The Unknown Guest

There was but one window in the room, a little one opening on hinges, and
glazed with small diamond-shaped bits of glass. The driving storm had
washed it clean, she hung a white curtain before it, and brought from the
living room a pot of scarlet geranium, and a great sea shell, from whose
mouth hung a luxuriant musk plant. Its cool fragrance filled the room, and
gave an almost dainty feeling to the spotlessness of the deal furniture
and the homespun linen. Before the turf fire there was a square of rag
carpet, and the bits of blue and scarlet in it were pretty contrasts to
the white wood of the chairs and table.

The stranger was to have come about noon, but it was the middle of the
afternoon when he arrived. The storm was then nearly over, and there was a
glint of watery sunshine athwart the cold; green, tossing sea. Maggie had
grown anxious at his delay, and then a little cross. At two o'clock she
gave a final peep into the room and said to herself,--"I'll just get on
wi' my wark, let him come, or let him bide awa'. I canna waste my time
waiting for folk that dinna ken the worth o' time."

So when her lodger stood at her door she was at her baking board, and
patting the cakes so hard, that she did not hear him, until he said, "Good
afternoon, Miss Promoter."

Then she turned sharply around, and answered, "Maggie Promoter, if it
please you, sir."