THE GENERAL CALLS ON HUGH
Hugh Alston lingered in London, why, he would not admit, even to
himself. In reality he had lingered on in the hope of seeing Joan
Meredyth again. How he should see her, where and when, he had not the
faintest idea; but he wanted to see her even more than he wanted to see
Hurst Dormer.
He had thought of going to the city and calling on Mr. Philip Slotman
again. But he had not liked Mr. Slotman.
“If I see her, she will only suggest that I am annoying and insulting
her,” Hugh thought. “I suppose I thought that I was doing a very fine
and very clever thing in asking her to be my wife!” His face burned at
the thought. He had meant it well; but, looking back, it struck him
that he had acted like a conceited fool. He had thought to make all
right, by bestowing all his possessions and his person on her, and she
had put him in his place, had declined even without thanks.
“And serve me jolly well right!” Hugh said. “Who?” he added aloud.
“Gentleman, sir—General Bartholomew,” said the hotel page.
“And who on earth is he?”
“Short, stout gentleman, sir, white whiskers.”
“That’s quite satisfactory then; I’ll see him,” said Hugh.
He found the General in the lounge.
“You’re Hugh Alston,” said the General. “I’d know you anywhere. You are
your father over again. I hope that you are as good a man.”
“I wish I could think so,” Hugh said, “but I can’t!” He shook hands
with the General. He had a dim recollection of the old fellow, as one
of his father’s friends, who in the old days, when he was a child, had
come down to Hurst Dormer; but the recollection was dim.
“How did you find me out here, sir?”
“Ah, ha! That’s it—just a piece of luck! The name struck me—Alston—I
thought of George Alston. I said to myself, ‘Can this be his boy?’ And
you are, eh? George Alston, of Hurst Dormer.”
The General rambled on, but he forgot to explain to Hugh how it was
that he had found him out at the Northborough Hotel, and presently Hugh
forgot to enquire, which was what the General wanted.
“You’ll dine with me to-night, eh? I won’t take no—understand. I want
to talk over old times!”
“I thought of returning to Sussex to-night,” said Hugh.
“Not to be thought of! I can’t let you go! I shall expect you at
seven.”
The old fellow seemed to be so genuinely anxious, so kindly, so
friendly, that Hugh had not the heart to refuse him.
“Very well, sir; it is good of you. I’ll come, I’ll put off going till
to-morrow. I remember you well now, you used to come for the shooting
when I was a nipper.”
Not till after the old fellow had gone did Hugh wonder how he had
unearthed him here in the Northborough Hotel. He had meant to ask
him—he had asked him actually, and the General had not explained. But
it did not matter, after all. Some coincidence, some easily
understandable explanation, of course, would account for it.
“And to-morrow I shall go back,” Hugh thought, as he drove to the
General’s house in a taxicab. “I shall go back to Hurst Dormer, I shall
get busy doing something and forget everything that I don’t want to
remember.”
But his thoughts were with the girl he had seen last in Mr. Slotman’s
office. And he saw her in memory as he had seen her for one brief
instant of time—softened and sweetened by some thought, some influence
that had come to her for a moment. What influence, what thought, he
could not tell; yet, as she had been then, so he saw her always and
remembered her.
A respectful manservant took Hugh’s coat and hat; he led the way, and
flung a door wide.
“General Bartholomew will be with you in a few moments, sir,” he said;
and Hugh found himself in a large, old-fashioned London drawing-room.
“To-morrow,” Hugh was thinking, “Hurst Dormer—work, something to occupy
my thoughts till I can forget. It is going to take a lot of forgetting,
I suppose I shall feel more or less a cad all my life, though Heaven
knows—”
He swung round suddenly. The door had opened; he heard the swish of
skirts, and knew it could not be General Bartholomew.
But who it would be he could not have guessed to save his life. They
met again for the third time in their lives. At sight of him the girl
had started and flushed, had instinctively drawn back. Now she stood
still, regarding him with a steadfast stare, the colour slowly fading
from her cheeks.
And Hugh stood silent, dumbfounded, astonishment clearly shown on his
face.