ELFRIDA’S ARRIVAL.
As soon as the early family breakfast was over, Mr. Goldsborough got
ready to go to the convent to fetch away his daughter.
“You will bring her immediately here, I hope?” said Erminie.
“Oh, of course—of course he will,” added Erminie’s father.
“Thank you both. I certainly intend to call with Alberta before leaving
town,” replied Mr. Goldsborough.
“Call with her? Bring her here and make a visit with her. You surely
cannot mean to take her direct from the convent to the country without
giving her a sight of the city!” exclaimed the old doctor.
“We must leave Washington this evening at the latest. The necessity for
our return is imperative!” answered Mr. Goldsborough, gravely.
“I suppose you are anxious to get back, to stem with all your strength
this tendency to secession, or should you not succeed in that, at least
to take care of your family interests, threatened by State politics.
Well, perhaps you are right,” said the unsuspicious old minister.
Mr. Goldsborough’s face flushed scarlet, but that might have been from
the efforts he was making to draw on a very tight glove, or even from
the compression of the very thick woolen scarf that was wound around his
throat as he stood there booted and greatcoated, and ready for his
start. He answered not a word, but took his hat from the rack, bowed,
and went away.
The snow that had been falling all night long, lay deep upon the ground,
and was falling fast still.
The old doctor shut the door quickly after his departing guest, and came
back into the library with a renewed appreciation of the comforts of his
own fireside.
Erminie ran upstairs to get ready her best spare room for the reception
of Alberta; for though Mr. Goldsborough had said that he must leave
Washington with his daughter on that same evening, Erminie entertained
hopes that he would change his mind, and pass the day and night with
them.
While she was busy having the fire lighted, the bed linen changed, and
the water brought up, thinking all the time how comfortable and happy
she would try to make her friend Alberta, whether her stay should be
short or long, she received a hasty summons from her own father.
She ran downstairs to the lower hall where, to her unbounded
astonishment, she saw Farmer Fielding and his daughter Elfrida. They had
just been admitted by the servant, and were shaking hands with Dr.
Rosenthal, who had come out of the library to receive them.
“I am so glad, oh, so glad to see you, my darling Elfie!” exclaimed
Erminie, running and catching her little friend in her arms, and kissing
her a dozen times before she even thought of the elder visitor. When she
did recall his existence, she turned toward him with a blush and a
smile, saying:
“Excuse me, Mr. Fielding. I am very happy to see you. How do you do?”
“Thank you, Miss Minie, I do as well as any man can in my circumstances.
I have been——” began the farmer, but he was cut short by the doctor, who
finished the sentence for him in his, the doctor’s, own way.
—“‘Exposed to a snowstorm, and I am wet and cold;’ that’s what he would
say, my Minie. Come right up into my room, farmer, and change your
clothes at once.”
“Thank ye kindly, no. I’m not wet. We came in a covered wagon as far as
the Drover’s Rest, close by here, and only walked the little bit from
there here. Bless you, we do look powdered over pretty well, but it’s
all on the outside. It don’t penetrate like some things do, doctor. No,
Miss Minie; the circumstance to which I allude was the being turned out
of my home by a lot of lunatics, who are also trying to turn the
Government upside down!” said the farmer, beginning to unbutton his
overcoat as he stood.
Erminie and her father stared in silence for a moment, and then
exclaimed in surprise, and at the same instant:
“Driven out of your home, Mr. Fielding!”
“Yes, driven out of our home—nothing else. Ask my girl, here!”
“Yes—that was it!” broke in Elfie. “Old Virginny was made too hot to
hold us—literally too hot. In short, our houses were burned over our
heads, and we should have been burned in it if we hadn’t made good our
escape.”
“You shock me beyond measure!” exclaimed the minister, in consternation.
“Oh, my dear Elfie, what a misfortune! How did that happen? But don’t
try to tell me here, my darling. Come up to my room and change your
clothes first,” said Erminie, in deep sympathy.
“Oh, no. I can just take off my hood and cloak and overshoes here, if
you please, and let your maid carry them away. I am dying to tell you
all about it. Let us go into that pleasant-looking room, there. I dare
say it is your usual sitting-room,” said Elfie, nodding her head toward
the open door, while she impatiently tore off her hood and cloak and
kicked off her overshoes.
“It is our library, and a favorite room with us all,” replied Erminie,
pushing the door wider open and leading the way.
The room was empty. Colonel Eastworth had left the house soon after Mr.
