Part 17 (1/2)

”Hoity-toity-toity-toity,” he said in a deep ba.s.s voice.

The old lady turned, too, and looked at the newcomers without surprise,-because English people are never surprised. The girls could see that in her prime she must have been quite like her granddaughter; her tall figure was shrunken small with age, but her nose looked larger because her face had shrunken, too. The eyes were the same deep blue, with a kindly, warm glow. She was dressed in a gray silk poplin with lace bertha and cuffs, and on her white hair she wore a little lace cap.

”Grannie, dear,” cried Beatrice, running up and kneeling beside her grandmother, ”we've had, oh, such an exciting morning,-such adventures!

I've brought some new American friends home to tea. We will tell you all about what happened when we have had food. Is tea coming?”

”Pray introduce your friends, child,” replied the old lady, endeavoring to rise from her chair with the aid of a mahogany stick.

”Miss Campbell,” said Beatrice gayly, ”and these are Billie, Elinor, Mary and Nancy. This is my grandmother, the d.u.c.h.ess of Kilkenty.”

Miss Campbell turned quite pale for a moment. A d.u.c.h.ess? Great heavens!

She would never have consented to come if she had known she was to have tea with a d.u.c.h.ess! She was quite ignorant about t.i.tled people. How was one to address a d.u.c.h.ess? In the dim recesses of her mind it came to her that it was necessary to say ”your grace.” But how absurd, to this simple little old lady with mild blue eyes! Therefore Miss Campbell merely said:

”It is very kind of you to take us in and treat us with so much hospitality. Your granddaughter insisted on bringing us back to tea. You see, one of my girls fainted in the Abbey and we lost her for a while--”

”Think of it, Grannie, locked all alone in the room with the wax effigies! Wasn't she brave not to have been frightened?”

”Dear, dear,” exclaimed the d.u.c.h.ess of Kilkenty, ”and which one of you had that experience?”

They indicated little Mary, who hung back, flus.h.i.+ng crimson at this unusual notice.

”My child,” exclaimed the little old lady, sitting down in her chair again, ”won't you come and sit beside me? I should like very much to hear you tell the story yourself. You say you fainted and were locked in? Then, what did you do when you came back to consciousness?”

”I think I must have felt as Juliet did,” said Mary, ”when she waked up in her tomb. For a moment I almost believed I had been laid away somewhere, and then I remembered.”

”And then what did you do?”

Mary blushed and hung her head.

”Then I-I prayed,” she whispered.

The d.u.c.h.ess of Kilkenty took her hand and pressed it gently.

”May your prayers always be answered so quickly, my child,” she said, and sighed.

The others had not heard the conversation between Mary and the d.u.c.h.ess.

Their attention had been attracted by two footmen, whether the same or others, they could not say; they all looked exactly alike. These important personages, however, bore each a silver tray loaded with the tea things. A third footman followed and drew up two mahogany tables on which the trays were placed. And in the midst of this most welcome interruption, for they were almost faint with hunger, the parrot began to scream:

”Tea, tea, tea. I must have my tea. Polly wants her tea.”

”Will you be quiet, Polly?” exclaimed Beatrice. ”I shall give you your tea in a moment.”

”Indeed,” said the wise old bird. ”Dear me, I'm sorry I _spake_.”

There was a general laugh at this and suddenly the company began to feel very much at home. The d.u.c.h.ess, after all, was not a grand, forbidding person, as they had always imagined d.u.c.h.esses were. She was a sweet, simple little old lady not half so fine as her servants, and she seemed most interested in these American visitors. She insisted on hearing all about their motor trips and asked the girls a hundred questions, while they sipped tea and consumed sandwiches and strawberries with clotted cream and cookies, very different from American cookies because they were not sweet.

”Does one carry firearms in America?” she asked Miss Campbell.