"Had he a big place in a cave, with trees that grow rubies and diamonds and beautiful things?" added Charlie.
"Why doesn't mamma buy us some ponies now?" continued Cis; "we should be some time learning to ride."
"I will not listen to you any more if you talk so foolishly. Try and think of something else—of the Christmas pantomime. You know grannie says you shall go if you do your lessons well," returned Katherine.
"It isn't silly!" exclaimed Cecil. "Mammy tells us we must take care of her when we are rich men, and that we shall be able to hold up our heads as high as any one. I can hold up my head now."
Such conversations were of frequent occurrence, and kept Katherine in a state of mental irritation.
Toward the end of October Mrs. Burnett brought relief in the shape of an invitation to Mrs. Frederic.
The Burnett family were spending the "dark days before Christmas" at Brighton, and thither hied the lively young widow in great glee. Things generally went smoother in her absence; the boys were more obedient, the meals more punctual.
Nevertheless Katherine observed that her mother did not settle to her writing as usual. Occasionally she shut herself up in the study, but when Katherine came in unexpectedly she generally found her resting her elbow on the table and her head on her hand, gazing at the blank sheet before her, or leaning back in her chair, evidently lost in thought.
"You do not seem to take much to your writing, mother dear," said Katherine one morning as she entered and sat down on a stool beside her.
"In truth I cannot, Katie. I do not know how it is, but no plots will come. I have generally been able to devise something on which to hang my characters and events; but my invention, such as it is—or rather was—seems dried up and withered. What shall I do if my slight vein is exhausted? Heaven knows I produced nothing very original or remarkable, but my lucubrations were saleable, and I do not see how we can do without this source of income."