"I'm not," Peggy answered truthfully, for she was not in the least in awe of the old lady. "I meant that—that perhaps if you have never asked Barnes about her relations, she would think you would not care to hear about them. But it does seem so very odd that she should have lived with you so many years, and you should not know all about her mother and brother!"
"The brother is an idiot, you say?"
"Yes; but Barnes and her mother are very fond of him; it would break her mother's heart to be parted from him, and Barnes says they shall never be separated as long as God gives her health and strength to work. They get parish pay, and with what Barnes sends them they manage to live pretty comfortably. Oh, Aunt Caroline, mustn't it be dreadful to have a brother like that! Oh dear, I do think it is so very sad!" And the pitiful tears rose to Peggy's blue eyes and ran down her cheeks.
"You mustn't take other people's troubles to heart like that!" Miss Leighton exclaimed hastily.
"I feel so sorry for Barnes," Peggy said, with deepest sorrow in her tone, "because I am sure it must make her very unhappy to think of her brother and her old mother sometimes. She must wish to see them so much, and always be wondering how they are getting on. Mrs. Tiddy says Barnes looks a very sad woman. I wish I could do something to make her happier."
"I said so to her just now," she continued, with a brightening face, "and what do you think she answered? That I had helped her by being sorry for her brother; she said she wouldn't have told me anything about him if I hadn't been afflicted myself, and it warmed her heart to know I cared. I told her I should pray to God every night to make her brother right in his mind, and she said she was afraid that would never be in this world. Poor fellow! He's like me, Aunt Caroline, in that way, isn't he? He will have to bear his cross as long as he lives, and his cross is so much heavier than mine."
A silence followed, during which Miss Leighton sat gazing, unseeingly, out of the window. There was a mist before her eyes, and a lump in her throat which prevented her uttering a word. By-and-by Peggy rose to go.
"Mrs. Tiddy said she hoped you would come early this afternoon," she observed. "Please do, for I've so many things to show you."
"I certainly will," Miss Leighton replied. "Shall Barnes take you home?"
"Oh no, thank you, I know the way quite well; I have only to keep to the road. Good-bye, Aunt Caroline—till this afternoon."