"There's some mystery about that girl--I'm certain of it."
"What makes you suspect that?"
"Well, first, she's evidently a lady--the daughter of a man who has come
down in the world most probably: and secondly--"
"Ah! You mean the secret lover--the man who was here yesterday and
bought a twenty-guinea evening gown of her to send to his sister--eh?"
exclaimed Mr Warner, "buyer" of the costume department of the great
drapery house of Cunnington's, in Oxford Street, that huge store which,
as everybody knows, competes with Whiteley's and Harrod's for the
premier place of the middle-class trade in London.
"Yes," laughed Miss Thomas, the rather stout middle-aged woman who was
head saleswoman of the department, as she stood in the small,
glass-partitioned office of the buyer, a pleasant-faced man of
forty-five who was an expert in ladies' costumes, and twice yearly
bought his stock personally in Paris and in Berlin. "Yes. She's a
really nice girl, but I can't quite make her out, although she's been
here for over a year now."
"And the lover?" asked the buyer, with a glance across the long square
room where autumn costumes of every description were displayed upon
stands, or hanging by the hundred in long rows, while ranged round the
walls were many expensive evening-dresses exhibited in glass cases. It
was afternoon, and the place was full of customers, the assistants in
their neat black holding ready-made skirts to their sides to try the
effect, or conducting the prospective purchaser to the fitting-rooms.
And yet they were not what Mr Warner termed "busy."
"The man, too, is a mystery, like Miss Rolfe. Nobody knows his name.
He comes in sometimes, goes up to her, and asks to be served with a
skirt or something, and has it sent to Mr Evans at some chambers in
Dover Street. The name is, of course, not the right one," said the head
assistant. "But Miss Rolfe knows it, of course?"
"Probably she does."
"And she meets him after business hours?"
"I think so. But she keeps herself very much to herself, and is always
at home early."
Mr Warner glanced across at the tall, fair-haired, handsome girl, whose
figure showed to such advantage in her black satin gown. At that moment
she was displaying a cheap tweed skirt to two middle-aged women. Her
face, as he caught its profile, was very soft and refined, the contour
of her cheeks perfect, and the stray wisp of hair across the brow gave a
softness to her countenance that was charming. Many a stage girl whose
photograph was displayed in the shop-windows was not half so beautiful
as the demure, hard-working shop-assistant, Marion Rolfe.
The air of mystery surrounding her, Mr Warner found interesting, and
the love-romance now in progress he intended to watch. Towards his
assistants, he was always lenient. Unlike some "buyers," he was never
hard, and never bullied them. He believed that by treating them with
kindliness and with the courtesy every man should show towards a woman
he obtained the best of their business abilities, as no doubt he did.
"Warner of the Costumes" was known through the whole "house" as one of
the most considerate of men, and one of the most trusted of old Mr
Cunnington's advisers. Those in his department were envied by all the
other seven hundred odd assistants in the employment of the great firm.
While Mr Warner and Miss Thomas were speaking, a smart-looking,
fair-haired, fair-moustached young man of about twenty-five, in frock
coat and silk hat, entered, and walking up to the little office, greeted
the buyer saying--
"Mr Warner, I'm sorry to worry you, but may I speak to my sister for a
moment on some important family business? I won't keep her but a few
moments, for I see she's busy."
"Why, certainly, Mr Rolfe," was the good-humoured reply, as Miss Thomas
went away to serve a customer. "It's against our rules, as you know,
but for my own part I can never see why a young lady need be debarred
from speaking to her own brother."
"You're always very good, Mr Warner," responded the young man, "and I'd
like to thank you for many little kindnesses you've shown to Marion."
"Oh, nothing, nothing, my dear Mr Rolfe," Warner said. "Your sister is
an excellent business woman--one of the best I have, I may tell you.
But look! She's disengaged now. Go over to her." And he watched the
young man crossing the department.
Marion, surprised when her brother stood before her, immediately asked
whether he had received Mr Warner's permission.
"Of course I have," was his quick reply in rather an excited manner, she
thought. "I just ran up to tell you that I have to go abroad suddenly
to-night, and to say good-bye. Old Sam Statham is sending me out to
Servia. He only told me at one o'clock that I must go, and I've been
buying some things necessary."
"To Servia!" exclaimed the girl, amazed that her brother, to whom she
was devoted, was to go so far from her.
"Yes. We have some mining interests and some other things out there,
and old Sam suddenly decided to send me out to make certain inquiries.
I shall be away a month or two, I daresay, as I have to go to see a new
mine in the course of preparation down on the banks of the Danube
somewhere."
"But do take care of yourself, Charlie," urged the girl, looking up into
her brother's face. "I've heard that it's an unsafe country."
"Unsafe! Why that's quite a fallacy. Servia is as safe as the Strand
nowadays. Bland, our chief clerk, was out there a year, and he's been
telling me how delightful the people are. Servia is entirely misjudged
by us."
