"Yes, I _am_ going, to-morrow."
"I think I agree with Cynthia, then. I hardly think your father would wish you to go."
"Why, how perfectly absurd!" exclaimed Edith, growing very angry. "There has never been any question of my going to drive with any one who asked me. Do you suppose I am going to give it up now?"
"I suppose you are, Edith," said Mrs. Franklin, quietly, but with decision. "In your father"s absence you are in my charge, and I do not consider it desirable for you to drive with Mr. Bronson, nor with any other young man whom you know so slightly. It is not in good taste, to say the least. Please oblige me by giving it up this time. If I am mistaken in your father"s views on the subject you can go after he gets home."
"I won"t give it up!" exclaimed Edith, hotly. "Tony Bronson will be gone when papa gets home, and, besides, what can I tell him? I"ve said I would go."
"It is always possible to break an engagement of that kind," said her mother; "you can tell him that you find I have made other plans for you."
"I sha"n"t tell him any such thing, Mrs. Franklin. I think it is too bad. You have no right to order me."
"No right, Edith? I have at least a right to be spoken to with respect, and you will oblige me by doing so. Please send a note to Mr. Bronson by the man to-night."
She left the room, and Cynthia, who had restrained herself with great difficulty, now gave vent to her feelings.
"I don"t see how you can be so horrid to mamma, Edith. What are you thinking of? And when she is so worried about Neal, too."
"Neal! Why should we suffer for Neal? She has no right to order me; I won"t be treated that way. The idea of it not being in good taste to drive with Tony Bronson!"
"Don"t be so absurd, Edith. Why, even I know papa wouldn"t want you to.
It"s very different from going with the Brenton boys that we have known all our lives. You think I"m such an infant, but I know that much, and any other time you would yourself. It is just because it is that hateful Bronson. I can"t understand what you and Gertrude see in him. You are both so silly about him."
"I am not silly. I think he is very nice, that"s all. I wish you wouldn"t interfere, Cynthia. You are silly to have such a prejudice against him. I suppose I shall have to write that note, and I do hate to give in to Mrs. Franklin. Oh, why, why, _why_ did papa marry again?"
She raised her voice irritably as she said this, and added: "All this fuss about Neal and everything! We never should have had it if the Gordons hadn"t come into the family. Oh, I beg your pardon, I didn"t see you." For standing in the doorway was her stepmother.
"I am sorry that the coming of the Gordons has caused you so much trouble, Edith. We--we are unfortunate."
She turned away and went up stairs.
"Edith, I don"t see how you can," exclaimed Cynthia. "Mamma had so much trouble when she was a young girl, and she was so alone until she came here, and now all this about Neal. Really, I don"t see how you can."
And she ran after her mother.
Edith, left alone, was a prey to conflicting emotions. She knew she had done wrong--very wrong. She was really sorry for the grief that Mrs.
Franklin was suffering on Neal"s account, and she had not wanted to hurt her.
"Of course, I did not intend her to hear me. How did I know she was there? It makes me so angry to think that I can"t do what I want."
That was the gist of the whole matter. Edith wanted her own way, and she was determined to have it. She sat for a long time, thinking it all over. She did not make any great effort to quench her resentment, and so, of course, it became more intense. After a while she went to the desk.
"I simply can"t write him that I won"t go," she said to herself. "How they would all laugh if I said Mrs. Franklin "had made other plans for me," as if I were Janet"s age! No, I"ll write Gertrude that I"ll come down and spend the day with her, and perhaps when I get there I can induce Tony to play tennis, or something, instead of going to drive.
I"ll try and get out of it, as long as I must, but I"m going to have a good time of some sort."
She wrote the note, and it was sent to the Morgans" that night. Mrs.
Franklin supposed, of course, that it was merely to give up the drive; so she was surprised when Edith announced that she was going to spend the next day with Gertrude. However, she raised no objections, nor indeed did she have any. Her mind was too full of Neal to think of much else. Even the altercation with Edith failed to make any lasting impression. Hester longed for her husband to return and tell her what he had learned.
Cynthia did not take it so quietly.
"I think you are a goose, Edith," she said, the next morning. "Every one will think you are running after Tony Bronson. You were there to dinner yesterday, and now you are going again to-day."
Edith was greatly incensed.
"I am _not_ running after him. How can you say such things? I often go there two days in succession."
And she went off holding her head very high, being driven to the village by Jack. Arrived at the Morgans", she was warmly greeted by all.
"So good of you to come," murmured Bronson; "now we can start from here on our drive, and go over to Blue Hill."
"I think I can"t go to drive to-day. I--I thought perhaps we could play tennis instead."
"Oh, Miss Edith! After your promise? I am not going to let you off so easily. No, indeed; we are going to drive. It is a fine day, and I"ve engaged a gay little mare at the livery-stable."
Edith remonstrated feebly, but Bronson would not listen.
When she and Gertrude were alone she said:
"Why don"t you go too? We might all go to Blue Hill."
"No indeed!" laughed Gertrude. "I am not going a step. I haven"t been asked, and I wouldn"t intrude."
"But it would be such fun," persisted Edith; "you know we used to go in a crowd, and walk up the hill."
"Times have changed," returned her friend, pointedly. "This time you are asked to go alone. If it were any one but you, Edith, I should be wildly jealous."
Edith blushed and looked conscious, and afterwards when Bronson renewed his pleading she consented to go with him. Unless they chanced to meet some of the family, why need she tell that she had been to drive at all?
Thus she deceived herself into thinking that she was doing no wrong, and gave herself up to the enjoyment of the moment.
That afternoon Mrs. Parker, Miss Betsey Trinkett"s old friend, called at Oakleigh.
"So glad to find you at home, Mrs. Franklin," she said. "I met Edith a while ago, and she did look so sweet and pretty, driving with that nice young man that stays at the Morgans". What"s his name?"
"You cannot mean Mr. Bronson?"
"Bronson, yes; that"s it--Bronson. Yes, they were driving away over towards Milton. And now do tell me about your brother. They say all kinds of things in Brenton, but you can"t believe half of them. I dare say you know just where he is, after all."
"My brother went to Philadelphia, Mrs. Parker," said her hostess, controlling herself with difficulty. The shock of hearing that Edith had directly disobeyed her was almost too much for her.
"To Philadelphia! Have you friends there?"
"Yes, I have a cousin."
"Well, now, I"m glad to hear that! I"ll just tell people and stop their tongues; they do say so much they don"t mean. Why, only this afternoon somebody said they"d been told that Neal Gordon had been seen walking over the Boston road. That"s the very reason I came up here, to see if it was true, and here he is away off in Philadelphia!"
"The Boston road?"