The Wheel of Love/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
A MAN WITH A THEORY
Even Miss Bussey was inclined to think that all had happened for the best. John’s eloquence had shaken her first disapprobation; the visible happiness of the persons chiefly concerned pleaded yet more persuasively. What harm, after all, was done, except for a little trouble and a little gossip? To these Mary and John were utterly indifferent. At first they had been rather shy in referring, before one another, to their loves, but custom taught them to mention the names without confusion, and ere long they had exchanged confidences as to their future plans. John’s arrangement was obviously the more prudent and becoming. He discountenanced Mary’s suggestion of an unannounced descent on Cannes, and persuaded her to follow his example and inform her lover that she would await news from him in Paris. They were to put up at the European, and telegrams there from Cannes would rind them on and after April 28th. All this valuable information was contained in the dispatches, which lay, with their priceless messages, on the said April 28th, in Mr. Arthur Laing’s flannel jacket, inside his portmanteau, on the way to Paris.
Paris claims to be the centre of the world, and if it be, the world has a very good centre. Anyhow Paris becomes, from this moment, the centre of this drama. Not only was Arthur Laing being whirled there by the Nice express, and Miss Bussey’s party proceeding thither by the eleven o’clock train from Victoria—Mary laughed as she thought it might have been her honeymoon she was starting on—but the Bellairs and their friends were heading for the same point. Miss Bussey’s party had the pleasanter journey; they were all of one mind; Miss Bussey was eager to reach Paris because it was the end of the journey; John and Mary desired nothing but the moment when with trembling fingers they should tear open their telegrams in the hall of the hotel. The expedition from the south did not enjoy a like unanimity; but before following their steps we may, in the interest of simplicity, land the first detachment safely at its destination.
When Mary and John, followed by Miss Bussey—they outstripped her in their eagerness—entered the hotel, a young man with an eye-glass was just engaging a bedroom. John took his place beside the stranger, and asked in a voice, which he strove to render calm, if there were any letters for
“Beg pardon, sir. In one moment,” said the clerk, and he added to Laing, “Number 37, sir.” Laing—Oh, the irony of things!—turned on John and his companion just that one supercilious glance which we bestow on other tourists, and followed his baggage upstairs.
“Anything,” resumed John, “for Miss Travers or Mr. Ashforth?” And he succeeded in looking as if he did not care a straw whether there were or not.
After a search the porter answered, “Nothing, sir.”
“What?” exclaimed John, aghast? “Oh, nonsense, look again.”
Another search followed; it was without result.
John saw Mary’s appealing eyes fixed on him.
“Nothing,” he said tragically.
“Oh, John!”
“Have you taken the rooms, Mr. Ashforth?” inquired Miss Bussey.
“No. I’m sorry. I forgot all about them.”
Miss Bussey was tired; she had been seasick, and the train always made her feel queer.
“Has neither of you got an ounce of wits about you?” she demanded, and plunged forward to the desk. John and Mary received their numbers in gloomy silence, and mounted the stairs.
Now Arthur Laing in his hasty survey of the party had arrived at a not unnatural but wholly erroneous conclusion. He had seen a young man, rather nervous, a young woman, looking anxious and shy, and an elderly person, plainly dressed (Miss Bussey was no dandy) sitting (Miss Bussey always sat as soon as she could) on, a trunk. He took John and Mary for a newly married couple, and Miss Bussey for an old family servant detailed to look after her young mistress’s entry into independent housekeeping.
“More infernal honeymooners,” he said to himself, as he washed his hands. “The place is always full of ’em. Girl wasn’t bad-looking, though.”
The next morning, unhappily, confirmed him in his mistake. For Miss Bussey, overcome by the various trials of the day before, kept her bed, and when Laing came down, the first sight which met his eyes was a breakfast-table, whereat Mary and John sat tête-à-tête. He eyed them with that mixture of scorn and envy which their supposed situation awakens in a bachelor’s heart, and took a place from which he could survey them at leisure. There is a bright side to everything; and that of Laing’s mistake was the pleasure he derived from his delusion. Sticking his glass firmly in his eye, he watched like a cat for those playful little endearments which his cynical mood—he was, like many of us, not at his best in the morning—led him to anticipate. He watched in vain. The young people were decorum itself; more than that, they showed signs of preoccupation; they spoke only occasionally, and then with a business-like brevity.
Suddenly the waiter entered, with a handful of letters which he proceeded to distribute. Laing expected none, and kept his gaze on his honeymooners. To his surprise they showed animation enough now; their eyes were first on the waiter’s approaching form; the bridegroom even rose an inch or two from his seat; both stretched out their hands.
