We reached Schlangenbad alive, though I sometimes doubted it: for my old lady did her boisterous best to rouse some peppery German officer into cutting our throats incontinently by the way; and when we got there, we took up our abode in the nicest hotel in the village. Lady Georgina had engaged the best front room on the first floor, with a charming view across the pine-clad valley; but I must do her the justice to say that she took the second best for me, and that she treated me in every way like the guest she delighted to honour. My refusal to accept her twenty guineas made her anxious to pay it back to me within the terms of our agreement. She described me to everybody as a young friend who was travelling with her, and never gave any one the slightest hint of my being a paid companion. Our arrangement was that I was to have two guineas for the week, besides my travelling expenses, board, and lodging.
On our first morning at Schlangenbad, Lady Georgina sallied forth, very much overdressed, and in a youthful hat, to use the waters. They are valued chiefly for the complexion, I learned; I wondered then why Lady Georgina came there—for she hadn’t any; but they are also recommended for nervous irritability, and as Lady Georgina had visited the place almost every summer for fifteen years, it opened before one’s mind an appalling vista of what her temper might have been if she had not gone to Schlangenbad. The hot springs are used in the form of a bath. ‘You don’t need them, my dear,’ Lady Georgina said to me, with a good-humoured smile; and I will own that I did not, for nature has gifted me with a tolerable cuticle. But I like when at Rome to do as Rome does; so I tried the baths once. I found them unpleasantly smooth and oily. I do not freckle, but if I did, I think I should prefer freckles.
We walked much on the terrace—the inevitable dawdling promenade of all German watering-places—it reeked of Serene Highness. We also drove out among the low wooded hills which bound the Rhine valley. The majority of the visitors, I found, were ladies—Court ladies, most of them; all there for their complexions, but all anxious to assure me privately they had come for what they described as ‘nervous debility.’ I divided them at once into two classes: half of them never had and never would have a complexion at all; the other half had exceptionally smooth and beautiful skins, of which they were obviously proud, and whose pink-and-white peach-blossom they thought to preserve by assiduous bathing. It was vanity working on two opposite bases. There was a sprinkling of men, however, who were really there for a sufficient reason—wounds or serious complaints; while a few good old sticks, porty and whisty, were in attendance on invalid wives or sisters.
From the beginning I noticed that Lady Georgina went peering about all over the place, as if she were hunting for something she had lost, with her long-handled tortoise-shell glasses perpetually in evidence—the ‘aristocratic outrage’ I called them—and that she eyed all the men with peculiar attention. But I took no open notice of her little weakness. On our second day at the Spa, I was sauntering with her down the chief street—‘a beastly little hole, my dear; not a decent shop where one can buy a reel of thread or a yard of tape in the place!’—when I observed a tall and handsome young man on the opposite side of the road cast a hasty glance at us, and then sneak round the corner hurriedly. He was a loose-limbed, languid-looking young man, with large, dreamy eyes, and a peculiarly beautiful and gentle expression; but what I noted about him most was an odd superficial air of superciliousness. He seemed always to be looking down with scorn on that foolish jumble, the universe. He darted away so rapidly, however, that I hardly discovered all this just then. I piece it out from subsequent observations.
Later in the day, we chanced to pass a café, where three young exquisites sat sipping Rhine wines after the fashion of the country. One of them, with a gold-tipped cigarette held gracefully between two slender fingers, was my languid-looking young aristocrat. He was blowing out smoke in a lazy blue stream. The moment he saw me, however, he turned away as if he desired to escape observation, and ducked down so as to hide his face behind his companions. I wondered why on earth he should want to avoid me. Could this be the Count? No, the young man with the halo of cigarette smoke stood three inches taller. Who, then, at Schlangenbad could wish to avoid my notice? It was a singular mystery; for I was quite certain the supercilious young man was trying his best to prevent my seeing him.
That evening, after dinner, the Cantankerous Old Lady burst out suddenly, ‘Well, I can’t for the life of me imagine why Harold hasn’t turned up here. The wretch knew I was coming; and I heard from our Ambassador at Rome last week that he was going to be at Schlangenbad.’
‘Who is Harold?’ I asked.
‘My nephew,’ Lady Georgina snapped back, beating a devil’s tattoo with her fan on the table. ‘The only member of my family, except myself, who isn’t a born idiot. Harold’s not an idiot; he’s an attaché at Rome.’
I saw it at a glance. ‘Then he is in Schlangenbad,’ I answered. ‘I noticed him this morning.’
The old lady turned towards me sharply. She peered right through me, as if she were a Röntgen ray. I could see she was asking herself whether this was a conspiracy, and whether I had come there on purpose to meet ‘Harold.’ But I flatter myself I am tolerably mistress of my own countenance. I did not blench. ‘How do you know?’ she asked quickly, with an acid intonation.
