CAN HE REMEMBER?
It was past ten o'clock that Sunday evening when Elsie arrived home.
Athelstan and George were waiting up for her. 'Again the mysterious
appointment?' asked the former. 'Are we to know anything yet?'--Elsie
shook her head.--'Not to-night? Very good. You look tired, Elsie.'
'I am tired, thank you. And--and I think I would rather not talk
to-night. I will go to my own room.--Have patience, both of you, for a
day or two longer. Believe me, everything is going well. The only reason
why I cannot tell you what I have been doing is that it is so
strange--so wonderful--that I have not been able even to shape it into
words in my own mind.--What is to-day? The 1st of August.'
'Only eleven days yet--eleven long days,' said George, 'but also eleven
short days.'
'I do not forget. Well--you may both of you sit down--go about your
business--you need do nothing more. As for me, I think you will have to
get on without me every evening this week. But be quite easy. The thing
is done.' And with that, nodding and laughing, she ran out of the room.
'It is done,' repeated George. 'The thing is done. Which thing?'
'It is done,' repeated Athelstan. 'What is done? How was it done? Who
did it? When was it done?'
'Since Elsie says it is done, I am bound to accept her assurance.
Presumably, she has caught old Checkley at South Square, in the very
act. Never mind; I am quite sure that Elsie knows what she says.'
In her own retreat Elsie sat down to consider.
If you think of it, she had a good deal to consider. She had, in fact, a
tremendous weapon, an eighty-ton Woolwich, in her possession; a thing
which had to be handled so that when it was fired it should not produce
a general massacre. All those who had maligned and spoken and thought
evil of her brother and her lover should, she thought, be laid
prostrate by the mere puff and whiff of the discharge. Checkley should
fall backwards, and raise a bump at the back of his head as big as an
egg. Sir Samuel and Hilda should be tumbled down in the most ignominious
fashion, just as if they had no money at all. And her mother should be
forced to cry out that she had been wrong and hasty.
She held in her own hands nothing less than the complete demolition of
all this erection of suspicion and malignity. Nothing less. She could
restore to her brother that which he had never lost, save in the eyes of
his own people, who should have been the most jealous to preserve it. No
greater service could be rendered to him. And she could clear from her
lover's name whatever shreds and mists had been gathered round it by the
industrious breath of Checkley--that humble Cloud Compeller. You see, we
all have this much of Zeus in us, even in the compelling of Clouds:
every man by the exercise of a little malignity, a little insinuation
and a few falsehoods, can raise quite a considerable mist about the head
or the name or the figure or the reputation of anyone. Women--some
women, that is--are constantly engaged in this occupation; and after
they have been at their work, it is sometimes hard for the brightest
sunshine to melt those mists away.
To be able to clear away clouds is a great thing. Besides this, Elsie
had found out what the rest had failed to find out--and by the simplest
method. She had learned from the only person who knew at what hour she
should be most likely to find the mysterious Edmund Gray, and she had
then waited on the stairs until he came. No method more direct--yet
nobody thought of it except herself. She had done it. As the result,
there was no longer any mystery. The man who forged the first cheque:
the man who wrote those letters and conducted their transfer: was, as
they all thought at first, Edmund Gray. No other. And Edmund Gray was
Edward Dering, one and the same person--and Edward Dering was a Madman,
and this discovery it was which so profoundly impressed her. There were
no confederates: there was no one wanted to intercept the post: no one
had tampered with the safe: the Chief himself had received the letters
and conducted the correspondence alternately as Edmund Gray himself, or
Edmund Gray acting unconsciously for Edward Dering.
Perfectly impossible-- Perfectly simple-- Perfectly intelligible. As for
the impossibility, a fact may remain when its impossibility is
established. Elsie was not a psychologist or a student of the brain. She
knew nothing about mental maladies. She only said after what she had
seen and heard: 'The man is mad.'
Then she thought how she should best act. To establish the identity of
Mr. Dering and Edmund Gray must be done. It was the one thing necessary.
Very well. That could easily be done, and in a simple way. She had only
to march into his office at the head of a small band of witnesses and
say: 'You wanted us to find out Edmund Gray! I have found him. And thou
art the man!'
He would deny it. He certainly knew nothing about it. Then she would
call upon her witnesses. First, Athelstan's commissionaire, who declared
that he should remember, even after eight years or eighty years, the
gentleman who sent him to cash that cheque. 'Who is this man,
commissionaire?'
'That is Mr. Edmund Gray.'
Next the landlord of his chambers. 'Who is this man?'
'That is Mr. Edmund Gray, my tenant for nine years.'
Then she would call the eminent Barrister, Mr. Langhorne. 'Do you know
this man?'
'He is my neighbour, Mr. Edmund Gray.'
And Freddy Carstone the Coach.
'He is my neighbour, Mr. Edmund Gray.'
And the laundress, and she would say: 'I have done for the gentleman for
nine years. He's a very good gentleman, and generous--and his name is
Mr. Edmund Gray.'
And the people from the Hall--and they would make answer, with one
consent: 'That is Mr. Edmund Gray, our preacher and our teacher.'
