Dinner was to be half an hour later than usual, and Dr. Panton, as he
went off to his comfortable, warm room, felt pleasantly, healthily
tired.
He had gone in to see his patients for a moment on his way upstairs, and
they were both going on well. Bubbles was beginning to look her own
queer, elfish little self again. She was curiously apathetic, as people
so often are after any kind of shock, but it was clear that there were
to be no bad after-effects of the accident. As for Donnington, the young
man declared that he felt quite all right, and he was even anxious to
get up for dinner. But that, of course, could not be allowed.
"All's well that ends well," muttered the doctor, as he threw himself
for a moment into a chair drawn up invitingly before the fire.
He did go on to tell himself, however, that he now felt a little
concerned over Lionel Varick. Varick now looked far more really ill than
did either Bubbles or Bill Donnington.
The doctor recalled a certain terrible day, rather over a year ago, when
Varick had broken down utterly! It was the afternoon that poor Milly was
being put into her coffin; and, by sheer good luck he, Panton, happened
to call in. He had found Varick sitting alone, looking very desolate, in
the dining-room of the commonplace little villa, while from overhead
there came the sounds of heavy feet moving this way and that.
All at once there had come a loud knock at the front door, and Varick,
starting up, had uttered a fearful cry. Then, sitting down again, he had
begun trembling, as if he had the ague. He, Panton, had been so
concerned at the poor fellow's condition that he had insisted, there and
then, on taking him along to his own house, and he had kept him there as
his guest till the day of Mrs. Varick's funeral.
As these memories came crowding on him, the door of his room opened
quietly, and the man who was filling his mind walked in.
Varick was already dressed for dinner, and, not for the first time, the
doctor told himself what a distinguished-looking man his friend and host
was.
"Panton," said Varick abruptly, "I have something on my mind."
The doctor looked up, surprised. "What is it, my dear fellow?" he asked
kindly.
"I can't help thinking that in some inexplicable way I pushed Bubbles
Dunster over the edge of that embankment. Has she said anything to you
about it?"
Dr. Panton got up and came over to the speaker. He put his hand heavily
on Varick's shoulder, and almost forced him down into the chair from
which he had himself risen.
"Look here," he exclaimed, "this won't do at all! Pull yourself
together, man--you mustn't get such fancies into your head. That way
madness lies. Still, you may as well try and get it off your chest once
for all. Tell me exactly what _did_ happen? Begin at the beginning--"
As Varick remained silent, the doctor went on, encouragingly: "I will
start you by reminding you that Miss Bubbles was wearing the most
absurd high-heeled shoes. Young Donnington spoke to her about them, and
that drew my attention to her feet as we came out of the gate. She even
tripped when we were just past the bridge. Do you remember that?"
"No, I didn't notice her at all."
"Well, tell me exactly what happened just before she fell over the edge
of the embankment?"
"I don't know that there's very much to tell." Varick was now staring
into the fire, but at last he began in a strained, tired voice:
"Donnington had just shouted out that we were walking rather too near to
the edge, and so I took hold of her arm. But you know what Bubbles is
like? She's a queer kind of girl, and she tried to wrench herself free.
Then I gripped a little harder and--well, I don't know exactly what did
happen! I suppose her foot turned, for I suddenly felt her weight full
on me, and then, and then--"
"Yes," said Dr. Panton soothingly, "I know exactly what happened. You
instinctively straightened yourself to try to put her on her feet again,
but she'd already lost her balance--"
"I suppose that's what did happen," said Varick in a low voice.
"--And her foot turning again, she rolled down the steep embankment,"
concluded the doctor firmly. "You did nothing, my dear chap, absolutely
nothing, to bring the accident about! Put that idea, once and for all,
out of your mind."
"I would," said Varick painfully, "I would, but that I'm afraid--in
fact, I feel sure--that she thinks I pushed her in. She turned the most
awful look on me, Panton, as she fell over the edge. I shall never
forget it."
"That look had nothing to do with you," said the doctor decidedly. "It
was simply the terrified look of a human being on the brink of a
frightful death."
"You're a good friend," muttered Varick, getting up. "I'll leave you to
dress now."
"Wait a moment!" exclaimed Panton; "there's one thing about Miss
Bubbles' accident which does trouble me, I admit. It puzzled me at the
time; and I can see it is puzzling young Donnington too."
Varick, who was already at the door, stayed his steps and turned round.
There had come back into his face the strained look which had softened
away while he listened to his friend's sensible remarks. "Yes," he said
impatiently, "yes, Panton? What is it that puzzles you?"
"I wish I knew exactly how long Miss Bubbles was in the water. She was
very, very far gone when that boy managed to clutch hold of her. Did you
see her go down again, and come up again twice? Forgive me, my dear
fellow, I'm afraid I'm distressing you."
