Checkmate Part 26

"Yes, he won't spare himself; you mentioned that your own suspicions respecting him were but vague," said David Arden.

"I merely stated what I saw to the coroner, and it was answered that he was watching the Frenchman Lebas, because the detective police, before Paul Davies' dismissal, had received orders to keep an eye on all foreigners; and he hoped to conciliate the authorities, and get a pension, by collecting and furnis.h.i.+ng information. The police did not seem to think his d.o.g.g.i.ng and watching the unfortunate little fellow really meant more than this."

"Very likely. It is a very odd affair. I wonder who that fellow is whom he described. He did not give a hint as to the circ.u.mstances which excited his suspicions."

"It _is_ strange. But that man, Paul Davies, kept his eye upon Lebas from the motive I mentioned, and this circ.u.mstance may have led to his seeing more of the matter than, with the reward in his mind, he cares to make known at present. I think I did right in meeting him face to face."

"Quite right, Sir."

"It has been always a rule with me to go straight at everything. I think the best diplomacy is directness, and that the truest caution lies in courage."

"Precisely my opinion, Mr. Longcluse," said Uncle David, looking on him with eyes of approbation. He was near adding something hearty in the spirit of our ancestors' saying, "I hope you and I, Sir, may be better acquainted;" but something in the look and peculiar face of this unknown Mr. Longcluse chilled him, and he only said--

"As you say, Mr. Longcluse, courage is safety, and honesty the best policy. Good-night, Sir."

"A thousand thanks, Mr. Arden. Might I ask one more favour, that you will endorse on each of these threatening letters a memorandum of the facts of this strange interview?--I mean a sentence or two, which may at any time confound this fellow, should he turn out to be a villain."

"Certainly," said Mr. Arden thoughtfully, and he sat down again, and wrote a few lines on the back of each, which, having signed, he handed them to Mr. Longcluse, with the question, "Will that answer?"

"Perfectly, thank you very much; it is indeed impossible for me to thank you as I ought and wish to," said Mr. Longcluse with effusion, extending his hand at the same time; but Mr. Arden took it without much warmth, and said, in comparison a little drily--

"No need to thank me, Mr. Longcluse; as you said at first, there are motives quite sufficient, of a kind for which you can owe me, personally, no thanks whatever, to induce the very slight trouble of coming here."

"Well, Mr. Arden, I _am_ very _much_ obliged to you, notwithstanding;"

and so he gratefully saw him to the door, and smiled and bowed him off, and stood for a moment as his carriage whirled down the short street.

"He does not like me--nor I, perhaps, him. Ha! ha! ha!" he laughed, very softly and reservedly, looking down on the flags. "What an odd thing it is! Those instincts and antipathies, they are very odd." All this, except the faint laughter, was in thought.

Mr. Longcluse stepped back. He was negatively happy--he was rid of an anxiety. He was positively happy--he had been better received by Miss Arden, this evening, than he had ever been before. So he went to his bed with a light heart, and a head full of dreams.

All the next day, one beautiful image haunted Longcluse's imagination.

He was delayed in town; he had to consult about operations in foreign stocks; he had many words to say, directions to modify, and calls to make on this man and that. He had hoped to be at Mortlake Hall at three o'clock. But it was past six before he could disentangle himself from the tenacious meshes of his business. Never had he thought it so irksome. Was he not rich enough--too rich? Why should he longer submit to a servitude so wearisome? It was high time he should begin to enjoy his days in the suns.h.i.+ne of his gold and the companions.h.i.+p of his beautiful idol. But "man proposes," says the ancient saw, "and G.o.d disposes."

It was just seven o'clock when Mr. Longcluse descended at the steps of old Mortlake Hall.

Sir Reginald, who is writhing under a letter from the attorney of the millionaire mortgagee of his Yorks.h.i.+re estate, making an alternative offer, either to call in the princ.i.p.al sum or to allow it to stand out on larger interest, had begged of Mr. Longcluse, last night, to give him a few words of counsel some day. He had, in a quiet talk the evening before, taken the man of huge investments rather into his confidence.

"I don't know, Mr.--a--Mr. Longcluse, whether you are aware how cruelly my property is tied up," he said, as he talked in a low tone with him, in a corner of the drawing-room. "A life estate, and my son, who declines bearing any part of the burden of his own extravagance, will do nothing to facilitate my efforts to pay his debts for him; and I declare solemnly, if they raise the interest on this very oppressive mortgage, I don't know how on earth I can pay my insurances. I don't see how I am to do it. I should be so extremely obliged to you, Mr. Longcluse, if you would, with your vast experience and knowledge in all--all financial matters, give me any advice that strikes you--if you could, with perfect convenience, afford so much time. I don't really know what rate of interest is usual. I only know this, that interest, as a rule, has been steadily declining ever since I can remember--perpetually declining; I mean, of course, upon perfect security like this; and now this confounded harpy wants, after ten years, to _raise_ it! I believe they want to drive me out of the world, among them! and they well know the cruelty of it, for I have never been able to pay them a single half-year punctually. Will you take some tea?"

