CHAPTER XVIII KATHERINE GOES TO THE CITY
"Does anyone want to go in to the city this afternoon?" asked Nyoda, asthey rose from luncheon. It had been a rather silent, dispirited meal,and quickly gotten over with. "I had planned to go in and take a fewthings to Mrs. Deane to-day, but now it will be impossible for me to getaway. Sylvia has been fretting about her aunt and I think someone oughtto go."
"I'll go," said Katherine readily, her spirits rising at this prospect ofaction. The suspense of the morning, ending in such a disappointment, hadbegun to react upon her in a fit of the blues. Sahwah and Hinpoha, withSlim and the Captain, had planned during luncheon to go roller-skatingthat afternoon, but as Katherine could not roller-skate the plan held noattraction for her. Justice had promised Sherry that he would go over thelighting system on his car while he was away and was planning to spendthe whole afternoon in the garage; Migwan was going to sit with Sylvia togive Nyoda a chance to rest; and Gladys had a sore throat which made herdisinclined to talk. Taking it by and large, Katherine had anticipated arather dismal afternoon, a prospect which was pleasantly altered byNyoda's request.
"You can make the two o'clock train if you start immediately," continuedNyoda, "and the five-fifteen will bring you back in time for dinner. Ihave the things for Mrs. Deane all ready."
Katherine rose with alacrity and put on her hat and coat. "Any errandswhile I am in town?" she asked, hunting for her umbrella in the staircloset.
"None that I can think of," replied Nyoda, after wrinkling her brow for amoment, "unless you want to stop at the jeweller's and get my watch. It'sbeen there for several weeks, being regulated."
"All right," said Katherine, writing down the name of the jeweller in hermemorandum book. "You'll notice I'm not trusting my memory this time,"she remarked laughingly.
"I'll take the five-fifteen train back," she called over her shoulder asshe went out of the front door.
"Be careful how you hold that package!" Nyoda called warningly after her."There's a glass of jelly in it that'll upset!"
Gingerly holding the package by the string, Katherine picked her waythrough the rapidly widening puddles on the sidewalks to the station. Bysome miracle of good luck the package was still right side up when shearrived at the hospital, and she breathed an audible sigh of relief whenit was at last safely out of her hands.
She found Mrs. Deane a frail, kindly-faced woman, bearing her discomfortcheerfully, but, nevertheless, lonesome in this strange hospital ward andvery grateful for any attention shown her. Katherine began, as shedescribed it, to "express her sympathy quietly and in a ladylike manner,"and ended up by delivering her famous "Wimmen's Rights" speech for thebenefit of the whole ward. She finally escaped, after her sixth encore,and fetched up breathless on the sidewalk, only to discover that she hadleft her umbrella behind, and before she retrieved it she had to give herspeech all over again, for the benefit of an old lady who had been asleepduring the first performance.
There still being three-quarters of an hour before train time after shehad called at the jewellers for Nyoda's watch, Katherine dropped into asmart little tea-room to while away the intervening moments with a cup oftea and a dish of her favorite shrimp salad. As she nibbled leisurely ata dainty round of brown bread and idly watched the throngs coming andgoing at the tables around her, a shrill cry of delight suddenly rang outabove the hum of voices and the clatter of dishes.
"Katherine! Katherine Adams!"
Katherine looked up to see an animated little figure in a beaver coat andfur hat coming toward her through the crowd.
"Katherine Adams!" repeated the voice, "don't you know me?"
"Why--Veronica! Veronica Lehar!" gasped Katherine in amazement. "What areyou doing here? I thought you were in New York." She caught the littlebrown-gloved hands in her own big ones and squeezed them until Veronicawinced.
"Katherine! Dear old K! How I've missed you!" Veronica cried rapturously,and drawing her hands from Katherine's grip she flung her armsimpulsively around her neck, regardless of the curious stares of theonlookers.
"Let them stare!" she murmured stoutly, seeing Katherine's face flushwith embarrassment as she encountered the quizzical gaze of a keen-eyedyoung man at the next table. "If they hadn't seen their beloved K fornearly two years they'd want to hug her, too."
