MUTTERINGS OF STORM
Unfortunately neither Ingersoll nor Tollemache had returned. Yvonne was
on the point of asking Raymond to pardon her if she deferred receiving
him until the next day, when his adroit brain anticipated some such
setback to his plans, and he strove instantly to prevent it.
"I fear you made an unpleasant discovery at Quimperlé today," he said,
striking boldly into the one subject that he guessed was occupying her
thoughts. "Is Mr. Ingersoll at home? If so, I ought to tell you briefly
what I purpose doing to help, as you may not care to discuss the matter
in your father's presence."
It was cheering even to hear the man speaking of "help," and he had
already given solid proof of honest intent in his stern rebuke of
Fosdyke; though, alas! it had come too late to be of any real service.
Yvonne's mind belonged to that somewhat rare order that magnifies good
and minimizes evil. She was grateful to her mother's secretary for that
which he had tried to do, though failing, and abandoned her first design
forthwith.
"Come into the studio," she said, leading the way. "My father and Mr.
Tollemache will be here soon. Meanwhile I'll ask Mère Pitou to bring
some tea. We won't wait. Of course I must tell Dad everything about
Madeleine now. We can depend on him for sound advice. He doesn't lose
his head in an emergency, and I shall be guided entirely by what he
says."
"Naturally," agreed Raymond, throwing the utmost deference into voice
and manner. "It is delightful to meet a father and daughter who are on
terms of genuine confidence and comradeship. I only meant to suggest,
Miss Yvonne, that I should communicate with a friend in Paris who is
acquainted with Rupert Fosdyke, and ascertain by that means whether or
not Mademoiselle Demoret is in his company. I have taken action already
in a small way. Thinking it advisable to keep an eye on him, I
telegraphed to my friend this morning, asking him to let me hear if
Fosdyke was in Paris, and his address. Here is the reply."
Even in the chaos of the hour Yvonne was conscious of a certain surprise
at Raymond's singular foresight; but she took the proffered telegram,
and read:
"Yes. Arrived in Paris early yesterday. Residing Hotel Chatham.
"DUQUESNE."
"Ah, how thoughtful and clever of you!" she cried. "Can anything be done
now? Suppose Madeleine is in the train, would Monsieur Duquesne meet her
and urge her to return at once?"
"How would he recognize her?"
"Oh, dear! I had not thought of that. But it might be possible to
telegraph a general description, and there will not be so many young
women traveling alone in a train reaching Paris in the small hours of
the morning that he should have no chance of picking out one in
particular. I know it is asking a great favor of your friend; but he may
act with decision if you hint at a matter of life or death. And it is
all that. Poor Madame Brissac will never survive the shame of a public
scandal. If Madeleine would only come back, I should meet her on the
way, and persuade her to go straight to her cousins in Quimperlé. Don't
you see, Mr. Raymond, she would be saved, _saved_? You have accomplished
wonders already. Please don't hesitate, but send a telegram at once. I
sha'n't know how to thank you if you succeed in this. But I forget. You
cannot write. Let me write for you. Now what is Monsieur Duquesne's
address?"
Yvonne, flushed with new hope, was seated already at a small writing
table, pen in hand. For once Raymond was caught off his guard. He had
not expected this development, and would vastly have preferred a
friendly and sympathetic chat; but he dared not refuse the girl's
excited demand. Moreover, he would be earning her gratitude and repaying
some of Rupert Fosdyke's insults in the same breath. So he blurted out
the information:
"Duquesne, 410 Avenue Kleber, Paris."
Yvonne wrote rapidly. "Will this do?" she asked:
"Person mentioned in earlier message is probably decoying to
Paris a Breton girl of twenty, Madeleine Demoret, from her home
in Pont Aven. She is believed to be in train due Saint Lazare 2
A.M., is good-looking, slim, of medium height, and quietly
dressed. You are besought to discover her, and use all possible
means to convince her that she ought to return. Her friend
Yvonne will meet her at Quimperlé on receipt of message, and
promises that everything will be arranged satisfactorily. Her
aunt, Madame Brissac, is grief-stricken and prostrate. Madeleine
should come home if only for her sake."
"There, Mr. Raymond--can I add anything to make it stronger, more
emphatic? Should I say that all expenses will be paid?"
"No," he said, bending over her, and resting his left hand on her
shoulder. "That is quite clear and understandable. Any man of experience
should read between the lines that the undertaking is vital and
imperative to the last degree. If I were in trouble, Miss Yvonne, I wish
I dared think that you would display such heartfelt interest in my
affairs."
