She caught my hand with a strong, quick pressure, and, bending her head to mine, said, close to my ear:
“I heard everything that man said in our hallway. You left the library door open when you called Mr. Dowden out.”
“So,” I returned, maliciously, “you—you couldn't HELP following!”
She released my hand—gently, to my surprise.
“Hush,” she whispered. “He's saying something.”
“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Beasley again—and stopped again.
Dowden's voice sounded hysterically in my right ear. (Miss Apperthwaite had whispered in my left.) “The only speech he's ever made in his life—and he's stuck!”
But Beasley wasn't: he was only deliberating.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began—“Mr. and Mrs. Hunchberg, Colonel Hunchberg and Aunt Cooley Hunchberg, Miss Molanna, Miss Queen, and Miss Marble Hunchberg, Mr. Noble, Mr. Tom, and Mr. Grandee Hunchberg, Mr. Corley Linbridge, and Master Hammersley:—You see before you to-night, my person, merely the representative of your real host. MISTER Swift. Mister Swift has expressed a wish that there should be a speech, and has deputed me to make it. He requests that the subject he has assigned me should be treated in as dignified a manner as is possible—considering the orator. Ladies and gentlemen”—he took a sip of water—“I will now address you upon the following subject: 'Why we Call Christmas-time the Best Time.'
“Christmas-time is the best time because it is the kindest time. Nobody ever felt very happy without feeling very kind, and nobody ever felt very kind without feeling at least a LITTLE happy. So, of course, either way about, the happiest time is the kindest time—that's THIS time. The most beautiful things our eyes can see are the stars; and for that reason, and in remembrance of One star, we set candles on the Tree to be stars in the house. So we make Christmas-time a time of stars indoors; and they shine warmly against the cold outdoors that is like the cold of other seasons not so kind. We set our hundred candles on the Tree and keep them bright throughout the Christmas-time, for while they shine upon us we have light to see this life, not as a battle, but as the march of a mighty Fellowship! Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you!”