And Rev. MacGill, after sampling the impromptu dessert, assured his hostess that her husband's eulogy had been only too moderate. He vowed he had never eaten such apple sauce. But Mrs. Merriam still looked bleak. She knew she could make a better deep-dish peach pie than Mrs. Allen could. And, then, to give the minister apple sauce and nabiscos!--the first time he had eaten at her table in two months!
Missy, who knew her mother well, couldn't help feeling a deep degree of sympathy; besides, she wished Rev. MacGill might have had his pie--she liked Rev. MacGill better than ever. But she dreaded her first moments after the guest had departed; mother could be terribly stern.
“Now, Missy,” ordered her mother in coldly irate tones, “you take that horse straight back to Tess. This is the last straw! For days you've been no earthly use--your practicing neglected, no time for your chores, just nothing but that everlasting horse!”
That everlasting horse! Missy's chin quivered and her eyes filled. But mother went on inflexibly: “I don't want you ever to bring it here again. And you can't go on living at Tess's, either! We'll see that you catch up with your practicing.”
“But, mother,” tremulously seeking for an argument, “I oughtn't to give up such a fine chance to become a horsewoman, ought I?”
It was an unlucky phrase, for Aunt Nettie was there to catch it up.
“A horsewoman!” and she laughed in sardonic glee. “Well, I must admit there's one thing horsey enough about you--you always smell of manure, these days.”
Wounded and on the defensive, Missy tried to make her tone chilly. “I wish you wouldn't be so indelicate, Aunt Nettie,” she said.
But Aunt Nettie wasn't abashed. “A horsewoman!” she chortled again. “I suppose Missy sees herself riding to hounds! All dressed up in a silk hat and riding-breeches like pictures of society people back East!”
It didn't add to Missy's comfiture to know she had, in truth, harboured this ridiculed vision of herself. She coloured and stood hesitant.
“Someone ought to put pants on that O'Neill girl, anyway,” continued Aunt Nettie with what seemed to her niece unparallelled malice. “Helen Alison says the Doctor saw her out in the country riding astraddle. Her mother ought to spank her.”