Come Out of the Kitchen!
by Alice Duer Miller.
I
THE window of Randolph Reed"s office was almost completely covered by magnificent gold block lettering. This to any one who had time and ability to read it--and the former was more common in the community than the latter--conveyed the information that Reed dealt in every kind of real estate, from country palaces to city flats. The last item was put in more for the sake of symmetry than accuracy, for the small Southern town contained nothing approaching an apartment house.
From behind this pattern of gold, Reed peered eagerly one autumn afternoon, chewing the end of a frayed cigar, and listening for the sound of a motor. He was a stout young man, of an amiable though unreadable countenance, but like many people of a heavy build, he was capable of extreme quickness of movement. This was never more clearly shown than when, about four o"clock, the wished for sound actually reached his ears. A motor was approaching.
With a bound Reed left the window, and, seated at his desk, presented in the twinkling of an eye the appearance of a young American business man, calm and efficient, on an afternoon of unusual business pressure. He laid papers in piles, put them in clips and took them out, snapped rubber bands about them with frenzied haste, and finally seizing a pen, he began to indite those well-known and thrilling words: "Dear Sir: Yours of the 15th instant received and contents--" when the motor drew up before his door.
It was an English car; all green and nickel; it moved like an expert skater on perfect ice. As it stopped, the chauffeur dropped from his place beside the driver. The driver himself, removing his gla.s.ses, sprang from the car and up the office steps, slapping the pockets of his coat as he did so in a search which soon appeared to be for cigarettes and matches.
"Sorry to be late," he said.
Reed, who had looked up as one who did not at once remember, in his vast preoccupation, either his visitor or his business, now seemed to recall everything. He waved the newcomer to a chair, with a splendid gesture.
"Doubtless the roads," he began.
"Roads!" said the other. "Mud-holes. No, we left Washington later than I intended. Well, have you got the house for me?"
Reed offered his client a cigar.
"No, thank you, prefer my cigarette if you don"t mind."
Reed did not mind in the least. The real estate business in Vestalia was never brilliant, and several weeks" profits might easily have been expended in one friendly smoke.
His client was a man under thirty, of a type that used to be considered typically American--that is to say, Anglo-Saxon, modified by a century or so of New England climate and conscience. His ancestors had been sailors, perhaps, and years of exposure had tanned their skins and left their eyes as blue as ever. His movements had the gentleness characteristic of men who are much with horses, and though he was active and rather lightly built, he never was sudden or jerky in any gesture. Something of this same quietness might be detected in his mental att.i.tude. People sometimes thought him hesitating or undecided on questions about which his mind was irrevocably made up. He took a certain friendly interest in life as a whole, and would listen with such patience to an expression of opinion that the expresser of it was often surprised to find the opinion had had no weight with him, whatsoever.
He stood now, listening with the politest attention to Reed"s somewhat flowery description of the charms of the Revelly house--charms which Crane himself had examined in the minutest detail.
"Never before," exclaimed the real estate agent, in a magnificent peroration, "never before has the splendid mansion been rented--"
"Ah," said Crane with a smile, "I believe you there."
"Never been offered for rent," corrected the real estate agent, with a cough. "Its delightful colonial flavor--"
"Its confounded dilapidation," said the prospective tenant.
"Its boxwood garden, its splendid lawns, its stables, accommodating twenty-five horses--"
"Yes, if they don"t lean up against the sides."
Reed frowned.
"If," he remarked with a touch of pride, "you do not want the house--"
The young man of the motor car laughed good-temperedly.
"I thought we had settled all that last week," he said. "I do want the house; I do appreciate its beauties; I do not consider it in good repair, and I continue to think that the price for six weeks is very high. Have the owners come down?"
Reed frowned again.
"I thought I made it clear, on my part," he answered, "that Mr. and Mrs.
Revelly are beyond the reach of communication. They are on their way to Madeira. Before they left they set the price on their house, and I can only follow their instructions. Their children--there are four children--"
"Good heavens, I don"t have to rent them with the house, do I?"
exclaimed the other frivolously.
The real estate agent colored, probably from annoyance.
"No, Mr. Crane," he answered proudly, "you do not, as far as I know, have to do anything you do not wish to do. What I was about to say was that the children have no authority to alter the price determined by their parents. To my mind, however, it is not a question of absolute value. There is no doubt that you can find newer and more conveniently appointed houses in the hunting district--certainly cheaper ones, if price be such an object. But the Revelly family--one of the most aristocratic families south of Mason and Dixon"s, sir--would not be induced to consider renting under the sum originally named."
"It"s pretty steep," said the young man, but his mild tone already betrayed him. "And how about servants?"
"Ah," said Reed, looking particularly mask-like, "servants! That has been the great difficulty. To guarantee domestic service that will satisfy your difficult Northern standards--"
"I am fussy about only two things," said Crane, "cooking and boots. Must have my boots properly done."
"If you could have brought your own valet--"
"But I told you he has typhoid fever. Now, see here, Mr. Reed, there really isn"t any use wasting my time and yours. If you have not been able to get me a staff of servants with the house, I wouldn"t dream of taking it. I thought we had made that clear."
Reed waved his impatient client again to his chair.
"There are at this moment four well-recommended servants yonder in the back office, waiting to be interviewed."
"By me?" exclaimed Crane, looking slightly alarmed.
Reed bowed.
"I wish first, however," he went on, "to say a word or two about them. I obtained them with the greatest difficulty, from the Crosslett-Billingtons, of whom you have doubtless often heard."
"Never in my life," said Crane.
Reed raised his eyebrows.
"He is one of our most distinguished citizens. His collection of tapestry, his villa at Capri--Ah, well, but that is immaterial! The family is now abroad, and has in consequence consented, as a personal favor to me, to allow you to take over four of their servants for the six weeks you will be here, but not a minute longer."
Crane leaned back and blew smoke in the air.
"Are they any good?" he asked.
"You must judge for yourself."
"No, you must tell me."