"Then you'll go to-night?"
"Yes, by the mail from Charing Cross," he replied. "But don't come and
see me off. I hate people to do that. And when you see dear old Max,
tell him that I'm sorry I had no time to go round before leaving. I've
just telephoned, and his man says he won't be back till seven. That
will be too late for me."
"Very well," replied his sister. "But--"
"But what?"
"Well, Charlie, I'm sorry you're going. I feel--well, I feel that you
are going to a place where an accident might happen to you. I know
nothing about Servia, and besides--"
"Well?"
"The mystery about old Sam Statham always haunts me. I don't somehow
like that man."
"You only met him once, and he was very courteous to you. Besides, he
is my master. Were it not for him I should most probably be going about
London penniless."
"I know, I know," she said. "Have you been to his house in Park Lane
lately?"
"I was there this morning, but only for five minutes. He gave me some
instructions about a call I had to make in the city."
"I wish you could leave him and get some other work as secretary. I
don't like him. He isn't what he pretends to be, I'm sure he isn't."
"He pretends to be nothing," laughed her brother. "Old Sam is a
millionaire, and millionaires need no pretence. He could buy up this
show twice over, and then leave a million for the death duties. You've
taken a prejudice against him."
"A woman's prejudice--which often is not very far wrong."
"I know that you women see much further than we men do, but in this,
Marion, you are quite wrong. Old Sam is eccentric and mean, but at
heart he's not at all a bad old fellow."
"Well, I tell you frankly, I don't half like your going to Servia under
his auspices."
Charlie Rolfe laughed aloud.
"My dear Marion, of what are you apprehensive?" he asked. "I go in a
very responsible position, as his confidential secretary, to inquire
into certain matters in his interests. If I carry out my mission
successfully, I shall get a rise of salary."
"Granted. But you know what you're told me about the queer stories
afloat regarding Samuel Statham and his house in Park Lane."
"I've never believed them, although they are, of course, curious. Yet
you must remember that every man of great wealth has mysterious stories
put about by his enemies. Every man and every woman has enemies. Who
has not?"
"But you've admitted yourself that you've never been in more than one
room in the mansion," she said, looking him straight in the face.
"That's true. But it doesn't prove anything, does it?" he asked. And
Marion saw that he was nervous and agitated, quite unlike his usual
self. Perhaps, however, it was on account of her apprehensions, she
thought.
She had only seen Samuel Statham, the well-known millionaire, on one
occasion. She had called at the offices in Old Broad Street one
afternoon to see her brother, who was his confidential secretary, when
the old fellow had entered, a short, round-shouldered, grey-bearded old
man, rather shabbily-dressed, who, looking at her, bluntly asked who she
was and what she wanted there.
One of his eccentricities was that he hated women, and Marion knew that.
In a faltering tone she replied that she was sister of his secretary,
whereupon his manner instantly changed. He became the acme of
politeness, asked her into his private room, offered her a glass of
port--which, of course, she refused--and chatted to her most affably
till her brother's return.
Why she had taken such a violent dislike to the old man she herself
could not tell. Possibly it was his sudden change of manner, and that
his pleasant suavity was feigned. And this, combined with the
extraordinary rumours regarding his past, and the mystery of his great
mansion in Park Lane, had caused her to view him with bitter prejudice.
Several customers were waiting to be served, and Marion saw Mr Warner's
eye upon her.
"Well, Charlie," she said, "perhaps I'll get down to Charing Cross to
see you off. You go to Paris first, I suppose?"
"Yes. I take the Orient Express from there, by way of Vienna and
Budapest to Belgrade. But," he added, "don't come and see me off,
there's a good girl."
"Why? I've been before, when you've gone to the Continent."
"Yes, I know," he answered impatiently; "but--well, it makes me feel as
if I shan't come back. Don't come, will you?"
Marion smiled. His anxiety that she should not come struck her as
distinctly curious.
He was not himself. Of that she was convinced. To her, ever since her
father's death, he had been a good friend, and for a year prior to her
engagement at Cunnington's he had divided his salary with her. No girl
ever had a better brother than he had been, yet of late she had noticed
a complete change in his manner. He was no longer frank with her, as he
used to be, and he seemed often to hide from her facts which, with her
woman's keen intelligence, she afterwards discovered.
"Miss Rolfe!" exclaimed Mr Warner, emerging from his office.
"Disengaged?" And he pointed to a pair of somewhat obese ladies who
were examining a costume displayed on a stand.
"Well, good-bye, Charlie," she said, shaking his hand. "I must go.
We're very busy this afternoon. Perhaps I shall see you at Charing
Cross. If not--then take care of yourself, dear. Good-bye."
And she turned and left him to attend to the two ladies, while he, with
a nod across to Mr Warner, strode out of the shop.
"I hope to goodness Marion doesn't come," he muttered to himself.
"Women are so infernally inquisitive. And if she does go to Charing
Cross she's sure to suspect something!"