She released Katherine after a final squeeze, and stood staring at herwith a puzzled expression on her vivacious face.
"What's the matter?" asked Katherine wonderingly. "Have I got somethingon wrong-side before?"
"That's just what _is_ the matter," replied Veronica, her bewildermentalso manifesting itself in her tone. "You _haven't_ anything onwrong-side before. You don't look natural. What has happened to you?"
"Nothing," replied Katherine, laughing, "and--everything. I've justlearned that clothes _do_ matter, after all."
"Why, Katherine Adams, you're perfectly stunning!" exclaimed Veronica insincere admiration. "That shade of blue in your dress--it was simply_made_ for you."
"I just happened to get it by accident," said Katherine deprecatingly,almost sheepishly, yet thrilled through and through with pleasure atVeronica's words of appreciation. It was no small triumph to be admiredby Veronica, whose highly artistic nature made her extremely critical ofpeople's appearance.
"How I used to make your artistic eye water!" said Katherine laughingly."It's a wonder you stood me as well as you did."
"It was not I who had to 'stand' you, but you who had to 'stand' me,"said Veronica seriously. "In spite of your loose ends you were--what doyou call it? 'all wool and a yard wide,' but I was the original prune."Veronica, while a perfect master of literary English, still faltereddeliciously over slang phrases.
Katherine, as usual, steered away from the subject of Veronica's formerattitude toward her. When a thing was over and done with, Katherineargued, there was no use of dragging it out into the light again.
"You haven't told me yet how you happen to be here in this tea-room thisafternoon," she said, by way of changing the subject, "when you told us,over your own signature, that you would have to stay in New York all thisweek. What do you mean," she finished with mock gravity, "by deceiving usso?"
"I have to play at a concert here in town to-night," explained Veronica."It will be necessary for me to be back at the Conservatory to-morrow,and am returning by a late train to-night. I didn't know about it when Iwrote to Nyoda, or I should have insisted on her coming in for theconcert and bringing all the girls along. It's an emergency case; I'mjust filling in on the program in place of a 'cello soloist who was takensuddenly ill with influenza. The concert managers sent a hurry call toMartini last night, asking him to send over the first student whohappened to be handy, and as I happened to be taking a lesson fromMartini at the time, I was the lucky one. I just came over thisafternoon."
Veronica modestly suppressed the fact that it had been the great Martinihimself who had been urgently requested to play at the concert, buthaving a previous engagement, had chosen her, out of the wholeConservatory, to play in his stead.
"My aunt is here with me," continued Veronica. "She's over at that tablein the far corner behind that palm. I suppose she is wondering what hasbecome of me by this time. When I saw you over here I just jumped up andran off without a word of explanation. She's probably eaten up my nutrolls by this time, too; they were just being served when I rushed away.Come on over and see her."
Katherine followed Veronica through the crowded room to the far corner,where, at a little table beneath a softly shaded wall lamp Veronica'saunt, Mrs. Lehar, sat placidly sipping tea and eating cakes. She did notrecognize Katherine at first, never having seen her otherwise than withclothes awry and hair tumbling down over her eyes, and Katherine wassecretly amused at the gentle lady's look of astonishment upon being toldwho it was.
"She did eat my rolls, after all," said Veronica to Katherine. "I knewshe would. But I'm glad she did; I am in far too exalted a mood for nutrolls now
. Nothing but nectar and ambrosia will do to celebrate ourmeeting. Look and see if there's any nectar and ambrosia on your menucard, will you, Katherine dear? There doesn't seem to be any on mine."
"None here, either," reported Katherine, after gravely reading her cardthrough.
"Then let's compromise on lobster croquettes," said Veronica. "I nevereat them ordinarily, but I feel as though I could eat a dozen tocelebrate this occasion."
"Be careful what you eat, now," warned her aunt. "It would be ratherawkward if you were to be taken with an attack of acute indigestion justwhen you are due to appear on the platform."
"Never fear!" laughed Veronica. "I am so transported over meetingKatherine that nothing could give me indigestion now. What an inspirationI shall have to play to-night!"
Then, taking Katherine's hand, she said coaxingly, "You will come andhear me play, won't you?"
