diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:17:33 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:17:33 -0700 |
| commit | 18f5bd69eb9861bc76d353848801bd0a8aa76fda (patch) | |
| tree | 542feb5a1e586310acff942c8d2076415bbd7a3e | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1671-0.txt | 6651 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1671-0.zip | bin | 0 -> 125456 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1671-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 132885 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1671-h/1671-h.htm | 8097 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1671.txt | 6650 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 1671.zip | bin | 0 -> 124542 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/whamm10.txt | 6994 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | old/whamm10.zip | bin | 0 -> 123116 bytes |
11 files changed, 28408 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1671-0.txt b/1671-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f351edd --- /dev/null +++ b/1671-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6651 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: When a Man Marries + +Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart + +Posting Date: November 23, 2008 [EBook #1671] +Release Date: March, 1999 +Last Updated: October 11, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN MARRIES *** + + + + +Produced by Theresa Armao + + + + + +WHEN A MAN MARRIES + +By Mary Roberts Rinehart + + + + +Contents + + I At Least I Meant Well + II The Way It Began + III I Might Have Known It + IV The Door Was Closed + V From The Tree Of Love + VI A Mighty Poor Joke + VII We Make An Omelet + VIII Correspondents’ Department + IX Flannigan’s Find + X On The Stairs + XI I Make A Discovery + XII The Roof Garden + XIII He Does Not Deny It + XIV Almost, But Not Quite + XV Suspicion and Discord + XVI I Face Flannigan + XVII A Clash and A Kiss + XVIII It’s All My Fault + XIX The Harbison Man + XX Breaking Out In A New Place + XXI A Bar of Soap + XXII It Was A Delirium + XXIII Coming + + + + + Needles and pins + Needles and pins, + When a man marries + His trouble begins. + + + + +Chapter I. AT LEAST I MEANT WELL + +When the dreadful thing occurred that night, every one turned on me. +The injustice of it hurt me most. They said I got up the dinner, that +I asked them to give up other engagements and come, that I promised all +kinds of jollification, if they would come; and then when they did come +and got in the papers and every one--but ourselves--laughed himself +black in the face, they turned on ME! I, who suffered ten times to their +one! I shall never forget what Dallas Brown said to me, standing with a +coal shovel in one hand and a--well, perhaps it would be better to tell +it all in the order it happened. + +It began with Jimmy Wilson and a conspiracy, was helped on by a +foot-square piece of yellow paper and a Japanese butler, and it +enmeshed and mixed up generally ten respectable members of society and +a policeman. Incidentally, it involved a pearl collar and a box of soap, +which sounds incongruous, doesn’t it? + +It is a great misfortune to be stout, especially for a man. Jim was +rotund and looked shorter than he really was, and as all the lines of +his face, or what should have been lines, were really dimples, his face +was about as flexible and full of expression as a pillow in a tight +cover. The angrier he got the funnier he looked, and when he was raging, +and his neck swelled up over his collar and got red, he was entrancing. +And everybody liked him, and borrowed money from him, and laughed at his +pictures (he has one in the Hargrave gallery in London now, so people +buy them instead), and smoked his cigarettes, and tried to steal his +Jap. The whole story hinges on the Jap. + +The trouble was, I think, that no one took Jim seriously. His ambition +in life was to be taken seriously, but people steadily refused to. His +art was a huge joke--except to himself. If he asked people to dinner, +every one expected a frolic. When he married Bella Knowles, people +chuckled at the wedding, and considered it the wildest prank of Jimmy’s +career, although Jim himself seemed to take it awfully hard. + +We had all known them both for years. I went to Farmington with Bella, +and Anne Brown was her matron of honor when she married Jim. My first +winter out, Jimmy had paid me a lot of attention. He painted my portrait +in oils and had a studio tea to exhibit it. It was a very nice picture, +but it did not look like me, so I stayed away from the exhibition. Jim +asked me to. He said he was not a photographer, and that anyhow the rest +of my features called for the nose he had given me, and that all the +Greuze women have long necks. I have not. + +After I had refused Jim twice he met Bella at a camp in the Adirondacks +and when he came back he came at once to see me. He seemed to think I +would be sorry to lose him, and he blundered over the telling for twenty +minutes. Of course, no woman likes to lose a lover, no matter what she +may say about it, but Jim had been getting on my nerves for some time, +and I was much calmer than he expected me to be. + +“If you mean,” I said finally in desperation, “that you and Bella +are--are in love, why don’t you say so, Jim? I think you will find that +I stand it wonderfully.” + +He brightened perceptibly. + +“I didn’t know how you would take it, Kit,” he said, “and I hope we will +always be bully friends. You are absolutely sure you don’t care a whoop +for me?” + +“Absolutely,” I replied, and we shook hands on it. Then he began about +Bella; it was very tiresome. + +Bella is a nice girl, but I had roomed with her at school, and I was +under no illusions. When Jim raved about Bella and her banjo, and Bella +and her guitar, I had painful moments when I recalled Bella, learning +her two songs on each instrument, and the old English ballad she had +learned to play on the harp. When he said she was too good for him, I +never batted an eye. And I shook hands solemnly across the tea-table +again, and wished him happiness--which was sincere enough, but +hopeless--and said we had only been playing a game, but that it was time +to stop playing. Jim kissed my hand, and it was really very touching. + +We had been the best of friends ever since. Two days before the wedding +he came around from his tailor’s, and we burned all his letters to me. +He would read one and say: “Here’s a crackerjack, Kit,” and pass it +to me. And after I had read it we would lay it on the firelog, and Jim +would say, “I am not worthy of her, Kit. I wonder if I can make her +happy?” Or--“Did you know that the Duke of Belford proposed to her in +London last winter?” + +Of course, one has to take the woman’s word about a thing like that, but +the Duke of Belford had been mad about Maude Richard all that winter. + +You can see that the burning of the letters, which was meant to be +reminiscently sentimental, a sort of how-silly-we-were-but-it-is +all-over-now occasion, became actually a two hours’ eulogy of Bella. And +just when I was bored to death, the Mercer girls dropped in and heard +Jim begin to read one commencing “dearest Kit.” And the next day after +the rehearsal dinner, they told Bella! + +There was very nearly no wedding at all. Bella came to see me in a +frenzy the next morning and threw Jim and his two-hundred odd pounds in +my face, and although I explained it all over and over, she never quite +forgave me. That was what made it so hard later--the situation would +have been bad enough without that complication. + +They went abroad on their wedding journey, and stayed several months. +And when Jim came back he was fatter than ever. Everybody noticed it. +Bella had a gymnasium fitted up in a corner of the studio, but he would +not use it. He smoked a pipe and painted all day, and drank beer and +WOULD eat starches or whatever it is that is fattening. But he adored +Bella, and he was madly jealous of her. At dinners he used to glare at +the man who took her in, although it did not make him thin. Bella was +flirting, too, and by the time they had been married a year, people +hitched their chairs together and dropped their voices when they were +mentioned. + +Well, on the anniversary of the day Bella left him--oh yes, she left him +finally. She was intense enough about some things, and she said it got +on her nerves to have everybody chuckle when they asked for her husband. +They would say, “Hello, Bella! How’s Bubbles? Still banting?” And Bella +would try to laugh and say, “He swears his tailor says his waist is +smaller, but if it is he must be growing hollow in the back.” + +But she got tired of it at last. Well, on the second anniversary of +Bella’s departure, Jimmy was feeling pretty glum, and as I say, I am +very fond of Jim. The divorce had just gone through and Bella had taken +her maiden name again and had had an operation for appendicitis. We +heard afterward that they didn’t find an appendix, and that the one they +showed her in a glass jar WAS NOT HERS! But if Bella ever suspected, she +didn’t say. Whether the appendix was anonymous or not, she got box after +box of flowers that were, and of course every one knew that it was Jim +who sent them. + +To go back to the anniversary, I went to Rothberg’s to see the +collection of antique furniture--mother was looking for a sideboard +for father’s birthday in March--and I met Jimmy there, boring into a +worm-hole in a seventeenth-century bedpost with the end of a match, and +looking his nearest to sad. When he saw me he came over. + +“I’m blue today, Kit,” he said, after we had shaken hands. “Come and +help me dig bait, and then let’s go fishing. If there’s a worm in every +hole in that bedpost, we could go into the fish business. It’s a good +business.” + +“Better than painting?” I asked. But he ignored my gibe and swelled up +alarmingly in order to sigh. + +“This is the worst day of the year for me,” he affirmed, staring +straight ahead, “and the longest. Look at that crazy clock over there. +If you want to see your life passing away, if you want to see the steps +by which you are marching to eternity, watch that clock marking the +time. Look at that infernal hand staying quiet for sixty seconds and +then jumping forward to catch up with the procession. Ugh!” + +“See here, Jim,” I said, leaning forward, “you’re not well. You can’t go +through the rest of the day like this. I know what you’ll do; you’ll +go home to play Grieg on the pianola, and you won’t eat any dinner.” He +looked guilty. + +“Not Grieg,” he protested feebly. “Beethoven.” + +“You’re not going to do either,” I said with firmness. “You are going +right home to unpack those new draperies that Harry Bayles sent you from +Shanghai, and you are going to order dinner for eight--that will be two +tables of bridge. And you are not going to touch the pianola.” + +He did not seem enthusiastic, but he rose and picked up his hat, and +stood looking down at me where I sat on an old horse-hair covered sofa. + +“I wish to thunder I had married you!” he said savagely. “You’re the +finest girl I know, Kit, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, and you are going to throw +yourself away on Jack Manning, or Max, or some other--” + +“Nothing of the sort,” I said coldly, “and the fact that you didn’t +marry me does not give you the privilege of abusing my friends. Anyhow, +I don’t like you when you speak like that.” + +Jim took me to the door and stopped there to sigh. + +“I haven’t been well,” he said heavily. “Don’t eat, don’t sleep. +Wouldn’t you think I’d lose flesh? Kit”--he lowered his voice +solemnly--“I have gained two pounds!” + +I said he didn’t look it, which appeared to comfort him somewhat, and, +because we were old friends, I asked him where Bella was. He said he +thought she was in Europe, and that he had heard she was going to marry +Reggie Wolfe. Then he signed again, muttered something about ordering +the funeral baked meats to be prepared and left me. + +That was my entire share in the affair. I was the victim, both of +circumstances and of their plot, which was mad on the face of it. + +During the entire time they never once let me forget that I got up the +dinner, that I telephoned around for them. They asked me why I couldn’t +cook--when not one of them knew one side of a range from the other. And +for Anne Brown to talk the way she did--saying I had always been crazy +about Jim, and that she believed I had known all along that his aunt was +coming--for Anne to talk like that was sheer idiocy. Yes, there was an +aunt. The Japanese butler started the trouble, and Aunt Selina carried +it along. + + + +Chapter II. THE WAY IT BEGAN + +It makes me angry every time I think how I tried to make that dinner a +success. I canceled a theater engagement, and I took the Mercer girls in +the electric brougham father had given me for Christmas. Their chauffeur +had been gone for hours with their machine, and they had telephoned all +the police stations without success. They were afraid that there had +been an awful smash; they could easily have replaced Bartlett, as Lollie +said, but it takes so long to get new parts for those foreign cars. + +Jim had a house well up-town, and it stood just enough apart from +the other houses to be entirely maddening later. It was a three-story +affair, with a basement kitchen and servants’ dining room. Then, of +course, there were cellars, as we found out afterward. On the first +floor there was a large square hall, a formal reception room, behind it +a big living room that was also a library, then a den, and back of all +a Georgian dining room, with windows high above the ground. On the +top floor Jim had a studio, like every other one I ever saw--perhaps a +little mussier. Jim was really a grind at his painting, and there +were cigarette ashes and palette knives and buffalo rugs and shields +everywhere. It is strange, but when I think of that terrible house, I +always see the halls, enormous, covered with heavy rugs, and stairs that +would have taken six housemaids to keep in proper condition. I dream +about those stairs, stretching above me in a Jacob’s ladder of shining +wood and Persian carpets, going up, up, clear to the roof. + +The Dallas Browns walked; they lived in the next block. And they brought +with them a man named Harbison, that no one knew. Anne said he would +be great sport, because he was terribly serious, and had the most +exaggerated ideas of society, and loathed extravagance, and built +bridges or something. She had put away her cigarettes since he had been +with them--he and Dallas had been college friends--and the only chance +she had to smoke was when she was getting her hair done. And she had +singed off quite a lot--a burnt offering, she called it. + +“My dear,” she said over the telephone, when I invited her, “I want you +to know him. He’ll be crazy about you. That type of man, big and deadly +earnest, always falls in love with your type of girl, the appealing +sort, you know. And he has been too busy, up to now, to know what love +is. But mind, don’t hurt him; he’s a dear boy. I’m half in love with him +myself, and Dallas trots around at his heels like a poodle.” + +But all Anne’s geese are swans, so I thought little of the Harbison man +except to hope that he played respectable bridge, and wouldn’t mark the +cards with a steel spring under his finger nail, as one of her “finds” + had done. + +We all arrived about the same time, and Anne and I went upstairs +together to take off our wraps in what had been Bella’s dressing room. +It was Anne who noticed the violets. + +“Look at that!” she nudged me, when the maid was examining her wrap +before she laid it down. “What did I tell you, Kit? He’s still quite mad +about her.” + +Jim had painted Bella’s portrait while they were going up the Nile on +their wedding trip. It looked quite like her, if you stood well off in +the middle of the room and if the light came from the right. And just +beneath it, in a silver vase, was a bunch of violets. It was really +touching, and violets were fabulous. It made me want to cry, and +to shake Bella soundly, and to go down and pat Jim on his generous +shoulder, and tell him what a good fellow I thought him, and that +Bella wasn’t worth the dust under his feet. I don’t know much about +psychology, but it would be interesting to know just what effect those +violets and my sympathy for Jim had in influencing my decision a half +hour later. It is not surprising, under the circumstances, that for some +time after the odor of violets made me ill. + +We all met downstairs in the living room, quite informally, and Dallas +was banging away at the pianola, tramping the pedals with the delicacy +and feeling of a football center rush kicking a goal. Mr. Harbison was +standing near the fire, a little away from the others, and he was all +that Anne had said and more in appearance. He was tall--not too tall, +and very straight. And after one got past the oddity of his face being +bronze-colored above his white collar, and of his brown hair being +sun-bleached on top until it was almost yellow, one realized that he was +very handsome. He had what one might call a resolute nose and chin, and +a pleasant, rather humorous, mouth. And he had blue eyes that were, +at that moment, wandering with interest over the lot of us. Somebody +shouted his name to me above the Tristan and Isolde music, and I held +out my hand. + +Instantly I had the feeling one sometimes has, of having done just that +same thing, with the same surroundings, in the same place, years before, +I was looking up at him, and he was staring down at me and holding my +hand. And then the music stopped and he was saying: + +“Where was it?” + +“Where was what?” I asked. The feeling was stronger than ever with his +voice. + +“I beg your pardon,” he said, and let my hand drop. “Just for a second +I had an idea that we had met before somewhere, a long time ago. I +suppose--no, it couldn’t have happened, or I should remember.” He was +smiling, half at himself. + +“No,” I smiled back at him. “It didn’t happen, I’m afraid--unless we +dreamed it.” + +“We?” + +“I felt that way, too, for a moment.” + +“The Brushwood Boy!” he said with conviction. “Perhaps we will find a +common dream life, where we knew each other. You remember the Brushwood +Boy loved the girl for years before they really met.” But this was a +little too rapid, even for me. + +“Nothing so sentimental, I’m afraid,” I retorted. “I have had exactly +the same sensation sometimes when I have sneezed.” + +Betty Mercer captured him then and took him off to see Jim’s newest +picture. Anne pounced on me at once. + +“Isn’t he delicious?” she demanded. “Did you ever see such shoulders? +And such a nose? And he thinks we are parasites, cumberers of the earth, +Heaven knows what. He says every woman ought to know how to earn her +living, in case of necessity! I said I could make enough at bridge, and +he thought I was joking! He’s a dear!” Anne was enthusiastic. + +I looked after him. Oddly enough the feeling that we had met before +stuck to me. Which was ridiculous, of course, for we learned afterward +that the nearest we ever came to meeting was that our mothers had been +school friends! Just then I saw Jim beckoning to me crazily from the +den. He looked quite yellow, and he had been running his fingers through +his hair. + +“For Heaven’s sake, come in, Kit!” he said. “I need a cool head. Didn’t +I tell you this is my calamity day?” + +“Cook gone?” I asked with interest. I was starving. + +He closed the door and took up a tragic attitude in front of the fire. +“Did you ever hear of Aunt Selina?” he demanded. + +“I knew there WAS one,” I ventured, mindful of certain gossip as to +whence Jimmy derived the Wilson income. + +Jim himself was too worried to be cautious. He waved a brazen hand at +the snug room, at the Japanese prints on the walls, at the rugs, at the +teakwood cabinets and the screen inlaid with pearl and ivory. + +“All this,” he said comprehensively, “every bite I eat, clothes I wear, +drinks I drink--you needn’t look like that; I don’t drink so darned +much--everything comes from Aunt Selina--buttons,” he finished with a +groan. + +“Selina Buttons,” I said reflectively. “I don’t remember ever having +known any one named Buttons, although I had a cat once--” + +“Damn the cat!” he said rudely. “Her name isn’t Buttons. Her name is +Caruthers, my Aunt Selina Caruthers, and the money comes from buttons.” + +“Oh!” feebly. + +“It’s an old business,” he went on, with something of proprietary pride. +“My grandfather founded it in 1775. Made buttons for the Continental +Army.” + +“Oh, yes,” I said. “They melted the buttons to make bullets, didn’t +they? Or they melted bullets to make buttons? Which was it?” + +But again he interrupted. + +“It’s like this,” he went on hurriedly. “Aunt Selina believes in me. She +likes pictures, and she wanted me to paint, if I could. I’d have given +up long ago--oh, I know what you think of my work--but for Aunt Selina. +She has encouraged me, and she’s done more than that; she’s paid the +bills.” + +“Dear Aunt Selina,” I breathed. + +“When I got married,” Jim persisted, “Aunt Selina doubled my allowance. +I always expected to sell something, and begin to make money, and in +the meantime what she advanced I considered as a loan.” He was eyeing me +defiantly, but I was growing serious. It was evident from the preamble +that something was coming. + +“To understand, Kit,” he went on dubiously, “you would have to know her. +She won’t stand for divorce. She thinks it is a crime.” + +“What!” I sat up. I have always regarded divorce as essentially +disagreeable, like castor oil, but necessary. + +“Oh, you know well enough what I’m driving at,” he burst out savagely. +“She doesn’t know Bella has gone. She thinks I am living in a little +domestic heaven, and--she is coming tonight to hear me flap my wings.” + +“Tonight!” + +I don’t think Jimmy had known that Dallas Brown had come in and was +listening. I am sure I had not. Hearing his chuckle at the doorway +brought us up with a jerk. + +“Where has Aunt Selina been for the last two or three years?” he asked +easily. + +Jim turned, and his face brightened. + +“Europe. Look here, Dal, you’re a smart chap. She’ll only be here about +four hours. Can’t you think of some way to get me out of this? I want to +let her down easy, too. I’m mighty fond of Aunt Selina. Can’t we--can’t +I say Bella has a headache?” + +“Rotten!” laconically. + +“Gone out of town?” Jim was desperate. + +“And you with a houseful of dinner guests! Try again, Jim.” + +“I have it,” Jim said suddenly. “Dallas, ask Anne if she won’t play +hostess for tonight. Be Mrs. Wilson pro tem. Anne would love it. Aunt +Selina never saw Bella. Then, afterward, next year, when I’m hung in +the Academy and can stand on my feet”--(“Not if you’re hung,” Dallas +interjected.)--“I’ll break the truth to her.” + +But Dallas was not enthusiastic. + +“Anne wouldn’t do at all,” he declared. “She’d be talking about the +kids before she knew it, and patting me on the head.” He said it +complacently; Anne flirts, but they are really devoted. + +“One of the Mercer girls?” I suggested, but Jimmy raised a horrified +hand. + +“You don’t know Aunt Selina,” he protested. “I couldn’t offer Leila in +the gown she’s got on, unless she wore a shawl, and Betty is too fair.” + +Anne came in just then, and the whole story had to be told again to her. +She was ecstatic. She said it was good enough for a play, and that of +course she would be Mrs. Jimmy for that length of time. + +“You know,” she finished, “if it were not for Dal, I would be Mrs. Jimmy +for ANY length of time. I have been devoted to you for years, Billiken.” + +But Dallas refused peremptorily. + +“I’m not jealous,” he explained, straightening and throwing out his +chest, “but--well, you don’t look the part, Anne. You’re--you are +growing matronly, not but what you suit ME all right. And then I’d +forget and call you ‘mammy,’ which would require explanation. I think +it’s up to you, Kit.” + +“I shall do nothing of the sort!” I snapped. “It’s ridiculous!” + +“I dare you!” said Dallas. + +I refused. I stood like a rock while the storm surged around me and beat +over me. I must say for Jim that he was merely pathetic. He said that my +happiness was first; that he would not give me an uncomfortable minute +for anything on earth; and that Bella had been perfectly right to +leave him, because he was a sinking ship, and deserved to be turned out +penniless into the world. After which mixed figure, he poured himself +something to drink, and his hands were shaking. + +Dal and Anne stood on each side of him and patted him on the shoulders +and glared across at me. I felt that if I was a rock, Jim’s ship had +struck on me and was sinking, as he said, because of me. I began to +crumble. + +“What--what time does she leave?” I asked, wavering. + +“Ten: nine; KIT, are you going to do it?” + +“No!” I gave a last clutch at my resolution. “People who do that kind +of thing always get into trouble. She might miss her train. She’s almost +certain to miss her train.” + +“You’re temporizing,” Dallas said sternly. “We won’t let her miss her +train; you can be sure of that.” + +“Jim,” Anne broke in suddenly, “hasn’t she a picture of Bella? There’s +not the faintest resemblance between Bella and Kit.” + +Jim became downcast again. “I sent her a miniature of Bella a couple of +years ago,” he said despondently. “Did it myself.” + +But Dal said he remembered the miniature, and it looked more like me +than Bella, anyhow. So we were just where we started. And down inside of +me I had a premonition that I was going to do just what they wanted +me to do, and get into all sorts of trouble, and not be thanked for it +after all. Which was entirely correct. And then Leila Mercer came and +banged at the door and said that dinner had been announced ages ago and +that everybody was famishing. With the hurry and stress, and poor Jim’s +distracted face, I weakened. + +“I feel like a cross between an idiot and a criminal,” I said shortly, +“and I don’t know particularly why every one thinks I should be the +victim for the sacrifice. But if you will promise to get her off early +to her train, and if you will stand by me and not leave me alone with +her, I--I might try it.” + +“Of course, we’ll stand by you!” they said in chorus. “We won’t let you +stick!” And Dal said, “You’re the right sort of girl, Kit. And after +it’s all over, you’ll realize that it’s the biggest kind of lark. Think +how you are saving the old lady’s feeling! When you are an elderly +person yourself, Kit, you will appreciate what you are doing tonight.” + +Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine and the +only person there clever enough to act the part, and that they wouldn’t +let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what they promised. Oh, I +am not defending myself; I suppose I deserved everything that happened. +But they told me that she would be there only between trains, and that +she was deaf, and that I had an opportunity to save a fellow-being from +ruin. So in the end I capitulated. + +When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had arrived and +was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and somebody said a cab was +at the door. + +And that was the way it began. + + + +Chapter III. I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT + +The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were Jimmy’s +troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an unsuspecting elderly +woman? And it was only putting off discovery anyhow. Sooner or later, +she would learn of the divorce, and--Just at that instant my eyes fell +on Mr. Harbison--Tom Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on +with an amused, half-puzzled smile, while people were rushing around +hiding the roulette wheel and things of which Miss Caruthers might +disapprove, and Betty Mercer was on her knees winding up a toy bear that +Max had brought her. What would he think? It was evident that he thought +badly of us already--that he was contemptuously amused, and then to have +to ask him to lend himself to the deception! + +With a gasp I hurled myself after Jimmy, only to hear a strange voice in +the hall and to know that I was too late. I was in for it, whatever was +coming. It was Aunt Selina who was coming--along the hall, followed by +Jim, who was mopping his face and trying not to notice the paralyzed +silence in the library. + +Aunt Selina met me in the doorway. To my frantic eyes she seemed to +tower above us by at least a foot, and beside her Jimmy was a red, +perspiring cherub. + +“Here she is,” Jimmy said, from behind a temporary eclipse of black +cloak and traveling bag. He was on top of the situation now, and he was +mendaciously cheerful. He had NOT said, “Here is my wife.” That would +have been a lie. No, Jimmy merely said, “Here she is.” If Aunt Selina +chose to think me Bella, was it not her responsibility? And if I chose +to accept the situation, was it not mine? Dallas Brown came forward +gravely as Aunt Selina folded over and kissed me, and surreptitiously +patted me with one hand while he held out the other to Miss Caruthers. I +loathed him! + +“We always expect something unusual from James, Miss Caruthers,” he +said, with his best manner, “but THIS--this is beyond our wildest +dreams.” + +Well, it’s too awful to linger over. Anne took her upstairs and into +Bella’s bedroom. It was a fancy of Jim’s to leave that room just as +Bella had left it, dusty dance cards and favors hanging around and a +pair of discarded slippers under the bed. I don’t think it had been +swept since Bella left it. I believe in sentiment, but I like it brushed +and dusted and the cobwebs off of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her +bonnet, it stirred up a gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did +not say anything, but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her +run her finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid, +put her cloak on it. + +Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella’s bath and wet the end of a +towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina’s collar--her concession +to evening dress--Anne wiped off the obvious places on the furniture. +She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in the glass. + +“What’s that young woman’s name?” she asked me sharply, when Anne had +taken the towel out to hide it. + +“Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown,” I replied meekly. Every one replied +meekly to Aunt Selina. + +“Does she live here?” + +“Oh, no,” I said airily. “They are here to dinner, she and her husband. +They are old friends of Jim’s--and mine.” + +“Seems to have a good eye for dirt,” said Aunt Selina and went on +fastening her brooch. When she was finally ready, she took a bead purse +from somewhere about her waist and took out a half dollar. She held it +up before Hannah’s eyes. + +“Tomorrow morning,” she said sternly, “You take off that white cap +and that fol-de-rol apron and that black henrietta cloth, and put on +a calico wrapper. And when you’ve got this room aired and swept, Mrs. +Wilson will give you this.” + +Hannah took two steps back and caught hold of a chair; she stared +helplessly from Aunt Selina to the half dollar, and then at me. Anne was +trying not to catch my eye. + +“And another thing,” Aunt Selina said, from the head of the stairs, “I +sent those towels over from Ireland. Tell her to wash and bleach the one +Mrs. What’s-her-name Brown used as a duster.” + +Anne was quite crushed as we went down the stairs. I turned once, +half-way down, and her face was a curious mixture of guilt and hopeless +wrath. Over her shoulder, I could see Hannah, wide-eyed and puzzled, +staring after us. + +Jim presented everybody, and then he went into the den and closed the +door and we heard him unlock the cellarette. Aunt Selina looked at +Leila’s bare shoulders and said she guessed she didn’t take cold +easily, and conversation rather languished. Max Reed was looking like a +thundercloud, and he came over to me with a lowering expression that I +had learned to dread in him. + +“What fool nonsense is this?” he demanded. “What in the world possessed +you, Kit, to put yourself in such an equivocal position? Unless”--he +stopped and turned a little white--“unless you are going to marry Jim.” + +I am sorry for Max. He is such a nice boy, and good looking, too, if +only he were not so fierce, and did not want to make love to me. No +matter what I do, Max always disapproves of it. I have always had a +deeply rooted conviction that if I should ever in a weak moment marry +Max, he would disapprove of that, too, before I had done it very long. + +“Are you?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes--a sign of unusually bad +humor. + +“Am I what?” + +“Going to marry him?” + +“If you mean Jim,” I said with dignity, “I haven’t made up my mind yet. +Besides, he hasn’t asked me.” + +Aunt Selina had been talking Woman’s Suffrage in front of the fireplace, +but now she turned to me. + +“Is this the vase Cousin Jane Whitcomb sent you as a wedding present?” + she demanded, indicating a hideous urn-shaped affair on the mantel. It +came to me as an inspiration that Jim had once said it was an ancestral +urn, so I said without hesitation that it was. And because there was a +pause and every one was looking at us, I added that it was a beautiful +thing. + +Aunt Selina sniffed. + +“Hideous!” she said. “It looks like Cousin Jane, shape and coloring.” + +Then she looked at it more closely, pounced on it, turned it upside down +and shook it. A card fell out, which Dallas picked up and gave her with +a bow. Jim had come out of the den and was dancing wildly around and +beckoning to me. By the time I had made out that that was NOT the vase +Cousin Jane had sent us as a wedding present, Aunt Selina had examined +the card. Then she glared across at me and, stooping, put the card in +the fire. I did not understand at all, but I knew I had in some way done +the unforgivable thing. Later, Dal told me it was HER card, and that +she had sent the vase to Jim at Christmas, with a generous check inside. +When she straightened from the fireplace, it was to a new theme, which +she attacked with her usual vigor. The vase incident was over, but she +never forgot it. She proved that she never did when she sent me two +urn-shaped vases with Paul and Virginia on them, when I--that is, later +on. + +“The Cause in England has made great strides,” she announced from the +fireplace. “Soon the hand that rocks the cradle will be the hand that +actually rules the world.” Here she looked at me. + +“I’m not up on such things,” Max said blandly, having recovered some of +his good humor, “but--isn’t it usually a foot that rocks the cradle?” + +Aunt Selina turned on him and Mr. Harbison, who were standing together, +with a snort. + +“What have you, or YOU, ever done for the independence of woman?” she +demanded. + +Mr. Harbison smiled. He had been looking rather grave until then. “We +have at least remained unmarried,” he retorted. And then dinner was +again announced. + +He was to take me out, and he came across the room to where I sat +collapsed in a chair, and bent over me. + +“Do you know,” he said, looking down at me with his clear, disconcerting +gaze, “do you know that I have just grasped the situation? There was +such a noise that I did not hear your name, and I am only realizing now +that you are my hostess! I don’t know why I got the impression that this +was a bachelor establishment, but I did. Odd, wasn’t it?” + +I positively couldn’t look away from him. My features seemed frozen, and +my eyes were glued to his. As for telling him the truth--well, my +tongue refused to move. I intended to tell him during dinner if I had +an opportunity; I honestly did. But the more I looked at him and saw +how candid his eyes were, and how stern his mouth might be, the more I +shivered at the plunge. And, of course, as everybody knows now, I didn’t +tell him at all. And every moment I expected that awful old woman to +ask me what I paid my cook, and when I had changed the color of my +hair--Bella’s being black. + +Dinner was a half hour late when we finally went out, Jimmy leading off +with Aunt Selina, and I, as hostess, trailing behind the procession with +Mr. Harbison. Dallas took in the two Mercer girls, for we were one man +short, and Max took Anne. Leila Mercer was so excited that she wriggled, +and as for me, the candles and the orchids--everything--danced around +in a circle, and I just seemed to catch the back of my chair as it flew +past. Jim had ordered away the wines and brought out some weak and cheap +Chianti. Dallas looked gloomy at the change, but Jim explained in +an undertone that Aunt Selina didn’t approve of expensive vintages. +Naturally, the meal was glum enough. + +Aunt Selina had had her dinner on the train, so she spent her time in +asking me questions the length of the table, and in getting acquainted +with me. She had brought a bottle of some sort of medicine downstairs +with her, and she took a claret-glassful, while she talked. The stuff +was called Pomona; shall I ever forget it? + +It was Mr. Harbison who first noticed Takahiro. Jimmy’s Jap had been the +only thing in the menage that Bella declared she had hated to leave. +But he was doing the strangest things: his little black eyes shifted +nervously, and he looked queer. + +“What’s wrong with him?” Mr. Harbison asked me finally, when he saw that +I noticed. “Is he ill?” + +Then Aunt Selina’s voice from the other end of the table: + +“Bella,” she called, in a high shrill tone, “do you let James eat +cucumbers?” + +“I think he must be,” I said hurriedly aside to Mr. Harbison. “See how +his hands shake!” But Selina would not be ignored. + +“Cucumbers and strawberries,” she repeated impressively. “I was +saying, Bella, that cucumbers have always given James the most fearful +indigestion. And yet I see you serve them at your table. Do you remember +what I wrote you to give him when he has his dreadful spells?” + +I was quite speechless; every one was looking, and no one could help. It +was clear Jim was racking his brain, and we sat staring desperately at +each other across the candles. Everything I had ever known faded from +me, eight pairs of eyes bored into me, Mr. Harbison’s politely amused. + +“I don’t remember,” I said at last. “Really, I don’t believe--” Aunt +Selina smiled in a superior way. + +“Now, don’t you recall it?” she insisted. “I said: ‘Baking soda in water +taken internally for cucumbers; baking soda and water externally, rubbed +on, when he gets that dreadful, itching strawberry rash.’” + +I believe the dinner went on. Somebody asked Aunt Selina how much +over-charge she had paid in foreign hotels, and after that she was as +harmless as a dove. + +Then half way through the dinner we heard a crash in Takahiro’s +pantry, and when he did not appear again, Jim got up and went out to +investigate. He was gone quite a little while, and when he came back he +looked worried. + +“Sick,” he replied to our inquiring glances. “One of the maids will come +in. They have sent for a doctor.” + +Aunt Selina was for going out at once and “fixing him up,” as she put +it, but Dallas gently interfered. + +“I wouldn’t, Miss Caruthers,” he said, in the deferential manner he had +adopted toward her. “You don’t know what it may be. He’s been looking +spotty all evening.” + +“It might be scarlet fever,” Max broke in cheerfully. “I say, scarlet +fever on a Mongolian--what color would he be, Jimmy? What do yellow and +red make? Green?” + +“Orange,” Jim said shortly. “I wish you people would remember that we +are trying to eat.” + +The fact was, however, that no one was really eating, except Mr. +Harbison who had given up trying to understand us, considering, no +doubt, our subdued excitement as our normal condition. Ages afterward +I learned that he thought my face almost tragic that night, and that he +supposed from the way I glared across the table, that I had quarreled +with my husband! + +“I am afraid you are not well,” he said at last, noticing my food +untouched on my plate. “We should not have come, any of us.” + +“I am perfectly well,” I replied feverishly. “I am never ill. I--I ate a +late luncheon.” + +He glanced at me keenly. “Don’t let them stay and play bridge tonight,” + he urged. “Miss Caruthers can be an excuse, can she not? And you are +really fagged. You look it.” + +“I think it is only ill humor,” I said, looking directly at him. “I am +angry at myself. I have done something silly, and I hate to be silly.” + +Max would have said “Impossible,” or something else trite. The Harbison +man looked at me with interested, serious eyes. + +“Is it too late to undo it?” he asked. + +And then and there I determined that he should never know the truth. He +could go back to South America and build bridges and make love to the +Spanish girls (or are they Spanish down there?) and think of me always +as a married woman, married to a dilettante artist, inclined to be +stout--the artist, not I--and with an Aunt Selina Caruthers who made +buttons and believed in the Cause. But never, NEVER should he think of +me as a silly little fool who pretended that she was the other man’s +wife and had a lump in her throat because when a really nice man came +along, a man who knew something more than polo and motors, she had to +carry on the deception to keep his respect, and be sedate and +matronly, and see him change from perfect open admiration at first to a +hands-off-she-is-my-host’s-wife attitude at last. + +“It can never be undone,” I said soberly. + +Well, that’s the picture as nearly as I can draw it: a round table +with a low centerpiece of orchids in lavenders and pink, old silver +candlesticks with filigree shades against the somber wainscoting; nine +people, two of them unhappy--Jim and I; one of them complacent--Aunt +Selina; one puzzled--Mr. Harbison; and the rest hysterically mirthful. +Add one sick Japanese butler and grind in the mills of the gods. + +Every one promptly forgot Takahiro in the excitement of the game we were +all playing. Finally, however, Aunt Selina, who seemed to have Takahiro +on her mind, looked up from her plate. + +“That Jap was speckled,” she asserted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s +measles. Has he been sniffling, James?” + +“Has he been sniffling?” Jim threw across at me. + +“I hadn’t noticed it,” I said meekly, while the others choked. + +Max came to the rescue. “She refused to eat it,” he explained, +distinctly and to everybody, apropos absolutely of nothing. “It said on +the box, ‘ready cooked and predigested.’ She declared she didn’t care who +cooked it, but she wanted to know who predigested it.” + +As every one wanted to laugh, every one did it then, and under cover +of the noise I caught Anne’s eye, and we left the dining room. The men +stayed, and by the very firmness with which the door closed behind us, I +knew that Dallas and Max were bringing out the bottles that Takahiro had +hidden. I was seething. When Aunt Selina indicated a desire to go over +the house (it was natural that she should want to; it was her house, in +a way) I excused myself for a minute and flew back to the dining room. + +It was as I had expected. Jim hadn’t cheered perceptibly, and the +rest were patting him on the back, and pouring things out for him, and +saying, “Poor old Jim” in the most maddening way. And the Harbison man +was looking more and more puzzled, and not at all hilarious. + +I descended on them like a thunderbolt. + +“That’s it,” I cried shrewishly, with my back against the door. “Leave +her to me, all of you, and pat each other on the back, and say it’s gone +splendidly! Oh, I know you, every one!” Mr. Harbison got up and pulled +out a chair, but I couldn’t sit; I folded my arms on the back. “After a +while, I suppose, you’ll slip upstairs, the four of you, and have your +game.” They looked guilty. “But I will block that right now. I am going +to stay--here. If Aunt Selina wants me, she can find me--here!” + +The first indication those men had that Mr. Harbison didn’t know the +state of affairs was when he turned and faced them. + +“Mrs. Wilson is quite right,” he said gravely. “We’re a selfish lot. If +Miss Caruthers is a responsibility, let us share her.” + +“To arms!” Jim said, with an affectation of lightness, as they put their +glasses down, and threw open the door. Dal’s retort, “Whose?” was +lost in the confusion, and we went into the library. On the way Dallas +managed to speak to me. + +“If Harbison doesn’t know, don’t tell him,” he said in an undertone. +“He’s a queer duck, in some ways; he mightn’t think it funny.” + +“Funny,” I choked. “It’s the least funny thing I ever experienced. +Deceiving that Harbison man isn’t so bad--he thinks me crazy, anyhow. +He’s been staring his eyes out at me--” + +“I don’t wonder. You’re really lovely tonight, Kit, and you look like a +vixen.” + +“But to deceive that harmless old lady--well, thank goodness, it’s nine, +and she leaves in an hour or so.” + +But she didn’t and that’s the story. + + + +Chapter IV. THE DOOR WAS CLOSED + +It was infuriating to see how much enjoyment every one but Jim and +myself got out of the situation. They howled with mirth over the +feeblest jokes, and when Max told a story without any point whatever, +they all had hysteria. Immediately after dinner Aunt Selina had begun +on the family connection again, and after two bad breaks on my part, Jim +offered to show her the house. The Mercer girls trailed along, unwilling +to lose any of the possibilities. They said afterward that it was +terrible: she went into all the closets, and ran her hand over the tops +of doors and kept getting grimmer and grimmer. In the studio they came +across a life study Jim was doing and she shut her eyes and made the +girls go out while he covered it with a drapery. Lollie! Who did the +Bacchante dance at three benefits last winter and was learning a new one +called “Eve”! + +When they heard Aunt Selina on the second floor, Anne, Dal and Max +sneaked up to the studio for cigarettes, which left Mr. Harbison to me. +I was in the den, sitting in a low chair by the wood fire when he came +in. He hesitated in the doorway. + +“Would you prefer being alone, or may I come in?” he asked. “Don’t mind +being frank. I know you are tired.” + +“I have a headache, and I am sulking,” I said unpleasantly, “but at +least I am not actively venomous. Come in.” + +So he came in and sat down across the hearth from me, and neither of us +said anything. The firelight flickered over the room, bringing out the +faded hues of the old Japanese prints on the walls, gleaming in the +mother-of-pearl eyes of the dragon on the screen, setting a grotesque +god on a cabinet to nodding. And it threw into relief the strong profile +of the man across from me, as he stared at the fire. + +“I am afraid I am not very interesting,” I said at last, when he +showed no sign of breaking the silence. “The--the illness of the butler +and--Miss Caruthers’ arrival, have been upsetting.” + +He suddenly roused with a start from a brown reverie. + +“I beg your pardon,” he said, “I--oh, of course not! I was wondering +if I--if you were offended at what I said earlier in the evening; +the--Brushwood Boy, you know, and all that.” + +“Offended?” I repeated, puzzled. + +“You see, I have been living out of the world so long, and never seeing +any women but Indian squaws”--so there were no Spanish girls!--“that I’m +afraid I say what comes into my mind without circumlocution. And then--I +did not know you were married.” + +“No, oh, no,” I said hastily. “But, of course, the more a woman is +married--I mean, you can not say too many nice things to married women. +They--need them, you know.” + +I had floundered miserably, with his eyes on me, and I half expected him +to be shocked, or to say that married women should be satisfied with the +nice things their husbands say to them. But he merely remarked apropos +of nothing, or following a line of thought he had not voiced, that it +was trite but true that a good many men owed their success in life to +their wives. + +“And a good many owe their wives to their success in life,” I retorted +cynically. At which he stared at me again. + +It was then that the real complexity of the situation began to develop. +Some one had rung the bell and been admitted to the library and a maid +came to the door of the den. When she saw us she stopped uncertainly. +Even then it struck me that she looked odd, and she was not in uniform. +However, I was not informed at that time about bachelor establishments, +and the first thing she said, when she had asked to speak to me in the +hall, knocked her and her clothes clear out of my head. Evidently she +knew me. + +“Miss McNair,” she said in a low tone. “There is a lady in the drawing +room, a veiled person, and she is asking for Mr. Wilson.” + +“Can you not find him?” I asked. “He is in the house, probably in the +studio.” + +The girl hesitated. + +“Excuse me, miss, but Miss Caruthers--” + +Then I saw the situation. + +“Never mind,” I said. “Close the door into the drawing room, and I will +tell Mr. Wilson.” + +But as the girl turned toward the doorway, the person in question +appeared in it, and raised her veil. I was perfectly paralyzed. It was +Bella! Bella in a fur coat and a veil, with the most tragic eyes I ever +saw and entirely white except for a dab of rouge in the middle of each +cheek. We stared at each other without speech. The maid turned and went +down the hall, and with that Bella came over to me and clutched me by +the arm. + +“Who was being carried out into that ambulance?” she demanded, glaring +at me with the most awful intensity. + +“I’m sure I don’t know, Bella,” I said, wriggling away from her fingers. +“What in the world are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe.” + +“You are hiding something from me!” she accused. “It is Jim! I see it in +your face.” + +“Well, it isn’t,” I snapped. “It seems to me, really, Bella, that you +and Jim ought to be able to manage your own affairs, without dragging me +in.” It was not pleasant, but if she was suffering, so was I. “Jim is as +well as he ever was. He’s upstairs somewhere. I’ll send for him.” + +She gripped me again, and held on while her color came back. + +“You’ll do nothing of the kind,” she said, and she had quite got hold of +herself again. “I do not want to see him: I hope you don’t think, Kit, +that I came here to see James Wilson. Why, I have forgotten that there +IS such a person, and you know it.” + +Somebody upstairs laughed, and I was growing nervous. What if Aunt +Selina should come down, or Mr. Harbison come out of the den? + +“Why DID you come, then, Bella?” I inquired. “He may come in.” + +“I was passing in the motor,” she said, and I honestly think she hoped I +would believe her, “and I saw that am--” She stopped and began again. +“I thought Jim was out of town, and I came to see Takahiro,” she said +brazenly. “He was devoted to me, and Evans is going to leave. I’ll tell +you what to do, Kit. I’ll go back to the dining room, and you send Taka +there. If any one comes, I can slip into the pantry.” + +“It’s immoral,” I protested. “It’s immoral to steal your--” + +“My own butler!” she broke in impatiently. “You’re not usually so +scrupulous, Kit. Hurry! I hear that hateful Anne Brown.” + +So we slid back along the hall, and I rang for Takahiro. But no one +came. + +“I think I ought to tell you, Bella,” I said as we waited, and Bella was +staring around the room--“I think you ought to know that Miss Caruthers +is here.” + +Bella shrugged her shoulders. + +“Well, thank goodness,” she said, “I don’t have to see her. The only +pleasant thing I remember about my year of married life is that I did +NOT meet Aunt Selina.” + +I rang again, but still there was no answer. And then it occurred to +me that the stillness below stairs was almost oppressive. Bella was +noticing things, too, for she began to fasten her veil again with a +malicious little smile. + +“One of the things I remember my late husband saying,” she observed, +“was that HE could manage this house, and had done it for years, with +flawless service. Stand on the bell, Kit.” + +I did. We stood there, with the table, just as it had been left, between +us, and waited for a response. Bella was growing impatient. She raised +her eyebrows (she is very handsome, Bella is) and flung out her chin as +if she had begun to enjoy the horrible situation. + +I thought I heard a rattle of silver from the pantry just then, and I +hurried to the door in a rage. But the pantry was empty of servants and +full of dishes, and all the lights were out but one, which was burning +dimly. I could have sworn that I saw one of the servants duck into the +stairway to the basement, but when I got there the stairs were empty, +and something was burning in the kitchen below. + +Bella had followed me and was peering over my shoulder curiously. + +“There isn’t a servant in the house,” she said triumphantly. And when we +went down to the kitchen, she seemed to be right. It was in disgraceful +order, and one of the bottles of wine that had ben banished from the +dining room sat half empty on the floor. + +“Drunk!” Bella said with conviction. But I didn’t think so. There had +not been time enough, for one thing. Suddenly I remembered the ambulance +that had been the cause of Bella’s appearance--for no one could believe +her silly story about Takahiro. I didn’t wait to voice my suspicion to +her; I simply left her there, staring helplessly at the confusion, and +ran upstairs again: through the dining room, past Jimmy and Aunt Selina, +past Leila Mercer and Max, who were flirting on the stairs, up, up to +the servants’ bedrooms, and there my suspicions were verified. There was +every evidence of a hasty flight; in three bedrooms five trunks stood +locked and ominous, and the closets yawned with open doors, empty. Bella +had been right; there was not a servant in the house. + +As I emerged from the untidy emptiness of the servants’ wing, I met Mr. +Harbison coming out of the studio. + +“I wish you would let me do some of this running about for you, Mrs. +Wilson,” he said gravely. “You are not well, and I can’t think of +anything worse for a headache. Has the butler’s illness clogged the +household machinery?” + +“Worse,” I replied, trying not to breathe in gasps. “I wouldn’t be +running around--like this--but there is not a servant in the house! They +have gone, the entire lot.” + +“That’s odd,” he said slowly. “Gone! Are you sure?” + +In reply I pointed to the servants’ wing. “Trunks packed,” I said +tragically, “rooms empty, kitchen and pantries, full of dishes. Did you +ever hear of anything like it?” + +“Never,” he asserted. “It makes me suspect--” What he suspected he did +not say; instead he turned on his heel, without a word of explanation, +and ran down the stairs. I stood staring after him, wondering if every +one in the place had gone crazy. Then I heard Betty Mercer scream and +the rest talking loud and laughing, and Mr. Harbison came up the stairs +again two at a time. + +“How long has that Jap been ailing, Mrs. Wilson?” he asked. + +“I--I don’t know,” I replied helplessly. “What is the trouble, anyhow?” + +“I think he probably has something contagious,” he said, “and it +has scared the servants away. As Mr. Brown said, he looked spotty. I +suggested to your husband that it might be as well to get the house +emptied--in case we are correct.” + +“Oh, yes, by all means,” I said eagerly. I couldn’t get away too soon. +“I’ll go and get my--” Then I stopped. Why, the man wouldn’t expect me +to leave; I would have to play out the wretched farce to the end! + +“I’ll go down and see them off,” I finished lamely, and we went together +down the stairs. + +Just for the moment I forgot Bella altogether. I found Aunt Selina +bonneted and cloaked, taking a stirrup cup of Pomona for her nerves, +and the rest throwing on their wraps in a hurry. Downstairs Max was +telephoning for his car, which wasn’t due for an hour, and Jim was +walking up and down, swearing under his breath. With the prospect of +getting rid of them all, and, of going home comfortably to try to forget +the whole wretched affair, I cheered up quite a lot. I even played up my +part of hostess, and Dallas told me, aside, that I was a brick. + +Just then Jim threw open the front door. + +There was a man on the top step, with his mouth full of tacks, and he +was nailing something to the door, just below Jim’s Florentine bronze +knocker, and standing back with his head on one side to see if it was +straight. + +“What are you doing?” Jim demanded fiercely, but the man only drove +another tack. It was Mr. Harbison who stepped outside and read the card. + +It said “Smallpox.” + +“Smallpox,” Mr. Harbison read, as if he couldn’t believe it. Then he +turned to us, huddled in the hall. + +“It seems it wasn’t measles, after all,” he said cheerfully. “I move we +get into Mr. Reed’s automobile out there, and have a vaccination party. +I suppose even you blase society folk have not exhausted that kind of +diversion.” + +But the man on the step spat his tacks in his hand and spoke for the +first time. + +“No, you don’t,” he said. “Not on your life. Just step back, please, and +close the door. This house is quarantined.” + + + +Chapter V. FROM THE TREE OF LOVE + +There is hardly any use trying to describe what followed. Anne Brown +began to cry, and talk about the children. (She went to Europe once and +stayed until they all got over the whooping cough.) And Dallas said he +had a pull, because his mill controlled I forget how many votes, and the +thing to do was to be quiet and comfortable and we would get out in +the morning. Max took it as a huge joke, and somebody found him at +the telephone, calling up his club. The Mercer girls were hysterically +giggling, and Aunt Selina sat on a stiff-backed chair and took aromatic +spirits of ammonia. As for Jim, he had collapsed on the lowest step of +the stairs, and sat there with his head in his hands. When he did look +up, he didn’t dare to look at me. + +The Harbison man was arguing with the impassive individual on the top +step outside, and I saw him get out his pocketbook and offer a crisp +bundle of bills. But the man from the board of health only smiled and +tacked at his offensive sign. After a while Mr. Harbison came in and +closed the door, and we stared at one another. + +“I know what I’m going to do,” I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. +“I’m going to get out through a basement window at the back. I’m going +home.” + +“Home!” Aunt Selina gasped, jumping up and almost dropping her ammonia +bottle. “My dear Bella! Home?” + +Jimmy groaned at the foot of the stairs, but Anne Brown was getting over +her tears and now she turned on me in a temper. + +“It’s all your fault,” she said. “I was going to stay at home and get a +little sleep--” + +“Well, you can sleep now,” Dallas broke in. “There’ll be nothing to do +but sleep.” + +“I think you haven’t grasped the situation, Dal,” I said icily. “There +will be plenty to do. There isn’t a servant in the house!” + +“No servants!” everybody cried at once. The Mercer girls stopped +giggling. + +“Holy cats!” Max stopped in the act of hanging up his overcoat. “Do you +mean--why, I can’t shave myself! I’ll cut my head off.” + +“You’ll do more than that,” I retorted grimly. “You will carry coal and +tend fires and empty ash pans, and when you are not doing any of those +things there will be pots and pans to wash and beds to make.” + +Then there WAS a row. We had worked back to the den now, and I stood in +front of the fireplace and let the storm beat around me, and tried +to look perfectly cold and indifferent, and not to see Mr. Harbison’s +shocked face. No wonder he thought them a lot of savages, browbeating +their hostess the way they did. + +“It’s a fool thing anyhow,” Max Reed wound up, “to celebrate the +anniversary of a divorce--especially--” Here he caught Jim’s eye and +stopped. But I had suddenly remembered. BELLA DOWN IN THE BASEMENT! + +Could anything have been worse? And of course she would have hysteria +and then turn on me and blame me for it all. It all came over me at once +and overwhelmed me, while Anne was crying and saying she wouldn’t cook +if she starved for it, and Aunt Selina was taking off her wraps. I felt +queer all over, and I sat down suddenly. Mr. Harbison was looking at me, +and he brought me a glass of wine. + +“It won’t be so bad as you fear,” he said comfortingly. “There will be +no danger once we are vaccinated, and many hands make light work. They +are pretty raw now, because the thing is new to them, but by morning +they will be reconciled.” + +“It isn’t the work; it is something entirely different,” I said. And it +was. Bella and work could hardly be spoken in the same breath. + +If I had only turned her out as she deserved to be, when she first came, +instead of allowing her to carry through the wretched farce about seeing +Takahiro! Or if I had only run to the basement the moment the house was +quarantined, and got her out the areaway or the coal hole! And now time +was flying, and Aunt Selina had me by the arm, and any moment I expected +Bella to pounce on us through the doorway and the whole situation to +explode with a bang. + +It was after eleven before they were rational enough to discuss ways and +means, and, of course, the first thing suggested was that we all adjourn +below stairs and clean up after dinner. I could have slain Max Reed for +the notion, and the Mercer girls for taking him up. + +“Of course we will,” they said in a duet. “What a lark!” And they +actually began to pin up their dinner gowns. It was Jim who stopped +that. + +“Oh, look here, you people,” he objected, “I’m not going to let you do +that. We’ll get some servants in tomorrow. I’ll go down and put out the +lights. There will be enough clean dishes for breakfast.” + +It was lucky for me that they started a new discussion then and there +about who would get the breakfast. In the midst of the excitement I +slipped away to carry the news to Bella. She was where I had left her, +and she had made herself a cup of tea, and was very much at home, which +was natural. + +“Do you know,” she said ominously, “that you have been away for two +hours; and that I have gone through agonies of nervousness for fear Jim +Wilson would come down and think I came here to see him?” + +“No one would think that, Bella,” I soothed her. “Everybody knows you +loathe him--Jim, too.” She looked at me over the edge of her cup. + +“I’ll run along now,” she said, “since Takahiro isn’t here. And if Jim +has any sense at all, he will clear out every maid in the house. I never +saw such a kitchen in all my life. Well, lead the way, Kit. I suppose +they are deep in bridge, or roulette, or something.” + +She was fixing her veil, and I saw I would have to tell her. Personally, +I would much rather have told her the house was on fire. + +“Wait a minute, Bella,” I said. “You see, something queer has happened. +You know this is the anniversary--well, you know what it is--and Jim was +awfully glum. So we thought we would come--” + +“What are you driving at?” she demanded. “You are sea-green, Kit. What’s +the matter? You needn’t think I mind because Jim has a jollification to +celebrate his divorce.” + +“It--it was Takahiro--in the ambulance,” I blurted. “Smallpox. +We--Bella, we are shut in, quarantined.” + +She didn’t faint. She just sat down and stared at me, and I stared back +at her. Then a miserable alarm clock on the table suddenly went off like +an explosion, and Bella began to laugh. I knew what that was--hysteria. +She always had attacks like that when things went wrong. I was quite +despairing by that time; I hoped they would all hear her and come +downstairs and take her up and put her to bed like a Christian, so she +could giggle her soul out. But after a bit she quieted down and began to +cry softly, and I knew the worst was over. I gave her a shake, and she +was so angry that she got over it altogether. + +“Kit, you are horrid,” she choked. “Don’t you see what a position I am +in? I am not going upstairs to face Anne and the rest of them. You can +just put me in the coal cellar.” + +“Isn’t there a window you could get through?” I asked desperately. +“Locking the door doesn’t shut up a whole house.” + +Bella’s courage revived at that, and she said yes, there were windows, +plenty of them, only she didn’t see how she could get out. And I +said she would HAVE to get out, because I was playing Bella in the +performance, and I didn’t care to have an understudy. Then the situation +dawned on her, and she sat down and laughed herself weak in the knees. +Of course she wanted to stay, then, and see the fun out. But I was firm; +she would have to go, and I told her so. Things were complicated enough +without her. + +Well, we looked funny, no doubt, Bella in a Russian pony automobile coat +over the black satin she had worn at the Clevelands’ dinner, and I in +cream lace, the skirt gathered up from the kitchen floor, with Bella’s +ermine pelerine around my bare shoulders, and dishes and overturned +chairs everywhere. + +Bella knew more about the lower regions of her ex-home than I would have +thought. She opened a door in a corner and led the way through a narrow +hall past the refrigerating room, to a huge, cemented cellar, with a +furnace in the center, and a half-dozen electric lights making it really +brilliant. + +“Get a chair,” Bella said over her shoulder, excitedly. “I can get out +easily here, through the coal hole. Imagine my--” + +But it was my turn to grip Bella. From behind the furnace were coming +the most terrible sounds, rasping noises that fairly frayed the silk of +my nerves. We stood petrified for an instant. Then Bella laughed. “They +are not all gone,” she said carefully. “Some one is asleep there.” + +We tiptoed to where we could see around the furnace, and, sure enough, +some one WAS asleep there. Only, it was not one of the servants; it was +a portly policeman, with a newspaper and an empty plate on the floor on +one side, and a champagne bottle on the other. He had slid down in his +chair, with his chin on his brass buttons, and his helmet had rolled a +dozen feet away. Bella had to clap her hand over her mouth. + +“Fairly caught!” she whispered. “Sartor Resartus, the arrester arrested. +Oh, Jim and his flawless service!” + +But after we got over our surprise, we saw the situation was serious. +The policeman was threatening to awaken. Once he stopped snoring to yawn +noisily, and we beat a hasty retreat. Bella switched off the lights in +a hurry and locked the door behind us. We hardly breathed until we were +back in the kitchen again, and everything quiet. And then Jimmy called +my name from up above somewheres. + +“I am going to call him down, Bella,” I said firmly. “Let him help you +out. I’m sure I don’t see why I should have all this when the two of +you--” + +“Oh, no, no! Surely, Kit, you wouldn’t be so cruel!” she whispered +pleadingly. “You know what he would think. He--oh, Kit, let them all get +settled for the night, and then come down, like a dear, and help me out. +I know loads of ways--honestly I do.” + +“If I leave you here,” I debated, “what about the policeman?” + +“Never mind him”--frantically. “Listen! There’s Jim up in the pantry. +Run, for the sake of Heaven!” + +So--I ran. At the top of the stairs I met Jimmy, very crumpled as to +shirt-front and dejected as to face. + +“I’ve been hunting everywhere for you,” he said dismally. “I thought you +had added to the general merriment by falling downstairs and breaking +your neck.” + +I went past him with my chin up. Now that I had time to think about it, +I was furiously angry with him. + +“Kit!” he called after me appealingly, but I would not hear. Then he +adopted different tactics. He took advantage of my catching my foot in +the lace of my gown to pass me, and to stand with his back against the +door. + +“You’re not going until you hear me, Kit,” he declared miserably. “In +the first place, for all you are down on me, is it my fault? Honestly, +now IS IT MY FAULT?” + +I refused to speak. + +“I was coming home to be miserable alone,” he went on, “and--oh, I know +you meant well, Kit; but YOU asked all these crazy people here.” + +“Perhaps you will give me credit for some things,” I said wearily. “I +did NOT give Takahiro smallpox, for instance, and--if you will permit me +to mention the fact--Aunt Selina is not MY Aunt Selina.” + +“That’s what I wanted to speak to you about,” Jimmy went on wretchedly, +trying not to look at me. “You see, when they were rowing so about who +would get the breakfast--I never saw such a lot of people; half of +them never touch breakfast, but of course now they want all kinds of +things--when they were talking, Aunt Selina said she knew YOU would get +it, being the hostess, and responsible, besides knowing where things +are kept.” He had fixed his eyes on the orchids, and he looked shrunken, +actually shrunken. “I thought,” he finished, “you might give me a few +pointers now, and I could come down in the morning, and--and fuss up +something, coffee and so on. I would say you did it! Oh, hang it all, +Kit, why don’t you say something?” + +“What do you want me to say?” I demanded. “That I love to cook, and of +course I’ll fix trays and carry them up in the morning to Anne Brown +and Leila Mercer and the rest; and that I will have the shaving water +ready--” + +“I know what I’m going to do,” Jimmy said, with a sudden resolution. +“Aunt Selina and her money can go to blazes. I am going right upstairs +and tell her the truth, tell her who you are, what I am, and all the +rest of it.” He opened the door. + +“You’ll do nothing of the kind,” I gasped, catching him in time. “Don’t +you dare, Jimmy Wilson! Why, what would they think of me? After letting +her call me Bella, and him--Jim, if Mr. Harbison ever learns the +truth--I--I will take poison. If we are going to be shut up here +together, we will have to carry it on. I couldn’t stand the disgrace.” + +In spite of an heroic effort, Jim looked relieved. “They have been +hunting for the linen closet,” he said, more cheerfully, “and there will +be room enough, I think. Harbison and I will hang out in the studio; +there are two couches there. I’m afraid you’ll have to take Aunt Selina, +Kit.” + +“Certainly,” I said coldly. That was the way it was all along. Whenever +there was something to do that no one else would undertake--any +unpleasant responsibility--that entire mongrel household turned with one +gesture and pointed its finger at me! Well, it is over now, and I ought +not to be bitter, considering everything. + +It was quite characteristic of that memorable evening (that is quite +novelesque, I think) that my interview with Jimmy should have a +sensational ending. He was terribly down, of course, and as I was trying +to pass him to get to the door, he caught my hand. + +“You’re a girl in a thousand, Kit,” he said forlornly. “If I were not so +damnably, hopelessly, idiotically in love with--somebody else, I should +be crazy about you.” + +“Don’t be maudlin,” I retorted. “Would you mind letting my hand go?” I +felt sure Bella could hear. + +“Oh, come now, Kit,” he implored, “we’ve always got along so well. It’s +a shame to let a thing like this make us bad friends. Aren’t you ever +going to forgive me?” + +“Never,” I said promptly. “When I once get away, I don’t want ever to +see you again. I was never so humiliated in my life. I loathe you!” + +Then I turned around, and, of course, there was Aunt Selina with her +eyes protruding until you could have knocked them off with a stick, and +beside her, very red and uncomfortable, Mr. Harbison! + +“Bella!” she said in a shocked voice, “is that the way you speak to your +husband! It is high time I came here, I think, and took a hand in this +affair.” + +“Oh, never mind, Aunt Selina,” Jim said, with a sheepish grin. +“Kit--Bella is tired and nervous. This is a h--deuce of a situation. +No--er--servants, and all that.” + +But Aunt Selina did mind, and showed it. She pulled the unlucky Harbison +man through the door and closed it, and then stood glaring at both of +us. + +“Every little quarrel is an apple knocked from the tree of love,” she +announced oratorically. + +“This was a very little quarrel,” Jim said, edging toward the door; +“a--a green apple, Aunt Selina, a colicky little green apple.” But she +was not to be diverted. + +“Bella,” she said severely, “you said you loathed him. You didn’t mean +that.” + +“But I do!” I cried hysterically. “There isn’t any word to tell how +I--how I detest him.” + +Then I swept past them all and flew to Bella’s dressing room and locked +myself in. Aunt Selina knocked until she was tired, then gave up and +went to bed. + +That was the night Anne Brown’s pearl collar was stolen! + + + +Chapter VI. A MIGHTY POOR JOKE + +Of course, one knows that there are people who in a different grade of +society would be shoplifters and pickpockets. When they are restrained +by obligation or environment they become a little overkeen at bridge, +or take the wrong sables, or stuff a gold-backed brush into a muff at +a reception. You remember the ivory dressing set that Theodora Bucknell +had, fastened with fine gold chains? And the sensation it caused at the +Bucknell cotillion when Mrs. Van Zire went sweeping to her carriage with +two feet of gold chain hanging from the front of her wrap? + +But Anne’s pearl collar was different. In the first place, instead of +three or four hundred people, the suspicion had to be divided among ten. +And of those ten, at least eight of us were friends, and the other two +had been vouched for by the Browns and Jimmy. It was a horrible mix-up. +For the necklace was gone--there couldn’t be any doubt of that--and +although, as Dallas said, it couldn’t get out of the house, still, there +were plenty of places to hide the thing. + +The worst of our trouble really originated with Max Reed, after all. +For it was Max who made the silly wager over the telephone, with Dick +Bagley. He bet five hundred even that one of us, at least, would break +quarantine within the next twenty-four hours, and, of course, that +settled it. Dick told it around the club as a joke, and a man who owns +a newspaper heard him and called up the paper. Then the paper called up +the health office, after setting up a flaming scare-head, “Will Money +Free Them? Board of Health versus Millionaire.” + +It was almost three when the house settled down--nobody had any night +clothes, although finally, through Dallas, who gave them to Anne, who +gave them to the rest, we got some things of Jimmy’s--and I was still +dressed. The house was perfectly quiet, and, after listening carefully, +I went slowly down the stairs. There was a light in the hall, and +another back in the dining room, and I got along without any trouble. +But the pantry, where the stairs led down, was dark, and the wretched +swinging door would not stay open. + +I caught my skirt in the door as I went through, and I had to stop to +loosen it. And in that awful minute I heard some one breathing just +beside me. I had stooped to my gown, and I turned my head without +straightening--I couldn’t have raised myself to an erect posture, for +my knees were giving way under me--and just at my feet lay the still +glowing end of a match! + +I had to swallow twice before I could speak. Then I said sharply: + +“Who’s there?” + +The man was so close it is a wonder I had not walked into him; his voice +was right at my ear. + +“I am sorry I startled you,” he said quietly. “I was afraid to speak +suddenly, or move, for fear I would do--what I have done.” + +It was Mr. Harbison. + +“I--I thought you were--it is very late,” I managed to say, with dry +lips. “Do you know where the electric switch is?” + +“Mrs. Wilson!” It was clear he had not known me before. “Why, no; don’t +you?” + +“I am all confused,” I muttered, and beat a retreat into the dining +room. There, in the friendly light, we could at least see each other, +and I think he was as much impressed by the fact that I had not +undressed as I was by the fact that he HAD, partly. He wore a hideous +dressing gown of Jimmy’s, much too small, and his hair, parted and +plastered down in the early evening, stood up in a sort of brown brush +all over his head. He was trying to flatten it with his hands. + +“It must be three o’clock,” he said, with polite surprise, “and the +house is like a barn. You ought not to be running around with your arms +uncovered, Mrs. Wilson. Surely you could have called some of us.” + +“I didn’t wish to disturb any one,” I said, with distinct truth. + +“I suppose you are like me,” he said. “The novelty of the situation--and +everything. I got to thinking things over, and then I realized the +studio was getting cold, so I thought I would come down and take a look +at the furnace. I didn’t suppose any one else would think of it. But +I lost myself in that pantry, stumbled against a half-open drawer, and +nearly went down the dumb-waiter.” And, as if in judgment on me, at +that instant came two rather terrific thumps from somewhere below, +and inarticulate words, shouted rather than spoken. It was uncanny, of +course, coming as it did through the register at our feet. Mr. Harbison +looked startled. + +“Oh, by the way,” I said, as carelessly as I could. “In the excitement, +I forgot to mention it. There is a policeman asleep in the furnace room. +I--I suppose we will have to keep him now,” I finished as airily as +possible. + +“Oh, a policeman--in the cellar,” he repeated, staring at me, and he +moved toward the pantry door. + +“You needn’t go down,” I said feverishly, with visions of Bella Knowles +sitting on the kitchen table, surrounded by soiled dishes and all the +cheerless aftermath of a dinner party. “Please don’t go down. I--it’s +one of my rules--never to let a stranger go down to the kitchen. I--I’m +peculiar--that way--and besides, it’s--it’s mussy.” + +Bang! Crash! through the register pipe, and some language quite +articulate. Then silence. + +“Look here, Mrs. Wilson,” he said resolutely. “What do I care about the +kitchen? I’m going down and arrest that policeman for disturbing the +peace. He will have the pipes down.” + +“You must not go,” I said with desperate firmness. “He--he is probably +in a very dangerous state just now. We--I--locked him in.” + +The Harbison man grinned and then became serious. + +“Why don’t you tell me the whole thing?” he demanded. “You’ve been in +trouble all evening, and--you can trust me, you know, because I am a +stranger; because the minute this crazy quarantine is raised I am off +to the Argentine Republic,” (perhaps he said Chili) “and because I don’t +know anything at all about you. You see, I have to believe what you +tell me, having no personal knowledge of any of you to go on. Now tell +me--whom have you hidden in the cellar, besides the policeman?” + +There was no use trying to deceive him; he was looking straight into my +eyes. So I decided to make the best of a bad thing. Anyhow, it was going +to require strength to get Bella through the coal hole with one arm and +restrain the policeman with the other. + +“Come,” I said, making a sudden resolution, and led the way down the +stairs. + +He said nothing when he saw Bella, for which I was grateful. She was +sitting at the table, with her arms in front of her, and her head buried +in them. And then I saw she was asleep. Her hat and veil were laid +beside her, and she had taken off her coat and draped it around her. She +had rummaged out a cold pheasant and some salad, and had evidently had +a little supper. Supper and a nap, while I worried myself gray-headed +about her! + +“She--she came in unexpectedly--something about the butler,” I explained +under my breath. “And--she doesn’t want to stay. She is on bad terms +with--with some of the people upstairs. You can see how impossible the +situation is.” + +“I doubt if we can get her out,” he said, as if the situation were quite +ordinary. “However, we can try. She seems very comfortable. It’s a pity +to rouse her.” + +Here the prisoner in the furnace room broke out afresh. It sounded +as though he had taken a lump of coal and was attacking the lock. Mr. +Harbison followed the noise, and I could hear him arguing, not gently. + +“Another sound,” he finished, “and you won’t get out of here at all, +unless you crawl up the furnace pipe!” + +When he came back, Bella was rousing. She lifted her head with her eyes +shut and then opened them one at a time, blinked, and sat up. She didn’t +see him at first. + +“You wretch!” she said ungratefully, after she had yawned. “Do you know +what time it is? And that--” Then she saw Mr. Harbison and sat staring +at him. + +“This is Mr. Harbison,” I said to her hastily. “He--he came with Anne +and Dal and--he is shut in, too.” + +By that time Bella had seen how handsome he was, and she took a hair pin +out of her mouth, and arched her eyebrows, which was always Bella’s best +pose. + +“I am Miss Knowles,” she said sweetly (of course, the court had given +her back her name), “and I stopped in tonight, thinking the house +was empty, to see about a--a butler. Unfortunately, the house was +quarantined just at that time, and--here I am. Surely there can not be +any harm in helping me to get out?” (Pleading tone.) “I have not been +exposed to any contagion, and in the exhausted state of my health the +confinement would be positively dangerous.” + +She rolled her eyes at him, and I could see she was making an +impression. Of course she was free. She had a perfect right to marry +again, but I will say this: Bella is a lot better looking by electric +light than she is the next morning. + +The upshot of it was that the gentleman who built bridges and looked +down on society from a lofty, lonely pinnacle agreed to help one of the +most gleaming members of the aforesaid society to outwit the law. + +It took about fifteen minutes to quiet the policeman. Nobody ever knew +what Mr. Harbison did to him, but for twenty-four hours he was quite +tractable. He changed after that, but that comes later in the story. +Anyhow, the Harbison man went upstairs and came down with a Bagdad +curtain and a cushion to match, and took them into the furnace room, +and came out and locked the door behind him, and then we were ready for +Bella’s escape. + +But there were four special officers and three reporters watching the +house, as a result of Max Reed’s idiocy. Once, after trying all the +other windows and finding them guarded, we discovered a little bit of a +hole in an out-of-the-way corner that looked like a ventilator and was +covered with a heavy wire screen. No prisoners ever dug their way out of +a dungeon with more energy than that with which we attached that screen, +hacking at it with kitchen knives, whispering like conspirators, being +scratched with the ragged edges of the wire, frozen with the cold air +one minute and boiling with excitement the next. And when the wire was +cut, and Bella had rolled her coat up and thrust it through and was +standing on a chair ready to follow, something outside that had looked +like a barrel moved, and said, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. +It would be certain to be undignified, and probably it would be +unpleasant--later.” + +We coaxed and pleaded and tried to bribe, and that happened, as it +turned out, to be one of the worst things we had to endure. For the +whole conversation came out the next afternoon in the paper, with the +most awful drawings, and the reporter said it was the flashing of the +jewels we wore that first attracted his attention. And that brings me +back to the robbery. + +For when we had crept back to the kitchen, and Bella was fumbling +for her handkerchief to cry into and the Harbison man was trying to +apologize for the language he had used to the reporter, and I was on the +verge of a nervous chill--well, it was then that Bella forgot all about +crying and jumped and held out her arm. + +“My diamond bracelet!” she screeched. “Look, I’ve lost it.” + +Well, we went over every inch of that basement, until I knew every crack +in the flooring, every spot on the cement. And Bella was nasty, and said +that she had never seen that part of the house in such condition, and +that if I had acted like a sane person and put her out, when she had no +business there at all, she would have had her freedom and her bracelet, +and that if we were playing a joke on her (as if we felt like joking!) +we would please give her the bracelet and let her go and die in a +corner; she felt very queer. + +At half-past four o’clock we gave up. + +“It’s gone,” I said. “I don’t believe you wore it here. No one could +have taken it. There wasn’t a soul in this part of the house, except the +policeman and he’s locked in.” + +At five o’clock we put her to sleep in the den. She was in a fearful +temper, and I was glad enough to be able to shut the door on her. Tom +Harbison--that was his name--helped me to creep upstairs, and wanted +to get me a glass of ale to make me sleep. But I said it would be of no +use, as I had to get up and get the breakfast. The last thing he said +was that the policeman seemed above the average in intelligence, and +perhaps we could train him to do plain cooking and dishwashing. + +I did not go to sleep at once. I lay on the chintz-covered divan in +Bella’s dressing room and stared at the picture of her with the violets +underneath. I couldn’t see what there was about Bella to inspire such +undying devotion, but I had to admit that she had looked handsome that +night, and that the Harbison man had certainly been impressed. + +At seven o’clock Jimmy Wilson pounded at my door, and I could have +choked him joyfully. I dragged myself to the door and opened it, and +then I heard excited voices. Everybody seemed to be up but Aunt Selina, +and they were all talking at once. + +Anne Brown was in the corner of the group, waving her hands, while +Dallas was trying to hook the back of her gown with one hand and hold a +blanket around himself with the other. No one was dressed except Anne, +and she had been up for an hour, looking in shoes and under the corners +of rugs and around the bed clothing for her jeweled collar. When she saw +me she began all over again. + +“I had it on when I went into my room,” she declared, “and I put it on +the dressing table when I undressed. I meant to put it under my pillow, +but I forgot. And I didn’t sleep well; I was awake half the night. +Wasn’t I, Dal? Then, when the clock downstairs in the hall was chiming +five, something roused me, and I sat up in bed. It was still dark, but I +pinched Dal and said there was somebody in the room. You remember that, +don’t you, Dal?” + +“I thought you had nightmare,” he said sheepishly. + +“I lay still for ages, it seemed to me, and then--the door into the +hall closed. I heard the catch click. I turned on the light over the bed +then, and the room was empty. I thought of my collar, and although it +seemed ridiculous, with the house sealed as it is, and all of us friends +for years--well, I got up and looked, and it was gone!” + +No one spoke for an instant. It WAS a queer situation, for the collar +was gone; Anne’s red eyes showed it was true. And there we stood, every +one of us a miserable picture of guilt, and tried to look innocent and +debonair and unsuspicious. Finally Jim held up his hand and signified +that he wanted to say something. + +“It’s like this,” he said, “until this thing is cleared up, for Heaven’s +sake, let’s try to be sane! If every fellow thinks the other fellow +did it, this house will be a nice little hell to live in. And if +anybody”--here he glared around--“if anybody has got funny and is hiding +those jewels, I want to say that he’d better speak up now. Later, it +won’t be so easy for him. It’s a mighty poor joke.” + +But nobody spoke. + + + +Chapter VII. WE MAKE AN OMELET + +It was Betty Mercer who said she was hungry, and got us switched from +the delicate subject of which was the thief to the quite as pressing +subject of which was to be cook. Aunt Selina had slept quietly through +the whole thing--we learned afterward that she customarily slept on her +left side, which was on her good ear. We gathered in the Dallas Browns’ +room, and Jimmy proposed a plan. + +“We can have anything sent in that we want,” he suggested speciously, +“and if Dal doesn’t make good with the city fathers, you girls can +get some clothes anyhow. Then, we can have dinner sent from one of the +hotels.” + +“Why not all the meals?” Max suggested. “I hope you’re not going to be +small about things, Jimmy.” + +“It ought to be easy,” Jim persisted, ignoring the remark, “for nine +reasonably intelligent people to boil eggs and make coffee, which is all +we need for breakfast, with some fruit.” + +“Nine of us!” Dallas said wickedly, looking at Tom Harbison, who was +out of earshot, “Why nine of us? I thought Kit here, otherwise known as +Bella, was going to show off her housewifely skill.” + +It ended, however, with Mr. Harbison writing out a lot of slips, cook, +scullery-maid, chamber-maid, parlor-maid, furnace-man, and butler, and +as that left two people over--we didn’t count Aunt Selina--he added +another furnace-man and a trained nurse. Betty Mercer drew the trained +nurse slip, and, of course, she was delighted. It seems funny now to +look back and think what a dreadful time she really had, for Aunt Selina +took the grippe, you know, that very day. + +It was fate that I should go back to that awful kitchen, for of course +my slip said “cook.” Mr. Harbison was butler, and Max and Dal got the +furnace, although neither of them had ever been nearer to a bucket of +coal than the coupons on mining stock. Anne got the bedrooms, and Leila +was parlor-maid. It was Jimmy who got the scullery work, but he was +quite crushed by this time, and did not protest at all. + +Max was in a very bad temper; I suppose he had not had enough sleep--no +one had. But he came over while the lottery was going on and stood over +me and demanded unpleasantly, in a whisper, that I stop masquerading as +another man’s wife and generally making a fool of myself--which is the +way he put it. And I knew in my heart that he was right, and I hated him +for it. + +“Why don’t you go and tell him--them?” I asked nastily. No one was +paying any attention to us. “Tell them that, to be obliging, I have +nearly drowned in a sea of lies; tell them that I am not only not +married, but that I never intend to marry; tell them that we are a lot +of idiots with nothing better to do than to trifle with strangers within +our gates, people who build--I mean, people that are worth two to our +one! Run and tell them.” + +He looked at me for a minute, then he turned on his heel and left me. It +looked as though Max might be going to be difficult. + +While I was improvising an apron out of a towel, and Anne was pinning a +sheet into a kimono, so she could take off her dinner gown and still be +proper, Dallas harked back to the robbery. + +“Ann put the collar on the table there,” he said. “There’s no mistake +about that. I watched her do it, for I remember thinking it was the sole +reminder I had that Consolidated Traction ever went above thirty-nine.” + +Max was looking around the room, examining the window locks and +whistling between his teeth. He was in disgrace with every one, for by +that time it was light enough to see three reporters with cameras across +the street waiting for enough sun to snap the house, and everybody knew +that it was Max and his idiotic wager that had done it. He had made two +or three conciliatory remarks, but no one would speak to him. His antics +were so queer, however, that we were all watching him, and when he had +felt over the rug with his hands, and raised the edges, and tried to +lift out the chair seats, and had shaken out Dal’s shoes (he said people +often hid things and then forgot about it), he made a proposition. + +“If you will take that infernal furnace from around my neck, I’ll +undertake either to find the jewels or to show up the thief,” he +said quietly. And of course, with all the people in the house under +suspicion, every one had to hail the suggestion with joy, and to offer +his assistance, and Jimmy had to take Max’s share of the furnace. So +they took the scullery slip downstairs to the policeman, and gave Jim +Max’s share of the furnace. (Yes, I had broken the policeman to them +gently. Of course, Anne said at once that he was the thief, but they +found him tucked in and sound asleep with his back against the furnace.) + +“In the first place,” Max said, standing importantly in the middle of +the room, “we retired between two and three--nearer three. So the +theft occurred between three and five, when Anne woke up. Was your door +locked, Dal?” + +“No. The door into the hall was, but the door into the dressing room was +open, and we found the door from there into the hall open this morning.” + +“From three until five,” Max repeated. “Was any one out of his room +during that time?” + +“I was,” said Tom Harbison promptly, from the foot of the bed. “I was +prowling all around somewhere about four, searching”--he glanced at +me--“for a drink of water. But as I don’t know a pearl from a glass +bead, I hope you exonerate me.” + +Everybody laughed and said, “Of course,” and “Sure, old man,” and +changed the subject quickly. + +While that excitement was on, I got Jim to one side and told him about +Bella. His good-natured face was radiant at first. + +“I suppose she DID come to see Takahiro, eh, Kit?” he asked delicately. +“She didn’t say anything about me?” + +“Nothing good. She said the house was in a disgraceful condition,” I +said heartlessly. “And her diamond bracelet was stolen while she took +a nap on the kitchen table”--he groaned--“and--oh, Jim, you are such +a goose! If I could only manage my own affairs the way I could my +friends’! She’s too sure of you, Jimmy. She knows you adore her, +and--how brutal could you be, Jim?” + +“Fair,” he said. “I may have undiscovered depths of brutality that I +have never had occasion to use. However, I might try. Why?” + +“Listen, Jim,” I urged. “It was always Bella who did things here; she +managed the house, she tyrannized over her friends, and she bullied you. +Yes, she did. Now she’s here, without your invitation, and she has to +stay. It’s your turn to bully, to dictate terms, to be coldly civil or +politely rude. Make her furious at you. If she is jealous, so much the +better.” + +“How far would you sacrifice yourself on the altar of friendship?” he +asked. + +“You may pay me all the attention you like, in public,” I replied, and +after we shook hands we went together to Bella. + +There was an ominous pause when we went into the den. Bella was sitting +by the register, with her furs on, and after one glance over her +shoulder at us, she looked away again without speaking. + +“Bella,” Jim said appealingly. And then I pinched his arm, and he drew +himself up and looked properly outraged. + +“Bella,” he said, coldly this time, “I can’t imagine why you have put +yourself in this ridiculous position, but since you have--” + +She turned on him in a fury. + +“Put MYSELF in this position!” + +She was frantic. “It’s a plot, a wretched trick of yours, this +quarantine, to keep me here.” + +Jim gasped, but I gave him a warning glance, and he swallowed hard. + +“On the contrary,” he said, with maddening quiet, “I would be the last +person in the world to wish to perpetuate an indiscretion of yours. For +it was hardly discreet, was it, to visit a bachelor establishment alone +at ten o’clock at night? As far as my plotting to keep you here is +concerned, I assure you that nothing could be further from my mind. Our +paths were to be two parallel lines that never touch.” He looked at me +for approval, and Bella was choking. + +“You are worse that I ever thought you,” she stormed. “I thought you +were only a--a fool. Now I know you--for a brute!” + +Well, it ended by Jim’s graciously permitting Bella to remain--there +being nothing else to do--and by his magnanimously agreeing to keep her +real identity from Aunt Selina and Mr. Harbison, and to break the news +of her presence to Anne and the rest. It created a sensation beside +which Anne’s pearls faded away, although they came to the front again +soon enough. + +Jim broke the news at once, gathering everybody but Harbison and Aunt +Selina in the upper hall. He was palpitatingly nervous, but he tried to +carry it off with a high hand. + +“It’s unfortunate,” he said, looking around the circle of faces, each +one frozen with amazement, and just a suspicion, perhaps of incredulity. +“It’s particularly unfortunate for her. You all know how high-strung +she is, and if the papers should get hold of it--well, we’ll all have to +make it as easy as we can for her.” + +With Jim’s eyes on them, they all swallowed the butler story without a +gulp. But Anne was indignant. + +“It’s like Bella,” she snapped. “Well, she has made her bed and she can +lie on it. I’m sure I shan’t make it for her. But if you want to know my +opinion, Mr. Harbison may be a fool, but you can’t ram two Bellas, both +NEE Knowles, down Miss Caruthers’ throat with a stick.” + +We had not thought of that before and every one looked blank. Finally, +however, Jim said Bella’s middle name was Constantia, and we decided to +call her that. But it turned out afterward that nobody could remember +it in a hurry, and generally when we wanted to attract her attention, we +walked across the room and touched her on the shoulder. It was quicker +and safer. + +The name decided, we went downstairs in a line to welcome Bella, to try +to make her feel at home, and to forget her deplorable situation. Leila +had worked herself into a really sympathetic frame of mind. + +“Poor dear,” she said, on the way down. “Now don’t grin, anybody, just +be cordial and glad to see her. I hope she doesn’t cry; you know the +spells she takes.” + +We stopped outside the door, and everybody tried to look cheerful and +sympathetic, and not grinny--which was as hard as looking as if we had +had a cup of tea--and then Jim threw the door open and we filed in. + +Bella was comfortably reading by the fire. She had her feet up on a +stool and a pillow behind her head. She did not even look at us for a +minute; then she merely glanced up as she turned a page. + +“Dear me,” she said mockingly, “what a lot of frumps you all are! I had +hoped it was some one with my breakfast.” + +Then she went on reading. As Leila said afterward, that kind of person +OUGHT to be divorced. + +Aunt Selina came down just then and I left everybody trying to explain +Bella’s presence to her, and fled to the kitchen. The Harbison man +appeared while I was sitting hopelessly in front of the gas range, and +showed me about it. + +“I don’t know that I ever saw one,” he said cheerfully, “but I know the +theory. Likewise, by the same token, this tea kettle, set on the flame, +will boil. That is not theory, however, that is early knowledge. ‘Polly, +put the kettle on; we’ll all take tea.’ Look at that, Mrs. Wilson. I +didn’t fight bacilli with boiled water at Chickamauga for nothing.” + +And then he let out the policeman and brought him into the kitchen. He +was a large man, and his face was a curious mixture of amazement, alarm +and dignity. No doubt we did look queer, still in parts of our evening +clothes and I in the white silk and lace petticoat that belonged under +my gown, with a yellow and black pajama coat of Jimmy’s as a sort of +breakfast jacket. + +“This is Officer Flannigan,” Mr. Harbison said. “I explained our +unfortunate position earlier in the morning, and he is prepared to +accept our hospitality. Flannigan, every person in this house has got +to work, as I also explained to you. You are appointed dishwasher and +scullery maid.” + +The policeman looked dazed. Then, slowly, like dawn over a sleeping +lake, a light of comprehension grew in his face. + +“Sure,” he said, laying his helmet on the table. “I’ll be glad to be +doing anything I can to help. Me and Mrs. Wilson--we used to be friends. +It’s many the time I’ve opened the carriage door for her, and she with +her head in the air, and for all that, the pleasant smile. When any one +around her was having a party and wanted a special officer, it was Mrs. +Wilson that always said, Get Flannigan, Officer Timothy Flannigan. He’s +your man.’” + +My heart had been going lower and lower. So he knew Bella, and he knew I +was not Bella, although he had not grasped the fact that I was usurping +her place. The odious Harbison man sat on the table and swung his feet. + +“I wonder if you know,” he said, looking around him, “how good it is +to see a white woman so perfectly at home in a civilized kitchen again, +after two years of food cooked by a filthy Indian squaw over a portable +sheet-iron stove!” + +SO PERFECTLY AT HOME? I stood in the middle of the room and stared +around at the copper things hanging up and the rows of blue and white +crockery, and the dozens and hundreds of complicated-looking utensils, +whose names I had never even heard, and I was dazed. I tried with some +show of authority to instruct Flannigan about gathering up the soiled +things, and, after listening in puzzled silence for a minute, he +stripped off his blue coat with a tolerant smile. + +“Lave em to me, miss,” he said. The “miss” passed unnoticed. “I mayn’t +give em a Turkish bath, which is what you are describin’, but I’ll get +the grease off all right. I always clean up while the missus is in bed +with a young un.” + +He rolled up his sleeves, found a brown checked gingham apron behind +the door, and tied it around his neck with the ease of practice. Then +he cleared off the plates, eating what appealed to him as he did so, and +stopping now and again for a deep-throated chuckle. + +“I’m thinkin’,” he said once, stopping with a dish in the air, “what a +deuce of a noise there will be when the vaccination doctor comes around +this mornin’. In a week every one of us will be nursin’ a sore arm or +walkin’ on one leg, beggin’ your pardon, miss. The last time the force +was vaccinated, I asked to be done behind me ear; I needed me legs and I +needed me arms, but didn’t need me head much!” + +He threw his head back and laughed. Mr. Harbison laughed. Oh, we were +very cheerful! And that awful stove stared at me, and the kettle began +to hum, and Aunt Selina sent down word that she was not well, and would +like some omelet on her tray. Omelet! + +I knew that it was made of eggs, but that was the extent of my +knowledge. I muttered an excuse and ran upstairs to Anne, but she was +still sniffling over her necklace, and said she didn’t know anything +about omelets and didn’t care. Food would choke her. Neither of the +Mercer girls knew either, and Bella, who was still reading in the den, +absolutely declined to help. + +“I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did. You can get yourself +out, as you got yourself in,” she said nastily. “The simplest thing, if +you don’t mind my suggesting it, is to poison the coffee and kill the +lot of us. Only, if you decide to do it, let me know; I want to live +just long enough to see Jimmy Wilson WRITHE!” + +Bella is the kind of person who gets on one’s nerves. She finds a +grievance and hugs it; she does ridiculous things and blames other +people. And she flirts. + +I went downstairs despondently, and found that Mr. Harbison had +discovered some eggs and was standing helplessly staring at them. + +“Omelet--eggs. Eggs--omelet. That’s the extent of my knowledge,” he +said, when I entered. “You’ll have to come to my assistance.” + +It was then that I saw the cook book. It was lying on a shelf beside the +clock, and while Mr. Harbison had his back turned I got it down. It was +quite clear that the domestic type of woman was his ideal, and I did +not care to outrage his belief in me. So I took the cook book into the +pantry and read the recipe over three times. When I came back I knew it +by heart, although I did not understand it. + +“I will tell you how,” I said with a great deal of dignity, “and since +you want to help, you may make it yourself.” + +He was delighted. + +“Fine!” he said. “Suppose you give me the idea first. Then we’ll go over +it slowly, bit by bit. We’ll make a big fluffy omelet, and if the others +aren’t around, we’ll eat it ourselves.” + +“Well,” I said, trying to remember exactly, “you take two eggs--” + +“Two!” he repeated. “Two eggs for ten people!” + +“Don’t interrupt me,” I said irritably. “If--if two isn’t enough we can +make several omelets, one after the other.” + +He looked at me with admiration. + +“Who else but you would have thought of that!” he remarked. “Well, here +are two eggs. What next?” + +“Separate them,” I said easily. No, I didn’t know what it meant. I hoped +he would; I said it as casually as I could, and I did not look at him. I +knew he was staring at me, puzzled. + +“Separate them!” he said. “Why, they aren’t fastened together!” Then he +laughed. “Oh, yes, of course!” When I looked he had put one at each end +of the table. “Afraid they’ll quarrel, I suppose,” he said. “Well, now +they’re separated.” + +“Then beat.” + +“First separate, then beat!” he repeated. “The author of that cook book +must have had a mean disposition. What’s next? Hang them?” He looked up +at me with his boyish smile. + +“Separate and beat,” I repeated. If I lost a word of that recipe I was +gone. It was like saying the alphabet; I had to go to the beginning +every time mentally. + +“Well,” he reflected, “you can’t beat an egg, no matter how cruel you +may be, unless you break it first.” He picked up an egg and looked at +it. “Separate!” he reflected. “Ah--the white from the--whatever you +cooking experts call it--the yellow part.” + +“Exactly!” I exclaimed, light breaking on me. “Of course. I KNEW you +would find it out.” Then back to the recipe--“beat until well mixed; +then fold in the whites.” + +“Fold?” he questioned. “It looks pretty thin to fold, doesn’t it? +I--upon my word, I never heard of folding an egg. Are you--but of course +you know. Please come and show me how.” + +“Just fold them in,” I said desperately. “It isn’t difficult.” And +because I was so transparent a fraud and knew he must find me out then, +I said something about butter, and went into the pantry. That’s the +trouble with a lie; somebody asks you to tell one as a favor to somebody +else, and the first thing you know, you are having to tell a thousand, +and trying to remember the ones you have told so you won’t contradict +yourself, and the very person you have tried to help turns on you and +reproaches you for being untruthful! I leaned my elbows despondently +on the shelf of the kitchen pantry, with the feet of a guard visible +through the high window over my head, and waited for Mr. Harbison to +come in and demand that I fold a raw egg, and discover that I didn’t +know anything about cooking, and was just as useless as all the others. + +He came. He held the bowl out to me and waved a fork in triumph. + +“I have solved it,” he said. “Or, rather, Flannigan and I have solved +it. The mixture awaits the magic touch of the cook.” + +I honestly thought I could do the rest. It was only to be put in a pan +and browned, and then in the oven three minutes. And I did it properly, +but for two things: I should have greased the pan (but this was the +book’s fault; it didn’t say) and I should have lighted the oven. The +latter, however, was Mr. Harbison’s fault as much as mine, and I had wit +enough to lay it to absent-mindedness on the part of both of us. + +After that, Aunt Selina or no Aunt Selina, we decided to have boiled +eggs, and Mr. Harbison knew how to cook them. He put them in the +tea kettle and then went to look at the furnace. And Officer Timothy +Flannigan ground the coffee and gave his opinion of the board of health +in no stinted terms. As for me, I burned my fingers and the toast, and +felt myself growing hot and cold, for I was going to be found out as +soon as Flannigan grasped the situation. + +Then, of course, I did the thing that caused me so much trouble later. +I put down the toaster--at least the Harbison man said it was a +toaster--and went over and stood in front of the policeman. + +“I don’t suppose you will understand--exactly,” I said, “but--but if +anything occurs to--to make you think I am not--that things are not what +they seem to be--I mean, what I say they are--you will understand that +it is a joke, won’t you? A joke, you know.” + +Yes, that was what I said. I know it sounds like a raving delirium, +but when Max came down and squizzled some bacon, as he said, and told +Flannigan about the robbery, and how, whether it was a joke or deadly +earnest, somebody in the house had taken Anne’s pearls, that wretched +policeman winked at me solemnly over Max’s shoulder. Oh, it was awful! + +And, to add to my discomfort, the most unpleasant ideas WOULD obtrude +themselves. WHAT was Mr. Harbison doing on the first floor of the house +that night? Ice water, he had said. But there had been plenty of water +in the studio! And he had told me it was the furnace. + +Mr. Harbison came back in a half hour, and I remembered the eggs. We +fished them out of the tea kettle, and they were perfectly hard, but we +ate them. + +The doctor from the board of health came that morning and vaccinated us. +There was a great deal of excitement, and Aunt Selina was done on the +arm. As she did not affect evening clothes this was entirely natural, +but later on in the week, when the wretched things began to take, nobody +dared to limp, and Leila made a terrible break by wearing a bandage on +her left arm, after telling Aunt Selina that she had been vaccinated on +the right. + + + +Chapter VIII. CORRESPONDENTS’ DEPARTMENT + +The following letters were found in the house post box after the lifting +of the quarantine, and later were presented to me by their writers, +bound in white kid (the letters, not the authors, of course). + +FROM THOMAS HARBISON, LATE ENGINEER OF BRIDGES, PERUVIAN TRUNK LINES, +SOUTH AMERICA, TO HENRY LLEWELLYN, CARE OF UNION NITRATE COMPANY, +IQUIQUE, CHILI. + +Dear Old Man: + +I think I was fully a week trying to drive out of my mind my last +glimpse of you with your sickly grin, pretending to be tickled to pieces +that the only white man within two hundred miles of your shack was +going on a holiday. You old bluffer! I used to hang over the rail of the +steamer, on the way up, and see you standing as I left you beside the +car with its mule and the Indian driver, and behind you a million miles +of soul-destroying pampa. Never mind, Jack; I sent yesterday by mail +steamer the cigarettes, pipes and tobacco, canned goods and poker +chips. Put in some magazines, too, and the collars. Don’t know about the +ties--guess it won’t matter down there. + +Nothing happened on the trip. One of the engines broke down three days +out, and I spent all my time below decks for forty-eight hours. Chief +engineer raving with D.T.’s. Got the engine fixed in record time, and +haven’t got my hands clean yet. It was bully. + +With this I send the papers, which will tell you how I happen to be +here, and why I have leisure to write you three days after landing. If +the situation were not so ridiculous, it would be maddening. Here I +am, off for a holiday and congratulating myself that I am foot free and +heart free--yes, my friend, heart free--here I am, shut in the house +of a man I never saw until last night, and wouldn’t care if I never +saw again, with a lot of people who never heard of me, who are almost +equally vague about South America, who play as hard at bridge as I ever +worked at building one (forgive this, won’t you? The novelty has gone +to my head), and who belong to the very class of extravagant, +luxury-loving, non-producing parasites (isn’t that what we called them?) +that you and I used to revile from our lofty Andean pinnacle. + +To come down to earth: here we are, six women and five men, including +a policeman, not a servant in the house, and no one who knows how to do +anything. They are really immensely interesting, these people; they +all know each other very well, and it is “Jimmy” here, and “Dal” + there--Dallas Brown, who went to India with me, you remember my speaking +of him--and they are good natured, too, except at meal times. The little +hostess, Mrs. Wilson, took over the cooking, and although luncheon was +better than breakfast, the food still leaves much to the imagination. + +I wish you could see this Mrs. Wilson, Hal. You would change a whole lot +of your ideas. She is a thoroughbred, sure enough, and of course some +of her beauty is the result of the exquisite care about which you and +I--still from our Andean pinnacle--used to rant. But the fact is, she is +more than that. She has fire, and pluck, no end. If you could have seen +her this morning, standing in front of a cold kitchen range, determined +to conquer it, and had seen the tilt of her chin when I offered to take +over the cooking--you needn’t grin; I can cook, and you know it--you +would understand what I mean. It was so clear that she was paralyzed +with fright at the idea of getting breakfast, and equally clear that +she meant to do it. By the way, I have learned that her name was McNair +before she married this would-be artist, Wilson, and that she is a +daughter of the McNair who financed the Callao branch! + +I have not met the others so intimately. There are two sisters named +Mercer, inclined to be noisy--they are playing roulette in the next +room now. One is small and dark, almost Hebraic in type, named Leila and +called Lollie. The other, larger, very blonde and languishing, and with +a decided preference for masculine society, even, saving the mark, +mine! Dallas Brown’s wife, good looking, smokes cigarettes when I am not +around--they all do, except Mrs. Wilson. + +Then there is a maiden aunt, who is ill today with grippe and +excitement, and a Miss Knowles, who came for a moment last night to +see Mrs. Wilson, was caught in the quarantine (see papers), and, after +hiding all night in the basement, is sulking all day in her room. Her +presence created an excitement out of all proportion to the apparent +cause. + +From the fact that I have reason to know that my artist host and his +beautiful wife are on bad terms, and from the significant glances with +which the announcement of Miss Knowles’ presence was met, the state of +affairs seems rather clear. Wilson impresses me as a spineless sort, +anyhow, and when the lady of the basement shut herself away from the +rest today and I happened on “Jimmy,” as they call him, pleading with +her through the door, I very nearly kicked him down the stairs. Oh, yes, +I’ll keep out, right enough; it isn’t my affair. + +By the way, after the quarantine and with the policeman locked in the +furnace room, a pearl necklace and a diamond bracelet were stolen! Just +ten of us to divide the suspicion! Upon my word, Hal, it’s the queerest +situation I ever heard of. Which of us did it? I make a guess that not +a few of us are fools, but which is the knave? The worst of it is, I am +the only unaccredited member of the household! + +This is more scandal than I ever wrote in my life. Lay it to +circumscribed environment, and the lack of twenty miles over the +pampa before breakfast. We have all been vaccinated, and the officious +gentlemen from the board of health have taken their grins and their +formaldehyde and gone. Ye gods, how we cough! + +The Carlton order will go through all right, I think. Phoned him this +morning. If it does, old man, we will take a month in September and +explore the Mercator property. + +Do you know, Hal, I have been thinking lately that you and I stick too +close to the grind. Business is right enough, but what’s the use of +spending one’s best years succeeding in everything except the things +that are worth while? I’ll be thirty sooner than I care to say, and--oh, +well, you won’t understand. You’ll sit down there, with the Southern +Cross and the rest of the infernal astronomical galaxy looking down on +you, and the Indians chanting in the village, and you will think I have +grown sentimental. I have not. You and I down there have been looking at +the world through the reverse end of the glass. It’s a bully old world, +Hal, and this is God’s part of it. + +Burn this letter after you read it; I suspect it is covered with germs. +Well, happy days, old man. + +Yours, Tom + +P.S. By the way, can’t you spare some of the Indian pottery you picked +up at Callao? I told Mrs. Wilson about it, and she was immensely +interested. Send it to this address. Can you get it to the next +steamer?--T. + +FROM MAXWELL REED TO RICHARD BURTON BAGLEY, UNIVERSITY CLUB, NEW YORK. + +Dear Dick: + +Enclosed find my check for five hundred, as per wager. Possibly you were +within your rights in protecting your bet in the manner you chose, but +while I do not wish to be offensive, your reporters are damnably so. + +Yours, Maxwell Reed + +FROM OFFICER FLANNIGAN TO MRS. MAGGIE FLANNIGAN, ERIN STREET. + +Dear Maggie: + +As soon as you receive this, go down to Mac and tell him the story as I +tell you hear. Tell him I was walkin my beat, and I’d been afther seein +Jimmy Alverini about doin the right thing for Mac on Monday, at the +poles, when I seen a man hangin suspicious around this house, which is +Mr. Wilson’s, on Ninety-fifth. And, of coorse, afther chasin the man a +mile or more, I lose him, which was not my fault. So I go back to the +Wilson house, and tell them to be careful about closin up fer the +night, and while I’m standin in the hall, with all the swells around me, +sparklin with jewels, the board of health sends a man to lock us all in, +because the Jap thats been waiter has took the smallpox and gone to the +hospitle. I stood me ground. I sez, sez I, you cant shtop an officer in +pursute of his duty. I rafuse to be shut in. Be shure to tell Mac that. + +So here I am, and like to be for a month. Tell Mac theres four votes +shut up here, and I can get them for him, if he can stop this monkey +business. + +Then go over to the Dago Church on Webster Avenue and put a dollar in +Saint Anthony’s box. He’ll see me out of this scrape, right enough. Do +it at once. Now remember, go to Mac first; maybe you can get the dollar +from him, and mind what you tell him. + +Your husband, Tim Flannigan + +FROM ME TO MOTHER--MRS. THEODORE McNAIR, HOTEL HAMILTON, BERMUDA. + +Dearest Mother: + +I hope you will get this before you read the papers, and when you DO +read them, you are not to get excited and worried. I am as well as can +be, and a great deal safer than I ever remember to have been in my life. +We are quarantined, a lot of us, in Jim Wilson’s house, because his +irreproachable Jap did a very reproachable thing--took smallpox. Now +read on before you get excited. HIS ROOM HAS BEEN FUMIGATED, and we have +been vaccinated. I am well and happy. I can’t be killed in a railway +wreck or smashed when the car skids. Unless I drown myself in my bath, +or jump through a window, positively nothing can happen to me. So gather +up all your maternal anxieties and cast them to the Bermuda sharks. + +Anne Brown is here--see the papers for list--and if she can not play +propriety, Jimmy’s Aunt Selina can. In fact, she doesn’t play at it; she +works. I have telephoned Lizette for some clothes--enough for a couple +of weeks, although Dallas promises to get us out sooner. Now, dear, do +go ahead and have a nice time, and on no account come home. You could +only have the carriage to stop in front of the house, and wave to me +through a window. + +Mother, I want you to do something for me. You know who is down there, +and--this is awfully delicate, Mumsy--but he’s a nice boy, and I thought +I liked him. I guess you know he has been rather attentive. Now, I +DO like him, Mumsy, but not the way I thought I did, and I want you +to--very gently, of course--to discourage him a little. You know how +I mean. He’s a dear boy, but I am so tired of people who don’t know +anything but horses and motors. + +And, oh, yes,--do you remember a girl named Lucille Mellon who was at +school with you in Rome? And that she married a man named Harbison? +Well, her son is here! He builds railroads and bridges and things, and +he even built himself an automobile down in South America, because he +couldn’t afford to buy one, and burned wood in it! Wood! Think of it! + +I wired father in Chicago for fear he would come rushing home. The +picture in the paper of the face at the basement window is supposed to +be Mr. Harbison, but of course it isn’t any more like him than mine is +like me. + +Anne Brown mislaid her pearl collar when she took it off last night, +and has fussed herself into a sick headache. She declares it was stolen! +Some of the people are playing bridge, Betty Mercer is doing a cake +walk to the RHAPSODIE HONGROISE--Jim has no every-day music--and +the telephone is ringing. We have received enough flowers for a +funeral--somebody sent Lollie a Gates Ajar, only with the gates shut. + +There are no servants--think of it, Mumsy. I wish you had made me learn +to cook. Mr. Harbison has shown me a little--he was a soldier in the +Spanish War--but we girls are a terribly ignorant lot, Mumsy, about the +real things of life. + +Now, don’t worry. It is more sport than camping in the Adirondacks, and +not nearly so damp. + +Your loving daughter, Katherine. + +P.S.--South America must be wonderful. Why can’t we put the Gadfly in +commission, and take a coasting trip this summer? It is a shame to own a +yacht and never use it. K. + +THIS NOTE, EVIDENTLY DELIVERED BY MESSENGER, WAS FOUND AMONG OTHER +LITTER IN THE VESTIBULE AFTER THE LIFTING OF THE QUARANTINE. + +Mr. Alex Dodds, City Editor, Mail and Star: + +Dear D.--Can’t get a picture. Have waited seven hours. They have closed +the shutters. + +McCord. + +WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE ABOVE NOTE. + +Watch the roof. + +Dodds. + + + +Chapter IX. FLANNIGAN’S FIND + +The most charitable thing would be to say nothing about the first day. +We were baldly brutal--that’s the only word for it. And Mr. Harbison, +with his beautiful courtesy--the really sincere kind--tried to patch up +one quarrel after another and failed. He rose superbly to the occasion, +and made something that he called a South American goulash for luncheon, +although it was too salty, and every one was thirsty the rest of the +day. + +Bella was horrid, of course. She froze Jim until he said he was going to +sit in the refrigerator and cool the butter. She locked herself in the +dressing room--it had been assigned to me, but that made no difference +to Bella--and did her nails, and took three different baths, and refused +to come to the table. And of course Jimmy was wild, and said she would +starve. But I said, “Very well, let her starve. Not a tray shall leave +my kitchen.” It was a comfort to have her shut up there anyhow; it +postponed the time when she would come face to face with Flannigan. + +Aunt Selina got sick that day, as I have said. I was not so bitter as +the others; I did not say that I wished she would die. The worst I ever +wished her was that she might be quite ill for some time, and yet, when +she began to recover, she was dreadful to me. She said for one thing, +that it was the hard-boiled eggs and the state of the house that did +it, and when I said that the grippe was a germ, she retorted that I had +probably brought it to her on my clothing. + +You remember that Betty had drawn the nurse’s slip, and how pleased she +had been about it. She got up early the morning of the first day +and made herself a lawn cap and telephoned out for a white nurse’s +uniform--that is, of course, for a white uniform for a nurse. She really +looked very fetching, and she went around all the morning with a red +cross on her sleeve and a Saint Cecilia expression, gathering up bottles +of medicine--most of it flesh reducer, which was pathetic, and closing +windows for fear of drafts. She refused to help with the house work, and +looked quite exalted, but by afternoon it had palled on her somewhat, +and she and Max shook dice. + +Betty was really pleased when Aunt Selina sent for her. She took in a +bottle of cologne to bathe her brow, and we all stood outside the door +and listened. Betty tiptoed in in her pretty cap and apron, and we heard +her cautiously draw down the shades. + +“What are you doing that for?” Aunt Selina demanded. “I like the light.” + +“It’s bad for your poor eyes,” Betty’s tone was exactly the proper +bedside pitch, low and sugary. + +“Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea!” Dal hummed +outside. + +“Put up those window shades!” Aunt Selina’s voice was strong enough. +“What’s in that bottle?” + +Betty was still mild. She swished to the window and raised the shade. + +“I’m SO sorry you are ill,” she said sympathetically. “This is for your +poor aching head. Now close your eyes and lie perfectly still, and I +will cool your forehead.” + +“There’s nothing the matter with my head,” Aunt Selina retorted. “And +I have not lost my faculties; I am not a child or a sick cow. If that’s +perfumery, take it out.” + +We heard Betty coming to the door, but there was no time to get away. +She had dropped her mask for a minute and was biting her lip, but when +she saw us she forced a smile. + +“She’s ill, poor dear,” she said. “If you people will go away, I can +bring her around all right. In two hours she will eat out of my hand.” + +“Eat a piece out of your hand,” Max scoffed in a whisper. + +We waited a little longer, but it was too painful. Aunt Selina demanded +a mustard foot bath and a hot lemonade and her back rubbed with liniment +and some strong black tea. And in the intervals she wanted to be read +to out of the prayer book. And when we had all gone away, there came the +most terrible noise from Aunt Selina’s room, and every one ran. We found +Betty in the hall outside the door, crying, with her fingers in her ears +and her cap over her eye. She said she had been putting the hot water +bottle to Aunt Selina’s back, and it had been too hot. Just then +something hit against the door with a soft thud, fell to the floor and +burst, for a trickle of hot water came over the sill. + +“She won’t let me hold her hand,” Betty wailed, “or bathe her brow, or +smooth her pillow. She thinks of nothing but her stomach or her back! +And when I try to make her bed look decent, she spits at me like a cat. +Everything I do is wrong. She spilled the foot bath into her shoes, and +blamed me for it.” + +It took the united efforts of all of us--except Bella, who stood back +and smiled nastily--to get Betty back into the sick room again. I was +supremely thankful by that time that I had not drawn the nurse’s slip. +With dinner ordered in from one of the clubs, and the omelet ten hours +behind me, my position did not seem so unbearable. But a new development +was coming. + +While Betty was fussing with Aunt Selina, Max led a search of the house. +He said the necklace and the bracelet must be hidden somewhere, and that +no crevice was too small to neglect. + +We made a formal search all together, except Betty and Aunt Selina, +and we found a lot of things in different places that Jim said had been +missing since the year one. But no jewels--nothing even suggesting a +jewel was found. We had explored the entire house, every cupboard, +every chest, even the insides of the couches and the pockets of Jim’s +clothes--which he resented bitterly--and found nothing, and I must +say the situation was growing rather strained. Some one had taken the +jewels; they hadn’t walked away. + +It was Flannigan who suggested the roof, and as we had tried every place +else, we climbed there. Of course we didn’t find anything, but after all +day in the house with the shutters closed on account of reporters, the +air was glorious. It was February, but quite mild and sunny, and we +could look down over Riverside Drive and the Hudson, and even recognize +people we knew on horseback and in cars. It was a pathetic joy, and we +lined up along the parapet and watched the motor boats racing on the +river, and tried to feel that we were in the world as well as of it, but +it was very hard. + +Betty had been making tea for Aunt Selina, and of course when she heard +us up there, she followed, tray and all, and we drank Aunt Selina’s tea +and had the first really nice time of the day. Bella had come up, too, +but she was still standoffish and queer, and she stood leaning against a +chimney and staring out over the river. After a little Mr. Harbison put +down his cup and went over to her, and they talked quite confidentially +for a long time. I thought it bad taste in Bella, under the +circumstances, after snubbing Dallas and Max, and of course treating Jim +like the dirt under her feet, to turn right around and be lovely to Mr. +Harbison. It was hard for Jim. + +Max came and sat beside me, and Flannigan, who had been sent down for +more cups, passed tea, putting the tray on top of the chimney. Jim was +sitting grumpily on the roof, with his feet folded under him, playing +Canfield in the shadow of the parapet, buying the deck out of one pocket +and putting his winnings in the other. He was watching Bella, too, and +she knew it, and she strained a point to captivate Mr. Harbison. Any one +could see that. + +And that was the picture that came out in the next morning’s papers, +tea cups, cards and all. For when some one looked up, there were four +newspaper photographers on the roof of the next house, and they had the +impertinence to thank us! + +Flannigan had seen Bella by that time, but as he still didn’t understand +the situation, things were just the same. But his manner to me puzzled +me; whenever he came near me he winked prodigiously, and during all the +search he kept one eye on me, and seemed to be amused about something. + +When the rest had gone down to dress for dinner, which was being sent +in, thank goodness, I still sat on the parapet and watched the darkening +river. I felt terribly lonely, all at once, and sad. There wasn’t any +one any nearer than father, in the West, or mother in Bermuda, who +really cared a rap whether I sat on that parapet all night or not, +or who would be sorry if I leaped to the dirty bricks of the next +door-yard--not that I meant to, of course. + +The lights came out across the river, and made purple and yellow streaks +on the water, and one of the motor boats came panting back to the yacht +club, coughing and gasping as if it had overdone. Down on the street +automobiles were starting and stopping, cabs rolling, doors slamming, +all the maddening, delightful bustle of people who are foot-free to +dine out, to dance, to go to the theater, to do any of the thousand +possibilities of a long February evening. And above them I sat on the +roof and cried. Yes, cried. + +I was roused by some one coughing just behind me, and I tried to +straighten my face before I turned. It was Flannigan, his double row of +brass buttons gleaming in the twilight. + +“Excuse me, miss,” he said affably, “but the boy from the hotel has left +the dinner on the doorstep and run, the cowardly little divil! What’ll +I do with it? I went to Mrs. Wilson, but she says it’s no concern of +hers.” Flannigan was evidently bewildered. + +“You’d better keep it warm, Flannigan,” I replied. “You needn’t wait; +I’m coming.” But he did not go. + +“If--if you’ll excuse me, miss,” he said, “don’t you think ye’d betther +tell them?” + +“Tell them what?” + +“The whole thing--the joke,” he said confidentially, coming closer. +“It’s been great sport, now, hasn’t it? But I’m afraid they will get on +to it soon, and--some of them might not be agreeable. A pearl necklace +is a pearl necklace, miss, and the lady’s wild.” + +“What do you mean?” I gasped. “You don’t think--why, Flannigan--” + +He merely grinned at me and thrust his hand down in his pocket. When +he brought it up he had Bella’s bracelet on his palm, glittering in the +faint light. + +“Where did you get it?” Between relief and the absurdity of the thing, +I was almost hysterical. But Flannigan did not give me the bracelet; +instead, it struck me his tone was suddenly severe. + +“Now look here, miss,” he said; “you’ve played your trick, and you’ve +had your fun. The Lord knows it’s only folks like you would play April +fool jokes with a fortune! If you’re the sinsible little woman you look +to be, you’ll put that pearl collar on the coal in the basement tonight, +and let me find it.” + +“I haven’t got the pearl collar,” I protested. “I think you are crazy. +Where did you get that bracelet?” + +He edged away from me, as if he expected me to snatch it from him and +run, but he was still trying in an elephantine way to treat the matter +as a joke. + +“I found it in a drawer in the pantry,” he said, “among the dirty linen. +And if you’re as smart as I think you are, I’ll find the pearl collar +there in the morning--and nothing said, miss.” + +So there I was, suspected of being responsible for Anne’s pearl collar, +as if I had not enough to worry me before. Of course I could have called +them all together and told them, and made them explain to Flannigan what +I had really meant by my delirious speech in the kitchen. But that +would have meant telling the whole ridiculous story to Mr. Harbison, and +having him think us all mad, and me a fool. + +In all that overcrowded house there was only one place where I could be +miserable with comfort. So I stayed on the roof, and cried a little +and then became angry and walked up and down, and clenched my hands +and babbled helplessly. The boats on the river were yellow, horizontal +streaks through my tears, and an early searchlight sent its shaft like +a tangible thing in the darkness, just over my head. Then, finally, +I curled down in a corner with my arms on the parapet, and the lights +became more and more prismatic and finally formed themselves into a +circle that was Bella’s bracelet, and that kept whirling around and +around on something flat and not over-clean, that was Flannigan’s palm. + + + +Chapter X. ON THE STAIRS + +I was roused by someone walking across the roof, the cracking of tin +under feet, and a comfortable and companionable odor of tobacco. I +moved a very little, and then I saw that it was a man--the height and +erectness told me which man. And just at that instant he saw me. + +“Good Lord!” he ejaculated, and throwing his cigar away he came across +quickly. “Why, Mrs. Wilson, what in the world are you doing here? I +thought--they said--” + +“That I was sulking again?” I finished disagreeably. “Perhaps I am. In +fact, I’m quite sure of it.” + +“You are not,” he said severely. “You have been asleep in a February +night, in the open air, with less clothing on than I wear in the +tropics.” + +I had got up by this time, refusing his help, and because my feet were +numb, I sat down on the parapet for a moment. Oh, I knew what I looked +like--one of those “Valley-of-the-Nile-After-a-Flood” pictures. + +“There is one thing about you that is comforting,” I sniffed. “You said +precisely the same thing to me at three o’clock this morning. You never +startle me by saying anything unexpected.” + +He took a step toward me, and even in the dusk I could see that he was +looking down at me oddly. All my bravado faded away and there was a +queerish ringing in my ears. + +“I would like to!” he said tensely. “I would like, this minute--I’m +a fool, Mrs. Wilson,” he finished miserably. “I ought to be drawn and +quartered, but when I see you like this I--I get crazy. If you say the +word, I’ll--I’ll go down and--” He clenched his fist. + +It was reprehensible, of course; he saw that in an instant, for he shut +his teeth over something that sounded very fierce, and strode away from +me, to stand looking out over the river, with his hands thrust in his +pockets. Of course the thing I should have done was to ignore what he +had said altogether, but he was so uncomfortable, so chastened, that, +feline, feminine, whatever the instinct is, I could not let him go. I +had been so wretched myself. + +“What is it you would like to say?” I called over to him. He did not +speak. “Would you tell me that I am a silly child for pouting?” No +reply; he struck a match. “Or would you preach a nice little sermon +about people--about women--loving their husbands?” + +He grunted savagely under his breath. + +“Be quite honest,” I pursued relentlessly. “Say that we are a lot +of barbarians, say that because my--because Jimmy treats me +outrageously--oh, he does; any one can see that--and because I loathe +him--and any one can tell that--why don’t you say you are shocked to +the depths?” I was a little shocked myself by that time, but I couldn’t +stop, having started. + +He came over to me, white-faced and towering, and he had the audacity +to grip my arm and stand me on my feet, like a bad child--which I was, I +dare say. + +“Don’t!” he said in a husky, very pained voice. “You are only talking; +you don’t mean it. It isn’t YOU. You know you care, or else why are you +crying up here? And don’t do it again, DON’T DO IT AGAIN--or I will--” + +“You will--what?” + +“Make a fool of myself, as I have now,” he finished grimly. And then he +stalked away and left me there alone, completely bewildered, to find my +way down in the dark. + +I groped along, holding to the rail, for the staircase to the roof was +very steep, and I went slowly. Half-way down the stairs there was a +tiny landing, and I stopped. I could have sworn I heard Mr. Harbison’s +footsteps far below, growing fainter. I even smiled a little, there in +the dark, although I had been rather profoundly shaken. The next instant +I knew I had been wrong; some one was on the landing with me. I could +hear short, sharp breathing, and then-- + +I am not sure that I struggled; in fact, I don’t believe I did--I was +too limp with amazement. The creature, to have lain in wait for me like +that! And he was brutally strong; he caught me to him fiercely, and held +me there, close, and he kissed me--not once or twice, but half a dozen +times, long kisses that filled me with hot shame for him, for myself, +that I had--liked him. The roughness of his coat bruised my cheek; I +loathed him. And then someone came whistling along the hall below, and +he pushed me from him and stood listening, breathing in long, gasping +breaths. + +I ran; when my shaky knees would hold me, I ran. I wanted to hide my hot +face, my disgust, my disillusion; I wanted to put my head in mother’s +lap and cry; I wanted to die, or be ill, so I need never see him again. +Perversely enough, I did none of those things. With my face still +flaming, with burning eyes and hands that shook, I made a belated +evening toilet and went slowly, haughtily, down the stairs. My hands +were like ice, but I was consumed with rage. Oh, I would show him--that +this was New York, not Iquique; that the roof was not his Andean +tableland. + +Every one elaborately ignored my absence from dinner. The Dallas Browns, +Max and Lollie were at bridge; Jim was alone in the den, walking the +floor and biting at an unlighted cigar; Betty had returned to Aunt +Selina and was hysterical, they said, and Flannigan was in deep +dejection because I had missed my dinner. + +“Betty is making no end of a row,” Max said, looking up from his game, +“because the old lady upstairs insists on chloroform liniment. Betty +says the smell makes her ill.” + +“And she can inhale Russian cigarettes,” Anne said enviously, “and +gasolene fumes, without turning a hair. I call a revoke, Dal; you +trumped spades on the second round.” + +Dal flung over three tricks with very bad grace, and Anne counted them +with maddening deliberation. + +“Game and rubber,” she said. “Watch Dal, Max; he will cheat in the score +if he can. Kit, don’t have another clam while I am in this house. I have +eaten so many lately my waist rises and falls with the tide.” + +“You have a stunning color, Kit,” Lollie said. “You are really quite +superb. Who made that gown?” + +“Where have you been hiding, du kleine?” Max whispered, under cover of +showing me the evening paper, with a photograph of the house and a cross +at the cellar window where we had tried to escape. “If one day in the +house with you, Kit, puts me in this condition, what will a month do?” + +From beyond the curtain of a sort of alcove, lighted with a red-shaded +lamp, came a hum of conversation, Bella’s cool, even tones, and a heavy +masculine voice. They were laughing; I could feel my chin go up. He was +not even hiding his shame. + +“Max,” I asked, while the others clamored for him and the game, “has any +one been up through the house since dinner? Any of the men?” + +He looked at me curiously. + +“Only Harbison,” he replied promptly. “Jim has been eating his heart +out in the den every since dinner; Dal played the Sonata Appasionata +backward on the pianola--he wanted to put through one of Anne’s lingerie +waists, on a wager that it would play a tune; I played craps with +Lollie, and Flannigan has been washing dishes. Why?” + +Well, that was conclusive, anyhow. I had had a faint hope that it might +have been a joke, although it had borne all the evidences of sincerity, +certainly. But it was past doubting now; he had lain in wait for me at +the landing, and had kissed me, ME, when he thought I was Jimmy’s wife. +Oh, I must have been very light, very contemptible, if that was what he +thought of me! + +I went into the library and got a book, but it was impossible to read, +with Jimmy lying on the couch giving vent to something between a sigh +and a groan every few minutes. About eleven the cards stopped, and Bella +said she would read palms. She began with Mr. Harbison, because she +declared he had a wonderful hand, full of possibilities; she said he +should have been a great inventor or a playwright, and that his attitude +to women was one of homage, respect, almost reverence. He had the +courage to look at me, and if a glance could have killed he would have +withered away. + +When Jimmy proffered his hand, she looked at it icily. Of course she +could not refuse, with Mr. Harbison looking on. + +“Rather negative,” she said coldly. “The lines are obscured by cushions +of flesh; no heart line at all, mentality small, self-indulgence and +irritability very marked.” + +Jim held his palm up to the light and stared at it. + +“Gad!” he said. “Hardly safe for me to go around without gloves, is it?” + +It was all well enough for Jim to laugh, but he was horribly hurt. He +stood around for a few minutes, talking to Anne, but as soon as he could +he slid away and went to bed. He looked very badly the next morning, +as though he had not slept, and his clothes quite hung on him. He was +actually thinner. But that is ahead of the story. + +Max came to me while the others were sitting around drinking nightcaps, +and asked me in a low tone if he could see me in the den; he wanted to +ask me something. Dal overheard. + +“Ask her here,” he said. “We all know what it is, Max. Go ahead and +we’ll coach you.” + +“Will you coach ME?” I asked, for Mr. Harbison was listening. + +“The woman does not need it,” Dal retorted. And then, because Max looked +angry enough really to propose to me right there, I got up hastily and +went into the den. Max followed, and closing the door, stood with his +back against it. + +“Contrary to the general belief, Kit,” he began, “I did NOT intend to +ask you to marry me.” + +I breathed easier. He took a couple of steps toward me and stood with +his arms folded, looking down at me. “I’m not at all sure, in fact, that +I shall ever propose to you,” he went on unpleasantly. + +“You have already done it twice. You are not going to take those back, +are you, Max?” I asked, looking up at him. + +But Max was not to be cajoled. He came close and stood with his hand on +the back of my chair. “What happened on the roof tonight?” He demanded +hoarsely. + +“I do not think it would interest you,” I retorted, coloring in spite of +myself. + +“Not interest me! I am shut in this blasted house; I have to see the +only woman I ever loved--REALLY loved,” he supplemented, as he caught my +eye, “pretend she is another man’s wife. Then I sit back and watch her +using every art--all her beauty--to make still another man love her, +a man who thinks she is a married woman. If Harbison were worth the +trouble, I would tell him the whole story, Aunt Selina be--obliterated!” + +I sat up suddenly. + +“If Harbison were worth the trouble!” I repeated. What did he mean? Had +he seen-- + +“I mean just this,” Max said slowly. “There is only one unaccredited +member of this household; only one person, save Flannigan, who was +locked in the furnace room, one person who was awake and around the +house when Anne’s jewels went, only one person in the house, also, who +would have any motive for the theft.” + +“Motive?” I asked dully. + +“Poverty,” Max threw at me. “Oh, I mean comparative poverty, of course. +Who is this fellow, anyhow? Dal knew him at school, traveled with him +through India. On the strength of that he brings him here, quarters him +with decent people, and wonders when they are systematically robbed!” + +“You are unjust!” I said, rising and facing him. “I do not like Mr. +Harbison--I--I hate him, if you want to know. But as to his being a +thief, I--think it is quite as likely that you took the necklace.” + +Max threw his cigarette into the fire angrily. + +“So that is how it is!” he mocked. “If either of us is the thief, it is +I! You DO hate him, don’t you?” + +I left him there, flushed with irritation, and joined the others. Just +as I entered the room, Betty burst through the hall door like a cyclone, +and collapsed into a chair. “She’s a mean, cantankerous old woman!” she +declared, feeling for her handkerchief. “You can take care of your own +Aunt Selina, Jim Wilson. I will never go near her again.” + +“What did you do? Poison her?” Dallas asked with interest. + +“G--got camphor in her eyes,” snuffed Betty. “You never--heard such a +noise. I wouldn’t be a trained nurse for anything in the world. She--she +called me a hussy!” + +“You’re not going to give her up, are you, Betty?” Jim asked +imploringly. But Betty was, and said so plainly. + +“Anyhow, she won’t have me back,” she finished, “and she has sent +for--guess!” + +“Have mercy!” Dal cried, dropping to his knees. “Oh, fair ministering +angel, she has not sent for me!” + +“No,” Betty said maliciously. “She wants Bella--she’s crazy about her.” + + + +Chapter XI. I MAKE A DISCOVERY + +Really, I have left Aunt Selina rather out of it, but she was important +as a cause, not as a result; at least at first. She came out strong +later. I believe she was a very nice old woman, with strong likes and +prejudices, which she was perfectly willing to pay for. At least, I only +presume she had likes; I know she had prejudices. + +Nobody every understood why Bella consented to take Betty’s place with +Aunt Selina. As for me, I was too much engrossed with my own affairs +to pay the invalid much attention. Once or twice during the day I had +stopped in to see her, and had been received frigidly and with marked +disapproval. I was in disgrace, of course, after the scene in the dining +room the night before. I had stood like a naughty child, just inside the +door, and replied meekly when she said the pillows were overstuffed, and +why didn’t I have the linen slips rinsed in starch water? She laid the +blame of her illness on me, as I have said before, and she made Jim read +to her in the afternoon from a book she carried with her, Coals of Fire +on the DOMESTIC Hearth, marking places for me to read. + +She sent for me that night, just as I had taken off my gown; so I threw +on a dressing gown and went in. To my horror, Jim was already there. At +a gesture from Aunt Selina, he closed the door into the hall and tiptoed +back beside the bed, where he sat staring at the figures on the silk +comfort. + +Aunt Selina’s first words were: + +“Where’s that flibberty-gibbet?” + +Jim looked at me. + +“She must mean Betty,” I explained. “She has gone to bed, I think.” + +“Don’t--let--her--in--this--room--again,” she said, with awful emphasis. +“She is an infamous creature.” + +“Oh, come now, Aunt Selina,” Jim broke in; “she’s foolish, perhaps, but +she’s a nice little thing.” + +Aunt Selina’s face was a curious study. Then she raised herself on her +elbow, and, taking a flat chamois-skin bag from under her pillow, held +it out. + +“My cameo breastpin,” she said solemnly; “my cuff-buttons with gold rims +and storks painted on china in the middle; my watch, that has put me to +bed and got me up for forty years, and my money--five hundred and ten +dollars and forty cents!