At last the long day wore itself out, and Vanderlyn, in the late
afternoon, found himself once more in his own rooms, alone. He only owed
his escape to-night to the fact that two of Mrs. Pargeter's relations
had arrived from England--one of her many brothers, and a woman cousin
who was fond of her. They, of course, were spending the evening with
Pargeter, and so the American had a respite--till to-morrow.
Having eaten his solitary dinner with a zest of which he felt ashamed,
he was now in his study leaning back in an easy-chair, with a pile of
unread papers at his side.
As he sat there, in the quiet, almost shabby room, which was so
curiously different from the splendours of the Pargeter villa, there
came over him a sense of profound and not unpleasing lassitude.
He looked back to the last forty-eight hours as to a long nightmare,
broken by the few solitary walks he had forced himself to take. But for
these brief periods of self-communing, he felt that his body, as well as
his mind, would and must have given way. Peggy's husband had leant
helplessly on him, and from the first moment he had been--so indifferent
onlookers would have told you--the sympathetic, helpful witness of the
various phases Tom Pargeter had lived through during those long two
days.
For something like a week Vanderlyn had been living so apart from the
world about him that he had known nothing, cared nothing, about what had
gone on in that world. That very day an allusion had been made in his
presence to some public event of importance of which he was evidently
quite ignorant, and the look of profound astonishment which had crossed
an Embassy colleague's face, warned him that he could not go on as he
had been doing without provoking considerable, and far from pleasant,
comment.
Putting out his hand, he took up the _New York Herald_--not the Paris
edition, in which there was almost certain to be allusions to that which
he wished for the moment to forget--but the old home paper which had
arrived by that day's mail, and which had been carefully opened and
ironed out by the faithful Poulain.
The newspaper was a little over a week old; it bore the date, April 28.
What had he been doing on the twenty-eighth of April? and then with a
rush it all came back to him--everything he wished for the moment to
forget. It was on the afternoon of that day, the first warm spring day
of the year, that they had been tempted, he and Peggy, to make their way
down into the heart of Paris, to the solitary Place des Vosges. It was
there, it was then, that they had together planned that which had
brought him to his present dreadful pass.
Vanderlyn put the paper back on the table, and his face fell forward on
his hands; was he fated never to be allowed to forget--not even for a
moment?
It was with relief that he welcomed the interruption caused by the
entrance of his servant bearing a card in his hand. "A gentleman has
come and insists on seeing Monsieur."
Poulain spoke in a mysterious, significant tone, one that jarred on
Vanderlyn's sensitive nerves. The disappearance of Mrs. Pargeter had
become an engrossing, a delightful drama, not only to the members of the
Pargeter household, but also to Poulain and his worthy wife; and it had
been one of the smaller ironical agonies of Vanderlyn's position that he
did not feel himself able to check or discourage their perpetual and
indiscreet enquiries.
"I have already told you," he said sternly, "that I receive no one
to-night. Even if Mr. Pargeter himself comes, you are to say that I am
out!"
"I'm afraid Monsieur will have to receive this gentleman."
"Poulain!" exclaimed Vanderlyn sharply. "This won't do! Go at once and
inform this gentleman, whoever he may be, that I can see no one
to-night."
"I did say so," observed Poulain, in an injured tone, "I explained to
him that you would see no one. I said you were out--he said that he
would wait. Then, Monsieur, not till then, he handed me his card. If
Monsieur will give himself the trouble of looking at it, I think he will
receive the gentleman."
Vanderlyn took the card with an impatient movement. He glanced at it.
"Why did you not tell me at once," he said roughly, "who this--this
person was? Of course I must see the Prefect of Police."
More than once, Vanderlyn had had proof of the amazing perfection and
grip of the great, the mysterious organisation, that oligarchy within a
republic, which has always played a paramount rôle in every section of
Parisian life. The American diplomatist had not lived in France all
these years without unconsciously acquiring an almost superstitious
belief in the omnipotence of the French police.
He got up and placed himself between the lamp and the door. He knew
slightly the formidable official whose presence here surely indicated
some serious development in what had now become a matter of urgent
interest to many quite outside the Pargeter circle.
The two or three moments' delay--doubtless the zealous Poulain was
engaged in helping the important visitor off with his coat--were passed
by Vanderlyn in a state of indescribable nervous tension and suspense.
He was glad when they came to an end.
