“How sorry every one will be! How they will all miss you!”
“Do you think they will?”
“Oh yes. Why everybody loves you, Winnie. You are so good and kind to every one.”
“I’m afraid not,” answered Winnie gravely. “I used to think about pleasing people, but since I’ve been ill I’ve got very selfish; I did nothing for anybody, and did not try to be even kind or pleasant.”
“You were ill,” answered Vi; “you couldn’t help it. You couldn’t come to see people. It was very naughty of me to be cross with you.”
Another childish conscience was pricking its owner, bringing to mind sundry cross words and ungracious complaints which had fallen from her lips during the past months.
Winifred saw at once that her neglect had pained her little friend.
“I could have asked you to come to me,” she said quickly. “It was very naughty and selfish of me to think of nobody else. It makes me very sorry now, that I was so lazy and so unkind.”
“Don’t, Winnie; you weren’t,” interrupted Violet. “And now you’re just as kind as you can be—everybody says so. What will they do——?”
Violet stopped short, the tears in her eyes.