The young man whose life Celia had saved crossed the courtyard of the
building, and walked quickly into Victoria Street. Though he was a
fugitive, there was nothing furtive in his gait, and he looked straight
before him with a preoccupied air. As a matter of fact, he was not
thinking at that moment of his own escape, but of the face which had
looked down on him over the rail of the corridor. If Celia had been
moved by the expression in his eyes, as he looked up at her, he was
still more impressed by the tender, womanly pity in hers; and he was so
lost in the thought of all that she had done for him, of her courage and
compassion, that there was no room in his mind for any anxiety on his
own account.
But presently the sight of a policeman recalled Derrick Dene to the
peril of the situation. He fingered the five-pound note in his pocket
and stood at the corner of a street hesitating; then, with a little
gesture of determination, he walked on again quickly in the direction of
Sloane Square, reached it, and turning into one of the streets leading
from it he entered one of the tall buildings of expensive flats.
Declining the porter's offer of the lift, he went quickly up the stairs,
which, unlike those of Brown's Buildings, were carpeted and well-lit,
and rang the bell of a flat on the second floor.
"Lord Heyton in?" he inquired of the servant. "Yes, I know he is," he
added quickly, as he caught the scent of a cigarette. "Is he alone? All
right, don't trouble to announce me." He walked quickly across the
passage, entered a room and, closing the door behind him, turned the key
in the lock.
A young man was sprawling in a low chair before the fire. He was a
good-looking young man, very fair, with rather thin hair, parted in the
middle; his eyes were blue and somewhat prominent, his mouth weak and
sensual; he was in evening-dress, and presented a definite type of the
young man about town.
As he turned his head at the click of the lock and saw his visitor, his
face flushed hotly, his under-lip drooped, his eyes opened widely, and
he clutched at the arms of the chair. Fear was written all over him in
large letters. There was silence for a moment or two; then, with a catch
of his breath, he rose and involuntarily muttered the other man's name.
He also held out his hand; but Dene, ignoring it, seated himself on the
table and, pointing to the chair, said, curtly, but without anger:
"Sit down, Heyton. Sit down. Yes; I've come. You didn't expect to see
me. You thought you had got rid of me? Well, I'm going right enough; but
I wanted a word or two with you first."
Lord Heyton dropped back into the chair and, covertly wiping the sweat
from his face, which was white now, glanced from Dene to the fire, then
back again; but his eyes could get no higher than Dene's waistcoat.
"I--I suppose you've come to kick up a row, to bully me?" he said,
sullenly.
"Not at all," retorted Dene, coolly. "If I had wanted to kick up a row,
to bully you--in other words, to round on you and show you up, I should
have come before, the moment I knew how you had--sold me. Yes, that's
the word; sold me."
"I--I was hard driven," said Heyton, almost inaudibly. "I tell you that,
if I hadn't been able to put my hand on the money, I should have been
ruined. A man in my position can't stand being declared a defaulter.
I--I thought it would be all right; that my father would have stumped
up; but he left England for some beastly place abroad; where, I don't
know even know, and there was no getting at him. And there wasn't a
penny to be got out of those cursed lawyers----"
"Oh, you needn't trouble to explain," said Dene, grimly. "I understand
it all--Miriam has been to see me."
The young man in the chair started, his face flushed, and he looked
savagely, yet fearfully, at Dene.
"Miriam been to see you!" he repeated, huskily. "Why--what----!"
"When you told her that I was a forger, that I'd passed a false cheque,
you didn't think that she would go to me. You thought she would accept
your statement, as she has accepted your other lies about me, and just
drop me. Oh, yes; I know how you managed to get her away from me. Poor
girl! Unawares she let out a great deal in the few minutes she was with
me to-day. You blackened my character pretty considerably; and, by
George! you must have done it very well, or you would not have got her
to believe you. I've met some bad 'uns in my time, Heyton; but, upon my
word, I think you're the very worst of the lot. You're black rotten,
through and through. And yet you've got a decent girl not only to
believe in you, but to marry you--a liar, a coward, and a scoundrel."
The other man rose, his hands clenched. Dene jerked his head towards the
chair.
"Sit down," he said, as he sought in his pockets for a cigarette, found
it, and began to smoke. "I'm glad to see that I've touched you on the
raw. I didn't think there was a tender spot on you. Oh, sit down, man,
and put your fists in your pockets; you haven't the pluck to strike me.
I wish you had"--his eyes flashed ominously--"for I might be tempted to
give you the thrashing you deserve and I'm longing to give you. And
yet--no, I shouldn't; for I wouldn't defile my hands by touching you."
