Kitabı oku: «Amusement Only»
THE LOST DUCHESS
CHAPTER I
THE DUCHESS IS LOST
"Has the Duchess returned?"
Knowles came further into the room. He had a letter on a salver. When the Duke had taken it, Knowles still lingered. The Duke glanced at him.
"Is an answer required?"
"No, your Grace." Still Knowles lingered. "Something a little singular has happened. The carriage has returned without the Duchess, and the men say that they thought her Grace was in it."
"What do you mean?"
"I hardly understand myself, your Grace. Perhaps you would like to see Barnes."
Barnes was the coachman.
"Send him up." When Knowles had gone, and he was alone, his Grace showed signs of being slightly annoyed. He looked at his watch. "I told her she'd better be in by four. She says that she's not feeling well, and yet one would think that she was not aware of the fatigue entailed in having the Prince to dinner, and a mob of people to follow. I particularly wished her to lie down for a couple of hours."
Knowles ushered in not only Barnes, the coachman, but Moysey, the footman, too. Both these persons seemed to be ill at ease. The Duke glanced at them sharply. In his voice there was a suggestion of impatience.
"What is the matter?"
Barnes explained as best he could.
"If you please, your Grace, we waited for the Duchess outside Cane and Wilson's, the drapers. The Duchess came out, got into the carriage, and Moysey shut the door, and her Grace said, 'Home!' and yet when we got home she wasn't there."
"She wasn't where?"
"Her Grace wasn't in the carriage, your Grace."
"What on earth do you mean?"
"Her Grace did get into the carriage; you shut the door, didn't you?"
Barnes turned to Moysey. Moysey brought his hand up to his brow in a sort of military salute-he had been a soldier in the regiment in which, once upon a time, the Duke had been a subaltern:
"She did. The Duchess came out of the shop. She seemed rather in a hurry, I thought. She got into the carriage, and she said, 'Home, Moysey!' I shut the door, and Barnes drove straight home. We never stopped anywhere, and we never noticed nothing happen on the way; and yet when we got home the carriage was empty."
The Duke stared.
"Do you mean to tell me that the Duchess got out of the carriage while you were driving full pelt through the streets without saying anything to you, and without you noticing it?"
"The carriage was empty when we got home, your Grace."
"Was either of the doors open?"
"No, your Grace."
"You fellows have been up to some infernal mischief. You have made a mess of it. You never picked up the Duchess, and you're trying to palm this tale off on to me to save yourselves."
Barnes was moved to adjuration:
"I'll take my Bible oath, your Grace, that the Duchess got into the carriage outside Cane and Wilson's."
Moysey seconded his colleague:
"I will swear to that, your Grace. She got into the carriage, and I shut the door, and she said, 'Home, Moysey!'"
The Duke looked as if he did not know what to make of the story and its tellers.
"What carriage did you have?"
"Her Grace's brougham, your Grace."
Knowles interposed:
"The brougham was ordered because I understood that the Duchess was not feeling very well, and there's rather a high wind, your Grace."
The Duke snapped at him:
"What has that to do with it? Are you suggesting that the Duchess was more likely to jump out of a brougham while it was dashing through the streets than out of any other kind of vehicle?"
The Duke's glance fell on the letter which Knowles had brought him when he first had entered. He had placed it on his writing-table. Now he took it up. It was addressed:
"To His Grace"The Duke of Datchet.
"Private!
"Very Pressing!!!"
The name was written in a fine, clear, almost feminine hand. The words in the left-hand corner of the envelope were written in a different hand. They were large and bold; almost as though they had been painted with the end of the penholder instead of being written with the pen. The envelope itself was of an unusual size, and bulged out as though it contained something else besides a letter.
The Duke tore the envelope open. As he did so something fell out of it on to the writing-table. It looked as though it was a lock of a woman's hair. As he glanced at it the Duke seemed to be a trifle startled. The Duke read the letter:
"Your Grace will be so good as to bring five hundred pounds (£500) in gold to the Piccadilly end of the Burlington Arcade within an hour of the receipt of this. The Duchess of Datchet has been kidnapped. An imitation duchess got into the carriage, which was waiting outside Cane and Wilson's and she alighted on the road. Unless your Grace does as you are requested the Duchess of Datchet's left-hand little finger will be at once cut off, and sent home in time to receive the Prince to dinner. Other portions of her Grace will follow. A lock of her Grace's hair is enclosed with this as an earnest of our good intentions.
