Page:Rilla of Ingleside (1921).djvu/357

 Rilla was stiff and sore after her tumble and walk of the night before, but she was not long in dressing herself and Jims. When she went down to the kitchen she found a smoking hot breakfast on the table. Mr. Chapley was nowhere in sight and Mrs. Chapley was cutting bread with a sulky air. Mrs. Matilda Pitman was sitting in an armchair, knitting a grey army sock. She still wore her bonnet and her triumphant expression.

“Set right in, dears, and make a good breakfast,” she said.

“I am not hungry,” said Rilla almost pleadingly. “I don’t think I can eat anything. And it is time I was starting for the station. The morning train will soon be along. Please excuse me and let us go—I'll take a piece of bread and butter for Jims.”

Mrs. Matilda Pitman shook a knitting needle playfully at Rilla.

“Sit down and take your breakfast,” she said. “Mrs. Matilda Pitman commands you. Everybody obeys Mrs. Matilda Pitman—even Robert and Amelia. You must obey her too.”

Rilla did obey her. She sat down and, such was the influence of Mrs. Matilda Pitman’s mesmeric eye, she ate a tolerable breakfast. The obedient Amelia never spoke; Mrs. Matilda Pitman did not speak either; but she knitted furiously and chuckled. When Rilla had finished, Mrs. Matilda Pitman rolled up her sock.

“Now you can go if you want to,” she said, “but you don't have to go. You can stay here as long as you want to and I'll make Amelia cook your meals for you.”