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Updated: June 12, 2025
He would hide his valise under the seat of the sleigh, and Zeena would suspect nothing till she went upstairs for her afternoon nap and found a letter on the bed... His impulses were still near the surface, and he sprang up, re-lit the lantern, and sat down at the table. He rummaged in the drawer for a sheet of paper, found one, and began to write.
She's your relation." "She's a pauper that's hung onto us all after her father'd done his best to ruin us. I've kep' her here a whole year: it's somebody else's turn now." As the shrill words shot out Ethan heard a tap on the door, which he had drawn shut when he turned back from the threshold. "Ethan Zeena!" Mattie's voice sounded gaily from the landing, "do you know what time it is?
The cat, profiting by this unusual demonstration, tried to effect an unnoticed retreat, and in doing so backed into the pickle-dish, which fell to the floor with a crash. Mattie, in an instant, had sprung from her chair and was down on her knees by the fragments. "Oh, Ethan, Ethan it's all to pieces! What will Zeena say?" But this time his courage was up.
Mattie came forward, unwinding her wraps, the colour of the cherry scarf in her fresh lips and cheeks. "I'm so sorry, Zeena! Isn't there anything I can do?" "No; there's nothing." Zeena turned away from her. "You might 'a' shook off that snow outside," she said to her husband.
He had foreseen an immediate demand for money, but not a permanent drain on his scant resources. He no longer believed what Zeena had told him of the supposed seriousness of her state: he saw in her expedition to Bettsbridge only a plot hatched between herself and her Pierce relations to foist on him the cost of a servant; and for the moment wrath predominated.
"Well, Zeena," he ventured from the threshold. She did not move, and he continued: "Supper's about ready. Ain't you coming?" She replied: "I don't feel as if I could touch a morsel." It was the consecrated formula, and he expected it to be followed, as usual, by her rising and going down to supper.
"Well, I'd like to talk to you about it," said Zeena obstinately. He was getting into his clothes in fumbling haste. "All right. But I haven't got the time now; I'm late as it is," he returned, holding his old silver turnip-watch to the candle.
Mattie suddenly drew her arms out of the steaming water. "It wasn't Ethan's fault, Zeena! The cat did break the dish; but I got it down from the china-closet, and I'm the one to blame for its getting broken." Zeena stood beside the ruin of her treasure, stiffening into a stony image of resentment, "You got down my pickle-dish-what for?" A bright flush flew to Mattie's cheeks.
If he gave the farm and mill to Zeena what would be left him to start his own life with? Once in the West he was sure of picking up work he would not have feared to try his chance alone. But with Mattie depending on him the case was different. And what of Zeena's fate?
Ethan tried to say something befitting the occasion, but there was only one thought in his mind: the fact that, for the first time since Mattie had come to live with them, Zeena was to be away for a night. He wondered if the girl were thinking of it too....
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