"Before 5.30 p. m. your Grace is requested to be at the Piccadilly end of the Burlington Arcade with five hundred pounds (£500) in gold. You will there be accosted by an individual in a white top-hat, and with a gardenia in his button-hole. You will be entirely at liberty to give him into custody, or to have him followed by the police. In which case the Duchess's left arm, cut off at the shoulder, will be sent home for dinner-not to mention other extremely possible contingencies. But you are advised to give the individual in question the five hundred pounds in gold, because in that case the Duchess herself will be home in time to receive the Prince to dinner, and with one of the best stories with which to entertain your distinguished guests they ever heard.
"Remember! not later than 5.30, unless you wish to receive her Grace's little finger."
The Duke stared at this amazing epistle when he had read it as though he had found it difficult to believe the evidence of his eyes. He was not a demonstrative person as a rule, but this little communication astonished even him. He read it again. Then his hands dropped to his sides and he swore.
He took up the lock of hair which had fallen out of the envelope. Was it possible that it could be his wife's, the Duchess? Was it possible that a Duchess of Datchet could be kidnapped, in broad daylight, in the heart of London, and be sent home, as it were, in pieces? Had sacrilegious hands already been playing pranks with that great lady's hair? Certainly, that hair was so like her hair that the mere resemblance made his Grace's blood run cold. He turned on Messrs. Barnes and Moysey as though he would have liked to rend them:
"You scoundrels!"
He moved forward as though the intention had entered his ducal heart to knock his servants down. But, if that were so, he did not act quite up to his intention. Instead, he stretched out his arm, pointing at them as if he were an accusing spirit:
"Will you swear that it was the Duchess who got into the carriage outside Cane and Wilson's?"
Barnes began to stammer:
"I-I'll swear, your Grace, that I-I thought-"
The Duke stormed an interruption:
"I don't ask what you thought. I ask you, will you swear it was?"
The Duke's anger was more than Barnes could face. He was silent. Moysey showed a larger courage:
"Could have sworn that it was at the time, your Grace. But now it seems to me that it's a rummy go."
"A rummy go!" The peculiarity of the phrase did not seem to strike the Duke just then-at least, he echoed it as if it didn't. "You call it a rummy go! Do you know that I am told in this letter that the woman who had entered the carriage was not the Duchess? What you were thinking about, or what case you will be able to make out for yourselves, you know better than I; but I can tell you this-that in an hour you will leave my service, and you may esteem yourselves fortunate if, to-night, you are not both of you sleeping in gaol. Knowles! take these men to a room, and lock them in it, and set some one to see that they don't get out of it, and come back at once. You understand, at once-to me!"
Knowles did not give Messrs. Barnes and Moysey a chance to offer a remonstrance, even if they had been disposed to do so. He escorted them out of the room with a dexterity and a celerity which did him credit, and in a remarkably short space of time he returned to the ducal presence. He was the Duke's own servant-his own particular man. He was a little older than the Duke, and he had been his servant almost ever since the Duke had been old enough to have a servant of his very own. Probably James Knowles knew more than any living creature of the Duke's "secret history" – as they call it in the chroniques scandaleuses-of his little peculiarities, of his strong points, and his weak ones. And, in the possession of this knowledge, he had borne himself in a manner which had caused the Duke to come to look upon him as a man in whom he might have confidence-that confidence which a penitent has in a confessor-to look upon him as a trusted and a trustworthy friend.
When Knowles reappeared the Duke handed him the curious epistle with which he had been favoured.
"Read that, and tell me what you think of it."
Knowles read it. His countenance was even more of a mask than the Duke's. He evinced no sign of astonishment.
"I am inclined, your Grace, to think that it's a hoax."
"A hoax! I don't know what you call a hoax! That is not a hoax!" The Duke held out the lock of hair which had fallen from the envelope. "I have compared it with the hair in my locket, and it is the Duchess's hair."
"May I look at it?"
The Duke handed it to Knowles. Knowles examined it closely.
"It resembles her Grace's hair."
"Resembles! It is her hair."
Knowles still continued to reflect. He offered a suggestion.
"Shall I send for the police?"
"The police! What's the good of sending for the police? If what that letter says is true, by the time I have succeeded in making a thick-skulled constable understand what has happened the Duchess will be-will be mutilated!"
The Duke turned away as if the thought were frightful-as, indeed, it was.
"Is that all you can suggest?"
"Unless your Grace proposes taking the five hundred pounds."
