I SPEED THE PARTING GUEST
Four o'clock in the morning is a graceless hour. Graveyards may yawn
at twelve but even they are content to slumber at four. I don't believe
there is anything so desolate in this world as the mental perspective
one obtains at four o'clock. Tombstones are bright beacons of cheer
as compared to the monumental regret one experiences on getting up to
greet the alleged and vastly over-rated glories of a budding day. The
sunrise is a pall! It is a deadly, dour thing. It may be pink and red
and golden and full of all the splendours of the east, but it is a
resurrection and you can't make anything else out of it. Staying up
till four and then going to bed gives one an idea of the sunrise that
is not supported by the facts; there is but one way to appreciate the
real nature of the hateful thing called dawn, and that is to get up
with it instead of taking it to bed with you.
Still, I suppose the sun _has_ to come up and perhaps it is just as well
that it does so at an hour when people are least likely to suspect it of
anything so shabby.
Four o'clock is more than a graceless, sodden hour when it ushers in
a day that you know is to be the unhappiest in your life; when you
know that you are to say farewell forever to the hopes begot and
nurtured in other days; when the one you love smiles and goes away to
smile again but not for you. And that is just what four o'clock on the
morning of the fourteenth of September meant to me.
Britton and I set forth in the automobile just at the break of dawn,
crossing the river a few miles below the castle, and running back to
a point on the right hand bank where we were to await the arrival
of the boat conveying the Countess and her escort. Her luggage,
carefully disguised as crated merchandise, had gone to Trieste by fast
express a couple of days before, sent in my name and consigned to a
gentleman whose name I do not now recall, but who in reality served
as a sort of middleman in transferring the shipment to the custody of
a certain yacht's commander.
It was required of me--and of my machine, which is more to the
point--that the distance of one hundred and twenty miles through the
foothills of the Austrian Alps should be covered and the passengers
delivered at a certain railway station fifty miles or more south of
Vienna before ten o'clock that night. There they were to catch a train
for the little seaport on the upper Adriatic, the name of which I was
sworn never to reveal, and, as I have not considered it worth while
to be released from that oath, I am of necessity compelled to omit the
mention of it here.
Mr. Bangs went on to Vienna the night before our departure, taking
with him Helene Marie Louise Antoinette, a rather shocking arrangement
you would say unless you had come to know the British lawyer as well
as we knew him. They were to proceed by the early morning train to
this obscure seaport. Colingraft Titus elected to accompany his sister
the entire length of the journey, with the faithful Blake and Rosemary.
Billy Smith was to meet us a few miles outside the town for which we
were bound, with a word of warning if there was anything sinister in
the wind.
I heard afterwards from Poopendyke that the departure of the Countess
and Rosemary from the castle in the grey; forlorn dawn of that historic
fourteenth was attended by a demonstration of grief on the part of the
four Schmicks that was far beyond his powers of description, and he
possesses a wonderful ability to describe lachrymose situations, rather
running to that style of incident, I may say. The elder Schmicks wailed
and boo-hooed and proclaimed to the topmost turrets that the sun would
never shine again for either of them, and, to prove that she was quite
in earnest about the matter, Gretel fell off the dock into the river
and was nearly drowned before Jasper, Jr., could dive in and get her.
Their sons, both of whom cherished amorous feelings for Blake, sighed
so prodigiously all the way down the river that the boat rocked.
Incidentally, during the excitement, Jinko, who was to remain behind
and journey westward later on with Mrs. Titus and Jasper, Jr., succeeded
after weeks of vain endeavour in smartly nipping the calf of Hawkes'
left leg, a feat of which he no doubt was proud but which sentenced
my impressive butler to an everlasting dread of hydrophobia and a
temporary limp.
It was nearing five o'clock when the boat slipped into view around the
tree-covered point of land and headed straight for our hiding place
on the bank.
I shall not stop here to describe the first stage of our journey through
the narrow, rocky by-roads that ended eventually in the broad, alpine
highway south and west of Vienna. Let it be sufficient to say that we
jostled along for twelve or fifteen miles without special incident,
although we were nervously anxious and apprehensive. Our guide book
pointed, or rather twiddled, a route from the river flats into the
hills, where we came up with the main road about eight o'clock. We
were wrapped and goggled to the verge of ludicrousness. It would have
been quite impossible to penetrate our motor-masks and armour, even
for one possessed of a keen and practiced eye. The Countess was heavily
veiled; great goggles bulged beneath the green, gauzy thing that
protected her lovely face from sun, wind and man. A motor coat, two
or three sizes too large, enveloped her slender, graceful figure, and
gauntlets covered her hands. Even Rosemary's tiny face was wrapped in
a silken veil of white. As for the rest of us, we could not have been
mistaken for anything on earth but American automobilists, ruthlessly
inspired to see Europe with the sole view to comparing her roads with
our own at home. You would have said, on seeing us, that we knew a
great deal about roads and very little about home.
