“Mercy! How grand we are getting!”
“Just hemming table clothes and napkins. I can't say I think much of their new place. It's kind of skimpy.”
“Why, Miss Ferney! It is the biggest house I was even in!”
“I ain't talking 'bout the size. I'm talking 'bout the fixings. There ain't a single carpet that fits the floor by two feet, and the wallpaper's patched in every room but one. As for the dining-room! Well, I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes! They haven't got a picture, or a tidy, or a curtain, or a lamberkin, of any kind. 'Spose I oughtn't to tell it on 'em, but the day I was there they didn't even have a tablecloth!”
Miss Lady laughed in spite of herself, and Bertie heard her and got out of bed to call over the banisters that if they were telling jokes to please come up there.
“You know that young man that used to be out to the Wickers'?” asked Miss Ferney on the way up. “Well, he's Mrs. Sequin's brother. He's giving 'em considerable trouble.”
“How do you mean?”
“They want him to go 'way somewheres, and he won't do it. The servant girl told me that him and his sister had been having it up and down, and that Miss Margery took his side.”
“Is he going to stay?” Miss Lady paused and her fingers gripped the banister.
“I dunno. I guess if he gits mad enough he'll run off to China like he did before. Ain't that somebody calling you?”