CHAPTER x.x.xI
"Chalmers, was that Mr. Roger who came in? I thought I heard him."
"Yes, miss, he"s in his room, but I fancy he"s on his way to you. He asked where you were."
Chalmers came a step farther into the room, rubbing his grey chin in an undecided fashion. There was plainly something on his mind.
"I wish, miss, we could manage to keep Mr. Roger from going about in all weathers the way he"s doing. With this fever on him I"m afraid he"ll come to harm. It fair frightens me to see him looking as he does and taking no care of himself."
The old lady shook her head in despair.
"I know, Chalmers; you are perfectly right--but no matter what I say it does no good. He is worried for fear something has happened to Miss Rowe, and he insists on making efforts to trace her. I"m sure I don"t know what to do with him--and he really is ill."
The butler looked at the carpet and cleared his throat slightly, the action const.i.tuting a tactful but unequivocal indication that in his own opinion the search for the missing person was a complete waste of energy. Miss Clifford understood the cough, and agreed with its main contention that her nephew was not in a fit condition to be wandering about the streets.
"If you"ll pardon the suggestion, miss, hoping you"ll not think it"s an impertinence, it strikes me the thing to do is first to get Mr. Roger into bed and then to give him a good strong sleeping draught. If he still is bent on going out to-morrow, miss, with your permission I"d take away his clothes."
"It"s not a bad idea, Chalmers," replied Miss Clifford, smiling in spite of herself. "But I hope it won"t be necessary. He"s half promised me to give up the search after to-day--it really seems quite useless--and let us look after him properly. I"m waiting now to hear what news he has; then I shall try to persuade him to go to bed."
"Here is Mr. Roger, now, miss."
He stood aside to admit the young man, who entered with a dragging step, then after a single searching glance at the drawn and haggard face he quietly withdrew. Miss Clifford also scrutinised her nephew closely through her spectacles. He seemed to her appreciably thinner, and there was a feverish glitter in his blue eyes that filled her with alarm.
"Roger, my darling, do please undress and get into bed at once. I will come and talk to you there."
He shook his head obstinately, and sat down on the chaise-longue beside her, deeply dispirited, yet with a look of concentrated purpose.
"I"m not ready to give up," he said slowly. "Not just yet, there"s too much to do. However, if it"s any satisfaction to you to know, I took my temperature just now to make sure, and as I thought it was a bit lower than it was this time yesterday, I am inclined to think I"m over the worst of this."
"I don"t see how you can be; you look very ill indeed," sighed his aunt. "You are only keeping about from sheer will power, and I"m afraid you"ll pay for your stubbornness later on. Tell me, though,"
she went on, slightly lowering her voice. "Is there any news of her?"
He shook his head and drew a long discouraged breath.
"None whatever; not a word, not a sign. It is most mysterious. I"ve done everything I could think of. There may possibly be a pension or two I haven"t discovered, but even so it"s very odd that not one of the taxi-drivers in Cannes can recall taking a fare on Tuesday afternoon that answers her description. I"ve investigated it thoroughly."
"Don"t you think the driver may have forgotten?"
"Most unlikely. It was sufficiently odd picking up an American girl in the street with her luggage, to say nothing of the broken-down car; the circ.u.mstances were unusual enough to impress themselves on a man"s memory for a couple of days at any rate. I have even looked up two chauffeurs who were home ill, but it was no good."
"It is indeed most odd! Have you done anything else?"
"Yes. I"ve seen the police and reported her as missing."
"Oh!"--in a shocked tone--"Do you consider it as serious as that?"
"What do _you_ think? If Esther were my sister and went off like that, leaving no trace, wouldn"t you consider it serious? Here is a young girl in a strange country, without friends. If we don"t take an interest in finding her, who will? All sorts of things may have happened to her, things one doesn"t like to think about." He moistened his lips, continuing with difficulty. "She may have been decoyed and robbed, or--or even something much worse. It"s no good shutting one"s eyes to the possibility of it."
His face betrayed the serious disturbance of his thoughts. For several seconds his aunt went on with her knitting. Then laying down her work she said in a guarded tone, glancing at Lady Clifford"s door:
"Of course there"s one thing that would alter all that. Suppose what Arthur Holliday told Therese wasn"t true."
