“Won’t you come to the fire, Mrs. Page?” said Katy, rather timidly.

“Don’t call me Mrs. Page, my dear.  Call me Cousin Olivia.”  Then the new-comer rustled into the parlor, where Johnnie and Phil were waiting to be introduced; and again she remarked that she “couldn’t realize it.”  I don’t know why Mrs. Page’s not realizing it should have made Katy uncomfortable; but it did.

Supper went off well.  The guests ate and praised; and Dr. Carr looked pleased, and said:  “We think Katy an excellent housekeeper for her age;” at which Katy blushed and was delighted, till she caught Mrs. Page’s eyes fixed upon her, with a look of scrutiny and amusement, whereupon she felt awkward and ill at ease.  It was so all the evening.  Mamma’s cousin was entertaining and bright, and told lively stories; but the children felt that she was watching them, and passing judgment on their ways.  Children are very quick to suspect when older people hold within themselves these little private courts of inquiry, and they always resent it.

Next morning Mrs. Page sat by while Katy washed the breakfast things, fed the birds, and did various odd jobs about the room and house.  “My dear,” she said at last, “what a solemn girl you are!  I should think from your face that you were at least five and thirty.  Don’t you ever laugh or frolic, like other girls your age?  Why, my Lilly, who is four months older than you, is a perfect child still; impulsive as a baby, bubbling over with fun from morning till night.”

“I’ve been shut up a good deal,” said Katy, trying to defend herself; “but I didn’t know I was solemn.”

“My dear, that’s the very thing I complain of:  you don’t know it!  You are altogether ahead of your age.  It’s very bad for you, in my opinion.  All this housekeeping and care, for young girls like you and Clover, is wrong and unnatural.  I don’t like it; indeed I don’t.”

“Oh! housekeeping doesn’t hurt me a bit,” protested Katy, trying to smile.  “We have lovely times; indeed we do, Cousin Olivia.”

Cousin Olivia only pursed up her mouth, and repeated:  “It’s wrong, my dear.  It’s unnatural.  It’s not the thing for you.  Depend upon it, it’s not the thing.”

This was unpleasant; but what was worse had Katy known it, Mrs. Page attacked Dr. Carr upon the subject.  He was quite troubled to learn that she considered Katy grave and careworn, and unlike what girls of her age should be.  Katy caught him looking at her with a puzzled expression.

“What is it, dear papa?  Do you want anything?”

“No, child, nothing.  What are you doing there?  Mending the parlor curtain, eh?  Can’t old Mary attend to that, and give you a chance to frisk about with the other girls?”

“Papa!  As if I wanted to frisk!  I declare you’re as bad as Cousin Olivia.  She’s always telling me that I ought to bubble over with mirth.  I don’t wish to bubble.  I don’t know how.”