Round the Block Part 55

Miss Pillbody entered the room in that noiseless, sliding way, which indicates a const.i.tutional diffidence. Her eyelids involuntarily contracted, so that she might see her callers on a near approach to them. Fayette Overtop, marking her modest demeanor and her short-sightedness, immediately announced his name and that of his companion, and the object of their visit.

At the mention of his name, Miss Pillbody started. She had heard of Fayette Overtop, Esq., through the newspapers, as counsel for Marcus Wilkeson; but not as the philosophic friend of Mrs. Slapman. In reply to questions about Miss Minford, she stated that that interesting young pupil had not taken lessons from her since the death of her father.

Miss Pillbody here indulged in a little artifice. She produced a memorandum book, to see when Miss Minford took her last lesson; and, in order that she might read distinctly, drew out her eyegla.s.ses, and adjusted them with a graceful movement of the arm and hand. Overtop thought that she handled the eyegla.s.ses in a most ladylike manner; and that, when they were astride of her shapely nose, they became her face wonderfully.

When Miss Pillbody had referred to the little memorandum book, she gave one short look at Fayette Overtop. That gentleman, conscious that his face was scrutinized, looked at the wall. Miss Pillbody stole but one glance, and then shut the eyegla.s.ses prettily, and stuck them into an invisible pocket of her waist. She had come to the conclusion that Mr.

Overtop was a person of dignified and intelligent appearance. And Mr.

Overtop had settled into the opinion that Miss Pillbody was a near approach to that imagined paragon--a sensible woman.

Mr. Overtop was about to make a shrewd remark upon the great superiority of private select schools over all public inst.i.tutions for the education of young ladies, when Miss Pillbody rose.

"Do you desire any other information, gentlemen?" said she.

"No, I thank you, Miss Pillbody," returned Overtop, who interpreted her question to mean that a pupil was waiting for her somewhere--which was true; for Mrs. Gipscon, a fat lady of forty-eight, was taking her second grammar lesson in the back parlor.

The two callers seized their hats.

"Could I intrust you with a message for Miss Minford, Mr. Overtop?"

"With a thousand," said that gallant man.

"Please, then, give my love to her, and ask her to come round and see me."

Mr. Overtop would have said that he always found it difficult to carry a lady's love to another without keeping some himself; but then he thought that this might be a little bold for a stray caller. So he answered, "With pleasure."

The two visitors bowed, and Miss Pillbody bent her head gracefully toward Mr. Overtop.

"What do you think of the schoolmarm?" asked Tiffles, when they had got into the street.

Overtop did not like the phrase "schoolmarm." "I think Miss Pillbody,"

said he, "is--a sensible woman."

CHAPTER IV.

INNOCENCE ON A SLIPPERY ROAD.

Walking with the nervous and unreasonable quickness of city men, they soon arrived at Mrs. Grail's. The good lady was sitting at one of her front windows, sewing. As she looked into the street, her face was seen to have a sad and thoughtful expression. She came to the door in response to a sharp ring by Wesley Tiffles, who was tentative of bellpulls. Mrs. Crull kept two servants, but she could never get over the impulse to answer the door, when she was near it.

Overtop explained that they were desirous of seeing Miss Minford on important business.

"The poor, dear child!" exclaimed Mrs. Crull, in a broken voice. "She is not here."

"Not here!" cried Overtop. "Where is she, then?"

"I don't know, sir; and that's what troubles me so." Here the good Mrs.

Crull began to twitch about the mouth. But she did not cry. She had too much of the masculine element for that. Her whole life was a struggle between the weakness of her feminine body and the strong self-control of her manly soul, in which the latter, after an effort, always came out victor.

Mrs. Crull then proceeded to explain, a little incoherently, that she had taken Miss Minford to her house, the day after the murder, and had asked the poor child to live with her, to be her adopted daughter. Miss Minford had gladly accepted the offer, and had stayed there until yesterday. During the last two or three days, she had noticed that Miss Minford, or Pet, as she always called her, was worried about something.

