Here the lady flounced out of the room, leaving the girls to stare at each other in silence, wondering what she meant.  Since her marriage, Mabel had occupied the parlor chamber, which connected with a cozy little bedroom and dressing-room adjoining.  These had at the time been fitted up and furnished in a style which Mrs. Livingstone thought worthy of Mabel’s wealth, but now that she was poor, the case was altered, and she had long contemplated removing her to more inferior quarters.  “She wasn’t going to give her the very best room in the house.  No, indeed, she wasn’t—­wearing out the carpets, soiling the furniture, and keeping everything topsy-turvy.”

She understood John Jr. well enough to know that it would not do to approach him on the subject, so she waited, determining to carry out her plans the very first time he should be absent, thinking when it was once done, he would submit quietly.  On hearing that he had gone off on a hunting excursion, she thought, “Now is my time,” and summoning to her assistance three or four servants, she removed everything belonging to John Jr. and Mabel, to the small and not remarkably convenient room which the former had occupied previous to his marriage.

“What are you about?” asked Anna, who chanced to pass by and looked in.

“About my business,” answered Mrs. Livingstone.  I’m not going to have my best things all worn out, and if this was once good enough for John to sleep in, it is now.”

“But will Mabel like it?” asked Anna, a little suspicious that her sister-in-law’s rights were being infringed.

“Nobody cares whether she is pleased or not,” said Mrs. Livingstone.  “If she don’t like it, all she has to do is to go away.”

“Lasted jest about as long as I thought ’twood,” said Aunt Milly, when she heard what was going on.  “Ile and crab-apple vinegar won’t mix, nohow, and if before the year’s up old miss don’t worry the life out of that poor little sickly critter, that looks now like a picked chicken, my name ain’t Milly Livingstone.”

The other negroes agreed with her.  Constantly associated with the family, they saw things as they were, and while Mrs. Livingstone’s conduct was universally condemned, Mabel was a general favorite.  After Mrs. Livingstone had left the room, Milly, with one or two others, stole up to reconnoiter.

“Now I ‘clar’ for’t,” said Milly, “if here ain’t Marster John’s bootjack, fish-line, and box of tobacky, right out in far sight, and Miss Mabel comin’ in here to sleep.  ’Pears like some white folks hain’t no idee of what ’longs to good manners.  Here, Corind, put the jack in thar, the fish-line thar, the backy thar, and heave that ar other thrash out o’door,” pointing to some geological specimens which from time to time John Jr. had gathered, and which his mother had not thought proper to molest.

Corinda obeyed, and then Aunt Milly, who really possessed good taste, began to make some alterations in the arrangement of the furniture, and under her supervision the room began to present a more cheerful and inviting aspect.