CHAPTER XVIII
The daylight dinner was over, and the large party was more or lessscattered about the drawing-room and the adjoining picture-galleryin groups of three and four, mostly standing while they drank theircoffee, and continued or finished the talk begun at table.
By force of habit Margaret had stopped beside the closed piano, andhad seated herself on the old-fashioned stool to have her coffee. LadyMaud stood beside her, leaning against the corner of the instrument,her cup in her hand, and the two young women exchanged rather idleobservations about the lovely day that was over, and the perfectweather. Both were preoccupied and they did not look at each other;Margaret's eyes watched Logotheti, who was half-way down the longroom, before a portrait by Sir Peter Lely, of which he was apparentlypointing out the beauties to the elderly wife of the scientific peer.Lady Maud was looking out at the light in the sunset sky above thetrees beyond the flower-beds and the great lawn, for the piano stoodnear an open window. From time to time she turned her head quicklyand glanced towards Van Torp, who was talking with her father at somedistance; then she looked out of the window again.
It was a warm evening; in the dusk of the big rooms the hum of voiceswas low and pleasant, broken only now and then by Van Torp's morestrident tone. Outside it was still light, and the starlings andblackbirds and thrushes were finishing their supper, picking up theunwary worms and the tardy little snails, and making a good deal ofsweet noise about it.
Margaret set down her cup on the lid of the piano, and at the slightsound Lady Maud turned towards her, so that their eyes met. Eachnoticed the other's expression.
'What is it?' asked Lady Maud, with a little smile of friendlyconcern. 'Is anything wrong?'
'No--that is--' Margaret smiled too, as she hesitated--'I was going toask you the same question,' she added quickly.
'It's nothing more than usual,' returned her friend. 'I think ithas gone very well, don't you, these three days? He has made a goodimpression on everybody--don't you think so?'
'Oh yes!' Margaret answered readily. 'Excellent! Could not be better!I confess to being surprised, just a little--I mean,' she correctedherself hastily, 'after all the talk there has been, it might not haveturned out so easy.'
'Don't you feel a little less prejudiced against him yourself?' askedLady Maud.
'Prejudiced!' Margaret repeated the word thoughtfully. 'Yes, I supposeI'm prejudiced against him. That's the only word. Perhaps it's hatefulof me, but I cannot help it--and I wish you wouldn't make me own it toyou, for it's humiliating! I'd like him, if I could, for your sake.But you must take the wish for the deed.'
'That's better than nothing!' Lady Maud seemed to be trying to laugha little, but it was with an effort and there was no ripple in hervoice. 'You have something on your mind, too,' she went on, to changethe subject. 'Is anything troubling you?'
'Only the same old question. It's not worth mentioning!'
'To marry, or not to marry?'
'Yes. I suppose I shall take the leap some day, and probably in thedark, and then I shall be sorry for it. Most of you have!'
She looked up at Lady Maud with a rather uncertain, flickering smile,as if she wished her mind to be made up for her, and her hands layweakly in her lap, the palms almost upwards.
'Oh, don't ask me!' cried her friend, answering the look rather thanthe words, and speaking with something approaching to vehemence.
'Do you wish you had waited for the other one till now?' askedMargaret softly, but she did not know that he had been killed in SouthAfrica; she had never seen the shabby little photograph.
'Yes--for ever!'
That was all Lady Maud said, and the two words were not uttereddramatically either, though gravely and without the least doubt.
The butler and two men appeared, to collect the coffee cups; theformer had a small salver in his hand and came directly to Lady Maud.He brought a telegram for her.
'You don't mind, do you?' she asked Margaret mechanically, as sheopened it.
'Of course,' answered the other in the same tone, and she lookedthrough the open window while her friend read the message.
It was from the Embassy in London, and it informed her in the briefestterms that Count Leven had been killed in St. Petersburg on theprevious day, in the street, by a bomb intended for a high official.Lady Maud made no sound, but folded the telegram into a small squareand turned her back to the room for a moment in order to slip itunnoticed into the body of her black velvet gown. As she recovered herformer attitude she was surprised to see that the butler was stillstanding two steps from her where he had stopped after he had takenthe cups from the piano and set them on the small salver on which hehad brought the message. He evidently wanted to say something to heralone.
