The spectator., 1922-04-25
cHAPTER w.
"Arrived Safe: We'll"

As the door closed behind Sherrill, Alan went over to the dresser and
 picked up the key which Sherrill had
 left. He put it, after 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.
 Sherrill had spoken of the pOssibil- ty that something might have hap
 pened" to Corvet; but it was plain he
 did not believe he had met with actual
 violence He had left it to Alan to ex-
 anime COrvet's house but he had pot
 urged Alan to examine it at once; he
 had left the time of the examination
 to be determined by Alan. This
 showed clearly that Sherrill believed perhaps had sufficient reason for be-
 lieving-that Corvet had simply gone
 away" Corvet, Sherrill had said, had
 married in 1889. But Sherrill in long knowledge of his friend, had shown firm conviction that there had been
 no mere vulgar liaison 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 nulitied his
 public marriage? In that case. Alan
 could be. not only in fact but legally, Corvet's son; and such things as this, Alan knew, had sometimes happened, and had happened by stvange cOmbi-
 nation of events. innOcently for all axsftn yNrtht tfAr
 from his wife, Sherrill had said, had
 taken place in 1897, but the actual
 separation between them might, pos
 sbly, have taken place long before
 that.
 The afternoon had changed swiftly
 into night; dusk had been gathering
 during his last talk with Sherrill so
 that he hardly had been able to see Sherrill's face. and just after Sherrill
 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 q little clock
 which had been ticking steadily in the
 blackness tinkled six. Alan heard a
 knock at his door and when it was re- peated, he called. come m.
 The light which came in from the hall, as the door was opened, showed
 man servant. The man. after n re- | spectful inquiry, switched on the light,
 He crossed into the adjoining room Il bedroom the room where Alan was,
 he thought, must be dressing room, 1 and there was 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 sort of trspi-
 dation, whether the man would expect 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, Ar. Sherril 1 is scrry he cannot be at home to din
 ner tonight Mrs. Sherrill 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
 and, after an instant of irresolutiOn
 and Il glance into the empty drawing room, he turned into the small room
 at the opposite side of the hall. A
 handsome, stately, rather large wom-
 an, whom he found there, introduced herself 10 him formally as Mrs Sher- Till. Her reserved, yet almost too
 casual acceptance of Alan's presence, 1 told him that she knew all the par | ticulars about himself which Sherrill
 had been able to give; and as Con stance came down the stairs and | joined them half a minute later, Alan
 was certain that she also knew l Dinner was announced and they
 went into the great dining room
 where the table with its linen, silver and china gleamed under shaded l lights. The oldest and most dignined
 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 the other servants, at ! least received and handed things 1 through him, and took their orders | from him.
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