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A Prince of Sinners, a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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Part 3 - Chapter 6. The Reservation Of Mary Scott |
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_ PART III CHAPTER VI. THE RESERVATION OF MARY SCOTT The two girls were travelling westwards on the outside of an omnibus, in itself to Sybil a most fascinating mode of progression, and talking a good deal spasmodically. "It's really too bad of you, Miss Scott," Sybil declared. "Now to-day, if you will come, luncheon shall be served in my own room. We shall be quite cosy and quiet, and I promise you that you shall not see a soul except my mother--whom I want you to know." Mary shook her head. "Don't think me unkind," she said. "I really must not begin visiting. I have only just time for a hurried lunch, and then I must look in at the office and get down to Bermondsey." "You might just as well have that hurried lunch with me," Sybil declared. "I'll send you anywhere you like afterwards in the carriage." "It is very kind of you," Mary answered, "but my visiting days are over. I am not a social person at all, you know. My role is usefulness, and nothing else." "You are too young to talk like that," Sybil said. "I am ten years older than you are," Mary reminded her. "You are twenty-eight," Sybil answered. "I think it is beautiful of you to be so devoted to this work, but I am quite sure a little change now and then is wholesome." "In another ten years I may think of it," Mary said. "Just now I have so much upon my hands that I dare not risk even the slightest distraction." "In another ten years," Sybil said, "you will find it more difficult to enlarge your life than now. I can't believe that absorption in any one thing is natural at your age." Mary looked steadfastly down at the horses. "We must all decide what is best for ourselves," she said. "I have not your disposition, remember." "Nothing in the world," Sybil said, "would convince me that it is well for any girl of your age to crowd everything out of her life except work, however fine and useful the work may be. Now you have admitted that except for Mr. Brooks and the people you have met in connection with his work you have no friends in London. I want you to count me a friend, Miss Scott. You have been very kind to me, and made everything delightfully easy. Why can't you let me try and repay it a little?" "I have only done my duty," Mary answered, quietly. "I am supposed to show new helpers what to do, and you have picked it up very quickly. And as for the rest--don't think me unkind, but I have no room for friendships in my life just now." "I am sorry," Sybil answered, softly, for though Mary's tone had been cold enough, she had nevertheless for a single moment lifted the curtain, and Sybil understood in some vague manner that there were things behind into which she had no right to inquire. The two girls parted at Trafalgar Square, and Sybil, still in love with the fresh air, turned blithely westward on foot. In the Haymarket she came face to face with Brooks. He greeted her with a delightful smile. "You alone, and walking," he exclaimed. "What fortune. May I come?" "Of course," she answered. "You know where I have come from, I suppose?" He glanced at her plain clothes and realized that the odour of disinfectants was stronger even than the perfume of the handful of violets which she had just bought from a woman in the street. "Stepney!" he exclaimed. "Quite right. I had a card last evening, and was there at nine o'clock this morning. I suppose I look a perfect wreck. I was dancing at Hamilton House at three o'clock." He looked towards her marvelling. Her cheeks were prettily flushed, and she walked with the delightful springiness of perfect health. "I have never seen you look better," he answered. "And you," she remarked, glancing in amusement at his blue serge clothes, which, to tell the truth, badly needed brushing. "What are you doing in the West End at this time in the morning? "I have been to Drury Lane," he answered, "with some surveyors from the County Council. There is a whole court there I mean to get condemned. Then I looked in at our new place there, but there was such a howling lot of children that I was glad to get away. How they hate being washed!" "Don't they!" she exclaimed, laughing. "I had the dearest, naughtiest little girl this morning, and, do you know, when I got her clean, her own brothers and sisters didn't know her again. I'm so glad I've seen you, Mr. Brooks. I want to ask you something." "Well?" "About Miss Scott. She's been so good to me, and I like her awfully. We've just come up on the omnibus together." "She has been my right hand from the very first," Brooks said, slowly. "I really don't see how I could have done without her. She is such a capital organizer, too." "I know all that," Sybil declared. "She's wonderful. I don't want, of course, to be inquisitive," she went on, after a moment's hesitation, "but she interests me so much, and it was only this morning that I felt that I understood her a little bit." Brooks nodded. "She is a very reserved young woman," he said. "Yes, but isn't there some reason for it?" Sybil continued, eagerly. "I have asked her lots of times to come and see me. She admits that she has no friends in London, and I wanted to have her come very much. You see, I thought she would be sure to like mother, and if she doesn't care for society, we might go to the theatre or the opera, a it would be a little change for her, wouldn't it?" "I think it is very kind of you indeed," Brooks said. "Well, she has always refused, but I have been very persistent. I just thought that she was perhaps a little shy, or found it difficult to break through her retirement--people get like that, you know, when they live alone. So this morning I really went for her, and I happened to be looking, and I saw something in her face which puzzled me. It stopped my asking her any more. There is something underneath her quiet manner and self-devotion. She has had trouble of some sort." "How do you know?" he asked. "A girl can always tell," Sybil answered. "Her self-control is wonderful, but she just let it slip--for a moment. She has some trouble, I am sure. I thought perhaps you might know. Isn't there anything we could do? I am so