“I shall be very glad; I have been wishing that you would.”
“Oh, I’ll come. I have a whole budget to tell you.”
“Sue, you look thin,” said Miss Jewett, rolling up her purchases.
“I am thin. Since the night before New Years I have lost three pounds.”
The night before New Years! Tessa’s veil shaded her face falling between her and Sue.
“Mr. Ralph lectured me; oh, how he talked! When he will, he will, that’s the truth. His mother says that her will is nothing compared to his, and I believe it.” Sue’s face grew troubled. “He told me that I ought to read travels and histories, and throw away novels; that I ought to marry Stacey, if he is a good man and can take care of me—” Her voice sounded as if she were crying; she laughed instead and ran off.
“Something at Old Place has hurt Sue; I didn’t like the idea of Mrs. Towne taking her up; Mr. Towne—I do not know about him! Do you?”
“No.”
“Ah, here comes Sarah! Rachel has a sore throat, and Mary has gone to the city to buy to-day. Light the gas, Sarah.”
The light flashed over the faces: Miss Jewett’s almost as fair as a child’s, and sweeter than any child’s that Tessa had ever seen, with a mouth in the lines of which her whole history was written, with just a suspicion of dimples in the tinted cheeks, with brown rings of soft hair touching the smooth forehead; the younger face was hurried, anxious, with a trembling of the lips, and a nervous gleam in the eyes that were so dark, to-night, that they might have been mistaken for hazel.