THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY
"The instant he entered the room it was plain that all
was lost....
"'I cannot find it,' said he, 'and I must have it. Where
is it?... Where is my bench?... Time presses; and I must
finish those shoes.'
"They looked at one another, and their hearts died within
them.
"'Come, come!' said he, in a whimpering miserable way:
'let me get to work. Give me my work.'
"...Carton was the first to speak:
"'The last chance is gone: it was not much....'"
CHARLES DICKENS: "A Tale of Two Cities."
As I helped the Seraph out of the house and into a taxi, I was trying
to string together a few words of sympathy and encouragement. Then I
looked at his face, and decided to save my breath. Physically and
mentally he was too hard hit to profit by any consolation I could
offer. As a clumsy symbol of good intention I held out my hand, and
had it gripped and retained till we reached Adelphi Terrace.
"Never mind me," he said, in a slow, sing-song voice, hesitating like
a man speaking an unfamiliar language. "It's you and Joyce we've got
to consider."
"Don't worry your head, Seraph," I said. "We'll find a way out. You've
got to be quiet and get well."
"But what are you going to do?"
"I've no idea," I answered blankly.
The Seraph sighed and lifted his feet wearily on to the seat opposite.
"You played that last hand well, Toby. I'm afraid you'll have to go on
playing without any support from me. I'm dummy, I'm only good for two
possible tricks."
I waited to see the hand exposed.
"I can't find Mavis," he went on. "You see that?"
"I do."
"You must ask Joyce to tell you. She spoke a few words this morning,
and she's getting stronger. If she refuses ... but she won't if you
ask her."
"If she does?"
"You must go on bluffing Nigel. He doesn't know who's in the flat, and
old Roden doesn't know either. They'd have searched three days ago,
they'd have arrested us to-day on suspicion if they hadn't been afraid
of making fools of themselves. Keep bluffing, Toby. The keener you are
to get the search over and done with, the more they'll be afraid of a
mare's nest." The words trailed off in a sigh. "If there's anything I
can do I'll do it, but I'm afraid you'll find me pretty useless."
"You're going quietly to bed for forty-eight hours," I told him.
He raised no protest, and I heard him murmur, "Saturday night. Sunday
night. Monday night. It'll be all over then, one way or the other."
On reaching the flat I carried him upstairs, ordered some soup, and
smoked a cigarette in the hall. Maybury-Reynardson was completing his
evening inspection, and when he came out I asked for the bulletin.
"It's in the right direction," he told me, "but very, very slow. The
mind's working back to normal whenever she wakes, and she's been
talking a little. I'm afraid you must go on being patient."
"Could she answer a question?"
"You mustn't ask any."
"I'm afraid it's absolutely necessary."
"What d'you want to know?"
"The police will search this flat on Monday if we don't find out
before then where Miss Rawnsley was taken to when she disappeared."
Maybury-Reynardson shook his head.
"You mustn't think of bothering her with questions of that kind. If
you did, I don't suppose she could help you."
"But you said the mind was normal?"
"Working back to normal. Everything's there, but she can't put it in
order. The memory larder is full, but her hands are too weak to lift
things down from the shelves."
"It's a matter of life and death," I urged.
"If it was a matter of eternal salvation I doubt if she could help
you. Do you dream? Well, could you piece together the fragments of all
you dreamt last night? You might have done so a moment after waking,
little pieces may come back to you when some one suggests the right
train of thought. That's Miss Davenant's condition. To change the
parallel, her eyes can see, but they see 'through a glass darkly.'"
I thought the matter over while he was examining and prescribing for
the Seraph.
"We're in a tight corner, Seraph," I said when he had gone. "I don't
see any other way out, I'm going to take the responsibility of
disobeying him."
He offered no suggestion, and I walked to the door of Joyce's room and
put my fingers to the handle. Then I came back and made him open his
eyes and listen to me.
"I'll take the blame," I said; "but will you see if you can make her
understand? She's known you longer."
It was not the true reason. When I reached the door I was smitten with
the fear that she would not recognise me, and my nerve failed.
We explained our intentions to a reluctant nurse; I fidgeted outside
in the hall and heard the Seraph walk up to the bedside and ask Joyce
how she was.
"I'm better, thanks," she answered. "Let me see, do I know you?" There
was a weak laugh. "I should like to be friends with you, you've got
such nice eyes."
