An inspiration prompted her hastily to beckon Bill, who was earning the continued hospitality of the restaurant by trotting in with clean plates from the kitchen and trotting back with dirty ones.
"Here, take this, and pay the messenger," she whispered. "I guess your friend"s had a disappointment."
Bill obeyed, but did not at once come back. When the youth had been paid, and had shot away up the street as if through a pneumatic tube, Bill lingered in consultation with the pale young man at the table.
"Something"s up," Isidora said to herself, in an agony of curiosity. But what the "something" was, she could not find out till breakfast was over, and the room clear of customers.
It was by this time after nine, a late hour at Alexander the Great"s restaurant, which the regular clients were deserting now for business; but others might drop in for a piece of pie at any moment, so Isidora caught at a propitiously quiet instant as she would have flown at a moving electric tram.
"The cable I expected hasn"t arrived," explained P. Gordon. "It"s all right, of course, when I come to think of it, and I"m not really worried, for I haven"t paid enough attention to the difference of time between London and New York. I must send again later in the day, when there will be letters, too, perhaps, and people"s visiting-cards.
Meanwhile----"
"Meanwhile, stay where you are, and make yourself at home," cut in Isidora, hospitably. Nevertheless, she was anxious when she thought of her father, and the inevitable moment of his coming downstairs, heavy-footed with illness, and "cross as a bear with a sore head." Pa would want to have the beautiful young man in evening clothes satisfactorily explained, and it was borne in upon the girl that he would be rather difficult to explain. Non-paying people and things were always difficult to explain to Alexander, especially when he was under the weather. But--there was one way out of the sc.r.a.pe, and Isidora s.n.a.t.c.hed at it suddenly with a leap of the heart. All might be well should she prevail upon Mr. Gordon to accept another loan from her--if he liked to call it a loan!
She had been saving up her allowance to buy a new ball-dress, and had already set her heart on the thing she would have. But she would deplete the sum by a third for Mr. Gordon"s sake, if he would take the money and spend it as if it were his own, "for the good of the house." If he indulged in pickled clams or pumpkin-pie, or cold fried oysters, at intervals of, say every hour, under her father"s eye, he would continue to be welcome to his place for an indefinite length of time, even though costume and conduct might appear open to curious criticism.
"Thank you, but Mr. Willing has given me a piece of good advice," said Val. "If it hadn"t been for him, I shouldn"t have thought of it, perhaps. He suggests my p.a.w.ning a few things I have on me."
Now was Isidora"s time to speak, and she offered her alternative suggestion, but with some stammering and confusion under the growing discouragement in Mr. Gordon"s dark blue eyes. Nor did he let her stumble on very far. As soon as he gathered the drift of her faltering words, he broke in, thanking her sincerely, saying that she was most awfully kind, but he couldn"t trespa.s.s any further upon her goodness.
According to Willing, there was a p.a.w.nshop just round the corner. They two would go there immediately; and then, with money to pay his debt to her, as well as tide over unforeseen delays, he would be glad to come back for a time.
Not only had Isidora never seen a man like Mr. Gordon, but she had never heard any man talk as he did, unless perhaps on the stage. She could hardly believe yet that he was not an actor, and that the "Marquis of Loveland" was not the name of some character he had played.
It needs hardihood to show oneself at nine o"clock of a cold, sunshiny morning in evening clothes. Loveland had not by any means got rid of his vanity with his other possessions, and he would rather have "run the gauntlet" at the risk of his life from cowboy bullets or Indian arrows, than face the grins and stares of a downtown New York crowd.
This time Bill did offer his overcoat, and press the offer, but to do Loveland justice, its shabbiness and inadequacy were not his princ.i.p.al reasons for refusing. Bill"s "blazer" was not much warmer than tissue paper, its sole virtue, save on a hot day of summer, being the fact that it would cover a "d.i.c.key" and celluloid cuffs that had no visible means of support.
Luckily for Loveland"s fort.i.tude, however, the ordeal--or the out-of-doors part of it--was brief. He was whisked round the corner, and hurried mercifully into a dingy den which Bill Willing seemed to regard as a kind of "home from home," or, at the least, a cold-storage warehouse.
Loveland denuded his shirt of studs, took the gold links out of his cuffs, and produced his watch, asking almost humbly how much would be allowed for the lot.
The watch was of gun-metal; the sleeve links, the simplest he had owned, were dest.i.tute of precious stones; and the p.a.w.nbroker having examined the offered objects with an air of disparagement, mentioned the sum of nine dollars. When urged to make a higher bid, he remarked that he was "no Santa Claus," and at last showed himself so indifferent that Loveland was glad to exchange his despised belongings for one dollar less than the sum at first refused.
"I expect the old Curmudge will be on for his scene by the time we get back," said Bill, as they returned to Alexander the Great"s after an absence of nearly an hour, during which time Loveland had provided his shirt-front with cheap celluloid studs.
But "Curmudge"--alias Mr. Solomon, alias Alexander--was still absent.
