“But really it’s very warm to-day,” Dorothea consoled her. “You’ll be cooler in the house than outdoors. I’m so hot that I’m going upstairs to put on a cooler dress.”
This was all true enough, and her walk to the village had brought a bright flush to her cheeks, but she had another motive in going upstairs. She found Lucy ready to help her and her first words to the girl showed her intention.
“Pull down the curtain, Lucy,” she said, “there’s such a glare.”
The girl did as she was ordered, but not without a grumbling protest.
“Does you-all want all the shades down, Miss Dee?” she asked. “It’s monstrous unlucky. Looks lak some one was dade.”
“No, just the end one will do,” Dorothea answered. “I’ve been walking in the sun and I think a half-light will be pleasanter, don’t you?”
“Yes’m,” Lucy agreed, “but yoh ain’t got no call to be runnin’ out in the sun that a-way. Little ladies like you is, should be takin’ their ease and havin’ Lucy fannin’ ’em with a pa’m leaf when it’s so hot. ’Deed, it would sure be a good thing foh that imp Itty what takes care o’ Miss Harry to have some wo’k. They says ole Satan always finds some mischief foh idle hands, an’ I reckon it’s the same with tongues. That Itty certainly done talk like she ain’t got nothin’ else to do, ’ceptin’ ’t is slanderin’ folks.”
“What’s the matter with Itty?” asked Dorothea, knowing the question was expected of her, though in reality her thoughts were on Lee Hendon and she was wondering if he would be able to see her signal.
“She’s been braggin’ it over me ’cause she claims to be bohn a house-servant,” Lucy went on as she busied herself with Dorothea’s toilet. “An’ she say you-all ain’t real quality Confedrit like we-all is, so that it ain’t nothin’ ’t all to take care o’ yoh.”
“Well, you just tell her,” Dorothea answered, laughing, “that my father’s cousin is a real live lord in England and see what she says to that.” She chuckled to herself as she thought how little Itty would be impressed if she could see the red-faced, hard-riding old aristocrat in his mud-stained pink. But she guessed that this would give Lucy the weapon she needed to use among her fellow-workers in the quarter, and Lucy’s delighted exclamations of wonder at the information confirmed this view.