"Chalmers, was that Mr. Roger who came in? I thought I heard him."
"Yes, miss, he's in his room, but I fancy he's on his way to you. He
asked where you were."
Chalmers came a step farther into the room, rubbing his grey chin in an
undecided fashion. There was plainly something on his mind.
"I wish, miss, we could manage to keep Mr. Roger from going about in
all weathers the way he's doing. With this fever on him I'm afraid
he'll come to harm. It fair frightens me to see him looking as he does
and taking no care of himself."
The old lady shook her head in despair.
"I know, Chalmers; you are perfectly right--but no matter what I say it
does no good. He is worried for fear something has happened to Miss
Rowe, and he insists on making efforts to trace her. I'm sure I don't
know what to do with him--and he really is ill."
The butler looked at the carpet and cleared his throat slightly, the
action constituting a tactful but unequivocal indication that in his
own opinion the search for the missing person was a complete waste of
energy. Miss Clifford understood the cough, and agreed with its main
contention that her nephew was not in a fit condition to be wandering
about the streets.
"If you'll pardon the suggestion, miss, hoping you'll not think it's an
impertinence, it strikes me the thing to do is first to get Mr. Roger
into bed and then to give him a good strong sleeping draught. If he
still is bent on going out to-morrow, miss, with your permission I'd
take away his clothes."
"It's not a bad idea, Chalmers," replied Miss Clifford, smiling in
spite of herself. "But I hope it won't be necessary. He's half
promised me to give up the search after to-day--it really seems quite
useless--and let us look after him properly. I'm waiting now to hear
what news he has; then I shall try to persuade him to go to bed."
"Here is Mr. Roger, now, miss."
He stood aside to admit the young man, who entered with a dragging
step, then after a single searching glance at the drawn and haggard
face he quietly withdrew. Miss Clifford also scrutinised her nephew
closely through her spectacles. He seemed to her appreciably thinner,
and there was a feverish glitter in his blue eyes that filled her with
alarm.
"Roger, my darling, do please undress and get into bed at once. I will
come and talk to you there."
He shook his head obstinately, and sat down on the chaise-longue beside
her, deeply dispirited, yet with a look of concentrated purpose.
"I'm not ready to give up," he said slowly. "Not just yet, there's too
much to do. However, if it's any satisfaction to you to know, I took
my temperature just now to make sure, and as I thought it was a bit
lower than it was this time yesterday, I am inclined to think I'm over
the worst of this."
"I don't see how you can be; you look very ill indeed," sighed his
aunt. "You are only keeping about from sheer will power, and I'm
afraid you'll pay for your stubbornness later on. Tell me, though,"
she went on, slightly lowering her voice. "Is there any news of her?"
He shook his head and drew a long discouraged breath.
"None whatever; not a word, not a sign. It is most mysterious. I've
done everything I could think of. There may possibly be a pension or
two I haven't discovered, but even so it's very odd that not one of the
taxi-drivers in Cannes can recall taking a fare on Tuesday afternoon
that answers her description. I've investigated it thoroughly."
"Don't you think the driver may have forgotten?"
"Most unlikely. It was sufficiently odd picking up an American girl in
the street with her luggage, to say nothing of the broken-down car; the
circumstances were unusual enough to impress themselves on a man's
memory for a couple of days at any rate. I have even looked up two
chauffeurs who were home ill, but it was no good."
"It is indeed most odd! Have you done anything else?"
"Yes. I've seen the police and reported her as missing."
"Oh!"--in a shocked tone--"Do you consider it as serious as that?"
"What do _you_ think? If Esther were my sister and went off like that,
leaving no trace, wouldn't you consider it serious? Here is a young
girl in a strange country, without friends. If we don't take an
interest in finding her, who will? All sorts of things may have
happened to her, things one doesn't like to think about." He moistened
his lips, continuing with difficulty. "She may have been decoyed and
robbed, or--or even something much worse. It's no good shutting one's
eyes to the possibility of it."
His face betrayed the serious disturbance of his thoughts. For several
seconds his aunt went on with her knitting. Then laying down her work
she said in a guarded tone, glancing at Lady Clifford's door:
"Of course there's one thing that would alter all that. Suppose what
Arthur Holliday told Thérèse wasn't true."
"You mean he may have invented that story of the breakdown? Yes, it's
quite possible. Only in that case..."
"Don't misunderstand me, Roger," interrupted the old lady quickly. "I
could never bring myself to believe anything wrong of that nice girl, I
simply couldn't--that is if she were quite herself, responsible, and
all that. Only I can't help wondering if you have heard what the
doctor hinted to Thérèse about Miss Rowe, about his thinking that
sometimes she was--was not quite----"
"Has Thérèse repeated that nonsense to you too?" he demanded angrily.
