er coachman had made love to her, and had--had even kissed her. Every
drop of De Peyster blood revolted against such a degradation.

"I hope it will come out all right, Matilda," she said in a shaking
voice.

"Oh, it never can!" Matilda had already started for the door. She
paused, hesitant, with the knob in her hand. "But you, ma'am," she
faltered, "can you ever forgive me for the way I deceived you?"

Mrs. De Peyster tried to look severe, yet relenting.

"I'll try to overlook it, Matilda."

"Thank you, ma'am," snuffled Matilda; and very humbly she went out.

CHAPTER XX

MATILDA BREAKS IT GENTLY

At two o'clock of the fifth night Matilda stole into Mrs. De Peyster
with a face that would have been an apt cover for the Book of
Lamentations. She opened her pages. That day she had had a telegram
that her sister Angelica--the really and truly Angelica, who really
and truly lived near Syracuse--that Angelica was seriously ill. She
was sorry, but she felt that she must go.

"Of course, you must go, Matilda!" exclaimed Mrs. De Peyster. Then the
significance to her of Matilda's absence flashed upon her. "But what
will I do without any company at all?" she cried. "And without any
food?"

"I've seen to the food, ma'am." And Matilda explained that during the
evening, in preparation for her going, she had been smuggling into the
house from Sixth Avenue delicatessen stores boxes of crackers, cold
meats, all varieties of canned goods--"enough to last you for a month,
ma'am, and by that time I'll be back."

Her explanation made, Matilda proceeded, with extremest caution,
to carry the provisions up and stack them in one corner of Mrs. De
Peyster's large, white-tiled bathroom. When the freightage was over,
the bathroom, with its supply of crackers and zweibach, its bottles
of olives and pickles, its cold tongue, cold roast beef, cold chicken,
its cans of salmon, sardines, deviled ham, California peaches, and
condensed milk--the bathroom was itself a delicatessen shop that many
an ambitious young German would have regarded as a proud start in
life.

"But what about food for the others while you're gone?" inquired Mrs.
De Peyster--with a sudden hope that the others would be starved into
leaving.

"I've attended to them, ma'am. I've bought a lot of things that will
keep. And then I told the tradespeople that my niece was going to be
here in my place, and they are to deliver milk and other fresh things
for her ever