Crane, who was growing reckless, decided to let her share the
compliment.
"The gentlemen enjoyed the soup, Jane-Ellen," he said, "at least, Mr.
Lefferts and Mr. Reed did, but Mr. Tucker has not committed himself. Did
you enjoy the soup, Tuck?"
Tucker rapped with his middle finger.
"I care very little for my food," he answered.
"Well," said Crane, "I've heard of hating the sin and loving the sinner;
I suppose it is possible to hate the cooking and--and--" He paused.
"I did not say I hated the cooking," answered Tucker. "I only say I am
not interested in talking about it all the time."
"All right," said Burton, "we'll talk about something else, and you
shall have first choice of a topic, Tuck."
"One moment before we begin," exclaimed Reed, "I must ask, where is
Smithfield?"
Crane turned to him.
"Smithfield," he said, "in common with my two guests, the housemaid Lily
and the boy Brindlebury, have all left, or been ejected from my house
within the last twenty-four hours."
"You mean," gasped Reed, "that you and Mr. Tucker and the cook are alone
in the house!"
"I regret to say that Mr. Tucker also leaves me this evening."
"But--but--" began Reed, in a protest too earnest to find words on the
instant.
"We won't discuss the matter now," said Crane. "I have several things to
talk over with you, Mr. Reed, after dinner. In the meantime," he added,
looking around on the dreary faces of all but Lefferts, "let us enjoy
ourselves."
"Certainly, by all means," agreed Reed, "but I would just like to ask
you, Mr. Crane--You can't mean, you don't intend, you don't
contemplate--"
"Oh, I won't trouble you with my immediate plans," said Crane, and
added, turning to Lefferts, "my experience is that no one is really
interested in any one else's plans--their daily routine, I mean, and
small domestic complications."
"Oh, come, I don't know about that," answered Lefferts, on whom the
situation was beginning vaguely to dawn. "Mr. Reed struck me as being
very genuinely interested in your intentions. You are genuinely
interested, aren't you, Mr. Reed?"
Reed was interested beyond the point of being able to suspect malice.
"Yes, yes," he said eagerly, "I am, genuinely, sincerely. You see, I
understand what would be said in a community like this,--what would be
thought. You get my idea?"
"I own I don't," answered Burton suavely, "but I will say this much,
that in deciding my conduct, I have usually considered my own opinion
rather than that of others."
"Of course, exactly. I do, myself," said Reed, "but in this case, I
really think you would agree with me if I could make myself clear."
"Doubtless, doubtless," answered Crane, and seeing that Jane-Ellen was
again in the room, he went on: "What is it exactly that we are talking
about? What is it that you fear?"
Reed cast an agonized look at the cook and remained speechless, but
Tucker, with more experience in the befogging properties of language,
rushed to his assistance.
"It's perfectly clear what he means," he said. "Mr. Reed's idea is that
in a small community like this the conduct of every individual is
watched, scrutinized and discussed, however humble a sphere he or she
may occupy; and that if any young woman should find herself in a
position which has been considered a compromising one by every author
and dramatist in the language, she would not be saved from the
inevitable criticism that would follow by the mere fact that--"
But here something very unfortunate happened. The lip of the ice-water
pitcher, which Jane-Ellen was approaching to Tucker's glass, suddenly
touched his shoulder, and a small quantity of the chilling liquid
trickled between his collar and his neck. It was not enough to be called
a stream, and yet it was distinctly more than a drop; it was sufficient
to cut short his sentence.
"Oh, sir, I'm so sorry," she cried, and she added, with a sort of wail,
looking at Crane, "You see how it is, sir, I'm not used to waiting on
table."
"I think she waits admirably," murmured Lefferts aside to his host.
"Extremely competent, I call it," said Crane clearly. "Don't give it
another thought, Jane-Ellen. See," he added, glancing at Tucker's face
which was distorted with anger, "Mr. Tucker has forgotten it already."
"Oh, sir, how kind you are to me!" cried the cook and ran hastily into
the pantry, from which a sound which might have been a cough was
instantly heard.
"Yours is a strange but delightful home, Crane," observed Lefferts. "I
don't really recall ever having experienced anything quite like it."
"You refer, I fancy," replied Crane, "to the simple peace, the assured
confidence that--"
"That something unexpected is going to happen within the next ten
seconds."
Tucker and Reed, both absorbed in their private wrongs, were for an
instant like deaf men, but the latter having now dried his neck and as
much of his collar as was possible, showed signs of coming to, so that
Crane included both in the conversation.
