CHAPTER XIV.
APIS MELLIFICA.
“GOOD-MORNING, my dear, good-morning. I am pleased to see you so punctual.”
Bonny looked up brightly. There was surely nothing stern or forbidding about the fine old face which smiled genially upon her from the museum window, and she was instantly ashamed of her earlier “dread” concerning the new task that day to be begun. “Good-morning, Mr. Brook. Of course I would be punctual this first day. The trouble will be to keep it up. I’m a lazy sort of a girl.”
“Humph! I’ve seen no evidence of it heretofore, and I shall not watch for faults. How is the good little mother this morning?”
“Well; really growing stronger, thank you. I have her own word for it.”
“Then we can get to work with a light heart. I’ve laid out a pile of it, I assure you. Like many other people who defer what they should not till over-late in life, now I’ve set myself the task I am all impatience to get through it. Come in, please.”
Beatrice knew the way well enough. Till that morning the great apartment had been a fascinating wonderland to her, with its rows of shelves and cases, each filled with creatures curious, ugly, or beautiful; and the thought that she was now to learn all about them in a business way did appear quite formidable. However, she reminded herself of her mother’s frequent advice, “Take one thing at a time,” and found comfort in the knowledge that she could write of only one insect at one instant. Collectively they might be something dreadful; individually they were poor little dried-up affairs!
Then her eye fell upon the table by the opposite window and her face brightened. “The typewriter! When did it come?”
“Last evening. The man brought it down from Newburgh and put it into working order for you. I am anxious to see you use it. He did so for a moment, but I did not like to detain him. It is a wonderful instrument, is it not?”
“I suppose so. Anyway I am very fond of using it.” The girl sat down before the firm little table which the machine agent had prepared for her, and, placing a sheet of paper in position, clicked off Mr. Brook’s name and address with a rapidity and correctness which delighted him.