“Nothin’ else—except— Well, I was wonderin’ if you’d thought over what I said to you last night about—” She finished the sentence with a wink and a jerk of the head in the direction of the dining room, where Ellen was clearing the table. At that moment the second maid departed to the kitchen with a double handful of dishes and Nabby seized the opportunity to come close to the easy-chair.
“She never got home from that Odd Fellers’ ball till one o’clock this mornin’,” Nabby announced, in an indignant whisper. “Quarter past one ’twas when she come up the back stairs. Any self-respectin’ Christian is sound asleep at that ungodly time of night, and thinks I—”
“Wait a minute. How did you know it was quarter past one?”
“Because I looked at my alarm clock and see ’twas, that’s how. And I woke up Varunas and he see it, too.”
“Humph! I always thought you were a Christian, Nabby.”
“Eh? Well, I am. Anyhow I hope I am. Who said I wasn’t?”
“You just told me that every self-respecting Christian was asleep at that hour.... Oh, never mind! Did Varunas behave like a Christian when you woke him up?”
Mrs. Gifford’s face expressed horrified consternation. “My soul!” she exclaimed. “Don’t tell me you could hear what he said away off in the front of the house, Cap’n Foster!”
“All right, Nabby. You leave Ellen to me. If I decide to take your advice and keep only one girl I’ll let you know. If I don’t we’ll go on as we are. And I may have a surprise for you pretty soon, anyway. Where’s Varunas now?”
“Out in the barn, I suppose. He’s there from mornin’ till night. Yes, and when it’s neither mornin’ nor night, too. That’s another thing, Cap’n Foster. That man of mine has been gettin’ up at four o’clock for the last two, three mornin’s, and he won’t tell me what he’s doin’ it for, neither. I asked him this very mornin’—five minutes of four by the clock, ’twas—and all he done was look foolish and laugh. ‘Early to rise makes you healthy and wealthy and wise,’ he says. ‘Ain’t you never heard that, Nabby?’ I told him, says I, ‘Humph!’ I says, ‘maybe I have heard it, but I never heard anybody call you wealthy; and as for bein’ wise!’”