Marie Belloc Lowndes - The Chink in the Armour

M >> Marie Belloc Lowndes >> The Chink in the Armour

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

Once the good-natured couple had walked off arm in arm into the night,
the door of the Pension Malfait was locked and barred, and Chester
followed his landlord into the long, dark house.

"One has to be careful. There are so many queer characters about," said
M. Malfait; and then, "Will M'sieur have something to eat? A little
refreshment, a bottle of lemonade, or of pale ale? We have splendid
Bass's ale," he said, solicitously.

But the Englishman shook his head, smiling. "Oh, no," he said slowly, in
his bad French, "I dined in Paris. All I need now is a good night's
rest."

"And that M'sieur will certainly have," said the landlord civilly.
"Lacville is famous for its sleep-producing qualities. That is why so
many Parisians content themselves with coming here instead of going
further afield."

They were walking through the lower part of the house, and then suddenly
M. Malfait exclaimed, "I was forgetting the bath-room! I know how
important to English gentlemen the bath-room is!"

The pleasant vista of a good hot bath floated before Chester's weary
brain and body. Really the house was not as primitive as he had thought
it when he had seen the landlord come forward with a candle.

M. Malfait turned round and flung open a door.

"It was an idea of my wife's," he said proudly. "You see, M'sieur, the
apartment serves a double purpose--"

And it did! For the odd little room into which Chester was shown by his
host served as store cupboard as well as bath-room. It was lined with
shelves on which stood serried rows of pots of home-made jam, jars of oil
and vinegar, and huge tins of rice, vermicelli, and tapioca, in a corner
a round zinc basin--but a basin of Brobdignagian size--stood under a cold
water tap.

"The bath is for those of our visitors who do not follow the regular
hydropathic treatment for which Lacville is still famous," said the
landlord pompously. "But I must ask M'sieur not to fill the bath too
full, for it is a great affair to empty it!"

He shut the door carefully, and led the way upstairs.

"Here we are," he whispered at last. "I hope M'sieur will be satisfied.
This is a room which was occupied by a charming Polish lady, Madame
Wolsky, who was a friend of M'sieur's friend, Madame Bailey. But she left
suddenly a week ago, and so we have the room at M'sieur's disposal."

He put the candle down, and bowed himself out of the room.

Chester looked round the large, bare sleeping chamber in which he found
himself with the agreeable feeling that his long, hot, exciting day was
now at an end.

Yes, it was a pleasant room--bare, and yet furnished with everything
essential to comfort. Thus there was a good big, roomy arm-chair, a
writing-table, and a clock, of which the hands now pointed to a quarter
to one o'clock.

The broad, low bed, pushed back into an alcove as is the French fashion,
looked delightfully cool and inviting by the light of his one candle.

When M. Malfait had shown him into the room the window was wide open to
the hot, starless night, but the landlord, though he had left the window
open, had drawn the thick curtains across it. That was all right; Chester
had no wish to be wakened at five in the morning by the sunlight
streaming into the room. He meant to have a really long rest. He was
too tired to think--too tired to do anything but turn in.

And then an odd thing happened. Chester's brain was so thoroughly awake,
he had become so over-excited, that he could not, try as he might, fall
asleep.

He lay awake tossing about hour after hour. And then, when at last he did
fall into a heavy, troubled slumber, he was disturbed by extraordinary
and unpleasant dreams--nightmares in which Sylvia Bailey seemed to play
a part.

At last he roused himself and pulled back the curtains from across the
window. It was already dawn, but he thought the cool morning air might
induce sleep, and for a while, lying on his side away from the light, he
did doze lightly.

Quite suddenly he was awakened by the sensation, nay, the knowledge, that
there was someone in the room! So vivid was this feeling of unwished-for
companionship that he got up and looked in the shadowed recess of the
alcove in which stood his bed; but, of course, there was no one there.
In fact there would not have been space there for any grown-up person to
squeeze into.

He told himself that what he had heard--if he had heard anything--was
someone bringing him his coffee and rolls, and that the servant had
probably been trying to attract his attention, for, following his prudent
custom, he had locked his door the night before.

He unlocked the door and looked out, staring this way and that along the
empty passage. But no, in spite of the now-risen sun, it was still early
morning; the Pension Malfait was sunk in sleep.

Chester went back to bed. He felt tired, disturbed, uneasy; sleep was out
of the question; so he lay back, and with widely-open eyes, began to
think of Sylvia Bailey and of the strange events of the night before.

