"Have you read his books?" she asked, after a pause.
"Some of them."
"So have I."
The Celebrity was not mentioned again that evening.
CHAPTER VI
As an endeavor to unite Mohair and Asquith the cotillon had proved a dismal failure. They were as the clay and the bra.s.s. The next morning Asquith was split into factions and rent by civil strife, and the porch of the inn was covered by little knots of women, all trying to talk at once; their faces told an ominous tale. Not a man was to be seen. The Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Chicago papers, all of which had previously contained elaborate ill.u.s.trated accounts of Mr. Cooke"s palatial park and residence, came out that morning bristling with headlines about the ball, incidentally holding up the residents of a quiet and retiring little community in a light that scandalized them beyond measure. And Mr. Charles Wrexell Allen, treasurer of the widely known Miles Standish Bicycle Company, was said to have led the cotillon in a manner that left nothing to be desired.
So it was this gentleman whom the Celebrity was personating! A queer whim indeed.
After that, I doubt if the court of Charles the Second was regarded by the Puritans with a greater abhorrence than was Mohair by the good ladies of Asquith. Mr. Cooke and his ten friends were branded as profligates whose very scarlet coats bore witness that they were of the devil. Mr. Cooke himself, who particularly savored of brimstone, would much better have remained behind the arras, for he was denounced with such energy and bitterness that those who might have attempted his defence were silent, and their very silence told against them. Mr. Cooke had indeed outdone himself in hospitality. He had posted punch-bowls in every available corner, and so industriously did he devote himself to the duties of host, as he conceived them, that as many as four of the patriarchs of Asquith and pillars of the church had returned home more or less insensible, while others were quite incoherent. The odds being overwhelming, the master of Mohair had at length fallen a victim to his own good cheer. He took post with Judge Short at the foot of the stair, where, in spite of the protests of the Celebrity and of other well-disposed persons, the two favored the parting guests with an occasional impromptu song and waved genial good-byes to the ladies. And, when Mrs. Short attempted to walk by with her head in the air, as though the judge were in an adjoining county, he so far forgot his judicial dignity as to chuck her under the chin, an act which was applauded with much boyish delight by Mr. Cooke, and a remark which it is just as well not to repeat. The judge desired to spend the night at Mohair, but was afterwards taken home by main force, and the next day his meals were brought up to him. It is small wonder that Mrs. Short was looked upon as the head of the outraged party. The Ten were only spoken of in whispers.
Three of them had been unable to come to time when the last figure was called, whereupon their partners were whisked off the scene without so much as being allowed to pay their respects to the hostess. Besides these offences, there were other minor barbarisms too numerous to mention.
Although Mrs. Short"s party was all-powerful at Asquith, there were some who, for various reasons, refused to agree in the condemnation of Mr.
Cooke. Judge Short and the other gentlemen in his position were, of course, restricted, but Mr. Trevor came out boldly in the face of severe criticism and declared that his daughter should accept any invitation from Mrs. Cooke that she chose, and paid but little attention to the coolness resulting therefrom. He was fast getting a reputation for oddity. And the Celebrity tried to conciliate both parties, and succeeded, though none but he could have done it. At first he was eyed with suspicion and disgust as he drove off to Mohair in his Hempstead cart, and was called many hard names. But he had a way about him which won them in the end.
A few days later I ran over to Mohair and found my client with the colored Sunday supplement of a Chicago newspaper spread out before him, eyeing the page with something akin to childish delight. I discovered that it was a picture of his own hunt ball, and as a bit of color it was marvellous, the scarlet coats being very much in evidence.
"There, old man!" he exclaimed. "What do you think of that? Something of a sendoff, eh?" And he pointed to a rather stout and important gentleman in the foreground. "That"s me!" he said proudly, "and they wouldn"t do that for Farquhar Fenelon Cooke in Philadelphia."
"A prophet is without honor in his own country," I remarked.
"I don"t set up for a prophet," said Mr. Cooke, "but I did predict that I would start a ripple here, didn"t I?"
I did not deny this.
"How do I stand over there?" he inquired, designating Asquith by a twist of the head. "I hear they"re acting all over the road; that they think I"m the very devil."
