by Headon Hill
CHAPTER XVI--_A Delicate Mission_
It was on Sunday evening that Mrs. Talmage Eglinton, after a piouspilgrimage to the village church in company with her assiduous friendSybil Hanbury, sought the Duke and asked if she might have a carriage totake her to the station for the up-train on the following morning. Shewould return in the evening, she said, but imperative business with hermilliner and tailor demanded her presence in London for a few hours.
Beaumanoir, in courteously promising that her request should be attendedto, regarded her with a wan smile. "You will have a companion--that is,if you do not mind Mr. Forsyth sharing the station brougham with you,"he added. "Alec has to go to London to-morrow on my business--leases atthe solicitors', isn't it?"
He turned for confirmation to Forsyth, who, with General Sadgrove, hadbeen strolling with him on the terrace.
"Yes, leases at the solicitors'," replied the private secretary,flushing slightly. The General looked indifferent.
"Really?" said the lady. "There must be a lot of that sort of thing tosee to just now, I suppose. Of course, I shall be delighted to have Mr.Forsyth's escort, provided he drops me at Bond Street. I cannot have acritical male person following me across my tailor's sacred threshold."
She shook a gay finger at the party and disappeared into one of theFrench windows--a vision of dainty _chiffons_ and rustling silks.
"She's gone to put her prayer-book away," laughed Forsyth, in thenervous manner of one wishing to cover an awkward situation.
"She needs one," muttered the General under his mustache, shooting afurtive glance at his nephew.
Beaumanoir said nothing, and the three paced on, hardly speaking, tillit was time to dress for dinner. Since the General's return from town onthe day of Mrs. Talmage Eglinton's headache, not exactly a coolness, buta constraint, had sprung up between them. A suspicion of cross-purposeswas in the air, which kept them silent when all together, butcommunicative enough when any two of them were alone in solitary places.
It was so now, for the General waited till the Duke had left them to goup to his dressing-room before he remarked in a tone of grim humor:
"I told you that you would have her for a traveling companion."
"I don't anticipate much pleasure from the journey," Forsyth replied,gloomily, and reddening under the searching gaze with which his uncleraked him.
But with the exception of the short drive to the station, during whichMrs. Talmage Eglinton was unusually preoccupied, he was spared theuncongenial _tete-a-tete_ he had expected. When the train came in thefair American said chaffingly that she knew he was dying to smoke--that,anyhow, she was in a mood for meditation herself, and intended toindulge it in the seclusion of a "ladies' compartment." Forsythresponded with the barest protest demanded by courtesy, and went away toa smoking-carriage, much relieved.
He saw her again at St. Pancras; indeed, he contrived to be near enoughto overhear the direction to an address in Bond Street which she gave toher cabman, but he noticed the not unexpected fact that here in Londonshe had no desire for his society. She had hurried into the vehiclewithout looking round for him, and was driven away at a pace thatbetokened special instructions to the driver.
Forsyth took another cab and bade his man keep the first cab in sight.Before long he perceived that the lady was in truth going to BondStreet, and presently he had the satisfaction of seeing her dischargeher cab and skip lightly into the shop of a fashionable _modiste_ inthat thoroughfare. His complacence was a little marred by uncertaintywhether she had observed him or not, but from the quick turn of her headas she crossed the pavement he was rather inclined to think that shehad.
"It doesn't matter, really," he reflected. "She knows that we suspecther complicity, or she wouldn't have tried to blind her trail to thehotel by driving here first. Strange, though, that, suspecting that, sheshould have taken so much trouble."
He ordered his driver to take him to the Hotel Cecil, and at the sametime to keep a lookout to see whether they in turn were being followedby the lady whom they had just run to ground. But when he was set downat the main entrance of the great twelve-storied palace he received theassurance that nothing of the sort had occurred.
"Not so keen after you, sir, as you was after her," ejaculated the smartcabman as he whipped up and wheeled round, dissatisfied, after themanner of his kind, with the extra half-crown he had received for his"shadowing job."
Forsyth shuddered. "_Keen_, by George!" he murmured ruefully. "If onlymy devotion to poor old Charley could have led me into paths untroddenby Mrs. Talmage Eglinton my task would have been a lighter one."
He went into the bureau and inquired if Mr. Clinton Ziegler was in,receiving the stereotyped reply that Mr. Ziegler was _always_ in, beingan invalid. Whereupon he sent up his card, first penciling thereon thewords, "Private Secretary to the Duke of Beaumanoir."
The bell-boy who took up the card reappeared almost immediately, flyingdown the grand staircase three steps at a time.
"Please to come up at _once_, sir, the gentleman said," was the boy'surgent appeal.
