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Page 29
As the door closed behind A.O., Elise sent her book flying across the
room, and the next moment was groping under the bed for a dress-box
which she had hidden there. A blond wig that she had bought while in
Washington for next week's tableaux tumbled out first, with a motley
collection of borrowed articles, which she had been at great pains to
procure.
Laughing so that she could hardly dress, Elise began to make a hurried
change. Five minutes later she stood before the glass completely
disguised. Cornie Dean's long black skirt trailed around her. A.O.'s
own jacket fitted her snugly, with Margaret Elwood's new black feather
boa, which had just been sent her from home, hiding the cut of its
familiar collar. Jane Ridgeway's second best spectacles covered her
mischievous eyes, and a black veil was draped over the small toque and
blond hair in such a way that its broad band of crape hid the lower part
of her face. As a finishing touch a piece of gold-leaf, pressed over
part of an upper front tooth, gave the effect of a large gold filling,
whenever she smiled.
She had provided herself with a pair of black gloves, but at the last
moment the left-hand glove could not be found. When all her frantic
overturnings failed to bring it to light, she gave up the search, not
wanting to lose any more valuable time. The little flat feather muff
which went with the boa would hide the fact that she had only one glove.
Thrusting her bare hand into it, she stopped for only one thing more, a
black bordered card, which bore the name in old English type, _Mrs.
Robertson Redmond_. It was one which had been sent up to her by one of
her mother's friends, who called at the Claiborne's, and was partly
responsible for this disguise. It had suggested the black veil with the
crape border.
Dodging past several open doors she reached the south corridor in safety
and raising the window that opened on a back court, she stepped out on
the fire escape. Cornie's long skirt nearly tripped her, and it was no
easy matter to cling to the rounds of the iron ladder, with a muff in
one hand and her skirts constantly wrapping around her. Luckily she had
only one flight to descend. Stopping a moment to smooth her ruffled
plumage and get her breath, she walked around to the front of the house,
climbed the steps, and boldly lifted the great knocker.
It was a dark, cold night, and the sudden appearance of a lady on the
doorstep, so far from the station, astonished the footman who opened the
door. He had heard no sound of wheels, and he peered out past her,
expecting to see some manly escort emerge from the night. None came. But
she was unmistakably a lady, and her mourning costume seemed to furnish
the necessary credentials. When she handed him a black-bordered card and
asked for Miss Mary Ware of Arizona, with an air of calm assurance and
with the broadest of English accents, he bowed obsequiously and ushered
her into the drawing room.
In the far end of it Herr Vogelbaum was talking lustily in German to two
young men, evidently fellow musicians. Otherwise it was deserted,
except for A.O., and a bashful, overgrown boy of seventeen, who sat
opposite her on a chair far too low for him. It gave him the effect of
sprawling, and he was constantly drawing in his long legs and thrusting
them out again. The teacher who was to be drawing room chaperon for the
evening had not yet come down.
The lady in black glided into the room with the air of being so absorbed
in her own affairs that she looked upon the other occupants as she did
the furniture. Without even a direct glance at the young people in the
corner she swept up to a chair within a few feet of them and sat down to
wait. Jimmy, in the midst of some tale about a prank that the High
School Invincibles had played on a rival base-ball team, faltered, grew
confused and finished haltingly. For all her spectacles and crape the
golden haired stranger was fascinatingly young and pretty.
A.O. was provoked that her visitor should show to such disadvantage even
before this unknown lady who apparently was taking no notice of them.
But when he paused she could think of nothing to say herself for a
moment or two. Then, to break the silence which was growing painful, she
plunged into an account of one of the last escapades of her wicked
room-mate, whom she pictured as a most fascinating, but a desperately
reckless creature. It was funny, the way she told it, and it sent Jimmy
off into a spasm of mirth. But she would almost rather have bitten her
tongue out than to have caused Jimmy to explode in that wild bray of a
laugh. He slapped his knee repeatedly, and doubled up as if he could
laugh no longer, only to break out in a second bray, louder than the
first. It made the gentlemen in the other end of the room look around
inquiringly.
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