"My bro--bro--yes, sir, thank you," weakly returned poor Matilda.
"No wonder, Mr. Simpson," the outraged Judge continued, "that your family disowned you!"
"They were justified, certainly, as I told you at the very first,"
soberly conceded Mr. Pyecroft.
Jack and Mary demanded enlightenment. To them Judge Harvey told of the visit of the four police officers, scathingly expounded the character of Matilda"s brother, and explained how he, Judge Harvey, had been forced to protect the outrageous scape-grace. Through this recital, Mr. Pyecroft, though unbowed by shame, continued to wear his respectful, regretful look.
"Perhaps you will not believe me, Judge Harvey," he returned courteously, and with the ring of sincerity, when the indictment was ended, "and even if you do believe me, perhaps my statement will mean nothing to you; but I desire none the less to state that I am sorry that you were the person to be deceived by those Jefferson letters. Of course, I had no idea to whom they were to be sold. I did them for the autograph dealer, so much for the job--and did them partly as a lark, though, of course, I do not expect you to appreciate the humor of the affair. It may be some consolation to you, however, to know that I profited very little from the transaction; the dealer got over ninety per cent of the price you paid."
The Judge snorted, and stalked incredulously and wrathfully out, Jack and Mary behind him; and Mrs. De Peyster was left alone in the bosom of her family. Mr. Pyecroft sat silent on the foot of the bed for a s.p.a.ce, grave but composed, gazing at a particular scale of the flaking kalsomine. Then he remarked something about its having been a somewhat trying day and that he believed that he"d be off to bed.
When he was gone Mrs. De Peyster lay wordless, limp, all a-shiver.
Beside her sat the limp and voiceless Matilda, gasping and staring wildly. How long Mrs. De Peyster lay in that condition she never knew. All her faculties were reeling. These crowding events seemed the wildest series of unrealities; seemed the frenzied, feverish phantasms of a nightmare. They never, never could possibly-have happened!
But then ... they had happened! And this hard, narrow bed was real.
And this low, narrow room was real. And Mr. Pyecroft was real. And so were Jack, and Mary, and Judge Harvey.
These things could never have happened. But, then, they had. And would they ever, ever stop happening?
This was only the eighth day since her promulgated sailing. Three more months, ninety days of twenty-four hours each, before Olivetta--
"Matilda," she burst out in a despairing whisper, "I can"t stand this another minute!"
"Oh, ma"am!" wailed Matilda.
"That Mr. Pyecroft--" Words failed her. "I"ve simply got to get out of this somehow!"
"Of course, ma"am. But--but our changes haven"t helped us much yet.
If we tried to leave the house, that Mr. Pyecroft might follow and we might find ourselves even in a worse way than we are, ma"am."
"Nothing can be worse than this!"
"I"m not so sure, ma"am," tremulously doubted Matilda. "We never dreamed anything could be so bad as this, but here this is."
There was a vague logic in what Matilda said; but logic none the less.
Unbelievable, and yet so horribly actual as this was,--was what had thus far happened only the _legato_ and _pianissimo_ pa.s.sages of their adventure, with _crescendo_ and _fortissimo_ still ahead? Mrs. De Peyster closed her eyes, and did not speak. She strove to regain some command over her routed faculties.
Matilda waited.
Presently Mrs. De Peyster"s eyes opened. "It would be some relief"--weak hope was in her voice--"if only I could manage to get down into my own suite."
"But, ma"am, with that Mr. Pyecroft--"
"He"s a risk we"ve got to run," Mrs. De Peyster cried desperately.
"We"ve somehow got to manage to get me there without his knowing it."
Suddenly she sat up. The hope that a moment before had shone faintly in her face began to become a more confident glow. Matilda saw that her mistress was thinking; therefore she remained silent, expectant.
"Matilda, I think there"s a chance!" Mrs. De Peyster exclaimed after a moment. "I"ll get into my suite--I"ll live there quiet as death. Since they believe the suite empty, since they know it is locked, they may never suspect any one is in it. Matilda, it"s the only way!"
"Yes--but, ma"am, how am I to explain your sudden disappearance?"
"Say that your sister became homesick," said Mrs. De Peyster with mounting hope, "and decided suddenly, in the middle of the night, to return at once to her home in Syracuse."
"That may satisfy all but Mr. Pyecroft, ma"am. But Mr. Pyecroft won"t believe it."
"Mr. Pyecroft will have to believe whatever he likes. It"s the only way, and we"re going to do it. And do it at once! Matilda, go down and see if they"re all asleep yet, particularly Mr. Pyecroft."
