While the malignant tongues had been playing havoc with Somerset’s
fame in the ears of Paula and her companion, the young man himself was
proceeding partly by rail, partly on foot, below and amid the olive-clad
hills, vineyards, carob groves, and lemon gardens of the Mediterranean
shores. Arrived at San Remo he wrote to Nice to inquire for letters,
and such as had come were duly forwarded; but not one of them was from
Paula. This broke down his resolution to hold off, and he hastened
directly to Genoa, regretting that he had not taken this step when he
first heard that she was there.
Something in the very aspect of the marble halls of that city, which at
any other time he would have liked to linger over, whispered to him that
the bird had flown; and inquiry confirmed the fancy. Nevertheless, the
architectural beauties of the palace-bordered street, looking as if
mountains of marble must have been levelled to supply the materials
for constructing it, detained him there two days: or rather a feat
of resolution, by which he set himself to withstand the drag-chain of
Paula’s influence, was operative for that space of time.
At the end of it he moved onward. There was no difficulty in discovering
their track northwards; and feeling that he might as well return to
England by the Rhine route as by any other, he followed in the course
they had chosen, getting scent of them in Strassburg, missing them at
Baden by a day, and finally overtaking them at Carlsruhe, which town he
reached on the morning after the Power and De Stancy party had taken
up their quarters at the ancient inn above mentioned. When Somerset
was about to get out of the train at this place, little dreaming what
a meaning the word Carlsruhe would have for him in subsequent years, he
was disagreeably surprised to see no other than Dare stepping out of the
adjoining carriage. A new brown leather valise in one of his hands, a
new umbrella in the other, and a new suit of fashionable clothes on
his back, seemed to denote considerable improvement in the young man’s
fortunes. Somerset was so struck by the circumstance of his being on
this spot that he almost missed his opportunity for alighting.
Dare meanwhile had moved on without seeing his former employer, and
Somerset resolved to take the chance that offered, and let him go. There
was something so mysterious in their common presence simultaneously
at one place, five hundred miles from where they had last met, that
he exhausted conjecture on whether Dare’s errand this way could have
anything to do with his own, or whether their juxtaposition a second
time was the result of pure accident. Greatly as he would have liked
to get this answered by a direct question to Dare himself, he did not
counteract his first instinct, and remained unseen.
They went out in different directions, when Somerset for the first time
remembered that, in learning at Baden that the party had flitted towards
Carlsruhe, he had taken no care to ascertain the name of the hotel
they were bound for. Carlsruhe was not a large place and the point was
immaterial, but the omission would necessitate a little inquiry. To
follow Dare on the chance of his having fixed upon the same quarters
was a course which did not commend itself. He resolved to get some lunch
before proceeding with his business--or fatuity--of discovering the
elusive lady, and drove off to a neighbouring tavern, which did not
happen to be, as he hoped it might, the one chosen by those who had
preceded him.
Meanwhile Dare, previously master of their plans, went straight to the
house which sheltered them, and on entering under the archway from the
Lange-Strasse was saved the trouble of inquiring for Captain De Stancy
by seeing him drinking bitters at a little table in the court. Had
Somerset chosen this inn for his quarters instead of the one in the
Market-Place which he actually did choose, the three must inevitably
have met here at this moment, with some possibly striking dramatic
results; though what they would have been remains for ever hidden in the
darkness of the unfulfilled.
De Stancy jumped up from his chair, and went forward to the new-comer.
‘You are not long behind us, then,’ he said, with laconic disquietude.
‘I thought you were going straight home?’
‘I was,’ said Dare, ‘but I have been blessed with what I may call a
small competency since I saw you last. Of the two hundred francs you
gave me I risked fifty at the tables, and I have multiplied them, how
many times do you think? More than four hundred times.’
De Stancy immediately looked grave. ‘I wish you had lost them,’ he said,
with as much feeling as could be shown in a place where strangers were
hovering near.
‘Nonsense, captain! I have proceeded purely on a calculation of chances;
and my calculations proved as true as I expected, notwithstanding a
little in-and-out luck at first. Witness this as the result.’ He smacked
his bag with his umbrella, and the chink of money resounded from within.
‘Just feel the weight of it!’
‘It is not necessary. I take your word.’
‘Shall I lend you five pounds?’
‘God forbid! As if that would repay me for what you have cost me! But
come, let’s get out of this place to where we can talk more freely.’ He
put his hand through the young man’s arm, and led him round the corner
of the hotel towards the Schloss-Platz.
‘These runs of luck will be your ruin, as I have told you before,’
continued Captain De Stancy. ‘You will be for repeating and repeating
your experiments, and will end by blowing your brains out, as wiser
heads than yours have done. I am glad you have come away, at any rate.
Why did you travel this way?’
‘Simply because I could afford it, of course.--But come, captain,
something has ruffled you to-day. I thought you did not look in the best
temper the moment I saw you. Every sip you took of your pick-up as you
sat there showed me something was wrong. Tell your worry!’
