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The Mischief Maker, a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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Book 2 - Chapter 1. The Flight Of Lady Anne |
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_ BOOK TWO CHAPTER I. THE FLIGHT OF LADY ANNE It was exactly nine forty-five in the evening, about three weeks later, when the two-twenty from London steamed into the Gare du Nord. Julien, from his place among the little crowd wedged in behind the gates, gazed with blank amazement at the girl who, among the first to leave the train, was presenting her ticket to the collector. At that moment she recognized him. With a purely mechanical effort he raised his hat and held out his hand. "Lady Anne!" he exclaimed. "Why--I had no idea you were coming to Paris," he added weakly. She laughed--the same frank, good-humored laugh, except that she seemed to lack just a little of her usual self-possession. "Neither did I," she confessed, "until this morning." He looked at her blankly. She was carrying her own jewel-case. He could see no signs of a maid or any party. "But tell me," he asked, "where are the rest of your people?" She shook her head. "Nowhere. I am quite alone." Julien was speechless. "You must really forgive me," he continued, after a moment's pause, "if I seem stupid. It is scarcely a month ago since I read of your engagement to Harbord. The papers all said that you were to be married at once." She nodded. "That's exactly it," she said. "That's why I am here." "What, you mean that you are going to be married here?" asked Julien. "I am not going to be married at all," she replied cheerfully. "Between ourselves, Julien," she added, "I found I couldn't go through with it." "Couldn't go through with it!" he repeated feebly. Lady Anne was beginning to recover herself. "Don't be stupid," she begged. "You used to be quick enough. Can't you see what has happened? I became engaged to the little beast. I stood it for three weeks. I didn't mind him at the other end of the room, but when he began to talk about privileges and attempt to take liberties, I found I couldn't bear the creature anywhere near me. Then all of a sudden I woke up this morning and remembered that we were to be married in a week. That was quite enough for me. I slipped out after lunch, caught the two-twenty train, and here I am." "Exactly," Julien agreed. "Here you are." "With my luggage," she continued, swinging the jewel-case in her hand and laughing in his face. "With your luggage," Julien echoed. "Seriously, is that all that you have brought?" "Every bit," she answered. "You know mother?" "Yes, I know your mother!" he admitted. "Well, I didn't exactly feel like taking her into my confidence," Lady Anne explained, smiling. "Under those circumstances, I thought it just as well to make my departure as quietly as possible." "Then they don't know where you are?" "Really," she assured him, "you are becoming quite intelligent. They do not." "In other words, you've run away?" "Marvelous!" she murmured. "I suppose it's the air over here." A sudden idea swept into Julien's mind. Of course, it was ridiculous, yet for a moment his heart gave a little jump. Perhaps she divined his thought, for her next words disposed of it effectually. "Of course, I knew that you were in Paris, but I had no idea that we should meet, certainly not like this. I have a dear friend to whose apartments I shall go at once. She is a milliner." "She is a what?" Julien asked blankly. A smile played about Lady Anne's lips. "My dear Julien," she exclaimed, "you know, you never did understand me! I repeat that she is a milliner and that she is a dear friend of mine, and I am going just as I am to tell her that I have come to spend the night. She will have to find me rooms, she will have to help me find employment." Kendricks, who had come by the same train, and whom Julien was there to meet, was hovering in the background. Julien, seeing him, could do no more than nod vaguely. "Lady Anne," he began,-- "You needn't bother about that," she interrupted. "We were always good friends, weren't we?" she added carelessly. "Besides, to call me 'Lady' anything would be rather ridiculous under the present circumstances." "Well, Anne, then," he said, "please let me get my bearings. I understand that you were engaged to Harbord--you weren't forced into it, I suppose?" "Not at all. I tried to run along the usual groove, but I came up against something too big for me. I don't know how other girls do it. I simply found I couldn't. Samuel Harbord is rather by way of being something outrageous, you know." "Of course he is," Julien agreed, with sudden appreciation of the fact. "You needn't be so vigorous about it. I remember your almost forcing him on to me the day you called to say good-bye." "I was talking rubbish," Julien asserted. "You see, I was in rather an