Part 5 (1/2)
”Well, go on,” said Katherine, unabashed.
”I merely mention this detail,” continued Dorothy, ”as an object lesson in honesty. Never before since the world began was there such a case of casting bread upon the waters as was my sending the two hundred dollars.
My uncle appears to have been a most methodical man. He filed away my letter which contained the money, also a typewritten copy of his reply, and when he died, it was these doc.u.ments which turned the attention of the legal arm who acted for him to myself, for my uncle had left no will. The Californian firm communicated with lawyers in New York, and they began a series of very cautious inquiries, which at last resulted, after I had furnished certain proofs asked for, in my being declared heiress to my uncle's estate.”
”And how much did you get? How much did you get?” demanded Katherine.
”I asked the lawyers from New York to deposit ten thousand dollars for me in the Sixth National Bank of this town, and they did so. It was to draw a little check against that deposit, and thus learn if it was real, that I went out to-day.”
”Ten thousand dollars,” murmured Katherine, in accents of deep disappointment. ”Is that all?”
”Isn't that enough?” asked Dorothy, with a twinkle in her eyes.
”No, you deserve ten times as much, and I'm not going to New York or Boston at your expense to buy new dresses. Not likely! I will attend the ball in my calico.”
Dorothy laughed quietly, and drew from the little satchel she wore at her side a letter, which she handed to Katherine.
”It's private and confidential,” she warned her friend.
”Oh, I won't tell any one,” said Katherine, unfolding it. She read eagerly half-way down the page, then sprang to her feet on the top of the table, screaming:
”Fifteen million dollars! Fifteen million dollars!” and, swinging her arms back and forth like an athlete about to leap, sprang to the floor, nearly upsetting the little table, tray and all, as she embraced Dorothy Amhurst.
”Fifteen millions! That's something like! Why, mother, do you realize that we have under our roof one of the richest young women in the world?
Don't you see that the rest of this conference must take place in our drawing-room under the most solemn auspices? The idea of our keeping such an heiress in the attic!”
”I believe,” said Sabina, slowly and coldly, ”that Mr. Rockefeller's income is--”
”Oh, blow Mr. Rockefeller and his income!” cried the indignant younger sister.
”Katherine!” pleaded the mother tearfully.
CHAPTER III --ON DECK
THROUGHOUT the long summer day a gentle excitement had fluttered the hearts of those ladies, young, or not so young, who had received invitations to the ball on board the ”Consternation” that night. The last touches were given to creations on which had been spent skill, taste, and money. Our three young women, being most tastefully and fas.h.i.+onably attired, were in high spirits, which state of feeling was exhibited according to the nature of each; Sabina rather stately in her exaltation; Dorothy quiet and demure; while Katherine, despite her mother's supplications, would not be kept quiet, but swung her graceful gown this way and that, practising the slide of a waltz, and quoting W.
R. Gilbert, as was her custom. She glided over the floor in rhythm with her chant.
”When I first put this uniform on I said, as I looked in the gla.s.s, 'It's one to a million That any civilian My figure and form will surpa.s.s.'”
Meanwhile, in a room downstairs that good-natured veteran Captain Kempt was telling the latest stories to his future son-in-law, a young officer of the American Navy, who awaited, with dutiful impatience, the advent of the serene Sabina. When at last the ladies came down the party set out through the gathering darkness of this heavenly summer night for the private pier from which they were privileged, because of Captain Kempt's official standing, to voyage to the cruiser on the little revenue cutter ”Whip-poor-will,” which was later on to convey the Secretary of the Navy and his entourage across the same intervening waters. Just before they reached the pier their steps were arrested by the boom of a cannon, followed instantly by the sudden apparition of the ”Consternation”
picked out in electric light; masts, funnel and hull all outlined by incandescent stars.
”How beautiful!” cried Sabina, whose young man stood beside her. ”It is as if a gigantic racket, all of one color, had burst, and hung suspended there like the planets of heaven.”
”It reminds me,” whispered Katherine to Dorothy, ”of an overgrown pop-corn ball,” at which remark the two girls were frivolous enough to laugh.
”Cras.h.!.+” sounded a cannon from an American s.h.i.+p, and then the white squadron became visible in a blaze of lightning. And now all the yachts and other craft on the waters flaunted their lines of fire, and the whole Bay was illuminated like a lake in Fairyland.