And Martha, in great spirits, told her William at tea, that, though
Dr. Lavendar was failing, she had to admit he could still see people's
good qualities. "I told him I hadn't put on any airs of regret about
Mrs. Richie, and he said he had always noticed my frankness."
William helped himself to gooseberry jam in silence.
"You do leave things so catacornered!" Martha observed, laying the
thin silver spoon straight in the dish. "William, I never knew anybody
so incapable as that woman. I asked her how she had packed her
preserves for moving. She said she hadn't made any! Think of that, for
a housekeeper. Oh, and I found out about that perfumery, I just asked
her. It's nothing but ground orris!"
William said he would like a cup of tea.
"I can't make her out," Martha said, touching the teapot to make sure
it was hot; "I've always said she wasn't her brother's equal,
mentally. But you do expect a woman to have certain feminine
qualities, now the idea of adopting a child, and then deserting him!"
"She hadn't adopted him," William said.
"It's the same thing; she took him, and now she gets tired of him, and
won't keep him. She begins a thing, but she doesn't go on with it."
"I suppose it's better not to begin it?" William said. And there was
an edge in his voice that caused Mrs. King to hold her tongue.
"Martha," the doctor said, after a while and with evident effort, "can
you give me an early breakfast to-morrow morning? I've got to go back
into the country, and I want to make an early start," Helena Richie, too, meant to make an early start the next morning; it
was the day that she was to leave Old Chester. The plan of going to
the western city had gradually shaped itself, and while Dr. Lavendar
was writing to those friends of his, and Helena corresponding with a
real-estate agent, the packing-up at the Stuffed Animal House had
proceeded. Now it was all done; Maggie and Sarah had had their wages,
and several presents besides; the pony had been shipped from Mercer;
the rabbits boxed and sent down to the Rectory; all was done;--except
the saying good-by to David. But Helena told herself that she would
not say good-by to him. She could not, she said. She would see him,
but he should not know it was good-by. And so she asked Dr. Lavendar
to send the child up to her the day before she was to go away;--by
himself. "You'll trust him with me for an hour?" she said.