"Lefferts and I were speaking," he said, slightly raising his voice, "of
the peculiar atmosphere that makes for the enjoyment of a home. What,
Mr. Reed, do you think is most essential?"
"Just one moment, Mr. Crane," said Reed. "I want to say a word more of
that other subject we were speaking of."
Crane's seat allowed him to see the pantry door before any one else
could. On it his eyes were fixed as he answered thoughtfully:
"Our last subject. Now, let me see, what was that?"
"It was the question of the propriety of--"
"Fish, sir?" said a gentle voice in Reed's ear. He groaned and helped
himself largely and in silence.
Lefferts, who was really kind-hearted, pitied his distress and decided
to change the topic.
"What a fine old house this is," he said, glancing around the
high-ceilinged room. "Who does it belong to?"
"It belongs," answered Tucker, "to a family named Revelly--a family who
held a highly honored position in the history of our country until they
took the wrong side in war."
"In this part of the country, sir," cried Reed, "we are not accustomed
to thinking it the wrong side."
Tucker bowed slightly.
"I believe that I am voicing the verdict of history and time," he
answered.
It was in remorse, perhaps, for having stirred up this new subject of
dispute that Lefferts now went on rapidly, too rapidly to feel his way.
"Well, this present generation seems to be an amusing lot. Eliot was
telling me about them last night. He says one of the girls is a perfect
beauty. Now, what was her name--such a pretty one. Oh, yes," he added,
slightly raising his voice, as his memory gave it to him, "Claudia."
"What?" said the cook.
"Nobody spoke to you, Jane-Ellen," said Crane, but his eyes remained
fixed on her long and meditatively as she handed the sauce for the fish.
Lefferts continued:
"Eliot said that she was a most indiscriminating fascinator--engaged to
three men last summer, to his knowledge. Our Northern girls are infants
compared--"
Reed suddenly sprang up from the table.
"I'd be obliged, sir," he said, "if you'd tell Mr. Eliot, with my
compliments, that that story of his is untrue, and if he doesn't know
it, he ought to. I don't blame you, sir, a stranger, for repeating all
you hear about one of the loveliest young ladies in the country, but I
do blame him--"
At this the cook approached him and said with a stern civility:
"Do sit down and eat your fish, sir, before it gets cold." They
exchanged a long and bitter glance, but Reed sat down.
"I'm sure you'll believe," said Lefferts, "that I'm sorry to have said
anything I ought not, particularly about any friend of yours, Mr. Reed,
but the truth is, I thought of it only as being immensely to the credit
of the young lady, in a neighborhood which must be, you'll forgive my
saying, rather dull if you're not fond of hunting."
"The point is not whether it is to her credit or not," returned Reed,
who was by no means placated, "the point is that it is not true."
"Probably not," Lefferts agreed, "only," he added, after a second's
thought, "I don't see how any one can say that except the young lady
herself."
"Miss Claudia Revelly," answered Reed, "is one of the most respected and
admired young ladies in the State, I may say in the whole South. I have
known her and her family since she was a child, and I should have been
informed if anything of the kind had taken place."
As he said this, the glance that the cook cast at him was
indescribable. It was mingled pity and wonder, as much as to say, "What
hope is there, after all, for a man who can talk like that?"
"Undoubtedly you're right, Mr. Reed," said Lefferts, "and yet I have
never heard of a girl's announcing more than one engagement at a time,
although it has come within my experience to know--"
"But, after all, why not?" said Crane. "Perhaps that will be the coming
fashion. We shall in future get letters from our friends, which will
begin: 'I want you to know of the three great happinesses that have come
into my life. I am engaged to John Jones, Peter Smith and Paul Robinson,
and I feel almost sure that one of these three, early next June--'"
Seeing that Reed was really growing angry, Lefferts hastened to
interrupt his host.
"I think you might tell us, Mr. Reed," he said, "what the great beauty
of the county looks like?"
"I can't think that this is the time or place for retailing the charms
of a young lady as if it were a slave market," answered Reed; and it
seemed to Crane that the cook, who had come in to change the plates,
looked a little bit disappointed.
"No, not as if it were a slave market," said Lefferts, "because, of
course, it isn't."
"I can see no reason, Reed," said Crane, "why you shouldn't give us a
hint as to whether Miss Revelly is blond or brunette, tall or short."