Forsyth, with a feeling of having "burned his ships," obeyed with equalalacrity, and was shown into the suite made memorable by the raid of hisHighness the Thakore of Bhurtnagur, otherwise General Sadgrove'sfaithful orderly, Azimoolah Khan. He noticed in passing in that the doorof the next suite--that of Mrs. Talmage Eglinton--was slightly ajar, buthis attention was immediately claimed by the welcome he received in Mr.Ziegler's apartments. Just inside the door he was met by a tall,bold-eyed man whom, from Beaumanoir's description, he had no difficultyin recognizing as the sham "Colonel Anstruther Walcot," but whointroduced himself as Leopold Benzon, Mr. Ziegler's private secretary.
The idea of a professional criminal being served with such specious pomptickled Forsyth's sense of humor; but, restraining an impulse to laughin the fellow's face, he responded gravely to the salutation and statedhis business. He had come, he said, after mentioning his name, on behalfof the Duke of Beaumanoir, to see Mr. Ziegler by appointment on a matterof private business.
"Mr. Ziegler is expecting you," Benzon replied, scrutinizing thevisitor's face narrowly. "Unfortunately he is not so well as usual thismorning, and is not yet dressed. I must ask you to wait a little till heis ready to receive you."
Forsyth bowed and took the chair offered him, not without an inwardchuckle at the discrepancy between the haste of the bell-boy's summonsto the suite and the delay in receiving him. To his mind the positionwas clear. Mrs. Talmage Eglinton desired to keep up the polite fictionof her innocence to the end, yet Ziegler was apparently not prepared togo forward with the business without an opportunity of consulting her.She had come up to town for the express purpose of advising, perhapssupervising, her colleagues at an important crisis, and was doubtless onher way to the hotel after the diversion he had created, so that it wasnecessary to get him out of the entrance-hall before she passed up toher suite.
"I shouldn't wonder if she isn't the boss of the show, with Ziegler, whois probably her husband, as figure-head," Forsyth told himself.
Benzon, with a polite excuse, had retired into an inner room; but hisplace had immediately been taken by a well-dressed but cadaverousindividual whom Forsyth recognized as the man in clerical attire whom hehad seen descending the stairs in John Street after the forcible entryinto his chambers, the miscreant who later on the same eventful nighthad called at Beaumanoir House in the character of a disguisedpolice-officer.
There was evidently no disposition to leave him alone in the ante-room,and so give him a chance to open the outer door and witness Mrs. TalmageEglinton's arrival in the next suite. So twenty minutes passed, andForsyth was speculating as to how communication would be carried on withthe female partner during the forthcoming interview, when Benzonreturned and announced that Mr. Ziegler was awaiting him. He could nothelp observing how much better suited was this bowing and smirkingAmerican swindler to the _role_ of a superior flunkey than to that of aBritish cavalry officer.
The nex
t moment he found himself in the principal reception-room of thesuite, face to face with a frail old man of unpleasant appearance, who,Forsyth noticed with quick intuition, was reclining on a couch that hadbeen drawn across a closed door. There was another--open--door leadinginto the bedroom, but the closed one must be the same which from theother side of it had confirmed the General's suspicions of the occupantof the adjoining suite. Forsyth could picture to himself Mrs. TalmageEglinton's shell-like ear glued to that door, its fair owner prepared totap gentle signals by the Morse code on the panels if things did not goto her liking in the audience-chamber.
His conjectures were brought down to the bed-rock of fact by thecroaking voice of the invalid on the couch. Mr. Ziegler's repulsiveaspect, his purple cheeks, and green-shaded eyes suggested some horriblecutaneous affection, though Forsyth was not so ingenuous as to acceptthe disfigurements as genuine.
"I am sorry to have detained you, sir," Ziegler began, and then pausedabruptly. Forsyth wondered if he had been brought up with a round turnby a tap on the door close to his ear. There seemed something tentative,as though the speaker were trying his ground, in that first disjointedutterance.
"It does not matter," Forsyth replied, and then in his turn came to asudden stop. His diplomatic training at the Foreign Office had taughthim the advantage of allowing the other side to open the proceedings. Hewho has the first word is seldom the one to have the last.
But it appeared that Mr. Ziegler was also alive to the value ofreserving his fire. "I presume that the Duke of Beaumanoir instructedyou on the nature of the business you were to transact with me?" hesaid, and there was a firmer ring in the curious metallic voice thanwhen he made his first brief apology.
"On the contrary, he left me quite in the dark about it," Forsyth madeanswer. "All I understood was that I was to fetch something which youwould hand me in person."
Ziegler took a leisurely survey of the young Scotsman through his greenglasses. "Then you did not come here expecting to have to use your owndiscretion in any way--to traffic with me, in fact?" he presently asked.
"Certainly not," Forsyth replied. "I gathered that the part I was toplay was solely that of a trusted messenger who could be relied on tosay nothing about his errand afterwards."
"Not even to General Sadgrove?" flashed back the answering question soswiftly that for an instant Forsyth was taken aback.
