"I mean that you ought to go, dears, which ever one of you is asked. Aunt Maria is an old lady, and she is lonely. Her doctor has ordered cheerful companionship. Moreover, she has been a kind friend to father in the past, and has a right to expect some consideration in return. If you went in the right spirit, you could be of real use and comfort, and would have the satisfaction of doing a kind deed." Darsie set her lips in a straight line, and tilted her chin in the air. "Couldn't pretend to go in the right spirit! I'd be in a tearing rage. Somebody else can have the `satisfaction,' and I'll go to the sea." "Darsie, dear, that's naughty!" "I _feel_ naughty, mother. `Naughty' is a mild word. _Savage_! I feel savage. It's too appalling. What does father say? I'm sure he would never--" "Father feels as I do; very disappointed for our own sakes and for yours that our happy party should be disturbed, but he never shirks a disagreeable duty himself, and he expects his children to follow his example." Lavender instantly burst into tears. "It's always the way--always the way! It was too good to be true. We might have known that it was. She'll choose me, and Hannah will go without me. We'd planned every day--fishing, and bathing, and making hay, and I shall be mewed up in a close carriage, and have meals of nuts--and n-n-nobody to talk to. Oh, I can't--I can't bear it! I wish I could die and be buried--I _cannot_ bear it--" "You won't have to bear it. She'll choose me. I'm the eldest, and the most of a companion." Clemence spoke with the calmness of despair, her plump cheeks whitening visibly, her pale eyes showing a flush of red around the lids. "Of course, if it's my duty, I must go--but I'd as soon be sent to prison! I'm feeling _very_ tired, and thought the holiday would set me up. Now, of course, I shall be worse. Eight weeks alone with Aunt Maria would try anybody's nerves. I shall be a wreck all winter, and have neuralgia till I'm nearly mad." "Nonsense, darling! If you are so tired, the rest and quiet of The Towers will be just what you need; and as we don't know yet which one of you Aunt Maria will wish as a companion, it is a pity for you all to make yourselves miserable at once. Why not try to forget, and hope for the best! Surely that would be the wiser plan." The three girls looked at each other in eloquent silence. Easy to talk. Forget, indeed. As if they _could_! Mother didn't really believe what she said. She was making the best of it, and there were occasions when making the best of it seemed just the most aggravating thing one could do.