“Why, please?”
“Because I did not want Lootie to know I was here.”
“But you told me to tell Lootie.”
“Yes. But I knew Lootie would not believe you. If she were to see me sitting spinning here, she wouldn’t believe me, either.”
“Why?”
“Because she couldn’t. She would rub her eyes, and go away and say she felt queer, and forget half of it and more, and then say it had been all a dream.”
“Just like me,” said Irene, feeling very much ashamed of herself.
“Yes, a good deal like you, but not just like you; for you’ve come again; and Lootie wouldn’t have come again. She would have said, No, no—she had had enough of such nonsense.”
“Is it naughty of Lootie, then?”
“It would be naughty of you. I’ve never done anything for Lootie.”
“And you did wash my face and hands for me,” said Irene, beginning to cry.
The old lady smiled a sweet smile and said:
“I’m not vexed with you, my child—nor with Lootie either. But I don’t want you to say anything more to Lootie about me. If she should ask you, you must just be silent. But I do not think she will ask you.”
All the time they talked the old lady kept on spinning.
“You haven’t told me yet what I am spinning,” she said.