CHAPTER XVI
OF THE FIRST AND SECOND PERSONS, SINGULAR NUMBER
It was Saturday morning, and Hermione was making a pie and looking uncommonly handsome about it and altogether feminine and adorable; at least, so Ravenslee thought, as he watched her bending above the pastry board, her round, white arms bared to each dimpled elbow, and the rebellious curl wantoning at her temple as usual.
"But why kidneys, my dear?" demanded Mrs. Trapes, glancing up from the potatoes she was peeling. "Kidneys is rose again; kidneys is always risin', it seems to me. If you must have pie, why not good, plain beefsteak? It's jest as fillin' an' cheaper, my dear—so why an' wherefore kidneys?"
"Arthur likes them, and he'll be hungry when he comes in—"
"Hungry," snorted Mrs. Trapes, "that b'y's been hungry ever since he drawed the breath o' life. How's he gettin' on with his new job?"
"Oh, splendidly!" cried Hermione, flushing with sisterly pride, "they've promised him a raise next month."
"What, already?" exclaimed Mrs. Trapes, cutting viciously into a potato. "If he don't watch out, they'll be makin' him a partner next."
"Oh, Ann, I wish you were not quite so—so hard on him!" sighed Hermione. "Remember, he's only a boy!"
"You were a woman at his age, earning enough t' keep ye both—but there! I don't mean t' be hard, Hermy; anyway, a man's never much good till he's growed up, and then only because some woman teaches him how t' be."