"G.o.d bless my soul!" Wilkins said frankly. "What----"
"Wilkins!" Anthony snapped.
"I--I beg pardon, sir!" the faithful one choked. "The young lady----"
"The young lady," said his master, and his voice had the edge of a razor blade, "is--here by accident, Wilkins. She came here last night, under a misapprehension, while masquerading as a boy. You will forget immediately that I have told you this."
"Very good, sir," Wilkins said; and being one of those rare, model creatures we read about but rarely meet, he straightened up and forced his tone back to the matter-of-fact mumble. "As to breakfast, sir?"
Anthony glanced at Mary.
"Yes, I"m quite human," she said crisply. "I eat breakfast."
"For three, Wilkins," said Anthony.
And now, with Wilkins moving incessantly in and out, a peculiar, almost silent constraint came upon them. Anthony, at the window gazed at the distant street and tried his best to think; there was just one awful thought that obtruded itself upon his mind and, although he thrust it away again and again, the thought came back and mocked at him. Mentally, he lashed at it--yet ever and anon it returned and mocked a little more and made impish faces at him.
Johnson Boller, recovering in a long, delighted series of wheezes, merely ambled to a corner and gazed at Mary, who affected to read unconcernedly. She was certainly pretty and watching a pretty girl had never wearied Mr. Boller; but far beyond her prettiness was the terrific joke on old Anthony.
This was Anthony who, year in and year out, avoided even social gatherings where women predominated. This was Anthony, who abominated the whole s.e.x and could be goaded into actual rage by repeated suggestions that one of his wealth and standing should marry! This was Anthony, who had threatened to leave the Lasande that day, long ago, when the pretty little woman canva.s.ser had flitted past the office and made her way to this very living-room.
Well, it was one on Anthony! Nay, it was a million on Anthony! From this day forth, Johnson Boller reflected in the depths of his perverted, amus.e.m.e.nt-loving mind, he had such a grip on Anthony Fry that, should he order that distinguished citizen to walk down Fifth Avenue with a lump of sugar on his nose, he would have no choice but obedience.
And how Anthony would writhe and how that austere countenance could be colored with the blush of helpless anger! A quant.i.ty of the savage, merciless little boy had survived in Johnson Boller and this wait for breakfast was really one of the happiest periods of his life.
Wilkins, quite himself again, worked deftly. The service elevator from the pantry, one of the Lasande"s features, whined softly to the Fry apartment and stopped, and presently, silently, Anthony motioned them to the table.
Johnson Boller came shaking pleasantly, albeit with countenance grave enough. Mary came daintily and thoughtfully. But Anthony Fry came as one going to his doom--because the inescapable thought had fastened in his brain and every new, terrible second held less hope than had the one before.
Coffee was poured then and food served and Wilkins moved out.
"Is he gone now?" Mary asked quietly.
"Yes," sighed Anthony.
"Then, without wasting any more time, wouldn"t it be as well to decide just what we are going to do?"
Anthony sighed bitterly.
"Now that you have elected to change into a very charming young woman, I have no idea of what we"re going to do, if you mean by way of getting you out unnoticed."
Mary"s head went a little higher.
"That"s exactly what I mean, of course," said she. "As for my getting into my own clothes, what else was there to do? I couldn"t wear those ridiculous things you gave me; nothing in the world could have tempted me to go on the street in them, even if I could have worn them. I telephoned for Felice and had her bring my things because I--I wanted to feel sane again, I think, and if she hadn"t made such a wretched disturbance, poor child, I"d have been into them and out of here long ago."
"And I," escaped Anthony, "should have had to explain."
"You"re very precious of that good name of yours, aren"t you?" Mary asked tartly.
"I have always been," said Anthony.
And then, all unaware that Mary"s pretty lips had compressed and that her eyes were flashing opinions which caused Johnson Boller fairly to quake with glee, Anthony"s head dropped lower and he stared at his untouched plate. The thought was there still--the awful, menacing thing, coming nearer each instant, growing stronger and stronger.
"It must be lovely to be such a thoroughly good and proper man," Mary said sweetly. "Couldn"t you possibly forget yourself for a moment and tell me how you plan to get me out of here? Couldn"t you spend just five minutes trying to think just what I"m going to tell my people?"
"Eh?" gasped Anthony.
"Oh, yes, I have people--a mother and a father and then some more," Mary informed him. "Nice people, almost as proper in their notions as you are."
Anthony merely stared at her numbly. Unconsciously, perhaps, she had driven the last, long nail into his coffin. Her people! Momentarily, he had forgotten that she might have people and might have to explain to them just where last night had been pa.s.sed. But now that she mentioned a father, it seemed to Anthony that he could see a mighty man, a man of wrath and muscle and perhaps a man who could slay with one blow and--oh, there was no other way!
All his life, Anthony had shied from woman. All these last twenty-five years he had thanked his lucky stars that one of them had never snared him! He had been alone, to live as he pleased and act as he pleased and think as he pleased; married men do not do that, as witness Johnson Boller, ensnared by Beatrice, a decent enough young woman but his ruler.
Yes, up to the age of forty-five he had been alone and contented, year in and year out, indulging every little foible without a soul to question, going as he liked and coming as he liked.
But that was over now! That was over and done with, forever! Anthony Fry, with a tiny groan, looked up from his plate and faced Mary.
"Young woman," said he deeply, solemnly enough to cause Johnson Boller to stop quaking and take to staring, "I have avoided women all my life."
"Yes?" Mary said.
"I have done so," Anthony went on steadily, marching to the gallows as a brave man should, with never a falter once he was started, "because to my--possibly eccentric--mind, matrimony has no attractions. The bachelor state, I fondly imagined, was to be my chosen state until death."
Mary looked him over rather too critically, examining the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes and considering the extreme width of his part.
"That was a good enough idea," she said heartily. "What has it to do with getting me out of here?"
"It has a great deal to do with it, as you will see," Anthony said, with a great, quivering sigh. "For the fact of your presence I alone will take the blame."
"Thanks," said Mary.
"And since the blame is mine, I will make what amends I can," Anthony Fry concluded, and nerved though he was, his voice broke. "I will consent to marry you!"
"Huh?" cried John Boller.
Mary, for the moment, said nothing at all. The intake of her breath was audible, though, and her color rose--not in embarra.s.sment, plainly in anger. Mary"s eyes snapped, too, and she leaned a little toward him questioningly, as if incredulous of her own hearing.
"You"ll do _what_?" said Mary.
"I will consent to marry you!" Anthony repeated, and it seemed to him that his voice was coming hollowly and from a great distance, presumably from the caverns of a matrimony-infested Hades. "It will be simple--painfully simple. The ceremony can be performed this morning and in New Jersey. We will leave at once and without notifying either your friends or mine, on an extended wedding tour--I should say of six months" duration at the least," Anthony went on brokenly, while Johnson Boller gazed at him in pure fascination. "In a week or so we can write everywhere, giving the impression that it has been an elopement, the ceremony having been performed yesterday. Then----"
"Stop!" Mary cried. "Stop that--that planning!"
"Eh?"
The girl was sitting bolt upright, eyes snapping, and Anthony regarded her in astonishment. Also, she thumped the table with her small clenched fist as she looked straight at him and gasped:
"Why, I--I wouldn"t marry you if you were ten times the last man in the world!"