“So they should, Mrs. Green,” Eva replied politely.
“Your duties,” Mrs. Green continued, “will be to look after Miss Susetta’s room, and to mend her clothes, and to ride out with her when I am not able to go. I hope that you speak English right. I don’t want no one who talks ignorant associatin’ with my daughter, and me a-paying out a lot of money for a tutor to come down from the city to teach her.”
“I will try to speak correctly,” Eva said, feeling as though she was taking a part in a play, everything seemed so unreal and unnatural.
“When you are dressed, you may come to my room, which is at the front of the second-floor hall.” So saying Mrs. Green, elephantine in her loose rose-colored house-dress, walked away, and Eva actually laughed to herself as she made the change. Being able to see the humorous side of a thing saves many a needless heartache.
Half an hour later she rapped lightly on a closed door on the second-floor front and was bidden to enter.
Susetta was there, and she jumped up, crying joyfully, “Oh, Eva, I’m so glad you have come! How I have wanted a girl of my own age to—”
But she got no farther, for her mother, with a frown, said reprovingly, “Susetta, didn’t I tell you never to speak familiar, like that, to—er—the helpers?” Then, turning to Eva, she said, “Yonder is some mending in a basket. You may begin on that.”
Eva sat in a low rocker by a side-window and began to mend the muslin garments. She liked to sew, and she dearly loved lacy things, so she was rather enjoying her task. Susetta pouted, but obediently returned to her seat at the front window. Picking up her book, she tried to read, but, not being interested, she often looked listlessly down on the park-like grounds. Suddenly she gave an exclamation of pleasure. “Oh, ma! ma! Do look!” she cried excitedly. “There’s the banker’s daughter, and the Doring girl in her pony-cart. They’re coming to call on me.”
Mrs. Green peered out between the curtains as she replied, “I told you they’d come fast enough when they found out how rich we are. I’m glad it’s that Doring girl. Her folks belong to one of the oldest families around, and her grandpa owned ’most all of the land in the town. Those two girls are just the ones that I want you to know.”
There came a rap on the door, and a maid entered and announced, “Miss Doring and Miss Drexel to call upon Miss Eva Dearman.”