Outside the club door, Vermont's motor was drawn up at the side waiting
for him. He looked at his watch, and was surprised at the lateness of
the hour. Stepping hastily into the vehicle, he held up two fingers to
the chauffeur, who apparently needed no other instructions; for the car
glided off, and Vermont, as he passed the club, looked up at the windows
with an ugly smile.
As Lord Standon had said, few knew his origin or his business; but, in
reality, his antecedents were of a very ordinary nature. He was the son
of a solicitor who had lived with but one object in his sordid life,
namely, the desire to make his son a man of position with the power to
mix as an equal among that portion of society which only came to Malcolm
Vermont when it wanted its scandals glossed over, or to obtain money.
Ill-natured people were apt to hint that he had amassed his wealth by
means of usury and the taking up of shady cases. At any rate, he made
sufficient to bring up his son in luxury and send him to Oxford, where
Jasper had first come in contact with Adrien Leroy. At the death of his
father, Vermont found himself possessed of an income of a thousand a
year, which enabled him to become a member of Adrien's set,
notwithstanding that the amount was a much smaller one than he had been
led to expect, and, in his opinion, savoured almost of aristocratic
poverty.
The car had rolled silently into a side street off St. James's, where
the chauffeur pulled up sharply at the door of one of the old-fashioned,
though now newly-painted houses. Vermont sprang out and rang the bell
twice.
"Has Miss Lester returned yet?" he asked of the smart maid who opened
the door.
"Yes, sir," she answered, and promptly led the way up a newly-carpeted
staircase, redolent of Parma violet scent and glistening with white
enamelled woodwork and plaster casts. The walls were adorned with
pictures in the worst possible taste and the most glaring colours. As
Vermont reached the first floor, a strong, savoury odour filled the air.
He smiled sarcastically, and sniffed as if the perfume were familiar to
him.
"Miss Lester at supper?" he asked the white-capped maid, as she threw
open the door on the first floor, and stood aside to let the visitor
precede her.
"Yes, sir; supper's been served," was the demure answer.
Vermont passed into the room, which was furnished with the same lack of
taste as the staircase. Two women were seated at the table, apparently
just finishing their supper.
At first glance they might have been mistaken for mother and daughter,
as the elder woman was clad in a sombre black velvet dress, and had a
pale, thin face, crowned with heavy masses of grey hair. On closer
inspection, however, one perceived that Julia Lester was far from
old--indeed, not more than about forty-five, and with a peculiarly
gentle, almost child-like expression, which at first took one almost by
surprise.
On the other hand, her sister, though only about ten years younger,
would easily have passed as twenty-five, especially when behind the
footlights, which was her usual environment.
"Oh, it's you, Jasper, is it?" she remarked carelessly, pausing in the
act of lighting a cigarette. "Didn't hear you come in. You're so quiet
on your pins."
Like the house she inhabited, Miss Lester combined in her person
prodigality of colours with a fine disregard of taste. Beautiful she
undoubtedly was, with the black-browed, dark-eyed beauty of a Cleopatra,
for there was some Italian blood in her veins. It was given out
occasionally by the Press that she had been a theatre-dresser, an
organ-grinder, and fifty other things; but nevertheless, illiterate,
common and ill-bred, she had yet achieved fame--or rather, perhaps,
notoriety---by her dancing and sheer animal good looks.
As a matter of fact she owed her success primarily to Jasper Vermont,
who, as a young man and during a quarrel with his father, had lodged in
the same house with the handsome sisters, Julia, and Ada Lester, the
latter then being only about fifteen years of age. He had fallen
violently in love with Julia, then in the height of her beauty, and had
cruelly deceived her. To appease the indignation of the younger sister
he had got her an introduction to the manager of the Rockingham Theatre,
who was about to put on a new Egyptian ballet, and from that time
onwards it had been plain sailing for Ada. Later on came a meeting with
Leroy, planned by Jasper's connivance; and Adrien, attracted by the
woman's ripe beauty, had been blind, so far, to the deficiencies of her
mind and character.
To-night she looked a veritable daughter of the South. Her dress was of
scarlet, touched with black, and she was wearing diamonds--gifts from
her many admirers--of such intrinsic value as to render many a countess
jealous.
