CHAPTER XXVI.
AUNT BETSY CONSULTS A LAWYER.
Aunt Betsy did not rest well after her return from the opera. Novelty and excitement always kept her awake, and her mind was not wholly at ease with regard to what she had done. Not that she really felt she had committed a sin, except so far as the example might be bad, but she feared the result, should it ever reach the Orthodox church at Silverton.
“There’s no telling what Deacon Bannister would do—send a subpœna after me, for what I know,” she thought, as she laid her tired head upon her pillow and went off into a weary state, half way between sleep and wakefulness, in which operas, play-actors, Katy in full dress, Helen and Mark Ray, choruses, music by the orchestra, to which she had been guilty of beating her foot, Deacon Bannister, and the whole offended brotherhood, with constable and subpœnas, were pretty equally blended together.
But with the daylight her fears subsided, and at the breakfast table she was hardly less enthusiastic over the opera than Mattie herself, averring, however, that “once would do her, and she had no wish to go again.”
The sight of Katy had awakened all the olden intense love she had felt for her darling, and she could not wait much longer without seeing her.
“Hannah and Lucy, and amongst ’em, advised me not to come,” she said to Mrs. Tubbs, “and they hinted that I might not be wanted up there; but now I’m here I shall go, if I don’t stay more than an hour.”
“Of course I should,” Mattie answered, herself anxious to stand beneath Wilford Cameron’s roof, and see Mrs. Wilford at home. “She don’t look as proud as Helen, and you are her aunt, her blood kin; why shouldn’t you go there if you like?”
“I shall—I am going,” Aunt Betsy replied, feeling that to take Mattie with her was not quite the thing, and not exactly knowing how to manage, for the girl must of course pilot the way. “I’ll risk it and trust to Providence,” was her final decision, and so after an early lunch she started out with Mattie as her escort, suggesting that they visit Wilford’s office first, and get that affair off her mind.
At this point Aunt Betsy began to look upon herself as a most hardened wretch, wondering at the depths of iniquity to which she had fallen. The opera was the least of her offences, for was she not harboring pride and contriving how to be rid of ’Tilda Tubbs, as clever a girl as ever lived, hoping that if she found Wilford he would see her home, and so save ’Tilda the trouble? Play-houses, pride, vanity, subterfuges and deceit—it was a long catalogue she would have to confess to Deacon Bannister, if confess she did, and with a groan the conscience-smitten woman followed her conductor along the streets, and at last into the stage which took them to Wilford’s office.
Broadway was literally jammed that day, and the aid of two policemen was required to extricate the bewildered countrywoman from the mass of vehicles and horses’ heads, which took all her sense away. Trembling like a leaf when Mattie explained that the “two nice men” who had dragged her to the walk were police officers, and thinking again of the subpœna, the frightened woman who had escaped such peril, followed up the two flights of stairs and into Wilford’s office, where she sank breathless into a chair, while Mark, not in the least surprised, greeted her cordially, and very soon succeeded in getting her quiet, bowing so graciously to Mattie when introduced that the poor girl dreamed of him for many a night, and by day built castles of what might have been had she been rich, instead of only ’Tilda Tubbs, whose home was on the Bowery. Why need Aunt Betsy in her introduction have mentioned that fact? Mattie thought, her cheeks burning scarlet; or why need she afterwards speak of her as ’Tilda, who was kind enough to come with her to the office where she hoped to find Wilford? Poor Mattie, she knew some things very well, but she had never yet conceived of the immeasurable distance between herself and Mark Ray, who cared but little whether her home were on the Bowery or on Murray Hill, after the first sight which told him what she was.