"Ye-es," murmured Mrs. Leek feebly.
"Well, if you can persuade him to go," said Alice, "if you can make him see his duty, you"re welcome. But I"m sorry for you. I think I ought to tell you that this is my house, and my furniture. He"s got nothing at all. I expect he never could save. Many"s the blow he"s laid on me in anger, but all the same I pity him. I pity him. And I wouldn"t like to leave him in the lurch. Perhaps these three strong young men"ll be able to do something with him. But I"m not sure. He"s very strong. And he has a way of leaping out so sudden like."
Mrs. Leek shook her head as memories of the past rose up in her mind.
"The fact is," said Matthew sternly, "he ought to be prosecuted for bigamy. That"s what ought to be done."
"Most decidedly," Henry concurred.
"You"re quite right! You"re quite right!" said Alice. "That"s only justice. Of course he"d deny that he was the same Henry Leek. He"d deny it like anything. But in the end I dare say you"d be able to prove it.
The worst of these law cases is they"re so expensive. It means private detectives and all sorts of things, I believe. Of course there"d be the scandal. But don"t mind me! I"m innocent. Everybody knows me in Putney, and has done this twenty years. I don"t know how it would suit you, Mr.
Henry and Mr. Matthew, as clergymen, to have your own father in prison.
That"s as may be. But justice is justice, and there"s too many men going about deceiving simple, trusting women. I"ve often heard such tales. Now I know they"re all true. It"s a mercy my own poor mother hasn"t lived to see where I am to-day. As for my father, old as he was, if he"d been alive, there"d have been horsewhipping that I do know."
After some rather pointless and disjointed remarks from the curates, a sound came from the corner near the door. It was John"s cough.
"Better clear out of this!" John e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. Such was his first and last oral contribution to the scene.
_In the Bath_
Priam Farll was wandering about the uncharted groves of Wimbledon Common, and uttering soliloquies in language that lacked delicacy. He had rushed forth, in his haste, without an overcoat, and the weather was bl.u.s.terously inclement. But he did not feel the cold; he only felt the keen wind of circ.u.mstance.
Soon after the purchase of his picture by the lunatic landlord of a fully licensed house, he had discovered that the frame-maker in High Street knew a man who would not be indisposed to buy such pictures as he could paint, and transactions between him and the frame-maker had developed into a regular trade. The usual price paid for canvases was ten pounds, in cash. By this means he had earned about two hundred a year. No questions were put on either side. The paintings were delivered at intervals, and the money received; and Priam knew no more. For many weeks he had lived in daily expectation of an uproar, a scandal in the art-world, visits of police, and other inconveniences, for it was difficult to believe that the pictures would never come beneath the eye of a first-cla.s.s expert. But nothing had occurred, and he had gradually subsided into a sense of security. He was happy; happy in the untrammelled exercise of his gift, happy in having all the money that his needs and Alice"s demanded; happier than he had been in the errant days of his glory and his wealth. Alice had been amazed at his power of earning; and also, she had seemed little by little to lose her suspicions as to his perfect sanity and truthfulness. In a word, the dog of fate had slept; and he had taken particular care to let it lie. He was in that species of sheltered groove which is absolutely essential to the bliss of a shy and nervous artist, however great he may be.
And now this disastrous irruption, this resurrection of the early sins of the real Leek! He was hurt; he was startled; he was furious. But he was not surprised. The wonder was that the early sins of Henry Leek had not troubled him long ago. What could he do? He could do nothing. That was the tragedy: he could do nothing. He could but rely upon Alice.
Alice was amazing. The more he thought of it, the more masterly her handling of these preposterous curates seemed to him. And was he to be robbed of this incomparable woman by ridiculous proceedings connected with a charge of bigamy? He knew that bigamy meant prison, in England.
The injustice was monstrous. He saw those curates, and their mute brother, and the aggrieved mother of the three d.o.g.g.i.ng him either to prison or to his deathbed! And how could he explain to Alice? Impossible to explain to Alice!... Still, it was conceivable that Alice would not desire explanation. Alice somehow never did desire an explanation. She always said, "I can quite understand," and set about preparing a meal.
She was the comfortablest cushion of a creature that the evolution of the universe had ever produced.
Then the gusty breeze dropped and it began to rain. He ignored the rain.
But December rain has a strange, horrid quality of chilly persistence.