‘Pooh--I can tell you in two words,’ said the captain satirically. ‘Your
arrangement for my wealth and happiness--for I suppose you still claim
it to be yours--has fallen through. The lady has announced to-day that
she means to send for Somerset instantly. She is coming to a personal
explanation with him. So woe to me--and in another sense, woe to you, as
I have reason to fear.’
‘Send for him!’ said Dare, with the stillness of complete abstraction.
‘Then he’ll come.’
‘Well,’ said De Stancy, looking him in the face. ‘And does it make you
feel you had better be off? How about that telegram? Did he ask you to
send it, or did he not?’
‘One minute, or I shall be up such a tree as nobody ever saw the like
of.’
‘Then what did you come here for?’ burst out De Stancy. ‘’Tis my belief
you are no more than a--But I won’t call you names; I’ll tell you quite
plainly that if there is anything wrong in that message to her--which
I believe there is--no, I can’t believe, though I fear it--you have the
chance of appearing in drab clothes at the expense of the Government
before the year is out, and I of being eternally disgraced!’
‘No, captain, you won’t be disgraced. I am bad to beat, I can tell you.
And come the worst luck, I don’t say a word.’
‘But those letters pricked in your skin would say a good deal, it
strikes me.’
‘What! would they strip me?--but it is not coming to that. Look here,
now, I’ll tell you the truth for once; though you don’t believe me
capable of it. I DID concoct that telegram--and sent it; just as a
practical joke; and many a worse one has been only laughed at by honest
men and officers. I could show you a bigger joke still--a joke of
jokes--on the same individual.’
Dare as he spoke put his hand into his breast-pocket, as if the said
joke lay there; but after a moment he withdrew his hand empty, as he
continued:
‘Having invented it I have done enough; I was going to explain it to
you, that you might carry it out. But you are so serious, that I will
leave it alone. My second joke shall die with me.’
‘So much the better,’ said De Stancy. ‘I don’t like your jokes, even
though they are not directed against myself. They express a kind of
humour which does not suit me.’
‘You may have reason to alter your mind,’ said Dare carelessly. ‘Your
success with your lady may depend on it. The truth is, captain, we
aristocrats must not take too high a tone. Our days as an independent
division of society, which holds aloof from other sections, are past.
This has been my argument (in spite of my strong Norman feelings) ever
since I broached the subject of your marrying this girl, who represents
both intellect and wealth--all, in fact, except the historical prestige
that you represent. And we mustn’t flinch at things. The case is even
more pressing than ordinary cases--owing to the odd fact that the
representative of the new blood who has come in our way actually lives
in your own old house, and owns your own old lands. The ordinary reason
for such alliances is quintupled in our case. Do then just think and
be reasonable, before you talk tall about not liking my jokes, and all
that. Beggars mustn’t be choosers.’
‘There’s really much reason in your argument,’ said De Stancy, with a
bitter laugh: ‘and my own heart argues much the same way. But, leaving
me to take care of my aristocratic self, I advise your aristocratic
self to slip off at once to England like any hang-gallows dog; and if
Somerset is here, and you have been doing wrong in his name, and it all
comes out, I’ll try to save you, as far as an honest man can. If you
have done no wrong, of course there is no fear; though I should be
obliged by your going homeward as quickly as possible, as being better
both for you and for me.... Hullo--Damnation!’
They had reached one side of the Schloss-Platz, nobody apparently being
near them save a sentinel who was on duty before the Palace; but turning
as he spoke, De Stancy beheld a group consisting of his sister, Paula,
and Mr. Power, strolling across the square towards them.
It was impossible to escape their observation, and putting a bold front
upon it, De Stancy advanced with Dare at his side, till in a few moments
the two parties met, Paula and Charlotte recognizing Dare at once as the
young man who assisted at the castle.
‘I have met my young photographer,’ said De Stancy cheerily. ‘What a
small world it is, as everybody truly observes! I am wishing he could
take some views for us as we go on; but you have no apparatus with you,
I suppose, Mr. Dare?’
‘I have not, sir, I am sorry to say,’ replied Dare respectfully.
‘You could get some, I suppose?’ asked Paula of the interesting young
photographer.
Dare declared that it would be not impossible: whereupon De Stancy said
that it was only a passing thought of his; and in a few minutes the two
parties again separated, going their several ways.
‘That was awkward,’ said De Stancy, trembling with excitement. ‘I would
advise you to keep further off in future.’
Dare said thoughtfully that he would be careful, adding, ‘She is a prize
for any man, indeed, leaving alone the substantial possessions behind
her! Now was I too enthusiastic? Was I a fool for urging you on?’
‘Wait till success justifies the undertaking. In case of failure it will
have been anything but wise. It is no light matter to have a carefully
preserved repose broken in upon for nothing--a repose that could never
be restored!’
They walked down the Carl-Friedrichs-Strasse to the Margrave’s Pyramid,
and back to the hotel, where Dare also decided to take up his stay. De
Stancy left him with the book-keeper at the desk, and went upstairs to
see if the ladies had returned.