I hadn't had more than three hours'sleep,and the snug warmth of that coach was just nuts to me,after the freezing ride into town.I didn't dare get out for fear of some other man in a cap and buttons somewhere on the lookout.I knew they couldn't be on to my hiding-place or they'd have nabbed me before this.After a bit I didn't want to get out,I was so warm and comfortable--and elegant.O Tom,you should have seen your Nance in that coat and in the Bishop's carriage!
First thing I knew,I was dreaming you and I were being married,and you had brass buttons all over you,and I had the cloak all right,but it was a wedding-dress,and the chinchilla was a wormy sort of orange blossoms,and--and I waked when the handle of the door turned and the Bishop got in.
Asleep?That's what!I'd actually been asleep.
And what did I do now?
That's easy--fell asleep again.There wasn't anything else to do.
Not really asleep this time,you know;just,just asleep enough to be wide awake to any chance there was in it.
The horses had started,and the carriage was half-way across the street before the Bishop noticed me.
He was a little Bishop,not big and fat and well-kept like the rig,but short and lean,with a little white beard and the softest eye--and the softest heart--and the softest head.Just listen.
"Lord bless me!"he exclaimed,hurriedly putting on his spectacles,and looking about bewildered.
I was slumbering sweetly in the corner,but I could see between my lashes that he thought he'd jumped into somebody else's carriage.
The sight of his book and his papers comforted him,though,and before he could make a resolution,I let the jolting of the carriage,as it crossed the car-track,throw me gently against him.
"Daddy,"I murmured sleepily,letting my head rest on his little,prim shoulder.
That comforted him,too.Hush your laughing,Tom Dorgan;I mean calling him "daddy"seemed to kind of take the cuss off the situation.
"My child,"he began very gently.
"Oh,daddy,"I exclaimed,snuggling down close to him,"you kept me waiting so long I went to sleep.I thought you'd never come."He put his arm about my shoulders in a fatherly way.You know,I found out later the Bishop never had had a daughter.I guess he thought he had one now.Such a ******,dear old soul!Just the same,Tom Dorgan,if he had been my father,I'd never be doing stunts with tipsy men's watches for you;nor if I'd had any father.Now,don't get mad.Think of the Bishop with his gentle,thin old arm about my shoulders,holding me for just a second as though I was his daughter!My,think of it!And me,Nance Olden,with that fat man's watch in my waist and some girl's beautiful long coat and hat on,all covered with chinchilla!
"There's some mistake,my little girl,"he said,shaking me gently to wake me up,for I was going to sleep again,he feared.
"Oh,I knew you were kept at the office,"I interrupted quickly.I preferred to be farther from the station with that girl's red coat before I got out."We've missed our train,anyway,haven't we?After this,daddy dear,let's not take this route.If we'd go straight through on the one road,we wouldn't have this drive across town every time.I was wondering,before I fell asleep,what in the world I'd do in this big city if you didn't come."He forgot to withdraw his arm,so occupied was he by my predicament.
"What would you do,my child,if you had--had missed your--your father?"Wasn't it clumsy of him?He wanted to break it to me gently,and this was the best he could do.
"What would I do?"I gasped indignantly."Why,daddy,imagine me alone,and--and without money!Why--why,how can you--""There!there!"he said,patting me soothingly on the shoulder.
That baby of a Bishop!The very thought of Nancy Olden out alone in the streets was too much for him.
He had put his free hand into his pocket and had just taken out a bill and was trying to plan a way to offer it to me and reveal the fact to poor,modest little Nance Olden that he was not her own daddy,when an awful thing happened.
We had got up street as far as the opera-house,when we were caught in the jam of carriages in front;the last afternoon opera of the season was just over.I was so busy thinking what would be my next move that I didn't notice much outside--and I didn't want to move,Tom,not a bit.Playing the Bishop's daughter in a trailing coat of red,trimmed with chinchilla,is just your Nancy's graft.But the dear little Bishop gave a jump that almost knocked the roof off the carriage,pulled his arm from behind me and dropped the ten-dollar bill he held as though it burned him.
It fell in my lap.I jammed it into my coat pocket.Where is it now?Just you wait,Tom Dorgan,and you'll find out.
I followed the Bishop's eyes.His face was scarlet now.Right next to our carriage--mine and the Bishop's--there was another;not quite so fat and heavy and big,but smart,I tell you,with the silver harness jangling and the horses arching their backs under their blue-cloth jackets monogrammed in leather.All the same,I couldn't see anything to cause a loving father to let go his onliest daughter in such a hurry,till the old lady inside bent forward again and gave us another look.
Her face told it then.It was a big,smooth face,with accordion-plaited chins.Her hair was white and her nose was curved,and the pearls in her big ears brought out every ugly spot on her face.Her lips were thin,and her neck,hung with diamonds,looked like a bed with bolsters and pillows piled high,and her eyes--oh,Tom,her eyes!They were little and very gray,and they bored their way straight through the windows--hers and ours--and hit the Bishop plumb in the face.
My,if I could only have laughed!The Bishop,the dear,prim little Bishop in his own carriage,with his arm about a young woman in red and chinchilla,offering her a bank-note,and Mrs.
Dowager Diamonds,her eyes popping out of her head at the sight,and she one of the lady pillars of his church--oh,Tom!it took all of this to make that poor innocent next to me realize how he looked in her eyes.