And she herself would give her testimony: 'I have sat with you in your
Chambers. I have heard you lecture in your Hall, surrounded by these
good people, and you are Edmund Gray.'
The thing was quite easy to do. She could bring forward all this
evidence at once, and it would be unanswerable and convincing even to
Sir Samuel.
Except for one thing which made it difficult.
The discovery would be a most dreadful--a most terrible--revelation to
one who believed himself to be the most respectable solicitor in the
whole of London; the most trustworthy; the clearest in mind; the keenest
in vision; the coldest in judgment. He would learn without the least
previous suspicion or preparation, or any softening of the blow, that
for many years he had been---- What? Is there any other word--any kinder
word--any word less terrifying or less humiliating by which the news
could be conveyed to him that he had been Mad--Mad--Mad? Heavens! what a
word it is! How terrible to look at with its three little letters which
mean so much! All the words that mean much are monosyllables:
God--Love--Joy--Hate--Fear--Glad--Sad--Mad--Bad--Hell--Home--Wife--
Child--House--Song--Feast--Wine--Kiss--everything--they are the oldest
words, you see; they have been used from time immemorial by prehistoric
man as well as by ourselves.
Mr. Dering had to be told that he was Mad. Somehow or other, he must be
told that. It seemed at first the only way out of the difficulty. How
could this girl communicate the dreadful news to her guardian, who had
always been to her considerate, and even affectionate? She shrank from
the task. Then she thought she would hand it over to her brother
Athelstan. But he was far more concerned about clearing up the hateful
business than about softening the blow for Mr. Dering. Or of
communicating it to George. What should she do? Mr. Dering was mad. Not
mad all the time, but mad now and then, sometimes every day, sometimes
with intervals. This kind of madness, I believe, takes many forms--a
fact which should make the strongest men tremble. Sometimes it lasts a
long time before it is found out. Sometimes even it is never found out
at all. Solicitors and doctors tell queer stories about it. For
instance, that story--quite a common story--of an old gentleman of
irreproachable reputation, a speaker and leader in religious circles, a
man enormously respected by all classes, concerning whom not his
bitterest enemy had a word of scandal--yet, after his death, things
deplorable, things incredible, things to be suppressed at any cost, were
brought to the knowledge of his lawyers. At certain times he went mad,
you see. Then he forgot who he was: he forgot his reputation, his place
in the world, and the awful penalties of being found out: he went down:
he lived among people of the baser sort, and became an inferior man with
another name, and died without ever knowing his own dreadful record.
Another of whom I have heard was mad for fifteen years, yet the Chief of
a great House, who all the time conducted the business with great
ability. He was found out at last because he began to buy things. Once
he sent home six grand pianos: another time he bought all the cricket
bats that were in stock in a certain shop; and another time he bought
all the hats that fitted him at all the hatters' shops within a circle
whose centre was Piccadilly Circus and the radius a mile long. After
this they gave him a cheerful companion, who took walks abroad with him,
and he retired from active business.
Some philosophers maintain that we are all gone mad on certain points.
In that case, if one does not know it or suspect it, and if our friends
neither know nor suspect it, what does it matter? There are also, we all
know, points on which some of us are mad, and everybody knows it. There
is the man who believes that he is a great poet, and publishes volume
after volume, all at his own expense, to prove it: there is the man--but
he ought to be taken away and put on a treadmill--who writes letters to
the papers on every conceivable subject with the day before yesterday's
wisdom: there is the man who thinks he can paint--we all know plenty of
men mad like unto these, and we are for the most part willing to
tolerate them. Considerations, however, on the universality of the
complaint fail to bring consolation to any except those who have it not.
In the same way, nobody who dies of any disease is comforted with the
thought of the rarity or the frequency of that disease; its interesting
character has no charm for him. Nor is the man on his way to be hanged
consoled by the reminder that thousands have trodden that flowery way
before him. To Mr. Dering, proud of his own intellect, self-sufficient
and strong, the discovery of these things would certainly bring
humiliation intolerable, perhaps--even--shame unto Death itself.
How--oh! how could things be managed so as to spare him this pain?
Elsie's difficulties grew greater the more she pondered over them. It
was past midnight when she closed the volume of thought and her eyes at
the same moment.
In the morning, Athelstan kissed her gravely.
'Do you remember what you said last night, Elsie? You said that we could
rest at peace because the thing was done.'
'Well, Athelstan, the words could only have one meaning, could they? I
mean, if you want me to be more explicit, that the thing is actually
done. My dear brother, I know all about it now. I know who signed that
first cheque--who sent the commissionaire to the Bank--who received the
notes--who placed them in the safe--who wrote about the transfers--who
received the letters and carried on the whole business. I can place my
hand upon him to-day if necessary.'
'Without doubt? With proofs, ample proofs?'
'Without the least doubt--with a cloud of witnesses. My dear brother, do
not doubt me. I have done it. Yet--for a reason--to spare one most
deeply concerned--for the pity of it--if you knew--give me a few days--a
week, perhaps, to find a way if I can. If I cannot, then the cruel truth
must be told bluntly, whatever happens.'
'Remember all the mischief the old villain has done.'
