"Most unquestionably! He is the victim, poor creature--not of poison--but of his own foolish curiosity, in my husband"s surgery, and you see the result. Alas! I cannot give you the scientific reasons for it."
"I shouldn"t understand them, Madame Fontaine, if you could."
"Ah, dear lady, you kindly say so, because you are unwilling to humiliate me. Is there anything Jack may have said to you about me, which seems to require an explanation--if I can give it?"
She slipped in this question, concealing perfectly the anxiety that suggested it, so far as her voice and her eyes were concerned. But the inner agitation rose to the surface in a momentary trembling of her lips.
Slight as it was, that sign of self-betrayal did not escape Mrs. Wagner"s keen observation. She made a cautious reply. "On the contrary," she said, "from what Jack has told me, the conclusion is plain that you have really done him a service. You have succeeded in curing that delusion you spoke of--and I applaud your good sense in refusing to trust him with the medicine."
Madame Fontaine made a low curtsey. "I shall remember those kind words, among the happy events of my life," she said, with her best grace.
"Permit me to take your hand." She pressed Mrs. Wagner"s hand gratefully--and made an exit which was a triumph of art. Even a French actress might have envied the manner in which she left the room.
But, when she ascended the stairs, with no further necessity for keeping up appearances, her step was as slow and as weary as the step of an old woman. "Oh, my child," she thought sadly, with her mind dwelling again on Minna, "shall I see the end of all these sacrifices, when your wedding-day comes with the end of the year?" She sat down by the fire in her room, and for the first time in her life, the harmless existence of one of those domestic drudges whom she despised began to seem enviable to her. There were merits visible now, in the narrow social horizon that is bounded by gossip, knitting, and tea.
Left by herself in the dining-room, Mrs. Wagner took a turn up and down, with her mind bent on penetrating Madame Fontaine"s motives.
There were difficulties in her way. It was easy to arrive at the conclusion that there was something under the surface; but the obstacles to advancing beyond this point of discovery seemed to defy removal. To distrust the graceful widow more resolutely than ever, and to lament that she had not got wise David Glenney to consult with, were the princ.i.p.al results of Mrs. Wagner"s reflections when she returned to the office.
There was Jack--in the nursery phrase, as good as gold--still in his place on the window seat, devoted to his keys. His first words related entirely to himself.
"If this isn"t good conduct," he said, "I should like to know what is.
Give me my other mark."
Mrs. Wagner took out her pocket-book and made the new mark.
"Thank you," said Jack. "Now I want something else. I want to know what Mrs. Housekeeper has been saying. I have been seriously alarmed about you."
"Why, Jack?"
"She hasn"t bitten you, has she? Oh, they do it sometimes! What lies has she been telling you of me? Oh, they lie in the most abominable manner!
What? She has been talking of me in the kindest terms? Then why did she want to get out of my hearing? Ah, they"re so infernally deceitful! I do hate mad people."
Mrs. Wagner produced her pocket-book again. "I shall scratch out your mark," she said sternly, "if I hear any more talk of that sort."
Jack gathered his keys together with a strong sense of injury, and put them back in his leather bag. "You"re a little hard on me," he said, "when I"m only warning you for your own good. I don"t know why it is, you"re not as kind to me here, as you used to be in London. And I feel it, I do!" He laid himself down on the window seat, and began to cry.
Mrs. Wagner was not the woman to resist this expression of the poor little man"s feeling. In a moment she was at the window comforting him and drying his eyes, as if he had been a child. And, like a child, Jack took advantage of the impression that he had made. "Look at your desk,"
he said piteously; "there"s another proof how hard you are on me. I used to keep the key of your desk in London. You won"t trust it to me here."
Mrs. Wagner went to the desk, locked it, and returned to Jack. Few people know how immensely an act of kindness gains in effect, by being performed in silence. Mrs. Wagner was one of the few. Without a word, she opened the leather bag and dropped the key into it. Jack"s grat.i.tude rushed innocently to an extreme which it had never reached yet. "Oh!" he cried, "would you mind letting me kiss you?"
Mrs. Wagner drew back, and held up a warning hand. Before she could express herself in words, Jack"s quick ear caught the sound of footsteps approaching the door. "Is she coming back?" he cried, still suspicious of Madame Fontaine. Mrs. Wagner instantly opened the door, and found herself face to face with Joseph the footman.
"Do you know, ma"am, when Mr. Keller will be back?" he asked.
