“To think of that poor little woman teaching school, and going without ordinary comforts, to help support her sister in ease and relieve her of the responsibility of bringing up her two children!” Dorothy had slackened her pace and the girls walked together, although still swinging along rapidly.
“A person without a temperament would have moved instantly, but that creature stayed on and on, paying every increase, getting the extra money of course from Miss Mingle, just because she was so fond of that one room!” Tavia mimicked Mrs. Bergham’s voice and manner.
“Too languid to look for another,” said Dorothy, her eyes aglow with indignation. “But, Tavia, there is one thing certain. Dear Aunt Winnie shall now know where the leak in her income is,” said Dorothy.
Tavia did not reply, because a sudden idea had leaped to her brain. She listened quietly while Dorothy talked about Aunt Winnie’s business affairs, her brain awhirl with the excitement of this thing that had suddenly come to her; come as a means of repaying Dorothy and Aunt Winnie for all their loving kindness to her. To keep the idea tucked away in the innermost regions of her mind, she bit her tongue, so afraid was she that once her lips opened the idea would burst forth. So Dorothy talked on and on and Tavia only listened.
CHAPTER XVII
TAVIA’S RESOLVE
Tavia was preoccupied at breakfast. Ned slily guessed that she was yearning for a certain someone left behind in Dalton, but Tavia just smiled, and insisted that she was paying strict attention to other matters.
“Then why,” demanded Ned, “have you poured maple syrup into your coffee?”
“I didn’t!” declared Tavia, but there was little use denying it when she carefully stirred her cup.
Dorothy shook her forefinger at Tavia. “This morning you had your ribbons in your hair, and yet you asked me to find them for you; and then you said you were a ‘stupid’ when I located them for you—on top of your head.”
“But I still deny that I am preoccupied, or dreaming,” declared Tavia. “In fact, I’m too wideawake. It hurts to be as fully awake as I am!”