"Well, say I swipe the Cadogan collar."
"Then I"d stand just so much the better chance of catching you red-handed."
"Swell notion you"ve got of the cunning of the Twentieth Century criminal, I must say. D" you for an instant suppose my work"s so coa.r.s.e that you could detect grits in it?"
"Then you _are_ Ismay?"
"My son," said the other solemnly, "your pertinacity shan"t go unrewarded: I will be frank with you. You shall know all. I am Iff--the eternal question."
"Oh, go to thunder!" said Staff indignantly.
But as he slipped off to sleep he could hear the man overhead chuckling quietly, beneath his breath....
The next few days would have provided him with ample opportunity in which to ponder the question of his roommate"s ident.i.ty, had Staff chosen so to occupy his time. As it happened, Heaven was kind to the young man, and sent a gale of sorts, which, breaking upon the Autocratic the following morning, buffeted her for three days and relegated to their berths all the poor sailors aboard, including the lady with the pink soul and underthings. Of Mrs. Thataker, indeed, Staff saw nothing more until just before the vessel docked in New York. He wasn"t heartless by any manner of means; he was, as a matter of fact, frankly sorry for the other poor pa.s.sengers; but he couldn"t help feeling there was a lot of truth in the old saw about an ill wind....
Otherwise the bad weather proved annoying enough in several ways. To begin with, Alison Landis herself was anything but a good sailor, and even Miss Searle, though she missed no meals, didn"t pretend to enjoy the merciless hammering which the elements were administering to the ship. Alison retired to her suite immediately after the first breakfast and stuck religiously therein until the weather moderated, thus affording Staff no chance to talk with her about the number of immediately interesting things on his mind. While Miss Searle stayed almost as steadily in her quarters, keeping out of harm"s way and reading, she told Staff when they met at meals. Mrs. Ilkington, of course, disappeared as promptly as Mrs. Thataker. In consequence of all of which, Staff found himself thrown back for companionship on Bangs, who bored him to the point of extinction, Arkroyd, whom he didn"t like, and Iff, who kept rather out of the way, dividing his time between his two pa.s.sions and merely leering at the younger man, a leer of infinite cunning and derision, when chance threw them together.
In despair of finding any good excuse for wasting his time, then, Mr.
Staff took unto himself pens, ink, paper and fort.i.tude and--surprised even himself by writing that fourth act and finishing his play.
Again--an ill wind!
And then, as if bent on proving its integral benevolence so far as concerned Mr. Staff, the wind shifted and sighed and died--beginning the operation toward sundown of the third day out from Queenstown. The morning of the fourth day dawned clear and beautiful, with no wind worth mentioning and only a moderate sea running--not enough to make much of an impression on the Autocratic. So pretty nearly everybody made public appearance at one time or another during the morning, and compared notes about their historic sufferings, and quoted the stewardess who had been heard to say that this was the worst westbound pa.s.sage the boat had ever made, and regained their complexions, and took notice of the incipient flirtations and--well, settled down in the usual way to enjoy an ocean voyage.
Staff, of course, was on deck betimes, with an eye eager for first sight of Alison and another heedful of social entanglements which might prevent him from being first and foremost to her side when she did appear. But for all his watchfulness and care, Mrs. Ilkington forestalled him and had Alison in convoy before Staff discovered her; and then Arkroyd showed up and Mrs. Ilkington annexed him, and Bangs was rounded up with one or two others and made to pay court to Mrs.
Ilkington"s newly snared celebrity and ... Staff went away and sulked like a spoiled child. Nor did his humour become more cheerful when at lunch he discovered that Mrs. Ilkington had kept two seats at their table reserved for Miss Landis and Arkroyd. It had been a prearranged thing, of course; it had been Alison with whom Mrs. Ilkington had talked about him in Paris; and evidently Alison had been esquired by Arkroyd there. Staff didn"t relish the flavour of that thought. What right had Arkroyd to const.i.tute himself Alison"s cavalier on her travels? For that matter, what right had Alison to accept him in such a capacity?...
Though, of course, Staff had to remind himself that Alison was in reality not bound in any way....