Lady Maud moved away from the piano, and he followed her a littlebeyond the window, till she stopped and turned to hear what he had tosay.
'There are three persons asking for Mr. Van Torp, my lady,' he saidin a very low tone, and she noticed the disturbed look in his face.'They've got a motor-car waiting in the avenue.'
'What sort of people are they?' she asked quietly; but she felt thatshe was pale.
'To tell the truth, my lady,' the butler spoke in a whisper, bendinghis head, 'I think they are from Scotland Yard.'
Lady Maud knew it already; she had almost guessed it when she hadglanced at his face before he spoke at all.
'Show them into the old study,' she said, 'and ask them to wait amoment.'
The butler went away with his two coffee cups, and scarcely any onehad noticed that Lady Maud had exchanged a few words with him by thewindow. She turned back to the piano, where Margaret was still sittingon the stool with her hands in her lap, looking at Logotheti in thedistance and wondering whether she meant to marry him or not.
'No bad news, I hope?' asked the singer, looking up as her friend cameto her side.
'Not very good,' Lady Maud answered, leaning her elbow on the piano.'Should you mind singing something to keep the party together whileI talk to some tiresome men who are in the old study? On these Juneevenings people have a way of wandering out into the garden afterdinner. I should like to keep every one in the house for a quarterof an hour, and if you will only sing for them they won't stir. Willyou?'
Margaret looked at her curiously.
'I think I understand,' Margaret said. 'The people in the study areasking for Mr. Van Torp.'
Lady Maud nodded, not surprised that Logotheti should have told thePrimadonna something about what he had been doing.
'Then you believe he is innocent,' she said confidently. 'Even thoughyou don't like him, you'll help me, won't you?'
'I'll do anything you ask me. But I should think--'
'No,' Lady Maud interrupted. 'He must not be arrested at all. I knowthat he would rather face the detectives than run away, even for afew hours, till the truth is known. But I won't let him. It wouldbe published all over the world to-morrow morning that he had beenarrested for murder in my father's house, and it would never beforgotten against him, though he might be proved innocent ten timesover. That's what I want to prevent. Will you help me?'
As she spoke the last words she raised the front lid of the piano,and Margaret turned on her seat towards the instrument to open thekeyboard, nodding her assent.
'Just play a little, till I am out of the room, and then sing,' saidLady Maud.
The great artist's fingers felt the keys as her friend turned away.Anything theatrical was natural to her now, and she began to play verysoftly, watching the moving figure in black velvet as she would havewatched a fellow singer on the stage while waiting to go on.
Lady Maud did not speak to Van Torp first, but to Griggs, and then toLogotheti, and the two men slipped away together and disappeared. Thenshe came back to Van Torp, smiling pleasantly. He was still talkingwith Lord Creedmore, but the latter, at a word from his daughter, wentoff to the elderly peeress whom Logotheti had abruptly left alonebefore the portrait.
Margaret did not hear what L
ady Maud said to the American, but it wasevidently not yet a warning, for her smile did not falter, and helooked pleased as he came back with her, and they passed near thepiano to go out through the open window upon the broad flagged terracethat separated the house from the flower-beds.
The Primadonna played a little louder now, so that every one heard thechords, even in the picture-gallery, and a good many men were ratherbored at the prospect of music.
Then the Senorita da Cordova raised her head and looked over the grandpiano, and her lips parted, and boredom vanished very suddenly; foreven those who did not take much pleasure in the music were amazed bythe mere sound of her voice and by its incredible flexibility.
She meant to astonish her hearers and keep them quiet, and she knewwhat to sing to gain her end, and how to sing it. Those who have notforgotten the story of her beginnings will remember that she was athorough musician as well as a great singer, and was one of thosevery few primadonnas who are able to accompany themselves from memorywithout a false note through any great piece they know, from _Lucia_to _Parsifal_.
She began with the waltz song in the first act of _Romeo and Juliet_.It was the piece that had revealed her talent to Madame Bonanni, whohad accidentally overheard her singing to herself, and it suited herpurpose admirably. Such fireworks could not fail to astound, even ifthey did not please, and half the full volume of her voice was morethan enough for the long drawing-room, into which the whole partygathered almost as soon as she began to sing. Such trifles as havingjust dined, or having just waked up in the morning, have littleinfluence on the few great natural voices of the world, which beginwith twice the power and beauty that the 'built-up' ones acquire inyears of study. Ordinary people go to a concert, to the opera, to acircus, to university sports, and hear and see things that interest orcharm, or sometimes surprise them; but they are very much amazed ifthey ever happen to find out in private life what a really greatprofessional of any sort can do at a pinch, if put to it by any strongmotive. If it had been necessary, Margaret could have sung to theparty in the drawing-room at Craythew for an hour at a stretch with nomore rest than her accompaniments afforded.
Her hearers were the more delighted because it was so spontaneous, andthere was not the least affectation about it. During these days no onehad even suggested that she should make music, or be anything exceptthe 'daughter of Lord Creedmore's old friend.' But now, apparently,she had sat down to the piano to give them all a concert, for thesheer pleasure of singing, and they were not only pleased with her,but with themselves; for the public, and especially audiences, aremore easily flattered by a great artist who chooses to treat hishearers as worthy of his best, than the artist himself is by theapplause he hears for the thousandth time.
So the Senorita da Cordova held the party at Craythew spellbound whileother things were happening very near them which would have interestedthem much more than her trills, and her 'mordentini,' and her soaringruns, and the high staccato notes that rang down from the ceiling asif some astounding and invisible instrument were up there, supportedby an unseen force.
Meanwhile Paul Griggs and Logotheti had stopped a moment in the firstof the rooms that contained the library, on their way to the old studybeyond.
It was almost dark amongst the huge oak bookcases, and both menstopped at the same moment by a common instinct, to agree quickly uponsome plan of action. They had led adventurous lives, and were notlikely to stick at trifles, if they believed themselves to be inthe right; but if they had left the drawing-room with the distinctexpectation of anything like a fight, they would certainly not havestopped to waste their time in talking.
The Greek spoke first.
'Perhaps you had better let me do the talking,' he said.
'By all means,' answered Griggs. 'I am not good at that. I'll keepquiet, unless we have to handle them.'
'All right, and if you have any trouble I'll join in and help you.Just set your back against the door if they try to get out while I amspeaking.'
'Yes.'
That was all, and they went on in the gathering gloom, through thethree rooms of the library, to the door of the old study, from which ashort winding staircase led up to the two small rooms which Griggs wasoccupying.
Three quiet men in dark clothes were standing together in thetwilight, in the bay window at the other side of the room, and theymoved and turned their heads quickly as the door opened. Logothetiwent up to them, while Griggs remained near the door, looking on.
'What can I do for you?' inquired the Greek, with much urbanity.
'We wished to speak with Mr. Van Torp, who is stopping here,' answeredthe one of the three men who stood farthest forward.
'Oh yes, yes!' said Logotheti at once, as if assenting. 'Certainly!Lady Maud Leven, Lord Creedmore's daughter--Lady Creedmore is away,you know--has asked us to inquire just what you want of Mr. Van Torp.'
'It's a personal matter,' replied the spokesman. 'I will explain it tohim, if you will kindly ask him to come here a moment.'
Logotheti smiled pleasantly.
'Quite so,' he said. 'You are, no doubt, reporters, and wish tointerview him. As a personal friend of his, and between you and me,I don't think he'll see you. You had better write and ask for anappointment. Don't you think so, Griggs?'
The author's large, grave features relaxed in a smile of amusement ashe nodded his approval of the plan.
'We do not represent the press,' answered the man.
'Ah! Indeed? How very odd! But of course--' Logotheti pretended tounderstand suddenly--'how stupid of me! No doubt you are from thebank. Am I not right?'
'No. You are mistaken. We are not from Threadneedle Street.'
'Well, then, unless you will enlighten me, I really cannot imagine whoyou are or where you come from!'
'We wish to speak in private with Mr. Van Torp.'
'In private, too?' Logotheti shook his head, and turned to Griggs.'Really, this looks rather suspicious; don't you think so?'
Griggs said nothing, but the smile became a broad grin.
