AT THE VLY MARKET
It was a bright sunny morning, but very cold, and snow lay packed hard
and firm in the streets of New York, which, narrow as they were,
afforded little opportunity for the sun's rays to penetrate with
sufficient strength to warm the shivering pedestrians who were hurrying
down Maiden Lane in the direction of the Vly Market. At the farthest end
of the street were the shops, and one of these, "The Sign of the Cross
Swords," stood within a stone's throw of the market itself. It was a
small affair, with little grimy window-panes, where were displayed
knives, scissors, and razors, with locks and keys of many odd sorts. At
the door stood a half-grown boy, stamping his feet to keep warm, as he
droned out in sing-song fashion: "Walk in, gentlefolk, and have your
razors ground; we have all manner of kitchen furniture in cutlery
within, also catgut and fiddle strings at most reasonable rates."
But these attractions did not appear to bring many customers inside the
little shop, as the passersby seemed chiefly eager to gain the Vly
Market, where the stalls were crowded with purchasers who were getting
the good things there displayed to indulge in keeping New Year's day
with the proper spirit of festivity; and the shop-boy was about to slip
inside for the comfort of warming his fingers and toes, when a tall,
slender fellow in fisherman's dress accosted him.
"Hey, you there! Have you fish-hooks and nets within?"
"Aye, sir, in plenty. Will it please you to enter?" And the boy made
room for the stranger to pass through the narrow doorway. The shop was
apparently empty, except for a middle-aged man who rose from his seat on
a high stool near the window, where he was busily engaged in polishing a
pair of razors. As he came forward, the fisherman addressed him:--
"Good day, friend. A frosty morning."
"But the wind will turn to east at sunset," said the other, with a quick
glance from under his heavy eyebrows.
"A good wind, then, for the Sturdy Beggar," was the reply, as the
fisherman clasped his hands behind his neck with a peculiar gesture.
"Then all's well," returned the shopkeeper, laying down his razors, and
motioning his customer to come farther inside. "Whom do you seek here,
sir?"
"Mynheer Wilhelm Hoffmeister, known commonly as 'Billy the fiddler.'"
"He is off on duty since last Tuesday, but must be here to-night to play
at a grand ball given at one of the Tory houses; there must be news, for
you are the third one who has asked for him since yesterday."
"News?" said the fisherman eagerly; "perhaps you have a billet for me?"
"And what may you be called?" asked the other cautiously.
"Jim Bates, from Breucklen Heights."
"Then you're all right, sir; why didn't you say so before?" and the man,
casting a swift glance to make sure that the boy at the door was not
looking, pulled a scrap of dirty paper from his pocket, which was
instantly seized and opened by the fisherman. As he read the few words
it contained, the anxious lines on his face grew deeper.
"It is the only way," he muttered to himself, as he tore the scrap into
tiniest fragments, "but I must know from Kitty the hour." Then aloud,
"Have you a bit of paper, friend, on which I can write a message?"
"Surely," said the shopkeeper; "wait here a moment until I fetch it,"
and he went hurriedly through a small door at the back of the shop,
leaving the fisherman standing near the window, from which he could see
the crowd outside. Suddenly the man uttered an exclamation, and made a
dash for the door, nearly upsetting the boy on the threshold.
"Tell your master I will return shortly," he said hurriedly, and
disappeared in the direction of the Vly Market.
It happened that Madam Cruger, thrifty housewife though she was, had
forgotten to order an extra number of the large, flat seedcakes, known
as New Year Cakes (and without which no gathering could be considered
complete for New Year day, when they were handed to all callers with the
accompanying glasses of mulled wine and metheglin), and had therefore
dispatched her daughter, with a colored servant carrying a capacious
basket on his arm, to purchase the dainty from the one stall in the Vly
Market where the aristocratic folk were wont to deal. Truth to tell,
Madam Cruger had made matters somewhat uncomfortable for her portly cook
when she learned that the cakes made by that functionary were too few to
meet her ideas of hospitality; and although Kitty knew that it would
require speed on her part to go to the market and return in time to
dress and be ready to receive their visitors in the drawing-room by
twelve o'clock, she preferred to pour oil on the troubled waters and
procure domestic peace at the expense of a little personal fatigue.
Beside, it was not unpleasant to trip along with the merry crowd, bent
on enjoying themselves, and Kitty knew that she would meet many an
acquaintance, out, like herself, on some belated errand for New Year
day.
