CHAPTER XIX
As soon as the mail-boat, which was carrying Katherine and MadameBernstein to the East, was out of sight, Browne turned to his man, whowas waiting beside him, and said: "Now, Davis, a cab, and quickly too.We must not miss that train for London whatever happens."
As it was, they were only just in time. He had scarcely taken his seatbefore the train began to move out of the station. Placing himself ina corner of the carriage, he endeavoured to interest himself in a book;but it was of no use. Though his material body was seated in thecarriage being whirled away across the green plains of Southern France,his actual self was on board the great mail-boat, which was cutting itsway through the blue waters, carrying Katherine mile by mile fartherout of his reach. Dreary indeed did Europe seem to him now. It was alittle before twelve o'clock when the train left Marseilles; it wasnearly four next afternoon when he sighted the waters of the Channel atCalais. Much to his astonishment and delight, Jimmy Foote met him atDover, and travelled back to town with him. During his absence Brownehad entrusted their arrangements to his care; and in consequence Jimmycarried about with him an air of business, which at other times wasquite unusual to him.
"I have been down to Southampton," he reported, "and have seen Mason.He was hard at work getting the stores aboard, and asked me to tell youhe will be able to sail without fail early on Monday morning. When doyou think we had better go down?"
"On Sunday," said Browne. "We may as well get on board as soon as wecan."
Though he spoke in this casual way, he knew that in his heart he waswaiting the hour of departure with an impatience, that bordered almoston desperation. He longed to see the yacht's head pointed downChannel, and to know that at last she was really in pursuit of theother boat, which had been granted such a lengthy start. On reachingLondon they drove together to Browne's house. It was Saturday evening,and there were still a hundred and one things to be settled. Upon hisstudy table Browne discovered upwards of fifty invitations from allsorts and conditions of people. He smiled cynically as he opened them,and, when the last one had been examined, turned to Jimmy.
"Thank Heaven, I can decline these with a clear conscience," he said."By the time the dates come round we shall be on the high seas, farbeyond the reach of dinners, dances, and kettledrums. I wonder howmany of these folk," he continued, picking up one from the heap andflicking it across the table to his friend, "would have me in theirhouses again if they knew what I am about to do?"
"Every one of them, my boy," the other replied; "from the Duchess ofMatlock downwards. You might help a thousand Russian convicts toescape from Saghalien, and they will pardon you; but you are doing oneother thing for which you must never hope to be forgiven."
"And what may that be?" Browne inquired.
"Why, you are marrying Miss Petrovitch," answered Jimmy. "If she werea famous beauty, a great heiress, or even the daughter of a peer, allwould be well; but you must remember that no one knows her; that,however much you may love her, and however worthy she may be, she isnevertheless not chronicled in the _Court Guide_. To marry out of yourown circle is a sin seldom forgiven, particularly when a man is amillionaire, and has been the desire of every match-making mother foras long as you have."
"They had better treat my wife as I wish them to, or beware of me,"said Browne angrily. "If they treat her badly they'll find I've gotclaws."
"But, my dear fellow, you are running your head against the wall," saidJimmy. "I never said they _would_ treat her badly. On the contrary,they will treat her wonderfully well; for, remember, she is your wife.They will accept all her invitations for dances in London, will staywith her in the country; they will yacht, hunt, fish, and shoot withyou; but the mothers, who, after all is said and done, are the leadersof society, will never forget or forgive you. My dear fellow," hecontinued, with the air of a man who knew his world thoroughly, which,to do him justice, he certainly did, "you surely do not imagine for aninstant that Miss Verney has forgotten that----"
"We'll leave Miss Verney out of the question, Jimmy, if you don'tmind," replied Browne, with rather a different intonation.
"I thought that would make him wince," murmured Jimmy to himself; andthen added aloud, "Never mind, old man; we won't pursue the subject anyfurther. It's not a nice one, and we've plenty else to think about,have we not? Let me tell you, I am looking forward to this littlebusiness more than I have ever done to anything. The only regret Ihave about it is that there does not appear to be any probability ofour having some fighting. I must confess I should like to have a brushwith the enemy, if possible."
"In that case we should be lost men," Browne replied. "No; whatever wedo, we must avoid coming into actual conflict with the Authorities. Bythe way, what about Maas?"
"I saw him this morning," Foote replied. "I told him what arrangementswe had made, and he will meet us whenever and wherever we wish. Heseemed quite elated over the prospect of the voyage, and told me hethought it awfully good of you to take him. After all, he's not a badsort of fellow. There is only one thing I don't like about him, andthat is his predilection for wishing people to think he is in adelicate state of health."