Colingraft and Britton,--the latter at the wheel,--sat in the front
seat, while I shared the broad cushions of the tonneau with the
Countess, part of the time holding Rosemary, who was clamouring for
food, and the rest of the time holding my breath in the fear that we
might slip over a precipice. I am always nervous when not driving the
car myself.
We stopped for breakfast at a small mountain inn, fifteen miles from
our starting place. The Countess, a faint red spot in each cheek and
a curiously bright, feverish glow in her dark eyes, revealed a tendency
to monopolise the conversation, a condition properly attributed to
nervous excitement. I could see that she was vastly thrilled by the
experiences of the hour; her quick, alert brain was keeping pace with
the rush of blood that stimulated every fibre in her body to new
activities. She talked almost incessantly, and chiefly about matters
entirely foreign to the enterprise in hand.
The more I see of women, the less I know about them. Why she should
have spent the whole half hour devoted to breakfast to a surprisingly
innocuous dissertation on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche is--or
was--beyond me.
How was I to know that tears lay close to the surface of those
shimmering, vivacious eyes? How was I to know that sobs took refuge
behind a simulated interest in philosophy?
We had luncheon picnic fashion half-way to our journey's end, diverging
from the main road to find a secluded spot where we could spread our
cloth and open our hampers without fear of interruption or, to use a
more sinister word, detection. It was rather a jolly affair, that first
and last al fresco banquet of ours under the spreading branches of
mighty trees and beside the trickling waters of a gay little mountain
brook that hurried like mad down to the broad channel of the Danube,
now many miles away. The strain of the first few hours had slackened.
Success seemed assured. We had encountered no difficulties, no dangers
in town or country. No one appeared to be interested in us except
through idle curiosity; villagers and peasants stared at us and grinned;
policemen and soldiers stood aside to let us pass, or gave directions
politely when requested to do so. There were no signs of pursuit, no
indications of trouble ahead. And so we could afford to be gay and
confident at our midday meal in the hills bordering the broad highway.
We even went so far as to arrange for a jolly reunion in New York City
at no distant day! I remember distinctly that we were to dine at
Sherry's. To me, the day seemed a long way off.
I suppose, being a writer of fiction, I should be able to supply at
this point in the narrative, a series of thrilling, perhaps hair-raising
encounters with the enemy, in the form of spies, cut-throats, imperial
mercenaries or whatever came handiest to the imagination. It would be
a very simple matter to transform this veracious history into the most
lurid of melodramas by the introduction of the false and bizarre, but
it is not my purpose to do so. I mean to adhere strictly to the truth
and stand by the consequences. Were I inclined to sensationalism it
would be no trouble at all for me to have Tarnowsy's agents shooting
at our tires or gasoline tank from every crag and cranny; or to have
Rosemary kidnapped by aeroplanists supplied with drag-hooks; or to
have the Countess lodged in a village prison from which I should be
obliged to liberate her with battle-axe and six-shooter, my compensation
being a joyous rest in a hospital with the fair Aline nursing me back
to health and strength and cooing fond words in my rapacious ear the
while I reflected on the noble endowments of a nature that heretofore
had been commonplace and meek. But, no! None of these things happened
and I decline to perjure myself for the privilege of getting into the
list of "six best sellers."
So far as I am able to judge, there was absolutely no heroism displayed
during our flight through the hills and valleys, unless you are willing
to accept as such a single dash of sixty miles an hour which Britton
made in order to avoid a rain-shower that threatened to flank us if
we observed the speed laws.
But wait! There was an example of bravado on my part that shall not
go unrecorded. I hesitated at first to put it down in writing, but my
sense of honour urges me to confess everything. It happened just after
that memorable picnic luncheon in the shady dell. The Countess, I
maintain, was somewhat to blame for the incident. She suggested that
we,--that is to say, the two of us,--explore the upper recesses of
this picturesque spot while the others were making ready for the
resumption of our journey.
Shame, contrition, humiliation or whatever you may elect to call it,
forbids a lengthy or even apologetic explanation of what followed her
unfortunate suggestion. I shall get over with it in as few words as
possible.
