“Ain’ I done told yo’ long time ergo dat some day niggers gwine fer ter hol’ open de do’ fo’ yo’ stid of yo’ fo’ dem?”
Mammy had never forgotten or forgiven the experience of her first visit to Elijah Sniffins’ office, and she was settling an old score. Then, turning to Katherine, she asked:
“Wha yo’ gwine spen’ de nex’ few days, honey? I would’n aim fer ter go home ef I was yo’.”
“I shall stay with a friend here in South Riveredge. I believe Lige would half kill me if I went home, he’s so awful mad.”
“Dat’s right, yo’ keep ’way f’om dat man.”
“Yes, it is wiser, Miss Sniffins. Don’t worry, all will come out right in the end; he has just lost his head—that’s all. Now mind what I say, both of you: Not one word of all this anywhere else. I wouldn’t have all this folly come to that little girl’s ears for all I’m worth. It’s almost incredible that anyone could act like such a fool. Paugh! it makes me ill. I feel as though some loathsome beast had drawn near that little girl of ours,” and with a quick “good-day” Mr. Porter turned and strode from the office, out through the Arch and into the main corridor, where the janitor and Terry stood quietly talking together. They glanced up as he drew near.
“Oh, Donnely,” he said to the janitor, “just take a look at that faucet in Arch Number One, will you? It’s leaking a little; and Terry, if you’ll come up to my office with me you can get those papers now as well as any time.” A word, a smile to those in the other Arches, and not a thought was given by anyone to what might have been a very unpleasant episode in Constance Carruth’s career.
[CHAPTER XVII—Cupid in Spectacles.]
If Constance had any suspicion that a most unusual scene had taken place in Arch Number One, she gave no sign of it.
Within a few days after that occurrence Mr. Porter ’phoned down to her counter one morning, and asked her if she could come up to his office before she returned to her home, giving as a reason his wish to talk over some plans he had in mind for the Arch. She went up immediately, and as simply as possible he told her of Katherine Sniffins’ unfortunate deception, her reason for taking the position under an assumed name, and her distress and remorse for having practiced such a deceit. He did his best to spare Katherine and to convince Constance that her only reason for such deceit had been her eagerness to secure the position, and her fear that she could not do so if Constance knew her to be Elijah Sniffins’ sister.