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"You're a jolly good chap and no mistake! But the old man would have been pleased, I reckon?" Will grinned. "You bet he would! I could twist him round my finger but for you, Aunt Saidie says." "It will be all the same in the end, though. The whole thing will come to you some day." "Oh, yes. Maria got her share, and Wyndham has made ducks and drakes of it."
When he had gone into his sitting-room and closed the door behind him, Miss Saidie nodded smilingly, as she measured out the servant's sugar in a cracked saucer. "He's brighter than I've seen him for days," she said; "and now, if you want to go upstairs, Malindy has jest lighted your fire. She had to carry the wood up while we were at supper, so Brother Bill wouldn't see it.
He stooped over her, and on her lips pressed those kisses so long refused, uncared for by one woman, so priceless to this one, and almost lifted Saidie from the chair. She laughed the sweet low laughter of the Oriental woman, and went with him eagerly towards the verandah, and out into the compound where the roses slept in the warm silver light. For two days nothing happened.
Hamilton came up, and helped to balance her as she stood. "Your Saidie pleases me very much," he said, drawing out a pocket-book. "I want to take her away from here altogether. How much do you ask for her?" The old woman's beady-black eyes twinkled and gleamed, and fixed on the pocket-book. "It is not possible, Sahib," she said in a grumbling tone, "for me to part with her and her services.
English wives think it foolish to obey their husbands." He laughed sardonically, and Saidie looked bewildered and horrified. A month later, a long, lean woman sat in a deck chair on board an Indian liner as it crossed the enchanted waters of the Indian Ocean. Enchanted, for surely it is some magician's touch that makes these waters such a rich and glorious blue!
"Still if you care for him, dear " "I don't know I don't know," said Maria, speaking in the effort to straighten her disordered thoughts rather than for the enlightenment of Miss Saidie. "I was sure I loved him before I came home but this place upsets me so I hate it. It makes me feel raw, crude, unlike myself.
"Why do you look at me like that? I am better. I know I am better. I thought I feared I was going to die; if I had there was no one to care but Saidie." "Do you not think what it would mean to me?" The words broke from him against his will. "To you, Jack! then you care still!" "Care!" He drew his hand away and walked over to the window.
"Why, Aunt Saidie, what queer, coarse china! What's become of the white-and-gold set I used to like?" A purple flush mounted, slowly to Miss Saidie's forehead. "I was afraid it would chip, so I packed it away," she explained. "Me and Brother Bill ain't used to any better than this, so we don't notice. Things will have to be mighty fine now, I reckon, since you've got back.
If he finds out that it goes to you, heaven help us!" "And there's not the faintest hope of his coming to his senses? Have you spoken of me again?" "I've mentioned your name twice, that was all. He rose and stamped out of the room, and didn't speak for days. Aunt Saidie and I have planned to bring the baby over when it comes. That may soften him especially if it should be a boy."
I thought for a moment you were a ghost, you looked so dead white in that long, black dress." "Oh, I'm flesh and blood, never fear," Maria assured her. "Much more flesh and blood, too, than I was when I went away but I've made you spill all your preserves. What a shame!" Miss Saidie glanced down a little nervously.
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