“She looks exactly like a little owl,” he always said. “One can hardly see her eyes. I should love her to come again, though,” he added, for he was curious to see Cornelli when she was funny and bright, as Martha described her.
When Dino had gone to his room that evening, Martha quickly put on a better apron, took the big shawl from her cupboard, and putting it on her shoulders, went quietly out of the house and over to the Director’s residence. She looked up at the kitchen windows and saw a light there, as well as in the room that overlooked the garden. On entering the kitchen Martha saw Esther and Miss Mina sitting down to a plentiful supper. The latter was just getting up to answer a bell which had rung in the dining room, but Esther offered the empty seat to her old acquaintance.
“Sit down, Martha. I am sure you have earned a rest, the same as I have,” she said, and with these words moved three platters and a bottle over to the new arrival. “Just take it. There is a lot left and I am glad when it is gone, for then I can plan something new for tomorrow.”
“Thank you, Esther,” Martha replied. “I have already eaten supper. It is very nice of you to invite me to share it with you, but I really can’t.”
“How can you refuse? I simply won’t have it. Anybody can eat what I cook, even the Emperor of Russia himself. I am sure you are not yet quite as mighty as that,” Esther proceeded eagerly, loading a plate with macaroni and stewed plums.
“Please, Martha, don’t make a fuss; just eat this and drink this glass of wine. I don’t know why you shouldn’t. Why shouldn’t you eat supper twice, if it is good?” Martha did not dare to refuse Esther’s offering any more, so she began to eat her second supper, which was much more abundant than the first had been.
“What brings you here so late, Martha; what is it?” asked Esther curiously, for this visit was quite unusual.
“I was going to ask you something, Esther, and I thought that I would interfere less with your work in the evening than at any other time,” Martha answered. “Cornelli, who used to come to me every day has not been to see me all week. I thought that the ladies might have objected to her going to such a humble old woman as I am. I could understand that well enough. Do you think they have?”
“Oh no, they don’t object at all,” Esther replied. “Miss Mina has told them that our master thinks well of you. But you have no idea how changed the child is in all her ways. One hardly knows her any more. Three or four times a morning she used to come running in and out of the kitchen. She was always singing and flying about the garden like a little bird, at all hours of the day.
“Who picked all the fine berries and the yellow plums, the juicy, dark red cherries from the young trees over there, so that it was a pleasure to see her? Cornelli, of course! And now she won’t even look at anything. All the berries are dried up by now and spoiled, and the fine cherries, too. The yellow plums, also, are lying under the tree by the dozen. They are only meant for children; the ladies won’t bother about them and one can’t cook them, either. So they fall down and lie there, and Cornelli never raises her head when she goes by them.”
Martha was much too modest to say how she would have loved to have a little basket full of plums for her young boarder. She never could give him any fruit and she knew how he would enjoy some. But as long as he was staying with her she could not do it, for that would seem as if she were begging for herself.
“Yes, Esther,” she said after a while, “I certainly have noticed how changed Cornelli is. I pray to the Lord that everything will come right in the end. Of course, it is hard for the child to get used to a new life right away. But it surely will be good for her to have somebody looking after her bringing-up.”
Esther shrugged her shoulders significantly at this, but said nothing. “Is the child still in her room or has she gone out, Esther, do you know? I wanted to tell her to come again to see me, as long as the ladies don’t object.”
Esther did not need to answer. At that moment Cornelli came stealing quietly down the hall. When she saw Martha a ray of sunshine passed across her face and she greeted the old woman.
“I came to see if you were ill,” said Martha. “What keeps you from coming to see me, Cornelli? The time has passed so slowly without you, child,” she added, holding Cornelli’s hand affectionately.
“With me, too,” said Cornelli hoarsely.
“Please come tomorrow and every day, the way you used to,” Martha begged.
“No, I won’t come,” Cornelli answered.
“Why not, Cornelli?” Martha asked, full of dismay.
“Because the boy is there. I don’t like him and he does not like me,” Cornelli stated.
Martha now eagerly told Cornelli of the falsehood of this assertion. She told her how Dino had asked after her every day and had hoped that she would come again. It was awfully dull for him to be alone all day without a playmate. Martha was quite sure that it had not been Dino’s fault that she did not like him. The boy had nothing at all against her, for he was asking every day that she come back.
“Tell me, Cornelli,” Martha said finally, “why don’t you like the boy?