--taken with the doors locked under my nose.” + Which was ambiguous, but forcible. + +“But, good gracious, Miss Car--Aunt Selina!” I exclaimed, “you don’t +think Betty Mercer took those things?” + +“No,” she said grimly; “I think I probably got up in my sleep and +lighted the fire with them, or sent em out for a walk.” Then she stuffed +the bag away and sat up resolutely in bed. + +“Have you made up?” she demanded, looking from one to the other of us. +“Bella, don’t tell me you still persist in that nonsense.” + +“What nonsense?” I asked, getting ready to run. + +“That you do not love him.” + +“Him?” + +“James,” she snapped irritably. “Do you suppose I mean the policeman?” + +I looked over at Jimmy. She had got me by the hand, and Jimmy was making +frantic gestures to tell her the whole thing and be done with it. But +I had gone too far. The mill of the gods had crushed me already, and +I didn’t propose to be drawn out hideously mangled and held up as an +example for the next two or three weeks, although it was clear enough +that Aunt Selina disapproved of me thoroughly, and would have been glad +enough to find that no tie save the board of health held us together. +And then Bella came in, and you wouldn’t have known her. She had put on +a straight white woolen wrapper, and she had her hair in two long braids +down her back. She looked like a nice, wide-eyed little girl in her +teens, and she had some lobster salad and a glass of port on a tray. +When she saw the situation, she put the things down and had the +nastiness to stay and listen. + +“I’m not blind,” Aunt Selina said, with one eye on the tray. “You two +silly children adore each other; I saw some things last night.” + +Bella took a step forward; then she stopped and shrugged her shoulders. +Jim was purple. + +“I saw you kiss her in the dining room, remember that!” Aunt Selina went +on, giving the screw another turn. + +It was Bella’s turn to be excited. She gave me one awful stare, then she +fixed her eyes on Jim. + +“Besides,” Aunt Selina went on, “you told me today that you loved her. +Don’t deny it, James.” + +Bella couldn’t keep quiet another instant. She came over and stood at +the foot of the bed. + +“Please don’t excite yourself, DEAR Miss Caruthers,” she said in a voice +like ice. “Every one knows that he loves her; he simply overflows +with it. It--it is quite a by-word among their friends. They have been +sitting together in a corner all evening.” + +Yes, that was what she said; when I had not spoken to Jimmy the whole +time in the den. Bella was cattish, and she was jealous, too. I turned +on my heel and went to the door; then I turned to her, with my hand on +the knob. + +“You have been misinformed,” I said coldly. “You can not possibly know, +having spent three hours in a corner yourself--with Mr. Harbison.” I +abhor jealousy in a woman. + +Well, Aunt Selina ate all the lobster salad, and drank the port after +Bella had told her it was beef, iron and wine, and she slept all night, +and was able to sit up in a chair the next day, and was so infatuated +with Bella that she would not let her out of her sight. But that is +ahead of the story. + +At midnight the house was fairly quiet, except for Jim, who kept walking +around the halls because he couldn’t sleep. I got up at last and ordered +him to bed, and he had the audacity to have a grievance with me. + +“Look at my situation now!” he said, sitting pensively on a steam +radiator. “Aunt Selina is crazy. I only kissed your hand, anyhow, and I +don’t know why you sat in the den all evening; you might have known that +Bella would notice it. Why couldn’t you leave me alone to my misery?” + +“Very well,” I said, much offended. “After this I shall sit with +Flannigan in the kitchen. He is the only gentleman in the house.” + +I left him babbling apologies and went to bed, but I had an +uncomfortable feeling that Bella had been a witness to our conversation, +for the door into Aunt Selina’s room closed softly as I passed. + +I knew beforehand that I was not going to sleep. The instant I turned +out the light the nightmare events of the evening ranged themselves in +a procession, or a series of tableaus, one after the other; Flannigan on +the roof, with the bracelet on his palm, looking accusingly at me; Mr. +Harbison and the scene on the roof, with my flippancy; and the result +of that flippancy--the man on the stairs, the arms that held me, the +terrible kisses that had scorched my lips--it was awful! And then the +absurd situation across Aunt Selina’s bed, and Bella’s face! Oh, it +was all so ridiculous--my having thought that the Harbison man was +a gentleman, and finding him a cad, and worse. It was excruciatingly +funny. I quite got a headache from laughing; indeed I laughed until I +found I was crying, and then I knew I was going to have an attack of +strangulated emotion, called hysteria. So I got up and turned on all the +lights, and bathed my face with cologne, and felt better. + +But I did not go to sleep. When the hall clock chimed two, I discovered +I was hungry. I had had nothing since luncheon, and even the thirst +following the South American goulash was gone. There was probably +something to eat in the pantry, and if there was not, I was quite equal +to going to the basement. + +As it happened, however, I found a very orderly assortment of left-overs +and a pitcher of milk, which had no business there in the pantry, and +with plenty of light I was not at all frightened. + +I ate bread and butter and drank milk, and was fast becoming a rational +person again; I had pulled out one of the drawers part way, and with a +tray across the corner I had improvised a comfortable seat. And then I +noticed that the drawer was full of soiled napkins, and I remembered the +bracelet. I hardly know why I decided to go through the drawer again, +after Flannigan had already done it, but I did. I finished my milk and +then, getting down on my knees, I proceeded systematically to empty the +drawer. I took out perhaps a dozen napkins and as many doilies without +finding anything. Then I took out a large tray cloth, and there was +something on it that made me look farther. One corner of it had been +scorched, the clear and well defined imprint of a lighted cigarette or +cigar, a blackened streak that trailed off into a brown and yellow. +I had a queer, trembly feeling, as if I were on the brink of a +discovery--perhaps Anne’s pearls, or the cuff buttons with storks +painted on china in the center. But the only thing I found, down in the +corner of the drawer, was a half-burned cigarette. + +To me, it seemed quite enough. It was one of the South American +cigarettes, with a tobacco wrapper instead of paper, that Mr. Harbison +smoked. + + + +Chapter XII. THE ROOF GARDEN + +I was quite ill the next morning--from excitement, I suppose. Anyhow, +I did not get up, and there wasn’t any breakfast. Jim said he roused +Flannigan at eight o’clock, to go down and get the fire started, and +then went back to bed. But Flannigan did not get up. He appeared, +sheepishly, at half-past ten, and by that time Bella was down, in a +towering rage, and had burned her hand and got the fire started, and had +taken up a tray for Aunt Selina and herself. + +As the others straggled down they boiled themselves eggs or ate fruit, +and nobody put anything away. Lollie Mercer made me some tea and +scorched toast, and brought it, about eleven o’clock. + +“I never saw such a house,” she declared. “A dozen housemaids couldn’t +put it in order. Why should every man that smokes drop ashes wherever he +happens to be?” + +“That’s the question of the ages,” I replied languidly. “What was +Max talking so horribly about a little while ago?” Lollie looked up +aggrieved. + +“About nothing at all,” she declared. “Anne told me to clean the bath +tubs with oil, and I did it, that’s all. Now Max says he couldn’t get it +off, and his clothes stick to him, and if he should forget and strike a +match in the--in the usual way, he would explode. He can clean his own +tub tomorrow,” she finished vindictively. + +At noon Jim came in to see me, bringing Anne as a concession to Bella. +He was in a rage, and he carried the morning paper like a club in his +hand. + +“What sort of a newspaper lie would you call this?” he demanded +irritably. “It makes me crazy; everybody with a mental image of me +leaning over the parapet of the roof, waving a board, with the rest of +you sitting on my legs to keep me from overbalancing!” + +“Maybe there’s a picture!” Anne said hopefully. + +Jim looked. + +“No picture,” he announced. “I wonder why they restrained themselves! +I wish Bella would keep off the roof,” he added, with fresh access +of rage, “or wear a mask or veil. One of those fellows is going to +recognize her, and there’ll be the deuce to pay.” + +“When you are all through discussing this thing, perhaps you will tell +me what is the matter,” I remarked from my couch. “Why did you lean over +the parapet, Jim, and who sat on your legs?” + +“I didn’t; nobody did,” he retorted, waving the newspaper. “It’s a +lie out of the whole cloth, that’s what it is. I asked you girls to +be decent to those reporters; it never pays to offend a newspaper man. +Listen to this, Kit.” + +He read the article rapidly, furiously, pausing every now and then to +make an exasperated comment. + +ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE FRUSTRATED MEMBERS OF THE FOUR HUNDRED DEFY THE LAW + +“Special Officer McCloud, on duty at the quarantined house of James +Wilson, artist and clubman, on Ninety-fifth Street, reported this +morning a daring attempt at escape, made at 3 A.M. It is in this house +that some eight or nine members of the smart set were imprisoned +during the course of a dinner party, when the Japanese butler developed +smallpox. The party shut in the house includes Miss Katherine McNair, +the daughter of Theodore McNair, of the Inter-Ocean system; Mr. and Mrs. +Dallas Brown; the Misses Mercer; Maxwell Reed, the well-known clubman +and whip; and a Mr. Thomas Harbison, guest of the Dallas Browns and a +South American. + +“Officer McCloud’s story, told to a Chronicle reporter this morning, is +as follows: The occupants of the house had been uneasy all day. From the +air of subdued bustle, and from a careful inspection of the roof, +made by the entire party during the afternoon, his suspicion had been +aroused. Nothing unusual, however, occurred during the early part of the +night. From eight o’clock to twelve, McCloud was relieved from duty, his +place being taken by Michael Shane, of the Eighty-sixth Street Station. + +“When McCloud came on duty at midnight, Shane reported that about eleven +o’clock the searchlight of a steamer on the river, flashing over the +house, had shown a man crouching on the parapet, evidently surveying +the roof across, which at this point is only twelve feet distant, with a +view of making his escape. One seeing Shane below, however, he had beat +a retreat, but not before the officer had seen him distinctly. He was +dressed in evening clothes and wore a light tan overcoat. + +“Officer McCloud relieved Shane at midnight, and sent for a +plain-clothes man from the station house. This man was stationed on the +roof of the Bevington residence next door, with strict injunctions +to prevent an escape from the quarantined mansion. Nothing suspicious +having occurred, the man on the roof left about 3 A.M., reporting +to McCloud below that everything was quiet. At that moment, glancing +skyward, one of the officers was astounded to see a long narrow board +project itself from the coping of the Wildon house, waver uncertainly +for a moment, and then advance stealthily toward the parapet across. +When it was within a foot or two of a resting place, McCloud called +sharply to the invisible refugee above, at the same time firing his +revolver in the ground. + +“The result was surprising. The board stopped, trembled, swayed a +little, and dropped, missing the vigilant officers by a hair’s breadth, +and crashing to the cement with a terrific force. An inspection of the +roof from the Bevington house, later, revealed nothing unusual. It +is evident, however, that the quarantine is proving irksome to the +inhabitants of the sequestered residence, most of whom are typical +society folk, without resources in themselves. Their condition, without +valets and maids, is certainly pitiable. It has been rumored that +the ladies are doing their own hair, and that the gentlemen have been +reduced to putting their own buttons in their shirts. This deplorable +situation, however, is unavoidable. + +“The vigilance of the board of health has been most commendable in this +case. Beginning with a wager over the telephone that they would break +quarantine in twenty-four hours, and ending with the attempt to span +a twelve-foot gulf with a board, over which to cross to freedom, these +shut-in society folk have shown characteristic disregard of the laws +of the state. It is quite time to extend to the millionaire the same +strictness that keeps the commuter at home for three weeks with the +measles; that makes him get the milk bottles and groceries from the +gate post and smell like dog soap for a month afterward, as a result of +disinfection.’” + +We sat in dead silence for a minute. Then: + +“Perhaps it is true,” I said. “Not of you, Jim--but some one may have +tried to get out that way. In fact, I think it extremely likely.” + +“Who? Flannigan? You couldn’t drive him out. He’s having the time of his +life. Do you suspect me?” + +“Come away and don’t fight,” Anne broke in pacifically. “You will have +to have luncheon sent in, Jimmy; nobody has ordered anything from the +shops, and I feel like old Mother Hubbard.” + +“I wish you would all go out,” I said wearily. “If every man in the +house says he didn’t try to get over to the next roof last night, well +and good. But you might look and see if the board is still lying where +it fell.” + +There was an instantaneous rush for the window, and a second’s pause. +Then Jimmy’s voice, incredulous, awed: + +“Well, I’ll be--blessed! There’s the board!” + +I stayed in my room all that day. My head really ached and then, too, +I did not care to meet Mr. Harbison. It would have to come; I realized +that a meeting was inevitable, but I wanted time to think how I would +meet him. It would be impossible to cut him, without rousing the +curiosity of the others to fever pitch; and it was equally impossible to +ignore the disgraceful episode on the stairs. As it happened, however, I +need not have worried. I went down to dinner, languidly, when every +one was seated, and found Max at my right, and Mr. Harbison moved over +beside Bella. Every one was talking at once, for Flannigan, ambling +around the table as airily as he walked his beat, had presented Bella +with her bracelet on a salad plate, garnished with romaine. He had found +it in the furnace room, he said, where she must have dropped it. And he +looked at me stealthily, to approve his mendacity! + +Every one was famished, and as they ate they discussed the board in the +area way, and pretended to deride it as a clever bit of press work, to +revive a dying sensation. No one was deceived; Anne’s pearls and the +attempt to escape, coming just after, pointed only to one thing. I +looked around the table, dazed. Flannigan, almost the only unknown +quantity, might have tried to escape the night before, but he would not +have been in dress clothes. Besides, he must be eliminated as far as the +pearls were concerned, having been locked in the furnace room the night +they were stolen. There was no one among the girls to suspect. The +Mercer girls had stunning pearls, and could secure all they wanted +legitimately; and Bella disliked them. Oh, there was no question about +it, I decided; Dallas and Anne had taken a wolf to their bosom--or is +it a viper?--and the Harbison man was the creature. Although I must say +that, looking over the table, at Jimmy’s breadth and not very imposing +personality, at Max’s lean length, sallow skin, and bold dark eyes, at +Dallas, blond, growing bald and florid, and then at the Harbison boy, +tall, muscular, clear-eyed and sunburned, one would have taken Max at +first choice as the villain, with Dal next, Jim third, and the Harbison +boy not in the running. + +It was just after dinner that the surprise was sprung on me. Mr. +Harbison came around to me gravely, and asked me if I felt able to go +up on the roof. On the roof, after last night! I had to gather myself +together; luckily, the others were pushing back their chairs, showing +Flannigan the liqueur glasses to take up, and lighting cigars. + +“I do not care to go,” I said icily. + +“The others are coming,” he persisted, “and I--I could give you an arm +up the stairs.” + +“I believe you are good at that,” I said, looking at him steadily. “Max, +will you help me to the roof?” + +Mr. Harbison really turned rather white. Then he bowed ceremoniously and +left me. + +Max got me a wrap, and every one except Mr. Harbison and Bella, who was +taking a mass of indigestables to Aunt Selina, went to the roof. + +“Where is Tom?” Anne asked, as we reached the foot of the stairs. “Gone +ahead to fix things,” was the answer. But he was not there. At the top +of the last flight I stopped, dumb with amazement; the roof had been +transformed, enchanted. It was a fairy-land of lights and foliage and +colors. I had to stop and rub my eyes. From the bleakness of a tin roof +in February to the brightness and greenery of a July roof garden! + +“You were the immediate inspiration, Kit,” Dallas said. “Harbison +thought your headache might come from lack of exercise and fresh air, +and he has worked us like nailers all day. I’ve a blister on my right +palm, and Harbison got shocked while he was wiring the place, and +nearly fell over the parapet. We bought out two full-sized florists by +telephone.” + +It was the most amazing transformation. At each corner a pole had been +erected, and wires crossed the roof diagonally, hung with red and amber +bulbs. Around the chimneys had been massed evergreen trees in tubs, +hiding their brick-and-mortar ugliness, and among the trees tiny lights +were strung. Along the parapet were rows of geometrical boxwood plants +in bright red crocks, and the flaps of a crimson and white tent had +been thrown open, showing lights within, and rugs, wicker chairs, and +cushions. + +Max raised a glass of benedictine and posed for a moment, +melodramatically. + +“To the Wilson roof garden!” he said. “To Kit, who inspired; to the +creators, who perspired; and to Takahiro--may he not have expired.” + +Every one was very gay; I think the knowledge that tomorrow Aunt Selina +might be with them urged them to make the most of this last night of +freedom. I tried to be jolly, and succeeded in being feverish. Mr. +Harbison did not come up to enjoy what he had wrought. Jim brought up +his guitar and sang love songs in a beautiful tenor, looking at Bella +all the time. And Bella sat in a steamer chair, with a rug over her and +a spangled veil on her head, looking at the boats on the river--about as +soft and as chastened as an an acetylene headlight. + +And after Max had told the most improbable tale, which Leila advised him +to sprinkle salt on, and Dallas had done a clog dance, Bella said it +was time for her complexion sleep and went downstairs, and broke up the +party. + +“If she only give half as an much care to her immortal soul,” Anne said +when she had gone, “as she does to her skin, she would let that nice +Harbison boy alone. She must have been brutal to him tonight, for he +went to bed at nine o’clock. At least, I suppose he went to bed, for he +shut himself in the studio, and when I knocked he advised me not to come +in.” + +I had pleaded my headache as an excuse for avoiding Aunt Selina all day, +and she had not sent for me. Bella was really quite extraordinary. +She was never in the habit of putting herself out for any one, and she +always declared that the very odor of a sick room drove her to Scotch +and soda. But here she was, rubbing Aunt Selina’s back with chloroform +liniment--and you know how that smells--getting her up in a chair, +dressed in one of Bella’s wadded silk robes, with pillows under her +feet, and then doing her hair in elaborate puffs--braiding her gray +switch and bringing it, coronet-fashion, around the top of her head. +She even put rice powder on Aunt Selina’s nose, and dabbed violet water +behind her ears, and said she couldn’t understand why she (Aunt Selina) +had never married, but, of course, she probably would some day! + +The result was, naturally, that the old lady wouldn’t let Bella out of +her sight, except to go to the kitchen for something to eat for her. +That very day Bella got the doctor to order ale for Aunt Selina (oh, +yes; the doctor could come in; Dal said “it was all a-coming in, and +nothing going out”) and she had three pints of Bass, and learned to eat +anchovies and caviare--all in one day. + +Bella’s conduct to Jim was disgraceful. She snubbed him, ignored him, +tramped on him, and Jim was growing positively flabby. He spent most of +his time writing letters to the board of health and playing solitaire. +He was a pathetic figure. + +Well, we went to bed fairly early. Bella had massaged Aunt Selina’s +face and rubbed in cold cream, Anne and Dallas had compromised on which +window should be open in their bedroom, and the men had matched to see +who should look at the furnace. I did not expect to sleep, but the cold +night air had done its work, and I was asleep almost immediately. + +Some time during the early part of the night I wakened, and, after +turning and twisting uneasily, I realized that I was cold. The couch +in Bella’s dressing room was comfortable enough, but narrow and low. I +remember distinctly (that was what was so maddening; everybody thought I +dreamed it)--I remember getting an eiderdown comfort that was folded +at my feet, and pulling it up around me. In the luxury of its warmth I +snuggled down and went to sleep almost instantly. It seemed to me I had +slept for hours, but it was probably an hour or less, when something +roused me. The room was perfectly dark, and there was not a sound save +the faint ticking of the clock, but I was wide awake. + +And then came the incident that in its ghastly, horrible absurdity made +the rest of the people shout with laughter the next day. It was not +funny then. For suddenly the eiderdown comfort began to slip. I heard no +footstep, not the slightest sound approaching me, but the comfort +moved; from my chin, inch by inch, it slipped to my shoulders; awfully, +inevitably, hair-raisingly it moved. I could feel my blood gather around +my heart, leaving me cold and nerveless. As it passed my hands I gave +an involuntary clutch for it, to feel it slip away from my fingers. Then +the full horror of the situation took hold of me; as the comfort slid +past my feet I sat up and screamed at the top of my voice. + +Of course, people came running in all sorts of things. I was still +sitting up, declaring I had seen a ghost and that the house was haunted. +Dallas was struggling for the second armhole of his dressing gown and +Bella had already turned on the lights. They said I had had a nightmare, +and not to sleep on my back, and perhaps I was taking grippe. + +And just then we heard Jimmy run down the stairs, and fall over +something, almost breaking his wrist. It was the eiderdown comfort, +half-way up the studio staircase! + + + +Chapter XIII. HE DOES NOT DENY IT + +Aunt Selina got up the next morning and Jim told her all the strange +things that had been happening. She fixed on Flannigan, of course, +although she still suspected Betty of her watch and other valuables. The +incident of the comfort she called nervous indigestion and bad hours. + +She spent the entire day going through the storeroom and linen closets, +and running her fingers over things for dust. Whenever she found any +she looked at me, drew a long breath, and said, “Poor James!” It was +maddening. And when she went through his clothes and found some buttons +off (Jim didn’t keep a man, and Takahiro had stopped at his boots) she +looked at me quite awfully. + +“His mother was a perfect housekeeper,” she said. “James was brought up +in clothes with the buttons on, put on clean shelves.” + +“Didn’t they put them on him?” I asked, almost hysterically. It had been +a bad morning, after a worse night. Every one had found fault with the +breakfast, and they straggled down one at a time until I was frantic. +Then Flannigan had talked to me about the pearls, and Mr. Harbison had +said, “Good morning,” very stiffly, and nearly rattled the inside of the +furnace out. + +Early in the morning, too, I overheard a scrap of conversation between +the policeman and our gentleman adventurer from South America. Something +had gone wrong with the telephone and Mr. Harbison was fussing over it +with a screw driver and a pair of scissors--all the tools he could find. +Flannigan was lifting rugs to shake them on the roof--Bella’s order. + +“Wash the table linen!” he was grumbling. “I’ll do what I can that’s +necessary. Grub has to be cooked, and dishes has to be washed--I’ll +admit that. If you’re particular, make up your bed every day; I don’t +object. But don’t tell me we have to use thirty-three table napkins +a day. What did folks do before napkins was invented? Tell me +that!”--triumphantly. + +“What’s the answer?” Mr. Harbison inquired absently, evidently with the +screw driver in his mouth. + +“Used their pocket handkerchiefs! And if the worst comes to the +worst, Mr. Harbison, these folks here can use their sleeves, for all +I care--not that the women has any sleeves to speak of. Wash clothes I +will not.” + +“Well, don’t worry Mrs. Wilson about it,” the other voice said. +Flannigan straightened himself with a grunt. + +“Mrs. Wilson!” he said. “A lot she would worry. She’s been a +disappointment to me, Mr. Harbison, me thinking that now she’d come back +to him, after leavin’ him the way she did, they’d be like two turtle +doves. Lord! The cook next door--” + +But what the cook had told about Bella and Jimmy was not divulged, +for the Harbison man caught him up with a jerk and sent Flannigan, +grumbling, with his rugs to the roof. + +It did not seem possible to carry on the deception much longer, but if +things were bad now, what would they be when Aunt Selina learned she had +been lied to, made ridiculous, generally deceived? And how would I be +able to live in the house with her when she did know? Luckily, every +one was so puzzled over the mystery in the house that numbers of little +things that would have been absolutely damning were never noticed at +all. For instance, my asking Jimmy at luncheon that day if he took cream +in his coffee! And Max coming to the rescue by dropping his watch in +his glass of water, and creating a diversion and giving everybody an +opportunity to laugh by saying not to mind, it had been in soak before. + +Just after luncheon Aunt Selina brought me some undergarments of Jim’s +to be patched. She explained at length that he had always worn out his +undergarments, because he always squirmed around so when he was sitting. +And she showed me how to lay one of the garments over a pillow to get +the patch in properly. + +It was the most humiliating moment of my life, but there was no escape. +I took my sewing to the roof, while she went away to find something else +for me to do when that was finished, and I sat with the thing on my +knee and stared at it, while rebellious tears rolled down my cheeks. +The patch was not the shape of the hole at all, and every time I took a +stitch I sewed it fast to the pillow beneath. It was terrible. Jim came +up after a while and sat down across from me and watched, without saying +anything. I suppose what he felt would not have been proper to say to +me. We had both reached the point where adequate language failed us. +Finally he said: + +“I wish I were dead.” + +“So do I,” I retorted, jerking the thread. + +“Where is she now?” + +“Looking for more of these.” I indicated the garment over the pillow, +and he wiggled. “Please don’t squirm,” I said coldly. “You will wear out +your--lingerie, and I will have to mend them.” + +He sat very still for five minutes, when I discovered that I had put the +patch in crosswise instead of lengthwise and that it would not fit. As I +jerked it out he sneezed. + +“Or sneeze,” I added venomously. “You will tear your buttons off, and I +will have to sew them on.” + +Jim rose wrathfully. “Don’t sit, don’t sneeze,” he repeated. “Don’t +stand, I suppose, for fear I will wear out my socks. Here, give me that. +If the fool thing has to be mended, I’ll do it myself.” + +He went over to a corner of the parapet and turned his back to me. He +was very much offended. In about a minute he came back, triumphant, and +held out the result of his labor. I could only gasp. He had puckered up +the edges of the hole like the neck of a bag, and had tied the thread +around it. “You--you won’t be able to sit down,” I ventured. + +“Don’t have any time to sit,” he retorted promptly. “Anyhow, it will +give some, won’t it? It would if it was tied with elastic instead of +thread. Have you any elastic?” + +Lollie came up just then, and Jim took himself and his mending +downstairs. Luckily, Aunt Selina found several letters in his room that +afternoon while she was going over his clothes, and as it took Jim some +time to explain them, she forgot the task she had given me altogether. + +When Lollie came up to the roof, she closed the door to the stairs, and +coming over, drew a chair close to mine. + +“Have you seen much of Tom today?” she asked, as an introduction. + +“I suppose you mean Mr. Harbison, Lollie,” I said. “No--not any more +than I could help. Don’t whisper, he couldn’t possibly hear you. And if +it’s scandal I don’t want to know it.” + +“Look here, Kit,” she retorted, “you needn’t be so superior. If I like +to talk scandal, I’m not so sure you aren’t making it.” + +That was the way right along: I was making scandal; I brought them there +to dinner; I let Bella in! + +And, of course, Anne came up then, and began on me at once. + +“You are a very bad girl,” she began. “What do you mean by treating Tom +Harbison the way you do? He is heart-broken.” + +“I think you exaggerate my influence over him,” I retorted. “I haven’t +treated him badly, because I haven’t paid any attention to him.” + +Anne threw up her hands. + +“There you are!” she said. “He worked all day yesterday fixing this +place for you--yes, for you, my dear. I am not blind--and last night you +refused to let him bring you up.” + +“He told you!” I flamed. + +“He wondered what he had done. And as you wouldn’t let him come within +speaking distance of you, he came to me.” + +“I am sorry, Anne, since you are fond of him,” I said. “But to me he is +impossible--intolerable. My reasons are quite sufficient.” + +“Kit is perfectly right, Anne,” Leila broke in. “I tell you, there is +something queer about him,” she added in a portentous whisper. + +Anne stiffened. + +“He is perfect,” she declared. “Of good family, warm-hearted, +courageous, handsome, clever--what more do you ask?” + +“Honesty,” said Leila hotly. “That a man should be what he says he is.” + +Anne and I both stared. + +“It is your Mr. Harbison,” Leila went on, “who tried to escape from the +house by putting a board across to the next roof!” + +“I don’t believe it,” said Anne. “You might bring me a picture of him, +board in hand, and I wouldn’t believe it.” + +“Don’t then,” Lollie said cruelly. “Let him get away with your pearls; +they are yours. Only, as sure as anything, the man who tried to escape +from the house had a reason for escaping, and the papers said a man in +evening dress and light overcoat. I found Mr. Harbison’s overcoat today +lying in a heap in one of the maids’ rooms, and it was covered with +brick dust all over the front. A button had even been torn off.” + +“Pooh!” Anne said, when she had recovered herself a little. “There isn’t +any reason, as far as that goes, why Flannigan shouldn’t have worn Tom’s +overcoat, or--any of the others.” + +“Flannigan!” Leila said loftily. “Why, his arms are like piano legs; he +couldn’t get into it. As for the others, there is only one person who +would fit, or nearly fit, that overcoat, and that is Dallas, Anne.” + +While Anne was choking down her wrath, Leila got up and darted out of +the tent. When she came back she was triumphant. + +“Look,” she said, holding out her hand. And on her palm lay a lightish +brown button. “I found it just where the paper said the board was thrown +out, and it is from Mr. Harbison’s overcoat, without a doubt.” + +Of course I should not have been surprised. A man who would kiss a woman +on a dark staircase--a woman he had known only two days--was capable of +anything. + +“Kit has only been a little keener than the rest of us,” Lollie said. +“She found him out yesterday.” + +“Upon my word,” said Anne indignantly, preparing to go, “if I didn’t +know you girls so well, I would think you were crazy. And now, just to +offset this, I can tell you something. Flannigan told me this morning +not to worry; that he has my pearl collar spotted, and that YOUNG LADIES +WILL HAVE THEIR JOKES!” + +Yes, as I said before, it was a cheerful, joy-producing situation. + +I sat and thought it over after Anne’s parting shot, when Leila had +flounced downstairs. Things were closing in; I gave the situation +twenty-four hours to develop. At the end of that time Flannigan would +accuse me openly of knowing where the pearls were; I would explain my +silly remark to him and the mine would explode--under Aunt Selina. + +I was sunk in dejected reverie when some one came on the roof. When he +was opposite the opening in the tent, I saw Mr. Harbison, and at that +moment he saw me. He paused uncertainly, then he made an evident effort +and came over to me. + +“You are--better today?” + +“Quite well, thank you.” + +“I am glad you find the tent useful. Does it keep off the wind?” + +“It is quite a shelter”--frigidly. + +He still stood, struggling for something to say. Evidently nothing came +to his mind, for he lifted the cap he was wearing, and turning away, +began to work with the wiring of the roof. He was clever with tools; one +could see that. If he was a professional gentleman-burglar, no doubt he +needed to be. After a bit, finding it necessary to climb to the parapet, +he took off his coat, without even a glance in my direction, and fell to +work vigorously. + +One does not need to like a man to admire him physically, any more than +one needs to like a race horse or any other splendid animal. No one +could deny that the man on the parapet was a splendid animal; he looked +quite big enough and strong enough to have tossed his slender bridge +across the gulf to the next roof, without any difficulty, and coordinate +enough to have crossed on it with a flourish to safety. + +Just then there was a rending, tearing sound from the corner and a +muttered ejaculation. I looked up in time to see Mr. Harbison throw up +his arms, make a futile attempt to regain his balance, and disappear +over the edge of the roof. One instant he was standing there, splendid, +superb; the next, the corner of the parapet was empty, all that stood +there was a broken, splintered post and a tangle of wires. + +I could not have moved at first; at least, it seemed hours before the +full significance of the thing penetrated my dazed brain. When I got up +I seemed to walk, to crawl, with leaden weights holding back my feet. + +When I got to the corner I had to catch the post for support. I knew +somebody was saying, “Oh, how terrible!” over and over. It was only +afterward that I knew it had been myself. And then some other voice was +saying, “Don’t be alarmed. Please don’t be frightened. I’m all right.” + +I dared to look over the parapet, finally, and instead of a crushed and +unspeakable body, there was Mr. Harbison, sitting about eight feet below +me, with his feet swinging into space and a long red scratch from the +corner of his eye across his cheek. There was a sort of mansard there, +with windows, and just enough coping to keep him from rolling off. + +“I thought you had fallen--all the way,” I gasped, trying to keep my +lips from trembling. “I--oh, don’t dangle your feet like that!” + +He did not seem at all glad of his escape. He sat there gloomily, +peering into the gulf beneath. + +“If it wasn’t so--er--messy and generally unpleasant,” he replied +without looking up, “I would slide off and go the rest of the way.” + +“You are childish,” I said severely. “See if you can get through the +window behind you. If you can not, I’ll come down and unfasten it.” But +the window was open, and I had a chance to sit down and gather up the +scattered ends of my nerves. To my surprise, however, when he came back +he made no effort to renew our conversation. He ignored me completely, +and went to work at once to repair the damage to his wires, with his +back to me. + +“I think you are very rude,” I said at last. “You fell over there and I +thought you were killed. The nervous shock I experienced is just as bad +as if you had gone--all the way.” + +He put down the hammer and came over to me without speaking. Then, when +he was quite close, he said: + +“I am very sorry if I startled you. I did not flatter myself that you +would be profoundly affected, in any event.” + +“Oh, as to that,” I said lightly, “it makes me ill for days if my car +runs over a dog.” He looked at me in silence. “You are not going to get +up on that parapet again?” + +“Mrs. Wilson,” he said, without paying the slightest attention to my +question, “will you tell me what I have done?” + +“Done?” + +“Or have not done? I have racked my brains--stayed awake all of last +night. At first I hoped it was impersonal, that, womanlike you were +merely venting general disfavor on one particular individual. But--your +hostility is to me, personally.” + +I raised my eyebrows, coldly interrogative. + +“Perhaps,” he went on calmly--“perhaps I was a fool here on the +roof--the night before last. If I said anything that I should not, I ask +your pardon. If it is not that, I think you ought to ask mine!” + +I was angry enough then. + +“There can be only one opinion about your conduct,” I retorted warmly. +“It was worse than brutal. It--it was unspeakable. I have no words for +it--except that I loathe it--and you.” + +He was very grim by this time. “I have heard you say something like that +before--only I was not the unfortunate in that case.” + +“Oh!” I was choking. + +“Under different circumstances I should be the last person to recall +anything so--personal. But the circumstances are unusual.” He took an +angry step toward me. “Will you tell me what I have done? Or shall I go +down and ask the others?” + +“You wouldn’t dare,” I cried, “or I will tell them what you did! How you +waylaid me on those stairs there, and forced your caresses, your kisses, +on me! Oh, I could die with shame!” + +The silence that followed was as unexpected as it was ominous. I knew +he was staring at me, and I was furious to find myself so emotional, so +much more the excited of the two. Finally, I looked up. + +“You can not deny it,” I said, a sort of anti-climax. + +“No.” He was very quiet, very grim, quite composed. “No,” he repeated +judicially. “I do not deny it.” + +He did not? Or he would not? Which? + + + +Chapter XIV. ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE + +Dal had been acting strangely all day. Once, early in the evening, when +I had doubled no trump, he led me a club without apology, and later +on, during his dummy, I saw him writing our names on the back of an +envelope, and putting numbers after them. At my earliest opportunity I +went to Max. + +“There is something the matter with Dal, Max,” I volunteered. “He +has been acting strangely all day, and just now he was making out a +list--names and numbers.” + +“You’re to blame for that, Kit,” Max said seriously. “You put washing +soda instead of baking soda in those biscuits today, and he thinks he is +a steam laundry. Those are laundry lists he’s making out. He asked me a +little while ago if I wanted a domestic finish.” + +Yes, I had put washing soda in the biscuits. The book said soda, and how +is one to know which is meant? + +“I do not think you are calculated for a domestic finish,” I said coldly +as I turned away. “In any case I disclaim any such responsibility. +But--there is SOMETHING on Dal’s mind.” + +Max came after me. “Don’t be cross, Kit. You haven’t said a nice word +to me today, and you go around bristling with your chin up and two red +spots on your cheeks--like whatever-her-name-was with the snakes instead +of hair. I don’t know why I’m so crazy about you; I always meant to love +a girl with a nice disposition.” + +I left him then. Dal had gone into the reception room and closed the +doors. And because he had been acting so strangely, and partly to escape +from Max, whose eyes looked threatening, I followed him. Just as I +opened the door quietly and looked in, Dallas switched off the lights, +and I could hear him groping his way across the room. Then somebody--not +Dal--spoke from the corner, cautiously. + +“Is that you, Mr. Brown, sir?” It was Flannigan. + +“Yes. Is everything here?” + +“All but the powder, sir. Don’t step too close. They’re spread all over +the place.” + +“Have you taken the curtains down?” + +“Yes, sir.” + +“Matches?” + +“Here, sir.” + +“Light one, will you, Flannigan? I want to see the time.” + +The flare showed Dallas and Flannigan bent over the timepiece. And it +showed something else. The rug had been turned back from the windows +which opened on the street, and the curtains had been removed. On the +bare hardwood floor just beneath the windows was an array of pans of +various sizes, dish pans, cake tins, and a metal foot tub. The pans were +raised from the floor on bricks, and seemed to be full of paper. All the +chairs and tables were pushed back against the wall, and the bric-a-brac +was stacked on the mantel. + +“Half an hour yet,” Dal said, closing his watch. “Plenty of time, and +remember the signal, four short and two long.” + +“Four short and two long--all right, sir.” + +“And--Flannigan, here’s something for you, on account.” + +“Thank you, sir.” + +Dal turned to go out, tripped over the rug, said something, and passed +me without an idea of my presence. A moment later Flannigan went out, +and I was left, huddled against the wall, and alone. + +It was puzzling enough. “Four long and two short!” “All but the powder!” + Not that I believed for a moment what Max had said, and anyhow Flannigan +was the sanest person I ever saw in my life. But it all seemed a part +of the mystery that had been hanging over us for several days. I felt my +way across the room and knelt by the pans. Yes, they were there, full of +paper and mounted on bricks. It had not been a delusion. + +And then I straightened on my knees suddenly, for an automobile passing +under the windows had sounded four short honks and two long ones. The +signal was followed instantly by a crash. The foot bath had fallen from +its supports, and lay, quivering and vibrating with horrid noises at my +feet. The next moment Mr. Harbison had thrown open the door and leaped +into the room. + +“Who’s there?” he demanded. Against the light I could see him reaching +for his hip pocket, and the rest crowding up around him. + +“It’s only me,” I quavered, “that is, I. The--the dish pan upset.” + +“Dish pan!” Bella said from back in the crowd. “Kit, of course!” + +Jim forced his way through then and turned on the lights. I have no +doubt I looked very strange, kneeling there on the bare floor, with a +row of pans mounted on bricks behind me, and the furniture all piled on +itself in a back corner. + +“Kit! What in the world--!” Jim began, and stopped. He stared from me to +the pans, to the windows, to the bric-a-brac on the mantel, and back to +me. + +I sat stonily silent. Why should I explain? Whenever I got into a +foolish position, and tried to explain, and tell how it happened, and +who was really to blame, they always brought it back to ME somehow. So I +sat there on the floor and let them stare. And finally Lollie Mercer got +her breath and said, “How perfectly lovely; it’s a charade!” + +And Anne guessed “kitchen” at once. “Kit, you know, and the pans +and--all that,” she said vaguely. At that they all took to guessing! And +I sat still, until Mr. Harbison saw the storm in my eyes and came over +to me. + +“Have you hurt your ankle?” he said in an undertone. “Let me help you +up.” + +“I am not hurt,” I said coldly, “and even if I were, it would be +unnecessary to trouble you.” + +“I can not help being troubled,” he returned, just as evenly. “‘You see, +it makes me ill for days if my car runs over a dog.’” + +Luckily, at that moment Dal came in. He pushed his way through the +crowd without a word, shut off the lights, crashed through the pans and +slammed the shutters closed. Then he turned and addressed the rest. + +“Of all the lunatics--!” he began, only there was more to it than that. +“A fellow goes to all kinds of trouble to put an end to this miserable +situation, and the entire household turns out and sets to work to +frustrate the whole scheme. You LIKE to stay here, don’t you, like +chickens in a coop? Where’s Flannigan?” + +Nobody understood Dal’s wrath then, but it seems he meant to arrange +the plot himself, and when it was ripe, and the hour nearly come, he +intended to wager that he could break the quarantine, and to take any +odds he could get that he would free the entire party in half an hour. +As for the plan itself, it was idiotically simple; we were perfectly +delighted when we heard it. It was so simple and yet so comprehensive. +We didn’t see how it COULD fail. Both the Mercer girls kissed Dal on the +strength of it, and Anne was furious. Jim was not so much pleased, for +some reason or other, and Mr. Harbison looked thoughtful rather than +merry. Aunt Selina had gone to bed. + +The idea, of course, was to start an embryo fire just inside the +windows, in the pans, to feed it with the orange-fire powder that is +used on the Fourth of July, and when we had thrown open the windows and +yelled “fire” and all the guards and reporters had rushed to the +front of the house, to escape quietly by a rear door from the basement +kitchen, get into machines Dal had in waiting, and lose ourselves as +quickly as we could. + +You can see how simple it was. + +We were terribly excited, of course. Every one rushed madly for motor +coats and veils, and Dal shuffled the numbers so the people going the +same direction would have the same machine. We called to each other as +we dressed about Mamaroneck or Lakewood or wherever we happened to have +relatives. Everybody knew everybody else, and his friends. The Mercer +girls were going to cruise until the trouble blew over, the Browns were +going to Pinehurst, and Jim was going to Africa to hunt, if he could get +out of the harbor. + +Only the Harbison man seemed to have no plans; quite suddenly with the +world so near again, the world of country houses and steam yachts and +all the rest of it, he ceased to be one of us. It was not his world at +all. He stood back and watched the kaleidoscope of our coats and veils, +half-quizzically, but with something in his face that I had not seen +there before. If he had not been so self-reliant and big, I would have +said he was lonely. Not that he was pathetic in any sense of the word. +Of course, he avoided me, which was natural and exactly what I wished. +Bella never was far from him and at the last she loaded him with her +jewel case and a muff and traveling bag and asked him to her cousins’ on +Long Island. I felt sure he was going to decline, when he glanced across +at me. + +“Do go,” I said, very politely. “They are charming people.” And he +accepted at once! + +It was a transparent plot on Bella’s part: Two elderly maiden ladies, +house miles from anywhere, long evenings in the music room with an open +fire and Bella at the harp playing the two songs she knows. + +When we were ready and gathered in the kitchen, in the darkness, of +course, Dal went up on the roof and signaled with a lantern to the cars +on the drive. Then he went downstairs, took a last look at the drawing +room, fired the papers, shook on the powder, opened the windows and +yelled “fire!” + +Of course, huddled in the kitchen we had heard little or nothing. But we +plainly heard Dal on the first floor and Flannigan on the second yelling +“fire,” and the patter of feet as the guards ran to the front of the +house. And at that instant we remembered Aunt Selina! + +That was the cause of the whole trouble. I don’t know why they turned on +me; she wasn’t my aunt. But by the time we had got her out of bed, and +had wrapped her in an eiderdown comfort, and stuck slippers on her feet +and a motor veil on her head, the glare at the front of the house was +beginning to die away. She didn’t understand at all and we had no time +to explain. I remember that she wanted to go back and get her “plate,” + whatever that may be, but Jim took her by the arm and hurried her along, +and the rest, who had waited, and were in awful tempers, stood aside and +let them out first. + +The door to the area steps was open, and by the street lights we could +see a fence and a gate, which opened on a side street. Jim and Aunt +Selina ran straight for the gate; the wind blowing Aunt Selina’s comfort +like a sail. Then, with our feet, so to speak, on the first rungs of the +ladder of Liberty, it slipped. A half-dozen guards and reporters came +around the house and drove us back like sheep into a slaughter pen. It +was the most humiliating moment of my life. + +Dal had been for fighting a way through, and just for a minute I think +I went Berserk myself. But Max spied one of the reporters setting up a +flash light as we stood, undecided, at the top of the steps, and after +that there was nothing to do but retreat. We backed down slowly, to show +them we were not afraid. And when we were all in the kitchen again, and +had turned on the lights and Bella was crying with her head against Mr. +Harbison’s arm, Dal said cheerfully, + +“Well, it has done some good, anyhow. We have lost Aunt Selina.” + +And we all shook hands on it, although we were sorry about Jim. And Dal +said we would have some champagne and drink to Aunt Selina’s comfort, +and we could have her teeth fumigated and send them to her. Somebody +said “Poor old Jim,” and at that Bella looked up. + +She stared around the group, and then she went quite pale. + +“Jim!” she gasped. “Do you mean--that Jim is--out there too?” + +“Jim and Aunt Selina!” I said as calmly as I could for joy. You can see +how it simplified the situation for me. “By this time they are a mile +away, and going!” + +Everybody shook hands again except Bella. She had dropped into a chair, +and sat biting her lip and breathing hard, and she would not join in any +of the hilarity at getting rid of Aunt Selina. Finally she got up and +knocked over her chair. + +“You are a lot of cowards,” she stormed. “You deserted them out there, +left them. Heaven knows where they are--a defenseless old woman, +and--and a man who did not even have an overcoat. And it is snowing!” + +“Never mind,” Dal said reassuringly. “He can borrow Aunt Selina’s +comfort. Make the old lady discard from weakness. Anyhow, Bella, if I +know anything of human nature, the old lady will make it hot enough for +him. Poor old Jim!” + +Then they shook hands again, and with that there came a terrible banging +at the door, which we had locked. + +“Open the door!” some one commanded. It was one of the guards. + +“Open it yourself!” Dallas called, moving a kitchen table to reenforce +the lock. + +“Open that door or we will break it in!” + +Dallas put his hands in his pockets, seated himself on the table, and +whistled cheerfully. We could hear them conferring outside, and they +made another appeal which was refused. Suddenly Bella came over and +confronted Dallas. + +“They have brought them back!” she said dramatically. “They are out +there now; I distinctly heard Jim’s voice. Open that door, Dallas!” + +“Oh, DON’T let them in!” I wailed. It was quite involuntary, but the +disappointment was too awful. “Dallas, DON’T open that door!” + +Dal swung his feet and smiled from Bella to me. + +“Think what a solution it is to all our difficulties,” he said easily. +“Without Aunt Selina I could be happy here indefinitely.” + +There was more knocking, and somebody--Max, I think--said to let them +in, that it was a fool thing anyhow, and that he wanted to go to bed and +forget it; his feet were cold. And just then there was a crash, and part +of one of the windows fell in. The next blow from outside brought the +rest of the glass, and--somebody was coming through, feet first. It was +Jim. + +He did not speak to any of us, but turned and helped in a bundle of red +and yellow silk comfort that proved to be Aunt Selina, also feet first. +I had a glimpse of a half-dozen heads outside, guards and reporters. +Then Jim jerked the shade down and unswathed Aunt Selina’s legs so +that she could walk, offered his arm, and stalked past us and upstairs, +without a word! + +None of us spoke. We turned out the lights and went upstairs and took +off our wraps and went to bed. It had been almost a fiasco. + + + +Chapter XV. SUSPICION AND DISCORD + +Every one was nasty the next morning. Aunt Selina declared that her +feet were frost-bitten and kept Bella rubbing them with ice water all +morning. And Jim was impossible. He refused to speak to any of us and he +watched Bella furtively, as if he suspected her of trying to get him out +of the house. + +When luncheon time came around and he had shown no indication of going +to the telephone and ordering it, we had a conclave, and Max was chosen +to remind him of the hour. Jim was shut in the studio, and we waited +together in the hall while Max went up. When he came down he was +somewhat ruffled. + +“He wouldn’t open the door,” he reported, “and when I told him it was +meal time, he said he wasn’t hungry, and he didn’t give a whoop about +the rest of us. He had asked us here to dinner; he hadn’t proposed to +adopt us.” + +So we finally ordered luncheon ourselves, and about two o’clock Jim came +downstairs sheepishly, and ate what was left. Anne declared that Bella +had been scolding him in the upper hall, but I doubted it. She was never +seen to speak to him unnecessarily. + +The excitement of the escape over, Mr. Harbison and I remained on terms +of armed neutrality. And Max still hunted for Anne’s pearls, using them, +the men declared, as a good excuse to avoid tinkering with the furnace +or repairing the dumb waiter, which took the queerest notions, and +stopped once, half-way up from the kitchen, for an hour, with the dinner +on it. Anyhow, Max was searching the house systematically, armed with +a copy of Poe’s Purloined Letter and Gaboriau’s Monsieur LeCoq. He went +through the seats of the chairs with hatpins, tore up the beds, and +lifted rugs, until the house was in a state of confusion. And the next +day, the fourth, he found something--not much, but it was curious. He +had been in the studio, poking around behind the dusty pictures, with +Jimmy expostulating every time he moved anything and the rest standing +around watching him. + +Max was strutting. + +“We get it by elimination,” he said importantly. “The pearls being +nowhere else in the house, they must be here in the studio. Three parts +of the studio having yielded nothing, they must be in the fourth. Ladies +and gentlemen, let me have your attention for one moment. I tap this +canvas with my wand--there is nothing up my sleeve. Then I prepare +to move the canvas--so. And I put my hand in the pocket of this +disreputable velvet coat, so. Behold!” + +Then he gave a low exclamation and looked at something he held in his +hand. Every one stepped forward, and on his palm was the small diamond +clasp from Anne’s collar! + +Jimmy was apoplectic. He tried to smile, but no one else did. + +“Well, I’ll be flabbergasted!” he said. “I say, you people, you don’t +think for a minute that I put that thing there? Why, I haven’t worn that +coat for a month. It’s--it’s a trick of yours, Max.” + +But Max shook his head; he looked stupefied, and stood gazing from the +clasp to the pocket of the old painting coat. Betty dropped on a folding +stool, that promptly collapsed with her and created a welcome diversion, +while Anne pounced on the clasp greedily, with a little cry. + +“We will find it all now,” she said excitedly. “Did you look in the +other pockets, Max?” + +Then, for the first time, I was conscious of an air of constraint among +the men. Dallas was whistling softly, and Mr. Harbison, having +rescued Betty, was standing silent and aloof, watching the scene +with non-committal eyes. It was Max who spoke first, after a hurried +inventory of the other pockets. + +“Nothing else,” he said constrainedly. “I’ll move the rest of the +canvases.” + +But Jim interfered, to every one’s surprise. + +“I wouldn’t, if I were you, Max. There’s nothing back there. I had ‘em +out yesterday.” He was quite pale. + +“Nonsense!” Max said gruffly. “If it’s a practical joke, Jim, why don’t +you fess up? Anne has worried enough.” + +“The pearls are not there, I tell you,” Jim began. Although the studio +was cold, there were little fine beads of moisture on his face. “I must +ask you not to move those pictures.” And then Aunt Selina came to the +rescue; she stalked over and stood with her back against the stack of +canvases. + +“As far as I can understand this,” she declaimed, “you gentlemen are +trying to intimate that James knows something of that young woman’s +jewelry, because you found part of it in his pocket. Certainly you will +not move the pictures. How do you know that the young gentleman who said +he found it there didn’t have it up his sleeve?” + +She looked around triumphantly, and Max glowered. Dallas soothed her, +however. + +“Exactly so,” he said. “How do we know that Max didn’t have the clasp +up his sleeve? My dear lady, neither my wife nor I care anything for the +pearls, as compared with the priceless pearl of peace. I suggest tea on +the roof; those in favor--? My arm, Miss Caruthers.” + +It was all well enough for Jim to say later that he didn’t dare to have +the canvases moved, for he had stuck behind them all sorts of chorus +girl photographs and life-class crayons that were not for Aunt Selina’s +eye, besides four empty siphons, two full ones, and three bottles of +whisky. Not a soul believed him; there was a a new element of suspicion +and discord in the house. + +Every one went up on the roof and left him to his mystery. Anne drank +her tea in a preoccupied silence, with half-closed eyes, an attitude +that boded ill to somebody. The rest were feverishly gay, and Aunt +Selina, with a pair of arctics on her feet and a hot-water bottle at her +back, sat in the middle of the tent and told me familiar anecdotes of +Jimmy’s early youth (had he known, he would have slain her). Betty and +Mr. Harbison had found a medicine ball, and were running around like +a pair of children. It was quite certain that neither his escape from +death nor my accusation weighed heavily on him. + +While Aunt Selina was busy with the time Jim had swallowed an open +safety pin, and just as the pin had been coughed up, or taken out of +his nose--I forget which--Jim himself appeared and sulkily demanded the +privacy of the roof for his training hour. + +Yes, he was training. Flannigan claimed to know the system that had +reduced the president to what he is, and he and Jim had a seance every +day which left Jim feeling himself for bruises all evening. He claimed +to be losing flesh; he said he could actually feel it going, and he and +Flannigan had spent an entire afternoon in the cellar three days before +with a potato barrel, a cane-seated chair and a lamp. + +The whole thing had been shrouded in mystery. They sandpapered the +inside of the barrel and took out all the nails, and when they had +finished they carried it to the roof and put it in a corner behind the +tent. Everybody was curious, but Flannigan refused any information about +it, and merely said it was part of his system. Dal said that if HE had +anything like that in his system he certainly would be glad to get rid +of it. + +At a quarter to six Jim appeared, still sullen from the events of the +afternoon and wearing a dressing gown and a pair of slippers, Flannigan +following him with a sponge, a bucket of water and an armful of bath +towels. Everybody protested at having to move, but he was firm, and they +all filed down the stairs. I was the last, with Aunt Selina just ahead +of me. At the top of the stairs, she turned around suddenly to me. + +“That policeman looks cruel,” she said. “What’s more, he’s been in a +bad humor all day. More than likely he’ll put James flat on the roof +and tramp on him, under pretense of training him. All policemen are +inhuman.” + +“He only rolls him over a barrel or something like that,” I protested. + +“James had a bump like an egg over his ear last night,” Aunt Selina +insisted, glaring at Flannigan’s unconscious back. “I don’t think it’s +safe to leave him. It is my time to relax for thirty minutes, or I +would watch him. You will have to stay,” she said, fixing me with her +imperious eyes. + +So I stayed. Jim didn’t want me, and Flannigan muttered mutiny. But +it was easier to obey Aunt Selina than to clash with her, and anyhow I +wanted to see the barrel in use. + +I never saw any one train before. It is not a joyful spectacle. First, +Flannigan made Jim run, around and around the roof. He said it stirred +up his food and brought it in contact with his liver, to be digested. + +Flannigan, from meekness and submission, of a sort, in the kitchen, +became an autocrat on the roof. + +“Once more,” he would say. “Pick up your feet, sir! Pick up your feet!” + +And Jim would stagger doggedly past me, where I sat on the parapet, his +poor cheeks shaking and the tail of his bath robe wrapping itself around +his legs. Yes, he ran in the bath robe in deference to me. It seems +there isn’t much to a running suit. + +“Head up,” Flannigan would say. “Lift your knees, sir. Didn’t you ever +see a horse with string halt?” + +He let him stop finally, and gave him a moment to get his breath. Then +he set him to turning somersaults. They spread the cushions from the +couch in the tent on the roof, and Jim would poke his head down and say +a prayer, and then curve over as gracefully as a sausage and come up +gasping, as if he had been pushed off a boat. + +“Five pounds a day; not less, sir,” Flannigan said encouragingly. +“You’ll drop it in chunks.” + +Jim looked at the tin as if he expected to see the chunks lying at his +feet. + +“Yes,” he said, wiping the back of his neck. “If we’re in here thirty +days that will be one hundred and fifty pounds. Don’t forget to stop in +time, Flannigan. I don’t want to melt away like a candle.” + +He was cheered, however, by the promise of reduction. + +“What do you think of that, Kit?” he called to me. “Your uncle is going +to look as angular as a problem in geometry. I’ll--I’ll be the original +reductio ad absurdum. Do you want me to stand on my head, Flannigan? +Wouldn’t that reduce something?” + +“Your brains, sir,” Flannigan retorted gravely, and presented a pair of +boxing gloves. Jim visibly quailed, but he put them on. + +“Do you know, Flannigan,” he remarked, as he fastened them, “I’m +thinking of wearing these all the time. They hide my character.” + +Flannigan looked puzzled, but he did not ask an explanation. He demanded +that Jim shed the bath robe, which he finally did, on my promise to +watch the sunset. Then for fully a minute there was no sound save of +feet running rapidly around the roof, and an occasional soft thud. Each +thud was accompanied by a grunt or two from Jim. Flannigan was grimly +silent. Once there was a smart rap, an oath from the policeman, and a +mirthless chuckle from Jim. The chuckle ended in a crash, however, and I +turned. Jim was lying on his back on the roof, and Flannigan was wiping +his ear with a towel. Jim sat up and ran his hand down his ribs. + +“They’re all here,” he observed after a minute. “I thought I missed +one.” + +“The only way to take a man’s weight down,” Flannigan said dryly. + +Jim got up dizzily. + +“Down on the roof, I suppose you mean,” he said. + +The next proceedings were mysterious. Flannigan rolled the barrel into +the tent, and carried in a small glass lamp. With the material at hand +he seemed to be effecting a combination, no new one, to judge by his +facility. Then he called Jim. + +At the door of the tent Jim turned to me, his bathrobe toga fashion +around his shoulders. + +“This is a very essential part of the treatment,” he said solemnly. “The +exercise, according to Flannigan, loosens up the adipose tissue. The +next step is to boil it out. I hope, unless your instructions compel +you, that you will at least have the decency to stay out of the tent.” + +“I am going at once,” I said, outraged. “I’m not here because I’m mad +about it, and you know it. And don’t pose with that bath robe. If you +think you’re a character out of Roman history, look at your legs.” + +“I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said sulkily. “Only I’m tired of +having you choked down my throat every time I open my mouth, Kit. And +don’t go just yet. Flannigan is going for my clothes as soon as he +lights the--the lamp, and--somebody ought to watch the stairs.” + +That was all there was to it. I said I would guard the steps, and +Flannigan, having ignited the combination, whatever it was, went +downstairs. How was I to know that Bella would come up when she did? Was +it my fault that the lamp got too high, and that Flannigan couldn’t +hear Jim calling? Or that just as Bella reached the top of the steps +Jim should come to the door of the tent, wearing the barrel part of his +hot-air cabinet, and yelling for a doctor? + +Bella came to a dead stop on the upper step, with her mouth open. She +looked at Jim, at the inadequate barrel, and from them she looked at me. +Then she began to laugh, one of her hysterical giggles, and she turned +and went down again. As Jim and I stared at each other we could hear her +gurgling down the hall below. + +She had violent hysterics for an hour, with Anne rubbing her forehead +and Aunt Selina burning a feather out of the feather duster under her +nose. Only Jim and I understood, and we did not tell. Luckily, the next +thing that occurred drove Bella and her nerves from everybody’s mind. + +At seven o’clock, when Bella had dropped asleep and everybody else was +dressed for dinner, Aunt Selina discovered that the house was cold, and +ordered Dal to the furnace. + +It was Dal’s day at the furnace; Flannigan had been relieved of that +part of the work after twice setting fire to a chimney. + +In five minutes Dal came back and spoke a few words to Max, who followed +him to the basement, and in ten minutes more Flannigan puffed up the +steps and called Mr. Harbison. + +I am not curious, but I knew that something had happened. While Aunt +Selina was talking suffrage to Anne--who said she had always been +tremendously interested in the subject, and if women got the suffrage +would they be allowed to vote?--I slipped back to the dining room. + +The table was laid for dinner, but Flannigan was not in sight. I could +hear voices from somewhere, faint voices that talked rapidly, and after +a while I located the sounds under my feet. The men were all in the +basement, and something must have happened. I flew back to the basement +stairs, to meet Mr. Harbison at the foot. He was grimy and dusty, +with streaks of coal dust over his face, and he had been examining his +revolver. I was just in time to see him slip it into his pocket. + +“What is the matter?” I demanded. “Is any one hurt?” + +“No one,” he said coolly. “We’ve been cleaning out the furnace.” + +“With a revolver! How interesting--and unusual!” I said dryly, and +slipped past him as he barred the way. He was not pleased; I heard him +mutter something and come rapidly after me, but I had the voices as a +guide, and I was not going to be turned back like a child. The men had +gathered around a low stone arch in the furnace room, and were looking +down a short flight of steps, into a sort of vault, evidently under the +pavement. A faint light came from a small grating above, and there was a +close, musty smell in the air. + +“I tell you it must have been last night,” Dallas was saying. “Wilson +and I were here before we went to bed, and I’ll swear that hole was not +there then.” + +“It was not there this morning, sir,” Flannigan insisted. “It has been +made during the day.” + +“And it could not have been done this afternoon,” Mr. Harbison said +quietly. “I was fussing with the telephone wire down here. I would have +heard the noise.” + +Something in his voice made me look at him, and certainly his expression +was unusual. He was watching us all intently while Dallas pointed out to +me the cause of the excitement. From the main floor of the furnace room, +a flight of stone steps surmounted by an arch led into the coal cellar, +beneath the street. The coal cellar was of brick, with a cement floor, +and in the left wall there gaped an opening about three feet by three, +leading into a cavernous void, perfectly black--evidently a similar +vault belonging to the next house. + +The whole place was ghostly, full of shadows, shivery with +possibilities. It was Mr. Harbison finally who took Jim’s candle and +crawled through the aperture. We waited in dead silence, listening to +his feet crunching over the coal beyond, watching the faint yellow light +that came through the ragged opening in the wall. Then he came back and +called through to us. + +“Place is locked, over here,” he said. “Heavy oak door at the head of +the steps. Whoever made that opening has done a prodigious amount of +labor for nothing.” + +The weapon, a crowbar, lay on the ground beside the bricks, and he +picked it up and balanced it on his hand. Dallas’ florid face was almost +comical in his bewilderment; as for Jimmy--he slammed a piece of slag at +the furnace and walked away. At the door he turned around. + +“Why don’t you accuse me of it?” he asked bitterly. “Maybe you could +find a lump of coal in my pockets if you searched me.” + +He stalked up the stairs then and left us. Dallas and I went up +together, but we did not talk. There seemed to be nothing to say. Not +until I had closed and locked the door of my room did I venture to look +at something that I carried in the palm of my hand. It was a watch, not +running--a gentleman’s flat gold watch, and it had been hanging by its +fob to a nail in the bricks beside the aperture. + +In the back of the watch were the initials, T.H.H. and the picture of a +girl, cut from a newspaper. + +It was my picture. + + + +Chapter XVI. I FACE FLANNIGAN + +Dinner waited that night while everybody went to the coal cellar and +stared at the hole in the wall, and watched while Max took a tracing of +it and of some footprints in the coal dust on the other side. + +I did not go. I went into the library with the guilty watch in the fold +of my gown, and found Mr. Harbison there, staring through the February +gloom at the blank wall of the next house, and quite unconscious of the +reporter with a drawing pad just below him in the area-way. I went over +and closed the shutters before his very eyes, but even then he did not +move. + +“Will you be good enough to turn around?” I demanded at last. + +“Oh!” he said wheeling. “Are YOU here?” + +There wasn’t any reply to that, so I took the watch and placed it on the +library table between us. The effect was all that I had hoped. He stared +at it for an instant, then at me, and with his hand outstretched for it, +stopped. + +“Where did you find it?” he asked. I couldn’t understand his expression. +He looked embarrassed, but not at all afraid. + +“I think you know, Mr. Harbison,” I retorted. + +“I wish I did. You opened it?” + +“Yes.” + +We stood looking at each other across the table. It was his glance that +wavered. + +“About the picture--of you,” he said at last. “You see, down there in +South America, a fellow hasn’t much to do in the evenings, and a--a chum +of mine and I--we were awfully down on what we called the plutocrats, +the--the leisure classes. And when that picture of yours came in the +paper, we had--we had an argument. He said--” He stopped. + +“What did he say?” + +“Well, he said it was the picture of an empty-faced society girl.” + +“Oh!” I exclaimed. + +“I--I maintained there were possibilities in the face.” He put both +hands on the table, and, bending forward, looked down at me. “Well, I +was a fool, I admit. I said your eyes were kind and candid, in spite of +that haughty mouth. You see, I said I was a fool.” + +“I think you are exceedingly rude,” I managed finally. “If you want to +know where I found your watch, it was down in the coal cellar. And +if you admit you are an idiot, I am not. I--I know all about Bella’s +bracelet--and the board on the roof, and--oh, if you would only +leave--Anne’s necklace--on the coal, or somewhere--and get away--” + +My voice got beyond me then, and I dropped into a chair and covered my +face. I could feel him staring at the back of my head. + +“Well, I’ll be--” something or other, he said finally, and then he +turned on his heel and went out. By the time I got my eyes dry (yes, I +was crying; I always do when I am angry) I heard Jim coming downstairs, +and I tucked the watch out of sight. Would anyone have foreseen the +trouble that watch would make! + +Jim was sulky. He dropped into a chair and stretched out his legs, +looking gloomily at nothing. Then he got up and ambled into his den, +closing the door behind him without having spoken a word. It was more +than human nature could stand. + +When I went into the den he was stretched on the davenport with his face +buried in the cushions. He looked absolutely wilted, and every line of +him was drooping. + +“Go on out, Kit,” he said, in a smothered voice. “Be a good girl and +don’t follow me around.” + +“You are shameless!” I gasped. “Follow you! When you are hung around +my neck like a--like a--” Millstone was what I wanted to say, but I +couldn’t think of it. + +He turned over and looked up from his cushions like an ill-treated and +suffering cherub. + +“I’m done for, Kit,” he groaned. “Bella went up to the studio after we +left, and investigated that corner.” + +“What did she find? The necklace?” I asked eagerly. He was too wretched +to notice this. + +“No, that picture of you that I did last winter. She is crazy--she says +she is going upstairs and sit in Takahiro’s room and take smallpox and +die.” + +“Fiddlesticks!” I said rudely, and somebody hammered on the door and +opened it. + +“Pardon me for disturbing you,” Bella said, in her best +dear-me-I’m-glad-I-knocked manner. “But--Flannigan says the dinner has +not come.” + +“Good Lord!” Jim exclaimed. “I forgot to order the confounded dinner!” + +It was eight o’clock by that time, and as it took an hour at least +after telephoning the order, everybody looked blank when they heard. The +entire family, except Mr. Harbison, who had not appeared again, escorted +Jim to the telephone and hung around hungrily, suggesting new dishes +every minute. And then--he couldn’t raise Central. It was fifteen +minutes before we gave up, and stood staring at one another +despairingly. + +“Call out of a window, and get one of those infernal reporters to +do something useful for once,” Max suggested. But he was indignantly +hushed. We would have starved first. Jim was peering into the +transmitter and knocking the receiver against his hand, like a watch +that had stopped. But nothing happened. Flannigan reported a box of +breakfast food, two lemons, and a pineapple cheese, a combination that +didn’t seem to lend itself to anything. + +We went back to the dining room from sheer force of habit and sat around +the table and looked at the lemonade Flannigan had made. Anne WOULD talk +about the salad her last cook had concocted, and Max told about a little +town in Connecticut where the restaurant keeper smokes a corn-cob pipe +while he cooks the most luscious fried clams in America. And Aunt Selina +related that in her family they had a recipe for chicken smothered in +cream. And then we sipped the weak lemonade and nibbled at the cheese. + +“To change this gridiron martyrdom,” Dallas said finally, “where’s +Harbison? Still looking for his watch?” + +“Watch!” Everybody said it in a different tone. + +“Sure,” he responded. “Says his watch was taken last night from the +studio. Better get him down to take a squint at the telephone. Likely he +can fix it.” + +Flannigan was beside me with the cheese. And at that moment I felt Mr. +Harbison’s stolen watch slip out of my girdle, slide greasily across +my lap, and clatter to the floor. Flannigan stooped, but luckily it had +gone under the table. To have had it picked up, to have had to explain +how I got it, to see them try to ignore my picture pasted in it--oh, it +was impossible! I put my foot over it. + +“Drop something?” Dallas asked perfunctorily, rising. Flannigan was +still half kneeling. + +“A fork,” I said, as easily as I could, and the conversation went on. +But Flannigan knew, and I knew he knew. He watched my every movement +like a hawk after that, standing just behind my chair. I dropped my +useless napkin, to have it whirled up before it reached the floor. I +said to Betty that my shoe buckle was loose, and actually got the watch +in my hand, only to let it slip at the critical moment. Then they all +got up and went sadly back to the library, and Flannigan and I faced +each other. + +Flannigan was not a handsome man at any time, though up to then he had +at least looked amiable. But now as I stood with my hand on the back of +my chair, his face grew suddenly menacing. The silence was absolute. +I was the guiltiest wretch alive, and opposite me the law towered and +glowered, and held the yellow remnant of a pineapple cheese! And in the +silence that wretched watch lay and ticked and ticked and ticked. Then +Flannigan creaked over and closed the door into the hall, came back, +picked up the watch, and looked at it. + +“You’re unlucky, I’m thinkin’,” he said finally. “You’ve got the nerve +all right, but you ain’t cute enough.” + +“I don’t know what you mean,” I quavered. “Give me that watch to return +to Mr. Harbison.” + +“Not on your life,” he retorted easily. “I give it back myself, like +I did the bracelet, and--like I’m going to give back the necklace, if +you’ll act like a sensible little girl.” + +I could only choke. + +“It’s foolish, any way you look at it,” he persisted. “Here you are, +lots of friends, folks that think you’re all right. Why, I reckon there +isn’t one of them that wouldn’t lend you money if you needed it so bad.” + +“Will you be still?” I said furiously. “Mr. Harbison left that +watch--with me--an hour ago. Get him, and he will tell you so himself!” + +“Of course he would,” Flannigan conceded, looking at me with grudging +approval. “He wouldn’t be what I think he is, if he didn’t lie up and +down for you.” There were voices in the hall. Flannigan came closer. +“An hour ago, you say. And he told me it was gone this morning! It’s +a losing game, miss. I’ll give you twenty-four hours and then--the +necklace, if you please, miss.” + + + +Chapter XVII. A CLASH AND A KISS + +The clash that came that evening had been threatening for some time. +Take an immovable body, represented by Mr. Harbison and his square jaw, +and an irresistible force, Jimmy and his weight, and there is bound to +be trouble. + +The real fault was Jim’s. He had gone entirely mad again over Bella, and +thrown prudence to the winds. He mooned at her across the dinner table, +and waylaid her on the stairs or in the back halls, just to hear her +voice when she ordered him out of her way. He telephoned for flowers and +candy for her quite shamelessly, and he got out a book of photographs +that they had taken on their wedding journey, and kept it on the library +table. The sole concession he made to our presumptive relationship was +to bring me the responsibility for everything that went wrong, and his +shirts for buttons. + +The first I heard of the trouble was from Dal. He waylaid me in the hall +after dinner that night, and his face was serious. + +“I’m afraid we can’t keep it up very long, Kit,” he said. “With Jim +trailing Bella all over the house, and the old lady keener every day, +it’s bound to come out somehow. And that isn’t all. Jim and Harbison had +a set-to today--about you.” + +“About me!” I repeated. “Oh, I dare say I have been falling short again. +What was Jim doing? Abusing me?” + +Dal looked cautiously over his shoulder, but no one was near. + +“It seems that the gentle Bella has been unusually beastly today to Jim, +and--I believe she’s jealous of you, Kit. Jim followed her up to the +roof before dinner with a box of flowers, and she tossed them over the +parapet. She said, I believe, that she didn’t want his flowers; he could +buy them for you, and be damned to him, or some lady-like equivalent.” + +“Jim is a jellyfish,” I said contemptuously. “What did he say?” + +“He said he only cared for one woman, and that was Bella; that he never +had really cared for you and never would, and that divorce courts were +not unmitigated evils if they showed people the way to real happiness. +Which wouldn’t amount to anything if Harbison had not been in the tent, +trying to sleep!” + +Dal did not know all the particulars, but it seems that relations +between Jim and Mr. Harbison were rather strained. Bella had left the +roof and Jim and the Harbison man came face to face in the door of the +tent. According to Dal, little had been said, but Jim, bound by his +promise to me, could not explain, and could only stammer something about +being an old friend of Miss Knowles. And Tom had replied shortly that +it was none of his business, but that there were some things friendship +hardly justified, and tried to pass Jim. Jim was instantly enraged; he +blocked the door to the roof and demanded to know what the other man +meant. There were two or three versions of the answer he got. The +general purport was that Mr. Harbison had no desire to explain further, +and that the situation was forced on him. But if he insisted--when a man +systematically ignored and neglected his wife for some one else, there +were communities where he would be tarred and feathered. + +“Meaning me?” Jim demanded, apoplectic. + +“The remark was a general one,” Mr. Harbison retorted, “but if you wish +to make a concrete application--!” + +Dal had gone up just then, and found them glaring at each other, Jim +with his hands clenched at his sides, and Mr. Harbison with his arms +folded and very erect. Dal took Jim by the elbow and led him downstairs, +muttering, and the situation was saved for the time. But Dal was not +optimistic. + +“You can do a bit yourself, Kit,” he finished. “Look more cheerful, +flirt a little. You can do that without trying. Take Max on for a day or +so; it would be charity anyhow. But don’t let Tom Harbison take into his +head that you are grieving over Jim’s neglect, or he’s likely to toss +him off the roof.” + +“I have no reason to think that Mr. Harbison cares one way or the other +about me,” I said primly. “You don’t think he’s--he’s in love with me, +do you, Dal?” I watched him out of the corner of my eye, but he only +looked amused. + +“In love with you!” he repeated. “Why bless your wicked little heart, +no! He thinks you’re a married woman! It’s the principle of the thing +he’s fighting for. If I had as much principle as he has, I’d--I’d put it +out at interest.” + +Max interrupted us just then, and asked if we knew where Mr. Harbison +was. + +“Can’t find him,” he said. “I’ve got the telephone together and have +enough left over to make another. Where do you suppose Harbison hides +the tools? I’m working with a corkscrew and two palette knives.” + +I heard nothing more of the trouble that night. Max went to Jim about +it, and Jim said angrily that only a fool would interfere between a man +and his wife--wives. Whereupon Max retorted that a fool and his wives +were soon parted, and left him. The two principals were coldly civil +to each other, and smaller issues were lost as the famine grew more and +more insistent. For famine it was. + +They worked the rest of the evening, but the telephone refused to revive +and every one was starving. Individually our pride was at low ebb, but +collectively it was still formidable. So we sat around and Jim played +Grieg with the soft stops on, and Aunt Selina went to bed. The weather +had changed, and it was sleeting, but anything was better than the +drawing room. I was in a mood to battle with the elements or to cry--or +both--so I slipped out, while Dal was reciting “Give me three grains +of corn, mother,” threw somebody’s overcoat over my shoulders, put on a +man’s soft hat--Jim’s I think--and went up to the roof. + +It was dark in the third floor hall, and I had to feel my way to the +foot of the stairs. I went up quietly, and turned the knob of the door +to the roof. At first it would not open, and I could hear the wind +howling outside. Finally, however, I got the door open a little and +wormed my way through. It was not entirely dark out there, in spite of +the storm. A faint reflection of the street lights made it possible to +distinguish the outlines of the boxwood plants, swaying in the wind, and +the chimneys and the tent. And then--a dark figure disentangled itself +from the nearest chimney and seemed to hurl itself at me. I remember +putting out my hands and trying to say something, but the figure caught +me roughly by the shoulders and knocked me back against the door frame. +From miles away a heavy voice was saying, “So I’ve got you!” and then +the roof gave from under me, and I was floating out on the storm, and +sleet was beating in my face, and the wind was whispering over and over, +“Open your eyes, for God’s sake!” + +I did open them after a while, and finally I made out that I was laying +on the floor in the tent. The lights were on, and I had a cold and damp +feeling, and something wet was trickling down my neck. + +I seemed to be alone, but in a second somebody came into the tent, and I +saw it was Mr. Harbison, and that he had a double handful of half-melted +snow. He looked frantic and determined, and only my sitting up quickly +prevented my getting another snow bath. My neck felt queer and stiff, +and I was very dizzy. When he saw that I was conscious he dropped the +snow and stood looking down at me. + +“Do you know,” he said grimly, “that I very nearly choked you to death a +little while ago?” + +“It wouldn’t surprise me to be told so,” I said. “Do I know too much, or +what is it, Mr. Harbison?” I felt terribly ill, but I would not let him +see it. “It is queer, isn’t it--how we always select the roof for our +little--differences?” He seemed to relax somewhat at my gibe. + +“I didn’t know it was you,” he explained shortly. “I was waiting +for--some one, and in the hat you wore and the coat, I mistook you. +That’s all. Can you stand?” + +“No,” I retorted. I could, but his summary manner displeased me. The +sequel, however, was rather amazing, for he stooped suddenly and picked +me up, and the next instant we were out in the storm together. At the +door he stooped and felt for the knob. + +“Turn it,” he commanded. “I can’t reach it.” + +“I’ll do nothing of the kind,” I said shrewishly. “Let me down; I can +walk perfectly well.” + +He hesitated. Then he slid me slowly to my feet, but he did not open +the door at once. “Are you afraid to let me carry you down those stairs, +after--Tuesday night?” he asked, very low. “You still think I did that?” + +I had never been less sure of it than at that moment, but an imp of +perversity made me retort, “Yes.” + +He hardly seemed to hear me. He stood looking down at me as I leaned +against the door frame. + +“Good Lord!” he groaned. “To think that I might have killed you!” And +then--he stooped and suddenly kissed me. + +The next moment the door was open, and he was leading me down into the +house. At the foot of the staircase he paused, still holding my hand, +and faced me in the darkness. + +“I’m not sorry,” he said steadily. “I suppose I ought to be, but I’m +not. Only--I want you to know that I was not guilty--before. I didn’t +intend to now. I am--almost as much surprised as you are.” + +I was quite unable to speak, but I wrenched my hand loose. He stepped +back to let me pass, and I went down the hall alone. + + + +Chapter XVIII. IT’S ALL MY FAULT + +I didn’t go to the drawing room again. I went into my own room and sat +in the dark, and tried to be furiously angry, and only succeeded in +feeling queer and tingly. One thing was absolutely certain: not the same +man, but two different men had kissed me on the stairs to the roof. +It sounds rather horrid and discriminating, but there was all the +difference in the world. + +But then--who had? And for whom had Mr. Harbison been waiting on the +roof? “Did you know that I nearly choked you to death a few minutes +ago?” Then he rather expected to finish somebody in that way! Who? Jim, +probably. It was strange, too, but suddenly I realized that no matter +how many suspicious things I mustered up against him--and there were +plenty--down in my heart I didn’t believe him guilty of anything, except +this last and unforgivable offense. Whoever was trying to leave the +house had taken the necklace, that seemed clear, unless Max was still +foolishly trying to break quarantine and create one of the sensations he +so dearly loves. This was a new idea, and some things upheld it, but Max +had been playing bridge when I was kissed on the stairs, and there was +still left that ridiculous incident of the comfort. + +Bella came up after I had gone to bed, and turned on the light to brush +her hair. + +“If I don’t leave this mausoleum soon, I’ll be carried out,” she +declared. “You in bed, Lollie Mercer and Dal flirting, Anne hysterical, +and Jim making his will in the den! You will have to take Aunt Selina +tonight, Kit; I’m all in.” + +“If you’ll put her to bed, I’ll keep her there,” I conceded, after some +parley. + +“You’re a dear.” Bella came back from the door. “Look here, Kit, you +know Jim pretty well. Don’t you think he looks ill? Thinner?” + +“He’s a wreck,” I said soberly. “You have a lot to answer for, Bella.” + +Bella went over to the cheval glass and looked in it. “I avoid him all +I can,” she said, posing. “He’s awfully funny; he’s so afraid I’ll think +he’s serious about you. He can’t realize that for me he simply doesn’t +exist.” + +Well, I took Aunt Selina, and about two o’clock, while I was in my first +sleep, I woke to find her standing beside me, tugging at my arm. + +“There’s somebody in the house,” she whispered. “Thieves!” + +“If they’re in they’ll not get out tonight,” I said. + +“I tell you, I saw a man skulking on the stairs,” she insisted. + +I got up ungraciously enough, and put on my dressing gown. Aunt Selina, +who had her hair in crimps, tied a veil over her head, and together we +went to the head of the stairs. Aunt Selina leaned far over and peered +down. + +“He’s in the library,” she whispered. “I can see a light.” + +The lust of battle was in Aunt Selina’s eye. She girded her robe about +her and began to descend the stairs cautiously. We went through the hall +and stopped at the library door. It was empty, but from the den beyond +came a hum of voices and the cheerful glow of fire light. I realized the +situation then, but it was too late. + +“Then why did you kiss her in the dining room?” Bella was saying in her +clear, high tones. “You did, didn’t you?” + +“It was only her hand,” Jim, desperately explaining. “I’ve got to pay +her some attention, under the circumstances. And I give you my word, I +was thinking of you when I did it.” THE WRETCH! + +Aunt Selina drew her breath in suddenly. + +“I am thinking of marrying Reggie Wolfe.” This was Bella, of course. “He +wants me to. He’s a dear boy.” + +“If you do, I will kill him.” + +“I am so very lonely,” Bella sighed. We could hear the creak of Jim’s +shirt bosom that showed that he had sighed also. Aunt Selina had gripped +me by the arm, and I could hear her breathing hard beside me. + +“It’s only Jim,” I whispered. “I--I don’t want to hear any more.” + +But she clutched me firmly, and the next thing we heard was another +creak, louder and-- + +“Get up! Get up off your knees this instant!” Bella was saying +frantically. “Some one might come in.” + +“Don’t send me away,” Jim said in a smothered voice. “Every one in the +house is asleep, and I love you, dear.” + +Aunt Selina swallowed hard in the darkness. + +“You have no right to make love to me,” Bella. “It’s--it’s highly +improper, under the circumstances.” + +And then Jim: “You swallow a camel and stick at a gnat. Why did you meet +me here, if you didn’t expect me to make love to you? I’ve stood for +a lot, Bella, but this foolishness will have to end. Either you love +me--or you don’t. I’m desperate.” He drew a long, forlorn breath. + +“Poor old Jim!” This was Bella. A pause. Then--“Let my hand alone!” Also +Bella. + +“It is MY hand!”--Jim’s most fatuous tone. “THERE is where you wore +my ring. There’s the mark still.” Sounds of Jim kissing Bella’s ring +finger. “What did you do with it? Throw it away?” More sounds. + +Aunt Selina crossed the library swiftly, and again I followed. Bella +was sitting in a low chair by the fire, looking at the logs, in the most +exquisite negligee of pink chiffon and ribbon. Jim was on his knees, +staring at her adoringly, and holding both her hands. + +“I’ll tell you a secret,” Bella was saying, looking as coy as she knew +how--which was considerable. “I--I still wear it, on a chain around my +neck.” + +On a chain around her neck! Bella, who is decollete whenever it is +allowable, and more than is proper! + +That was the limit of Aunt Selina’s endurance. Still holding me, she +stepped through the doorway and into the firelight, a fearful figure. + +Jim saw her first. He went quite white and struggled to get up, +smiling a sickly smile. Bella, after her first surprise, was superbly +indifferent. She glanced at us, raised her eyebrows, and then looked at +the clock. + +“More victims of insomnia!” she said. “Won’t you come in? Jim, pull up a +chair by the fire for your aunt.” + +Aunt Selina opened her mouth twice, like a fish, before she could speak. +Then-- + +“James, I demand that that woman leave the house!” she said hoarsely. + +Bella leaned back and yawned. + +“James, shall I go?” she asked amiably. + +“Nonsense,” Jim said, pulling himself together as best he could. “Look +here, Aunt Selina, you know she can’t go out, and what’s more, I--don’t +want her to go.” + +“You--what?” Aunt Selina screeched, taking a step forward. “You have the +audacity to say such a thing to me!” + +Bella leaned over and gave the fire log a punch. + +“I was just saying that he shouldn’t say such things to me, either,” + she remarked pleasantly. “I’m afraid you’ll take cold, Miss Caruthers. +Wouldn’t you like a hot sherry flip?” + +Aunt Selina gasped. Then she sat down heavily on one of the carved +teakwood chairs. + +“He said he loved you; I heard him,” she said weakly. “He--he was going +to put his arm around you!” + +“Habit!” Jim put in, trying to smile. “You see, Aunt Selina, it’s--well, +it’s a habit I got into some time ago, and I--my arm does it without my +thinking about it.” + +“Habit!” Aunt Selina repeated, her voice thick with passion. Then she +turned to me. “Go to your room at once!” she said in her most awful +tone. “Go to your room and leave this--this shocking affair to me.” + +But if she had reached her limit, so had I. If Jim chose to ruin +himself, it was not my fault. Any one with common sense would have known +at least to close the door before he went down on his knees, no matter +to whom. So when Aunt Selina turned on me and pointed in the direction +of the staircase, I did not move. + +“I am perfectly wide awake,” I said coldly. “I shall go to bed when I am +entirely ready, and not before. And as for Jim’s conduct, I do not know +much about the conventions in such cases, but if he wishes to embrace +Miss Knowles, and she wants him to, the situation is interesting, but +hardly novel.” + +Aunt Selina rose slowly and drew the folds of her dressing gown around +her, away from the contamination of my touch. + +“Do you know what you are saying?” she demanded hoarsely. + +“I do.” I was quite white and stiff from my knees up, but below I +was wavery. I glanced at Jim for moral support, but he was looking +idolatrously at Bella. As for her, quite suddenly she had dropped her +mask of indifference; her face was strained and anxious, and there were +deep circles I had not seen before, under her eyes. And it was Bella who +finally threw herself into the breach--the family breach. + +“It is all my fault, Miss Caruthers,” she said, stepping between Aunt +Selina and myself. “I have been a blind and wicked woman, and I have +almost wrecked two lives.” + +Two! What of mine? + +“You see,” she struggled on, against the glint in Aunt Selina’s eyes. +“I--I did not realize how much I cared, until it was too late. I did so +many things that were cruel and wrong--oh, Jim, Jim!” + +She turned and buried her head on his shoulder and cried; real tears. I +could hardly believe that it was Bella. And Jim put both his arms around +her and almost cried, too, and looked nauseatingly happy with the eye +he turned to Bella, and scared to death out of the one he kept on Aunt +Selina. + +She turned on me, as of course I knew she would. + +“That,” she said, pointing at Jim and Bella, “that shameful picture +is due to your own indifference. I am not blind; I have seen how you +rejected all his loving advances.” Bella drew away from Jim, but +he jerked her back. “If anything in the world would reconcile me to +divorce, it is this unbelievable situation. James, are you shameless?” + +But James was and didn’t care who knew it. And as there was nothing else +to do, and no one else to do it, I stood very straight against the door +frame, and told the whole miserable story from the very beginning. I +told how Dal and Jim had persuaded me, and how I had weakened and found +it was too late, and how Bella had come in that night, when she had no +business to come, and had sat down in the basement kitchen on my hands +and almost turned me into a raving maniac. As I went on I became fluent; +my sense of injury grew on me. I made it perfectly clear that I hated +them all, and that when people got divorces they ought to know their own +minds and stay divorced. And at that a great light broke on Aunt Selina, +who hadn’t understood until that minute. + +In view of her principles, she might have been expected to turn on Jim +and Bella, and disinherit them, and cast them out, figuratively, with +the flaming sword of her tongue. BUT SHE DID NOT! + +She turned on me in the most terrible way, and asked me how I dared to +come between husband and wife, because divorce or no divorce, whom God +hath joined together, and so on. And when Jim picked up his courage in +both hands and tried to interfere, she pushed him back with one hand +while she pointed the other at me and called me a Jezebel. + + + +Chapter XIX. THE HARBISON MAN + +She talked for an hour, having got between me and the door, and she +scolded Jim and Bella thoroughly. But they did not hear it, being +occupied with each other, sitting side by side meekly on the divan with +Jim holding Bella’s hand under a cushion. She said they would have to be +very good to make up for all the deception, but it was perfectly +clear that it was a relief to her to find that I didn’t belong to her +permanently, and as I have said before, she was crazy about Bella. + +I sat back in a chair and grew comfortably drowsy in the monotony of her +voice. It was a name that brought me to myself with a jerk. + +“Mr. Harbison!” Aunt Selina was saying. “Then bring him down at once, +James. I want no more deception. There is no use cleaning a house and +leaving a dirty corner.” + +“It will not be necessary for me to stay and see it swept,” I said, +mustering the rags she had left of my self-respect, and trying to pass +her. But she planted herself squarely before me. + +“You can not stir up a dust like this, young woman, and leave other +people to sneeze in it,” she said grimly. And I stayed. + +I sat, very small, on a chair in a corner. I felt like Jezebel, or +whatever her name was, and now the Harbison man was coming, and he +was going to see me stripped of my pretensions to domesticity and of a +husband who neglected me. He was going to see me branded a living lie, +and he would hate me because I had put him in a ridiculous position. He +was just the sort to resent being ridiculous. + +Jim brought him down in a dressing gown and a state of bewilderment. +It was plain that the memory of the afternoon still rankled, for he was +very short with Jim and inclined to resent the whole thing. The clock +in the hall chimed half after three as they came down the stairs, and I +heard Mr. Harbison stumble over something in the darkness and say that +if it was a joke, he wasn’t in the humor for it. To which Jim retorted +that it wasn’t anything resembling a joke, and for heaven’s sake not to +walk on his feet; he couldn’t get around the furniture any faster. + +At the door of the den Mr. Harbison stopped, blinking in the light. +Then, when he saw us, he tried to back himself and his dishabille out +into the obscurity of the library. But Aunt Selina was too quick for +him. + +“Come in,” she called, “I want you, young man. It seems that there are +only two fools in the house, and you are one.” + +He straightened at that and looked bewildered, but he tried to smile. + +“I thought I was the only one,” he said. “Is it possible that there is +another?” + +“I am the other,” she announced. I think she expected him to say +“Impossible,” but, whatever he was, he was never banal. + +“Is that so?” he asked politely, trying to be interested and to +understand at the same time. He had not seen me. He was gazing fixedly +at Bella, languishing on the divan and watching him with lowered lids, +and he had given Jim a side glance of contempt. But now he saw me and +he colored under his tan. His neck blushed furiously, being much whiter +than his face. He kept his eyes on mine, and I knew that he was mutely +asking forgiveness. But the thought of what was coming paralyzed me. My +eyes were glued to his as they had been that first evening when he had +called me “Mrs. Wilson,” and after an instant he looked away, and his +face was set and hard. + +“It seems that we have all been playing a little comedy, Mr. Harbison,” + Aunt Selina began, nasally sarcastic. “Or rather, you and I have been +the audience. The rest have played.” + +“I--I don’t think I understand,” he said slowly. “I have seen very +little comedy.” + +“It was not well planned,” Aunt Selina retorted tartly. “The idea +was good, but the young person who was playing the part of Mrs. +Wilson--overacted.” + +“Oh, come, Aunt Selina,” Jim protested, “Kit was coaxed and cajoled into +this thing. Give me fits if you like; I deserve all I get. But let Kit +alone--she did it for me.” + +Bella looked over at me and smiled nastily. + +“I would stop doing things for Jim, Kit,” she said. “It is SO +unprofitable.” + +But Mr. Harbison harked back to Aunt Selina’s speech. + +“PLAYING the part of Mrs. Wilson!” he repeated. “Do you mean--?” + +“Exactly. Playing the part. She is not Mrs. Wilson. It seems that that +honor belonged at one time to Miss Knowles. I believe such things are +not unknown in New York, only why in the name of sense does a man want +to divorce a woman and then meet her at two o’clock in the morning to +kiss the place where his own wedding ring used to rest?” + +Jim fidgeted. Bella was having spasms of mirth to herself, but the +Harbison man did not smile. He stood for a moment looking at the fire; +then he thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his dressing gown, and +stalked over to me. He did not care that the others were watching and +listening. + +“Is it true?” he demanded, staring down at me. “You are NOT Mrs. Wilson? +You are not married at all? All that about being neglected--and loathing +HIM, and all that on the roof--there was no foundation of truth?” + +I could only shake my head without looking up. There was no defense to +be made. Oh, I deserved the scorn in his voice. + +“They--they persuaded you, I suppose, and it was to help somebody? It +was not a practical joke?” + +“No,” I rallied a little spirit at that. It had been anything but a +joke. + +He drew a long breath. + +“I think I understand,” he said slowly, “but--you could have saved me +something. I must have given you all a great deal of amusement.” + +“Oh, no,” I protested. “I--I want to tell you--” + +But he deliberately left me and went over to the door. There he turned +and looked down at Aunt Selina. He was a little white, but there was no +passion in his face. + +“Thank you for telling me all this, Miss Caruthers,” he said easily. +“Now that you and I know, I’m afraid the others will miss their little +diversion. Good night.” + +Oh, it was all right for Jim to laugh and say that he was only huffed +a little and would be over it by morning. I knew better. There was +something queer in his face as he went out. He did not even glance in my +direction. He had said very little, but he had put me as effectually in +the wrong as if he had not kissed me--deliberately kissed me--that very +evening, on the roof. + +I did not go to sleep again. I lay wretchedly thinking things over and +trying to remember who Jezebel was, and toward morning I distinctly +heard the knob of the door turn. I mistrusted my ears, however, and so +I got up quietly and went over in the darkness. There was no sound +outside, but when I put my hand on the knob I felt it move under my +fingers. The counter pressure evidently alarmed whoever it was, for the +knob was released and nothing more happened. But by this time anything +so uncomplicated as the fumbling of a knob at night had no power to +disturb me. I went back to bed. + + + +Chapter XX. BREAKING OUT IN A NEW PLACE + +Hunger roused everybody early the next morning, Friday. Leila Mercer had +discovered a box of bonbons that she had forgotten, and we divided them +around. Aunt Selina asked for the candied fruit and got it--quite a +third of the box. We gathered in the lower hall and on the stairs and +nibbled nauseating sweets while Mr. Harbison examined the telephone. + +He did not glance in my direction. Betty and Dal were helping him, and +he seemed very cheerful. Max sat with me on the stairs. Mr. Harbison had +just unscrewed the telephone box from the wall and was squinting into +it, when Bella came downstairs. It was her first appearance, but as she +was always late, nobody noticed. When she stopped, just above us on +the stairs, however, we looked up, and she was holding to the rail and +trembling perceptibly. + +“Mr. Harbison, will you--can you come upstairs?” she asked. Her voice +was strained, almost reedy, and her lips were white. + +Mr. Harbison stared up at her, with the telephone box in his hands. + +“Why--er--certainly,” he said, “but, unless it’s very important, I’d +like to fix this talking machine. We want to make a food record.” + +“I’d like to break a food record,” Max put in, but Bella created a +diversion by sitting down suddenly on the stair just above us, and +burying her face in her handkerchief. + +“Jim is sick,” she said, with a sob. “He--he doesn’t want anything to +eat, and his head aches. He--said for me--to go away and let him die!” + +Dal dropped the hammer immediately, and Lollie Mercer sat petrified, +with a bonbon halfway to her mouth. For, of course, it was unexpected, +finding sentiment of any kind in Bella, and none of them knew about the +scene in the den in the small hours of the morning. + +“Sick!” Aunt Selina said, from a hall chair. “Sick! Where?” + +“All over,” Bella quavered. “His poor head is hot, and he’s thirsty, but +he doesn’t want anything but water.” + +“Great Scott!” Dal said suddenly. “Suppose he should--Bella, are you +telling us ALL his symptoms?” + +Bella put down her handkerchief and got up. From her position on the +stairs she looked down on us with something of her old haughty manner. + +“If he is ill, you may blame yourselves, all of you,” she said cruelly. +“You taunted him with being--fat, and laughed at him, until he stopped +eating the things he should eat. And he has been exercising--on the +roof, until he has worn himself out. And now--he is ill. He--he has a +rash.” + +Everybody jumped at that, and we instinctively moved away from Bella. +She was quite cold and scornful by that time. + +“A rash!” Max exclaimed. “What sort of rash?” + +“I did not see it,” Bella said with dignity, and turning, she went up +the stairs. + +There was a great deal of excitement, and nobody except Mr. Harbison was +willing to go near Jim. He went up at once with Bella, while Max and Dal +sat cravenly downstairs and wondered if we would all take it, and Anne +told about a man she knew who had it, and was deaf and dumb and blind +when he recovered. + +Mr. Harbison came down after a while, and said that the rash was there, +right enough, and that Jim absolutely refused to be quarantined; that he +insisted that he always got a rash from early strawberries and that if +he DID have anything, since they were so touchy he hoped they would all +get it. If they locked him in he would kick the door down. + +We had a long conference in the hall, with Bella sitting red-eyed and +objecting to every suggestion we made. And finally we arranged to +shut Jim up in one of the servants’ bedrooms with a sheet wrung out of +disinfectant hung over the door. Bella said she would sit outside in +the hall and read to him through the closed door, so finally he gave +a grudging consent. But he was in an awful humor. Max and Dal put on +rubber gloves and helped him over, and they said afterward that the way +he talked was fearful. And there was a telephone in the maid’s room, and +he kept asking for things every five minutes. + +When the doctor came he said it was too early to tell positively, and he +ordered him liquid diet and said he would be back that evening. + +Which--the diet--takes me back to the famine. After they had moved Jim, +Mr. Harbison went back to the telephone, and found everything as it +should be. So he followed the telephone wire, and the rest followed him. +I did not; he had systematically ignored me all morning, after having +dared to kiss me the night before. And any other man I know, after +looking at me the way he had looked a dozen times, would have been at +least reasonably glad to find me free and unmarried. But it was clear +that he was not; I wondered if he was the kind of man who always makes +love to the other man’s wife and runs like mad when she is left a widow, +or gets a divorce. + +And just when I had decided that I hated him, and that there was one man +I knew who would never make love to a woman whom he thought married and +then be very dignified and aloof when he found she wasn’t, I heard what +was wrong with the telephone wire. + +It had been cut! Cut through with a pair of silver manicure scissors +from the dressing table in Bella’s room, where Aunt Selina slept! The +wire had been clipped where it came into the house, just under a window, +and the scissors still lay on the sill. + +It was mysterious enough, but no one was interested in the mystery just +then. We wanted food, and wanted it at once. Mr. Harbison fixed the +wire, and the first thing we did, of course, was to order something to +eat. Aunt Selina went to bed just after luncheon with indigestion, to +the relief of every one in the house. She had been most unpleasant all +morning. + +When she found herself ill, however, she insisted on having Bella, and +that made trouble at once. We found Bella with her cheek against the +door into Jim’s room, looking maudlin while he shouted love messages to +her from the other side. At first she refused to stir, but after Anne +and Max had tried and failed, the rest of us went to her in a body and +implored her. We said Aunt Selina was in awful shape--which she was, as +to temper--and that she had thrown a mustard plaster at Anne, which was +true. + +So Bella went, grumbling, and Jim was a maniac. We had not thought it +would be so bad for Bella, but Aunt Selina fell asleep soon after she +took charge, holding Bella’s hand, and slept for three hours and never +let go! + +About two that afternoon the sun came out, and the rest of us went +to the roof. The sleet had melted and the air was fairly warm. Two +housemaids dusting rugs on the top of the next house came over and +stared at us, and somebody in an automobile down on Riverside Drive +stood up and waved at us. It was very cheerful and hopelessly lonely. + +I stayed on the roof after the others had gone, and for some time I +thought I was alone. After a while, I got a whiff of smoke, and then +I saw Mr. Harbison far over in the corner, one foot on the parapet, +moodily smoking a pipe. He was gazing out over the river, and paying no +attention to me. This was natural, considering that I had hardly spoken +to him all day. + +I would not let him drive me away, so I sat still, and it grew darker +and colder. He filled his pipe now and then, but he never looked in my +direction. Finally, however, as it grew very dusk, he knocked the ashes +out and came toward me. + +“I am going to make a request, Miss McNair,” he said evenly. “Please +keep off the roof after sunset. There are--reasons.” I had risen and was +preparing to go downstairs. + +“Unless I know the reasons, I refuse to do anything of the kind,” I +retorted. He bowed. + +“Then the door will be kept locked,” he rejoined, and opened it for me. +He did not follow me, but stood watching until I was down, and I heard +him close the roof door firmly behind me. + + + +Chapter XXI. A BAR OF SOAP + +Late that evening Betty Mercer and Dallas were writing verses of +condolence to be signed by all of us and put under the door into Jim’s +room when Bella came running down the stairs. + +Dal was reading the first verse when she came. “Listen to this, Bella,” + he said triumphantly: + + “There was a fat artist named Jas, + Who cruelly called his friends nas. + When, altho’ shut up tight, + He broke out over night + With a rash that is maddening, he clas.” + +Then he caught sight of Bella’s face as she stood in the doorway, and +stopped. + +“Jim is delirious!” she announced tragically. “You shut him in there all +alone and now he’s delirious. I’ll never forgive any of you.” + +“Delirious!” everybody exclaimed. + +“He was sane enough when I took him his chicken broth,” Mr. Harbison +said. “He was almost fluent.” + +“He is stark, staring crazy,” Bella insisted hysterically. “I--I locked +the door carefully when I went down to my dinner, and when I came up +it--it was unlocked, and Jim was babbling on the bed, with a sheet over +his face. He--he says the house is haunted and he wants all the men to +come up and sit in the room with him.” + +“Not on your life,” Max said. “I am young, and my career has only begun. +I don’t intend to be cut off in the flower of my youth. But I’ll tell +you what I will do; I’ll take him a drink. I can tie it to a pole or +something.” + +But Mr. Harbison did not smile. He was thoughtful for a minute. Then: + +“I don’t believe he is delirious,” he said quietly, “and I wouldn’t +be surprised if he has happened on something that--will be of general +interest. I think I will stay with him tonight.” + +After that, of course, none of the others would confess that he was +afraid, so with the South American leading, they all went upstairs. The +women of the party sat on the lower steps and listened, but everything +was quiet. Now and then we could hear the sound of voices, and after +a while there was a rapid slamming of doors and the sound of some one +running down to the second floor. Then quiet again. + +None of us felt talkative. Bella had followed the men up and had been +put out, and sat sniffling by herself in the den. Aunt Selina was +working over a jig-saw puzzle in the library, and declaring that some of +it must be lost. Anne and Leila Mercer were embroidering, and Betty and +I sat idle, our hands in our laps. The whole atmosphere of the house +was mysterious. Anne told over again of the strange noises the night +her necklace was stolen. Betty asked me about the time when the comfort +slipped from under my fingers. And when, in the midst of the story, the +telephone rang, we all jumped and shrieked. + +In an hour or so they sent for Flannigan, and he went upstairs. He came +down again soon, however, and returned with something over his arm that +looked like a rope. It seemed to be made of all kinds of things tied +together, trunk straps, clothesline, bed sheets, and something that +Flannigan pointed to with rage and said he hadn’t been able to keep his +clothes on all day. He refused to explain further, however, and trailed +the nondescript article up the stairs. We could only gaze after him and +wonder what it all meant. + +The conclave lasted far into the night. The feminine contingent went to +bed, but not to sleep. Some time after midnight, Mr. Harbison and Max +went downstairs and I could hear them rattling around testing windows +and burglar alarms. But finally every one settled down and the rest of +the night was quiet. + +Betty Mercer came into my room the next morning, Sunday, and said Anne +Brown wanted me. I went over at once, and Anne was sitting up in bed, +crying. Dal had slipped out of the room at daylight, she said, and +hadn’t come back. He had thought she was asleep, but she wasn’t, and +she knew he was dead, for nothing ever made Dal get up on Sunday before +noon. + +There was no one moving in the house, and I hardly knew what to do. It +was Betty who said she would go up and rouse Mr. Harbison and Max, who +had taken Jim’s place in the studio. She started out bravely enough, but +in a minute we heard her flying back. Anne grew perfectly white. + +“He’s lying on the upper stairs!” Betty cried, and we all ran out. It +was quite true. Dal was lying on the stairs in a bathrobe, with one of +Jim’s Indian war clubs in his hand. And he was sound asleep. + +He looked somewhat embarrassed when he roused and saw us standing +around. He said he was going to play a practical joke on somebody +and fell asleep in the middle of it. And Anne said he wasn’t even an +intelligent liar, and went back to bed in a temper. But Betty came in +with me, and we sat and looked at each other and didn’t say much. The +situation was beyond us. + +The doctor let Jim out the next day, there having been nothing the +matter with him but a stomach rash. But Jim was changed; he mooned +around Bella, of course, as before, but he was abstracted at times, and +all that day--Sunday--he wandered off by himself, and one would come +across him unexpectedly in the basement or along some of the unused back +halls. + +Aunt Selina held service that morning. Jim said that he always had a +prayer book, but that he couldn’t find anything with so many people +in the house. So Aunt Selina read some religious poetry out of the +newspapers, and gave us a valuable talk on Deception versus Honesty, +with me as the illustration. + +Almost everybody took a nap after luncheon. I stayed in the den and read +Ibsen, and felt very mournful. And after Hedda had shot herself, I lay +down on the divan and cried a little--over Hedda; she was young and it +was such a tragic ending--and then I fell asleep. + +When I wakened Mr. Harbison was standing by the table, and he held +my book in his hands. In view of the armed neutrality between us, I +expected to see him bow to me curtly, turn on his heel and leave the +room. Indeed, considering his state of mind the night before, I should +hardly have been surprised if he had thrown Hedda at my head. (This is +not a pun. I detest them.) But instead, when he heard me move he glanced +over at me and even smiled a little. + +“She wasn’t worth it,” he said, indicating the book. + +“Worth what?” + +“Your tears. You were crying over it, weren’t you?” + +“She was very unhappy,” I asserted indifferently. “She was married and +she loved some one else.” + +“Do you really think she did?” he asked. “And even so, was that a +reason?” + +“The other man cared for her; he may not have been able to help it.” + +“But he knew that she was married,” he said virtuously, and then he +caught my eye and he saw the analogy instantly, for he colored hotly and +put down the book. + +“Most men argue that way,” I said. “They argue by the book, and--they do +as they like.” + +He picked up a Japanese ivory paper weight from the table, and stood +balancing it across his finger. + +“You are perfectly right,” he said at last. “I deserve it all. My +grievance is at myself. Your--your beauty, and the fact that I thought +you were unhappy, put me--beside myself. It is not an excuse; it is a +weak explanation. I will not forget myself again.” + +He was as abject as any one could have wished. It was my minute of +triumph, but I can not pretend that I was happy. Evidently it had been +only a passing impulse. If he had really cared, now that he knew I +was free, he would have forgotten himself again at once. Then a new +explanation occurred to me. Suppose it had been Bella all the time, and +the real shock had been to find that she had been married! + +“The fault of the situation was really mine,” I said magnanimously; +“I quite blame myself. Only, you must believe one thing. You never +furnished us any amusement.” I looked at him sidewise. “The discovery +that Bella and Jim were once married must have been a great shock.” + +“It was a surprise,” he replied evenly. His voice and his eyes were +inscrutable. He returned my glance steadily. It was infuriating to have +gone half-way to meet him, as I had, and then to find him intrenched in +his self-sufficiency again. I got up. + +“It is unfortunate that our acquaintance has begun so unfavorably,” I +remarked, preparing to pass him. “Under other circumstances we might +have been friends.” + +“There is only one solace,” he said. “When we do not have friends, we +can not lose them.” + +He opened the door to let me pass out, and as our eyes met, all the +coldness died out of his. He held out his hand, but I was hurt. I +refused to see it. + +“Kit!” he said unsteadily. “I--I’m an obstinate, pig-headed brute. I am +sorry. Can’t we be friends, after all?” + +“‘When we do not have friends we can not lose them,’” I replied with +cool malice. And the next instant the door closed behind me. + +It was that night that the really serious event of the quarantine +occurred. + +We were gathered in the library, and everybody was deadly dull. Aunt +Selina said she had been reared to a strict observance of the Sabbath, +and she refused to go to bed early. The cards and card tables were put +away and every one sat around and quarreled and was generally nasty, +except Bella and Jim, who had gone into the den just after dinner and +firmly closed the door. + +I think it was just after Max proposed to me. Yes, he proposed to me +again that night. He said that Jim’s illness had decided him; that any +of us might take sick and die, shut in that contaminated atmosphere, and +that if he did he wanted it all settled. And whether I took him or not +he wanted me to remember him kindly if anything happened. I really +hated to refuse him--he was in such deadly earnest. But it was quite +unnecessary for him to have blamed his refusal, as he did, on Mr. +Harbison. I am sure I had refused him plenty of times before I had +ever heard of the man. Yes, it was just after he proposed to me that +Flannigan came to the door and called Mr. Harbison out into the hall. + +Flannigan--like most of the people in the house--always went to Mr. +Harbison when there was anything to be done. He openly adored him, +and--what was more--he did what Mr. Harbison ordered without a word, +while the rest of us had to get down on our knees and beg. + +Mr. Harbison went out, muttering something about a storm coming up, and +seeing that the tent was secure. Betty Mercer went with him. She had +been at his heels all evening, and called him “Tom” on every possible +occasion. Indeed, she made no secret of it; she said that she was mad +about him, and that she would love to live in South America, and have +an Indian squaw for a lady’s maid, and sit out on the veranda in the +evenings and watch the Southern Cross shooting across the sky, and eat +tropical food from the quaint Indian pottery. She was not even daunted +when Dal told her the Southern Cross did not shoot, and that the food +was probably canned corn on tin dishes. + +So Betty went with him. She wore a pale yellow dinner gown, with just a +sophisticated touch of black here and there, and cut modestly square in +the neck. Her shoulders are scrawny. And after they were gone--not her +shoulders; Mr. Harbison and she--Aunt Selina announced that the next day +was Monday, that she had only a week’s supply of clothing with her, and +that no policeman who ever swung a mace should wash her undergarments +for her. + +She paused a moment, but nobody offered to do it. Anne was reading De +Maupassant under cover of a table, and the rest pretended not to hear. +After a pause, Aunt Selina got up heavily and went upstairs, coming down +soon after with a bundle covered with a green shawl, and with a white +balbriggan stocking trailing from an opening in it. She paused at the +library door, surveyed the inmates, caught my unlucky eye and beckoned +to me with a relentless forefinger. + +“We can put them to soak tonight,” she confided to me, “and tomorrow +they will be quite simple to do. There is no lace to speak of”--Dal +raised his eyebrows--“and very little flouncing.” + +Aunt Selina and I went to the laundry. It never occurred to any one that +Bella should have gone; she had stepped into all my privileges--such as +they were--and assumed none of my obligations. Aunt Selina and I went to +the laundry. + +It is strange what big things develop from little ones. In this case it +was a bar of soap. And if Flannigan had used as much soap as he should +have instead of washing up the kitchen floor with cold dish water, it +would have developed sooner. The two most unexpected events of the whole +quarantine occurred that night at the same time, one on the roof and one +in the cellar. The cellar one, although curious, was not so serious as +the other, so it comes first. + +Aunt Selina put her clothes in a tub in the laundry and proceeded +to dress them like a vegetable. She threw in a handful of salt, some +kerosene oil and a little ammonia. The result was villainous, but after +she tasted it--or snuffed it--she said it needed a bar of soap cut up to +give it strength--or flavor--and I went into the store room for it. + +The laundry soap was in a box. I took in a silver fork, for I hated to +touch the stuff, and jabbed a bar successfully in the semi-darkness. +Then I carried it back to the laundry and dropped it on the table. Aunt +Selina looked at the fork with disgust; then we both looked at the soap. +ONE SIDE OF IT WAS COVERED WITH ROUND HOLES THAT CURVED AROUND ON EACH +OTHER LIKE A COILED SNAKE. + +I ran back to the store room, and there, a little bit sticky and +smelling terribly of rosin, lay Anne’s pearl necklace! + +I was so excited that I seized Aunt Selina by the hands and danced her +all over the place. Then I left her, trying to find her hair pins on the +floor, and ran up to tell the others. I met Betty in the hall and waved +the pearls at her. But she did not notice them. + +“Is Mr. Harbison down there?” she asked breathlessly. “I left him on the +roof and went down to my room for my scarf, and when I went back he +had disappeared. He--he doesn’t seem to be in the house.” She tried +to laugh, but her voice was shaky. “He couldn’t have got down without +passing me, anyhow,” she supplemented. “I suppose I’m silly, but so many +queer things have happened, Kit.” + +“I wouldn’t worry, Betty,” I soothed her. “He is big enough to take care +of himself. And with the best intentions in the world, you can’t have +him all the time, you know.” + +She was too much startled to be indignant. She followed me into the +library, where the sight of the pearls produced a tremendous excitement, +and then every one had to go down to the store room, and see where the +necklace had been hidden, and Max examined all the bars of soap for +thumb prints. + +Mr. Harbison did not appear. Max commented on the fact caustically, +but Dal hushed him up. And so, Anne hugging her pearls, and Aunt Selina +having put a final seasoning of washing powder on the clothes in the +tub, we all went upstairs to bed. It had been a long day, and the +morning would at least bring bridge. + +I was almost ready for bed when Jim tapped at my door. I had been very +cool to him since the night in the library when I was publicly staked +and martyred, and he was almost cringing when I opened the door. + +“What is it now?” I asked cruelly. “Has Bella tired of it already, or +has somebody else a rash?” + +“Don’t be a shrew, Kit,” he said. “I don’t want you to do anything. I +only--when did you see Harbison last?” + +“If you mean ‘last,’” I retorted, “I’m afraid I haven’t seen the last of +him yet.” Then I saw that he was really worried. “Betty was leading him +to the roof,” I added. “Why? Is he missing?” + +“He isn’t anywhere in the house. Dal and I have been over every inch +of it.” Max had come up, in a dressing gown, and was watching me +insolently. + +“I think we have seen the last of him,” he said. “I’m sorry, Kit, to nip +the little romance in the bud. The fellow was crazy about you--there’s +no doubt of it. But I’ve been watching him from the beginning, and I +think I’m upheld. Whether he went down the water spout, or across a +board to the next house--” + +“I--I dislike him intensely,” I said angrily, “but you would not dare to +say that to his face. He could strangle you with one hand.” + +Max laughed disagreeably. + +“Well, I only hope he is gone,” he threw at me over his shoulder, “I +wouldn’t want to be responsible to your father if he had stayed.” I was +speechless with wrath. + +They went away then, and I could hear them going over the house. At +one o’clock Jim went up to bed, the last, and Mr. Harbison had not been +found. I did not see how they could go to bed at all. If he had escaped, +then Max was right and the whole thing was heart-breaking. And if he had +not, then he might be lying-- + +I got up and dressed. + +The early part of the night had been cloudy, but when I got to the roof +it was clear starlight. The wind blew through the electric wires +strung across and set them singing. The occasional bleat of a belated +automobile on the drive below came up to me raucously. The tent gleamed, +a starlit ghost of itself, and the boxwoods bent in the breeze. I went +over to the parapet and leaned my elbows on it. I had done the +same thing so often before; I had carried all my times of stress so +infallibly to that particular place, that instinctively my feet turned +there. + +And there in the starlight, I went over the whole serio-comedy, and I +loathed my part in it. He had been perfectly right to be angry with me +and with all of us. And I had been a hypocrite and a Pharisee, and had +thanked God that I was not as other people, when the fact was that I was +worse than the worst. And although it wasn’t dignified to think of him +going down the drain pipe, still--no one could blame him for wanting to +get away from us, and he was quite muscular enough to do it. + +I was in the depths of self-abasement when I heard a sound behind me. It +was a long breath, quite audible, that ended in a groan. I gripped the +parapet and listened, while my heart pounded, and in a minute it came +again. + +I was terribly frightened. Then--I don’t know how I did it, but I was +across the roof, kneeling beside the tent, where it stood against +the chimney. And there, lying prone among the flower pots, and almost +entirely hidden, lay the man we had been looking for. + +His head was toward me, and I reached out shakingly and touched his +face. It was cold, and my hand, when I drew it back, was covered with +blood. + + + +Chapter XXII. IT WAS DELIRIUM + +I was sure he was dead. He did not move, and when I caught his hands and +called him frantically, he did not hear me. And so, with the horror over +me, I half fell down the stairs and roused Jim in the studio. + +They all came with lights and blankets, and they carried him into the +tent and put him on the couch and tried to put whisky in his mouth. But +he could not swallow. And the silence became more and more ominous until +finally Anne got hysterical and cried, “He is dead! Dead!” and collapsed +on the roof. + +But he was not. Just as the lights in the tent began to have red rings +around them and Jim’s voice came from away across the river, somebody +said, “There, he swallowed that,” and soon after, he opened his eyes. He +muttered something that sounded like “Andean pinnacle” and lapsed into +unconsciousness again. But he was not dead! He was not dead! + +When the doctor came they made a stretcher out of one of Jim’s six-foot +canvases--it had a picture on it, and Jim was angry enough the next +day--and took him down to the studio. We made it as much like a +sick-room as we could, and we tried to make him comfortable. But he lay +without opening his eyes, and at dawn the doctor brought a consultant +and a trained nurse. + +The nurse was an offensively capable person. She put us all out, and +scolded Anne for lighting Japanese incense in the room--although Anne +explained that it is very reviving. And she said that it was unnecessary +to have a dozen people breathing up all the oxygen and asphyxiating +the patient. She was good-looking, too. I disliked her at once. Any +one could see by the way she took his pulse--just letting his poor hand +hang, without any support--that she was a purely mechanical creature, +without heart. + +Well, as I said before, she put us all out, and shut the door, and asked +us not to whisper outside. Then, too, she refused to allow any flowers +in the room, although Betty had got a florist out of bed to order some. + +The consultant came, stayed an hour, and left. Aunt Selina, who proved +herself a trump in that trying time, waylaid him in the hall, and +he said it might be a fractured skull, although it was possibly only +concussion. + +The men spent most of the morning together in the den, with the door +shut. Now and then one of them would tiptoe upstairs, ask the nurse how +her patient was doing, and creak down again. Just before noon they all +went to the roof and examined again the place where he had been found. +I know, for I was in the upper hall outside the studio. I stayed there +almost all day, and after a while the nurse let me bring her things as +she needed them. I don’t know why mother didn’t let me study nursing--I +always wanted to do it. And I felt helpless and childish now, when there +were things to be done. + +Max came down from the roof alone, and I cornered him in the upper hall. + +“I’m going crazy, Max,” I said. “Nobody will tell me anything, and I +can’t stand it. How was he hurt? Who hurt him?” + +Max looked at me quite a long time. + +“I’m darned if I understand you, Kit,” he said gravely. “You said you +disliked Harbison.” + +“So I do--I did,” I supplemented. “But whether I like him or not has +nothing to do with it. He has been injured--perhaps murdered”--I choked +a little. “Which--which of you did it?” + +Max took my hand and held it, looking down at me. + +“I wish you could have cared for me like that,” he said gently. “Dear +little girl, we don’t know who hurt him. I didn’t, if that’s what you +mean. Perhaps a flower pot--” + +I began to cry then, and he drew me to him and let me cry on his arm. He +stood very quietly, patting my head in a brotherly way and behaving very +well, save that once he said: + +“Don’t cry too long, Kit; I can stand only a certain amount.” + +And just then the nurse opened the door to the studio, and with Max’s +arm still around me, I raised my head and looked in. + +Mr. Harbison was conscious. His eyes were open, and he was staring at us +both as we stood framed by the doorway. + +He lay back at once and closed his eyes, and the nurse shut the door. +There was no use, even if I had been allowed in, in trying to explain +to him. To attempt such a thing would have been to presume that he was +interested in an explanation. I thought bitterly to myself as I brought +the nurse cracked ice and struggled to make beef tea in the kitchen, +that lives had been wrecked on less. + +Dal was allowed ten minutes in the sick room during the afternoon, and +he came out looking puzzled and excited. He refused to tell us what he +had learned, however, and the rest of the afternoon he and Jim spent in +the cellar. + +The day dragged on. Downstairs people ate and read and wrote letters, +and outside newspaper men talked together and gazed over at the house +and photographed the doctors coming in and the doctors going out. As for +me, in the intervals of bringing things, I sat in Bella’s chair in the +upper hall, and listened to the crackle of the nurse’s starched skirts. + +At midnight that night the doctors made a thorough examination. When +they came out they were smiling. + +“He is doing very well,” the younger one said--he was hairy and dark, +but he was beautiful to me. “He is entirely conscious now, and in about +an hour you can send the nurse off for a little sleep. Don’t let him +talk.” + +And so at last I went through the familiar door into an unfamiliar room, +with basins and towels and bottles around, and a screen made of Jim’s +largest canvases. And someone on the improvised bed turned and looked +at me. He did not speak, and I sat down beside him. After a while he put +his hand over mine as it lay on the bed. + +“You are much better to me than I deserve,” he said softly. And because +his eyes were disconcerting, I put an ice cloth over them. + +“Much better than you deserve,” I said, and patted the ice cloth to +place gently. He fumbled around until he found my hand again, and we +were quiet for a long time. I think he dozed, for he roused suddenly and +pulled the cloth from his eyes. + +“The--the day is all confused,” he said, turning to look at me, +“but--one thing seems to stand out from everything else. Perhaps it +was delirium, but I seemed to see that door over there open, and you, +outside, with--with Max. His arms were around you.” + +“It was delirium,” I said softly. It was my final lie in that house of +mendacity. + +He drew a satisfied breath, and lifting my hand, held it to his lips and +kissed it. + +“I can hardly believe it is you,” he said. “I have to hold firmly to +your hand or you will disappear. Can’t you move your chair closer? You +are miles away.” So I did it, for he was not to be excited. + +After a little-- + +“It’s awfully good of you to do this. I have been desperately sorry, +Kit, about the other night. It was a ruffianly thing to do--to kiss you, +when I thought--” + +“You are to keep very still,” I reminded him. He kissed my hand again, +but he persisted. + +“I was mad--crazy.” I tried to give him some medicine, but he pushed the +spoon aside. “You will have to listen,” he said. “I am in the depths of +self-disgust. I--I can’t think of anything else. You see, you seemed +so convinced that I was the blackguard that somehow nothing seemed to +matter.” + +“I have forgotten it all,” I declared generously, “and I would be quite +willing to be friends, only, you remember you said--” + +“Friends!” his voice was suddenly reckless, and he raised on his elbow. +“Friends! Who wants to be friends? Kit, I was almost delirious that +night. The instant I held you in my arms--It was all over. I loved you +the first time I saw you. I--I suppose I’m a fool to talk like this.” + +And, of course, just then Dallas had to open the door and step into the +room. He was covered with dirt and he had a hatchet in his hand. + +“A rope!” he demanded, without paying any attention to us and diving +into corners of the room. “Good heavens, isn’t there a rope in this +confounded house!” + +He turned and rushed out, without any explanation, and left us staring +at the door. + +“Bother the rope!” I found myself forced to look into two earnest eyes. +“Kit, were you VERY angry when I kissed you that night on the roof?” + +“Very,” I maintained stoutly. + +“Then prepare yourself for another attack of rage!” he said. And Betty +opened the door. + +She had on a fetching pale blue dressing gown, and one braid of her +yellow hair was pulled carelessly over her shoulder. When she saw me +on my knees beside the bed (oh, yes, I forgot to say that, quite +unconsciously, I had slid into that position) she stopped short, just +inside the door, and put her hand to her throat. She stood for quite a +perceptible time looking at us, and I tried to rise. But Tom shamelessly +put his arm around my shoulders and held me beside him. Then Betty +took a step back and steadied herself by the door frame. She had really +cared, I knew then, but I was too excited to be sorry for her. + +“I--I beg your pardon for coming in,” she said nervously. “But--they +want you downstairs, Kit. At least, I thought you would want to go, +but--perhaps--” + +Just then from the lower part of the house came a pandemonium of noises; +women screaming, men shouting, and the sound of hatchet strokes and +splintering wood. I seized Betty by the arm, and together we rushed down +the stairs. + + + +Chapter XXIII. COMING + +The second floor was empty. A table lay overturned at the top of the +stairs, and a broken flower vase was weltering in its own ooze. Part way +down Betty stepped on something sharp, that proved to be the Japanese +paper knife from the den. I left her on the stairs examining her foot +and hurried to the lower floor. + +Here everything was in the utmost confusion. Aunt Selina had fainted, +and was sitting in a hall chair with her head rolled over sidewise and +the poker from the library fireplace across her knees. No one was paying +any attention to her. And Jim was holding the front door open, while +three of the guards hesitated in the vestibule. The noises continued +from the back of the house, and as I stood on the lowest stair Bella +came out from the dining room, with her face streaked with soot, and +carrying a kettle of hot water. + +“Jim,” she called wildly. “While Max and Dal are below, you can pour +this down from the top. It’s boiling.” + +Jim glanced back over his shoulder. “Carry out your own murderous +designs,” he said. And then, as she started back with it, “Bella, for +Heaven’s sake,” he called, “have you gone stark mad? Put that kettle +down.” + +She did it sulkily and Jim turned to the policeman. + +“Yes, I know it was a false alarm before,” he explained patiently, “but +this is genuine. It is just as I tell you. Yes, Flannigan is in the +house somewhere, but he’s hiding, I guess. We could manage the thing +very well ourselves, but we have no cartridges for our revolvers.” Then +as the noise from the rear redoubled, “If you don’t come in and help, I +will telephone for the fire department,” he concluded emphatically. + +I ran to Aunt Selina and tried to straighten her head. In a moment she +opened her eyes, sat up and stared around her. She saw the kettle at +once. + +“What are you doing with boiling water on the floor?” she said to me, +with her returning voice. “Don’t you know you will spoil the floor?” The +ruling passion was strong with Aunt Selina, as usual. + +I could not find out the trouble from any one; people appeared and +disappeared, carrying strange articles. Anne with a rope, Dal with his +hatchet, Bella and the kettle, but I could get a coherent explanation +from no one. When the guards finally decided that Jim was in earnest, +and that the rest of us were not crawling out a rear window while he +held them at the door, they came in, three of them and two reporters, +and Jim led them to the butler’s pantry. + +Here we found Anne, very white and shaky, with the pantry table and two +chairs piled against the door of the kitchen slide, and clutching the +chamois-skin bag that held her jewels. She had a bottle of burgundy open +beside her, and was pouring herself a glass with shaking hands when we +appeared. She was furious at Jim. + +“I very nearly fainted,” she said hysterically. “I might have been +murdered, and no one would have cared. I wish they would stop that +chopping, I’m so nervous I could scream.” + +Jim took the Burgundy from her with one hand and pointed the police to +the barricaded door with the other. + +“That is the door to the dumb-waiter shaft,” he said. “The lower one +is fastened on the inside, in some manner. The noises commenced about +eleven o’clock, while Mr. Brown was on guard. There were scraping sounds +first, and later the sound of a falling body. He roused Mr. Reed and +myself, but when we examined the shaft everything was quiet, and dark. +We tried lowering a candle on a string, but--it was extinguished from +below.” + +The reporters were busily removing the table and chairs from the door. + +“If you have a rope handy,” one of them said, “I will go down the +shaft.” + +(Dal says that all reporters should have been policemen, and that all +policemen are natural newsgatherers.) + +“The cage appears to be stuck, half-way between the floors,” Jim said. +“They are cutting through the door in the kitchen below.” + +They opened the door then and cautiously peered down, but there was +nothing to be seen. I touched Jim gingerly on the arm. + +“Is it--is it Flannigan,” I asked, “shut in there?” + +“No--yes--I don’t know,” he returned absently. “Run along and don’t +bother, Kit. He may take to shooting any minute.” + +Anne and I went out then and shut the door, and went into the dining +room and sat on our feet, for of course the bullets might come up +through the floor. Aunt Selina joined us there, and Bella, and the +Mercer girls, and we sat around and talked in whispers, and Leila Mercer +told of the time her grandfather had had a struggle with an escaped +lunatic. + +In the midst of the excitement Tom appeared in a bathrobe, looking +very pale, with a bandage around his head, and the nurse at his heels +threatening to leave and carrying a bottle of medicine and a spoon. He +went immediately to the pantry, and soon we could hear him giving orders +and the rest hurrying around to obey them. The hammering ceased, and the +silence was even worse. It was more suggestive. + +In about fifteen minutes there was a thud, as if the cage had fallen, +and the sound of feet rushing down the cellar stairs. Then there were +groans and loud oaths, and everybody talking at once, below, and the +sound of a struggle. In the dining room we all sat bent forward, with +straining ears and quickened breath, until we distinctly heard someone +laugh. Then we knew that, whatever it was, it was over, and nobody was +killed. + +The sounds came closer, were coming up the stairs and into the pantry. +Then the door swung open, and Tom and a policeman appeared in the +doorway, with the others crowding behind. Between them they supported +a grimy, unshaven object, covered with whitewash from the wall of the +shaft, an object that had its hands fastened together with handcuffs, +and that leered at us with a pair of the most villainously crossed eyes +I have ever seen. + +None of us had ever seen him before. + +“Mr. Lawrence McGuirk, better known as Tubby,’” Tom said cheerfully. +“A celebrity in his particular line, which is second-story man and +all-round rascal. A victim of the quarantine, like ourselves.” + +“We’ve missed him for a week,” one of the guards said with a grin. +“We’ve been real anxious about you, Tubby. Ain’t a week goes by, when +you’re in health, that we don’t hear something of you.” + +Mr. McGuirk muttered something under his breath, and the men chuckled. + +“It seems,” Tom said, interpreting, “that he doesn’t like us much. He +doesn’t like the food, and he doesn’t like the beds. He says just when +he got a good place fixed up in the coal cellar, Flannigan found it, and +is asleep there now, this minute.” + +Aunt Selina rose suddenly and cleared her throat. + +“Am I to understand,” she asked severely, “that from now on we will have +to add two newspaper reporters, three policemen and a burglar to the +occupants of this quarantined house? Because, if that is the case, I +absolutely refuse to feed them.” + +But one of the reporters stepped forward and bowed ceremoniously. + +“Madam,” he said, “I thank you for your kind invitation, but--it will +be impossible for us to accept. I had intended to break the good news +earlier, but this little game of burglar-in-a-corner prevented me. The +fact is, your Jap has been discovered to have nothing more serious than +chicken-pox, and--if you will forgive a poultry yard joke, there is no +longer any necessity for your being cooped up.” + +Then he retired, quite pleased with himself. + +One would have thought we had exhausted our capacity for emotion, but +Jim said a joyful emotion was so new that we hardly knew how to receive +it. Every one shook hands with every one else, and even the nurse shared +in the excitement and gave Jim the medicine she had prepared for Tom. + +Then we all sat down and had some champagne, and while they were waiting +for the police wagon, they gave some to poor McGuirk. He was still quite +shaken from his experience when the dumb-waiter stuck. The wine cheered +him a little, and he told his story, in a voice that was creaky from +disuse, while Tom held my hand under the table. + +He had had a dreadful week, he said; he spent his days in a closet in +one of the maids’ rooms--the one where we had put Jim. It was Jim waking +out of a nap and declaring that the closet door had moved by itself and +that something had crawled under his bed and out of the door, that had +roused the suspicions of the men in the house--and he slept at night on +the coal in the cellar. He was actually tearful when he rubbed his hand +over his scrubby chin, and said he hadn’t had a shave for a week. He +took somebody’s razor, he said, but he couldn’t get hold of a portable +mirror, and every time he lathered up and stood in front of the glass in +the dining room sideboard, some one came and he had had to run and hide. +He told, too, of his attempts to escape, of the board on the roof, of +the home-made rope, and the hole in the cellar, and he spoke feelingly +of the pearl collar and the struggle he had made to hide it. He said +that for three days it was concealed in the pocket of Jim’s old smoking +coat in the studio. + +We were all rather sorry for him, but if we had made him uncomfortable, +think of what he had done to us. And for him to tell, as he did later in +court, that if that was high society he would rather be a burglar, and +that we starved him, and that the women had to dress each other because +they had no lady’s maids, and that the whole lot of us were in love with +one man, it was downright malicious. + +The wagon came for him just as he finished his story, and we all went +to the door. In the vestibule Aunt Selina suddenly remembered something, +and she stepped forward and caught the poor fellow by the arm. + +“Young man,” she said grimly. “I’ll thank you to return what you took +from ME last Tuesday night.” + +McGuirk stared, then shuddered and turned suddenly pale. + +“Good Lord!” he ejaculated. “On the stairs to the roof! YOU?” + +They led him away then, quite broken, with Aunt Selina staring after +him. She never did understand. I could have explained, but it was too +awful. + +On the steps McGuirk turned and took a farewell glance at us. Then he +waved his hand to the policemen and reporters who had gathered around. + +“Goodby, fellows,” he called feebly. “I ain’t sorry, I ain’t. Jail’ll be +a paradise after this.” + +And then we went to pack our trunks. + +NOTE FROM MAX WHICH CAME THE NEXT DAY WITH ITS ENCLOSURE. + +My Dear Kit--The enclosed trunk tag was used on my trunk, evidently by +mistake. Higgins discovered it when he was unpacking and returned it +to me under the misapprehension that I had written it. I wish I had. I +suppose there must be something attractive about a fellow who has the +courage to write a love letter on the back of a trunk tag, and who +doesn’t give a tinker’s damn who finds it. But for my peace of mind, ask +him not to leave another one around where I will come across it. Max. + +WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE TRUNK TAG. + +Don’t you know that I won’t see you until tomorrow? For Heaven’s sake, +get away from this crowd and come into the den. If you don’t I will kiss +you before everybody. Are you coming? T. + +WRITTEN BELOW. + +No indeed. K. + +THIS WAS SCRATCHED OUT AND BENEATH. + +Coming. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN MARRIES *** + +***** This file should be named 1671-0.txt or 1671-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/1671/ + +Produced by Theresa Armao + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’ WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. + +The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/1671-0.zip b/1671-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..918b14f --- /dev/null +++ b/1671-0.zip diff --git a/1671-h.zip b/1671-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0debc07 --- /dev/null +++ b/1671-h.zip diff --git a/1671-h/1671-h.htm b/1671-h/1671-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..215dd9e --- /dev/null +++ b/1671-h/1671-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8097 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: When a Man Marries + +Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart + +Release Date: November 23, 2008 [EBook #1671] +Last Updated: October 11, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN MARRIES *** + + + + +Produced by Theresa Armao, and David Widger + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + WHEN A MAN MARRIES + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Mary Roberts Rinehart + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <blockquote> + <p class="toc"> + <big><b>CONTENTS</b></big> + </p> + <p> + <br /> <a href="#link2HCH0001"> Chapter I. </a> AT LEAST I + MEANT WELL <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0002"> Chapter II. </a> THE + WAY IT BEGAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0003"> Chapter III. </a> I + MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0004"> Chapter IV. </a> THE + DOOR WAS CLOSED <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0005"> Chapter V. </a> FROM + THE TREE OF LOVE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0006"> Chapter VI. </a> A + MIGHTY POOR JOKE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0007"> Chapter VII. </a> WE + MAKE AN OMELET <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0008"> Chapter VIII. </a> CORRESPONDENTS’ + DEPARTMENT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0009"> Chapter IX. </a> FLANNIGAN’S + FIND <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0010"> Chapter X. </a> ON + THE STAIRS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0011"> Chapter XI. </a> I + MAKE A DISCOVERY <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0012"> Chapter XII. </a> THE + ROOF GARDEN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0013"> Chapter XIII. </a> HE + DOES NOT DENY IT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0014"> Chapter XIV. </a> ALMOST, + BUT NOT QUITE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0015"> Chapter XV. </a> SUSPICION + AND DISCORD <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0016"> Chapter XVI. </a> I + FACE FLANNIGAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0017"> Chapter XVII. </a> A + CLASH AND A KISS <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0018"> Chapter XVIII. </a> IT’S + ALL MY FAULT <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0019"> Chapter XIX. </a> THE + HARBISON MAN <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0020"> Chapter XX. </a> BREAKING + OUT IN A NEW PLACE <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0021"> Chapter XXI. </a> A + BAR OF SOAP <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0022"> Chapter XXII. </a> IT + WAS DELIRIUM <br /><br /> <a href="#link2HCH0023"> Chapter XXIII. </a> COMING + <br /><br /> + </p> + </blockquote> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Needles and pins + Needles and pins, + When a man marries + His trouble begins. + </pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h2> + Chapter I. AT LEAST I MEANT WELL + </h2> + <p> + When the dreadful thing occurred that night, every one turned on me. The + injustice of it hurt me most. They said I got up the dinner, that I asked + them to give up other engagements and come, that I promised all kinds of + jollification, if they would come; and then when they did come and got in + the papers and every one—but ourselves—laughed himself black + in the face, they turned on ME! I, who suffered ten times to their one! I + shall never forget what Dallas Brown said to me, standing with a coal + shovel in one hand and a—well, perhaps it would be better to tell it + all in the order it happened. + </p> + <p> + It began with Jimmy Wilson and a conspiracy, was helped on by a + foot-square piece of yellow paper and a Japanese butler, and it enmeshed + and mixed up generally ten respectable members of society and a policeman. + Incidentally, it involved a pearl collar and a box of soap, which sounds + incongruous, doesn’t it? + </p> + <p> + It is a great misfortune to be stout, especially for a man. Jim was rotund + and looked shorter than he really was, and as all the lines of his face, + or what should have been lines, were really dimples, his face was about as + flexible and full of expression as a pillow in a tight cover. The angrier + he got the funnier he looked, and when he was raging, and his neck swelled + up over his collar and got red, he was entrancing. And everybody liked + him, and borrowed money from him, and laughed at his pictures (he has one + in the Hargrave gallery in London now, so people buy them instead), and + smoked his cigarettes, and tried to steal his Jap. The whole story hinges + on the Jap. + </p> + <p> + The trouble was, I think, that no one took Jim seriously. His ambition in + life was to be taken seriously, but people steadily refused to. His art + was a huge joke—except to himself. If he asked people to dinner, + every one expected a frolic. When he married Bella Knowles, people + chuckled at the wedding, and considered it the wildest prank of Jimmy’s + career, although Jim himself seemed to take it awfully hard. + </p> + <p> + We had all known them both for years. I went to Farmington with Bella, and + Anne Brown was her matron of honor when she married Jim. My first winter + out, Jimmy had paid me a lot of attention. He painted my portrait in oils + and had a studio tea to exhibit it. It was a very nice picture, but it did + not look like me, so I stayed away from the exhibition. Jim asked me to. + He said he was not a photographer, and that anyhow the rest of my features + called for the nose he had given me, and that all the Greuze women have + long necks. I have not. + </p> + <p> + After I had refused Jim twice he met Bella at a camp in the Adirondacks + and when he came back he came at once to see me. He seemed to think I + would be sorry to lose him, and he blundered over the telling for twenty + minutes. Of course, no woman likes to lose a lover, no matter what she may + say about it, but Jim had been getting on my nerves for some time, and I + was much calmer than he expected me to be. + </p> + <p> + “If you mean,” I said finally in desperation, “that you and Bella are—are + in love, why don’t you say so, Jim? I think you will find that I stand it + wonderfully.” + </p> + <p> + He brightened perceptibly. + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t know how you would take it, Kit,” he said, “and I hope we will + always be bully friends. You are absolutely sure you don’t care a whoop + for me?” + </p> + <p> + “Absolutely,” I replied, and we shook hands on it. Then he began about + Bella; it was very tiresome. + </p> + <p> + Bella is a nice girl, but I had roomed with her at school, and I was under + no illusions. When Jim raved about Bella and her banjo, and Bella and her + guitar, I had painful moments when I recalled Bella, learning her two + songs on each instrument, and the old English ballad she had learned to + play on the harp. When he said she was too good for him, I never batted an + eye. And I shook hands solemnly across the tea-table again, and wished him + happiness—which was sincere enough, but hopeless—and said we + had only been playing a game, but that it was time to stop playing. Jim + kissed my hand, and it was really very touching. + </p> + <p> + We had been the best of friends ever since. Two days before the wedding he + came around from his tailor’s, and we burned all his letters to me. He + would read one and say: “Here’s a crackerjack, Kit,” and pass it to me. + And after I had read it we would lay it on the firelog, and Jim would say, + “I am not worthy of her, Kit. I wonder if I can make her happy?” Or—“Did + you know that the Duke of Belford proposed to her in London last winter?” + </p> + <p> + Of course, one has to take the woman’s word about a thing like that, but + the Duke of Belford had been mad about Maude Richard all that winter. + </p> + <p> + You can see that the burning of the letters, which was meant to be + reminiscently sentimental, a sort of how-silly-we-were-but-it-is + all-over-now occasion, became actually a two hours’ eulogy of Bella. And + just when I was bored to death, the Mercer girls dropped in and heard Jim + begin to read one commencing “dearest Kit.” And the next day after the + rehearsal dinner, they told Bella! + </p> + <p> + There was very nearly no wedding at all. Bella came to see me in a frenzy + the next morning and threw Jim and his two-hundred odd pounds in my face, + and although I explained it all over and over, she never quite forgave me. + That was what made it so hard later—the situation would have been + bad enough without that complication. + </p> + <p> + They went abroad on their wedding journey, and stayed several months. And + when Jim came back he was fatter than ever. Everybody noticed it. Bella + had a gymnasium fitted up in a corner of the studio, but he would not use + it. He smoked a pipe and painted all day, and drank beer and WOULD eat + starches or whatever it is that is fattening. But he adored Bella, and he + was madly jealous of her. At dinners he used to glare at the man who took + her in, although it did not make him thin. Bella was flirting, too, and by + the time they had been married a year, people hitched their chairs + together and dropped their voices when they were mentioned. + </p> + <p> + Well, on the anniversary of the day Bella left him—oh yes, she left + him finally. She was intense enough about some things, and she said it got + on her nerves to have everybody chuckle when they asked for her husband. + They would say, “Hello, Bella! How’s Bubbles? Still banting?” And Bella + would try to laugh and say, “He swears his tailor says his waist is + smaller, but if it is he must be growing hollow in the back.” + </p> + <p> + But she got tired of it at last. Well, on the second anniversary of + Bella’s departure, Jimmy was feeling pretty glum, and as I say, I am very + fond of Jim. The divorce had just gone through and Bella had taken her + maiden name again and had had an operation for appendicitis. We heard + afterward that they didn’t find an appendix, and that the one they showed + her in a glass jar WAS NOT HERS! But if Bella ever suspected, she didn’t + say. Whether the appendix was anonymous or not, she got box after box of + flowers that were, and of course every one knew that it was Jim who sent + them. + </p> + <p> + To go back to the anniversary, I went to Rothberg’s to see the collection + of antique furniture—mother was looking for a sideboard for father’s + birthday in March—and I met Jimmy there, boring into a worm-hole in + a seventeenth-century bedpost with the end of a match, and looking his + nearest to sad. When he saw me he came over. + </p> + <p> + “I’m blue today, Kit,” he said, after we had shaken hands. “Come and help + me dig bait, and then let’s go fishing. If there’s a worm in every hole in + that bedpost, we could go into the fish business. It’s a good business.” + </p> + <p> + “Better than painting?” I asked. But he ignored my gibe and swelled up + alarmingly in order to sigh. + </p> + <p> + “This is the worst day of the year for me,” he affirmed, staring straight + ahead, “and the longest. Look at that crazy clock over there. If you want + to see your life passing away, if you want to see the steps by which you + are marching to eternity, watch that clock marking the time. Look at that + infernal hand staying quiet for sixty seconds and then jumping forward to + catch up with the procession. Ugh!” + </p> + <p> + “See here, Jim,” I said, leaning forward, “you’re not well. You can’t go + through the rest of the day like this. I know what you’ll do; you’ll go + home to play Grieg on the pianola, and you won’t eat any dinner.” He + looked guilty. + </p> + <p> + “Not Grieg,” he protested feebly. “Beethoven.” + </p> + <p> + “You’re not going to do either,” I said with firmness. “You are going + right home to unpack those new draperies that Harry Bayles sent you from + Shanghai, and you are going to order dinner for eight—that will be + two tables of bridge. And you are not going to touch the pianola.” + </p> + <p> + He did not seem enthusiastic, but he rose and picked up his hat, and stood + looking down at me where I sat on an old horse-hair covered sofa. + </p> + <p> + “I wish to thunder I had married you!” he said savagely. “You’re the + finest girl I know, Kit, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, and you are going to throw + yourself away on Jack Manning, or Max, or some other—” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing of the sort,” I said coldly, “and the fact that you didn’t marry + me does not give you the privilege of abusing my friends. Anyhow, I don’t + like you when you speak like that.” + </p> + <p> + Jim took me to the door and stopped there to sigh. + </p> + <p> + “I haven’t been well,” he said heavily. “Don’t eat, don’t sleep. Wouldn’t + you think I’d lose flesh? Kit”—he lowered his voice solemnly—“I + have gained two pounds!” + </p> + <p> + I said he didn’t look it, which appeared to comfort him somewhat, and, + because we were old friends, I asked him where Bella was. He said he + thought she was in Europe, and that he had heard she was going to marry + Reggie Wolfe. Then he signed again, muttered something about ordering the + funeral baked meats to be prepared and left me. + </p> + <p> + That was my entire share in the affair. I was the victim, both of + circumstances and of their plot, which was mad on the face of it. + </p> + <p> + During the entire time they never once let me forget that I got up the + dinner, that I telephoned around for them. They asked me why I couldn’t + cook—when not one of them knew one side of a range from the other. + And for Anne Brown to talk the way she did—saying I had always been + crazy about Jim, and that she believed I had known all along that his aunt + was coming—for Anne to talk like that was sheer idiocy. Yes, there + was an aunt. The Japanese butler started the trouble, and Aunt Selina + carried it along. