“If I was sure she’d be gone for a week,” she said, “I’d go a-visitin’ myself.”
“She’ll be gone a week,” said Joshua; and the manner and matter of his speech were both those of a prophet.
Then he went out and the door slammed to behind him.
Chapter Thirteen
Aunt Mary Entrapped
Aunt Mary’s arrival in the city just coincided with the arrival of that day’s five o’clock. Five o’clock in early June is very bright daylight, therefore she was rather bewildered when the train pulled up in the darkness and electricity of the station’s confusion. The change from sunlight to smoke blinded her somewhat and the view from the car window did not restore her equanimity. When the porter, to whom she had been discreetly recommended by Joshua, came for her bags, she felt woefully distressed and not at all like her usual self.
“Oh, do I have to get out?” she said. “I ain’t been in this place for twenty-five years, and I was to be met.”
The porter’s grin hovered comfortingly over her head.
“You can stay here jus’ ’s long as you like, ma’am,” he yelled, in the voice of a train dispatcher. “I’ll send your friends in when they inquiahs.”
Aunt Mary eyed him gratefully, and gave him the nickel which she had been carefully holding in her hand for the last hour.
Then she looked up, and saw Jack!