Goldsborough went, and the doctor’s two brothers, Hans and Friedrich
Rosenthal, were up in the doctor’s snuggery enjoying a good smoke.
Erminie placed chairs round the fire, and the party of four drew up to
it.
Erminie and her friend sat on one side of the chimney, and the two
gentlemen on the other.
“First of all, though, have you had breakfast?” inquired Dr. Rosenthal,
while Erminie placed her hand upon the bell, ready to ring and give
orders.
“Oh, yes, thank ye; we had a very good breakfast at the Drover’s,”
replied the farmer.
“Then tell us all about this affair,” urged the doctor, earnest in his
sympathy and eager in his curiosity.
“Ask my girl here; she’ll tell ye. She knows a deal more about it than I
do,” said the farmer.
“Tell us all about it, Elfie, darling,” said Erminie, affectionately.
“Oh, don’t you be afraid but what I’ll tell you all about it. I’ve been
dying to do so ever since it happened. First, you must know it was all
my doings.”
“The burning of your father’s house, my dear?” exclaimed Erminie in
horror.
“No, but the provocation of those who did burn it. The first public act
of my life resulted in getting our house burned over our heads!
Encouraging, wasn’t it? It was all my fault!”
“It was all her glory, she should say, Miss Minie!” put in the farmer.
“That’s a mere matter of opinion, pap. The glory or the shame of my act
is an open question that will be settled in quite opposite manners by
opposing parties. The Secessionist will call it an act of treason! The
Unionist will say it is an act of patriotism! The first will call me a
wretch; the second will say I am a heroine. All I say about the matter
is, that it was all my doings, because I am a self-willed little party,
who don’t like contradiction.”
“I see I must tell the story myself,” put in the farmer. “Well, I
suppose you know there is a pretty strong secesh feeling down there in
Virginny?”
“I have heard so, I am very sorry to say,” replied the doctor.
“Bless you, yes; and down our way——Whew! Why, as far back as last
Christmas, when our Virginia boys, who were at college in Washington,
came home for the holidays, they made their boast that when they went
back to Washington it would be behind the ‘red-cross’ banner (whatever
in the deuce’s name that might be), to the sound of drum and bugle, and
with swords and muskets to take the city. Bosh! I let the lads talk. I
didn’t even think it even worth while to contradict them. I only thought
they were a little more inflated with gas than ever college boys usually
are, and I considered their blowing it off a necessary process.”
“I heard the talk of Secessionists very much in the same spirit. I could
not believe it real,” said the doctor.
“Yes; but the jest has become very serious now. The madness has spread,
and is spreading. Our neighborhood is a regular hotbed of secession. A
few weeks ago I had occasion to go to Winchester with my two brothers.
It was a lawsuit that took us there. In fact, we were subpœnaed as
witnesses in the great case of Trowbridge _versus_ Kay, and we had to
go, and the case detained us there more than a fortnight. I will just
observe here that on our road to Winchester we noticed at every public
house, post office, blacksmith and country store, and at ever so many
private houses, banners raised, and bearing such mottoes as these:
‘Secession;’ ‘The Southern Confederacy;’ ‘No Compromise;’ ‘State’s
Rights,’ and so forth. I didn’t see one Star-Spangled Banner in the
whole route! Well, meantime, you know, I left my little Elfie at home,
with no one to protect her but the negroes. Bless you, I thought she was
as safe as safe could be! Now you tell what happened after I went away,
Elfie, for you know more about it than I do,” said the farmer, turning
to his little daughter.
“I knew he’d break down in the story. He’d better let me told it from
the first. Well, when pap and my two unks had gone and left me alone,
with the old blind mare, the cow, the pigs and the darkies, I got into
mischief the first thing!”
“Of course you did,” said Dr. Rosenthal, laughing. “‘When the cat’s away
the mice will play!’ But what particular species of mischief did you get
into?”
“Ah! ‘thereby hangs a tale,’ and not a mouse’s tail neither. Well,
seeing so many strange new flags flying round, I thought I would just
hoist the old one, for fear people might forget its existence. The only
difficulty in my way was that I hadn’t an old one to hoist.”
“But mark you what she did!” exclaimed her father, proudly.