"Yes, it is I," said Vermont. "Onions and cigarettes! I thought Leroy
objected to both."
Ada laughed.
"It's the smell he don't like," she said lightly. "He's so particular.
But he's not coming to-night; leastways, he said he wasn't."
"Ah!" said Vermont smiling, as he seated himself at the table and took
up a small bottle which proved to be empty, "Is there anything left to
drink?"
"Have some fizz," said Ada hospitably. "Ring the bell, Ju, and give me
another chop. Well, Jasper, what's the news?"
"Just the question I was about to ask," he replied, as the maid-servant
brought in a bottle of champagne and glasses on a silver tray. "How did
the comedy go?"
"Rotten!" pronounced Ada shortly. "I told Adrien it wouldn't go, though
I did my best--didn't I, Ju? The frocks were really first-class--blue
satin and silver, with loads of pearls, and my turquoise armlets. All
right, eh?"
"Yes," agreed Vermont, adding, with a sneer, "Perhaps the stupid public
got tired of looking at the blue satin."
"Then they could have looked at me instead," retorted Ada tartly. "But
I've no patience with Adrien. Why can't he get 'em something lively? A
musical comedy now--I could make that go, if you like! Plenty of songs
and no talky-talky business. Besides, I _can_ dance."
"But can't act," murmured Jasper, with his sarcastic smile.
"Can't I!" cried Ada furiously. "That's all you know about it. Why
didn't you come last night?"
"Business," he answered carelessly, sipping his wine; adding, as he saw
her about to question him, "With which I won't trouble you, my fair
Ada."
"Oh won't you!" was that lady's retort. "You're mighty polite, I must
say. I suppose you were down at that old Castle again, and Adrien too!
What were you doing there?"
"Minding our own business," he replied smilingly, as he lit a cigarette.
"Close as a fox, you are," she declared, with a short, disagreeable
laugh. "Where's Adrien? Down there still?"
"No; at the Thessalian. I left him there with Mortimer Shelton."
"I hate that man," said Miss Lester viciously.
"So do I," agreed Vermont, "but I don't say so. Anyhow, Adrien's safe
there for another hour, and I came on to give you a word of warning."
He turned to her companion, who had been quietly finishing her supper as
if unconscious of anyone's presence.
"Julia, you look tired; you'd better get off to bed."
She rose and hesitated for a moment, looking from him to Ada; then
quietly left the room. Vermont gazed after her, much as he would have
watched a useless piece of furniture in course of removal; then he leant
back in his chair, and, before resuming, regarded fixedly Ada's flushed,
handsome face.
"Well?" she queried, impatiently striking the table with her fork.
Jasper leant forward and spoke with calm, unpleasant deliberation.
"Ada," said he, "there was once a person who killed the goose that laid
him golden eggs; there was another who beat his horse till it pitched
him into the ditch; but neither of these attained such a height of folly
as Miss Lester bids fair to reach, if she persists in worrying her prize
donkey into kicking her to the ground and leaving her in the mud."
"Oh, don't be an idiot, Jasper!" she exclaimed irritably. "Speak out
plain, can't you?"
"I certainly can, and will, my dear lady. To put it plainly, then, you
are going the quickest way to make Adrien tired of you. After all, if
you happen to possess a goose with the propensity to lay golden eggs,
surely it is wise to humour him. And if the said goose happens to
dislike the smell of onions, why fill the house with that particular
perfume, sufficient to suffocate an elephant? Again, is it not the
height of folly to stick plaster statues on the staircase which he
ascends daily, when you know this particular goose detests imitation
art? In short, my dear Ada, if you persist in thrusting vulgarity down
his throat, you will find yourself very soon out of the graces of our
friend, Adrien Leroy."
Ada, who had been beating a loud tattoo with the fork which she still
held in her hand, sprang to her feet and struck the table with a force
which set the glasses jingling.
"Jasper!" she almost shouted. "You'll drive me mad! Why don't you speak
out and say what you mean? What's the matter with Adrien? What does he
want? Aren't there a hundred men who'd be glad enough to furnish a house
for me as I like? And can't I even eat what I choose without Adrien
Leroy's delicate nose being turned up in disapproval?"
