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Page 66
We took our seats at an unoccupied table, and began to revel in the
luxuries for which we had only to ask that we might enjoy. I had a
little memorandum of books which I had been waiting to see. She needed
none; but looked for one and another, and yet another, and between us we
kept the attendant well in motion. A pleasant thing to me to be finding
out her thoroughbred tastes and lines of work, and I was happy enough to
interest her in some of my pet readings; and, of course, for she was a
woman, to get quick hints which had never dawned on me before. A very
short hour and a half we spent there before I went to the station-house
again. I went very quickly. I returned to her very slowly.
The trunk was not found. But they were now quite sure they were on its
track. They felt certain it had been carried from pier to pier and taken
back up the river. Nor was it hopeless to follow it. The particular
rascal who was supposed to have it would certainly stop either at
Piermont or at Newburg. They had telegraphed to both places, and were in
time for both. "The day boat, sir, will bring your lady's trunk, and
will bring me Rowdy Rob, too, I hope," said the officer. But at the same
moment, as he rang his bell, he learned that no despatch had yet been
received from either of the places named. I did not feel so certain as
he did.
But Fausta showed no discomfort as I told my news. "Thus far," said she,
"the Public serves me well. I will borrow no trouble by want of faith."
And I--as Dante would say--and I, to her, "will you let me remind you,
then, that at one we dine, that Mrs. Grills is now placing the salt-pork
upon the cabin table, and Mr. Grills asking the blessing; and, as this
is the only day when I can have the honor of your company, will you let
me show you how a Child of the Public dines, when his finances are low?"
Fausta laughed, and said again, less tragically than before, "I have
perfect confidence in you,"--little thinking how she started my blood
with the words; but this time, as if in token, she let me take her hand
upon my arm, as we walked down the street together.
If we had been snobs, or even if I had been one, I should have taken her
to Taylor's, and have spent all the money I had on such a luncheon as
neither of us had ever eaten before. Whatever else I am, I am not a snob
of that sort. I show my colors. I led her into a little cross-street
which I had noticed in our erratic morning pilgrimage. We stopped at a
German baker's. I bade her sit down at the neat marble table, and I
bought two rolls. She declined lager, which I offered her in fun. We
took water instead, and we had dined, and had paid two cents for our
meal, and had had a very merry dinner, too, when the clock struck two.
"And now, Mr. Carter," said she, "I will steal no more of your day. You
did not come to New York to escort lone damsels to the Astor Library or
to dinner. Nor did I come only to see the lions or to read French. I
insist on your going to your affairs, and leaving me to mine. If you
will meet me at the Library half an hour before it closes, I will thank
you; till then," with a tragedy shake of the hand, and a merry laugh,
"adieu!"
I knew very well that no harm could happen to her in two hours of an
autumn afternoon. I was not sorry for her _cong�_, for it gave me an
opportunity to follow my own plans. I stopped at one or two
cabinet-makers, and talked with the "jours" about work, that I might
tell her with truth that I had been in search of it;--then I sedulously
began on calling upon every man I could reach named Mason. O, how often
I went through one phase or another of this colloquy:--
"Is Mr. Mason in?"
"That's my name, sir."
"Can you give me the address of Mr. Mason who returned from Europe last
May?"
"Know no such person, sir."
The reader can imagine how many forms this dialogue could be repeated
in, before, as I wrought my way through a long line of dry-goods cases
to a distant counting-room, I heard some one in it say, "No, madam, I
know no such person as you describe"; and from the recess Fausta emerged
and met me. Her plan for the afternoon had been the same with mine. We
laughed as we detected each other; then I told her she had had quite
enough of this, that it was time she should rest, and took her, _nolens
volens_, into the ladies' parlor of the St. Nicholas, and bade her wait
there through the twilight, with my copy of Clementine, till I should
return from the police-station. If the reader has ever waited in such a
place for some one to come and attend to him, he will understand that
nobody will be apt to molest him when he has not asked for attention.
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