The twin towers of Notre Dame were stark and black up in the sky.
Clang!
The dark sky grew rosy, he saw her hands, he saw the light upon her face. It was dark no longer--the bell had tolled away the old day, dawn was at hand, the new day was coming; the dawn of love was rosy in the sky.
It was four o"clock when the duke"s guests went away.
He went with them through the two quadrangles of Paul"s to the ma.s.sive gateway, and saw the three tall figures disappear in the mist with a sense of desolation and loss.
But as he was returning to his rooms to get cap and gown in which to visit the dean of his college, he comforted himself with the reflection that term was almost over.
In a week or so he would be in London, staying in the same house with her! The very thought set his heart beating like a drum!
He was nearly at the door of his staircase when he saw a man coming towards him, evidently about to speak to him. It was a man he recognised, though he had never spoken to him, a man called Burnside.
St. Paul"s, as it has been said, was a college in which nearly all the undergraduates were rich men. A man of moderate means could not afford to join it. At the same time, as in the case of all colleges, there were half-a-dozen scholarships open to any one. As these scholarships were large in amount they naturally attracted very poor men. At the present moment there were some six or seven scholars of Paul"s, who lived almost entirely upon their scholarships and such tutorial work as they could secure in the vacations. But these men lived a life absolutely apart from the other men of the college. They could afford to subscribe to none of the college clubs, they could not dress like other men, they could not entertain. That they were all certain to get first-cla.s.ses and develop into distinguished men mattered nothing to the young aristocrats of the college. For them the scholars simply did not exist.
Burnside, the duke had heard somewhere or other, was one of the most promising scholars of his year, but he wore rather shabby black clothes, very thick boots, and a made-up tie; he was quite an unimportant person!
He came up to the duke now, his pale intelligent face flushing a little and a very obvious nervousness animating him.
"Might I speak to you a moment?" he said.
The duke looked at him with that peculiar Oxford stare, which is possibly the most insolent expression known to the physiognomist, a cultivated rudeness which the Oxford "blood" learns to discard very quickly indeed when he "goes down" and enters upon the realities of life.
The duke did not mean anything by his stare, however; it was habit, that was all, and seeing the nervousness of his vis-a-vis was growing painful, his face relaxed. "Oh, all right," he said. "What is it--anything I can do? At any rate, come up to my rooms, it"s so confoundedly dismal out here this afternoon."
The two men went up the stairs together and entered the huge luxurious sitting-room, with its brilliant lights, its glowing fire, its pictures and flowers. Burnside looked swiftly around him; he had never dreamed of such luxury, and then he began--
"I hope you won"t think me impertinent," he said, "but I have just received a telegram from the _Daily Wire_. I occasionally do some work for them. They tell me that part of your town house has been destroyed by an explosion, and that some famous art treasures have been destroyed."
"That"s quite true, unfortunately," said the duke.
"And they ask me to obtain an interview with you for to-morrow"s paper in order that you may make some statement about your loss." He spoke with an eagerness that almost outweighed, at any rate, alleviated his nervousness.
"Most certainly not!" said the duke sharply. "I wonder that you should permit yourself to make me such a request. I will wish you good-afternoon!"
The other muttered something that sounded like an apology and then turned to go. His face was quite changed. The eagerness pa.s.sed out of it as though the whole expression had suddenly been wiped off by a sponge.
An extraordinary dejection, piteous in the completeness of its disappointment, took its place. The duke had never seen anything so sudden and so profound before; it startled him.
The man was already half-way to the door when the duke spoke again.
"Excuse me," he said, and from mere habit his voice was still cold, "would you mind telling me why you seem so strangely disappointed because I have not granted your request?"
A surprise awaited him. Burnside swung round on his feet, and his voice was tense as he answered.
"Oh, yes, I"ll tell you," he said, "though, indeed, how should you understand? The editor of the _Daily Wire_ offered me fifteen pounds in his telegram if I could get a column interview with you. I am reading history for my degree, and there are certain German monographs which I can"t get a sight of in Oxford or London. The only way is to buy them.