But there was one occurrence for which Kitty had not bargained, and that
befell her as she gained the market door. The fisherman, who had
followed her as swiftly as he dared without creating notice, passed
close at her elbow, then turned and met her face to face. Kitty grew a
little pale as he touched his cap respectfully, but she stopped in
obedience to the glance which met hers.
"A Happy New Year to you, my good man," she said. "I fear that you and
your brother craftsmen suffer this terribly cold winter. Stand aside out
of the chilly wind which meets us through the market door and I will
speak to you. Cato," to her servant, "go on to Fran Hansel's stall, and
let her weigh out five pounds of seedcakes for my mother; I will join
you there in a moment," and she turned back to the fisherman, knowing
that in the crowd she was comparatively safe, provided her voice was not
loud enough to attract attention.
"What is it?" she murmured, almost breathless from excitement, yet
striving to maintain a quiet, even careless exterior. "I hoped you had
fulfilled your dangerous errand and gone hence two days ago."
"I cannot leave until my mission is completed; we have almost certain
news of an incursion by the British across the Kill von Kull, which will
do much injury to the peaceful country folk of Elizabethtown and Newark.
The man they call 'Billy the fiddler' will have a message for me
to-night of the greatest importance, and he plays with others at the De
Lancey ball; are you to be there, and at what hour?"
"I, Oliver?" said Kitty, and turned rosy red as the incautious word
escaped her; "all New York is going at eight o'clock, but what has that
to do with"--
"This," whispered Oliver Wolcott, pulling his hat further down over his
eyes, and motioning Kitty to walk a few steps away from the door: "I
must be there."
"You are mad!" and Kitty turned pale at the idea.
"Oh, no, I am coming as one Diedrich Gansevoort, from Albany. Do not
fear for me; my disguise will be very perfect, and I go introduced by
Abram Lansing, from whom I bring a letter to Madam De Lancey. They are
old friends, though he is as stanch a Whig as she a Tory. I tell you,
Kitty, 't is of vital importance that I ascertain the facts of this
rumored raid upon the patriots, and I must risk all to gain it. Warn
Betty, lest she give way to alarm; be brave and fear nothing."
"A Happy New Year, Mistress Kitty," said a gentleman who approached her,
followed by his negro servant. "I shall do myself the honor to pay my
respects to your mother a little later;" and Mr. Van Brugh raised his
three-cornered hat in courtly salute, staring hard at Kitty and the
fisherman as he passed them.
"We are noticed," said Oliver calmly; "go on and do your errand."
"But I am so fearful for you," gasped poor Kitty, whose usual composure
seemed to be deserting her. "You try me too far, unless I may do
something to aid your escape, for a horrible sinking of my heart seems
to bode no good to you."
"Put no faith in omens," answered Oliver, with a smile. "I shall be off
at daybreak. Farewell, Kitty, and have no fear; I am well protected,"
and mingling in the crowd, he passed out of the market door and was
gone.
With what courage she could summon, Kitty sped on to Fran Hansel's
stand. The seedcakes had been weighed, decked with a handful of
Christmas greens, and placed in the basket, and Kitty, after a few kind
words to the old Dutch market-woman, made her way swiftly through the
crowd and gained the street.
"I must warn Betty," she thought an she proceeded up Maiden Lane, and as
she came to Queen Street she paused. "Go directly home," she said to her
servant; "tell my mother I have stopped to see Grandma Effingham and
wish her a Happy New Year. I will be back in time to dress," and off she
sped in the direction of Wall Street.
Betty, who like Kitty, had been spending her morning assisting in
preparations for the New Year callers who would present themselves later
in the day, was dusting the quaint Dresden Shepherdess who presided over
a corner of the drawing-room mantel, when a sharp knock at the front
door announced a visitor; and she fled out of the drawing-room only to
encounter Kitty in the hall.
"A Happy New Year to you," said Kitty, in a tone of gayety which she was
far from feeling. "I ran over to give greeting to grandma, and as I came
my petticoat gave way; let me mount to your chamber and fasten it before
I go to grandma's."
"Certainly," said Betty, and seizing hands both girls ran rapidly up the
staircase. Inside the small chamber, Kitty closed the door, and set her
back against it.
"The petticoat is fast enough, Betty, but I have something grave to say.
Oliver is still in the city--he goes to the De Lanceys' to-night--I was
to warn you."
"In what disguise?" asked Betty breathlessly.
