CHAPTER XXX.
HOW ROSSIE BORE THE NEWS.
She did not bear it well at all, although she was in some degree prepared for it by the card which Axie brought her.
“Mrs. J. E. Forrest,—Mrs. J. E. Forrest,” she repeated as she examined the card, while something undefinable, like the shadow of coming evil, began to stir her heart. “Who can she be, and where did she come from? You say she has a maid?”
“Yes, or suffin’ like dat,—a quar-lookin’ woman, who has a lame hand. I noticed the way she slung the lady’s satchel over it, and it hung slimpsey like.”
“How does the lady look, and what did she say? Tell me everything,” Rosamond said; and Axie, who began to have a suspicion that the lady was not altogether welcome, replied:
“She done squabble fust thing wid the driver, who ax more for fetchin’ and liftin’ her four big trunks, an’ she hold up her gown and walk as ef the groun’ wasn’t good enough for her, an’ she looked round de room kind o’ sniffin’ like, wid her nose turned up a bit as she axed me was thar no fire. But my, she be very hansom’ and no mistake. All in black, with such nice skin and pretty eyes, wid dem great long lashes, like Miss Beatrice.”
Rossie could deny herself everything, but she was never indifferent to the comfort of others, and though she could not help feeling that this woman, who called herself Mrs. J. E. Forrest, would in some way work her harm, she could understand just how cold and cheerless the house must seem to her on that rainy day; and she ordered Axie to build fires in both the rooms below, as well as in the chamber where Everard occasionally spent a night, and which was the only guest-room she kept in order. There was also a consultation on the important subject of dinner, and then Rossie was left alone for a few moments to puzzle her brain as to who this woman could be, and wonder why her heart should feel so like lead, and her pulse beat so rapidly. She did not have long to wait for a solution of the mystery before Mrs. Markham came in, showing at once that she was agitated and distressed.
“What is it, Mrs. Markham? Is she any relation to Mr. Everard?” Rossie asked eagerly.
It would be wrong to keep her in suspense a moment longer than was necessary, and going up to her, Mrs. Markham replied: