ANNA GESSNER
They set a table in the vestibule overlooking the trim lawn, and thither
they carried cigars and coffee. Alban had learned to smoke fiercely--one
of the few lessons the East End had taught him thoroughly--and Richard
Gessner's cigars had a just reputation among all who frequented the
House of the Five Gables--some of these, it must be confessed, coming
here for no other particular reason than to smoke them. Alban did not
quite understand what it was that differentiated this particular cigar
from any he had ever smoked, but he enjoyed it thoroughly and inhaled
every whiff of its fragrant bouquet as though it had been a perfume of
morning-roses.
A profound stillness, broken at rare intervals by the rustling of young
leaves, prevailed in the garden. Night had come down, but it was a night
of spring, clear and still and wonderful of stars. Distantly across a
black waste of heath and meadow, the spire of Harrow Church stood up as
a black point against an azure sky. The waters of the Welsh Harp were as
a shimmering lake of silver in the foreground; the lights of Hendon and
of Cricklewood spoke of suburban life, but might just as well have
conjured up an Italian scene to one who had the wit to imagine it. Alban
knew nothing of Italy, he had never set foot out of England in his
life, but the peace and the beauty of the picture impressed him
strangely, and he wondered that he had so often visited the Caves when
such a fairyland stood open to his pleasure. Let it not be hidden that
he would have been easily pleased this night. Youth responds quickly to
excitements of whatever nature they may be. He was as far from realizing
the truth of his position as ever, but the complete change of
environment, the penetrating luxury of the great house, the mystery
which had carried him there and the promise of the morrow, conspired to
elate him and to leave him, in the common phrase, as one who is walking
upon air. Even an habitual cynicism stood silent now. What mattered it
if he awoke to-morrow to a reality of misunderstanding or of jest? Had
not this night opened a vista which nothing hereafter might shut out?
And the truth might be as Richard Gessner had promised--a truth of
permanence, of the continued possession of this wonderland. Who shall
blame him if his heart leaped at the mere contemplation of this
possibility?
It would have been about nine o'clock when they carried his coffee to
the garden--it was just half-past nine when Anna Gessner returned
unexpectedly to the house. Alban heard the bell in the courtyard ring
loudly, and upon that the throttled purr of a motor's heavy engine. He
had expected Silas Geary, but such a man, he rightly argued, would not
come with so much pomp and circumstance, and he stood at once, anxious
and not a little abashed. Perhaps some suspicion of the truth had
flashed upon him unwittingly. He heard the voice of Fellows the butler
raised in some voluble explanation, there were a few words spoken in a
pleasing girlish tone, and then, the boudoir behind him flashed its
colors suddenly upon his vision, and he beheld Anna Gessner herself--a
face he would have recognized in ten thousand, a figure of yesternight
that would never be forgotten.
She had cast aside her motor veil, and held it in her hand while she
spoke to the butler. A heavy coat bordered and lined with fur stood open
to reveal a gray cloth dress; her hair had been blown about by the fresh
breezes of the night and covered her forehead in a disorder far from
unbecoming. Alban thought that the cold light in the room and the heavy
bright panelling against which she stood gave an added pallor to her
usually pale face, exaggerating the crimson of her lips and the dark
beauty of her eyes. The hand which held the veil appeared to him to be
ridiculously small; her attitudes were so entirely graceful that he
could not imagine a picture more pleasing. If he remembered that he had
likened her to little Lois Boriskoff, he could now admit the
preposterous nature of the comparison. True it was that nationality
spoke in the contour of the face, in its coloring and its expression,
but these elementals were forgotten in the amazing grace of the girl's
movements, the dignity of her gestures and the vitality which animated
her. Returning to the house unexpectedly, even a lad was shrewd enough
to see that she returned also under the stress of an agitation she could
conceal from none. Her very questions to the servants were so quick and
incoherent that they could not be answered. The letters which the
butler put into her hands were torn from the envelopes but were not
read. When she opened the boudoir window and so permitted Alban to
overhear her hurried words, it was as one who found the atmosphere of a
house insupportable and must breathe fresh air at any cost.
"Has my father returned, Fellows?"
"No, miss, he is not expected until late."
"Why did you not send the carriage to the station?"
