"I'll get it," cried Tom Selwyn, vaulting over the tops of the seats
before Jasper had a chance to try for it.
Just then Mrs. Vanderburgh, who hadn't heard any more of the opera than
could fit itself into her lively plans for the campaign she laid out to
accomplish in siege of Tom Selwyn, pushed and elbowed herself along.
"Of course the earl isn't here--and the boy is alone, and dreadfully
taken with Jasper King, so I can manage him. And once getting him, I'll
soon have the earl to recognise me as a relation." Then, oh! visions of
the golden dream of bliss when she could visit such titled kin in Old
England, and report it all when at home in New York, filled her head.
And with her mind eaten up with it, she pushed rudely by a plain,
somewhat dowdy-looking woman who obstructed her way.
The woman raised a quiet, yet protesting face; but Mrs. Vanderburgh,
related to an earl, surveyed her haughtily, and pressed on.
"Excuse me," said the plain-looking woman, "but it is impossible for me
to move; the people are coming out this way, Madam, and--"
"And I must get by," answered Mrs. Vanderburgh, interrupting, and
wriggling past as well as she could. But the lace on her flowing sleeve
catching on the umbrella handle of a stout German coming the other way,
she tore it half across. A dark flush of anger rushed over her face,
and she vented all her spite on the plain-looking person in her path.
Pages:
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189