"I don"t believe his name"s Algernon at all! It"s Arthur, or Andrew, or something of that sort."
"You"re very wise, poppet. Why?"
"Because you stopped such a long time after Algernon. It was like cheating at Spiritualism. You _must_ say the alphabet quite steady--A--B--C--D----" Sally sketches out the proper att.i.tude for the impartial inquirer. "Or else you"re an accomplice."
"You"re a puss! No, _his_ name"s Algernon, right enough.... I mean, I"ve no doubt it"s Algernon. Why shouldn"t it be?"
"No reason at all. Dr. Vereker"s is Conrad, so, of course, there"s no reason why his shouldn"t be Algernon." Satisfactory and convincing! At least, the speaker thinks so, and is perfectly satisfied. Her mother doesn"t quarrel with the decision.
"Kitten!" she says suddenly. And then in reply to her daughter"s, "What"s up, mammy dear?" she suggests that they shall walk out in front--it is a quiet, retired sort of cul-de-sac road, ending in a fence done over with tar, with nails along the top like the letter _L_ upside down--in the cool. "It"s quite delicious now the sun"s gone down, and Martha can make supper another half-hour late." Agreed.
The mother pauses as they reach the gate. "Who"s that talking?" she asks, and listens.
"n.o.body. It"s only the sparrows going to bed."
"No, no; not that! Shish! be quiet! I"m sure I heard Dr. Vereker"s voice----"
"How could you? He"s home by now."
"Do be quiet, child!" She continues listening.
"Why not look round the corner and see if it isn"t him?"
"Well, I was going to; only you and the sparrows make such a chattering.... There, I knew it would be that! Why doesn"t he bring him back here, at once?" For at the end of the short road are Dr.
Vereker and Fenwick, the latter with his hand on the top of a post, as though resting. They must have been there some minutes.
"Fancy their having got no further than the fire-alarm!" says Sally, who takes account of her surroundings.
"Of course, I ought never to have let him go." Thus her mother, with decision in her voice. "Come on, child!"
She seems greatly relieved at the matter having settled itself--so Sally thinks, at least.
"We got as far as this," Dr. Vereker says--rather meaninglessly, if you come to think of it. It is so very obvious.
"And now," says Mrs. Nightingale, "how is he to be got back again?
That"s the question!" She seems not to have the smallest doubt about the question, but much about the answer. It is answered, however, with the a.s.sistance of the previous police-constable, who reappears like a ghost. And Mr. Fenwick is back again within the little white villa, much embarra.s.sed at the trouble he is giving, but unable to indicate any other course. Clearly, it would never do to accept the only one he can suggest--that he should be left to himself, leaning on the fire-alarm, till the full use of his limbs should come back to him.
Mrs. Nightingale, who is the person princ.i.p.ally involved, seems quite content with the arrangement. The doctor, in his own mind, is rather puzzled at her ready acquiescence; but, then, the only suggestion he could make would be that he should do precisely the same good office himself to this victim of an electric current of a good deal too many volts--too many for private consumption--or cab him off to the police-station or the workhouse. For Mr. Fenwick continues quite unable to give any account of his past or his belongings, and can only look forward to recollecting himself, as it were, to-morrow morning.
CHAPTER IV
HOW THE STRANGER STOPPED ON AT KRAKATOA VILLA. OF THE FREAKS OF AN EXTINGUISHED MEMORY. OF HOW THE STRANGER GOT A GOOD APPOINTMENT, BUT NONE COULD SAY WHO HE WAS, NOR WHENCE
We must suppose that the personal impression produced by the man so strangely thrown on the hands of Mrs. Nightingale and her daughter was a pleasant one. For had the reverse been the case, the resources of civilisation for disposing of him elsewhere had not been exhausted when the decision was come to that he should remain where he was; till next morning, at any rate. The lady of the house--of course the princ.i.p.al factor in the solution of the problem--appeared, as we have seen, to have made up her mind on the subject. And probably her daughter had been enough influenced by the stranger"s manner and appearance, even in the short period of the interview we have just described, to get rid of a feeling she had of self-reproach for her own rashness. We don"t understand girls, but we ask this question of those who do: Is it possible that Miss Sally was impressed by the splendid arm with the name tattooed on it--an arm in which every muscle told as in a Greek statue, without infringing on its roundness--the arm of Theseus or Ilissus? Or was it the tone of his voice--a musical one enough? Or merely his generally handsome face and courteous manner?
He remained that night at the house, but next day still remembered nothing. He wished to go on his way--destination not known; but _somewhere_--and would have done so had it not been for Mrs.
Nightingale, whose opposition to his going was, thought Dr. Vereker, almost more decisive than the case called for. So he remained on, that day and the next, slowly regaining the use of his right hand. But his memory continued a blank; and though he was not unable to converse about pa.s.sing events, he could not fix his attention, or only with a great effort. What was very annoying to Sally was that he was absolutely unable to account for his remark about her name and her mother"s in the railway-carriage. He could not even remember making this. He could recall no reason why he should have made it, from any of the few things that came back to his mind now--hazily, like ghosts.