But he had his reward and revenge after lunch. As the party left the table Alison dropped behind to speak to him; and in interchange of commonplaces they allowed the others to distance them beyond earshot.
"You"re a dear," the young woman told him in a discreet tone as they ascended the companionway.
"I"m bound to say," he told her with a faint, expiring flicker of resentment, "that you hardly treat me like one."
Her eyes held his with their smiling challenge, half provocative, half tender; and she pouted a little, prettily. In this mood she was always quite irresistible to Staff. Almost against his will his dignity and his pose of the injured person evaporated and became as if they had never been.
"Just the same," she declared, laughing, "you are a dear--if you _don"t_ deserve to be told so."
"What have I done?" he demanded guiltily--knowing very well on what counts he was liable to indictment.
"Oh, nothing," said Alison--"nothing whatever. You"ve only been haughty and aloof and icy and indifferent and everything else that men seem to consider becoming to them when they think they"re neglected."
"You certainly don"t expect me to _like_ seeing Arkroyd at your side all the time?"
"Oh!" she laughed contemptuously--"Arkroyd!" And she dismissed that gentleman with a fine sweeping gesture. "Can I help it if he happens to travel on the same ship?"
They halted at the top of the steps.
"Then it was accidental--?" he asked seriously.
"Staff!" The young woman made an impatient movement. "If I didn"t like you--_you_ know how much--upon my word I"d snub you for that. You are a bear!"
"A moment ago I was a dear."
"Oh, well, I"m fond of all sorts of animals."
"Then I advise your future husband to keep you away from zoos."
"Oh, Staff! But wouldn"t you want me to come to see you once in a while?"
He jerked up one hand with the gesture of a man touched in a fencing-bout. "You win," he laughed. "I should"ve known better...."
But she made her regard tender consolation for his discomfiture. "You haven"t told me about the play--our play--_my_ play?"
"It"s finished."
"Not really, Staff?" She clasped her hands in a charmingly impulsive way. He nodded, smiling. "Is it good?"
"You"ll have to tell me that--you and Max."
"Oh--Max! He"s got to like what I like. When will you read it to me?"
"Whenever you wish."
"This afternoon?"
"If you like."
"Oh, good! Now I"m off for my nap--only I know I shan"t sleep, I"m so excited. Bring the "script to me at two--say, half-past. Come to my sitting-room; we can be alone and quiet, and after you"ve finished we can have tea together and talk and--talk our silly heads off. You darling!"
She gave him a parting glance calculated to turn any man"s head, and swung off to her rooms, the very spirit of grace incarnate in her young and vigorous body.
Staff watched her with a kindling eye, then shook his head as one who doubts--as if doubting his own worthiness--and went off to his own stateroom to run over the type-script of his fourth act: being fortunate in having chosen a ship which carried a typist, together with almost every other imaginable convenience and alleged luxury of life ash.o.r.e.
Punctual to the minute, ma.n.u.script under his arm, he knocked at the door of the sitting-room of the _suite de luxe_ occupied by the actress. Her maid admitted him and after a moment or two Alison herself came out of her stateroom, in a wonderful Parisian tea-gown cunningly designed to render her even more bewilderingly bewitching than ever. Staff thought her so, beyond any question, and as unquestionably was his thought mirrored in his eyes as he rose and stood waiting for her greeting--very nearly a-tremble, if the truth"s to be told.
Her colour deepened as she came toward him and then, pausing at arm"s length, before he could lift a hand, stretched forth both her own and caught him by the shoulders. "My dear!" she said softly; and her eyes were bright and melting. "My dear, dear boy! It"s so sweet to see you."
She came a step nearer, stood upon her tiptoes and lightly touched his cheek with her lips.
"Alison ...!" he cried in a broken voice.
But already she had released him and moved away, with a lithe and gracious movement evading his arms. "No," she told him firmly, shaking her head: "no more than that, Staff. You mustn"t--I won"t have you--carry on as if we were children--_yet_."
"But Alison--"
"No." Again she shook her head. "If I want to kiss you, I"ve a perfect right to; but that doesn"t give you any licence to kiss me in return.
Besides, I"m not at all sure I"m really and truly in love with you. Now do sit down."
He complied sulkily.