"By and by: I've got to see to the beds. Where is Mr. Brown going to sleep?"
"I thought you might give him your room, and come in here."
"Indeed I sha'n't!" replied Kitty in a strange voice. "He is no company of mine; and I don't want him even to look into my room. I'd never sleep there again if he did once!"
"Well, then, we can make a bed for Karl on the floor, and Mr. Brown can have his bed," said Dora quietly, seeing nothing deeper in Kitty's refusal than a little impulse of perversity.
Kitty made no reply; and Dora, groping her way toward where she stood, put an arm about her waist, saying,—
"Come, Kitty, come down with me. You're tired, I know; and it is too bad you have so much to do. To-morrow I will stay at home and help you. Karl can take a holiday, and show Mr. Brown over the farm."
"What nonsense! I don't do any thing to hurt; and it would be pretty well for you to send Mr. Brown off with Karl, when he came here on purpose to see you."
"Oh, no, he didn't! He came to see us all; and he asked where you were just now, when we came in."
"And that was why you came to look for me; wasn't it?" asked Kitty suspiciously.
"Not wholly. I had been thinking of it for some minutes."