AN UNEXPECTED OPENING
Ventimore made his way to Cottesmore Gardens that evening in a highly
inconsistent, not to say chaotic, state of mind. The thought that he
would presently see Sylvia again made his blood course quicker, while he
was fully determined to say no more to her than civility demanded.
At one moment he was blessing Professor Futvoye for his happy thought in
making use of him; at another he was bitterly recognising that it would
have been better for his peace of mind if he had been left alone. Sylvia
and her mother had no desire to see more of him; if they had, they would
have asked him to come before this. No doubt they would tolerate him now
for the Professor's sake; but who would not rather be ignored than
tolerated?
The more often he saw Sylvia the more she would make his heart ache with
vain longing--whereas he was getting almost reconciled to her
indifference; he would very soon be cured if he didn't see her.
Why _should_ he see her? He need not go in at all. He had merely to
leave the catalogue with his compliments, and the Professor would learn
all he wanted to know.
On second thoughts he must go in--if only to return the bank-note. But
he would ask to see the Professor in private. Most probably he would not
be invited to join his wife and daughter, but if he were, he could make
some excuse. They might think it a little odd--a little discourteous,
perhaps; but they would be too relieved to care much about that.
When he got to Cottesmore Gardens, and was actually at the door of the
Futvoyes' house, one of the neatest and demurest in that retired and
irreproachable quarter, he began to feel a craven hope that the
Professor might be out, in which case he need only leave the catalogue
and write a letter when he got home, reporting his non-success at the
sale, and returning the note.
And, as it happened, the Professor _was_ out, and Horace was not so glad
as he thought he should be. The maid told him that the ladies were in
the drawing-room, and seemed to take it for granted that he was coming
in, so he had himself announced. He would not stay long--just long
enough to explain his business there, and make it clear that he had no
wish to force his acquaintance upon them. He found Mrs. Futvoye in the
farther part of the pretty double drawing-room, writing letters, and
Sylvia, more dazzlingly fair than ever in some sort of gauzy black frock
with a heliotrope sash and a bunch of Parma violets on her breast, was
comfortably established with a book in the front room, and seemed
surprised, if not resentful, at having to disturb herself.
"I must apologise," he began, with an involuntary stiffness, "for
calling at this very unceremonious time; but the fact is, the
Professor----"
"I know all about it," interrupted Mrs. Futvoye, brusquely, while her
shrewd, light-grey eyes took him in with a cool stare that was
humorously observant without being aggressive. "We heard how shamefully
my husband abused your good-nature. Really, it was too bad of him to ask
a busy man like you to put aside his work and go and spend a whole day
at that stupid auction!"
"Oh, I'd nothing particular to do. I can't call myself a busy
man--unfortunately," said Horace, with that frankness which scorns to
conceal what other people know perfectly well already.
"Ah, well, it's very nice of you to make light of it; but he ought not
to have done it--after so short an acquaintance, too. And to make it
worse, he has had to go out unexpectedly this evening, but he'll be back
before very long if you don't mind waiting."
"There's really no need to wait," said Horace, "because this catalogue
will tell him everything, and, as the particular things he wanted went
for much more than he thought, I wasn't able to get any of them."
"I'm sure I'm very glad of it," said Mrs. Futvoye, "for his study is
crammed with odds and ends as it is, and I don't want the whole house to
look like a museum or an antiquity shop. I'd all the trouble in the
world to persuade him that a great gaudy gilded mummy-case was not quite
the thing for a drawing-room. But, please sit down, Mr. Ventimore."
"Thanks," stammered Horace, "but--but I mustn't stay. If you will tell
the Professor how sorry I was to miss him, and--and give him back this
note which he left with me to cover any deposit, I--I won't interrupt
you any longer."
He was, as a rule, imperturbable in most social emergencies, but just
now he was seized with a wild desire to escape, which, to his infinite
mortification, made him behave like a shy schoolboy.
