Jimmy O’Loughlin nodded. He realized the importance of the commercial
traveller as a contributor to local funds of every kind. He left the
door and reached the bar of the hotel just as his bus, a ramshackle,
dilapidated vehicle drawn by a sickly horse, drew up. It contained a
lady. Jimmy O’Loughlin appraised her at a glance as she stepped out of
the bus. She was dressed in a grey tweed coat and skirt of good cut and
expensive appearance. She wore gloves which looked almost new, and she
had an umbrella with a silver handle. She was tall and carried herself
with the air of one who was accustomed to command service from those
around her. Her way of walking reminded Jimmy O’Loughlin of Lady Flavia
Canning, Lord Manton’s daughter; but this lady was a great deal younger
and better looking than Lady Flavia. Jimmy O’Loughlin allowed his eyes
to leave her for an instant and seek the roof of the bus. On it was a
large travelling trunk, a handsome bag, and a bundle of rugs and golf
clubs. Jimmy’s decision was made in an instant. He addressed his guest
as “my lady.”
She made no protest against the title.
“Can I get a room in this hotel?” she asked.
“Certainly, my lady. Why not? Thomas, will you bring the lady’s luggage
in at once and take it up to number two, that’s the front room on the
first floor. Your ladyship will be wanting a private sitting-room?”
“If I do,” she said, “I shall ask for it.”
Jimmy O’Loughlin was snubbed, but he bore no malice. A lady of title
has a right to snub hotel-keepers. He stole a glance at the label
on her luggage as Thomas, the driver of the bus, passed him with the
trunk on his shoulders. He discovered that she was not a lady of title.
“Miss A. M. Blow,” he read. “Passenger to Clonmore.” The name struck
him as being familiar, but for a moment he could not recollect where he
had heard it. Then he remembered. Miss Blow passed upstairs guided by
Bridgy, the maid. Patsy Devlin emerged from the bar.
“It’s the doctor’s young lady,” whispered Jimmy O’Loughlin.
“Is it, be damn? How do you know that?”
“Didn’t he often tell me,” said Jimmy, “that he was to be married to
a young lady out of Leeds or one of them towns beyond in England, and
that her name was Miss Blow? And didn’t I see it on her trunk, ‘Miss A.
M. Blow’? Would there be two in the world of the name?”
“And what would bring her down to Clonmore?”
“How would I know? Unless maybe she’s heard of the misfortunes that has
the doctor pretty near bet. She might have seen his name in the paper
when the judgment was gave against him.”
“She might; but if she did wouldn’t she keep away from him as far as
ever she could?”
“She would not,” said Jimmy O’Loughlin. “That’s not the sort she is. I
seen her and you didn’t.”
“I did.”
“Well, and if you did you might have known that she’d be the sort that
would come down after him the minute she got word of the trouble that
was on him. Believe you me, Patsy Devlin, that’s a fine girl.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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