CHAPTER VI
THE LONG ARM OF COINCIDENCE
"Go," said Ella, as she hastened from the room, "and open the door,while I go upstairs and take my hat off."
Madge did as she was told. There were two persons at the door--JackMartyn and another.
"This," said Jack, referring to his companion, "is a friend of mine."
It was dark in the passage, and Madge was a little flurried. Sheperceived that Jack had a companion, and that was all.
"Go into the sitting-room, I'll bring you a lamp in a minute. Ella hasgone to take her hat off."
Presently, returning with the lighted lamp in her hand, placing it onthe table, she glanced at Jack's companion--and stared. In herastonishment, she all but knocked the lamp over. Jack laughed.
"I believe," he said, "you two have met before."
Madge continued speechless. She passed her hand before her eyes, as ifto make sure she was not dreaming. Jack laughed again.
"I repeat that I believe you two have met before."
Madge drew herself up to her straightest and her stiffest. Her tonewas icy.
"Yes, I rather believe we have."
She rather believed they had?--If she could credit the evidence of herown eyes the man in front of her was the stranger who had sounwarrantably intruded on pretence of seeking music lessons--who hadbehaved in so extraordinary a fashion!
"This," went on Jack airily, "is a friend of mine, BruceGraham,--Graham, this is Miss Brodie."
Madge acknowledged the introduction with an inclination of the headwhich was so faint as to be almost imperceptible. Mr. Graham, on thecontrary, bent almost double--he seemed scarcely more at his ease thanshe was.
"I'm afraid, Miss Brodie, that I've behaved very badly. I trust youwill allow me to express my contrition."
"I beg you will not mention it," she turned away; "I will go and tellElla you have come."
There came a voice from behind her.
"You needn't--Ella is aware of it already."
As Ella came into the room, she moved to leave it. Jack caught her bythe arm.
"Madge, don't go away in a fume!--you wait till you have heard what Ihave got to say. Do you know that we're standing in the presence of aromance in real life--on the verge of a blood-curdling mystery?Fact!--aren't we, Graham?"
Mr. Graham's language was slightly less emphatic.
"We are, or rather we may be confronted by rather a curious conditionof affairs."
Jack waved his arm excitedly.
"I say it's the most extraordinary thing. Now, honestly, Graham, isn'tit a most extraordinary thing?"
"It certainly is rather a striking illustration of the long arm ofcoincidence."
"Listen to him. Isn't he cold-blooded? If you'd heard him an hour ortwo ago, he was hot enough to melt all the ice-cream in town. But youwait a bit. This is my show, and I'll let you know it. Sit down,Ella--sit down, Madge--Graham, take a chair. To you a tale I willunfold."
Taking up his position on the hearthrug in front of the fireplace, hecommenced to orate.
"You see this man. His name's Graham. He digs in the same house I do.To be perfectly frank, his rooms are on the opposite side of thelanding. You may have heard me speak of him."
"I have. Often!" This was Ella.
"Have you? You must know, Graham, that there are frequently occasionson which I have nothing whatever to talk about, so I fill up theblanks with what I may call padding. I say this, because I don't wantyou to misunderstand the situation. This morning he lunched at thesame crib I did. Directly he came in I saw that he was below par; so Isaid--I always am a sympathetic soul--'I do hope, Graham, you won'tforget to let me have an invitation to your funeral--and, in themeantime, perhaps you'll let me know of what it is you're dying?' Now,he's not one of those men who wear their hearts upon their sleeves fordaws to peck at--you know the quotation, and if you don't, I do; andit was some time before I could extract a word from him, evenedgeways. But at last he put down his knife and fork with aclatter--it was distinctly with a clatter--and he observed, 'Martyn,I've been misbehaving myself.' I was not surprised, and I told him so.'I'm in a deuce of a state of mind because I've been insulting alady.' 'That's nothing!' I replied. 'I'm always insulting a lady.'--Imay explain that when I made that remark, Ella, you were the lady Ihad in my mind's eye. At this point I would pause to inquire why, MissBrodie, you did not take me into your confidence yesterday afternoon?"
"I did."
"You did not."
"I did."
"You told me about the lunatic lady, because, I suppose, you could nothelp it--since you were caught in the act--but you said nothing abouta lunatic gentleman." He wagged his finger portentously. "Don't thinkyou deceive me, Madge Brodie--I smell a rat, and one of considerablesize."
"Jack, do go on."
This was Ella.
