A NEW ACQUAINTANCE
Meanwhile Larcher was treated to an odd experience. One afternoon, as
he turned into the house of flats in which Edna Hill lived, he chanced
to look back toward Sixth Avenue. He noticed a pleasant-looking,
smooth-faced young man, very erect in carriage and trim in appearance,
coming along from that thoroughfare. He recalled now that he had observed
this same young man, who was a stranger to him, standing at the corner of
his own street as he left his lodgings that morning; and again sauntering
along behind him as he took the car to come up-town. Doubtless, thought
he, the young man had caught the next car, and, by a coincidence, got off
at the same street. He passed in, and the matter dropped from his mind.
But the next day, as he was coming out of the restaurant where he usually
lunched, his look met that of the same neat, braced-up young man, who was
standing in the vestibule of a theatre across the way. “It seems I am
haunted by this gentleman,” mused Larcher, and scrutinized him rather
intently. Even across the street, Larcher was impressed anew with the
young man's engagingness of expression, which owed much to a whimsical,
amiable look about the mouth.
Two hours later, having turned aside on Broadway to greet an
acquaintance, his roving eye fell again on the spruce young man, this
time in the act of stepping into a saloon which Larcher had just passed.
“By George, this _is_ strange!” he exclaimed.
“What?” asked his acquaintance.
“That's the fifth time I've seen the same man in two days. He's just gone
into that saloon.”
“You're being shadowed by the police,” said the other, jokingly. “What
crime have you committed?”
The next afternoon, as Larcher stood on the stoop of the house in lower
Fifth Avenue, and glanced idly around while waiting for an answer to his
ring, he beheld the young man coming down the other side of the avenue.
“Now this is too much,” said Larcher to himself, glaring across at the
stranger, but instantly feeling rebuked by the innocent good humor that
lurked about the stranger's mouth. As the young man came directly
opposite, without having apparently noticed Larcher, the latter's
attention was called away by the coming of the servant in response to
the bell. He entered the house, and, as he awaited the announcement of
his name to Miss Kenby, he asked himself whether this haunting of his
footsteps might indeed be an intended act. “Do they think I may be in
communication with Davenport? and _are_ they having me shadowed? That
would be interesting.” But this strange young man looked too intelligent,
too refined, too superior in every way, for the trade of a shadowing
detective. Besides, a “shadow” would not, as a rule, appear on three
successive days in precisely the same clothes and hat.
And yet, when Larcher left the house half an hour later, whom did he see
gazing at the display in a publisher's window near by, on the same side
of the street, but the young man? Flaring up at this evidence to the
probability that he was really being dogged, Larcher walked straight to
the young man's side, and stared questioningly at the young man's
reflection in the plate glass. The young man glanced around in a casual
manner, as at the sudden approach of a newcomer, and then resumed his
contemplation of the books in the window. The amiability of the young
man's countenance, the quizzical good nature of his dimpled face,
disarmed resentment. Feeling somewhat foolish, Larcher feigned an
interest in the show of books for a few seconds, and then went his way,
leaving the young man before the window. Larcher presently looked back;
the young man was still there, still gazing at the books. Apparently he
was not taking further note of Larcher's movements. This was the end of
Larcher's odd experience; he did not again have reason to suppose himself
followed.
The third time Larcher called to see Miss Kenby after this, he had not
been seated five minutes when there came a gentle knock at the door.
Florence rose and opened it.
“I beg your pardon, Miss Kenby,” said a very masculine, almost husky
voice in the hall; “these are the cigars I was speaking of to your
father. May I leave them?”
“Oh, come in, come in, Mr. Turl,” called out Miss Kenby's father himself
from the fireside.
“Thank you, no; I won't intrude.”
“But you must; I want to see you,” Mr. Kenby insisted, fussily getting
to his feet.
Larcher asked himself where he had heard the name of Turl. Before his
memory could answer, the person addressed by that name entered the room
in a politely hesitating manner, bowed, and stood waiting for father
and daughter to be seated. He was none other than the smooth-faced,
pleasant-looking young man with the trim appearance and erect attitude.
Larcher sat open-eyed and dumb.
Mr. Kenby was for not only throwing his attention entirely around the
newcomer, but for snubbing Larcher utterly forthwith; seeing which,
Florence took upon herself the office of introducing the two young men.
Mr. Turl, in resting his eyes on Larcher, showed no consciousness of
having encountered him before. They were blue eyes, clear and soft, and
with something kind and well-wishing in their look. Larcher found the
whole face, now that it was animated with a sense of his existence,
pleasanter than ever. He found himself attracted by it; and all the
more for that did he wonder at the young man's appearance in the house
of his acquaintances, after those numerous appearances in his wake in
the street.
Mr. Kenby now took exclusive possession of Mr. Turl, and while those two
were discussing the qualities of the cigars, Larcher had an opportunity
of asking Florence, quietly:
“Who is your visitor? Have you known him long?”
“Only three or four days. He is a new guest in the house. Father met
him in the public drawing-room, and has taken a liking to him.”
