HERZ
Herz was in such strong contrast to his employer, the count, that he
gave Helen and Douglas quite a shock when they first met him. They had
walked over to Weston with their father, who had been prevailed upon to
take the order for the restoration of the old mansion. Dr. Wright had
been consulted as to the advisability of his trying to do this work and
had approved of it as being something to occupy his patient without
making him nervous. It meant many trips to Weston on the part of Mr.
Carter and equally many to Valhalla on the part of the count.
De Lestis had done very little talking about Herz, mentioning him
usually rather in the tone of one speaking of a servant, but Helen
came to the opinion the moment she looked at him that there was
nothing servile about him; on the contrary, he was evidently the more
intellectual of the two men. He was a little younger than the count,
much taller, with broad spare shoulders and a back as straight as a
board. His blue eyes were very near sighted, necessitating the wearing
of very thick lenses in his large gold-rimmed spectacles. His hair was
yellow and grew straight up on his head like wheat stubble. His brow was
broad and high and well shaped. He really was a handsome man except that
his mouth was too full lipped and so very red. His English was perfect
with no touch of accent as with the count. He said he had been born in
Cincinnati and his father was a naturalized American, so even Douglas,
the strong pro ally, had to accept him as German in name only.
Weston was a good three miles from Grantly by the road, but much closer
if one took a path through the woods, skirting Paradise and approaching
the old house from the rear. Truly it had been a grand estate in its day
and de Lestis was determined to restore it to its pristine glory. He had
owned the place about a year and had accomplished much in that time.
The fences and gates were in perfect repair; the fields showed that good
farming theories had already been put into practice; the woods, that
some knowledge of forestry had been applied, as the undergrowth had been
cleared away and useless timber been cut down to give room to valuable
trees.
"What a lot of money must have been spent here," said Douglas, noting
the new fencing and well-built barns as they approached the house.
"Yes, de Lestis seems to have unlimited supplies of cash. I fancy he is
a man of great wealth," said Mr. Carter. "I have ordered a Delco light
to be installed in his house. He spares no expense in restoring the old
place. I was rather opposed to having the new lighting system. It seems
such an anomaly in a colonial mansion."
"But, Daddy, you wouldn't want the count to grope his way around with
tallow dips," laughed Helen. "I fancy that was what was used when Weston
was first built."
"I'd have him do it rather than ruin the architectural effect of such a
wonderful old house; but de Lestis has his own ideas about things and
all he wants of me, after all, is to do the work of a contractor. As for
Herz,--he has better taste than de Lestis, I believe."
"Tell us about Herz, Daddy. You never have told us what he is like,"
demanded Helen.
"You judge for yourselves," answered the father.
The truth was that Mr. Carter had not known just what to make of Herz.
Clever he was certainly and no underling, as they had gathered from de
Lestis.
This was the girls' first visit to Weston although the count had
urged their coming many times. Douglas's school was dismissed for the
Christmas holidays and she felt like a bird out of the cage: two whole
weeks of delightful freedom ahead of her!
Teaching had come easy to her and she had conquered Bobby and the other
unruly pupils and felt that she was in a way getting on top of her
work. The days passed rapidly and her school was in a fine condition,
enthusiastic pupils and eager students. Nevertheless it was great to be
having a holiday and she meant to make the most of it. She and Helen
were planning a trip to Richmond after Christmas to visit Cousin
Elizabeth Somerville. Lewis was stationed there with his company and his
duties not being so very arduous, he hoped to spend much time with his
favorite cousin. Valhalla was very lovely and the girls had grown very
fond of it. Their plans for their father were working out and they knew
they had done right in taking the place and moving the family to the
country, but nevertheless they were looking forward with pleasure to the
visit to Richmond and release from all of their duties for a few days.
What glowing girls they were! Robert Carter looked at them with
pardonable pride as they tramped through the woods, their cheeks crimson
with the exercise in the cold air. How they had shown the "mettle of
their pasture" when the time came for them to take hold! He had always
known that Douglas had a certain bulldog tenacity that would make her
keep her grip no matter what happened, but Helen had astonished him.
When something had snapped in his tired brain he had instinctively
turned to Douglas as the person to decide for the family welfare, but
Helen had shown herself capable far beyond his hopes. He well knew that
her part of the work was most difficult, and he saw with wonder her
patience with her mother and with the seemingly impossible Chloe.
"I'll make it all up to them," he said to himself.
