ill-used being, which was neither an inspiring nor helpful course
on her part. Poor soul! She saw her mistake by and by, and when
too late repented of it bitterly.
Rose wanted to be kind, and tried in various ways to help her
cousin, feeling very sure she should succeed as many another
hopeful woman has done, quite unconscious how much stronger an
undisciplined will is than the truest love, and what a difficult task
the wisest find it to undo the mistakes of a bad education. But it
was a hard thing to do, for at the least hint of commendation or
encouragement, he looked so hopeful that she was afraid of
seeming to promise too much, and, of all things, she desired to
escape the accusation of having trifled with him.
So life was not very comfortable to either just then; and while
Charlie was “mortifying soul and body” to please her, she was
studying how to serve him best. Aunt Jessie helped her very much,
and no one guessed, when they saw pretty Miss Campbell going up
and down the hill with such a serious face, that she was intent
upon anything except taking, with praiseworthy regularity, the
constitutionals which gave her such a charming color.
Matters were in this state when one day a note came to Rose from
Mrs. Clara.
MY SWEET CHILD, Do take pity on my poor boy and cheer him
up with a sight of you, for he is so triste it breaks my heart to see
him. He has a new plan in his head, which strikes me as an
excellent one, if you will only favor it. Let him come and take you
for a drive this fine afternoon and talk things over. It will do him a
world of good and deeply oblige
Your ever loving
AUNT CLARA.
Rose read the note twice and stood a moment pondering, with her
eyes absently fixed on the little bay before her window. The sight
of several black figures moving briskly to and fro across its frozen
surface seemed to suggest a mode of escape from the drive she
dreaded in more ways than one. “That will be safer and
pleasanter,” she said, and going to her desk wrote her answer.
DEAR AUNTY, I’m afraid of Brutus, but if Charlie will go skating
with me, I should enjoy it very much and it would do us both good.
I can listen to the new plan with an undivided mind there, so give
him my love, please, and say I shall expect him at three.
Affectionately,
ROSE.
Punctually at three Charlie appeared with his skates over his arm
and with a very contented face, which brightened wonderfully as
Rose came downstairs in a sealskin suit and scarlet skirt, so like
the one she wore years ago that he involuntarily exclaimed as he
took her skates: “You look so like little Rose I hardly know you,
and it seems so like old times I feel sixteen again.?
“That is just the way one ought to feel on such a day as this. Now
let us be off and have a good spin before anyone comes. There are
only a few children there now, but it is Saturday, you know, and
everybody will be out before long,” answered Rose, carefully
putting on her mittens as she talked, for her heart was not as light
as the one little Rose carried under the brown jacket, and the boy
of sixteen never looked at her with the love and longing she read in
the eyes of the young man before her.
Away they went, and were soon almost as merry and warm as the
children around them, for the ice was in good condition, the
February sunshine brilliant, and the keen wind set their blood
a-tingle with a healthful glow.
“Now tell me the plan your mother spoke of,” began Rose as they
went gliding across the wide expanse before them, for Charlie
seemed to have forgotten everything but the bliss of having her all
to himself for a little while.
“Plan? Oh, yes! It is simply this. I’m going out to Father next
month.?
“Really?” and Rose looked both surprised and incredulous, for this