"I am not likely to say anything that others might not hear, and if I began telling secrets, no one in this house would hide for the purpose of listening. I hope, however, the vacant seat will one day be worthily filled by a younger Mrs. Whitmore."
"Thank you. I am sure you mean it, and I hope so too. But I must wait a few years to accomplish a purpose of mine. There will be time enough after that, if I live, and I am keeping no one waiting, for I have not yet seen her whom I should like to place in the dear mother's chair. It is ten months since we lost her, and how much the girls and I owe to you! You have got on wonderfully well with them."
"Yes, they have been very sweet and kind to me. Only Gertrude's manner puzzles me as much as ever. One would think she would wish for the society of other girls of similar age; but I think, if she might have her way, she would not allow any to cross the threshold of Mere Side. Mina and Jo are quite different, and yet for some reason they give in to their eldest sister."
"I sometimes think," said Dick, in a half-musing way, "that Gertrude dislikes the idea of being even nominally under my authority, though I cross her in nothing. In another two months she will be her own mistress. Then we shall see if there is a change."
It was only a few days after this, that the three elder girls were talking together in the morning-room. They entered it in the twilight, the curtains being already drawn, and sat down by the fire to talk.
Mina was evidently annoyed about something.
"I am tired of this, Gertrude," she said. "Of course it was right, and we all felt it as much as yourself, that we should live quietly for a good while after we lost mother. But if it had not been for going abroad, and having a change from home now and then, I could scarcely have endured the sort of isolation to which you would condemn us. Dick does not wish it. Miss Pease urges us to have young friends to stay with us; but you always oppose every suggestion of the kind, until Mere Side is like a nunnery. And you look mysterious, and drop hints about something which, if we knew, would make us feel with you. I hate secrets and mysteries. Tell us why you want to shut the door in the face of every girl friend."
"Because I realise, and you do not, what would be the consequence to us all if Richard were to marry."
Mina and Jo burst into a fit of ringing, girlish laughter.
"If Dick wanted to marry, do you think he would be hindered by you? You may make the house as dull as you please, but you cannot lock him up in it."