The doctor's prescription of country life and freedom from care with
plenty of occupation for his hands was working wonders. This work he had
been doing for de Lestis was not taxing his mind at all, and he suddenly
realized that it was not because it was so easy but because his mind was
in working order again. He felt his old power coming back to him, the
power of concentration, of initiative. Sometimes he would try to lie
awake at night just for the pleasure of feeling himself to be well.
His illness had been a blessing in disguise since it had brought out all
this latent fineness in his girls. It had somehow made them more
beautiful, too, at least they seemed so in the eyes of their doting
father.
Approaching Weston from the rear, no one was in sight. Smoke arising
from the kitchen chimney gave evidence of a servant's being somewhere.
The yard was in perfect order, with no unsightly ash pile or tin cans to
offend the eye. To one side Mr. Carter pointed out the rose garden that
the count had taken much care of, spending hundreds of dollars on
every known variety that would flourish in that latitude. Beyond were
greenhouses and hot beds that furnished lettuce and cauliflower and
spinach through the winter for the master's delicate palate.
"Isn't it lovely?" gasped Helen. "It must be splendid to be rich."
Mounting the broad steps leading to the pillared gallery they heard
voices speaking in some foreign language, they could not tell whether
it was German or not, and then a loud laugh and "Ach Gott!" in the
count's unmistakable baritone. Through the window they saw the two men,
de Lestis and Herz, bending over a table spread with papers. Herz was
pointing out something to his employer which seemed to delight him, as
he was laughing heartily. This was gathered only by one glance, as
immediately the Carters passed beyond the angle through which they could
view the interior of the room and Mr. Carter knocked on the front door.
The door was not opened for several minutes. Evidently the count
employed servants for such tasks and did not believe in opening doors
with his own august hands. Helen gave an impatient rat tat again. She
was not fond of waiting. The door was opened suddenly and by the count.
"Ah! My good friends!" he exclaimed enthusiastically. "I did not expect
you until tomorrow, my dear Mr. Carter."
"I came a day sooner because my daughters could come with me."
"And what an honor!"
He ushered them into the room where they had viewed him for the moment
in passing. There were no papers on the table now and everything was in
perfect order. The secretary was standing at attention, awaiting an
introduction to the ladies.
He bowed from his waist up, shutting up like a jack-knife. He had not
the easy, graceful manners of the count, but seemed much blunter and
less polished. One could not fancy his kissing the hand of a lady as
the count was famous for doing.
Love at first sight is supposed to happen only in books but it does
happen sometimes in real life, and on that frosty day in December it
came to pass in the library at Weston, came like a flash of lightning,
came without warning and without being wanted. Certainly the secretary
had not wanted to stop the work he was engaged in that seemed to be so
engrossing; he did not even want to meet these Carter girls but had
been forced into it by his employer. What good would it do him to
fall in love? He cared not a whit for women, anyhow, despised them in
fact. But the little blind god, Cupid, took none of these things
into consideration. He simply let fly his dart and as Adolph Herz
straightened himself up after making his stiff, jack-knife bow, the
arrow hit him square in his heart.
It was a toss of the penny which sister it should be; both of them
were lovely, both of them rosy and charming. He looked at Douglas
first, however, and never saw Helen at all, at least, seemed not to.
He did not take his eyes from Douglas's face during the entire call.
"Has the lighting system come yet?" asked Mr. Carter. "It should have
been here by now."
"Did you order one?" asked the count. "I understood I was to send the
order and have done so. You sent it off, did you not, Herz?"
"Certainly! A week ago!"
"But you told me to order it," insisted Mr. Carter. "I am sure you did."
"Why, that is all right, my dear fellow," said the count very kindly.
"If both of them come it will make no difference. I can install one of
them in the barn and garage."
"Oh, but I cannot let you have the expense of both if I was at fault,"
and Mr. Carter looked distressed. Was his head not behaving as it
should, after all?
"Why, my dear Mr. Carter, it might easily have been my mistake and I
cannot have you bothered about it. The expense is trifling. Miss Helen,
help me to persuade your father that it is nothing."
The count's manner was so kindly and he seemed so anxious to make Mr.
Carter feel that if any mistake had been made he, the count, had made
it that Helen was deeply grateful. How much she liked this foreign
nobleman, anyhow. He was always so gracious, so suave, so elegant. His
heart must be tender, his disposition good, or how could he make all of
the poor colored people like him so much? Helen was fully aware of the
fact that the count was attracted by her, but there had been times when
she was sure he was equally taken with Douglas, and certainly his
manner to Nan on several occasions had been one of devotion. He always
seemed to be coming out on the train with Nan and Lucy, and Lucy had
intimated that he had caused Billy Sutton many sad hours by "hogging"
the seat by Nan. Could he be a flirt? Helen put the thought from her.
