“a person called to see me!” repeated the duchess of rantorlie. “he pleaded urgent business, you say?”
she glanced at the card presented by her groom-of-the-chambers without taking the trouble to lift it from the salver. “‘mr. moss rubelius.’ i do not know the name—i have no knowledge of any urgent business. you must tell him to go away at once, and not call again.”
“begging your grace’s pardon,” remarked the official, “the person seemed to anticipate a message of the kind——”
“did he? then,” thought her grace, “he is not disappointed.”
“and, still begging your grace’s pardon,” pursued the discreet domestic, “he asked me to hand this second card to your grace.”
it was rather a shabby card, and dog’s-eared as though it had been carried long in somebody’s pocket; but it was large and feminine, and adorned with a ducal coronet and the duchess’s own cipher, and scribbled upon it in pencil, in the duchess’s own handwriting, were two or three words, simple enough, apparently, and yet sufficiently fraught with meaning to make their fair reader turn very pale. she did not replace this card upon the salver, but kept it as she said:
“bring the person to me at once.”
and when the softly stepping servant had left the room—one of her grace’s private suite, charmingly furnished as a study—she made haste to tear the card up, 277dropping the fragments into the hottest part of the wood-fire, and thrusting at them with the poker until the last tremulous fragment of gray ash had disappeared. rising from this exercise with a radiant glow upon her usually colorless cheeks the duchess became aware that she was not alone. a person of vulgar appearance, outrageously attired in a travesty of the ordinary afternoon costume of an english gentleman, stood three or four feet off, regarding her with an observant and rather wily smile. not at all discomposed, he was the first to speak.
“before burnin’ that,” he remarked, in the thick, snuffling accents of the low-bred, “your grace ought to have asked yourself whether it was any use. because—i put it to your grace, as a poker-player, being told the game’s fashionable in your grace’s set—a man who holds four aces can afford to throw away the fifth card, even if it’s a king. and people of my profession don’t go in for bluff. it ain’t their fancy.”
“what is your profession?” asked the duchess, regarding with contempt the dark, full-fed, red-lipped, hook-beaked countenance before her.
“money!” returned mr. moss rubelius. he rattled coin in his trousers-pockets as he spoke, and the superfluity of gold manifested in large, coarse rings upon his thick fingers, the massy chain festooned across his broad chest, the enormous links fastening his cuffs, and the huge diamond pin in his cravat, seemed to echo “money.”
the duchess lost no time in coming to the point. she was not guided by previous experience, having hitherto, by grace as well as luck, steered clear of scandal. but, girl of twenty as she was, she asked, as coolly as an intrigante of forty, though her young heart was fluttering wildly against the walls of its beautiful prison, “how did you get that card?”
278“i will be quite plain with your grace,” returned the money-lender. “when the second lot of cavalry drafts sailed for south africa early in the year of 1900, our firm, ’aving a writ of ’abeas out against captain sir hugh delaving of the royal red dragoon guards—i have reason to believe your grace knew something of the captain?”
“yes,” said the duchess, turning her cold blue eyes upon the twinkling orbs of mr. moss rubelius, “i knew something of the captain. you do not need to ask the question. please go on!”
“the captain was,” resumed mr. rubelius, “for a born aristocrat, the downiest i ever see—saw, i mean. he gave our clerks and the men with the warrant the slip by being ’eaded up in a wooden packin’ case, labeled ‘officers’ stores,’ and got away to the cape, where he was killed in his first engagement.”
“this,” said the duchess, “is no news to me.”
“no,” said the money-lender; “but it may be news to your grace that, though we couldn’t lay our ‘ands on the captain himself, we got hold of all his luggage. not much there that was of any marketable value, except a silver-gilt toilet-set. but there was a packet of letters in a russia writin’-case with a patent lock, all of ’em written in the large-sized, square ’and peculiar to the leadin’ female aristocracy, and signed ‘ethelwyne,’ or merely ‘e.’”