"You!" she cried, rising hurriedly. "You are one of the best of men! You
hardly realize yet what good you are achieving. Mrs. Carmac, I am sure,
will appreciate your kind action just as greatly as I do. Shall I take
the telegram to the postoffice?"
"One moment. We have plenty of time. Should a message of that direct
nature be despatched locally?"
Some of the light died out of the girl's eyes. The officials in the Pont
Aven postoffice were discreet as any in France, and courteous beyond the
average; but they all knew Madeleine! Still, Yvonne might be trusted to
fight to the last ditch in her friend's behalf.
"There is a train to Quimperlé within half an hour," she said. "Someone
must go. If necessary, I'll go myself. You are not fit to travel, Mr.
Raymond. If only Lorry would come----"
"You may leave the mission in my hands, Miss Yvonne," said Raymond
suavely. "Indeed, rather than risk the journey over that bumping
tramway, I'll hire an automobile, and reach Quimperlé more quickly."
Barbe came in with a laden tray, and Raymond swallowed a cup of tea and
ate some of Mère Pitou's famous cakes.
* * * * *
He was bidding his hostess an impressive farewell when Ingersoll and
Tollemache appeared. Yvonne's father, observing men and events with a
certain detachment in these days, was not drawn to the ungainly
secretary. He was puzzled, at finding the man there, and even bewildered
by the warmth of Yvonne's introduction. But Raymond was master of
himself now. He withdrew promptly, trusting to Yvonne's enthusiasm to
make smooth the way for his next visit. And indeed his back was hardly
turned before she plunged into a recital of the day's doings.
Her father listened quietly, passing no comment other than to express a
brief but complete agreement with every step she had taken.
Then she hurried out, being restless until assured that her messenger
had really started for Quimperlé.
Ingersoll sighed deeply, rose to reach a tobacco jar from the mantel,
and threw a question sidewise, as it were, at his companion, who was
smoking meditatively, and apparently in a somewhat subdued mood.
"Lorry," he said, "what do you make of this chap Raymond?"
"I've no use for him, Socrates, and that's a fact."
"He seems to be acting in perfect good faith in this affair."
"Yes; but why?"
"That is what is bothering me. There are two points about his behavior
that may have escaped you. In the first place, if Madeleine has gone to
Paris by arrangement with that scamp Fosdyke, he of course will meet her
at Saint Lazare, so what chance will Raymond's 'friend' have of
intercepting her? Again, who is this Duquesne? I have a good memory, and
I happen to recollect a notorious case reported in the newspapers about
a month ago, a case in which a private inquiry agent of the name
figured, and his address was in the Avenue Kleber. I don't profess to
recall the number; but when name and street coincide it is safe to
assume that Raymond's Duquesne and the other Duquesne are one and the
same individual. Now the momentous question that presents itself is, Why
should Raymond be in prior communication with a private inquiry agent in
Paris?"
"I can't guess."
Ingersoll stooped, and tapped his pipe on one of the heavy iron dogs
guarding the hearth. Straightening himself, he drew a labored breath,
like one who braces his nerves to face a dreaded but unavoidable ordeal.
"Then I'll tell you," he said. "Mrs. Carmac is Yvonne's mother. She left
me soon after Yvonne was born--went off to her people in the States.
There, after some delay, she secured a divorce. Later I heard that she
had married Carmac, who was immensely rich, while I could barely afford
to maintain a small flat in Montmartre. Carmac was not a bad sort of
fellow in his way. He was, I believe, devoted to Stella, my wife. She
too was better suited to him than to me.
"But Carmac, though of Southern birth, had become a naturalized
Englishman, having, I understand, some ambition toward a political
career on this side. Now I doubt very much whether the divorce
proceedings were valid according to British law, and a wife takes her
husband's nationality. Had I been wise and dispassionate, I should have
given Stella her full freedom. But I did not--may Heaven forgive me! I
was so utterly crushed after leaving Paris and seeking sanctuary in Pont
Aven that I disregarded her entirely. None of my associates knew where I
had gone. Every sort of effort was put forth to find me, but without
success. Eighteen years ago, Lorry, Pont Aven was a long way from Paris.
There was no railway, and communication with the outside world was
mainly by sea.
"At last, despairing of any assistance from me, Stella and Carmac risked
everything on the American decree. They were married openly. The wedding
was announced in all the society newspapers. Even I, buried alive here,
read of it. But, if the question were raised, it might be held in
England that Stella is still my wife in the eyes of British law."