unfortunate position myself that day, wasn't I? No one likes to feel like a discarded lover. I can understand your chucking Harbord all right, but I can't quite see why it was necessary for you to run away from home to come and stay with a little milliner." She laughed. "My dear Julien, you don't know those Harbords! There are hordes of them, countless hordes--mothers and sisters and cousins and aunts. They've besieged the place ever since our engagement was announced. If the merest whisper were to get about among them that I was thinking of backing out, there's nothing they wouldn't do. They'd make the whole place intolerable for me--follow me about in the street, weep in my bedroom, hang around the place morning, noon and night. Besides, mother would be on their side and the whole thing would be impossible." "I have no doubt," Julien admitted, "that the situation would be a trifle difficult, but to talk about earning your own living--you, Lady Anne--" "Lady fiddlesticks!" she interrupted. "What a stupid old thing you are, Julien! You never found out, I suppose, that at heart I am a Bohemian?" "No, I never did!" he assented vigorously. "Ah, well," she remarked, "you were too busy flirting with that Carraby woman to discover all my excellent qualities. We mustn't stay here, must we? Are you very busy, or do you want to drive me to my friend's house? Of course, meeting you here will be the end of me if any one sees us. Still, I don't suppose you object to a little scandal, and the more I get the happier I shall be." "I'll take you anywhere," Julien promised. "You don't mind waiting while I speak to the man whom I have come to meet?" "Not at all," she replied. "You are sure he won't object?" "Of course not," Julien assured her. "Kendricks is an awfully good sort." The two men gripped hands. Kendricks was carrying his own bag and smoking his accustomed pipe. He had apparently been asleep in the carriage and was looking a little more untidy than usual. "I got your wire all right," Julien said, "and I am thundering glad to see you. Are you just in search of the ordinary sort of copy, or is there anything special doing?" "Something special," Kendricks answered, "and you're in it. When can we talk? No hurry, as long as I see you some time to-night." "I am entirely at your service," Julien declared. "I have been bored to death for the last few weeks and I am only too anxious to have a talk. You don't mind if I see this young lady to her friend's house first? I don't know exactly where it is, but it won't take very long. She is all alone, and as long as we have met I feel that I ought to look after her." "Naturally," Kendricks agreed. "I can go to my hotel and meet you anywhere you say for supper." Julien glanced at his watch. "It is ten o'clock within a minute or two," he announced. "Supposing we make it half-past eleven at the Abbaye?" Kendricks nodded. "That'll suit me. So long!" He strode away in search of a cab. Julien returned to Lady Anne and took the jewel-case from her fingers. "It's all arranged," he said. "You are quite sure that you have no more luggage?" She laughed. "Not a scrap! Have you ever traveled without luggage, Julien? It makes you feel that you are really in for adventures." "Does it!" he replied a little weakly. Somehow or other, he had never associated a love for adventures with Lady Anne. "Isn't it fun to be in Paris once more?" she continued. "I want a real rickety little _voiture_ and I want the man to have a white hat, if possible, and I want to drive down into Paris over those cobbles." "Any particular address?" She handed him a card. He called an open victoria and directed the man. Together they drove out of the station yard. Lady Anne leaned forward, looking around her with keen pleasure. "Julien," she cried, "this is delightful, meeting you! I hope I shan't be a bother to you, but really it is rather nice to feel that I have one friend here." "You couldn't possibly be a bother to me," he declared. "I'm rather a waif here myself, you know, and I am honestly glad to see you." She looked at him quickly and breathed a little sigh of relief. "Now that's sweet of you," she said. "Of course, I don't see why you shouldn't be. We were always good friends, weren't we? and it makes me feel so much more comfortable to remember that we never went in for the other sort of thing." "There was just one moment," he murmured ruminatingly,-- She turned her head. "Stop at once," she begged. "That moment passed, as you know. If it hadn't, things might have been different. If it hadn't, I should feel differently about being with you now. We are forgetting that moment, if you please, Julien. Do, there's a good fellow. If you wanted to be good-natured, you could be so nice to me until I get used to being alone." "Forgotten it shall be, by all means," he promised cheerfully. "Do you know that the address you gave me is only a few yards away?" "Oh, bother!" she