The most I had
to gain by pulling them, if De Quincey grew restless, was to make him
_back_; and this was precisely what I least desired. My reasonable
expostulations, however, could never obtain any more grace from him who
should have been my guardian than a promise, if I would "make no fuss,
and broken bones" came of it, that he would "mend me softly." Therefore
I thought it most prudent not to expostulate; but my penance was this
time a brief one. He had hardly entered the door when the tall, striking
figure I recollected so well came dimly in view in one of the nearest
bay-windows, tapped on the glass with one slender white-frilled hand,
and nodded with a bright, glad smile; and back came the Doctor to help
me out.
"It is all right, Katy. Miss Dudley wants you, and does not want me. If
it rains, you can stay till I call for you. Otherwise, come back when
you like. The first door to your left in the hall."
Miss Dudley met me in the parlor-door, laughing. "I should have come out
to make prize of you," said she, "but they say it is rather bleak this
morning, and I am still under orders. I had almost given you up for this
week; but the Doctor assures me that he has already been suitably dealt
with and brought to repentance, and so there is no more to be said on
that point, especially as you have happened to hit on the very time when
I am most alone, and when, as I have been accustomed to be the busiest,
I feel my present idleness the most.
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