Peggy Stewart at School | Page 6

criticism in her selection of the toilet for the
occasion, as the present instance evinced. She now walked to the piazza
steps, and had anyone possessing a sense of humor been a witness of it,
the transformation which passed over the lady's face en transit would
have well nigh convulsed him, for the smile which had illumined her
countenance at the door had gradually faded as she advanced until,
when the steps were reached, it had been transformed into a most
disapproving frown.
To Peggy the reason was a mystery, for she had not overheard her
aunt's comments upon the occasion of the drive from the railway
station three days before. Of course Jess had, and they had been freely
circulated and keenly resented in the servants' quarters, but no whisper
of them had been carried to the young mistress. Nevertheless, Peggy
was beginning to discover that a good many of her actions, and also the
order of things at Severndale, had brought a cloud to her Aunt's brow,
and a little sigh escaped her lips as she wondered what the latest
development would prove. It seemed so easy for things to go amiss
nowadays, when heretofore nearly everything had seemed, as a matter
of course, to go right. Then the self-elected dictator spoke:
"Peggy, dear, are you not to drive with me?"
"Thank you, Aunt Katherine, but I always ride, and I have several
errands to do which I can better attend to if I am mounted."
"Well, it can hardly be necessary for you to have three saddle horses at
once. It seems to me unnecessarily conspicuous, and in very bad taste
for a young girl to go tearing about the country, and especially into
Annapolis--the capital City of the State--in the guise of a traveling
circus."
A slight smile curved Peggy's lips as she answered:
"Annapolis is not New York, Aunt Katherine. What might be out of
place in such a city would be regarded as a matter of course in a little
town where everybody knows everybody else, and they all know me,
and the Severndale horses. Nobody ever gives us a thought. Why

should they? I'm nothing but a girl riding into town on an errand."
"You are extremely modest, I must say. Is it quite native or well--we'll
dismiss the question, but I must ask you to do me the favor of leaving
your bodyguard behind today; it may not seem conspicuous for you to
play in a Wild West Show, but I must decline to be an actor. You are
growing too old for such mad pranks, and are far too handsome a girl to
invite observation."
Peggy turned crimson.
"Why, Aunt Katherine, I never regarded it as a prank in the least. I have
ridden this way all my life and no one has ever commented upon it.
Daddy Neil knows of it--he has ridden with me hundreds of times
himself--and never said one word against it. And you surely do not
think I do it to invite observation? Why, there isn't anything to observe.
I am certainly no better looking than hundreds of other girls; at least,
you are the only one who has ever commented upon my personal
appearance. But I beg your pardon; you are my guest. I am sorry. Bud,
please call Shelby to take Star and Roy back; I don't dare trust them to
you."
The little negro boy who had brought Shashai to the doorstep, and who
had been staring popeyed during the conversation, dashed away toward
the paddock, to rush upon Shelby with a wild tale of "dat lady f'om de
norf was a-sassin' Missie Peggy jist scan'lous and orderin' Shelby fer to
come quick ter holp her."
"What you a-talking about, you little fool nigger?" demanded Shelby.
Then gathering that something was amiss with the little mistress whom
all upon the estate adored, he hastened to the house, his face somewhat
troubled, for hints of the doings up there had penetrated even to his
quarters.
"Shelby, please take Star and Roy back to the paddock and be sure to
fasten them in."
"Ain't they a-goin' with you, Miss Peggy?"

"Not this morning, Shelby."
The man looked from the girl to the lady now settling herself in the
carriage. Toinette still stood upon the piazza waiting to be lifted up to
her mistress, too fat and too foolish to even go down the steps alone. As
Shelby stepped toward the horses Mrs. Stewart waved her hand toward
the dog and said to him:
"Lift Toinette into the surrey."
Shelby paid no more attention to her than he paid to the quarreling jays
in the holly trees, and the order was sharply repeated.
"Oh, are you a-speakin' to me, ma'am?" he then said.
"Certainly. I wish my dog