“Yes, for to-night, love. Bessie is tired, and it is not good for you to talk so much. Bessie shall be head nurse to-morrow, if she likes, but father says she is to go to bed now.”
“Very well, mother,” replied Hatty meekly. “Bid me good-night, Bessie. I don’t mean to be selfish ever again.” And as Bessie kissed her without speaking and moved away, she said to herself, “It was Bessie that always helped me to be good; but bye and bye I shall be quite good. Oh, how nice that will be!”
Bessie’s life was changed, indeed, from this day. No more thoughtless, merry hours, no more rides and drives and pleasant musical evenings. Her days were passed in a sick-room, and from hour to hour she seemed only to live on Hatty’s looks and words. Bessie had for many years been her mother’s right hand, and now she shared her watch beside the sick-bed. Her bright, healthy color began to fade from fatigue and anxiety, and it needed her father’s stringent orders to induce her to take needful rest and exercise. For the first time in her life Bessie found it difficult to submit, and she had to fight more than one battle with herself before she yielded. More than once her mother remonstrated with her tenderly but firmly.
“Bessie dear,” she said once, “this may be a long illness, and it is your duty to husband your strength most carefully. You are looking pale from confinement to the house and want of exercise. You know your father insists that Christine should relieve you for two hours in the afternoon.”
“Yes, mother; and of course father is thinking of me; but what does it matter if I look a little pale? I cannot bear to lose an hour of Hatty’s company when—when—” but Bessie could not finish her sentence.
“My dear, the feeling is natural; but don’t you think Chrissy likes to have her to herself sometimes? We all love Hatty; you must remember that.”
“Oh, mother, how selfish I am, after all! I see what you mean. I want to monopolize Hatty, and I grudge her to every one else—even to you and Chrissy. I never knew I could be so horrid; but I see even trouble has its temptations.”
“Indeed it has, Bessie; but I will not have you say such hard things about yourself. You are our dear child, and our greatest comfort, and I do not know what your father and I would do without you. Don’t fret any more, darling; go out with Katie, and get a little turn in the woods, and come back fresh for the evening work.”
Mrs. Lambert’s words were not thrown away. Bessie’s sweet, reasonable nature was easily guided; her passionate love for Hatty had blinded her to her own selfishness, but now her eyes were open. The mother’s heart was often touched by the cheerful alacrity with which Bessie would yield her place to Christine. Even Hatty’s plaintive, “Oh, must you go, Bessie?” seemed to make no impression; but how long those two hours seemed!
Bessie did not forget her friends in her trouble; she sent frequent notes to Edna, and heard often from her in return. Now and then a kind message came from Richard, and every week a hamper filled with farm produce and fruit and flowers were sent from The Grange. Hatty used to revel in those flowers; she liked to arrange them herself, and would sit pillowed up on her bed or couch, and fill the vases with slow, tremulous fingers.