Ingersoll made this astounding statement in a voice so calm and free
from emotion that Tollemache stared at him in blank amazement. Of course
events had given the younger man some inkling of the truth; but he had
never imagined anything so disastrously far-reaching.
"Good Lord!" he gasped. "That is terrible--that means all sorts of
beastly complications!"
Ingersoll threw out a hand in a gesture of sheer hopelessness. "It means
this,--if Raymond suspects that the marriage was invalid, and Carmac
left his money to his 'wife,' the will can be upset, Mrs. Carmac will be
stripped of every penny except her personal belongings, and Rupert
Fosdyke and his sisters will inherit the estate. Naturally I know
nothing of the exact position of affairs beyond the hints I pick up from
Yvonne.
"She, poor girl, hasn't the remotest notion of the tragedy that I see
looming darkly above the horizon--because it is the very essence of
tragedy that a woman who sold her happiness for gold should be despoiled
in the hour when the bribe might be regarded as most surely within her
grasp. Lorry, I pity her! She is well aware that she is clinging to the
edge of a precipice.
"Raymond's inquiries concerning Yvonne and myself, which you overheard,
and which were confirmed by Peridot, warned me of her danger. When you
carried that maimed scoundrel into the cabin of the Hirondelle he
retained his senses sufficiently to understand the tremendous
significance of Mrs. Carmac's ravings. To the ordinary ear they would
sound like the gabble of dementia; to Raymond, already disliked by his
mistress, and retained only as a useful slave by his master, they
conveyed immense potentialities. But at first he must have felt like a
traveler in the desert tantalized by a mirage. Investigation in Pont
Aven might strengthen his suspicions; but he could never obtain proof.
He dared not appeal to me. Rogues of his class have a tolerably clear
notion of the sort of man they must not meddle with: probably he summed
up the father through the daughter. Now, perhaps, you see where this
Parisian inquiry agent comes in?"
"No, I'm dashed if I do!"
"There isn't much guile in your composition, Lorry," and Ingersoll
smiled forlornly. "I gather from Yvonne's story that during the talk on
board the cutter her mother spoke of having deserted her in Paris.
Unhappily she thereby supplied Raymond with the most important clue. The
very next day he had the impudence to remind Mrs. Carmac that she had
claimed her 'niece' as a daughter. He drew in his horns when checked;
but set about unveiling her early life without delay. Paris is a city of
records. It was a simple matter for anyone to discover the date of my
marriage, which took place nearly four years before the American
ceremony between Carmac and my wife.
"Good God, Man! that poor woman is in a damnable position. Not only can
she be robbed of the wealth given her by Carmac, but in England she is
likely to be prosecuted on a charge of bigamy! And I shall be
responsible! My pride and futile anger deprived her of the only means
whereby she could have married Carmac without fear of consequences. I
left her no alternative. Oh, Lorry, Lorry, if only I could have foreseen
something, howsoever shadowy, of the evils that were impending when we
brought those people on board! Had I even known the name of the yacht, I
might have been vouchsafed some glimpse of the peril. One glance at
Stella herself, or at Carmac, would have revealed an abyss from which I
should have recoiled with horror. I might have contrived some
subterfuge, some wild scheme, to keep Yvonne and her mother apart. But
it is too late! The mischief is done. I am bound hand and foot,--a man
delivered over to the torturers!"
Ingersoll's voice trailed off into silence. He sank into a chair, threw
aside the pipe which he had filled automatically but not lighted, and
buried his face in his hands.
* * * * *
But Tollemache sat bolt upright, his shoulders squared, his strong
features frowning in thought. Thus had he looked when swinging
precariously above the precipice at Le Faouet, and thus when the
Hirondelle was backing into the hell's broth of the reef.
"Tell you what, old sport, we must act, and quickly at that," he said at
last, springing to his feet as though some valiant deed was called for
straight away.
"But what can I do?" came the despairing answer, and Ingersoll, the
leader, the master, the kindly cynic, lifted woebegone eyes to the lithe
and stalwart figure towering above him.
"Lots!" cried Tollemache. "First, let's get down to bedrock--then we can
talk plainly. I've never said a word to you, Ingersoll, and mighty
little to your daughter; but I love Yvonne, and if she will marry me,
our wedding day will be the proudest day of my life. I'm not a poor man.
