On this she went rapidly downstairs, and Baron, to whom the answer appeared inadequate and the proposition indeed in that form grossly unfair, returned to his room. The vivacity of her interest in a question in which she had discoverably nothing at stake mystified, amused and, in addition, irresistibly charmed him. She was delicate, imaginative, inflammable, quick to feel, quick to act. He didn"t complain of it, it was the way he liked women to be;, but he was not impelled for the hour to commit the sealed packets to the flames. He dropped them again into their secret well, and after that he went out. He felt restless and excited; another day was lost for work-- the dreadful job to be performed for Mr. Locket was still further off.
CHAPTER III.
Ten days after Mrs. Ryves"s visit he paid by appointment another call on the editor of the Promiscuous. He found him in the little wainscoted Chelsea house, which had to Peter"s sense the smoky brownness of an old pipebowl, surrounded with all the emblems of his office--a litter of papers, a hedge of encyclopaedias, a photographic gallery of popular contributors--and he promised at first to consume very few of the moments for which so many claims competed. It was Mr. Locket himself however who presently made the interview s.p.a.cious, gave it air after discovering that poor Baron had come to tell him something more interesting than that he couldn"t after all patch up his tale. Peter had begun with this, had intimated respectfully that it was a case in which both practice and principle rebelled, and then, perceiving how little Mr. Locket was affected by his audacity, had felt weak and slightly silly, left with his heroism on his hands.
He had armed himself for a struggle, but the Promiscuous didn"t even protest, and there would have been nothing for him but to go away with the prospect of never coming again had he not chanced to say abruptly, irrelevantly, as he got up from his chair:
"Do you happen to be at all interested in Sir Dominick Ferrand?"
Mr. Locket, who had also got up, looked over his gla.s.ses. "The late Sir Dominick?"
"The only one; you know the family"s extinct."
Mr. Locket shot his young friend another sharp glance, a silent retort to the glibness of this information. "Very extinct indeed.
I"m afraid the subject today would scarcely be regarded as attractive."
"Are you very sure?" Baron asked.
Mr. Locket leaned forward a little, with his fingertips on his table, in the att.i.tude of giving permission to retire. "I might consider the question in a special connection." He was silent a minute, in a way that relegated poor Peter to the general; but meeting the young man"s eyes again he asked: "Are you--a--thinking of proposing an article upon him?"
"Not exactly proposing it--because I don"t yet quite see my way; but the idea rather appeals to me."
Mr. Locket emitted the safe a.s.sertion that this eminent statesman had been a striking figure in his day; then he added: "Have you been studying him?"
"I"ve been dipping into him."
"I"m afraid he"s scarcely a question of the hour," said Mr. Locket, shuffling papers together.
"I think I could make him one," Peter Baron declared.
Mr. Locket stared again; he was unable to repress an unattenuated "You?"
"I have some new material," said the young man, colouring a little.
"That often freshens up an old story."
"It buries it sometimes. It"s often only another tombstone."
"That depends upon what it is. However," Peter added, "the doc.u.ments I speak of would be a crushing monument."
Mr. Locket, hesitating, shot another glance under his gla.s.ses. "Do you allude to--a--revelations?"
"Very curious ones."
Mr. Locket, still on his feet, had kept his body at the bowing angle; it was therefore easy for him after an instant to bend a little further and to sink into his chair with a movement of his hand toward the seat Baron had occupied. Baron resumed possession of this convenience, and the conversation took a fresh start on a basis which such an extension of privilege could render but little less humiliating to our young man. He had matured no plan of confiding his secret to Mr. Locket, and he had really come out to make him conscientiously that other announcement as to which it appeared that so much artistic agitation had been wasted. He had indeed during the past days--days of painful indecision--appealed in imagination to the editor of the Promiscuous, as he had appealed to other sources of comfort; but his scruples turned their face upon him from quarters high as well as low, and if on the one hand he had by no means made up his mind not to mention his strange knowledge, he had still more left to the determination of the moment the question of how he should introduce the subject. He was in fact too nervous to decide; he only felt that he needed for his peace of mind to communicate his discovery. He wanted an opinion, the impression of somebody else, and even in this intensely professional presence, five minutes after he had begun to tell his queer story, he felt relieved of half his burden. His story was very queer; he could take the measure of that himself as he spoke; but wouldn"t this very circ.u.mstance qualify it for the Promiscuous?
"Of course the letters may be forgeries," said Mr. Locket at last.
"I"ve no doubt that"s what many people will say."
"Have they been seen by any expert?"
"No indeed; they"ve been seen by n.o.body."
"Have you got any of them with you?"
"No; I felt nervous about bringing them out."
"That"s a pity. I should have liked the testimony of my eyes."
"You may have it if you"ll come to my rooms. If you don"t care to do that without a further guarantee I"ll copy you out some pa.s.sages."
"Select a few of the worst!" Mr. Locket laughed. Over Baron"s distressing information he had become quite human and genial. But he added in a moment more dryly: "You know they ought to be seen by an expert."
"That"s exactly what I dread," said Peter.
"They"ll be worth nothing to me if they"re not."
Peter communed with his innermost spirit. "How much will they be worth to ME if they ARE?"
Mr. Locket turned in his study-chair. "I should require to look at them before answering that question."
"I"ve been to the British museum--there are many of his letters there. I"ve obtained permission to see them, and I"ve compared everything carefully. I repudiate the possibility of forgery. No sign of genuineness is wanting; there are details, down to the very postmarks, that no forger could have invented. Besides, whose interest could it conceivably have been? A labor of unspeakable difficulty, and all for what advantage? There are so many letters, too--twenty-seven in all."
"Lord, what an a.s.s!" Mr. Locket exclaimed.
"It will be one of the strangest post-mortem revelations of which history preserves the record."
Mr. Locket, grave now, worried with a paper-knife the crevice of a drawer. "It"s very odd. But to be worth anything such doc.u.ments should be subjected to a searching criticism--I mean of the historical kind."
"Certainly; that would be the task of the writer introducing them to the public."
Again Mr. Locket considered; then with a smile he looked up. "You had better give up original composition and take to buying old furniture."
"Do you mean because it will pay better?"
"For you, I should think, original composition couldn"t pay worse.
The creative faculty"s so rare."
"I do feel tempted to turn my attention to real heroes," Peter replied.
"I"m bound to declare that Sir Dominick Ferrand was never one of mine. Flashy, crafty, second-rate--that"s how I"ve always read him.
It was never a secret, moreover, that his private life had its weak spots. He was a mere flash in the pan."
"He speaks to the people of this country," said Baron.