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.In a continued silence which no one seemed to have the temerity or the presence of mind to break, the Sheep Queen turned at the foot of the stairway, and the various groups separated on a common impulse to let her pass.She went straight to Prentiss, whose greeting was a smile of adoring tenderness.“Am I late, father?”The sharp intake of breath throughout the room might have come from one pair of lungs.“Father!” The rumor was true then! Amazement came first, and then uneasiness.What effect would the relationship have upon their personal interests? Had she any feeling which would lead her to use her influence to their detriment?Kate and her father would have had more than their share of attention anywhere, for they had the same distinction of carriage, the same grave repose.Either one of them would have stood out in a far more brilliant assembly than that gathered in the Prouty House.The social training Mrs.Abram Pantin had received at church functions in Keokuk now came to her rescue.Gathering herself, she was able to chirp:“This is a surprise!”“You know my daughter, of course?” to Mrs.Sudds, whose jaw had dropped, so that she stood slightly open-mouthed, arrayed in a frock made in the fashion of the Moyen age and recently handed down from a great-uncle’s relict who had passed on.Since this confection bulged where it should have clung and clung where it should have bulged, it was the general impression that Mrs.Sudds was out in a maternity gown.Mrs.Neifkins in fourteen gores stood beside Mrs.Toomey in a hobble skirt reminiscent of her Chicago trip, while a faint odor of moth balls, cedar chips and gasolene permeated the atmosphere in the immediate vicinity of all this ancient elegance.“We all have met,” Kate replied, and her glance included the group.While there was no emphasis to suggest that the sentence contained any special significance, yet each of the ladies was conscious of an uncomfortable warmth, and the wish that dinner would be announced was so unanimous that their heads turned simultaneously towards the dining room; and, quite as if the concentrated thought had produced the result, the proprietor of the Prouty House conveyed the information to Sudds in a whisper from the corner of his mouth that all was in readiness.After some embarrassed uncertainty as to who was to conduct whom, and which arm should be used, the guests filed into the dining room at an hour when, commonly, they were preparing to retire.In the confusion Mrs.Toomey found the opportunity to say:“Jap, our goose is cooked!”Adversity had sharpened her intuitions, developed her sensibilities; what others might fear, she knew, and this commonplace held all her disappointment, all the chagrin and hopelessness that in an instant had dissipated the roseate dreams she had again dared to entertain.Toomey was too dazed to reply.What did it mean, he was asking himself in bewilderment as he found the seat at the table which had been assigned him.When he had disparaged and insulted Kate, why had Prentiss not resented it verbally, knocked him down? Why had he made a secret of their relationship?Notwithstanding Gov'nor Sudds’s best efforts, ably supported by Mr.Scales and Hiram Butefish, the banquet did not promise to be an unqualified success.There was a tension which did not make for a proper appreciation of the excellently prepared food.In truth, nobody was entirely at his ease save Prentiss and Kate—and Abram Pantin.The complacency of the cat who has eaten the canary was discontent beside the satisfaction upon Mr.Pantin’s face as he sent triumphant glances at his wife.It was well towards the end of the banquet that the belated train whistled and Mr.Teeters excused himself—first reaching for a stalk of celery which he ate as he went, and looking, as Mr.Butefish observed to fill a pause, “like a pig with a corn husk hanging out of its mouth.”When the several courses had passed in review, the tension increased with the realization that the moment which meant so much to everyone present had arrived at last.So many times they had allowed themselves to hope only to know disappointment.But Prentiss inspired a confidence they never had had in the prospective investors who had gone before.He was of quite a different sort.But the most adroit questioning had failed to extract the slightest hint as to his intentions [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]