CHAPTER X
AS HANDY MAN
The chauffeur was informed that there were no orders for the car the following morning, as “Miss Parrett was suffering from neuralgia in her face,” and also—though this was not mentioned in the bulletin—a sharp pain in her temper.
Aurea, an early visitor, radiating gaiety, was on this occasion unaccompanied by Mackenzie. Mackenzie, aged six years, was the village tyrant and dictator. He also had been accustomed to consider himself a dog of two houses—the Rectory and the Red Cottage; and when the Red Cottage had moved to the Manor, and installed an animal of low degree as its pet, he was naturally filled with wrath and resentment, and on two opportunities the intruder had narrowly escaped with many deep bites, and his life!
Aurea found her Aunt Bella trotting about the premises and passages, with the knitted hood over her head, and key-basket in hand.
“Not going out to-day!” she exclaimed; “but it’s lovely, Aunt Bella. The air is so deliciously soft—it would do you no end of good.”
“My dear Aurea,” she piped, “I know you don’t allow any one in Ottinge to call their soul their own, and I must ask you to leave me my body, and to be the best judge of my ailments—and state of health.”
“Oh, I beg your pardon, Aunt Bella; I meant no harm. Well, then, if you are not going to use the car yourself, perhaps Susan and I could take it over to Westmere? The Woolcocks have a large house-party, and Joey and her husband are there.”
Miss Parrett closed her eyes tightly—a sure hoisting of the storm cone—and screwed up her little old face till it resembled an over-ripe cream cheese.
“Really, Aurea! I don’t know what the world is coming to! How dare you propose such a thing! Take out my car for the first time without me! But, of course, I know I’m only a cipher in my own house!”—an almost hourly complaint.
“But do think of the chauffeur, Aunt Bella; is he to have nothing to do?” Here this crafty girl touched a sensitive nerve—a responsive key.