She kicked the younger man gently, flashing a warning with her eyes as well, while her husband, emptying his gla.s.s, his head thrown back, looked straight at them over the rim, apparently seeing nothing. They smoked their cigarettes round the table, Burley lighting a big cigar.
"Tell us about the figure, Nancy?" he inquired. "At least there"s no harm in that. It"s new to me. I hadn"t heard about a figure." And she did so willingly, turning her chair sideways from the dangerous, reckless feet. Mortimer could now no longer touch her. "I know very little," she confessed; "only what the paper said. It"s a man.... And he changes."
"How changes?" asked her husband. "Clothes, you mean, or what?"
Mrs. Burley laughed, as though she was glad to laugh. Then she answered: "According to the story, he shows himself each time to the man----"
"The man who----?"
"Yes, yes, of course. He appears to the man who dies--as himself."
"H"m," grunted her husband, naturally puzzled. He stared at her.
"Each time the chap saw his own double"--Mortimer came this time usefully to the rescue--"before he did it."
Considerable explanation followed, involving much psychic jargon from Mrs. Burley, which fascinated and impressed the sailor, who thought her as wonderful as she was lovely, showing it in his eyes for all to see.
John Burley"s attention wandered. He moved over to the window, leaving them to finish the discussion between them; he took no part in it, made no comment even, merely listening idly and watching them with an air of absent-mindedness through the cloud of cigar smoke round his head. He moved from window to window, ensconcing himself in turn in each deep embrasure, examining the fastenings, measuring the thickness of the stonework with his handkerchief. He seemed restless, bored, obviously out of place in this ridiculous expedition. On his big ma.s.sive face lay a quiet, resigned expression his wife had never seen before. She noticed it now as, the discussion ended, the pair tidied away the _debris_ of dinner, lit the spirit lamp for coffee and laid out a supper which would be very welcome with the dawn. A draught pa.s.sed through the room, making the papers flutter on the table. Mortimer turned down the smoking lamps with care.
"Wind"s getting up a bit--from the south," observed Burley from his niche, closing one-half of the cas.e.m.e.nt window as he said it. To do this, he turned his back a moment, fumbling for several seconds with the latch, while Mortimer, noting it, seized his sudden opportunity with the foolish abandon of his age and temperament. Neither he nor his victim perceived that, against the outside darkness, the interior of the room was plainly reflected in the window-pane. One reckless, the other terrified, they s.n.a.t.c.hed the fearful joy, which might, after all, have been lengthened by another full half-minute, for the head they feared, followed by the shoulders, pushed through the side of the cas.e.m.e.nt still open, and remained outside, taking in the night.
"A grand air," said his deep voice, as the head drew in again, "I"d like to be at sea a night like this." He left the cas.e.m.e.nt open and came across the room towards them. "Now," he said cheerfully, arranging a seat for himself, "let"s get comfortable for the night. Mortimer, we expect stories from you without ceasing, until dawn or the ghost arrives. Horrible stories of chains and headless men, remember. Make it a night we shan"t forget in a hurry." He produced his gust of laughter.
They arranged their chairs, with other chairs to put their feet on, and Mortimer contrived a footstool by means of a hamper for the smallest feet; the air grew thick with tobacco smoke; eyes flashed and answered, watched perhaps as well; ears listened and perhaps grew wise; occasionally, as a window shook, they started and looked round; there were sounds about the house from time to time, when the entering wind, using broken or open windows, set loose objects rattling.
But Mrs. Burley vetoed horrible stories with decision. A big, empty mansion, lonely in the country, and even with the comfort of John Burley and a lover in it, has its atmosphere. Furnished rooms are far less ghostly. This atmosphere now came creeping everywhere, through s.p.a.cious halls and sighing corridors, silent, invisible, but all-pervading, John Burley alone impervious to it, unaware of its soft attack upon the nerves. It entered possibly with the summer night wind, but possibly it was always there.... And Mrs. Burley looked often at her husband, sitting near her at an angle; the light fell on his fine strong face; she felt that, though apparently so calm and quiet, he was really very restless; something about him was a little different; she could not define it; his mouth seemed set as with an effort; he looked, she thought curiously to herself, patient and very dignified; he was rather a dear after all. Why did she think the face inscrutable? Her thoughts wandered vaguely, unease, discomfort among them somewhere, while the heated blood--she had taken her share of wine--seethed in her.
Burley turned to the sailor for more stories. "Sea and wind in them,"
he asked. "No horrors, remember!" and Mortimer told a tale about the shortage of rooms at a Welsh seaside place where spare rooms fetched fabulous prices, and one man alone refused to let--a retired captain of a South Seas trader, very poor, a bit crazy apparently. He had two furnished rooms in his house worth twenty guineas a week. The rooms faced south; he kept them full of flowers; but he would not let. An explanation of his unworldly obstinacy was not forthcoming until Mortimer--they fished together--gained his confidence. "The South Wind lives in them," the old fellow told him. "I keep them free for her."
