There was a good reason why Kenyon didn't stay out his fortnight at Dr.
Guthrie's house. He had already begun to know several young men whose
very good feathers were waiting to be plucked. It was obviously
impossible for him to invite them to East Fifty-second Street, and it
became necessary, therefore, that he should take a bachelor-apartment in
which to set up business. There he could play cards until any hour that
suited him and settle down seriously to make his winter in New York a
success. Also, he confessed to himself, the atmosphere of the Doctor's
house was not conducive to his peace of mind or to his rigidly selfish
way of life. He hadn't come over to the United States in order to play
the fairy godmother, or even the family adviser to the young Guthries.
He had worked hard to clear the one thing out of Graham's life which had
rendered him useless, and he had had the satisfaction of seeing Peter's
engagement broken, for which admirable accident he was profoundly
grateful, because Peter also would now be free. In fact, these two
brothers could now easily be brought to concentrate upon Kenyon's
deserving case and take round to his apartment any friends of theirs who
enjoyed gambling and could pay when they lost.
Kenyon possessed a neat and tidy brain. It was run on the same principle
as a well-organized business office. It had its metaphorical card
indexes, letter-files and such like; so that when he made up his mind
to go into his own quarters he gave the matter the closest and most
careful consideration. He paid several visits to the well-known bachelor
apartment-houses in and around West Forty-fourth Street. They would have
been very suitable but for the existence of irksome rules and
regulations as to ladies. He went further afield and, with Graham's
assistance, examined several apartments in private houses. What he
wanted was a place somewhere on the map where his breakfast would be
cooked especially for him at any hour he desired, and which would be
free of elevator boys, clerks, and the watchful eye of a manager.
Finally he discovered exactly such a place on the second floor of a
fairly large old-fashioned house in West Forty-eighth Street. In this
the elderly lady who, as Kenyon at once saw, was blessed with the
faculty of being able to look at things with a Nelsonian eye,--having,
poor soul, to earn her living,--lived in the basement with her parrot
and her Manx cat. Two young business men shared rooms on the first floor
and a retired professor--who spent the greater part of his time in the
country--rented the third floor. The servants slept in the attic.
Into this house Kenyon moved,--much against the wishes of all the
Guthries, especially Belle,--the day after Peter's attempt to get in
touch with his father came to such an utter failure. He was very well
pleased with his quarters. They gave him elbow-room and freedom from the
responsibility of looking after another man's sons. The sitting-room,
arched in the middle, ran from the front to the back of the house and
it was well and discreetly furnished. There was a particularly nice old
Colonial mirror over the mantel-piece, and what prints there were
hanging on the walls were very pleasant. The bedroom across the passage
would have been equally large had it not been broken up to provide a
bath-room and a slip-room for baggage.
Fate, however, with its characteristic impishness, interfered with
Kenyon's well-laid scheme. At the very hour when he was arranging his
personal photographs a cable addressed to him was delivered at Dr.
Guthrie's house. It so happened that Peter was in the hall when the
servant took it in, and he started off at once to take it round to his
friend. He was glad enough to seize any excuse to see Kenyon again. He
felt horribly at a loose end. Graham's affairs had completely upset him
and disarranged his plans. He was longing to see Betty, but was not
going back on his agreement with Ranken Townsend until such time as he
could make the artist eat his words; and, as to his father and his
endeavor to break down that apparently insurmountable barrier, he was
utterly disheartened and depressed. He was shown into Kenyon's rooms at
the moment when he was standing in front of a very charming photograph
of Baby Lennox which he had placed on the sideboard. It showed her in a
little simple frock, with a wide-brimmed garden hat, standing among her
roses with a smile on her face. She looked very young, pretty and
flower-like.
"Hello, Peter!"
"I've brought this cable round. Otherwise I wouldn't have rushed in on
you quite so soon."
"My dear old boy," said Kenyon, "you know very well that you have the
complete run of whatever place I may be living in, at all hours of the
day and night. A cable for me, eh? What the devil--? I was jolly careful
to give my address here to very few people in England. Too many are
anxious to serve me with summonses. Baby Lennox is going to be married,
perhaps, and sends me the glad tidings. By Jove, I wonder who she's
nabbed!" He shot out a laugh and tore open the envelope. "Oh, my God!"
"What is it?" asked Peter, anxiously.
Kenyon held out the cablegram and remained standing rigid, with his
mouth open and his eyes shut, and his face as white as a stone.
It was from Baby Lennox. "Your father died last night. A heart attack.
Come home at once."
