CHAPTER IVAunt Betty
CHAPTER IVAunt Betty
Thenext day there was no sign of Adele, though from time to time Jessie looked up from her play to see if her new friend by chance might be coming along the path on the other side of the brook. Sam had delivered the little girl’s belongings at the yellow house, and had been told that none of the family were up. Later Jessie’s clothes were returned with a note of thanks. So Playmate Polly had it all her own way that day, and Peter Pan was provided with more moss hangings as well as a new ornament in the shape of a bright pink pebble for his grotto. Jessie had told her mother all that she had learned about Adele and had received some information in return. Miss Betty Hallett, Adele’s aunt, was a delicate woman, and Adele herself was not strong, so the doctor had declared they would both be better in the country, and as Mr. Hallett had removed his business from the south to the middle states he had discovered in the yellowhouse by the brook, just the place which he thought would suit his sister and his little daughter. It was not so far from the city where he had his office but that he could come home frequently to spend Sunday, and it was in a healthful region as well as a very attractive one.
“So now,” Mrs. Loomis told Jessie, “I must call on Miss Hallett at once, for we are her nearest neighbors and I am sure she must be lonely.”
They set off, therefore, one afternoon, in the little phaeton which Mrs. Loomis always drove herself, and soon they drew up before the yellow house and were ushered into a room filled with stately old furniture and sombre portraits. “I don’t think it is as cozy as our house,” whispered Jessie.
“Hush, dear,” returned Mrs. Loomis. “It is far handsomer, and probably after a while it will look more cheerful. You see everything is not settled.”
At this moment Miss Hallett entered and Jessie shrank back against her mother, surprise and something like horror in her eyes, for she saw a tiny little woman with deep dark eyes, a mournful mouth and rather a large head set down betweenher shoulders. Jessie had never come in contact with a hunchback before and she gripped her mother’s hand hard. Mrs. Loomis gave her fingers a gentle pressure before she rose to meet Miss Hallett whose sudden smile lighted up her sallow face. “I hope we are not coming to you before you are ready to receive a call,” said Mrs. Loomis. “We are your nearest neighbors, Miss Hallett, and I hope you will believe that we want to be true ones.”
“I am so glad to see you,” returned Miss Hallett. “This dull day has given me an attack of the blues, and you could not have chosen a better time for coming. I have been wanting an opportunity to thank you for your kindness to Adele, but we have been so busy, it seemed impossible for me to find time to go anywhere. Adele has talked of nothing else but you and your little girl since her rather awkward tumble. I am afraid she gave you a great deal of trouble.”
“Not a bit of it,” returned Mrs. Loomis. “I only hope she didn’t take cold.”
“No, she did not, thanks to your prompt measures. She is an impulsive, headstrong little creature, and I am at loss sometimes just howto manage her. Fortunately my friend Miss Laurent has consented to come to us, and with her coöperation I hope we shall do great things for Adele. I wanted to have the house all in order before Miss Laurent should come, and it has been such a task.”
Jessie wished very much that Miss Hallett would send for Adele instead of talking about her, and presently was relieved when a tall mulatto woman was summoned. “Go tell Miss Adele that she is to come in, Angeline,” said Miss Hallett. “Or,” she turned to Mrs. Loomis, “perhaps your little girl would rather go out to Adele. She is in the summer-house. My brother has had it enclosed with glass, and Adele rather likes to play there. Would you rather go to Adele?” she asked Jessie.
There was no doubt in Jessie’s mind that she would very much prefer this, and in another moment she was following Angeline through the hall to a side door and down a broad walk to the summer-house.
“Young lady to see you, honey baby,” said Angeline putting her head in the door.
Adele, who was busy over something in onecorner, turned suddenly and caught sight of Jessie standing on the sill. She darted forward, and flung her arms around her visitor, kissing her first on one cheek and then on the other. “I am so glad you have come,” she cried. “I thought you never would. You may go, Angeline.” She turned to the tall maid who drew down her mouth and disappeared leaving the little girls alone.
“I thought of course you would come over yesterday, to the play place, you know,” returned Jessie.
Adele dropped her eyes and appeared to be looking attentively at her toes. “I couldn’t,” she said presently.
“Why not?”
“She wouldn’t let me.”
“What she?”
“Aunt Betty. She’s horrid like that sometimes and is just as mean as she can be.”
