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Then she went down-stairs and there was a strange, exalted look upon her sweet face. "Unavella," she cried softly, "I have found the sunlight, for I can say 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." "Oh, Miss Di-an!" wailed Unavella, "I b'lieve you're goin' ter die an' be an angul afore the moon changes!"
She knew if she did not, Unavella would be worried, and she possessed that peculiar regard for the feelings of others which would not allow her to consider her own.
When her work was finished she came back to the porch where Miss Diana was sitting very still in the moonlight. "Miss Di-an!" she exclaimed impetuously, "don't you go fer to be thinkin' of sellin'! I've got a plan that beats the li-yar's all holler, ef he duz wear a wig." "Sit down, Unavella," said her mistress kindly, "and tell me what it is."
Unavella had spread her supper in the porch. She ate but little, however. "I am sorry I cannot do more justice to your skill, Unavella," she said with her gentle courtesy, "but I do not seem to feel hungry lately." "It's that li-yar!" muttered Unavella grimly, as she cleared the things away. "I never knowed a li-yar yit that didn't scare all the appetite away from a body."
Unavella's eyes twinkled through her gloom. "I guess Tummas ain't got much use for dictionners," she said. "He uses words that cums nearest to his feelin's. He's lost two hundred dollars, Tummas hez." "Dear me! How very grieved I am. But a dictionary, Unavella, is the basis of all education. Thomas ought to appreciate that.
I never dared to hope that my poor little Dick would have such an education as this home will be to him, but I feel sure you will learn to like Dick True." Miss Diana held out her hand, with a smile. "I think I shall like you as well as Dick," she said. Weeks and months flew past and the household at 'The Willows' was a very happy one. Unavella was in great glee over the success of her scheme.
"Gentlemen boarders!" echoed Miss Diana in bewilderment. "Yes. You catch 'em, an' I'll cook'em. We'll begin with two ter see how they eat, an ef we find it don't cost too much ter fatten 'em up, we'll go inter the bizness reglar;" after making which cannibalistic proposition Unavella looked to her mistress for approval.
Then she went out to interview Thomas, the butcher's boy, who came three times a week with supplies. "The sweet-breads hez cum, Miss Di-an," she said, appearing in the porch before her mistress. "Well, Unavella," said Miss Diana, with a pleasant smile, "you expected them, did you not? We ordered them, you know. They are very nutritious, I think." "Hum!
"You, you angul!" exclaimed Unavella, as soon as she had regained the privacy of her kitchen, while a briny crystal of genuine affection rolled down her cheek and splashed unceremoniously into the gravy. Up-stairs in her pretty chamber Miss Diana sat and thought. Ruin and starvation. Was that what it meant? She had seen the words in print often but they seemed different now.
She lifted her hand with a deprecating gesture as Unavella was about to burst forth with a stormy denial. "Not yet, please, Unavella; not just yet. Let me have time to think a little before you say anything. I feel rather shaken. The news was so very unexpected, you see," she said with a shadowy smile, which Unavella averred "cut her heart clean in two."
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