It is a remarkable sequence of events, a story which in these days of
high civilisation is so extraordinary as to almost stagger belief. Yet
the higher the civilisation the more refined are its evil-doers, the
more ingenious is the innate devilry of man, the more skilful are those
who act with malice aforethought.
In replacing this strange drama of present-day life before the reader--a
drama of love, of self-sacrifice, of evil passions, and of all
uncharitableness--I, Clifton Cleeve, am compelled to speak of myself; to
recount the strange adventures which befell me, and to expose to the
public gaze the undercurrents of a curious phase of society, of the
existence of which few dream. If, therefore, I am forced to the
constant use of the first person singular, it is in no egotistical
sense, but merely in order that my strange story should be properly
understood, and that the blame which rightly attaches to me should not
be borne by others. In this narrative of curious circumstances are
facts that will astound, perhaps even terrify; nevertheless be it
recollected that I myself was an unwilling actor in this drama, and that
I only relate that which. I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own
ears.
Even now, as I recall the past, there are scenes before me as vivid in
every detail as though the events occurred but an hour ago; scenes which
could not fail to leave a life-long impression upon the mind of any man,
so unusual, so striking, so utterly extraordinary were they.
A little more than two years have now elapsed since that well-remembered
night when the prologue was enacted. Yet the months that have gone by
have seemed a veritable century of time, for have I not trodden the path
of life overburdened by a weight of weariness, my youth sapped by vain
longings and heart-sickening disappointment, my natural desire for
existence blunted by an ever-recurring sorrow, and a constant,
irritating, soul-maddening mystery, which lay unsolved, a barrier
between myself and happiness. I am no faint-heart, yet as I live again
those breathless months of anxiety, of fascination and of terror, I am
again seized by that same fear which two years ago consumed me, and held
me dumbfounded.
I was not feeling well. Having risen late after a dance, I had spent
the afternoon over a book, dined at home in my chambers in Charing Cross
Mansions, and had afterwards gone out for an idle stroll across
Leicester Square and up Piccadilly. The night was moonless, but
brilliant for October, yet the atmosphere was of that artificial
clearness which in London renders the street-lamps unusually bright, and
is always precursory of rain. At the corner of Park Lane I turned back,
hesitating whether to turn into the Naval and Military for a gossip, or
spend an hour at a theatre.
London had finished its long and toilsome day. Tired Hammersmith and
jaded Notting Hill crowded into the omnibuses, eager to get to their
homes without a moment's delay, while gay Belgravia and Kensington were
starting forth upon their night of delight, to be spent within that
little area of half a mile around Charing Cross, wherein centres all the
life and diversion of the giant metropolis. Gay London is very
concentrated.
A brazen-lunged man pushed the special _Standard_ under my nose,
saying--
"'Ere y'are, sir. All the winners!"
But I uttered one word, expressive though not polite, and strode on;
for, truth to tell, I had read the paper an hour before, and by it
discovered to my chagrin that I had been rather hard hit over a race.
Therefore, a list of the winners being pushed into my face by this man
was an unintentional insult. Yes, I was decidedly out of sorts.
Self-absorbed, a trifle melancholy, and undecided where to spend the
evening, I was passing the corner of Bond Street, when I felt a hand
upon my arm, as a voice exclaimed--
"Hullo, Clifton, old fellow! You in town? How long have you been back
from Tixover?"
I looked up quickly and saw one of my oldest and closest friends, Roddy
Morgan, or, to be more exact, the Honourable Roderick Morgan, a tall,
smart, good-looking man about my own age, thirty, or perhaps a couple of
years my senior, with dark eyes and hair, well-cut features and a merry,
amused expression which did not belie his natural temperament. Roddy
was a younger son who had gone the pace as rapidly as most men, until he
had suddenly found himself with a sufficient quantity of writs and
judgment summonses to paper his room with, and in a very fair way to
becoming a bankrupt. But of judgment summonses the ever-merry Roddy had
once laughingly declared that "no home was complete without them;" and
at the critical juncture a generous maternal uncle, who was likewise a
Duke, had very considerately placed the easy-going Roddy on his legs
again. And not only this, but he had induced Roddy, who was an
excellent speaker, to stand for a county constituency, and paid his
election expenses, with the result that he now found himself
representing the important division of South-West Sussex in the House.
