Derrick reached London on one of those mornings when she is at her very
best, and he felt his heart grow warm within him as he strode the
familiar pavements, and inhaled the air which seemed to him laden, not
with smoke but with the flowers which were blooming bravely in the parks
and squares. He had seen some beautiful places during his wanderings,
but it seemed to him that none of them could compare with this London
which every Englishman, abuse it as he may, regards sometimes with an
open and avowed affection, sometimes with a sneaking fondness.
Derrick was so full of the love of life, so thrilling with that sense of
youth and health for which millionaires would barter all their gold,
that it seemed to him difficult to believe that he was the same man who,
only a few months ago, had paced the same streets, weighed down by
misery and despair; indeed, as he thought of all that had happened, the
events took to themselves the character of a phantasmagoria in which Mr.
Bloxford, the circus people and Donna Elvira moved like insubstantial
shadows. But, standing out clearly in his mind, was the fact that he was
in London, with his pockets full of money and with one desire, one hope
predominating over all others, the desire, the hope of seeing the girl
at Brown's Buildings.
He would have made straight for "the Jail"; but Derrick's sense of duty
had not deserted him, and with a sigh of resignation, he betook himself
to an engineering firm, whose offices were in that Victoria Street down
which he had almost slunk the night he had left London, a fugitive. He
presented his credentials, transacted his business, and then, with a
fast-beating heart, walked--he could not have sat in a taxi, though it
should exceed the speed limit--to the Buildings.
So great was the emotion that assailed him as he stepped into the cool
shadow of the stone passage, that he actually trembled. The whole scene
of that eventful night rose before him so plainly that it might have
been the preceding one, instead of months ago; in imagination, he could
see her face, as she bent over the rail and whispered her good-bye.
It was the hour at which the Buildings is most quiet, and as Derrick
went up the stone stairs, he did not meet any one; he stood for a moment
or two opposite Celia's door, actually afraid to knock; for, though he
had said to Donna Elvira that the girl might be married, that he might
have lost sight of her for ever, he had always pictured her as behind
that door, and always cherished the conviction that, if ever he should
return, he should find her there. At last, he knocked. No response came.
He knocked again, and the sound of the diminutive knocker echoed
prophetically amidst the stone walls; still there was no response. His
heart sank within him, and he leant against the iron hand-rail, gnawing
at his lip with a keen disappointment, a blank dismay. He tried to tell
himself that her absence might be only temporary, that she would return:
it was ridiculous to suppose that she should not go out sometimes, that
she should be sitting there within the room, waiting for him: absolutely
ridiculous!
He lit a cigarette and waited on the merely improbable chance of her
return; the minutes grew into half an hour before he realised that he
might wait hours, and that it would be easy to inquire if she were still
living there. All the same, he lingered, as if he were loath to take his
eyes from that door through which she had come to him as an angel of
rescue--no, far better, as a pure, a brave woman.
Presently he heard the sound of slow footsteps ascending the stairs.
They paused on the floor beneath him, and Derrick, descending quickly,
saw the thin, bent figure of an old man; he held a violin-case and a
small parcel of grocery under his arm, and was on the point of unlocking
the door immediately beneath that of the girl. The old man turned his
head as Derrick came down upon him, and Derrick, notwithstanding the
state of his mind, was struck by the nobility and dignity of the thin,
wasted face and the dark, penetrating eyes.
"I beg your pardon," said Derrick. "Can you tell me----?"
He stopped, for the old man had dropped the parcel and stood looking,
not at it, but at Derrick. Derrick hastened to pick it up, and,
instinctively, raised his hat as he handed the small package.
"I'm afraid I startled you, sir," he said, with that note of respect and
deference which came into Derrick's voice when he was addressing women
and the aged: it was just one of those little characteristics which
attracted people to the young man, and made them take to him at first
acquaintance. "I wanted to ask you a question about a young lady, the
young lady who lives in the room above this." For the life of him, he
could not bring himself to ask the question straight out.
Mr. Clendon regarded him with a calm and courteous scrutiny, which, for
all its courteousness, had a note of guardedness and caution. "What do
you wish to ask about her?" he inquired. He unlocked the door as he put
the question, and waving his long, white hand towards the room, added,
"Will you not come in?"
Derrick stepped into the plain, meagrely-furnished room, and took the
seat to which Mr. Clendon motioned him. The old man set the parcel and
violin-case on the table and, taking a chair, sat with his back to the
light and waited in silence.