In the most obscure spot in all those ancient hills, I succumbed to
an execrable impulse to take her forcibly in my arms and kiss her! I
don't know why I did it, or how, but that is just what happened. My
shame, my horror over the transcendental folly was made almost
unbearable by the way in which she took it. At first I thought she had
swooned, she lay so limp and unresisting in my arms. My only excuse,
whispered penitently in her ear, was that I couldn't help doing what
I had done, and that I deserved to be drawn and quartered for taking
advantage of my superior strength and her gentle forbearance. Strange
to say, she merely looked at me in a sort of dumb wonder and quietly
released herself, still staring at me as if I were the most inexplicable
puzzle in the world. Her cheeks, her throat, her brow grew warm and
pink with a just indignation; her lips parted but she uttered no word.
Then I followed her dejectedly, cravenly back to the roadside and
executed an inward curse that would hang over my miserable head so
long as it was on my shoulders.
Her vivacity was gone. She shrank down into the corner of the seat,
and, with her back half turned toward me, gazed steadfastly at the
panoramic valley which we were skirting. From time to time I glanced,
at her out of the corners of my eyes, and eventually was somewhat
relieved to see that she had closed her own and was dozing. My soul
was in despair. She loathed, despised me. I could not blame her. I
despised myself.
And yet my heart quickened every time I allowed myself to think of the
crime I had committed.
The day was a glorious one and the road more than passably good. We
bowled along at a steady rate of speed and sundown found us about
twenty-five miles from our destination. Not caring to run the risk of
a prolonged stay in the town, we drew up at a roadside inn and had our
dinner in the quaint little garden, afterwards proceeding leisurely
by moonlight down the sloping highway.
Billy Smith met us six or eight miles out and we stopped to parley.
He examined the Countess's skilfully prepared passports, pronounced
them genuine (!), and then gave us the cheerful news that "everything
was lovely and the goose hung high." The train for the coast was due
to leave the Staats-bahn-hof at 10.05, and we had an hour to spare.
He proposed that we spend it quite comfortably at the roadside while
Britton went through the pretence of repairing our tires. This seemed
an agreeable arrangement for every one but Britton, who looked so glum
that I, glad of the excuse, offered to help him.
No sooner was I out of the car and Billy Smith in my place beside the
Countess than she became quite gay and vivacious once more. She laughed
and chatted with him in a manner that promptly convinced me that
propinquity so far as I was concerned had had a most depressing effect
upon her, and that she revelled in the change of companions.
I was so disturbed by the discovery that Britton had to caution me
several times to handle the inner tubes less roughly or I _would_ damage
them and we might suffer a blow-out after all.
Every one appeared to be gay and frivolous, even Blake, who chattered
_sotto voce_ with Britton, that excellent rascal spending most of his
time leaning against the spare tires in order to catch what she was
saying for his benefit. All efforts to draw me into the general
conversation were unavailing. I was as morose and unresponsive as an
Egyptian mummy, and for a very excellent reason, I submit. The Countess
deliberately refused to address a single remark to me. Indeed, when
I seemed perilously near to being drawn into the conversation she
relapsed into a silence that was most forbidding. My cup of misery was
overflowing.
I wondered if she would feel called upon, at some distant confessional,
to tell the fortunate Lord Amberdale that I had brutally kissed her.
And Lord Amberdale would grin in his beastly supercilious English way
and say: "What else could you have expected from a bally American
bounder?" She would no doubt smile indulgently.
Heigh-ho!
All things come to an end, however. We found ourselves at last uttering
our good-byes in the railway station, surrounded by hurrying travellers
and attended by eager porters.
The Countess did not lift her veil. I deliberately drew her aside. My
hot hand clasped hers, and found it as cold as ice and trembling.
"For God's sake," I whispered hoarsely in my humbleness, "say that you
forgive me?"
She did not speak for many seconds. Then her voice was very low and
tremulous. I felt that her sombre eyes were accusing me even as they
tried to meet my own with a steadiness that was meant to be reassuring.
"Of course I forgive you," she said. "You have been so good to me."
"Good!" I cried bitterly. "I've been harsh, unreasoning, super-critical
from the day I met--"
"Hush!" she said, laying her free hand upon my arm. "I shall never
forget all that you have done for me. I--I can say no more."
I gulped. "I pray to heaven that you may be happy, Aline,--happier
than any one else in the world."
She lowered her head suddenly, and I was made more miserable than
before by hearing a quick, half-suppressed sob. Then she withdrew her
cold little hand and turned away to follow Colingraft who had called
out to her.
