“I don't think my father would have got here alive with these things,”
said young Mavering. “Did you see how I came to his rescue?”
Mrs. Pasmer instantly threw away all pretext of not having seen. “Oh
yes! my heart was in my mouth when you bore down upon him, Mr. Mavering.
It was a beautiful instance of filial devotion.”
“Well, do sit down now, Mrs. Pasmer, and take it comfortably,” said the
young fellow; and he got her one of the many empty chairs, and would not
give her the things, which he put in another, till she sat down and let
him spread a napkin over her lap.
“Really,” she said, “I feel as if I were stopping all the wheels of
Class Day. Am I keeping them from closing the Gymnasium, Mr. Mavering?”
“Not quite,” said the young man, with one of his laughs. “I don't
believe they will turn us out, and I'll see that they don't lock us in.
Don't hurry, Mrs. Pasmer. I'm only sorry you hadn't something sooner.”
“Oh, your father proposed getting me something a good while ago.”
“Did he? Then I wonder you haven't had it. He's usually on time.”
“You're both very energetic, I think,” said Mrs. Pasmer.
“He's the father of his son,” said the young fellow, assuming the merit
with a bow of burlesque modesty.
It went to Mrs. Pasmer's heart. “Let's hope he'll never forget that,”
she said, in an enjoyment of the excitement and the salad that was
beginning to leave her question of these Maverings a light, diaphanous
cloud on the verge of the horizon.
The elder Mavering had been trying, without success, to think of
something to say to Miss Pasmer, he had twice cleared his throat for
that purpose. But this comedy between his son and the young lady's
mother seemed so much lighter and brighter than anything he could have
said, that he said nothing, and looked on with his mouth set in its
queer smile, while the girl listened with the gravity of a daughter who
sees that her mother is losing her head. Mrs. Pasmer buzzed on in her
badinage with the young man, and allowed him to go for a cup of coffee
before she rose from her chair, and shook out her skirts with an air of
pleasant expectation of whatever should come next.
He came back without it. “The coffee urn has dried up here, Mrs. Pasmer.
But you can get some at the other spreads; they'd be inconsolable if you
didn't take something everywhere.”
They all started toward the door, but the elder Mavering said, holding
back a little, “Dan, I think I'll go and see--”
“Oh no, you mustn't, father,” cried the young man, laying his hand with
caressing entreaty on his father's coat sleeve. “I don't want you to go
anywhere till you've seen Professor Saintsbury. We shall be sure to meet
him at some of the spreads. I want you to have that talk with him--” He
corrected himself for the instant's deflection from the interests of his
guest, and added, “I want you to help me hunt him up for Mrs. Pasmer.
Now, Mrs. Pasmer, you're not to think it's the least trouble, or
anything but a boon, much less say it,” he cried, turning to the
deprecation in Mrs. Pasmer's face. He turned away from it to acknowledge
the smiles and bows of people going out of the place, and he returned
their salutations with charming heartiness.
In the vestibule they met the friends they were going in search of.