THE GREAT MOMENT
The men were staring so keenly at "Mr. N. Smith" that it seemed to
Annesley he must feel the stab of eyes, sharp as pin-pricks, in his back.
He had the self-control, however, not to look round, not even to change
expression. No man in the restaurant appeared more calmly at ease than
he.
The couple had accompanied their stare with eager whisperings. Then,
as if on some hasty decision, they pushed back their chairs and got up.
Taking a few steps they separated, approaching Smith on right and left.
One, therefore, stood between him and Annesley as if to prevent an
exchange of words or glances. There was something Eastern and oddly
alien about them in spite of their conventional clothes.
"Mr. Michael Varcoe!" said the bigger and older, he who stood on the left
of Smith. The other kept in the background, not to crowd with conspicuous
rudeness between Annesley and her host. The man who spoke had a thick
voice and a curious accent which the girl, with her small experience, was
unable to place.
"No," answered "Smith," in a puzzled tone. "You mistake me for someone
else."
"I think not," insisted the bearded man, in a hostile drawl. "I _think_
not!"
"I'm _sure_ not," echoed the other. "You are Michael Varcoe. There's no
getting away from that."
The emphasis seemed to add, "And no getting away from _us_."
Excitement stirred Annesley to courage. "Why, how horrid!" she exclaimed,
bending past the human obstacle; "people taking you for some _foreigner_!
I'm sure you can't be like a man with such a name as--Michael Varcoe!
Tell them who we are."
"My name is Nelson Smith," said her official husband. "My wife is
not----"
"Your wife!" repeated the man standing opposite Annesley. He stared with
insolent incredulity. "'Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Smith.' A good name to
take."
"It happens to have been given me." Slight sharpness broke the tolerance
of Smith's tone.
"I don't believe you!" exclaimed the other.
Smith's black brows drew together. "It doesn't matter whether you believe
or not," he said. "What does matter is that you should annoy us. I tell
you I'm not Michael Varcoe, and never heard the name. If you're not
satisfied, and if you don't go back to your dinner and let us finish ours
in peace, I'll appeal to the management."
"Well!" grumbled the taller of the pair. "If you're not the man I want,
you're his image--minus moustache and beard. You _must_ be Varcoe!"
"Of course he's Varcoe," insisted the other.
"Of course he's not!" said Annesley, with just the right amount of
irritation. "Our name is Smith. Nelson, do tell this--person to ask the
head-waiter who engaged the table, and not stay here making a fuss."
"Anybody can engage a table in the name of Smith!" sneered the first
speaker. "That is nothing. We go by something more convincing than a
name. There are countries where men have been arrested on less
resemblance--or put out of the way."
"Oh, Nelson, he's frightening me," faltered Annesley. "He must have lost
his senses."
"You think that, do you?" The fierce eyes fixed her with a stare. "You
tell me--_you_, madame, that you are this man's wife?"
"I do tell you so," the girl replied, firmly, "though I don't see that
it's your affair! Now go away."
"Very well, we take your word," returned the man, in a tone which said
that he did nothing of the sort. "And we go--back to our table, to let
you finish your meal, Mr. and Mrs. Smith."
His black glance sprang like a tarantula from her face to her
companion's, then to his friend's. The latter accepted the ultimatum and
followed in sulky silence; but when the pair were seated at their own
table, though they ordered food and wine, their attention was still for
the alleged Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Annesley tried to ignore the fact that they stared without ceasing, but
she could not help being aware of their eyes. She felt faint, and
everything in the room whirled giddily.
"Drink some champagne," said Smith's quiet voice.
The girl obeyed, and the ice-cold wine cooled the fire in blood and
nerves.
"You have been splendid," Smith encouraged her. "I know you won't fail me
now."
"I promise you I will not!" returned Annesley. "The worst is over. I feel
ready for anything."
"How can I thank you?" he murmured. "If I had all the rest of my life to
do it in, instead of a few minutes, it wouldn't be too much. You were
perfect in your manner, not anxious, only annoyed; just the right air for
a self-respecting Mrs. Smith."
They both laughed, and Annesley was surprised that she could laugh
naturally and gaily. Presently she laughed again, when Mr. Smith remarked
that she had missed her vocation in not being an actress--she, the
country mouse, who had hardly been inside a theatre.
The two lingered over their dinner, watched with impatience by the men
at the other table, who had ordered only one dish and paid for it
immediately, that they might be ready for anything at an instant's
notice. They had also a small bottle of wine, which they sipped
abstemiously as an excuse to remain after their food had been eaten.
When at last Mr. and Mrs. Smith had finished their _bombe surprise_, and
trifled with some fruit, Annesley said: "Evidently they don't care how
long they have to wait! I suppose there's nothing for us to do but to
go?"
"Oh, yes, there's still something," said Smith. "We'll have coffee in the
foyer, and see what the enemy's next move is. It would be a mistake to
let the brutes believe they're frightening us."
