Cornelia laid down the sugar and tongs, and looked very insulted and
flushed. What sort of a creature was this her papa had brought to his
supper-table? Papa, who had noticed the awkward turn, and was tickled by
the humor thereof, could not forbear to give evidence of amusement,
insomuch that his daughter, who was by no means of a lymphatic
temperament, was almost ready to leave the table, or burst into tears
with injured and astonished dignity.
Bressant, with that exceeding quickness of perception which most persons
with his infirmity possess under such circumstances, transferred his
glance from the professor to the young lady, and at once arrived at a
pretty correct understanding of the difficulty. He was not embarrassed,
for it had probably never occurred to him that his deafness was so much
a defect as a difference of organization, and he lost no time in
explaining matters in his customary way.
"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. "I could not have recommended you to a better person," he
added presently, evidently putting a restraint upon himself. "I have the
highest--I hold her in very high estimation, sir."
Bressant nodded, and presently took some more of the beef.
"Have you seen Abbie yet, Mr. Bressant?" inquired Cornelia in a timid
tone, which, however, was deprived of all melody by the effort to suit
it to the young man's ears. But it was necessary to say something.
"Oh, no!" he replied, smiling at her in the pure good-nature of physical
complacency, and noticing for the first time that she was an agreeable
spectacle. He judged absolutely and primitively, never having had that
experience of women which might have enabled him to make comparison the
base of his opinion. "I came right up here from the depot. My trunk was
sent to the boarding-house; it will hire a room for me, I suppose."