"Yes, and you uphold her no doubt! You pity her and think she has been greatly wronged—but it makes no difference!"
"I do think, Sister, that had you sought for love you would have found it, and love worketh no ill to his neighbor."
"Love! I don't want her love or her either! To confess the truth I am worn out with her and she must leave—that is all!"
"I know very well that you do not like to have me advocate Phebe's cause, but did you ever notice that her exhibitions of anger only seemed to be the echo of your own? I have watched her, Sister, with the most intense interest when laboring under personal difficulties and perplexities, and I have seldom seen her lose her patience under any trial. In all the years we have spent together she has never grieved me by an ill-tempered word or gesture, because I never gave her one."
"So it is all me, of course! I must of necessity stand sponsor for my own sins and her's too!"
"No Fanny, but I would be plain. You are too stern and cold, and at times unjust! You forget that she is a child."
"I have heard enough—she must leave the house!" So saying the enraged Fanny left the room, the door closing behind her with a prophetic firmness which Willie well understood.
Phebe sat alone in her chamber until the golden twilight settled down upon the waters of the little lake and tinted the tree tops that cast their long shadows out over its bosom, and watched the "lights and shades" which chased each other down the hillside and over the meadow until they rested on two graves just beyond the garden wall.
"My mother! O, my mother!" gushed up from the overflowing heart. "Would that I were beside you! You did not hate me—you did not make me so wicked!" Tears choked her utterance and blinded her vision. Hours passed and then a gentle tap was heard on her door, but she did not move. There had been no steps on the stairs and well did she know who was pleading outside to share her sorrows.
"Phebe, may I come in? It is your own Willie—come and open the door if I may enter!" That voice never pleaded in vain. Now it sank down into the wildly throbbing heart as a soft lullaby, soothing every angry passion and illuminating the dark chambers of her soul with the sweet promises of peace.