The spokesman, on his side, turned to his two companions andwhispered, evidently consulting them as to the course he shouldpursue.
'Especially after the warning Lord Creedmore has received,' saidLogotheti to Griggs in a very audible tone, as if explaining his lastspeech.
The man turned to him again and spoke in a gravely determined tone--
'I must really insist upon seeing Mr. Van Torp immediately,' he said.
'Yes, yes, I quite understand you,' answered Logotheti, looking at himwith a rather pitying smile, and then turning to Griggs again, as iffor advice.
The elder man was much amused by the ease with which the Greek had sofar put off the unwelcome visitors and gained time; but he saw thatthe scene must soon come to a crisis, and prepared for action, keepinghis eye on the three, in case they should make a dash at the door thatcommunicated with the rest of the house.
During the two or three seconds that followed, Logotheti reviewed thesituation. It would be an easy matter to trick the three men into theshort winding staircase that led up to the rooms Griggs occupied, andif the upper and lower doors were locked and barricaded, the prisonerscould not forcibly get out. But it was certain that the leader of theparty had a warrant about him, and this must be taken from him beforelocking him up, and without any acknowledgment of its validity; foreven the lawless Greek was aware that it was not good to interferewith officers of the law in the execution of their duty. If there hadbeen more time he might have devised some better means of attaininghis end than occurred to him just then.
'They must be the lunatics,' he said to Griggs, with the utmost calm.
The spokesman started and stared, and his jaw dropped. For a moment hecould not speak.
'You know Lord Creedmore was warned this morning that a number hadescaped from the county asylum,' continued Logotheti, still speakingto Griggs, and pretending to lower his voice.
'Lunatics?' roared the man when he got his breath, exasperated out ofhis c
ivil manner. 'Lunatics, sir? We are from Scotland Yard, sir, I'dhave you know!'
'Yes, yes,' answered the Greek, 'we quite understand. Humour them,my dear chap,' he added in an undertone that was meant to be heard.'Yes,' he continued in a cajoling tone, 'I guessed at once thatyou were from police headquarters. If you'll kindly show me yourwarrant--'
He stopped politely, and nudged Griggs with his elbow, so that thedetectives should be sure to see the movement. The chief saw theawkwardness of his own position, measured the bony veteran and theathletic foreigner with his eye, and judged that if the two wereconvinced that they were dealing with madmen they would make a prettygood fight.
'Excuse me,' the officer said, speaking calmly, 'but you are under agross misapprehension about us. This paper will remove it at once, Itrust, and you will not hinder us in the performance of an unpleasantduty.'
He produced an official envelope, handed it to Logotheti, and waitedfor the result.
It was unexpected when it came. Logotheti took the paper, and as itwas now almost dark he looked about for the key of the electriclight. Griggs was now close to him by the door through which they hadentered, and behind which the knob was placed.
'If I can get them upstairs, lock and barricade the lower door,'whispered the Greek as he turned up the light.
He took the paper under a bracket light on the other side of the room,beside the door of the winding stair, and began to read.
His face was a study, and Griggs watched it, wondering what wascoming. As Logotheti read and reread the few short sentences, he wasapparently seized by a fit of mirth which he struggled in vain torepress, and which soon broke out into uncontrollable laughter.
'The cleverest trick you ever saw!' he managed to get out between hisparoxysms.
It was so well done that the detective was seriously embarrassed; butafter a moment's hesitation he judged that he ought to get his warrantback at all hazards, and he moved towards Logotheti with a menacingexpression.
But the Greek, pretending to be afraid that the supposed lunatic wasgoing to attack him, uttered an admirable yell of fear, opened thedoor close at his hand, rushed through, slammed it behind him, andfled up the dark stairs.
The detective lost no time, and followed in hot pursuit, his twocompanions tearing up after him into the darkness. Then Griggs quietlyturned the key in the lock, for he was sure that Logotheti hadreached the top in time to fasten the upper door, and must bealready barricading it. Griggs proceeded to do the same, quietly andsystematically, and the great strength he had not yet lost served himwell, for the furniture in the room was heavy. In a couple of minutesit would have needed sledge-hammers and crowbars to break out by thelower entrance, even if the lock had not been a solid one.
