“I might wash them, mightn’t I, and put on a pair of cuffs, and a fresh tie? I won’t change my blouse, of course; but he is a man, and wouldn’t notice what I’d done—only perhaps that I looked a little bit nicer!”
Nan nodded silently, a lump rising in her throat at the sight of the wistful face. She was the only one of the sisters who had been told the secret of Maud’s heart, and the bond between these two girls was very strong and tender. She watched Maud until she disappeared from sight, with her lips screwed tightly together, and her eyebrows meeting in an ominous frown across her forehead. She felt very fierce and formidable at that moment, and it was a positive relief to be able to vent some of her pent-up irritation in work, so for the next ten minutes she dragged and tugged at the piled-up furniture, making order out of confusion, and carrying the lighter drawing-room articles into the hall, in readiness to be put into their proper places. Then Maud reappeared, smartened up by those subtle touches which every woman knows how to bestow, and no man is able to understand, though the result is patent to his eyes; and after a second consultation on the subject of dinner, a return was made to the drawing-room, to see how the carpet-laying was progressing. Ned Talbot was still on his knees, but now he was fastening instead of unfastening the rings, while Lilias was exhibiting a cup full of sharp, jagged little nails. The dreaded task was almost accomplished, and that in less time than would have been possible with the united efforts of the feminine household.
“Done already?” cried the new-comers; and Agatha shook her mane with a melancholy air.
“It’s s–imply wondrous! He just pulls, and the thing meets as easy as winking. It doesn’t seem a bit difficult. And to think how we almost killed ourselves! It’s humiliating!”
“Don’t feel it so at all. If I am beaten at carpet-laying all my life, I’ll never repine. It’s a woman’s duty to do nice things, and pleasant things, and pretty things, and leave the men to do the hard bits,” said Elsie, standing on one leg to relieve the pain which had come from long kneeling, and looking with melancholy significance at her thin little arms. “Look at those compared to his! Nature never intended me—”
Ned fastened the last hook, and straightened his back with a sigh of satisfaction.
“Done! That’s all right. I’m glad I came in time, for it’s stiffish work. I am staying in town for a few days, and thought I would chance it this afternoon, and run down to see you for a few hours.”
He looked at Maud as he spoke, and she hesitated uncertainly, thinking once again of her mother’s absence, the disordered rooms, the prescribed contents of the larder.
“It was very good of you, and we are very pleased. Will you—er—will you be able to stop and dine?”
“Thank you very much. Your sister has already asked me. If it wouldn’t be giving you too much trouble.”