Presently, in one of his stealthy peerings, he happened to look up. Then he started--he shaded his eyes: he looked his hardest. Yes, at the open window, freely displayed, without the least attempt at concealment, he saw the head and face of Miss Elsie Arundel. There! There! What more was necessary? Edmund Gray was Athelstan Arundel, or George Austin, or both--and Elsie Arundel was an accomplice after the act. There! There!
He retreated to the seclusion of the pa.s.sage and rubbed his hands. This would please Sir Samuel. He should hear it that very night. This ought to please him very much, because it made things so clear at last. There she was--up-stairs, in the Chambers of Mr. Edmund Gray--in the very room! There! There! There!
Perhaps he was mistaken. But his sight was very good--for distant things. In reading a newspaper he might make mistakes, because he was one of those elderly persons who enjoy their newspaper most when they can nail it upon the wall and sit down to read it from the other side of a large room. He looked up again. The setting sun shining on the window of the side where he stood--the eastern side was reflected upon the windows of No. 22--Elsie"s shapely head--she had taken off her hat--was bathed in the reflected sunshine. No doubt about her at all. There she was. There! There! There! The old man was fain to take a walk up Verulam Buildings and back again, to disguise his delight at this discovery. He walked chuckling and cracking his fingers, so that those who saw him--but there are not many in Raymond"s Buildings on an August evening--thought that he must be either a little mad or a little drunk or a little foolish. But n.o.body much regards the actions of an ancient man. It is only the respect of his grandchildren or the thought of his possessions that gives him importance. Only the strong are regarded, and an old man who looks poor gets no credit even for foolishness and silly chuckles. Then Checkley went back to his corner. Oh! what was that? He rubbed his eyes again. He turned pale: he staggered: he caught at the door-posts. What was that? He shaded his eyes and looked again--bent and trembling and shaking all over. Said the Policeman: "Looks as if he"s going to get "em again." Said the laundresses: "He looks as if he"d seen a ghost." The newspaper boy stepped half-way across the Square. "He"s looking at Mr. Edmund Gray and the young lady. Jealous--p"raps--knows the young lady--wouldn"t have believed it prob"ly."
Yes--Checkley was looking at that window. No doubt of that at all. He was not able to disguise his astonishment: he no longer pretended to hide himself. For he saw, sitting in the window, the young lady whom he believed to be an accomplice in the crime; and standing over her, with an expression of fatherly affection, was none other than Mr. Dering himself.
Yes-- Mr. Dering. Most wonderful! What did it mean? Had Mr. Dering resolved to clear up the mystery of Edmund Gray? Had he penetrated the Chambers and found there--not Edmund Gray--but Elsie Arundel?
"My friend," said the Policeman, standing before him so that the view of the window was intercepted, "you seem interested over the way."
"I am. I am. Oh! yes. Much interested."
"Well--don"t you think you"ve looked at that old gentleman long enough?
Perhaps he wouldn"t like so much looking at. There"s a young lady, too.
It isn"t manners to be staring at a young lady like a stuck pig."
"No--no, Policeman-- I"ve seen enough--thank you."
"And, still talking in a friendly way, do you think Mr. Edmund Gray over there would like it if he knew there was a detective or a spy watching every evening on the other side of the Square? What"s the little game, guv"nor? Anything in our line? Not with that most respectable old gentleman, I do hope--though sometimes---- Well--what is it? Because we can"t have you goin" on as you have a been goin" on, you know."
"Policeman"--Checkley pulled him aside and pointed to the little group at the window--"you see that old gentleman there--do you know him?"
"Certainly. Known him ever since I came to the Inn--two years ago. The people of the Inn have known him for ten years, I believe. That"s Mr.
Edmund Gray. He"s not one of the regular residents, and he hasn"t got an office. Comes here now and then when he fancies the place--Mr. Edmund Gray, that is. I wish all the gentlemen in the Inn were half as liberal as he is."
"Oh! it"s impossible! Say it again, Policeman. Perhaps I"m a little deaf--I"m very old, you know--a little deaf perhaps. Say it again."
"What"s the matter with the man?" For he was shaking violently, and his eyes stared. "Of course that is Mr. Edmund Gray."
"What does the girl do with him? Why are they both there together?"
"How should I know why she calls upon him? She"s a young lady, and a sweet young thing too. He"s her grandfather likely."
Checkley groaned.
"I must go somewhere and think this out," he said. "Excuse me, Policeman. I am an old man, and--and-- I"ve had a bit of a shock and---- Good-evening, Policeman." He shaded his eyes again and looked up.