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter II. THE WAY IT BEGAN + </h2> + <p> + It makes me angry every time I think how I tried to make that dinner a + success. I canceled a theater engagement, and I took the Mercer girls in + the electric brougham father had given me for Christmas. Their chauffeur + had been gone for hours with their machine, and they had telephoned all + the police stations without success. They were afraid that there had been + an awful smash; they could easily have replaced Bartlett, as Lollie said, + but it takes so long to get new parts for those foreign cars. + </p> + <p> + Jim had a house well up-town, and it stood just enough apart from the + other houses to be entirely maddening later. It was a three-story affair, + with a basement kitchen and servants’ dining room. Then, of course, there + were cellars, as we found out afterward. On the first floor there was a + large square hall, a formal reception room, behind it a big living room + that was also a library, then a den, and back of all a Georgian dining + room, with windows high above the ground. On the top floor Jim had a + studio, like every other one I ever saw—perhaps a little mussier. + Jim was really a grind at his painting, and there were cigarette ashes and + palette knives and buffalo rugs and shields everywhere. It is strange, but + when I think of that terrible house, I always see the halls, enormous, + covered with heavy rugs, and stairs that would have taken six housemaids + to keep in proper condition. I dream about those stairs, stretching above + me in a Jacob’s ladder of shining wood and Persian carpets, going up, up, + clear to the roof. + </p> + <p> + The Dallas Browns walked; they lived in the next block. And they brought + with them a man named Harbison, that no one knew. Anne said he would be + great sport, because he was terribly serious, and had the most exaggerated + ideas of society, and loathed extravagance, and built bridges or + something. She had put away her cigarettes since he had been with them—he + and Dallas had been college friends—and the only chance she had to + smoke was when she was getting her hair done. And she had singed off quite + a lot—a burnt offering, she called it. + </p> + <p> + “My dear,” she said over the telephone, when I invited her, “I want you to + know him. He’ll be crazy about you. That type of man, big and deadly + earnest, always falls in love with your type of girl, the appealing sort, + you know. And he has been too busy, up to now, to know what love is. But + mind, don’t hurt him; he’s a dear boy. I’m half in love with him myself, + and Dallas trots around at his heels like a poodle.” + </p> + <p> + But all Anne’s geese are swans, so I thought little of the Harbison man + except to hope that he played respectable bridge, and wouldn’t mark the + cards with a steel spring under his finger nail, as one of her “finds” had + done. + </p> + <p> + We all arrived about the same time, and Anne and I went upstairs together + to take off our wraps in what had been Bella’s dressing room. It was Anne + who noticed the violets. + </p> + <p> + “Look at that!” she nudged me, when the maid was examining her wrap before + she laid it down. “What did I tell you, Kit? He’s still quite mad about + her.” + </p> + <p> + Jim had painted Bella’s portrait while they were going up the Nile on + their wedding trip. It looked quite like her, if you stood well off in the + middle of the room and if the light came from the right. And just beneath + it, in a silver vase, was a bunch of violets. It was really touching, and + violets were fabulous. It made me want to cry, and to shake Bella soundly, + and to go down and pat Jim on his generous shoulder, and tell him what a + good fellow I thought him, and that Bella wasn’t worth the dust under his + feet. I don’t know much about psychology, but it would be interesting to + know just what effect those violets and my sympathy for Jim had in + influencing my decision a half hour later. It is not surprising, under the + circumstances, that for some time after the odor of violets made me ill. + </p> + <p> + We all met downstairs in the living room, quite informally, and Dallas was + banging away at the pianola, tramping the pedals with the delicacy and + feeling of a football center rush kicking a goal. Mr. Harbison was + standing near the fire, a little away from the others, and he was all that + Anne had said and more in appearance. He was tall—not too tall, and + very straight. And after one got past the oddity of his face being + bronze-colored above his white collar, and of his brown hair being + sun-bleached on top until it was almost yellow, one realized that he was + very handsome. He had what one might call a resolute nose and chin, and a + pleasant, rather humorous, mouth. And he had blue eyes that were, at that + moment, wandering with interest over the lot of us. Somebody shouted his + name to me above the Tristan and Isolde music, and I held out my hand. + </p> + <p> + Instantly I had the feeling one sometimes has, of having done just that + same thing, with the same surroundings, in the same place, years before, I + was looking up at him, and he was staring down at me and holding my hand. + And then the music stopped and he was saying: + </p> + <p> + “Where was it?” + </p> + <p> + “Where was what?” I asked. The feeling was stronger than ever with his + voice. + </p> + <p> + “I beg your pardon,” he said, and let my hand drop. “Just for a second I + had an idea that we had met before somewhere, a long time ago. I suppose—no, + it couldn’t have happened, or I should remember.” He was smiling, half at + himself. + </p> + <p> + “No,” I smiled back at him. “It didn’t happen, I’m afraid—unless we + dreamed it.” + </p> + <p> + “We?” + </p> + <p> + “I felt that way, too, for a moment.” + </p> + <p> + “The Brushwood Boy!” he said with conviction. “Perhaps we will find a + common dream life, where we knew each other. You remember the Brushwood + Boy loved the girl for years before they really met.” But this was a + little too rapid, even for me. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing so sentimental, I’m afraid,” I retorted. “I have had exactly the + same sensation sometimes when I have sneezed.” + </p> + <p> + Betty Mercer captured him then and took him off to see Jim’s newest + picture. Anne pounced on me at once. + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t he delicious?” she demanded. “Did you ever see such shoulders? And + such a nose? And he thinks we are parasites, cumberers of the earth, + Heaven knows what. He says every woman ought to know how to earn her + living, in case of necessity! I said I could make enough at bridge, and he + thought I was joking! He’s a dear!” Anne was enthusiastic. + </p> + <p> + I looked after him. Oddly enough the feeling that we had met before stuck + to me. Which was ridiculous, of course, for we learned afterward that the + nearest we ever came to meeting was that our mothers had been school + friends! Just then I saw Jim beckoning to me crazily from the den. He + looked quite yellow, and he had been running his fingers through his hair. + </p> + <p> + “For Heaven’s sake, come in, Kit!” he said. “I need a cool head. Didn’t I + tell you this is my calamity day?” + </p> + <p> + “Cook gone?” I asked with interest. I was starving. + </p> + <p> + He closed the door and took up a tragic attitude in front of the fire. + “Did you ever hear of Aunt Selina?” he demanded. + </p> + <p> + “I knew there WAS one,” I ventured, mindful of certain gossip as to whence + Jimmy derived the Wilson income. + </p> + <p> + Jim himself was too worried to be cautious. He waved a brazen hand at the + snug room, at the Japanese prints on the walls, at the rugs, at the + teakwood cabinets and the screen inlaid with pearl and ivory. + </p> + <p> + “All this,” he said comprehensively, “every bite I eat, clothes I wear, + drinks I drink—you needn’t look like that; I don’t drink so darned + much—everything comes from Aunt Selina—buttons,” he finished + with a groan. + </p> + <p> + “Selina Buttons,” I said reflectively. “I don’t remember ever having known + any one named Buttons, although I had a cat once—” + </p> + <p> + “Damn the cat!” he said rudely. “Her name isn’t Buttons. Her name is + Caruthers, my Aunt Selina Caruthers, and the money comes from buttons.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” feebly. + </p> + <p> + “It’s an old business,” he went on, with something of proprietary pride. + “My grandfather founded it in 1775. Made buttons for the Continental + Army.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes,” I said. “They melted the buttons to make bullets, didn’t they? + Or they melted bullets to make buttons? Which was it?” + </p> + <p> + But again he interrupted. + </p> + <p> + “It’s like this,” he went on hurriedly. “Aunt Selina believes in me. She + likes pictures, and she wanted me to paint, if I could. I’d have given up + long ago—oh, I know what you think of my work—but for Aunt + Selina. She has encouraged me, and she’s done more than that; she’s paid + the bills.” + </p> + <p> + “Dear Aunt Selina,” I breathed. + </p> + <p> + “When I got married,” Jim persisted, “Aunt Selina doubled my allowance. I + always expected to sell something, and begin to make money, and in the + meantime what she advanced I considered as a loan.” He was eyeing me + defiantly, but I was growing serious. It was evident from the preamble + that something was coming. + </p> + <p> + “To understand, Kit,” he went on dubiously, “you would have to know her. + She won’t stand for divorce. She thinks it is a crime.” + </p> + <p> + “What!” I sat up. I have always regarded divorce as essentially + disagreeable, like castor oil, but necessary. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you know well enough what I’m driving at,” he burst out savagely. + “She doesn’t know Bella has gone. She thinks I am living in a little + domestic heaven, and—she is coming tonight to hear me flap my + wings.” + </p> + <p> + “Tonight!” + </p> + <p> + I don’t think Jimmy had known that Dallas Brown had come in and was + listening. I am sure I had not. Hearing his chuckle at the doorway brought + us up with a jerk. + </p> + <p> + “Where has Aunt Selina been for the last two or three years?” he asked + easily. + </p> + <p> + Jim turned, and his face brightened. + </p> + <p> + “Europe. Look here, Dal, you’re a smart chap. She’ll only be here about + four hours. Can’t you think of some way to get me out of this? I want to + let her down easy, too. I’m mighty fond of Aunt Selina. Can’t we—can’t + I say Bella has a headache?” + </p> + <p> + “Rotten!” laconically. + </p> + <p> + “Gone out of town?” Jim was desperate. + </p> + <p> + “And you with a houseful of dinner guests! Try again, Jim.” + </p> + <p> + “I have it,” Jim said suddenly. “Dallas, ask Anne if she won’t play + hostess for tonight. Be Mrs. Wilson pro tem. Anne would love it. Aunt + Selina never saw Bella. Then, afterward, next year, when I’m hung in the + Academy and can stand on my feet”—(“Not if you’re hung,” Dallas + interjected.)—“I’ll break the truth to her.” + </p> + <p> + But Dallas was not enthusiastic. + </p> + <p> + “Anne wouldn’t do at all,” he declared. “She’d be talking about the kids + before she knew it, and patting me on the head.” He said it complacently; + Anne flirts, but they are really devoted. + </p> + <p> + “One of the Mercer girls?” I suggested, but Jimmy raised a horrified hand. + </p> + <p> + “You don’t know Aunt Selina,” he protested. “I couldn’t offer Leila in the + gown she’s got on, unless she wore a shawl, and Betty is too fair.” + </p> + <p> + Anne came in just then, and the whole story had to be told again to her. + She was ecstatic. She said it was good enough for a play, and that of + course she would be Mrs. Jimmy for that length of time. + </p> + <p> + “You know,” she finished, “if it were not for Dal, I would be Mrs. Jimmy + for ANY length of time. I have been devoted to you for years, Billiken.” + </p> + <p> + But Dallas refused peremptorily. + </p> + <p> + “I’m not jealous,” he explained, straightening and throwing out his chest, + “but—well, you don’t look the part, Anne. You’re—you are + growing matronly, not but what you suit ME all right. And then I’d forget + and call you ‘mammy,’ which would require explanation. I think it’s up to + you, Kit.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall do nothing of the sort!” I snapped. “It’s ridiculous!” + </p> + <p> + “I dare you!” said Dallas. + </p> + <p> + I refused. I stood like a rock while the storm surged around me and beat + over me. I must say for Jim that he was merely pathetic. He said that my + happiness was first; that he would not give me an uncomfortable minute for + anything on earth; and that Bella had been perfectly right to leave him, + because he was a sinking ship, and deserved to be turned out penniless + into the world. After which mixed figure, he poured himself something to + drink, and his hands were shaking. + </p> + <p> + Dal and Anne stood on each side of him and patted him on the shoulders and + glared across at me. I felt that if I was a rock, Jim’s ship had struck on + me and was sinking, as he said, because of me. I began to crumble. + </p> + <p> + “What—what time does she leave?” I asked, wavering. + </p> + <p> + “Ten: nine; KIT, are you going to do it?” + </p> + <p> + “No!” I gave a last clutch at my resolution. “People who do that kind of + thing always get into trouble. She might miss her train. She’s almost + certain to miss her train.” + </p> + <p> + “You’re temporizing,” Dallas said sternly. “We won’t let her miss her + train; you can be sure of that.” + </p> + <p> + “Jim,” Anne broke in suddenly, “hasn’t she a picture of Bella? There’s not + the faintest resemblance between Bella and Kit.” + </p> + <p> + Jim became downcast again. “I sent her a miniature of Bella a couple of + years ago,” he said despondently. “Did it myself.” + </p> + <p> + But Dal said he remembered the miniature, and it looked more like me than + Bella, anyhow. So we were just where we started. And down inside of me I + had a premonition that I was going to do just what they wanted me to do, + and get into all sorts of trouble, and not be thanked for it after all. + Which was entirely correct. And then Leila Mercer came and banged at the + door and said that dinner had been announced ages ago and that everybody + was famishing. With the hurry and stress, and poor Jim’s distracted face, + I weakened. + </p> + <p> + “I feel like a cross between an idiot and a criminal,” I said shortly, + “and I don’t know particularly why every one thinks I should be the victim + for the sacrifice. But if you will promise to get her off early to her + train, and if you will stand by me and not leave me alone with her, I—I + might try it.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course, we’ll stand by you!” they said in chorus. “We won’t let you + stick!” And Dal said, “You’re the right sort of girl, Kit. And after it’s + all over, you’ll realize that it’s the biggest kind of lark. Think how you + are saving the old lady’s feeling! When you are an elderly person + yourself, Kit, you will appreciate what you are doing tonight.” + </p> + <p> + Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine and the + only person there clever enough to act the part, and that they wouldn’t + let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what they promised. Oh, I + am not defending myself; I suppose I deserved everything that happened. + But they told me that she would be there only between trains, and that she + was deaf, and that I had an opportunity to save a fellow-being from ruin. + So in the end I capitulated. + </p> + <p> + When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had arrived and + was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and somebody said a cab was at + the door. + </p> + <p> + And that was the way it began. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter III. I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT + </h2> + <p> + The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were Jimmy’s + troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an unsuspecting elderly + woman? And it was only putting off discovery anyhow. Sooner or later, she + would learn of the divorce, and—Just at that instant my eyes fell on + Mr. Harbison—Tom Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on + with an amused, half-puzzled smile, while people were rushing around + hiding the roulette wheel and things of which Miss Caruthers might + disapprove, and Betty Mercer was on her knees winding up a toy bear that + Max had brought her. What would he think? It was evident that he thought + badly of us already—that he was contemptuously amused, and then to + have to ask him to lend himself to the deception! + </p> + <p> + With a gasp I hurled myself after Jimmy, only to hear a strange voice in + the hall and to know that I was too late. I was in for it, whatever was + coming. It was Aunt Selina who was coming—along the hall, followed + by Jim, who was mopping his face and trying not to notice the paralyzed + silence in the library. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina met me in the doorway. To my frantic eyes she seemed to tower + above us by at least a foot, and beside her Jimmy was a red, perspiring + cherub. + </p> + <p> + “Here she is,” Jimmy said, from behind a temporary eclipse of black cloak + and traveling bag. He was on top of the situation now, and he was + mendaciously cheerful. He had NOT said, “Here is my wife.” That would have + been a lie. No, Jimmy merely said, “Here she is.” If Aunt Selina chose to + think me Bella, was it not her responsibility? And if I chose to accept + the situation, was it not mine? Dallas Brown came forward gravely as Aunt + Selina folded over and kissed me, and surreptitiously patted me with one + hand while he held out the other to Miss Caruthers. I loathed him! + </p> + <p> + “We always expect something unusual from James, Miss Caruthers,” he said, + with his best manner, “but THIS—this is beyond our wildest dreams.” + </p> + <p> + Well, it’s too awful to linger over. Anne took her upstairs and into + Bella’s bedroom. It was a fancy of Jim’s to leave that room just as Bella + had left it, dusty dance cards and favors hanging around and a pair of + discarded slippers under the bed. I don’t think it had been swept since + Bella left it. I believe in sentiment, but I like it brushed and dusted + and the cobwebs off of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her bonnet, it + stirred up a gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did not say + anything, but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her run her + finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid, put her + cloak on it. + </p> + <p> + Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella’s bath and wet the end of a + towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina’s collar—her + concession to evening dress—Anne wiped off the obvious places on the + furniture. She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in the glass. + </p> + <p> + “What’s that young woman’s name?” she asked me sharply, when Anne had + taken the towel out to hide it. + </p> + <p> + “Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown,” I replied meekly. Every one replied + meekly to Aunt Selina. + </p> + <p> + “Does she live here?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” I said airily. “They are here to dinner, she and her husband. + They are old friends of Jim’s—and mine.” + </p> + <p> + “Seems to have a good eye for dirt,” said Aunt Selina and went on + fastening her brooch. When she was finally ready, she took a bead purse + from somewhere about her waist and took out a half dollar. She held it up + before Hannah’s eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Tomorrow morning,” she said sternly, “You take off that white cap and + that fol-de-rol apron and that black henrietta cloth, and put on a calico + wrapper. And when you’ve got this room aired and swept, Mrs. Wilson will + give you this.” + </p> + <p> + Hannah took two steps back and caught hold of a chair; she stared + helplessly from Aunt Selina to the half dollar, and then at me. Anne was + trying not to catch my eye. + </p> + <p> + “And another thing,” Aunt Selina said, from the head of the stairs, “I + sent those towels over from Ireland. Tell her to wash and bleach the one + Mrs. What’s-her-name Brown used as a duster.” + </p> + <p> + Anne was quite crushed as we went down the stairs. I turned once, half-way + down, and her face was a curious mixture of guilt and hopeless wrath. Over + her shoulder, I could see Hannah, wide-eyed and puzzled, staring after us. + </p> + <p> + Jim presented everybody, and then he went into the den and closed the door + and we heard him unlock the cellarette. Aunt Selina looked at Leila’s bare + shoulders and said she guessed she didn’t take cold easily, and + conversation rather languished. Max Reed was looking like a thundercloud, + and he came over to me with a lowering expression that I had learned to + dread in him. + </p> + <p> + “What fool nonsense is this?” he demanded. “What in the world possessed + you, Kit, to put yourself in such an equivocal position? Unless”—he + stopped and turned a little white—“unless you are going to marry + Jim.” + </p> + <p> + I am sorry for Max. He is such a nice boy, and good looking, too, if only + he were not so fierce, and did not want to make love to me. No matter what + I do, Max always disapproves of it. I have always had a deeply rooted + conviction that if I should ever in a weak moment marry Max, he would + disapprove of that, too, before I had done it very long. + </p> + <p> + “Are you?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes—a sign of unusually bad + humor. + </p> + <p> + “Am I what?” + </p> + <p> + “Going to marry him?” + </p> + <p> + “If you mean Jim,” I said with dignity, “I haven’t made up my mind yet. + Besides, he hasn’t asked me.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina had been talking Woman’s Suffrage in front of the fireplace, + but now she turned to me. + </p> + <p> + “Is this the vase Cousin Jane Whitcomb sent you as a wedding present?” she + demanded, indicating a hideous urn-shaped affair on the mantel. It came to + me as an inspiration that Jim had once said it was an ancestral urn, so I + said without hesitation that it was. And because there was a pause and + every one was looking at us, I added that it was a beautiful thing. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina sniffed. + </p> + <p> + “Hideous!” she said. “It looks like Cousin Jane, shape and coloring.” + </p> + <p> + Then she looked at it more closely, pounced on it, turned it upside down + and shook it. A card fell out, which Dallas picked up and gave her with a + bow. Jim had come out of the den and was dancing wildly around and + beckoning to me. By the time I had made out that that was NOT the vase + Cousin Jane had sent us as a wedding present, Aunt Selina had examined the + card. Then she glared across at me and, stooping, put the card in the + fire. I did not understand at all, but I knew I had in some way done the + unforgivable thing. Later, Dal told me it was HER card, and that she had + sent the vase to Jim at Christmas, with a generous check inside. When she + straightened from the fireplace, it was to a new theme, which she attacked + with her usual vigor. The vase incident was over, but she never forgot it. + She proved that she never did when she sent me two urn-shaped vases with + Paul and Virginia on them, when I—that is, later on. + </p> + <p> + “The Cause in England has made great strides,” she announced from the + fireplace. “Soon the hand that rocks the cradle will be the hand that + actually rules the world.” Here she looked at me. + </p> + <p> + “I’m not up on such things,” Max said blandly, having recovered some of + his good humor, “but—isn’t it usually a foot that rocks the cradle?” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina turned on him and Mr. Harbison, who were standing together, + with a snort. + </p> + <p> + “What have you, or YOU, ever done for the independence of woman?” she + demanded. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison smiled. He had been looking rather grave until then. “We have + at least remained unmarried,” he retorted. And then dinner was again + announced. + </p> + <p> + He was to take me out, and he came across the room to where I sat + collapsed in a chair, and bent over me. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know,” he said, looking down at me with his clear, disconcerting + gaze, “do you know that I have just grasped the situation? There was such + a noise that I did not hear your name, and I am only realizing now that + you are my hostess! I don’t know why I got the impression that this was a + bachelor establishment, but I did. Odd, wasn’t it?” + </p> + <p> + I positively couldn’t look away from him. My features seemed frozen, and + my eyes were glued to his. As for telling him the truth—well, my + tongue refused to move. I intended to tell him during dinner if I had an + opportunity; I honestly did. But the more I looked at him and saw how + candid his eyes were, and how stern his mouth might be, the more I + shivered at the plunge. And, of course, as everybody knows now, I didn’t + tell him at all. And every moment I expected that awful old woman to ask + me what I paid my cook, and when I had changed the color of my hair—Bella’s + being black. + </p> + <p> + Dinner was a half hour late when we finally went out, Jimmy leading off + with Aunt Selina, and I, as hostess, trailing behind the procession with + Mr. Harbison. Dallas took in the two Mercer girls, for we were one man + short, and Max took Anne. Leila Mercer was so excited that she wriggled, + and as for me, the candles and the orchids—everything—danced + around in a circle, and I just seemed to catch the back of my chair as it + flew past. Jim had ordered away the wines and brought out some weak and + cheap Chianti. Dallas looked gloomy at the change, but Jim explained in an + undertone that Aunt Selina didn’t approve of expensive vintages. + Naturally, the meal was glum enough. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina had had her dinner on the train, so she spent her time in + asking me questions the length of the table, and in getting acquainted + with me. She had brought a bottle of some sort of medicine downstairs with + her, and she took a claret-glassful, while she talked. The stuff was + called Pomona; shall I ever forget it? + </p> + <p> + It was Mr. Harbison who first noticed Takahiro. Jimmy’s Jap had been the + only thing in the menage that Bella declared she had hated to leave. But + he was doing the strangest things: his little black eyes shifted + nervously, and he looked queer. + </p> + <p> + “What’s wrong with him?” Mr. Harbison asked me finally, when he saw that I + noticed. “Is he ill?” + </p> + <p> + Then Aunt Selina’s voice from the other end of the table: + </p> + <p> + “Bella,” she called, in a high shrill tone, “do you let James eat + cucumbers?” + </p> + <p> + “I think he must be,” I said hurriedly aside to Mr. Harbison. “See how his + hands shake!” But Selina would not be ignored. + </p> + <p> + “Cucumbers and strawberries,” she repeated impressively. “I was saying, + Bella, that cucumbers have always given James the most fearful + indigestion. And yet I see you serve them at your table. Do you remember + what I wrote you to give him when he has his dreadful spells?” + </p> + <p> + I was quite speechless; every one was looking, and no one could help. It + was clear Jim was racking his brain, and we sat staring desperately at + each other across the candles. Everything I had ever known faded from me, + eight pairs of eyes bored into me, Mr. Harbison’s politely amused. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t remember,” I said at last. “Really, I don’t believe—” Aunt + Selina smiled in a superior way. + </p> + <p> + “Now, don’t you recall it?” she insisted. “I said: ‘Baking soda in water + taken internally for cucumbers; baking soda and water externally, rubbed + on, when he gets that dreadful, itching strawberry rash.’” + </p> + <p> + I believe the dinner went on. Somebody asked Aunt Selina how much + over-charge she had paid in foreign hotels, and after that she was as + harmless as a dove. + </p> + <p> + Then half way through the dinner we heard a crash in Takahiro’s pantry, + and when he did not appear again, Jim got up and went out to investigate. + He was gone quite a little while, and when he came back he looked worried. + </p> + <p> + “Sick,” he replied to our inquiring glances. “One of the maids will come + in. They have sent for a doctor.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina was for going out at once and “fixing him up,” as she put it, + but Dallas gently interfered. + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn’t, Miss Caruthers,” he said, in the deferential manner he had + adopted toward her. “You don’t know what it may be. He’s been looking + spotty all evening.” + </p> + <p> + “It might be scarlet fever,” Max broke in cheerfully. “I say, scarlet + fever on a Mongolian—what color would he be, Jimmy? What do yellow + and red make? Green?” + </p> + <p> + “Orange,” Jim said shortly. “I wish you people would remember that we are + trying to eat.” + </p> + <p> + The fact was, however, that no one was really eating, except Mr. Harbison + who had given up trying to understand us, considering, no doubt, our + subdued excitement as our normal condition. Ages afterward I learned that + he thought my face almost tragic that night, and that he supposed from the + way I glared across the table, that I had quarreled with my husband! + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid you are not well,” he said at last, noticing my food + untouched on my plate. “We should not have come, any of us.” + </p> + <p> + “I am perfectly well,” I replied feverishly. “I am never ill. I—I + ate a late luncheon.” + </p> + <p> + He glanced at me keenly. “Don’t let them stay and play bridge tonight,” he + urged. “Miss Caruthers can be an excuse, can she not? And you are really + fagged. You look it.” + </p> + <p> + “I think it is only ill humor,” I said, looking directly at him. “I am + angry at myself. I have done something silly, and I hate to be silly.” + </p> + <p> + Max would have said “Impossible,” or something else trite. The Harbison + man looked at me with interested, serious eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Is it too late to undo it?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + And then and there I determined that he should never know the truth. He + could go back to South America and build bridges and make love to the + Spanish girls (or are they Spanish down there?) and think of me always as + a married woman, married to a dilettante artist, inclined to be stout—the + artist, not I—and with an Aunt Selina Caruthers who made buttons and + believed in the Cause. But never, NEVER should he think of me as a silly + little fool who pretended that she was the other man’s wife and had a lump + in her throat because when a really nice man came along, a man who knew + something more than polo and motors, she had to carry on the deception to + keep his respect, and be sedate and matronly, and see him change from + perfect open admiration at first to a hands-off-she-is-my-host’s-wife + attitude at last. + </p> + <p> + “It can never be undone,” I said soberly. + </p> + <p> + Well, that’s the picture as nearly as I can draw it: a round table with a + low centerpiece of orchids in lavenders and pink, old silver candlesticks + with filigree shades against the somber wainscoting; nine people, two of + them unhappy—Jim and I; one of them complacent—Aunt Selina; + one puzzled—Mr. Harbison; and the rest hysterically mirthful. Add + one sick Japanese butler and grind in the mills of the gods. + </p> + <p> + Every one promptly forgot Takahiro in the excitement of the game we were + all playing. Finally, however, Aunt Selina, who seemed to have Takahiro on + her mind, looked up from her plate. + </p> + <p> + “That Jap was speckled,” she asserted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s + measles. Has he been sniffling, James?” + </p> + <p> + “Has he been sniffling?” Jim threw across at me. + </p> + <p> + “I hadn’t noticed it,” I said meekly, while the others choked. + </p> + <p> + Max came to the rescue. “She refused to eat it,” he explained, distinctly + and to everybody, apropos absolutely of nothing. “It said on the + box, ‘ready cooked and predigested.’ She declared she didn’t care who + cooked it, but she wanted to know who predigested it.” + </p> + <p> + As every one wanted to laugh, every one did it then, and under cover of + the noise I caught Anne’s eye, and we left the dining room. The men + stayed, and by the very firmness with which the door closed behind us, I + knew that Dallas and Max were bringing out the bottles that Takahiro had + hidden. I was seething. When Aunt Selina indicated a desire to go over the + house (it was natural that she should want to; it was her house, in a way) + I excused myself for a minute and flew back to the dining room. + </p> + <p> + It was as I had expected. Jim hadn’t cheered perceptibly, and the rest + were patting him on the back, and pouring things out for him, and saying, + “Poor old Jim” in the most maddening way. And the Harbison man was looking + more and more puzzled, and not at all hilarious. + </p> + <p> + I descended on them like a thunderbolt. + </p> + <p> + “That’s it,” I cried shrewishly, with my back against the door. “Leave her + to me, all of you, and pat each other on the back, and say it’s gone + splendidly! Oh, I know you, every one!” Mr. Harbison got up and pulled out + a chair, but I couldn’t sit; I folded my arms on the back. “After a while, + I suppose, you’ll slip upstairs, the four of you, and have your game.” + They looked guilty. “But I will block that right now. I am going to stay—here. + If Aunt Selina wants me, she can find me—here!” + </p> + <p> + The first indication those men had that Mr. Harbison didn’t know the state + of affairs was when he turned and faced them. + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. Wilson is quite right,” he said gravely. “We’re a selfish lot. If + Miss Caruthers is a responsibility, let us share her.” + </p> + <p> + “To arms!” Jim said, with an affectation of lightness, as they put their + glasses down, and threw open the door. Dal’s retort, “Whose?” was lost in + the confusion, and we went into the library. On the way Dallas managed to + speak to me. + </p> + <p> + “If Harbison doesn’t know, don’t tell him,” he said in an undertone. “He’s + a queer duck, in some ways; he mightn’t think it funny.” + </p> + <p> + “Funny,” I choked. “It’s the least funny thing I ever experienced. + Deceiving that Harbison man isn’t so bad—he thinks me crazy, anyhow. + He’s been staring his eyes out at me—” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t wonder. You’re really lovely tonight, Kit, and you look like a + vixen.” + </p> + <p> + “But to deceive that harmless old lady—well, thank goodness, it’s + nine, and she leaves in an hour or so.” + </p> + <p> + But she didn’t and that’s the story. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IV. THE DOOR WAS CLOSED + </h2> + <p> + It was infuriating to see how much enjoyment every one but Jim and myself + got out of the situation. They howled with mirth over the feeblest jokes, + and when Max told a story without any point whatever, they all had + hysteria. Immediately after dinner Aunt Selina had begun on the family + connection again, and after two bad breaks on my part, Jim offered to show + her the house. The Mercer girls trailed along, unwilling to lose any of + the possibilities. They said afterward that it was terrible: she went into + all the closets, and ran her hand over the tops of doors and kept getting + grimmer and grimmer. In the studio they came across a life study Jim was + doing and she shut her eyes and made the girls go out while he covered it + with a drapery. Lollie! Who did the Bacchante dance at three benefits last + winter and was learning a new one called “Eve”! + </p> + <p> + When they heard Aunt Selina on the second floor, Anne, Dal and Max sneaked + up to the studio for cigarettes, which left Mr. Harbison to me. I was in + the den, sitting in a low chair by the wood fire when he came in. He + hesitated in the doorway. + </p> + <p> + “Would you prefer being alone, or may I come in?” he asked. “Don’t mind + being frank. I know you are tired.” + </p> + <p> + “I have a headache, and I am sulking,” I said unpleasantly, “but at least + I am not actively venomous. Come in.” + </p> + <p> + So he came in and sat down across the hearth from me, and neither of us + said anything. The firelight flickered over the room, bringing out the + faded hues of the old Japanese prints on the walls, gleaming in the + mother-of-pearl eyes of the dragon on the screen, setting a grotesque god + on a cabinet to nodding. And it threw into relief the strong profile of + the man across from me, as he stared at the fire. + </p> + <p> + “I am afraid I am not very interesting,” I said at last, when he showed no + sign of breaking the silence. “The—the illness of the butler and—Miss + Caruthers’ arrival, have been upsetting.” + </p> + <p> + He suddenly roused with a start from a brown reverie. + </p> + <p> + “I beg your pardon,” he said, “I—oh, of course not! I was wondering + if I—if you were offended at what I said earlier in the evening; the—Brushwood + Boy, you know, and all that.” + </p> + <p> + “Offended?” I repeated, puzzled. + </p> + <p> + “You see, I have been living out of the world so long, and never seeing + any women but Indian squaws”—so there were no Spanish girls!—“that + I’m afraid I say what comes into my mind without circumlocution. And then—I + did not know you were married.” + </p> + <p> + “No, oh, no,” I said hastily. “But, of course, the more a woman is married—I + mean, you can not say too many nice things to married women. They—need + them, you know.” + </p> + <p> + I had floundered miserably, with his eyes on me, and I half expected him + to be shocked, or to say that married women should be satisfied with the + nice things their husbands say to them. But he merely remarked apropos of + nothing, or following a line of thought he had not voiced, that it was + trite but true that a good many men owed their success in life to their + wives. + </p> + <p> + “And a good many owe their wives to their success in life,” I retorted + cynically. At which he stared at me again. + </p> + <p> + It was then that the real complexity of the situation began to develop. + Some one had rung the bell and been admitted to the library and a maid + came to the door of the den. When she saw us she stopped uncertainly. Even + then it struck me that she looked odd, and she was not in uniform. + However, I was not informed at that time about bachelor establishments, + and the first thing she said, when she had asked to speak to me in the + hall, knocked her and her clothes clear out of my head. Evidently she knew + me. + </p> + <p> + “Miss McNair,” she said in a low tone. “There is a lady in the drawing + room, a veiled person, and she is asking for Mr. Wilson.” + </p> + <p> + “Can you not find him?” I asked. “He is in the house, probably in the + studio.” + </p> + <p> + The girl hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “Excuse me, miss, but Miss Caruthers—” + </p> + <p> + Then I saw the situation. + </p> + <p> + “Never mind,” I said. “Close the door into the drawing room, and I will + tell Mr. Wilson.” + </p> + <p> + But as the girl turned toward the doorway, the person in question appeared + in it, and raised her veil. I was perfectly paralyzed. It was Bella! Bella + in a fur coat and a veil, with the most tragic eyes I ever saw and + entirely white except for a dab of rouge in the middle of each cheek. We + stared at each other without speech. The maid turned and went down the + hall, and with that Bella came over to me and clutched me by the arm. + </p> + <p> + “Who was being carried out into that ambulance?” she demanded, glaring at + me with the most awful intensity. + </p> + <p> + “I’m sure I don’t know, Bella,” I said, wriggling away from her fingers. + “What in the world are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe.” + </p> + <p> + “You are hiding something from me!” she accused. “It is Jim! I see it in + your face.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it isn’t,” I snapped. “It seems to me, really, Bella, that you and + Jim ought to be able to manage your own affairs, without dragging me in.” + It was not pleasant, but if she was suffering, so was I. “Jim is as well + as he ever was. He’s upstairs somewhere. I’ll send for him.” + </p> + <p> + She gripped me again, and held on while her color came back. + </p> + <p> + “You’ll do nothing of the kind,” she said, and she had quite got hold of + herself again. “I do not want to see him: I hope you don’t think, Kit, + that I came here to see James Wilson. Why, I have forgotten that there IS + such a person, and you know it.” + </p> + <p> + Somebody upstairs laughed, and I was growing nervous. What if Aunt Selina + should come down, or Mr. Harbison come out of the den? + </p> + <p> + “Why DID you come, then, Bella?” I inquired. “He may come in.” + </p> + <p> + “I was passing in the motor,” she said, and I honestly think she hoped I + would believe her, “and I saw that am—” She stopped and began again. + “I thought Jim was out of town, and I came to see Takahiro,” she said + brazenly. “He was devoted to me, and Evans is going to leave. I’ll tell + you what to do, Kit. I’ll go back to the dining room, and you send Taka + there. If any one comes, I can slip into the pantry.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s immoral,” I protested. “It’s immoral to steal your—” + </p> + <p> + “My own butler!” she broke in impatiently. “You’re not usually so + scrupulous, Kit. Hurry! I hear that hateful Anne Brown.” + </p> + <p> + So we slid back along the hall, and I rang for Takahiro. But no one came. + </p> + <p> + “I think I ought to tell you, Bella,” I said as we waited, and Bella was + staring around the room—“I think you ought to know that Miss + Caruthers is here.” + </p> + <p> + Bella shrugged her shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “Well, thank goodness,” she said, “I don’t have to see her. The only + pleasant thing I remember about my year of married life is that I did NOT + meet Aunt Selina.” + </p> + <p> + I rang again, but still there was no answer. And then it occurred to me + that the stillness below stairs was almost oppressive. Bella was noticing + things, too, for she began to fasten her veil again with a malicious + little smile. + </p> + <p> + “One of the things I remember my late husband saying,” she observed, “was + that HE could manage this house, and had done it for years, with flawless + service. Stand on the bell, Kit.” + </p> + <p> + I did. We stood there, with the table, just as it had been left, between + us, and waited for a response. Bella was growing impatient. She raised her + eyebrows (she is very handsome, Bella is) and flung out her chin as if she + had begun to enjoy the horrible situation. + </p> + <p> + I thought I heard a rattle of silver from the pantry just then, and I + hurried to the door in a rage. But the pantry was empty of servants and + full of dishes, and all the lights were out but one, which was burning + dimly. I could have sworn that I saw one of the servants duck into the + stairway to the basement, but when I got there the stairs were empty, and + something was burning in the kitchen below. + </p> + <p> + Bella had followed me and was peering over my shoulder curiously. + </p> + <p> + “There isn’t a servant in the house,” she said triumphantly. And when we + went down to the kitchen, she seemed to be right. It was in disgraceful + order, and one of the bottles of wine that had ben banished from the + dining room sat half empty on the floor. + </p> + <p> + “Drunk!” Bella said with conviction. But I didn’t think so. There had not + been time enough, for one thing. Suddenly I remembered the ambulance that + had been the cause of Bella’s appearance—for no one could believe + her silly story about Takahiro. I didn’t wait to voice my suspicion to + her; I simply left her there, staring helplessly at the confusion, and ran + upstairs again: through the dining room, past Jimmy and Aunt Selina, past + Leila Mercer and Max, who were flirting on the stairs, up, up to the + servants’ bedrooms, and there my suspicions were verified. There was every + evidence of a hasty flight; in three bedrooms five trunks stood locked and + ominous, and the closets yawned with open doors, empty. Bella had been + right; there was not a servant in the house. + </p> + <p> + As I emerged from the untidy emptiness of the servants’ wing, I met Mr. + Harbison coming out of the studio. + </p> + <p> + “I wish you would let me do some of this running about for you, Mrs. + Wilson,” he said gravely. “You are not well, and I can’t think of anything + worse for a headache. Has the butler’s illness clogged the household + machinery?” + </p> + <p> + “Worse,” I replied, trying not to breathe in gasps. “I wouldn’t be running + around—like this—but there is not a servant in the house! They + have gone, the entire lot.” + </p> + <p> + “That’s odd,” he said slowly. “Gone! Are you sure?” + </p> + <p> + In reply I pointed to the servants’ wing. “Trunks packed,” I said + tragically, “rooms empty, kitchen and pantries, full of dishes. Did you + ever hear of anything like it?” + </p> + <p> + “Never,” he asserted. “It makes me suspect—” What he suspected he + did not say; instead he turned on his heel, without a word of explanation, + and ran down the stairs. I stood staring after him, wondering if every one + in the place had gone crazy. Then I heard Betty Mercer scream and the rest + talking loud and laughing, and Mr. Harbison came up the stairs again two + at a time. + </p> + <p> + “How long has that Jap been ailing, Mrs. Wilson?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “I—I don’t know,” I replied helplessly. “What is the trouble, + anyhow?” + </p> + <p> + “I think he probably has something contagious,” he said, “and it has + scared the servants away. As Mr. Brown said, he looked spotty. I suggested + to your husband that it might be as well to get the house emptied—in + case we are correct.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, by all means,” I said eagerly. I couldn’t get away too soon. + “I’ll go and get my—” Then I stopped. Why, the man wouldn’t expect + me to leave; I would have to play out the wretched farce to the end! + </p> + <p> + “I’ll go down and see them off,” I finished lamely, and we went together + down the stairs. + </p> + <p> + Just for the moment I forgot Bella altogether. I found Aunt Selina + bonneted and cloaked, taking a stirrup cup of Pomona for her nerves, and + the rest throwing on their wraps in a hurry. Downstairs Max was + telephoning for his car, which wasn’t due for an hour, and Jim was walking + up and down, swearing under his breath. With the prospect of getting rid + of them all, and, of going home comfortably to try to forget the whole + wretched affair, I cheered up quite a lot. I even played up my part of + hostess, and Dallas told me, aside, that I was a brick. + </p> + <p> + Just then Jim threw open the front door. + </p> + <p> + There was a man on the top step, with his mouth full of tacks, and he was + nailing something to the door, just below Jim’s Florentine bronze knocker, + and standing back with his head on one side to see if it was straight. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing?” Jim demanded fiercely, but the man only drove + another tack. It was Mr. Harbison who stepped outside and read the card. + </p> + <p> + It said “Smallpox.” + </p> + <p> + “Smallpox,” Mr. Harbison read, as if he couldn’t believe it. Then he + turned to us, huddled in the hall. + </p> + <p> + “It seems it wasn’t measles, after all,” he said cheerfully. “I move we + get into Mr. Reed’s automobile out there, and have a vaccination party. I + suppose even you blase society folk have not exhausted that kind of + diversion.” + </p> + <p> + But the man on the step spat his tacks in his hand and spoke for the first + time. + </p> + <p> + “No, you don’t,” he said. “Not on your life. Just step back, please, and + close the door. This house is quarantined.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter V. FROM THE TREE OF LOVE + </h2> + <p> + There is hardly any use trying to describe what followed. Anne Brown began + to cry, and talk about the children. (She went to Europe once and stayed + until they all got over the whooping cough.) And Dallas said he had a + pull, because his mill controlled I forget how many votes, and the thing + to do was to be quiet and comfortable and we would get out in the morning. + Max took it as a huge joke, and somebody found him at the telephone, + calling up his club. The Mercer girls were hysterically giggling, and Aunt + Selina sat on a stiff-backed chair and took aromatic spirits of ammonia. + As for Jim, he had collapsed on the lowest step of the stairs, and sat + there with his head in his hands. When he did look up, he didn’t dare to + look at me. + </p> + <p> + The Harbison man was arguing with the impassive individual on the top step + outside, and I saw him get out his pocketbook and offer a crisp bundle of + bills. But the man from the board of health only smiled and tacked at his + offensive sign. After a while Mr. Harbison came in and closed the door, + and we stared at one another. + </p> + <p> + “I know what I’m going to do,” I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. + “I’m going to get out through a basement window at the back. I’m going + home.” + </p> + <p> + “Home!” Aunt Selina gasped, jumping up and almost dropping her ammonia + bottle. “My dear Bella! Home?” + </p> + <p> + Jimmy groaned at the foot of the stairs, but Anne Brown was getting over + her tears and now she turned on me in a temper. + </p> + <p> + “It’s all your fault,” she said. “I was going to stay at home and get a + little sleep—” + </p> + <p> + “Well, you can sleep now,” Dallas broke in. “There’ll be nothing to do but + sleep.” + </p> + <p> + “I think you haven’t grasped the situation, Dal,” I said icily. “There + will be plenty to do. There isn’t a servant in the house!” + </p> + <p> + “No servants!” everybody cried at once. The Mercer girls stopped giggling. + </p> + <p> + “Holy cats!” Max stopped in the act of hanging up his overcoat. “Do you + mean—why, I can’t shave myself! I’ll cut my head off.” + </p> + <p> + “You’ll do more than that,” I retorted grimly. “You will carry coal and + tend fires and empty ash pans, and when you are not doing any of those + things there will be pots and pans to wash and beds to make.” + </p> + <p> + Then there WAS a row. We had worked back to the den now, and I stood in + front of the fireplace and let the storm beat around me, and tried to look + perfectly cold and indifferent, and not to see Mr. Harbison’s shocked + face. No wonder he thought them a lot of savages, browbeating their + hostess the way they did. + </p> + <p> + “It’s a fool thing anyhow,” Max Reed wound up, “to celebrate the + anniversary of a divorce—especially—” Here he caught Jim’s eye + and stopped. But I had suddenly remembered. BELLA DOWN IN THE BASEMENT! + </p> + <p> + Could anything have been worse? And of course she would have hysteria and + then turn on me and blame me for it all. It all came over me at once and + overwhelmed me, while Anne was crying and saying she wouldn’t cook if she + starved for it, and Aunt Selina was taking off her wraps. I felt queer all + over, and I sat down suddenly. Mr. Harbison was looking at me, and he + brought me a glass of wine. + </p> + <p> + “It won’t be so bad as you fear,” he said comfortingly. “There will be no + danger once we are vaccinated, and many hands make light work. They are + pretty raw now, because the thing is new to them, but by morning they will + be reconciled.” + </p> + <p> + “It isn’t the work; it is something entirely different,” I said. And it + was. Bella and work could hardly be spoken in the same breath. + </p> + <p> + If I had only turned her out as she deserved to be, when she first came, + instead of allowing her to carry through the wretched farce about seeing + Takahiro! Or if I had only run to the basement the moment the house was + quarantined, and got her out the areaway or the coal hole! And now time + was flying, and Aunt Selina had me by the arm, and any moment I expected + Bella to pounce on us through the doorway and the whole situation to + explode with a bang. + </p> + <p> + It was after eleven before they were rational enough to discuss ways and + means, and, of course, the first thing suggested was that we all adjourn + below stairs and clean up after dinner. I could have slain Max Reed for + the notion, and the Mercer girls for taking him up. + </p> + <p> + “Of course we will,” they said in a duet. “What a lark!” And they actually + began to pin up their dinner gowns. It was Jim who stopped that. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, look here, you people,” he objected, “I’m not going to let you do + that. We’ll get some servants in tomorrow. I’ll go down and put out the + lights. There will be enough clean dishes for breakfast.” + </p> + <p> + It was lucky for me that they started a new discussion then and there + about who would get the breakfast. In the midst of the excitement I + slipped away to carry the news to Bella. She was where I had left her, and + she had made herself a cup of tea, and was very much at home, which was + natural. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know,” she said ominously, “that you have been away for two hours; + and that I have gone through agonies of nervousness for fear Jim Wilson + would come down and think I came here to see him?” + </p> + <p> + “No one would think that, Bella,” I soothed her. “Everybody knows you + loathe him—Jim, too.” She looked at me over the edge of her cup. + </p> + <p> + “I’ll run along now,” she said, “since Takahiro isn’t here. And if Jim has + any sense at all, he will clear out every maid in the house. I never saw + such a kitchen in all my life. Well, lead the way, Kit. I suppose they are + deep in bridge, or roulette, or something.” + </p> + <p> + She was fixing her veil, and I saw I would have to tell her. Personally, I + would much rather have told her the house was on fire. + </p> + <p> + “Wait a minute, Bella,” I said. “You see, something queer has happened. + You know this is the anniversary—well, you know what it is—and + Jim was awfully glum. So we thought we would come—” + </p> + <p> + “What are you driving at?” she demanded. “You are sea-green, Kit. What’s + the matter? You needn’t think I mind because Jim has a jollification to + celebrate his divorce.” + </p> + <p> + “It—it was Takahiro—in the ambulance,” I blurted. “Smallpox. + We—Bella, we are shut in, quarantined.” + </p> + <p> + She didn’t faint. She just sat down and stared at me, and I stared back at + her. Then a miserable alarm clock on the table suddenly went off like an + explosion, and Bella began to laugh. I knew what that was—hysteria. + She always had attacks like that when things went wrong. I was quite + despairing by that time; I hoped they would all hear her and come + downstairs and take her up and put her to bed like a Christian, so she + could giggle her soul out. But after a bit she quieted down and began to + cry softly, and I knew the worst was over. I gave her a shake, and she was + so angry that she got over it altogether. + </p> + <p> + “Kit, you are horrid,” she choked. “Don’t you see what a position I am in? + I am not going upstairs to face Anne and the rest of them. You can just + put me in the coal cellar.” + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t there a window you could get through?” I asked desperately. + “Locking the door doesn’t shut up a whole house.” + </p> + <p> + Bella’s courage revived at that, and she said yes, there were windows, + plenty of them, only she didn’t see how she could get out. And I said she + would HAVE to get out, because I was playing Bella in the performance, and + I didn’t care to have an understudy. Then the situation dawned on her, and + she sat down and laughed herself weak in the knees. Of course she wanted + to stay, then, and see the fun out. But I was firm; she would have to go, + and I told her so. Things were complicated enough without her. + </p> + <p> + Well, we looked funny, no doubt, Bella in a Russian pony automobile coat + over the black satin she had worn at the Clevelands’ dinner, and I in + cream lace, the skirt gathered up from the kitchen floor, with Bella’s + ermine pelerine around my bare shoulders, and dishes and overturned chairs + everywhere. + </p> + <p> + Bella knew more about the lower regions of her ex-home than I would have + thought. She opened a door in a corner and led the way through a narrow + hall past the refrigerating room, to a huge, cemented cellar, with a + furnace in the center, and a half-dozen electric lights making it really + brilliant. + </p> + <p> + “Get a chair,” Bella said over her shoulder, excitedly. “I can get out + easily here, through the coal hole. Imagine my—” + </p> + <p> + But it was my turn to grip Bella. From behind the furnace were coming the + most terrible sounds, rasping noises that fairly frayed the silk of my + nerves. We stood petrified for an instant. Then Bella laughed. “They are + not all gone,” she said carefully. “Some one is asleep there.” + </p> + <p> + We tiptoed to where we could see around the furnace, and, sure enough, + some one WAS asleep there. Only, it was not one of the servants; it was a + portly policeman, with a newspaper and an empty plate on the floor on one + side, and a champagne bottle on the other. He had slid down in his chair, + with his chin on his brass buttons, and his helmet had rolled a dozen feet + away. Bella had to clap her hand over her mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Fairly caught!” she whispered. “Sartor Resartus, the arrester arrested. + Oh, Jim and his flawless service!” + </p> + <p> + But after we got over our surprise, we saw the situation was serious. The + policeman was threatening to awaken. Once he stopped snoring to yawn + noisily, and we beat a hasty retreat. Bella switched off the lights in a + hurry and locked the door behind us. We hardly breathed until we were back + in the kitchen again, and everything quiet. And then Jimmy called my name + from up above somewheres. + </p> + <p> + “I am going to call him down, Bella,” I said firmly. “Let him help you + out. I’m sure I don’t see why I should have all this when the two of you—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no, no! Surely, Kit, you wouldn’t be so cruel!” she whispered + pleadingly. “You know what he would think. He—oh, Kit, let them all + get settled for the night, and then come down, like a dear, and help me + out. I know loads of ways—honestly I do.” + </p> + <p> + “If I leave you here,” I debated, “what about the policeman?” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind him”—frantically. “Listen! There’s Jim up in the pantry. + Run, for the sake of Heaven!” + </p> + <p> + So—I ran. At the top of the stairs I met Jimmy, very crumpled as to + shirt-front and dejected as to face. + </p> + <p> + “I’ve been hunting everywhere for you,” he said dismally. “I thought you + had added to the general merriment by falling downstairs and breaking your + neck.” + </p> + <p> + I went past him with my chin up. Now that I had time to think about it, I + was furiously angry with him. + </p> + <p> + “Kit!” he called after me appealingly, but I would not hear. Then he + adopted different tactics. He took advantage of my catching my foot in the + lace of my gown to pass me, and to stand with his back against the door. + </p> + <p> + “You’re not going until you hear me, Kit,” he declared miserably. “In the + first place, for all you are down on me, is it my fault? Honestly, now IS + IT MY FAULT?” + </p> + <p> + I refused to speak. + </p> + <p> + “I was coming home to be miserable alone,” he went on, “and—oh, I + know you meant well, Kit; but YOU asked all these crazy people here.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps you will give me credit for some things,” I said wearily. “I did + NOT give Takahiro smallpox, for instance, and—if you will permit me + to mention the fact—Aunt Selina is not MY Aunt Selina.” + </p> + <p> + “That’s what I wanted to speak to you about,” Jimmy went on wretchedly, + trying not to look at me. “You see, when they were rowing so about who + would get the breakfast—I never saw such a lot of people; half of + them never touch breakfast, but of course now they want all kinds of + things—when they were talking, Aunt Selina said she knew YOU would + get it, being the hostess, and responsible, besides knowing where things + are kept.” He had fixed his eyes on the orchids, and he looked shrunken, + actually shrunken. “I thought,” he finished, “you might give me a few + pointers now, and I could come down in the morning, and—and fuss up + something, coffee and so on. I would say you did it! Oh, hang it all, Kit, + why don’t you say something?” + </p> + <p> + “What do you want me to say?” I demanded. “That I love to cook, and of + course I’ll fix trays and carry them up in the morning to Anne Brown and + Leila Mercer and the rest; and that I will have the shaving water ready—” + </p> + <p> + “I know what I’m going to do,” Jimmy said, with a sudden resolution. “Aunt + Selina and her money can go to blazes. I am going right upstairs and tell + her the truth, tell her who you are, what I am, and all the rest of it.” + He opened the door. + </p> + <p> + “You’ll do nothing of the kind,” I gasped, catching him in time. “Don’t + you dare, Jimmy Wilson! Why, what would they think of me? After letting + her call me Bella, and him—Jim, if Mr. Harbison ever learns the + truth—I—I will take poison. If we are going to be shut up here + together, we will have to carry it on. I couldn’t stand the disgrace.” + </p> + <p> + In spite of an heroic effort, Jim looked relieved. “They have been hunting + for the linen closet,” he said, more cheerfully, “and there will be room + enough, I think. Harbison and I will hang out in the studio; there are two + couches there. I’m afraid you’ll have to take Aunt Selina, Kit.” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” I said coldly. That was the way it was all along. Whenever + there was something to do that no one else would undertake—any + unpleasant responsibility—that entire mongrel household turned with + one gesture and pointed its finger at me! Well, it is over now, and I + ought not to be bitter, considering everything. + </p> + <p> + It was quite characteristic of that memorable evening (that is quite + novelesque, I think) that my interview with Jimmy should have a + sensational ending. He was terribly down, of course, and as I was trying + to pass him to get to the door, he caught my hand. + </p> + <p> + “You’re a girl in a thousand, Kit,” he said forlornly. “If I were not so + damnably, hopelessly, idiotically in love with—somebody else, I + should be crazy about you.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t be maudlin,” I retorted. “Would you mind letting my hand go?” I + felt sure Bella could hear. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, come now, Kit,” he implored, “we’ve always got along so well. It’s a + shame to let a thing like this make us bad friends. Aren’t you ever going + to forgive me?” + </p> + <p> + “Never,” I said promptly. “When I once get away, I don’t want ever to see + you again. I was never so humiliated in my life. I loathe you!” + </p> + <p> + Then I turned around, and, of course, there was Aunt Selina with her eyes + protruding until you could have knocked them off with a stick, and beside + her, very red and uncomfortable, Mr. Harbison! + </p> + <p> + “Bella!” she said in a shocked voice, “is that the way you speak to your + husband! It is high time I came here, I think, and took a hand in this + affair.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, never mind, Aunt Selina,” Jim said, with a sheepish grin. “Kit—Bella + is tired and nervous. This is a h—deuce of a situation. No—er—servants, + and all that.” + </p> + <p> + But Aunt Selina did mind, and showed it. She pulled the unlucky Harbison + man through the door and closed it, and then stood glaring at both of us. + </p> + <p> + “Every little quarrel is an apple knocked from the tree of love,” she + announced oratorically. + </p> + <p> + “This was a very little quarrel,” Jim said, edging toward the door; “a—a + green apple, Aunt Selina, a colicky little green apple.” But she was not + to be diverted. + </p> + <p> + “Bella,” she said severely, “you said you loathed him. You didn’t mean + that.” + </p> + <p> + “But I do!” I cried hysterically. “There isn’t any word to tell how I—how + I detest him.” + </p> + <p> + Then I swept past them all and flew to Bella’s dressing room and locked + myself in. Aunt Selina knocked until she was tired, then gave up and went + to bed. + </p> + <p> + That was the night Anne Brown’s pearl collar was stolen! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VI. A MIGHTY POOR JOKE + </h2> + <p> + Of course, one knows that there are people who in a different grade of + society would be shoplifters and pickpockets. When they are restrained by + obligation or environment they become a little overkeen at bridge, or take + the wrong sables, or stuff a gold-backed brush into a muff at a reception. + You remember the ivory dressing set that Theodora Bucknell had, fastened + with fine gold chains? And the sensation it caused at the Bucknell + cotillion when Mrs. Van Zire went sweeping to her carriage with two feet + of gold chain hanging from the front of her wrap? + </p> + <p> + But Anne’s pearl collar was different. In the first place, instead of + three or four hundred people, the suspicion had to be divided among ten. + And of those ten, at least eight of us were friends, and the other two had + been vouched for by the Browns and Jimmy. It was a horrible mix-up. For + the necklace was gone—there couldn’t be any doubt of that—and + although, as Dallas said, it couldn’t get out of the house, still, there + were plenty of places to hide the thing. + </p> + <p> + The worst of our trouble really originated with Max Reed, after all. For + it was Max who made the silly wager over the telephone, with Dick Bagley. + He bet five hundred even that one of us, at least, would break quarantine + within the next twenty-four hours, and, of course, that settled it. Dick + told it around the club as a joke, and a man who owns a newspaper heard + him and called up the paper. Then the paper called up the health office, + after setting up a flaming scare-head, “Will Money Free Them? Board of + Health versus Millionaire.” + </p> + <p> + It was almost three when the house settled down—nobody had any night + clothes, although finally, through Dallas, who gave them to Anne, who gave + them to the rest, we got some things of Jimmy’s—and I was still + dressed. The house was perfectly quiet, and, after listening carefully, I + went slowly down the stairs. There was a light in the hall, and another + back in the dining room, and I got along without any trouble. But the + pantry, where the stairs led down, was dark, and the wretched swinging + door would not stay open. + </p> + <p> + I caught my skirt in the door as I went through, and I had to stop to + loosen it. And in that awful minute I heard some one breathing just beside + me. I had stooped to my gown, and I turned my head without straightening—I + couldn’t have raised myself to an erect posture, for my knees were giving + way under me—and just at my feet lay the still glowing end of a + match! + </p> + <p> + I had to swallow twice before I could speak. Then I said sharply: + </p> + <p> + “Who’s there?” + </p> + <p> + The man was so close it is a wonder I had not walked into him; his voice + was right at my ear. + </p> + <p> + “I am sorry I startled you,” he said quietly. “I was afraid to speak + suddenly, or move, for fear I would do—what I have done.” + </p> + <p> + It was Mr. Harbison. + </p> + <p> + “I—I thought you were—it is very late,” I managed to say, with + dry lips. “Do you know where the electric switch is?” + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. Wilson!” It was clear he had not known me before. “Why, no; don’t + you?” + </p> + <p> + “I am all confused,” I muttered, and beat a retreat into the dining room. + There, in the friendly light, we could at least see each other, and I + think he was as much impressed by the fact that I had not undressed as I + was by the fact that he HAD, partly. He wore a hideous dressing gown of + Jimmy’s, much too small, and his hair, parted and plastered down in the + early evening, stood up in a sort of brown brush all over his head. He was + trying to flatten it with his hands. + </p> + <p> + “It must be three o’clock,” he said, with polite surprise, “and the house + is like a barn. You ought not to be running around with your arms + uncovered, Mrs. Wilson. Surely you could have called some of us.” + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t wish to disturb any one,” I said, with distinct truth. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you are like me,” he said. “The novelty of the situation—and + everything. I got to thinking things over, and then I realized the studio + was getting cold, so I thought I would come down and take a look at the + furnace. I didn’t suppose any one else would think of it. But I lost + myself in that pantry, stumbled against a half-open drawer, and nearly + went down the dumb-waiter.” And, as if in judgment on me, at that instant + came two rather terrific thumps from somewhere below, and inarticulate + words, shouted rather than spoken. It was uncanny, of course, coming as it + did through the register at our feet. Mr. Harbison looked startled. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, by the way,” I said, as carelessly as I could. “In the excitement, I + forgot to mention it. There is a policeman asleep in the furnace room. I—I + suppose we will have to keep him now,” I finished as airily as possible. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, a policeman—in the cellar,” he repeated, staring at me, and he + moved toward the pantry door. + </p> + <p> + “You needn’t go down,” I said feverishly, with visions of Bella Knowles + sitting on the kitchen table, surrounded by soiled dishes and all the + cheerless aftermath of a dinner party. “Please don’t go down. I—it’s + one of my rules—never to let a stranger go down to the kitchen. I—I’m + peculiar—that way—and besides, it’s—it’s mussy.” + </p> + <p> + Bang! Crash! through the register pipe, and some language quite + articulate. Then silence. + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Mrs. Wilson,” he said resolutely. “What do I care about the + kitchen? I’m going down and arrest that policeman for disturbing the + peace. He will have the pipes down.” + </p> + <p> + “You must not go,” I said with desperate firmness. “He—he is + probably in a very dangerous state just now. We—I—locked him + in.” + </p> + <p> + The Harbison man grinned and then became serious. + </p> + <p> + “Why don’t you tell me the whole thing?” he demanded. “You’ve been in + trouble all evening, and—you can trust me, you know, because I am a + stranger; because the minute this crazy quarantine is raised I am off to + the Argentine Republic,” (perhaps he said Chili) “and because I don’t know + anything at all about you. You see, I have to believe what you tell me, + having no personal knowledge of any of you to go on. Now tell me—whom + have you hidden in the cellar, besides the policeman?” + </p> + <p> + There was no use trying to deceive him; he was looking straight into my + eyes. So I decided to make the best of a bad thing. Anyhow, it was going + to require strength to get Bella through the coal hole with one arm and + restrain the policeman with the other. + </p> + <p> + “Come,” I said, making a sudden resolution, and led the way down the + stairs. + </p> + <p> + He said nothing when he saw Bella, for which I was grateful. She was + sitting at the table, with her arms in front of her, and her head buried + in them. And then I saw she was asleep. Her hat and veil were laid beside + her, and she had taken off her coat and draped it around her. She had + rummaged out a cold pheasant and some salad, and had evidently had a + little supper. Supper and a nap, while I worried myself gray-headed about + her! + </p> + <p> + “She—she came in unexpectedly—something about the butler,” I + explained under my breath. “And—she doesn’t want to stay. She is on + bad terms with—with some of the people upstairs. You can see how + impossible the situation is.” + </p> + <p> + “I doubt if we can get her out,” he said, as if the situation were quite + ordinary. “However, we can try. She seems very comfortable. It’s a pity to + rouse her.” + </p> + <p> + Here the prisoner in the furnace room broke out afresh. It sounded as + though he had taken a lump of coal and was attacking the lock. Mr. + Harbison followed the noise, and I could hear him arguing, not gently. + </p> + <p> + “Another sound,” he finished, “and you won’t get out of here at all, + unless you crawl up the furnace pipe!” + </p> + <p> + When he came back, Bella was rousing. She lifted her head with her eyes + shut and then opened them one at a time, blinked, and sat up. She didn’t + see him at first. + </p> + <p> + “You wretch!” she said ungratefully, after she had yawned. “Do you know + what time it is? And that—” Then she saw Mr. Harbison and sat + staring at him. + </p> + <p> + “This is Mr. Harbison,” I said to her hastily. “He—he came with Anne + and Dal and—he is shut in, too.” + </p> + <p> + By that time Bella had seen how handsome he was, and she took a hair pin + out of her mouth, and arched her eyebrows, which was always Bella’s best + pose. + </p> + <p> + “I am Miss Knowles,” she said sweetly (of course, the court had given her + back her name), “and I stopped in tonight, thinking the house was empty, + to see about a—a butler. Unfortunately, the house was quarantined + just at that time, and—here I am. Surely there can not be any harm + in helping me to get out?” (Pleading tone.) “I have not been exposed to + any contagion, and in the exhausted state of my health the confinement + would be positively dangerous.” + </p> + <p> + She rolled her eyes at him, and I could see she was making an impression. + Of course she was free. She had a perfect right to marry again, but I will + say this: Bella is a lot better looking by electric light than she is the + next morning. + </p> + <p> + The upshot of it was that the gentleman who built bridges and looked down + on society from a lofty, lonely pinnacle agreed to help one of the most + gleaming members of the aforesaid society to outwit the law. + </p> + <p> + It took about fifteen minutes to quiet the policeman. Nobody ever knew + what Mr. Harbison did to him, but for twenty-four hours he was quite + tractable. He changed after that, but that comes later in the story. + Anyhow, the Harbison man went upstairs and came down with a Bagdad curtain + and a cushion to match, and took them into the furnace room, and came out + and locked the door behind him, and then we were ready for Bella’s escape. + </p> + <p> + But there were four special officers and three reporters watching the + house, as a result of Max Reed’s idiocy. Once, after trying all the other + windows and finding them guarded, we discovered a little bit of a hole in + an out-of-the-way corner that looked like a ventilator and was covered + with a heavy wire screen. No prisoners ever dug their way out of a dungeon + with more energy than that with which we attached that screen, hacking at + it with kitchen knives, whispering like conspirators, being scratched with + the ragged edges of the wire, frozen with the cold air one minute and + boiling with excitement the next. And when the wire was cut, and Bella had + rolled her coat up and thrust it through and was standing on a chair ready + to follow, something outside that had looked like a barrel moved, and + said, “Oh, I wouldn’t do that if I were you. It would be certain to be + undignified, and probably it would be unpleasant—later.” + </p> + <p> + We coaxed and pleaded and tried to bribe, and that happened, as it turned + out, to be one of the worst things we had to endure. For the whole + conversation came out the next afternoon in the paper, with the most awful + drawings, and the reporter said it was the flashing of the jewels we wore + that first attracted his attention. And that brings me back to the + robbery. + </p> + <p> + For when we had crept back to the kitchen, and Bella was fumbling for her + handkerchief to cry into and the Harbison man was trying to apologize for + the language he had used to the reporter, and I was on the verge of a + nervous chill—well, it was then that Bella forgot all about crying + and jumped and held out her arm. + </p> + <p> + “My diamond bracelet!” she screeched. “Look, I’ve lost it.” + </p> + <p> + Well, we went over every inch of that basement, until I knew every crack + in the flooring, every spot on the cement. And Bella was nasty, and said + that she had never seen that part of the house in such condition, and that + if I had acted like a sane person and put her out, when she had no + business there at all, she would have had her freedom and her bracelet, + and that if we were playing a joke on her (as if we felt like joking!) we + would please give her the bracelet and let her go and die in a corner; she + felt very queer. + </p> + <p> + At half-past four o’clock we gave up. + </p> + <p> + “It’s gone,” I said. “I don’t believe you wore it here. No one could have + taken it. There wasn’t a soul in this part of the house, except the + policeman and he’s locked in.” + </p> + <p> + At five o’clock we put her to sleep in the den. She was in a fearful + temper, and I was glad enough to be able to shut the door on her. Tom + Harbison—that was his name—helped me to creep upstairs, and + wanted to get me a glass of ale to make me sleep. But I said it would be + of no use, as I had to get up and get the breakfast. The last thing he + said was that the policeman seemed above the average in intelligence, and + perhaps we could train him to do plain cooking and dishwashing. + </p> + <p> + I did not go to sleep at once. I lay on the chintz-covered divan in + Bella’s dressing room and stared at the picture of her with the violets + underneath. I couldn’t see what there was about Bella to inspire such + undying devotion, but I had to admit that she had looked handsome that + night, and that the Harbison man had certainly been impressed. + </p> + <p> + At seven o’clock Jimmy Wilson pounded at my door, and I could have choked + him joyfully. I dragged myself to the door and opened it, and then I heard + excited voices. Everybody seemed to be up but Aunt Selina, and they were + all talking at once. + </p> + <p> + Anne Brown was in the corner of the group, waving her hands, while Dallas + was trying to hook the back of her gown with one hand and hold a blanket + around himself with the other. No one was dressed except Anne, and she had + been up for an hour, looking in shoes and under the corners of rugs and + around the bed clothing for her jeweled collar. When she saw me she began + all over again. + </p> + <p> + “I had it on when I went into my room,” she declared, “and I put it on the + dressing table when I undressed. I meant to put it under my pillow, but I + forgot. And I didn’t sleep well; I was awake half the night. Wasn’t I, + Dal? Then, when the clock downstairs in the hall was chiming five, + something roused me, and I sat up in bed. It was still dark, but I pinched + Dal and said there was somebody in the room. You remember that, don’t you, + Dal?” + </p> + <p> + “I thought you had nightmare,” he said sheepishly. + </p> + <p> + “I lay still for ages, it seemed to me, and then—the door into the + hall closed. I heard the catch click. I turned on the light over the bed + then, and the room was empty. I thought of my collar, and although it + seemed ridiculous, with the house sealed as it is, and all of us friends + for years—well, I got up and looked, and it was gone!” + </p> + <p> + No one spoke for an instant. It WAS a queer situation, for the collar was + gone; Anne’s red eyes showed it was true. And there we stood, every one of + us a miserable picture of guilt, and tried to look innocent and debonair + and unsuspicious. Finally Jim held up his hand and signified that he + wanted to say something. + </p> + <p> + “It’s like this,” he said, “until this thing is cleared up, for Heaven’s + sake, let’s try to be sane! If every fellow thinks the other fellow did + it, this house will be a nice little hell to live in. And if anybody”—here + he glared around—“if anybody has got funny and is hiding those + jewels, I want to say that he’d better speak up now. Later, it won’t be so + easy for him. It’s a mighty poor joke.” + </p> + <p> + But nobody spoke. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VII. WE MAKE AN OMELET + </h2> + <p> + It was Betty Mercer who said she was hungry, and got us switched from the + delicate subject of which was the thief to the quite as pressing subject + of which was to be cook. Aunt Selina had slept quietly through the whole + thing—we learned afterward that she customarily slept on her left + side, which was on her good ear. We gathered in the Dallas Browns’ room, + and Jimmy proposed a plan. + </p> + <p> + “We can have anything sent in that we want,” he suggested speciously, “and + if Dal doesn’t make good with the city fathers, you girls can get some + clothes anyhow. Then, we can have dinner sent from one of the hotels.” + </p> + <p> + “Why not all the meals?” Max suggested. “I hope you’re not going to be + small about things, Jimmy.” + </p> + <p> + “It ought to be easy,” Jim persisted, ignoring the remark, “for nine + reasonably intelligent people to boil eggs and make coffee, which is all + we need for breakfast, with some fruit.” + </p> + <p> + “Nine of us!” Dallas said wickedly, looking at Tom Harbison, who was out + of earshot, “Why nine of us? I thought Kit here, otherwise known as Bella, + was going to show off her housewifely skill.” + </p> + <p> + It ended, however, with Mr. Harbison writing out a lot of slips, cook, + scullery-maid, chamber-maid, parlor-maid, furnace-man, and butler, and as + that left two people over—we didn’t count Aunt Selina—he added + another furnace-man and a trained nurse. Betty Mercer drew the trained + nurse slip, and, of course, she was delighted. It seems funny now to look + back and think what a dreadful time she really had, for Aunt Selina took + the grippe, you know, that very day. + </p> + <p> + It was fate that I should go back to that awful kitchen, for of course my + slip said “cook.” Mr. Harbison was butler, and Max and Dal got the + furnace, although neither of them had ever been nearer to a bucket of coal + than the coupons on mining stock. Anne got the bedrooms, and Leila was + parlor-maid. It was Jimmy who got the scullery work, but he was quite + crushed by this time, and did not protest at all. + </p> + <p> + Max was in a very bad temper; I suppose he had not had enough sleep—no + one had. But he came over while the lottery was going on and stood over me + and demanded unpleasantly, in a whisper, that I stop masquerading as + another man’s wife and generally making a fool of myself—which is + the way he put it. And I knew in my heart that he was right, and I hated + him for it. + </p> + <p> + “Why don’t you go and tell him—them?” I asked nastily. No one was + paying any attention to us. “Tell them that, to be obliging, I have nearly + drowned in a sea of lies; tell them that I am not only not married, but + that I never intend to marry; tell them that we are a lot of idiots with + nothing better to do than to trifle with strangers within our gates, + people who build—I mean, people that are worth two to our one! Run + and tell them.” + </p> + <p> + He looked at me for a minute, then he turned on his heel and left me. It + looked as though Max might be going to be difficult. + </p> + <p> + While I was improvising an apron out of a towel, and Anne was pinning a + sheet into a kimono, so she could take off her dinner gown and still be + proper, Dallas harked back to the robbery. + </p> + <p> + “Ann put the collar on the table there,” he said. “There’s no mistake + about that. I watched her do it, for I remember thinking it was the sole + reminder I had that Consolidated Traction ever went above thirty-nine.” + </p> + <p> + Max was looking around the room, examining the window locks and whistling + between his teeth. He was in disgrace with every one, for by that time it + was light enough to see three reporters with cameras across the street + waiting for enough sun to snap the house, and everybody knew that it was + Max and his idiotic wager that had done it. He had made two or three + conciliatory remarks, but no one would speak to him. His antics were so + queer, however, that we were all watching him, and when he had felt over + the rug with his hands, and raised the edges, and tried to lift out the + chair seats, and had shaken out Dal’s shoes (he said people often hid + things and then forgot about it), he made a proposition. + </p> + <p> + “If you will take that infernal furnace from around my neck, I’ll + undertake either to find the jewels or to show up the thief,” he said + quietly. And of course, with all the people in the house under suspicion, + every one had to hail the suggestion with joy, and to offer his + assistance, and Jimmy had to take Max’s share of the furnace. So they took + the scullery slip downstairs to the policeman, and gave Jim Max’s share of + the furnace. (Yes, I had broken the policeman to them gently. Of course, + Anne said at once that he was the thief, but they found him tucked in and + sound asleep with his back against the furnace.) + </p> + <p> + “In the first place,” Max said, standing importantly in the middle of the + room, “we retired between two and three—nearer three. So the theft + occurred between three and five, when Anne woke up. Was your door locked, + Dal?” + </p> + <p> + “No. The door into the hall was, but the door into the dressing room was + open, and we found the door from there into the hall open this morning.” + </p> + <p> + “From three until five,” Max repeated. “Was any one out of his room during + that time?” + </p> + <p> + “I was,” said Tom Harbison promptly, from the foot of the bed. “I was + prowling all around somewhere about four, searching”—he glanced at + me—“for a drink of water. But as I don’t know a pearl from a glass + bead, I hope you exonerate me.” + </p> + <p> + Everybody laughed and said, “Of course,” and “Sure, old man,” and changed + the subject quickly. + </p> + <p> + While that excitement was on, I got Jim to one side and told him about + Bella. His good-natured face was radiant at first. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose she DID come to see Takahiro, eh, Kit?” he asked delicately. + “She didn’t say anything about me?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing good. She said the house was in a disgraceful condition,” I said + heartlessly. “And her diamond bracelet was stolen while she took a nap on + the kitchen table”—he groaned—“and—oh, Jim, you are such + a goose! If I could only manage my own affairs the way I could my + friends’! She’s too sure of you, Jimmy. She knows you adore her, and—how + brutal could you be, Jim?” + </p> + <p> + “Fair,” he said. “I may have undiscovered depths of brutality that I have + never had occasion to use. However, I might try. Why?” + </p> + <p> + “Listen, Jim,” I urged. “It was always Bella who did things here; she + managed the house, she tyrannized over her friends, and she bullied you. + Yes, she did. Now she’s here, without your invitation, and she has to + stay. It’s your turn to bully, to dictate terms, to be coldly civil or + politely rude. Make her furious at you. If she is jealous, so much the + better.” + </p> + <p> + “How far would you sacrifice yourself on the altar of friendship?” he + asked. + </p> + <p> + “You may pay me all the attention you like, in public,” I replied, and + after we shook hands we went together to Bella. + </p> + <p> + There was an ominous pause when we went into the den. Bella was sitting by + the register, with her furs on, and after one glance over her shoulder at + us, she looked away again without speaking. + </p> + <p> + “Bella,” Jim said appealingly. And then I pinched his arm, and he drew + himself up and looked properly outraged. + </p> + <p> + “Bella,” he said, coldly this time, “I can’t imagine why you have put + yourself in this ridiculous position, but since you have—” + </p> + <p> + She turned on him in a fury. + </p> + <p> + “Put MYSELF in this position!” + </p> + <p> + She was frantic. “It’s a plot, a wretched trick of yours, this quarantine, + to keep me here.” + </p> + <p> + Jim gasped, but I gave him a warning glance, and he swallowed hard. + </p> + <p> + “On the contrary,” he said, with maddening quiet, “I would be the last + person in the world to wish to perpetuate an indiscretion of yours. For it + was hardly discreet, was it, to visit a bachelor establishment alone at + ten o’clock at night? As far as my plotting to keep you here is concerned, + I assure you that nothing could be further from my mind. Our paths were to + be two parallel lines that never touch.” He looked at me for approval, and + Bella was choking. + </p> + <p> + “You are worse that I ever thought you,” she stormed. “I thought you were + only a—a fool. Now I know you—for a brute!” + </p> + <p> + Well, it ended by Jim’s graciously permitting Bella to remain—there + being nothing else to do—and by his magnanimously agreeing to keep + her real identity from Aunt Selina and Mr. Harbison, and to break the news + of her presence to Anne and the rest. It created a sensation beside which + Anne’s pearls faded away, although they came to the front again soon + enough. + </p> + <p> + Jim broke the news at once, gathering everybody but Harbison and Aunt + Selina in the upper hall. He was palpitatingly nervous, but he tried to + carry it off with a high hand. + </p> + <p> + “It’s unfortunate,” he said, looking around the circle of faces, each one + frozen with amazement, and just a suspicion, perhaps of incredulity. “It’s + particularly unfortunate for her. You all know how high-strung she is, and + if the papers should get hold of it—well, we’ll all have to make it + as easy as we can for her.” + </p> + <p> + With Jim’s eyes on them, they all swallowed the butler story without a + gulp. But Anne was indignant. + </p> + <p> + “It’s like Bella,” she snapped. “Well, she has made her bed and she can + lie on it. I’m sure I shan’t make it for her. But if you want to know my + opinion, Mr. Harbison may be a fool, but you can’t ram two Bellas, both + NEE Knowles, down Miss Caruthers’ throat with a stick.” + </p> + <p> + We had not thought of that before and every one looked blank. Finally, + however, Jim said Bella’s middle name was Constantia, and we decided to + call her that. But it turned out afterward that nobody could remember it + in a hurry, and generally when we wanted to attract her attention, we + walked across the room and touched her on the shoulder. It was quicker and + safer. + </p> + <p> + The name decided, we went downstairs in a line to welcome Bella, to try to + make her feel at home, and to forget her deplorable situation. Leila had + worked herself into a really sympathetic frame of mind. + </p> + <p> + “Poor dear,” she said, on the way down. “Now don’t grin, anybody, just be + cordial and glad to see her. I hope she doesn’t cry; you know the spells + she takes.” + </p> + <p> + We stopped outside the door, and everybody tried to look cheerful and + sympathetic, and not grinny—which was as hard as looking as if we + had had a cup of tea—and then Jim threw the door open and we filed + in. + </p> + <p> + Bella was comfortably reading by the fire. She had her feet up on a stool + and a pillow behind her head. She did not even look at us for a minute; + then she merely glanced up as she turned a page. + </p> + <p> + “Dear me,” she said mockingly, “what a lot of frumps you all are! I had + hoped it was some one with my breakfast.” + </p> + <p> + Then she went on reading. As Leila said afterward, that kind of person + OUGHT to be divorced. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina came down just then and I left everybody trying to explain + Bella’s presence to her, and fled to the kitchen. The Harbison man + appeared while I was sitting hopelessly in front of the gas range, and + showed me about it. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know that I ever saw one,” he said cheerfully, “but I know the + theory. Likewise, by the same token, this tea kettle, set on the flame, + will boil. That is not theory, however, that is early knowledge. ‘Polly, + put the kettle on; we’ll all take tea.’ Look at that, Mrs. Wilson. I + didn’t fight bacilli with boiled water at Chickamauga for nothing.” + </p> + <p> + And then he let out the policeman and brought him into the kitchen. He was + a large man, and his face was a curious mixture of amazement, alarm and + dignity. No doubt we did look queer, still in parts of our evening clothes + and I in the white silk and lace petticoat that belonged under my gown, + with a yellow and black pajama coat of Jimmy’s as a sort of breakfast + jacket. + </p> + <p> + “This is Officer Flannigan,” Mr. Harbison said. “I explained our + unfortunate position earlier in the morning, and he is prepared to accept + our hospitality. Flannigan, every person in this house has got to work, as + I also explained to you. You are appointed dishwasher and scullery maid.” + </p> + <p> + The policeman looked dazed. Then, slowly, like dawn over a sleeping lake, + a light of comprehension grew in his face. + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” he said, laying his helmet on the table. “I’ll be glad to be doing + anything I can to help. Me and Mrs. Wilson—we used to be friends. + It’s many the time I’ve opened the carriage door for her, and she with her + head in the air, and for all that, the pleasant smile. When any one around + her was having a party and wanted a special officer, it was Mrs. Wilson + that always said, Get Flannigan, Officer Timothy Flannigan. He’s your + man.’” + </p> + <p> + My heart had been going lower and lower. So he knew Bella, and he knew I + was not Bella, although he had not grasped the fact that I was usurping + her place. The odious Harbison man sat on the table and swung his feet. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if you know,” he said, looking around him, “how good it is to + see a white woman so perfectly at home in a civilized kitchen again, after + two years of food cooked by a filthy Indian squaw over a portable + sheet-iron stove!” + </p> + <p> + SO PERFECTLY AT HOME? I stood in the middle of the room and stared around + at the copper things hanging up and the rows of blue and white crockery, + and the dozens and hundreds of complicated-looking utensils, whose names I + had never even heard, and I was dazed. I tried with some show of authority + to instruct Flannigan about gathering up the soiled things, and, after + listening in puzzled silence for a minute, he stripped off his blue coat + with a tolerant smile. + </p> + <p> + “Lave em to me, miss,” he said. The “miss” passed unnoticed. “I mayn’t + give em a Turkish bath, which is what you are describin’, but I’ll get the + grease off all right. I always clean up while the missus is in bed with a + young un.” + </p> + <p> + He rolled up his sleeves, found a brown checked gingham apron behind the + door, and tied it around his neck with the ease of practice. Then he + cleared off the plates, eating what appealed to him as he did so, and + stopping now and again for a deep-throated chuckle. + </p> + <p> + “I’m thinkin’,” he said once, stopping with a dish in the air, “what a + deuce of a noise there will be when the vaccination doctor comes around + this mornin’. In a week every one of us will be nursin’ a sore arm or + walkin’ on one leg, beggin’ your pardon, miss. The last time the force was + vaccinated, I asked to be done behind me ear; I needed me legs and I + needed me arms, but didn’t need me head much!” + </p> + <p> + He threw his head back and laughed. Mr. Harbison laughed. Oh, we were very + cheerful! And that awful stove stared at me, and the kettle began to hum, + and Aunt Selina sent down word that she was not well, and would like some + omelet on her tray. Omelet! + </p> + <p> + I knew that it was made of eggs, but that was the extent of my knowledge. + I muttered an excuse and ran upstairs to Anne, but she was still sniffling + over her necklace, and said she didn’t know anything about omelets and + didn’t care. Food would choke her. Neither of the Mercer girls knew + either, and Bella, who was still reading in the den, absolutely declined + to help. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know, and I wouldn’t tell you if I did. You can get yourself out, + as you got yourself in,” she said nastily. “The simplest thing, if you + don’t mind my suggesting it, is to poison the coffee and kill the lot of + us. Only, if you decide to do it, let me know; I want to live just long + enough to see Jimmy Wilson WRITHE!” + </p> + <p> + Bella is the kind of person who gets on one’s nerves. She finds a + grievance and hugs it; she does ridiculous things and blames other people. + And she flirts. + </p> + <p> + I went downstairs despondently, and found that Mr. Harbison had discovered + some eggs and was standing helplessly staring at them. + </p> + <p> + “Omelet—eggs. Eggs—omelet. That’s the extent of my knowledge,” + he said, when I entered. “You’ll have to come to my assistance.” + </p> + <p> + It was then that I saw the cook book. It was lying on a shelf beside the + clock, and while Mr. Harbison had his back turned I got it down. It was + quite clear that the domestic type of woman was his ideal, and I did not + care to outrage his belief in me. So I took the cook book into the pantry + and read the recipe over three times. When I came back I knew it by heart, + although I did not understand it. + </p> + <p> + “I will tell you how,” I said with a great deal of dignity, “and since you + want to help, you may make it yourself.” + </p> + <p> + He was delighted. + </p> + <p> + “Fine!” he said. “Suppose you give me the idea first. Then we’ll go over + it slowly, bit by bit. We’ll make a big fluffy omelet, and if the others + aren’t around, we’ll eat it ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” I said, trying to remember exactly, “you take two eggs—” + </p> + <p> + “Two!” he repeated. “Two eggs for ten people!” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t interrupt me,” I said irritably. “If—if two isn’t enough we + can make several omelets, one after the other.” + </p> + <p> + He looked at me with admiration. + </p> + <p> + “Who else but you would have thought of that!” he remarked. “Well, here + are two eggs. What next?” + </p> + <p> + “Separate them,” I said easily. No, I didn’t know what it meant. I hoped + he would; I said it as casually as I could, and I did not look at him. I + knew he was staring at me, puzzled. + </p> + <p> + “Separate them!” he said. “Why, they aren’t fastened together!” Then he + laughed. “Oh, yes, of course!” When I looked he had put one at each end of + the table. “Afraid they’ll quarrel, I suppose,” he said. “Well, now + they’re separated.” + </p> + <p> + “Then beat.” + </p> + <p> + “First separate, then beat!” he repeated. “The author of that cook book + must have had a mean disposition. What’s next? Hang them?” He looked up at + me with his boyish smile. + </p> + <p> + “Separate and beat,” I repeated. If I lost a word of that recipe I was + gone. It was like saying the alphabet; I had to go to the beginning every + time mentally. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he reflected, “you can’t beat an egg, no matter how cruel you may + be, unless you break it first.” He picked up an egg and looked at it. + “Separate!” he reflected. “Ah—the white from the—whatever you + cooking experts call it—the yellow part.” + </p> + <p> + “Exactly!” I exclaimed, light breaking on me. “Of course. I KNEW you would + find it out.” Then back to the recipe—“beat until well mixed; then + fold in the whites.” + </p> + <p> + “Fold?” he questioned. “It looks pretty thin to fold, doesn’t it? I—upon + my word, I never heard of folding an egg. Are you—but of course you + know. Please come and show me how.” + </p> + <p> + “Just fold them in,” I said desperately. “It isn’t difficult.” And because + I was so transparent a fraud and knew he must find me out then, I said + something about butter, and went into the pantry. That’s the trouble with + a lie; somebody asks you to tell one as a favor to somebody else, and the + first thing you know, you are having to tell a thousand, and trying to + remember the ones you have told so you won’t contradict yourself, and the + very person you have tried to help turns on you and reproaches you for + being untruthful! I leaned my elbows despondently on the shelf of the + kitchen pantry, with the feet of a guard visible through the high window + over my head, and waited for Mr. Harbison to come in and demand that I + fold a raw egg, and discover that I didn’t know anything about cooking, + and was just as useless as all the others. + </p> + <p> + He came. He held the bowl out to me and waved a fork in triumph. + </p> + <p> + “I have solved it,” he said. “Or, rather, Flannigan and I have solved it. + The mixture awaits the magic touch of the cook.” + </p> + <p> + I honestly thought I could do the rest. It was only to be put in a pan and + browned, and then in the oven three minutes. And I did it properly, but + for two things: I should have greased the pan (but this was the book’s + fault; it didn’t say) and I should have lighted the oven. The latter, + however, was Mr. Harbison’s fault as much as mine, and I had wit enough to + lay it to absent-mindedness on the part of both of us. + </p> + <p> + After that, Aunt Selina or no Aunt Selina, we decided to have boiled eggs, + and Mr. Harbison knew how to cook them. He put them in the tea kettle and + then went to look at the furnace. And Officer Timothy Flannigan ground the + coffee and gave his opinion of the board of health in no stinted terms. As + for me, I burned my fingers and the toast, and felt myself growing hot and + cold, for I was going to be found out as soon as Flannigan grasped the + situation. + </p> + <p> + Then, of course, I did the thing that caused me so much trouble later. I + put down the toaster—at least the Harbison man said it was a toaster—and + went over and stood in front of the policeman. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t suppose you will understand—exactly,” I said, “but—but + if anything occurs to—to make you think I am not—that things + are not what they seem to be—I mean, what I say they are—you + will understand that it is a joke, won’t you? A joke, you know.” + </p> + <p> + Yes, that was what I said. I know it sounds like a raving delirium, but + when Max came down and squizzled some bacon, as he said, and told + Flannigan about the robbery, and how, whether it was a joke or deadly + earnest, somebody in the house had taken Anne’s pearls, that wretched + policeman winked at me solemnly over Max’s shoulder. Oh, it was awful! + </p> + <p> + And, to add to my discomfort, the most unpleasant ideas WOULD obtrude + themselves. WHAT was Mr. Harbison doing on the first floor of the house + that night? Ice water, he had said. But there had been plenty of water in + the studio! And he had told me it was the furnace. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison came back in a half hour, and I remembered the eggs. We + fished them out of the tea kettle, and they were perfectly hard, but we + ate them. + </p> + <p> + The doctor from the board of health came that morning and vaccinated us. + There was a great deal of excitement, and Aunt Selina was done on the arm. + As she did not affect evening clothes this was entirely natural, but later + on in the week, when the wretched things began to take, nobody dared to + limp, and Leila made a terrible break by wearing a bandage on her left + arm, after telling Aunt Selina that she had been vaccinated on the right. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter VIII. CORRESPONDENTS’ DEPARTMENT + </h2> + <p> + The following letters were found in the house post box after the lifting + of the quarantine, and later were presented to me by their writers, bound + in white kid (the letters, not the authors, of course). + </p> + <p> + FROM THOMAS HARBISON, LATE ENGINEER OF BRIDGES, PERUVIAN TRUNK LINES, + SOUTH AMERICA, TO HENRY LLEWELLYN, CARE OF UNION NITRATE COMPANY, IQUIQUE, + CHILI. + </p> + <p> + Dear Old Man: + </p> + <p> + I think I was fully a week trying to drive out of my mind my last glimpse + of you with your sickly grin, pretending to be tickled to pieces that the + only white man within two hundred miles of your shack was going on a + holiday. You old bluffer! I used to hang over the rail of the steamer, on + the way up, and see you standing as I left you beside the car with its + mule and the Indian driver, and behind you a million miles of + soul-destroying pampa. Never mind, Jack; I sent yesterday by mail steamer + the cigarettes, pipes and tobacco, canned goods and poker chips. Put in + some magazines, too, and the collars. Don’t know about the ties—guess + it won’t matter down there. + </p> + <p> + Nothing happened on the trip. One of the engines broke down three days + out, and I spent all my time below decks for forty-eight hours. Chief + engineer raving with D.T.‘s. Got the engine fixed in record time, and + haven’t got my hands clean yet. It was bully. + </p> + <p> + With this I send the papers, which will tell you how I happen to be here, + and why I have leisure to write you three days after landing. If the + situation were not so ridiculous, it would be maddening. Here I am, off + for a holiday and congratulating myself that I am foot free and heart free—yes, + my friend, heart free—here I am, shut in the house of a man I never + saw until last night, and wouldn’t care if I never saw again, with a lot + of people who never heard of me, who are almost equally vague about South + America, who play as hard at bridge as I ever worked at building one + (forgive this, won’t you? The novelty has gone to my head), and who belong + to the very class of extravagant, luxury-loving, non-producing parasites + (isn’t that what we called them?) that you and I used to revile from our + lofty Andean pinnacle. + </p> + <p> + To come down to earth: here we are, six women and five men, including a + policeman, not a servant in the house, and no one who knows how to do + anything. They are really immensely interesting, these people; they all + know each other very well, and it is “Jimmy” here, and “Dal” there—Dallas + Brown, who went to India with me, you remember my speaking of him—and + they are good natured, too, except at meal times. The little hostess, Mrs. + Wilson, took over the cooking, and although luncheon was better than + breakfast, the food still leaves much to the imagination. + </p> + <p> + I wish you could see this Mrs. Wilson, Hal. You would change a whole lot + of your ideas. She is a thoroughbred, sure enough, and of course some of + her beauty is the result of the exquisite care about which you and I—still + from our Andean pinnacle—used to rant. But the fact is, she is more + than that. She has fire, and pluck, no end. If you could have seen her + this morning, standing in front of a cold kitchen range, determined to + conquer it, and had seen the tilt of her chin when I offered to take over + the cooking—you needn’t grin; I can cook, and you know it—you + would understand what I mean. It was so clear that she was paralyzed with + fright at the idea of getting breakfast, and equally clear that she meant + to do it. By the way, I have learned that her name was McNair before she + married this would-be artist, Wilson, and that she is a daughter of the + McNair who financed the Callao branch! + </p> + <p> + I have not met the others so intimately. There are two sisters named + Mercer, inclined to be noisy—they are playing roulette in the next + room now. One is small and dark, almost Hebraic in type, named Leila and + called Lollie. The other, larger, very blonde and languishing, and with a + decided preference for masculine society, even, saving the mark, mine! + Dallas Brown’s wife, good looking, smokes cigarettes when I am not around—they + all do, except Mrs. Wilson. + </p> + <p> + Then there is a maiden aunt, who is ill today with grippe and excitement, + and a Miss Knowles, who came for a moment last night to see Mrs. Wilson, + was caught in the quarantine (see papers), and, after hiding all night in + the basement, is sulking all day in her room. Her presence created an + excitement out of all proportion to the apparent cause. + </p> + <p> + From the fact that I have reason to know that my artist host and his + beautiful wife are on bad terms, and from the significant glances with + which the announcement of Miss Knowles’ presence was met, the state of + affairs seems rather clear. Wilson impresses me as a spineless sort, + anyhow, and when the lady of the basement shut herself away from the rest + today and I happened on “Jimmy,” as they call him, pleading with her + through the door, I very nearly kicked him down the stairs. Oh, yes, I’ll + keep out, right enough; it isn’t my affair. + </p> + <p> + By the way, after the quarantine and with the policeman locked in the + furnace room, a pearl necklace and a diamond bracelet were stolen! Just + ten of us to divide the suspicion! Upon my word, Hal, it’s the queerest + situation I ever heard of. Which of us did it? I make a guess that not a + few of us are fools, but which is the knave? The worst of it is, I am the + only unaccredited member of the household! + </p> + <p> + This is more scandal than I ever wrote in my life. Lay it to circumscribed + environment, and the lack of twenty miles over the pampa before breakfast. + We have all been vaccinated, and the officious gentlemen from the board of + health have taken their grins and their formaldehyde and gone. Ye gods, + how we cough! + </p> + <p> + The Carlton order will go through all right, I think. Phoned him this + morning. If it does, old man, we will take a month in September and + explore the Mercator property. + </p> + <p> + Do you know, Hal, I have been thinking lately that you and I stick too + close to the grind. Business is right enough, but what’s the use of + spending one’s best years succeeding in everything except the things that + are worth while? I’ll be thirty sooner than I care to say, and—oh, + well, you won’t understand. You’ll sit down there, with the Southern Cross + and the rest of the infernal astronomical galaxy looking down on you, and + the Indians chanting in the village, and you will think I have grown + sentimental. I have not. You and I down there have been looking at the + world through the reverse end of the glass. It’s a bully old world, Hal, + and this is God’s part of it. + </p> + <p> + Burn this letter after you read it; I suspect it is covered with germs. + Well, happy days, old man. + </p> + <p> + Yours, Tom + </p> + <p> + P.S. By the way, can’t you spare some of the Indian pottery you picked up + at Callao? I told Mrs. Wilson about it, and she was immensely interested. + Send it to this address. Can you get it to the next steamer?—T. + </p> + <p> + FROM MAXWELL REED TO RICHARD BURTON BAGLEY, UNIVERSITY CLUB, NEW YORK. + </p> + <p> + Dear Dick: + </p> + <p> + Enclosed find my check for five hundred, as per wager. Possibly you were + within your rights in protecting your bet in the manner you chose, but + while I do not wish to be offensive, your reporters are damnably so. + </p> + <p> + Yours, Maxwell Reed + </p> + <p> + FROM OFFICER FLANNIGAN TO MRS. MAGGIE FLANNIGAN, ERIN STREET. + </p> + <p> + Dear Maggie: + </p> + <p> + As soon as you receive this, go down to Mac and tell him the story as I + tell you hear. Tell him I was walkin my beat, and I’d been afther seein + Jimmy Alverini about doin the right thing for Mac on Monday, at the poles, + when I seen a man hangin suspicious around this house, which is Mr. + Wilson’s, on Ninety-fifth. And, of coorse, afther chasin the man a mile or + more, I lose him, which was not my fault. So I go back to the Wilson + house, and tell them to be careful about closin up fer the night, and + while I’m standin in the hall, with all the swells around me, sparklin + with jewels, the board of health sends a man to lock us all in, because + the Jap thats been waiter has took the smallpox and gone to the hospitle. + I stood me ground. I sez, sez I, you cant shtop an officer in pursute of + his duty. I rafuse to be shut in. Be shure to tell Mac that. + </p> + <p> + So here I am, and like to be for a month. Tell Mac theres four votes shut + up here, and I can get them for him, if he can stop this monkey business. + </p> + <p> + Then go over to the Dago Church on Webster Avenue and put a dollar in + Saint Anthony’s box. He’ll see me out of this scrape, right enough. Do it + at once. Now remember, go to Mac first; maybe you can get the dollar from + him, and mind what you tell him. + </p> + <p> + Your husband, Tim Flannigan + </p> + <p> + FROM ME TO MOTHER—MRS. THEODORE McNAIR, HOTEL HAMILTON, BERMUDA. + </p> + <p> + Dearest Mother: + </p> + <p> + I hope you will get this before you read the papers, and when you DO read + them, you are not to get excited and worried. I am as well as can be, and + a great deal safer than I ever remember to have been in my life. We are + quarantined, a lot of us, in Jim Wilson’s house, because his + irreproachable Jap did a very reproachable thing—took smallpox. Now + read on before you get excited. HIS ROOM HAS BEEN FUMIGATED, and we have + been vaccinated. I am well and happy. I can’t be killed in a railway wreck + or smashed when the car skids. Unless I drown myself in my bath, or jump + through a window, positively nothing can happen to me. So gather up all + your maternal anxieties and cast them to the Bermuda sharks. + </p> + <p> + Anne Brown is here—see the papers for list—and if she can not + play propriety, Jimmy’s Aunt Selina can. In fact, she doesn’t play at it; + she works. I have telephoned Lizette for some clothes—enough for a + couple of weeks, although Dallas promises to get us out sooner. Now, dear, + do go ahead and have a nice time, and on no account come home. You could + only have the carriage to stop in front of the house, and wave to me + through a window. + </p> + <p> + Mother, I want you to do something for me. You know who is down there, and—this + is awfully delicate, Mumsy—but he’s a nice boy, and I thought I + liked him. I guess you know he has been rather attentive. Now, I DO like + him, Mumsy, but not the way I thought I did, and I want you to—very + gently, of course—to discourage him a little. You know how I mean. + He’s a dear boy, but I am so tired of people who don’t know anything but + horses and motors. + </p> + <p> + And, oh, yes,—do you remember a girl named Lucille Mellon who was at + school with you in Rome? And that she married a man named Harbison? Well, + her son is here! He builds railroads and bridges and things, and he even + built himself an automobile down in South America, because he couldn’t + afford to buy one, and burned wood in it! Wood! Think of it! + </p> + <p> + I wired father in Chicago for fear he would come rushing home. The picture + in the paper of the face at the basement window is supposed to be Mr. + Harbison, but of course it isn’t any more like him than mine is like me. + </p> + <p> + Anne Brown mislaid her pearl collar when she took it off last night, and + has fussed herself into a sick headache. She declares it was stolen! Some + of the people are playing bridge, Betty Mercer is doing a cake walk to the + RHAPSODIE HONGROISE—Jim has no every-day music—and the + telephone is ringing. We have received enough flowers for a funeral—somebody + sent Lollie a Gates Ajar, only with the gates shut. + </p> + <p> + There are no servants—think of it, Mumsy. I wish you had made me + learn to cook. Mr. Harbison has shown me a little—he was a soldier + in the Spanish War—but we girls are a terribly ignorant lot, Mumsy, + about the real things of life. + </p> + <p> + Now, don’t worry. It is more sport than camping in the Adirondacks, and + not nearly so damp. + </p> + <p> + Your loving daughter, Katherine. + </p> + <p> + P.S.—South America must be wonderful. Why can’t we put the Gadfly in + commission, and take a coasting trip this summer? It is a shame to own a + yacht and never use it. K. + </p> + <p> + THIS NOTE, EVIDENTLY DELIVERED BY MESSENGER, WAS FOUND AMONG OTHER LITTER + IN THE VESTIBULE AFTER THE LIFTING OF THE QUARANTINE. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Alex Dodds, City Editor, Mail and Star: + </p> + <p> + Dear D.—Can’t get a picture. Have waited seven hours. They have + closed the shutters. + </p> + <p> + McCord. + </p> + <p> + WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE ABOVE NOTE. + </p> + <p> + Watch the roof. + </p> + <p> + Dodds. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter IX. FLANNIGAN’S FIND + </h2> + <p> + The most charitable thing would be to say nothing about the first day. We + were baldly brutal—that’s the only word for it. And Mr. Harbison, + with his beautiful courtesy—the really sincere kind—tried to + patch up one quarrel after another and failed. He rose superbly to the + occasion, and made something that he called a South American goulash for + luncheon, although it was too salty, and every one was thirsty the rest of + the day. + </p> + <p> + Bella was horrid, of course. She froze Jim until he said he was going to + sit in the refrigerator and cool the butter. She locked herself in the + dressing room—it had been assigned to me, but that made no + difference to Bella—and did her nails, and took three different + baths, and refused to come to the table. And of course Jimmy was wild, and + said she would starve. But I said, “Very well, let her starve. Not a tray + shall leave my kitchen.” It was a comfort to have her shut up there + anyhow; it postponed the time when she would come face to face with + Flannigan. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina got sick that day, as I have said. I was not so bitter as the + others; I did not say that I wished she would die. The worst I ever wished + her was that she might be quite ill for some time, and yet, when she began + to recover, she was dreadful to me. She said for one thing, that it was + the hard-boiled eggs and the state of the house that did it, and when I + said that the grippe was a germ, she retorted that I had probably brought + it to her on my clothing. + </p> + <p> + You remember that Betty had drawn the nurse’s slip, and how pleased she + had been about it. She got up early the morning of the first day and made + herself a lawn cap and telephoned out for a white nurse’s uniform—that + is, of course, for a white uniform for a nurse. She really looked very + fetching, and she went around all the morning with a red cross on her + sleeve and a Saint Cecilia expression, gathering up bottles of medicine—most + of it flesh reducer, which was pathetic, and closing windows for fear of + drafts. She refused to help with the house work, and looked quite exalted, + but by afternoon it had palled on her somewhat, and she and Max shook + dice. + </p> + <p> + Betty was really pleased when Aunt Selina sent for her. She took in a + bottle of cologne to bathe her brow, and we all stood outside the door and + listened. Betty tiptoed in in her pretty cap and apron, and we heard her + cautiously draw down the shades. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing that for?” Aunt Selina demanded. “I like the light.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s bad for your poor eyes,” Betty’s tone was exactly the proper bedside + pitch, low and sugary. + </p> + <p> + “Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea!” Dal hummed + outside. + </p> + <p> + “Put up those window shades!” Aunt Selina’s voice was strong enough. + “What’s in that bottle?” + </p> + <p> + Betty was still mild. She swished to the window and raised the shade. + </p> + <p> + “I’m SO sorry you are ill,” she said sympathetically. “This is for your + poor aching head. Now close your eyes and lie perfectly still, and I will + cool your forehead.” + </p> + <p> + “There’s nothing the matter with my head,” Aunt Selina retorted. “And I + have not lost my faculties; I am not a child or a sick cow. If that’s + perfumery, take it out.” + </p> + <p> + We heard Betty coming to the door, but there was no time to get away. She + had dropped her mask for a minute and was biting her lip, but when she saw + us she forced a smile. + </p> + <p> + “She’s ill, poor dear,” she said. “If you people will go away, I can bring + her around all right. In two hours she will eat out of my hand.” + </p> + <p> + “Eat a piece out of your hand,” Max scoffed in a whisper. + </p> + <p> + We waited a little longer, but it was too painful. Aunt Selina demanded a + mustard foot bath and a hot lemonade and her back rubbed with liniment and + some strong black tea. And in the intervals she wanted to be read to out + of the prayer book. And when we had all gone away, there came the most + terrible noise from Aunt Selina’s room, and every one ran. We found Betty + in the hall outside the door, crying, with her fingers in her ears and her + cap over her eye. She said she had been putting the hot water bottle to + Aunt Selina’s back, and it had been too hot. Just then something hit + against the door with a soft thud, fell to the floor and burst, for a + trickle of hot water came over the sill. + </p> + <p> + “She won’t let me hold her hand,” Betty wailed, “or bathe her brow, or + smooth her pillow. She thinks of nothing but her stomach or her back! And + when I try to make her bed look decent, she spits at me like a cat. + Everything I do is wrong. She spilled the foot bath into her shoes, and + blamed me for it.” + </p> + <p> + It took the united efforts of all of us—except Bella, who stood back + and smiled nastily—to get Betty back into the sick room again. I was + supremely thankful by that time that I had not drawn the nurse’s slip. + With dinner ordered in from one of the clubs, and the omelet ten hours + behind me, my position did not seem so unbearable. But a new development + was coming. + </p> + <p> + While Betty was fussing with Aunt Selina, Max led a search of the house. + He said the necklace and the bracelet must be hidden somewhere, and that + no crevice was too small to neglect. + </p> + <p> + We made a formal search all together, except Betty and Aunt Selina, and we + found a lot of things in different places that Jim said had been missing + since the year one. But no jewels—nothing even suggesting a jewel + was found. We had explored the entire house, every cupboard, every chest, + even the insides of the couches and the pockets of Jim’s clothes—which + he resented bitterly—and found nothing, and I must say the situation + was growing rather strained. Some one had taken the jewels; they hadn’t + walked away. + </p> + <p> + It was Flannigan who suggested the roof, and as we had tried every place + else, we climbed there. Of course we didn’t find anything, but after all + day in the house with the shutters closed on account of reporters, the air + was glorious. It was February, but quite mild and sunny, and we could look + down over Riverside Drive and the Hudson, and even recognize people we + knew on horseback and in cars. It was a pathetic joy, and we lined up + along the parapet and watched the motor boats racing on the river, and + tried to feel that we were in the world as well as of it, but it was very + hard. + </p> + <p> + Betty had been making tea for Aunt Selina, and of course when she heard us + up there, she followed, tray and all, and we drank Aunt Selina’s tea and + had the first really nice time of the day. Bella had come up, too, but she + was still standoffish and queer, and she stood leaning against a chimney + and staring out over the river. After a little Mr. Harbison put down his + cup and went over to her, and they talked quite confidentially for a long + time. I thought it bad taste in Bella, under the circumstances, after + snubbing Dallas and Max, and of course treating Jim like the dirt under + her feet, to turn right around and be lovely to Mr. Harbison. It was hard + for Jim. + </p> + <p> + Max came and sat beside me, and Flannigan, who had been sent down for more + cups, passed tea, putting the tray on top of the chimney. Jim was sitting + grumpily on the roof, with his feet folded under him, playing Canfield in + the shadow of the parapet, buying the deck out of one pocket and putting + his winnings in the other. He was watching Bella, too, and she knew it, + and she strained a point to captivate Mr. Harbison. Any one could see + that. + </p> + <p> + And that was the picture that came out in the next morning’s papers, tea + cups, cards and all. For when some one looked up, there were four + newspaper photographers on the roof of the next house, and they had the + impertinence to thank us! + </p> + <p> + Flannigan had seen Bella by that time, but as he still didn’t understand + the situation, things were just the same. But his manner to me puzzled me; + whenever he came near me he winked prodigiously, and during all the search + he kept one eye on me, and seemed to be amused about something. + </p> + <p> + When the rest had gone down to dress for dinner, which was being sent in, + thank goodness, I still sat on the parapet and watched the darkening + river. I felt terribly lonely, all at once, and sad. There wasn’t any one + any nearer than father, in the West, or mother in Bermuda, who really + cared a rap whether I sat on that parapet all night or not, or who would + be sorry if I leaped to the dirty bricks of the next door-yard—not + that I meant to, of course. + </p> + <p> + The lights came out across the river, and made purple and yellow streaks + on the water, and one of the motor boats came panting back to the yacht + club, coughing and gasping as if it had overdone. Down on the street + automobiles were starting and stopping, cabs rolling, doors slamming, all + the maddening, delightful bustle of people who are foot-free to dine out, + to dance, to go to the theater, to do any of the thousand possibilities of + a long February evening. And above them I sat on the roof and cried. Yes, + cried. + </p> + <p> + I was roused by some one coughing just behind me, and I tried to + straighten my face before I turned. It was Flannigan, his double row of + brass buttons gleaming in the twilight. + </p> + <p> + “Excuse me, miss,” he said affably, “but the boy from the hotel has left + the dinner on the doorstep and run, the cowardly little divil! What’ll I + do with it? I went to Mrs. Wilson, but she says it’s no concern of hers.” + Flannigan was evidently bewildered. + </p> + <p> + “You’d better keep it warm, Flannigan,” I replied. “You needn’t wait; I’m + coming.” But he did not go. + </p> + <p> + “If—if you’ll excuse me, miss,” he said, “don’t you think ye’d + betther tell them?” + </p> + <p> + “Tell them what?” + </p> + <p> + “The whole thing—the joke,” he said confidentially, coming closer. + “It’s been great sport, now, hasn’t it? But I’m afraid they will get on to + it soon, and—some of them might not be agreeable. A pearl necklace + is a pearl necklace, miss, and the lady’s wild.” + </p> + <p> + “What do you mean?” I gasped. “You don’t think—why, Flannigan—” + </p> + <p> + He merely grinned at me and thrust his hand down in his pocket. When he + brought it up he had Bella’s bracelet on his palm, glittering in the faint + light. + </p> + <p> + “Where did you get it?” Between relief and the absurdity of the thing, I + was almost hysterical. But Flannigan did not give me the bracelet; + instead, it struck me his tone was suddenly severe. + </p> + <p> + “Now look here, miss,” he said; “you’ve played your trick, and you’ve had + your fun. The Lord knows it’s only folks like you would play April fool + jokes with a fortune! If you’re the sinsible little woman you look to be, + you’ll put that pearl collar on the coal in the basement tonight, and let + me find it.” + </p> + <p> + “I haven’t got the pearl collar,” I protested. “I think you are crazy. + Where did you get that bracelet?” + </p> + <p> + He edged away from me, as if he expected me to snatch it from him and run, + but he was still trying in an elephantine way to treat the matter as a + joke. + </p> + <p> + “I found it in a drawer in the pantry,” he said, “among the dirty linen. + And if you’re as smart as I think you are, I’ll find the pearl collar + there in the morning—and nothing said, miss.” + </p> + <p> + So there I was, suspected of being responsible for Anne’s pearl collar, as + if I had not enough to worry me before. Of course I could have called them + all together and told them, and made them explain to Flannigan what I had + really meant by my delirious speech in the kitchen. But that would have + meant telling the whole ridiculous story to Mr. Harbison, and having him + think us all mad, and me a fool. + </p> + <p> + In all that overcrowded house there was only one place where I could be + miserable with comfort. So I stayed on the roof, and cried a little and + then became angry and walked up and down, and clenched my hands and + babbled helplessly. The boats on the river were yellow, horizontal streaks + through my tears, and an early searchlight sent its shaft like a tangible + thing in the darkness, just over my head. Then, finally, I curled down in + a corner with my arms on the parapet, and the lights became more and more + prismatic and finally formed themselves into a circle that was Bella’s + bracelet, and that kept whirling around and around on something flat and + not over-clean, that was Flannigan’s palm. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter X. ON THE STAIRS + </h2> + <p> + I was roused by someone walking across the roof, the cracking of tin under + feet, and a comfortable and companionable odor of tobacco. I moved a very + little, and then I saw that it was a man—the height and erectness + told me which man. And just at that instant he saw me. + </p> + <p> + “Good Lord!” he ejaculated, and throwing his cigar away he came across + quickly. “Why, Mrs. Wilson, what in the world are you doing here? I + thought—they said—” + </p> + <p> + “That I was sulking again?” I finished disagreeably. “Perhaps I am. In + fact, I’m quite sure of it.” + </p> + <p> + “You are not,” he said severely. “You have been asleep in a February + night, in the open air, with less clothing on than I wear in the tropics.” + </p> + <p> + I had got up by this time, refusing his help, and because my feet were + numb, I sat down on the parapet for a moment. Oh, I knew what I looked + like—one of those “Valley-of-the-Nile-After-a-Flood” pictures. + </p> + <p> + “There is one thing about you that is comforting,” I sniffed. “You said + precisely the same thing to me at three o’clock this morning. You never + startle me by saying anything unexpected.” + </p> + <p> + He took a step toward me, and even in the dusk I could see that he was + looking down at me oddly. All my bravado faded away and there was a + queerish ringing in my ears. + </p> + <p> + “I would like to!” he said tensely. “I would like, this minute—I’m a + fool, Mrs. Wilson,” he finished miserably. “I ought to be drawn and + quartered, but when I see you like this I—I get crazy. If you say + the word, I’ll—I’ll go down and—” He clenched his fist. + </p> + <p> + It was reprehensible, of course; he saw that in an instant, for he shut + his teeth over something that sounded very fierce, and strode away from + me, to stand looking out over the river, with his hands thrust in his + pockets. Of course the thing I should have done was to ignore what he had + said altogether, but he was so uncomfortable, so chastened, that, feline, + feminine, whatever the instinct is, I could not let him go. I had been so + wretched myself. + </p> + <p> + “What is it you would like to say?” I called over to him. He did not + speak. “Would you tell me that I am a silly child for pouting?” No reply; + he struck a match. “Or would you preach a nice little sermon about people—about + women—loving their husbands?” + </p> + <p> + He grunted savagely under his breath. + </p> + <p> + “Be quite honest,” I pursued relentlessly. “Say that we are a lot of + barbarians, say that because my—because Jimmy treats me outrageously—oh, + he does; any one can see that—and because I loathe him—and any + one can tell that—why don’t you say you are shocked to the depths?” + I was a little shocked myself by that time, but I couldn’t stop, having + started. + </p> + <p> + He came over to me, white-faced and towering, and he had the audacity to + grip my arm and stand me on my feet, like a bad child—which I was, I + dare say. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t!” he said in a husky, very pained voice. “You are only talking; you + don’t mean it. It isn’t YOU. You know you care, or else why are you crying + up here? And don’t do it again, DON’T DO IT AGAIN—or I will—” + </p> + <p> + “You will—what?” + </p> + <p> + “Make a fool of myself, as I have now,” he finished grimly. And then he + stalked away and left me there alone, completely bewildered, to find my + way down in the dark. + </p> + <p> + I groped along, holding to the rail, for the staircase to the roof was + very steep, and I went slowly. Half-way down the stairs there was a tiny + landing, and I stopped. I could have sworn I heard Mr. Harbison’s + footsteps far below, growing fainter. I even smiled a little, there in the + dark, although I had been rather profoundly shaken. The next instant I + knew I had been wrong; some one was on the landing with me. I could hear + short, sharp breathing, and then— + </p> + <p> + I am not sure that I struggled; in fact, I don’t believe I did—I was + too limp with amazement. The creature, to have lain in wait for me like + that! And he was brutally strong; he caught me to him fiercely, and held + me there, close, and he kissed me—not once or twice, but half a + dozen times, long kisses that filled me with hot shame for him, for + myself, that I had—liked him. The roughness of his coat bruised my + cheek; I loathed him. And then someone came whistling along the hall + below, and he pushed me from him and stood listening, breathing in long, + gasping breaths. + </p> + <p> + I ran; when my shaky knees would hold me, I ran. I wanted to hide my hot + face, my disgust, my disillusion; I wanted to put my head in mother’s lap + and cry; I wanted to die, or be ill, so I need never see him again. + Perversely enough, I did none of those things. With my face still flaming, + with burning eyes and hands that shook, I made a belated evening toilet + and went slowly, haughtily, down the stairs. My hands were like ice, but I + was consumed with rage. Oh, I would show him—that this was New York, + not Iquique; that the roof was not his Andean tableland. + </p> + <p> + Every one elaborately ignored my absence from dinner. The Dallas Browns, + Max and Lollie were at bridge; Jim was alone in the den, walking the floor + and biting at an unlighted cigar; Betty had returned to Aunt Selina and + was hysterical, they said, and Flannigan was in deep dejection because I + had missed my dinner. + </p> + <p> + “Betty is making no end of a row,” Max said, looking up from his game, + “because the old lady upstairs insists on chloroform liniment. Betty says + the smell makes her ill.” + </p> + <p> + “And she can inhale Russian cigarettes,” Anne said enviously, “and + gasolene fumes, without turning a hair. I call a revoke, Dal; you trumped + spades on the second round.” + </p> + <p> + Dal flung over three tricks with very bad grace, and Anne counted them + with maddening deliberation. + </p> + <p> + “Game and rubber,” she said. “Watch Dal, Max; he will cheat in the score + if he can. Kit, don’t have another clam while I am in this house. I have + eaten so many lately my waist rises and falls with the tide.” + </p> + <p> + “You have a stunning color, Kit,” Lollie said. “You are really quite + superb. Who made that gown?” + </p> + <p> + “Where have you been hiding, du kleine?” Max whispered, under cover of + showing me the evening paper, with a photograph of the house and a cross + at the cellar window where we had tried to escape. “If one day in the + house with you, Kit, puts me in this condition, what will a month do?” + </p> + <p> + From beyond the curtain of a sort of alcove, lighted with a red-shaded + lamp, came a hum of conversation, Bella’s cool, even tones, and a heavy + masculine voice. They were laughing; I could feel my chin go up. He was + not even hiding his shame. + </p> + <p> + “Max,” I asked, while the others clamored for him and the game, “has any + one been up through the house since dinner? Any of the men?” + </p> + <p> + He looked at me curiously. + </p> + <p> + “Only Harbison,” he replied promptly. “Jim has been eating his heart out + in the den every since dinner; Dal played the Sonata Appasionata backward + on the pianola—he wanted to put through one of Anne’s lingerie + waists, on a wager that it would play a tune; I played craps with Lollie, + and Flannigan has been washing dishes. Why?” + </p> + <p> + Well, that was conclusive, anyhow. I had had a faint hope that it might + have been a joke, although it had borne all the evidences of sincerity, + certainly. But it was past doubting now; he had lain in wait for me at the + landing, and had kissed me, ME, when he thought I was Jimmy’s wife. Oh, I + must have been very light, very contemptible, if that was what he thought + of me! + </p> + <p> + I went into the library and got a book, but it was impossible to read, + with Jimmy lying on the couch giving vent to something between a sigh and + a groan every few minutes. About eleven the cards stopped, and Bella said + she would read palms. She began with Mr. Harbison, because she declared he + had a wonderful hand, full of possibilities; she said he should have been + a great inventor or a playwright, and that his attitude to women was one + of homage, respect, almost reverence. He had the courage to look at me, + and if a glance could have killed he would have withered away. + </p> + <p> + When Jimmy proffered his hand, she looked at it icily. Of course she could + not refuse, with Mr. Harbison looking on. + </p> + <p> + “Rather negative,” she said coldly. “The lines are obscured by cushions of + flesh; no heart line at all, mentality small, self-indulgence and + irritability very marked.” + </p> + <p> + Jim held his palm up to the light and stared at it. + </p> + <p> + “Gad!” he said. “Hardly safe for me to go around without gloves, is it?” + </p> + <p> + It was all well enough for Jim to laugh, but he was horribly hurt. He + stood around for a few minutes, talking to Anne, but as soon as he could + he slid away and went to bed. He looked very badly the next morning, as + though he had not slept, and his clothes quite hung on him. He was + actually thinner. But that is ahead of the story. + </p> + <p> + Max came to me while the others were sitting around drinking nightcaps, + and asked me in a low tone if he could see me in the den; he wanted to ask + me something. Dal overheard. + </p> + <p> + “Ask her here,” he said. “We all know what it is, Max. Go ahead and we’ll + coach you.” + </p> + <p> + “Will you coach ME?” I asked, for Mr. Harbison was listening. + </p> + <p> + “The woman does not need it,” Dal retorted. And then, because Max looked + angry enough really to propose to me right there, I got up hastily and + went into the den. Max followed, and closing the door, stood with his back + against it. + </p> + <p> + “Contrary to the general belief, Kit,” he began, “I did NOT intend to ask + you to marry me.” + </p> + <p> + I breathed easier. He took a couple of steps toward me and stood with his + arms folded, looking down at me. “I’m not at all sure, in fact, that I + shall ever propose to you,” he went on unpleasantly. + </p> + <p> + “You have already done it twice. You are not going to take those back, are + you, Max?” I asked, looking up at him. + </p> + <p> + But Max was not to be cajoled. He came close and stood with his hand on + the back of my chair. “What happened on the roof tonight?” He demanded + hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + “I do not think it would interest you,” I retorted, coloring in spite of + myself. + </p> + <p> + “Not interest me! I am shut in this blasted house; I have to see the only + woman I ever loved—REALLY loved,” he supplemented, as he caught my + eye, “pretend she is another man’s wife. Then I sit back and watch her + using every art—all her beauty—to make still another man love + her, a man who thinks she is a married woman. If Harbison were worth the + trouble, I would tell him the whole story, Aunt Selina be—obliterated!” + </p> + <p> + I sat up suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “If Harbison were worth the trouble!” I repeated. What did he mean? Had he + seen— + </p> + <p> + “I mean just this,” Max said slowly. “There is only one unaccredited + member of this household; only one person, save Flannigan, who was locked + in the furnace room, one person who was awake and around the house when + Anne’s jewels went, only one person in the house, also, who would have any + motive for the theft.” + </p> + <p> + “Motive?” I asked dully. + </p> + <p> + “Poverty,” Max threw at me. “Oh, I mean comparative poverty, of course. + Who is this fellow, anyhow? Dal knew him at school, traveled with him + through India. On the strength of that he brings him here, quarters him + with decent people, and wonders when they are systematically robbed!” + </p> + <p> + “You are unjust!” I said, rising and facing him. “I do not like Mr. + Harbison—I—I hate him, if you want to know. But as to his + being a thief, I—think it is quite as likely that you took the + necklace.” + </p> + <p> + Max threw his cigarette into the fire angrily. + </p> + <p> + “So that is how it is!” he mocked. “If either of us is the thief, it is I! + You DO hate him, don’t you?” + </p> + <p> + I left him there, flushed with irritation, and joined the others. Just as + I entered the room, Betty burst through the hall door like a cyclone, and + collapsed into a chair. “She’s a mean, cantankerous old woman!” she + declared, feeling for her handkerchief. “You can take care of your own + Aunt Selina, Jim Wilson. I will never go near her again.” + </p> + <p> + “What did you do? Poison her?” Dallas asked with interest. + </p> + <p> + “G—got camphor in her eyes,” snuffed Betty. “You never—heard + such a noise. I wouldn’t be a trained nurse for anything in the world. She—she + called me a hussy!” + </p> + <p> + “You’re not going to give her up, are you, Betty?” Jim asked imploringly. + But Betty was, and said so plainly. + </p> + <p> + “Anyhow, she won’t have me back,” she finished, “and she has sent for—guess!” + </p> + <p> + “Have mercy!” Dal cried, dropping to his knees. “Oh, fair ministering + angel, she has not sent for me!” + </p> + <p> + “No,” Betty said maliciously. “She wants Bella—she’s crazy about + her.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XI. I MAKE A DISCOVERY + </h2> + <p> + Really, I have left Aunt Selina rather out of it, but she was important as + a cause, not as a result; at least at first. She came out strong later. I + believe she was a very nice old woman, with strong likes and prejudices, + which she was perfectly willing to pay for. At least, I only presume she + had likes; I know she had prejudices. + </p> + <p> + Nobody every understood why Bella consented to take Betty’s place with + Aunt Selina. As for me, I was too much engrossed with my own affairs to + pay the invalid much attention. Once or twice during the day I had stopped + in to see her, and had been received frigidly and with marked disapproval. + I was in disgrace, of course, after the scene in the dining room the night + before. I had stood like a naughty child, just inside the door, and + replied meekly when she said the pillows were overstuffed, and why didn’t + I have the linen slips rinsed in starch water? She laid the blame of her + illness on me, as I have said before, and she made Jim read to her in the + afternoon from a book she carried with her, Coals of Fire on the DOMESTIC + Hearth, marking places for me to read. + </p> + <p> + She sent for me that night, just as I had taken off my gown; so I threw on + a dressing gown and went in. To my horror, Jim was already there. At a + gesture from Aunt Selina, he closed the door into the hall and tiptoed + back beside the bed, where he sat staring at the figures on the silk + comfort. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina’s first words were: + </p> + <p> + “Where’s that flibberty-gibbet?” + </p> + <p> + Jim looked at me. + </p> + <p> + “She must mean Betty,” I explained. “She has gone to bed, I think.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t—let—her—in—this—room—again,” + she said, with awful emphasis. “She is an infamous creature.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, come now, Aunt Selina,” Jim broke in; “she’s foolish, perhaps, but + she’s a nice little thing.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina’s face was a curious study. Then she raised herself on her + elbow, and, taking a flat chamois-skin bag from under her pillow, held it + out. + </p> + <p> + “My cameo breastpin,” she said solemnly; “my cuff-buttons with gold rims + and storks painted on china in the middle; my watch, that has put me to + bed and got me up for forty years, and my money—five hundred and ten + dollars and forty cents!—taken with the doors locked under my nose.” + Which was ambiguous, but forcible. + </p> + <p> + “But, good gracious, Miss Car—Aunt Selina!” I exclaimed, “you don’t + think Betty Mercer took those things?