"Dear me, I forgot the black ribbon."
In she darted through another door, and came out stuffing a bit of twisted paper into her pocket. Ten feet more and she turned square about:
"Some pins, Phœmie; I must get some pins."
So we kept darting in and out of doors till there wasn't another in the street, and went home with both our pockets stuffed full of pins, lace, gloves, combs, buttons, and a general assortment of other small things, all of which E. E. had forgotten till the last minute.
That night I left her plunged headforemost into a huge trunk, with a sloping roof, her feet just touching the ground, and complaining bitterly because Dempster was not at home to help press the things down.
LXXVII.
STARTING FOR LONG BRANCH.
EARLY the next morning a big wagon-load of trunks drove from the door. Then a carriage came up ready to take us to the boat. It was awful hot, and the air in that house was so close one could hardly breathe. The parlors were all shut up. The stone girl and that other fellow had white dresses on, and for once made a decent appearance. The chairs and sofas were all done up in linen, the blinds were shut, and the whole house looked like a church whose minister had been sent off on his travels at the expense of an adoring congregation.
E. E. and I stood in the hall, I with a satchel in my hand, she with a little brown affair buckled on one side of her waist.