"I didn't ask you, Horace. I asked Mrs. Fixfax. She is the one that has the care of us."
"I really don't know what to say about it," replied the housekeeper, hesitating. "We will wait and see how she seems after breakfast."
"Rather a cool way of setting my opinion one side," thought Horace, indignantly.
Fly ate only two small buckwheat cakes, but seemed lively enough, as she always did when there was a prospect of going anywhere.
"I don't suppose it is exactly the thing, after steaming her so," said Mrs. Fixfax, as if talking to herself,--she did not even look at Horace;--"but really I don't know what else to do. I couldn't keep her at home unless the rest of the children staid; and if I did I presume she'd get killed some other way. She's one of the kind that's never safe, except in bed, with the door locked, and the key in your pocket."
"Let her manage it to suit herself," thought brother Horace, deeply wounded; "she knows _my_ opinion."
When Madam Pragoffyetski came, the housekeeper went down to the parlor to introduce the children--a step which Horace thought highly unnecessary. He was charmed at once with the foreign lady's affable manners, and would have liked to go with her, if only Fly could have been left behind. Mrs. Fixfax explained that the child had been sick, and must be treated like a hot-house plant.
"We thought last night she was in danger of her _life_," said Dotty. "You expected she was going to die, Horace; you know you did."
"Well, I wasn't going to," returned Fly, coughing. "I knew I should live--I always do live."
"What was the matter?" said Mrs. Pragoffyetski, in alarm; for she knew as much about children's ailments as she did about the volcanoes in the sun.
"Only a little sore throat," answered the housekeeper, still looking anxious, and not at all sure she was doing right.
"Yes'm, sore froat. And Dotty wanted me to have the measles, too; but I wouldn't."
"That is right," said Mrs. Pragoffyetski, with a musical laugh. "Indeed, your little cousin was cruel to ask such a thing of you. I'm glad you didn't do it."
They took a street-car, and Dotty pressed her face against a window, expecting to see gay sights all the way. But no; the shops had their eyes shut. Yesterday how quickly everybody had moved! Now, men and women were walking quietly along, and there was no confusion anywhere.