“He can’t come in here,” said the young lady inflexibly.
“He’s got to, that’s all there is about it. I can’t go playin’ no monkey tricks with David M. Jones.”
“Then please find me some other place.”
“Ain’t I already told you? They ain’t no—”
“You mean you can’t, after all, accommodate me on this ship?”
“Lord! Lord!” The agent seemed to pray for patience and for light.
“You were prepared to make Miss Tillie Jump—” and in spite of herself, gravity went by the board. But the agent’s smile was wan.
“That was different,” he assured her. “Well, here goes!” With the air of one who has cast the last shred of prudence to the winds, he wrote out a new card from which you might gather that David M. Jones had not been reëlected for this berth. And so, exit the former governor!
“Now you can’t say we ain’t done everything.”
“Thank you,” said Hildegarde. “There’s only one thing more. I should like to bring my steamer trunk in to-day and get settled.”