"And you don't think he is?" said Browne.
"Of course I don't," Jimmy replied. "Why, only this morning I was withhim more than an hour, and he didn't cough once; and yet he wascontinually pointing out to me that it was so necessary for hishealth--for his lungs, in fact---that he should go out of England atonce. It is my idea that he is hypochondriacal."
"Whatever he is, I wish to goodness he had chosen any other time forwanting to accompany us. I have a sort of notion that his presence onboard will bring us bad luck."
"Nonsense," said his matter-of-fact friend. "Why should it? Maascould do us no harm, even supposing he wanted to. And he's certain notto have any desire that way."
"Well," answered Browne, "that is what I feel, and yet I can't make outwhy I should do so." As he said this he pressed the ring Katharine hadgiven him, and remembered that that was his talisman, and that she hadtold him that, while he wore it, he could come to no harm. With thaton his finger, and his love for her in his heart, it would be wonderfulindeed if he could not fulfil the task he had set himself to do.
It is strange how ignorant we are of the doings, and indeed of the verylives, of our fellow-men. I do not mean the actions which, in thebroad light of day, lie in the ordinary routine of life, but those moreimportant circumstances which are not seen, but make up, and help toweave the skein of each man's destiny. For instance, had a certainwell-known official in the office of the Secretary of State for ForeignAffairs, who stood upon the platform of Waterloo station, waiting forthe train that was to carry him to the residence of a friend at Woking,dreamt for an instant that the three gentlemen he nodded so affably to,and who were standing at the door of a saloon carriage in the sametrain, were leaving England next day, in order to cause considerabletrouble to a Power that, at the moment had shown signs of beingfriendly, what would his feelings have been? He did not know it,however; so he seated himself in his comfortable smoking-carriage, lita cigar, and read his Sunday paper, quite unconscious of thecircumstances.
It was nearly eight o'clock before they readied Southampton. When theydid they made their way to the harbour, where a steam-launch from theyacht was awaiting them. The _Lotus Blossom_ herself lay off the RoyalPier; and when they reached her, Captain Mason received them at thegangway.
"Well, Mason," said Browne, "is everything ready for the startto-morrow?"
"Everything is ready, sir," Mason replied. "You have only to say whenyou desire to get off, and we'll up anchor."
Browne thought that he would like to get under way at once; but itcould not be. He looked along the snow-white decks and upon thepolished brasswork, and thought of the day that he had left the boatwhen she was anchored in the harbour of Merok, to accompany his guestson their walk to the falls, and of the wonderful things that hadhappened since then. Before many weeks had passed over
their heads hehoped that Katherine herself would be standing on these self-samedecks. He pictured the delight he would feel in showing her over histrim and beautiful vessel, and thought of the long conversations theywould have on deck at night, and of the happiness they would feel whenthey were speeding towards safety once more, with the rescued man onboard. What they were to do with her father, when they had got him,was one thing he wanted to leave to Katherine to decide. He wasawakened from these dreams by Foote, who inquired whether he intendedto allow his guests to remain on deck all night, or whether he wasgoing to take them below.
"I beg your pardon," said Browne. "It's awfully rude of me to keep youstanding here like this. Come along."
They accordingly made their way down the companion-ladder to the saloonbelow. Everything had been prepared for their reception, and thestewards were already laying dinner as they entered. Having finishedthat important meal, and drunk the toast of a pleasant voyage, theyascended to the deck once more, when Foote and Maas made their way tothe smoking-room, while Browne went up to the bridge to have a talkwith the captain. When he descended again, he announced to his gueststhat the yacht would be got under way as soon as it was light in themorning, and that the first coaling-place would be Gibraltar.
"Bravo!" said Jimmy, rapping the table with his pipe. "Thank goodness,by midday we shall be well out in the Channel."
At the same moment Maas's cigar slipped from between his fingers anddropped on the floor. He bent down to pick it up, but at first couldnot find it. By the time he had done so the conversation had changed,and Browne had drawn his watch from his pocket. A cry of astonishmentescaped him: "Have you any idea what the time is?"
They confessed that they had not.
"Well, it's nearly twelve o'clock," he said. "If you won't either ofyou take anything else, I think the best thing we can do is to get tobed as soon as possible."
So tired was Browne that night that he slept without waking until wellon in the following morning. Indeed, it was past nine o'clock whenDavis, his man-servant, entered and woke him; he sat up, and rubbed hiseyes, as if he could very well have gone on sleeping for another houror two.
