Mrs. Bob: A Novel — page 208: what you’re looking at

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

200 HEARD AT THE FIFTH AVENUE. window, and Bob expresses no surprise, for he read the character of Colonel Corneel readily enough, and can easily imagine that this man would when balked in his designs, proceed to extreme measures. They leave Gordon Manor behind and head for their carriage. The driver greets their coming with some shaw of enthusiasm, and declares that several parties endeavored to influence him to take them into town, even going so far as to bully him. He chuckles as he tells how he got rid of then: by a ruse, and seems to think such faithful service is worthy of extra pay, in which Bob agrees with him, as he contemplates the long walk back to town. They arrive at the tavern and create a great deal of sensation. Boys and colored girls run this way and that to serve the little company who have dropped into town so strangely, and must leave again by the express. | Presently the aroma of good coffee, and. the ap- petizing odor of fried chicken, permeate every nook and corner of the little hostelry, for if there is one dish upon which Virginia darkies pride themselves it is the way in which they prepare fowls. Poor Joe can hardly restrain himself, and walks up and down the front porch, groaning at the leaden weight attached to the hands of time. At last they are summoned to the feast and Joe appeases his terrible hunger. Over the meal they become quite chatty, for there is nothing to drive the blues out of a man so quickly as a cup of good coffee, and it is not everywhere in the back counties of Virginia one can find it, - Gomicbookssco in