Griggs then turned out the lights, and went quietly back through thelibrary to the other part of the house to find Lady Maud.
Logotheti, having meanwhile made the upper door perfectly secure,descended by the open staircase to the hall, and sent the firstfootman he met to call the butler, with whom he said he wished tospeak. The butler came at once.
'Lady Maud asked me to see those three men,' said Logotheti in a lowtone. 'Mr. Griggs and I are convinced that they are lunatics escapedfrom the asylum, and we have locked them up securely in the staircasebeyond the study.'
'Yes, sir,' said the butler, as if Logotheti had been explaining howhe wished his shoe-leather to be treated.
'I think you had better telephone for the doctor, and explaineverything to him over the wire without speaking to Lord Creedmorejust yet.'
'Yes, sir.'
'How long will it take the doctor to get here?'
'Perhaps an hour, sir, if he's at home. Couldn't say precisely, sir.'
'Very good. There is no hurry; and of course her ladyship will beparticularly anxious that none of her friends should guess what hashappened; you see there would be a general panic if it were known thatthere are escaped lunatics in the house.'
'Yes, sir.'
'Perhaps you had better take a couple of men you can trust, and pileup some more furniture against the doors, above and below. One cannotbe too much on the safe side in such cases.'
'Yes, sir. I'll do it at once, sir.'
Logotheti strolled back towards the gallery in a very unconcerned way.As for the warrant, he had burnt it in the empty fireplace in Griggs'room after making all secure, and had dusted down the black ashes socarefully that they had quite disappeared under the grate. After all,as the doctor would arrive in the firm expectation of finding threeescaped madmen under lock and key, the Scotland Yard men mighthave some difficulty in proving themselves sane until they couldcommunicate with their headquarters, and by that time Mr. Van Torpcould be far on his way if he chose.
When Logotheti reached the door of the drawing-room, Margaret wasfinishing Rosina's Cavatina from the _Barbiere di Siviglia_ in aperfect storm of fireworks, having transposed the whole piece twonotes higher to suit her own voice, for it was originally written fora mezzo-soprano.
Lady Maud and Van Torp had gone out upon the terrace unnoticed amoment before Margaret had begun to sing. The evening was still andcloudless, and presently the purple twilight would pale under thesummer moon, and the garden and the lawns would be once more as brightas day. The friends walked quickly, for Lady Maud set the pace and ledVan Torp toward the trees, where the stables stood, quite hidden fromthe house. As soon as she reached the shade she stood still and spokein a low voice.
'You have waited too long,' she said. 'Three men have come to arrestyou, and their motor is over there in the avenue.'
'Where are they?' inquired the American, evidently not at alldisturbed. 'I'll see them at once, please.'
'And give yourself up?'
'I don't care.'
'Here?'
'Why not? Do you suppose I am going to run away? A man who gets out ina hurry doesn't usually look innocent, does he?'
Lady Maud asserted herself.
'You must think of me and of my father,' she said in a tone ofauthority Van Torp had never heard from her. 'I know you're asinnocent as I am, but after all that has been said and written aboutyou, and about you and me together, it's quite impossible that youshould let yourself be arrested in our house, in the midst of a partythat has been asked here expressly to be convinced that my fatherapproves of you. Do you see that?'
'Well--' Mr. Van Torp hesitated, with his thumbs in his waistcoatpockets.
Across the lawn, from the open window, Margaret's voice rang out likea score of nightingales in unison.
'There's no time to discuss it,' Lady Maud said. 'I asked her to sing,so as to keep the people together. Before she has finished, you mustbe out of reach.'
Mr. Van Torp smiled. 'You're remarkably positive about it,' he said.
'You must get to town before the Scotland Yard people, and I don'tknow how much start they will give you. It depends on how long Mr.Griggs and Logotheti can keep them in the old study. It will be neckand neck, I fancy. I'll go with you to the stables. You must ride toyour own place as hard as you can, and go up to London in yourcar to-night. The roads are pretty clear on Sundays, and there'smoonlight, so you will have no trouble. It will be easy to say herethat you have been called away suddenly. Come, you must go!'
Lady Maud moved towards the stables, and Van Torp was obliged tofollow her. Far away Margaret was singing the last bars of the waltzsong.
