Page:Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag, Volume 2.djvu/95

Rh, the tides, population, and any other useful bit of history ; for Amanda was a thrifty soul, and Lavinia, finding the court damp, shrouded herself in the gray cloud, put her feet on the red bundle, and fortified herself with a Turner's pill.

But Matilda, guileless girl, roamed to and fro, patted the horses at the gate, picked flowers that no French hand would have dared to touch, and studied the effect of light and shade on the red head of the garçon, who gazed sentimentally at "the blonde 'Mees, as he artlessly watered the wine for dinner.

The Americans had their eye upon her, and felt that, though the others might be forbidding English women, this one could be made to talk. So they pounced upon their prey, to the dismay of her mates, and proceeded "to ask fifty questions to the minute. Poor Mat, glad to hear the sound of her native tongue, fell into the snare, and grew more confiding every moment.

"She is telling the family history," whispered Lavinia, in a tone of despair.