"You were quite right, Mr. Cuthbert," she answered. "I suppose this is the reason why Mr. Davenant has just told me the whole miserable story."
"It is one reason," he admitted, "but in any case I think that Mr.
Davenant had made up his mind that you should know."
"Mr. Trent, I suppose, talks of this money as a present to me?"
"He did not speak of it in that way," Mr. Cuthbert answered, "but in a sense that is, of course, what it amounts to. At the same time I should like to say that under the peculiar circ.u.mstances of the case I should consider you altogether justified in accepting it."
Ernestine drew herself up. Once more in her finely flashing eyes and resolute air the lawyer was reminded of his old friend.
"I will tell you what I should call it, Mr. Cuthbert," she said, "I will tell you what I believe it is! It is blood-money."
Mr. Cuthbert dropped his eyegla.s.s, and rose from his chair, startled.
"Blood-money! My dear young lady! Blood-money!"
"Yes! You have heard the whole story, I suppose! What did it sound like to you? A valuable concession granted to two men, one old, the other young! one strong, the other feeble! yet the concession read, if one should die the survivor should take the whole. Who put that in, do you suppose? Not my father! you may be sure of that. And one of them does die, and Scarlett Trent is left to take everything. Do you think that reasonable? I don"t. Now, you say, after all this time he is fired with a sudden desire to behave handsomely to the daughter of his dead partner. Fiddlesticks! I know Scarlett Trent, although he little knows who I am, and he isn"t that sort of man at all. He"d better have kept away from you altogether, for I fancy he"s put his neck in the noose now! I do not want his money, but there is something I do want from Mr.
Scarlett Trent, and that is the whole knowledge of my father"s death."
Mr. Cuthbert sat down heavily in his chair.
"But, my dear young lady," he said, "you do not suspect Mr. Trent of--er--making away with your father!"
"And why not? According to his own showing they were alone together when he died. What was to prevent it? I want to know more about it, and I am going to, if I have to travel to the Gold Coast myself. I will tell you frankly, Mr. Cuthbert--I suspect Mr. Scarlett Trent. No, don"t interrupt me. It may seem absurd to you now that he is Mr. Scarlett Trent, millionaire, with the odour of civilisation clinging to him, and the respectability of wealth. But I, too, have seen him, and I have heard him talk. He has helped me to see the other man--half-savage, splendidly masterful, forging his way through to success by sheer pluck and unswerving obstinacy. Listen, I admire your Mr. Trent! He is a man, and when he speaks to you you know that he was born with a destiny. But there is the other side. Do you think that he would let a man"s life stand in his way? Not he! He"d commit a murder, or would have done in those days, as readily as you or I would sweep away a fly. And it is because he is that sort of man that I want to know more about my father"s death."
"You are talking of serious things, Miss Wendermott," Mr. Cuthbert said gravely.
"Why not? Why shirk them? My father"s death was a serious thing, wasn"t it? I want an account of it from the only man who can render it."
"When you disclose yourself to Mr. Trent I should say that he would willingly give you--"
She interrupted him, coming over and standing before him, leaning against his table, and looking him in the face.
"You don"t understand. I am not going to disclose myself! You will reply to Mr. Trent that the daughter of his old partner is not in need of charity, however magnificently tendered. You understand?"
"I understand, Miss Wendermott."
"As to her name or whereabouts you are not at liberty to disclose them.
You can let him think, if you will, that she is tarred with the same brush as those infamous and hypocritical relatives of hers who sent her father out to die."
Mr. Cuthbert shook his head.
"I think, young lady, if you will allow me to say so that you are making a needless mystery of the matter, and further, that you are embarking upon what will certainly prove to be a wild-goose chase. We had news of your father not long before his sad death, and he was certainly in ill-health."
She set her lips firmly together, and there was a look in her face which alone was quite sufficient to deter Mr. Cuthbert from further argument.
"It may be a wild-goose chase," she said. "It may not. At any rate nothing will alter my purpose. Justice sleeps sometimes for very many years, but I have an idea that Mr. Scarlett Trent may yet have to face a day of settlement."
She walked through the crowded streets homewards, her nerves tingling and her pulses throbbing with excitement. She was conscious of having somehow ridded herself of a load of uncertainty and anxiety. She was committed now at any rate to a definite course. There had been moments of indecision--moments in which she had been inclined to revert to her first impressions of the man, which, before she had heard Davenant"s story, had been favourable enough. That was all over now. That pitifully tragic figure--the man who died with a tardy fortune in his hands, an outcast in a far off country--had stirred in her heart a pa.s.sionate sympathy--reason even gave way before it. She declared war against Mr.
Scarlett Trent.
CHAPTER XX
Ernestine walked from Lincoln"s Inn to the office of the Hour, where she stayed until nearly four. Then, having finished her day"s work, she made her way homewards. Davenant was waiting for her in her rooms. She greeted him with some surprise.
"You told me that I might come to tea," he reminded her. "If you"re expecting any one else, or I"m in the way at all, don"t mind saying so, please!"
She shook her head.
"I"m certainly not expecting any one," she said. "To tell you the truth my visiting-list is a very small one; scarcely any one knows where I live. Sit down, and I will ring for tea."
He looked at her curiously. "What a colour you have, Ernestine!" he remarked. "Have you been walking fast?"
She laughed softly, and took off her hat, straightening the wavy brown hair, which had escaped bounds a little, in front of the mirror. She looked at herself long and thoughtfully at the delicately cut but strong features, the clear, grey eyes and finely arched eyebrows, the curving, humorous mouth and dainty chin. Davenant regarded her in amazement.
"Why, Ernestine," he exclaimed, "are you taking stock of your good looks?"
"Precisely what I am doing," she answered laughing. "At that moment I was wondering whether I possessed any."
"If you will allow me," he said, "to take the place of the mirror, I think that I could give you any a.s.surances you required."
She shook her head.
"You might be more flattering," she said, "but you would be less faithful."
He remained standing upon the hearthrug. Ernestine returned to the mirror.
"May I know," he asked, "for whose sake is this sudden anxiety about your appearance?"
She turned away and sat in a low chair, her hands clasped behind her head, her eyes fixed upon vacancy.
"I have been wondering," she said, "whether if I set myself to it as to a task I could make a man for a moment forget himself--did I say forget?--I mean betray!"
"If I were that man," he remarked smiling, "I will answer for it that you could."
"You! But then you are only a boy, you have nothing to conceal, and you are partial to me, aren"t you? No, the man whom I want to influence is a very different sort of person. It is Scarlett Trent."
He frowned heavily. "A boor," he said. "What have you to do with him?
The less the better I should say."
"And from my point of view, the more the better," she answered. "I have come to believe that but for him my father would be alive to-day."
"I do not understand! If you believe that, surely you do not wish to see the man--to have him come near you!"