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As neither of us had ever heard of Miss Higglesby-Browne, we were both a bit floored for a time. But Shaw smoked a pipe on it, and then he said, 'Old chap, if they'll give me my figure, I'm their man. And I said, 'Quite so, old chap, and I'll go along, too. "I had to argue quite a bit, but in the end the dear old boy let me come after wiring the pater and what not.
Tubbs, with deprecating coughs behind his hand, alluded to as her sea-legs, and staggered forth wanly, leaning on the arm of Miss Higglesby-Browne. Yes, of Miss Browne, while I, Aunt Jane's own niece, trotted meekly in the rear with a cushion. Already I had begun to realize how fatally I had underrated the lady of the hyphen, in imagining I had only to come and see and conquer Aunt Jane.
I wondered uneasily what he had made of the uprooted vines but he would lay them to the pigs, no doubt. In the countenance of Mr. Tubbs, flushed and exultant, there was no suspicion that the secret was not all his own. Miss Higglesby-Browne had been settling her helmet more firmly upon her wiry locks.
Tubbs had felt himself the spoiled child of fortune. Aunt Jane and Miss Higglesby-Browne were the joint commanders of the expedition, and he commanded them. The Scotchman's theoretical rank as leader had involved merely the acceptance of all the responsibility and blame, while authority rested with the petticoat government dominated by the bland and wily Tubbs. Had Mr.
Tubbs managed in some impossible fashion to roll one eye tenderly at Aunt Jane, while keeping the other fastened shrewdly on the remainder of his audience. "Miss Higglesby-Browne and Miss Jane Harding," he resumed, "I accept. It would astonish them as has only known H. H. on his financial side to see him agree to a reduction of profits like this without a kick. But I'm a man of impulse, I am.
He was always vanishing on solitary excursions inland. Mr. Tubbs remarked, scornfully, that a man with a nose for money ought to have smelted out the chest before this, but if his own nasal powers were of that character he did not offer to employ them in the service of the expedition. Miss Higglesby-Browne, however, had taken to retiring to the hut for long private sessions with herself.
Rapidly he made his plan, got together the things needful for its execution, looked to the bonds of the still dazed and drowsy prisoners, posted Cookie in their neighborhood with a pair of pistols, and commanded Aunt Jane to dry her tears and look after Miss Higglesby-Browne, who had dismayed every one by most inopportunely toppling over in a perfectly genuine swoon.
I thought she looked rather a mild sort." "Oh mild! That's just it so mild that she has let this awful Higglesby-Browne person get possession of her body and soul." "Oh, I say, aren't you a bit rough on Miss Browne? Thought she was a rather remarkable old party goes in strong for intellect and all that, you know." "That's just what fooled Aunt Jane so but, I thought a man would know better."
A dart from the cold gray eyes galvanized my aunt into a sudden rigid erectness. "My dear Virginia," she said with quavering severity, "let me remind you that there are ties even dearer than those of blood soul-affinities, you know, and and, in short, in my dear friend Miss Higglesby-Browne I have met for the first time in my life with a a Sympathetic Intelligence that understands Me!"
So after all it was not my scornful skepticism but the high faith of Miss Higglesby-Browne which was justified by the event, and the Harding-Browne expedition left the island well repaid for its toils and perils.
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