“I made a raid upon our drawing-room and best bedchamber. There were red
moreen curtains hanging up in one and white cotton in the other; so I
took down the curtains red and white, and tore them into strips, and
sewed them together like the stripes of the dear old flag! Then I took
my blue merino dress and cut out the square for the stars. Then I cut
the stars and sewed them upon it. It was twenty-four feet long by eight
broad. It had forty-eight stripes and a hundred stars, and it took me a
whole fortnight to make it! When it was done, I had a misgiving that it
was over regulation size, and that there were more stripes than was
lawful, and more stars than States; but I wasn’t sure, for I had
forgotten all about my geography and history; and, besides, I thought if
I had made a mistake it was certainly on the right side, and at worst,
it was only a prophecy of the future, for the dear old flag is bound to
grow and increase; and if she isn’t entitled to a hundred stars now, she
will be when we have annexed South America and the rest of creation! So
I resolved to let my flag fly as I had made it.”
“But where could you expect to find a staff strong enough to bear it?”
inquired Dr. Rosenthal.
“This was my second difficulty. And I was at my wits’ ends for a little
while. However, there was a tall Lombardy poplar tree growing before our
house. So I made Ned, our man of all work, take an ax and go up that
tree and shred off all its branches, until it stood up a bare pole—tall,
straight and strong, as the mainmast of a three-decker. The stumps of
the limbs that were lopped off made very good holds for the feet and
hands in climbing. I made Ned take the flag up to the top of that pole
and nail it there, so that it might never be drawn down!”
Here Elfie’s father nodded approvingly toward his host, as if claiming
admiration for his daughter, while little Elfie went on.
“Well, they did let Sunday go by without making any very violent
demonstrations against the flag. They confined themselves to hooting and
howling. But bright and early Monday morning three ruffians came to the
house and rapped. I hadn’t left my room, so I looked out of the window
and saw who they were and guessed what they came for, and I called down
to Ned, who slept in the hall, not on any account to open the door. And
then I went and hoisted the window and asked what they wanted.
“‘We want that blamed flag down!’ roared one.
“‘Then want will be your master,’ said I.
“‘It has no business here! It shall come down!’ howled another.
“‘Serve you right!’ said I.
“‘Send out your beastly black man to haul it down!’ growled the third.
“‘Do you good,’ I observed.
“They didn’t seem to see the point of my answers, for the first one that
had spoken broke out into a terrific volley of imprecations, that was
enough to raise the hair up off my head, only it didn’t! And then he
ordered me to have the flag lowered.
“‘You’re another!’ I said.
“Then all three began to curse and swear in a horrible manner. And I
began to sing as loud as I could:
“‘Three blind mice! they all ran after the farmer’s wife!’
“Then, still cursing and swearing, like a crew of pirates in a sea
fight, they went to the flagpole and began to climb it. Seeing which, I
went and got father’s gun, examined it and found it all right. It was a
double-barreled gun; and I carried it to the window and rested it on the
sill and pointed its muzzle toward the top of the pole. The three men
had reached it then, and were tearing away at the flag to get it loose.
“‘Come down!’ I shouted, ‘or as sure as I live I will fire!’
“They answered me with curses. Now, I am no sharpshooter, so what
followed was all owing to chance. Using the window sill as a rest, I
trained the gun as well as I could, pointed it toward them, and pulled
the trigger. And simultaneously with the flash and the report one of the
men uttered a fierce yell, and fell to the ground. Oh, Heaven, Minie,
what a tremendous revulsion of feeling I experienced when I thought that
I had killed a man! I do not know whether I could have fired again.
However, the two others did not wait for the discharge of the second
barrel. They slid down that pole like monkeys, and ran off like quarter
horses, leaving their wounded upon the field. Then I laughed. I could
not help it; I sung out:
“‘See how they run! see how they run!’
“And then, in my excitement, I blazed away at them with the other
barrel. But they were so far off that only one of them got struck, and
in the back, and with a spent ball, for I saw him stop suddenly, with a
great howl, clap his hands behind him, bend backward, and then run
faster than before.”
“I call that a brilliant victory,” said Farmer Fielding, nodding toward
his friends.
But the Lutheran minister and his daughter were too gravely interested
in Elfie’s narrative to express any admiration of her feat.
“I am not proud of the victory,” said Elfie, candidly. “I was delighted
with it—elated with it—but not proud of it. How could I be? For it is
true, I was one girl against three men, yet I had the great advantage of
fighting behind my entrenchments, while they were exposed. I had also
firearms, which they had not. No, I don’t think I have any reason to
vaunt myself for this easy victory.”
“But the man you shot from the pole! Oh, my dear Elfie, I hope—I hope he
was not killed!” said Erminie, clasping her hands in the earnestness of
her anxiety.
“As soon as the other two men had run away, I set the old gun up in its
place, and ran downstairs to the hall, where I found my faithful Ned
guarding the door with an old blunderbuss.
