"The accent was one of the few things I did _not_ wish to bring away with me," sniffed the lady. "Under the table, Tibe; we"re not going, after all, for the moment. And as you _have_ the duck, you may as well eat it."
"Good dog," groaned the stricken young man. If he had not, to the best of my belief, been engaged in concocting a treacherous plot against one whom I intended to protect, I could have pitied him.
Both sat down again. There was a pause while plates were changed, and then the female plotter took up the running.
"I may be conceited," said she, "but my opinion is that you"re very lucky to get me. I may not be Scotch, and I may not be a "swell," but I am--a lady."
"Oh--of course."
"What were the others like who answered your advertis.e.m.e.nt?"
"All Dutch, and spoke broken English, except one, who was German. She wore a reform dress, hunched up behind with unspeakable elastic things.
You"d make allowances if you knew what I"ve gone through since the day before yesterday, when I found, after telegraphing a frantic appeal to my aunt in Scotland, that she"s left home and they could give me no address. I"ve had an awful time. My nerves are shattered."
"Then you"d better secure peace by securing me. An aunt in the hand is worth two in the bush."
"A good aunt needs no bush. I mean--oh, I don"t know what I mean; but, of course, I ask nothing better than to secure you."
"No; you mean you think you"ll _get_ nothing better. Ha, ha! I agree with you. But Tibe and I didn"t come here to be played with. You"re giving us a very good lunch, but I have his future and mine to think of.
I admit, I"m in want of an engagement as a traveling companion to ladies in Holland; but you aren"t the only person to whom it occurs to put ads in Dutch papers. If you"d searched the columns of _Het Nieus van den Dag_ you might have seen mine. I have not been without answers, and I don"t know that I should care to be an aunt, anyway. It makes one seem so _old_. What I came to say was that, unless you can offer me an immediate engagement----"
"Oh, I can and do. I beg of you to be my aunt from this moment."
"Tibe to travel with me and have every comfort?"
"Yes, yes, and luxury."
"A pint of warm milk every morning, half a pound of best beef or chicken with vegetables at noon, two new-laid eggs at----"
"Certainly. He has but to choose--he seems to know his own mind pretty well."
"I don"t think it a subject for joking. That duck was close to the edge of the table. We"d better talk _business_. Your letter said a hundred gulden a week to a suitable aunt, and a two months" engagement certain.
Well, it"s not enough. I should want at least three hundred dollars extra, down in advance (I can"t do it in gulden in my head) for _your_ sake."
"For my sake?"
"Don"t you see, to do you credit as a relative, I must have things, nice things, plenty of nice things? Tartan blouses, and if not Tams, cairngorms. Yes, a cairngorm brooch would be realistic. I saw a beauty yesterday--only two hundred gulden. No aunt of yours can go for a trip on the waterways of Holland unless she"s well fitted out."
"I"ve been admiring the dress you are wearing. It"s wonderfully trim."
"Thanks. But it happens to be about a hundred years old, and is the only one I have left. As for my hat, and boots--but Tibe and I have suffered some undeserved vicissitudes of late."
"I"m sorry to hear that. Of course you must have three hundred dollars to begin with."
"By the way, am I Mrs. or Miss?"
"You must know best as to----"
"I mean me in the part of your aunt."
"Oh, you"re neither Miss nor Mrs."
"_Really!_"
"I mean, you"re married, but you have a t.i.tle."
"That will come more expensive. A person of t.i.tle should have a diamond guard for her wedding-ring. You _feel_ that, don"t you?"
"Now you speak of it, I do."
"Would you like her to wear a cap for indoors?"
"Sounds as if she were a parlormaid----"
"Not at all. I"m sure a proper Scotch aunt would wear a cap."
"Mine"s a proper Scotch aunt, and she doesn"t. She"s about forty, but she looks twenty-five. n.o.body would believe she was anybody"s aunt."
"But you want everybody to believe I"m yours?"
"Oh, have a cap by all means."
"It should be real lace."
"Buy it."
"And another to change with."
"Buy that too. Get a dozen if you like."
"Thanks, I will. I believe you just said the engagement dates from to-day?"
"Rather. I was going to tell you, I must have an aunt by this evening.
She arrives from Scotland, you know."
"With her dog. _That"s_ easy."
"I hope the girls like dogs."
"They do if they"re nice girls."
"They"re enchanting girls, one English, one American. I adore both: that"s why I"m a desperate man where an aunt"s concerned. To produce an aunt is my one hope of enjoying their society on the motor-boat trip I wrote you about. I wouldn"t do this thing if I weren"t desperate, and even desperate as I am, I wouldn"t do it if I couldn"t have got an all-right kind of aunt, an aunt that--that----"
"That an unimpeachable American Consul could vouch for. I a.s.sure you, Nephew, you ought to think of a woman like me as of--of a ram caught in the bushes."
"I"m willing to think of you in that way, if it"s not offensive. The Consul didn"t go into particulars----"
"That was unnecessary."