Fletcher entered with a black look, slamming the door heavily behind him, then, suddenly catching sight of Maria, he stopped short on the threshold and stared at her with hanging jaws.
"I'll be blessed if it ain't Maria!" he broke out at last.
Maria went toward him and held out her cheek for his kiss.
"I've surprised you almost as much as I did Aunt Saidie," she said, with her cheerful laugh, which floated a little strangely on the sullen atmosphere.
Catching her by the shoulder, Fletcher drew her into the circle of the lamplight, where he stood regarding her in gloomy silence.
"You've filled out considerable," he remarked, as he released her at the end of his long scrutiny."But thar was room for it, heaven knows.You'll never be the sort that a man smacks his lips over, I reckon, but you're a plum sight better looking than you were when you went away."Maria winced quickly as if he had struck her; then, regaining her composure almost instantly, she drew back her chair with a casual retort.
"But I didn't come home to set the county afire," she said."Why, Aunt Saidie, what queer, coarse china! What's become of the white-and-gold set I used to like?"A purple flush mounted, slowly to Miss Saidie's forehead.
"I was afraid it would chip, so I packed it away," she explained.
"Me and Brother Bill ain't used to any better than this, so we don't notice.Things will have to be mighty fine now, I reckon, since you've got back.You were always particular about looks, Iremember."
"Was I?" asked Maria curiously, glancing down into the plate before her.For the last few years she had schooled herself to despise what she called the "silly luxuries of living," and yet the heavy white cup which Miss Saidie handed her, and the sound of Fletcher drinking his coffee, aroused in her the old poignant disgust.
"I don't think I'm over particular now," she added pleasantly, "but we may as well get out the other china tomorrow, I think.""You won't find many fancy ways here--eh, Saidie?" inquired Fletcher, with a chuckle."Thar's been a precious waste of victuals on this place, but it's got to stop.I ain't so sure you did a wise thing in coming back," he finished abruptly, turning his bloodshot eyes on his granddaughter.
"You aren't? Well, I am," laughed Maria; "and I promise you that you shan't find me troublesome except in the matter of china.""Then you must have changed your skin, I reckon.""Changed? Why, I have, of course.Six years isn't a day, you know, and I've been in many places." Then, as a hint of interest awoke in his eyes, she talked on rapidly, describing her years abroad and the strange cities in which she had lived.Before she had finished, Fletcher had pushed his plate away and sat listening with the ghost of a smile upon his face.
"Well, you'll do, I reckon," he said at the end, and, pushing back his chair, he rose from his place and stamped out into the hall.
When he had gone into his sitting-room and closed the door behind him, Miss Saidie nodded smilingly, as she measured out the servant's sugar in a cracked saucer."He's brighter than I've seen him for days," she said; "and now, if you want to go upstairs, Malindy has jest lighted your fire.She had to carry the wood up while we were at supper, so Brother Bill wouldn't see it.He hates even to burn a log, though they are strewn round loose all over the place."Maria, was feeding Agag on the hearth, and she waited until he had finished before she took up her hat and wraps and went toward the door."Oh, you needn't bother to light me," she said, waving Miss Saidie back when she would have followed."Why, I could find my way over this house at midnight without a candle." Then, with a cheerful "Goodnight," she called Agag and went up the dusky staircase.
A wood fire was burning in her room, and she stood for a moment looking pensively into the flames, a faint smile sketched about her mouth.Then throwing off her black dress in the desire for freedom, she clasped her hands above her head and paced slowly up and down the shadowy length of the room.In the flowing measure of her walk; in the free, almost defiant, movement of her upraised arms; and in the ample lines of her throat and bosom, which melted gradually into the low curves of her hips, she might have stood for an incarnation of vital force.One felt instinctively that her personality would be active rather than passive--that the events which she attracted to herself would be profoundly emotional in their fulfilment.
Notwithstanding the depressing hour she had just passed, and the old vulgarity which had shocked her with a new violence, she was conscious, moving to and fro in the shadows, of a strange happiness--of a warmth of feeling which pervaded her from head to foot, which fluttered in her temples and burned like firelight in her open palms.The place was home to her, she realised at last, and the surroundings of her married life--the foreign towns and the enchanting Italian scenery--showed in her memory with a distant and alien beauty.Here was what she loved, for here was her right, her heritage--the desolate red roads, the luxuriant tobacco fields, the primitive and ignorant people.In her heart there was no regret for any past that she had known, for over the wild country stretching about her now there hung a romantic and mysterious haze.
A little later she was aroused from her reverie by Miss Saidie, who came in with a lighted lamp in her hand.
"Don't you need a light, Maria? I never could abide to sit in the dark.""Oh, yes; bring it in.There, put it on the bureau and sit down by the fire, for I want to talk to you.No, I'm not a bit tired;I am only trying to fit myself again in this room.Why, I don't believe you've changed a pin in the pincushion since I went away."Miss Saidie dusted the top of the bureau with her apron before she placed the tall glass lamp upon it.