“‘Miss Allfrida!’ he said, ‘I told you we’d have a fight for the old
flag, and we’s had it; and it won’t be the last, nuther. They’re gone
now, but they’ll come back to-night in stronger numbers.’
“‘I don’t care, Ned,’ I said; ‘come one, come all, this house shall fly
from off its firm ground as soon as I!’
“And then I told him to open the door, for I wanted to go out and look
after our wounded prisoner. Lor’, Minie, when I went up to him I thought
he was dead, sure enough! He was lying on his stomach, with his head,
arm and leg doubled under him. Ned was frightened, too.
“‘Goodness gracious me alive, Miss Elfie; he’s done for; and the
constables will do for us!’
“‘Turn him over, Ned,’ I said.
“Ned turned him over, showing a ghastly face turned up towards the sky.
I ran into the house, and brought out a pitcher of water and a bottle of
whisky. And we dashed the water in his face; but with very little
effect. Then Ned opened his clenched teeth with an oyster knife, and I
uncorked the bottle and poured the whisky down his throat. Bless you! he
swallowed it like mother’s milk. Did you ever see a baby suck in its
sleep? Well, that’s the way that fellow sucked, in his unconsciousness.
When the bottle was empty, and I drew it from his mouth, he opened his
eyes and began to stare around.
“‘You’ll do!’ I said.
“And then I told Ned to call one of the field negroes to help him, and
to bring the wounded man in, and lay him on pap’s bed, and then go for
the doctor. When the man was moved, oh! he shrieked out, I tell you. And
when the doctor came and examined his injuries, he found that my shot
had passed through his shoulder, and the fall from the flagpole had
broken his leg. So you see his injuries, though serious, were not fatal.
Later in the day his friends came, in a large wagon, with a feather bed
and blanket in the bottom of it, and took him away. They ‘cussed sum,’
and threatened loudly to have me arrested and sent to prison for life. I
assured them that I was justified in what I did, and that the law would
sustain me, and they knew it. Finally they went off, vowing vengeance
against all our tribe.”
“Were you not terrified by their threats?” inquired Dr. Rosenthal.
“Not then! I was too mad! But, after I had calmed down and saw that it
was growing late and night was coming on, I began to feel uneasy;
because, you see, there was no one to guard the house but myself and old
Ned and old Cassy! So, very early in the evening, I fastened up the
house, bolting and barring every door and window. And I loaded three
double-barreled guns, and made other preparations to meet the assault.
And I went up into the attic to watch the approaches to the house. And,
I tell you what, I was glad when I saw pap’s wagon coming down the
road!”
“Yes,” put in Farmer Fielding. “The case of Trowbridge _versus_ Kay,
closed that very morning, and my two brothers and myself were at liberty
to come home. My two brothers, however, decided to stay over that
evening, to attend a Union meeting, got up to make some little stand
against the progress of the Secessionists. But I was anxious about my
girl, and so I resolved to come home, and in good time, too, for I found
her fortifying the house to withstand an assault. I was so astonished
that my breath was suspended! But she soon told me what had happened;
and I soon had reason to see the prudence of her preparations, and also
their inefficiency!”
“What a dreadful state of things!”
“You would think so if you had been at our house that night!”
“What night was that, by the way?”
“Why last Monday night, of course.”
“Oh, certainly—yes! I recollect Miss Elfie’s naming the day.”
“It is a day to be remembered in the annals of my domestic life. Myself
and my girl sat up and watched. But, for all that, I did not believe
that our own old neighbors would pull the house down over our heads,
merely because we were loyal to the old Union and the old flag. But what
will not maniacs do? Myself and my brave girl watched until near
daybreak, when, thinking that all was right for the time being, and that
we would not have an attack that night, we separated, and went to bed,
to get an hour or two of repose before breakfast. I had been some time
asleep when I was rudely awakened by a terrific yell—such a yell as a
hand of painted savages, armed with firebrands and tomahawks, might roar
forth in surprising a peaceful home.
“I sprang up and rushed to the window and threw up the sash and looked
out. The eastern horizon was quite red, and by its light I saw a crowd
of men armed with guns, pistols, swords, pitchforks and a variety of
weapons, gathered around the house. As I bent out to look down, I saw a
quantity of straw, shavings and dry brushwood piled around the posts
that supported the porch. The moment they saw me they saluted me with a
perfect howl of rage.
