Therefore, it came about that Marjorie was quite willing to undertake Zaidie’s amusement, but she soon discovered that a “mumpy” Zaidie tried her resources to the uttermost. Mamma was with her also, all she could be, but with the other girls needing her also, and with Helen down with an unusually bad attack of the croup and fretting for Zaidie quite as much as her little twin did for her, poor mamma said that she needed to be three people, in order to satisfy all the demands upon her. Donald, in spite of his own mumps, came bravely to the rescue, but Zaidie managed to keep them all busy.
CHAPTER V.
AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR.
On the fourth day of imprisonment, Doctor Ward came up after luncheon and carried mamma, somewhat against her will, off for a drive, as she had not been out of the house for a breath of fresh air since the Drayton party. Marjorie was left in charge. Zaidie, just in the state where she wanted whoever she didn’t happen to have with her, wailed disconsolately, as she stood at the window watching her father and mother drive off.
“I want something to ’muse me with, Margie. Mamma’s gone and I can’t—see—Helen, and I hasn’t anything—to ’muse me—with,” she sobbed, flattening her nose against the window-pane.
“You ungrateful little wretch,” said Donald, trying to make a face at her, but not succeeding in twisting his features much more than they were already. “Here are two people devoting their days and nights to keeping your highness serene—though I must say that I prefer to be paid according to my efforts rather than my success.”
“If we were paid according to our success, we wouldn’t go to Europe on the proceeds,” sighed Marjorie. “See, Zaidie, there’s Johnnie-goat trotting down the street—I do believe his tail has grown a little longer. Don’t you think so?”
Zaidie dried one eye and peered out. Instantly she conceived an idea.
“I want to see Johnnie-goat. I hasn’t seen him for seventy-ten years, Marjorie. I want him to come up here and see me.”
“You can see him out of the window, pet. He couldn’t come up here—goats don’t know anything about houses, you know.”
Zaidie instantly shrieked. Three days of immediate obedience to her demands had spoiled her.