Part 33 (1/2)

Harry said no more.

”I am really sorry,” said Clare at last, ”to speak about a business like this just now--but really there is no time to lose. I am sure that you will do something to prevent trouble in the Courts, and that is what Miss Feverel seems to threaten.”

”What do you want me to do?” he asked.

”To see her--to see her and try and arrange some compromise----”

”I should have thought that Robin was the proper person----”

”He has tried and failed; she would not listen to him.”

”Then I am afraid that she will not listen to me--a perfect stranger with no claims on her interest.”

”It is precisely that. You will be able to put it on a business footing, because sentiment does not enter into the question at all.”

”Do you want me to help you, Robin?”

At the direct question Robin looked up again. His father looked very stern and judicial. It was the schoolmaster rather than the parent, but, after all, what else could he expect? So he said, quite simply--”Yes, father.”

But at this moment there was an interruption. With the hurried opening of the door there came the sounds of agitated voices and steps in the pa.s.sage--then Benham appeared.

”Sir Jeremy is worse, Mr. Henry. The doctor thinks that, perhaps----”

Harry hurriedly left the room. Absolute silence reigned. The sudden arrival of the long-expected crisis was terrifying. They sat like statues, staring in front of them, and listening eagerly to every sound. The monotonous ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece was terrifying--the clock on the wall by the door seemed to run a race.

The ”tick-tock” grew faster and faster--at last it was as if both clocks were screaming aloud.

The room was filled with the clamour, and through it all they sat motionless and silent.

In a moment Harry had returned. ”All of you,” he said quickly--”he would like to see you--I am afraid----”

After that Robin was confused and saw nothing clearly. As he crept tremblingly up the stairs everything a.s.sumed gigantic and menacing shapes--the clock, the pot-pourri bowls, the window-curtains, and the bra.s.s rods on the stairs. In the room there was that grey half-light that seemed so terrible, and the spurt and crackle of the fire seemed to fill the place with sounds. He scarcely saw his grandfather. In the centre of the bed, something was lying; the eyes gleamed for a moment in the light of the fire, the lips seemed to move. But he did not realise that those things were his grandfather whom he had known for so many years--in another hour he would be dead.

But the things that he saw were the shadows of the fire on the wall, the dancing in the air of the only lock of hair that Dr. Brady possessed, the way that Clare's hands were folded as she stood silently by the bed, Uncle Garrett's waistcoat-b.u.t.tons that shot little sparks of light into the room as he turned, ever so slightly, from side to side.

At a motion of the doctor's, he came forward to bid Sir Jeremy farewell. As he bent over the bed panic seized him--he did not see Sir Jeremy but something horrible, terrible, ghoulish--Death. Then he saw the old man's eyes, and they were twinkling; then he knew that he was speaking to him. The words came with difficulty, but they were quite clear--

”You'll be a good man, Robin--but listen to your father--he knows--he'll show you how to be a Trojan.”

For a moment he held the wrinkled, shrivelled hand in his own, and then he stepped back. Clare bent down and kissed her father, and then kneeled down by the bed; Robin had a mad longing to laugh as he saw his uncle and aunt kneeling there, their heads made enormous shadows on the wall.

Harry also bent down and kissed his father; the old man held his hand and kept it--

”I've tried to be a fair man and a gentleman--I've not been a good one.

But I've had some fun and seen life--thank G.o.d, I was born a Trojan--so will the rest of you. Harry, my boy, you're all right--you'll do. I'm going, but I don't regret anything--your sins are experience--and the greatest sin of all is not having any.”

His lips closed--as the fire flashed with the falling of a cavern of blazing coal his head rolled back on to the pillow.

Suddenly he smiled--