"Perhaps so, a little. It is nothing worth talking about."
"Are you troubled about anything, honey?"
Anna did not reply.
"I can't imagine what you have to trouble you, Anna. Everything is as
it has been for a long time. When we move away from Banbridge there
will be more for a while. I can't see anything to worry about."
"For God's sake, keep your eyes shut, then, Amy, as long as you can,"
cried Anna, suddenly, with a tone which the other woman had never
heard before. She gazed at her sister-in-law a minute, and her
expression of childish sweetness and contentment changed. Tears came
in her eyes, her mouth quivered.
"I don't know what you mean, Anna," she said, pitifully, like a
puzzled child.
Anna sprang up from the divan and went over to her and kissed her and
laughed. "I mean nothing, dear," she said. "There is no more to worry
about now than there has been all along. People get on somehow. We
are in the world, and we have our right here, and if we knock over a
few people to keep our footholds, I don't know that we are to blame.
It is nothing, Amy. I have felt wretched for a few days, and it has
affected my spirits. Don't mind anything I have said. We shall leave
Banbridge before long, and, as you say, we shall get on better."
Mrs. Carroll gave two or three little whimpers on her sister-in-law's
shoulder, then she smiled up at her. "I guess it is because you don't
feel well that you are looking on the dark side of things so," said
she. "You will feel better to go out and have a drive."
"Perhaps I shall," replied Anna.
"We shall go for a long drive. There will be plenty of time, it is so
early. How lovely it would be if we had our automobile, wouldn't it,
Anna? Then we could go any distance. Wouldn't it be lovely?"
"Very," replied Anna.
Then Eddy burst into the room. "Say, Amy," he cried, "there's a great
circus out in the stable. Papa and Martin are having a scrap."
"Eddy, dear," cried Mrs. Carroll, "you must not say scrap."
"A shindy, then. What difference does it make? Martin he won't
harness, because he hasn't been paid. He just sits on a chair in the
door and whittles a stick, and don't say anything, and he won't
harness."
"We have simply got to have an automobile," said Mrs. Carroll.
"How do you know it is because he hasn't been paid, Eddy?" asked Anna.
"Because he said so; before he wouldn't say anything, and began
whittling. Papa stands there talking to him, but it don't make any
difference."
"With an automobile it wouldn't make any difference," said Mrs.
Carroll. "An automobile doesn't have to be harnessed. I don't see why
Arthur doesn't get one."
Anna Carroll sat down on the nearest chair and laughed hysterically.
Mrs. Carroll stared at her. "What are you laughing at, Anna?" said
she, with a little tone of injury. "I don't see anything very funny.
It is a lovely day, and I wanted to go to drive, and it would do you
good. I don't see why people act so because they are not paid. I
didn't think it of Martin."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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