However, she had not forgotten
the terrible tea-drinking, and was resolved not to be as bad as at
that time, and she tried to stop herself, exclaiming between her
sobs, "O Aunt Bar--bar--a,--I--can--not--help it!" And Lady Barbara
did not scold or look stern. Perhaps she saw that the little girl
was really trying to chock herself, for she said quite kindly,
"Don't, my dear."
And just then, to Kate's great wonder, in came Lady Jane, though it
was full half an hour earlier than she usually left her room; and
Lady Barbara looked up to her, and said, quite as if excusing
herself, "Indeed, Jane, I have not been angry with her."
And Kate, somehow, understanding that she might, flung herself down
by Aunt Jane, and hid her face in her lap, not crying any more,
though the sobs were not over, and feeling the fondling hands on her
hair very tender and comforting, though she wondered to hear them
talk as if she were asleep or deaf--or perhaps they thought their
voices too low, or their words too long and fine for her to
understand; nor perhaps did she, though she gathered their drift well
enough, and that kind Aunt Jane was quite pleading for herself in
having come to the rescue.
"I could not help it, indeed--you remember Lady de la Poer, Dr.
Woodman, both--excitable, nervous temperament--almost hysterical."
"This unfortunate intelligence--untoward coincidence--" said Lady
Barbara. "But I have been trying to make her feel I am not in anger,
and I hope there really was a struggle for self-control.
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