So Longcluse had promised his advice very gladly next day; and now he asked for Sir Reginald. Sir Reginald was very particularly engaged at this moment on business; Mr. Arden was with him at present; but if Mr.

Longcluse would wait for a few minutes, Sir Reginald would be most happy to see him. So there was to be a little wait. How could he better pa.s.s the interval than in Miss Arden's company?

CHAPTER XXV.

A TETE-A-TETE.

Up to the drawing-room went Mr. Longcluse, and there he found Miss Arden finis.h.i.+ng a drawing. He fancied a very slight flush on her cheek as he entered. Was there really a heightening of that beautiful tint as she smiled? How lovely her long lashes, and her even little teeth, and the l.u.s.trous darkness of her eyes, in that subdued light!

"I so wanted advice, Mr. Longcluse, and you have come in so fortunately!

I am not satisfied with my sky and mountains, and the foreground where the light touches that withered branch is a horrible failure. In nature, it looked quite beautiful. I remember it so well. It looked on fire, almost. This is Saxteen Castle, near Golden Friars, and that is a bit of the lake and those are the fells. I sketched it in pencil, and trusted to memory for colouring. It was just at the most picturesque moment, when the sun was going down between the two mountains that overhang the little town on the west."

"Sunset is very well expressed. You indicated all those long shadows, Miss Arden, in pencil, and I envy your perspective, and I think your colouring so extremely good! The distances are admirably marked. Try a little cadmium, burnt sienna, and lake for the intense touches of light in the foreground, on that barkless branch. Your own eye will best regulate the proportions. I am one of those vandals who prefer colour a little too bold and overdone to any timidity in that respect. Exuberance in a beginner is always, in my mind, an augury of excellence. It is so easy to moderate afterwards."

"Yes, I daresay; I'm very glad you advise that, because I always thought so myself; but I was half afraid to act on it. I think that is about the tint--a little more yellow, perhaps. Yes; how does it look now?--what do you think?"

"Now judge yourself, Miss Arden. Do not those three sharp little touches of reflected fire light up the whole drawing? I say it is admirable. It is really quite a beautiful little drawing."

"I'm growing so vain! you will quite spoil me, Mr. Longcluse."

"Truth will never spoil any one. Praise is very delightful. I have not had much of it in my day, but I think it makes one better as well as happier; and to speak simple truth of you, Miss Arden, is inevitably to praise you."

"Those are compliments, Mr. Longcluse, and they bewilder me--anything one does not know how to answer; so I would rather you pointed me out four or five faults in my drawing, and I should be very well content if you said no more. I believe you know the scenery of Golden Friars."

"I do. Beautiful, and so romantic, and full of legends! the whole place with its belongings is a poem."

"So I think. And the hotel--the inn I prefer calling it--the 'George and Dragon,' is so picturesque and delightfully old, and so comfortable! Our head-quarters were there for two or three weeks. And did you see Childe Waylin's Leap?"

"Yes, an awful scene; what a terrible precipice! I saw it to great advantage from a boat, while a thunderstorm was glaring and pealing over its summit. You know the legend, of course?"

"No, I did not hear it."

"Oh, it is a very striking one, and won't take many words to tell. Shall I tell it?"

"Pray do," said Alice, with her bright look of expectation.

He smiled sadly. Perhaps the story returned with an allegoric melancholy to his mind. With a sigh and a smile he continued--

"Childe Waylin fell in love with a phantom lady, and walked day and night along the fells--people thought in solitude, really lured on by the beautiful apparition, which, as his love increased, grew less frequent, more distant and fainter, until at last, in the despair of his wild pursuit, he threw himself over that terrible precipice, and so perished. I have faith in instinct--faith in pa.s.sion, which is but a form of instinct. I am sure he did wisely."

"I sha'n't dispute it; it is not a case likely to happen often. These phantom ladies seem to have given up practice of late years, or else people have become proof against their wiles, and neither follow, nor adore, nor lament them."

"I don't think these phantom ladies are at all out of date," said Mr.

Longcluse.

"Well, men have grown wiser, at all events."

"No wiser, no happier; in such a case there is no room for what the world calls wisdom. Pa.s.sion is absolute, and as for happiness, that or despair hangs on the turn of a die."

"I have made that shadow a little more purple--do you think it an improvement?"

"Yes, certainly. How well it throws out that bit of the ruin that catches the sunlight! You have made a very poetical sketch; you have given not merely the outlines, but the character of that singular place--the _genus loci_ is there."

Just as Mr. Longcluse had finished this complimentary criticism, the door opened, and rather unexpectedly Richard Arden entered the room.

Very decidedly _de trop_ at that moment, his friend thought Mr. Arden.