The Seraph took her hand and asked if she knew any one named Mavis
Rawnsley.
"Oh, yes, I know her. Her father's the Prime Minister. Mavis, yes, I
know her."
"Do you know where she is?"
"Mavis Rawnsley? She was at the theatre last night. What theatre was
it? She was in the stalls, and I was in a box. Who else was there?
Were you? She was with her mother. Where is she now? Yes, I know Miss
Rawnsley well."
"Do you know where she is now?"
"I expect she's at the theatre."
She closed her eyes, and the Seraph came back to the door, shaking his
head. I tiptoed into the room, looked round the screen and watched
Joyce smiling in her sleep. As I looked, her eyes opened and met mine.
"Why, I know you!" she exclaimed. "You're my husband. You took me to
the theatre last night, when we saw Mavis Rawnsley. We were in a box,
and she was in the stalls. Some one wanted to know where Mavis was.
Tell them we saw her at the theatre, will you?"
She held out her hand to me; I bent down, kissed her forehead, and
crept out of the room. The Seraph was lying on the bed we had made up
for him in my room. I helped him to undress, and retired to the
library with a cigar--to forget Joyce and plan the bluffing of Nigel.
My first act was to get into communication with Paddy Culling on the
telephone.
"Will you do me another favour?" I began. "Well, it's this. I want you
to get hold of Nigel and take him to lunch or dine to-morrow--Sunday--at
the Club. Let me know which, and the time. When you've finished eating,
lead him away to a quiet corner--the North Smoking Room or the
Strangers' Card Room. Hold him in conversation till I come. I shall
drop in accidentally, and start pulling his leg. You can help, but do
it in moderation; we mustn't make him savage--only uncomfortable. You
understand? Right."
Then I went to bed.
On Sunday morning I started out in the direction of Chester Square,
and made two discoveries on the way. The first was that our house was
being unceasingly watched by a tall Yorkshireman in plain clothes and
regulation boots; the second, that the Yorkshireman was in his turn
being intermittently watched by Nigel Rawnsley. His opinion of the
Criminal Investigation Department must have been as low--if not as
kindly--as my own. On two more occasions that day I found him engaged
on a flying visit of inspection--to keep Scotland Yard up to the
Rawnsley mark and answer the eternal question that Juvenal propounded
and Michael Roden amended for his own benefit and mine at Henley.
Elsie received me with anxious enquiries after her sister. I gave a
full report, propounded my plan of campaign, and was rewarded by being
shown the extensive and beautiful contents of her wardrobe. I should
never have believed one woman could accumulate so many clothes; there
seemed a dress for every day and evening of the year, and she could
have worn a fresh hat each hour without repeating herself. My own rule
is to have one suit I can wear in a bad light, and four that I cannot.
With hats the practice is even simpler; I flaunt a new one until it is
stolen, and then wear the changeling until a substitute of even
greater seediness has been supplied. My instincts are conservative,
and my hats more symbolical than decorative; for me they typify the
great, sad law that every change is a change for the worse.
My only complaint against Elsie was that her wardrobe contained too
much of what university authorities would call the "subfuse" element.
The most conspicuous garments I could find were a white coat and
skirt, white stockings and shoes, black hat and veil, and heliotrope
dust coat. I am no judge whether they looked well in combination, but
I challenge the purblind to say they were inconspicuous. To my eyes
the _tout ensemble_ was so striking that I laid them on a chair and
gazed in wondering admiration until it was time to call up Gartside
and warn him that I stood in need of luncheon.
Carlton House Terrace had a depressing, derelict appearance that
foreboded the departure of its lord. All the favourite pictures and
ornaments seemed to have been stowed away in preparation for India,
neat piles of books were distributed about the library floor, and
every scrap of paper seemed to have been tidied into a drawer. We sat
down a pleasant party of three, and I made the acquaintance of
Gartside's cousin and aide-de-camp, Lord Raymond Sturling. An
agreeable fellow he seemed, who put himself and his services entirely
at my disposal in the event of my deciding to come for a part or all
of the way. I could only avail myself of his offer to the extent of
sending him to see if Mountjoy's villa at Rimini was still in the
market, and if so what his figure was for giving me immediate
possession.