One might almost have suspected that the words were spoken in irony. But before he could answer another servant entered, who also brought a letter for the Duke. When his Grace's glance fell on it he uttered an exclamation. The writing on the envelope was the same writing that had been on the envelope which had contained the very singular communication-like it in all respects down to the broomstick-end thickness of the "Private!" and "Very pressing!!!" in the corner.
"Who brought this?" stormed the Duke.
The servant appeared to be a little startled by the violence of his Grace's manner.
"A lady-or, at least, your Grace, she seemed to be a lady."
"Where is she?"
"She came in a hansom, your Grace. She gave me that letter, and said, 'Give that to the Duke of Datchet at once-without a moment's delay!' Then she got into the hansom again, and drove away."
"Why didn't you stop her?"
"Your Grace!"
The man seemed surprised, as though the idea of stopping chance visitors to the ducal mansion vi et armis had not, until that moment, entered into his philosophy. The Duke continued to regard the man as if he could say a good deal, if he chose. Then he pointed to the door. His lips said nothing, but his gesture much. The servant vanished.
"Another hoax!" the Duke said, grimly, as he tore the envelope open.
This time the envelope contained a sheet of paper, and in the sheet of paper another envelope. The Duke unfolded the sheet of paper. On it some words were written. These:
"The Duchess appears so particularly anxious to drop you a line, that one really hasn't the heart to refuse her. Her Grace's communication-written amidst blinding tears! – you will find enclosed with this."
"Knowles," said the Duke, in a voice which actually trembled, "Knowles, hoax or no hoax, I will be even with the gentleman who wrote that."
Handing the sheet of paper to Mr. Knowles, his Grace turned his attention to the envelope which had been enclosed. It was a small square envelope, of the finest quality, and it reeked with perfume. The Duke's countenance assumed an added frown-he had no fondness for envelopes which were scented. In the centre of the envelope were the words "To the Duke of Datchet," written in the big, bold, sprawling hand which he knew so well.
"Mabel's writing," he said to himself, as, with shaking fingers, he tore the envelope open.
The sheet of paper which he took out was almost as stiff as cardboard. It, too, emitted what his Grace deemed the nauseous odours of the perfumer's shop.
On it was written this letter:
"My dear Hereward, – For Heaven's sake do what these people require! I don't know what has happened or where I am, but I am nearly distracted! They have already cut off some of my hair, and they tell me that, if you don't let them have five hundred pounds in gold by half-past five, they will cut off my little finger too. I would sooner die than lose my little finger-and-I don't know what else besides.
"By the token which I send you, and which has never, until now, been off my breast, I conjure you to help me. – MABEL.
"Hereward-help me!"
When he read that letter the Duke turned white-very white, as white as the paper on which it was written. He passed the epistle on to Knowles.
"I suppose that also is a hoax?"
He spoke in a tone of voice which was unpleasantly cold-a coldness which Mr. Knowles was aware, from not inconsiderable experience, betokened that the Duke was white-hot within.
Mr. Knowles's demeanour, however, betrayed no sign that he was aware of anything of the kind, he being conscious that there is a certain sort of knowledge which is apt, at times, to be dangerous to its possessor. He read the letter from beginning to end.
"This certainly does resemble her Grace's writing."
"You think it does resemble it, do you? You think that there is a certain faint and distant similarity?" The Duke asked these questions quietly-too quietly. Then, all at once, he thundered-which Mr. Knowles was quite prepared for-"Why, you idiot, don't you know it is her writing?"
Mr. Knowles gave way another point. He was, constitutionally, too much of a diplomatist to concede more than a point at a time.
"So far as appearances go, I am bound to admit that I think it possible that it is her Grace's writing."
Then the Duke let fly at him-at this perfectly innocent man. But, of course, Mr. Knowles was long since inured.
"Perhaps you would like me to send for an expert in writing? Or perhaps you would prefer that I should send for half-a-dozen? And by the time that they had sent in their reports, and you had reported on their reports, and they had reported on your report of their reports, and some one or other of you had made up his mind, the Duchess would be dead. Yes, sir, and you'd have murdered her!"
His Grace hurled this frightful accusation at Mr. Knowles, as if Mr. Knowles had been a criminal standing in the dock.
While the Duke had been collecting and discharging his nice derangement of epithets his fingers had been examining the interior of the envelope which had held the letter which purported to be written by his wife. When his fingers reappeared he was holding something between his first finger and his thumb. He glanced at this himself. Then he held it out towards Mr. Knowles.
