“I have just as much right to go as you had,”
said Kate.
“Father and Mother both say you shall not go,”
answered her sister.
“I suppose there is no use to remind you that
I did all in my power to help you to your chance.”
“You did no more than you should have done,”
said Nancy Ellen.
“And this is no more than you should do for
me, in the circumstances,” said Kate.
“You very well know I can’t! Father
and Mother would turn me out of the house,”
said Nancy Ellen.
“I’d be only too glad if they would turn
me out,” said Kate. “You can let
me have the money if you like. Mother wouldn’t
do anything but talk; and Father would not strike
you, or make you go, he always favours you.”
“He does nothing of the sort! I can’t,
and I won’t, so there!” cried Nancy Ellen.
“‘Won’t,’ is the real answer,
‘so there,’” said Kate.
She went into the cellar and ate some cold food from
the cupboard and drank a cup of milk. Then she
went to her room and looked over all of her scanty
stock of clothing, laying in a heap the pieces that
needed mending. She took the clothes basket to
the wash room, which was the front of the woodhouse,
in summer; built a fire, heated water, and while making
it appear that she was putting the clothes to soak,
as usual, she washed everything she had that was fit
to use, hanging the pieces to dry in the building.
“Watch me fly!” muttered Kate. “I
don’t seem to be cutting those curves so very
fast; but I’m moving. I believe now, having
exhausted all home resources, that Adam is my next
objective. He is the only one in the family
who ever paid the slightest attention to me, maybe
he cares a trifle what becomes of me, but Oh, how
I dread Agatha! However, watch me take wing!
If Adam fails me I have six remaining prospects among
my loving brothers, and if none of them has any feeling
for me or faith in me there yet remain my seven dear
brothers-in-law, before I appeal to the tender mercies
of the neighbours; but how I dread Agatha! Yet
I fly!”
Kate was far from physical flight as she pounded
the indignation of her soul into the path with her
substantial feet. Baffled and angry, she kept
reviewing the situation as she went swiftly on her
way, regardless of dust and heat. She could see
no justice in being forced into a position that promised
to end in further humiliation and defeat of her hopes.
If she only could find Adam at the stable, as she
passed, and talk with him alone! Secretly, she
well knew that the chief source of her dread of meeting
her sister-in-law was that to her Agatha was so funny
that ridiculing her had been regarded as perfectly
legitimate pastime. For Agatha was funny;
but she had no idea of it, and could no more avoid
it than a bee could avoid being buzzy, so the manner
in which her sisters-in-law imitated her and laughed
at her, none too secretly, was far from kind.
While she never guessed what was going on, she realized
the antagonism in their attitude and stoutly resented
it.
