They went back across the hall to the other guests. The instant they were
gone Georgina crawled out from under the bed with the big bonnet cocked
over one eye. Then she scudded down the hall and up the back stairs. She
knew the company would be going soon, and she would be expected to bid
them good-bye if she were there. She didn't want Cousin Mehitable to kiss
her again. She didn't like her any more since she had called her father
"peculiar."

She wandered aimlessly about for a few minutes, then pushed the door open
into Mrs. Triplett's room. It was warm and cozy in there for a small fire
still burned in the little drum stove. She opened the front damper to
make it burn faster, and the light shone out in four long rays which made
a flickering in the room. She sat down on the floor in front of it and
began to wonder.

"What did Cousin Mehitable mean by something eating Barby's heart out?"
Did people die of it? She had read of the Spartan youth who let the fox
gnaw his vitals under his cloak and never showed, even by the twitching
of a muscle, that he was in pain. Of course, she knew that no live thing
was tearing at her mother's heart, but what if something that she
couldn't understand was hurting her darling Barby night and day and she
was bravely hiding it from the world like the Spartan youth?

Did _all_ grown people have troubles? It had seemed such a happy
world until to-day, and now all at once she had heard about Dan Darcy and
Belle Triplett. Nearly everyone whom the guests talked about had borne
some unhappiness, and even her own father was "peculiar." She wished she
hadn't found out all these things. A great weight seemed to settle down
upon her.