"That wouldn't have settled the matter," continued Bradley,imperturbably."The case is simply this: Miss Minty Sharpe, that blacksmith's daughter, has once or twice consented, for a slight emolument, to assist in our domestic service for a day or two, and she comes back again to-day.Now, under the aegis of that noble bird whom your national instincts tempt you to destroy, she has on all previous occasions taken her meals with us, at the same table,on terms of perfect equality.She will naturally expect to do the same now.Mrs. Bradley thought it proper, therefore, to warn you,that, in case your health was not quite equal to this democratic simplicity, you could still dine in your room."
"It would be great fun--if Miss Sharpe won't object to my presence."
"But it must not be 'great fun,'" returned Bradley, more seriously;
"for Miss Minty's perception of humor is probably as keen as yours,and she would be quick to notice it.And, so far from having any objection to you, I am inclined to think that we owe her consent to come to her desire of ****** your acquaintance."
"She will find my conduct most exemplary," said Mainwaring,earnestly.
"Let us hope so," concluded Bradley, with unabated gravity."And,now that you have consented, let me add from my own experience that Miss Minty's lemon-pies alone are worthy of any concession.
The dinner-hour came.Mainwaring, a little pale and interesting,leaning on the arm of Bradley, crossed the hall, and for the first time entered the dining-room of the house where he had lodged for three weeks.It was a bright, cheerful apartment, giving upon the laurels of the rocky hillside, and permeated, like the rest of the house, with the wholesome spice of the valley--an odor that, in its pure desiccating property, seemed to obliterate all flavor of alien human habitation, and even to dominate and etherealize the appetizing smell of the viands before them.The bare, shining,planed, boarded walls appeared to resent any decoration that might have savored of dust, decay, or moisture.The four large windows and long, open door, set in scanty strips of the plainest spotless muslin, framed in themselves pictures of woods and rock and sky of limitless depth, color, and distance, that made all other adornment impertinent.Nature, invading the room at every opening, had banished Art from those neutral walls.
"It's like a picnic, with comfort," said Mainwaring, glancing round him with boyish appreciation.Miss Minty was not yet there; the Chinaman was alone in attendance.Mainwaring could not help whispering, half mischievously, to Louise, "You draw the line at Chinamen, I suppose?"
"WE don't, but HE does," answered the young girl."He considers us his social inferiors.But--hush!"
Minty Sharpe had just entered the room, and was advancing with smiling confidence towards the table.Mainwaring was a little startled; he had seen Minty in a holland sun-bonnet and turned up skirt crossing the veranda, only a moment before; in the brief instant between the dishing-up of dinner and its actual announcement she had managed to change her dress, put on a clean collar, cuffs,and a large jet brooch, and apply some odorous unguent to her rebellious hair.Her face, guiltless of powder or cold cream, was still shining with the healthy perspiration of her last labors as she promptly took the vacant chair beside Mainwaring.
"Don't mind me, folks," she said cheerfully, resting her plump elbow on the table, and addressing the company generally, but gazing with frank curiosity into the face of the young man at her side."It was a keen jump, I tell yer, to get out of my old duds inter these, and look decent inside o' five minutes.But I reckon I ain't kept yer waitin' long--least of all this yer sick stranger.
But you're looking pearter than you did.You're wonderin' like ez not where I ever saw ye before?" she continued, laughing."Well,I'll tell you.Last week! I'd kem over yer on a chance of seein'
Jenny Bradley, and while I was meanderin' down the veranda I saw you lyin' back in your chair by the window drowned in sleep, like a baby.Lordy!I mout hev won a pair o' gloves, but I reckoned you were Loo's game, and not mine."
The slightly constrained laugh which went round the table after Miss Minty's speech was due quite as much to the faint flush that had accented Mainwaring's own smile as to the embarrassing remark itself.Mrs. Bradley and Miss Macy exchanged rapid glances.
Bradley, who alone retained his composure, with a slight flicker of amusement in the corner of his eye and nostril, said quickly: "You see, Mainwaring, how nature stands ready to help your convalescence at every turn.If Miss Minty had only followed up her healing opportunity, your cure would have been complete."
"Ye mout hev left some o' that pretty talk for HIM to say," said Minty, taking up her knife and fork with a slight shrug, "and you needn't call me MISS Minty either, jest because there's kempeny present."
"I hope you won't look upon me as company, Minty, or I shall be obliged to call you 'Miss' too," said Mainwaring, unexpectedly regaining his usual frankness.
Bradley's face brightened; Miss Minty raised her black eyes from her plate with still broader appreciation.
"There's nothin' mean about that," she said, showing her white teeth."Well, what's YOUR first name?"
"Not as pretty as yours, I'm afraid.It's Frank."
"No it ain't, it's Francis!You reckon to be Sir Francis some day," she said gravely."You can't play any Frank off on me.You wouldn't do it on HER," she added, indicating Louise with her elbow.