“I did not suppose so until a few days since, when I learned from a Mr. Green that Mrs. Markham’s youngest and now only brother has been an inmate of a lunatic asylum for years; and that though they cannot pay his entire expenses, of course they do all they can toward providing him with comforts.”
“What is a lunatic asylum, mother? What does he mean?” Jessie asked, but it was the doctor, not Agnes, who explained to the child what a lunatic asylum was.
“Is insanity hereditary in this family?” Guy asked.
Agnes’ cheek was very white, though her face was fumed away as the doctor answered: “I do not know; I did not ask the cause. I only heard the fact that such a man as Joseph Mortimer exists.”
For a moment there was silence in the room, and then Guy told the doctor of what himself and Agnes were speaking when he arrived.
“I suppose it’s of no use asking you to join us for a week or so.”
“There was not,” the doctor said. “His patients needed him and he must stay at home.”
“Doctor, how would this Maddy Clyde do to stay here with Jessie while we are gone, partly as companion and partly as her teacher?” was Guy’s next question, which brought Mrs. Agnes at once from her reverie.
“Guy,” she exclaimed, “are you crazy? That child Jessie’s governess! No, indeed! I shall have a teacher from Boston—one whose manners and style are unexceptionable.”
Guy had a will of his own, and few could provoke it into action as effectually as Agnes, who, in thus opposing him, was working directly against herself. Paying her no attention, except to bow in token that he heard, Guy asked Jessie her opinion.