Ann Eliza’s heart rocked like a boat in a heavy sea, and the dress-maker’s eyes, distended with curiosity, sprang eagerly from face to face.
“I just thought I’d call in again,” said Mr. Ramy, evidently somewhat disconcerted by the presence of Miss Mellins. “Just to see how the clock’s behaving,” he added with his hollow-cheeked smile.
“Oh, she’s behaving beautiful,” said Ann Eliza; “but we’re real glad to see you all the same. Miss Mellins, let me make you acquainted with Mr. Ramy.”
The dress-maker tossed back her head and dropped her lids in condescending recognition of the stranger’s presence; and Mr. Ramy responded by an awkward bow. After the first moment of constraint a renewed sense of satisfaction filled the consciousness of the three women. The Bunner sisters were not sorry to let Miss Mellins see that they received an occasional evening visit, and Miss Mellins was clearly enchanted at the opportunity of pouring her latest tale into a new ear. As for Mr. Ramy, he adjusted himself to the situation with greater ease than might have been expected, and Evelina, who had been sorry that he should enter the room while the remains of supper still lingered on the table, blushed with pleasure at his good-humored offer to help her “glear away.”
The table cleared, Ann Eliza suggested a game of cards; and it was after eleven o’clock when Mr. Ramy rose to take leave. His adieux were so much less abrupt than on the occasion of his first visit that Evelina was able to satisfy her sense of etiquette by escorting him, candle in hand, to the outer door; and as the two disappeared into the shop Miss Mellins playfully turned to Ann Eliza.
“Well, well, Miss Bunner,” she murmured, jerking her chin in the direction of the retreating figures, “I’d no idea your sister was keeping company. On’y to think!”
Ann Eliza, roused from a state of dreamy beatitude, turned her timid eyes on the dress-maker.
“Oh, you’re mistaken, Miss Mellins. We don’t har’ly know Mr. Ramy.”
Miss Mellins smiled incredulously. “You go ‘long, Miss Bunner. I guess there’ll be a wedding somewheres round here before spring, and I’ll be real offended if I ain’t asked to make the dress. I’ve always seen her in a gored satin with rooshings.”
Ann Eliza made no answer. She had grown very pale, and her eyes lingered searchingly on Evelina as the younger sister re- entered the room. Evelina’s cheeks were pink, and her blue eyes glittered; but it seemed to Ann Eliza that the coquettish tilt of her head regrettably emphasized the weakness of her receding chin. It was the first time that Ann Eliza had ever seen a flaw in her sister’s beauty, and her involuntary criticism startled her like a secret disloyalty.
That night, after the light had been put out, the elder sister knelt longer than usual at her prayers. In the silence of the darkened room she was offering up certain dreams and aspirations whose brief blossoming had lent a transient freshness to her days. She wondered now how she could ever have supposed that Mr. Ramy’s visits had another cause than the one Miss Mellins suggested. Had not the sight of Evelina first inspired him with a sudden solicitude for the welfare of the clock? And what charms but Evelina’s could have induced him to repeat his visit? Grief held up its torch to the frail fabric of Ann Eliza’s illusions, and with a firm heart she watched them shrivel into ashes; then, rising from her knees full of the chill joy of renunciation, she laid a kiss on the crimping pins of the sleeping Evelina and crept under the bedspread at her side.
Chapter V
During the months that followed, Mr. Ramy visited the sisters with increasing frequency. It became his habit to call on them every Sunday evening, and occasionally during the week he would find an excuse for dropping in unannounced as they were settling down to their work beside the lamp. Ann Eliza noticed that Evelina now took the precaution of putting on her crimson bow every evening before supper, and that she had refurbished with a bit of carefully washed lace the black silk which they still called new because it had been bought a year after Ann Eliza’s.