“Oh, that alters the case; but now you see it will not do any good to talk about it, and if you will just run away and let me have the library to myself a couple of hours, I will promise to take you out riding in the morning, and I will step into court and bail her out, providing she promises to be good in the future.”
It was enough. Scott had promised and she knew he would go.
“Thank you, Scott,” she said, “but I wish it were now, so that the poor little girl would not have to stay alone to-night.”
“We cannot help it, June; there is no way that we can do anything for her to-day, so let that satisfy you.”
“Very well,” said June, as she left the room, “I will wait.”
Mrs. Wilmer doubtless would have objected to any intercession whatever on the part of her son in regard to the little culprit, but June knew that her father would not, and she was sure that Scott would do just what was right, so she said nothing to her mother on the subject. Young though she was, she knew her 12 mother’s peculiarities, and she had learned that in order to avoid all opposition or argument, the safest way was to appeal to Scott or her father. She had not the slightest idea of showing any disrespect to her mother’s wishes or judgment, but it seemed so natural for her mother to object to everything that June proposed, because she said that June was so apt to overlook everything like caste, and so much depended on that. June never had half the pride, she declared, that should belong to the Wilmers, neither had June’s father, and she was just like him, Mrs. Wilmer thought, so when June appealed to her father, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for him to say:
“Oh, don’t bother me, little one; go ask Scott.”
In this way she had grown into the habit of going to Scott with all her troubles and wishes.
“I mean to retire real early to-night,” she said to Scott.
“Why?” he asked.