On Sat.u.r.day afternoon, the policeman on day-duty at Gray"s Inn was standing near the southern portals of that venerable Foundation in conversation with the boy who dispenses the newspapers, from a warehouse constructed in the eastern wall of the archway. It was half-past three by the clock and a fine day, which was remarkable for the season--August--and the year. The sun poured upon the dingy old courts, making them dingier instead of brighter. Where the paint of the windows and door-posts is faded and dirty--where the panes are mostly in want of cleaning--where there are no flowers in the windows--where there are no trees or leaves in the Square--where the bricks want painting, and where the soot has gathered in every c.h.i.n.k and blackens every cranny--then the sunshine of summer only makes a dingy court shabbier. Gray"s Inn in July and August, unless these months are as the August of the year of grace 1891, looks old, but not venerable. Age should be clean and nicely dressed: age should wear a front to conceal her baldness: age should a.s.sume false teeth to disguise those gums stripped of their ivory. It was felt by the policeman. "We want a washin" and a brightenin" in this old place," he remarked to the journalist. We want somethin" younger than them old laundresses," said the newspaper boy. Great is the G.o.ddess Coincidence. Even while he uttered this aspiration, a young lady entered the gate and pa.s.sed into the Inn.
"Ha!" breathed the policeman, softly.
"Ah!" sighed the journalist.
She was a young lady of adorable face and form, surpa.s.sing the wildest dreams either of policeman or of paper-man--both of whom possessed the true poetic temperament. She was clothed in raiment mystic, wonderful, such as seldom indeed gets as far east as Gray"s Inn, something in gray or silver gray with an open front and a kind of jacket. She pa.s.sed them rapidly, and walked through the pa.s.sage into the Square.
"No. 22," said the policeman. "Now, who does she want at No. 22? Who"s on the ground-floor of 22?"
"Right hand--Architects and Surveyors. Left hand--Universal Translators."
"Perhaps she"s a Universal Translator. They must be all gone by this time. The first floor is lawyers. They"re all gone too. I saw the clerks march out at two o"clock. Second floor--there"s Mr. Carstone on the left, and Mr. Edmund Gray on the right. Perhaps it"s Mr. Carstone she"s after. I hope it isn"t him. He"s a gentleman with fine manners, and they do say a great scholar, but he"s a Lushington, and a sweet young thing like that ought not to marry a man who is brought home every other night too tipsy to stand. Or there"s Mr. Gray--the old gent--perhaps she"s his daughter. What"s Mr. Edmund Gray by calling, Joe?"
"n.o.body knows. He don"t often come. An old gentleman--been in the Inn a long time--for years. Lives in the country, I suppose, and does no work.
Lives on other people"s work--my work--honest working men"s work," said the boy, who was a Socialist and advanced.
"Ah! There"s something up about Mr. Gray. People are coming to inquire for him. First, it was a young gentleman: very affable he was--and free with his money--most likely other people"s money. He wanted to know a good deal about Mr. Gray--more than I could tell him--wanted to know how often he came, and what he was like when he did come--and would I tell him all I knew. He went to the old laundress afterwards.--Then it was a little old man--I know him by sight--uses the _Salutation_ Parlour of an evening--he wanted to know all about Mr. Gray too. No half-crown in that quarter, though. He"s been spying and watching for him--goes and hides up the pa.s.sage on the other side of the Square. Kind of a spider he is.
He"s watching him for no good, I"ll bet. Perhaps the young lady wants to find out about him too.--Joe, there"s something up at No. 22. The old gentleman isn"t in his chambers, I believe. She"ll come out again presently, and it"ll be: "Oh, Mr. Policeman, could you very kindly tell me how I can find Mr. Edmund Gray?" With a shilling perhaps, and perhaps not. I wonder what she wants with Mr. Edmund Gray? Sometimes these old chaps break out in the most surprising manner. Joe, if you ever go into the Service, you"ll find the work hard and the pay small.
But there"s compensation in learnin" things. If you want to know human nature, go into the Force."
"There"s old Mr. Langhorne, up at the top."
"So there is. But no young lady wants to see that poor old chap. He"s got no friends, young nor old--no friends and no money. Just now, he"s terrible hard up. Took a shillin" off o" me last Sunday to get a bit of dinner with. Fine thing--isn"t it, Joe?--to be a gentleman and a barrister all your life, isn"t it--and to end like that? Starvation in a garret--eh?-- Look out. She will be coming down directly."
