"I am going uptown for the afternoon. If Mr. Murtha comes, Mr. Ogden will see him.".

Peter went down and took a cab, giving the driver a number in Grammercy Park.

The footman hesitated on Peter's inquiry. "Mr. D'Alloi is in, sir, but is having his afternoon nap, and we have orders he's not to be disturbed."

"Take him my card. He will see me."

The footman showed Peter into the drawing-room, and disappeared. Peter heard low voices for a moment, then the curtains of the back room were quickly parted, and with hands extended to meet him, Helen appeared.

"This is nice of you--and so unexpected!"

Peter took the hand, but said nothing. They sat down, and Mrs. D'Alloi continued:

"Watts is asleep, and I have given word that he is not to be disturbed.

I want to see you for a moment myself. You have plenty of time?"

"Yes."

"That's very nice. I don't want you to be formal with us. Do say that you can stay to dinner?"

"I would, if I were not already engaged."

"Then we'll merely postpone it. It's very good of you to come to see us.

I've tried to get Watts to look you up, but he is so lazy! It's just as well since you've found us out. Only you should have asked for both of us."

"I came on business," said Peter.

Mrs. D'Alloi laughed. "Watts is the poorest man in the world for that, but he'll do anything he can to help you, I know. He has the warmest feeling for you."

Peter gathered from this that Mrs. D'Alloi did not know of the "sc.r.a.pe,"

whatever it was, and with a lawyer's caution, he did not attempt to disabuse her of the impression that he had called about his own affairs.

"How you have changed!" Mrs. D'Alloi continued. "If I had not known who it was from the card, I am not sure that I should have recognized you."

It was just what Peter had been saying to himself of Mrs. D'Alloi. Was it her long ill-health, or was it the mere lapse of years, which had wrought such changes in her? Except for the eyes, everything had altered. The cheeks had lost their roundness and color; the hair had thinned noticeably; lines of years and pain had taken away the sweet expression that formerly had counted for so much; the pretty roundness of the figure was gone, and what charm it now had was due to the modiste's skill. Peter felt puzzled. Was this the woman for whom he had so suffered? Was it this memory that had kept him, at thirty-eight, still a bachelor? Like many another man, he found that he had been loving an ideal--a creation of his own mind. He had, on a boyish fancy, built a dream of a woman with every beauty and attraction, and had been loving it for many years, to the exclusion of all other womankind. Now he saw the original of his dream, with the freshness and glamour gone, not merely from the dream, but from his own eyes. Peter had met many pretty girls, and many sweet ones since that week at the Pierces. He had gained a very different point of view of women from that callow time.

Peter was not blunderer enough to tell Mrs. D'Alloi that he too, saw a change. His years had brought tact, if they had not made him less straightforward. So he merely said, "You think so?"

"Ever so much. You've really grown slender, in spite of your broad shoulders--and your face is so--so different."

There was no doubt about it. For his height and breadth of shoulder, Peter was now by no means heavy. His face, too, had undergone a great change. As the roundness had left it, the eyes and the forehead had both become more prominent features, and both were good. The square, firm jaw still remained, but the heaviness of the cheek and nose had melted into lines which gave only strength and character, and destroyed the dulness which people used to comment upon. The face would never be called handsome, in the sense that regular features are supposed to give beauty, but it was strong and speaking, with lines of thought and feeling.

"You know," laughed Mrs. D'Alloi, "you have actually become good-looking, and I never dreamed that was possible!"

"How long have you been here?"

"A month. We are staying with papa, till the house in Fifty-seventh Street can be put in order. It has been closed since Mrs. D'Alloi's death. But don't let's talk houses. Tell me about yourself."

"There is little to tell. I have worked at my profession, with success."

"But I see your name in politics. And I've met many people in Europe who have said you were getting very famous."

"I spend a good deal of time in politics. I cannot say whether I have made myself famous, or infamous. It seems to depend on which paper I read."

"Yes, I saw a paper on the steamer, that--" Mrs. D'Alloi hesitated, remembering that it had charged Peter with about every known sin of which man is capable. Then she continued, "But I knew it was wrong." Yet there was quite as much of question as of a.s.sertion in her remark. In truth, Mrs. D'Alloi was by no means sure that Peter was all that was desirable, for any charge made against a politician in this country has a peculiar vitality and persistence. She had been told that Peter was an open supporter of saloons, and that New York politics battened on all forms of vice. So a favorite son could hardly have retained the purity that women take as a standard of measurement. "Don't you find ward politics very hard?" she asked, dropping an experimental plummet, to see what depths of iniquity there might be.

"I haven't yet."

"But that kind of politics must be very disagreeable to gentlemen. The men must have such dirty hands!"

"It's not the dirty hands which make American politics disagreeable.

It's the dirty consciences."

"Are--are politics so corrupt and immoral?"

"Politics are what the people make them."

"Really?"

"I suppose your life has not been of a kind to make you very familiar with it all. Tell me what these long years have brought you?"

"Perfect happiness! Oh, Mr. Stirling--may I call you Peter?--thank you.

Peter, I have the finest, n.o.blest husband that ever lived! He is everything that is good and kind!" Mrs. D'Alloi's face lighted up with happiness and tenderness.

"And your children?"

"We have only one. The sweetest, loveliest child you can imagine."

"Fie, fie, Rosebud," cried a voice from the doorway. "You shouldn't speak of yourself so, even if it is the truth. Leave that to me. How are you, Peter, old fellow? I'd apologize for keeping you waiting, but if you've had Helen, there's no occasion. Isn't it Boileau who said that: 'The best thing about many a man is his wife'?"

Mrs. D'Alloi beamed, but said, "It isn't so, Peter. He's much better than I."

Watts laughed. "You'll have to excuse this, old man. Will happen sometimes, even in the properest of families, if one marries an angel."

"There, you see," said Mrs. D'Alloi. "He just spoils me, Peter."

"And she thrives on it, doesn't she, Peter?" said Watts. "Isn't she prettier even than she was in the old days?"

Mrs. D'Alloi colored with pleasure, even while saying: "Now, Watts dear, I won't swallow such palpable flattery. There's one kiss for it--Peter won't mind--and now I know you two want to talk old times, so I'll leave you together. Good-bye, Peter--or rather _au revoir_--for you must be a regular visitor now. Watts, arrange with Peter to dine with us some day this week."

Mrs. D'Alloi disappeared through the doorway. Peter's pulse did not change a beat.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV.

HELP.