Part 21 (1/2)
This at a price, and a curious price at that ”In so after his arrival ”I adlad to welcoiveyour visit The garden is large--the village uninteresting, so your curtailed liberty will not be much of a deprivation You think me insane, perhaps?
Well, I have reasons for my wish,--personal reasons into which I can not enter That is the only stipulation I make: can you accept it?”
He said yes, for refusalat the inn, where he could not watch her In his letter to Beatrice he told her of this extraordinary whiree or to pack up and go Her ”stay at all costs” was sufficient answer, and though he hoped this did not mean ”If need arise, break bounds and your word,” still he meant to do it if necessary The life of Lukos and her happiness orth more than a detective's honor
But up to the present there had been no question of breaking bounds He could see nothing of Mr ”Beckett” nor Mizzi, but he was obeying Beatrice And it was not unpleasant even for a detective to enjoy luxurious idleness, a perfect garden and the society of a charotry She ell read, exceedingly pretty, and could talk Theher household affairs After lunch she gave herself up to hiether in the summer-house About five she always excused herself, and Lionel dined alone He was given to understand that she was busy on a history of the Arkwright faht Consequently he never saw anything of her again till breakfast
This naturally struck him as one of the most suspicious features of the case Suspicious--not in the sense that Miss Arkwright was an Ottoman conspirator, for that he had been instructed to expect; but suspicious for a deeper reason More than once during the first week of his stay he had caught hi, ”Can she be, by any chance, Beatrice herself, ested itself to a s, extraordinary people It was the one through He rejected it at first as being preposterous and disloyal, but co victih it from day to day
In the end he discarded the theory It was, he thought, too enorh with success: even Beatrice, actress though she was, could not have the histrionic powers necessary to the feat; such a _tour de force_, continued froht and her sister were different in many points
They were, it is true, identical in voice, feature and carriage, but their outlook and ideas were far asunder Winifred Arkwright obviously hated the stage, while Beatrice Blair was an actress; Winifred seee; the latter had never ion; the forus; Winifred's weakness was kidney beans These, and a hundred other variations, trivial in therace and a fresh faith in his lady of the stage
But despite all this he claiht_ be Beatrice It was alave the coup de grace, at least for a tis was a copy of _The Tiht always left hiiven her time to motor to London and play at the theater if she had been Beatrice Blair But Beatrice herself had written that the play was soon to be taken off: when he saw an announcement in the newspaper that the Macready Theater was closed, he wondered if his hostess would join hiht If she _did_, why, it would be a da fact But she did not, either on that or any subsequent day He breathed ht
The task of learning the house, grounds and personnel did not take long
The servants were an aged cook, whoardener; Forbes the footman; and the housekeeper, Mrs Wetherby, a silent faded woman of over sixty, whose recreation outside her duties was the game of patience A sad and oppressive creature, she, whose life had been a tragedy The details were not given, though Lionel gathered that it had been a very ordinary tragedy, but enough to wither her life and make her shun her kind Both the men servants were du used to oddity He expressed surprise one day, hoping to draw out his hostess She was frank about the matter: ”They are duain Most servants gossip or argue Mine do neither, and that is why I was at soer is naturally surprised at first”
The more he saw of her, the an to know her better, struck his exceedingly hu one afternoon of Christian Science, and Lionel asked her if she really believed there was no such thing as pain
”Of course,” she said pronorance”
”Then you must admit,” he said, ”that there can be no pleasure”
She was puzzled ”How so?”
”Everything ative, or there is--nothing So to feel pleasure one must postulate pain
Otherwise you are incapable of pleasure”
”Oh, but I'hed
”Then where are your science and your logic?”
”Youthe dilemma
”When you understand our true position you will realize how fallacious are your arguhed again, but talked Thackeray willingly enough When, a few moer on a thorn, giving a little cry, he said hunorance, not pain!”
She disdained to notice him, but sested, pressing the thrust honation, but he s on capitally, he felt, and it was pleasant to find Miss Arkwright so much of a woht villainously, reflecting what a sha should be unkissed Lionel, you may have observed, was an adaptable creature Fickle? Surely not He hadto corass- theboard, ”Trespassers will be Prosecuted” They were not applauded, it is true--and here he readily confessed his weakness,--but they were not forbidden So why, in the strict execution of the charge laid upon hiht to take a less frigid view of life? The reader, virtuous soul,in the nature of a drug to his conscience When he had time to think (and he had plenty of ti there under false pretenses, playing the spy It was all very well arguing that it was for the sake of Beatrice, but it would have been an easier task if Winifred had not been so char, but it had to be done Of course, he ought to have refused a hint of dalliance, but one step leads to another, and one very farnot far enough to hurt either hiiven in this chapter Theafter his arrival he had written to London for a supply of clothes For the credit of the Blair side of the faht to be spent on an adequate wardrobe They ca color to the excuse that his valet had got drunk and pawned the contents of his flat two hours after his leaving London Miss Arkwright did not seeht happen in that wicked city But she considered the Ho hat a little ”too continental” This was before her education had begun in earnest
CHAPTER XVII
OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE
It is all very well to be urged to suspect, for, within reason, nothing is easier The world, in the process of our education, deals out so in to look with dubious eyes on every stranger--sometimes, alas! even upon our friends We suspect the et a commission?
We suspect Broho asks us to drop in any evening: has he a hter? Jones lauds the latest novel: is he the anonymous author? Robinson advises the purchase of Consolidated Stu to make us ”hold the baby”? Suspicion is epidemic What the world wants is a host of oodness' sake do drop suspicion for a while and believe in your fellow e of tobacco; Brown, as a hter is engaged; Jones never wrote a line in his life, save on a check; and Robinson for once has inside information Give suspicion a rest!” Ah! if only the other felloould!