THE NEW HOME
It was in rather a chastened spirit that Robinette set off to see Mrs. Prettyman. “I’ve been foolish, I’ve been imprudent; oh! dear me! I’ve still so much to learn!” she sighed to herself. “No good is ever done by losing one’s temper; it only puts everything wrong. I shall have to try and take Mr. Lavendar’s advice. I must be very prudent with Nurse this morning––never show her that I think Aunt de Tracy is in the wrong; just persuade her ever so gently to move to another home, and arrange with her where it is to be.”
It is always difficult for an impetuous nature like Robinette’s to hold back about anything. She would have liked to run straight into Mrs. Prettyman’s room, and, flinging her arms round the old woman’s neck, cry 261 out to her that everything was settled. And instead she must come to the point gently, prudently, wisely, “like other people” as she said to herself.
The cottage seemed very still that afternoon, and Robinette knocked twice before she heard the piping old voice cry out to her to come in.
“Why, Nurse dear, where are you? Were you asleep?” Robinette said as she entered, for Mrs. Prettyman was not sitting in the fine new chair. Then she found that the voice answered from the little bedroom off the kitchen, and that the old woman was in bed.
“I ain’t ill, so to speak, dear, just weary in me bones,” she explained, as Robinette sat down beside her. “And Mrs. Darke, me neighbour, she sez to me, ‘You do take the day in bed, Mrs. Prettyman, me dear, an’ I’ll do your bit of work for ’ee’––so ’ere I be, Missie, right enough.”
“I’m afraid you were worried yesterday,” 262 said Robinette; “worried about leaving the house.”
“I were, Missie, I were,” she confessed.
“That’s why I came to-day; you must stop worrying, for I’ve settled all about it. I spoke to my aunt last night, and it’s true that you have to leave this house; but now I’ve come to make arrangements with you about a new one.”
The old woman covered her face with her hands and gave a little cry that went straight to Robinette’s heart.