"I am not one to betray my employer's secrets--even to my uncle, GeneralSadgrove," he said, recovering himself quickly.
"Very good!" was the croaking comment. "I deemed it necessary to soundyou because we are aware of the foolish meddling--I might also saymuddling--of that mischievous old man. We know also that you have aidedand abetted him in an attempt to swim against a tide that is far toostrong for both of you."
"I quite admit that," responded Forsyth, boldly. "My uncle has beendoing his best to protect the Duke's life, and as in duty bound I haveused my efforts to assist him--up to a certain point."
"What do you mean--up to a certain point?"
"I mean that as the Duke seems now to have taken matters actively intohis own hands by opening up communication with you, I am naturallyrather at the disposition of my employer than of anyone else."
"Truly a faithful servant," said Ziegler, with a strong suspicion of asneer. "And now, Mr. Forsyth, I have a question to ask which you are atliberty to answer or not as you please, but on which the future securityof his Grace will probably depend. I shall draw my own deductions from arefusal to answer, and take it as an affirmative. Has the Duke disclosedto either you or General Sadgrove, or, as far as you are aware, toanyone else, the reason of his recent differences with us?"
Forsyth rejoiced that he was able to reply in the negative. "No," hesaid promptly and with evident truth; "he has always steadily refused toenlighten my uncle and myself as to the cause of his being sopersecuted. We have been kept absolutely in the dark."
He did not feel called upon to add, as he might have done, that a gooddeal of that darkness had been penetrated by General Sadgrove's acumen,and that the design on Senator Sherman's gold bonds was an open book tothem.
Ziegler, however, was satisfied with the reply. Signing to thepretentious Benzon, who throughout the interview had hovered close tohis master's couch, he conferred with him in a whisper, and thenaddressed Forsyth again with a request that he would wait for a fewminutes in the ante-room, when a letter for the Duke would be handed tohim and he would be free to depart.
"Good-day to you, sir," added the arch-plotter. "I regret that myinfirmities preclude me from offering you hospitality. These littleencounters become, I find, more fatiguing with advancing years."
Bidding him a curt good-morning, Forsyth returned to the ante-room,accompanied by the cadaverous individual, who had also been present atthe interview. Benzon remained behind, softly shutting the door on them,and there was a distinct click of the key being turned in the lock. Hiscompanion making no overture for conversation, Forsyth sat down andaffected to read a newspaper, though he was really straining his ears tocatch what passed in the inner room. Already perplexed by having seen nosigns of communication between Ziegler and the next suite, he was tryingto ascertain if a conference was now proceeding with the fair tenantnext door. No sound reached him, however, till after the lapse of sometwenty minutes Benzon came swiftly out of the inner room with a heavilysealed letter in his hand.
"This," said Ziegler's aide-de-camp, "is the packet which my chiefwishes you to deliver to the Duke of Beaumanoir. You are alive to theimportance of seeing that it reaches its destination without being lostor tampered with?"
"My dear sir, I should not, I imagine, have been entrusted with thisvery uncongenial errand unless I had been thought capable of carrying itout," replied Forsyth, in a tone of annoyance.
"Take it, then," Benzon proceeded. "And you are, please, to inform hisGrace that Mr. Ziegler, though he would have preferred to see him inperson, is satisfied with the discretion of his emissary."
"Thanks, but I don't think I need a testimonial from Mr. Ziegler torecommend me to the Duke," replied Forsyth, coolly, as he buttoned theletter into the breast-pocket of his frock coat and with a bow took hisdeparture.
Out in the corridor he breathed more freely. "I don't think that Ioverdid my exhibition of temper," he told himself. "A little touchinesswas to be expected under the circumstances."
He had begun to descend the stairs into the entrance-hall, when hesaw--with something of a shock--coming up, and therefore about to meethim, the lady whom he believed to be in the next suite to Ziegler's,advising her partners through the communicating door. He had got itfirmly into his head that during the twenty minutes he had been keptwaiting that door had been opened, and the terms of the letter settledbetween the two principals; and here was Mrs. Talmage Eglinton not inher rooms at all, but apparently only just arrived.
"Ah, Mr. Forsyth!" she cried, coquettishly. "You have been up to mysuite to look for me, with a view to standing me a luncheon somewhere.Now don't deny that you were disappointed when you found that I had notreached the hotel and that the suite was locked up."
Could he have been mistaken? Forsyth asked himself. If so, the mistakewas not really his, but General Sadgrove's, and the entire bottom wasknocked out of the veteran's theory as to this woman's complicity.
"But I have not been up to your rooms," was all he could reply on thespur of the moment. "I had business with the gentleman who occupies theadjoining suite."
