“I wish we lived like this. These rooms are neither too large nor too small, while Aunt Constantia’s big rooms are so big that you lose your way in them, and the small ones are so small that, if the door opens inside, it scrapes the opposite wall. I am supposed to be still a child, and therefore of no consequence; so I am put into a nice little cupboard, so compact that Jennings has to open the door and stand in the corridor to brush my hair.”
Annie laughed at the picture of self-willed, spoiled Miss Braithwaite as a victim to neglect, and then asked after Lady Braithwaite.
“Oh, she is quite well, thank you, though of course she hasn’t got over poor papa’s death yet! You heard all about it from Harry, of course?”
“Yes,” said Annie, wondering at the easy way in which her proud sister-in-law thus alluded to their new relationship. She was still more surprised when the other continued:
“It seems so strange to think of Harry as a married man! I suppose he will think I ought not to box his ears any longer now; but you will let me, won’t you? I can’t keep him in order in any other way; but I suppose you can.”
Annie laughed—not very heartily.
“I haven’t tried that plan, certainly. It wouldn’t do for such a little woman as I am; I think I am too small for him,” she added, as if this really had struck her suddenly as a grave objection.
Lilian burst out laughing.
“What an odd little creature you are! I have always heard that a little woman can make a big man as submissive as a dog, and rule him with a rod of iron, while he thinks all the time that he is the master. I am sure you would not condescend to obey Harry.”
“Yes, I do,” said the young wife, seriously—“at least; I do the things he tells me to do; but he doesn’t tell me to do many things.” And the thought flashed through her mind, “He doesn’t take enough interest in me to mind what I do.”