"You asked me that downstairs," said Varick, "and I told you then
that--that I didn't know."
"I thought," said Dr. Panton, "that you remembered so clearly all that
had happened--by what you said just now."
"Yes, up to the moment when she fell in, I remember everything. But once
she was in the water everything became blurred. All I can say is that it
seemed as if hours drifted by before I saw you all come running up
towards me--"
"Come, come," said Panton, a trifle impatiently. "As a matter of fact
it can't have been more than three minutes. Still, it was long enough
for the girl to go as near the Great Divide, as a friend of mine calls
it, as I've ever known a human being go."
"I suppose," said Varick slowly, "that if you hadn't been there Bubbles
would now be dead?"
"Well, yes, I'm afraid that's true," said the doctor simply. "I should
have expected that clever, intelligent Miss Farrow, to say nothing of
Miss Brabazon, to know something about First Aid. But neither of them
know anything! The only person who was of the slightest use was young
Donnington; and I suspect--" he smiled broadly.
"What do you suspect?" asked Varick rather quickly.
"Well, I suspect that he's in love with Miss Bubbles."
"Of course he is." Varick's contemptuous tone jarred a little on Panton.
"But Bubbles intends to become Mrs. Tapster."
"I should be sorry to think that!"
"Why sorry? The modern young woman--and Bubbles is a very modern young
woman--knows the value of money," said Varick dryly.
He waited a moment. "I'll leave you now, Panton, and I'll see that the
dinner-bell isn't rung till you're quite ready."
"All right. I won't be ten minutes--"
But Varick lingered by the door. "Panton," he exclaimed, "you've been a
good friend to me! I want to tell you that I shall never forget it. As
long as there's breath in my body I shall be grateful to you."
As the doctor dressed he told himself again that Varick had never
really recovered from the strain of his wife's long illness. Under that
rather exceptionally calm, steadfast-looking exterior, the man was
extraordinarily sensitive. How upset, for instance, Varick had been
about Miss Pigchalke's crazy advertisement. He, Panton, had felt quite
sorry that he had said anything about it.
While putting on his tie, he told himself that what the dear fellow
wanted now was a good, sensible second wife. And then, as he formulated
that thought to himself, the young man--for he was still quite a young
man--stopped what he was doing, and rubbed his hands joyfully. Why, of
course! What a fool he had been never to think of it before--though to
be sure it would really have been almost indecent to have thought of it
before. Helen Brabazon? The very woman for Lionel Varick! Such a
marriage would be the making of his highly-strung, fine-natured friend.
As he hurriedly finished dressing, Panton plumed himself on his
cleverness. With all his heart he hoped the day would come when he would
be able to say to Varick: "Ages before _you_ thought of her, old chap,
_I_ selected Miss Brabazon as your future bride!" He hoped, uneasily,
that Sir Lyon was not seriously in the running. But he had noticed that
Sir Lyon and Miss Brabazon seemed to have a good deal to say to one
another. Women, so he told himself ruefully, like to be "My lady." But
she was certainly fond of Varick--she had been fond of him (of course,
only as a woman may be of a friend's husband) during those sad weeks at
Redsands.
* * * * *
As the doctor came out of his room he decided to go in for a moment and
see Bubbles Dunster. Somehow he did not feel quite easy about her. He
wondered, uncomfortably, if there could be anything in Varick's painful
suspicion. After her aunt and Helen Brabazon between them had put her to
bed, and he had come in, alone, to see how she was, she had said
abruptly: "I wonder if it's true that doctors can keep a secret better
than most men?" And when he had made some joking answer, she had asked,
in a very serious tone: "You're a great friend of Lionel Varick, eh?" He
had answered: "Men don't vow eternal friendships in the way I'm told
young ladies do; but, yes, I hope I am a great friend of Lionel
Varick's. I've a high opinion of him, Miss Bubbles, and I've seen him
under circumstances that test a man."
She had looked at him fixedly while he said these words, and then she
had opened and shut her eyes in a very odd way. He now asked himself if
it was probable--possible--conceivable--that she blamed Varick for her
accident? He, Varick, evidently thought so.
And then, as he walked along the darkened corridor, there came over Dr.
Panton a most extraordinary feeling--_a feeling that he was not alone._
He stayed his steps, and listened intently. But the only sound he heard
was the ticking of a clock. He walked on, and all at once there came a
word repeated twice, quite distinctly, almost as if in his ear. It was a
disagreeable, an offensive word--a word, or rather an appellation, which
the clever young doctor had not heard applied to himself for a good many
years. For, twice over, was the word "Fool!" repeated in a mocking
voice, a voice to whose owner he could not at the moment put a name, and
yet which seemed vaguely familiar.
Then he remembered. Why, of course, it was the voice of that crazy,
unpleasant old woman who had called on him last spring! But how had Miss
Pigchalke found her way into Wyndfell Hall? And where on earth was she?
