You see,
he told me the last thing, if anything happened while he was away I was
to act just as he would do if he were here; now, you know, if he were
here he'd just take care of Dave, himself--wouldn't he? Well, then, as
he isn't here, I ought to do it--see? And really I'd like to."
"Why not let him try it anyhow, Hitty?" pleaded the little girls. And
as she really saw no other way out of the difficulty, Mehitabel
reluctantly consented, with the proviso that she should sit with Dave
for an hour every afternoon while Stevie went for a gondola sail.
Finally matters were arranged, and after a very short visit Mr. Joseph
Lawrence started for Paris, leaving Dave in Venice, and the children
went in to make their cousin's acquaintance.
What Mehitabel said was certainly true--Dave was a very trying boy.
Though possessing naturally some good qualities, he had been so humored
and indulged that his own will had become his law; he loved to tease,
and hated to be thwarted in the slightest degree, and this made him
often very exacting and tyrannical.
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