And yet the Frenchman who came into Vanderlyn's sitting-room, making a
ceremonious bow, would have suggested no formidable or even striking
personality to the eyes of the average Englishman or American. His stout
figure, clad in an ill-cut suit of evening clothes, recalled rather a
Gavarni caricature than a dapper modern official, the more so that his
round, fleshy face was framed in the carefully trimmed mutton-chop
whiskers which remain a distinguishing mark of the more old-fashioned
members of the Parisian Bar. The red button, signifying that its wearer
is an officer of the Legion of Honour, was exceptionally small and
unobtrusive. Vanderlyn was well aware that his visitor was no up-start,
owing promotion to adroit flattery of the Republican powers; the Prefect
of Police came of good bourgeois stock, and was son to a legal luminary
who had played a considerable part in '48. His manner was suave, his
voice almost caressing in its urbanity----
"I have the honour, have I not, of speaking to Mr. Laurence Vanderlyn?"
Vanderlyn bowed; he turned and led the way to the fireplace. "Yes,
Monsieur le Préfet, Laurence Vanderlyn at your service. I think we have
already met, at the Elysée----" he drew forward a second armchair.
Monsieur le Préfet sat down; and for the first time the American
diplomatist noticed that his visitor held a small, black, battered
portfolio in his right hand. As the Frenchman laid it across his knee,
he gave a scarcely perceptible glance round the room; then, at last, his
gaze concentrated itself on the table where stood the lamp, and the
spread-open newspaper.
"You probably divine, Monsieur," said the Prefect, after a short pause,
"what has brought me here to-night. I have come to see you--perhaps I
should say to consult you--in connection with the disappearance of Mrs.
Pargeter."
"Yes?" said Vanderlyn interrogatively, "I am, of course, quite at your
disposal. I have been with Mr. Pargeter all to-day, but so far the
mystery remains as great as ever." He stopped abruptly, feeling it
wisest not to speak, but to listen.
"That, I repeat, is why I have come here," said Vanderlyn's formidable
visitor. He spoke with a great deliberateness and mildness of manner. "I
cannot help thinking, my dear sir, that with your help we may be, or
rather _I_ may be, on the eve of a discovery."
Vanderlyn looked surprised; his desolate eyes met the older man's
hesitating glance quite squarely, but this time he remained silent.
The Prefect went on speaking, and his voice became more and more suave;
he was certainly desirous of saving in every way his host's
susceptibilities.
"The fact that I have taken the very unusual course of coming myself to
see you, Mr. Vanderlyn, will prove to you the importance I attach to
this interview. Indeed, I wish to be quite frank with you----"
Vanderlyn bent his head, and then he sat up, listening keenly while the
other continued----
"This is not, I am convinced, an ordinary case of disappearance, and it
is to us, and especially to me, disagreeably complicated by the fact
that the lady is an English subject and that her husband is a well-known
and highly thought of member of our English colony. This makes me the
more anxious to avoid"--he hesitated, then firmly uttered the two words,
"any scandal. It was suggested at the Préfecture to-day that it would be
well to make a perquisition, not only in Mrs. Pargeter's own house, but
also in the houses of some of her intimates. Mr. Pargeter, as you know,
gave the police every possible facility. Nothing was found in the Villa
Pargeter which could throw any light on Mrs. Pargeter's disappearance.
Now, Monsieur, before subjecting _you_ to such an unpleasant occurrence,
I decided to approach you myself----"
Vanderlyn opened his lips, and then closed them again.
"I have come to ask you, Monsieur, one question, and I give you my word
as an honest man that what you tell me shall be treated as confidential.
I ask you if you know more of this mysterious matter than you are
apparently prepared to divulge? In a word--I beg you to tell me where
Mrs. Pargeter is hiding at the present moment? I have no wish to disturb
her retreat, but I beg you most earnestly to entrust me with the
secret."
Again the speaker's eyes took a discreet journey round the plain, now
shadow-filled room; his glance rested on the book-shelves which formed
so important a part of its decorations, lingered doubtingly on a carved
walnut chest set between two of the windows, peered through these same
unshuttered windows on to the dark stone balconies, then, baffled, his
eyes came back and fixed themselves on the American diplomatist's face.
A feeling of indescribable relief stole over Vanderlyn's wearied and yet
alert senses. It was clear that the Prefect of Police knew nothing of
the truth; the directness of his question proved it. Yet, even so,
Vanderlyn felt that he must steer his way very warily.
"You are in error," he said at last, "for you credit me, Monsieur le
Préfet, with a knowledge I do not possess."
"Ah!" said the other mildly, "that is most unfortunate!"
"May I, on my side, put to you a question to which I should be glad of
an honest answer?" said Vanderlyn abruptly. "Are you now engaged in
making a wide-spread enquiry among those who had the honour of this
lady's acquaintance?"