She hated a male flirt. Nevertheless she was conscious of the fact that
she had a little tiny twinge of jealousy, so tiny that it was only a
speck, but it was there.
"It's Douglas's hair and Nan's eyes," she thought. "I believe he thinks
I'm more interesting than they are, though," and then she took herself
to task for a foolish, vain girl. "What difference does it make to me,
anyhow? What do we know of this stranger and what is he to us?"
Now the girls gave their attention to the estate, for they were
naturally interested in the work their father had undertaken. The
workmen were through, carpenters, plasterers and painters, and the place
had been turned over to Count de Lestis. Very beautiful it was and one
for any owner to be proud of. The spacious hall, with its waxed floor
and beautiful stairway with mahogany treads and bannisters, was as
fine an example of southern colonial as one could find in the whole of
Virginia. The furnishings were in keeping with the general plan of the
house, as at Mr. Carter's suggestion an antique dealer and decorator
from Richmond had had his finger in the pie. Much of the furniture had
been bought with the house, being old mahogany that had been at Weston
for more than a century.
"How lovely it is!" gasped Helen as the doors to the great dining-room
were thrown open.
"I am so glad you like it," whispered the count in a very meaning tone.
"I have your father to thank for its being so complete. Never have I
seen work carried on so rapidly. I was afraid I would be living in the
discomfort of shavings and mortar beds for months to come."
"Daddy is always like that," said Helen smiling. Nothing pleased Helen
so much as praise of her father. "He can always make workmen work. They
say in Richmond that not even plumbers disappoint him. He always turns
over his houses on time unless there is something absolutely unforeseen,
like a strike or something."
"I am indeed fortunate in having prevailed upon him to do this for me."
"But he has enjoyed doing it so much. You see Daddy has not been able to
work for so long and I think he had begun to feel that maybe he had lost
out, and this proves that he hasn't. He does not know how to be idle.
Why last summer when he was supposed to do nothing but rest he drew the
plans and built bird houses for Bobby."
"Ah, indeed! I am so glad you reminded me of something. Mr. Carter," he
called to that gentleman who was critically examining some electric
wiring recently put in ready for the Delco batteries which were on the
way, "I want now some plans for bird houses if such trivial work is not
beneath you. I want bird houses for every kind of feathered songster
that can be attracted and persuaded to live at Weston."
"How wonderful!" cried Helen and Douglas in chorus. Douglas had been
engaged in conversation by the secretary, who was limbering up in an
amazing manner. He was most attentive, showing her into every nook and
cranny of the old house. He opened sideboards and cabinets to reveal the
exquisite finish of the satinwood drawers and shelves; he took down bits
of rare old china from the plate rack in the dining-room, explaining the
marks on the bottoms. He was so kind that Douglas almost liked him, but
not quite.
"Adolph Herz is too German in sound," the Anglo-Saxon in her cried out.
"And then his mouth! It is so red!"
"Certainly I'll enjoy drawing plans for bird houses," laughed Mr.
Carter. "I shall even take pleasure in carpentering them. They are
really lots of fun to make."
"I agree with you," said Herz. "Simply drawing a design is never so much
pleasure as carrying it out. How a sculptor can be willing to do only
the clay modeling of his statue and then let someone else carve the
marble is more than I can understand. When I think of something to be
done, I must do it myself--trust it to no one."
"Well, I am a lazy bones myself and anyone can do my work," laughed the
count. "Now Adolph here has drawn the plan for a pigeon house and he
wants to build it himself. I tell him it is absurd, that any carpenter
can carry out his ideas, but he will not listen to me. Adolph is a very
stubborn man, Miss Carter." He addressed this remark to Douglas who
smiled at the young secretary. He was frowning heavily and his full lips
were drawn into a hard red line. The count caught his eye and gave him a
bantering look in return.
"Come on, Adolph, and show Mr. Carter your plans for the pigeon house!"
"They are not completed," he answered sullenly.
"I am quite a pigeon fancier," went on the master of Weston. "They are
charming birds to raise and one can make much money on squabs. We are
going into pigeon raising quite seriously. I think we shall build a very
large house. Eh, Adolph?"
"Where will you put the pigeon house?" asked Mr. Carter.
"Right there on the roof, about in the centre of the house," said the
count, pointing to the top of the mansion.
