Phyllis knew nothing yet, except what she had gleaned from me last night, I was sure of that; but I was not so sure about Alb, who wore a clouded brow. Whether he was worrying over his own affairs, or whether friend Robert had commandered his hero"s sympathy, I could not guess, and dared not ask. Nor had I much time to speculate upon Alb"s business, for I saw by Freule Menela"s eye that my own was pressing, and all my energies were bent in steering clear of her during the good-by excursion through Utrecht.
Luckily, the party distributed itself in two carriages, and though I could not resist the fair Menela"s "Come with me, Mr. Starr,"
fortunately the L.C.P. jumped in with Tibe, whose mood was so obstreperous that clearly he did not find ca.n.a.l life relaxing. Then arose a discussion between Nell and Phyllis as to which should sit in the other carriage, and Nell came to us, wishing, perhaps, to avoid Alb, whose society seems of late to cast a blight of silence upon her.
"Now," said I to myself, "if the late fiancee can"t wind her tentacles round a new victim in this vehicle, neither can Robert escape her toils by proposing to Phyllis in that one, surrounded by his family circle. If he doesn"t seize his chance soon, he"ll miss it forever; because once his Freule discovers that she isn"t to be claimed by another, she"ll find it convenient to change her mind about life in Rotterdam. I may be saint--or villain--enough to keep her dangling till sunset; but then, at latest, I shall have to cut her down; and woe to any Viking who happens to lie about loose and unattached, when she falls to earth with a dull thud."
Far be it from the clever lady of The Hague to admit that there was a place on earth of which she did not know everything; and though I have reason to believe that she never saw Utrecht till yesterday, she was so busy telling us about it that we were behind the others in arriving on board "Mascotte," our appointed rendezvous.
I noticed instantly that Phyllis was not on deck, helping Alb to entertain the twins, as her kind soul would have prompted her to do. Of course, she might be below, in one of the cabins; but where was Robert?
It was a coincidence that he, too, should be missing. Yet no one attempted to offer an explanation. Lilli and Lisbeth merely looked flurried and pink when Freule Menela came airily on board with me, and Alb appeared interested in giving instructions to Hendrik, who disputed respectfully with Tibe possession of countless yards of his beloved cotton waste.
At last, however, I began to wonder why we did not get away. The day"s trip was to be a return to Amsterdam, not with the object of reviving impressions of that city, but for the pleasure of the run through the River Vecht, which Alb praised as the prettiest stream in the Netherlands, and named a miniature Thames.
It was ten o"clock, and, as usual, we were timed to start at ten; but I did not consider it my place to ask the reason why, or any other question about starting. Mine, but to do or die--and keep out of reach of Freule Menela.
It was through Nell that the mystery was solved, as we stood chatting on deck.
"Where"s Phil?" she inquired of the twins.
"Gone back to the hotel to find something she forgot to pack," said Lilli.
"And brother Robert has taken her," said Lisbeth, with a fleeting glance at the self-deposed fiancee.
This revelation of Phyllis"s diplomacy came upon me with a shock. She is such a simple-minded Angel; but I suppose all girls are alike in some ways. And she is so kind-hearted, she must have been anxious to put Robert out of his misery as soon as she could. Well, she couldn"t have done it much sooner.
"There they come," cried Lilli. And perhaps I should have been tempted to search their faces for news if Freule Menela had not turned her back upon the advancing figures, and begun to talk, with an air of proprietorship, to me.
"It"s found!" cried Phyllis, to all whom it might concern. "I was so--fond of it, I should have hated losing it. And it was _so_ kind of Mr. van Buren to help me."
I wondered whether there were others on board beside myself who detected in this announcement a double meaning? Something in her voice told me that she really was thankful not to have lost the thing of which she was so fond, the thing for which she had gone back to the hotel, the thing Mr. van Buren had kindly helped her to find. But there was no chance for a self-sacrificing brother to question his sister. Freule Menela saw to that.
It was my luck at its worst, to be torn in my mind on this exquisite day on the Vecht. Once in a while it dimly comes back to me that, in a past existence unbrightened by Nell Van Buren and Phyllis Rivers, I came to Holland with the object of painting pictures. Never, since my arrival in the bright little country of wide s.p.a.ces, have I had a keener incentive to improve the shining hours; but how can a man remember that he"s an artist when the girl he loves has engaged herself to another man, and one of the few girls he never could love is rapidly engaging herself to him?
It was in self-defense, not a real desire for work, that I fled to "Waterspin" and screened myself behind easel and canvas. And then it was but to find that I had jumped from the frying-pan into the fire.
My move was made while "Mascotte" and her fat companion lay at rest, that Alb might buy fruit for us from a fruit boat; and Freule Menela also availed herself of the quiet interval.
"May I come and watch you paint?" she asked, in a tone which showed that vanity made her sure of a welcome.
I longed for the brutal courage to say that I could never work with an audience; but I remembered letting slip last night the fact that I constantly sat sketching on the deck of "Mascotte," during the most crowded hours of life.
I murmured something, with a smile which needed oiling; and, accepting the grudging help of my hand, she floated across with an affected little scream.
"I saw a lovely picture you painted for Miss Rivers," she said, when she was settled in a camp-stool at my side. "Will you do one for me?"
"With pleasure," I answered. "This one shall be for you. But if you want it to be good, we mustn"t talk. I shall have to concentrate my mind on my work."
"Thanks for the compliment," she laughed. "I give you leave to forget me--for a little while."
