"I see! I see! It's she! Hip, hip, hurrah!" shouted Mr. Curtis, waving his hat, and electrifying the crowd around him, and then, before Captain Arlingford knew what he was about, he darted off, played in and out through the crowd, dug his elbows into the ribs of all around him, and so forced his way aboard the steamer, amid the stifled shrieks and groans, and curses of his victims.
"That's what you call a summary proceeding," said Captain Arlingford, laughing; "what a living galvanic battery that fellow is—a broad-clothed barrel of gunpowder; touch him and off he goes! Well, here's to follow his example."
So saying, but in a less impetuous manner, he made his way through the throng to where stood a lady, "beautiful exceedingly," and dressed entirely in black, after the fashion of the Spanish Creoles, for one of whom, in her dark, rich beauty, she might easily have been mistaken.
"Mrs. Wildair! Good gracious, Mrs. Wildair, how do you do?" exclaimed a breathless voice. "To think that you should come this day of all days! Oh, scissors! Well, I am glad to see you! Upon my word and honor, I am."
"Mr. Curtis!" exclaimed the lady, with a little cry of surprise and delight. "Why, what an unexpected pleasure to meet you here! Dear Mr. Curtis, how glad I am to see you!"
"So am I, just as glad!" said Mr. Curtis, seizing the little hand she extended, and wringing it until she winced. "Good gracious! to think of it. How do you do? Well, if it isn't the most unexpected—to think that you should come home to-day of all days! Good gra—— Hey? what now?"
A vigorous slap on the shoulder that staggered him, as well it might, had jerked the last words out of him, and turning fiercely round, he saw the laughing face of the lady's companion turned toward him.
"Why, Curtis, old fellow, have you a greeting for no one but Georgia? Come, you have shook her hand long enough; try mine now."
"Randall, my boy, how goes it? Well, I am glad, and no mistake. Good gracious! what the mischief kept you so long in those barbarous foreign parts, anyhow?"
"Don't know, really," said Mr. Randall, laughing at his vehemence; "the time passed almost imperceptibly. But you—what brings you here? I thought you were in New York."