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” she said grimly; “I think I probably got up in my sleep and lighted + the fire with them, or sent em out for a walk.” Then she stuffed the bag + away and sat up resolutely in bed. + </p> + <p> + “Have you made up?” she demanded, looking from one to the other of us. + “Bella, don’t tell me you still persist in that nonsense.” + </p> + <p> + “What nonsense?” I asked, getting ready to run. + </p> + <p> + “That you do not love him.” + </p> + <p> + “Him?” + </p> + <p> + “James,” she snapped irritably. “Do you suppose I mean the policeman?” + </p> + <p> + I looked over at Jimmy. She had got me by the hand, and Jimmy was making + frantic gestures to tell her the whole thing and be done with it. But I + had gone too far. The mill of the gods had crushed me already, and I + didn’t propose to be drawn out hideously mangled and held up as an example + for the next two or three weeks, although it was clear enough that Aunt + Selina disapproved of me thoroughly, and would have been glad enough to + find that no tie save the board of health held us together. And then Bella + came in, and you wouldn’t have known her. She had put on a straight white + woolen wrapper, and she had her hair in two long braids down her back. She + looked like a nice, wide-eyed little girl in her teens, and she had some + lobster salad and a glass of port on a tray. When she saw the situation, + she put the things down and had the nastiness to stay and listen. + </p> + <p> + “I’m not blind,” Aunt Selina said, with one eye on the tray. “You two + silly children adore each other; I saw some things last night.” + </p> + <p> + Bella took a step forward; then she stopped and shrugged her shoulders. + Jim was purple. + </p> + <p> + “I saw you kiss her in the dining room, remember that!” Aunt Selina went + on, giving the screw another turn. + </p> + <p> + It was Bella’s turn to be excited. She gave me one awful stare, then she + fixed her eyes on Jim. + </p> + <p> + “Besides,” Aunt Selina went on, “you told me today that you loved her. + Don’t deny it, James.” + </p> + <p> + Bella couldn’t keep quiet another instant. She came over and stood at the + foot of the bed. + </p> + <p> + “Please don’t excite yourself, DEAR Miss Caruthers,” she said in a voice + like ice. “Every one knows that he loves her; he simply overflows with it. + It—it is quite a by-word among their friends. They have been sitting + together in a corner all evening.” + </p> + <p> + Yes, that was what she said; when I had not spoken to Jimmy the whole time + in the den. Bella was cattish, and she was jealous, too. I turned on my + heel and went to the door; then I turned to her, with my hand on the knob. + </p> + <p> + “You have been misinformed,” I said coldly. “You can not possibly know, + having spent three hours in a corner yourself—with Mr. Harbison.” I + abhor jealousy in a woman. + </p> + <p> + Well, Aunt Selina ate all the lobster salad, and drank the port after + Bella had told her it was beef, iron and wine, and she slept all night, + and was able to sit up in a chair the next day, and was so infatuated with + Bella that she would not let her out of her sight. But that is ahead of + the story. + </p> + <p> + At midnight the house was fairly quiet, except for Jim, who kept walking + around the halls because he couldn’t sleep. I got up at last and ordered + him to bed, and he had the audacity to have a grievance with me. + </p> + <p> + “Look at my situation now!” he said, sitting pensively on a steam + radiator. “Aunt Selina is crazy. I only kissed your hand, anyhow, and I + don’t know why you sat in the den all evening; you might have known that + Bella would notice it. Why couldn’t you leave me alone to my misery?” + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” I said, much offended. “After this I shall sit with Flannigan + in the kitchen. He is the only gentleman in the house.” + </p> + <p> + I left him babbling apologies and went to bed, but I had an uncomfortable + feeling that Bella had been a witness to our conversation, for the door + into Aunt Selina’s room closed softly as I passed. + </p> + <p> + I knew beforehand that I was not going to sleep. The instant I turned out + the light the nightmare events of the evening ranged themselves in a + procession, or a series of tableaus, one after the other; Flannigan on the + roof, with the bracelet on his palm, looking accusingly at me; Mr. + Harbison and the scene on the roof, with my flippancy; and the result of + that flippancy—the man on the stairs, the arms that held me, the + terrible kisses that had scorched my lips—it was awful! And then the + absurd situation across Aunt Selina’s bed, and Bella’s face! Oh, it was + all so ridiculous—my having thought that the Harbison man was a + gentleman, and finding him a cad, and worse. It was excruciatingly funny. + I quite got a headache from laughing; indeed I laughed until I found I was + crying, and then I knew I was going to have an attack of strangulated + emotion, called hysteria. So I got up and turned on all the lights, and + bathed my face with cologne, and felt better. + </p> + <p> + But I did not go to sleep. When the hall clock chimed two, I discovered I + was hungry. I had had nothing since luncheon, and even the thirst + following the South American goulash was gone. There was probably + something to eat in the pantry, and if there was not, I was quite equal to + going to the basement. + </p> + <p> + As it happened, however, I found a very orderly assortment of left-overs + and a pitcher of milk, which had no business there in the pantry, and with + plenty of light I was not at all frightened. + </p> + <p> + I ate bread and butter and drank milk, and was fast becoming a rational + person again; I had pulled out one of the drawers part way, and with a + tray across the corner I had improvised a comfortable seat. And then I + noticed that the drawer was full of soiled napkins, and I remembered the + bracelet. I hardly know why I decided to go through the drawer again, + after Flannigan had already done it, but I did. I finished my milk and + then, getting down on my knees, I proceeded systematically to empty the + drawer. I took out perhaps a dozen napkins and as many doilies without + finding anything. Then I took out a large tray cloth, and there was + something on it that made me look farther. One corner of it had been + scorched, the clear and well defined imprint of a lighted cigarette or + cigar, a blackened streak that trailed off into a brown and yellow. I had + a queer, trembly feeling, as if I were on the brink of a discovery—perhaps + Anne’s pearls, or the cuff buttons with storks painted on china in the + center. But the only thing I found, down in the corner of the drawer, was + a half-burned cigarette. + </p> + <p> + To me, it seemed quite enough. It was one of the South American + cigarettes, with a tobacco wrapper instead of paper, that Mr. Harbison + smoked. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XII. THE ROOF GARDEN + </h2> + <p> + I was quite ill the next morning—from excitement, I suppose. Anyhow, + I did not get up, and there wasn’t any breakfast. Jim said he roused + Flannigan at eight o’clock, to go down and get the fire started, and then + went back to bed. But Flannigan did not get up. He appeared, sheepishly, + at half-past ten, and by that time Bella was down, in a towering rage, and + had burned her hand and got the fire started, and had taken up a tray for + Aunt Selina and herself. + </p> + <p> + As the others straggled down they boiled themselves eggs or ate fruit, and + nobody put anything away. Lollie Mercer made me some tea and scorched + toast, and brought it, about eleven o’clock. + </p> + <p> + “I never saw such a house,” she declared. “A dozen housemaids couldn’t put + it in order. Why should every man that smokes drop ashes wherever he + happens to be?” + </p> + <p> + “That’s the question of the ages,” I replied languidly. “What was Max + talking so horribly about a little while ago?” Lollie looked up aggrieved. + </p> + <p> + “About nothing at all,” she declared. “Anne told me to clean the bath tubs + with oil, and I did it, that’s all. Now Max says he couldn’t get it off, + and his clothes stick to him, and if he should forget and strike a match + in the—in the usual way, he would explode. He can clean his own tub + tomorrow,” she finished vindictively. + </p> + <p> + At noon Jim came in to see me, bringing Anne as a concession to Bella. He + was in a rage, and he carried the morning paper like a club in his hand. + </p> + <p> + “What sort of a newspaper lie would you call this?” he demanded irritably. + “It makes me crazy; everybody with a mental image of me leaning over the + parapet of the roof, waving a board, with the rest of you sitting on my + legs to keep me from overbalancing!” + </p> + <p> + “Maybe there’s a picture!” Anne said hopefully. + </p> + <p> + Jim looked. + </p> + <p> + “No picture,” he announced. “I wonder why they restrained themselves! I + wish Bella would keep off the roof,” he added, with fresh access of rage, + “or wear a mask or veil. One of those fellows is going to recognize her, + and there’ll be the deuce to pay.” + </p> + <p> + “When you are all through discussing this thing, perhaps you will tell me + what is the matter,” I remarked from my couch. “Why did you lean over the + parapet, Jim, and who sat on your legs?” + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t; nobody did,” he retorted, waving the newspaper. “It’s a lie out + of the whole cloth, that’s what it is. I asked you girls to be decent to + those reporters; it never pays to offend a newspaper man. Listen to this, + Kit.” + </p> + <p> + He read the article rapidly, furiously, pausing every now and then to make + an exasperated comment. + </p> + <p> + ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE FRUSTRATED MEMBERS OF THE FOUR HUNDRED DEFY THE LAW + </p> + <p> + “Special Officer McCloud, on duty at the quarantined house of James + Wilson, artist and clubman, on Ninety-fifth Street, reported this morning + a daring attempt at escape, made at 3 A.M. It is in this house that some + eight or nine members of the smart set were imprisoned during the course + of a dinner party, when the Japanese butler developed smallpox. The party + shut in the house includes Miss Katherine McNair, the daughter of Theodore + McNair, of the Inter-Ocean system; Mr. and Mrs. Dallas Brown; the Misses + Mercer; Maxwell Reed, the well-known clubman and whip; and a Mr. Thomas + Harbison, guest of the Dallas Browns and a South American. + </p> + <p> + “Officer McCloud’s story, told to a Chronicle reporter this morning, is as + follows: The occupants of the house had been uneasy all day. From the air + of subdued bustle, and from a careful inspection of the roof, made by the + entire party during the afternoon, his suspicion had been aroused. Nothing + unusual, however, occurred during the early part of the night. From eight + o’clock to twelve, McCloud was relieved from duty, his place being taken + by Michael Shane, of the Eighty-sixth Street Station. + </p> + <p> + “When McCloud came on duty at midnight, Shane reported that about eleven + o’clock the searchlight of a steamer on the river, flashing over the + house, had shown a man crouching on the parapet, evidently surveying the + roof across, which at this point is only twelve feet distant, with a view + of making his escape. One seeing Shane below, however, he had beat a + retreat, but not before the officer had seen him distinctly. He was + dressed in evening clothes and wore a light tan overcoat. + </p> + <p> + “Officer McCloud relieved Shane at midnight, and sent for a plain-clothes + man from the station house. This man was stationed on the roof of the + Bevington residence next door, with strict injunctions to prevent an + escape from the quarantined mansion. Nothing suspicious having occurred, + the man on the roof left about 3 A.M., reporting to McCloud below that + everything was quiet. At that moment, glancing skyward, one of the + officers was astounded to see a long narrow board project itself from the + coping of the Wildon house, waver uncertainly for a moment, and then + advance stealthily toward the parapet across. When it was within a foot or + two of a resting place, McCloud called sharply to the invisible refugee + above, at the same time firing his revolver in the ground. + </p> + <p> + “The result was surprising. The board stopped, trembled, swayed a little, + and dropped, missing the vigilant officers by a hair’s breadth, and + crashing to the cement with a terrific force. An inspection of the roof + from the Bevington house, later, revealed nothing unusual. It is evident, + however, that the quarantine is proving irksome to the inhabitants of the + sequestered residence, most of whom are typical society folk, without + resources in themselves. Their condition, without valets and maids, is + certainly pitiable. It has been rumored that the ladies are doing their + own hair, and that the gentlemen have been reduced to putting their own + buttons in their shirts. This deplorable situation, however, is + unavoidable. + </p> + <p> + “The vigilance of the board of health has been most commendable in this + case. Beginning with a wager over the telephone that they would break + quarantine in twenty-four hours, and ending with the attempt to span a + twelve-foot gulf with a board, over which to cross to freedom, these + shut-in society folk have shown characteristic disregard of the laws of + the state. It is quite time to extend to the millionaire the same + strictness that keeps the commuter at home for three weeks with the + measles; that makes him get the milk bottles and groceries from the gate + post and smell like dog soap for a month afterward, as a result of + disinfection.’” + </p> + <p> + We sat in dead silence for a minute. Then: + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps it is true,” I said. “Not of you, Jim—but some one may have + tried to get out that way. In fact, I think it extremely likely.” + </p> + <p> + “Who? Flannigan? You couldn’t drive him out. He’s having the time of his + life. Do you suspect me?” + </p> + <p> + “Come away and don’t fight,” Anne broke in pacifically. “You will have to + have luncheon sent in, Jimmy; nobody has ordered anything from the shops, + and I feel like old Mother Hubbard.” + </p> + <p> + “I wish you would all go out,” I said wearily. “If every man in the house + says he didn’t try to get over to the next roof last night, well and good. + But you might look and see if the board is still lying where it fell.” + </p> + <p> + There was an instantaneous rush for the window, and a second’s pause. Then + Jimmy’s voice, incredulous, awed: + </p> + <p> + “Well, I’ll be—blessed! There’s the board!” + </p> + <p> + I stayed in my room all that day. My head really ached and then, too, I + did not care to meet Mr. Harbison. It would have to come; I realized that + a meeting was inevitable, but I wanted time to think how I would meet him. + It would be impossible to cut him, without rousing the curiosity of the + others to fever pitch; and it was equally impossible to ignore the + disgraceful episode on the stairs. As it happened, however, I need not + have worried. I went down to dinner, languidly, when every one was seated, + and found Max at my right, and Mr. Harbison moved over beside Bella. Every + one was talking at once, for Flannigan, ambling around the table as airily + as he walked his beat, had presented Bella with her bracelet on a salad + plate, garnished with romaine. He had found it in the furnace room, he + said, where she must have dropped it. And he looked at me stealthily, to + approve his mendacity! + </p> + <p> + Every one was famished, and as they ate they discussed the board in the + area way, and pretended to deride it as a clever bit of press work, to + revive a dying sensation. No one was deceived; Anne’s pearls and the + attempt to escape, coming just after, pointed only to one thing. I looked + around the table, dazed. Flannigan, almost the only unknown quantity, + might have tried to escape the night before, but he would not have been in + dress clothes. Besides, he must be eliminated as far as the pearls were + concerned, having been locked in the furnace room the night they were + stolen. There was no one among the girls to suspect. The Mercer girls had + stunning pearls, and could secure all they wanted legitimately; and Bella + disliked them. Oh, there was no question about it, I decided; Dallas and + Anne had taken a wolf to their bosom—or is it a viper?—and the + Harbison man was the creature. Although I must say that, looking over the + table, at Jimmy’s breadth and not very imposing personality, at Max’s lean + length, sallow skin, and bold dark eyes, at Dallas, blond, growing bald + and florid, and then at the Harbison boy, tall, muscular, clear-eyed and + sunburned, one would have taken Max at first choice as the villain, with + Dal next, Jim third, and the Harbison boy not in the running. + </p> + <p> + It was just after dinner that the surprise was sprung on me. Mr. Harbison + came around to me gravely, and asked me if I felt able to go up on the + roof. On the roof, after last night! I had to gather myself together; + luckily, the others were pushing back their chairs, showing Flannigan the + liqueur glasses to take up, and lighting cigars. + </p> + <p> + “I do not care to go,” I said icily. + </p> + <p> + “The others are coming,” he persisted, “and I—I could give you an + arm up the stairs.” + </p> + <p> + “I believe you are good at that,” I said, looking at him steadily. “Max, + will you help me to the roof?” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison really turned rather white. Then he bowed ceremoniously and + left me. + </p> + <p> + Max got me a wrap, and every one except Mr. Harbison and Bella, who was + taking a mass of indigestables to Aunt Selina, went to the roof. + </p> + <p> + “Where is Tom?” Anne asked, as we reached the foot of the stairs. “Gone + ahead to fix things,” was the answer. But he was not there. At the top of + the last flight I stopped, dumb with amazement; the roof had been + transformed, enchanted. It was a fairy-land of lights and foliage and + colors. I had to stop and rub my eyes. From the bleakness of a tin roof in + February to the brightness and greenery of a July roof garden! + </p> + <p> + “You were the immediate inspiration, Kit,” Dallas said. “Harbison thought + your headache might come from lack of exercise and fresh air, and he has + worked us like nailers all day. I’ve a blister on my right palm, and + Harbison got shocked while he was wiring the place, and nearly fell over + the parapet. We bought out two full-sized florists by telephone.” + </p> + <p> + It was the most amazing transformation. At each corner a pole had been + erected, and wires crossed the roof diagonally, hung with red and amber + bulbs. Around the chimneys had been massed evergreen trees in tubs, hiding + their brick-and-mortar ugliness, and among the trees tiny lights were + strung. Along the parapet were rows of geometrical boxwood plants in + bright red crocks, and the flaps of a crimson and white tent had been + thrown open, showing lights within, and rugs, wicker chairs, and cushions. + </p> + <p> + Max raised a glass of benedictine and posed for a moment, + melodramatically. + </p> + <p> + “To the Wilson roof garden!” he said. “To Kit, who inspired; to the + creators, who perspired; and to Takahiro—may he not have expired.” + </p> + <p> + Every one was very gay; I think the knowledge that tomorrow Aunt Selina + might be with them urged them to make the most of this last night of + freedom. I tried to be jolly, and succeeded in being feverish. Mr. + Harbison did not come up to enjoy what he had wrought. Jim brought up his + guitar and sang love songs in a beautiful tenor, looking at Bella all the + time. And Bella sat in a steamer chair, with a rug over her and a spangled + veil on her head, looking at the boats on the river—about as soft + and as chastened as an an acetylene headlight. + </p> + <p> + And after Max had told the most improbable tale, which Leila advised him + to sprinkle salt on, and Dallas had done a clog dance, Bella said it was + time for her complexion sleep and went downstairs, and broke up the party. + </p> + <p> + “If she only give half as an much care to her immortal soul,” Anne said + when she had gone, “as she does to her skin, she would let that nice + Harbison boy alone. She must have been brutal to him tonight, for he went + to bed at nine o’clock. At least, I suppose he went to bed, for he shut + himself in the studio, and when I knocked he advised me not to come in.” + </p> + <p> + I had pleaded my headache as an excuse for avoiding Aunt Selina all day, + and she had not sent for me. Bella was really quite extraordinary. She was + never in the habit of putting herself out for any one, and she always + declared that the very odor of a sick room drove her to Scotch and soda. + But here she was, rubbing Aunt Selina’s back with chloroform liniment—and + you know how that smells—getting her up in a chair, dressed in one + of Bella’s wadded silk robes, with pillows under her feet, and then doing + her hair in elaborate puffs—braiding her gray switch and bringing + it, coronet-fashion, around the top of her head. She even put rice powder + on Aunt Selina’s nose, and dabbed violet water behind her ears, and said + she couldn’t understand why she (Aunt Selina) had never married, but, of + course, she probably would some day! + </p> + <p> + The result was, naturally, that the old lady wouldn’t let Bella out of her + sight, except to go to the kitchen for something to eat for her. That very + day Bella got the doctor to order ale for Aunt Selina (oh, yes; the doctor + could come in; Dal said “it was all a-coming in, and nothing going out”) + and she had three pints of Bass, and learned to eat anchovies and caviare—all + in one day. + </p> + <p> + Bella’s conduct to Jim was disgraceful. She snubbed him, ignored him, + tramped on him, and Jim was growing positively flabby. He spent most of + his time writing letters to the board of health and playing solitaire. He + was a pathetic figure. + </p> + <p> + Well, we went to bed fairly early. Bella had massaged Aunt Selina’s face + and rubbed in cold cream, Anne and Dallas had compromised on which window + should be open in their bedroom, and the men had matched to see who should + look at the furnace. I did not expect to sleep, but the cold night air had + done its work, and I was asleep almost immediately. + </p> + <p> + Some time during the early part of the night I wakened, and, after turning + and twisting uneasily, I realized that I was cold. The couch in Bella’s + dressing room was comfortable enough, but narrow and low. I remember + distinctly (that was what was so maddening; everybody thought I dreamed + it)—I remember getting an eiderdown comfort that was folded at my + feet, and pulling it up around me. In the luxury of its warmth I snuggled + down and went to sleep almost instantly. It seemed to me I had slept for + hours, but it was probably an hour or less, when something roused me. The + room was perfectly dark, and there was not a sound save the faint ticking + of the clock, but I was wide awake. + </p> + <p> + And then came the incident that in its ghastly, horrible absurdity made + the rest of the people shout with laughter the next day. It was not funny + then. For suddenly the eiderdown comfort began to slip. I heard no + footstep, not the slightest sound approaching me, but the comfort moved; + from my chin, inch by inch, it slipped to my shoulders; awfully, + inevitably, hair-raisingly it moved. I could feel my blood gather around + my heart, leaving me cold and nerveless. As it passed my hands I gave an + involuntary clutch for it, to feel it slip away from my fingers. Then the + full horror of the situation took hold of me; as the comfort slid past my + feet I sat up and screamed at the top of my voice. + </p> + <p> + Of course, people came running in all sorts of things. I was still sitting + up, declaring I had seen a ghost and that the house was haunted. Dallas + was struggling for the second armhole of his dressing gown and Bella had + already turned on the lights. They said I had had a nightmare, and not to + sleep on my back, and perhaps I was taking grippe. + </p> + <p> + And just then we heard Jimmy run down the stairs, and fall over something, + almost breaking his wrist. It was the eiderdown comfort, half-way up the + studio staircase! + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XIII. HE DOES NOT DENY IT + </h2> + <p> + Aunt Selina got up the next morning and Jim told her all the strange + things that had been happening. She fixed on Flannigan, of course, + although she still suspected Betty of her watch and other valuables. The + incident of the comfort she called nervous indigestion and bad hours. + </p> + <p> + She spent the entire day going through the storeroom and linen closets, + and running her fingers over things for dust. Whenever she found any she + looked at me, drew a long breath, and said, “Poor James!” It was + maddening. And when she went through his clothes and found some buttons + off (Jim didn’t keep a man, and Takahiro had stopped at his boots) she + looked at me quite awfully. + </p> + <p> + “His mother was a perfect housekeeper,” she said. “James was brought up in + clothes with the buttons on, put on clean shelves.” + </p> + <p> + “Didn’t they put them on him?” I asked, almost hysterically. It had been a + bad morning, after a worse night. Every one had found fault with the + breakfast, and they straggled down one at a time until I was frantic. Then + Flannigan had talked to me about the pearls, and Mr. Harbison had said, + “Good morning,” very stiffly, and nearly rattled the inside of the furnace + out. + </p> + <p> + Early in the morning, too, I overheard a scrap of conversation between the + policeman and our gentleman adventurer from South America. Something had + gone wrong with the telephone and Mr. Harbison was fussing over it with a + screw driver and a pair of scissors—all the tools he could find. + Flannigan was lifting rugs to shake them on the roof—Bella’s order. + </p> + <p> + “Wash the table linen!” he was grumbling. “I’ll do what I can that’s + necessary. Grub has to be cooked, and dishes has to be washed—I’ll + admit that. If you’re particular, make up your bed every day; I don’t + object. But don’t tell me we have to use thirty-three table napkins a day. + What did folks do before napkins was invented? Tell me that!”—triumphantly. + </p> + <p> + “What’s the answer?” Mr. Harbison inquired absently, evidently with the + screw driver in his mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Used their pocket handkerchiefs! And if the worst comes to the worst, Mr. + Harbison, these folks here can use their sleeves, for all I care—not + that the women has any sleeves to speak of. Wash clothes I will not.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, don’t worry Mrs. Wilson about it,” the other voice said. Flannigan + straightened himself with a grunt. + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. Wilson!” he said. “A lot she would worry. She’s been a + disappointment to me, Mr. Harbison, me thinking that now she’d come back + to him, after leavin’ him the way she did, they’d be like two turtle + doves. Lord! The cook next door—” + </p> + <p> + But what the cook had told about Bella and Jimmy was not divulged, for the + Harbison man caught him up with a jerk and sent Flannigan, grumbling, with + his rugs to the roof. + </p> + <p> + It did not seem possible to carry on the deception much longer, but if + things were bad now, what would they be when Aunt Selina learned she had + been lied to, made ridiculous, generally deceived? And how would I be able + to live in the house with her when she did know? Luckily, every one was so + puzzled over the mystery in the house that numbers of little things that + would have been absolutely damning were never noticed at all. For + instance, my asking Jimmy at luncheon that day if he took cream in his + coffee! And Max coming to the rescue by dropping his watch in his glass of + water, and creating a diversion and giving everybody an opportunity to + laugh by saying not to mind, it had been in soak before. + </p> + <p> + Just after luncheon Aunt Selina brought me some undergarments of Jim’s to + be patched. She explained at length that he had always worn out his + undergarments, because he always squirmed around so when he was sitting. + And she showed me how to lay one of the garments over a pillow to get the + patch in properly. + </p> + <p> + It was the most humiliating moment of my life, but there was no escape. I + took my sewing to the roof, while she went away to find something else for + me to do when that was finished, and I sat with the thing on my knee and + stared at it, while rebellious tears rolled down my cheeks. The patch was + not the shape of the hole at all, and every time I took a stitch I sewed + it fast to the pillow beneath. It was terrible. Jim came up after a while + and sat down across from me and watched, without saying anything. I + suppose what he felt would not have been proper to say to me. We had both + reached the point where adequate language failed us. Finally he said: + </p> + <p> + “I wish I were dead.” + </p> + <p> + “So do I,” I retorted, jerking the thread. + </p> + <p> + “Where is she now?” + </p> + <p> + “Looking for more of these.” I indicated the garment over the pillow, and + he wiggled. “Please don’t squirm,” I said coldly. “You will wear out your—lingerie, + and I will have to mend them.” + </p> + <p> + He sat very still for five minutes, when I discovered that I had put the + patch in crosswise instead of lengthwise and that it would not fit. As I + jerked it out he sneezed. + </p> + <p> + “Or sneeze,” I added venomously. “You will tear your buttons off, and I + will have to sew them on.” + </p> + <p> + Jim rose wrathfully. “Don’t sit, don’t sneeze,” he repeated. “Don’t stand, + I suppose, for fear I will wear out my socks. Here, give me that. If the + fool thing has to be mended, I’ll do it myself.” + </p> + <p> + He went over to a corner of the parapet and turned his back to me. He was + very much offended. In about a minute he came back, triumphant, and held + out the result of his labor. I could only gasp. He had puckered up the + edges of the hole like the neck of a bag, and had tied the thread around + it. “You—you won’t be able to sit down,” I ventured. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t have any time to sit,” he retorted promptly. “Anyhow, it will give + some, won’t it? It would if it was tied with elastic instead of thread. + Have you any elastic?” + </p> + <p> + Lollie came up just then, and Jim took himself and his mending downstairs. + Luckily, Aunt Selina found several letters in his room that afternoon + while she was going over his clothes, and as it took Jim some time to + explain them, she forgot the task she had given me altogether. + </p> + <p> + When Lollie came up to the roof, she closed the door to the stairs, and + coming over, drew a chair close to mine. + </p> + <p> + “Have you seen much of Tom today?” she asked, as an introduction. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you mean Mr. Harbison, Lollie,” I said. “No—not any more + than I could help. Don’t whisper, he couldn’t possibly hear you. And if + it’s scandal I don’t want to know it.” + </p> + <p> + “Look here, Kit,” she retorted, “you needn’t be so superior. If I like to + talk scandal, I’m not so sure you aren’t making it.” + </p> + <p> + That was the way right along: I was making scandal; I brought them there + to dinner; I let Bella in! + </p> + <p> + And, of course, Anne came up then, and began on me at once. + </p> + <p> + “You are a very bad girl,” she began. “What do you mean by treating Tom + Harbison the way you do? He is heart-broken.” + </p> + <p> + “I think you exaggerate my influence over him,” I retorted. “I haven’t + treated him badly, because I haven’t paid any attention to him.” + </p> + <p> + Anne threw up her hands. + </p> + <p> + “There you are!” she said. “He worked all day yesterday fixing this place + for you—yes, for you, my dear. I am not blind—and last night + you refused to let him bring you up.” + </p> + <p> + “He told you!” I flamed. + </p> + <p> + “He wondered what he had done. And as you wouldn’t let him come within + speaking distance of you, he came to me.” + </p> + <p> + “I am sorry, Anne, since you are fond of him,” I said. “But to me he is + impossible—intolerable. My reasons are quite sufficient.” + </p> + <p> + “Kit is perfectly right, Anne,” Leila broke in. “I tell you, there is + something queer about him,” she added in a portentous whisper. + </p> + <p> + Anne stiffened. + </p> + <p> + “He is perfect,” she declared. “Of good family, warm-hearted, courageous, + handsome, clever—what more do you ask?” + </p> + <p> + “Honesty,” said Leila hotly. “That a man should be what he says he is.” + </p> + <p> + Anne and I both stared. + </p> + <p> + “It is your Mr. Harbison,” Leila went on, “who tried to escape from the + house by putting a board across to the next roof!” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t believe it,” said Anne. “You might bring me a picture of him, + board in hand, and I wouldn’t believe it.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t then,” Lollie said cruelly. “Let him get away with your pearls; + they are yours. Only, as sure as anything, the man who tried to escape + from the house had a reason for escaping, and the papers said a man in + evening dress and light overcoat. I found Mr. Harbison’s overcoat today + lying in a heap in one of the maids’ rooms, and it was covered with brick + dust all over the front. A button had even been torn off.” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh!” Anne said, when she had recovered herself a little. “There isn’t + any reason, as far as that goes, why Flannigan shouldn’t have worn Tom’s + overcoat, or—any of the others.” + </p> + <p> + “Flannigan!” Leila said loftily. “Why, his arms are like piano legs; he + couldn’t get into it. As for the others, there is only one person who + would fit, or nearly fit, that overcoat, and that is Dallas, Anne.” + </p> + <p> + While Anne was choking down her wrath, Leila got up and darted out of the + tent. When she came back she was triumphant. + </p> + <p> + “Look,” she said, holding out her hand. And on her palm lay a lightish + brown button. “I found it just where the paper said the board was thrown + out, and it is from Mr. Harbison’s overcoat, without a doubt.” + </p> + <p> + Of course I should not have been surprised. A man who would kiss a woman + on a dark staircase—a woman he had known only two days—was + capable of anything. + </p> + <p> + “Kit has only been a little keener than the rest of us,” Lollie said. “She + found him out yesterday.” + </p> + <p> + “Upon my word,” said Anne indignantly, preparing to go, “if I didn’t know + you girls so well, I would think you were crazy. And now, just to offset + this, I can tell you something. Flannigan told me this morning not to + worry; that he has my pearl collar spotted, and that YOUNG LADIES WILL + HAVE THEIR JOKES!” + </p> + <p> + Yes, as I said before, it was a cheerful, joy-producing situation. + </p> + <p> + I sat and thought it over after Anne’s parting shot, when Leila had + flounced downstairs. Things were closing in; I gave the situation + twenty-four hours to develop. At the end of that time Flannigan would + accuse me openly of knowing where the pearls were; I would explain my + silly remark to him and the mine would explode—under Aunt Selina. + </p> + <p> + I was sunk in dejected reverie when some one came on the roof. When he was + opposite the opening in the tent, I saw Mr. Harbison, and at that moment + he saw me. He paused uncertainly, then he made an evident effort and came + over to me. + </p> + <p> + “You are—better today?” + </p> + <p> + “Quite well, thank you.” + </p> + <p> + “I am glad you find the tent useful. Does it keep off the wind?” + </p> + <p> + “It is quite a shelter”—frigidly. + </p> + <p> + He still stood, struggling for something to say. Evidently nothing came to + his mind, for he lifted the cap he was wearing, and turning away, began to + work with the wiring of the roof. He was clever with tools; one could see + that. If he was a professional gentleman-burglar, no doubt he needed to + be. After a bit, finding it necessary to climb to the parapet, he took off + his coat, without even a glance in my direction, and fell to work + vigorously. + </p> + <p> + One does not need to like a man to admire him physically, any more than + one needs to like a race horse or any other splendid animal. No one could + deny that the man on the parapet was a splendid animal; he looked quite + big enough and strong enough to have tossed his slender bridge across the + gulf to the next roof, without any difficulty, and coordinate enough to + have crossed on it with a flourish to safety. + </p> + <p> + Just then there was a rending, tearing sound from the corner and a + muttered ejaculation. I looked up in time to see Mr. Harbison throw up his + arms, make a futile attempt to regain his balance, and disappear over the + edge of the roof. One instant he was standing there, splendid, superb; the + next, the corner of the parapet was empty, all that stood there was a + broken, splintered post and a tangle of wires. + </p> + <p> + I could not have moved at first; at least, it seemed hours before the full + significance of the thing penetrated my dazed brain. When I got up I + seemed to walk, to crawl, with leaden weights holding back my feet. + </p> + <p> + When I got to the corner I had to catch the post for support. I knew + somebody was saying, “Oh, how terrible!” over and over. It was only + afterward that I knew it had been myself. And then some other voice was + saying, “Don’t be alarmed. Please don’t be frightened. I’m all right.” + </p> + <p> + I dared to look over the parapet, finally, and instead of a crushed and + unspeakable body, there was Mr. Harbison, sitting about eight feet below + me, with his feet swinging into space and a long red scratch from the + corner of his eye across his cheek. There was a sort of mansard there, + with windows, and just enough coping to keep him from rolling off. + </p> + <p> + “I thought you had fallen—all the way,” I gasped, trying to keep my + lips from trembling. “I—oh, don’t dangle your feet like that!” + </p> + <p> + He did not seem at all glad of his escape. He sat there gloomily, peering + into the gulf beneath. + </p> + <p> + “If it wasn’t so—er—messy and generally unpleasant,” he + replied without looking up, “I would slide off and go the rest of the + way.” + </p> + <p> + “You are childish,” I said severely. “See if you can get through the + window behind you. If you can not, I’ll come down and unfasten it.” But + the window was open, and I had a chance to sit down and gather up the + scattered ends of my nerves. To my surprise, however, when he came back he + made no effort to renew our conversation. He ignored me completely, and + went to work at once to repair the damage to his wires, with his back to + me. + </p> + <p> + “I think you are very rude,” I said at last. “You fell over there and I + thought you were killed. The nervous shock I experienced is just as bad as + if you had gone—all the way.” + </p> + <p> + He put down the hammer and came over to me without speaking. Then, when he + was quite close, he said: + </p> + <p> + “I am very sorry if I startled you. I did not flatter myself that you + would be profoundly affected, in any event.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, as to that,” I said lightly, “it makes me ill for days if my car runs + over a dog.” He looked at me in silence. “You are not going to get up on + that parapet again?” + </p> + <p> + “Mrs. Wilson,” he said, without paying the slightest attention to my + question, “will you tell me what I have done?” + </p> + <p> + “Done?” + </p> + <p> + “Or have not done? I have racked my brains—stayed awake all of last + night. At first I hoped it was impersonal, that, womanlike you were merely + venting general disfavor on one particular individual. But—your + hostility is to me, personally.” + </p> + <p> + I raised my eyebrows, coldly interrogative. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps,” he went on calmly—“perhaps I was a fool here on the roof—the + night before last. If I said anything that I should not, I ask your + pardon. If it is not that, I think you ought to ask mine!” + </p> + <p> + I was angry enough then. + </p> + <p> + “There can be only one opinion about your conduct,” I retorted warmly. “It + was worse than brutal. It—it was unspeakable. I have no words for it—except + that I loathe it—and you.” + </p> + <p> + He was very grim by this time. “I have heard you say something like that + before—only I was not the unfortunate in that case.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” I was choking. + </p> + <p> + “Under different circumstances I should be the last person to recall + anything so—personal. But the circumstances are unusual.” He took an + angry step toward me. “Will you tell me what I have done? Or shall I go + down and ask the others?” + </p> + <p> + “You wouldn’t dare,” I cried, “or I will tell them what you did! How you + waylaid me on those stairs there, and forced your caresses, your kisses, + on me! Oh, I could die with shame!” + </p> + <p> + The silence that followed was as unexpected as it was ominous. I knew he + was staring at me, and I was furious to find myself so emotional, so much + more the excited of the two. Finally, I looked up. + </p> + <p> + “You can not deny it,” I said, a sort of anti-climax. + </p> + <p> + “No.” He was very quiet, very grim, quite composed. “No,” he repeated + judicially. “I do not deny it.” + </p> + <p> + He did not? Or he would not? Which? + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XIV. ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE + </h2> + <p> + Dal had been acting strangely all day. Once, early in the evening, when I + had doubled no trump, he led me a club without apology, and later on, + during his dummy, I saw him writing our names on the back of an envelope, + and putting numbers after them. At my earliest opportunity I went to Max. + </p> + <p> + “There is something the matter with Dal, Max,” I volunteered. “He has been + acting strangely all day, and just now he was making out a list—names + and numbers.” + </p> + <p> + “You’re to blame for that, Kit,” Max said seriously. “You put washing soda + instead of baking soda in those biscuits today, and he thinks he is a + steam laundry. Those are laundry lists he’s making out. He asked me a + little while ago if I wanted a domestic finish.” + </p> + <p> + Yes, I had put washing soda in the biscuits. The book said soda, and how + is one to know which is meant? + </p> + <p> + “I do not think you are calculated for a domestic finish,” I said coldly + as I turned away. “In any case I disclaim any such responsibility. But—there + is SOMETHING on Dal’s mind.” + </p> + <p> + Max came after me. “Don’t be cross, Kit. You haven’t said a nice word to + me today, and you go around bristling with your chin up and two red spots + on your cheeks—like whatever-her-name-was with the snakes instead of + hair. I don’t know why I’m so crazy about you; I always meant to love a + girl with a nice disposition.” + </p> + <p> + I left him then. Dal had gone into the reception room and closed the + doors. And because he had been acting so strangely, and partly to escape + from Max, whose eyes looked threatening, I followed him. Just as I opened + the door quietly and looked in, Dallas switched off the lights, and I + could hear him groping his way across the room. Then somebody—not + Dal—spoke from the corner, cautiously. + </p> + <p> + “Is that you, Mr. Brown, sir?” It was Flannigan. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. Is everything here?” + </p> + <p> + “All but the powder, sir. Don’t step too close. They’re spread all over + the place.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you taken the curtains down?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Matches?” + </p> + <p> + “Here, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “Light one, will you, Flannigan? I want to see the time.” + </p> + <p> + The flare showed Dallas and Flannigan bent over the timepiece. And it + showed something else. The rug had been turned back from the windows which + opened on the street, and the curtains had been removed. On the bare + hardwood floor just beneath the windows was an array of pans of various + sizes, dish pans, cake tins, and a metal foot tub. The pans were raised + from the floor on bricks, and seemed to be full of paper. All the chairs + and tables were pushed back against the wall, and the bric-a-brac was + stacked on the mantel. + </p> + <p> + “Half an hour yet,” Dal said, closing his watch. “Plenty of time, and + remember the signal, four short and two long.” + </p> + <p> + “Four short and two long—all right, sir.” + </p> + <p> + “And—Flannigan, here’s something for you, on account.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, sir.” + </p> + <p> + Dal turned to go out, tripped over the rug, said something, and passed me + without an idea of my presence. A moment later Flannigan went out, and I + was left, huddled against the wall, and alone. + </p> + <p> + It was puzzling enough. “Four long and two short!” “All but the powder!” + Not that I believed for a moment what Max had said, and anyhow Flannigan + was the sanest person I ever saw in my life. But it all seemed a part of + the mystery that had been hanging over us for several days. I felt my way + across the room and knelt by the pans. Yes, they were there, full of paper + and mounted on bricks. It had not been a delusion. + </p> + <p> + And then I straightened on my knees suddenly, for an automobile passing + under the windows had sounded four short honks and two long ones. The + signal was followed instantly by a crash. The foot bath had fallen from + its supports, and lay, quivering and vibrating with horrid noises at my + feet. The next moment Mr. Harbison had thrown open the door and leaped + into the room. + </p> + <p> + “Who’s there?” he demanded. Against the light I could see him reaching for + his hip pocket, and the rest crowding up around him. + </p> + <p> + “It’s only me,” I quavered, “that is, I. The—the dish pan upset.” + </p> + <p> + “Dish pan!” Bella said from back in the crowd. “Kit, of course!” + </p> + <p> + Jim forced his way through then and turned on the lights. I have no doubt + I looked very strange, kneeling there on the bare floor, with a row of + pans mounted on bricks behind me, and the furniture all piled on itself in + a back corner. + </p> + <p> + “Kit! What in the world—!” Jim began, and stopped. He stared from me + to the pans, to the windows, to the bric-a-brac on the mantel, and back to + me. + </p> + <p> + I sat stonily silent. Why should I explain? Whenever I got into a foolish + position, and tried to explain, and tell how it happened, and who was + really to blame, they always brought it back to ME somehow. So I sat there + on the floor and let them stare. And finally Lollie Mercer got her breath + and said, “How perfectly lovely; it’s a charade!” + </p> + <p> + And Anne guessed “kitchen” at once. “Kit, you know, and the pans and—all + that,” she said vaguely. At that they all took to guessing! And I sat + still, until Mr. Harbison saw the storm in my eyes and came over to me. + </p> + <p> + “Have you hurt your ankle?” he said in an undertone. “Let me help you up.” + </p> + <p> + “I am not hurt,” I said coldly, “and even if I were, it would be + unnecessary to trouble you.” + </p> + <p> + “I can not help being troubled,” he returned, just as evenly. “‘You see, + it makes me ill for days if my car runs over a dog.’” + </p> + <p> + Luckily, at that moment Dal came in. He pushed his way through the crowd + without a word, shut off the lights, crashed through the pans and slammed + the shutters closed. Then he turned and addressed the rest. + </p> + <p> + “Of all the lunatics—!” he began, only there was more to it than + that. “A fellow goes to all kinds of trouble to put an end to this + miserable situation, and the entire household turns out and sets to work + to frustrate the whole scheme. You LIKE to stay here, don’t you, like + chickens in a coop? Where’s Flannigan?” + </p> + <p> + Nobody understood Dal’s wrath then, but it seems he meant to arrange the + plot himself, and when it was ripe, and the hour nearly come, he intended + to wager that he could break the quarantine, and to take any odds he could + get that he would free the entire party in half an hour. As for the plan + itself, it was idiotically simple; we were perfectly delighted when we + heard it. It was so simple and yet so comprehensive. We didn’t see how it + COULD fail. Both the Mercer girls kissed Dal on the strength of it, and + Anne was furious. Jim was not so much pleased, for some reason or other, + and Mr. Harbison looked thoughtful rather than merry. Aunt Selina had gone + to bed. + </p> + <p> + The idea, of course, was to start an embryo fire just inside the windows, + in the pans, to feed it with the orange-fire powder that is used on the + Fourth of July, and when we had thrown open the windows and yelled “fire” + and all the guards and reporters had rushed to the front of the house, to + escape quietly by a rear door from the basement kitchen, get into machines + Dal had in waiting, and lose ourselves as quickly as we could. + </p> + <p> + You can see how simple it was. + </p> + <p> + We were terribly excited, of course. Every one rushed madly for motor + coats and veils, and Dal shuffled the numbers so the people going the same + direction would have the same machine. We called to each other as we + dressed about Mamaroneck or Lakewood or wherever we happened to have + relatives. Everybody knew everybody else, and his friends. The Mercer + girls were going to cruise until the trouble blew over, the Browns were + going to Pinehurst, and Jim was going to Africa to hunt, if he could get + out of the harbor. + </p> + <p> + Only the Harbison man seemed to have no plans; quite suddenly with the + world so near again, the world of country houses and steam yachts and all + the rest of it, he ceased to be one of us. It was not his world at all. He + stood back and watched the kaleidoscope of our coats and veils, + half-quizzically, but with something in his face that I had not seen there + before. If he had not been so self-reliant and big, I would have said he + was lonely. Not that he was pathetic in any sense of the word. Of course, + he avoided me, which was natural and exactly what I wished. Bella never + was far from him and at the last she loaded him with her jewel case and a + muff and traveling bag and asked him to her cousins’ on Long Island. I + felt sure he was going to decline, when he glanced across at me. + </p> + <p> + “Do go,” I said, very politely. “They are charming people.” And he + accepted at once! + </p> + <p> + It was a transparent plot on Bella’s part: Two elderly maiden ladies, + house miles from anywhere, long evenings in the music room with an open + fire and Bella at the harp playing the two songs she knows. + </p> + <p> + When we were ready and gathered in the kitchen, in the darkness, of + course, Dal went up on the roof and signaled with a lantern to the cars on + the drive. Then he went downstairs, took a last look at the drawing room, + fired the papers, shook on the powder, opened the windows and yelled + “fire!” + </p> + <p> + Of course, huddled in the kitchen we had heard little or nothing. But we + plainly heard Dal on the first floor and Flannigan on the second yelling + “fire,” and the patter of feet as the guards ran to the front of the + house. And at that instant we remembered Aunt Selina! + </p> + <p> + That was the cause of the whole trouble. I don’t know why they turned on + me; she wasn’t my aunt. But by the time we had got her out of bed, and had + wrapped her in an eiderdown comfort, and stuck slippers on her feet and a + motor veil on her head, the glare at the front of the house was beginning + to die away. She didn’t understand at all and we had no time to explain. I + remember that she wanted to go back and get her “plate,” whatever that may + be, but Jim took her by the arm and hurried her along, and the rest, who + had waited, and were in awful tempers, stood aside and let them out first. + </p> + <p> + The door to the area steps was open, and by the street lights we could see + a fence and a gate, which opened on a side street. Jim and Aunt Selina ran + straight for the gate; the wind blowing Aunt Selina’s comfort like a sail. + Then, with our feet, so to speak, on the first rungs of the ladder of + Liberty, it slipped. A half-dozen guards and reporters came around the + house and drove us back like sheep into a slaughter pen. It was the most + humiliating moment of my life. + </p> + <p> + Dal had been for fighting a way through, and just for a minute I think I + went Berserk myself. But Max spied one of the reporters setting up a flash + light as we stood, undecided, at the top of the steps, and after that + there was nothing to do but retreat. We backed down slowly, to show them + we were not afraid. And when we were all in the kitchen again, and had + turned on the lights and Bella was crying with her head against Mr. + Harbison’s arm, Dal said cheerfully, + </p> + <p> + “Well, it has done some good, anyhow. We have lost Aunt Selina.” + </p> + <p> + And we all shook hands on it, although we were sorry about Jim. And Dal + said we would have some champagne and drink to Aunt Selina’s comfort, and + we could have her teeth fumigated and send them to her. Somebody said + “Poor old Jim,” and at that Bella looked up. + </p> + <p> + She stared around the group, and then she went quite pale. + </p> + <p> + “Jim!” she gasped. “Do you mean—that Jim is—out there too?” + </p> + <p> + “Jim and Aunt Selina!” I said as calmly as I could for joy. You can see + how it simplified the situation for me. “By this time they are a mile + away, and going!” + </p> + <p> + Everybody shook hands again except Bella. She had dropped into a chair, + and sat biting her lip and breathing hard, and she would not join in any + of the hilarity at getting rid of Aunt Selina. Finally she got up and + knocked over her chair. + </p> + <p> + “You are a lot of cowards,” she stormed. “You deserted them out there, + left them. Heaven knows where they are—a defenseless old woman, and—and + a man who did not even have an overcoat. And it is snowing!” + </p> + <p> + “Never mind,” Dal said reassuringly. “He can borrow Aunt Selina’s comfort. + Make the old lady discard from weakness. Anyhow, Bella, if I know anything + of human nature, the old lady will make it hot enough for him. Poor old + Jim!” + </p> + <p> + Then they shook hands again, and with that there came a terrible banging + at the door, which we had locked. + </p> + <p> + “Open the door!” some one commanded. It was one of the guards. + </p> + <p> + “Open it yourself!” Dallas called, moving a kitchen table to reenforce the + lock. + </p> + <p> + “Open that door or we will break it in!” + </p> + <p> + Dallas put his hands in his pockets, seated himself on the table, and + whistled cheerfully. We could hear them conferring outside, and they made + another appeal which was refused. Suddenly Bella came over and confronted + Dallas. + </p> + <p> + “They have brought them back!” she said dramatically. “They are out there + now; I distinctly heard Jim’s voice. Open that door, Dallas!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, DON’T let them in!” I wailed. It was quite involuntary, but the + disappointment was too awful. “Dallas, DON’T open that door!” + </p> + <p> + Dal swung his feet and smiled from Bella to me. + </p> + <p> + “Think what a solution it is to all our difficulties,” he said easily. + “Without Aunt Selina I could be happy here indefinitely.” + </p> + <p> + There was more knocking, and somebody—Max, I think—said to let + them in, that it was a fool thing anyhow, and that he wanted to go to bed + and forget it; his feet were cold. And just then there was a crash, and + part of one of the windows fell in. The next blow from outside brought the + rest of the glass, and—somebody was coming through, feet first. It + was Jim. + </p> + <p> + He did not speak to any of us, but turned and helped in a bundle of red + and yellow silk comfort that proved to be Aunt Selina, also feet first. I + had a glimpse of a half-dozen heads outside, guards and reporters. Then + Jim jerked the shade down and unswathed Aunt Selina’s legs so that she + could walk, offered his arm, and stalked past us and upstairs, without a + word! + </p> + <p> + None of us spoke. We turned out the lights and went upstairs and took off + our wraps and went to bed. It had been almost a fiasco. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XV. SUSPICION AND DISCORD + </h2> + <p> + Every one was nasty the next morning. Aunt Selina declared that her feet + were frost-bitten and kept Bella rubbing them with ice water all morning. + And Jim was impossible. He refused to speak to any of us and he watched + Bella furtively, as if he suspected her of trying to get him out of the + house. + </p> + <p> + When luncheon time came around and he had shown no indication of going to + the telephone and ordering it, we had a conclave, and Max was chosen to + remind him of the hour. Jim was shut in the studio, and we waited together + in the hall while Max went up. When he came down he was somewhat ruffled. + </p> + <p> + “He wouldn’t open the door,” he reported, “and when I told him it was meal + time, he said he wasn’t hungry, and he didn’t give a whoop about the rest + of us. He had asked us here to dinner; he hadn’t proposed to adopt us.” + </p> + <p> + So we finally ordered luncheon ourselves, and about two o’clock Jim came + downstairs sheepishly, and ate what was left. Anne declared that Bella had + been scolding him in the upper hall, but I doubted it. She was never seen + to speak to him unnecessarily. + </p> + <p> + The excitement of the escape over, Mr. Harbison and I remained on terms of + armed neutrality. And Max still hunted for Anne’s pearls, using them, the + men declared, as a good excuse to avoid tinkering with the furnace or + repairing the dumb waiter, which took the queerest notions, and stopped + once, half-way up from the kitchen, for an hour, with the dinner on it. + Anyhow, Max was searching the house systematically, armed with a copy of + Poe’s Purloined Letter and Gaboriau’s Monsieur LeCoq. He went through the + seats of the chairs with hatpins, tore up the beds, and lifted rugs, until + the house was in a state of confusion. And the next day, the fourth, he + found something—not much, but it was curious. He had been in the + studio, poking around behind the dusty pictures, with Jimmy expostulating + every time he moved anything and the rest standing around watching him. + </p> + <p> + Max was strutting. + </p> + <p> + “We get it by elimination,” he said importantly. “The pearls being nowhere + else in the house, they must be here in the studio. Three parts of the + studio having yielded nothing, they must be in the fourth. Ladies and + gentlemen, let me have your attention for one moment. I tap this canvas + with my wand—there is nothing up my sleeve. Then I prepare to move + the canvas—so. And I put my hand in the pocket of this disreputable + velvet coat, so. Behold!” + </p> + <p> + Then he gave a low exclamation and looked at something he held in his + hand. Every one stepped forward, and on his palm was the small diamond + clasp from Anne’s collar! + </p> + <p> + Jimmy was apoplectic. He tried to smile, but no one else did. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I’ll be flabbergasted!” he said. “I say, you people, you don’t + think for a minute that I put that thing there? Why, I haven’t worn that + coat for a month. It’s—it’s a trick of yours, Max.” + </p> + <p> + But Max shook his head; he looked stupefied, and stood gazing from the + clasp to the pocket of the old painting coat. Betty dropped on a folding + stool, that promptly collapsed with her and created a welcome diversion, + while Anne pounced on the clasp greedily, with a little cry. + </p> + <p> + “We will find it all now,” she said excitedly. “Did you look in the other + pockets, Max?” + </p> + <p> + Then, for the first time, I was conscious of an air of constraint among + the men. Dallas was whistling softly, and Mr. Harbison, having rescued + Betty, was standing silent and aloof, watching the scene with + non-committal eyes. It was Max who spoke first, after a hurried inventory + of the other pockets. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing else,” he said constrainedly. “I’ll move the rest of the + canvases.” + </p> + <p> + But Jim interfered, to every one’s surprise. + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn’t, if I were you, Max. There’s nothing back there. I had ‘em out + yesterday.” He was quite pale. + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense!” Max said gruffly. “If it’s a practical joke, Jim, why don’t + you fess up? Anne has worried enough.” + </p> + <p> + “The pearls are not there, I tell you,” Jim began. Although the studio was + cold, there were little fine beads of moisture on his face. “I must ask + you not to move those pictures.” And then Aunt Selina came to the rescue; + she stalked over and stood with her back against the stack of canvases. + </p> + <p> + “As far as I can understand this,” she declaimed, “you gentlemen are + trying to intimate that James knows something of that young woman’s + jewelry, because you found part of it in his pocket. Certainly you will + not move the pictures. How do you know that the young gentleman who said + he found it there didn’t have it up his sleeve?” + </p> + <p> + She looked around triumphantly, and Max glowered. Dallas soothed her, + however. + </p> + <p> + “Exactly so,” he said. “How do we know that Max didn’t have the clasp up + his sleeve? My dear lady, neither my wife nor I care anything for the + pearls, as compared with the priceless pearl of peace. I suggest tea on + the roof; those in favor—? My arm, Miss Caruthers.” + </p> + <p> + It was all well enough for Jim to say later that he didn’t dare to have + the canvases moved, for he had stuck behind them all sorts of chorus girl + photographs and life-class crayons that were not for Aunt Selina’s eye, + besides four empty siphons, two full ones, and three bottles of whisky. + Not a soul believed him; there was a a new element of suspicion and + discord in the house. + </p> + <p> + Every one went up on the roof and left him to his mystery. Anne drank her + tea in a preoccupied silence, with half-closed eyes, an attitude that + boded ill to somebody. The rest were feverishly gay, and Aunt Selina, with + a pair of arctics on her feet and a hot-water bottle at her back, sat in + the middle of the tent and told me familiar anecdotes of Jimmy’s early + youth (had he known, he would have slain her). Betty and Mr. Harbison had + found a medicine ball, and were running around like a pair of children. It + was quite certain that neither his escape from death nor my accusation + weighed heavily on him. + </p> + <p> + While Aunt Selina was busy with the time Jim had swallowed an open safety + pin, and just as the pin had been coughed up, or taken out of his nose—I + forget which—Jim himself appeared and sulkily demanded the privacy + of the roof for his training hour. + </p> + <p> + Yes, he was training. Flannigan claimed to know the system that had + reduced the president to what he is, and he and Jim had a seance every day + which left Jim feeling himself for bruises all evening. He claimed to be + losing flesh; he said he could actually feel it going, and he and + Flannigan had spent an entire afternoon in the cellar three days before + with a potato barrel, a cane-seated chair and a lamp. + </p> + <p> + The whole thing had been shrouded in mystery. They sandpapered the inside + of the barrel and took out all the nails, and when they had finished they + carried it to the roof and put it in a corner behind the tent. Everybody + was curious, but Flannigan refused any information about it, and merely + said it was part of his system. Dal said that if HE had anything like that + in his system he certainly would be glad to get rid of it. + </p> + <p> + At a quarter to six Jim appeared, still sullen from the events of the + afternoon and wearing a dressing gown and a pair of slippers, Flannigan + following him with a sponge, a bucket of water and an armful of bath + towels. Everybody protested at having to move, but he was firm, and they + all filed down the stairs. I was the last, with Aunt Selina just ahead of + me. At the top of the stairs, she turned around suddenly to me. + </p> + <p> + “That policeman looks cruel,” she said. “What’s more, he’s been in a bad + humor all day. More than likely he’ll put James flat on the roof and tramp + on him, under pretense of training him. All policemen are inhuman.” + </p> + <p> + “He only rolls him over a barrel or something like that,” I protested. + </p> + <p> + “James had a bump like an egg over his ear last night,” Aunt Selina + insisted, glaring at Flannigan’s unconscious back. “I don’t think it’s + safe to leave him. It is my time to relax for thirty minutes, or I would + watch him. You will have to stay,” she said, fixing me with her imperious + eyes. + </p> + <p> + So I stayed. Jim didn’t want me, and Flannigan muttered mutiny. But it was + easier to obey Aunt Selina than to clash with her, and anyhow I wanted to + see the barrel in use. + </p> + <p> + I never saw any one train before. It is not a joyful spectacle. First, + Flannigan made Jim run, around and around the roof. He said it stirred up + his food and brought it in contact with his liver, to be digested. + </p> + <p> + Flannigan, from meekness and submission, of a sort, in the kitchen, became + an autocrat on the roof. + </p> + <p> + “Once more,” he would say. “Pick up your feet, sir! Pick up your feet!” + </p> + <p> + And Jim would stagger doggedly past me, where I sat on the parapet, his + poor cheeks shaking and the tail of his bath robe wrapping itself around + his legs. Yes, he ran in the bath robe in deference to me. It seems there + isn’t much to a running suit. + </p> + <p> + “Head up,” Flannigan would say. “Lift your knees, sir. Didn’t you ever see + a horse with string halt?” + </p> + <p> + He let him stop finally, and gave him a moment to get his breath. Then he + set him to turning somersaults. They spread the cushions from the couch in + the tent on the roof, and Jim would poke his head down and say a prayer, + and then curve over as gracefully as a sausage and come up gasping, as if + he had been pushed off a boat. + </p> + <p> + “Five pounds a day; not less, sir,” Flannigan said encouragingly. “You’ll + drop it in chunks.” + </p> + <p> + Jim looked at the tin as if he expected to see the chunks lying at his + feet. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” he said, wiping the back of his neck. “If we’re in here thirty days + that will be one hundred and fifty pounds. Don’t forget to stop in time, + Flannigan. I don’t want to melt away like a candle.” + </p> + <p> + He was cheered, however, by the promise of reduction. + </p> + <p> + “What do you think of that, Kit?” he called to me. “Your uncle is going to + look as angular as a problem in geometry. I’ll—I’ll be the original + reductio ad absurdum. Do you want me to stand on my head, Flannigan? + Wouldn’t that reduce something?” + </p> + <p> + “Your brains, sir,” Flannigan retorted gravely, and presented a pair of + boxing gloves. Jim visibly quailed, but he put them on. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know, Flannigan,” he remarked, as he fastened them, “I’m thinking + of wearing these all the time. They hide my character.” + </p> + <p> + Flannigan looked puzzled, but he did not ask an explanation. He demanded + that Jim shed the bath robe, which he finally did, on my promise to watch + the sunset. Then for fully a minute there was no sound save of feet + running rapidly around the roof, and an occasional soft thud. Each thud + was accompanied by a grunt or two from Jim. Flannigan was grimly silent. + Once there was a smart rap, an oath from the policeman, and a mirthless + chuckle from Jim. The chuckle ended in a crash, however, and I turned. Jim + was lying on his back on the roof, and Flannigan was wiping his ear with a + towel. Jim sat up and ran his hand down his ribs. + </p> + <p> + “They’re all here,” he observed after a minute. “I thought I missed one.” + </p> + <p> + “The only way to take a man’s weight down,” Flannigan said dryly. + </p> + <p> + Jim got up dizzily. + </p> + <p> + “Down on the roof, I suppose you mean,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The next proceedings were mysterious. Flannigan rolled the barrel into the + tent, and carried in a small glass lamp. With the material at hand he + seemed to be effecting a combination, no new one, to judge by his + facility. Then he called Jim. + </p> + <p> + At the door of the tent Jim turned to me, his bathrobe toga fashion around + his shoulders. + </p> + <p> + “This is a very essential part of the treatment,” he said solemnly. “The + exercise, according to Flannigan, loosens up the adipose tissue. The next + step is to boil it out. I hope, unless your instructions compel you, that + you will at least have the decency to stay out of the tent.” + </p> + <p> + “I am going at once,” I said, outraged. “I’m not here because I’m mad + about it, and you know it. And don’t pose with that bath robe. If you + think you’re a character out of Roman history, look at your legs.” + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said sulkily. “Only I’m tired of having + you choked down my throat every time I open my mouth, Kit. And don’t go + just yet. Flannigan is going for my clothes as soon as he lights the—the + lamp, and—somebody ought to watch the stairs.” + </p> + <p> + That was all there was to it. I said I would guard the steps, and + Flannigan, having ignited the combination, whatever it was, went + downstairs. How was I to know that Bella would come up when she did? Was + it my fault that the lamp got too high, and that Flannigan couldn’t hear + Jim calling? Or that just as Bella reached the top of the steps Jim should + come to the door of the tent, wearing the barrel part of his hot-air + cabinet, and yelling for a doctor? + </p> + <p> + Bella came to a dead stop on the upper step, with her mouth open. She + looked at Jim, at the inadequate barrel, and from them she looked at me. + Then she began to laugh, one of her hysterical giggles, and she turned and + went down again. As Jim and I stared at each other we could hear her + gurgling down the hall below. + </p> + <p> + She had violent hysterics for an hour, with Anne rubbing her forehead and + Aunt Selina burning a feather out of the feather duster under her nose. + Only Jim and I understood, and we did not tell. Luckily, the next thing + that occurred drove Bella and her nerves from everybody’s mind. + </p> + <p> + At seven o’clock, when Bella had dropped asleep and everybody else was + dressed for dinner, Aunt Selina discovered that the house was cold, and + ordered Dal to the furnace. + </p> + <p> + It was Dal’s day at the furnace; Flannigan had been relieved of that part + of the work after twice setting fire to a chimney. + </p> + <p> + In five minutes Dal came back and spoke a few words to Max, who followed + him to the basement, and in ten minutes more Flannigan puffed up the steps + and called Mr. Harbison. + </p> + <p> + I am not curious, but I knew that something had happened. While Aunt + Selina was talking suffrage to Anne—who said she had always been + tremendously interested in the subject, and if women got the suffrage + would they be allowed to vote?—I slipped back to the dining room. + </p> + <p> + The table was laid for dinner, but Flannigan was not in sight. I could + hear voices from somewhere, faint voices that talked rapidly, and after a + while I located the sounds under my feet. The men were all in the + basement, and something must have happened. I flew back to the basement + stairs, to meet Mr. Harbison at the foot. He was grimy and dusty, with + streaks of coal dust over his face, and he had been examining his + revolver. I was just in time to see him slip it into his pocket. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter?” I demanded. “Is any one hurt?” + </p> + <p> + “No one,” he said coolly. “We’ve been cleaning out the furnace.” + </p> + <p> + “With a revolver! How interesting—and unusual!” I said dryly, and + slipped past him as he barred the way. He was not pleased; I heard him + mutter something and come rapidly after me, but I had the voices as a + guide, and I was not going to be turned back like a child. The men had + gathered around a low stone arch in the furnace room, and were looking + down a short flight of steps, into a sort of vault, evidently under the + pavement. A faint light came from a small grating above, and there was a + close, musty smell in the air. + </p> + <p> + “I tell you it must have been last night,” Dallas was saying. “Wilson and + I were here before we went to bed, and I’ll swear that hole was not there + then.” + </p> + <p> + “It was not there this morning, sir,” Flannigan insisted. “It has been + made during the day.” + </p> + <p> + “And it could not have been done this afternoon,” Mr. Harbison said + quietly. “I was fussing with the telephone wire down here. I would have + heard the noise.” + </p> + <p> + Something in his voice made me look at him, and certainly his expression + was unusual. He was watching us all intently while Dallas pointed out to + me the cause of the excitement. From the main floor of the furnace room, a + flight of stone steps surmounted by an arch led into the coal cellar, + beneath the street. The coal cellar was of brick, with a cement floor, and + in the left wall there gaped an opening about three feet by three, leading + into a cavernous void, perfectly black—evidently a similar vault + belonging to the next house. + </p> + <p> + The whole place was ghostly, full of shadows, shivery with possibilities. + It was Mr. Harbison finally who took Jim’s candle and crawled through the + aperture. We waited in dead silence, listening to his feet crunching over + the coal beyond, watching the faint yellow light that came through the + ragged opening in the wall. Then he came back and called through to us. + </p> + <p> + “Place is locked, over here,” he said. “Heavy oak door at the head of the + steps. Whoever made that opening has done a prodigious amount of labor for + nothing.” + </p> + <p> + The weapon, a crowbar, lay on the ground beside the bricks, and he picked + it up and balanced it on his hand. Dallas’ florid face was almost comical + in his bewilderment; as for Jimmy—he slammed a piece of slag at the + furnace and walked away. At the door he turned around. + </p> + <p> + “Why don’t you accuse me of it?” he asked bitterly. “Maybe you could find + a lump of coal in my pockets if you searched me.” + </p> + <p> + He stalked up the stairs then and left us. Dallas and I went up together, + but we did not talk. There seemed to be nothing to say. Not until I had + closed and locked the door of my room did I venture to look at something + that I carried in the palm of my hand. It was a watch, not running—a + gentleman’s flat gold watch, and it had been hanging by its fob to a nail + in the bricks beside the aperture. + </p> + <p> + In the back of the watch were the initials, T.H.H. and the picture of a + girl, cut from a newspaper. + </p> + <p> + It was my picture. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XVI. I FACE FLANNIGAN + </h2> + <p> + Dinner waited that night while everybody went to the coal cellar and + stared at the hole in the wall, and watched while Max took a tracing of it + and of some footprints in the coal dust on the other side. + </p> + <p> + I did not go. I went into the library with the guilty watch in the fold of + my gown, and found Mr. Harbison there, staring through the February gloom + at the blank wall of the next house, and quite unconscious of the reporter + with a drawing pad just below him in the area-way. I went over and closed + the shutters before his very eyes, but even then he did not move. + </p> + <p> + “Will you be good enough to turn around?” I demanded at last. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” he said wheeling. “Are YOU here?” + </p> + <p> + There wasn’t any reply to that, so I took the watch and placed it on the + library table between us. The effect was all that I had hoped. He stared + at it for an instant, then at me, and with his hand outstretched for it, + stopped. + </p> + <p> + “Where did you find it?” he asked. I couldn’t understand his expression. + He looked embarrassed, but not at all afraid. + </p> + <p> + “I think you know, Mr. Harbison,” I retorted. + </p> + <p> + “I wish I did. You opened it?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + We stood looking at each other across the table. It was his glance that + wavered. + </p> + <p> + “About the picture—of you,” he said at last. “You see, down there in + South America, a fellow hasn’t much to do in the evenings, and a—a + chum of mine and I—we were awfully down on what we called the + plutocrats, the—the leisure classes. And when that picture of yours + came in the paper, we had—we had an argument. He said—” He + stopped. + </p> + <p> + “What did he say?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, he said it was the picture of an empty-faced society girl.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” I exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + “I—I maintained there were possibilities in the face.” He put both + hands on the table, and, bending forward, looked down at me. “Well, I was + a fool, I admit. I said your eyes were kind and candid, in spite of that + haughty mouth. You see, I said I was a fool.” + </p> + <p> + “I think you are exceedingly rude,” I managed finally. “If you want to + know where I found your watch, it was down in the coal cellar. And if you + admit you are an idiot, I am not. I—I know all about Bella’s + bracelet—and the board on the roof, and—oh, if you would only + leave—Anne’s necklace—on the coal, or somewhere—and get + away—” + </p> + <p> + My voice got beyond me then, and I dropped into a chair and covered my + face. I could feel him staring at the back of my head. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I’ll be—” something or other, he said finally, and then he + turned on his heel and went out. By the time I got my eyes dry (yes, I was + crying; I always do when I am angry) I heard Jim coming downstairs, and I + tucked the watch out of sight. Would anyone have foreseen the trouble that + watch would make! + </p> + <p> + Jim was sulky. He dropped into a chair and stretched out his legs, looking + gloomily at nothing. Then he got up and ambled into his den, closing the + door behind him without having spoken a word. It was more than human + nature could stand. + </p> + <p> + When I went into the den he was stretched on the davenport with his face + buried in the cushions. He looked absolutely wilted, and every line of him + was drooping. + </p> + <p> + “Go on out, Kit,” he said, in a smothered voice. “Be a good girl and don’t + follow me around.” + </p> + <p> + “You are shameless!” I gasped. “Follow you! When you are hung around my + neck like a—like a—” Millstone was what I wanted to say, but I + couldn’t think of it. + </p> + <p> + He turned over and looked up from his cushions like an ill-treated and + suffering cherub. + </p> + <p> + “I’m done for, Kit,” he groaned. “Bella went up to the studio after we + left, and investigated that corner.” + </p> + <p> + “What did she find? The necklace?” I asked eagerly. He was too wretched to + notice this. + </p> + <p> + “No, that picture of you that I did last winter. She is crazy—she + says she is going upstairs and sit in Takahiro’s room and take smallpox + and die.” + </p> + <p> + “Fiddlesticks!” I said rudely, and somebody hammered on the door and + opened it. + </p> + <p> + “Pardon me for disturbing you,” Bella said, in her best + dear-me-I’m-glad-I-knocked manner. “But—Flannigan says the dinner + has not come.” + </p> + <p> + “Good Lord!” Jim exclaimed. “I forgot to order the confounded dinner!” + </p> + <p> + It was eight o’clock by that time, and as it took an hour at least after + telephoning the order, everybody looked blank when they heard. The entire + family, except Mr. Harbison, who had not appeared again, escorted Jim to + the telephone and hung around hungrily, suggesting new dishes every + minute. And then—he couldn’t raise Central. It was fifteen minutes + before we gave up, and stood staring at one another despairingly. + </p> + <p> + “Call out of a window, and get one of those infernal reporters to do + something useful for once,” Max suggested. But he was indignantly hushed. + We would have starved first. Jim was peering into the transmitter and + knocking the receiver against his hand, like a watch that had stopped. But + nothing happened. Flannigan reported a box of breakfast food, two lemons, + and a pineapple cheese, a combination that didn’t seem to lend itself to + anything. + </p> + <p> + We went back to the dining room from sheer force of habit and sat around + the table and looked at the lemonade Flannigan had made. Anne WOULD talk + about the salad her last cook had concocted, and Max told about a little + town in Connecticut where the restaurant keeper smokes a corn-cob pipe + while he cooks the most luscious fried clams in America. And Aunt Selina + related that in her family they had a recipe for chicken smothered in + cream. And then we sipped the weak lemonade and nibbled at the cheese. + </p> + <p> + “To change this gridiron martyrdom,” Dallas said finally, “where’s + Harbison? Still looking for his watch?” + </p> + <p> + “Watch!” Everybody said it in a different tone. + </p> + <p> + “Sure,” he responded. “Says his watch was taken last night from the + studio. Better get him down to take a squint at the telephone. Likely he + can fix it.” + </p> + <p> + Flannigan was beside me with the cheese. And at that moment I felt Mr. + Harbison’s stolen watch slip out of my girdle, slide greasily across my + lap, and clatter to the floor. Flannigan stooped, but luckily it had gone + under the table. To have had it picked up, to have had to explain how I + got it, to see them try to ignore my picture pasted in it—oh, it was + impossible! I put my foot over it. + </p> + <p> + “Drop something?” Dallas asked perfunctorily, rising. Flannigan was still + half kneeling. + </p> + <p> + “A fork,” I said, as easily as I could, and the conversation went on. But + Flannigan knew, and I knew he knew. He watched my every movement like a + hawk after that, standing just behind my chair. I dropped my useless + napkin, to have it whirled up before it reached the floor. I said to Betty + that my shoe buckle was loose, and actually got the watch in my hand, only + to let it slip at the critical moment. Then they all got up and went sadly + back to the library, and Flannigan and I faced each other. + </p> + <p> + Flannigan was not a handsome man at any time, though up to then he had at + least looked amiable. But now as I stood with my hand on the back of my + chair, his face grew suddenly menacing. The silence was absolute. I was + the guiltiest wretch alive, and opposite me the law towered and glowered, + and held the yellow remnant of a pineapple cheese! And in the silence that + wretched watch lay and ticked and ticked and ticked. Then Flannigan + creaked over and closed the door into the hall, came back, picked up the + watch, and looked at it. + </p> + <p> + “You’re unlucky, I’m thinkin’,” he said finally. “You’ve got the nerve all + right, but you ain’t cute enough.” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know what you mean,” I quavered. “Give me that watch to return to + Mr. Harbison.” + </p> + <p> + “Not on your life,” he retorted easily. “I give it back myself, like I did + the bracelet, and—like I’m going to give back the necklace, if + you’ll act like a sensible little girl.” + </p> + <p> + I could only choke. + </p> + <p> + “It’s foolish, any way you look at it,” he persisted. “Here you are, lots + of friends, folks that think you’re all right. Why, I reckon there isn’t + one of them that wouldn’t lend you money if you needed it so bad.” + </p> + <p> + “Will you be still?” I said furiously. “Mr. Harbison left that watch—with + me—an hour ago. Get him, and he will tell you so himself!” + </p> + <p> + “Of course he would,” Flannigan conceded, looking at me with grudging + approval. “He wouldn’t be what I think he is, if he didn’t lie up and down + for you.” There were voices in the hall. Flannigan came closer. “An hour + ago, you say. And he told me it was gone this morning! It’s a losing game, + miss. I’ll give you twenty-four hours and then—the necklace, if you + please, miss.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XVII. A CLASH AND A KISS + </h2> + <p> + The clash that came that evening had been threatening for some time. Take + an immovable body, represented by Mr. Harbison and his square jaw, and an + irresistible force, Jimmy and his weight, and there is bound to be + trouble. + </p> + <p> + The real fault was Jim’s. He had gone entirely mad again over Bella, and + thrown prudence to the winds. He mooned at her across the dinner table, + and waylaid her on the stairs or in the back halls, just to hear her voice + when she ordered him out of her way. He telephoned for flowers and candy + for her quite shamelessly, and he got out a book of photographs that they + had taken on their wedding journey, and kept it on the library table. The + sole concession he made to our presumptive relationship was to bring me + the responsibility for everything that went wrong, and his shirts for + buttons. + </p> + <p> + The first I heard of the trouble was from Dal. He waylaid me in the hall + after dinner that night, and his face was serious. + </p> + <p> + “I’m afraid we can’t keep it up very long, Kit,” he said. “With Jim + trailing Bella all over the house, and the old lady keener every day, it’s + bound to come out somehow. And that isn’t all. Jim and Harbison had a + set-to today—about you.” + </p> + <p> + “About me!” I repeated. “Oh, I dare say I have been falling short again. + What was Jim doing? Abusing me?” + </p> + <p> + Dal looked cautiously over his shoulder, but no one was near. + </p> + <p> + “It seems that the gentle Bella has been unusually beastly today to Jim, + and—I believe she’s jealous of you, Kit. Jim followed her up to the + roof before dinner with a box of flowers, and she tossed them over the + parapet. She said, I believe, that she didn’t want his flowers; he could + buy them for you, and be damned to him, or some lady-like equivalent.” + </p> + <p> + “Jim is a jellyfish,” I said contemptuously. “What did he say?” + </p> + <p> + “He said he only cared for one woman, and that was Bella; that he never + had really cared for you and never would, and that divorce courts were not + unmitigated evils if they showed people the way to real happiness. Which + wouldn’t amount to anything if Harbison had not been in the tent, trying + to sleep!” + </p> + <p> + Dal did not know all the particulars, but it seems that relations between + Jim and Mr. Harbison were rather strained. Bella had left the roof and Jim + and the Harbison man came face to face in the door of the tent. According + to Dal, little had been said, but Jim, bound by his promise to me, could + not explain, and could only stammer something about being an old friend of + Miss Knowles. And Tom had replied shortly that it was none of his + business, but that there were some things friendship hardly justified, and + tried to pass Jim. Jim was instantly enraged; he blocked the door to the + roof and demanded to know what the other man meant. There were two or + three versions of the answer he got. The general purport was that Mr. + Harbison had no desire to explain further, and that the situation was + forced on him. But if he insisted—when a man systematically ignored + and neglected his wife for some one else, there were communities where he + would be tarred and feathered. + </p> + <p> + “Meaning me?” Jim demanded, apoplectic. + </p> + <p> + “The remark was a general one,” Mr. Harbison retorted, “but if you wish to + make a concrete application—!” + </p> + <p> + Dal had gone up just then, and found them glaring at each other, Jim with + his hands clenched at his sides, and Mr. Harbison with his arms folded and + very erect. Dal took Jim by the elbow and led him downstairs, muttering, + and the situation was saved for the time. But Dal was not optimistic. + </p> + <p> + “You can do a bit yourself, Kit,” he finished. “Look more cheerful, flirt + a little. You can do that without trying. Take Max on for a day or so; it + would be charity anyhow. But don’t let Tom Harbison take into his head + that you are grieving over Jim’s neglect, or he’s likely to toss him off + the roof.” + </p> + <p> + “I have no reason to think that Mr. Harbison cares one way or the other + about me,” I said primly. “You don’t think he’s—he’s in love with + me, do you, Dal?” I watched him out of the corner of my eye, but he only + looked amused. + </p> + <p> + “In love with you!” he repeated. “Why bless your wicked little heart, no! + He thinks you’re a married woman! It’s the principle of the thing he’s + fighting for. If I had as much principle as he has, I’d—I’d put it + out at interest.” + </p> + <p> + Max interrupted us just then, and asked if we knew where Mr. Harbison was. + </p> + <p> + “Can’t find him,” he said. “I’ve got the telephone together and have + enough left over to make another. Where do you suppose Harbison hides the + tools? I’m working with a corkscrew and two palette knives.” + </p> + <p> + I heard nothing more of the trouble that night. Max went to Jim about it, + and Jim said angrily that only a fool would interfere between a man and + his wife—wives. Whereupon Max retorted that a fool and his wives + were soon parted, and left him. The two principals were coldly civil to + each other, and smaller issues were lost as the famine grew more and more + insistent. For famine it was. + </p> + <p> + They worked the rest of the evening, but the telephone refused to revive + and every one was starving. Individually our pride was at low ebb, but + collectively it was still formidable. So we sat around and Jim played + Grieg with the soft stops on, and Aunt Selina went to bed. The weather had + changed, and it was sleeting, but anything was better than the drawing + room. I was in a mood to battle with the elements or to cry—or both—so + I slipped out, while Dal was reciting “Give me three grains of corn, + mother,” threw somebody’s overcoat over my shoulders, put on a man’s soft + hat—Jim’s I think—and went up to the roof. + </p> + <p> + It was dark in the third floor hall, and I had to feel my way to the foot + of the stairs. I went up quietly, and turned the knob of the door to the + roof. At first it would not open, and I could hear the wind howling + outside. Finally, however, I got the door open a little and wormed my way + through. It was not entirely dark out there, in spite of the storm. A + faint reflection of the street lights made it possible to distinguish the + outlines of the boxwood plants, swaying in the wind, and the chimneys and + the tent. And then—a dark figure disentangled itself from the + nearest chimney and seemed to hurl itself at me. I remember putting out my + hands and trying to say something, but the figure caught me roughly by the + shoulders and knocked me back against the door frame. From miles away a + heavy voice was saying, “So I’ve got you!” and then the roof gave from + under me, and I was floating out on the storm, and sleet was beating in my + face, and the wind was whispering over and over, “Open your eyes, for + God’s sake!” + </p> + <p> + I did open them after a while, and finally I made out that I was laying on + the floor in the tent. The lights were on, and I had a cold and damp + feeling, and something wet was trickling down my neck. + </p> + <p> + I seemed to be alone, but in a second somebody came into the tent, and I + saw it was Mr. Harbison, and that he had a double handful of half-melted + snow. He looked frantic and determined, and only my sitting up quickly + prevented my getting another snow bath. My neck felt queer and stiff, and + I was very dizzy. When he saw that I was conscious he dropped the snow and + stood looking down at me. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know,” he said grimly, “that I very nearly choked you to death a + little while ago?” + </p> + <p> + “It wouldn’t surprise me to be told so,” I said. “Do I know too much, or + what is it, Mr. Harbison?” I felt terribly ill, but I would not let him + see it. “It is queer, isn’t it—how we always select the roof for our + little—differences?” He seemed to relax somewhat at my gibe. + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t know it was you,” he explained shortly. “I was waiting for—some + one, and in the hat you wore and the coat, I mistook you. That’s all. Can + you stand?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” I retorted. I could, but his summary manner displeased me. The + sequel, however, was rather amazing, for he stooped suddenly and picked me + up, and the next instant we were out in the storm together. At the door he + stooped and felt for the knob. + </p> + <p> + “Turn it,” he commanded. “I can’t reach it.” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll do nothing of the kind,” I said shrewishly. “Let me down; I can walk + perfectly well.” + </p> + <p> + He hesitated. Then he slid me slowly to my feet, but he did not open the + door at once. “Are you afraid to let me carry you down those stairs, after—Tuesday + night?” he asked, very low. “You still think I did that?” + </p> + <p> + I had never been less sure of it than at that moment, but an imp of + perversity made me retort, “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + He hardly seemed to hear me. He stood looking down at me as I leaned + against the door frame. + </p> + <p> + “Good Lord!” he groaned. “To think that I might have killed you!” And then—he + stooped and suddenly kissed me. + </p> + <p> + The next moment the door was open, and he was leading me down into the + house. At the foot of the staircase he paused, still holding my hand, and + faced me in the darkness. + </p> + <p> + “I’m not sorry,” he said steadily. “I suppose I ought to be, but I’m not. + Only—I want you to know that I was not guilty—before. I didn’t + intend to now. I am—almost as much surprised as you are.” + </p> + <p> + I was quite unable to speak, but I wrenched my hand loose. He stepped back + to let me pass, and I went down the hall alone. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XVIII. IT’S ALL MY FAULT + </h2> + <p> + I didn’t go to the drawing room again. I went into my own room and sat in + the dark, and tried to be furiously angry, and only succeeded in feeling + queer and tingly. One thing was absolutely certain: not the same man, but + two different men had kissed me on the stairs to the roof. It sounds + rather horrid and discriminating, but there was all the difference in the + world. + </p> + <p> + But then—who had? And for whom had Mr. Harbison been waiting on the + roof? “Did you know that I nearly choked you to death a few minutes ago?” + Then he rather expected to finish somebody in that way! Who? Jim, + probably. It was strange, too, but suddenly I realized that no matter how + many suspicious things I mustered up against him—and there were + plenty—down in my heart I didn’t believe him guilty of anything, + except this last and unforgivable offense. Whoever was trying to leave the + house had taken the necklace, that seemed clear, unless Max was still + foolishly trying to break quarantine and create one of the sensations he + so dearly loves. This was a new idea, and some things upheld it, but Max + had been playing bridge when I was kissed on the stairs, and there was + still left that ridiculous incident of the comfort. + </p> + <p> + Bella came up after I had gone to bed, and turned on the light to brush + her hair. + </p> + <p> + “If I don’t leave this mausoleum soon, I’ll be carried out,” she declared. + “You in bed, Lollie Mercer and Dal flirting, Anne hysterical, and Jim + making his will in the den! You will have to take Aunt Selina tonight, + Kit; I’m all in.” + </p> + <p> + “If you’ll put her to bed, I’ll keep her there,” I conceded, after some + parley. + </p> + <p> + “You’re a dear.” Bella came back from the door. “Look here, Kit, you know + Jim pretty well. Don’t you think he looks ill? Thinner?” + </p> + <p> + “He’s a wreck,” I said soberly. “You have a lot to answer for, Bella.” + </p> + <p> + Bella went over to the cheval glass and looked in it. “I avoid him all I + can,” she said, posing. “He’s awfully funny; he’s so afraid I’ll think + he’s serious about you. He can’t realize that for me he simply doesn’t + exist.” + </p> + <p> + Well, I took Aunt Selina, and about two o’clock, while I was in my first + sleep, I woke to find her standing beside me, tugging at my arm. + </p> + <p> + “There’s somebody in the house,” she whispered. “Thieves!” + </p> + <p> + “If they’re in they’ll not get out tonight,” I said. + </p> + <p> + “I tell you, I saw a man skulking on the stairs,” she insisted. + </p> + <p> + I got up ungraciously enough, and put on my dressing gown. Aunt Selina, + who had her hair in crimps, tied a veil over her head, and together we + went to the head of the stairs. Aunt Selina leaned far over and peered + down. + </p> + <p> + “He’s in the library,” she whispered. “I can see a light.” + </p> + <p> + The lust of battle was in Aunt Selina’s eye. She girded her robe about her + and began to descend the stairs cautiously. We went through the hall and + stopped at the library door. It was empty, but from the den beyond came a + hum of voices and the cheerful glow of fire light. I realized the + situation then, but it was too late. + </p> + <p> + “Then why did you kiss her in the dining room?” Bella was saying in her + clear, high tones. “You did, didn’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “It was only her hand,” Jim, desperately explaining. “I’ve got to pay her + some attention, under the circumstances. And I give you my word, I was + thinking of you when I did it.” THE WRETCH! + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina drew her breath in suddenly. + </p> + <p> + “I am thinking of marrying Reggie Wolfe.” This was Bella, of course. “He + wants me to. He’s a dear boy.” + </p> + <p> + “If you do, I will kill him.” + </p> + <p> + “I am so very lonely,” Bella sighed. We could hear the creak of Jim’s + shirt bosom that showed that he had sighed also. Aunt Selina had gripped + me by the arm, and I could hear her breathing hard beside me. + </p> + <p> + “It’s only Jim,” I whispered. “I—I don’t want to hear any more.” + </p> + <p> + But she clutched me firmly, and the next thing we heard was another creak, + louder and— + </p> + <p> + “Get up! Get up off your knees this instant!” Bella was saying + frantically. “Some one might come in.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t send me away,” Jim said in a smothered voice. “Every one in the + house is asleep, and I love you, dear.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina swallowed hard in the darkness. + </p> + <p> + “You have no right to make love to me,” Bella. “It’s—it’s highly + improper, under the circumstances.” + </p> + <p> + And then Jim: “You swallow a camel and stick at a gnat. Why did you meet + me here, if you didn’t expect me to make love to you? I’ve stood for a + lot, Bella, but this foolishness will have to end. Either you love me—or + you don’t. I’m desperate.” He drew a long, forlorn breath. + </p> + <p> + “Poor old Jim!” This was Bella. A pause. Then—“Let my hand alone!” + Also Bella. + </p> + <p> + “It is MY hand!”—Jim’s most fatuous tone. “THERE is where you wore + my ring. There’s the mark still.” Sounds of Jim kissing Bella’s ring + finger. “What did you do with it? Throw it away?” More sounds. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina crossed the library swiftly, and again I followed. Bella was + sitting in a low chair by the fire, looking at the logs, in the most + exquisite negligee of pink chiffon and ribbon. Jim was on his knees, + staring at her adoringly, and holding both her hands. + </p> + <p> + “I’ll tell you a secret,” Bella was saying, looking as coy as she knew how—which + was considerable. “I—I still wear it, on a chain around my neck.” + </p> + <p> + On a chain around her neck! Bella, who is decollete whenever it is + allowable, and more than is proper! + </p> + <p> + That was the limit of Aunt Selina’s endurance. Still holding me, she + stepped through the doorway and into the firelight, a fearful figure. + </p> + <p> + Jim saw her first. He went quite white and struggled to get up, smiling a + sickly smile. Bella, after her first surprise, was superbly indifferent. + She glanced at us, raised her eyebrows, and then looked at the clock. + </p> + <p> + “More victims of insomnia!” she said. “Won’t you come in? Jim, pull up a + chair by the fire for your aunt.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina opened her mouth twice, like a fish, before she could speak. + Then— + </p> + <p> + “James, I demand that that woman leave the house!” she said hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + Bella leaned back and yawned. + </p> + <p> + “James, shall I go?” she asked amiably. + </p> + <p> + “Nonsense,” Jim said, pulling himself together as best he could. “Look + here, Aunt Selina, you know she can’t go out, and what’s more, I—don’t + want her to go.” + </p> + <p> + “You—what?” Aunt Selina screeched, taking a step forward. “You have + the audacity to say such a thing to me!” + </p> + <p> + Bella leaned over and gave the fire log a punch. + </p> + <p> + “I was just saying that he shouldn’t say such things to me, either,” she + remarked pleasantly. “I’m afraid you’ll take cold, Miss Caruthers. + Wouldn’t you like a hot sherry flip?” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina gasped. Then she sat down heavily on one of the carved + teakwood chairs. + </p> + <p> + “He said he loved you; I heard him,” she said weakly. “He—he was + going to put his arm around you!” + </p> + <p> + “Habit!” Jim put in, trying to smile. “You see, Aunt Selina, it’s—well, + it’s a habit I got into some time ago, and I—my arm does it without + my thinking about it.” + </p> + <p> + “Habit!” Aunt Selina repeated, her voice thick with passion. Then she + turned to me. “Go to your room at once!” she said in her most awful tone. + “Go to your room and leave this—this shocking affair to me.” + </p> + <p> + But if she had reached her limit, so had I. If Jim chose to ruin himself, + it was not my fault. Any one with common sense would have known at least + to close the door before he went down on his knees, no matter to whom. So + when Aunt Selina turned on me and pointed in the direction of the + staircase, I did not move. + </p> + <p> + “I am perfectly wide awake,” I said coldly. “I shall go to bed when I am + entirely ready, and not before. And as for Jim’s conduct, I do not know + much about the conventions in such cases, but if he wishes to embrace Miss + Knowles, and she wants him to, the situation is interesting, but hardly + novel.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina rose slowly and drew the folds of her dressing gown around + her, away from the contamination of my touch. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know what you are saying?” she demanded hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + “I do.” I was quite white and stiff from my knees up, but below I was + wavery. I glanced at Jim for moral support, but he was looking + idolatrously at Bella. As for her, quite suddenly she had dropped her mask + of indifference; her face was strained and anxious, and there were deep + circles I had not seen before, under her eyes. And it was Bella who + finally threw herself into the breach—the family breach. + </p> + <p> + “It is all my fault, Miss Caruthers,” she said, stepping between Aunt + Selina and myself. “I have been a blind and wicked woman, and I have + almost wrecked two lives.” + </p> + <p> + Two! What of mine? + </p> + <p> + “You see,” she struggled on, against the glint in Aunt Selina’s eyes. “I—I + did not realize how much I cared, until it was too late. I did so many + things that were cruel and wrong—oh, Jim, Jim!” + </p> + <p> + She turned and buried her head on his shoulder and cried; real tears. I + could hardly believe that it was Bella. And Jim put both his arms around + her and almost cried, too, and looked nauseatingly happy with the eye he + turned to Bella, and scared to death out of the one he kept on Aunt + Selina. + </p> + <p> + She turned on me, as of course I knew she would. + </p> + <p> + “That,” she said, pointing at Jim and Bella, “that shameful picture is due + to your own indifference. I am not blind; I have seen how you rejected all + his loving advances.” Bella drew away from Jim, but he jerked her back. + “If anything in the world would reconcile me to divorce, it is this + unbelievable situation. James, are you shameless?” + </p> + <p> + But James was and didn’t care who knew it. And as there was nothing else + to do, and no one else to do it, I stood very straight against the door + frame, and told the whole miserable story from the very beginning. I told + how Dal and Jim had persuaded me, and how I had weakened and found it was + too late, and how Bella had come in that night, when she had no business + to come, and had sat down in the basement kitchen on my hands and almost + turned me into a raving maniac. As I went on I became fluent; my sense of + injury grew on me. I made it perfectly clear that I hated them all, and + that when people got divorces they ought to know their own minds and stay + divorced. And at that a great light broke on Aunt Selina, who hadn’t + understood until that minute. + </p> + <p> + In view of her principles, she might have been expected to turn on Jim and + Bella, and disinherit them, and cast them out, figuratively, with the + flaming sword of her tongue. BUT SHE DID NOT! + </p> + <p> + She turned on me in the most terrible way, and asked me how I dared to + come between husband and wife, because divorce or no divorce, whom God + hath joined together, and so on. And when Jim picked up his courage in + both hands and tried to interfere, she pushed him back with one hand while + she pointed the other at me and called me a Jezebel. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XIX. THE HARBISON MAN + </h2> + <p> + She talked for an hour, having got between me and the door, and she + scolded Jim and Bella thoroughly. But they did not hear it, being occupied + with each other, sitting side by side meekly on the divan with Jim holding + Bella’s hand under a cushion. She said they would have to be very good to + make up for all the deception, but it was perfectly clear that it was a + relief to her to find that I didn’t belong to her permanently, and as I + have said before, she was crazy about Bella. + </p> + <p> + I sat back in a chair and grew comfortably drowsy in the monotony of her + voice. It was a name that brought me to myself with a jerk. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Harbison!” Aunt Selina was saying. “Then bring him down at once, + James. I want no more deception. There is no use cleaning a house and + leaving a dirty corner.” + </p> + <p> + “It will not be necessary for me to stay and see it swept,” I said, + mustering the rags she had left of my self-respect, and trying to pass + her. But she planted herself squarely before me. + </p> + <p> + “You can not stir up a dust like this, young woman, and leave other people + to sneeze in it,” she said grimly. And I stayed. + </p> + <p> + I sat, very small, on a chair in a corner. I felt like Jezebel, or + whatever her name was, and now the Harbison man was coming, and he was + going to see me stripped of my pretensions to domesticity and of a husband + who neglected me. He was going to see me branded a living lie, and he + would hate me because I had put him in a ridiculous position. He was just + the sort to resent being ridiculous. + </p> + <p> + Jim brought him down in a dressing gown and a state of bewilderment. It + was plain that the memory of the afternoon still rankled, for he was very + short with Jim and inclined to resent the whole thing. The clock in the + hall chimed half after three as they came down the stairs, and I heard Mr. + Harbison stumble over something in the darkness and say that if it was a + joke, he wasn’t in the humor for it. To which Jim retorted that it wasn’t + anything resembling a joke, and for heaven’s sake not to walk on his feet; + he couldn’t get around the furniture any faster. + </p> + <p> + At the door of the den Mr. Harbison stopped, blinking in the light. Then, + when he saw us, he tried to back himself and his dishabille out into the + obscurity of the library. But Aunt Selina was too quick for him. + </p> + <p> + “Come in,” she called, “I want you, young man. It seems that there are + only two fools in the house, and you are one.” + </p> + <p> + He straightened at that and looked bewildered, but he tried to smile. + </p> + <p> + “I thought I was the only one,” he said. “Is it possible that there is + another?” + </p> + <p> + “I am the other,” she announced. I think she expected him to say + “Impossible,” but, whatever he was, he was never banal. + </p> + <p> + “Is that so?” he asked politely, trying to be interested and to understand + at the same time. He had not seen me. He was gazing fixedly at Bella, + languishing on the divan and watching him with lowered lids, and he had + given Jim a side glance of contempt. But now he saw me and he colored + under his tan. His neck blushed furiously, being much whiter than his + face. He kept his eyes on mine, and I knew that he was mutely asking + forgiveness. But the thought of what was coming paralyzed me. My eyes were + glued to his as they had been that first evening when he had called me + “Mrs. Wilson,” and after an instant he looked away, and his face was set + and hard. + </p> + <p> + “It seems that we have all been playing a little comedy, Mr. Harbison,” + Aunt Selina began, nasally sarcastic. “Or rather, you and I have been the + audience. The rest have played.” + </p> + <p> + “I—I don’t think I understand,” he said slowly. “I have seen very + little comedy.” + </p> + <p> + “It was not well planned,” Aunt Selina retorted tartly. “The idea was + good, but the young person who was playing the part of Mrs. Wilson—overacted.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, come, Aunt Selina,” Jim protested, “Kit was coaxed and cajoled into + this thing. Give me fits if you like; I deserve all I get. But let Kit + alone—she did it for me.” + </p> + <p> + Bella looked over at me and smiled nastily. + </p> + <p> + “I would stop doing things for Jim, Kit,” she said. “It is SO + unprofitable.” + </p> + <p> + But Mr. Harbison harked back to Aunt Selina’s speech. + </p> + <p> + “PLAYING the part of Mrs. Wilson!” he repeated. “Do you mean—?” + </p> + <p> + “Exactly. Playing the part. She is not Mrs. Wilson. It seems that that + honor belonged at one time to Miss Knowles. I believe such things are not + unknown in New York, only why in the name of sense does a man want to + divorce a woman and then meet her at two o’clock in the morning to kiss + the place where his own wedding ring used to rest?” + </p> + <p> + Jim fidgeted. Bella was having spasms of mirth to herself, but the + Harbison man did not smile. He stood for a moment looking at the fire; + then he thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his dressing gown, and + stalked over to me. He did not care that the others were watching and + listening. + </p> + <p> + “Is it true?” he demanded, staring down at me. “You are NOT Mrs. Wilson? + You are not married at all? All that about being neglected—and + loathing HIM, and all that on the roof—there was no foundation of + truth?” + </p> + <p> + I could only shake my head without looking up. There was no defense to be + made. Oh, I deserved the scorn in his voice. + </p> + <p> + “They—they persuaded you, I suppose, and it was to help somebody? It + was not a practical joke?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” I rallied a little spirit at that. It had been anything but a joke. + </p> + <p> + He drew a long breath. + </p> + <p> + “I think I understand,” he said slowly, “but—you could have saved me + something. I must have given you all a great deal of amusement.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” I protested. “I—I want to tell you—” + </p> + <p> + But he deliberately left me and went over to the door. There he turned and + looked down at Aunt Selina. He was a little white, but there was no + passion in his face. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you for telling me all this, Miss Caruthers,” he said easily. “Now + that you and I know, I’m afraid the others will miss their little + diversion. Good night.” + </p> + <p> + Oh, it was all right for Jim to laugh and say that he was only huffed a + little and would be over it by morning. I knew better. There was something + queer in his face as he went out. He did not even glance in my direction. + He had said very little, but he had put me as effectually in the wrong as + if he had not kissed me—deliberately kissed me—that very + evening, on the roof. + </p> + <p> + I did not go to sleep again. I lay wretchedly thinking things over and + trying to remember who Jezebel was, and toward morning I distinctly heard + the knob of the door turn. I mistrusted my ears, however, and so I got up + quietly and went over in the darkness. There was no sound outside, but + when I put my hand on the knob I felt it move under my fingers. The + counter pressure evidently alarmed whoever it was, for the knob was + released and nothing more happened. But by this time anything so + uncomplicated as the fumbling of a knob at night had no power to disturb + me. I went back to bed. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XX. BREAKING OUT IN A NEW PLACE + </h2> + <p> + Hunger roused everybody early the next morning, Friday. Leila Mercer had + discovered a box of bonbons that she had forgotten, and we divided them + around. Aunt Selina asked for the candied fruit and got it—quite a + third of the box. We gathered in the lower hall and on the stairs and + nibbled nauseating sweets while Mr. Harbison examined the telephone. + </p> + <p> + He did not glance in my direction. Betty and Dal were helping him, and he + seemed very cheerful. Max sat with me on the stairs. Mr. Harbison had just + unscrewed the telephone box from the wall and was squinting into it, when + Bella came downstairs. It was her first appearance, but as she was always + late, nobody noticed. When she stopped, just above us on the stairs, + however, we looked up, and she was holding to the rail and trembling + perceptibly. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Harbison, will you—can you come upstairs?” she asked. Her voice + was strained, almost reedy, and her lips were white. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison stared up at her, with the telephone box in his hands. + </p> + <p> + “Why—er—certainly,” he said, “but, unless it’s very important, + I’d like to fix this talking machine. We want to make a food record.” + </p> + <p> + “I’d like to break a food record,” Max put in, but Bella created a + diversion by sitting down suddenly on the stair just above us, and burying + her face in her handkerchief. + </p> + <p> + “Jim is sick,” she said, with a sob. “He—he doesn’t want anything to + eat, and his head aches. He—said for me—to go away and let him + die!” + </p> + <p> + Dal dropped the hammer immediately, and Lollie Mercer sat petrified, with + a bonbon halfway to her mouth. For, of course, it was unexpected, finding + sentiment of any kind in Bella, and none of them knew about the scene in + the den in the small hours of the morning. + </p> + <p> + “Sick!” Aunt Selina said, from a hall chair. “Sick! Where?” + </p> + <p> + “All over,” Bella quavered. “His poor head is hot, and he’s thirsty, but + he doesn’t want anything but water.” + </p> + <p> + “Great Scott!” Dal said suddenly. “Suppose he should—Bella, are you + telling us ALL his symptoms?” + </p> + <p> + Bella put down her handkerchief and got up. From her position on the + stairs she looked down on us with something of her old haughty manner. + </p> + <p> + “If he is ill, you may blame yourselves, all of you,” she said cruelly. + “You taunted him with being—fat, and laughed at him, until he + stopped eating the things he should eat. And he has been exercising—on + the roof, until he has worn himself out. And now—he is ill. He—he + has a rash.” + </p> + <p> + Everybody jumped at that, and we instinctively moved away from Bella. She + was quite cold and scornful by that time. + </p> + <p> + “A rash!” Max exclaimed. “What sort of rash?” + </p> + <p> + “I did not see it,” Bella said with dignity, and turning, she went up the + stairs. + </p> + <p> + There was a great deal of excitement, and nobody except Mr. Harbison was + willing to go near Jim. He went up at once with Bella, while Max and Dal + sat cravenly downstairs and wondered if we would all take it, and Anne + told about a man she knew who had it, and was deaf and dumb and blind when + he recovered. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison came down after a while, and said that the rash was there, + right enough, and that Jim absolutely refused to be quarantined; that he + insisted that he always got a rash from early strawberries and that if he + DID have anything, since they were so touchy he hoped they would all get + it. If they locked him in he would kick the door down. + </p> + <p> + We had a long conference in the hall, with Bella sitting red-eyed and + objecting to every suggestion we made. And finally we arranged to shut Jim + up in one of the servants’ bedrooms with a sheet wrung out of disinfectant + hung over the door. Bella said she would sit outside in the hall and read + to him through the closed door, so finally he gave a grudging consent. But + he was in an awful humor. Max and Dal put on rubber gloves and helped him + over, and they said afterward that the way he talked was fearful. And + there was a telephone in the maid’s room, and he kept asking for things + every five minutes. + </p> + <p> + When the doctor came he said it was too early to tell positively, and he + ordered him liquid diet and said he would be back that evening. + </p> + <p> + Which—the diet—takes me back to the famine. After they had + moved Jim, Mr. Harbison went back to the telephone, and found everything + as it should be. So he followed the telephone wire, and the rest followed + him. I did not; he had systematically ignored me all morning, after having + dared to kiss me the night before. And any other man I know, after looking + at me the way he had looked a dozen times, would have been at least + reasonably glad to find me free and unmarried. But it was clear that he + was not; I wondered if he was the kind of man who always makes love to the + other man’s wife and runs like mad when she is left a widow, or gets a + divorce. + </p> + <p> + And just when I had decided that I hated him, and that there was one man I + knew who would never make love to a woman whom he thought married and then + be very dignified and aloof when he found she wasn’t, I heard what was + wrong with the telephone wire. + </p> + <p> + It had been cut! Cut through with a pair of silver manicure scissors from + the dressing table in Bella’s room, where Aunt Selina slept! The wire had + been clipped where it came into the house, just under a window, and the + scissors still lay on the sill. + </p> + <p> + It was mysterious enough, but no one was interested in the mystery just + then. We wanted food, and wanted it at once. Mr. Harbison fixed the wire, + and the first thing we did, of course, was to order something to eat. Aunt + Selina went to bed just after luncheon with indigestion, to the relief of + every one in the house. She had been most unpleasant all morning. + </p> + <p> + When she found herself ill, however, she insisted on having Bella, and + that made trouble at once. We found Bella with her cheek against the door + into Jim’s room, looking maudlin while he shouted love messages to her + from the other side. At first she refused to stir, but after Anne and Max + had tried and failed, the rest of us went to her in a body and implored + her. We said Aunt Selina was in awful shape—which she was, as to + temper—and that she had thrown a mustard plaster at Anne, which was + true. + </p> + <p> + So Bella went, grumbling, and Jim was a maniac. We had not thought it + would be so bad for Bella, but Aunt Selina fell asleep soon after she took + charge, holding Bella’s hand, and slept for three hours and never let go! + </p> + <p> + About two that afternoon the sun came out, and the rest of us went to the + roof. The sleet had melted and the air was fairly warm. Two housemaids + dusting rugs on the top of the next house came over and stared at us, and + somebody in an automobile down on Riverside Drive stood up and waved at + us. It was very cheerful and hopelessly lonely. + </p> + <p> + I stayed on the roof after the others had gone, and for some time I + thought I was alone. After a while, I got a whiff of smoke, and then I saw + Mr. Harbison far over in the corner, one foot on the parapet, moodily + smoking a pipe. He was gazing out over the river, and paying no attention + to me. This was natural, considering that I had hardly spoken to him all + day. + </p> + <p> + I would not let him drive me away, so I sat still, and it grew darker and + colder. He filled his pipe now and then, but he never looked in my + direction. Finally, however, as it grew very dusk, he knocked the ashes + out and came toward me. + </p> + <p> + “I am going to make a request, Miss McNair,” he said evenly. “Please keep + off the roof after sunset. There are—reasons.” I had risen and was + preparing to go downstairs. + </p> + <p> + “Unless I know the reasons, I refuse to do anything of the kind,” I + retorted. He bowed. + </p> + <p> + “Then the door will be kept locked,” he rejoined, and opened it for me. He + did not follow me, but stood watching until I was down, and I heard him + close the roof door firmly behind me. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXI. A BAR OF SOAP + </h2> + <p> + Late that evening Betty Mercer and Dallas were writing verses of + condolence to be signed by all of us and put under the door into Jim’s + room when Bella came running down the stairs. + </p> + <p> + Dal was reading the first verse when she came. “Listen to this, Bella,” he + said triumphantly: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “There was a fat artist named Jas, + Who cruelly called his friends nas. + When, altho’ shut up tight, + He broke out over night + With a rash that is maddening, he clas.” + </pre> + <p> + Then he caught sight of Bella’s face as she stood in the doorway, and + stopped. + </p> + <p> + “Jim is delirious!” she announced tragically. “You shut him in there all + alone and now he’s delirious. I’ll never forgive any of you.” + </p> + <p> + “Delirious!” everybody exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + “He was sane enough when I took him his chicken broth,” Mr. Harbison said. + “He was almost fluent.” + </p> + <p> + “He is stark, staring crazy,” Bella insisted hysterically. “I—I + locked the door carefully when I went down to my dinner, and when I came + up it—it was unlocked, and Jim was babbling on the bed, with a sheet + over his face. He—he says the house is haunted and he wants all the + men to come up and sit in the room with him.” + </p> + <p> + “Not on your life,” Max said. “I am young, and my career has only begun. I + don’t intend to be cut off in the flower of my youth. But I’ll tell you + what I will do; I’ll take him a drink. I can tie it to a pole or + something.” + </p> + <p> + But Mr. Harbison did not smile. He was thoughtful for a minute. Then: + </p> + <p> + “I don’t believe he is delirious,” he said quietly, “and I wouldn’t be + surprised if he has happened on something that—will be of general + interest. I think I will stay with him tonight.” + </p> + <p> + After that, of course, none of the others would confess that he was + afraid, so with the South American leading, they all went upstairs. The + women of the party sat on the lower steps and listened, but everything was + quiet. Now and then we could hear the sound of voices, and after a while + there was a rapid slamming of doors and the sound of some one running down + to the second floor. Then quiet again. + </p> + <p> + None of us felt talkative. Bella had followed the men up and had been put + out, and sat sniffling by herself in the den. Aunt Selina was working over + a jig-saw puzzle in the library, and declaring that some of it must be + lost. Anne and Leila Mercer were embroidering, and Betty and I sat idle, + our hands in our laps. The whole atmosphere of the house was mysterious. + Anne told over again of the strange noises the night her necklace was + stolen. Betty asked me about the time when the comfort slipped from under + my fingers. And when, in the midst of the story, the telephone rang, we + all jumped and shrieked. + </p> + <p> + In an hour or so they sent for Flannigan, and he went upstairs. He came + down again soon, however, and returned with something over his arm that + looked like a rope. It seemed to be made of all kinds of things tied + together, trunk straps, clothesline, bed sheets, and something that + Flannigan pointed to with rage and said he hadn’t been able to keep his + clothes on all day. He refused to explain further, however, and trailed + the nondescript article up the stairs. We could only gaze after him and + wonder what it all meant. + </p> + <p> + The conclave lasted far into the night. The feminine contingent went to + bed, but not to sleep. Some time after midnight, Mr. Harbison and Max went + downstairs and I could hear them rattling around testing windows and + burglar alarms. But finally every one settled down and the rest of the + night was quiet. + </p> + <p> + Betty Mercer came into my room the next morning, Sunday, and said Anne + Brown wanted me. I went over at once, and Anne was sitting up in bed, + crying. Dal had slipped out of the room at daylight, she said, and hadn’t + come back. He had thought she was asleep, but she wasn’t, and she knew he + was dead, for nothing ever made Dal get up on Sunday before noon. + </p> + <p> + There was no one moving in the house, and I hardly knew what to do. It was + Betty who said she would go up and rouse Mr. Harbison and Max, who had + taken Jim’s place in the studio. She started out bravely enough, but in a + minute we heard her flying back. Anne grew perfectly white. + </p> + <p> + “He’s lying on the upper stairs!” Betty cried, and we all ran out. It was + quite true. Dal was lying on the stairs in a bathrobe, with one of Jim’s + Indian war clubs in his hand. And he was sound asleep. + </p> + <p> + He looked somewhat embarrassed when he roused and saw us standing around. + He said he was going to play a practical joke on somebody and fell asleep + in the middle of it. And Anne said he wasn’t even an intelligent liar, and + went back to bed in a temper. But Betty came in with me, and we sat and + looked at each other and didn’t say much. The situation was beyond us. + </p> + <p> + The doctor let Jim out the next day, there having been nothing the matter + with him but a stomach rash. But Jim was changed; he mooned around Bella, + of course, as before, but he was abstracted at times, and all that day—Sunday—he + wandered off by himself, and one would come across him unexpectedly in the + basement or along some of the unused back halls. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina held service that morning. Jim said that he always had a + prayer book, but that he couldn’t find anything with so many people in the + house. So Aunt Selina read some religious poetry out of the newspapers, + and gave us a valuable talk on Deception versus Honesty, with me as the + illustration. + </p> + <p> + Almost everybody took a nap after luncheon. I stayed in the den and read + Ibsen, and felt very mournful. And after Hedda had shot herself, I lay + down on the divan and cried a little—over Hedda; she was young and + it was such a tragic ending—and then I fell asleep. + </p> + <p> + When I wakened Mr. Harbison was standing by the table, and he held my book + in his hands. In view of the armed neutrality between us, I expected to + see him bow to me curtly, turn on his heel and leave the room. Indeed, + considering his state of mind the night before, I should hardly have been + surprised if he had thrown Hedda at my head. (This is not a pun. I detest + them.) But instead, when he heard me move he glanced over at me and even + smiled a little. + </p> + <p> + “She wasn’t worth it,” he said, indicating the book. + </p> + <p> + “Worth what?” + </p> + <p> + “Your tears. You were crying over it, weren’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “She was very unhappy,” I asserted indifferently. “She was married and she + loved some one else.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you really think she did?” he asked. “And even so, was that a reason?” + </p> + <p> + “The other man cared for her; he may not have been able to help it.” + </p> + <p> + “But he knew that she was married,” he said virtuously, and then he caught + my eye and he saw the analogy instantly, for he colored hotly and put down + the book. + </p> + <p> + “Most men argue that way,” I said. “They argue by the book, and—they + do as they like.” + </p> + <p> + He picked up a Japanese ivory paper weight from the table, and stood + balancing it across his finger. + </p> + <p> + “You are perfectly right,” he said at last. “I deserve it all. My + grievance is at myself. Your—your beauty, and the fact that I + thought you were unhappy, put me—beside myself. It is not an excuse; + it is a weak explanation. I will not forget myself again.” + </p> + <p> + He was as abject as any one could have wished. It was my minute of + triumph, but I can not pretend that I was happy. Evidently it had been + only a passing impulse. If he had really cared, now that he knew I was + free, he would have forgotten himself again at once. Then a new + explanation occurred to me. Suppose it had been Bella all the time, and + the real shock had been to find that she had been married! + </p> + <p> + “The fault of the situation was really mine,” I said magnanimously; “I + quite blame myself. Only, you must believe one thing. You never furnished + us any amusement.” I looked at him sidewise. “The discovery that Bella and + Jim were once married must have been a great shock.” + </p> + <p> + “It was a surprise,” he replied evenly. His voice and his eyes were + inscrutable. He returned my glance steadily. It was infuriating to have + gone half-way to meet him, as I had, and then to find him intrenched in + his self-sufficiency again. I got up. + </p> + <p> + “It is unfortunate that our acquaintance has begun so unfavorably,” I + remarked, preparing to pass him. “Under other circumstances we might have + been friends.” + </p> + <p> + “There is only one solace,” he said. “When we do not have friends, we can + not lose them.” + </p> + <p> + He opened the door to let me pass out, and as our eyes met, all the + coldness died out of his. He held out his hand, but I was hurt. I refused + to see it. + </p> + <p> + “Kit!” he said unsteadily. “I—I’m an obstinate, pig-headed brute. I + am sorry. Can’t we be friends, after all?” + </p> + <p> + “‘When we do not have friends we can not lose them,’” I replied with cool + malice. And the next instant the door closed behind me. + </p> + <p> + It was that night that the really serious event of the quarantine + occurred. + </p> + <p> + We were gathered in the library, and everybody was deadly dull. Aunt + Selina said she had been reared to a strict observance of the Sabbath, and + she refused to go to bed early. The cards and card tables were put away + and every one sat around and quarreled and was generally nasty, except + Bella and Jim, who had gone into the den just after dinner and firmly + closed the door. + </p> + <p> + I think it was just after Max proposed to me. Yes, he proposed to me again + that night. He said that Jim’s illness had decided him; that any of us + might take sick and die, shut in that contaminated atmosphere, and that if + he did he wanted it all settled. And whether I took him or not he wanted + me to remember him kindly if anything happened. I really hated to refuse + him—he was in such deadly earnest. But it was quite unnecessary for + him to have blamed his refusal, as he did, on Mr. Harbison. I am sure I + had refused him plenty of times before I had ever heard of the man. Yes, + it was just after he proposed to me that Flannigan came to the door and + called Mr. Harbison out into the hall. + </p> + <p> + Flannigan—like most of the people in the house—always went to + Mr. Harbison when there was anything to be done. He openly adored him, and—what + was more—he did what Mr. Harbison ordered without a word, while the + rest of us had to get down on our knees and beg. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison went out, muttering something about a storm coming up, and + seeing that the tent was secure. Betty Mercer went with him. She had been + at his heels all evening, and called him “Tom” on every possible occasion. + Indeed, she made no secret of it; she said that she was mad about him, and + that she would love to live in South America, and have an Indian squaw for + a lady’s maid, and sit out on the veranda in the evenings and watch the + Southern Cross shooting across the sky, and eat tropical food from the + quaint Indian pottery. She was not even daunted when Dal told her the + Southern Cross did not shoot, and that the food was probably canned corn + on tin dishes. + </p> + <p> + So Betty went with him. She wore a pale yellow dinner gown, with just a + sophisticated touch of black here and there, and cut modestly square in + the neck. Her shoulders are scrawny. And after they were gone—not + her shoulders; Mr. Harbison and she—Aunt Selina announced that the + next day was Monday, that she had only a week’s supply of clothing with + her, and that no policeman who ever swung a mace should wash her + undergarments for her. + </p> + <p> + She paused a moment, but nobody offered to do it. Anne was reading De + Maupassant under cover of a table, and the rest pretended not to hear. + After a pause, Aunt Selina got up heavily and went upstairs, coming down + soon after with a bundle covered with a green shawl, and with a white + balbriggan stocking trailing from an opening in it. She paused at the + library door, surveyed the inmates, caught my unlucky eye and beckoned to + me with a relentless forefinger. + </p> + <p> + “We can put them to soak tonight,” she confided to me, “and tomorrow they + will be quite simple to do. There is no lace to speak of”—Dal raised + his eyebrows—“and very little flouncing.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina and I went to the laundry. It never occurred to any one that + Bella should have gone; she had stepped into all my privileges—such + as they were—and assumed none of my obligations. Aunt Selina and I + went to the laundry. + </p> + <p> + It is strange what big things develop from little ones. In this case it + was a bar of soap. And if Flannigan had used as much soap as he should + have instead of washing up the kitchen floor with cold dish water, it + would have developed sooner. The two most unexpected events of the whole + quarantine occurred that night at the same time, one on the roof and one + in the cellar. The cellar one, although curious, was not so serious as the + other, so it comes first. + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina put her clothes in a tub in the laundry and proceeded to dress + them like a vegetable. She threw in a handful of salt, some kerosene oil + and a little ammonia. The result was villainous, but after she tasted it—or + snuffed it—she said it needed a bar of soap cut up to give it + strength—or flavor—and I went into the store room for it. + </p> + <p> + The laundry soap was in a box. I took in a silver fork, for I hated to + touch the stuff, and jabbed a bar successfully in the semi-darkness. Then + I carried it back to the laundry and dropped it on the table. Aunt Selina + looked at the fork with disgust; then we both looked at the soap. ONE SIDE + OF IT WAS COVERED WITH ROUND HOLES THAT CURVED AROUND ON EACH OTHER LIKE A + COILED SNAKE. + </p> + <p> + I ran back to the store room, and there, a little bit sticky and smelling + terribly of rosin, lay Anne’s pearl necklace! + </p> + <p> + I was so excited that I seized Aunt Selina by the hands and danced her all + over the place. Then I left her, trying to find her hair pins on the + floor, and ran up to tell the others. I met Betty in the hall and waved + the pearls at her. But she did not notice them. + </p> + <p> + “Is Mr. Harbison down there?” she asked breathlessly. “I left him on the + roof and went down to my room for my scarf, and when I went back he had + disappeared. He—he doesn’t seem to be in the house.” She tried to + laugh, but her voice was shaky. “He couldn’t have got down without passing + me, anyhow,” she supplemented. “I suppose I’m silly, but so many queer + things have happened, Kit.” + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn’t worry, Betty,” I soothed her. “He is big enough to take care + of himself. And with the best intentions in the world, you can’t have him + all the time, you know.” + </p> + <p> + She was too much startled to be indignant. She followed me into the + library, where the sight of the pearls produced a tremendous excitement, + and then every one had to go down to the store room, and see where the + necklace had been hidden, and Max examined all the bars of soap for thumb + prints. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison did not appear. Max commented on the fact caustically, but + Dal hushed him up. And so, Anne hugging her pearls, and Aunt Selina having + put a final seasoning of washing powder on the clothes in the tub, we all + went upstairs to bed. It had been a long day, and the morning would at + least bring bridge. + </p> + <p> + I was almost ready for bed when Jim tapped at my door. I had been very + cool to him since the night in the library when I was publicly staked and + martyred, and he was almost cringing when I opened the door. + </p> + <p> + “What is it now?” I asked cruelly. “Has Bella tired of it already, or has + somebody else a rash?” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t be a shrew, Kit,” he said. “I don’t want you to do anything. I only—when + did you see Harbison last?” + </p> + <p> + “If you mean ‘last,’” I retorted, “I’m afraid I haven’t seen the last of + him yet.” Then I saw that he was really worried. “Betty was leading him to + the roof,” I added. “Why? Is he missing?” + </p> + <p> + “He isn’t anywhere in the house. Dal and I have been over every inch of + it.” Max had come up, in a dressing gown, and was watching me insolently. + </p> + <p> + “I think we have seen the last of him,” he said. “I’m sorry, Kit, to nip + the little romance in the bud. The fellow was crazy about you—there’s + no doubt of it. But I’ve been watching him from the beginning, and I think + I’m upheld. Whether he went down the water spout, or across a board to the + next house—” + </p> + <p> + “I—I dislike him intensely,” I said angrily, “but you would not dare + to say that to his face. He could strangle you with one hand.” + </p> + <p> + Max laughed disagreeably. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I only hope he is gone,” he threw at me over his shoulder, “I + wouldn’t want to be responsible to your father if he had stayed.” I was + speechless with wrath. + </p> + <p> + They went away then, and I could hear them going over the house. At one + o’clock Jim went up to bed, the last, and Mr. Harbison had not been found. + I did not see how they could go to bed at all. If he had escaped, then Max + was right and the whole thing was heart-breaking. And if he had not, then + he might be lying— + </p> + <p> + I got up and dressed. + </p> + <p> + The early part of the night had been cloudy, but when I got to the roof it + was clear starlight. The wind blew through the electric wires strung + across and set them singing. The occasional bleat of a belated automobile + on the drive below came up to me raucously. The tent gleamed, a starlit + ghost of itself, and the boxwoods bent in the breeze. I went over to the + parapet and leaned my elbows on it. I had done the same thing so often + before; I had carried all my times of stress so infallibly to that + particular place, that instinctively my feet turned there. + </p> + <p> + And there in the starlight, I went over the whole serio-comedy, and I + loathed my part in it. He had been perfectly right to be angry with me and + with all of us. And I had been a hypocrite and a Pharisee, and had thanked + God that I was not as other people, when the fact was that I was worse + than the worst. And although it wasn’t dignified to think of him going + down the drain pipe, still—no one could blame him for wanting to get + away from us, and he was quite muscular enough to do it. + </p> + <p> + I was in the depths of self-abasement when I heard a sound behind me. It + was a long breath, quite audible, that ended in a groan. I gripped the + parapet and listened, while my heart pounded, and in a minute it came + again. + </p> + <p> + I was terribly frightened. Then—I don’t know how I did it, but I was + across the roof, kneeling beside the tent, where it stood against the + chimney. And there, lying prone among the flower pots, and almost entirely + hidden, lay the man we had been looking for. + </p> + <p> + His head was toward me, and I reached out shakingly and touched his face. + It was cold, and my hand, when I drew it back, was covered with blood. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXII. IT WAS DELIRIUM + </h2> + <p> + I was sure he was dead. He did not move, and when I caught his hands and + called him frantically, he did not hear me. And so, with the horror over + me, I half fell down the stairs and roused Jim in the studio. + </p> + <p> + They all came with lights and blankets, and they carried him into the tent + and put him on the couch and tried to put whisky in his mouth. But he + could not swallow. And the silence became more and more ominous until + finally Anne got hysterical and cried, “He is dead! Dead!” and collapsed + on the roof. + </p> + <p> + But he was not. Just as the lights in the tent began to have red rings + around them and Jim’s voice came from away across the river, somebody + said, “There, he swallowed that,” and soon after, he opened his eyes. He + muttered something that sounded like “Andean pinnacle” and lapsed into + unconsciousness again. But he was not dead! He was not dead! + </p> + <p> + When the doctor came they made a stretcher out of one of Jim’s six-foot + canvases—it had a picture on it, and Jim was angry enough the next + day—and took him down to the studio. We made it as much like a + sick-room as we could, and we tried to make him comfortable. But he lay + without opening his eyes, and at dawn the doctor brought a consultant and + a trained nurse. + </p> + <p> + The nurse was an offensively capable person. She put us all out, and + scolded Anne for lighting Japanese incense in the room—although Anne + explained that it is very reviving. And she said that it was unnecessary + to have a dozen people breathing up all the oxygen and asphyxiating the + patient. She was good-looking, too. I disliked her at once. Any one could + see by the way she took his pulse—just letting his poor hand hang, + without any support—that she was a purely mechanical creature, + without heart. + </p> + <p> + Well, as I said before, she put us all out, and shut the door, and asked + us not to whisper outside. Then, too, she refused to allow any flowers in + the room, although Betty had got a florist out of bed to order some. + </p> + <p> + The consultant came, stayed an hour, and left. Aunt Selina, who proved + herself a trump in that trying time, waylaid him in the hall, and he said + it might be a fractured skull, although it was possibly only concussion. + </p> + <p> + The men spent most of the morning together in the den, with the door shut. + Now and then one of them would tiptoe upstairs, ask the nurse how her + patient was doing, and creak down again. Just before noon they all went to + the roof and examined again the place where he had been found. I know, for + I was in the upper hall outside the studio. I stayed there almost all day, + and after a while the nurse let me bring her things as she needed them. I + don’t know why mother didn’t let me study nursing—I always wanted to + do it. And I felt helpless and childish now, when there were things to be + done. + </p> + <p> + Max came down from the roof alone, and I cornered him in the upper hall. + </p> + <p> + “I’m going crazy, Max,” I said. “Nobody will tell me anything, and I can’t + stand it. How was he hurt? Who hurt him?” + </p> + <p> + Max looked at me quite a long time. + </p> + <p> + “I’m darned if I understand you, Kit,” he said gravely. “You said you + disliked Harbison.” + </p> + <p> + “So I do—I did,” I supplemented. “But whether I like him or not has + nothing to do with it. He has been injured—perhaps murdered”—I + choked a little. “Which—which of you did it?” + </p> + <p> + Max took my hand and held it, looking down at me. + </p> + <p> + “I wish you could have cared for me like that,” he said gently. “Dear + little girl, we don’t know who hurt him. I didn’t, if that’s what you + mean. Perhaps a flower pot—” + </p> + <p> + I began to cry then, and he drew me to him and let me cry on his arm. He + stood very quietly, patting my head in a brotherly way and behaving very + well, save that once he said: + </p> + <p> + “Don’t cry too long, Kit; I can stand only a certain amount.” + </p> + <p> + And just then the nurse opened the door to the studio, and with Max’s arm + still around me, I raised my head and looked in. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Harbison was conscious. His eyes were open, and he was staring at us + both as we stood framed by the doorway. + </p> + <p> + He lay back at once and closed his eyes, and the nurse shut the door. + There was no use, even if I had been allowed in, in trying to explain to + him. To attempt such a thing would have been to presume that he was + interested in an explanation. I thought bitterly to myself as I brought + the nurse cracked ice and struggled to make beef tea in the kitchen, that + lives had been wrecked on less. + </p> + <p> + Dal was allowed ten minutes in the sick room during the afternoon, and he + came out looking puzzled and excited. He refused to tell us what he had + learned, however, and the rest of the afternoon he and Jim spent in the + cellar. + </p> + <p> + The day dragged on. Downstairs people ate and read and wrote letters, and + outside newspaper men talked together and gazed over at the house and + photographed the doctors coming in and the doctors going out. As for me, + in the intervals of bringing things, I sat in Bella’s chair in the upper + hall, and listened to the crackle of the nurse’s starched skirts. + </p> + <p> + At midnight that night the doctors made a thorough examination. When they + came out they were smiling. + </p> + <p> + “He is doing very well,” the younger one said—he was hairy and dark, + but he was beautiful to me. “He is entirely conscious now, and in about an + hour you can send the nurse off for a little sleep. Don’t let him talk.” + </p> + <p> + And so at last I went through the familiar door into an unfamiliar room, + with basins and towels and bottles around, and a screen made of Jim’s + largest canvases. And someone on the improvised bed turned and looked at + me. He did not speak, and I sat down beside him. After a while he put his + hand over mine as it lay on the bed. + </p> + <p> + “You are much better to me than I deserve,” he said softly. And because + his eyes were disconcerting, I put an ice cloth over them. + </p> + <p> + “Much better than you deserve,” I said, and patted the ice cloth to place + gently. He fumbled around until he found my hand again, and we were quiet + for a long time. I think he dozed, for he roused suddenly and pulled the + cloth from his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “The—the day is all confused,” he said, turning to look at me, “but—one + thing seems to stand out from everything else. Perhaps it was delirium, + but I seemed to see that door over there open, and you, outside, with—with + Max. His arms were around you.” + </p> + <p> + “It was delirium,” I said softly. It was my final lie in that house of + mendacity. + </p> + <p> + He drew a satisfied breath, and lifting my hand, held it to his lips and + kissed it. + </p> + <p> + “I can hardly believe it is you,” he said. “I have to hold firmly to your + hand or you will disappear. Can’t you move your chair closer? You are + miles away.” So I did it, for he was not to be excited. + </p> + <p> + After a little— + </p> + <p> + “It’s awfully good of you to do this. I have been desperately sorry, Kit, + about the other night. It was a ruffianly thing to do—to kiss you, + when I thought—” + </p> + <p> + “You are to keep very still,” I reminded him. He kissed my hand again, but + he persisted. + </p> + <p> + “I was mad—crazy.” I tried to give him some medicine, but he pushed + the spoon aside. “You will have to listen,” he said. “I am in the depths + of self-disgust. I—I can’t think of anything else. You see, you + seemed so convinced that I was the blackguard that somehow nothing seemed + to matter.” + </p> + <p> + “I have forgotten it all,” I declared generously, “and I would be quite + willing to be friends, only, you remember you said—” + </p> + <p> + “Friends!” his voice was suddenly reckless, and he raised on his elbow. + “Friends! Who wants to be friends? Kit, I was almost delirious that night. + The instant I held you in my arms—It was all over. I loved you the + first time I saw you. I—I suppose I’m a fool to talk like this.” + </p> + <p> + And, of course, just then Dallas had to open the door and step into the + room. He was covered with dirt and he had a hatchet in his hand. + </p> + <p> + “A rope!” he demanded, without paying any attention to us and diving into + corners of the room. “Good heavens, isn’t there a rope in this confounded + house!” + </p> + <p> + He turned and rushed out, without any explanation, and left us staring at + the door. + </p> + <p> + “Bother the rope!” I found myself forced to look into two earnest eyes. + “Kit, were you VERY angry when I kissed you that night on the roof?” + </p> + <p> + “Very,” I maintained stoutly. + </p> + <p> + “Then prepare yourself for another attack of rage!” he said. And Betty + opened the door. + </p> + <p> + She had on a fetching pale blue dressing gown, and one braid of her yellow + hair was pulled carelessly over her shoulder. When she saw me on my knees + beside the bed (oh, yes, I forgot to say that, quite unconsciously, I had + slid into that position) she stopped short, just inside the door, and put + her hand to her throat. She stood for quite a perceptible time looking at + us, and I tried to rise. But Tom shamelessly put his arm around my + shoulders and held me beside him. Then Betty took a step back and steadied + herself by the door frame. She had really cared, I knew then, but I was + too excited to be sorry for her. + </p> + <p> + “I—I beg your pardon for coming in,” she said nervously. “But—they + want you downstairs, Kit. At least, I thought you would want to go, but—perhaps—” + </p> + <p> + Just then from the lower part of the house came a pandemonium of noises; + women screaming, men shouting, and the sound of hatchet strokes and + splintering wood. I seized Betty by the arm, and together we rushed down + the stairs. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + Chapter XXIII. COMING + </h2> + <p> + The second floor was empty. A table lay overturned at the top of the + stairs, and a broken flower vase was weltering in its own ooze. Part way + down Betty stepped on something sharp, that proved to be the Japanese + paper knife from the den. I left her on the stairs examining her foot and + hurried to the lower floor. + </p> + <p> + Here everything was in the utmost confusion. Aunt Selina had fainted, and + was sitting in a hall chair with her head rolled over sidewise and the + poker from the library fireplace across her knees. No one was paying any + attention to her. And Jim was holding the front door open, while three of + the guards hesitated in the vestibule. The noises continued from the back + of the house, and as I stood on the lowest stair Bella came out from the + dining room, with her face streaked with soot, and carrying a kettle of + hot water. + </p> + <p> + “Jim,” she called wildly. “While Max and Dal are below, you can pour this + down from the top. It’s boiling.” + </p> + <p> + Jim glanced back over his shoulder. “Carry out your own murderous + designs,” he said. And then, as she started back with it, “Bella, for + Heaven’s sake,” he called, “have you gone stark mad? Put that kettle + down.” + </p> + <p> + She did it sulkily and Jim turned to the policeman. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I know it was a false alarm before,” he explained patiently, “but + this is genuine. It is just as I tell you. Yes, Flannigan is in the house + somewhere, but he’s hiding, I guess. We could manage the thing very well + ourselves, but we have no cartridges for our revolvers.” Then as the noise + from the rear redoubled, “If you don’t come in and help, I will telephone + for the fire department,” he concluded emphatically. + </p> + <p> + I ran to Aunt Selina and tried to straighten her head. In a moment she + opened her eyes, sat up and stared around her. She saw the kettle at once. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing with boiling water on the floor?” she said to me, with + her returning voice. “Don’t you know you will spoil the floor?” The ruling + passion was strong with Aunt Selina, as usual. + </p> + <p> + I could not find out the trouble from any one; people appeared and + disappeared, carrying strange articles. Anne with a rope, Dal with his + hatchet, Bella and the kettle, but I could get a coherent explanation from + no one. When the guards finally decided that Jim was in earnest, and that + the rest of us were not crawling out a rear window while he held them at + the door, they came in, three of them and two reporters, and Jim led them + to the butler’s pantry. + </p> + <p> + Here we found Anne, very white and shaky, with the pantry table and two + chairs piled against the door of the kitchen slide, and clutching the + chamois-skin bag that held her jewels. She had a bottle of burgundy open + beside her, and was pouring herself a glass with shaking hands when we + appeared. She was furious at Jim. + </p> + <p> + “I very nearly fainted,” she said hysterically. “I might have been + murdered, and no one would have cared. I wish they would stop that + chopping, I’m so nervous I could scream.” + </p> + <p> + Jim took the Burgundy from her with one hand and pointed the police to the + barricaded door with the other. + </p> + <p> + “That is the door to the dumb-waiter shaft,” he said. “The lower one is + fastened on the inside, in some manner. The noises commenced about eleven + o’clock, while Mr. Brown was on guard. There were scraping sounds first, + and later the sound of a falling body. He roused Mr. Reed and myself, but + when we examined the shaft everything was quiet, and dark. We tried + lowering a candle on a string, but—it was extinguished from below.” + </p> + <p> + The reporters were busily removing the table and chairs from the door. + </p> + <p> + “If you have a rope handy,” one of them said, “I will go down the shaft.” + </p> + <p> + (Dal says that all reporters should have been policemen, and that all + policemen are natural newsgatherers.) + </p> + <p> + “The cage appears to be stuck, half-way between the floors,” Jim said. + “They are cutting through the door in the kitchen below.” + </p> + <p> + They opened the door then and cautiously peered down, but there was + nothing to be seen. I touched Jim gingerly on the arm. + </p> + <p> + “Is it—is it Flannigan,” I asked, “shut in there?” + </p> + <p> + “No—yes—I don’t know,” he returned absently. “Run along and + don’t bother, Kit. He may take to shooting any minute.” + </p> + <p> + Anne and I went out then and shut the door, and went into the dining room + and sat on our feet, for of course the bullets might come up through the + floor. Aunt Selina joined us there, and Bella, and the Mercer girls, and + we sat around and talked in whispers, and Leila Mercer told of the time + her grandfather had had a struggle with an escaped lunatic. + </p> + <p> + In the midst of the excitement Tom appeared in a bathrobe, looking very + pale, with a bandage around his head, and the nurse at his heels + threatening to leave and carrying a bottle of medicine and a spoon. He + went immediately to the pantry, and soon we could hear him giving orders + and the rest hurrying around to obey them. The hammering ceased, and the + silence was even worse. It was more suggestive. + </p> + <p> + In about fifteen minutes there was a thud, as if the cage had fallen, and + the sound of feet rushing down the cellar stairs. Then there were groans + and loud oaths, and everybody talking at once, below, and the sound of a + struggle. In the dining room we all sat bent forward, with straining ears + and quickened breath, until we distinctly heard someone laugh. Then we + knew that, whatever it was, it was over, and nobody was killed. + </p> + <p> + The sounds came closer, were coming up the stairs and into the pantry. + Then the door swung open, and Tom and a policeman appeared in the doorway, + with the others crowding behind. Between them they supported a grimy, + unshaven object, covered with whitewash from the wall of the shaft, an + object that had its hands fastened together with handcuffs, and that + leered at us with a pair of the most villainously crossed eyes I have ever + seen. + </p> + <p> + None of us had ever seen him before. