He rattled off a rollicking hunting song, full of gaiety and _verve_, and followed it up with a little pathetic ballad, sung with an accent of real feeling (he could throw more emotion into his singing than his acting), while, although it was after dinner, the room was hushed until the last notes had died away, and when he rose at length with a laughing plea of exhaustion, he was instantly surrounded by a buzz of genuine grat.i.tude. Mark heard all this, and the last remnants of his dislike and distrust vanished; it seemed impossible that this man, with the sympathetic voice, and the personal charm which was felt by most of those present, could be capable of finding pleasure in working on a child"s terrors. So that when Caffyn, disengaging himself at length from the rest, made his way to where Mark was sitting, the latter felt this almost as a distinction, and made room for him with cordiality. Somebody was at the piano again, but as all around were talking, the most confidential conversations could be carried on in perfect security, and Caffyn, seating himself next to Mark, set himself to remove all prejudices.
He put his case very well, without obsequiousness or temper, appealing to Mark as a fellow man-of-the-world against a girl"s rash judgment.
"You know," he said, in the course of his arguments, "I"m not really an incarnate fiend in private life. Miss Langton is quite convinced I am. I believe I saw her looking suspiciously at my boots the other day; but then she"s a trifle hard on me. My worst fault is that I don"t happen to understand children. I"d got into a way of saying extravagant things; you know the way one does talk rubbish to children; well, of joking in that sort of way with little What"s-her-name. She always seemed to understand it well enough, and I should have thought she was old enough to see the simpler kind of joke, at all events. One day I chanced to chaff her about a stamp she took off some envelope. Well, I daresay I said something about stealing and prisons, all in fun, of course, never dreaming she would think any more about it. A fortnight afterwards, suddenly there"s a tremendous hullabaloo. You began it. Oh, I know it was natural enough, but you did begin it. You see the child looking pale and seedy, and say at once, "something on her mind." Well, I don"t know, and she might have been such a little idiot as to take a chance word _au grand serieux_; it might have been something else on her mind; or she mightn"t have had anything on her mind at all. Anyway, she tells you a long story about prisons, and how one Harold Caffyn had told her she would go there, and so on, and you, with that vivid imagination of yours, conjure up a tearful picture of a diabolical young man (me, you know) coldly gloating over the terrors of a poor little innocent ignorant child, eh? (Miss Dolly"s nearly ten, and anything but backward for her age; but that"s of no consequence.) Well, then you go and impart some of your generous indignation to Miss Langton; she takes it in a very aggravated form, and gives it to me. Upon my word, I think I"ve had rather hard lines!"
Mark really felt a little remorseful just then, but he made one more attempt to maintain his high ground. "I don"t know that I should have thought so much of the joke itself," he said, "but you carried it on so long; you saw her brooding over it and getting worse and worse, and yet you never said a word to undeceive the poor child!"
"Now, you know, with all respect to you, Ashburn," said Caffyn, who was gradually losing all ceremony, "that about seeing her brooding is rubbish--pure rubbish! I saw the child, I suppose, now and again; but I didn"t notice her particularly, and if I had, I don"t exactly know how to detect the signs of brooding. How do you tell it from indigestion? and how are you to guess what the brooding is about? I tell you I"d forgotten the whole thing. And _that_ was what all your righteous wrath was based upon, was it? Well, it"s very delightful, no doubt, to figure as a knight-errant, or a champion, and all that kind of thing--particularly when you make your own dragon--but when you come prancing down and spit some unlucky lizard, it"s rather a cheap triumph. But there, I forgive you. You"ve made a little mistake which has played the very deuce with me at Kensington Park Gardens. It"s too late to alter that now, and if I can only make you see that there has been a mistake, and I"m not one of the venomous sort of reptiles after all, why, I suppose I must be content with that!"
He succeeded in giving Mark an uneasy impression that he had made a fool of himself. He had quite lost the feeling of superiority under the tone of half-humorous, half-bitter remonstrance which Caffyn had chosen to take, and was chiefly anxious now to make the other forget his share in the matter. "Perhaps I was too ready to put the worst construction on what I heard," he said apologetically, "but after what you"ve told me, why----"
"Well, we"ll say no more about it," said Caffyn; "you understand me now, and that"s all _I_ cared about." ("You may be a great genius, my friend," he was thinking, "but it"s not so very difficult to get round you, after all!") "Look here," he continued, "will you come and see me one of these days--it would be a great kindness to me. I"ve got rooms in Kremlin Road, Bayswater, No. 72."
Mark changed countenance very slightly as he heard the address--it had been Holroyd"s. There was nothing in that to alarm him, and yet he could not resist a superst.i.tious terror at the coincidence. Caffyn noticed the effect directly. "Do you know Kremlin Road?" he said.
Something made Mark anxious to explain the emotion he felt he had given way to. "Yes," he said, "a--a very old friend of mine had lodgings at that very house. He was lost at sea, so when you mentioned the place I----"
"I see," said Caffyn. "Of course. Was your friend Vincent Holroyd, I wonder?"
