The Under Secretary Part 21

"He gambles at Monte Carlo, I suppose?"

"I think not. He's, nowadays, one of the old fogies of the Junior United Service, and thinks of nothing but the l.u.s.tre of his patent-leather boots and the chance of shooting with friends. But he's so well known in town, I felt sure that you must have met him," added Dudley meaningly.

"One meets so many people," she replied carelessly, "and so many are not introduced by name, that it is difficult to recollect. We haven't the least knowledge of the names of people we've known by sight for months.

And I'm awfully bad at recollecting names. I always remember faces, but can't furnish them with names. The position is often extremely awkward and ludicrous."

The false note in her explanation did not escape his sensitive hearing.

Her sudden glances of surprise and annoyance when he had mentioned the colonel's name had roused suspicion in his mind, and he felt convinced that she was well acquainted with the man who had warned him against her in such mysterious terms.

"If I remember aright," he said, "the colonel once mentioned you."

"Mentioned me?" she exclaimed with undisguised surprise, and not without an expression of alarm. In an instant, however, she recovered her self-possession. "Did he say any nice things of me?"

"Of course," he laughed. "Could he say otherwise?"

"Ah! I don't know. He might if he was not acquainted with me."

"Then he is acquainted with you?" exclaimed Dudley quickly.

"No, why--how silly! I really do not know your friend. Indeed, I have never heard of him. It seems that if what you tell me is correct I have an unknown admirer."

Dudley smiled. He was reflecting upon the colonel's warning, and her replies to his questions made it all the more plain that she was denying knowledge of a man with whom she was well acquainted.

"Did he say when he had met me?" she asked.

"I don't really recollect. The conversation took place while several other persons were talking loudly, and many of his words were lost to me."

"He discussed my merits before we met at the d.u.c.h.ess's, I presume?"

"Yes. As I had not at that time the honour of your acquaintance, I took but little heed of the conversation."

She looked at him with a covert glance, and with her fingers turned one of her rings round and round in a quick, nervous way. What, she was wondering, had Colonel Murray-Kerr said about her? The fact that she had been discussed by him was to her extremely disconcerting.

"Well," she exclaimed a moment later, with a forced laugh, "as long as your friend did not speak ill of me, I suppose I ought not to complain of having my personal points openly discussed! Most smart women court the publicity of a smoking-room discussion."

"Yes," he replied in a hard voice, wondering whether her words were directed against Claudia, "unfortunately they do. But there are smart women and smart women. I trust, Miss Mortimer, that you have no desire to develop into one of the latter."

"Certainly not," she answered in all earnestness.

Half rising, she put her hand into her dress pocket, ostensibly to obtain her handkerchief, but in reality to place there a small piece of paper which she had crushed into her palm and held concealed when Dudley entered.

Her deft movement as she hid the paper was so swift that it entirely escaped his notice, while at the same moment Claudia, accompanied by two of the male guests, came into the library, thus putting an end to their _tete-a-tete_.

Dudley, still standing before the burning logs, continued chatting to Sir Henry's ward, but, owing to the arrival of his other guests, it was no longer possible to keep the conversation in the same channel.

As he sat at dinner he could not prevent his eyes from wandering across to Muriel and from allowing strange thoughts to flit through his mind.

At what had the colonel hinted in that very room months ago, when he had warned him to beware of her? He knew Murray-Kerr to be an easy-going cosmopolitan, whose acquaintance with diplomatic Europe was perhaps more extensive than that of any other living man, yet what possible object could he have had in urging him to be careful when he met that innocent-looking woman scarcely out of her teens?

Why Claudia had invited a woman who might become her rival in his affections was another enigma which was puzzling. There was some distinct object in this policy, but its real nature he was quite unable to fathom.