He lived again the long hour he had spent at the Casino. He could almost
smell the odd, sweet, stuffy smell of the Baccarat Room, and there rose
before him its queer, varied inmates. He visioned distinctly Sylvia
Bailey as he had suddenly seen her, sitting before the green cloth,
with her money piled up before her, and a look of eager interest and
absorption on her face.

There had always been in Sylvia something a little rebellious, a touch of
individuality which made her unlike the other women he knew, and which
fascinated and attracted him. She was a woman who generally knew her own
mind, and who had her own ideas of right and wrong. Lying there, he
remembered how determined she had been about those pearls....

Chester's thoughts took a softer turn. How very, very pretty she had
looked last evening--more than pretty--lovelier than he had ever seen
her. There seemed to be new depths in her blue eyes.

But Chester was shrewd enough to know that Sylvia had felt ashamed to be
caught by him gambling--gambling, too, in such very mixed company. Well,
she would soon be leaving Lacville! What a pity those friends of hers had
given up their Swiss holiday! It would have been so jolly if they could
have gone on there together.

He got tired of lying in bed. What a long night, as well as a very
short night, it had been! He rose and made his way down to the primitive
bath-room. It would be delightful to have any sort of bath, and the huge
zinc basin had its points--

As Chester went quickly back to his room, instead of feeling refreshed
after his bath, he again experienced the disagreeable sensation that he
was not alone. This time he felt as if he were being accompanied by an
invisible presence. It was a very extraordinary and a most unpleasant
feeling, one which Chester had never experienced before, and it made him
afraid--afraid he knew not of what.

Being the manner of man he was, he began to think that he must be
ill--that there must be something the matter with his nerves. Had he been
at home, in Market Dalling, he would have gone to a doctor without loss
of time.

Long afterwards, when people used to speak before him of haunted houses,
Bill Chester would remember the Pension Malfait and the extraordinary
sensations he had experienced there--sensations the more extraordinary
that there was nothing to account for them.

But Chester never told anyone of his experiences, and indeed there was
nothing to tell. He never saw anything, he never even heard anything, but
now and again, especially when he was lying awake at night and in the
early morning, the lawyer felt as if some other entity was struggling to
communicate with him and could not do so....

The whole time he was there--and he stayed on at Lacville, as we shall
see, rather longer than he at first intended--Chester never felt, when in
his room at the Pension Malfait really alone, and sometimes the
impression became almost intolerably vivid.

CHAPTER XXI

But the longest night, the most haunted night, and Chester's night had
indeed been haunted, comes to an end at last. After he had had another
bath and a good breakfast he felt a very different man to what he had
done three of four hours ago, lying awake in the sinister, companioned
atmosphere of his bed-room at the Pension Malfait.

Telling his courteous landlord that he would not be in to luncheon,
Chester left the house, and as it was still far too early to seek out
Sylvia, he struck out, with the aid of the little pocket-map of the
environs of Paris with which he had been careful to provide himself,
towards the open country.

And as he swung quickly along, feeling once more tired and depressed, the
Englishman wondered more and more why Sylvia Bailey cared to stay in such
a place as Lacville. It struck him as neither town nor country--more like
an unfinished suburb than anything else, with almost every piece of spare
land up for sale.

He walked on and on till at last he came to the edge of a great stretch
of what looked like primeval woodland. This surely must be part of the
famous Forest of Montmorency, which his guide-book mentioned as being
the great attraction of Lacville? He wondered cynically whether Sylvia
had ever been so far, and then he plunged into the wood, along one of the
ordered alleys which to his English eyes looked so little forest-like,
and yet which made walking there very pleasant.

Suddenly there fell on his ear the sound of horses trotting quickly. He
looked round, and some hundred yards or so to his right, at a place where
four roads met under high arching trees, he saw two riders, a man and a
woman, pass by. They had checked their horses to a walk, and as their
voices floated over to him, the woman's voice seemed extraordinarily,
almost absurdly, familiar--in fact, he could have sworn it was Sylvia
Bailey's voice.

Chester stopped in his walk and shrugged his shoulders impatiently. She
must indeed be dwelling in his thoughts if he thus involuntarily evoked
her presence where she could by no stretch of possibility be.

But that wandering echo brought Sylvia Bailey very near to Chester, and
once more he recalled her as he had seen her sitting at the gambling
table the night before.

