CHAPTER XXI
ALL AS IT SHOULD BE
There was one person in London who knew Deane's whereabouts, and from him there came no word. To Deane himself there seemed something unreal about the long hours which he spent in solitude, wandering along the sea front, following the sands left by the receding tide--himself a lonely figure on the great gray plain. A storm of rain once blew in from the sea, but mostly the day was still and colorless. To Deane, after the long hours in the crowded courts, his directors' meetings, his self-imposed mask of ease and confidence, the relief of this absolute solitude was immeasurable. It was just the season of the year when nature and those who minister to her seem alike to sleep. It was too early for any thought of spring; the storms of autumn lay behind. A certain quietness seemed to hang over the land, as though, indeed, sea and resisting sands were exhausted with the long struggle of the winter.
Towards afternoon came some few moments of flickering sunlight. Deane sat on a wooden bar on the top of one of the dykes, and above his head a lark was singing, a little timidly, a little doubtful, even, of his lonely music, but still lending a note of real life to the still, gray world over which he hovered. Deane looked at the queer stone tower on its bank of shingle, and blessed the chance which had led him to purchase it. He looked inland to the little red-tiled village, to the deserted quay, from which all the fishing-boats had been dragged high and dry along the straight line of raised dyke which formed the footpath between him and the village. As he looked, he became conscious that someone had started out from the village along the dyke top. Far away at the other end he could see a slowly approaching figure. His heart gave a little beat. Was it a messenger at last, coming to bring him his fate? He looked up again to where the lark was singing. It seemed, after all, so small a thing! Nearer and nearer the figure came, near enough, at last, for Deane to be able to distinguish something of its outline. Then he rose to his feet with a quick indrawn breath--a little cry of surprise to which there was no one to listen. For this was no messenger from the village coming. It was a girl in a long gray cloak, and a hat which she carried in her hand, as though the fresh salt air of the marshes was something also to her. Deane saw the neatly arranged brown hair blown into confusion about her face. Against the empty background he recognized the poise of her head, the firm but delicate walk, the slender, swaying figure. He knew who it was that came, and it seemed to him that from that moment he knew, too, other things! His sense of proportions was suddenly shifted,--enlarged, perhaps,--altered certainly. He understood things which before had been mysteries to him. He understood, as though in some moment of inspiration, that riches or poverty, life, even, or death, are the incidents of life before its greatest truths. Nothing that he could think of seemed able to hold his thoughts. His heart was beating to music, the lark was singing to him a song of her own--singing in weak, tremulous notes a song of life and love and passion! He rose to his feet and went to meet her. She stopped short and faltered for a moment. He hurried on.
"Winifred!" he exclaimed.
She held out her hands. Her eyebrows were upraised, her mouth was quivering, her eyes were seeking his with a sort of plaintive earnestness. "It is true, then!" she exclaimed. "You are really here!"
"I am really here," he answered, "and it is really you! Nothing else seems to matter very much,--and yet, I would like to know why you alone, of all the world, should have discovered my hiding place."
She laughed, and seemed quite unconscious of the fact that he was still holding her hands. "I have been ill," she said. "I came down here to rest. Last night I heard in the village that you had arrived, that you were here alone. I knew then," she continued softly, "what had happened. I felt that I must come, if it was only for a few moments."
"It was very nice of you," he said.
Then they stood side by side in a silence charged with a sort of impotent passion. Why had she troubled to come, he wondered, now that the bubble of his wealth was burst,--she, who had held him to her cold-blooded compact, who had bound him to her by as sordid a bargain as ever the mind of woman could have conceived.
"I am glad to see you," he said, "and yet I don't know why. You did not hesitate to leave me without word of you, as soon as you saw the breakers ahead."
She drew a little away, looking at him as though she had only half understood. "When I lost the bond by which I held you," she said, "I could scarcely expect you to continue to pay. I have thought it all over since, until I think that I have drunk in all the shame which a woman could feel. It was a hateful, miserable thing, but then my life has been a hateful, miserable thing ever since I was a child, and I did long, yes, I did long," she added fervently, "for something a little different."
"You disappeared, then," he said slowly, "because you imagined, naturally enough, that so soon as you had lost your hold upon me, I should be only too glad to free myself from our engagement?"
"Of course," she answered, the color slowly staining her cheeks. "There was no doubt whatever about that. Only since then I have understood how great a mistake I made. If things had turned out differently," she continued, "I should never have dared to come to you, to tell you this and to ask for your forgiveness. But as it is," she added, "you cannot misunderstand me any longer, can you?"
"I suppose not," he admitted.
"I wanted to come and tell you that I was sorry," she continued softly, "and I wanted, too, to remind you that you are still young, and that the loss of a fortune is not the most terrible thing in the world. I heard yesterday that you were out upon Salthouse Neck, close to the quicksands. You know it is never safe there, with these winter tides. Life is not a thing to be trifled with. It may seem terrible to you just now to have lost your great fortune, to be once more a poor man. These things, after all, don't count for much against the gift of life. I know it sounds like humbug to hear me talk like this, but they were gossiping about you in the village. One man was saying that he shouldn't be at all surprised to hear that you had disappeared, and to find--to find--" she added, with a little shiver, "your body come up the creek with the next tide. You wouldn't do anything like that, would you?"
"Not a ghost of a chance of it," he answered cheerily. "Besides, I am not quite a pauper yet."
"You have lost the case, haven't you?" she asked quickly. "They seemed to think so in the village, and I heard that Mr. Sarsby said his niece had come into a million pounds."
"Up till last night, at any rate," answered Deane, "nothing was decided. The judge reserved his decision."
"Then why," she asked wonderingly, "did you come down here?"
He drew her a little closer to him, and looked into her eyes. "I think, dear," he said, "that it was Providence which sent me."
* * * * *
They walked along the sands, and for them the sun shone still, and the song of the lark was only the faint echo of a still more wonderful music. And then, as they turned back, they saw along the dyke a boy riding a bicycle, a boy with a leather satchel around his waist, and the rim of whose bicycle was red. He pressed her arm.
"Courage, dear," he said. "This is the Mercury who brings us the knowledge of our fate. In a few moments you will know whether you are to become the wife of a millionaire or a working man."
"If you would only believe," she murmured, "how little it matters!"
"I do believe," he answered. "I came down here, for one reason, to escape the shock of hearing the news before others. Now that it comes, I simply do not mind. There are greater things in the world than the Little Anna Gold-Mine!"
He took the telegram from the boy, and opened it with firm fingers. He read it out aloud without a tremor:
Counsel met in judge's private room by appointment to-day. Have compromised with plaintiffs twenty thousand pounds.
Deane threw a coin to the boy, who remounted his bicycle and rode away. Then, turning to Winifred, "You see," he said, "you have brought me luck."
"I only pray," she murmured, as they turned together toward the tower, "that I may bring you happiness!"
* * * * *
Deane met Mrs. Hefferom a few months afterwards, and was struck at once by her altered expression. They came face to face at the corner of a street, and both involuntarily stopped.
"I hope," said Deane, politely, "that you are making good use of my money."
"And I hope," she answered, laughing, "that you are making more fortunes from my mine."
"I am doing fairly well, thank you," Deane admitted, "but you know that I have a wife to keep now."
"And I a husband," she answered. "I am trying to reform Stephen Hefferom."
"I hope that you are succeeding?"
"On the whole, yes!" she declared, smiling. "We live at Streatham, and he goes in to the city every day. He has bought a share in a business. We are not millionaires yet, but one never can tell."
"At any rate," he remarked pleasantly, "to judge by your appearance I should say that you find it better than Rakney."
"Don't mention the place, or any one in it," she said, with a shiver. "Thank Heaven, I shall never have to go back to it! Stephen is really doing very well, and half the money is still settled upon me. You have no idea," she continued, "how domesticity has agreed with him. He has scarcely a vice left."
"It has made a lot of difference to me," returned Deane. "Can't you recognize my subdued appearance?"
"I never saw you looking so well," she answered frankly. "Now I must hurry off. I am going to call for my husband and take him to lunch."
"And I am going to fetch my wife for the same reason," Deane answered, smiling. "The best of luck to you both!"
They parted in the crowd, swept away by the flood, the endless tide of passing humanity, and with a smile upon his lips Deane went to his appointment.
THE END
Other Works: LITTLE, BROWN, & CO., PUBLISHERS
PASSERS-BY
_By_ ANTHONY PARTRIDGE
Author of "The Kingdom of Earth," etc.
"_Mystery upon mystery_"
Has the merit of engaging the reader's attention at once and holding it to the end.--_New York Sun._
It is exciting, is plausibly and cleverly written, and is not devoid of a love motive.--_Chicago Examiner._
It can be heartily recommended to those who enjoy a novel with a good plot, entertaining characters, and one which is carefully written.--_Chicago Tribune._
One of the most fascinating mystery stories of recent years, a tale that catches the attention at the beginning and tightens the grip of its hold with the turn of its pages.--_Boston Globe._
A mysterious story in which nearly all the personages are as much puzzled as the reader and a detective encounters a unique surprise. Originality is the most striking characteristic of the personages.--_New York Times._
The first chapter compels the absorbed interest of the reader and lays the groundwork for a thrilling tale in which mystery follows upon mystery through a series of dramatic situations and surprises.--_Philadelphia Press._
THE DISTRIBUTORS
_By_ ANTHONY PARTRIDGE
_An absorbing novel of a great London mystery_
A story of decided dramatic power.--_Chicago Journal._
Written in striking brilliant style.--_New York World._
A good mystery story which is worth reading.--_Detroit News._
The story is developed with much cleverness.--_New York Times._
A remarkable novel of fashionable English life.--_New York Bookseller._
One of the season's most fascinating books. Almost every character is unusual.--_Cleveland Town Topics._
A peculiar but fascinating novel. The author wields a powerful pen and this story will produce a profound impression.--_Buffalo Courier._
The author offers a diversion quite unparalleled in fiction in the doings of a polite and exclusive circle known as "The Ghosts."--_Book Review Digest._
THE KINGDOM OF EARTH
_By_ ANTHONY PARTRIDGE
Illustrated by A. B. Wenzell.
_A dashing tale of love and adventure_
The characters are strongly drawn and there is an absorbing love theme.--_Pittsburg Post._
Reaches thrilling climaxes and always keeps the reader's interest whetted to a razor's edge.--_Chicago Inter-Ocean._
A swinging, dashing story full of the excitement that keeps the reader on the qui vive.--_Cincinnati Commercial Tribune._
With a distinctly novel and ingenious plot, one involving enough of intrigue and adventure to satisfy the most exacting.--_San Francisco Argonaut._
Full of adventure, this dashing romance of a European Crown Prince and a talented American girl moves to its climax in baffling mysteries.--_Baltimore American._
More virile than the Zenda books and their imitators.... Mr. Partridge's central idea is a novel one and he has worked it out skillfully, leading the reader on from chapter to chapter with new complication and mysteries and perils and adventures growing more and more exciting.--_New York Times._
THE MAN AND THE DRAGON
_By_ ALEXANDER OTIS
Author of "Hearts are Trumps," etc.
Illustrations by J. V. McFall.
_A story of contemporary American life_
A novelist who can hold the interest equally of both women and men is an exception. Mr. Otis' first book, "Hearts are Trumps," brought him into prominence as a writer of fiction, disclosing as it did a new American author who possesses the narrative faculty and the dramatic instinct.
In his new book, "The Man and the Dragon," Mr. Otis has written an even stronger story of contemporary American life. Through the center of his plot runs the glinting gold thread of a charming love story, strong, dramatic, virile. The groundwork depicts the struggle of the young editor of the _Carthage News_ against a political boss on the one hand, and a ring of traction magnates on the other, unfolding with telling penetration and grasp one of the most vital problems facing this country to-day.
Those who have followed recent political events will find the defeat of political manipulators in congressional districts reflected in "The Man and the Dragon."