But she did not come down. Two hours and more pa.s.sed, and she did not come down.
The visitor was Elsie Arundel. She walked up the stairs to the second floor. Here she stopped. There was a black door, closed, on the right of her, and another black door, closed, on the left of her. On the lintel of one was the name of Mr. F. W. Carstone. On the lintel of the other was that of Mr. Edmund Gray. Elsie knocked with her parasol at the latter door. There was no reply. "The old laundress," she murmured, "told me that Sat.u.r.day afternoon was my best chance of finding him. I will wait." She sat down with hesitation on the stairs leading to the third floor--they were not too clean--and waited.
She was going to do a very plucky thing--a dangerous thing. She had made a discovery connecting Mr. Dering directly with this Edmund Gray. She had learned that he came to the office in a strange condition, perhaps hypnotic, bringing things from Edmund Gray. She now suspected that the only person who carried on the forgeries on Mr. Dering was Mr. Dering himself, acted on and perhaps mesmerised by Edmund Gray--and she wanted to find out who this Edmund Gray was. She would confront him and tax him with the crime. It was dangerous, but he could not kill her. Besides, he was described as quite an elderly man. He was also described as a benevolent man, a charitable man, a kindly man: and he wrote letters brimful of the most cheerful optimism. Yet he was carrying on a series of complicated forgeries. She resolved to wait for him. She would wait till sundown, if necessary, for him.
The place was very quiet. All the offices were closed and the clerks gone. Most of the men who lived in the chambers were away, out of town, gone on holiday, gone away from Sat.u.r.day till Monday. Everything was quite quiet and still: the traffic in Holborn was only heard as a continuous murmur which formed part of the stillness: the policeman, who had now said all he had to say to the newspaper boy, was walking slowly and with heavy tread round the Court. The Inn was quite empty and deserted and still. Only, overhead there was the footfall of a man who walked up and down his room steadily, never stopping or ceasing or changing the time, like the beat of a pendulum. Elsie began to wonder, presently, who this man could be, and if he had nothing better to do than to pace his chamber all day long, when the sun was bright and the leaves on the trees and the flowers in full bloom.
The clock struck four: Elsie had been waiting half an hour: still Mr.
Edmund Gray did not arrive: still the steady beat of the footstep continued overhead.
The clock struck five. Still that steady footfall. Still Elsie sat upon the stairs waiting in patience.
When the clock struck six, the footsteps stopped--or changed. Then a door overhead opened and shut and the steps came down the stairs. Elsie rose and stood on one side. An old man came down--tall and thin, close-shaven, pale, dressed in a black frock-coat, worn to a shiny polish in all those parts which take a polish--a shabby old man whose hat seemed hardly able to stand upright: and a gentleman--which was perfectly clear from his bearing--a gentleman in the last stage of poverty and decay.
He started, surprised to see a young lady on the stairs.
"You are waiting for Mr. Carstone?" he asked. "He is out of town. He will not be back till Monday. n.o.body ever comes back before Monday. From Sat.u.r.day to Monday I have the Inn to myself. All that time there are no slammers and no strangers. It is an agreeable retreat, if only----" He shook his head and stopped short.
"I am not waiting for Mr. Carstone. I am waiting for Mr. Edmund Gray."
"He is very uncertain. No one knows when he comes or whither he goeth. I would not wait if I were you. He may come to-day, or to-morrow, or at any time. He comes on Sunday morning, often. I hear him coming up-stairs after the chapel bell stops. He is a quiet neighbour--no slammer or tramper. I would not wait, I say, if I were you."
"I will wait a little longer. I am very anxious to see Mr. Gray."
"He should wait for you," Mr. Langhorne replied, politely. "The stairs are not a fit resting-place for you. This old Inn is too quiet for such as you. Mirth and joy belong to you-- Silence and rest to such as me.
Even slamming does not, I daresay, greatly displease youth and beauty.
Chambers are not for young ladies. Beauty looks for life and love and admiration. They do not exist here. Run away, young lady--leave the Inn to the poor old men, like me, who cannot get away if they would."
"Thank you.--I must see Mr. Edmund Gray, if I can. It will not hurt me to wait a little longer."
"You wish to see Edmund Gray. So do I. So do I. You are a friend of his.
