"Don't worry," said David placidly. "Ann Bryan's in charge of that
house, and she'll stay as long as we're here. Ann knows how to manage
servants. She used to be the housekeeper at Northcliffe Manor, you
remember. I told her about the trouble you'd had, and I think you'll
find Nelly and Bertha well broken in when you get back."
Sarah drew a sigh of relief. It was good to know that those hateful
servants were in stronger hands than hers, and better still, that she
and David could eat their meals in the privacy of the kitchen with no
spying eyes upon them.
"Do the people at Millville know about this house, David?" she asked
later, as they sat on the porch in the stillness and coolness of the
night. David blew a puff of smoke into the darkness before he answered.
"They all know, Sarah, and I think it'll make things a good deal easier
for you. Annie McGowan came by one day, when I was havin' the cottage
torn down and the lumber hauled out here; she stopped to ask questions,
and I told her how you pined for your old home and what I intended to
do, and I guess she told all the other women, for I notice a change in
everybody's face."
"What did Annie say?" urged Sarah eagerly.
"She said she always knew your heart was in the right place."
The old home and the old friends, too! All her loved and lost
possessions were found, and if David's wealth were suddenly snatched
away, she would still be a rich woman. She slept soundly and woke with a
thrill of rapture at the thought of the day's work before her. How many
things there were to be done and how willingly she would do them, for
she was back in her own place, living her own life, and finding health
and happiness in daily toil. She went from task to task, rejoicing that
her hand had not lost its cunning for sweeping, dusting, sewing,
cooking, and all the rest of the blessed work that goes to the making of
a home; "and the evening and the morning were the first day." The second
day was like unto the first, and on the third day Mary Matthews and
Annie McGowan came, and a broken friendship was cemented, never to be
broken again.
At the end of the week David came home with a grave face. "I'm sorry,
Sarah," he said, as they sat down to their supper, "but I'm afraid
we'll have to break camp and go back to town to-morrow morning. I had a
letter from Bates and Hammond, that big firm I told you about, and I
have to go to St. Louis to-morrow morning. I can't leave you out here
alone, so I reckon you'll have to go back to the two-story brick for
awhile."
He expected an outburst of tears from Sarah, but to his great relief she
went calmly on, pouring his coffee and helping him to the corn bread and
bacon.
"That's all right, David," she said pleasantly. "I was just wonderin'
to-day how things were in town, and I'd just as soon go back as not."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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