They looked around. It was half past.
Jane-Ellen sprang up.
"Oh, how dreadful!" she exclaimed, without, however, any very real conviction. "How terribly late, and I have to get up so early in the morning."
"It makes me desperately ashamed," said Crane, "to think you have to get up to cook for all of us and that I can sleep just as late as I want to."
She laughed.
"If you haven"t anything worse to worry about than that, you"re very lucky."
But he had something to worry about, and as soon as she was gone, he began to worry about it, namely, the painful and complicated situation of a man who has fallen in love with his cook.
VIII
MRS. FALKENER never came down to breakfast. At nine to the minute, her bell tinkled, and Lily staggered up to her room bearing a tray, from which, it subsequently appeared, many essentials had been forgotten; the next ten minutes were spent by the unfortunate housemaid in trips to the pantry in search of salt, powdered sugar or a tea-strainer.
Cora, however, came down and poured out coffee for the two men. She looked handsome and vigorous in this occupation, and Crane, sitting opposite to her, wondered if it were his destiny to sit so for the rest of his life. He watched her thin white hands--strong as steel, they were--moving about among the cups. He had once admired them intensely.
But now he knew that hands did not have to be so firm and muscular to accomplish wonderful achievements in all sorts of ways.
At ten, Mrs. Falkener came swimming down the stairs, all suavity and brightness. The evening before, while Crane had been struggling with the problem of Brindlebury"s misdeeds, she and Tucker had had another council of war. A new attack upon the cook had been planned, which they felt sure would bring to light delinquencies that even Crane could not overlook.
"Come, Burton," she said as she entered the sitting-room, "aren"t you ever going to offer to show me the kitchen? You know that to an old-fashioned housekeeper like myself, it is the most interesting part of the whole house."
Such interest, Crane felt inclined to answer, was not confined to old-fashioned housekeepers. Her suggestion roused conflicting desires in him; the desire to see Jane-Ellen, and the desire to protect her from Mrs. Falkener.
"Tuck could tell us all about it," he said slyly.
Tucker, who was reading the paper, pretended not to hear, and presently Crane rang the bell.
"Tell the cook, Smithfield," he said, "that Mrs. Falkener and I are coming down to inspect the kitchen in about ten minutes."
When Smithfield had gone, Mrs. Falkener shook her finger at Crane.
"That was a mistake, my dear Burton," she said, "a great mistake. Take them unaware whenever you can; it is the only way to protect ourselves against the unscrupulous members of their cla.s.s."
"Crane," said Tucker, without looking up from his paper, "wants to give the young woman plenty of time to smuggle out any superfluous young man who may be visiting her at the moment."
"Well, I"m no gum-shoe man, Tuck," Burton replied, leaving all of his hearers in doubt as to whether or not he had emphasized the word "I."
Tucker laughed sarcastically.
"No, my dear fellow," he answered, "your best friend would not accuse you of having talents along the detective line."
"Perhaps not," replied Crane. "And by the way, did I tell you that the miniature had turned up all right?"
Tucker"s face fell. He had depended a good deal on the loss of the miniature as a lever to oust the whole set of servants.
"No," he said. "Where was it discovered?"
"Oh, it had just been moved," answered Crane. "It was lying on another table, when I happened to notice it." He took it out of his pocket and looked at it. "I think now, I"ll keep it in my room for safety. You approve of that, don"t you, Tuck?"
Tucker, who felt that in some way he was being deceived, would not answer, and in the pause Mrs. Falkener rose and said chattily,
"Well, shall we be off?"
"Coming with us, Solon?"
"No, I"m not," returned Tucker crossly.
"Didn"t mean to offend you," Crane answered. "I thought you liked kitchens, too."
Downstairs, they found the kitchen empty. Jane-Ellen was standing just outside the door watching Willoughby, who was exciting himself most unnecessarily over preparations which he was making to catch a bird that was hopping about in the gra.s.s near by. The great cat crouched, all still except the end of his tail, which twitched ominously, then he rose, and, balancing himself almost imperceptibly on his four paws, seemed about to spring; then abandoning this method, too, he crept a little nearer to his victim, his stomach almost touching the earth. And then the whole exhibition was ended by the bird, who, having accomplished its foraging expedition, lightly flew away, leaving Willoughby looking as foolish as a cat ever does look.
Jane-Ellen stooped and patted him.
"You silly dear," she said caressingly.
It was Willoughby who first saw Crane. With a vivid recollection of the previous evening"s feast of chicken from the salad, the cat ran to him and b.u.mped his nose repeatedly against Crane"s legs in token of fealty and grat.i.tude. Burton felt unduly flattered. He lifted Willoughby, who instantly made himself very soft and heavy in his arms and showed every disposition to settle down and go to sleep.
Mrs. Falkener looked at him sentimentally.
"How all animals take to you, Burton, at first sight!" she said.
Crane bent over and replaced Willoughby slowly on the ground, while Jane-Ellen turned her head away for an instant. Mrs. Falkener went on:
"What a nice, bright kitchen you have, Jane-Ellen. A good range, though old-fashioned. How bright you keep your copper. That"s right." She wandered away in her tour of inspection. "See, Burton, this blue plate.
It looks to me as if it might have value. And this oak dresser--it must be two hundred years old." She was across the room and her back was turned. Crane and the cook stood looking at each other. "How charming, how interesting!" Mrs. Falkener continued. "And you would not believe me when I said that the kitchen was the most interesting part of the house."
"I did not disagree with that," said Crane, still looking at Jane-Ellen.
"Oh, my dear boy, you would never have come down if I had not made you."
"One doesn"t always do what one wants to do," said Crane.
Mrs. Falkener turned. The kitchen had revealed none of the enormities she had expected--not even a man hidden in the kitchen closet, the door of which she had hopefully opened; but one chance still remained. The ice-box! In her time she had known many incriminating ice-boxes. She called loudly to be taken to it.
"It"s this way, madame," said the cook.
Mrs. Falkener drew Crane aside.
"That," she said, "is the very best way to judge of a cook"s economical powers. See how much she saves of the dishes that come from the upstairs table. Now, last night I happened to notice that the chicken salad went downstairs almost untouched."
For the first time in years, Burton found himself coloring.