Books: Jeanne Of The Marshes
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E. Phillips Oppenheim >> Jeanne Of The Marshes
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"You would have thought it still ruder," Cecil remarked, "if he had
had you roused at five o'clock or so to make his adieux."
The Princess and Jeanne left the table together a few minutes before
the other two, and Jeanne asked her stepmother a question.
"How long are we going to stop here?" she inquired. "I thought that
our visit was for two or three days only."
The Princess hesitated.
"Cecil is such a nice boy," she said, "and he is so anxious to have
us stay a little longer. What do you say? You are not bored?"
"I am not bored," Jeanne answered, "so long as you can keep him from
saying silly things to me. On the contrary, I like to be here. I
like it better than London. I like it better than any place I have
been in since I left school."
The Princess looked at her a little curiously.
"I wonder," she said, "whether I ought to be looking after you a
little more closely, my child. What do you do on the marshes there
all the time? Do you talk with this Mr. Andrew?"
"I went with him in his boat this morning," Jeanne answered
composedly. "It was very pleasant. We had a delightful sail."
The Princess shrugged her shoulders.
"Well," she said, "one must amuse oneself, and I suppose it is only
reasonable that we should all choose different ways. I think I need
not tell even such a child as you that men are the same all the
world over, and that even a fisherman, if he is encouraged, may be
guilty sometimes of an impertinence."
Jeanne raised her eyebrows.
"I have not the slightest fear," she said, "that Mr. Andrew would
ever be guilty of anything of the sort. I wish I could say the same
of some of the people whom I have met in our own circle of society."
The Princess smiled tolerantly.
"Nowadays," she remarked, "it is perfectly true that men do take too
great liberties. Well, amuse yourself with your fisherman, my dear
child. It is your legitimate occupation in life to make fools of all
manner of men, and there is no harm in your beginning as low down as
you choose if it amuses you."
Jeanne walked deliberately away. The Princess laughed a little
uneasily. As she watched Jeanne ascend the stairs, Forrest and Cecil
came out into the hall. They all three moved together into the
further corner, where coffee was set out upon a small table, and it
was significant that they did not speak a word until they were
there, and even then Major Forrest looked cautiously around before
he opened his lips.
"Well?" he asked.
The Princess smiled scornfully at their white, anxious faces.
"What are you afraid of?" she asked contemptuously. "Jeanne suspects
nothing, of course. There is nothing which she could suspect. She
has not mentioned his name even."
Cecil drew a little breath of relief. His face seemed to have grown
haggard during the last few hours.
"I wish to God," he muttered, "we were out of this!"
The Princess turned her head and looked at him coldly.
"My young friend," she said, "you men are all the same. You have no
philosophy. The inevitable has happened, or rather the inevitable
has been forced upon us. What we have done we did deliberately. We
could not do otherwise, and we cannot undo it. Remember that. And if
you have a grain of philosophy or courage in you, keep a stouter
heart and wear a smile upon your face."
Cecil rose to his feet.
"You are right," he said. "Are you ready, Forrest? Will you come
with me?"
Forrest rose slowly to his feet.
"Of course," he said. "By the by, a sail this afternoon was a good
idea. We must develop an interest in country pursuits. It is
possible even," he added, "that we may have to take to golf."
The Princess, too, rose.
"Come into my room, one of you," she said, "and see me for a moment,
afterwards. I suppose we shall start for our sail about three?"
Cecil nodded.
"The boat will be here by then," he said.
"And I will come up and bring you the news, if there is any,"
Forrest added.
CHAPTER XII
The man who stood with a telescope glued to his eye watching the
coming boat, shut it up at last with a little snap. He walked round
to the other side of the cottage, where Andrew was sitting with a
pipe in his mouth industriously mending a fishing net.
"Andrew," he said, "there are some people coming here, and I am
almost sure that they mean to land."
Andrew rose to his feet and strolled round to the little stretch of
beach in front of the cottage. When he saw who it was who
approached, he stopped short and took his pipe from his mouth.
"By Jove, it's Cecil," he exclaimed, "and his friends!"
His companion nodded. He was a man still on the youthful side of
middle age, with bronzed features, and short, closely-cut beard. He
looked what he was, a traveller and a sportsman.
"So I imagined," he said, "but I don't see Ronald there."
Andrew shaded his eyes with his hand.
"No!" he said. "There is the Princess and Cecil, and Major Forrest
and Miss Le Mesurier. No one else. They certainly do look as though
they were going to land here."