"You mean he may have invented that story of the breakdown? Yes, it"s quite possible. Only in that case..."
"Don"t misunderstand me, Roger," interrupted the old lady quickly. "I could never bring myself to believe anything wrong of that nice girl, I simply couldn"t--that is if she were quite herself, responsible, and all that. Only I can"t help wondering if you have heard what the doctor hinted to Therese about Miss Rowe, about his thinking that sometimes she was--was not quite----"
"Has Therese repeated that nonsense to you too?" he demanded angrily.
"Well, I--I admit it startled me very much. I could scarcely believe there was anything in it. I"m sure I never noticed anything the least bit odd about her, and I was amazed to hear that anyone had done so.
Yet the doctor is so positive about it, although he hasn"t said much.
And when a man like that makes a statement, one is almost forced to believe there must be something in it. In any case it occurred to me that if his theory is true she might have left Cannes and gone away, quite forgetting for the moment that she was going to communicate with us. She may even have lost her memory, you know."
"Then if she has," declared Roger firmly, getting to his feet, "there"s all the more reason for my making every effort to find her. Although, Dido, I may as well tell you I don"t take very much stock in that idea of the doctor"s. Oh, I"ve had a talk with him; he was very scientific, very convincing. He a.s.sured me there are a great many people walking about with the same complaint who regard themselves and are generally regarded as perfectly normal. He says they unconsciously invent and believe all sorts of preposterous things. He says no one could predict at what moment they might suddenly go off the handle and behave quite irrationally. No doubt what he says is entirely true, only I can"t see it applying to Esther. Why, if I"d been asked to pick a thoroughly normal, well-balanced woman----"
"Yes, yes, I know. I should have said so too."
"He made a good deal out of a trifling incident that I shouldn"t have bothered to repeat at all--something about dropping a basin of water.
Utter nonsense, I call it. Then he said that she had taken a marked antipathy to him without any reason, and behaved queerly towards him.
I"m sure I didn"t notice it."
"Of course, Roger, there was one odd thing that appears to bear out his theory. You know how just as she was leaving she sent you that message? Chalmers tells me she was terribly agitated, quite beside herself. Yet before you could get downstairs..."
"I know, I know," he interrupted her, as if the subject were painful to him. "It does seem to fit in with what he says, and yet..."
He lit a cigarette thoughtfully and after a few puffs threw it away.
Then, walking to the nearest window, he parted the curtains and stared out into the cloudy darkness.
"There"s no use talking, Dido, I"m frightfully worried. I can"t throw this thing off at all. I"ve got a feeling there"s something not quite right, but I"m d.a.m.ned if I can put my finger on the trouble. If someone could have lied to her, if she has some grudge against us for any reason so that she doesn"t want to see us again ... oh, G.o.d knows what it is, but the whole atmosphere here has got on my nerves to such an extent that I am anxious to get away. I feel I"ll get better, too, once I"m out of the house."
She nodded sympathetically, though with an eye on Therese"s door.
"I should like to leave, too, my dear. Somehow I can"t bear the house since your father"s death. I"d like to go back to England, though it"s a little early."
"I"ll tell you. If there"s no news of Esther in a couple of days, why not pack up your things and we"ll move along to some other spot--Antibes, perhaps."
"But, Roger, you"re not fit to travel at all. It would be madness! I couldn"t permit it."
"Oh, well, let"s leave La Californie and go to an hotel in Cannes. If you insisted, I"d send for a doctor--another one," he added, looking rather shamefaced.
The old lady gazed at him in frank amazement.
"My dear, you couldn"t do that! Why, it would offend poor Therese terribly. I doubt if she"d ever get over it." She paused and lowered her voice confidentially. "Perhaps you don"t realise that she is keeping Dr. Sartorius here entirely on your account."
Her nephew turned brusquely and stared at her, his brows knit with annoyance.
"Are you sure of that?" he demanded.
"Why, of course! Why else should she go on having him here? It must be a great expense. Besides, she told me so herself; she said your father would have wished you to have the very best attention."