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We returned; night came on; but Pomona was still absent. Jonas did not know where she was, and was very much troubled; and the baby, which had been so skilfully kept in the background by its mother that, so far, it had never annoyed us at all, now began to cry, and would not be comforted. Euphemia, with the assistance of Jonas, prepared the evening meal, and when we had nearly eaten it, Pomona came home. Euphemia asked no questions, although she was burning with curiosity to know where Pomona had been, considering that it was that young woman’s duty to inform her without being asked.

When Pomona came in to wait on us, she acted as if she expected to be questioned, and was perfectly willing to answer, but Euphemia stood upon her dignity, and said nothing. At last Pomona could endure it no longer, and standing with a tray in her hand, she exclaimed:–

“I’m sorry I made you help git the dinner, ma’am, and I wouldn’t ‘a’ done it for anything, but the fact is I’ve been to see a lord, an’ was kep’ late.”

“What!” cried Euphemia, springing to her feet; “you don’t mean that!”

And I was so amazed that I sat and looked at Pomona without saying a word.

“Yes,” cried Pomona, her eyes sparkling with excitement, “I’ve seen a lord, and trod his floors, and I’ll tell you all about it. You know I was boun’ to do it, and I wanted to go alone, for if Jone was with me he’d be sure to put in some of his queer sayin’s an’ ten to one hurt the man’s feelin’s, and cut off the interview. An’ as Jone said this afternoon he felt tired, with some small creeps in his back, an’ didn’t care to go out, I knew my time had come, and said I’d go for a walk. Day before yesterday I went up to a policeman an’ I asked him if he could tell me if a lord, or a earl, or a duke lived anywhere near here. First he took me for crazy, an’ then he began to ask questions which he thought was funny, but I kep’ stiff to the mark, an’ I made him tell me where a lord did live,–about five blocks from here. So I fixed things all ready an’ today I went there.”

“You didn’t have the assurance to suppose he’d see you?” cried Euphemia.

“No, indeed, I hadn’t,” said Pomona, “at least under common circumstances. You may be sure I racked my brains enough to know what I should do to meet him face to face. It wouldn’t do to go in the common way, such as ringin’ at the front door and askin’ for him, an’ then offerin’ to sell him furniter-polish for his pianner-legs. I knowed well enough that any errand like that would only bring me face to face with his bailiff, or his master of hounds, or something of that kind. So, at last, I got a plan of my own, an’ I goes up the steps and rings the bell, an’ when the flunkey, with more of an air of gen’ral upliftedness about him than any one I’d seen yet, excep’ Nelson on top of his pillar, opened the door an’ looked at me, I asked him,–

“‘Is Earl Cobden in?’

“At this the man opened his eyes, an’ remarked:–

“‘What uv it if he is?’

“Then I answers, firmly:–

“‘If he’s in, I want yer to take him this letter, an’ I’ll wait here.'”

“You don’t mean to say,” cried Euphemia, “that you wrote the earl a letter?”

“Yes, I did,” continued Pomona, “and at first the man didn’t seem inclined to take it. But I held it out so steady that he took it an’ put it on a little tray, whether nickel-plated or silver I couldn’t make out, and carried it up the widest and splendidest pair o’ stairs that I ever see in a house jus’ intended to be lived in. When he got to the fust landin’ he met a gentleman, and give him the letter. When I saw this I was took aback, for I thought it was his lordship a-comin’ down, an’ I didn’t want to have no interview with a earl at his front door. But the second glance I took at him showed me that it wasn’t him. He opened it, notwithstanding’, an’ read it all through from beginnin’ to end. When he had done it he looked down at me, and then he went back up stairs a-follered by the flunk, which last pretty soon came down ag’in an’ told me I was to go up. I don’t think I ever felt so much like a wringed-out dish-cloth as I did when I went up them palatial stairs. But I tried to think of things that would prop me up. P’r’aps, I thought, my ancient ancestors came to this land with his’n; who knows? An’ I might ‘a’ been switched off on some female line, an’ so lost the name an’ estates. At any rate, be brave! With such thoughts as these I tried to stiffen my legs, figgeratively speakin’. We went through two or three rooms (I hadn’t time to count ’em) an’ then I was showed into the lofty presence of the earl. He was standin’ by the fire-place, an’ the minnit my eyes lit upon him I knowed it was him.”