Her visits to the premises were not less frequent than formerly, but
they were confined to the yard and stable; she no longer called at the
house. Her manner toward Emily and Thankful was cordial enough perhaps,
but there was constraint in it and she asked a good many questions
concerning her brother's hours of labor, what he did during the day, and
the like.
"She acts awful queer, seems to me," said Thankful. "Not the way she did
at first at all. In the beginnin' I had to plan pretty well to keep her
from runnin' in and sp'ilin' my whole mornin' with her talk. Now she
seems to be keepin' out of my way. What we've done to make her act so I
can't see, and neither can Emily."
Captain Bangs, to whom this remark was addressed, laughed.
"You ain't done anything, I guess," he said. "It ain't you she's down
on; it's your hired girl, the Imogene one. She seems to be more down on
that Imogene than a bow anchor on a mud flat. They don't hitch horses,
those two. You see she tries to boss and condescend and Imogene gives
her as good as she sends. It's got so that Hannah is actually scared of
that girl; don't pretend to be, of course; calls her 'the inmate' and
all sorts of names. But she is scared of her and don't like her."
Thankful was troubled. "I'm sorry," she said. "Imogene is independent,
but she's an awful kind-hearted girl. I do hate trouble amongst
neighbors."
"Oh, there won't be any trouble. Hannah's jealous, that's all the
trouble--jealous about Kenelm.
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