Lcome." Here the Admiral actually spread his arms abroad. His hostess
retreated a step. "My daughters,--Calypso, I perceive an errant curl--my
daughters, madam, will bear me out when I say that only excess of
feeling prevents their mother from joining in this--may I call it
so?--this ovation." (In point of fact, Mrs. Buzza had been judged too
red in the eyes to accompany the Admiral.) "Ever since I beheld you and
your husband--whom I do not see" (here the Admiral stared ferociously
under a table), "but who, I trust, is in health--for the first time in
church yesterday"-- (Oh, Admiral Buzza!)--"I have been forcibly reminded
of an expression in one of our British poets, which runs--Sophia, how
the devil does it run?" Neither of the Misses Buzza had the faintest
idea. Their father's efforts to remember it were interrupted by Mrs.
Goodwyn-Sandys, who begged them, with a charming smile, to be seated.
"My husband," she said, "will be down in a minute or two. It is really
most kind of you to call; for, as strangers, we are naturally anxious to
hear abo