Page:The Wonderful Visit.djvu/86

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

After Dinner.

XVIII.

The Angel and the Vicar sat at dinner. The Vicar, with his napkin tucked in at his neck, watched the Angel struggling with his soup. "You will soon get into the way of it," said the Vicar. The knife and fork business was done awkwardly but with effect. The Angel looked furtively at Delia, the little waiting maid. When presently they sat cracking nuts—which the Angel found congenial enough—and the girl had gone, the Angel asked: "Was that a lady, too?"

"Well," said the Vicar (Crack). "No—she is not a lady. She is a servant."

"Yes," said the Angel; "she had rather a nicer shape."

"You mustn't tell Mrs. Mendham that," said the Vicar, covertly satisfied.

"She didn't stick out so much at the shoul-

74