'The old villain? Oh! you mean Checkley?'
'Of course; whom should I mean?'
'Nobody--nothing. Brother, if you bid me speak to-day, I will speak. No
one has a better right to command. But if this--this person--were to die
to-day, my proofs are so ample that there could be no doubt possible.
Yes--even my mother--it is dreadful to say it--but she is so hard and so
obstinate--even my mother would acknowledge that there is no doubt
possible.'
Athelstan stooped and kissed her. 'Order it exactly as you please, my
child. If I have waited eight long years, I can wait another week.
Another week. Then I shall at last be able to speak of my people at
home. I shall go back to California with belongings like other men. I
shall be able to make friends; I can even, if it comes in my way, make
love, Elsie. Do you think you understand quite what this means to me?'
He left her presently to go about his work.
In the corner of the room stood her easel with the portrait, the fancy
portrait, of Mr. Dering the Benevolent--Mr. Dering the Optimist--Mr.
Dering as he might be with the same features and the least little change
in their habitual setting.
Elsie stood before this picture, looking at it curiously.
'Yes,' she murmured, 'you are a dear, tender-hearted, kindly,
benevolent, simple old Thing. You believe in human nature: you think
that everybody is longing for the Kingdom of Heaven. You think that
everybody would be comfortable in it: that everybody longs for honesty.
Before I altered you and improved your face, you were Justice without
mercy: you were Law without leniency: you were Experience which knows
that all men are wicked by choice when they get the chance: you had no
soft place anywhere: you held that Society exists only for the
preservation of Property. Oh! you are so much more lovable now, if you
would only think so--if you only knew. You believe in men and women:
that is a wonderful advance--and you have done well to change your old
name to your new name. I think I should like you always to be Edmund
Gray. But how am I to tell you? How, in the name of wonder, am I to tell
you that you are Edmund Gray? First of all, I must see you-- I must
break the thing gently-- I must force you somehow to recollect, as soon
as possible. I must make you somehow understand what has happened.'
She had promised to meet Mr. Edmund Gray at his Chambers that evening at
five. He showed his confidence in her by giving her a latch-key, so that
she might let herself in if he happened not to be in the Chambers when
she called, at five. She would try, then, to bring him back to himself.
She pictured his amazement--his shame--at finding himself in strange
rooms under another name, preaching wild doctrines. It would be too much
for him. Better go to Mr. Dering, the real Mr. Dering, and try to move
him in his own office, to recollect what had happened. Because, you see,
Elsie, unacquainted with these obscure forms of brain disease, imagined
that she might by artful question and suggestion clear that clouded
memory, and show the lawyer his double figuring as a Socialist.
She waited till the afternoon. She arrived at New Square about three,
two hours before her engagement at Gray's Inn.
Mr. Dering received her with his usual kindness. He was austerely
benignant.
'I tried to see you last night,' she said, untruthfully, because the
words conveyed the impression that she had called upon him.
'No--no. I was-- I suppose I was out. I went out----' His face clouded,
and he stopped.
'Yes--you were saying, Mr. Dering, that you went out.'
'Last night was Sunday, wasn't it? Yes; I went out.--Where did I go?' He
drummed the table with his fingers irritably. 'Where did I go?
Where?--What does it matter?'
'Nothing at all. Only it is strange that you should not remember.'
'I told you once before, Elsie,' he said, 'I suffer--I labour--under
curious fits of forgetfulness. Now, at this moment, I--it really is
absurd--I cannot remember where I was last night. I am an old man. It is
the privilege of age to forget yesterday, and to remember fifty years
ago.'
'I was talking last night to an old gentleman who said much the same. He
has Chambers where he goes to write: he has a Lecture Hall--where he
preaches to the people----'
Mr. Dering looked at her in mild surprise. What did she mean? Elsie
coloured.
'Of course,' she said, 'this has nothing to do with you.'
'How I spent the evening I know very well,' Mr. Dering went on. 'Yet I
forget. That is the trouble with me. My housekeeper will not give me
dinner on Sunday evening, and on that day I go to my Club. I get there
about five or six: I read the magazines till seven. Sometimes I drop off
to sleep--we old fellows will drop off, you know--about seven I have
dinner. After dinner I take my coffee, and read or talk if there is any
one I know. About nine I walk home. That has been my custom for many
years. Therefore, that is how I spent the evening of yesterday.--But,
you see, I cannot remember it. Breakfast I remember, and the Church
service afterwards. Luncheon I remember: getting home at ten I remember.
But the interval between I cannot remember.'
'Do you forget other things? Do you remember Saturday afternoon, for
instance?'
'Yes--perfectly. I left the office about five. I walked straight
home.--No--no--that isn't right. It was nearly eight when I got home. I
remember. The dinner was spoiled.--No--I did not go straight home.'
'Perhaps you stayed here till past seven?'
'No--no. I remember looking at the clock as I put on my hat. It was
half-past five when I went out-- Five. What did I do between half-past
five o'clock and eight? I forget. You see, my trouble, Elsie--I forget.
Perhaps I went to the Club: perhaps I strolled about: perhaps I came
back here. There are three hours to account for--and I have forgotten
them all.'