"You are so fixed in the habit of sending your orders to the tradespeople that your mind cannot conceive of any other procedure.
You are to go out in person, at night, if you like, to shops where you are not known, pay cash for whatever you want, and carry your purchases home with you. It is really extremely simple."
"Why, of course, ma"am," meekly agreed Matilda.
With the specter of famine thus banished, confidence, good humor, and the luxurious expectancy of a reposeful summer returned to Mrs. De Peyster. Soon she was being further diverted by the mild excitement of being dressed in one of Matilda"s sober housekeeper gowns, the twin of the dress Matilda now wore, for her evening ride with William. They were fortunately of nearly the same figure, though, of course, there was a universe of difference in how those two figures were carried.
Matilda, the competent, skilled Matilda, was inexplicably incompetent at this function. So clumsy, so nervous was she, that Mrs. De Peyster was moved to ask with a little irritation what was the matter. Matilda hastily a.s.sured her mistress that there was nothing--nothing at all;--and b.u.t.toned a few more b.u.t.tonholes over the wrong b.u.t.tons. As she followed the fully garbed and thickly veiled Mrs. De Peyster, now looking the most stately of stately housekeepers, down the stairway, her nervousness increased.
"I wish--I wish--" she began at the door. "What _is_ the matter with you, Matilda?" demanded Mrs. De Peyster severely.
"I--I rather wish you--you wouldn"t go out, ma"am."
"You are afraid I may be recognized?"
"No, I wasn"t thinking of that, ma"am. I--I--"
"What else is there to be afraid of?"
"Nothing, ma"am, nothing. But I wish--"
"I am going, Matilda; we will not discuss it," said Mrs. De Peyster, in a peremptory tone intended to silence Matilda. "You may first clear away the dishes," she ordered. "But I believe I left a squab and some asparagus. You might put them, and any other little thing you have, on the dining-room table; I shall probably be hungry on my return from my drive. And then put my rooms in order. I believe the tea-tray is still in my sitting-room; don"t forget to bring it down."
"Certainly, ma"am. But--but--" "Matilda"--very severely--"are you going to do as I bid you?"
"Yes, ma"am,"--very humbly. "But excuse me for presuming to advise you, ma"am, but if you want to pa.s.s for me you must remember to be very humble and--"
"I believe I know how to play my part," Mrs. De Peyster interrupted with dignity. Then she softened; it was her instinct to be thoughtful of those who served her. "We shall both try to get to bed early, my dear. You especially need sleep after last night"s strain in getting Olivetta away. We shall have a long, restful night."
Mrs. De Peyster opened the door, unlocked the door in the boarding and locked it behind her, and stepped into her brougham, which had been ordered and was waiting at the curb. "Up Fifth Avenue and into the Park, William," she said. She settled back into the courtly embrace of the cushions; she breathed deep of the freedom of the soft May night.
The carriage turned northward into the Avenue. Rolling along in such soothing ease--a crowd streaming on either side of her--yet such solitude--so entirely unknown.
Restful, yes. And spiced with just the right pinch of mild adventure.
It really could not possibly have been better.
CHAPTER VII
NOT IN THE PLAN
As she rolled northward behind the miraculously erect and rigid William, the emotion which had been so mildly exciting when she had left her door grew in potency like a swiftly fermenting liquor. It was both fearful and delightful. She was all a-flutter. This was a daring thing that she was doing--the nearest to a real adventure that she had engaged in since her girlhood. Suppose, just suppose, that some one should recognize her from the sidewalk!
The thought sent a series of p.r.i.c.king shivers up and down her usually tranquil spine.
Just as that fear thrummed through her, she saw, a few doors ahead, a man come out of a residence hotel. He sighted the De Peyster carriage, and paused. Mrs. De Peyster"s heart stood still, for the man was Judge Harvey. If he should try to stop her and speak to her--!
But Judge Harvey merely bowed, and the carriage rolled on past him.
Mrs. De Peyster"s heart palpitated wildly for a block. Then she began to regain her courage. Judge Harvey had, of course, thought her Matilda. A few blocks, and she had completely rea.s.sured herself. There was no danger of her discovery. None. Almost every one she knew was out of town; she herself was known to be upon the high seas bound for Europe; Matilda"s gown and veil were a most unsuspicious disguise; and William, her paragon of a William, so rigidly upright on the seat before her--William"s statuesque, unapproachable figure diffused about her a sense of absolute security. She relaxed, sank back into the upholstery of the carriage, and began fully to enjoy the rare May night.
