Читать книгу Secret of the River - Fred M. White - Страница 7

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THE man, Joseph Sidey, had been perfectly right when he told his companions that Ashdown had been convinced by the solemn warning conveyed to him by one who was actually a partner in the firm of Murray and Co. And that was just what Ashdown felt when he left the Croft on his way to the farmhouse. It was absolutely impossible for anybody to like the pessimistic Sidey, but, obviously, the man was honest and was doing his best to prevent Ashdown from embarking on what might prove to be a long commercial career.

One thing was certain—if Ashdown resolved to accept Murray's proposition, which he had practically decided to do, he would throw himself into it, heart and soul, which was one of his characteristics.

But not for a day or two. He felt it impossible to rest until he had solved the mystery surrounding the business of the pearl collar. That there was something sinister about the whole thing he felt sure. But he would not have felt quite so certain had he not been over head and ears in love with Angela Murray. If he had been indifferent to her, he knew perfectly well that he could only have come to one conclusion. He had seen Diana Longworth drop the collar, and he had watched Angela, waiting hidden in the back ground, until the owner of the ornament was out of sight. He had seen the furtive way in which the pearls were snatched, and the guilty look on Angela's face as she looked round to make sure that no one had noticed her action. And he knew that if the case had come into a court of law, and he was dragged in as a witness, he would be bound, as a man of honour, to speak just as he thought. And there could only be one end to that.

Meanwhile, there was no doubt of the fact that Angela was avoiding him. He saw her the next day when he called upon Murray to inform him of his decision to go into business—he saw her at tea time, and afterwards, without the chance of speaking to her alone. She seemed to be in a calm, collected frame of mind as if she had nothing on her conscience, and treated Nevil with a sort of distant friendliness that drove him almost to distraction. No longer was she changeable, flashing him smiles one moment and retreating within herself the next. It was a new mood to Nevil entirely.

Should he mention the matter to Eleanor Blissett? he asked himself. He had a warm regard for Mrs. Blissett, and, to a great extent, she was in his confidence. A happy, pleasant little woman, with a large fund of sympathy for the misfortunes of her neighbours and a store of practical kindness that made her very popular in the locality. Perhaps, on the whole, it would be as well if he asked his friend's wife to help him. Not to tell her the story of the stolen pearls, of course, but to explain how he felt towards Angela and ask another woman if she could expound the strange moods and fancies which kept Nevil awake at night thinking about them.

As he expected, he found a most sympathetic listener in Nelly Blissett. She followed with characteristic patience and that expression of kindly humour that so endeared her to her friends.

"I don't know whether you are aware of it or not," Nevil began tentatively. "But for some time past I have been—I have been——"

He broke off in some confusion and waited. He had not to wait long, because Mrs. Blissett seemed to know exactly what was in the back of his mind. It is a way that women of that kind have.

"Aware of the fact that you are very much in love with my friend Angela, I suppose," she said. "My dear boy, that fact has been obvious even to an ordinary mind like mine, ever since you two met. And I am quite sure that you have nothing to be afraid of."

"Meaning that Angela really cares for me?"

"Well, I am not going to say that. If you want me to declare that I have heard her confess to the fact, I am not going to do anything of the sort. It's like this, Nevil. There is no one more happily married than myself. And yet that happiness was very nearly wrecked by the action of a well-meaning friend. There are born match-makers in the world who do an incalculable amount of mischief, and a woman I once knew was one of that kind. She meant well, of course, but she very nearly succeeded in making Tom believe that I was running after him and that I was ready to fall into his arms with very little encouragement. No, Nevil, you must go your own way and fight your own battles. Of course, I have seen what was coming long before this and, to a certain extent, I am in Angela's confidence and that is why I am not going to say a word about it. Indeed, I have said too much already."

"Well, you haven't exactly depressed me," Nevil said with a smile. "But you are not going to tell me that there is nothing wrong with Angela. I mean mentally."

Mrs. Blissett showed some sign of embarrassment.

"What exactly do you mean?" she asked.

"Oh, my dear, you know as well as I do. Moods. Not the ordinary moods of a woman where a man is concerned, but swift changes. One day all smiles and sunshine and then, without any warning, a cold chilliness that turns one's blood to ice. And, more than once, I have surprised her on the verge of tears. Do you mean to say you haven't noticed that? Why, you must have done. And so must Tom."