Of course, I could not afford to do that, and then suddenly this opportunity came. But you can"t understand. Good-afternoon!"
For the second time that day the duke was mildly surprised, but he understood.
"My dear sir," he said in a very different tone, "how was I to guess? I am very sorry, but I really am so--so ignorant of all these things. Come and sit down and interview me to your heart"s content. What does it matter, after all? Will you have a whisky and soda, or, perhaps, some tea? I"ll call my scout."
In five minutes Burnside was making notes and asking questions with a swift and practical ability that compelled his host"s interest and admiration. The duke had never met any one of his own age so business-like and alert. His own friends and contemporaries were so utterly different. He became quite confidential, and found that he was really enjoying the conversation.
After the interview was over the two young men remained talking frankly to each other for a few minutes, and, wide as the poles asunder in rank, birth, and fortune, they were mutually pleased. For both of them it was a new and stimulating experience, and the peer realised how narrow his views of Oxford must necessarily be. Suddenly a thought struck him.
"Wait a minute," he said. "I think I have something here that will interest you."
He went to his writing-table, and, after some search, found a letter. It was a long business doc.u.ment from his chief agent, Colonel Simpson.
"I want to read you this paragraph from my agent"s last letter," he said.
"" ... There is another matter to which I wish to draw your grace"s attention. As you are aware, the libraries, both at Fakenham and Paddington House, are of extreme value and interest, but since the death of the late librarian, Mr. Fox, no steps have been taken to fill his position. When he died Mr. Fox was half-way through the work of compiling a comprehensive and scholarly catalogue of your grace"s literary treasures. Would it not be as well to have this catalogue completed by a competent person in view of the fact that sooner or later your grace will be probably throwing open the two houses again?"
"Now, wouldn"t that suit you, Mr. Burnside, as work in the vacation, don"t you know? It would last a couple of years or so probably, and you need not give all your time to it, even if you take your degree meanwhile and read for the Bar, as you tell me you mean to. I would pay you, say, four hundred a year, if you think that is enough," he added hastily, wondering if he ought to have offered more.
The young man"s stammering grat.i.tude soon undeceived him, and as Burnside left him his last words sent a glow of satisfaction through him--"I won"t say any more than just this, your splendid offer has removed all obstacles from my path. The career I have mapped out for myself is now absolutely a.s.sured."
For half an hour longer the duke remained alone, thinking of the events of the day, thinking especially of Lady Constance Camborne. He did not give a thought to the smaller Gainsborough or the Florentine vase, and he was entirely ignorant that he had just done something which was to have a marked and definite influence upon his future life.
By six o"clock he had wired to Colonel Simpson, had obtained the necessary exeat from the dean, and was entering a first-cla.s.s carriage in the fast train from Oxford to London.
The fog was thick all along the line, and more than once the express was stopped for some minutes when the m.u.f.fled report of fog signals, like guns fired under a blanket, could be heard in the dark.
One such stop occurred when, judging by the time and such blurred indications of gaunt housebacks as he could discern, the duke felt that they must be just outside Paddington Station.
He had the carriage to himself, brightly lit, warm, and comfortable. He sat there, wrapped in his heavy, sable-lined coat, a little drowsy and tired, though with a pleasant sense of well-being, despite the errand which was bringing him to London.
The noise of the train died away and the engine stopped. Voices could be heard talking in the silence, voices which seemed very far away.
Then there was the roar of an advancing train somewhere in the distance, a roar which grew louder and louder, one or two sudden shouts, and then a frightful crash as if a thunderbolt had burst, a shrill multiple cry of fear, and finally the long, rending noise of timber and iron breaking into splinters.
The duke heard all this, and even as his brain realised what it meant, he was thrown violently up into the air--so it seemed to him--he caught sight of the light in the roof of the carriage for the thousandth part of a second, and then everything flashed away into darkness and silence.
CHAPTER IV
THE MAN WITH THE MUSTARD-COLOURED BEARD
It was the morning of the day on which part of the facade of Paddington House, Piccadilly, was destroyed by the explosion of a bomb.