“He seems likeable. I was wondering where I'd heard the name. It's not a
common name.”
No, it was not common. Florence had seen it in a novel or somewhere, but
had never before met anybody possessing it. She agreed that he seemed
likeable,--agreed, that is to say, as far as she thought of him at all,
for what was he, or any casual acquaintance, to a woman in her state of
mind?
Larcher regarded him with interest. The full, clear brow, from which the
hair was tightly brushed, denoted intellectual qualities, but the rest
of the face--straight-bridged nose, dimpled cheeks, and quizzical
mouth--meant urbanity. The warm healthy tinge of his complexion, evenly
spread from brow to chin, from ear-tip to ear-tip, was that of a social
rather than bookish or thoughtful person. He soon showed his civility by
adroitly contriving to include Florence and Larcher in his conversation
with Mr. Kenby. Talk ran along easily for half an hour upon the shop
windows during the Christmas season, the new calendars, the picture
exhibitions, the “art gift-books,” and such topics, on all of which Mr.
Turl spoke with liveliness and taste. (“Fancy my supposing this man a
detective,” mused Larcher.)
“I've been looking about in the art shops and the old book stores,” said
Mr. Turl, “for a copy of the Boydell Shakespeare Gallery, as it was
called. You know, of course,--engravings from the Boydell collection of
Shakespearean paintings. It was convenient to have them in a volume. I'm
sorry it has disappeared from the shops. I'd like very much to have
another look through it.”
“You can easily have that,” said Larcher, who had impatiently awaited a
chance to speak. “I happen to possess the book.”
“Oh, indeed? I envy you. I haven't seen a copy of it in years.”
“You're very welcome to see mine. I wouldn't part with it permanently,
of course, but if you don't object to borrowing--”
“Oh, I wouldn't deprive you of it, even for a short time. The value of
owning such a thing is to have it always by; one mayn't touch it for
months, but, when the mood comes for it, there it is. I never permit
anybody to lend me such things.”
“Then if you deprive me of the pleasure of lending it, will you take the
trouble of coming to see it?” Larcher handed him his card.
“You're very kind,” replied Turl, glancing at the address. “If you're
sure it won't be putting you to trouble. At what time shall I be least
in your way?”
“I shall be in to-morrow afternoon,--but perhaps you're not free till
evening.”
“Oh, I can choose my hours; I have nothing to do to-morrow afternoon.”
(“Evidently a gentleman of leisure,” thought Larcher.)
So it was settled that he should call about three o'clock, an appointment
which Mr. Kenby, whose opinion of Larcher had not changed since their
first meeting, viewed with decided lack of interest.
When Larcher left, a few minutes later, he was so far under the spell of
the newcomer's amiability that he felt as if their acquaintance were
considerably older than three-quarters of an hour.
Nevertheless, he kept ransacking his memory for the circumstances in
which he had before heard the name of Turl. To be sure, this Turl might
not be the Turl whose name he had heard; but the fact that he _had_ heard
the name, and the coincidences in his observation of the man himself,
made the question perpetually insistent. He sought out Barry Tompkins,
and asked, “Did you ever mention to me a man named Turl?”
“Never in a state of consciousness,” was Tompkins's reply; and an equally
negative answer came from everybody else to whom Larcher put the query
that day.
He thought of friend after friend until it came Murray Davenport's turn
in his mental review. He had a momentary feeling that the search was
warm here; but the feeling succumbed to the consideration that Davenport
had never much to say about acquaintances. Davenport seemed to have put
friendship behind him, unless that which existed between him and Larcher
could be called friendship; his talk was not often of any individual
person.
“Well,” thought Larcher, “when Mr. Turl comes to see me, I shall find,
out whether there's anybody we both know. If there is, I shall learn more
of Mr. Turl. Then light may be thrown on his haunting my steps for three
days, and subsequently turning up in the rooms of people I visit.”
The arrival of Mr. Turl, at the appointed hour the next afternoon,
instantly put to rout all doubts of his being other than he seemed. In
the man's agreeable presence, Larcher felt that to imagine the
coincidences anything _but_ coincidences was absurd.
The two young men were soon bending over the book of engravings, which
lay on a table. Turl pointed out beauties of detail which Larcher had
never observed.
“You talk like an artist,” said Larcher.
“I have dabbled a little,” was the reply. “I believe I can draw, when put
to it.”
“You ought to be put to it occasionally, then.”
“I have sometimes thought of putting myself to it. Illustrating, I mean,
as a profession. One never knows when one may have to go to work for a
living. If one has a start when that time comes, so much the better.”
“Perhaps I might be of some service to you. I know a few editors.”
“Thank you very much. You mean you would ask them to give me work to
illustrate?”
“If you wished. Or sometimes the text and illustrations may be done
first, and then submitted together. A friend of mine had some success
with me that way; I wrote the stuff, he made the pictures, and the
combination took its chances. We did very well. My friend was Murray
Davenport, who disappeared. Perhaps you've heard of him.”
“I think I read something in the papers,” replied Turl. “He went to
South America or somewhere, didn't he?”
