Jeanne of the Marshes

by E. Phillips Oppenheim

  CHAPTER XIII

  Cecil came into the room abruptly, and closed the door behind him. Hewas breathing quickly as though he had been running. His lips were alittle parted, and in his eyes shone an unmistakable expression offear. Forrest and the Princess both looked towards him apprehensively.

  "What is it, Cecil?" the latter asked quickly. "You are a fool to goabout the house looking like that."

  Cecil came further into the room and threw himself into a chair.

  "It is that fellow upon the island," he said. "You remember we all saidthat his face was familiar. I have seen him again, and I haveremembered."

  "Remembered what?" the Princess asked.

  "Where it was that I saw him last," Cecil answered. "It was in PallMall, and he was walking with--with Engleton. It was before I knew him,but I knew who he was. He must be a friend of Engleton's. What do yousuppose that he is doing here?"

  Cecil was shaking like a leaf. The Princess looked towards himcontemptuously.

  "Come," she said, "there is no need for you to behave like a terrifiedchild. Even if you have seen him once with Lord Ronald, what on earthis there in that to be terrified about? Lord Ronald had many friendsand acquaintances everywhere. This one is surely harmless enough. Hebehaved quite naturally on the island, remember."

  Cecil shook his head.

  "I do not understand," he said. "I do not understand what he can bedoing in this part of the world, unless he has some object. I saw himjust now standing behind a tree at the entrance to the drive, watchingme drive golf balls out on to the marsh. I am almost certain that hewas about the place last night. I saw some one who looked very muchlike him pass along the cliffs just about dinner-time."

  "You are frightened at shadows," the Princess declared contemptuously."If he were one of Lord Ronald's friends, and he had come here to lookfor him, he wouldn't play about watching you from a distance. Besides,there has been no time yet. Lord Ronald only--left here yesterdaymorning."

  "What is he doing, then, watching this house?" Cecil asked. "That iswhat I do not like."

  The Princess raised her eyebrows contemptuously.

  "My dear Cecil," she said, "it is just a coincidence, and not a veryremarkable one at that. Lord Ronald had the name, you know, of havingacquaintances in every quarter of the world."

  Cecil drew a little breath.

  "It may be all right," he said, "but I am not used to this sort ofthing, and it gives me the creeps."

  "Of course it is all right," the Princess said composedly. "One wouldthink that we were a pack of children, to take any notice of suchtrifles. It is too early, my dear Cecil, by many a day, to look fortrouble yet. Lord Ronald always wandered about pretty much as he chose.It will be months before--"

  "Don't go on," Cecil interrupted. "I suppose I am a fool, but all thetime I am fancying things."

  Forrest moved away with a little laugh, and the Princess rose andthrust her arm through Cecil's.

  "Silly boy!" she said. "You have nothing to be frightened about, I canassure you."

  "I am not frightened," Cecil answered. "I don't think that I was ever acoward. All the same, there are some things about this fellow which Idon't quite understand."

  The Princess laughed as she swept from the room.

  "Don't be foolish, Cecil," she said. "Remember that we are all here,and that nothing can go wrong unless we lose our nerve."

  Forrest found the Princess alone a little later in the evening, waitingin the hall for the dinner-gong. He drew her into a corner, underpretext of showing her one of the old engravings, dark with age, whichhung upon the wall.

  "Ena," he said, "I suppose that you trust Cecil de la Borne? Youhaven't any fear about him, eh?"

  The Princess shrugged her shoulders.

  "No!" she answered. "He is a coward at heart, but he has enough vanity,I believe, to keep him from doing anything foolish. All the same, Ithink it is wiser not to leave him alone here."

  "He would not stay," Forrest remarked. "He told me so only thismorning."

  "You suggested leaving?" the Princess asked.

  Forrest nodded.

  "I couldn't help it," he said, a little sullenly. "There is somethingabout these great empty rooms, and the silence of the place, that'sgetting on my nerves. I start every time that great front-door bellclangs, or I hear an unfamiliar footstep in the hall. God! What foolswe have been," he added, with a sudden bitter strength. "I couldn'thave believed that I could ever have done anything so clumsy. Fancygiving ourselves away to a fool like Engleton, a self-opinionated youngcub scarcely out of his cradle."

  He felt his damp forehead. The Princess was watching him curiously.

  "Don't be a fool, Nigel," she said. "We underrated Engleton, that wasall. If ever a man looked an idiot, he did, and you must remember thatwe were in a corner. Yet," she added, leaning a little forward in herchair and gazing with hard, set face into the fire, "it was foolish ofme. With Jeanne to play with, I ought to have had no such difficulties.I never counted upon the tradespeople being so unreasonable. If theyhad let me finish the season it would have been all right."

  Forrest walked restlessly across the room, and stood for a momentlooking out of the window. Outside, the wind had suddenly changed. Thesunshine had departed, and a grey fog was blowing in from the sea. Heturned away with a shiver.

