A MYSTERIOUS COMMUNICATION.
THE ATHENIAN CLUB was the most up-to-date thing of its kind in London.
Although it had been established over eight years it was as new as on
the day of its creation, and not only kept abreast of the times, but in
many instances went ahead of them. The Athenians of old time were always
crying out for something new; and their prototypes of London, following
in their footsteps, formed a body of men who were ever on the look-out
for novelty. Hence the name of this club, which adopted for its motto
the classic cry, "Give us something new," and acted well up to the
saying. The Athenian Club was the pioneer of everything.
It would take a long time to recount the vagaries for which this coterie
had been responsible. If one more daring spirit than the rest invented a
new thing or reinstated on old one, his fellows followed like a flock of
intelligent sheep and wore the subject threadbare, till some more
startling theory initiated a new movement. The opinion of the club took
its color from the prevailing "fad" of the hour, and indeed many of the
aforesaid "fads" were invented in its smoke room. It should have been
called "The Ephemeral Club," from the rapidity with which its fanciers
rose to popularity and vanished into obscurity.
After all, such incessant novelty is rather fatiguing. London is the
most exhausting city in the world in which to live. From all quarters of
the globe news is pouring in, every street is crowded with life and
movement; the latest ideas of civilization here ripen to completion. It
is impossible to escape from the contagion of novelty; it is in the air.
Information salutes one at every turn; it pours from the mouths of men;
it thrusts itself before the eye in countless daily and weekly
newspapers; it clicks from every telegraph wire, until the brain is
wearied with the flood of ephemeral knowledge. All this plethora of
intellectual life was concentrated in the narrow confines of the
Athenian Club House. No wonder its members complained of news.
"What is the prevailing passion with the Athenian at present?" asked
Larcher as he stepped briskly along Piccadilly beside Tait.
"The New Literature!"
"What is that?"
"Upon my word, I can hardly tell you," replied Tait, after some
cogitation. "It is a kind of impressionist school, I fancy. Those who
profess to lead it insist upon works having no plot, and no action, or
no dramatic situations. Their idea of a work is for a man and
woman--both vaguely denominated 'he' and 'she'--to talk to one another
through a few hundred pages. Good Lord, how they do talk, and all about
their own feelings, their own woes, their own troubles, their own
infernal egotisms! The motto of 'The New Literature' should be 'Talk!
talk! talk!' for it consists of nothing else."
"Why not adopt Hamlet's recitation," suggested Larcher laughingly,
"'Words! words! words!'"
"Oh, 'The New Literature' wants nothing from the past! Not even a
quotation," said Tait tartly. "Woman--the new woman--is greatly to the
fore in this latest fancy. She writes about neurotic members of her own
sex, and calls men bad names every other page. The subjects mostly
discussed in the modern novel by the modern woman, are the regeneration
of the world by woman, the failure of the male to bridle his appetites,
and the beginning of the millennium which will come when women get their
own way."
"Haven't they got their own way now?"
"I should think so. I don't know what further freedom they want. We live
in a world of petticoats nowadays. Women pervade everything like
microbes. And they are such worrying creatures," pursued Tait
plaintively, "they don't take things calmly like men do, but talk and
rage and go into hysterics every other minute. If this sort of thing
goes on I shall retire with Dormer to an uninhabited island."
"It is easily seen that you are not a friend to the new movement," said
Larcher, with a smile, "but here we are. Wait in the smoke room, like a
good fellow, while I see after my correspondence."
"You will find me in the writing room," replied Tait. "I have lost my
morning pipe, and do not intend to smoke any more till after luncheon."
"I don't believe you're a man, Tait, but a clockwork figure wound up to
act in the same manner at the same moment. And you are such a horribly
vulgar piece of mechanism."
Tait laughed, gratified by this tribute to his methodical habits, so,
leaving Larcher to see after his letters, he vanished into the writing
room. Here he wrote an apologetic telegram to his friend Freak, and sent
it off so that it might reach that gentleman before he started for
Richmond. Then he scribbled a few notes on various trifling matters of
business which called for immediate attention, and having thus disposed
of his cares, ensconced himself in a comfortable armchair to wait for
Claude.
In a few minutes Larcher made his appearance with a puzzled expression
on his face, and two open letters in his hand. Taking a seat close to
that of Tait, he at once began to explain that the news contained in the
letters was the cause of the expression aforesaid.
"My other letters are nothing to speak of," said he, when seated, "but
these two fairly puzzle me. Number one is from Mr. Hilliston, asking me
to call; the other is from a Margaret Bezel, with a similar request. Now
I know Mr. Hilliston as guardian, lawyer, and banker, but who is
Margaret Bezel?"
Tait shook his wise little head. Well-informed as he was in several
matters, he had never heard of Margaret Bezel.
"She lives at Hampstead, I see," continued Claude, referring to the
letter. "Clarence Cottage, Hunt Lane. That is somewhere in the vicinity
of Jack Straw's Castle. I wonder who she is, and why she wants to see
me."
"You have never heard of her?" asked Tait dubiously. He was never quite
satisfied with Larcher's connections with the weaker sex.
"Certainly not," replied the other, with some heat. "If I had I would
assuredly remember so odd a name. Bezel! Bezel! Something to do with a
ring, isn't it?"
"It might have something to do with a wedding ring," said Tait, with a
grim smile. "The lady may have matrimonial designs on you."
