Part 32 (2/2)
”No,” he answered, ”I cannot say that anything is wrong. I have had an invitation to present myself before a certain society in Paris of which you have some indirect knowledge. What the summons means I cannot say.”
”Yet you go?” she exclaimed.
”I go,” he answered. ”I have no choice. If I waited here twenty-four hours, I should hear of it.”
”They can have nothing against you,” she said. ”On the contrary, the only time they have appealed for your aid, you gave it--very valuable aid it must have been, too.”
Peter Ruff nodded.
”I cannot see,” he admitted, ”what they can have against me. And yet, somehow, the wording of my invitation seemed to me a little ominous.
Perhaps,” he added, walking to the window and standing looking out for a moment, ”I have a liver this morning. I am depressed. Violet, what does it mean when you are depressed?”
”Shall you wear your gray clothes for traveling?” she asked, a little irrelevantly.
”I have not made up my mind,” Peter Ruff answered. ”I thought of wearing my brown, with a brown overcoat. What do you suggest?”
”I like you in brown,” she answered, simply. ”I should change, if I were you.”
He smiled faintly.
”I believe,” he said, ”that you have a sort of superst.i.tion that as I change my clothes I change my humors.”
”Should I be so very far wrong?” she asked. ”Don't think that I am laughing at you, Peter. The greatest men in the world have had their foibles.”
Peter Ruff frowned.
”We shall be away for several days,” he said. ”Be sure that you take some wraps. It will be cold, crossing.”
”Are you going to close the office altogether?” she asked.
Peter Ruff nodded.
”Put up a notice,” he said--”'Back on Friday.' Pack up your books and take them round to the Bank before you leave. The lift man will call you a taxi-cab.”
He watched her preparations with a sort of gloomy calm.
”I wish you'd tell me what is the matter with you?” she asked, as she turned to follow her belongings.
”I do not know,” Peter Ruff said. ”I, suppose I am suffering from what you would call presentiments. Be at Charing-Cross punctually.”
”Why do you go at all?” she asked. ”These people are of no further use to you. Only the other day, you were saying that you should not accept any more outside cases.”
”I must go,” Peter Ruff answered. ”I am not afraid of many things, but I should be afraid of disobeying this letter.”
They had a comfortable journey down, a cool, bright crossing, and found their places duly reserved for them in the French train. Miss Brown, in her neat traveling clothes and furs, was conscious of looking her best, and she did all that was possible to entertain her traveling companion.
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