"Why not?" the other man remarked. "Why shouldn't Cecil come to
visit his hermit brother?"
Andrew frowned.
"Berners," he said, "I want you to remember this. If they land here
and you see anything of them, will you have the goodness to
understand that I am Mr. Andrew, fisherman, and that you are my
lodger?"
Andrew's companion looked at him in surprise.
"What sort of a game is this, Andrew?" he asked.
Andrew de la Borne shrugged his shoulders and smiled good-naturedly.
"Never mind about that, Dick," he answered. "Call it a whim or
anything else you like. The fact is that Cecil had some guests
coming whom I did not particularly care to meet, and who certainly
would not have been interested in me. I thought it would be best to
clear out altogether, so I have left Cecil in possession of the
Hall, and they don't even know that I exist."
The man named Berners looked up at his host with twinkling eyes.
"Right!" he said. "So far as I am concerned, you shall be Mr.
Andrew, fisherman. Will you also kindly remember that if any
curiosity is evinced as to my identity, I am Mr. Berners, and that I
am here for a rest-cure. By the by, how are you going to explain
that elderly domestic of yours?"
"He is your servant, of course," Andrew answered. "He understands
the position. I have spoken to him already. Yes, they are coming
here right enough! Suppose you help me to pull in the boat for
them."
The two men sauntered down to the shelving beach. The boat was close
to them now, and Cecil was standing up in the bows.
"We want to land for a few minutes," he called out.
"Throw a rope, then," Andrew answered briefly. "You had better come
in this side of the landing-stage."
The rope was thrown, and the boat dragged high and dry upon the
pebbly beach. The Princess, after a glance at him through her
lorgnette, surrendered herself willingly to Andrew's outstretched
hands.
"I am quite sure," she said, "that you will not let me fall. You
must be the wonderful person whom my daughter has told me about. Is
this queer little place really your home?"
"I live here," Andrew de la Borne said simply.
Jeanne leaned over towards him.
"Won't you please help me, Mr. Andrew?" she said, smiling down at
him.
He held out his arms, and she sprang lightly to the ground.
"I hope you don't mind our coming," she said to him. "I was so
anxious to see your cottage."
"There is little enough to see," Andrew answered, "but you are very
welcome."
"We are sorry to trouble you," Cecil said, a little uneasily, "but
would it be possible to give these ladies some tea?"
"Certainly," Andrew answered. "I will go and get it ready."
"Oh, what fun!" Jeanne declared. "I am coming to help. Please, Mr.
Andrew, do let me help. I am sure I could make tea."
"It is not necessary, thank you," Andrew answered. "I have a lodger
who has brought his own servant. As it happens he was just preparing
some tea for us. If you will come round to the other side, where it
is a little more sheltered, I will bring you some chairs."
They moved across the grass-grown little stretch of sand. The
Princess peered curiously at Berners.
"Your face," she remarked, "seems quite familiar to me."
Berners did not for the moment answer her. He was looking towards
Forrest, who was busy lighting a cigarette.
"I am afraid, madam," he said, after a slight pause, "that I cannot
claim the honour of having met you."
The Princess was not altogether satisfied. Jeanne had gone on with
Andrew, and she followed slowly walking with Berners.
"I have such a good memory for faces," she remarked, "and I am very
seldom mistaken."
"I am afraid," Berners said, "that this must be one of those rare
occasions. If you will allow me I will go and help Andrew bring out
some seats."
He disappeared into the cottage, and came out again almost directly
with a couple of chairs. This time he met Forrest's direct gaze, and
the two men stood for a moment or two looking at one another.
Forrest turned uneasily away.
"Who the devil is that chap?" he whispered to Cecil. "I'll swear
I've seen him somewhere."
"Very likely," Cecil answered wearily, throwing himself down on the
turf. "I've no memory for faces."
Jeanne had stepped into the cottage, and gave a little cry of
delight as she found herself in a small sitting-room, the walls of
which were lined with books and guns and fishing-tackle.
"What a delightful room, Mr. Andrew!" she exclaimed. "Why--"
She paused and looked up at him, a little mystified.
"Do the fishermen in Norfolk read Shakespeare and Keats?" she asked.
"And French books, too, De Maupassant and De Musset?"
"They are my lodger's," Andrew answered. "This is his room. I sit in
the kitchen when I am at home."
His dialect was more marked than ever, and his answer had been
delivered without any hesitation. Nevertheless, Jeanne was still a
little puzzled.