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Lawrence McGuirk, better known as Tubby,’” Tom said cheerfully. “A + celebrity in his particular line, which is second-story man and all-round + rascal. A victim of the quarantine, like ourselves.” + </p> + <p> + “We’ve missed him for a week,” one of the guards said with a grin. “We’ve + been real anxious about you, Tubby. Ain’t a week goes by, when you’re in + health, that we don’t hear something of you.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. McGuirk muttered something under his breath, and the men chuckled. + </p> + <p> + “It seems,” Tom said, interpreting, “that he doesn’t like us much. He + doesn’t like the food, and he doesn’t like the beds. He says just when he + got a good place fixed up in the coal cellar, Flannigan found it, and is + asleep there now, this minute.” + </p> + <p> + Aunt Selina rose suddenly and cleared her throat. + </p> + <p> + “Am I to understand,” she asked severely, “that from now on we will have + to add two newspaper reporters, three policemen and a burglar to the + occupants of this quarantined house? Because, if that is the case, I + absolutely refuse to feed them.” + </p> + <p> + But one of the reporters stepped forward and bowed ceremoniously. + </p> + <p> + “Madam,” he said, “I thank you for your kind invitation, but—it will + be impossible for us to accept. I had intended to break the good news + earlier, but this little game of burglar-in-a-corner prevented me. The + fact is, your Jap has been discovered to have nothing more serious than + chicken-pox, and—if you will forgive a poultry yard joke, there is + no longer any necessity for your being cooped up.” + </p> + <p> + Then he retired, quite pleased with himself. + </p> + <p> + One would have thought we had exhausted our capacity for emotion, but Jim + said a joyful emotion was so new that we hardly knew how to receive it. + Every one shook hands with every one else, and even the nurse shared in + the excitement and gave Jim the medicine she had prepared for Tom. + </p> + <p> + Then we all sat down and had some champagne, and while they were waiting + for the police wagon, they gave some to poor McGuirk. He was still quite + shaken from his experience when the dumb-waiter stuck. The wine cheered + him a little, and he told his story, in a voice that was creaky from + disuse, while Tom held my hand under the table. + </p> + <p> + He had had a dreadful week, he said; he spent his days in a closet in one + of the maids’ rooms—the one where we had put Jim. It was Jim waking + out of a nap and declaring that the closet door had moved by itself and + that something had crawled under his bed and out of the door, that had + roused the suspicions of the men in the house—and he slept at night + on the coal in the cellar. He was actually tearful when he rubbed his hand + over his scrubby chin, and said he hadn’t had a shave for a week. He took + somebody’s razor, he said, but he couldn’t get hold of a portable mirror, + and every time he lathered up and stood in front of the glass in the + dining room sideboard, some one came and he had had to run and hide. He + told, too, of his attempts to escape, of the board on the roof, of the + home-made rope, and the hole in the cellar, and he spoke feelingly of the + pearl collar and the struggle he had made to hide it. He said that for + three days it was concealed in the pocket of Jim’s old smoking coat in the + studio. + </p> + <p> + We were all rather sorry for him, but if we had made him uncomfortable, + think of what he had done to us. And for him to tell, as he did later in + court, that if that was high society he would rather be a burglar, and + that we starved him, and that the women had to dress each other because + they had no lady’s maids, and that the whole lot of us were in love with + one man, it was downright malicious. + </p> + <p> + The wagon came for him just as he finished his story, and we all went to + the door. In the vestibule Aunt Selina suddenly remembered something, and + she stepped forward and caught the poor fellow by the arm. + </p> + <p> + “Young man,” she said grimly. “I’ll thank you to return what you took from + ME last Tuesday night.” + </p> + <p> + McGuirk stared, then shuddered and turned suddenly pale. + </p> + <p> + “Good Lord!” he ejaculated. “On the stairs to the roof! YOU?” + </p> + <p> + They led him away then, quite broken, with Aunt Selina staring after him. + She never did understand. I could have explained, but it was too awful. + </p> + <p> + On the steps McGuirk turned and took a farewell glance at us. Then he + waved his hand to the policemen and reporters who had gathered around. + </p> + <p> + “Goodby, fellows,” he called feebly. “I ain’t sorry, I ain’t. Jail’ll be a + paradise after this.” + </p> + <p> + And then we went to pack our trunks. + </p> + <p> + NOTE FROM MAX WHICH CAME THE NEXT DAY WITH ITS ENCLOSURE. + </p> + <p> + My Dear Kit—The enclosed trunk tag was used on my trunk, evidently + by mistake. Higgins discovered it when he was unpacking and returned it to + me under the misapprehension that I had written it. I wish I had. I + suppose there must be something attractive about a fellow who has the + courage to write a love letter on the back of a trunk tag, and who doesn’t + give a tinker’s damn who finds it. But for my peace of mind, ask him not + to leave another one around where I will come across it. Max. + </p> + <p> + WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE TRUNK TAG. + </p> + <p> + Don’t you know that I won’t see you until tomorrow? For Heaven’s sake, get + away from this crowd and come into the den. If you don’t I will kiss you + before everybody. Are you coming? T. + </p> + <p> + WRITTEN BELOW. + </p> + <p> + No indeed. K. + </p> + <p> + THIS WAS SCRATCHED OUT AND BENEATH. + </p> + <p> + Coming. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg’s When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN MARRIES *** + +***** This file should be named 1671-h.htm or 1671-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/1671/ + +Produced by Theresa Armao, and David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the Foundation” + or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase “Project Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +“Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, “Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.” + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +“Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’ WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. + +The Foundation’s principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation’s web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + </body> +</html> diff --git a/1671.txt b/1671.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3fc1de4 --- /dev/null +++ b/1671.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6650 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: When a Man Marries + +Author: Mary Roberts Rinehart + +Posting Date: November 23, 2008 [EBook #1671] +Release Date: March, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN MARRIES *** + + + + +Produced by Theresa Armao + + + + + +WHEN A MAN MARRIES + +By Mary Roberts Rinehart + + + + +Contents + + I At Least I Meant Well + II The Way It Began + III I Might Have Known It + IV The Door Was Closed + V From The Tree Of Love + VI A Mighty Poor Joke + VII We Make An Omelet + VIII Correspondents' Department + IX Flannigan's Find + X On The Stairs + XI I Make A Discovery + XII The Roof Garden + XIII He Does Not Deny It + XIV Almost, But Not Quite + XV Suspicion and Discord + XVI I Face Flannigan + XVII A Clash and A Kiss + XVIII It's All My Fault + XIX The Harbison Man + XX Breaking Out In A New Place + XXI A Bar of Soap + XXII It Was A Delirium + XXIII Coming + + + + + Needles and pins + Needles and pins, + When a man marries + His trouble begins. + + + + +Chapter I. AT LEAST I MEANT WELL + +When the dreadful thing occurred that night, every one turned on me. +The injustice of it hurt me most. They said I got up the dinner, that +I asked them to give up other engagements and come, that I promised all +kinds of jollification, if they would come; and then when they did come +and got in the papers and every one--but ourselves--laughed himself +black in the face, they turned on ME! I, who suffered ten times to their +one! I shall never forget what Dallas Brown said to me, standing with a +coal shovel in one hand and a--well, perhaps it would be better to tell +it all in the order it happened. + +It began with Jimmy Wilson and a conspiracy, was helped on by a +foot-square piece of yellow paper and a Japanese butler, and it +enmeshed and mixed up generally ten respectable members of society and +a policeman. Incidentally, it involved a pearl collar and a box of soap, +which sounds incongruous, doesn't it? + +It is a great misfortune to be stout, especially for a man. Jim was +rotund and looked shorter than he really was, and as all the lines of +his face, or what should have been lines, were really dimples, his face +was about as flexible and full of expression as a pillow in a tight +cover. The angrier he got the funnier he looked, and when he was raging, +and his neck swelled up over his collar and got red, he was entrancing. +And everybody liked him, and borrowed money from him, and laughed at his +pictures (he has one in the Hargrave gallery in London now, so people +buy them instead), and smoked his cigarettes, and tried to steal his +Jap. The whole story hinges on the Jap. + +The trouble was, I think, that no one took Jim seriously. His ambition +in life was to be taken seriously, but people steadily refused to. His +art was a huge joke--except to himself. If he asked people to dinner, +every one expected a frolic. When he married Bella Knowles, people +chuckled at the wedding, and considered it the wildest prank of Jimmy's +career, although Jim himself seemed to take it awfully hard. + +We had all known them both for years. I went to Farmington with Bella, +and Anne Brown was her matron of honor when she married Jim. My first +winter out, Jimmy had paid me a lot of attention. He painted my portrait +in oils and had a studio tea to exhibit it. It was a very nice picture, +but it did not look like me, so I stayed away from the exhibition. Jim +asked me to. He said he was not a photographer, and that anyhow the rest +of my features called for the nose he had given me, and that all the +Greuze women have long necks. I have not. + +After I had refused Jim twice he met Bella at a camp in the Adirondacks +and when he came back he came at once to see me. He seemed to think I +would be sorry to lose him, and he blundered over the telling for twenty +minutes. Of course, no woman likes to lose a lover, no matter what she +may say about it, but Jim had been getting on my nerves for some time, +and I was much calmer than he expected me to be. + +"If you mean," I said finally in desperation, "that you and Bella +are--are in love, why don't you say so, Jim? I think you will find that +I stand it wonderfully." + +He brightened perceptibly. + +"I didn't know how you would take it, Kit," he said, "and I hope we will +always be bully friends. You are absolutely sure you don't care a whoop +for me?" + +"Absolutely," I replied, and we shook hands on it. Then he began about +Bella; it was very tiresome. + +Bella is a nice girl, but I had roomed with her at school, and I was +under no illusions. When Jim raved about Bella and her banjo, and Bella +and her guitar, I had painful moments when I recalled Bella, learning +her two songs on each instrument, and the old English ballad she had +learned to play on the harp. When he said she was too good for him, I +never batted an eye. And I shook hands solemnly across the tea-table +again, and wished him happiness--which was sincere enough, but +hopeless--and said we had only been playing a game, but that it was time +to stop playing. Jim kissed my hand, and it was really very touching. + +We had been the best of friends ever since. Two days before the wedding +he came around from his tailor's, and we burned all his letters to me. +He would read one and say: "Here's a crackerjack, Kit," and pass it +to me. And after I had read it we would lay it on the firelog, and Jim +would say, "I am not worthy of her, Kit. I wonder if I can make her +happy?" Or--"Did you know that the Duke of Belford proposed to her in +London last winter?" + +Of course, one has to take the woman's word about a thing like that, but +the Duke of Belford had been mad about Maude Richard all that winter. + +You can see that the burning of the letters, which was meant to be +reminiscently sentimental, a sort of how-silly-we-were-but-it-is +all-over-now occasion, became actually a two hours' eulogy of Bella. And +just when I was bored to death, the Mercer girls dropped in and heard +Jim begin to read one commencing "dearest Kit." And the next day after +the rehearsal dinner, they told Bella! + +There was very nearly no wedding at all. Bella came to see me in a +frenzy the next morning and threw Jim and his two-hundred odd pounds in +my face, and although I explained it all over and over, she never quite +forgave me. That was what made it so hard later--the situation would +have been bad enough without that complication. + +They went abroad on their wedding journey, and stayed several months. +And when Jim came back he was fatter than ever. Everybody noticed it. +Bella had a gymnasium fitted up in a corner of the studio, but he would +not use it. He smoked a pipe and painted all day, and drank beer and +WOULD eat starches or whatever it is that is fattening. But he adored +Bella, and he was madly jealous of her. At dinners he used to glare at +the man who took her in, although it did not make him thin. Bella was +flirting, too, and by the time they had been married a year, people +hitched their chairs together and dropped their voices when they were +mentioned. + +Well, on the anniversary of the day Bella left him--oh yes, she left him +finally. She was intense enough about some things, and she said it got +on her nerves to have everybody chuckle when they asked for her husband. +They would say, "Hello, Bella! How's Bubbles? Still banting?" And Bella +would try to laugh and say, "He swears his tailor says his waist is +smaller, but if it is he must be growing hollow in the back." + +But she got tired of it at last. Well, on the second anniversary of +Bella's departure, Jimmy was feeling pretty glum, and as I say, I am +very fond of Jim. The divorce had just gone through and Bella had taken +her maiden name again and had had an operation for appendicitis. We +heard afterward that they didn't find an appendix, and that the one they +showed her in a glass jar WAS NOT HERS! But if Bella ever suspected, she +didn't say. Whether the appendix was anonymous or not, she got box after +box of flowers that were, and of course every one knew that it was Jim +who sent them. + +To go back to the anniversary, I went to Rothberg's to see the +collection of antique furniture--mother was looking for a sideboard +for father's birthday in March--and I met Jimmy there, boring into a +worm-hole in a seventeenth-century bedpost with the end of a match, and +looking his nearest to sad. When he saw me he came over. + +"I'm blue today, Kit," he said, after we had shaken hands. "Come and +help me dig bait, and then let's go fishing. If there's a worm in every +hole in that bedpost, we could go into the fish business. It's a good +business." + +"Better than painting?" I asked. But he ignored my gibe and swelled up +alarmingly in order to sigh. + +"This is the worst day of the year for me," he affirmed, staring +straight ahead, "and the longest. Look at that crazy clock over there. +If you want to see your life passing away, if you want to see the steps +by which you are marching to eternity, watch that clock marking the +time. Look at that infernal hand staying quiet for sixty seconds and +then jumping forward to catch up with the procession. Ugh!" + +"See here, Jim," I said, leaning forward, "you're not well. You can't go +through the rest of the day like this. I know what you'll do; you'll +go home to play Grieg on the pianola, and you won't eat any dinner." He +looked guilty. + +"Not Grieg," he protested feebly. "Beethoven." + +"You're not going to do either," I said with firmness. "You are going +right home to unpack those new draperies that Harry Bayles sent you from +Shanghai, and you are going to order dinner for eight--that will be two +tables of bridge. And you are not going to touch the pianola." + +He did not seem enthusiastic, but he rose and picked up his hat, and +stood looking down at me where I sat on an old horse-hair covered sofa. + +"I wish to thunder I had married you!" he said savagely. "You're the +finest girl I know, Kit, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, and you are going to throw +yourself away on Jack Manning, or Max, or some other--" + +"Nothing of the sort," I said coldly, "and the fact that you didn't +marry me does not give you the privilege of abusing my friends. Anyhow, +I don't like you when you speak like that." + +Jim took me to the door and stopped there to sigh. + +"I haven't been well," he said heavily. "Don't eat, don't sleep. +Wouldn't you think I'd lose flesh? Kit"--he lowered his voice +solemnly--"I have gained two pounds!" + +I said he didn't look it, which appeared to comfort him somewhat, and, +because we were old friends, I asked him where Bella was. He said he +thought she was in Europe, and that he had heard she was going to marry +Reggie Wolfe. Then he signed again, muttered something about ordering +the funeral baked meats to be prepared and left me. + +That was my entire share in the affair. I was the victim, both of +circumstances and of their plot, which was mad on the face of it. + +During the entire time they never once let me forget that I got up the +dinner, that I telephoned around for them. They asked me why I couldn't +cook--when not one of them knew one side of a range from the other. And +for Anne Brown to talk the way she did--saying I had always been crazy +about Jim, and that she believed I had known all along that his aunt was +coming--for Anne to talk like that was sheer idiocy. Yes, there was an +aunt. The Japanese butler started the trouble, and Aunt Selina carried +it along. + + + +Chapter II. THE WAY IT BEGAN + +It makes me angry every time I think how I tried to make that dinner a +success. I canceled a theater engagement, and I took the Mercer girls in +the electric brougham father had given me for Christmas. Their chauffeur +had been gone for hours with their machine, and they had telephoned all +the police stations without success. They were afraid that there had +been an awful smash; they could easily have replaced Bartlett, as Lollie +said, but it takes so long to get new parts for those foreign cars. + +Jim had a house well up-town, and it stood just enough apart from +the other houses to be entirely maddening later. It was a three-story +affair, with a basement kitchen and servants' dining room. Then, of +course, there were cellars, as we found out afterward. On the first +floor there was a large square hall, a formal reception room, behind it +a big living room that was also a library, then a den, and back of all +a Georgian dining room, with windows high above the ground. On the +top floor Jim had a studio, like every other one I ever saw--perhaps a +little mussier. Jim was really a grind at his painting, and there +were cigarette ashes and palette knives and buffalo rugs and shields +everywhere. It is strange, but when I think of that terrible house, I +always see the halls, enormous, covered with heavy rugs, and stairs that +would have taken six housemaids to keep in proper condition. I dream +about those stairs, stretching above me in a Jacob's ladder of shining +wood and Persian carpets, going up, up, clear to the roof. + +The Dallas Browns walked; they lived in the next block. And they brought +with them a man named Harbison, that no one knew. Anne said he would +be great sport, because he was terribly serious, and had the most +exaggerated ideas of society, and loathed extravagance, and built +bridges or something. She had put away her cigarettes since he had been +with them--he and Dallas had been college friends--and the only chance +she had to smoke was when she was getting her hair done. And she had +singed off quite a lot--a burnt offering, she called it. + +"My dear," she said over the telephone, when I invited her, "I want you +to know him. He'll be crazy about you. That type of man, big and deadly +earnest, always falls in love with your type of girl, the appealing +sort, you know. And he has been too busy, up to now, to know what love +is. But mind, don't hurt him; he's a dear boy. I'm half in love with him +myself, and Dallas trots around at his heels like a poodle." + +But all Anne's geese are swans, so I thought little of the Harbison man +except to hope that he played respectable bridge, and wouldn't mark the +cards with a steel spring under his finger nail, as one of her "finds" +had done. + +We all arrived about the same time, and Anne and I went upstairs +together to take off our wraps in what had been Bella's dressing room. +It was Anne who noticed the violets. + +"Look at that!" she nudged me, when the maid was examining her wrap +before she laid it down. "What did I tell you, Kit? He's still quite mad +about her." + +Jim had painted Bella's portrait while they were going up the Nile on +their wedding trip. It looked quite like her, if you stood well off in +the middle of the room and if the light came from the right. And just +beneath it, in a silver vase, was a bunch of violets. It was really +touching, and violets were fabulous. It made me want to cry, and +to shake Bella soundly, and to go down and pat Jim on his generous +shoulder, and tell him what a good fellow I thought him, and that +Bella wasn't worth the dust under his feet. I don't know much about +psychology, but it would be interesting to know just what effect those +violets and my sympathy for Jim had in influencing my decision a half +hour later. It is not surprising, under the circumstances, that for some +time after the odor of violets made me ill. + +We all met downstairs in the living room, quite informally, and Dallas +was banging away at the pianola, tramping the pedals with the delicacy +and feeling of a football center rush kicking a goal. Mr. Harbison was +standing near the fire, a little away from the others, and he was all +that Anne had said and more in appearance. He was tall--not too tall, +and very straight. And after one got past the oddity of his face being +bronze-colored above his white collar, and of his brown hair being +sun-bleached on top until it was almost yellow, one realized that he was +very handsome. He had what one might call a resolute nose and chin, and +a pleasant, rather humorous, mouth. And he had blue eyes that were, +at that moment, wandering with interest over the lot of us. Somebody +shouted his name to me above the Tristan and Isolde music, and I held +out my hand. + +Instantly I had the feeling one sometimes has, of having done just that +same thing, with the same surroundings, in the same place, years before, +I was looking up at him, and he was staring down at me and holding my +hand. And then the music stopped and he was saying: + +"Where was it?" + +"Where was what?" I asked. The feeling was stronger than ever with his +voice. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, and let my hand drop. "Just for a second +I had an idea that we had met before somewhere, a long time ago. I +suppose--no, it couldn't have happened, or I should remember." He was +smiling, half at himself. + +"No," I smiled back at him. "It didn't happen, I'm afraid--unless we +dreamed it." + +"We?" + +"I felt that way, too, for a moment." + +"The Brushwood Boy!" he said with conviction. "Perhaps we will find a +common dream life, where we knew each other. You remember the Brushwood +Boy loved the girl for years before they really met." But this was a +little too rapid, even for me. + +"Nothing so sentimental, I'm afraid," I retorted. "I have had exactly +the same sensation sometimes when I have sneezed." + +Betty Mercer captured him then and took him off to see Jim's newest +picture. Anne pounced on me at once. + +"Isn't he delicious?" she demanded. "Did you ever see such shoulders? +And such a nose? And he thinks we are parasites, cumberers of the earth, +Heaven knows what. He says every woman ought to know how to earn her +living, in case of necessity! I said I could make enough at bridge, and +he thought I was joking! He's a dear!" Anne was enthusiastic. + +I looked after him. Oddly enough the feeling that we had met before +stuck to me. Which was ridiculous, of course, for we learned afterward +that the nearest we ever came to meeting was that our mothers had been +school friends! Just then I saw Jim beckoning to me crazily from the +den. He looked quite yellow, and he had been running his fingers through +his hair. + +"For Heaven's sake, come in, Kit!" he said. "I need a cool head. Didn't +I tell you this is my calamity day?" + +"Cook gone?" I asked with interest. I was starving. + +He closed the door and took up a tragic attitude in front of the fire. +"Did you ever hear of Aunt Selina?" he demanded. + +"I knew there WAS one," I ventured, mindful of certain gossip as to +whence Jimmy derived the Wilson income. + +Jim himself was too worried to be cautious. He waved a brazen hand at +the snug room, at the Japanese prints on the walls, at the rugs, at the +teakwood cabinets and the screen inlaid with pearl and ivory. + +"All this," he said comprehensively, "every bite I eat, clothes I wear, +drinks I drink--you needn't look like that; I don't drink so darned +much--everything comes from Aunt Selina--buttons," he finished with a +groan. + +"Selina Buttons," I said reflectively. "I don't remember ever having +known any one named Buttons, although I had a cat once--" + +"Damn the cat!" he said rudely. "Her name isn't Buttons. Her name is +Caruthers, my Aunt Selina Caruthers, and the money comes from buttons." + +"Oh!" feebly. + +"It's an old business," he went on, with something of proprietary pride. +"My grandfather founded it in 1775. Made buttons for the Continental +Army." + +"Oh, yes," I said. "They melted the buttons to make bullets, didn't +they? Or they melted bullets to make buttons? Which was it?" + +But again he interrupted. + +"It's like this," he went on hurriedly. "Aunt Selina believes in me. She +likes pictures, and she wanted me to paint, if I could. I'd have given +up long ago--oh, I know what you think of my work--but for Aunt Selina. +She has encouraged me, and she's done more than that; she's paid the +bills." + +"Dear Aunt Selina," I breathed. + +"When I got married," Jim persisted, "Aunt Selina doubled my allowance. +I always expected to sell something, and begin to make money, and in +the meantime what she advanced I considered as a loan." He was eyeing me +defiantly, but I was growing serious. It was evident from the preamble +that something was coming. + +"To understand, Kit," he went on dubiously, "you would have to know her. +She won't stand for divorce. She thinks it is a crime." + +"What!" I sat up. I have always regarded divorce as essentially +disagreeable, like castor oil, but necessary. + +"Oh, you know well enough what I'm driving at," he burst out savagely. +"She doesn't know Bella has gone. She thinks I am living in a little +domestic heaven, and--she is coming tonight to hear me flap my wings." + +"Tonight!" + +I don't think Jimmy had known that Dallas Brown had come in and was +listening. I am sure I had not. Hearing his chuckle at the doorway +brought us up with a jerk. + +"Where has Aunt Selina been for the last two or three years?" he asked +easily. + +Jim turned, and his face brightened. + +"Europe. Look here, Dal, you're a smart chap. She'll only be here about +four hours. Can't you think of some way to get me out of this? I want to +let her down easy, too. I'm mighty fond of Aunt Selina. Can't we--can't +I say Bella has a headache?" + +"Rotten!" laconically. + +"Gone out of town?" Jim was desperate. + +"And you with a houseful of dinner guests! Try again, Jim." + +"I have it," Jim said suddenly. "Dallas, ask Anne if she won't play +hostess for tonight. Be Mrs. Wilson pro tem. Anne would love it. Aunt +Selina never saw Bella. Then, afterward, next year, when I'm hung in +the Academy and can stand on my feet"--("Not if you're hung," Dallas +interjected.)--"I'll break the truth to her." + +But Dallas was not enthusiastic. + +"Anne wouldn't do at all," he declared. "She'd be talking about the +kids before she knew it, and patting me on the head." He said it +complacently; Anne flirts, but they are really devoted. + +"One of the Mercer girls?" I suggested, but Jimmy raised a horrified +hand. + +"You don't know Aunt Selina," he protested. "I couldn't offer Leila in +the gown she's got on, unless she wore a shawl, and Betty is too fair." + +Anne came in just then, and the whole story had to be told again to her. +She was ecstatic. She said it was good enough for a play, and that of +course she would be Mrs. Jimmy for that length of time. + +"You know," she finished, "if it were not for Dal, I would be Mrs. Jimmy +for ANY length of time. I have been devoted to you for years, Billiken." + +But Dallas refused peremptorily. + +"I'm not jealous," he explained, straightening and throwing out his +chest, "but--well, you don't look the part, Anne. You're--you are +growing matronly, not but what you suit ME all right. And then I'd +forget and call you 'mammy,' which would require explanation. I think +it's up to you, Kit." + +"I shall do nothing of the sort!" I snapped. "It's ridiculous!" + +"I dare you!" said Dallas. + +I refused. I stood like a rock while the storm surged around me and beat +over me. I must say for Jim that he was merely pathetic. He said that my +happiness was first; that he would not give me an uncomfortable minute +for anything on earth; and that Bella had been perfectly right to +leave him, because he was a sinking ship, and deserved to be turned out +penniless into the world. After which mixed figure, he poured himself +something to drink, and his hands were shaking. + +Dal and Anne stood on each side of him and patted him on the shoulders +and glared across at me. I felt that if I was a rock, Jim's ship had +struck on me and was sinking, as he said, because of me. I began to +crumble. + +"What--what time does she leave?" I asked, wavering. + +"Ten: nine; KIT, are you going to do it?" + +"No!" I gave a last clutch at my resolution. "People who do that kind +of thing always get into trouble. She might miss her train. She's almost +certain to miss her train." + +"You're temporizing," Dallas said sternly. "We won't let her miss her +train; you can be sure of that." + +"Jim," Anne broke in suddenly, "hasn't she a picture of Bella? There's +not the faintest resemblance between Bella and Kit." + +Jim became downcast again. "I sent her a miniature of Bella a couple of +years ago," he said despondently. "Did it myself." + +But Dal said he remembered the miniature, and it looked more like me +than Bella, anyhow. So we were just where we started. And down inside of +me I had a premonition that I was going to do just what they wanted +me to do, and get into all sorts of trouble, and not be thanked for it +after all. Which was entirely correct. And then Leila Mercer came and +banged at the door and said that dinner had been announced ages ago and +that everybody was famishing. With the hurry and stress, and poor Jim's +distracted face, I weakened. + +"I feel like a cross between an idiot and a criminal," I said shortly, +"and I don't know particularly why every one thinks I should be the +victim for the sacrifice. But if you will promise to get her off early +to her train, and if you will stand by me and not leave me alone with +her, I--I might try it." + +"Of course, we'll stand by you!" they said in chorus. "We won't let you +stick!" And Dal said, "You're the right sort of girl, Kit. And after +it's all over, you'll realize that it's the biggest kind of lark. Think +how you are saving the old lady's feeling! When you are an elderly +person yourself, Kit, you will appreciate what you are doing tonight." + +Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine and the +only person there clever enough to act the part, and that they wouldn't +let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what they promised. Oh, I +am not defending myself; I suppose I deserved everything that happened. +But they told me that she would be there only between trains, and that +she was deaf, and that I had an opportunity to save a fellow-being from +ruin. So in the end I capitulated. + +When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had arrived and +was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and somebody said a cab was +at the door. + +And that was the way it began. + + + +Chapter III. I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT + +The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were Jimmy's +troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an unsuspecting elderly +woman? And it was only putting off discovery anyhow. Sooner or later, +she would learn of the divorce, and--Just at that instant my eyes fell +on Mr. Harbison--Tom Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on +with an amused, half-puzzled smile, while people were rushing around +hiding the roulette wheel and things of which Miss Caruthers might +disapprove, and Betty Mercer was on her knees winding up a toy bear that +Max had brought her. What would he think? It was evident that he thought +badly of us already--that he was contemptuously amused, and then to have +to ask him to lend himself to the deception! + +With a gasp I hurled myself after Jimmy, only to hear a strange voice in +the hall and to know that I was too late. I was in for it, whatever was +coming. It was Aunt Selina who was coming--along the hall, followed by +Jim, who was mopping his face and trying not to notice the paralyzed +silence in the library. + +Aunt Selina met me in the doorway. To my frantic eyes she seemed to +tower above us by at least a foot, and beside her Jimmy was a red, +perspiring cherub. + +"Here she is," Jimmy said, from behind a temporary eclipse of black +cloak and traveling bag. He was on top of the situation now, and he was +mendaciously cheerful. He had NOT said, "Here is my wife." That would +have been a lie. No, Jimmy merely said, "Here she is." If Aunt Selina +chose to think me Bella, was it not her responsibility? And if I chose +to accept the situation, was it not mine? Dallas Brown came forward +gravely as Aunt Selina folded over and kissed me, and surreptitiously +patted me with one hand while he held out the other to Miss Caruthers. I +loathed him! + +"We always expect something unusual from James, Miss Caruthers," he +said, with his best manner, "but THIS--this is beyond our wildest +dreams." + +Well, it's too awful to linger over. Anne took her upstairs and into +Bella's bedroom. It was a fancy of Jim's to leave that room just as +Bella had left it, dusty dance cards and favors hanging around and a +pair of discarded slippers under the bed. I don't think it had been +swept since Bella left it. I believe in sentiment, but I like it brushed +and dusted and the cobwebs off of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her +bonnet, it stirred up a gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did +not say anything, but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her +run her finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid, +put her cloak on it. + +Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella's bath and wet the end of a +towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina's collar--her concession +to evening dress--Anne wiped off the obvious places on the furniture. +She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in the glass. + +"What's that young woman's name?" she asked me sharply, when Anne had +taken the towel out to hide it. + +"Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown," I replied meekly. Every one replied +meekly to Aunt Selina. + +"Does she live here?" + +"Oh, no," I said airily. "They are here to dinner, she and her husband. +They are old friends of Jim's--and mine." + +"Seems to have a good eye for dirt," said Aunt Selina and went on +fastening her brooch. When she was finally ready, she took a bead purse +from somewhere about her waist and took out a half dollar. She held it +up before Hannah's eyes. + +"Tomorrow morning," she said sternly, "You take off that white cap +and that fol-de-rol apron and that black henrietta cloth, and put on +a calico wrapper. And when you've got this room aired and swept, Mrs. +Wilson will give you this." + +Hannah took two steps back and caught hold of a chair; she stared +helplessly from Aunt Selina to the half dollar, and then at me. Anne was +trying not to catch my eye. + +"And another thing," Aunt Selina said, from the head of the stairs, "I +sent those towels over from Ireland. Tell her to wash and bleach the one +Mrs. What's-her-name Brown used as a duster." + +Anne was quite crushed as we went down the stairs. I turned once, +half-way down, and her face was a curious mixture of guilt and hopeless +wrath. Over her shoulder, I could see Hannah, wide-eyed and puzzled, +staring after us. + +Jim presented everybody, and then he went into the den and closed the +door and we heard him unlock the cellarette. Aunt Selina looked at +Leila's bare shoulders and said she guessed she didn't take cold +easily, and conversation rather languished. Max Reed was looking like a +thundercloud, and he came over to me with a lowering expression that I +had learned to dread in him. + +"What fool nonsense is this?" he demanded. "What in the world possessed +you, Kit, to put yourself in such an equivocal position? Unless"--he +stopped and turned a little white--"unless you are going to marry Jim." + +I am sorry for Max. He is such a nice boy, and good looking, too, if +only he were not so fierce, and did not want to make love to me. No +matter what I do, Max always disapproves of it. I have always had a +deeply rooted conviction that if I should ever in a weak moment marry +Max, he would disapprove of that, too, before I had done it very long. + +"Are you?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes--a sign of unusually bad +humor. + +"Am I what?" + +"Going to marry him?" + +"If you mean Jim," I said with dignity, "I haven't made up my mind yet. +Besides, he hasn't asked me." + +Aunt Selina had been talking Woman's Suffrage in front of the fireplace, +but now she turned to me. + +"Is this the vase Cousin Jane Whitcomb sent you as a wedding present?" +she demanded, indicating a hideous urn-shaped affair on the mantel. It +came to me as an inspiration that Jim had once said it was an ancestral +urn, so I said without hesitation that it was. And because there was a +pause and every one was looking at us, I added that it was a beautiful +thing. + +Aunt Selina sniffed. + +"Hideous!" she said. "It looks like Cousin Jane, shape and coloring." + +Then she looked at it more closely, pounced on it, turned it upside down +and shook it. A card fell out, which Dallas picked up and gave her with +a bow. Jim had come out of the den and was dancing wildly around and +beckoning to me. By the time I had made out that that was NOT the vase +Cousin Jane had sent us as a wedding present, Aunt Selina had examined +the card. Then she glared across at me and, stooping, put the card in +the fire. I did not understand at all, but I knew I had in some way done +the unforgivable thing. Later, Dal told me it was HER card, and that +she had sent the vase to Jim at Christmas, with a generous check inside. +When she straightened from the fireplace, it was to a new theme, which +she attacked with her usual vigor. The vase incident was over, but she +never forgot it. She proved that she never did when she sent me two +urn-shaped vases with Paul and Virginia on them, when I--that is, later +on. + +"The Cause in England has made great strides," she announced from the +fireplace. "Soon the hand that rocks the cradle will be the hand that +actually rules the world." Here she looked at me. + +"I'm not up on such things," Max said blandly, having recovered some of +his good humor, "but--isn't it usually a foot that rocks the cradle?" + +Aunt Selina turned on him and Mr. Harbison, who were standing together, +with a snort. + +"What have you, or YOU, ever done for the independence of woman?" she +demanded. + +Mr. Harbison smiled. He had been looking rather grave until then. "We +have at least remained unmarried," he retorted. And then dinner was +again announced. + +He was to take me out, and he came across the room to where I sat +collapsed in a chair, and bent over me. + +"Do you know," he said, looking down at me with his clear, disconcerting +gaze, "do you know that I have just grasped the situation? There was +such a noise that I did not hear your name, and I am only realizing now +that you are my hostess! I don't know why I got the impression that this +was a bachelor establishment, but I did. Odd, wasn't it?" + +I positively couldn't look away from him. My features seemed frozen, and +my eyes were glued to his. As for telling him the truth--well, my +tongue refused to move. I intended to tell him during dinner if I had +an opportunity; I honestly did. But the more I looked at him and saw +how candid his eyes were, and how stern his mouth might be, the more I +shivered at the plunge. And, of course, as everybody knows now, I didn't +tell him at all. And every moment I expected that awful old woman to +ask me what I paid my cook, and when I had changed the color of my +hair--Bella's being black. + +Dinner was a half hour late when we finally went out, Jimmy leading off +with Aunt Selina, and I, as hostess, trailing behind the procession with +Mr. Harbison. Dallas took in the two Mercer girls, for we were one man +short, and Max took Anne. Leila Mercer was so excited that she wriggled, +and as for me, the candles and the orchids--everything--danced around +in a circle, and I just seemed to catch the back of my chair as it flew +past. Jim had ordered away the wines and brought out some weak and cheap +Chianti. Dallas looked gloomy at the change, but Jim explained in +an undertone that Aunt Selina didn't approve of expensive vintages. +Naturally, the meal was glum enough. + +Aunt Selina had had her dinner on the train, so she spent her time in +asking me questions the length of the table, and in getting acquainted +with me. She had brought a bottle of some sort of medicine downstairs +with her, and she took a claret-glassful, while she talked. The stuff +was called Pomona; shall I ever forget it? + +It was Mr. Harbison who first noticed Takahiro. Jimmy's Jap had been the +only thing in the menage that Bella declared she had hated to leave. +But he was doing the strangest things: his little black eyes shifted +nervously, and he looked queer. + +"What's wrong with him?" Mr. Harbison asked me finally, when he saw that +I noticed. "Is he ill?" + +Then Aunt Selina's voice from the other end of the table: + +"Bella," she called, in a high shrill tone, "do you let James eat +cucumbers?" + +"I think he must be," I said hurriedly aside to Mr. Harbison. "See how +his hands shake!" But Selina would not be ignored. + +"Cucumbers and strawberries," she repeated impressively. "I was +saying, Bella, that cucumbers have always given James the most fearful +indigestion. And yet I see you serve them at your table. Do you remember +what I wrote you to give him when he has his dreadful spells?" + +I was quite speechless; every one was looking, and no one could help. It +was clear Jim was racking his brain, and we sat staring desperately at +each other across the candles. Everything I had ever known faded from +me, eight pairs of eyes bored into me, Mr. Harbison's politely amused. + +"I don't remember," I said at last. "Really, I don't believe--" Aunt +Selina smiled in a superior way. + +"Now, don't you recall it?" she insisted. "I said: 'Baking soda in water +taken internally for cucumbers; baking soda and water externally, rubbed +on, when he gets that dreadful, itching strawberry rash.'" + +I believe the dinner went on. Somebody asked Aunt Selina how much +over-charge she had paid in foreign hotels, and after that she was as +harmless as a dove. + +Then half way through the dinner we heard a crash in Takahiro's +pantry, and when he did not appear again, Jim got up and went out to +investigate. He was gone quite a little while, and when he came back he +looked worried. + +"Sick," he replied to our inquiring glances. "One of the maids will come +in. They have sent for a doctor." + +Aunt Selina was for going out at once and "fixing him up," as she put +it, but Dallas gently interfered. + +"I wouldn't, Miss Caruthers," he said, in the deferential manner he had +adopted toward her. "You don't know what it may be. He's been looking +spotty all evening." + +"It might be scarlet fever," Max broke in cheerfully. "I say, scarlet +fever on a Mongolian--what color would he be, Jimmy? What do yellow and +red make? Green?" + +"Orange," Jim said shortly. "I wish you people would remember that we +are trying to eat." + +The fact was, however, that no one was really eating, except Mr. +Harbison who had given up trying to understand us, considering, no +doubt, our subdued excitement as our normal condition. Ages afterward +I learned that he thought my face almost tragic that night, and that he +supposed from the way I glared across the table, that I had quarreled +with my husband! + +"I am afraid you are not well," he said at last, noticing my food +untouched on my plate. "We should not have come, any of us." + +"I am perfectly well," I replied feverishly. "I am never ill. I--I ate a +late luncheon." + +He glanced at me keenly. "Don't let them stay and play bridge tonight," +he urged. "Miss Caruthers can be an excuse, can she not? And you are +really fagged. You look it." + +"I think it is only ill humor," I said, looking directly at him. "I am +angry at myself. I have done something silly, and I hate to be silly." + +Max would have said "Impossible," or something else trite. The Harbison +man looked at me with interested, serious eyes. + +"Is it too late to undo it?" he asked. + +And then and there I determined that he should never know the truth. He +could go back to South America and build bridges and make love to the +Spanish girls (or are they Spanish down there?) and think of me always +as a married woman, married to a dilettante artist, inclined to be +stout--the artist, not I--and with an Aunt Selina Caruthers who made +buttons and believed in the Cause. But never, NEVER should he think of +me as a silly little fool who pretended that she was the other man's +wife and had a lump in her throat because when a really nice man came +along, a man who knew something more than polo and motors, she had to +carry on the deception to keep his respect, and be sedate and +matronly, and see him change from perfect open admiration at first to a +hands-off-she-is-my-host's-wife attitude at last. + +"It can never be undone," I said soberly. + +Well, that's the picture as nearly as I can draw it: a round table +with a low centerpiece of orchids in lavenders and pink, old silver +candlesticks with filigree shades against the somber wainscoting; nine +people, two of them unhappy--Jim and I; one of them complacent--Aunt +Selina; one puzzled--Mr. Harbison; and the rest hysterically mirthful. +Add one sick Japanese butler and grind in the mills of the gods. + +Every one promptly forgot Takahiro in the excitement of the game we were +all playing. Finally, however, Aunt Selina, who seemed to have Takahiro +on her mind, looked up from her plate. + +"That Jap was speckled," she asserted. "I wouldn't be surprised if it's +measles. Has he been sniffling, James?" + +"Has he been sniffling?" Jim threw across at me. + +"I hadn't noticed it," I said meekly, while the others choked. + +Max came to the rescue. "She refused to eat it," he explained, +distinctly and to everybody, apropos absolutely of nothing. "It said on +the box,'ready cooked and predigested.' She declared she didn't care who +cooked it, but she wanted to know who predigested it." + +As every one wanted to laugh, every one did it then, and under cover +of the noise I caught Anne's eye, and we left the dining room. The men +stayed, and by the very firmness with which the door closed behind us, I +knew that Dallas and Max were bringing out the bottles that Takahiro had +hidden. I was seething. When Aunt Selina indicated a desire to go over +the house (it was natural that she should want to; it was her house, in +a way) I excused myself for a minute and flew back to the dining room. + +It was as I had expected. Jim hadn't cheered perceptibly, and the +rest were patting him on the back, and pouring things out for him, and +saying, "Poor old Jim" in the most maddening way. And the Harbison man +was looking more and more puzzled, and not at all hilarious. + +I descended on them like a thunderbolt. + +"That's it," I cried shrewishly, with my back against the door. "Leave +her to me, all of you, and pat each other on the back, and say it's gone +splendidly! Oh, I know you, every one!" Mr. Harbison got up and pulled +out a chair, but I couldn't sit; I folded my arms on the back. "After a +while, I suppose, you'll slip upstairs, the four of you, and have your +game." They looked guilty. "But I will block that right now. I am going +to stay--here. If Aunt Selina wants me, she can find me--here!" + +The first indication those men had that Mr. Harbison didn't know the +state of affairs was when he turned and faced them. + +"Mrs. Wilson is quite right," he said gravely. "We're a selfish lot. If +Miss Caruthers is a responsibility, let us share her." + +"To arms!" Jim said, with an affectation of lightness, as they put their +glasses down, and threw open the door. Dal's retort, "Whose?" was +lost in the confusion, and we went into the library. On the way Dallas +managed to speak to me. + +"If Harbison doesn't know, don't tell him," he said in an undertone. +"He's a queer duck, in some ways; he mightn't think it funny." + +"Funny," I choked. "It's the least funny thing I ever experienced. +Deceiving that Harbison man isn't so bad--he thinks me crazy, anyhow. +He's been staring his eyes out at me--" + +"I don't wonder. You're really lovely tonight, Kit, and you look like a +vixen." + +"But to deceive that harmless old lady--well, thank goodness, it's nine, +and she leaves in an hour or so." + +But she didn't and that's the story. + + + +Chapter IV. THE DOOR WAS CLOSED + +It was infuriating to see how much enjoyment every one but Jim and +myself got out of the situation. They howled with mirth over the +feeblest jokes, and when Max told a story without any point whatever, +they all had hysteria. Immediately after dinner Aunt Selina had begun +on the family connection again, and after two bad breaks on my part, Jim +offered to show her the house. The Mercer girls trailed along, unwilling +to lose any of the possibilities. They said afterward that it was +terrible: she went into all the closets, and ran her hand over the tops +of doors and kept getting grimmer and grimmer. In the studio they came +across a life study Jim was doing and she shut her eyes and made the +girls go out while he covered it with a drapery. Lollie! Who did the +Bacchante dance at three benefits last winter and was learning a new one +called "Eve"! + +When they heard Aunt Selina on the second floor, Anne, Dal and Max +sneaked up to the studio for cigarettes, which left Mr. Harbison to me. +I was in the den, sitting in a low chair by the wood fire when he came +in. He hesitated in the doorway. + +"Would you prefer being alone, or may I come in?" he asked. "Don't mind +being frank. I know you are tired." + +"I have a headache, and I am sulking," I said unpleasantly, "but at +least I am not actively venomous. Come in." + +So he came in and sat down across the hearth from me, and neither of us +said anything. The firelight flickered over the room, bringing out the +faded hues of the old Japanese prints on the walls, gleaming in the +mother-of-pearl eyes of the dragon on the screen, setting a grotesque +god on a cabinet to nodding. And it threw into relief the strong profile +of the man across from me, as he stared at the fire. + +"I am afraid I am not very interesting," I said at last, when he +showed no sign of breaking the silence. "The--the illness of the butler +and--Miss Caruthers' arrival, have been upsetting." + +He suddenly roused with a start from a brown reverie. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "I--oh, of course not! I was wondering +if I--if you were offended at what I said earlier in the evening; +the--Brushwood Boy, you know, and all that." + +"Offended?" I repeated, puzzled. + +"You see, I have been living out of the world so long, and never seeing +any women but Indian squaws"--so there were no Spanish girls!--"that I'm +afraid I say what comes into my mind without circumlocution. And then--I +did not know you were married." + +"No, oh, no," I said hastily. "But, of course, the more a woman is +married--I mean, you can not say too many nice things to married women. +They--need them, you know." + +I had floundered miserably, with his eyes on me, and I half expected him +to be shocked, or to say that married women should be satisfied with the +nice things their husbands say to them. But he merely remarked apropos +of nothing, or following a line of thought he had not voiced, that it +was trite but true that a good many men owed their success in life to +their wives. + +"And a good many owe their wives to their success in life," I retorted +cynically. At which he stared at me again. + +It was then that the real complexity of the situation began to develop. +Some one had rung the bell and been admitted to the library and a maid +came to the door of the den. When she saw us she stopped uncertainly. +Even then it struck me that she looked odd, and she was not in uniform. +However, I was not informed at that time about bachelor establishments, +and the first thing she said, when she had asked to speak to me in the +hall, knocked her and her clothes clear out of my head. Evidently she +knew me. + +"Miss McNair," she said in a low tone. "There is a lady in the drawing +room, a veiled person, and she is asking for Mr. Wilson." + +"Can you not find him?" I asked. "He is in the house, probably in the +studio." + +The girl hesitated. + +"Excuse me, miss, but Miss Caruthers--" + +Then I saw the situation. + +"Never mind," I said. "Close the door into the drawing room, and I will +tell Mr. Wilson." + +But as the girl turned toward the doorway, the person in question +appeared in it, and raised her veil. I was perfectly paralyzed. It was +Bella! Bella in a fur coat and a veil, with the most tragic eyes I ever +saw and entirely white except for a dab of rouge in the middle of each +cheek. We stared at each other without speech. The maid turned and went +down the hall, and with that Bella came over to me and clutched me by +the arm. + +"Who was being carried out into that ambulance?" she demanded, glaring +at me with the most awful intensity. + +"I'm sure I don't know, Bella," I said, wriggling away from her fingers. +"What in the world are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe." + +"You are hiding something from me!" she accused. "It is Jim! I see it in +your face." + +"Well, it isn't," I snapped. "It seems to me, really, Bella, that you +and Jim ought to be able to manage your own affairs, without dragging me +in." It was not pleasant, but if she was suffering, so was I. "Jim is as +well as he ever was. He's upstairs somewhere. I'll send for him." + +She gripped me again, and held on while her color came back. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind," she said, and she had quite got hold of +herself again. "I do not want to see him: I hope you don't think, Kit, +that I came here to see James Wilson. Why, I have forgotten that there +IS such a person, and you know it." + +Somebody upstairs laughed, and I was growing nervous. What if Aunt +Selina should come down, or Mr. Harbison come out of the den? + +"Why DID you come, then, Bella?" I inquired. "He may come in." + +"I was passing in the motor," she said, and I honestly think she hoped I +would believe her, "and I saw that am--" She stopped and began again. +"I thought Jim was out of town, and I came to see Takahiro," she said +brazenly. "He was devoted to me, and Evans is going to leave. I'll tell +you what to do, Kit. I'll go back to the dining room, and you send Taka +there. If any one comes, I can slip into the pantry." + +"It's immoral," I protested. "It's immoral to steal your--" + +"My own butler!" she broke in impatiently. "You're not usually so +scrupulous, Kit. Hurry! I hear that hateful Anne Brown." + +So we slid back along the hall, and I rang for Takahiro. But no one +came. + +"I think I ought to tell you, Bella," I said as we waited, and Bella was +staring around the room--"I think you ought to know that Miss Caruthers +is here." + +Bella shrugged her shoulders. + +"Well, thank goodness," she said, "I don't have to see her. The only +pleasant thing I remember about my year of married life is that I did +NOT meet Aunt Selina." + +I rang again, but still there was no answer. And then it occurred to +me that the stillness below stairs was almost oppressive. Bella was +noticing things, too, for she began to fasten her veil again with a +malicious little smile. + +"One of the things I remember my late husband saying," she observed, +"was that HE could manage this house, and had done it for years, with +flawless service. Stand on the bell, Kit." + +I did. We stood there, with the table, just as it had been left, between +us, and waited for a response. Bella was growing impatient. She raised +her eyebrows (she is very handsome, Bella is) and flung out her chin as +if she had begun to enjoy the horrible situation. + +I thought I heard a rattle of silver from the pantry just then, and I +hurried to the door in a rage. But the pantry was empty of servants and +full of dishes, and all the lights were out but one, which was burning +dimly. I could have sworn that I saw one of the servants duck into the +stairway to the basement, but when I got there the stairs were empty, +and something was burning in the kitchen below. + +Bella had followed me and was peering over my shoulder curiously. + +"There isn't a servant in the house," she said triumphantly. And when we +went down to the kitchen, she seemed to be right. It was in disgraceful +order, and one of the bottles of wine that had ben banished from the +dining room sat half empty on the floor. + +"Drunk!" Bella said with conviction. But I didn't think so. There had +not been time enough, for one thing. Suddenly I remembered the ambulance +that had been the cause of Bella's appearance--for no one could believe +her silly story about Takahiro. I didn't wait to voice my suspicion to +her; I simply left her there, staring helplessly at the confusion, and +ran upstairs again: through the dining room, past Jimmy and Aunt Selina, +past Leila Mercer and Max, who were flirting on the stairs, up, up to +the servants' bedrooms, and there my suspicions were verified. There was +every evidence of a hasty flight; in three bedrooms five trunks stood +locked and ominous, and the closets yawned with open doors, empty. Bella +had been right; there was not a servant in the house. + +As I emerged from the untidy emptiness of the servants' wing, I met Mr. +Harbison coming out of the studio. + +"I wish you would let me do some of this running about for you, Mrs. +Wilson," he said gravely. "You are not well, and I can't think of +anything worse for a headache. Has the butler's illness clogged the +household machinery?" + +"Worse," I replied, trying not to breathe in gasps. "I wouldn't be +running around--like this--but there is not a servant in the house! They +have gone, the entire lot." + +"That's odd," he said slowly. "Gone! Are you sure?" + +In reply I pointed to the servants' wing. "Trunks packed," I said +tragically, "rooms empty, kitchen and pantries, full of dishes. Did you +ever hear of anything like it?" + +"Never," he asserted. "It makes me suspect--" What he suspected he did +not say; instead he turned on his heel, without a word of explanation, +and ran down the stairs. I stood staring after him, wondering if every +one in the place had gone crazy. Then I heard Betty Mercer scream and +the rest talking loud and laughing, and Mr. Harbison came up the stairs +again two at a time. + +"How long has that Jap been ailing, Mrs. Wilson?" he asked. + +"I--I don't know," I replied helplessly. "What is the trouble, anyhow?" + +"I think he probably has something contagious," he said, "and it +has scared the servants away. As Mr. Brown said, he looked spotty. I +suggested to your husband that it might be as well to get the house +emptied--in case we are correct." + +"Oh, yes, by all means," I said eagerly. I couldn't get away too soon. +"I'll go and get my--" Then I stopped. Why, the man wouldn't expect me +to leave; I would have to play out the wretched farce to the end! + +"I'll go down and see them off," I finished lamely, and we went together +down the stairs. + +Just for the moment I forgot Bella altogether. I found Aunt Selina +bonneted and cloaked, taking a stirrup cup of Pomona for her nerves, +and the rest throwing on their wraps in a hurry. Downstairs Max was +telephoning for his car, which wasn't due for an hour, and Jim was +walking up and down, swearing under his breath. With the prospect of +getting rid of them all, and, of going home comfortably to try to forget +the whole wretched affair, I cheered up quite a lot. I even played up my +part of hostess, and Dallas told me, aside, that I was a brick. + +Just then Jim threw open the front door. + +There was a man on the top step, with his mouth full of tacks, and he +was nailing something to the door, just below Jim's Florentine bronze +knocker, and standing back with his head on one side to see if it was +straight. + +"What are you doing?" Jim demanded fiercely, but the man only drove +another tack. It was Mr. Harbison who stepped outside and read the card. + +It said "Smallpox." + +"Smallpox," Mr. Harbison read, as if he couldn't believe it. Then he +turned to us, huddled in the hall. + +"It seems it wasn't measles, after all," he said cheerfully. "I move we +get into Mr. Reed's automobile out there, and have a vaccination party. +I suppose even you blase society folk have not exhausted that kind of +diversion." + +But the man on the step spat his tacks in his hand and spoke for the +first time. + +"No, you don't," he said. "Not on your life. Just step back, please, and +close the door. This house is quarantined." + + + +Chapter V. FROM THE TREE OF LOVE + +There is hardly any use trying to describe what followed. Anne Brown +began to cry, and talk about the children. (She went to Europe once and +stayed until they all got over the whooping cough.) And Dallas said he +had a pull, because his mill controlled I forget how many votes, and the +thing to do was to be quiet and comfortable and we would get out in +the morning. Max took it as a huge joke, and somebody found him at +the telephone, calling up his club. The Mercer girls were hysterically +giggling, and Aunt Selina sat on a stiff-backed chair and took aromatic +spirits of ammonia. As for Jim, he had collapsed on the lowest step of +the stairs, and sat there with his head in his hands. When he did look +up, he didn't dare to look at me. + +The Harbison man was arguing with the impassive individual on the top +step outside, and I saw him get out his pocketbook and offer a crisp +bundle of bills. But the man from the board of health only smiled and +tacked at his offensive sign. After a while Mr. Harbison came in and +closed the door, and we stared at one another. + +"I know what I'm going to do," I said, swallowing a lump in my throat. +"I'm going to get out through a basement window at the back. I'm going +home." + +"Home!" Aunt Selina gasped, jumping up and almost dropping her ammonia +bottle. "My dear Bella! Home?" + +Jimmy groaned at the foot of the stairs, but Anne Brown was getting over +her tears and now she turned on me in a temper. + +"It's all your fault," she said. "I was going to stay at home and get a +little sleep--" + +"Well, you can sleep now," Dallas broke in. "There'll be nothing to do +but sleep." + +"I think you haven't grasped the situation, Dal," I said icily. "There +will be plenty to do. There isn't a servant in the house!" + +"No servants!" everybody cried at once. The Mercer girls stopped +giggling. + +"Holy cats!" Max stopped in the act of hanging up his overcoat. "Do you +mean--why, I can't shave myself! I'll cut my head off." + +"You'll do more than that," I retorted grimly. "You will carry coal and +tend fires and empty ash pans, and when you are not doing any of those +things there will be pots and pans to wash and beds to make." + +Then there WAS a row. We had worked back to the den now, and I stood in +front of the fireplace and let the storm beat around me, and tried +to look perfectly cold and indifferent, and not to see Mr. Harbison's +shocked face. No wonder he thought them a lot of savages, browbeating +their hostess the way they did. + +"It's a fool thing anyhow," Max Reed wound up, "to celebrate the +anniversary of a divorce--especially--" Here he caught Jim's eye and +stopped. But I had suddenly remembered. BELLA DOWN IN THE BASEMENT! + +Could anything have been worse? And of course she would have hysteria +and then turn on me and blame me for it all. It all came over me at once +and overwhelmed me, while Anne was crying and saying she wouldn't cook +if she starved for it, and Aunt Selina was taking off her wraps. I felt +queer all over, and I sat down suddenly. Mr. Harbison was looking at me, +and he brought me a glass of wine. + +"It won't be so bad as you fear," he said comfortingly. "There will be +no danger once we are vaccinated, and many hands make light work. They +are pretty raw now, because the thing is new to them, but by morning +they will be reconciled." + +"It isn't the work; it is something entirely different," I said. And it +was. Bella and work could hardly be spoken in the same breath. + +If I had only turned her out as she deserved to be, when she first came, +instead of allowing her to carry through the wretched farce about seeing +Takahiro! Or if I had only run to the basement the moment the house was +quarantined, and got her out the areaway or the coal hole! And now time +was flying, and Aunt Selina had me by the arm, and any moment I expected +Bella to pounce on us through the doorway and the whole situation to +explode with a bang. + +It was after eleven before they were rational enough to discuss ways and +means, and, of course, the first thing suggested was that we all adjourn +below stairs and clean up after dinner. I could have slain Max Reed for +the notion, and the Mercer girls for taking him up. + +"Of course we will," they said in a duet. "What a lark!" And they +actually began to pin up their dinner gowns. It was Jim who stopped +that. + +"Oh, look here, you people," he objected, "I'm not going to let you do +that. We'll get some servants in tomorrow. I'll go down and put out the +lights. There will be enough clean dishes for breakfast." + +It was lucky for me that they started a new discussion then and there +about who would get the breakfast. In the midst of the excitement I +slipped away to carry the news to Bella. She was where I had left her, +and she had made herself a cup of tea, and was very much at home, which +was natural. + +"Do you know," she said ominously, "that you have been away for two +hours; and that I have gone through agonies of nervousness for fear Jim +Wilson would come down and think I came here to see him?" + +"No one would think that, Bella," I soothed her. "Everybody knows you +loathe him--Jim, too." She looked at me over the edge of her cup. + +"I'll run along now," she said, "since Takahiro isn't here. And if Jim +has any sense at all, he will clear out every maid in the house. I never +saw such a kitchen in all my life. Well, lead the way, Kit. I suppose +they are deep in bridge, or roulette, or something." + +She was fixing her veil, and I saw I would have to tell her. Personally, +I would much rather have told her the house was on fire. + +"Wait a minute, Bella," I said. "You see, something queer has happened. +You know this is the anniversary--well, you know what it is--and Jim was +awfully glum. So we thought we would come--" + +"What are you driving at?" she demanded. "You are sea-green, Kit. What's +the matter? You needn't think I mind because Jim has a jollification to +celebrate his divorce." + +"It--it was Takahiro--in the ambulance," I blurted. "Smallpox. +We--Bella, we are shut in, quarantined." + +She didn't faint. She just sat down and stared at me, and I stared back +at her. Then a miserable alarm clock on the table suddenly went off like +an explosion, and Bella began to laugh. I knew what that was--hysteria. +She always had attacks like that when things went wrong. I was quite +despairing by that time; I hoped they would all hear her and come +downstairs and take her up and put her to bed like a Christian, so she +could giggle her soul out. But after a bit she quieted down and began to +cry softly, and I knew the worst was over. I gave her a shake, and she +was so angry that she got over it altogether. + +"Kit, you are horrid," she choked. "Don't you see what a position I am +in? I am not going upstairs to face Anne and the rest of them. You can +just put me in the coal cellar." + +"Isn't there a window you could get through?" I asked desperately. +"Locking the door doesn't shut up a whole house." + +Bella's courage revived at that, and she said yes, there were windows, +plenty of them, only she didn't see how she could get out. And I +said she would HAVE to get out, because I was playing Bella in the +performance, and I didn't care to have an understudy. Then the situation +dawned on her, and she sat down and laughed herself weak in the knees. +Of course she wanted to stay, then, and see the fun out. But I was firm; +she would have to go, and I told her so. Things were complicated enough +without her. + +Well, we looked funny, no doubt, Bella in a Russian pony automobile coat +over the black satin she had worn at the Clevelands' dinner, and I in +cream lace, the skirt gathered up from the kitchen floor, with Bella's +ermine pelerine around my bare shoulders, and dishes and overturned +chairs everywhere. + +Bella knew more about the lower regions of her ex-home than I would have +thought. She opened a door in a corner and led the way through a narrow +hall past the refrigerating room, to a huge, cemented cellar, with a +furnace in the center, and a half-dozen electric lights making it really +brilliant. + +"Get a chair," Bella said over her shoulder, excitedly. "I can get out +easily here, through the coal hole. Imagine my--" + +But it was my turn to grip Bella. From behind the furnace were coming +the most terrible sounds, rasping noises that fairly frayed the silk of +my nerves. We stood petrified for an instant. Then Bella laughed. "They +are not all gone," she said carefully. "Some one is asleep there." + +We tiptoed to where we could see around the furnace, and, sure enough, +some one WAS asleep there. Only, it was not one of the servants; it was +a portly policeman, with a newspaper and an empty plate on the floor on +one side, and a champagne bottle on the other. He had slid down in his +chair, with his chin on his brass buttons, and his helmet had rolled a +dozen feet away. Bella had to clap her hand over her mouth. + +"Fairly caught!" she whispered. "Sartor Resartus, the arrester arrested. +Oh, Jim and his flawless service!" + +But after we got over our surprise, we saw the situation was serious. +The policeman was threatening to awaken. Once he stopped snoring to yawn +noisily, and we beat a hasty retreat. Bella switched off the lights in +a hurry and locked the door behind us. We hardly breathed until we were +back in the kitchen again, and everything quiet. And then Jimmy called +my name from up above somewheres. + +"I am going to call him down, Bella," I said firmly. "Let him help you +out. I'm sure I don't see why I should have all this when the two of +you--" + +"Oh, no, no! Surely, Kit, you wouldn't be so cruel!" she whispered +pleadingly. "You know what he would think. He--oh, Kit, let them all get +settled for the night, and then come down, like a dear, and help me out. +I know loads of ways--honestly I do." + +"If I leave you here," I debated, "what about the policeman?" + +"Never mind him"--frantically. "Listen! There's Jim up in the pantry. +Run, for the sake of Heaven!" + +So--I ran. At the top of the stairs I met Jimmy, very crumpled as to +shirt-front and dejected as to face. + +"I've been hunting everywhere for you," he said dismally. "I thought you +had added to the general merriment by falling downstairs and breaking +your neck." + +I went past him with my chin up. Now that I had time to think about it, +I was furiously angry with him. + +"Kit!" he called after me appealingly, but I would not hear. Then he +adopted different tactics. He took advantage of my catching my foot in +the lace of my gown to pass me, and to stand with his back against the +door. + +"You're not going until you hear me, Kit," he declared miserably. "In +the first place, for all you are down on me, is it my fault? Honestly, +now IS IT MY FAULT?" + +I refused to speak. + +"I was coming home to be miserable alone," he went on, "and--oh, I know +you meant well, Kit; but YOU asked all these crazy people here." + +"Perhaps you will give me credit for some things," I said wearily. "I +did NOT give Takahiro smallpox, for instance, and--if you will permit me +to mention the fact--Aunt Selina is not MY Aunt Selina." + +"That's what I wanted to speak to you about," Jimmy went on wretchedly, +trying not to look at me. "You see, when they were rowing so about who +would get the breakfast--I never saw such a lot of people; half of +them never touch breakfast, but of course now they want all kinds of +things--when they were talking, Aunt Selina said she knew YOU would get +it, being the hostess, and responsible, besides knowing where things +are kept." He had fixed his eyes on the orchids, and he looked shrunken, +actually shrunken. "I thought," he finished, "you might give me a few +pointers now, and I could come down in the morning, and--and fuss up +something, coffee and so on. I would say you did it! Oh, hang it all, +Kit, why don't you say something?" + +"What do you want me to say?" I demanded. "That I love to cook, and of +course I'll fix trays and carry them up in the morning to Anne Brown +and Leila Mercer and the rest; and that I will have the shaving water +ready--" + +"I know what I'm going to do," Jimmy said, with a sudden resolution. +"Aunt Selina and her money can go to blazes. I am going right upstairs +and tell her the truth, tell her who you are, what I am, and all the +rest of it." He opened the door. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind," I gasped, catching him in time. "Don't +you dare, Jimmy Wilson! Why, what would they think of me? After letting +her call me Bella, and him--Jim, if Mr. Harbison ever learns the +truth--I--I will take poison. If we are going to be shut up here +together, we will have to carry it on. I couldn't stand the disgrace." + +In spite of an heroic effort, Jim looked relieved. "They have been +hunting for the linen closet," he said, more cheerfully, "and there will +be room enough, I think. Harbison and I will hang out in the studio; +there are two couches there. I'm afraid you'll have to take Aunt Selina, +Kit." + +"Certainly," I said coldly. That was the way it was all along. Whenever +there was something to do that no one else would undertake--any +unpleasant responsibility--that entire mongrel household turned with one +gesture and pointed its finger at me! Well, it is over now, and I ought +not to be bitter, considering everything. + +It was quite characteristic of that memorable evening (that is quite +novelesque, I think) that my interview with Jimmy should have a +sensational ending. He was terribly down, of course, and as I was trying +to pass him to get to the door, he caught my hand. + +"You're a girl in a thousand, Kit," he said forlornly. "If I were not so +damnably, hopelessly, idiotically in love with--somebody else, I should +be crazy about you." + +"Don't be maudlin," I retorted. "Would you mind letting my hand go?" I +felt sure Bella could hear. + +"Oh, come now, Kit," he implored, "we've always got along so well. It's +a shame to let a thing like this make us bad friends. Aren't you ever +going to forgive me?" + +"Never," I said promptly. "When I once get away, I don't want ever to +see you again. I was never so humiliated in my life. I loathe you!" + +Then I turned around, and, of course, there was Aunt Selina with her +eyes protruding until you could have knocked them off with a stick, and +beside her, very red and uncomfortable, Mr. Harbison! + +"Bella!" she said in a shocked voice, "is that the way you speak to your +husband! It is high time I came here, I think, and took a hand in this +affair." + +"Oh, never mind, Aunt Selina," Jim said, with a sheepish grin. +"Kit--Bella is tired and nervous. This is a h--deuce of a situation. +No--er--servants, and all that." + +But Aunt Selina did mind, and showed it. She pulled the unlucky Harbison +man through the door and closed it, and then stood glaring at both of +us. + +"Every little quarrel is an apple knocked from the tree of love," she +announced oratorically. + +"This was a very little quarrel," Jim said, edging toward the door; +"a--a green apple, Aunt Selina, a colicky little green apple." But she +was not to be diverted. + +"Bella," she said severely, "you said you loathed him. You didn't mean +that." + +"But I do!" I cried hysterically. "There isn't any word to tell how +I--how I detest him." + +Then I swept past them all and flew to Bella's dressing room and locked +myself in. Aunt Selina knocked until she was tired, then gave up and +went to bed. + +That was the night Anne Brown's pearl collar was stolen! + + + +Chapter VI. A MIGHTY POOR JOKE + +Of course, one knows that there are people who in a different grade of +society would be shoplifters and pickpockets. When they are restrained +by obligation or environment they become a little overkeen at bridge, +or take the wrong sables, or stuff a gold-backed brush into a muff at +a reception. You remember the ivory dressing set that Theodora Bucknell +had, fastened with fine gold chains? And the sensation it caused at the +Bucknell cotillion when Mrs. Van Zire went sweeping to her carriage with +two feet of gold chain hanging from the front of her wrap? + +But Anne's pearl collar was different. In the first place, instead of +three or four hundred people, the suspicion had to be divided among ten. +And of those ten, at least eight of us were friends, and the other two +had been vouched for by the Browns and Jimmy. It was a horrible mix-up. +For the necklace was gone--there couldn't be any doubt of that--and +although, as Dallas said, it couldn't get out of the house, still, there +were plenty of places to hide the thing. + +The worst of our trouble really originated with Max Reed, after all. +For it was Max who made the silly wager over the telephone, with Dick +Bagley. He bet five hundred even that one of us, at least, would break +quarantine within the next twenty-four hours, and, of course, that +settled it. Dick told it around the club as a joke, and a man who owns +a newspaper heard him and called up the paper. Then the paper called up +the health office, after setting up a flaming scare-head, "Will Money +Free Them? Board of Health versus Millionaire." + +It was almost three when the house settled down--nobody had any night +clothes, although finally, through Dallas, who gave them to Anne, who +gave them to the rest, we got some things of Jimmy's--and I was still +dressed. The house was perfectly quiet, and, after listening carefully, +I went slowly down the stairs. There was a light in the hall, and +another back in the dining room, and I got along without any trouble. +But the pantry, where the stairs led down, was dark, and the wretched +swinging door would not stay open. + +I caught my skirt in the door as I went through, and I had to stop to +loosen it. And in that awful minute I heard some one breathing just +beside me. I had stooped to my gown, and I turned my head without +straightening--I couldn't have raised myself to an erect posture, for +my knees were giving way under me--and just at my feet lay the still +glowing end of a match! + +I had to swallow twice before I could speak. Then I said sharply: + +"Who's there?" + +The man was so close it is a wonder I had not walked into him; his voice +was right at my ear. + +"I am sorry I startled you," he said quietly. "I was afraid to speak +suddenly, or move, for fear I would do--what I have done." + +It was Mr. Harbison. + +"I--I thought you were--it is very late," I managed to say, with dry +lips. "Do you know where the electric switch is?" + +"Mrs. Wilson!" It was clear he had not known me before. "Why, no; don't +you?" + +"I am all confused," I muttered, and beat a retreat into the dining +room. There, in the friendly light, we could at least see each other, +and I think he was as much impressed by the fact that I had not +undressed as I was by the fact that he HAD, partly. He wore a hideous +dressing gown of Jimmy's, much too small, and his hair, parted and +plastered down in the early evening, stood up in a sort of brown brush +all over his head. He was trying to flatten it with his hands. + +"It must be three o'clock," he said, with polite surprise, "and the +house is like a barn. You ought not to be running around with your arms +uncovered, Mrs. Wilson. Surely you could have called some of us." + +"I didn't wish to disturb any one," I said, with distinct truth. + +"I suppose you are like me," he said. "The novelty of the situation--and +everything. I got to thinking things over, and then I realized the +studio was getting cold, so I thought I would come down and take a look +at the furnace. I didn't suppose any one else would think of it. But +I lost myself in that pantry, stumbled against a half-open drawer, and +nearly went down the dumb-waiter." And, as if in judgment on me, at +that instant came two rather terrific thumps from somewhere below, +and inarticulate words, shouted rather than spoken. It was uncanny, of +course, coming as it did through the register at our feet. Mr. Harbison +looked startled. + +"Oh, by the way," I said, as carelessly as I could. "In the excitement, +I forgot to mention it. There is a policeman asleep in the furnace room. +I--I suppose we will have to keep him now," I finished as airily as +possible. + +"Oh, a policeman--in the cellar," he repeated, staring at me, and he +moved toward the pantry door. + +"You needn't go down," I said feverishly, with visions of Bella Knowles +sitting on the kitchen table, surrounded by soiled dishes and all the +cheerless aftermath of a dinner party. "Please don't go down. I--it's +one of my rules--never to let a stranger go down to the kitchen. I--I'm +peculiar--that way--and besides, it's--it's mussy." + +Bang! Crash! through the register pipe, and some language quite +articulate. Then silence. + +"Look here, Mrs. Wilson," he said resolutely. "What do I care about the +kitchen? I'm going down and arrest that policeman for disturbing the +peace. He will have the pipes down." + +"You must not go," I said with desperate firmness. "He--he is probably +in a very dangerous state just now. We--I--locked him in." + +The Harbison man grinned and then became serious. + +"Why don't you tell me the whole thing?" he demanded. "You've been in +trouble all evening, and--you can trust me, you know, because I am a +stranger; because the minute this crazy quarantine is raised I am off +to the Argentine Republic," (perhaps he said Chili) "and because I don't +know anything at all about you. You see, I have to believe what you +tell me, having no personal knowledge of any of you to go on. Now tell +me--whom have you hidden in the cellar, besides the policeman?" + +There was no use trying to deceive him; he was looking straight into my +eyes. So I decided to make the best of a bad thing. Anyhow, it was going +to require strength to get Bella through the coal hole with one arm and +restrain the policeman with the other. + +"Come," I said, making a sudden resolution, and led the way down the +stairs. + +He said nothing when he saw Bella, for which I was grateful. She was +sitting at the table, with her arms in front of her, and her head buried +in them. And then I saw she was asleep. Her hat and veil were laid +beside her, and she had taken off her coat and draped it around her. She +had rummaged out a cold pheasant and some salad, and had evidently had +a little supper. Supper and a nap, while I worried myself gray-headed +about her! + +"She--she came in unexpectedly--something about the butler," I explained +under my breath. "And--she doesn't want to stay. She is on bad terms +with--with some of the people upstairs. You can see how impossible the +situation is." + +"I doubt if we can get her out," he said, as if the situation were quite +ordinary. "However, we can try. She seems very comfortable. It's a pity +to rouse her." + +Here the prisoner in the furnace room broke out afresh. It sounded +as though he had taken a lump of coal and was attacking the lock. Mr. +Harbison followed the noise, and I could hear him arguing, not gently. + +"Another sound," he finished, "and you won't get out of here at all, +unless you crawl up the furnace pipe!" + +When he came back, Bella was rousing. She lifted her head with her eyes +shut and then opened them one at a time, blinked, and sat up. She didn't +see him at first. + +"You wretch!" she said ungratefully, after she had yawned. "Do you know +what time it is? And that--" Then she saw Mr. Harbison and sat staring +at him. + +"This is Mr. Harbison," I said to her hastily. "He--he came with Anne +and Dal and--he is shut in, too." + +By that time Bella had seen how handsome he was, and she took a hair pin +out of her mouth, and arched her eyebrows, which was always Bella's best +pose. + +"I am Miss Knowles," she said sweetly (of course, the court had given +her back her name), "and I stopped in tonight, thinking the house +was empty, to see about a--a butler. Unfortunately, the house was +quarantined just at that time, and--here I am. Surely there can not be +any harm in helping me to get out?" (Pleading tone.) "I have not been +exposed to any contagion, and in the exhausted state of my health the +confinement would be positively dangerous." + +She rolled her eyes at him, and I could see she was making an +impression. Of course she was free. She had a perfect right to marry +again, but I will say this: Bella is a lot better looking by electric +light than she is the next morning. + +The upshot of it was that the gentleman who built bridges and looked +down on society from a lofty, lonely pinnacle agreed to help one of the +most gleaming members of the aforesaid society to outwit the law. + +It took about fifteen minutes to quiet the policeman. Nobody ever knew +what Mr. Harbison did to him, but for twenty-four hours he was quite +tractable. He changed after that, but that comes later in the story. +Anyhow, the Harbison man went upstairs and came down with a Bagdad +curtain and a cushion to match, and took them into the furnace room, +and came out and locked the door behind him, and then we were ready for +Bella's escape. + +But there were four special officers and three reporters watching the +house, as a result of Max Reed's idiocy. Once, after trying all the +other windows and finding them guarded, we discovered a little bit of a +hole in an out-of-the-way corner that looked like a ventilator and was +covered with a heavy wire screen. No prisoners ever dug their way out of +a dungeon with more energy than that with which we attached that screen, +hacking at it with kitchen knives, whispering like conspirators, being +scratched with the ragged edges of the wire, frozen with the cold air +one minute and boiling with excitement the next. And when the wire was +cut, and Bella had rolled her coat up and thrust it through and was +standing on a chair ready to follow, something outside that had looked +like a barrel moved, and said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that if I were you. +It would be certain to be undignified, and probably it would be +unpleasant--later." + +We coaxed and pleaded and tried to bribe, and that happened, as it +turned out, to be one of the worst things we had to endure. For the +whole conversation came out the next afternoon in the paper, with the +most awful drawings, and the reporter said it was the flashing of the +jewels we wore that first attracted his attention. And that brings me +back to the robbery. + +For when we had crept back to the kitchen, and Bella was fumbling +for her handkerchief to cry into and the Harbison man was trying to +apologize for the language he had used to the reporter, and I was on the +verge of a nervous chill--well, it was then that Bella forgot all about +crying and jumped and held out her arm. + +"My diamond bracelet!" she screeched. "Look, I've lost it." + +Well, we went over every inch of that basement, until I knew every crack +in the flooring, every spot on the cement. And Bella was nasty, and said +that she had never seen that part of the house in such condition, and +that if I had acted like a sane person and put her out, when she had no +business there at all, she would have had her freedom and her bracelet, +and that if we were playing a joke on her (as if we felt like joking!) +we would please give her the bracelet and let her go and die in a +corner; she felt very queer. + +At half-past four o'clock we gave up. + +"It's gone," I said. "I don't believe you wore it here. No one could +have taken it. There wasn't a soul in this part of the house, except the +policeman and he's locked in." + +At five o'clock we put her to sleep in the den. She was in a fearful +temper, and I was glad enough to be able to shut the door on her. Tom +Harbison--that was his name--helped me to creep upstairs, and wanted +to get me a glass of ale to make me sleep. But I said it would be of no +use, as I had to get up and get the breakfast. The last thing he said +was that the policeman seemed above the average in intelligence, and +perhaps we could train him to do plain cooking and dishwashing. + +I did not go to sleep at once. I lay on the chintz-covered divan in +Bella's dressing room and stared at the picture of her with the violets +underneath. I couldn't see what there was about Bella to inspire such +undying devotion, but I had to admit that she had looked handsome that +night, and that the Harbison man had certainly been impressed. + +At seven o'clock Jimmy Wilson pounded at my door, and I could have +choked him joyfully. I dragged myself to the door and opened it, and +then I heard excited voices. Everybody seemed to be up but Aunt Selina, +and they were all talking at once. + +Anne Brown was in the corner of the group, waving her hands, while +Dallas was trying to hook the back of her gown with one hand and hold a +blanket around himself with the other. No one was dressed except Anne, +and she had been up for an hour, looking in shoes and under the corners +of rugs and around the bed clothing for her jeweled collar. When she saw +me she began all over again. + +"I had it on when I went into my room," she declared, "and I put it on +the dressing table when I undressed. I meant to put it under my pillow, +but I forgot. And I didn't sleep well; I was awake half the night. +Wasn't I, Dal? Then, when the clock downstairs in the hall was chiming +five, something roused me, and I sat up in bed. It was still dark, but I +pinched Dal and said there was somebody in the room. You remember that, +don't you, Dal?" + +"I thought you had nightmare," he said sheepishly. + +"I lay still for ages, it seemed to me, and then--the door into the +hall closed. I heard the catch click. I turned on the light over the bed +then, and the room was empty. I thought of my collar, and although it +seemed ridiculous, with the house sealed as it is, and all of us friends +for years--well, I got up and looked, and it was gone!" + +No one spoke for an instant. It WAS a queer situation, for the collar +was gone; Anne's red eyes showed it was true. And there we stood, every +one of us a miserable picture of guilt, and tried to look innocent and +debonair and unsuspicious. Finally Jim held up his hand and signified +that he wanted to say something. + +"It's like this," he said, "until this thing is cleared up, for Heaven's +sake, let's try to be sane! If every fellow thinks the other fellow +did it, this house will be a nice little hell to live in. And if +anybody"--here he glared around--"if anybody has got funny and is hiding +those jewels, I want to say that he'd better speak up now. Later, it +won't be so easy for him. It's a mighty poor joke." + +But nobody spoke. + + + +Chapter VII. WE MAKE AN OMELET + +It was Betty Mercer who said she was hungry, and got us switched from +the delicate subject of which was the thief to the quite as pressing +subject of which was to be cook. Aunt Selina had slept quietly through +the whole thing--we learned afterward that she customarily slept on her +left side, which was on her good ear. We gathered in the Dallas Browns' +room, and Jimmy proposed a plan. + +"We can have anything sent in that we want," he suggested speciously, +"and if Dal doesn't make good with the city fathers, you girls can +get some clothes anyhow. Then, we can have dinner sent from one of the +hotels." + +"Why not all the meals?" Max suggested. "I hope you're not going to be +small about things, Jimmy." + +"It ought to be easy," Jim persisted, ignoring the remark, "for nine +reasonably intelligent people to boil eggs and make coffee, which is all +we need for breakfast, with some fruit." + +"Nine of us!" Dallas said wickedly, looking at Tom Harbison, who was +out of earshot, "Why nine of us? I thought Kit here, otherwise known as +Bella, was going to show off her housewifely skill." + +It ended, however, with Mr. Harbison writing out a lot of slips, cook, +scullery-maid, chamber-maid, parlor-maid, furnace-man, and butler, and +as that left two people over--we didn't count Aunt Selina--he added +another furnace-man and a trained nurse. Betty Mercer drew the trained +nurse slip, and, of course, she was delighted. It seems funny now to +look back and think what a dreadful time she really had, for Aunt Selina +took the grippe, you know, that very day. + +It was fate that I should go back to that awful kitchen, for of course +my slip said "cook." Mr. Harbison was butler, and Max and Dal got the +furnace, although neither of them had ever been nearer to a bucket of +coal than the coupons on mining stock. Anne got the bedrooms, and Leila +was parlor-maid. It was Jimmy who got the scullery work, but he was +quite crushed by this time, and did not protest at all. + +Max was in a very bad temper; I suppose he had not had enough sleep--no +one had. But he came over while the lottery was going on and stood over +me and demanded unpleasantly, in a whisper, that I stop masquerading as +another man's wife and generally making a fool of myself--which is the +way he put it. And I knew in my heart that he was right, and I hated him +for it. + +"Why don't you go and tell him--them?" I asked nastily. No one was +paying any attention to us. "Tell them that, to be obliging, I have +nearly drowned in a sea of lies; tell them that I am not only not +married, but that I never intend to marry; tell them that we are a lot +of idiots with nothing better to do than to trifle with strangers within +our gates, people who build--I mean, people that are worth two to our +one! Run and tell them." + +He looked at me for a minute, then he turned on his heel and left me. It +looked as though Max might be going to be difficult. + +While I was improvising an apron out of a towel, and Anne was pinning a +sheet into a kimono, so she could take off her dinner gown and still be +proper, Dallas harked back to the robbery. + +"Ann put the collar on the table there," he said. "There's no mistake +about that. I watched her do it, for I remember thinking it was the sole +reminder I had that Consolidated Traction ever went above thirty-nine." + +Max was looking around the room, examining the window locks and +whistling between his teeth. He was in disgrace with every one, for by +that time it was light enough to see three reporters with cameras across +the street waiting for enough sun to snap the house, and everybody knew +that it was Max and his idiotic wager that had done it. He had made two +or three conciliatory remarks, but no one would speak to him. His antics +were so queer, however, that we were all watching him, and when he had +felt over the rug with his hands, and raised the edges, and tried to +lift out the chair seats, and had shaken out Dal's shoes (he said people +often hid things and then forgot about it), he made a proposition. + +"If you will take that infernal furnace from around my neck, I'll +undertake either to find the jewels or to show up the thief," he +said quietly. And of course, with all the people in the house under +suspicion, every one had to hail the suggestion with joy, and to offer +his assistance, and Jimmy had to take Max's share of the furnace. So +they took the scullery slip downstairs to the policeman, and gave Jim +Max's share of the furnace. (Yes, I had broken the policeman to them +gently. Of course, Anne said at once that he was the thief, but they +found him tucked in and sound asleep with his back against the furnace.) + +"In the first place," Max said, standing importantly in the middle of +the room, "we retired between two and three--nearer three. So the +theft occurred between three and five, when Anne woke up. Was your door +locked, Dal?" + +"No. The door into the hall was, but the door into the dressing room was +open, and we found the door from there into the hall open this morning." + +"From three until five," Max repeated. "Was any one out of his room +during that time?" + +"I was," said Tom Harbison promptly, from the foot of the bed. "I was +prowling all around somewhere about four, searching"--he glanced at +me--"for a drink of water. But as I don't know a pearl from a glass +bead, I hope you exonerate me." + +Everybody laughed and said, "Of course," and "Sure, old man," and +changed the subject quickly. + +While that excitement was on, I got Jim to one side and told him about +Bella. His good-natured face was radiant at first. + +"I suppose she DID come to see Takahiro, eh, Kit?" he asked delicately. +"She didn't say anything about me?" + +"Nothing good. She said the house was in a disgraceful condition," I +said heartlessly. "And her diamond bracelet was stolen while she took +a nap on the kitchen table"--he groaned--"and--oh, Jim, you are such +a goose! If I could only manage my own affairs the way I could my +friends'! She's too sure of you, Jimmy. She knows you adore her, +and--how brutal could you be, Jim?" + +"Fair," he said. "I may have undiscovered depths of brutality that I +have never had occasion to use. However, I might try. Why?" + +"Listen, Jim," I urged. "It was always Bella who did things here; she +managed the house, she tyrannized over her friends, and she bullied you. +Yes, she did. Now she's here, without your invitation, and she has to +stay. It's your turn to bully, to dictate terms, to be coldly civil or +politely rude. Make her furious at you. If she is jealous, so much the +better." + +"How far would you sacrifice yourself on the altar of friendship?" he +asked. + +"You may pay me all the attention you like, in public," I replied, and +after we shook hands we went together to Bella. + +There was an ominous pause when we went into the den. Bella was sitting +by the register, with her furs on, and after one glance over her +shoulder at us, she looked away again without speaking. + +"Bella," Jim said appealingly. And then I pinched his arm, and he drew +himself up and looked properly outraged. + +"Bella," he said, coldly this time, "I can't imagine why you have put +yourself in this ridiculous position, but since you have--" + +She turned on him in a fury. + +"Put MYSELF in this position!" + +She was frantic. "It's a plot, a wretched trick of yours, this +quarantine, to keep me here." + +Jim gasped, but I gave him a warning glance, and he swallowed hard. + +"On the contrary," he said, with maddening quiet, "I would be the last +person in the world to wish to perpetuate an indiscretion of yours. For +it was hardly discreet, was it, to visit a bachelor establishment alone +at ten o'clock at night? As far as my plotting to keep you here is +concerned, I assure you that nothing could be further from my mind. Our +paths were to be two parallel lines that never touch." He looked at me +for approval, and Bella was choking. + +"You are worse that I ever thought you," she stormed. "I thought you +were only a--a fool. Now I know you--for a brute!" + +Well, it ended by Jim's graciously permitting Bella to remain--there +being nothing else to do--and by his magnanimously agreeing to keep her +real identity from Aunt Selina and Mr. Harbison, and to break the news +of her presence to Anne and the rest. It created a sensation beside +which Anne's pearls faded away, although they came to the front again +soon enough. + +Jim broke the news at once, gathering everybody but Harbison and Aunt +Selina in the upper hall. He was palpitatingly nervous, but he tried to +carry it off with a high hand. + +"It's unfortunate," he said, looking around the circle of faces, each +one frozen with amazement, and just a suspicion, perhaps of incredulity. +"It's particularly unfortunate for her. You all know how high-strung +she is, and if the papers should get hold of it--well, we'll all have to +make it as easy as we can for her." + +With Jim's eyes on them, they all swallowed the butler story without a +gulp. But Anne was indignant. + +"It's like Bella," she snapped. "Well, she has made her bed and she can +lie on it. I'm sure I shan't make it for her. But if you want to know my +opinion, Mr. Harbison may be a fool, but you can't ram two Bellas, both +NEE Knowles, down Miss Caruthers' throat with a stick." + +We had not thought of that before and every one looked blank. Finally, +however, Jim said Bella's middle name was Constantia, and we decided to +call her that. But it turned out afterward that nobody could remember +it in a hurry, and generally when we wanted to attract her attention, we +walked across the room and touched her on the shoulder. It was quicker +and safer. + +The name decided, we went downstairs in a line to welcome Bella, to try +to make her feel at home, and to forget her deplorable situation. Leila +had worked herself into a really sympathetic frame of mind. + +"Poor dear," she said, on the way down. "Now don't grin, anybody, just +be cordial and glad to see her. I hope she doesn't cry; you know the +spells she takes." + +We stopped outside the door, and everybody tried to look cheerful and +sympathetic, and not grinny--which was as hard as looking as if we had +had a cup of tea--and then Jim threw the door open and we filed in. + +Bella was comfortably reading by the fire. She had her feet up on a +stool and a pillow behind her head. She did not even look at us for a +minute; then she merely glanced up as she turned a page. + +"Dear me," she said mockingly, "what a lot of frumps you all are! I had +hoped it was some one with my breakfast." + +Then she went on reading. As Leila said afterward, that kind of person +OUGHT to be divorced. + +Aunt Selina came down just then and I left everybody trying to explain +Bella's presence to her, and fled to the kitchen. The Harbison man +appeared while I was sitting hopelessly in front of the gas range, and +showed me about it. + +"I don't know that I ever saw one," he said cheerfully, "but I know the +theory. Likewise, by the same token, this tea kettle, set on the flame, +will boil. That is not theory, however, that is early knowledge. 'Polly, +put the kettle on; we'll all take tea.' Look at that, Mrs. Wilson. I +didn't fight bacilli with boiled water at Chickamauga for nothing." + +And then he let out the policeman and brought him into the kitchen. He +was a large man, and his face was a curious mixture of amazement, alarm +and dignity. No doubt we did look queer, still in parts of our evening +clothes and I in the white silk and lace petticoat that belonged under +my gown, with a yellow and black pajama coat of Jimmy's as a sort of +breakfast jacket. + +"This is Officer Flannigan," Mr. Harbison said. "I explained our +unfortunate position earlier in the morning, and he is prepared to +accept our hospitality. Flannigan, every person in this house has got +to work, as I also explained to you. You are appointed dishwasher and +scullery maid." + +The policeman looked dazed. Then, slowly, like dawn over a sleeping +lake, a light of comprehension grew in his face. + +"Sure," he said, laying his helmet on the table. "I'll be glad to be +doing anything I can to help. Me and Mrs. Wilson--we used to be friends. +It's many the time I've opened the carriage door for her, and she with +her head in the air, and for all that, the pleasant smile. When any one +around her was having a party and wanted a special officer, it was Mrs. +Wilson that always said, Get Flannigan, Officer Timothy Flannigan. He's +your man.'" + +My heart had been going lower and lower. So he knew Bella, and he knew I +was not Bella, although he had not grasped the fact that I was usurping +her place. The odious Harbison man sat on the table and swung his feet. + +"I wonder if you know," he said, looking around him, "how good it is +to see a white woman so perfectly at home in a civilized kitchen again, +after two years of food cooked by a filthy Indian squaw over a portable +sheet-iron stove!" + +SO PERFECTLY AT HOME? I stood in the middle of the room and stared +around at the copper things hanging up and the rows of blue and white +crockery, and the dozens and hundreds of complicated-looking utensils, +whose names I had never even heard, and I was dazed. I tried with some +show of authority to instruct Flannigan about gathering up the soiled +things, and, after listening in puzzled silence for a minute, he +stripped off his blue coat with a tolerant smile. + +"Lave em to me, miss," he said. The "miss" passed unnoticed. "I mayn't +give em a Turkish bath, which is what you are describin', but I'll get +the grease off all right. I always clean up while the missus is in bed +with a young un." + +He rolled up his sleeves, found a brown checked gingham apron behind +the door, and tied it around his neck with the ease of practice. Then +he cleared off the plates, eating what appealed to him as he did so, and +stopping now and again for a deep-throated chuckle. + +"I'm thinkin'," he said once, stopping with a dish in the air, "what a +deuce of a noise there will be when the vaccination doctor comes around +this mornin'. In a week every one of us will be nursin' a sore arm or +walkin' on one leg, beggin' your pardon, miss. The last time the force +was vaccinated, I asked to be done behind me ear; I needed me legs and I +needed me arms, but didn't need me head much!" + +He threw his head back and laughed. Mr. Harbison laughed. Oh, we were +very cheerful! And that awful stove stared at me, and the kettle began +to hum, and Aunt Selina sent down word that she was not well, and would +like some omelet on her tray. Omelet! + +I knew that it was made of eggs, but that was the extent of my +knowledge. I muttered an excuse and ran upstairs to Anne, but she was +still sniffling over her necklace, and said she didn't know anything +about omelets and didn't care. Food would choke her. Neither of the +Mercer girls knew either, and Bella, who was still reading in the den, +absolutely declined to help. + +"I don't know, and I wouldn't tell you if I did. You can get yourself +out, as you got yourself in," she said nastily. "The simplest thing, if +you don't mind my suggesting it, is to poison the coffee and kill the +lot of us. Only, if you decide to do it, let me know; I want to live +just long enough to see Jimmy Wilson WRITHE!" + +Bella is the kind of person who gets on one's nerves. She finds a +grievance and hugs it; she does ridiculous things and blames other +people. And she flirts. + +I went downstairs despondently, and found that Mr. Harbison had +discovered some eggs and was standing helplessly staring at them. + +"Omelet--eggs. Eggs--omelet. That's the extent of my knowledge," he +said, when I entered. "You'll have to come to my assistance." + +It was then that I saw the cook book. It was lying on a shelf beside the +clock, and while Mr. Harbison had his back turned I got it down. It was +quite clear that the domestic type of woman was his ideal, and I did +not care to outrage his belief in me. So I took the cook book into the +pantry and read the recipe over three times. When I came back I knew it +by heart, although I did not understand it. + +"I will tell you how," I said with a great deal of dignity, "and since +you want to help, you may make it yourself." + +He was delighted. + +"Fine!" he said. "Suppose you give me the idea first. Then we'll go over +it slowly, bit by bit. We'll make a big fluffy omelet, and if the others +aren't around, we'll eat it ourselves." + +"Well," I said, trying to remember exactly, "you take two eggs--" + +"Two!" he repeated. "Two eggs for ten people!" + +"Don't interrupt me," I said irritably. "If--if two isn't enough we can +make several omelets, one after the other." + +He looked at me with admiration. + +"Who else but you would have thought of that!" he remarked. "Well, here +are two eggs. What next?" + +"Separate them," I said easily. No, I didn't know what it meant. I hoped +he would; I said it as casually as I could, and I did not look at him. I +knew he was staring at me, puzzled. + +"Separate them!" he said. "Why, they aren't fastened together!" Then he +laughed. "Oh, yes, of course!" When I looked he had put one at each end +of the table. "Afraid they'll quarrel, I suppose," he said. "Well, now +they're separated." + +"Then beat." + +"First separate, then beat!" he repeated. "The author of that cook book +must have had a mean disposition. What's next? Hang them?" He looked up +at me with his boyish smile. + +"Separate and beat," I repeated. If I lost a word of that recipe I was +gone. It was like saying the alphabet; I had to go to the beginning +every time mentally. + +"Well," he reflected, "you can't beat an egg, no matter how cruel you +may be, unless you break it first." He picked up an egg and looked at +it. "Separate!" he reflected. "Ah--the white from the--whatever you +cooking experts call it--the yellow part." + +"Exactly!" I exclaimed, light breaking on me. "Of course. I KNEW you +would find it out." Then back to the recipe--"beat until well mixed; +then fold in the whites." + +"Fold?" he questioned. "It looks pretty thin to fold, doesn't it? +I--upon my word, I never heard of folding an egg. Are you--but of course +you know. Please come and show me how." + +"Just fold them in," I said desperately. "It isn't difficult." And +because I was so transparent a fraud and knew he must find me out then, +I said something about butter, and went into the pantry. That's the +trouble with a lie; somebody asks you to tell one as a favor to somebody +else, and the first thing you know, you are having to tell a thousand, +and trying to remember the ones you have told so you won't contradict +yourself, and the very person you have tried to help turns on you and +reproaches you for being untruthful! I leaned my elbows despondently +on the shelf of the kitchen pantry, with the feet of a guard visible +through the high window over my head, and waited for Mr. Harbison to +come in and demand that I fold a raw egg, and discover that I didn't +know anything about cooking, and was just as useless as all the others. + +He came. He held the bowl out to me and waved a fork in triumph. + +"I have solved it," he said. "Or, rather, Flannigan and I have solved +it. The mixture awaits the magic touch of the cook." + +I honestly thought I could do the rest. It was only to be put in a pan +and browned, and then in the oven three minutes. And I did it properly, +but for two things: I should have greased the pan (but this was the +book's fault; it didn't say) and I should have lighted the oven. The +latter, however, was Mr. Harbison's fault as much as mine, and I had wit +enough to lay it to absent-mindedness on the part of both of us. + +After that, Aunt Selina or no Aunt Selina, we decided to have boiled +eggs, and Mr. Harbison knew how to cook them. He put them in the +tea kettle and then went to look at the furnace. And Officer Timothy +Flannigan ground the coffee and gave his opinion of the board of health +in no stinted terms. As for me, I burned my fingers and the toast, and +felt myself growing hot and cold, for I was going to be found out as +soon as Flannigan grasped the situation. + +Then, of course, I did the thing that caused me so much trouble later. +I put down the toaster--at least the Harbison man said it was a +toaster--and went over and stood in front of the policeman. + +"I don't suppose you will understand--exactly," I said, "but--but if +anything occurs to--to make you think I am not--that things are not what +they seem to be--I mean, what I say they are--you will understand that +it is a joke, won't you? A joke, you know." + +Yes, that was what I said. I know it sounds like a raving delirium, +but when Max came down and squizzled some bacon, as he said, and told +Flannigan about the robbery, and how, whether it was a joke or deadly +earnest, somebody in the house had taken Anne's pearls, that wretched +policeman winked at me solemnly over Max's shoulder. Oh, it was awful! + +And, to add to my discomfort, the most unpleasant ideas WOULD obtrude +themselves. WHAT was Mr. Harbison doing on the first floor of the house +that night? Ice water, he had said. But there had been plenty of water +in the studio! And he had told me it was the furnace. + +Mr. Harbison came back in a half hour, and I remembered the eggs. We +fished them out of the tea kettle, and they were perfectly hard, but we +ate them. + +The doctor from the board of health came that morning and vaccinated us. +There was a great deal of excitement, and Aunt Selina was done on the +arm. As she did not affect evening clothes this was entirely natural, +but later on in the week, when the wretched things began to take, nobody +dared to limp, and Leila made a terrible break by wearing a bandage on +her left arm, after telling Aunt Selina that she had been vaccinated on +the right. + + + +Chapter VIII. CORRESPONDENTS' DEPARTMENT + +The following letters were found in the house post box after the lifting +of the quarantine, and later were presented to me by their writers, +bound in white kid (the letters, not the authors, of course). + +FROM THOMAS HARBISON, LATE ENGINEER OF BRIDGES, PERUVIAN TRUNK LINES, +SOUTH AMERICA, TO HENRY LLEWELLYN, CARE OF UNION NITRATE COMPANY, +IQUIQUE, CHILI. + +Dear Old Man: + +I think I was fully a week trying to drive out of my mind my last +glimpse of you with your sickly grin, pretending to be tickled to pieces +that the only white man within two hundred miles of your shack was +going on a holiday. You old bluffer! I used to hang over the rail of the +steamer, on the way up, and see you standing as I left you beside the +car with its mule and the Indian driver, and behind you a million miles +of soul-destroying pampa. Never mind, Jack; I sent yesterday by mail +steamer the cigarettes, pipes and tobacco, canned goods and poker +chips. Put in some magazines, too, and the collars. Don't know about the +ties--guess it won't matter down there. + +Nothing happened on the trip. One of the engines broke down three days +out, and I spent all my time below decks for forty-eight hours. Chief +engineer raving with D.T.'s. Got the engine fixed in record time, and +haven't got my hands clean yet. It was bully. + +With this I send the papers, which will tell you how I happen to be +here, and why I have leisure to write you three days after landing. If +the situation were not so ridiculous, it would be maddening. Here I +am, off for a holiday and congratulating myself that I am foot free and +heart free--yes, my friend, heart free--here I am, shut in the house +of a man I never saw until last night, and wouldn't care if I never +saw again, with a lot of people who never heard of me, who are almost +equally vague about South America, who play as hard at bridge as I ever +worked at building one (forgive this, won't you? The novelty has gone +to my head), and who belong to the very class of extravagant, +luxury-loving, non-producing parasites (isn't that what we called them?) +that you and I used to revile from our lofty Andean pinnacle. + +To come down to earth: here we are, six women and five men, including +a policeman, not a servant in the house, and no one who knows how to do +anything. They are really immensely interesting, these people; they +all know each other very well, and it is "Jimmy" here, and "Dal" +there--Dallas Brown, who went to India with me, you remember my speaking +of him--and they are good natured, too, except at meal times. The little +hostess, Mrs. Wilson, took over the cooking, and although luncheon was +better than breakfast, the food still leaves much to the imagination. + +I wish you could see this Mrs. Wilson, Hal. You would change a whole lot +of your ideas. She is a thoroughbred, sure enough, and of course some +of her beauty is the result of the exquisite care about which you and +I--still from our Andean pinnacle--used to rant. But the fact is, she is +more than that. She has fire, and pluck, no end. If you could have seen +her this morning, standing in front of a cold kitchen range, determined +to conquer it, and had seen the tilt of her chin when I offered to take +over the cooking--you needn't grin; I can cook, and you know it--you +would understand what I mean. It was so clear that she was paralyzed +with fright at the idea of getting breakfast, and equally clear that +she meant to do it. By the way, I have learned that her name was McNair +before she married this would-be artist, Wilson, and that she is a +daughter of the McNair who financed the Callao branch! + +I have not met the others so intimately. There are two sisters named +Mercer, inclined to be noisy--they are playing roulette in the next +room now. One is small and dark, almost Hebraic in type, named Leila and +called Lollie. The other, larger, very blonde and languishing, and with +a decided preference for masculine society, even, saving the mark, +mine! Dallas Brown's wife, good looking, smokes cigarettes when I am not +around--they all do, except Mrs. Wilson. + +Then there is a maiden aunt, who is ill today with grippe and +excitement, and a Miss Knowles, who came for a moment last night to +see Mrs. Wilson, was caught in the quarantine (see papers), and, after +hiding all night in the basement, is sulking all day in her room. Her +presence created an excitement out of all proportion to the apparent +cause. + +From the fact that I have reason to know that my artist host and his +beautiful wife are on bad terms, and from the significant glances with +which the announcement of Miss Knowles' presence was met, the state of +affairs seems rather clear. Wilson impresses me as a spineless sort, +anyhow, and when the lady of the basement shut herself away from the +rest today and I happened on "Jimmy," as they call him, pleading with +her through the door, I very nearly kicked him down the stairs. Oh, yes, +I'll keep out, right enough; it isn't my affair. + +By the way, after the quarantine and with the policeman locked in the +furnace room, a pearl necklace and a diamond bracelet were stolen! Just +ten of us to divide the suspicion! Upon my word, Hal, it's the queerest +situation I ever heard of. Which of us did it? I make a guess that not +a few of us are fools, but which is the knave? The worst of it is, I am +the only unaccredited member of the household! + +This is more scandal than I ever wrote in my life. Lay it to +circumscribed environment, and the lack of twenty miles over the +pampa before breakfast. We have all been vaccinated, and the officious +gentlemen from the board of health have taken their grins and their +formaldehyde and gone. Ye gods, how we cough! + +The Carlton order will go through all right, I think. Phoned him this +morning. If it does, old man, we will take a month in September and +explore the Mercator property. + +Do you know, Hal, I have been thinking lately that you and I stick too +close to the grind. Business is right enough, but what's the use of +spending one's best years succeeding in everything except the things +that are worth while? I'll be thirty sooner than I care to say, and--oh, +well, you won't understand. You'll sit down there, with the Southern +Cross and the rest of the infernal astronomical galaxy looking down on +you, and the Indians chanting in the village, and you will think I have +grown sentimental. I have not. You and I down there have been looking at +the world through the reverse end of the glass. It's a bully old world, +Hal, and this is God's part of it. + +Burn this letter after you read it; I suspect it is covered with germs. +Well, happy days, old man. + +Yours, Tom + +P.S. By the way, can't you spare some of the Indian pottery you picked +up at Callao? I told Mrs. Wilson about it, and she was immensely +interested. Send it to this address. Can you get it to the next +steamer?--T. + +FROM MAXWELL REED TO RICHARD BURTON BAGLEY, UNIVERSITY CLUB, NEW YORK. + +Dear Dick: + +Enclosed find my check for five hundred, as per wager. Possibly you were +within your rights in protecting your bet in the manner you chose, but +while I do not wish to be offensive, your reporters are damnably so. + +Yours, Maxwell Reed + +FROM OFFICER FLANNIGAN TO MRS. MAGGIE FLANNIGAN, ERIN STREET. + +Dear Maggie: + +As soon as you receive this, go down to Mac and tell him the story as I +tell you hear. Tell him I was walkin my beat, and I'd been afther seein +Jimmy Alverini about doin the right thing for Mac on Monday, at the +poles, when I seen a man hangin suspicious around this house, which is +Mr. Wilson's, on Ninety-fifth. And, of coorse, afther chasin the man a +mile or more, I lose him, which was not my fault. So I go back to the +Wilson house, and tell them to be careful about closin up fer the +night, and while I'm standin in the hall, with all the swells around me, +sparklin with jewels, the board of health sends a man to lock us all in, +because the Jap thats been waiter has took the smallpox and gone to the +hospitle. I stood me ground. I sez, sez I, you cant shtop an officer in +pursute of his duty. I rafuse to be shut in. Be shure to tell Mac that. + +So here I am, and like to be for a month. Tell Mac theres four votes +shut up here, and I can get them for him, if he can stop this monkey +business. + +Then go over to the Dago Church on Webster Avenue and put a dollar in +Saint Anthony's box. He'll see me out of this scrape, right enough. Do +it at once. Now remember, go to Mac first; maybe you can get the dollar +from him, and mind what you tell him. + +Your husband, Tim Flannigan + +FROM ME TO MOTHER--MRS. THEODORE McNAIR, HOTEL HAMILTON, BERMUDA. + +Dearest Mother: + +I hope you will get this before you read the papers, and when you DO +read them, you are not to get excited and worried. I am as well as can +be, and a great deal safer than I ever remember to have been in my life. +We are quarantined, a lot of us, in Jim Wilson's house, because his +irreproachable Jap did a very reproachable thing--took smallpox. Now +read on before you get excited. HIS ROOM HAS BEEN FUMIGATED, and we have +been vaccinated. I am well and happy. I can't be killed in a railway +wreck or smashed when the car skids. Unless I drown myself in my bath, +or jump through a window, positively nothing can happen to me. So gather +up all your maternal anxieties and cast them to the Bermuda sharks. + +Anne Brown is here--see the papers for list--and if she can not play +propriety, Jimmy's Aunt Selina can. In fact, she doesn't play at it; she +works. I have telephoned Lizette for some clothes--enough for a couple +of weeks, although Dallas promises to get us out sooner. Now, dear, do +go ahead and have a nice time, and on no account come home. You could +only have the carriage to stop in front of the house, and wave to me +through a window. + +Mother, I want you to do something for me. You know who is down there, +and--this is awfully delicate, Mumsy--but he's a nice boy, and I thought +I liked him. I guess you know he has been rather attentive. Now, I +DO like him, Mumsy, but not the way I thought I did, and I want you +to--very gently, of course--to discourage him a little. You know how +I mean. He's a dear boy, but I am so tired of people who don't know +anything but horses and motors. + +And, oh, yes,--do you remember a girl named Lucille Mellon who was at +school with you in Rome? And that she married a man named Harbison? +Well, her son is here! He builds railroads and bridges and things, and +he even built himself an automobile down in South America, because he +couldn't afford to buy one, and burned wood in it! Wood! Think of it! + +I wired father in Chicago for fear he would come rushing home. The +picture in the paper of the face at the basement window is supposed to +be Mr. Harbison, but of course it isn't any more like him than mine is +like me. + +Anne Brown mislaid her pearl collar when she took it off last night, +and has fussed herself into a sick headache. She declares it was stolen! +Some of the people are playing bridge, Betty Mercer is doing a cake +walk to the RHAPSODIE HONGROISE--Jim has no every-day music--and +the telephone is ringing. We have received enough flowers for a +funeral--somebody sent Lollie a Gates Ajar, only with the gates shut. + +There are no servants--think of it, Mumsy. I wish you had made me learn +to cook. Mr. Harbison has shown me a little--he was a soldier in the +Spanish War--but we girls are a terribly ignorant lot, Mumsy, about the +real things of life. + +Now, don't worry. It is more sport than camping in the Adirondacks, and +not nearly so damp. + +Your loving daughter, Katherine. + +P.S.--South America must be wonderful. Why can't we put the Gadfly in +commission, and take a coasting trip this summer? It is a shame to own a +yacht and never use it. K. + +THIS NOTE, EVIDENTLY DELIVERED BY MESSENGER, WAS FOUND AMONG OTHER +LITTER IN THE VESTIBULE AFTER THE LIFTING OF THE QUARANTINE. + +Mr. Alex Dodds, City Editor, Mail and Star: + +Dear D.--Can't get a picture. Have waited seven hours. They have closed +the shutters. + +McCord. + +WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE ABOVE NOTE. + +Watch the roof. + +Dodds. + + + +Chapter IX. FLANNIGAN'S FIND + +The most charitable thing would be to say nothing about the first day. +We were baldly brutal--that's the only word for it. And Mr. Harbison, +with his beautiful courtesy--the really sincere kind--tried to patch up +one quarrel after another and failed. He rose superbly to the occasion, +and made something that he called a South American goulash for luncheon, +although it was too salty, and every one was thirsty the rest of the +day. + +Bella was horrid, of course. She froze Jim until he said he was going to +sit in the refrigerator and cool the butter. She locked herself in the +dressing room--it had been assigned to me, but that made no difference +to Bella--and did her nails, and took three different baths, and refused +to come to the table. And of course Jimmy was wild, and said she would +starve. But I said, "Very well, let her starve. Not a tray shall leave +my kitchen." It was a comfort to have her shut up there anyhow; it +postponed the time when she would come face to face with Flannigan. + +Aunt Selina got sick that day, as I have said. I was not so bitter as +the others; I did not say that I wished she would die. The worst I ever +wished her was that she might be quite ill for some time, and yet, when +she began to recover, she was dreadful to me. She said for one thing, +that it was the hard-boiled eggs and the state of the house that did +it, and when I said that the grippe was a germ, she retorted that I had +probably brought it to her on my clothing. + +You remember that Betty had drawn the nurse's slip, and how pleased she +had been about it. She got up early the morning of the first day +and made herself a lawn cap and telephoned out for a white nurse's +uniform--that is, of course, for a white uniform for a nurse. She really +looked very fetching, and she went around all the morning with a red +cross on her sleeve and a Saint Cecilia expression, gathering up bottles +of medicine--most of it flesh reducer, which was pathetic, and closing +windows for fear of drafts. She refused to help with the house work, and +looked quite exalted, but by afternoon it had palled on her somewhat, +and she and Max shook dice. + +Betty was really pleased when Aunt Selina sent for her. She took in a +bottle of cologne to bathe her brow, and we all stood outside the door +and listened. Betty tiptoed in in her pretty cap and apron, and we heard +her cautiously draw down the shades. + +"What are you doing that for?" Aunt Selina demanded. "I like the light." + +"It's bad for your poor eyes," Betty's tone was exactly the proper +bedside pitch, low and sugary. + +"Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea!" Dal hummed +outside. + +"Put up those window shades!" Aunt Selina's voice was strong enough. +"What's in that bottle?" + +Betty was still mild. She swished to the window and raised the shade. + +"I'm SO sorry you are ill," she said sympathetically. "This is for your +poor aching head. Now close your eyes and lie perfectly still, and I +will cool your forehead." + +"There's nothing the matter with my head," Aunt Selina retorted. "And +I have not lost my faculties; I am not a child or a sick cow. If that's +perfumery, take it out." + +We heard Betty coming to the door, but there was no time to get away. +She had dropped her mask for a minute and was biting her lip, but when +she saw us she forced a smile. + +"She's ill, poor dear," she said. "If you people will go away, I can +bring her around all right. In two hours she will eat out of my hand." + +"Eat a piece out of your hand," Max scoffed in a whisper. + +We waited a little longer, but it was too painful. Aunt Selina demanded +a mustard foot bath and a hot lemonade and her back rubbed with liniment +and some strong black tea. And in the intervals she wanted to be read +to out of the prayer book. And when we had all gone away, there came the +most terrible noise from Aunt Selina's room, and every one ran. We found +Betty in the hall outside the door, crying, with her fingers in her ears +and her cap over her eye. She said she had been putting the hot water +bottle to Aunt Selina's back, and it had been too hot. Just then +something hit against the door with a soft thud, fell to the floor and +burst, for a trickle of hot water came over the sill. + +"She won't let me hold her hand," Betty wailed, "or bathe her brow, or +smooth her pillow. She thinks of nothing but her stomach or her back! +And when I try to make her bed look decent, she spits at me like a cat. +Everything I do is wrong. She spilled the foot bath into her shoes, and +blamed me for it." + +It took the united efforts of all of us--except Bella, who stood back +and smiled nastily--to get Betty back into the sick room again. I was +supremely thankful by that time that I had not drawn the nurse's slip. +With dinner ordered in from one of the clubs, and the omelet ten hours +behind me, my position did not seem so unbearable. But a new development +was coming. + +While Betty was fussing with Aunt Selina, Max led a search of the house. +He said the necklace and the bracelet must be hidden somewhere, and that +no crevice was too small to neglect. + +We made a formal search all together, except Betty and Aunt Selina, +and we found a lot of things in different places that Jim said had been +missing since the year one. But no jewels--nothing even suggesting a +jewel was found. We had explored the entire house, every cupboard, +every chest, even the insides of the couches and the pockets of Jim's +clothes--which he resented bitterly--and found nothing, and I must +say the situation was growing rather strained. Some one had taken the +jewels; they hadn't walked away. + +It was Flannigan who suggested the roof, and as we had tried every place +else, we climbed there. Of course we didn't find anything, but after all +day in the house with the shutters closed on account of reporters, the +air was glorious. It was February, but quite mild and sunny, and we +could look down over Riverside Drive and the Hudson, and even recognize +people we knew on horseback and in cars. It was a pathetic joy, and we +lined up along the parapet and watched the motor boats racing on the +river, and tried to feel that we were in the world as well as of it, but +it was very hard. + +Betty had been making tea for Aunt Selina, and of course when she heard +us up there, she followed, tray and all, and we drank Aunt Selina's tea +and had the first really nice time of the day. Bella had come up, too, +but she was still standoffish and queer, and she stood leaning against a +chimney and staring out over the river. After a little Mr. Harbison put +down his cup and went over to her, and they talked quite confidentially +for a long time. I thought it bad taste in Bella, under the +circumstances, after snubbing Dallas and Max, and of course treating Jim +like the dirt under her feet, to turn right around and be lovely to Mr. +Harbison. It was hard for Jim. + +Max came and sat beside me, and Flannigan, who had been sent down for +more cups, passed tea, putting the tray on top of the chimney. Jim was +sitting grumpily on the roof, with his feet folded under him, playing +Canfield in the shadow of the parapet, buying the deck out of one pocket +and putting his winnings in the other. He was watching Bella, too, and +she knew it, and she strained a point to captivate Mr. Harbison. Any one +could see that. + +And that was the picture that came out in the next morning's papers, +tea cups, cards and all. For when some one looked up, there were four +newspaper photographers on the roof of the next house, and they had the +impertinence to thank us! + +Flannigan had seen Bella by that time, but as he still didn't understand +the situation, things were just the same. But his manner to me puzzled +me; whenever he came near me he winked prodigiously, and during all the +search he kept one eye on me, and seemed to be amused about something. + +When the rest had gone down to dress for dinner, which was being sent +in, thank goodness, I still sat on the parapet and watched the darkening +river. I felt terribly lonely, all at once, and sad. There wasn't any +one any nearer than father, in the West, or mother in Bermuda, who +really cared a rap whether I sat on that parapet all night or not, +or who would be sorry if I leaped to the dirty bricks of the next +door-yard--not that I meant to, of course. + +The lights came out across the river, and made purple and yellow streaks +on the water, and one of the motor boats came panting back to the yacht +club, coughing and gasping as if it had overdone. Down on the street +automobiles were starting and stopping, cabs rolling, doors slamming, +all the maddening, delightful bustle of people who are foot-free to +dine out, to dance, to go to the theater, to do any of the thousand +possibilities of a long February evening. And above them I sat on the +roof and cried. Yes, cried. + +I was roused by some one coughing just behind me, and I tried to +straighten my face before I turned. It was Flannigan, his double row of +brass buttons gleaming in the twilight. + +"Excuse me, miss," he said affably, "but the boy from the hotel has left +the dinner on the doorstep and run, the cowardly little divil! What'll +I do with it? I went to Mrs. Wilson, but she says it's no concern of +hers." Flannigan was evidently bewildered. + +"You'd better keep it warm, Flannigan," I replied. "You needn't wait; +I'm coming." But he did not go. + +"If--if you'll excuse me, miss," he said, "don't you think ye'd betther +tell them?" + +"Tell them what?" + +"The whole thing--the joke," he said confidentially, coming closer. +"It's been great sport, now, hasn't it? But I'm afraid they will get on +to it soon, and--some of them might not be agreeable. A pearl necklace +is a pearl necklace, miss, and the lady's wild." + +"What do you mean?" I gasped. "You don't think--why, Flannigan--" + +He merely grinned at me and thrust his hand down in his pocket. When +he brought it up he had Bella's bracelet on his palm, glittering in the +faint light. + +"Where did you get it?" Between relief and the absurdity of the thing, +I was almost hysterical. But Flannigan did not give me the bracelet; +instead, it struck me his tone was suddenly severe. + +"Now look here, miss," he said; "you've played your trick, and you've +had your fun. The Lord knows it's only folks like you would play April +fool jokes with a fortune! If you're the sinsible little woman you look +to be, you'll put that pearl collar on the coal in the basement tonight, +and let me find it." + +"I haven't got the pearl collar," I protested. "I think you are crazy. +Where did you get that bracelet?" + +He edged away from me, as if he expected me to snatch it from him and +run, but he was still trying in an elephantine way to treat the matter +as a joke. + +"I found it in a drawer in the pantry," he said, "among the dirty linen. +And if you're as smart as I think you are, I'll find the pearl collar +there in the morning--and nothing said, miss." + +So there I was, suspected of being responsible for Anne's pearl collar, +as if I had not enough to worry me before. Of course I could have called +them all together and told them, and made them explain to Flannigan what +I had really meant by my delirious speech in the kitchen. But that +would have meant telling the whole ridiculous story to Mr. Harbison, and +having him think us all mad, and me a fool. + +In all that overcrowded house there was only one place where I could be +miserable with comfort. So I stayed on the roof, and cried a little +and then became angry and walked up and down, and clenched my hands +and babbled helplessly. The boats on the river were yellow, horizontal +streaks through my tears, and an early searchlight sent its shaft like +a tangible thing in the darkness, just over my head. Then, finally, +I curled down in a corner with my arms on the parapet, and the lights +became more and more prismatic and finally formed themselves into a +circle that was Bella's bracelet, and that kept whirling around and +around on something flat and not over-clean, that was Flannigan's palm. + + + +Chapter X. ON THE STAIRS + +I was roused by someone walking across the roof, the cracking of tin +under feet, and a comfortable and companionable odor of tobacco. I +moved a very little, and then I saw that it was a man--the height and +erectness told me which man. And just at that instant he saw me. + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated, and throwing his cigar away he came across +quickly. "Why, Mrs. Wilson, what in the world are you doing here? I +thought--they said--" + +"That I was sulking again?" I finished disagreeably. "Perhaps I am. In +fact, I'm quite sure of it." + +"You are not," he said severely. "You have been asleep in a February +night, in the open air, with less clothing on than I wear in the +tropics." + +I had got up by this time, refusing his help, and because my feet were +numb, I sat down on the parapet for a moment. Oh, I knew what I looked +like--one of those "Valley-of-the-Nile-After-a-Flood" pictures. + +"There is one thing about you that is comforting," I sniffed. "You said +precisely the same thing to me at three o'clock this morning. You never +startle me by saying anything unexpected." + +He took a step toward me, and even in the dusk I could see that he was +looking down at me oddly. All my bravado faded away and there was a +queerish ringing in my ears. + +"I would like to!" he said tensely. "I would like, this minute--I'm +a fool, Mrs. Wilson," he finished miserably. "I ought to be drawn and +quartered, but when I see you like this I--I get crazy. If you say the +word, I'll--I'll go down and--" He clenched his fist. + +It was reprehensible, of course; he saw that in an instant, for he shut +his teeth over something that sounded very fierce, and strode away from +me, to stand looking out over the river, with his hands thrust in his +pockets. Of course the thing I should have done was to ignore what he +had said altogether, but he was so uncomfortable, so chastened, that, +feline, feminine, whatever the instinct is, I could not let him go. I +had been so wretched myself. + +"What is it you would like to say?" I called over to him. He did not +speak. "Would you tell me that I am a silly child for pouting?" No +reply; he struck a match. "Or would you preach a nice little sermon +about people--about women--loving their husbands?" + +He grunted savagely under his breath. + +"Be quite honest," I pursued relentlessly. "Say that we are a lot +of barbarians, say that because my--because Jimmy treats me +outrageously--oh, he does; any one can see that--and because I loathe +him--and any one can tell that--why don't you say you are shocked to +the depths?" I was a little shocked myself by that time, but I couldn't +stop, having started. + +He came over to me, white-faced and towering, and he had the audacity +to grip my arm and stand me on my feet, like a bad child--which I was, I +dare say. + +"Don't!" he said in a husky, very pained voice. "You are only talking; +you don't mean it. It isn't YOU. You know you care, or else why are you +crying up here? And don't do it again, DON'T DO IT AGAIN--or I will--" + +"You will--what?" + +"Make a fool of myself, as I have now," he finished grimly. And then he +stalked away and left me there alone, completely bewildered, to find my +way down in the dark. + +I groped along, holding to the rail, for the staircase to the roof was +very steep, and I went slowly. Half-way down the stairs there was a +tiny landing, and I stopped. I could have sworn I heard Mr. Harbison's +footsteps far below, growing fainter. I even smiled a little, there in +the dark, although I had been rather profoundly shaken. The next instant +I knew I had been wrong; some one was on the landing with me. I could +hear short, sharp breathing, and then-- + +I am not sure that I struggled; in fact, I don't believe I did--I was +too limp with amazement. The creature, to have lain in wait for me like +that! And he was brutally strong; he caught me to him fiercely, and held +me there, close, and he kissed me--not once or twice, but half a dozen +times, long kisses that filled me with hot shame for him, for myself, +that I had--liked him. The roughness of his coat bruised my cheek; I +loathed him. And then someone came whistling along the hall below, and +he pushed me from him and stood listening, breathing in long, gasping +breaths. + +I ran; when my shaky knees would hold me, I ran. I wanted to hide my hot +face, my disgust, my disillusion; I wanted to put my head in mother's +lap and cry; I wanted to die, or be ill, so I need never see him again. +Perversely enough, I did none of those things. With my face still +flaming, with burning eyes and hands that shook, I made a belated +evening toilet and went slowly, haughtily, down the stairs. My hands +were like ice, but I was consumed with rage. Oh, I would show him--that +this was New York, not Iquique; that the roof was not his Andean +tableland. + +Every one elaborately ignored my absence from dinner. The Dallas Browns, +Max and Lollie were at bridge; Jim was alone in the den, walking the +floor and biting at an unlighted cigar; Betty had returned to Aunt +Selina and was hysterical, they said, and Flannigan was in deep +dejection because I had missed my dinner. + +"Betty is making no end of a row," Max said, looking up from his game, +"because the old lady upstairs insists on chloroform liniment. Betty +says the smell makes her ill." + +"And she can inhale Russian cigarettes," Anne said enviously, "and +gasolene fumes, without turning a hair. I call a revoke, Dal; you +trumped spades on the second round." + +Dal flung over three tricks with very bad grace, and Anne counted them +with maddening deliberation. + +"Game and rubber," she said. "Watch Dal, Max; he will cheat in the score +if he can. Kit, don't have another clam while I am in this house. I have +eaten so many lately my waist rises and falls with the tide." + +"You have a stunning color, Kit," Lollie said. "You are really quite +superb. Who made that gown?" + +"Where have you been hiding, du kleine?" Max whispered, under cover of +showing me the evening paper, with a photograph of the house and a cross +at the cellar window where we had tried to escape. "If one day in the +house with you, Kit, puts me in this condition, what will a month do?" + +From beyond the curtain of a sort of alcove, lighted with a red-shaded +lamp, came a hum of conversation, Bella's cool, even tones, and a heavy +masculine voice. They were laughing; I could feel my chin go up. He was +not even hiding his shame. + +"Max," I asked, while the others clamored for him and the game, "has any +one been up through the house since dinner? Any of the men?" + +He looked at me curiously. + +"Only Harbison," he replied promptly. "Jim has been eating his heart +out in the den every since dinner; Dal played the Sonata Appasionata +backward on the pianola--he wanted to put through one of Anne's lingerie +waists, on a wager that it would play a tune; I played craps with +Lollie, and Flannigan has been washing dishes. Why?" + +Well, that was conclusive, anyhow. I had had a faint hope that it might +have been a joke, although it had borne all the evidences of sincerity, +certainly. But it was past doubting now; he had lain in wait for me at +the landing, and had kissed me, ME, when he thought I was Jimmy's wife. +Oh, I must have been very light, very contemptible, if that was what he +thought of me! + +I went into the library and got a book, but it was impossible to read, +with Jimmy lying on the couch giving vent to something between a sigh +and a groan every few minutes. About eleven the cards stopped, and Bella +said she would read palms. She began with Mr. Harbison, because she +declared he had a wonderful hand, full of possibilities; she said he +should have been a great inventor or a playwright, and that his attitude +to women was one of homage, respect, almost reverence. He had the +courage to look at me, and if a glance could have killed he would have +withered away. + +When Jimmy proffered his hand, she looked at it icily. Of course she +could not refuse, with Mr. Harbison looking on. + +"Rather negative," she said coldly. "The lines are obscured by cushions +of flesh; no heart line at all, mentality small, self-indulgence and +irritability very marked." + +Jim held his palm up to the light and stared at it. + +"Gad!" he said. "Hardly safe for me to go around without gloves, is it?" + +It was all well enough for Jim to laugh, but he was horribly hurt. He +stood around for a few minutes, talking to Anne, but as soon as he could +he slid away and went to bed. He looked very badly the next morning, +as though he had not slept, and his clothes quite hung on him. He was +actually thinner. But that is ahead of the story. + +Max came to me while the others were sitting around drinking nightcaps, +and asked me in a low tone if he could see me in the den; he wanted to +ask me something. Dal overheard. + +"Ask her here," he said. "We all know what it is, Max. Go ahead and +we'll coach you." + +"Will you coach ME?" I asked, for Mr. Harbison was listening. + +"The woman does not need it," Dal retorted. And then, because Max looked +angry enough really to propose to me right there, I got up hastily and +went into the den. Max followed, and closing the door, stood with his +back against it. + +"Contrary to the general belief, Kit," he began, "I did NOT intend to +ask you to marry me." + +I breathed easier. He took a couple of steps toward me and stood with +his arms folded, looking down at me. "I'm not at all sure, in fact, that +I shall ever propose to you," he went on unpleasantly. + +"You have already done it twice. You are not going to take those back, +are you, Max?" I asked, looking up at him. + +But Max was not to be cajoled. He came close and stood with his hand on +the back of my chair. "What happened on the roof tonight?" He demanded +hoarsely. + +"I do not think it would interest you," I retorted, coloring in spite of +myself. + +"Not interest me! I am shut in this blasted house; I have to see the +only woman I ever loved--REALLY loved," he supplemented, as he caught my +eye, "pretend she is another man's wife. Then I sit back and watch her +using every art--all her beauty--to make still another man love her, +a man who thinks she is a married woman. If Harbison were worth the +trouble, I would tell him the whole story, Aunt Selina be--obliterated!" + +I sat up suddenly. + +"If Harbison were worth the trouble!" I repeated. What did he mean? Had +he seen-- + +"I mean just this," Max said slowly. "There is only one unaccredited +member of this household; only one person, save Flannigan, who was +locked in the furnace room, one person who was awake and around the +house when Anne's jewels went, only one person in the house, also, who +would have any motive for the theft." + +"Motive?" I asked dully. + +"Poverty," Max threw at me. "Oh, I mean comparative poverty, of course. +Who is this fellow, anyhow? Dal knew him at school, traveled with him +through India. On the strength of that he brings him here, quarters him +with decent people, and wonders when they are systematically robbed!" + +"You are unjust!" I said, rising and facing him. "I do not like Mr. +Harbison--I--I hate him, if you want to know. But as to his being a +thief, I--think it is quite as likely that you took the necklace." + +Max threw his cigarette into the fire angrily. + +"So that is how it is!" he mocked. "If either of us is the thief, it is +I! You DO hate him, don't you?" + +I left him there, flushed with irritation, and joined the others. Just +as I entered the room, Betty burst through the hall door like a cyclone, +and collapsed into a chair. "She's a mean, cantankerous old woman!" she +declared, feeling for her handkerchief. "You can take care of your own +Aunt Selina, Jim Wilson. I will never go near her again." + +"What did you do? Poison her?" Dallas asked with interest. + +"G--got camphor in her eyes," snuffed Betty. "You never--heard such a +noise. I wouldn't be a trained nurse for anything in the world. She--she +called me a hussy!" + +"You're not going to give her up, are you, Betty?" Jim asked +imploringly. But Betty was, and said so plainly. + +"Anyhow, she won't have me back," she finished, "and she has sent +for--guess!" + +"Have mercy!" Dal cried, dropping to his knees. "Oh, fair ministering +angel, she has not sent for me!" + +"No," Betty said maliciously. "She wants Bella--she's crazy about her." + + + +Chapter XI. I MAKE A DISCOVERY + +Really, I have left Aunt Selina rather out of it, but she was important +as a cause, not as a result; at least at first. She came out strong +later. I believe she was a very nice old woman, with strong likes and +prejudices, which she was perfectly willing to pay for. At least, I only +presume she had likes; I know she had prejudices. + +Nobody every understood why Bella consented to take Betty's place with +Aunt Selina. As for me, I was too much engrossed with my own affairs +to pay the invalid much attention. Once or twice during the day I had +stopped in to see her, and had been received frigidly and with marked +disapproval. I was in disgrace, of course, after the scene in the dining +room the night before. I had stood like a naughty child, just inside the +door, and replied meekly when she said the pillows were overstuffed, and +why didn't I have the linen slips rinsed in starch water? She laid the +blame of her illness on me, as I have said before, and she made Jim read +to her in the afternoon from a book she carried with her, Coals of Fire +on the DOMESTIC Hearth, marking places for me to read. + +She sent for me that night, just as I had taken off my gown; so I threw +on a dressing gown and went in. To my horror, Jim was already there. At +a gesture from Aunt Selina, he closed the door into the hall and tiptoed +back beside the bed, where he sat staring at the figures on the silk +comfort. + +Aunt Selina's first words were: + +"Where's that flibberty-gibbet?" + +Jim looked at me. + +"She must mean Betty," I explained. "She has gone to bed, I think." + +"Don't--let--her--in--this--room--again," she said, with awful emphasis. +"She is an infamous creature." + +"Oh, come now, Aunt Selina," Jim broke in; "she's foolish, perhaps, but +she's a nice little thing." + +Aunt Selina's face was a curious study. Then she raised herself on her +elbow, and, taking a flat chamois-skin bag from under her pillow, held +it out. + +"My cameo breastpin," she said solemnly; "my cuff-buttons with gold rims +and storks painted on china in the middle; my watch, that has put me to +bed and got me up for forty years, and my money--five hundred and ten +dollars and forty cents!