“‘Come out of that, you——’ Here followed a volley of profane and
indecent imprecations and vituperations—‘come out of that house with
your devil’s imp of a daughter, unless you wish to be burned alive
inside of it!’
“Before I could reply, my brave girl, who had heard the row, was by my
side. She put a gun into my hand and said:
“‘Pap, I have called up Ned, and he can do good service. Now you take
this gun, and fire into them from this window, and I will fire from the
other. And we’ll keep it up as long as the ammunition lasts; and then
we’ll die game, pap!’
“I turned to answer my girl, to tell her not to show herself at the
other window—to be careful; but she was gone—she was already before the
other window, and training the gun so that its muzzle should be in a
line with the crowd below. I did the same at my window. We fired at the
same moment, and our fire was answered by a roar of rage and a discharge
of musketry. The shots rattled against the front of the house, and
shivered the windows, shutters and sashes. I trembled for my girl.
“‘Elfie, for Heaven’s sake, leave the window! fall flat upon the floor,’
I said.
“‘Not if I know it, pap,’ she answered; ‘not while I have a shot left to
send at the enemy.’ And, so saying, she blazed away with her other
barrel.
“I did the same with my other; and again we were answered by a volley of
musketry; and again the shot rattled against the walls, and split the
timber of the window frames. I saw my brave girl fall, and, in an agony
of terror, I threw down my gun, and ran and raised her up.
“‘I’m all right, pap,’ she said. ‘It was only my gun kicked and knocked
me down; and, now, if you don’t load up and let ’em have it again, you
are no pap of mine! I’ll disinherit you!’
“But, notwithstanding her words, I bore her into a back room, where she
would be safe from the shots; and, even as I carried her away, I saw the
smoke and flames rising from the outside of the house, and heard the
rioters roar forth with many fierce curses:
“‘Come out of that, or be burned alive in it.’
“I laid my girl on the bed, in the back room, and hastened to my own
room, where I secured my little money and valuable papers. While I was
hiding them about my person, old Ned came to the door and whispered:
“‘Massa, massa, for de Lord’s sake, come away! Take Miss Elfie by main
force, if she won’t give in any other way, and come! I’m got the wagon
and horses at the back door.’
“‘Ned,’ said I, ‘come with me to Miss Elfie’s room, and tell her the
state of affairs.’
“And we went to my girl’s room, and I got her clothes, and ordered her
to dress herself quickly, and threatened if she did not do so, to take
her just as she was.
“‘Oh, if I am to contend with foes outside and cowards inside, of course
I shall have to evacuate! And I will do it decently!’ said my girl. And
she got ready very quickly, and went down the back stairs to the back
door, where Ned had the wagon ready. And I put my girl into it and got
in beside her; and Ned mounted the driver’s seat, and we set off by the
back road and made our escape. And here we are! But if it had not been
for the thought of my dear, brave girl, I should have stayed there and
defied the mob to the utmost!”
“If it hadn’t been for the thought of me! Well, now, I like that! That’s
cool!” exclaimed Elfie; “especially when, by your own showing, pap, if
it had not been for you and Ned and the kicking gun, I should have stood
my ground and died game, or driven off the assailants on the last
occasion as I had done on the first. I’m sure I did very well on that
first occasion, when I hadn’t you to help me, pap! But on the last!
Well, what could I do with fiery-hearted foes outside raging to get in,
and faint-hearted friends inside crying to get out; and my very weapon
recoiling upon me and kicking me down! I tell you all what! I fought
against fearful odds on every hand! Joan of Arc herself would have given
in under such circumstances! Not that I would, if it hadn’t been for
that cowardly pap of mine!”
“I don’t think either you or your papa have reason to be ashamed of your
conduct on that occasion. ‘What could you ’gainst the shock of hell?’”
said Dr. Rosenthal.
“Well, anyhow, I know what I’ll do next time. If ever I find myself in
command of a domestic castle in siege, I’ll lock pap up in his bedroom
till the fight’s over. You hear that good, don’t you pap?” said pap’s
daughter, saucily.
“But, Elfie, my darling, where have you left that good old negro who
rescued you from the burning house?” inquired Erminie.
“Oh, he’s all right. He is at the Drover’s.”
“You know, Elfie, he would be quite welcome in our kitchen. Our servants
would take care of him.”
“‘Thanky, honey,’ as Ned would say; he is very well where he is.
Besides, pap and I haven’t come to quarter ourselves upon you so
suddenly. We only wanted to see the smiling faces of friends after
having seen the frowning faces of so many foes. That is all. Presently
we intend to go out and look for a boarding-house where we can stop for
the present.”
