"Yes; he has disappeared."
Alan gazed at her dizzily. Benjamin Corvet--whoever he might be--had disappeared; he had gone. Did any one else, then, know about Alan Conrad?
"No one has seen Mr. Corvet," she said, "since the day he wrote to you.
We know that--that he became so disturbed after doing that--writing to you--that we thought you must bring with you information of him."
"Information!"
"So we have been waiting for you to come here and tell us what you know about him or--or your connection with him."
CHAPTER III
DISCUSSION OF A SHADOW
Alan, as he looked confusedly and blankly at her, made no attempt to answer the question she had asked, or to explain. For the moment, as he fought to realize what she had said and its meaning for himself, all his thought was lost in mere dismay, in the denial and checking of what he had been feeling as he entered the house. His silence and confusion, he knew, must seem to Constance Sherrill unwillingness to answer her; for she did not suspect that he was unable to answer her.
She plainly took it in that way; but she did not seem offended; it was sympathy, rather, that she showed. She seemed to appreciate, without understanding except through her feelings, that--for some reason--answer was difficult and dismaying for him.
"You would rather explain to father than to me," she decided.
He hesitated. What he wanted now was time to think, to learn who she was and who her father was, and to adjust himself to this strange reversal of his expectations.
"Yes; I would rather do that," he said.
"Will you come around to our house, then, please?"
She caught up her fur collar and m.u.f.f from a chair and spoke a word to the servant. As she went out on to the porch, he followed her and stooped to pick up his suitcase.
"Simons will bring that," she said, "unless you"d rather have it with you. It is only a short walk."
He was recovering from the first shock of her question now, and, reflecting that men who accompanied Constance Sherrill probably did not carry hand baggage, he put the suitcase down and followed her to the walk. As she turned north and he caught step beside her, he studied her with quick interested glances, realizing her difference from all other girls he ever had walked with, but he did not speak to her nor she to him. Turning east at the first corner, they came within sight and hearing again of the turmoil of the lake.
"We go south here," she said at the corner of the Drive. "Our house is almost back to back with Mr. Corvet"s."
Alan, looking up after he had made the turn with her, recognized the block as one he had seen pictured sometimes in magazines and ill.u.s.trated papers as a "row" of the city"s most beautiful homes.
Larger, handsomer, and finer than the mansions on Astor Street, each had its lawn or terrace in front and on both sides, where snow-mantled shrubs and straw-bound rosebushes suggested the gardens of spring.
They turned in at the entrance of a house in the middle of the block and went up the low, wide stone steps; the door opened to them without ring or knock; a servant in the hall within took Alan"s hat and coat, and he followed Constance past some great room upon his right to a smaller one farther down the hall.
"Will you wait here, please?" she asked.
He sat down, and she left him; when her footsteps had died away, and he could hear no other sounds except the occasional soft tread of some servant, he twisted himself about in his chair and looked around. A door between the room he was in and the large room which had been upon his right as they came in--a drawing-room--stood open; he could see into the drawing-room, and he could see through the other door a portion of the hall; his inspection of these increased the bewilderment he felt. Who were these Sherrills? Who was Corvet, and what was his relation to the Sherrills? What, beyond all, was their and Corvet"s relation to Alan Conrad--to himself? The shock and confusion he had felt at the nature of his reception in Corvet"s house, and the strangeness of his transition from his little Kansas town to a place and people such as this, had prevented him from inquiring directly from Constance Sherrill as to that; and, on her part, she had a.s.sumed, plainly, that he already knew and need not be told.
He got up and moved about the rooms; they, like all rooms, must tell something about the people who lived in them. The rooms were large and open; Alan, in dreaming and fancying to himself the places to which he might some day be summoned, had never dreamed of entering such a home as this. For it was a home; in its light and in its furnishings there was nothing of the stiffness and aloofness which Alan, never having seen such rooms except in pictures, had imagined to be necessary evils accompanying riches and luxury; it was not the richness of its furnishings that impressed him first, it was its livableness. Among the more modern pieces in the drawing-room and hall were some which were antique. In the part of the hall that he could see, a black and ancient-looking chair whose lines he recognized, stood against the wall. He had seen chairs like that, heirlooms of colonial Ma.s.sachusetts or Connecticut, cherished in Kansas farmhouses and recalling some long-past exodus of the family from New England. On the wall of the drawing-room, among the beautiful and elusive paintings and etchings, was a picture of a ship, plainly framed; he moved closer to look at it, but he did not know what kind of ship it was except that it was a sailing ship of some long-disused design. Then he drew back again into the smaller room where he had been left, and sat down again to wait.
