"Is she very glad?"
"Oh, yes. She has to take Dad's part, but she's awfully sympathetic, really, and I don't think she has ever really understood what all the fuss was about. Nobody could, of course, because there isn't anything to make a fuss about. The dear old Dragon thinks Dad must be right, but then she's old, and I suppose she has never loved anybody very much and doesn't know what it's like. Caroline doesn't either, though she thinks she does. But we know, don't we, Mollie?"
Mollie suddenly took up the work that had been lying on her lap, and her face went red as she looked down at it. "I ought to know, by the amount I've listened to about it from you," she said.
Beatrix laughed at her mischievously. "I don't think you'll hear very much more," she said. "I'm contented now. I feel comfortable all over me. I am going to begin to enjoy myself again. I shall go away on some visits soon, but I don't want to just yet, because I love being here, now that everything is all right at home."
Mollie's blush had died down. She left off using her needle and looked at Beatrix. "Are you sure you love him just as much as ever you did?" she asked.
"Oh, yes, I do. Of course I do," said Beatrix. "It doesn't leave off like that, you know. But I know how to wait. I'm much wiser than people think I am. I'm thinking of him all the time, and loving him, and I know he's thinking of me. He'll be so happy when his mother tells him that he may come and ask for me again. And then he'll be allowed to have me, and we shall both be as happy as happy all the rest of our lives. It's lovely to look forward to. It's what makes me not mind waiting a bit—or only a very little bit—now and then."
Mollie took up her work again. "If it were me, I think I should want to hear from him sometimes," she said, "or to see him. And you did feel like that at first."
"I know I did. Daddy not understanding, and putting everything wrong, made me sore and hurt all over, and with everybody. I was horrid even to Caroline, who is always so sweet. I think I was with you too, a little—just at first."
"No, you never were with me. But you were with him, though you tried not to show it. I never said so before, because I didn't want to trouble you."
"Did it seem to you like that?" Beatrix said thoughtfully. "I'm so happy now that I've forgotten. Well, I suppose at first I was hurt with him too. I couldn't understand his giving me up so easily. It seemed to me like that. But, of course, it wasn't. I ought to have trusted him. I think you must trust the people you love, even if you don't understand. You see he's been dying for me all the time. Mme. de Lassigny coming to Dad like that, and telling him—it's like having a window opened. I can see him now, wanting me, just as I want him. Perhaps I was a little doubtful about it, but I ought not to have been. I shan't be any more. Oh, I do trust him, and love him."