“Oh, but,” said mother, “you won’t have to complain of that any more. Two, at least, are quite young,—sisters evidently, both very pretty, the younger one especially—she doesn’t look much older than you, Regina—an elderly father, and another man, about thirty I should say, the brother, or possibly the husband, of the elder girl. I had only a glimpse of them at first, but since then I have been watching them from the window. They have been strolling all over the place, peering in at all the little shops in the square, so delighted with the novelty of everything evidently, as if they had never been abroad before. The one that took my fancy so specially was the younger one. I never saw a sweeter face!”
“We must find out who they are,” I said; “but you know, mamma, I never care much about making friends with other girls; I understand boys so much better.”
“And they’re so much nicer,” added Moore; “girls are so—so affected and stuck-up, except, of course, Reggie.”
We laughed.
“What do you know about them?” I said. “Less even than I!”
“I know what the fellows at school say about their sisters. Of course they are very fond of them—lots of them, at least—and some of them are very jolly about games and things like that. But they do sit upon their brothers all the same. Lots do!”
“Perhaps it is not a very bad thing for the brothers sometimes,” said mother. “I often wish you had had a sister, Regina, or failing that, a few really nice girl friends. Even one would be a great advantage to you.”
I felt just a little nettled. Dear mother sometimes took up an idea too enthusiastically, and I did not in those days perhaps sufficiently appreciate the steady good judgment underlying her apparent impulsiveness.
“Oh, mamma,” I said, “things are all right as they are. I don’t want a sister, and I never have wanted one. And if we make friends with these people who have struck you so, please let it be in a general way. I don’t want any girl friend?”
“You are certainly very premature?” said mother, smiling. “Probably enough they are only here for a night on their way somewhere else; and even if they were staying here, it by no means follows that we should become acquainted at all, though I own to being unusually attracted by their faces and general look. There was something pretty about the whole group.”