Mrs. Bryce wore the white lace gown, and had her tea. Wally commandeered
all the servants except the cook and the butler to help in the search
for Isabelle. He and the chauffeur and Ann conducted scouting parties in
all directions.
"Where's Wally, Max?" inquired Mrs. Page.
"He's dashing around somewhere looking for Isabelle. She's lost."
"Lost? But where is the jewel who looks after her? Wally told me yards
about her."
"I sent her on an errand, and Isabelle got away. She can't have gone
far."
"Do you share Wally's enthusiasm over the new governess?"
"I do not," replied Mrs. Bryce, adding, "Wally has become a passionate
parent."
"Whatever started him?"
"_I_ did, worse luck! You know how all the useless men in the world dote
on telling a woman about her duties? Now Wally's only job is to invest
money in the wrong things, but he is full of ideas about being a
mother."
There was general mirth at this point, on the part of the guests.
"I was so moved by his remarks that I dumped my cares upon him for the
summer. He is outrageously superior about himself as parent. _He_ has
found the perfect governess, _he_ discovers that our offspring has a
brain; you should hear him go on."
"I have," protested Mrs. Page. "He used to make love to me, but now he
tells me his domestic problems."
"He has the entire house upset now, because she has run off, but when he
finds her, he won't have backbone enough to spank her," laughed Mrs.
Wally.
"It always amuses me how parents agonize over the lost child, and spank
it when it's found," said Martin Christiansen, the guest of honour at
the tea.
"Not being a parent you don't realize that there is a large, well-defined
body of parentisms. We all say the same things, do the same things to
children, instinctively and without thought," Mrs. Page assured him.
"Puts you at such a disadvantage with your child, for the youngster
thinks freshly, doesn't it, Mrs. Bryce?"
"I know mine thinks freshly--she's a brat! I keep out of her way,
myself," remarked his hostess.
Presently dusk fell and still no signs of the child. Wally came back to
telephone the police stations of the towns near them. He barely glanced
at the laughing group on his terrace, but Mrs. Page spied him, and came
to call out:
"Found her yet, Wally?"
"No."
"Better come have your tea, Wally," Mrs. Bryce suggested.
"Damn," said Wally, under his breath, as he hurried into the house
without any reply.
"Had we not better go? Aren't you anxious, Mrs. Bryce?" inquired
Christiansen.
"Oh, no; she'll turn up."
"Nothing will happen to her, she's too smart," commented Mrs. Page.
They took their departure shortly. Mrs. Bryce ordered the cook to hold
back dinner. Then she let her vexation grow. It was outrageous that this
little pest should upset things so completely. She had been especially
anxious to impress this Mr. Christiansen, whom she had recently met. He
was a distinguished _litterateur_ and critic, as well as a stunning
giant of a man. The white lace gown had been entirely for his benefit.
And yet because of Isabelle he had been critical of her. Man-like he had
convictions about woman's job. He probably thought she should have been
running around the country, in hysterics, looking for her chee-ild.
At nine o'clock she heard the motor come to the door. She went into
the hall. Ann got out first and helped Wally. He was carrying the
heroine--asleep, in the utter relaxation of tired babyhood. She was
dirty, and her best hat dangled from its elastic, crushed and dusty.
"Well," remarked Mrs. Bryce, "where was she?"
"I'll take her up to the bedroom, Miss Barnes," Wally said, and he
started off.
"Really, Wally, Miss Barnes can certainly manage to get her to bed,"
protested Mrs. Bryce.
"She's rather heavy. I'll just----"
"Put her down and let her walk then. I've waited for my dinner as long
as I intend to."
Wally went on upstairs with his burden, and as Ann passed Mrs. Bryce
her scorn and hatred of that lace-clad lady was as obvious as a spoken
word. Mrs. Bryce went to the table and ordered her dinner. When Wally
joined her he looked "all in."
"I suppose you don't care whether she gets killed or not."
"Well, but she didn't get killed, so I don't have to excite myself, do
I?"
"You might show a little decent feeling before Miss Barnes."
"I don't have to please Miss Barnes--or any of my servants, if it comes
to that."
"You're a brute, Max!"
"If you're going to be tiresome, I'll finish my dinner upstairs," she
replied. "Heaven knows, if I'd had any idea you would be such a bore
about her, I'd never have turned her over to you."
"Do you know why she ran away? She went to find some 'regular parents'--so
she said."
"We don't suit then?" Mrs. Bryce laughed crisply.
"The poor little devil walked and walked, and when she was too tired to
go any farther she asked a milk wagon driver to give her a lift, so she
got away over to Rockville."
"Where did she get this idea about parents?"
"Miss Barnes explained to me on the way home, that she and Isabelle have
a game called 'Playing Jinny.' Jinny is Miss Barnes's little sister and
Isabelle pretends that she lives in the Barnes family."
"So, it is your paragon who has set her against her own parents."
"No, she didn't mean to do that. She says she had no idea that the child
would take it seriously and start off to find the Barnes home."
"Do you think it desirable to have your child in the sole charge of a
woman who poisons her mind against you and me?"
"But she doesn't do that, Max. Isabelle adores her. It was just a game,
I tell you."
"So _she_ says."
On the way to the library, after dinner, they came upon Ann in the hall.
"May I speak to you, Miss Barnes?" Max inquired coolly.
"Certainly," the girl replied, and followed them into the room beyond.
"Just what is it that you have been telling Isabelle, which sets her off
on this ridiculous jaunt?" demanded Mrs. Bryce, insolently.
"I told her about my home, and my little sister, who is her age. She
started off to find her," answered Ann, simply.
"Do you think it is a part of your duty to set her against her parents?"
"I have never discussed her parents with her."
"I'm sure Miss Barnes isn't to blame, Max," put in Wally.
"I think she is." Mrs. Bryce cut him off. "You may take the noon train
to town to-morrow, Miss Barnes."
"Oh, I say, Max!" protested Wally.
"It's all right, Mr. Bryce," Ann said. "I hate to leave Isabelle, but
what can I do to help her? She's just doomed!"
"Doomed to live with us, Wally," laughed Mrs. Bryce.
"Yes, doomed to live with you," the girl replied. "To get along without
help, or love. To see her mother occasionally--a strange woman in the
house. What right have you and your crowd to have children?" she
demanded, hotly.
"Such impudence!" burst out Mrs. Bryce.
"I've never known any one like you before, and you fill me with horror!"
Ann retorted.
"This may amuse you, Wally, but it doesn't me," remarked Mrs. Bryce,
walking out of the room.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Bryce; I didn't mean to say all that. I am so tired and
excited from hunting Isabelle, and it seemed so terrible to me that she
didn't care about her own baby being lost, that I just burst out."
"I know how overstrained you are, but of course, under the circumstances
you will see----" he answered miserably.
"Oh, I couldn't stay in the house another minute."
"Mrs. Bryce is very self-contained, she's not excitable as you and I
are," he tried to explain.
"I hate to leave Isabelle. Oh, Mr. Bryce, try to look after her a
little, try to love her a little, she does need it so!"
The next day as she stepped to the platform of the train the chauffeur
handed her a letter from Wally. There was an enclosure of two hundred
dollars, which he begged she would accept as a present from Isabelle.
He thanked her and regretted the necessity of her going.
So Ann passed out of Isabelle's life, mourned and lamented for months by
the child. She represented the only tenderness, the only understanding
and sympathy that came into Isabelle's childhood. The little belated
tendrils of affection she had put forth toward her world, under Ann's
warm influence, shrivelled and died. Her wits against them all, that was
the motto she decided upon, in the bitter wisdom of her four brief
years.