He looked round him, this way and that; and his eyes, by now accustomed
to the dim light thrown by a hanging lamp, saw everything quite
distinctly. He was certainly alone in the corridor now. But Miss
Pigchalke had as certainly been there a moment ago. He wondered if she
could have hidden herself in a huge oak chest which stood to his right?
Nay, there she could not be, for he remembered having been shown that it
was full of eighteenth-century gala gowns.
And while he was looking about him, feeling utterly perplexed and
bewildered, through a door which was ajar there suddenly passed out
Lionel Varick.
"Is anyone in there?" asked the doctor sharply.
Varick started violently. "You did startle me!" he exclaimed. "No,
there's no one in there--I came up to look for a book. But as I told
them to delay dinner yet a little longer, would you mind if we went in
and saw Bubbles together on our way downstairs? I feel I should rather
like to get my first interview with her over--and with you there."
"I don't see why you shouldn't." But there was a doubtful ring in Dr.
Panton's voice. He would, as a matter of fact, have very much preferred
that Varick should not see the girl to-night, especially if there was
the slightest truth in the other's suspicion that Bubbles believed him
to have been in any way instrumental, however accidentally, in making
her fall into the water.
His mind worked quickly, as minds are apt to work when faced with that
sort of problem, and he decided that on the whole he might as well let
Varick do as he wished.
"You'd better not say very much to her. Just say you hope she's feeling
all right by now--or something of that sort."
But when they came to the closed door of the girl's room he turned and
said: "I'll just go in and prepare her for your visit--if you don't
mind?"
* * * * *
Bubbles was lying straight down in bed, for, at her own request, the
bolster had been taken away. Her head was only just raised up on the
pillow. By the light of the one candle he could see her slender form
outlined under the bed-clothes. Her eyes were closed, her features
pinched and worn. There was something almost deathly in the look of her
little face.
He wondered if she was asleep--if so, it would be rather a relief to him
to go outside the door and tell Varick that she mustn't be disturbed.
But all at once she opened her eyes widely, and there even came the
quiver of a smile over her face.
"Doctor?" she said plaintively. "Doctor, come nearer, I want to ask you
a question."
"Yes?" he said. "What is it, Miss Bubbles?"
"I want to ask you," she said dreamily, "why you brought me back? I was
beginning to feel so much at home in the grey world. There were such
kind people there, waiting to welcome me. Only one friend I felt sad to
leave behind----"
"Tut-tut!" he said, a little startled. "You were never anywhere near
leaving us, Miss Bubbles."
"I know I was, and you know it, too. But you called me back. Confess
that you did!"
"I'll confess nothing of the sort," he answered a little shortly.
There was a little pause, and then he went on, "There's someone outside
the door who wants to see you; someone who's feeling most awfully
miserable about you."
A look of unease and of anxiety came over her face. "D'you mean Mr.
Tapster?" she said hesitatingly.
"Good heavens, no!" He was surprised, and a little disgusted. "Can't you
guess who it is?"
He saw the look in her face grow to shrinking fear. "I can't guess at
all," she said weakly. "You won't allow Bill to get up--I know that
because he sent me a message. Bill's the only person I want to see."
"He'll come soon enough," said Dr. Panton, smiling.
"It was really Bill who saved me," she went on, as if speaking to
herself.
"Of course it was Bill!" he spoke now with hearty assent. "You've a
splendid friend in that young man, Miss Bubbles, and I hope you're
properly grateful to him?"
"I think I am," she said slowly. "I'm trying to be."
"And the other friend who wants to see you--may he come in for a
minute?"
"The other friend? Do you mean Sir Lyon?"
"No, no--of course not!" He spoke with a touch of impatience now.
"Mr. Tapster," said Bubbles, nervously flying off at a tangent, "wants
me to marry him, Dr. Panton. He asked me--was it yesterday morning, or
this morning?" She knitted her brows. "Of course, I had to help him out.
The moment he'd said it, he began to hope that I'd say 'No'--so I
thought I'd punish him, by leaving him in suspense a bit."
"He was very distressed at your accident," said the doctor rather
stiffly. Bubbles' queer confidence had startled him.
"Most men only really want what they feel is out of their reach," she
whispered. "When he thought me gone, he wanted me back again. He's like
that. He'll make a much nicer widower than he will a husband!"
She looked up and smiled, but he felt as if she was keeping him at arm's
length.
"It's Mr. Varick who's outside the door and who wants to come in and see
you," he said suddenly, in a matter-of-fact voice.
Bubbles turned her head away quickly. "Not to-night, doctor; I'm too
tired." She spoke very decidedly, and in a stronger voice than she had
yet used. "I'd rather wait till I get up before seeing Mr. Varick."
"He only wants to come in for a minute--do see him."