"For _her_?"
"It was on the South Wind my love came to me," said the other softly; "and it was on the South Wind that she left----"
It was an odd tale to tell in such company, but he told it well.
"Beautiful," thought Mrs. Burley. Aloud she said a quiet, "Thank you. By "left," I suppose he meant she died or ran away?"
John Burley looked up with a certain surprise. "We ask for a story," he said, "and you give us a poem." He laughed. "You"re in love, Mortimer,"
he informed him, "and with my wife probably."
"Of course I am, sir," replied the young man gallantly. "A sailor"s heart, you know," while the face of the woman turned pink, then white.
She knew her husband more intimately than Mortimer did, and there was something in his tone, his eyes, his words, she did not like. Harry was an idiot to choose such a tale. An irritated annoyance stirred in her, close upon dislike. "Anyhow, it"s better than horrors," she said hurriedly.
"Well," put in her husband, letting forth a minor gust of laughter, "it"s possible, at any rate. Though one"s as crazy as the other." His meaning was not wholly clear. "If a man really loved," he added in his blunt fashion, "and was tricked by her, I could almost conceive his----"
"Oh, don"t preach, John, for Heaven"s sake. You"re so dull in the pulpit." But the interruption only served to emphasize the sentence which, otherwise, might have been pa.s.sed over.
"Could conceive his finding life so worthless," persisted the other, "that----" He hesitated. "But there, now, I promised I wouldn"t," he went on, laughing good-humouredly. Then, suddenly, as though in spite of himself, driven it seemed: "Still, under such conditions, he might show his contempt for human nature and for life by----"
It was a tiny stifled scream that stopped him this time.
"John, I hate, I loathe you, when you talk like that. And you"ve broken your word again." She was more than petulant; a nervous anger sounded in her voice. It was the way he had said it, looking from them towards the window, that made her quiver. She felt him suddenly as a man; she felt afraid of him.
Her husband made no reply; he rose and looked at his watch, leaning sideways towards the lamp, so that the expression of his face was shaded. "Two o"clock," he remarked. "I think I"ll take a turn through the house. I may find a workman asleep or something. Anyhow, the light will soon come now." He laughed; the expression of his face, his tone of voice, relieved her momentarily. He went out. They heard his heavy tread echoing down the carpetless long corridor.
Mortimer began at once. "Did he mean anything?" he asked breathlessly.
"He doesn"t love you the least little bit, anyhow. He never did. I do.
You"re wasted on him. You belong to me." The words poured out. He covered her face with kisses. "Oh, I didn"t mean _that_," he caught between the kisses.
The sailor released her, staring. "What then?" he whispered. "Do you think he saw us on the lawn?" He paused a moment, as she made no reply.
The steps were audible in the distance still. "I know!" he exclaimed suddenly. "It"s the blessed house he feels. That"s what it is. He doesn"t like it."
A wind sighed through the room, making the papers flutter; something rattled; and Mrs. Burley started. A loose end of rope swinging from the paperhanger"s ladder caught her eye. She shivered slightly.
"He"s different," she replied in a low voice, nestling very close again, "and so restless. Didn"t you notice what he said just now--that under certain conditions he could understand a man"--she hesitated--"doing it," she concluded, a sudden drop in her voice. "Harry," she looked full into his eyes, "that"s not like him. He didn"t say that for nothing."
"Nonsense! He"s bored to tears, that"s all. And the house is getting on your nerves, too." He kissed her tenderly. Then, as she responded, he drew her nearer still and held her pa.s.sionately, mumbling incoherent words, among which "nothing to be afraid of" was distinguishable.
Meanwhile, the steps were coming nearer. She pushed him away. "You must behave yourself. I insist. You shall, Harry," then buried herself in his arms, her face hidden against his neck--only to disentangle herself the next instant and stand clear of him. "I hate you, Harry," she exclaimed sharply, a look of angry annoyance flashing across her face. "And I _hate_ myself. Why do you treat me----?" She broke off as the steps came closer, patted her hair straight, and stalked over to the open window.
"I believe after all you"re only playing with me," he said viciously. He stared in surprised disappointment, watching her. "It"s him you really love," he added jealously. He looked and spoke like a petulant spoilt boy.