His understudy, Izzie of the almond-eyes, continued to reign alone over a kingdom of marble-topped tables and empty red chairs awaiting their next occupants; but sixty minutes had changed her oddly. She looked up with a nervous start when Loveland came in with Bill, and hid in her lap the newspaper which had been lying before her on the desk.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
The Morning Paper
"I shall be able to pay you for my breakfast and the messenger now,"
said Loveland. "And if you"ve a private room, I"d like to engage it till afternoon, when I can send to the hotel again, and find the cable telling me how and where to get the money on my letter of credit. It"s rather awkward being here in these clothes, and----"
"We haven"t got a private room," replied the girl, "except our own parlour. I wish we had, because--because I guess you"re just about right. You _oughtn"t_ to be here, today, sitting around dressed that way. You might be noticed, and--and----" She hesitated, then began to speak again quickly, in a low voice. "See here, Mr.--Mr. Gordon. I don"t know but I"d better tell you something. Bend down; I don"t want the waiters to hear. Dutchy don"t catch onto English much, but folks always understand when you don"t want "em to. Of course it"s all right about Bill, as he"s your friend. I suppose he _knows_?"
"Knows what?" enquired Val, bending down towards her as she had asked, his elbows on the counter, while Bill tactfully retired out of earshot.
"Why--it"s--it"s in the paper; this morning"s "Light.""
"Oh!" The blood sprang to Val"s face, his scar showing very white. No need, it seemed, for further questions. He thought he knew what Miss Isidora Alexander had been reading in the paper, and cursed himself for having uttered the name of Loveland. If he had not told her that enquiries must be made at the Waldorf for Lord Loveland"s cablegram and letters, she would not a.s.sociate Mr. Gordon, Bill Willing"s friend, with the hero of "New York Light"s" story.
That cad, Milton, had evidently made up some tale, on recovering his disgusting senses, a tale not too damaging to himself, and had named his a.s.sailant.
"Give me the paper, please," Val demanded.
"Not now," said the girl. "Dutchy"s looking, and that, silly boy, Blinkey, has just come in. I don"t know as Dutchy reads English, and "tain"t likely Blinkey bothers about the news, even when he gets time.
But you never can tell. They may have read, and they may be putting things together already. Better not let "em guess we"re alludin" to anything in the paper."
"Is it about my knocking a man down?" asked Loveland.
"Yes, a swell, well known in s"ciety. I"ve seen his name often in "Town Chat." And it"s about you at the hotel, too----"
Suddenly it seemed to Val that he would not have the heart to read that article about himself in the newspapers. His sensitive vanity sent a sharp twinge through his body, as if a nerve had been touched with the point of a knife. That scene of his humiliation in the Waldorf Restaurant, and afterwards in the hall! how could he bear to see it all set out in vulgar print, accompanied perhaps by an "interview" with the hotel employe who had turned him into the street? No, he could not look at the paper, could not see himself held up to public ridicule--probably by the pen of the man he had ordered from his door with Cadwallader Hunter yesterday in the morning.
Physically, Loveland was not a coward; but touch his vanity and he shrank as if with fear, and, mortified to the quick, as his imagination pictured the amus.e.m.e.nt his plight must be at this moment creating round thousands of breakfast tables, he broke in upon the girl"s revelations, almost roughly. "Never mind--that part now," he said. "That"s nothing.
Has the man Milton set the police on me?"
"Nope. I guess not. There"s a kind of interview with him in the paper, and he says he deserved what he got for havin" anything to do with a man of your sort. He says after he"d told you exactly what he thought of you, you hit him from behind; which I don"t believe, because you ain"t that kind, I"ll bet----"
"Thank you," said Loveland, looking so handsome in the pallor of his anger that the Jewish girl could not take her eyes from his face. Her sensuous temperament made her adore beauty, of which she saw little in her everyday life. It was because she loved beauty and colour that she chose red and other vivid-hued dresses for herself. Because she loved beauty she studied fashion-plates, and pinched in her plump waist to what she considered perfect elegance of form. Because she loved beauty and thought she was attaining it, she covered her smooth polished skin with pearl powder, and tortured her hair with metal curling-pins.
Because she loved beauty she was now ready to fling her soul at this stranger"s feet. Having read the newspaper, she believed him to be a blackguard; but she had not been taught a high standard of virtue for men; and if she had, she would still have been fiercely ready to protect this splendid scoundrel.
"No, I"m not that kind of man," Val echoed her words. "Evidently the cowardly beast must have picked himself up before he was seen, otherwise, as he was lying flat on his fat back, his story about having been hit from behind would hardly have held water. Will the police do anything on their own responsibility, do you think?"
"Not unless somebody sends them lookin" for you, I hope," Isidora rea.s.sured him, flattered that she should be taken into consultation.
"This Milton says in the interview, he don"t want to be mussed up in a scandal, or called on as a witness against you in a police-court."
"It"s his own scandal!" broke out Loveland. "He knows I could defend myself only too well. And being a cad himself, he doesn"t know that I wouldn"t bring in certain names."
"Still, the hotel people may try to make trouble," the girl suggested.
"It was so early when the messenger got there, p"raps they hadn"t read the papers, because if they had, they could have followed the boy here, if they wanted."
"I shall have to send again for the cablegram, no matter what happens,"
said Val. "I must get money."
"Sure you _can_ get it?" Isidora asked in a confidential, yet somewhat doubtful, tone.
"Of course I"m sure. I have my letter of credit--the one thing I did manage to keep."
"Yes, but----"
"There isn"t any but," cut in Loveland, impatiently. "It"s certain to be all right this afternoon, at latest. The cable will have come to the hotel, and then I shall know what to do. Even supposing the police should arrest me for that affair--well, at worst, the trouble ought to be over and done with in a day or two."