Part 5 (1/2)
I was standing at his side and could feel him tremble--see him turn pale.
”Dear me!” he whispered in a choking voice, ”can she mean me?”
”Of course she does,” said I. ”Who else? Do you hesitate? Surely you can't refuse such an invitation from a lady?”
”No, I suppose not,” said he mechanically. And amidst much laughter from the disinterested while the faces of Mrs. Rumbullion and his mother were spectacles of crimson astonishment, he made his exit from the room. Never in my life did I so much long for that instrument described by Mr. Samuel Weller--a pair of patent double-million- magnifying microscopes of hextry power, to see through a deal door.
Instead of this, I had to learn what happened only by report.
Lottie Pilgrim was standing under the hall burners with her elbow on the newel-post, looking more vividly charming than he had ever seen her before at Mrs. Cramcroud's sociable or elsewhere. When startled by the apparition of Mr. Daniel Lovegrove instead of the little Rum- bullion whom she was expecting, she had no time to exclaim or hide her mounting color, none at all to explain to her own mind the mistake that had occurred, before his arm was clasped around her waist, and his lips so closely pressed to hers, that through her soft thick hair she could feel the throbbing of his temples. As for Daniel, he seemed in a walking dream, from which he waked to see Miss Pilgrim looking into his eyes with utter though not incensed stupefaction--to stammer:
”Forgive me! Do forgive me! I thought you were in earnest.”
”So I was,” she said tremulously, as soon as she could catch her voice, ”in sending for my cousin Reginald.”
”Oh, dear, what shall I do! Believe me, I was told you wanted me. Let me go and explain it to mother--she'll tell the rest. I couldn't do it--I'd die of mortification. Oh, that wretched boy Billy!”
On the principle already mentioned, his agitation rea.s.sured her.
”Don't try to explain it now--it may get Billy a scolding. Are there any but intimate family friends here this evening?”
”No--I believe--no--I'm sure,” replied Daniel, collecting his faculties.
”Then I don't mind what they think. Perhaps they'll suppose we've known each other long; but we'll arrange it by-and-by. They'll think the more of it the longer we stay out here--hear them laugh! I must run back now. I'll send you somebody.”
A round of juvenile applause greeted her as she hurried into the parlor, and a number of grown people smiled quite musically. Her quick woman wit showed her how to retaliate and divide the embarra.s.sment of the occasion. As she pa.s.sed me she said in an undersone:
”Answer quick! Who's that fat lady on the sofa, that laughs so loud?”
”Mrs. Cromwell Crags,” said I as quietly.
Miss Pilgrim made a satirically low courtsey and spoke in a modest but distinct voice:
”I really must be excused for asking. I'm a stranger, you know; but is there such a lady here as Mrs. Craggs--Mrs. _Cromwell_ Craggs? For if so, the present doorkeeper would like to see Mrs. Cromwell Craggs.”
Then came the turn of the fat lady to be laughed at; but out she had to go and get kissed like the rest of us.
Before the close of the evening Billy was made as jealous as his parents and I was surprised to see Daniel in close conversation with Miss Pilgrim among the geraniums and fuchsias of the conservatory. ”A regular flirtation!” said Billy somewhat indignantly. The conclusion they arrived at was, that after all no great harm had been done, and that the dear little fellow ought not to be peached on for his fun.
If I had known at the time how easily they forgave him, I should have suspected that the offense Billy had led Daniel into committing was not unlikely to be repeated on the offender's own account; but so much as I could see showed me that the ice was broken.
--From ”Little Brother, and Other Genre Pictures.”
Robert Jones Burdette
RHEUMATISM MOVEMENT CURE
One day, not a great while ago, Mr. Middlerib read in his favorite paper a paragraph stating that the sting of a bee was a sure cure for rheumatism, and citing several remarkable instances in which people had been perfectly cured by this abrupt remedy. Mr. Middlerib thought of the rheumatic twinges that grappled his knees once in awhile and made his life a burden.
He read the article several times and pondered over it. He understood that the stinging must be done scientifically and thoroughly. The bee, as he understood the article, was to be griped by the ears and set down upon the rheumatic joint and held there until it stung itself stingless. He had some misgivings about the matter. He knew it would hurt. He hardly thought it could hurt any worse than the rheumatism, and it had been so many years since he was stung by a bee that he had almost forgotten what it felt like. He had, however, a general feeling that it would hurt some. But desperate diseases require desperate remedies, and Mr. Middlerib was willing to undergo any amount of suffering if it would cure his rheumatism.