 | Purple-Eyes |  |
IV "HOW THAT IS NIZE!"
That night they had a gay little supper, with a tiny servant, who, Garland guessed, with entire accuracy, had been borrowed for the occasion.
"You got nize day?" asked Black-Eyes.
Garland caught a startled glance from Purple-Eyes, and answered discreetly that he had had oh, yes; a very pleasant day, giving no damaging particulars.
But Black-Eyes fancied from the blankness of his countenance that he was indulging in the same kind of prevarication with which she would have met such a question. She devoted herself to him all the rest of the evening. As he retired for the night, the last thing she said to him, with a reproachful glance at Purple-Eyes, was:
"To-morrow you go'n' have mos' bes' nize times. I go'n' stay home with you!"
And she did, making it a very dreary day for Garland. He could not help thinking of Purple-Eyes at the factory, with her dainty hands begrimed.
But presently, when she returned, there was no grime upon her hands. She was dainty and smiling.
"You got nize day?" she asked, with her head coyly down. She knew he had not. And she purposely quoted her sister.
"No," he said savagely. "I'm glad it's over."
The flame was in her face again. But she kept it down.
"I thing Black-Eyes ver' be-witch-ing."
"But she is not you," he said.
She looked slowly up. The little weariness which had been limned upon her face by the day's drudgery was gone, and in its stead was a vague glory rejected from within.
"How that is nize," she whispered "for me!"
"For me," said Garland, approaching her threateningly. She did not retreat. She subsided a little toward him just a little that he might know she would never retreat from him. Her eyes smiled confidently.
He stopped where he was.
"Who is to be chatelaine to-morrow?"
"What is that chat ?" she asked.
"Who is to keep the house?"
"Me. Me one day, Black-Eyes next."
She saw his face lighten.
"You lig that?"
"I like half of it."
She thought a moment until she understood; then she lifted her shining face.
"Ah, Eijinsan, how be-witch-ing you are!"
| Purple-Eyes | |