N Monday the siege was lifted by a note from Dr. MacVickar. The doctor wrote, as he usually did, on a sheet torn from his prescription-pad and began without introduction:
"He carn't do it," commented William who, in due course of time, gathered in the discarded note and read it to the cook. "Naobody can order out the hambulance except the leftenant in charge of the station. For contagious cases they have a special one drawn by 'orses."
In one of those innocent postscripts artfully added so as to appear casual but really to contain the kernel of the letter, the doctor added:
Bellsmith laid down the note at the spot from which it was later retrieved by William, who already had his eye on it.
"By the way, William," he said, "has Keefe connected that telephone yet?"
"Yes, sir," said William. "A man from the company came around Saturday night and said how about it?"
Bellsmith knew this as well as William, but on occasions of this kind it is just as well to appear brisk and officious. As if a bothersome and vexatious business matter had just arisen, he sauntered up to the telephone in the governess-room and took up the telephone-book.
"Center eleven hundred, please. … Hello. May I speak to Miss Tilly Marshall?"
A moment later Miss Marshall's voice came to him over the wire, startlingly familiar, and not at all, moreover, the wan voice of an invalid.
"Miss Marshall? This is Arnold Bellsmith."
"Who?"
"Arnold Bellsmith."
At that Miss Marshall's voice did freeze a little. "Oh."
Bellsmith hurried on. "I have just heard that you have been laid up all the week."
"Yes," answered Miss Marshall, dryly.
Bellsmith hemmed around vaguely for something to say. "Well, are you—are you able to get out now?"
The voice laughed. "Oh, goodness, yes!"
"Well, then—I wonder—could I come to see you?"
"I don't see why not. People have."
Bellsmith hesitated again. "But—you see—I thought that you might be a little angry at me. I was rather afraid to face you."
"But, my dear man, even so, what could I possibly do to you?"
With a laugh Bellsmith cautiously went a little further. "I wonder—I mean, is n't there somewhere else that we can go besides the Massapauk?"
Miss Marshall laughed again, a little less coldly. "The tainted spot?" she suggested, and Bellsmith had to laugh with her.
The laugh did them both good, and both voices went on more naturally.
"Well, how would you like to go motoring for a while?"
"I should like it very much."
"In about an hour, then? About half-past two?"
"Half-past two. Very good, my lord."
As Bellsmith's car drove up to the Massapauk, Miss Marshall was waiting on the old-fashioned sandstone steps.
"By rights," she exclaimed, as she clambered into the car, "I should have kept you waiting for a long time inside, but you see I had pity on you. I knew you did n't want to face the bell-boys."
"And I thank you for that," said Bellsmith, his hand still on the door. "Where do you want to go?"
"My dear Mr. Bellsmith," replied Miss Marshall, "it's your city, not mine."
Bellsmith leaned forward to Keefe, who cocked an attentive ear. "You might drive up through the parks, Keefe. It is n't too muddy, is it?"
"No, sir, I think not."
As they started off, Miss Marshall looked around the soft interior of the gray limousine with a piquant admiration. "You do do things with a certain chaste elegance, don't you? As you came up you looked quite like an advertisement in 'Vogue.'"
Suddenly she dropped her bantering tone and turned to him quickly. "Why have n't you come to see me all the week?"
Bellsmith looked uncomfortably at the robe-rail in front of him.
"I felt," he said, blushing hotly, and not with any too great conviction, "that you would never want to see me again, that I had dragged you into a horrible mess."
"Nonsense!" said the girl. "Pete Surdam told me all about it the next morning. He and Tommy Knight felt very badly about it. Really they did. Did n't one of them call you up? They said they were going to."
Bellsmith shook his head. "No, I have seen no one for a week. I even had the telephone wires and the door-bell disconnected."
Miss Marshall looked at him. "Not really! Smelling-salts too? And straw on the pavement?"
Bellsmith laughed painfully. "I suppose that I am the biggest fool that ever lived."
Miss Marshall broke in abruptly. "Look here. Who started that idea, you or the doctor?"
Bellsmith looked at her in surprise. "What idea?"
Miss Marshall found it rather harder to explain than she had expected.