Spring Days by George (George Augustus) Moore
page 81 of 369 (21%)
page 81 of 369 (21%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
if they were exchanging napkins or rings beneath the table.
At that moment the servant handed a letter on a salver to Maggie, saying, "From Mrs. Horlock; the servant is waiting an answer, miss." Grace trembled. Sally whispered to Jimmy, "What can she want?" In a reassuring voice Maggie said, "She has heard we are having a few people in to tennis, and she wants to know if she may send us round a young man; she will come round herself with the General some time during the afternoon." At the mention of a young man many eyes gleamed, and Sally said, "You had better go at once and write a note and say that we shall be delighted." When they went into the verandah coffee was handed round, and Maggie, as the gentlemen lit their cigarettes, said to Grace, "Nothing could have happened better; father is sure to hear of this, we couldn't have kept it from him: now we can say Mrs. Horlock was our chaperon. None will know when she came, or when she went away." Then turning to her company, Maggie said, "Now gentlemen, as soon as you have finished your cigarettes we will begin." Sally not only insisted on playing, but on playing with Jimmy; and Grace, who was striving to struggle into the position of Miss Brookes, could do nothing but set the girl in the florid dress and the man who stood next to her to play against them. The garden seemed to absorb the girls, but Maggie, catching sight of Mrs. Horlock, went to meet her. Mrs. Horlock was sixty, but her figure was like a girl's. She led a blind pug in a complicated leading apparatus, and several other pugs in various stages of fat and decrepitude followed her. It was not long before she raised a discussion on hydrophobia, defending the disease |
|