“and this discovery procures me the pleasure of this interview?” remarked the duchess. “the letters are mine—you come on the errand of a blackmailer. i have only one thing to wonder at, and that is—why you have not come before?”
“myself and partner thought, as honorable men of business, it would be better to approach the captain first,” explained the usurer. “his mother died the week he sailed for africa, and left him ten thousand 279pounds. we ’astened to communicate with him, but——”
“but he had been killed meanwhile,” said the duchess. “you would have had the money he owed—or did not owe—you, and your price for the letters, had you reached him in time; but you did not, and your goods are left upon your hands. why, as honorable men of business”—her lovely lip curled—“did you not take them at once to the duke?”
mr. moss rubelius seemed for the first time a little nonplussed. he looked down at his large, shiny boots, and the sight did not appear to relieve him.
“i will be quite plain with your grace.”
“pray endeavor!” said the duchess.
“the letters are—to put it delicately—not compromising enough. they’re more,” said mr. rubelius, “the letters a school-girl at brighton would write to her music-master, supposing him to be young and possessed of a pair of cavalry legs and a moustache. there’s fuel in ’em for a first-class connubial row,” continued mr. rubelius, “but not material for a domestic upheaval—followed by an action for divorce. as a man, no longer, but once in business—for within this last month our firm has dissolved, and myself and my partner have retired upon our means—this is my opinion with regard to these letters in your grace’s handwriting, addressed to the late captain sir h. delaving: the duke, i believe, would only laugh at ’em.”
the duchess started violently, and seemed about to speak.
“but, still, the letters are worth paying for,” ended mr. moss rubelius. “and your grace can have em—at my price.”
“what is your price?” asked the duchess, trying in vain to read in the stolid physiognomy before her the secret purpose of the soul within.
280“perhaps your grace wouldn’t mind my taking a chair?” insinuated mr. rubelius.
“do as you please, sir,” said the duchess, “only be brief.”
“i’ll try,” said the money-lender, comfortably crossing his legs. “to begin—we’re in the london season and the month of march, and your grace has a party at rantorlie for the april salmon-fishing. angling’s my one vice—my only weakness, ever since i caught minnows in the regent’s canal with a pickle-bottle tied to a string. coarse fishing in the thames was my recreation in grub times, whenever i ’ad a day away from our office in the minories. trout i’ve caught now and then, with a worm on a stuart tackle—since i became a butterfly. but i’ve never had a slap at a salmon, and the finest salmon-anglin’ in the kingdom is to be ’ad in the haste, below rantorlie. ask me there for april, see that i ’ave the pick of the sport, even if you ’ave a royal duke to cater for, as you ’ad last year, and, the day i land my first twenty-pounder, the letters are yours.”
the duchess burst out laughing wildly.
“ha, ha! oh!” she cried; “it is impossible to help it.... i can’t!... it is so.... ha, ha, ha!”
“i shan’t disgrace you,” said mr. rubelius. “my kit and turn-out will be by the best makers, and i’ll tip the ’ead gillie fifty pound. i’m a soft-hearted hass to let the letters go so cheap, but——golly! the chance of catchin’ a twenty-pound specimen of salmo salar that a royal ’ighness ’as angled for in vain!... look ’ere, your grace”—his tones were oily with entreaty—“write me the invitation now, on the spot, and you shall ’ave back the first three of those nine letters down on the nail.”
“you have them——?”
“with me!” said mr. rubelius, producing a letter-case 281attached to his stout person by a chain. “the others are—say, in retirement for the present.” he extracted from the case three large, square, gray envelopes, their addresses penned in a large, angular, girlish hand. “write me the invite now,” he said, “and these are yours to burn or show to his grace—whichever you please. the others shall be yours the day i land my twenty-pounder.”
the duchess moved to her writing-table and sat down. she chose paper and a pen, and dashed off these few lines:
“900, berkeley square, w.
“dear mr. moss rubelius,
“the duke and myself have asked a few friends to join us at rantorlie on april 1, for the salmon-fishing, and we should be so pleased if you would come.