"Well, I--I admit it startled me very much. I could scarcely believe
there was anything in it. I'm sure I never noticed anything the least
bit odd about her, and I was amazed to hear that anyone had done so.
Yet the doctor is so positive about it, although he hasn't said much.
And when a man like that makes a statement, one is almost forced to
believe there must be something in it. In any case it occurred to me
that if his theory is true she might have left Cannes and gone away,
quite forgetting for the moment that she was going to communicate with
us. She may even have lost her memory, you know."
"Then if she has," declared Roger firmly, getting to his feet, "there's
all the more reason for my making every effort to find her. Although,
Dido, I may as well tell you I don't take very much stock in that idea
of the doctor's. Oh, I've had a talk with him; he was very scientific,
very convincing. He assured me there are a great many people walking
about with the same complaint who regard themselves and are generally
regarded as perfectly normal. He says they unconsciously invent and
believe all sorts of preposterous things. He says no one could predict
at what moment they might suddenly go off the handle and behave quite
irrationally. No doubt what he says is entirely true, only I can't see
it applying to Esther. Why, if I'd been asked to pick a thoroughly
normal, well-balanced woman----"
"Yes, yes, I know. I should have said so too."
"He made a good deal out of a trifling incident that I shouldn't have
bothered to repeat at all--something about dropping a basin of water.
Utter nonsense, I call it. Then he said that she had taken a marked
antipathy to him without any reason, and behaved queerly towards him.
I'm sure I didn't notice it."
"Of course, Roger, there was one odd thing that appears to bear out his
theory. You know how just as she was leaving she sent you that
message? Chalmers tells me she was terribly agitated, quite beside
herself. Yet before you could get downstairs..."
"I know, I know," he interrupted her, as if the subject were painful to
him. "It does seem to fit in with what he says, and yet..."
He lit a cigarette thoughtfully and after a few puffs threw it away.
Then, walking to the nearest window, he parted the curtains and stared
out into the cloudy darkness.
"There's no use talking, Dido, I'm frightfully worried. I can't throw
this thing off at all. I've got a feeling there's something not quite
right, but I'm damned if I can put my finger on the trouble. If
someone could have lied to her, if she has some grudge against us for
any reason so that she doesn't want to see us again ... oh, God knows
what it is, but the whole atmosphere here has got on my nerves to such
an extent that I am anxious to get away. I feel I'll get better, too,
once I'm out of the house."
She nodded sympathetically, though with an eye on Thérèse's door.
"I should like to leave, too, my dear. Somehow I can't bear the house
since your father's death. I'd like to go back to England, though it's
a little early."
"I'll tell you. If there's no news of Esther in a couple of days, why
not pack up your things and we'll move along to some other
spot--Antibes, perhaps."
"But, Roger, you're not fit to travel at all. It would be madness! I
couldn't permit it."
"Oh, well, let's leave La Californie and go to an hotel in Cannes. If
you insisted, I'd send for a doctor--another one," he added, looking
rather shamefaced.
The old lady gazed at him in frank amazement.
"My dear, you couldn't do that! Why, it would offend poor Thérèse
terribly. I doubt if she'd ever get over it." She paused and lowered
her voice confidentially. "Perhaps you don't realise that she is
keeping Dr. Sartorius here entirely on your account."
Her nephew turned brusquely and stared at her, his brows knit with
annoyance.
"Are you sure of that?" he demanded.
"Why, of course! Why else should she go on having him here? It must
be a great expense. Besides, she told me so herself; she said your
father would have wished you to have the very best attention."
"Best fiddlesticks!" he retorted sharply. "Good Lord, why should I
have a private physician? I'm not the King. Thank heaven you told me
this. I shall let her know at once that I don't intend to make use of
him. She must let him go."
"My dear, do be careful!" his aunt implored him. "You know how
dreadfully sensitive she is; don't risk hurting her feelings! It would
be such a poor return for all her kindness."
"Leave it to me; I'll do it very tactfully. Really, it's too much! If
I'm going to be ill, I must be allowed to choose my own physician and
pay the bill myself. It's not that I haven't confidence in this man,
but somehow I can't bear his personality."
They fell into silence, each busy with disturbing thoughts. Even Miss
Clifford did not know to what an extent Roger was concerned over this
matter of Esther's whereabouts. The complete uncertainty, linked as it
was with the doctor's guarded implications, had strung him up to a
pitch of nerve-racking apprehension. Moreover, not until this had
happened did he fully realise what Esther meant to him, how differently
he regarded her from any other girl he had ever known. Could it
possibly be true that she was in some obscure way slightly unbalanced?
