"We are related--through Adam," replied Joan, whose lips were dry. "As for "trading" on the relationship, I"m proud of it, and I don"t see why you should be ashamed of me. I"ve done nothing to disgrace you."
"What is your game, that you should have selected my particular branch of the Adam family?"
"Because I have one of your family secrets. If you are going to disown me, there"s no reason why I shouldn"t give it away."
"What are you talking about?"
"Clerios. You aren"t ready for the secret of that deal to come out yet, are you? I saw in the paper the other day that you had denied any intention of taking the Clerio line into your combine. It was the same paper that said you had just returned to New York from Florida."
"You are an adventuress, my young friend."
"Every seeker of fortune is an adventurer or an adventuress. The crime is, failure. I"m not a criminal, because I am succeeding, and my success has enabled me to meet my obligations. If you don"t think that I was justified in claiming relationship with you through so remote an ancestor in common as Adam, you can make the rest of my stay here very uncomfortable, I admit; and if you have no fellow-feeling for a beginner, I suppose you will do it."
"How long do you intend your stay to be?" inquired Mordaunt grimly, but with a twinkle in his eye.
"How long do you want it kept dark about Clerios?"
"A fortnight."
"Then I should like very much, if you don"t mind, to stop here a fortnight."
The great man laughed. "You"ve the pluck of--the Evil One!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed. "I was in Paris, and read about one of my niece"s smart dinner-parties, so I came on--especially to see you. Now----"
"Now you are here, won"t you stop to one of the dinner-parties? Some very nice people are coming this evening."
"And play the part of fond uncle? No, I thank you. But, by Jove! I"m hanged if I don"t go away without unmasking you. You may bless your pretty face and your smart tongue for that----"
"And the family secret."
"That"s part of it, but not all. I give you a fortnight"s grace. Mind, not a day more; and respect the character you"ve stolen meanwhile, or the promise doesn"t stand. This day fortnight you clear out, and Miss Jenny Mordaunt must never be heard of again."
"It"s a bargain," said Joan. "By some other name I shall be as great."
"So long as it"s not mine. Have you done well with Clerios?"
"Pretty well, thank you. I was a little hampered for lack of capital.
I might get you a few shares here in Nice, if you like; not cheap, exactly--still, a good deal lower than they will be a fortnight from now."
"Much obliged. You needn"t trouble yourself. But I shall keep my eye on you."
"I shall consider it a compliment," said Joan, "and try to be worthy of it."
"Good-bye."
"Good-bye."
When he was gone, Joan sank into a chair and closed her eyes. It would have been a comfort to faint, but the first guest arrived at that moment, and she rose to them and to the occasion. The dinner was a great success, and every one was grieved to hear that the _t.i.tania_ was due to steam away--for a destination unmentioned--in a fortnight.
CHAPTER V--The Landlady at Woburn Place
Joan had no difficulty in selling _t.i.tania_ for Lady John Bevan, to a Swiss millionaire, the proprietor of a popular chocolate, who was disporting himself on the Riviera that winter. The yacht was to be delivered to him at Corsica, so that when the charming Miss Mordaunt and her chaperon steamed out of Nice Harbour, none of those who bade them farewell needed to know that _t.i.tania_ was to be disposed of. If they found out afterwards, it did not matter much to Joan. After her the Deluge.
The girl had grown fond of Lady John Bevan, and could not bear to exchange her friend"s warm affection and grat.i.tude for contempt.
Therefore she made up a pretty little fiction about an unexpected summons to America, and parted from Lady John, with mutual regret, at Ajaccio. Joan"s one grief in this connexion was that Miss Mordaunt would scarcely be able to keep her promise to write from New York; but this grief was only one of the rain-drops in that "deluge" which had to fall after the vanishing of the American heiress.
If she had been prudent, Joan might have come out of this adventure with a small fortune after sending Tommy Mellis his share of the spoil; but she had been intoxicated with success, and had spent lavishly, as money came from the sale of the shares. She made a good commission on the "deal" with the yacht, which she sold for a somewhat larger sum than Lady John had asked; but where a less generous young person might have closed the episode with thousands, Joan Carthew had only hundreds. She had also, however, many smart dresses, some jewellery, and the memory of an exciting experience. Besides, the money she kept had been got easily, in addition to the joy of her adventure.
It had been in the girl"s mind, perhaps, that she might, as Miss Mordaunt, capture a fortune and a t.i.tle; but in this regard, and this only, the episode of the _t.i.tania_ had proved a failure. She had had plenty of proposals, to be sure; but the men who were rich were either too old, too ugly, or too vulgar to suit the fastidious young woman who called the world her oyster; and the t.i.tles laid at her feet were all sadly in need of the gilding which a genuine American heiress might have supplied for the sake of becoming a Russian princess or a French _d.u.c.h.esse_.
So Miss Mordaunt disappeared from the brilliant world where she had glittered like a star; and at about the same time, Miss Joan Carthew (who had nothing to conceal) appeared at her old quarters in Woburn Place. She went back there for two reasons; indeed, Joan had bought her experience of life too dearly to do anything without a reason. The first was because she wished to lie hid for awhile, spending no unnecessary money until the twilight of uncertainty should brighten into the dawn of inspiration and show her the next step on the ladder which she was determined to mount. The second reason was that the landlady--a quite exceptional person for a landlady--had been kind, and Joan desired to reward her.
