CHAPTER VI.
THE GAME OF BLUFF.
An inscrutable note reached Harry by the last post that night. It wasfrom Gordon Lowndes, and it ran:--
"Leadenhall Street, E.C.
"May 20.
"DEAR RINGROSE,--If you are still of the same mind about a matter which we need not name, let me hear from you by return, and I'll 'inspan' the best detective in the world. He is at present cooling his heels at Scotland Yard, but may be on the job again any day, so why not on ours?
"Perhaps you will kindly drop me a line in any case, as I await your instructions.
"Yours faithfully,
"GORDON LOWNDES."
"What is it, my boy?"
"A line from Lowndes."
"Am I not to see it?"
"I would rather you didn't, mother dear."
"You haven't offended him, I hope?"
"Oh, no, it's about something we spoke of in the train; it has come tonothing, that's all."
And Mrs. Ringrose gathered, as she was intended to gather, that someiron or other had already been in the fire--and come out again. Shesaid no more. As for Harry, the final proof of his father's dishonourhad put out of his mind the oath which he had made Lowndes swear inthat almost happy hour when he could still refuse to believe; and thesting of the reminder, and of the contrast between his feelings thenand now, was such that he was determined his mother should not bear itwith him. But yet, with all the pain it gave, the note from Lowndesboth puzzled and annoyed him; it was as though there were some subtlething between the lines, a something in a cipher to which he had notthe key; and he resented being forced to reply. After longdeliberation, however, this was written and rewritten, and takenstealthily to the pillar in the small hours:--
"Kensington, May 21st.
"DEAR MR. LOWNDES,--I am not of the same mind about the matter which you very kindly do not name. I hope that neither you nor I will ever have occasion to name it again, and that you will forgive me for what I said yesterday before I could believe the truth. I hardly know now what I did say, but I do honestly apologise, and only beg of you never to speak, and, if possible, not to think, of it again.
"Believe me that I am grateful for your kind offer, and more than grateful for all your goodness to my mother.
"Yours sincerely,
"HARRY RINGROSE."
This had the effect of bringing Lowndes to the flat the followingafternoon, in the high spirits which were characteristic of the normalman; it was only natural they should have deserted him the day before;and yet when Harry came in and found him taking tea with his mother,radiant, voluble, hilarious, the change was such that he seemed to theboy another being. Humour shone through the gold-rimmed glasses andtrembled at the tip of the pointed nose. Harry had never seen a jollierface, or listened to so boisterous a laugh; and they were what heneeded, for he had come in doubly embittered and depressed.
He had been to the great house which had supplied his mother with hergroceries for so many years. He had seen a member of the firm, agentleman of presence and aplomb, in whose courtly company Harry andhis old clothes were painfully outclassed. The resultant and inevitablerepulse was none the less galling from being couched in terms ofperfectly polite condescension. Harry carried his specimen battle-axehome in the brown paper he had taken it in, and pitched it upon thesofa with a wry face before recounting his experience.
Lowndes instantly said that he would get a price for the curios ifHarry would send them along to his office. Whereupon Harry thanked him,but still looked glum, for a worse experience remained untold.
The boy was in glaring need of new clothes; he could not possibly seekwork in town as he was; and Mrs. Ringrose had characteristicallyinsisted that he should go to his father's and his own old Londontailors. There was, moreover, some point in such a course, since it wasnow known that Mr. Ringrose had settled his tailors' account, withseveral others of the kind, on the very eve of his flight; so that inthe circumstances these people might fairly be expected to wait fortheir money until Harry could earn it. Elsewhere he would have to payready cash, a very serious matter, if not an impossibility for sometime to come. So Harry was really driven to go where he was known, butyet so ashamed, that it was only the miserable interview with thewell-groomed gentleman aforesaid which had brought him to the point. Hehad called at the tailors' on his way home, chosen his cloth and beenmeasured, only to be confronted by the senior partner at the door.
"What do you think he wanted?" cried Harry in a blaze. "A guaranteethat they would be paid! I told them they needn't trouble to make thethings at all, and out I came."
Lowndes dashed down his cup and was on his legs in an instant.
"I'll give them their guarantee," said he. "You swallow your tea andget your hat; we'll take a hansom back to your tailors, and I'll givethem their guarantee!"
