Her
own letters became pitiful in their supplications for letters;
they _had_ been very cheerful, and filled with encouraging
matter, and in part they were still.
For a while her mind was diverted from this sad subject, and
her brow cleared up, when John came home in August. As before,
Alice gained Miss Fortune's leave to keep her at the parsonage
the whole time of his stay, which was several weeks. Ellen
wondered that it was so easily granted, but she was much too
happy to spend time in thinking about it. Miss Fortune had
several reasons. She was unwilling to displease Miss
Humphreys, and conscious that it would be a shame to her to
stand openly in the way of Ellen's good. Besides, though
Ellen's services were lost for a time, yet she said she got
tired of setting her to work; she liked to dash round the
house alone, without thinking what somebody else was doing or
ought to be doing. In short, she liked to have her out of the
way for a while. Furthermore, it did not please her that Mr.
Van Brunt and her little handmaid were, as she expressed it,
"so thick." His first thought, and his last thought, she said,
she believed, were for Ellen, whether she came in or went out;
and Miss Fortune was accustomed to be chief, not only in her
own house, but in the regards of all who came to it. At any
rate, the leave was granted and Ellen went.
And now was repeated the pleasure of the first week in
January.
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