'I have been tied to her apron-string all my life,' I heard him grumble to himself; 'and it's too late in the day to get loose from her how.' He looked up again at me. 'I thought I had retired from business,' he said; 'but it seems I must turn clerk again. Well? What is the new stroke of work that's expected from me this time?'
The cab was announced to be waiting for us at the gate as he asked the question. I rose and took his arm, and gave him a grateful kiss on his rosy old cheek.
'Only two things,' I said. 'Sit down behind Mr. Dexter's chair, so that he can't see you. But take care to place yourself, at the same time, so that you can see me.'
'The less I see of Mr. Dexter the better I shall be pleased,' growled Benjamin. 'What am I to do after I have taken my place behind him?'
'You are to wait until I make you a sign; and when you see it you are to begin writing down in your note-book what Mr. Dexter is saying—and you are to go on until I make another sign, which means, Leave off!'
'Well?' said Benjamin, 'what's the sign for Begin? and what's the sign for Leave off?'
I was not quite prepared with an answer to this. I asked him to help me with a hint. No! Benjamin would take no active part in the matter. He was resigned to be employed in the capacity of passive instrument—and there all concession ended, so far as he was concerned.
Left to my own resources, I found it no easy matter to invent a telegraphic system which should sufficiently inform Benjamin, without awakening Dexter's quick suspicion. I looked into the glass to see if I could find the necessary suggestion in anything that I wore. My earrings supplied me with the idea of which I was in search.
'I shall take care to sit in an arm-chair,' I said. 'When you see me rest my elbow on the chair, and lift my hand to my earring, as if I were playing with it—write down what he says; and go on until—well, suppose we say, until you hear me move my chair. At that sound, stop. You understand me?'
'I understand you.'
We started for Dexter's house.
CHAPTER XL. NEMESIS AT LAST.
THE gardener opened the gate to us on this occasion. He had evidently received his orders in anticipation of my arrival.
'Mrs. Valeria?' he asked.
'Yes.'
'And friend?'
'And friend.'
'Please to step upstairs. You know the house.'
Crossing the hall, I stopped for a moment, and looked at a favorite walking-cane which Benjamin still kept in his hand.
'Your cane will only be in your way,' I said. 'Had you not better leave it here?'
'My cane may be useful upstairs,' retorted Benjamin, gruffly. '
It was no time to contend with him. I led the way up the stairs.
Arriving at the upper flight of steps, I was startled by hearing a sudden cry from the room above. It was like the cry of a person in pain; and it was twice repeated before we entered the circular antechamber. I was the first to approach the inner room, and to see the many-sided Miserrimus Dexter in another new aspect of his character.
The unfortunate Ariel was standing before a table, with a dish of little cakes placed in front of her. Round each of her wrists was tied a string, the free ends of which (at a distance of a few yards) were held in Miserrimus Dexter's hands. 'Try again, my beauty!' I heard him say, as I stopped on the threshold of the door. 'Take a cake.' At the word of command, Ariel submissively stretched out one arm toward the dish. Just as she touched a cake with the tips of her fingers her hand was jerked away by a pull at the string, so savagely cruel in the nimble and devilish violence of it that I felt inclined to snatch Benjamin's cane out of his hand and break it over Miserrimus Dexter's back. Ariel suffered the pain this time in Spartan silence. The position in which she stood enabled her to be the first to see me at the door. She had discovered me. Her teeth were set; her face was flushed under the struggle to restrain herself. Not even a sigh escaped her in my presence.
'Drop the string!' I called out, indignantly 'Release her, Mr. Dexter, or I shall leave the house.'
At the sound of my voice he burst out with a shrill cry of welcome. His eyes fastened on me with a fierce, devouring delight.
'Come in! come in!' he cried. 'See what I am reduced to in the maddening suspense of waiting for you. See how I kill the time when the time parts us. Come in! come in! I am in one of my malicious humors this morning, caused entirely, Mrs. Valeria, by my anxiety to see you. When I am in my malicious humors I must tease something. I am teasing Ariel. Look at her! She has had nothing to eat all day, and she hasn't been quick enough to snatch a morsel of cake yet. You needn't pity her. Ariel has no nerves—I don't hurt her.'
'Ariel has no nerves,' echoed the poor creature, frowning at me for interfering between her master and herself. 'He doesn't hurt me.'
I heard Benjamin beginning to swing his cane behind him.
'Drop the string!' I reiterated, more vehemently than ever. 'Drop it, or I shall instantly leave you.'
Miserrimus Dexter's delicate nerves shuddered at my violence. 'What a glorious voice!' he exclaimed—and dropped the string. 'Take the cakes,' he added, addressing Ariel in his most imperial manner.
She passed me, with the strings hanging from her swollen wrists, and the dish of cakes in her hand. She
