LOUISE RECEIVES A CALLER.
Mr. Pembroke met Clara at the train when it arrived in the Grand
Central Depot promptly at nine o'clock. He was plainly anxious, almost
agitated.
"Tell me, child," he exclaimed, "why you have come?"
"I couldn't be satisfied," she replied, "without setting at rest the
rumors that connect Ivan's name with Lizzie White."
"Oh," said her uncle, apparently relieved, "is that all?"
"All, uncle? Why, no, not if I find anything that leads me to believe
that Ivan is in New York. In that case I shall search for him here.
What did you think I had come for?"
"I had nothing in mind except anxiety. When I received your telegram,
I feared something had happened. I couldn't tell what. I have been so
occupied with business matters recently that I haven't been able to
keep up with you, you know."
"I'm so sorry to give you more trouble and anxiety," said Clara, with
the sincerest contrition, "but I felt as if I must come on."
"Let us go straight to the hotel," said Mr. Pembroke; "I suppose
there's nothing you want to do to-night?"
They had been standing on a station platform as they talked, and not
far away was Litizki, watching, trying to listen, and wondering who
the gentleman could be whom Clara greeted so affectionately. He knew
nothing about her relationships, and supposed that Mr. Pembroke was
her father. He followed them and saw them enter a hack, and he managed
to get near enough to overhear Mr. Pembroke say "Travelers' Hotel" to
the driver. Not content with knowing the hotel, however, Litizki ran
along the sidewalk, keeping the vehicle in view all the way, and he did
not turn aside content until he saw by the departure of the hack empty
that Clara and her escort were both in the hotel. Then he felt that she
would be safe through the night, for he was possessed of the idea that
the powerful Poubalov would follow her, and he feared that she would
come to harm at his hands.
Mr. Pembroke had said little on the way from the depot to the hotel,
but when they were in the quiet of Clara's room, he remarked:
"I suppose, my dear, that this coming to see Lizzie White is the last
step you will take in this matter, isn't it?"
"I cannot tell yet, uncle," she replied; "I do not see why it should
be, but, of course, I know so many things connected with the case that
I have had no opportunity to tell you--things that I want to tell. I
have needed somebody's advice, so much, and I could not intrude on you
when you are so busy. I would not even now but that I think you ought
to know as much as I do of what has happened."
An expression of pain crossed Mr. Pembroke's features, and he responded
uneasily:
"Of course I want to help you, Clara, and I am more regretful than I
can possibly express that my business has been in such shape."
"Are you seriously alarmed about it, uncle?"
"I was, but I think we shall pull through all right now. Let us talk
of your affairs. I would like to suggest, with all sympathy, Clara,
that the world in general, while it would admire your loyalty if it
understood it, would yet do so in a pitying way that would be eminently
distasteful to you if on your own part you understood the world. You
see, you are regarded, no matter how unjustly, as deserted. You have a
remarkably clear head, and you must see what I mean without putting me
to the necessity of using disagreeable terms."
Clara flushed. She felt at that moment the full force of the calamity
that had overtaken her. While she was actively at work building up
theories, investigating clews, and examining those who might throw
light on the matter, her grief had been measurably lightened. The
thought that she was working, however doubtfully, toward an end, had
enabled her to keep her emotions in control. Her uncle's words, which
were evidently but the preface to an appeal to give up the struggle,
reopened her wounds. It was as if he had torn away the foundations of
that structure of the mind by which she had supported her heart. With
difficulty she restrained her tears, and responded:
"It would be better, uncle, to use plain language. Then there would be
no possible chance of a misunderstanding. I know how I am looked upon,
as deserted by my lover, perhaps not for another woman, but at all
events deserted by him. The world will say that it would comport better
with womanly dignity to suffer in silence and solitude, and that it is
unmaidenly to pursue the man."
