‘Of course we do, my darling, and so we won’t be ungrateful. I tell you what, Ruth, if you wish it, Gertie and Lion shall come and live with us.’
‘Oh, you dear, good boy, do you really mean it?’
‘Of course I do. Do you think I couldn’t see that you were worried about the child?’
Ruth was delighted at Marston’s plan, for she really had been troubled about Josh Heckett’s grand-daughter. She knew that her mother and father were to make their home with them, but she had not dared to broach the subject of Girtie. It seemed like trespassing on Marston’s generosity.
John Adrian had accepted Marston’s offer very gratefully, but it had been somewhat difficult to explain matters to Mrs. Adrian, or to persuade her to consent to the arrangement.
Ruth had put it in a very nice filial way. She had pleaded that she could not bear to be separated from her parents or to leave them in their old age, and that, as Ned was agreeable, it would be so nice for them all to live together.
‘And besides, mamma,’ she added, ‘look what a saving it will be to us all to have a nice large house between us.’
‘Ah, yes, that’s all very well,’ answered Mrs. Adrian; ‘but who’s to be mistress? You know, my dear, I have my little fancies, and so have you. It won’t do for me to tell the servants one thing and you to tell them another. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable, and perhaps cause words between you and your husband.’
‘Oh, nonsense, mamma!’ said Ruth, with a little laugh. ‘You shall have your own apartments, and one day I’ll be mistress and the next day you shall. There—won’t it be fun!’
‘I don’t know, my dear. I’m too old to play at keeping house.’