"Come, Katie, you must stop this and listen to Mr. Graham."
Katie obediently wiped her eyes and sat up very straight.
"I am all right now," she said quaveringly. "He can come. I tell him everything."
Still very nervous but calmer than she had been, Katie remained quiet when I raised my voice to reach d.i.c.ky waiting in the adjoining room.
"Oh, d.i.c.ky," I called, "you may come now."
d.i.c.ky drew a low chair in front of the couch where we sat.
"Tell me first, Katie," he said kindly, "why do you think I want to put you in prison? Because of the money? Never mind that. I want to talk to you of something else."
But Katie was hysterically tugging at the neck of her gown. From inside her bodice she took a tiny chamois skin bag, and ripping it open took out a carefully folded bill and handed it to d.i.c.ky.
"I never spend that money," she said. "I never mean to steal it. But I had to go away queeck from your flat and I never, never dare come back, give you the money. After two month, send my cousin to the flat, but he say you move, no know where. There I always keep the money here. I think maybe some time I find out where you live and write a letter to you, send the money."
d.i.c.ky took the bill and unfolded it curiously. A brown stain ran irregularly across one-half of it.
"Well, I"ll be eternally blessed," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "if it isn"t the identical bill I gave her. Ten-dollar bills were not so plentiful three years ago, and I remember this one so distinctly because of the stain. The boys used to say I must have murdered somebody to get it, and that it was stained with blood."
He turned to Katie again.
"The money is nothing, Katie. Why did you run away that day? I never have been able to finish that picture since."
Katie"s eyes dropped. Her cheeks flushed.
"I "shamed to tell," she murmured.
d.i.c.ky muttered an oath beneath his breath. "I thought so," he said slowly, then he spoke sternly:
"Never mind being ashamed to tell, Katie. I want the truth. I worked at your portrait that morning, and then I had to go to the studio.
When I came back you had gone, bag and baggage, and with, the money I gave you to pay the tailor. I never could finish that picture, and it would have brought me a nice little sum."
My brain was whirling by this time. d.i.c.ky in a flat with this ignorant Polish girl paying his tailor bills, and posing for portraits. What did it all mean?
"Where did you go?" d.i.c.ky persisted.
Katie lifted her head and looked at him proudly.
"You know when you left that morning, Mr. Lestaire, he was painting, too? Well, Mr. Graham, I always good girl in old country and here. I go to confession. I always keep good. Mr. Lestaire, he kiss me, say bad tings to me. He scare me. I afraid if I stay I no be good girl.
So I run queeck away. I never dare come bade. That Mr. Lestaire he one bad man, one devil."
d.i.c.ky whistled softly.
"So that was it?" he said. "Well that was just about what that pup would do. That was one reason I got out of our housekeeping arrangements. He set too swift a pace for me, and that was going some in those days."
He turned to Katie, smiling.
"You see you don"t have to be afraid any more. I"m a respectable married man now, and it"s perfectly safe for you to work here. Mrs.
Graham will take care of you. Run along about your work now, that"s a good girl."
Katie giggled appreciatively. Her mercurial temperament had already sent her from the depths to the heights.
"The dinner all spoiled while I cry like a fool," she said. "You ready pretty soon. I serve."
She hastened to the kitchen, and I turned to d.i.c.ky inquiringly.
"I suppose you think you have gotten into a lunatic asylum, Madge. Of all the queer things that Katie should apply for a job here and that you should take her."
"I didn"t know you ever kept house in a flat before, d.i.c.ky."
"It was a very short experience," he returned, "only three months.
Four of us, Lester, Atwood, Bates and myself pooled our rather scanty funds and rented a small apartment. We advertised for a general housekeeper, and Katie answered the advertis.e.m.e.nt. She had been over from Poland only a year at a cousin"s somewhere on the East side, and she used to annoy us awfully getting to the flat so early in the morning and cleaning our living room while we were trying to sleep.
But she was a crack-a-jack worker, so we put up with her superfluous energy in cleaning. Then one day I discovered her standing with a letter in her hand looking off into s.p.a.ce with her eyes full of misery. She had heard of some relative."
"Of course you wanted to paint her," I suggested.
"You bet," d.i.c.ky returned. "The idea came to me in a flash. You can see what a heroic figure she was. I had her get into her Polish dress--she had brought one with her from the old country--and I painted her as Poland--miserable, unhappy Poland. Gee! but I"m glad you happened to run across her. We"ll put up with anything from her until I get that picture done."
Try as I might I could not share d.i.c.ky"s enthusiasm. I knew it was petty, but the idea of my maid acting as d.i.c.ky"s model jarred my ideas of the fitness of things.
But I had sense enough to hold my peace.
VII
A FRIENDLY WARNING
I know of nothing more exasperating to a hostess than to have her guests come to her home too early. It is bad enough to wait a meal for a belated guest, but to have some critical woman casually stroll in before one is dressed, or has put the final touches--so dear to every housewifely heart--on all the preparations, is simply maddening.
I am no exception to the rule. As I heard the voices of Lillian Gale and her husband and I realized that they had arrived at 3:30 in the afternoon, when they had been invited for an evening chafing dish supper, I was both disheartened and angry.
But, of course, there was but one thing to do, much as I hated to do it. I must go into the living room and cordially welcome these people.
As I slipped off my kitchen ap.r.o.n I thought of the hypocrisy which marks most social intercourse. What I really wanted to say to my guests was this:
"Please go home and come again at the proper time. I am not ready to receive you now."
I had a sudden whimsical vision of the faces of d.i.c.ky and the Underwoods if I should thus speak my real thoughts. The thought in some curious fashion made it easier for me to cross the room to Lillian Gale"s side, extend my hand and say cordially:
"How good of you to come this afternoon!"
"I know it is unpardonable," Lillian"s high pitched voice answered.
"You invited us for the evening, not for the afternoon, but I told Harry that I was going to crucify the conventions and come over early, so I would have a chance to say more than two words to you before the rest get here."