"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Futvoye; "I am sure my husband would be most
annoyed if we didn't keep you till he came."
"I really ought to go," he declared, wistfully enough.
"We mustn't tease Mr. Ventimore to stay, mother, when he so evidently
wants to go," said Sylvia, cruelly.
"Well, I won't detain you--at least, not long. I wonder if you would
mind posting a letter for me as you pass the pillar-box? I've almost
finished it, and it ought to go to-night, and my maid Jessie has such a
bad cold I really don't like sending her out with it."
It would have been impossible to refuse to stay after that--even if he
had wished. It would only be for a few minutes. Sylvia might spare him
that much of her time. He should not trouble her again. So Mrs. Futvoye
went back to her bureau, and Sylvia and he were practically alone.
She had taken a seat not far from his, and made a few constrained
remarks, obviously out of sheer civility. He returned mechanical
replies, with a dreary wonder whether this could really be the girl who
had talked to him with such charming friendliness and confidence only a
few weeks ago in Normandy.
And the worst of it was, she was looking more bewitching than ever; her
slim arms gleaming through the black lace of her sleeves, and the gold
threads in her soft masses of chestnut hair sparkling in the light of
the shaded lamp behind her. The slight contraction of her eyebrows and
the mutinous downward curve of her mouth seemed expressive of boredom.
"What a dreadfully long time mamma is over that letter!" she said at
last. "I think I'd better go and hurry her up."
"Please don't--unless you are particularly anxious to get rid of me."
"I thought you seemed particularly anxious to escape," she said coldly.
"And, as a family, we have certainly taken up quite enough of your time
for one day."
"That is not the way you used to talk at St. Luc!" he said.
"At St. Luc? Perhaps not. But in London everything is so different, you
see."
"Very different."
"When one meets people abroad who--who seem at all inclined to be
sociable," she continued, "one is so apt to think them pleasanter than
they really are. Then one meets them again, and--and wonders what one
ever saw to like in them. And it's no use pretending one feels the same,
because they generally understand sooner or later. Don't you find that?"
"I do, indeed," he said, wincing, "though I don't know what I've done to
deserve that you should tell me so!"
"Oh, I was not blaming you. You have been most angelic. I can't think
how papa could have expected you to take all that trouble for
him--still, you did, though you must have simply hated it."
"But, good heavens! don't you know I should be only too delighted to be
of the least service to him--or to any of you?"
"You looked anything but delighted when you came in just now; you looked
as if your one idea was to get it over as soon as you could. You know
perfectly well you're longing now for mother to finish her letter and
set you free. Do you really think I can't see that?"
"If all that is true, or partly true," said Horace, "can't you guess
why?"
"I guessed how it was when you called here first that afternoon. Mamma
had asked you to, and you thought you might as well be civil; perhaps
you really did think it would be pleasant to see us again--but it wasn't
the same thing. Oh, I saw it in your face directly--you became
conventional and distant and horrid, and it made me horrid too; and you
went away determined that you wouldn't see any more of us than you could
help. That's why I was so furious when I heard that papa had been to see
you, and with such an object."
All this was so near the truth, and yet missed it with such perverse
ingenuity, that Horace felt bound to put himself right.
"Perhaps I ought to leave things as they are," he said, "but I can't.
It's no earthly use, I know; but may I tell you why it really was
painful to me to meet you again? I thought _you_ were changed, that you
wished to forget, and wished me to forget--only I can't--that we had
been friends for a short time. And though I never blamed you--it was
natural enough--it hit me pretty hard--so hard that I didn't feel
anxious to repeat the experience."
"Did it hit you hard?" said Sylvia, softly. "Perhaps I minded too, just
a very little. However," she added, with a sudden smile, that made two
enchanting dimples in her cheeks, "it only shows how much more sensible
it is to have things out. _Now_ perhaps you won't persist in keeping
away from us?"
"I believe," said Horace, gloomily, still determined not to let any
direct avowal pass his lips, "it would be best that I _should_ keep
away."
