The innuendo was unmistakable. Matravers advanced with his usual leisurely walk to the little group of men.
"I beg your pardon," he said quietly. "I understood Mr. Thornd.y.k.e to say, I believe, that he had given a carriage to a certain lady. Am I correct?"
Thornd.y.k.e turned upon him sharply. There was a sudden silence in the crowded room. Matravers" clear, cold voice, although scarcely raised above the pitch of ordinary conversation, had penetrated to its furthest corner.
"And if I did, sir! What----"
"These gentlemen will bear me witness that you did say so?" Matravers interrupted calmly. "I regret to have to use unpleasant language, Mr.
Thornd.y.k.e, but I am compelled to tell you, and these gentlemen, that your statement is a lie!"
Thornd.y.k.e was a florid and a puffy man. The veins upon his temples stood out like whipcord. He was not a pleasant sight to look upon.
"What do you mean, sir?" he spluttered. "The carriage was mine before she had it. Everybody recognizes it."
[Ill.u.s.tration: "I am compelled to tell you, and these gentlemen, that your statement is a lie!"]
"Exactly. The carriage was yours. You intended every one to recognize it. But you have omitted to state, both here and in other places, that the lady bought that carriage from you for two hundred and sixty guineas--a good deal more than its worth, I should imagine. You heard her say that she was thinking of buying a victoria, and you offered her yours--pressed her to buy it. It was too small for your horses, you said, and you were hard up. You even had it sent round to her stables without her consent. I have heard this story before, sir, and I have furnished myself with proofs of its falsehood. This, gentlemen," he added, drawing some papers from his pocket, "is Mr.
Thornd.y.k.e"s receipt for the two hundred and sixty guineas for a victoria, signed, as you will see, in his own handwriting, and here is the lady"s cheque with Mr. Thornd.y.k.e"s endors.e.m.e.nt, cancelled and paid."
The papers were handed round. Thornd.y.k.e picked up his hat, but Matravers barred his egress.
"With regard to the insinuation which you coupled with your falsehood," he continued, "both are equally and absolutely false. I know her to be a pure and upright woman. A short time ago you took advantage of your position to make certain cowardly and disgraceful propositions to her, since when her doors have been closed upon you! I would have you know, sir, and remember, that the honour of that lady, whom last night I asked to be my wife, is as dear to me as my own, and if you dare now, or at any future time, to slander her, I shall treat you as you deserve. You can go."
"And be very careful, sir," thundered the old Earl of Ellesmere, veteran member of the club, "that you never show your face inside these doors again, or, egad, I"m an old man, but I"ll kick you out myself."
Thornd.y.k.e left the room amidst a chilling and unsympathetic silence.
As soon as he could get away, Matravers followed him. There was a strange pain at his heart, a sense of intolerable depression had settled down upon him. After all, what good had he done? Only a few more days and her name, which for the moment he had cleared, would be besmirched in earnest. His impeachment of Thornd.y.k.e would sound to these men then like mock heroics. There would be no one to defend her any more. There would be no defence. For ever in the eyes of all these people she was doomed to become one of the Magdalens of the world.
It seemed a very unreal London through which Matravers was whirled on his way from the club to Paddington. But before a third of the distance was accomplished, there was a sudden check. A little boy, who had wandered from his nurse in crossing the road, narrowly escaped being run over by a carriage and pair, only to find himself knocked down by the shaft of Matravers" hansom. There was a cry, and the driver pulled his horse on to her haunches, but apparently just a second too late. With a sickening sense of horror, Matravers saw the little fellow literally under the horse"s feet, and heard his shrill cry of terror.
He leaped out, and was the first to pick the child up, immeasurably relieved to find that after all he was not seriously hurt. His clothes were torn, and his hands were scratched, and there, apparently, the mischief ended. Matravers lifted him into the cab, and turned to the frightened nurse-girl for the address.
"Nine, Greenfield Gardens, West Kensington, sir," she told him; "and please tell the master it wasn"t my fault. He is so venturesome, I can"t control him nohow. His name is Drage--Freddy Drage, sir."
And then once more Matravers felt that strange dizziness which had come to him earlier in the day. Again he had that curious sense of moving in a dream, as though he had, indeed, become part of an unreal and shadowy world. The renewed motion of the cab as they drove back again along Pall Mall, recalled him to himself. He leaned back and looked at the boy steadily.
Yes, they were her eyes. There was no doubt about it. The little fellow, not in the least shy, and, in fact, now become rather proud of his adventure, commenced to prattle very soon. Matravers interrupted him with a question,--
"Won"t your mother be frightened to see you like this?" The child stared at him with wide-open eyes.
