Desboro presented them; Jacqueline came forward, offering a shy hand to Aunt Hannah, and, bending her superb young head, looked down into the beady eyes which were now fairly electric with intelligence.
Desboro began, easily:
"I asked Mrs. Hammerton to have tea with——"
"I asked myself," remarked Aunt Hannah, laying her other hand over Jacqueline's—she did not know just why—perhaps because she was vain of her hands, as well as of her feet and "figger."
She seated herself on the sofa and drew Jacqueline down beside her.
"This young man tells me that you are cataloguing his grandfather's accumulation of ancient tin-ware."
"Yes," said Jacqueline, already afraid of her. And the old lady divined it, too, with not quite as much pleasure as it usually gave her to inspire trepidation in others.
Her shrill voice was a little modified when she said:
"Where did you learn to do such things? It's not usual, you know."
"You have heard of Jean Louis Nevers," suggested Desboro.