"But I suppose you wanted to go to Persia?"
He paused in his lumbering walk about the little room and collecting a litter of books and papers and a hat or two and a legging from a sofa, pitched it into a corner.
"Here. Sit down."
I had been warming my back at the fire hitherto and surveying the half-formal, half-unkempt sitting-room. It was by no means the comfortable home from Harrod"s Stores that Barbara had prescribed; and he had not attempted to furnish it in slap-up style with the heads of game and skins and modern weapons which lay in the London Repository. It was the impersonal abode of the male bird of pa.s.sage.
"Sit down," said he, "and have a drink."
I declined, alleging the fact that a philosophically minded country gentleman of domestic habits does not require alcohol at half past eleven in the morning, except under the stress of peculiar circ.u.mstances.
"I"m going to have one anyway!"
He disappeared and presently reentered with a battered two-handled silver quart pot bearing defaced arms and inscription, a rowing trophy of Cambridge days, which he always carried about with him on no matter what lightly equipped expedition--it is always a matter of regret to me that Jaffery, as I have mentioned before, missed his seat in the Cambridge boat; but when one despoils a Proctor of his square cap and it is found the central feature of one"s rooms beneath a gla.s.s shade such as used to protect wax flowers from the dust, what can one expect from the priggish judgment of university authority?--he reentered, with this vessel full of beer. He nodded, drank a huge draught and wiped his moustache with his hand.
"Better have some. I"ve got a cask in the bedroom."
"Good G.o.d!" said I, aghast. "What else do you keep there? A side of bacon and a Limburger cheese and Bombay duck?"
Now just imagine a civilised gentleman keeping a cask of beer in his bedroom.
Jaffery laughed and took another swig and called me a long, lean, puny-gutted insect; which was not polite, but I was glad to hear the deep "Ho! ho! ho!" that followed his vituperation.
"All the same," said I, reclining on the cleared sofa and lighting a cigarette, "I should like to know why you missed one of the chances of your life in not going out to Persia."
He stood, for a moment or two, scrabbling in whisker and beard; and, turning over in his mind, I suppose, that Barbara was my wife, and Susan my child, and I myself an inconsiderable human not evilly disposed towards him, he apparently decided not to annihilate me.
"It was h.e.l.l, Hilary, old chap, to chuck the Persian proposition," said he, his hands in his trouser pockets, looking out of the window at the infinitely reaching landscape of the chimney pots of south London, their grey smoke making London"s unique pearly haze below the crisp blue of the March sky. "Just h.e.l.l!" he muttered in his ba.s.s whisper, and craning round my neck I could, with the tail of my eye, catch his gaze, which was very wistful and seemed directed not at the opalescent mystery of the London air, but at the clear vividness of the Persian desert. Away and away, beyond the shimmering sand, gleamed the frosted town with white walls, white domes, white minarets against the horizon band of topaz and amethystine vapours. And in his nostrils was the immemorable smell of the East, and in his ears the startling jingle of the harness and the pad of the camels, and the guttural cries of the drivers, and in his heart the certainty of plucking out the secret from the soul of this strange land... .
At last he swung round and throwing himself into the armchair enquired politely after the health of Barbara and Susan. As far as the Persian journey was concerned the palaver was ended. He did not intend to give me his reasons for staying in England and I could not demand them more insistently. At any rate I had discovered the cause of his grumpiness.
What creature of Jaffery"s temperament could be contented with a soft bed in the centre of civilisation, when he had the chance of sleeping in verminous caravanserais with a saddle for pillow? In spite of his amazing predilections, Jaffery was very human. He would make a great sacrifice without hesitation; but the consequences of the sacrifice would cause him to go about like a bear with a sore head.
And the cause of the sacrifice? Obviously Doria. Once having been admitted to her bedside, he went there every day. Flowers and fruit he had sent from the very beginning in absurd profusion; a grape for Doria failed in adequacy unless it was the size of a pumpkin. Now he brought the offerings personally in embarra.s.sing bulk. One offering was a gramophone which nearly drove her mad. Even in its present stage of development it offends the sensitive ear; but in its early days it was an instrument of torturing cacophony. And Jaffery, thinking the brazen strains music of the spheres, would turn on the hideous engine, when he came to see her, and would grin and roar and expect her to shew evidence of ravished senses. She did her best, poor child, out of politeness and recognition of his desire to alleviate her lot; but I don"t think the gramophone conveyed to her heart the poor dear fellow"s unspoken message. But gently criticising the ba.n.a.lity of the tunes the thing played and sending him forth in quest of records of recondite and "unrecorded" music, she succeeded in mitigating the terror. To the present moment, however, I don"t think Jaffery has realised that she had a higher aesthetic equipment than the hypnotised fox-terrier in the advertis.e.m.e.nt... . Jaffery also bought her puzzles and funny penny pavement toys and gallons of eau-de-cologne (which came in useful), and expensive scent (which she abominated), and stacks of new novels, and a fearsome machine of wood and bra.s.s and universal joints, by means of which an invalid could read and breakfast and write and shave all at the same time. The only thing he did not give her--the thing she craved more than all--was a fresh-bound copy of Adrian"s book.
Obviously, as I have remarked, it was Doria that kept him out of Persia.