In grotesque juxtaposition he remembered, together with that picture of
Sylvia as he had seen her last night, the case of a respectable old lady,
named Mrs. Meeks, the widow of a clergyman who had had a living in the
vicinity of Market Dalling.

Not long after her husband's death this old lady--she had about three
hundred a year, and Chester had charge of her money matters--went abroad
for a few weeks to Mentone. Those few weeks had turned Mrs. Meeks into
a confirmed gambler. She now lived entirely at Monte Carlo in one small
room.

He could not help remembering now the kind of remarks that were made by
the more prosperous inhabitants of Market Dalling, his fellow citizens,
when they went off for a short holiday to the South, in January or
February. They would see this poor lady, this Mrs. Meeks, wandering round
the gaming tables, and the sight would amuse and shock them. Chester knew
that one of the first things said to him after the return of such people
would be, "Who d'you think I saw at Monte Carlo? Why, Mrs. Meeks, of
course! It's enough to make her husband turn in his grave."

And now he told himself ruefully that it would be enough to make honest
George Bailey turn in his grave could he see his pretty, sheltered Sylvia
sitting in the Casino at Lacville, surrounded by the riffraff collected
there last night, and actually taking an active part in the game as well
as risking her money with business-like intentness.

He wondered if he could persuade Sylvia to leave Lacville soon. In any
case he would himself stay on here three or four days--he had meant only
to stay twenty-four hours, for he was on his way to join a friend whose
Swiss holiday was limited. The sensible thing for Sylvia to do would be
to go back to England.

* * * * *

Chester reached the Villa du Lac at half-past eleven and as he went out
into the charming garden where he was told he would find Mrs. Bailey he
told himself that Lacville was not without some innocent attractions. But
Mrs. Bailey was not alone in this lovely garden. Sitting on the lawn by
her was the Frenchman who had been with her when Chester had first caught
sight of her at the Casino the night before.

The two were talking so earnestly that they only became aware of his
approach when he was close to them, and though Chester was not a
particularly observant man, he had an instant and most unpleasant
impression that he had come too soon; that Sylvia was not glad to see
him; and that the Frenchman was actually annoyed, even angered, by his
sudden appearance.

"We might begin lunch a little earlier than twelve o'clock," said Sylvia,
getting up. "They serve lunch from half-past eleven, do they not?" she
turned to the Comte de Virieu.

"Yes, Madame, that is so," he said; and then he added, bowing, "And now
perhaps I should say good-bye. I am going into Paris, as you know, early
this afternoon, and then to Brittany. I shall be away two nights."

"You will remember me to your sister, to--to the Duchesse," faltered
Sylvia.

Chester looked at her sharply. This Frenchman's sister? The
Duchesse?--how very intimate Sylvia seemed to be with the fellow!

As the Count turned and sauntered back to the house she said rather
breathlessly,

"The Comte de Virieu has been very kind to me, Bill. He took me into
Paris to see his sister; she is the Duchesse d'Eglemont. You will
remember that the Duc d'Eglemont won the Derby two years ago?"

And as he made no answer she went on, as if on the defensive.

"The Comte de Virieu has to go away to the funeral of his godmother. I am
sorry, for I should have liked you to have become friends with him. He
was at school in England--that is why he speaks English so well."

While they were enjoying the excellent luncheon prepared for them by M.
Polperro, Chester was uncomfortably aware that the Count, sitting at his
solitary meal at another table, could, should he care to do so, overhear
every word the other two were saying.

But Paul de Virieu did not look across or talk as an Englishman would
probably have done had he been on familiar terms with a fellow-guest in
an hotel. Instead he devoted himself, in the intervals of the meal, to
reading a paper. But now and again Chester, glancing across, could see
the other man's eyes fixed on himself with a penetrating, thoughtful
look. What did this Frenchman mean by staring at him like that?

As for Sylvia, she was obviously ill at ease. She talked quickly, rather
disconnectedly, of the many things appertaining to her life at home, in
Market Dalling, which she had in common with the English lawyer. She only
touched on the delightful time she had had in Paris, and she said nothing
of Lacville.

Long before the others had finished, Count Paul got up; before leaving
the dining-room, he turned and bowed ceremoniously to Sylvia and her
companion. With his disappearance it seemed to Chester that Sylvia at
once became her natural, simple, eager, happy self. She talked less, she
listened more, and at last Chester began to enjoy his holiday.

They went out again into the garden, and the wide lawn, with its shaded
spaces of deep green, was a delicious place in which to spend a quiet,
idle hour. They sat down and drank their coffee under one of the cedars
of Lebanon.