"You use harsher language than I would have used had I spoken without
consideration of your feelings," interposed her uncle, nervously. His
niece's faculty for manifesting occasionally an imperious will, and
of firmly maintaining her own way without regard to general opinion,
had always been a bit of a terror to him. It was difficult for him to
reconcile it with her affectionate disposition, her real consideration
for the sufferings of others. He could not see that in this matter,
without the faintest trace of egotism, she unconsciously measured her
own suffering as infinitely greater than that of anybody else who was
related to the case, and that she as unconsciously asserted her right
to minister to that suffering in the way best calculated to alleviate
it. Such characters as hers, under the pressure of great trouble,
elevate self-interest to the very heights of nobility.
"I ask no consideration for my feelings," said Clara, almost coldly;
"it seems to me that real consideration would credit me not only with
dignified motives but with an intelligent basis for my conduct. Uncle
dear," and she suddenly crossed to him and put her arms about his neck,
"let me take that back. I didn't mean it. I wouldn't for the world say
an unkind word to you, but you see I feel my lonely position so keenly.
I do what I think is right, but there is no one to uphold me."
Mr. Pembroke disengaged her arms, and again the expression of pain
flitted across his face.
"I am doing as well as I can under the circumstances," he said huskily,
"not only to show you my deep sympathy, but to guide you also. For
your own interests, I must point out one possibility of your interview
to-morrow. I shall place no obstacle in the way of your seeing Lizzie
White, but I caution you, without knowing more about her than that she
left a good home, that she may take a most unfriendly attitude. If
there is anything unseemly in the meeting, I know that it will arise
from her. No one can tell me that she lacks your native refinement; it
must be so; a woman such as she is at heart may make a dreadful scene,
whether she be interested in Ivan or not. To be concerned in such a
scene, my dear child, would be a stigma from which even your goodness
could not escape. Clara, there is nothing so scandalous as a quarrel
between women when a man is in question."
"You wish me not to see her," said Clara, faintly.
Mr. Pembroke rose and paced up and down in extreme agitation for
several minutes, while Clara sat with a dreadful weight upon her heart;
for she not only loved her uncle, and wished earnestly to be guided
by him if possible, but she also realized that his warning was a wise
one. She had herself, with all her thought, scarcely considered how
she should approach Lizzie White. So certain was she that Ivan had not
eloped with her, that the interview itself had not appealed to her as
more than a friendly discussion of facts and rumors as to which both
would be in accord. But there was her theory that Lizzie might be an
accomplice of Poubalov's. What attitude might she not take, therefore,
in order to carry out her part in the spy's design?
"I would say yes," declared Mr. Pembroke at length, "for that is my
wish, but I do not, cannot say it. Go to this Lizzie White to-morrow,
Clara. You will know how to speak with her better than I can tell you.
I will myself go to the house with you, but you shall have your meeting
all alone if you so desire. Of course you do."
"Then, uncle," said Clara, "let me tell you of the strange things that
have occurred since I began to search for Ivan. I am sure you will
feel, when you know all, that I am justified in my general course,
however much I may have been mistaken in details."
Mr. Pembroke listened with the closest attention to the narrative. He
was deeply moved by it, and when she had finished he said brokenly:
"There is great villainy at work here."
Then he leaned his head upon his hand, shielding his eyes from hers
as she eagerly sought, not so much commendation of her persistence as
suggestion as to what to do, or some theory upon which to explain the
many mysteries that centered upon the disappearance of Ivan.
"I wonder," he mused at last, "if this could have been accident?"
"Accident, uncle!" exclaimed Clara, with just a touch of impatience;
"don't you see that if it had been accident, we should have known of
it? Think: in a busy street of a city no accident could have occurred
by which Ivan could be incapacitated without some report of it coming
to the authorities. Even if Ivan had not been taken to a hospital in
the usual way, but had fallen into the hands of private persons, it is
not possible that with all the stir that was made by his disappearance,
police or reporters should not have found some trace of him."
"True, true," said Mr. Pembroke, vacantly; "I was thinking--you see it
is hard to master all these strange details at once. I marvel at your
courage."
"Courage! What else could I do?" asked Clara.
"Nothing with your character, nothing else. You have done right, Clara.
I am very tired. Let us talk further of this in the morning."
Mr. Pembroke was not disposed to talk in the morning, however, and
Clara was engrossed with a long letter from Louise that had been mailed
on the train leaving Boston at midnight.
