“No, my dear, we cannot go with you, as we have these rooms to make tidy. Warren will see you safe there and in the coach, too.”
Nettie bade her friends good-bye and was still lingering at the door, as she was loath to leave her new found home.
“I will come back here some day perhaps, and then I will stay longer; or long enough to make you wish there never more could come a Nettie Spaulding to trouble you,” said Nettie, feigning a laugh.
“Never you need be afraid of that,” answered her uncle, “come and see us and stay as long as ever you can. We will be most happy to see you.”
“Thank you, uncle, I will return soon no doubt.”
She tripped lightly out, and Warren handed her into the buggy, and soon the two cousins went from that farmhouse in a very sad mood, as Nettie was leaving her new found friends to go back to the great busy city to live within herself, as her old associates avoided her, or she avoided them, as she could not meet them as of old.
Warren was sad, as he did not wish his little cousin to leave them. She was like a sunbeam in the dear old home, and he had taken great pleasure in getting the two young people together who he thought were best suited to each other. Now his pleasures were ended, as his cousin was going home.
“If she was not my cousin,” he would say to himself, “I would try to win her affections, but that word cousin casts all into oblivion as far as I am concerned.”
As they were driving over the rough country roads, Warren said, “Little cousin, there is something wrong or you would not be leaving us so soon; is there not?”
“Warren,” she said, bursting into tears, “God alone knows the misery I have endured since last evening. You say you are my friend; I believe you, as you seem to take great interest in my welfare. I am going home to live like a hermit, in a great city. As such always think of me. I would like to stay, but it can not be,” she exclaimed passionately.