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Caldwell always made coffee in the kitchen for breakfast in the morning, and while she was so engaged, Harriet, busy making toast, would begin "Did you 'ear a noise last night, m'em?" "No, Harriet at least was it about ten o'clock?" "Yes, m'em, just about a sort of scraping rattling noise, like a lot of people walking over gravel." "I did hear something of the kind. I wonder what it was," Mrs.
He asked me for a passport, which was sheer bluff, so I asked him in turn for his own authority. He smiled and produced a rubber stamp, saying that if I wished to visit Beirut or Aleppo I must get a vise from him. "Je m'em been garderai!" I answered. "I'm going to see my aunt at Damascus." "And this lady? Is she your wife?" I laughed aloud couldn't help it.
"How often am I to tell you not to stand at the door, letting in the cold air, Kitty?" she snapped. "And how'd I sweep the steps, m'em, if you plase, when I'm not to stand at the door?" But Mrs. Caldwell was reading the letter, and again her countenance cleared. "Papa wants us to go to him as soon as ever we can get ready!" was her joyful exclamation. "And, oh, they've had such snow!
As she spoke, however, Kitty came in with the expected letter in her hand, and Mrs. Caldwell's countenance cleared: "I thought the postman had passed," she exclaimed. "No, m'em," Kitty rejoined. "I was standin' at the door, an' he gave me the letter." Mrs. Caldwell had opened it by this time, but it was very short.
"I believe you are a Jesuit, sent here to corrupt my children. But go you shall to-morrow morning." "Oh, I'll go, m'em," Kitty answered quietly. She knew the case was hopeless. "There, now," said Mrs. Caldwell, turning to her husband. "Do you see? That shows you! She doesn't care a bit."
"What a stolid face she has!" she remarked presently by way of breaking an awkward pause. Beth wondered what "stolid" meant, and who "she" was. "She doesn't look well," papa observed. "She's jest had the life shook out of her, sir," Kitty put in. "Kitty, how dare you?" Mrs. Caldwell began. "It's to the journey I'm alludin' now, m'em," Kitty explained with dignity.
Beat me as long as you can stand over me if you like, but I'll only pray the harder." "For God's sake, m'em," Kitty cried, clasping her hands, "let that child alone. Shure she's a sweet lamb if you'd give her a chance. But ye put the divil into her wid yer shakin' an' yer batin', and mischief'll come of it sooner or later, mark my words." When Kitty had gone, Mrs.
"Well, m'em, I am an ignorant woman that can hardly read and write," Kitty answered with dignity; "but I could tell you some things ye'll not find out in all yer books, and may be they'd surprise ye." "Kitty, ye'll not go and leave me," Beth repeated passionately. "Troth, an' I'd stay for your sake if I could," said Kitty, "fur it's a bad time I'm afraid ye'll be havin' once I'm gone."
"Indeed, m'em," she said, "I'm thinkin' Master Jim's too sharp to be in the nursery wid his sisters now." "Nonsense, Kitty," Mrs. Caldwell exclaimed. "How can you be so evil-minded? Master Jim's only a child a baby of ten!" "Och, thin, me'm, it's an ould-fashioned baby he is," said Kitty; "and I'm thinkin' it's a bit of a screen or a curtain I'd like for dressin' behind if he's to be wid us."
Caldwell would rejoin. "Well, m'em, I think it means there are people coming to the 'ouse, for I remember it 'appened the night before your brother come, m'em, unexpected, and the lawyer." If nobody came during the day, the token would be supposed to refer to some future period; and so, by degrees, signs and portents took the place of more substantial interests in Mrs. Caldwell's dreary life.
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