"You have bad news, Judge Kent?"
He made no answer, and she seized his arm.
"What is the dreadful news that distresses you?"
As he turned his eyes upon her, all their light and color seemed faded to a dull gla.s.siness, and his voice shook like a hysterical woman"s.
"News--did you say? No--I have received no news. None whatever."
"Then what ails you? I shall call Eglah."
She turned, but he clutched her skirt.
"For G.o.d"s sake, don"t ever tell her! Why grieve the child? The truth is--" He caught his breath, and a sickly smile showed how his mouth trembled, as he swept his hand across his brow.
"You are sick?"
"Oh, yes--sick; that is it exactly. Sick--sick indeed. Some oysters I ate, and cheese; later I very foolishly drank ale."
"Then, sir, you must go to bed, and Eglah will send an explanation of your unavoidable absence from the dinner."
Upstairs a door was opened, and a sweet, girlish voice trilled two bars of a Venetian barcarolle.
Judge Kent threw out his arms appealingly.
"I must go to-night. For G.o.d"s sake, don"t let her know anything! Say nothing. I shall tell her I was a little faint from indigestion. Vile compound--oysters, ale, Roquefort! Promise me to hold your tongue; not for my sake, but hers. I am obliged to attend this dinner, and it would spoil her evening if she knew how deadly sick--I--really was a moment ago. Promise me."
"Very well. I suppose you know best what concerns you most. I promise."
"You are the only woman I ever knew upon whom I could rely to hold her tongue. Now, quick as you can, bring the decanter of brandy to my room.
Amuse the child with her frills and finery while I dress. I must have a little time."
When she carried the brandy to his door, the hand that grasped it was icy, and the other tugged ineffectually at his white tie.
Humming her boat-song, Eglah trailed silken draperies down the winding stairs and into the library, where she courtesied low to Eliza and swept her train--like a peac.o.c.k"s plumes--up to the grate, putting one slippered foot on the bra.s.s fender.
She was gowned in green crepe of an uncommon tint, that held mult.i.tudinous silvery lights in its crinkled texture, and when she moved they glistened and played hide and seek in the clinging folds. Around her fair, full throat a rope of emeralds coiled twice.
"Am I all right--ready for publication and criticism? The damp weather makes my hair so curly I can scarcely keep it in line. Ma-Lila, the clasp of my necklace feels a little rickety, so I must ask you to move it around in front, and cover it securely with this."
She held out a diamond b.u.t.terfly, and Eliza fastened it in the gold-wire links of the emerald chain. As she settled the jewels in place, she stooped and kissed one lovely white shoulder.
"Solemn little mother! I know exactly what you are thinking. That I am as frivolous a creature as grandmother"s heirloom b.u.t.terfly? You should not lose sight of the psychic symbolism of this much slandered and despised insect. Little white b.u.t.terflies whose wings are all powdered with shining star-dust are the souls of babies----"
"Pagan nonsense that I won"t listen to. Moreover, you ought to be ashamed to jest about your immortal soul as if it were yours exclusively--to play with as you would a ball."
"You darling Puritan! If you do not unlace yours it surely will smother.
Really, I thought it was orthodox to believe that in the very last a.n.a.lysis and final adjustment of personal property one"s own soul was one"s solitary chattel that defied and survived the confiscation of death. Motherkin, don"t scold! Kiss me good night, and help me with my cloak, so that I shall not muss all this lace jabot. Is not father ready?"
Eliza laid her long, white velvet cloak around her and tied the ribbons under her chin.
"What keeps father so long? I heard the front door bell ring; is there a visitor?"
"No visitor. Only some doc.u.ment left for the Judge. He is dressing."
Eglah went to the door of an adjoining room and rapped.
"Father, we shall be late. Unpardonable, you know, at a formal dinner."
"Almost ready. Old men need more time for repairs than young beauties."
When he came in, walking briskly, with his overcoat on his arm, Eliza saw that he had rallied surprisingly. Brandy reinforced his nerves, and the cautious, defensive tactics of a lifetime availed now to readjust and restore his equipoise of manner. A flush showed on the full cheeks, and his eyes shone like those of a cat in some dim corner.
"Inexcusably late, father! What can we say?"
"Come, my dear; leave that to me. I shall simply apologize by telling the truth--a spell of indigestion delayed me, but I felt sure one of the Secretary"s famous c.o.c.ktails would rejuvenate me."
