Part 40 (1/2)

”You're only a mite of a thing yet,” shrieked Mrs. Watercrow, ”though you've growed up; but _sakerje_! how fine, how fine,--and what a s.h.i.+ny cloth in your coat! How much did that cost?”

”Do not scream at me,” said Bidiane, good-humoredly. ”I still hear well.”

Claude a Sucre roared in a stentorian voice, and clapped his knee. ”She comes home Eenglish,--quite Eenglish.”

”And the Englishman,--he is still rich,” said Mirabelle Marie, greedily, and feeling not at all snubbed. ”Does he wear all the time a collar with white wings and a split coat?”

”But you took much money from him,” said Bidiane, reproachfully.

”Oh, that Boston,--that divil's hole!” vociferated Mirabelle Marie. ”We did not come back some first-cla.s.s Yankees _whitewashes_. No, no, we are French now,--you bet! When I was a young one my old mother used to ketch flies between her thumb and finger. She'd say, '_Je te squeezerai_'” (I will squeeze you). ”Well, we were the flies, Boston was my old mother.

But you've been in cities, Biddy Ann; you know 'em.”

”Ah! but I was not poor. We lived in a beautiful quarter in Paris,--and do not call me Biddy Ann; my name is Bidiane.”

”Lord help us,--ain't she stylis.h.!.+” squealed her delighted aunt. ”Go on, Biddy, tell us about the fine ladies, and the elegant frocks, and the dimens; everythin' s.h.i.+nes, ain't that so? Did the Englishman shove a dollar bill in yer hand every day?”

”No, he did not,” said Bidiane, with dignity. ”I was only a little girl to him. He gave me scarcely any money to spend.”

”Is he goin' to marry yer,--say now, Biddy, ain't that so?”

Bidiane's quick temper a.s.serted itself. ”If you don't stop being so vulgar, I sha'n't say another word to you.”

”Aw, shut up, now,” said Claude, remonstratingly, to his wife.

Mrs. Watercrow was slightly abashed. ”I don't go for to make yeh mad,”

she said, humbly.

”No, no, of course you did not,” said the girl, in quick compunction, and she laid one of her slim white hands on Mirabelle Marie's fat brown ones. ”I should not have spoken so hastily.”

”Look at that,--she's as meek as a cat,” said the woman, in surprise, while her husband softly caressed Bidiane's shoulder.

”The Englishman, as you call him, does not care much for women,” Bidiane went on, gently. ”Now that he has money he is much occupied, and he always has men coming to see him. He often went out with his mother, but rarely with me or with any ladies. He travels, too, and takes Narcisse with him; and now, tell me, do you like being down the Bay?”

Her aunt shrugged her shoulders. ”A long sight more'n Boston.”

”Why did you give up the farm?” said the girl to Claude; ”the old farm that belonged to your grandfather.”

”I be a fool, an' I don' know it teel long after,” said Claude, slowly.

”And you speak French here,--the boys, have they learned it?”

”You bet,--they learned in Boston from _Acajens_. Biddy, what makes yeh come back? Yer a big goose not to stay with the Englishman.”

Bidiane surveyed her aunt disapprovingly. ”Could I live always depending on him? No, I wish to work hard, to earn some money,--and you, are you not going to pay him for this fine house?”

”G.o.d knows, he has money enough.”

”But we mus' pay back,” said Claude, smiting the table with his fist. ”I ain't got much larnin', but I've got a leetle idee, an' I tell you, maw,--don' you spen' the money in that stockin'.”

His wife's fat shoulders shook in a hearty laugh.