Perhaps, therefore, you will do as well. Those who are his friends are like unto him for kindness of heart. Those who wish to be his friends must try to be like unto him. Young lady, I will treat you as the friend of that good man. You can act for him."
"What can I do if I do act for him?" But there was a hungry eagerness in the man"s eyes which made her divine what she could do.
"It is Sat.u.r.day." He replied without looking at her. He turned away his head. He spoke to the stair-window. "To-morrow is Sunday. I have before this, on one or two occasions, found myself as I do now--without money.
I have borrowed of Mr. Carstone and of Mr. Edmund Gray. Sometimes, I have paid it back--not always. Lend me--for Mr. Edmund Gray--if you are not rich, he will give it back to you--the sum of five shillings--say, five shillings. Otherwise, I shall have nothing to eat until Monday, when Mr. Carstone returns."
"Nothing to eat? Nothing at all to eat?" Beggars in the street often make the same confession, but somehow their words fail to carry conviction. Mr. Langhorne, however, did carry conviction.
The old man shook his head. "I had some food yesterday at this time.
Since then I have had nothing. There was neither tea nor bread in my rooms for breakfast. When the clock struck six, my dinner hour, I thought I would walk along the street and look at the things to eat which are placed in the shop windows. That relieves a little. But to-morrow will be a bad time--a very bad time. I shall lie in bed. Oh! I have gone through it before. Sometimes"--he dropped his voice--"I have been sore tempted to take something---- No--no; don"t think I have given way. No--no. Why--I should be--disbarred. Not yet--not yet."
Elsie opened her purse. It contained two sovereigns and a shilling or two. "Take all," she said eagerly. "Take all the gold, and leave me the silver. Take it instantly." She stamped her foot.
He hesitated. "All?" he asked. "All? Can you spare it? I can never repay----"
"Take it!" she said again, imperiously.
He obeyed: he took the gold out of the purse with trembling fingers.
Then he raised his rickety old hat--was that a tear that stole into his eyes, or the rheum of old age?--and slowly walked down the stairs, holding by the banisters. He was weak, poor wretch! with hunger. But it was his dinner hour, and he was going to have his dinner.
Elsie sat down again.
It was half-past six--she had been waiting for three hours--when other footsteps entered the house. Elsie sprang to her feet: she turned pale: her heart stood still; for now she realised that if this step was truly that of the man she expected, she was about to confront a person certainly of the deepest criminality, and possibly capable of villainy in any other direction. The steps mounted the stairs. I really think that the bravest persons in the world are those who before the event look forward to it with the utmost apprehension. They know, you see, what the dangers are. Elsie was going to face a great danger. She was going to find out, alone and unaided, who this man was, and why and how he worked these deeds of darkness.
The footsteps mounted higher: from the door to the top of the stairs it took but a single minute, yet to Elsie it seemed half an hour, so rapid were her thoughts. Then the man mounted the last flight of steps.
Heavens! Elsie was fain to cry out for sheer amazement. She cried out: she caught at the banisters. For, before her, taking the key of Mr.
Edmund Gray"s Chambers from his waistcoat pocket, was none other than Mr. Dering himself!
Yes. An elderly man, of truly benevolent aspect, his coat open flying all abroad, his face soft, gracious, smiling, and full of sunshine, his hat just the least bit pushed back, his left hand in his pocket. Elsie thought again of her portrait at home, in which she had transformed her guardian--and here he was in the flesh--transformed according to her portrait.
She stared at him with an amazement that bereft her of speech and of motion. She could only stare. Even if her mother"s voice were suddenly to call out to her that it is rude for little girls to stare, she could not choose but stare. For Mr. Dering looked at her with that kind of surprise in his eyes which means, "What have we here to do with beautiful young ladies?" There was not the least sign of any knowledge of her. He looked at her as one suffers the eyes to rest for a moment without interest upon a stranger and a casual pa.s.senger in the street.
He opened his outer door, and was about to walk in, when she recovered some presence of mind--not much. She stepped forward. "Can you tell me, please, how I could find Mr. Edmund Gray?"
"Certainly," he smiled--"nothing easier. "I am Edmund Gray."
"You!--you--Edmund Gray? Oh! No--no. You cannot be Edmund Gray--you yourself!" All her beautiful theory of hypnotic influence vanished. No mesmerism or magnetic influence at all. "You yourself?" she repeated, "you--Edmund Gray?"
"a.s.suredly. Why not? Why should a man not be himself?"