He went on rhapsodizing until the look in my eyes pulled him up short!
"What is it?" he asked. "Don"t you approve of my wanting to meet her?
Don"t you----"
"I approve with all my heart," I said. "But I"m wondering--_wondering_!
Why are the Scarletts hiding a girl? Has she done something that makes it wise to keep her out of sight? Or is it _they_ who don"t wish her to be seen, for reasons of their own?"
"Madam, the porter is asking if your luggage is ready to go down,"
announced a maid.
"Luggage!" Terry and I stared at each other. I had forgotten that I was going to London.
"But you can"t leave me now!" he implored.
"I"ve changed my mind," I explained to the maid. "I shall take another train!"
CHAPTER VII
THE RED BAIZE DOOR
It ended in my deciding to stop on at the inn, while Terry Burns went into lodgings. I felt that he was right. I _had_ to stand by!
It wasn"t only the romance of Terry falling out of love with his Princess, and in love with a face, which held me. There was more in the affair than that. The impression I had received when the old servant first opened the door of Dun Moat came back to me sharply--and indeed it had never gone--an impression that there was something _wrong_ in the house.
I didn"t for a moment believe that Terry had "seen a ghost," or had an optical illusion. He"d distinctly beheld a girl at the window--evidently the same window from which the Scarlett boy had looked at me. Though he had seen her for a moment only, by questioning I got quite an accurate description of her appearance: large dark eyes in a delicate oval face; full red lips, the upper one very short; a cleft chin; a slender little aquiline nose, and auburn hair parted Madonna fashion on a broad forehead. She had worn a black dress, Terry thought, cut rather low at the throat. In order to look out, she had held back the gray curtain; and recalling the picture she made, it seemed to him that she had a frightened air. His eyes had met hers, and she had bent forward, as if she wished to speak. He had paused, but as he did so the girl started, and drew hastily back. It was then that Terry ran toward the door, thinking a rejuvenated, rebeautified Margaret Revell was making a tour of exploration without him.
Now that he was out of love with the Princess Avalesco, there was no longer a pressing reason to keep me in the background. For all he cared, she might misunderstand the situation as much as she confoundedly pleased! It was decided, therefore, that I should promptly call. I would be nice to her, and try to get myself invited often to Dun Moat. I would wander in the garden, where I must be seen by the Scarletts; and as their presence in the "suite of the garden court" was no secret from me, it seemed that there would be no indiscretion in my visiting Lady Scarlett. Once in that wing, it would go hard if I didn"t get a peep at all its occupants!
I knew that the Scarletts kept up communication with the outer world, so far as obtaining food was concerned, through the old German woman, whose name was Hedwig Kramm. She lived in the main part of the house, and was ostensibly in the service of the tenant, but most of her time was spent in looking after her master and mistress. I thought that she might be handy as a messenger.
I went next day to Dun Moat, Terry having explained me as a friend who"d helped get the house ready for guests, and thus deserved grat.i.tude from them. If I had inwardly reproached him for fickleness when he confessed his _volte face_, I exonerated him at sight of his old love. On principle, regard for a woman shouldn"t change with her looks. But a man"s affection can"t spread to the square inch!
Not that the Princess Avalesco"s inches _were_ square. They were, on the contrary, quite, quite round. But there were so terribly many of them, mostly in the wrong place! And what was left of her beauty was concentrated in a small island of features at the centre of a large sea of face; one of those faces that ought to wear _stays_! Luckily she needed no pity from me. She didn"t know she was a tragic figure--if you could call her a figure! And she didn"t miss Terry"s love, because she loved herself overwhelmingly.
I succeeded in my object. She took a fancy to me as (so to speak) a fellow princess. I sauntered through garden paths, hearing about all the men who wanted to marry her, and was able to get a good look at _the_ window. There was, however, nothing to see there. An irritating gray curtain covered it like a shut eyelid.
"Captain Burns has put some sort of old retainers into that wing it seems," said Princess Avalesco, seeing me glance up. "He has a right to do so, of course, as I"m paying a ridiculously low rent for this wonderful house, and I"ve more rooms anyhow than I know what to do with.
He tells me the wing is comparatively modern, and not interesting, so I don"t mind."
I rejoiced that she was resigned! I"m afraid, if _I"d_ been the tenant of Dun Moat, I should have felt about that "suite of the garden court"
as Fatima felt about Bluebeard"s little locked room. In fact, I _did_ feel so; and though I was able to say "Yes" and "No" and "Oh, really?"
at the right places, I was thinking every moment how to find out what that dropped curtain hid.
At first, I had planned to send Lady Scarlett a message by Kramm; but I reflected that a refusal to receive visitors would raise a barrier difficult to pa.s.s except by force. And force, unless we could be sure of an affair for the police, was out of the question.
"_L"audace! Toujours l"audace!_" was the maxim which rang through my head; and before I had been long with the Princess Avalesco that day I"d resolved to try its effect.
My hostess and her companion had arranged to motor to Dawlish directly after tea. They invited me to go with them, or if I didn"t care to do that, they offered to put off the excursion, rather than my visit should be cut short. I begged them to go, however, asking permission to remain in their absence to chat with the housekeeper, and learn whether various things ordered at Captain Burns" request had arrived.