If it was not genuine, the look of disappointment that stole into herface was a consummate piece of acting. "Oh, was that all," she said,with a queer little laugh. "Well, that doesn't absolve you from askingme to lunch now that you have the chance."
"I shall be delighted," was the only answer he could make withoutshowing open hostility.
"Wait in the hall, then," said Mrs. Talmage Eglinton. "I am only goingup to see if some jewelry I left locked up when I went down to Prior'sTarrant is safe."
She hurried up the remaining stairs,
and Forsyth continued his way downto the hall, a prey to conflicting emotions. Disgust at having to lunchwith a woman he abhorred was the least of them. What worried him most atthat moment was the doubt, restored by this meeting, whether Mrs.Talmage Eglinton was not, after all, the victim of a chain ofcoincidences.
And then, suddenly, a flicker of light broke on the situationthrough--of all places in the world--a tiny flaw in the lady's defensivearmor. She had spoken of her suite as locked up, but he remembered nowthat the outer door of it had been slightly ajar when he went in to hisinterview with Ziegler. He went up to the big uniformed porter on dutyat the swing doors, and asked him if he knew Mrs. Talmage Eglinton bysight.
"Oh yes, sir," the man replied. "You'll catch her if you run up to herrooms sharp. She's just going out."
"Going out?" exclaimed Forsyth, with well simulated surprise. "I thoughtI caught a glimpse of her going upstairs a moment ago. She seemed tohave only just arrived."
"Oh no, sir; she came in an hour ago, and was on her way out just nowwhen she found she'd forgotten something."
Forsyth left the proximity of the porter quickly, and went and waited atthe foot of the staircase. The horizon had cleared again, and he smiledat the very thin trick which had so nearly deceived him--would havedeceived him, in fact, if one of the gang, eagerly expecting her, hadnot chanced to be at her door when he went up. After concluding herbusiness with her accomplices she had contrived the meeting on thestairs to throw dust in his eyes, going, in her desire for realism, tothe length of explaining to the hall-porter why she had gone upstairsagain after coming down into the hall. Well, he would hold her to thelunch invitation; let her think that she had hoodwinked him; andendeavor to ascertain whether she was courting his society as a merebluff to lend color to her deception, or with some other object as yetundefined.
He had not long to wait for her. Tripping lightly down the stairs, shejoined him with a charming assumption that he would be interested tohear that her jewels were "quite safe," and she supplemented theinformation with the request that they should not lunch in the hotel.
"I am known here, and people stare so," she said. "Take me somewherewhere we can be quiet. I have got something to say."
"Very well," he replied. "Come over to Kettner's. There won't be much ofa crowd there at this time of day." And he strove hard to be polite ashe steered her across the Strand, though he could have wished himselfback at the Foreign Office, with no prospects and no Duke to serve, ifSybil's brave young face had not been in his mind's eye.
At the restaurant Mrs. Talmage Eglinton chose a table in a remote cornerof the dining-room and devoted herself to a careful study of the _menu_.It was not till she had selected her dishes and quizzed the appearanceof the other customers that she developed her plan of attack.
"You don't seem at all interested in the fact that I have something tosay to you," she began, leaning back and scanning him critically. Hervoluptuous style of beauty had never had any attraction for him; to-dayit positively repelled.
"My worst enemies have never accused me of being curious," he answeredlightly. "Nay, I am not discourteous," he protested, seeing the angrygleam in the fine eyes. "I only mean that I cannot work myself into afever about a communication the subject of which I am ignorant of."
"Tell me," she said abruptly, "what reason you had for following me fromSt. Pancras to Bond Street this morning?"
Whatever her motive she was pushing him hard, and Forsyth's presence ofmind failed him. He flushed and began to stammer.
_"I am very far from being indifferent to Mrs. TalmageEglinton."_]
"It is useless to deny it," she cut him short. "I saw you in the cabquite plainly as I entered the shop, and my cabby had previously told methat I was being shadowed. Now, Mr. Forsyth, when a gentleman follows alady about the streets he either does it because he means her some harm,or because--well, because he is not quite indifferent to her. Which wasit in your case?"
This was a poser, and it had to be faced with instant decision. Rapidlyreflecting that unless he was then and there prepared to accuse his fair_vis-a-vis_ with complicity with Ziegler there was only one course opento him, he took it promptly. He little thought that within the nextforty-eight hours his fate--to live or to die--would depend on thedemeanor he then adopted.
"I certainly did not follow you with a bad motive, and--there, astraight question deserves a straight answer--I am very far from beingindifferent to you, Mrs. Talmage Eglinton," he said.
After that the amenities flowed in the most friendly channel, thoughForsyth suffered agonies, and it required all his skill as an amateuractor of repute to sustain the part of a diffident lover hovering on thebrink of a declaration.
In the afternoon they returned to Prior's Tarrant together, outwardly onthe best of terms; but, needless to say, Forsyth was still "hovering."
