CHAPTER II.
VENUS’S FLY-TRAP.
ark, will you come to Sunbridge Woods and look for Venus’s fly-trap?”[1]
“With all my heart, Sorella; but what will mother do?”
“Oh, mother will be quite happy in the garden under your tent. She cannot walk in the heat, you know; but perhaps she’ll come and meet us if she does not drive with auntie.”
“Let us go and ask her,” said Mark; and led the way to the cool little parlour, where their mother was engaged in some parish writing for her brother, her writing-table so placed that she could look up from time to time at her husband’s portrait, which seemed to her, simple soul that she was! to look down on her with tender care and encouragement. Margaret never told her thoughts even to her daughter, but both Mark and Eva knew why their mother loved that place better than any other.
Mark propounded Eva’s scheme, which met with no opposition from their mother, who was well content to know that they were happy and together.
“Will you not take Elgitha?” she asked. “She loves to get a walk in the woods.”
Eva would rather have had her brother all to herself, but a suggestion from her mother was law to her; so Mark ran up to the rectory to see if Elgitha might come with them, while Eveline put on her walking dress and prepared her basket, scissors, etc.