'She might be better with some companionship of her own age,' he said in a few minutes. 'The give-and-take of even childish companionship is a kind of training and discipline. As it is, she is almost like an only child. Now, if Alie were away for a while, Bridget would have to try to take her place.'
'I could not do without Alie, not just now certainly,' said Mrs. Vane decidedly. 'We must just hope that somehow time will improve Bridget.'
'And don't be too hard on her,' said her father. 'I feel sure she means well.'
'When she means anything,' replied Mrs. Vane; 'but she seldom thinks enough for that.'
'I don't know about that,' said Mr. Vane doubtfully, 'still----'
But then something in the arrangement of the book-shelves caught his eye, and no more was said of Biddy for the time.
Papa did not forget. Bridget got her fourpence the next day, a penny from mamma and threepence from papa. And all troubles were thrown to the winds, torn frocks and everything disagreeable forgotten, when she set off with Rosalys and Randolph, under their maid's charge, for a visit to Seacove, the wonderful bazaar being the real object of the walk.
Only a very slight misgiving came over her as papa stooped to kiss her in the doorway; they met him on their way out.
'Be a sensible little woman to-day, my Biddy,' he said, 'and don't get into any scrapes to worry your mamma.'
The child looked up into his face. Was it the yellowish morning light from over the sea--for it was clear and bright though cold--that made papa's face so pale? And yesterday he had looked so nice and rosy--Biddy felt rather strange; for the first time in her little life there came over her a faint, very faint shadow of _the_ shadow which, as we grow older, we learn cannot be avoided; the wings of the solemn angel seemed for an instant to brush her softly. Biddy trembled without understanding why.
'Papa, dear papa,' she said, but somehow no other words would come.
He kissed her again, and he smiled. It seemed to brighten up his face. Bridget gave a sigh of relief: the potato boy's papa had got well, and very likely he too looked pale sometimes. Still that strange breath of feeling had left some result.
'Alie,' she said, as she trotted down the garden path beside her sister, the sixpence tightly clasped in her hand, 'is there anything I could get for a present for two of my pennies? I want to get some of the toys for myself with papa's three pennies, and I want to get a thimble with one, 'cos I've lost mine, and my workbox is messy-looking.'