"And you--you have told her this story?" he faltered.
"That's what I was engaged for."
"Oh, my God!" he reiterated blankly. "What shall I do!"
His agony was genuine enough. In spite of myself I was moved by it.
"Better go," I said. "The matter will be hushed up, of course."
"Hushed up!" he cried. "Never!"
This theatrical pretence of innocence provoked me afresh. "Oh, get
out!" I said. "And be thankful you're getting off so easily!"
He paid no attention to me. "I must see her," he muttered.
"What do you expect to gain by bluffing now?" I said impatiently. "You
must see that the game is up."
"I will not leave here without seeing her," he said with a kind of dull
obstinacy.
"You have me at a disadvantage," I said bitterly. "You know I can't
have you thrown out without causing a scandal."
He scarcely seemed to hear me. "I will go when she sends me," he
muttered.
"All right, my patience is equal to yours," I said.
So there we sat, he with his ghastly white face turned towards the door
into the inner rooms, moistening his lips from time to time, I looking
out of the window.
To make matters worse, Mrs. Bleecker came clucking in. She, knowing
nothing, fell on Quarles' neck, so to speak, and told him all her
troubles with sidelong shots at me.
He paid little attention to her vapouring, only repeating in his
ghastly, blank way: "I must see Irma."
"Of course!" said Mrs. Bleecker. "I'll tell her you're here."
"Mrs. Bleecker, as a friend, I advise you not to interfere," I said
sternly.
She went out, flouncing her skirts at me.
To my surprise, Miss Hamerton presently came in. I cannot say what led
her to do it, perhaps she was hoping against hope that he could defend
himself. There was no sign of weakness in her now. Her face was as
composed as marble. Mrs. Bleecker did not return.
"Irma," he cried, "send this fellow away."
I made haste to go, but she kept me. "Mr. Enderby must stay," she
said. "He is your friend," she added.
He made a gesture of despair. A hideous silence descended on the three
of us.
"You asked to see me," she said at last.
"Irma, do you believe this of me?" he cried like a soul out of Hell.
"I am willing to hear anything you have to say," she murmured.
"What does evidence matter?" he cried. "Do you believe me capable of
such a thing?"
"Am I not forced to?" she said very low.
His head dropped. I never saw such hopeless wretchedness in a man's
face. I felt like an executioner.
"Speak up!" I said sharply. "We are anxious to believe in you."
He shook his head. "It doesn't matter," he said in a stifled voice.
"I doubt if I could clear myself. Anyway I shan't try. It--it is
killed!"
He bent a look of fathomless reproach on her. "Good-bye, Irma," he
said quietly. "I'm glad I was the means of your getting your jewels
back. I never knew they had been stolen."
This to me was the purest exhibition of cheek I had ever met with. I
was hard put to it to keep my hands off the man. If she had not been
there! He went. And when I turned around Irma had gone back into the
next room. I was angry through and through, and yet--and yet----! A
nagging little doubt teased me.
So ended, as I thought, the case of the blue pearls. Little did I
suspect what was on the way.
10
The following day was a blue one for me. Deprived of all the exciting
activities of the past few weeks I was at a loss what to do with
myself. Moreover, I was dissatisfied with the result of those
activities. I had won out, so to speak, but my client had not. For
her only tragic unhappiness had come of it. Meanwhile that little
inner voice continued to whisper that I had _not_ got to the bottom of
the case. I could not put that young fellow's amazed and despairing
face out of my mind. It did not fit into the theory of his guilt. On
top of it all I had had a quarrel with Sadie the night before.
About noon my uncomfortable thoughts were broken into by the entrance
of Sadie herself with storm signals flying, to wit: a pair of flashing
blue eyes and a red flag hoisted in either cheek. I had supposed that
she was already on the way to Amityville with Miss Hamerton, where they
were to stay at a sanatorium conducted by a doctor friend of mine.
Before I could speak she exploded like a bomb in my office. "Ben,
you've been a fool!"
"Eh?" I said, blinking and looking precious like one, I expect.
She repeated it with amplifications.
"So you said last night," I remarked.
"But I hadn't seen her then."
"Aren't you going to the country?" I asked, hoping to create a
diversion.
"Yes, at two o'clock. But I had to see you first."
"To tell me what you thought of me?"
"To beg you to do something."
"What is there to do?"
"You have made a hideous mistake! Ruined both their lives!"
I may have had my own doubts, but it wouldn't have been human to
confess them in the face of an attack like this. "Easy, there!" I said
sulkily. "Have you discovered any new evidence?"
"Oh, evidence!" she cried scornfully. "I know he _couldn't_ have
stolen her pearls, and in your heart you know it, too."
"Sorry," I said sarcastically, "but in conducting my business I have to
consult my head before my heart."
"I know it!" she said bitterly. "That's why you've been a fool!"
"Well, next time I'll consult a clairvoyant."
"Oh, don't try to be clever! It's too dreadful! If you had seen her!
She will never act again. And he!--he will likely kill himself, if he
has not already done it."
This struck a chill to my breast. Sadie had an intuitive sense that I
could not afford to despise. At the same time having been called a
fool, I couldn't back down.
"I don't see what better he can do," I said hardily.
"You can say that!" she said aghast. "You don't mean it!"
A very real jealousy made me hot. That handsome young blackguard had
all the women with him. "Are you in love with him, too?" I asked
sarcastically.
It was a mistake. She had me there. "You're doing your best to make
me," she retorted.
"What are you abusing _me_ for?" I complained. "I did no more than
what I was engaged to do."
"She was distracted!" said Sadie. "She couldn't think for herself.
She depended on you."
"Well, I did the best I could for her," I said doggedly. "You seem to
think that I enjoyed doing it. There is a perfect case against him."
"There is not!" she said quickly. "Your own evidence that you set such
a store by is full of holes!"