"Bravo!" "Bravissimo!" echoed round the room, in various waves of silvery sound.
"Is that all, Miss ——?" inquired the only boy of the party, unless you except the approach to second childhood ensconced behind the newspaper, and now acting the amiable part of reporter, for your benefit.
"All, unless I add that I occasionally glanced cautiously over, to catch the form of my kind friend, as I hurried along, that I might not again cross his path; but I did not 'calculate' successfully after all; for, as I ran across Broadway, at Canal street corner, he was a little nearer than I had expected. I bowed slightly, and hurried on:—but wasn't it beautiful? Such chivalrous sentiments towards women: 'It is what we all owe your sex!' And his manner was more expressive than his words—so gentle and quiet! No stage effect"——
"But you quoted Shakespeare," insinuated a pretty piece of malice on the ottoman.
"I couldn't help it, if I did! I was surprised out of the use of ordinary language by an extraordinary occasion. If you are going to ridicule me, I shall be sorry I told you; for it is one of the pleasantest things that has happened to me in a great while! There was I, in my incognito-dress, as I call it, weary and pale, nothing about me to attract interest, I am sure! I wish such men were more common in this world, they would elevate the race!"
"I declare, cousin Maggie, you are growing enthusiastic! I haven't seen such beaming eyes and such a brilliant color for a long time! Was this most gallant knight of yours a young gentleman, may I ask?"
The lady thus questioned seemed to reflect a moment before she replied:
"If you mean to inquire whether he was a whiskered, moustached élégant, not a bit of it! I should not have addressed such a man in the street. On the contrary, he was"——
"Married, I am afraid!" interrupted pretty mischief on the ottoman, giggling behind her next neighbor.
"I dare say he may have been," pursued the narrator, quietly. "No very young man, even if he had wished to be polite to a stranger neither young nor beautiful, which is very doubtful, would have exhibited the graceful self-possession and easy politeness of this gentleman:—he was, probably, going to his home in the upper part of the city after a business-day. As I remember his dress, though, of course, I had no thought about it at the time, it was the simple, unnoticeable attire of an American gentleman when engaged in business occupations—everything about him, as I recall his presence, was in keeping—unostentatious, quiet, appropriate! I shall long preserve his portrait in my picture-gallery of memory, and I am proud to believe that he is my own countryman!"