The Little Brown Jug at KildareNicholson, Meredith
General
The Little Brown Jug at Kildare
Nicholson, Meredith
Fathers and daughters -- Fiction; Governors -- Fiction; Humorous stories; North Carolina -- Fiction; South Carolina -- Fiction
When she had finished the New Orleans telegrams she cast the offending
newspapers from her, then, recalling herself, summoned the black woman,
and returned them to Griswold, the dusky agent expressing the elaborate
thanks of her race for his courtesy. The girl had utterly ignored
Griswold, and she now pulled down the curtain at her elbow with a snap
and turned her face away from him.
Professor Griswold's eyes wandered repeatedly from his manuscript to
the car ceiling, then furtively to the uncompromisingly averted shoulder
and head of the young lady, then back to his lecture notes, until he was
weary of the process. He wished Ardmore were at hand, for his friend
would find here a case that promised much better than the pursuit to
which he had addressed himself. The girl in this instance was at least a
self-respecting lady, not given to flirtations with chance travelers,
and the brown eyes, of which Griswold had caught one or two fleeting
glimpses, were clearly not of the winking sort. The attendance of the
black mammy distinguished the girl as a person of quality, whose travels
were stamped with an austere propriety.
Her silver toilet articles testified to an acquaintance with the
comforts if not the luxuries of life. The alligator-hide suit-case
thrust under the seat bore the familiar label of a Swiss hotel where
Griswold had once spent a week, and spoke of the girl's acquaintance
with an ampler world. When Phoebe had brought it forth the initials
"B. O." in small black letters suggested Baltimore and Ohio to
Griswold's lazy speculations, whereupon he reflected that while
Baltimore was plausible, the black servant eliminated Ohio; and as every
Virginian knows every other Virginian, he tried to identify her with
Old Dominion family names beginning with O, but without result. He
finally concluded that, while her name might be Beatrice or Barbara, it
could not be Bessie, and he decided that very likely the suit-case
belonged to her brother Benjamin, in whom he felt no interest whatever.
He went out to supper, secured the only remaining table for two, and was
giving his order when the young lady appeared. She had donned her hat,
and as she stood a moment in the entrance, surveying the line of tables,
her distinction was undeniable. There were but two vacant places in the
car, one facing Griswold, the other across the aisle at a larger table
where three men were engaged in animated discussion. The girl viewed the
prospect with evident disappointment as the waiter drew out the vacant
chair at Griswold's table. She carried herself bravely, but wore still a
_triste_ air that touched Griswold's sympathy. He rose, told the waiter
that he would sit at the other table, and the girl murmured her thanks
with a forlorn little smile as she took his seat.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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