"O, Nursie!" exclaimed Mabel. "It is perfectly dreadful," and she burst into another flood of tears.
"What is it? What is the matter?"
"Oh! I have been down to papa's office, and he told me about it, and I can't stand it—I don't want her!"
"Can't stand what? Don't want who?" and Nurse Hammond sat down beside Mabel and tenderly stroked the fluffy brown hair. "Do tell me about it!"
"You'll say just as papa did, that I am very silly, and very selfish, but I can't help it. Papa got the letter this morning, and he will tell you about it to-night. Maybe he would think I ought not to speak of it until he tells you himself; but perhaps he won't mind, and oh! Maybe you will want to go away to your daughter's when she comes. Dear, dear! I wish she wasn't coming."
Nurse was distressed. What was the child talking about? Could it be—a suspicion flashed through her mind—could it be that Mr. Taylor was going to bring home a new wife? No; she could not think that, yet what did it mean? She waited, and presently Mabel sat up, saying:
"There! I'm done with fretting; but I don't like it at all. Oh! I haven't told you yet," and then she laughed hysterically. "Well, papa had a letter, this morning, from his brother, my uncle John, and he is coming next week to bring cousin Emma here to stay a long time, maybe always. He is going abroad for a business house in Chicago, and maybe he will remain abroad as the agent, and then she'll have to stay with us. Uncle John says he cannot bear to think of leaving her with strangers, and papa telegraphed a reply, and told him to bring her to us."
"Of course, Childie, what would he do?" asked Nurse Hammond.
"He might send her to a boarding school, I should think," replied Mabel.
Nurse tried to reason with Mabel, though her own heart sank at the prospect of having their quiet times spoiled by the coming of a stranger, and her own cares increased, but she gave no sign of this disturbed state of feeling. She tried to comfort the girl, telling her how pleasant it would be to have a companion, and how sad it was for a girl, motherless, like herself, to be separated from her father; and suggesting that it might not be so bad, after all. But Mabel could not see any bright side to the picture.