The Mischief-Maker

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Title: The Mischief Maker

Author: E. Phillips Oppenheim

Posting Date: August 29, 2012 [EBook #8878] Release Date: September, 2005 First Posted: August 19, 2003

Language: English

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THE MISCHIEF-MAKER

BY

E. PHILLIPS OPPENHEIM

AUTHOR OF THE LIGHTED WAY, THE TEMPTING OF TAVERNAKE, HAVOC, ETC.

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY HANSON BOOTH

1913

CONTENTS

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER

I SYMPATHY AND SELFISHNESS

II AN INDISCREET LETTER

III A RUINED CAREER

IV A BUNCH OF VIOLETS

V A SENTIMENTAL EPISODE

VI AT THE CAFÉ L'ATHÉNÉE

VII COFFEE FOR THREE

VIII IN PARIS

IX MADAME CHRISTOPHOR

X BETTER ACQUAINTANCE

XI THE TOYMAKER FROM LEIPZIG

XII AT THE RAT MORT

XIII POLITICS AND PATRIOTISM

XIV THE MORNING AFTER

XV BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

XVI HAVE YOU EVER LOVED?

XVII KENDRICKS IS HOST

XVIII A MEETING OF SOCIALISTS

XIX AN OFFER

XX FALKENBERG ACTS

BOOK TWO

CHAPTER

I THE FLIGHT OF LADY ANNE

II TO OUR NEW SELVES

III WORK FOR JULIEN

IV A STARTLING DISCLOSURE

V THE FIRST ARTICLE

VI FALKENBERG FAILS

VII LADY ANNE DECLINES

VIII A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

IX FOOLHARDY JULIEN

X THE SECOND ATTEMPT

XI BY THE PRINCE'S ORDERS

XII DISTRESSING NEWS

XIII ESTERMEN'S DEATH WARRANT

XIV SANCTUARY

XV NEARING A CRISIS

XVI FALKENBERG'S LAST REPORT

XVII DEFEAT FOR FALKENBERG

XVIII THE ONE WAY OUT

XIX ALL ENDS WELL

ILLUSTRATIONS

Really, he said, I thought better of Herr Freudenberg

At least, she reminded him, "you are going to see Madame

Christophor?"

Splendid! he muttered, rising to his feet. If only I can do it!

"Let me present to you Monsieur Bourgan of the French Detective

Service"

BOOK ONE

CHAPTER I

SYMPATHY AND SELFISHNESS

The girl who was dying lay in an invalid chair piled up with cushions in a sheltered corner of the lawn. The woman who had come to visit her had deliberately turned away her head with a murmured word about the sunshine and the field of buttercups. Behind them was the little sanitarium, a gray stone villa built in the style of a château, overgrown with creepers, and with terraced lawns stretching down to the sunny corner to which the girl had been carried earlier in the day. There were flowers everywhere—beds of hyacinths, and borders of purple and yellow crocuses. A lilac tree was bursting into blossom, the breeze was soft and full of life. Below, beyond the yellow-starred field of which the woman had spoken, flowed the Seine, and in the distance one could see the outskirts of Paris.

The doctor says I am better, the girl whispered plaintively. This morning he was quite cheerful. I suppose he knows, but it is strange that I should feel so weak—weaker even day by day. And my cough—it tears me to pieces all the time.

The woman who was bending over her gulped something down in her throat and turned her head. Although older than the invalid whom she had come to visit, she was young and very beautiful. Her cheeks were a trifle pale, but even without the tears her eyes were almost the color of violets.

The doctor must know, dear Lucie, she declared. Our own feelings so often mean nothing at all.

The girl moved a little uneasily in her chair. She, also, had once been pretty. Her hair was still an exquisite shade of red-gold, but her cheeks were thin and pinched, her complexion had gone, her clothes fell about her. She seemed somehow shapeless.

Yes, she agreed, the doctor knows—he must know. I see it in his manner every time he comes to visit me. In his heart, she added, dropping her voice, he must know that I am going to die.

Her eyes seemed to have stiffened in their sockets, to have become dilated. Her lips trembled, but her eyes remained steadfast.

Oh! madame, she sobbed, is it not cruel that one should die like this! I am so young. I have seen so little of life. It is not just, madame—it is not just!

The woman who sat by her side was shaking. Her heart was torn with pity. Everywhere in the soft, sunlit air, wherever she looked, she seemed to read in letters of fire the history of this girl, the history of so many others.

