Mrs. Bertram looked up at her eldest daughter and smiled at her. That smile, very much treasured by Kate, was after all but a poor attempt, gone as soon as it came. Mrs. Bertram leant back in her chair and toyed with the dainty fruit. Her appetite was little more than a mockery.
"It was very thoughtful of Loftus not to waken any one up to give him breakfast," said Catherine.
Her mother again glanced at her with a shadow of approval on her worn face. Artful Kitty had made this speech on purpose; she knew that any praise of Loftus was balm to her mother.
After breakfast Mrs. Bertram showed rather unwonted interest in her daughters' plans.
"It is such a lovely day I should like you to go on the water," she said. "At the same time, I must not think of hiring a boat this summer."
"Are we so frightfully poor, mother?" asked Mab.
Mrs. Bertram's brow contracted as if in pain, but she answered with unwonted calm and gentleness:
"I have a fixed income, my dear Mabel, but, as you know, we have come to Northbury to retrench."
She was silent again for a minute. Then she said:
"I see nothing for it but to cultivate the Meadowsweets."