“You are very kind indeed, sir, but I never have done such a thing in my life, though I must say that I have rather envied people when I saw them starting off on such an expedition.”
“Of course you have envied them, and you shall do so no longer. You shall go and know the joys they have known. As for the dairy, Sam will look after that. If necessary he can have one of my men to help him. You are pleased, I hope, Miss Zillah?”
Miss Zillah turned her faded, quiet eyes on him, and smiled slowly.
“Mr. Carson,” she said “all my life I have slept properly under a roof. I have done my duty as I saw it to do. I have conducted myself, I hope, in a ladylike and discreet manner, but—” she hesitated.
“But what, madam?”
“But from childhood I have longed to cook my meal in a pot over a camp fire and to sleep under the pines.”
Everybody laughed.
“What’s more,” went on Miss Zillah, showing the shadow of a dimple in her withered cheek, “I feel that I would love to run about in a short skirt and tie a turban about my head.”
“Delightful! Delightful,” declared Mr. Carson. “We’ll go by the middle of this week.”
“But Mr. Carson, ought we?” Miss Adnah broke in. “The—the expense—”