I saw them board the train. In my heart there was the memory of a dozen
kisses I had bestowed in repentant horror upon the half-asleep Rosemary,
who, God bless her little soul, cried bitterly on being torn away from
my embrace.
"Well," said Billy Smith, taking me by the arm a few minutes later,
"let's have a bite to eat and a cold bottle before we go to bed, old
chap. I hope to heaven she gets through all right. Damme, I am strong
for her, aren't you?"
"I am," said I, with conviction, coming out of a daze.
He led me off to a cafe where he seemed to be more or less at home,
and where it was bright and gay for him but gloomier than the grave
to me.
* * * * * * *
I drove the car home the next day. When we got down at the garage,
Britton shivered and drew a prodigious breath. It was as if he had not
breathed for hours. We had gone the distance in little more than half
the time taken on the trip down.
"My word, sir," was all he said, but there was a significant tremor
in his voice. It smacked of pride.
Mrs. Titus placidly inquired how we had got along, and appeared quite
relieved when I told her we had caught the train at K---. Jasper, Jr.,
revealed a genuine interest in the enterprise, but spoiled it all by
saying that Aline, now prematurely safe, was most likely to leap out
of the frying-pan into the fire by marrying some blithering foreigner
and having the whole beastly business to do over again.
"How soon do they go?" asked Poopendyke late that afternoon, after
listening to Mrs. Titus's amiable prophecies concerning Aline's future
activities, and getting my harassed ear in a moment of least resistance.
"I don't know," said I, hopelessly. I had heard about all I could
endure concerning his lordship's magnificent estates in England, and
the sort of a lord he was besides. "There's nothing to do but wait,
Fred."
"She is a remarkably fine woman but--" He completed the estimate by
shaking his head, trusting to my intelligence, I suppose.
We waited two days for word from the fugitives. Late in the afternoon
of the second day, Britton returned from town with a telegram for me.
It said:
"Cargo safely aboard _Pendennis_, Captain Pardee commanding. Clear at
two to-day. Everything satisfactory. (Signed) C. G. RAFT."
No sooner was this reassuring news received than Mrs. Titus complacently
set about having her trunks packed. The entire household was in a stew
of activity, for she had suddenly decided to catch the eight o'clock
train for Paris. I telephoned to reserve accommodation on the Orient
Express from Vienna, and also to have it stopped at the town across
the river, a concession secured at a no inconsiderable cost.
She was to travel once more as my mother.
"You will not fail to look us up when you come to New York, will you,
Mr. Smart? Mr. Titus will not be happy until he has expressed to you
in person his endless gratitude. You have been splendid. We shall never
forget your kindness, your thoughtfulness, your--your forbearance.
I--I--"
Upon my word, there were real tears in the dear lady's eyes! I forgot
and forgave much in recognition of this instant of genuine feeling on
her part. It was not necessary for her to complete the sentence so
humbly begun.
Their departure was made with some degree of caution, Mrs. Titus rather
considerately reminding herself that my interests were at stake. I saw
them aboard the train; she played her part admirably, I will say that
for her. She lifted her veil so that I could bestow a farewell filial
kiss upon her cheek. Jasper, Jr.'s, eyes popped very wide open at this,
and, as he shook my hand warmly at parting, he said:
"You are a wonder, John,--a sure enough wonder. Why, hang it all, she
doesn't even let dad do that."
But Jasper, Jr., was very young and he couldn't understand.
At last we were to ourselves, my extensive household and I. Late that
night I sat in my study considering the best means of reducing my staff
of servants and in computing, with dismay, the cost of being a princely
host to people who had not the least notion what it meant to do sums
in economic subtraction. It was soon apparent to me that retrenchment,
stern and relentless, would have to follow upon my wild though brief
season of profligacy. I decided to dismiss the scullery-maid.
I was indescribably lonely. Poopendyke was worried about my pallor,
my lassitude. At the end of a week, he took it upon himself to drop
a line to the Hazzards, urging them to run out for a visit in the hope
that company might take me out of myself. All attempts to renew my
work on the ill-fated novel met with utter failure. The power of mental
concentration was gone. I spent most of my time in the garden.
The Hazzards came and with them the joyously beautiful Betty Billy.