Was he speaking the truth? Why not? Mrs. Nightingale asked. Why not forget that as readily as anything else?
His distress at this inability to remember, to account for himself, to himself or any one else, was almost painful to witness. The only consolatory circ.u.mstance was that his use and knowledge of words remained intact; it was his memory of actual incidents and people in the past that was in fault. Definite effort to follow slight clues remaining in his mind ended in failure, or only served to show that their origin was traceable to literary fiction. But his language-faculty seemed perfectly in order. It came out that he spoke French fluently, and a little Spanish, but he was just as ready with German. It seemed as if he had been recently among French people, if one could judge from such things as his calling his hostess "Madame"
when he recovered. These facts came to light in the course of next day, the second of his stay in the house. The favourable impression he had produced on Miss Sally did not diminish, and it seemed much easier and more natural to acquiesce in his remaining than to cast about for a new whereabouts to transfer him to. So his departure was deferred--for a day, at least, or perhaps until the room he occupied should be wanted for other purposes. The postponements on the days that followed were a natural sequence so long as there remained any doubt of his ability to shift for himself.
But in about a month"s time the effects of the nervous shock had nearly disappeared, and he had almost recovered the use of his hand--could, in fact, write easily. Besides, as long as he remained, it would be impossible for an old friend of Mrs. Nightingale"s, who frequently stayed the night, when he came on an evening visit, to follow a custom which was in the winter almost invariable. In the summer it was less important; and as soon as this friend, an old military gentleman spoken of as "the Major," could be got to understand exactly what had taken place, he readily gave up his quarters at Krakatoa Villa, and returned to his own, at the top of a house in Ball Street, Mayfair.
Nevertheless, the inevitable time came for looking Fenwick"s future in the face. It was difficult, as he was unable to contribute a solution of the question, except by his readiness to go out and find work for himself, promising not to come back till he found it.
"You"ll see I shall come back to dinner," said he. "I shan"t make you late."
Sally asked him what sort of work he should look for.
"I have a sort of inner conviction," he replied, "that I could do almost anything I turned my hand to. Probably it is only a diseased confidence bred of what you might call my artificial inexperience.
Every sharp young man"s _bona fide_ inexperience lands him in that delusion."
"But you must have _some_ kind of preference for _something_, however much you forget."
"If I were to choose, I think I should like horse-training.... Oh no, of course I can"t recall the training of any specific horse. But I know I know all about it, for all that. I can feel the knowledge of it itching in my finger-ends. Yes--I could train horses. Fruit-farming would require capital."
"Who said anything about fruit-farming?"
Fenwick laughed aloud. It was a great big laugh, that made Rosalind, who was giving directions in the kitchen, just across the pa.s.sage, call out to know what they were laughing at.
"I"ll be hanged if I know," said he, "_why_ I said fruit-farming--I must have had something to do with it. It"s all very odd."
"But the horses--the horses," said Sally, who did not want him to wander from the point. "How should you go about it? Should you walk into Tattersall"s without a character, and ask for a place?"
"Not a bit of it! I should saunter into Tat"s" like a swell, and ask them if they couldn"t find me a raw colt to try my hand on for a wager. Say I had laid a hundred I would quiet down the most vicious quadruped they could find in an hour."
"But that would be fibs."
"Oh no! I could do it. But I don"t know why I know...."
"I didn"t mean that. I meant you wouldn"t have laid the wager."
"Yes, I should. I lay it you now! Come, Miss Sally!--a hundred pounds to a bra.s.s farthing I knock all the vice out of the worst beast they can find in an hour. I shouldn"t say the wager had been accepted, you know."
"Well, anyhow, I shan"t accept it. You haven"t got a hundred pounds to pay with. To be sure, I haven"t got a bra.s.s farthing that I know of. It"s as broad as it is long."
"Yes, it"s that," he replied musingly--"as broad as it is long. I _haven"t_ got a hundred pounds, that I know of." He repeated this twice, becoming very absent and thoughtful.
Sally felt apologetic for reminding him of his position, and immediately said so. She was evidently a girl quite incapable of any reserves or concealments. But she had mistaken his meaning.
"No, no, dear Miss Sally," said he. "Not that--not that at all!
I spoke like that because it all seemed so strange to me. Do you know?--of all the things I can"t recollect, the one I can"t recollect _most_--can you understand?--is ever being in want of money. I _must_ have had plenty. I am sure of it."
"I dare say you had. You"ll recollect it all presently, and what a lark that will be!" Sally"s ingenious optimism made matters very pleasant. She did not like to press the conversation on these lines, lest Mr. Fenwick should refer to a loan she knew her mother had made him; indeed, had it not been for this the poor man would have been hard put to it for clothes and other necessaries. All such little matters, which hardly concern the story, had been landed on a comfortable footing at the date of this conversation.