"You"re likely to hear a good deal more about it, I"m afraid," said Mark. "It has only just come out that it was his, and unopened--you will find it awkward to contradict."
Caffyn was silent for a time. Dolly must have spoken again. What a fool he had been to trust a child a second time!--and yet he had had no choice. "Well," he said at last, "and what are _you_ going to do about it?"
Mark"s throat grew huskier. It was odd, for there was really no reason for being afraid of the man. "Well, I--in short, I may as well tell you plainly, my wife thinks it is better we should not see any more of you in future."
There was a dangerous look in Caffyn"s eye which Mark did not at all like. "Ah, well, of course you mean to talk her out of that?" he said lightly.
Was there a concealed menace in his tone? If so, Mark thought, he probably considered that his services connected with Vincent"s sudden return gave him a claim. Well, he must disabuse him of that idea at once.
"It would be of no use if I tried to talk her out of it; but, to be quite candid, I--I don"t intend to do anything of the kind.... I know we"ve been friends and all that sort of thing, and till I knew this I always said what I could for you; but--but this suppressing a letter is very different. I can"t feel the same myself for you after that, it is better to tell you so distinctly. And then--there is poor little Dolly--she is my sister now--it seems you have been frightening her a second time."
"On whose account--eh, Ashburn?" asked Caffyn.
Mark had expected this. "I"m sorry to say on mine," he replied; "but if I had known, do you suppose that for one moment---- I don"t deny that, as I told you at the time, I was glad to see Holroyd leave town just then; but it was--was not so important as all that! Still you did me a service, and I"m sorry to have to do this, but I can"t help myself. You will find others harder on you than I am!"
"Does that mean that Mrs. Langton has been told this precious story with all the latest improvements?" asked Caffyn.
"Not yet," said Mark, "but she must know before long."
"And as for yourself, you consider me such an utterly irreclaimable blackguard that you can"t afford to be seen with me any longer?"
pursued Caffyn.
"My dear fellow," protested Mark, "I don"t want to judge you. But, as far as the conclusion goes, I"m afraid it comes to that!"
"Perhaps, it has not quite come to that yet," said Caffyn, as he drew his chair closer to Mark"s, and, resting one arm on the back, looked him full in the face with searching intensity. "Are you sure you have the right to be so very exclusive?"
If Mark could have controlled his nerves then, he might have been able to parry a thrust which, had he only known it, was something of an experiment. As it was, the unexpectedness of it took him off his guard, just when he thought he was proof against all surprises. The ghastly change in him told Caffyn that he had struck the right chord after all, and a diabolical joy lit his eyes as he leaned forward and touched his arm affectionately.
"You infernal hypocrite!" he said very softly. "I know all about it.
Do you hear?"
"About _what_?" gasped the miserable man, and then with a flickering effort at defiance, "What do you mean?" he asked, "tell me what you are hinting at?"
"Keep quiet," said Caffyn, "don"t excite yourself: they"ll notice something presently if you look like that! Here are some fellows coming round with the coffee, wait till they have gone, and I"ll tell you."
Mark had to wait while one man brought him his cup with the milk and sugar, and another followed with the coffee. His hands shook and upset the cream as he tried to take up a lump of sugar.
"I wouldn"t take milk if I were you," advised Caffyn. "Try a _liqueur_ brandy"--a recommendation to which Mark paid no attention.
It seemed an eternity till the men had gone; all the time Mark tried to believe this was one of the old dreams which had not visited him for so long, or, if he was really awake, that Caffyn must have got hold of something else--not _that_; he had had false alarms like this before, and nothing had come of them.
Caffyn seemed to have forgotten their recent conversation as he deliberately sipped his coffee and took a cigarette; he offered Mark one and it was declined. "What do you suspect me of having done?"
demanded Mark. "Oh, my dear fellow, I don"t _suspect_ you," replied Caffyn, "I know. You can"t play the moralist with me, you high-minded old paragon!" He spoke with a kind of savage jocularity. "I tell you I know that you got your fame and fortune, and even that charming Mabel of yours, by a meaner trick than I, who don"t pretend to be particular, should care to dirty my hands with. I may have helped a child to burn a letter--I don"t remember that I ever stole a book.
I"ve been an a.s.s in my time, I dare say, but not quite such an a.s.s as to go about in a lion"s skin!" Mark sat there dumb and terror-stricken.
