"Never tell me a man knows how to bring up a child," she scolded as she stirred her soup, "never tell me that! He's done as well as he could but he's made a fine mess of it—the poor child! Thinking Miss Octavia would be here—not knowing so much as a new-born kitten— that's as much sense as she has—as a little new-born kitten!"
And she hurried back with a delectable luncheon on a tray.
Outside the sun had hid itself and the fickle spring clouds were dripping over the desolate garden. But at the fireside, curled up in the winged chair with her bandaged foot propped comfortably on a foot- stool, Felicia sat through the long afternoon and chattered and laughed and clapped her little hands.
Oh, those foolish clothes that had belonged to Louisa! With their silly—whaleboned waists and their grotesque basques and impossible pleatings! Felicia couldn't get one of those bodies half around her healthy young waist. But she liked the bonnets and the shawls. They were adorable. The shawls were so soft, so quaintly shaped, the bonnets were fairly ravishing. Felicia tried them on, peering into a carved tortoise shell hand mirror, and giggled whimsically at the little flowered ones with lacy ties and the stuffy winter ones with velvet bows.
"Miss Louisa was very handsome," Margot informed her, "My aunt says she was the handsomest girl she ever saw—but very high-minded, very uppish!"
"I know about her," Felice answered easily, "Mademoiselle D'Ormy belonged to her. Louisa went to Paris, you know, and Mademoiselle lived there. Mademoiselle used to tell me she bought clothes and clothes and clothes! Are these those clothes?"
Margot nodded.
"Josepha's clothes came from Paris too—" she spread a great brocaded velvet coat before her, "Josepha wasn't pretty at all like the rest of them, she looked like her father, they said, and he was a homely old man—Josepha had a temper—I never saw her—I wasn't even born when she went away, but my aunt served her and she said Mistress Josepha had an air—a way with her—if things didn't suit her—" she lowered her voice impressively—"Ah—what she wouldn't do, that Josepha! Once my aunt took her an omelette—a beautiful omelette cooked with chopped fine carrots and peas and parsley and a big tall glass of milk for her breakfast, but Josepha, she had desired broiled chicken that morning, so she walked straight to the window here where I'm standing and threw the omelette out—She would always throw things—that one—her shoes— or anything—when she was angry—"
Felicia blushed.
"Margot," she confided, "this morning when I was angry I was like that—I wanted to throw things, only I hadn't anything just then to throw—but when I was little I did—my bath sponge, you know, and once a key—" she grew thoughtful, "the key to the storeroom where Mademoiselle hid things—Margot, you won't hide these things, will you?" she hugged a wee muff jealously to her breast, "You won't, will you?"