"May I come into the kitchen, please?" she asked.
"Certainly," he answered. "You will find Mr. Berners' servant there
getting tea ready."
Jeanne peeped in, and looked back at Andrew, who was standing behind
her.
"What a lovely stone floor!" she exclaimed. "And your copper kettle,
too, is delightful! Do you mean that when you have not a lodger
here, you cook and do everything for yourself?"
"There are times," he answered composedly, "when I have a little
assistance. It depends upon whether the fishing season has been
good."
Berners came in, and threw himself into an easychair in the sitting-
room.
"Make what use you like of my man, Andrew," he said. "I will have a
cup of tea in here afterwards."
"I'm very much obliged, sir," Andrew answered.
The Princess called out to him, and he stepped back once more to
where they were all sitting.
"It is a shame," she said, "that we drive your lodger away from his
seat. Will you not ask him to take tea with us?"
"I am afraid," Andrew answered, "that he is not a very sociable
person. He has come down here because he wants a complete rest, and
he does not speak to any one unless he is obliged. He has just asked
me to have his tea sent into his room."
"Where does he come from, this strange man?" the Princess asked. "It
is all the time in my mind that I have met him somewhere. I am sure
that he is one of us."
"I believe that he lives in London," Andrew answered, "and his name
is Berners, Mr. Richard Berners."
"I do not seem to remember the name," the Princess remarked, "but
the man's face worries me. What a delightful looking tea-tray! Mr.
Andrew, you must really sit down with us. We ought to apologize for
taking you by storm like this, and I have not thanked you yet for
being so kind to my daughter." Andrew stepped back toward the
cottage with a firm refusal upon his lips, but Jeanne's hand
suddenly rested upon the arm of his coarse blue jersey.
"If you please, Mr. Andrew," she begged, "I want you to sit by me
and tell me how you came to live in so strange a place. Do you
really not mind the solitude?"
Andrew looked down at her for a moment without answering. For the
first time, perhaps, he realized the charm of her pale expressive
face with its rapid changes, and the soft insistent fire of her
beautiful eyes. He hesitated for a moment and then remained where he
was, leaning against the flag-staff.
"It is very good of you, miss," he said. "As to why I came to live
here, I do so simply because the house belongs to me. It was my
father's and his father's. We folk who live in the country make few
changes."
She looked at him curiously. The men whom she had known, even those
of the class to whom he might be supposed to belong, were all in a
way different. This man talked only when he was obliged. All the
time she felt in him the attraction of the unknown. He answered her
questions and remarks in words, the rest remained unspoken. She
looked at him contemplatively as he stood by her side with a tea-cup
in his hand, leaning still a little against the flag-staff.
Notwithstanding his rough clothes and heavy fisherman's boots, there
was nothing about his attitude or his speech, save in its dialect,
to denote the fact that he was of a different order from that in
which she had been brought up. She felt an immense curiosity
concerning him, and she felt, too, that it would probably never be
gratified. Most men were her slaves from the moment she smiled upon
them. This one she fancied seemed a little bored by her presence. He
did not even seem to be thinking about her. He was watching steadily
and with somewhat bent eyebrows Cecil de la Borne and Forrest.
Something struck her as she looked from one to the other.
"I read once," she remarked, "that people who live in a very small
village for generation after generation grow to look like one
another. In a certain way I cannot conceive two men more unlike, and
yet at that moment there was something in your face which reminded
me of Mr. De la Borne."
He looked down at her with a quick frown. Decidedly he was annoyed.
"You are certainly the first," he said drily, "who has ever
discovered the likeness, if there is any."
"It does not amount to a likeness," she answered, "and you need not
look so angry. Mr. De la Borne is considered very good-looking. Dear
me, what a nuisance! Do you see? We are going!"
Andrew de la Borne took the cup from her hand and helped to prepare
the boat. With a faint smile upon his lips he heard a little
colloquy between Cecil and the Princess which amused him. The
Princess, as he prepared to hand her into the boat, showed herself
at any rate possessed of the instincts of her order. She held out
her hand and smiled sweetly upon Andrew.
"We are so much obliged to you for your delightful tea, Mr. Andrew,"
she said. "I hope that next time my daughter goes wandering about in
dangerous places you may be there to look after her."
Andrew looked swiftly away towards Jeanne. Somehow or other the
Princess' words seemed to come to him at that moment charged with
some secondary meaning. He felt instinctively that notwithstanding
her thoroughly advanced airs, Jeanne was little more than a child as
compared with these people. She met his eyes with one of her most
delightful smiles.