"Bah! She may be a washerwoman for all you know, or a wife, or a widow,
or Heaven only knows what. But that is not the queerest part of the
affair, for Mr. Hilliston----But here, read the lady's letter first, the
gentleman's next, and tell me what you think of them. Upon my word, I
can make neither top nor tail of the business!"
(_The First Letter._)
"April 18, 1892.
"DEAR SIR: Will you be so kind as to call and see me at Clarence
Cottage, Hunt Lane, Hampstead, as I have an important
communication to make to you regarding your parents.
"Yours truly,
"MARGARET BEZEL."
(_The Second Letter._)
"LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS, June 10, 1892.
"DEAR CLAUDE: Call and see me here as soon as you arrive in
town, and should you receive a communication from one Margaret
Bezel, bring it with you. On no account see the lady before you
have an interview with me. This matter is more important than
you know of, and will be duly explained by me when you call.
"Yours sincerely,
"FRANCIS HILLISTON."
Tait read these two letters carefully, pinched his chin reflectively,
and looked at Claude in a rather anxious manner.
"Well, sir," said the latter impatiently, "what is your opinion?"
Tait's opinion was given in one word, and that not of the nicest
meaning.
"Blackmail."
"Blackmail!" repeated Larcher, taken aback, as well he might be. "What
do you mean?"
"I may be wrong," said Tait apologetically, "but this is the only
conclusion to which I can come. I read the matter this way: Margaret
Bezel knows something about your parents, and wishes to reveal it to
you, possibly on condition that you pay her a sum of money. Hilliston
evidently knows that such is her intention, and wishes to put you on
your guard. Hence he asks you to see him before you accept the
invitation of the lady."
"H'm! This is feasible enough. But what possible communication can this
woman be likely to make to me which would involve blackmail. My parents
both died when I was four years of age. She can't have any evil to say
of them after twenty-five years."
"You must question Hilliston as to that," replied Tait, shrugging his
shoulders. "I think you ought to see him this afternoon. He knows you
are in town. I suppose?"
"I wrote from Wellington to tell him that I was returning in the
_Kailargatin_," said Claude, glancing at the letter. "He must have been
informed by the paper of her arrival yesterday, for this note is dated
the same day. To-day is the eleventh."
"But surely Hilliston knew you would call as soon as you arrived?"
"He might be certain that I would do so within the week, at all events,"
answered Larcher reflectively. "That is what makes his letter the more
puzzling. The matter must be very urgent when he demands an immediate
interview."
"I am certain he wishes to forestall this lady," said Tait, picking up
the letter of Margaret Bezel. "She, at all events, knows nothing of your
movements, for the note is dated the 10th of April, when you were in New
Zealand."
"Humph! It is very odd, Tait."
"It is extremely odd, and too important to be neglected. Call on Mr.
Hilliston this afternoon, and send him a wire now to make an
appointment."
"I hope I am not going to have a bad quarter of an hour," observed
Claude, as he wrote out the telegram. The mystery of the matter ruffled
his usual serenity.
"I sincerely trust you are not," replied the other, touching the bell
for the waiter; "but I must say I do not like the look of those two
epistles."
The telegram was duly dispatched, and after a few more conjectures as to
the motive of the communications, Larcher went upstairs to luncheon with
his friend. Halfway through the meal he was struck with an idea.
"Margaret Bezel must be old, Tait."
"How do you know?"
"If she knows anything of my parents she must have been their friend or
servant, and as they died twenty-five years ago she can be no chicken."
"True enough! But don't go out and meet your troubles halfway, Claude.
It will be time enough to worry should Hilliston give you bad news. By
the way, I suppose you'll stay with him to-night?"
"No doubt. He has bought a new house in Kensington Gore, and wishes me
to have a look at it. I shall be glad to see his wife again. Dear old
lady, she has been a second mother to me, and he like a father."
"And I like a brother," interposed Tait, laughing. "As a lonely orphan
you have to depend upon public charity for your relatives. But talking
about new houses, you must see mine."
"What! Are you a householder?"
"A householder, not a landed proprietor," said Tait, with pride. "I have
purchased an old Manor House and a few acres at Thorston, about eight
miles from Eastbourne. You must come down and see it. I have just had it
furnished and put in order. A week or so there will do you good, and
give me much pleasure."
"I shall be delighted to come," said Larcher hastily, "that is, if there
is no troublesome business to detain me in London."
"Well, you will know shortly. After all, Hilliston may give you good
news, instead of bad."
"Bah! You don't believe that, Tait."
"I don't indeed! But I am trying to comfort you."
"After the fashion of Job's friends," retorted Claude promptly. "Well,
you may be right, for I do not like the look of things myself. However,
I must take bad fortune along with good. Hitherto all has gone well with
me, and I sincerely trust this letter from Margaret Bezel is not a
forerunner of trouble."
"Should it be so, you will always have at least one friend to stand by
you."
"Thank you, Tait," replied Larcher, grasping the outstretched hand.
"Should the time come for testing your friendship, I shall have no
hesitation in putting it to the proof. And the time is coming," added
he, tapping the pocket which held the letter, "of that I am certain."
"What about our theater to-night?" demanded Tait dubiously.
"It all depends on my interview with Hilliston."
Tait said nothing at the moment, and shortly afterward they parted,
Larcher to seek his guardian in Lincoln's Inn Fields, Tait to return to
his chambers.
"Humph!" said the latter thoughtfully, "there will be no theater for us
to-night. I don't like the look of things at all. The deuce take
Margaret Bezel!"