"How do? How do?" she exclaimed, holding out both hands and shaking them, right and left. "How dee do? Why, I'm mighty proud to see you! Come in!

Come in out'n the cold!" she added, as she led her visitors through the front door that opened immediately into the princ.i.p.al room of the house.

It was a large, homely room, with whitewashed walls, bare floor, large open fireplace, and two front windows, shaded with blue paper blinds. It was plainly furnished with a pine table, chip chairs, corner cupboard, tall clock, and all the usual features of the rustic parlor. Its great redeeming point was the glowing fire of oak logs that burned in the broad chimney.

"Come right here and sit down, and get a good warm before you take off your things. Make yourself comfortable, sez I! never mind looks," said Miss Sibby, drawing chairs close to the hearth for her half frozen guests.

"So Roland has come home, I hear, Miss Sibby," began Mrs. Hedge, as she stretched her benumbed fingers over the fire.

"Yes, he has, safe and sound; thanks be to the Lord! He got home the very selfsame day that young Le Force arrove; though nyther of them knowed anything about the other's coming 'til they met by accident at old Luke Barriere's store. Now, wasn't that a coinference? 'Truth is stranger nor friction,' sez I."

"Is he going to sea again, Miss Sibby?" inquired Miss Grandiere.

"Well, I reckon sooner or later he must go, if he won't do nothing else. A young youth must do something for a living, sez I; and if he don't do one thing he must do another, sez I. But I do hope next time as he may get a berth along of your brother George. When is Capting Grandiere expected home?"

"I don't know. He was at Rio de Janeiro when we heard from him last."

"Ah me! so far as that? That's on the coast of Guinea, ain't it?"

"No; Brazil, South America."

"Well, Lord knows that's far enough. I did hope as the _Kitty_ would be coming home soon, and Roland could get a berth 'long o' Capting Grandiere.

But there's nothing but disappointment in this world, sez I!"

"The worst case of disappointment I know of is that of poor young Leonidas Force!" said Mrs. Hedge.

"Now ain't it, though" chimed in Miss Sibby.

"To come home to meet his sweetheart, and find her just about to be married to another man!"

"And him a furriner! That's what makes me sick! A furriner! Them as has the least to do with furriners, sez I, comes the best off, sez I! It's all the gal's fault, too! She fell in love along of this furriner! And her father, he give in to her, 'cause she cried and took on! But, Lor'! what could you expect of the young thing, sez I? 'Trot sire, trot dam,' sez I, 'the colt will never pace,' sez I! And you may take my word for that."

"What do you mean, Miss Sibby? How do you apply the proverb to this case?"

inquired Miss Grandiere.

"Why, don't you see? What did her daddy do? 'Stead o' marrying of some old neighbor's darter, like you, Miss Sukey----"

"No, I thank you!" put in Miss Grandiere.

"Or me," continued Miss Sibby, without noticing the interruption, "or some other, as everybody knows all about, what did he go and do? Why, he went 'way out yonder to the Devil's Icy Peak, summers, and married of a stranger and a furriner, and a heathen and a pagan, for aught he knew! and fetches of her home here to us! That's what her daddy did! And now, what did her mammy do? Why, 'stead o' marrying of one of her own countrymen and kinsfolks, she ups and marries a 'Merican man as was a stranger and furriner to her; and a heathen and a pagan for aught that she knew."

"But they loved one another; there is no question of that," pleaded Miss Grandiere.

"What if they did? That's the contrariness of it, sez I! What call had either of 'em be 'a loving of strangers and furriners and a marrying of them, sez I? And now the gal has done just as her father and mother did before her! Turned her back on her own kith and kin, and took up 'long of a stranger and a furriner, and a heathen and a pagan, for aught she knows, sez I! It's in the blood, sez I! 'Trot sire, trot dam,' sez I! 'and the colt'll never pace,' sez I! And now, ladies, if you have thawed out and will take off your bonnets and things, I will put them away. But maybe you would rather go to a bedroom?"

"Yes," said Miss Grandiere, rising and going to a door on the side leading into an inner chamber.

"Oh! stop. Don't go in there, please, Miss Sukey, I--I have got a strange lady in there," hastily exclaimed their hostess.

"A strange lady!" repeated Miss Grandiere, in surprise.