Her half-closed eyes shone through their long lashes; the violets on her
breast rose and fell. "I don't think I understand," she said, in a tone
that was both hurt and offended.
There is a pleasure in yielding to some temptations that more than
compensates for the pain of any previous resistance. Come what might, he
was not going to be misunderstood any longer.
"If I must tell you," he said, "I've fallen desperately, hopelessly, in
love with you. Now you know the reason."
"It doesn't seem a very good reason for wanting to go away and never see
me again. _Does_ it?"
"Not when I've no right to speak to you of love?"
"But you've done that!"
"I know," he said penitently; "I couldn't help it. But I never meant to.
It slipped out. I quite understand how hopeless it is."
"Of course, if you are so sure as all that, you are quite right not to
try."
"Sylvia! You can't mean that--that you do care, after all?"
"Didn't you really see?" she said, with a low, happy laugh. "How stupid
of you! And how dear!"
He caught her hand, which she allowed to rest contentedly in his. "Oh,
Sylvia! Then you do--you do! But, my God, what a selfish brute I am! For
we can't marry. It may be years before I can ask you to come to me. You
father and mother wouldn't hear of your being engaged to me."
"_Need_ they hear of it just yet, Horace?"
"Yes, they must. I should feel a cur if I didn't tell your mother, at
all events."
"Then you shan't feel a cur, for we'll go and tell her together." And
Sylvia rose and went into the farther room, and put her arms round her
mother's neck. "Mother darling," she said, in a half whisper, "it's
really all your fault for writing such very long letters, but--but--we
don't exactly know how we came to do it--but Horace and I have got
engaged somehow. You aren't _very_ angry, are you?"
"I think you're both extremely foolish," said Mrs. Futvoye, as she
extricated herself from Sylvia's arms and turned to face Horace. "From
all I hear, Mr. Ventimore, you're not in a position to marry at
present."
"Unfortunately, no" said Horace; "I'm making nothing as yet. But my
chance must come some day. I don't ask you to give me Sylvia till then."
"And you know you like Horace, mother!" pleaded Sylvia. "And I'm ready
to wait for him, any time. Nothing will induce me to give him up, and I
shall never, never care for anybody else. So you see you may just as
well give us your consent!"
"I'm afraid I've been to blame," said Mrs. Futvoye. "I ought to have
foreseen this at St. Luc. Sylvia is our only child, Mr. Ventimore, and I
would far rather see her happily married than making what is called a
'grand match.' Still, this really does seem _rather_ hopeless. I am
quite sure her father would never approve of it. Indeed, it must not be
mentioned to him--he would only be irritated."
"So long as you are not against us," said Horace, "you won't forbid me
to see her?"
"I believe I ought to," said Mrs. Futvoye; "but I don't object to your
coming here occasionally, as an ordinary visitor. Only understand
this--until you can prove to my husband's satisfaction that you are able
to support Sylvia in the manner she has been accustomed to, there must
be no formal engagement. I think I am entitled to ask _that_ of you."
She was so clearly within her rights, and so much more indulgent than
Horace had expected--for he had always considered her an unsentimental
and rather worldly woman--that he accepted her conditions almost
gratefully. After all, it was enough for him that Sylvia returned his
love, and that he should be allowed to see her from time to time.
"It's rather a pity," said Sylvia, meditatively, a little later, when
her mother had gone back to her letter-writing, and she and Horace were
discussing the future; "it's rather a pity that you didn't manage to get
_something_ at that sale. It might have helped you with papa."
"Well, I did get something on my own account," he said, "though I don't
know whether it is likely to do me any good with your father." And he
told her how he had come to acquire the brass bottle.
"And you actually gave a guinea for it?" said Sylvia, "when you could
probably get exactly the same thing, only better, at Liberty's for about
seven-and-sixpence! Nothing of that sort has any charms for papa, unless
it's dirty and dingy and centuries old."
