‘Be quiet, Miriam! Young man, you will keep a civil—‘ Then her eyes popped up real round. ‘ Who did you say…’
‘Lone said so.’
‘Lone.’ She stood there on the stairs looking at her hands. Then she said, ‘Miriam, that will be all.’ And you wouldn’t know it was the same woman, the way she said it.
The maid opened her mouth, but Miss Kew stuck out a finger that might as well of had a rifle-sight on the end of it. The maid beat it.
‘Hey,’ I said, ‘here’s your broom.’ I was just going to throw it, but Miss Kew got to me and took it out of my hand.
‘In there,’ she said.
She made me go ahead of her into a room as big as our swimming hole. It had books all over and leather on top of the tables, with gold flowers drawn into the corners.
She pointed to a chair. ‘Sit there. No, wait a moment.’ She went to the fireplace and got a newspaper out of a box and brought it over and unfolded it on the seat of the chair. ‘Now sit down.’
I sat on the paper and she dragged up another chair, but didn’t put no paper on it.
‘What is it? Where is Lone?’