When
twilight came and the hour for her departure drew near Willie stationed
himself before the peg from which dangled her shabby wraps and
stubbornly refused to have her hat and cloak removed from the nail.
There, figuratively speaking, they had hung ever since, the inventor
reasoning that life without this paragon of capability was a wretched
and profitless adventure.
In justifying his sudden decision to Janoah Eldridge, Willie had merely
explained that he had hired Celestina because she was so comfortable to
have around, a recommendation at which Wilton would have jeered but
which, perhaps, in the eyes of the Lord was quite as praiseworthy as
that which her more hidebound but less accommodating sisters could have
boasted. For disorder and confusion never kept Celestina awake nights
or prevented her from partaking of three hearty meals a day as it would
have Abbie Brewster or Deborah Howland. So long as things were clean,
their being an inch or two, or even a foot, out of plumb did not worry
the new inmate of the gray house an iota.
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