"Wanted to try to persuade her to sign a new contract," said the irrepressible Billing, "but she won"t. Perhaps you can make her realize, Mr. Mortimer, that if she retires the stage will lose one of its brightest jewels."
"Oh, keep that for the publicity agent!" she begged. "I"ve told you I mean to retire, and that"s final. I want to tell the _news_. Well, Mr.
Mortimer, the impetuous man couldn"t wait, so he went down to Brooklands and flew here----"
"Quicker than the train," smiled Billing. "American hustle and all that----"
"And now he tells me--as a casual item of information--that he"s going to produce your play."
"_What!_" said Lionel.
"Yes--yes--yes! Isn"t it splendid? Now, Ashford, you can tell the rest."
"Guess there isn"t much left to tell," said Billing, still smiling.
"Well, sir, Miss Blair told me about your play a month ago now. My reader reported favorably on it, and I read it myself. I think it will go, Mr. Mortimer, if I"m any judge; and when you get back to London we can fix up the contract. I hope it will mean something hot for both of us."
Lionel turned, incapable of speech, to Beatrice. He thanked her with his eyes, but more than thanks lay in them, and Billing noticed the mutual look with an inward groan. There was silence for a moment. Then Billing squared his shoulders, and in a matter-of-fact voice said, "Well, I calculate I must be getting home."
Beatrice protested. There was not the least hurry. There was no sense in this flying over to see them and only staying for ten minutes. He must stop and have dinner: why not sleep?...
"You forget I don"t know your sister," he replied with a peculiar smile.
Beatrice blushed. Lionel did not notice the blush. He was too busy thinking of the new vistas that opened before him even to hear what they were saying. He despised the flying man, for did not he, Lionel, tread upon the air?
"I"ll arrange that somehow," said Beatrice quickly. "Ashford, you really must stop. I want to talk to you."
"Excuse me," he said with a queer smile that was not of joy, "but I guess I know better than that." His voice sank. "My dear, I wish you luck!"
"Oh, Ashford, dear!" she whispered, "I"m so sorry ... I"m so sorry...."
"That"s all right," he said more cheerfully. "Now, I"m really going, never to worry you again. h.e.l.lo! what"s this?"
His exclamation of surprise caused them to turn and look toward The Quiet House.
From the wicket-gate had issued the figure of a man running. He wore no hat, and though apparently elderly, was progressing at a very fair rate of speed. But he had not run more than twenty yards before another man came bursting from the gate.
"Why, it"s the prisoner!" gasped Lionel, "and good heavens!--yes!" He turned swiftly to Beatrice. "It"s the churchwarden! What on earth is he doing here?"
"So it is," replied Beatrice without emotion. He wondered at her self-control. "They seem to be in a hurry."
Robert was evidently in a very great hurry, but Tony had the advantage in years and sprightliness. He caught his quarry in a very short s.p.a.ce, and seized him by the shoulder. Then the pair of them stopped, Robert obviously unwilling, and began to talk with much gesticulation on both sides. The onlookers of course could hear nothing of what was said, but from the pantomime Tony appeared to be expostulating, advising, entreating. Mr. Hedderwick seemed to be in a condition of irate panic.
As a matter of fact, Tony was remonstrating with his comrade-in-arms for his cowardice, and urging him, for the sake of himself and the s.e.x, to make a stand for the rights of man. "If you give in now, after your many heroisms with me," said Tony warmly, "I shall be ashamed of my pupil and disown him. Come! though you _have_ run, it"s not too late for a recovery."
"You don"t know my wife!" panted Robert.
"I do--I"ve spoken to her for three minutes, and I can guess what she"s like. I know something about women, and I feel sure that if you stand up to her now you"ll be boss in your house for good. If not, she will. It"s now or never."
"You--you"re not joking, Mr. Wild?" said Robert piteously.
"I"m really serious. Now, come along with me and talk to these people.
We"ll let your wife catch us here. An audience ought to give you courage. Mind!" he added, holding Robert by the arm as they began to walk toward the aeroplane, "there must be no weakening, however terrible she may appear. Be a man, and you"ll triumph!"
It was all very well to urge him to be a man, but Mr. Hedderwick had been through a very tense six hours. When he escaped from the vicarage he rushed straight for The Happy Heart. There he instructed Mr. Glew in a sentence of some five hundred words, without so much as a comma intervening, that he meant to retire to his room at once, that he was to be denied to all callers, that casual inquirers were to be told that he had gone to the station, that on no account must any one be allowed to come up-stairs, and that information was to be given when the coast was clear. "I"ll explainitalllaterglewwhenihavetimebutrememberthat.i.t"s afiverinyourpocketifIcomethroughto-daysafe," he babbled, dashing furiously up-stairs. "Right, sir," responded Glew, a creature to whom the word "fiver" was all that was necessary by way of present explanation.
Robert"s bedroom door slammed and was locked behind him long before the "Right, sir" had died away.
The visit of Mrs. Hedderwick and the vicar"s wife made matters fairly clear to the landlord; but, true to his salt and interest, he persisted in the tale that Robert had gone to the station. His story was disbelieved. This was not to be wondered at, considering the paucity of his inventive powers and imagination; for Glew did not adduce a particle of corroborative detail to support his statement. The ladies simply declined to give him credence, and demanded to be shown Mr. "Bangs""
bedroom. Foiled in this amiable purpose, the determined pair announced their intentions of waiting in the parlor till the victim appeared. The landlord"s renewed protests and offers of affidavits had no weight with them, and they sat down with an awful dignity.
At two o"clock Mrs. Peters" weariness conquered her curiosity, and she went home, offering unbounded sympathy and a bed for the night. The sympathy was accepted, the bed declined, Mrs. Hedderwick declaring she would remain at the inn, if necessary sitting up in a chair till morning.
