"I don't believe Stevens would leave Aunt Emily if she begged and prayed her to go," said Kate with indiscreet heat. "Really I do think it hard to talk of Aunt Emily like that, mamma."
"My dear Kate," said Mrs. Wilton, "will you ask Aunt Betha to come and speak with me? I must send a note to the Quadrant this evening."
These were Mrs. Wilton's favourite tactics. She seldom argued a point with her children, and she was right in the principle. If the differences of opinion were likely to be very decided, she would ignore them by turning quietly to another subject.
CHAPTER XI.
ADA'S DEPARTURE.
THE household at Elm Cottage were engrossed for the next ten days with preparations for Ada's departure. Mrs. Pryor's eyes filled with tears whenever it was mentioned.
"Going off to foreign parts, where my dear departed lady went years agone, to find a grave for her husband; no good ever comes from going to these outlandish places. However a widow lady can trust her child to go off like this passes my comprehension."
"These are old-fashioned notions in these days, mother," Ruth would interpose. "These foreign places are just English all over. I know a young person who went as maid to—to—not Cannes, but it's all the same; the name begins with a saint."