THE INTRUDER
A man's voice, calling to them from the lawn, sent them instantly apart
as though caught in some guilty confidence. Anna knew that something
unwonted had happened and that Willy Forrest had returned.
"What has brought him back?" she exclaimed a little wildly; and then,
"Don't go away, Alban, I shall want you. My father would never forgive
me if he heard of it. Of course he cannot stop here."
Alban made no reply, but he helped her to the bank and they crossed the
lawn together. In the light of the veranda, they recognized Forrest,
carrying a motor cap in his hand and wearing a dust coat which almost
touched his heels. He had evidently dined and was full of the story of
his mishap.
"Hello, Anna, here's a game," he began, "my old fumigator's broke down
and I'm on the cold, cold world. Never had such a time in my life.
Shoved the thing from Taplow and nothing but petrol to drink--eh, what,
can't you see me? I say, Anna, you'll have to put me up to-night. There
isn't a billiard table to let in the town, and I can't sleep on the
grass--eh, what--you wouldn't put me out to graze, now would you?"
He entered the dining-room with them, and they stood about the table
while the argument was continued.
"Billy says the nag--what-d'yer-call-it's gone lame in the off
fore-leg. She went down at the distance like a filly that's been
hocussed. There were the two of us in the bally dust--and look at my
fingers where I burned 'em with matches. After that a parson came along
in a gig. I asked him if he had a whisky-and-soda aboard and he didn't
quote the Scriptures. We couldn't get the blighter to move, and I ground
the handle like Signor Gonedotti of Saffron Hill in the parish of High
Holborn. You'd have laughed fit to split if you'd have been there,
Anna--and, oh my Sammy, what a thing it is to have a thirst and to bring
it home with you. Do I see myself before a mahogany one or do I not--eh,
what? Do I dream, do I sleep, or is visions about? You'll put us up, of
course, Anna? I've told Billy as much and he's shoving the car into the
coach-house now."
He stalked across the room and without waiting to be asked helped
himself to a whisky-and-soda. Anna looked quickly at Alban as though to
say, "You must help me in this." Twenty-four hours ago she would not
have protested at this man's intrusion, but to-night the glamor of the
love-dream was still upon her, the idyll of her romance echoed in her
ears and would admit no other voice.
"Willy," she said firmly, "you know that you cannot stop. My father
would never forgive me. He has absolutely forbidden you the house."
He turned round, the glass still in his hand and the soda from the
siphon running in a fountain over the table-cloth.
"Your father! He's in Paris, ain't he? Are we going to telegraph about
it? What nonsense you are talking, Anna!"
"I am telling you what I mean. You cannot stop here and you must go to
the hotel immediately."
He looked at her quite gravely, cast an ugly glance upon Alban and
instantly understood.
"Oh, so that's the game. I've tumbled into the nest and the young birds
are at home. Say it again, Anna. You show me the door because this young
gentleman doesn't like my company. Is it that or something else? Perhaps
I'll take it that the old girl upstairs is going to ask me my
intentions. The sweet little Anna Gessner of my youth has got the
megrims and is off to Miss Bolt-up-Right to have a good cry
together--eh, what, are you going to cry, Anna? Hang me if you wouldn't
give the crocodiles six pounds and a beating--eh, what, six pounds and a
beating and odds on any day."
He approached her step by step as he spoke, while the girl's face
blanched and her fear of him was to be read in every look and gesture.
Alban had been but a spectator until this moment, but Anna's distress
and the bullying tone in which she had been addressed awakened every
combative instinct he possessed, and he thrust himself into the fray
with a resolute determination to make an end of it.
"Look here, Forrest," he exclaimed, "we've had about enough of this. You
know that you can't stop here--why do you make a fuss about it? Go over
to the hotel. There's plenty of room there--they told me so this
afternoon."
Forrest laughed at the invitation, but there was more than laughter in
his voice when he replied:
"Thank you for your good intentions, my boy. I am very much obliged to
your worship. A top-floor attic and a marble bath. Eh, what--you want to
put me in a garret? I'll see you the other side of Jordan first. Oh,
come, it's a nice game, isn't it? Papa away and little Anna canoodling
with the Whitechapel boy. Are we downhearted? No. But I ain't going, old
pal, and that's a fact."
