The Double Life Of Mr. Alfred Burton Part 17

He turned and hurried off. She watched him until he was a speck upon the road; watched him, even then, from among the shadows of the trees.

There was a lump in her throat and a misty light in her eyes. She had forgotten everything that had seemed absurd to her in this strange little romance. Her eyes and her arms, almost her lips, were calling him to her.

CHAPTER XII

A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

Burton's life moved for a time among the easy places. The sub-editor of the Piccadilly Gazette, to which he still contributed, voluntarily increased his scale of pay and was insatiable in his demand for copy.

Burton moved into pleasant rooms in a sunny corner of an old-fashioned square. He sent Ellen three pounds a week--all she would accept--and save for a dull pain at his heart which seldom left him, he found much pleasure in life. Then came the first little break in the clear sky.

Mr. Waddington came in to see him one day and Mr. Waddington was looking distinctly worried. He was neatly and tastefully dressed, and his demeanor had lost all its old offensiveness. His manner, too, was immensely improved. His tone was almost gentle. Nevertheless, there was a perplexed frown upon his forehead and an anxious look in his eyes.

"Business all right, I hope?" Burton asked him, after he had welcomed his late employer, installed him in an easy chair and pushed a box of cigarettes towards him.

"It is better than all right," Mr. Waddington replied. "It is wonderful. We have never had such crowds at the sales, and I have taken on four more clerks in the house-letting department."

Burton laughed softly. The humor of the auctioneer's position appealed to him immensely.

"I am making money fast," Mr. Waddington admitted, without enthusiasm.

"Another year or two of this and I could retire comfortably."

"Then what," Burton asked, "is the worry?"

Mr. Waddington smoked vigorously for a moment. "Has it ever occurred to you, Burton," he inquired, "to ask yourself whether this peculiar state, in which you and I find ourselves, may be wholly permanent?"

Burton was genuinely startled. He sat looking at his visitor like one turned to stone. The prospect called up by that simple question was appalling. His cigarette burned idly away between his fingers. The shadow of fear lurked in his eyes.

"Not permanent?" he repeated. "I never thought of that. Why do you ask?"

Mr. Waddington scratched his chin thoughtfully. It was not a graceful proceeding, and Burton, with a sinking heart, remembered that this was one of his employer's old habits. He scrutinized his visitor more closely. Although his appearance at first sight was immaculate, there were certain alarming symptoms to be noted. His linen collar was certainly doing service for the second time, and Burton noticed with dismay a slight revival of the auctioneer's taste for loud colors in his shirt and socks.

"It was yesterday afternoon," Mr. Waddington continued. "I was selling an oak chest. I explained that it was not a genuine antique but that it had certainly some claims to antiquity on account of its design. That seemed to me to be a very fair way of putting it. Then I saw a man, who was very keen on buying it, examining the bra.s.s handles. He looked up at me. 'Why, the handles are genuine!' he exclaimed. 'They're real old bra.s.s, anyway!' Now I knew quite well, Burton, that those handles, though they were extraordinarily near the real thing, were not genuine.

I opened my mouth to tell him so, and then, Burton, do you know that I hesitated?"

"You didn't tell him--that they were genuine!" Burton gasped.

Mr. Waddington shook his head.

"No," he admitted, "I did not go so far as that. Still, it was almost as great a shock to me. I felt a distinct impulse to tell him that they were. A few days ago, such an idea would never have entered my head.

It would have been a sheer impossibility."

"Anything else?"

Mr. Waddington hesitated. He seemed to be feeling the shame of these avowals.

"This morning," he confessed, "I pa.s.sed the door of the Golden Lion on my way to the office. For the first time since--you know when--I felt a desire--a faint desire but still it was there--to go in and chaff Milly and have a pint of beer in a tankard. I didn't go, of course, but I felt the impulse, nevertheless."

Burton had turned very pale.

"This," he exclaimed, "is terrible! What have you done with the rest of the beans?"

"I have nine," Mr. Waddington replied. "I carry them in my waistcoat pocket. I am perfectly convinced now that there is trouble ahead, for on my way up the stairs here I felt a strong inclination to tell you that I had lost them, in case you should want any."

"It would be only fair," Burton declared warmly, "to divide them." Mr.

Waddington frowned.

"I see no reason for that at all," he objected, feeling his waistcoat pocket. "The beans are in my possession."

"But if we are to revert to our former state of barbarism," Burton urged, "let us at least do so together."

"You are some time ahead of me," Mr. Waddington pointed out. "None of these warnings have come to you yet. It may be something wrong with my disposition, or the way I have swallowed my bean. Yours may be a permanent affair."

Burton hesitated. Then he threw himself into a chair and buried his face in his hands.

"My time is coming, too!" he confessed mournfully. "I am in the same position. Even while you were speaking just now, I felt a strong desire to deceive you, to invent some experience similar to your own."

"Are you sure of that?" Mr. Waddington asked anxiously.

"Quite sure!" Burton groaned.

"Then we are both of us in it, and that's a fact," Mr. Waddington affirmed.

Burton looked up.

"About those beans?"

Mr. Waddington thought for some few moments.

"I shall keep five and give you four," he decided. "It is treating you very generously. I am not obliged to give you any at all, you know. I am doing it because I am good-natured and because we are in this thing together. If the worst happens, you can come back to your old place in the firm. I dare say we shall pull along somehow."

Burton shuddered from head to foot. He saw it all mapped out before him--the miserable routine of dull, undignified work, the whole intolerable outlook of that daily life. He covered his face with his hands to shut out the prospect.

"I couldn't come back!" he muttered "I couldn't!"

"That's all very well," Mr. Waddington objected, "but if this thing really pa.s.ses off, you'll be only too glad to. I suppose I shall flirt with Milly again, and drink beer, give up Ruskin for the Sporting Times, wear loud clothes, tell most frightful falsehoods when I sell that terrible furniture and buy another trotting horse to drive out on Sundays. Oh, Lord!"

Mr. Waddington rose slowly to his feet. He lit a cigarette, sniffed it, and looked at it disparagingly. It was very fine Turkish tobacco and one of Burton's extravagances.

"I am not sure, after all," he declared, "that there isn't more flavor in a British cigar."

Burton shuddered

"You had better take a bean at once," he groaned. "Those cigarettes are made from the finest tobacco imported."

Mr. Waddington felt in his waistcoat pocket with trembling fingers, slowly produced a little silver box, took out a bean and crunched it between his teeth. An expression of immense relief at once spread over his features. He sniffed at his cigarette with an air of keen appreciation, and deliberately handed over to Burton his share of the remaining beans.

"I am myself again," he declared firmly. "I can feel the change already."