FullReads

“Don’t seem to notice it. Let it be my task to overcome prejudices.”

During the evening Mary did not soften in the least toward her step-mother. On the next morning, when all met, for the first time, at the breakfast table, the children gazed askance at the calm, dignified woman who presided at the table, and seemed ill at ease. On Mary’s lip, and in her eye, was an expression so like contempt, that it was with difficulty her father could refrain from ordering her to her own room.

The meal passed in some embarrassment. At its conclusion, Mr. Arnold went into the parlour, and his wife, entering at once upon her duties, accompanied the children to the nursery, to see for herself that the two oldest were properly dressed for school. Mary, who had preceded the rest, was already in contention with the housekeeper. Just as Mrs. Arnold–so we must now call her–entered the room, Mary exclaimed, sharply:

“I don’t care what you say, I’m going to wear this bonnet!”

“What’s the trouble?” inquired Mrs. Arnold, calmly.

“Why, you see, ma’am,” replied the housekeeper, “Mary is bent on wearing her new, pink bonnet to school, and I tell her she mustn’t do it. Her old one is good enough.”

“Let me see the old one,” said Mrs. Arnold. She spoke in a very pleasant tone of voice.

A neat, straw bonnet, with plain, unsoiled trimming, was brought forth by the housekeeper, who remarked:

“It’s good enough to wear Sundays, for that matter.”

“I don’t care if it is, I’m not going to wear it today. So don’t bother yourself any more about it.”

“Oh, yes, Mary, you will,” said Mrs. Arnold, very kindly, yet firmly.

“No, I won’t!” was the quick, resolute answer. And she gazed, unflinchingly, into the face of her step-mother.

“I’ll call your father, my young lady! This is beyond all endurance!” said the housekeeper, starting for the door.

“Hannah!” The mild, even voice of Mrs. Arnold checked the excited housekeeper. “Don’t speak of it to her father,–I’m sure she doesn’t mean what she says. She’ll think better of it in a moment.”

Mary was hardly prepared for this. Even while she stood with unchanged exterior, she felt grateful to her step-mother for intercepting the complaint about to be made to her father. She expected some remark or remonstrance from Mrs. Arnold. But in this she was mistaken. The latter, as if nothing unpleasant had occurred, turned to Florence, and after a light examination of her dress, said to the housekeeper:

“This collar is too much soiled; won’t you bring me another?”

“Oh, it’s clean enough,” replied Florence, knitting her brows, and affecting impatience. But, even as she spoke, the quick, yet gentle hands of her step-mother had removed the collar from her neck.

“Do you think it clean enough now?” said she, as she placed the soiled collar beside a fresh one, which the housekeeper had brought.

“It is rather dirty,” replied Florence, smiling.

And now Mrs. Arnold examined other articles of her dress, and had them changed, re-arranged her hair, and saw that her teeth were properly brushed. While this was progressing, Mary stood a little apart, a close observer of all that passed. One thing she did not fail to remark, and that was the gentle firmness of her step-mother, which was in strong contrast with the usual scolding, jerking, and impatience of the housekeeper, as manifested on these occasions.

By the time Florence was ready for school, Mary’s state of mind had undergone considerable change, and she half regretted the exhibition of ill temper and insulting disobedience she had shown. Yet was she in no way prepared to yield. To her surprise, after Florence was all ready, her step-mother turned to her and said, in a mild, cheerful voice, as if nothing unpleasant had occurred,

“Have you a particular reason for wishing to wear your new bonnet, this morning, Mary?”

“Yes, ma’am, I have.” The voice of Mary was changed considerably, and her eyes fell beneath the mild, but penetrating, gaze of her step-mother.