"I am afraid I am intruding," said Derrick, still with that deferential
note in his voice. "I shall be glad if you can tell me if the young lady
is still living above you."
"Why do you ask?" said Mr. Clendon. "Forgive me, you have not yet
mentioned her name."
"I don't know it," said Derrick; "but I may say that I am a friend of
hers. I have every reason to be, for she did me a great service. One
moment, sir"--as Mr. Clendon opened his lips--"this must seem rather
extraordinary to you, but I am sure that she would be glad to see me."
Mr. Clendon's eyes seemed to pierce Derrick through and through; then,
removing his gaze, as if he were satisfied, Mr. Clendon said:
"The name of the young lady is Grant--Celia Grant; she is not now living
in the Buildings."
Derrick's eyes dropped, and he drew a long breath; his disappointment
was so obvious that Mr. Clendon said:
"Is your business with Miss Grant one of importance, may I ask?"
"The greatest importance--to me," said Derrick, who felt somehow
inspired to confidence; there was something in this old man's manner and
attitude, in the low, rhythmic voice, that harmonized with Derrick's
mood and influenced him in a fashion strange and puzzling.
"I am afraid I can't tell you the whole--well, you may call it 'story';
but I may say that I am deeply indebted to Miss Grant, and that I am
very desirous of paying that debt--no; I can't do that!--but of seeing
her and telling her that her kindness, her goodness, to me were not
thrown away."
"An amiable sentiment," said Mr. Clendon, with dignified simplicity. "No
doubt, Miss Grant would be glad to hear it from your lips; but she is
not here, she has gone."
"I am sorry, sir," said Derrick, rising, and the genuineness of his
assertion was attested by the deep sigh which accompanied it. "I don't
like to ask you----" he hesitated--"but you would be rendering me a very
great service, greater than you can imagine, if you would, if you could,
tell me where to find her."
There was a silence. Mr. Clendon sat perfectly immovable; but his eyes
were searching Derrick's face, and the young man stood meeting the gaze
honestly, candidly, unshrinkingly.
"I do not know whether I should be doing right in giving you Miss
Grant's address," said Mr. Clendon at last. "But I will admit that I am
tempted to do so."
"If you would----" began Derrick; but Mr. Clendon stopped him with an
upraised hand.
"You say that you are a friend of Miss Grant's--I seem to remember you,
though I have only seen you at a distance, and then indistinctly. Are
you not the young man who lived in the flat opposite hers?"
Derrick's face grew red. "I am, sir," he said. "It was while I was
living there that Miss Grant did me the service of which I speak. I was
in great trouble; in about as bad a trouble as a man could be; in fact,
I had come to a point beyond which it seemed to me--I was a fool!--that
it was impossible to carry on. At that moment of folly and madness, Miss
Grant came to my aid, and saved me--you will think me extravagant if I
say--from death; but that's the real fact. I did not know her name until
you told me just now; I saw her for only a few minutes; those few
minutes, and her angelic goodness, changed the whole current of my life.
Isn't it only natural that I should want to see her, to tell her----"
He broke off abruptly and turned away to the window. As the piercing
eyes followed him, they grew troubled, the thin lips quivered and the
wasted hand that lay on the table closed and unclosed spasmodically.
"Will you tell me your name?" asked the low voice. "Mine is Clendon."
Derrick hesitated for a moment; then he remembered Donna Elvira's
injunction that he should bear his assumed name while in London.
"Sydney Green, sir."
"And you have come from abroad?" said Mr. Clendon. "I can see that by
your tanned face, by the character of your attire."
"From South America," said Derrick. "I am here on a mission, on business
for an employer. I am afraid I cannot tell you any more; I've only just
arrived and am staying at the Imperial in Western Square. If you think I
have told you sufficient, if you can trust me, I shall be very grateful
if you will give me Miss Grant's address. I wish I could convince you
that I am asking it from no unworthy motive."
"You have already done so," said Mr. Clendon, quietly. "I will give you
her address. Miss Grant is acting as librarian at Lord Sutcombe's house,
at Thexford Hall."
"Lord Sutcombe!" muttered Derrick, with an imperceptible start. The
colour again flooded his face; his gratitude, his joy were so great
that, for a moment, they rendered him speechless, and his voice was
broken when he could command it.
