boy liked to imitate his pleasant ways. Some of them are very
harmless and do Steve good, but some are not. I needn’t talk about
it, only you must show your boy that you depend on him to keep
out of harm and help him do it.?
“I will, I will! And then perhaps, when he is a perfect model,
Charlie will imitate him. I really begin to feel as if I had a great
deal to do.” And Kitty looked as if she was beginning to like it
also.
“We all have and the sooner we go to work the better for us and
those we love. You wouldn’t think now that Phebe was doing
anything for Archie, but she is, and writes such splendid letters,
they stir him up wonderfully and make us all love and admire her
more than ever.?
“How is she getting on?” asked Kitty, who, though she called
herself a “little goose,” had tact enough to see that Rose did not
care to talk about Charlie.
“Nicely, for you know she used to sing in our choir, so that was a
good recommendation for another. She got a fine place in the new
church at L , and that gives her a comfortable salary, though she
has something put away. She was always a saving creature and
kept her wages carefully. Uncle invested them, and she begins to
feel quite independent already. No fear but my Phebe will get on
she has such energy and manages so well. I sometimes wish I
could run away and work with her.?
“Ah, my dear! We rich girls have our trials as well as poor ones,
though we don’t get as much pity as they do,” sighed Kitty.
“Nobody knows what I suffer sometimes from worries that I can’t
talk about, and I shouldn’t get much sympathy if I did, just because
I live in a big house, wear good gowns, and have lots of lovers.
Annabel used to say she envied me above all created beings, but
she doesn’t now, and is perfectly absorbed in her dear little
Chinaman. Do you see how she ever could like him??
So they began to gossip, and the sober talk was over for that time,
but when Kitty departed, after criticizing all her dear friends and
their respective sweethearts, she had a helpful little book in her
muff, a resolute expression on her bright face, and so many
excellent plans for self-improvement in her busy brain that she and
Steve bid fair to turn out the model couple of the century.
Chapter 14 AUNT CLARA’S PLAN
Being seriously alarmed by the fear of losing the desire of his
heart, Charlie had gone resolutely to work and, like many another
young reformer, he rather overdid the matter, for in trying to keep
out of the way of temptation, he denied himself much innocent
enjoyment. The “artistic fit” was a good excuse for the seclusion
which he fancied would be a proper penance, and he sat listlessly
plying crayon or paintbrush, with daily wild rides on black Brutus,
which seemed to do him good, for danger of that sort was his
delight.
People were used to his whims and made light of what they
considered a new one, but when it lasted week after week and all
attempts to draw him out were vain, his jolly comrades gave him
up and the family began to say approvingly, “Now he really is
going to settle down and do something.” Fortunately, his mother
let him alone, for though Dr. Alec had not “thundered in her ear”
as he threatened, he had talked with her in a way which first made
her very angry, then anxious, and, lastly, quite submissive, for her
heart was set on the boy’s winning Rose and she would have had
him put on sackcloth and ashes if that would have secured the
prize. She made light of the cause of Rose’s displeasure,
considering her extremely foolish and straitlaced, “for all young
men of any spirit had their little vices, and came out well enough
when the wild oats were sowed.” So she indulged Charlie in his
new vagary, as she had in all his others, and treated him like an