"Her own were just danger signals. But she'll do as she is. Now, I've told my servants you're old friends of mine, and that you'll be here till to-morrow morning. You had better not go out. A day's rest and a long night's sleep won't hurt either of you;" and with that she hurried away.
"Isn't she a dear old soul? She's been mothering me up there, as if she couldn't do enough for me, and ransacked every nook and cranny to fish out these things."
"She's a very shrewd old party, too."
"And are you proud of your wife, or sister, whichever I'm going to be?"
"Which would you prefer?"
"Don't be silly. Don't you think this is ripping? And she's been drilling me about how to behave. I think she's wonderful."
"What sort of drilling was it?"
"No end of things. How to eat; what to do; how to walk; always to have my knitting in hand; not to talk to strangers, especially women; one or two phrases I was to use; how to carry my market basket; a regular rehearsal of everything, and we're to have another this evening. Look at my hands;" and she held them out.
"I saw your nails when you put the tray on the table."
"Yes, but look how she's managed to make them coarse. We scrubbed them all over with bath brick and then rubbed in the dirt. They're smarting, as if they were chapped. And look at my hair, plastered right down on my head. Did you ever see such a fright as I am? And then this bunchy business on my hips;" and she laughed as she looked at herself in the glass.