第66章 PART II(12)

What?She has been talking of me in the kindest terms?Then why did she want to get out of my hearing?Ah,they're so infernally deceitful!I do hate mad people."Mrs.Wagner produced her pocket-book again."I shall scratch out your mark,"she said sternly,"if I hear any more talk of that sort."Jack gathered his keys together with a strong sense of injury,and put them back in his leather bag."You're a little hard on me,"he said,when I'm only warning you for your own good.I don't know why it is,you're not as kind to me here,as you used to be in London.And I feel it,Ido!"He laid himself down on the window seat,and began to cry.

Mrs.Wagner was not the woman to resist this expression of the poor little man's feeling.In a moment she was at the window comforting him and drying his eyes,as if he had been a child.And,like a child,Jack took advantage of the impression that he had made."Look at your desk,"he said piteously;"there's another proof how hard you are on me.I used to keep the key of your desk in London.You won't trust it to me here."Mrs.Wagner went to the desk,locked it,and returned to Jack.Few people know how immensely an act of kindness gains in effect,by being performed in silence.Mrs.Wagner was one of the few.Without a word,she opened the leather bag and dropped the key into it.Jack's gratitude rushed innocently to an extreme which it had never reached yet."Oh!"he cried,"would you mind letting me kiss you?"Mrs.Wagner drew back,and held up a warning hand.Before she could express herself in words,Jack's quick ear caught the sound of footsteps approaching the door."Is she coming back?"he cried,still suspicious of Madame Fontaine.Mrs.Wagner instantly opened the door,and found herself face to face with Joseph the footman.

"Do you know,ma'am,when Mr.Keller will be back?"he asked.

"I didn't even know that he was out,Joseph.Who wants him?""A gentleman,ma'am,who says he comes from Munich."

CHAPTER VII

On further inquiry,it turned out that "the gentleman from Munich"had no time to spare.In the absence of Mr.Keller,he had asked if he could see "one of the other partners."This seemed to imply that commercial interests were in some way connected with the stranger's visit--in which case,Mrs.Wagner was perfectly competent to hear what he had to say.

"Where is the gentleman?"she asked.

"In the drawing-room,"Joseph answered.

Mrs.Wagner at once left the office.She found herself in the presence of a dignified elderly gentleman,dressed entirely in black,and having the ribbon of some order of merit attached to the buttonhole of his long frock-coat.His eyes opened wide in surprise,behind his gold spectacles,when he found himself face to face with a lady."I fear there is some mistake,"he said,in the smoothest of voices,and with the politest of bows;"I asked to see one of the partners."Mrs.Wagner added largely to his amazement,by informing him of the position that she held in the firm."If you come on a matter of business,"she proceeded,"you may trust me to understand you,sir,though I am only a woman.If your visit relates to private affairs,I beg to suggest that you should write to Mr.Keller--I will take care that he receives your letter the moment he returns.""There is not the least necessity for my troubling you,"the stranger replied."I am a physician;and I have been summoned to Frankfort to consult with my colleagues here,on a serious case of illness.Mr.

Keller's sister is one of my patients in Munich.I thought I would take the present opportunity of speaking to him about the state of her health."He had just introduced himself in those words,when Mr.Keller entered the room.The merchant and the physician shook hands like old friends.

"No alarming news of my sister,I hope?"said Mr.Keller.

"Only the old trouble,my good friend.Another attack of asthma."Mrs.Wagner rose to leave the room.Mr.Keller stopped her."There is not the least necessity for you to leave us,"he said."Unless my presentiments deceive me,we may even have occasion to ask your advice.

--Is there any hope,doctor,of her being well enough to leave Munich,towards the end of the month?""I am sorry to say it,"answered the physician--"having heard of the interesting occasion on which she had engaged to be one of your guests--but,at her age,I must ask for a little more time.""In other words,it is impossible for my sister to be with us,on the day of my son's marriage?""Quite impossible.She has so few pleasures,poor soul,and she is so bitterly disappointed,that I volunteered to take advantage of my professional errand here,to make a very bold request.Let me first do your excellent sister justice.She will not hear of the young people being disappointed by any postponement of the wedding,on her account.

And here is the famous necklace,committed to my care,to prove that she is sincere."He took his little traveling-bag from the chair on which he had placed it,and produced the case containing the necklace.No woman--not even a head-partner in a great house of business--could have looked at those pearls,and preserved her composure.Mrs.Wagner burst out with a cry of admiration.