Detective Bob Bridger — page 61: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

54 DETECTIVE BOB BRIDGER. blushing Annette on my left, ‘he should do so before the audience that I have.’ “Then I sang, and if ever I did sing well (and I do war- ble passably), I did so then. “When I had ended I turned toward the ladies. “The widow said that I had played and sung well, but she did not fancy plantation melodies. “*And what do you think of the song, Miss Annette? I asked. ‘**Oh, it is very, very pretty,’ she said, smiling sweetly, and I perceived that she was well over her embarrassment. ‘“*'Then as you like the air, and Mrs. Bibby doesn’t, per- mit me to present it to you,’ and I presented the music to Annette. “She took itin her lttle hand, and thanked me, ‘saying that she would surely learn to play it. ‘| perceived, however, that the widow’s eyes glared viciously upon her fair pupil, and to divert the ladies I turned again to the piano and sang several EHEnglish songs in which I was well up. ‘* Annette seemed delighted, but somehow the widow’s smiles became staler and staler. ‘To end the entertainment I took the music sheet from Annette’s hand, and calling the ladies’ attention to a comic ditty which was tacked upon the back of the sheet, I asked them to pass their opinions upon it. ‘It was a foolish thing, and ran in the chorus something like this: “ «Pretty little Sarah, with the golden hair Her beauty jealous maidens will be scorning; She’d ought to’ve been an angel, If only rich I were I'd marry her so early in the morning.’ “ As I ended the ditty charming Annette was wreathed in smiles and lovely in blushes, while the expression on the widow’s face was not, to say the least, pleasant. ““Why, my dear J ennie—that is, Mrs. Bibby,’ said I, ‘I fear that I have displeased you. What a thoughtless fel- low I am, to be sure, taking the time allotted by appoint- ment and due Miss Annette as the pupil and you as the teacher. ’ “*Itis not that that gives me anxiety,’ returned the widow. ‘Nor doI desire to interrupt your singing, which seems to please Miss Bolard so well, although she has now comicbooks.co