“But why—and where?” he stammered, and held back.
“Oh, ever so many whys! As to where? Here is Mrs. Aron—my own name backwards;” and she lifted the wadded cloak from the sofa, then held up the bonnet and front. “It was a capital disguise, was it not?”
“Surely quite unnecessary—and why?”
“That is the second time you have asked why? Sit down there, and you shall hear all there is to it. I wished to see your mother, your brother, and yourself—what you called ‘unknownst’—and find out what you were like.”
“And, by Jove, you have been most unfortunately successful!”
“Not altogether unfortunate——”
“But I don’t think it was fair, Aunt Nora,” he protested; “I don’t think it was playing the game!”
“Well, there we differ. I am a rich woman. Tom agreed that our money is to go to the Dorans, my brother’s children, and I naturally wanted to discover what sort of people the Dorans were? As a girl, I was wild, and fond of fun and dancing; but my father, who was a very stern old man, kept me all but locked up. He had forgotten his own youth, poor man, and even his middle age. He married, you know, late in life. I was full of spirits, and daring, and once I got out and dressed up in Katty Foley’s clothes and went to a wake as her cousin, a strange young woman from Dublin. I was glad to see Katty. That’s a nice bright girl of hers; she has some notions, and is real well-looking. Well, to go on with my story, I had a great success. I could take off the brogue to the life, and at the wake I met Tom, and that was the beginning of the end.”
“But did you never go out at all, in your own rank of life—meet people?”
“Never, except to church, and now and then after the hounds. The only pleasure I had at all, was through your father, and you see he went to India. Tom Grogan was handsome and steady, and well enough educated. He had a place offered him in the States. I was just crazy to see the world. I loved Tom, and I ran away with him, and never regretted it, which is more than some can say. He has always been just lovely to me. We have worked hard and done well, and out there we are as good as any—being respectable, self-respecting, and real rich. I often longed to come over and see the old place, but I was ashamed to face people and the talk. However, then Tom had a sudden call to London, and I came with him—almost at a moment’s notice. The idea was his to start with: I got a hustle on, and felt I’d just got to do it, and that was all there was to it, and fixed myself up as you see, a week and more ago; and then I was laid up with a real bad cold. Mrs. Hogan herself nursed me. She knows—she actually knew me when the bonnet was off. But she can keep my secret, and she will. Of course, my dear boy, I’m not going to take your money. I was only trying and testing you, like an old witch in a fairy tale. I’m real glad I met you in the avenue this evening, for to tell you the truth I felt so discouraged I was going right away, never wishing to see a Doran again.”