Finally, she had missed Mr. Candy,
the doctor, who had mysteriously disappeared from the drawing-room, and
had then mysteriously returned, and entered into conversation with
Mr. Godfrey. Upon the whole, things were prospering better than the
experience of the dinner gave us any right to expect. If we could
only hold on for another hour, old Father Time would bring up their
carriages, and relieve us of them altogether.
Everything wears off in this world; and even the comforting effect of
ROBINSON CRUSOE wore off, after Penelope left me. I got fidgety again,
and resolved on making a survey of the grounds before the rain came.
Instead of taking the footman, whose nose was human, and therefore
useless in any emergency, I took the bloodhound with me. HIS nose for a
stranger was to be depended on. We went all round the premises, and out
into the road--and returned as wise as we went, having discovered no
such thing as a lurking human creature anywhere.
The arrival of the carriages was the signal for the arrival of the rain.
It poured as if it meant to pour all night. With the exception of the
doctor, whose gig was waiting for him, the rest of the company went home
snugly, under cover, in close carriages.
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