There were only two arrivals by the train from London when it stopped
at the little flower-banked station of Barthiam; and Mary, who was
waiting for it, had no difficulty in deciding which of them was
Professor Fish. That great man never failed to look the part. His
tall, lean figure, stooping at the shoulders, his big, smooth-shaven
face, mildly abstracted behind his glasses, but retaining always
something of a keen and formidable character, his soft hat and great
flapping ulster, made up a noticeable personality anywhere. He seemed
alone to crowd the little platform; the small man who accompanied him
was lost in his shadow.
"Professor Fish?" accosted Mary primly, at his elbow.
He turned upon her with a movement like a swoop.
"I am Mary Pond," she explained. "My father was called away to a
case, so he sent me to meet you and bring you up to the house. I have
a fly waiting."
"Ah!" The Professor nodded and was bland. "Very good of you to take
the trouble, Miss Pond. I am much obliged." He stepped aside to let
his companion be seen. "This," he explained, "is your--er--guest."
Mary put out her hand, but the little man, who had been standing
behind the Professor, made no motion to take it. He was staring at
the planks of the platform; he lifted his eyes for an instant to
glance at her, and dropped them again at once. Mary saw a listless,
empty face, pale eyes, and pale hair, a mere effect of vacuity and
weakness. The man drooped where he stood as though he were no more
than half alive; his clothes were grotesquely ill-fitting. A little
puzzled, she looked up to the Professor, and saw that he was watching
her.
"How do you do?" she asked gently of the little man.
The Professor answered for him. "He does very well, Miss Pond," he
said robustly. "Much better than he thinks. Between ourselves,"
dropping his voice and nodding at her with intention, "a most
remarkable case. Very remarkable indeed. And now, if I can find a
porter, we might as well be moving."
He seemed to hesitate for a moment before leaving them; then he set
off down the platform. He walked with long strides in great spasms of
energy, as he did everything. Mary turned from looking after him to
the little creature beside her with a sense of absurd contrast. As
she did so she saw that he too was looking after the Professor, and
his empty face had suddenly become intent; it was hardened and
vicious, with the parted lips and narrow eyes of hate. The man had
discovered some spring of life within his listless body. It lasted
only while one might draw a full breath; then he saw her scrutiny,
and sank again to his still dreariness. It was a startling thing to
see that flabby little insignificance strengthen to such a force of
feeling, and Mary was conscious of a sort of alarm. But before she
could frame a thing to say the Professor was back again, and the
atmosphere of his vigour had enveloped them.
Professor Fish sat next to her in the cab, and the new patient, who
was to be an inmate of her house for some time to come, leaned
against the cushions opposite, with eyes half closed and his coarse
hands folded in his lap. The Professor talked without ceasing, gazing
through the open window at the fat lands of Kent unfolded beside the
road and torpid under the July sun; but Mary found more of interest
in the still face before her, cryptic and mysterious in its utter
vacancy. So little it expressed besides weakness that Mary wondered
what illness could thus have cut the man off from the world. She was
used to the waste products of life; one "resident patient" succeeded
another at her father's house, and to each she was a deft nurse and a
supple companion. They had in common, she found, a certain
paltriness; most of them had been overtaxed by easy burdens; but this
man's aspect conveyed suggestions of a long struggle with a burden
beyond all strength. The meanness of him, all his appearance of
having begun in the gutter and failed there, touched her not at all;
Mary had had too much to do with human flesh in the raw to be greatly
concerned about such matters as that.
Dr. Pond was at home to meet them when the cab drew up at the door,
an elderly, good-natured man, white-haired and sprucely white-
bearded. He greeted Professor Fish with some deference, and helped
the new patient carefully forth from the cab. It was Mary's duty to
see the one trunk of new shining tin carried in and placed in the
room that was prepared for the house's new inmate. This done, she
went to the others in the little drawing-room. Her father and
Professor Fish were seated in the window, busy with talk; the new
patient had an upright chair against the wall, and sat in it with the
same lassitude and downcast gaze which had already drawn Mary's
wondering compassion. The Professor rose at her entry.
"Ah! Miss Pond," he said in his cheerful, booming voice, "I was just
giving your father a few particulars about our young friend."
"I should like to hear them," she answered, taking the chair he
reached for her. "You see, I shall have a good deal to do with him."