Miss Bates shook her head sorrowfully. “It’s awful to see how those children act without their mama,” she said. “I don’t like to complain, Barbara, but Cecilia’s conduct to me is almost beyond parallel! An’ Charles called me a real naughty name yesterday, when I took his toy reins off of my gate-posts.”
“I’m sorry,” said Barbara, mechanically, putting some peas in with the pods. “I’ll speak to Charles—”
She was interrupted by the voice of one who called with authority, “Barbara, ain’t them peas done? It’s time to put them on.”
Barbara excused herself, and carried in the dish. When she returned, with flaming cheeks, Miss Bates was watching for her with open curiosity.
“I heard you quarreling about the potatoes,” she said. “They say you’re completely changed now, an’ that you haven’t the say about anything any more, since that Englishwoman came; but I didn’t believe it until I heard you give up about havin’ the potatoes mashed.”
They had forgotten the presence of David, who had been reading in a corner of the porch all morning.
“You always have your say about everything, don’t you?” he inquired dreamily. “I wonder how you know so many things people say. Barbara never does.”
“I must go,” said Miss Bates, rising abruptly. “Barbara, since things are all took off your hands, why don’t you spend some time teaching them children manners?”
Barbara ate her appetizing dinner in almost complete silence. The comfort of sitting down to a well-set table and of staying there throughout the meal, without rising half a hundred times for forgotten articles, had no power to soothe her injured feelings. So all Auburn was talking about her, and calling her incompetent, and imposed upon by a woman who was only a kitchen “help”! It was intolerable, and she would endure it no longer. She would take the initiative, and once for all convince Mrs. Harris of the necessity of subordination.
After dinner, Barbara wiped the dishes, a task which Mrs. Harris exacted on ironing-day. Her resentful silence was lost entirely on the Duchess, whose good-humor was almost startlingly displayed in conversation.