His buried secret had risen after all--it was all over. He could only say in his despair--
"Has Holroyd told you?"
Caffyn knew all he wanted when he heard that. "We won"t go into that,"
he said. "It"s quite enough for you that I know. Do you feel quite such a virtuous horror of continuing my acquaintance now? Couldn"t you bring yourself to overlook my little shortcomings this time? _Must_ you really close your respectable door on me?"
Mark only looked at him.
"You fool," said Caffyn, "to give yourself airs with me. I"ve done you more than one good turn. I believe I rather liked you--you did the thing so well that I"m hanged if I should have had the heart to show you up. And now you _will_ go and make an enemy of me--is it quite prudent?"
"What do you want me to do?" asked Mark, with his hand shielding his eyes from the shaded candles near him.
"Now you"re getting sensible!" said Caffyn. "We shall hit it off yet!
You"ve got some authority over your wife, I suppose? Use it. Stop this cackle about the letter: make her shut her mouth; I can"t afford to lose the _entree_ to two houses like your father-in-law"s and your own, just now. I can be discreet too--it shall be mouth for mouth. If you don"t--if you stand by and let your wife and her mother go about spreading this story until I daren"t show my face anywhere, why, I shall take care to come to grief in good company! Mabel can smash me if you like to let her, but if you do, by ---- it shall bring my sting out! Is it a bargain?"
Mark hesitated. As they sat there he heard the sounds outside of arriving carriages and entering footsteps; people were coming in for this rehearsal. How he loathed the thought of it now! How was he to go through it?
"We shall have to go presently," said Caffyn. "I am waiting for my answer--yes or no?"
"No," said Mark. "I see no use in playing mouse to your cat. Do you think I don"t know that it would come out sooner or later--if not from you, from _him_? As to forcing my wife to receive you as a friend, I"m not quite rascal enough for that yet. Do whatever you please!"
It was despair more than anything that drove him to defiance, for his knowledge of Mabel showed him that the bargain proposed, apart from its rascality, was an impossible one.
"Well," said Caffyn, with a shrug, "you leave me no choice, so in the course of a day or two, my friend, look out for squally weather!
Whether I sink or swim myself, I shall see _you_ go to the bottom!"
Mr. Featherstone, who was getting slightly tired of the enthusiastic young amateurs at his end of the table, here suggested an adjournment to the music-room.
"You"ll come and look on, sir, won"t you?" said his son.
But the merchant shook his head.
"I think I can hold on till the night itself, Bertie, my boy!" with a cleverly fielded yawn. "I hear all about it from your mother. You"ll find me in the billiard-room if you want me, you know!"
Mark rose from the table to which he had sat down with so light a heart. Black disgrace was before him, the Laufingen crisis had come again, and this time nothing could save him. He lingered behind the other men as they mounted the broad staircase, and as he lingered was overtaken by Vincent, who had just left his hat and overcoat below, and was about to go upstairs.
"Stop!" cried Mark. "Don"t go up yet, I want to speak to you. Come in here!" and he almost forced him into the library, which was empty, and where a lamp was burning.
"So we"re on a level after all, are we?" he said savagely, as he shut the door.
Holroyd simply asked him what he meant.
"You know!" said Mark. "All that generosity at Laufingen was a sham, was it--a blind? It didn"t suit you that I should give myself up of my own free will, and so soon, so you put me off my guard! And now"--his voice was thick with pa.s.sion as he spoke--"now you have set that villain, that d----d Caffyn, on me! Chivalrous that, isn"t it? I"ve fallen into good hands between you!"
Vincent was hardly less angry. "You think every one is like yourself!"
he said. "If it is any comfort to you to believe that I can break my word and betray those who trusted it, believe it--it"s not worth my while to set you right?"
No one who saw his face could doubt that he, at least, was no traitor; and Mark felt lower than ever as he realised his mistake.
"Forgive me!" he stammered. "I see, I ought to have known better. I hardly know what I am saying or doing just now--but Caffyn has found out everything, and--and who could have told him?"
"If any one betrayed you, it must have been yourself!" said Vincent.
"Look here, Ashburn, don"t give it up like this--keep your head, man!
He can"t really _know_ this, it must be all guesswork. Did he mention my name?"