"But, Miss Sybil, or ratherwise Mrs. Berners, if I must be so ceremonious with my own nurse-child, what has that to do with what you've been a-asking of me to buy?"
"Nothing at all," answered Sybil, half-provoked and half-amused at the dullness of the old housekeeper. "Nothing whatever. But you must go out and buy everything that is required for the wardrobe of a young child; and you must find out what is necessary, for I myself haven't the slightest idea of what that is."
The housekeeper looked at the lady for a moment, in questioning doubt and fear, and then, as the truth slowly penetrated her mind, she broke forth suddenly with:
"Oh, my good gracious! Miss Sybil, honey! you don't mean it, do you?"
"Yes, I do, Tabby; and I thank heaven every day for the coming blessing," said the young wife, fervently.
"But oh, Miss Sybil, in such a place as this—There I go again!" exclaimed the housekeeper, breaking off in a panic, and then adding, "I an't fit to come to see you; no that I an't. I'm always a forgetting, especially when you talk so sensible!"
"What's the matter with you Tabby? Are you crazy? you never thought I was going to stay here for such an event, did you? In a public resort like this? Tabby, I'm shocked at you! No! I shall be home at Black Hall to receive the little stranger, Tabby," said Sybil, making the longest and most connected speech she had made since her reason had become impaired.
"Ah, Lord! ah, my Lord!" cried the old woman, on the verge of hysterics again.
"Now, Tabby, don't begin to whimper! You whimper over everything though, I know. You whimpered when I was born, and when I was christened, and when I was married; and now you whimper when I am going to be crowned with the crown of maternity. Oh, you old rebel!" cried Sybil, contradicting all her sarcastic words by caressing her old friend.
"No, I don't mean to! but if you knowed! Oh! if you knowed!" exclaimed Miss Tabby, suppressing and swallowing her sobs.