--taken with the doors locked under my nose." +Which was ambiguous, but forcible. + +"But, good gracious, Miss Car--Aunt Selina!" I exclaimed, "you don't +think Betty Mercer took those things?" + +"No," she said grimly; "I think I probably got up in my sleep and +lighted the fire with them, or sent em out for a walk." Then she stuffed +the bag away and sat up resolutely in bed. + +"Have you made up?" she demanded, looking from one to the other of us. +"Bella, don't tell me you still persist in that nonsense." + +"What nonsense?" I asked, getting ready to run. + +"That you do not love him." + +"Him?" + +"James," she snapped irritably. "Do you suppose I mean the policeman?" + +I looked over at Jimmy. She had got me by the hand, and Jimmy was making +frantic gestures to tell her the whole thing and be done with it. But +I had gone too far. The mill of the gods had crushed me already, and +I didn't propose to be drawn out hideously mangled and held up as an +example for the next two or three weeks, although it was clear enough +that Aunt Selina disapproved of me thoroughly, and would have been glad +enough to find that no tie save the board of health held us together. +And then Bella came in, and you wouldn't have known her. She had put on +a straight white woolen wrapper, and she had her hair in two long braids +down her back. She looked like a nice, wide-eyed little girl in her +teens, and she had some lobster salad and a glass of port on a tray. +When she saw the situation, she put the things down and had the +nastiness to stay and listen. + +"I'm not blind," Aunt Selina said, with one eye on the tray. "You two +silly children adore each other; I saw some things last night." + +Bella took a step forward; then she stopped and shrugged her shoulders. +Jim was purple. + +"I saw you kiss her in the dining room, remember that!" Aunt Selina went +on, giving the screw another turn. + +It was Bella's turn to be excited. She gave me one awful stare, then she +fixed her eyes on Jim. + +"Besides," Aunt Selina went on, "you told me today that you loved her. +Don't deny it, James." + +Bella couldn't keep quiet another instant. She came over and stood at +the foot of the bed. + +"Please don't excite yourself, DEAR Miss Caruthers," she said in a voice +like ice. "Every one knows that he loves her; he simply overflows +with it. It--it is quite a by-word among their friends. They have been +sitting together in a corner all evening." + +Yes, that was what she said; when I had not spoken to Jimmy the whole +time in the den. Bella was cattish, and she was jealous, too. I turned +on my heel and went to the door; then I turned to her, with my hand on +the knob. + +"You have been misinformed," I said coldly. "You can not possibly know, +having spent three hours in a corner yourself--with Mr. Harbison." I +abhor jealousy in a woman. + +Well, Aunt Selina ate all the lobster salad, and drank the port after +Bella had told her it was beef, iron and wine, and she slept all night, +and was able to sit up in a chair the next day, and was so infatuated +with Bella that she would not let her out of her sight. But that is +ahead of the story. + +At midnight the house was fairly quiet, except for Jim, who kept walking +around the halls because he couldn't sleep. I got up at last and ordered +him to bed, and he had the audacity to have a grievance with me. + +"Look at my situation now!" he said, sitting pensively on a steam +radiator. "Aunt Selina is crazy. I only kissed your hand, anyhow, and I +don't know why you sat in the den all evening; you might have known that +Bella would notice it. Why couldn't you leave me alone to my misery?" + +"Very well," I said, much offended. "After this I shall sit with +Flannigan in the kitchen. He is the only gentleman in the house." + +I left him babbling apologies and went to bed, but I had an +uncomfortable feeling that Bella had been a witness to our conversation, +for the door into Aunt Selina's room closed softly as I passed. + +I knew beforehand that I was not going to sleep. The instant I turned +out the light the nightmare events of the evening ranged themselves in +a procession, or a series of tableaus, one after the other; Flannigan on +the roof, with the bracelet on his palm, looking accusingly at me; Mr. +Harbison and the scene on the roof, with my flippancy; and the result +of that flippancy--the man on the stairs, the arms that held me, the +terrible kisses that had scorched my lips--it was awful! And then the +absurd situation across Aunt Selina's bed, and Bella's face! Oh, it +was all so ridiculous--my having thought that the Harbison man was +a gentleman, and finding him a cad, and worse. It was excruciatingly +funny. I quite got a headache from laughing; indeed I laughed until I +found I was crying, and then I knew I was going to have an attack of +strangulated emotion, called hysteria. So I got up and turned on all the +lights, and bathed my face with cologne, and felt better. + +But I did not go to sleep. When the hall clock chimed two, I discovered +I was hungry. I had had nothing since luncheon, and even the thirst +following the South American goulash was gone. There was probably +something to eat in the pantry, and if there was not, I was quite equal +to going to the basement. + +As it happened, however, I found a very orderly assortment of left-overs +and a pitcher of milk, which had no business there in the pantry, and +with plenty of light I was not at all frightened. + +I ate bread and butter and drank milk, and was fast becoming a rational +person again; I had pulled out one of the drawers part way, and with a +tray across the corner I had improvised a comfortable seat. And then I +noticed that the drawer was full of soiled napkins, and I remembered the +bracelet. I hardly know why I decided to go through the drawer again, +after Flannigan had already done it, but I did. I finished my milk and +then, getting down on my knees, I proceeded systematically to empty the +drawer. I took out perhaps a dozen napkins and as many doilies without +finding anything. Then I took out a large tray cloth, and there was +something on it that made me look farther. One corner of it had been +scorched, the clear and well defined imprint of a lighted cigarette or +cigar, a blackened streak that trailed off into a brown and yellow. +I had a queer, trembly feeling, as if I were on the brink of a +discovery--perhaps Anne's pearls, or the cuff buttons with storks +painted on china in the center. But the only thing I found, down in the +corner of the drawer, was a half-burned cigarette. + +To me, it seemed quite enough. It was one of the South American +cigarettes, with a tobacco wrapper instead of paper, that Mr. Harbison +smoked. + + + +Chapter XII. THE ROOF GARDEN + +I was quite ill the next morning--from excitement, I suppose. Anyhow, +I did not get up, and there wasn't any breakfast. Jim said he roused +Flannigan at eight o'clock, to go down and get the fire started, and +then went back to bed. But Flannigan did not get up. He appeared, +sheepishly, at half-past ten, and by that time Bella was down, in a +towering rage, and had burned her hand and got the fire started, and had +taken up a tray for Aunt Selina and herself. + +As the others straggled down they boiled themselves eggs or ate fruit, +and nobody put anything away. Lollie Mercer made me some tea and +scorched toast, and brought it, about eleven o'clock. + +"I never saw such a house," she declared. "A dozen housemaids couldn't +put it in order. Why should every man that smokes drop ashes wherever he +happens to be?" + +"That's the question of the ages," I replied languidly. "What was +Max talking so horribly about a little while ago?" Lollie looked up +aggrieved. + +"About nothing at all," she declared. "Anne told me to clean the bath +tubs with oil, and I did it, that's all. Now Max says he couldn't get it +off, and his clothes stick to him, and if he should forget and strike a +match in the--in the usual way, he would explode. He can clean his own +tub tomorrow," she finished vindictively. + +At noon Jim came in to see me, bringing Anne as a concession to Bella. +He was in a rage, and he carried the morning paper like a club in his +hand. + +"What sort of a newspaper lie would you call this?" he demanded +irritably. "It makes me crazy; everybody with a mental image of me +leaning over the parapet of the roof, waving a board, with the rest of +you sitting on my legs to keep me from overbalancing!" + +"Maybe there's a picture!" Anne said hopefully. + +Jim looked. + +"No picture," he announced. "I wonder why they restrained themselves! +I wish Bella would keep off the roof," he added, with fresh access +of rage, "or wear a mask or veil. One of those fellows is going to +recognize her, and there'll be the deuce to pay." + +"When you are all through discussing this thing, perhaps you will tell +me what is the matter," I remarked from my couch. "Why did you lean over +the parapet, Jim, and who sat on your legs?" + +"I didn't; nobody did," he retorted, waving the newspaper. "It's a +lie out of the whole cloth, that's what it is. I asked you girls to +be decent to those reporters; it never pays to offend a newspaper man. +Listen to this, Kit." + +He read the article rapidly, furiously, pausing every now and then to +make an exasperated comment. + +ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE FRUSTRATED MEMBERS OF THE FOUR HUNDRED DEFY THE LAW + +"Special Officer McCloud, on duty at the quarantined house of James +Wilson, artist and clubman, on Ninety-fifth Street, reported this +morning a daring attempt at escape, made at 3 A.M. It is in this house +that some eight or nine members of the smart set were imprisoned +during the course of a dinner party, when the Japanese butler developed +smallpox. The party shut in the house includes Miss Katherine McNair, +the daughter of Theodore McNair, of the Inter-Ocean system; Mr. and Mrs. +Dallas Brown; the Misses Mercer; Maxwell Reed, the well-known clubman +and whip; and a Mr. Thomas Harbison, guest of the Dallas Browns and a +South American. + +"Officer McCloud's story, told to a Chronicle reporter this morning, is +as follows: The occupants of the house had been uneasy all day. From the +air of subdued bustle, and from a careful inspection of the roof, +made by the entire party during the afternoon, his suspicion had been +aroused. Nothing unusual, however, occurred during the early part of the +night. From eight o'clock to twelve, McCloud was relieved from duty, his +place being taken by Michael Shane, of the Eighty-sixth Street Station. + +"When McCloud came on duty at midnight, Shane reported that about eleven +o'clock the searchlight of a steamer on the river, flashing over the +house, had shown a man crouching on the parapet, evidently surveying +the roof across, which at this point is only twelve feet distant, with a +view of making his escape. One seeing Shane below, however, he had beat +a retreat, but not before the officer had seen him distinctly. He was +dressed in evening clothes and wore a light tan overcoat. + +"Officer McCloud relieved Shane at midnight, and sent for a +plain-clothes man from the station house. This man was stationed on the +roof of the Bevington residence next door, with strict injunctions +to prevent an escape from the quarantined mansion. Nothing suspicious +having occurred, the man on the roof left about 3 A.M., reporting +to McCloud below that everything was quiet. At that moment, glancing +skyward, one of the officers was astounded to see a long narrow board +project itself from the coping of the Wildon house, waver uncertainly +for a moment, and then advance stealthily toward the parapet across. +When it was within a foot or two of a resting place, McCloud called +sharply to the invisible refugee above, at the same time firing his +revolver in the ground. + +"The result was surprising. The board stopped, trembled, swayed a +little, and dropped, missing the vigilant officers by a hair's breadth, +and crashing to the cement with a terrific force. An inspection of the +roof from the Bevington house, later, revealed nothing unusual. It +is evident, however, that the quarantine is proving irksome to the +inhabitants of the sequestered residence, most of whom are typical +society folk, without resources in themselves. Their condition, without +valets and maids, is certainly pitiable. It has been rumored that +the ladies are doing their own hair, and that the gentlemen have been +reduced to putting their own buttons in their shirts. This deplorable +situation, however, is unavoidable. + +"The vigilance of the board of health has been most commendable in this +case. Beginning with a wager over the telephone that they would break +quarantine in twenty-four hours, and ending with the attempt to span +a twelve-foot gulf with a board, over which to cross to freedom, these +shut-in society folk have shown characteristic disregard of the laws +of the state. It is quite time to extend to the millionaire the same +strictness that keeps the commuter at home for three weeks with the +measles; that makes him get the milk bottles and groceries from the +gate post and smell like dog soap for a month afterward, as a result of +disinfection.'" + +We sat in dead silence for a minute. Then: + +"Perhaps it is true," I said. "Not of you, Jim--but some one may have +tried to get out that way. In fact, I think it extremely likely." + +"Who? Flannigan? You couldn't drive him out. He's having the time of his +life. Do you suspect me?" + +"Come away and don't fight," Anne broke in pacifically. "You will have +to have luncheon sent in, Jimmy; nobody has ordered anything from the +shops, and I feel like old Mother Hubbard." + +"I wish you would all go out," I said wearily. "If every man in the +house says he didn't try to get over to the next roof last night, well +and good. But you might look and see if the board is still lying where +it fell." + +There was an instantaneous rush for the window, and a second's pause. +Then Jimmy's voice, incredulous, awed: + +"Well, I'll be--blessed! There's the board!" + +I stayed in my room all that day. My head really ached and then, too, +I did not care to meet Mr. Harbison. It would have to come; I realized +that a meeting was inevitable, but I wanted time to think how I would +meet him. It would be impossible to cut him, without rousing the +curiosity of the others to fever pitch; and it was equally impossible to +ignore the disgraceful episode on the stairs. As it happened, however, I +need not have worried. I went down to dinner, languidly, when every +one was seated, and found Max at my right, and Mr. Harbison moved over +beside Bella. Every one was talking at once, for Flannigan, ambling +around the table as airily as he walked his beat, had presented Bella +with her bracelet on a salad plate, garnished with romaine. He had found +it in the furnace room, he said, where she must have dropped it. And he +looked at me stealthily, to approve his mendacity! + +Every one was famished, and as they ate they discussed the board in the +area way, and pretended to deride it as a clever bit of press work, to +revive a dying sensation. No one was deceived; Anne's pearls and the +attempt to escape, coming just after, pointed only to one thing. I +looked around the table, dazed. Flannigan, almost the only unknown +quantity, might have tried to escape the night before, but he would not +have been in dress clothes. Besides, he must be eliminated as far as the +pearls were concerned, having been locked in the furnace room the night +they were stolen. There was no one among the girls to suspect. The +Mercer girls had stunning pearls, and could secure all they wanted +legitimately; and Bella disliked them. Oh, there was no question about +it, I decided; Dallas and Anne had taken a wolf to their bosom--or is +it a viper?--and the Harbison man was the creature. Although I must say +that, looking over the table, at Jimmy's breadth and not very imposing +personality, at Max's lean length, sallow skin, and bold dark eyes, at +Dallas, blond, growing bald and florid, and then at the Harbison boy, +tall, muscular, clear-eyed and sunburned, one would have taken Max at +first choice as the villain, with Dal next, Jim third, and the Harbison +boy not in the running. + +It was just after dinner that the surprise was sprung on me. Mr. +Harbison came around to me gravely, and asked me if I felt able to go +up on the roof. On the roof, after last night! I had to gather myself +together; luckily, the others were pushing back their chairs, showing +Flannigan the liqueur glasses to take up, and lighting cigars. + +"I do not care to go," I said icily. + +"The others are coming," he persisted, "and I--I could give you an arm +up the stairs." + +"I believe you are good at that," I said, looking at him steadily. "Max, +will you help me to the roof?" + +Mr. Harbison really turned rather white. Then he bowed ceremoniously and +left me. + +Max got me a wrap, and every one except Mr. Harbison and Bella, who was +taking a mass of indigestables to Aunt Selina, went to the roof. + +"Where is Tom?" Anne asked, as we reached the foot of the stairs. "Gone +ahead to fix things," was the answer. But he was not there. At the top +of the last flight I stopped, dumb with amazement; the roof had been +transformed, enchanted. It was a fairy-land of lights and foliage and +colors. I had to stop and rub my eyes. From the bleakness of a tin roof +in February to the brightness and greenery of a July roof garden! + +"You were the immediate inspiration, Kit," Dallas said. "Harbison +thought your headache might come from lack of exercise and fresh air, +and he has worked us like nailers all day. I've a blister on my right +palm, and Harbison got shocked while he was wiring the place, and +nearly fell over the parapet. We bought out two full-sized florists by +telephone." + +It was the most amazing transformation. At each corner a pole had been +erected, and wires crossed the roof diagonally, hung with red and amber +bulbs. Around the chimneys had been massed evergreen trees in tubs, +hiding their brick-and-mortar ugliness, and among the trees tiny lights +were strung. Along the parapet were rows of geometrical boxwood plants +in bright red crocks, and the flaps of a crimson and white tent had +been thrown open, showing lights within, and rugs, wicker chairs, and +cushions. + +Max raised a glass of benedictine and posed for a moment, +melodramatically. + +"To the Wilson roof garden!" he said. "To Kit, who inspired; to the +creators, who perspired; and to Takahiro--may he not have expired." + +Every one was very gay; I think the knowledge that tomorrow Aunt Selina +might be with them urged them to make the most of this last night of +freedom. I tried to be jolly, and succeeded in being feverish. Mr. +Harbison did not come up to enjoy what he had wrought. Jim brought up +his guitar and sang love songs in a beautiful tenor, looking at Bella +all the time. And Bella sat in a steamer chair, with a rug over her and +a spangled veil on her head, looking at the boats on the river--about as +soft and as chastened as an an acetylene headlight. + +And after Max had told the most improbable tale, which Leila advised him +to sprinkle salt on, and Dallas had done a clog dance, Bella said it +was time for her complexion sleep and went downstairs, and broke up the +party. + +"If she only give half as an much care to her immortal soul," Anne said +when she had gone, "as she does to her skin, she would let that nice +Harbison boy alone. She must have been brutal to him tonight, for he +went to bed at nine o'clock. At least, I suppose he went to bed, for he +shut himself in the studio, and when I knocked he advised me not to come +in." + +I had pleaded my headache as an excuse for avoiding Aunt Selina all day, +and she had not sent for me. Bella was really quite extraordinary. +She was never in the habit of putting herself out for any one, and she +always declared that the very odor of a sick room drove her to Scotch +and soda. But here she was, rubbing Aunt Selina's back with chloroform +liniment--and you know how that smells--getting her up in a chair, +dressed in one of Bella's wadded silk robes, with pillows under her +feet, and then doing her hair in elaborate puffs--braiding her gray +switch and bringing it, coronet-fashion, around the top of her head. +She even put rice powder on Aunt Selina's nose, and dabbed violet water +behind her ears, and said she couldn't understand why she (Aunt Selina) +had never married, but, of course, she probably would some day! + +The result was, naturally, that the old lady wouldn't let Bella out of +her sight, except to go to the kitchen for something to eat for her. +That very day Bella got the doctor to order ale for Aunt Selina (oh, +yes; the doctor could come in; Dal said "it was all a-coming in, and +nothing going out") and she had three pints of Bass, and learned to eat +anchovies and caviare--all in one day. + +Bella's conduct to Jim was disgraceful. She snubbed him, ignored him, +tramped on him, and Jim was growing positively flabby. He spent most of +his time writing letters to the board of health and playing solitaire. +He was a pathetic figure. + +Well, we went to bed fairly early. Bella had massaged Aunt Selina's +face and rubbed in cold cream, Anne and Dallas had compromised on which +window should be open in their bedroom, and the men had matched to see +who should look at the furnace. I did not expect to sleep, but the cold +night air had done its work, and I was asleep almost immediately. + +Some time during the early part of the night I wakened, and, after +turning and twisting uneasily, I realized that I was cold. The couch +in Bella's dressing room was comfortable enough, but narrow and low. I +remember distinctly (that was what was so maddening; everybody thought I +dreamed it)--I remember getting an eiderdown comfort that was folded +at my feet, and pulling it up around me. In the luxury of its warmth I +snuggled down and went to sleep almost instantly. It seemed to me I had +slept for hours, but it was probably an hour or less, when something +roused me. The room was perfectly dark, and there was not a sound save +the faint ticking of the clock, but I was wide awake. + +And then came the incident that in its ghastly, horrible absurdity made +the rest of the people shout with laughter the next day. It was not +funny then. For suddenly the eiderdown comfort began to slip. I heard no +footstep, not the slightest sound approaching me, but the comfort +moved; from my chin, inch by inch, it slipped to my shoulders; awfully, +inevitably, hair-raisingly it moved. I could feel my blood gather around +my heart, leaving me cold and nerveless. As it passed my hands I gave +an involuntary clutch for it, to feel it slip away from my fingers. Then +the full horror of the situation took hold of me; as the comfort slid +past my feet I sat up and screamed at the top of my voice. + +Of course, people came running in all sorts of things. I was still +sitting up, declaring I had seen a ghost and that the house was haunted. +Dallas was struggling for the second armhole of his dressing gown and +Bella had already turned on the lights. They said I had had a nightmare, +and not to sleep on my back, and perhaps I was taking grippe. + +And just then we heard Jimmy run down the stairs, and fall over +something, almost breaking his wrist. It was the eiderdown comfort, +half-way up the studio staircase! + + + +Chapter XIII. HE DOES NOT DENY IT + +Aunt Selina got up the next morning and Jim told her all the strange +things that had been happening. She fixed on Flannigan, of course, +although she still suspected Betty of her watch and other valuables. The +incident of the comfort she called nervous indigestion and bad hours. + +She spent the entire day going through the storeroom and linen closets, +and running her fingers over things for dust. Whenever she found any +she looked at me, drew a long breath, and said, "Poor James!" It was +maddening. And when she went through his clothes and found some buttons +off (Jim didn't keep a man, and Takahiro had stopped at his boots) she +looked at me quite awfully. + +"His mother was a perfect housekeeper," she said. "James was brought up +in clothes with the buttons on, put on clean shelves." + +"Didn't they put them on him?" I asked, almost hysterically. It had been +a bad morning, after a worse night. Every one had found fault with the +breakfast, and they straggled down one at a time until I was frantic. +Then Flannigan had talked to me about the pearls, and Mr. Harbison had +said, "Good morning," very stiffly, and nearly rattled the inside of the +furnace out. + +Early in the morning, too, I overheard a scrap of conversation between +the policeman and our gentleman adventurer from South America. Something +had gone wrong with the telephone and Mr. Harbison was fussing over it +with a screw driver and a pair of scissors--all the tools he could find. +Flannigan was lifting rugs to shake them on the roof--Bella's order. + +"Wash the table linen!" he was grumbling. "I'll do what I can that's +necessary. Grub has to be cooked, and dishes has to be washed--I'll +admit that. If you're particular, make up your bed every day; I don't +object. But don't tell me we have to use thirty-three table napkins +a day. What did folks do before napkins was invented? Tell me +that!"--triumphantly. + +"What's the answer?" Mr. Harbison inquired absently, evidently with the +screw driver in his mouth. + +"Used their pocket handkerchiefs! And if the worst comes to the +worst, Mr. Harbison, these folks here can use their sleeves, for all +I care--not that the women has any sleeves to speak of. Wash clothes I +will not." + +"Well, don't worry Mrs. Wilson about it," the other voice said. +Flannigan straightened himself with a grunt. + +"Mrs. Wilson!" he said. "A lot she would worry. She's been a +disappointment to me, Mr. Harbison, me thinking that now she'd come back +to him, after leavin' him the way she did, they'd be like two turtle +doves. Lord! The cook next door--" + +But what the cook had told about Bella and Jimmy was not divulged, +for the Harbison man caught him up with a jerk and sent Flannigan, +grumbling, with his rugs to the roof. + +It did not seem possible to carry on the deception much longer, but if +things were bad now, what would they be when Aunt Selina learned she had +been lied to, made ridiculous, generally deceived? And how would I be +able to live in the house with her when she did know? Luckily, every +one was so puzzled over the mystery in the house that numbers of little +things that would have been absolutely damning were never noticed at +all. For instance, my asking Jimmy at luncheon that day if he took cream +in his coffee! And Max coming to the rescue by dropping his watch in +his glass of water, and creating a diversion and giving everybody an +opportunity to laugh by saying not to mind, it had been in soak before. + +Just after luncheon Aunt Selina brought me some undergarments of Jim's +to be patched. She explained at length that he had always worn out his +undergarments, because he always squirmed around so when he was sitting. +And she showed me how to lay one of the garments over a pillow to get +the patch in properly. + +It was the most humiliating moment of my life, but there was no escape. +I took my sewing to the roof, while she went away to find something else +for me to do when that was finished, and I sat with the thing on my +knee and stared at it, while rebellious tears rolled down my cheeks. +The patch was not the shape of the hole at all, and every time I took a +stitch I sewed it fast to the pillow beneath. It was terrible. Jim came +up after a while and sat down across from me and watched, without saying +anything. I suppose what he felt would not have been proper to say to +me. We had both reached the point where adequate language failed us. +Finally he said: + +"I wish I were dead." + +"So do I," I retorted, jerking the thread. + +"Where is she now?" + +"Looking for more of these." I indicated the garment over the pillow, +and he wiggled. "Please don't squirm," I said coldly. "You will wear out +your--lingerie, and I will have to mend them." + +He sat very still for five minutes, when I discovered that I had put the +patch in crosswise instead of lengthwise and that it would not fit. As I +jerked it out he sneezed. + +"Or sneeze," I added venomously. "You will tear your buttons off, and I +will have to sew them on." + +Jim rose wrathfully. "Don't sit, don't sneeze," he repeated. "Don't +stand, I suppose, for fear I will wear out my socks. Here, give me that. +If the fool thing has to be mended, I'll do it myself." + +He went over to a corner of the parapet and turned his back to me. He +was very much offended. In about a minute he came back, triumphant, and +held out the result of his labor. I could only gasp. He had puckered up +the edges of the hole like the neck of a bag, and had tied the thread +around it. "You--you won't be able to sit down," I ventured. + +"Don't have any time to sit," he retorted promptly. "Anyhow, it will +give some, won't it? It would if it was tied with elastic instead of +thread. Have you any elastic?" + +Lollie came up just then, and Jim took himself and his mending +downstairs. Luckily, Aunt Selina found several letters in his room that +afternoon while she was going over his clothes, and as it took Jim some +time to explain them, she forgot the task she had given me altogether. + +When Lollie came up to the roof, she closed the door to the stairs, and +coming over, drew a chair close to mine. + +"Have you seen much of Tom today?" she asked, as an introduction. + +"I suppose you mean Mr. Harbison, Lollie," I said. "No--not any more +than I could help. Don't whisper, he couldn't possibly hear you. And if +it's scandal I don't want to know it." + +"Look here, Kit," she retorted, "you needn't be so superior. If I like +to talk scandal, I'm not so sure you aren't making it." + +That was the way right along: I was making scandal; I brought them there +to dinner; I let Bella in! + +And, of course, Anne came up then, and began on me at once. + +"You are a very bad girl," she began. "What do you mean by treating Tom +Harbison the way you do? He is heart-broken." + +"I think you exaggerate my influence over him," I retorted. "I haven't +treated him badly, because I haven't paid any attention to him." + +Anne threw up her hands. + +"There you are!" she said. "He worked all day yesterday fixing this +place for you--yes, for you, my dear. I am not blind--and last night you +refused to let him bring you up." + +"He told you!" I flamed. + +"He wondered what he had done. And as you wouldn't let him come within +speaking distance of you, he came to me." + +"I am sorry, Anne, since you are fond of him," I said. "But to me he is +impossible--intolerable. My reasons are quite sufficient." + +"Kit is perfectly right, Anne," Leila broke in. "I tell you, there is +something queer about him," she added in a portentous whisper. + +Anne stiffened. + +"He is perfect," she declared. "Of good family, warm-hearted, +courageous, handsome, clever--what more do you ask?" + +"Honesty," said Leila hotly. "That a man should be what he says he is." + +Anne and I both stared. + +"It is your Mr. Harbison," Leila went on, "who tried to escape from the +house by putting a board across to the next roof!" + +"I don't believe it," said Anne. "You might bring me a picture of him, +board in hand, and I wouldn't believe it." + +"Don't then," Lollie said cruelly. "Let him get away with your pearls; +they are yours. Only, as sure as anything, the man who tried to escape +from the house had a reason for escaping, and the papers said a man in +evening dress and light overcoat. I found Mr. Harbison's overcoat today +lying in a heap in one of the maids' rooms, and it was covered with +brick dust all over the front. A button had even been torn off." + +"Pooh!" Anne said, when she had recovered herself a little. "There isn't +any reason, as far as that goes, why Flannigan shouldn't have worn Tom's +overcoat, or--any of the others." + +"Flannigan!" Leila said loftily. "Why, his arms are like piano legs; he +couldn't get into it. As for the others, there is only one person who +would fit, or nearly fit, that overcoat, and that is Dallas, Anne." + +While Anne was choking down her wrath, Leila got up and darted out of +the tent. When she came back she was triumphant. + +"Look," she said, holding out her hand. And on her palm lay a lightish +brown button. "I found it just where the paper said the board was thrown +out, and it is from Mr. Harbison's overcoat, without a doubt." + +Of course I should not have been surprised. A man who would kiss a woman +on a dark staircase--a woman he had known only two days--was capable of +anything. + +"Kit has only been a little keener than the rest of us," Lollie said. +"She found him out yesterday." + +"Upon my word," said Anne indignantly, preparing to go, "if I didn't +know you girls so well, I would think you were crazy. And now, just to +offset this, I can tell you something. Flannigan told me this morning +not to worry; that he has my pearl collar spotted, and that YOUNG LADIES +WILL HAVE THEIR JOKES!" + +Yes, as I said before, it was a cheerful, joy-producing situation. + +I sat and thought it over after Anne's parting shot, when Leila had +flounced downstairs. Things were closing in; I gave the situation +twenty-four hours to develop. At the end of that time Flannigan would +accuse me openly of knowing where the pearls were; I would explain my +silly remark to him and the mine would explode--under Aunt Selina. + +I was sunk in dejected reverie when some one came on the roof. When he +was opposite the opening in the tent, I saw Mr. Harbison, and at that +moment he saw me. He paused uncertainly, then he made an evident effort +and came over to me. + +"You are--better today?" + +"Quite well, thank you." + +"I am glad you find the tent useful. Does it keep off the wind?" + +"It is quite a shelter"--frigidly. + +He still stood, struggling for something to say. Evidently nothing came +to his mind, for he lifted the cap he was wearing, and turning away, +began to work with the wiring of the roof. He was clever with tools; one +could see that. If he was a professional gentleman-burglar, no doubt he +needed to be. After a bit, finding it necessary to climb to the parapet, +he took off his coat, without even a glance in my direction, and fell to +work vigorously. + +One does not need to like a man to admire him physically, any more than +one needs to like a race horse or any other splendid animal. No one +could deny that the man on the parapet was a splendid animal; he looked +quite big enough and strong enough to have tossed his slender bridge +across the gulf to the next roof, without any difficulty, and coordinate +enough to have crossed on it with a flourish to safety. + +Just then there was a rending, tearing sound from the corner and a +muttered ejaculation. I looked up in time to see Mr. Harbison throw up +his arms, make a futile attempt to regain his balance, and disappear +over the edge of the roof. One instant he was standing there, splendid, +superb; the next, the corner of the parapet was empty, all that stood +there was a broken, splintered post and a tangle of wires. + +I could not have moved at first; at least, it seemed hours before the +full significance of the thing penetrated my dazed brain. When I got up +I seemed to walk, to crawl, with leaden weights holding back my feet. + +When I got to the corner I had to catch the post for support. I knew +somebody was saying, "Oh, how terrible!" over and over. It was only +afterward that I knew it had been myself. And then some other voice was +saying, "Don't be alarmed. Please don't be frightened. I'm all right." + +I dared to look over the parapet, finally, and instead of a crushed and +unspeakable body, there was Mr. Harbison, sitting about eight feet below +me, with his feet swinging into space and a long red scratch from the +corner of his eye across his cheek. There was a sort of mansard there, +with windows, and just enough coping to keep him from rolling off. + +"I thought you had fallen--all the way," I gasped, trying to keep my +lips from trembling. "I--oh, don't dangle your feet like that!" + +He did not seem at all glad of his escape. He sat there gloomily, +peering into the gulf beneath. + +"If it wasn't so--er--messy and generally unpleasant," he replied +without looking up, "I would slide off and go the rest of the way." + +"You are childish," I said severely. "See if you can get through the +window behind you. If you can not, I'll come down and unfasten it." But +the window was open, and I had a chance to sit down and gather up the +scattered ends of my nerves. To my surprise, however, when he came back +he made no effort to renew our conversation. He ignored me completely, +and went to work at once to repair the damage to his wires, with his +back to me. + +"I think you are very rude," I said at last. "You fell over there and I +thought you were killed. The nervous shock I experienced is just as bad +as if you had gone--all the way." + +He put down the hammer and came over to me without speaking. Then, when +he was quite close, he said: + +"I am very sorry if I startled you. I did not flatter myself that you +would be profoundly affected, in any event." + +"Oh, as to that," I said lightly, "it makes me ill for days if my car +runs over a dog." He looked at me in silence. "You are not going to get +up on that parapet again?" + +"Mrs. Wilson," he said, without paying the slightest attention to my +question, "will you tell me what I have done?" + +"Done?" + +"Or have not done? I have racked my brains--stayed awake all of last +night. At first I hoped it was impersonal, that, womanlike you were +merely venting general disfavor on one particular individual. But--your +hostility is to me, personally." + +I raised my eyebrows, coldly interrogative. + +"Perhaps," he went on calmly--"perhaps I was a fool here on the +roof--the night before last. If I said anything that I should not, I ask +your pardon. If it is not that, I think you ought to ask mine!" + +I was angry enough then. + +"There can be only one opinion about your conduct," I retorted warmly. +"It was worse than brutal. It--it was unspeakable. I have no words for +it--except that I loathe it--and you." + +He was very grim by this time. "I have heard you say something like that +before--only I was not the unfortunate in that case." + +"Oh!" I was choking. + +"Under different circumstances I should be the last person to recall +anything so--personal. But the circumstances are unusual." He took an +angry step toward me. "Will you tell me what I have done? Or shall I go +down and ask the others?" + +"You wouldn't dare," I cried, "or I will tell them what you did! How you +waylaid me on those stairs there, and forced your caresses, your kisses, +on me! Oh, I could die with shame!" + +The silence that followed was as unexpected as it was ominous. I knew +he was staring at me, and I was furious to find myself so emotional, so +much more the excited of the two. Finally, I looked up. + +"You can not deny it," I said, a sort of anti-climax. + +"No." He was very quiet, very grim, quite composed. "No," he repeated +judicially. "I do not deny it." + +He did not? Or he would not? Which? + + + +Chapter XIV. ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE + +Dal had been acting strangely all day. Once, early in the evening, when +I had doubled no trump, he led me a club without apology, and later +on, during his dummy, I saw him writing our names on the back of an +envelope, and putting numbers after them. At my earliest opportunity I +went to Max. + +"There is something the matter with Dal, Max," I volunteered. "He +has been acting strangely all day, and just now he was making out a +list--names and numbers." + +"You're to blame for that, Kit," Max said seriously. "You put washing +soda instead of baking soda in those biscuits today, and he thinks he is +a steam laundry. Those are laundry lists he's making out. He asked me a +little while ago if I wanted a domestic finish." + +Yes, I had put washing soda in the biscuits. The book said soda, and how +is one to know which is meant? + +"I do not think you are calculated for a domestic finish," I said coldly +as I turned away. "In any case I disclaim any such responsibility. +But--there is SOMETHING on Dal's mind." + +Max came after me. "Don't be cross, Kit. You haven't said a nice word +to me today, and you go around bristling with your chin up and two red +spots on your cheeks--like whatever-her-name-was with the snakes instead +of hair. I don't know why I'm so crazy about you; I always meant to love +a girl with a nice disposition." + +I left him then. Dal had gone into the reception room and closed the +doors. And because he had been acting so strangely, and partly to escape +from Max, whose eyes looked threatening, I followed him. Just as I +opened the door quietly and looked in, Dallas switched off the lights, +and I could hear him groping his way across the room. Then somebody--not +Dal--spoke from the corner, cautiously. + +"Is that you, Mr. Brown, sir?" It was Flannigan. + +"Yes. Is everything here?" + +"All but the powder, sir. Don't step too close. They're spread all over +the place." + +"Have you taken the curtains down?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Matches?" + +"Here, sir." + +"Light one, will you, Flannigan? I want to see the time." + +The flare showed Dallas and Flannigan bent over the timepiece. And it +showed something else. The rug had been turned back from the windows +which opened on the street, and the curtains had been removed. On the +bare hardwood floor just beneath the windows was an array of pans of +various sizes, dish pans, cake tins, and a metal foot tub. The pans were +raised from the floor on bricks, and seemed to be full of paper. All the +chairs and tables were pushed back against the wall, and the bric-a-brac +was stacked on the mantel. + +"Half an hour yet," Dal said, closing his watch. "Plenty of time, and +remember the signal, four short and two long." + +"Four short and two long--all right, sir." + +"And--Flannigan, here's something for you, on account." + +"Thank you, sir." + +Dal turned to go out, tripped over the rug, said something, and passed +me without an idea of my presence. A moment later Flannigan went out, +and I was left, huddled against the wall, and alone. + +It was puzzling enough. "Four long and two short!" "All but the powder!" +Not that I believed for a moment what Max had said, and anyhow Flannigan +was the sanest person I ever saw in my life. But it all seemed a part +of the mystery that had been hanging over us for several days. I felt my +way across the room and knelt by the pans. Yes, they were there, full of +paper and mounted on bricks. It had not been a delusion. + +And then I straightened on my knees suddenly, for an automobile passing +under the windows had sounded four short honks and two long ones. The +signal was followed instantly by a crash. The foot bath had fallen from +its supports, and lay, quivering and vibrating with horrid noises at my +feet. The next moment Mr. Harbison had thrown open the door and leaped +into the room. + +"Who's there?" he demanded. Against the light I could see him reaching +for his hip pocket, and the rest crowding up around him. + +"It's only me," I quavered, "that is, I. The--the dish pan upset." + +"Dish pan!" Bella said from back in the crowd. "Kit, of course!" + +Jim forced his way through then and turned on the lights. I have no +doubt I looked very strange, kneeling there on the bare floor, with a +row of pans mounted on bricks behind me, and the furniture all piled on +itself in a back corner. + +"Kit! What in the world--!" Jim began, and stopped. He stared from me to +the pans, to the windows, to the bric-a-brac on the mantel, and back to +me. + +I sat stonily silent. Why should I explain? Whenever I got into a +foolish position, and tried to explain, and tell how it happened, and +who was really to blame, they always brought it back to ME somehow. So I +sat there on the floor and let them stare. And finally Lollie Mercer got +her breath and said, "How perfectly lovely; it's a charade!" + +And Anne guessed "kitchen" at once. "Kit, you know, and the pans +and--all that," she said vaguely. At that they all took to guessing! And +I sat still, until Mr. Harbison saw the storm in my eyes and came over +to me. + +"Have you hurt your ankle?" he said in an undertone. "Let me help you +up." + +"I am not hurt," I said coldly, "and even if I were, it would be +unnecessary to trouble you." + +"I can not help being troubled," he returned, just as evenly. "'You see, +it makes me ill for days if my car runs over a dog.'" + +Luckily, at that moment Dal came in. He pushed his way through the +crowd without a word, shut off the lights, crashed through the pans and +slammed the shutters closed. Then he turned and addressed the rest. + +"Of all the lunatics--!" he began, only there was more to it than that. +"A fellow goes to all kinds of trouble to put an end to this miserable +situation, and the entire household turns out and sets to work to +frustrate the whole scheme. You LIKE to stay here, don't you, like +chickens in a coop? Where's Flannigan?" + +Nobody understood Dal's wrath then, but it seems he meant to arrange +the plot himself, and when it was ripe, and the hour nearly come, he +intended to wager that he could break the quarantine, and to take any +odds he could get that he would free the entire party in half an hour. +As for the plan itself, it was idiotically simple; we were perfectly +delighted when we heard it. It was so simple and yet so comprehensive. +We didn't see how it COULD fail. Both the Mercer girls kissed Dal on the +strength of it, and Anne was furious. Jim was not so much pleased, for +some reason or other, and Mr. Harbison looked thoughtful rather than +merry. Aunt Selina had gone to bed. + +The idea, of course, was to start an embryo fire just inside the +windows, in the pans, to feed it with the orange-fire powder that is +used on the Fourth of July, and when we had thrown open the windows and +yelled "fire" and all the guards and reporters had rushed to the +front of the house, to escape quietly by a rear door from the basement +kitchen, get into machines Dal had in waiting, and lose ourselves as +quickly as we could. + +You can see how simple it was. + +We were terribly excited, of course. Every one rushed madly for motor +coats and veils, and Dal shuffled the numbers so the people going the +same direction would have the same machine. We called to each other as +we dressed about Mamaroneck or Lakewood or wherever we happened to have +relatives. Everybody knew everybody else, and his friends. The Mercer +girls were going to cruise until the trouble blew over, the Browns were +going to Pinehurst, and Jim was going to Africa to hunt, if he could get +out of the harbor. + +Only the Harbison man seemed to have no plans; quite suddenly with the +world so near again, the world of country houses and steam yachts and +all the rest of it, he ceased to be one of us. It was not his world at +all. He stood back and watched the kaleidoscope of our coats and veils, +half-quizzically, but with something in his face that I had not seen +there before. If he had not been so self-reliant and big, I would have +said he was lonely. Not that he was pathetic in any sense of the word. +Of course, he avoided me, which was natural and exactly what I wished. +Bella never was far from him and at the last she loaded him with her +jewel case and a muff and traveling bag and asked him to her cousins' on +Long Island. I felt sure he was going to decline, when he glanced across +at me. + +"Do go," I said, very politely. "They are charming people." And he +accepted at once! + +It was a transparent plot on Bella's part: Two elderly maiden ladies, +house miles from anywhere, long evenings in the music room with an open +fire and Bella at the harp playing the two songs she knows. + +When we were ready and gathered in the kitchen, in the darkness, of +course, Dal went up on the roof and signaled with a lantern to the cars +on the drive. Then he went downstairs, took a last look at the drawing +room, fired the papers, shook on the powder, opened the windows and +yelled "fire!" + +Of course, huddled in the kitchen we had heard little or nothing. But we +plainly heard Dal on the first floor and Flannigan on the second yelling +"fire," and the patter of feet as the guards ran to the front of the +house. And at that instant we remembered Aunt Selina! + +That was the cause of the whole trouble. I don't know why they turned on +me; she wasn't my aunt. But by the time we had got her out of bed, and +had wrapped her in an eiderdown comfort, and stuck slippers on her feet +and a motor veil on her head, the glare at the front of the house was +beginning to die away. She didn't understand at all and we had no time +to explain. I remember that she wanted to go back and get her "plate," +whatever that may be, but Jim took her by the arm and hurried her along, +and the rest, who had waited, and were in awful tempers, stood aside and +let them out first. + +The door to the area steps was open, and by the street lights we could +see a fence and a gate, which opened on a side street. Jim and Aunt +Selina ran straight for the gate; the wind blowing Aunt Selina's comfort +like a sail. Then, with our feet, so to speak, on the first rungs of the +ladder of Liberty, it slipped. A half-dozen guards and reporters came +around the house and drove us back like sheep into a slaughter pen. It +was the most humiliating moment of my life. + +Dal had been for fighting a way through, and just for a minute I think +I went Berserk myself. But Max spied one of the reporters setting up a +flash light as we stood, undecided, at the top of the steps, and after +that there was nothing to do but retreat. We backed down slowly, to show +them we were not afraid. And when we were all in the kitchen again, and +had turned on the lights and Bella was crying with her head against Mr. +Harbison's arm, Dal said cheerfully, + +"Well, it has done some good, anyhow. We have lost Aunt Selina." + +And we all shook hands on it, although we were sorry about Jim. And Dal +said we would have some champagne and drink to Aunt Selina's comfort, +and we could have her teeth fumigated and send them to her. Somebody +said "Poor old Jim," and at that Bella looked up. + +She stared around the group, and then she went quite pale. + +"Jim!" she gasped. "Do you mean--that Jim is--out there too?" + +"Jim and Aunt Selina!" I said as calmly as I could for joy. You can see +how it simplified the situation for me. "By this time they are a mile +away, and going!" + +Everybody shook hands again except Bella. She had dropped into a chair, +and sat biting her lip and breathing hard, and she would not join in any +of the hilarity at getting rid of Aunt Selina. Finally she got up and +knocked over her chair. + +"You are a lot of cowards," she stormed. "You deserted them out there, +left them. Heaven knows where they are--a defenseless old woman, +and--and a man who did not even have an overcoat. And it is snowing!" + +"Never mind," Dal said reassuringly. "He can borrow Aunt Selina's +comfort. Make the old lady discard from weakness. Anyhow, Bella, if I +know anything of human nature, the old lady will make it hot enough for +him. Poor old Jim!" + +Then they shook hands again, and with that there came a terrible banging +at the door, which we had locked. + +"Open the door!" some one commanded. It was one of the guards. + +"Open it yourself!" Dallas called, moving a kitchen table to reenforce +the lock. + +"Open that door or we will break it in!" + +Dallas put his hands in his pockets, seated himself on the table, and +whistled cheerfully. We could hear them conferring outside, and they +made another appeal which was refused. Suddenly Bella came over and +confronted Dallas. + +"They have brought them back!" she said dramatically. "They are out +there now; I distinctly heard Jim's voice. Open that door, Dallas!" + +"Oh, DON'T let them in!" I wailed. It was quite involuntary, but the +disappointment was too awful. "Dallas, DON'T open that door!" + +Dal swung his feet and smiled from Bella to me. + +"Think what a solution it is to all our difficulties," he said easily. +"Without Aunt Selina I could be happy here indefinitely." + +There was more knocking, and somebody--Max, I think--said to let them +in, that it was a fool thing anyhow, and that he wanted to go to bed and +forget it; his feet were cold. And just then there was a crash, and part +of one of the windows fell in. The next blow from outside brought the +rest of the glass, and--somebody was coming through, feet first. It was +Jim. + +He did not speak to any of us, but turned and helped in a bundle of red +and yellow silk comfort that proved to be Aunt Selina, also feet first. +I had a glimpse of a half-dozen heads outside, guards and reporters. +Then Jim jerked the shade down and unswathed Aunt Selina's legs so +that she could walk, offered his arm, and stalked past us and upstairs, +without a word! + +None of us spoke. We turned out the lights and went upstairs and took +off our wraps and went to bed. It had been almost a fiasco. + + + +Chapter XV. SUSPICION AND DISCORD + +Every one was nasty the next morning. Aunt Selina declared that her +feet were frost-bitten and kept Bella rubbing them with ice water all +morning. And Jim was impossible. He refused to speak to any of us and he +watched Bella furtively, as if he suspected her of trying to get him out +of the house. + +When luncheon time came around and he had shown no indication of going +to the telephone and ordering it, we had a conclave, and Max was chosen +to remind him of the hour. Jim was shut in the studio, and we waited +together in the hall while Max went up. When he came down he was +somewhat ruffled. + +"He wouldn't open the door," he reported, "and when I told him it was +meal time, he said he wasn't hungry, and he didn't give a whoop about +the rest of us. He had asked us here to dinner; he hadn't proposed to +adopt us." + +So we finally ordered luncheon ourselves, and about two o'clock Jim came +downstairs sheepishly, and ate what was left. Anne declared that Bella +had been scolding him in the upper hall, but I doubted it. She was never +seen to speak to him unnecessarily. + +The excitement of the escape over, Mr. Harbison and I remained on terms +of armed neutrality. And Max still hunted for Anne's pearls, using them, +the men declared, as a good excuse to avoid tinkering with the furnace +or repairing the dumb waiter, which took the queerest notions, and +stopped once, half-way up from the kitchen, for an hour, with the dinner +on it. Anyhow, Max was searching the house systematically, armed with +a copy of Poe's Purloined Letter and Gaboriau's Monsieur LeCoq. He went +through the seats of the chairs with hatpins, tore up the beds, and +lifted rugs, until the house was in a state of confusion. And the next +day, the fourth, he found something--not much, but it was curious. He +had been in the studio, poking around behind the dusty pictures, with +Jimmy expostulating every time he moved anything and the rest standing +around watching him. + +Max was strutting. + +"We get it by elimination," he said importantly. "The pearls being +nowhere else in the house, they must be here in the studio. Three parts +of the studio having yielded nothing, they must be in the fourth. Ladies +and gentlemen, let me have your attention for one moment. I tap this +canvas with my wand--there is nothing up my sleeve. Then I prepare +to move the canvas--so. And I put my hand in the pocket of this +disreputable velvet coat, so. Behold!" + +Then he gave a low exclamation and looked at something he held in his +hand. Every one stepped forward, and on his palm was the small diamond +clasp from Anne's collar! + +Jimmy was apoplectic. He tried to smile, but no one else did. + +"Well, I'll be flabbergasted!" he said. "I say, you people, you don't +think for a minute that I put that thing there? Why, I haven't worn that +coat for a month. It's--it's a trick of yours, Max." + +But Max shook his head; he looked stupefied, and stood gazing from the +clasp to the pocket of the old painting coat. Betty dropped on a folding +stool, that promptly collapsed with her and created a welcome diversion, +while Anne pounced on the clasp greedily, with a little cry. + +"We will find it all now," she said excitedly. "Did you look in the +other pockets, Max?" + +Then, for the first time, I was conscious of an air of constraint among +the men. Dallas was whistling softly, and Mr. Harbison, having +rescued Betty, was standing silent and aloof, watching the scene +with non-committal eyes. It was Max who spoke first, after a hurried +inventory of the other pockets. + +"Nothing else," he said constrainedly. "I'll move the rest of the +canvases." + +But Jim interfered, to every one's surprise. + +"I wouldn't, if I were you, Max. There's nothing back there. I had 'em +out yesterday." He was quite pale. + +"Nonsense!" Max said gruffly. "If it's a practical joke, Jim, why don't +you fess up? Anne has worried enough." + +"The pearls are not there, I tell you," Jim began. Although the studio +was cold, there were little fine beads of moisture on his face. "I must +ask you not to move those pictures." And then Aunt Selina came to the +rescue; she stalked over and stood with her back against the stack of +canvases. + +"As far as I can understand this," she declaimed, "you gentlemen are +trying to intimate that James knows something of that young woman's +jewelry, because you found part of it in his pocket. Certainly you will +not move the pictures. How do you know that the young gentleman who said +he found it there didn't have it up his sleeve?" + +She looked around triumphantly, and Max glowered. Dallas soothed her, +however. + +"Exactly so," he said. "How do we know that Max didn't have the clasp +up his sleeve? My dear lady, neither my wife nor I care anything for the +pearls, as compared with the priceless pearl of peace. I suggest tea on +the roof; those in favor--? My arm, Miss Caruthers." + +It was all well enough for Jim to say later that he didn't dare to have +the canvases moved, for he had stuck behind them all sorts of chorus +girl photographs and life-class crayons that were not for Aunt Selina's +eye, besides four empty siphons, two full ones, and three bottles of +whisky. Not a soul believed him; there was a a new element of suspicion +and discord in the house. + +Every one went up on the roof and left him to his mystery. Anne drank +her tea in a preoccupied silence, with half-closed eyes, an attitude +that boded ill to somebody. The rest were feverishly gay, and Aunt +Selina, with a pair of arctics on her feet and a hot-water bottle at her +back, sat in the middle of the tent and told me familiar anecdotes of +Jimmy's early youth (had he known, he would have slain her). Betty and +Mr. Harbison had found a medicine ball, and were running around like +a pair of children. It was quite certain that neither his escape from +death nor my accusation weighed heavily on him. + +While Aunt Selina was busy with the time Jim had swallowed an open +safety pin, and just as the pin had been coughed up, or taken out of +his nose--I forget which--Jim himself appeared and sulkily demanded the +privacy of the roof for his training hour. + +Yes, he was training. Flannigan claimed to know the system that had +reduced the president to what he is, and he and Jim had a seance every +day which left Jim feeling himself for bruises all evening. He claimed +to be losing flesh; he said he could actually feel it going, and he and +Flannigan had spent an entire afternoon in the cellar three days before +with a potato barrel, a cane-seated chair and a lamp. + +The whole thing had been shrouded in mystery. They sandpapered the +inside of the barrel and took out all the nails, and when they had +finished they carried it to the roof and put it in a corner behind the +tent. Everybody was curious, but Flannigan refused any information about +it, and merely said it was part of his system. Dal said that if HE had +anything like that in his system he certainly would be glad to get rid +of it. + +At a quarter to six Jim appeared, still sullen from the events of the +afternoon and wearing a dressing gown and a pair of slippers, Flannigan +following him with a sponge, a bucket of water and an armful of bath +towels. Everybody protested at having to move, but he was firm, and they +all filed down the stairs. I was the last, with Aunt Selina just ahead +of me. At the top of the stairs, she turned around suddenly to me. + +"That policeman looks cruel," she said. "What's more, he's been in a +bad humor all day. More than likely he'll put James flat on the roof +and tramp on him, under pretense of training him. All policemen are +inhuman." + +"He only rolls him over a barrel or something like that," I protested. + +"James had a bump like an egg over his ear last night," Aunt Selina +insisted, glaring at Flannigan's unconscious back. "I don't think it's +safe to leave him. It is my time to relax for thirty minutes, or I +would watch him. You will have to stay," she said, fixing me with her +imperious eyes. + +So I stayed. Jim didn't want me, and Flannigan muttered mutiny. But +it was easier to obey Aunt Selina than to clash with her, and anyhow I +wanted to see the barrel in use. + +I never saw any one train before. It is not a joyful spectacle. First, +Flannigan made Jim run, around and around the roof. He said it stirred +up his food and brought it in contact with his liver, to be digested. + +Flannigan, from meekness and submission, of a sort, in the kitchen, +became an autocrat on the roof. + +"Once more," he would say. "Pick up your feet, sir! Pick up your feet!" + +And Jim would stagger doggedly past me, where I sat on the parapet, his +poor cheeks shaking and the tail of his bath robe wrapping itself around +his legs. Yes, he ran in the bath robe in deference to me. It seems +there isn't much to a running suit. + +"Head up," Flannigan would say. "Lift your knees, sir. Didn't you ever +see a horse with string halt?" + +He let him stop finally, and gave him a moment to get his breath. Then +he set him to turning somersaults. They spread the cushions from the +couch in the tent on the roof, and Jim would poke his head down and say +a prayer, and then curve over as gracefully as a sausage and come up +gasping, as if he had been pushed off a boat. + +"Five pounds a day; not less, sir," Flannigan said encouragingly. +"You'll drop it in chunks." + +Jim looked at the tin as if he expected to see the chunks lying at his +feet. + +"Yes," he said, wiping the back of his neck. "If we're in here thirty +days that will be one hundred and fifty pounds. Don't forget to stop in +time, Flannigan. I don't want to melt away like a candle." + +He was cheered, however, by the promise of reduction. + +"What do you think of that, Kit?" he called to me. "Your uncle is going +to look as angular as a problem in geometry. I'll--I'll be the original +reductio ad absurdum. Do you want me to stand on my head, Flannigan? +Wouldn't that reduce something?" + +"Your brains, sir," Flannigan retorted gravely, and presented a pair of +boxing gloves. Jim visibly quailed, but he put them on. + +"Do you know, Flannigan," he remarked, as he fastened them, "I'm +thinking of wearing these all the time. They hide my character." + +Flannigan looked puzzled, but he did not ask an explanation. He demanded +that Jim shed the bath robe, which he finally did, on my promise to +watch the sunset. Then for fully a minute there was no sound save of +feet running rapidly around the roof, and an occasional soft thud. Each +thud was accompanied by a grunt or two from Jim. Flannigan was grimly +silent. Once there was a smart rap, an oath from the policeman, and a +mirthless chuckle from Jim. The chuckle ended in a crash, however, and I +turned. Jim was lying on his back on the roof, and Flannigan was wiping +his ear with a towel. Jim sat up and ran his hand down his ribs. + +"They're all here," he observed after a minute. "I thought I missed +one." + +"The only way to take a man's weight down," Flannigan said dryly. + +Jim got up dizzily. + +"Down on the roof, I suppose you mean," he said. + +The next proceedings were mysterious. Flannigan rolled the barrel into +the tent, and carried in a small glass lamp. With the material at hand +he seemed to be effecting a combination, no new one, to judge by his +facility. Then he called Jim. + +At the door of the tent Jim turned to me, his bathrobe toga fashion +around his shoulders. + +"This is a very essential part of the treatment," he said solemnly. "The +exercise, according to Flannigan, loosens up the adipose tissue. The +next step is to boil it out. I hope, unless your instructions compel +you, that you will at least have the decency to stay out of the tent." + +"I am going at once," I said, outraged. "I'm not here because I'm mad +about it, and you know it. And don't pose with that bath robe. If you +think you're a character out of Roman history, look at your legs." + +"I didn't mean to offend you," he said sulkily. "Only I'm tired of +having you choked down my throat every time I open my mouth, Kit. And +don't go just yet. Flannigan is going for my clothes as soon as he +lights the--the lamp, and--somebody ought to watch the stairs." + +That was all there was to it. I said I would guard the steps, and +Flannigan, having ignited the combination, whatever it was, went +downstairs. How was I to know that Bella would come up when she did? Was +it my fault that the lamp got too high, and that Flannigan couldn't +hear Jim calling? Or that just as Bella reached the top of the steps +Jim should come to the door of the tent, wearing the barrel part of his +hot-air cabinet, and yelling for a doctor? + +Bella came to a dead stop on the upper step, with her mouth open. She +looked at Jim, at the inadequate barrel, and from them she looked at me. +Then she began to laugh, one of her hysterical giggles, and she turned +and went down again. As Jim and I stared at each other we could hear her +gurgling down the hall below. + +She had violent hysterics for an hour, with Anne rubbing her forehead +and Aunt Selina burning a feather out of the feather duster under her +nose. Only Jim and I understood, and we did not tell. Luckily, the next +thing that occurred drove Bella and her nerves from everybody's mind. + +At seven o'clock, when Bella had dropped asleep and everybody else was +dressed for dinner, Aunt Selina discovered that the house was cold, and +ordered Dal to the furnace. + +It was Dal's day at the furnace; Flannigan had been relieved of that +part of the work after twice setting fire to a chimney. + +In five minutes Dal came back and spoke a few words to Max, who followed +him to the basement, and in ten minutes more Flannigan puffed up the +steps and called Mr. Harbison. + +I am not curious, but I knew that something had happened. While Aunt +Selina was talking suffrage to Anne--who said she had always been +tremendously interested in the subject, and if women got the suffrage +would they be allowed to vote?--I slipped back to the dining room. + +The table was laid for dinner, but Flannigan was not in sight. I could +hear voices from somewhere, faint voices that talked rapidly, and after +a while I located the sounds under my feet. The men were all in the +basement, and something must have happened. I flew back to the basement +stairs, to meet Mr. Harbison at the foot. He was grimy and dusty, +with streaks of coal dust over his face, and he had been examining his +revolver. I was just in time to see him slip it into his pocket. + +"What is the matter?" I demanded. "Is any one hurt?" + +"No one," he said coolly. "We've been cleaning out the furnace." + +"With a revolver! How interesting--and unusual!" I said dryly, and +slipped past him as he barred the way. He was not pleased; I heard him +mutter something and come rapidly after me, but I had the voices as a +guide, and I was not going to be turned back like a child. The men had +gathered around a low stone arch in the furnace room, and were looking +down a short flight of steps, into a sort of vault, evidently under the +pavement. A faint light came from a small grating above, and there was a +close, musty smell in the air. + +"I tell you it must have been last night," Dallas was saying. "Wilson +and I were here before we went to bed, and I'll swear that hole was not +there then." + +"It was not there this morning, sir," Flannigan insisted. "It has been +made during the day." + +"And it could not have been done this afternoon," Mr. Harbison said +quietly. "I was fussing with the telephone wire down here. I would have +heard the noise." + +Something in his voice made me look at him, and certainly his expression +was unusual. He was watching us all intently while Dallas pointed out to +me the cause of the excitement. From the main floor of the furnace room, +a flight of stone steps surmounted by an arch led into the coal cellar, +beneath the street. The coal cellar was of brick, with a cement floor, +and in the left wall there gaped an opening about three feet by three, +leading into a cavernous void, perfectly black--evidently a similar +vault belonging to the next house. + +The whole place was ghostly, full of shadows, shivery with +possibilities. It was Mr. Harbison finally who took Jim's candle and +crawled through the aperture. We waited in dead silence, listening to +his feet crunching over the coal beyond, watching the faint yellow light +that came through the ragged opening in the wall. Then he came back and +called through to us. + +"Place is locked, over here," he said. "Heavy oak door at the head of +the steps. Whoever made that opening has done a prodigious amount of +labor for nothing." + +The weapon, a crowbar, lay on the ground beside the bricks, and he +picked it up and balanced it on his hand. Dallas' florid face was almost +comical in his bewilderment; as for Jimmy--he slammed a piece of slag at +the furnace and walked away. At the door he turned around. + +"Why don't you accuse me of it?" he asked bitterly. "Maybe you could +find a lump of coal in my pockets if you searched me." + +He stalked up the stairs then and left us. Dallas and I went up +together, but we did not talk. There seemed to be nothing to say. Not +until I had closed and locked the door of my room did I venture to look +at something that I carried in the palm of my hand. It was a watch, not +running--a gentleman's flat gold watch, and it had been hanging by its +fob to a nail in the bricks beside the aperture. + +In the back of the watch were the initials, T.H.H. and the picture of a +girl, cut from a newspaper. + +It was my picture. + + + +Chapter XVI. I FACE FLANNIGAN + +Dinner waited that night while everybody went to the coal cellar and +stared at the hole in the wall, and watched while Max took a tracing of +it and of some footprints in the coal dust on the other side. + +I did not go. I went into the library with the guilty watch in the fold +of my gown, and found Mr. Harbison there, staring through the February +gloom at the blank wall of the next house, and quite unconscious of the +reporter with a drawing pad just below him in the area-way. I went over +and closed the shutters before his very eyes, but even then he did not +move. + +"Will you be good enough to turn around?" I demanded at last. + +"Oh!" he said wheeling. "Are YOU here?" + +There wasn't any reply to that, so I took the watch and placed it on the +library table between us. The effect was all that I had hoped. He stared +at it for an instant, then at me, and with his hand outstretched for it, +stopped. + +"Where did you find it?" he asked. I couldn't understand his expression. +He looked embarrassed, but not at all afraid. + +"I think you know, Mr. Harbison," I retorted. + +"I wish I did. You opened it?" + +"Yes." + +We stood looking at each other across the table. It was his glance that +wavered. + +"About the picture--of you," he said at last. "You see, down there in +South America, a fellow hasn't much to do in the evenings, and a--a chum +of mine and I--we were awfully down on what we called the plutocrats, +the--the leisure classes. And when that picture of yours came in the +paper, we had--we had an argument. He said--" He stopped. + +"What did he say?" + +"Well, he said it was the picture of an empty-faced society girl." + +"Oh!" I exclaimed. + +"I--I maintained there were possibilities in the face." He put both +hands on the table, and, bending forward, looked down at me. "Well, I +was a fool, I admit. I said your eyes were kind and candid, in spite of +that haughty mouth. You see, I said I was a fool." + +"I think you are exceedingly rude," I managed finally. "If you want to +know where I found your watch, it was down in the coal cellar. And +if you admit you are an idiot, I am not. I--I know all about Bella's +bracelet--and the board on the roof, and--oh, if you would only +leave--Anne's necklace--on the coal, or somewhere--and get away--" + +My voice got beyond me then, and I dropped into a chair and covered my +face. I could feel him staring at the back of my head. + +"Well, I'll be--" something or other, he said finally, and then he +turned on his heel and went out. By the time I got my eyes dry (yes, I +was crying; I always do when I am angry) I heard Jim coming downstairs, +and I tucked the watch out of sight. Would anyone have foreseen the +trouble that watch would make! + +Jim was sulky. He dropped into a chair and stretched out his legs, +looking gloomily at nothing. Then he got up and ambled into his den, +closing the door behind him without having spoken a word. It was more +than human nature could stand. + +When I went into the den he was stretched on the davenport with his face +buried in the cushions. He looked absolutely wilted, and every line of +him was drooping. + +"Go on out, Kit," he said, in a smothered voice. "Be a good girl and +don't follow me around." + +"You are shameless!" I gasped. "Follow you! When you are hung around +my neck like a--like a--" Millstone was what I wanted to say, but I +couldn't think of it. + +He turned over and looked up from his cushions like an ill-treated and +suffering cherub. + +"I'm done for, Kit," he groaned. "Bella went up to the studio after we +left, and investigated that corner." + +"What did she find? The necklace?" I asked eagerly. He was too wretched +to notice this. + +"No, that picture of you that I did last winter. She is crazy--she says +she is going upstairs and sit in Takahiro's room and take smallpox and +die." + +"Fiddlesticks!" I said rudely, and somebody hammered on the door and +opened it. + +"Pardon me for disturbing you," Bella said, in her best +dear-me-I'm-glad-I-knocked manner. "But--Flannigan says the dinner has +not come." + +"Good Lord!" Jim exclaimed. "I forgot to order the confounded dinner!" + +It was eight o'clock by that time, and as it took an hour at least +after telephoning the order, everybody looked blank when they heard. The +entire family, except Mr. Harbison, who had not appeared again, escorted +Jim to the telephone and hung around hungrily, suggesting new dishes +every minute. And then--he couldn't raise Central. It was fifteen +minutes before we gave up, and stood staring at one another +despairingly. + +"Call out of a window, and get one of those infernal reporters to +do something useful for once," Max suggested. But he was indignantly +hushed. We would have starved first. Jim was peering into the +transmitter and knocking the receiver against his hand, like a watch +that had stopped. But nothing happened. Flannigan reported a box of +breakfast food, two lemons, and a pineapple cheese, a combination that +didn't seem to lend itself to anything. + +We went back to the dining room from sheer force of habit and sat around +the table and looked at the lemonade Flannigan had made. Anne WOULD talk +about the salad her last cook had concocted, and Max told about a little +town in Connecticut where the restaurant keeper smokes a corn-cob pipe +while he cooks the most luscious fried clams in America. And Aunt Selina +related that in her family they had a recipe for chicken smothered in +cream. And then we sipped the weak lemonade and nibbled at the cheese. + +"To change this gridiron martyrdom," Dallas said finally, "where's +Harbison? Still looking for his watch?" + +"Watch!" Everybody said it in a different tone. + +"Sure," he responded. "Says his watch was taken last night from the +studio. Better get him down to take a squint at the telephone. Likely he +can fix it." + +Flannigan was beside me with the cheese. And at that moment I felt Mr. +Harbison's stolen watch slip out of my girdle, slide greasily across +my lap, and clatter to the floor. Flannigan stooped, but luckily it had +gone under the table. To have had it picked up, to have had to explain +how I got it, to see them try to ignore my picture pasted in it--oh, it +was impossible! I put my foot over it. + +"Drop something?" Dallas asked perfunctorily, rising. Flannigan was +still half kneeling. + +"A fork," I said, as easily as I could, and the conversation went on. +But Flannigan knew, and I knew he knew. He watched my every movement +like a hawk after that, standing just behind my chair. I dropped my +useless napkin, to have it whirled up before it reached the floor. I +said to Betty that my shoe buckle was loose, and actually got the watch +in my hand, only to let it slip at the critical moment. Then they all +got up and went sadly back to the library, and Flannigan and I faced +each other. + +Flannigan was not a handsome man at any time, though up to then he had +at least looked amiable. But now as I stood with my hand on the back of +my chair, his face grew suddenly menacing. The silence was absolute. +I was the guiltiest wretch alive, and opposite me the law towered and +glowered, and held the yellow remnant of a pineapple cheese! And in the +silence that wretched watch lay and ticked and ticked and ticked. Then +Flannigan creaked over and closed the door into the hall, came back, +picked up the watch, and looked at it. + +"You're unlucky, I'm thinkin'," he said finally. "You've got the nerve +all right, but you ain't cute enough." + +"I don't know what you mean," I quavered. "Give me that watch to return +to Mr. Harbison." + +"Not on your life," he retorted easily. "I give it back myself, like +I did the bracelet, and--like I'm going to give back the necklace, if +you'll act like a sensible little girl." + +I could only choke. + +"It's foolish, any way you look at it," he persisted. "Here you are, +lots of friends, folks that think you're all right. Why, I reckon there +isn't one of them that wouldn't lend you money if you needed it so bad." + +"Will you be still?" I said furiously. "Mr. Harbison left that +watch--with me--an hour ago. Get him, and he will tell you so himself!" + +"Of course he would," Flannigan conceded, looking at me with grudging +approval. "He wouldn't be what I think he is, if he didn't lie up and +down for you." There were voices in the hall. Flannigan came closer. +"An hour ago, you say. And he told me it was gone this morning! It's +a losing game, miss. I'll give you twenty-four hours and then--the +necklace, if you please, miss." + + + +Chapter XVII. A CLASH AND A KISS + +The clash that came that evening had been threatening for some time. +Take an immovable body, represented by Mr. Harbison and his square jaw, +and an irresistible force, Jimmy and his weight, and there is bound to +be trouble. + +The real fault was Jim's. He had gone entirely mad again over Bella, and +thrown prudence to the winds. He mooned at her across the dinner table, +and waylaid her on the stairs or in the back halls, just to hear her +voice when she ordered him out of her way. He telephoned for flowers and +candy for her quite shamelessly, and he got out a book of photographs +that they had taken on their wedding journey, and kept it on the library +table. The sole concession he made to our presumptive relationship was +to bring me the responsibility for everything that went wrong, and his +shirts for buttons. + +The first I heard of the trouble was from Dal. He waylaid me in the hall +after dinner that night, and his face was serious. + +"I'm afraid we can't keep it up very long, Kit," he said. "With Jim +trailing Bella all over the house, and the old lady keener every day, +it's bound to come out somehow. And that isn't all. Jim and Harbison had +a set-to today--about you." + +"About me!" I repeated. "Oh, I dare say I have been falling short again. +What was Jim doing? Abusing me?" + +Dal looked cautiously over his shoulder, but no one was near. + +"It seems that the gentle Bella has been unusually beastly today to Jim, +and--I believe she's jealous of you, Kit. Jim followed her up to the +roof before dinner with a box of flowers, and she tossed them over the +parapet. She said, I believe, that she didn't want his flowers; he could +buy them for you, and be damned to him, or some lady-like equivalent." + +"Jim is a jellyfish," I said contemptuously. "What did he say?" + +"He said he only cared for one woman, and that was Bella; that he never +had really cared for you and never would, and that divorce courts were +not unmitigated evils if they showed people the way to real happiness. +Which wouldn't amount to anything if Harbison had not been in the tent, +trying to sleep!" + +Dal did not know all the particulars, but it seems that relations +between Jim and Mr. Harbison were rather strained. Bella had left the +roof and Jim and the Harbison man came face to face in the door of the +tent. According to Dal, little had been said, but Jim, bound by his +promise to me, could not explain, and could only stammer something about +being an old friend of Miss Knowles. And Tom had replied shortly that +it was none of his business, but that there were some things friendship +hardly justified, and tried to pass Jim. Jim was instantly enraged; he +blocked the door to the roof and demanded to know what the other man +meant. There were two or three versions of the answer he got. The +general purport was that Mr. Harbison had no desire to explain further, +and that the situation was forced on him. But if he insisted--when a man +systematically ignored and neglected his wife for some one else, there +were communities where he would be tarred and feathered. + +"Meaning me?" Jim demanded, apoplectic. + +"The remark was a general one," Mr. Harbison retorted, "but if you wish +to make a concrete application--!" + +Dal had gone up just then, and found them glaring at each other, Jim +with his hands clenched at his sides, and Mr. Harbison with his arms +folded and very erect. Dal took Jim by the elbow and led him downstairs, +muttering, and the situation was saved for the time. But Dal was not +optimistic. + +"You can do a bit yourself, Kit," he finished. "Look more cheerful, +flirt a little. You can do that without trying. Take Max on for a day or +so; it would be charity anyhow. But don't let Tom Harbison take into his +head that you are grieving over Jim's neglect, or he's likely to toss +him off the roof." + +"I have no reason to think that Mr. Harbison cares one way or the other +about me," I said primly. "You don't think he's--he's in love with me, +do you, Dal?" I watched him out of the corner of my eye, but he only +looked amused. + +"In love with you!" he repeated. "Why bless your wicked little heart, +no! He thinks you're a married woman! It's the principle of the thing +he's fighting for. If I had as much principle as he has, I'd--I'd put it +out at interest." + +Max interrupted us just then, and asked if we knew where Mr. Harbison +was. + +"Can't find him," he said. "I've got the telephone together and have +enough left over to make another. Where do you suppose Harbison hides +the tools? I'm working with a corkscrew and two palette knives." + +I heard nothing more of the trouble that night. Max went to Jim about +it, and Jim said angrily that only a fool would interfere between a man +and his wife--wives. Whereupon Max retorted that a fool and his wives +were soon parted, and left him. The two principals were coldly civil +to each other, and smaller issues were lost as the famine grew more and +more insistent. For famine it was. + +They worked the rest of the evening, but the telephone refused to revive +and every one was starving. Individually our pride was at low ebb, but +collectively it was still formidable. So we sat around and Jim played +Grieg with the soft stops on, and Aunt Selina went to bed. The weather +had changed, and it was sleeting, but anything was better than the +drawing room. I was in a mood to battle with the elements or to cry--or +both--so I slipped out, while Dal was reciting "Give me three grains +of corn, mother," threw somebody's overcoat over my shoulders, put on a +man's soft hat--Jim's I think--and went up to the roof. + +It was dark in the third floor hall, and I had to feel my way to the +foot of the stairs. I went up quietly, and turned the knob of the door +to the roof. At first it would not open, and I could hear the wind +howling outside. Finally, however, I got the door open a little and +wormed my way through. It was not entirely dark out there, in spite of +the storm. A faint reflection of the street lights made it possible to +distinguish the outlines of the boxwood plants, swaying in the wind, and +the chimneys and the tent. And then--a dark figure disentangled itself +from the nearest chimney and seemed to hurl itself at me. I remember +putting out my hands and trying to say something, but the figure caught +me roughly by the shoulders and knocked me back against the door frame. +From miles away a heavy voice was saying, "So I've got you!" and then +the roof gave from under me, and I was floating out on the storm, and +sleet was beating in my face, and the wind was whispering over and over, +"Open your eyes, for God's sake!" + +I did open them after a while, and finally I made out that I was laying +on the floor in the tent. The lights were on, and I had a cold and damp +feeling, and something wet was trickling down my neck. + +I seemed to be alone, but in a second somebody came into the tent, and I +saw it was Mr. Harbison, and that he had a double handful of half-melted +snow. He looked frantic and determined, and only my sitting up quickly +prevented my getting another snow bath. My neck felt queer and stiff, +and I was very dizzy. When he saw that I was conscious he dropped the +snow and stood looking down at me. + +"Do you know," he said grimly, "that I very nearly choked you to death a +little while ago?" + +"It wouldn't surprise me to be told so," I said. "Do I know too much, or +what is it, Mr. Harbison?" I felt terribly ill, but I would not let him +see it. "It is queer, isn't it--how we always select the roof for our +little--differences?" He seemed to relax somewhat at my gibe. + +"I didn't know it was you," he explained shortly. "I was waiting +for--some one, and in the hat you wore and the coat, I mistook you. +That's all. Can you stand?" + +"No," I retorted. I could, but his summary manner displeased me. The +sequel, however, was rather amazing, for he stooped suddenly and picked +me up, and the next instant we were out in the storm together. At the +door he stooped and felt for the knob. + +"Turn it," he commanded. "I can't reach it." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind," I said shrewishly. "Let me down; I can +walk perfectly well." + +He hesitated. Then he slid me slowly to my feet, but he did not open +the door at once. "Are you afraid to let me carry you down those stairs, +after--Tuesday night?" he asked, very low. "You still think I did that?" + +I had never been less sure of it than at that moment, but an imp of +perversity made me retort, "Yes." + +He hardly seemed to hear me. He stood looking down at me as I leaned +against the door frame. + +"Good Lord!" he groaned. "To think that I might have killed you!" And +then--he stooped and suddenly kissed me. + +The next moment the door was open, and he was leading me down into the +house. At the foot of the staircase he paused, still holding my hand, +and faced me in the darkness. + +"I'm not sorry," he said steadily. "I suppose I ought to be, but I'm +not. Only--I want you to know that I was not guilty--before. I didn't +intend to now. I am--almost as much surprised as you are." + +I was quite unable to speak, but I wrenched my hand loose. He stepped +back to let me pass, and I went down the hall alone. + + + +Chapter XVIII. IT'S ALL MY FAULT + +I didn't go to the drawing room again. I went into my own room and sat +in the dark, and tried to be furiously angry, and only succeeded in +feeling queer and tingly. One thing was absolutely certain: not the same +man, but two different men had kissed me on the stairs to the roof. +It sounds rather horrid and discriminating, but there was all the +difference in the world. + +But then--who had? And for whom had Mr. Harbison been waiting on the +roof? "Did you know that I nearly choked you to death a few minutes +ago?" Then he rather expected to finish somebody in that way! Who? Jim, +probably. It was strange, too, but suddenly I realized that no matter +how many suspicious things I mustered up against him--and there were +plenty--down in my heart I didn't believe him guilty of anything, except +this last and unforgivable offense. Whoever was trying to leave the +house had taken the necklace, that seemed clear, unless Max was still +foolishly trying to break quarantine and create one of the sensations he +so dearly loves. This was a new idea, and some things upheld it, but Max +had been playing bridge when I was kissed on the stairs, and there was +still left that ridiculous incident of the comfort. + +Bella came up after I had gone to bed, and turned on the light to brush +her hair. + +"If I don't leave this mausoleum soon, I'll be carried out," she +declared. "You in bed, Lollie Mercer and Dal flirting, Anne hysterical, +and Jim making his will in the den! You will have to take Aunt Selina +tonight, Kit; I'm all in." + +"If you'll put her to bed, I'll keep her there," I conceded, after some +parley. + +"You're a dear." Bella came back from the door. "Look here, Kit, you +know Jim pretty well. Don't you think he looks ill? Thinner?" + +"He's a wreck," I said soberly. "You have a lot to answer for, Bella." + +Bella went over to the cheval glass and looked in it. "I avoid him all +I can," she said, posing. "He's awfully funny; he's so afraid I'll think +he's serious about you. He can't realize that for me he simply doesn't +exist." + +Well, I took Aunt Selina, and about two o'clock, while I was in my first +sleep, I woke to find her standing beside me, tugging at my arm. + +"There's somebody in the house," she whispered. "Thieves!" + +"If they're in they'll not get out tonight," I said. + +"I tell you, I saw a man skulking on the stairs," she insisted. + +I got up ungraciously enough, and put on my dressing gown. Aunt Selina, +who had her hair in crimps, tied a veil over her head, and together we +went to the head of the stairs. Aunt Selina leaned far over and peered +down. + +"He's in the library," she whispered. "I can see a light." + +The lust of battle was in Aunt Selina's eye. She girded her robe about +her and began to descend the stairs cautiously. We went through the hall +and stopped at the library door. It was empty, but from the den beyond +came a hum of voices and the cheerful glow of fire light. I realized the +situation then, but it was too late. + +"Then why did you kiss her in the dining room?" Bella was saying in her +clear, high tones. "You did, didn't you?" + +"It was only her hand," Jim, desperately explaining. "I've got to pay +her some attention, under the circumstances. And I give you my word, I +was thinking of you when I did it." THE WRETCH! + +Aunt Selina drew her breath in suddenly. + +"I am thinking of marrying Reggie Wolfe." This was Bella, of course. "He +wants me to. He's a dear boy." + +"If you do, I will kill him." + +"I am so very lonely," Bella sighed. We could hear the creak of Jim's +shirt bosom that showed that he had sighed also. Aunt Selina had gripped +me by the arm, and I could hear her breathing hard beside me. + +"It's only Jim," I whispered. "I--I don't want to hear any more." + +But she clutched me firmly, and the next thing we heard was another +creak, louder and-- + +"Get up! Get up off your knees this instant!" Bella was saying +frantically. "Some one might come in." + +"Don't send me away," Jim said in a smothered voice. "Every one in the +house is asleep, and I love you, dear." + +Aunt Selina swallowed hard in the darkness. + +"You have no right to make love to me," Bella. "It's--it's highly +improper, under the circumstances." + +And then Jim: "You swallow a camel and stick at a gnat. Why did you meet +me here, if you didn't expect me to make love to you? I've stood for +a lot, Bella, but this foolishness will have to end. Either you love +me--or you don't. I'm desperate." He drew a long, forlorn breath. + +"Poor old Jim!" This was Bella. A pause. Then--"Let my hand alone!" Also +Bella. + +"It is MY hand!"--Jim;'s most fatuous tone. "THERE is where you wore +my ring. There's the mark still." Sounds of Jim kissing Bella's ring +finger. "What did you do with it? Throw it away?" More sounds. + +Aunt Selina crossed the library swiftly, and again I followed. Bella +was sitting in a low chair by the fire, looking at the logs, in the most +exquisite negligee of pink chiffon and ribbon. Jim was on his knees, +staring at her adoringly, and holding both her hands. + +"I'll tell you a secret," Bella was saying, looking as coy as she knew +how--which was considerable. "I--I still wear it, on a chain around my +neck." + +On a chain around her neck! Bella, who is decollete whenever it is +allowable, and more than is proper! + +That was the limit of Aunt Selina's endurance. Still holding me, she +stepped through the doorway and into the firelight, a fearful figure. + +Jim saw her first. He went quite white and struggled to get up, +smiling a sickly smile. Bella, after her first surprise, was superbly +indifferent. She glanced at us, raised her eyebrows, and then looked at +the clock. + +"More victims of insomnia!" she said. "Won't you come in? Jim, pull up a +chair by the fire for your aunt." + +Aunt Selina opened her mouth twice, like a fish, before she could speak. +Then-- + +"James, I demand that that woman leave the house!" she said hoarsely. + +Bella leaned back and yawned. + +"James, shall I go?" she asked amiably. + +"Nonsense," Jim said, pulling himself together as best he could. "Look +here, Aunt Selina, you know she can't go out, and what's more, I--don't +want her to go." + +"You--what?" Aunt Selina screeched, taking a step forward. "You have the +audacity to say such a thing to me!" + +Bella leaned over and gave the fire log a punch. + +"I was just saying that he shouldn't say such things to me, either," +she remarked pleasantly. "I'm afraid you'll take cold, Miss Caruthers. +Wouldn't you like a hot sherry flip?" + +Aunt Selina gasped. Then she sat down heavily on one of the carved +teakwood chairs. + +"He said he loved you; I heard him," she said weakly. "He--he was going +to put his arm around you!" + +"Habit!" Jim put in, trying to smile. "You see, Aunt Selina, it's--well, +it's a habit I got into some time ago, and I--my arm does it without my +thinking about it." + +"Habit!" Aunt Selina repeated, her voice thick with passion. Then she +turned to me. "Go to your room at once!" she said in her most awful +tone. "Go to your room and leave this--this shocking affair to me." + +But if she had reached her limit, so had I. If Jim chose to ruin +himself, it was not my fault. Any one with common sense would have known +at least to close the door before he went down on his knees, no matter +to whom. So when Aunt Selina turned on me and pointed in the direction +of the staircase, I did not move. + +"I am perfectly wide awake," I said coldly. "I shall go to bed when I am +entirely ready, and not before. And as for Jim's conduct, I do not know +much about the conventions in such cases, but if he wishes to embrace +Miss Knowles, and she wants him to, the situation is interesting, but +hardly novel." + +Aunt Selina rose slowly and drew the folds of her dressing gown around +her, away from the contamination of my touch. + +"Do you know what you are saying?" she demanded hoarsely. + +"I do." I was quite white and stiff from my knees up, but below I +was wavery. I glanced at Jim for moral support, but he was looking +idolatrously at Bella. As for her, quite suddenly she had dropped her +mask of indifference; her face was strained and anxious, and there were +deep circles I had not seen before, under her eyes. And it was Bella who +finally threw herself into the breach--the family breach. + +"It is all my fault, Miss Caruthers," she said, stepping between Aunt +Selina and myself. "I have been a blind and wicked woman, and I have +almost wrecked two lives." + +Two! What of mine? + +"You see," she struggled on, against the glint in Aunt Selina's eyes. +"I--I did not realize how much I cared, until it was too late. I did so +many things that were cruel and wrong--oh, Jim, Jim!" + +She turned and buried her head on his shoulder and cried; real tears. I +could hardly believe that it was Bella. And Jim put both his arms around +her and almost cried, too, and looked nauseatingly happy with the eye +he turned to Bella, and scared to death out of the one he kept on Aunt +Selina. + +She turned on me, as of course I knew she would. + +"That," she said, pointing at Jim and Bella, "that shameful picture +is due to your own indifference. I am not blind; I have seen how you +rejected all his loving advances." Bella drew away from Jim, but +he jerked her back. "If anything in the world would reconcile me to +divorce, it is this unbelievable situation. James, are you shameless?" + +But James was and didn't care who knew it. And as there was nothing else +to do, and no one else to do it, I stood very straight against the door +frame, and told the whole miserable story from the very beginning. I +told how Dal and Jim had persuaded me, and how I had weakened and found +it was too late, and how Bella had come in that night, when she had no +business to come, and had sat down in the basement kitchen on my hands +and almost turned me into a raving maniac. As I went on I became fluent; +my sense of injury grew on me. I made it perfectly clear that I hated +them all, and that when people got divorces they ought to know their own +minds and stay divorced. And at that a great light broke on Aunt Selina, +who hadn't understood until that minute. + +In view of her principles, she might have been expected to turn on Jim +and Bella, and disinherit them, and cast them out, figuratively, with +the flaming sword of her tongue. BUT SHE DID NOT! + +She turned on me in the most terrible way, and asked me how I dared to +come between husband and wife, because divorce or no divorce, whom God +hath joined together, and so on. And when Jim picked up his courage in +both hands and tried to interfere, she pushed him back with one hand +while she pointed the other at me and called me a Jezebel. + + + +Chapter XIX. THE HARBISON MAN + +She talked for an hour, having got between me and the door, and she +scolded Jim and Bella thoroughly. But they did not hear it, being +occupied with each other, sitting side by side meekly on the divan with +Jim holding Bella's hand under a cushion. She said they would have to be +very good to make up for all the deception, but it was perfectly +clear that it was a relief to her to find that I didn't belong to her +permanently, and as I have said before, she was crazy about Bella. + +I sat back in a chair and grew comfortably drowsy in the monotony of her +voice. It was a name that brought me to myself with a jerk. + +"Mr. Harbison!" Aunt Selina was saying. "Then bring him down at once, +James. I want no more deception. There is no use cleaning a house and +leaving a dirty corner." + +"It will not be necessary for me to stay and see it swept," I said, +mustering the rags she had left of my self-respect, and trying to pass +her. But she planted herself squarely before me. + +"You can not stir up a dust like this, young woman, and leave other +people to sneeze in it," she said grimly. And I stayed. + +I sat, very small, on a chair in a corner. I felt like Jezebel, or +whatever her name was, and now the Harbison man was coming, and he +was going to see me stripped of my pretensions to domesticity and of a +husband who neglected me. He was going to see me branded a living lie, +and he would hate me because I had put him in a ridiculous position. He +was just the sort to resent being ridiculous. + +Jim brought him down in a dressing gown and a state of bewilderment. +It was plain that the memory of the afternoon still rankled, for he was +very short with Jim and inclined to resent the whole thing. The clock +in the hall chimed half after three as they came down the stairs, and I +heard Mr. Harbison stumble over something in the darkness and say that +if it was a joke, he wasn't in the humor for it. To which Jim retorted +that it wasn't anything resembling a joke, and for heaven's sake not to +walk on his feet; he couldn't get around the furniture any faster. + +At the door of the den Mr. Harbison stopped, blinking in the light. +Then, when he saw us, he tried to back himself and his dishabille out +into the obscurity of the library. But Aunt Selina was too quick for +him. + +"Come in," she called, "I want you, young man. It seems that there are +only two fools in the house, and you are one." + +He straightened at that and looked bewildered, but he tried to smile. + +"I thought I was the only one," he said. "Is it possible that there is +another?" + +"I am the other," she announced. I think she expected him to say +"Impossible," but, whatever he was, he was never banal. + +"Is that so?" he asked politely, trying to be interested and to +understand at the same time. He had not seen me. He was gazing fixedly +at Bella, languishing on the divan and watching him with lowered lids, +and he had given Jim a side glance of contempt. But now he saw me and +he colored under his tan. His neck blushed furiously, being much whiter +than his face. He kept his eyes on mine, and I knew that he was mutely +asking forgiveness. But the thought of what was coming paralyzed me. My +eyes were glued to his as they had been that first evening when he had +called me "Mrs. Wilson," and after an instant he looked away, and his +face was set and hard. + +"It seems that we have all been playing a little comedy, Mr. Harbison," +Aunt Selina began, nasally sarcastic. "Or rather, you and I have been +the audience. The rest have played." + +"I--I don't think I understand," he said slowly. "I have seen very +little comedy." + +"It was not well planned," Aunt Selina retorted tartly. "The idea +was good, but the young person who was playing the part of Mrs. +Wilson--overacted." + +"Oh, come, Aunt Selina," Jim protested, "Kit was coaxed and cajoled into +this thing. Give me fits if you like; I deserve all I get. But let Kit +alone--she did it for me." + +Bella looked over at me and smiled nastily. + +"I would stop doing things for Jim, Kit," she said. "It is SO +unprofitable." + +But Mr. Harbison harked back to Aunt Selina's speech. + +"PLAYING the part of Mrs. Wilson!" he repeated. "Do you mean--?" + +"Exactly. Playing the part. She is not Mrs. Wilson. It seems that that +honor belonged at one time to Miss Knowles. I believe such things are +not unknown in New York, only why in the name of sense does a man want +to divorce a woman and then meet her at two o'clock in the morning to +kiss the place where his own wedding ring used to rest?" + +Jim fidgeted. Bella was having spasms of mirth to herself, but the +Harbison man did not smile. He stood for a moment looking at the fire; +then he thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his dressing gown, and +stalked over to me. He did not care that the others were watching and +listening. + +"Is it true?" he demanded, staring down at me. "You are NOT Mrs. Wilson? +You are not married at all? All that about being neglected--and loathing +HIM, and all that on the roof--there was no foundation of truth?" + +I could only shake my head without looking up. There was no defense to +be made. Oh, I deserved the scorn in his voice. + +"They--they persuaded you, I suppose, and it was to help somebody? It +was not a practical joke?" + +"No," I rallied a little spirit at that. It had been anything but a +joke. + +He drew a long breath. + +"I think I understand," he said slowly, "but--you could have saved me +something. I must have given you all a great deal of amusement." + +"Oh, no," I protested. "I--I want to tell you--" + +But he deliberately left me and went over to the door. There he turned +and looked down at Aunt Selina. He was a little white, but there was no +passion in his face. + +"Thank you for telling me all this, Miss Caruthers," he said easily. +"Now that you and I know, I'm afraid the others will miss their little +diversion. Good night." + +Oh, it was all right for Jim to laugh and say that he was only huffed +a little and would be over it by morning. I knew better. There was +something queer in his face as he went out. He did not even glance in my +direction. He had said very little, but he had put me as effectually in +the wrong as if he had not kissed me--deliberately kissed me--that very +evening, on the roof. + +I did not go to sleep again. I lay wretchedly thinking things over and +trying to remember who Jezebel was, and toward morning I distinctly +heard the knob of the door turn. I mistrusted my ears, however, and so +I got up quietly and went over in the darkness. There was no sound +outside, but when I put my hand on the knob I felt it move under my +fingers. The counter pressure evidently alarmed whoever it was, for the +knob was released and nothing more happened. But by this time anything +so uncomplicated as the fumbling of a knob at night had no power to +disturb me. I went back to bed. + + + +Chapter XX. BREAKING OUT IN A NEW PLACE + +Hunger roused everybody early the next morning, Friday. Leila Mercer had +discovered a box of bonbons that she had forgotten, and we divided them +around. Aunt Selina asked for the candied fruit and got it--quite a +third of the box. We gathered in the lower hall and on the stairs and +nibbled nauseating sweets while Mr. Harbison examined the telephone. + +He did not glance in my direction. Betty and Dal were helping him, and +he seemed very cheerful. Max sat with me on the stairs. Mr. Harbison had +just unscrewed the telephone box from the wall and was squinting into +it, when Bella came downstairs. It was her first appearance, but as she +was always late, nobody noticed. When she stopped, just above us on +the stairs, however, we looked up, and she was holding to the rail and +trembling perceptibly. + +"Mr. Harbison, will you--can you come upstairs?" she asked. Her voice +was strained, almost reedy, and her lips were white. + +Mr. Harbison stared up at her, with the telephone box in his hands. + +"Why--er--certainly," he said, "but, unless it's very important, I'd +like to fix this talking machine. We want to make a food record." + +"I'd like to break a food record," Max put in, but Bella created a +diversion by sitting down suddenly on the stair just above us, and +burying her face in her handkerchief. + +"Jim is sick," she said, with a sob. "He--he doesn't want anything to +eat, and his head aches. He--said for me--to go away and let him die!" + +Dal dropped the hammer immediately, and Lollie Mercer sat petrified, +with a bonbon halfway to her mouth. For, of course, it was unexpected, +finding sentiment of any kind in Bella, and none of them knew about the +scene in the den in the small hours of the morning. + +"Sick!" Aunt Selina said, from a hall chair. "Sick! Where?" + +"All over," Bella quavered. "His poor head is hot, and he's thirsty, but +he doesn't want anything but water." + +"Great Scott!" Dal said suddenly. "Suppose he should--Bella, are you +telling us ALL his symptoms?" + +Bella put down her handkerchief and got up. From her position on the +stairs she looked down on us with something of her old haughty manner. + +"If he is ill, you may blame yourselves, all of you," she said cruelly. +"You taunted him with being--fat, and laughed at him, until he stopped +eating the things he should eat. And he has been exercising--on the +roof, until he has worn himself out. And now--he is ill. He--he has a +rash." + +Everybody jumped at that, and we instinctively moved away from Bella. +She was quite cold and scornful by that time. + +"A rash!" Max exclaimed. "What sort of rash?" + +"I did not see it," Bella said with dignity, and turning, she went up +the stairs. + +There was a great deal of excitement, and nobody except Mr. Harbison was +willing to go near Jim. He went up at once with Bella, while Max and Dal +sat cravenly downstairs and wondered if we would all take it, and Anne +told about a man she knew who had it, and was deaf and dumb and blind +when he recovered. + +Mr. Harbison came down after a while, and said that the rash was there, +right enough, and that Jim absolutely refused to be quarantined; that he +insisted that he always got a rash from early strawberries and that if +he DID have anything, since they were so touchy he hoped they would all +get it. If they locked him in he would kick the door down. + +We had a long conference in the hall, with Bella sitting red-eyed and +objecting to every suggestion we made. And finally we arranged to +shut Jim up in one of the servants' bedrooms with a sheet wrung out of +disinfectant hung over the door. Bella said she would sit outside in +the hall and read to him through the closed door, so finally he gave +a grudging consent. But he was in an awful humor. Max and Dal put on +rubber gloves and helped him over, and they said afterward that the way +he talked was fearful. And there was a telephone in the maid's room, and +he kept asking for things every five minutes. + +When the doctor came he said it was too early to tell positively, and he +ordered him liquid diet and said he would be back that evening. + +Which--the diet--takes me back to the famine. After they had moved Jim, +Mr. Harbison went back to the telephone, and found everything as it +should be. So he followed the telephone wire, and the rest followed him. +I did not; he had systematically ignored me all morning, after having +dared to kiss me the night before. And any other man I know, after +looking at me the way he had looked a dozen times, would have been at +least reasonably glad to find me free and unmarried. But it was clear +that he was not; I wondered if he was the kind of man who always makes +love to the other man's wife and runs like mad when she is left a widow, +or gets a divorce. + +And just when I had decided that I hated him, and that there was one man +I knew who would never make love to a woman whom he thought married and +then be very dignified and aloof when he found she wasn't, I heard what +was wrong with the telephone wire. + +It had been cut! Cut through with a pair of silver manicure scissors +from the dressing table in Bella's room, where Aunt Selina slept! The +wire had been clipped where it came into the house, just under a window, +and the scissors still lay on the sill. + +It was mysterious enough, but no one was interested in the mystery just +then. We wanted food, and wanted it at once. Mr. Harbison fixed the +wire, and the first thing we did, of course, was to order something to +eat. Aunt Selina went to bed just after luncheon with indigestion, to +the relief of every one in the house. She had been most unpleasant all +morning. + +When she found herself ill, however, she insisted on having Bella, and +that made trouble at once. We found Bella with her cheek against the +door into Jim's room, looking maudlin while he shouted love messages to +her from the other side. At first she refused to stir, but after Anne +and Max had tried and failed, the rest of us went to her in a body and +implored her. We said Aunt Selina was in awful shape--which she was, as +to temper--and that she had thrown a mustard plaster at Anne, which was +true. + +So Bella went, grumbling, and Jim was a maniac. We had not thought it +would be so bad for Bella, but Aunt Selina fell asleep soon after she +took charge, holding Bella's hand, and slept for three hours and never +let go! + +About two that afternoon the sun came out, and the rest of us went +to the roof. The sleet had melted and the air was fairly warm. Two +housemaids dusting rugs on the top of the next house came over and +stared at us, and somebody in an automobile down on Riverside Drive +stood up and waved at us. It was very cheerful and hopelessly lonely. + +I stayed on the roof after the others had gone, and for some time I +thought I was alone. After a while, I got a whiff of smoke, and then +I saw Mr. Harbison far over in the corner, one foot on the parapet, +moodily smoking a pipe. He was gazing out over the river, and paying no +attention to me. This was natural, considering that I had hardly spoken +to him all day. + +I would not let him drive me away, so I sat still, and it grew darker +and colder. He filled his pipe now and then, but he never looked in my +direction. Finally, however, as it grew very dusk, he knocked the ashes +out and came toward me. + +"I am going to make a request, Miss McNair," he said evenly. "Please +keep off the roof after sunset. There are--reasons." I had risen and was +preparing to go downstairs. + +"Unless I know the reasons, I refuse to do anything of the kind," I +retorted. He bowed. + +"Then the door will be kept locked," he rejoined, and opened it for me. +He did not follow me, but stood watching until I was down, and I heard +him close the roof door firmly behind me. + + + +Chapter XXI. A BAR OF SOAP + +Late that evening Betty Mercer and Dallas were writing verses of +condolence to be signed by all of us and put under the door into Jim's +room when Bella came running down the stairs. + +Dal was reading the first verse when she came. "Listen to this, Bella," +he said triumphantly: + + "There was a fat artist named Jas, + Who cruelly called his friends nas. + When, altho' shut up tight, + He broke out over night + With a rash that is maddening, he clas." + +Then he caught sight of Bella's face as she stood in the doorway, and +stopped. + +"Jim is delirious!" she announced tragically. "You shut him in there all +alone and now he's delirious. I'll never forgive any of you." + +"Delirious!" everybody exclaimed. + +"He was sane enough when I took him his chicken broth," Mr. Harbison +said. "He was almost fluent." + +"He is stark, staring crazy," Bella insisted hysterically. "I--I locked +the door carefully when I went down to my dinner, and when I came up +it--it was unlocked, and Jim was babbling on the bed, with a sheet over +his face. He--he says the house is haunted and he wants all the men to +come up and sit in the room with him." + +"Not on your life," Max said. "I am young, and my career has only begun. +I don't intend to be cut off in the flower of my youth. But I'll tell +you what I will do; I'll take him a drink. I can tie it to a pole or +something." + +But Mr. Harbison did not smile. He was thoughtful for a minute. Then: + +"I don't believe he is delirious," he said quietly, "and I wouldn't +be surprised if he has happened on something that--will be of general +interest. I think I will stay with him tonight." + +After that, of course, none of the others would confess that he was +afraid, so with the South American leading, they all went upstairs. The +women of the party sat on the lower steps and listened, but everything +was quiet. Now and then we could hear the sound of voices, and after +a while there was a rapid slamming of doors and the sound of some one +running down to the second floor. Then quiet again. + +None of us felt talkative. Bella had followed the men up and had been +put out, and sat sniffling by herself in the den. Aunt Selina was +working over a jig-saw puzzle in the library, and declaring that some of +it must be lost. Anne and Leila Mercer were embroidering, and Betty and +I sat idle, our hands in our laps. The whole atmosphere of the house +was mysterious. Anne told over again of the strange noises the night +her necklace was stolen. Betty asked me about the time when the comfort +slipped from under my fingers. And when, in the midst of the story, the +telephone rang, we all jumped and shrieked. + +In an hour or so they sent for Flannigan, and he went upstairs. He came +down again soon, however, and returned with something over his arm that +looked like a rope. It seemed to be made of all kinds of things tied +together, trunk straps, clothesline, bed sheets, and something that +Flannigan pointed to with rage and said he hadn't been able to keep his +clothes on all day. He refused to explain further, however, and trailed +the nondescript article up the stairs. We could only gaze after him and +wonder what it all meant. + +The conclave lasted far into the night. The feminine contingent went to +bed, but not to sleep. Some time after midnight, Mr. Harbison and Max +went downstairs and I could hear them rattling around testing windows +and burglar alarms. But finally every one settled down and the rest of +the night was quiet. + +Betty Mercer came into my room the next morning, Sunday, and said Anne +Brown wanted me. I went over at once, and Anne was sitting up in bed, +crying. Dal had slipped out of the room at daylight, she said, and +hadn't come back. He had thought she was asleep, but she wasn't, and +she knew he was dead, for nothing ever made Dal get up on Sunday before +noon. + +There was no one moving in the house, and I hardly knew what to do. It +was Betty who said she would go up and rouse Mr. Harbison and Max, who +had taken Jim's place in the studio. She started out bravely enough, but +in a minute we heard her flying back. Anne grew perfectly white. + +"He's lying on the upper stairs!" Betty cried, and we all ran out. It +was quite true. Dal was lying on the stairs in a bathrobe, with one of +Jim's Indian war clubs in his hand. And he was sound asleep. + +He looked somewhat embarrassed when he roused and saw us standing +around. He said he was going to play a practical joke on somebody +and fell asleep in the middle of it. And Anne said he wasn't even an +intelligent liar, and went back to bed in a temper. But Betty came in +with me, and we sat and looked at each other and didn't say much. The +situation was beyond us. + +The doctor let Jim out the next day, there having been nothing the +matter with him but a stomach rash. But Jim was changed; he mooned +around Bella, of course, as before, but he was abstracted at times, and +all that day--Sunday--he wandered off by himself, and one would come +across him unexpectedly in the basement or along some of the unused back +halls. + +Aunt Selina held service that morning. Jim said that he always had a +prayer book, but that he couldn't find anything with so many people +in the house. So Aunt Selina read some religious poetry out of the +newspapers, and gave us a valuable talk on Deception versus Honesty, +with me as the illustration. + +Almost everybody took a nap after luncheon. I stayed in the den and read +Ibsen, and felt very mournful. And after Hedda had shot herself, I lay +down on the divan and cried a little--over Hedda; she was young and it +was such a tragic ending--and then I fell asleep. + +When I wakened Mr. Harbison was standing by the table, and he held +my book in his hands. In view of the armed neutrality between us, I +expected to see him bow to me curtly, turn on his heel and leave the +room. Indeed, considering his state of mind the night before, I should +hardly have been surprised if he had thrown Hedda at my head. (This is +not a pun. I detest them.) But instead, when he heard me move he glanced +over at me and even smiled a little. + +"She wasn't worth it," he said, indicating the book. + +"Worth what?" + +"Your tears. You were crying over it, weren't you?" + +"She was very unhappy," I asserted indifferently. "She was married and +she loved some one else." + +"Do you really think she did?" he asked. "And even so, was that a +reason?" + +"The other man cared for her; he may not have been able to help it." + +"But he knew that she was married," he said virtuously, and then he +caught my eye and he saw the analogy instantly, for he colored hotly and +put down the book. + +"Most men argue that way," I said. "They argue by the book, and--they do +as they like." + +He picked up a Japanese ivory paper weight from the table, and stood +balancing it across his finger. + +"You are perfectly right," he said at last. "I deserve it all. My +grievance is at myself. Your--your beauty, and the fact that I thought +you were unhappy, put me--beside myself. It is not an excuse; it is a +weak explanation. I will not forget myself again." + +He was as abject as any one could have wished. It was my minute of +triumph, but I can not pretend that I was happy. Evidently it had been +only a passing impulse. If he had really cared, now that he knew I +was free, he would have forgotten himself again at once. Then a new +explanation occurred to me. Suppose it had been Bella all the time, and +the real shock had been to find that she had been married! + +"The fault of the situation was really mine," I said magnanimously; +"I quite blame myself. Only, you must believe one thing. You never +furnished us any amusement." I looked at him sidewise. "The discovery +that Bella and Jim were once married must have been a great shock." + +"It was a surprise," he replied evenly. His voice and his eyes were +inscrutable. He returned my glance steadily. It was infuriating to have +gone half-way to meet him, as I had, and then to find him intrenched in +his self-sufficiency again. I got up. + +"It is unfortunate that our acquaintance has begun so unfavorably," I +remarked, preparing to pass him. "Under other circumstances we might +have been friends." + +"There is only one solace," he said. "When we do not have friends, we +can not lose them." + +He opened the door to let me pass out, and as our eyes met, all the +coldness died out of his. He held out his hand, but I was hurt. I +refused to see it. + +"Kit!" he said unsteadily. "I--I'm an obstinate, pig-headed brute. I am +sorry. Can't we be friends, after all?" + +"'When we do not have friends we can not lose them,'" I replied with +cool malice. And the next instant the door closed behind me. + +It was that night that the really serious event of the quarantine +occurred. + +We were gathered in the library, and everybody was deadly dull. Aunt +Selina said she had been reared to a strict observance of the Sabbath, +and she refused to go to bed early. The cards and card tables were put +away and every one sat around and quarreled and was generally nasty, +except Bella and Jim, who had gone into the den just after dinner and +firmly closed the door. + +I think it was just after Max proposed to me. Yes, he proposed to me +again that night. He said that Jim's illness had decided him; that any +of us might take sick and die, shut in that contaminated atmosphere, and +that if he did he wanted it all settled. And whether I took him or not +he wanted me to remember him kindly if anything happened. I really +hated to refuse him--he was in such deadly earnest. But it was quite +unnecessary for him to have blamed his refusal, as he did, on Mr. +Harbison. I am sure I had refused him plenty of times before I had +ever heard of the man. Yes, it was just after he proposed to me that +Flannigan came to the door and called Mr. Harbison out into the hall. + +Flannigan--like most of the people in the house--always went to Mr. +Harbison when there was anything to be done. He openly adored him, +and--what was more--he did what Mr. Harbison ordered without a word, +while the rest of us had to get down on our knees and beg. + +Mr. Harbison went out, muttering something about a storm coming up, and +seeing that the tent was secure. Betty Mercer went with him. She had +been at his heels all evening, and called him "Tom" on every possible +occasion. Indeed, she made no secret of it; she said that she was mad +about him, and that she would love to live in South America, and have +an Indian squaw for a lady's maid, and sit out on the veranda in the +evenings and watch the Southern Cross shooting across the sky, and eat +tropical food from the quaint Indian pottery. She was not even daunted +when Dal told her the Southern Cross did not shoot, and that the food +was probably canned corn on tin dishes. + +So Betty went with him. She wore a pale yellow dinner gown, with just a +sophisticated touch of black here and there, and cut modestly square in +the neck. Her shoulders are scrawny. And after they were gone--not her +shoulders; Mr. Harbison and she--Aunt Selina announced that the next day +was Monday, that she had only a week's supply of clothing with her, and +that no policeman who ever swung a mace should wash her undergarments +for her. + +She paused a moment, but nobody offered to do it. Anne was reading De +Maupassant under cover of a table, and the rest pretended not to hear. +After a pause, Aunt Selina got up heavily and went upstairs, coming down +soon after with a bundle covered with a green shawl, and with a white +balbriggan stocking trailing from an opening in it. She paused at the +library door, surveyed the inmates, caught my unlucky eye and beckoned +to me with a relentless forefinger. + +"We can put them to soak tonight," she confided to me, "and tomorrow +they will be quite simple to do. There is no lace to speak of"--Dal +raised his eyebrows--"and very little flouncing." + +Aunt Selina and I went to the laundry. It never occurred to any one that +Bella should have gone; she had stepped into all my privileges--such as +they were--and assumed none of my obligations. Aunt Selina and I went to +the laundry. + +It is strange what big things develop from little ones. In this case it +was a bar of soap. And if Flannigan had used as much soap as he should +have instead of washing up the kitchen floor with cold dish water, it +would have developed sooner. The two most unexpected events of the whole +quarantine occurred that night at the same time, one on the roof and one +in the cellar. The cellar one, although curious, was not so serious as +the other, so it comes first. + +Aunt Selina put her clothes in a tub in the laundry and proceeded +to dress them like a vegetable. She threw in a handful of salt, some +kerosene oil and a little ammonia. The result was villainous, but after +she tasted it--or snuffed it--she said it needed a bar of soap cut up to +give it strength--or flavor--and I went into the store room for it. + +The laundry soap was in a box. I took in a silver fork, for I hated to +touch the stuff, and jabbed a bar successfully in the semi-darkness. +Then I carried it back to the laundry and dropped it on the table. Aunt +Selina looked at the fork with disgust; then we both looked at the soap. +ONE SIDE OF IT WAS COVERED WITH ROUND HOLES THAT CURVED AROUND ON EACH +OTHER LIKE A COILED SNAKE. + +I ran back to the store room, and there, a little bit sticky and +smelling terribly of rosin, lay Anne's pearl necklace! + +I was so excited that I seized Aunt Selina by the hands and danced her +all over the place. Then I left her, trying to find her hair pins on the +floor, and ran up to tell the others. I met Betty in the hall and waved +the pearls at her. But she did not notice them. + +"Is Mr. Harbison down there?" she asked breathlessly. "I left him on the +roof and went down to my room for my scarf, and when I went back he +had disappeared. He--he doesn't seem to be in the house." She tried +to laugh, but her voice was shaky. "He couldn't have got down without +passing me, anyhow," she supplemented. "I suppose I'm silly, but so many +queer things have happened, Kit." + +"I wouldn't worry, Betty," I soothed her. "He is big enough to take care +of himself. And with the best intentions in the world, you can't have +him all the time, you know." + +She was too much startled to be indignant. She followed me into the +library, where the sight of the pearls produced a tremendous excitement, +and then every one had to go down to the store room, and see where the +necklace had been hidden, and Max examined all the bars of soap for +thumb prints. + +Mr. Harbison did not appear. Max commented on the fact caustically, +but Dal hushed him up. And so, Anne hugging her pearls, and Aunt Selina +having put a final seasoning of washing powder on the clothes in the +tub, we all went upstairs to bed. It had been a long day, and the +morning would at least bring bridge. + +I was almost ready for bed when Jim tapped at my door. I had been very +cool to him since the night in the library when I was publicly staked +and martyred, and he was almost cringing when I opened the door. + +"What is it now?" I asked cruelly. "Has Bella tired of it already, or +has somebody else a rash?" + +"Don't be a shrew, Kit," he said. "I don't want you to do anything. I +only--when did you see Harbison last?" + +"If you mean 'last,'" I retorted, "I'm afraid I haven't seen the last of +him yet." Then I saw that he was really worried. "Betty was leading him +to the roof," I added. "Why? Is he missing?" + +"He isn't anywhere in the house. Dal and I have been over every inch +of it." Max had come up, in a dressing gown, and was watching me +insolently. + +"I think we have seen the last of him," he said. "I'm sorry, Kit, to nip +the little romance in the bud. The fellow was crazy about you--there's +no doubt of it. But I've been watching him from the beginning, and I +think I'm upheld. Whether he went down the water spout, or across a +board to the next house--" + +"I--I dislike him intensely," I said angrily, "but you would not dare to +say that to his face. He could strangle you with one hand." + +Max laughed disagreeably. + +"Well, I only hope he is gone," he threw at me over his shoulder, "I +wouldn't want to be responsible to your father if he had stayed." I was +speechless with wrath. + +They went away then, and I could hear them going over the house. At +one o'clock Jim went up to bed, the last, and Mr. Harbison had not been +found. I did not see how they could go to bed at all. If he had escaped, +then Max was right and the whole thing was heart-breaking. And if he had +not, then he might be lying-- + +I got up and dressed. + +The early part of the night had been cloudy, but when I got to the roof +it was clear starlight. The wind blew through the electric wires +strung across and set them singing. The occasional bleat of a belated +automobile on the drive below came up to me raucously. The tent gleamed, +a starlit ghost of itself, and the boxwoods bent in the breeze. I went +over to the parapet and leaned my elbows on it. I had done the +same thing so often before; I had carried all my times of stress so +infallibly to that particular place, that instinctively my feet turned +there. + +And there in the starlight, I went over the whole serio-comedy, and I +loathed my part in it. He had been perfectly right to be angry with me +and with all of us. And I had been a hypocrite and a Pharisee, and had +thanked God that I was not as other people, when the fact was that I was +worse than the worst. And although it wasn't dignified to think of him +going down the drain pipe, still--no one could blame him for wanting to +get away from us, and he was quite muscular enough to do it. + +I was in the depths of self-abasement when I heard a sound behind me. It +was a long breath, quite audible, that ended in a groan. I gripped the +parapet and listened, while my heart pounded, and in a minute it came +again. + +I was terribly frightened. Then--I don't know how I did it, but I was +across the roof, kneeling beside the tent, where it stood against +the chimney. And there, lying prone among the flower pots, and almost +entirely hidden, lay the man we had been looking for. + +His head was toward me, and I reached out shakingly and touched his +face. It was cold, and my hand, when I drew it back, was covered with +blood. + + + +Chapter XXII. IT WAS DELIRIUM + +I was sure he was dead. He did not move, and when I caught his hands and +called him frantically, he did not hear me. And so, with the horror over +me, I half fell down the stairs and roused Jim in the studio. + +They all came with lights and blankets, and they carried him into the +tent and put him on the couch and tried to put whisky in his mouth. But +he could not swallow. And the silence became more and more ominous until +finally Anne got hysterical and cried, "He is dead! Dead!" and collapsed +on the roof. + +But he was not. Just as the lights in the tent began to have red rings +around them and Jim's voice came from away across the river, somebody +said, "There, he swallowed that," and soon after, he opened his eyes. He +muttered something that sounded like "Andean pinnacle" and lapsed into +unconsciousness again. But he was not dead! He was not dead! + +When the doctor came they made a stretcher out of one of Jim's six-foot +canvases--it had a picture on it, and Jim was angry enough the next +day--and took him down to the studio. We made it as much like a +sick-room as we could, and we tried to make him comfortable. But he lay +without opening his eyes, and at dawn the doctor brought a consultant +and a trained nurse. + +The nurse was an offensively capable person. She put us all out, and +scolded Anne for lighting Japanese incense in the room--although Anne +explained that it is very reviving. And she said that it was unnecessary +to have a dozen people breathing up all the oxygen and asphyxiating +the patient. She was good-looking, too. I disliked her at once. Any +one could see by the way she took his pulse--just letting his poor hand +hang, without any support--that she was a purely mechanical creature, +without heart. + +Well, as I said before, she put us all out, and shut the door, and asked +us not to whisper outside. Then, too, she refused to allow any flowers +in the room, although Betty had got a florist out of bed to order some. + +The consultant came, stayed an hour, and left. Aunt Selina, who proved +herself a trump in that trying time, waylaid him in the hall, and +he said it might be a fractured skull, although it was possibly only +concussion. + +The men spent most of the morning together in the den, with the door +shut. Now and then one of them would tiptoe upstairs, ask the nurse how +her patient was doing, and creak down again. Just before noon they all +went to the roof and examined again the place where he had been found. +I know, for I was in the upper hall outside the studio. I stayed there +almost all day, and after a while the nurse let me bring her things as +she needed them. I don't know why mother didn't let me study nursing--I +always wanted to do it. And I felt helpless and childish now, when there +were things to be done. + +Max came down from the roof alone, and I cornered him in the upper hall. + +"I'm going crazy, Max," I said. "Nobody will tell me anything, and I +can't stand it. How was he hurt? Who hurt him?" + +Max looked at me quite a long time. + +"I'm darned if I understand you, Kit," he said gravely. "You said you +disliked Harbison." + +"So I do--I did," I supplemented. "But whether I like him or not has +nothing to do with it. He has been injured--perhaps murdered"--I choked +a little. "Which--which of you did it?" + +Max took my hand and held it, looking down at me. + +"I wish you could have cared for me like that," he said gently. "Dear +little girl, we don't know who hurt him. I didn't, if that's what you +mean. Perhaps a flower pot--" + +I began to cry then, and he drew me to him and let me cry on his arm. He +stood very quietly, patting my head in a brotherly way and behaving very +well, save that once he said: + +"Don't cry too long, Kit; I can stand only a certain amount." + +And just then the nurse opened the door to the studio, and with Max's +arm still around me, I raised my head and looked in. + +Mr. Harbison was conscious. His eyes were open, and he was staring at us +both as we stood framed by the doorway. + +He lay back at once and closed his eyes, and the nurse shut the door. +There was no use, even if I had been allowed in, in trying to explain +to him. To attempt such a thing would have been to presume that he was +interested in an explanation. I thought bitterly to myself as I brought +the nurse cracked ice and struggled to make beef tea in the kitchen, +that lives had been wrecked on less. + +Dal was allowed ten minutes in the sick room during the afternoon, and +he came out looking puzzled and excited. He refused to tell us what he +had learned, however, and the rest of the afternoon he and Jim spent in +the cellar. + +The day dragged on. Downstairs people ate and read and wrote letters, +and outside newspaper men talked together and gazed over at the house +and photographed the doctors coming in and the doctors going out. As for +me, in the intervals of bringing things, I sat in Bella's chair in the +upper hall, and listened to the crackle of the nurse's starched skirts. + +At midnight that night the doctors made a thorough examination. When +they came out they were smiling. + +"He is doing very well," the younger one said--he was hairy and dark, +but he was beautiful to me. "He is entirely conscious now, and in about +an hour you can send the nurse off for a little sleep. Don't let him +talk." + +And so at last I went through the familiar door into an unfamiliar room, +with basins and towels and bottles around, and a screen made of Jim's +largest canvases. And someone on the improvised bed turned and looked +at me. He did not speak, and I sat down beside him. After a while he put +his hand over mine as it lay on the bed. + +"You are much better to me than I deserve," he said softly. And because +his eyes were disconcerting, I put an ice cloth over them. + +"Much better than you deserve," I said, and patted the ice cloth to +place gently. He fumbled around until he found my hand again, and we +were quiet for a long time. I think he dozed, for he roused suddenly and +pulled the cloth from his eyes. + +"The--the day is all confused," he said, turning to look at me, +"but--one thing seems to stand out from everything else. Perhaps it +was delirium, but I seemed to see that door over there open, and you, +outside, with--with Max. His arms were around you." + +"It was delirium," I said softly. It was my final lie in that house of +mendacity. + +He drew a satisfied breath, and lifting my hand, held it to his lips and +kissed it. + +"I can hardly believe it is you," he said. "I have to hold firmly to +your hand or you will disappear. Can't you move your chair closer? You +are miles away." So I did it, for he was not to be excited. + +After a little-- + +"It's awfully good of you to do this. I have been desperately sorry, +Kit, about the other night. It was a ruffianly thing to do--to kiss you, +when I thought--" + +"You are to keep very still," I reminded him. He kissed my hand again, +but he persisted. + +"I was mad--crazy." I tried to give him some medicine, but he pushed the +spoon aside. "You will have to listen," he said. "I am in the depths of +self-disgust. I--I can't think of anything else. You see, you seemed +so convinced that I was the blackguard that somehow nothing seemed to +matter." + +"I have forgotten it all," I declared generously, "and I would be quite +willing to be friends, only, you remember you said--" + +"Friends!" his voice was suddenly reckless, and he raised on his elbow. +"Friends! Who wants to be friends? Kit, I was almost delirious that +night. The instant I held you in my arms--It was all over. I loved you +the first time I saw you. I--I suppose I'm a fool to talk like this." + +And, of course, just then Dallas had to open the door and step into the +room. He was covered with dirt and he had a hatchet in his hand. + +"A rope!" he demanded, without paying any attention to us and diving +into corners of the room. "Good heavens, isn't there a rope in this +confounded house!" + +He turned and rushed out, without any explanation, and left us staring +at the door. + +"Bother the rope!" I found myself forced to look into two earnest eyes. +"Kit, were you VERY angry when I kissed you that night on the roof?" + +"Very," I maintained stoutly. + +"Then prepare yourself for another attack of rage!" he said. And Betty +opened the door. + +She had on a fetching pale blue dressing gown, and one braid of her +yellow hair was pulled carelessly over her shoulder. When she saw me +on my knees beside the bed (oh, yes, I forgot to say that, quite +unconsciously, I had slid into that position) she stopped short, just +inside the door, and put her hand to her throat. She stood for quite a +perceptible time looking at us, and I tried to rise. But Tom shamelessly +put his arm around my shoulders and held me beside him. Then Betty +took a step back and steadied herself by the door frame. She had really +cared, I knew then, but I was too excited to be sorry for her. + +"I--I beg your pardon for coming in," she said nervously. "But--they +want you downstairs, Kit. At least, I thought you would want to go, +but--perhaps--" + +Just then from the lower part of the house came a pandemonium of noises; +women screaming, men shouting, and the sound of hatchet strokes and +splintering wood. I seized Betty by the arm, and together we rushed down +the stairs. + + + +Chapter XXIII. COMING + +The second floor was empty. A table lay overturned at the top of the +stairs, and a broken flower vase was weltering in its own ooze. Part way +down Betty stepped on something sharp, that proved to be the Japanese +paper knife from the den. I left her on the stairs examining her foot +and hurried to the lower floor. + +Here everything was in the utmost confusion. Aunt Selina had fainted, +and was sitting in a hall chair with her head rolled over sidewise and +the poker from the library fireplace across her knees. No one was paying +any attention to her. And Jim was holding the front door open, while +three of the guards hesitated in the vestibule. The noises continued +from the back of the house, and as I stood on the lowest stair Bella +came out from the dining room, with her face streaked with soot, and +carrying a kettle of hot water. + +"Jim," she called wildly. "While Max and Dal are below, you can pour +this down from the top. It's boiling." + +Jim glanced back over his shoulder. "Carry out your own murderous +designs," he said. And then, as she started back with it, "Bella, for +Heaven's sake," he called, "have you gone stark mad? Put that kettle +down." + +She did it sulkily and Jim turned to the policeman. + +"Yes, I know it was a false alarm before," he explained patiently, "but +this is genuine. It is just as I tell you. Yes, Flannigan is in the +house somewhere, but he's hiding, I guess. We could manage the thing +very well ourselves, but we have no cartridges for our revolvers." Then +as the noise from the rear redoubled, "If you don't come in and help, I +will telephone for the fire department," he concluded emphatically. + +I ran to Aunt Selina and tried to straighten her head. In a moment she +opened her eyes, sat up and stared around her. She saw the kettle at +once. + +"What are you doing with boiling water on the floor?" she said to me, +with her returning voice. "Don't you know you will spoil the floor?" The +ruling passion was strong with Aunt Selina, as usual. + +I could not find out the trouble from any one; people appeared and +disappeared, carrying strange articles. Anne with a rope, Dal with his +hatchet, Bella and the kettle, but I could get a coherent explanation +from no one. When the guards finally decided that Jim was in earnest, +and that the rest of us were not crawling out a rear window while he +held them at the door, they came in, three of them and two reporters, +and Jim led them to the butler's pantry. + +Here we found Anne, very white and shaky, with the pantry table and two +chairs piled against the door of the kitchen slide, and clutching the +chamois-skin bag that held her jewels. She had a bottle of burgundy open +beside her, and was pouring herself a glass with shaking hands when we +appeared. She was furious at Jim. + +"I very nearly fainted," she said hysterically. "I might have been +murdered, and no one would have cared. I wish they would stop that +chopping, I'm so nervous I could scream." + +Jim took the Burgundy from her with one hand and pointed the police to +the barricaded door with the other. + +"That is the door to the dumb-waiter shaft," he said. "The lower one +is fastened on the inside, in some manner. The noises commenced about +eleven o'clock, while Mr. Brown was on guard. There were scraping sounds +first, and later the sound of a falling body. He roused Mr. Reed and +myself, but when we examined the shaft everything was quiet, and dark. +We tried lowering a candle on a string, but--it was extinguished from +below." + +The reporters were busily removing the table and chairs from the door. + +"If you have a rope handy," one of them said, "I will go down the +shaft." + +(Dal says that all reporters should have been policemen, and that all +policemen are natural newsgatherers.) + +"The cage appears to be stuck, half-way between the floors," Jim said. +"They are cutting through the door in the kitchen below." + +They opened the door then and cautiously peered down, but there was +nothing to be seen. I touched Jim gingerly on the arm. + +"Is it--is it Flannigan," I asked, "shut in there?" + +"No--yes--I don't know," he returned absently. "Run along and don't +bother, Kit. He may take to shooting any minute." + +Anne and I went out then and shut the door, and went into the dining +room and sat on our feet, for of course the bullets might come up +through the floor. Aunt Selina joined us there, and Bella, and the +Mercer girls, and we sat around and talked in whispers, and Leila Mercer +told of the time her grandfather had had a struggle with an escaped +lunatic. + +In the midst of the excitement Tom appeared in a bathrobe, looking +very pale, with a bandage around his head, and the nurse at his heels +threatening to leave and carrying a bottle of medicine and a spoon. He +went immediately to the pantry, and soon we could hear him giving orders +and the rest hurrying around to obey them. The hammering ceased, and the +silence was even worse. It was more suggestive. + +In about fifteen minutes there was a thud, as if the cage had fallen, +and the sound of feet rushing down the cellar stairs. Then there were +groans and loud oaths, and everybody talking at once, below, and the +sound of a struggle. In the dining room we all sat bent forward, with +straining ears and quickened breath, until we distinctly heard someone +laugh. Then we knew that, whatever it was, it was over, and nobody was +killed. + +The sounds came closer, were coming up the stairs and into the pantry. +Then the door swung open, and Tom and a policeman appeared in the +doorway, with the others crowding behind. Between them they supported +a grimy, unshaven object, covered with whitewash from the wall of the +shaft, an object that had its hands fastened together with handcuffs, +and that leered at us with a pair of the most villainously crossed eyes +I have ever seen. + +None of us had ever seen him before. + +"Mr. Lawrence McGuirk, better known as Tubby,'" Tom said cheerfully. +"A celebrity in his particular line, which is second-story man and +all-round rascal. A victim of the quarantine, like ourselves." + +"We've missed him for a week," one of the guards said with a grin. +"We've been real anxious about you, Tubby. Ain't a week goes by, when +you're in health, that we don't hear something of you." + +Mr. McGuirk muttered something under his breath, and the men chuckled. + +"It seems," Tom said, interpreting, "that he doesn't like us much. He +doesn't like the food, and he doesn't like the beds. He says just when +he got a good place fixed up in the coal cellar, Flannigan found it, and +is asleep there now, this minute." + +Aunt Selina rose suddenly and cleared her throat. + +"Am I to understand," she asked severely, "that from now on we will have +to add two newspaper reporters, three policemen and a burglar to the +occupants of this quarantined house? Because, if that is the case, I +absolutely refuse to feed them." + +But one of the reporters stepped forward and bowed ceremoniously. + +"Madam," he said, "I thank you for your kind invitation, but--it will +be impossible for us to accept. I had intended to break the good news +earlier, but this little game of burglar-in-a-corner prevented me. The +fact is, your Jap has been discovered to have nothing more serious than +chicken-pox, and--if you will forgive a poultry yard joke, there is no +longer any necessity for your being cooped up." + +Then he retired, quite pleased with himself. + +One would have thought we had exhausted our capacity for emotion, but +Jim said a joyful emotion was so new that we hardly knew how to receive +it. Every one shook hands with every one else, and even the nurse shared +in the excitement and gave Jim the medicine she had prepared for Tom. + +Then we all sat down and had some champagne, and while they were waiting +for the police wagon, they gave some to poor McGuirk. He was still quite +shaken from his experience when the dumb-waiter stuck. The wine cheered +him a little, and he told his story, in a voice that was creaky from +disuse, while Tom held my hand under the table. + +He had had a dreadful week, he said; he spent his days in a closet in +one of the maids' rooms--the one where we had put Jim. It was Jim waking +out of a nap and declaring that the closet door had moved by itself and +that something had crawled under his bed and out of the door, that had +roused the suspicions of the men in the house--and he slept at night on +the coal in the cellar. He was actually tearful when he rubbed his hand +over his scrubby chin, and said he hadn't had a shave for a week. He +took somebody's razor, he said, but he couldn't get hold of a portable +mirror, and every time he lathered up and stood in front of the glass in +the dining room sideboard, some one came and he had had to run and hide. +He told, too, of his attempts to escape, of the board on the roof, of +the home-made rope, and the hole in the cellar, and he spoke feelingly +of the pearl collar and the struggle he had made to hide it. He said +that for three days it was concealed in the pocket of Jim's old smoking +coat in the studio. + +We were all rather sorry for him, but if we had made him uncomfortable, +think of what he had done to us. And for him to tell, as he did later in +court, that if that was high society he would rather be a burglar, and +that we starved him, and that the women had to dress each other because +they had no lady's maids, and that the whole lot of us were in love with +one man, it was downright malicious. + +The wagon came for him just as he finished his story, and we all went +to the door. In the vestibule Aunt Selina suddenly remembered something, +and she stepped forward and caught the poor fellow by the arm. + +"Young man," she said grimly. "I'll thank you to return what you took +from ME last Tuesday night." + +McGuirk stared, then shuddered and turned suddenly pale. + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated. "On the stairs to the roof! YOU?" + +They led him away then, quite broken, with Aunt Selina staring after +him. She never did understand. I could have explained, but it was too +awful. + +On the steps McGuirk turned and took a farewell glance at us. Then he +waved his hand to the policemen and reporters who had gathered around. + +"Goodby, fellows," he called feebly. "I ain't sorry, I ain't. Jail'll be +a paradise after this." + +And then we went to pack our trunks. + +NOTE FROM MAX WHICH CAME THE NEXT DAY WITH ITS ENCLOSURE. + +My Dear Kit--The enclosed trunk tag was used on my trunk, evidently by +mistake. Higgins discovered it when he was unpacking and returned it +to me under the misapprehension that I had written it. I wish I had. I +suppose there must be something attractive about a fellow who has the +courage to write a love letter on the back of a trunk tag, and who +doesn't give a tinker's damn who finds it. But for my peace of mind, ask +him not to leave another one around where I will come across it. Max. + +WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE TRUNK TAG. + +Don't you know that I won't see you until tomorrow? For Heaven's sake, +get away from this crowd and come into the den. If you don't I will kiss +you before everybody. Are you coming? T. + +WRITTEN BELOW. + +No indeed. K. + +THIS WAS SCRATCHED OUT AND BENEATH. + +Coming. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's When a Man Marries, by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WHEN A MAN MARRIES *** + +***** This file should be named 1671.txt or 1671.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/7/1671/ + +Produced by Theresa Armao + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/1671.zip b/1671.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9ab4288 --- /dev/null +++ b/1671.