"I was very thankful when I heard my men coming, Bessie; but I was too weak to think much," said the colonel. "Come, let us wind the box and have some music; hand me that key."
"But you think a great deal about it when you don't feel so bad; don't you?" persisted the child, as she gave him the key of the musical box.
"Pshaw!" said the colonel, throwing it down again on the table; "what absurdity it is to fill a child's head—"
"Horace!" said Mrs. Rush, in a quick, startled voice.
The colonel stopped short, then taking up the paper-cutter, began tapping the table in a very impatient manner. "I am sick of the whole thing," he said; "there seems to be no end to it. Wife, sister, and friend, from the parson to the baby, every one has something to say on the same subject. I tell you I will have no more of it from any one. I should have supposed I would have been safe there. And my own words turned into a handle against me too." And he looked at Bessie, who had drawn a little away from him and stood gazing at him with fear and wonder in her large eyes. She had never seen him angry before, and she could not think what had made him so now.
"Am I naughty?" she asked.
"No, darling," said Mrs. Rush, holding out her hand.
Bessie ran over to her. Mrs. Rush lifted her up in her lap.
"Did I talk too much?" asked Bessie. "I did not mean to tease him."
"See that steamship coming in, Bessie," said Mrs. Rush, in a voice that shook a little. "I think it must be the 'Africa,' which is to bring Gracie Howard's father. Will she not be glad to see him?"