Really, I have left Aunt Selina rather out of it, but she was important

as a cause, not as a result; at least at first. She came out strong

later. I believe she was a very nice old woman, with strong likes and

prejudices, which she was perfectly willing to pay for. At least, I only

presume she had likes; I know she had prejudices.

Nobody ever understood why Bella consented to take Betty's place with

Aunt Selina. As for me, I was too much engrossed with my own affairs

to pay the invalid much attention. Once or twice during the day I had

stopped in to see her, and had been received frigidly and with marked

disapproval. I was in disgrace, of course, after the scene in the dining

room the night before. I had stood like a naughty child, just inside the

door, and replied meekly when she said the pillows were overstuffed, and

why didn't I have the linen slips rinsed in starch water? She laid the

blame of her illness on me, as I have said before, and she made Jim read

to her in the afternoon from a book she carried with her, Coals of Fire

on the DOMESTIC Hearth, marking places for me to read.

She sent for me that night, just as I had taken off my gown; so I threw

on a dressing gown and went in. To my horror, Jim was already there. At

a gesture from Aunt Selina, he closed the door into the hall and tiptoed

back beside the bed, where he sat staring at the figures on the silk

comfort.

Aunt Selina's first words were: "Where's that flibberty-gibbet?"

Jim looked at me.

"She must mean Betty," I explained. "She has gone to bed, I think."

"Don't--let--her--in--this--room--again," she said, with awful emphasis.

"She is an infamous creature."

"Oh, come now, Aunt Selina," Jim broke in; "she's foolish, perhaps, but

she's a nice little thing."

Aunt Selina's face was a curious study. Then she raised herself on her

elbow, and, taking a flat chamois-skin bag from under her pillow, held

it out.

"My cameo breastpin," she said solemnly; "my cuff-buttons with gold rims

and storks painted on china in the middle; my watch, that has put me to

bed and got me up for forty years, and my money--five hundred and ten

dollars and forty cents!--taken with the doors locked under my nose."

Which was ambiguous, but forcible.

"But, good gracious, Miss Car--Aunt Selina!" I exclaimed, "you don't

think Betty Mercer took those things?"

"No," she said grimly; "I think I probably got up in my sleep and

lighted the fire with them, or sent em out for a walk." Then she stuffed

the bag away and sat up resolutely in bed.

"Have you made up?" she demanded, looking from one to the other of us.

"Bella, don't tell me you still persist in that nonsense."




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