William Dean Howells

The Albany Depot William Dean Howells

Book Excerpt, with an angry glance backward at him over her shoulder. He returns crestfallen to Campbell. Campbell, looking up from his magazine, in affected surprise: "Where's your cook? You don't mean to say she was the wrong woman?"Roberts, gloomily: "She wasn't the right one."Campbell: "How do you know? What did you say to her?"Roberts: "I asked her if she had an appointment to meet a gentleman here."Campbell: "You _did_? And what did she say?"Roberts: "She said 'No!' very sharply. She seemed to take it in dudgeon; she fired up."Campbell: "I should think so. Sounded like an improper advertisement."Roberts, in great distress: _"Don't_, Willis, for Heaven's sake!"Campbell: "Why, you must see it had a very clandestine look. How did you get out of it?"Roberts: "I didn't. I got into it further. I told her my wife had made an appointment for me to meet a cook here that she'd engaged--"Campbell: "You added insult to injury. Go on!"Roberts: "And that she corresponded somewhat to