And now it is to-night, and he has gone. Oh, it was hard that I was made to go to bed early as usual. It is sometimes very difficult to be a doormat. So he came to say 'good-bye' to me when I had gone to bed.
'Oh, Meg, isn't it just too rotten to miss daddy?' And I agreed it was.
'You will keep the nurse a few more days, darling, won't you? Just till Monday, anyway. I shall feel that much happier about you, if you will.'
So I said I would. I wanted him to go away 'that much happier,' though I would much rather have been alone.
'Feeling pretty well, to-night, little 'un?'
'Yes, pretty well. Ross, darling, I have loathed having you.'
'I know,' he said. 'It's been the most wretched five months I ever remember, and this cottage is appalling. I suppose you couldn't see your way to move into a red-brick villa. Oh, here's your watch, it came to-day.'
'Oh, thank you, I'd forgotten all about it.'
'You'll be able to count the hours now till daddy comes, Meg.'
'Yes,' and I thought that I could also count the minutes till my brother went. I looked at my watch and found it wasn't my old silver thing, but a little gold wrist one set with pearls, and he 'hoped I liked it,' and I said I did. And then he asked,—