"I will go on--in my own way. If you bustle me, I'll keep going on forever. Don't I tell you this is my show? Do you want to queer it? Well,as I was about to observe--when I was interrupted--Graham startedspinning a yarn about how he had forced his way into a house, in whichthere was a young woman all alone, by herself, and, so far as I couldmake out, gone on awful. 'May I ask,' I said, beginning to think thathis yarn smelt somewhat fishy, 'what house this was?' 'The place,' hereplied, as cool as a cucumber, 'is called Clover Cottage.' 'What'sthat!' I cried--I almost jumped out of my chair. 'I say that the placeis called Clover Cottage.' I had to hold on to the hair of my headwith both my hands. 'And whereabouts may Clover Cottage be?' 'OnWandsworth Common.' When he said that, as calmly as if he were askingme to pass the salt, I collapsed. I daresay he thought that I'd gonemad."
"I began to wonder." This was Graham.
"Did you? Let me tell you, sir, that as far as you were concerned, Ihad long since passed the stage of wonder, and had reached the havenof assurance. 'Are you aware?' I cried, 'that Clover Cottage,Wandsworth Common, is the residence of the lady whom I hope to make mywife?' 'Good Lord!' he said. 'No,' I screamed, 'good lady!' I fancythe waiter, from his demeanour, was under the impression that I wasabout to fight; in which case I should have proved myself mad,because, as you perceive for yourselves, the man's a monster. 'Itseems to me,' I said, 'that if the lady you insulted was not the ladywhom I hope to make my wife, it was that lady's friend, which is thesame thing----'"
"Is it?" interposed Ella. "You hear him, Madge?"
"I hear."
"'Which is the same thing,'" continued Jack. "'And therefore, sir, Imust ask you to explain.' He explained, I am bound to admit that heexplained there and then. He gave me an explanation which I have nohesitation in asserting"--Jack, holding his left hand out in front ofhim, brought his right list solemnly down upon his open palm--"was themost astonishing I ever heard. It shows the hand of Providence; itshows that the age of miracles is not yet past; it shows----"
Ella cut the orator short.
"Never mind what it shows; what's the explanation?"
Jack shook his head sadly.
"I was about to point out several other things which that explanationshows, with a view, as I might phrase it, of improving the occasion,but, having been interrupted for the third time, I refrain. Theexplanation itself you will hear from Graham's own lips--after tea. Heis here for the purpose of giving you that explanation--after tea. Ibelieve, Graham, I am correct in saying so?"
"Perfectly. Only, so far as I am concerned, I am ready to give myexplanation now. I cannot but feel that I shall occupy an invidiousposition in, at any rate, Miss Brodie's eyes until I have explained."
"Then feel! I'll be hanged if you shall explain now. Dash it, man, Iwant my tea; I want a high tea, a good tea--at once!"
Ella sprang up from her chair.
"Come, Madge, let's give the man his tea."
It was a curious meal--if only because of the curious terms on whichtwo members of the party stood toward each other. The two girls sat ateach end of the table, the men on either side. Madge,
unlike her usualself, was reserved and frosty; what little she did say was addressedto Ella or to Jack. Mr. Graham she ignored, treating his timorousattempts in a conversational direction with complete inattention. Hisposition could hardly have been more uncomfortable. Ella, influencedby Madge's attitude, seemed as if she could not make up her mind howto treat him on her own account; her bearing towards him, to say theleast, was chilly. On the other hand. Jack's somewhat cumbrousattempts at humour and sociability did not mend matters; and more thanonce before the meal was over Mr. Graham must have heartily wishedthat he had never sat down to it.
Still, even Madge might have admitted, and perhaps in her heart shedid admit, that, under the circumstances, he bore himself surprisinglywell; that he looked as if he was deserving of better treatment. Halfunconsciously to herself--and probably quite unconsciously to him--shekept a corner of her eye upon him all the time. He scarcely looked thesort of man to do anything unworthy. The strong rough face suggestedhonesty, the bright clear eyes were frank and open; the broad browspelt intellect, the lines of the mouth and jaw were bold and firm.The man's whole person was suggestive of strength, both physical andmental. And when he came to tell the story which Jack Martyn hadforeshadowed, it was difficult, as one listened, not to believe thathe was one who had been raised by nature above the common sort. Hetold his tale with a dramatic earnestness, and yet a simple, modestsincerity, which held his hearers from the first, and which, before hehad done, had gained them all over to his side.