"This looks all that. I only bought it because, though it wasn't down on
the catalogue, I had a fancy that it might interest the Professor."
"Oh!" cried Sylvia, clasping her pretty hands, "if only it does, Horace!
If it turns out to be tremendously rare and valuable! I do believe dad
would be so delighted that he'd consent to anything. Ah, that's his step
outside ... he's letting himself in. Now mind you don't forget to tell
him about that bottle."
The Professor did not seem in the sweetest of humours as he entered the
drawing-room. "Sorry I was obliged to be from home, and there was nobody
but my wife and daughter here to entertain you. But I am glad you
stayed--yes, I'm rather glad you stayed."
"So am I, sir," said Horace, and proceeded to give his account of the
sale, which did not serve to improve the Professor's temper. He thrust
out his under lip at certain items in the catalogue. "I wish I'd gone
myself," he said; "that bowl, a really fine example of sixteenth-century
Persian work, going for only five guineas! I'd willingly have given ten
for it. There, there, I thought I could have depended on you to use your
judgment better than that!"
"If you remember, sir, you strictly limited me to the sums you marked."
"Nothing of the sort," said the Professor, testily; "my marginal notes
were merely intended as indications, no more. You might have known that
if you had secured one of the things at any price I should have
approved."
Horace had no grounds for knowing anything of the kind, and much reason
for believing the contrary, but he saw no use in arguing the matter
further, and merely said he was sorry to have misunderstood.
"No doubt the fault was mine," said the Professor, in a tone that
implied the opposite. "Still, making every allowance for inexperience in
these matters, I should have thought it impossible for any one to spend
a whole day bidding at a place like Hammond's without even securing a
single article."
"But, dad," put in Sylvia, "Mr. Ventimore did get _one_ thing--on his
own account. It's a brass bottle, not down in the catalogue, but he
thinks it may be worth something perhaps. And he'd very much like to
have your opinion."
"Tchah!" said the Professor. "Some modern bazaar work, most probably.
He'd better have kept his money. What was this bottle of yours like,
now, eh?"
Horace described it.
"H'm. Seems to be what the Arabs call a 'kum-kum,' probably used as a
sprinkler, or to hold rose-water. Hundreds of 'em about," commented the
Professor, crustily.
"It had a lid, riveted or soldered on," said Horace; "the general shape
was something like this ..." And he made a rapid sketch from memory,
which the Professor took reluctantly, and then adjusted his glasses with
some increase of interest.
"Ha--the form is antique, certainly. And the top hermetically fastened,
eh? That looks as if it might contain something."
"You don't think it has a genie inside, like the sealed jar the
fisherman found in the 'Arabian Nights'?" cried Sylvia. "What fun if it
had!"
"By genie, I presume you mean a _Jinnee_, which is the more correct and
scholarly term," said the Professor. "Female, _Jinneeyeh_, and plural
_Jinn_. No, I do _not_ contemplate that as a probable contingency. But
it is not quite impossible that a vessel closed as Mr. Ventimore
describes may have been designed as a receptacle for papyri or other
records of archaeological interest, which may be still in preservation. I
should recommend you, sir, to use the greatest precaution in removing
the lid--don't expose the documents, if any, too suddenly to the outer
air, and it would be better if you did not handle them yourself. I shall
be rather curious to hear whether it really does contain anything, and
if so, what."
"I will open it as carefully as possible," said Horace, "and whatever it
may contain, you may rely upon my letting you know at once."
He left shortly afterwards, encouraged by the radiant trust in Sylvia's
eyes, and thrilled by the secret pressure of her hand at parting.
He had been amply repaid for all the hours he had spent in the close
sale-room. His luck had turned at last: he was going to succeed; he felt
it in the air, as if he were already fanned by Fortune's pinions.
Still thinking of Sylvia, he let himself into the semi-detached,
old-fashioned house on the north side of Vincent Square, where he had
lodged for some years. It was nearly twelve o'clock, and his landlady,
Mrs. Rapkin, and her husband had already gone to bed.