She did not turn her head. "He"s always been fair to me, kind and generous. He never blames me for anything. Give me a cigarette and don"t play the stage hero. My nerves are on edge, to tell you the truth." Her voice jarred harshly, and as he lit her cigarette he noticed that her lips were trembling; his own hand trembled too. He was still holding the match, standing beside her at the window-sill, when the steps crossed the threshold and John Burley came into the room. He went straight up to the table and turned the lamp down. "It was smoking," he remarked.
"Didn"t you see?"
"I"m sorry, sir," and Mortimer sprang forward, too late to help him. "It was the draught as you pushed the door open." The big man said, "Ah!"
and drew a chair over, facing them. "It"s just _the_ very house," he told them. "I"ve been through every room on this floor. It will make a splendid Home, with very little alteration, too." He turned round in his creaking wicker chair and looked up at his wife, who sat swinging her legs and smoking in the window embrasure. "Lives will be saved inside these old walls. It"s a good investment," he went on, talking rather to himself it seemed. "People will die here, too----"
"Hark!" Mrs. Burley interrupted him. "That noise--what is it?" A faint thudding sound in the corridor or in the adjoining room was audible, making all three look round quickly, listening for a repet.i.tion, which did not come. The papers fluttered on the table, the lamps smoked an instant.
"Wind," observed Burley calmly, "our little friend, the South Wind.
Something blown over again, that"s all." But, curiously, the three of them stood up. "I"ll go and see," he continued. "Doors and windows are all open to let the paint dry." Yet he did not move; he stood there watching a white moth that dashed round and round the lamp, flopping heavily now and again upon the bare deal table.
"Let me go, sir," put in Mortimer eagerly. He was glad of the chance; for the first time he, too, felt uncomfortable. But there was another who, apparently, suffered a discomfort greater than his own and was accordingly even more glad to get away. "I"ll go," Mrs. Burley announced, with decision. "I"d like to. I haven"t been out of this room since we came. I"m not an atom afraid."
It was strange that for a moment she did not make a move either; it seemed as if she waited for something. For perhaps fifteen seconds no one stirred or spoke. She knew by the look in her lover"s eyes that he had now become aware of the slight, indefinite change in her husband"s manner, and was alarmed by it. The fear in him woke her contempt; she suddenly despised the youth, and was conscious of a new, strange yearning towards her husband; against her worked nameless pressures, troubling her being. There was an alteration in the room, she thought; something had come in. The trio stood listening to the gentle wind outside, waiting for the sound to be repeated; two careless, pa.s.sionate young lovers and a man stood waiting, listening, watching in that room; yet it seemed there were five persons altogether and not three, for two guilty consciences stood apart and separate from their owners. John Burley broke the silence.
"Yes, you go, Nancy. Nothing to be afraid of--there. It"s only wind." He spoke as though he meant it.
Mortimer bit his lips. "I"ll come with you," he said instantly. He was confused. "Let"s all three go. I don"t think we ought to be separated."
But Mrs. Burley was already at the door. "I insist," she said, with a forced laugh. "I"ll call if I"m frightened," while her husband, saying nothing, watched her from the table.
"Take this," said the sailor, flashing his electric torch as he went over to her. "Two are better than one." He saw her figure exquisitely silhouetted against the black corridor beyond; it was clear she wanted to go; any nervousness in her was mastered by a stronger emotion still; she was glad to be out of their presence for a bit. He had hoped to s.n.a.t.c.h a word of explanation in the corridor, but her manner stopped him. Something else stopped him, too.
"First door on the left," he called out, his voice echoing down the empty length. "That"s the room where the noise came from. Shout if you want us."
He watched her moving away, the light held steadily in front of her, but she made no answer, and he turned back to see John Burley lighting his cigar at the lamp chimney, his face thrust forward as he did so. He stood a second, watching him, as the lips sucked hard at the cigar to make it draw; the strength of the features was emphasized to sternness.
He had meant to stand by the door and listen for the least sound from the adjoining room, but now found his whole attention focused on the face above the lamp. In that minute he realized that Burley had wished--had meant--his wife to go. In that minute also he forgot his love, his shameless, selfish little mistress, his worthless, caddish little self. For John Burley looked up. He straightened slowly, puffing hard and quickly to make sure his cigar was lit, and faced him. Mortimer moved forward into the room, self-conscious, embarra.s.sed, cold.
"Of course it was only wind," he said lightly, his one desire being to fill the interval while they were alone with commonplaces. He did not wish the other to speak, "Dawn wind, probably." He glanced at his wrist-watch. "It"s half-past two already, and the sun gets up at a quarter to four. It"s light by now, I expect. The shortest night is never quite dark." He rambled on confusedly, for the other"s steady, silent stare embarra.s.sed him. A faint sound of Mrs. Burley moving in the next room made him stop a moment. He turned instinctively to the door, eager for an excuse to go.