If he shut out the thought from his mind, he felt himself at once faced
with another equally unpleasant--that never-annihilated possibility
that she had gone off with Holliday somewhere. Perhaps she was with
him now, in Monte Carlo, or Nice, Paris even. Thérèse would not know,
of course. Arthur would be careful to keep it from her. The mere idea
of it made him writhe, while he felt his skin flush all over as though
a fire flared up inside him.
The door behind him opened quietly, and Thérèse came in, dressed for
dinner.
"How damp it is this evening!" she said, shivering slightly. "Chalmers
must bring up some more wood for the fire. I am glad you are in,
Roger; I have been so unhappy about you. Are you feeling better?"
"Yes, thank you, Thérèse, I rather think this bout isn't going to
amount to much after all. It looks like a false alarm."
"Ah, that would be too marvellous! Perhaps you have a very
strong--what do you call it?--constitution. Dido, darling, will you be
an angel and fasten this strap for me? Aline is out on an errand."
She leant over so that her sister-in-law need not rise. Her
dead-black, filmy gown had wide transparent sleeves that fell back to
show her white arms, she wore no ornaments except her row of lustrous
pearls. She looked fragile and lovely, her hair loosely waved with the
artlessness of a child's, her grey eyes with their flecks of gold wide
and clear, like the eyes of a beautiful Persian cat.
"Thérèse," Roger said abruptly. "Sit down, I want to suggest something
to you."
She patted the old lady's shoulder for thanks and sat down in the blue
damask _bergère_ beside the fire, looking up at him expectantly.
"Yes, certainly; what is it?"
"Thérèse, you mustn't misunderstand what I am going to say. It's
awfully difficult. The fact is, I've only just realised you are
keeping Sartorius here on my account. You'll think me incredibly
stupid, but I supposed he was staying on as a--a guest."
"Well?" she returned, quite tranquilly, though watching him closely, he
thought.
Mechanically she put out her hand to take a cigarette from the table,
keeping her eyes on his. He bent forward with a match for her, and the
perfume from her hair, her skin, her dress met him in a cloying wave.
Why, in spite of all, did he shrink from that scent? He couldn't
explain it, it wasn't exactly unpleasant....
"Well," he replied, finding it hard to proceed, "now that I do
understand, I must really beg you to get rid of him. I'm not ill
enough to need any physician's undivided attention, and besides"--he
hesitated, then took the plunge--"I feel I've got to get away. Since
Father's funeral this house seems to get on my nerves. I'm horribly
depressed. Do you know what I mean?"
Expecting to see her face cloud with the look of resentful suspicion he
knew so well he was agreeably surprised when she merely smiled faintly
and replied:
"My dear, of course I know! It is most natural. I too would like to
get away. Why don't you go to a nursing-home for a bit?"
Both he and his aunt could hardly believe their ears. Thérèse was
surely becoming much more reasonable than formerly.
"Perhaps, it depends on how I feel. It's jolly decent of you to
understand. Of course it's nothing but nerves----"
"Oh, my dear, don't trouble to explain! As if I didn't know what
nerves are! I don't suppose, in that case, you will want Sartorius?"
"Well, I----" He broke off, embarrassed, scarcely able to keep the
amazement out of his voice.
"Because I think he wants to run down to Algiers for a little rest.
He's only staying to please me."
The matter had cleared up in the simplest fashion. Roger felt a rush
of slightly ashamed gratitude towards his step-mother, feeling a little
reluctantly, as he had done once before, that he had misjudged her.
Confused by her kindly impulses he stooped to pick up the wisp of a
handkerchief she had let fall to the floor. As he laid it in her lap
she uttered a sharp little cry.
"Roger--your hand! Let me see, please. Why, it's bleeding again!
Aren't you doing anything for it?"
He allowed her to examine it, while his aunt adjusted her spectacles
and moved nearer to see.
"My dear, that is bad! I'd almost forgotten it, but it isn't healing
at all, it looks quite inflamed."
"It's a beastly nuisance, it keeps catching in things and tearing open
again. I haven't had a bandage on it since----" He left the sentence
unfinished, for it had brought up memories of Esther. "Oh, well, it's
nothing serious. Still, I had better let Sartorius attend to it, I
suppose--sterilise it and so forth. Don't you think? He was after me
this morning about the risk I was running of getting it infected, but I
wouldn't wait."
He was pleased to have thought of this; he felt it made a sort of
amends to Thérèse for the blow he had dealt her--if it was a blow. He
was glad to see that she looked slightly gratified, it mitigated his
guilty feeling.
"It is just as well to look after that sort of thing," Miss Clifford
remarked placidly. "I can't help recalling poor Smithers, one of your
father's foremen, who got a scratch from a bit of wire on one of the
looms and died two weeks later of blood-poisoning."
