Читать книгу Jessica Trent's Inheritance онлайн

7 страница из 51

“Come, dear madam. Our girl has put you into my especial care and the first thing on the docket is dinner. It was a poor breakfast any of us made and I, for one, am hungry. Come on, boys. It’s the Westminster—for all of us. Here? Ready, every one? This car then for you and we’ll meet you there. Come, Aunt Sally. Eh? What?”

For as the one-time reporter of the Lancet, and now manager of the Sobrante, hailed a carriage to convey Mrs. Trent and Mrs. Benton hotel-ward, the latter fell into a tragic attitude and wildly waved her “reticule” eastward, whither Jessica’s train had gone, and as wildly thrust her free hand skyward, exclaiming:

“I’d ought to be kicked by cripples! I certainly had! If I ain’t the foolishest, forgettin’est woman ’twixt the two oceans! An’ it’s too late now. Oh! my suz a-me!”

Mr. Ninian laughed, and was more grateful to Aunt Sally just then than he had ever been before. Her evident, if comical, distress interrupted sadder thoughts and he promptly demanded, again:

“Well, what’s wrong now, neighbor?”