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Updated: May 1, 2025
Now what would you like for your supper?" "My! Is it supper-time? Oh, bring me anything good. You know what I like." "There's a girl in the kitchen the one that's staying with Mrs. Hamilton. She wanted I should come up to see how you are, and she says she'll come to see you just as soon as you want her." "Oh, ask her to come now, Melina, please. I feel quite well enough to see her."
"Oh, Melina, if you could only make up your mind to take that money," said Charlotte at last, getting up and trying hard to keep back the persistent tears. "I do want that poor boy to have his bed right away. I think I could stop crying if you only would." Melina's thin lips tightened. "Well," she said at last, grudgingly, "I'll take it and call it a loan.
"If father was only home he could fix it ail right, but I'm afraid mother hasn't five dollars she could spare just now," said Charlotte doubtfully. "If she had I wouldn't take it," answered Melina, whose business principles were founded on a rock. "Your father paid me up to yesterday, and it ain't time for me to have any more."
He was not moving; he was sitting there in the dark, trying to gather together his scattered wits, his mind stumbling over incomplete ideas, just as his feet stumbled along. Once more he asked: "Who was it, Melina? Tell me who it was. I won't hurt you!" He waited, no voice was raised in the darkness. He was now reasoning with himself out loud. "I'm drunk, all right! I'm drunk!
He was not moving; he was sitting there in the dark, trying to gather together his scattered wits, his mind stumbling over incomplete ideas, just as his feet stumbled along. Once more he asked: "Who was it, Melina? Tell me who it was. I won't hurt you!" He waited, no voice was raised in the darkness. He was now reasoning with himself out loud. "I'm drunk, all right! I'm drunk!
Ruth looked so reproachful that Charlotte found it harder than she had anticipated. "You see," she explained, "Melina wants to send something off to her nephew in Maine, and if she doesn't start it to-day it won't get there for Christmas." "Bother Melina's nephew! I'd set my heart on having you with me to-day, and you know why." Charlotte did know why, and much to her own sorrow.
"You be a brave Buckra," said she, in her gibbering English. "You come wid Melina, and Melina take you to pretty lady, who want you to eat supper wid her." Thereupon, and allowing our hero no opportunity to decline this extraordinary invitation, even had he been of a mind to do so, she took him by the hand and led him toward the large and imposing house which commanded the garden.
Then she remembered how Ruth had won her over. "But, Melina, it's a favor to me. You've always been doing me favors, I know, but you might do just this one more." Melina shook her head. "It's no use," she began, and then stopped aghast, for Charlotte, the self-controlled, the hater of tears, startled Melina and fell forever in her own estimation by bursting into sobs.
Slowly he got on his knees. A blind fury was gaining possession of him, mingling with the fumes of alcohol. He continued: "Tell me who it was, Melina, or you'll get a licking I warn you!" He was now standing, trembling with a wild fury, as though the alcohol had set his blood on fire.
Melina was now in hopes to get established with his company in a thriving town at some distance. To get there it was necessary to take a considerable journey by unfrequented roads. Accordingly, conveyances were hired, and a start was made.
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