“A detective thinks so, but the case is a complete mystery,” said
Larcher, making the mental note that, as Turl evidently had not known
Davenport, it could not be Davenport who had mentioned Turl. “Hasn't
Mr. Kenby or his daughter ever spoken of it to you?” added Larcher,
after a moment.
“No. Why should they?” asked the other, turning over a page of the
volume.
“They knew him. Miss Kenby is very unhappy over his disappearance.”
Did a curious look come over Mr. Turl's face for an instant, as he
carefully regarded the picture before him? If it did, it passed.
“I've noticed she has seemed depressed, or abstracted,” he replied. “It's
a pity. She's very beautiful and womanly. She loved this man, do you
mean?”
“Yes. But what makes it worse, there was a curious misunderstanding on
his part, which would have been removed if he hadn't disappeared. That
aggravates her unhappiness.”
“I'm sorry for her. But time wears away unhappiness of that sort.”
“I hope it will in this case--if it doesn't turn it to joy by bringing
Davenport back.”
Turl was silent, and Larcher did not continue the subject. When the
visitor was through with the pictures, he joined his host at the
fire, resigning himself appreciatively to one of the great, handsome
easy-chairs--new specimens of an old style--in which Larcher indulged
himself.
“A pleasant place you have here,” said the guest, while Larcher was
bringing forth sundry bottles and such from a closet which did duty as
sideboard.
“It ought to be,” replied Larcher. “Some fellows in this town only sleep
in their rooms, but I work in mine.”
“And entertain,” said Turl, with a smile, as the bottles and other things
were placed on a little round table at his elbow. “Here's variety of
choice. I think I'll take some of that red wine, whatever it is, and a
sandwich. I require a wet day for whisky. Your quarters here put me out
of conceit with my own.”
“Why, you live in a good house,” said Larcher, helping himself in turn.
“Good enough, as they go; what the newspapers would call a 'fashionable
boarding-house.' Imagine a fashionable boarding-house!” He smiled. “But
my own portion of the house is limited in space. In fact, at present I
come under the head of hall-bedroom young men. I know the hall-bedroom
has supplanted the attic chamber of an earlier generation of budding
geniuses; but I prefer comfort to romance.”
“How did you happen to go to that house?”
“I saw its advertisement in the 'boarders wanted' column. I liked the
neighborhood. It's the old Knickerbocker neighborhood, you know. Not much
of the old Knickerbocker atmosphere left. It's my first experience as a
'boarder' in New York. I think, on the whole, I prefer to be a 'roomer'
and 'eat out.' I have been a 'paying guest' in London, but fared better
there as a mere 'lodger.'”
“You're not English, are you?”
“No. Good American, but of a roving habit. American in blood and
political principles; but not willing to narrow my life down to the
resources of any one country. I was born in New York, in fact, but of
course before the era of sky-scrapers, multitudinous noises, and
perpetual building operations.”
“I thought there was something of an English accent in your speech now
and then.”
“Very probably. When I was ten years old, my father's business took us
to England; he was put in charge of the London branch. I was sent to a
private school at Folkestone, where I got the small Latin, and no Greek
at all, that I boast of. Do you know Folkestone? The wind on the cliffs,
the pine-trees down their slopes, the vessels in the channel, the faint
coast of France in clear weather? I was to have gone from there to one
of the universities, but my mother died, and my father soon after,--the
only sorrows I've ever had,--and I decided, on my own, to cut the
university career, and jump into the study of pictorial art. Since then,
I've always done as I liked.”
“You don't seem to have made any great mistakes.”
“No. I've never gone hunting trouble. Unlike most people who are doomed
to uneventful happiness, I don't sigh for adventure.”
“Then your life has been uneventful since you jumped into the study of
art?”
“Entirely. Cast always in smooth and agreeable lines. I studied first in
a London studio, then in Paris; travelled in various parts of Europe and
the United States; lived in London and New York; and there you are. I've
never had to work, so far. But the money my father left me has gone--I
spent the principal because I had other expectations. And now this other
little fortune, that I meant to use frugally, is in dispute. I may be
deprived of it by a decision to be given shortly. In that case, I shall
have to earn my mutton chops like many a better man.”
“You seem to take the prospect very cheerfully.”
“Oh, I shall be fortunate. Good fortune is my destiny. Things come my
way. My wants are few. I make friends easily. I have to make them easily,
or I shouldn't make any, changing my place so often. A new place, new
friends. Even when I go back to an old place, I rather form new
friendships that chance throws in my way, than hunt up the old ones.
I must confess I find new friends the more interesting, the more suited
to my new wants. Old friends so often disappoint on revisitation. You
change, they don't; or they change, you don't; or they change, and you
change, but not in the same ways. The Jones of yesterday and the Brown
of yesterday were eminently fitted to be friends; but the Jones of
to-day and the Brown of to-day are different men, through different
experiences, and don't harmonize. Why clog the present with the past?”
As he sipped his wine and ate his sandwich, gazing contentedly into the
fire the while, Mr. Turl looked the living justification of his
philosophy.