登陆注册
5237600000008

第8章 A DELICATE MISSION(1)

Aynesworth was back in less than an hour. He carried under his arm a brown paper parcel, the strings of which he commenced at once to untie. Wingrave, who had been engrossed in the contents of his deed box, watched him with immovable face.

"The tailor will be here at two-thirty," he announced, "and the other fellows will follow on at half an hour's interval. The manicurist and the barber are coming at six o'clock."Wingrave nodded.

"What have you there?" he asked, pointing to the parcel.

"Cigars and cigarettes, and jolly good ones, too," Aynesworth answered, opening a flat tin box, and smelling the contents appreciatively. "Try one of these! The finest Turkish tobacco grown!""I don't smoke," Wingrave answered.

"Oh! You've got out of it, but you must pick it up again," Aynesworth declared. "Best thing out for the nerves--sort of humanizes one, you know!""Humanizes one, does it?" Wingrave remarked softly. "Well, I'll try!"He took a cigarette from the box, curtly inviting Aynesworth to do the same.

"What about lunch?" the latter asked. "Would you care to come round with me to the Cannibal Club? Rather a Bohemian set, but there are always some good fellows there.""I am much obliged," Wingrave answered. "If you will ask me again in a few days' time, I shall be very pleased. I do not wish to leave the hotel just at present.""Do you want me?" Aynesworth asked.

"Not until five o'clock," Wingrave answered. "I should be glad if you would leave me now, and return at that hour. In the meantime, I have a commission for you.""Good!" Aynesworth declared. "What is it?"

"You will go," Wingrave directed, "to No. 13, Cadogan Street, and you will enquire for Lady Ruth Barrington. If she should be out, ascertain the time of her return, and wait for her.""If she is out of town?"

"She is in London," Wingrave answered. "I have seen her from the window this morning. You will give her a message. Say that you come from me, and that Idesire to see her tomorrow. The time and place she can fix, but I should prefer not to go to her house."Aynesworth stooped down to relight his cigarette. He felt that Wingrave was watching him, and he wished to keep his face hidden.

"I am unknown to Lady Ruth," he remarked. "Supposing she should refuse to see me?"Wingrave looked at him coldly.

"I have told you what I wish done," he said. "The task does not seem to be a difficult one. Please see to it that I have an answer by five o'clock-----"Aynesworth lunched with a few of his particular friends at the club. They heard of his new adventure with somewhat doubtful approbation.

"You'll never stand the routine, old chap!"

"And what about your own work!"

"What will the Daily Scribbler people say?"

Aynesworth shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't imagine it will last very long," he answered, "and I shall get a fair amount of time to myself. The work I do on the Daily Scribbler doesn't amount to anything. It was a chance I simply couldn't refuse."The editor of a well-known London paper leaned back in his chair, and pinched a cigar carefully.

"You'll probably find the whole thing a sell," he remarked. "The story, as Lovell told it, sounded dramatic enough, and if the man were to come back to life again, fresh and vigorous, things might happen, provided, of course, that Lovell was right in his suppositions. But ten or twelve years' solitary confinement, although it mayn't sound much on paper, is enough to crush all the life and energy out of a man."Aynesworth shook his head.

"You haven't seen him," he said. "I have!"

"What's he like, Walter?" another man asked.

"I can't describe him," Aynesworth answered. "I shouldn't like to try. I'll bring him here some day. You fellows shall see him for yourselves. I find him interesting enough.""The whole thing," the editor declared, "will fizzle out. You see if it doesn't? A man who's just spent ten or twelve years in prison isn't likely to run any risk of going there again. There will be no tragedy; more likely reconciliation.""Perhaps," Aynesworth said imperturbably. "But it wasn't only the possibility of anything of that sort happening, you know, which attracted me. It was the tragedy of the man himself, with his numbed, helpless life, set down here in the midst of us, with a great, blank chasm between him and his past. What is there left to drive the wheels? The events of one day are simple and monotonous enough to us, because they lean up against the events of yesterday, and the yesterdays before! How do they seem, I wonder, to a man whose yesterday was more than a decade of years ago!"The editor nodded.

"It must be a grim sensation," he admitted, "but I am afraid with you, my dear Walter, it is an affair of shop. You wish to cull from your interesting employer the material for that every-becoming novel of yours. Let's go upstairs! I've time for one pool.""I haven't," Aynesworth answered. "I've a commission to do."He left the club and walked westwards, humming softly to himself, but thinking all the time intently. His errand disturbed him. He was to be the means of bringing together again these two people who had played the principal parts in Lovell's drama--his new employer and the woman who had ruined his life. What was the object of it? What manner of vengeance did he mean to deal out to her?

Lovell's words of premonition returned to him just then with curious insistence--he was so certain that Wingrave's reappearance would lead to tragical happenings. Aynesworth himself never doubted it. His brief interview with the man into whose service he had almost forced himself had impressed him wonderfully. Yet, what weapon was there, save the crude one of physical force, with which Wingrave could strike?"He rang the bell at No. 13, Cadogan Street, and sent in his card by the footman. The man accepted it doubtfully.

"Her ladyship has only just got up from luncheon, sir, and she is not receiving this afternoon," he announced.

