CHAPTER LV
KICKED OUT
Reginald Henson had had more than one unpleasant surprise lately,but none so painful as the sight of Lord Littimer seated in theLongdean Grange drawing-room with the air of a man who is very muchat home indeed.
The place was strangely changed, too. There was an air of neatness andorder about the room that Henson had never seen before. The dust and dirthad absolutely vanished; it might have been the home of any ordinarywealthy and refined people. And all Lady Littimer's rags and patches haddisappeared. She was dressed in somewhat old-fashioned style, buthandsomely and well. She sat beside Littimer with a smile on her face.But the cloud seemed to have rolled from her mind; her eyes were clear,if a little frightened. From the glance that passed between Littimer andherself it was easy to see that the misunderstanding was no more.
"You are surprised to see me here?" said Littimer.
Henson stammered out something and shrank towards, the door. Littimerordered him back again. He came with a slinking, dogged air; he avoidedthe smiling contempt in Enid's eyes.
"My presence appears to be superfluous," he said, bitterly.
"And mine appears to be a surprise," Littimer replied. "Come, are you notglad to see me, my heir and successor? What has become of the oldfawning, cringing smile? Why, if some of your future constituents couldsee you now they might be justified in imagining that you had donesomething wrong. Look at yourself."
Littimer indicated a long gilt mirror on the opposite wall. Hensonglanced at it involuntarily and dropped his eyes. Could that abject,white-faced sneak be himself? Was that the man whose fine presence andtender smile had charmed thousands? It seemed impossible.
"What have I done?" he asked.
"What have you not done?" Littimer thundered. "In the first place you didyour best to ruin Hatherly Bell's life. You robbed me of a picture to doso, and your friend Merritt tried to rob me again. But I have both thosepictures now. You did that because you were afraid of Bell--afraid lesthe should see through your base motives. And you succeeded for a time,for the coast was clear. And then you proceeded to rob me of my son byone of the most contemptible tricks ever played by one man on another. Itwas you who stole the money and the ring; you who brought about all thatsorrow and trouble by means of a forgery. But there are other people onyour track as well as myself. You were at your last gasp. You were comingto see me to sell that ring for a large sum to take you out of thecountry, and then you discovered that you hadn't really got the ring."
"What--what are you talking about?" Henson asked, feebly.
"Scoundrel!" Littimer cried. "Innocent and pure to the last. I know allabout Van Sneck and those forgeries of Prince Rupert's ring. And I knowhow Van Sneck was nearly done to death in Mr. Steel's house; and I knowwhy--good heavens! It seems impossible that I could have been deceivedall these years by such a slimy, treacherous scoundrel. And I might havegone on still but for a woman--"
"A lady detective," Henson sneered. "Miss Lee."
Littimer smiled. It was good, after all, to defeat and hoodwinkthe rascal.
"Miss Chris Henson," he said. "It never occurred to you that Miss Chrisand Miss Lee were one and the same person. You never guessed. And sheplayed with you as if you had been a child. How beautifully she exposedyou over those pictures. Ah, you should have seen your face when you sawthe stolen Rembrandt back again in its place. And after that you were madenough to think that I trusted you. My dear, what shall we do with thispretty fellow?"
Lady Littimer shook her head doubtfully. It was plain that the presenceof Henson disturbed her. There was just a suggestion of the old madnessin her eyes.
"Send him away," she said. "Let him go."
"Send him away by all means," Littimer went on. "But letting him go isanother matter. If we do the police will pick him up on other charges.There is a certain consolation in knowing that his evil career is likelyto be shortened by some years. But I shall have no mercy. Scotland Yardshall know everything."
There was a cold ring in Littimer's voice that told Henson of hisdetermination to carry out his threat. The other troubles he mightwriggle out of, but this one was terribly real. It was time to tryconciliation.
"It will be a terrible scandal for the family, my lord," he whined.
Littimer rose to his feet. A sudden anger flared into his eyes. He was asmaller man than Henson, but the latter cowed before him.
"You dog!" he cried. "What greater scandal than that of the past fewyears? Does not all the world know that there is, or has been, some heavycloud over the family honour? Lord and Lady Littimer have parted, and herladyship has gone away. That is only part of what the gossips have said.And in these domestic differences it is always the woman who suffers.Everybody always says that the woman has done something wrong. For yearsmy wife has been under this stigma. If she had chosen to keep before theworld after she left me most people would have ignored her. And you talkto me of a family scandal!"
"You will only make bad worse, my lord."
