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No. 13 Washington Square

Chapter 4 A SLIGHT PREDICAMENT

Word Count: 2695    |    Released on: 30/11/2017

thdrawn, Mrs. De Peyster stood in maj

Judge Harvey," she said at leng

one; a judge who had resigned his judgeship, with the bold announcement that law-courts were in the main theaters for farc

itantly, "weren't you perhaps

ey, I do not care to e

er of that geranium-cheeked, leather-chair brigade that stare out of Fifth Avenue Club

ng will bring a young man to his senses so quickly and so surely as having his resources cut off." Her composure, her confidence in her judgm

the boy, for, you know,"-in a lower voice, and with a stealthy

silence that ensued an unea

omething-something you were perhaps not

hat stiffly,-"that you are not

. "But I'm going to again, sometime, and I'd

will

o social figure; at least, not up to your dimensions. I know it would be a come-down to change from Mrs. De Peyster to Mrs. Harvey. Not that I'

anger: "Oh, for God's sake, Caroline, why don't you throw overboard all this

in Mrs. De Peyster

n De Peyster and I made love to! You're not the real Mrs. De Peyster; you only think you are. This Mrs. De Peyster the world knows is something that's been built by and out of the obligation which you accepted to maintain the De Peyster dignit

e Har

I know it's only a part of the universal comedy of our pretending to be what we're not,-every one of us is doing the same, in a big way, or

Never before-not to her face, at least-

lied, in a choking, caustic voice. "But while you are

tween you and Mrs. Allistair, besides being nonsense, will be absolutely ruinous if you keep it up. Mrs. Allistair is as unprincipled in a social way as her h

till controlled, "that I possess somethi

dge, "your confounded

ost annihilatory grand manner, "perhaps I should have spent my money worthily, like Jud

of the United States Republic, had a month before been pronounced and proved to be clever but arrant forgeries. The newspaper sensation and the praise that had attended the discovery and gift-warming and exalting Judge Harvey's very human pride-had been followed by an a

et that scoundrel-you see! Only to-day I had word from the Police Commissioner that his department at last had clues to that fellow

their self-respect, their good-breeding, would not permit them to become vituperative, to lose themselves in outbursts of wrath-thoug

t spoke. Her voice had recovere

u are here at the present moment not

"But at least I've told you

ificent iciness, "you may now tell me what you have

s: You said you wished to be in Newport fro

es

ich I thought would come nearest s

ge Mrs. Van der Gri

e s

t perfectly. It is exactly what I desire

and for th

ry. I hope you ha

option till

pose you have brought

news which, as your man of affairs, I was trying to break to

t ne

s of credit was money which I was to draw for you, to-day, as divid

do not see the dri

that the bulk of your fortune

ck, I believe," Mrs.

ompany's affairs for some time of which I hesitated to inform you. I did not wish to give you any unnecessar

e situation to

g to increased wages on the one side and governmental regulation of rates on the other. That's

bad business," said Mrs. De Peyster with a

ossibility that, in view of its alleged bad business, the New York

"Do you mean to say, Judge Harvey

more than a

an a pos

act, it's

fac

ting of the directors. They ha

stupefied into the face of Judge Harve

orry," said

Harvey, whose anger had ere this begun to relax, try to reassure her with remarks about the company being perfectly solvent. But it was not befitting the De Peyster dignity to exhi

h, Judge Harvey, fo

r his share of their quarrel and looked unusually handsome in his co

your present plans. And if not, your ban

she with her mec

tinued, desirous of making peace, "I sh

ize burned as high as before. And then, too, she remembered the haughtiness with which she had just refused his advice and put him in his place. At that mome

I shall mana

Newport

my instructions co

ing for her to spe

is all?"

ll," she

her again for three months. And he di

hand, "let's forget what we said and be friends. At any rate

I am sure I

was without pressure. Stiffening again, he made

sed the mantle of dignity, which with so great an effort she had kept folded about her person, let her face fall f

ly been too centered on each other for them to be observant of what happened beyond their very contracted horizon, that had seemed to him no promising moment to try for an escape. With high curiosity, eyes amused and aligh

crack. This time the face did not withdraw. He watched the bowed figure of the solitary Mrs. De Peyster for several moments; considered; measured the distance to the door of escap

within that perfection of a study he had overheard nothing. An instant he stood thus at her back, alert to disappear upon the warning of a changing breath-the two but an arm's reach apart, and apparently about to go their separate ways fore

that had befallen her. But he decided little would be gained by trying for another meeting. Certainly she must have relented sufficiently to have picked up

o instinctively noting doors and passages and articles worth a gentleman's while. At the front door he waited a moment until the sidewalk was empty; then he let himself out,

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