"This is a very delightful, curious kind of hotel," he said at last. "And
I confess that now I understand why you like Lacville. But I do wonder a
little, Sylvia"--he looked at her gravely--"that you enjoy going to that
Casino."

"You see, there's so very little else to do here!" she exclaimed,
deprecatingly. "And then, after all, Bill, I don't see what harm there
is in risking one's money if one can afford to do so!"

He shook his head at her--playfully, but seriously too. "Don't you?" he
asked dryly.

"Why, there's Madame Wachner," said Sylvia suddenly, and Chester thought
there was a little touch of relief in her voice.

"Madame Wachner?" And then the Englishman, gazing at the stout, squat
figure which was waddling along the grass towards them, remembered.

This was the good lady who had been so kind to him the night before; nay,
who had actually offered to give him a bed if the Pension Malfait had
been closed.

"We 'ave lunched in the town," she said, partly addressing Chester, "and
so I thought I would come and ask you, Madame Sylvia, whether you and
your friend will come to tea at the Villa des Muguets to-day?" She fixed
her bright little eyes on Sylvia's face.

Sylvia looked at Chester; she was smiling; he thought she would like him
to accept.

"That is very kind of you," he said cordially.

Sylvia nodded her head gaily: "You are more than kind, dear Madame
Wachner," she exclaimed. "We shall be delighted to come! I thought of
taking Mr. Chester a drive through the Forest of Montmorency. Will it do
if we are with you about five?"

"Yes," said Madame Wachner.

And then, to Chester's satisfaction, she turned and went away. "I cannot
stay now," she said, "for l'Ami Fritz is waiting for me. 'E does not like
to be kept waiting."

"What a nice woman!" said Chester heartily, "and how lucky you are,
Sylvia, to have made her acquaintance in such a queer place as this. But
I suppose you have got to know quite a number of people in the hotel?"

"Well, no--," she stopped abruptly. She certainly had come to know the
Comte de Virieu, but he was the exception, not the rule.

"You see, Bill, Lacville is the sort of place where everyone thinks
everyone else rather queer! I fancy some of the ladies here--they are
mostly foreigners, Russians, and Germans--think it very odd that I should
be by myself in such a place."

She spoke without thinking--in fact she uttered her thoughts aloud.

"Then you admit that it _is_ rather a queer place for you to be staying
in by yourself," he said slowly.

"No, I don't!" she protested eagerly. "But don't let's talk of
disagreeable things--I'm going to take you such a splendid drive!"

* * * * *

Chester never forgot that first day of his at Lacville. It was by far the
pleasantest day he spent there, and Sylvia Bailey, woman-like, managed
entirely to conceal from him that she was not as pleased with their
expedition as was her companion.

Thanks to M. Polperro's good offices, they managed to hire a really good
motor; and once clear of the fantastic little houses and the waste ground
which was all up for sale, how old-world and beautiful were the little
hamlets, the remote stretches of woodland and the quiet country towns
through which they sped!

On their way back, something said by Sylvia surprised and disturbed
Chester very much. She had meant to conceal the fact that she was riding
with Paul de Virieu each morning, but it is very difficult for one
accustomed always to tell the truth to use deceit. And suddenly a
careless word revealed to Chester that the horsewoman whose voice had
sounded so oddly familiar to him in the Forest that morning had really
been Sylvia herself!

He turned on her quickly: "Then do you ride every morning with this
Frenchman?" he asked quietly.

"Almost every morning," she answered. "His sister lent me a horse and a
riding habit. It was very kind of her," she raised her voice, and blushed
deeply in the rushing wind.

Chester felt his mind suddenly fill with angry suspicion. Was it possible
that this Comte de Virieu, this man of whom that nice Madame Wachner had
spoken with such scorn as a confirmed gambler, was "making up" to Sylvia?
It was a monstrous idea--but Chester, being a solicitor, knew only too
well that in the matter of marriage the most monstrous and disastrous
things are not only always possible but sometimes probable. Chester
believed that all Frenchmen regard marriage as a matter of business. To
such a man as this Count, Mrs. Bailey's fortune would be a godsend.

"Sylvia!" he exclaimed, in a low, stern voice.

He turned round and looked at her. She was staring straight before her;
the colour had faded from her cheek; she looked pale and tired.

"Sylvia!" he repeated. "Listen to me, and--and don't be offended."

She glanced quickly at the man sitting by her side. His voice was charged
with emotion, with anger.

