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John Bradford turned to the little crowd. "We'll go to see the Fat Lady," he said to Miss Theodosia; "I'll take the kiddies, while you sit down somewhere and rest. "Sit down somewhere? Haven't I been sitting down somewhere? Don't you suppose I want to see the Fat Lady, too?" laughed Miss Theodosia. Fat ladies appealed to her invitingly, in this remarkable mood of hers Miss Theodosia's circus mood.
But she halted at the foot of the steps. "This is Stefana," she introduced politely. "Stefana, you ain't goin' to? You look 'xactly as if you was. Mercy gracious!" "Yes," Stefana returned gravely, "I am. Now, you go. Remember the soup!" Miss Theodosia's interested gaze left the retreating little figure and came back to Stefana and Elly Precious.
She was noticing something else besides the little old-lady back. Evangeline's braids toed in! Tight and flaxen, they stood out in rounded curves, converging suddenly to the bit of faded ribbon that tied them together. There was something suspicious looking about that ribbon "Stefana starched it!" smiled Miss Theodosia's thought. The small figure whirled face about.
A hint on the matter was quite sufficient for my dear mother, although I do not think that she had yet any idea that I was minded to give her a daughter-in-law. Theodosia's parents had certainly no faintest idea that anything more than ordinary friendship existed between me and their daughter, or, if they had had such, she would certainly have never been allowed to accept my mother's invitation.
Nekhludoff had never heard a detailed account of this affair, and so he listened with interest. When he came up, the story had reached the point when the attempt to poison was already an accomplished fact, and the family had discovered that it was Theodosia's doing. "It's about my troubles that I'm talking," said Taras, addressing Nekhludoff with cordial friendliness.
When in the society of a single friend, if an accidental reference was made to the event, the manly tear would be seen slowly stealing down his furrowed cheek, until, as if awakening from a slumber, he would suddenly check those emotions of the heart, and all would again become subdued, calm, dignified. During this autumn Theodosia's health continued to be precarious.
It's too late not to see him doin' it; I don't know what to do." With swift, light steps Miss Theodosia was down beside her. John Bradford with one step was there. Evangeline looked shamefacedly up into their two kind faces. "I'm sorry," she whispered. For answer, John Bradford took one of Miss Theodosia's hands and laid it on hers. He held out one of his own.
When in the society of a single friend, if an accidental reference was made to the event, the manly tear would be seen slowly stealing down his furrowed cheek, until, as if awakening from a slumber, he would suddenly check those emotions of the heart, and all would again become subdued, calm, dignified. During this autumn Theodosia's health continued to be precarious.
"Funny Stefana! she goes to my heart, she and her starch when they're asleep!" But, awake, Stefana's starch went to Miss Theodosia's back and aching bones. It was three o'clock when she was ready to go to bed. Over chairs and the couch in her sitting-room, lay the three redeemed white dresses, soft again and very smoochless and smooth. Miss Theodosia stood and admired.
The last utterance was Miss Theodosia Baxter's. She was a woman of few words at all times where few sufficed. One sufficed now. The child on her front porch, with a still childlier child on the small area of her knees, was not a creature of few words, but now extreme surprise limited speech. She was stricken with brevity, stricken is the word to match Miss Theodosia's.
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