Peter and Fred Slater came in with the coffee. Jim Russell
with a white apron around his neck followed with a basket
of sandwiches, and Tom Motherwell with a heaping plate
of cake.
"Did you make this cake, Nell?" Tom whispered to Nellie
in the pantry as she filled the plate for him.
"Me!" she laughed. "Bless you no! I can't make anything
but pancakes."
Martha Perkins still sat by the window. She looked older
and more careworn--she was thinking of how late it was
getting. Martha could make cakes, Tom knew that. Martha
could do everything.
"Go along Tom," Nellie was saying, "give a piece to big
John. Don't you see how hungry he looks." Their eyes met.
Hers were bright and smiling. He smiled back.
Oh pshaw! pancakes are not so bad.
Jim Russell whispered to Camilla, as he passed near where
she and Arthur sat, "Will you please come and help Nellie
in the pantry? We need you badly."
Camilla called Maud Murray to take her seat. She knew
Maud would be kind to the young Englishman.
When Camilla reached the pantry she found Nellie and Tom
Motherwell happily engaged in eating lemon tarts, and
evidently not needing her at all. Jim was ready with an
explanation. "I was thinking of poor Thursa, far across
the sea," he said, "what a shock it would be to her if
Arthur was compelled to write home that he had changed
his mind," and Camilla did not look nearly so angry as
she should have, either.
After supper there was another song from Arthur Wemyss,
the young Englishman.
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