nquire how she is.
According to your own statement you are to blame for her mishap; you
dragged her along too fast.

Tom knew there was some truth in this, and so he went the more
willingly; and, sending up his card, stood near the open door, ready to
leave the moment Leo came down with the message he had received from
Doris.

'I shall be cheek by jowl with these Peterkins, if I don't look out,' he
thought, as he ascended the stairs to the hall, where Doris stood
waiting to show him her mistress' room.

'What! Jerry! You here?' he exclaimed, his face clearing, and the whole
aspect of matters changing at once, as she arose to meet him.

With Jerrie there the place seemed different, and he did not feel as if
he were lowering himself, as he sat in the luxuriously furnished room,
and joined in the dainty lunch which was brought up and served from
Dresden china, and linen and cut glass, and was as delicate and dainty
in its way as anything he had ever found at the Brunswick or
Delmonico's. Mrs. Peterkin prided herself upon her _cuisine_, which she
always superintended, and as Peterkin was something of an epicure and
gourmand, the table was always supplied with every possible delicacy.

Tom enjoyed it all, and praised the chocolate, and the broiled chicken,
and the jellies, and thought Ann Eliza not so very bad-looking in her
blue satin wrapper, with the swan's-down trimmings, and made himself
generally agreeable. Maude was better, he said, and could talk a
little, and he asked Jerrie to go home with him and see her. But Jerrie
declined.

'I have a great deal of work to do yet,' she said, 'I must iron all
those clothes you saw upon the line yesterday, and so I must be going.'

Tom frowned at the mention of the clothes which Jerrie had washed; while
Ann Eliza insisted that she should stay until the dog-cart, which had
been sent to the station for Billy, came back, when Lewis would take her
home, as it was too warm to walk. Jerrie did not mind the walk, but she
felt morally sure that Tom meant to accompany her, and greatly preferred
the dog-cart and Lewis to another _tete-a-tete_ with him, for he did not
act at all like a discarded lover, but rather as one who still hoped he
had a chance. So she signified her intention to wait for the dog-cart,
which soon came, with Billy in it, anxious when he heard of his sister's
accident, delighted when he found Jerrie there, and persistent in saying
that he and not Lewis would take