CHAPTER V.
Thatis, for one brief, ridiculous moment she so believed. Then, with a blush at her own credulity, Aunt Ruth speedily hurried out of doors and laid her energetic mortal hand upon the specter’s shoulder.
“Paula! Paula Pickel! What in the name of common-sense is thee doing?”
But, as it was something rather in the nature of uncommon-sense, Paula did not immediately answer.
A second, more vigorous shake awoke the young somnambulist, though to a dazed and unsatisfactory condition which was as puzzling to Aunt Ruth as the whole episode was. But the girl gradually came to herself, and her first exclamation cleared the ghostly mystery.
“Dear me! Have I been walking in my sleep again?”
“I should say thee had,” retorted the aunt, feeling very decidedly provoked at having so many people disturbed. “Thee has frightened Grandmother Capers half to death with thy uncanny dancing. Come now, at once, and show her who and what thee is. Then, maybe, the old lady can get a bit of rest. Between thee and Melville it will be little enough at the most.”
Paula resented her aunt’s tone and manner: she acknowledged no authority except her own will, and, occasionally, that of her Uncle Fritz.
“You have no right to speak like that to me—none whatever. Besides, I am not going to meet a stranger in this dishabille. I am sorry that I walked in my sleep, but I am not to blame for it.”
The young girl drew herself stiffly away from the firm touch which still held her shoulder, and with an air of offended dignity started to re-enter the house.
Ruth released her clasp, suffering Paula to follow her own inclination; but a keen perception of the ludicrous was so thoroughly awakened that the aunt could not restrain a hearty laugh.Truth was, Ruth Kinsolving was little more than a girl, herself; a wholesome-natured if high-spirited one, and, as mother Amy too well knew, but ill-fitted to rule over a houseful of young folks, like these whom Providence had brought to her door. Doubtless, being blessed with excellent sense, she would find a way for herself out of the puzzle; and a way which would retain her own self-respect while still commanding theirs. But as yet she had not even thought about this way, nor of anything but the immediate needs of her great family.
Paula turned, in a fury; forgetting instantly her determination to show these American relatives what a great lady she was, and becoming the actual reality,—a very quickly offended, untrained girl.
“I do not see occasion for laughter in my misfortune, Aunt Ruth; and I wish that Uncle Fritz had never brought us here. You may as well learn in the beginning that I never wished to come and that I shall go away as soon as possible.”
A sharp retort formed itself in Ruth Kinsolving’s mind, but rested there unspoken.
“I was not laughing at thee, dear little Paula, but at the absurdity of thy attempted dignity, clad just as thee is. It is high time we were both indoors, and thinking less about ourselves and more about our neighbors. Come.”
Aunt Ruth slipped her arm, covered only by its cambric sleeve, about the waist of her niece, and would have guided her affectionally back to her chamber.
But Paula would not. She had been a trifle touched by the soft tone in which this new aunt had said “dear little Paula,” but she was slower to forget resentment than to feel it. So she hurried forward alone, and made her way to the room where Christina was sleeping, in the refreshing rest which follows a simple supper and bedtime thoughts of sweet good-will.
Ruth went to Grandmother Capers, and found the old lady greatly shaken by the shock she had received. Surprising as it was, Margaret Capers persistently refused to accept Ruth’s plain and natural explanation of the affair, and reiteratedher belief that she had really seen a spirit, whose visitation was intended as a warning of direful things to come.
From his room adjoining, Melville heard the discussion and terminated it in his own fashion: “Go to bed, grandma, and keep still! If, at your age, you want to be a fool, be one, and not bother other folks about it! As for you, Aunt Ruth, I wish you would get me a drink of fresh water out of the well, and take yourself off out of the way. I hate this night rowing! If you don’t get back to that side of the house pretty soon, some of the rest of your imps will be breaking loose! I’ll make grandmother get out of this!”
“Thee will, in a sense thee little understands, ungrateful boy!” replied his long-suffering aunt, after she had drawn and brought the water. “And I will ask thy permission to give thee a bedtime thought. If there are any ‘imps’ under this roof this night, they are locked up in thy own selfish heart. If thee is really a Kinsolving, see to it that thee treats that poor old woman in yonder with common decency. One of these nights thee will order her and she willnot obey.” And with that for a good-night, the much tried young house-mistress took herself off.
Melville was sufficiently nervous to find sleep impossible for weary hours to come; and it is probable that the self-indulgent lad had never done a greater amount of thinking in a like space of time.
“Aunt Ruth has a way of saying things which cut; but they generally cut in the right place when she says them to other people! Did she mean it? Am I an ‘imp,’ myself? I suppose I don’t speak very respectfully to grandma, sometimes; but she is such a silly thing that she tries me awfully. And everybody knows I am an incurable invalid. It’s a pity I can’t talk as I please, when I am doomed to lie here like a log! I’d be a saint if I had that little imp Fritz’s legs and fists! How he did use them, though! And I couldn’t but admire the young monkey, in spite of my anger, he did so make me think of one of Abraham’s bantam roosters. Well, maybe some of the Pickels will be relishable; and if they are, I’ll try not to scare them away by crossness.”
From which soliloquy of Melville’s it will be seen that while the would-be reformers had all gone to bed in the truly missionary spirit, the sinner to be reconstructed was doing his own best to make his stubborn clay pliable to their touch. Also, that his threat of “getting out of this” was a threat merely, and not to be taken seriously.