“sincerely yours,
“ethelwyne rantorlie.”
“the first letter i ever had, dated from berkeley square,” commented mr. rubelius, as, holding the letter very firmly down upon the blotter with her slim and white, but very strong hands, the duchess signed to him with her chin to read, “that was anything in the nature of a genial invitation.”
he allowed the duchess to take the three letters previously referred to from his right hand, as he dexterously twitched the invitation from the blotter with his left finger and thumb. “this, your grace, will be as good as half a dozen more to me,” he observed, “when i show it about and get a par. into the papers.”
“horrible!” cried the duchess, shuddering. “you would not do that!”
mr. rubelius favored her with a knowing smile as he produced his shiny hat, his gloves, and a malacca 282cane, gold-handled, from some remote corner in which he had concealed them.
“let us, being now on the footing of ’ostess and guest, part friendly,” he said. “your grace, may i take your ’and?”
“i think the formality absolutely unnecessary,” said the duchess, ringing the bell.
then the money-lender went away, and she caught up a little portrait of the duke that stood upon her writing-table and began to cry over it and kiss it, and say incoherent, affectionate things, like quite an ordinary, commonplace young wife. for, after eighteen months of marriage, she had fallen seriously in love with her quiet, well-bred, intellectual husband, and the remembrance of the silly, romantic flirtation with dead hugh delaving was gall and wormwood to the palate that had learned a finer taste. how had she fallen so low as to write those idiotic, gushing letters?
their perfume sickened her. she shuddered at the touch of them, as she would have shuddered at the touch of the man to whom they had been written had he still lived. but he was dead, and she had never let him kiss her. she was thankful to remember that, as she put the letters in the fire and watched them blacken and burst into flame.
“my dear ethelwyne,” asked the duke, “where did you pick up mr. rubelius? or, i should ask, perhaps, how did that gentleman attain to your acquaintance?”
“it is rather a long, dull story,” said his wife, “but he is really an excellent person, if a little vulgar, and—— you won’t bother me any more about him, rantorlie, will you?”
she clasped her gloved hands about her husband’s arm as they stood together on the river beach below rantorlie. the turbid flood of the haste, tinged brown 283by spate, raced past between its rocky banks; the pine-forests climbed to meet the mountains, and the mountains lifted to the sky their crowns of snow. there was a smell of spring in the air, and word of new-run fish in the string of deep pools below the famous falls.
“i will not, if you particularly wish it,” said her husband. “but to banish your guest from my mind—that is impossible. for one thing, he is hung with air-belts, bottles, and canteens, as though he were starting for a tour in the wildest part of norway. i believe his equipment includes a hatchet, and i think that wad he wears upon his shoulders is a rubber tent, but i am not sure. he has never heard of prawn-baiting, his rods are of the most alarming weight and size, and his salmon-flies are as large and gaudy as paroquets, and calculated, mcdona says, to frighten any self-respecting fish out of his senses. we can’t allow such a gorgeous tyro to spoil the best water. he must be sent to some of the smaller pools, with a man to look after him.”
“but he—he won’t be likely to catch anything there, will he?” asked the duchess anxiously.
“a seven-pounder, if he has luck!”
“oh, rantorlie, that won’t do at all!” cried rantorlie’s wife in dismay. “i want him to have the chance of something really big. it’s our duty to see that our guests are properly treated, and, though you don’t like mr. rubelius——”
“dear child, i don’t dislike mr. rubelius. i simply don’t think about him any more than i think about the sea-lice on the new-run fish. they are there, and they look nasty. rubelius is here, and so does he.”
“doesn’t he—especially in evening-dress with a red camelia and a turn-down collar?” gasped the duchess.
the duke could not restrain a smile at the vision 284evoked, as mr. rubelius, panoplied in india-rubber, cork, and unshrinkables, strode into view. one of the gillies bore his rod, the other his basket. a third followed with that wobbliest of aquatic vehicles, a coracle, strapped upon his back. with a grin, the man waded into the water, unhitched his light burden, placed it on the rapid stream, and stood, knee-deep, holding the short painter, as the frisky coracle tugged at it.
