"Good-by."
She was gone; and Ashe, thrilling with new emotions, stared at the door which had closed behind her. He felt as though he had been wakened from sleep by a powerful electric shock.
Close beside the sheet of paper on which he had inscribed the now luminous and suggestive t.i.tle of his new Gridley Quayle story lay the Morning Post, the advertis.e.m.e.nt columns of which he had promised her to explore. The least he could do was to begin at once.
His spirits sank as he did so. It was the same old game. A Mr.
Brian MacNeill, though doing no business with minors, was willing--even anxious--to part with his vast fortune to anyone over the age of twenty-one whose means happened to be a trifle straitened. This good man required no security whatever; nor did his rivals in generosity, the Messrs. Angus Bruce, Duncan Macfarlane, Wallace Mackintosh and Donald MacNab. They, too, showed a curious distaste for dealing with minors; but anyone of maturer years could simply come round to the office and help himself.
Ashe threw the paper down wearily. He had known all along that it was no good. Romance was dead and the unexpected no longer happened. He picked up his pen and began to write "The Adventure of the Wand of Death."
CHAPTER II
In a bedroom on the fourth floor of the Hotel Guelph in Piccadilly, the Honorable Frederick Threepwood sat in bed, with his knees drawn up to his chin, and glared at the day with the glare of mental anguish. He had very little mind, but what he had was suffering.
He had just remembered. It is like that in this life. You wake up, feeling as fit as a fiddle; you look at the window and see the sun, and thank Heaven for a fine day; you begin to plan a perfectly corking luncheon party with some of the chappies you met last night at the National Sporting Club; and then--you remember.
"Oh, dash it!" said the Honorable Freddie. And after a moment"s pause: "And I was feeling so dashed happy!"
For the s.p.a.ce of some minutes he remained plunged in sad meditation; then, picking up the telephone from the table at his side, he asked for a number.
"h.e.l.lo!"
"h.e.l.lo!" responded a rich voice at the other end of the wire.
"Oh, I say! Is that you, d.i.c.kie?"
"Who is that?"
"This is Freddie Threepwood. I say, d.i.c.kie, old top, I want to see you about something devilish important. Will you be in at twelve?"
"Certainly. What"s the trouble?"
"I can"t explain over the wire; but it"s deuced serious."
"Very well. By the way, Freddie, congratulations on the engagement."
"Thanks, old man. Thanks very much, and so on--but you won"t forget to be in at twelve, will you? Good-by."
He replaced the receiver quickly and sprang out of bed, for he had heard the door handle turn. When the door opened he was giving a correct representation of a young man wasting no time in beginning his toilet for the day.
An elderly, thin-faced, bald-headed, amiably vacant man entered.
He regarded the Honorable Freddie with a certain disfavor.
"Are you only just getting up, Frederick?"
"h.e.l.lo, gov"nor. Good morning. I shan"t be two ticks now."
"You should have been out and about two hours ago. The day is glorious."
"Shan"t be more than a minute, gov"nor, now. Just got to have a tub and then chuck on a few clothes."
He disappeared into the bathroom. His father, taking a chair, placed the tips of his fingers together and in this att.i.tude remained motionless, a figure of disapproval and suppressed annoyance.
Like many fathers in his rank of life, the Earl of Emsworth had suffered much through that problem which, with the exception of Mr. Lloyd-George, is practically the only fly in the British aristocratic amber--the problem of what to do with the younger sons.
It is useless to try to gloss over the fact--in the aristocratic families of Great Britain the younger son is not required.
Apart, however, from the fact that he was a younger son, and, as such, a nuisance in any case, the honorable Freddie had always annoyed his father in a variety of ways. The Earl of Emsworth was so const.i.tuted that no man or thing really had the power to trouble him deeply; but Freddie had come nearer to doing it than anybody else in the world. There had been a consistency, a perseverance, about his irritating performances that had acted on the placid peer as dripping water on a stone. Isolated acts of annoyance would have been powerless to ruffle his calm; but Freddie had been exploding bombs under his nose since he went to Eton.
He had been expelled from Eton for breaking out at night and roaming the streets of Windsor in a false mustache. He had been sent down from Oxford for pouring ink from a second-story window on the junior dean of his college. He had spent two years at an expensive London crammer"s and failed to pa.s.s into the army. He had also acc.u.mulated an almost record series of racing debts, besides as shady a gang of friends--for the most part vaguely connected with the turf--as any young man of his age ever contrived to collect.
These things try the most placid of parents; and finally Lord Emsworth had put his foot down. It was the only occasion in his life when he had acted with decision, and he did it with the acc.u.mulated energy of years. He stopped his son"s allowance, haled him home to Blandings Castle, and kept him there so relentlessly that until the previous night, when they had come up together by an afternoon train, Freddie had not seen London for nearly a year.
Possibly it was the reflection that, whatever his secret troubles, he was at any rate once more in his beloved metropolis that caused Freddie at this point to burst into discordant song.
He splashed and warbled simultaneously.
Lord Emsworth"s frown deepened and he began to tap his fingers together irritably. Then his brow cleared and a pleased smile flickered over his face. He, too, had remembered.
What Lord Emsworth remembered was this: Late in the previous autumn the next estate to Blandings had been rented by an American, a Mr. Peters--a man with many millions, chronic dyspepsia, and one fair daughter--Aline. The two families had met. Freddie and Aline had been thrown together; and, only a few days before, the engagement had been announced. And for Lord Emsworth the only flaw in this best of all possible worlds had been removed.
Yes, he was glad Freddie was engaged to be married to Aline Peters. He liked Aline. He liked Mr. Peters. Such was the relief he experienced that he found himself feeling almost affectionate toward Freddie, who emerged from the bathroom at this moment, clad in a pink bathrobe, to find the paternal wrath evaporated, and all, so to speak, right with the world.
Nevertheless, he wasted no time about his dressing. He was always ill at ease in his father"s presence and he wished to be elsewhere with all possible speed. He sprang into his trousers with such energy that he nearly tripped himself up. As he disentangled himself he recollected something that had slipped his memory.
"By the way, gov"nor, I met an old pal of mine last night and asked him down to Blandings this week. That"s all right, isn"t it? He"s a man named Emerson, an American. He knows Aline quite well, he says--has known her since she was a kid."
"I do not remember any friend of yours named Emerson."
"Well, as a matter of fact, I met him last night for the first time. But it"s all right. He"s a good chap, don"t you know!
--and all that sort of rot."
Lord Emsworth was feeling too benevolent to raise the objections he certainly would have raised had his mood been less sunny.
"Certainly; let him come if he wishes."
"Thanks, gov"nor."
Freddie completed his toilet.
"Doing anything special this morning, gov"nor? I rather thought of getting a bit of breakfast and then strolling round a bit.
Have you had breakfast?"
"Two hours ago. I trust that in the course of your strolling you will find time to call at Mr. Peters" and see Aline. I shall be going there directly after lunch. Mr. Peters wishes to show me his collection of--I think scarabs was the word he used."
"Oh, I"ll look in all right! Don"t you worry! Or if I don"t I"ll call the old boy up on the phone and pa.s.s the time of day. Well, I rather think I"ll be popping off and getting that bit of breakfast--what?"