There was a pause, then, with a gesture, as if he had mastered himself,
Dene went on:
"Well, I have bullied you, after all, haven't I? And, upon my soul, I
didn't mean to; for I knew it would be only waste of breath. Nothing can
really touch you; and you'll forget every nasty thing I've said as soon
as you've got rid of me safely. No; what I came to say was this: I'm not
going to show you up. I'm going to take this thing upon me; you know why
well enough."
Heyton shot a glance at him, a glance full of hate and jealousy.
"Yes, it's for Miriam's sake," said Dene, quietly, without any sign of
emotion. "She and I were pals; nothing had ever come between us until
you turned up. She would have married me but for you. Oh, I'm not
blaming her; poor girl, there's a weak streak in her; she comes of a bad
lot. Of course, the Earl of Heyton, the son of a marquess, was a better
match than Derrick Dene, a nobody, with his fortune to make, his bare
living to get; but, on my soul, I think she would have stood by me, and
would have resisted the temptation, if you had not told lies about me
and persuaded her that I was an utter blackguard. And, by the way, you
did it rather well. I was quite astonished how she let things out just
now when she came to me. You did it very well. And I thought you were an
utter fool!"
The other man glanced wickedly under his brows and set his teeth, but he
said nothing; he was afraid to utter a word lest he should rouse his
victim from his state of calm and quiet.
"It was clever of you to saddle poor little Susie Morton's trouble on
me, while you were really the man--the scoundrel, I should say; it was
clever of you to rake up all my little sky-larkings and turn them into
something worse. Well, they say that 'all is fair in love and war.' You
won, you took her away from me--and it's about Miriam that I've come to
talk to you."
Heyton moistened his lips and, with his eyes fixed on his patent leather
boots, he said, thickly:
"Did you tell her that--the truth?"
Dene laughed shortly. "No; I didn't. Nine men out of ten would think I
was a fool for not doing so; certainly you would. But most men wouldn't
understand, and most assuredly you wouldn't, why I didn't. No; I didn't
tell her that I was innocent and that you were guilty; that you had
forged a cheque and got me, like a fool, to present it. I didn't even
tell her that it was you, you blackguard, who had ruined poor little
Susie. You look surprised."
Heyton swiftly withdrew his eyes, in which astonishment, amazement, and
something nearly approaching contempt, had shown, and Dene laughed with
bitter scorn.
"You can't understand that a man who has once loved a woman loves her
for always----"
He paused; for, at that moment, it was not the face of his old love, the
woman who had jilted him for a better match, that rose before him, but
that of the girl at Brown's Buildings who had stepped in between him and
death, talked him back to reason, given him her last five-pound note.
"--And that even if he has ceased to love her, he'll stand a lot to save
her from trouble; that he'll make any kind of sacrifice to keep disgrace
and shame from her. That's how I feel towards Miriam. I thought of you
being dragged off by a couple of bobbies to quod, and of how she would
suffer; and I remembered--which was a precious lucky thing for you--that
there was no one to suffer on my account. I thanked God--for the first
time--I'd no one belonging to me. That thought made it easier for me to
do what I am doing."
He tossed the end of the cigarette into the fire.
"I am going to make a bolt for it; and I looked in just to say a few
words to you, Heyton. I'm standing between you and a complete bust-up.
I'm doing it for Miriam's sake, not yours; and I want you to bear this
in mind: that if ever I hear of your treating her badly--oh, you needn't
look so virtuously indignant; I know your sort; you'd treat her badly
enough presently, if you hadn't a check on you. And I'm going to be that
check. Let me hear even a whisper of your acting on the cross with her,
and I'll come back, if it's from the other end of the world, to denounce
you. I've proofs enough. Oh, I'm not such a fool as you think; and, if
you don't treat Miriam fairly, I'll show you up, and probably give you,
into the bargain, the thrashing that's owing to you."
"You needn't talk about Miriam like that," said her husband, sullenly,
and with an affectation of righteous resentment. "I'm fond of her; I
shouldn't have done--well, what I have done, if I hadn't been. You
needn't insult me."
"My good man, I couldn't," said Dene. "One word more and, you'll be
relieved to hear, I'm off. For some reason or other the police, the
detectives, have been slow, or have failed to track me."
As he spoke, Heyton turned his head and looked at him curiously, with a
furtive, cunning expression; but he said nothing; indeed, his lips
closed tightly, as if in repression of speech.
