Page:The Tragic Muse (London & New York, Macmillan & Co., 1890), Volume 3.djvu/101

Rh peeped in now, becoming in this matter witness of an incident she could scarcely have expected. The unexpected indeed, for Mrs. Rooth, had never been an insuperable element in things; it was her system, in general, to be too much in harmony to be surprised. As the others turned round they saw her standing there and smiling at them, and heard her ejaculate with wise indulgence:

"Oh, you extravagant children!"

Miriam brushed off her tears, quickly but unconfusedly. "He's going away—he's bidding us farewell."

Sherringham—it was perhaps a result of his general agitation—laughed out at the "us" (he had already laughed at the charge of puerility), and Mrs. Rooth returned: "Going away? Ah, then I must have one too!" And she held out both her hands. Sherringham stepped forward and, taking them, kissed her respectfully on each cheek, in the foreign manner, while she continued: "Our dear old friend—our kind, gallant gentleman!"

"The gallant gentleman has been promoted to a great post—the proper reward of his gallantry," Miriam said. "He's going out as minister to some impossible place—where is it?"

"As minister—how very charming! We are getting on." And the old woman gave him a curious little upward interrogative leer.

"Oh, well enough. One must take what one can get," he answered.

"You'll get everything now, I'm sure, sha'n't you?" Mrs. Rooth asked, with an inflection that called back to him,