He almost fell into an arm-chair and looked upon them with that bland
air of patronage which intoxication inspires. Anna, very pale and
frightened, was upon the point of summoning the servants; but Alban,
wiser in his turn, forbade her to do so.
"You go to bed, Anna," he said quietly, "Captain Forrest and I will have
a talk. I'm sure he doesn't expect you to sit up. Eh, Forrest, don't you
think that Anna had better go?"
"By all means, old chap. Nothing like bed--I'm going myself in a minute
or two. Don't you sit up, Anna. Anywhere's good enough for me. I'll
sleep in the greenhouse--eh, what? Your gardener'll find a new specimen
in the morning and get fits. Mind he don't prune me, though. I can't
afford to lose much at my time of life. You go to bed, Anna, and dream
of little Willy. He's going to make your fortune on Thursday--good old
Lodestar, some of 'em'll feel the draught, you bet. Don't spoil your
complexion on my account, Anna. You go to bed and keep young."
He rambled on, half good-humoredly, wholly determined in his resolution
to stay. Anna had never found him obstinate or in opposition to her will
before, and blazing cheeks and flashing eyes expressed her resentment at
an attitude so changed.
"Alban," she said quietly, "Captain Forrest will not stay. Will you
please see that he does not."
She withdrew upon the words and left the two men alone. They listened
and heard her mounting the stairs with slow steps. While Forrest was
still disposed to treat the matter as a joke, Alban had enough
discretion to avoid a scene if it could be avoided. He was quite calm
and willing to forget the insult that had been offered to him.
"Why not make an end of it, Forrest?" he said presently. "I'll go to the
hotel with you--you know perfectly well that you can get a bed there.
What's the good of playing the fool?"
"I was never more serious in my life, old man. Here I am and here I
stay. There's no place like home--eh, what? Why should you do stunts
about it? What's it to do with you after all? Suppose you think you're
master here. Then give us a whisky-and-soda for luck, my boy."
"I shall not give you a whisky-and-soda and I do not consider myself the
master here. That has nothing to do with it. You know that Anna wishes
you to go, and go you shall. What's to be gained by being obstinate."
Forrest looked at him cunningly.
"Appears that I intrude," he exclaimed with a sudden flash which
declared his real purpose, "little Anna Gessner and the boy out of
Whitechapel making a match of it together--eh, what? Don't let's have
any rotten nonsense, old man. You're gone on the girl and you don't want
me here. Say so and be a man. You've played a low card on me and you
want to see the hand out. Isn't it that? Say so and be honest if you
can."
"It's a lie," retorted Alban, quietly--and then unable to restrain
himself he added quickly, "a groom's lie and you know it."
Forrest, sobered in a moment by the accusation, sprang up from his chair
as though stung by the lash of a whip.
"What's that," he cried, "what do you say?"
"That you are not the son of Sir John Forrest at all. Your real name is
Weston--your father was a jockey and you were born at Royston near
Cambridge. That's what I say. Answer it when you like--but not in this
house, for you won't have the opportunity. There's the door and that's
your road. Now step out before I make you."
He pointed to the open door and drew a little nearer to his slim
antagonist. Forrest, a smile still upon his face, stood for an instant
irresolute--then recovering himself, he threw the glass he held as
though it had been a ball, and the missile, striking Alban upon the
forehead, cut him as a knife would have done.
"You puppy, you gutter-snipe--I'll show you who I am. Wipe that off if
you can;" and then almost shouting, he cried, "Here, Anna, come down and
see what I've done to your little ewe lamb, come down and comfort
him--Anna, do you hear?"
He said no more, for Alban had him by the throat, leaping upon him with
the ferocity of a wild beast and carrying him headlong to the lawn
before the windows. Never in his life had such a paroxysm of anger
overtaken the boy or one which mastered him so utterly. Blindly he
struck; his blows rained upon the cowering face as though he would beat
it out of all recognition. He knew not wholly why he thus acted if not
upon some impulse which would avenge the wrongs good women had suffered
at the hands of such an impostor as this. When he desisted, the man lay
almost insensible upon the grass at his feet--and he, drawing apart,
felt the hot tears running down his face and could not restrain them.
For in a measure he felt that his very chivalry had been faithless to
one who had loved him well--and in the degradation of that violent scene
he recalled the spirit of the melancholy years, the atmosphere of the
mean streets, and the figure of little Lois Boriskoff asking both his
pity and his love.