She would not tell Mrs. Crull what was the matter, but Mrs. Crull somehow guessed that it was a love affair. She remembered the handsome, dissipated young man at the inquest, and she had seen him standing at the corner below her house, only two days before Miss Minford left.

"Left!" exclaimed Overtop, jumping at a conclusion. "Then that villain has abducted and ruined her."

"It's bad enough, I fear," continued Mrs. Crull; "but perhaps not so bad as that 'ere. Anyhow, I hopes not. I spoke to Pet about that young man, and she looked as innocent as a spring lamb at me, though she kind o'

blushed when she denied having met him since the trial. And, to do her justice, I don't think she had met him then, though I sort o' suspeck she seen him from the window two or three times--she had a habit of looking out o' the window--and that he contrived to have a talk with her somewhere and somehow, the day before she went away. And I think he must have had the cheek to come into this very room" (Mrs. Crull had shown her visitors into her front parlor), "because one o' my servants says that she heerd a strange voice in the entry, and the door shut as if somebody had gone out. When she come into the entry to see who it was, she saw Pet hurrying into the parlor, and heerd her humming a tune. Pet wasn't in the habit of humming tunes; and, the servant thought that rather 'spicious. So do I--not of any wrong, mind you. I wouldn't believe that till it was proved. But, to make a long story short, here is the note that poor Pet left on my dressin' table. Read it. I--I haven't got my spectacles."

The truth was, that Mrs. Crull's eyes were filling with tears, and she could not have read the now familiar lines on that little piece of paper even with the powerful aid of her spectacles.

Monday Evening.

DEAR MRS. CRULL:

Please pardon me for what I have done. I knew you would not consent to it, and so I did not tell you. I was afraid I should become a burden to you; though you are too good-hearted to say so. I have a nice place, and am earning my own living honestly. Do not try to find me, but believe I will always be good, and worthy of your love, and, some day, will repay you for all your kindness.

With love and respect,

PATTY MINFORD.

"A very strange note!" murmured Overtop. "Young girls are not apt to complain of being burdens, or to take such misanthropic views of life.

There is a man's hand in this. That wretch, Van Quintem, jr., without a doubt. Did you never warn Miss Minford against him?"

"Once," said Mrs. Crull, with a faint choke in her voice. "I had noticed his glances toward her at the inquest, and I told her he was a bad young man, and she must not allow him to speak to her in the street, and that, if he should come to my house to see her, I should shut the door in his face."

"And what did she say to that?"

"She said all she knew about him was, that he had saved her life once.

She couldn't forget that. Then I showed her how improper it was in him to hide his own name from her, and what horrid holes these gambling dens was which he goes to. I also p'inted out how unfeelin' his conduct was to his poor old father."

"And what did she say to all that?"

"She nodded her head, and said, 'Yes, so it was;' but I see, now, that all my talk didn't make no impression on her."

"The sum of it is," said Overtop, "that she loves this worthless vagabond, and knew that you would not permit his visits to your house.

Therefore she has left you."

Mrs. Crull was a woman of firmness as well as affection. She regretted that her opposition to this young man should have been the means of driving Pet away. But she knew that she had done what any prudent mother would have done for her own child.

"I'm sorry it has come to this," said she; "but I did it all for the best, Heaven knows. Gen'lemen, we must find this child. But how?"

Tiffles, being a man of infinite expedients, and accustomed to solve problems for himself, and everybody else, at the shortest notice, answered at once:

"_Not_ by advertising for her, or putting the police on her track. Young Van Quintem would take the alarm, and move her out of town. She will go anywhere with him, if I mistake not, until she finds him out better.

Have you no clue to her whereabouts; or can you think of any one that could give us any information?"

Mrs. Crull reflected. "Unless I am much mistaken," said she, "I saw that tall, clean-looking boy, Bog, I believe they call him--you remember him at the inquest--walking on t'other side o' the street, two or three times since Pet come to live with me. He looked sideways and kind o'

sheepish at the house as he pa.s.sed. I've a notion that he was a lover of Pet's, too."