Gartside himself was as hospitable as ever in offering me every
available inch on the yacht for the accommodation of myself and any
friends I might care to bring with me. I ran through the list and
found myself wondering if Maybury-Reynardson could be persuaded to
come. I had hardly known him long enough to call him a friend, but he
had gone out of his way to oblige me in coming to attend Joyce, and on
general principles I think most big London practitioners are the
better for a few days at sea at the close of the London season.
I called round in Cavendish Square for a cup of tea, and told him he
was pulled down and in need of a change.
"Look at the good it did my brother," I said. "Just to Marseilles and
back. Or if you'll come to Genoa and overland to Rimini, I shall be
very glad to put you up for as long as you can stay. It's Gartside's
own yacht, and I'm authorised by him to invite whom I please. He's a
capital host, and you'll be done to a turn. The only fault I have to
find with his arrangements is that he carries no doctor, and I'm
sufficiently middle-aged to be fussy on a point like that. Anybody
taken ill, you know, anybody coming on board ill, and it would be
devilish awkward. I shall insist on a doctor. He'll be Gartside's
guest, but I shall pay his fees, of course, and he can name his own
figure. What do you think of the idea? We shall be to all intents and
purposes a bachelor party."
When Maybury-Reynardson's name was first mentioned to me on the
evening of Joyce's flight, the Seraph had justly described him as a
"sportsman." Under the grave official mask I could see a twinkling eye
and a flickering smile.
"It depends on one case of nervous breakdown that I've got on hand at
present," he said. "If my patient's well enough...."
"She's got to be," I said.
"When do you sail?"
"Friday."
"You can't make it later?"
"Absolutely impossible."
"This is Sunday. I'll tell you when we're a little nearer the day."
"She must be moved on Thursday afternoon."
"Must? Must?" he repeated with a smile. "Whose patient is she?"
"Whose wife's she going to be?" I asked in my turn.
"I suppose it'll be pretty hot," he said. "First week in August. I
must get some thin clothes."
"Include them in the fee," I suggested.
"Damn the fee!" he answered, as we walked to the door.
Paddy Culling had arranged to give Nigel his dinner at eight. I had
comfortable time to dress and dine at Adelphi Terrace, and nine-thirty
found me wandering round the Club in search of company.
"Praise heaven for the sight of a friendly face!" I exclaimed as I
stumbled across Paddy and Nigel in the North Smoking Room.
"Where was ut ye dined?" asked Paddy, as I pulled up a chair and rang
for cigars. To a practised ear his brogue was an eloquent war signal.
"In the sick-house," I told him, "Adelphi Terrace."
"Is ut catching?" he inquired. "It's not for my own self I'm asking,
but Nigel here. I owe ut to empire and postherity to see he runs no
risks."
I reassured him on the score of posterity.
"He's just knocked up and over-tired," I said, "and I'm keeping him in
bed till Wednesday or Thursday."
"Then he'll not be walking ye into the Lake District to find Miss
Mavis for the present," Paddy observed with an eye on Nigel.
"He'll be walking nowhere till Wednesday at earliest," I said with
great determination.
Paddy cut a cigar, and assumed an air of dissatisfaction.
"I'd have ye remember the days of grace," he grumbled.
I shrugged my shoulders without answering.
"Where's me pound of flesh?" he demanded. "Manin' no disrispec' to
Miss Mavis," he added apologetically to Nigel.
"I'm afraid I can't help you to find her," I said.
"Can the Seraph?"
"I don't suppose so. In any case he can do nothing for the present."
Paddy returned to his cigar and we smoked in silence till Nigel picked
up the threads where they had been dropped.
"You say Aintree's ill," he began cautiously. "If I were disposed to
regard the time of illness as so many _dies non_, would he be in a
position to find my sister by the end of the week?"
"Frankly, I see no likelihood."
"It's an extra five days."
"What good can they do? Or five weeks for that matter?"
"You should know best."
"I have no more idea where your sister is than you have, and no better
means of finding out."
"And Aintree?"
"In speaking for myself, I spoke for him. If he knew or had any means
of finding out he'd tell me."
Paddy flicked the ash off his cigar and entered the firing line.
"When the days of grace have expired, ye'll have yer contract
unfulfilled?"
"And we shall be prepared to face the consequences."
