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All that was clear to me was that the chief guest was a Mr. Teidelmann or Tiedelmann, I cannot now remember which a snuffy, mumbling old frump, with whose name then, however, I was familiar by reason of seeing it so often in huge letters, though with a Co. added, on dreary long blank walls, bordering the Limehouse reach.
"A bottle," roared the other, with an effort palpably beyond his strength. "What's he say? What's he talking about now?" asked Teidelmann, again appealing to my mother. "He says you ought to buy a bottle," again explained my mother. "What of?" "Of your own disinfectant." "Silly fool!"
"I remember," said my father, "the first masked ball I ever went to when I was a student in Paris. It struck me just as you say, Hal; everybody was so exactly alike. I was glad to get out into the street and see faces." "But I thought they always unmasked at midnight," said the second Mrs. Teidelmann in her soft, languid tones. "I did not wait," explained my father.
"I say it reminds me of cocoanuts." He screamed it this time. "Oh, does it?" was the reply. "Doesn't it you?" "Can't say it does," answered Teidelmann. "As a matter of fact, don't know much about it myself. Never use it." Old Teidelmann went on with his dinner, but Hasluck was still full of the subject. "Take my advice," he shouted, "and buy a bottle." "Buy a what?"
It was a dull, sombre house without, but one entered through its commonplace door as through the weed-grown rock into Aladdin's cave. Old Teidelmann had been a great collector all his life, and his treasures, now scattered through a dozen galleries, were then heaped there in curious confusion.
"I gave him two thousand for the six," replied Teidelmann, "and they'll sell for twenty thousand." "But you'll never sell them?" exclaimed my father. "No," grunted old Teidelmann, "but my widow will." There came a soft, low laugh from a corner of the table I could not see. He'll pay thousands of pounds for a child in rags or a badly dressed Madonna. Such a waste of money, it appears to me."
I dreamt that a wicked Magician had spirited you away from me. I could not find you and was all alone in the world." She put her arms around me, so tight as almost to hurt me. And thus we remained until again I must have fallen asleep. It was towards the close of these same holidays that my mother and I called upon Mrs. Teidelmann in her great stone-built house at Clapton.
Teidelmann would awake; and the servant, closing the door softly, left us alone with her. An old French clock standing on the mantelpiece, a heart supported by Cupids, ticked with a muffled, soothing sound.
"Let me ring for the lamp, you will strain your eyes." But my mother would always excuse herself, saying she had only a few lines to finish. "I can think better in this light," she would explain. And when Mrs. Teidelmann returned, it was my mother who was the first to call upon her; before even my father knew that she was back.
I promised, and we entered the house; and from that day my mother's whole manner changed. Not another angry word ever again escaped her lips, never an angry flash lighted up again her eyes. Mrs. Teidelmann remained away three months. My father, of course, wrote to her often, for he was managing all her affairs.
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