"Mr. Gessner said that you were coming to-morrow, miss."
She flushed slightly at the retort and made as though to step out into
the garden--but hesitating an instant, she said:
"I have had nothing to eat since one o'clock, Fellows. I must have some
supper."
"Yes, miss."
"Anything will do--tell cook it does not matter. Has Lord Portcullis
called?"
"No, miss--not since yesterday."
"Or Mrs. Melville?"
"This afternoon. She asked for your address, miss--but I did not give
it."
"Quite right--I suppose that Captain Forrest did not come?" She turned
away as though not wishing to look the man in the face--a gesture which
Alban's quick eyes instantly perceived.
Fellows, on the other hand, permitted a smile to lurk for an instant
about the corners of his mouth before he said--
"I understood that Captain Forrest was at Brighton, miss."
The girl's face clouded perceptibly, and she loosened her cloak and
threw it from her shoulders as though it had become an insupportable
burden.
"If he calls to-morrow, I do not wish to see him. Please tell them
all--I will not see him."
The butler smiled again, but answered, "Yes, miss."
Anna Gessner herself, still hesitating upon the threshold suddenly
remembered another interest and referred to it with no less ardor.
"Oh, that reminds me, Fellows. Has my father spoken again of that
dreadful silly business?"
"Concerning the young gentleman, miss?"
She heard him with unutterable contempt.
"The beggar-boy that he wishes to bring to this house. Did he speak of
him to-night?"
Fellows came a step nearer and, hushing his voice, he said, with a
servant's love of a dramatic reply:
"Mr. Kennedy is in the garden now, miss--indeed, I think he's sitting
near the vestibule."
She looked at him astonished. Ugly passions of disappointment and
thwarted desire betrayed themselves in the swift turn and the angry
pursing of her lips. Of her father's intentions in bringing this
beggar-boy to the house, she knew nothing at all. It seemed to her one
of those mad acts for which no sane apology could be offered.
"He is here now, Fellows! Who brought him then?"
"Mr. Geary--at six o'clock."
"Mr. Geary is a hateful busybody--I suppose I must speak to the boy."
"I think that Mr. Gessner would wish it, miss."
She hesitated a brief instant, her annoyance giving battle to her
father's well-known desire. Curiosity in the end helped her decision.
She must see the object of a charity so eccentric.
"You say that he is in the garden?" she continued, taking two steps
across the vestibule.
But this time Alban answered her himself.
"The beggar-boy is here," he said.
He had risen from his chair and the two confronted each other in the
aureole of light cast out from the open window. Just twenty-four hours
ago, Alban had been sitting by little Lois Boriskoff's side in the
second gallery at the Aldgate Empire. To-night he wore a suit of good
dress clothes, had dined at a millionaire's table and already recovered
much of that polish and confident manner which an English public school
rarely fails to bestow. Anna Gessner, in her turn, regarded him as
though he were the agent of a trick which had been played upon her. To
her amazement a hot flush of anger succeeded. She knew not how to meet
him or what excuses to make.
"My father has not told me the truth," she exclaimed presently. "I am
sorry that you overheard me--but I said what I meant. If he had told me
that you were coming--"
Alban stood before her quite unabashed. He understood the circumstances
and delighted in them.
"I am glad that you meant it," he rejoined, "of course, it is in some
way true. Those who have no money are always beggars to those who have.
Let me say that I don't know at all why I am here, and that I shall go
unless I find out. We need not quarrel about it at all."
Anna, however, had recovered her composure. Mistress of herself to a
remarkable degree when her passions were not aroused, she suddenly held
out her hand to Alban as though she would apologize--but not by the
spoken word.
"They have played a trick upon me," she cried. "I shall have it out with
Mr. Geary when he comes. Of course I am very sorry. My father said that
you were a distant relative, but he tried to frighten me by telling me
that you lived in Whitechapel and were working in a factory. I was silly
enough to believe it--you would have done so yourself."
"Most certainly--for it is quite true. I have been living in Whitechapel
since my mother died, and I worked in a factory until yesterday. If you
had come here a few hours back, you would have run away from the
beggar-boy or offered him sixpence. I wonder which it would have been."
She would not admit the truth of it, and a little peevishly contested
her point.
