I have been over and I have done it. I have taken the "management" of the whole thing--not even discouraged by this unfortunate word. I own I am rather raw to it. But the time has come when, though I bled beneath it, I must act as if I didn't. At all events I must ACT.... I have acted. I am going to New York by the early morning express--the 7.20. I would go to-night-in fact, I really ought to go to-night. But Tom has a supper "on" with some visitors to the Works. He won't be home till late, and I can't go without seeing Tom. It would hurt his feelings, and that is a thing no wife ought to do, and my kind of wife can't do.

I found the house in its usual gelatinous condition. There wasn't a back-bone in it, scarcely an ankle-joint to stand upon: plenty of crying, but no thinking; a mush of talk, but no decision. To cap the situation, Charles Edward has gone on to New York with a preposterous conviction that HE can clear it up.... CHARLES EDWARD! If there is a living member of the household--But never mind that. This circ.u.mstance was enough for me, that's all. It brought out all the determination in me, all the manager, if you choose to put it so.

I shall go to New York myself and take the whole thing in hand. If I needed anything to padlock my purpose those dozen words with Peggy would have turned the key upon it. When I found that she wasn't crying; when I got face to face with that soft, fine excitement in the eyes which a girl wears when she has a love-affair, not stagnant, but in action--I concluded at once that Peggy had her reservations and was keeping something from me. On pretence of wanting a doughnut I got her into the pantry and shut both doors.

"Peggy," I said, "what has Charles Edward gone to New York for? Do you know?"

Peggy wound a big doughnut spinning around her engagement finger and made no reply.

"If it has anything to do with you and Harry Goward, you must tell me, Peggy. You must tell me instantly."

Peggy put a doughnut on her wedding finger and observed, with pained perplexity, that it would not spin, but stuck.

"What is Charles Edward up to?" I persisted.

The opening rose-bud of Peggy's face took on a furtive expression, like that of certain pansies, or some orchids I have seen. "He is going to take me to Europe," she admitted, removing both her doughnut rings.

"YOU! To EUROPE!"

"He and Lorraine. When this is blown by. They want to get me away."

"Away from what? Away from Harry Goward?"

"Oh, I suppose so," blubbered Peggy.

She now began, in a perfectly normal manner, to mop her eyes with her handkerchief.

"Do you want to be got away from Harry Goward?" I demanded.

"I never said I did," sobbed Peggy. "I never said so, not one little bit. But oh, Maria! Moolymaria! You can't think how dreadful it is to be a girl, an engaged girl, and not know what to do!"

Then and there an active idea--one with bones in it--raced and overtook me, and I shot out: "Where is that letter?"

"Mother has it," replied Peggy.

"Have you opened it?"

"No."

"Has Aunt Elizabeth opened it?"

"Oh no!"

"Did Charlies Edward take it with him?"

"I don't think he did. I will go ask mother."

"Go ask mother for that letter," I commanded, "and bring it to me."

Peggy gave me one mutinous look, but the instinct of a younger sister was in her and she obeyed me. She brought the letter. I have this precious doc.u.ment in my pocket. I asked her if she would trust me to find out to whom that letter was addressed. After some hesitation she replied that she would. I reminded her that she was the only person in the world who could give me this authority--which pleased her. I told her that I should accept it as a solemn trust, and do my highest and best with it for her sake.

"Peggy," I said, "this is not altogether a pleasant job for me, but you are my little sister and I will take care of you. Kiss your old Meddlymaria, Peggy." She took down her sopping handkerchief and lifted her warm, wet face. So I kissed Peggy. And I am going on the 7.20 morning train.

It is now ten o'clock. My suit-case is packed, my ticket is bought, but Tom has not come back, and the worst of it is he can't get back to-night. He telephoned between courses at his dinner that he had accepted an invitation to go home for the night with one of the men they are dining. It seems he is a "person of importance"--there is a big order behind the junket, and Tom has gone home with him to talk it over.

The ridiculous thing about it is that I forget where he was going. Of course I could telephone to the hotel and find out, but men don't like telephoning wives--at least, my man doesn't. It makes it rather hard, going on this trip without kissing Tom good-bye. I had half made up my mind to throw the whole thing over, but Peggy is pretty young; she has a long life before her; there is a good deal at stake. So Tom and I kissed by electricity, and he said that it was all right, and to go ahead, and the other absurd thing about that is that Tom didn't ask me for my New York address, and I forgot to tell him. We are like two asteroids spinning through s.p.a.ce, neither knowing the other's route or destination. In point of fact, I shall register at "The Sphinx," that nice ladies' hotel where mere man is never admitted.

I have always supposed that the Mrs. Chataway Aunt Elizabeth talks about kept a boarding-house. I think Aunt Elizabeth rolls in upon her like a spent wave between visits. I have no doubt that I shall be able to trace Aunt Elizabeth by her weeds upon this beach. After that the rest is easy. I must leave my address for Tom pinned up somewhere. Matilda's mind wouldn't hold it if I stuck it through her brain with a hat-pin. I think I will glue it to his library table, and I'll do it this minute to make sure.... I have directed Matilda to give him chicken croquettes for his luncheon, and I have written out the menu for every meal till I get home. Poor Tom! He isn't used to eating alone. I wish I thought he would mind it as much as I do.

