“Listen to me, my dears,” papa went on; “and reply when I ask you a question. This good lady is going to live with us—”
A deeper plunge into the folds of mamma’s gown.
“And from this time forwards you must love this lady. You love this lady now, my dears, don’t you?”
After as long a pause as they dared make, the children said, “No.”
“Well, I never heard—!” exclaimed mamma.
“What can possess them?” inquired papa. “My dears, why do you not love the lady, eh,—Kate?”
“I don’t know,” said Kate.
“You don’t know?—That is foolish. Adam, why do you not love this lady who is to live with us? Do not tell me that you don’t know, for that is foolish. Why do you not love the lady?”
“Because I can’t.”
“Why, that is worse still. How perverse,” he said, looking at the ladies, “how perverse is the human heart. My dear, you can, and you must do what is right. You may love me and your mamma first, and next you must love this lady. Say you will try.”