And, in her languor and in her uncertainty, it was
pleasant to watch the new ways of the people among whom she was
placed. After breakfast, Mr. Benson withdrew to his study, Miss
Benson took away the cups and saucers, and leaving the
kitchen-door open, talked sometimes to Ruth, sometimes to Sally,
while she washed them up. Sally had upstairs duties to perform,
for which Ruth was thankful, as she kept receiving rather angry
glances for her unpunctuality as long as Sally remained
downstairs. Miss Benson assisted in the preparation for the early
dinner, and brought some kidney-beans to shred into a basin of
bright, pure spring-water, which caught and danced in the
sunbeams as she sat near the open casement of the parlour,
talking to Ruth of things and people which as yet the latter did
not understand, and could not arrange and comprehend. She was
like a child who gets a few pieces of a dissected map, and is
confused until a glimpse of the whole unity is shown him. Mr. and
Mrs. Bradshaw were the centre pieces in Ruth's map; their
children, their servants, were the accessories; and one or two
other names were occasionally mentioned. Ruth wondered and almost
wearied at Miss Benson's perseverance in talking to her about
people whom she did not know; but, in truth, Miss Benson heard
the long-drawn, quivering sighs which came from the poor heavy
heart, when it was left to silence, and had leisure to review the
past; and her quick accustomed ear caught also the low mutterings
of the thunder in the distance, in the shape of Sally's
soliloquies, which, like the asides at a theatre, were intended
to be heard.
Pages:
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202