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"Why did you keep me from going in the company-room? Why did you bring me in here?" Blossom senior was staggered for a moment. "Because, you know, the count " "And you were afraid the count should know I had a sweetheart? Well, I'll go in and tell him now," she said, marching toward the door.
I've thought it all over and made the reasonablest plan I know how to. I'm going to begin to-morrow to-morrow is Tuesday, my father's day." It was cold in the company-room, and any moment Marie might come and take her away. She was always a little pressed for time. "I must be going," she said, "or Marie will come. Good-bye. Give my love to the baby."
The Child was eight. The confidant, oddly, was a picture in the silent, awe-inspiring company-room. It represented a lady with a beautiful face, and a baby in her arms. The Child had never heard it called a Madonna, but it was because of that picture that she was never afraid in the company-room.
Her heart beat strangely fast as she did it. She had still a lurking fear that it might not be polite. On the way back she hurried into the company-room, up to the Lady. "I've done it!" she reported, breathlessly. "I hope it was polite oh, I hope he will!" The Child's father ate his lunch silently and a little hastily, as if to get it over.
Mistress Thankful, after a pause, opened the door, and listened. Then she softly slipped down the back staircase to the front hall. It was dark; but the door of the "company-room," or parlor, was faintly indicated by the light that streamed beneath it. She stood still for a moment hesitatingly, when suddenly a hand grasped her own, and half led, half dragged her, into the sitting-room opposite.
Mrs. Drake had not heard a word of her brother's rambling comment, and there was a decidedly expectant intonation in her voice. "Nobody's usin' the company-room, an' the presidin' elder won't be here till fall. Mr. Mostyn never was a bit of trouble and seemed to love everything I set before him. But I reckon we needn't feel so flattered. He's coming here so he'll be near Mr.
Miss Thankful was only awakened from her daydream by the entrance of the negro farm-hand, Caesar. "Fo' God, Missy Thankful, them sogers is g'wine into camp in the road, I reckon, for they's jest makin' theysevs free afo' the house, and they's an officer in the company-room with his spurs cocked on the table, readin' a book."
She stopped talking and thought a minute in her serious little way. She was considering whether to say the next thing or not. Even to the Lady she had never said why-things about her father and mother. If the Lady knew and she had lived so long in the company-room, it seemed as if she must, then there was no need of explaining.
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