But a surprise was lying in wait for her as she came into a comparatively secluded drive of Central Park. In itself the surprise was the most trifling of events--so slight a matter as a person twisting his vertebrae some hundred-odd degrees, and silently smiling.
But that person was William!
For a moment she gasped with amazed indignation. To think of William daring to smile at her! But quickly she recognized that William, of course, supposed her to be Matilda, and that the smile was no more than the friendly courtesy that would naturally pa.s.s between two fellow-servants. Her indignation subsided, but her wonderment remained. To think that William could smile, William in whose thoroughly ironed dignity she had never before detected a wrinkle!
Just as she had re-composed herself, they rolled into another unpeopled stretch of the drive. Again William"s vertebrae performed a semicircle and again William smiled.
"Fine night, Matilda," he remarked in a pleasant voice.
Mrs. De Peyster shrank back into the cushions. She had the presence of mind to nod her head, and William faced about. To put it temperately, the situation was becoming very trying. Mrs. De Peyster now realized that she had been guilty of a lack of forethought. It had not occurred to her, in working out this plan of hers, that her frigidly proper William could entertain a friendliness toward any one. What she should have done was to have given William a vacation and secured an entirely strange coachman for the summer who would have had no friendly sentiments to give play to.
But her desire was now all to escape from William"s amiable attentions.
"Take me home," she said presently, m.u.f.fling her voice behind her hand and veil, and withdrawing from it its accustomed tone of authority.
Half an hour later, to her great relief, the carriage turned again into Washington Square and drew up before her house. She stepped quickly out.
"Good-night--thank you," she said in a smothered imitation of Matilda"s voice, and hurried up her steps.
She had unlocked the door in the boarding and had stepped into the dark entry, when she became aware that William had deserted his horses and was stepping in just behind her. As though it were a matter of long custom, William slipped an arm about her waist and imprinted a kiss upon her veil.
Mrs. De Peyster let out a little gasping cry, and struggled to free herself.
"Don"t be scared, Matilda," William rea.s.sured her. "n.o.body can see us in here." And he patted her on the shoulder with middle-aged affection.
Mrs. De Peyster, after her first outburst, realized that she dared not cry out, or rebuff William. To do so would reveal her ident.i.ty. And horrified as she was, she realized that there must have long existed between William and Matilda a carefully concealed affair of the heart.
"It"s all right, dear," William again rea.s.sured her, with his staid ardor. "It"s mighty good to be with you like this, Matilda!" He heaved a love-laden sigh. "We"ve had it mighty hard, haven"t we, with only being able to steal a minute with each other now and then--always afraid of Mrs. De Peyster. It"s been mighty hard for me. Hasn"t it been hard for you?"
Mrs. De Peyster remained silent.
"Hasn"t it been hard for you, dear?" William insisted tenderly.
"Ye--yes," very huskily.
"Why, what"s the matter, Matilda? I know; you"re tired, dear; your nerves are all worn out with the strain of getting Mrs. De Peyster off." Again his voice became tenderly indignant. "Just see how she treated that Miss Gardner; and wouldn"t she have done the same to us, if she"d found us out? To think, dear, that but for her att.i.tude you and me might have been married and happy! I know you are devoted to her, and wouldn"t leave her, and I know she"s kind enough in her way, but I tell you, Matilda,"--William"s voice, so superbly without expression when on duty, was alive with conviction,--"I tell you, Matilda, she"s a regular female tyrant!"
There was a mighty surging within Mrs. De Peyster, a premonition of eruption. But she choked it down. William, launched upon the placid sea of his elderly affection, did not heed that his supposed inamorata was making no replies.
"She"s a regular tyrant!" he repeated. "But now that she"s away,"
he added in a tender tone, "and left just us two here, Matilda dear, we"ll have a lot of nice little times together." And urged by his welling love he again embraced her and again pressed a loverly kiss upon Matilda"s veil.
This was too much. The crater could be choked no longer. The eruption came.
"Let me go!" Mrs. De Peyster cried, struggling; and her right hand, striking wildly out, fell full upon William"s sacred cheek.