"You knew him?" cried Mark; "you!"
("Got the Railway Station effect that _time_!" thought Caffyn. "I begin to believe my dear uncle touched a weak spot after all. If he _has_ a secret, it"s ten to one Holroyd knew it--knows it, by Jove!")
"Oh, yes, I knew poor old Holroyd," he said; "that"s how I came to take his rooms. Sad thing, his going down like that, wasn"t it? It must have been a great shock for you--I can see you haven"t got over it even yet."
"No," stammered Mark, "no--yes, I felt it a great deal. I--I didn"t know you were a friend of his, too; did--did you know him well?"
"Very well; in fact I don"t fancy he had any secrets from me."
Like lightning the thought flashed across Mark"s mind, what if Caffyn had been entrusted with Holroyd"s literary projects? But he remembered the next moment that Holroyd had expressly said that he had never told a soul of his cherished work until that last evening in Rotten Row.
Caffyn had lied, but with a purpose, and as the result confirmed his suspicions he changed the subject, and was amused at Mark"s evident relief.
Towards the end of the evening Mr. Fladgate came up in his amiable way and laid his hand jocularly on Caffyn"s shoulder. "Let me give you a word of advice," he said laughing; "don"t talk to Mr. Ashburn here about his book."
"Shouldn"t presume to," said Caffyn. "But do you come down so heavily on ignorant admiration, Ashburn, eh?"
"Oh, it isn"t that," said Mr. Fladgate; "it"s his confounded modesty.
I shall be afraid to tell him when we think about bringing out another edition. I really believe he"d like never to hear of it again!"
Mark felt himself flush. "Come," he said, with a nervous laugh, "I"m not so bad as all that!"
"Oh, you"re beginning to stand fire better. But (it"s such a good story you _must_ let me tell it, Mr. Ashburn, particularly as it only does you credit). Well, he was so ashamed of having it known that he was the author of "Illusion," that he actually took the trouble to get the ma.n.u.script all copied out in a different hand! Thought he"d take me in that way, but he didn"t. No, no, as you young fellows say, I "spotted" him directly; eh, Mr. Ashburn?"
"I"m afraid it"s time for me to be off," said Mark, dreading further revelations, and too nervous to see that they could do him no possible harm. But the fact was, Caffyn"s presence filled him with a vague alarm which he could not shake off.
Good-natured Mr. Fladgate was afraid he had offended him. "I do hope you weren"t annoyed at my mentioning that about the ma.n.u.script?" he said, as he accompanied Mark to the door. "It struck me as so curious, considering the success the book has had, that I really couldn"t resist telling it."
"No, no," said Mark, "it"s all right; I didn"t mind in the least.
I--I"m not ashamed of it!"
"Why, of course not," said his host; "it will be something for your biographer to record, eh? You won"t have another cigar to take you home? Well, good-night."
"Good-night," said Mark, and added some words of thanks for a pleasant evening.
_Had_ he had such a pleasant evening? he asked himself, as he walked home alone in the warm night air. He had been well treated by everybody, and there had been men present whose attention was a distinction in itself, and yet he felt an uneasiness which he found it difficult to trace back to any particular cause. He decided at last that he was annoyed to find that the casual mention of Holroyd"s name should still have power to discompose him--that was a weakness which he must set himself to overcome.
At the same time no one could possibly discover his secret; there was no harm done. And before he reached his lodgings, he decided that the evening had been pleasant enough.
CHAPTER XXII.
STRIKING THE TRAIL.
It was Sunday once more--a bright morning in June--and Caffyn was sitting over his late breakfast and the "Observer" in his rooms at Bayswater. He was in a somewhat gloomy and despondent frame of mind, for nothing seemed to have gone well with him since his disastrous reception in Mabel"s boudoir. His magnificent prospects in commerce had suddenly melted away into thin air, for his confiding friend and intending partner had very inconsiderately developed symptoms of a premature insanity, and was now "under restraint." He himself was in debt to a considerable extent; his father had firmly refused to increase what in his opinion was a handsome allowance; and Caffyn had been obliged to go to a theatrical agent with a view of returning to the boards, while no opening he thought it worth his while to accept had as yet presented itself.
Mabel had not relented in the least. He had met her once or twice at the Featherstones" and, although she had not treated him with any open coolness, he felt that henceforth there must be an impa.s.sable barrier between them. Now and then, even while she forced herself in public to listen to him, the invincible horror and repugnance she felt would be suddenly revealed by a chance look or intonation--and he saw it and writhed in secret. And yet he went everywhere that there was a possibility of meeting her, with a restless impulse of self-torture, while his hate grew more intense day by day.
And all this he owed to Mark Ashburn--a fact which Harold Caffyn was not the man to forget. He had been careful to cultivate him, had found out his address and paid him one or two visits, in which he had managed to increase the intimacy between them.