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9901d8a --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1671 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1671) diff --git a/old/whamm10.txt b/old/whamm10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0fae835 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whamm10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6994 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext of When a Man Marries, by Mary Rinehart +#7 in our series by Mary Roberts Rinehart + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +When a Man Marries + +by Mary Roberts Rinehart + +March, 1999 [Etext #1671] +[Date last updated: February 3, 2005] + + + +Project Gutenberg Etext of When a Man Marries, by Mary Rinehart +******This file should be named whamm10.txt or whamm10.zip****** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, whamm11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, whamm10a.txt + + +This etext was typed by Theresa Armao of Albany, New York. + +Project Gutenberg Etexts are usually created from multiple +editions, all of which are in the Public Domain in the United +States, unless a copyright notice is included. Therefore, we +do NOT keep these books in compliance with any particular +paper edition, usually otherwise. + + +We are now trying to release all our books one month in advance +of the official release dates, for time for better editing. + +Please note: neither this list nor its contents are final till +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg Etexts is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. A +preliminary version may often be posted for suggestion, comment +and editing by those who wish to do so. To be sure you have an +up to date first edition [xxxxx10x.xxx] please check file sizes +in the first week of the next month. Since our ftp program has +a bug in it that scrambles the date [tried to fix and failed] a +look at the file size will have to do, but we will try to see a +new copy has at least one byte more or less. + + +Information about Project Gutenberg (one page) + +We produce about two million dollars for each hour we work. The +fifty hours is one conservative estimate for how long it we take +to get any etext selected, entered, proofread, edited, copyright +searched and analyzed, the copyright letters written, etc. This +projected audience is one hundred million readers. If our value +per text is nominally estimated at one dollar then we produce $2 +million dollars per hour this year as we release thirty-six text +files per month, or 432 more Etexts in 1999 for a total of 2000+ +If these reach just 10% of the computerized population, then the +total should reach over 200 billion Etexts given away this year. + +The Goal of Project Gutenberg is to Give Away One Trillion Etext +Files by the December 31, 2001. [10,000 x 100,000,000=Trillion] +This is ten thousand titles each to one hundred million readers, +which is only ~5% of the present number of computer users. + +At our revised rates of production, we will reach only one-third +of that goal by the end of 2001, or about 3,333 Etexts unless we +manage to get some real funding; currently our funding is mostly +from Michael Hart's salary at Carnegie-Mellon University, and an +assortment of sporadic gifts; this salary is only good for a few +more years, so we are looking for something to replace it, as we +don't want Project Gutenberg to be so dependent on one person. + +We need your donations more than ever! + + +All donations should be made to "Project Gutenberg/CMU": and are +tax deductible to the extent allowable by law. (CMU = Carnegie- +Mellon University). + +For these and other matters, please mail to: + +Project Gutenberg +P. O. Box 2782 +Champaign, IL 61825 + +When all other email fails try our Executive Director: +Michael S. Hart <hart@pobox.com> + +We would prefer to send you this information by email. + +****** + +To access Project Gutenberg etexts, use any Web browser +to view http://promo.net/pg. This site lists Etexts by +author and by title, and includes information about how +to get involved with Project Gutenberg. You could also +download our past Newsletters, or subscribe here. This +is one of our major sites, please email hart@pobox.com, +for a more complete list of our various sites. + +To go directly to the etext collections, use FTP or any +Web browser to visit a Project Gutenberg mirror (mirror +sites are available on 7 continents; mirrors are listed +at http://promo.net/pg). + +Mac users, do NOT point and click, typing works better. + +Example FTP session: + +ftp sunsite.unc.edu +login: anonymous +password: your@login +cd pub/docs/books/gutenberg +cd etext90 through etext99 +dir [to see files] +get or mget [to get files. . .set bin for zip files] +GET GUTINDEX.?? [to get a year's listing of books, e.g., +GUTINDEX.99] +GET GUTINDEX.ALL [to get a listing of ALL books] + +*** + +**Information prepared by the Project Gutenberg legal advisor** + +(Three Pages) + + +***START**THE SMALL PRINT!**FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS**START*** +Why is this "Small Print!" statement here? You know: lawyers. +They tell us you might sue us if there is something wrong with +your copy of this etext, even if you got it for free from +someone other than us, and even if what's wrong is not our +fault. So, among other things, this "Small Print!" statement +disclaims most of our liability to you. It also tells you how +you can distribute copies of this etext if you want to. + +*BEFORE!* YOU USE OR READ THIS ETEXT +By using or reading any part of this PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +etext, you indicate that you understand, agree to and accept +this "Small Print!" statement. If you do not, you can receive +a refund of the money (if any) you paid for this etext by +sending a request within 30 days of receiving it to the person +you got it from. If you received this etext on a physical +medium (such as a disk), you must return it with your request. + +ABOUT PROJECT GUTENBERG-TM ETEXTS +This PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext, like most PROJECT GUTENBERG- +tm etexts, is a "public domain" work distributed by Professor +Michael S. Hart through the Project Gutenberg Association at +Carnegie-Mellon University (the "Project"). Among other +things, this means that no one owns a United States copyright +on or for this work, so the Project (and you!) can copy and +distribute it in the United States without permission and +without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth +below, apply if you wish to copy and distribute this etext +under the Project's "PROJECT GUTENBERG" trademark. + +To create these etexts, the Project expends considerable +efforts to identify, transcribe and proofread public domain +works. Despite these efforts, the Project's etexts and any +medium they may be on may contain "Defects". Among other +things, Defects may take the form of incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged +disk or other etext medium, a computer virus, or computer +codes that damage or cannot be read by your equipment. + +LIMITED WARRANTY; DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES +But for the "Right of Replacement or Refund" described below, +[1] the Project (and any other party you may receive this +etext from as a PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm etext) disclaims all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including +legal fees, and [2] YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE OR +UNDER STRICT LIABILITY, OR FOR BREACH OF WARRANTY OR CONTRACT, +INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE +OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES, EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE +POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. + +If you discover a Defect in this etext within 90 days of +receiving it, you can receive a refund of the money (if any) +you paid for it by sending an explanatory note within that +time to the person you received it from. If you received it +on a physical medium, you must return it with your note, and +such person may choose to alternatively give you a replacement +copy. If you received it electronically, such person may +choose to alternatively give you a second opportunity to +receive it electronically. + +THIS ETEXT IS OTHERWISE PROVIDED TO YOU "AS-IS". NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE MADE TO YOU AS +TO THE ETEXT OR ANY MEDIUM IT MAY BE ON, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A +PARTICULAR PURPOSE. + +Some states do not allow disclaimers of implied warranties or +the exclusion or limitation of consequential damages, so the +above disclaimers and exclusions may not apply to you, and you +may have other legal rights. + +INDEMNITY +You will indemnify and hold the Project, its directors, +officers, members and agents harmless from all liability, cost +and expense, including legal fees, that arise directly or +indirectly from any of the following that you do or cause: +[1] distribution of this etext, [2] alteration, modification, +or addition to the etext, or [3] any Defect. + +DISTRIBUTION UNDER "PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm" +You may distribute copies of this etext electronically, or by +disk, book or any other medium if you either delete this +"Small Print!" and all other references to Project Gutenberg, +or: + +[1] Only give exact copies of it. Among other things, this + requires that you do not remove, alter or modify the + etext or this "small print!" statement. You may however, + if you wish, distribute this etext in machine readable + binary, compressed, mark-up, or proprietary form, + including any form resulting from conversion by word pro- + cessing or hypertext software, but only so long as + *EITHER*: + + [*] The etext, when displayed, is clearly readable, and + does *not* contain characters other than those + intended by the author of the work, although tilde + (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may + be used to convey punctuation intended by the + author, and additional characters may be used to + indicate hypertext links; OR + + [*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at + no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent + form by the program that displays the etext (as is + the case, for instance, with most word processors); + OR + + [*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at + no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the + etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC + or other equivalent proprietary form). + +[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this + "Small Print!" statement. + +[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the + net profits you derive calculated using the method you + already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you + don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are + payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon + University" within the 60 days following each + date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) + your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return. + +WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO? +The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, +scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty +free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution +you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg +Association / Carnegie-Mellon University". + +*END*THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +This etext was typed by Theresa Armao of Albany, New York. + + + + + +WHEN A MAN MARRIES + +by Mary Roberts Rinehart + + + + +Contents + +I At Least I Meant Well +II The Way It Began +III I Might Have Known It +IV The Door Was Closed +V From The Tree Of Love +VI A Mighty Poor Joke +VII We Make An Omelet +VIII Correspondents' Department +IX Flannigan's Find +X On The Stairs +XI I Make A Discovery +XII The Roof Garden +XIII He Does Not Deny It +XIV Almost, But Not Quite +XV Suspicion and Discord +XVI I Face Flannigan +XVII A Clash and A Kiss +XVIII It's All My Fault +XIX The Harbison Man +XX Breaking Out In A New Place +XXI A Bar of Soap +XXII It Was A Delirium +XXIII Coming + + + + +Needles and pins +Needles and pins, +When a man marries +His trouble begins. + + + + +Chapter I. AT LEAST I MEANT WELL + +When the dreadful thing occurred that night, every one turned on +me. The injustice of it hurt me most. They said I got up the +dinner, that I asked them to give up other engagements and come, +that I promised all kinds of jollification, if they would come; +and then when they did come and got in the papers and every +one--but ourselves--laughed himself black in the face, they +turned on ME! I, who suffered ten times to their one! I shall +never forget what Dallas Brown said to me, standing with a coal +shovel in one hand and a--well, perhaps it would be better to +tell it all in the order it happened. + +It began with Jimmy Wilson and a conspiracy, was helped on by a +foot-square piece of yellow paper and a Japanese butler, and it +enmeshed and mixed up generally ten respectable members of +society and a policeman. Incidentally, it involved a pearl collar +and a box of soap, which sounds incongruous, doesn't it? + +It is a great misfortune to be stout, especially for a man. Jim +was rotund and looked shorter than he really was, and as all the +lines of his face, or what should have been lines, were really +dimples, his face was about as flexible and full of expression as +a pillow in a tight cover. The angrier he got the funnier he +looked, and when he was raging, and his neck swelled up over his +collar and got red, he was entrancing. And everybody liked him, +and borrowed money from him, and laughed at his pictures (he has +one in the Hargrave gallery in London now, so people buy them +instead), and smoked his cigarettes, and tried to steal his Jap. +The whole story hinges on the Jap. + +The trouble was, I think, that no one took Jim seriously. His +ambition in life was to be taken seriously, but people steadily +refused to. His art was a huge joke--except to himself. If he +asked people to dinner, every one expected a frolic. When he +married Bella Knowles, people chuckled at the wedding, and +considered it the wildest prank of Jimmy's career, although Jim +himself seemed to take it awfully hard. + +We had all known them both for years. I went to Farmington with +Bella, and Anne Brown was her matron of honor when she married +Jim. My first winter out, Jimmy had paid me a lot of attention. +He painted my portrait in oils and had a studio tea to exhibit +it. It was a very nice picture, but it did not look like me, so I +stayed away from the exhibition. Jim asked me to. He said he was +not a photographer, and that anyhow the rest of my features +called for the nose he had given me, and that all the Greuze +women have long necks. I have not. + +After I had refused Jim twice he met Bella at a camp in the +Adirondacks and when he came back he came at once to see me. He +seemed to think I would be sorry to lose him, and he blundered +over the telling for twenty minutes. Of course, no woman likes to +lose a lover, no matter what she may say about it, but Jim had +been getting on my nerves for some time, and I was much calmer +than he expected me to be. + +"If you mean," I said finally in desperation, "that you and Bella +are--are in love, why don't you say so, Jim? I think you will +find that I stand it wonderfully." + +He brightened perceptibly. + +"I didn't know how you would take it, Kit," he said, "and I hope +we will always be bully friends. You are absolutely sure you +don't care a whoop for me?" + +"Absolutely," I replied, and we shook hands on it. Then he began +about Bella; it was very tiresome. + +Bella is a nice girl, but I had roomed with her at school, and I +was under no illusions. When Jim raved about Bella and her banjo, +and Bella and her guitar, I had painful moments when I recalled +Bella, learning her two songs on each instrument, and the old +English ballad she had learned to play on the harp. When he said +she was too good for him, I never batted an eye. And I shook +hands solemnly across the tea-table again, and wished him +happiness--which was sincere enough, but hopeless--and said we +had only been playing a game, but that it was time to stop +playing. Jim kissed my hand, and it was really very touching. + +We had been the best of friends ever since. Two days before the +wedding he came around from his tailor's, and we burned all his +letters to me. He would read one and say: "Here's a crackerjack, +Kit," and pass it to me. And after I had read it we would lay it +on the firelog, and Jim would say, "I am not worthy of her, Kit. +I wonder if I can make her happy?" Or--"Did you know that the +Duke of Belford proposed to her in London last winter?" + +Of course, one has to take the woman's word about a thing like +that, but the Duke of Belford had been mad about Maude Richard +all that winter. + +You can see that the burning of the letters, which was meant to +be reminiscently sentimental, a sort of how-silly-we-were-but- +it-is-all-over-now occasion, became actually a two hours' eulogy +of Bella. And just when I was bored to death, the Mercer girls +dropped in and heard Jim begin to read one commencing "dearest Kit." +And the next day after the rehearsal dinner, they told Bella! + +There was very nearly no wedding at all. Bella came to see me in +a frenzy the next morning and threw Jim and his two-hundred odd +pounds in my face, and although I explained it all over and over, +she never quite forgave me. That was what made it so hard +later--the situation would have been bad enough without that +complication. + +They went abroad on their wedding journey, and stayed several +months. And when Jim came back he was fatter than ever. Everybody +noticed it. Bella had a gymnasium fitted up in a corner of the +studio, but he would not use it. He smoked a pipe and painted all +day, and drank beer and WOULD eat starches or whatever it is that +is fattening. But he adored Bella, and he was madly jealous of +her. At dinners he used to glare at the man who took her in, +although it did not make him thin. Bella was flirting, too, and +by the time they had been married a year, people hitched their +chairs together and dropped their voices when they were +mentioned. + +Well, on the anniversary of the day Bella left him--oh yes, she +left him finally. She was intense enough about some things, and +she said it got on her nerves to have everybody chuckle when they +asked for her husband. They would say, "Hello, Bella! How's +Bubbles? Still banting?" And Bella would try to laugh and say, +"He swears his tailor says his waist is smaller, but if it is he +must be growing hollow in the back." + +But she got tired of it at last. Well, on the second anniversary +of Bella's departure, Jimmy was feeling pretty glum, and as I +say, I am very fond of Jim. The divorce had just gone through and +Bella had taken her maiden name again and had had an operation +for appendicitis. We heard afterward that they didn't find an +appendix, and that the one they showed her in a glass jar WAS NOT +HERS! But if Bella ever suspected, she didn't say. Whether the +appendix was anonymous or not, she got box after box of flowers +that were, and of course every one knew that it was Jim who sent +them. + +To go back to the anniversary, I went to Rothberg's to see the +collection of antique furniture--mother was looking for a +sideboard for father's birthday in March--and I met Jimmy there, +boring into a worm-hole in a seventeenth-century bedpost with the +end of a match, and looking his nearest to sad. When he saw me +he came over. + +"I'm blue today, Kit," he said, after we had shaken hands. "Come +and help me dig bait, and then let's go fishing. If there's a +worm in every hole in that bedpost, we could go into the fish +business. It's a good business." + +"Better than painting?" I asked. But he ignored my gibe and +swelled up alarmingly in order to sigh. + +"This is the worst day of the year for me," he affirmed, staring +straight ahead, "and the longest. Look at that crazy clock over +there. If you want to see your life passing away, if you want to +see the steps by which you are marching to eternity, watch that +clock marking the time. Look at that infernal hand staying quiet +for sixty seconds and then jumping forward to catch up with the +procession. Ugh!" + +"See here, Jim," I said, leaning forward, "you're not well. You +can't go through the rest of the day like this. I know what +you'll do; you'll go home to play Grieg on the pianola, and you +won't eat any dinner." He looked guilty. + +"Not Grieg," he protested feebly. "Beethoven." + +"You're not going to do either," I said with firmness. "You are +going right home to unpack those new draperies that Harry Bayles +sent you from Shanghai, and you are going to order dinner for +eight--that will be two tables of bridge. And you are not going +to touch the pianola." + +He did not seem enthusiastic, but he rose and picked up his hat, +and stood looking down at me where I sat on an old horse-hair +covered sofa. + +"I wish to thunder I had married you!" he said savagely. "You're +the finest girl I know, Kit, WITHOUT EXCEPTION, and you are going +to throw yourself away on Jack Manning, or Max, or some other--" + +"Nothing of the sort," I said coldly, "and the fact that you +didn't marry me does not give you the privilege of abusing my +friends. Anyhow, I don't like you when you speak like that." + +Jim took me to the door and stopped there to sigh. + +"I haven't been well," he said heavily. "Don't eat, don't sleep. +Wouldn't you think I'd lose flesh? Kit"--he lowered his voice +solemnly--"I have gained two pounds!" + +I said he didn't look it, which appeared to comfort him somewhat, +and, because we were old friends, I asked him where Bella was. He +said he thought she was in Europe, and that he had heard she was +going to marry Reggie Wolfe. Then he signed again, muttered +something about ordering the funeral baked meats to be prepared +and left me. + +That was my entire share in the affair. I was the victim, both of +circumstances and of their plot, which was mad on the face of it. + +During the entire time they never once let me forget that I got +up the dinner, that I telephoned around for them. They asked me +why I couldn't cook--when not one of them knew one side of a +range from the other. And for Anne Brown to talk the way she +did--saying I had always been crazy about Jim, and that she +believed I had known all along that his aunt was coming--for Anne +to talk like that was sheer idiocy. Yes, there was an aunt. The +Japanese butler started the trouble, and Aunt Selina carried it +along. + + + +Chapter II. THE WAY IT BEGAN + +It makes me angry every time I think how I tried to make that +dinner a success. I canceled a theater engagement, and I took the +Mercer girls in the electric brougham father had given me for +Christmas. Their chauffeur had been gone for hours with their +machine, and they had telephoned all the police stations without +success. They were afraid that there had been an awful smash; +they could easily have replaced Bartlett, as Lollie said, but it +takes so long to get new parts for those foreign cars. + +Jim had a house well up-town, and it stood just enough apart from +the other houses to be entirely maddening later. It was a +three-story affair, with a basement kitchen and servants' dining +room. Then, of course, there were cellars, as we found out +afterward. On the first floor there was a large square hall, a +formal reception room, behind it a big living room that was also +a library, then a den, and back of all a Georgian dining room, +with windows high above the ground. On the top floor Jim had a +studio, like every other one I ever saw--perhaps a little +mussier. Jim was really a grind at his painting, and there were +cigarette ashes and palette knives and buffalo rugs and shields +everywhere. It is strange, but when I think of that terrible +house, I always see the halls, enormous, covered with heavy rugs, +and stairs that would have taken six housemaids to keep in proper +condition. I dream about those stairs, stretching above me in a +Jacob's ladder of shining wood and Persian carpets, going up, up, +clear to the roof. + +The Dallas Browns walked; they lived in the next block. And they +brought with them a man named Harbison, that no one knew. Anne +said he would be great sport, because he was terribly serious, +and had the most exaggerated ideas of society, and loathed +extravagance, and built bridges or something. She had put away +her cigarettes since he had been with them--he and Dallas had +been college friends--and the only chance she had to smoke was +when she was getting her hair done. And she had singed off quite +a lot--a burnt offering, she called it. + +"My dear," she said over the telephone, when I invited her, "I +want you to know him. He'll be crazy about you. That type of man, +big and deadly earnest, always falls in love with your type of +girl, the appealing sort, you know. And he has been too busy, up +to now, to know what love is. But mind, don't hurt him; he's a +dear boy. I'm half in love with him myself, and Dallas trots +around at his heels like a poodle." + +But all Anne's geese are swans, so I thought little of the +Harbison man except to hope that he played respectable bridge, +and wouldn't mark the cards with a steel spring under his finger +nail, as one of her "finds" had done. + +We all arrived about the same time, and Anne and I went upstairs +together to take off our wraps in what had been Bella's dressing +room. It was Anne who noticed the violets. + +"Look at that!" she nudged me, when the maid was examining her +wrap before she laid it down. "What did I tell you, Kit? He's +still quite mad about her." + +Jim had painted Bella's portrait while they were going up the +Nile on their wedding trip. It looked quite like her, if you +stood well off in the middle of the room and if the light came +from the right. And just beneath it, in a silver vase, was a +bunch of violets. It was really touching, and violets were +fabulous. It made me want to cry, and to shake Bella soundly, and +to go down and pat Jim on his generous shoulder, and tell him +what a good fellow I thought him, and that Bella wasn't worth the +dust under his feet. I don't know much about psychology, but it +would be interesting to know just what effect those violets and +my sympathy for Jim had in influencing my decision a half hour +later. It is not surprising, under the circumstances, that for +some time after the odor of violets made me ill. + +We all met downstairs in the living room, quite informally, and +Dallas was banging away at the pianola, tramping the pedals with +the delicacy and feeling of a football center rush kicking a +goal. Mr. Harbison was standing near the fire, a little away from +the others, and he was all that Anne had said and more in +appearance. He was tall--not too tall, and very straight. And +after one got past the oddity of his face being bronze-colored +above his white collar, and of his brown hair being sun-bleached +on top until it was almost yellow, one realized that he was very +handsome. He had what one might call a resolute nose and chin, +and a pleasant, rather humorous, mouth. And he had blue eyes that +were, at that moment, wandering with interest over the lot of us. +Somebody shouted his name to me above the Tristan and Isolde +music, and I held out my hand. + +Instantly I had the feeling one sometimes has, of having done +just that same thing, with the same surroundings, in the same +place, years before, I was looking up at him, and he was staring +down at me and holding my hand. And then the music stopped and he +was saying: + +"Where was it?" + +"Where was what?" I asked. The feeling was stronger than ever +with his voice. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, and let my hand drop. "Just for a +second I had an idea that we had met before somewhere, a long +time ago. I suppose--no, it couldn't have happened, or I should +remember." He was smiling, half at himself. + +"No," I smiled back at him. "It didn't happen, I'm afraid--unless +we dreamed it." + +"We?" + +"I felt that way, too, for a moment." + +"The Brushwood Boy!" he said with conviction. "Perhaps we will +find a common dream life, where we knew each other. You remember +the Brushwood Boy loved the girl for years before they really +met." But this was a little too rapid, even for me. + +"Nothing so sentimental, I'm afraid," I retorted. "I have had +exactly the same sensation sometimes when I have sneezed." + +Betty Mercer captured him then and took him off to see Jim's +newest picture. Anne pounced on me at once. + +"Isn't he delicious?" she demanded. "Did you ever see such +shoulders? And such a nose? And he thinks we are parasites, +cumberers of the earth, Heaven knows what. He says every woman +ought to know how to earn her living, in case of necessity! I +said I could make enough at bridge, and he thought I was joking! +He's a dear!" Anne was enthusiastic. + +I looked after him. Oddly enough the feeling that we had met +before stuck to me. Which was ridiculous, of course, for we +learned afterward that the nearest we ever came to meeting was +that our mothers had been school friends! Just then I saw Jim +beckoning to me crazily from the den. He looked quite yellow, and +he had been running his fingers through his hair. + +"For Heaven's sake, come in, Kit!" he said. "I need a cool head. +Didn't I tell you this is my calamity day?" + +"Cook gone?" I asked with interest. I was starving. + +He closed the door and took up a tragic attitude in front of the +fire. "Did you ever hear of Aunt Selina?" he demanded. + +"I knew there WAS one," I ventured, mindful of certain gossip as +to whence Jimmy derived the Wilson income. + +Jim himself was too worried to be cautious. He waved a brazen +hand at the snug room, at the Japanese prints on the walls, at +the rugs, at the teakwood cabinets and the screen inlaid with +pearl and ivory. + +"All this," he said comprehensively, "every bite I eat, clothes I +wear, drinks I drink--you needn't look like that; I don't drink +so darned much--everything comes from Aunt Selina--buttons," he +finished with a groan. + +"Selina Buttons," I said reflectively. "I don't remember ever +having known any one named Buttons, although I had a cat once--" + +"Damn the cat!" he said rudely. "Her name isn't Buttons. Her name +is Caruthers, my Aunt Selina Caruthers, and the money comes from +buttons." + +"Oh!" feebly. + +"It's an old business," he went on, with something of proprietary +pride. "My grandfather founded it in 1775. Made buttons for the +Continental Army." + +"Oh, yes," I said. "They melted the buttons to make bullets, +didn't they? Or they melted bullets to make buttons? Which was +it?" + +But again he interrupted. + +"It's like this," he went on hurriedly. "Aunt Selina believes in +me. She likes pictures, and she wanted me to paint, if I could. +I'd have given up long ago--oh, I know what you think of my +work--but for Aunt Selina. She has encouraged me, and she's done +more than that; she's paid the bills." + +"Dear Aunt Selina," I breathed. + +"When I got married," Jim persisted, "Aunt Selina doubled my +allowance. I always expected to sell something, and begin to make +money, and in the meantime what she advanced I considered as a +loan." He was eyeing me defiantly, but I was growing serious. It +was evident from the preamble that something was coming. + +"To understand, Kit," he went on dubiously, "you would have to +know her. She won't stand for divorce. She thinks it is a crime." + +"What!" I sat up. I have always regarded divorce as essentially +disagreeable, like castor oil, but necessary. + +"Oh, you know well enough what I'm driving at," he burst out +savagely. "She doesn't know Bella has gone. She thinks I am +living in a little domestic heaven, and--she is coming tonight to +hear me flap my wings." + +"Tonight!" + +I don't think Jimmy had known that Dallas Brown had come in and +was listening. I am sure I had not. Hearing his chuckle at the +doorway brought us up with a jerk. + +"Where has Aunt Selina been for the last two or three years?" he +asked easily. + +Jim turned, and his face brightened. + +"Europe. Look here, Dal, you're a smart chap. She'll only be here +about four hours. Can't you think of some way to get me out of +this? I want to let her down easy, too. I'm mighty fond of Aunt +Selina. Can't we--can't I say Bella has a headache?" + +"Rotten!" laconically. + +"Gone out of town?" Jim was desperate. + +"And you with a houseful of dinner guests! Try again, Jim." + +"I have it," Jim said suddenly. "Dallas, ask Anne if she won't +play hostess for tonight. Be Mrs. Wilson pro tem. Anne would love +it. Aunt Selina never saw Bella. Then, afterward, next year, when +I'm hung in the Academy and can stand on my feet"--("Not if +you're hung," Dallas interjected.)--"I'll break the truth to her." + +But Dallas was not enthusiastic. + +"Anne wouldn't do at all," he declared. "She'd be talking about +the kids before she knew it, and patting me on the head." He said +it complacently; Anne flirts, but they are really devoted. + +"One of the Mercer girls?" I suggested, but Jimmy raised a +horrified hand. + +"You don't know Aunt Selina," he protested. "I couldn't offer +Leila in the gown she's got on, unless she wore a shawl, and +Betty is too fair." + +Anne came in just then, and the whole story had to be told again +to her. She was ecstatic. She said it was good enough for a play, +and that of course she would be Mrs. Jimmy for that length of +time. + +"You know," she finished, "if it were not for Dal, I would be +Mrs. Jimmy for ANY length of time. I have been devoted to you for +years, Billiken." + +But Dallas refused peremptorily. + +"I'm not jealous," he explained, straightening and throwing out +his chest, "but--well, you don't look the part, Anne. You're--you +are growing matronly, not but what you suit ME all right. And +then I'd forget and call you 'mammy,' which would require +explanation. I think it's up to you, Kit." + +"I shall do nothing of the sort!" I snapped. "It's ridiculous!" + +"I dare you!" said Dallas. + +I refused. I stood like a rock while the storm surged around me +and beat over me. I must say for Jim that he was merely pathetic. +He said that my happiness was first; that he would not give me an +uncomfortable minute for anything on earth; and that Bella had +been perfectly right to leave him, because he was a sinking ship, +and deserved to be turned out penniless into the world. After +which mixed figure, he poured himself something to drink, and his +hands were shaking. + +Dal and Anne stood on each side of him and patted him on the +shoulders and glared across at me. I felt that if I was a rock, +Jim's ship had struck on me and was sinking, as he said, because +of me. I began to crumble. + +"What--what time does she leave?" I asked, wavering. + +"Ten: nine; KIT, are you going to do it?" + +"No!" I gave a last clutch at my resolution. "People who do that +kind of thing always get into trouble. She might miss her train. +She's almost certain to miss her train." + +"You're temporizing," Dallas said sternly. "We won't let her miss +her train; you can be sure of that." + +"Jim," Anne broke in suddenly, "hasn't she a picture of Bella? +There's not the faintest resemblance between Bella and Kit." + +Jim became downcast again. "I sent her a miniature of Bella a +couple of years ago," he said despondently. "Did it myself." + +But Dal said he remembered the miniature, and it looked more like +me than Bella, anyhow. So we were just where we started. And down +inside of me I had a premonition that I was going to do just what +they wanted me to do, and get into all sorts of trouble, and not +be thanked for it after all. Which was entirely correct. And then +Leila Mercer came and banged at the door and said that dinner had +been announced ages ago and that everybody was famishing. With +the hurry and stress, and poor Jim's distracted face, I weakened. + +"I feel like a cross between an idiot and a criminal," I said +shortly, "and I don't know particularly why every one thinks I +should be the victim for the sacrifice. But if you will promise +to get her off early to her train, and if you will stand by me +and not leave me alone with her, I--I might try it." + +"Of course, we'll stand by you!" they said in chorus. "We won't +let you stick!" And Dal said, "You're the right sort of girl, +Kit. And after it's all over, you'll realize that it's the +biggest kind of lark. Think how you are saving the old lady's +feeling! When you are an elderly person yourself, Kit, you will +appreciate what you are doing tonight." + +Yes, they said they would stand by me, and that I was a heroine +and the only person there clever enough to act the part, and that +they wouldn't let me stick! I am not bitter now, but that is what +they promised. Oh, I am not defending myself; I suppose I +deserved everything that happened. But they told me that she +would be there only between trains, and that she was deaf, and +that I had an opportunity to save a fellow-being from ruin. So in +the end I capitulated. + +When they opened the door into the living room, Max Reed had +arrived and was helping to hide a decanter and glasses, and +somebody said a cab was at the door. + +And that was the way it began. + + + +Chapter III. I MIGHT HAVE KNOWN IT + +The minute I had consented I regretted it. After all, what were +Jimmy's troubles to me? Why should I help him impose on an +unsuspecting elderly woman? And it was only putting off discovery +anyhow. Sooner or later, she would learn of the divorce, +and--Just at that instant my eyes fell on Mr. Harbison--Tom +Harbison, as Anne called him. He was looking on with an amused, +half-puzzled smile, while people were rushing around hiding the +roulette wheel and things of which Miss Caruthers might +disapprove, and Betty Mercer was on her knees winding up a toy +bear that Max had brought her. What would he think? It was +evident that he thought badly of us already--that he was +contemptuously amused, and then to have to ask him to lend +himself to the deception! + +With a gasp I hurled myself after Jimmy, only to hear a strange +voice in the hall and to know that I was too late. I was in for +it, whatever was coming. It was Aunt Selina who was coming--along +the hall, followed by Jim, who was mopping his face and trying +not to notice the paralyzed silence in the library. + +Aunt Selina met me in the doorway. To my frantic eyes she seemed +to tower above us by at least a foot, and beside her Jimmy was a +red, perspiring cherub. + +"Here she is," Jimmy said, from behind a temporary eclipse of +black cloak and traveling bag. He was on top of the situation +now, and he was mendaciously cheerful. He had NOT said, "Here is +my wife." That would have been a lie. No, Jimmy merely said, +"Here she is." If Aunt Selina chose to think me Bella, was it not +her responsibility? And if I chose to accept the situation, was +it not mine? Dallas Brown came forward gravely as Aunt Selina +folded over and kissed me, and surreptitiously patted me with one +hand while he held out the other to Miss Caruthers. I loathed +him! + +"We always expect something unusual from James, Miss Caruthers," +he said, with his best manner, "but THIS--this is beyond our +wildest dreams." + +Well, it's too awful to linger over. Anne took her upstairs and +into Bella's bedroom. It was a fancy of Jim's to leave that room +just as Bella had left it, dusty dance cards and favors hanging +around and a pair of discarded slippers under the bed. I don't +think it had been swept since Bella left it. I believe in +sentiment, but I like it brushed and dusted and the cobwebs off +of it, and when Aunt Selina put down her bonnet, it stirred up a +gray-white cloud that made her cough. She did not say anything, +but she looked around the room grimly, and I saw her run her +finger over the back of a chair before she let Hannah, the maid, +put her cloak on it. + +Anne looked frightened. She ran into Bella's bath and wet the end +of a towel and when Hannah was changing Aunt Selina's collar--her +concession to evening dress--Anne wiped off the obvious places on +the furniture. She did it stealthily, but Aunt Selina saw her in +the glass. + +"What's that young woman's name?" she asked me sharply, when Anne +had taken the towel out to hide it. + +"Anne Brown, Mrs. Dallas Brown," I replied meekly. Every one +replied meekly to Aunt Selina. + +"Does she live here?" + +"Oh, no," I said airily. "They are here to dinner, she and her +husband. They are old friends of Jim's--and mine." + +"Seems to have a good eye for dirt," said Aunt Selina and went on +fastening her brooch. When she was finally ready, she took a bead +purse from somewhere about her waist and took out a half dollar. +She held it up before Hannah's eyes. + +"Tomorrow morning," she said sternly, "You take off that white +cap and that fol-de-rol apron and that black henrietta cloth, and +put on a calico wrapper. And when you've got this room aired and +swept, Mrs. Wilson will give you this." + +Hannah took two steps back and caught hold of a chair; she stared +helplessly from Aunt Selina to the half dollar, and then at me. +Anne was trying not to catch my eye. + +"And another thing," Aunt Selina said, from the head of the +stairs, "I sent those towels over from Ireland. Tell her to wash +and bleach the one Mrs. What's-her-name Brown used as a duster." + +Anne was quite crushed as we went down the stairs. I turned once, +half-way down, and her face was a curious mixture of guilt and +hopeless wrath. Over her shoulder, I could see Hannah, wide-eyed +and puzzled, staring after us. + +Jim presented everybody, and then he went into the den and closed +the door and we heard him unlock the cellarette. Aunt Selina +looked at Leila's bare shoulders and said she guessed she didn't +take cold easily, and conversation rather languished. Max Reed +was looking like a thundercloud, and he came over to me with a +lowering expression that I had learned to dread in him. + +"What fool nonsense is this?" he demanded. "What in the world +possessed you, Kit, to put yourself in such an equivocal +position? Unless"--he stopped and turned a little white--"unless +you are going to marry Jim." + +I am sorry for Max. He is such a nice boy, and good looking, too, +if only he were not so fierce, and did not want to make love to +me. No matter what I do, Max always disapproves of it. I have +always had a deeply rooted conviction that if I should ever in a +weak moment marry Max, he would disapprove of that, too, before I +had done it very long. + +"Are you?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes--a sign of unusually +bad humor. + +"Am I what?" + +"Going to marry him?" + +"If you mean Jim," I said with dignity, "I haven't made up my +mind yet. Besides, he hasn't asked me." + +Aunt Selina had been talking Woman's Suffrage in front of the +fireplace, but now she turned to me. + +"Is this the vase Cousin Jane Whitcomb sent you as a wedding +present?" she demanded, indicating a hideous urn-shaped affair on +the mantel. It came to me as an inspiration that Jim had once +said it was an ancestral urn, so I said without hesitation that +it was. And because there was a pause and every one was looking +at us, I added that it was a beautiful thing. + +Aunt Selina sniffed. + +"Hideous!" she said. "It looks like Cousin Jane, shape and +coloring." + +Then she looked at it more closely, pounced on it, turned it +upside down and shook it. A card fell out, which Dallas picked up +and gave her with a bow. Jim had come out of the den and was +dancing wildly around and beckoning to me. By the time I had made +out that that was NOT the vase Cousin Jane had sent us as a +wedding present, Aunt Selina had examined the card. Then she +glared across at me and, stooping, put the card in the fire. I +did not understand at all, but I knew I had in some way done the +unforgivable thing. Later, Dal told me it was HER card, and that +she had sent the vase to Jim at Christmas, with a generous check +inside. When she straightened from the fireplace, it was to a new +theme, which she attacked with her usual vigor. The vase incident +was over, but she never forgot it. She proved that she never did +when she sent me two urn-shaped vases with Paul and Virginia on +them, when I--that is, later on. + +"The Cause in England has made great strides," she announced from +the fireplace. "Soon the hand that rocks the cradle will be the +hand that actually rules the world." Here she looked at me. + +"I'm not up on such things," Max said blandly, having recovered +some of his good humor, "but--isn't it usually a foot that rocks +the cradle?" + +Aunt Selina turned on him and Mr. Harbison, who were standing +together, with a snort. + +"What have you, or YOU, ever done for the independence of woman?" +she demanded. + +Mr. Harbison smiled. He had been looking rather grave until then. +"We have at least remained unmarried," he retorted. And then +dinner was again announced. + +He was to take me out, and he came across the room to where I sat +collapsed in a chair, and bent over me. + +"Do you know," he said, looking down at me with his clear, +disconcerting gaze, "do you know that I have just grasped the +situation? There was such a noise that I did not hear your name, +and I am only realizing now that you are my hostess! I don't know +why I got the impression that this was a bachelor establishment, +but I did. Odd, wasn't it?" + +I positively couldn't look away from him. My features seemed +frozen, and my eyes were glued to his. As for telling him the +truth--well, my tongue refused to move. I intended to tell him +during dinner if I had an opportunity; I honestly did. But the +more I looked at him and saw how candid his eyes were, and how +stern his mouth might be, the more I shivered at the plunge. And, +of course, as everybody knows now, I didn't tell him at all. And +every moment I expected that awful old woman to ask me what I +paid my cook, and when I had changed the color of my +hair--Bella's being black. + +Dinner was a half hour late when we finally went out, Jimmy +leading off with Aunt Selina, and I, as hostess, trailing behind +the procession with Mr. Harbison. Dallas took in the two Mercer +girls, for we were one man short, and Max took Anne. Leila Mercer +was so excited that she wriggled, and as for me, the candles and +the orchids--everything--danced around in a circle, and I just +seemed to catch the back of my chair as it flew past. Jim had +ordered away the wines and brought out some weak and cheap +Chianti. Dallas looked gloomy at the change, but Jim explained in +an undertone that Aunt Selina didn't approve of expensive +vintages. Naturally, the meal was glum enough. + +Aunt Selina had had her dinner on the train, so she spent her +time in asking me questions the length of the table, and in +getting acquainted with me. She had brought a bottle of some sort +of medicine downstairs with her, and she took a claret-glassful, +while she talked. The stuff was called Pomona; shall I ever +forget it? + +It was Mr. Harbison who first noticed Takahiro. Jimmy's Jap had +been the only thing in the menage that Bella declared she had +hated to leave. But he was doing the strangest things: his +little black eyes shifted nervously, and he looked queer. + +"What's wrong with him?" Mr. Harbison asked me finally, when he +saw that I noticed. "Is he ill?" + +Then Aunt Selina's voice from the other end of the table: + +"Bella," she called, in a high shrill tone, "do you let James eat +cucumbers?" + +"I think he must be," I said hurriedly aside to Mr. Harbison. +"See how his hands shake!" But Selina would not be ignored. + +"Cucumbers and strawberries," she repeated impressively. "I was +saying, Bella, that cucumbers have always given James the most +fearful indigestion. And yet I see you serve them at your table. +Do you remember what I wrote you to give him when he has his +dreadful spells?" + +I was quite speechless; every one was looking, and no one could +help. It was clear Jim was racking his brain, and we sat staring +desperately at each other across the candles. Everything I had +ever known faded from me, eight pairs of eyes bored into me, Mr. +Harbison's politely amused. + +"I don't remember," I said at last. "Really, I don't believe--" +Aunt Selina smiled in a superior way. + +"Now, don't you recall it?" she insisted. "I said: 'Baking soda in +water taken internally for cucumbers; baking soda and water +externally, rubbed on, when he gets that dreadful, itching +strawberry rash.'" + +I believe the dinner went on. Somebody asked Aunt Selina how much +over-charge she had paid in foreign hotels, and after that she +was as harmless as a dove. + +Then half way through the dinner we heard a crash in Takahiro's +pantry, and when he did not appear again, Jim got up and went out +to investigate. He was gone quite a little while, and when he +came back he looked worried. + +"Sick," he replied to our inquiring glances. "One of the maids +will come in. They have sent for a doctor." + +Aunt Selina was for going out at once and "fixing him up," as she +put it, but Dallas gently interfered. + +"I wouldn't, Miss Caruthers," he said, in the deferential manner +he had adopted toward her. "You don't know what it may be. He's +been looking spotty all evening." + +"It might be scarlet fever," Max broke in cheerfully. "I say, +scarlet fever on a Mongolian--what color would he be, Jimmy? What +do yellow and red make? Green?" + +"Orange," Jim said shortly. "I wish you people would remember +that we are trying to eat." + +The fact was, however, that no one was really eating, except Mr. +Harbison who had given up trying to understand us, considering, +no doubt, our subdued excitement as our normal condition. Ages +afterward I learned that he thought my face almost tragic that +night, and that he supposed from the way I glared across the +table, that I had quarreled with my husband! + +"I am afraid you are not well," he said at last, noticing my food +untouched on my plate. "We should not have come, any of us." + +"I am perfectly well," I replied feverishly. "I am never ill. +I--I ate a late luncheon." + +He glanced at me keenly. "Don't let them stay and play bridge +tonight," he urged. "Miss Caruthers can be an excuse, can she +not? And you are really fagged. You look it." + +"I think it is only ill humor," I said, looking directly at him. +"I am angry at myself. I have done something silly, and I hate to +be silly." + +Max would have said "Impossible," or something else trite. The +Harbison man looked at me with interested, serious eyes. + +"Is it too late to undo it?" he asked. + +And then and there I determined that he should never know the +truth. He could go back to South America and build bridges and +make love to the Spanish girls (or are they Spanish down there?) +and think of me always as a married woman, married to a +dilettante artist, inclined to be stout--the artist, not I--and +with an Aunt Selina Caruthers who made buttons and believed in +the Cause. But never, NEVER should he think of me as a silly +little fool who pretended that she was the other man's wife and +had a lump in her throat because when a really nice man came +along, a man who knew something more than polo and motors, she +had to carry on the deception to keep his respect, and be sedate +and matronly, and see him change from perfect open admiration at +first to a hands-off-she-is-my-host's-wife attitude at last. + +"It can never be undone," I said soberly. + +Well, that's the picture as nearly as I can draw it: a round +table with a low centerpiece of orchids in lavenders and pink, +old silver candlesticks with filigree shades against the somber +wainscoting; nine people, two of them unhappy--Jim and I; one of +them complacent--Aunt Selina; one puzzled--Mr. Harbison; and the +rest hysterically mirthful. Add one sick Japanese butler and +grind in the mills of the gods. + +Every one promptly forgot Takahiro in the excitement of the game +we were all playing. Finally, however, Aunt Selina, who seemed to +have Takahiro on her mind, looked up from her plate. + +"That Jap was speckled," she asserted. "I wouldn't be surprised +if it's measles. Has he been sniffling, James?" + +"Has he been sniffling?" Jim threw across at me. + +"I hadn't noticed it," I said meekly, while the others choked. + +Max came to the rescue. "She refused to eat it," he explained, +distinctly and to everybody, apropos absolutely of nothing. "It +said on the box,'ready cooked and predigested.' She declared she +didn't care who cooked it, but she wanted to know who predigested +it." + +As every one wanted to laugh, every one did it then, and under +cover of the noise I caught Anne's eye, and we left the dining +room. The men stayed, and by the very firmness with which the +door closed behind us, I knew that Dallas and Max were bringing +out the bottles that Takahiro had hidden. I was seething. When +Aunt Selina indicated a desire to go over the house (it was +natural that she should want to; it was her house, in a way) I +excused myself for a minute and flew back to the dining room. + +It was as I had expected. Jim hadn't cheered perceptibly, and the +rest were patting him on the back, and pouring things out for +him, and saying, "Poor old Jim" in the most maddening way. And +the Harbison man was looking more and more puzzled, and not at +all hilarious. + +I descended on them like a thunderbolt. + +"That's it," I cried shrewishly, with my back against the door. +"Leave her to me, all of you, and pat each other on the back, and +say it's gone splendidly! Oh, I know you, every one!" Mr. +Harbison got up and pulled out a chair, but I couldn't sit; I +folded my arms on the back. "After a while, I suppose, you'll +slip upstairs, the four of you, and have your game." They looked +guilty. "But I will block that right now. I am going to +stay--here. If Aunt Selina wants me, she can find me--here!" + +The first indication those men had that Mr. Harbison didn't know +the state of affairs was when he turned and faced them. + +"Mrs. Wilson is quite right," he said gravely. "We're a selfish +lot. If Miss Caruthers is a responsibility, let us share her." + +"To arms!" Jim said, with an affectation of lightness, as they +put their glasses down, and threw open the door. Dal's retort, +"Whose?" was lost in the confusion, and we went into the library. +On the way Dallas managed to speak to me. + +"If Harbison doesn't know, don't tell him," he said in an +undertone. "He's a queer duck, in some ways; he mightn't think it +funny." + +"Funny," I choked. "It's the least funny thing I ever +experienced. Deceiving that Harbison man isn't so bad--he thinks +me crazy, anyhow. He's been staring his eyes out at me--" + +"I don't wonder. You're really lovely tonight, Kit, and you look +like a vixen." + +"But to deceive that harmless old lady--well, thank goodness, +it's nine, and she leaves in an hour or so." + +But she didn't and that's the story. + + + +Chapter IV. THE DOOR WAS CLOSED + +It was infuriating to see how much enjoyment every one but Jim +and myself got out of the situation. They howled with mirth over +the feeblest jokes, and when Max told a story without any point +whatever, they all had hysteria. Immediately after dinner Aunt +Selina had begun on the family connection again, and after two +bad breaks on my part, Jim offered to show her the house. The +Mercer girls trailed along, unwilling to lose any of the +possibilities. They said afterward that it was terrible: she went +into all the closets, and ran her hand over the tops of doors and +kept getting grimmer and grimmer. In the studio they came across +a life study Jim was doing and she shut her eyes and made the +girls go out while he covered it with a drapery. Lollie! Who did +the Bacchante dance at three benefits last winter and was +learning a new one called "Eve"! + +When they heard Aunt Selina on the second floor, Anne, Dal and +Max sneaked up to the studio for cigarettes, which left Mr. +Harbison to me. I was in the den, sitting in a low chair by the +wood fire when he came in. He hesitated in the doorway. + +"Would you prefer being alone, or may I come in?" he asked. +"Don't mind being frank. I know you are tired." + +"I have a headache, and I am sulking," I said unpleasantly, "but +at least I am not actively venomous. Come in." + +So he came in and sat down across the hearth from me, and neither +of us said anything. The firelight flickered over the room, +bringing out the faded hues of the old Japanese prints on the +walls, gleaming in the mother-of-pearl eyes of the dragon on the +screen, setting a grotesque god on a cabinet to nodding. And it +threw into relief the strong profile of the man across from me, +as he stared at the fire. + +"I am afraid I am not very interesting," I said at last, when he +showed no sign of breaking the silence. "The--the illness of the +butler and--Miss Caruthers' arrival, have been upsetting." + +He suddenly roused with a start from a brown reverie. + +"I beg your pardon," he said, "I--oh, of course not! I was +wondering if I--if you were offended at what I said earlier in +the evening; the--Brushwood Boy, you know, and all that." + +"Offended?" I repeated, puzzled. + +"You see, I have been living out of the world so long, and never +seeing any women but Indian squaws"--so there were no Spanish +girls!--"that I'm afraid I say what comes into my mind without +circumlocution. And then--I did not know you were married." + +"No, oh, no," I said hastily. "But, of course, the more a woman +is married--I mean, you can not say too many nice things to +married women. They--need them, you know." + +I had floundered miserably, with his eyes on me, and I half +expected him to be shocked, or to say that married women should +be satisfied with the nice things their husbands say to them. But +he merely remarked apropos of nothing, or following a line of +thought he had not voiced, that it was trite but true that a good +many men owed their success in life to their wives. + +"And a good many owe their wives to their success in life," I +retorted cynically. At which he stared at me again. + +It was then that the real complexity of the situation began to +develop. Some one had rung the bell and been admitted to the +library and a maid came to the door of the den. When she saw us +she stopped uncertainly. Even then it struck me that she looked +odd, and she was not in uniform. However, I was not informed at +that time about bachelor establishments, and the first thing she +said, when she had asked to speak to me in the hall, knocked her +and her clothes clear out of my head. Evidently she knew me. + +"Miss McNair," she said in a low tone. "There is a lady in the +drawing room, a veiled person, and she is asking for Mr. Wilson." + +"Can you not find him?" I asked. "He is in the house, probably in +the studio." + +The girl hesitated. + +"Excuse me, miss, but Miss Caruthers--" + +Then I saw the situation. + +"Never mind," I said. "Close the door into the drawing room, and +I will tell Mr. Wilson." + +But as the girl turned toward the doorway, the person in question +appeared in it, and raised her veil. I was perfectly paralyzed. +It was Bella! Bella in a fur coat and a veil, with the most +tragic eyes I ever saw and entirely white except for a dab of +rouge in the middle of each cheek. We stared at each other +without speech. The maid turned and went down the hall, and with +that Bella came over to me and clutched me by the arm. + +"Who was being carried out into that ambulance?" she demanded, +glaring at me with the most awful intensity. + +"I'm sure I don't know, Bella," I said, wriggling away from her +fingers. "What in the world are you doing here? I thought you +were in Europe." + +"You are hiding something from me!" she accused. "It is Jim! I +see it in your face." + +"Well, it isn't," I snapped. "It seems to me, really, Bella, that +you and Jim ought to be able to manage your own affairs, without +dragging me in." It was not pleasant, but if she was suffering, +so was I. "Jim is as well as he ever was. He's upstairs +somewhere. I'll send for him." + +She gripped me again, and held on while her color came back. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind," she said, and she had quite got +hold of herself again. "I do not want to see him: I hope you +don't think, Kit, that I came here to see James Wilson. Why, I +have forgotten that there IS such a person, and you know it." + +Somebody upstairs laughed, and I was growing nervous. What if +Aunt Selina should come down, or Mr. Harbison come out of the +den? + +"Why DID you come, then, Bella?" I inquired. "He may come in." + +"I was passing in the motor," she said, and I honestly think she +hoped I would believe her, "and I saw that am--" She stopped and +began again. "I thought Jim was out of town, and I came to see +Takahiro," she said brazenly. "He was devoted to me, and Evans is +going to leave. I'll tell you what to do, Kit. I'll go back to +the dining room, and you send Taka there. If any one comes, I can +slip into the pantry." + +"It's immoral," I protested. "It's immoral to steal your--" + +"My own butler!" she broke in impatiently. "You're not usually so +scrupulous, Kit. Hurry! I hear that hateful Anne Brown." + +So we slid back along the hall, and I rang for Takahiro. But no +one came. + +"I think I ought to tell you, Bella," I said as we waited, and +Bella was staring around the room--"I think you ought to know +that Miss Caruthers is here." + +Bella shrugged her shoulders. + +"Well, thank goodness," she said, "I don't have to see her. The +only pleasant thing I remember about my year of married life is +that I did NOT meet Aunt Selina." + +I rang again, but still there was no answer. And then it occurred +to me that the stillness below stairs was almost oppressive. +Bella was noticing things, too, for she began to fasten her veil +again with a malicious little smile. + +"One of the things I remember my late husband saying," she +observed, "was that HE could manage this house, and had done it +for years, with flawless service. Stand on the bell, Kit." + +I did. We stood there, with the table, just as it had been left, +between us, and waited for a response. Bella was growing +impatient. She raised her eyebrows (she is very handsome, Bella +is) and flung out her chin as if she had begun to enjoy the +horrible situation. + +I thought I heard a rattle of silver from the pantry just then, +and I hurried to the door in a rage. But the pantry was empty of +servants and full of dishes, and all the lights were out but one, +which was burning dimly. I could have sworn that I saw one of the +servants duck into the stairway to the basement, but when I got +there the stairs were empty, and something was burning in the +kitchen below. + +Bella had followed me and was peering over my shoulder curiously. + +"There isn't a servant in the house," she said triumphantly. And +when we went down to the kitchen, she seemed to be right. It was +in disgraceful order, and one of the bottles of wine that had ben +banished from the dining room sat half empty on the floor. + +"Drunk!" Bella said with conviction. But I didn't think so. There +had not been time enough, for one thing. Suddenly I remembered +the ambulance that had been the cause of Bella's appearance--for +no one could believe her silly story about Takahiro. I didn't +wait to voice my suspicion to her; I simply left her there, +staring helplessly at the confusion, and ran upstairs again: +through the dining room, past Jimmy and Aunt Selina, past Leila +Mercer and Max, who were flirting on the stairs, up, up to the +servants' bedrooms, and there my suspicions were verified. There +was every evidence of a hasty flight; in three bedrooms five +trunks stood locked and ominous, and the closets yawned with open +doors, empty. Bella had been right; there was not a servant in +the house. + +As I emerged from the untidy emptiness of the servants' wing, I +met Mr. Harbison coming out of the studio. + +"I wish you would let me do some of this running about for you, +Mrs. Wilson," he said gravely. "You are not well, and I can't +think of anything worse for a headache. Has the butler's illness +clogged the household machinery?" + +"Worse," I replied, trying not to breathe in gasps. "I wouldn't +be running around--like this--but there is not a servant in the +house! They have gone, the entire lot." + +"That's odd," he said slowly. "Gone! Are you sure?" + +In reply I pointed to the servants' wing. "Trunks packed," I said +tragically, "rooms empty, kitchen and pantries, full of dishes. +Did you ever hear of anything like it?" + +"Never," he asserted. "It makes me suspect--" What he suspected +he did not say; instead he turned on his heel, without a word of +explanation, and ran down the stairs. I stood staring after him, +wondering if every one in the place had gone crazy. Then I heard +Betty Mercer scream and the rest talking loud and laughing, and +Mr. Harbison came up the stairs again two at a time. + +"How long has that Jap been ailing, Mrs. Wilson?" he asked. + +"I--I don't know," I replied helplessly. "What is the trouble, +anyhow?" + +"I think he probably has something contagious," he said, "and it +has scared the servants away. As Mr. Brown said, he looked +spotty. I suggested to your husband that it might be as well to +get the house emptied--in case we are correct." + +"Oh, yes, by all means," I said eagerly. I couldn't get away too +soon. "I'll go and get my--" Then I stopped. Why, the man +wouldn't expect me to leave; I would have to play out the +wretched farce to the end! + +"I'll go down and see them off," I finished lamely, and we went +together down the stairs. + +Just for the moment I forgot Bella altogether. I found Aunt +Selina bonneted and cloaked, taking a stirrup cup of Pomona for +her nerves, and the rest throwing on their wraps in a hurry. +Downstairs Max was telephoning for his car, which wasn't due for +an hour, and Jim was walking up and down, swearing under his +breath. With the prospect of getting rid of them all, and, of +going home comfortably to try to forget the whole wretched +affair, I cheered up quite a lot. I even played up my part of +hostess, and Dallas told me, aside, that I was a brick. + +Just then Jim threw open the front door. + +There was a man on the top step, with his mouth full of tacks, +and he was nailing something to the door, just below Jim's +Florentine bronze knocker, and standing back with his head on one +side to see if it was straight. + +"What are you doing?" Jim demanded fiercely, but the man only +drove another tack. It was Mr. Harbison who stepped outside and +read the card. + +It said "Smallpox." + +"Smallpox," Mr. Harbison read, as if he couldn't believe it. Then +he turned to us, huddled in the hall. + +"It seems it wasn't measles, after all," he said cheerfully. "I +move we get into Mr. Reed's automobile out there, and have a +vaccination party. I suppose even you blase society folk have not +exhausted that kind of diversion." + +But the man on the step spat his tacks in his hand and spoke for +the first time. + +"No, you don't," he said. "Not on your life. Just step back, +please, and close the door. This house is quarantined." + + + +Chapter V. FROM THE TREE OF LOVE + +There is hardly any use trying to describe what followed. Anne +Brown began to cry, and talk about the children. (She went to +Europe once and stayed until they all got over the whooping +cough.) And Dallas said he had a pull, because his mill +controlled I forget how many votes, and the thing to do was to be +quiet and comfortable and we would get out in the morning. Max +took it as a huge joke, and somebody found him at the telephone, +calling up his club. The Mercer girls were hysterically giggling, +and Aunt Selina sat on a stiff-backed chair and took aromatic +spirits of ammonia. As for Jim, he had collapsed on the lowest +step of the stairs, and sat there with his head in his hands. +When he did look up, he didn't dare to look at me. + +The Harbison man was arguing with the impassive individual on the +top step outside, and I saw him get out his pocketbook and offer +a crisp bundle of bills. But the man from the board of health +only smiled and tacked at his offensive sign. After a while Mr. +Harbison came in and closed the door, and we stared at one +another. + +"I know what I'm going to do," I said, swallowing a lump in my +throat. "I'm going to get out through a basement window at the +back. I'm going home." + +"Home!" Aunt Selina gasped, jumping up and almost dropping her +ammonia bottle. "My dear Bella! Home?" + +Jimmy groaned at the foot of the stairs, but Anne Brown was +getting over her tears and now she turned on me in a temper. + +"It's all your fault," she said. "I was going to stay at home +and get a little sleep--" + +"Well, you can sleep now," Dallas broke in. "There'll be nothing +to do but sleep." + +"I think you haven't grasped the situation, Dal," I said icily. +"There will be plenty to do. There isn't a servant in the house!" + +"No servants!" everybody cried at once. The Mercer girls stopped +giggling. + +"Holy cats!" Max stopped in the act of hanging up his overcoat. +"Do you mean--why, I can't shave myself! I'll cut my head off." + +"You'll do more than that," I retorted grimly. "You will carry +coal and tend fires and empty ash pans, and when you are not +doing any of those things there will be pots and pans to wash and +beds to make." + +Then there WAS a row. We had worked back to the den now, and I +stood in front of the fireplace and let the storm beat around me, +and tried to look perfectly cold and indifferent, and not to see +Mr. Harbison's shocked face. No wonder he thought them a lot of +savages, browbeating their hostess the way they did. + +"It's a fool thing anyhow," Max Reed wound up, "to celebrate the +anniversary of a divorce--especially--" Here he caught Jim's eye +and stopped. But I had suddenly remembered. BELLA DOWN IN THE +BASEMENT! + +Could anything have been worse? And of course she would have +hysteria and then turn on me and blame me for it all. It all came +over me at once and overwhelmed me, while Anne was crying and +saying she wouldn't cook if she starved for it, and Aunt Selina +was taking off her wraps. I felt queer all over, and I sat down +suddenly. Mr. Harbison was looking at me, and he brought me a +glass of wine. + +"It won't be so bad as you fear," he said comfortingly. "There +will be no danger once we are vaccinated, and many hands make +light work. They are pretty raw now, because the thing is new to +them, but by morning they will be reconciled." + +"It isn't the work; it is something entirely different," I said. +And it was. Bella and work could hardly be spoken in the same +breath. + +If I had only turned her out as she deserved to be, when she +first came, instead of allowing her to carry through the wretched +farce about seeing Takahiro! Or if I had only run to the basement +the moment the house was quarantined, and got her out the areaway +or the coal hole! And now time was flying, and Aunt Selina had me +by the arm, and any moment I expected Bella to pounce on us +through the doorway and the whole situation to explode with a +bang. + +It was after eleven before they were rational enough to discuss +ways and means, and, of course, the first thing suggested was +that we all adjourn below stairs and clean up after dinner. I +could have slain Max Reed for the notion, and the Mercer girls +for taking him up. + +"Of course we will," they said in a duet. "What a lark!" And they +actually began to pin up their dinner gowns. It was Jim who +stopped that. + +"Oh, look here, you people," he objected, "I'm not going to let +you do that. We'll get some servants in tomorrow. I'll go down +and put out the lights. There will be enough clean dishes for +breakfast." + +It was lucky for me that they started a new discussion then and +there about who would get the breakfast. In the midst of the +excitement I slipped away to carry the news to Bella. She was +where I had left her, and she had made herself a cup of tea, and +was very much at home, which was natural. + +"Do you know," she said ominously, "that you have been away for +two hours; and that I have gone through agonies of nervousness +for fear Jim Wilson would come down and think I came here to see +him?" + +"No one would think that, Bella," I soothed her. "Everybody knows +you loathe him--Jim, too." She looked at me over the edge of her +cup. + +"I'll run along now," she said, "since Takahiro isn't here. And +if Jim has any sense at all, he will clear out every maid in the +house. I never saw such a kitchen in all my life. Well, lead the +way, Kit. I suppose they are deep in bridge, or roulette, or +something." + +She was fixing her veil, and I saw I would have to tell her. +Personally, I would much rather have told her the house was on +fire. + +"Wait a minute, Bella," I said. "You see, something queer has +happened. You know this is the anniversary--well, you know what +it is--and Jim was awfully glum. So we thought we would come--" + +"What are you driving at?" she demanded. "You are sea-green, Kit. +What's the matter? You needn't think I mind because Jim has a +jollification to celebrate his divorce." + +"It--it was Takahiro--in the ambulance," I blurted. "Smallpox. +We--Bella, we are shut in, quarantined." + +She didn't faint. She just sat down and stared at me, and I +stared back at her. Then a miserable alarm clock on the table +suddenly went off like an explosion, and Bella began to laugh. I +knew what that was--hysteria. She always had attacks like that +when things went wrong. I was quite despairing by that time; I +hoped they would all hear her and come downstairs and take her up +and put her to bed like a Christian, so she could giggle her soul +out. But after a bit she quieted down and began to cry softly, +and I knew the worst was over. I gave her a shake, and she was so +angry that she got over it altogether. + +"Kit, you are horrid," she choked. "Don't you see what a position +I am in? I am not going upstairs to face Anne and the rest of +them. You can just put me in the coal cellar." + +"Isn't there a window you could get through?" I asked +desperately. "Locking the door doesn't shut up a whole house." + +Bella's courage revived at that, and she said yes, there were +windows, plenty of them, only she didn't see how she could get +out. And I said she would HAVE to get out, because I was playing +Bella in the performance, and I didn't care to have an +understudy. Then the situation dawned on her, and she sat down +and laughed herself weak in the knees. Of course she wanted to +stay, then, and see the fun out. But I was firm; she would have +to go, and I told her so. Things were complicated enough without +her. + +Well, we looked funny, no doubt, Bella in a Russian pony +automobile coat over the black satin she had worn at the +Clevelands' dinner, and I in cream lace, the skirt gathered up +from the kitchen floor, with Bella's ermine pelerine around my +bare shoulders, and dishes and overturned chairs everywhere. + +Bella knew more about the lower regions of her ex-home than I +would have thought. She opened a door in a corner and led the way +through a narrow hall past the refrigerating room, to a huge, +cemented cellar, with a furnace in the center, and a half-dozen +electric lights making it really brilliant. + +"Get a chair," Bella said over her shoulder, excitedly. "I can +get out easily here, through the coal hole. Imagine my--" + +But it was my turn to grip Bella. From behind the furnace were +coming the most terrible sounds, rasping noises that fairly +frayed the silk of my nerves. We stood petrified for an instant. +Then Bella laughed. "They are not all gone," she said carefully. +"Some one is asleep there." + +We tiptoed to where we could see around the furnace, and, sure +enough, some one WAS asleep there. Only, it was not one of the +servants; it was a portly policeman, with a newspaper and an +empty plate on the floor on one side, and a champagne bottle on +the other. He had slid down in his chair, with his chin on his +brass buttons, and his helmet had rolled a dozen feet away. Bella +had to clap her hand over her mouth. + +"Fairly caught!" she whispered. "Sartor Resartus, the arrester +arrested. Oh, Jim and his flawless service!" + +But after we got over our surprise, we saw the situation was +serious. The policeman was threatening to awaken. Once he stopped +snoring to yawn noisily, and we beat a hasty retreat. Bella +switched off the lights in a hurry and locked the door behind us. +We hardly breathed until we were back in the kitchen again, and +everything quiet. And then Jimmy called my name from up above +somewheres. + +"I am going to call him down, Bella," I said firmly. "Let him +help you out. I'm sure I don't see why I should have all this +when the two of you--" + +"Oh, no, no! Surely, Kit, you wouldn't be so cruel!" she +whispered pleadingly. "You know what he would think. He--oh, Kit, +let them all get settled for the night, and then come down, like +a dear, and help me out. I know loads of ways--honestly I do." + +"If I leave you here," I debated, "what about the policeman?" + +"Never mind him"--frantically. "Listen! There's Jim up in the +pantry. Run, for the sake of Heaven!" + +So--I ran. At the top of the stairs I met Jimmy, very crumpled as +to shirt-front and dejected as to face. + +"I've been hunting everywhere for you," he said dismally. "I +thought you had added to the general merriment by falling +downstairs and breaking your neck." + +I went past him with my chin up. Now that I had time to think +about it, I was furiously angry with him. + +"Kit!" he called after me appealingly, but I would not hear. Then +he adopted different tactics. He took advantage of my catching my +foot in the lace of my gown to pass me, and to stand with his +back against the door. + +"You're not going until you hear me, Kit," he declared miserably. +"In the first place, for all you are down on me, is it my fault? +Honestly, now IS IT MY FAULT?" + +I refused to speak. + +"I was coming home to be miserable alone," he went on, "and--oh, +I know you meant well, Kit; but YOU asked all these crazy people +here." + +"Perhaps you will give me credit for some things," I said +wearily. "I did NOT give Takahiro smallpox, for instance, and--if +you will permit me to mention the fact--Aunt Selina is not MY +Aunt Selina." + +"That's what I wanted to speak to you about," Jimmy went on +wretchedly, trying not to look at me. "You see, when they were +rowing so about who would get the breakfast--I never saw such a +lot of people; half of them never touch breakfast, but of course +now they want all kinds of things--when they were talking, Aunt +Selina said she knew YOU would get it, being the hostess, and +responsible, besides knowing where things are kept." He had fixed +his eyes on the orchids, and he looked shrunken, actually +shrunken. "I thought," he finished, "you might give me a few +pointers now, and I could come down in the morning, and--and fuss +up something, coffee and so on. I would say you did it! Oh, hang +it all, Kit, why don't you say something?" + +"What do you want me to say?" I demanded. "That I love to cook, +and of course I'll fix trays and carry them up in the morning to +Anne Brown and Leila Mercer and the rest; and that I will have +the shaving water ready--" + +"I know what I'm going to do," Jimmy said, with a sudden +resolution. "Aunt Selina and her money can go to blazes. I am +going right upstairs and tell her the truth, tell her who you +are, what I am, and all the rest of it." He opened the door. + +"You'll do nothing of the kind," I gasped, catching him in time. +"Don't you dare, Jimmy Wilson! Why, what would they think of me? +After letting her call me Bella, and him--Jim, if Mr. Harbison +ever learns the truth--I--I will take poison. If we are going to +be shut up here together, we will have to carry it on. I couldn't +stand the disgrace." + +In spite of an heroic effort, Jim looked relieved. "They have +been hunting for the linen closet," he said, more cheerfully, +"and there will be room enough, I think. Harbison and I will hang +out in the studio; there are two couches there. I'm afraid you'll +have to take Aunt Selina, Kit." + +"Certainly," I said coldly. That was the way it was all along. +Whenever there was something to do that no one else would +undertake--any unpleasant responsibility--that entire mongrel +household turned with one gesture and pointed its finger at me! +Well, it is over now, and I ought not to be bitter, considering +everything. + +It was quite characteristic of that memorable evening (that is +quite novelesque, I think) that my interview with Jimmy should +have a sensational ending. He was terribly down, of course, and +as I was trying to pass him to get to the door, he caught my +hand. + +"You're a girl in a thousand, Kit," he said forlornly. "If I were +not so damnably, hopelessly, idiotically in love with--somebody +else, I should be crazy about you." + +"Don't be maudlin," I retorted. "Would you mind letting my hand +go?" I felt sure Bella could hear. + +"Oh, come now, Kit," he implored, "we've always got along so +well. It's a shame to let a thing like this make us bad friends. +Aren't you ever going to forgive me?" + +"Never," I said promptly. "When I once get away, I don't want +ever to see you again. I was never so humiliated in my life. I +loathe you!" + +Then I turned around, and, of course, there was Aunt Selina with +her eyes protruding until you could have knocked them off with a +stick, and beside her, very red and uncomfortable, Mr. Harbison! + +"Bella!" she said in a shocked voice, "is that the way you speak +to your husband! It is high time I came here, I think, and took a +hand in this affair." + +"Oh, never mind, Aunt Selina," Jim said, with a sheepish grin. +"Kit--Bella is tired and nervous. This is a h--deuce of a +situation. No--er--servants, and all that." + +But Aunt Selina did mind, and showed it. She pulled the unlucky +Harbison man through the door and closed it, and then stood +glaring at both of us. + +"Every little quarrel is an apple knocked from the tree of love," +she announced oratorically. + +"This was a very little quarrel," Jim said, edging toward the +door; "a--a green apple, Aunt Selina, a colicky little green +apple." But she was not to be diverted. + +"Bella," she said severely, "you said you loathed him. You didn't +mean that." + +"But I do!" I cried hysterically. "There isn't any word to tell +how I--how I detest him." + +Then I swept past them all and flew to Bella's dressing room and +locked myself in. Aunt Selina knocked until she was tired, then +gave up and went to bed. + +That was the night Anne Brown's pearl collar was stolen! + + + +Chapter VI. A MIGHTY POOR JOKE + +Of course, one knows that there are people who in a different +grade of society would be shoplifters and pickpockets. When they +are restrained by obligation or environment they become a little +overkeen at bridge, or take the wrong sables, or stuff a +gold-backed brush into a muff at a reception. You remember the +ivory dressing set that Theodora Bucknell had, fastened with fine +gold chains? And the sensation it caused at the Bucknell +cotillion when Mrs. Van Zire went sweeping to her carriage with +two feet of gold chain hanging from the front of her wrap? + +But Anne's pearl collar was different. In the first place, +instead of three or four hundred people, the suspicion had to be +divided among ten. And of those ten, at least eight of us were +friends, and the other two had been vouched for by the Browns and +Jimmy. It was a horrible mix-up. For the necklace was gone--there +couldn't be any doubt of that--and although, as Dallas said, it +couldn't get out of the house, still, there were plenty of places +to hide the thing. + +The worst of our trouble really originated with Max Reed, after +all. For it was Max who made the silly wager over the telephone, +with Dick Bagley. He bet five hundred even that one of us, at +least, would break quarantine within the next twenty-four hours, +and, of course, that settled it. Dick told it around the club as +a joke, and a man who owns a newspaper heard him and called up +the paper. Then the paper called up the health office, after +setting up a flaming scare-head, "Will Money Free Them? Board of +Health versus Millionaire." + +It was almost three when the house settled down--nobody had any +night clothes, although finally, through Dallas, who gave them to +Anne, who gave them to the rest, we got some things of +Jimmy's--and I was still dressed. The house was perfectly quiet, +and, after listening carefully, I went slowly down the stairs. +There was a light in the hall, and another back in the dining +room, and I got along without any trouble. But the pantry, where +the stairs led down, was dark, and the wretched swinging door +would not stay open. + +I caught my skirt in the door as I went through, and I had to +stop to loosen it. And in that awful minute I heard some one +breathing just beside me. I had stooped to my gown, and I turned +my head without straightening--I couldn't have raised myself to +an erect posture, for my knees were giving way under me--and just +at my feet lay the still glowing end of a match! + +I had to swallow twice before I could speak. Then I said sharply: + +"Who's there?" + +The man was so close it is a wonder I had not walked into him; +his voice was right at my ear. + +"I am sorry I startled you," he said quietly. "I was afraid to +speak suddenly, or move, for fear I would do--what I have done." + +It was Mr. Harbison. + +"I--I thought you were--it is very late," I managed to say, with +dry lips. "Do you know where the electric switch is?" + +"Mrs. Wilson!" It was clear he had not known me before. "Why, no; +don't you?" + +"I am all confused," I muttered, and beat a retreat into the +dining room. There, in the friendly light, we could at least see +each other, and I think he was as much impressed by the fact that +I had not undressed as I was by the fact that he HAD, partly. He +wore a hideous dressing gown of Jimmy's, much too small, and his +hair, parted and plastered down in the early evening, stood up in +a sort of brown brush all over his head. He was trying to flatten +it with his hands. + +"It must be three o'clock," he said, with polite surprise, "and +the house is like a barn. You ought not to be running around with +your arms uncovered, Mrs. Wilson. Surely you could have called +some of us." + +"I didn't wish to disturb any one," I said, with distinct truth. + +"I suppose you are like me," he said. "The novelty of the +situation--and everything. I got to thinking things over, and +then I realized the studio was getting cold, so I thought I would +come down and take a look at the furnace. I didn't suppose any +one else would think of it. But I lost myself in that pantry, +stumbled against a half-open drawer, and nearly went down the +dumb-waiter." And, as if in judgment on me, at that instant came +two rather terrific thumps from somewhere below, and inarticulate +words, shouted rather than spoken. It was uncanny, of course, +coming as it did through the register at our feet. Mr. Harbison +looked startled. + +"Oh, by the way," I said, as carelessly as I could. "In the +excitement, I forgot to mention it. There is a policeman asleep +in the furnace room. I--I suppose we will have to keep him now," +I finished as airily as possible. + +"Oh, a policeman--in the cellar," he repeated, staring at me, and +he moved toward the pantry door. + +"You needn't go down," I said feverishly, with visions of Bella +Knowles sitting on the kitchen table, surrounded by soiled dishes +and all the cheerless aftermath of a dinner party. "Please don't +go down. I--it's one of my rules--never to let a stranger go down +to the kitchen. I--I'm peculiar--that way--and besides, +it's--it's mussy." + +Bang! Crash! through the register pipe, and some language quite +articulate. Then silence. + +"Look here, Mrs. Wilson," he said resolutely. "What do I care +about the kitchen? I'm going down and arrest that policeman for +disturbing the peace. He will have the pipes down." + +"You must not go," I said with desperate firmness. "He--he is +probably in a very dangerous state just now. We--I--locked him +in." + +The Harbison man grinned and then became serious. + +"Why don't you tell me the whole thing?" he demanded. "You've +been in trouble all evening, and--you can trust me, you know, +because I am a stranger; because the minute this crazy quarantine +is raised I am off to the Argentine Republic," (perhaps he said +Chili) "and because I don't know anything at all about you. You +see, I have to believe what you tell me, having no personal +knowledge of any of you to go on. Now tell me--whom have you +hidden in the cellar, besides the policeman?" + +There was no use trying to deceive him; he was looking straight +into my eyes. So I decided to make the best of a bad thing. +Anyhow, it was going to require strength to get Bella through the +coal hole with one arm and restrain the policeman with the other. + +"Come," I said, making a sudden resolution, and led the way down +the stairs. + +He said nothing when he saw Bella, for which I was grateful. She +was sitting at the table, with her arms in front of her, and her +head buried in them. And then I saw she was asleep. Her hat and +veil were laid beside her, and she had taken off her coat and +draped it around her. She had rummaged out a cold pheasant and +some salad, and had evidently had a little supper. Supper and +a nap, while I worried myself gray-headed about her! + +"She--she came in unexpectedly--something about the butler," I +explained under my breath. "And--she doesn't want to stay. She is +on bad terms with--with some of the people upstairs. You can see +how impossible the situation is." + +"I doubt if we can get her out," he said, as if the situation +were quite ordinary. "However, we can try. She seems very +comfortable. It's a pity to rouse her." + +Here the prisoner in the furnace room broke out afresh. It +sounded as though he had taken a lump of coal and was attacking +the lock. Mr. Harbison followed the noise, and I could hear him +arguing, not gently. + +"Another sound," he finished, "and you won't get out of here at +all, unless you crawl up the furnace pipe!" + +When he came back, Bella was rousing. She lifted her head with +her eyes shut and then opened them one at a time, blinked, and +sat up. She didn't see him at first. + +"You wretch!" she said ungratefully, after she had yawned. "Do +you know what time it is? And that--" Then she saw Mr. Harbison +and sat staring at him. + +"This is Mr. Harbison," I said to her hastily. "He--he came with +Anne and Dal and--he is shut in, too." + +By that time Bella had seen how handsome he was, and she took a +hair pin out of her mouth, and arched her eyebrows, which was +always Bella's best pose. + +"I am Miss Knowles," she said sweetly (of course, the court had +given her back her name),"and I stopped in tonight, thinking the +house was empty, to see about a--a butler. Unfortunately, the +house was quarantined just at that time, and--here I am. Surely +there can not be any harm in helping me to get out?" (Pleading +tone.) "I have not been exposed to any contagion, and in the +exhausted state of my health the confinement would be positively +dangerous." + +She rolled her eyes at him, and I could see she was making an +impression. Of course she was free. She had a perfect right to +marry again, but I will say this: Bella is a lot better looking +by electric light than she is the next morning. + +The upshot of it was that the gentleman who built bridges and +looked down on society from a lofty, lonely pinnacle agreed to +help one of the most gleaming members of the aforesaid society to +outwit the law. + +It took about fifteen minutes to quiet the policeman. Nobody ever +knew what Mr. Harbison did to him, but for twenty-four hours he +was quite tractable. He changed after that, but that comes later +in the story. Anyhow, the Harbison man went upstairs and came +down with a Bagdad curtain and a cushion to match, and took them +into the furnace room, and came out and locked the door behind +him, and then we were ready for Bella's escape. + +But there were four special officers and three reporters watching +the house, as a result of Max Reed's idiocy. Once, after trying +all the other windows and finding them guarded, we discovered a +little bit of a hole in an out-of-the-way corner that looked like +a ventilator and was covered with a heavy wire screen. No +prisoners ever dug their way out of a dungeon with more energy +than that with which we attached that screen, hacking at it with +kitchen knives, whispering like conspirators, being scratched +with the ragged edges of the wire, frozen with the cold air one +minute and boiling with excitement the next. And when the wire +was cut, and Bella had rolled her coat up and thrust it through +and was standing on a chair ready to follow, something outside +that had looked like a barrel moved, and said, "Oh, I wouldn't do +that if I were you. It would be certain to be undignified, and +probably it would be unpleasant--later." + +We coaxed and pleaded and tried to bribe, and that happened, as +it turned out, to be one of the worst things we had to endure. +For the whole conversation came out the next afternoon in the +paper, with the most awful drawings, and the reporter said it was +the flashing of the jewels we wore that first attracted his +attention. And that brings me back to the robbery. + +For when we had crept back to the kitchen, and Bella was fumbling +for her handkerchief to cry into and the Harbison man was trying +to apologize for the language he had used to the reporter, and I +was on the verge of a nervous chill--well, it was then that Bella +forgot all about crying and jumped and held out her arm. + +"My diamond bracelet!" she screeched. "Look, I've lost it." + +Well, we went over every inch of that basement, until I knew +every crack in the flooring, every spot on the cement. And Bella +was nasty, and said that she had never seen that part of the +house in such condition, and that if I had acted like a sane +person and put her out, when she had no business there at all, +she would have had her freedom and her bracelet, and that if we +were playing a joke on her (as if we felt like joking!) we would +please give her the bracelet and let her go and die in a corner; +she felt very queer. + +At half-past four o'clock we gave up. + +"It's gone," I said. "I don't believe you wore it here. No one +could have taken it. There wasn't a soul in this part of the +house, except the policeman and he's locked in." + +At five o'clock we put her to sleep in the den. She was in a +fearful temper, and I was glad enough to be able to shut the door +on her. Tom Harbison--that was his name--helped me to creep +upstairs, and wanted to get me a glass of ale to make me sleep. +But I said it would be of no use, as I had to get up and get the +breakfast. The last thing he said was that the policeman seemed +above the average in intelligence, and perhaps we could train him +to do plain cooking and dishwashing. + +I did not go to sleep at once. I lay on the chintz-covered divan +in Bella's dressing room and stared at the picture of her with +the violets underneath. I couldn't see what there was about Bella +to inspire such undying devotion, but I had to admit that she had +looked handsome that night, and that the Harbison man had +certainly been impressed. + +At seven o'clock Jimmy Wilson pounded at my door, and I could +have choked him joyfully. I dragged myself to the door and opened +it, and then I heard excited voices. Everybody seemed to be up +but Aunt Selina, and they were all talking at once. + +Anne Brown was in the corner of the group, waving her hands, +while Dallas was trying to hook the back of her gown with one +hand and hold a blanket around himself with the other. No one was +dressed except Anne, and she had been up for an hour, looking in +shoes and under the corners of rugs and around the bed clothing +for her jeweled collar. When she saw me she began all over again. + +"I had it on when I went into my room," she declared, "and I put +it on the dressing table when I undressed. I meant to put it +under my pillow, but I forgot. And I didn't sleep well; I was +awake half the night. Wasn't I, Dal? Then, when the clock +downstairs in the hall was chiming five, something roused me, and +I sat up in bed. It was still dark, but I pinched Dal and said +there was somebody in the room. You remember that, don't you, +Dal?" + +"I thought you had nightmare," he said sheepishly. + +"I lay still for ages, it seemed to me, and then--the door into +the hall closed. I heard the catch click. I turned on the light +over the bed then, and the room was empty. I thought of my +collar, and although it seemed ridiculous, with the house sealed +as it is, and all of us friends for years--well, I got up and +looked, and it was gone!" + +No one spoke for an instant. It WAS a queer situation, for the +collar was gone; Anne's red eyes showed it was true. And there we +stood, every one of us a miserable picture of guilt, and tried to +look innocent and debonair and unsuspicious. Finally Jim held up +his hand and signified that he wanted to say something. + +"It's like this," he said, "until this thing is cleared up, for +Heaven's sake, let's try to be sane! If every fellow thinks the +other fellow did it, this house will be a nice little hell to +live in. And if anybody"--here he glared around--"if anybody has +got funny and is hiding those jewels, I want to say that he'd +better speak up now. Later, it won't be so easy for him. It's a +mighty poor joke." + +But nobody spoke. + + + +Chapter VII. WE MAKE AN OMELET + +It was Betty Mercer who said she was hungry, and got us switched +from the delicate subject of which was the thief to the quite as +pressing subject of which was to be cook. Aunt Selina had slept +quietly through the whole thing--we learned afterward that she +customarily slept on her left side, which was on her good ear. We +gathered in the Dallas Browns' room, and Jimmy proposed a plan. + +"We can have anything sent in that we want," he suggested +speciously, "and if Dal doesn't make good with the city fathers, +you girls can get some clothes anyhow. Then, we can have dinner +sent from one of the hotels." + +"Why not all the meals?" Max suggested. "I hope you're not going +to be small about things, Jimmy." + +"It ought to be easy," Jim persisted, ignoring the remark, "for +nine reasonably intelligent people to boil eggs and make coffee, +which is all we need for breakfast, with some fruit." + +"Nine of us!" Dallas said wickedly, looking at Tom Harbison, who +was out of earshot, "Why nine of us? I thought Kit here, +otherwise known as Bella, was going to show off her housewifely +skill." + +It ended, however, with Mr. Harbison writing out a lot of slips, +cook, scullery-maid, chamber-maid, parlor-maid, furnace-man, and +butler, and as that left two people over--we didn't count Aunt +Selina--he added another furnace-man and a trained nurse. Betty +Mercer drew the trained nurse slip, and, of course, she was +delighted. It seems funny now to look back and think what a +dreadful time she really had, for Aunt Selina took the grippe, +you know, that very day. + +It was fate that I should go back to that awful kitchen, for of +course my slip said "cook." Mr. Harbison was butler, and Max and +Dal got the furnace, although neither of them had ever been +nearer to a bucket of coal than the coupons on mining stock. Anne +got the bedrooms, and Leila was parlor-maid. It was Jimmy who got +the scullery work, but he was quite crushed by this time, and did +not protest at all. + +Max was in a very bad temper; I suppose he had not had enough +sleep--no one had. But he came over while the lottery was going +on and stood over me and demanded unpleasantly, in a whisper, +that I stop masquerading as another man's wife and generally +making a fool of myself--which is the way he put it. And I knew +in my heart that he was right, and I hated him for it. + +"Why don't you go and tell him--them?" I asked nastily. No one +was paying any attention to us. "Tell them that, to be obliging, +I have nearly drowned in a sea of lies; tell them that I am not +only not married, but that I never intend to marry; tell them +that we are a lot of idiots with nothing better to do than to +trifle with strangers within our gates, people who build--I mean, +people that are worth two to our one! Run and tell them." + +He looked at me for a minute, then he turned on his heel and left +me. It looked as though Max might be going to be difficult. + +While I was improvising an apron out of a towel, and Anne was +pinning a sheet into a kimono, so she could take off her dinner +gown and still be proper, Dallas harked back to the robbery. + +"Ann put the collar on the table there," he said. "There's no +mistake about that. I watched her do it, for I remember thinking +it was the sole reminder I had that Consolidated Traction ever +went above thirty-nine." + +Max was looking around the room, examining the window locks and +whistling between his teeth. He was in disgrace with every one, +for by that time it was light enough to see three reporters with +cameras across the street waiting for enough sun to snap the +house, and everybody knew that it was Max and his idiotic wager +that had done it. He had made two or three conciliatory remarks, +but no one would speak to him. His antics were so queer, however, +that we were all watching him, and when he had felt over the rug +with his hands, and raised the edges, and tried to lift out the +chair seats, and had shaken out Dal's shoes (he said people often +hid things and then forgot about it), he made a proposition. + +"If you will take that infernal furnace from around my neck, I'll +undertake either to find the jewels or to show up the thief," he +said quietly. And of course, with all the people in the house +under suspicion, every one had to hail the suggestion with joy, +and to offer his assistance, and Jimmy had to take Max's share of +the furnace. So they took the scullery slip downstairs to the +policeman, and gave Jim Max's share of the furnace. (Yes, I had +broken the policeman to them gently. Of course, Anne said at once +that he was the thief, but they found him tucked in and sound +asleep with his back against the furnace.) + +"In the first place," Max said, standing importantly in the +middle of the room, "we retired between two and three--nearer +three. So the theft occurred between three and five, when Anne +woke up. Was your door locked, Dal?" + +"No. The door into the hall was, but the door into the dressing +room was open, and we found the door from there into the hall +open this morning." + +"From three until five," Max repeated. "Was any one out of his +room during that time?" + +"I was," said Tom Harbison promptly, from the foot of the bed. "I +was prowling all around somewhere about four, searching"--he +glanced at me--"for a drink of water. But as I don't know a pearl +from a glass bead, I hope you exonerate me." + +Everybody laughed and said, "Of course," and "Sure, old man," and +changed the subject quickly. + +While that excitement was on, I got Jim to one side and told him +about Bella. His good-natured face was radiant at first. + +"I suppose she DID come to see Takahiro, eh, Kit?" he asked +delicately. "She didn't say anything about me?" + +"Nothing good. She said the house was in a disgraceful +condition," I said heartlessly. "And her diamond bracelet was +stolen while she took a nap on the kitchen table"--he +groaned--"and--oh, Jim, you are such a goose! If I could only +manage my own affairs the way I could my friends'! She's too sure +of you, Jimmy. She knows you adore her, and--how brutal could you +be, Jim?" + +"Fair," he said. "I may have undiscovered depths of brutality +that I have never had occasion to use. However, I might try. +Why?" + +"Listen, Jim," I urged. "It was always Bella who did things here; +she managed the house, she tyrannized over her friends, and she +bullied you. Yes, she did. Now she's here, without your +invitation, and she has to stay. It's your turn to bully, to +dictate terms, to be coldly civil or politely rude. Make her +furious at you. If she is jealous, so much the better." + +"How far would you sacrifice yourself on the altar of +friendship?" he asked. + +"You may pay me all the attention you like, in public," I +replied, and after we shook hands we went together to Bella. + +There was an ominous pause when we went into the den. Bella was +sitting by the register, with her furs on, and after one glance +over her shoulder at us, she looked away again without speaking. + +"Bella," Jim said appealingly. And then I pinched his arm, and he +drew himself up and looked properly outraged. + +"Bella," he said, coldly this time, "I can't imagine why you have +put yourself in this ridiculous position, but since you have--" + +She turned on him in a fury. + +"Put MYSELF in this position!" + +She was frantic. "It's a plot, a wretched trick of yours, this +quarantine, to keep me here." + +Jim gasped, but I gave him a warning glance, and he swallowed +hard. + +"On the contrary," he said, with maddening quiet, "I would be the +last person in the world to wish to perpetuate an indiscretion of +yours. For it was hardly discreet, was it, to visit a bachelor +establishment alone at ten o'clock at night? As far as my +plotting to keep you here is concerned, I assure you that nothing +could be further from my mind. Our paths were to be two parallel +lines that never touch." He looked at me for approval, and Bella +was choking. + +"You are worse that I ever thought you," she stormed. "I thought +you were only a--a fool. Now I know you--for a brute!" + +Well, it ended by Jim's graciously permitting Bella to +remain--there being nothing else to do--and by his magnanimously +agreeing to keep her real identity from Aunt Selina and Mr. +Harbison, and to break the news of her presence to Anne and the +rest. It created a sensation beside which Anne's pearls faded +away, although they came to the front again soon enough. + +Jim broke the news at once, gathering everybody but Harbison and +Aunt Selina in the upper hall. He was palpitatingly nervous, but +he tried to carry it off with a high hand. + +"It's unfortunate," he said, looking around the circle of faces, +each one frozen with amazement, and just a suspicion, perhaps of +incredulity. "It's particularly unfortunate for her. You all know +how high-strung she is, and if the papers should get hold of +it--well, we'll all have to make it as easy as we can for her." + +With Jim's eyes on them, they all swallowed the butler story +without a gulp. But Anne was indignant. + +"It's like Bella," she snapped. "Well, she has made her bed and +she can lie on it. I'm sure I shan't make it for her. But if you +want to know my opinion, Mr. Harbison may be a fool, but you +can't ram two Bellas, both NEE Knowles, down Miss Caruthers' +throat with a stick." + +We had not thought of that before and every one looked blank. +Finally, however, Jim said Bella's middle name was Constantia, +and we decided to call her that. But it turned out afterward that +nobody could remember it in a hurry, and generally when we wanted +to attract her attention, we walked across the room and touched +her on the shoulder. It was quicker and safer. + +The name decided, we went downstairs in a line to welcome Bella, +to try to make her feel at home, and to forget her deplorable +situation. Leila had worked herself into a really sympathetic +frame of mind. + +"Poor dear," she said, on the way down. "Now don't grin, anybody, +just be cordial and glad to see her. I hope she doesn't cry; you +know the spells she takes." + +We stopped outside the door, and everybody tried to look cheerful +and sympathetic, and not grinny--which was as hard as looking as +if we had had a cup of tea--and then Jim threw the door open and +we filed in. + +Bella was comfortably reading by the fire. She had her feet up on +a stool and a pillow behind her head. She did not even look at us +for a minute; then she merely glanced up as she turned a page. + +"Dear me," she said mockingly, "what a lot of frumps you all are! +I had hoped it was some one with my breakfast." + +Then she went on reading. As Leila said afterward, that kind of +person OUGHT to be divorced. + +Aunt Selina came down just then and I left everybody trying to +explain Bella's presence to her, and fled to the kitchen. The +Harbison man appeared while I was sitting hopelessly in front of +the gas range, and showed me about it. + +"I don't know that I ever saw one," he said cheerfully, "but I +know the theory. Likewise, by the same token, this tea kettle, +set on the flame, will boil. That is not theory, however, that is +early knowledge. 'Polly, put the kettle on; we'll all take tea.' +Look at that, Mrs. Wilson. I didn't fight bacilli with boiled +water at Chickamauga for nothing." + +And then he let out the policeman and brought him into the +kitchen. He was a large man, and his face was a curious mixture +of amazement, alarm and dignity. No doubt we did look queer, +still in parts of our evening clothes and I in the white silk and +lace petticoat that belonged under my gown, with a yellow and +black pajama coat of Jimmy's as a sort of breakfast jacket. + +"This is Officer Flannigan," Mr. Harbison said. "I explained our +unfortunate position earlier in the morning, and he is prepared +to accept our hospitality. Flannigan, every person in this house +has got to work, as I also explained to you. You are appointed +dishwasher and scullery maid." + +The policeman looked dazed. Then, slowly, like dawn over a +sleeping lake, a light of comprehension grew in his face. + +"Sure," he said, laying his helmet on the table. "I'll be glad to +be doing anything I can to help. Me and Mrs. Wilson--we used to +be friends. It's many the time I've opened the carriage door for +her, and she with her head in the air, and for all that, the +pleasant smile. When any one around her was having a party and +wanted a special officer, it was Mrs. Wilson that always said, +Get Flannigan, Officer Timothy Flannigan. He's your man.'" + +My heart had been going lower and lower. So he knew Bella, and he +knew I was not Bella, although he had not grasped the fact that I +was usurping her place. The odious Harbison man sat on the table +and swung his feet. + +"I wonder if you know," he said, looking around him, "how good it +is to see a white woman so perfectly at home in a civilized +kitchen again, after two years of food cooked by a filthy Indian +squaw over a portable sheet-iron stove!" + +SO PERFECTLY AT HOME? I stood in the middle of the room and +stared around at the copper things hanging up and the rows of +blue and white crockery, and the dozens and hundreds of +complicated-looking utensils, whose names I had never even heard, +and I was dazed. I tried with some show of authority to instruct +Flannigan about gathering up the soiled things, and, after +listening in puzzled silence for a minute, he stripped off his +blue coat with a tolerant smile. + +"Lave em to me, miss," he said. The "miss" passed unnoticed. "I +mayn't give em a Turkish bath, which is what you are describin', +but I'll get the grease off all right. I always clean up while +the missus is in bed with a young un." + +He rolled up his sleeves, found a brown checked gingham apron +behind the door, and tied it around his neck with the ease of +practice. Then he cleared off the plates, eating what appealed to +him as he did so, and stopping now and again for a deep-throated +chuckle. + +"I'm thinkin'," he said once, stopping with a dish in the air, +"what a deuce of a noise there will be when the vaccination +doctor comes around this mornin'. In a week every one of us will +be nursin' a sore arm or walkin' on one leg, beggin' your pardon, +miss. The last time the force was vaccinated, I asked to be done +behind me ear; I needed me legs and I needed me arms, but didn't +need me head much!" + +He threw his head back and laughed. Mr. Harbison laughed. Oh, we +were very cheerful! And that awful stove stared at me, and the +kettle began to hum, and Aunt Selina sent down word that she was +not well, and would like some omelet on her tray. Omelet! + +I knew that it was made of eggs, but that was the extent of my +knowledge. I muttered an excuse and ran upstairs to Anne, but she +was still sniffling over her necklace, and said she didn't know +anything about omelets and didn't care. Food would choke her. +Neither of the Mercer girls knew either, and Bella, who was still +reading in the den, absolutely declined to help. + +"I don't know, and I wouldn't tell you if I did. You can get +yourself out, as you got yourself in," she said nastily. "The +simplest thing, if you don't mind my suggesting it, is to poison +the coffee and kill the lot of us. Only, if you decide to do it, +let me know; I want to live just long enough to see Jimmy Wilson +WRITHE!" + +Bella is the kind of person who gets on one's nerves. She finds a +grievance and hugs it; she does ridiculous things and blames +other people. And she flirts. + +I went downstairs despondently, and found that Mr. Harbison had +discovered some eggs and was standing helplessly staring at them. + +"Omelet--eggs. Eggs--omelet. That's the extent of my knowledge," +he said, when I entered. "You'll have to come to my assistance." + +It was then that I saw the cook book. It was lying on a shelf +beside the clock, and while Mr. Harbison had his back turned I +got it down. It was quite clear that the domestic type of woman +was his ideal, and I did not care to outrage his belief in me. So +I took the cook book into the pantry and read the recipe over +three times. When I came back I knew it by heart, although I did +not understand it. + +"I will tell you how," I said with a great deal of dignity, "and +since you want to help, you may make it yourself." + +He was delighted. + +"Fine!" he said. "Suppose you give me the idea first. Then we'll +go over it slowly, bit by bit. We'll make a big fluffy omelet, +and if the others aren't around, we'll eat it ourselves." + +"Well," I said, trying to remember exactly, "you take two eggs--" + +"Two!" he repeated. "Two eggs for ten people!" + +"Don't interrupt me," I said irritably. "If--if two isn't enough +we can make several omelets, one after the other." + +He looked at me with admiration. + +"Who else but you would have thought of that!" he remarked. +"Well, here are two eggs. What next?" + +"Separate them," I said easily. No, I didn't know what it meant. +I hoped he would; I said it as casually as I could, and I did not +look at him. I knew he was staring at me, puzzled. + +"Separate them!" he said. "Why, they aren't fastened together!" +Then he laughed. "Oh, yes, of course!" When I looked he had put +one at each end of the table. "Afraid they'll quarrel, I +suppose," he said. "Well, now they're separated." + +"Then beat." + +"First separate, then beat!" he repeated. "The author of that +cook book must have had a mean disposition. What's next? Hang +them?" He looked up at me with his boyish smile. + +"Separate and beat," I repeated. If I lost a word of that recipe +I was gone. It was like saying the alphabet; I had to go to the +beginning every time mentally. + +"Well," he reflected, "you can't beat an egg, no matter how cruel +you may be, unless you break it first." He picked up an egg and +looked at it. "Separate!" he reflected. "Ah--the white from +the--whatever you cooking experts call it--the yellow part." + +"Exactly!" I exclaimed, light breaking on me. "Of course. I KNEW +you would find it out." Then back to the recipe--"beat until well +mixed; then fold in the whites." + +"Fold?" he questioned. "It looks pretty thin to fold, doesn't it? +I--upon my word, I never heard of folding an egg. Are you--but of +course you know. Please come and show me how." + +"Just fold them in," I said desperately. "It isn't difficult." +And because I was so transparent a fraud and knew he must find me +out then, I said something about butter, and went into the +pantry. That's the trouble with a lie; somebody asks you to tell +one as a favor to somebody else, and the first thing you know, +you are having to tell a thousand, and trying to remember the +ones you have told so you won't contradict yourself, and the very +person you have tried to help turns on you and reproaches you for +being untruthful! I leaned my elbows despondently on the shelf of +the kitchen pantry, with the feet of a guard visible through the +high window over my head, and waited for Mr. Harbison to come in +and demand that I fold a raw egg, and discover that I didn't know +anything about cooking, and was just as useless as all the +others. + +He came. He held the bowl out to me and waved a fork in triumph. + +"I have solved it," he said. "Or, rather, Flannigan and I have +solved it. The mixture awaits the magic touch of the cook." + +I honestly thought I could do the rest. It was only to be put in +a pan and browned, and then in the oven three minutes. And I did +it properly, but for two things: I should have greased the pan +(but this was the book's fault; it didn't say) and I should have +lighted the oven. The latter, however, was Mr. Harbison's fault +as much as mine, and I had wit enough to lay it to absent- +mindedness on the part of both of us. + +After that, Aunt Selina or no Aunt Selina, we decided to have +boiled eggs, and Mr. Harbison knew how to cook them. He put them +in the tea kettle and then went to look at the furnace. And +Officer Timothy Flannigan ground the coffee and gave his opinion +of the board of health in no stinted terms. As for me, I burned +my fingers and the toast, and felt myself growing hot and cold, +for I was going to be found out as soon as Flannigan grasped the +situation. + +Then, of course, I did the thing that caused me so much trouble +later. I put down the toaster--at least the Harbison man said it +was a toaster--and went over and stood in front of the policeman. + +"I don't suppose you will understand--exactly," I said, "but--but +if anything occurs to--to make you think I am not--that things +are not what they seem to be--I mean, what I say they are--you +will understand that it is a joke, won't you? A joke, you know." + +Yes, that was what I said. I know it sounds like a raving +delirium, but when Max came down and squizzled some bacon, as he +said, and told Flannigan about the robbery, and how, whether it +was a joke or deadly earnest, somebody in the house had taken +Anne's pearls, that wretched policeman winked at me solemnly over +Max's shoulder. Oh, it was awful! + +And, to add to my discomfort, the most unpleasant ideas WOULD +obtrude themselves. WHAT was Mr. Harbison doing on the first +floor of the house that night? Ice water, he had said. But there +had been plenty of water in the studio! And he had told me it was +the furnace. + +Mr. Harbison came back in a half hour, and I remembered the eggs. +We fished them out of the tea kettle, and they were perfectly +hard, but we ate them. + +The doctor from the board of health came that morning and +vaccinated us. There was a great deal of excitement, and Aunt +Selina was done on the arm. As she did not affect evening clothes +this was entirely natural, but later on in the week, when the +wretched things began to take, nobody dared to limp, and Leila +made a terrible break by wearing a bandage on her left arm, after +telling Aunt Selina that she had been vaccinated on the right. + + + +Chapter VIII. CORRESPONDENTS' DEPARTMENT + +The following letters were found in the house post box after the +lifting of the quarantine, and later were presented to me by +their writers, bound in white kid (the letters, not the authors, +of course). + +FROM THOMAS HARBISON, LATE ENGINEER OF BRIDGES, PERUVIAN TRUNK +LINES, SOUTH AMERICA, TO HENRY LLEWELLYN, CARE OF UNION NITRATE +COMPANY, IQUIQUE, CHILI. + +Dear Old Man: + +I think I was fully a week trying to drive out of my mind my last +glimpse of you with your sickly grin, pretending to be tickled to +pieces that the only white man within two hundred miles of your +shack was going on a holiday. You old bluffer! I used to hang +over the rail of the steamer, on the way up, and see you standing +as I left you beside the car with its mule and the Indian driver, +and behind you a million miles of soul-destroying pampa. Never +mind, Jack; I sent yesterday by mail steamer the cigarettes, +pipes and tobacco, canned goods and poker chips. Put in some +magazines, too, and the collars. Don't know about the ties--guess +it won't matter down there. + +Nothing happened on the trip. One of the engines broke down three +days out, and I spent all my time below decks for forty-eight +hours. Chief engineer raving with D.T.'s. Got the engine fixed in +record time, and haven't got my hands clean yet. It was bully. + +With this I send the papers, which will tell you how I happen to +be here, and why I have leisure to write you three days after +landing. If the situation were not so ridiculous, it would be +maddening. Here I am, off for a holiday and congratulating myself +that I am foot free and heart free--yes, my friend, heart +free--here I am, shut in the house of a man I never saw until +last night, and wouldn't care if I never saw again, with a lot of +people who never heard of me, who are almost equally vague about +South America, who play as hard at bridge as I ever worked at +building one (forgive this, won't you? The novelty has gone to my +head), and who belong to the very class of extravagant, +luxury-loving, non-producing parasites (isn't that what we called +them?) that you and I used to revile from our lofty Andean +pinnacle. + +To come down to earth: here we are, six women and five men, +including a policeman, not a servant in the house, and no one who +knows how to do anything. They are really immensely interesting, +these people; they all know each other very well, and it is +"Jimmy" here, and "Dal" there--Dallas Brown, who went to India +with me, you remember my speaking of him--and they are good +natured, too, except at meal times. The little hostess, Mrs. +Wilson, took over the cooking, and although luncheon was better +than breakfast, the food still leaves much to the imagination. + +I wish you could see this Mrs. Wilson, Hal. You would change a +whole lot of your ideas. She is a thoroughbred, sure enough, and +of course some of her beauty is the result of the exquisite care +about which you and I--still from our Andean pinnacle--used to +rant. But the fact is, she is more than that. She has fire, and +pluck, no end. If you could have seen her this morning, standing +in front of a cold kitchen range, determined to conquer it, and +had seen the tilt of her chin when I offered to take over the +cooking--you needn't grin; I can cook, and you know it--you would +understand what I mean. It was so clear that she was paralyzed +with fright at the idea of getting breakfast, and equally clear +that she meant to do it. By the way, I have learned that her name +was McNair before she married this would-be artist, Wilson, and +that she is a daughter of the McNair who financed the Callao +branch! + +I have not met the others so intimately. There are two sisters +named Mercer, inclined to be noisy--they are playing roulette in +the next room now. One is small and dark, almost Hebraic in type, +named Leila and called Lollie. The other, larger, very blonde and +languishing, and with a decided preference for masculine society, +even, saving the mark, mine! Dallas Brown's wife, good looking, +smokes cigarettes when I am not around--they all do, except Mrs. +Wilson. + +Then there is a maiden aunt, who is ill today with grippe and +excitement, and a Miss Knowles, who came for a moment last night +to see Mrs. Wilson, was caught in the quarantine (see papers), +and, after hiding all night in the basement, is sulking all day +in her room. Her presence created an excitement out of all +proportion to the apparent cause. + +From the fact that I have reason to know that my artist host and +his beautiful wife are on bad terms, and from the significant +glances with which the announcement of Miss Knowles' presence was +met, the state of affairs seems rather clear. Wilson impresses me +as a spineless sort, anyhow, and when the lady of the basement +shut herself away from the rest today and I happened on "Jimmy," +as they call him, pleading with her through the door, I very +nearly kicked him down the stairs. Oh, yes, I'll keep out, right +enough; it isn't my affair. + +By the way, after the quarantine and with the policeman locked in +the furnace room, a pearl necklace and a diamond bracelet were +stolen! Just ten of us to divide the suspicion! Upon my word, +Hal, it's the queerest situation I ever heard of. Which of us did +it? I make a guess that not a few of us are fools, but which is +the knave? The worst of it is, I am the only unaccredited member +of the household! + +This is more scandal than I ever wrote in my life. Lay it to +circumscribed environment, and the lack of twenty miles over the +pampa before breakfast. We have all been vaccinated, and the +officious gentlemen from the board of health have taken their +grins and their formaldehyde and gone. Ye gods, how we cough! + +The Carlton order will go through all right, I think. Phoned him +this morning. If it does, old man, we will take a month in +September and explore the Mercator property. + +Do you know, Hal, I have been thinking lately that you and I +stick too close to the grind. Business is right enough, but +what's the use of spending one's best years succeeding in +everything except the things that are worth while? I'll be thirty +sooner than I care to say, and--oh, well, you won't understand. +You'll sit down there, with the Southern Cross and the rest of +the infernal astronomical galaxy looking down on you, and the +Indians chanting in the village, and you will think I have grown +sentimental. I have not. You and I down there have been looking +at the world through the reverse end of the glass. It's a bully +old world, Hal, and this is God's part of it. + +Burn this letter after you read it; I suspect it is covered with +germs. Well, happy days, old man. + +Yours, Tom + +P.S. By the way, can't you spare some of the Indian pottery you +picked up at Callao? I told Mrs. Wilson about it, and she was +immensely interested. Send it to this address. Can you get it to +the next steamer?--T. + +FROM MAXWELL REED TO RICHARD BURTON BAGLEY, UNIVERSITY CLUB, NEW +YORK. + +Dear Dick: + +Enclosed find my check for five hundred, as per wager. Possibly +you were within your rights in protecting your bet in the manner +you chose, but while I do not wish to be offensive, your +reporters are damnably so. + +Yours, Maxwell Reed + +FROM OFFICER FLANNIGAN TO MRS. MAGGIE FLANNIGAN, ERIN STREET. + +Dear Maggie: + +As soon as you receive this, go down to Mac and tell him the +story as I tell you hear. Tell him I was walkin my beat, and I'd +been afther seein Jimmy Alverini about doin the right thing for +Mac on Monday, at the poles, when I seen a man hangin suspicious +around this house, which is Mr. Wilson's, on Ninety-fifth. And, +of coorse, afther chasin the man a mile or more, I lose him, +which was not my fault. So I go back to the Wilson house, and +tell them to be careful about closin up fer the night, and while +I'm standin in the hall, with all the swells around me, sparklin +with jewels, the board of health sends a man to lock us all in, +because the Jap thats been waiter has took the smallpox and gone +to the hospitle. I stood me ground. I sez, sez I, you cant shtop +an officer in pursute of his duty. I rafuse to be shut in. Be +shure to tell Mac that. + +So here I am, and like to be for a month. Tell Mac theres four +votes shut up here, and I can get them for him, if he can stop +this monkey business. + +Then go over to the Dago Church on Webster Avenue and put a +dollar in Saint Anthony's box. He'll see me out of this scrape, +right enough. Do it at once. Now remember, go to Mac first; maybe +you can get the dollar from him, and mind what you tell him. + +Your husband, Tim Flannigan + +FROM ME TO MOTHER--MRS. THEODORE McNAIR, HOTEL HAMILTON, BERMUDA. + +Dearest Mother: + +I hope you will get this before you read the papers, and when you +DO read them, you are not to get excited and worried. I am as +well as can be, and a great deal safer than I ever remember to +have been in my life. We are quarantined, a lot of us, in Jim +Wilson's house, because his irreproachable Jap did a very +reproachable thing--took smallpox. Now read on before you get +excited. HIS ROOM HAS BEEN FUMIGATED, and we have been +vaccinated. I am well and happy. I can't be killed in a railway +wreck or smashed when the car skids. Unless I drown myself in my +bath, or jump through a window, positively nothing can happen to +me. So gather up all your maternal anxieties and cast them to the +Bermuda sharks. + +Anne Brown is here--see the papers for list--and if she can not +play propriety, Jimmy's Aunt Selina can. In fact, she doesn't +play at it; she works. I have telephoned Lizette for some +clothes--enough for a couple of weeks, although Dallas promises +to get us out sooner. Now, dear, do go ahead and have a nice +time, and on no account come home. You could only have the +carriage to stop in front of the house, and wave to me through a +window. + +Mother, I want you to do something for me. You know who is down +there, and--this is awfully delicate, Mumsy--but he's a nice boy, +and I thought I liked him. I guess you know he has been rather +attentive. Now, I DO like him, Mumsy, but not the way I thought I +did, and I want you to--very gently, of course--to discourage him +a little. You know how I mean. He's a dear boy, but I am so tired +of people who don't know anything but horses and motors. + +And, oh, yes,--do you remember a girl named Lucille Mellon who +was at school with you in Rome? And that she married a man named +Harbison? Well, her son is here! He builds railroads and bridges +and things, and he even built himself an automobile down in South +America, because he couldn't afford to buy one, and burned wood +in it! Wood! Think of it! + +I wired father in Chicago for fear he would come rushing home. +The picture in the paper of the face at the basement window is +supposed to be Mr. Harbison, but of course it isn't any more like +him than mine is like me. + +Anne Brown mislaid her pearl collar when she took it off last +night, and has fussed herself into a sick headache. She declares +it was stolen! Some of the people are playing bridge, Betty +Mercer is doing a cake walk to the RHAPSODIE HONGROISE--Jim has +no every-day music--and the telephone is ringing. We have +received enough flowers for a funeral--somebody sent Lollie a +Gates Ajar, only with the gates shut. + +There are no servants--think of it, Mumsy. I wish you had made me +learn to cook. Mr. Harbison has shown me a little--he was a +soldier in the Spanish War--but we girls are a terribly ignorant +lot, Mumsy, about the real things of life. + +Now, don't worry. It is more sport than camping in the +Adirondacks, and not nearly so damp. + +Your loving daughter, Katherine. + +P.S.--South America must be wonderful. Why can't we put the +Gadfly in commission, and take a coasting trip this summer? It is +a shame to own a yacht and never use it. K. + +THIS NOTE, EVIDENTLY DELIVERED BY MESSENGER, WAS FOUND AMONG +OTHER LITTER IN THE VESTIBULE AFTER THE LIFTING OF THE +QUARANTINE. + +Mr. Alex Dodds, City Editor, Mail and Star: + +Dear D.--Can't get a picture. Have waited seven hours. They have +closed the shutters. + +McCord. + +WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE ABOVE NOTE. + +Watch the roof. + +Dodds. + + + +Chapter IX. FLANNIGAN'S FIND + +The most charitable thing would be to say nothing about the first +day. We were baldly brutal--that's the only word for it. And Mr. +Harbison, with his beautiful courtesy--the really sincere +kind--tried to patch up one quarrel after another and failed. He +rose superbly to the occasion, and made something that he called +a South American goulash for luncheon, although it was too salty, +and every one was thirsty the rest of the day. + +Bella was horrid, of course. She froze Jim until he said he was +going to sit in the refrigerator and cool the butter. She locked +herself in the dressing room--it had been assigned to me, but +that made no difference to Bella--and did her nails, and took +three different baths, and refused to come to the table. And of +course Jimmy was wild, and said she would starve. But I said, +"Very well, let her starve. Not a tray shall leave my kitchen." +It was a comfort to have her shut up there anyhow; it postponed +the time when she would come face to face with Flannigan. + +Aunt Selina got sick that day, as I have said. I was not so +bitter as the others; I did not say that I wished she would die. +The worst I ever wished her was that she might be quite ill for +some time, and yet, when she began to recover, she was dreadful +to me. She said for one thing, that it was the hard-boiled eggs +and the state of the house that did it, and when I said that the +grippe was a germ, she retorted that I had probably brought it to +her on my clothing. + +You remember that Betty had drawn the nurse's slip, and how +pleased she had been about it. She got up early the morning of +the first day and made herself a lawn cap and telephoned out for +a white nurse's uniform--that is, of course, for a white uniform +for a nurse. She really looked very fetching, and she went around +all the morning with a red cross on her sleeve and a Saint +Cecilia expression, gathering up bottles of medicine--most of it +flesh reducer, which was pathetic, and closing windows for fear +of drafts. She refused to help with the house work, and looked +quite exalted, but by afternoon it had palled on her somewhat, +and she and Max shook dice. + +Betty was really pleased when Aunt Selina sent for her. She took +in a bottle of cologne to bathe her brow, and we all stood +outside the door and listened. Betty tiptoed in in her pretty cap +and apron, and we heard her cautiously draw down the shades. + +"What are you doing that for?" Aunt Selina demanded. "I like the +light." + +"It's bad for your poor eyes," Betty's tone was exactly the +proper bedside pitch, low and sugary. + +"Sweet and low, sweet and low, wind of the western sea!" Dal +hummed outside. + +"Put up those window shades!" Aunt Selina's voice was strong +enough. "What's in that bottle?" + +Betty was still mild. She swished to the window and raised the +shade. + +"I'm SO sorry you are ill," she said sympathetically. "This is +for your poor aching head. Now close your eyes and lie perfectly +still, and I will cool your forehead." + +"There's nothing the matter with my head," Aunt Selina retorted. +"And I have not lost my faculties; I am not a child or a sick +cow. If that's perfumery, take it out." + +We heard Betty coming to the door, but there was no time to get +away. She had dropped her mask for a minute and was biting her +lip, but when she saw us she forced a smile. + +"She's ill, poor dear," she said. "If you people will go away, I +can bring her around all right. In two hours she will eat out of +my hand." + +"Eat a piece out of your hand," Max scoffed in a whisper. + +We waited a little longer, but it was too painful. Aunt Selina +demanded a mustard foot bath and a hot lemonade and her back +rubbed with liniment and some strong black tea. And in the +intervals she wanted to be read to out of the prayer book. And +when we had all gone away, there came the most terrible noise +from Aunt Selina's room, and every one ran. We found Betty in the +hall outside the door, crying, with her fingers in her ears and +her cap over her eye. She said she had been putting the hot water +bottle to Aunt Selina's back, and it had been too hot. Just then +something hit against the door with a soft thud, fell to the +floor and burst, for a trickle of hot water came over the sill. + +"She won't let me hold her hand," Betty wailed, "or bathe her +brow, or smooth her pillow. She thinks of nothing but her stomach +or her back! And when I try to make her bed look decent, she +spits at me like a cat. Everything I do is wrong. She spilled the +foot bath into her shoes, and blamed me for it." + +It took the united efforts of all of us--except Bella, who stood +back and smiled nastily--to get Betty back into the sick room +again. I was supremely thankful by that time that I had not drawn +the nurse's slip. With dinner ordered in from one of the clubs, +and the omelet ten hours behind me, my position did not seem so +unbearable. But a new development was coming. + +While Betty was fussing with Aunt Selina, Max led a search of the +house. He said the necklace and the bracelet must be hidden +somewhere, and that no crevice was too small to neglect. + +We made a formal search all together, except Betty and Aunt +Selina, and we found a lot of things in different places that Jim +said had been missing since the year one. But no jewels--nothing +even suggesting a jewel was found. We had explored the entire +house, every cupboard, every chest, even the insides of the +couches and the pockets of Jim's clothes--which he resented +bitterly--and found nothing, and I must say the situation was +growing rather strained. Some one had taken the jewels; they +hadn't walked away. + +It was Flannigan who suggested the roof, and as we had tried +every place else, we climbed there. Of course we didn't find +anything, but after all day in the house with the shutters closed +on account of reporters, the air was glorious. It was February, +but quite mild and sunny, and we could look down over Riverside +Drive and the Hudson, and even recognize people we knew on +horseback and in cars. It was a pathetic joy, and we lined up +along the parapet and watched the motor boats racing on the +river, and tried to feel that we were in the world as well as of +it, but it was very hard. + +Betty had been making tea for Aunt Selina, and of course when +she heard us up there, she followed, tray and all, and we drank +Aunt Selina's tea and had the first really nice time of the day. +Bella had come up, too, but she was still standoffish and queer, +and she stood leaning against a chimney and staring out over the +river. After a little Mr. Harbison put down his cup and went over +to her, and they talked quite confidentially for a long time. I +thought it bad taste in Bella, under the circumstances, after +snubbing Dallas and Max, and of course treating Jim like the dirt +under her feet, to turn right around and be lovely to Mr. +Harbison. It was hard for Jim. + +Max came and sat beside me, and Flannigan, who had been sent down +for more cups, passed tea, putting the tray on top of the +chimney. Jim was sitting grumpily on the roof, with his feet +folded under him, playing Canfield in the shadow of the parapet, +buying the deck out of one pocket and putting his winnings in the +other. He was watching Bella, too, and she knew it, and she +strained a point to captivate Mr. Harbison. Any one could see +that. + +And that was the picture that came out in the next morning's +papers, tea cups, cards and all. For when some one looked up, +there were four newspaper photographers on the roof of the next +house, and they had the impertinence to thank us! + +Flannigan had seen Bella by that time, but as he still didn't +understand the situation, things were just the same. But his +manner to me puzzled me; whenever he came near me he winked +prodigiously, and during all the search he kept one eye on me, +and seemed to be amused about something. + +When the rest had gone down to dress for dinner, which was being +sent in, thank goodness, I still sat on the parapet and watched +the darkening river. I felt terribly lonely, all at once, and +sad. There wasn't any one any nearer than father, in the West, or +mother in Bermuda, who really cared a rap whether I sat on that +parapet all night or not, or who would be sorry if I leaped to +the dirty bricks of the next door-yard--not that I meant to, of +course. + +The lights came out across the river, and made purple and yellow +streaks on the water, and one of the motor boats came panting +back to the yacht club, coughing and gasping as if it had +overdone. Down on the street automobiles were starting and +stopping, cabs rolling, doors slamming, all the maddening, +delightful bustle of people who are foot-free to dine out, to +dance, to go to the theater, to do any of the thousand +possibilities of a long February evening. And above them I sat on +the roof and cried. Yes, cried. + +I was roused by some one coughing just behind me, and I tried to +straighten my face before I turned. It was Flannigan, his double +row of brass buttons gleaming in the twilight. + +"Excuse me, miss," he said affably, "but the boy from the hotel +has left the dinner on the doorstep and run, the cowardly little +divil! What'll I do with it? I went to Mrs. Wilson, but she says +it's no concern of hers." Flannigan was evidently bewildered. + +"You'd better keep it warm, Flannigan," I replied. "You needn't +wait; I'm coming." But he did not go. + +"If--if you'll excuse me, miss," he said, "don't you think ye'd +betther tell them?" + +"Tell them what?" + +"The whole thing--the joke," he said confidentially, coming +closer. "It's been great sport, now, hasn't it? But I'm afraid +they will get on to it soon, and--some of them might not be +agreeable. A pearl necklace is a pearl necklace, miss, and the +lady's wild." + +"What do you mean?" I gasped. "You don't think--why, Flannigan--" + +He merely grinned at me and thrust his hand down in his pocket. +When he brought it up he had Bella's bracelet on his palm, +glittering in the faint light. + +"Where did you get it?" Between relief and the absurdity of the +thing, I was almost hysterical. But Flannigan did not give me the +bracelet; instead, it struck me his tone was suddenly severe. + +"Now look here, miss," he said; "you've played your trick, and +you've had your fun. The Lord knows it's only folks like you +would play April fool jokes with a fortune! If you're the +sinsible little woman you look to be, you'll put that pearl +collar on the coal in the basement tonight, and let me find it." + +"I haven't got the pearl collar," I protested. "I think you are +crazy. Where did you get that bracelet?" + +He edged away from me, as if he expected me to snatch it from him +and run, but he was still trying in an elephantine way to treat +the matter as a joke. + +"I found it in a drawer in the pantry," he said, "among the dirty +linen. And if you're as smart as I think you are, I'll find the +pearl collar there in the morning--and nothing said, miss." + +So there I was, suspected of being responsible for Anne's pearl +collar, as if I had not enough to worry me before. Of course I +could have called them all together and told them, and made them +explain to Flannigan what I had really meant by my delirious +speech in the kitchen. But that would have meant telling the +whole ridiculous story to Mr. Harbison, and having him think us +all mad, and me a fool. + +In all that overcrowded house there was only one place where I +could be miserable with comfort. So I stayed on the roof, and +cried a little and then became angry and walked up and down, and +clenched my hands and babbled helplessly. The boats on the river +were yellow, horizontal streaks through my tears, and an early +searchlight sent its shaft like a tangible thing in the darkness, +just over my head. Then, finally, I curled down in a corner with +my arms on the parapet, and the lights became more and more +prismatic and finally formed themselves into a circle that was +Bella's bracelet, and that kept whirling around and around on +something flat and not over-clean, that was Flannigan's palm. + + + +Chapter X. ON THE STAIRS + +I was roused by someone walking across the roof, the cracking of +tin under feet, and a comfortable and companionable odor of +tobacco. I moved a very little, and then I saw that it was a +man--the height and erectness told me which man. And just at that +instant he saw me. + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated, and throwing his cigar away he came +across quickly. "Why, Mrs. Wilson, what in the world are you +doing here? I thought--they said--" + +"That I was sulking again?" I finished disagreeably. "Perhaps I +am. In fact, I'm quite sure of it." + +"You are not," he said severely. "You have been asleep in a +February night, in the open air, with less clothing on than I +wear in the tropics." + +I had got up by this time, refusing his help, and because my feet +were numb, I sat down on the parapet for a moment. Oh, I knew +what I looked like--one of those "Valley-of-the-Nile-After-a-Flood" +pictures. + +"There is one thing about you that is comforting," I sniffed. +"You said precisely the same thing to me at three o'clock this +morning. You never startle me by saying anything unexpected." + +He took a step toward me, and even in the dusk I could see that +he was looking down at me oddly. All my bravado faded away and +there was a queerish ringing in my ears. + +"I would like to!" he said tensely. "I would like, this +minute--I'm a fool, Mrs. Wilson," he finished miserably. "I ought +to be drawn and quartered, but when I see you like this I--I get +crazy. If you say the word, I'll--I'll go down and--" He clenched +his fist. + +It was reprehensible, of course; he saw that in an instant, for +he shut his teeth over something that sounded very fierce, and +strode away from me, to stand looking out over the river, with +his hands thrust in his pockets. Of course the thing I should +have done was to ignore what he had said altogether, but he was +so uncomfortable, so chastened, that, feline, feminine, whatever +the instinct is, I could not let him go. I had been so wretched +myself. + +"What is it you would like to say?" I called over to him. He did +not speak. "Would you tell me that I am a silly child for +pouting?" No reply; he struck a match. "Or would you preach a +nice little sermon about people--about women--loving their +husbands?" + +He grunted savagely under his breath. + +"Be quite honest," I pursued relentlessly. "Say that we are a lot +of barbarians, say that because my--because Jimmy treats me +outrageously--oh, he does; any one can see that--and because I +loathe him--and any one can tell that--why don't you say you are +shocked to the depths?" I was a little shocked myself by that +time, but I couldn't stop, having started. + +He came over to me, white-faced and towering, and he had the +audacity to grip my arm and stand me on my feet, like a bad +child--which I was, I dare say. + +"Don't!" he said in a husky, very pained voice. "You are only +talking; you don't mean it. It isn't YOU. You know you care, or +else why are you crying up here? And don't do it again, DON'T DO +IT AGAIN--or I will--" + +"You will--what?" + +"Make a fool of myself, as I have now," he finished grimly. And +then he stalked away and left me there alone, completely +bewildered, to find my way down in the dark. + +I groped along, holding to the rail, for the staircase to the +roof was very steep, and I went slowly. Half-way down the stairs +there was a tiny landing, and I stopped. I could have sworn I +heard Mr. Harbison's footsteps far below, growing fainter. I even +smiled a little, there in the dark, although I had been rather +profoundly shaken. The next instant I knew I had been wrong; some +one was on the landing with me. I could hear short, sharp +breathing, and then-- + +I am not sure that I struggled; in fact, I don't believe I did--I +was too limp with amazement. The creature, to have lain in wait +for me like that! And he was brutally strong; he caught me to him +fiercely, and held me there, close, and he kissed me--not once or +twice, but half a dozen times, long kisses that filled me with +hot shame for him, for myself, that I had--liked him. The +roughness of his coat bruised my cheek; I loathed him. And then +someone came whistling along the hall below, and he pushed me +from him and stood listening, breathing in long, gasping breaths. + +I ran; when my shaky knees would hold me, I ran. I wanted to hide +my hot face, my disgust, my disillusion; I wanted to put my head +in mother's lap and cry; I wanted to die, or be ill, so I need +never see him again. Perversely enough, I did none of those +things. With my face still flaming, with burning eyes and hands +that shook, I made a belated evening toilet and went slowly, +haughtily, down the stairs. My hands were like ice, but I was +consumed with rage. Oh, I would show him--that this was New York, +not Iquique; that the roof was not his Andean tableland. + +Every one elaborately ignored my absence from dinner. The Dallas +Browns, Max and Lollie were at bridge; Jim was alone in the den, +walking the floor and biting at an unlighted cigar; Betty had +returned to Aunt Selina and was hysterical, they said, and +Flannigan was in deep dejection because I had missed my dinner. + +"Betty is making no end of a row," Max said, looking up from his +game, "because the old lady upstairs insists on chloroform +liniment. Betty says the smell makes her ill." + +"And she can inhale Russian cigarettes," Anne said enviously, +"and gasolene fumes, without turning a hair. I call a revoke, +Dal; you trumped spades on the second round." + +Dal flung over three tricks with very bad grace, and Anne counted +them with maddening deliberation. + +"Game and rubber," she said. "Watch Dal, Max; he will cheat in +the score if he can. Kit, don't have another clam while I am in +this house. I have eaten so many lately my waist rises and falls +with the tide." + +"You have a stunning color, Kit," Lollie said. "You are really +quite superb. Who made that gown?" + +"Where have you been hiding, du kleine?" Max whispered, under +cover of showing me the evening paper, with a photograph of the +house and a cross at the cellar window where we had tried to +escape. "If one day in the house with you, Kit, puts me in this +condition, what will a month do?" + +From beyond the curtain of a sort of alcove, lighted with a +red-shaded lamp, came a hum of conversation, Bella's cool, even +tones, and a heavy masculine voice. They were laughing; I could +feel my chin go up. He was not even hiding his shame. + +"Max," I asked, while the others clamored for him and the game, +"has any one been up through the house since dinner? Any of the +men?" + +He looked at me curiously. + +"Only Harbison," he replied promptly. "Jim has been eating his +heart out in the den every since dinner; Dal played the Sonata +Appasionata backward on the pianola--he wanted to put through one +of Anne's lingerie waists, on a wager that it would play a tune; +I played craps with Lollie, and Flannigan has been washing +dishes. Why?" + +Well, that was conclusive, anyhow. I had had a faint hope that it +might have been a joke, although it had borne all the evidences +of sincerity, certainly. But it was past doubting now; he had +lain in wait for me at the landing, and had kissed me, ME, when +he thought I was Jimmy's wife. Oh, I must have been very light, +very contemptible, if that was what he thought of me! + +I went into the library and got a book, but it was impossible to +read, with Jimmy lying on the couch giving vent to something +between a sigh and a groan every few minutes. About eleven the +cards stopped, and Bella said she would read palms. She began +with Mr. Harbison, because she declared he had a wonderful hand, +full of possibilities; she said he should have been a great +inventor or a playwright, and that his attitude to women was one +of homage, respect, almost reverence. He had the courage to look +at me, and if a glance could have killed he would have withered +away. + +When Jimmy proffered his hand, she looked at it icily. Of course +she could not refuse, with Mr. Harbison looking on. + +"Rather negative," she said coldly. "The lines are obscured by +cushions of flesh; no heart line at all, mentality small, +self-indulgence and irritability very marked." + +Jim held his palm up to the light and stared at it. + +"Gad!" he said. "Hardly safe for me to go around without gloves, +is it?" + +It was all well enough for Jim to laugh, but he was horribly +hurt. He stood around for a few minutes, talking to Anne, but as +soon as he could he slid away and went to bed. He looked very +badly the next morning, as though he had not slept, and his +clothes quite hung on him. He was actually thinner. But that is +ahead of the story. + +Max came to me while the others were sitting around drinking +nightcaps, and asked me in a low tone if he could see me in the +den; he wanted to ask me something. Dal overheard. + +"Ask her here," he said. "We all know what it is, Max. Go ahead +and we'll coach you." + +"Will you coach ME?" I asked, for Mr. Harbison was listening. + +"The woman does not need it," Dal retorted. And then, because Max +looked angry enough really to propose to me right there, I got up +hastily and went into the den. Max followed, and closing the +door, stood with his back against it. + +"Contrary to the general belief, Kit," he began, "I did NOT +intend to ask you to marry me." + +I breathed easier. He took a couple of steps toward me and stood +with his arms folded, looking down at me. "I'm not at all sure, +in fact, that I shall ever propose to you," he went on +unpleasantly. + +"You have already done it twice. You are not going to take those +back, are you, Max?" I asked, looking up at him. + +But Max was not to be cajoled. He came close and stood with his +hand on the back of my chair. "What happened on the roof +tonight?" He demanded hoarsely. + +"I do not think it would interest you," I retorted, coloring in +spite of myself. + +"Not interest me! I am shut in this blasted house; I have to see +the only woman I ever loved--REALLY loved," he supplemented, as +he caught my eye, "pretend she is another man's wife. Then I sit +back and watch her using every art--all her beauty--to make still +another man love her, a man who thinks she is a married woman. If +Harbison were worth the trouble, I would tell him the whole +story, Aunt Selina be--obliterated!" + +I sat up suddenly. + +"If Harbison were worth the trouble!" I repeated. What did he +mean? Had he seen-- + +"I mean just this," Max said slowly. "There is only one +unaccredited member of this household; only one person, save +Flannigan, who was locked in the furnace room, one person who was +awake and around the house when Anne's jewels went, only one +person in the house, also, who would have any motive for the +theft." + +"Motive?" I asked dully. + +"Poverty," Max threw at me. "Oh, I mean comparative poverty, of +course. Who is this fellow, anyhow? Dal knew him at school, +traveled with him through India. On the strength of that he +brings him here, quarters him with decent people, and wonders +when they are systematically robbed!" + +"You are unjust!" I said, rising and facing him. "I do not like +Mr. Harbison--I--I hate him, if you want to know. But as to his +being a thief, I--think it is quite as likely that you took the +necklace." + +Max threw his cigarette into the fire angrily. + +"So that is how it is!" he mocked. "If either of us is the thief, +it is I! You DO hate him, don't you?" + +I left him there, flushed with irritation, and joined the others. +Just as I entered the room, Betty burst through the hall door +like a cyclone, and collapsed into a chair. "She's a mean, +cantankerous old woman!" she declared, feeling for her +handkerchief. "You can take care of your own Aunt Selina, Jim +Wilson. I will never go near her again." + +"What did you do? Poison her?" Dallas asked with interest. + +"G--got camphor in her eyes," snuffed Betty. "You never--heard +such a noise. I wouldn't be a trained nurse for anything in the +world. She--she called me a hussy!" + +"You're not going to give her up, are you, Betty?" Jim asked +imploringly. But Betty was, and said so plainly. + +"Anyhow, she won't have me back," she finished, "and she has sent +for--guess!" + +"Have mercy!" Dal cried, dropping to his knees. "Oh, fair +ministering angel, she has not sent for me!" + +"No," Betty said maliciously. "She wants Bella--she's crazy about +her." + + + +Chapter XI. I MAKE A DISCOVERY + +Really, I have left Aunt Selina rather out of it, but she was +important as a cause, not as a result; at least at first. She +came out strong later. I believe she was a very nice old woman, +with strong likes and prejudices, which she was perfectly willing +to pay for. At least, I only presume she had likes; I know she +had prejudices. + +Nobody every understood why Bella consented to take Betty's place +with Aunt Selina. As for me, I was too much engrossed with my own +affairs to pay the invalid much attention. Once or twice during +the day I had stopped in to see her, and had been received +frigidly and with marked disapproval. I was in disgrace, of +course, after the scene in the dining room the night before. I +had stood like a naughty child, just inside the door, and replied +meekly when she said the pillows were overstuffed, and why didn't +I have the linen slips rinsed in starch water? She laid the blame +of her illness on me, as I have said before, and she made Jim +read to her in the afternoon from a book she carried with her, +Coals of Fire on the DOMESTIC Hearth, marking places for me to +read. + +She sent for me that night, just as I had taken off my gown; so I +threw on a dressing gown and went in. To my horror, Jim was +already there. At a gesture from Aunt Selina, he closed the door +into the hall and tiptoed back beside the bed, where he sat +staring at the figures on the silk comfort. + +Aunt Selina's first words were: + +"Where's that flibberty-gibbet?" + +Jim looked at me. + +"She must mean Betty," I explained. "She has gone to bed, I +think." + +"Don't--let--her--in--this--room--again," she said, with awful +emphasis. "She is an infamous creature." + +"Oh, come now, Aunt Selina," Jim broke in; "she's foolish, +perhaps, but she's a nice little thing." + +Aunt Selina's face was a curious study. Then she raised herself +on her elbow, and, taking a flat chamois-skin bag from under her +pillow, held it out. + +"My cameo breastpin," she said solemnly; "my cuff-buttons with +gold rims and storks painted on china in the middle; my watch, +that has put me to bed and got me up for forty years, and my +money--five hundred and ten dollars and forty cents!