That was several months ago. And now Molly Maxwell the adventuress in Paris had been transformed into the wealthy and highly respectable widow Mrs. Bond, who having presented such excellent references had become tenant of that well-furnished mansion, Shapley Manor, and the beautiful grounds adjoining. For nearly two centuries it had been the home of the Puttenhams, but Sir George Puttenham, Baronet, the present owner, had found himself ruined by war-taxation, and as one of the new poor he had been glad to let the place and live upon the rent obtained for it. His case, indeed, was only one of thousands of others in England, where adventurers and war-profiteers were ousting the landed gentry.
"Yvonne is evidently keeping a good watch upon young Hugh," remarked Benton presently, as he blew a ring of cigarette smoke towards the ceiling.
"Yes," replied the woman, her eyes fixed out of the big window which commanded a glorious view of Gibbet Hill, at Hindhead, and the blue South Downs towards the English Channel. But all was dark and lowering in the winter twilight, now fast darkening into night.
In old-world Guildford, the county town of Surrey, with its steep High Street containing many seventeenth-century houses, its old inns, and its balconied Guildhall--the scene of so many unseemly wrangles among the robed and c.o.c.ked-hatted borough councillors who are, _par excellence_, outstanding ill.u.s.trations of the provincial petty jealousies of b.u.mbledom--Mrs. Bond was welcomed by the trades-people who vied with each other to "serve her." Almost daily she went up and down the High Street in her fine Rolls-Royce driven by Mead, an ex-soldier and a worthy fellow whom she had engaged through an advertis.e.m.e.nt in the _Surrey Advertiser_. He had been in the Queen"s West Surrey, and his home being in Guildford, Molly knew that he would serve as a testimonial to her high respectability. Molly Maxwell was an outstandingly clever woman. She never let a chance slip by that might be taken advantageously.
Mead, who went on his "push-bike" every evening along the Hog"s Back to Guildford, was never tired of singing the praises of his generous mistress.
"She"s a real good sort," he would tell his friends in the bar of the Lion or the Angel. "She knows how to treat a man. She"s a widow, and good-looking. I suppose she"ll marry again. Nearly all the best people about here have called on her within the last week or two. Magistrates and their wives, retired generals, and lots of the gentry. Yes, my job isn"t to be sneezed at, I can tell you. It"s better than driving a lorry outside Ypres!"
Mrs. Bond treated Mead extremely well, and paid him well. She knew that by so doing she would secure a good advertis.e.m.e.nt. She had done so before, when four or five years ago she had lived at Keswick.
"Do you know, Charles," she said presently, "I"m really very apprehensive regarding the present situation. Yvonne is, no doubt, keeping a watchful eye upon the young fellow. But what can she do if he has followed the Rans...o...b..girl and is with her each day? Each day, indeed, must bring the pair closer together, and--"
"That"s what we must prevent, my dear Molly!" exclaimed the lady"s visitor. "Think of all it means to us. You are quite safe here--as safe as I am to-day. But we can"t last out without money--either of us. We must have cash-money--and cash-money always."
"Yes. That"s so. But Yvonne is wonderful--amazing."
"She hasn"t the same stake in the affair as we have."
"Why not?" asked the woman for whom the European police were in search.
"Well, because she is rich--she"s won pots of money at the tables--and we--well, both of us have only limited means. Yours, Molly, are larger than mine--thanks to Frank. But I must have money soon. My expenses in town are mounting up daily."
"But your rooms don"t cost you very much! Old Mrs. Evans looks after things as she has always done."
"Yes. But everything is going up in price, and remember, I dare not cross the Channel just now. At Calais, Boulogne, Cherbourg, and other places, they have my photograph, and they are waiting for me to fall into the trap. But the rat, once encaged, is shy! And I am very shy just now," he added with a light laugh.
"You"ll stay and have dinner, won"t you?" urged his hostess.
Benton hesitated.
"If I do Louise may return, and just now I don"t want to meet her. It is better not."
"But she won"t be back till the last train to Guildford. Mead is meeting her. Yes--stay."
"I must get a car to take me back to town. I have to go to Glasgow by the early train in the morning."