We clasped hands heartily, and as I explained how three days ago I had
come up from Tixover, my father's place in the country, he strode on at
my side, gossiping about our mutual friends, and telling me the latest
amusing story from the House.
"Ah! my dear fellow," he said, "a chap in Parliament has a pretty hard
time of it in these days when the Opposition papers in his constituency
keep their eye upon him, ready at any moment to fling mud, to charge him
with negligence if he refuses to ask some ridiculous question of the
Government, or to comment sarcastically if he chances to miss a
division."
"But you like it," I said. "At Oxford you were always to the forefront
at the Union. Everybody, from the `Honourable George Nathaniel'
downwards, prophesied that you'd some day place your silk hat on a bench
in the House."
"I know, I know," he answered, rather impatiently, "but the truth is I
only allowed myself to be put up because my old uncle pressed me. He
made me a present of a neat ten thou', so what could I do? I was simply
led as a lamb to the slaughter, and nowadays I get deputations waiting
upon me, headed by the butcher of Little Twaddlington, and consisting of
the inn-keeper and the tinker of that rural centre of civilisation. I'm
civil to them, of course, but hang it, old man, I can't promise to ask
all their foolish questions. I'm not built that way. When I make a
promise, I keep it. Members nowadays, however, will promise anything on
earth, from obtaining an autograph for the butcher's wife's collection
to the bringing down of manna from above."
I saw that Roddy was discontented, and was considerably surprised. His
Parliamentary honours weighed heavily upon him. He had joined the St
Stephen's Club in the manner of all staunch Conservative members, and I
attributed some of his dissatisfaction to the fact that he was nightly
compelled to dine with the old fogies there, so as to be within reach
for divisions. The Club is only across the road from the House,
standing at the corner of the Embankment, and connected with Palace Yard
by a subterranean passage. When the division-bell rings in the House it
also rings in the club dining-room, and anxious members leave their
soup, dash through the tunnel and vote, and come back to finish it.
Indeed, it is no uncommon thing for this to be repeated several times in
the course of dinner, causing much puffing and grumbling on the part of
the stout and gouty members who, overtaken in this helter-skelter to
vote, are very often shut out and find they have had their scramble for
nothing. Then on returning to table they have to withstand the chaff of
the younger and more active legislators, of whom Roddy was a very fair
specimen.
"Going down to the House to-night?" I inquired.
"No. It's Wednesday, thank Heaven! I've been down there this
afternoon, but we rose at six. Where are you toddling?"
"Anywhere," I answered. "I want to look in at the Naval and Military
for a letter first."
"From a charmer, eh?" he asked, with a merry twinkle.
"No," I answered briefly.
"You're a rum chap, Clifton," he said. "You never seem to take girls up
the river, to the theatre, or to the races, as other men do. I'm
beginning to think that you don't like womankind."
"Well, I don't know. I fancy I've had as many little affairs of the
heart as most men," I answered.
"Somebody was saying the other day that you were likely to be engaged to
May Symonds. Is it true?"
"Whoever said so is certainly premature," I laughed. "Then you don't
deny it, old chap?"
I shrugged my shoulders, smiled, and together we ascended the club
steps.
After a drink we lit cigars and went forth again, strolling along to the
Empire, where in the lounge we idled about, chatting with many men we
knew, watching the acrobats, the conjurors, the eccentric singers, the
ballet, and the other variety items which went to make up the attractive
programme.
Leaning upon the plush-covered backs of the circle seats, we smoked and
chatted as we watched the ballet, and subsequently entered the bar,
where there had congregated about a dozen men all more or less known to
me. We joined them, my friend the irrepressible young Tory Member being
hailed by a youthful sprig of the Stock Exchange as "The Prime
Minister," whereat there was a round of hearty laughter.
We had chatted for some moments when suddenly Roddy started as if he had
encountered some one whose presence was disagreeable in the extreme, and
turning to me, said in a hurried half-whisper--
"I'm off, old chap. Forgot I have another engagement. Good night."
And ere I could reply he had slipped away, and was lost in the
chattering crowd.