It is capable of conquering the most obstinate and serious mental preoccupation, and it conquered Priam"s. It forced him to admit that his tortured soul had a fleshly garment and that the fleshly garment was soaked to the marrow. And his soul gradually yielded before the attack of the rain, and he went home.
He put his latchkey into the door with minute precautions against noise, and crept into his house like a thief, and very gently shut the door.
Then, in the hall, he intently listened. Not a sound! That is to say, not a sound except the drippings of his hat on the linoleum. The sitting-room door was ajar. He timidly pushed it, and entered. Alice was darning stockings.
"Henry!" she exclaimed. "Why, you"re wet through!" She rose.
"Have they cleared off?" he demanded.
"And you"ve been out without an overcoat! Henry, how could you? Well, I must get you into bed at once--instantly, or I shall have you down with pneumonia or something to-morrow!"
"Have they cleared off?" he repeated.
"Yes, of course," she said.
"When are they coming back?" he asked.
"I don"t think they"ll come back," she replied. "I think they"ve had enough. I think I"ve made them see that it"s best to leave well alone.
Did you ever see such toast as that curate made?"
"Alice, I a.s.sure you," he said, later--he was in a boiling bath--"I a.s.sure you it"s all a mistake, I"ve never seen the woman before."
"Of course you haven"t," she said calmingly. "Of course you haven"t.
Besides, even if you had, it serves her right. Every one could see she"s a nagging woman. And they seemed quite prosperous. They"re hysterical-- that"s what"s the matter with them, all of them--except the eldest, the one that never spoke. I rather liked him."
"But I _haven"t!_" he reiterated, splashing his positive statement into the water.
"My dear, I know you haven"t."
But he guessed that she was humouring him. He guessed that she was determined to keep him at all costs. And he had a disconcerting glimpse of the depths of utter unscrupulousness that sometimes disclose themselves in the mind of a good and loving woman.
"Only I hope there won"t be any more of them!" she added dryly.
Ah! That was the point! He conceived the possibility of the rascal Leek having committed scores and scores of sins, all of which might come up against him. His affrighted vision saw whole regions populated by disconsolate widows of Henry Leek and their offspring, ecclesiastical and otherwise. He knew what Leek had been. Westminster Abbey was a strange goal for Leek to have achieved.
CHAPTER IX
_A Glossy Male_
The machine was one of those electric contrivances that do their work noiselessly and efficiently, like a garrotter or the guillotine. No odour, no teeth-disturbing grind of rack-and-pinion, no trumpeting, with that machine! It arrived before the gate with such absence of sound that Alice, though she was dusting in the front-room, did not hear it. She heard nothing till the bell discreetly tinkled. Justifiably a.s.suming that the tinkler was the butcher"s boy, she went to the door with her ap.r.o.n on, and even with the duster in her hand. A handsome, smooth man stood on the step, and the electric carriage made a background for him.
He was a dark man, with curly black hair, and a moustache to match, and black eyes. His silk hat, of an incredible smooth newness, glittered over his glittering hair and eyes. His overcoat was lined with astrakan, and this important fact was casually betrayed at the lapels and at the sleeves. He wore a black silk necktie, with a small pearl pin in the mathematical centre of the perfect rhomboid of the upper part of a sailor"s knot. His gloves were of slate colour. The chief characteristic of his faintly striped trousers was the crease, which seemed more than mortal. His boots were of _glace_ kid and as smooth as his cheeks. The cheeks had a fresh boyish colour, and between them, over admirable snowy teeth, projected the hooked key to this temperament. It _is_ possible that Alice, from sheer thoughtlessness, shared the vulgar prejudice against Jews; but certainly she did not now feel it. The man"s personal charm, his exceeding niceness, had always conquered that prejudice, whenever encountered. Moreover, he was only about thirty-five in years, and no such costly and beautiful male had ever yet stood on Alice"s doorstep.
She at once, in her mind, contrasted him with the curates of the previous week, to the disadvantage of the Established Church. She did not know that this man was more dangerous than a thousand curates.
"Is this Mr. Leek"s?" he inquired smilingly, and raised his hat.
"Yes," said Alice with a responsive smile.
"Is he in?"
"Well," said Alice, "he"s busy at his work. You see in this weather he can"t go out much--not to work--and so he--"
"Could I see him in his studio?" asked the glossy man, with the air of saying, "Can you grant me this supreme favour?"
It was the first time that Alice had heard the attic called a studio.
She paused.
"It"s about pictures," explained the visitor.