Yes--there they were, talking. Then Elsie rose and he saw her putting on her hat. Then she retreated up the room. But still he stood watching.
"Not had enough yet, guv"nor?" asked the Policeman.
"Only a minute. I want to see her go out.--Yes--there they are--going out together. It is, after all---- Oh! there is no mistake."
"There is no mistake, guv"nor," said the Policeman. "There goes Mr.
Edmund Gray, and there goes that sweet young thing along of him.--Ah!
there"s many advantages about being a gentleman. No mistake, I say, about them two.--Now, old man, you look as if you"d had a surprise.
Hadn"t you better go home and take a drop of something?"
It was earlier than Checkley generally went to the _Salutation_. But he delayed no longer. He tottered across the Square, showing very much of extreme feebleness, looking neither to the right nor to the left, his cheek white, his eyes rolling. The people looked after him, expecting that he would fall. But he did not. He turned into the tavern, hobbled along the pa.s.sage, and sank into an arm-chair in the parlour.
"Good gracious, Mr. Checkley!" cried the barmaid as he pa.s.sed, "whatever is the matter?"
Some of the usual company were already a.s.sembled, although it was as yet hardly eight. The money-lender was there, sitting in his corner, taking his tobacco and his grog in silence. The decayed Barrister was there, his gla.s.s of old and mild before him, reading the morning newspaper. The ex-M.P. was there. When Checkley tumbled into the room, they looked up in surprise. When he gazed about him wildly and gasped, they were astonished, for he seemed like unto one about to have a fit.
"Give me something, Robert--give me something," he cried.
"Quick--something strong. I"ll have it short. Quick--quick!"
Robert brought him a small gla.s.s of brandy, which he swallowed hastily.
"Oh!" he groaned, sitting up, "I"ve seen-- I"ve seen----"
"You look as if you had seen a ghost," said the barmaid, who had come along with a gla.s.s of water. "Shall I bathe your forehead?"
"No--no. I am better now--I am all right again.--Gentlemen"--he looked round the room solemnly--"I"ve seen this evening a good man--an old man--a great man--a rich man; gentlemen, wrecked and cast away and destroyed and ruined. With a little devil of a woman to laugh at him!"
"They don"t generally laugh at the men when they are ruined," said Mr.
Langhorne. "They laugh while they are ruining them. It"s fun to them. So it is to the men. Great fun it is while it lasts. I daresay the little woman won"t really laugh at him. In my case----"
His case was left untold, because he stopped and buried his head in his newspaper.
Then Shylock spoke. He removed his pipe from his lips and spoke, moved, after his kind, by the mention of the words wreck and ruin, just as the vulture p.r.i.c.ks up its feathers at the word death.
"To see a rich man wrecked and ruined, Mr. Checkley, is a thing which a man may see every day. The thing is not to lose by their wreck--to make money out of it. Rich men are always being wrecked and ruined. What else can you expect if men refuse to pay their interest and to meet their bills? The melancholy thing--ah! the real sadness--is the ruin of a man who has trusted his fellow creatures and got taken in for his pains.
Only this morning I find that I"ve been let in by a swindler--a common swindler, gentlemen--who comes round and says he can"t pay up--can"t pay up--and I"m welcome to the sticks.--Which kind of man might your friend be, Mr. Checkley, the man who"s trusted his neighbour and got left--or the neighbour who"s ramped the man that trusted him?"
"It isn"t money at all," Checkley replied.
"Then, sir, if it isn"t money," said the money-lender, "I don"t know why you come in frightening this honourable company out of their wits. If it isn"t money, how the devil can the gentleman be wrecked and ruined?"
For two hours Mr. Checkley sat in silence, evidently not listening to what was said. Then he turned to Mr. Langhorne the Barrister: "You"ve known Mr. Edmund Gray a long time, I believe?"
"Nine years--ten years--since he came to the Inn."
"Always the same man, I suppose?" said Checkley. "Never another man--not sometimes a young man--or two young men--one rather a tall young man, looks as if the world was all his--supercilious beast?"
"Never more than one man at once," replied the Barrister with a show of forensic keenness. "He might have been two young men rolled into one; but not to my knowledge: always the same man to look at, so far as I know--and the same man to talk with."
"Oh! yes--yes. There"s no hope left--none. He"s ruined and lost and cast away and done for."
He rose and walked out. The company looked after him and shook their heads. Then they drew their chairs a little closer, and the gap made by his departure vanished.
CHAPTER x.x.x
THE DAY AFTER THE GHOST