Such a wistful, pleading look was Margery's, as the big tears gathered again, and the trembling lips refused to form another word.
"No fear, my darling. Mrs. Anstruther, dear old friend as she is, must feel that hers is all the loss. But how are we to hide our trouble?"
Margery smiled through her tears at the word "our."
It was true that she could have no pain her mother would not share.
"By trying to lighten some other trouble," she answered. "I will go to my room, bathe my eyes and rest awhile. Then I will walk to the village and visit some of my poor friends there. An hour by one bedside you know of, mother, will make my trial seem light."
Margery carried out her intention, and came back to Monks Lea in time for dinner, but she did not join the rest at table. She pleaded weariness, and said she would go to Barbara in the nursery, and have tea brought there instead. Later she might feel fit for society. At one time Clare would have insisted on bearing her company, but conscience was not at rest, and she could not muster courage to be alone with Margery, whose pallor was a mute reproach, though she spoke in her usual tone and smiled in her sister's face.
But the girl had to run the gauntlet of her old nurse's sympathy. Barbara loved Clare, but she regarded Margery as an impersonation of all excellences, and "her own real young lady," who ought to be first in everything.
She placed Margery in the cosiest corner, waited on her and coaxed her with little tea-table dainties, and then, seeing that she had only made a pretence at a meal, she broke down and cried.
"I knew how it would be, my darling," she said. "Miss Clare has turned out a cuckoo in the nest, as I told the mistress would happen if she took in the child of that fair-spoken, false-hearted Edward Austin. The cuckoo turns out the young sparrows or tit-larks, and takes their places, and Miss Clare has robbed you of yours."
"Not of my home, Barbara. I am more likely to stay in the old nest than ever. She cannot help being so fair and stealing all hearts. Besides, I love her."