There was at this time in London a Mr. Longcluse, an agreeable man, a convenient man, who had got a sort of footing in many houses, nobody exactly knew how. He had a knack of obliging people when they really wanted a trifling kindness, and another of holding fast his advantage, and, without seeming to push, or ever appearing to flatter, of maintaining the acquaintance he had once founded. He looked about eight-and-thirty: he was really older. He was gentlemanlike, clever, and rich; but not a soul of all the men who knew him had ever heard of him at school or college. About his birth, parentage, and education, about his "life and adventures," he was dark.
How were his smart acquaintance made? Oddly, as we shall learn when we know him a little better. It was a great pity that there were some odd things said about this very agreeable, obliging, and gentlemanlike person. It was a pity that more was not known about him. The man had enemies, no doubt, and from the sort of reserve that enveloped him their opportunity arose. But were there not about town hundreds of men, well enough accepted, about whose early days no one cared a pin, and everything was just as dark?
Now Mr. Longcluse, with his pallid face, his flat nose, his sarcastic eyebrows, and thin-lipped smile, was overlooking this little company, his shoulder leaning against the frame that separated two pieces of the pretty Dutch tapestry which covered the walls.
"By-the-bye, Mr. Longcluse--you can tell me, for you always know everything," said Lady May--"is there still any hope of that poor child's recovering--I mean the one in that dreadful murder in Thames Street, where the six poor little children were stabbed?"
Mr. Longcluse smiled.
"I'm so glad, Lady May, I can answer you upon good authority! I stopped to-day to ask Sir Edwin Dudley that very question through his carriage window, and he said that he had just been to the hospital to see the poor little thing, and that it was likely to do well."
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"I'm so glad! And what do they say can have been the motive of the murder?" "Jealousy, they say; or else the man is mad."
"I should not wonder. I'm sure I hope he is. But they should take care to put him under lock and key." "So they will, rely on it; that's a matter of course."
"I don't know how it is," continued Lady May, who was garrulous, "that murders interest people so much, who ought to be simply shocked at them."
"We have a murder in our family, you know," said Richard Arden.
"That was poor Henry Arden--I know," she answered, lowering her voice and dropping her eyes, with a side glance at Alice, for she did not know how she might like to hear it talked of.
"Oh, that happened when Alice was only five months old, I think," said Richard; and slipping into the chair beside Lady May, he laid
his hand upon hers with a smile, and whispered, leaning towards her-- "You are always so thoughtful; it is so nice of you!"
And this short speech ended, his eyes remained fixed for some seconds, with a glow of tender admiration, on those of fat Lady May,
who simpered with effusion, and did not draw her hand away until she thought she saw Mr. Longcluse glance their way.
It was quite true, all he said of Lady May. It would not be easy to find a simpler or more good-natured person. She was very rich also, and, it was said by people who love news and satire, had long been willing to share her gold and other chattels with handsome Richard Arden, who being but five-and-twenty, might very nearly have been her son.
"I remember that horrible affair," said Mr. Longcluse, with a little shrug and a shake of his head. "Where was I then--Paris or Vi-enna? Paris it was. I recollect it all now, for my purse was stolen by the very man who made his escape--Mace was his name; he was a sort of low man on the turf, I believe. I was very young then--somewhere about seventeen, I think."
"You can't have been more, of course," said good-natured Lady May.
"I should like very much some time to hear all about it," continued Mr. Longcluse. "So you shall," said Richard, "whenever you like."
"Every old family has a murder, and a ghost, and a beauty also, though she does not always live and breathe, except in the canvas of Lely, or Kneller, or Reynolds: and they, you know, had roses and lilies to give away at discretion, in their paint-boxes, and were courti-ers," remarked Mr. Longcluse, "who dealt sometimes in the old-fashioned business of making compliments. I say happy the man
who lives in those summers when the loveliness of some beautiful family culminates, and who may, at ever such a distance, gaze and worship."
This ugly man spoke in a low tone, and his voice was rather sweet. He looked as he spoke at Miss Arden, from whom, indeed, his eyes did not often wander.
"Very prettily said!" applauded Lady May affably.
"I forgot to ask you, Lady May," inquired Alice, cruelly, at this moment, "how the pretty little Italian greyhound is that was so ill--
better, I hope."
"Ever so much--quite well almost. I'd have taken him out for a drive to-day, poor dear little Pepsie! but that I thought the sun just a
little overpowering. Didn't you?"
"Perhaps a little."
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Mr. Longcluse lowered his eyes as he leaned against the wall and sighed, with a pained smile, that even upon his plain, pallid face, was pathetic.
Did proud Richard Arden perceive the devotion of the dubious Longcluse--undefined in position, in history, in origin, in character, in all things but in wealth? Of course he did, perfectly. But that wealth was said to be enormous. There were Jews, who ought to know, who said he was worth one million eight hundred thousand pounds, and that his annual income was considerably more than a hundred thousand pounds a year.
Was a man like that to be dismissed without inquiry? Had he not found him good-natured and gentlemanlike? What about those stories circulated among Jews and croupiers? Enemies might affect to believe them, and quote the old saw, "There is never smoke without fire;" but dare one of them utter a word of the kind aloud? Did they stand the test of five minutes' inquiry, such even as he had given them? Had he found a particle of proof, of evidence, of suspicion? Not a spark. What man had ever escaped stories who was worth forging a lie about?
Here was a man worth more than a million. Why, if he let him slip through his fingers, some duchess would pounce on him for her
daughter.
It was well that Longcluse was really in love--well, perhaps, that he did not appreciate the social omnipotence of money. "Where is Sir Reginald at present?" asked Lady May.
"Not here, you may be sure," answered Richard. "My father does not admit my visits, you know."
"Really! And is that miserable quarrel kept up still?"
"Only too true. He is in France at present; at Vichy--ain't it Vichy?" he said to Alice. But she, not choosing to talk, said simply, "Yes--Vichy."
"I'm going to take Alice into town again; she has promised to stay with me a little longer. And I think you neglect her a little, don't you? You ought to come and see her a little oftener," pleaded Lady May, in an undertone.
"I only feared I was boring you all. Nothing, you know, would give me half so much pleasure," he answered. "Well, then, she'll expect your visits, mind."
A little silence followed. Richard was vexed with his sister; she was, he thought, snubbing his friend Longcluse.
Well, when once he had spoken his mind and disclosed his treasures, Richard flattered himself he had some influence; and did not Lady May swear by Mr. Longcluse? And was his father, the most despotic and violent of baronets, and very much dipt, likely to listen to sentimental twaddle pleading against a hundred thousand a year? So, Miss Alice,