"I will, I will! And then perhaps, when he is a perfect model, Charlie will imitate
him. I really begin to feel as if I had a great deal to do." And Kitty looked as if she
was beginning to like it also.
"We all have and the sooner we go to work the better for us and those we love.
You wouldn't think now that Phebe was doing anything for Archie, but she is, and
writes such splendid letters, they stir him up wonderfully and make us all love
and admire her more than ever."
"How is she getting on?" asked Kitty, who, though she called herself a "little
goose," had tact enough to see that Rose did not care to talk about Charlie.
"Nicely, for you know she used to sing in our choir, so that was a good
recommendation for another. She got a fine place in the new church at L , and
that gives her a comfortable salary, though she has something put away. She
was always a saving creature and kept her wages carefully. Uncle invested them,
and she begins to feel quite independent already. No fear but my Phebe will get
on she has such energy and manages so well. I sometimes wish I could run
away and work with her."
"Ah, my dear! We rich girls have our trials as well as poor ones, though we don't
get as much pity as they do," sighed Kitty. "Nobody knows what I suffer
sometimes from worries that I can't talk about, and I shouldn't get much
sympathy if I did, just because I live in a big house, wear good gowns, and have
lots of lovers. Annabel used to say she envied me above all created beings, but
she doesn't now, and is perfectly absorbed in her dear little Chinaman. Do you
see how she ever could like him?"
So they began to gossip, and the sober talk was over for that time, but when Kitty
departed, after criticizing all her dear friends and their respective sweethearts,
she had a helpful little book in her muff, a resolute expression on her bright face,
and so many excellent plans for self-improvement in her busy brain that she and
Steve bid fair to turn out the model couple of the century.