Harry was against any such intervention, but Mrs. Ringrose was againstHarry, and in less than five minutes Lowndes had carried him off. Inthe hansom the spirits of that mirthful man rose higher than ever; hesat rubbing his hands and chuckling with delight; but so truculent werehis sentiments that Harry, who hated a row as much as his companionappeared to like one, was not a little nervous as to what would happen,and got out finally with his heart in his mouth.
What did happen need not be described. Suffice it that Mr. Lowndestalked to that master-tailor with extraordinary energy for the space ofabout three minutes, and that in several different strains, preparinghis soil with simple reproaches, scarifying with sarcasm, and finallytrampling it down with a weight of well-worded abuse the like of whichHarry had never listened to off the stage. And the effect was moreextraordinary than the cause: the tradesman took it like a lamb,apologised to Harry on the spot, and even solicited his friend's customas they turned to leave the shop. The result opened Harry's mouth insheer amazement. After a first curt refusal, Mr. Lowndes hesitated,fingered a cloth, became gradually gracious, and in the end wasmeasured for no fewer than three suits and an Inverness cape.
"Couldn't resist it!" said he, roaring with laughter in the cab."Trustfulness is a virtue we should all encourage, and I hope,Ringrose, that you'll continue to encourage it in these excellentfellows. I've sown the seed, it's for you to reap the flower; andrecollect that they'll think much more of you when you order six suitsthan when you pay for one."
"It was extraordinary," said Harry, "after the dressing-down you gavethem!"
"Dressing-down?" said Lowndes. "I meant to dress 'em down, and I'lldress anybody down who needs it--of that you may be sure. What's this?Grosvenor Square? Do you see that house with the yellow balcony in thefar corner? That's my Lady Banff's--I gave _her_ a bit of my mind theother evening. Went to see my Lord on business. Left standing in thehall twenty minutes. Down came my Lady to dinner, so I just asked her,as a matter of curiosity, if they took me for a stick or an umbrella,to leave me there, and then I told her what I thought of the mannersand customs of her house. My Lady had me shown into the library atonce, and made me a handsome apology into the bargain. I guaranteefriend Yellowplush to know better next time!"
Lowndes stayed to supper at the flat, and he became better and bettercompany as Harry Ringrose gradually yielded to the contagion of hisgaiety and his good-humour. He was certainly the most entertaining ofmen; yet for a long time Harry resented being entertained by him, andwould frown one moment because he had been forced to laugh the momentbefore. Nor was this because of anything that had already happened; itwas due entirely to the current behaviour of Gordon Lowndes. The mantook unwarrantable liberties. His status at the flat was rightly thatof a privileged friend, but Harry thought he presumed upon itinsufferably.
Like many great talkers, Lowndes was a vile listener, who thoughtnothing of interrupting Mrs. Ringrose herself; while as for Harry, hetried more than once to set some African experience of his own againstthe visitor's endless anecdotes; but he never succeeded, and for a timethe failures rank
led. It was the visitor, again, who must complain ofthe supper: the lamb was underdone, the mint sauce too sweet for him,and the salad dressing which was on the table not to be compared withthe oil and vinegar which were not. These were the things that madeHarry hate himself when he laughed; yet laugh he must; the other'sintentions were so obviously good; and he did not offend Mrs. Ringrose.She encouraged him to monopolise the conversation, but that withoutappearing to attach too much importance to everything he said. And oncewhen Harry caught her eye, himself raging inwardly, there was anindulgent twinkle in it which mollified him wonderfully, for it seemedto say: "These are his little peculiarities; you should not take themseriously; they do not make him any the less my friend--and yours." Itwas this glance which undermined Harry's hostility and prepared hisheart for eventual surrender to the spell of which Gordon Lowndes wasundoubted master.
"I tell you what, Ringrose," said he, as they rose from the table, "ifyou don't get a billet within the next month, I'll give you onemyself."
"You won't!" cried Harry, incredulously enough, for the promise hadbeen made without preliminary, and it seemed too good to be possible.
"Won't I?" laughed Lowndes; "you'll see if I won't! What's more, it'llbe a billet worth half-a-dozen such as that uncle of yours is likely toget you. What would you say to three hundred for a start?"
"I knew you were joking," was what Harry said, with a sigh; and hismother turned away as though she had known it too.
"I was never more serious in my life," retorted Lowndes. "I'm up to mychin in the biggest scheme of the century--bar none--though I'm notentitled to tell you what it is at this stage. It's a critical stage,Ringrose, but this week will settle things one way or the other. It'ssimply a question whether the Earl of Banff will or whether the Earl ofBanff won't, and he's going to answer definitely this week. If hewill--and I haven't the slightest doubt of it in my own mind--theCompany will be out before you know where you are--and you shall beSecretary----"
"Secretary!"
