"
"Thank you," I murmured, while it seemed as though my faculties were
desperately searching for light on a hitherto unsounded sea. "I think
this will do for the present."
Lovell nodded his head with a grave good-night and disappeared.
Meanwhile, Grandma and Grandpa Keeler and Madeline were absorbing this
last impressive scene as they slowly emerged from that unknown quarter of
the Ark whither they had retreated.
Grandpa looked at me with a peculiar twinkle in his eye.
"So Lovell came back to give ye his picter, eh, teacher?" said he.
I returned Grandpa's look with cheerful and unoffended alacrity; but
Grandma interrupted, "Thar', now, pa! Thar', now! We mustn't inquire into
everything we happen to get a little wind on. Ye see, teacher," she
continued, in tones of the broadest gentleness, "we knew they'd be sorter
bashful gettin' acquainted the first night, and so we thought it 'ud be
easier for 'em if we should leave 'em to themselves, and we knew you was
so--we knew you wouldn't care."
As Grandpa resumed his accustomed seat by the fire, an expansive grin
still lingered on his features.
"Ah, he's a queer fellow, that Lovell," said he; "but he's quick to larn,
they say, larns like a book.
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