"I don't know what I'd want," returned Matilda, gloomily. "I ain't never had nothin', and I've sort of got out of the habit. I did used to think that if it ever come my way, I'd like a white straw hat with red roses on it, but I'm too old for it now."
Tears of pity filled Rosemary's eyes and a lump rose in her throat. Aunt Matilda's deprivations had been as many as her own, and had extended over a much longer period. The way of escape was open for Rosemary, but the older woman must go on, hopelessly, until the end.
"It was sixteen years ago to-night," said Aunt Matilda, dreamily, "that the minister come to call."
"Was it?" asked Rosemary. She did not know what else to say.
"I thought maybe you'd remember it, but I guess you was too little. You was only nine, and you used to go to bed at half-past seven. It was five minutes of eight when he come."
The Minister Asks to Call
"Was it?" asked Rosemary, again.
"Yes. Don't you remember hearin' the door bell ring?"
"No--I must have been asleep."
"Children go to sleep awful quick. It was five minutes of eight when he come."
"Were you expecting him?"
"No, I wasn't. He'd said to me once, on the way out of church after Sunday-school: 'Miss Matilda, I must be comin' over to see you some one of these pleasant evenings, with your kind permission,' Just like that, he says, 'with your kind permission,' I was so flustered I couldn't say much, but I did manage to tell him that Ma and me would be pleased to see him any time, and what do you suppose he said?"
"I don't know," answered Rosemary.
"He said: 'It's you I'm comin' to see--not your Ma,' Just like that--'It's you!'" Her voice had a new note in it--a strange thrill of tenderness.
"And so," she went on, after a pause, "he come. I was wearin' my brown alpaca that I'd just finished. I'd tried it on after supper to see if it was all right, and it was, so I kept on wearin' it, though Ma was tellin' me all the time to take it off. Her and me had just cleaned the parlour that day. It couldn't have happened better. And when the bell rang, I went to the door myself."
The Greetings
"Were you surprised?"