Page:Hollyhock house; a story for girls (IA hollyhockhousest00tagg).pdf/94

76 pleasures if you do not let your mother have her maid,” Mr. Moulton suggested.

“Of course we can find one here, later,” said Mrs. Moulton, seeing the protest in the three pairs of eyes turned upon them.

“And if you had a mother indoors, one you thought was dead, you wouldn’t want to go out at all, would you?” cried Florimel.

“That’s what we all feel,” said Mary.

“Why, since I’ve heard she was alive, and I’ve got so I could think of it, I’m just hovering over my mother!” cried Jane. “It’s as though my mind fluttered over her, the way birds flutter over their nests; it can’t get away.”

“It’s curious, isn’t it, when we were so happy before and loved one another almost more than any other three sisters ever did, that the moment you said our mother was alive it was as if all our life backward looked empty? We all three knew in an instant that we needed something terribly,” Mary said thoughtfully.

Mrs. Moulton glanced at her husband. “Be prepared, my dears, for not finding your mother quite like the mothers you know in Vineclad,” she said. “She has had slight experience in motherhood, and she has been the pet of a large public. It is quite possible that you may be