CHAPTER XV
RALPH RAVENSPUR'S CONCEIT
"I should like to know why you wanted the ivory picture?"
It was Geoffrey who asked the question. He and Ralph Ravenspur weremoving along the lanes that led up to the cliffs. They were deep lanes,with overhanging edges on either side--lanes where it was not easy fortwo conveyances to pass.
"I dare say you would," Ralph replied. "But not at present. In duecourse you must know everything. Geoffrey, you are fond of novelreading?"
"Yes, especially books of the Gaboriau type. And yet, in all my reading,I never knew a more thrilling mystery than that of the ivory portrait."
"You had a good look at it, then?"
"Of course I did. The likeness to Marion was amazing. It might have beenher own photograph on the ivory. It was the same, yet not thesame--Marion transformed to an avenging fury."
"An ancestress of hers, no doubt?"
"Of course. The idea of it being Marion herself is out of the question."
"That you may dismiss at once," Ralph said. "The age of the medallionproves that and Marion is an angel."
"She is. Uncle Ralph, I am fearfully puzzled. What can Marion's queerancestors and all that kind of thing have to do with our family terror?"
Ralph declined to say, beyond the fact that there was a connection. Ahorseman was coming pounding down the lane and he stepped asideinstinctively.
"Jessop," he murmured, "I can tell by the trot of his horse."
Jessop, one of the farmers on the estate, it was. Geoffrey regarded hiscompanion admiringly. He seemed to be able to dispense with eyesaltogether. A long course of training in woodcraft stood him in goodstead now. The apple-cheeked farmer pulled up so as to pass the squiresat a walking pace.
"Morning, Jessop," Geoffrey cried cheerfully. "Where are you goingdressed in your best. And what are you doing with that feminine-lookingbox?"
The big man grinned sheepishly.
"Riding into town," he explained. "Fact is, missus and myself have got alodger, a great lady, who's taken our drawing-room and two bedrooms.They do say it's going to be the fashion for the 'quality' to spendtheir holidays right in t'country. It's a rare help to us these hardtimes."
Ralph Ravenspur turned round suddenly upon his nephew.
"Is it a fact?" he demanded. "Is it as Jessop says?"
"I believe so," Geoffrey replied. "I know that for the last five yearsthe influx of visitors along this lonely coast has been steadilygrowing. It seems to have become quite the thing for good-class peopleto take cottages and farmhouses miles away from everywhere, but I havenot heard of any of our tenants having them before."
"I be the first here, sir," Jessop replied. "The lady came over and saidshe had been recommended to come to us. Not as I wanted her at first,but six guineas a week for two months ain't to be despised. But the ladyhas a power of parcels to be fetched and carried, surely. That's why I'moff to town."
Jessop touched his hat and rode on. For a time Ralph was silent.
"It's some time since I last visited an English watering-place," hesaid, "and Scarborough was the spot in question. We had a furnishedhouse there one season, a good house, well furnished, and beautifullysituated. We paid eight pounds a week for it, and it was considered tobe a lot of money. Don't you think that Jessop's lodger must be a veryextravagant kind of woman?"
Geoffrey laughed. Like most young men born to the purple, he had a lightestimate of the value of money.
"Now you come to think of it, perhaps so," he said. "Over at Brigg, thefarmers fancy they do well if they get ten shillings a room for theweek."
Again Ralph was thoughtful. He and his companion came up out of thelane, and then it dawned upon Geoffrey that the other had turned, nottowards the cliffs as arranged, but inland in the direction of Jessop'sfarm.
There was a long, deep lane to the west side of the stone farmhouse,into which Ralph turned. From a gap in the hedge a peep into the gardencould be obtained. There was a trim lawn bordered by old-fashionedflowers, two bay windows led from the house to the garden. These baywindows led from the show rooms of the house, rooms never opened excepton state occasions. The house might have been made fit for anybody withvery little alteration.
Ralph sat down on the grass and slowly filled an aged black pipe.
"I'm going to smoke here while you see Mrs. Jessop. I have a fancy tofind out all about this fashionable lady who buries herself in thecountry like this. Call it curiosity if you like, but do as I ask you.If you can see the lady so much the better."
Geoffrey agreed cheerfully. A moment or two later and he was gossipingwith the buxom farmer's wife in the kitchen, a glass of amber,home-brewed ale before him. He was a favorite with the tenantry, andnone the less beloved because of the cloud that was hanging over him.