We will not talk of death, dear, she said. Doctors are so wonderful, nowadays. There are so few diseases which they cannot cure. They seem to snatch one back even from the grave. Besides, you are so young. One does not die at nineteen. Tell me about this man—Eugène, you called him. He has never once been to see you—not even when you were in the hospital?

The girl began to tremble.

Not once, she murmured.

You are sure that he had your letters? He knows that you are out here and alone?

Yes, he knows!

There was a short silence. The woman found it hard to know what to say. Somewhere down along the white, dusty road a man was grinding the music of a threadbare waltz from an ancient barrel-organ. The girl closed her eyes.

We used to hear that sometimes, she whispered, at the cafés. At one where we went often they used to know that I liked it and they always played it when we came. It is queer to hear it again—like this…. Oh, when I close my eyes, she muttered, I am afraid! It is like shutting out life for always.

The woman by her side got up. Lucie caught at her skirt.

Madame, you are not going yet? she pleaded. Am I selfish? Yet you have not stayed with me so long as yesterday, and I am so lonely.

The woman's face had hardened a little.

I am going to find that man, she replied. I have his address. I want to bring him to you.

The girl's hold upon her skirt tightened.

Sit down, she begged. Do not leave me. Indeed it is useless. He knows. He does not choose to come. Men are like that. Oh! madame, I have learned my lesson. I know now that love is a vain thing. Men do not often really feel it. They come to us when we please them, but afterwards that does not count. I suppose we were meant to be sacrificed. I have given up thinking of Eugène. He is afraid, perhaps, of the infection. I think that I would sooner go out of life as I lie here, cold and unloved, than have him come to me unwillingly.

The woman could not hide her tears any longer. There was something so exquisitely fragile, so strangely pathetic, in that prostrate figure by her side.

But, my dear, she faltered,—

Madame, the girl interrupted, hold my hand for a moment. That is the doctor coming. I hear his footstep. I think that I must sleep.

Madame Christophor—she had another name, but there were few occasions on which she cared to use it—was driven back to Paris, in accordance with her murmured word of instruction, at a pace which took little heed of police regulations or even of safety. Through the peaceful lanes, across the hills into the suburbs, and into the city itself she passed, at a speed which was scarcely slackened even when she turned into the Boulevard which was her destination. Glancing at the slip of paper which she held in her hand, she pulled the checkstring before a tall block of buildings. She hurried inside, ascended two flights of stairs, and rang the bell of a door immediately opposite her. A very German-looking manservant opened it after the briefest of delays—a man with fair moustache, fat, stolid face and inquisitive eyes.

Is your master in, she demanded, Monsieur Estermen?

The man stared at her, then bowed. The appearance of Madame Christophor was, without doubt, impressive.

I will inquire, madame, he replied.

I am in a hurry, she said curtly. Be so good as to let your master know that.

A moment later she was ushered into a sitting-room—a man's apartment, untidy, reeking of cigarette smoke and stale air. There were photographs and souvenirs of women everywhere. The windows were fast-closed and the curtains half-drawn. The man who stood upon the hearthrug was of medium height, dark, with close-cropped hair and a black, drooping moustache. His first glance at his visitor, as the door opened, was one of impertinent curiosity.

Madame? he inquired.

You are Monsieur Estermen?

He bowed. He was very much impressed and he endeavored to assume a manner.

That is my name. Pray be seated.

She waved away the chair he offered.

My automobile is in the street below, she said. I wish you to come with me at once to see a poor girl who is dying.

He looked at her in amazement.

Are you serious, madame?

I am very serious indeed, she replied. "The girl's name is Lucie

Rénault."

For the moment he seemed perplexed. Then his eyebrows were slowly raised.

Lucie Rénault, he repeated. What do you know about her?

Only that she is a poor child who has suffered at your hands and who is dying in a private hospital, Madame Christophor answered. She has been taken there out of charity. She has no friends, she is dying alone. Come with me. I will take you to her. You shall save her at least from that terror.

It was the aim of the man with whom she spoke to be considered modern. A perfect and invincible selfishness had enabled him to reach the topmost heights of callousness, and to remain there without affectation.

If the little girl is dying, he said, I am sorry, for she was pretty and companionable, although I have lost sight of her lately. But as to my going out to see her, why, that is absurd. I hate illness of all sorts.

The woman looked at him steadfastly, looked at him as though she had come into contact with some strange creature.

Do you understand what it is that I am saying? she demanded. This girl was once your little friend, is it not so? It was for your sake that she gave up the simple life she was living when you first knew her, and went upon the stage. The life was too strenuous for her. She broke down, took no care of herself, developed a cough and alas! tuberculosis.

