"It'll be your Miss Abby, I'm thinkin'."
"The imp! I stopped her week's money for losing her hat this morning,
and she's got ahead of me and come down to get it of the governor."
There was a sudden and mysterious silence in the inner room. James
Bowdoin looked at Jamie, and noted again his expression. "What's the
matter, Jamie? Have you anything to tell me?"
"It's for Mr. Bowdoin's private ear, Mr. James," said Jamie testily.
"Oh, ah! in that case I'll go in and see." James threw the door open.
Old Mr. Bowdoin was standing, still puffing, in front of the fire,
evidently quite breathless. In the corner by the window, too rapt to
notice her father's entrance, sat Miss Abby, intently gazing into a
round glass crystal that, with a carved ebony frame, formed one of the
Oriental ornaments of the counting-room.
"I trust we are not disturbing important business, sir?" said Mr.
James the younger dryly.
"Sh, sh! Abby, my dear, don't take your eyes out of it for twenty
minutes, and you'll see the soldiers." And the old gentleman winked at
James and Jamie, and became still purpler with laughter that was
struggling to be heard.
"As for that child of mine"--
"Psst! h'sh!" and Mr. Bowdoin snapped his fingers in desperation at
his uncomprehending son. "Never mind them, dear!" he cried to the
child. "Only look steady; don't take your eyes out of it for twenty
minutes, and you're sure to see the armies fighting! The most
marvelous idea, and all my own," he said, as he slammed the door
behind him. "Crystal-gazing, for keeping children quiet,--nothing
beats it!"
"I thought, sir, you were both in need of it. But Jamie here has
something to say to you."
"What is it--Jamie? No more trouble about that ship Maine Lady? D--n
the British collier tramps! and she as fine a clipper as ever left
Bath Bay. Well, send her back in ballast; chessmen and India shawls, I
suppose, as usual"--
"It's about Mercedes, sir."
"Oh, ah!" Mr. Bowdoin's brow grew grave.
"She will not marry John Hughson, sir."
"Now, Jamie, how the devil am I to make her?"