“‘It was better to joke before you than when you were absent. Jessie is at least frank and open-hearted,’ I said, but Margaret would not hear a word in her favor, so deeply prejudiced had she become against the young girl, who half an hour later inquired for her with much concern, and asked if she might see her.
“‘I did not know,’ I said, ‘I’d ask.’
“‘Never, Dora, never!’ and Margaret’s lips shut firmly. ‘That terrible girl see me! No, indeed!’ and in this she persisted to the last, Dr. West telling Jessie that he did not think it best for her to call on Mrs. Russell, as it might disturb her.
“That night, tired as Jessie was, she danced like a top in the drawing-room, meeting many acquaintances, and winning a host of male admirers by her frankness and originality. Next morning I counted upon her table as many as six bouquets, the finest of which she begged me carry Margaret, with her compliments.
“Margaret was weaker this morning than she had been the previous night, but her eyes lighted up with a gleam of pleasure when I appeared with the flowers, and she involuntarily raised her hand to take them.
“‘Miss Jessie sent them,’ I said, and instantly they dropped from Margaret’s grasp, while she exclaimed:
“‘That dreadful girl? Put them out of my sight. They make me sick. I can’t endure it!’
“So I put the poor discarded flowers away in the children’s room, and then went back to Margaret, who kept me by her the live-long day, talking of the years gone by, of our dead parents, and finally of the rapidly coming time when she would be dead like them. Then she spoke of Johnnie and the little boys at home, and gave to me messages of love, with sundry injunctions to mind whatever I might tell them. Remembering Johnnie’s letter, in which he had expressed so much contrition for the saucy words said to her when he did battle for me, I told her of his grief and his desire that I should do so. Margaret was beautiful then, with the great mother-love shining out upon her face, as with quivering lip she bade me tell the repentant boy how she forgave him all the past, and only thought of him as her eldest-born and pride.
“‘And, Dora, when I’m dead, cut off some of my curls, and give the longest, the brightest to Johnnie.’
“I assented with tears, and received numerous other directions until my brain was in a whirl, so much seemed depending upon me.