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"I know that. But that doesn't answer me. Why did she go?" "Keziah hadn't been to the parsonage sence that day when you was fust took sick, and I expect likely she felt that she'd ought to " "Please, Mrs. Higgins, tell me the truth. I'm not asking about Mrs. Coffin. Didn't Miss Van Horne tell you her reason for leaving?" "No, she didn't." "But you know the reason? You're keeping something from me.
She said this because she could not see how the information had travelled. "How is she?" old Phoebe repeated. And something in her voice said: "Answer straight!" At least, so Keziah thought, and replied: "The worser by the bad shake she's had, I lay." Neither made any reference to Mrs. Prichard's newly discovered identity.
Keziah gave a quick glance at the face of her stern aunt, who loved not this sort of slipping away during times of ceremony; but she had her back to them and to the door, and was engrossed in the talk as well as in the stocking fabric upon her needles. Jemima and Walter were still talking unrebuked in a low key.
And Keziah, left alone, had decided that the rent and living expenses were more than her precarious earnings as a seamstress would warrant, and, having bargained with the furniture dealer in Wellmouth for the sale of her household effects, was now busy getting them ready for the morrow, when the dealer's wagon was to call.
"Only, mother," exclaimed Keziah, "he spent too much of his time with that sharp-tongued little Jenny Walters." "Never mind, Kezi," said Dab: "she didn't know who I was till I told her. I'm going to wear a label with my name on it when I go over to the village to-morrow." "And then you'll put on your other suit in the morning," said Mrs. Kinzer.
He didn't seem overjoyed to see Miss Van Horne, as it was. In fact, he reddened perceptibly and backed toward the door. The girl, her eyes twinkling, took up her jacket and hat. "Oh! I'm not going to stop, Mr. Pepper," she said. "I was only helping Aunt Keziah a little, that's all. I must run on now." "Run on nonsense!" declared Keziah decisively.
I am sure such a good man deserves one," added Mrs. Mason. The ladies thought the old woman doting, led thereto by the remark of Keziah, the maid, that Mrs. Mason have a lost her memory. And she asked who the other bonny lady was, and Ethel told her that Mrs. Pendennis was a friend of the Colonel's and Clive's. "Oh, Clive's friend! Well, she was a pretty lady, and he was a dear pretty boy.
But old Phoebe had cried out loud enough to be heard by Keziah, speaking with John Costrell out in front, and it was quite audible in the room she had just left. That was easy to understand. But it was less so that old Maisie should have risen unassisted from the bed where she had lain since morning, and followed her. "Oh, Phoebe, Phoebe darling, do not say that!
And ever and anon, half a dozen times it might be, of an afternoon, Aunt Keziah took a certain bottle from a private receptacle of hers, and also a teacup, and likewise a little, old-fashioned silver teaspoon, with which she measured three teaspoonfuls of some spirituous liquor into the teacup, half filled the cup with the hot decoction, drank it off, gave a grunt of content, and for the space of half an hour appeared to find life tolerable.
Jemima and Keziah never dreamed of disputing their aunt's will; but Cherry pouted and complained that it was hard to work all day without even the dinner hour as a relief.
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