The words she really uttered were somewhat more formal; but the good, quiet-looking little minister and very quiet-looking little wife were still shaking hands with Dick, that is, with his right hand, when he turned almost eagerly, and caught hold of Dab Kinzer with his left.
"Yes, sir, an' dis is Cap'n Dab—I mean, this is my friend Mr. Dabney
Kinzer, of Long Island,—de bes'—"
"How do you do, Mr. Kinzer? Glad to make your acquaintance," said Mr. Fallow; and Dick's success was complete, except that he was saying to himself,—
"I jes' can't trus' my tongue wid de oder boys. Dey's got to take dar chances."
"Now, Mr. Kinzer," said Miss Almira, at that moment, "it's time we were going home."
"Yes, Frank," said her mother patronizingly, "I think we had better be going."
If such an exercise as "introduction" could earn it, they were both entitled to good appetites; and, after all, it had been quite a nice little affair.
Dabney was quite as tall as Miss Almira; but as they walked across the green, side by side, he could not avoid a side-glance that gave him a very clear idea of the difference between his present company and Annie Foster. It was at that very moment that it occurred to Frank that he had last walked home from church under the protecting wing of the portly and matronly Mrs. Kinzer; and he could but draw some kind of a comparison between her and Mrs. Myers.
"They're both widows," he thought; "but there isn't any other resemblance."
Ford and Dick brought up the rear; and for some reason, or there may have been more than one, they were both in capital good spirits.