"Lefferts!" cried Mrs. Falkener. "That man here! O Burton, how could you leave my daughter in such company? O Solon, you remember I told you about that man!"
Tucker nodded shortly. He wasn"t going to take any interest in any one"s grievances until his own had been disposed of.
"What"s the matter with Lefferts?" said Crane. "He"s staying with Eliot, and they asked us all over to lunch to-morrow. Shan"t we go?"
"No, nowhere that that young man is," cried Mrs. Falkener, who seemed to be a good deal excited by the news. "He"s an idler, a waster. Why, Burton," she ended in a magnificent climax, "he"s a poet!"
"So Cora told me."
"He affects to be devoted to Cora," her mother went on bitterly, "and follows her about everywhere, without the slightest encouragement on her part, I can a.s.sure you, but I have known him to take a most insolent tone about her. The very first time I ever saw him, he was sitting beside me at a party, and I said, as Cora came across the room with that magnificent walk of hers, "She moves like a full-rigged ship, doesn"t she?" He answered: "Or rather, more like a submarine; you never know where she"ll pop up next. Yes, there"s a sort of practical mystery about Cora very suitable to modern warfare." He called her Cora behind her back, but not to her face, be sure. And very soon a poem of his appeared in one of the magazines--"To My Love, Comparing Her to a Submarine." I thought it most insulting."
"And what did Cora think?" asked Crane.
"She hardly read the thing through. Cora is far too sensible to pay much attention to poetry."
"But poets are different, I suppose," answered Crane. Personally, he was pleased with the submarine simile.
"No, nor poets, either," said Mrs. Falkener tartly, and rising she hurried away to see if by some fortunate chance her errant daughter had returned without letting her know.
Left alone, Crane decided to give his friend his long-desired chance.
"Well, Tuck," he said, "you look in fine form. What have you been doing since I went away?"
"I have not had a very agreeable day," said Tucker, in a voice so low and deep that it was almost a growl.
"No? Not a return of your old dyspepsia, I hope," said Crane.
Tucker shook his head impatiently.
"At breakfast," he said, "I heard from Mrs. Falkener, who had heard from her daughter, that you had observed the loss of the miniature that used to lie on this table. Such things cannot be taken lightly, Burton. The owners might put almost any price on an article of that kind--wretched as it was, as a work of art--and you would be forced to pay. You see, it could not be replaced. I thought it my duty, therefore, to send for each of the servants and question them on the subject."
"You thought it your duty to send for Jane-Ellen, Tuck?"
Again Tucker frowned.
"I said I sent for all of the servants. Smithfield displayed, to my mind, a most suspicious ignorance and indifference to the whole subject.
The housemaid was so hysterical and frightened that if I did not know a great deal of such cases, I should suspect her--"
"And was the cook frightened?" said Crane, with a flicker of a smile.
"No," Tucker explained, "she did not appear to be frightened, but then, I may tell you that I do not suspect the cook of complicity in the theft."
"The deuce you don"t!" said Crane. He found himself suddenly annoyed without reason, that Tucker should have been interviewing and questioning his servants during his absence; stirring up trouble, he said to himself, and perhaps hurting the feelings of a perfectly good cook. Suppose she had decided to leave as a result of these activities of Solon"s! He found he had not been listening to the account his friend was giving of the conversation, until he heard him say:
"It seems Jane-Ellen had never been in this room before; she was very much interested in everything. I saw her looking at that splendid portrait of General Revelly, and she asked--in fact, she made me give her quite a little account of his life--"
"A little lecture on the Civil War, eh?" said Crane.
His tone was not wholly friendly and Tucker did not find it so. He colored.
"Really, Burton," he said, coldly, "in case of crime, or of theft, a man"s lawyer is usually supposed to know what it is best to do."
"Possibly, but I see no point in having dragged the cook into it."
"I see even less point in treating her on a different plane from any of the other servants."
"It almost seems, Tuck, as if you enjoyed your constant interviews with her."
"That is just, I regret to say, Burton, what I was thinking about you."
"It seems to me," said Crane, "that this discussion is not leading anywhere, and might as well end."
"One moment," exclaimed the other, "my story is not finished. When it came to be the turn of that boy Brindlebury, in whom I may as well tell you I have no confidence whatever, his manner was so insolent, his refusal to answer my questions so suspicious--Well, to make a long story short, your boot-boy, Burton, attempted to knock me down, and I had, of course, to put him out of the room. The situation is perfectly simple.
I must ask you either to dismiss him, or to order the motor to take me to the train."
There was a short pause, during which Crane very deliberately lit a cigarette. Then he said in a level tone:
"The boy is already dismissed. He is out of the house at this moment, probably. As to the other alternative--the ordering the motor--I will, of course, do that, too, if you insist."
But Tucker did not insist.
"On the contrary," he said, "you have done all I could desire--more, indeed, for you have evidently decided against the boy before you even heard my side of the case."
"One cannot always decide these cases with regard for eternal justice,"
said Crane.
Before Tucker could inquire just what was meant by this rather disagreeable p.r.o.nouncement, Smithfield appeared in the doorway to say that Jane-Ellen would be glad if she might speak to Mr. Crane for a moment.
This was what Crane had dreaded; she was going to leave. His anger against Tucker flared up again, but he said, with apparent calmness, that Jane-Ellen might come in. Tucker should see for himself the effect of his meddling. Tucker suggested in a sort of half-hearted way that he would go away, but his host told him, shortly, to remain.
Jane-Ellen entered. There was no doubt but that she was displeased with the presence of a third party. She made a little bob of a curtsy and started for the door.
"I"ll come back when you"re alone, sir."
"No," said Crane. "Anything you have to say can be said before Mr.
Tucker."
"Oh, of course, sir." But her tone lacked conviction. "I wanted to speak about Brindlebury. He is very sorry for what happened, sir. I wish you could see your way--"
"I can"t," said Crane.
Jane-Ellen glanced at Tucker under her eye-lashes.
"I know, sir," she went on, "that there could be no excuse for the way he has acted, but if any excuse was possible, it did seem--" She hesitated.
"You wish to say," interrupted Burton who now felt he did not care what he said to any one, "that Mr. Tucker was extremely provoking. I have no doubt, but that has nothing to do with it."
"Really, Burton," observed his guest, "I don"t think that that is the way to speak of me, particularly," he added firmly, "to a servant."