“I think so,” said the girl; “I’m not quite sure.”
She looked frightened again, and Dorothy pursued the inquiry no further, saying:—
“Oh, we won’t bother about that. Evelyn Byrd is name enough for anybody to bear, and it is thoroughly Virginian. Here comes your breakfast”—as Dick knocked at the door with a tray which Mammy took from his hands and herself brought to the bed in which the girl had been placed after her bath. “We won’t bother about anything now. Just take your breakfast, and then try to sleep a little. You must be utterly worn out.”
The girl looked at her wistfully, but said nothing. She ate sparingly, but apparently with the relish of one who is faint for want of food, the which led Dorothy to say:—
“It was just like a man to send you on here without giving you something to eat.”
“You are very good to me.” That was all the girl said in reply.
When she had rested, Dorothy sitting sewing in the meanwhile, the girl turned to her hostess and asked:—
“Might I put on my clothes again, now?”
“Why, certainly. Now that you are rested, you are to do whatever you wish.”
“Am I? I was never allowed to do anything I wished before this time—at least not often.”