Then Lettice laughed and told Lutie she was a saucy minx, that if she didn’t behave she should be sent out with the field hands. And Lutie, who knew just what that threat amounted to, having frequently heard it before, giggled and further remarked that: “Mars Clinton a mighty fine gemman,” and when Miss Letty went to New York to live, Lutie hoped she wasn’t “gwine be lef’ behin’,” for which speech she received a rap of Lettice’s knuckles, and then mistress and maid descended the stairs, the latter as proud of her young lady, in her best summer attire, as the young lady was of herself.
It may have been that Lettice was not willing to risk sitting by Betty’s side under the ardent gaze of her lover on the opposite seat of the carriage, and with Betty to watch every glance of his eye, for at the last moment she declared that she wanted Jamie to drive her over, and would wait for him, and wouldn’t the others please go on without her.
“You are a contrary little piece,” said Betty, out of patience. “Here you have kept us waiting all this time, and now you won’t go with us. Why didn’t you say so in the first place?”
“I didn’t think of it,” returned Lettice, calmly. “You flustered me so by telling me it was late, that I forgot about Jamie.” And seeing she was bound to have her own way, Betty and Mr. Clinton drove off without her.
The company had all assembled when the last guests from Hopkins’s Point reached Sylvia’s Ramble, and Lettice wished she had come earlier when she saw that Mr. Clinton was at the gate to meet her, and that with him in attendance she would be obliged to pass under the scrutiny of a dozen mature cousins, each of whom felt it a prerogative to make as many personal remarks as he or she desired; so that the girl was glad to escape with Rhoda, who, though critical, was not so aggressively candid as one’s relatives are likely to be.
The guests, although knowing that Mrs. Tom Hopkins was a Boston woman, supposed her frankly siding with her husband, and therefore they did not scruple to discuss at the dinner-table politics from their point of view. News of the Remonstrance Act of Massachusetts had just been received, and those favoring the war policy were hot against the Bay State, and did not hesitate to voice their feelings.
“With our brave Lawrence not cold in his grave,” said Mr. Jacob Seth, “the Massachusetts people adopt a resolution that it is not becoming a moral and religious people to express any approbation of military or naval exploits not immediately connected with the defence of their sea-coast and their soil.”
“And it was in Boston harbor that the fight between the Chesapeake and the Shannon took place,” said another guest.
Rhoda bit her lip and glanced quickly at James, who regarded her with an amused look, while Lettice’s eyes sought Robert. His face was flushed, and he was looking steadfastly into his plate.
“Massachusetts believes the war to be caused by ambition and desire for conquest,” put in Aunt Martha, stiffly.