  “By the way,” said Escott, a couple of days later, “how is your mysterious man getting on? I haven’t seen him myself yet.” Sherlaw laughed. “He’s turning out a regular sportsman, by George! For the first day he was more or less in the same state in which he arrived. Then he began to wake up and ask questions. ‘What the devil is this place?’ he said to me in the evening. It may sound profane, but he was very polite, I assure you. I told him, and he sort of raised his eyebrows, smiled, and thanked me like a Prime Minister acknowledging an obligation. Since then he has steadily developed sporting, not to say frisky, tastes. He went out this morning, and in five minutes had his arm round one of the prettiest nurses’ waist. And she didn’t seem to mind much either, by George!” “He’ll want a bit of looking after, I take it.” “Seems to me he is uncommonly capable of taking care of himself. The rest of the establishment will want looking after, though.” From this time forth the mysterious gentleman began to regularly take the air and to be remarked, and having once remarked him, people looked again. Mr Francis Beveridge, for such it appeared was his name, was distinguished even for Clankwood. Though his antecedents were involved in mystery, so much confidence [pg 21] It was upon a morning about a week after his arrival that Dr Escott, alone in the billiard-room, saw him enter. Escott had by this time made his acquaintance, and, like almost everybody else, had already succumbed to the fascination of his address. “Good morning, doctor,” he said; “I wish you to do me a trifling favour, a mere bending of your eyes.” Escott laughed. “I shall be delighted. What is it?” Mr Beveridge unbuttoned his waistcoat and displayed his shirt-front. “I only want you to be good enough to read the inscription written here.” The doctor bent down. [pg 22]“‘Francis Beveridge,’” he said. “That’s all I see.” “And that’s all I see,” said Mr Beveridge. “Now what can you read here? I am not troubling you?” He held out his handkerchief as he spoke. “Not a bit,” laughed the doctor, “but I only see ‘Francis Beveridge’ here too, I’m afraid.” “Everything has got it,” said Mr Beveridge, shaking his head, it would be hard to say whether humorously or sadly. “‘Francis Beveridge’ on everything. It follows, I suppose, that I am Francis Beveridge?” “What else?” asked Escott, who was much amused. “That’s just it. What else?” said the other. He smiled a peculiarly charming smile, thanked the doctor with exaggerated gratitude, and strolled out again. “He is a rum chap,” reflected Escott. And indeed in the outside world he might safely have been termed rather rum, but here in this backwater, so full of the oddest flotsam, his waywardness was rather less than the average. He had, for instance, a diverting habit of modifying the time, and even the tune, of the hymns on Sunday, and he confessed to having kissed all the nurses and housemaids except three. But both Escott and Sherlaw declared they had never met a more congenial spirit. Mr Beveridge’s game of billiards was quite remarkable even for Clankwood, where the enforced leisure of many of the noblemen and gentlemen had made them highly proficient on the spot; he showed every promise, on his rare opportunities, of being an unusually entertaining small hour, whisky-and-soda raconteur; in fact, he was evidently a man whose previous career, [pg 23] November became December, and to all appearances he had settled down in his new residence with complete resignation, when that unknowable factor that upsets so many calculations came upon the scene,—the factor, I mean, that wears a petticoat. Mr Beveridge strolled into Escott’s room one morning to find the doctor inspecting a mixed assortment of white kid gloves. “Do these mean past or future conquests?” he asked with his smile. “Both,” laughed the doctor. “I’m trying to pick out a clean pair for the dance to-night.” “You go a-dancing, then?” “Don’t you know it’s our own monthly ball here?” “Of course,” said Mr Beveridge, passing his hand quickly across his brow. “I must have heard, but things pass so quickly through my head nowadays.” He laughed a little conventional laugh, and gazed at the gloves. “You are coming, of course?” said Escott. “If you can lend me a pair of these. Can you spare one?” “Help yourself,” replied the doctor. Mr Beveridge selected a pair with the care of a man who is particular in such matters, put them in his pocket, thanked the doctor, and went out. [pg 24]“Hope he doesn’t play the fool,” thought Escott. Invitations to the balls at Clankwood were naturally in great demand throughout the county, for nowhere were noblemen so numerous and divinities so tangible. Carriages and pairs rolled up one after another, the mansion glittered with lights, the strains of the band could be heard loud and stirring or low and faintly all through the house. “Who is that man dancing opposite my daughter?” asked the Countess of Grillyer. “A Mr Beveridge,” replied Dr Congleton. Mr Beveridge, in fact, the mark of all eyes, was dancing in a set of lancers. The couple opposite to him consisted of a stout elderly gentleman who, doubtless for the best reasons, styled himself the Emperor of the two Americas, and a charming little pink and flaxen partner—the Lady Alicia À Fyre, as everybody who was anybody could have told you. The handsome stranger moved, as might be expected, with his accustomed grace and air of distinction, and, probably to convince his admirers that there was nothing meretricious in his performance, he carried his hands in his pockets the whole time. This certainly caused a little inconvenience to his partner, but to be characteristic in Clankwood one had to step very far out of the beaten track. For two figures the Emperor snorted disapproval, but at the end of the third, when Mr Beveridge had been skipping round the outskirts of the set, his hands still thrust out of sight, somewhat to the derangement of the customary procedure, he could contain himself no longer. [pg 25]“Hey, young man!” he asked in his most stentorian voice, as the music ceased, “are you afraid of having your pockets picked?” “Alas!” replied Mr Beveridge, “it would take two men to do that.” “Huh!” snorted the Emperor, “you are so d—d strong, are you?” “I mean,” answered his vis-À-vis with his polite smile, “that it would take one man to put something in and another to take it out.” This remark not only turned the laugh entirely on Mr Beveridge’s side, but it introduced the upsetting factor. |
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