“More’s the pity for you, then, or I’m much mistaken,” the woman said, with a peculiar compression of her thin lips.
Then she added, with more of animation than she had yet displayed:
“But, bless me! I suppose you’d like to know who I am, and won’t be much surprised when I tell you my name is Blunt; my name is like my nature, and I’m madam’s—Mrs. Richards’ housekeeper. A pretty time of it I have, too, or I’m much mistaken; though one can put up with considerable where their bread and butter and ‘fixin’s’ are concerned. But come, it’s time we were off. Have you had your breakfast?” she concluded, seeing that Star had grown rather pale, and thinking she might be faint and hungry.
“Yes’m,” she answered, while a wistful expression stole into her eyes, and she stepped back and looked over the railing into the dining-room below, hoping to see Mr. Rosevelt. She felt as if she could not go away without saying farewell to her kind fellow-traveler.
But he was nowhere to be seen, and she saw that Mrs. Blunt was impatient.
“If you please,” she said, timidly, “might I just wait a few minutes to say good-by to a gentleman who has been very kind to me?”
“Lor’, child! it’ll be no use; you’ll never find him, and almost everybody has gone already. Probably he’s in the hands of the customs, having his trunks overhauled, and won’t want to be bothered,” Mrs. Blunt returned, good-naturedly, but really very anxious to get back to her interrupted duties.
“But he has no trunks; he was on the wreck with me, and he told me to wait here for him,” Star persisted, almost ready to weep at the thought of going without seeing him.
“I’m sorry, miss, but madam will be having one of her tantrums if I am not back shortly, as there’s company to dinner to-day, and it’s nearly ten o’clock now,” Mrs. Blunt, returned, a trifle indifferently.
She turned as she spoke and led the way from the place, and Star was forced to follow her, striving hard to repress the sobs that were struggling in her bosom over her disappointment; and when, half an hour later, Mr. Rosevelt came to seek her, he was as much disturbed to find her gone as she had been to go.