d.
There were two great knocks at the door--entirely too loud--and when the
servant-maid appeared she heard a voice which she recognized as that of
Mrs. Faulkner inquiring for her. Instantly she withdrew into her chamber
and waited, her countenance all alertness.

When the maid came up to inform her that Mrs. Faulkner and a lot of
ladies were down-stairs, and wanted to see her, Miss Port knit her
brows, and shut her lips tightly. She could not connect this visit of so
many Glenford ladies with anything definite; and yet her conscience told
her that their business in some way concerned Captain Asher. He had had
time to see them, and now they had come to see her; probably to induce
her to relinquish her claims upon him. As this thought came into her
mind she grew angry at their impudence, and, seating herself in a
rocking-chair, she told the servant to inform the ladies that she had
just reached home, and that it was not convenient for her to receive
them at present.

Mrs. Faulkner sent hack a message that, in that case, they would wait;
and all the ladies seated themselves in the Port parlor.

"The impudence!" said Miss Port to herself; "but if they like waitin,'
they can wait, I guess they'll get enough of it!"

So Maria Port sat in her room and the ladies sat in the parlor below;
and they sat, and they sat, and they sat, and at last it began to grow
dark.

"I guess they'll be wantin' their suppers," said Maria, "but they'll go
and get them without seein' me. It's no more convenient for me to go
down now than when they first came."

There had been, and there was, a great deal of conversation down in the
parlor, but it was carried on in such a low tone that, to her great
regret, Miss Port could not catch a word of it.

"Now," said Mrs. Pilsbury, "I must go home, for my husband will want his
supper and the children must be attended to."

"And so must I," said Mrs. Barney and Mrs. Sloan. They would really like
very much to stay and see what would happen next, but they had families.

"Ladies," said Mrs. Faulkner, "of course, we can't all stay here and
wait for that woman; but I propose that three of us shall stay and that
the rest shall go home. I'll be one to stay. And then, in an hour three
of you come back, and let us go and get our suppers. In this way we can
keep a committee here all the time. All night, if necessary. When I come
back I will bring a candlestick and some candles, for, of course, we
don't want