“I wonder if Mrs. Langley wants to see me?” she asked.
“She always wants to see you, Anna,” he returned half absently, frowning unconsciously. But as she made a move to go in, he arrested her.
“Why have you done this foolish thing, tell me, child!” he demanded reproachfully.
“Because—well—” Anna choked—“Honestly, Mr. Langley, I can’t tell you now,” she faltered. “Ma cried and Miss Penny and even Mrs. Lorraine, and Pa took to the wood-pile. It’s only—a sort of a joke.”
“A poor sort of joke, it seems to me,” he remarked and betook himself to his study.
Mrs. Langley cried, too. But whereas one would have deprecated Anna’s mother’s tears and Miss Penny’s, it was probably good for Mrs. Langley to forget herself for the moment and be really moved by something beyond her immediate narrow horizon. It was, perhaps, fortunate for her that after all those arid, selfish years she had tears of sympathy to weep.
Anna found her looking better. Since the girl had begun to visit her, Mrs. Langley had slept at night and suffered less and less pain during the day. This afternoon she wore an old-fashioned lace fichu over her ugly Mother Hubbard gown which so relieved the sharpness of her face and the yellow tone of her skin, that Anna had no hesitation in kissing her when she saw that it was expected of her.
But as she stood before her, suddenly Mrs. Langley raised both hands and cried out.
“Anna Miller! Your lovely hair!” she exclaimed incredulously, “you’ve had it all cut off!” And covering her face with her hands she began to weep.
Anna, who had had a hard week and a difficult home-coming, was startled and distressed. She stood quite still with tightly clasped hands. It might kill an invalid to cry like that. If they knew, they would never let her in again. What if Big Bell should come in now—or Mr. Langley? How angry he would be! Anna hadn’t supposed he had it in him until she had heard his voice to-day. He was probably thinking then that it would be a shock to his wife, and that she was a hateful thing not to have thought of it.