“Ah, yes, quite so––er, in the chapel, I believe,” said the clergyman, his face becoming suddenly grave. “I would return with you, but my time is––ah––so limited.” He bowed low, with his hand in the breast of his long frock coat, and passed on down the hall.
As the women approached the door of the chapel through which came Carmen’s low singing they turned and looked at each other inquiringly. Then they quietly entered the doorway and stood listening. Carmen, concealed behind the organ, did not see them.
The song stopped, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles went quickly to the organ. Bending over it, she gazed down into the face of the startled girl. “My goodness!” she exclaimed. “Get up and let me see what sort of a looking creature you are.”
Carmen rose, and Mrs. Reed came forward and gave her a tempered greeting. Then Mrs. Hawley-Crowles fell back and stared at the girl from head to foot. “You know,” she said to her sister, “this is the first glimpse I’ve had of your husband’s discovery. I was out of the city when he brought her to my house, you remember. But,” turning again to Carmen, “sing that song over, dear, please––the one you were singing just now.”
Carmen seated herself again at the organ, and Mrs. Hawley-Crowles drew her sister to the rear of the room. “It will sound better back here,” she explained.
After the lapse of a few minutes she turned to Mrs. Reed. “Belle,” she said, nodding her head sententiously, “you had a pearl, and you threw it away. That girl there is our social fortune! Her voice, and her face––why, with our ward––this beautiful, gifted, South American owner of a famous mine––as a lever, we can force the Beaubien to bring the Ames to our terms! She goes back with us to-night! You’ve been blind!”
Meantime, the dainty Madam Elwin and the amiable Doctor Jurges in the office below had reached a conclusion. “A young lady of––ah––invincible will,” the doctor had observed; “and already––ah––decidedly mature, despite her tender years. Should she––ah––assume leadership over the pupils of your school, my dear Madam Elwin, the result might be disquieting. There can be no question as to her religious views, as I have said. But, what astonishes me is––ah––that this strange cult should have its devotees even in the wilds of tropical America! Astonishing––and so unfortunate! The girl is utterly––ah––unevangelical, Madam; and the advisability of removing her from the school can not be questioned. Do you not agree with me, Mr. Ketchim?”
“By all means,” asserted the latter gentleman with great 61 seriousness, while his eyes dwelt tenderly upon Madam Elwin’s written order for a hundred shares of Simití stock which he held in his hand.
“Very well, then,” said the lady with a determined nod of her head; “I shall request Mrs. Reed to take her to-day.” Then, with a proper sense of what it meant to have the moral support of such an eminent divine as Doctor Jurges, she rang for her maid and bade her summon Mrs. Reed and the girl.