Little Daisy could have asked some
of her unceasing questions of Poppy Jenkins, and the three would
really have been the better for the visits and the sympathy of the
neighbors did not these visits and sympathy also mean Miss Martineau.
But Miss Martineau at breakfast, dinner, and tea--Miss Martineau, with
her never-ending advice, her good-natured but still unceasingly
correcting tone, was felt just at first to be unendurable. She was
sincerely fond of the girls, whom she had taught to play incorrectly,
and to read French with an accent unrecognized in Paris, but Miss
Martineau was a worry, was a great deal too officious, and so the
girls shut themselves away from her and from all other neighbors for
the first month after their mother's death.
CHAPTER III.
MISS MARTINEAU.
Primrose was the soul of hospitality; having decided that Miss
Martineau was to be admitted that evening, it occurred to her that she
might as well make things pleasant for this angular, good-humored, and
somewhat hungry personage. Primrose could cook charmingly, and when
dinner was over she turned to her sisters, and said in her usual
rather slow way--
"I am going to make some cream-cakes for tea; and Jasmine, dear, you
might put some fresh flowers in the vases; and Daisy--"; she paused as
she looked at her sister--the child's blue eyes were fixed on her, she
noticed with a pang that the little face was pale, and the dimpled
mouth looked sad.
Pages:
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26