"Perhaps I see reasons that you do not, sir," answered the wretched real
estate man.
"Well," said Crane, "I tell you what, Jane-Ellen must have seen her
often,--Jane-Ellen," he added, "you've seen Miss Revelly. What does she
look like?"
Jane-Ellen advanced into the room thoughtfully.
"Well, sir," she said, "it isn't for me to criticize my superiors, nor
to say a word against a young lady whom Mr. Reed admires so much, but I
have my own reasons, sir, for thinking that there was more in those
stories of her engagement than perhaps Mr. Reed himself knows. Servants
hear a good deal, you know, sir, and they do say that Miss Revelly--"
"Claudia!" burst from Reed.
"Miss Claudia Revelly, I should say," the cook corrected herself. "Well,
sir, as for looks--let me see--she's a tall, commanding looking lady--"
"With flashing black eyes?" asked Crane.
"And masses of blue-black hair."
"A noble brow?"
"A mouth too large for perfect beauty."
"A queenly bearing?"
"An irresistible dignity of manner."
"Jane-Ellen," said Crane, "I feel almost as if Miss Claudia Revelly were
standing before me."
"Oh, indeed, sir, if it were she, it's you who would be standing," said
the cook.
"For my part," said Crane, turning again to the table, "I had imagined
her to myself as quite different. I had supposed her small, soft-eyed,
with tiny hands and feet and a mouth--" He was looking at Jane-Ellen's
mouth, as if that might give him an inspiration, when Reed interrupted.
"I regret to say, Mr. Crane," he said, "that if this conversation
continues to deal disrespectfully with the appearance of a young lady
for whom--"
"Disrespectfully!" cried Crane. "I assure you, I had no such intention.
I leave it to you, Jane-Ellen, whether anything disrespectful was said
about this young lady."
"It did not seem so to me, sir," answered the cook, with all her
gentlest manner. "But," she added, glancing humbly at Reed, "of course,
it would never do for a servant like me to be setting up my opinion on
such a matter against a gentleman like Mr. Reed."
"What I mean is, if Miss Revelly were here, do you think she would
object to anything we have said?"
"Indeed, I'm sure she would actually have enjoyed it, sir."
"Well, then, she ought not," shouted Reed sternly.
Jane-Ellen shook her head sadly.
"Ah, sir," she said, "young ladies like Miss Revelly don't always do
what they ought to, if report speaks true."
"May I ask, without impertinence, Burton," said Tucker, at this point,
"whether it is your intention to give us nothing whatsoever to drink
with our dinner?"
"No, certainly not," cried Crane. "Jane-Ellen, why haven't you served
the champagne?"
The reason for this omission was presently only too clear. Jane-Ellen
had not the faintest idea of how to open the bottle. Crane, listening
with one ear to his guests, watched her wrestling with it in a corner,
holding it as if it were a venomous reptile.
"For my part," Tucker was saying, "I have a great deal of sympathy with
the stand Mr. Reed has taken. Any discussion of a woman behind her back
runs at least the risk--"
Suddenly Crane shouted:
"Look out! Don't do that!" He was speaking not to Tucker, but to the
cook. His warning, however, came too late. There was the sound of
breaking glass and a deep cherry-colored stain dyed the napkin in
Jane-Ellen's hand.
All four chairs were pushed back, all four men sprang to her side.
"Let me see your hand."
"Is it badly cut?"
"An artery runs near there."
"Is there any glass in it?"
They crowded around her, nor did any one of them seem to be averse to
taking the case entirely into his own control.
"There are antiseptics and bandages upstairs," said Crane.
"Better let me wash it well at the tap in the pantry," urged Reed.
"Does it hurt horribly?" asked Lefferts.
Tucker, putting on his glasses, observed:
"I have had some experience in surgery, and if you will let me examine
the wound by a good light--"
"Oh, gentlemen," said Jane-Ellen, "this is absurd. It's nothing but a
scratch. Do sit down and finish your dinner, and let me get through my
work."
As the injury did not, after a closer observation, seem to be serious,
the four men obeyed. But they did so in silence; not even Lefferts and
Crane could banter any more. Tucker had never made any pretense of
recovering his temper, and Reed seemed to be revolving thoughts of deep
import.
As they rose from table, Crane touched the arm of Reed.
"Come into the office, will you? I have something I want to say to you."
"And I to you," said Reed, with feeling.
