Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/247



slowly home, and little Pat lay very quiet, looking up steadily at me with his twinkling blue eyes. For a time everything went very well, but happening to look up, I saw in the distance a carriage approaching. It was an open, and I knew it belonged to a family of our acquaintance in the village, and that it usually contained ladies.

Quick as thought, I rolled up Pat in his shawl and stuffed him under the seat. Then, re-arranging the lap-robe over my knees, I drove on, trembling a little, it is true.

As I supposed, the carriage contained ladies, and I knew them all. The coachman instinctively drew up as we approached. We always stopped and spoke on such occasions.

They asked me after my wife, apparently surprised to see me alone, and made a number of pleasant observations; to all of which I replied with as unconcerned and easy an air as I could assume. The ladies were in excellent spirits, but in spite of this there seemed to be an air of repression about them, which I thought of when I drove on, but could not account for; for little Pat never moved or whimpered during the whole of the interview.

But when I took him again in my lap, and happened to turn as I arranged the robe, I saw his bottle