‘Indeed!’ exclaimed Cordova absently.  ‘How very disagreeable!’

‘I see that Madame is not listening,’ said Alphonsine, taking offence.

What she said was so true that Margaret did not answer at all.  Besides, the buttering process was finished, and it was time for the hot water.  She went to the ugly stationary washstand and bent over it, while the maid kept her hair from her face.  Alphonsine spoke again when she was sure that her mistress could not possibly answer her.

’Mr. Van Torp’s valet asked me whether I thought Madame would be willing to sing in church, at the wedding, the day after to-morrow,’ she said, holding the Primadonna’s back hair firmly.

The head moved energetically under her hands.  Margaret would certainly not sing at Mr. Van Torp’s wedding, and she even tried to say so, but her voice only bubbled and sputtered ineffectually through the soap and water.

‘I was sure Madame would not,’ continued the maid, ’though Mr. Van Torp’s valet said that money was no object.  He had heard Mr. Van Torp say that he would give five thousand dollars to have Madame sing at his wedding.’

Margaret did not shake her head this time, nor try to speak, but Alphonsine heard the little impatient tap of her slipper on the wooden floor.  It was not often that the Primadonna showed so much annoyance at anything; and of late, when she did, the cause had been connected with this same Mr. Van Torp.  The mere mention of his name irritated her, and Alphonsine seemed to know it, and to take an inexplicable pleasure in talking about him—­about Mr. Rufus Van Torp, formerly of Chicago, but now of New York.  He was looked upon as the controlling intellect of the great Nickel Trust; in fact, he was the Nickel Trust himself, and the other men in it were mere dummies compared with him.  He had sailed the uncertain waters of finance for twenty years or more, and had been nearly shipwrecked more than once, but at the time of this story he was on the top of the wave; and as his past was even more entirely a matter of conjecture than his future, it would be useless to inquire into the former or to speculate about the latter.  Moreover, in these break-neck days no time counts but the present, so far as reputation goes; good fame itself now resembles righteousness chiefly because it clothes men as with a garment; and as we have the highest authority for assuming that charity covers a multitude of sins, we can hardly be surprised that it should be so generally used for that purpose.  Rufus Van Torp’s charities were notorious, aggressive, and profitable.  The same sums of money could not have bought as much mingled advertisement and immunity in any other way.

‘Of course,’ observed Alphonsine, seeing that Margaret would soon be able to speak again, ‘money is no object to Madame either!’

This subtle flattery was evidently meant to forestall reproof.  But Margaret was now splashing vigorously, and as both taps were running the noise was as loud as that of a small waterfall; possibly she had not even heard the maid’s last speech.