TRICKS UPON TRIXY.
After reaching New York the Admiral lost no time in calling at the
Highwoods, and although he tried to appear at his best, Fenie said to
her sister in strict confidence that there must be something about sea
air which specially suited veteran sailors, for the Admiral did not
seem the same man he had been at Old Point. He was genial, courteous,
conversational, witty, but there was a certain indefinable something
lacking; after much study, the girl concluded that the difference came
of a strange absent-minded manner which appeared to possess him once in
a while, for no apparent reason.
As the old gentleman had spent but a single hour at the Highwoods
when this sage conclusion was announced, Trif called her sister a
goose, and said she had been carrying Harry in her mind so long that
she was incapable of judging other men with any degree of fairness.
Nevertheless, Trif told her husband that the Admiral did not seem
entirely himself.
The truth was that the old gentleman chanced to call at an hour when
Trixy was calling upon a juvenile acquaintance a few squares away, and
as she was at the age when children never know when to go home unless
they are sent away or sent for, the Admiral was unable to accomplish
the real purpose of his visit, which was to see Trixy's scrap-book. He
went away with about as uncomfortable a mind as you or I might have,
dear reader, were fifty thousand dollars almost within our grasp, yet
with a child's caprice and carelessness somewhere between it and full
possession.
The Admiral rested badly that night, but he awoke in the morning with
a capital plan of operations. He went to a bookstore and purchased a
large assortment of illustrated papers, American and foreign, and sent
them to his hotel. Then he made a morning call at the Highwoods, just
for a moment, to ask if he might not take Trixy to walk with him. The
child was delighted, especially when the old gentleman took her to his
hotel and showed her all his picture papers, and asked her whether she
would not like to spend the following morning with him, and bring her
scrap-book, so that he and she might paste into it all the pictures she
might select from his papers.
Success being thus assured, his spirits returned in full force, so that
after he called on Kate Trewman in the afternoon Kate herself hurried
around to the Highwoods to tell them that she had never before found
the Admiral such delightful company, and that evidently there was
nothing like a trip to New York to brighten any one's wits. Trif and
Fenie were mystified, and after Kate's departure they agreed that there
must be something in advancing years that made men variable in spite of
themselves.
The Admiral lay in wait for Jermyn, who was to dine with him that
evening after returning from the gun-proving grounds, and he tormented
the young man so unmercifully about the letter that Jermyn wished he
had dined alone. The Admiral could afford to be playful, for was he not
sure of getting at least one of the pictures?
The next morning bright and early he called for Trixy and her
scrap-book, and gallantly insisted upon relieving her of the weight
of the book itself; with the precious volume in his hand he felt as
if the stock certificates were already in his possession. He hurried
the child to his hotel, heartlessly passing several candy shops and
two soda-water places, until some pointed remarks brought him to a
proper sense of the courtesies due to very young ladies who walk with
gentlemen of mature years.
Trixy's tongue, never inactive for many moments at a time, was entirely
loosened by the gratifying flavors imparted to it by the Admiral's
kindness, so its owner soon began to talk of the two subjects which
were uppermost in home conversation.
"Say," she asked, "Mr. Jermyn don't have to be killed until there is a
war, does he?"
"No indeed, my dear, nor even if there should be a war. What put so
dreadful an idea into your head?"
"Oh, only that mamma says it would be so dreadful when Miss Trewman
loves him so much. Besides, mamma says it would be dreadful hard in
another way, 'cause the Trewmans ain't rich. They used to be, but their
father lost a lot of money in business a few years ago, and papa says
he hasn't got it back yet."
The Admiral quickly lost his compunctions of conscience about the trick
he intended to play, which was to abstract the original sketch from
Trixy's scrap-book during the clipping and pasting operations at the
hotel, and substitute the imitation which he had made on the train. It
had seemed an ungentlemanly and under-handed thing to do, much though
he informed himself that the result would not injure the child in any
way. Now, after what Trixy had told him about the condition of the
Trewman finances, it would be a matter of absolute duty. Still more,
he would fulfil the threat he had made to Jermyn, in case Jermyn's
own sketch could not be recovered. He could not do it all at once, of
course; Jermyn's pride would never allow it, but he would make the
bride a handsome present in government bonds on her wedding day, and
he would bequeath the remainder of the fifty thousand to her in his
will, and should the fortunes of war or peace take Jermyn from earth
before him, he would see that the remainder of the money should reach
the widow at once. With such virtuous and unselfish resolves, what harm
could there be in plundering a small girl's scrap-book?
"Papa says," continued Trixy, "that there is no sense in worryin' about
it, 'cause both of 'em are so fond of each other that they'd marry for
love even if they had to starve afterward."