"Be good enough not to interrupt me, Ringrose. You shall be Secretarywith three hundred a year. Not competent? Nonsense; I'll undertake tomake you competent in a couple of hours; but if I say more, you'll knowtoo much before the time, and I'm pledged to secrecy till we land thenoble Earl. He's a pretty big fish, but I've as good as got him.However, he's to let us know this week, and perhaps it would be as wellnot to raise the wind on that three hundred meanwhile; but it's as goodas in your pocket, Ringrose, for all that!"
Mrs. Ringrose sat in her chair, without a sound save that of herknitting needles; and Harry formed the impression that she was alreadyin the secret of the unmentionable scheme, but that she disapproved ofit. He remarked, however, that he only wished he had known of such aprospect in time to have mentioned it to his uncle at their interview.
"Your uncle!" cried Lowndes. "I should like to have seen his face ifyou had! I asked him to take shares the other day--told him I could puthim on the best thing of the reign--and it was as good as a pantomimeto see his face. Apart from his religious scruples, which make himregard the City of London as the capital of a warmer place thanEngland, he's not what you would call one of Nature's sportsmen, thatholy uncle of yours. He's a gentleman who counts the odds. I wouldn'ttrust him in the day of battle. Never till my dying day shall I forgetour first meeting!"
And Lowndes let out a roar of laughter that might have been heardthroughout the mansions; but Harry looked at his mother, who wassmiling over her knitting, before he allowed himself to smile and toask what had happened.
"Your mother had written to tell him I was going to call," saidLowndes, wiping the tears from his eyes, "and when I did go he wantedproof of my identity because I didn't happen to have a card on me. Isuppose he thought I looked a shady cuss, so he took it into his head Iwasn't the real Simon Pure. You see, there's nothing rash about youruncle; as for me, I burst out laughing in his face, and that madematters worse. He said he'd want a witness then--a witness to myidentity before he'd discuss his sister's affairs with me. 'All right,'says I, 'you shall have half a dozen witnesses, for I'll call myunderclothes! There's "Gordon Lowndes" on my shirt and collar--there's"Gordon Lowndes" on my pants and vest--and if there isn't "GordonLowndes" on both my socks there'll be trouble when I get home,' I toldhim; and I was out of my coat and waistcoat before he could stop me.I'd have gone on, too, but that was enough for your uncle! I can seehim now--it was on his doorstep--but he let me in after that!"
Harry had a hearty, boyish laugh which it was a pleasure to hear, andMrs. Ringrose heard it now as she had not heard it for two years; forshe had shown that the story did not offend her by laughing herself;and besides, the boy also could see his uncle, with sable armsuplifted, and this impudent Bohemian coolly stripping on the doorstep.His innate impudence was brought home to Harry in different fashion amoment later, when the visitor suddenly complained of the light, andasked why on earth there was only one gas-bracket in a room of thatsize.
"Because I could not afford more," replied Mrs. Ringrose.
"Afford them, my dear madam? There should have been no question ofaffording them!" cried Gordon Lowndes. "You should have brought whatyou wanted from your own house."
"But it wasn't our own," sighed Mrs. Ringrose; "it belonged to--ourcreditors."
"Your creditors!" echoed Lowndes, with scathing scorn. "It makes mepositively ill to hear an otherwise sensible lady speak of creditors inthat submissive tone! I regard it as a sacred obligation on all of usto get to windward of our creditors, by fair means or foul. We owe itto our fellow-creatures who may find themselves similarly situatedto-morrow or next day. If we don't get to windward of our creditors, bevery sure they'll get to windward of us. But to pamper and pet theenemy--as though they'd dare to say a word about a pettygas-bracket!--was a perfect crime, my dear Mrs. Ringrose, and one thatshowed a most deplorable lack of public spirit. I only wish I'd thoughtof your gas-brackets when I was down there the day before yesterday!"
"Why? What would you have done?" demanded Harry with some heat.
"Come away with one in my hat!" roared Lowndes. "Come away with thechandelier next my skin!"
