“Please, sir, do let me go in a while to see my Cousin Eva. I was coming with Patty, but the carriage was too full, and I had to walk; that’s why I am later than the rest of the company.”
This artful dodge sufficed to make the man admit her, respectfully saying:
“The guests are assembled in the library madam,” indicating a door some distance down the corridor.
Miss Tabby bridled, and answered mincingly.
“Oh, thank you, kind sir, but I’m not a madam yet, although I may take a notion to change my name any time!”
And she sailed grandly down the splendid corridor between the potted palms and gleaming white statues, pausing once to adjust her false front with a view to the enslavement of Mr. Somerville’s heart.
“If I could only ketch him, I needn’t go back to the poky country to scratch for a living!” she was thinking as she softly drew aside a fold of the rich portière and peeped in at the assembled company.
What she saw after a brief scrutiny made her drop the curtain and start back in amazement, muttering:
“Land sakes, if there ain’t Doctor Ludington an’ that there Dan Ellis that runned away arter that Hallowe’en trag’dy! Where did he fall from, and what on yearth is he doing of here? Is Mr. Somerville gwine to hire him for a chore boy? I didn’t know they had any cows to milk an’ pigs to feed up in New York. I s’pose Doc Ludington’s giving him a ricommend to the fambly! My, how uppish Pat looks, setting by Hamilton’s side! An’ sakes alive, there’s a West Virginny gal on the sofy by Eva, that Miss Winton, up to Weston. What’s she doing here, too? How solemn they all look, from Mr. Somerville an’ his grand sister, even down to Dan! Guess it’s a mighty dry company; no laffin’ and jokin’ yet. I better slip in an’ not say nothin’ to no one at first, for fear they run me out before I find out what they all come together for!”
As every one seemed to be paying great attention to a remark of Doctor Ludington’s, she sidled in and sank down unperceived on the nearest chair, half hidden by a large jardiniere of flowers.