would be as pushing and disagreeable as possible. It was all very well to say that she was a visitor and must do as she wished, but that did not make it any the less provoking.