“His manners are becoming insufferable,� Diana went on, without heeding the silence.
“If he’s rude to you, Diana,� the colonel said quietly, “just say so and I’ll thrash him.�
“I sometimes wish you would!� she retorted wrathfully, and then, reaching up in the dim carriage, she patted the colonel’s cheek. “You’re an old dear,� she said fondly, “but you do get imposed on, and Jacob never does!�
IX
DR. CHEYNEY’S old gig traveled up the hill just behind Mrs. Eaton’s carriage, and both turned into the gateway of Broad Acres.
That was the morning after Kitty Broughton’s ball. The doctor had not been there, having had a bad case on his hands in Eshcol, and he was full of excitement over a new review of the Cresset speech published in New York, in a great metropolitan daily. It seemed that Caleb Trench was going to be celebrated and old William Cheyney had championed him. He had the paper in his pocket and wanted to show it to Colonel Royall, but there was Mrs. Eaton, and when the doctor climbed down from his high seat she was already delivering her opinion to Diana and her father, and she did not suppress it on account of Dr. Cheyney.
“I can’t imagine what has come over you, Colonel Royall!� that lady was saying with great indignation; “you must be out of your senses to allow Diana to dance in public with a common shopkeeper, a—a kind of hoodlum, too!�
This was too much for Dr. Cheyney, who shook with silent laughter; and there was a twinkle in Colonel Royall’s eye.
“My dear Jinny,� he said pleasantly, “have you lived all these years without knowing that it’s Diana who bosses me?�
“I call it a shameful exhibition,� continued Mrs. Eaton hotly. “I never have believed in mixing the classes—never! And to see my own cousin, and a young girl at that, dancing with that—that fellow! As far as it looked to other people, too, she enjoyed it.