At the time it struck me that this action was strange, for I felt sure
he had seen somebody he did not wish to meet, and reflected that perhaps
it was some unwelcome creditor or other. I continued chatting with the
other men, until some twenty minutes later I left them and crossed to
the little bar where cigars are sold, in order to get something to
smoke. The lounge was then so crowded that locomotion was difficult. I
was forced to elbow my way to the end of the promenade.
The curtain had fallen upon the ballet, the orchestra was playing the
National Anthem, and the place was congested by people coming from their
seats in the grand circle, and making their way to the exit. The air
was heavy with tobacco-smoke mingled with the odour of a thousand
perfumes, for the chiffons of each woman who passed seemed to exhale a
different scent, from the nauseous patchouli to the latest patent of the
ingenious Parisian perfumer.
Having bought my cigar and lit it, I stood chatting with another man I
knew while the theatre emptied, then parting from him, I returned to the
bar, only to find my group of friends had dispersed.
I wandered out to the vestibule, and as I stood glancing round, thinking
it unusual that Roddy should have left in so mysterious a manner, my
gaze encountered that of an extraordinarily pretty girl.
A pair of wistful blue eyes with a half-frightened expression gazed out
of a face which was beautiful in its every line, a face saintly in its
expression of innocence and youth. As far as I could judge she was
about twenty, the paleness of her cheeks showing that no artificial
colouring had been added to tinge them, like those of the women about
her, while from beneath her hat a mass of fair hair strayed upon her
brow, imparting an almost childlike softness to her face; her blue eyes
were clear and wide-open, as if in wonder, and her mouth half-parted
showed an even row of perfect teeth, while her dimpled chin was pointed
and altogether charming.
About her figure was a grace of outline too seldom seen in London women,
a suppleness of the hips that seemed almost foreign; yet the face was
pure, sweet and winning, an altogether typical English face, refined,
with a complexion perfect. In her dress was nothing startling, nothing
calculated to arrest the attention of the sterner sex, nothing vulgar
nor loud, for it was of dead black grenadine, relieved by a little white
lace at the throat and cuffs--an almost funereal robe in contrast with
the gay-coloured silks and daring ornamentation of the loud-tongued
women who swept past her with inquiring glance and chattering gaily as
they made their way out.
I looked at her a second time, for I confess to being attracted by her
quietness of dress, her natural dignity, and the agitation within her
which she was trying in vain to conceal. Demure and unaffected, she was
so utterly out of place in that centre of, London gaiety that I could
not help pausing to watch her. Those of her sex who passed looked
somewhat askance at her and smiled among themselves, while more than one
man ogled her through his monocle. But not a single glance did she
bestow upon any in return save myself.
In dismay she looked slowly around the well-lit vestibule and out into
the street, where cabs and carriages were driving off. Then she gazed
about her, evidently hesitating how to act. There was a hard curl at
the corners of her mouth, and a contraction of the eyelids which showed
me that tears were ready to start. Yes, there was no doubt whatever
that she was in distress, and needed assistance.
She was speaking earnestly with one of the uniformed doorkeepers, an
elderly attendant whom I knew quite well, a highly-respectable pensioner
in whom the management reposed the greatest confidence.
Noticing me standing there, he came forward with a military salute,
saying--
"Excuse me, sir. But I have a lady here who's in a rather curious
difficulty. You know London well, sir?"
"I think so," I answered, smiling.
"Well, will you speak with her a moment, sir?"
"What's her trouble?" I inquired, somewhat surprised, nevertheless
crossing with him to where she stood, and raising my hat. I confess
that she was so eminently beautiful, her face so absolutely flawless in
its contour and innocent in its expression, that she had fascinated me.
I was beneath the spell of her marvellous beauty.
Many women had smiled upon me, women who were more than passing fair;
but never had my eyes fallen upon one whose purity of soul was so
mirrored in her eyes, or whose face was so childlike and so perfect.
Those tendrils, soft as floss silk, were of that delicate gold which the
majority of women lose with their teens; those eyes possessed the true
clearness which innocence alone can impart.
"If I can render you any assistance I will do so with pleasure," I said,
addressing her, adding, "I noticed a moment ago that you appeared to be
in distress."
