Let me pour you out a cup of tea, Miss Garston.

Kitty and I were just going to begin.' I accepted this offer, as I thought Miss Locke evidently wanted to speak to me.

She seemed pleased at my acquiescence, and told Kitty to stay with her aunt Phoebe a few minutes.
'I have baked a nice hot cake with currants in it, Kitty,' she said persuasively, 'and you shall have your share, hot and buttered, if you will be patient and wait a little.' 'She is a good little thing,' I observed, as the child reluctantly withdrew to her dreary post, after a longing look at the table, while Miss Locke placed a rocking-chair with a faded green cushion by the fire, and opened the oven door to inspect the cake.

'It is dull work for the little creature to be so much in the sick-room.

It is hardly a wholesome atmosphere for a child.' Miss Locke shook her head as though she endorsed this opinion.
'What am I to do ?' she returned sorrowfully.