"Yes--leastways a strange woman. I don't know about a lady; for if you're not acquainted with a person, sez I, you can't tell if they are ladies or no. But come upstairs and I will tell you about her, or leastways all I know about her. Lor', I sometimes s'picions as maybe she's Roland's mother!"

CHAPTER XIX

A STRANGE WOMAN

Miss Sibby opened a door in the corner near the fireplace and led her visitors up a steep and narrow flight of stairs to a small upper chamber in the roof, which was lighted by one dormer window, and furnished very simply with a bedstead, a chest of drawers, a washstand, and two cane chairs.

"Now, you see, I'm very sorry to have to fetch you up here, where there's no fire; but that strange woman, you know, when she come, of course I had to give up my room to her, and so you see how it is," said Miss Sibby, apologetically.

"Oh! never mind. We shall not stay up here long enough to get chilled; but who is the woman, anyhow?" inquired Mrs. Hedge.

"Well, she is a widdy woman, and her name is a Mrs. Wright, and she come from Callyfoundland."

"California, do you mean?"

"Yes; I s'pose that is it. I was thinking of Newfoundland, where Roland made his first voyage, and I got 'em mixed. It's impossible to memorize all the places, sez I. Well, about Mrs. Wright. She was a pa.s.senger on board the _Blue Bird_; and, naterally, Roland being third mate, got acquainted long of her, and she was bound for Port Tobacco, where she had business in the neighborhood concerning her late husband's affairs, and so she come down from Baltimore long o' Roland, and he fotch her here, and what could I do, sez I? I couldn't turn her out'n doors, could I? And she and Roland are that thick together as I sometimes s'picions mebbe as she's his own mother; for, you know, n.o.body knows who Roland's people are--a child which was flung ash.o.r.e by the sea when the _Carrier Pigeon_ was wrecked."

"But if she was she would say so, wouldn't she?" inquired Mrs. Hedge.

"I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes I think I will ask her if she ever had a long-lost child. But, sez I, it's a delicate question, sez I, to ask of a strange woman, sez I. And so I think I'll wait and see how things will turn out. Anyhow, you'll see her at tea time, and Roland, too, and just you take notice!"

And so saying, Miss Sibby attended her guests--who had finished their toilets--downstairs.

A neat, old, colored woman was engaged in setting the table for tea.

"Put seven plates and seven cups and saucers, Mocka. I spects young Mr.

Force will come in along of Master Roland," said Miss Sibby, as she once more seated herself among her guests around the fire.

Presently the inner door opened and a very fine-looking woman of about thirty-five years of age entered the room. She was a brilliant brunette, with a great quant.i.ty of rippling black hair covering a well-shaped head.

Her features were, perhaps, rather coa.r.s.e, her face and form rather too full, and her stature too low, but her eyes were large, black and beautiful, and shaded by long and very thick black lashes, and arched by heavy black brows; her mouth was large but well formed, plump and red, and her complexion was rich and beautiful beyond description. A strikingly handsome woman she would have been called anywhere. She wore a black silk dress, with fine lace ruffles at the throat and wrists; a pearl brooch and a very heavy gold watch chain.

She waddled into the room, with an easy, rolling motion, and nodded graciously to the company a.s.sembled there.

She looked doubtful, the sisters thought. She might be a lady, but--

As soon as she spoke all doubts were set at rest.

"Mrs. Wright, 'low me to introduce you to Mrs. Hedge, and to Miss Grandiere, also to little Miss Hedge," said the hostess, rising and formally presenting the stranger to her neighbors.

"Proud to know you, ma'am. Proud to know you, miss. Proud to know you, little miss. It is most seasonable weather for the season," said the stranger, bowing elaborately and smiling broadly on each of her new acquaintances--who all returned her greetings with quiet courtesy--and then seating herself in the armchair which had apparently been left vacant for her.

Both the sisters saw at once that the romance of Miss Sibby was not founded on fact, and that this woman could not have been the mother of the sea waif, Roland Bayard.

She chattered away incessantly about her voyage from San Francisco, her seasickness, the kindness of the young mate Bayard to her, and his great service in bringing her on to such a friendly house, and her intention to pay Miss Sibby very handsomely for the accommodation she had afforded her.