"But--but, Caroline! You cannot merely announce that you are going abroad! You are a person of importance--your every move is observed.
People will see that you do not sail. How will you get around that?"
It sounded a poser. But Mrs. De Peyster was unruffled.
"Very simply, Olivetta. You shall sail in my stead."
"Me!" cried Olivetta, yet more bewildered.
"Yes, you."
"But--but, if you cannot afford Europe for yourself, how can you afford it for me?"
"It would take a great many thousands for me to go in the manner that is expected of me. I cannot afford that. For you, Olivetta, since the pa.s.sage is already paid, it would take but a few hundred--and that I can afford."
"You--you mean that I am to pa.s.s for you?"
"Yes."
"But I never can! People will know the difference!"
"People will never see you," returned the calm voice of Mrs. De Peyster. "The Plutonia sails at one to-night. You will go on board with my trunks late this evening, heavily veiled. Since no one must see you on the way over, you must of course, keep to your cabin. You must be seasick."
"But I am never seasick!" cried Olivetta.
"Then you must stay in your berth anyhow and pretend to be. You are to be too ill to receive any friends who may chance to be on board. Your stewardess will bring your meals to your stateroom. When the boat arrives, you must wait till every one else is off, and when you land you must again be heavily veiled and be too sick to speak to any one.
Once you are in Paris--"
"Yes, there"s the difficulty!"
"Not so great as you think. I shall give you full directions what to do. Once you are in Paris, you quietly disappear. It will become known that Mrs. De Peyster has gone off on a long motor trip through unvisited portions of Europe and will not return for the Newport season. With Mrs. De Peyster started on this trip, you become yourself, and you see Europe just as you please."
"Oh!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed Olivetta, drawing in a deep breath.
"But please, ma"am," put in Matilda, "why could you not go over yourself and then slip away to some modest resort?"
"So many people know me I should be sure to be seen and recognized.
And then think of the talk! No, that would never do. I have considered all possibilities. My plan is best."
"Of course, you"re right, ma"am," agreed Matilda.
"On the way back, Olivetta, you are to preserve the same precautions as on the way over. And to avoid any possible difficulty in getting into the house, I shall provide you with a key to the house and one to my sitting-room."
"But you, ma"am," objected Matilda, "in the mean time you cannot stay cooped up all summer in this room!"
"I do not intend to," returned Mrs. De Peyster with her consummate calm, which a.s.sured her co-conspirators that they could lean untroubled upon her unblundering brain. "Matilda, will you now please have William come in?"
Matilda, bewildered but obedient, stepped to the door and a moment later followed in the most clean-shaven, the most stiffly perpendicular, the most deferentially dignified, the most irreproachably expressionless of men-servants. He was the ultimate development of his kind. It seems almost a sacrilege to add that he was past man"s perfect prime, and to hint that perhaps his scanty, unstreaked hair sought surrept.i.tious rejuvenation in a drug-store bottle.
"William, Matilda will acquaint you with certain alterations in my plans," began his mistress. "I desire to add that she will remain in the house alone during my absence; that you are to keep to your quarters in the stable and not enter the house; and that you are to arrange to take, at my expense, all your meals outside."
William inclined his body slightly, as if to say, "Yes, my lady."
"And in order to give the horses proper exercise, and to relieve Matilda"s monotony, I desire you to take Matilda out driving every evening."
Again William bowed a "Yes, my lady."
"You understand this perfectly?"
William"s lips executed one of their rare movements.
"Perfectly, Mrs. De Peyster."
"Very well."
Mrs. De Peyster dismissed him with a wave of her hand, and William made the exit of a minister from his queen.
"You don"t mean--" began Matilda, almost breathless.
"Yes, I mean that I shall go out driving nightly in your clothes,"
responded Mrs. De Peyster.
"But--but--" gasped Matilda.
"Have no fear. I shall, of course, be veiled, and William is the best-trained, the most incurious of servants."
Mrs. De Peyster, looking her most majestic, stood waiting for the outburst of approval, just tribute to one who has conceived a supernally clever and flawless scheme.
"Well, now, Matilda," she prompted, "what do you think of the whole plan?"
"Since you thought it out, I--I--suppose it"s all right," stammered Matilda.
"And you, Olivetta, what do you think?"
"Me!" cried Olivetta, who for the last minute had with difficulty restrained her ecstasy. "Paris!--the Louvre!--the Luxembourg!--Versailles!" She flung her arms about Mrs. De Peyster"s neck amid a shower of hairpins. "Oh, Caroline--Caroline. It"s--it"s simply glorious!"
CHAPTER VI
BEHIND THE BLINDS
It was the next day.
Olivetta had mailed a few hurried notes to friends about her sudden departure for a complete rest in the utter seclusion of an unnamed spot in Maine--Jack De Peyster had moved out--the front door way and the windows had been boarded up--the house wore the proper countenance of respectable desertion--and up in her sitting-room, lighted only by little diamond panes in her thick shutters, sat Mrs. De Peyster reading a newspaper. From this she gleaned that Mrs. De Peyster had sailed that morning on the Plutonia, having gone on board late the night before. Also she learned that Mrs. De Peyster would not be back as was her custom for the Newport season, but was going to make an extended motor trip off the main-traveled roads, perhaps penetrating as far as the beautiful but rarely visited Balkan States.
Mrs. De Peyster was well satisfied as she rested at ease in her favorite chair. It would not be too much to say that she was very proud; for hers was certainly a happy plan, a plan few intellects could have evolved. And thus far it had worked to perfection, and there was no doubt but that it would work so to the end; for, although Olivetta, to be sure, was rather careless, the instructions given her, the arrangements made in her behalf, were so admirable and complete that any miscarriage could not possibly have Olivetta for its source.