exclaimed. "I knew that it was somewhere up by the Gare du Nord." They turned off from the Rue Lafayette and pulled up opposite a milliner's shop. "Mademoiselle Rignaut lives up above," Lady Anne said, alighting. "It's sweet of you to have brought me, Julien." "I am going to wait and see that you are all right," he replied, ringing the bell. There was a short delay, then the door was opened. A young woman peered out. "Who is it?" she asked quickly. A little of Lady Anne's confidence for the moment had almost deserted her. The girl's face was invisible and the interior of the passage looked cheerless. Nevertheless, she answered briskly. "Don't you remember me, Mademoiselle Janette? I am Lady Anne--Lady Anne Clonarty, you know." There was a wondering scream, an exclamation of delight, and Julien stood on the pavement for fully five minutes. Then Lady Anne reappeared, followed by her friend. "Sir Julien," she said, "this is Mademoiselle Rignaut. I am awfully lucky. Mademoiselle Rignaut has a room she can let me have and we are going to raid her shop and get everything I want. She has costumes as well as hats." Julien shook hands with the little Frenchwoman, who had not yet recovered from her amazement. "But this is wonderful, monsieur, is it not," she cried, "to see dear Lady Anne like this? Such a surprise! Such a delight! But, miladi," she added suddenly, "you must be hungry--starving!" "I am," Lady Anne admitted frankly. The little woman's face fell. "But only this afternoon," she explained, "my servant was taken away to the hospital! What can we--" "What you will both do," Julien interrupted, "is to come and have supper with me." "Do you really mean it?" Lady Anne asked doubtfully. "What about your friend?" "He won't mind," Julien assured her. "You shall take your first step into Bohemia, my dear Anne. We had arranged to sup in the Montmartre. You and Mademoiselle Rignaut must come. I can give you half an hour to get ready--more, if you want it." "What larks!" Lady Anne exclaimed. "Can I come in a traveling dress?" "You can come just as you are," Julien replied. "One visits these places just as one feels disposed. I'll be off and get a taximeter automobile instead of this thing, and come back for you whenever you say." "You are a brick," Lady Anne declared. "I shall love to go." "Monsieur is too kind," Mademoiselle Rignaut agreed, "but as for me, it is not fitting--" "Rubbish!" Lady Anne interrupted briskly. "You've got to get all that sort of stuff out of your head, Janette, and to start with you must come to supper with us. Bless you, I couldn't go alone with Sir Julien! I was engaged to be married to him three months ago." Mademoiselle shook her head feebly. "But indeed, Miladi Anne," she protested, "you are a strange people, you English! I do not understand." Lady Anne took her by the arm and turned towards the open door. "Don't bother about that. We'll be ready in half an hour, Julien." Julien returned to the Gare du Nord and treated himself to a whiskey and soda. He was surprised at the pleasurable sense of excitement which this meeting had given him. During the last few weeks in Paris he had found little to interest or amuse him. He had been, in fact, very distinctly bored. The newspapers and illustrated journals, although they were always full of interest to him, had day by day brought their own particular sting. Although his affection for Lady Anne had been of a distinctly modified character, yet he had found it curiously unpleasant to read everywhere of her engagement, of her plans for the future, and to look at the photographs of her and her intended bridegroom which seemed to stare at him from every page. Somehow or other, although he told himself that personally it was of no consequence to him, he yet found the present situation of affairs far more to his liking. He lounged about the Gare du Nord, smoking a cigarette and thinking over what she had told him. There was a good deal in the present situation to appeal to his sense of humor. He thought of the Duke and the Duchess when they discovered the flight of their daughter,--their efforts to keep all details from the papers; of Harbord and his horde of relations--Harbord, who had neither the dignity nor the breeding to accept such a reverse in silence. He could imagine the gossip at the clubs and among their friends. He himself was immensely surprised. He had considered himself something of a judge of character, and yet he had looked upon Lady Anne as a good-natured young person, brimful of common sense, without an ounce of sentiment--a perfectly well-ordered piece of the machinery of her sex. The whole affair was astonishing. Perhaps to him the most astonishing part was that he found himself continually looking at the clock, counting almost the minutes until it was possible for him to start on this little expedition! _ |
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