“Eva has a brave, noble nature, and I am sure that she will cheerfully make the best of things, and, Della, two weeks will quickly pass, and after that we will do all that we can to make up for the unhappy year that Eva has had.”
However, before the fortnight was over, something very unexpected happened.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
SOMETHING UNEXPECTED
The days dragged slowly by for both Eva and Adele. Mrs. Green had been so angry because the daughters of the two best families in town had called upon her servant instead of upon her daughter, that she tried ever after to humiliate the girl, as though in some way it had been her fault.
Once only did Adele catch sight of Eva, and that was when the orphan was sitting beside Susetta in a handsome carriage, which was being slowly driven down the main street of the village. Susetta was elaborately dressed in a ruffled pale-blue silk, which was partly covered with a mantle of fluffy white furs. Her pale-blue hat was also fur-trimmed. Eva Dearman, by contrast, was dressed like a maid, in black, with white cap and apron. This was the first time that the orphan had been publicly humiliated, and her face looked very white as Adele passed on her pony.
“Good morning, Eva,” Adele called. A faint smile was the only reply that she received, but Susetta tossed her head angrily. She was imbibing more of her mother’s spirit every day.
Adele, who had intended to call upon Amanda at the orphanage, was so indignant at Eva’s public humiliation that she whirled her pony around and galloped home as fast as Firefly could go. She found her mother in the sewing-room. “Oh, mumsie!” she sobbed as she threw her arms about Mrs. Doring. “I can’t stand it! I won’t stand it!”
“Can’t stand what, pet?” her mother asked, as she smoothed the girl’s hair.
Then Adele told what she had seen, and she added, “Eva’s family was just as good as ours, or anybody’s, and she is so sensitive. I could tell by her white face that she was suffering cruelly, but she held her head high, and, oh, mumsie, for all the difference in clothes, any one could tell that Eva was the real lady.”
“Of course, dear,” Mrs. Doring replied. “It is not the work that we do nor the clothes that we wear, but just what we are, that makes us gentlewomen. But do not grieve so, Adele. Just think, in four days we shall have Eva here with us, and after that we will do all that we can to make her happy.”