Ethelyn's Mistake - Page 58/218

"No; oh, no," and Ethelyn's voice expressed the disgust she felt for the

young lady with red streamers in her hair, who had stared so at her and

called her husband Richard.

Ethelyn had not yet defined Eunice's position in the family--whether it

was that of cousin, or niece, or companion--and now that Richard had

suggested her, she said to him: "Who is this Eunice that seems so familiar?"

Richard hesitated a little and then replied: "She is the girl who works for mother when we need help."

"Not a hired girl--surely not a hired girl!" and Ethelyn opened her

brown eyes wide with surprise and indignation, wondering aloud what Aunt

Sophia or Aunt Barbara would say if they knew she had eaten with and

been introduced to a hired girl.

Richard did not say, "Aunt Sophia or Aunt Barbara be hanged, or

be--anything," but he thought it, just as he thought Ethelyn's ideas

particular and over-nice. Eunice Plympton was a respectable, trusty

girl, and he believed in doing well for those who did well for him; but

that was no time to argue the point, and so he sat still and listened to

Ethelyn's complaint that Eunice had called him Richard, and would

undoubtedly on the morrow address her as Ethelyn. Richard thought not,

but changed his mind when, fifteen minutes later, he descended to the

kitchen and heard Eunice asking Andy if he did not think "Ethelyn looked

like the Methodist minister's new wife."

This was an offense which even Richard could not suffer to pass

unrebuked, and sending Andy out on some pretext or other, he said that

to Eunice Plympton which made her more careful as to what she called his

wife, but he did it so kindly that she could not be offended with him,

though she was strengthened in her opinion that "Miss Ethelyn was a

stuck-up, an upstart, and a hateful. Supposin' she had been waited on

all her life, and brought up delicately, as Richard said, that was no

reason why she need feel so big, and above speaking to a poor girl when

she was introduced." She guessed that "Eunice Plympton was fully as

respectable and quite as much thought on by the neighbors, if she didn't

wear a frock coat and a man's hat with a green feather stuck in it."

This was the substance of Eunice's soliloquy, as she cleaned the

potatoes for the morrow's breakfast, and laid the kindlings by the

stove, ready for the morning fire. Still Eunice was not a bad-hearted

girl, and when Andy, who heard her mutterings, put in a plea for

Ethelyn, who he said "had never been so far away from home before, and

whose head was aching enough to split," she began to relent, and

proposed, of her own accord, to take up to the great lady a foot-bath

together with hot water for her head.