Girls -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Gossip -- Juvenile fiction
"Miss Kathleen!" says the maid, turning up again. "I was trying
to find you. Mistress is busy for a few minutes, and she says will
you please look after the young person till she can come."
"Yes; of course. It's all right," says the child. "I'm going to take
Kitty Phrynne to her bedroom. And I want her to have some tea,
please, as quick as possible." Then I heard another sigh. "Poor Kitty
Phrynne!" whispered the child.
Wasn't it strange how that comforted me, and took away the lonesome
feeling?
CHAPTER XI.
IN CHURCH.
THAT little Miss Kathleen Withers was the very sweetest child!
She seemed to come to me like a sort of sunbeam. I had got out
of sunshine, and among shadows, with black clouds overhead, and I
couldn't see any brightness anywhere. And then all of a sudden I came
on her.
Isn't it wonderful how comfort is sent when one needs it? Not that
I deserved anything of the sort, I'm sure; but still it seemed sent.
Mrs. Withers was kept longer than she meant or thought to be. But it
didn't matter. I was in no hurry.
Miss Kathleen took me up to a little attic-room, as neat as could be,
and told me I was to sleep there. She popped her head into different
rooms by the way, bidding me peep in, awl telling me whose they were.
"That's father and mother's," she'd say. "And that's the best
spare-room. And that's mine. And that's the boys. And those are
the nurseries."
When I was in my room, she ran away; but before I'd been five minutes
alone, she came rapping at the door, and when I opened it, she was
carrying a little tray, with a cup of tea and some bread and butter.
"That's for you," says she, all in a glow of pleasure.
"O Miss Kathleen, you shouldn't!" I said, feeling shamed to have
her wait on me.
"O yes, I should," said she, walking in. "They'd have brought it,
but I wanted to bring it myself. Why shouldn't I?" says she, looking
up at me. "You're in trouble, you know and father always says
one ought to wait upon people in trouble, and take care of them.
And you've been ill too. Oh, don't cry," says she, looking anxious.
"I oughtn't to have said that, ought I? Please don't cry, but just
drink the tea while it is hot. You see, the servants don't have
their tea for nearly an hour yet, and we thought you oughtn't to wait
so long."
Then she bade me sit down on the bed, and she perched herself on the
dressing-table.
"Don't you like tables to sit on? I do," said she. "I like anything
better than chairs."
I wasn't used to sit on tables, and I said so, my tears drying fast,
for she interested me.
"Well, I suppose I shall have to leave off soon, now I'm growing
so big," says she. "I wish one needn't grow big. Only of course,
when I'm big I can be of more use to my mother and father, and that
will be nice."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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