Eleven o'clock.--I am obsessed with an idea, and I have yielded to it; whether for good or ill, for wisdom or folly, remains to be proved. I have telephoned Dr. Denbigh and suggested to him that he should go to New York, too. Considered in any light but that of Peggy's welfare--But I am not considering anything in any light but that of Peggy's welfare.

Dr. Denbigh used to have a little tendresse for Peggy--it was never anything more, I am convinced. She is too young for him. A doctor sees so many women; he grows critical, if not captious. Character goes for more with him than with most men; looks go for less; and poor little Peggy--who can deny?--up to this point in her development is chiefly looks.

I intimated to the doctor that my errand to New York was of an important nature: that it concerned my younger sister; that my husband was, unfortunately, out of town, and that I needed masculine advice. I am not in the habit of flattering the doctor, and he swallowed this delicate bait, as I thought he would. When I asked him if he didn't think he needed a little vacation, if he didn't think he could get the old doctor from Southwest Eastridge to take his practice for two days, he said he didn't know but he could. The grippe epidemic had gone down, nothing more strenuous than a few cases of measles stood in the way; in fact, Eastridge at the present time, he averred, was lamentably healthy.

When he had committed himself so far as this, he hesitated, and very seriously said:

"Mrs. Price, you have never asked me to do a foolish thing, and I have known you for a good many years. It is too late to come over and talk it out with you. If you a.s.sure me that you consider your object in making this request important I will go. We won't waste words about it. What train do you take?"

I am not a person of divination or intuition. I think I have rather a commonplace, careful, painstaking mind. But if ever I had an inspiration in my life I think I have one now. Perhaps it is the novelty of it that makes me confide in it with so little reflection. My inspiration, in a word, is this:

Aunt Elizabeth has reached the point where she is ready for a new man. I know I don't understand her kind of woman by experience. I don't suppose I do by sympathy. I have to reason her out.

I have reasoned Aunt Elizabeth out to this conclusion: She always has had, she always must have, she always will have, the admiration of some man or men to engross her attention. She is an attractive woman; she knows it; women admit it; and men feel it. I don't think Aunt Elizabeth is a heartless person; not an irresponsible one, only an idle and unhappy one. She lives on this intoxicant as other women might live on tea or gossip, as a man would take his dram or his tobacco. She drinks this wine because she is thirsty, and the plain, cool, spring-water of life has grown stale to her. It is corked up in bottles like the water sold in towns where the drinking-supply is low. It has ceased to be palatable to her.

My interpretation is, that there is no man on her horizon just now except Harry Goward, and I won't do her the injustice to believe that she wouldn't be thankful to be rid of him just for her own sake; to say nothing of Peggy's.

Aunt Elizabeth, I repeat, needs a new man. If Dr. Denbigh is willing to fill this role for a few days (of course I must be perfectly frank with him about it) the effect upon Harry Goward will be instantaneous. His disillusion will be complete; his return to Peggy in a state of abject humiliation will be a.s.sured. I mean, a.s.suming that the fellow is capable of manly feeling, and that Peggy has aroused it. That, of course, remains for me to find out.

How I am to fish Harry Goward out of the ocean of New York city doesn't trouble me in the least. Given Aunt Elizabeth, he will complete the equation. If Mrs. Chataway should fail me--But I won't suppose that Mrs.

Chataway will fail. I must be sure and explain to Tom about Dr. Denbigh.

"The Sphinx," New York, 10 P.M.--I arrived--that is to say, we arrived in this town at ten minutes past one o'clock, almost ten hours ago. Dr.

Denbigh has gone somewhere--and that reminds me that I forgot to ask him where. I never thought of it until this minute, but it has just occurred to me that it may be quite as well from an ignorant point of view that "The Sphinx" excludes mere man from its portals.

He was good to me on the train, very good indeed. I can't deny that he flushed a little when I told him frankly what I wanted of him. At first I thought that he was going to be angry. Then I saw the corners of his mustache twitch. Then our sense of humor got the better of us, and then I laughed, and then he laughed, and I felt that the crisis was pa.s.sed.

I explained to him while we were in the Pullman car, as well as I could without being overheard by a fat lady with three chins, and a girl with a permit for a pet poodle, what it was that I wanted of him. I related the story of Peggy's misfortune--in confidence, of course; and explained the part he was expected to play--confidentially, of course; in fact, I laid my plot before him from beginning to end.

"If the boy doesn't love her, you see," I suggested, "the sooner we know it the better. She must break it off, if her heart is broken in the process. If he does love her--my private opinion is he thinks he does--I won't have Peggy's whole future wrecked by one of Aunt Elizabeth's flirtations. The reef is too small for the catastrophe. I shall find Aunt Elizabeth. Oh yes, I shall find Aunt Elizabeth! I have no more doubt of that than I have that Matilda is putting too much onion in the croquettes for Tom this blessed minute. If I find her I shall find the boy; but what good is that going to do me, if I find either of them or both of them, if we can't disillusionize the boy?"

"In a word," interrupted the doctor, rather tartly, "all you want of me is to walk across the troubled stage--"

"For Peggy's sake," I observed.

"Of course, yes, for Peggy's sake. I am to walk across this fantastic stage in the inglorious capacity of a philanderer."