'I must say,' observed Mr. Van Torp thoughtfully, as they walked on,'for a lady who's generally what I call quite feminine, you make a mansit up pretty quick.'
'It's not exactly the time to choose for loafing,' answered Lady Maud.'By the bye,' she added, 'you may as well know. Poor Leven is dead. Ihad a telegram a few minutes ago. He was killed yesterday by a bombmeant for somebody else.'
Van Torp stood still, and Lady Maud stopped with evident reluctance.
'And there are people who don't believe in Providence,' he saidslowly. 'Well, I congratulate you anyway.'
'Hush, the poor man is dead. We nee
dn't talk about him. Come, there'sno time to lose!' She moved impatiently.
'So you're a widow!' Van Torp seemed to be making the remark tohimself without expecting any answer, but it at once suggested aquestion. 'And now what do you propose to do?' he inquired. 'But Iexpect you'll be a nun, or something. I'd like you to arrange so thatI can see you sometimes, will you?'
'I'm not going to disappear yet,' Lady Maud answered gravely.
They reached the stables, which occupied three sides of a square yard.At that hour the two grooms and the stable-boy were at their supper,and the coachman had gone home to his cottage. A big brown retrieveron a chain was sitting bolt upright beside his kennel, and began tothump the flagstones with his tail as soon as he recognised Lady Maud.From within a fox-terrier barked two or three times. Lady Maud openeda door, and he sprang out at her yapping, but was quiet as soon as heknew her.
'You'd better take the Lancashire Lass,' she said to Van Torp. 'You'reheavier than my father, but it's not far to ride, and she's a clevercreature.'
She had turned up the electric light while speaking, for it was darkinside the stable; she got a bridle, went into the box herself, andslipped it over the mare's pretty head. Van Torp saw that it wasuseless to offer help.
'Don't bother about a saddle,' he said; 'it's a waste of time.'
He touched the mare's face and lips with his hand, and she understoodhim, and let him lead her out. He vaulted upon her back, and Lady Maudwalked beside him till they were outside the yard.
'If you had a high hat it would look like the circus,' she said,glancing at his evening dress. 'Now get away! I'll be in town onTuesday; let me know what happens. Good-bye! Be sure to let me know.'
'Yes. Don't worry. I'm only going because you insist, anyhow.Good-bye. God bless you!'
He waved his hand, the mare sprang forward, and in a few seconds hewas out of sight amongst the trees. Lady Maud listened to the regularsound of the galloping hoofs on the turf, and at the same time fromvery far off she heard Margaret's high trills and quick staccatonotes. At that moment the moon was rising through the late twilight,and a nightingale high overhead, no doubt judging her little self tobe quite as great a musician as the famous Cordova, suddenly begana very wonderful piece of her own, just half a tone higher thanMargaret's, which might have distressed a sensitive musician, but didnot jar in the least on Lady Maud's ear.
Now that she had sent Van Torp on his way, she would gladly havewalked alone in the park for half an hour to collect her thoughts; butpeople who live in the world are rarely allowed any pleasant leisurewhen they need it, and many of the most dramatic things in real lifehappen when we are in such a hurry that we do not half understandthem. So the moment that should have been the happiest of all goesdashing by when we are hastening to catch a train; so the instant oftriumph after years of labour or weeks of struggling is upon us whenwe are perhaps positively obliged to write three important notesin twenty minutes; and sometimes, too, and mercifully, the pain ofparting is numbed just as the knife strikes the nerve, by the howlingconfusion of a railway station that forces us to take care ofourselves and our belongings; and when the first instant of joy, orvictory, or acute suffering is gone in a flash, memory never quitebrings back all the happiness nor all the pain.
Lady Maud could not have stayed away many minutes longer. She wentback at once, entered by the garden window just as Margaret wasfinishing Rosina's song, and remained standing behind her till shehad sung the last note. English people rarely applaud conventionaldrawing-room music, but this had been something more, and the Craythewguests clapped their hands loudly, and even the elderly wife of thescientific peer emitted distinctly audible sounds of satisfaction.Lady Maud bent her handsome head and kissed the singer affectionately,whispering words of heartfelt thanks.