“Is that because she isn’t—she isn’t just like other people?” asked Jessie hesitatingly. She could readily understand that a person who looked like Miss Hallett might have reason to be disagreeable.
Adele looked at her fixedly for a moment, then to Jessie’s great discomfiture she burst into tears. “She isn’t! She isn’t! She isn’t!” she repeated. “She is just like other people and she is dear and good and lovely. You shan’t say she is not.”
Jessie was bewildered. “I didn’t mean—I didn’t mean——” she began helplessly.
“It was I who was horrid,” Adele went on. “It was all my doing. I got mad and screamed and fought Angeline and wouldn’t eat my supper because I couldn’t have coffee and lots, lots, lots of sugar in it, and so Aunt Betty said I shouldn’t go to see you till she said I might. She isn’t horrid at all, and you shan’t say she is. She is perfectly beautiful.”
“It wasn’tIwho said she was horrid, you know,” said Jessie with an emphasis on theI.
“Well, I don’t care. You thought so.” Adele wiped her eyes and stood thoughtfully picking off the dead leaves from a potted geranium on a shelf near by. Jessie was silent. She hardly knew whether to go or stay.
Presently Adele turned around with the sweetest of smiles. “Let’s play,” she said.“I’ll show you all my dolls. Why didn’t you bring Charity or Peter Pan with you?”
“I will next time,” said Jessie, relieved at the turn of affairs, but wondering what kind of girl Adele really was.
“Come,” cried Adele, grasping Jessie’s hand. “The dolls are all up in the playroom. I was making medicine for them just now. They have ague, every blessed one of them, and they are shaking their heads off, at least one of them is,” she added with a laugh. “I’ll show you which one it is.” She pulled Jessie along the boardwalk and up-stairs to a pleasant upper room where six dolls were abed, most of them staring smilingly at the ceiling, though two of them had their eyes shut. Adele picked up one of them and showed a very wobbly head which seemed in danger of soon departing from its body. “This is the shakiest one,” she said, “and she’ll have to have a double dose of medicine. Indeed, I don’t know but that she will have to go to a hospital. That is my newest one.” She pointed to a very fresh and smiling flaxen-haired beauty.
“What is her name?” asked Jessie.
“She hasn’t any in particular. I never name my dolls.”
“Oh, don’t you?” This seemed as incredible to Jessie as if she had been told that a family of children had been left unnamed. “I don’t see how you get along if you don’t name them,” she said.
“Oh, I scarcely ever play with more than one at a time, and then I can always call that one dolly or honey or something,” was the reply.
“I should think you would have to name them,” persisted Jessie. “When you are talking about them what do you say?”
“I hardly ever do talk about them. When I do it is to Aunt Betty, and then I say the new doll, or the doll with the brown hair, or something of that kind. Don’t let’s play with dolls. I bet you can’t catch me before I get downstairs.” And while Jessie was recovering herself Adele was off and away down the stairs at the foot of which she stood laughing as Jessie descended more slowly. “I think I shall ask Angeline for some cakes,” she said. “Come along into the kitchen. I suppose that cross old Roxy wouldn’t give us any, but I can coax Angelineinto anything. Angeline! Angeline!” she called imperiously, “come here.”
Angeline appeared at the entry door. “I want some cakes,” said Adele, “some for Jessie and me. We’re hungry.”
“Dey ain’ no mo’ cakes, honey,” said Angeline. “Yo done eat ’em all up.”
“Then make some right away, or tell Roxy she’s got to do it.”
“Roxy she done gone to de sto’.”
“Oh, bother! You go along and make some, and be quick about it, too,” ordered Adele.
“Law, honey chile, how long yuh spec’ it tek to mek up de fiah an’ bake cake? Yuh foolish, chile. I done got some sweet ertaters in de ashes,” she hastened to say as she saw Adele’s face puckering up for a cry. “I tell yuh what, honey; I git yuh two nice bowls o’ milk an’ nice sweet ertaters an’ yuh kin tek ’em out in de summah-house an’ eat ’em.”
“I suppose that will have to do,” said Adele with resignation. “Do you like sweet potatoes and milk?” she asked Jessie.
“I never ate any. At least, of course I haveeaten sweet potatoes often enough and I drink milk, but I never ate them together.”
“They are mighty good together,” Adele assured her. “Bring ’em along, Angeline, to the summer-house, and don’t you be forever about it either.” And Adele stalked off with Jessie in her wake.