"No, Monsieur,"--the Prefect's manner showed an eager desire to be quite
frank,--"I am confining my personal enquiries to only two persons; that
is, to a certain Madame de Léra, to whom you will remember Mrs. Pargeter
was about to pay a visit at the moment she disappeared, and to
yourself."
Vanderlyn made a sudden nervous movement, but he checked the words which
rose to his lips, for the Prefect was again speaking, and this time with
a certain excitement of manner.
"I am convinced that Mrs. Pargeter never intended to go to Madame de
Léra, and that the proposed visit was a blind! The facts speak for
themselves. Madame de Léra had taken only one servant to the country,
and this servant, an old woman whom she has had with her many years, and
whom she can entirely trust, had no idea that her mistress was expecting
a visitor! I repeat--that no preparations for Mrs. Pargeter's arrival
had been made at Marly-le-Roi. It is my belief--nay, my conviction--that
Madame de Léra knows perfectly well where her friend is now concealed."
It was then that Vanderlyn committed what was perhaps the only mistake
he was destined to commit during this difficult interview. "Has Madame
de Léra made any such admission?" he asked quickly.
"No," answered the Prefect, looking at him thoughtfully, "Madame de Léra
has made no admission; but then I have learned, through long experience,
never to believe, where there is a friend in the case, what a lady tells
me. Women of the world, my dear sir, are more loyal the one to the other
than we men may choose to believe!"
"And men, Monsieur? Are they more disloyal?" Vanderlyn spoke quietly,
indifferently, as if the question was of no moment.
"Men," said Monsieur le Préfet, dryly, "are as a rule quite as loyal,
especially where they feel their honour is engaged. But with a man it is
possible to reason; a woman, especially a good woman, follows the
dictates of instinct,--in other words, of her heart."
"I notice, Monsieur le Préfet, that you eliminate the possibility of
material accident having occurred to Mrs. Pargeter?"
"Let us distinguish!" exclaimed the older man quickly. "If, by accident,
you mean, Mr. Vanderlyn, the type of mishap which might have occurred to
this lady when she was walking or driving in our Paris streets, then I
certainly eliminate the possibility of accident to Mrs. Pargeter. Within
six hours of such a thing having occurred the facts would have been laid
before me, and, as you know, two nights and two days have elapsed since
her disappearance. If, on the other hand, we envisage the possibility of
suicide, then are opened up a new series of possibilities."
The Prefect gave a piercing look at the American's worn and sorrow-laden
face, but he did not find written there any involuntary answer to his
mute interrogation.
"Some years ago," went on the great official, "a man well known in Paris
society made up his mind to take his own life. He hired a cellar, locked
the door, and then shot himself. Months went by before his disappearance
was accounted for, and then the body was only discovered by an accident.
If Mrs. Pargeter has committed suicide, and if she, an intelligent
woman, was determined that the fact should never be found out by her
friends, then I admit our task becomes a very difficult one! But I do
not believe," he continued, after a short silence, "that Mrs. Pargeter
did this. I believe she is alive, and well. She was, by each account
that has reached me, young, charming, and wealthy. She had a child whom
she apparently adored. As for her relations with her husband----" the
Prefect shrugged his shoulders, and again looked searchingly at
Vanderlyn.
"Mr. Thomas Pargeter," he went on, smiling, "is not perhaps the perfect
husband of whom every young girl dreams; but then no one is so foolish
as to search for the perfect husband in the world to which your friend
belongs! He is not exactly a _viveur_,--but he is, to use the slang of
the day, essentially a _jouisseur_. Is not that so?" He added, with a
rather twisted grin, "If every lady whose husband lives to enjoy himself
were to commit suicide, there would be very few women left in our Paris
world."
"I agree with you, Monsieur le Préfet, in thinking Mrs. Pargeter was the
last woman in the world to commit suicide," said Vanderlyn brusquely,
and then he got up.
There had come over him during the last few moments an inexplicable,
instinctive feeling of dread,--that panting fear which besets the hunted
creature. He was determined to bring to an end the interview. But the
Prefect of Police had no intention of being disposed of so easily. He
remained sitting where he was; and, placing his two fat hands firmly on
his knees, sat looking at the American's tall figure. Slowly his eyes
travelled up till they rested on his host's haggard face.
"Then I am to understand, Mr. Vanderlyn, that you are not in a position
to give me any help? That is your last word?"
Vanderlyn suddenly determined to carry the war into the enemy's country.