"Och, yer be damned! Is the Seraph?"
"He can't help himself." I had sowed sufficient good seed and saw no
profit in staying longer. "I shall see you both to-morrow at noon?"
"Not me," said Paddy. "I've searched the place once."
"You, Nigel?"
"If I think fit," he answered loftily.
"I only ask, because you mustn't worry the Seraph. You can search his
rooms, but you mustn't try to cross-question him. He's not equal to
it."
"I think you'd be wise to accept the extension of time."
"My dear man, what's the good? If we can't find your sister, we can't.
Saturday's no better than Monday. As Monday was the original time,
you'd better stick to it and get your search over."
"If Aintree's ill...."
"Humbug! Nigel," I said. "If you believe we're harbouring a criminal,
it's your duty to verify your belief. If you think you can teach
Scotland Yard its business, bring your detectives and prove your
superior wisdom. Bring 'em to-morrow; bring 'em to-night if you like,
and as many as you can get. The more there are," I said, turning at
the door to fire a last shot, "the more voices will be raised in
thanksgiving for Nigel Rawnsley."
The following morning I just mentioned to the Seraph that we need
expect no search-party that day, and then went on to complete certain
other arrangements. Raymond Sturling called in on the Tuesday morning
to report his success in the negotiations for Mountjoy's villa at
Rimini. I rang up my solicitor and told him to conclude all
formalities, and on the Wednesday afternoon dropped in at Carlton
House Terrace, and mentioned that Maybury-Reynardson had cleared up
odds and ends of work and felt justified in accepting my vicarious
invitation to accompany the Governor of Bombay as far as Genoa. On
Thursday I called at Chester Square.
Elsie's car was standing at the door when I arrived, and she had paid
me the compliment of putting on all the clothes I had most admired on
the previous Sunday. Very slim and pretty she looked in the white coat
and skirt, and when she smiled I could almost have said it was Joyce.
The face was older, of course, but that difference was masked when she
dropped the black veil; the slight figure and fine golden hair might
have belonged to either sister.
I complimented her on her appearance, and suggested driving round to
Adelphi Terrace. The Seraph was still rather weak and in need of
attention, and though I had two nurses in the flat to look after
Joyce, they would not be there for ever. As we crossed Trafalgar
Square into the Strand I recommended Elsie to raise her veil.
"Just as I thought," I murmured as we entered Adelphi Terrace. My
plain-clothes Yorkshireman was watching the house from the opposite
side of the road; Nigel was watching my plain-clothes Yorkshireman
from the corner of the Terrace.
"Bow to him," I said to Elsie. "He may not deign to recognise you, but
he can't help seeing you. Quite good! Now then, remember that sprained
ankle!"
With a footman on one side and myself on the other, she was half
carried out of the car, across the pavement and into the house. The
ankle grew miraculously better when she forgot herself, and started to
run upstairs; I date its recovery from the moment when we passed out
of my Yorkshire friend's field of vision.
I said good-bye to the Seraph while Elsie was in Joyce's room. I never
waste vain tears over the past, but when I saw him for the last time,
weak, suffering and heart-broken--two large blue eyes gazing at me out
of a white immobile face--I half regretted we had ever met, and
heartily wished our parting had been different. Ill as he was, I could
have taken him; but it would have been an added risk, and above all,
he refused to come. As at our first meeting in Morocco, he was setting
out solitary and unfriended--to forget....
Despite our dress-rehearsal the previous day, an hour had passed
before Joyce appeared in the white coat and skirt, black hat and
heliotrope dust-coat. She greeted me with a weak, pathetic little
smile, bent over the Seraph's bed and kissed him, and then suffered me
to carry her downstairs. As in bringing Elsie into the house, the
footman and I took each an arm, across the pavement into the car. My
Yorkshire friend watched us with interest, and I could not find it in
my heart to grudge him the pleasure. He must have found little enough
padding to fill out the spaces in his daily report. And all that his
present scrutiny told him was that a woman's veil was up when she
entered a house, and down when she left it.
We drove north-west out of London, to the rendezvous fixed by Raymond
Sturling on the outskirts of Hendon. Maybury-Reynardson awaited us,
and directed operations while we shifted Joyce into a car with a couch
already prepared. Her luggage had been brought from Chester Square in
the morning and was piled on the roof and at the back.
