Pina looked distressed; and raising and rolling her apron and casting down her eyes, she ventured to say:
“Beg pardon, ma’am, but won’t you please be coaxed to let Brother Leo stay in the house to take care of us instead of the horses to-night?”
“By no means, Pina. Say no more about it, my good girl,” answered the little matron, firmly.
The girl looked up at her mistress to see if she was really in earnest, and then burst into tears and sobbed forth the broken words:
“Well, ma’am, if you won’t let Brother Leo stay in here to take care of the house an’ us, plea—plea—please let me go long of him to the stable; becau—cau—cause I should die of fright to stay here with nobody but you, ma’am, please.”
Drusilla looked at the maid in surprise and displeasure for a minute, and then her beautiful benevolence got the ascendancy over every other emotion, and she answered:
“You poor, timid girl, go if you wish.”
“And you won’t be ang—ang—angry long of me, ma’am, I hope?” inquired Pina, half ashamed of herself.
“No more than I should be angry with a hare for running away. It is your nature, as it is the hare’s, to be cowardly.”
“Well, then, ma’am, as Brother Leo is a waiting to know what he is to do, I may go now, mayn’t I?”