The Ivory Child Page 7

  To return to Miss Holmes. She came down to breakfast looking verycharming but rather pale. Again I sat next to her and took someopportunity to ask her how she had rested that night.

  She replied, Very well and yet very ill, since, although she neverremembered sleeping more soundly in her life, she had experienced allsorts of queer dreams of which she could remember nothing at all, acircumstance that annoyed her much, as she was sure that they were mostinteresting. Then she added,

  "Do you know, Mr. Quatermain, I found a lot of mud on my dressing-gownthis morning, and my bedroom slippers were also a mass of mud and wetthrough. How do you account for that? It is just as though I had beenwalking about outside in my sleep, which is absurd, as I never did sucha thing in my life."

  Not feeling equal to the invention of any convincing explanation ofthese phenomena, I upset the marmalade pot on to the table in such a waythat some of it fell upon her dress, and then covered my retreat withprofuse apologies. Understanding my dilemma, for he had heard somethingof this talk, Lord Ragnall came to my aid with a startling statement ofwhich I forget the purport, and thus that crisis passed.

  Shortly after breakfast Scroope announced to Miss Manners that hercarriage was waiting, and we departed. Before I went, as it chanced,I had a few private words with my host, with Miss Holmes, and with themagnificent Mr. Savage. To the last, by the way, I offered a tip whichhe refused, saying that after all we had gone through together he couldnot allow "money to come between us," by which he meant, to pass from mypocket to his. Lord Ragnall asked me for both my English and my Africanaddresses, which he noted in his pocket-book. Then he said,

  "Really, Quatermain, I feel as though I had known you for years insteadof three days; if you will allow me I will add that I should like toknow a great deal more of you." (He was destined to do so, poor fellow,though neither of us knew it at the time.) "If ever you come to Englandagain I hope you will make this house your headquarters."

  "And if ever you come to South Africa, Lord Ragnall, I hope you willmake my four-roomed shanty on the Berea at Durban your headquarters. Youwill get a hearty welcome there and something to eat, but little more."

  "There is nothing I should like better, Quatermain. Circumstances haveput me in a certain position in this country, still to tell you thetruth there is a great deal about the life of which I grow very tired.But you see I am going to be married, and that I fear means an endof travelling, since naturally my wife will wish to take her place insociety and the rest."

  "Of course," I replied, "for it is not every young lady who has the luckto become an English peeress with all the etceteras, is it? Still Iam not so sure but that Miss Holmes will take to travelling some day,although I _am_ sure that she would do better to stay at home."

  He looked at me curiously, then asked,

  "You don't think there is anything really serious in all this business,do you?"

  "I don't know what to think," I answered, "except that you will do wellto keep a good eye upon your wife. What those Easterns tried to do lastnight and, I think, years ago, they may try again soon, or years hence,for evidently they are patient and determined men with much to win.Also it is a curious coincidence that she should have that mark upon herwhich appeals so strongly to Messrs. Harut and Marut, and, to be brief,she is in some ways different from most young women. As she said tome herself last night, Lord Ragnall, we are surrounded by mysteries;mysteries of blood, of inherited spirit, of this world generally inwhich it is probable that we all descended from quite a few commonancestors. And beyond these are other mysteries of the measurelessuniverse to which we belong, that may already be exercising their strongand secret influences upon us, as perhaps, did we know it, they havedone for millions of years in the Infinite whence we came and whither wego."

  I suppose I spoke somewhat solemnly, for he said,

  "Do you know you frighten me a little, though I don't quite understandwhat you mean." Then we parted.

  With Miss Holmes my conversation was shorter. She remarked,

  "It has been a great pleasure to me to meet you. I do not rememberanybody with whom I have found myself in so much sympathy--except oneof course. It is strange to think that when we meet again I shall be amarried woman."

  "I do not suppose we shall ever meet again, Miss Holmes. Your life ishere, mine is in the wildest places of a wild land far away."

  "Oh! yes, we shall," she answered. "I learned this and lots of otherthings when I held my head in that smoke last night."

  Then we also parted.

  Lastly Mr. Savage arrived with my coat. "Goodbye, Mr. Quatermain," hesaid. "If I forget everything else I shall never forget you and thosevillains, Harum and Scarum and their snakes. I hope it won't be my lotever to clap eyes on them again, Mr. Quatermain, and yet somehow I don'tfeel so sure of that."

  "Nor do I," I replied, with a kind of inspiration, after which followedthe episode of the rejected tip.