“Now, don’t get mad, children, for it won’t do any good. I was married half an hour ago to Mr. Finley.”
Sheer surprise sealed every mouth, and, taking advantage of the momentary pause, she continued:
“I did it this way to escape the fuss I knew you would all make. I am going with Mr. Finley on a wedding tour of a week, to visit his relations in North Carolina. I packed my trunk to-day, and I depend on you, Pansy, dear, to keep house for me while I’m gone. You needn’t go to work any more till I come back. Now, come and kiss me good-by, my precious children, for the carriage is waiting to take me to the train.”
CHAPTER VIII.
SECRET VISITS.
Poor Mrs. Laurens! Her anticipation of a brighter future for her children very speedily dissolved into thin air.
She came back in a week from her wedding tour, and moved into her new home, Mr. Finley’s nice brick residence on Church Hill; and then she hinted broadly to her new-made husband that she would like to take Pansy from the factory and Willie from the store, and send both to school again.
To her grief and dismay, Mr. Finley promptly refused her requests.
“I married you, not your family, Mrs. Finley,” he said coarsely.
“But I surely expected—and you certainly let me think, sir—that you would support my children,” faltered the bride.
“The three younger children, who are yet too young to work for themselves, I expect to board and clothe, certainly, but not the two others. They must remain at work, clothe themselves, and pay a small sum monthly for board,” was the stern reply, which so angered the astonished woman that she cried out resentfully: