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The Mischief Maker, a novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim |
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Book 2 - Chapter 10. The Second Attempt |
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_ BOOK TWO CHAPTER X. THE SECOND ATTEMPT The concierge of Julien's apartments issued with a somewhat mysterious air from his little lodge as his tenant passed through the door. He was a short man with a fierce, bristling moustache. He wore a semi-military coat, always too short for him, and he was so stout that he was seldom able to fasten more than two of the buttons of his waistcoat. "Monsieur!" "What is it, Pierre?" Julien asked. "Any callers for me?" "There have been callers, indeed, monsieur," Pierre replied, "callers whose errand I do not quite understand. They asked many questions concerning monsieur. When they had finished, the man--bah! he was a German!--he thrust into my hand a hundred franc note. He said, 'No word of this to Monsieur Sir Julien!' I put the note into the bottom of my trousers pocket, but I made no response. I am not dishonorable. I keep the note because these men should think me craven enough to give them information, to hear their questions, and to say nothing to monsieur, one of my own lodgers! It was an insult, that. Therefore I keep the hundred franc note. Therefore I tell monsieur all that these two men did ask." "You showed," Julien declared, "a rare and excellent discretion. Proceed." "They asked questions, monsieur, on every conceivable subject," Pierre continued. "Their interest in your doings was amazing. They asked what meals you took in the house, at what hour you went out and at what hour you returned. Then the shorter of the two wished to take the room above yours. I asked him more than double the price, but he would have engaged it. Then I told him that I was not sure. There was a gentleman to whom it was offered. They come back this afternoon to know the result." "If they find a lodging in this house," Julien said, "I fear that I must leave." "It shall be," Pierre decided, "as monsieur wishes. I am not to be tempted with money when it comes to a question of retaining an old tenant. The room is let to another. It is finished." Julien climbed the stairs thoughtfully to his apartments, locked himself in and sat down before his desk. For an hour or more he worked. Then there came a timid knock at the door. He looked around, frowning. After a moment's hesitation he affected not to notice the summons, and continued his work. The knocking came again, however, low but persistent. Julien rose to his feet, turned the key and opened the door. "Mademoiselle!" he exclaimed, genuinely surprised. It was Mademoiselle Ixe who glided past him into the room. She signed to him to close the door. He did so, and turning slowly faced her. She was standing a few yards away, her lips a little parted, pale notwithstanding the delicately artistic touch of coloring upon her cheeks. Her hands were crossed upon the jade top of her lace parasol. In her muslin gown and large hat she formed a very effective picture as she stood there with her eyes now fixed upon Julien. "Mademoiselle," he began, "I do not quite understand." "Look outside," she begged. "See that there is no one there. I am so afraid that I might have been followed." Julien stepped out onto the landing and returned. "There is no one about at all," he assured her. She drew a little sigh. "But it is rash, this! Monsieur Sir Julien, you are glad--you are pleased to see me? Make me one of your pretty speeches at once or I shall go." "But, mademoiselle," Julien said, wheeling a chair towards her, "who indeed could be anything but glad to see you at any time? Yet forgive me if I am stupid. Tell me why you have come to see me this afternoon and why you are afraid that you are followed?" "Why?" she murmured, looking up into his eyes. "Ah, Monsieur Sir Julien, it is hard indeed to tell you that!" Mademoiselle Ixe was without doubt an extraordinarily pretty young woman. She was famous even in Paris for her figure, her looks, the perfection of her clothes, the daintiness and distinction of those small adjuncts to her toilette so dear to the heart of a Parisienne. Julien looked at her and sighed. "Perhaps, mademoiselle," he said, "you will find it hard also to tell me whether you come of your own accord or at the instigation of Herr Freudenberg?" She looked genuinely hurt. Julien, however, was merciless. "It is, perhaps, because Herr Freudenberg has told you that I once lost great things through trusting a woman that you think to find me an easy victim?" he went on. "Come, am I to give you those sheets over there," he added, pointing to his writing-table, "and promise for your sake never to write another line, or have you more serious designs?" "Monsieur Julien," she faltered,-- He suddenly changed his tone. "Am I cruel?" he asked. "Forgive me, mademoiselle--forgive me, Marguerite." She held out her delicately gloved hand towards him; her face she turned a little away and one gathered that there were tears in her eyes which she did not wish him to see. "Take off my glove, please," she whispered. "I did not think you would be so cruel even for a moment." He took her fingers in his, fingers which promptly returned his pressure. His right arm stole around her. "Monsieur Sir Julien," she continued very softly, "please promise that you will speak to me no more now of Herr Freudenberg. Tell me that you are glad I have come. Say some more of those pretty things that you whispered to me in the Rat Mort." His arm tightened about her. She was powerless. "Julien!" she murmured. He laughed quietly. Suddenly she struggled to escape from him. "Let me go!" she cried. "Sir Julien, but you are rough. Monsieur!" He flung her from him back into the chair. In his left hand he held the pistol he had taken from the bosom of her gown--a dainty little affair of ivory and silver. He turned it over curiously. She lay back in the chair where he had thrown her, gripping its sides with tremulous fingers, her eyes deep-set, distended, staring at him. He thrust the weapon into his pocket. "Really," he said, "I thought better of Herr Freudenberg. Why doesn't he come himself?" "Oh, he will come!" she answered. "Will he?" Julien replied. "I should have thought better of him if he had come first, instead of sending a woman to do his work." She sat up in the chair. Julien had known well how to rouse her. "You do not think that he is afraid?" she cried. "Afraid of you? Bah! For the rest, it was I who insisted on coming. He was troubled. I knew why. I said to myself, 'It is a risk I will take. I will go to Sir Julien's rooms. I will shoot him. I will pretend that it was a love affair. I will go into court all with tears, I will wear my prettiest clothes, nothing indeed will happen. An affair of jealousy--a moment of madness. One takes account of these things. Then Herr Freudenberg himself has great friends here, friends in high places. He will see that nothing happens.'" "A very pretty scheme," Julien remarked sarcastically. "Supposing, however, I turn the tables upon you, mademoiselle. You are here and I have taken away this little plaything. Would Herr Freudenberg be jealous if he knew, I wonder?" She glanced at the door. "Locked," Julien continued grimly. "Do you still wish me to come and make pretty speeches to you?" he added. "You are certainly looking very charming, mademoiselle. Your gown is exquisite. What can I do more than echo what all Paris has said--that there is no one of her daughters more bewitching? Can you wonder if I lose my head a little when I find you here with me in my rooms--a visit, too, of pure affection?" She rose to her feet. The patch of color upon her cheeks had become more vivid. "You will let me go?" she faltered. Julien unlocked the door. "Mademoiselle," he answered, "I shall most certainly let you go. Permit me to thank you for the pleasure which your brief visit has afforded me." The door was opened before her. Julien stood on one side. The smile with which he dismissed her was half contemptuous, half kindly. Upon the threshold she hesitated. "Sir Julien!" "Mademoiselle Ixe?" "If there were no Herr Freudenberg," she whispered, "if it were not my evil fortune, Monsieur Sir Julien, to love him so foolishly, so absolutely, so that every moment of separation is full of pain, every other man like a figure in a dream--if it were not for this, Monsieur Sir Julien, I do not think that I should like to leave you so easily!" Julien made no reply. She passed out with a little sigh. He heard the flutter of her laces and draperies as she crossed the passage and commenced the descent of the stairs. Julien was closing the door when he heard a familiar voice and a heavy footstep. Kendricks, with a Gladstone bag in his hand, came bustling up. "Julien, you dog," he exclaimed savagely, "you're at it again! Why the devil can't you keep these women at arm's length? What has that pretty little creature of Herr Freudenberg's been doing here?" Julien laughed as he closed the door. "Don't be a fool, David! She wasn't here at my invitation." "Tears in her eyes!" Kendricks muttered. "Sobbing to herself as she went down the steps! Crocodile's tears, I know. These d--d women, Julien! Out with it. What did she come for?" Julien produced the pistol from his pocket. "It was," he explained, "her amiable intention to please her lord and master at the slight expense of my life. Fortunately, the game was a new one to her and she kept on feeling the bosom of her gown to see whether the pistol was there still." "What did you do?" Kendricks demanded. "What was there for me to do?" Julien replied. "I took her little toy away and told her to run off. This is the second time, David. Estermen and Freudenberg have had a shy at me here themselves, and they'd have gotten me all right but for an accident. I won't tell you what the accident was, for the moment, owing to your peculiar prejudices. How are things in London?" Kendricks threw himself into an easy-chair and began to fill his pipe. "Julien," he declared, "you've done the trick! I'm proud of my advice, proud of the result. There isn't a club or an omnibus or a tube or a public-house where that letter of yours isn't being talked about. They tell me it's the same here. Have you seen the German papers?" "Not one." "Never was such a thunderbolt launched," Kendricks continued. "They are all either stupefied or hysterical. Freudenberg left Berlin an hour after he saw the article. You tell me you've met him already?" "Yes, he's been here," Julien replied. "He offered to make me a Croesus if I'd stop the letters. When I refused, well, we had a scuffle, and by Jove, they nearly got me! He means to wipe me out." "We'll see about that!" Kendricks muttered. "I'm not going to leave your side till we're through with this little job." "Madame Christophor suggested that I should go there and finish," Julien said. "What do you think of that?" "Madame Fiddlesticks!" Kendricks retorted angrily. "The wife of Falkenberg! Do you want to walk into the lion's jaws?" "She is separated from her husband," Julien reminded him. "My own impression is that she hates him." "I'd never believe it," Kendricks insisted. "The fellow has the devil's own way with these women. Look at that little wretch I met on the stairs. A harmless, flirting little opera singer a year ago. Now she'd come here and murder a man against whom she hasn't the slightest grudge, for his sake. I tell you the fellow's got an unwholesome influence over every one with whom he comes in contact." "Have you read to-day's letter?" Julien asked abruptly. "Read it! Man alive, it made the heart jump inside me! I tell you it's set the war music dancing wherever a dozen men have come together. I always thought you had a pretty gift as a maker of phrases, Julien, but I never knew you dipped your pen in the ink of the immortals. I tell you no one doubts anything you have written. That's the genius of it. No one denies it, no one attempts arguments, every one in England and France whose feelings have been ruffled is already wanting to shake hands all over again. One sees that giant figure, the world's mischief-maker, suddenly caught at his job. It's gorgeous! How about number four?" "Half written," Julien declared, pointing to his table. Kendricks went to the door and locked it, went to the cupboard and brought out the whiskey and soda, undid his Gladstone bag, buttoned a life preserver on his left wrist, and laid a Mauser pistol on the table by the side of him. "Julien," he said, "I feel like the biggest ass unhung, but I am here with my playthings to be watchdog. Get to your desk and write, man. One drink first. Come." They raised their glasses. "What have you called number three?" Kendricks asked. "'A Maker of Toys!'" Julien replied. "Here's damnation to him!" Kendricks said, raising the glass to his lips. "Now get to work, Julien." _ |
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