"Why, mammy ain"t there," he exclaimed. "Mammy went away ever so long ago. I don"t think she"s dead, though, "cos daddy wouldn"t let me talk about her, only just lately, since he was ill. You see," he went on with an explanatory wave of the hand, "daddy"s been a very bad man.
He"s better now--leastways, he ain"t so bad as he was; but I "spect that"s why mammy went away. Don"t you?"
"I daresay, Freddy," Matravers answered softly.
"We"re getting very near now," Freddy remarked, looking over the ap.r.o.n of the cab. "My! won"t dada be surprised to see me drive up in a cab with you! I hope he"s at the window!"
"Will your father be at home now?" Matravers asked.
Freddy stared at him.
"Why, of course! Dad"s always at home! Is my face very buggy? Don"t rub it any more, please. That"s Jack Mason over there! I play with him. I want him to see me. Hullo! Jack," he shouted, leaning out of the cab, "I"ve been run over, right over, face all buggy. Look at it!
Hands too," spreading them out. "He"s a nice boy," Freddy continued as the cab turned a corner, "but he can"t run near so fast as me, and he"s lots older. Hullo! here we are!" kicking vigorously at the ap.r.o.n.
Matravers looked up in surprise. They had stopped short before a long row of shabby-genteel houses in the outskirts of Kensington. He took the boy"s outstretched hand and pushed open the gate. The door was open, and Freddy dragged him into a room on the ground floor.
A man was lying on a sofa before the window, wrapped in an untidy dressing-gown, and with the lower part of his body covered up with a rug. His face, fair and florid, with more than a suggestion of coa.r.s.eness in the heavy jaw and thick lips, was drawn and wrinkled as though with pain. His lips wore an habitually peevish expression.
He did not offer to rise when they came in. Matravers was thankful that Freddy spared him the necessity of immediate speech. He had recognized in a moment the man who had sat alone night after night in the back seats of the New Theatre, whose slow drawn-out cry of agony had so curiously affected him on that night of her performance.
He recognized, too, the undergraduate of his college sent down for flagrant misbehaviour, the leader of a set whom he himself had denounced as a disgrace to the University. And this man was her husband!
"Daddy," the boy cried, dropping Matravers" hand and running over to the couch, "I"ve been run over by a hansom cab, and I"m all buggy, but I ain"t hurt, and this gentleman brought me home. Daddy can"t get up, you know," Freddy explained; "his legs is bad."
"Run over, eh!" exclaimed the man on the couch. "It"s like that girl"s d.a.m.ned carelessness."
He patted the boy"s head, not unkindly, and Matravers found words.
"My cab unfortunately knocked your little boy down near Trafalgar Square, but I am thankful to say that he was not hurt. I thought that I had better bring him straight home, though, as he has had a roll in the dust."
At the sound of Matravers" voice, the man started and looked at him earnestly. A dull red flush stained his cheeks. He looked away.
"It was very good of you, Mr. Matravers," he said. "I can"t think what the girl could have been about."
"I did not see her until after the accident. I am glad that it was no worse," Matravers answered. "You have not forgotten me, then?"
John Drage shook his head.
"No, sir," he said. "I have not forgotten you. I should have known your voice anywhere. Besides, I knew that you were in London. I saw you at the New Theatre."
There was a short silence. Matravers glanced around the room with an inward shiver. The usual horrors of a suburban parlour were augmented by a general slovenliness, and an obvious disregard for any sort of order.
"I am afraid, Drage," he said gently, "that things have not gone well with you."
"You are quite right," the man answered bitterly. "They have not! They have gone very wrong indeed; and I have no one to blame but myself."
"I am sorry," Matravers said. "You are an invalid, too, are you not?"
"I am worse than an invalid," the man on the couch groaned. "I am a prisoner on my back, most likely for ever; curse it! I have had a paralytic stroke. I can"t think why I couldn"t die! It"s hard lines!--d.a.m.ned hard lines! I wish I were dead twenty times a day! I am alone here from morning to night, and not a soul to speak to. If it wasn"t for Freddy I should jolly soon end it!"
"The little boy"s mother?" Matravers ventured, with bowed head.
"She left me--years ago. I don"t know that I blame her, particularly.
Sit down, if you will, for a bit. I never have a visitor, and it does me good to talk."
Matravers took the only unoccupied chair, and drew it back a little into the darker part of the room.
"You remember me then, Drage," he remarked. "Yet it is a long time since our college days."
"I knew you directly I heard your voice, sir," the man answered. "It seemed to take me back to a night many years ago--I want you to let me remind you of it. I should like you to know that I never forgot it.