sorry for her." Brooks was very grave, and his face was curiously pale. "Are you quite sure?" he asked. "Certain!" They walked on in silence for a few moments. "You have asked me a very difficult question," he said at last. "She has had a very unhappy sort of life. Her father and mother died in Canada--her father shot himself, and her mother died of the shock. She went to live with an uncle at Medchester, who was good to her, but his household could scarcely have been very congenial. I met her there--she was interested in charitable works then, and she came to London to try and attain some sort of independence. At first she had a position on a lady's magazine which took up her mornings, but we have just induced her to accept a small salary and give us all her time." "That seems like a comprehensive sketch of her life," Sybil remarked, thoughtfully, "but are you sure--that you have not missed anything out?" "So far as I know," he answered, gravely, "there is nothing new to tell." They walked the rest of the way to Berkeley Square in absolute silence. "You will come in to lunch?" she said. He looked down at his clothes. "I think not," he answered. "We are almost certain to be alone," she said. "You haven't seen mother for a long time." He suffered himself to be persuaded, and almost immediately regretted it. For there were a dozen people or more round the luncheon-table, and he caught a glimpse of more than one frock coat. Further, from the dead silence which followed their entrance, it seemed more than probable that he himself had formed the subject of conversation. Lady Caroom greeted him as kindly as ever, and found a place for him by her side. Brooks, whose self-possession seldom failed him, smiled to himself as he recognized the bishop, who was his /vis-a-vis/. Hennibul, however, from a little lower down nodded to him pleasantly, and Lord Arranmore spoke a few words of dry greeting. "Your friend Bullsom," he remarked, "has soon distinguished himself. He made quite a decent speech the other night on the Tariff Bill." "He has common-sense and assurance," Brooks answered. "He ought to be a very useful man." Lord Hennibul leaned forward and addressed Arranmore with blank surprise on his face. "You don't mean to say that you read the debates in the House of Commons, Arranmore?" he exclaimed. Lord Arranmore shrugged his shoulders. "Since the degeneration of English humour," he remarked, "one must go somewhere for one's humour." "I should try the House of Lords, then," a smart young under-secretary remarked under his breath, with a glance at the bishop. "There is more hidden humour in the unshaken gravity of the Episcopal Bench than in both Houses of Parliament put together." "They take themselves so seriously," Sybil murmured. "To our friend there," the younger man continued, "the whole world's a congregation--and, by Jove, here comes the text." For the bishop had deliberately cleared his throat, and leaning forward addressed Brooks across the table. "I believe," he said, "that I have the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Brooks--Mr. Kingston Brooks?" "That is my name," Brooks answered civilly, wondering what avalanche was to be hurled upon him. "Would you consider a question, almost a personal question, from a stranger an impertinence--when the stranger is twice your age?" the bishop asked. "By no means," Brooks answered. "On the contrary, I should be delighted to answer it if I can." "These aspersions which Mr.--er--Lavilette has been making so freely in his paper against your new departure--I mean against the financial management of it--do you propose to answer them?" "Well," Brooks said, "I have not altogether made up my mind. Perhaps your lordship would permit me--since you have mentioned the matter--to ask for your advice." The bishop inclined his head. This was by no means the truculent sort of young man he had expected. "You are very welcome to it, Mr. Brooks," he answered. "I should advise you most earnestly to at once justify yourself,--not to Mr. Lavilette, but to the readers of his paper whom he may have influenced by his statements. One charitable institution, however different its foundation, or its method of working, or its ultimate aims, leans largely upon another. Mr. Lavilette's attack, if unanswered, may affect the public mind with regard to many other organizations which are grievously in need of support." "If that is your opinion," Brooks said, after a moment's hesitation, "I will take the steps you suggest, and set myself right at once." "If you can do that thoroughly and clearly," the bishop said, "you will render a service to the whole community." "There should not be much difficulty," Brooks remarked, helping himself to omelette. "I never appealed for subscriptions, but directly they began to come in I engaged a clerk and a well-known firm of auditors, through whose banking-account all the money has passed. They have been only too anxious to take the matter up." "I am more than pleased at your decision, Mr. Brooks," the bishop said, genially. "I rejoice at it. You will pardon my remarking that you seem very young to have inaugurated and to carry the whole responsibility of a work of such magnitude." "The work," Brooks answered, "has largely grown of itself. But I have an excellent staff of helpers." "The sole responsibility though rests with you. "I am arranging to evade it," Brooks answered. "I am going to adopt commercial methods and inaugurate a Board of Directors." The bishop hesitated. "Again, Mr. Brooks," he said, "I must address a suggestion to you which might seem to require an apology. You have adopted methods and expressed views with regard to your scheme which are in themselves scarcely reconcilable with the point of view with which we churchmen are bound to regard the same question. But if you thought it worth while before finally arranging your Board to discuss the whole subject with me, it would give me the greatest pleasure to have you visit me at the palace at any time convenient to yourself." "I shall consider it a great privilege," Brooks answered, promptly, "and I shall not hesitate to avail myself of it." The little party broke up soon afterwards, but Lady Caroom touched Brooks upon his shoulder. "Come into my room for a few minutes," she said. "I want to talk with you." _ |
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