"No," Littimer cried. "I am going to make bad infinitely better. We cometogether again, but we say nothing of the past. And the world sneers andsays the past is ignored for politic considerations. And so the publicis going to know the truth, you dog. The whole facts of the case havegone to my solicitor, and by this time to-morrow a warrant will beissued against you. And I shall stand in open court and tell the wholeworld my story."
"In fairness to Lady Littimer," said Enid, speaking for the first time,"you could do no less."
"You were always against me," Henson snarled
"Because I always knew you," said Enid. "And the more I knew of you thegreater was my contempt. And you came here ever on the sameerrand--money, money, money. From first to last you have robbed my auntof something like L70,000. And always by threats or the promise that youwould some day restore the ring to the family."
"As to the ring," Henson protested, "I swear--"
"I suppose a lie more or less makes no difference to an expert likeyourself," Enid went on, with cold contempt. "You took advantage of myaunt's misfortunes. Ah, she is a different woman since Lord Littimer camehere. But her sorrow has crushed her down, and that forgery of the ringyou dangled before her eyes deceived her."
"I never showed her the ring," Henson said, brazenly.
"And you can look me in the face and say that? One night Lady Littimersnatched it from you and ran into the garden. You followed and struggledfor the ring. And Mr. David Steel, who stood close by, felled you to theearth with a blow on the side of your head. I wonder he didn't kill you.I should have done so in his place. And yet it would be a pity to hanganyone for your death. See here!"
Enid produced the ring from her pocket. Lord Littimer looked at itintently.
"Have you seen this before, my dear?" he asked his wife.
"Many a time," Lady Littimer said, sadly. "Take it away, it reminds me oftoo many bitter memories. Take it out of my sight."
"An excellent forgery," Littimer murmured. "A forgery calculatedto deceive many experts even. I will compare it with the originalby and by."
Henson listened with a sinking feeling at his heart. Was it possible, hewondered, that Lord Littimer had really recovered the original? He hadhad hopes of getting it back even now, and making it the basis of termsof surrender. Lady Littimer snatched the ring from Littimer's grasp andthrew it through the open window into the garden.
She stood up facing Henson, her head thrown back, her eyes flaming with anew resolution. It seemed hardly possible to believe that this fine,handsome woman with the white hair could be the poor demented creaturethat the others once had known.
"Reginald Henson, listen to me," she cried. "For your own purpose youcruelly and deliberately set out to wreck the happiness of several lives.For mere money you did this; for sheer love of dissipation you committedthis crime. You nearly deprived me of my reason. I say nothing about themoney, because that is nothing by comparison. But the years that are lostcan never come back to me again. When I t
hink of the past and the past ofmy poor, unhappy boy I feel that I have no forgiveness for you. Ifyou--Oh, go away; don't stay here--go. If I had known you were coming Ishould have forbidden you the house. Your mere presence unnerves me.Littimer, send him away."
Littimer rose to his feet and rang the bell.
"You will be good enough to rid me of your hateful presence," he said,"at once; now go."
But Henson still stood irresolute. He fidgeted from one foot to theother. He seemed to have some trouble that he could find noexpression for.
"I want to go away," he murmured. "I want to leave the country. But atthe present moment I am practically penniless. If you would advance me--"
Littimer laughed aloud.
"Upon my word," he said, "your coolness is colossal. I am going toprosecute you, I am doing my best to bring you into the dock. And you askme--_me_, of all men--to find you money so that you can evade justice!Have you not had enough--are you never satisfied? Williams, will you seeMr. Henson off the premises?"
The smiling Williams bowed low.
"With the greatest possible pleasure, my lord," he said. "Any furtherorders, my lord?"
"And he is not to come here again, you understand." Williams seemed tounderstand perfectly. With one backward sullen glance Henson quitted theroom and passed into the night with his companion. Williams was whistlingcheerfully, with his hands thrust deep into his pockets.
"Is that how you treat a gentleman?" Henson demanded.
"I ain't a gentleman," Williams said. "Never set up to be. And I ain't adirty rascal who has just been kicked out of a nobleman's house. Here,stop that. Try that game on again and I'll call the dogs. And don't showme any of your airs, please. I'm only a servant, but I am an honest man."
Henson stifled his anger as best he could. He was too miserable anddowncast to think of much besides himself at present. Once thelodge-gates were open, Williams stood aside for him to pass. Thetemptation was irresistible. And Henson's back was turned. With a kick ofconcentrated contempt and fury Williams shot Henson into the road, wherehe landed full on his face. His cup of humiliation was complete.