So the very next morning Johanna removed to her terrace-cottage. Helena
and Lisbeth accompanied her. Helena was dissatisfied; she thought the
house too small, the rooms too plain. Lisbeth, on the contrary, was
enraptured. The little rooms, the odd terrace, the six sisters, who were
so merry and kind, took her childish heart by storm. "Rika, Fanny,
Jetta, Minny, Annie, Sanna," she repeated to herself; and when her
mother called her to go, she begged to be allowed to stay with Johanna.
"You know, mamma dear, you are never, never at home." And Helena, who
could not bear to forego an entertainment of any kind, yielded to the
little one's persuasions.
And for like reasons the child was soon left entirely with her sister.
Helena's time was much occupied, as she was to leave town so shortly,
and then it would be well for the little girl to become accustomed to
her new home. "A mother must learn to forget herself," she said, and she
was content with having Lisbeth with her for a couple of hours in the
hotel every day, and with now and then calling for her to drive.
But when the final separation took place she made no attempt at
self-control; never heeding the physician's warning that the excitable
child must not be agitated in any way. Johanna had taken Lisbeth to the
hotel, and Helena, sobbing convulsively, clasped her in her arms,
declaring that she would soon, soon return, never to be separated from
her darling more. Her husband led her away, and his own eyes were moist.
Johanna could not refuse to take the hand he offered her in farewell.
They went. Johanna let the child look out of the hotel window while
'mamma and Uncle Carlo' got into the vehicle which was to take them to
the railway station. They looked up and nodded; the horses started.
Helena leaned out of the carriage-window, her fair curls fanning her
pretty face, her blue eyes filled with tears. She gracefully threw a
kiss to the child at the window. Johanna was never to forget the
picture.
After this departure, that is, now that the routine of the day was no
longer disturbed by Helena's caprices, Johanna's life was duly and
methodically arranged. For a while Lisbeth rebelled a little against the
stupid work which took up so much of her sister's time, and to which
also all the other inmates of 'Terrace-Cottage' seemed devoted. The
father, a kind old man, who could tell the most delightful stories, and
who every evening accompanied with his violin his daughter's performance
upon the piano, taught in the public school. The two oldest daughters
gave music-lessons, the third helped her mother about the house, and the
three 'little ones' went off to school every day, with heavy satchels
and a most important air. In a short time Lisbeth grew weary of her
idleness, and as soon as the physician, who continued to look after her
now and then, gave his consent, she, to her intense delight, accompanied
her beloved Sanna to school.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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