Page:Carroll Rankin--Dandelion Cottage.djvu/297

 Rh   and resentfully as they met him, after Marjory had hesitatingly ushered him into the untidy little parlour.

Mr. Downing smiled at them in a friendly, but decidedly embarrassed manner. He had not forgotten his own lack of cordiality when the girls had called on him, and he wanted to atone for it. Mr. Black had tactfully but effectively pointed out to Mr. Downing, already deeply disgusted with the Milligans, the error of his ways, and Mr. Downing, as generous as he was hasty and irascible, was honest enough to admit that he had been mistaken in not only his estimate of Mr. Black, but in his treatment of the little cottagers. Now, eager to make amends, he looked somewhat anxiously from one to another of his silent hostesses, who in return looked questioningly at Mr. Downing. Surely, with Mr. Black in town, Mr. Downing couldn't be thinking of turning them out a second time; still, he had disappointed them before, probably he would