The Lady of the Basement Flat Part 6

"Dear me! I don't want to talk! I shall be thankful to sit by the fire and enjoy a quiet read," I said loftily, and promptly drew up an old arm-chair, and buried myself in the book which I had bought to while away the hours of my journey, and then left unread, because my own affairs were at the moment so much more absorbing than those of a fict.i.tious heroine. Now that my mind was more at ease, I found the story interesting enough, and had read on for about an hour with undisturbed enjoyment, when suddenly the door was flung open, and a voice announced:--

"Mr Maplestone!"

I leapt up, putting up a hasty hand to smooth my ruffled hair. That was the worst of having only one sitting-room! Visitors were hurled in upon one without a moment's warning. Happy Charmion behind the screen! I stared across the room and beheld a tall--very tall--thin man, with short reddish hair and light blue, angry-looking eyes. He was dressed in riding costume, which, so far as his figure went, became him exceedingly well. He was probably somewhere about thirty-five, and one glance at his tightly-set lips and firm square chin was enough to demonstrate the truth of Mr Edwards' a.s.sertion that he was "a gentleman who likes his own way". He had probably heard by now that for once he was to be thwarted, and had come to tell me what he thought about it.

At this moment I forgot to be sorry for his disappointment in my exceeding sympathy for myself! I glanced helplessly at the screen.

"Mrs Fane, I believe."

"I am Miss Wastneys. Mrs Fane is engaged. Perhaps it is something that I--"

He laid his hat and stick on the table.

"May I have a few minutes' conversation? You will allow me to sit down?"

"Certainly."

I pushed aside the easy-chair and seated myself on one of the six "uprights" which were ranged about the room. It felt so much more business-like and supporting. Mr Maplestone seated himself opposite to me, and rested his hands on his knees.

"I am told that you have some idea of renting a house called Pastimes, near here!"

"We have taken Pastimes. Mrs Fane and myself have this morning signed the lease."

He waved an impatient hand.

"This morning! So I am told. Edwards has behaved very badly. I warned him that things should not be hurried through."

"They have not been hurried. It is several months since Mrs Fane first saw the house, and three weeks since negotiations were opened a second time."

"I only heard this week that the house was vacant."

"And should Mr Edwards"--(the innocent inquiry of my voice was growing more and more marked)--"was it his duty to have told you?"

His eyes sent out a flash. I could see the muscles of his hand clench against his knee. I had scored a point, and his anger was correspondingly increased.

"Perhaps I had better explain," he began in a tone of elaborate forbearance. "I live at Wembly. Most of the land between here and there belongs to me. Pastimes happens to be outside the limit, and so it escaped my memory. I have not been over it before. I did not know the last tenants. For the last few weeks I have been looking for a house for my friend--a member of the family who is returning from abroad. Invalided!"

He p.r.o.nounced the last word with emphasis, staring fixedly at me the while. I adapted my features to express polite commiseration.

"It is natural that he should wish to live within driving distance of his friends."

"Oh, quite!"

"The moment that I saw Pastimes I knew for a sure thing that it would be just his house--"

"I am sorry, but as he has not seen it, he can't be disappointed. There must be other houses--"

"I have already said I have been searching round for--the--last--three-- weeks," Mr Maplestone repeated, in the carefully deliberate tone which disguises irritation. "Nothing else will suit anything like so well."

I murmured indefinitely, and glanced at the screen. Mentally I could see Charmion leaning back in her chair, smiling her slow fine smile, inquisitively waiting to see just how firm or how weak I could be. I was not inclined to be weak. There was something in the personality of this big domineering man which roused an imp of contradiction. We sat silent, eyeing one another across the room.

"I believe you and--er--Mrs Fane are strangers to this neighbourhood?"

"Yes! That is so."

"You have no--er--special link or attraction?"

I saw the trap, and protested blandly.

"Oh, yes! We are delighted with Pastimes. It exactly suits our requirements."

Mr Maplestone frowned, and fidgeted to and fro, then suddenly leant forward, straightening his face into what was obviously intended to be a smile.

"Miss Wastneys! Will you forgive me if I am perfectly frank and honest, and tell you exactly what is in my mind?"

"Of course I will. I am sure," I declared mendaciously, "there can be nothing to forgive!"

He had the grace to look a trifle ashamed, but his resolution did not waver. Not a bit! He looked straight in my eyes, and said deliberately:--

"I want Pastimes! For the moment it has slipped through my fingers, but a couple of hours cannot seriously affect your arrangements. On my cousin's behalf I am anxious to take over the lease. It would be an act of grace on your part if you would agree to this arrangement, and deal with me as his representative!"

The audacity of it! For a moment I was silent for sheer want of breath, but I could feel the blood rushing into my cheeks, and knew that my eyes were sending out flashes to meet his own. My appearance must have prepared him for my answer before it came, uttered in a very calm, very haughty, aggravatingly deliberate tone.

"We are not in the habit of changing our plans in a couple of hours.

Pastimes suits us. It is unnecessary to look for another house. The matter was decided this morning."

"You understand that my cousin is an invalid, and that he has a special reason for wishing to live in this neighbourhood?"

"There are other houses. Pastimes is not the only one that is vacant."

"It is the only one that is suitable," he repeated doggedly, and there followed a silence during which he sat back in his chair, staring at me with the light blue eyes, which of all eyes in the world can look at once the coldest and the most angry. If he could have done what he wanted at that moment, he would have taken me by the shoulders and shaken me well. To have made up his mind that a thing must be, and to find himself thwarted by a bit of a girl--it was unsupportable!--so unsupportable, that even now he refused to believe it could be true.

Giving himself a little shake, like a dog who rouses himself to fresh efforts, he again made that industrious attempt at a smile, and began slowly:--

"I am afraid I have made a bad beginning! Please forgive me if I have seemed discourteous. When we have talked things over quietly, I have no doubt that we shall be able to reach a satisfactory agreement."

"I'm afraid I can't see how that can be! There is only one Pastimes, so one of us is bound to be disappointed!"

He pounced on that as if scenting a hopeful weakness.

"Exactly. Yes; but the disappointment would vary in intensity. That is what I am anxious to point out. When Edwards told me that the tenant was a lady I felt rea.s.sured, for it is a matter in which a woman's kindliness and good heart--"

My eyes roved to the screen. Charmion's ears were a.s.suredly open at this moment, straining to hear my reply. I raised my eyebrows, and said frostily:--

"We are speaking of a business arrangement. I am afraid that is the only light in which we can consider the matter. We shall honourably fulfil our part of the agreement which we have signed."

"You refuse to show any consideration for an invalid returning home-- after many years?"

"Not at all. If it is ever in our power, as neighbours, to show him any kindness, we shall be eager to do all that is possible--short of giving up our own house for his benefit. Would you do it yourself, Mr Maplestone--for the sake of a stranger you had never seen?"

He stood staring at me, his cheeks bulging with the moving lumps which show that people are swallowing down words which they dare not allow themselves to say. With the same air of elaborate patience which he had shown before, he explained slowly:--