And so he is, as we all know well.
Don't we, Arthur?"
"Hurrah! Three cheers for papa! The jolliest papa that ever was!" cried
Arthur from the sofa, where, by his own special desire, he lay watching
the end of the toilet.
Letitia was too ladylike to commit herself to much enthusiasm, but she
smiled. If there was a warm place in that poor little frigid heart, papa
certainly had it, as in every heart belonging to him.
"You look quite pretty" said she, condescendingly. "Some day when
you go to parties you'll dress me and make me look pretty too, and take
me with you? You won't keep me shut up in the nursery till I am quite
old, as Phillis says you will?"
"Did Phillis say that?" Christian answered, with a sore sinking of the
heart at the utter impossibility that under such influences these children
should ever learn to love her.
"Phillis is a fool," cried Arthur, angrily. "When I get well again, if ever
she says one word to me of the things she used to say about mother,
won't I pitch into her, that's all!"
Christian smiled--a rather sad smile, but she thought it best to take no
notice, and soon Phillis came and fetched the two away.
After they were gone the young step-mother stood by her bedroom fire,
thinking anxiously of these her children, turning over in her mind plan
after plan as to how she should make them love her.
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