XII
ONCE in the little office, Crane did not immediately speak. He drew up
two chairs, put a log on the fire, turned up the lamp, and in short made
it evident that he intended to do that cruel deed sometimes perpetrated
by parents, guardians and schoolmasters in interviews of this sort--he
was going to leave it to the culprit to make a beginning.
Reed, fidgeting in a nearby chair, did not at once yield to this
compulsion, but finally the calm with which Crane was balancing a pen on
a pencil broke down his resolution and he said crossly:
"I understood you had something to say to me, Mr. Crane."
Crane threw aside pencil and pen. "I thought it might be the other way,"
he answered. "But, yes, if you like. I have something to say to you. I
have decided to break my lease and leave this house to-morrow."
"You don't mean to go without paying the second instalment of the rent?"
"Why not? The Revellys have broken, or rather have never fulfilled
their part of the contract. I took the house on the written
understanding that servants were to be supplied, and you are my witness,
Mr. Reed, that to-night I have no one left but a cook."
"Oh, come, Mr. Crane! We only agreed to provide the servants. We could
not guarantee that you would not dismiss them. You must own they showed
no inclination to leave the house."
"No, I'll not deny that," returned Burton grimly.
"No sane man," continued Reed eagerly, "would allow the payment of his
rent to depend on whether or not you chose to keep a staff of servants
in many ways above the average. You'll not deny, I think, sir, that the
cooking has been above the average?"
Crane had reached a state of mind in which it was impossible for him to
discuss even the culinary powers of Jane-Ellen, particularly with Reed,
and so he slightly shifted the ground.
"Let us," he said, "run over the reasons for which I dismissed them: The
housemaid, for calling one of my guests an old harridan; the boy, for
habitually smoking my cigarettes, for attempting to strike Mr. Tucker,
and finally, for stealing a valuable miniature belonging to the house;
the butler, for again introducing this same larcenous boy into the house
disguised as a lame old man. The question is not whether I should have
kept them, but whether I should not stay on here and have them all
arrested."
Reed's face changed. "Oh! I hope you won't do that, Mr. Crane," he said.
Burton saw his advantage. "I should not care," he answered, "to go
through life feeling I had been responsible for turning a dangerous gang
loose upon the countryside."
"They are not that, sir. I pledge my word they are not that."
"There is a good deal of evidence against that pledge."
"You doubt my word, sir?"
"I feel there is much more to be explained than you seem willing to
admit. For instance, how comes it that you are a--I will not say
welcome--but at least assured visitor in my kitchen?"
Reed felt himself coloring. "I do not feel called upon," he replied, "to
explain my conduct to any one."
"In that case," said Crane, getting to his feet, "this interview might
as well end. I shall leave to-morrow, and if you and your friends, the
Revellys, feel yourselves aggrieved, we can only take the matter into
court. If the record of these servants is as excellent as you seem to
think, they can have nothing to fear. If it isn't, the whole matter will
be cleared up."
This was the crisis of the conversation, for as Crane moved to the door,
Reed stopped him.
"Wait a moment, Mr. Crane," he said. "There are circumstances in this
connection that you do not know."
"Yes, I guessed that much."
"If you will sit down, I should like to tell you the whole story."
Crane yielded and sat down, without giving Reed the satisfaction of
knowing that his nervousness at the expected revelation was as extreme
as Reed's.
"The Revellys, Mr. Crane, are among the most respected of our Southern
gentry. They fought for the original liberties of this country, and in
the war of secession--"
Crane nodded. "I know my history, Mr. Reed."
"But, sir, their distinguished position and high abilities have not
saved them from financial reverses. The grandfather lost everything in
the war; and the present owner, Henry Patrick Revelly, has not been
completely successful. Last winter a breakdown in his health compelled
him to leave the country at short notice. His four children--"
"Four children, Mr. Reed? Two girls and two boys?"
"Four grown children, Mr. Crane. The eldest is twenty-six, the youngest
seventeen. They were left with a roof over their heads and a sum of
money--a small sum--to provide for them during the absence of their
parents. Not a satisfactory arrangement, sir, but made in haste and
distress. Mrs. Revelly's devotion to her husband is such that in her
alarm for him, she did not perhaps sufficiently consider her children.