"I don't know how to thank you, sir," he said, and, impulsively, he held
out his hand.
Mr. Clendon took it after a moment's pause; and they stood, the old man
and the young man, looking into each other's eyes, and Derrick's--no
shame to him--were moist. For, think of it! he feared that he had lost
the girl on whom his heart had been set ever since the first moment he
had seen her; and now this old man had put him in the way of finding
her. They stood with clasped hands for longer than is usual; and Derrick
was too absorbed in his own emotion to notice the tremor in the thin
fingers which grasped his.
"I see that you will go to Miss Grant at once," said Mr. Clendon, with a
flicker of a smile, that was not one of irony, but of sympathy.
"By the first train, and as fast as it will take me," said Derrick, with
the note of youth and hope ringing in his voice. "Look here, sir," he
went on, impelled by a strange feeling, "I may as well tell you that
which you have no doubt guessed already. I--I love Miss Grant. It would
be very strange, if I didn't, considering that she's the most beautiful
girl I've ever seen, and all she did for me. All the time I've been away
I've thought of her and longed to see her again. Not a moment of the day
or the waking night----But I beg your pardon, sir, I'm afraid you'll
think me--rather mad."
"Yours is a madness common to youth, and befitting it well," said Mr.
Clendon. "That you should love her is not strange; she is all that you
say of her. Are you sure that you are worthy of her?"
"Good lord, no!" exclaimed Derrick, impetuously. "No man that ever was
born could be worthy of her; no man could see her, be with her five
minutes----Why, do you know, all the while I was talking to you, before
you called her 'Miss' Grant, I was tortured by the dread that has made
many an hour miserable for me, since I saw her last--the dread that some
other man--that she might be married----"
"She is not married," said Mr. Clendon, with a faint smile, "though it
is probable that many men have wanted to marry her."
"I've been thanking God that she is free, ever since I gleaned the fact
from your words," said Derrick. "I'm going down to her at once. May I
tell her that I have seen you, that you gave me her address?"
"You may," said Mr. Clendon. "Miss Grant honours me with her friendship;
I hope, I trust, her affection."
After a pause, he added:
"You are staying in England for some time?"
"For some little time," said Derrick, stifling a sigh at the thought of
ever again leaving the girl of his heart.
"May I ask you to come to see me when you return to London?" asked Mr.
Clendon; and his tone, though courteously conventional, was fraught with
a certain earnestness.
"Of course, I will, sir," replied Derrick, promptly. "You have been very
kind to me; you might have answered my question with an abrupt negative,
have refused me the information; instead of which, you have--well, you
have been awfully good to me; you have relieved my mind of a load of
apprehension, and set me in the way of finding Miss Grant. Yes; you have
been very good to me, and I hope you will let me see you again. Besides,
you are a friend of hers, and that's quite enough to make me want to
know more of you."
"Then come to me when you return," said Mr. Clendon. "But do not let me
trespass on your time, Mr. Green; you must have other claims, those of
your people, your parents."
"Haven't any, sir," answered Derrick, gravely. "I'm all alone in the
world--for the present," he added, his eyes shining with the hope that
glowed in his breast.
"That is a strange statement," said Mr. Clendon, his brows raised, his
eyes fixed on Derrick's face.
"But it's true, unfortunately," said Derrick. "I must be going now, sir.
Let me see, Waterloo is the station for Thexford. I'll go there and wait
for the first train."
He held out his hand and the two men shook hands again; and Mr. Clendon
stood at the door and watched the young man as he went swiftly down the
steps, as if his life depended on his haste; the old man went back to
his room and, sinking into his chair, covered his eyes with his hands
and sat as if lost in thought--and memories. And, strangely enough, it
was not of the young man he was thinking, but of a very beautiful woman,
half woman, half girl, with black hair and brilliant eyes, with the
blood of the South mantling in her cheeks, with the fire of the South,
passionate, impetuous, uncontrollable, in eyes and cheek; a woman of
fire and strong will, hard to understand, impossible to control; a woman
to make or wreck a man's life. The woman whose vision rose before the
old man, who sat, a bowed and desolate figure, in his chair, had wrecked
his. Strange that the meeting with this young man had called up that
vision, strange that his face and voice had revivified the memory of the
past. With a sigh, a gesture of the flexible hand, as if he were putting
the matter from him, Mr. Clendon took his violin from its case and began
to play.