FOOL'S PARADISE LOST
Leslie Chermside walked out of his lodgings in the Ottermouth main
street and struck downwards towards the parade. He had promised to take
Violet Maynard and Aunt Sarah Dymmock out for a sail in a boat he had
hired, and, lover-like, he was nearly an hour ahead of the appointment
he had made with the two ladies to meet him on the beach.
Three days had passed since the unpremeditated avowal of his love for
the millionaire manufacturer's daughter. They slipped by like a happy
dream, no care for the future, or the deadlock to which the future must
inevitably bring him, disturbing the sweet dalliance of the present till
the previous evening. He had dined at the Manor House alone with the
family and, as they sat over their wine after the departure of Violet
and Aunt Sarah, Montague Maynard had, quite kindly, put to him some
pertinent questions, the drift of which there was no mistaking. Mr.
Maynard would not have attained to his position in the commercial world
had he not been a student of men and things, and, without definitely
stating as much, he let it be clearly understood that he was not blind
to what was going on. His manner implied that he was not unfriendly,
but, at the same time, in asking about the young ex-Lancer's resources,
he spoke as if he had a right to the information.
He opened the battle in his usual blunt, jovial fashion, without any
beating about the bush--
"So, my young friend, you're a warm man, Travers Nugent tells me. Lucky
chap, to possess inherited wealth, though I'm not sure that I wouldn't
have preferred you to have made a pile by hard work, as I have."
Leslie suddenly finding himself on the edge of a precipice, clutched for
the only available support--a deprecating and rather shamefaced laugh.
"Mr. Nugent must be given to exaggeration, sir," he said. "I have never
represented myself as a rich man. As a matter of fact I am--not by any
means what you would consider rich."
He thought grimly of the few L5 notes left to him out of the sum
advanced by Nugent for current expenses during the bogus courtship of
the girl now dearer to him than life. Something of the rueful irony in
his mind must have been reflected in his face, for Mr. Maynard, after a
sidelong glance at him and a sip of port, continued--
"Now, my lad, I've been and set your back up by hinting that you didn't
earn your money. At any rate, you must be pretty well lined to be able
to chuck the army at your age, and to possess such a steam yacht as
Nugent has described to me."
"I am afraid, sir, that Nugent's imagination has run away with him,"
Leslie replied, flushing hotly. "The yacht at Weymouth, in which I had
been going to travel, is not my own property."
"You have abandoned your intention?"
"Entirely."
A constrained silence fell upon the two men. The blue smoke of their
cigars floated over the array of decanters, the luscious fruits and
glittering plate. On one the demon of distrust had been unchained; on
the other, a cloud of apprehension, threatening the short-lived bliss of
the last few days, had swooped from an azure sky. It was Montague
Maynard who broke the spell, going, as was his way, direct to the point.
"Look here, Chermside," he blurted out. "I like you, and so does old
Sally Dymmock--'cute observers, both of us. But there's something not
quite above-board--I don't say about you, but about your circumstances.
I'm the last man to judge anybody hastily, and you may have the best of
reasons for reticence; but I just want to warn you that if you come to
me with a proposal which I need not define I shall expect perfect
frankness."
Leslie's heart sank within him, for perfect frankness was what he would
never be able to accord. How was he to explain the fact that he was a
penniless man without prospects, in face of the impression which, if not
actually inspired by him, he allowed to remain, that he was rolling in
money? Still less could he explain the motive which had prompted him to
acquiescence in Nugent's description of him. And the only alternative to
explanation was once for all to abandon hopes of Violet, and to bear his
loss as manfully as he could, accepting it as a punishment for his
contemplated evil-doing.
"When I come to you with a definite proposal, sir, I shall naturally
endeavour to satisfy you," was his long-delayed reply.
It was lame enough, but it served its immediate purpose of staving off
the day of reckoning. For Montague Maynard rose abruptly from the table,
flinging down his napkin with a gesture of impatience, and obviously
restraining an impulse to press his guest for a declaration of his
intentions.
"Come and join the ladies," he said curtly.
An uncomfortable half-hour had followed in the drawing-room, the air
vibrant with an electric tension which all were conscious of, and, as is
customary on such occasions, increased by their fatuous efforts to
relieve it. Violet talked brilliantly--more brilliantly than usual,
perhaps--of things that did not matter, watching her father and lover
with a pained surprise which her brave efforts could not wholly conceal.
