“Enough, enough, Aunt Joanna!” repeated Sebastião, growing impatient.
“Good gracious! no one is going to eat the child!” responded Aunt Joanna.
Luiza forced a smile. Suddenly she remembered that she had no one to send with the message to Donna Felicidade, of to Jorge at the hotel.
Sebastião took her to his study to write her notes, saying he would send them. He chose the paper for her, and dipped the pen in the ink, more solicitous for her now, and more attentive to her, than before he had known of her misfortune. Luiza wrote the note to Jorge; and as, notwithstanding her anxieties, she recalled to mind a certain low-necked gown of Donna Felicidade, she added in a postscript to her note to that lady: “It is best to dress in black, and not to wear too conspicuous a toilet. No low necks or light-colored gowns.”
As she approached her own house she saw a young man coming out of it, carrying Joanna’s bundle. She heard the husky voice of the latter, saying in menacing accents,—
“Touch it with but a finger and you shall not escape out of my hands alive, you hog!”
“Get out of the house! get out of the house!” retorted Juliana, at the head of the stairs. “It would be better for you to go and throw yourself into the river than lay a hand on me!”
Luiza listened, biting her lips in silence. Her house converted into a tavern!
“Let me ever catch you!” growled Joanna, going down the steps.
“Leave the house, you hog!” replied Juliana.