"Oh, my dear Nick!" said Peter. "My dear old boy! I can't tell you
how----"
"No," said Kenyon; "don't say anything. Just sit down and wait for me.
Whatever you do, don't go." And he went out of the room and across the
passage to his bedroom, and shut himself in.
Peter waited. The few cold, definite and even brutal words contained in
the cablegram would have hit him much harder and rendered his sympathy
for his friend very much more real if he could have felt what it would
have been to him to hear of the death of his own father. While he
waited, mechanically holding that slip of paper between his fingers, his
respect for his friend's grief widened into an odd and powerful feeling
of envy. The man who was dead had been infinitely more than a father. He
had been a friend and a brother as well. It made him sick and cold to
feel that the receipt of such a cablegram bringing to him the news of
the death of his own father would have moved him only to extreme
sympathy for his mother. He was ashamed and humiliated to realize that
no actual grief would touch him, because his father was nothing more
than a sort of kind but illusive guardian or a good-natured
step-father--altogether unused to children--who effaced himself as much
as he could and threw all responsibility upon his wife.
It was an hour before Kenyon reappeared, and during that time--which
seemed to Peter no more than a few minutes--he went over again in his
mind the scene which had taken place in the Doctor's laboratory, out of
which he had gone stultified and thrown back upon himself. He was as
grateful as Graham had been for the Doctor's generosity, but appalled at
the thought that he had utterly failed to realize not only the gravity
of Graham's act, but the long years of parental neglect which made such
an act possible. It seemed to him that the way in which his father had
taken that deplorable incident was all wrong. He should not have written
another cheque. He should have had Graham up in front of him, strongly
and firmly, and tried him as a judge would have tried him if his act had
been discovered and dealt with by law. He should have gone into all the
circumstances which led up to the forgery and thereby have cleared the
way for a new understanding. As it was, his acceptance of it was so
weak that it gave Peter and Graham a feeling almost of contempt for that
too kind man to whom children were obviously without significance, and
the unmistakable knowledge that he was unable to understand his grave
responsibility and the fact that he, alone among men, must take the
blame for all their misdeeds and mistakes, because they had been allowed
to enter life unwarned, unguided and unhelped. The outcome to Peter of
this hour's bitter thought was finally this: That if news were brought
to him at that moment of his father's death the only sorrow that he
could feel would be at the fact that he felt no sorrow.
When Kenyon came back into the room it was with his usual
imperturbability. He might merely have left it to answer the telephone
or interview the man who had come to collect his clothes to be ironed.
But his eyes were red. In his own peculiar way he had loved his father
and admired him. It was the first time that he had wept since he had
been a child.
"Thanks, so much, for waiting, old boy," he said. "I hope you've been
smoking, or something."
"No," said Peter; "I have things to think about too."
Kenyon looked about, with a queer little smile. "I was just settling
down," he said. "Very decent room, this, isn't it? Well, well, there it
is. You never know your luck, eh?"
"When will you sail, Nick?"
"The first possible boat. Do you know anything about the sailings? Ah,
this paper will have it. I detest the sea and its everlasting monotony
and blandness, and the dull-bright propinquity that it forces upon one."
He opened the paper and searched among its endless columns for the
Shipping News. "Here we are. 'Trans-Atlantic Sailings.' I have a wide
choice, I see. There's a White Star and a Cunarder leaving to-morrow at
twelve-thirty. The _Olympic_, I see! That's good enough,--if she's not
full up. I'll see to it this afternoon. There's sure to be a cabin
somewhere at this time of year."
"I shall miss you badly," said Peter.
"Thanks, old man. I know you will. And I shall hate going. Well, well!"
Peter picked up a book and put it down again; opened and shut a box of
cigarettes and pushed a bowl of flowers nearer the middle of the table.
"Do you want any--I mean, can I----?"
Kenyon laid his hand on his friend's square shoulder. "Not this time,
Peter, old son. Thanks, awfully. I've had one or two good nights and my
pockets are full of dollars. They'll see me home with perfect comfort.
Well, here ends my visit to the United States. To-morrow night I shall
have left the hospitable Statue of Liberty behind me. But she'll see me
again. I'll dash round in the morning and thank your people for their
extreme kindness to me. You'll see me off, won't you?"
"Yes," said Peter; "of course."
"Of course. We won't dine to-night. I--I don't feel like it."
"I understand, old man," said Peter.
"So long, then."
"So long," said Peter.
"The Earl is dead!" said Kenyon, with a sudden break in his voice. "Long
live the Earl!" And he raised his hand above his head.