The Tiger Lily Part 30

"Where is the lady you announced just now?" said Dale sharply.

"Plee, sir, she's gone, sir."

"Gone?"

"Yes, sir."

Lady Grayson uttered a low sigh of satisfaction.

"What did she say?"

"Nothin', sir."

"Did you tell her that this lady and gentleman were here?"

"Oh no, sir. I never said nothin' to her, sir."

"But she said she would call again?"

"That she didn't, sir. She couldn't. She just comed and goed,"

faltered the girl.

"But did she not hear our voices in the studio?"

"No, sir; she couldn't. Why, she never come no further than the street-door mat, and you can't hear no talking in here, even if you stand just outside."

"Oh, you have tried?" said the Conte laughingly. "That I hain't, sir, but I've seed missus more'n once."

"That will do."

"Yes, sir," said Keren-Happuch, but Dale checked her.

"Don't go," he said.

"Ah, well then, Mr. Dale, as the lady is not coming up to see us, we will go and see her: Mahomet to the mountain, eh! my dear Lady Grayson?

May I see you to your carriage?"

"I have no carriage here," she said quickly. "Yes, we had better go."

"After our double failure to-day; but Mr. Dale will alter his decision on our behalf. Good day, my dear modern representative of Fra Lippo Lippi. It is grand to be a handsome young artist," the Conte continued, as he took a step toward the dais, and raised something on the end of his cane, "supplicated by beautiful ladies to transfer their features to canvas; but you should warn them not to leave their veils behind when they take refuge in another room. Look, my dear Lady Grayson;" and he held the veil toward her on the end of his cane, "thick--secretive-- admirable for a disguise.--Come."

He tossed the veil back on to the dais, and opened the door for his companion to pa.s.s out, while Dale stood fuming with rage, and Lady Grayson gave him a mocking look as he advanced.

"Good morning, Mr. Dale," she said laughingly, and then in a whisper--"secret for secret, my handsome friend. You and I cannot play at telling tales out of school."

"Lor', if it ain't like being at the theayter," thought Keren-Happuch, as the door was shut, and Dale crossed quickly to reopen it, and stand listening till the front door closed. Then he came back to where the little maid stood waiting, while, faintly heard, came a call from below.

"Keren--Hap--puch!"

"Comin', mum. Please, Mr. Dale, sir, missus is a callin' of me; may I go?"

"Who was the lady who came just now?" Keren-Happuch writhed slightly, as she looked in a frightened way in the artist's face.

"Do you hear me? I said, Who was the lady who came just now? It was not the Contessa?"

"No, sir."

"Was it that--that American lady?"

"What! her with the pretty face, who went away crying, sir? Oh no; it wasn't her."

The girl's words sent a sting through him.

"Then who was it?"

"Please, Mr. Dale, sir, I don't like to tell you."

"Tell me this instant, girl," he cried, catching her fiercely by the arm.

"Oh, don't, please, Mr. Dale," she whimpered. "You frighten me."

"Then speak."

"Yes, sir; but I shall holler if you pinch my arm, and that 'Talian girl'll hear me."

"Who was it, then?"

"Please, sir, it was a cracker."

"What?"

"A bit of a fib, sir. I knowed you wanted to get rid of them two 'cause you'd got her as you're so fond on shut up in there."

"Silence!"

"Yes, sir, but missus can't hear; she's down in the kitchen."

"Then n.o.body came?"

"No, sir; I thought if I come and said that, you'd like it, because it would send them away. I've often done it for missus when some one's been bothering her for money."

"Go down," said Dale, writhing beneath the sense of degradation he felt at being under this obligation to the poor little s.l.u.t before him.

"Yes, Mr. Dale, sir; but please don't you be cross with me. I don't mind missus, but it hurts me if you are."

"Go down."

"Yes, sir," said the girl, with a sob; and the tears began to make faint marks on her dirty face. "I wouldn't ha' done it, sir, on'y I knowed you was in love with her and wanted to be alone."