I asked her if she wouldn't like to travel, and she
said no. Then I says, 'Wouldn't you like to go to visit some of
your folks?' And she said she s'posed she could stop a week with
her son's wife, just to oblige us. So I engaged a car to drive you
down this afternoon just to look at the place; and if you like it we
can easy move over to-morrow. The sun's so hot I asked the
stableman if he hadn't got a top buggy, or a surrey, or a carryall;
but he never heard tell of any of 'em; he didn't even know a shay.
I forgot to tell you the lady is a Protestant, and the hired girl's
name is Bridget Thunder, and she's a Roman Catholic, but she seems
extra smart and neat. I was kind of in hopes she wouldn't be, for I
thought I should enjoy trainin' her, and doin' that much for the
country."
And so we drove over to this village of Knockcool (Knockcool, by the
way, means 'Hill of Sleep'), as much to make amends for Benella's
eccentricities as with any idea of falling in with her proposal.
The house proved everything she said, and in Mrs. Wogan Odevaine
Benella had found a person every whit as remarkable as herself. She
is evidently an Irish gentlewoman of very small means, very flexible
in her views and convictions, very talkative and amusing, and very
much impressed with Benella as a product of New England
institutions. We all took a fancy to one another at first sight,
and we heard with real pleasure that her son's wife lived only a few
miles away.
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