"
And as she spoke, Aunt Augusta glared at Sallie with such ferocity that
even Sallie's sunshiny presence was slightly dimmed.
"Are you ready, Evelina? Peter will send the surrey for your baggage,"
she continued, and for a moment I quailed, for Aunt Augusta's
determination of mind is always formidable, but I summoned my woman's
wit and man's courage, and answered quickly before she fairly snatched
me from under my own roof-tree.
"That would be lovely, Aunt Augusta, and how are you?" I answered and
asked in the same breath, as I drew near enough to her to receive a
business-like peck on my cheek. "I expect to have you and Uncle Peter to
look after me a lot, but somehow I feel that Father would have
liked--liked for me to live here and keep my home--his home--open. Some
way will arrange itself. I haven't talked with Cousin James yet," I
felt white feathers sprouting all over me, as I thus invoked the
masculine dominance I had come to lay.
"You'll have to settle that matter with your Uncle Peter, then, for,
following his dictates of which I did not approve, I have done our duty
by the orphan. Now, Evelina, let me say in my own person, that I
thoroughly approve of your doing just as you plan." And as she uttered
this heresy, she looked so straight and militant and altogether
commanding, that both Cousin Martha and Sallie quailed. I felt elated,
as if my soul were about to get sight of a kindred personality.
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