They were met by attentive servants, who were eager to behold the returning bride and bridegroom, and looked astonished to see the bride return in charge of her parents, accompanied by a strange woman.
“Where was the bridegroom?” was the question that their amazed faces put, though their tongues said nothing.
An accident must have happened. His horses must have run away and upset the carriage. Maybe he might be brought home on a stretcher presently. They curbed their curiosity until they could interview the coachman, who must know all about it.
They waited on the returning party in respectful silence.
“Miss Meeke, my dear,” said Mrs. Force, as they entered the hall, “will you oblige me and take charge of our guest, and show her into the best spare room, where there is a fire, and attend to her comfort? Take Wynnette with you. You see, dear, that I have to give my whole care to my poor child here. Mrs. Anglesea, I am sure you will excuse me for a little while?”
“Oh, go along with you and look after the gal! She’s ’most dead! How she can take on so after that beat beats me! Lord! there’s no accounting for gals’ whims! But there! go along with her. Never mind me; I can make myself at home anywheres!” exclaimed the visitor, beginning to pull off her overshoes then and there.
Miss Meeke and Wynnette invited and conducted her upstairs to the best bedchamber, situated in front of the house, with windows overlooking the bay; furnished with maple wood and blue chintz, and warmed by a fine, open, wood fire.
Wynnette drew an armchair to the fire, and made the panting guest sit down in it, while Miss Meeke looked to the washstand, to see if there were water and towels enough.
“I have to get one of you young ones to lend me the loan of a hair brush and comb, for I didn’t bring any. If I had knowed I was coming, I’d ‘a’ done it. But, Lord! no one ever knows! And there! I have just remembered as I never took leave of that good soul, Miss Sibby! And whatever will she think of me, a-going off at a tangent in this onthankful manner?” meandered the woman, talking partly to her attendants and partly to herself.
“Oh, she will say you were so flambergasted by the rumpus—I mean confused and excited by the occasion—that you forgot to bid her good-by,” said Wynnette.