“Wouldn’t it be too dreadful if we did have to go to her for help, after all?” said Honor, as the train moved away. The three older girls had accompanied their aunt to the little station. “Wouldn’t she simply shriek at us, ‘I told you so!’”
“She will never have the chance if I can prevent it,” returned Katherine. “Rather than go to Aunt Sophia for help after all that has been said this afternoon I would rather—I would rather scrub floors.”
Which was Katherine’s favorite simile for the extreme of hard work, although the wildest flights of the imagination could scarcely picture her in such an employment.
“I shall never give Aunt Sophia any such satisfaction as that,” she added, with decision.
“I am perfectly astonished that she gave in at last,” remarked Victoria, as the three walked arm in arm across the lawn. “I really thought she would stick it out to the very end, and perhaps refuse to have anything more to do with us.”
“I didn’t,” said Katherine. “Do you know I think it is almost a relief to Aunt Sophia that she isn’t obliged to have us there, after all. We should interfere dreadfully with her regular ways, even if she did turn us to account, with her writing and her dusting, and I also think she is very curious to see what we do, and how we come out. She is already looking forward, I plainly see, to the time, when she can prove that she knows more than anybody else, and that we are all dismal failures. For that reason, girls, if for nothing else, we must prove that we are not. We must succeed!”
“Do you think we were at all disrespectful to her?” said Honor.
“No, not a bit. We had to be emphatic. It was the only way to make her understand that we were in earnest.”
“I know, but she is father’s sister and our only near relative, even if she is aggravating, and I think she is fond of us in her own way. It was very good and generous of her to offer to do so much for us.”
“It is certainly in ‘her own way’ that she loves us, if she loves us at all,” said Katherine. “Honor, it must be a terrible bore to have such a conscience as you are burdened with. I’m glad it’s yours, and not mine, and I’m glad, too, that we came out victorious in the scrimmage with our beloved aunt, fond of us though she may be.”