"I am not going to deny it," Mrs. Blissett said. "You see, we were here long before you came home, and, almost directly, I grew to know Angela intimately. I was aware that she was a creature of extremes. Don't flatter yourself that you are the only one, because you are not. Tom says it's most psychological, whatever that may mean. At any rate, he is very interested in Angela's case and all the more so because it reminds him of a patient who was an inmate of the hospital where he did most of his training. He thinks that, sooner or later, Angela will grow out of it. You mustn't forget that she is quite young, barely one and twenty, and that is a period of a woman's life when she is most susceptible to outside influences."

"Yes, I know all that," Nevil said mournfully. "Now, do you think there is somebody else? I mean, some other man to whom she has promised herself and now regrets the fact."

"Having met you, of course," Mrs. Blissett said drily.

"Well, I dare say it sounded rather conceited on my part," Nevil confessed. "But it had occurred to me as one explanation. And yet it goes deeper than that, I am sure. You two are such bosom friends that Angela would have been sure to tell you if there had been another man in question. Don't you agree with me?"

They argued round and round for some time without reaching any conclusion and, when, at length, Nevil turned his face homewards, it seemed to him that he had derived precious little consolation from his heart to heart talk with Angela's best friend. He would have to see Angela and have it out with her. He would make it his business——

And then, as he walked along the path by the side of the partially frozen river, he came face to face with the object of his thoughts. She had seen him first and had half turned back before he became aware of her presence. A few rapid strides brought him to her side.

"Angela," he asked abruptly. "Why do you avoid me?"

She looked him fairly in the face with that blank expression that he had so learnt to dread. A second before he could have sworn that there was a gleam of welcome in her beautiful eyes.

"Am I avoiding you?" she asked.

"Of course you are. You have been doing it for the last day or two. Now, won't you tell me why?"

"Have you any right to ask?" Angela countered.

"Well, it you put it like that, no. But I thought we were something a little better than friends. So long as we were mere acquaintances, your expression was almost flattering. But directly you came to realise that I—well, dash it, I loved you, you changed entirely. Now and then glad to see me and almost affectionate and then, almost before I could rejoice in the realisation of it, so cold and distant. If my attentions are really repulsive to you——"

Angela threw up her hands with a little quick cry.

"Oh, why do you torture me like this?" she implored. "There are reasons, dreadful reasons why I must always remain a stranger to the happiness which I once thought I was entitled to. Don't ask me to tell you what they are, because I can't. And yet, not so long ago, you very nearly found out."

Nevil checked the words that rose to his lips. He had come very near to mentioning the affair of the pearl collar. He knew, by a sort of blind instinct, that, in some way, Angela's unhappiness was connected with the night of the amateur theatricals. But then, she had been quite as difficult and wayward before that event had happened and, not for worlds would Nevil have had her know that he had been acting a desperate part when he had pretended that the unpleasant business of the missing collar was no more than a mere practical joke. Did Angela feel that he had been deceived, or not? Anyway, it would be as well to carry on his attack from another angle.

"Don't think me unduly cruel," he said. "But, unfortunately, in this case, it is a question of the happiness of both of us. If you declare that you are indifferent to me——"

He paused significantly, as it waiting for a reply.

"Oh, I couldn't, I couldn't," Angela said, in a voice so low that he could scarcely catch the words. "It is not that, Nevil, indeed it isn't. Oh, do let me go, and think no more about me."

"No," Nevil said, "I can't part with you like that. If there is anybody else, any man who stands in the way——"

"There is no man," Angela said quite firmly. "Until I met you—but don't force me. If you only knew how unkind it is."

The pleading expression in her eyes and the unsteadiness of her lips touched Nevil.

"Very well, my dear," he said. "There are all the years before us, and I know how to wait. But we must meet as friends, because you live in my old house, and, moreover, I am going to become your father's partner in his business. This means that I shall be frequently at Ashdown Croft, and it would be very awkward indeed if we could not meet without others noticing that there was a cloud between us."

A strange look of relief and pain and suffering, all strangely and pathetically mingled, crossed Angela's face. Perhaps it was relief that was uppermost of the emotions.

"Very well, Nevil," she said. "It shall be as you say. We can, at any rate, be friends and neighbours."