That night there was, as usual, a dance in the old banqueting hall, the high-roofed chamber that had long ago echoed to the boisterous merrymaking of those armoured knights whose coats of mail now stood round, and whose tattered banners hung above. Until half a century back, the old stone flooring, worn hollow by the tramp of generations of retainers, still existed, but Dudley's grandfather had had an oak flooring placed over it, and it now served as the ballroom, even though at one end was the enormous hearth, where an ox could be roasted whole, while the wooden benches, at which the banqueters used to hold revel, served as seats for those who did not dance.

Few of the guests, however, refrained from the waltzing, so delightful were the attendant circ.u.mstances. Once during the evening Dudley found himself taking a turn with Claudia.

"I've wanted to speak to you for nearly an hour past," she whispered to him, so low that none could overhear. "Some man, apparently an undesirable person, has called to see you."

"To see me--at this hour? Why, it's past midnight!" he exclaimed in astonishment.

"He will not give any details regarding his business," she went on. "He only expressed a desire that none of the guests should be aware of his presence, and that he might have an interview alone with you."

"A rather curious request at this time of night," her companion observed. She noticed that he had turned pale, and that the hand holding hers perceptibly trembled. Their glances met, and he saw in her dark and brilliant eyes the love-look of old that was so unmistakable.

Upon her countenance there was a look of concern, and this he strove at once to dispel by saying airily:

"I suppose it is some one who wants a.s.sistance or something. Where is he?"

"In your secretary's room. I had him shown there, in order that his wish regarding the secrecy of his visit should be respected."

"Then you have seen him?"

"Yes. You were not to be found at the moment, so, hearing the message he had given the servant, I saw him myself. He's middle-aged, and rather shabbily dressed. From the state of his clothes I should think that he's walked over from Shrewsbury. He told me that the matter on which he desired to see you was of the greatest urgency, and apologised for calling at such an hour."

"Well," he answered, "I suppose I'd better go and see the fellow, whoever he is. He may be some political crank or other. There are so many about."

"Yes," Claudia urged; "if I were you I'd go at once, and get rid of him.

It appears that Riggs told him you could not be seen until the morning, but he absolutely refused to be sent away."

"Very well, I'll go and see who he is," replied the Under-Secretary, only remaining calm by dint of the most strenuous effort. Then, leading his partner to a seat, he bowed, took leave of her, and slipped away from the ball through several arched doors and down the two long corridors until he came to a door at the end.

He was in the east wing of the castle, a part to which the visitors did not penetrate, for to do so it was necessary to cross the kitchen.

Before the closed door he paused, held his breath, and placed his hand instinctively upon his heart, as though to still its beating. He dared not advance farther.

Who, he wondered, was his visitor? Could it be that the blow which he had expected for so long had at length fallen?

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

INTRODUCES AN INTERESTING PERSON.

He hesitated for a moment; then, setting his jaws hard in sudden resolution, he turned the door-handle and entered.

Within, the long, low-ceilinged room was furnished as a kind of office.

From an arm-chair near the fireless grate rose the spare figure of a grey-haired, grey-eyed, haggard-faced man of a type which might be described as shabby-genteel, a man who had without doubt seen better days. His features were refined, but his cheeks were sunken until the bones of the face showed plainly beneath the skin, and his hair and moustache, though grey, had prematurely lost their original colour. His tall, slim figure was straight, and he bowed to Chisholm with the easy manner of a gentleman. His overcoat of shabby grey Irish frieze was open, displaying a coat and vest much the worse for wear, while his up-turned trousers were sodden by the melting snow.

"I understand that you wish, to see me," Chisholm began, glancing at the fellow keenly, and not half liking his appearance. "This is a rather unusual hour for a visit, is it not?"

"Yes," the man replied. "For the lateness of the hour I must apologise, but my trains did not fit, and I was compelled to walk from Shrewsbury."

He spoke in a refined voice, and his bearing was not that of a person who intended to ask a.s.sistance. Dudley possessed a quick insight into character, and could sum up a man as sharply and correctly as a lawyer with a wide experience of criminals.