I've a heap more money than ever I've owned up to, because I like the
life here, and I like you, and I worship the ground Yvonne walks on, and
I was afraid that if you knew I was fairly well fixed in a financial
sense you'd regard me as a _poseur_, and cut me out. Why, I've saved
nearly ten thousand dollars a year since I came to Pont Aven! I can lay
my hands tomorrow on a hundred thousand, and still have enough left to
keep Yvonne in pretty good shape.
"Now I'm not making any bargain with you. That isn't our way. But if I
am given a free hand with Raymond, I'll settle his hash in double quick
time. Swine of his variety are always blackmailers. Very well! I'll pay
his price. He must clear out, bag and baggage, giving me the promise of
his silence, over and above an acknowledgment that he obtained the money
by threatening to expose Mrs. Carmac. Don't imagine he won't go! I'll
make him! It's rather rotten even to talk of using violence to a fellow
with a broken arm; but he must be got rid of, and I'll frighten him into
a deal--see if I don't!"
Ingersoll rose, and caught the younger man's hand in an impulsive grip.
"Lorry," he said, "if it pleases Providence to ordain that Yvonne shall
marry you, I'll offer thanks on my knees. You are honest as the sun, and
transparent as the Aven beneath the trees of the Bois d'Amour in summer.
I have known your story for years. I had hardly learned your name before
a man told me of the quarrel with your father because you refused to
fall in with some marriage brokerage arranged between him and the father
of a girl whose business interests marched with his. I knew too that you
bought ten of my pictures during the first six months of our
acquaintance. I didn't interfere with your well meaning subterfuge. You
have lost nothing on that speculation, at any rate, because you acquired
my work at its best period, and your investment would yield two hundred
per cent. if you sold now.
"But let that pass. Do you believe I would ever have encouraged you to
waste your time in pursuing the fickle goddess of art but for the
knowledge that you were happy, and content, and far removed from the
temptations that beset youngsters of means but of no occupation? No, you
know well that I should have driven you forth with hard words. Yet I
have never deceived you. How often have I said that Art is a cruel
mistress, a wanton who refuses her favors to some most ardent wooers,
yet flings them with prodigal hands at others who, though worthy of her
utmost passion, despise it? But you have a quality that ranks you far
above the painter who, while fitted to see divine things, wallows in the
mud of mediocrity. You are a loyal friend and good comrade, a man of
clean soul and single thought.
"Would to Heaven I might leave you now to deal with this prying hound,
Raymond! But the plan you suggest is useless. He would laugh at you,
disregard your threats, and taunt you with personal designs on Mrs.
Carmac's millions. You have forgotten, Lorry, that Yvonne is her
daughter. I know my wife's nature to the depths. She has drunk to nausea
of the nectar of wealth. What has it given her? Happiness? Good health?
A contented mind? No; she is scourged with scorpions, torn by a thousand
regrets. She would give all her money now if some magician would wipe
out from her life the record of the last eighteen years. Very gladly,
very humbly, would she dwell in this cottage, provided that no cloud
existed between her and Yvonne. But that cannot be. As offering a middle
way, I have agreed that Yvonne shall visit her at intervals, and even
that small concession has delighted her beyond measure. And what will be
the outcome? No matter what I may say, she will try to capture my girl's
heart with a shower of gold.
"No; I don't believe for one moment that she will ever estrange Yvonne
from me. I do not even commit the injustice of attributing any such
design to her. But that Yvonne will inherit Carmac's millions if they
are left undisturbed in her mother's possession is almost as certain as
death,--the one certainty life holds for us poor mortals. And, above
all, don't hug the delusion that the man who has discovered my wife's
pitiful secret is not alive to this phase of a problem which is in my
mind night and day to the exclusion of all else. He will exact a price
which you cannot pay. Each hour his ambitions mount higher. That unhappy
woman is as powerless as a fawn caught in the coils of a python."
"One can free the fawn by dislocating the python's vertebræ. Is there
any harm in my trying?"
"You may not kill the man. If you tackle him openly, you admit the very
contention that he may never be able to establish in a court of law;
because, although he may have ferreted out the prior marriage, he cannot
yet be sure that there the divorce may not hold good. Even I myself am
doubtful in that respect. It is a difficult legal point. Obviously
Stella fears something. The fact that she has retained Raymond when she
meant to dismiss him seems to indicate a weak spot in her armor. No,
Lorry. I've looked at this thing from every point of view, and I see no
loophole of escape. She is trapped, and Raymond alone can set her free.
We must await his pleasure, act when he acts, and strive to assist her
when the crisis arrives. Meanwhile, for her sake, we must endeavor to
tolerate him."
