Lady Jane made no reply, but looked wistfully at Pepsie, as if she would rather not express her opinion on the subject.
“Well, never mind. I guess she’s kind to you, only perhaps you miss your ma. Has she gone away?” And Pepsie lowered her voice and spoke very softly; she felt that she was treading on delicate ground, but she so wanted to know all about the dear little thing, not so much from curiosity as from the interest she felt in her.
Lady Jane did not reply, and Pepsie again asked very gently:
“Has your mama gone away?”
“Tante Pauline says so,” replied the child, as the woe-begone expression settled on her little face again. “She says mama’s gone away, and that she’ll come back. I think she’s gone to heaven to see papa. You know papa went to heaven before we left the ranch—and mama got tired waiting for him to come back, and so she’s gone to see him; but I wish she’d taken me with her. I want to see papa too, and I don’t like to wait so long.”
The soft, serious little voice fell to a sigh, and she looked solemnly out of the window at the strip of sunset sky over Madame Jozain’s house.
Pepsie’s great eyes filled with tears, and she turned away her head to hide them.
“Heaven’s somewhere up there, isn’t it?” she continued, pointing upward. “Every night when the stars come out, I watch to see if papa and mama are looking at me. I think they like to stay up there, and don’t want to come back, and perhaps they’ve forgotten all about Lady Jane.”
“Lady Jane, is that your name? Why, how pretty!” said Pepsie, trying to speak brightly; “and what a little darling you are! I don’t think any one would ever forget you, much less your papa and mama. Don’t get tired waiting; you’re sure to see them again, and you needn’t to be lonesome, sitting there on the gallery every day alone. While your aunt’s busy with her customers, you can come over here with your bird, and sit with me. I’ll show you how to shell pecans and sugar them, and I’ll read some pretty stories to you. And oh, I’ll teach you to play solitaire.”
“What is solitaire?” asked Lady Jane, brightening visibly.