  "What a cursed place this is!" he muttered. "I've half a mind even nowto turn my back upon it and to run."

  The Princess watched his pale face scornfully.

  "I thought, Nigel," she said, "that you were a more reasonable person.Remember that if we show the white feather now, it is the end ofeverything--the Colonies, if you like, or a little cheap watering-placeat the best. As for me, I might have a better chance of brazening itout, but remember that I could never afford to be seen in the companyof a suspected person."

  "It was the fear of losing you," he muttered, "which made me so rash."

  The Princess laughed very softly.

  "My dear friend," she said, "I do not believe you. I may seem to yousometimes very foolish, but at least I understand this. Life with youis self, self, self, and nothing more. You have scarcely a generousinstinct, scarcely a spark of real affection left in you."

  "And yet--" he began quietly.

  "And yet," she whispered, repulsing him with a little gesture, but witha suddenly altered look in her face, "and yet we women are fools!"

  She turned round to meet her host, who was crossing the hall, andalmost simultaneously the dinner gong rang out. Their party was perhapsa little more cheerful than it had been on any of the last fewevenings. Forrest drank more wine than usual, and exerted himself toentertain. Cecil followed his example, and the Princess, who sat by hisside, looked often into his face, and whispered now and then in hisear. Jeanne was the only one who was a little distrait. She left thetable early, as usual, and slipped out into the garden. The Princess,contrary to her custom, rose from the table and followed her. A suddenchange of wind had blown the fog away, and the night was clear. Thewind, however, had gathered force, and the Princess held down herelaborately coiffured hair and cried out in dismay.

  "My dear Jeanne," she exclaimed, "but it is barbarous to wander aboutoutside a night like this!"

  Jeanne laughed. Her own more simply arranged hair was blown all overher face.

  "I love it," she explained. "You don't want me indoors. I am going towalk down the grove and look at the sea."

  "Come back into the hall one moment," the Princess said. "I want tospeak to you."

  Jeanne turned unwillingly round, and her step-mother drew her into theshelter of the open door.

  "Jeanne," she said, "you seem to meet your friend the fisherman veryoften. If you should see anything of him to-morrow, I wish you wouldinquire particularly as to his lodger. You know whom I mean, the manwho was on the island with him yesterday afternoon."

  Jeanne looked at her stepmother curiously.

  "What am I to ask about him?" she demanded.

  "Where he come
s from, and what he is doing here," the Princess said."Find out if you can if Berners is really his name. I have a curiousidea about him, and Cecil fancies that he has seen him before."

  Jeanne looked for a minute interested.

  "You are not usually so curious about people," she remarked.

  The Princess lowered her voice a little.

  "Jeanne," she said, "I will tell you something. Lord Ronald, when heleft here, was very angry with us all. There was a quarrel, and hebehaved very absurdly. Cecil fancies that this man Berners is a friendof Lord Ronald's. We want to know if it is so."

  Jeanne raised her head and looked her stepmother steadily in the face.

  "This is all very mysterious," she said. "I do not understand it atall. We seem to be almost in hiding here, seeing no one and goingnowhere. And I notice that Major Forrest, whenever he walks even in thegarden, is always looking around as though he were afraid of something.What did you quarrel with Lord Ronald about?"

  "It is no concern of yours," the Princess answered, a little sharply."Major Forrest has had a somewhat eventful career, and he has madeenemies. It was chiefly his quarrel with Lord Ronald, and it was over asomewhat serious matter. He has an idea that this man Berners isconnected with it in some way or other. Do find out if you can, there'sa dear child."

  "I do not suppose," Jeanne said, "that Mr. Andrew would know anything.However, when I see him I will ask him."

  The Princess turned away from the open door, shivering.

  "You are not really going out?" she said.

  "Certainly I am," Jeanne answered. "I suppose you three will playcards, and it does not interest me to watch you. There is nothing whichinterests me here at all except the gardens and the sea. I am goingdown to the beach, and then I shall sit there behind the hollyhocksuntil it is bedtime."

  The Princess looked at her curiously.

  "You're a queer child," she said, turning away.

  "It is not strange, that," Jeanne answered, with a little curl of thelips.

  The Princess went back to the library. Coffee and liqueurs had alreadybeen served, and the card-table was set out, although none of the threehad the slightest inclination to play. Jeanne walked along the beachand then came back to her favourite seat, sheltered by the little groveof stunted trees and the tall hollyhocks which bordered the garden. Hereyes were fixed upon the darkening sea, whitened here and there by thelong straight line of breakers. The marshes on her right hand were hungwith grey mists, floating about like weird phantoms, and here and therebetween them shone the distant lights of the village. She half closedher eyes. The soft falling of the waves upon the sand below, and themurmur of the wind through the bushes and scanty trees was like alullaby. She sat there she scarcely knew how long. She woke up with astart, conscious that two men were standing talking together within afew yards of her in the rough lane that led down to the sea.