What are ausplcious days?

What are ausplcious days? 182. A Loveless Engagement “I’m sorry to make you late with your mowing, Billy, but I must have you go out to Mrs. Prettyman’s for some cream she promised me.”,“Yes, Bob,” said Steve Whitney seriously, “I want someone on whom I can rely to think quickly and not lose his head in an emergency. Rules and regulations must be broken when the jam is tight enough—and many tight jams occur in the Service. You proved to-day that you used your brains and were plucky enough to act on what your brain told you to do. Probably the few minutes you saved in getting me, were worth thousands of dollars to the Service and days of delay. If that spillway wall had broken, the buttress excavations would have filled and all the digging work would have had to be done over.”,It must have been hours past midnight when Billy’s chattering voice startled his mother. She had heard no bell; the boy himself stood by her bedside; she could see him dimly against the window.,"He explained how my poor Maurice was killed.","Nonsense! She likes Maurice herself," replied Isabella, uneasily. "Maurice wants our engagement kept quiet for the present, but when I do tell Major Jen and my mother, I am sure neither of them will object."，"What do you say? I thought you loved the girl?"，"What in the world did Hannah Ann write to you for?" queried Elinor absently. "She usually sends her weekly reports to me."，"Why should it be strange?"He comes to her and looks over her shoulder at the paper she holds. In an ugly unformed hand the following figures and words are written upon it,—

The momentous Friday comes at last, and about noon Mona and Geoffrey start for the Towers. They are not, perhaps, in the exuberant spirits that should be theirs, considering they are going to spend their Christmas in the bosom of their family,—at all events, of Geoffrey's family which naturally for the future she must acknowledge as hers. They are indeed not only silent, but desponding, and as they get out of the train at Greatham and enter the carriage sent by Sir Nicholas to meet them their hearts sink nearly into their boots, and for several minutes no words pass between them.,But as the minutes passed he got back his grasp on things and realized that no more shots were coming. Evidently the Mexican had become frightened and had run. The next thing he knew was that he was being pulled out of the water by Feather-in-the-Wind.,Billy considered. "I ain't sayin' jest what I'll do," he spoke finally. "I gotta ask another person's advice on this thing. But if I do take it you, Jim, an' you, Maurice, are goin' to be my partners in Lost Man same's you are in bay Thomas. Here, Maurice, you take Thomas to our stable an' give him a feed. I gotta go somewhere else." And leaving Jim and Maurice sitting, open-mouthed, Billy ducked into the timber.,"A pretty name, too.","Mr Lawrence is very daring," answered Lucy. "I can easily believe that the hunchback [Pg 374]Paul, as he is called, had orders if he did not meet me to go to the house and deliver the letter to me in person.",“Put a crown of pickled olerves on me,” demanded Moses, “me ’n Jethro beat.” He stood before his sister mopping his face. The express waggon with a wheel off was overturned and a frightened. “Cheep, cheep, cheep” came from beneath it.,Mr Lawrence had closed his knife and fork and swallowed half his tankard of ale, when the Admiral halted in his speech. He regarded his father with eager earnestness. But the Admiral was not to be interrupted in his further disclosure. Having ascertained that his son wished for no more beef, he went to the fire-place and pulled a bell-rope, and it was not until the housekeeper had removed the joint and vegetables and replaced them by a dish of Norfolk dumplings with white sauce sweetened and brandied—a homely dish of which Sir William was uncommonly fond—that the old gentleman proceeded.,So runs the letter.,“Give us an apple,” whispered Stephen to Nils. Nils did not answer, but gave Stephen a sly look and then made a hideous face.,“But the Lord hed his eye on Joner an’ put an orful wind on the sea.”,“Some presents will go over to your house this evening,” said Uncle Isaac when he said good-by.,Patricia turned with a gasp of delight. "Bruce!" she cried delightedly. "You dear thing! You've come in the nick of time. Isn't it splendid that Elinor's won the prize? Did you hear about it? Aren't you perfectly crazy over it?".