He proceeded to explain elaborately what the words meant, and then asked
her if she had remembered her previous lesson.
"Yes; ain't you--goin'--"
"Stop right there. Your next word to be eliminated is 'ain't.' You must
say 'aren't' or 'isn't.' And you must remember to put 'g' on the end of
every word ending in 'ing.' Don't let me hear you say 'goin', again,
I'll teach you one new word every day now. You see the measure of a maid
is her pure English."
Amarilly looked distressed.
"What's the matter, Amarilly? Don't you want to learn to speak
properly?"
"Yes, I do, Mr. Derry; but Miss King--she don't want me to speak
diff'rent. She likes to hear me talk ignorant, and she said she was
afeard you'd make me brom--"
"Brom?" he repeated.
"There was some more to it, but I fergit."
"Bromidic," he said triumphantly, after an instant's pondering. "You can
never under any circumstances be that, and I shall develop your
imagination and artistic temperament at the same time. Miss King is
selfish to wish to keep you from cultivating yourself for the purpose of
furnishing her entertainment. By the way, I am to meet her to-night at a
dinner, and I think we shall have a mutual subject for conversation. I
must get to work, now. Clear away the dishes. And finish the rest of
this toast and coffee. It would be wicked to waste it."
Amarilly substituted a work apron for the little white covering, and was
soon engaged in "redding."
At eleven o'clock the place was in perfect order, and she went into the
studio where Deny was at work.
"Shall I go get the things fer lunch?"
"Luncheon, if you please, Amarilly. I like that word better. It seems to
mean daintier things. Here's a five-dollar bill. Get what you consider
proper for a simple little home luncheon, you know. Nothing elaborate."
Amarilly, feeling but not betraying her utter inability to construct the
menu for a "simple little home luncheon," walked despondently down the
street.
"The Boarder," she reflected, "takes bread and meat and hard biled eggs
when they ain't--aren't too high, and pie when we hev it."
Some vague instinct of the fitness of things warned her that this would
not be a suitable repast for Derry. Then a light shone through her
darkness.
"I'll telephone Miss Vail," she decided.
So she called up her teacher at the Guild, and explained the situation.
She received full instructions, made her purchases, and went back to the
studio.