Aunt Sarah seized such opportunities as were offered to her of being
openly rude to every one in turn, nodding her priceless lace cap to
emphasize her points, stabbing her lean fingers at the successive
victims of her caustic tongue, and galvanizing her mummy-like face into
grimaces that would have terrified strangers.
But, so far as Leslie was concerned, it was reserved for the old lady to
save the situation. When she got up to go she followed Mr. Maynard and
Violet into the hall to speed the parting guest, winding up a stilted
evening with the request that Mr. Chermside would take her and her
great-niece on what she called "the water" the next day. She and Violet
would motor out to the Ottermouth beach, and meet him there at 11.30 if
"the elements were propitious."
Leslie had, of course, consented, though he had to conceal a certain
amount of reluctance in doing so. After Mr. Maynard's plain speech he
was not sure if it was not his duty to refrain from seeing Violet again.
At any rate the time had come when he must quit the fool's paradise in
which he had been living since the scene in the rose-garden, and
seriously consider his position. But Miss Dymmock's request was a
command, and it had this merit--that whatever course he decided on he
would have one more hour in the company of his beloved.
Now, as he went to keep the appointment, he was no nearer a solution of
his dilemma in spite of anxious deliberation through the long hours of a
sleepless night. He was prepared to suffer the pain of giving Violet up,
but from her own sweet confession he knew that in vanishing from her
life he would inflict upon her a pain equal to his own. He shrank from
dealing the cruel blow. And, again, the necessity of guarding her
against the plot which he was all too sure was hatching in Nugent's
brain was a strong inducement to remain on the spot as long as possible.
Racked with indecision, he loitered on the parade and absent-mindedly
watched the bathers till one of the Maynard motor cars swept round the
corner by the coastguard station, pulling up opposite the boat which the
fisherman in his employ had in readiness. He thought that Violet looked
pale and preoccupied as she stepped from the car, but Aunt Sarah was as
alert and determined as ever, and, hardly deigning a word of greeting,
started across the pebbly beach for the boat. Leslie and Violet
followed, the sight of the little old lady's spindle shanks, as she
trudged over the stones with skirts held high, for the moment taking
them out of themselves.
A little later the boat was running eastward round the headland at the
river's mouth before a gently favouring breeze. The wind being steady
and the sea smooth, the boatman was left behind, Violet taking the helm
and Leslie minding the sheet. Aunt Sarah, settled comfortably forward of
the little stick of a mast, spent the first five minutes in a careful
scrutiny of the sky, and then, finding that there were no outward
evidences that she was to be drowned that morning, suddenly astounded
her shipmates with the exclamation--
"You two are in love with each other, and you can't deny it!"
There succeeded ten seconds of intense silence, and then Violet, who was
familiar with her aged relative's little ways, laughed at the
consternation on her lover's bronzed face.
"It is no use, Leslie," she said. "Aunt Sarah is a witch, and knows the
secrets of our inmost hearts. We may as well confess."
"I don't suppose it is a crime," Chermside murmured weakly, in his
confusion taking an unnecessary pull at the sheet and sending a spray
over Aunt Sarah's mantle.
"No, young man, it's not a crime," she snapped when she had recovered
her balance and her equanimity. "I'm a bit of a character reader, and I
don't think you're capable of crime--havn't got the backbone for it. But
I know that you are weak, and that you're in some sort of a hobble that
you ought to be pulled out of. Now just you be straight with me. If you
had really been the man of the means you've been credited with in this
gossipy little hole you'd have gone to my nephew Montague Maynard and
asked him for his daughter three days ago, eh?"
"I admit that. There have been misunderstandings for which I am partly
but not entirely responsible," said Leslie, marvelling at the almost
uncanny insight with which the old lady had read between the lines, and
wondering how much of his secret she had guessed.
She proceeded to cross-examine him after the fashion of a barrister
handling a hostile witness. "Leaving aside for the moment the question
of financial position," she continued, "is there any other cause or
impediment why you should not be joined in holy matrimony to my
great-niece? As a man of honour you will answer me truly and without
reserve."
Leslie stole a glance at Violet and saw that she had become suddenly
grave. Nurtured in the midst of luxury, she hardly knew the value of
money, and had the most profound contempt for it; but she cherished the
highest ideals of what a man's moral worth should be, and she was
clearly awaiting his answer with eager interest.
"Yes," said Leslie, scarcely hesitating, "there is the strongest
possible reason why Violet should not marry me. I have already urged it
upon her--that I am utterly unworthy."