As she spoke the door to the hall opened and the doctor came in,
greeting the three with his usual phlegmatic calm. His presence put an
immediate pall on the conversation which Miss Clifford made an effort
to lift.
"Any news?" she inquired. "I suppose you have had no word from our
Miss Rowe?"
He turned a speculative eye upon her, pausing a moment as if trying to
recall who Miss Rowe could be.
"Miss Rowe!" he repeated vaguely, moving towards the fire. "No, I have
heard nothing. But then I have no reason to believe she will take the
trouble to communicate with me."
The slight emphasis on the final word annoyed Roger, who glanced at the
doctor keenly, wondering what was in the man's methodical, unemotional
mind. Was he keeping something back? Did he know more of Esther than
he was willing to say? It had not occurred to him until now.
Thérèse made a sudden graceful and impulsive movement.
"Doctor--will you be good enough to look at Mr. Clifford's hand? I am
sure his thumb should be attended to at once: it really is in a
shocking state."
Roger held out his injured hand for inspection. Very deliberately the
big man adjusted the nearest lamp so that its rays shone where he
wished them, then he bent his head and frowningly examined the wound.
He took so long about the matter that Miss Clifford put down her
knitting to watch. Could anything be wrong? Roger himself began at
last to wonder. He submitted quietly while Sartorius felt his arm at
intervals exploringly up to the shoulder, but he began to feel a little
impatient when the examiner took hold of his face to turn it to the
light and with a tentative finger commenced to prod his jaw.
"No peculiar sensation there, I suppose?" the doctor asked as he
touched the muscles just in front of the ears.
"No, certainly not."
What was the man getting at? It was exceedingly tiresome. At last the
inquisition ended; the doctor straightened his tall bulk and spoke,
non-committally, but with raised eyebrows.
"I must certainly disinfect it at once. That at least one can do."
This remark and the tone in which it was uttered were both so far from
reassuring that Miss Clifford hastened to inquire: "Has it become
infected in any way, do you think?"
"I trust not. I trust not. I fancy some dirt or grit has got into it,
and no wonder; still ... will there be time to see to it before dinner?
It really shouldn't be left."
"Oh, it is only ten minutes past eight," replied Thérèse, glancing at
the clock, "and I ordered dinner for half-past."
"Very well, I will attend to it now."
When the doctor was out of the room Roger laughed a little, examining
the raw, inflamed fissure on his thumb.
"He's not the most cheery person in the world, is he? I've begun to
imagine I've caught some terrible germ or other."
Thérèse smiled as she rose from her chair.
"I shouldn't worry, that is simply his way. I am sure he didn't mean
to alarm you. I am just going to scribble a note before dinner, while
that is being done," she added, and went into her own room, closing the
door.
"That was a stroke of luck," whispered Roger. "She wasn't in the least
offended, was she? She positively met me half-way."
"She really is a good sort, Roger," returned the old lady cautiously.
"I only wish we..."
She was unable to complete the sentence because of the doctor's
re-entry. He approached the table near the fire and laid his leather
case upon it, then carefully began to spread out various
things--cotton-wool, gauze, scissors, a bottle of iodine. With
mechanical precision he prepared a long strip of gauze, plodding
steadily ahead, entirely concentrated on his occupation. His broad
back was turned to Roger and also to the hall door. He did not even
trouble to turn around when the door opened rather suddenly, and the
voice of Chalmers, sounding somewhat strained, spoke.
"Beg pardon, miss, but here is Miss..."
He did not finish, for just then an apparition, startling in the
extreme, pushed violently past him and into the room. It was a girl's
figure, hatless, bedraggled, mudstained, her hair wild and drenched
with rain, her eyes staring strangely, while one lividly pale cheek was
defaced by a long smear of blood. Her breath came in gasps, laboured,
terrible to hear, as though her heart threatened to burst its walls.
She cast one swift, penetrating glance at the three occupants of the
room, then a sort of hoarse scream came from her lips.
"Roger----!"
Almost speechless with incredulity, Roger leapt to his feet.
"Esther! You--where have you come from?"
"Roger! Roger!" came the odd, croaking voice again. "Stop him--don't
let him touch you--for God's sake don't let him touch your hand!"
Utterly astonished, the sickening suspicion rushed upon him that the
doctor was right. She was in the grip of some dreadful delusion. At
the same moment he was poignantly aware of her slenderness and
fragility, the trembling of her hands. He reached her side, put out
his hand to her to find her still staring at him, wild-eyed, panting
for breath.
"Don't touch that bandage, he wants to kill you. He killed your
father, he and Lady Clifford between them, now he's trying to get you,
too. Oh, oh! thank God I reached you in time!"
Something seemed to snap, she wavered an instant like a drunken person,
then all at once crumpled into a heap on the floor, where she lay
shivering and sobbing.