"You are extremely kind," she answered, raising her eyes to mine for an
instant. Her glance was steady and searching, and I saw that she was
undecided whether to trust me. "You were quite correct in thinking I am
in distress, and if you really could help me I should be so much
obliged."
"Then what troubles you?" I inquired, well satisfied with her answer,
and anxious that she should make me her confidant.
"I have been separated from my friends, and am a stranger to London,"
she replied. "You will laugh," she added, "but I am really lost, for I
don't know my way back to my friends' house."
"You know the address, I suppose?" I laughed, for to me the idea of one
being thus lost in London was amusing.
"Yes: Ellerdale Street."
"Where?"
"I don't know," she answered, "except that it's a long way from here;
somewhere on the other side of London. We came by train."
"Ellerdale Street," I repeated reflectively. "I've never heard of it."
There are, of course, thousands of streets in the suburbs of which
nobody ever hears, save when somebody commits a crime of more than
ordinary violence, and papers give the unknown thoroughfare undue
prominence.
"But the strange thing is that my friends, two ladies, should have
disappeared so quickly," she went on, pausing on the pavement before the
theatre as we went out and gazing blankly about her. "They must surely
have missed me, and if so, one would think they would remain till
everybody had gone, and then search for me."
"Yes," I said, "it is certainly rather remarkable," and together we
walked to the corner of Leicester Street, where there is another exit of
the theatre, but my pretty companion could discover neither of the
ladies who had accompanied her.
Her voice was low and refined, her well-gloved hands small; yet her
severe style of dress seemed to speak of poverty which she would fain
conceal. She wore no jewellery, not even a brooch; and I fell to
wondering whether she might be a governess, or perhaps a shop-assistant
who had come from a provincial town to "better herself" in London.
For fully a quarter of an hour we strolled together, backwards and
forwards before the railings of the Empire, which soon became dark and
deserted, until we were practically the only loiterers. It certainly
struck me as more than strange that her companions, knowing her to be a
stranger to London, should thus leave her to her own devices in
Leicester Square at midnight. Again, it was curious that she herself
should only know the name of the road, and not the district.
"You said your friends live in Ellerdale Street," I exclaimed at last,
after we had been chatting about the performance, and she had criticised
the singers with an artlessness which betrayed that she was entirely
unaccustomed to the music-hall. "The best course will be to ask a
cabman."
A hansom was standing at the kerb.
"Do you know of any street named Ellerdale Street?" I asked the driver.
"No, sir, I don't," he answered, after a pause, during which time he
thought deeply. "There's Ellerslie Road up in Shep'erd's Bush, and
Ellesmere Road out at Bow, but I don't know of any others." Then,
turning to another man on a cab behind him, he asked:
"I say, Sandy, do you know Ellerdale Street?"
"No, don't know it at all. Ask a policeman," was the other's gruff
response.
"I'm giving you a lot of trouble," my companion said apologetically.
"It is really too bad, and you must think me very foolish to get
separated from my friends like this. How it occurred I really don't
know. They went out in front of me, and the crowd kept me from coming
out of my seat. Then, when I got into the promenade I found they had
vanished, as if by magic."
"It's evident that the street is not well-known," I said, "for
hansom-cab drivers are really encyclopaedias of London geography, having
to pass an examination in it before being granted a driver's licence by
the police. It must be somewhere far out in the suburbs."
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
"The only thing I can suggest," I continued, "is that you should walk
round to my chambers in Charing Cross Road, for I have there a Directory
which will no doubt give us some clue to the whereabouts of your
friends."
She paused, and looked at me rather strangely I thought. I had expected
her to be eager to act as I suggested, but found her somewhat loth to
accompany me. Yet, was this not natural? I was an utter stranger.
Perhaps, too, she had seen some drama in the provinces where the villain
invariably wears a starched shirt-front and smokes cigarettes, for it
seemed as though she held me in fear.
"You are very kind," she answered, "but I really think--"
"No," I said, divining her thoughts. "It is impossible for you to
wander the streets until morning. You must allow me to help you.
Come."
"I've been thinking it would be best, perhaps, for me to go to an
hotel," she said.
"As you wish," I replied. "But you must find out this unknown street
either now or to-morrow morning, and if you take my advice you will lose
no time in ascertaining where your friends really live, for they will be
anxious about you."