Matilda took off her shoes and in her stocking-feet went scouting forth; and stocking-footed presently returned, with the news that all seemed asleep, particularly Mr. Pyecroft.
Five minutes later, in Matilda"s dress, and likewise in stocking-feet, Mrs. De Peyster stepped out of her second maid"s room. Breathless, she listened. Not a sound. Then, Matilda at her heels, she began to creep down the stairway--slowly--slowly--putting each foot down with the softness of a closing lip--pausing with straining ears on every tread.
With up-pressing feet she glided by the door within which Mr. Pyecroft lay in untroubled sleep, then started by the room that homed Jack and Mary, creeping with the footsteps of a disembodied spirit, fearful every second lest some door might spring open and wild alarms ring out.
But she got safely by. Then, more rapidly, yet still as noiseless as a shadow"s shadow, she crept on down--down--until she came to her own door. Here the attending Matilda silently vanished. With velvet touch Mrs. De Peyster slipped her key into the lock, stepped inside, noiselessly closed and locked the door behind her.
Then she sank into a chair, and breathed. Just breathed ... back once more in the s.p.a.cious suite wherein nine days ago--or was it nine thousand years?--inspiration had flowered within her and her great idea had been born.
CHAPTER XIX
A PLEASANT HERMITAGE
When she awoke, it was with a sweet, languorous sense of perfect comfort. Heavy-lidded, she glanced about her. Ah! Once more she was in her own wide, gracious bed--of a different caste, of an entirely different race, from the second maid"s paving-stone pallet, from that folding, punitive contrivance from whose output of anguish Mrs. Gilbert managed to extract a profit. Also she was in sweet, ingratiating linen--the first fresh personal linen that had touched her in nine days.
It was all as though she were enfolded deep in the embrace of a not too fervent benediction.
About her were the large, dignified s.p.a.ces of her bedroom, and beyond were the yet greater s.p.a.ces of her sitting-room; and from where she lay she could see the gleaming white of her large tiled bathroom. And there were drawers and drawers of fresh _lingerie_; and there were her closets filled with comfortable gowns that would be a thousand times more grateful after a week of Matilda"s unchanged and oppressive black. And there on her dressing-table were the mult.i.tudinous implements of silver that had to do with her toilet.
After what she had been through, this, indeed, was comfort.
But as consciousness grew clearer, her forgotten troubles and her dangers returned to her. For a brief period alarm possessed her. Then reason began to a.s.sert itself; and the hope which the night before had been hardly more than desperation began to take on the character of confidence. She saw possibilities. And the longer she considered, the more and greater the possibilities were. Her original plan began to re-present itself to her; modified, of course, to meet the altered conditions. If she could only remain here, undiscovered, then months hence, when it was announced that Mrs. De Peyster (she sent up a warm prayer for Olivetta!) was homeward bound, Jack and Mary and that unthinkable Mr. Pyecroft would decamp, if they had not gone before, and leave the way clear for the easy interchange by Olivetta and herself of their several personalities.
As she lay there in the gentle Sabbath calm, in the extra-curled hair of her ultra-superior mattress, this revised version of her plan, in the first glow of its conception, seemed alluringly plausible. She had to be more careful, to be sure, but aside from this the new plan seemed quite as good as the original. In fact, in her reaction from the alarms of yesterday, it somehow seemed even better.
Twelve hours before there had seemed no possible solution to her predicament. And here it was--come unexpectedly to her aid, as was the way with things in life; and a very simple solution, too.
Lazily, hazily, a poet"s line teased and evaded her memory. What was it?--something about "a pleasant hermitage." That was just what this was: a pleasant hermitage.
But presently, as she lay comforting herself, and the morning wore on, she became increasingly conscious of an indefinable uncomfortable sensation. And presently the sensation became more definite; became localized; and she was aware that she was growing hungry. And in the same moment came the dismaying realization that, in their haste of the night before, she had not thought to plan with Matilda for the somewhat essential item of food!
She sat up. What was she ever to do? Three months of solitary confinement, with no arrangements for food! Would Matilda have the sense to think of this, and if so would she have the adroitness to smuggle edibles in to her unnoticed? Or was she to be starved out?
The revised plan had lost its first rose-tint.
She got up, and noiselessly foraged throughout her quarters. The total of her gleaning was a box of forgotten chocolate bon-bons and a box of half-length tallow candles. She had read that Esquimaux ate tallow, or its equivalent, and prospered famously upon it; but she deferred the candles in favor of the bon-bons, and breakfasted on half the box.