"Don't be angry with me," he repeated. "If my suspicion, my fear, is
unfounded, I beg your pardon with all my heart."

Sylvia got up and touched the driver on the shoulder. "Please slow down,"
she said in French, "we are going faster than I like."

Then she sank back in her seat. "Yes, Bill! What is it you wish to ask
me? I couldn't hear you properly. We were going too fast."

"Is it possible, is it conceivable, that you are thinking of marrying
this Frenchman?"

"No," said Sylvia, very quietly, "I am not thinking of marrying the Comte
de Virieu. But he is my friend. I--I like and respect him. No, Bill, you
need not fear that the Comte de Virieu will ever ask me to become his
wife."

"But if he did?" asked Chester, hoarsely.

"You have no right to ask me such a question," she answered,
passionately; and then, after a pause, she added, in a low voice: "But
if he did, I should say no, Bill."

Her eyes were full of tears. As for Chester, he felt a variety of
conflicting emotions, of which perhaps the strongest was a determination
that if he could not get her no one else should do so. This--this damned
French gambler had touched Sylvia's kind heart. Surely she couldn't care
for a man she had only known a month, and such an affected, dandified
fellow, too?

It was with relief that they both became aware a few moments later that
they were on the outskirts of Lacville.

"Here is the Chalet des Muguets!" exclaimed Sylvia. "Isn't it a funny
little place?"

The English lawyer stared at the bright pink building; with curiosity and
amusement. It was indeed a funny little place, this brick-built bungalow,
so fantastically and, to his British eyes, so ridiculously decorated with
blue china lozenges, on which were painted giant lilies of the valley.

But he had not long to look, for as the car drew up before the white gate
Madame Wachner's short, broad figure came hurrying down the path.

She opened the gate, and with boisterous heartiness welcomed Chester and
Sylvia into the neglected garden.

Chester looked round him with an involuntary surprise. The Wachners' home
was entirely unlike what he had expected to find it. He had thought to
see one of those trim, neat little villas surrounded by gay, exquisitely
tended little gardens which are the pride of the Parisian suburban
dweller.

Madame Wachner caught his glance, and the thought crossed her mind
uncomfortably that she had perhaps made a mistake, a serious mistake, in
asking this priggish-looking Englishman to come to the Chalet des
Muguets. He evidently did not like the look of the place.

"You wonder to see our garden so untidy," she exclaimed, regretfully.
"Well, it is the owner's fault, not ours! You would not believe such a
thing of a Frenchman, but 'e actually made us promise that we would do
nothing--no, nothing at all, to 'is garden. 'E spoke of sending a man
once a week to see after it, but no, 'e never did so."

"I have often wondered," broke in Sylvia frankly, "why you allowed your
garden to get into such a state, but now, of course, I understand. What a
very odd person your landlord must be, Madame Wachner! It might be such a
delightful place if kept in good order. But I'm glad you have had the
grass cut. I remember the first time I came here the grass was
tremendously high, both in front and behind the house. Yesterday I
saw that you have had it cut."

"Yes," said Madame Wachner, glancing at her, "yes, we had the grass cut a
few days ago. Fritz insisted on it."

"If it had been as high as it was the first time I came here, I could
never have made my way through it to the delightful little wood that lies
over there, behind the chalet," went on Sylvia. "I don't think I told you
that I went over there yesterday and waited a while, hoping that you
would come back."

"You went into the wood!" echoed Madame Wachner in a startled tone. "You
should not have done that," she shook her head gravely. "We are forbidden
to go into the wood. We 'ave never gone into the wood."

L'Ami Fritz stood waiting for his visitors in the narrow doorway. He
looked more good-tempered than usual, and as they walked in he chatted
pleasantly to Chester.

"This way," he said, importantly. "Do not trouble to go into the salon,
Madame! We shall have tea here, of course."

And Sylvia Bailey was amused, as well as rather touched, to see the
preparations which had been made in the little dining-room for the
entertainment of Bill Chester and of herself.

In the middle of the round table which had looked so bare yesterday was
a bowl of white roses--roses that had never grown in the untidy garden
outside. Two dessert dishes were heaped up with delicious cakes--the
cakes for which French pastrycooks are justly famed. There was also a
basin full of the Alpine strawberries which Sylvia loved, and of which
she always ordered a goodly supply at the Villa du Lac. Madame Wachner
had even remembered to provide the thick cream, which, to a foreign
taste, spoils the delicate flavour of strawberries.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20