"Your poor Edie's going away, and it will break her heart to leave you,
my pet," said the girl through her tears, straining the child in a
passionate embrace. Presently she grew calmer, and put the wondering
little one down.
"There, Francie, I've done crying now, and you needn't mind. You'll
always love Edie, won't you, if she does go away?"
"Yes, always, always love Edie," said the child; and Johnnie chimed in
too, "And me--me always love Edie."
But there were the boys to be told after that--Alfred and Claude, the
two bright boys of ten and eight years, who had been her own especial
playmates; and loud was their outcry when they heard that Edith was
going.
"We might as well have no sisters," said the ungrateful young rascals.
"Maude and Jessie don't care for us. They only think we're in the way.
They're always telling us to wipe our feet, and not make such a noise;
and Francie's too little for anything. We'd only got Edith, and now
she's to go. It's too bad, that it is!"
But their protest availed nothing. The very same night Dr. Harley wrote
to his sister, thanking her for her kind offer, and adding that, if
convenient, he would bring his daughter Edith, fifteen years of age, to
her aunt's home at Silchester in a week's time.
There was much to do in that short week in getting Edith's wardrobe into
something like order. Each of the elder sisters sacrificed one of their
limited number of dresses to be cut down and altered for the younger
one.
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