stay with the Lathrop cousins, who lived in the same city, although it
was very evident that the Lathrops were not perfectly crazy with delight
over the prospect.

Still, something had to be done at once, and Aunt Frances was so frantic
with the packing up, and the moving men coming to take the furniture to
storage, and her anxiety over her mother--she had switched to Aunt
Harriet, you see, all the conscientiousness she had lavished on
Elizabeth Ann--nothing much could be extracted from her about Elizabeth
Ann. "Just keep her for the present, Molly!" she said to Cousin Molly
Lathrop. "I'll do something soon. I'll write you. I'll make another
arrangement ... but just NOW ... ."

Her voice was quavering on the edge of tears, and Cousin Molly Lathrop,
who hated scenes, said hastily, "Yes, oh, yes, of course. For the
present ..." and went away, thinking that she didn't see why she should
have ALL the disagreeable things to do. When she had her husband's
tyrannical old mother to take care of, wasn't that enough, without
adding to the household such a nervous, spoiled, morbid young one as
Elizabeth Ann!

Elizabeth Ann did not of course for a moment dream that Cousin Molly was
thinking any such things about her, but she could not help seeing that
Cousin Molly was not any too enthusiastic about taking her in; and she
was already feeling terribly forlorn about the sudden, unexpected change
in Aunt Frances, who had been SO wrapped up in her and now was just as
much wrapped up in Aunt Harriet. Do you know, I am sorry for Elizabeth
Ann, and, what's more, I have been ever since this story began.

Well, since I promised you that I was not going to tell about more