--taken with +the doors locked under my nose." Which was ambiguous, but +forcible. + +"But, good gracious, Miss Car--Aunt Selina!" I exclaimed, "you +don't think Betty Mercer took those things?" + +"No," she said grimly; "I think I probably got up in my sleep and +lighted the fire with them, or sent em out for a walk." Then she +stuffed the bag away and sat up resolutely in bed. + +"Have you made up?" she demanded, looking from one to the other +of us. "Bella, don't tell me you still persist in that nonsense." + +"What nonsense?" I asked, getting ready to run. + +"That you do not love him." + +"Him?" + +"James," she snapped irritably. "Do you suppose I mean the +policeman?" + +I looked over at Jimmy. She had got me by the hand, and Jimmy was +making frantic gestures to tell her the whole thing and be done +with it. But I had gone too far. The mill of the gods had crushed +me already, and I didn't propose to be drawn out hideously +mangled and held up as an example for the next two or three +weeks, although it was clear enough that Aunt Selina disapproved +of me thoroughly, and would have been glad enough to find that no +tie save the board of health held us together. And then Bella +came in, and you wouldn't have known her. She had put on a +straight white woolen wrapper, and she had her hair in two long +braids down her back. She looked like a nice, wide-eyed little +girl in her teens, and she had some lobster salad and a glass of +port on a tray. When she saw the situation, she put the things +down and had the nastiness to stay and listen. + +"I'm not blind," Aunt Selina said, with one eye on the tray. "You +two silly children adore each other; I saw some things last +night." + +Bella took a step forward; then she stopped and shrugged her +shoulders. Jim was purple. + +"I saw you kiss her in the dining room, remember that!" Aunt +Selina went on, giving the screw another turn. + +It was Bella's turn to be excited. She gave me one awful stare, +then she fixed her eyes on Jim. + +"Besides," Aunt Selina went on, "you told me today that you loved +her. Don't deny it, James." + +Bella couldn't keep quiet another instant. She came over and +stood at the foot of the bed. + +"Please don't excite yourself, DEAR Miss Caruthers," she said in +a voice like ice. "Every one knows that he loves her; he simply +overflows with it. It--it is quite a by-word among their friends. +They have been sitting together in a corner all evening." + +Yes, that was what she said; when I had not spoken to Jimmy the +whole time in the den. Bella was cattish, and she was jealous, +too. I turned on my heel and went to the door; then I turned to +her, with my hand on the knob. + +"You have been misinformed," I said coldly. "You can not possibly +know, having spent three hours in a corner yourself--with Mr. +Harbison." I abhor jealousy in a woman. + +Well, Aunt Selina ate all the lobster salad, and drank the port +after Bella had told her it was beef, iron and wine, and she +slept all night, and was able to sit up in a chair the next day, +and was so infatuated with Bella that she would not let her out +of her sight. But that is ahead of the story. + +At midnight the house was fairly quiet, except for Jim, who kept +walking around the halls because he couldn't sleep. I got up at +last and ordered him to bed, and he had the audacity to have a +grievance with me. + +"Look at my situation now!" he said, sitting pensively on a steam +radiator. "Aunt Selina is crazy. I only kissed your hand, anyhow, +and I don't know why you sat in the den all evening; you might +have known that Bella would notice it. Why couldn't you leave me +alone to my misery?" + +"Very well," I said, much offended. "After this I shall sit with +Flannigan in the kitchen. He is the only gentleman in the house." + +I left him babbling apologies and went to bed, but I had an +uncomfortable feeling that Bella had been a witness to our +conversation, for the door into Aunt Selina's room closed softly +as I passed. + +I knew beforehand that I was not going to sleep. The instant I +turned out the light the nightmare events of the evening ranged +themselves in a procession, or a series of tableaus, one after +the other; Flannigan on the roof, with the bracelet on his palm, +looking accusingly at me; Mr. Harbison and the scene on the roof, +with my flippancy; and the result of that flippancy--the man on +the stairs, the arms that held me, the terrible kisses that had +scorched my lips--it was awful! And then the absurd situation +across Aunt Selina's bed, and Bella's face! Oh, it was all so +ridiculous--my having thought that the Harbison man was a +gentleman, and finding him a cad, and worse. It was +excruciatingly funny. I quite got a headache from laughing; +indeed I laughed until I found I was crying, and then I knew I +was going to have an attack of strangulated emotion, called +hysteria. So I got up and turned on all the lights, and bathed my +face with cologne, and felt better. + +But I did not go to sleep. When the hall clock chimed two, I +discovered I was hungry. I had had nothing since luncheon, and +even the thirst following the South American goulash was gone. +There was probably something to eat in the pantry, and if there +was not, I was quite equal to going to the basement. + +As it happened, however, I found a very orderly assortment of +left-overs and a pitcher of milk, which had no business there in +the pantry, and with plenty of light I was not at all frightened. + +I ate bread and butter and drank milk, and was fast becoming a +rational person again; I had pulled out one of the drawers part +way, and with a tray across the corner I had improvised a +comfortable seat. And then I noticed that the drawer was full of +soiled napkins, and I remembered the bracelet. I hardly know why +I decided to go through the drawer again, after Flannigan had +already done it, but I did. I finished my milk and then, getting +down on my knees, I proceeded systematically to empty the drawer. +I took out perhaps a dozen napkins and as many doilies without +finding anything. Then I took out a large tray cloth, and there +was something on it that made me look farther. One corner of it +had been scorched, the clear and well defined imprint of a +lighted cigarette or cigar, a blackened streak that trailed off +into a brown and yellow. I had a queer, trembly feeling, as if I +were on the brink of a discovery--perhaps Anne's pearls, or the +cuff buttons with storks painted on china in the center. But the +only thing I found, down in the corner of the drawer, was a +half-burned cigarette. + +To me, it seemed quite enough. It was one of the South American +cigarettes, with a tobacco wrapper instead of paper, that Mr. +Harbison smoked. + + + +Chapter XII. THE ROOF GARDEN + +I was quite ill the next morning--from excitement, I suppose. +Anyhow, I did not get up, and there wasn't any breakfast. Jim +said he roused Flannigan at eight o'clock, to go down and get the +fire started, and then went back to bed. But Flannigan did not +get up. He appeared, sheepishly, at half-past ten, and by that +time Bella was down, in a towering rage, and had burned her hand +and got the fire started, and had taken up a tray for Aunt Selina +and herself. + +As the others straggled down they boiled themselves eggs or ate +fruit, and nobody put anything away. Lollie Mercer made me some +tea and scorched toast, and brought it, about eleven o'clock. + +"I never saw such a house," she declared. "A dozen housemaids +couldn't put it in order. Why should every man that smokes drop +ashes wherever he happens to be?" + +"That's the question of the ages," I replied languidly. "What was +Max talking so horribly about a little while ago?" Lollie looked +up aggrieved. + +"About nothing at all," she declared. "Anne told me to clean the +bath tubs with oil, and I did it, that's all. Now Max says he +couldn't get it off, and his clothes stick to him, and if he +should forget and strike a match in the--in the usual way, he +would explode. He can clean his own tub tomorrow," she finished +vindictively. + +At noon Jim came in to see me, bringing Anne as a concession to +Bella. He was in a rage, and he carried the morning paper like a +club in his hand. + +"What sort of a newspaper lie would you call this?" he demanded +irritably. "It makes me crazy; everybody with a mental image of +me leaning over the parapet of the roof, waving a board, with the +rest of you sitting on my legs to keep me from overbalancing!" + +"Maybe there's a picture!" Anne said hopefully. + +Jim looked. + +"No picture," he announced. "I wonder why they restrained +themselves! I wish Bella would keep off the roof," he added, with +fresh access of rage, "or wear a mask or veil. One of those +fellows is going to recognize her, and there'll be the deuce to +pay." + +"When you are all through discussing this thing, perhaps you will +tell me what is the matter," I remarked from my couch. "Why did +you lean over the parapet, Jim, and who sat on your legs?" + +"I didn't; nobody did," he retorted, waving the newspaper. "It's +a lie out of the whole cloth, that's what it is. I asked you +girls to be decent to those reporters; it never pays to offend a +newspaper man. Listen to this, Kit." + +He read the article rapidly, furiously, pausing every now and +then to make an exasperated comment. + +ATTEMPT AT ESCAPE +FRUSTRATED MEMBERS OF THE FOUR HUNDRED DEFY THE LAW + +"Special Officer McCloud, on duty at the quarantined house of +James Wilson, artist and clubman, on Ninety-fifth Street, +reported this morning a daring attempt at escape, made at 3 A.M. +It is in this house that some eight or nine members of the smart +set were imprisoned during the course of a dinner party, when the +Japanese butler developed smallpox. The party shut in the house +includes Miss Katherine McNair, the daughter of Theodore McNair, +of the Inter-Ocean system; Mr. and Mrs. Dallas Brown; the Misses +Mercer; Maxwell Reed, the well-known clubman and whip; and a Mr. +Thomas Harbison, guest of the Dallas Browns and a South American. + +"Officer McCloud's story, told to a Chronicle reporter this +morning, is as follows: The occupants of the house had been +uneasy all day. From the air of subdued bustle, and from a +careful inspection of the roof, made by the entire party during +the afternoon, his suspicion had been aroused. Nothing unusual, +however, occurred during the early part of the night. From eight +o'clock to twelve, McCloud was relieved from duty, his place +being taken by Michael Shane, of the Eighty-sixth Street Station. + +"When McCloud came on duty at midnight, Shane reported that about +eleven o'clock the searchlight of a steamer on the river, +flashing over the house, had shown a man crouching on the +parapet, evidently surveying the roof across, which at this point +is only twelve feet distant, with a view of making his escape. +One seeing Shane below, however, he had beat a retreat, but not +before the officer had seen him distinctly. He was dressed in +evening clothes and wore a light tan overcoat. + +"Officer McCloud relieved Shane at midnight, and sent for a +plain-clothes man from the station house. This man was stationed +on the roof of the Bevington residence next door, with strict +injunctions to prevent an escape from the quarantined mansion. +Nothing suspicious having occurred, the man on the roof left +about 3 A.M., reporting to McCloud below that everything was +quiet. At that moment, glancing skyward, one of the officers was +astounded to see a long narrow board project itself from the +coping of the Wildon house, waver uncertainly for a moment, and +then advance stealthily toward the parapet across. When it was +within a foot or two of a resting place, McCloud called sharply +to the invisible refugee above, at the same time firing his +revolver in the ground. + +"The result was surprising. The board stopped, trembled, swayed a +little, and dropped, missing the vigilant officers by a hair's +breadth, and crashing to the cement with a terrific force. An +inspection of the roof from the Bevington house, later, revealed +nothing unusual. It is evident, however, that the quarantine is +proving irksome to the inhabitants of the sequestered residence, +most of whom are typical society folk, without resources in +themselves. Their condition, without valets and maids, is +certainly pitiable. It has been rumored that the ladies are doing +their own hair, and that the gentlemen have been reduced to +putting their own buttons in their shirts. This deplorable +situation, however, is unavoidable. + +"The vigilance of the board of health has been most commendable +in this case. Beginning with a wager over the telephone that they +would break quarantine in twenty-four hours, and ending with the +attempt to span a twelve-foot gulf with a board, over which to +cross to freedom, these shut-in society folk have shown +characteristic disregard of the laws of the state. It is quite +time to extend to the millionaire the same strictness that keeps +the commuter at home for three weeks with the measles; that makes +him get the milk bottles and groceries from the gate post and +smell like dog soap for a month afterward, as a result of +disinfection.'" + +We sat in dead silence for a minute. Then: + +"Perhaps it is true," I said. "Not of you, Jim--but some one may +have tried to get out that way. In fact, I think it extremely +likely." + +"Who? Flannigan? You couldn't drive him out. He's having the time +of his life. Do you suspect me?" + +"Come away and don't fight," Anne broke in pacifically. "You will +have to have luncheon sent in, Jimmy; nobody has ordered anything +from the shops, and I feel like old Mother Hubbard." + +"I wish you would all go out," I said wearily. "If every man in +the house says he didn't try to get over to the next roof last +night, well and good. But you might look and see if the board is +still lying where it fell." + +There was an instantaneous rush for the window, and a second's +pause. Then Jimmy's voice, incredulous, awed: + +"Well, I'll be--blessed! There's the board!" + +I stayed in my room all that day. My head really ached and then, +too, I did not care to meet Mr. Harbison. It would have to come; +I realized that a meeting was inevitable, but I wanted time to +think how I would meet him. It would be impossible to cut him, +without rousing the curiosity of the others to fever pitch; and +it was equally impossible to ignore the disgraceful episode on +the stairs. As it happened, however, I need not have worried. I +went down to dinner, languidly, when every one was seated, and +found Max at my right, and Mr. Harbison moved over beside Bella. +Every one was talking at once, for Flannigan, ambling around the +table as airily as he walked his beat, had presented Bella with +her bracelet on a salad plate, garnished with romaine. He had +found it in the furnace room, he said, where she must have +dropped it. And he looked at me stealthily, to approve his +mendacity! + +Every one was famished, and as they ate they discussed the board +in the area way, and pretended to deride it as a clever bit of +press work, to revive a dying sensation. No one was deceived; +Anne's pearls and the attempt to escape, coming just after, +pointed only to one thing. I looked around the table, dazed. +Flannigan, almost the only unknown quantity, might have tried to +escape the night before, but he would not have been in dress +clothes. Besides, he must be eliminated as far as the pearls were +concerned, having been locked in the furnace room the night they +were stolen. There was no one among the girls to suspect. The +Mercer girls had stunning pearls, and could secure all they +wanted legitimately; and Bella disliked them. Oh, there was no +question about it, I decided; Dallas and Anne had taken a wolf to +their bosom--or is it a viper?--and the Harbison man was the +creature. Although I must say that, looking over the table, at +Jimmy's breadth and not very imposing personality, at Max's lean +length, sallow skin, and bold dark eyes, at Dallas, blond, +growing bald and florid, and then at the Harbison boy, tall, +muscular, clear-eyed and sunburned, one would have taken Max at +first choice as the villain, with Dal next, Jim third, and the +Harbison boy not in the running. + +It was just after dinner that the surprise was sprung on me. Mr. +Harbison came around to me gravely, and asked me if I felt able +to go up on the roof. On the roof, after last night! I had to +gather myself together; luckily, the others were pushing back +their chairs, showing Flannigan the liqueur glasses to take up, +and lighting cigars. + +"I do not care to go," I said icily. + +"The others are coming," he persisted, "and I--I could give you +an arm up the stairs." + +"I believe you are good at that," I said, looking at him +steadily. "Max, will you help me to the roof?" + +Mr. Harbison really turned rather white. Then he bowed +ceremoniously and left me. + +Max got me a wrap, and every one except Mr. Harbison and Bella, +who was taking a mass of indigestables to Aunt Selina, went to +the roof. + +"Where is Tom?" Anne asked, as we reached the foot of the stairs. +"Gone ahead to fix things," was the answer. But he was not there. +At the top of the last flight I stopped, dumb with amazement; the +roof had been transformed, enchanted. It was a fairy-land of +lights and foliage and colors. I had to stop and rub my eyes. +From the bleakness of a tin roof in February to the brightness +and greenery of a July roof garden! + +"You were the immediate inspiration, Kit," Dallas said. "Harbison +thought your headache might come from lack of exercise and fresh +air, and he has worked us like nailers all day. I've a blister on +my right palm, and Harbison got shocked while he was wiring the +place, and nearly fell over the parapet. We bought out two +full-sized florists by telephone." + +It was the most amazing transformation. At each corner a pole had +been erected, and wires crossed the roof diagonally, hung with +red and amber bulbs. Around the chimneys had been massed +evergreen trees in tubs, hiding their brick-and-mortar ugliness, +and among the trees tiny lights were strung. Along the parapet +were rows of geometrical boxwood plants in bright red crocks, and +the flaps of a crimson and white tent had been thrown open, +showing lights within, and rugs, wicker chairs, and cushions. + +Max raised a glass of benedictine and posed for a moment, +melodramatically. + +"To the Wilson roof garden!" he said. "To Kit, who inspired; to +the creators, who perspired; and to Takahiro--may he not have +expired." + +Every one was very gay; I think the knowledge that tomorrow Aunt +Selina might be with them urged them to make the most of this +last night of freedom. I tried to be jolly, and succeeded in +being feverish. Mr. Harbison did not come up to enjoy what he had +wrought. Jim brought up his guitar and sang love songs in a +beautiful tenor, looking at Bella all the time. And Bella sat in +a steamer chair, with a rug over her and a spangled veil on her +head, looking at the boats on the river--about as soft and as +chastened as an an acetylene headlight. + +And after Max had told the most improbable tale, which Leila +advised him to sprinkle salt on, and Dallas had done a clog +dance, Bella said it was time for her complexion sleep and went +downstairs, and broke up the party. + +"If she only give half as an much care to her immortal soul," +Anne said when she had gone, "as she does to her skin, she would +let that nice Harbison boy alone. She must have been brutal to +him tonight, for he went to bed at nine o'clock. At least, I +suppose he went to bed, for he shut himself in the studio, and +when I knocked he advised me not to come in." + +I had pleaded my headache as an excuse for avoiding Aunt +Selina all day, and she had not sent for me. Bella was really +quite extraordinary. She was never in the habit of putting +herself out for any one, and she always declared that the very +odor of a sick room drove her to Scotch and soda. But here she +was, rubbing Aunt Selina's back with chloroform liniment--and you +know how that smells--getting her up in a chair, dressed in one +of Bella's wadded silk robes, with pillows under her feet, and +then doing her hair in elaborate puffs--braiding her gray switch +and bringing it, coronet-fashion, around the top of her head. She +even put rice powder on Aunt Selina's nose, and dabbed violet +water behind her ears, and said she couldn't understand why she +(Aunt Selina) had never married, but, of course, she probably +would some day! + +The result was, naturally, that the old lady wouldn't let Bella +out of her sight, except to go to the kitchen for something to +eat for her. That very day Bella got the doctor to order ale for +Aunt Selina (oh, yes; the doctor could come in; Dal said "it was +all a-coming in, and nothing going out") and she had three pints +of Bass, and learned to eat anchovies and caviare--all in one +day. + +Bella's conduct to Jim was disgraceful. She snubbed him, ignored +him, tramped on him, and Jim was growing positively flabby. He +spent most of his time writing letters to the board of health and +playing solitaire. He was a pathetic figure. + +Well, we went to bed fairly early. Bella had massaged Aunt +Selina's face and rubbed in cold cream, Anne and Dallas had +compromised on which window should be open in their bedroom, and +the men had matched to see who should look at the furnace. I did +not expect to sleep, but the cold night air had done its work, +and I was asleep almost immediately. + +Some time during the early part of the night I wakened, and, +after turning and twisting uneasily, I realized that I was cold. +The couch in Bella's dressing room was comfortable enough, but +narrow and low. I remember distinctly (that was what was so +maddening; everybody thought I dreamed it)--I remember getting an +eiderdown comfort that was folded at my feet, and pulling it up +around me. In the luxury of its warmth I snuggled down and went +to sleep almost instantly. It seemed to me I had slept for hours, +but it was probably an hour or less, when something roused me. +The room was perfectly dark, and there was not a sound save the +faint ticking of the clock, but I was wide awake. + +And then came the incident that in its ghastly, horrible +absurdity made the rest of the people shout with laughter the +next day. It was not funny then. For suddenly the eiderdown +comfort began to slip. I heard no footstep, not the slightest +sound approaching me, but the comfort moved; from my chin, inch +by inch, it slipped to my shoulders; awfully, inevitably, +hair-raisingly it moved. I could feel my blood gather around my +heart, leaving me cold and nerveless. As it passed my hands I +gave an involuntary clutch for it, to feel it slip away from my +fingers. Then the full horror of the situation took hold of me; +as the comfort slid past my feet I sat up and screamed at the top +of my voice. + +Of course, people came running in all sorts of things. I was +still sitting up, declaring I had seen a ghost and that the house +was haunted. Dallas was struggling for the second armhole of his +dressing gown and Bella had already turned on the lights. They +said I had had a nightmare, and not to sleep on my back, and +perhaps I was taking grippe. + +And just then we heard Jimmy run down the stairs, and fall over +something, almost breaking his wrist. It was the eiderdown +comfort, half-way up the studio staircase! + + + +Chapter XIII. HE DOES NOT DENY IT + +Aunt Selina got up the next morning and Jim told her all the +strange things that had been happening. She fixed on Flannigan, +of course, although she still suspected Betty of her watch and +other valuables. The incident of the comfort she called nervous +indigestion and bad hours. + +She spent the entire day going through the storeroom and linen +closets, and running her fingers over things for dust. Whenever +she found any she looked at me, drew a long breath, and said, +"Poor James!" It was maddening. And when she went through his +clothes and found some buttons off (Jim didn't keep a man, and +Takahiro had stopped at his boots) she looked at me quite +awfully. + +"His mother was a perfect housekeeper," she said. "James was +brought up in clothes with the buttons on, put on clean shelves." + +"Didn't they put them on him?" I asked, almost hysterically. It +had been a bad morning, after a worse night. Every one had found +fault with the breakfast, and they straggled down one at a time +until I was frantic. Then Flannigan had talked to me about the +pearls, and Mr. Harbison had said, "Good morning," very stiffly, +and nearly rattled the inside of the furnace out. + +Early in the morning, too, I overheard a scrap of conversation +between the policeman and our gentleman adventurer from South +America. Something had gone wrong with the telephone and Mr. +Harbison was fussing over it with a screw driver and a pair of +scissors--all the tools he could find. Flannigan was lifting rugs +to shake them on the roof--Bella's order. + +"Wash the table linen!" he was grumbling. "I'll do what I can +that's necessary. Grub has to be cooked, and dishes has to be +washed--I'll admit that. If you're particular, make up your bed +every day; I don't object. But don't tell me we have to use +thirty-three table napkins a day. What did folks do before +napkins was invented? Tell me that!"--triumphantly. + +"What's the answer?" Mr. Harbison inquired absently, evidently +with the screw driver in his mouth. + +"Used their pocket handkerchiefs! And if the worst comes to the +worst, Mr. Harbison, these folks here can use their sleeves, for +all I care--not that the women has any sleeves to speak of. Wash +clothes I will not." + +"Well, don't worry Mrs. Wilson about it," the other voice said. +Flannigan straightened himself with a grunt. + +"Mrs. Wilson!" he said. "A lot she would worry. She's been a +disappointment to me, Mr. Harbison, me thinking that now she'd +come back to him, after leavin' him the way she did, they'd be +like two turtle doves. Lord! The cook next door--" + +But what the cook had told about Bella and Jimmy was not +divulged, for the Harbison man caught him up with a jerk and sent +Flannigan, grumbling, with his rugs to the roof. + +It did not seem possible to carry on the deception much longer, +but if things were bad now, what would they be when Aunt Selina +learned she had been lied to, made ridiculous, generally +deceived? And how would I be able to live in the house with her +when she did know? Luckily, every one was so puzzled over the +mystery in the house that numbers of little things that would +have been absolutely damning were never noticed at all. For +instance, my asking Jimmy at luncheon that day if he took cream +in his coffee! And Max coming to the rescue by dropping his watch +in his glass of water, and creating a diversion and giving +everybody an opportunity to laugh by saying not to mind, it had +been in soak before. + +Just after luncheon Aunt Selina brought me some undergarments of +Jim's to be patched. She explained at length that he had always +worn out his undergarments, because he always squirmed around so +when he was sitting. And she showed me how to lay one of the +garments over a pillow to get the patch in properly. + +It was the most humiliating moment of my life, but there was no +escape. I took my sewing to the roof, while she went away to find +something else for me to do when that was finished, and I sat +with the thing on my knee and stared at it, while rebellious +tears rolled down my cheeks. The patch was not the shape of the +hole at all, and every time I took a stitch I sewed it fast to +the pillow beneath. It was terrible. Jim came up after a while +and sat down across from me and watched, without saying anything. +I suppose what he felt would not have been proper to say to me. +We had both reached the point where adequate language failed us. +Finally he said: + +"I wish I were dead." + +"So do I," I retorted, jerking the thread. + +"Where is she now?" + +"Looking for more of these." I indicated the garment over the +pillow, and he wiggled. "Please don't squirm," I said coldly. "You +will wear out your--lingerie, and I will have to mend them." + +He sat very still for five minutes, when I discovered that I had +put the patch in crosswise instead of lengthwise and that it +would not fit. As I jerked it out he sneezed. + +"Or sneeze," I added venomously. "You will tear your buttons off, +and I will have to sew them on." + +Jim rose wrathfully. "Don't sit, don't sneeze," he repeated. +"Don't stand, I suppose, for fear I will wear out my socks. Here, +give me that. If the fool thing has to be mended, I'll do it +myself." + +He went over to a corner of the parapet and turned his back to +me. He was very much offended. In about a minute he came back, +triumphant, and held out the result of his labor. I could only +gasp. He had puckered up the edges of the hole like the neck of a +bag, and had tied the thread around it. "You--you won't be able +to sit down," I ventured. + +"Don't have any time to sit," he retorted promptly. "Anyhow, it +will give some, won't it? It would if it was tied with elastic +instead of thread. Have you any elastic?" + +Lollie came up just then, and Jim took himself and his mending +downstairs. Luckily, Aunt Selina found several letters in his +room that afternoon while she was going over his clothes, and as +it took Jim some time to explain them, she forgot the task she +had given me altogether. + +When Lollie came up to the roof, she closed the door to the +stairs, and coming over, drew a chair close to mine. + +"Have you seen much of Tom today?" she asked, as an introduction. + +"I suppose you mean Mr. Harbison, Lollie," I said. "No--not any +more than I could help. Don't whisper, he couldn't possibly hear +you. And if it's scandal I don't want to know it." + +"Look here, Kit," she retorted, "you needn't be so superior. If I +like to talk scandal, I'm not so sure you aren't making it." + +That was the way right along: I was making scandal; I brought +them there to dinner; I let Bella in! + +And, of course, Anne came up then, and began on me at once. + +"You are a very bad girl," she began. "What do you mean by +treating Tom Harbison the way you do? He is heart-broken." + +"I think you exaggerate my influence over him," I retorted. "I +haven't treated him badly, because I haven't paid any attention +to him." + +Anne threw up her hands. + +"There you are!" she said. "He worked all day yesterday fixing +this place for you--yes, for you, my dear. I am not blind--and +last night you refused to let him bring you up." + +"He told you!" I flamed. + +"He wondered what he had done. And as you wouldn't let him come +within speaking distance of you, he came to me." + +"I am sorry, Anne, since you are fond of him," I said. "But to me +he is impossible--intolerable. My reasons are quite sufficient." + +"Kit is perfectly right, Anne," Leila broke in. "I tell you, +there is something queer about him," she added in a portentous +whisper. + +Anne stiffened. + +"He is perfect," she declared. "Of good family, warm-hearted, +courageous, handsome, clever--what more do you ask?" + +"Honesty," said Leila hotly. "That a man should be what he says +he is." + +Anne and I both stared. + +"It is your Mr. Harbison," Leila went on, "who tried to escape +from the house by putting a board across to the next roof!" + +"I don't believe it," said Anne. "You might bring me a picture of +him, board in hand, and I wouldn't believe it." + +"Don't then," Lollie said cruelly. "Let him get away with your +pearls; they are yours. Only, as sure as anything, the man who +tried to escape from the house had a reason for escaping, and the +papers said a man in evening dress and light overcoat. I found +Mr. Harbison's overcoat today lying in a heap in one of the +maids' rooms, and it was covered with brick dust all over the +front. A button had even been torn off." + +"Pooh!" Anne said, when she had recovered herself a little. +"There isn't any reason, as far as that goes, why Flannigan +shouldn't have worn Tom's overcoat, or--any of the others," + +"Flannigan!" Leila said loftily. "Why, his arms are like piano +legs; he couldn't get into it. As for the others, there is only +one person who would fit, or nearly fit, that overcoat, and that +is Dallas, Anne." + +While Anne was choking down her wrath, Leila got up and darted +out of the tent. When she came back she was triumphant. + +"Look," she said, holding out her hand. And on her palm lay a +lightish brown button. "I found it just where the paper said the +board was thrown out, and it is from Mr. Harbison's overcoat, +without a doubt." + +Of course I should not have been surprised. A man who would kiss +a woman on a dark staircase--a woman he had known only two +days--was capable of anything. + +"Kit has only been a little keener than the rest of us," Lollie +said. "She found him out yesterday." + +"Upon my word," said Anne indignantly, preparing to go, "if I +didn't know you girls so well, I would think you were crazy. And +now, just to offset this, I can tell you something. Flannigan +told me this morning not to worry; that he has my pearl collar +spotted, and that YOUNG LADIES WILL HAVE THEIR JOKES!" + +Yes, as I said before, it was a cheerful, joy-producing +situation. + +I sat and thought it over after Anne's parting shot, when Leila +had flounced downstairs. Things were closing in; I gave the +situation twenty-four hours to develop. At the end of that time +Flannigan would accuse me openly of knowing where the pearls +were; I would explain my silly remark to him and the mine would +explode--under Aunt Selina. + +I was sunk in dejected reverie when some one came on the roof. +When he was opposite the opening in the tent, I saw Mr. Harbison, +and at that moment he saw me. He paused uncertainly, then he made +an evident effort and came over to me. + +"You are--better today?" + +"Quite well, thank you." + +"I am glad you find the tent useful. Does it keep off the wind?" + +"It is quite a shelter"--frigidly. + +He still stood, struggling for something to say. Evidently +nothing came to his mind, for he lifted the cap he was wearing, +and turning away, began to work with the wiring of the roof. He +was clever with tools; one could see that. If he was a +professional gentleman-burglar, no doubt he needed to be. After a +bit, finding it necessary to climb to the parapet, he took off +his coat, without even a glance in my direction, and fell to work +vigorously. + +One does not need to like a man to admire him physically, any +more than one needs to like a race horse or any other splendid +animal. No one could deny that the man on the parapet was a +splendid animal; he looked quite big enough and strong enough to +have tossed his slender bridge across the gulf to the next roof, +without any difficulty, and coordinate enough to have crossed on +it with a flourish to safety. + +Just then there was a rending, tearing sound from the corner and +a muttered ejaculation. I looked up in time to see Mr. Harbison +throw up his arms, make a futile attempt to regain his balance, +and disappear over the edge of the roof. One instant he was +standing there, splendid, superb; the next, the corner of the +parapet was empty, all that stood there was a broken, splintered +post and a tangle of wires. + +I could not have moved at first; at least, it seemed hours before +the full significance of the thing penetrated my dazed brain. +When I got up I seemed to walk, to crawl, with leaden weights +holding back my feet. + +When I got to the corner I had to catch the post for support. I +knew somebody was saying, "Oh, how terrible!" over and over. It +was only afterward that I knew it had been myself. And then some +other voice was saying, "Don't be alarmed. Please don't be +frightened. I'm all right." + +I dared to look over the parapet, finally, and instead of a +crushed and unspeakable body, there was Mr. Harbison, sitting +about eight feet below me, with his feet swinging into space and +a long red scratch from the corner of his eye across his cheek. +There was a sort of mansard there, with windows, and just enough +coping to keep him from rolling off. + +"I thought you had fallen--all the way," I gasped, trying to keep +my lips from trembling. "I--oh, don't dangle your feet like +that!" + +He did not seem at all glad of his escape. He sat there gloomily, +peering into the gulf beneath. + +"If it wasn't so--er--messy and generally unpleasant," he replied +without looking up, "I would slide off and go the rest of the +way." + +"You are childish," I said severely. "See if you can get through +the window behind you. If you can not, I'll come down and +unfasten it." But the window was open, and I had a chance to sit +down and gather up the scattered ends of my nerves. To my +surprise, however, when he came back he made no effort to renew +our conversation. He ignored me completely, and went to work at +once to repair the damage to his wires, with his back to me. + +"I think you are very rude," I said at last. "You fell over there +and I thought you were killed. The nervous shock I experienced is +just as bad as if you had gone--all the way." + +He put down the hammer and came over to me without speaking. +Then, when he was quite close, he said: + +"I am very sorry if I startled you. I did not flatter myself that +you would be profoundly affected, in any event." + +"Oh, as to that," I said lightly, "it makes me ill for days if my +car runs over a dog." He looked at me in silence. "You are not +going to get up on that parapet again?" + +"Mrs. Wilson," he said, without paying the slightest attention to +my question, "will you tell me what I have done?" + +"Done?" + +"Or have not done? I have racked my brains--stayed awake all of +last night. At first I hoped it was impersonal, that, womanlike +you were merely venting general disfavor on one particular +individual. But--your hostility is to me, personally." + +I raised my eyebrows, coldly interrogative. + +"Perhaps," he went on calmly--"perhaps I was a fool here on the +roof--the night before last. If I said anything that I should +not, I ask your pardon. If it is not that, I think you ought to +ask mine!" + +I was angry enough then. + +"There can be only one opinion about your conduct," I retorted +warmly. "It was worse than brutal. It--it was unspeakable. I have +no words for it--except that I loathe it--and you." + +He was very grim by this time. "I have heard you say something +like that before--only I was not the unfortunate in that case." + +"Oh!" I was choking. + +"Under different circumstances I should be the last person to +recall anything so--personal. But the circumstances are unusual." +He took an angry step toward me. "Will you tell me what I have +done? Or shall I go down and ask the others?" + +"You wouldn't dare," I cried, "or I will tell them what you did! +How you waylaid me on those stairs there, and forced your +caresses, your kisses, on me! Oh, I could die with shame!" + +The silence that followed was as unexpected as it was ominous. I +knew he was staring at me, and I was furious to find myself so +emotional, so much more the excited of the two. Finally, I looked +up. + +"You can not deny it," I said, a sort of anti-climax. + +"No." He was very quiet, very grim, quite composed. "No," he +repeated judicially. "I do not deny it." + +He did not? Or he would not? Which? + + + +Chapter XIV. ALMOST, BUT NOT QUITE + +Dal had been acting strangely all day. Once, early in the +evening, when I had doubled no trump, he led me a club without +apology, and later on, during his dummy, I saw him writing our +names on the back of an envelope, and putting numbers after them. +At my earliest opportunity I went to Max. + +"There is something the matter with Dal, Max," I volunteered. +"He has been acting strangely all day, and just now he was +making out a list--names and numbers." + +"You're to blame for that, Kit," Max said seriously. "You put +washing soda instead of baking soda in those biscuits today, and +he thinks he is a steam laundry. Those are laundry lists he's +making out. He asked me a little while ago if I wanted a domestic +finish." + +Yes, I had put washing soda in the biscuits. The book said soda, +and how is one to know which is meant? + +"I do not think you are calculated for a domestic finish," I said +coldly as I turned away. "In any case I disclaim any such +responsibility. But--there is SOMETHING on Dal's mind." + +Max came after me. "Don't be cross, Kit. You haven't said a nice +word to me today, and you go around bristling with your chin up +and two red spots on your cheeks--like whatever-her-name-was with +the snakes instead of hair. I don't know why I'm so crazy about +you; I always meant to love a girl with a nice disposition." + +I left him then. Dal had gone into the reception room and closed +the doors. And because he had been acting so strangely, and +partly to escape from Max, whose eyes looked threatening, I +followed him. Just as I opened the door quietly and looked in, +Dallas switched off the lights, and I could hear him groping his +way across the room. Then somebody--not Dal--spoke from the +corner, cautiously. + +"Is that you, Mr. Brown, sir?" It was Flannigan. + +"Yes. Is everything here?" + +"All but the powder, sir. Don't step too close. They're spread +all over the place." + +"Have you taken the curtains down?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Matches?" + +"Here, sir." + +"Light one, will you, Flannigan? I want to see the time." + +The flare showed Dallas and Flannigan bent over the timepiece. +And it showed something else. The rug had been turned back from +the windows which opened on the street, and the curtains had been +removed. On the bare hardwood floor just beneath the windows was +an array of pans of various sizes, dish pans, cake tins, and a +metal foot tub. The pans were raised from the floor on bricks, +and seemed to be full of paper. All the chairs and tables were +pushed back against the wall, and the bric-a-brac was stacked on +the mantel. + +"Half an hour yet," Dal said, closing his watch. "Plenty of time, +and remember the signal, four short and two long." + +"Four short and two long--all right, sir." + +"And--Flannigan, here's something for you, on account." + +"Thank you, sir." + +Dal turned to go out, tripped over the rug, said something, and +passed me without an idea of my presence. A moment later +Flannigan went out, and I was left, huddled against the wall, and +alone. + +It was puzzling enough. "Four long and two short!" "All but the +powder!" Not that I believed for a moment what Max had said, and +anyhow Flannigan was the sanest person I ever saw in my life. But +it all seemed a part of the mystery that had been hanging over us +for several days. I felt my way across the room and knelt by the +pans. Yes, they were there, full of paper and mounted on bricks. +It had not been a delusion. + +And then I straightened on my knees suddenly, for an automobile +passing under the windows had sounded four short honks and two +long ones. The signal was followed instantly by a crash. The foot +bath had fallen from its supports, and lay, quivering and +vibrating with horrid noises at my feet. The next moment Mr. +Harbison had thrown open the door and leaped into the room. + +"Who's there?" he demanded. Against the light I could see him +reaching for his hip pocket, and the rest crowding up around him. + +"It's only me," I quavered, "that is, I. The--the dish pan +upset." + +"Dish pan!" Bella said from back in the crowd. "Kit, of course!" + +Jim forced his way through then and turned on the lights. I have +no doubt I looked very strange, kneeling there on the bare floor, +with a row of pans mounted on bricks behind me, and the furniture +all piled on itself in a back corner. + +"Kit! What in the world--!" Jim began, and stopped. He stared +from me to the pans, to the windows, to the bric-a-brac on the +mantel, and back to me. + +I sat stonily silent. Why should I explain? Whenever I got into a +foolish position, and tried to explain, and tell how it happened, +and who was really to blame, they always brought it back to ME +somehow. So I sat there on the floor and let them stare. And +finally Lollie Mercer got her breath and said, "How perfectly +lovely; it's a charade!" + +And Anne guessed "kitchen" at once. "Kit, you know, and the pans +and--all that," she said vaguely. At that they all took to +guessing! And I sat still, until Mr. Harbison saw the storm in my +eyes and came over to me. + +"Have you hurt your ankle?" he said in an undertone. "Let me help +you up." + +"I am not hurt," I said coldly, "and even if I were, it would be +unnecessary to trouble you." + +"I can not help being troubled," he returned, just as evenly. +"'You see, it makes me ill for days if my car runs over a dog.'" + +Luckily, at that moment Dal came in. He pushed his way through +the crowd without a word, shut off the lights, crashed through +the pans and slammed the shutters closed. Then he turned and +addressed the rest. + +"Of all the lunatics--!" he began, only there was more to it than +that. "A fellow goes to all kinds of trouble to put an end to +this miserable situation, and the entire household turns out and +sets to work to frustrate the whole scheme. You LIKE to stay +here, don't you, like chickens in a coop? Where's Flannigan?" + +Nobody understood Dal's wrath then, but it seems he meant to +arrange the plot himself, and when it was ripe, and the hour +nearly come, he intended to wager that he could break the +quarantine, and to take any odds he could get that he would free +the entire party in half an hour. As for the plan itself, it was +idiotically simple; we were perfectly delighted when we heard it. +It was so simple and yet so comprehensive. We didn't see how it +COULD fail. Both the Mercer girls kissed Dal on the strength of +it, and Anne was furious. Jim was not so much pleased, for some +reason or other, and Mr. Harbison looked thoughtful rather than +merry. Aunt Selina had gone to bed. + +The idea, of course, was to start an embryo fire just inside the +windows, in the pans, to feed it with the orange-fire powder that +is used on the Fourth of July, and when we had thrown open the +windows and yelled "fire" and all the guards and reporters had +rushed to the front of the house, to escape quietly by a rear +door from the basement kitchen, get into machines Dal had in +waiting, and lose ourselves as quickly as we could. + +You can see how simple it was. + +We were terribly excited, of course. Every one rushed madly for +motor coats and veils, and Dal shuffled the numbers so the people +going the same direction would have the same machine. We called +to each other as we dressed about Mamaroneck or Lakewood or +wherever we happened to have relatives. Everybody knew everybody +else, and his friends. The Mercer girls were going to cruise +until the trouble blew over, the Browns were going to Pinehurst, +and Jim was going to Africa to hunt, if he could get out of the +harbor. + +Only the Harbison man seemed to have no plans; quite suddenly +with the world so near again, the world of country houses and +steam yachts and all the rest of it, he ceased to be one of us. +It was not his world at all. He stood back and watched the +kaleidoscope of our coats and veils, half-quizzically, but with +something in his face that I had not seen there before. If he had +not been so self-reliant and big, I would have said he was +lonely. Not that he was pathetic in any sense of the word. Of +course, he avoided me, which was natural and exactly what I +wished. Bella never was far from him and at the last she loaded +him with her jewel case and a muff and traveling bag and asked +him to her cousins' on Long Island. I felt sure he was going to +decline, when he glanced across at me. + +"Do go," I said, very politely. "They are charming people." And +he accepted at once! + +It was a transparent plot on Bella's part: Two elderly maiden +ladies, house miles from anywhere, long evenings in the music +room with an open fire and Bella at the harp playing the two +songs she knows. + +When we were ready and gathered in the kitchen, in the darkness, +of course, Dal went up on the roof and signaled with a lantern to +the cars on the drive. Then he went downstairs, took a last look +at the drawing room, fired the papers, shook on the powder, +opened the windows and yelled "fire!" + +Of course, huddled in the kitchen we had heard little or nothing. +But we plainly heard Dal on the first floor and Flannigan on the +second yelling "fire," and the patter of feet as the guards ran +to the front of the house. And at that instant we remembered Aunt +Selina! + +That was the cause of the whole trouble. I don't know why they +turned on me; she wasn't my aunt. But by the time we had got her +out of bed, and had wrapped her in an eiderdown comfort, and +stuck slippers on her feet and a motor veil on her head, the +glare at the front of the house was beginning to die away. She +didn't understand at all and we had no time to explain. I +remember that she wanted to go back and get her "plate," whatever +that may be, but Jim took her by the arm and hurried her along, +and the rest, who had waited, and were in awful tempers, stood +aside and let them out first. + +The door to the area steps was open, and by the street lights we +could see a fence and a gate, which opened on a side street. Jim +and Aunt Selina ran straight for the gate; the wind blowing Aunt +Selina's comfort like a sail. Then, with our feet, so to speak, +on the first rungs of the ladder of Liberty, it slipped. A +half-dozen guards and reporters came around the house and drove +us back like sheep into a slaughter pen. It was the most +humiliating moment of my life. + +Dal had been for fighting a way through, and just for a minute I +think I went Berserk myself. But Max spied one of the reporters +setting up a flash light as we stood, undecided, at the top of +the steps, and after that there was nothing to do but retreat. We +backed down slowly, to show them we were not afraid. And when we +were all in the kitchen again, and had turned on the lights and +Bella was crying with her head against Mr. Harbison's arm, Dal +said cheerfully, + +"Well, it has done some good, anyhow. We have lost Aunt Selina." + +And we all shook hands on it, although we were sorry about Jim. +And Dal said we would have some champagne and drink to Aunt +Selina's comfort, and we could have her teeth fumigated and send +them to her. Somebody said "Poor old Jim," and at that Bella +looked up. + +She stared around the group, and then she went quite pale. + +"Jim!" she gasped. "Do you mean--that Jim is--out there too?" + +"Jim and Aunt Selina!" I said as calmly as I could for joy. You +can see how it simplified the situation for me. "By this time +they are a mile away, and going!" + +Everybody shook hands again except Bella. She had dropped into a +chair, and sat biting her lip and breathing hard, and she would +not join in any of the hilarity at getting rid of Aunt Selina. +Finally she got up and knocked over her chair. + +"You are a lot of cowards," she stormed. "You deserted them out +there, left them. Heaven knows where they are--a defenseless old +woman, and--and a man who did not even have an overcoat. And it +is snowing!" + +"Never mind," Dal said reassuringly. "He can borrow Aunt Selina's +comfort. Make the old lady discard from weakness. Anyhow, Bella, +if I know anything of human nature, the old lady will make it hot +enough for him. Poor old Jim!" + +Then they shook hands again, and with that there came a terrible +banging at the door, which we had locked. + +"Open the door!" some one commanded. It was one of the guards. + +"Open it yourself!" Dallas called, moving a kitchen table to +reenforce the lock. + +"Open that door or we will break it in!" + +Dallas put his hands in his pockets, seated himself on the table, +and whistled cheerfully. We could hear them conferring outside, +and they made another appeal which was refused. Suddenly Bella +came over and confronted Dallas. + +"They have brought them back!" she said dramatically. "They are +out there now; I distinctly heard Jim's voice. Open that door, +Dallas!" + +"Oh, DON'T let them in!" I wailed. It was quite involuntary, but +the disappointment was too awful. "Dallas, DON'T open that door!" + +Dal swung his feet and smiled from Bella to me. + +"Think what a solution it is to all our difficulties," he said +easily. "Without Aunt Selina I could be happy here indefinitely." + +There was more knocking, and somebody--Max, I think--said to let +them in, that it was a fool thing anyhow, and that he wanted to +go to bed and forget it; his feet were cold. And just then there +was a crash, and part of one of the windows fell in. The next +blow from outside brought the rest of the glass, and--somebody +was coming through, feet first. It was Jim. + +He did not speak to any of us, but turned and helped in a bundle +of red and yellow silk comfort that proved to be Aunt Selina, +also feet first. I had a glimpse of a half-dozen heads outside, +guards and reporters. Then Jim jerked the shade down and +unswathed Aunt Selina's legs so that she could walk, offered his +arm, and stalked past us and upstairs, without a word! + +None of us spoke. We turned out the lights and went upstairs and +took off our wraps and went to bed. It had been almost a fiasco. + + + +Chapter XV. SUSPICION AND DISCORD + +Every one was nasty the next morning. Aunt Selina declared that +her feet were frost-bitten and kept Bella rubbing them with ice +water all morning. And Jim was impossible. He refused to speak to +any of us and he watched Bella furtively, as if he suspected her +of trying to get him out of the house. + +When luncheon time came around and he had shown no indication of +going to the telephone and ordering it, we had a conclave, and +Max was chosen to remind him of the hour. Jim was shut in the +studio, and we waited together in the hall while Max went up. +When he came down he was somewhat ruffled. + +"He wouldn't open the door," he reported, "and when I told him it +was meal time, he said he wasn't hungry, and he didn't give a +whoop about the rest of us. He had asked us here to dinner; he +hadn't proposed to adopt us." + +So we finally ordered luncheon ourselves, and about two o'clock +Jim came downstairs sheepishly, and ate what was left. Anne +declared that Bella had been scolding him in the upper hall, but +I doubted it. She was never seen to speak to him unnecessarily. + +The excitement of the escape over, Mr. Harbison and I remained on +terms of armed neutrality. And Max still hunted for Anne's +pearls, using them, the men declared, as a good excuse to avoid +tinkering with the furnace or repairing the dumb waiter, which +took the queerest notions, and stopped once, half-way up from the +kitchen, for an hour, with the dinner on it. Anyhow, Max was +searching the house systematically, armed with a copy of Poe's +Purloined Letter and Gaboriau's Monsieur LeCoq. He went through +the seats of the chairs with hatpins, tore up the beds, and +lifted rugs, until the house was in a state of confusion. And the +next day, the fourth, he found something--not much, but it was +curious. He had been in the studio, poking around behind the +dusty pictures, with Jimmy expostulating every time he moved +anything and the rest standing around watching him. + +Max was strutting. + +"We get it by elimination," he said importantly. "The pearls +being nowhere else in the house, they must be here in the studio. +Three parts of the studio having yielded nothing, they must be in +the fourth. Ladies and gentlemen, let me have your attention for +one moment. I tap this canvas with my wand--there is nothing up +my sleeve. Then I prepare to move the canvas--so. And I put my +hand in the pocket of this disreputable velvet coat, so. Behold!" + +Then he gave a low exclamation and looked at something he held in +his hand. Every one stepped forward, and on his palm was the +small diamond clasp from Anne's collar! + +Jimmy was apoplectic. He tried to smile, but no one else did. + +"Well, I'll be flabbergasted!" he said. "I say, you people, you +don't think for a minute that I put that thing there? Why, I +haven't worn that coat for a month. It's--it's a trick of yours, +Max." + +But Max shook his head; he looked stupefied, and stood gazing +from the clasp to the pocket of the old painting coat. Betty +dropped on a folding stool, that promptly collapsed with her and +created a welcome diversion, while Anne pounced on the clasp +greedily, with a little cry. + +"We will find it all now," she said excitedly. "Did you look in +the other pockets, Max?" + +Then, for the first time, I was conscious of an air of constraint +among the men. Dallas was whistling softly, and Mr. Harbison, +having rescued Betty, was standing silent and aloof, watching the +scene with non-committal eyes. It was Max who spoke first, after +a hurried inventory of the other pockets. + +"Nothing else," he said constrainedly. "I'll move the rest of the +canvases." + +But Jim interfered, to every one's surprise. + +"I wouldn't, if I were you, Max. There's nothing back there. I +had 'em out yesterday." He was quite pale. + +"Nonsense!" Max said gruffly. "If it's a practical joke, Jim, why +don't you fess up? Anne has worried enough." + +"The pearls are not there, I tell you," Jim began. Although the +studio was cold, there were little fine beads of moisture on his +face. "I must ask you not to move those pictures." And then Aunt +Selina came to the rescue; she stalked over and stood with her +back against the stack of canvases. + +"As far as I can understand this," she declaimed, "you gentlemen +are trying to intimate that James knows something of that young +woman's jewelry, because you found part of it in his pocket. +Certainly you will not move the pictures. How do you know that +the young gentleman who said he found it there didn't have it up +his sleeve?" + +She looked around triumphantly, and Max glowered. Dallas soothed +her, however. + +"Exactly so," he said. "How do we know that Max didn't have the +clasp up his sleeve? My dear lady, neither my wife nor I care +anything for the pearls, as compared with the priceless pearl of +peace. I suggest tea on the roof; those in favor--? My arm, Miss +Caruthers." + +It was all well enough for Jim to say later that he didn't dare +to have the canvases moved, for he had stuck behind them all +sorts of chorus girl photographs and life-class crayons that were +not for Aunt Selina's eye, besides four empty siphons, two full +ones, and three bottles of whisky. Not a soul believed him; there +was a a new element of suspicion and discord in the house. + +Every one went up on the roof and left him to his mystery. Anne +drank her tea in a preoccupied silence, with half-closed eyes, an +attitude that boded ill to somebody. The rest were feverishly +gay, and Aunt Selina, with a pair of arctics on her feet and a +hot-water bottle at her back, sat in the middle of the tent and +told me familiar anecdotes of Jimmy's early youth (had he known, +he would have slain her). Betty and Mr. Harbison had found a +medicine ball, and were running around like a pair of children. +It was quite certain that neither his escape from death nor my +accusation weighed heavily on him. + +While Aunt Selina was busy with the time Jim had swallowed an +open safety pin, and just as the pin had been coughed up, or +taken out of his nose--I forget which--Jim himself appeared and +sulkily demanded the privacy of the roof for his training hour. + +Yes, he was training. Flannigan claimed to know the system that +had reduced the president to what he is, and he and Jim had a +seance every day which left Jim feeling himself for bruises all +evening. He claimed to be losing flesh; he said he could actually +feel it going, and he and Flannigan had spent an entire afternoon +in the cellar three days before with a potato barrel, a +cane-seated chair and a lamp. + +The whole thing had been shrouded in mystery. They sandpapered +the inside of the barrel and took out all the nails, and when +they had finished they carried it to the roof and put it in a +corner behind the tent. Everybody was curious, but Flannigan +refused any information about it, and merely said it was part of +his system. Dal said that if HE had anything like that in his +system he certainly would be glad to get rid of it. + +At a quarter to six Jim appeared, still sullen from the events of +the afternoon and wearing a dressing gown and a pair of slippers, +Flannigan following him with a sponge, a bucket of water and an +armful of bath towels. Everybody protested at having to move, but +he was firm, and they all filed down the stairs. I was the last, +with Aunt Selina just ahead of me. At the top of the stairs, she +turned around suddenly to me. + +"That policeman looks cruel," she said. "What's more, he's been +in a bad humor all day. More than likely he'll put James flat on +the roof and tramp on him, under pretense of training him. All +policemen are inhuman." + +"He only rolls him over a barrel or something like that," I +protested. + +"James had a bump like an egg over his ear last night," Aunt +Selina insisted, glaring at Flannigan's unconscious back. "I +don't think it's safe to leave him. It is my time to relax for +thirty minutes, or I would watch him. You will have to stay," she +said, fixing me with her imperious eyes. + +So I stayed. Jim didn't want me, and Flannigan muttered mutiny. +But it was easier to obey Aunt Selina than to clash with her, and +anyhow I wanted to see the barrel in use. + +I never saw any one train before. It is not a joyful spectacle. +First, Flannigan made Jim run, around and around the roof. He +said it stirred up his food and brought it in contact with his +liver, to be digested. + +Flannigan, from meekness and submission, of a sort, in the +kitchen, became an autocrat on the roof. + +"Once more," he would say. "Pick up your feet, sir! Pick up your +feet!" + +And Jim would stagger doggedly past me, where I sat on the +parapet, his poor cheeks shaking and the tail of his bath robe +wrapping itself around his legs. Yes, he ran in the bath robe in +deference to me. It seems there isn't much to a running suit. + +"Head up," Flannigan would say. "Lift your knees, sir. Didn't you +ever see a horse with string halt?" + +He let him stop finally, and gave him a moment to get his breath. +Then he set him to turning somersaults. They spread the cushions +from the couch in the tent on the roof, and Jim would poke his +head down and say a prayer, and then curve over as gracefully as +a sausage and come up gasping, as if he had been pushed off a +boat. + +"Five pounds a day; not less, sir," Flannigan said encouragingly. +"You'll drop it in chunks." + +Jim looked at the tin as if he expected to see the chunks lying +at his feet. + +"Yes," he said, wiping the back of his neck. "If we're in here +thirty days that will be one hundred and fifty pounds. Don't +forget to stop in time, Flannigan. I don't want to melt away like +a candle." + +He was cheered, however, by the promise of reduction. + +"What do you think of that, Kit?" he called to me. "Your uncle is +going to look as angular as a problem in geometry. I'll--I'll be +the original reductio ad absurdum. Do you want me to stand on my +head, Flannigan? Wouldn't that reduce something?" + +"Your brains, sir," Flannigan retorted gravely, and presented a +pair of boxing gloves. Jim visibly quailed, but he put them on. + +"Do you know, Flannigan," he remarked, as he fastened them, "I'm +thinking of wearing these all the time. They hide my character." + +Flannigan looked puzzled, but he did not ask an explanation. He +demanded that Jim shed the bath robe, which he finally did, on my +promise to watch the sunset. Then for fully a minute there was no +sound save of feet running rapidly around the roof, and an +occasional soft thud. Each thud was accompanied by a grunt or two +from Jim. Flannigan was grimly silent. Once there was a smart +rap, an oath from the policeman, and a mirthless chuckle from +Jim. The chuckle ended in a crash, however, and I turned. Jim was +lying on his back on the roof, and Flannigan was wiping his ear +with a towel. Jim sat up and ran his hand down his ribs. + +"They're all here," he observed after a minute. "I thought I +missed one." + +"The only way to take a man's weight down," Flannigan said dryly. + +Jim got up dizzily. + +"Down on the roof, I suppose you mean," he said. + +The next proceedings were mysterious. Flannigan rolled the barrel +into the tent, and carried in a small glass lamp. With the +material at hand he seemed to be effecting a combination, no new +one, to judge by his facility. Then he called Jim. + +At the door of the tent Jim turned to me, his bathrobe toga +fashion around his shoulders. + +"This is a very essential part of the treatment," he said +solemnly. "The exercise, according to Flannigan, loosens up the +adipose tissue. The next step is to boil it out. I hope, unless +your instructions compel you, that you will at least have the +decency to stay out of the tent." + +"I am going at once," I said, outraged. "I'm not here because I'm +mad about it, and you know it. And don't pose with that bath +robe. If you think you're a character out of Roman history, look +at your legs." + +"I didn't mean to offend you," he said sulkily. "Only I'm tired +of having you choked down my throat every time I open my mouth, +Kit. And don't go just yet. Flannigan is going for my clothes as +soon as he lights the--the lamp, and--somebody ought to watch the +stairs." + +That was all there was to it. I said I would guard the steps, and +Flannigan, having ignited the combination, whatever it was, went +downstairs. How was I to know that Bella would come up when she +did? Was it my fault that the lamp got too high, and that +Flannigan couldn't hear Jim calling? Or that just as Bella +reached the top of the steps Jim should come to the door of the +tent, wearing the barrel part of his hot-air cabinet, and yelling +for a doctor? + +Bella came to a dead stop on the upper step, with her mouth open. +She looked at Jim, at the inadequate barrel, and from them she +looked at me. Then she began to laugh, one of her hysterical +giggles, and she turned and went down again. As Jim and I stared +at each other we could hear her gurgling down the hall below. + +She had violent hysterics for an hour, with Anne rubbing her +forehead and Aunt Selina burning a feather out of the feather +duster under her nose. Only Jim and I understood, and we did not +tell. Luckily, the next thing that occurred drove Bella and her +nerves from everybody's mind. + +At seven o'clock, when Bella had dropped asleep and everybody +else was dressed for dinner, Aunt Selina discovered that the +house was cold, and ordered Dal to the furnace. + +It was Dal's day at the furnace; Flannigan had been relieved of +that part of the work after twice setting fire to a chimney. + +In five minutes Dal came back and spoke a few words to Max, who +followed him to the basement, and in ten minutes more Flannigan +puffed up the steps and called Mr. Harbison. + +I am not curious, but I knew that something had happened. While +Aunt Selina was talking suffrage to Anne--who said she had always +been tremendously interested in the subject, and if women got the +suffrage would they be allowed to vote?--I slipped back to the +dining room. + +The table was laid for dinner, but Flannigan was not in sight. I +could hear voices from somewhere, faint voices that talked +rapidly, and after a while I located the sounds under my feet. +The men were all in the basement, and something must have +happened. I flew back to the basement stairs, to meet Mr. +Harbison at the foot. He was grimy and dusty, with streaks of +coal dust over his face, and he had been examining his revolver. +I was just in time to see him slip it into his pocket. + +"What is the matter?" I demanded. "Is any one hurt?" + +"No one," he said coolly. "We've been cleaning out the furnace." + +"With a revolver! How interesting--and unusual!" I said dryly, +and slipped past him as he barred the way. He was not pleased; I +heard him mutter something and come rapidly after me, but I had +the voices as a guide, and I was not going to be turned back like +a child. The men had gathered around a low stone arch in the +furnace room, and were looking down a short flight of steps, into +a sort of vault, evidently under the pavement. A faint light came +from a small grating above, and there was a close, musty smell in +the air. + +"I tell you it must have been last night," Dallas was saying. +"Wilson and I were here before we went to bed, and I'll swear +that hole was not there then." + +"It was not there this morning, sir," Flannigan insisted. "It has +been made during the day." + +"And it could not have been done this afternoon," Mr. Harbison +said quietly. "I was fussing with the telephone wire down here. I +would have heard the noise." + +Something in his voice made me look at him, and certainly his +expression was unusual. He was watching us all intently while +Dallas pointed out to me the cause of the excitement. From the +main floor of the furnace room, a flight of stone steps +surmounted by an arch led into the coal cellar, beneath the +street. The coal cellar was of brick, with a cement floor, and in +the left wall there gaped an opening about three feet by three, +leading into a cavernous void, perfectly black--evidently a +similar vault belonging to the next house. + +The whole place was ghostly, full of shadows, shivery with +possibilities. It was Mr. Harbison finally who took Jim's candle +and crawled through the aperture. We waited in dead silence, +listening to his feet crunching over the coal beyond, watching +the faint yellow light that came through the ragged opening in +the wall. Then he came back and called through to us. + +"Place is locked, over here," he said. "Heavy oak door at the +head of the steps. Whoever made that opening has done a +prodigious amount of labor for nothing." + +The weapon, a crowbar, lay on the ground beside the bricks, and +he picked it up and balanced it on his hand. Dallas' florid face +was almost comical in his bewilderment; as for Jimmy--he slammed +a piece of slag at the furnace and walked away. At the door he +turned around. + +"Why don't you accuse me of it?" he asked bitterly. "Maybe you +could find a lump of coal in my pockets if you searched me." + +He stalked up the stairs then and left us. Dallas and I went up +together, but we did not talk. There seemed to be nothing to say. +Not until I had closed and locked the door of my room did I +venture to look at something that I carried in the palm of my +hand. It was a watch, not running--a gentleman's flat gold watch, +and it had been hanging by its fob to a nail in the bricks beside +the aperture. + +In the back of the watch were the initials, T.H.H. and the +picture of a girl, cut from a newspaper. + +It was my picture. + + + +Chapter XVI. I FACE FLANNIGAN + +Dinner waited that night while everybody went to the coal cellar +and stared at the hole in the wall, and watched while Max took a +tracing of it and of some footprints in the coal dust on the +other side. + +I did not go. I went into the library with the guilty watch in +the fold of my gown, and found Mr. Harbison there, staring +through the February gloom at the blank wall of the next house, +and quite unconscious of the reporter with a drawing pad just +below him in the area-way. I went over and closed the shutters +before his very eyes, but even then he did not move. + +"Will you be good enough to turn around?" I demanded at last. + +"Oh!" he said wheeling. "Are YOU here?" + +There wasn't any reply to that, so I took the watch and placed it +on the library table between us. The effect was all that I had +hoped. He stared at it for an instant, then at me, and with his +hand outstretched for it, stopped. + +"Where did you find it?" he asked. I couldn't understand his +expression. He looked embarrassed, but not at all afraid. + +"I think you know, Mr. Harbison," I retorted. + +"I wish I did. You opened it?" + +"Yes." + +We stood looking at each other across the table. It was his +glance that wavered. + +"About the picture--of you," he said at last. "You see, down +there in South America, a fellow hasn't much to do in the +evenings, and a--a chum of mine and I--we were awfully down on +what we called the plutocrats, the--the leisure classes. And when +that picture of yours came in the paper, we had--we had an +argument. He said--" He stopped. + +"What did he say?" + +"Well, he said it was the picture of an empty-faced society +girl." + +"Oh!" I exclaimed. + +"I--I maintained there were possibilities in the face." He put +both hands on the table, and, bending forward, looked down at me. +"Well, I was a fool, I admit. I said your eyes were kind and +candid, in spite of that haughty mouth. You see, I said I was a +fool." + +"I think you are exceedingly rude," I managed finally. "If you +want to know where I found your watch, it was down in the coal +cellar. And if you admit you are an idiot, I am not. I--I know +all about Bella's bracelet--and the board on the roof, and--oh, +if you would only leave--Anne's necklace--on the coal, or +somewhere--and get away--" + +My voice got beyond me then, and I dropped into a chair and +covered my face. I could feel him staring at the back of my head. + +"Well, I'll be--" something or other, he said finally, and then +he turned on his heel and went out. By the time I got my eyes dry +(yes, I was crying; I always do when I am angry) I heard Jim +coming downstairs, and I tucked the watch out of sight. Would +anyone have foreseen the trouble that watch would make! + +Jim was sulky. He dropped into a chair and stretched out his +legs, looking gloomily at nothing. Then he got up and ambled into +his den, closing the door behind him without having spoken a +word. It was more than human nature could stand. + +When I went into the den he was stretched on the davenport with +his face buried in the cushions. He looked absolutely wilted, and +every line of him was drooping. + +"Go on out, Kit," he said, in a smothered voice. "Be a good girl +and don't follow me around." + +"You are shameless!" I gasped. "Follow you! When you are hung +around my neck like a--like a--" Millstone was what I wanted to +say, but I couldn't think of it. + +He turned over and looked up from his cushions like an +ill-treated and suffering cherub. + +"I'm done for, Kit," he groaned. "Bella went up to the studio +after we left, and investigated that corner." + +"What did she find? The necklace?" I asked eagerly. He was too +wretched to notice this. + +"No, that picture of you that I did last winter. She is +crazy--she says she is going upstairs and sit in Takahiro's room +and take smallpox and die." + +"Fiddlesticks!" I said rudely, and somebody hammered on the door +and opened it. + +"Pardon me for disturbing you," Bella said, in her best +dear-me-I'm-glad-I-knocked manner. "But--Flannigan says the +dinner has not come." + +"Good Lord!" Jim exclaimed. "I forgot to order the confounded +dinner!" + +It was eight o'clock by that time, and as it took an hour at +least after telephoning the order, everybody looked blank when +they heard. The entire family, except Mr. Harbison, who had not +appeared again, escorted Jim to the telephone and hung around +hungrily, suggesting new dishes every minute. And then--he +couldn't raise Central. It was fifteen minutes before we gave up, +and stood staring at one another despairingly. + +"Call out of a window, and get one of those infernal reporters to +do something useful for once," Max suggested. But he was +indignantly hushed. We would have starved first. Jim was peering +into the transmitter and knocking the receiver against his hand, +like a watch that had stopped. But nothing happened. Flannigan +reported a box of breakfast food, two lemons, and a pineapple +cheese, a combination that didn't seem to lend itself to +anything. + +We went back to the dining room from sheer force of habit and sat +around the table and looked at the lemonade Flannigan had made. +Anne WOULD talk about the salad her last cook had concocted, and +Max told about a little town in Connecticut where the restaurant +keeper smokes a corn-cob pipe while he cooks the most luscious +fried clams in America. And Aunt Selina related that in her +family they had a recipe for chicken smothered in cream. And then +we sipped the weak lemonade and nibbled at the cheese. + +"To change this gridiron martyrdom," Dallas said finally, +"where's Harbison? Still looking for his watch?" + +"Watch!" Everybody said it in a different tone. + +"Sure," he responded. "Says his watch was taken last night from +the studio. Better get him down to take a squint at the +telephone. Likely he can fix it." + +Flannigan was beside me with the cheese. And at that moment I +felt Mr. Harbison's stolen watch slip out of my girdle, slide +greasily across my lap, and clatter to the floor. Flannigan +stooped, but luckily it had gone under the table. To have had it +picked up, to have had to explain how I got it, to see them try +to ignore my picture pasted in it--oh, it was impossible! I put +my foot over it. + +"Drop something?" Dallas asked perfunctorily, rising. Flannigan +was still half kneeling. + +"A fork," I said, as easily as I could, and the conversation went +on. But Flannigan knew, and I knew he knew. He watched my every +movement like a hawk after that, standing just behind my chair. I +dropped my useless napkin, to have it whirled up before it +reached the floor. I said to Betty that my shoe buckle was loose, +and actually got the watch in my hand, only to let it slip at the +critical moment. Then they all got up and went sadly back to the +library, and Flannigan and I faced each other. + +Flannigan was not a handsome man at any time, though up to then +he had at least looked amiable. But now as I stood with my hand +on the back of my chair, his face grew suddenly menacing. The +silence was absolute. I was the guiltiest wretch alive, and +opposite me the law towered and glowered, and held the yellow +remnant of a pineapple cheese! And in the silence that wretched +watch lay and ticked and ticked and ticked. Then Flannigan +creaked over and closed the door into the hall, came back, picked +up the watch, and looked at it. + +"You're unlucky, I'm thinkin'," he said finally. "You've got the +nerve all right, but you ain't cute enough." + +"I don't know what you mean," I quavered. "Give me that watch to +return to Mr. Harbison." + +"Not on your life," he retorted easily. "I give it back myself, +like I did the bracelet, and--like I'm going to give back the +necklace, if you'll act like a sensible little girl." + +I could only choke. + +"It's foolish, any way you look at it," he persisted. "Here you +are, lots of friends, folks that think you're all right. Why, I +reckon there isn't one of them that wouldn't lend you money if +you needed it so bad." + +"Will you be still?" I said furiously. "Mr. Harbison left that +watch--with me--an hour ago. Get him, and he will tell you so +himself!" + +"Of course he would," Flannigan conceded, looking at me with +grudging approval. "He wouldn't be what I think he is, if he +didn't lie up and down for you." There were voices in the hall. +Flannigan came closer. "An hour ago, you say. And he told me it +was gone this morning! It's a losing game, miss. I'll give you +twenty-four hours and then--the necklace, if you please, miss." + + + +Chapter XVII. A CLASH AND A KISS + +The clash that came that evening had been threatening for some +time. Take an immovable body, represented by Mr. Harbison and his +square jaw, and an irresistible force, Jimmy and his weight, and +there is bound to be trouble. + +The real fault was Jim's. He had gone entirely mad again over +Bella, and thrown prudence to the winds. He mooned at her across +the dinner table, and waylaid her on the stairs or in the back +halls, just to hear her voice when she ordered him out of her +way. He telephoned for flowers and candy for her quite +shamelessly, and he got out a book of photographs that they had +taken on their wedding journey, and kept it on the library table. +The sole concession he made to our presumptive relationship was +to bring me the responsibility for everything that went wrong, +and his shirts for buttons. + +The first I heard of the trouble was from Dal. He waylaid me in +the hall after dinner that night, and his face was serious. + +"I'm afraid we can't keep it up very long, Kit," he said. "With +Jim trailing Bella all over the house, and the old lady keener +every day, it's bound to come out somehow. And that isn't all. +Jim and Harbison had a set-to today--about you." + +"About me!" I repeated. "Oh, I dare say I have been falling short +again. What was Jim doing? Abusing me?" + +Dal looked cautiously over his shoulder, but no one was near. + +"It seems that the gentle Bella has been unusually beastly today +to Jim, and--I believe she's jealous of you, Kit. Jim followed +her up to the roof before dinner with a box of flowers, and she +tossed them over the parapet. She said, I believe, that she +didn't want his flowers; he could buy them for you, and be damned +to him, or some lady-like equivalent." + +"Jim is a jellyfish," I said contemptuously. "What did he say?" + +"He said he only cared for one woman, and that was Bella; that he +never had really cared for you and never would, and that divorce +courts were not unmitigated evils if they showed people the way +to real happiness. Which wouldn't amount to anything if Harbison +had not been in the tent, trying to sleep!" + +Dal did not know all the particulars, but it seems that relations +between Jim and Mr. Harbison were rather strained. Bella had left +the roof and Jim and the Harbison man came face to face in the +door of the tent. According to Dal, little had been said, but +Jim, bound by his promise to me, could not explain, and could +only stammer something about being an old friend of Miss Knowles. +And Tom had replied shortly that it was none of his business, but +that there were some things friendship hardly justified, and +tried to pass Jim. Jim was instantly enraged; he blocked the door +to the roof and demanded to know what the other man meant. There +were two or three versions of the answer he got. The general +purport was that Mr. Harbison had no desire to explain further, +and that the situation was forced on him. But if he +insisted--when a man systematically ignored and neglected his +wife for some one else, there were communities where he would be +tarred and feathered. + +"Meaning me?" Jim demanded, apoplectic. + +"The remark was a general one," Mr. Harbison retorted, "but if +you wish to make a concrete application--!" + +Dal had gone up just then, and found them glaring at each other, +Jim with his hands clenched at his sides, and Mr. Harbison with +his arms folded and very erect. Dal took Jim by the elbow and led +him downstairs, muttering, and the situation was saved for the +time. But Dal was not optimistic. + +"You can do a bit yourself, Kit," he finished. "Look more +cheerful, flirt a little. You can do that without trying. Take +Max on for a day or so; it would be charity anyhow. But don't let +Tom Harbison take into his head that you are grieving over Jim's +neglect, or he's likely to toss him off the roof." + +"I have no reason to think that Mr. Harbison cares one way or the +other about me," I said primly. "You don't think he's--he's in +love with me, do you, Dal?" I watched him out of the corner of my +eye, but he only looked amused. + +"In love with you!" he repeated. "Why bless your wicked little +heart, no! He thinks you're a married woman! It's the principle +of the thing he's fighting for. If I had as much principle as he +has, I'd--I'd put it out at interest." + +Max interrupted us just then, and asked if we knew where Mr. +Harbison was. + +"Can't find him," he said. "I've got the telephone together and +have enough left over to make another. Where do you suppose +Harbison hides the tools? I'm working with a corkscrew and two +palette knives." + +I heard nothing more of the trouble that night. Max went to Jim +about it, and Jim said angrily that only a fool would interfere +between a man and his wife--wives. Whereupon Max retorted that a +fool and his wives were soon parted, and left him. The two +principals were coldly civil to each other, and smaller issues +were lost as the famine grew more and more insistent. For famine +it was. + +They worked the rest of the evening, but the telephone refused to +revive and every one was starving. Individually our pride was at +low ebb, but collectively it was still formidable. So we sat +around and Jim played Grieg with the soft stops on, and Aunt +Selina went to bed. The weather had changed, and it was sleeting, +but anything was better than the drawing room. I was in a mood to +battle with the elements or to cry--or both--so I slipped out, +while Dal was reciting "Give me three grains of corn, mother," +threw somebody's overcoat over my shoulders, put on a man's soft +hat--Jim's I think--and went up to the roof. + +It was dark in the third floor hall, and I had to feel my way to +the foot of the stairs. I went up quietly, and turned the knob of +the door to the roof. At first it would not open, and I could +hear the wind howling outside. Finally, however, I got the door +open a little and wormed my way through. It was not entirely dark +out there, in spite of the storm. A faint reflection of the +street lights made it possible to distinguish the outlines of the +boxwood plants, swaying in the wind, and the chimneys and the +tent. And then--a dark figure disentangled itself from the +nearest chimney and seemed to hurl itself at me. I remember +putting out my hands and trying to say something, but the figure +caught me roughly by the shoulders and knocked me back against +the door frame. From miles away a heavy voice was saying, "So +I've got you!" and then the roof gave from under me, and I was +floating out on the storm, and sleet was beating in my face, and +the wind was whispering over and over, "Open your eyes, for God's +sake!" + +I did open them after a while, and finally I made out that I was +laying on the floor in the tent. The lights were on, and I had a +cold and damp feeling, and something wet was trickling down my +neck. + +I seemed to be alone, but in a second somebody came into the +tent, and I saw it was Mr. Harbison, and that he had a double +handful of half-melted snow. He looked frantic and determined, +and only my sitting up quickly prevented my getting another snow +bath. My neck felt queer and stiff, and I was very dizzy. When he +saw that I was conscious he dropped the snow and stood looking +down at me. + +"Do you know," he said grimly, "that I very nearly choked you to +death a little while ago?" + +"It wouldn't surprise me to be told so," I said. "Do I know too +much, or what is it, Mr. Harbison?" I felt terribly ill, but I +would not let him see it. "It is queer, isn't it--how we always +select the roof for our little--differences?" He seemed to relax +somewhat at my gibe. + +"I didn't know it was you," he explained shortly. "I was waiting +for--some one, and in the hat you wore and the coat, I mistook +you. That's all. Can you stand?" + +"No," I retorted. I could, but his summary manner displeased me. +The sequel, however, was rather amazing, for he stooped suddenly +and picked me up, and the next instant we were out in the storm +together. At the door he stooped and felt for the knob. + +"Turn it," he commanded. "I can't reach it." + +"I'll do nothing of the kind," I said shrewishly. "Let me down; I +can walk perfectly well." + +He hesitated. Then he slid me slowly to my feet, but he did not +open the door at once. "Are you afraid to let me carry you down +those stairs, after--Tuesday night?" he asked, very low. "You +still think I did that?" + +I had never been less sure of it than at that moment, but an imp +of perversity made me retort, "Yes." + +He hardly seemed to hear me. He stood looking down at me as I +leaned against the door frame. + +"Good Lord!" he groaned. "To think that I might have killed you!" +And then--he stooped and suddenly kissed me. + +The next moment the door was open, and he was leading me down +into the house. At the foot of the staircase he paused, still +holding my hand, and faced me in the darkness. + +"I'm not sorry," he said steadily. "I suppose I ought to be, but +I'm not. Only--I want you to know that I was not guilty--before. +I didn't intend to now. I am--almost as much surprised as you +are." + +I was quite unable to speak, but I wrenched my hand loose. He +stepped back to let me pass, and I went down the hall alone. + + + +Chapter XVIII. IT'S ALL MY FAULT + +I didn't go to the drawing room again. I went into my own room +and sat in the dark, and tried to be furiously angry, and only +succeeded in feeling queer and tingly. One thing was absolutely +certain: not the same man, but two different men had kissed me on +the stairs to the roof. It sounds rather horrid and +discriminating, but there was all the difference in the world. + +But then--who had? And for whom had Mr. Harbison been waiting on +the roof? "Did you know that I nearly choked you to death a few +minutes ago?" Then he rather expected to finish somebody in that +way! Who? Jim, probably. It was strange, too, but suddenly I +realized that no matter how many suspicious things I mustered up +against him--and there were plenty--down in my heart I didn't +believe him guilty of anything, except this last and unforgivable +offense. Whoever was trying to leave the house had taken the +necklace, that seemed clear, unless Max was still foolishly +trying to break quarantine and create one of the sensations he so +dearly loves. This was a new idea, and some things upheld it, but +Max had been playing bridge when I was kissed on the stairs, and +there was still left that ridiculous incident of the comfort. + +Bella came up after I had gone to bed, and turned on the light to +brush her hair. + +"If I don't leave this mausoleum soon, I'll be carried out," she +declared. "You in bed, Lollie Mercer and Dal flirting, Anne +hysterical, and Jim making his will in the den! You will have to +take Aunt Selina tonight, Kit; I'm all in." + +"If you'll put her to bed, I'll keep her there," I conceded, +after some parley. + +"You're a dear." Bella came back from the door. "Look here, Kit, +you know Jim pretty well. Don't you think he looks ill? Thinner?" + +"He's a wreck," I said soberly. "You have a lot to answer for, +Bella." + +Bella went over to the cheval glass and looked in it. "I avoid +him all I can," she said, posing. "He's awfully funny; he's so +afraid I'll think he's serious about you. He can't realize that +for me he simply doesn't exist." + +Well, I took Aunt Selina, and about two o'clock, while I was in +my first sleep, I woke to find her standing beside me, tugging at +my arm. + +"There's somebody in the house," she whispered. "Thieves!" + +"If they're in they'll not get out tonight," I said. + +"I tell you, I saw a man skulking on the stairs," she insisted. + +I got up ungraciously enough, and put on my dressing gown. Aunt +Selina, who had her hair in crimps, tied a veil over her head, +and together we went to the head of the stairs. Aunt Selina +leaned far over and peered down. + +"He's in the library," she whispered. "I can see a light." + +The lust of battle was in Aunt Selina's eye. She girded her robe +about her and began to descend the stairs cautiously. We went +through the hall and stopped at the library door. It was empty, +but from the den beyond came a hum of voices and the cheerful +glow of fire light. I realized the situation then, but it was too +late. + +"Then why did you kiss her in the dining room?" Bella was saying +in her clear, high tones. "You did, didn't you?" + +"It was only her hand," Jim, desperately explaining. "I've got to +pay her some attention, under the circumstances. And I give you +my word, I was thinking of you when I did it." THE WRETCH! + +Aunt Selina drew her breath in suddenly. + +"I am thinking of marrying Reggie Wolfe." This was Bella, of +course. "He wants me to. He's a dear boy." + +"If you do, I will kill him." + +"I am so very lonely," Bella sighed. We could hear the creak of +Jim's shirt bosom that showed that he had sighed also. Aunt +Selina had gripped me by the arm, and I could hear her breathing +hard beside me. + +"It's only Jim," I whispered. "I--I don't want to hear any more." + +But she clutched me firmly, and the next thing we heard was +another creak, louder and-- + +"Get up! Get up off your knees this instant!" Bella was saying +frantically. "Some one might come in." + +"Don't send me away," Jim said in a smothered voice. "Every one +in the house is asleep, and I love you, dear." + +Aunt Selina swallowed hard in the darkness. + +"You have no right to make love to me," Bella. "It's--it's highly +improper, under the circumstances." + +And then Jim: "You swallow a camel and stick at a gnat. Why did +you meet me here, if you didn't expect me to make love to you? +I've stood for a lot, Bella, but this foolishness will have to +end. Either you love me--or you don't. I'm desperate." He drew a +long, forlorn breath. + +"Poor old Jim!" This was Bella. A pause. Then--"Let my hand +alone!" Also Bella. + +"It is MY hand!"--Jim;'s most fatuous tone. "THERE is where you +wore my ring. There's the mark still." Sounds of Jim kissing +Bella's ring finger. "What did you do with it? Throw it away?" +More sounds. + +Aunt Selina crossed the library swiftly, and again I followed. +Bella was sitting in a low chair by the fire, looking at the +logs, in the most exquisite negligee of pink chiffon and ribbon. +Jim was on his knees, staring at her adoringly, and holding both +her hands. + +"I'll tell you a secret," Bella was saying, looking as coy as she +knew how--which was considerable. "I--I still wear it, on a chain +around my neck." + +On a chain around her neck! Bella, who is decollete whenever it +is allowable, and more than is proper! + +That was the limit of Aunt Selina's endurance. Still holding me, +she stepped through the doorway and into the firelight, a fearful +figure. + +Jim saw her first. He went quite white and struggled to get up, +smiling a sickly smile. Bella, after her first surprise, was +superbly indifferent. She glanced at us, raised her eyebrows, and +then looked at the clock. + +"More victims of insomnia!" she said. "Won't you come in? Jim, +pull up a chair by the fire for your aunt." + +Aunt Selina opened her mouth twice, like a fish, before she could +speak. Then-- + +"James, I demand that that woman leave the house!" she said +hoarsely. + +Bella leaned back and yawned. + +"James, shall I go?" she asked amiably. + +"Nonsense," Jim said, pulling himself together as best he could. +"Look here, Aunt Selina, you know she can't go out, and what's +more, I--don't want her to go." + +"You--what?" Aunt Selina screeched, taking a step forward. "You +have the audacity to say such a thing to me!" + +Bella leaned over and gave the fire log a punch. + +"I was just saying that he shouldn't say such things to me, +either," she remarked pleasantly. "I'm afraid you'll take cold, +Miss Caruthers. Wouldn't you like a hot sherry flip?" + +Aunt Selina gasped. Then she sat down heavily on one of the +carved teakwood chairs. + +"He said he loved you; I heard him," she said weakly. "He--he +was going to put his arm around you!" + +"Habit!" Jim put in, trying to smile. "You see, Aunt Selina, +it's--well, it's a habit I got into some time ago, and I--my arm +does it without my thinking about it." + +"Habit!" Aunt Selina repeated, her voice thick with passion. Then +she turned to me. "Go to your room at once!" she said in her most +awful tone. "Go to your room and leave this--this shocking affair +to me." + +But if she had reached her limit, so had I. If Jim chose to ruin +himself, it was not my fault. Any one with common sense would +have known at least to close the door before he went down on his +knees, no matter to whom. So when Aunt Selina turned on me and +pointed in the direction of the staircase, I did not move. + +"I am perfectly wide awake," I said coldly. "I shall go to bed +when I am entirely ready, and not before. And as for Jim's +conduct, I do not know much about the conventions in such cases, +but if he wishes to embrace Miss Knowles, and she wants him to, +the situation is interesting, but hardly novel." + +Aunt Selina rose slowly and drew the folds of her dressing gown +around her, away from the contamination of my touch. + +"Do you know what you are saying?" she demanded hoarsely. + +"I do." I was quite white and stiff from my knees up, but below I +was wavery. I glanced at Jim for moral support, but he was +looking idolatrously at Bella. As for her, quite suddenly she had +dropped her mask of indifference; her face was strained and +anxious, and there were deep circles I had not seen before, under +her eyes. And it was Bella who finally threw herself into the +breach--the family breach. + +"It is all my fault, Miss Caruthers," she said, stepping between +Aunt Selina and myself. "I have been a blind and wicked woman, +and I have almost wrecked two lives." + +Two! What of mine? + +"You see," she struggled on, against the glint in Aunt Selina's +eyes. "I--I did not realize how much I cared, until it was too +late. I did so many things that were cruel and wrong--oh, Jim, +Jim!" + +She turned and buried her head on his shoulder and cried; real +tears. I could hardly believe that it was Bella. And Jim put both +his arms around her and almost cried, too, and looked +nauseatingly happy with the eye he turned to Bella, and scared to +death out of the one he kept on Aunt Selina. + +She turned on me, as of course I knew she would. + +"That," she said, pointing at Jim and Bella, "that shameful +picture is due to your own indifference. I am not blind; I have +seen how you rejected all his loving advances." Bella drew away +from Jim, but he jerked her back. "If anything in the world would +reconcile me to divorce, it is this unbelievable situation. +James, are you shameless?" + +But James was and didn't care who knew it. And as there was +nothing else to do, and no one else to do it, I stood very +straight against the door frame, and told the whole miserable +story from the very beginning. I told how Dal and Jim had +persuaded me, and how I had weakened and found it was too late, +and how Bella had come in that night, when she had no business to +come, and had sat down in the basement kitchen on my hands and +almost turned me into a raving maniac. As I went on I became +fluent; my sense of injury grew on me. I made it perfectly clear +that I hated them all, and that when people got divorces they +ought to know their own minds and stay divorced. And at that a +great light broke on Aunt Selina, who hadn't understood until +that minute. + +In view of her principles, she might have been expected to turn +on Jim and Bella, and disinherit them, and cast them out, +figuratively, with the flaming sword of her tongue. BUT SHE DID +NOT! + +She turned on me in the most terrible way, and asked me how I +dared to come between husband and wife, because divorce or no +divorce, whom God hath joined together, and so on. And when Jim +picked up his courage in both hands and tried to interfere, she +pushed him back with one hand while she pointed the other at me +and called me a Jezebel. + + + +Chapter XIX. THE HARBISON MAN + +She talked for an hour, having got between me and the door, and +she scolded Jim and Bella thoroughly. But they did not hear it, +being occupied with each other, sitting side by side meekly on +the divan with Jim holding Bella's hand under a cushion. She said +they would have to be very good to make up for all the deception, +but it was perfectly clear that it was a relief to her to find +that I didn't belong to her permanently, and as I have said +before, she was crazy about Bella. + +I sat back in a chair and grew comfortably drowsy in the monotony +of her voice. It was a name that brought me to myself with a +jerk. + +"Mr. Harbison!" Aunt Selina was saying. "Then bring him down at +once, James. I want no more deception. There is no use cleaning a +house and leaving a dirty corner." + +"It will not be necessary for me to stay and see it swept," I +said, mustering the rags she had left of my self-respect, and +trying to pass her. But she planted herself squarely before me. + +"You can not stir up a dust like this, young woman, and leave +other people to sneeze in it," she said grimly. And I stayed. + +I sat, very small, on a chair in a corner. I felt like Jezebel, +or whatever her name was, and now the Harbison man was coming, +and he was going to see me stripped of my pretensions to +domesticity and of a husband who neglected me. He was going to +see me branded a living lie, and he would hate me because I had +put him in a ridiculous position. He was just the sort to resent +being ridiculous. + +Jim brought him down in a dressing gown and a state of +bewilderment. It was plain that the memory of the afternoon still +rankled, for he was very short with Jim and inclined to resent +the whole thing. The clock in the hall chimed half after three as +they came down the stairs, and I heard Mr. Harbison stumble over +something in the darkness and say that if it was a joke, he +wasn't in the humor for it. To which Jim retorted that it wasn't +anything resembling a joke, and for heaven's sake not to walk on +his feet; he couldn't get around the furniture any faster. + +At the door of the den Mr. Harbison stopped, blinking in the +light. Then, when he saw us, he tried to back himself and his +dishabille out into the obscurity of the library. But Aunt Selina +was too quick for him. + +"Come in," she called, "I want you, young man. It seems that +there are only two fools in the house, and you are one." + +He straightened at that and looked bewildered, but he tried to +smile. + +"I thought I was the only one," he said. "Is it possible that +there is another?" + +"I am the other," she announced. I think she expected him to say +"Impossible," but, whatever he was, he was never banal. + +"Is that so?" he asked politely, trying to be interested and to +understand at the same time. He had not seen me. He was gazing +fixedly at Bella, languishing on the divan and watching him with +lowered lids, and he had given Jim a side glance of contempt. But +now he saw me and he colored under his tan. His neck blushed +furiously, being much whiter than his face. He kept his eyes on +mine, and I knew that he was mutely asking forgiveness. But the +thought of what was coming paralyzed me. My eyes were glued to +his as they had been that first evening when he had called me +"Mrs. Wilson," and after an instant he looked away, and his face +was set and hard. + +"It seems that we have all been playing a little comedy, Mr. +Harbison," Aunt Selina began, nasally sarcastic. "Or rather, you +and I have been the audience. The rest have played." + +"I--I don't think I understand," he said slowly. "I have seen +very little comedy." + +"It was not well planned," Aunt Selina retorted tartly. "The idea +was good, but the young person who was playing the part of Mrs. +Wilson--overacted." + +"Oh, come, Aunt Selina," Jim protested, "Kit was coaxed and +cajoled into this thing. Give me fits if you like; I deserve all +I get. But let Kit alone--she did it for me." + +Bella looked over at me and smiled nastily. + +"I would stop doing things for Jim, Kit," she said. "It is SO +unprofitable." + +But Mr. Harbison harked back to Aunt Selina's speech. + +"PLAYING the part of Mrs. Wilson!" he repeated. "Do you mean--?" + +"Exactly. Playing the part. She is not Mrs. Wilson. It seems that +that honor belonged at one time to Miss Knowles. I believe such +things are not unknown in New York, only why in the name of sense +does a man want to divorce a woman and then meet her at two +o'clock in the morning to kiss the place where his own wedding +ring used to rest?" + +Jim fidgeted. Bella was having spasms of mirth to herself, but +the Harbison man did not smile. He stood for a moment looking at +the fire; then he thrust his hands deep into the pockets of his +dressing gown, and stalked over to me. He did not care that the +others were watching and listening. + +"Is it true?" he demanded, staring down at me. "You are NOT Mrs. +Wilson? You are not married at all? All that about being +neglected--and loathing HIM, and all that on the roof--there was +no foundation of truth?" + +I could only shake my head without looking up. There was no +defense to be made. Oh, I deserved the scorn in his voice. + +"They--they persuaded you, I suppose, and it was to help +somebody? It was not a practical joke?" + +"No," I rallied a little spirit at that. It had been anything but +a joke. + +He drew a long breath. + +"I think I understand," he said slowly, "but--you could have +saved me something. I must have given you all a great deal of +amusement." + +"Oh, no," I protested. "I--I want to tell you--" + +But he deliberately left me and went over to the door. There he +turned and looked down at Aunt Selina. He was a little white, but +there was no passion in his face. + +"Thank you for telling me all this, Miss Caruthers," he said +easily. "Now that you and I know, I'm afraid the others will miss +their little diversion. Good night." + +Oh, it was all right for Jim to laugh and say that he was only +huffed a little and would be over it by morning. I knew better. +There was something queer in his face as he went out. He did not +even glance in my direction. He had said very little, but he had +put me as effectually in the wrong as if he had not kissed +me--deliberately kissed me--that very evening, on the roof. + +I did not go to sleep again. I lay wretchedly thinking things +over and trying to remember who Jezebel was, and toward morning I +distinctly heard the knob of the door turn. I mistrusted my ears, +however, and so I got up quietly and went over in the darkness. +There was no sound outside, but when I put my hand on the knob I +felt it move under my fingers. The counter pressure evidently +alarmed whoever it was, for the knob was released and nothing +more happened. But by this time anything so uncomplicated as the +fumbling of a knob at night had no power to disturb me. I went +back to bed. + + + +Chapter XX. BREAKING OUT IN A NEW PLACE + +Hunger roused everybody early the next morning, Friday. Leila +Mercer had discovered a box of bonbons that she had forgotten, +and we divided them around. Aunt Selina asked for the candied +fruit and got it--quite a third of the box. We gathered in the +lower hall and on the stairs and nibbled nauseating sweets while +Mr. Harbison examined the telephone. + +He did not glance in my direction. Betty and Dal were helping +him, and he seemed very cheerful. Max sat with me on the stairs. +Mr. Harbison had just unscrewed the telephone box from the wall +and was squinting into it, when Bella came downstairs. It was her +first appearance, but as she was always late, nobody noticed. +When she stopped, just above us on the stairs, however, we looked +up, and she was holding to the rail and trembling perceptibly. + +"Mr. Harbison, will you--can you come upstairs?" she asked. Her +voice was strained, almost reedy, and her lips were white. + +Mr. Harbison stared up at her, with the telephone box in his +hands. + +"Why--er--certainly," he said, "but, unless it's very important, +I'd like to fix this talking machine. We want to make a food +record." + +"I'd like to break a food record," Max put in, but Bella created +a diversion by sitting down suddenly on the stair just above us, +and burying her face in her handkerchief. + +"Jim is sick," she said, with a sob. "He--he doesn't want +anything to eat, and his head aches. He--said for me--to go away +and let him die!" + +Dal dropped the hammer immediately, and Lollie Mercer sat +petrified, with a bonbon halfway to her mouth. For, of course, it +was unexpected, finding sentiment of any kind in Bella, and none +of them knew about the scene in the den in the small hours of the +morning. + +"Sick!" Aunt Selina said, from a hall chair. "Sick! Where?" + +"All over," Bella quavered. "His poor head is hot, and he's +thirsty, but he doesn't want anything but water." + +"Great Scott!" Dal said suddenly. "Suppose he should--Bella, are +you telling us ALL his symptoms?" + +Bella put down her handkerchief and got up. From her position on +the stairs she looked down on us with something of her old +haughty manner. + +"If he is ill, you may blame yourselves, all of you," she said +cruelly. "You taunted him with being--fat, and laughed at him, +until he stopped eating the things he should eat. And he has been +exercising--on the roof, until he has worn himself out. And +now--he is ill. He--he has a rash." + +Everybody jumped at that, and we instinctively moved away from +Bella. She was quite cold and scornful by that time. + +"A rash!" Max exclaimed. "What sort of rash?" + +"I did not see it," Bella said with dignity, and turning, she +went up the stairs. + +There was a great deal of excitement, and nobody except Mr. +Harbison was willing to go near Jim. He went up at once with +Bella, while Max and Dal sat cravenly downstairs and wondered if +we would all take it, and Anne told about a man she knew who had +it, and was deaf and dumb and blind when he recovered. + +Mr. Harbison came down after a while, and said that the rash was +there, right enough, and that Jim absolutely refused to be +quarantined; that he insisted that he always got a rash from +early strawberries and that if he DID have anything, since they +were so touchy he hoped they would all get it. If they locked him +in he would kick the door down. + +We had a long conference in the hall, with Bella sitting red-eyed +and objecting to every suggestion we made. And finally we +arranged to shut Jim up in one of the servants' bedrooms with a +sheet wrung out of disinfectant hung over the door. Bella said +she would sit outside in the hall and read to him through the +closed door, so finally he gave a grudging consent. But he was in +an awful humor. Max and Dal put on rubber gloves and helped him +over, and they said afterward that the way he talked was fearful. +And there was a telephone in the maid's room, and he kept asking +for things every five minutes. + +When the doctor came he said it was too early to tell positively, +and he ordered him liquid diet and said he would be back that +evening. + +Which--the diet--takes me back to the famine. After they had +moved Jim, Mr. Harbison went back to the telephone, and found +everything as it should be. So he followed the telephone wire, +and the rest followed him. I did not; he had systematically +ignored me all morning, after having dared to kiss me the night +before. And any other man I know, after looking at me the way he +had looked a dozen times, would have been at least reasonably +glad to find me free and unmarried. But it was clear that he was +not; I wondered if he was the kind of man who always makes love +to the other man's wife and runs like mad when she is left a +widow, or gets a divorce. + +And just when I had decided that I hated him, and that there was +one man I knew who would never make love to a woman whom he +thought married and then be very dignified and aloof when he +found she wasn't, I heard what was wrong with the telephone wire. + +It had been cut! Cut through with a pair of silver manicure +scissors from the dressing table in Bella's room, where Aunt +Selina slept! The wire had been clipped where it came into the +house, just under a window, and the scissors still lay on the +sill. + +It was mysterious enough, but no one was interested in the +mystery just then. We wanted food, and wanted it at once. Mr. +Harbison fixed the wire, and the first thing we did, of course, +was to order something to eat. Aunt Selina went to bed just after +luncheon with indigestion, to the relief of every one in the +house. She had been most unpleasant all morning. + +When she found herself ill, however, she insisted on having +Bella, and that made trouble at once. We found Bella with her +cheek against the door into Jim's room, looking maudlin while he +shouted love messages to her from the other side. At first she +refused to stir, but after Anne and Max had tried and failed, the +rest of us went to her in a body and implored her. We said Aunt +Selina was in awful shape--which she was, as to temper--and that +she had thrown a mustard plaster at Anne, which was true. + +So Bella went, grumbling, and Jim was a maniac. We had not +thought it would be so bad for Bella, but Aunt Selina fell asleep +soon after she took charge, holding Bella's hand, and slept for +three hours and never let go! + +About two that afternoon the sun came out, and the rest of us +went to the roof. The sleet had melted and the air was fairly +warm. Two housemaids dusting rugs on the top of the next house +came over and stared at us, and somebody in an automobile down on +Riverside Drive stood up and waved at us. It was very cheerful +and hopelessly lonely. + +I stayed on the roof after the others had gone, and for some time +I thought I was alone. After a while, I got a whiff of smoke, and +then I saw Mr. Harbison far over in the corner, one foot on the +parapet, moodily smoking a pipe. He was gazing out over the +river, and paying no attention to me. This was natural, +considering that I had hardly spoken to him all day. + +I would not let him drive me away, so I sat still, and it grew +darker and colder. He filled his pipe now and then, but he never +looked in my direction. Finally, however, as it grew very dusk, +he knocked the ashes out and came toward me. + +"I am going to make a request, Miss McNair," he said evenly. +"Please keep off the roof after sunset. There are--reasons." I +had risen and was preparing to go downstairs. + +"Unless I know the reasons, I refuse to do anything of the kind," +I retorted. He bowed. + +"Then the door will be kept locked," he rejoined, and opened it +for me. He did not follow me, but stood watching until I was +down, and I heard him close the roof door firmly behind me. + + + +Chapter XXI. A BAR OF SOAP + +Late that evening Betty Mercer and Dallas were writing verses of +condolence to be signed by all of us and put under the door into +Jim's room when Bella came running down the stairs. + +Dal was reading the first verse when she came. "Listen to this, +Bella," he said triumphantly: + + "There was a fat artist named Jas, + Who cruelly called his friends nas. + When, altho' shut up tight, + He broke out over night + With a rash that is maddening, he clas." + +Then he caught sight of Bella's face as she stood in the doorway, +and stopped. + +"Jim is delirious!" she announced tragically. "You shut him in +there all alone and now he's delirious. I'll never forgive any of +you." + +"Delirious!" everybody exclaimed. + +"He was sane enough when I took him his chicken broth," Mr. +Harbison said. "He was almost fluent." + +"He is stark, staring crazy," Bella insisted hysterically. "I--I +locked the door carefully when I went down to my dinner, and when +I came up it--it was unlocked, and Jim was babbling on the bed, +with a sheet over his face. He--he says the house is haunted and +he wants all the men to come up and sit in the room with him." + +"Not on your life," Max said. "I am young, and my career has only +begun. I don't intend to be cut off in the flower of my youth. +But I'll tell you what I will do; I'll take him a drink. I can +tie it to a pole or something." + +But Mr. Harbison did not smile. He was thoughtful for a minute. +Then: + +"I don't believe he is delirious," he said quietly, "and I +wouldn't be surprised if he has happened on something that--will +be of general interest. I think I will stay with him tonight." + +After that, of course, none of the others would confess that he +was afraid, so with the South American leading, they all went +upstairs. The women of the party sat on the lower steps and +listened, but everything was quiet. Now and then we could hear +the sound of voices, and after a while there was a rapid slamming +of doors and the sound of some one running down to the second +floor. Then quiet again. + +None of us felt talkative. Bella had followed the men up and had +been put out, and sat sniffling by herself in the den. Aunt +Selina was working over a jig-saw puzzle in the library, and +declaring that some of it must be lost. Anne and Leila Mercer +were embroidering, and Betty and I sat idle, our hands in our +laps. The whole atmosphere of the house was mysterious. Anne told +over again of the strange noises the night her necklace was +stolen. Betty asked me about the time when the comfort slipped +from under my fingers. And when, in the midst of the story, the +telephone rang, we all jumped and shrieked. + +In an hour or so they sent for Flannigan, and he went upstairs. +He came down again soon, however, and returned with something +over his arm that looked like a rope. It seemed to be made of all +kinds of things tied together, trunk straps, clothesline, bed +sheets, and something that Flannigan pointed to with rage and +said he hadn't been able to keep his clothes on all day. He +refused to explain further, however, and trailed the nondescript +article up the stairs. We could only gaze after him and wonder +what it all meant. + +The conclave lasted far into the night. The feminine contingent +went to bed, but not to sleep. Some time after midnight, Mr. +Harbison and Max went downstairs and I could hear them rattling +around testing windows and burglar alarms. But finally every one +settled down and the rest of the night was quiet. + +Betty Mercer came into my room the next morning, Sunday, and said +Anne Brown wanted me. I went over at once, and Anne was sitting +up in bed, crying. Dal had slipped out of the room at daylight, +she said, and hadn't come back. He had thought she was asleep, +but she wasn't, and she knew he was dead, for nothing ever made +Dal get up on Sunday before noon. + +There was no one moving in the house, and I hardly knew what to +do. It was Betty who said she would go up and rouse Mr. Harbison +and Max, who had taken Jim's place in the studio. She started out +bravely enough, but in a minute we heard her flying back. Anne +grew perfectly white. + +"He's lying on the upper stairs!" Betty cried, and we all ran +out. It was quite true. Dal was lying on the stairs in a +bathrobe, with one of Jim's Indian war clubs in his hand. And he +was sound asleep. + +He looked somewhat embarrassed when he roused and saw us standing +around. He said he was going to play a practical joke on somebody +and fell asleep in the middle of it. And Anne said he wasn't even +an intelligent liar, and went back to bed in a temper. But Betty +came in with me, and we sat and looked at each other and didn't +say much. The situation was beyond us. + +The doctor let Jim out the next day, there having been nothing +the matter with him but a stomach rash. But Jim was changed; he +mooned around Bella, of course, as before, but he was abstracted +at times, and all that day--Sunday--he wandered off by himself, +and one would come across him unexpectedly in the basement or +along some of the unused back halls. + +Aunt Selina held service that morning. Jim said that he always +had a prayer book, but that he couldn't find anything with so +many people in the house. So Aunt Selina read some religious +poetry out of the newspapers, and gave us a valuable talk on +Deception versus Honesty, with me as the illustration. + +Almost everybody took a nap after luncheon. I stayed in the den +and read Ibsen, and felt very mournful. And after Hedda had shot +herself, I lay down on the divan and cried a little--over Hedda; +she was young and it was such a tragic ending--and then I fell +asleep. + +When I wakened Mr. Harbison was standing by the table, and he +held my book in his hands. In view of the armed neutrality +between us, I expected to see him bow to me curtly, turn on his +heel and leave the room. Indeed, considering his state of mind +the night before, I should hardly have been surprised if he had +thrown Hedda at my head. (This is not a pun. I detest them.) But +instead, when he heard me move he glanced over at me and even +smiled a little. + +"She wasn't worth it," he said, indicating the book. + +"Worth what?" + +"Your tears. You were crying over it, weren't you?" + +"She was very unhappy," I asserted indifferently. "She was +married and she loved some one else." + +"Do you really think she did?" he asked. "And even so, was that a +reason?" + +"The other man cared for her; he may not have been able to help +it." + +"But he knew that she was married," he said virtuously, and then +he caught my eye and he saw the analogy instantly, for he colored +hotly and put down the book. + +"Most men argue that way," I said. "They argue by the book, +and--they do as they like." + +He picked up a Japanese ivory paper weight from the table, and +stood balancing it across his finger. + +"You are perfectly right," he said at last. "I deserve it all. My +grievance is at myself. Your--your beauty, and the fact that I +thought you were unhappy, put me--beside myself. It is not an +excuse; it is a weak explanation. I will not forget myself +again." + +He was as abject as any one could have wished. It was my minute +of triumph, but I can not pretend that I was happy. Evidently it +had been only a passing impulse. If he had really cared, now that +he knew I was free, he would have forgotten himself again at +once. Then a new explanation occurred to me. Suppose it had been +Bella all the time, and the real shock had been to find that she +had been married! + +"The fault of the situation was really mine," I said +magnanimously; "I quite blame myself. Only, you must believe one +thing. You never furnished us any amusement." I looked at him +sidewise. "The discovery that Bella and Jim were once married +must have been a great shock." + +"It was a surprise," he replied evenly. His voice and his eyes +were inscrutable. He returned my glance steadily. It was +infuriating to have gone half-way to meet him, as I had, and then +to find him intrenched in his self-sufficiency again. I got up. + +"It is unfortunate that our acquaintance has begun so +unfavorably," I remarked, preparing to pass him. "Under other +circumstances we might have been friends." + +"There is only one solace," he said. "When we do not have +friends, we can not lose them." + +He opened the door to let me pass out, and as our eyes met, all +the coldness died out of his. He held out his hand, but I was +hurt. I refused to see it. + +"Kit!" he said unsteadily. "I--I'm an obstinate, pig-headed +brute. I am sorry. Can't we be friends, after all?" + +"'When we do not have friends we can not lose them,'" I replied +with cool malice. And the next instant the door closed behind me. + +It was that night that the really serious event of the quarantine +occurred. + +We were gathered in the library, and everybody was deadly dull. +Aunt Selina said she had been reared to a strict observance of +the Sabbath, and she refused to go to bed early. The cards and +card tables were put away and every one sat around and quarreled +and was generally nasty, except Bella and Jim, who had gone into +the den just after dinner and firmly closed the door. + +I think it was just after Max proposed to me. Yes, he proposed to +me again that night. He said that Jim's illness had decided him; +that any of us might take sick and die, shut in that contaminated +atmosphere, and that if he did he wanted it all settled. And +whether I took him or not he wanted me to remember him kindly if +anything happened. I really hated to refuse him--he was in such +deadly earnest. But it was quite unnecessary for him to have +blamed his refusal, as he did, on Mr. Harbison. I am sure I had +refused him plenty of times before I had ever heard of the man. +Yes, it was just after he proposed to me that Flannigan came to +the door and called Mr. Harbison out into the hall. + +Flannigan--like most of the people in the house--always went to +Mr. Harbison when there was anything to be done. He openly adored +him, and--what was more--he did what Mr. Harbison ordered without +a word, while the rest of us had to get down on our knees and +beg. + +Mr. Harbison went out, muttering something about a storm coming +up, and seeing that the tent was secure. Betty Mercer went with +him. She had been at his heels all evening, and called him "Tom" +on every possible occasion. Indeed, she made no secret of it; she +said that she was mad about him, and that she would love to live +in South America, and have an Indian squaw for a lady's maid, and +sit out on the veranda in the evenings and watch the Southern +Cross shooting across the sky, and eat tropical food from the +quaint Indian pottery. She was not even daunted when Dal told her +the Southern Cross did not shoot, and that the food was probably +canned corn on tin dishes. + +So Betty went with him. She wore a pale yellow dinner gown, with +just a sophisticated touch of black here and there, and cut +modestly square in the neck. Her shoulders are scrawny. And after +they were gone--not her shoulders; Mr. Harbison and she--Aunt +Selina announced that the next day was Monday, that she had only +a week's supply of clothing with her, and that no policeman who +ever swung a mace should wash her undergarments for her. + +She paused a moment, but nobody offered to do it. Anne was +reading De Maupassant under cover of a table, and the rest +pretended not to hear. After a pause, Aunt Selina got up heavily +and went upstairs, coming down soon after with a bundle covered +with a green shawl, and with a white balbriggan stocking trailing +from an opening in it. She paused at the library door, surveyed +the inmates, caught my unlucky eye and beckoned to me with a +relentless forefinger. + +"We can put them to soak tonight," she confided to me, "and +tomorrow they will be quite simple to do. There is no lace to +speak of"--Dal raised his eyebrows--"and very little flouncing." + +Aunt Selina and I went to the laundry. It never occurred to any +one that Bella should have gone; she had stepped into all my +privileges--such as they were--and assumed none of my +obligations. Aunt Selina and I went to the laundry. + +It is strange what big things develop from little ones. In this +case it was a bar of soap. And if Flannigan had used as much soap +as he should have instead of washing up the kitchen floor with +cold dish water, it would have developed sooner. The two most +unexpected events of the whole quarantine occurred that night at +the same time, one on the roof and one in the cellar. The cellar +one, although curious, was not so serious as the other, so it +comes first. + +Aunt Selina put her clothes in a tub in the laundry and proceeded +to dress them like a vegetable. She threw in a handful of salt, +some kerosene oil and a little ammonia. The result was +villainous, but after she tasted it--or snuffed it--she said it +needed a bar of soap cut up to give it strength--or flavor--and I +went into the store room for it. + +The laundry soap was in a box. I took in a silver fork, for I +hated to touch the stuff, and jabbed a bar successfully in the +semi-darkness. Then I carried it back to the laundry and dropped +it on the table. Aunt Selina looked at the fork with disgust; +then we both looked at the soap. ONE SIDE OF IT WAS COVERED WITH +ROUND HOLES THAT CURVED AROUND ON EACH OTHER LIKE A COILED SNAKE. + +I ran back to the store room, and there, a little bit sticky and +smelling terribly of rosin, lay Anne's pearl necklace! + +I was so excited that I seized Aunt Selina by the hands and +danced her all over the place. Then I left her, trying to find +her hair pins on the floor, and ran up to tell the others. I met +Betty in the hall and waved the pearls at her. But she did not +notice them. + +"Is Mr. Harbison down there?" she asked breathlessly. "I left him +on the roof and went down to my room for my scarf, and when I +went back he had disappeared. He--he doesn't seem to be in the +house." She tried to laugh, but her voice was shaky. "He couldn't +have got down without passing me, anyhow," she supplemented. "I +suppose I'm silly, but so many queer things have happened, Kit." + +"I wouldn't worry, Betty," I soothed her. "He is big enough to +take care of himself. And with the best intentions in the world, +you can't have him all the time, you know." + +She was too much startled to be indignant. She followed me into +the library, where the sight of the pearls produced a tremendous +excitement, and then every one had to go down to the store room, +and see where the necklace had been hidden, and Max examined all +the bars of soap for thumb prints. + +Mr. Harbison did not appear. Max commented on the fact +caustically, but Dal hushed him up. And so, Anne hugging her +pearls, and Aunt Selina having put a final seasoning of washing +powder on the clothes in the tub, we all went upstairs to bed. It +had been a long day, and the morning would at least bring bridge. + +I was almost ready for bed when Jim tapped at my door. I had been +very cool to him since the night in the library when I was +publicly staked and martyred, and he was almost cringing when I +opened the door. + +"What is it now?" I asked cruelly. "Has Bella tired of it +already, or has somebody else a rash?" + +"Don't be a shrew, Kit," he said. "I don't want you to do +anything. I only--when did you see Harbison last?" + +"If you mean 'last,'" I retorted, "I'm afraid I haven't seen the +last of him yet." Then I saw that he was really worried. "Betty +was leading him to the roof," I added. "Why? Is he missing?" + +"He isn't anywhere in the house. Dal and I have been over every +inch of it." Max had come up, in a dressing gown, and was +watching me insolently. + +"I think we have seen the last of him," he said. "I'm sorry, Kit, +to nip the little romance in the bud. The fellow was crazy about +you--there's no doubt of it. But I've been watching him from the +beginning, and I think I'm upheld. Whether he went down the water +spout, or across a board to the next house--" + +"I--I dislike him intensely," I said angrily, "but you would not +dare to say that to his face. He could strangle you with one +hand." + +Max laughed disagreeably. + +"Well, I only hope he is gone," he threw at me over his shoulder, +"I wouldn't want to be responsible to your father if he had +stayed." I was speechless with wrath. + +They went away then, and I could hear them going over the house. +At one o'clock Jim went up to bed, the last, and Mr. Harbison had +not been found. I did not see how they could go to bed at all. If +he had escaped, then Max was right and the whole thing was +heart-breaking. And if he had not, then he might be lying-- + +I got up and dressed. + +The early part of the night had been cloudy, but when I got to +the roof it was clear starlight. The wind blew through the +electric wires strung across and set them singing. The occasional +bleat of a belated automobile on the drive below came up to me +raucously. The tent gleamed, a starlit ghost of itself, and the +boxwoods bent in the breeze. I went over to the parapet and +leaned my elbows on it. I had done the same thing so often +before; I had carried all my times of stress so infallibly to +that particular place, that instinctively my feet turned there. + +And there in the starlight, I went over the whole serio-comedy, +and I loathed my part in it. He had been perfectly right to be +angry with me and with all of us. And I had been a hypocrite and +a Pharisee, and had thanked God that I was not as other people, +when the fact was that I was worse than the worst. And although +it wasn't dignified to think of him going down the drain pipe, +still--no one could blame him for wanting to get away from us, +and he was quite muscular enough to do it. + +I was in the depths of self-abasement when I heard a sound behind +me. It was a long breath, quite audible, that ended in a groan. I +gripped the parapet and listened, while my heart pounded, and in +a minute it came again. + +I was terribly frightened. Then--I don't know how I did it, but I +was across the roof, kneeling beside the tent, where it stood +against the chimney. And there, lying prone among the flower +pots, and almost entirely hidden, lay the man we had been looking +for. + +His head was toward me, and I reached out shakingly and touched +his face. It was cold, and my hand, when I drew it back, was +covered with blood. + + + +Chapter XXII. IT WAS DELIRIUM + +I was sure he was dead. He did not move, and when I caught his +hands and called him frantically, he did not hear me. And so, +with the horror over me, I half fell down the stairs and roused +Jim in the studio. + +They all came with lights and blankets, and they carried him into +the tent and put him on the couch and tried to put whisky in his +mouth. But he could not swallow. And the silence became more and +more ominous until finally Anne got hysterical and cried, "He is +dead! Dead!" and collapsed on the roof. + +But he was not. Just as the lights in the tent began to have red +rings around them and Jim's voice came from away across the +river, somebody said, "There, he swallowed that," and soon after, +he opened his eyes. He muttered something that sounded like +"Andean pinnacle" and lapsed into unconsciousness again. But he +was not dead! He was not dead! + +When the doctor came they made a stretcher out of one of Jim's +six-foot canvases--it had a picture on it, and Jim was angry +enough the next day--and took him down to the studio. We made it +as much like a sick-room as we could, and we tried to make him +comfortable. But he lay without opening his eyes, and at dawn the +doctor brought a consultant and a trained nurse. + +The nurse was an offensively capable person. She put us all out, +and scolded Anne for lighting Japanese incense in the +room--although Anne explained that it is very reviving. And she +said that it was unnecessary to have a dozen people breathing up +all the oxygen and asphyxiating the patient. She was +good-looking, too. I disliked her at once. Any one could see by +the way she took his pulse--just letting his poor hand hang, +without any support--that she was a purely mechanical creature, +without heart. + +Well, as I said before, she put us all out, and shut the door, +and asked us not to whisper outside. Then, too, she refused to +allow any flowers in the room, although Betty had got a florist +out of bed to order some. + +The consultant came, stayed an hour, and left. Aunt Selina, who +proved herself a trump in that trying time, waylaid him in the +hall, and he said it might be a fractured skull, although it was +possibly only concussion. + +The men spent most of the morning together in the den, with the +door shut. Now and then one of them would tiptoe upstairs, ask +the nurse how her patient was doing, and creak down again. Just +before noon they all went to the roof and examined again the +place where he had been found. I know, for I was in the upper +hall outside the studio. I stayed there almost all day, and after +a while the nurse let me bring her things as she needed them. I +don't know why mother didn't let me study nursing--I always +wanted to do it. And I felt helpless and childish now, when there +were things to be done. + +Max came down from the roof alone, and I cornered him in the +upper hall. + +"I'm going crazy, Max," I said. "Nobody will tell me anything, +and I can't stand it. How was he hurt? Who hurt him?" + +Max looked at me quite a long time. + +"I'm darned if I understand you, Kit," he said gravely. "You said +you disliked Harbison." + +"So I do--I did," I supplemented. "But whether I like him or not +has nothing to do with it. He has been injured--perhaps +murdered"--I choked a little. "Which--which of you did it?" + +Max took my hand and held it, looking down at me. + +"I wish you could have cared for me like that," he said gently. +"Dear little girl, we don't know who hurt him. I didn't, if +that's what you mean. Perhaps a flower pot--" + +I began to cry then, and he drew me to him and let me cry on his +arm. He stood very quietly, patting my head in a brotherly way +and behaving very well, save that once he said: + +"Don't cry too long, Kit; I can stand only a certain amount." + +And just then the nurse opened the door to the studio, and with +Max's arm still around me, I raised my head and looked in. + +Mr. Harbison was conscious. His eyes were open, and he was +staring at us both as we stood framed by the doorway. + +He lay back at once and closed his eyes, and the nurse shut the +door. There was no use, even if I had been allowed in, in trying +to explain to him. To attempt such a thing would have been to +presume that he was interested in an explanation. I thought +bitterly to myself as I brought the nurse cracked ice and +struggled to make beef tea in the kitchen, that lives had been +wrecked on less. + +Dal was allowed ten minutes in the sick room during the +afternoon, and he came out looking puzzled and excited. He +refused to tell us what he had learned, however, and the rest of +the afternoon he and Jim spent in the cellar. + +The day dragged on. Downstairs people ate and read and wrote +letters, and outside newspaper men talked together and gazed over +at the house and photographed the doctors coming in and the +doctors going out. As for me, in the intervals of bringing +things, I sat in Bella's chair in the upper hall, and listened to +the crackle of the nurse's starched skirts. + +At midnight that night the doctors made a thorough examination. +When they came out they were smiling. + +"He is doing very well," the younger one said--he was hairy and +dark, but he was beautiful to me. "He is entirely conscious now, +and in about an hour you can send the nurse off for a little +sleep. Don't let him talk." + +And so at last I went through the familiar door into an +unfamiliar room, with basins and towels and bottles around, and a +screen made of Jim's largest canvases. And someone on the +improvised bed turned and looked at me. He did not speak, and I +sat down beside him. After a while he put his hand over mine as +it lay on the bed. + +"You are much better to me than I deserve," he said softly. And +because his eyes were disconcerting, I put an ice cloth over +them. + +"Much better than you deserve," I said, and patted the ice cloth +to place gently. He fumbled around until he found my hand again, +and we were quiet for a long time. I think he dozed, for he +roused suddenly and pulled the cloth from his eyes. + +"The--the day is all confused," he said, turning to look at me, +"but--one thing seems to stand out from everything else. Perhaps +it was delirium, but I seemed to see that door over there open, +and you, outside, with--with Max. His arms were around you." + +"It was delirium," I said softly. It was my final lie in that +house of mendacity. + +He drew a satisfied breath, and lifting my hand, held it to his +lips and kissed it. + +"I can hardly believe it is you," he said. "I have to hold firmly +to your hand or you will disappear. Can't you move your chair +closer? You are miles away." So I did it, for he was not to be +excited. + +After a little-- + +"It's awfully good of you to do this. I have been desperately +sorry, Kit, about the other night. It was a ruffianly thing to +do--to kiss you, when I thought--" + +"You are to keep very still," I reminded him. He kissed my hand +again, but he persisted. + +"I was mad--crazy." I tried to give him some medicine, but he +pushed the spoon aside. "You will have to listen," he said. "I am +in the depths of self-disgust. I--I can't think of anything else. +You see, you seemed so convinced that I was the blackguard that +somehow nothing seemed to matter." + +"I have forgotten it all," I declared generously, "and I would be +quite willing to be friends, only, you remember you said--" + +"Friends!" his voice was suddenly reckless, and he raised on his +elbow. "Friends! Who wants to be friends? Kit, I was almost +delirious that night. The instant I held you in my arms--It was +all over. I loved you the first time I saw you. I--I suppose I'm +a fool to talk like this." + +And, of course, just then Dallas had to open the door and step +into the room. He was covered with dirt and he had a hatchet in +his hand. + +"A rope!" he demanded, without paying any attention to us and +diving into corners of the room. "Good heavens, isn't there a +rope in this confounded house!" + +He turned and rushed out, without any explanation, and left us +staring at the door. + +"Bother the rope!" I found myself forced to look into two earnest +eyes. "Kit, were you VERY angry when I kissed you that night on +the roof?" + +"Very," I maintained stoutly. + +"Then prepare yourself for another attack of rage!" he said. And +Betty opened the door. + +She had on a fetching pale blue dressing gown, and one braid of +her yellow hair was pulled carelessly over her shoulder. When she +saw me on my knees beside the bed (oh, yes, I forgot to say that, +quite unconsciously, I had slid into that position) she stopped +short, just inside the door, and put her hand to her throat. She +stood for quite a perceptible time looking at us, and I tried to +rise. But Tom shamelessly put his arm around my shoulders and +held me beside him. Then Betty took a step back and steadied +herself by the door frame. She had really cared, I knew then, but +I was too excited to be sorry for her. + +"I--I beg your pardon for coming in," she said nervously. +"But--they want you downstairs, Kit. At least, I thought you +would want to go, but--perhaps--" + +Just then from the lower part of the house came a pandemonium of +noises; women screaming, men shouting, and the sound of hatchet +strokes and splintering wood. I seized Betty by the arm, and +together we rushed down the stairs. + + + +Chapter XXIII. COMING + +The second floor was empty. A table lay overturned at the top of +the stairs, and a broken flower vase was weltering in its own +ooze. Part way down Betty stepped on something sharp, that proved +to be the Japanese paper knife from the den. I left her on the +stairs examining her foot and hurried to the lower floor. + +Here everything was in the utmost confusion. Aunt Selina had +fainted, and was sitting in a hall chair with her head rolled +over sidewise and the poker from the library fireplace across her +knees. No one was paying any attention to her. And Jim was +holding the front door open, while three of the guards hesitated +in the vestibule. The noises continued from the back of the +house, and as I stood on the lowest stair Bella came out from the +dining room, with her face streaked with soot, and carrying a +kettle of hot water. + +"Jim," she called wildly. "While Max and Dal are below, you can +pour this down from the top. It's boiling." + +Jim glanced back over his shoulder. "Carry out your own murderous +designs," he said. And then, as she started back with it, "Bella, +for Heaven's sake," he called, "have you gone stark mad? Put that +kettle down." + +She did it sulkily and Jim turned to the policeman. + +"Yes, I know it was a false alarm before," he explained +patiently, "but this is genuine. It is just as I tell you. Yes, +Flannigan is in the house somewhere, but he's hiding, I guess. We +could manage the thing very well ourselves, but we have no +cartridges for our revolvers." Then as the noise from the rear +redoubled, "If you don't come in and help, I will telephone for +the fire department," he concluded emphatically. + +I ran to Aunt Selina and tried to straighten her head. In a +moment she opened her eyes, sat up and stared around her. She saw +the kettle at once. + +"What are you doing with boiling water on the floor?" she said to +me, with her returning voice. "Don't you know you will spoil the +floor?" The ruling passion was strong with Aunt Selina, as usual. + +I could not find out the trouble from any one; people appeared +and disappeared, carrying strange articles. Anne with a rope, Dal +with his hatchet, Bella and the kettle, but I could get a +coherent explanation from no one. When the guards finally decided +that Jim was in earnest, and that the rest of us were not +crawling out a rear window while he held them at the door, they +came in, three of them and two reporters, and Jim led them to the +butler's pantry. + +Here we found Anne, very white and shaky, with the pantry table +and two chairs piled against the door of the kitchen slide, and +clutching the chamois-skin bag that held her jewels. She had a +bottle of burgundy open beside her, and was pouring herself a +glass with shaking hands when we appeared. She was furious at +Jim. + +"I very nearly fainted," she said hysterically. "I might have +been murdered, and no one would have cared. I wish they would +stop that chopping, I'm so nervous I could scream." + +Jim took the Burgundy from her with one hand and pointed the +police to the barricaded door with the other. + +"That is the door to the dumb-waiter shaft," he said. "The lower +one is fastened on the inside, in some manner. The noises +commenced about eleven o'clock, while Mr. Brown was on guard. +There were scraping sounds first, and later the sound of a +falling body. He roused Mr. Reed and myself, but when we examined +the shaft everything was quiet, and dark. We tried lowering a +candle on a string, but--it was extinguished from below." + +The reporters were busily removing the table and chairs from the +door. + +"If you have a rope handy," one of them said, "I will go down the +shaft." + +(Dal says that all reporters should have been policemen, and that +all policemen are natural newsgatherers.) + +"The cage appears to be stuck, half-way between the floors," Jim +said. "They are cutting through the door in the kitchen below." + +They opened the door then and cautiously peered down, but there +was nothing to be seen. I touched Jim gingerly on the arm. + +"Is it--is it Flannigan," I asked, "shut in there?" + +"No--yes--I don't know," he returned absently. "Run along and +don't bother, Kit. He may take to shooting any minute." + +Anne and I went out then and shut the door, and went into the +dining room and sat on our feet, for of course the bullets might +come up through the floor. Aunt Selina joined us there, and +Bella, and the Mercer girls, and we sat around and talked in +whispers, and Leila Mercer told of the time her grandfather had +had a struggle with an escaped lunatic. + +In the midst of the excitement Tom appeared in a bathrobe, +looking very pale, with a bandage around his head, and the nurse +at his heels threatening to leave and carrying a bottle of +medicine and a spoon. He went immediately to the pantry, and soon +we could hear him giving orders and the rest hurrying around to +obey them. The hammering ceased, and the silence was even worse. +It was more suggestive. + +In about fifteen minutes there was a thud, as if the cage had +fallen, and the sound of feet rushing down the cellar stairs. +Then there were groans and loud oaths, and everybody talking at +once, below, and the sound of a struggle. In the dining room we +all sat bent forward, with straining ears and quickened breath, +until we distinctly heard someone laugh. Then we knew that, +whatever it was, it was over, and nobody was killed. + +The sounds came closer, were coming up the stairs and into the +pantry. Then the door swung open, and Tom and a policeman +appeared in the doorway, with the others crowding behind. Between +them they supported a grimy, unshaven object, covered with +whitewash from the wall of the shaft, an object that had its +hands fastened together with handcuffs, and that leered at us +with a pair of the most villainously crossed eyes I have ever +seen. + +None of us had ever seen him before, + +"Mr. Lawrence McGuirk, better known as Tubby,'" Tom said +cheerfully. "A celebrity in his particular line, which is +second-story man and all-round rascal. A victim of the +quarantine, like ourselves." + +"We've missed him for a week," one of the guards said with a +grin. "We've been real anxious about you, Tubby. Ain't a week +goes by, when you're in health, that we don't hear something of +you." + +Mr. McGuirk muttered something under his breath, and the men +chuckled. + +"It seems," Tom said, interpreting, "that he doesn't like us +much. He doesn't like the food, and he doesn't like the beds. He +says just when he got a good place fixed up in the coal cellar, +Flannigan found it, and is asleep there now, this minute." + +Aunt Selina rose suddenly and cleared her throat. + +"Am I to understand," she asked severely, "that from now on we +will have to add two newspaper reporters, three policemen and a +burglar to the occupants of this quarantined house? Because, if +that is the case, I absolutely refuse to feed them." + +But one of the reporters stepped forward and bowed ceremoniously. + +"Madam," he said, "I thank you for your kind invitation, but--it +will be impossible for us to accept. I had intended to break the +good news earlier, but this little game of burglar-in-a-corner +prevented me. The fact is, your Jap has been discovered to have +nothing more serious than chicken-pox, and--if you will forgive a +poultry yard joke, there is no longer any necessity for your +being cooped up." + +Then he retired, quite pleased with himself. + +One would have thought we had exhausted our capacity for emotion, +but Jim said a joyful emotion was so new that we hardly knew how +to receive it. Every one shook hands with every one else, and +even the nurse shared in the excitement and gave Jim the medicine +she had prepared for Tom. + +Then we all sat down and had some champagne, and while they were +waiting for the police wagon, they gave some to poor McGuirk. He +was still quite shaken from his experience when the dumb-waiter +stuck. The wine cheered him a little, and he told his story, in a +voice that was creaky from disuse, while Tom held my hand under +the table. + +He had had a dreadful week, he said; he spent his days in a +closet in one of the maids' rooms--the one where we had put Jim. +It was Jim waking out of a nap and declaring that the closet door +had moved by itself and that something had crawled under his bed +and out of the door, that had roused the suspicions of the men in +the house--and he slept at night on the coal in the cellar. He +was actually tearful when he rubbed his hand over his scrubby +chin, and said he hadn't had a shave for a week. He took +somebody's razor, he said, but he couldn't get hold of a portable +mirror, and every time he lathered up and stood in front of the +glass in the dining room sideboard, some one came and he had had +to run and hide. He told, too, of his attempts to escape, of the +board on the roof, of the home-made rope, and the hole in the +cellar, and he spoke feelingly of the pearl collar and the +struggle he had made to hide it. He said that for three days it +was concealed in the pocket of Jim's old smoking coat in the +studio. + +We were all rather sorry for him, but if we had made him +uncomfortable, think of what he had done to us. And for him to +tell, as he did later in court, that if that was high society he +would rather be a burglar, and that we starved him, and that the +women had to dress each other because they had no lady's maids, +and that the whole lot of us were in love with one man, it was +downright malicious. + +The wagon came for him just as he finished his story, and we all +went to the door. In the vestibule Aunt Selina suddenly +remembered something, and she stepped forward and caught the poor +fellow by the arm. + +"Young man," she said grimly. "I'll thank you to return what you +took from ME last Tuesday night." + +McGuirk stared, then shuddered and turned suddenly pale. + +"Good Lord!" he ejaculated. "On the stairs to the roof! YOU?" + +They led him away then, quite broken, with Aunt Selina staring +after him. She never did understand. I could have explained, but +it was too awful. + +On the steps McGuirk turned and took a farewell glance at us. +Then he waved his hand to the policemen and reporters who had +gathered around. + +"Goodby, fellows," he called feebly. "I ain't sorry, I ain't. +Jail'll be a paradise after this." + +And then we went to pack our trunks. + +NOTE FROM MAX WHICH CAME THE NEXT DAY +WITH ITS ENCLOSURE. + +My Dear Kit--The enclosed trunk tag was used on my trunk, +evidently by mistake. Higgins discovered it when he was unpacking +and returned it to me under the misapprehension that I had +written it. I wish I had. I suppose there must be something +attractive about a fellow who has the courage to write a love +letter on the back of a trunk tag, and who doesn't give a +tinker's damn who finds it. But for my peace of mind, ask him not +to leave another one around where I will come across it. Max. + +WRITTEN ON THE BACK OF THE TRUNK TAG. + +Don't you know that I won't see you until tomorrow? For Heaven's +sake, get away from this crowd and come into the den. If you +don't I will kiss you before everybody. Are you coming? T. + +WRITTEN BELOW. + +No indeed. K. + +THIS WAS SCRATCHED OUT AND BENEATH. + +Coming. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext of When a Man Marries, by Mary Rinehart + diff --git a/old/whamm10.zip b/old/whamm10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..00da4d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/whamm10.zip |