But it was great inside: soft and warm, the cushions of dark plum, the
seat wide and roomy, a church paper, some notes for the Bishop's next
sermon and a copy of Quo Vadis. I just snuggled down, trust me. I
leaned far back and lay low. When I did peek out the window, I saw the
man with the brass buttons and the cap turning to go inside again.
Victory! He had lost the scent. Who would look for Nancy Olden in the
Bishop's carriage?
Now, you know how early I got up yesterday to catch the train so's Tom
and I could come in with the people and be naturally mingling with
them? And you remember the dance the night before? I hadn't had more
than three hours' sleep, and the snug warmth of that coach was just
nuts to me, after the freezing ride into town. I didn't dare get out
for fear of some other man in a cap and buttons somewhere on the
lookout. I knew they couldn't be on to my hiding-place or they'd have
nabbed me before this. After a bit I didn't want to get out, I was so
warm and comfortable--and elegant. O Tom, you should have seen your
Nance in that coat and in the Bishop's carriage!
First thing I knew, I was dreaming you and I were being married, and
you had brass buttons all over you, and I had the cloak all right, but
it was a wedding-dress, and the chinchilla was a wormy sort of orange
blossoms, and--and I waked when the handle of the door turned and the
Bishop got in.
Asleep? That's what! I'd actually been asleep.
And what did I do now?
That's easy--fell asleep again. There wasn't anything else to do. Not
really asleep this time, you know; just, just asleep enough to be wide
awake to any chance there was in it.
The horses had started, and the carriage was half-way across the street
before the Bishop noticed me.
He was a little Bishop, not big and fat and well-kept like the rig, but
short and lean, with a little white beard and the softest eye--and the
softest heart--and the softest head. Just listen.
"Lord bless me!" he exclaimed, hurriedly putting on his spectacles, and
looking about bewildered.
I was slumbering sweetly in the corner, but I could see between my
lashes that he thought he'd jumped into somebody else's carriage.
The sight of his book and his papers comforted him, though, and before
he could make a resolution, I let the jolting of the carriage, as it
crossed the car-track, throw me gently against him.
"Daddy," I murmured sleepily, letting my head rest on his little, prim
shoulder.
That comforted him, too. Hush your laughing, Tom Dorgan; I mean
calling him "daddy" seemed to kind of take the cuss off the situation.
"My child," he began very gently.
"Oh, daddy," I exclaimed, snuggling down close to him, "you kept me
waiting so long I went to sleep. I thought you'd never come."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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