Our host has been suddenly
called away, and I am left to take his place."
Miss Nevil was slightly startled. Nevertheless, she smiled graciously.
"From what I hear this is no new function of yours; that is, if there
really IS a Mr. Rushbrook. I am inclined to think him a myth."
"You make me wish he were," retorted Somers, gallantly; "but as I
couldn't reign at all, except in his stead, I shall look to you to lend
your rightful grace to my borrowed dignity."
The more general announcement to the company was received with a few
perfidious regrets from the more polite, but with only amused surprise
by the majority. Indeed, many considered it "characteristic"--"so like
Bob Rushbrook," and a few enthusiastic friends looked upon it as a
crowning and intentional stroke of humor. It remained, however, for the
gentleman from Siskyou to give the incident a subtlety that struck Miss
Nevil's fancy. "It reminds me," he said in her hearing, "of ole Kernel
Frisbee, of Robertson County, one of the purlitest men I ever struck.
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