A comfortable fire of cannel coal was burning in this smaller room in a black fire-basket set in a white marble grate, obviously much older than the house; there were big easy leather chairs before it, and beside it there were bookcases. On one of these stood a two-handled silver trophy cup, and hung high upon the wall above the mantel was a long racing sweep with the date "85 painted in black across the blade.
He had the feeling, coming quite unconsciously, of liking the people who lived in this handsome house.
He straightened and looked about, then got up, as Constance Sherrill came back into the room.
"Father is not here just now," she said. "We weren"t sure from your telegram exactly at what hour you would arrive, and that was why I waited at Mr. Corvet"s to be sure we wouldn"t miss you. I have telephoned father, and he"s coming home at once."
She hesitated an instant in the doorway, then turned to go out again.
"Miss Sherrill--" he said.
She halted. "Yes."
"You told me you had been waiting for me to come and explain my connection with Mr. Corvet. Well--I can"t do that; that is what I came here hoping to find out."
She came back toward him slowly.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
He was forcing himself to disregard the strangeness which his surroundings and all that had happened in the last half hour had made him feel; leaning his arms on the back of the chair in which he had been sitting, he managed to smile rea.s.suringly; and he fought down and controlled resolutely the excitement in his voice, as he told her rapidly the little he knew about himself.
He could not tell definitely how she was affected by what he said. She flushed slightly, following her first start of surprise after he had begun to speak; when he had finished, he saw that she was a little pale.
"Then you don"t know anything about Mr. Corvet at all," she said.
"No; until I got his letter sending for me here, I"d never seen or heard his name."
She was thoughtful for a moment.
"Thank you for telling me," she said. "I"ll tell my father when he comes."
"Your father is--?" he ventured.
She understood now that the name of Sherrill had meant nothing to him.
"Father is Mr. Corvet"s closest friend, and his business partner as well," she explained.
He thought she was going to tell him something more about them; but she seemed then to decide to leave that for her father to do. She crossed to the big chair beside the grate and seated herself. As she sat looking at him, hands clasped beneath her chin, and her elbows resting on the arm of the chair, there was speculation and interest in her gaze; but she did not ask him anything more about himself. She inquired about the Kansas weather that week in comparison with the storm which had just ceased in Chicago, and about Blue Rapids, which she said she had looked up upon the map, and he took this chat for what it was--notification that she did not wish to continue the other topic just then.
She, he saw, was listening, like himself, for the sound of Sherrill"s arrival at the house; and when it came, she recognized it first, rose, and excused herself. He heard her voice in the hall, then her father"s deeper voice which answered; and ten minutes later, he looked up to see the man these things had told him must be Sherrill standing in the door and looking at him.
He was a tall man, sparely built; his broad shoulders had been those of an athlete in his youth; now, at something over fifty, they had taken on a slight, rather studious stoop, and his brown hair had thinned upon his forehead. His eyes, gray like his daughter"s, were thoughtful eyes; just now deep trouble filled them. His look and bearing of a refined and educated gentleman took away all chance of offense from the long, inquiring scrutiny to which he subjected Alan"s features and figure before he came into the room.
Alan had risen at sight of him; Sherrill, as he came in, motioned him back to his seat; he did not sit down himself, but crossed to the mantel and leaned against it.
"I am Lawrence Sherrill," he said.
As the tall, graceful, thoughtful man stood looking down at him, Alan could tell nothing of the att.i.tude of this friend of Benjamin Corvet toward himself. His manner had the same reserve toward Alan, the same questioning consideration of him, that Constance Sherrill had had after Alan had told her about himself.
"My daughter has repeated to me what you told her, Mr. Conrad,"
Sherrill observed. "Is there anything you want to add to me regarding that?"
"There"s nothing I can add," Alan answered. "I told her all that I know about myself."