“Things are going on well,” said Juliana to herself. That very week she complained to Luiza that the clothing put away in her trunk was being attacked by moths. Everything was getting spoiled. If she had money herself she would not trouble the mistress. Finally she declared one morning that she needed a bureau.
Luiza grew hot with anger, and lifting her eyes from her work,—
“You mean a low bureau?” she said.
“If it is all the same to the senhora, I should like one full size,” returned Juliana.
“But you have very little clothing,” said Luiza, who was beginning to grow weary of her humiliating position, and was determined to resist these increasing exactions.
“That is true, Senhora,” replied Juliana; “but I intend to supply the deficiency now.”
The bureau was bought in secret, and introduced into the house surreptitiously. What a happy day for Juliana! She was never tired of inhaling the aroma of the new wood as she passed her trembling hand caressingly over the varnish. She lined the drawers with tissue-paper, and set herself to work at once to supply the deficiencies in her wardrobe. The weeks that followed were bitter ones for Luiza. Juliana entered her room every morning, full of compliments, and began to set things in order. Suddenly she would say in a complaining voice,—
“I am so badly off for under-clothing! If the senhora could help me a little.”
Luiza opened her overflowing drawers, and proceeded to set aside the oldest articles they contained. She had a great affection for her under-garments; she had them by the dozen, beautifully marked, with little perfume-bags lying among them. It grieved her to give any of them away. Juliana came at last to demand them as her right. She would simply say of some article, “How pretty! The senhora does not want this, does she?”
“Take it,” Luiza would say, smiling through pride, that it might not seem as if she were acting under compulsion.