"Poubalov," she wrote, "was at the house when I returned from seeing
you off. If the man were capable of expressing emotion, I should say
that he was disappointed at not seeing you; but whatever he felt,
he masked it under his grand assumption of dignity and courtesy. He
had called, he said, to make his apologies for his extraordinary
leave-taking of the evening before, and also, he added with ponderous
humor, to recover his property. I got his hat and cane for him, and
what do you think! he had brought a lovely basket of flowers for you,
to plead his apologies, as he put it. There was no refusing such an
offering, dear, and I am enjoying their fragrance and rich colors as I
write. I hope this will reach you in time to be of use if Poubalov's
call can be of use to you in New York. I thought it my duty to report
it. I felt how immeasurably superior you are to me intellectually--I
won't draw other comparisons lest they be odious to one of us--for I
was utterly at a loss to draw him out. He didn't present his excuses
to me, and how he managed to evade doing so I can't quite see now as I
think it over, for he remained several minutes, talking with apparent
candor. The man himself is as great a mystery as anything connected
with your trouble. All I can say is that with one hat on his head,
and his other hat and his cane in his hand, he eventually took his
departure, promising to call again. There is one thing I managed not
to do, though it was quite plain, even to me, that he was trying to
find out. I didn't tell him where you were. Of course I had to say
that you were not at home, and in answer to direct questions that I
did not expect you before Saturday, but I didn't even hint at New York
or Lizzie White, and he made no allusion to either. Did I do right? I
hope so, for I have felt so often what a shame it is that I cannot be
of more help to you. I believe in Ivan as you do, dear, and my heart
and thoughts are with you."
They were at breakfast in the great dining-room of the hotel when Clara
read this letter, and she furtively kissed the paper that conveyed such
loyal sympathy to her. As she replaced the letter in the envelope, she
was surprised to see the old man Dexter hobbling across the room. There
was an ugly scowl upon his face as he bowed to her, and Mr. Pembroke
rose from his chair with an expression little less than fierce.
"Another time, Dexter," he exclaimed under his breath, taking the old
man by the arm and wheeling him around. As Mr. Pembroke walked him
away, Clara heard Dexter croak:
"What is she here for, Mat Pembroke?"
When her uncle returned, his face was still dark and he said:
"Business necessities, Clara, that sometimes compel a man to tolerate
disagreeable persons. I wouldn't have him near you, however."
"He is disagreeable, surely," responded Clara, "but I could have borne
with him for your sake, uncle."
The subject seemed intensely disagreeable to Mr. Pembroke, and nothing
further was said about it.
After breakfast Mr. Pembroke inquired the number of the house on Second
Avenue from which Lizzie White had written, and they set out to find it.
"I shall have to leave you, Clara," said her uncle, "as soon as I am
sure you have found the right place. I will call for you or I will put
a carriage at your disposal."
"There is no telling how long I shall be," returned Clara, "and I don't
see why you should need to inconvenience yourself. I have acquired
more self-dependence during the last three or four days than I ever
had before, and I think you can trust me to take care of myself.
But I should think it would be well to have a carriage at command;
and, uncle, all the expense I have been to thus far has come from my
allowance. You will let me pay for a carriage, won't you?"
"If you prefer to," said Mr. Pembroke, "and we will engage one in the
vicinity of the house as we can reach the place readily by a cross-town
line of cars."
So they proceeded by street-car, and when they alighted in Second
Avenue they were but a short distance from the desired number. Mr.
Pembroke signaled to a passing hack and instructed the driver to wait
near the house to which they were going. Then they continued their way
on foot.
Just before they came to the steps leading up to the door their
attention was attracted by the noise of a man running behind them, and
then a voice panting, "Miss Hilman! Miss Hilman!"
They turned about quickly, and, to her unspeakable surprise, Clara saw
that it was Litizki. His sallow face was flushed with the exertion of
his long run, for he had chased them afoot from the hotel. He could
hardly speak for lack of breath when he came up to them, but he did
manage to gasp:
"I've seen him, Miss Hilman, this morning!"