Aunt Sally was making pies in the kitchen the next morning when Jeff hesitatingly stole upon her.The moment was not a felicitous one.Pie-making was usually an aggressive pursuit with Aunt Sally,entered into severely,and prosecuted unto the bitter end.After watching her a few moments Jeff came up and placed his arms tenderly around her.People very much in love find relief,I am told,in this vicarious expression.
"Aunty."
"Well,Jeff!Thar,now--yer gittin'all dough!"Nevertheless,the hard face relaxed a little.Something of a smile stole round her mouth,showing what she might have been before theology and bitters had supplied the natural feminine longings.
"Aunty dear!"
"You--boy!"
It WAS a boy's face--albeit bearded like the pard,with an extra fierceness in the mustaches--that looked upon hers.She could not help bestowing a grim floury kiss upon it.
"Well,what is it now?"
"I'm thinking,aunty,it's high time you and me packed up our traps and 'shook'this yar shanty,and located somewhere else."Jeff's voice was ostentatiously cheerful,but his eyes were a little anxious.
"What for NOW?"
Jeff hastily recounted his ill luck,and the various reasons--excepting of course the dominant one--for his resolution.
"And when do you kalkilate to go?"
"If you'll look arter things here,"hesitated Jeff,"I reckon I'll go up along with Bill to-morrow,and look round a bit.""And how long do you reckon that gal would stay here after yar gone?"This was a new and startling idea to Jeff.But in his humility he saw nothing in it to flatter his conceit.Rather the reverse.He colored,and then said apologetically,--"I thought that you and Jinny could get along without me.The butcher will pack the provisions over from the Fork."Laying down her rolling-pin,Aunt Sally turned upon Jeff with ostentatious deliberation."Ye ain't,"she began slowly,"ez taking a man with wimmen ez your father was--that's a fact,Jeff Briggs!They used to say that no woman as he went for could get away from him.But ye don't mean to say yer think yer not good enough--such as ye are--for this snip of an old maid,ez big as a gold dollar,and as yaller?""Aunty,"said Jeff,dropping his boyish manner,and his color as suddenly,"I'd rather ye wouldn't talk that way of Miss Mayfield.
Ye don't know her;and there's times,"he added,with a sigh,"ez Ireckon ye don't quite know ME either.That young lady,bein'sick,likes to be looked after.Any one can do that for her.She don't mind who it is.She don't care for me except for that,and,"added Jeff humbly,"it's quite natural.""I didn't say she did,"returned Aunt Sally viciously;"but seeing ez you've got an empty house yer on yer hands,and me a-slavin'here on jist nothin',if this gal,for the sake o'gallivantin'with ye for a spell,chooses to stay here and keep her family here,and pay high for it,I don't see why it ain't yer duty to Providence and me to take advantage of it."Jeff raised his eyes to his aunt's face.For the first time it struck him that she might be his father's sister and yet have no blood in her veins that answered to his.There are few shocks more startling and overpowering to original natures than this sudden sense of loneliness.Jeff could not speak,but remained looking fiercely at her.
Aunt Sally misinterpreted his silence,and returned to her work on the pies."The gal ain't no fool,"she continued,rolling out the crust as if she were laying down broad propositions."SHE reckons on it too,ez if it was charged in the bill with the board and lodging.Why,didn't she say to me,last night,that she kalkilated afore she went away to bring up some friends from 'Frisco for a few days'visit?and didn't she say,in that pipin',affected voice o'hers,'I oughter make some return for yer kindness and yer nephew's kindness,Aunt Sally,by showing people that can help you,and keep your house full,how pleasant it is up here.'She ain't no fool,with all her faintin's and dyin's away!
No,Jeff Briggs.And if she wants to show ye off agin them city fellows ez she knows,and ye ain't got spunk enough to stand up and show off with her--why"--she turned her head impatiently,but he was gone.
If Jeff had ever wavered in his resolution he would have been steady enough NOW.But he had never wavered;the convictions and resolutions of suddenly awakened character are seldom moved by expediency.He was eager to taste the bitter dregs of his cup at once.He began to pack his trunk,and make his preparations for departure.Without avoiding Miss Mayfield in this new excitement,he no longer felt the need of her presence.He had satisfied his feverish anxieties by placing his trunk in the hall beside his open door,and was sitting on his bed,wrestling with a faded and overtasked carpet-bag that would not close and accept his hard conditions,when a small voice from the staircase thrilled him.He walked to the corridor,and,looking down,beheld Miss Mayfield midway on the steps of the staircase.
She had never looked so beautiful before!Jeff had only seen her in those soft enwrappings and half-deshabille that belong to invalid femininity.Always refined and modest thus,in her present walking-costume there was added a slight touch of coquettish adornment.There was a brightness of color in her cheek and eye,partly the result of climbing the staircase,partly the result of that audacious impulse that had led her--a modest virgin--to seek a gentleman in this personal fashion.Modesty in a young girl has a comfortable satisfying charm,recognized easily by all humanity;but he must be a sorry knave or a worse prig who is not deliciously thrilled when Modesty puts her charming little foot just over the threshold of Propriety.
"The mountain would not come to Mohammed,so Mohammed must come to the mountain,"said Miss Mayfield."Mother is asleep,Aunt Sally is at work in the kitchen,and here am I,already dressed for a ramble in this bright afternoon sunshine,and no one to go with me.
But,perhaps,you,too,are busy?"