"Of course they will," said Bruce. "Come on cushions—aren't you to be temporarily regarded in that light?"
Hester took on her lap the only little boy of the pathetic group, the child whose discovery had inspired and directed her vague dissatisfaction towards this charity, and over whom she had been keeping watch ever since. Wythie, Rob and Frances received the three little girls without a word, and Bruce's heart shone out of his eyes as he caught a glimpse of the moisture dimming Rob's laughing ones, and saw the sweet, motherly pity on her merry lips.
The children could not be won to talk; they lay looking gravely out on the green and blossoming world into which they were being introduced, but no expression of any sort of feeling escaped them.
"Hester, Hester, I beg your pardon that I ever thought you exaggerated," said Rob as they neared Green Pastures. "I am thankful that I helped you a little, and at last I understand that you were not too earnest."
"You are a splendid girl, Hester Baldwin," said Oswyth emphatically.
"I don't feel like a girl, Wythie. I am a happy young woman; I have found something to do in the world, and I have found my place. There isn't a dissatisfied corner in me now, and when I first knew you I was all cravings and emptiness."
Hester's earnest eyes, alight with joy, confirmed her words, and the nobility of her face far transcended mere beauty. In their hearts her three friends believed that Hester knew herself, and that she was to be one of those devoted women who find their life in losing it, and their happiness in turning aside from all personal happiness to minister to distress.
The wan children ate their light supper with gratifying appetites, and keen appreciation of Mrs. Flinders' buttermilk cookies and the fresh strawberries. Then they were handed over to the care of their nurse, and the friends to whom they owed their new home drank tea in the westerly room, flooded now with the long rays of the sinking sun.
Rob took her cup into the window and stood looking out on the peaceful Green Pastures into which these waifs had been gathered. Something stirred within her, the appeal of suffering childhood to a woman, however young that woman may be.