Part 33 (1/2)
Callon stopped the cab and got out. As he closed the doors and told the cabman where to drive, a man, wretchedly clad, slouched past and turned into the Marylebone Road. That was all. Sooner or later some one was sure to discover their secret. It happened that the some one pa.s.sed them by to-night.
CHAPTER XXII
MR. MUDGE'S CONFESSION
On the following morning a telegram was brought to Pamela at her father's house in Leicesters.h.i.+re. It came from Mr. Mudge, and contained these words: ”Important that I should see you. Coming down.
Please be at home at two.” Punctually Mr. Mudge arrived. Pamela received him in her own sitting-room. She was waiting with a restless anxiety, and hardly waited for the door to be closed.
”You have bad news for me,” she said. ”Oh, I know! You are a busy man.
You would not have come down to me had you not bad news. I am very grateful for your coming, but you have bad news.”
”Yes,” said Mr. Mudge, gravely; ”news so bad that you must ask your other friend to help you. I can do nothing here.”
It cost Mr. Mudge a little to acknowledge that he was of no avail in this particular instance. He would rather have served Pamela himself, had it been possible. He was fully aware of his age, and his looks, and his limitations. He was quite willing to stand aside for the other friend; indeed, he wished, with all his heart, that she should be happy with some mate of her own people. But at the same time he wished her to owe as much as possible of her happiness to him. He was her friend, but there was just that element of jealousy in his friends.h.i.+p which springs up when the friends are man and woman. Pamela understood that it meant some abnegation on his part to bid her call upon another than himself. She was still more impressed, in consequence, with the gravity of the news he had to convey.
”Is it Mr. Callon?” she asked.
”Yes,” he replied. ”It is imperative that Sir Anthony Stretton should return, and return at once. Of that I am very sure.”
”You have seen Mr. Callon?” asked Pamela.
”And Lady Stretton. They were together.”
”When?”
”Last night. In Regent's Park.”
Pamela hesitated. She was doubtful how to put her questions. She said--
”And you are sure the trouble is urgent?”
Mr. Mudge nodded his head.
”Very sure. I saw them together. I saw the look on Lady Stretton's face. It was a clear night. There was a lamp too, in the cab. I pa.s.sed them as Callon got out and said 'Good-night.'”
Pamela sat down in a chair, and fixed her troubled eyes on her companion.
”Did they see you?”
Mr. Mudge smiled.
”No.”
”Let me have the whole truth,” cried Pamela, ”Tell me the story from the beginning. How you came to see them--everything.”
Mr. Mudge sat down in his turn. He presented to her a side of his character which she had not hitherto suspected. She listened, and was moved to sympathy, as no complaint could ever have moved her; and Mr.
Mudge was the last man to complain. Yet the truth came out clearly.