Bemis: "Cream and sugar both? Yes?" Holding a cube of sugar in the tongs: "How many?"
Bemis: "One, please."
Mrs. Somers, handing it to him: "I"m so glad you take your tea _au naturel_, as I call it."
Campbell: "What do you call it when they don"t take it with cream and sugar?"
Mrs. Somers: "_Au unnaturel._ There"s only one thing worse: taking it with a slice of lemon in it. You might as well draw it from a bothersome samovar at once, and be done with it."
Campbell: "The samovar is picturesque."
Mrs. Somers: "It is insincere. Like Californians. Natives."
Campbell: "Well, I can think of something much worse than tea with lemon in it."
Mrs. Somers: "What?"
Campbell: "No tea at all."
Mrs. Somers, recollecting herself: "Oh, _poor_ Mr. Campbell! Two lumps?"
Campbell: "One, thank you. Your pity is so sweet!"
Mrs. Somers: "You ought to have thought of the milk of human kindness, and spared my cream-jug too."
Campbell: "You didn"t pour out your compa.s.sion soon enough."
Bemis, who has been sipping his tea in silent admiration: "Are you often able to keep it up in that way? I was fancying myself at the theatre."
Mrs. Somers: "Oh, _don"t_ encore us! Mr. Campbell would keep saying his things over indefinitely."
Campbell, presenting his cup: "Another lump. It"s turned bitter. _Two!_"
Bemis: "Ha, ha, ha! Very good--very good indeed!"
Campbell: "Thank you kindly, Mr. Bemis."
Mrs. Somers, greeting the new arrivals, and leaning forward to shake hands with them as they come up, without rising: "Mrs. Roberts! How very good of you! And Mr. Roberts!"
III
_MR. and MRS. ROBERTS and the OTHERS_
Roberts: "Not at all."
Mrs. Roberts: "Of course we were coming."
Mrs. Somers: "Will you have some tea? You see I"m installed already. Mr.
Campbell was so greedy he wouldn"t wait."
Campbell: "Mr. Bemis and I are here in the character of heroes, and we had to have our tea at once. You"re a hero too, Roberts, though you don"t look it. Any one who comes to tea in such weather is a hero, or a--"
Mrs. Somers, interrupting him with a little shriek: "Ugh! How hot that handle"s getting!"
Campbell: "Ah, I dare say. Let me turn out my sister"s cup." Pouring out the tea and handing it to Mrs. Roberts. "I don"t see how you could reconcile it to your No. Eleven conscience to leave your children in such a snow-storm as this, Agnes."
Mrs. Roberts, in vague alarm: "Why, what in the world could happen to them, Willis?"
Campbell: "Oh, nothing to _them_. But suppose Roberts got snowed under.
Have some tea, Roberts?" He offers to pour out a cup.
Mrs. Somers, dispossessing him of the teapot with dignity: "Thank you, Mr. Campbell; _I_ will pour out the tea."
Campbell: "Oh, very well. I thought the handle was hot."
Mrs. Somers: "It"s cooler now."
Campbell: "And you won"t let me help you?"
Mrs. Somers: "When there are more people you may hand the tea."
Campbell: "I wish I knew just how much that meant."
Mrs. Somers: "Very little. As little as an adoptive Californian in his most earnest mood." While they talk--Campbell bending over the teapot, on which Mrs. Somers keeps her hand--the others form a little group apart.
Bemis, to Mrs. Roberts: "I hope Mr. Roberts"s distinguished friend won"t give us the slip on account of the storm."
Roberts: "Oh no; he"ll be sure to come. He may be late. But he"s the most amiable of Englishmen, and I know he won"t disappoint Mrs. Somers."
Bemis: "The most unamiable of Englishmen couldn"t do that."
Roberts: "Ah, I don"t know. Did you meet Mr. Pogis?"
Bemis: "No; what did he do?"
Roberts: "Why, he came--to the Hibbens"s dinner--in a sack coat."
Mrs. Roberts: "I thought it was a Cardigan jacket."
Bemis: "_I_ heard a Norfolk jacket and knickerbockers."
Mrs. Somers: "Ah, there is Mrs. Curwen!" To Campbell, aside: "And without her husband!"
Campbell: "Or any one else"s husband."