“First, I’m so sorry about your shawl. I took it off, ’cause it was so warm; an’ I don’t know where the place was. The fence is just the same, and—”
“Never mind the shawl, Steenie; it is certain to be returned. Somebody will find and recognize it; but what is that about a horse?”
Holding fast to her father’s hand, Steenie gave a graphic description of the runaway, and its result. When she had finished, Madam sat in a silence which was plainly that of a shocked dismay. Finally she spoke.
“This is even worse than I feared. No such accident must occur again. Steenie, before another word is said, promise me that you will not go into the street again without permission.”
“No, no, Mother!” interposed Mr. Calthorp, earnestly. “Pardon my disputing your authority, but that will not answer. Steenie has never known restraint, and—but let us settle all this at some other time.”
The lady sighed. She had her own ideas of how a little girl should be brought up; but she felt her old hands inadequate to the task. She had been so peaceful and free! Why had this trial been sent upon her? Gravely she arose and left the room, and the relieved runaway went to sleep to wake at the dinner hour with no worse feeling about her than rebellion against being kept in bed when there was “nothing the matter that ever was.”
The immediate result of that morning’s adventure, so far as Steenie was concerned, was a suitable wardrobe. A dressmaker took up her abode in the west chamber, and there the restless child was imprisoned during a fortnight of bright days, while birds sang invitations to her through the windows, and the crocuses coaxed her with their shining faces to “come out of doors and be glad!”
But the only time she could command for that was after the crocuses and the birds had gone to sleep, and the dressmaker had stopped work for the day.
“Why do I need so many things, dear grandmother? I’m sure they’re pretty; but—”
“Many, Steenie? I have never been an extravagant woman, and I certainly shall not cultivate the habit now. But there must be two comfortable school-frocks and three or four thinner ones; for I wish everything to be accomplished at once that will be required during the summer. There must be a simple dress for church and a richer one for visiting; and—that is all. I’m sure you are the first little girl I ever knew who didn’t like handsome clothes.”