Tell the maids to fill the
bathtubs while there is any water left in the mains. You may go if you are
frightened, but I stay here."
"Very well, and you needn't have said that, ma'am. I've been in this
family, man and boy, Ballinger and Groome, for fifty-two years, and you
know I'd never desert you. But no doubt those hussies in the kitchen will,
with a lot of others. A lot of stoves have already been set up in the
streets out here and ladies are cookin' their own breakfasts."
"Forgive me, James. I know you will never leave me. And if the others do
we shall get along. Miss Alexina is not a bad cook." And she heroically
swallowed the bacon.
IV
James departed and she turned to Dwight, who was on his feet.
"You are not going?"
"I think I must, Mrs. Groome. There may be something I can do down there.
All able-bodied men will be needed, I fancy."
"But you'll come back and see us?" cried Alexina.
"Indeed I will. I'll report regularly."
He thanked Mrs. Groome for her hospitality and she invited him to take
pot luck with her at dinner time. After he had gone Alexina exclaimed
rapturously:
"Oh, you do like him, don't you, mommy dear?"
And Mrs. Groome was pleased to reply, "He has perfect manners and certainly
has the right ideas about things. I could do no less than ask him to dinner
if he is going to take the trouble to bring us the news."
CHAPTER IV
I
That was a unique and vivid day for young Alexina Groome, whose disposition
was to look upon life as drama and asked only that it shift its scenes
often and be consistently entertaining and picturesque.
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