If the girl had not gone back to Woburn Place, her whole future might have been different. But--she did go back, and arrived in the midst of a crisis. Since Joan had vanished, some months ago, bad luck had come into the house and finally opened the door for the bailiff.
Joan found the landlady in tears; but to explain the fulness of the girl"s sympathy, the landlady must be described.
In the first place, she _was_ a lady; and she was young and pretty, though a widow. Her husband had been the Honourable Richard Fitzpatrick, the scapegrace son of a penniless Irish viscount.
"Dishonourable d.i.c.k," as he was sometimes nicknamed behind his back, had gone to California to make his fortune, had naturally failed, but had succeeded in marrying an exceedingly pretty girl, an orphan, with ten thousand pounds of her own. He had brought her to England, had spent most of her money on the race-course, and would have spent the rest, had it not occurred to him that it would be good sport to do a little fighting in South Africa. He had volunteered, and soon after died of enteric.
Meanwhile, the Honourable Mrs. Fitzpatrick was at a boarding-house in Woburn Place, where the landlord and landlady were so kind to her that she gladly lent them several hundred pounds, not knowing yet that she had only a few other hundreds left out of her little fortune.
Suddenly the blow fell. Within three days Marian Fitzpatrick learned that she was a widow, that her dead husband had employed the short interval of their married life in getting rid of almost everything she had; and that, her landlord and landlady being bankrupt, she could not hope for the return of the three-hundred-pound loan she had made them.
It was finally arranged, as the best thing to be done, that she should take over the lease of the boarding-house and try to get back what she had lost, by "running" the establishment herself.
Mrs. Fitzpatrick had just shouldered this somewhat incongruous burden, when Joan Carthew had been attracted to the house by the brightness of the gilt lettering over the door, and the pretty, fresh curtains in the windows. Joan was nineteen, and Marian Fitzpatrick twenty-three. The two had been drawn to one another with the first meeting of their eyes.
When, after a few weeks" acquaintance, the girl had been told the young widow"s story, her interest and sympathy were keenly aroused, for Joan"s heart was not hard except to the rich, most of whom she conceived to be less deserving, if more fortunate, than herself. Now, when she came back fresh from her triumphant campaign on the _Cote d"Azur_, to hear that things had gone from bad to worse, all the latent chivalry in her really generous nature was aroused.
Joan was tall as a young G.o.ddess brought up on the heights of Olympus, instead of at a French boarding-school. Despite the hardships and wretchedness of her childhood, she was strong in body and mind and spirit, with the strength of perfect nerves and a splendid vitality.
Marian Fitzpatrick, broken by disappointment, and worn by months of anxiety, was fragile and white as a lily which has been bent by savage storms, and the sight of her small, pale face and big, sad, brown eyes fired the girl with an almost fierce determination to a.s.sume the _role_ of protector.
"I"ve got money," she reflected, in mental defiance of the Fate with whom she had waged war since childish days, "and I can make more when this is gone. I suppose I"m a fool, but I don"t care a rap. I"m going to help Marian Fitzpatrick, and perhaps make her fortune, as I mean to make my own. But just for the present, mine can wait, and hers can"t."
Aloud, she asked Marian what sum would tide her over present difficulties. Two hundred and fifty pounds, it appeared, were needed.
Joan promptly volunteered to lend, on one condition, but she was cut short before she had time to name it.
"Condition or no condition, you dear girl, I can"t let you do it,"
sobbed Marian. "I"m perfectly sure I could never pay. I"m in a quicksand and bound to sink. n.o.body can pull me out."
"I can," said Joan; "and in doing it, I"ll show you how to pay me. You just listen to what I have to say, and don"t interrupt. When I get an inspiration, I tell you, it"s worth hearing, and I"ve got one now. What I want you to do is to give up trying to manage this house. You"re too young and pretty and soft-hearted for a landlady, and you haven"t the talent for it, though you have plenty in other ways, and one is, to be charming. My inspiration will show you how best to utilise that talent."
Then Joan talked on, and at first Marian was shocked and horrified; but in the end the force of the girl"s extraordinary magnetism and self-confidence subdued her. She ceased to protest. She even laughed, and a stain of rose colour came back to her cheeks. It would be very awful and alarming, and perhaps wicked, to do what Joan Carthew proposed, but it would be tremendously exciting and interesting; and there was enough youthful love of mischief left in her to enjoy an adventure with a kind of fearful joy, especially when all the responsibility was shouldered by another stronger than herself.
The first thing to do towards the carrying out of the great plan was to get some one to manage the boarding-house in Mrs. Fitzpatrick"s place.
This was difficult, for competent and honest managers, male or female, were not to be found at registry-offices, like cooks; but Joan was (or thought she was) equal to this emergency as well as others. She sorted out from the dismal rag-bag of her early Brighton experiences the memory of a wonderful woman who had done something to make life tolerable for her when she was the forlorn drudge of Mrs. Boyle"s lodging-house at 12, Seafoam Terrace.