"How long is it since you've been in Boston?" Nannie asked, looking up into the anxious old face framed in the black silk bonnet which looked twice as old-fashioned as ever before.
"Not sence Sophia was married 'n' we came up to select her weddin' gownd. I was quite a girl then, an' I guess I felt more at home in a crowd than I do now. We don't often hev much of a crowd out our way."
They were among the first to take their seats at the theatre. Mr. Ray had got places for them only three rows back from the stage, and, once established there, Nannie felt that they were in a safe haven, where her guest could grow calm and responsive again.
At first Miss Becky was almost too overawed to speak, but after a while she got the better of the situation and began telling Nannie all about Sophia and her "true-so," and how they got lost on their way to the station and almost missed their train, which was the only train "out" in old times.
"I do hope we sha'n't miss our train to-night, my dear! It doos seem's though we might 'f they don't begin pretty soon," and the old lady--for a very old lady she seemed to have become all of a sudden--fidgeted in her chair, and looked over her shoulder to see if the seats were not filling up.
"We sha'n't lose our train, Miss Becky," Nannie assured her. "You know it doesn't go until half-past five o'clock, and the play is always over before five. And even if we did miss it we could take the seven-fifteen."
"Oh, dear, no! I sh'd feel reel bad to miss the train. Why, it gits dark by six o'clock, 'n' 'twouldn't be safe for us to be goin' round the city streets after dark. We might git garroted or, or--_spoken to!_ Dear me! I _wish_ they would begin!"
"If it gets late, Miss Becky, we won't wait for the end of the play," said Nannie, while a very distinct pang seized her at thought of missing anything.
"I think that _would_ be better!" Miss Becky cried, with evident relief. "Don't you think it might be better to go out a little early, anyway? They'll be such a crowd when everybody tries to go out to once that we might git delayed. _My!_ what a sight of people there is already! And up in the galleries, too! Ain't you 'most afeared to stay in sech a crowd?"