returned with added force.
Also for me she had a peculiar attraction and not one of the ordinary kind. It is curious to find oneself strangely intimate with a person of whom after all one does not know much, just as if one really knew a great deal that was shut off by a thin but quite impassable door. If so, I did not want to open that door for who could tell what might be on the other side of it? And intimate conversations with a lady in whose company one has shared very strange experiences, not infrequently lead to the opening of every kind of door.
Further I had made up my mind some time ago to have no more friendships with women who are so full of surprises, but to live out the rest of my life in a kind of monastery of men who have few surprises, being creatures whose thoughts are nearly always open and whose actions can always be foretold.
Lastly there was that Taduki business. Well, there at any rate I was clear and decided. No earthly power would induce me to have anything more to do with Taduki smoke. Of course I remembered that Lady Ragnall once told me kindly but firmly that I would if she wished. But that was just where she made a mistake. For the rest it seemed unkind to refuse her invitation now when she was in trouble, especially as I had once promised that if ever I could be of help, she had only to command me. No, I must go. But if that word—Taduki—were so much as mentioned I would leave again in a hurry. Moreover it would not be, for doubtless she had forgotten all about the stuff by now, even if it were not lost.
The end of it was that as I did not wish to write a long letter entering into all that Lady Ragnall had told me, I sent her a telegram, saying that if convenient to her, I would arrive at the Castle on the following Saturday evening and adding that I must be back here on the Tuesday afternoon, as I had guests coming to stay with me on that day. This was perfectly true as the season was mid-November and I was to begin shooting my coverts on the Wednesday morning, a function that once fixed, cannot be postponed.
In due course an answer arrived—“Delighted, but hoped that you would have been able to stay longer.”
Behold me then about six o’clock on the said Saturday evening being once more whirled by a splendid pair of horses through the gateway arch of Ragnall Castle. The carriage stopped beneath the portico, the great doors flew open revealing the glow of the hall fire and lights within, the footman sprang down from the box and two other footmen descended the steps to assist me and my belongings out of the carriage. These, I remember, consisted of a handbag with my dress clothes and a yellow-backed novel.
So one of them took the handbag and the other had to content himself with the novel, which made me wish I had brought a portmanteau as well, if only for the look of the thing. The pair thus burdened, escorted me up the steps and delivered me over to the butler who scanned me with a critical eye. I scanned him also and perceived that he was a very fine specimen of his class. Indeed his stately presence so overcame me that I remarked nervously, as he helped me off with my coat, that when last I was here another had filled his office.
“Indeed, Sir,” he said, “and what was his name, Sir?”
“Savage,” I replied.
“And where might he be now, Sir?”
“Inside a snake!” I answered. “At least he was inside a snake but now I hope he is waiting upon his master in Heaven.”
The man recoiled a little, pulling off my coat with a jerk. Then he coughed, rubbed his bald head, stared and recovering himself with an effort, said,
“Indeed, Sir! I only came to this place after the death of his late lordship, when her ladyship changed all the household. Alfred, show this gentleman up to her ladyship’s boudoir, and William, take his—baggage—to the blue room. Her ladyship wishes to see you at once, Sir, before the others come.”
So I went up the big staircase to a part of the Castle that I did not remember, wondering who “the others” might be. Almost could I have sworn that the shade of Savage accompanied me up those stairs; I could feel him at my side.
Presently a door was thrown open and I was ushered into a room somewhat dimly lit and full of the scent of flowers. By the fire near a tea-table, stood a lady clad in some dark dress with the light glinting on her rich-hued hair. She turned and I saw that she still wore the necklace of red stones, and beneath it on her breast a single red flower. For this was Lady Ragnall; about that there was no doubt at all, so little doubt indeed that I was amazed. I had expected to see a stout, elderly woman whom I should only know by the colour of her eyes and her voice, and perhaps certain tricks of manner. But, this was the mischief of it, I could not perceive any change, at any rate in that light. She was just the same! Perhaps a little fuller in figure, which was an advantage; perhaps a little more considered in her movements, perhaps a little taller or at any rate more stately, and that was all.
These things I learned in a flash. Then with a murmured “Mr. Quatermain, my Lady,” the footman closed the door and she saw me.
Moving quickly towards me with both her hands outstretched, she exclaimed in that honey-soft voice of hers,
“Oh! my dear friend——” stopped and added, “Why, you haven’t changed a bit.”
“Fossils wear well,” I replied, “but that is just what I was thinking of you.”
“Then it is very rude of you to call me a fossil when I am only approaching that stage. Oh! I am glad to see you. I am glad!” and she gave me both the outstretched hands.
Upon my word I felt inclined to kiss her and have wondered ever since if she would have been very angry. I am not certain that she did not divine the inclination. At any rate after a little pause she dropped my hands and laughed. Then she said,
“I must tell you at once. A most terrible catastrophe has happened——”
Instantly it occurred to me that she had forgotten having informed me by letter of all the details of her husband’s death. Such things chance to people who have once lost their memory. So I tried to look as sympathetic as I felt, sighed and waited.
“It’s not so bad as all that,” she said with a little shake of her head, reading my thought as she always had the power to do from the first moment we met. “We can talk about that afterwards. It’s only that I hoped we were going to have a quiet two days, and now the Atterby-Smiths are coming, yes, in half an hour. Five of them!”
“The Atterby-Smiths!” I exclaimed, for somehow I too felt disappointed. “Who are the Atterby-Smiths?”
“Cousins of George’s, his nearest relatives. They think he ought to have left them everything. But he didn’t, because he could never bear the sight of them. You see his property was unentailed and he left it all to me. Now the entire family is advancing to suggest that I should leave it to them, as perhaps I might have done if they had not chosen to come just now.”
“Why didn’t you put them off?” I asked.
“Because I couldn’t,” she answered with a little stamp of her foot, “otherwise do you suppose they would have been here? They were far too clever. They telegraphed after lunch giving the train by which they were to arrive, but no address save Charing Cross. I thought of moving up to the Berkeley Square house, but it was impossible in the time, also I didn’t know how to catch you. Oh! it’s most vexatious.”
“Perhaps they are very nice,” I suggested feebly.
“Nice! Wait till you have
