Part 14 (1/2)
”I do not think, sir, that whatever you may have heard concerning the lady in question is to her detriment,” he could not refrain from remarking.
”All that I have heard is very favourable, I admit. Understand that I say nothing against the lady. What I object to is the principle of a young man being in love. Why court unhappiness? You'll meet with sufficient of it in the world, I can a.s.sure you. Look at me! Should I be what I am if I had saddled myself with a woman and her worries of society, frocks, children, petty jealousies, flirtations, and the thousand and one cares and annoyances which make a man's life a burden to him.
”No. Take my advice, and let those fools who run after trouble go their own way. Sentimentalists may write screeds and poets sonnets, but you'll find, my boy, that the only true friend you'll have in life is your own pocket.”
Charlie was not in the humour to be lectured, and more especially upon his pa.s.sionate devotion to Maud. He was annoyed that Statham should have found it out, and yet, knowing the wide-reaching sources of information possessed by the old millionaire, it was scarcely to be wondered at.
”Of course,” he admitted, somewhat impatiently, ”there is a good deal of truth in your argument, even though it be a rather blunt one. Yet are not some men happy with the love of a good wife?”
”A few--alas! a very few,” Statham replied. ”Think of our greatest men.
Nearly all of them have had skeletons in their cupboards because of their early infatuations. Of some, their domestic unhappiness is well-known. Others have, however, hidden it from the world, preferring to suffer than to humiliate themselves or admit their foolishness,” he said, with a calm cynicism. ”To-day you think me heartless, without sentiment, because you are inexperienced. Twenty years hence recollect my words, and you will be fully in accord with me, and probably regret deeply not having followed my advice.”
With his thin hand he turned over some papers idly, and then, after a moment's pause, his manner changed, and he said, with a good-humoured laugh:
”You won't listen to me, I know, Rolfe. So what is the use of expounding my theory?”
”It is very valuable,” the young man declared, deferentially. ”I know that you are antagonistic towards women. All London is aware of that.”
”And they think me eccentric--eh?” he laughed. ”Well, I do not want them. Society I have no use for. It is all too shallow, too ephemeral, and too much make-believe. If I wished to go into Society to-morrow, it would welcome me. The door of every house in this neighbourhood would be opened to me. Why? Because my money is the key by which I can enter.
”The most exclusive set would be delighted to come here, eat my dinners, listen to my music, and borrow my money. But who among the whole of that narrow, fast-living little world would care to know me as a poor man? I have known what it is to be poor, Rolfe,” he went on; ”poorer than yourself. The world knows nothing of my past--of the romance of my life. One day, when I am dead, it may perhaps know. But until then I preserve my secret.”
He was leaning back in his padded chair, staring straight before him, just as he had been an hour ago.
”Yes,” he continued; ”I recollect one cold January night, when I pa.s.sed along the pavement yonder,” and jerked his finger in the direction of the street. ”I was penniless, hungry, and chilled to the bone. A man in evening-dress was coming from this very house, and I begged from him a few coppers, for I had tasted nothing that day, and further, my poor mother was dying at home--dying of starvation. The man refused, and cursed me for daring to beg charity. I turned upon him and cursed him in return; I vowed that if ever I had money I would one day live in his house. He jeered at me and called me a maniac.
”But, strangely enough, my words were prophetic. My fortune turned. I prospered. I am to-day living in the house of the man who cursed me, and that man himself is compelled to beg charity of me! Ah, yes!” he exclaimed suddenly, rising from his chair with a sigh. ”The world little dreams of what my past has been. Only one man knows--the man whom you told me, Rolfe, a little time ago, is in England and alive.”
”What--the man Adams?” exclaimed Rolfe, in surprise.
”Yes,” replied his employer, in a hoa.r.s.e, changed voice. ”He knows everything.”
”Things that would be detrimental to you?” asked his private secretary slowly.
”He is unscrupulous, and would prove certain things that--well, I--I admit to you in strictest confidence, Rolfe, that it would be impossible for me to face.”
Charlie stared at him in utter amazement.
”Then you have satisfied yourself that what I told you is correct?”
”I disbelieved you when you told me. But I no longer doubt.”
”Why?”
”Because I have seen him to-day--seen him with my own eyes. He was standing outside, there against the railings, watching the house.”
”And did he see you?”
”He saw and recognised me.”
Charlie gave vent to a low whistle. He recognised the seriousness of the situation. As private secretary he was in old Statham's confidence to a certain extent, but never before had he made such an admission of fear as that he had just done.