"Hem! Quite likely. I suspect I would, if I were either of them."
"Is that so? I must tell mamma that, 'cause p'raps it will keep her
from worryin'. Papa says she worries too much about her friends'
affairs."
"Er--my dear, I wouldn't say anything about it, if I were you; for
maybe your parents might not like to think that you had been repeating
any of their conversation."
It took considerable effort on the part of the Admiral to prevent
any farther disclosures, and the old gentleman was very glad when he
reached the hotel, and an examination of the pictorial papers gave
the child something new to talk about. The Admiral had scissors and
paste ready, and allowed Trixy to clip at will while he endeavored to
rob the scrap-book. He lost no time in turning the pages, but a hasty
examination failed to disclose the sketch which represented fifty
thousand dollars, so he looked again, with extreme care. Toward the end
his heart sank, and at the last page he uttered a low groan.
"What's the matter?" asked Trixy, looking up from her work.
"I beg a thousand pardons, my dear. I merely gave way, for an instant,
to a bad habit into which old gentlemen sometimes fall. How are you
getting along? Oh, you're finding a capital lot, aren't you? Don't you
want to stop a moment or two, and show me your book?"
Trixy began at once to turn the leaves, and to tell the story of each
picture. The Admiral listened patiently as long as he could, but soon
he said:
"Won't you show me the one that is like the sketch I made on the train
the day we returned from Washington?"
"Certainly." Trixy turned the pages rapidly, but suddenly stopped and
looked puzzled; then she exclaimed:
"Somebody's hooked it, I do believe!"
"Oh, don't say that!" said the Admiral, in a shaky voice. "Look again;
perhaps you have pasted some other picture over it."
"No I didn't. I know just where I had it in the book; it was right
here, by the picture Aunt Fee made of some of the sand hills behind
the fort, because they were the only two drawin's I had. And now there
ain't nothin there!"
The Admiral looked carefully at the page. Evidently something had been
pasted there, and with childish lavishness of mucilage. It could not
have dropped out, for bits of paper still adhered to the page. It was
plain that some one had carefully removed the sketch.
"Trixy," said the Admiral, as a suspicion came into his mind, "have you
ever shown this book to Lieutenant Jermyn?"
"No, never. He ain't ever at our house long enough for me to show him
anything."
"Have you loaned the book to any other little girl, or exchanged
pictures with any one?"
"No, indeed! Besides, I was keepin' that picture real careful, to
remind me of somethin'--mamma told me to. She told me that whenever I
looked at that picture I must remember to never again take any writin'
from her portfolio and ask other people to finish it for me. I'd
just like to know what's happened to that picture; I'm goin' to ask
ev'rybody about it as soon as I get back home."
"Oh, don't, please," said the Admiral hastily, "or you'll make me very
unhappy."
"What for?"
"Oh, I should dislike to have your father and mother and aunt annoyed
about so slight a matter--so far as I am concerned; and you wouldn't
have thought of it, you know, if I hadn't spoken of it."
"But they wouldn't be annoyed, and p'raps one of 'em knows where the
picture is."
"Eh? Which of them?" The old gentleman looked keenly over the tops of
his glasses as a new thought came to him.
"Why, papa, I guess, 'cause he's got a picture a good deal like it on
the back of a letter that mamma wrote him, and I saw him lookin' real
hard at it the other day, and I asked him what 'twas about, and he
said, 'Oh, nothin'."
"Aha!"
"What did you say?"
"Did I say something? I must have been merely clearing my throat."
"What a funny lot of noises you do make this mornin'. Well, I guess
I'll paste some pictures in the book."
The Admiral lit a cigar, an indulgence of which he never was guilty
before dinner, except when laboring under severe mental excitement.
One thing at least seemed clear; the letter, with Jermyn's sketch, had
not been destroyed; therefore he, the Admiral, could hope to get it,
for men knew better than women the value of fifty thousand dollars,
and they would forgive other men for asking pointed questions under the
circumstances.
But had Phil the Admiral's own sketch? If so, why had he taken it from
the book? Merely to tease Trixy? Scarcely.
Suddenly the Admiral smote his forehead and muttered to himself:
"How stupid of me. Mrs. Highwood herself removed that picture. She
knew that her daughter had it; she knew the history of it, for I told
her all, and she can scarcely have forgotten it. She has a woman's
natural delicacy, bless her, about the incident being recalled to my
mind, so knowing that Trixy was to bring the book to my room she has
abstracted the sketch so that I should not see it and be reminded of
a mortifying experience. Oh, woman, woman! How you do keep alive the
human tenderness that man does so much to kill!"
Suddenly, however, the Admiral sprang to his feet and exclaimed:
"What if, to make assurance doubly sure, she has destroyed that
sketch!"