CHAPTER XVII
Punctually at 12 o'clock the next morning, Lessingham presented himselfat the hotel in Dover Street and was invited by the hall porter to takea seat in the lounge. Philippa entered, a few minutes later, her eyesand cheeks brilliant with the brisk exercise she had been taking, herslim figure most becomingly arrayed in grey cloth and chinchilla.
"I lost Helen in Harrod's," she announced, "but I know she's lunchingwith friends, so it really doesn't matter. You'll have to take care ofme, Mr. Lessingham, until the train goes, if you will."
"For even longer than that, if you will," he murmured.
She laughed. "More pretty speeches? I don't think I'm equal to thembefore luncheon."
"This time I am literal," he explained. "I am coming back to Dreymarshmyself."
He felt his heart beat quicker, a sudden joy possessed him. Philippa'sexpression was obviously one of satisfaction.
"I'm so glad," she assured him. "Do you know, I was thinking only as Icame back in the taxicab, how I should miss you."
She was standing with her foot upon the broad fender, and her firstlittle impulse of pleasure seemed to pass as she looked into the fire.She turned towards him gravely.
"After all, do you think you are wise?" she asked. "Of course, I don'tthink that any one at Dreymarsh has the least suspicion, but you knowCaptain Griffiths did ask questions, and--well, you're safely away now.You have been so wonderful about Dick, so wonderful altogether," shewent on, "that I couldn't bear it if trouble were to come."
He smiled at her.
"I think I know what is at the back of your mind," he said. "You thinkthat I am coming back entirely on your account. As it happens, this isnot so."
She looked at him with wide-open eyes.
"Surely," she exclaimed, "you have satisfied yourself that there is nofield for your ingenuity in Dreymarsh?"
"I thought that I had," he admitted. "It seems that I am wrong. I havehad orders to return."
"Orders to return?" she repeated. "From whom?"
He shook his head.
"Of course, I ought not to have asked that," she proceeded hastily,"but it does seem odd to realise that you can receive instructions andmessages from Germany, here in London."
"Very much the same sort of thing goes on in Germany," he reminded her.
"So they say," she admitted, "but one doesn't come into contact with it.So you are really coming back to Dreymarsh!"
"With you, if I may?"
"Naturally," she agreed.
He glanced at the clock. "We might almost be starting for lunch," hesuggested.
She nodded. "As soon as I've told Grover about the luggage."
She was absent only a few moments, and then, as it was a dry, sunnymorning, they walked down St. James Street and along Pall Mall to theCarlton. Philippa met several acquaintances, but Lessingham walked withhis head erect, looking neither to the right nor to the left.
"Aren't you sometimes afraid of being recognised?" she asked him. "Theremust be a great many men about of your time at Magdalen, for instance?"
"Nine years makes a lot of difference," he reminded her, "and besides, Ihave a theory that it is only when the eyes meet that recognition reallytakes place. So long as I do not look into any one's face, I feel quitesafe."
"You are sure that you would not like to go to a smaller place than theCarlton?"
"It makes no difference," he assured her. "My credentials have beenwonderfully established for me."
"I'm so glad," she confessed. "I know it's most unfashionable, but I dolike these big places. If ever I had my way, I should like to livein London and have a cottage in the country, instead of living in thecountry and being just an hotel dweller in London."
"I wonder if New York would not do?" he ventured.
"I expect I should like New York," she murmured.
"I think," he said, "in fact, I am almost sure that when I leave here Ishall go to the United States."
She looked at him and turned suddenly away. They arrived just then attheir destination, and the moment passed. Lessingham left his companionin the lounge while he went back into the restaurant to secure histable and order lunch. When he came back, he found Philippa sitting veryupright and with a significant glitter in her eyes.
"Look over there," she whispered, "by the palm."
He followed the direction which she indicated. A man was standingagainst one of the pillars, talking to a tall, dark woman, obviously aforeigner, wrapped in wonderful furs. There was something familiar abouthis figure and the slight droop of his head.
"Why, it's Sir Henry!" Lessingham exclaimed, as the man turned around.
"My husband," Philippa faltered.
Sir Henry, if indeed it were he, seemed afflicted with a suddenshortsightedness. He met the incredulous gaze both of Lessingham and hiswife without recognition or any sign of flinching. At that distance itwas impossible to see the tightening of his lips and the steely flash inhis blue eyes.
"The whiting seem to have brought him a long way," Philippa said, withan unnatural little laugh.
"Shall I go and speak to him?" Lessingham asked.
"For heaven's sake, no!" she insisted. "Don't leave me. I wouldn't havehim come near me for anything in the world. It is only a few weeks agothat I begged him to come to London with me, and he said that he hatedthe place. You don't know--the woman?"
Lessingham shook his head.
"She looks like a foreigner," was all he could say.
"Take me in to lunch at once," Philippa begged, rising abruptly to herfeet. "This is really the last straw."
