"
"Very well, aunty! But--is Grim in the house?"
"I don't know, my love. You hurry."
Jacquelina tripped up the stairs to her own room, which she found
lighted, warmed, and attended by her maid, Maria. She took off her
bonnet and mantle, and laid them aside, and began to smooth her hair,
dancing all the time, and quivering with suppressed laughter in
anticipation of her "fun." When she had arranged her dress, she went
down-stairs and passed into the dining-room, where the supper table was
set.
"See if Nace Grimshaw is in his room, and if he is not, we will wait no
longer!" said the hungry commodore, thumping his heavy stick down upon
the floor.
Festus sprang to do his bidding, and after an absence of a few minutes
returned with the information that the professor was not there.
Jacquelina shrugged her shoulders, and shook with inward laughter.
They all sat down, and amid the commodore's growls at Grim's irregular
hours, and Jacquelina's shrugs and smiles and sidelong glances and
ill-repressed laughter, the meal passed. And when it was over, the
commodore, leaning on Mrs. Waugh's arm, went to his own particular sofa
in the back parlor; Mrs. L'Oiseau remained, to superintend the clearing
away of the supper-table; and Jacquelina danced on to the front parlor,
where she found no one but the maid, who was mending the fire.
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