Again his voice was trembling.
"If this letter is not from the Duchess, how came that to be in the envelope?"
Mr. Knowles endeavoured to see what the Duke was holding. It was so minute an object that it was a little difficult to make out exactly what it was, and the Duke appeared to be unwilling to let it go.
So his Grace explained:
"That is the half of a sixpence which I gave to the Duchess when I asked her to be my wife. You see it is pierced. I pierced that hole in it myself. As the Duchess says in this letter, and as I have reason to know, she has worn this broken sixpence from that hour to this. If this letter is not hers, how came this token in the envelope? How came any one to know, even, that she carried it?"
Mr. Knowles was silent. He still yielded to his constitutional disrelish to commit himself. At last he asked:
"What is it that your Grace proposes to do?"
The Duke spoke with a bitterness which almost suggested a personal animosity towards the inoffensive Mr. Knowles.
"I propose, with your permission, to release the Duchess from the custody of my estimable correspondent. I propose-always with your permission-to comply with his modest request, and to take him his five hundred pounds in gold." He paused, then continued in a tone which, coming from him, meant volumes: "Afterwards, I propose to cry quits with the concoctor of this pretty little hoax, even if it costs me every penny I possess. He shall pay more for that five hundred pounds than he supposes."
CHAPTER II
SOUGHT
The Duke of Datchet, coming out of the bank, lingered for a moment on the steps. In one hand he carried a canvas bag, which seemed well weighted. On his countenance there was an expression which to a casual observer might have suggested that his Grace was not completely at his ease. That casual observer happened to come strolling by. It took the form of Ivor Dacre.
Mr. Dacre looked the Duke of Datchet up and down in that languid way he has. He perceived the canvas bag. Then he remarked, possibly intending to be facetious:
"Been robbing the bank? Shall I call a cart?"
Nobody minds what Ivor Dacre says. Besides, he is the Duke's own cousin. Perhaps a little removed; still, there it is. So the Duke smiled a sickly smile, as if Mr. Dacre's delicate wit had given him a passing touch of indigestion.
Mr. Dacre noticed that the Duke looked sallow, so he gave his pretty sense of humour another airing:
"Kitchen boiler burst? When I saw the Duchess just now I wondered if it had."
His Grace distinctly started. He almost dropped the canvas bag.
"You saw the Duchess just now, Ivor! When?"
The Duke was evidently moved. Mr. Dacre was stirred to languid curiosity.
"I can't say I clocked it. Perhaps half an hour ago; perhaps a little more."
"Half an hour ago! Are you sure? Where did you see her?"
Mr. Dacre wondered. The Duchess of Datchet could scarcely have been eloping in broad daylight. Moreover, she had not yet been married a year. Every one knew that she and the Duke were still as fond of each other as if they were not man and wife. So, although the Duke, for some cause or other, was evidently in an odd state of agitation, Mr. Dacre saw no reason why he should not make a clean breast of all he knew.
"She was going like blazes in a hansom cab."
"In a hansom cab? Where?"
"Down Waterloo Place."
"Was she alone?"
Mr. Dacre reflected. He glanced at the Duke out of the corners of his eyes. His languid utterance became a positive drawl:
"I rather fancy she wasn't."
"Who was with her?"
"My dear fellow, if you were to offer me the bank I couldn't tell you."
"Was it a man?"
Mr. Dacre's drawl became still more pronounced:
"I rather fancy that it was."
Mr. Dacre expected something. The Duke was so excited. But he by no means expected what actually came:
"Ivor, she's been kidnapped!"
Mr. Dacre did what he had never been known to do before within the memory of man-he dropped his eye-glass.
"Datchet!"
"She has! Some scoundrel has decoyed her away, and trapped her. He's already sent me a lock of her hair, and he tells me that if I don't let him have five hundred pounds in gold by half-past five he'll let me have her little finger."
Mr. Dacre did not know what to make of his Grace at all. He was a sober man-it couldn't be that! Mr. Dacre felt really concerned.
"I'll call a cab, old man, and you'd better let me see you home."
Mr. Dacre half raised his stick to hail a passing hansom. The Duke caught him by the arm.
"You ass! What do you mean? I am telling you the simple truth. My wife's been kidnapped."
Mr. Dacre's countenance was a thing to be seen-and remembered.
