"What did you want to do in Lilac Lane, Tilly?"
"Oh, things. I wanted to do a great deal. Things.—They'll never be done!" cried Matilda, in bitter distress. "I cannot do them now. I cannot do anything."
"She is as mean as she can live!" said Maria again. "But Tilly, I don't believe Lilac Lane is a good place for you, neither. What did you want to do there? what could you do?"
"Things," said Matilda, indefinitely.
"You are not old enough to go poking about Lilac Lane by yourself."
"I can't go any way," said Matilda.
She cried a long while to wash down this disappointment, and the effects of it did not go off in the tears. The child became very silent and sober. Her duties she did, as she had done them, about the house and in Mrs. Candy's room; but the bright face and the glad ways were gone. In the secret of her private hours Matilda had struggles to go through that left her with the marks of care upon her all the rest of the time.
The next Sunday she was made to go to church with her aunt. She went to her own Sunday-school in the afternoon; but she was not allowed to get off early enough for the reading and talk with Mary and Ailie. Lem Dow, however, was on hand; that was one single drop of comfort. He looked for his sugared almonds and they were on hand too; and besides that, Matilda was able to see that he was quite pleased with the place and the singing and the doings in his class, and making friends with the boys.
"Will you come next Sunday?" Matilda asked him, as they were going out. He nodded.
"Won't Jemima come too, if you ask her?"