Mrs. Munger's guests kept on talking and laughing. With the coffee and the
punch there began to be a little more freedom. Some prohibitionists among
the working people went away when they found that the lemonade was punch;
but Mrs. Munger did not know it, and she saw the ideal of a Social Union
figuratively accomplished in her own house. She stirred about among her
guests till she produced a fleeting, empty good-fellowship among them. One
of the shoe-shop hands, with an inextinguishable scent of leather and the
character of a droll, seconded her efforts with noisy jokes. He proposed
games, and would not be snubbed by the refusal of his boss to countenance
him, he had the applause of so many others. Mrs. Munger approved of the
idea.
"Don't you think it would be great fun, Mrs. Gerrish?" she asked.
"Well, now, if Squire Putney would lead off," said the joker, looking
round.
Putney could not be found, nor Dr. Morrell.
"They're off somewhere for a smoke," said Mrs. Munger. "Well, that's right.
I want everybody to feel that my house is their own to-night, and to come
and go just as they like. Do you suppose Mr. Peck is offended?" she asked,
under her breath, as she passed Annie. "He _couldn't_ feel that this
is the same thing; but I can't see him anywhere. He wouldn't go without
taking leave, you don't suppose?"
Annie joined Mrs. Putney. They talked at first with those who came to ask
where Putney and the doctor were; but finally they withdrew into a little
alcove from the parlour, where Mrs. Munger approved of their being when she
discovered them; they must be very tired, and ought to rest on the lounge
there. Her theory of the exhaustion of those who had taken part in the play
embraced their families.
The time wore on toward midnight, and her guests got themselves away with
more or less difficulty as they attempted the formality of leave-taking
or not. Some of the hands who thought this necessary found it a serious
affair; but most of them slipped off without saying good night to Mrs.
Munger or expressing that rapture with the whole evening from beginning
to end which the ladies of South Hatboro' professed. The ladies of South
Hatboro' and Old Hatboro' had met in a general intimacy not approached
before, and they parted with a flow of mutual esteem. The Gerrish children
had dropped asleep in nooks and corners, from which Mr. Gerrish hunted them
up and put them together for departure, while his wife remained with Mrs.
Munger, unable to stop talking, and no longer amenable to the looks with
which he governed her in public.