"Some day, I hope," she said, "that you will take me out in the punt
again. I can assure you that I quite enjoyed being rescued."
The little party sailed away, Cecil with an obvious air of relief.
Andrew turned slowly round, and met his friend issuing from the door
of the cottage.
"Andrew," he said, "no wonder you did not care about being host to
such a crowd!"
There was meaning in his tone, and Andrew looked at him
thoughtfully.
"Do you know--anything definite?" he asked.
Berners nodded.
"About one of them," he said, "I certainly do. I wonder what on
earth has become of Ronald. He was with them yesterday."
"Had enough, perhaps," Andrew suggested.
Berners shook his head.
"I am afraid not," he answered slowly. "I wish I could think that he
had so much sense."
CHAPTER XIII
Cecil came into the room abruptly, and closed the door behind him.
He was breathing quickly as though he had been running. His lips
were a little parted, and in his eyes shone an unmistakable
expression of fear. Forrest and the Princess both looked towards him
apprehensively.
"What is it, Cecil?" the latter asked quickly. "You are a fool to go
about the house looking like that."
Cecil came further into the room and threw himself into a chair.
"It is that fellow upon the island," he said. "You remember we all
said that his face was familiar. I have seen him again, and I have
remembered."
"Remembered what?" the Princess asked.
"Where it was that I saw him last," Cecil answered. "It was in Pall
Mall, and he was walking with--with Engleton. It was before I knew
him, but I knew who he was. He must be a friend of Engleton's. What
do you suppose that he is doing here?"
Cecil was shaking like a leaf. The Princess looked towards him
contemptuously.
"Come," she said, "there is no need for you to behave like a
terrified child. Even if you have seen him once with Lord Ronald,
what on earth is there in that to be terrified about? Lord Ronald
had many friends and acquaintances everywhere. This one is surely
harmless enough. He behaved quite naturally on the island,
remember."
Cecil shook his head.
"I do not understand," he said. "I do not understand what he can be
doing in this part of the world, unless he has some object. I saw
him just now standing behind a tree at the entrance to the drive,
watching me drive golf balls out on to the marsh. I am almost
certain that he was about the place last night. I saw some one who
looked very much like him pass along the cliffs just about dinner-
time."
"You are frightened at shadows," the Princess declared
contemptuously. "If he were one of Lord Ronald's friends, and he had
come here to look for him, he wouldn't play about watching you from
a distance. Besides, there has been no time yet. Lord Ronald only--
left here yesterday morning."
"What is he doing, then, watching this house?" Cecil asked. "That is
what I do not like."
The Princess raised her eyebrows contemptuously.
"My dear Cecil," she said, "it is just a coincidence, and not a very
remarkable one at that. Lord Ronald had the name, you know, of
having acquaintances in every quarter of the world."
Cecil drew a little breath.
"It may be all right," he said, "but I am not used to this sort of
thing, and it gives me the creeps."
"Of course it is all right," the Princess said composedly. "One
would think that we were a pack of children, to take any notice of
such trifles. It is too early, my dear Cecil, by many a day, to look
for trouble yet. Lord Ronald always wandered about pretty much as he
chose. It will be months before--"
"Don't go on," Cecil interrupted. "I suppose I am a fool, but all
the time I am fancying things."
Forrest moved away with a little laugh, and the Princess rose and
thrust her arm through Cecil's.
"Silly boy!" she said. "You have nothing to be frightened about, I
can assure you."
"I am not frightened," Cecil answered. "I don't think that I was
ever a coward. All the same, there are some things about this fellow
which I don't quite understand."
The Princess laughed as she swept from the room.
"Don't be foolish, Cecil," she said. "Remember that we are all here,
and that nothing can go wrong unless we lose our nerve."
Forrest found the Princess alone a little later in the evening,
waiting in the hall for the dinner-gong. He drew her into a corner,
under pretext of showing her one of the old engravings, dark with
age, which hung upon the wall.
"Ena," he said, "I suppose that you trust Cecil de la Borne? You
haven't any fear about him, eh?"
The Princess shrugged her shoulders.
"No!" she answered. "He is a coward at heart, but he has enough
vanity, I believe, to keep him from doing anything foolish. All the
same, I think it is wiser not to leave him alone here."
"He would not stay," Forrest remarked. "He told me so only this
morning."