Annesley agreed in silence; but in her heart she was glad to lengthen out
the adventure. Soon she would have to creep back to her dull modern
substitute for a moated grange, and after that--not "the deluge"; nothing
so exciting: extinction.
As they walked out of the restaurant together the girl glanced up at the
dark profile, mysterious as a stranger's, yet familiar as a friend's. The
man had told her nothing about himself except that he was in danger, and
had given no hint as to what that danger was; but the girl's heart was
warm with belief in him. If there were a question of crime, the crime was
not his. His superiority over those creatures must be moral as well as
physical and social.
By an odd coincidence, Mr. Smith steered for the sofa in the corner
whence a man had stared from behind an open newspaper at a tall, lonely
girl in gray, earlier in the evening. Annesley knew nothing of this
coincidence, because she had not noticed the man; but even if she had,
she would have forgotten him. She had been thinking of herself when she
first trailed her gray dress over the red carpet of the foyer; now,
returning, she thought of the man who was with her and the two who were
certain to follow.
Scarcely were she and Smith seated before the others appeared. The men
sat down in chairs drawn up at a little table; and not only must those in
the corner pass by them in escaping, but every word spoken above a
whisper must be overheard.
This fact did not embarrass Smith. He ordered coffee and cigarettes, and
talked to Annesley in an ordinary tone about a motor trip which it would
be pleasant to take. The watchers also demanded coffee. But the waiter
they summoned was slow in fulfilling their order. When it was obeyed,
before the pair had time to lift cup to lip, Mr. Smith took impish
pleasure in getting to his feet.
"Come, dear," he said, "we'd better be off."
He laid on the table money for the coffee and cigarettes, with a
satisfactory tip. Then without looking at their neighbours he and
Annesley passed, walking shoulder to shoulder with a leisurely step
toward the entrance.
"I suppose there's no chance of shaking them off?" the girl whispered.
"None whatever," said Smith. "But we've had the fun of cheating them out
of their coffee, because they won't chance our stopping to pick up our
wraps. They'll be on our heels till the end of the journey, so there's
nothing for it except to stick to the original plan of my going home with
you. I hope you don't mind? I hope you're not afraid of me now?"
"I'm not at all afraid," said Annesley.
"Thank you for that. If our taxi outruns theirs, I sha'n't need to
trespass on your kindness beyond the doorstep. But if they overtake us,
and are on the spot before you can vanish into the house and I can
disappear in some other direction, are you still game to keep your
promise--the promise to let me go indoors with you?"
"Yes, I am 'game' to the end--whatever the end may be," the girl
answered; and she wondered at herself, because her heart was as brave as
her words.
Five minutes later Annesley, wrapped in her thin cloak, was stepping into
a taxi. As Smith followed and told the chauffeur where to drive, the two
watchers shot through the revolving door in time to overhear, and also to
order a taxi.
Annesley wondered for one dismayed instant why her companion should have
given the real address. He might have mentioned some other street, and
thus have gained time; but a second thought told her that, with the
pursuing taxi so close upon their heels, an attempt to deceive would have
been useless. The policy of defiance was the only one.
For a few moments neither the girl nor the man spoke, although Annesley
felt that there were a thousand things to say. Every second was taking
them nearer to Torrington Square; and their parting must come soon. After
that, all would be blankness for her, as before this wonderful night.
Such thoughts made the girl a prisoner of silence; and "Mr. Smith" was
also tongue-tied. Was he concentrating his mind upon some plan of escape
from these mysterious enemies? She told herself this must be so; yet his
first words proved that he had been thinking of the risk she ran.
"If the dragon comes out of her den and catches us at the door, will that
mean a catastrophe for you, or can I be explained away?" he inquired.
"I don't know," said Annesley. "And somehow I don't care!"
"I care," the man replied. "I can't have harm come to you through me. But
tell me, before we go farther--does it matter to you, Miss Grayle, that
in a little while you and I may see the last of each other? I feel I have
a sort of right to ask that question, because it matters such a lot to
me. I've got to know you better in this one evening than I could in a
year in a commonplace way. I don't want you to go out of my life, because
you're the best thing that ever came into it. And if I dared hope that I
might mean to you some day half what you've begun to mean for me already,
why, I wouldn't _let_ you go!"
Annesley clasped her hands under her cloak. They were cold yet tingling.
Her blood was leaping; but she could not speak. She was afraid of saying
too much.
"Can't you give me a grain of hope?" he went on. His voice was wistful.
"We have so little time."
"What--do you want me to say?" Annesley stammered.
"I want you to say--that you don't wish to see the last of me to-night."
"I shouldn't be human if I _could_ wish that!" the words seemed to speak
themselves; and she, who had been taught to repress and hide emotion as
if it were a vice, was glad that the truth was out. After all they had
gone through together she couldn't send this man away believing her
indifferent. "I--it doesn't seem as if we were strangers," she faltered
on.
