"Mrs. Barth, and Miss Van Dyke, and Miss Spenser—oh, there were four!—and Ailie Swan."
"Do you want Ailie to help you?"
"No, Mr. Richmond; I don't want anybody but Norton."
"Well, I don't. You may tell them that we do not want anybody, Matilda. I have seen Mrs. Pottenburg; she will come in to scrub floors and do the hard work."
So for several weeks the two children and the minister kept house together; in a way highly enjoyed by Matilda, and I think by Mr. Richmond too. Even Norton found it oddly pleasant, and got very fond of Mr. Richmond, who, he declared privately to Matilda, was a brick of the right sort. All the while the poor Swiss people at Mrs. Laval's farmhouse were struggling for life, and their two nurses led a weary, lonely existence. Norton sometimes wished he and Matilda could get at the gray ponies and have a good drive; but Matilda did not care about it. She would rather not be seen out of doors. As the weeks went on, she was greatly afraid that her aunt would come back and reclaim her.
And Mrs. Candy did come back; and meeting Mr. Richmond a day or two after her return, she desired that he would send Matilda home to her. She had just learned where she was, she said.
"You know that Matilda has been exposed to ship fever?" said Mr. Richmond.
"No. I heard she was at your house."
"But not until she had been in the house with the fever patients, and nursing them, before any one knew what was the matter. Had she not better stay where she is, at least until we can be certain that she has got no harm?"
"Well, perhaps," said Mrs. Candy, looking confused; "it is very perplexing; I cannot expose my daughter——"