His wife interrupted. "That will be all right, Mr. Hungerford," she said. "That will be quite satisfactory."
"Of course, there are many whom you can obtain for less, and, if you feel that that figure is too high, I shall be glad to try elsewhere. I have had little experience outside of the best, but--"
Serena interrupted again. "We don"t want anybody but the best," she declared, emphatically. "Be still, Daniel. This isn"t Trumet."
Daniel drew a long breath. "There ain"t much doubt of that," he observed. "But, all right, Serena, if you and Mr. Hungerford think it"s all right, I guess it is. I"m more used to hirin" sailors than I am folks to play the harp."
"Music," went on Mr. Hungerford, "is almost a necessity, in these days, when everyone dances. Is this a formal reception, or had you intended clearing a floor for dancing, Mrs. Dott?"
Mrs. Dott had not intended any such thing; she had not thought of it.
But she concealed the fact from her visitor with remarkable presence of mind.
"Oh, of course!" she said.
The conversation continued, a conversation limited to Mr. Hungerford and his hostess, while Captain Dan remained a silent and amazed listener.
The young gentleman was invited to attend the reception, Serena making many apologies for the informality of the invitation, and the guest expressing himself as delighted.
"Of course," he said, "I wouldn"t intrude for the world, but I don"t feel like an intruder in this house, where I have spent so many happy hours. Feeling as I do, I"m going to make another suggestion which, under different circ.u.mstances, might be considered an impertinence. I am at leisure to-morrow--in fact, all this week--and if there is anything that I can do to help you and Cousin Daniel, in this matter of the reception or any other, I shall be at your service. I do hope you will permit me to help and that you will not consider me presuming in offering to do so."
It was quite evident that the offer was very welcome. Mrs. Dott accepted it with enthusiasm and called upon her husband to confirm the acceptance. He did so, but with less warmth, and it was agreed that the obliging Mr. Hungerford should drop in the next morning after calling upon his protege, the violinist. A half hour later he said "Good-night,"
and departed.
"There!" said Serena. "If that isn"t Providence, then I don"t know. And it only goes to show how one person can misjudge another without knowing anything about him. I"ve always had a prejudice against that Mr.
Hungerford simply because of what you told me of meeting him years ago, and now I don"t think I ever met a kinder, nicer young man. Did you, Daniel?"
The captain hesitated. "I--I," he stammered, "well, Serena, I will give in that he seemed nice and obligin" enough to-night, but you see there"s just one thing that--"
Serena turned on him. "Yes, I know," she said. "There"s always "one thing" about everybody that _I_ like. He"s smart and bright and well dressed and polite. He"s a gentleman! and a different kind from any that we"ve ever met. That makes YOU suspicious, of course."
"Now you know it isn"t that; but--but--"
"But what?"
There was more hesitation on the captain"s part. He had intended to tell of the meeting at the Rathskeller; then he remembered the young man"s explanation and apology and thought better of it. He and "Cousin Percy"
might have another interview on the morrow. Meanwhile, he would keep still, particularly as his wife seemed to have forgotten their caller"s reference to the meeting. He finished his sentence in another way.
"But I don"t see what he came here for," he said.
"He came here to see us. And, I think, considering how he was treated in Aunt Lavinia"s will, it was awfully nice of him to come at all. And, as for helping me out on that reception, he"s been a perfect G.o.dsend already. I should THINK you would appreciate it."
Before the next day was over, and long before the first of the evening"s guests arrived, the services of the new-found friend of the family were appreciated even by the reluctant Daniel. Mr. Hungerford came early and proceeded immediately to make himself useful. He had seen the violinist, and the latter and his sister had promised to be on hand. He took Hapgood in charge and superintended the arranging of the drawing-room and the library for the reception and the dancing. When the messenger from the florist came with the flowers which Serena, acting upon the suggestion of Mrs. Lake and Mrs. Black, had ordered, he saw that they were placed in exactly the right positions for effect. Being urged to stay for lunch, he stayed. And his conversation during the meal was so fluent, so aristocratic in flavor, and yet so friendly, that Serena became more and more taken with him. With the captain he was not quite as much at his ease. But he did his best to be agreeable, and Daniel, still vaguely suspicious, found nothing tangible upon which to base distrust. There was so much to be done in the afternoon that, acting upon a hint so delicate that it could scarcely be called a hint, Mrs.
Dott urged him to send to the hotel for his bag and stay at their home overnight. He accepted and was even busier than he had been during the forenoon session. He was never so busy as to perform manual labor with his own hands--he never stooped to that extent--but he managed to convey the impression of being always ready and always helpful.
To say that Mrs. Black and Mrs. Lake were, upon their arrival, surprised to find him there would be expressing their feelings far too mildly.
They knew Mr. Hungerford, but, heretofore, that gentleman had moved in circles other than their own. It is true that he belonged to the same club as did Mr. Black, but Mr. Hungerford"s friends had been younger, the ultra-fashionable set, the set which Annette had characterized as "rather fast" but which, because of its money and society connections, she secretly envied. To find him here, an a.s.sociate and friend of the people she had called "countrified," was most astonishing. She wondered, but she could not help being impressed, and her att.i.tude toward her dear friend Serena was never so gushingly cordial. As for Mr. Hungerford, he greeted the Chapter representatives with condescending urbanity. When the reception began, somehow or other, Cousin Percy was in the receiving line.
