“Oh! ever so much better than t’other one! I ain’t afraid of hurting anything here!”
“And you can make yourself quite comfortable?”
“Oh, yes, awful comfortable, honey.”
“Your trunks will be here very soon,” said Lilith, as, still acting in her rôle of lady’s maid to the visitor, she hung up Aunt Sophie’s bonnet, shawl and hand-bag in the maple-wood wardrobe.
Then she sat down to “keep company” with the old lady until her boxes should arrive to give her some employment.
“I hope you will tell the baroness that I ralely didn’t expect this! I ralely didn’t mean to intrude. I only come this morning with the sinner to call and pay my respects to the baroness and see you, honey, and then go back to the Hotel of Love. I never would have presumed to come and set down on you all without an invitation,” said Aunt Sophie, in a soft, slow, deprecating tone.
Lilith went and kissed her gently before replying:
“You did not come without an invitation, and a very pressing one. You cannot doubt how pleased Madame Von Bruyin is to see you, or how happy I am to have you here.”
“I know you are all awful good to me. I know that,” said Aunt Sophie.
A little later on her trunk arrived and was brought up into her room, and Aunt Sophie made the best of her limited wardrobe to dress for dinner.