Read Online I'll Never Marry! by Juliet Armstrong - Free Book Online Page B

kitchen pouring out the story of Andrew ’ s kindness to Matron before she herself was through the front gate, and in the chatter and laughter her slight confusion passed unnoticed.
    “ This is a very generous gesture on Mr. Playdle ’ s part! ” Matron, with an arm round each of the little girls, smiled at Catherine as she came in.
    “ It ’ s due to the letter you wrote him, ” was Catherine ’ s quick response. “ He seems to have appreciated it very much. ”
    “ And do you think we shall appreciate having a puppy? ” Matron demanded, her eyes alight with humor. “ Shall we be able to endure having our bedroom slippers stolen and our gloves chewed to rags? ”
    “ Oh, but we ’ ll teach him to behave beautifully, ” Ruth declared vociferously. “ He ’ s sure to be awfully clever, and awfully sweet, with a mother like Sally. ”
    Catherine, aware that Ruth ’ s own mother had been anything but desirable as a parent, and that Maureen had lost hers in infancy, felt a twist of the heart at this remark. But neither child seemed to see its implication, and Maureen went on at once, her eyes wide: “ And think how fine it will be to have a watch-dog to protect us. ”
    “ I ’ m afraid we shall have to wait a while before he ’ s up to that, ” Matron said, with becoming gravity.
    “ Well, may we go to tea at the Manor, and may we have the puppy? ” Ruth exclaimed imploringly. “ Do say ‘ Yes, ’ Matron, and put us out of our misery. ”
    “ Misery, indeed! ” Matron chuckled, and dropped a light kiss on the two eager faces raised to hers. “ If this is what you look like when you ’ re miserable, what do you look like when you ’ re happy? However, I ’ m going to say, ‘ Yes ’ , on one condition. The puppy will belong to us all, of course—he ’ ll be ’ just another member of the family—but you, Ruth, must undertake to look after him. You ’ ll have to see to his food and his grooming, train him in nice habits, rescue him if the babies tease him too much, and generally take care of him. The others, including Maureen, can help you, of course; but you will be responsible for him. ”
    “ Matron, you are a lamb! ” Ruth exclaimed ecstatically, and Maureen observed, half-wonderingly: “ I can ’ t get used to grown-ups liking letting us do what we want. The Missis hated it. She always said ‘ No ’ if she possibly could. ”
    “ I thought you were going to forget all about that, childie, ” Matron said, with crisp kindliness. “ Now run into the garden, dears, and help Miss Dewney to bring the babies in. It ’ s high time they were tubbed and bedded. ”
    When the two children had disappeared, Catherine asked Matron in some bewilderment: “ Who does Maureen mean by ‘ Missis ’ ? . She can ’ t have been out to work at her age. ”
    Matron looked grim. “ That ’ s her stepmother. ‘ Your dad ’ s new missis ’ was the way the neighbors continued to refer to her, even after years of marriage. It was meant as a term of reproach, as the woman well knew, and she tried to get her own back by making Maureen, whom she already treated as a drudge, use it in a completely servile way. ” She shook her head. “ It ’ s a bad story. After one or two warnings, she never laid a finger on the child, so that it was extremely difficult to prove cruelty; but if there ’ s any worse cruelty than forcing a child to live in an atmosphere of perpetual hate and fear, I don ’ t know of it. Do you know, ” and her eyes glinted, “ if Maureen spilt a few crumbs on the floor, she forced her to get down on her knees, pick them up and ea t them, as though she had been a little animal. And that ’ s only one example of the kind of thing that went on. Sheer hatred, springing from a crazy jealousy, of Maureen ’ s dead mother—that was the trouble. ”
    Catherine, who was familiar with the broad outlines of Maureen ’ s pitiful background, but who had heard few details, let out a deep