Poopendyke must have prepared them for the task in hand, for they
proceeded at once to transform the bleak, dreary old castle into a
sort of hilarious merry-go-round, with me in the very vortex of it
all. They succeeded in taking me "out of myself," I will say that for
them. My spirits took an upward bound and, wonderful to relate, retained
their altitude in spite of all I could do to lower them. I did not
want to be happy; I figured that I owed it to my recently aroused
temperament to be permanently unhappy. But the wind blew another way
and I drifted amiably with it, as a derelict drifts with the currents
of the ocean but preferably with the warm gulf stream.
We had word from Mrs. Titus, in London, that negotiations had been
reopened with the Count, and that a compromise might be expected. The
obdurate nobleman had agreed, it seemed, to meet Jasper Titus's lawyers
in Paris at no distant date. My chief concern however was for the
Countess herself. That she had successfully reached the high seas was
apparent; if not, the newspapers, which I read with eagerness, would
have been filled with accounts of her seizure. We eagerly awaited the
promised cablegram from New York, announcing her safe arrival there.
Smith joined us at the end of the week. I nerved myself to question
him about the Englishman.
"Splendid fellow," said he, with discouraging fervour. "One of the
finest chaps I know, eh, George?"
"For an Englishman," admitted Hazzard.
"He's a gentleman, and that's more than you can say for the rag-tag
of nobility that paid court to Aline Tarnowsy. He was in love with
her, but he was a gentleman about it. A thoroughbred, I say."
"Good looking?" I enquired.
"Well, rather! The sort of chap women rave about. Ask Betty. She was
mad about him. But he couldn't see anything in her. I think she hates
him now. He had eyes for no one but the fair Countess. An awful grind
on Betty. She's used to something different."
Hazzard studied the clouds that drifted over our heads. "I wonder if
Aline cared anything for him."
"I've always believed that she liked him better than she cared to
admit, even to herself."
"I fancy he'll not let any grass grow under his feet, now that she's
free," said Dr. Hazzard.
"Think she'll have him?"
"Why not? He has a much better position in England than Tarnowsy has
here, and he's not after her money. I hate to say it, but Aline is a
seeker after titles. She wouldn't be averse to adding 'your ladyship'
to her collection."
"Oh, come!" I protested. "That is a nasty thing to say, George."
"She may have been regenerated," he said obligingly. "You know her
better than I do, old chap. What say?"
"I didn't say anything," I muttered.
"I thought you did."
I hesitated a moment and then purged myself of the truth. "As a matter
of fact, I have reason to believe she's in love with Amberdale and has
been for a long time. I'm not saying it in disparagement, believe me.
God knows she's entitled to something decent and fine in the shape of
love. I hope he's good enough for her."
They looked at me with interest, and Smith broke the momentary silence.
"Oh, he's good enough for her," he said, with a queer smile.
"I'm glad of that," I said gruffly.
"The old la--I mean Mrs. Titus will be tickled to death if the match
is pulled off," said Hazzard.
"She was tickled the first time," said I sententiously, and changed
the subject. There was no sense in prolonging the agony.
Toward the close of their visit, a message arrived from the Countess
herself, signed with the fictitious name we had agreed upon. The news
she gave caused us to celebrate that night. We had a bonfire in the
courtyard and drank to the god of Good Luck.
"Cargo safely landed in New York and forwarded to the Adirondacks for
storage and to await the appearance of a claimant. Former owner has
agreed to accept million and a half and release all claims. When are
you coming over? (Signed) Alrose."
By the most extraordinary coincidence, a curt, business-like letter
arrived in the evening post from Maris Tarnowsy, post-marked Paris.
Its contents staggered me.
"_John Bellamy Smart, Esquire._
"Dear Mr. Smart: Will you put a price on Schloss Rothhoefen? I am
desirous of purchasing the castle if you care to sell and we can agree
upon a fair price for the property. Sentiment moves me in this matter
and I earnestly hope that you may be induced to part with your white
elephant. If you will be so kind as to wire your decision, you will
find me deeply grateful, and at the Ritz for the ensuing fortnight.
"Faithfully yours,
"MARIS TARNOWSY."
My "white elephant!" I was so eager to get rid of it that I would have
wired at once, naming a figure proportionately low had it not been for
the united protests of my four friends and the canny advice of Mr.
Poopendyke.
"Soak him," said he, and I arose to the occasion.
I waited for three days and then telegraphed him that I would not take
a heller less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, more than
doubling the price I had paid for the property. I was prepared, however,
to come down a paltry hundred thousand or so if he revealed signs of
reluctance.
We built another bonfire that night and danced around it like so many
savages.
"Terms acceptable. Will come to Schloss Rothhoefen at once to complete
the transfer.
"TARNOWSY."