Dr. Panton spoke persuasively, but he told himself that Varick was
right--Bubbles _had_ got that extraordinary, horrible notion into her
head. "He's very much upset," he went on, "he thinks that unconsciously
he may have given you some kind of push over the edge of the
embankment."
He saw her face change. It crimsoned darkly.
"Has he told you that?" she muttered.
"Yes, he has; and he's awfully upset about it, Miss Bubbles."
"I suppose I had better see him. I shall have to see him some time."
She said the words between her teeth, and, making an effort, she sat up
in bed.
Dr. Panton went to the door, and opened it.
"Come in," he called out; "but don't stay long, Varick. Miss Bubbles is
very tired to-night."
Varick came in slowly and advanced with curiously hesitating, nervous
steps, towards the bed. "Well, Bubbles," he exclaimed, "I'm glad you're
no worse for your ducking!"
She looked at him fixedly, but said nothing. Dr. Panton began to feel
desperately uncomfortable.
"I hope you'll be quite all right to-morrow," went on Varick.
"I think I shall, thank you."
Bubbles seemed to be looking beyond her visitor--not at him. She seemed
to be gazing at something at the other end of the room.
"You've brought someone in with you," she said suddenly. There was a
curious tone--almost a tone of exultation--in her voice. "Who is it?"
she asked imperiously. "Tell me who it is--Lionel."
She very rarely called Varick "Lionel."
He wheeled round with a startled look. "There's no one here," he
answered, "but Dr. Panton and myself."
"Oh yes, there is." Bubbles spoke very positively. "There's a woman
here. I can see her quite distinctly in the firelight. She's got a fat,
angry face, and untidy grey hair. Hullo, she's gone now!"
Bubbles fell back on to her pillow and closed her eyes. It was as if she
was dismissing them.
Varick turned uneasily to the doctor. "Is she delirious?" he whispered.
The doctor shook his head. He also was startled--startled more than
surprised. For in just Bubbles' words would he have described the odious
woman who had come to see him last spring, and whose voice he had heard
within the last few minutes.
He now had no doubt that Miss Pigchalke had been in the corridor, or,
more likely, in some room opening out of it, and that she had followed
Varick into this darkened room and then, noiselessly, slipped out again.
Bubbles opened her eyes.
"I'll come up after dinner for a few minutes," said Dr. Panton. Bubbles
made no answer; her eyes were now following Varick out of the door.
The doctor lingered for a moment. "You're _sure_ there was someone
there?" he asked.
"Of course I'm sure." Bubbles spoke quite positively. "I'm sure"--and
then he saw a change come over her face--"and yet I don't know that I am
quite sure," she murmured dreamily.
As Dr. Panton went down the shallow oak staircase he felt in a turmoil
of doubt and discomfort. To his mind there was no reasonable doubt that
Miss Pigchalke had somehow effected an entrance to Wyndfell Hall. She
had lived there for long years; she must know every corner of the
strange old house.
When he reached the hall where the whole party was gathered together, he
went up to Blanche Farrow. "May I speak to you a moment?" he whispered.
"What is it?" she asked anxiously. "Isn't Bubbles so well?"
"Oh, yes; Miss Bubbles is going on all right. But, Miss Farrow? I want
to tell you something that, if possible, I should like to keep from
Varick."
"Yes--what is it?"
"Someone who has a grudge against him, a tiresome old woman who was
companion to Mrs. Varick for many years, has somehow got into this
house. She spoke to me just as I came out of my room. I didn't see her,
but I heard her voice quite distinctly. And when Varick and I went into
Miss Bubbles' room for a moment, on our way downstairs, she followed us
in--Miss Bubbles described her exactly. Then suddenly she disappeared. I
am sure she's hiding in one of the bedrooms."
"What a horrid idea!" exclaimed Blanche.
"Now comes the question--can we manage to hunt her out, and get her away
from the house, without Varick knowing?"
"But why shouldn't he know?" asked Blanche hesitatingly.
"Look at him," said the doctor impressively. And Blanche, glancing
quickly across the room, was struck by Varick's look of illness.
"There's no reason for telling him anything about it," she admitted.
"But hadn't we better wait till after dinner before doing anything?"
"Perhaps we had."
Dinner was a curious, uncomfortable meal; even Sir Lyon and Helen
Brabazon felt the atmosphere charged with anxiety and depression.
Miss Burnaby alone was her usual placid, quietly greedy self. She had
expressed suitable regret at all that had happened, but most of the
party realized that she had not really cared at all.
When the ladies passed through into the white parlour, Blanche slipped
away. She got hold of her firm ally, the butler, and explained in a very
few words what she thought had better be done. Accompanied by Pegler,
they went into every room, and into every nook and cranny of the house,
upstairs and down--but they found no trace of any alien presence.
Miss Pigchalke, so much was clear, had vanished as quietly and silently
as she had come.