I'd like to speak
to them housemaids."
"Ring for tea, then." Dick felt his way to the one chair he used by custom.
Bessie saw the action and, as far as in her lay, was touched. But there
remained always a keen sense of new-found superiority, and it was in her voice
when she spoke.
"How long have you been like this?" she said wrathfully, as though the
blindness were some fault of the housemaids.
"How?"
"As you are."
"The day after you went away with the check, almost as soon as my picture was
finished; I hardly saw her alive."
"Then they've been cheating you ever since, that's all. I know their nice
little ways."
A woman may love one man and despise another, but on general feminine
principles she will do her best to save the man she despises from being
defrauded. Her loved one can look to himself, but the other man, being
obviously an idiot, needs protection.
"I don't think Mr. Beeton cheats much," said Dick. Bessie was flouncing up and
down the room, and he was conscious of a keen sense of enjoyment as he heard
the swish of her skirts and the light step between.
"Tea and muffins," she said shortly, when the ring at the bell was answered;
"two teaspoonfuls and one over for the pot. I don't want the old teapot that
was here when I used to come.
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