"You can go to the deuce, if you like, my dear," declared Jasper with a
calm smile. "I merely warn you that you are on the way to finding
yourself in the street, if I may be allowed to speak out. Have another
cigarette, and spray some patchouli about the room. There are more geese
than one, as you say; and, after all, it is hard if you can't indulge in
onions in your own room at one o'clock in the morning."
Goaded almost to desperation by the sneering sarcasm of Vermont's words,
the woman threw down her fork, thereby smashing a champagne glass, and
thrust her angry, flushed countenance close to his.
"What's your game?" she hissed. "Are you playing with me and Adrien? Are
you setting him against me? I know your artful tricks; but don't you
play 'em on me, Jasper! What are you doing up at the Castle so often?
Making yourself pleasant to old Lord Barminster's niece there, I'll be
bound. P'raps she ain't fond of scent or a pork chop or two, and she can
have real statues if she likes. You don't remind him of that, do you?
Oh, no, of course not! But you mind your skin, Jasper, for you can't
play fast and loose with me. Shuffle him on to that Constance girl, and
I'll make you pay for it. I know something you wouldn't like my lord to
hear about; so, if you don't want me to open my mouth and split on your
little games, don't you play me any of your tricks, that's all, or I'll
go straight to Adrien and tell him all!"
She stopped, out of breath, and Jasper Vermont, springing to his feet,
glared down at her in impotent fury. But she only laughed at his angry
face.
"Oh, no, you wouldn't like Adrien to know how you fooled poor Julia,
though it is over twenty years ago. I haven't forgotten, if you have,
how you took her over to Paris while I was away on my first tour, and
went through some form of marriage with her. You wouldn't like him to
know how you told her what you'd done, when there was no longer need to
keep it dark from your father, and of the attack of brain fever it
brought on, poor dear! You were a nice brute to her, you were, Jasper
Vermont; and it's a lucky thing for you and her too that when she
recovered her memory had gone, and she forgot you as well as the child."
Jasper stirred uneasily.
"I didn't think she would have cared so much," he said. "Besides, she's
all right now; she only forgets those few years."
"Lucky thing for you," repeated Ada dryly.
"What have you done with the child?" he asked suddenly.
His companion's face lighted up with malicious triumph.
"I've put her where you can't find her, anyhow," she said. "You shan't
break her heart, as you did her mother's."
"Oh, nonsense, Ada!" said Vermont contemptuously. "Don't begin to
rant--you're not on the stage now. I kept all my promises to you, at any
rate. I got you on at the Rockingham and I introduced you to Leroy; and
if you had only played your cards properly you would have hooked him by
this time. As it is, he'll marry his cousin, if you're not careful."
"If he does, it'll be your fault," she snarled. "And I'll tell Adrien
all, and how you're fooling him in other ways as well."
Jasper sprang across the room, his face working with anger. There was
something so deadly in the light of his dark eyes, such murderous hate
in every line of his face, that the woman shrank back and uttered a cry
of fear, instinctively glancing at a knife which lay on the table close
to Jasper's other hand.
How far Vermont's anger might have carried him she did not know, for, to
her intense relief, the door opened and Adrien Leroy himself entered the
room. He gazed in surprise at the two occupants, and in an instant
Jasper had regained his self-control. He did not release Ada's wrist,
but, smoothing his scowl into a sleek smile, he said with a careless
laugh:
"No, Ada, your arm is as slim as ever. The bracelet will just fit you."
He relaxed his grip as he spoke and turned to Leroy. "Ada has bet me
that the new bracelet you bought her is too small, Adrien," he explained
glibly. "She thought she was getting stout."
Adrien nodded indifferently; while Ada, with a little cry of relief, ran
towards him.
"Adrien, how good of you to come!" she exclaimed. "I did not expect you
so soon."
Leroy did not seem to notice her, but looked round the room with evident
displeasure. The table, with its remains of supper; the stained cloth;
above all, the undesirable odour of food and stale tobacco; all seemed
to fill him with disgust. Gently, but firmly, he put Ada from him.
"Jasper," he said, turning to Vermont, "you know why I came. Give Miss
Lester the deeds of the Casket Theatre. I am tired and am going home."
With a courteous good-night to Ada, who, without attempting to thank him
for his gift, stood scowling and sullen, he passed out of the room;
while Vermont leaned back against the table with folded arms and his
inevitable, but significant, smile on his face.