The great central hall where the six hundred regular inmates ate their meals, the dormitories, the playgrounds, the drill shed and gymnasium, the workshops, the library, the theater, were all pointed out, but the big man with the staring eyes was not interested one jot in any of these things.
"Who was Mary Anson?" he asked, when the well-worn tale was ended, "and how did she come to build such a fine place here?"
"Ah, ye may well ax that," said old O"Brien. "Sure, she didn"t build it at all at all. She was a poor widdy livin" alone-st wid one son, Mr.
Philip that is now. She was a born lady, but she kem down in the worruld and died, forlorn an" forgotten, in a little shanty in Johnson"s Mews, as it was called in those days."
"I remember it well."
"Ye do, eh? Mebbe ye know my ould shop, the marine store near the entrance to the court?"
"Yes."
"Arrah, ye don"t tell me so. Me eyes are gettin" wake, an" I can"t make out yer face. What"s yer name?"
"Oh, I"m afraid we didn"t know one another. I can"t recall your name, though I recollect the shop well enough. But, if Mrs. Anson died so poor, how was her son able to set this great house on its legs? It must have cost a mint of money."
"Faix, ye"re right. Quarter of a million wint afore there was a boy under its roof. And they say it costs fifty thousand pounds a year to keep it goin". But Mr. Philip would find that and more to delight the sowl of the mother that"s dead. Sure it"s aisy for him, in a way. Isn"t he the Diamond King!"
"The Diamond King! Why is he called that?"
"D"ye mane to say you nivver----Man alive, what part of creation did ye live in that ye didn"t hear tell of Mr. Philip Anson, the boy who discovered an extra spishul diamond mine of his own, no one knows where.
Sure, now, what"s wrong wid ye?"
For the visitor was softly using words which to O"Brien"s dull ears sounded very like a string of curses.
"I"m sorry," growled the other, with an effort. "I"ve been to Africa, an" I get such a spasm now an" then in my liver that I can hardly stand."
"That"s no way to cure yourself--profanin" the name of th" Almighty,"
cried O"Brien.
"No. I"m sorry, I tell you. But about this boy----"
"There"s no more to see now, if ye plaze. That"s the way out."
O"Brien was deeply offended by the language used beneath a roof hallowed by the name of Mary Anson. The sightseer had to go, and quickly.
Another commissionaire, who was observing them from a distance, came up and asked O"Brien what the stranger was talking about.
"Ye nivver heard sich a blaggard," said the old man, indignantly. "I was in the middle of tellin" him about Mr. Philip, when he began to curse like Ould Nick himself."
In the Mile End Road the rawboned person who betrayed such excitement found the policeman awaiting him. He sprang onto a "bus, and purposely glared at the officer in a manner to attract his attention. When at a safe distance he put his fingers to his nose. The constable smiled.
"I knew I was right," he said. "I don"t need to look twice at that sort of customer."
And he entered the Mary Anson Home again to ask the porter what had taken place.
It was an easy matter for Jocky Mason, released from Portland Prison on ticket-of-leave, after serving the major portion of a sentence of fourteen years" penal servitude--the man he a.s.saulted had died, and the ex-convict narrowly escaped being hanged--to ascertain the salient facts of Philip Anson"s later career.
It was known to most men. He was biographed briefly in _Who"s Who_ and had often supplied material for a column of gossip in the newspapers.
Every free library held books containing references to him.
It was quite impossible that the source of his great wealth should remain hidden for all time. In one way and another it leaked out, and he became identified with the ragged youth who created a sensation in the dock of the Clerkenwell Police Station.
But this was years later, and the clever manipulation of Mr. Abingdon, as his estate agent, and of Mr. Isaacstein, as his representative in the diamond trade, completely frustrated all attempts to measure the true extent of the meteor"s value.
For now Philip owned a real diamond mine in South Africa; he had a fine estate in Suss.e.x, a house in Park Lane, a superb sea-going yacht, a colliery in Yorkshire, and vast sums invested in land and railways. The latent value of his gems had been converted into money-earning capital.
Mr. Abingdon proved himself to be a very able business man. When the administration of Philip"s revenue became too heavy a task for his unaided shoulders, he organized a capital estate office, with well-trained lawyers, engineers and accountants to conduct its various departments, while he kept up an active supervision of the whole until Philip quitted his university, and was old enough to begin to bear some portion of the burden.
They agreed to differ on this important question. Philip was fond of travel and adventure. With great difficulty his "guardian" kept him out of the army, but compromised the matter by allowing the young millionaire to roam about the odd corners of the world in his yacht for eight months of the year, provided he spent four months of the season in London and Suss.e.x attending to affairs.
In this month of April he was living in his town house. In July he would go to Fairfax Hall, in August to Scotland, and a month later would joyfully fly to the Forth, where the _Sea Maiden_ awaited him.
This lady, whose waist measured eighteen feet across and whose length was seventy feet, with a fine spread of canvas and auxiliary steam, was the only siren able to charm him.
He was tall now, and strongly built, with something of the naval officer in his handsome, resolute face and well set-up figure. As a hobby, he had taken out a master mariner"s certificate, and he could navigate his own ship in the teeth of an Atlantic gale. He loved to surround himself with friends, mostly Oxford men of his year, but he seldom entertained ladies, either on board the _Sea Maiden_ or in either of his two fine mansions.
He avoided society in its general acceptance, refused all overtures to mix in politics, took a keen delight in using his great wealth to alleviate distress anonymously, and earned a deserved reputation as a "bear" among the few match-making mammas who managed to make his acquaintance.
In other respects, as the boy was so was the man--the same downright character, the same steadfast devotion to his mother"s memory, the same relentless adherence to a course already decided on, and the same whole-hearted reciprocity of friendship.
As he stood in his drawing room before dinner on the evening of the day Jocky Mason re-visited the locality, if not the surroundings, of his capture, Philip"s strong face wore an unwonted expression of annoyance.
He walked to and fro from end to end of the beautiful room, pausing each time he reached the window to gaze out over the park.
A servant, who entered for the purpose of turning on the electric lights and lowering the blinds, was bidden, almost impatiently, to wait until Philip and his guests were at dinner.
A telegram came. Anson opened it and read:
"Was dressing to come to your place when Grainger telegraphed for me to act as subst.i.tute Lincoln Quarter Sessions. Must go down at once.
"FOX."
"No answer," he said, adding, to himself:
"That"s better. Fox"s caustic humor would have worried me to-night. I wish Abingdon would come. I am eager to tell him what has happened."
Now, punctuality was one of Mr. Abingdon"s many virtues. At half-past seven to the tick his brougham deposited him at the door.
The two met with a cordial greeting that showed the close ties of mutual good fellowship and respect which bound them together.
"Fox won"t be here," said Philip. "Grainger has broken down--ill health, I suppose--and wired for him to go to Lincoln."
"Ah, that"s a lift for Fox. He is a clever fellow, and if he manages to tell the jury a joke or two he will influence a verdict as unfairly as any man I know."
"Does it not seem to you to be rather an anomaly that justice, which in the abstract is impeccable, too often depends on other issues which have no possible bearing on the merits of the dispute itself?"
"My dear boy, that defect will continue until the crack of doom. Pascal laid it bare in an epigram--"_Plaisante justice! qu"une riviere ou une montaigne borne! Verite au deca du Pyrenees, erreur au dela!_" It all depends on which side the Pyrenees Fox happens to be."
"Unfortunately, I am straddling the water shed at this moment. I have made a very unpleasant discovery, Abingdon, and I am glad we are alone to-night--we can speak freely. Some people named Sharpe & Smith wrote to me yesterday."