If I had answered the truth, I should have said, ‘I know he is here, because I saw a good-looking young man evidently trying to avoid you this morning; and if a young man has the misfortune to be born your nephew, and also to have expectations from you, it is easy to understand that he would prefer to keep out of your way as long as possible.’ But that would have been neither polite nor politic. Moreover, I reflected that I had no particular reason for wishing to do Mr. Harold a bad turn; and that it would be kinder to him, as well as to her, to conceal the reasons on which I based my instinctive inference. So I took up a strong strategic position. ‘I have an intuition that I saw him in the village this morning,’ I said. ‘Family likeness, perhaps. I merely jumped at it as you spoke. A tall, languid young man; large, poetical eyes; an artistic moustache—just a trifle Oriental-looking.’
‘That’s Harold!’ the Cantankerous Old Lady rapped out sharply, with clear conviction. ‘The miserable boy! Why on earth hasn’t he been round to see me?’
I reflected that I knew why; but I did not say so. Silence is golden. I also remarked mentally on that curious human blindness which had made me conclude at first that the supercilious young man was trying to avoid me, when I might have guessed it was far more likely he was trying to avoid my companion. I was a nobody; Lady Georgina Fawley was a woman of European reputation.
‘Perhaps he didn’t know which hotel you were stopping at,’ I put in. ‘Or even that you were here.’ I felt a sudden desire to shield poor Harold.
‘Not know which hotel? Nonsense, child; he knows I come here on this precise date regularly every summer; and if he didn’t know, is it likely I should try any other inn, when this is the only moderately decent house to stop at in Schlangenbad? And the morning coffee undrinkable at that; while the hash—such hash! But that’s the way in Germany. He’s an ungrateful monster; if he comes now, I shall refuse to see him.’
Next morning after breakfast, however, in spite of these threats, she hailed me forth with her on the Harold hunt. She had sent the concierge to inquire at all the hotels already, it seemed, and found her truant at none of them; now she ransacked the pensions. At last she hunted him down in a house on the hill. I could see she was really hurt. ‘Harold, you viper, what do you mean by trying to avoid me?’
‘My dear aunt, you here in Schlangenbad! Why, when did you arrive? And what a colour you’ve got! You’re looking so well!’ That clever thrust saved him.
He cast me an appealing glance. ‘You will not betray me?’ it said. I answered, mutely, ‘Not for worlds,’ with a faltering pair of downcast eyelids.
‘Oh, I’m well enough, t
hank you,’ Lady Georgina replied, somewhat mollified by his astute allusion to her personal appearance. He had hit her weak point dexterously. ‘As well, that is, as one can expect to be nowadays. Hereditary gout—the sins of the fathers visited as usual. But why didn’t you come to see me?’
‘How can I come to see you if you don’t tell me where you are? “Lady Georgina Fawley, Europe,” was the only address I knew. It strikes me as insufficient.’
His gentle drawl was a capital foil to Lady Georgina’s acidulous soprano. It seemed to disarm her. She turned to me with a benignant wave of her hand. ‘Miss Cayley,’ she said, introducing me; ‘my nephew, Mr. Harold Tillington. You’ve heard me talk of poor Tom Cayley, Harold? This is poor Tom Cayley’s daughter.’
‘Indeed?’ the supercilious attaché put in, looking hard at me. ‘Delighted to make Miss Cayley’s acquaintance.’
‘Now, Harold, I can tell from your voice at once you haven’t remembered one word about Captain Cayley.’
Harold stood on the defensive. ‘My dear aunt,’ he observed, expanding both palms, ‘I have heard you talk of so very many people, that even my diplomatic memory fails at times to recollect them all. But I do better: I dissemble. I will plead forgetfulness now of Captain Cayley, since you force it on me. It is not likely I shall have to plead it of Captain Cayley’s daughter.’ And he bowed towards me gallantly.
The Cantankerous Old Lady darted a lightning glance at him. It was a glance of quick suspicion. Then she turned her Röntgen rays upon my face once more. I fear I burned crimson.
‘A friend?’ he asked. ‘Or a fellow-guest?’
‘A companion.’ It was the first nasty thing she had said of me.
‘Ha! more than a friend, then. A comrade.’ He turned the edge neatly.
We walked out on the terrace and a little way up the zigzag path. The day was superb. I found Mr. Tillington, in spite of his studiously languid and supercilious air, a most agreeable companion. He knew Europe. He was full of talk of Rome and the Romans. He had epigrammatic wit, curt, keen, and pointed. We sat down on a bench; he kept Lady Georgina and myself amused for an hour by his crisp sallies. Besides, he had been everywhere and seen everybody. Culture and agriculture seemed all one to him.
When we rose to go in, Lady Georgina remarked, with emphasis, ‘Of course, Harold, you’ll come and take up your diggings at our hotel?’
‘Of course, my dear aunt. How can you ask? Free quarters. Nothing would give me greater pleasure.’
She glanced at him keenly again. I saw she had expected him to fake up some lame excuse for not joining us; and I fancied she was annoyed at his prompt acquiescence, which had done her out of the chance for a family disagreement. ‘Oh, you’ll come then?’ she said, grudgingly.
‘Certainly, most respected aunt. I shall much prefer it.’
