Mrs. Bodine kept pace with her nonsense which at
times even verged on audacity, and the veteran began to laugh as he had
done before the "Houghton episode," as he now characterized it in his
mind. Mrs. Bodine, however, began to observe little things in Ella which
troubled her.
On the morning following that of Bodine's dismissal, Mara saw at once from
Ella's expression that something unpleasant had occurred.
"What has happened?" she asked anxiously.
"Oh, we've had an earthquake at our house," was the somewhat bitter reply.
Fondly as she loved Mara, Ella stood in no awe of her whatever, and her
heart was almost bursting from the strong repression into which she knew
she must school herself for the sake of her father.
"Please, Ella, don't talk riddles."
"Well, papa and old Houghton have had a regular pitched battle; papa has
been discharged, and is now a gentleman of leisure."
"Shameful! What earthly reason could that old wretch--"
"I'm the earthly reason."
"Ella, don't tantalize me."
"Well, that misguided little boy, who must stand six feet in his
stockings, had the preposterous presumption--there's alliteration for you,
but nothing else is equal to the case--to ask papa if he might pay his
addresses to me. Isn't that the conventional phrase? At the bare thought
both of our papas went off like heavy columbiads, and we poor little
children have been blown into space.
Pages:
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333