“Yes, indeed,” answered Lilith, “we have loads of them.”
“Oh!” was the reply, in a tone that seemed to add, “Where are they, pray?”
Polly ventured again into Benedicta’s domain. “If you are going to make cookies for tea, as you spoke of,” she said, “suppose you have cocoanut cookies. Marietta has heard of yours, and says she enjoys cocoanut very much.”
“I ain’t goin’ to make cookies this afternoon.”
Polly greeted Benedicta’s glance with a little puzzled smile.
“I s’pose I may as well tell you an’ done with it,” the housekeeper began, her face flooded with crimson. “I clean forgot the sugar.”
“Oh,” said Polly regretfully, “that’s too bad! Perhaps I might drive down pretty soon, I don’t know—”
“I do’ want yer to,” Benedicta answered decisively. “I’ll borrow some at Young Ben’s.”
Polly went away thinking hard. What had occurred to make Benedicta forget one of the most important purchases—Benedicta who rarely forgot anything? And was it only pride that caused her to try to hide it? But for Marietta Polly would have dwelt longer upon the housekeeper’s singular behavior. The visitor gave her hostess plenty of food for thought, and that not of the pleasantest kind.
“I never would have believed that you could be satisfied with this dead existence,” Marietta remarked with emphasis, as the girls sat together on the bank of the brook that ran back of the house.