Ruth shot her a glance from under long lashes as the trailing velvet robes disappeared, a glance that was quite as scornful as Mrs. Mayfield could summon to her own face.
[CHAPTER XI]
Signed, Simon Petty
IT was a week later that Ruth was in her room with Hetty sitting before her on the window seat. The house was very still. Bertie's howls did not cleave the air. The swish, swish of Mrs. Mayfield's silken petticoats was no longer heard; even Mademoiselle's high-pitched voluble French did not pierce the silence.
"I am very glad they didn't decide to take me, Hetty," said Ruth. "I'd much rather not go. Oh my, isn't it lovely to get rid of Bertie? Don't you feel glad that you don't have to stay down in your cave? Now that I haven't those hateful verbs to learn, I shall have time to sew for you, Hetty. I've hardly dared to more than take you out to look at you for a week, for although Uncle Sidney said I was not to give you up, Bertie would have come and taken you without the asking if you were within reach."
Hetty's smiling face seemed response enough to these confidences.
"Oh, Hetty," Ruth went on, "I am so glad that Mademoiselle is to be gone three whole days. For three whole days, we shall have everything to ourselves. I can take you down to the nursery when I have my meals and it will be so cozy, almost like being at home again. I wonder what they are doing there this minute. I haven't been very lucky yet in finding a whole lot of money to take us back, have I? I wonder when I shall go."
That morning Mrs. Mayfield in sudden alarm because of a cold Bertie had taken, insisted upon bearing him away to Lakewood for a week while Mr. Mayfield should be gone upon a business trip. Mademoiselle, feeling that this was a good opportunity to take a holiday, pleaded an ill friend and would be gone for three days.
"I simply cannot be bothered with two children in a hotel," Mrs. Mayfield had said to her husband, "and I don't believe Ruth would care a particle about going."
But Ruth's uncle consulted her before he settled the matter. He sought her out and asked: