Mr. Clark was smilingly eager. “All right, Reliance,” he agreed. “Yes, yes, just as you say, of course. You have had your dinner already, have you?”
“I have, all I want. I’m not hungry to-day.”
“Ain’t you? Well, now that’s too bad. I am afraid you have been workin’ too hard. Say, why don’t you go and lay down a spell? Never mind about me. I can get along without eatin’. I’ll stay here and attend to everything and you just—”
“Sshh! Go in and eat your dinner. And hurry up about it. I want you here when the mail comes. You understand that? All right. Then go.”
Millard went. He was back before the arrival of the mail.
“That was as good a meal as ever I ate,” he announced, with enthusiasm. “You certainly are a fine cook, Reliance. I washed up the dishes myself. Course you didn’t tell me to, but I knew you was tired and I wanted to help you out.”
“Yes? Humph! Well, I am tired. I heard enough from you last night to make me tired the rest of my life. Here is the mail wagon. Now let me see you work. See you—not hear you.”
When the mail was distributed she again shut him in the little room and went out to join Miss Makepeace in the shop. At three she came in and superintended the preparation of the outgoing mail sacks. Then once more the door of his cell closed and he was left in solitary confinement.
Abbie went home at three-thirty. Reliance sewed briskly on her gown. She was thankful for the work, for it helped to keep her mind as well as her fingers occupied. She had had a distressful night, a hard, trying morning, and her recent interviews with Esther, at the mansion and in her own home, left her anxious and apprehensive. The girl’s manner was most disturbing. Reliance had expected tears, recriminations—against Millard and Foster Townsend—hysterical outbursts, almost anything except the silent, stony, callousness with which her disclosures had been received. Esther, after her first expressions of astonishment at the mention of Carrie Campton’s name, had listened intently, asked questions occasionally, but had neither wept nor exclaimed. She had accompanied her aunt to the cottage and remained there during dinner. She ate almost nothing and Reliance had eaten little more.
“But what are you goin’ to do. Esther?” pleaded Reliance as they parted at the gate. “What are you goin’ to say to your Uncle Foster?”