The man sighed. He had adopted an expression of abstract sympathy.

A terrible disease, he murmured.

A terrible disease indeed, Madame Christophor repeated. Do you not understand what I mean when I tell you that she is dying of it? Very likely she will not live a week—perhaps not a day. She lies there alone in the garden of the hospital and she is afraid. There are none who knew her, whom she cares for, to take her into their arms and to bid her have no fear. Is it not your place to do this? You have held her in your arms in life. Don't you see that it is your duty to cheer her a little way on this last dark journey?

The man threw away his cigarette and moved to the mantelpiece, where he helped himself to a fresh one from the box.

Madame, he said, I perceive that you are a sentimentalist.

She did not speak—she could not. She only looked at him.

Death, he continued, lighting his cigarette, is an ugly thing. If it came to me I should probably be quite as much afraid—perhaps more—than any one else. But it has not come to me just yet. It has come, you tell me, to little Lucie. Well, I am sorry, but there is nothing I can do about it. I have no intention whatever of making myself miserable. I do not wish to see her. I do not wish to look upon death, I simply wish to forget it. If it were not, madame, he added, with a bow and a meaning glance from his dark eyes, that you bring with you something of your own so well worth looking upon, I could almost find myself regretting your visit.

She still regarded him fixedly. There was in her face something of that shrinking curiosity with which one looks upon an unclean and horrible thing.

That is your answer? she murmured.

The man had little understanding and he replied boldly.

It is my answer, without a doubt. Lucie, if what you tell me is true, as I do not for a moment doubt, is dying from a disease the ravages of which are hideous to watch, and which many people believe, too, to be infectious. Let me advise you, madame, to learn also a little wisdom. Let me beg of you not to be led away by these efforts of sentiment, however picturesque and delightful they may seem. The only life that is worth considering is our own. The only death that we need fear is our own. We ought to live like that.

The woman stood quite still. She was tall and she was slim. Her figure was exquisite. She was famous throughout the city for her beauty. The man's eyes dwelt upon her and the eternal expression crept slowly into his face. He seemed to understand nothing of the shivering horror with which she was regarding him.

If it were upon any other errand, madame, he continued, leaning towards her, believe, I pray you, that no one would leave this room to become your escort more willingly than I.

She turned away.

You will not leave me already? he begged.

Monsieur, she declared, as she threw open the door before he could reach it, if I thought that there were many men like you in the world, if I thought—

She never finished her sentence. The emotions which had seized her were entirely inexpressible. He shrugged his shoulders.

My dear lady, he said, let me assure you that there is not a man of the world in this city who, if he spoke honestly, would not feel exactly as I do. Allow me at least to see you to your automobile.

If you dare to move, she muttered, if you dare—

She swept past him and down the stairs into the street. She threw herself into the corner of the automobile. The chauffeur looked around.

Where to, madame? he inquired.

She hesitated for a moment. She had affairs of her own, but the thought of the child's eyes came up before her.

Back to the hospital, she ordered. Drive quickly.

They rushed from Paris once more into the country, with its spring perfumes, its soft breezes, its restful green, but fast though they drove another messenger had outstripped them. From the little chapel, as the car rolled up the avenue, came the slow tolling of a bell. Madame Christophor stood on the corner of the lawn alone. The invalid chair was empty. The blinds of the villa were being slowly lowered. She turned around and looked toward the city. It seemed to her that she could see into the rooms of the man whom she had left a few minutes ago. A lark was singing over her head. She lifted her eyes and looked past him up to the blue sky. Her lips moved, but never a sound escaped her. Yet the man who sat in his rooms at that moment, yawning and wondering where to spend the evening, and which companion he should summon by telephone to amuse him, felt a sudden shiver in his veins.

CHAPTER II

AN INDISCREET LETTER

The library of the house in Grosvenor Square was spacious, handsome and ornate. Mr. Algernon H. Carraby, M.P., who sat dictating letters to a secretary in an attitude which his favorite photographer had rendered exceedingly familiar, at any rate among his constituents, was also, in his way, handsome and ornate. Mrs. Carraby, who had just entered the room, fulfilled in an even greater degree these same characteristics. It was acknowledged to be a very satisfactory household.

I should like to speak to you for a moment, Algernon, his wife announced.

Mr. Carraby noticed for the first time that she was carrying a letter in her hand. He turned at once to his secretary.

Haskwell, he said, kindly return in ten minutes.

