Her Mother's Secret Part 35

"She is very ill bred!" said Elfrida.

"That is her misfortune, not her fault, poor thing! But enough of her. How is our darling this evening?"

"Fast asleep, with a regular, normal pulse and respiration. To-morrow she will be quite restored, I think."

"Heaven grant it!" fervently exclaimed Abel Force.

Then he touched the timbre that was to summon Jake, to close up fenders and put out lights.

And then the husband and wife went upstairs together.

When they reached the landing, they were startled by a loud rapping on the inside of Mrs. Anglesea's door.

"She wants something that has been forgotten, I suppose. Go on, Abel, and I will stop and see what she requires," said Elfrida Force.

And the gentleman pa.s.sed on to his apartments, while the lady paused at their visitor's door.

"Say! Hi! Ole 'oman! You! I want you!" cried the guest, from within, as the lady approached.

"Well, what is it?" inquired Elfrida Force.

"Is your ole man outside?"

"No; he has gone to his room."

"Then it's all right, and I can come out," replied the woman, opening the door and standing there in her ascension robes, while she held up, at arm's length, one of Elfrida's own fine cambric nightdresses, and exclaimed:

"Look here, I say! I can't get into this thing! Why, look at me and look at it! You might's well try to squeeze a pumpkin into a pint pot, as me in it!"

Mrs. Force saw, and recognized the dilemma. The stout woman could not wear one of her night robes; and, if not one of hers, certainly not one of Miss Meeke's, or of either the young girls'--all of which were smaller than her own. What was to be done now?

The lady stood confounded for a moment, and then a bright thought struck her.

"I will find one to fit you, and bring it," she said.

"That's you!" exclaimed the woman.

Elfrida Force turned away and went into her own room to get the wax taper which her husband had carried there, and then she went up into the garret and waked up old Aunt Lucy, who was even stouter than Mrs. Anglesea, and who had a treasure that was the pride of her heart--a small chest, full of fine, snow-white underclothing, that was laid up in lavender, and only taken out to be shown to acquaintances, but never worn.

When Luce was roused out of her sleep, to see her mistress standing over her, with a taper in her hand, she was frightened half out of her wits at--she knew not what, but she instinctively gasped out:

"It's a habit dey gibs deirselves--nuffin' 'tall but a habit dey gibs deirselves!"

"Luce, wake up! I want you to do me a favor."

"Yes, mist'ess! It's a hab----" But a wide gape cut off her proverb.

"Luce! I want you to be so kind as to lend Mrs. Anglesea one of your best, new nightdresses," said the lady.

"Yes, mist'ess, nightgowns. It a hab----You!" with another yawn.

It was full ten minutes before the lady could bring the half-sleeping woman to a consciousness of what was wanted.

Then, indeed, Luce was all attention and alertness, proud to accommodate the visitor. She went to her chest and opened it, filling the room with the fragrance of sweet herbs, and she selected her finest gown, "the one trimmed with torture lace," as she called it, meaning torchon, and she offered to take it herself down to the stranger. But Mrs. Force would not permit her to do that, and, with the gown over her arm, she went downstairs and into the room of her guest.

"Now, then, this here is something like a gownd," said Mrs. Anglesea, admiringly. "And, oh, sakes! don't it smell sweet! Hoome! Ah-h-h!" she exclaimed, pressing the garment up to her face and strongly inhaling its fragrance.

"Good-night," said the hostess, turning away.

"Good-night! Hoome--ah-h-h! how sweet it is!"

"And what a thorough animal you are!" thought the lady, as she left the happy creature delighting herself in the fragrance of lavender and amber.

One more visit Mrs. Force made before she sought her own pillow. She went into Odalite's room, and found her sleeping quietly, with little Elva, in a warm wrapper, lying in an easy chair by her side.

"Why, my little darling, why are you not in bed?" inquired the lady.

"Oh, mamma, because I thought I would sit here with Odalite until you should come, to see if she should want anything."

"It was a kind thought, my tender, little love; but now you may go to bed.

Kiss me. G.o.d bless you, little tender heart!"

And so, with love and kisses and blessings, Elfrida Force dismissed her gentlest child to rest.

Then she bent over Odalite, and saw that she was sleeping well and breathing easily. She took her hand, and found that her skin was cool and moist, and her pulse was regular.

She kissed the sleeper on the brow, and then knelt and prayed for pardon of that long-past folly, as she prayed daily and nightly; she prayed for protection for those she loved from the machinations of the evil and the designing, and for guidance and help in her perplexities and sorrows. When she finished, she arose and left the chamber.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE DAY AFTER THE WEDDING

Mrs. Anglesea was up with the sun the next morning. She replenished the smoldering fire from wood that she found in a box at the bottom of the closet. Then she threw open the front and side windows of her corner room, and looked out on the bright, crisp, winter morning.

The ground and the bare trees were glistening with white frost, and beyond and below stretched the blue waters of the bay, intensely blue now under the clear, winter sky.

"It's a pretty place, but, whewew! how cold!" she said, with a shudder, as she pulled down the sash of the last window and turned to the fire.

She could hardly persuade herself to leave it, but, fearing she might be late for breakfast, she at length arose, and made her toilet, hastily and carelessly, with a few splashes of water on her face and neck and a hasty drying, interrupted in the middle to press the lavender-scented white damask to her face to inhale its fragrance. Then she ran a comb through the thick locks of her curly hair, which she finally bunched up into a big ma.s.s at the back of her head. At last she put on her clothes, and left her room, noisily banging the door in closing it.

There was no one in the upper hall. All the chamber doors leading from it were shut.

"I reckon they are all at breakfast, and the coffee will be stark cold when I get there. I wish they had waked me up, but I reckon they thought I was tired. I am never too tired to eat," she muttered to herself as she went downstairs.

She hurried directly to the dining room, where she found a fine, open fire burning, and Luce engaged in setting the table.