"It does one's eyes good to see you again, Mr. Geoffrey," Mrs. Jessopcried. "And you so cheerful and bright, and all, dear, dear! I'm mainsorry I can't ask you in the parlor, but we've got a lodger."
"So Jessop told me. Not that I don't feel far more comfortable here. Andwhat may your distinguished visitor be like, Mrs. Jessop?"
"Dark and handsome. And dressed over so. Might be a princess, who hadjust slipped off her throne. And clever. She had books and books, somein languages that look like Chinese puzzles."
"Some great society dame, no doubt."
"I shouldn't be surprised, Mr. Geoffrey. But not English, I shouldfancy, though she speaks the language as well as you or I. And simple,too. Just tea and toast for breakfast with a little meat and rice forluncheon and dinner with stewed fruit. And she never drinks anything butwater. What she spends a week in food wouldn't keep one of our laborers.And she had pounds' worth of hot-house flowers sent from York everyday."
Mrs. Jessop paused. There was a rustling of something rich, and a ladyentered the kitchen. Geoffrey rose instantly from the table upon whichhe had been seated.
He saw a tall woman who might have been anything between thirty andfifty years of age, a woman of great beauty. It was the hard, commandingstyle of beauty that men call regal. She might have been a queen, butfor the faint suggestion of the adventuress about her. To Geoffrey's bowshe made the slightest possible haughty recognition.
"I'm going out, Mrs. Jessop," she said. "I shall be back to luncheon. Ifa telegram should happen to come for me, I shall be along the cliffsbetween here and Beauhaven."
She flashed out of the kitchen all rustling and gleaming, and leavingthe faint suggestion of some intoxicating perfume behind her. And yet,notwithstanding her proud indifference, it seemed to Geoffrey that shehad regarded him with more than passing interest just for the moment.
"She is very beautiful," he said. "She is a total stranger to me, andyet she reminds me of somebody else, somebody whose name I can't recall,but who is totally different. It is a strange sort of feeling that Icannot explain."
"She's interested for all her haughtiness," said Mrs. Jessop. "I'm sureif she has asked me one question about your family, she has asked athousand."
Geoffrey strolled away round the house. There was a short cut to theplace where Ralph was seated, and this short cut lay along the lawn.Geoffrey's feet made no noise. As he passed the window of thesitting-room he looked in.
The place was full of flowers, white flowers everywhere. There wereazaleas and geraniums and carnations, with delicate foliage of tendergreen, thousands of blooms, arranged wherever a specimen glass or a bowlcould go.
Standing with his back to the window, a man was arranging them. And theman was a Hindoo, or other Eastern, one of the men Geoffrey had seengoing through that queer incantation on the cliffs. Strange, more thanstrange, that Mrs. Jessop had said nothing of him.
Geoffrey prudently slipped away before he had been seen. He found hisuncle doggedly smoking under the hedge. He looked like patiencepersonified.
"Well," he said, "have you anything wonderful to relate?"
"Pretty well," Geoffrey replied. "To begin with, I have actually seenthe lady."
"Ah! But go on. Tell me everything, everything mind, to the minutestdetail."
Geoffrey proceeded to explain. Whether he was interesting his listeneror not he could not tell, for Ralph had assumed his most woodenexpression; indeed, a casual spectator would have said that he was notpaying the slightest attention. Then he began to ask questions, in alanguid way, but Geoffrey could see that they were all to the point.
"I should not be surprised," he said, "if the man you saw in the housewas one of the men you saw on the cliffs. Mrs. Jessop said nothing abouthim, because she knew nothing. So he was arranging the lady's flowers.What flowers?"
"Azaleas and carnations and geraniums. Nothing else."
"Well, there may be worse taste, if there can be bad taste with flowers.Any color?"
"Yes, they were all white. I was a little surprised at that, consideringthat the lady was so dark and Eastern-looking."
"Of course you ascertained her name?"
"Indeed, I did nothing of the kind. I forgot all about it. But I had agood look at her, and the description I gave you is quite correct.Uncle, I don't want to seem unduly curious, but I fancy you expected tofind this lady here."
Ralph rose to his feet slowly, and knocked out the ashes of his pipe. Heturned his face toward the castle.
"I am not altogether surprised," he said.
Not another word was said for some time. Ralph appeared to be deeplycogitating, so deeply that Geoffrey asked of what he was thinking.
"I was thinking," Ralph said slowly, yet drily, and with the same densemanner, "that a pair of dark, gold-rimmed glasses would improve mypersonal appearance."