I couldn’t object any to the style of the young ladies when they showed up; for they was both in the queen class, tall and willowy and sweet faced. One could tease opera airs out of the piano in great shape, and the other had quite some of a voice; so the prospects were for a few weeks of lively and entertainin’ evenin’s at the McCabe mansion. I had the programme all framed up too,—me out on the veranda with my heels on the rail, the windows open, and inside the young folks strikin’ up the melodies and makin’ merry gen’rally.
Bobbie and Charles made more or less of a hit with me too when they first called,—good, husky, clean built young gents that passed out the cordial grip and remarked real hearty how much they appreciated our great kindness askin’ ’em up.
“Don’t mention it,” says I. “It’s a fad of mine.”
Anyway, it looked like a good game to be in on, seein’ there wa’n’t any objections from any of the fam’lies. Made me feel bright and chirky, just to see ’em there, so that night at dinner I cut loose with some real cute joshes for the benefit of the young people. You know how easy it is to be humorous on them occasions. Honest, I must have come across with some of the snappiest I had in stock, and I was watchin’ for the girls to pink up and accuse me of bein’ an awful kidder, when all of a sudden I tumbles to the fact that I ain’t holdin’ my audience.
Say, they’d started up a couple of conversations on their own hook—kind of side issue, soft pedal dialogues—and they wa’n’t takin’ the slightest notice of my brilliant efforts. At the other end of the table Sadie is havin’ more or less the same experience; for every time she tries to cut in with some cheerful observation she finds she’s addressin’ either Marjorie’s left shoulder or Bobbie’s right.
“Eh, Sadie?” says I across the centerpiece. “What was that last of yours?”
“It doesn’t matter,” says she. “Shall we have coffee in the library, girls, or outside! I say, Helen, shall we have—— I beg pardon, Helen, but would you prefer——”
“What we seem to need most, Sadie,” says I as she gives it up, “is a table megaphone.”
Nobody hears this suggestion, though, not even Sadie. I was lookin’ for the fun to begin after dinner,—the duets and the solos and the quartets,—but the first thing Sadie and I know we are occupyin’ the libr’y all by ourselves, with nothing doing in the merry music line.
“Of course,” says she, “they want a little time by themselves.”