Page:The Tsar's Window.djvu/86

 what had happened. Tom did not hesitate to speak his mind.

"Why, Judy," he cried, in a loud, jovial tone, "you look like a thunder-cloud! I declare, I never saw you out of temper before. If it were Dorris, I should not be so surprised, for she gets cross now and then, but she seems as if all the spirit had been taken out of her. Did you two quarrel when you were alone?"

I smiled faintly. Judith answered him in a freezing manner, and changed the subject suddenly.

As we rose from the table, Tom told us to make haste, for daylight would soon be gone. I walked to the window and looked out.

"Come, Dorris," Grace called.

"I am not going," I answered disconsolately.

"Not going!" exclaimed Tom. "Why, you are the one who has wished to go more than any of us!"

Tableau,—Tom, standing at the head of the table in front of his chair, which he has just pushed back; I, looking out of the window and playing with the curtain; Grace at her door, with her head turned towards me; Judith at the opposite door in the same position; George attentively surveying the sideboard, with his back turned to all of us.

Silence for ten seconds, during which no one moves. Then Judith comes swiftly toward me, and says in a low tone, which they all hear,—

"If it is on my account that you intend to stay at home, I beg of you to go, and let me stay."

"Oh, make it up, girls, make it up!" says my brother-in-law's hearty voice.