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Will you would you mind seeing him in my absence?" For a moment he moved uneasily about and then left the room. Eden looked after him in wonder, and took up the Post. And as her eyes loitered over the columns the bell rang; her face flushed, and presently she was aware of Usselex' presence. "What is this my father tells me?" she asked, by way of greeting.
Arnswald is passably impertinent, thought Eden; but the expression of his face was so reassuringly devoid of any non-conventional symptom that she laughed outright at the compliment. "Do you care for music?" she asked. "Surely, Mrs. Usselex." "Yes, of course. I forgot. All Germans do. Tell me, how long have you been in this country? How do you come to speak German without an accent?"
Manhattan's and say that Mr. Usselex and myself are unavoidably prevented from dining with her to-night. That will do." And this order delivered, she resumed her former seat. Down the street she marked advancing dusk. The sun had sunk in cataracts of champagne. Westward the sky was like the apotheosis in Faust, green-barred and crimson, with background of oscillant yellow.
"She is a nice girl, though. Adrian told me this morning that he tried to speak to you about her the night I dined with Governor Blanchford, but that you did not seem interested." "God in Heaven!" gasped Eden, beneath her breath. "If these are your punishments, what then are your rewards?" Usselex had led her to a seat and taken her unresisting hand in his.
Mr. Usselex looked up at once, but he had looked too late; the note had gone from him. He started, he made a movement to repossess himself of it, but Eden, with the ripple still in her voice, stepped back, laughed again, and nodded to Arnswald, who had turned and bowed. "What is it?" she cried; "what have you two been concocting? No, you don't," she continued.
"Ah! you know him, then?" and Jones looked at her. "Well," he continued, "the cashier was sent up all the same. He had a wife, it appeared, and children. Usselex gave them enough to live on, and more too, I believe." "He must have done it very simply." "Why, you must know him well!" Jones exclaimed; and the conversation changed.
"You hope I like him?" "Yes, he is my son." Eden's hands went to her throat and her eyes to the grate. The note was already in a blaze. "Yes," Usselex continued, "I have a bit of news for you. He is engaged to Miss Bolton. For a long time her parents objected, but last night they consented. It may be because he was at the opera with you. How small people can be!" he added.
And she looked down through the opals into her heart and over at her husband and smiled. The butler and his underlings had departed. The meal was done. Usselex smiled too. He left his seat and went behind her. He drew her head back, bent over, and kissed her on the lips; then mirroring his eyes in hers, he kissed her again, drew a chair to her side, and took her hand in his.
Usselex was not a philosopher alone, but a prophet as well. Concerning him her store of information had increased. Toward the end of May her father spoke to her about him and about his success with the mine. He seemed pleased, yet nervous. "I saw him this afternoon," he said; "he is to be here shortly. H'm! I am obliged to go to the club for a moment.
And now, as he paused for encouragement or rebuke, he saw that her eyes were in his. "Miss Menemon," he continued, "forget my outer envelope; if you could read in my heart, you would find it full of love for you." "Perhaps," she said, and smiled as at a vista visible only to herself. "I will tell my father what you say," she added demurely. With that answer Mr. Usselex was fain to be content.
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