With this excuse I got rid of the ladies, and as the new servants had been engaged by me, I was _persona grata_ in the house. Five minutes after the big car had spun away, I was hurrying through a long corridor that led to the end wing. As it had been built for bachelors, there was only one means of direct communication with the house. This was on the ground floor, and all I knew of it by sight was a door covered with red baize. I judged that this door would be locked, and that Kramm would have a key. If I could make myself heard on the other side, I hoped that the Scarletts would think Kramm had mislaid her key, and would come to let her in.
I was right. The red door was provided with a modern Yale lock. This looked so new that I fancied it had been lately supplied; and, if so, the Scarletts--not Terry--had provided it! Now, a surface of baize is difficult to pound upon with any hope of being heard at a distance. I resorted to tapping the silver ball handle of my sunshade on the door frame; and this I did again and again without producing the effect I wanted.
The sole result was a horrid noise which I feared might attract the attention of some servant. With each rap I threw a glance over my shoulder. Luckily, however, the long pa.s.sage with its stone floor, its row of small, deep windows, and its dark figures in armour, was far from any part of the house where servants came and went.
At last I heard a sound behind the baize. It was another door opening, and a child"s voice squeaked, "Who"s there? Is that you, Krammie?"
For an instant I was taken aback--but only for an instant. "No," I confessed in honeyed tones, "it isn"t Krammie; but its someone with something nice for you. Can"t you open the door?"
A latch turned, and a cautious crack revealed one foxy eye and half a freckled nose. "Oh, it"s _you_, is it?" was the greeting. "I saw you in the garden."
"And I saw you at the window," said I. "That"s why I"ve brought you a present. I like boys."
"_What_ have you brought?" was the canny question.
Ah, what _had_ I brought? I must make up my mind quickly, for to cement a friendship with this boy might be important. "A wrist-watch," I said, deciding on a sacrifice. "A ripping watch, with radium figures you can see in the dark. It"s on a jolly gray suede strap. I"ll give it to you now--that is, if you"d like it."
"Ye--es, I"d like it," said little Fox-face. "But my mother and father don"t want any one except Kramm to come in here. I"d get a whopping if I let you in."
The door was wider open now. I could easily have pushed past the child; but I was developing a plan more promising.
"Are your parents at home?" I primly asked.
"Yes. They"re home, all right. They"re never anywhere else, these days!
But they"re in the garden court. I was going up to my room when I heard the row at this door. I thought it must be Krammie."
"Look here," I said, "would your mother mind if you came out with me? I know her, so I don"t see why she should object. I"d give you the watch, and a tophole tip, too. I think boys like tips! What do you say?"
"I"ll come for a bit," he decided. "Mother"d be in a wax if she knew, and so"d Father! But what I was going upstairs for when I heard you was a punishment. I was sent to my room. n.o.body"ll look for me till food time, and then "twill only be Kramm. _She"s_ all right, Krammie is! She won"t give me away. She"ll let me in again with her key, and they won"t know I"ve been out. But we"ve got to find her."
"I"ll find her," I promised. "Come along!"
He came, sneaking out like the little fox he was. I caught a glimpse of two steps leading down to a stone vestibule, and beyond that a heavy wooden door which the boy had shut behind him before beginning to parley with me. Gently as I could, I closed the baize door, which locked itself automatically; and the child being safely barred out from his own quarters, I broke it to him that we must delay seeing Kramm. She"d be sure to fuss, and want to bundle him back! We"d better have our fun first. There was time.
Fox-face agreed, though with reluctance, which showed his fear of that "whopping." But he brightened when I proposed foraging in the big hall for some cakes left from tea. To my joy they were still on the table, and, seizing a plate of chocolate eclairs, I rejoined the boy on the terrace. We sat on a cushioned stone seat, and Fox-face (who said that his name was "the same as his father"s, Bertie") began industriously to stuff. He did not, however, forget the watch or the tip. With his mouth full he demanded both, and got them. In his delight, he warmed to something more than fox, and I s.n.a.t.c.hed this auspicious moment.
Delicately, as if walking on eggs (at sixpence each), I questioned him.
How did he like being mewed up in one wing of his own home? What did he do to amuse himself? Wasn"t it dull with no one to play with?
"Well, of course, there"s Cecil," he said, munching. "I liked her at first. She"s pretty, about as pretty as you are, or maybe prettier. And she brought me presents, just like you have. But she"s in bed most of the time now, so she"s no fun any more. I sit with her sometimes, to see she keeps still, and doesn"t go to the window. She did go one day, when I went out for a minute, because I thought she was asleep. But Mother came and caught her at it."
"Oh, yes, Cecil!" I echoed. "That pretty girl with dark eyes, and hair the colour of chestnuts. What relation is she to you?"
"I s"pose she"s my cousin," said Bertie. "That"s what she told me the day she came--when she brought the presents. But Mother says she"s no _proper_ relation. How do _you_ know about her hair and eyes? You didn"t see her, did you? Mother"ll have a fit if you did! She and Father don"t want any one to see Cecil. The minute she told them all about herself they made her hide."
I was thinking hard. "Cecil" was the girl"s name! That Lord Scarlett who died in Australia had been Cecil. Grandmother had talked of him, and said he was the "only decent one of the lot, though a ne"er-do-weel."