Where's Gertrude?"
"Sure enough, where is she?" asked Lucy, looking round from one to
another.
"She's mad because you did not take her along," remarked Harry, "she says
you didn't keep your promise."
"Dear me, I'd forgotten all about it!" exclaimed Mrs. Ross. "I should have
taken her though, but there wasn't time to get her up and dressed."
"Gertrude! Gertrude!" called Mr. Ross, in tones of authority, "Gertrude,
come here and show yourself."
At that the child came slowly out from the hall--whence she had been
watching the scene through the crack behind the door--looking red and
angry.
"What's the matter with you?" asked her father, with some displeasure in
his tones.
"Nothing, I'm not crying."
"Nor pouting either, I suppose? What's it all about."
"Mamma promised to take me along the next time she went to the city."
"Perhaps she will the next time."
"But this was the next time, because she promised it when she went before
and took Kate."
"Well, such promises are always conditional; she took no one this time
(but me), and there was a good reason why."
Gertrude smiled slightly, then laughed outright, as she glanced up into
his face, saying, "I thought it was you, papa, that took mamma.
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