Doris and Felicia
FOR several days Doris held to her determination to be nicer to her cousin, and Felicia, who was not in the least of a resentful disposition, met her half-way, so that things went more comfortably. Miss Barton was pleased to note this, and hoped Doris had overcome her jealous spirit; but, as a matter of fact, it was only slumbering, and a few words of her mother's, casually spoken, and not intended for her ears, proved quite sufficient to, awaken it once more.
"It is wonderful what a power that child is becoming at the Priory," Mrs. Pring had remarked to her husband. "Mrs. Price tells me that father is growing very fond of her, and Guy's simply wrapped up in her. And she's not been there quite three months!"
Doris was thinking of these words—which she had overheard—as she strolled about the front garden of her home one afternoon, close on tea-time. She was really trying to overcome the feeling of jealousy which was struggling for predominance in her heart, and had nearly succeeded in doing so, when, on reaching the laurel hedge which divided the garden from the road, she heard voices—one of which she was certain was her cousin's.
"Who can Felicia be talking to?" she thought. "She ought to be at the Priory, for she left here nearly half-an-hour ago. Perhaps she's with grandfather."
Her jealousy in arms again, she peeped between the laurels, quite expecting to see Mr. Renford, and gave a little gasp of astonishment at the sight which met her gaze—Felicia, with a bundle in her arms, and a little dark-haired, dark-eyed gipsy maiden of about eight years of age, coming along the road side by side, apparently deep in a confidential conversation. As the couple passed by, Doris saw that the bundle Felicia was carrying was a very young baby, wrapped in an old faded shawl, and she also remarked that the little gipsy girl's face was tear-stained, whilst she limped in her walk.
"Well," exclaimed Doris in amazement, "I wonder what this means! And what would grandfather say if he saw Felicia at this moment? Where can she be going? It cannot be that she intends going to the encampment? I believe that is it. Oh, what a naughty, disobedient girl she is, when grandfather forbade her to go there, and she knows he dislikes gipsies How can she bear to touch that horrid baby! It's sure to be a dirty little creature. I'll wait and see her when she goes back, and hear what she has to say for herself; she'll be obliged to pass this way."
Feeling greatly excited and very curious, she went to the garden gate leading into the road; but fully twenty minutes elapsed before her cousin at length reappeared in sight. Felicia was alone and running, but she came to a full stop as her eyes fell on the figure at the gate, and she exclaimed—
"Oh, Doris, is that you? Where do you think I've been?"
"That's what I've been waiting to hear," Doris responded severely. "I saw you pass just now with a dirty, common, gipsy child, and you were actually carrying a baby. You ought to be ashamed of yourself."