Captain Dan, uncomfortably starched and broad-clothed, received likewise, but his remarks to those who pressed his hand and murmured compliments were rather commonplace and very much alike; this consisted princ.i.p.ally of "How d"ye do"s" and "Glad to see you"s"; and it was only when the Honorable and Mrs. Fenholtz came that he appeared to remember anything else. It was evident that Mr. and Mrs. Fenholtz were as surprised as the rest to see Mr. Hungerford there. The Honorable, seizing an opportunity when the captain was for a moment alone, whispered in his ear.
"Where did he come from?" he asked, with a jerk of the head in Cousin Percy"s direction.
"Him?" replied Daniel. "Oh, he came last night."
"Is that so? Is he a friend of yours?"
"Well, he ain"t--isn"t exactly a friend, I guess. He"s a sort of relation, a nephew of Aunt Laviny"s."
"Oh, oh, I see--I see."
There was something in the tone which caused Captain Dan to ask a question in return.
"Know him, do you?" he inquired.
"Yes, I know him, but--it is all right, Olga; I"m coming."
He pa.s.sed on to make room for another a.s.sortment of new arrivals, lady members of the Chapter, and Daniel"s curiosity remained unsatisfied.
After the reception proper, came a social and, to Daniel, very uncomfortable hour, and then Mr. Hungerford, who seemed to have taken upon himself the position of master of ceremonies, suggested dancing.
Of all the captain"s society experiences so far, this was the most amazing. He had danced in his younger days, it is true, but his were dances of quite another variety. Quadrilles and Virginia reels he was acquainted with, but tangos and Bostons and all the infinite varieties of the one-step were to him revelations, and revelations of a kind which caused him to gasp. He saw middle-aged matrons dipping and hopping and twisting about the room in company with middle-aged, stout, red-faced men who looked as if on the verge of apoplexy. He saw Mr. Hungerford laboring dutifully to pilot a woman of forty through the sinuosities of the "hesitation waltz," and when the lady, who was inclined toward plumpness, had collapsed into an armchair, he sought out her late partner and vented his feelings.
"For the land sakes!" he demanded; "what did you do that for?"
"Do what?" inquired Mr. Hungerford, himself as fresh and unwilted as an Easter lily.
"Why, that--to her. Look at her, she"s pretty nigh gone! She ain"t caught more than two breaths in the last minute and a half. I"ve been watchin" her."
Cousin Percy condescended to smile. "It"s her own fault," he observed.
"She said she was dying to learn the "hesitation" and asked me to teach it to her."
"Well, she ought to be satisfied. If she was dyin" before, she"s pretty near dead now. Why didn"t you stop sooner? She all but capsized a dozen times in the last two or three turns you and she took around the room."
Percy"s smile became broader. "That is all part of the dance," he explained. "Watch this couple here."
Daniel watched as directed. The couple were a young man and a girl about Gertrude"s age. They were doing the "hesitation" with the hesitancy emphasized.
"My soul!" muttered the captain. "Where"s that girl"s mother? Somebody ought to tell her."
Hungerford smiled once more. "That was her mother I was dancing with,"
he said.
"Good Lord!" exclaimed Daniel. It was the only comment he made. He watched the rest of the dancing in silence.
The collation followed the dancing, and Azuba and Mr. Hapgood served it, a.s.sisted by four waiters who, at Mr. Hungerford"s suggestion, had been hired for the occasion. The butler"s serving was done with grace and elegance, not to mention dignity. Azuba served as if the main object to be attained was to provide each guest with as much food as possible in the shortest possible time. She was arrayed in a new black gown, worn under protest, for her own idea had been to wear her Sunday dress, a vivid purple, with tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs which, for color and variety, looked "like a patchwork tidy," as Captain Dan expressed it. Also, under still greater protest, she wore a white ap.r.o.n and cap.
"I feel like my grandmother doin" dishes," Azuba declared when Mrs. Dott brought the cap and ap.r.o.n to her and insisted on a dress rehearsal. "The old woman lived to be ninety-five and wore a cap for all the world like this one for thirty year. She had some excuse for wearin" it--it hid the place where her hair was thin on top. But I ain"t bald and I ain"t ninety-five neither. And why in the world you want me to put an ap.r.o.n on in the parlor, _I_ don"t see. You"ve been preachin" at me to leave one off till I was just rememberin" to do it, and now you want me to put it on again."
"Not this kind of an ap.r.o.n, Azuba. Mrs. Black"s maids wear ap.r.o.ns like that, and so do Mrs. Fenholtz"s. It"s the proper thing and I expect you to do it."
"Humph! All right. Land knows I don"t want to be improper. But I"d just like to ask you this: Does that Fenholtz hired help have to wear black clothes like this dress?"