"I can only repeat," he said, harshly, "what I said before, Monsieur le
Préfet--namely, that you credit me with a knowledge which I do not
possess. Further, that while, of course, I appreciate the kindly motive
which has inspired your visit, I think I have a right to resent the
suspicions which that visit indicates, I do not say on your part, but on
that of your subordinates. I will not disguise from you my knowledge
that for the last two days every step I have taken has been dogged; I
suspect also, but of that I have no proof, that my servants, and the
concierge of this house, have been questioned as to my movements, as to
my daily life. I cannot help also suspecting--perhaps in this I am
wrong--that the police are inclined to believe that Mrs. Pargeter--a
woman, let me remind you, Monsieur le Préfet, of the highest and most
unspotted character--is hiding here, in my chambers! You speak of having
saved me from a perquisition,--a perquisition in the rooms of a
diplomatist is a serious matter, Monsieur le Préfet, and I tell you
quite frankly that I should have resisted such an outrage in every way
in my power! But now, in the present very peculiar circumstances, I
request,--nay, I demand,--that you should search my rooms. Every
possible facility shall be afforded you." Vanderlyn's voice was shaking
with undisguised anger,--aye, and disgust.
The Prefect of Police rose from his chair.
"I have no wish to subject you to any indignity," he said earnestly, "I
absolutely accept your assurance that Mrs. Pargeter is not in hiding
here. I am aware, Mr. Vanderlyn, that Americans do not lie,"--an ironic
smile wavered for a moment over his large mouth.
Vanderlyn's face remained impassive. "You, on your side, must forgive my
heat," he said, quietly. Then he suddenly determined to play for a high
stake. "May I ask you to satisfy my curiosity on one point? What made
you first suspect such a thing? What led you to--to suppose----"
"----That you knew where this lady was; that she might--say, after a
little misunderstanding with her husband--have taken refuge with you?
Well, yes, Mr. Vanderlyn, I admit that you have a right to ask me this,
and it was because I feared you might lack the exquisite courtesy you
have shown me, that I brought with me to-night a document which
contains, in what I trust you will consider a discreet form, an answer
to your delicate question."
Vanderlyn's visitor again sat down; he laid open on his knee the leather
portfolio, and out of it he took a large sheet of foolscap, which,
unfolding, he handed to Laurence Vanderlyn.
"This, Monsieur, is your _dossier_. If you can prove to me that it is
incorrect in any particular, I will see that the error is rectified. We
naturally take special care in compiling the _dossiers_ of foreign
diplomatists, for experience has shown that these often become of great
value, even after the gentlemen in question have left Paris for some
other capital."
Vanderlyn reddened. He glanced over the odd-looking document with eager,
curious eyes. A few words here and there were printed, but the rest of
the _dossier_ was written in the round copying character which must be
mastered by every French Government clerk hoping for promotion.
First came the American diplomatist's Christian name and surname, his
place of birth, his probable age--right within two years,--a short
epitome of his diplomatic career, a guess at his income, this item
considerably under the right figure, and evidently based on his quiet
way of living.
Then, under a printed heading "General Remarks," were written a few
phrases in a handwriting very different from the rest--that is, in the
small clear caligraphy of an educated Frenchman. Staring down at these,
Vanderlyn felt shaken with anger and disgust, for these "General
Remarks" concerned that part of his private life which every man
believes to be hidden from his fellows:--
"Peu d'intimités d'hommes. Pas de femmes: par contre, une amitié
amoureuse très suivie avec Madame (Marguerite) Pargeter. Voir dossier
Pargeter (Thomas)."
Amitié amoureuse? Friendship akin to love? The English language, so rich
in synonyms, owns no exact equivalent for this French phrase, expressive
though it be of a phase of human emotion as old as human nature itself.
Vanderlyn looked up. His eyes met squarely those of the other man.
"Your staff," he said, very quietly, "have served you well, Monsieur; my
_dossier_ is, on the whole, extraordinarily correct. There is but one
word which I would have altered, and which, indeed, I venture to beg you
to correct without loss of time. The young man--he is evidently a young
man--who wrote the summary to which you have drawn my attention, must
have literary tastes, otherwise there is one word in this document which
would not be there." Vanderlyn put his finger down firmly on the word
"amoureuse." "My relations with Mrs. Pargeter were, it is true, those of
close friendship, but I must ask you to accept my assurance, Monsieur le
Préfet, that they were not what the writer of this passage evidently
believed them to have been."
"I will make a note of the correction," said the Prefect, gravely, "and
I must offer you my very sincere excuses for having troubled you
to-night."
As Vanderlyn's late visitor drove home that night, he said to himself,
indeed he said aloud to the walls of the shabby little carriage which
had heard so many important secrets, "He knows whatever there is to be
known--but, then, what is it that is to be known? Of what mystery am I
now seeking the solution?"