Page 68 of The Irish Gypsy
"A pleasure, my dear. These are my daughters.Alice is the pretty one, and this is Maude. Maude is the fey one,but what she lacks in beauty she makes up for with brains." Helaughed heartily and Maude stood up on her tiptoes and whisperedsomething in his ear. "Exactly so, exactly so, Maude. What servicemay I render you, Miss O'Reilly?"
"I'm going to join Patrick in America. Iwould like passage to Charleston on the first available ship."
"I do admire an adventuress. Let's see now,Big Jim Harding is sailing tomorrow or the next day. I can issueyour tickets right here."
"How much is the passage, Mr. Bolt?"
"Well, let's see now. It's forty pounds, orif you wish a cabin to yourself and first-class service, it's fiftypounds."
"Oh, that's fine," said Kitty, carefullyextracting fifty pounds from her purse.
"Are you traveling alone?" he asked withraised eyebrows.
"Yes. You see, my maid took sick on thejourney from London, so I left her at our house in Bolton," sheimprovised quickly.
"I see. Well, just a moment and I'll validatethis ticket for you. Now, you must stay with us tonight. We're onour way home now. My girls will be delighted to have you, mydear."
"Ah--well, I was planning to put up at theAdelphi Hotel," she lied, "but you know how they frown on womentraveling alone."
"Just so, my dear, just so."
Kitty smiled to herself as she sat down todinner. Boiled meat, boiled potatoes, boiled cabbage. It was all sounappetizing, she realized it was fortunate she hadn't developed adelicate palate. She marveled at Isaac Bolt, who seemed to have thedigestion of a horse. When dessert arrived, he exclaimed withrelish, "Ah, spotted dick!"
Kitty laughed aloud, not at the quaint namehe had given it, but at the fact that the pudding also wasboiled.
After dinner, her father insisted Alice singfor them. He requested all the mawkish, sentimental Irish balladsand Alice delivered them in her high, too-sweet voice, while herfather beamed fatuously. The evening seemed endless, until Kittywished she had spent the night under a hedge. Somehow, finally, theevening came to a close.
"I'll take you down to the ship in mycarriage in the morning and see you safely aboard. Maude here willshow you to a guest room. Breakfast is at seven sharp. Alice,come."
When they were alone, Maude looked at Kitty."Excruciating, wasn't it?"
Kitty's lips twitched appreciatively and shecame close to liking Maude. On impulse she asked, "When I came intothe office today, what did you whisper to your father?"
"I said, 'If that's Patrick's sister, I'm aChinaman!"
Kitty blushed vividly. "Then why did he letme continue with the deception?"
Maude shrugged. "Don't worry about Father;his whole life's a deception." She jerked her head toward thestairs and said, "He's having her, you know."
"You don't mean....you can't mean....his owndaughter? I don't believe it."
Maude laughed. "Believe it! I'm the youngestof twenty-one children he's had out of four different wives. Whenthe last one died, the family all got together and decided to put astop to him having droves of wives and children. There's twenty-oneof us to divvy up when he goes to that great shipyard in the sky,so Alice was the logical sacrifice."
"But that's unheard of!" said Kitty.
Maude chuckled. "Aye, unheard of, but acommon enough practice all the same. Think now, surely you know oneor two families where a widower has one of his daughters fill hiswife's place?"
"Only socially," protested Kitty.
"Socially and privately," assured Maude.
"Does Patrick know what's going on?" askedKitty, scandalized.
"I'm certain he doesn't; however, we allcould stand on our heads and smoke Indian hemp and he wouldn't showa flicker of interest in us personally. He's all business. In fact,you are a very big surprise to me. I've often wondered aboutPatrick's woman. I pictured either a toffee-nosed daughter of apeer, or a plain-faced girl as rich as Croesus. I never thoughthe'd let his heart overrule his head in a million years."
"Well," Kitty said with a laugh, "that's avery pretty compliment. Thank you."
"Save the thanks, lass; you aren't wedyet!"
