Captain Lancaster got leave and went off in triumph with Lieutenant De
Vere to the United States. When he had put the ocean between himself
and his match-making relative, he breathed more freely.
"I can count on one year more of single blessedness now, I hope," he
said. "I do not suppose my aunt will try to have me married off by a
cablegram or a telephone while I am absent."
De Vere laughed at his friend's self-congratulations.
"I never saw any one so unwilling to accept a fortune before," he said.
"It is not the fortune I object to--it is the incumbrance I must take
with it," replied Captain Lancaster.
"Should a wife be regarded as an incumbrance?" inquired the other, with
a smile.
"That would depend upon whether she were one's own choice or somebody
else's. I can not imagine old Lady Lancaster selecting an ideal wife
for me."
"All the same you will accept the one she provides for you. It would
be madness indeed to refuse," said his friend.
"Well, well, we will not discuss it. May the evil day be yet far off,"
responded Lancaster, fervently.
Woe unto him if her ladyship, far away under English skies, could have
heard his regrets, or have known that he had taken his trip solely to
stave off the evil day of his marriage, as he so considered it. She was
vexed over it. While she deemed it an accident, she would have been
furiously angry could she have known it to have been design. At home
she was eating her heart out with impatience and vexation, and eagerly
counting the weeks and months as they rolled away, thinking that each
one brought her nearer to his return and to the accomplishment of her
cherished scheme.
The months glided by, and at length the winter was past and spring was
at hand. It was April--that tender, timid month, with its violets and
daisies. Lady Lancaster's heart beat more lightly. She had had a recent
letter from the traveler. He wrote that he would be at home by the
first of June. She began to lay her plans accordingly. She would have a
merry party at the Park to welcome him home, and he should make up his
mind then. There was no time for delay.
She sent for the housekeeper to come to her immediately. She wanted to
make all her arrangements at once, and she could do nothing without
consulting Mrs. West, the model housekeeper who had ruled at Lancaster
Park for sixteen years. My lady grew impatient while she sat in her
great velvet arm-chair and waited for the woman's coming. Her small
black eyes snapped crossly, she wriggled her lean, bent body in its
stiff brocade, and the bony little hands, with the great jeweled rings
hanging loosely upon them, grasped the jeweled serpent-head that topped
her walking-cane with nervous energy as she gasped out, angrily: "Why
don't the woman come? How dare she keep me waiting?"
The door opened softly and Mrs. West entered just in time to catch the
impatient exclamation--a very lady-like person indeed, in noiseless
black silk, and a neat lace cap that surrounded a face only half as old
as that of the lady of Lancaster Park.
"I am very sorry that I kept you waiting, my lady," she said, quietly.
Then Lady Lancaster looked up and saw an open letter in the
housekeeper's hand, and the signs of inward disturbance on her usually
unruffled countenance.
"You know that I hate to be kept waiting, West," she said, "and you are
usually very prompt. But I see that something has happened this time,
so I am ready to excuse your tardiness. What is it?"
"You are right, Lady Lancaster. Something _has_ happened," said Mrs.
West. She sunk down quietly, as she spoke, into the chair that her
mistress indicated by a nod of her grim, unlovely head. "I have had a
letter with bad news in. I shall be obliged to quit your service."
"Quit my service!" echoed Lady Lancaster, wildly. Her voice rose almost
to a shriek, it was so full of dismay and anger.
"That was what I said, my lady," reiterated the housekeeper,
deprecatingly.
Lady Lancaster regarded her in incredulous dismay a moment, then she
burst out, sharply:
"But I say you shall do no such thing; I can not spare you, I can not
get on without you at all--that is, not without six months' warning to
supply your place."
"A month is the usual time, Lady Lancaster," said the housekeeper,
mildly; and then, as the old lady regarded her in speechless dismay,
she added, quickly: "But I am sorry that I can not even give you a
month's warning to supply my place, for I am obliged to leave you right
away. I have a long journey to take. I must cross the ocean."
"Cross the ocean! Now, did I ever! Are you crazy, West?" demanded the
old lady, wrathfully.
"I knew you would think so," said Mrs. West. "But if you will be kind
enough to let me explain the circumstances, you mightn't think so
hardly of me, Lady Lancaster."
"No circumstances could excuse your going off in this way," flashed
Lady Lancaster. "There is Lord Lancaster coming home by the first of
June, and of course I must invite a party to meet him; and there are
the rooms, and--and--everything to be seen to. No one knows my ways and
my wishes like you who have been at Lancaster Park so many years. Now,
what am I to do?"
She lifted her wrinkled hands helplessly.
"There will have to be a new housekeeper found, of course," hazarded
Mrs. West, timidly.
"Oh, yes; an ignorant creature who knows nothing, and who will have
everything wrong, of course, just when I want all to be at its best,"
groaned the wizened old aristocrat. "I call this downright ungrateful
in you, West, this going off just as we had got used to each other's
ways."
Mrs. West suppressed a struggling smile around the corners of her lips,
and, rising up, stood respectfully before her hard mistress.
"My lady, I'm sorry you think so hard of me. Indeed, I would not leave
you but for good cause," she said. "I had hoped and expected to spend
all my days at Lancaster Park, but my duty calls me elsewhere. I assure
you it is as hard for me as for you. Think how hard it is for me, a
poor lone woman, to have to cross the ocean--at my time of life, too!
And then to have to take a child to raise and spend all my earnings
on--a child that's no kin to me, either, you understand, my lady!"