"By Jove! we're under way," he said, as if he were surprised to findthe yacht moving. "Where are we, Davis?"
"Off Swanage, sir," the man replied. "Captain Mason couldn't get awayquite as early as he hoped to do; but he's making up for lost time now,sir."
"What sort of a day is it?" Browne inquired.
"Beautiful, sir; it couldn't be no better if you'd ordered it special,"said Davis, who was a bit of a wag in his way, and was privileged assuch. "There's just a nice bit of swell running, but no more. Notenough to shake the curls of a schoolmistress, in a manner of speaking."
This Browne discovered to be the case, when he ascended to the deck.The yacht was bathed in sunshine, and she sat as softly as a duck upona large green swell, that was as easy as the motion of a rocking-horse.Far away to starboard the pinewood cliffs of Bournemouth could bedescried; while a point on the starboard-bow was Poole Harbour andSwanage headland, with Old Harry peering up out of the sunlit waves.Browne ascended to the bridge, to find Foote and Captain Mason there.The latter touched his cap, while Foote came forward and held out hishand.
"Good-morning," said Jimmy. "What do you think of this, my boy? Isn'tit better than London? Doesn't it make you feel it's worth somethingto be alive? I wouldn't change places this morning with any man inEngland."
"And you may be very sure I would not," said Browne; then, turning tothe skipper, he inquired what the yacht was doing.
"Thirteen knots good, sir," the latter replied. "We shall do better,however, when we've put Portland Bill behind us."
As he spoke the breakfast-bell sounded, and simultaneously with it Maasappeared on deck. Browne and Foote descended from the bridge to greethim, and found him in excellent spirits.
"I feel better already," he said, as they went down thecompanion-ladder and took their places at the table. "How beautifulthe air is on deck! Alchemists may say what they please, but this isthe Elixir of Life. What a pity it is we cannot bottle it, andintroduce it into the crowded ballrooms and dining-rooms during theLondon season!"
"That's rather an original notion," retorted Jimmy. "Fancy, after awaltz with a heavy partner, taking her off to a room set apart for thepurpose, seating her in a chair, and, instead of asking her the usualinsipid question, whether she would have an ice, or coffee, or claretcup, inquiring what brand of air she preferred--whether she would havea gallon of Bournemouth, which is relaxing, or Margate, which isbracing, or Folkestone--shall we say?--which is midway between the two.It could be laid on in town and country houses, and, combined with thephonograph, which would repeat the nigger minstrel melodies of thesands, and the biograph, which would show the surrounding scenery,would be a tremendous attraction. Having purchased one of thesemachines, paterfamilias need not trouble his head about taking hisfamily away for the annual trip to the seaside. Rents would not affecthim; he would be free from landladies' overcharges. All he would haveto do would be to take his wife and bairns into a room, turn on thevarious machines, and science would do the rest."
"Perhaps, when you have done talking nonsense," said Browne, "you willbe kind enough to hand me the _pate de foie gras_. I remember so manyof your wonderful schemes, Jimmy, that I begin to think I know them allby heart."
"In that case you must admit that the majority of them were based uponvery sound principles," replied Jimmy. "I remember there was one thatmight have made a fortune for anybody. It was to be a matrimonialregistry for the upper ten, where intending Benedicts could apply forparticulars respecting their future wives. For instance, the Duke ofA----, being very desirous of marrying, and being also notoriouslyimpecunious, would call at the office and ask for a choice of Americanheiresses possessing between five and ten millions. Photographs havingbeen submitted to him, and a guarantee as to the money given to him,meetings between the parties could be arranged by the company, and asmall commission charged when the marriage was duly solemnized. Thenthere was another scheme for educating the sons of millionaires in thebrands of cigars they should give their friends. For a smallcommission, Viscount B----, who has smoked himself into the bankruptcycourt, would call at their residences three times a week, when he wouldnot only show them how to discriminate between a Trichinopoli and aBurma Pwe, which is difficult to the uninitiated, but also between LaIntimidad Excelsos of '94 and Henry Clay Soberanos, which is much moreso."
"I remember yet another scheme," said Maas quietly, as he helpedhimself to some caviare from a dish before him. "You told me once of ascheme you were perfecting for forming a company to help long-sentencedburglars of proved ability to escape from penal servitude, in orderthat they should work for the society on the co-operative principle.If my memory serves me, it was to be a most remunerative speculation.The only flaw in it that I could see was the difficulty in arrangingthe convict's escape, and the danger, that would accrue to thosehelping him, in case they were discovered."