“She’s very good-natured, isn’t she?” remarked Jessie when they had reached the summer-house.
“Who? Angeline? Oh, so so.”
“I wouldn’t dare to talk to Minerva that way,” said Jessie after a pause.
“You wouldn’t? I don’t see why. I always talk as I please to Angeline. She nursed my mother and she nursed me, and she doesn’t care what I say to her. Besides, I am her mistress.” Adele held her head high, and Jessie looked at her admiringly.
“Well,” she said, “I suppose that must make a difference; Minerva was never nurse to my mother.”
The two bowls of milk and warm sweet potatoes soon appeared and though Jessie did not care very much for the combination, she ate part of her share fearing she might seem rude if shedid not. She was glad, however, that she did not have to finish, and that a message from her mother obliged her to return to the house.
“We must go now, dear,” said Mrs. Loomis. “We have made a long call.” She smiled at Adele as the two little girls came in.
“Oh, no, you mustn’t go,” spoke up Adele. “At least, you might let Jessie stay. Won’t you, please?”
“Not to-day,” said Mrs. Loomis gently. “Your aunt has been kind enough to promise that we may have you to-morrow to spend the day, so I think Jessie and I will have to say good-bye now.”
“Oh, am I going for the whole day?” exclaimed Adele delightedly, catching her aunt’s hand and pressing her cheek against it as was her way of doing. “Is Angeline going to take me, or can I go alone? I know the way.”
“You may go over alone,” Miss Betty told her. “But I will send Angeline for you.”
Remembering Adele’s outburst earlier in the afternoon, Jessie steeled herself to move closer to Miss Hallett and to say, “I’m glad you will let Adele come. I haven’t any little girls to play with, you see.”
“Oh, yes, you have,” put in Adele with mischief in her eyes; “you have Playmate Polly, you know.”
Mrs. Loomis looked down with a puzzled expression. “Who in the world is Playmate Polly?” she asked. “I never heard of her.”
“She is a horrid creature,” said Adele laughing. “She has scraggy hair, and a dreadful rough skin, but Jessie is very fond of her, and I don’t like her to be.”
Jessie hung her head. She was afraid of being laughed at. “She’s only a tree,” she said in a low voice.
Miss Betty smiled, but Mrs. Loomis put her arm around her little daughter and said: “Then I am sure she is a very harmless acquaintance, who will set my little girl no bad examples, and I am sure she is much better than no one.”
Jessie looked up with a grateful smile. Mother always understood. She would tell her all about Polly now that it was a secret no longer. Yet she felt hurt and offended to think that Adele had not kept faith with her, though, as she reflected, it was not about Polly that her promise was made, but about Peter Pan and his grotto.Adele knew, however, that Jessie wanted both kept a secret, and so the little visitor threw her hostess a reproachful look which Adele understood and eagerly responded to by saying, “I didn’t tell about the other thing, Jessie. Indeed I didn’t. Now that you have me, I didn’t suppose you would care any more about Polly.”
Mrs. Loomis was too considerate to ask about “the other thing,” but she was told all about Playmate Polly on the way home, and agreed with Jessie that it was very well to have such an amiable friend when there was danger of a sudden flare up from Adele.
“The poor child has no mother; we must be very patient with her,” Mrs. Loomis said. “She has always been a delicate little thing, and in consequence is greatly spoiled. Her aunt is very frail, too, and says she cannot stand scenes. I hope Miss Laurent will have wisdom enough to know how to manage such a wilful little girl. Miss Hallett tells me that her friend is a very superior woman and that she hopes a great deal from her.” She was silent for a few minutes while Barney carried them several rods alongthe road. Then she said, “What do you think of having lessons with Adele, daughter?”
“Oh! Why, I don’t know. I suppose if I have to have lessons at all that it would be nicer than anything. Am I to do it, mother?”
“I think so. I shall have to speak to your father first, but Miss Hallett is very eager to have such an arrangement and brought up the subject herself, so I do not see but that we shall profit by it. She is very anxious that Adele should have a companion, for she has been too much with older persons, and it would certainly settle our difficulty of lessons for you.”
This gave Jessie a great deal to think about all that evening, and the last question she asked that night was, “Will you promise to tell me first thing in the morning, mother?”
And her mother answered, “I promise.”