"Well, we"re order one from one of the garages in Guildford. You really must stay, Charles. There"s lots we have to talk over--a lot of things that are of vital consequence to us both."
At that moment there came a rap at the door and the young manservant entered, saying:
"You"re wanted on the telephone, ma"am."
Mrs. Bond rose from the settee and went to the telephone in the library, where she heard the voice of a female telephone operator.
"Is that Shapley Manor?" she asked. "I have a telegram for Mrs.
Bond. Handed in at Nice at two twenty-five, received here at four twenty-eight. "To Bond, Shapley Manor, near Guildford. Yvonne shot by some unknown person while with Hugh. In grave danger.--S." That is the message. Have you got it please?"
Mrs. Bond held her breath.
"Yes," she gasped. "Anything else?"
"No, madam," replied the telephone operator at the Guildford Post Office. "Nothing else. I will forward the duplicate by post."
And she switched off.
SIXTH CHAPTER
FACING THE UNKNOWN
That the police were convinced that Hugh Henfrey had shot Mademoiselle was plain.
Wherever he went an agent of detective police followed him. At the Cafe de Paris as he took his aperitif on the _terra.s.se_ the man sat at a table near, idly smoking a cigarette and glancing at an ill.u.s.trated paper on a wooden holder. In the gardens, in the Rooms, in the Galerie, everywhere the same insignificant little man haunted him.
Soon after luncheon he met Dorise and her mother in the Rooms. With them were the Comte d"Autun, an elegant young Frenchman, well known at the tables, and Madame Tavera, a very chic person who was one of the most admired visitors of that season. They were only idling and watching the players at the end table, where a stout, bearded Russian was making some sensational coups _en plein_.
Presently Hugh succeeded in getting Dorise alone.
"It"s awfully stuffy here," he said. "Let"s go outside--eh?"
Together they descended the red-carpeted steps and out into the palm-lined Place, at that hour thronged by the smartest crowd in Europe.
Indeed, the war seemed to have led to increased extravagance and daring in the dress of those gay Parisiennes, those b.u.t.terflies of fashion who were everywhere along the Cote d"Azur.
They turned the corner by the Palais des Beaux Arts into the Boulevard Peirara.
"Let"s walk out of the town," he suggested to the girl. "I"m tired of the place."
"So am I, Hugh," Dorise admitted. "For the first fortnight the unceasing round of gaiety and the novelty of the Rooms are most fascinating, but, after that, one seems cooped up in an atmosphere of vicious unreality.
One longs for the open air and open country after this enervating, exotic life."
So when they arrived at the little church of Ste. Devote, the patron saint of Monaco, that little building which everyone knows standing at the entrance to that deep gorge the Vallon des Gaumates, they descended the steep, narrow path which runs beside the mountain torrent and were soon alone in the beautiful little valley where the grey-green olives overhang the rippling stream. The little valley was delightfully quiet and rural after the garish scenes in Monte Carlo, the cosmopolitan chatter, and the vulgar display of the war-rich. The old habitue of pre-war days lifts his hands as he watches the post-war life around the Casino and listens to the loud uneducated chatter of the profiteer"s womenfolk.
As the pair went along in the welcome shadows, for the sun fell strong upon the tumbling stream, Hugh was remarking upon it.
He had been at Monte Carlo with his father before the war, and realized the change.
"I only wish mother would move on," Dorise exclaimed as they strolled slowly together.
She presented a dainty figure in cream gabardine and a broad-brimmed straw hat which suited her admirably. Her clothes were made by a certain famous _couturiere_ in Hanover Square, for Lady Rans...o...b..had the art of dressing her daughter as well as she did herself. Gowns make the lady nowadays, or the fashionable dressmakers dare not make their exorbitant charges.
"Then you also are tired of the place?" asked Hugh, as he strolled slowly at her side in a dark-blue suit and straw hat. They made a handsome pair, and were indeed well suited to each other. Lady Rans...o...b..liked Hugh, but she had no idea that the young people had fallen so violently in love with each other.
"Yes," said the girl. "Mother promised to spend Easter in Florence.
I"ve never been there and am looking forward to it so much. The Marchesa Ruggeri, whom we met at Harrogate last summer, has a villa there, and has invited us for Easter. But mother said this morning that she preferred to remain here."