"What an extraordinary remark! I should think that he would be much poorer in reality, for having that tribe of girls hanging on him. Besides, he knows they have no claim on him, and that they are half-sisters, whatever you or anybody else may say."
"Happily for them and himself, he does not give them a half share of brotherly love. I believe he would be deeply wounded if they, or anyone else, alluded to him as their stepbrother. You see they have been so entirely brought up together, and Richard's own mother died so soon, that she seemed to have slipped out of the family, so to speak, before there was any question of calculating kinship."
"What an absurd speech, my dear Miss Pease, if you will forgive my saying so! Of course the first Mrs. Whitmore was gone, or there could not have been a second. And a very good thing for Amy Christie that her husband did not marry her first, and that Miss Maynard that was, Dick's mother, could not take her money with her. But do you think things will go on just in the old way at Mere Side? I do not envy Dick the guardianship of Miss Gertrude. That girl will plague him yet."
"I cannot tell," replied Miss Pease. "Though we are great friends, Richard has not mentioned his plans to me, probably because he has made none. Knowing him as I do, I should think he will try to make the home all that it has hitherto been to the girls, only without the mother, and that his great sorrow will be that he has her the less to love and care for."
Miss Pease was right in her judgment of Richard. As to three out of the four girls their minds were disturbed by no anxieties. So far, their lives had been as happy as love could make them. They could have no fears for the future, when they thought of what Richard had been in the past.
"We cannot bring our dear mother back by our tears and sorrow," said Dick, his voice trembling and his kind eyes moist with tears, for he was so manly that he was not ashamed to weep with the rest. "All we can do is to remember the beautiful example she set us, her loving ways and wise words, and to love each other all the more for her dear sake."
They kissed him and each other, Gertrude amongst the rest, and were thankful, oh, so thankful that they had Dick—no one but Dick—to look up to in the place of the parents who were gone.
If Miss Sharp could have read his thoughts, she would have found that, instead of calculating how long it would be before Molly's majority would enable him to wash his hands of all legal responsibility about "that tribe of girls," he was rejoicing that for seven years to come he could claim the precious privilege of watching over the youngest darling. As to the others, this was what Dick said in his heart—
"In the nature of things, I must part with them by degrees. They are sure to be sought after for their own sakes, and I can easily save, to increase their little portions. We shall live very quietly for the next twelve months, at any rate. What a blessing it is that families are scattered by degrees I can hardly lose more than one at a time; and as for Molly, seven years is a good while to look forward to."
After the first days of sorrow were over, Gertrude's mind was much exercised as to what would be her own position in the family. Would Richard allow her to sit in her mother's seat and act as mistress? If he did this then she would acknowledge him as a brother indeed, though conscience told her that she did not deserve such confidence.