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Now, 'Lollie' is the real girl, on the card-board is the picture girl, and on the blackboard is the word girl. Now, who thinks he can take the pointer and point to the kind of girl I ask for?" Several little hands went up, but "Dodd's" was not among them.
Good heavens! all his talk in their hearing had been of Dodd; and Kennet and he between them had let out the very thing he wanted to conceal, especially from Dodd's relations. He gazed at them, and turned hot to the very forehead. Then, not knowing what to do or say, and being after all but a clever boy, not a cool, "never unready" man of the world, he slipped away, blushing.
"Why, the open air and a little walking has done you all the good in the world, Mrs. Gussie!" I was conscious, at last, that he was saying. "Your cheeks are quite rosy and your eyes as bright as stars." "Yes, it was a delightful day," I said. "Talk about chills, Mr. McCormack" Mrs. Dodd's voice carried across the table-"I know Gussie Gurrage, and I don't believe he ever had a chill in his life!"
She broke the enormous seal and took out the inclosure. It was David Dodd's commission. He was captain of the Rajah, the new ship of eleven hundred tons' burden. While she gazes at it with dilating eye and throbbing heart, I may as well undeceive the reader. This was not really effected in forty-eight hours. Bazalgette only pretended that, partly out of fun, partly out of nobility.
On this announcement, an eager inspection took place: and, sure enough, a bullet had passed through Dodd's coat and waistcoat, &c., and through the oilskin and the leather pocketbook, and just dented the "Hard Cash;" no more. There was a shower of comments and congratulations. The effect of this discovery on the sick man's spirits was remarkable. "I was a villain to belie it," said he.
It is a nice mess. Wish I was out of it." And he went back, hanging his head, to Alfred's father. Mr. Osmond met him. Skinner turned and saw him enter the villa. Mr. Osmond came softly into the room, examined Dodd's eye, felt his pulse, and said he must be bled at once. Mrs. Dodd was averse to this. "Oh, let us try everything else first," said she.
Dodd's face was a bright scarlet and appeared about to burst, but she kept her lips compressed into a thin, tight line. Uncle Israel nodded over his predigested food. "Just so," he mumbled; "a solemn time." Eagerly watching for an opportunity, Mrs. Holmes dived into the barn, and emerged, cautiously, with the spade concealed under her skirts.
That deprecating glance did Mr. Dodd's business. It shot him with remorse, and made him feel a brute. "Ha! ha! That is the way to speak to her, Mr. Dodd; the other gentlemen spoil her." "It was very unbecoming of me to speak to her harshly like that." "Pooh! nonsense; these girls like to be ordered about; it saves them the trouble of thinking for themselves; but what is to become of me?
At eight bells Mr. Grey touched by Dodd's clemency, and brimful of zeal, reported a light in Mrs. Beresford's cabin. It had been put out as usual by the master-at-arms; but the refractory one had relighted it. "Go and take it away," said Dodd. Soon screams were heard from the cabin. "Oh! mercy! mercy! I will not be drowned in the dark."
"Confound that rascal who inveigled me there!" ran his mental anathema of the strange young man. "He must have been the devil, wearing that frock-coat to hide his forked tail. And here I am now, fighting for peace of mind!" And his struggle for his peace of mind drove him, at last, to set his hat very straight on his head and march across the street to Colonel Symonds Dodd's office.
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