She replied slowly: "I--don't--know," looked up at him, straight at him,
thoughtfully.
"People may come at any time after two o'clock," said Silvette. "If
they find you in flowered silk and a butterfly sash and me in a pigtail,
they will certainly expect dances from us and probably Punch and Judy
from our cousin."
She laughed, and extended her hand to Edgerton.
"I like you, cousin; Diane does, too. When you're dressed in your best,
come back to the studio and we'll arrive at some kind of a conclusion."
Diana nodded to him as she passed with her sister. The questioning
gravity of her expression reminded him of a child who has not yet made
up its mind to like you. She wore the bluest eyes he had ever seen, and
the most enchanting mouth--the unspoiled mouth of childhood.
When they entered their room he went out by the hallway to his.
Standing there, fumbling with tie and collar, his absent gaze followed
the checkered sun spots moving on the wall as the curtain moved; and,
gradually, there in the half light, the blue eyes seemed to take winsome
shape and hue, and he said aloud to himself:
"Anyway, somebody ought to look after her.... She can't go roaming
about like this."
*CHAPTER IV*
*IN LOCO PARENTIS*
Shaved, bathed, and his person adorned with his most fashionable
lounging suit for a summer afternoon, Edgerton sauntered out of his room
and met the maid in the hallway. She had returned in time to answer the
door; evidently also she had already been enlightened as to his
identity, so he passed her with a nod and a smile, and entered the
studio just as the door bell rang.
Neither Silvette nor Diana had yet appeared, nor had he been instructed
what to say to those who might call in answer to the advertisement. He
looked up doubtfully as the maid announced a Mr. Rivett and a Colonel
Curmew, and he stepped forward as these two gentlemen were ushered in.
"How d'you do?" he said pleasantly. "My cousins will be in directly. I
am James Edgerton 3d."
Colonel Curmew, a jaunty gentleman of less than middle height and age,
looked at him out of a pair of eyes slightly inclined to pop. He
appeared to be rather a good-looking man at first glance, with a
perceptible military cut which, however, seemed to threaten something
akin to a strut. He didn't exactly strut when he stepped, but he held
himself very erect--the more so perhaps because he seemed to lack
something else--perhaps height.
He knew Edgerton perfectly well by sight and reputation; and when he sat
down he was still looking at him out of his full, pale eyes.
Mr. Rivett also seated himself--a little man with a walrus mustache who
somehow looked as though, under his loosely cut clothes, his slight
physique was steel framed.
He put on his glasses and looked at Edgerton out of two little unwinking
eyes which reminded the young fellow of holes burned in a blanket.
"I came," he said cautiously, "in answer to a somewhat unusual
advertisement."
"Yes," said Edgerton pleasantly, "we advertised."
"If I recollect," continued Mr. Rivett, "you did not figure in the
advertisement."
"No," replied Edgerton, smiling; "my cousins possess the family talents;
I'm supernumerary--merely thrown in. My services are not worth very
much; I ride and shoot, of course, and all that, but I don't talk very
well and my dancing is the limit."
"I see."
Edgerton nodded serenely.
Colonel Curmew passed a carefully gloved hand over his trimly curled
military mustache. Edgerton glanced at him and wondered just what was
the matter with his face, which ought to have been good-looking.
Perhaps the short, closely cropped side whiskers extending to the lobes
of the ears slightly cheapened the mustache, and vulgarized the man a
little.
Colonel Curmew said:
"I have never had the honor of knowing you, Mr. Edgerton, but your name
and face are very familiar to me on Fifth Avenue."
"My people have lived on Fifth Avenue for--some time," replied the young
fellow, smiling; and caught Mr. Rivett's burnt-brown gaze fixed steadily
upon him.
"Everybody," said Colonel Curmew, sitting very erect, but not exactly
swaggering, "everybody in town regretted to hear of your family's
financial misfortune, Mr. Edgerton."
"It's very good of them to regret it. Naturally, also, that unexpected
catastrophe explains my cousins' desire for employment as well as my
own."
"I see," said Mr. Rivett, never taking his eyes off Edgerton.
There was a pause; Colonel Curmew stroked his mustache and stared around
at the tapestries and pictures. He evidently realized what they might
bring at auction.
"You are a lover of the antique, sir," he observed.
"Oh, I don't exactly love it. These things belonged to my uncle. The
museum gets them ultimately."
"Ah! a case of the dead hand?"
"Mort main," nodded the young man indifferently.
"I see," said Mr. Rivett; and suddenly it occurred to Edgerton that this
explanation was, perhaps, one of the unuttered questions with which Mr.
Rivett's bony countenance seemed crowded. But the little man had not
yet asked a single one; and it may have been in response to the steady,
silent interrogation of those gimlet eyes that Edgerton was moved to
further explanation.
"My cousins are Californians; I am a New Yorker, as you know. We have
combined forces from economical and family motives. It is necessary that
we find employment, so--" and he smiled at Mr. Rivett--"we have asked
for it."
Mr. Rivett sat impassive behind his big, round spectacles. His walrus
mustache prevented anybody from seeing his mouth; his eyes now resembled
two little charred holes. It was utterly impossible to divine what he
might be thinking about, or even whether he was doing anything at all
except waiting. Somehow, it occurred to Edgerton that Mr. Rivett had
done a great deal of waiting in his career.
Colonel Curmew had now risen, and was strolling about examining the
antiquities when the folding doors slid back and Silvette and Diana came
into the studio.
[Illustration: "'As far as I am concerned, the matter is settled.'"]
Edgerton rose and presented Mr. Rivett and the colonel; the young girls
spoke to them with quiet self-possession, and presently everybody was
again seated. Except for the colonel, the attitude of everybody
suggested a business gathering of people pleasantly receptive to any
business proposition, but that jaunty warrior's pale eyes popped and his
smile was of the sort termed "killing"; and he curled his mustache
continually with caressing fingers, and presently shot his cuffs.
Mr. Rivett broke the silence somewhat abruptly:
"As far as I am concerned, the matter is settled."
There was another silence; then Silvette ventured: "I beg your pardon.
I don't think we understood."
"I say, as far as _I_ am concerned, the matter is settled," repeated Mr.
Rivett. "I ask no further information regarding these young ladies
"--turning slightly toward Edgerton--"nor about you, sir. I am
satisfied, and Mrs. Rivett will be."
Diana and Silvette seemed surprised; Edgerton wore a preoccupied
expression, his eyes narrowing on the big eyeglasses of Mr. Rivett which
reflected the studio window on their convex surface.
"About myself," continued Mr. Rivett with more abruptness, "I have a
house in New York, which is closed, and one or two others; one in
particular where my family is living--my wife, son, and daughter. It's
called Adriutha Lodge; I don't know why--my wife named it. It's
comfortable and big enough to entertain in."
He looked at Silvette without a particle of expression in his face.
"I would like you--both of you young ladies--and your cousin, Mr.
Edgerton, to help us entertain. If we knew how to entertain
successfully we wouldn't ask anybody to show us how. It is better to be
plain about it. We are plain folk from a small town in the West. We
know very few people; we mean to know more. I've come to this city to
remain; I want to make as few mistakes as possible socially. What I
wish you to do is to help me out. Will you?"