"You fool! You great big dunderheaded fool!" cried Mrs. Holt.
"Now you have done it, for the thousandth time. She will start
out in less than no time to find some place else to stay, an' who
could blame her? Don't you know who she is? Ain't you sense in
your head? If there was ever a girl you ort to go after, and go
quick an' hard, there she is!"
"What? That big beef! What for?" asked George.
"You idjit! You idjit! Don't you sense that she's a daughter of
Adam Bates? Him they call the Land King. Ain't you sense ner
reason? Drive her from the house, will you? An' me relyin' on
sendin' you half her board money to help you out? You fool!"
"Why under the Heavens didn't you tell me? How could I know? No
danger but the bowl is upset, and it's all your fault. She should
be worth ten thousand, maybe twenty!"
"I never knew till jist before supper. I got it frum a letter she
wrote to her brother. I'd no chanct to tell you. Course I meant
to, first chanct I had; but you go to work an upset everything
before I get a chanct. You never did amount to anything, an' you
never will."
"Oh, well, now stop that. I didn't know. I thought she was just
common truck. I'll fix it up with her right after supper. Now
shut up."
"You can't do it! It's gone too far. She'll leave the house
inside fifteen minutes," said Mrs. Holt.
"Well, I'll just show you," he boasted.
George Holt pushed back his plate, wiped his mouth, brushed his
teeth at the washing place on the back porch, and sauntered around
the house to seat himself on the front porch steps. Kate saw him
there and remained in her room. When he had waited an hour he
arose and tapped on her door. Kate opened it.
"Miss Bates," he said. "I have been doing penance an hour. I am
very sorry I was such a boor. I was in earnest when I said I
didn't get the gad when I needed it. I had a big disappointment
to-day, and I came in sore and cross. I am ashamed of myself, but
you will never see me that way again. I know I will make a
failure of my profession if I don't be more polite than Mother
ever taught me to be. Won't you let me be your scholar, too?
Please do come over to the ravine where it is cool and give me my
first lesson. I need you dreadfully."
Kate was desperately in need of human companionship in that
instant, herself, someone who could speak, and sin, and suffer,
and repent. As she looked straight in the face of the man before
her she saw, not him being rude and quarrelling pettily with his
mother, but herself racing around the dining table pursued by her
father raving like an insane man. Who was she to judge or to
refuse help when it was asked? She went with him; and Mrs. Holt,
listening and peering from the side of the window blind of her
room across the hall, watched them cross the road and sit beside
each other on the bank of the ravine in what seemed polite and
amicable conversation. So she heaved a deep sigh of relief and
went to wash the dishes and plan breakfast. "Better feed her up
pretty well 'til she gits the habit of staying here and mebby the
rest who take boarders will be full," she said to herself. "Time
enough to go at skimpin' when she's settled, and busy, an' I get
the whip hand."