But I could not help thinking that this same Persian journey might have afforded a solution of the whole difficulty. Despatched suddenly to that vaguely known country, he could have taken the mythical ma.n.u.script to revise on the journey: the convoy could have been attacked by a horde of Kurds or such-like desperadoes, all could have been slain save a fortunate handful, and the ma.n.u.script could have been looted as an important political doc.u.ment and carried off into Eternity. Doria would have hated Jaffery forever after; but his chivalrous aim would have been accomplished. Adrian"s honour would have been safe. But this simple way out never occurred to him. Apparently he thought it wiser to sacrifice his career and remain in London so as to buoy Doria up with false hope, all the time praying G.o.d to burn down St. Quentin"s Mansions (where he lived) and Adrian"s portmanteau of rubbish and himself all together.
Suddenly, as soon as Doria could be moved, Mr. Jornicroft stepped in and carried her to the south of France. Barbara and Jaffery and myself saw her off by the afternoon train at Charing Cross. She was to rest in Paris for the night and the next day, and proceed the following night to Nice. She looked the frailest thing under the sun. Her face was startling ivory beneath her widow"s headgear. She had scarcely strength to lift her head. Mr. Jornicroft had made luxurious arrangements for her comfort--an ambulance carriage from St. John"s Wood, a special invalid compartment in the train; but at the station, as at Doria"s wedding, Jaffery took command. It was his great arms that lifted her feather-weight with extraordinary sureness and gentleness from the carriage, carried her across the platform and deposited her tenderly on her couch in the compartment. Touched by his solicitude she thanked him with much graciousness. He bent over her--we were standing at the door and could not choose but hear:
"Don"t you remember what I said the first day I met you?"
"Yes."
"It stands, my dear; and more than that." He paused for a second and took her thin hand. "And don"t you worry about that book. You get well and strong."
He kissed her hand and spoiled the gallantry by squeezing her shoulder--half her little body it seemed to be--and emerging from the compartment joined us on the platform. He put a great finger on the arm of the rubicund, thickset, black-moustached Jornicroft.
"I think I"ll come with you as far as Paris," said he. "I"ll get into a smoker somewhere or the other."
"But, my dear sir"--exclaimed Mr. Jornicroft in some amazement--"it"s awfully kind, but why should you?"
"Mrs. Boldero has got to be carried. I didn"t realise it. She can"t put her feet to the ground. Some one has got to lift her at every stage of the journey. And I"m not going to let any d.a.m.ned clumsy fellow handle her. I"ll see her into the Nice train to-morrow night--perhaps I"ll go on to Nice with you and fix her up in the hotel. As a matter of fact, I will. I shan"t worry you. You won"t see me, except at the right time.
Don"t be afraid."
Mr. Jornicroft, most methodical of Britons, gasped. So, I must confess, did Barbara and I. When Jaffery met us at the station he had no more intention of escorting Doria to Nice than we had ourselves.
"I can"t permit it--it"s too kind--there"s no necessity--we"ll get on all right!" spluttered Mr. Jornicroft.
"You won"t. She has got to be carried. You"re not going to take any risks."
"But, my dear fellow--it"s absurd--you haven"t any luggage."
"Luggage?" He looked at Mr. Jornicroft as if he had suggested the impossibility of going abroad without a motor veil or the Encyclopaedia Britannica. "What the blazes has luggage got to do with it?" His roar could be heard above the din of the hurrying station. "I don"t want _luggage_." The humour of the proposition appealed to him so mightily that he went off into one of his reverberating explosions of mirth.
"Ho! ho! ho!" Then recovering--"Don"t you worry about that."
"But have you enough on you--it"s an expensive journey--of course I should be most happy--"
Jaffery stepped back and scanned the length of the platform and beckoned to an official, who came hurrying towards him. It was the station master.
"Have you ever seen me before, Mr. Winter?"
The official laughed. "Pretty often, Mr. Chayne."
"Do you think I could get from here to Nice without buying a ticket now?"
"Why, of course, our agent at Boulogne will arrange it if I send him a wire."
"Right," said Jaffery. "Please do so, Mr. Winter. I"m crossing now and going to Nice by the Cote d"Azur Express to-morrow night. And see after a seat for me, will you?"
"I"ll reserve a compartment if possible, Mr. Chayne."
The station master raised his hat and departed. Jaffery, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets, beamed upon us like a mountainous child. We were all impressed by his lordly command of the railway systems of Europe. It was a question of credit, of course, but neither Mr.
Jornicroft, solid man that he was, nor myself could have undertaken that journey with a few loose shillings in his possession. For the first time since Adrian"s death I saw Jaffery really enjoying himself.
And that is how Jaffery without money or luggage or even an overcoat travelled from London to Nice, for no other purpose than to save Doria"s sacred little body from being profaned by the touch of ruder hands.
Having carried her at every stage beginning with the transfer from train to steamer at Folkestone and ending with a triumphant march up the stairs to the third floor of the Cimiez hotel, he took the first train back straight through to London.
He returned the same old grinning giant, without a shadow of grumpiness on his jolly face.
CHAPTER XIII
About this time a bolt came from the blue or a bomb fell at our feet--the metaphor doesn"t matter so long as it conveys a sense of an unlooked-for phenomenon. True, in relation to cosmic forces, it was but a trumpery bolt or a squib-like bomb; but it startled us all the same.
The admirable Mrs. Considine got married. A retired warrior, a recent widower, but a celibate of twenty years standing owing to the fact that his late wife and himself had occupied separate continents (_on avait fait continent a part_, as the French might say) during that period, a Major-General fresh from India, an old flame and constant correspondent, had suddenly swooped down upon the boarding-house in Queen"s Gate and, in swashbuckling fashion, had abducted the admirable and unresisting lady. It was a matter of special license, and off went the tardily happy pair to Margate, before we had finished rubbing our eyes.