"I shall never believe it. This is just the kind of thing Mr. Geary
would do. He is the most foolish man I have ever known. To leave you all
alone here when he brought you as a stranger to our house. I wonder what
my father would say to that."
She had drawn her cloak about her white throat again and seated herself
near Alban's chair. Imitating her, he sat again and began to talk to her
as naturally as though he had known her all her life. Not a trace of
vexation at the manner of her reception remained to qualify that rare
content he found in her company. Alban had long acquired the sense which
judges every word and act by the particular circumstances under which it
is spoken. He found it natural that Anna Gessner should resent his
presence in the house. He liked her for telling him that it was so.
"My father says that he is going to make an engineer of you--is that
just what you wish, Mr. Kennedy?"
"That's what I don't know," he replied as frankly. "You see, I have
always wanted to get on, but how to do so is what beats me. Engineering
is a big profession and I'm not sure that I have the gifts. There you
have a candid confession. I'm one of those fellows who can do everything
up to a certain point, but a certain point isn't good enough nowadays.
And a man wants money to get on. I'm sure it's easy enough to make a
fortune if you have a decent share of brains and a bigger one capital. I
want to make money and yet the East End has taught me to hate money. If
Mr. Gessner can convince me that I have any claim upon his patronage, I
shall go right into something and see if I cannot come out on top. You,
I suppose, don't think much of the dirty professions. You'd like your
brother to be a soldier, wouldn't you--or if not that, in the navy. Half
the fellows at Westminster wanted to go into the army, just as though
killing other people were the chief business in life. Of course, I
wouldn't run it down--but what I mean to say is, that I never cared at
all about it myself and so I'm not quite the best judge."
His little confession ended somewhat abruptly, for he observed that his
words appeared to distress Anna Gessner beyond all reason. For many
minutes she remained quite silent. When she spoke her eyes were turned
away and her confusion not altogether to be concealed.
"I'm afraid you take your ideas of us from the cheap story-books," she
said in a low voice; "women, nowadays, have their own ambitions and
think less of men's. My dearest friend is a soldier, but I'm sure he
would be a very foolish one if war broke out. They say he worked
terribly hard in South Africa, but I don't think he ever killed any one.
So you see--I shouldn't ask you to go into the army, and I'm sure my
father would not wish it either."
"It would do no good if he did," said Alban as bluntly. "I should only
make a fool of myself. Your friend must have told you that you want a
pretty good allowance to do upon--and fancy begging from your people
when you were twenty-one. Why, in the East End many a lad of nineteen
keeps a whole family and doesn't think himself ill-used. Isn't it rot
that there should be so much inequality in life, Miss Gessner? I don't
suppose, though, that one would think so if one had money."
She smiled at his question, but diverted the subject cleverly.
"Are you very self-willed, Mr. Kennedy?"
"Do you mean that I get what I want--or try to?"
"I mean that you have your own way in everything. If you were in love
you would carry the poor thing off by force."
"If I were in love and guessed that she was, I should certainly be
outside to time. That's East End, you know, for punctuality."
"You would marry in haste and repent at leisure?"
"It would be yes or no, and that would be the end of it. Girls like a
man who compels them--they like to obey, at least when they are young. I
don't believe any girl ever loved a coward yet. Do you think so
yourself?"
She astonished him by rising suddenly and breaking off the conversation
as abruptly.
"God help me, I don't know what I think," she said; and then, with half
a laugh to cover it, "Here is Mr. Geary come to take care of you. I will
say good-night. We shall meet at breakfast and talk of all this
again--if you get up in time."
He made no answer and she disappeared with just a flash of her ample
skirts into the boudoir and so to the hall beyond. The curate appeared a
minute later, full of apologies and of the Dorcas meeting he had so
lately illuminated with his intellectual presence. A mild cigarette and
a glass of mineral water found him quite ready for bed.
"There will be so much to speak of to-morrow, my dear boy," he said in
that lofty tone which attended his patronage, "there is so much for you
to be thankful for to-day. Let us go and dream of it all. The reality
must be greater than anything we can imagine."
"I'll tell you in a week's time," said Alban, dryly.
A change had come upon him already. For Anna Gessner had betrayed her
secret, and he knew that she had a lover.