"Not there! Surely you would not do such a thing!" cried Helen
incredulously.
"Why not?"
"It would ruin the architectural effect of Weston," declared Mr. Carter.
"I think not!"
"Well, I know it would," maintained the architect stoutly. "Why, de
Lestis, all of my work would be as nothing if you should put a pigeon
house there. I beg of you not to!"
"But, my dear Mr. Carter, I am a pigeon fancier and want my pigeons at a
point where I can watch them twirling and dipping. I love their cooing,
too."
"All right! It is your house and you can do as you choose with it, but
please do not mention me as the architect who restored the place. I
cannot stand for such a piece of Philistinism." Mr. Carter laughed as he
made the above remark, but his daughters knew by a certain look in his
eyes that he was angry.
"Are you to have carrier pigeons?" asked Douglas, hoping to relieve the
company of an embarrassment that seemed to have fallen upon it.
The secretary still had his mouth drawn in a stern line although he had
smoothed his frowning brow. Helen was plainly put out at the count's
daring to go against her father's artistic taste, while Count de Lestis
seemed to be taking a kind of delight in teasing everybody.
"If you will promise to send me a message, I will," he answered
gallantly.
"Oh, that would be great fun! I have never seen a carrier pigeon."
The count then devoted himself to Douglas for the rest of the visit,
showing her the pantry shelves that he had on one occasion expressed
himself as desirous for Helen to pass on.
"All we need now is a lady of the manor," he said in a low tone. "It is
not meet for man to live alone."
Douglas looked at him quite frankly, her blue eyes steady as she gazed
into his black ones. "Can't your mother come and keep house for you?"
she asked quite simply.
There was no flirting in Douglas Carter's make-up. Herz, who refused to
go far from her in spite of the count's sudden devoted attentions,
relaxed his grim expression that he had held ever since the pigeon house
had been the subject of conversation. His mouth broke into a smile and
his easy manner returned.
The Carters soon took their departure, although the master of the house
was insistent that they should stay to tea with them.
"We must get back to Valhalla," declared Douglas.
"Valhalla! Is that the name of your place?" asked Herz.
"That is the name my sister Nan gave it. She says we are all more or
less dead warriors when the day is over. I don't like giving it such a
German name myself, but Nan says poetry is universal and---- Oh! I beg
your pardon!" The girl had forgotten that her companion was of German
birth.
"Do you dislike the Germans so much?" he asked.
"Not the German people----" she stammered. "Just the Imperial
Government!"
"But aren't the people the Government?"
"I hope not."
"Ah, so Miss Carter has opened fire on you, too, has she?" laughed de
Lestis. "If there were more fighters like her among the Allies, poor
Germany would have her banners trailing in the dust by now."
"I did not mean to be rude to Mr. Herz," said Douglas. "I am too
prejudiced in favor of France and England to remember my manners. If I
have injured you, I beg your pardon," and she gave the secretary her
hand in good-by.
He blushed like a schoolgirl and stammered out some unintelligible
something.
De Lestis renewed his attentions to Helen just as though he had not been
hovering over her sister with tender nothings.
"He is a flirt!" thought Helen. "I think I can give him as good as he
sends, but I am beginning to hate him." She dimpled to his remarks,
however, and as she bade him good-by at the door she smiled saucily into
his eyes.
"To think of that man's being willing to ruin his roof line," sighed Mr.
Carter as he and his daughters started on their homeward walk. "Just
look how beautiful it is," pointing to the old chimneys where the roof
melted into the sky.
"It is a shame," cried Helen. "But how cold it is! There now, I left my
gloves on the library table."
"Run back and get them, honey; Douglas and I will wait for you here by
the stile."
Helen ran back. Once more she glanced into the library where on their
arrival they had caught a glimpse of the two men bending over the
papers. Now what was her astonishment to see the secretary actually
shaking the count, who was laughing heartily. The secretary's eyes were
flashing as he blurted out the words:
"Fool! Fool!"
The count opened the door quickly this time at her knock.
"Your gloves! I found them and almost hoped you would leave them with
me, but the little hands would have been so cold. Indeed, they are so
cold," and he gallantly kissed them.
Helen seized her gloves and with glowing cheeks raced back to her father
and sister. She gave her hands a vigorous rubbing on her grey corduroy
skirt before she put on her gloves as though she might rub off the kiss.
In the excitement over the dénouement of the visit she forgot for the
time being that she had caught the secretary shaking his employer and
calling him a fool.