"Oh! I hadn't heard that there was much of that sort of thing about just now. They talk of poodles being kidnapped, but as for duchesses- You'd really better let me call that cab."
"Ivor, do you want me to kick you? Don't you see that to me it's a question of life and death? I've been in there to get the money." His Grace motioned towards the bank. "I'm going to take it to the scoundrel who has my darling at his mercy. Let me but have her hand in mine again, and he shall continue to pay for every sovereign with tears of blood until he dies."
"Look here, Datchet, I don't know if you're having a joke with me, or if you're not well-"
The Duke stepped impatiently into the roadway.
"Ivor, you're a fool! Can't you tell jest from earnest, health from disease? I'm off! Are you coming with me? It would be as well that I should have a witness."
"Where are you off to?"
"To the other end of the Arcade."
"Who is the gentleman you expect to have the pleasure of meeting there?"
"How should I know?" The Duke took a letter from his pocket-it was the letter which had just arrived. "The fellow is to wear a white top-hat, and a gardenia in his button hole."
"What is it you have there?"
"It's the letter which brought the news-look for yourself and see; but, for God's sake make haste!" His Grace glanced at his watch. "It's already twenty after five."
"And do you mean to say that on the strength of a letter such as this you are going to hand over five hundred pounds to-"
The Duke cut Mr. Dacre short:
"What are five hundred pounds to me? Besides, you don't know all. There is another letter. And I have heard from Mabel. But I will tell you all about it later. If you are coming, come!"
Folding up the letter, Mr. Dacre returned it to the Duke.
"As you say, what are five hundred pounds to you? It's as well they are not as much to you as they are to me, or I'm afraid-"
"Hang it, Ivor, do prose afterwards!"
The Duke hurried across the road. Mr. Dacre hastened after him. As they entered the Arcade they passed a constable. Mr. Dacre touched his companion's arm.
"Don't you think we'd better ask our friend in blue to walk behind us? His neighbourhood might be handy."
"Nonsense!" The Duke stopped short. "Ivor, this is my affair, not yours. If you are not content to play the part of silent witness, be so good as to leave me."
"My dear Datchet, I'm entirely at your service. I can be every whit as insane as you, I do assure you."
Side by side they moved rapidly down the Burlington Arcade. The Duke was obviously in a state of the extremest nervous tension. Mr. Dacre was equally obviously in a state of the most supreme enjoyment. People stared as they rushed past. The Duke saw nothing. Mr. Dacre saw everything, and smiled.
When they reached the Piccadilly end of the Arcade the Duke pulled up. He looked about him. Mr. Dacre also looked about him.
"I see nothing of your white-hatted and gardenia-button-holed friend," said Ivor.
The Duke referred to his watch:
"It's not yet half-past five. I'm up to time."
Mr. Dacre held his stick in front of him and leaned on it. He indulged himself with a beatific smile:
"It strikes me, my dear Datchet, that you've been the victim of one of the finest things in hoaxes-"
"I hope I haven't kept you waiting."
The voice which interrupted Mr. Dacre came from the rear. While they were looking in front of them some one approached from behind, apparently coming out of the shop which was at their backs.
The speaker looked a gentleman. He sounded like one, too. Costume, appearance, manner were beyond reproach-even beyond the criticism of two such keen critics as were these. The glorious attire of a London dandy was surmounted with a beautiful white top-hat. In his button-hole was a magnificent gardenia.
In age the stranger was scarcely more than a boy, and a sunny-faced, handsome boy at that. His cheeks were hairless, his eyes were blue. His smile was not only innocent, it was bland. Never was there a more conspicuous illustration of that repose which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere.
The Duke looked at him, and glowered. Mr. Dacre looked at him, and smiled.
"Who are you?" asked the Duke.
"Ah-that is the question!" The newcomer's refined and musical voice breathed the very soul of affability. "I am an individual who is so unfortunate as to be in want of five hundred pounds."
"Are you the scoundrel who sent me that infamous letter?"
That charming stranger never turned a hair!
"I am the scoundrel mentioned in that infamous letter who wants to accost you at the Piccadilly end of the Burlington Arcade before half-past five-as witness my white hat and my gardenia."
"Where's my wife?"
The stranger gently swung his stick in front of him with his two hands. He regarded the Duke as a merry-hearted son might regard his father. The thing was beautiful!
"Her Grace will be home almost as soon as you are-when you have given me the money which I perceive you have all ready for me in that scarcely elegant-looking canvas bag." He shrugged his shoulders quite gracefully. "Unfortunately, in these matters one has no choice-one is forced to ask for gold."