Aynesworth took back his card, and scribbled upon it the name of the newspaper for which he still occasionally worked.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 雪原狼王(兽王系列)

    雪原狼王(兽王系列)

    一个在瘟疫中幸存的男孩兰虎,因为彰显出不同寻常的能力而被路过的一对善良的夫妇给救出带走,兰虎被带到一个温暖的家庭,还有一个可爱的小妹妹,这对夫妇告诉兰虎,他其实并非普通的人类,而是拥有暗能量的新人类少年,一年后,年满十五岁的兰虎被送到古亚洲大陆的宠兽学校去学习,这是一所与普通人的学校绝不相同的新人类学校,在这里老师们将会教新人类孩子们怎么善用自己的力量,发挥自己的专长,驾御各种动物,摹仿它们的能力,一个崭新的世界出现在兰虎面前,然而,一个巨大的危机正悄悄逼近宠兽学校,黑暗势力试图控制这所新人类学校,进而借助学校的力量实现他们称霸世界的野心,兰虎和他的伙伴们将怎么化解这次危机?
  • 世纪星河

    世纪星河

    一对深邃的蓝瞳,一个来自未知领域的婴儿,一段传奇的经历,穿越时空演绎一场惊天动地的宇宙史诗。铸就一个奇才修炼神话。在不断成长中,找寻自己的身世之谜,一步步走向强者之巅。
  • 阎君追妻:娘子,不要闹!

    阎君追妻:娘子,不要闹!

    推荐兰兰新文《爆宠小萌妃:妖帝,别乱来!》连载中,求支持!!!他是天帝的私生子,亦是冥界之主。血统不纯的他被派到冥界,做起了那里的主宰者,混得风生水起,手握阴兵千万,人称阎君。为了破身上的横死诅咒,把八字纯阴的她给娶了。他承诺死后会将所有财产都留给她,白纸黑字写得清清楚楚、明明白白。要求是陪他走到生命的终点,太让人于心不忍了对不对?所以这单生意她成交了!可是左等右盼,肚子都大了,人家还活着,骗纸,说好的短命呢!!
  • 等待,让我选择与你陌路

    等待,让我选择与你陌路

    哪有那么多说得清道得明的关系,懵懂的懵懂里,谁对,谁错。不轻易承诺,是因为都知道,那时,真的承诺不起。爱情,在哪里?在犹犹豫豫里,在那漫无目的的等待里,在那彼此的猜测和轻易的放弃里。谁动的情最真,谁伤的最彻底?一切,怎样开始,才不至于以后如此的悲伤。什么时候习惯了等待的?然后愿意自己一个人看着夕阳西下,习惯耳机里放着你最喜欢的歌。什么时候习惯执着的等待着?所以可以微笑的拒绝身边的人,可以独自享受着那段时光里的五味杂陈。你说:“用我的黑色掩盖你白无暇的忧伤。”最后的最后,我终于说:“等待,让我选择与你陌路。”只是这陌路,早已不是曾经的意思。
  • 十世琉璃

    十世琉璃

    三千年的等待,十生十世的轮回,等的是谁?轮回的又是谁?他是高高在上的仙人……又怎么会在意如同蝼蚁般卑微的她的死活?然而他却对她说:“谁说我不爱你?我觉得我从很久很久以前,就开始爱你。”她冷笑一声:“可惜,我不爱你。”多年后,她神色凄惨的望着他,她的身后是一具面色惨白的尸体,看不清死活。她咬咬唇,双膝重重的跪下:“师傅,我错了。”他淡漠如水的目光扫向她;声音平静“哦?知道错了?错在哪儿?”她颤抖着嘴唇,声音里甚至带着一丝祈求:“师傅,求你救救他,求你,只要你能救他,怎样都好。”“若是我不愿救,你又当如何?”她忽然抬眼定定的看向他,目光中甚至带着一丝决绝;“若是这样,那么你我师徒,从此恩断义绝。原谅我简介无能……
  • 慈湖遗书

    慈湖遗书

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 匿名时光机

    匿名时光机

    从高中开始就被称为“小柯南”的欧若紫,进入云上学院的第一天,就和最大校董的儿子段琉川结下了梁子。学校突然发生偷窃事件,段琉川自告奋勇调查真相,并请欧若紫协助调查。在段琉川许诺了她三个条件后,欧若紫答应帮忙。有了欧若紫的协助,偷窃事件圆满解决,然而事情并没有想象的这么简单,偷窃事件结束之后又发生了一连串的事件,并且都与一个署名为“Z”的人有关。欧若紫与段琉川欲找出这个人,但每当有一点点线索的时候就断了……欧若紫能否找出真正操纵事件的人?她与段琉川之间的感情,又会发生一些怎样的变化呢?
  • 国学文化经典读本:现代散文精萃

    国学文化经典读本:现代散文精萃

    我们这套丛书,是为了帮助青少年学一点国学而编写的。我们很愿意把我国文化遗产中发人深省的哲理,脍炙人口的诗文,上至孔子老子,下至鲁迅冰心,有选择地向读者们介绍,并且稍作简明扼要的说明、注释。我们希望,广大的青少年能够从这套丛书中,接受到祖国优良的文化传统的教益,成为建设社会主义祖国的有用之材。
  • 极道轻狂妃

    极道轻狂妃

    她是世家大小姐,拥有让所有男人倾倒的绝世容颜。却被姿色不及她的死对头与她的牛郎同伙摆了一道,灵魂穿越到古代一个不被父亲疼爱,又被太子欺负的可怜女子身上。她是什么人,哪会随便让人欺负?元帅老爹怎么样?太子殿下又怎么样?得罪她的人,统统都要付出代价!
  • 超神无敌升级

    超神无敌升级

    无敌中升级,毁灭中创生。前世分离,今世不弃。叶玄天手提九幽邪皇刀,身穿混沌幽魂铠甲,头戴灭魂弑天盔,脚踏时间空间之轮,携妻夏雪怡,重回九重天。遇神杀神!遇魔杀魔!镇压诸天万界,打爆一切不服者,因为我叶玄天势必要成为终极超神的男人!八为超神,九为终极超神,碾压九重天!新书《都市无敌邪君》一代邪君降临都市,打暴徒,收美女,踏上帝王之路。还请各位多多收藏!