COURTSHIP IN THE KITCHEN.
While they were still seated at the luncheon-table the door opened, and
Dolf came in with a flourish of bows to report his return to the master.
"So, there you are, Dolf," said Mr. Mellen, carelessly. "Did you lose
half the letters I gave you to deliver?"
Dolf drew himself up with a great deal of dignity.
"Master knows I'se trusty as Solomon's seal," he said. "De'pistles is
safe in de honorable hands for which dey was originally intended."
"I'm glad they went off at the right moment," said Elsie, laughing.
Dolf rather missed her play upon his mispronunciation of the word, but
he gave another magnificent flourish.
"Jes so, Miss Elsie; you've 'spressed it beautiful."
"How do you do, Dolf?" asked Mrs. Mellen, kindly, rousing herself from
the abstraction into which she had fallen while Elsie and her brother
had been chatting together. "Are you glad to get back?"
"I'se ebery reason to be satisfactory with my health, and am much
'bliged by de 'quiry," replied 'Dolf, with a bow so profound that it
seemed by a miracle he recovered his balance, "I'se bery glad to see de
ole place again, Miss Mellen, and de faces of yerself and young Miss
Elsie is like de sunshine to me."
"Bless me, Dolf," cried Elsie, "that's poetry."
Dolf gave a deprecatory wave of the hand, as if the poetry had been
unavoidable, and a smile which insinuated that he was capable of still
higher flights of fancy, as he said:
"Mebbe, mebbe, Miss Elsie--I didn't reserve partic'lar--dese tings takes
a pusson onawares mostly."
"Now, Dolf," said his master, "try and put my things in some sort of
order before the day is over."
"Yes, marster; ebery ting dat's wanting shall be toppermost."
Elsie laughed unrestrainedly, but Dolf only took that as a compliment,
and was immensely satisfied with the impression he had produced.
"Don't get up another flirtation with the cook," she said; "she is old
enough to be your mother, so old that she's growing rich with hoarding,
Dolf."
Dolf bowed himself out of the room with much ceremony, and took his way
straight towards the lower regions. His brain had always formed numerous
projects on the strength of Clorinda's wealth, and he felt it incumbent
upon him to have an interview as soon as possible with this elderly
heiress.
He came upon her in the kitchen hall; she was walking upright as a
ramrod with a large tin dish-pan in her hands, and looking forbidding as
if she had been the eldest daughter of Erebus.
"Dat's de time o' day," thought Dolf; "she is parsimmony just now and no
mistake, but here goes for de power of 'suasion."
He made her a bow which flattered the sable spinster into a broad smile,
and almost made her drop the dish-pan, in the flutter of her delight.
"Dolf, Dolf, am dat you?" she exclaimed, growing a shade darker.
"Permit me," said Dolf, gracefully, taking the pan from her hand; "it's
my expressive delight to serve de fair, and I'se most happy, through dis
instrumentation, to renew your honorable acquaintance."
He followed this up with another tremendous bow; Clorinda thought it
quite time that she should make a show of high breeding likewise. She
gave her body a bend and a duck, but unfortunately, Dolf was bowing at
the same moment, and their heads met with a loud concussion.
A wild giggle from the kitchen door completed Dolf's confusion. He
looked that way, and there stood Victoria, the chambermaid, now a spruce
mulatto of eighteen, enjoying Clorinda's discomfiture.
"De fault was mine," cried Dolf, in his gallantry; "all mine, so dat
imperent yaller gal need'n larf herself quite to death."
"Imperent yaller gal? am no more yaller den yer is," answered Vic.
"Any how yer needn't stand dar a grinning like a monkey, Vic," exclaimed
Clorinda, in wrath.
"Accidents will recur," said Dolf. "But, laws, Miss Victory, is dat you?
I had de pleasure of yer 'quaintance afore me and marster started on our
trabels."
"I've been alone here eber since," explained Victoria, not proof against
his fascinations. "I'm sure yer haint altered a bit, Mr. Dolf."
"I guess if yer don't go upstairs miss'll know why," cried Clorinda,
sharply. "Jes give me dat pan, Mr. Dolf; I kint wait all day for you to
empty it."
Dolf was recalled to wisdom at once--he could not afford to make a
misstep on the very day of his return. He emptied the pan, followed
Clorinda into the kitchen, making a sign of farewell to Vic which the
old maid did not observe. Once in Clorinda's own dominion, the darkey so
improved the impression already produced that he was soon discussing a
delicate luncheon with great relish, and so disturbing Clorinda's
equanimity by his compliments, that she greatly endangered the pie-crust
she was industriously rolling out on one end of the table where he sat.