Asenath was too proud to discuss the matter with a servant, but when she
saw the slices of cold chicken which Dixson was deliberately cutting up,
and the little pot of jelly which Pamelia placed upon the salver, she
forgot her dignity, and angrily demanded what they were doing.
"Miss Anna ordered lunch, and I'm a-gettin' it," was Dixson's reply.
"Yes, but such a lunch for a waiting woman; and going to send it up. I'd
like to know if she's too big a lady to come into the kitchen," and
Asenath's sharp shoulders jerked savagely.
"I must say, I think you very foolish indeed, to take a person about
whom you know nothing," she said to Anna, as soon as she saw her, but
stopped short as Willie ran out from the adjoining room and stood
looking at her.
As well as she was capable of doing, Asenath had loved her brother John
when a baby; and when he became a prattling active child, like the one
standing before her, she had almost worshiped him, thinking there was
never a face so pretty or manner so engaging as his. There had come no
baby after him, and she remembered him so well, starting now with
surprise as she saw reflected in Willie's face the look she never had
forgotten.
"Who is he, Anna? Not her child, the waiting woman's, surely."
"Hush--sh," came warningly from Anna, as she glanced toward the open
door, and that brought Asenath back from her dream of the past.
It was the waiting woman's child. There was no look like John now. She
had been mistaken, and rather rudely pushing him away, she said: "I
think you might have consulted us, at least. What are we to do with a
child in this house? Here, here, young man," and Asenath started forward
just in time to frighten Willie and make him drop and break the goblet
he was trying to reach from the stand, "to dink," as he said.
Asenath's purple silk was deluged with the water, and her temper was
considerably ruffled as she exclaimed: "You see the mischief he has
done, and it was cut glass, too. I hope you'll deduct it from her
wages!"
"Asenath," and Anna's voice betrayed her astonishment that her sister
should speak so in Adah's presence.
She had hurried out at Asenath's alarm, but the latter did not at first
observe her, and when she did, she was actually startled into an apology
for her speech.
"I'm sorry Willie was so careless. I'll pay for the goblet cheerfully,"
Adah said, not to Asenath, but to Anna, who answered kindly: "No matter;
it was already cracked across the bottom--don't mind."
But Adah did mind; and once alone in her room, her tears fell in
torrents. She had heard the whole about Willie's mischief, heard of the
buds torn to pieces, and of the hole kicked in the carpet. She would
like to see that hole, and after Willie was asleep, she stole down to
the reception-room to see the damage for herself. She found the hole, or
what was intended for it, smiling as she examined the few loose threads;
and then she hunted for the stool, finding it under the curtain where
Eudora had placed it, and finding, too, that letter dropped by Jim. The
others were gone, appropriated by Mrs. Richards, who always watched for
the western mail and looked it over herself.