  I awoke on the following morning with that vague, peculiar sense of having entered upon an altogether new phase of life. By degrees my semi-somnolent faculties reasserted themselves and I remembered where I was. My new life had indeed begun in earnest. I sprang out of bed and pulled up the blind. It was a very strange prospect I looked out upon, after the luxuriant hilly scenery of the home where I had lived all my life. Before me was a flat, uncultivated common, dotted here and there with a few stunted gorse-bushes and numerous sand-heaps. Farther away a long stretch of shingle sloped down to the foam-crested sea which, under the grey, sunless sky of the early winter’s morning, had a dull, forbidding appearance. Though it was not an inviting prospect, there was something attractive in its novelty, and, dropping the blind, I hastened into the bath-room and began dressing. It was past eight o’clock when I got downstairs, but I saw no one about, so I let myself out by the front door and walked down the drive. The grounds were small and soon explored, and, having exhausted them, I passed through a wicket-gate into a little plantation of pine-trees and thence out on to the common. Then, for the first time in my life, I felt a strong sea-breeze, and, with my cap in my hand and my face turned seawards, I stood for a few moments thoroughly enjoying it. “Glad to see that you’re an early riser, Mr. Morton. It’s a habit which, I’m sorry to say, my other pupils have not acquired.” I turned round with a start. A tall, thin man, somewhat past middle age, with iron-grey hair and thin, regular features, was standing by my side. His eyes were the eyes of a visionary and a poet, and his worn, thoughtful face bore the unmistakable stamp of the student. I liked his appearance, careless and dishevelled though it was in point of attire, and knowing that this must be Dr. Randall, I felt a keen sense of relief. For, bearing in mind the evident habits and last night’s occupation of Silchester and de Cartienne, I had begun to wonder somewhat apprehensively what manner of man the master of such pupils might be. Now I felt sure that the idea which had first occurred to me had been the correct one, and that the doings of the night before were carried on altogether under the rose. The man James had all the appearance of a servant whom it would be easy to bribe. This without doubt had been done. “Perhaps they haven’t lived all their lives in the country, sir, as I have,” I answered. “I have always been used to getting up early.” “So you are my new pupil?” he said. “Well, Mr. Morton, I’m very pleased to see you, and I have an idea that we shall get on very well together. I was going to walk down to the sea. Will you come with me?” I followed him along the tortuous path to the shore, and on the way he questioned me about my acquirements, putting me through a sort of vivÂ-voce examination, the result of which appeared to satisfy him. “This is quite a pleasant surprise to me,” he said, as we turned back to the house. “You are almost as advanced as de Cartienne and far more so than Silchester. I suppose you mean to matriculate?” I told him that I thought so, but he scarcely seemed to hear. Apparently his mind had wandered to some other subject and for nearly a quarter of an hour he remained absorbed. I learned afterwards that this was a habit of his. With a start he came to himself, and, apologising for his absent-mindedness, led the way back to the house and into the breakfast-room. The cloth was laid for four and the urn was hissing upon the table; but there was no one else down. “Is neither Lord Silchester nor Mr. de Cartienne up yet, James?” inquired Dr. Randall. James believed not, but would ascertain. In a few moments he returned. “Lord Silchester desires me to say that he was reading late last night, sir, and has overslept himself; but he will be down as soon as possible,” James announced solemnly. Remembering that James had been in attendance upon us in de Cartienne’s rooms last night, I thought that this was rather cool. But it was no concern of mine and I held my peace. Dr. Randall frowned slightly and looked vexed. “It appears to me that Silchester does most of his reading at night,” he remarked. “I could wish that the results of it were a little more apparent. And Mr. de Cartienne, James? Has he overslept himself, too?” “Mr. de Cartienne will be here immediately, sir,” the man announced. We began breakfast. When we were about half-way through the meal, the door opened and de Cartienne appeared. He cast an apprehensive glance at me, and then, seeing that Dr. Randall greeted him as usual, looked relieved. Presently the doctor left the table, bidding us join him in the study in half an hour. Directly the door had closed de Cartienne leaned back in his chair and laughed softly to himself. “Whatever made you get up so early?” he asked, looking at me curiously. “Gave me quite a turn when I heard that you were down and alone with Grumps; and Cis was in an awful funk. We were afraid that you might let out something about last night—accidentally, of course; and then there would have been the deuce to pay and no mistake. James, take my plate and bring me a brandy-and-soda. Take care the doctor doesn’t see you.” “Whose servant is James?” I asked, as he disappeared—“yours or the doctor’s?” “The doctor imagines that he’s his, I suppose; but he gets a lot more from Cis and me than Grumps pays him,” de Cartienne explained carelessly. “I knew him before he came here, and got him to apply for the situation by promising to double his wages.” “And the advantages?” I asked. “Obvious enough, I should think. You’ve seen some of them already, and you’ll see some more before you’ve been here long.” “I daresay. Perhaps it would be as well for me to tell you, de Cartienne, that what I have seen I don’t like.” “Very likely not,” he answered carelessly. “I thought directly I saw you that you were a bit of a prig—I beg your pardon, I should say, rather strait-laced. Still, I don’t suppose you’ll think it worth your while to interfere. You can go your way and Cis and I can go ours.” “That would make it a little dull for me,” I said slowly. “Perhaps I am not quite so strait-laced as you seem to think. I suppose you would teach me how to play cards, if I desired to learn?” “Oh, certainly! And how to use this also,” he remarked, drawing a latchkey from his pocket and swinging it carelessly backwards and forwards. “I think I will learn, then,” I answered. “After all, this place would be ghastly dull if I didn’t do as you fellows do.” He looked at me searchingly out of his keen dark eyes, but I sipped my coffee leisurely and seemed to be quite unconscious of his scrutiny. Apparently he was satisfied, for I saw the hard lines of his mouth relax a little and he smiled—a disagreeable smile of contemptuous triumph. “I’ve no doubt you’ll prove an apt pupil,” he remarked. “Have you finished? If so, we’ll go and have a cigarette in my room before we start work with Grumps.” “Does the doctor allow smoking?” I asked. “To tell you the truth, Morton, we’ve never asked him. What the eye doesn’t see, the heart doesn’t grieve over, you know. We go on that principle, and smoke in our rooms with the doors shut and windows open. Come along!” |
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