The young man quitted the room. Mrs. Carraby advanced a few steps further towards her husband. She was tall, beautifully dressed in the latest extreme of fashion. Her movements were quiet, her skin a little pale, and her eyebrows a little light. Nevertheless, she was quite a famous beauty. Men all admired her without any reservations. The best sort of women rather mistrusted her.

Is that the letter, Mabel? her husband asked, with an eagerness which he seemed to be making some effort to conceal.

She nodded slowly. He held out his hand, but she did not at once part with it.

Algernon, she said quietly, you know that I am not very scrupulous. We both of us want success—a certain sort of success—and we have both of us been content to pay the price. You have spent a good deal of money and you have succeeded very well indeed. Somehow or other, I feel to-day as though I were spending more than money.

He laughed a little uncomfortably.

My dear Mabel! he protested. You are not going to back out, are you?

No, she replied, I do not think that I shall back out. There is nothing in the whole world I want so much as to have you a Cabinet Minister. If there had been any other way—

But there is no other way, her husband interrupted. "So long as

Julien Portel lives, I should never get my chance. He holds the post I

want. Every one knows that he is clever. He has the ear of the Prime

Minister and he hates me. My only chance is his retirement."

Mrs. Carraby looked at the letter.

Well, she said, I have played your game for you. I have gone even to the extent of being talked about with Julien Portel.

Her husband moved uneasily in his chair.

That will all blow over directly, he declared. Besides, if—if things go our way, we shan't see much more of Portel. Give me the letter.

Still she hesitated. It was curious that throughout the slow evolution of this scheme to break a man's life, for which she was mainly responsible, she had never hesitated until this moment. Always it had been fixed in her mind that Algernon was to be a Cabinet Minister; she was to be the wife of a Cabinet Minister. That there were any other things greater in life than the gratification of so reasonable an ambition had never seemed possible. Now she hesitated. She looked at her husband and she saw him with new eyes. He seemed suddenly a mean little person. She thought of the other man and there was a strange quiver in her heart—a very unexpected sensation indeed. There was a difference in the breed. It came home to her at that moment. She found herself even wondering, as she swung the letter idly between her thumb and fore-finger, whether she would have been a different woman if she had had a different manner of husband.

The letter! he repeated.

She laid it calmly on the desk before him.

Of course, she said coldly, if you find the contents affectionate you must remember that I am in no way responsible. This was your scheme. I have done my best.

The man's fingers trembled slightly as he broke the seal.

Naturally, he agreed, pausing for an instant and looking up at her. I knew that I could trust you or I would never have put such an idea into your head.

She laughed; a characteristic laugh it was, quite cold, quite mirthless, apparently quite meaningless. Carraby turned back to the letter, tore open the envelope and spread it out before them. He read it out aloud in a sing-song voice.

Downing Street. Tuesday

MY DEAREST MABEL,

I had your sweet little note an hour ago. Of course I was disappointed about luncheon, as I always am when I cannot see you. Your promise to repay me, however, almost reconciles me.

The man looked up at his wife.

Promise? he repeated hoarsely. What does he mean?

Go on, she said, with unchanged expression. See if what you want is there.

The man continued to read:

I am going to ask you a very great favor, Mabel. When we are alone together, I talk to you with absolute freedom. To write you on matters connected with my office is different. I know very well how deep and sincere your interest in politics really is, and it has always been one of my greatest pleasures, when with you, to talk things over and hear your point of view. Without flattery, dear, I have really more than once found your advice useful. It is your understanding which makes our companionship always a pleasure to me, and I rely upon that when I beg you not to ask me to write you again on matters to which I have really no right to allude. You do not mind this, dear? And having read you my little lecture, I will answer your question. Yes, the Cabinet Council was held exactly as you surmise. With great difficulty I persuaded B—— to adopt my view of the situation. They are all much too terrified of this war bogey. For once I had my own way. Our answer to this latest demand from Berlin was a prompt and decisive negative. Nothing of this is to be known for at least a week.

I am sorry your husband is such a bear. Perhaps on Monday we may meet at Cardington House?

Please destroy this letter at once.

Ever affectionately yours,

JULIEN.

The man's eyes, as he read, grew brighter.

It is enough? the woman asked.

It is more than enough!

Slowly he replaced it in its envelope and thrust it into the breast-pocket of his coat.

What are you going to do with it? she inquired.

I have made my plans, he answered. I know exactly how to make the best and most dignified use of it.

