I don't
think it had been swept since Bella left it. I believe in
sentiment, but I like it brushed and dusted and the cobwebs off
of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her bonnet, it stirred up a
gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did not say anything,
but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her run her
finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid,
put her cloak on it.
Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella's bath and wet the end
of a towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina's collar--her
concession to evening dress--Anne wiped off the obvious places on
the furniture. She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in
the glass.
"What's that young woman's name?" she asked me sharply, when Anne
had taken the towel out to hide it.
"Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown," I replied meekly. Every one
replied meekly to Aunt Selina.
"Does she live here?"
"Oh, no," I said airily. "They are here to dinner, she and her
husband. They are old friends of Jim's--and mine."
"Seems to have a good eye for dirt," said Aunt Selina and went on
fastening her brooch. When she was finally ready, she took a bead
purse from somewhere about her waist and took out a half dollar.
She held it up before Hannah's eyes.
"Tomorrow morning," she said sternly, "You take off that white
cap and that fol-de-rol apron and that black henrietta cloth, and
put on a calico wrapper.
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