Williams news., 1922-07-14
CHAPTER ".
~ArrIved Safe; We'll"

| ~ArrIved Safe; We'll" As the door closed behind Sherri1l,
 Alan went over to the dresser and picked up the key which Sherrin had l left. He put 1t, after a moment, on the ring with two or three other keys he had, and dropped them into his pocket; then he crossed to a chair and | sat down.
 Sherriu had spoken of the possibn- ity that something might have hap pened' to Corvet; but it was plain he did not believe he had met with actual l violence. He had left it to Alan to ex-
 anime Corvet's house; but he had not | urged Alan to examine 1t at once; hs
 had left the time of the examination
 to be determined by Alan. This showed clearly that Sherrill believed perhaps had sufficient reason for be- Heving-that Corvet had simply .gone away" Corvet, Sherrill had said, had
 married in 1SS9 But Sherrfll in long knowledge of his friend, had shown firm conviction that there had been no mere vulgar Iiaison in Corvet's life. Did this mean. that there might have been some previous marriage of Alan's father-some marriage which had strangely overlapped and nullified his public marriage2 In that case, Alan
 
 Corvet's son; and such things as this, Alan knew, had sometimes happened, and had happened by strange combi- nation of events, innocently for all parties. Corvet's public separation from his wife, Sherrill had said, had taken place in 1897, but the actual separation between them might, pos Sibly, have taken place long before that
 The afternoon had changed swiftly into night; dusk had been gathering during his last, talk with Sherrilk, so that he hardly had been able to see Sherrill's face, and just after Sherriu had left him, full dark had come. Alan did not know how long he had been sitting in the darkness thinking out these things; but now little clock which had been ticking steadily ip the blackness tinkled six. Alan heard a knock at his door, and when it was re peated, he called. Come in."
 The light which came in from the hall, as the door was opened, showed a man servant. The man, after re- spectful inquiry, switched on the light, He crossed into the adjoining room a bedroom the room where Alap was, he thought, must be a dressing room, and there was a bath between. Pres ently the man reappeared, and moved softly about the room, unpacking Alan's suitcase. He hung Alan's other suit in the closet on hangers; he put the linen, except for one shirt, in the dresser drawers, and he put Alan's few toilet things with the ivory backed brushes and comb and other articles on the dressing stand.
 Alan wondered, with a sort of trepi- do fl I, no& to stay and help him dress; but he only put the buttons in the clean shirt and reopened the dresser drawers and laid out a change of things.
 "I was to tell you, sir, MT. Sherriu is sorry he cannot be at home to din- ner tonight. Mrs. Sherrin and Miss Sherril will be here. Dinner is at seven. sir"
 Alan dressed slowly, after the man had gone; and at one minute before | seven he went downstairs.
 There was no one in the lower hall l and, after an instant of irresolutiOn | and a glance into the empty drawing | room, he turned into the small room | at the opposite side of the hall. A 1 handsome, stately, rather large wom- an, whom he found there, introduced | herself to him formally as Mrs. Sher- | HI. 1SI ICScIfC0, yCl lOO | casual acceptance of Alan's presence, | told him that she knew all the par tfculars about himself which Sherrill | had been able to give; and as Con- stance came down the stairs and Joined them half minute later, Alan was certain that she also knew. Dinner was announced, and they went into the great dining room, where the. table with its linen, silver, and china gleamed under shaded E lights. The oldest and most dignif1ed of the three men servants who waited upon them in the dining room Alan thought must be butler-a species of creature of whom Alan had heard but never had seen 1; the other servants, at least, received and handed things through him, and took their orders from him.