Mark was now entirely at his ease with him. His air of superiority had been finally dropped on the evening of Mr. Fladgate"s dinner, and he seemed flattered by the a.s.siduity with which Caffyn courted his society. Still, if he had a secret, it was his own still. Caffyn watched in vain for the look of sudden terror which he had once succeeded in surprising. At times he began to fear that it was some involuntary nervous contraction from which his own hopes had led him to infer the worst, for he was aware that countenances are not always to be depended upon; that a nervous temperament will sometimes betray all the signs of guilt from the mere consciousness that guilt is suspected. If that was the case here, he felt himself powerless. It is only in melodramas that a well-conducted person can be steeped in crime, and he did not see his way very clearly to accomplishing that difficult and dangerous feat with Mark Ashburn.
So he hated Mark more intensely at the thought that, after all, his past might be a blameless one. But even if this were not so, and he had a secret after all, it might be long enough before some fortunate chance gave Caffyn the necessary clue to it. Well, he would wait and watch as patiently as he might till then, and however long the opportunity might be in coming, when it came at last it should not find him too indifferent or reluctant to make use of it.
While he thought out his position somewhat to this effect, his landlady appeared to clear away the breakfast things; she was a landlady of the better cla.s.s, a motherly old soul who prided herself upon making her lodgers comfortable, and had higher views than many of her kind on the subjects of cookery and attendance. She had come to entertain a great respect for Caffyn, although at first, when she had discovered that he was "one of them play-actors," she had not been able to refrain from misgivings. Her notions of actors were chiefly drawn from the ramping and roaring performers at minor theatres, and the seedy blue-chinned individuals she had observed hanging about their stage-doors; and the modern comedian was altogether beyond her experience.
So when she found that her new lodger was "quite the gentleman, and that partickler about his linen, and always civil and pleasant-spoken, and going about as neat as a new pin, and yet with a way about him as you could see he wouldn"t stand no nonsense," her prejudices were entirely conquered.
"Good morning, Mr. Caffyn, sir," she began; "I come up to clear away your breakfast, if you"re quite done. Sarah Ann she"s gone to chapel, which she"s a Primitive Methodist, she _says_, though she can"t never tell me so much as the text when she come back, and I tell her, "My good gal," I ses to her, "what _do_ you go to chapel for?" and it"s my belief that as often as not she don"t go near it. But there, Mr.
Caffyn, if a gal does her work about the "ouse of a week, as I will say for Sarah Ann----"
Caffyn groaned. Good Mrs. Binney had a way of coming in to discourse on things in general, and it was always extremely difficult to get rid of her. She did not run down on this occasion until after an exhaustive catalogue, _a la_ Mrs. Lirriper, of the manners and customs of a whole dynasty of maids-of-all-work, when she began to clear his breakfast-table. He was congratulating himself on her final departure, when she returned with a bundle of papers in her hand. "I"ve been meanin" to speak to you about these, this ever such a time," she said.
"Binney, he said as I"d better, seeing as you"ve got his very rooms, and me not liking to burn "em, and the maids that careless about papers and that, and not a line from him since he left."
"It would certainly be better not to burn the rooms, unless they"re insured, Mrs. Binney, and I should be inclined to prefer their not being burnt while I"m in them, unless you make a point of it," said Caffyn mildly.
"Lor, Mr. Caffyn, who was talking of burnin" rooms? You do talk so ridiklus. It"s these loose papers of Mr. "Olroyd"s as I came to speak to you about, you bein" a friend of his, and they lyin" a burden on my mind for many a day, and litterin" up all the place, and so afraid I am as Sarah Ann"ll take and light the fire with "em one of these mornings, and who knows whether they"re not of value, and if so what should I say if he came and asked me for "em back again?"
"Well, he won"t do that, Mrs. Binney, if it"s true that he was drowned in the "Mangalore," will he?"
"Drowned! and me never to hear it till this day. It"s quite took me aback. Poor dear gentleman, what an end for him--to go out all that way only to be drowned! I do seem to be told of nothing but deaths and dying this morning, for Binney"s just "eard that poor old Mr. Tapling, at No. 5 opposite, was took off at last quite sudden late last night, and he"d had a dropsy for years, and swell up he would into all manner o" shapes as I"ve seen him doin" of it myself!"
"Well, I"ll look over the papers for you, Mrs. Binney," interrupted Caffyn. "I don"t suppose there"s anything of much importance, but I can tell you what ought to be kept." He would have solved her difficulties by advising her to burn the whole of them, but for some vague idea that he might be able to discover something amongst all these doc.u.ments which would throw some light upon Holroyd"s relations with Mark.
So when Mrs. Binney was at last prevailed on to leave him in peace, he sat down with the sheaf of miscellaneous papers she had left him, and began to examine them without much hope of discovering anything to the purpose.
They seemed to be the acc.u.mulations of some years. There were rough drafts of Latin and Greek verses, outlines for essays, and hasty jottings of University and Temple lectures--memorials of Holroyd"s undergraduate and law-student days. Then came notes scribbled down in court with a blunt corroded quill on borrowed sc.r.a.ps of paper, and elaborate a.n.a.lyses of leading cases and Acts of Parliament, which belonged to the period of zeal which had followed his call to the Bar.