"I'm deaf; when you talk to me you must speak loud," said he, looking
full at Cornelia's disturbed face.
Miss Valeyon had never been so thoroughly discomfited. She was smitten
on three sides at once. Bad enough to be insulted; worse, having become
properly angry, to find no insult was meant; and, worst of all, to have
been the means of drawing attention, by her bad temper, to a physical
infirmity in her papa's guest. She abandoned upon the instant all
intention of being ceremonious and imposing, and only thought how she
might atone, to her papa and to Bressant, for her ill-behavior.
He would not take tea--nothing but water; and, as Cornelia proceeded in
silence to pour out her papa's cup, the latter answered Bressant's
question about the boarding-house.
"Know it very well, sir. Very good house. What have you heard about it?"
"Nothing more than that; I asked a man at the depot. My trunk has been
taken there. I'm satisfied if the woman 'Abbie' is respectable, and
gives me enough to eat." The young man had accepted Cornelia's tender of
a slice of beef, and seemed fully equal to doing it again.
"The 'woman Abbie' respectable, sir!" exclaimed the professor in
half-muzzled ire; but he checked himself suddenly, and tried to be
contented with shoving his plate, tumbler, and tea-cup, to and fro
before him.
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