"I'm afraid I can't," replied Katherine regretfully. "I'm due to go backon the five-fifteen train."
"O, but you _must_ come!" cried Veronica pleadingly. "I'll be somiserable if you don't that I sha'n't be able to play at all. Youwouldn't want me to spoil the concert on your account, would you,Katherine dear? There is a later train you can go home on just as well,isn't there?"
"There is one at ten-forty-five," replied Katherine, consulting thetime-table which she carried in her hand bag.
"You can hear me play, and make that train, too," said Veronica eagerly."My numbers come in the early part of the program, all but one. If youwent out after I had played my first group you could make your trainbeautifully. Do telephone Nyoda that you are going to stay over, and haveher send somebody down to meet you at the later train. That Justiceperson----" she said mischievously, finishing with an expressive movementof her eyebrows.
Katherine finally yielded to her pleading, and telephoned Nyoda that shewas going to stay in town until the ten-forty-five, which so delightedVeronica that she ordered another croquette all the way around tocelebrate the happy circumstance.
"_Do_ be careful, dear," warned her aunt a second time. "Those croquettesare distressingly rich. What _would_ happen if you were to be taken illto-night?"
Veronica smiled serenely. "I'm not going to be taken ill to-night, auntydear," she replied. "I'm going to be like Katherine, who can eat fortylobster croquettes without getting sick."
"Remember the mixtures we used to cook up in the House of the Open Door?"she asked, turning to Katherine. "They were lots worse than lobstercroquettes, if the plain truth were known. You wouldn't worry at all,aunty, dear, if you knew what we used to eat at those spreads withoutdamaging ourselves!"
Katherine was completely carried away by Veronica's vivaciousness andtemperamental whimsies. If she had admired the fiery little Hungarian inthe days of the House of the Open Door, she was now absolutely enslavedby her. To plain, matter-of-fact Katherine, Veronica, with her artistictemperament, was a creature from another world, inspiring a certainamount of awed wonder, as well as admiring affection.
"What are you going to play at the concert to-night?" Katherine askedrespectfully.
Veronica's eyes began to glow, and she pushed aside her plate, leavingthe second croquette to grow cold while she spoke animatedly upon thesubject that lay ever nearest her heart.
"I'm going to play a cycle from Nagar, a Roumanian Gypsy composer," shereplied. "One of the pieces is the most wonderful thing; it's called 'TheWhirlwind.' It fairly carries you away with its rush and movement, untilyou want to fly, and shout, and go sailing away on the wings of the wind.Another one is named 'Fata Morgana.' You know that's what people call themirage that we can see out on the steppes--the open plains--of Hungary."
"Yes?" murmured Katherine in a tone of eager interest. She loved to hearVeronica tell tales of her homeland.
"Many a time I have seen it," continued Veronica, her eyes sparkling witha dreamy, far-off light, "a beautiful city standing out clear and fairagainst the horizon; and have gone forth to find it, only to see itvanish into the hot, quivering air, and to find myself lost out on thewide, lonely steppe."
Katherine listened, fascinated, while Veronica told stories of thecurious mirage that lured and mocked the dwellers on the lonely steppesof her native land, and so deep was her absorption that sheabsent-mindedly ate up Veronica's croquette while she listened, to theinfinite amusement of Mrs. Lehar.
"Aren't you going to play any of your own compositions?" asked Katherine,when Veronica had finished talking about the Nagar cycle.
"Not as a regular number," replied Veronica, taking up her fork to finishher croquette, and deciding that she must already have eaten it, sinceher plate was empty. "If, by any chance, I should be encored, I shallplay a little piece of my own that I have named 'Fire Dreams,' anddedicated to the Winnebagos. I wrote it one night after a ceremonialmeeting out in the woods where we danced around the fire and then satdown in a circle to watch it burn itself away to embers. We all told ourdreams for the future that night, don't you remember? I have woveneverything together in my piece--the tall pines towering up to the sky;the stars peering through the branches; the wind fiddling through theleaves, and the river lapping on the stones below; with the firelightwaving and flickering, and coaxing us to tell our dreams. I love to playit, because it brings back that scene so vividly; that and all the otherbeautiful times we had around the camp fire."
