He was disappointed, however; the great man had not
arrived, only a sour-faced, fussy old lady, Mrs. Jukes, his housekeeper
and a servant-wench and a great lot of boxes and trunks; and so leaving
the coachman grumbling and swearing at the lady, who, bitter, shrill,
and voluble, was manifestly well able to fight her own battles, he
strolled back to the Phoenix, where a new evidence of the impending
arrival met his view in an English groom with three horses, which the
hostler and he were leading into the inn-yard.
There were others, too, agreeably fidgeted about this arrival. The fair
Miss Magnolia, for instance, and her enterprising parent, the agreeable
Mrs. Macnamara: who both as they gaped and peeped from the windows,
bouncing up from the breakfast-table every minute, to the silent
distress of quiet little Major O'Neill, painted all sorts of handsome
portraits, and agreeable landscapes, and cloud-clapped castles, each for
her private contemplation, on the spreading canvas of her hopes.
Dr. Walsingham rode down to the 'Tiled House,' where workmen were
already preparing to make things a little more comfortable.
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