"The Weejubs! Mr. Gale drew them pictures for Cherry. He was an artist.
He used to paint pictures out in the backyard there. I didn't fancy them
very much myself--too dauby. You had to stand way off from them 'fore
they'd look like anything _a-tall_. But he used to get as high as five
hundred dollars for them. Oh, what excitement there was in this house
while he was decorating Cherry's room! And little Cherry chattering like
a magpie! Mr. Gale made up a whole long story about the Weejubs on her
walls. Lord, I've forgotten half of it; but Cherry could rattle it all
off as _fast_. Miss Murray had that door between her room and Cherry's
made small on purpose. She said Cherry could come into her room whenever
she wanted to, as long as she was a little girl. But when Cherry grew
up, she was going to make it hard for her. But she promised when Cherry
was sixteen years old she shouldn't have to call her auntie any
more--she could call her jess Lutetia. Queer idea, worn't it?"
Mrs. Spash's old eyes so narrowed before an oncoming flood of
reminiscence that they seemed to retreat to the back of her head, where
they diminished to blue sparks. For a moment the room was silent. Then
"Let me show you something! You'd oughter know it, seein' it's your
house. There's some, though, I wouldn't show it to."
She pattered with her surprising quickness to the back wall. She pressed
a spot in the paneling and a small square of the wood moved slowly back.
"You see, Miss Murray's bed ran along that wall, just as Cherry's did in
the other room. Mornings and evenings they used to open this panel and
talk to each other."
Lindsay's eyes filmed even as Mrs. Spash's had. Mentally he saw the two
faces bending toward the opening....
"But you was asking about Miss Murray's death-- As I say, things didn't
go well with her. I didn't understand how it all happened. Folks stopped
buying her books, I guess. Anyway, when she died, there was nothing
left. And there was debts. The house and everything in it was sold--at
auction. It was awful to see Miss Murray's things all out on the lawn.
And a great crowd of gawks--riff-raff from everywhere--looking at 'em
and making fun of 'em-- She had beautiful things, but they went for
nothing a-tall. They jess about paid her debts."