Katherine gazed at Veronica in speechless admiration. With absolutely nomusical ability herself, it seemed to her that anyone who could composemusic was a child of the gods. Veronica smiled back frankly intoKatherine's admiring eyes, and gave her hand a fond squeeze.
"Now, tell me about Carver House and all the dear people there," shesaid, settling herself comfortably in her chair and propping her elbowson the table. "We still have an hour to spare. Aunty won't mind if wetalk about our own affairs, will you, aunty? Now, Katherine, take a longbreath and begin."
The hour was up before Katherine was half way through telling theexciting things that had happened at Carver House in the past week, andwith a sigh Veronica rose from the table and drew on her gloves.
"Come," she said regretfully, "we'll have to be starting. I have to goover to the hotel first and get my violin, and the auditorium where I amto play is some distance out."
As they stepped from the tea-room into the street Katherine paused to buyVeronica a huge bunch of violets at a little stand just inside theentrance of the tall building next door. Not having enough money in herchange-purse to pay for them, she took a roll of bills from a bill-foldin her inner pocket, and, taking five dollars from the roll, returned itto its place of safety in the lining of her coat. Lounging against theglass counter beside her was a slender, long-fingered man, whose gazesuddenly became concentrated when the roll of bills made its appearance.Katherine noticed his look of absorbed interest and a little thrill ofuneasiness prickled along her spine. She looked sharply at thisinquisitive stranger, fixing in her mind the details of his appearance.He wore a long, light-colored overcoat and a visor cap pulled down overhis eyes, which were small and dark, and set close together in his thin,sallow face, giving him a peculiar, ratlike expression. Katherinebuttoned her coat carefully over the bill-fold and hastily rejoinedVeronica and Mrs. Lehar in the street outside, conscious that the man'seyes were still upon her and that he had followed her out of the shop. Toher relief, Mrs. Lehar hailed a taxicab, and in a moment more they werebeing whirled rapidly away from the scene.
An hour later Katherine found herself sitting in state in one of thefront boxes of a crowded auditorium, impatiently waiting for the sopranosoloist to finish a lengthy operatic aria and yield her place toVeronica. The soloist bowed her way out at last, and Veronica, lookinglike a very slender little child in contrast to the massive singer,tripped out on the stage with her violin under her arm, just as she hadalways carried it around in the House of the Open Door.
"She isn't a bit scared!" was Katherine's admiring thought.
Nodding brightly to the audience, Veronica laid her bow across th
estrings with that odd little caressing gesture that Katherine rememberedso well, and began to play her long cycle from memory.
Strange images flitted through Katherine's brain as she listened; thelighted stage faded from sight, and in its place there stretched a wide,grassy plain, shimmering in the sunlight and flecked with racing cloudshadows, far ahead, gleaming clear against the gray-blue horizon, rosethe white towers and spires of a fair city, which seemed to call to herin friendly invitation, awakening in her an irresistible longing totravel toward it and behold its wonders at near hand. But ever as sheapproached it receded into the distance, vanishing at last in thetwinkling of an eye, and leaving her alone in the heart of a wild,desolate moor upon which darkness was swiftly falling. She started inaffright at the long, eerie cry of a nightbird; the deepening shadowswere filled with fearful, unnamable terrors. Her head reeled; thestrength went out from her limbs, and with icy hands pressed tightly overher eyes to shut out the menacing shadow-shapes, she sank shuddering tothe ground. She was roused by the sound of thunder, and opening her eyesfound the lonely moor vanished, and in its place the brightly lightedstage, while the thunder which echoed in her ears resolved itself into atumult of hand-clapping.
Katherine rubbed her eyes and sat up straight. "What was that piece shejust played?" she asked in a whisper.
"That was the 'Fata Morgana,'" replied Mrs. Lehar.
It was several minutes after ten o'clock when Veronica finished her lastencore, and Katherine, glancing at her watch, hastily reached for hercoat, and leaving a goodnight message for Veronica with Mrs. Lehar,started from the auditorium.