"He is not so black as he would paint himself, Aunt Sarah," the girl
pleaded. "Some quixotic idea----"
"Mind your steering or we shall all be in the water," the old lady cut
her short. "Now, Mr. Chermside, be explicit, please. Why are you
unworthy to marry my niece?"
"Because," replied Leslie, who had expected the question. "I consented,
under stress of peculiar circumstances, to aid and abet a base
conspiracy for doing a great injury to an innocent person. It is true
that I repented and left my tempters in the lurch, but I cannot hold
myself white-washed on that account."
Miss Sarah Dymmock, not having a barrister's gown to hitch up, adjusted
her mushroom hat before returning to the charge. "Has this piece of
villainy you set out to do since been accomplished by the people who
tried to mislead you?" she demanded.
"It has not," rejoined Leslie firmly. "And please God it never will.
They have not, I believe, abandoned it; but I am devoting such feeble
powers as I possess to thwarting them. I claim no leniency on that
score. I tell you, Miss Dymmock, as I have told Violet, that the thing
was a horrible thing, and that no decent woman ought to be joined to a
man who, even in a mad lapse born of unspeakable misery, could have
become a consenting party to it for a single minute."
Aunt Sarah nodded sagely once or twice, and let her keen old eyes rest
for a while on the red cliffs past which the boat was gliding.
"Reverting to the question of means," she resumed at length, "if you
went to that greedy nephew of mine--not a bad sort, but a
money-grubber--you would have to confess that you had no steam yacht to
your name, or any of the other trimmings with which the Ottermouth
wiseacres have credited you?"
"I should have to confess that I haven't a blessed stiver," said Leslie
grimly.
Aunt Sarah's stern features relaxed, and her smile could be very
charming when she chose. "In that case, Mr. Chermside," she said, "you
would be adding the sin of falsehood to your other real or imaginary
iniquities. I yesterday arranged the preliminaries of a transfer to you
of securities worth, roughly speaking, two hundred and fifty thousand
pounds. I had an inkling that you were an attractive but quite harmless
fraud, and as the present interview has confirmed that belief I shall
wire my brokers to complete the transfer. I was aware that my dear
girl's happiness was bound up in your ability to satisfy her father of
your good faith, and I decided to place you in a position to do so.
There is no need to thank me. It is only a little juggle with money for
which an old woman has no use. In any case it would have been Violet's
when I die."
"And you suggested a sail in order to tell us this?" Violet gasped.
"Yes; you see it is really a sort of plot in which we three must remain
the only conspirators," the old lady beamed at the fair young face
flushed with joy. "A boat seemed the safest place for such business."
"You dear!" was all Violet could answer as she strove to keep back the
happy tears.
As for Leslie, his first impulse was to reject the good fortune thrust
upon him. The "coals of fire" heaped upon his head burned his brain and
filled him with a greater shame; for he could not but think that if the
real enormity of his offence were known this generosity would never have
been shown him. His proper course, he felt, was to make still fuller
confession, but that would be to stab his darling to the heart in the
hour of triumphant love. All he could do then was to begin to stammer
inconsequent but grateful protests which Aunt Sarah stopped at once with
masterful insistence.
"Nonsense!" she snapped at him. "Just look to the sail and do what's
necessary to put us ashore again as quick as may be. I've got but a
short patience with folk who don't know the butter side of a slice of
bread."
So the boat was turned and went gaily dancing over the summer sea, under
the red cliffs, and round the headland, to the beach. After the
discussion on the outward run it was but natural that words should be
few, and Leslie was glad of it for more reasons than one. They had the
wind against them now, and the sailing of the boat claimed all his
attention. A succession of short tacks was necessary before he landed
his precious freight.
The motor car was waiting for the ladies, and when he had bestowed them
in it, and given a promise to come out to the Manor House later in the
day, Leslie turned in the opposite direction to go to his rooms for
lunch. As he neared the end of the parade, he saw Travers Nugent
watching him from one of the windows of the club, and he averted his
gaze so as not to catch the eye of his enemy. But the elementary tactics
were of no avail. Nugent came out of the front door before he could
pass.
"Come inside; there is need for a consultation," said the Maharajah's
agent.
Leslie angrily shook off the detaining hand which had been laid upon his
arm. "I don't wish to have anything to do with you. I'll be hanged if I
come in," he said.
Nugent laughed--the little musical laugh that women loved and men
loathed. "My dear fellow, you have used an apt term in the reverse
sense," he cooed. "You will certainly be hanged if you don't come in and
listen to what I have to say."
For the second time that morning Leslie Chermside paled beneath his
Eastern tan, and he meekly followed Nugent into the club.