It was Molly's. The girl had been sitting watching the sunset, and remained to enjoy the lovely tints after it had disappeared. When her sisters entered, she remained quiet, never dreaming of listening, and then she felt as if she could not move from the spot. Gertrude's hard words about darling Brother Dick roused her indignation, and her heart swelled within her at the thought of her selfishness.
Released by the departure of the speakers, Molly rushed away from her hiding-place and across the hall to the library. Without waiting a moment, the impulsive girl ran towards her brother, and exclaimed—
"Dick, I have done a horridly mean thing; but I did not intend to do it. I must tell you all about it."
With an eagerness that would not be checked, she told him all that had passed.
"It was all Gertrude," she added, "not a bit Mina or Jo. You ought to know why she is so strange, and wants the others to be like her. And, Dick, if you do get married you will not send us all away from Mere Side. Jo said you would never part with me, and you will not, dear Dick. Say you will not. And oh! I want us to be together always. Forgive me for staying to hear. I could not help it."
"Molly, I am sorry, in one sense, that you listened, yet not sorry that I know what you heard. But you and I must keep all this to ourselves. Poor Gertrude! Some day she will be sorry, and will know me better."
"Thank you, Dick. I will not say a word," and Molly ran away with a lightened heart, leaving her brother to finish his letters, but only after she had received his solemn assurance that he would never part with her, until she should give somebody else leave to carry her off, ever so many years hence. He could not lecture her, because he knew Molly too well to think that the listening had been an act of deliberate meanness.
Gertrude's twenty-first birthday came and went.
She refused to have it made an occasion for special festivity, but it was marked by loving gifts from each and all the rest.
To Richard's relief his sister said nothing about her little fortune, and Molly's revelation proved to him that by some means or other she was already well informed about pecuniary matters, and knew that she was receiving the interest of the amount she was entitled to on her coming of age.