"Indeed, I know not, except that he will represent Mynheer Diedrich
Gansevoort, from Albany; oh, Betty, I am sore afraid."
"Nay, wherefore?" and Betty's eyes sparkled as her color rose. "We
Wolcotts are not wont to fail, and I am now too accustomed to Oliver's
hairbreadth escapes for fright."
"You were well alarmed at the servants' dance; oh, how rash he is!"
"We spare nothing in our country's cause," said Betty, with a proud
little toss of her head; "but, Kitty, forgive me if I appear
intrusive--I am puzzled to know how and where you and Oliver"--
"You should have known long ago," interrupted Kitty, blushing deeply,
"but, somehow, I never could approach near enough to your heart to
confess that Oliver and I are trothplighted though my mother's consent
is lacking. We met in Albany--again at West Point, and oh, Betty, how I
have longed to tell you. I have seen you look at me with eyes so like
his; with such scornful glance when I laugh and jest with those hateful
redcoats, such kindly smile when I showed you that I am at heart a
patriot. Forgive me, dear, and let us do all we can to help Oliver
to-night, for he is determined to be at the De Lanceys' as by going
there he can obtain certain important information for the cause of
freedom."
Betty threw her arms around Kitty; why did she feel as if the innocent
words stabbed her? Had the "hateful redcoats" ceased to be hateful to
her?
"Trothplighted," she whispered, with wide-open eyes of delight; "I hoped
as much--how happy my father will be when Oliver"--
"Nay, nay," cried blushing Kitty, "you go too fast; think of madam, my
mother, and her antipathy to the 'rebels,' as she calls them, quite
forgetting that my aunt (where I made my home in Albany for three years)
is one, as well as her naughty daughter. Good lack! my fortunes were
told long ago had I but bowed to her wishes; and at the moment,
Betty,--to let you into a profound secret,--the most desirable husband
for me in her eyes is Captain Yorke."
"Indeed!" said Betty coldly, but Kitty was too engrossed in her own
discourse to notice.
"Not that he has such an idea, mind you; he loves to dance and jest
with me, as a score of others do. But, Betty, your confidence in Oliver
is well sustained so far, and it lightens my heart. Beside, there is no
one here who would be apt to recognize him except you and me; though for
the matter of that why Clarissa did not see and know his shadow at the
servants' dance I have not yet ceased to marvel."
"You forget that she had no knowledge of his presence in New York, and
Oliver has changed greatly since she saw him full three years ago."
"And now to grandma," said Kitty, releasing the latch of the door, which
she had held carefully in her hand since entering the room, as a
precaution against intruders; "and fare you well, Betty, till we meet at
the ball to-night."
All through that New Year day Betty's heart throbbed with excitement, as
a steady stream of visitors passed in and out of the mansion, where
Grandma Effingham and Clarissa bade welcome to old friends and young
ones, to stately gentlemen in small clothes and powdered queues, with a
fine selection of British officers, beginning with Sir Henry Clinton,
who arrived in great state and descended from his sleigh, with its
coal-black horses, accompanied by his aides, for the English commander
liked to conciliate the Tories of New York, and, as he was then making
secret preparations to accompany an expedition to South Carolina,
thought best to appear in public even more than usual.
"Mistress Betty," said Geoffrey Yorke, under cover of sipping a glass of
port wine which she had offered him, "I drink to your very good health;"
then softly, "I have not seen you for a week; have you been quite well
since the Christmas party?"
"Is it so long?"--willfully; "Clarissa said you called one day."
"Surely--to ask for you, and you never came inside the room."
"Because I was busy, sir," replied Betty. Then relenting as a swift
remembrance crossed her mind, "I was skating at the Collect, where I
went with Peter late in the day."
"Will you dance with me to-night at the ball--promise me all the dances
you can possibly spare?" and Geoffrey's voice took its most tender tone
as he fixed his eyes on Betty's charming face.
"All my dances? Nay, two, possibly three, are as many as Clarissa would
deem consistent with good manners," returned the maid, unable to forego
the pleasure of teasing him; "indeed, I am bewildered even now
remembering sundry engagements already made."
"The first dance, Betty," said Yorke pleadingly, as he saw the general
taking leave, and prepared to accompany him. "Surely you will not deny
me that grace?"
But Betty only gave him the tips of her fingers in reply as she swept a
graceful courtesy. Was it the slight pressure of his hand which
accompanied the farewell that made Geoffrey spring gayly into the sleigh
and drive off with a half-boyish, half-triumphant smile?