Betty, narrow-faced and thin-lipped, gave an irritated shrug. But she did not look about for sympathetic support from the others, from the heckling tyranny of old Hannah, knowing that it would be nonexistent. Betty was a pariah on the plantation, holding her place only because she was the best cook in the county. Last year she had been sent back from Pensacola for rebellious behavior. It was whispered that she had been ordered whipped by General Jackson, had escaped that bitter disgrace because the General’s lady had a heart as soft as butter. No other house servant at the Hermitage had ever been ordered whipped and the stigma of her disgrace lay now over Betty’s peaked brows, her bitter mouth. Nobody ever talked to her, they all shied away from her aura of wickedness. All but Emily Donelson, Rachel Jackson’s favorite niece. “You let Betty alone,” Emily ordered now, looking up from counting out silver on a long table. “Dilsey, you see that Simmy rubs all these spoons with fuller’s earth and soda. Let’s see—I count fifty-two. There’ll be Hutchingses and Hayses, Eastins, Donelsons—we’ll have to set two tables and the children may have to wait. Has Sary got the napkins ironed good and stiff?” “Sary ironin’ in the washhouse now, Young Miss. She just yelled for Goby fetch her more charcoal to hot her irons up good.” “Hannah, you come along with me while I ask aunt Rachel to unlock the press. We’ll need all the long tablecloths and they’ll have to be pressed. I’ll need four more spoons. These are those lovely French ones uncle Jackson brought from New Orleans. You tell Simmy to be mighty careful with them, Dilsey. Come along, Hannah. People may begin coming in today. There’s a lot to do.” “Young Master Jack, he comin’?” asked Hannah boldly, grinning at the bright flush that warmed the young girl’s face. Emily, fifteen, imperiously lovely, red-haired, shook her head sadly. “Uncle Jackson won’t let him come. I think it’s mean. He’s making Jack stay on in that old law school when he wants to be at home for Christmas.” “Learnin’,” commented Hannah. “It mighty fine. Do Mis’ Rachel read to me outen her Bible, glory just shine around. And when the General spout big words out of books I gits shivers up my back.” Emily hurried along the bricked way that set the kitchen apart from the big house. The wind was fresh and keen off the Tennessee hills and she drew her shawl close around her slender shoulders. In the house huge wood fires burned in three fireplaces but the hall where the curving stairs came down was chilly. She opened the dining room door and slipped inside quickly. Rachel Jackson, with a Negro woman helping and a half-grown boy up on a stool, was getting china down from a high corner cupboard. Aunt Rachel was getting heavy, Emily noted, and her breath quick and short. She gasped occasionally as she bent over the table, counting the plates the Negress set down, laughing a little as she straightened and drew a long breath.