"And suppose, instead of giving you what is in this canvas bag, I take you by the throat and choke the life right out of you?"
"Or suppose," amended Mr. Dacre, "that you do better, and commend this gentleman to the tender mercies of the first policeman we encounter."
The stranger turned to Mr. Dacre. He condescended to become conscious of his presence.
"Is this gentleman your Grace's friend? Ah-Mr. Dacre, I perceive! I have the honour of knowing Mr. Dacre, although, possibly, I am unknown to him."
"You were-until this moment."
With an airy little laugh the stranger returned to the Duke. He brushed an invisible speck of dust off the sleeve of his coat.
"As has been intimated in that infamous letter, his Grace is at perfect liberty to give me into custody-why not? Only" – he said it with his boyish smile-"if a particular communication is not received from me in certain quarters within a certain time, the Duchess of Datchet's beautiful white arm will be hacked off at the shoulder."
"You hound!"
The Duke would have taken the stranger by the throat, and have done his best to choke the life right out of him then and there, if Mr. Dacre had not intervened.
"Steady, old man!" Mr. Dacre turned to the stranger: "You appear to be a pretty sort of a scoundrel."
The stranger gave his shoulders that almost imperceptible shrug:
"Oh, my dear Dacre, I am in want of money! I believe that you sometimes are in want of money, too."
Everybody knows that nobody knows where Ivor Dacre gets his money from, so the illusion must have tickled him immensely.
"You're a cool hand," he said.
"Some men are born that way."
"So I should imagine. Men like you must be born, not made."
"Precisely-as you say!" The stranger turned, with his graceful smile, to the Duke: "But are we not wasting precious time? I can assure your Grace that, in this particular matter, moments are of value."
Mr. Dacre interposed before the Duke could answer:
"If you take my strongly urged advice, Datchet, you will summon this constable who is now coming down the Arcade, and hand over this gentleman to his keeping. I do not think that you need fear that the Duchess will lose her arm, or even her little finger. Scoundrels of this one's kidney are most amenable to reason when they have handcuffs on their wrists."
The Duke plainly hesitated. He would-and he would not. The stranger, as he eyed him, seemed much amused.
"My dear Duke, by all means act on Mr. Dacre's valuable suggestion. As I said before, why not? It would at least be interesting to see if the Duchess does or does not lose her arm-almost as interesting to you as to Mr. Dacre. Those blackmailing, kidnapping scoundrels do use such empty menaces. Besides, you would have the pleasure of seeing me locked up. My imprisonment for life would recompense you even for the loss of her Grace's arm. And five hundred pounds is such a sum to have to pay-merely for a wife! Why not, therefore, act on Mr. Dacre's suggestion? Here comes the constable." The constable referred to was advancing towards them-he was not a dozen yards away. "Let me beckon to him-I will with pleasure." He took out his watch-a gold chronograph repeater. "There are scarcely ten minutes left during which it will be possible for me to send the communication which I spoke of, so that it may arrive in time. As it will then be too late, and the instruments are already prepared for the little operation which her Grace is eagerly anticipating, it would, perhaps, be as well, after all, that you should give me into charge. You would have saved your five hundred pounds, and you would, at any rate, have something in exchange for her Grace's mutilated limb. Ah, here is the constable! Officer!"
The stranger spoke with such a pleasant little air of easy geniality that it was impossible to tell if he were in jest or earnest. This fact impressed the Duke much more than if he had gone in for a liberal indulgence of the-under the circumstances-orthodox melodramatic scowling. And, indeed, in the face of his own common sense, it impressed Mr. Ivor Dacre too.
This well-bred, well-groomed youth was just the being to realise-aux bouts des ongles-a modern type of the devil, the type which depicts him as a perfect gentleman, who keeps smiling all the time.
The constable whom this audacious rogue had signalled approached the little group. He addressed the stranger:
"Do you want me, sir?"
"No, I do not want you. I think it is the Duke of Datchet."
The constable, who knew the Duke very well by sight, saluted him as he turned to receive instructions.
The Duke looked white, even savage. There was not a pleasant look in his eyes and about his lips. He appeared to be endeavouring to put a great restraint upon himself. There was a momentary silence. Mr. Dacre made a movement as if to interpose. The Duke caught him by the arm.
He spoke: "No, constable, I do not want you. This person is mistaken."
