"Thank you, Belle, but really I do not want to go, and you will be so absorbed in your shopping that you will not miss me," Violet responded.
"Very well, then; just as you choose," Mrs. Mencke returned, irritably, and suddenly swept from the room, locking the door after her.
As the bolt shot into its socket, Violet sprang to her feet.
"Belle, what do you mean?" she cried, a flood of angry crimson surging to her brow.
"I mean that if you will not go with me, you shall stay where you are until I return," Mrs. Mencke sharply answered, and then she swept down the stairs with a smile of triumph on her face, for she congratulated herself that she had done a very clever thing.
Violet stood, for a moment or two, speechless and white with anger over the indignity offered her.
"She has dared to lock me up like a naughty, five-year-old child!" she cried, pa.s.sionately. "I will not submit to such treatment; and besides, I have promised to meet Wallace again at two o"clock. What am I to do?
Belle evidently suspected that I meant to see him, and has taken this way to prevent it."
She sat down again and tried to think, though she was trembling with excitement and anger.
There was no other outlet to her suite of rooms, and it certainly appeared as if she must remain where she was until her sister"s return.
Meantime Mrs. Mencke, upon going below, had called the housemaid and confided to her that, for good reasons, she had locked Violet in her room and she charged the maid not to let her out under any circ.u.mstances.
She ordered her to carry a nice luncheon to Violet at twelve, but to be sure to lock the door both going in and coming out, and on pain of instant dismissal to pay no heed to Violet"s entreaties to be set at liberty.
Then, feeling that she had safely snared her bird, at least for a few hours, she went about her shopping with an easy mind.
Violet, after thinking her condition over for a while, resolved not to make any disturbance to attract the attention of the servants.
She reasoned that Sarah, the second girl, would bring her some luncheon at noon, and she determined to seize that opportunity to effect her release; just how that was to be accomplished she did not know, but get out and go to the city she must before two o"clock.
She dressed herself for the street, all save her hat and wrap, and then began to plan ways and means.
Suddenly her face lighted, and going into her dressing-room, she surveyed the large mirror which was suspended above the marble bowl.
Taking a penknife from her pocket, she deliberately severed the heavy cord by which it was held in place, and then exerting all her strength, she let it carefully down until the bottom of the frame rested upon the marble, while the top leaned against the wall.
Having accomplished this and a.s.sured herself that the gla.s.s was perfectly safe, she went quietly back to her reading and managed to amuse herself until the clock struck twelve.
Shortly afterward she heard a step on the stairs, accompanied by the rattle of dishes, and knew that Sarah was bringing her up some luncheon.
Darting into her dressing-room, Violet seized the mirror, drew it to the very edge of the marble and a.s.suming a strained position, she had the appearance of having caught the gla.s.s just as it was falling and in time to save it from being dashed in pieces.
Sarah unlocked the chamber-door, and finding no one there, called out:
"Miss Violet, where are you?"
"Oh, Sarah, is that you? Come here quickly, for I am in trouble," the young girl cried, appealingly.
Sarah put down her tray, but took the precaution to change the key from the outside of the door to the inside and lock it before going to the other room.
Then she went to see what was the matter.
"Why, Miss Violet," she cried, with dismay, as she took in the situation, "how did that happen?"
"The cord has parted," panted Violet, as she glanced at the ragged ends where she had sawed it asunder with her dull knife. "You will have to help me," she added, "and I think we can manage to lift it to the floor without breaking it. I do not dare to leave it standing here; it might slip on the marble."
"No," said the girl, never suspecting any ruse to outwit her, "we must take it down."
She seized one side of it in her strong arms, and, with Violet"s help, managed to get it safely down upon the floor.
"Hold it a moment, please, until I get my breath," Violet said, as if wearied out by the exertion.
"Have you had to hold it there long?" Sarah asked, innocently, as she allowed the heavy frame to rest against her.
"No, not very long; but I am so glad that you came just as you did, for if it had fallen it would have frightened me terribly," Violet answered, and she uttered no untruth, for she was glad that Sarah came just as she did, because she was getting very anxious to go to Wallace and she would have been frightened if the gla.s.s had been broken.
"Sure enough, miss," the girl replied, gravely, "and it"s a sign of death in the house to have a looking-gla.s.s broken. And look! the moths must have been at this cord to make it give way, for it is like a rope and could not break," and she stooped to examine the frayed ends as she spoke.
Violet seized this opportunity and slipped quickly from the room, drawing the door to and locking it after her, thus making Sarah a prisoner and securing her own liberty.
But her kind little heart and tender conscience smote her for the strategy which she had employed to accomplish her purpose, and kneeling upon the floor, she put her lips to the key-hole and said:
"Forgive me, Sarah; but it was all a little plot of mine to get out. The cord did not break; I cut it."
"Oh, Miss Violet, let me out; please, let me out," the girl cried, in distress. "Mrs. Mencke said she"d send me off without a reference if I didn"t keep you safe till she came back, and I never dreamed you were playing me such a trick."
"It is a little hard on you, I confess, Sarah," Violet responded, regretfully, "and I am very sorry; but I had to do it, for I have an important engagement down town. Belle had no business to treat me so like a child, and she shall not discharge you if I can help it. I will tell her just how I deceived you, and then, if she will not be reasonable, I will give you a month"s wages and help you to another place."
Sarah continued to plead to be let out, but Violet remained unshaken in her purpose.
"No, you will have to stay here a little while," she said, "but when I go down I will send the cook up to release you. When Belle comes home you can tell her that she will find me at Nellie Bailey"s and that I shall not come home until she apologizes for her shameful treatment."
She could not get over her indignation at being put under lock and key, with a servant set over her as jailer.
She hastily donned her hat and wrap, drew on her gloves, and quietly left the room.
Going to the top of the bas.e.m.e.nt stairs, she rang a bell for the cook.
"Bridget, Sarah wants you to go up to my dressing-room to help her with a mirror that has come down," she said; and then, without waiting for a reply, Violet sped out of the house, and, hailing the first car that came along, was soon rolling toward the city to meet her betrothed.
CHAPTER X.
"YOU WILL BE TRUE THOUGH THE OCEAN DIVIDES US."
About four o"clock of that same day Violet entered the private parlor of her friend, Nellie Bailey, her face glowing, her eyes gleaming with excitement.
"Oh, you dear child!" cried that young lady, leaping to her feet and springing forward to meet her visitor, "you have come to tell me that you are going to Europe with me."