"I didn"t even know that he was out, Joseph. Who wants him?"
"A gentleman, ma"am, who says he comes from Munich."
CHAPTER VII
On further inquiry, it turned out that "the gentleman from Munich" had no time to spare. In the absence of Mr. Keller, he had asked if he could see "one of the other partners." This seemed to imply that commercial interests were in some way connected with the stranger"s visit--in which case, Mrs. Wagner was perfectly competent to hear what he had to say.
"Where is the gentleman?" she asked.
"In the drawing-room," Joseph answered.
Mrs. Wagner at once left the office. She found herself in the presence of a dignified elderly gentleman, dressed entirely in black, and having the ribbon of some order of merit attached to the b.u.t.tonhole of his long frock-coat. His eyes opened wide in surprise, behind his gold spectacles, when he found himself face to face with a lady. "I fear there is some mistake," he said, in the smoothest of voices, and with the politest of bows; "I asked to see one of the partners."
Mrs. Wagner added largely to his amazement, by informing him of the position that she held in the firm. "If you come on a matter of business," she proceeded, "you may trust me to understand you, sir, though I am only a woman. If your visit relates to private affairs, I beg to suggest that you should write to Mr. Keller--I will take care that he receives your letter the moment he returns."
"There is not the least necessity for my troubling you," the stranger replied. "I am a physician; and I have been summoned to Frankfort to consult with my colleagues here, on a serious case of illness. Mr.
Keller"s sister is one of my patients in Munich. I thought I would take the present opportunity of speaking to him about the state of her health."
He had just introduced himself in those words, when Mr. Keller entered the room. The merchant and the physician shook hands like old friends.
"No alarming news of my sister, I hope?" said Mr. Keller.
"Only the old trouble, my good friend. Another attack of asthma."
Mrs. Wagner rose to leave the room. Mr. Keller stopped her. "There is not the least necessity for you to leave us," he said. "Unless my presentiments deceive me, we may even have occasion to ask your advice.--Is there any hope, doctor, of her being well enough to leave Munich, towards the end of the month?"
"I am sorry to say it," answered the physician--"having heard of the interesting occasion on which she had engaged to be one of your guests--but, at her age, I must ask for a little more time."
"In other words, it is impossible for my sister to be with us, on the day of my son"s marriage?"
"Quite impossible. She has so few pleasures, poor soul, and she is so bitterly disappointed, that I volunteered to take advantage of my professional errand here, to make a very bold request. Let me first do your excellent sister justice. She will not hear of the young people being disappointed by any postponement of the wedding, on her account.
And here is the famous necklace, committed to my care, to prove that she is sincere."
He took his little traveling-bag from the chair on which he had placed it, and produced the case containing the necklace. No woman--not even a head-partner in a great house of business--could have looked at those pearls, and preserved her composure. Mrs. Wagner burst out with a cry of admiration.
Mr. Keller pa.s.sed the necklace over without notice; his sister was the one object of interest to him. "Would she be fit to travel," he asked, "if we put off the marriage for a month?"
"She shall be fit to travel, barring accidents," said the physician, "if you can put off the marriage for a fortnight. I start this evening on my return to Munich, and not a day shall pa.s.s without my seeing her."
Mr. Keller appealed to Mrs. Wagner. "Surely, we might make this trifling sacrifice?" he said. "The pleasure of seeing her nephew married is likely to be the last pleasure of my sister"s life."
"In your place," said Mrs. Wagner, "I should not hesitate for an instant to grant the fortnight"s delay. But the bride and bridegroom must be consulted, of course."
"And the bride"s parents," suggested the discreet physician, "if they are still living."
"There is only her mother living," said Mr. Keller. "She is too high-minded a person to raise any objection, I am sure." He paused, and reflected for awhile. "Fritz counts for nothing," he went on. "I think we ought to put the question, in the first instance, to the bride?" He rang the bell, and then took the necklace out of Mrs. Wagner"s hands. "I have a very high opinion of little Minna," he resumed. "We will see what the child"s own kind heart says--undisturbed by the influence of the pearls, and without any prompting on the part of her mother."
He closed the jewel case, and put it into a cabinet that stood near him.
Joseph was sent upstairs, with the necessary message. "Don"t make any mistake," said his master; "I wish to see Miss Minna, alone."
The physician took a pinch of snuff while they were waiting. "The test is hardly conclusive," he remarked slily; "women are always capable of sacrificing themselves. What will the bridegroom say?"