"He did." For the first time Captain Forsythe spoke. "Steele has in his possession full proofs of his innocence and I have seen them; they go to show that he suffered through the cowardice of a miserable cad, a t.i.tled scoundrel who struck his hand from the gunwale of the boat when the _Lord Nelson_ went down, yes, you told that story in your fevered ramblings, Steele."
"Forsythe!" the other"s voice rang out warningly. "Didn"t I tell you the part he played was to be forgotten unless--"
"All right, have your way," grudgingly.
"A t.i.tled scoundrel! There was only one person of rank on the _Lord Nelson_ besides myself, and--Forsythe"--the old n.o.bleman"s voice called out sharply--"you have said too much or too little."
John Steele made a gesture. "I have given my word not to--"
"But I haven"t!" said Captain Forsythe. "The confession I procured, and what I subsequently learned, led me directly to--Here is the tale, Sir Charles."
It was over at last; they were gone, Sir Charles and Captain Forsythe; their hand-clasps still lingered in his. That was something, very much, John Steele told himself; but, oddly, with no perceptible thrill of satisfaction. Had he become dead to approval? What did he want? Or what had been wanting? Sir Charles had been affable, gracious; eminently just in his manner. But the old man"s sensibilities had been cruelly shocked; Ronsdale, the son of his old friend, a miserable coward who, if the truth were known, would be asked to resign from every club he belonged to! And he, Sir Charles, had desired a closer bond between him and one he loved well, his own niece!
Perhaps John Steele divined why the hearty old man"s face had grown so grave. Sir Charles might well experience shame for this retrogression of one of his own cla.s.s, the broken obligations of n.o.bility; the traditions shattered. But he thanked John Steele in an old-fashioned, courtly way for what he had once done for his niece whose life he had saved. Perhaps it was the reaction in himself; perhaps John Steele merely fancied a distance in the other"s very full and punctilious expression of personal indebtedness; his courteous reiteration that he should feel honored by his presence at any and all times at his house!
For a few moments now John Steele remained motionless, listening to their departing footsteps; then turned and gazed around him.
Never had his rooms appeared more cheerless, more barren, more empty.
No, not empty; they were filled with memories. Hardly pleasant ones; recollections of struggles, contentions that had led him to--what? His chambers seemed very still; the little street very silent. Time had been when he had not felt its solitude; now he experienced only a sense of irksomeness, isolation. The man squared his shoulders and looked out again from the window toward that small bit of the river he could just discern. Once he had gazed at it when its song seemed to be of the green banks and flowers it had pa.s.sed by; but that had been on a fairer occasion; at the close of a joyous, spring day. How it came back to him; the solemn court of justice, the beautiful face, an open doorway, with the sunshine golden without and a figure that, ere pa.s.sing into it, had turned to look back! It was but for an instant, yet again his gaze seemed to leap to that luring light, the pa.s.sing gleam of her eyes, that had lingered--
That he saw now! or was it a dream? At the threshold near-by, some one looked out; some one as fair, fairer, if that could be, whose cheeks wore the tint of the wild rose.
"Pardon me; I came up to see if my uncle--"
He stared at her, at the beautiful, tremulous lips, the sheen of her hair--
"You!--"
"Yes." She raised a small, gloved hand and swept back a disordered tress.
"Your--your uncle has just gone," he said.
"I know."
"You do?" He knew it was no dream, that the fever had not returned, that she really stood there. Yet it seemed inexplicable.
"I was in the library when they--went out. I had come up to see--I was with my uncle in the cab--and wondered why he--"
She stopped; he took a quick step toward her. "You were in there, that room, when--"
"Yes," she said, and threw back her head, as if to contradict a sudden mistiness that seemed stupidly sweeping over her gaze. "Why did you not tell me--you did not?--that you were innocent?"
"You were in there?" He did not seem to catch her words.
"Heard--heard--?"
A moment they stood looking at each other; suddenly she reached out her hands to him. With a quick exclamation he caught and held them.
But in a moment he let them fall. What had he been about to say, to do, with the fair face, the golden head, so near? He stepped back quickly--madness! Had he not yet learned control? Had the lessons not been severe enough? But he was master of himself now, could look at her coldly. Fortunately she had not guessed, did not know he had almost--She stood near the back of a chair, her face half-averted; perhaps she appeared slightly paler, but he was not sure; it might be only the shadow of the thick golden hair.
"You--are going away?" She was the first to speak. Her voice was, in the least, uncertain.
"To-morrow," without looking at her.
"Where, if I may ask?"
"To my own country."
"America."
"Yes."
"It is very large," irrelevantly. "I remember--of course, you are an American; I--I have hardly realized it; we, we Australians are not so unlike you."
"Perhaps," irrelevantly on his part, "because your country, also, is--"
"Big," said the girl. Her hands moved slightly. "Are--are you going to remain there? In America, I mean?"
He expected to; John Steele spoke in a matter-of-fact tone; he could trust himself now. The interview was just a short, perfunctory one; it would soon be over; this he repeated to himself.
"But--your friends--here?" Her lips half-veiled a tremulous little smile.
"My friends!" Something flashed in his voice, went, leaving him very quiet. "I am afraid I have not made many while in London." Her eyes lifted slightly, fell. "Call it the homing instinct!" he went on with a laugh. "The desire once more to become part and parcel of one"s native land; to become a factor, however small, in its activities."
"I don"t think you--will be--a small factor," said the girl in a low tone.
He seemed not to hear. "To take up the fight where I left it, when a boy--"
"The fight!" The words had a far-away sound; perhaps she saw once more, in fancy, an island, the island. Life was for strong people, striving people. And he had fought and striven many times; hardest of all, with himself. She stole a glance at his face; he was looking down; the silence lengthened. He waited; she seemed to find nothing else to say.
He too did not speak; she found herself walking toward the door.
"Good-by." The scene seemed the replica of a scene somewhere else, sometime before. Ah, in the garden, amid flowers, fragrance. There were no flowers here--
"Good-by." He spoke in a low voice. "As I told Captain Forsythe, you--you need not feel concern about the story ever coming out--"
"Concern? What do you mean?"
"Your telegram to Captain Forsythe, the fear that brought you to London--"
"The--you thought that?"--swiftly.
"What else?"
The indignation in her eyes met the surprise in his.
"Thank you," she said; "thank you for that estimate of me!"