For an instant Crane regarded him blankly. Then he remembered that once, ages before, or perhaps no earlier than that very afternoon, he had invited Lefferts to dinner. And at the same time he realized what had not heretofore occurred to him, that there was no one in the house to serve dinner, except Jane-Ellen, who had, in all probability, cooked dinner for only two. Reed might be there at any minute. It was really necessary, in so acute a domestic crisis, to put pride in his pocket and go downstairs and speak to his cook.
He put his hand on Lefferts" shoulder.
"Awfully sorry, my dear fellow," he said, "that things are not quite as antic.i.p.ated. Tucker will tell you we have had rather a stormy afternoon.
Give him a cigarette and a c.o.c.ktail, Tuck, and I"ll be back in a minute." He disappeared down the kitchen stairs.
With what different feelings, he said to himself, did he now descend those stairs; but, when he was actually in the kitchen, when Willoughby was once again bounding forward to greet him, and Jane-Ellen was allowing herself that slow curved smile of hers, he was surprised and disappointed to find that his feelings were, after all, much the same as before. Over his manner, however, he was still master, and that was cold and formal in the extreme.
"I wanted to speak to you, Jane-Ellen," he began, but she interrupted.
"This time," she said gaily, "I know what it is that you are going to scold about."
"I am not going to scold."
She laughed.
"Well, that"s a wonder," and glancing at him she was astonished to find no answering smile. "Are you really angry at me," she asked, "on account of this afternoon?"
"This afternoon?"
"On account of that silly plan about Brindlebury? I did not know they were going to do it, and when it was done, I couldn"t betray them, could I?"
Crane made a gesture that seemed to indicate that he really had no means of judging what his cook might or might not do.
"You believe me, don"t you?"
"Believe you?" said Crane. "I haven"t considered the question one way or the other."
"Why, Mr. Crane," said Jane-Ellen, "whatever has come over you that you should speak like that?"
"This has come over me," answered Crane, "that I came down here in a hurry to give some orders and not to discuss the question of veracity."
The figure of Jane-Ellen stiffened, she clasped her hands behind her back.
"And what are your orders?" she said, in a tone of direful monotony.
Crane, as has been stated, was no coward, and even if he had been, anger would have lent him courage.
"There are two gentlemen coming to dine--four in all," and as he saw Jane-Ellen slightly beck her head at this, he added recklessly, "as Smithfield is gone, you will have to serve dinner as well as cook it."
"No," replied the cook. "No, indeed. Certainly not. I was engaged to cook, and I will cook to the very best of my abilities, but I was not engaged to be a maid of all work."
"You were engaged to do as you"re told."
"There you are mistaken."
"Jane-Ellen, you will serve dinner."
"Mr. Crane, I will not."
The problem of the irresistible force and the immovable body seemed about to be demonstrated. They looked each other steadily and hostilely in the eyes.
"We seem," said Crane, "to be dealing with the eternal problem between employer and employee. You"re not lazy, the work before you is nothing, but you deliberately choose to stand on your rights, on a purely technical point--"
"I do nothing of the kind."
"What are you doing then?"
"I"m making myself just as disagreeable as I can," answered Jane-Ellen.
"Of course, I should have been delighted to do anything for any one who asked me politely. But when a man comes into my kitchen and talks about giving orders, and my doing as I"m told, and serving dinner, why, my answer is, he ought to have thought of his extra guests before he dismissed my brothers--"
"Your brothers!" cried Crane. "Do you mean to say that Smithfield is your brother too?"
"Well, I didn"t mean to tell you," said the cook crossly, "but it happens to be true."
From the point of view of the irresistible force, the problem was now completely resolved.
"O Jane-Ellen!" he cried, "why in the world didn"t you tell me so before?"
"I can"t see what it has to do with things."
"It has everything," he answered. "It makes me see how wrong I have been, how rude. It makes me want to apologize for everything I have said since I came into the kitchen. It makes me ask you most humbly if you won"t help me out in the ridiculous situation in which I find myself."
"But I don"t see why Smithfield"s being--"
"It would take a long time to explain," answered Burton, "although, I a.s.sure you, it can and shall be done. Perhaps this evening, after these tiresome men have gone, you will give me a few minutes. In the meantime, just let me say that I was angry at you, however wrongly, when I came down--"
"I"m not sure but that I"m still angry at _you_," said the cook, but she smiled as she said it.
"You have every right to be, and no reason," he returned. "And you are going to be an angel and serve dinner, aren"t you?"
"I said I would if asked politely."
"Though how in the world I shall sit still and let you wait on me, I don"t see."
"Oh," said Jane-Ellen, "if you never have anything harder to do than that, you are very different from most of your s.e.x. And now," she added, "I"d better run upstairs and put two more places at the table, for it"s dinner-time already."
"If I come back later in the evening, you won"t turn me out of the kitchen?"
She was already on her way upstairs, but she turned with a smile.
"It"s your kitchen, sir," she said.
Crane followed her slowly. It occurred to him that he must have a talk with Lefferts. He found him and Tucker making rather heavy weather of conversation in the drawing-room. Tucker had naturally enough determined to adopt Mrs. Falkener"s views of Lefferts. He had conformed with Crane"s request and given the poet a cigarette and a c.o.c.ktail, but he had attempted no explanation beyond an unsatisfactory statement that the ladies had been called away unexpectedly.
"Nothing serious, I hope," Lefferts had said.
"I hope not," Tucker had returned, and not another word would he utter on the subject.