"How about your baggage--can I send it out? No trouble, sir, I assure
you, no trouble. I'll just give your checks to the drayman, as I pass.
By the way, sir, you'll want the telephone in, of course. I'll notify
the Company at once. And you needn't fear to speak to your neighbors;
they will take it as it's meant, sir. The next on the left is Major
Borden's, and this, on the right, is Captain Tilghman's, and across the
way is Captain Lashiel's, and Captain Carrington's, and the house
yonder, with the huge oaks in front, is Major Markoe's."
"Sort of a military settlement," smiled Croyden.
"Yes, sir--some of them earned their title in the war, and some of
them in the militia and some just inherited it from their pas. Sort of
handed down in the family, sir. The men will call on you, promptly,
too. I shouldn't wonder some of them will be over this evening."
Croyden thought instantly of the girl he had seen coming out of the
Borden place, and who had directed him to Clarendon.
"Would it be safe to speak to the good-looking girls, too--those who
are my neighbors?" he asked, with a sly smile.
"Certainly, sir; if you tell them your name--and don't try to flirt
with them," Dick added, with a laugh. "Yonder is one, now--Miss
Carrington," nodding toward the far side of the street.
Croyden turned.--It was she! the girl of the blue-black hair and
slender silken ankles.
"She's Captain Carrington's granddaughter," Dick went on with the
Southerner's love for the definite in genealogy. "Her father and mother
both died when she was a little tot, sir, and they--that is, the
grandparents, sir--raised her. That's the Carrington place she's
turning in at. Ah----"
The girl glanced across and, recognizing Dick (and, it must be
admitted, her Clarendon inquirer as well), nodded.
Both men took off their hats. But Croyden noticed that the older man
could teach him much in the way it should be done. He did it shortly,
sharply, in the city way; Dick, slowly, deferentially, as though it
were an especial privilege to uncover to her.
"Miss Carrington is a beauty!" Croyden exclaimed, looking after her.
"Are there more like her, in Hampton?"
"I'm too old, sir, to be a competent judge," returned Dick, "but I
should say we have several who trot in the same class. I mean,
sir----"
"I understand!" laughed Croyden. "It's no disrespect in a Marylander, I
take it, when he compares the ladies with his race-horses."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account