“This is not my first acquaintance with the Armours,” said Vivienne evasively.
“Ah, you were once here as a little child; but you don’t remember much about them, do you?”
“I remember Mammy Juniper,” said Vivienne, with a laugh, “and that she hated me and my father’s memory. I see that she still keeps up her old-womanish habit of prowling about the house at night.”
“Yes,” said Judy peevishly; “and if we forget to lock our doors we find her praying over us at unearthly hours.”
“She has been a faithful servant to the family, hasn’t she?” said Vivienne.
“And she has a diabolical temper,” said Judy.
“Don’t you think that she is crazy?”
“A little perhaps, though I think that she pretends to be more so to cover her inconsistencies. She belongs to the Armours, body and soul, and prides herself on being a model Christian. I say the two things don’t go together. The Armours haven’t been famed for devotion to the cause of religion for some years.”
“She talks about Ephraim,” said Vivienne; “who is he?”
“Ephraim is Uncle Colonel,” said Judy, with a chuckle. “Did she mention his having made a covenant with the Egyptians?”