"Bring some fresh chicken and hot bacon and hoe-cake at once, Adam; and have Chloe fry some oysters and tap a barrel of apple-jack."
The slaves scurried away to the kitchen again as the sound of deep masculine voices was heard in the library. The guests entered the breakfast-room side by side, and the four ladies rose to greet them; Madam Trevor first, with her daughters just behind her, and Deborah, with suddenly eager eyes, a little to one side.
Dr. Charles Carroll, father of "Mr. Carroll, of Carrollton," foremost Whig and Catholic in Annapolis, always in disfavor with the Governor officially, and excellent friends with him of a Saturday night, forty-five years old, wealthy, bluff, a little gray under his bag-wig, booted, spurred, fresh of color, and bright of eye, greeted his old friend and mentor, Madam Trevor, with hearty good-humor. Beside him was Benedict Calvert, a son of the Lord Proprietary, but Protestant bred; Whig by preference, slender, handsome, unusually dignified, and quite unaffected. After the various salutations the entire party reseated themselves at table, and the guests, hungry after their early canter, helped themselves without stint to the freshly cooked food brought in for them. The doctor had placed himself, as usual, by Deborah, who was all attention now; while Mr. Calvert, with a sympathetic smile of understanding and good-comradeship, was by Lucy, with his hostess on the other side.
"And now, madam, young ladies, Sir Charles, and our host," cried the doctor, in a hearty voice, "we are about to repay your hospitality with news, excellent news, for every one of you!"
"Ah! Let us hear it, doctor!" cried Vincent, while the others murmured assent.
"Well, then, for the ladies first! The Baltimore is in port, after a bad voyage. She sailed from Portsmouth on the 20th of February. I was on the south piers as she came to anchor. Her cargo—or part of it—is all for feminine ears to hear. She has with her the last fashions from home, and the material to reproduce them. There are paduasoys and lutestrings, and satins and laces, and damasks and silverware, and cheynay and glass, and ribbons and combs, and shoe-buckles and silk stockings, and most wonderful garters, I'm told; and—"
"Nay, now, doctor, 'tis far enough!" cried Sir Charles; and the gentlemen laughed.
"Well, then, there are those things, and more. And on the morrow, at ten of the morning, there is to be a public sale on the docks off Hanover Street, where he who has the wherewithal may buy. And I am bidden to ask you all to ride in and spend what moneys you can wrest from Vincent's hands, and, after, to come to my house, where Mistresses Letitia and Frances will serve you with a fair widower's dinner. How now—what think you of my first news, damsels?"
"'Tis what none in the world but you could bring, Dr. Carroll," replied Madam Trevor, beaming graciously.
"And we may go, mother?" asked Lucy, voicing the anxiety of her more dignified sister and her silent cousin.