"You suggested leaving?" the Princess asked.
Forrest nodded.
"I couldn't help it," he said, a little sullenly. "There is
something about these great empty rooms, and the silence of the
place, that's getting on my nerves. I start every time that great
front-door bell clangs, or I hear an unfamiliar footstep in the
hall. God! What fools we have been," he added, with a sudden bitter
strength. "I couldn't have believed that I could ever have done
anything so clumsy. Fancy giving ourselves away to a fool like
Engleton, a self-opinionated young cub scarcely out of his cradle."
He felt his damp forehead. The Princess was watching him curiously.
"Don't be a fool, Nigel," she said. "We underrated Engleton, that
was all. If ever a man looked an idiot, he did, and you must
remember that we were in a corner. Yet," she added, leaning a little
forward in her chair and gazing with hard, set face into the fire,
"it was foolish of me. With Jeanne to play with, I ought to have had
no such difficulties. I never counted upon the tradespeople being so
unreasonable. If they had let me finish the season it would have
been all right."
Forrest walked restlessly across the room, and stood for a moment
looking out of the window. Outside, the wind had suddenly changed.
The sunshine had departed, and a grey fog was blowing in from the
sea. He turned away with a shiver.
"What a cursed place this is!" he muttered. "I've half a mind even
now to turn my back upon it and to run."
The Princess watched his pale face scornfully.
"I thought, Nigel," she said, "that you were a more reasonable
person. Remember that if we show the white feather now, it is the
end of everything--the Colonies, if you like, or a little cheap
watering-place at the best. As for me, I might have a better chance
of brazening it out, but remember that I could never afford to be
seen in the company of a suspected person."
"It was the fear of losing you," he muttered, "which made me so
rash."
The Princess laughed very softly.
"My dear friend," she said, "I do not believe you. I may seem to you
sometimes very foolish, but at least I understand this. Life with
you is self, self, self, and nothing more. You have scarcely a
generous instinct, scarcely a spark of real affection left in you."
"And yet--" he began quietly.
"And yet," she whispered, repulsing him with a little gesture, but
with a suddenly altered look in her face, "and yet we women are
fools!"
She turned round to meet her host, who was crossing the hall, and
almost simultaneously the dinner gong rang out. Their party was
perhaps a little more cheerful than it had been on any of the last
few evenings. Forrest drank more wine than usual, and exerted
himself to entertain. Cecil followed his example, and the Princess,
who sat by his side, looked often into his face, and whispered now
and then in his ear. Jeanne was the only one who was a little
distrait. She left the table early, as usual, and slipped out into
the garden. The Princess, contrary to her custom, rose from the
table and followed her. A sudden change of wind had blown the fog
away, and the night was clear. The wind, however, had gathered
force, and the Princess held down her elaborately coiffured hair and
cried out in dismay.
"My dear Jeanne," she exclaimed, "but it is barbarous to wander
about outside a night like this!"
Jeanne laughed. Her own more simply arranged hair was blown all over
her face.
"I love it," she explained. "You don't want me indoors. I am going
to walk down the grove and look at the sea."
"Come back into the hall one moment," the Princess said. "I want to
speak to you."
Jeanne turned unwillingly round, and her step-mother drew her into
the shelter of the open door.
"Jeanne," she said, "you seem to meet your friend the fisherman very
often. If you should see anything of him to-morrow, I wish you would
inquire particularly as to his lodger. You know whom I mean, the man
who was on the island with him yesterday afternoon."
Jeanne looked at her stepmother curiously.
"What am I to ask about him?" she demanded.
"Where he comes from, and what he is doing here," the Princess said.
"Find out if you can if Berners is really his name. I have a curious
idea about him, and Cecil fancies that he has seen him before."
Jeanne looked for a minute interested.
"You are not usually so curious about people," she remarked.
The Princess lowered her voice a little.
"Jeanne," she said, "I will tell you something. Lord Ronald, when he
left here, was very angry with us all. There was a quarrel, and he
behaved very absurdly. Cecil fancies that this man Berners is a
friend of Lord Ronald's. We want to know if it is so."
Jeanne raised her head and looked her stepmother steadily in the
face.
"This is all very mysterious," she said. "I do not understand it at
all. We seem to be almost in hiding here, seeing no one and going
nowhere. And I notice that Major Forrest, whenever he walks even in
the garden, is always looking around as though he were afraid of
something. What did you quarrel with Lord Ronald about?"
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