She bowed and courtesied to the President.
"Excuse me, Governor," he said with a smile. "Good morning, Phœbe."
"Good mornin', sah."
She extended the note with a second dip of her ponderous form:
"Yassah, Miss Ma'y send dis here excommunication ter you, sah!"
"You don't say so?" the President cried, breaking into a laugh.
"Yassah."
"Then I'm excommunicated, Governor!" he nodded to Chase. "I must read the edict." He adjusted his glasses and glanced at the note:
"Your mistress is lying down?"
"Yassah, she's sufferin' fum a little spell er nervous prosperity, sah—dat's all—sah——"