"I guess I could if I tried," the lady replied; "but I"m too tired to try now."
"How did you leave Mr. Jack?"
"I couldn"t stay forever, could I?" asked the traveler impatiently. "I thought that a week was long enough for the first time, anyhow."
Lucinda subsided and the rest of the drive was taken in silence. When they reached the house Aunt Mary enveloped everything in one glance of blended weariness, scorn and contempt, and then made short work of getting to bed, where she slept the luxurious and dreamless sleep of the unjust until late that afternoon.
"My, but she"s come back a terror!" Lucinda cried to Joshua in a high whisper when he brought in the trunk. "She looks like nothin" was goin" to be good enough for her from now on."
"Nothin" ain"t goin" to be good enough for her," said Joshua calmly.
"What are we goin" to do, then?" asked Lucinda.
"We"ll have enough to do," said Joshua, in a tone that was portentous in the extreme, and then he placed the trunk in its proper position for unpacking and went away, leaving Lucinda to unpack it.
Aunt Mary awoke just as the faithful servant was unrolling the green plaid waist, and the instant that she spoke it was plain that her att.i.tude toward life in general was become strangely and vigorously changed, and that for Lucinda the rack was to be newly oiled and freshly racking.
This att.i.tude was not in any degree altered by the unexpected arrival of Arethusa that evening. Strange tales had reached Arethusa"s ears, and she had flown on the wings of steam and coal dust to see what under the sun it all meant. Aunt Mary was not one bit rejoiced to see her and the glare which she directed over the edge of the counterpane bore testimony to the truth of this statement.
"Whatever did you come for?" she demanded inhospitably. "Lucinda didn"t send for you, did she?"
Arethusa screamed the best face that she could onto her visit, but Aunt Mary listened with an inattention that was anything but flattering.
"I don"t feel like talkin" over my trip," she said, when she saw her niece"s lips cease to move. "Of course I enjoyed myself because I was with Jack, but as to what we did an" said you couldn"t understand it all if I did tell you, so what"s the use of botherin"."
Arethusa looked neutral, calm and curious. But Aunt Mary frowned and shook her head.
"S"long as you"re here, though, I suppose you may as well make yourself useful," she said a few minutes later. "Come to think of it, there"s an errand I want you to do for me. I want you to go to Boston the very first thing to-morrow morning an" buy me some cotton."
Arethusa stared blankly.
"Well," said the aunt, "if you can"t hear, you"d better take my ear-trumpet and I"ll say it over again."
"What kind of cotton?" Arethusa yelled.
"Not _stockin"s!_" said Aunt Mary; "Cotton! Cotton! C-O-T-T-O-N! It beats the Dutch how deaf everyone is gettin", an" if I had your ears in particular, Arethusa, I"d certainly hire a carpenter to get at "em with a bit-stalk. Jus"s if you didn"t know as well as I do how many stockin"s I"ve got already! I should think you"d quit bein" so heedless, an" use your commonsense, anyhow. I"ve found commonsense a very handy thing in talkin" always. Always."
Arethusa launched herself full tilt into the ear-trumpet.
"What-kind-of-cotton?" she asked in that key of voice which makes the crowd pause in a panic.
Aunt Mary looked disgusted.
"The Boston kind," she said, nipping her lips.
Arethusa took a double hitch on her larynx, and tried again.
"Do you mean thread?"
Aunt Mary"s disgust deepened visibly.
"If I meant silk I guess I wouldn"t say cotton. I might just happen to say silk. I"ve been in the habit of saying silk when I meant silk and cotton when I meant cotton, for quite a number of years, and I might not have changed to-day-I might just happen to not have. I might not have-maybe."
Arethusa withered under this bitter irony.
"How many spools do you want?" she asked in a meek but piercing howl.
"I don"t care," said Aunt Mary loftily. "I don"t care how many-or what color-or what number. I just want some Boston cotton, and I want to see you settin" out to get it pretty promptly to-morrow morning."
"But if you only want some cotton," Arethusa yelled, with a force which sent crimson waves all over her, "why can"t I get it in the village?"
Aunt Mary shot one look at her niece and the latter felt the concussion.
"Because-I-want-you-to-get-it-in-Boston," she said, filling the breaks between her words with a concentrated essence of acerbity such as even she had never displayed before. "When I say a thing, I mean it pretty generally. Quite often-most always. I want that cotton and it"s to be bought in Boston. There"s a train that goes in at seven-forty-five, and if you don"t favor the idea of ridin" on it you can take the express that goes by at six-five."
Arethusa pressed her hands very tightly together and carried the discussion no further. She went to bed early and rose early the next morning and Joshua drove her in town to the seven-forty-five.
"It doesn"t seem to me that my aunt is very well," the niece said during the drive. "What do you think?"
"I don"t think anything about her," said Joshua with great candor. "If I was to give to thinkin" I"d o" moved out to Chicago an" been scalpin"
Indians to-day."
"I wonder if that trip to New York was good for her?" Arethusa wondered mildly.
Joshua flicked Billy with the whip and refused to voice any opinion as to New York"s effect on his mistress.
Arethusa was well on her way to Boston when Aunt Mary"s bell, rung with a sharp jangle, summoned Lucinda to open her bedroom blinds. While Lucinda was leaning far out and attempting to cause said blinds to catch on the hooks, which habitually held them back against the side of the house, her mistress addressed her with a suddeness which showed that she had awakened with her wits surprisingly well in hand.
"Where"s Joshua? Is he got back from Arethusa? Answer me, Lucinda."
Lucinda drew herself in through the open window with an alacrity remarkable for one of her years.
"Yes, he"s back," she yelled.
Aunt Mary looked at her with a sort of incensed patience.
"Well, what"s he doin"? If he"s back, where is he? Lucinda, if you knew how hard it is for me to keep quiet you"d answer when I asked things. Why in Heaven"s name don"t you say suthin"? Anythin"? Anythin" but nothin", that is."
"He"s mowin"," Lucinda shrieked.
"Sewin"!" exclaimed Aunt Mary. "What"s he sewin"? Where"s he sewin"? Have you stopped doin" his darnin"?"
Lucinda gathered breath by compressing her sides with her hands, and then replied, directing her voice right into the ear-trumpet:
"He"s mowin" the back lawn."
Aunt Mary winced and shivered.