"I shall leave England to-night," continued Dene; "and I may succeed in
giving them the slip. I know one or two out-of-the-way places--but I
needn't trouble you with my plans. All I want to say is that if I'm
caught I shall continue to hold my tongue. And you hold yours, as much
as you can; for, though you think you're pretty clever, you'd make a
silly kind of ass in a witness-box."
He got off the table, buttoned his coat, and took up his cap. The other
man rose and stood, fidgeting with a silver cigarette-box on the table
and looking from Dene's pale, haggard face to the floor.
"You're--you're behaving like a brick--you're doing me a good turn,
Dene----" he muttered, hoarsely.
"Oh, for God's sake, don't do that!" broke in Dene, with contemptuous
impatience. "Clear your mind of that idea. I'm playing the giddy-goat
not for your sake, my man; but--but for your wife's, for Miriam's."
"You're crossing to-night?" asked Heyton, hesitatingly, fearfully. "If
there's anything I can do to--to prove my gratitude----"
"You couldn't prove what doesn't exist," said Dene, with a laugh.
"You're incapable of gratitude. You hate me like poison, and, if it
wasn't for the risk to yourself, you'd like to throw up that window,
call for the police, and give me away." He paused a moment, and looked
the bent, cowardly figure up and down, from toe to crown. "You don't
mean to say that you were going to offer me money? Not really?" He
laughed, and at the laugh Heyton's face crimsoned with shame and rage.
"That would be too funny. I'm off. Remember what I've said. Treat Miriam
well, and you've seen and heard the last of me; let me hear a word--But
I've told you that already; and you're not likely to forget it. A coward
like you will think of his skin before anything else."
Heyton's teeth closed on his under-lip and he glanced at the window;
Dene saw the glance and understood it; with a gesture of infinite scorn
he sauntered slowly to the door, Heyton following him with clenched
hands, the veins swelling in his forehead, his face livid.
As the door closed behind Dene, Heyton sprang towards the bell; his
finger touched it, but he did not press it, and, with an oath, he sank
into his chair and mopped his face.
Five minutes later, the woman whom Celia had seen in the corridor
entered the room. She was a pretty, graceful woman, little more than a
girl; but the beauty of the face was marred by a weak mouth and chin.
She was exquisitely dressed, her fingers were covered with rings, and
diamonds glittered on her snowy neck. Her face was pale, and her eyes
were swollen with weeping; and it was with something like a sob that she
said, as she stood at the table and looked down at the sullen, ghastly
face of her husband:--
"Someone has been here--just gone; I heard a footstep; I know it.
Derrick has been here."
He would have lied to her if he had thought she would have believed the
lie.
"Yes," he said. "He has just gone. He--he came to say good-bye."
"Good-bye!" she repeated, her brows knitting with perplexity and
trouble. "Is he going? Where? Why? Didn't you tell him that Mr. Brand,
the lawyer, had--had paid the money and settled everything? Oh, if I had
only known it when I went to Derrick; if the letter had only come
before, so that I could have told him there was no need for him to fear
any--any trouble! But you told him, Percy?"
"Yes, of course I told him," he said, staring at his boots; "but he had
made up his mind to go abroad; and--and, 'pon my soul, I think it's the
best thing he could do."
She looked down on him with a face still showing trouble and doubt.
"But--but, Percy, he hadn't any money; he admitted as much to me. And I
couldn't give him any."
"That's all right," he said, clearing his throat. "I--I saw to that. I
couldn't give him much, unfortunately; but I scraped together all I'd
got. It will leave us pretty short of coin for a bit, Miriam."
She went to him quickly, put her arm round his shoulder, and, bending,
kissed him. "You did! That was good of you; it was like you,
Percy--after all that he has done, and the trouble he might have got you
into. I'm glad you gave him all you'd got; and I don't mind running
short."
Her cheeks were wet and wetted his; he drew his hand across his face
with barely-concealed impatience and annoyance.
"That's all right," he said. "Of course, I had to do the best I could
for him, poor devil! for the sake of--of old times. I didn't forget that
you were once fond of him--well, rather taken with him; that you were
old friends. Look here, Miriam, we don't want to harp upon this affair;
it's a beastly bad business, and the sooner we forget it the better. For
Heaven's sake, let's drop it here and now. I shan't refer to it, shan't
mention Derrick Dene's name again; and don't you. Just push that tray
over, will you? I've had a deuced unpleasant scene with him, I can tell
you; and it's upset me deucedly. But there!" he added, with a jerk of
the head, as he mixed a stiff soda and whisky, "there's an end of him,
so far as we're concerned. What?"