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Words: 53869 in 29 pages
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"Oh!" gasped Grandmother Capers, throwing her hands upward with a gesture of dismay; "oh, what a terrible infliction!" And she began rocking herself violently to and fro, and screwing her lips about in the manner which, with her, always denoted extreme perturbation. Then she glanced across the pleasant room to a lounge and its occupant.
"I hope--it will not be that!" responded Grandmother Kinsolving, feebly. She still held the bomb-like telegram between her trembling fingers, and was as yet too much overpowered by the announcement it contained to have a better answer ready.
"It is our own house, is it not, mother?" demanded Aunt Ruth, with some asperity.
A voice from the lounge took up the conversation.
"They can't come here; that is all there is about it. If they do, I shall leave." The speaker's tone was decided and aggressive. It caused the eyes of the other three persons in the apartment to fasten themselves upon the fretful face above the great pillows.
Only one of the three, however, had courage to reply. That one was Aunt Ruth, who should have been soft and yielding by nature had she lived up to her name. But she did not; neither did the plain garb of a Friend which she wore appear to have its customary effect in subduing the quick temper with which she had been born.
"If thee wishes to leave, thee is at perfect liberty to do so. The Kinsolving homestead cannot open its doors to one branch of the family and exclude another. Thee and thy kin are welcome here; so is dear Content; so shall my sister Lydia's children be."
With that, which was even more determined in tone than the invalid's had been, Ruth Kinsolving ended all remark upon the telegram, and went away to answer it.
"Grandmother, I shall not stay! I--I won't have everything upset by a lot of young ones!"
"There, there, Melville! don't worry, that's a dear. You know it is so bad for you. Besides, I am sure that Grandmother Kinsolving will not really take in such a lot of children to torment us all with." The old lady in the easy-chair turned toward the one in the straight-back with a cajoling expression.
But the lovely old Friend had had time to regain her wonted calmness, and if the tone in which she responded was gentle in the extreme, it was also equally firm.
"Ruth has spoken the right word, though I wish that she had done so more patiently. When Oliver built this house he built it big and roomy. 'There must be space enough in it to hold all our household and the children which shall come after them,' he said. Lydia's flock must find a resting-place beneath the old roof-tree; but, if they are anything like their mother before them, they will not bring unhappiness to anybody."
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