Part 18 (1/2)
This I did a bit jauntily, and I had a feeling that I was playing my part well. But the young man before me seemed to swell with the rage that surged within him. He broke out furiously, beating the air with his fist.
”You not only insult this committee, but you speak with intentional disrespect of my native state, and of the great philosophical school of which I am a disciple. Am I right?”
”You are eminently right, Mr. d.i.c.k. Neither the corn, the philosophical schools, nor the packing-house statistics of your native Omaha interest me a particle. So far as I am personally concerned you may go back to your wigwam on the tawny Missouri as soon as you please.”
”Then,” he broke forth explosively, ”then, sir, by Minerva's pale brow, and by all the G.o.ds at once, I brand you”--
”Put the brand on hot, little one! Make it a good strong curse while you're about it!”
He choked with rage for a moment; then he controlled himself with painful effort.
”My personal grievances must wait,” continued d.i.c.k, brokenly, ”but speaking for the committee I wish to say that your attentions to the young lady whom you have dared, sir, to name, are obnoxious to us.”
”Nothing less than that!” added Shallenberger.
”We will not stand for it,” growled Ormsby's heavy ba.s.s.
”Mr. Shallenberger,” I replied evenly, ”as a member of the great Hoosier school of novelists I have the most profound respect for your talents. My office-boy is dead to the world for weeks after the appearance of a novel from your pen. But your interference in my private affairs is beyond all reason. And as for you, Mr. Ormsby, I dare say your knit-goods are worthy of the fame of the pent-up Utica from which you come. But to you and all of you, I bid defiance. I return to Hopefield Manor by the four-fourteen express.”
I rose and bowed coldly in dismissal; but the trio stood their ground stubbornly.
”I tell you, sir, our organization is complete!” declared d.i.c.k. ”We signed a gentleman's agreement only last night, for the express purpose of excluding you, and you cannot enter as a compet.i.tor. You are only an outsider, and we don't intend to have you interfering with our affairs.”
”By the pink left ear of Venus!” I blurted, ”is it a trust?”
”You put it coa.r.s.ely, Mr. Ames, but”--
”A suitors' trust? Then if I read the newspapers correctly, your organization is against public policy and in contravention of the anti-trust law. But may I inquire why, if you have perfected a combination of Miss Hollister's suitors, I found Lord Arrowood this morning sitting on a stone by the roadside, evidently in the greatest dejection. Can it be possible that an insurgent has crept into your organization and incurred the displeasure of the regulars?”
”We ruled him out,” Shallenberger burst forth, ”because he was a foreigner and not ent.i.tled to a place among free-born Americans! That is one reason; and for another, the colors of his half-hose were an offense to me, personally.”
”And for another reason,” interposed Ormsby, ”he had no money with which to pay his board at the Prescott Arms. For this just cause the landlord ejected him shortly after breakfast this morning.”
”Then there is already a rift in the lute!” I returned. ”No trust of suitors is stronger than its weakest link. By the b.l.o.o.d.y footprints of our forefathers on the snows of Valley Forge, I stand for the right of the American girl to choose where she will. You may perch on the hills about Hopefield Manor, and besiege Cecilia Hollister till the end of time, but my hand is raised against your unrighteous compact, and I am in the fight to stay! Go back to the Prescott Arms, gentlemen, and a.s.sure your a.s.sociates in this hideous compact of my most distinguished consideration and tell them to go to the devil.”
I had gone to the St. Parvenu Hotel to call upon a Was.h.i.+ngton lady who had been making life a burden to my a.s.sistant, and on coming out into Fifth Avenue shortly after one, bethought me of the Asolando Tea-Room.
My interview with the committee of the suitors had driven from my mind practically every consideration and every interest not centred in Hopefield Manor. My thoughts turned gratefully to the Asolando, where only a few days ago I had been precipitated into the strangest adventures my eventless life had known.
A strange face was visible at the cas.h.i.+er's desk as I entered the tea-room. I pa.s.sed on, finding the place quite full, but I took it as a good omen that the seventh table from the right was unoccupied, and I hastily appropriated it. A waitress appeared promptly, murmuring,--
”There are no birds in last year's nest,”--
and recommended a Locker-Lampson sandwich, whose contents the girl told me were secret, but it proved to be wholly palatable. As I drank my tea and ate the sandwich I surveyed the decorated menu card with interest, and found pleasurable excitement in discovering an item directing attention to ”Pickles _a la_ Hezekiah, 15 cents.”
The delightful Hezekiah must, then, have impressed herself upon the _deus ex machina_ of the Asolando on her brief day there, thus to have won this recognition. And further on I noted, among the desserts, _Peche Cecilie_, with even greater interest and satisfaction. Miss Hollister's nieces were among ten thousand young women, and it was quite believable that their brief tenure of office in the tea-room had fixed them permanently in the heart of the unknown proprietor.
The girl at the cash-desk was reading, her head bent as demurely as Hezekiah's had been on that memorable afternoon; but I did not care for the stranger's profile. I tried to fancy Cecilia in cap and ap.r.o.n serving these tables, but my imagination was not equal to the task.
Cecilia occupied my mind now. The visit of the furious suitors to my office had stirred in me thoughts and aspirations that had never known harborage in my breast before. The presumption of those fellows had exceeded anything I had known in my contact with human kind, and instead of frightening me away from Hopefield Manor, they had called my own attention to the strategic importance of my present position as a guest in Miss Octavia's house. Here was a siege of suitors indeed; but I was resolved to make the most of my position within the barricade.
As these thoughts ran through my mind, I was finis.h.i.+ng my _Peche Cecilie_ (I spurn all sweets ordinarily), when I became interested in the unusual conduct of a young woman who had entered the front door briskly and walked with a business-like air to the cas.h.i.+er's desk. The girl within the wicket rose promptly, opened the screen, and without parley of any sort, emptied the contents of her till into the visitor's reticule. With a nod and a smile and a moment's careless survey of the room, the girl departed, swinging the reticule in her hand. A long roll she carried under her arm confirmed my identification. It was Miss Octavia Hollister's Swedish maid; and the roll, beyond peradventure, contained the plans she had obtained at Pepperton's office.