"Mollie is very shrewd, with all her sweetness," she muttered, with a frown; "she can hold her own anywhere, and we have all made a grand mistake."
CHAPTER XIII.
AN ASTONISHING DISCOVERY.
"Waal, squire, I reckon everything is done now to the turn of the key. I've packed a dozen shirts, and, if I do say it, no Chang Wang could have put a better shine on 'em than I've given 'em. There's two dozen pocket-handkerchiefs, as white as snow; collars and cuffs to last a month, if you're careful; and everything else all in shipshape. Now I'll have lunch for you in about ten minutes, and that'll give you plenty of time to catch the train."
So spoke Maria Kimberly, as she stood in the doorway leading from the kitchen into the dining-room, where Squire Talford was sitting at his desk filling out some checks to settle his monthly bills. He was on the point of starting for Washington, whither he was going on business connected with some patents in which he had recently become interested, and which would keep him away from home for about six weeks or two months.
"All right, Maria. I'm about through; but what are you going to do with yourself while I'm gone?" the man responded, but without looking up from his employment.
"Oh, I'll take good care o' things, and I'll find enough to do, never you fear," said the woman, with a peculiar glitter in her eyes. "I ain't cleaned house yet; I've put it off, waitin' for you to git away, so's I could have full swing. I'll see that Pat and the boy don't do no loafin'; and you needn't give yourself a mite of oneasiness—things'll go on just as straight if you was goin' to be here yourself."
The squire knew this without being told, for Maria was an excellent manager, an efficient housekeeper, and, barring the fact that she had a sharp tongue, and was rather more independent than was sometimes quite agreeable, no one could have suited him better as a superintendent of affairs, both on the farm and in the house.
She had been in his family for many years, and having been thoroughly trained by his wife in every department of domestic life and economy, while being honest and faithful as the day is long in the performance of every duty, she was entirely competent to assume the management as she had done upon Mrs. Talford's death, and everything had gone on like clockwork from that day.
Squire Talford had never manifested any desire to marry again. Maria asserted that he was "too tight" to be willing to increase his expenses in any such way; for, although he always wanted the nicest of everything for himself, he used to grumble over the expense of clothing his wife.