Glew had no wish for this, and cast about him for means of getting rid of the undesired guest. At six o"clock he sent his hopeful son up-stairs, himself keeping guard over the parlor from the bar opposite.
Young Glew found Robert desperate: he had not thought his wife capable of such obstinacy.
"Dad says," began the interested youngster, "that he"ll go in and talk to the lady--keep her occupied like--if you"d care to risk it and slip out."
"I will!" said Robert on the instant. Anything was better than this terrible suspense. "Let me see ... there"s a train in half an hour or so ... I"ll go to the station. No! I won"t! Wait a minute!"
He changed his resolve, partly from quixotic, partly from selfish reasons. He did not like to leave Tony to an unknown, unguessed-at fate; and he also felt very strongly that he would like that judicious schemer"s advice on his next steps. He resolved to risk all and boldly apply for admittance to The Quiet House. If matters there were really serious ... well, at all events they could not be much more serious to him than the present _impa.s.se_. "I"ll do it!" he declared with a sudden resolution. "Boy! when you get your father alone, tell him I"ve gone up to The Quiet House. I"ll write to him from there. Now go down and ask him to talk to my--to the lady. Beg him to stand in the doorway and fill it up. I"ll creep quietly past in ten minutes" time."
The boy obeyed, and after ten palpitating minutes Robert stole cautiously down-stairs. True to his promise, the landlord"s bulky figure blocked the parlor door, his voice raised in mournful reiteration and appeal. Robert reached the fifth step from the bottom without making the slightest noise. But the stair-rod of the fifth step had worked loose: the carpet slipped, and he tumbled down with considerable uproar.
Luckily he was unhurt by the fall; but the landlord"s sharp turn of the head and expression of dismayed surprise, coupled with the din, roused Mrs. Hedderwick"s suspicion. "What is that?" she demanded querulously, trying to push past the landlord. At the terrific tones Robert jumped up and took to his heels.
His wife had common sense and did not attempt to follow, knowing she could not hope to catch the fugitive. She knew, too, that Glew was incorruptible. But as the landlord walked out to block the pa.s.sage and observe the escape with a sympathetic eye, she turned to Master Glew and said decisively, "Here is half-a-crown if you can tell me where he has gone."
"Quiet House," said the guileless lad without hesitation, and pocketed the coin. Mrs. Hedderwick left the inn at once.
After inquiry from a pa.s.ser-by she reached her destination, a quarter of an hour behind the peccant Hedderwick. She walked up the drive, and beheld the unsuspecting Robert pouring out his grief to Tony. They were sitting in the hammock-chairs.
Robert gave a cry and fled once more. Tony courteously waited and implored Mrs. Hedderwick to sit down and rest. "There is a misunderstanding," he said urbanely; "it shall be my pleasure to set it right." Filled with shame of his s.e.x, determined to vindicate Robert"s manhood and obtain for him a peaceful mastership, he ran after him, catching him outside the grounds as has already been described.
Mrs. Hedderwick, however, was not content to wait. She did not run--no!
no! perish so undignified a thought: but she proceeded very swiftly indeed in the wake of Tony. "A smooth-spoken hypocrite!" she thought ungratefully, remembering Mrs. Peter"s description of Robert"s accomplice during their mutual vigil. "If I only get a chance I"ll give him a piece of my mind, too!" She ran--I apologize: she proceeded very swiftly--through the garden, and presently saw Tony disappear in the distance through a wicket-gate. At a convenient interval of time she followed. In front of her, a field ahead, she saw Tony and her husband standing still, their arms waving furiously. In a moment they began to walk on again, toward a little group which she now observed for the first time. Mrs. Hedderwick slackened her pace, not because her desire of vengeance was cooling, but because she did not wish to appear in a panting state. She saw the two men come to the group, and some handshaking followed. "The wretch!" she thought. "Some of his wicked friends, I suppose!" A few moments later she joined them. They looked at her with interest, and she returned the gaze unflinchingly--an iron woman. Beatrice came forward. "Mrs. Hedderwick, I think we have met before."
It must be admitted that Mrs. Hedderwick behaved well. There was every excuse for a scene, and no possible excuse (unless one know his dull life) for Robert. Mrs. Hedderwick merely looked coldly at Beatrice and said, "We have, but I prefer not to remember it." Then she turned to her husband, "Come, Robert!"
Mr. Hedderwick was pale, but determined. Tony"s rea.s.suring and stimulating words, together with a short breathing-s.p.a.ce, had put courage into him. Besides, during the last minute he had conceived an idea. So, though he trembled internally, his voice was calm enough as he replied, "Alicia, I am not coming just yet."
Tony took Beatrice by the arm. "This isn"t our scene," he whispered. She obeyed the hint; and she, Lionel, Tony and Billing retired a few yards to the aeroplane, out of ear-shot. "Is it fair to leave him?" asked Beatrice; "he looked very frightened, poor little man!"
"Yes--yes!" said Tony decidedly; "he must do this on his own--sink or swim. I think he"ll be all right, now that I"ve stiffened him. Let him alone."
Mrs. Hedderwick appreciated the withdrawal, but it did not soften her mood. "What do you mean, Robert?" she said coldly. "You are my husband, though you did desert me cruelly. You must come."
"I come on conditions," said Robert stoutly, though his knees were quaking. "I mean to be master of the house in future--to do exactly what I like and when I like--to go to Brighton, if I choose----"
"Don"t be absurd," said Mrs. Hedderwick.
"I mean what I say," he reiterated. "I"m--I"m still very fond of you, Alicia, but I must be master----"
"Don"t be absurd," said Mrs. Hedderwick, still unmoved. "You will come home with me to-night."