Miss Susie's voice was acquiring calm. "She decided that this wasn't good enough place for her. She couldn't bear to think of all the money servants were getting down in Louisville--so she left." Mary Louise came back and stood before her chair. She looked at her aunt intently. "You mean to say she _left_ you?" "She did." It was too much for Mary Louise's comprehension and she contemplated the fact bleakly. "Why, her people have been here on the place for four generations!" Miss Susie's face was grim. "Ten dollars a week was too much for her." Slowly the conviction was taking root. "And she has really left?" Miss Susie nodded. "And taken Omar with her?" Miss Susie nodded again. "And Landy?" There was a moment's silence. Miss Susie, it seemed, would for the dramatic effect have preferred that the defection had been universal. "No," she said half regretfully, "Landy's stayed with me." "And done the cooking, I suppose?" "He did--after Wednesday." "And Wednesday? _You_ tried it until then, I suppose?" Mary Louise's tone was all reproach. Miss Susie did not deny it. They sat for a moment in dismal accord. Mary Louise had a sudden feeling as though the family were breaking up. All during the war the little corps of servants had remained intact. She had felt that, the war over, the danger point had been passed. Also the reason for Miss Susie's little spell was now apparent. Directly she asked more briskly, "D' you try to get any one else?--Zibbie Tuttle?" "Zibbie's gone to town, too." Another moment's depressed silence. "And how about Zenie? She used to cook." Miss Susie sighed. "Zenie's got her head all full of fool notions. She thinks she has to stay home and look after that worthless Zeke." "And she won't come? You've tried her?" Miss Susie shook her head grimly. Mary Louise suddenly laughed. It was a dry, mirthless sort of laugh. "Looks like the Negroes are getting all the latest notions of progress, too. I must have put the idea into their heads." "All except Zenie," amended Miss Susie. "She's old-fashioned." "Perhaps I'd better be coming back." She stood by the door, musing. Miss Susie reached over for her spectacles. There was an almost imperceptible flash in her eyes. "And be like Zenie?" The shot missed. Mary Louise was turning over many things in her mind. Her little plans were being threatened and by circumstances which she had previously scorned to notice. Irritation and a restless desire to be up and at her obstacles were prevailing over all other feelings. For several moments she pondered, gazing through the glass half of the sitting-room door, and then with a hurried, "I'll be back," she bolted from the room, out toward the kitchen.