Tollemache sat down again. "I feel like my namesake, Saint Lawrence the
Martyr," he said gloomily. "You remember that when he was put on a
gridiron, and done to a crisp golden brown on one side, he suggested
that by way of a change his executioners should grill him a little on
the other. Gee whizz! That reminds me, Socrates--if Sainte Barbe can't
arrange matters better for pilgrims to her shrine, she ought to go out
of the business. Here are Madeleine, Yvonne, you, and myself mixed up in
fifty-seven varieties of trouble! And I suppose Mère Pitou and little
Barbe will receive attention in turn. If ever I meet Sainte Barbe in
Kingdom Come, I'll tell her her real name. It strikes me that whoever
invented the pin-dropping scheme knew what he was doing."
Ingersoll needed no explanation of his friend's outburst against the
gentle lady whose love story has descended through the centuries. It was
a confession of sheer impotence. He was forcing himself to admit that he
could no more stay the course of events than stem the next tide rushing
in from the Atlantic.
Feeling that he wanted to bite something, Tollemache lit his pipe and
clenched the stem viciously between his strong teeth. Aroused by the
striking of the match, Ingersoll began to smoke too. The attitude of the
two bespoke their sense of utter helplessness. Thus might men imprisoned
on some volcanic island sit and await in dumb misery the next upheaval
of the trembling earth.
* * * * *
At last Tollemache, whose lively and strenuous temperament rebelled
against indecision, even in circumstances such as these, where one false
move might precipitate the very crisis he wished to avoid, put a
question which Ingersoll had been expecting, and fearing, since their
talk began.
"I take it you haven't told Yvonne what you have told me?" he said. "I
can't recall your exact words, but you implied that she is ignorant of
the true nature of the dilemma her mother is in?"
"Yes, that's the worst of it," muttered Ingersoll. "It comes hard,
Lorry, to parade the wretchedness of forgotten years before one's own
daughter,--a girl like Yvonne, whose mind is an unblemished mirror.
Before this blight fell on our lives I don't believe she really
understood why sin and wrongdoing should exist. We dwelt apart. We moved
and breathed in a gracious world of our own contriving. She read of evil
in books and newspapers; but it passed her by, leaving her unruffled as
our earth when astronomers report some clash of suns in the outer
universe. Now, although her mother's callousness is patent to her, and
this mad escapade of Madeleine's has stabbed her as with a dagger, she
is wholly unaware of the chief offense, my neglect to facilitate the
divorce proceedings."
"For the first time in our acquaintance, Socrates, I've got to say that
you're talking nonsense," blurted out Tollemache excitedly. "It's bad
enough that Mrs. Carmac--I suppose I'd better stick to that name for
her--should be in such a hole, and we be unable at present to pull her
out. But it's absolute rot that you should blame yourself for her
mismanagement of her own affairs. Dash it all! Where is the man or woman
who can act tomorrow in face of such an experience as yours as they
might, twenty years hence, wish they had acted? That's no way to look at
things. Tell Yvonne, I say. Tell her tonight. Then she can discuss the
situation fairly and squarely with her mother. Don't you see, heaps of
things may have occurred which, if you knew of them, might modify your
judgment? This American divorce may be bad law in England, but good law
in France. That lawyer fellow, Mr. Bennett, struck me as a wise old
codger. He, or someone like him, might put Mrs. Carmac up to all sorts
of dodges to do Raymond in the eye. And, in any event, don't start
accusing yourself to Yvonne. If you do, d'ye know what the upshot will
be? She'll take your side against her mother, and where will Mrs. Carmac
be then?"
"Probably you are right, Lorry. I have learned to distrust my own
thoughts. Yes, I'll tell Yvonne the whole truth."
Ingersoll spoke in the accents of stoic despair; but Tollemache was in
fighting mood, and eager to close with the enemy.
"It's sound policy to defend by attacking," he went on, with an air of
profundity that, at any other time, the older man would have found
intensely amusing. "That's what we were taught in college football, and
it's true of every other kind of rough and tumble. Why shouldn't Mrs.
Carmac blow Raymond and his blackmailing schemes sky high by making a
deal with Fosdyke and the other relatives? The cake is big enough, you
say, that each should get a good slice and be satisfied. As for legal
proceedings in England, who's going to prosecute? Not you. And who else
can act? The more I look at this affair the more I'm convinced it's a
bogy that will fall to bits at the first straight punch."
Certainly the enthusiastic advocate of strong measures seemed to have
hit on a project that, though difficult, was not wholly impracticable.