At the moment when, left alone, their difficulties began to press upon
them, your offer, your generous offer, for the house was made. There was
no time to submit it to their parents, nor, to be candid with you,
would there have been the slightest chance of Mr. Revelly's accepting
it. He has never been able to tolerate the mere suggestion of renting
Revelly Hall. But the four young people felt differently. It was
natural, it was in my opinion commendable, that they decided to move out
of their home for the sake of realizing a large sum--the largest sum
probably that had come into the family purse for many years. But an
obstacle soon appeared. You had insisted that servants should be
provided. This was impossible. They tried earnestly. Miss Claudia told
me herself that she went everywhere within a radius of twenty miles,
except to the jails. At last it became a question of refusing your
offer, or of--of--I believe you have already guessed the alternative."
"This is not a time for the exercise of my creative faculties, Mr. Reed.
What was their decision?"
Reed's discomfort increased. "I wish you could have been present as I
was, Mr. Crane, on that occasion. We were sitting round the fire in the
sitting-room, depressed that Miss Claudia's mission had not succeeded,
when suddenly she said, with a determination quite at variance with her
gentle appearance, 'Well, I've found a cook for him--and a mighty good
one, too.' 'Where did you find her?' I asked in astonishment, for only a
moment before she had been confessing absolute failure. 'I found her,'
she answered, 'where charity begins.' I own that even then I did not get
the idea, but her brother Paul, who always understands her, saw at once
what was in her mind. 'Yes,' she went on, 'I've found an excellent cook,
a good butler, a rather inefficient housemaid, and a dangerous extra
boy,' and she looked from one to the other of her family as she spoke.
Her meaning was clear. They themselves were to take the places of the
servants they could not find. As Paul pointed out, the plan had the
advantage of saving them the trouble of finding board and lodgings,
elsewhere. Miss Lily was opposed from the start. Her nature, exceedingly
refined and retiring, revolted, but no one in the Revelly family can
bear up against the combined wills of Paul and Miss Claudia. How the
plan was carried out you know."
There was a short silence. It was now some days since Crane had
suspected the identity of his servants, an hour since Jane-Ellen had
turned at the name of Claudia and made him sure. Nevertheless the
certainty that Reed's confession brought was very grateful to him; so
grateful that he feared his expression would betray him, and he assumed
a look of stern blankness.
Seeing this, Reed thought it necessary to plead the culprits' cause.
"After all, Mr. Crane, was there not courage and self-sacrifice needed?
You see this explains everything. The miniature of their grandmother was
taken upstairs for fear its likeness to Miss Claudia might betray them.
Miss Lily, who as I said never approved of the plan, was
constitutionally unable to be calm under the accusation of stealing a
hat, made, as I understand, rather roughly by Mrs. Falkener. I should be
very sorry if your opinion of the Revelly family--"
"I can't see what my opinion has to do with the situation," said Crane.
Every moment now that kept him from Claudia was to him an intolerable
bore. He drew his check-book toward him. "However, your story has
convinced me of this--my only course is to pay my rent in full."
Reed began to feel the pride of the successful diplomat. "And one other
thing, Mr. Crane. You see the necessity of not mentioning this. It would
make a great deal of talk in the country. A young lady's name--"
Burton rose quickly. It was not agreeable to him to have Reed pleading
with him for the preservation of Claudia's reputation.
"Here's your check," he said.
Reed pressed on. "And another thing will now be equally clear to you, I
am sure. Miss Revelly cannot possibly spend the night here alone."
"That," replied Crane, "is a question for Miss Revelly herself to
decide. My motors are at her disposal to take her anywhere she may
choose to go." And he opened the door as if he expected that Reed would
now take his departure.
But Reed did not move. "I cannot go away and leave Miss Revelly here
alone with you," he said.
"Of the two alternatives," said Crane, "you might find it more difficult
to stay in my house without my consent. But I'll leave it this way--do
you think Miss Revelly would regard your presence as a protection?"
"I don't understand you, sir."
"Your last visit to my kitchen did not, I believe, inspire her with
confidence. Shall we leave the decision to her?"
Reed went out in silence. He had had no reconciliation with Jane-Ellen
since that fatal kiss in the kitchen, and he knew she would not now side
with him. He decided to go away and find her brothers.
Lefferts, meanwhile, left alone, had stretched himself on a sofa, and
was smoking, with his eyes fixed on the ceiling.
"My dear fellow," cried Crane with some compunction, "were you waiting
to see me?"
"I was waiting for my motor," answered the poet. "You know that,
imagining this to be an ordinary dinner-party, I ordered it back at a
quarter before eleven."
"Where's Tucker?" asked Burton.