And he broke into a great guffaw in which Harry Ringrose joined in hisown despite. It was absurd to apply conventional standards to thissworn enemy of convention. It was impossible to be angry with GordonLowndes. Harry determined to take no further offence at anything hemight say or do, but to follow his mother's tacit example and to accepther singular friend on her own tolerant terms. Nor was it hard to seewhen the lad made amiable resolutions; they flew like flags upon hisface; and Mrs. Ringrose was able to go to bed and to leave the pairtogether with an easy mind.
Whereupon they sat up till long after midnight, and Harry, havingrelinquished all thought of entertaining Gordon Lowndes, was himselfundeniably entertained. He had seen something of the world (less thanhe thought, but still something), yet he had never met with anybodyhalf so interesting as Lowndes, who had been everywhere, seeneverything, and done most things, in his time. He had made and lost afortune in different companies, the names of which Harry hardly caught,for they set him speculating upon the new Company which was to make hisown small fortune too. Lowndes, however, refused to be drawn back tothat momentous subject. Nor were all the exploits he recounted of afinancial cast; there were some which Harry would have flatlydisbelieved the day before; but one and all were consistent with thecharacter of the man as he had seen it since.
Great names seemed as familiar to him as his own, and, after the sceneat the tailors', Harry could well believe that Mr. Lowndes had heckleda very eminent politician to his inconvenience, if not to the allegedextent of altering the entire course of a General Election. He was alsothe very man to have defended in person an action for libel, and tohave lost it by the little error of requesting the judge to "be goodenough to hold his tongue." The consequences had been serious indeed,but Lowndes described them with considerable relish. His frankness wasnot the least of his charms as a raconteur. Before he went he hadconfessed to
one crime at least--that of blackmailing a surgeon-baronetfor a thousand pounds in his own consulting-room.
"He got a hold of the bell-rope," said Lowndes, "but it was no use hisplaying the game of bluff with _me_. I simply laughed in his face. He'dmurdered a poor man's wife--vivisected her, Ringrose--taken her topieces like a watch--and he'd got to pay up or be exposed."
For it was disinterested blackmail, so that even this story wascharacteristic if incredible. It illustrated what may be termed anofficious altruism--which Harry had seen operating in his ownbehalf--side by side with a perfectly piratical want of principle whichLowndes took no pains to conceal. It was impossible for animpressionable young fellow, needing a friend, not to be struck by oneso bluff, so masterful, so kind-hearted, and probably much lessunscrupulous than it pleased him to appear; and it was impossible forHarry Ringrose not to put the kind heart first, as he came upstairsafter seeing Lowndes into a hansom, and thought how joyfully he wouldcome up them if he were sure of earning even one hundred a year.
And Lowndes said three!
"I am thankful you like him," said Mrs. Ringrose, who was still awake."But--we all can see the faults of those we really like--and there'sone fault I do see in Mr. Lowndes. He is so sanguine!" Mrs. Ringrosemight have added that we see those faults the plainest when they arealso our own.
"Sanguine!" said Harry. "How?"
"He expects Lord Banff to make up his mind this week."
"Well?"
"It has been 'this week' all this year!"
Harry looked very sad.
"Then you don't think much of my chances of that--three hundred? Imight have seen you didn't at the time."
"No, my boy, I do not. Of his will to help you there can be noquestion; his ability is another matter; and we must not rely on him."
"But you say he has helped you so much?"
"In a different way."
"Well," said Harry after a pause, "in spite of what you say, he seemsquite sure himself that everything will be settled to-morrow. He has anappointment with Lord Banff in the afternoon. He wants to see meafterwards, and has asked me to go down and spend the evening with themat Richmond."
Mrs. Ringrose lay conspicuously silent.
"Who are 'they,' mother?" continued her son. "Somehow or other he is aman you never associate with a family, he's so complete in himself. Ishe married?"
"His wife is dead."
"Then there are children?"
"One daughter, I believe."
"Don't you know her?"
"No; and I don't want to!" cried Mrs. Ringrose. So broke the smallstorm which had been brewing in her grave face and altered voice.
"Why not, mother?"
"She has never been near me! Here I have been nearly two months, andshe has never called. I shall refuse to see her when she does. Thefather can come, but we are beneath the daughter. We are in trouble,you see! I only hope you'll have very little to say to her."
"I won't go at all if you'd rather I didn't."
"No, you must go; but be prepared for a snub--and to snub her!"
The bitterness of a sweet woman is always startling, and Harry hadnever heard his mother speak so bitterly. Her spirit infected him, andhe left her with grim promises. Yet he went to bed more interested thanever in Gordon Lowndes.