"I said I was trying to break it to you gently," moaned Matilda.
"It"s--it"s already here. The ship that brought it is now docking.
Your funeral--"
"My funeral!"
"It takes place in the drawing-room, this morning. Oh, isn"t it awful!
But, perhaps, ma"am, if you could see what beautiful flowers your friends have sent--"
But Mrs. De Peyster had very softly sunk back into her chair.
[Ill.u.s.tration: "SO--SO IT"S I--THAT"S--THAT"S DEAD!"]
CHAPTER XXI
THE VEILED LADY
As soon as that huddled ma.s.s of womanhood that was Mrs. De Peyster had become sufficiently reanimated to be able to think, its first thought came in the form of an unuttered wail.
She was dead! She was to be buried! She could never come home again!
Or if she did come home, what a scandal! A scandal out-scandalizing anything of which she had ever dreamed! A scandal worse ten times than the very grave itself!
With loose face and glazed eyes she stared at Matilda while the latter stammered out disjointed details of the past week"s happenings. As for Mr. Jack"s lark in dwelling surrept.i.tiously with his wife in his mother"s house, not a breath of that had reached the public. With Mr.
Pyecroft"s aid, and Judge Harvey"s, he had managed this well. He had told the reporters that he had been quietly married over three weeks before, that he and his wife had been living in seclusion, and that on learning of his mother"s demise they had come to the house to direct the obsequies.... Those Paris police were trying to solve the mystery of what had become of Mrs. De Peyster"s trunks.... If Mrs. De Peyster could only see the beautiful floral tributes that were arriving, particularly the large wreath sent by Mrs. Allistair--
But Mrs. De Peyster heard none of this. She was dead! She was to be buried! She could never come home again!
At length her lips moved--slowly, stiffly, as might the lips of a dead person.
"What are we going to do?"
"I"ve been saying that same question to myself for days, ma"am,"
quavered Matilda. "And I--I don"t see any answer."
No, there was nothing she could do. Mrs. De Peyster continued her glazed stare at her faithful serving-woman. In the first few minutes her mind had been able to take in the significance only to herself of this culminating disaster. But now its significance to another person shivered through that her being.
Poor--poor Olivetta!
For Olivetta, of course, it was. Mrs. De Peyster knew what was due the De Peyster corpuscles that moved in stately procession along the avenues of her blood, and was not neglectful to see that that due was properly observed; but the heart from which those corpuscles derived their impulse was, as Judge Harvey had once said, in its way the kindest sort of heart. And now, for a few minutes, all that her heart could feel was felt for Olivetta.
But for a few minutes only. Then Olivetta, and all concerns beyond the immediate moment, were suddenly forgotten. For in the hall without soft footsteps were heard, and the instant after, upon her door, there sounded an ominous scratching--a sound like a key in an agitated hand searching for its appointed hole.
Mrs. De Peyster rose up and clutched Matilda"s arm, and stood in rigid terror.
"Tha--that key?" chattered Matilda. "Can--can it fit?"
"There were only two keys," breathed Mrs. De Peyster. "Mine here, and the one I gave to Olivetta."
"Then it can"t fit, since Miss Olivetta"s--"
But the key gave Matilda the lie direct by slipping into the lock.
The two women clung to one another, knowing that the end had come, wondering who was to be their exposer. The bolt clicked back, the door swung open, and--
And into the dusky room there tottered a rather tall, heavily veiled, feminine figure. It did not gaze at the shrinking couple in astoundment. It did not launch into exclamation at its discovery.
Instead, it sank weakly down into the nearest chair.
"Oh!" it moaned. "Oh! Oh! Oh!"
"Who--who are you?" huskily demanded Mrs. De Peyster.
"Oh! Oh!" moaned the figure. "Isn"t it terrible! Isn"t it terrible!
But I didn"t mean to do it--I didn"t mean to do it, Caroline!"
"It"s not--not Olivetta?" gasped Mrs. De Peyster.
"It was an accident!" the figure wailed on. "I couldn"t help myself.
And if you knew what I"ve gone through to get here, I know you"d forgive me."
Mrs. De Peyster had lifted the veil up over the hat.
"Olivetta! Then--after all--you"re not dead!"
"No--if I only were!" sobbed Olivetta.
"Then who is that--that person who"s coming here this morning?"
"I don"t know!" Then Olivetta"s quavering voice grew hard with indignation. "It"s somebody who"s trying to get a good funeral under false pretenses!"
"But the papers said the body had on my clothes."
"Yes--I suppose it must have had."
"But how--" Mrs. De Peyster recalled their precarious position.
"Matilda, lock the door. But, Olivetta, how could it ever, ever have happened?"
"I followed your directions--and got to Paris all right--and everything was going splendid--and I was beginning to enjoy myself--when--when--Oh, Caroline, I--I--"
"You what?" demanded Mrs. De Peyster.
"I lost my purse!" sobbed Olivetta.
"Lost your purse?"
"I left it in a cab when I went to the Louvre. And in it was all my money--my letter of credit--everything!"