FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183  
184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   >>   >|  
go away and do something, John Coulson," she said to her brother-in-law on an afternoon which he and Annie and the baby were spending at The Dale. "I'm no use here. I have horrible suspicions that I'm a cumberer of the ground." "You're surely not going to develop into a new woman, Betsey," said John Coulson with alarm. "One never knows which way the wild streak is going to shoot off next." Elizabeth was kneeling by the old dining-room sofa, upon which the Vision rolled from side to side, waving his bare pink toes in the air. She had just been busy saying over for the fifth time, "Dis 'itty pig went to market," and had evoked such gurgles and coos and giggles from the owner of the "'itty pigs," that it was hard to give her attention elsewhere. "Maybe I am," she said at last, looking up at him with serious gray eyes. "I don't know. But I do know I don't want to sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam forever and ever like the lady in Baby's book. The rest are working hard. I wonder if I couldn't earn my living somehow." John Coulson looked at her gravely. He generally treated his young sister-in-law as a joke, but evidently she wanted to be taken seriously. "What do you think you would like to be?" he asked gently. Elizabeth chucked the Vision under the chin, rolled him from side to side, and kissed each separate dimple in his plump hand before answering. "Oh, I don't care. I'd just as soon be one thing as another." "Well, well," John Coulson's eyes twinkled again. "Have you no ambition at all, Betsey Bobbett?" Elizabeth looked across at him, her eyes half-veiled by her long lashes, in that way she had when she wished to hide her thoughts. The forced reticence of her childhood had grown to be a fixed habit, and for all her love for her brother-in-law, which had grown steadily with the years, she could not confide in him. For Elizabeth had ambitions, though her aunt would have found it hard to believe in them. They were quite as radiant as her old dreams of Joan of Arc, though different. They were such conflicting aspirations, too, that she was puzzled by them herself. She was filled with vague golden dreams of one day overturning the world and righting all wrongs, and making all Eppies rich and Susies happy, and giving all Mother MacAllisters their rewards. And side by side with these glorious visions lived the desire, very real and very deep, to be like Estella Raymond and have a half-doz
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   159   160   161   162   163   164   165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183  
184   185   186   187   188   189   190   191   192   193   194   195   196   197   198   199   200   201   202   203   204   205   206   207   208   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Elizabeth
 

Coulson

 

looked

 

Vision

 

rolled

 

dreams

 

Betsey

 
brother
 

ambition

 
Raymond

twinkled

 

Bobbett

 

desire

 

veiled

 

glorious

 
lashes
 

visions

 
separate
 

dimple

 

kissed


chucked

 
Estella
 

answering

 

gently

 

thoughts

 

Eppies

 

making

 
wrongs
 

righting

 

radiant


Susies
 

puzzled

 
filled
 

conflicting

 

aspirations

 

overturning

 

childhood

 

rewards

 

golden

 

forced


reticence

 

ambitions

 

Mother

 
giving
 
MacAllisters
 

steadily

 
confide
 

wished

 

kneeling

 

dining