Ventimore went up to his sitting-room, a comfortable apartment with two
long windows opening on to a trellised verandah and balcony--a room
which, as he had furnished and decorated it himself to suit his own
tastes, had none of the depressing ugliness of typical lodgings.
It was quite dark, for the season was too mild for a fire, and he had to
grope for the matches before he could light his lamp. After he had done
so and turned up the wicks, the first object he saw was the bulbous,
long-necked jar which he had bought that afternoon, and which now stood
on the stained boards near the mantelpiece. It had been delivered with
unusual promptitude!
Somehow he felt a sort of repulsion at the sight of it. "It's a
beastlier-looking object than I thought," he said to himself
disgustedly. "A chimney-pot would be about as decorative and appropriate
in my room. What a thundering ass I was to waste a guinea on it! I
wonder if there really is anything inside it. It is so infernally ugly
that it _ought_ to be useful. The Professor seemed to fancy it might
hold documents, and he ought to know. Anyway, I'll find out before I
turn in."
He grasped it by its long, thick neck, and tried to twist the cap off;
but it remained firm, which was not surprising, seeing that it was
thickly coated with a lava-like crust.
"I must get some of that off first, and then try again," he decided; and
after foraging downstairs, he returned with a hammer and chisel, with
which he chipped away the crust till the line of the cap was revealed,
and an uncouth metal knob that seemed to be a catch.
This he tapped sharply for some time, and again attempted to wrench off
the lid. Then he gripped the vessel between his knees and put forth all
his strength, while the bottle seemed to rock and heave under him in
sympathy. The cap was beginning to give way, very slightly; one last
wrench--and it came off in his hand with such suddenness that he was
flung violently backwards, and hit the back of his head smartly against
an angle of the wainscot.
He had a vague impression of the bottle lying on its side, with dense
volumes of hissing, black smoke pouring out of its mouth and towering up
in a gigantic column to the ceiling; he was conscious, too, of a pungent
and peculiarly overpowering perfume. "I've got hold of some sort of
infernal machine," he thought, "and I shall be all over the square in
less than a second!" And, just as he arrived at this cheerful
conclusion, he lost consciousness altogether.
He could not have been unconscious for more than a few seconds, for when
he opened his eyes the room was still thick with smoke, through which he
dimly discerned the figure of a stranger, who seemed of abnormal and
almost colossal height. But this must have been an optical illusion
caused by the magnifying effects of the smoke; for, as it cleared, his
visitor proved to be of no more than ordinary stature. He was elderly,
and, indeed, venerable of appearance, and wore an Eastern robe and
head-dress of a dark-green hue. He stood there with uplifted hands,
uttering something in a loud tone and a language unknown to Horace.
Ventimore, being still somewhat dazed, felt no surprise at seeing him.
Mrs. Rapkin must have let her second floor at last--to some Oriental. He
would have preferred an Englishman as a fellow-lodger, but this
foreigner must have noticed the smoke and rushed in to offer assistance,
which was both neighbourly and plucky of him.
"Awfully good of you to come in, sir," he said, as he scrambled to his
feet. "I don't know what's happened exactly, but there's no harm done.
I'm only a trifle shaken, that's all. By the way, I suppose you can
speak English?"
"Assuredly I can speak so as to be understood by all whom I address,"
answered the stranger.
"Dost thou not understand my speech?"
"Perfectly, now," said Horace. "But you made a remark just now which I
didn't follow--would you mind repeating it?"
"I said: 'Repentance, O Prophet of God! I will not return to the like
conduct ever.'"
"Ah," said Horace. "I dare say you _were_ rather startled. So was I when
I opened that bottle."
"Tell me--was it indeed thy hand that removed the seal, O young man of
kindness and good works?"
"I certainly did open it," said Ventimore, "though I don't know where
the kindness comes in--for I've no notion what was inside the thing."
"I was inside it," said the stranger, calmly.