"Mr. Torrence and Mr. Raynor," Antoine announced as we were leaving the dinner-table.
"Mr. Raynor?" asked Alice. "Who, pray, is Mr. Raynor?"
Their arrival together chilled me, a chill increased by Torrence"s frosty greeting as he gripped my hand angrily and hissed in my ear:
"You"ve deceived me about this whole business! I suggest that you leave the room."
I was walking toward the door when Mrs. Farnsworth protested.
"You are not going? Alice, there is no reason why Mr. Singleton should leave us."
"Of course he is not going," said Alice. She was established at ease in a wicker rocker, unconcernedly plying the ostrich-plume fan.
"There may be matters----" began Torrence.
"Oh, nothing that Bob can"t hear!" Alice declared.
"Very well," muttered Torrence, frowning his complete disapproval.
He fidgeted for a moment and tried to catch Raynor"s eye, but Raynor"s face expressed amus.e.m.e.nt. I found myself liking Raynor very much.
"Mr. Raynor told me that he wished to speak to Mrs. Bashford privately,"
said Torrence. "If he"s satisfied, I"m sure I have no objection to Mr.
Singleton"s remaining. I regret that my own duty is a disagreeable one."
"Really!" murmured Alice with nicely shaded impudence.
"I am convinced, beyond any question," said Torrence sharply, "that you are not the widow of the late Raymond B. Bashford!"
"That statement," said Alice without ceasing the languid flutter of the fan, "is correct--quite correct."
"Certainly: it is entirely true," affirmed Mrs. Farnsworth.
"And your coming here as you did is, if you will pardon my frankness, susceptible of very disagreeable constructions. It is my painful duty----"
He choked upon his duty until Raynor spoke, smiling broadly.
"I find my duty really a privilege," he said. "Not only are you not Mrs.
Bashford," he went on with the utmost good humor, "but you are a very different person. I should explain that I represent the American State Department, and that our government has been asked by the British Emba.s.sy to find you and deliver a certain message to you."
"Oh, papa wants me to come home!" cried Alice. "It"s droll, Constance, that papa should have thought of making an affair of state of us. Dear papa will always indulge me just so far, and then he becomes alarmed."
"He"s certainly alarmed now!" laughed Raynor. "But the amba.s.sador has warned us to be most tactful and circ.u.mspect. You may not know that Sir Arnold Seabring is on his way to this country on a confidential mission.
That, of course, is not for publication."
"Sir Arnold Seabring?" gasped Torrence.
"The father of the Honorable Miss Seabring," replied Raynor with an elucidating nod toward Alice.
"But how--" I began.
"Mrs. Bashford, the widow of your uncle, is the Honorable Miss Seabring"s aunt. Is that quite correct?"
"It is all true," said Alice. "I am a fraud, an impostor. You might go on and say that Mrs. Farnsworth is the wife of Sir Cecil Arrowsmith. But all the guilt is mine. It was my idea to come here and play a little, because I knew Aunt Alice wouldn"t mind. She knew just what I meant to do; really she did, Mr. Torrence! In fact, I have her written permission to use the house, which I should have shown you if we had got in a pinch. But it seemed so much more fun just to let matters take their course. It"s a pet theory of mine that life is a dull affair unless we trust to luck a little. After my brother"s death I was very unhappy and had gone out East to visit Aunt Alice, who is a great roamer. I thought it would be nice to stop here on the way home, just for a lark, without telling papa, who was frantically cabling me to hurry back to England.
This isn"t the first time I"ve played hide-and-seek with my family. I was always doing that as a child; and if it hadn"t been for my general waywardness I should never have known you, Constance. Why, I shouldn"t have known you, gentlemen! It has all been so delightful!"
This nave confession amused Raynor greatly, but Torrence was seeing nothing in it but a dangerous escapade.
"In the name of the Bainbridge Trust Company, I must notify you," he began, "that by representing yourself as another person, entering into possession of a large property----"
"But we"ve been paying all our own expenses; we haven"t taken any money from you," pleaded Alice.
"Of course you wouldn"t do such a thing," affirmed Raynor. "My instructions are to give you any sum of money you ask. In fact, the Government of the United States is instructed to a.s.sume full responsibility for you until your father arrives. May I go on and clarify matters for these gentlemen, for Mr. Torrence at least is ent.i.tled to a full explanation?"
"Constance," said Alice, turning with a little shrug to her friend, "we have been caught! Our story is being spoiled for us. Please go on, Mr.
Raynor. Just what does the American State Department have to say about us?"
"That you are endowed with a very unusual personality," continued Raynor, his eyes twinkling. "You are not at all content to remain in that station of life to which you were born; you like playing at being all sorts of other persons. Once, so your friend the amba.s.sador confided to me, you ran away and followed a band of gypsies, which must have been when you were a very little girl."
"I was seven," said Alice, "and the gypsies were nice to me."
"And then you showed talent for the stage----"
"A dreadful revelation!" she exclaimed.
"But you don"t know that it was really your father who managed to have Mrs. Farnsworth, one of the most distinguished actresses in England, take charge of you."
"No! Alice never knew that!" said Mrs. Farnsworth, laughing. "I was her chaperon as well as her preceptress; but Alice"s father knew that if Alice found it out it would spoil the adventure for her. Alice must do things in her own way."
"You are a fraud," said Alice, "but I always suspected you a little."
"Speaking of the stage," resumed Raynor, "it is also a part of my instructions that the Honorable Miss Seabring shall be discouraged from any further adventures in that direction; she"s far too talented; there"s danger of her becoming a great luminary. In other words, she is not to grace the boards again as Violet Dewing."
Alice"s brow clouded, and she turned to me. "That was settled when you mailed that letter for me. It was to make an appointment with an American playwright who wants me to appear in a most adorable comedy."
"His name is d.i.c.k Searles," I said, "and he"s my most intimate friend."
She professed indignation when I told of my eavesdropping in the woods, but when I explained that I knew all about the play and Searles"s despairing search for her she was enormously pleased.
"How wonderful!" she exclaimed. "You know I told you, Constance, that if we really threw ourselves in the path of adventure mystery would come out to meet us in silken sandals."
"But you will not appear in this play?" asked Raynor anxiously. "It is the business of the Government of the United States to see that you commit no further indiscretions. There is another matter which I hope you can clear up. You are not only a subject of concern to the British Emba.s.sy, but the French amba.s.sador also has appealed to us to a.s.sist him in a trifling matter!"
"The French amba.s.sador?" Alice exclaimed with a surprise I knew to be unfeigned. "I thought the dear Montani was an Italian?"
"We will continue to call him Montani, but he"s a Frenchman and one of the keenest men in the French Secret Service. You have caused him the deepest anguish."
"Please hurry on!" She bent forward with childish delight. "This is a part of the story we"ve been living that I really know nothing about. I hope it won"t be disappointing!"