"Strangers! I should think not," he echoed. "We mayn't know much about
each other's tastes, but we do know about each other's souls, which is
more than can be said of most men and women acquainted for half a
lifetime. As for our pasts, you haven't had one, and I--well, if I swear
to you that I've never murdered anybody, or been in prison, or committed
an unforgivable crime, will you take my word?"
"If you told me you _were_ a murderer, or had committed some unforgivable
crime, I--I don't feel as if I could believe it," Annesley assured him.
"It--would hurt me to think evil of you. I'm sure it isn't you who are
evil, but these men."
"You're an angel to feel like that and speak like that!" exclaimed Smith.
"I don't deserve your goodness, but I appreciate it. I'd like to take
your hand and kiss it when I thank you, but I won't, because you're alone
with me, under my protection. To save me from trouble you've risked
danger and put yourself in my power. I may be bad in some ways--most men
are, or would be in women's eyes if women saw them as they are; but I'm
not a brute. The worst I've ever done is to try to pay back a great
injury, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Do you blame me for
that?"
"I have no right--I don't know what the injury was," said the girl; and,
hesitating a little, "still--I don't think _I_ could find happiness in
revenge."
"I could, or anyhow, satisfaction: I confess that. About 'happiness,' I
don't know much. But you could teach me."
"I?"
"Yes. Do you believe there can be such a thing as love at first sight?"
"I can't tell. Books say so. Perhaps----"
"There's no 'perhaps.' I've found that out to-night. I believe love that
comes at sight must be the only real love--a sort of electric call from
soul to soul. The thing that's happened is just this: I've met the one
woman--my help-mate. If I come out of this trouble, and can ask a girl
like you to give herself to me, will you do it?"
"Oh, you say this because you think you ought to be grateful!" cried
Annesley. "But I don't want gratitude. This is the first time I've ever
_lived_. I owe that to you. And it's more than you can owe to me."
The man laughed, a happy laugh, as though danger were miles away instead
of on his heels. "You know almost as much about men as a child knows,
Miss Grayle," he said, "if you think I'm one of the sort--if there _is_
such a sort--who would tie himself to a woman for gratitude. I've just
one motive in wanting you to marry me. I love you and need you. I
couldn't feel more if I'd known you months instead of hours."
The wonder of it swept over Annesley in a flood. Even in her dreams--and
she had had wild dreams sometimes--she had never pictured a man such as
this loving her and wanting her. To the girl's mind he was so attractive
that it seemed impossible his choice of her could be from the heart. She
would wake up to a stale, flat to-morrow and find that none of these
things had really happened.
Still, she might as well live up to the dream while it lasted, and have
the more to remember.
"It's a fairy story, surely!" she said, trying to laugh. "There are so
many beautiful girls in the world for a man like you, that I----"
"A man like me! What _am_ I like?"
"Oh, it's hard to put into words. But--well, you're brave; I'm sure of
that."
"I hope I'm not a coward. All normal men are brave. That's nothing. What
else am I--to you?"
"Interesting. More interesting than--than any one I ever saw."
"If you feel that, you don't want to send me out of your life, do
you?--after you've stood by and sheltered me from danger?"
"No-o. I don't want to send you out of my life. But----"
"There's only one way in which you can keep me and I can keep
you--circumstanced as we are. We must be husband and wife."
"Oh!" The girl covered her face with both hands. The world was on fire
around her.
"I frighten you. Yet you might have consented to marry that other Smith.
You went to meet him, to decide whether he was possible."
"I know. But I see now, if he'd kept his appointment, it would have ended
in nothing, even if--if he had been pleased with me. I couldn't have
brought myself to say 'yes'."
"How can you be certain?"
"Because"--Annesley spoke almost in a whisper--"because he wasn't _you_."
Smith snatched her clasped hands and kissed them. The warm touch of the
man's lips gave the girl a new, mysterious sensation. No man had ever
kissed even her hands. Suddenly she felt sure that what she felt must be
love--love at first sight, which, according to him, was an electric call
from soul to soul. His kiss told her that they belonged to each other for
good or evil.
"Darling!" he said. "You are mine. I sha'n't let you go. For love of you
I'll free myself from this temporary trouble I'm in, and come back to
claim you soon. When I ask you to be my wife you'll say to me what you
_wouldn't_ have said to the other Smith?"
"If I can escape to hear you. But--you don't know Mrs. Ellsworth."
"St. George rescued the princess from the dragon: so will I, though I've
warned you I'm no saint. When we meet again I'll tell you what I am, and
perhaps my real name, which is better than Smith, though it mayn't be as
safe. Now, there are other things to say----"
But there was no time to say them, for the taxi stopped. The time seemed
so short since the Savoy that Annesley couldn't believe they were in
Torrington Square. Perhaps the chauffeur had made a mistake? She looked
out, hoping that it might be so; but before her were the darkened windows
of the dull, familiar house, 22-A. The great moment was upon them.