She did not like Mrs. Savor's house when she came to it, nor Mrs. Savor,
who stopped, all blowzed and work-deranged from trying to put it in order
after the death in it, and gave Idella a motherly welcome. Annie fancied a
certain surprise in her manner, and her own ideal of duty was put to proof
by Mrs. Savor's owning that she had not expected Annie to bring Idella to
her right away.

"If I had not done it at once, I never could have done it," Annie
explained.

"Well, I presume it's a cross," said Mrs. Savor, "and I don't feel right to
take her. If it wa'n't for what her father--"

"'Sh!" Annie said, with a significant glance.

"It's an ugly house!" screamed the child. "I want to go back to my Aunt
Annie's house. I want to go on the cars."

"Yes, yes," answered Mrs. Savor, blindly groping to share in whatever cheat
had been practised on the child, "just as soon as the cars starts. Here,
William, you take her out and show her the pretty coop you be'n makin' the
pigeons, to keep the cats out."

They got rid of her with Savor's connivance for the moment, and Annie
hastened to escape.

"We had to tell her she was going a journey, or we never could have got her
into the carriage," she explained, feeling like a thief.