“Before another Christmas I’ll get you away from her forever!” murmured the aunt, passionately.
V.
“OUT rowing? If you are doing it to entertain me—” said Eve.
“I should never think of that; there’s only one thing here that entertains you, and that’s baby,” Cicely answered. She spoke without insistence; her eyes had their absent-minded expression.
“Cicely, give him to me,” Eve began. She must put her wish into words some time. “If I could only make you feel how much I long for it! I will devote my life to him; and it will be a pleasure to me, a charity, because I am so alone in the world. You are not alone; you have other ties. Listen, Cicely, I will make any arrangement you like; you shall always have the first authority, but let me have him to live with me; let me take him away when I go. I will even acknowledge everything you have said: my brother was much older than you were; it’s natural that those months with him should seem to you now but an episode—something that happened at the beginning of your life, but which need not go on to its close.”
“I was young,” said Cicely, musingly.
“Young to marry—yes.”
“No; I mean young to have everything ended.”
“But that is what I am telling you, it must not be ended; Mr. Morrison must come back to you.”