He also, with many thanks, a smile and a bow, declined.
"My quarters are quite out of reach of the inhabited part of the house--not very far from two hundred feet from this spot, by Jove! right in the rear. You must really come to me there some night; you"ll be amused at my deal furniture and rustic barbarism; we often make a party there and smoke for half an hour."
So, as they were not to be persuaded, the Baronet hospitably accompanied them to their rooms, at the common dressing-room door of which stood little Jacque Duval with his thin, bronzed face, candle in hand, bowing, to receive his master.
CHAPTER XV.
M. Varbarriere converses with his Nephew.
Here then Sir Jekyl bid them good-night, and descended the great staircase, and navigated the long line of pa.s.sage to the back stairs leading up to his own homely apartment.
The elder man nodded to Jacque, and moved the tips of his fingers towards the door--a silent intimation which the adroit valet perfectly understood; so, with a cheerful bow, he withdrew.
There was a gay little spluttering fire in the grate, which the sharpness of the night made very pleasant. The clumsy door was shut, and the room had an air of comfortable secrecy which invited a talk.
It was not to come, however, without preparation. He drew a chair before the fire, and sat down solemnly, taking a gigantic cigar from his case, and moistening it diligently between his lips before lighting it. Then he pointed to a chair beside the hearth, and presented his cigar-case to his young companion, who being well versed in his elder"s ways, helped himself, and having, like him, foreign notions about smoking, had of course no remorse about a cigar or two in their present quarters.
Up the chimney chiefly whisked the narcotic smoke. Over the ponderous features and knotted forehead of the sage flushed the uncertain light of the fire, revealing all the crows" feet--all the lines which years, thought, pa.s.sion, or suffering had traced on that large, sombre, and somewhat cadaverous countenance, reversing oddly some of its shadows, and glittering with a snakelike brightness on the eyes, which now gazed grimly into the bars under their heavy brows.
The large and rather flat foot, shining in French leather, of the portly gentleman in the ample black velvet waistcoat, rested on the fender, and he spoke not a word until his cigar was fairly smoked out and the stump of it in the fire. Abruptly he began, without altering his pose or the direction of his gaze.
"You need not make yourself more friendly with any person here than is absolutely necessary."
He was speaking French, and in a low tone that sounded like the boom of a distant bell.
Young Strangways bowed acquiescence.
"Be on your guard with Sir Jekyl Marlowe. Tell him _nothing_. Don"t let him be kind to you. He will have no kind motive in being so. Fence with his questions--don"t answer them. Remember he is an artful man without any scruple. I know him and all about him."
M. Varbarriere spoke each of these little sentences in an isolated way, as a smoker might, although he was no longer smoking, between his puffs.
"Therefore, not a word to him--no obligations--no intimacy. If he catches you by the hand, even by your little finger, in the way of friendship, he"ll cling to it, so as so impede your _arm_, should it become necessary to exert it."
"I don"t understand you, sir," said the young man, in a deferential tone, but looking very hard at him.
"You _partly_ don"t understand me; the nature of my direction, however, is clear. Observe it strictly."
There was a short silence here.
"I don"t understand, sir, what covert hostility can exist between us; that is, why I should, in your phrase, keep my hand free to exert it against him."
"No, I don"t suppose you do."
"And I can"t help regretting that, if such are our possible relations, I should find myself as a guest under his roof," said the young man, with a pained and almost resentful look.
"You can"t help regretting, and--you can"t help the circ.u.mstance,"
vibrated his Mentor, in a metallic murmur, his cadaverous features wearing the same odd character of deep thought and apathy.
"I don"t know, with respect to _him_--I know, however, how it has affected me--that I have felt unhappy, and even guilty since this journey commenced, as if I were a traitor and an impostor," said the young man, with a burst of impatience.
"Don"t, sir, use phrases which reflect back upon _me_," said the other, turning upon him with a sudden sternness. "All you have done is by my direction."
The ample black waistcoat heaved and subsided a little faster than before, and the imposing countenance was turned with pallid fierceness upon the young man.
"I am sorry, uncle."
"So you should--you"ll see one day how little it is to me, and how much to you."
Here was a pause. The senior turned his face again toward the fire. The little flush that in wrath always touched his forehead subsided slowly.
He replaced his foot on the fender, and chose another cigar.
"There"s a great deal you don"t see now that you will presently. I did not want to see Sir Jekyl Marlowe any more than you did or do; but I did want to see this place. You"ll know hereafter why. I"d rather not have met him. I"d rather not be his guest. Had he been as usual at Dartbroke, I should have seen all I wanted without that annoyance. It is an accident his being here--another, his having invited me; but no false ideas and no trifling chance shall regulate, much less stop, the action of the machine which I am constructing and will soon put in motion."
And with these words he lighted his cigar, and after smoking for a while he lowered it, and said--
"Did Sir Jekyl put any questions to you, with a view to learn particulars about you or me?"
"I don"t recollect that he did. I rather think not; but Captain Drayton did."
"I know, _Smithers_?"
"Yes, sir."
"With an object?" inquired the elder man.
"I think not--merely impertinence," answered Guy Strangways.
"You are right--it is nothing to him. I do not know that even Marlowe has a suspicion. Absolutely impertinence."
And upon this M. Varbarriere began to smoke again with resolution and energy.
"You understand, Guy; you may be as polite as you please--but no friendship--nowhere--you must remain quite unembarra.s.sed."
Here followed some more smoke, and after it the question--
"What do you think of the young lady, Mademoiselle Marlowe?"
"She sings charmingly, and for the rest, I believe she is agreeable; but my opportunities have been very little."
"What do you think of our fellow Jacque--is he trustworthy?"
"Perfectly, so far as I know."
"You never saw him peep into letters, or that kind of thing?"