Page:Poet Lore, volume 34, 1923.djvu/516

 Lena.—And you, as his grandmother, would like to speak a good word for him?

Bara.—Most humbly I beg, my lady—I should not say a word if he really did not need it so much—for her sake.

Lena.—Whose sake? Speak plainly.

Bara (Speaking rapidly, half crying).—Please my lady, but Jack is so headstrong, and he is planning to marry, to bring into the family that hussy and her baby, Nancy, if I may with your kind permission speak out with a free tongue!

Lena.—What have I to do with your plots and intrigues. Let Jack marry where he pleases.

Bara (Busy again).—But the disgrace of any of its retainers reflects on the noble family. Nancy has a son by his late brother, Tony, and Jack would now bring her to me as a respectable bride.

Lena.—Oh, Bara, what do you bother me for?

Bara.—Your ladyship, if he did not get this job he is after, her father would not let her go to him in spite of the fact that he has too many mouths to feed.

Lena.—And that would settle the shame to the family?

Bara.—Settle it? But for thirty years the lad would not hear about a woman, and now he all at once falls for such an one! That is looked down upon even among the nobility, let alone among us common people.

Lena.—Bara, my head is bursting, please don’t torment me. I didn’t know you could be so mean. You know that it is all in the hands of our overseer, and I shan’t poke my nose into his business.

Bara.—He, gracious lady! He is the cause of the whole business. If he had said nothing about Tony’s escapade—who knows how much of it is really true? Nancy would not have got that three hundred dollars of mine, and Jack would never have thought of her for a wife. The overseer is here today and there tomorrow, and before he goes into active service for good with lady Erna

Lena.—Bara, I believe you have one of your talking spells today. I can forgive you many things, but please don’t meddle with the affairs of your superiors.

Bara.—You are right, my lady. But I humbly beg to remind you that it cannot be a trifling matter even to them, or they would not keep shutting me up when I venture to open my mouth on the subject. I have lived through some trying experiences here at Harshaw. I would never have dreamed