She chuckled to herself and tried
several perfectly transparent ways of attracting my attention, until I
took pity on her, a very one-sided pity too, for, between ourselves,
Anastasia is the domestic salt and pepper that gives the Garden Vacation
a flavour that I should sadly miss.
"Miss Marie," she exclaimed, "do be the tastiest creaytur ever I set me
eyes on." (She refused absolutely to call her Maria; that name, she
holds, is only fit for a settled old maid, "and that same it's not sure
and fair to mark any woman wid being this side the grave.")
Then I knew that I only had to sit down and raise my eyes to Anastasia's
face in an attitude of attention, to open the word gates, and this I
did.
"Well, fust off win she got the invite ter sing at the swarry that tops
off the day's doings down to that Golf Club, she was that worried about
hats you never seen the like! She wus over ter Bridgeton, and Barney
swore he drove her ter every milliner in the place, and says she ter me,
pleasant like, that evenin', when returned, in excuse fer havin' nothin'
to show, 'Oh, Annie, Annie, it would break yer heart to see the little
whisp of flowers they ask five dollars for; to fix me hats a trifle
would part me from a tin-dollar bill!'"
(The sentiments I at once perceived might be Maria's, but their
translation Anastasia's.
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