"Well, your stock has dropped some, I admit," I answered. "They didn"t take kindly to your getting the judge drunk, you know."
"They oughtn"t to complain about that," said my client; "and besides, he wasn"t drunk enough to amount to anything."
"However that may be," said I, "you have the credit for leading him astray. But there is a split in your favor."
"I"m glad to know that," he said, brightening; "then I won"t have to import any more."
"Any more what?" I asked.
"People from the East to keep things moving, of course. What I have here and those left me at the inn ought to be enough to run through the summer with. Don"t you think so?"
I thought so, and was moving off when he called me back.
"Is the judge locked up, old man?" he demanded.
"He"s under rather close surveillance," I replied, smiling.
"Crocker;" he said confidentially, "see if you can"t smuggle him over here some day soon. The judge always holds good cards, and plays a number one hand."
I promised, and escaped. On the veranda I came upon Miss Thorn surrounded by some of her uncle"s guests. I imagine that she was bored, for she looked it.
"Mr. Crocker," she called out, "you"re just the man I have been wishing to see."
The others naturally took this for a dismissal, and she was not long in coming to her point when we were alone.
"What is it you know about this queer but gifted genius who is here so mysteriously?" she asked.
"Nothing whatever," I confessed. "I knew him before he thought of becoming a genius."
"Retrogression is always painful," she said; "but tell me something about him then."
I told her all I knew, being that narrated in these pages. "Now," said I, "if you will pardon a curiosity on my part, from what you said the other evening I inferred that he closely resembles the man whose name it pleased him to a.s.sume. And that man, I learn from the newspapers, is Mr.
Charles Wrexell Allen of the "Miles Standish Bicycle Company.""
Miss Thorn made a comic gesture of despair.
"Why he chose Mr. Allen"s name," she said, "is absolutely beyond my guessing. Unless there is some purpose behind the choice, which I do not for an instant believe, it was a foolish thing to do, and one very apt to lead to difficulties. I can understand the rest. He has a reputation for eccentricity which he feels he must keep up, and this notion of a.s.suming a name evidently appealed to him as an inspiration."
"But why did he come out here?" I asked. "Can you tell me that?"
Miss Thorn flushed slightly, and ignored the question.
"I met the "Celebrity," as you call him," she said, "for the first time last winter, and I saw him frequently during the season. Of course I had heard not a little about him and his peculiarities. His name seems to have gone the length and breadth of the land. And, like most girls, I had read his books and confess I enjoyed them. It is not too much to say," she added archly, "that I made a sort of archangel out of the author."
"I can understand that," said I.
"But that did not last," she continued hastily. "I see I have got beside my story. I saw a great deal of him in New York. He came to call, and I believe I danced with him once or twice. And then my aunt, Mrs. Rivers, bought a place near Epsom, in Ma.s.sachusetts, and had a house party there in May. And the Celebrity was invited."
I smiled.
"Oh, I a.s.sure you it was a mere chance," said Miss Thorn. "I mention this that I may tell you the astonishing part of it all. Epsom is one of those smoky manufacturing towns one sees in New England, and the "Miles Standish" bicycle is made there. The day after we all arrived at my aunt"s a man came up the drive on a wheel whom I greeted in a friendly way and got a decidedly uncertain bow in return.
"I thought it rather a strange shift from a marked cordiality, and spoke of the circ.u.mstance to my aunt, who was highly amused. "Why, my dear,"
said she, "that was Mr. Allen, of the bicycle company. I was nearly deceived myself.""
"And is the resemblance so close as that?" I exclaimed.
"So close! Believe me, they are as like as two ices from a mould. Of course, when they are together one can distinguish the Celebrity from the bicycle man. The Celebrity"s chin is a little more square, and his nose straighter, and there are other little differences. I believe Mr. Allen has a slight scar on his forehead. But the likeness was remarkable, nevertheless, and it grew to be a standing joke with us. They actually dressed ludicrously alike. The Celebrity became so sensitive about it that he went back to New York before the party broke up. We grew to be quite fond of the bicycle man."
She paused and shifted her chair, which had rocked close to mine.
"And can you account for his coming to Asquith?" I asked innocently.