She let her piercing eye descend upon me once more. I was aware that I had been talking with frank ease of manner to Mr. Tillington, and that I had said several things which clearly amused him. Then I remembered all at once our relative positions. A companion, I felt, should know her place: it is not her rôle to be smart and amusing. ‘Perhaps,’ I said, drawing back, ‘Mr. Tillington would like to remain in his present quarters till the end of the week, while I am with you, Lady Georgina; after that, he could have my room; it might be more convenient.’
His eye caught mine quickly. ‘Oh, you’re only going to stop a week, then, Miss Cayley?’ he put in, with an air of disappointment.
‘Only a week,’ I nodded.
‘My dear child,’ the Cantankerous Old Lady broke out, ‘what nonsense you do talk! Only going to stop a week? How can I exist without you?’
‘That was the arrangement,’ I said, mischievously. ‘You were going to look about, you recollect, for an unsophisticated Gretchen. You don’t happen to know of any warehouse where a supply of unsophisticated Gretchens is kept constantly in stock, do you, Mr. Tillington?’
‘No, I don’t,’ he answered, laughing. ‘I believe there are dodos and auks’ eggs, in very small numbers, still to be procured in the proper quarters; but the unsophisticated Gretchen, I am credibly informed, is an extinct animal. Why, the cap of one fetches high prices nowadays among collectors.’
‘But you will come to the hotel at once, Harold?’ Lady Georgina interposed.
‘Certainly, aunt. I will move in without delay. If Miss Cayley is going to stay for a single week only, that adds one extra inducement for joining you immediately.’
His aunt’s stony eye was cold as marble.
So when we got back to our hotel after the baths that afternoon, the concierge greeted us with: ‘Well, your noble nephew has arrived, high-well-born countess! He came with his boxes just now, and has taken a room near your honourable ladyship’s.’
Lady Georgina’s face was a study of mingled emotions. I don’t know whether she looked more pleased or jealous.
Later in the day, I chanced on Mr. Tillington, sunning himself on a bench in the hotel garden. He rose, and came up to me, as fast as his languid nature permitted. ‘Oh, Miss Cayley,’ he said, abruptly, ‘I do want to thank you so much for not betraying me. I know you spotted me twice in the town yesterday; and I also know you were good enough to say nothing to my revered aunt about it.’
‘I had no reason for wishing to hurt Lady Georgina’s feelings,’ I answered, with a permissible evasion.
His countenance fell. ‘I never thought of that,’ he interposed, with one hand on his moustache. ‘I—I fancied you did it out of fellow-feeling.’
‘We all think of things mainly from our own point of view first,’ I answered. ‘The difference is that some of us think of them from other people’s afterwards. Motives are mixed.’
He smiled. ‘I didn’t know my deeply venerated relative was coming here so soon,’ he went on. ‘I thought she wasn’t expected till next week; my brother wrote me that she had quarrelled with her French maid, and ‘twould take her full ten days to get another. I meant to clear out before she arrived. To tell you the truth, I was going to-morrow.’
‘And now you are stopping on?’
He caught my eye again.
‘Circumstances alter cases,’ he murmured, with meaning.
‘It is hardly polite to describe one as a circumstance,’ I objected.
‘I meant,’ he said, quickly, ‘my aunt alone is one thing; my aunt with a friend is quite another.’
‘I see,’ I answered. ‘There is safety in numbers.’
He eyed me hard.
‘Are you mediæval or modern?’ he asked.
‘Modern, I hope,’ I replied. Then I looked at him again. ‘Oxford?’
He nodded. ‘And you?’ half joking.
‘Cambridge,’ I said, glad to catch him out. ‘What college?’
‘Merton. Yours?’
‘Girton.’
The odd rhyme amused him. Thenceforth we were friends—‘two ‘Varsity men,’ he said. And indeed it does make a queer sort of link—a freemasonry to which even women are now admitted.
At dinner and through the evening he talked a great deal to me, Lady Georgina putting in from time to time a characteristic growl about the table-d’hôte chicken—‘a special breed, my dear, with eight drumsticks apiece’—or about the inadequate lighting of the heavy German salon. She was worse than ever: pungent as a rule, that evening she was grumpy. When we retired for the night, to my great surprise, she walked into my bedroom. She seated herself on my bed: I saw she had come to talk over Harold.
‘He will be very rich, my dear, you know. A great catch in time. He will inherit all my brother’s money.’
‘Lord Kynaston’s?’
‘Bless the child, no. Kynaston’s as poor as a church mouse with the tithes unpaid; he has three sons of his own, and not a blessed stiver to leave between
them. How could he, poor dear idiot? Agricultural depression; a splendid pauper. He has only the estate, and that’s in Essex; land going begging; worth nothing a year, encumbered up to the eyes, and loaded with first rent-charges, jointures, settlements. Money, indeed! poor Kynaston! It’s my brother Marmaduke’s I mean; lucky dog, he went in for speculation—began life as a guinea-pig, and rose with the rise of soap and cocoa. He’s worth his half-million.’
The Lady Sleuths MEGAPACK ™: 20 Modern and Classic Tales of Female Detectives Page 135