“you’re going to try one of those things?” said the duke, as rubelius gracefully lifted his waterproof helmet to the duchess. “you know they’re awfully crank, don’t you, and not at all safe for a bung—i mean, a beginner?”
“the men, your grace,” explained mr. rubelius, “are going to peg me down in the bed of the stream, a little way out from the shore.”
“but if your peg draws,” said his host, “do you know how to use your paddle?”
“that will be all right, your grace,” said the affable rubelius. “i know how to punt. often on the thames at twicken’am——”
“my dear sir, the haste in moss-shire and the thames at twickenham are two very different rivers,” said the duke, beckoning his gillies to follow, and turning away. “i hope the man may not come to any harm,” he said. “ethelwyne, will you walk down to the falls with me? i”—he reddened a little—“i sent the others on in carts by road. we see so little of each other these days.”
and the young couple started, leaving mr. rubelius to be put into his coracle, with much splashing, and swearing on his part, by two of the gillies and a volunteer. it was a mild day for april in the north. a single cuckoo called by the riverside, and the duke and duchess did not hurry, though ethelwyne turned back before she reached the falls, below which the deepest salmon-pools were situated, and where the men, the 285boats, and the rest of the party waited. she had her rod and gillie, and meant to spin a little desultorily from the bank, the haste being almost in every part too deep for waders, except in the upper reaches.
“i wonder how that horror is getting on?” she thought, as the gillie baited her prawn-tackle. then, stepping out upon a natural pier of rough stones leading well out into the turbulent whitey-brown stream, the duchess skilfully swung out her line, and, after a little manipulation, found herself fast in a good-sized fish.
“what weight should you judge it?” she asked the attendant, when the silvery prey had been gaffed and landed.
“all saxteen,” said the gillie briefly. “hech! what cry was that?”
as the man held up his hand the noise was repeated.
“it sounds like somebody shouting ‘help!’” said the duchess.
and, rod in hand, she ran out upon the pier of bowlders, and, shading her eyes with her hand, gazed upstream, as round a rocky point above came something like a tarred washing-basket with a human figure huddled knees-to-chin inside. the coracle had betrayed the confidence of mr. rubelius, and drifted with its hapless tenant down the mile and a half of racing water which lay between rantorlie and the falls. the falls! at that remembrance the laughter died upon the duchess’s lips, and the ridiculous figure drifting towards her in the bobbing coracle became upon an instant a tragic spectacle. for death waited for mr. rubelius a little below the next bend in the rocky bed of the haste. and—if the money-lender were drowned—those letters ... yes, those letters, the proofs of the duchess’s folly, might be regained and destroyed, secretly, and nobody would ever——
286it seemed an age of reflection, but really only a second or two went by before the duchess cried out to rubelius in her sweet, shrill voice, and ran out to the very end of the pier of rocks, and with a clever underhand jerk sent the heavy prawn-tackle spinning out up and down the river. once she tried—and failed. the second time, two of the three hooks stuck firmly into the wickerwork of the coracle. it spun round, suddenly arrested in its course, but the strong salmon-gut held, and, after an anxious minute or two, the livid rubelius safely reached shore.
“i’ve ’ad my lesson,” said he, as the gillie administered whisky. “never any more salmon-fishing for me! it’s too tryin’,” he gulped—“too ’ard upon the nerves of a man not born to it!” then he got up, and came bare-headed to the duchess. his face was very pale and flabby, and his thick lips had lost their color, as he held out a black leather notecase to her grace. “you—you saved my life,” he said, “and i’m not going to be ungrateful. here they are—the six letters. look ’em over, if you like, and see for yourself. and, my obliged thanks to his grace for his hospitality—but i leave for town to-morrow. good-by, your grace. you won’t hear of me again!” and mr. rubelius kept his word.
