CHAPTER XIII
THE READER IS PRESENTED TO TWO CHARMING GIRLS,
AND SO IS MAJOR GRANBY
AND now while a certain Peter Skerrett, stupendous wag, who is in town for a day or two and has been presented to Mr. Waddy by old Budlong, is showing the returned nabob through streets of deserted houses and telling him the necessary protective scandals about their owners:——
And while at Newport, in the society of De Châteaunéant, Tim Budlong is subscribing more freely than ever, and the Budlong ladies are quivering through the ter-diurnal shift of toilets resplendent:——
And while Sally Bishop, who has heard from her father how he had sold the black to a Mr. Ira Waddy, just returned from India, is dying with something on her mind which she dare not yet reveal:——
And while Horace Belden is beating his bolting horse and training another, to which he naturally gives the name of Knockknees, to run, and no doubt to win purses, and is nursing his finances for an August at Newport with its possible heiress:——
And while Miss Sullivan, at her lovely cottage opposite Belden’s, is singing duets with Mrs. Cecilia Tootler, to whom, though that lady has often spoken of the delightful visit of Mr. Waddy, her friend, she has never yet mentioned her share in the rescue of a person of that name:——
While all our acquaintances are busied thus, Major Granby, at Halifax, boards a Cunarder, embarked for Boston. As he mounted the plank, a young excessively English man defended the gangway with open fist. The major won his entrance by grasping the fist in amicable guise.
“Why, how d’ye do, Ambient?” he said to his compatriot, a pleasant-faced pinkling. “So you have really started on your travels.”
“Aw! Gwanby, I’m vewy glad to see you,” replied Sir Comeguys Ambient, generally called briefly Sir Com. “Yes, I’ve begun my jowney wound the wowuld. It’s lownger than I thought.”
“You’ve had some pleasant company, anyway,” said the major, examining discreetly two young ladies who stood near the rail, and who, seemingly, found much to interest them in the shoreward view.