"Angels and ministers of grace assist me!" said Miss Dunstable. "How
on earth am I to behave myself? Mr. Sowerby, do you think that I
ought to kneel down? My dear, will he have a reporter at his back
in the royal livery?" And then Miss Dunstable advanced two or three
steps--not into the doorway, as she had done for Mr. Sowerby--put out
her hand, and smiled her sweetest on Mr. Towers, of the _Jupiter_.
"Mr. Towers," she said, "I am delighted to have this opportunity of
seeing you in my own house."
"Miss Dunstable, I am immensely honoured by the privilege of being
here," said he.
"The honour done is all conferred on me," and she bowed and curtsied
with very stately grace. Each thoroughly understood the badinage of
the other; and then, in a few moments, they were engaged in very easy
conversation.
"By the by, Sowerby, what do you think of this threatened
dissolution?" said Tom Towers.
"We are all in the hands of Providence," said Mr. Sowerby, striving
to take the matter without any outward show of emotion. But the
question was one of terrible import to him, and up to this time he
had heard of no such threat. Nor had Mrs. Harold Smith, nor Miss
Dunstable, nor had a hundred others who now either listened to the
vaticinations of Mr.
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