Mrs. Sutton understood it all--the hurry and agitation of the
unlooked-for arrival; the faintness and prostration of the
consumptive; the restless night, and the well-meant but inefficient
ministrations of negroes in an establishment where the mistress had
been feeble for years, and was now chained to her room and chair by
paralysis.
"And Rosa was always an indolent flyabout in health; accustomed to
have a score of servants at her heels to pick up whatever she
dropped or threw aside," she said to herself. "My Mabel was a pink
of neatness and order compared with her. Dear me! here is a bottle
of oil, cracked, and an immense grease-spot in the front breadth of
a splendid silk dress! I hope these things do not annoy her as they
would me!"
Whether the universal disarray made Rosa uncomfortable or not, she
enjoyed the aspect of the tidy apartment, when her nurse brought her
noiseless labors to a close by exchanging her night-gown for a
flannel wrapper; putting clean linen upon her and the bed; combing
the tangled hair and washing her hands, wrists, and face in tepid
water, interfused with cologne.
"It prevents a sick person from taking cold when bathed, and
freshens her up wonderfully, I think," was her explanation of the
fragrant preparation.
"YOU freshen me more than all things else combined!" said Rosa,
gratefully. "Ah, auntie! how often I have thought of, and wished for
you this tedious and dismal winter! I used to spend entire weeks in
bed, attended by a horrid hired nurse, who took snuff and
drank--ugh! and snubbed and terrified me whenever I--as she
described it--'took a notion into my head;' that is, when I asked
for something she thought was too troublesome for her ladyship to
prepare, or wanted Fred to stay all night in my room, or sit by me
in the evening, and pet me. She 'couldn't bear to have men around,
cluttering up everything!' she would growl the instant his back was
turned, with a deal more of the same talk, until I was afraid to ask
him to take a seat the next time he came in. He was continually
bringing home baskets of fruit, and game, and bouquets for me. She
let me have the flowers, but she ate nine-tenths of the nice things
herself, I never suspecting her, and he was too delicate to ask if I
enjoyed his presents. At length he surprised her in the act of
devouring a bunch of hot-house grapes, for which he had paid almost
their weight in gold, and then all came to light, and he sent her
off in a hurry. Poor Fred, there were great tears in his eyes when
he learned what persecution I had undergone, rather than vex him by
complaints."