“Indeed, you will do no such thing, Miss Elfie! In the first place,
there are no boarding-houses but what are already crowded. In the second
place, here is my house, open to receive any of my friends at any time,
and especially wide open to welcome any number of friends for any length
of time, who have suffered from their devotion to this Union which has
fostered me for nearly fifty years! So, friend Fielding, you will please
make yourself at home where you are,” said Dr. Rosenthal, with earnest
sincerity in every word, tone and look.
Farmer Fielding put out his sturdy hand and shook the fat fist of the
good doctor, as he replied:
“Thank ye, minister! for the present I accept your kind invitation, the
more especially as I shall be backward and forward from here to
Virginia, and sha’n’t like to leave my little girl alone in a
boarding-house. Thank ye, kindly, minister! We’ll stop with you a bit,
until we can turn ourselves round.”
“That’s settled, then! And now I am happy to tell you that to-day you
will meet an old friend of yours here,” said Dr. Rosenthal, cordially.
“An old friend of mine? Humph! I should like to see one besides
yourself. Nearly all my old friends have become Secessionists, and are
no longer friends of mine!”
“Ah, but this one hasn’t. He is loyal to the Union, and is very much
disturbed in his mind on account of the spread of the Secession spirit
through his native State. I am speaking of Mr. Goldsborough, of
Richmond,” said the unsuspicious old man.
“Goldsborough! One of the rip-stavingest Secessionists in the State—one
of the moving spirits of secession!—a leader among them!” exclaimed
Farmer Fielding.
“Who, Goldsborough?”
“Himself.”
“Are you not mistaken?”
“Not a bit of it! He has been stumping the State, making secession
speeches in every congressional district. I heard him make one, in our
neighborhood, at the Bull’s Head Tavern. Who do you think replied to
it?”
“I don’t know, I am sure. I am so astonished to hear that Goldsborough
is a Secessionist that I am filled with perplexity.”
“Why, Vittorio Corsoni answered him. You know that there is no love lost
between Goldsborough and Corsoni; and Goldsborough being a Secessionist
might have been cause enough to make Corsoni a Unionist; though I have
observed that naturalized foreigners, who have been protected by our
Government, have been among the most zealous in its defense, and if this
matter ever comes to blows, they will strike good ones.”
Just then the doorbell rang violently, and when the servant ran in haste
to see the cause of the noisy summons, Mr. Goldsborough burst into the
house, and then into the library. His face was inflamed, his features
distorted, and his eyes flashing with passion.
“For Heaven’s sake, Goldsborough, what has happened?” exclaimed Dr.
Rosenthal, rising, in alarm.
“What? She has gone! Fled from the convent!” roared the enraged man,
throwing his hat upon one chair, and his gloves upon another, and
without noticing any one in the room, except his host; “yes, brought
dishonor upon all her family! And may the curses of——”
“Hush!” said the minister, laying his hand gently upon the lips of the
speaker; “no curses, Goldsborough. Sit down quietly and compose
yourself, and tell us all about it. See, here is Mr. Fielding and his
daughter, your old friends.”
“How do you do, Fielding? How are you, Miss Elfie? I beg your pardon for
not seeing you! But you will not wonder at a man being blind with rage
when his only daughter has disgraced herself and her family,” said Mr.
Goldsborough, gruffly enough, as he coldly shook hands with Elfie and
her “pap.”
“Oh no, Mr. Goldsborough, not so bad as that! Young people will
sometimes choose for themselves, you know. And though their choice may
be indiscreet, and even unfortunate, it need not be disgraceful. Try to
calm yourself, and make the best of it! The young man is something of a
monkey, to be sure; but I believe him to be a well-meaning monkey!”
urged the farmer.
And all party politics seemed for a moment forgotten in the interest
felt in this domestic calamity.
“Sit down, Mr. Goldsborough! Do sit down and compose yourself! And let
us hear the details of this flight,” entreated the doctor.
“No, I cannot sit down! And I will not compose myself! I will pursue the
abductor of my daughter, and shoot him wherever I find him.”
“But how do you know who was the abductor, if it comes to that?”
inquired the farmer.
“Oh! I know well enough! A fellow, answering to the description of this
Corsoni, was seen lurking around the convent all day yesterday! Besides,
you know, she would have run off with no one else! Good-by, Fielding!
Good-by, Rosenthal! Young ladies, your servant!” said Mr. Goldsborough,
seizing up his hat and gloves, and leaving the house before the startled
company had recovered from their astonishment.