After penning a hasty farewell note to Miss CAROWTHERS, to the effect
that urgent military reasons obliged her to see her guardian at once,
FLORA lost no time in packing a small leather satchel for travel. Two
bottles of hair oil, a jar of glycerine, one of cold cream, two boxes of
powder, a package of extra back-hair, a phial of belladonna, a
camel's-hair brush for the eyebrows, a rouge-saucer for pinking the
nails, four flasks of perfumery, a depilatory in a small flagon, and
some tooth paste, were the only articles she could pause to collect for
her precipitate escape; and, with them in the satchel on her arm, and a
bonnet and shawl hurriedly thrown on, she stole away down-stairs, and
thus from the house.
Hastening to the Roach House, from whence started an omnibus for the
ferry, she was quickly rattling out of Bumsteadville in a vehicle
remarkable for the great number and variety of noises it could make when
maddened into motion by a span of equine rivals in an immemorial
walking-match.
"Now, BONNER," she said to the driver, taking leave of him at the
ferry-boat, "be sure and let Miss CAROWTHERS know that you saw me safely
off, and that I was not a bit more tired than if I had walked all the
way.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39