Women, secure in their heritage of personal charms, resent as the most unpardonable of affronts to their mental ac.u.men explanations that do not explain, and Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l was thoroughly exasperated by the flimsiness of the deception which she was expected to accept with unquestioning credulity. Silence under strenuous conditions she could have condoned, because it left her the resource of conjecture; an honest confession of vitally grave business complications she would have regarded as confidential, and loyally held inviolate, but "oysters, ale, and Roquefort" was a stinging challenge to her feminine intuitions. Judge Kent"s arrested a.s.sertion: "The truth is--" recalled Mrs. Maurice"s estimate of his veracity when she had applied to him the sarcasm: "He holds truth too precious to be wasted on everybody." That he cowered under some unexpected blow she was quite sure, but her solicitude included him only as his interests involved Eglah"s welfare, and any intimation of coming disaster fluttered this foster-mother, as the faint, grey shadow of a hawk high in the heavens startles a hen into signalling her brood. Ignorant of the quarter whence trouble might approach, how could she shield Eglah, whose safety had been committed to her guardianship? Had she the right to discover the contents of a note that "contained no news"? Did his falsehood ent.i.tle her to pry into his correspondence? All the smothered distrust of years was acutely intensified, and she rose and walked to his room. A bright light shone through the transom, but when she turned the bolt she found the door locked. During her residence in the house this precaution had never before been taken, hence she knew the note had not been destroyed.
Returning to the library, she rang the bell, and the butler responded promptly.
"Have you locked up the silver? Bring me the key. Close the house for the night. Judge Kent will be out late. Tell Octavia to have good fires upstairs, and then she need not wait for Miss Eglah, as I shall sit up till she comes; and, Watson, you can go home. Should the front door bell ring, I shall be here."
More than once she had suspected that the senator was interested in financial speculations, and, though Eglah"s fortune had been carefully tied up beyond his reach, she began to fear he might by some devious process jeopard it. "Hypothecating securities" was a bristling phrase she had never quite comprehended, but it symbolized an ogre she must outwit.
In one corner of the library stood a tall, bra.s.s-mounted chiffonier filled with papers, and above it hung an engraving. Behind, and entirely concealed, was a door opening into a small bathroom that formed an alcove in the senator"s apartment. After an hour had pa.s.sed, Mrs.
Mitch.e.l.l placed her shoulder against the chiffonier, that rolled easily on its castors, and she slipped behind it. There was no key in the lock, but a slender steel bolt slid horizontally under her hand, and the door opened a few inches only, barred by a table, which she succeeded in pushing aside. Lifting the portiere inside, she entered the sleeping-room, and found the _robe de chambre_ hanging over the back of a chair. The pockets were empty, the drawers of the bureau locked, but under the pillow on the bed she thrust one hand and drew out the object of her search. It contained neither date nor signature, and was type-written in purple ink on thin paper bearing no water-mark.
"A friend to you and to yours believes it a genuine kindness to inform you that the ident.i.ty of "Ely Twiggs" has been discovered, and hopes an early knowledge of this fact may be useful to you."
She replaced the note beneath the pillow, returned to the library, and rolled back the chiffonier. After all, she had ended her quest in a cul-de-sac. Turning the gas jets low, she sat watching the blue flicker that danced like witch-lights in the grate, and once she smiled at her own discomfiture, realizing that her attempt was futile as would be the trial of a Yale key to open a "combination" vault lock, the arrangement of which was unknown. Keenly alert, she heard the rattle of the night-latch, the closing of the front door, and, after a moment, Judge Kent came slowly into the room. At first he did not notice her presence, and in this brief unguarded interval she saw the countenance without its habitual mask--a face gloomy, perturbed, unnaturally flushed, with restless eyes gleaming like those of a jaded, hunted forest animal.
"Ah--Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l! Sitting up for Eglah? Didn"t she tell you she was going from the dinner to the cotillon? Herriott will see her home. It is a shame to have kept you up, but girls are so thoughtless."
"Eglah is never that, and I knew she would be late at the cotillon. I waited downstairs solely to see you."
"Very kind, I am sure; but I feel much better, thank you. Indeed, I may say I have fully recovered from that sudden, intolerable spell of nausea. You are very good to worry over that little attack, but pray think no more about it. I shall abjure Welsh rarebit and oysters in future. At my time of life, pneumogastric nerves get their innings."
Brightening the light in the gas globe over the mantel, she approached and confronted him.
"Judge Kent, I am not "worrying" over the condition of your digestive organs, but I do feel deeply interested in the nature of the trouble that has come upon you so unexpectedly, and I cannot sleep until I tell you what I have done to-night. Whatever injures you wounds Eglah, and solely on her account I felt justified in taking a step that no weaker motive could have sanctioned. I sat up to tell you that when I found you would not trust me with the truth, I hunted it by reading the note that fell this evening like a bombsh.e.l.l. I have no hesitation in confessing the fact. I am here for that purpose."
She set her small, white teeth grimly and clasped her hands behind her.
He looked down at her, as a mastiff at a barking pug, and, throwing back his head, laughed heartily, clapping his hands softly.
"Bravo, Methodist burglar! You seem an expert, and find locked doors no barrier. What would Eglah think of your breaking into my room, and into my correspondence?"
"Shall we ask her? Only my promise not to mention this matter to her prevents me from telling her as quickly and frankly as I have told you.
May I speak to her?"