AFTER DREAMING.
"I have been asleep," said Mrs. Lee, pleasantly; "sound asleep. When did
you come in?"
"Only a short time since."
"And you have been sitting here while I slept?"
"Yes; after a restless night, I fancied a quiet sleep would do you no
harm."
"Harm? It has given me strength."
"Do you think so?"
She smiled.
"Have you been dreaming again?" I inquired, a little anxiously.
"Dreaming? No, my sleep was profound, perfect rest. But where is Jessie?
She sat where you are when I fell off."
"Indeed!"
"Yes, I remember--her left hand held mine, with her right she was
soothing the pain from my forehead."
"That was some time ago; she has gone out to ride since, and I am quite
sure Mr. Lee came up here after she left you," I said.
"I am glad of it," she answered, gently. "He was rather late this
morning, I remember thinking; but Jessie would not own it. So he came
up, and I did not hear him. Miss Hyde, this is the first time in my
whole life that his lightest footstep failed to awake me,--what can it
mean?"
"Yes," broke in Lottie, who had been hanging around the door, unnoticed;
for we had all become so used to her presence in that room, that it was
no more heeded than that of the canary-bird in its cage on the
balcony,--"yes, ma'am, Mr. Lee came up with his spurs on, and his whip
all ready, just like a trooper, clang, clang, clang. I thought the noise
would make you jump out of the window in that white, loose gown, just
like an angel with its wings spread; but law! there you were, ma'am,
snoozing away right in his face, and he making up his mind, with the
whip in his hand, whether to kiss you good-bye or not."
"And did he?" inquired the lady, with a faint flush of the cheek.
"No, ma'am; I suppose he was afraid of scaring you out of that nice
sleep. He only looked at you sort of earnestly, and went off trying to
walk on tiptoe; but mercy! didn't them boots creak?"
"I thought not," murmured the lady, with infinite tenderness in her
voice; "I must have been dead if that failed to arouse me."
"Lor, Mrs. Lee," continued the maid, spreading her flail-like arms in
illustration, "I wish you could have seen that new widder-woman when
them two gentlemen helped her on to the horse. Didn't her dress swell
out--and didn't she keep Mr. Lawrence a-tinkering away at her stirrups,
with one foot in his hand, till it made me sick looking on. Awful 'cute
lady that is, Miss Hyde; you ain't no match for her, nohow!"
I really think that witch of a girl was gifted with something almost
like second sight. I never had a secret taste or dislike that she did
not understand at once, and drag it out in some blundering way before
the whole world.
"What makes you think so, Lottie?" I inquired, a little annoyed.
"Because you're straightforward right out, and flat-footed honest; and
she--oh my!"
"What makes you say, 'oh my!' Lottie?"
"Nothing, Miss Hyde; only I've got eyes, and can see right through a
mill-stone, especially when there's a hole in the middle. Perhaps you
can't, then again perhaps you can; I don't dispute anything; only, as I
said before, that widder-woman is too 'cute for such a mealy-mouthed
lady as you are. My!--wouldn't she ride over you rough-shod and with
spurs to her slippers!"
We spoiled that girl. She was neither servant, companion, nor protegee,
and yet partook of the position which three such persons might have
occupied in the family. She waited upon every one with the faithfulness
of a hound and the speed of a lapwing, seemed to be always in the
kitchen, constantly flitting through the parlor, yet never beyond the
sound of her mistress's voice. She belonged everywhere and nowhere in
the household. She had taken her position out of the kitchen entirely,
by refusing to sit down at the table there, whatever the temptation was,
she invariably carrying off the tray into her own little room, after the
mistress was served, taking her meals in solitary grandeur from frosted
silver and china so delicate that you could see a shadow through it.
Nay, she affected great elegance in this little room, which was a sort
of select hospital for all the old finery in the household. Lace
curtains, condemned as too much worn for the parlor-windows, after
passing through her adroit hands, appeared at the casement of her little
room transparent as new; silk hangings, when faded from their first
splendor, she managed to revive into almost pristine brightness. She
would cut out the freshest medallions from an old carpet, and make it
bloom out anew under her own feet. Then she had pretty knick-knacks and
keepsakes scattered about, which made her little nook quite a
boudoir--indeed, almost the prettiest one in the family.
Mrs. Lee was rather proud of her unique handmaiden's retreat; it
gratified her own exquisite sense of the beautiful; and, as the room
opened into her own, it was but a continuation of the refinements that
surrounded her.
In her dress, too, Lottie was more original than half the old pictures
one sees offered for sale. Jessie's cast-off dresses were remodelled by
her nimble fingers into a variety of garments really marvellous. Indeed,
Lottie was generally the most perfectly costumed person in our
household. No one felt disposed to check this exuberant taste in the
strange girl: it pleased the invalid, and that was reason enough for
anything in our family.
"Yes, I say it again," persisted the strange little creature, folding
her arms and setting her head on one side, "widders are monstrous smart,
up to a'most anything. I've often wished that I'd been born a widder
with both eye-teeth cut, as theirs always is--are, I meant. Lor! Miss
Hyde, you ain't a circumstance; just leave this one to me."
"Lottie, Lottie," said Mrs. Lee, shaking her head, "you speak too loud
and look bold, it isn't becoming. Besides, the guests in a house must
always be honored, never made subjects of criticism: in short, my good
child, we are spoiling you."
Lottie withered into penitence with the first words of this reproof.
When it was ended, a deep flush settled around her eyes, as if tears
were suppressed with difficulty.
"Spoiling me! not with kindness, I should die without that," she said,
half sitting down on the ottoman, half kneeling by the couch. "I won't
speak another word against that--that lady. There, I've got it out; say
you are not angry with me."
"Angry! no, my child. Only be careful not to say harsh things of any
one, it is a bad habit."
"I am sorry!"
"Well, well."
"Very sorry!"
"There, there, child, it is not so very terrible."
"I'll never call the lady a widder again. Never!"
Mrs. Lee smiled, and sent her into the next room. She seemed troubled
after the girl went out; for certainly tears had glittered in Lottie's
eyes, a thing I had never witnessed before.
"Go in, Miss Hyde, and comfort her, poor thing! It was cruel to reprove
her so harshly; but my temper is getting ungovernable."
It was almost amusing to hear that gentle creature condemn herself with
so little reason; but she would not be convinced that something of the
spirit of a Nero had not been manifest in that mild reprimand; so I went
into Lottie's room, much better disposed to give her a second lesson
than to console her for the first.
Miss Lottie had curled herself up in the window-seat, with both hands
clasped around her knees, and her face buried upon them.