Marigold went downstairs to tea with smiling lips and bright eyes. Miss Holcroft looked at her kindly, for she guessed the cause of the child's happy face; but it was otherwise with Miss Pamela, who had cherished her dislike for Marigold's mother so many years that she had become perfectly incapable of thinking of her without prejudice. Miss Pamela would have liked nothing so well as to be enabled to break the strong tie between mother and daughter; although she had given permission for Marigold to write herself, and receive letters from her home, she nevertheless hoped that in time the communications would gradually shorten, and perhaps ultimately drop altogether. Upon most points the younger Miss Holcroft showed great common sense, but where her late nephew's widow was concerned she seemed utterly incapable of judging fairly, and was obstinately determined to keep her at a distance.
"Did you see Molly's father?" Miss Pamela asked, as she poured out the tea.
"No; he was evidently from home," Miss Holcroft responded; "and I could not help feeling relieved at his absence. Molly was looking as bright as ever; she seemed in very good spirits, and was busy at work on some beautiful sprigs of rose-buds for a bridal veil. Marigold was much interested in Molly; were you not, my dear?"
"Oh yes, indeed I was," the little girl answered. "I never saw anything so lovely as her lace-work."
"Molly is an artist to her finger-tips," Miss Pamela said; "and she is a good girl too! Go to see her what time of the day you like, you will always find her sitting-room the picture of neatness!"
Marigold hung her head and blushed, for she rightly guessed this remark was intended as a reflection on her own untidy ways. She felt her Aunt Pamela's eyes were upon her, and her guilty confusion was intensified when she looked up and met her cold glance. "Aunt Pamela, I understand what you mean," she said at length. "You were quite right about my room this afternoon, and I know it was wrong of me to leave it like that. I hope I shall not be so untidy again!"
"I hope not, Marigold!"
"I behaved very badly, because I knew my room was in a dreadful muddle," the little girl continued. "I wanted to finish the book I was reading, and I did not think you would go into my room and see how untidy it was. It was very wrong of me, though I never thought about it at the time. I am very sorry, indeed I am!" There were tears in Marigold's eyes as she made her confession, and expressed her sense of contrition, and Miss Pamela's face softened as she listened.
"You will be more careful for the future, will you not, Marigold?" Miss Holcroft interposed, her kind voice sounding a trifle anxious.
"Oh, I will, I will!"