Elsie colored.
"I loathed that gump," she said.
Miss Pritchard did not press the matter, though she wished very much Elsie had explained or made other amends.
CHAPTER XX
"Oh, Cousin Julia, how perfectly gorgeous!" cried Elsie, "but oh, I don't need it, and—oh, please take it back. You just shower things on me, and I feel so wicked to have you spend so much on me."
"Elsie, child, don't you understand yet how happy I am to have you to spend it on?" returned Miss Pritchard.
It was quite true that the latter was constantly bestowing not only small, but rich and costly gifts upon the girl who had come to live with her and for whom she had come to live. In this instance it was an opera-cloak of rose-colored broadcloth, wadded, and lined with white brocaded satin, soft and light and warm. The two went often to the theatre, and it would be useful, though Miss Pritchard herself had never owned such a garment, and it was certainly rather elegant for a girl of sixteen.
"Now, Elsie," Miss Pritchard went on, "I want to ask you something—I have more money than I know what to do with. Whom should I spend it on if not on you?"
Elsie winced. Her little face grew wistful. "Then it's because I'm a Pritchard you do it?" she demanded.