“Don’t forget the letters. Uppee sleevee, old Tea-tray!” roared Dennis.
Ah-Fo flirted them out once more. “Ha! ha! ha!” laughed he, and went finally away.
CHAPTER XVI.
“Das Haar trennt.”—German Proverb.
We three were not able to be present at Alfonso’s wedding, for the very good reason that we were no longer in British Guiana. But the day we sailed for Halifax, Alfonso and his Georgiana came down to see us on the stelling. “Georgiana” was as black as a coal, but Alfonso had not boasted without reason of the cut of her clothes. She had an upright pretty figure, and her dress fitted it to perfection. It was a white dress, and she had a very gorgeous parasol, deeply fringed, and she wore a kerchief of many colours round her shoulders, and an equally bright silk one cleverly twisted into a little cap on her woolly head. Her costume was, in short, very gay indeed.
“Out of all the bounds of nature and feminine modesty,” said Alister.
“Of your grandmother’s nature and modesty, maybe,” retorted Dennis. “But she’s no gayer than the birds of the neighbourhood, anyway, and she’s as neat,
which is more than ye can say for many a young lady that’s not so black in the face.”
In short, Dennis approved of Alfonso’s bride, and I think the lady was conscious of it. She had a soft voice, and very gentle manners, and to Dennis she chatted away so briskly that I wondered what she could have found to talk about, till I discovered from what Dennis said to Alister afterwards, that the subject of her conversation was Alfonso’s professional prospects.