"A _mariage de convenance_," Sturling remarked with a smile, as he saw
me inspecting the labels.
"Lady Raymond Sturling. S.Y. _Ariel_, Southampton," was the name and
destination I found written.
"It may save trouble," he added apologetically. "I thought you
wouldn't mind."
His foresight was justified. We drove slowly down to Southampton and
arrived an hour before sunset, Joyce in one car with Maybury-Reynardson,
Sturling with me in the other. I had anticipated that all ports and
railway termini would be watched for a woman of Joyce's age and figure,
and we were not allowed to board the tender without a challenge.
"My wife," Sturling explained brusquely. "Yes, be as quick as you can,
please. I want to get her on board as soon as possible.
Sturling--aide-de-camp to Lord Gartside, to Bombay by his own yacht.
There she is, the _Ariel_, sailing to-morrow. These gentlemen? Mr.
Merivale and Dr. Maybury-Reynardson. Friends of Lord Gartside. That
all?"
"All in order, my lord."
"Right away."
As the tender steamed out I turned to mark the graceful lines of the
_Ariel_. She was a clean, pretty boat at all times, and when I thought
of the service she was doing two of her passengers, I could have
kissed every plank of her white decks. Her mainmast flew the burgee of
the R.Y.S., and the White Ensign fluttered at her stern; I remember
the official reports had announced that the new governor would proceed
direct to Bombay, calling only at Suez to coal. The Turkish flag
flying at the foremast showed that Gartside was taking no steps to
correct a popular delusion.
"Lady Raymond Sturling's" nurses arrived by an early train on Friday
morning, followed at noon by Gartside in a special. We sailed at
three. Paddy Culling sent wireless messages at four, four-thirty and
five: "Sursum corda" was the first; "Keep your tails up" the second;
and "Haste to the Wedding" completed the series.
I was not comfortable until we had passed out of territorial waters.
Any one nurse may leave her patient and walk abroad in search of air
and exercise: the second must not quit the house till the first has
returned. I remembered that too late, when our two friends were
already on board; and until I heard the anchor weighed, I was
wondering if the same thought had stirred the sluggish imagination of
the plain-clothes Yorkshireman. Whatever his suspicions, it appears
that he did not succeed in making them real to Nigel. If he had there
would have been no undignified raid on Adelphi Terrace next morning,
and the feelings of one rising young statesman need not have been
ruffled.
While Maybury-Reynardson was paying Joyce his nightly visit, I paced
the deck with Gartside, silently and in grateful enjoyment of a cigar.
As the light at the Needles dwindled and vanished, we became as
reflective as befitted one man who was leaving England for several
years, and another who had left her for ever. It was not till we had
tramped a dozen times up and down that he broke his long silence.
"How did you find Sylvia?" he asked in a tone that showed how his
thoughts had been occupied.
I told him the story as she herself had heard it, adding as much of
the earlier history as was necessary to convince him.
"Perhaps I'm not leaving so much behind after all," was his comment.
"Good luck to the Seraph! He's a nice boy."
"He'll need all the luck he can get," I answered. "You'll get oil and
water to mingle quicker than you'll bring those two together. Tell me
how it's to be done, Gartside, and you'll put the coping-stone on all
your labours."
In the darkness I heard him sigh.
"I can't help you. I'm not a diplomatist, I'm just a lumpy,
good-tempered ox. Sylvia saw that, bless her! Poor Paddy!" he added
softly. "He's as fond of her as we any of us were."
I mentioned the trinity of wireless messages.
"That's like Paddy," he said with a laugh. "Well, he's right. You're
the only one that's come out on top, and good wishes to you for the
future!"
We shook hands and strolled in the direction of our cabins.
"You don't want thanks," I said, "but if you do you know where to come
for them."
"Oh well!" I heard him laugh, but there was no laughter in his eyes
when the light of the chart-room lamp fell on his face. "If I can't
get what I want, there's some satisfaction in helping a friend to get
what _he_ wants."
"I'll have that copied out and hung on my shaving-glass," I said. "I
shall want that text during the next few months."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to bring Sylvia and the Seraph together," I answered in the
same tone I had told Joyce I was going to break the Militant Suffrage
movement.
"And how are you going to do that?"
"God knows!" I replied with a woeful shake of the head.