"They won't get here till long after dark, then."
"No.—Here, jest put a couple more on each arm, will you?"
I accommodated him, and we went into the living-room. Jamie looked rather glum. Sometimes, I know, he feels as if he had no place in all this preparation.
"Now, Jamie, let me plan—" I began, but he interrupted me:
"Maîtresse femme," he muttered; then he smiled on me, but I paid no heed.
"You sit at the library table; Cale will bring in the books and pile them round it; you will sort them according to subject, and I will put them on the shelves."
"Go ahead, I 'm ready."
To help us, we pressed Angélique and Marie into service. In a little while we had five hundred books piled about the table. These were as many as Mrs. Macleod and I could handle for the evening, so we dismissed the others.
It was pleasant work, filling the empty shelves; moreover, I was in my element. It was good to see books about again; I owed so much to them.
"This is what the room needed," I said, placing the last of the historical works on a lower shelf.