So I did my best to take her at her word, and tried impressionist sketches of the charming and ever-changing scene, upon which her presence was the sole blot; the beautiful old houses set back from the river on flowery lawns, faded coats-of-arms glowing red and blue and gold over quaint doorways shaded by splendid trees; fairy villas rising from billows of pink peonies and green hydrangeas; humble cottages, with tiny window-panes of twinkling gla.s.s, shining out from bowers of late roses; dove-gray windmills beckoning across piles of golden hay; above, clouds like flocks of snowy sheep, racing along wide sky-pastures, blue with the blue of forget-me-nots; below, a crystal flood foaming white with water-lilies that dipped before the prow of our advancing boat.
Over this crust of pearl, poised always long-stemmed, yellow lilies, like hovering b.u.t.terflies; and, in a clear s.p.a.ce of water, each little wave caught the sun and sky reflection, so that it seemed rimmed with gold and set with a big, oval turquoise.
"Well--have I pleased you?" Freule Menela asked at last.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _"Well--have I pleased you?" Freule Menela asked at last_]
The moment had come for an understanding. With my two hands, unaided I had saved Phyllis, and now I must save--or lose--myself. Of course there was no choice which to do. I had played my fish and caught it, and as it was not the kind of fish I liked for dinner, I must tear it off the hook and throw it back into the sea, wriggling. I told myself that it was a bad, as well as an unattractive fish, that if I hadn"t hooked it, most surely it would have bolted the beautiful little golden minnow I had been protecting. Still--still, there it was, smiling on the hook, that bad fish, trusting the hand which had caught and would betray it. It deserved nothing of that hand or any other hand; but suddenly, I found mine powerless.
"Phyllis, Phyllis," I groaned in spirit, "you will be my death, for to save you I caught this fish; now I may have to eat it, and it will surely choke me."
Before my eyes stretched a horrible vista of years, lived through with Freule Menela--mean little, vain, disloyal Freule Menela--by my side, contentedly spending my money and bearing my name, while I faded like a lovely lily on the altar of self-sacrifice.
In another instant I should have said yes, she had pleased me; she would have answered; and just because she is a woman I should have had to say something which she might have taken as she chose; so that it would have been all over for Ronald Lester Starr; but at this moment the two boats began to slow down. I suppose that Toon, at the steering-wheel of "Waterspin," must have received a message, which I was too preoccupied to hear; and as speed slackened, came the voice which others know as that of my Aunt Fay.
Never had it been so welcome, sounded so sweet, as now, when it brought my reprieve.
"Ronald dear," cooed the mock-Scottish accents, "you"d better get ready at once to lunch on sh.o.r.e, for Jonkheer Brederode has another surprise for us--and I know that by this time your hands, if not your face, are covered with paint."
Wonderful woman! It was as if inspiration had sent her to my rescue. Not that I am at all sure she would have laid herself out to rescue me from any snare, had she known of its existence; for though, before the watery world I am "Ronny dear" to her, she is not as considerate with me in private as she used to be when we first started.
We have been frank with each other at times, the L.C.P. and I, and the pot has said in plain words what it thinks of the kettle"s true character. When the time comes for us to part it may be that her little ladyship will be still more frank, and let me know, in polite language, that seeing the last of her borrowed nephew is "good riddance of bad rubbish." Nevertheless, her extraordinary, though indescribable, cleverness has woven a kind of web about us all; and whether I am able to respect the L.C.P. or not, I was conscious of pa.s.sionate grat.i.tude to her as she arrested me with the bad fish half-way to my mouth.
The boats stopped at a private landing, small, but so remarkable that I thought for an instant the whole thing must be an optical illusion.
We had come to rest in the deep shadow of enormous trees. Leaning over the rail of a snug little harbor two dummy men in rakish hats and dark coats stared at the new arrivals with lack-l.u.s.ter eyes. And the dummies, and the wooden wall on which they were propped, with a strange painted motto consisting of snakes, and dogs, and sticks, and a yard measure, were all repeated with crystal-clear precision in the green mirror of quiet water.
"How annoying, just as we were going to have another delicious talk!"
exclaimed Menela.
"Yes," said I. "But it can"t be helped. Where are we? Is this fairyland?"
"It must be the place of Heer Dudok de Wit," answered the young lady, snappily. "He is a wonderful man, and many people say that no visit to Holland can be complete without a visit to his house. He"s a great character--has walked all over the world, and brought back curiosities for his museum, to which he gives free admission. And from what I hear, there is nothing else he won"t give, if asked for it--he"s so generous--from a night"s lodging or all his best peaches, up to a present of a thousand gulden to a distressed stranger. This can be no other house than his; and I believe Rudolph Brederode is a far-off cousin of Heer de Wit, just as Rudolph is of mine, on the other side. I don"t see our host, though. Perhaps he is away on one of his walking tours."
"Or in bed," said I. "Taking a noon-day nap, to forget the heat."
"No, for one of his peculiarities is, never to go to bed. He hasn"t been in bed for twenty-five years. I don"t know how he sleeps--but, look!
there he is now. I recognize him from photographs in newspapers."
My eyes followed her nod, which appeared to be aimed at the river. I looked for a boat, but spied a head floating among water-lilies.
It was not a loose head of some early Dutch martyr miraculously preserved--as seemed possible in a place of such surprises--for it smiled and bowed, and addressed Brederode as its dear Rudolph.
Its wet hair, glittering like silver in the water, was rather long, its eyes were like brown jewels, it had faultless features, not at all of a modern cast, but like those one sees in a seventeenth-century portrait; and its smile, even when visible only as far down as the lower lip, was charming.
The famous Mr. Dudok de Wit, bobbing nearer, explained that he had unduly prolonged his daily swimming bath, owing to the sultriness of the day. As it was, he had been in the water no more than an hour or two, but he was delighted to see us, would come out at once, and expect us to lunch with him at Breukelen, which is the name of his place.
He did come out, in a neat bathing-suit, desiring us to follow him into the house, where we might amuse ourselves until he was dressed, wandering among his treasures in the drawing-room.