Alas, with a little bow, a smile, and a shrug, the waiter passed by, and the disappointed couple sank back, with looks of blank despair.
Surely here was enough to set any open-minded man on the right track! Yes; but not enough to free one who was tied and bound to his own theory.
“She’s dashed anxious to hear from home!” mused Laing. “Poor girl! It ain’t over and above flattering to him, though.”
He finished his breakfast and went out to smoke. Presently he saw his friends come out also; they went to the porter’s desk and he heard one of them say “telegram.” A sudden idea struck him.
“I am an ass!” said he. “Tell you what it is; they’ve wired for rooms somewhere—Monte, most likely—and can’t start till they get an answer.”
He was so pleased with his explanation that his last doubt vanished and he watched Mary and John start for a walk—the fraternal relations they had established would have allowed such a thing even in London, much more in Paris—with quite a benevolent smile.
“Aunt Sarah is really quite poorly,” remarked Mary as they crossed the road and entered the Tuileries Gardens. “She’ll have to stay in all to-day and perhaps tomorrow. Isn’t it hard upon her? Paris amuses her so much.”
John expressed his sympathy.
“Now if it had been you or I,” he ended, “we shouldn’t have minded. Paris doesn’t amuse us just now.”
“Oh, but, John, we must be ready to start at any moment.”
“You can’t start without Miss Bussey,”
“I think that in a wagon-lit” began Mary.
“But what’s the good of talking?” cried John, bitterly. “Why is there no news from her?”
“He might have wired—John, is it possible our telegrams went astray?”
“Well, we must wait a day or two; or, if you like, we can wire again.”
Mary hesitated.
“I—I can’t do that, John. Suppose he’d received the first, and—and”
“Yes, I see. I don’t want to humiliate myself either.”
“We’ll wait a day, anyhow. And, now, John, let’s think no more about them! Oh, well, that’s nonsense; but let’s enjoys ourselves as well as we can.”
They managed to enjoy themselves very well. The town was new to Mary, and John found a pleasure in showing it off to her. After a morning of sight-seeing, they drove in the Bois, and ended the day at the theatre. Miss Bussey, unfortunately, was no better. She had sent for an English doctor and he talked vaguely about two or three days in bed. Mary ventured to ask whether her aunt could travel.
“Oh, if absolutely necessary, perhaps; but much better not,” was the answer.
Well, it was not absolutely necessary yet, for no letter and no telegram arrived. This was the awful fact that greeted them when they came in from the theatre.
“We’ll wire the first thing to-morrow,” declared John, in a resolute tone. “Write yours to-night, Mary, and I’ll give, them to the porter”
“Oh, not mine, please,” cried Mary, in shrinking bashfulness. “I can’t let the porter see mine!”
“Well, then, we’ll take them out before breakfast to-morrow.”
To this Mary agreed, and they sat down and wrote their dispatches. While they were so engaged Laing jumped out of a cab and entered the room. He seized an English paper, and, flinging himself into a chair, began to study the sporting news. Presently he stole a glance at Mary. It so chanced that just at the same moment she was stealing a glance at him. Mary dropped her eyes with a blush; Laing withdrew behind his paper.
“Shy, of course. Anybody would be,” he thought, with a smile.
“Did you like the piece, Mary?” asked John.
“Oh, very much. I wish Aunt Sarah could have seen it. She missed so much fun.”
“Well, she could hardly have come with us, could she?” remarked John.
“Oh, no,” said Mary.
“Well, I should rather think not,” whispered Laing, who failed to identify ‘Aunt Sarah’ with the elderly person on the trunk.
“I shouldn’t have been happy if she had,” said Mary.
“I simply wouldn’t have let her,” said John, in that authoritative tone which so well became him.
“No more would I in your place, old chap,” murmured Mr. Laing.
Mary rose.
“Thanks for all your kindness, John. Good-night.”
“I’m so glad you’ve had a pleasant day. Good-night, Mary.”
So they parted—with a good-night as calm, as decorous, as frankly fraternal as one could wish (or wish otherwise). Yet its very virtues undid it in the prematurely suspicious eyes of Arthur Laing. For no sooner was he left alone than he threw down his paper and began to chuckle.
“All for my benefit, that, eh? ‘Good-night, Mary!’ ‘Good-night, John!’ Lord! Lord!” and he rose, lit a cigarette, and ordered a brandy-and-soda. And ever and again he smiled. He felt very acute indeed.
So vain is it for either wisdom or simplicity, candor or diplomacy—nay, for facts themselves—to struggle against a Man with a Theory. Mr. Laing went to bed no more doubting that Mary and John were man and wife than he doubted that he had ‘spotted’ the winner of the Derby. Certitude could no farther go.