They passed up the stairway and within a few feet of where Sir Henrywas standing. He appeared absorbed, however, in conversation with hiscompanion, and did not even turn around. Philippa's little faceseemed to have hardened as she took her seat. Only her eyes were stillunnaturally bright.
"I am so sorry if this has annoyed you," Lessingham regretted. "Youwould not care to go elsewhere?"
"I? Go anywhere else?" she exclaimed scornfully. "Thank you, I amperfectly satisfied here. And with my companion," she added, with abrilliant little smile. "Now tell me about New York. Have you ever beenthere?"
"Twice," he told her. "At present the dream of my life is to go therewith you."
She looked at him a little wonderingly.
"I wonder if you really care," she said. "Men get so much into the habitof saying that sort of thing to women. Sometimes it seems to me theymust do a great deal of mischief. But you--Is that really your wish?"
"I would sacrifice everything that I have ever held dear in life," hedeclared, with his face aglow, "for its realization."
"But you would be a deserter from your country," she pointed out. "Youwould never be able to return. Your estates would be confiscated. Youwould be homeless."
"Home," he said softly, "is where one's heart takes one. Home is justwhere love is."
Her eyes, as they met his, were for a moment suspiciously soft. Thenshe began to talk very quickly of other things, to compare notes ofcountries which they had both visited, even of people whom they had met.They were obliged to leave early to catch their train. As they passeddown the crowded restaurant they once more found themselves within a fewfeet of Sir Henry. His back was turned to them, and he was apparentlyignorant of their near presence. The party had become a partie Carrie,another man, and a still younger and more beautiful woman having joinedit.
"Of course," Philippa said, as they descended the stairs, "I am behavinglike an idiot. I ought to go and tell Henry exactly what I think of him,or pull him away in the approved Whitechapel fashion. We lose so much,don't we, by stifling our instincts."
"For the next few minutes," he replied, glancing at his watch, "I thinkwe had better concentrate our attention upon catching our train."
They reached King's Cross with only a few minutes to spare. Grover,however, had already secured a carriage, and Helen was waiting for them,ensconced in a corner. She accepted the news of Lessingham's return withresign
ation. Philippa became thoughtful as they drew towards the closeof their journey and the slow, frosty twilight began to creep down uponthe land.
"I suppose we don't really know what war is," she observed, lookingout of the window at a comfortable little village tucked away with abackground of trees and guarded by a weather-beaten old church. "Thepeople are safe in their homes. You must appreciate what that means, Mr.Lessingham."
"Indeed I do," he answered gravely. "I have seen the earth torn anddismembered as though by the plough of some destroying angel. A fewblackened ruins where, an hour or so before, a peaceful village stood;men and women running about like lunatics stricken with a mortal fear.And all the time a red glow on the horizon, a blood-red glow, and littlespecks of grey or brown lying all over the fields; even the cattleracing round in terror. And every now and then the cry of Death! You arefortunate in England."
Philippa leaned forward.
"Do you believe that our turn will come?" she asked. "Do you believethat the wave will break over our country?"
"Who can tell?"
"Ah, no, but answer me," she begged. "Is it possible for you to land anarmy here?"
"I think," he replied, "that all things are possible to the militarygenius of Germany. The only question is whether it is worth while.Germans are supposed to be sentimentalists, you know. I rather doubt it.There is nothing would set the joybells of Berlin clanging so much asthe news of a German invasion of Great Britain. On the other hand,there is a great party in Germany, and a very far-seeing one, which iscontinually reminding the Government that, without Great Britain as amarket, Germany would never recover from the financial strain of thewar."
"This is all too impersonal," Philippa objected. "Do you, in your heart,believe that the time might come when in the night we should hear theguns booming in Dreymarsh Bay, and see your grey-clad soldiers formingup on the beach and scaling our cliffs?"
"That will not be yet," he pronounced. "It has been thought of. Once itwas almost attempted. Just at present, no."
Philippa drew a sigh of relief.
"Then your mission in Dreymarsh has nothing to do with an attemptedlanding?"
"Nothing," he assured her. "I can even go a little further. I can tellyou that if ever we do try to land, it will be in an unsuspected place,in an unexpected fashion."
"Well, it's really very comforting to hear these things at first-hand,"Philippa declared, with some return to her usual manner. "I suppose weare really two disgraceful women, Helen and I--traitors and all the restof it. Here we sit talking to an enemy as though he were one of our bestfriends."
"I refuse to be called an enemy," Lessingham protested. "There are timeswhen individuality is a far greater thing than nationality. I am just ahuman being, born into the same world and warmed by the same sun as you.Nothing can alter the fact that we are fellow creatures."
"Dreymarsh once more," Philippa announced, looking out of the window."And you're a terribly plausible person, Mr. Lessingham. Come round andsee us after dinner--if it doesn't interfere with your work."
"On the contrary," he murmured under his breath. "Thank you very much."