If Fosdyke had only kept clear of that stupid intrigue with Madeleine
Demoret, a settlement by consent might come well within the bounds of
reason.
For the first time in many days Ingersoll saw a gleam of light in a
choking fog. He brightened perceptibly, and talked with some of his
wonted animation.
* * * * *
Neither man noticed how the time was slipping by until Mère Pitou
summoned them to supper. Yvonne had not arrived; so they assumed that
she had remained with Mrs. Carmac. About ten o'clock Ingersoll--probably
in a state of subdued nervousness as to the outcome of the projected
disclosure--asked Tollemache to convey a message to Yvonne that she was
wanted at home.
Lorry obeyed cheerfully. He believed he had blundered on a means of
discomfiting the rascally secretary, and, that laudable object once
attained, the path was clear for his own love making. Though his aims
and hopes differed from Harvey Raymond's as the open sea from a
slime-covered morass, he too made the mistake of imagining that money
could level all obstacles; which, if regarded as an infallible maxim, is
misleading alike to the just and the unjust.
Usually, when returning to the hotel from the cottage, he took the short
cut by the footbridge on which Yvonne had encountered Madeleine and
Fosdyke. He was aware, however, that the girl habitually used the
slightly longer but more open highway. So he turned into the Concarneau
road, and was approaching the main bridge (the famous old pont that
gives the village its name) when he saw two people sauntering slowly
toward the harbor, and apparently engaged in close converse. They were
some distance away, and partly hidden in the deep shadow of a fifteenth
century mill with curious carvings beneath the roof of a lion and a man;
but he could not be mistaken as to Yvonne and Raymond, for no other girl
in Pont Aven carried herself with Yvonne's grace, and the misshapen
little secretary was in a class apart.
Evidently Raymond had offered his escort to Yvonne, and they were
extending a somewhat late promenade to enable the former to convey such
news as he had to give of the journey to Quimperlé. Possibly he had
received an answer from that mysterious "friend" Duquesne. Nevertheless
Tollemache was aware of a sudden lessening of his exaltation. It was as
though when overheated by exertion he had entered a cold and clammy
vault. He could give no valid reason why he should not quicken his pace
and overtake Yvonne with her father's message. Yet he hung back,
conscious of a sense of intrusion, yet furious with himself on account
of this inexplicable hesitancy.
Finally he compromised. Yvonne would surely not take a prolonged stroll
after ten o'clock at night. He would walk a little way up the old
Concarneau road (so called because, after the fashion of ancient tracks,
it climbs a steep hill boldly, while its modern supplanter follows a
longer and easier sweep) and keep in the gloom of the ancient houses
clustered there until he saw her making for the cottage. With growing
impatience, and a prey to not a little misgiving, he waited fully half
an hour.
* * * * *
At last she appeared, walking swiftly and alone. And now his anxiety
yielded to astonishment. Coming quietly down the hill, and crossing the
Place au Beurre, he was just in time to see her vanish into the
obscurity of the Rue Mathias. At any rate, then, she was heading for
Mère Pitou's. Glancing toward the harbor, he fancied he could make out
Raymond at the end of the short, narrow street.
He did not think it necessary to lurk in the background until Raymond
passed, but went to the hotel and stood on the terrace under the
sycamores, but well in view of anyone approaching the annex.
Soon Raymond came, picking his steps with careful slowness, and keeping
to the well lighted center of the square. His chin was sunk in the
upturned collar of an overcoat, and he had the aspect of one lost in
thought. Yet he seemed to know of Tollemache's presence, and raised his
eyes in a steady stare when the two were within a few yards of each
other.
He did not speak, but his pallid face creased into a malevolent grin.
Whether or not this was intended as a polite recognition, Tollemache
neither knew nor cared. He returned Raymond's stare with the impassivity
of a Red Indian, and, though puzzled and distressed, resolved to look in
on Harry Jackson before retiring for the night.
In after life Tollemache never forgot that moment. It was big with fate.
Perhaps, if left to their own course, events might have followed the
same channel next day or some succeeding day. But there could be no
questioning the tremendous significance of that particular hour when its
outcome was recalled in the after light of accomplished facts.
Thenceforth there was no damming the torrent that swept away men and
women in its fury. Some were lost for evermore, some were thrown,
bruised and maimed, on far distant strands; but all were caught in an
irresistible flood, and, if Tollemache were a visionary, he might have
heard the rush of mighty waters as he turned to enter the hotel.