He rose to his feet. Something in his wife's expression seemed to disturb him. He walked a few steps toward the door and came back again.

Mabel, he said, are you glad?

Naturally I am glad, she replied.

You have no regrets?

Again she laughed.

Regrets? she echoed. What are they? One doesn't think about such things, nowadays.

They stood quite still in the centre of that very handsome apartment. They were almost alien figures in the world in which they moved, Carraby, the rankest of newcomers, carried into political life by his wife's ambitions, his own self-amassed fortune, and a sort of subtle cunning—a very common substitute for brains; Mrs. Carraby, on whom had been plastered an expensive and ultra-fashionable education, although she was able perhaps more effectually to conceal her origin, the daughter of a rich Yorkshire manufacturer, who had secured a paid entrance into Society. They were purely artificial figures for the very reason that they never admitted any one of these facts to themselves, but talked always the jargon of the world to which they aspired, as though they were indeed denizens therein by right. At that moment, though, a single natural feeling shook the man, shook his faith in himself, in life, in his destiny. There was Jewish blood in his veins and it made itself felt.

Mabel, he began, this man Portel—you've flirted with him, you say?

I have most certainly flirted with him, she admitted quietly.

He hasn't dared—

A flash of scorn lit her cold eyes.

I think, she said, that you had better ask me no questions of that sort.

Carraby went slowly out. Already the moment was passing. Of course he could trust his wife! Besides, in his letter was the death warrant of the man who stood between him and his ambitions. Mrs. Carraby listened to his footsteps in the hall, heard his suave reply to his secretary, heard his orders to the footman who let him out. From where she stood she watched him cross the square. Already he had recovered his alert bearing. His shoes and his hat were glossy, his coat was of an excellent fit. The woman watched him without movement or any change of expression.

CHAPTER III

A RUINED CAREER

Sir Julien Portel stood in the middle of his bedroom, dressed in shirt and trousers only. The sofa and chairs around him were littered with portions of the brilliant uniform which he had torn from his person a few minutes before with almost feverish haste. His perplexed servant, who had only just arrived, was doing his best to restore the room to some appearance of order.

You needn't mind those wretched things for the present, Richards, his master ordered sharply. Bring the rest of the tweed traveling suit like the trousers I have on, and then see about packing some clothes.

The man ceased his task. He looked around, a little bewildered.

Do I understand that you are going out of town tonight, Sir Julien? he asked.

I am going on to the continent by the nine o'clock train, was the curt reply.

Richards was a perfectly trained servant, but the situation was too much for him.

You will excuse me, Sir Julien, he said, "but there is Lord

Cardington's dinner tonight, and the reception afterwards at the

Foreign Office. I have your court clothes ready."

His master laughed shortly.

I am not attending the dinner or the reception, Richards. You can put those things back again and get me the traveling clothes.

The man seemed a little dazed, but turned automatically towards the wardrobe.

Shall you require me to accompany you, sir? he inquired.

Not at present, Sir Julien replied. You will have to come on with the rest of my luggage when I have decided what to do.

Richards was not more than ordinarily inquisitive, but the circumstances were certainly unusual.

Do you mean, sir, that you will not be returning to London at present? he ventured to ask.

I shall not be returning to London for some time, Sir Julien answered sharply. Get on with the packing as quickly as you can. Put the whiskey and soda on the table in the sitting-room, and the cigarettes. Remember, if any one comes I am not at home.

Too late, my dear fellow, a voice called out from the adjoining room. You see, I have found my way up unannounced—a bad habit, but my profession excuses everything.

The man stood on the threshold of the room opening out from the bedroom—tall, florid, untidily dressed, with clean-shaven, humorous face, ungloved hands, and a terribly shabby hat. He looked around the room and shrugged his shoulders.

What an infernal mess! he exclaimed. Come along out into the sitting-room, Julien. I want to talk to you.

I should like to know how the devil you got in here! Sir Julien muttered. I told the fellow downstairs that no one was to be allowed up.

He did try to make himself disagreeable, the newcomer replied.

However, here I am—that's enough.

Sir Julien turned to his servant.

Get on with your packing, Richards, he directed, and let me know when you have finished.

Sir Julien followed his visitor into the sitting-room, closing the door behind him. His manner was not in the least cordial.

Look here, Kendricks, old fellow, he said, I don't want to be rude, but I am not in the humor to talk to any one. I have had a rotten week of it and just about as much as I can stand. Help yourself to a whiskey and soda, say what you have to say and then go.

The newcomer nodded. He helped himself to the whiskey and soda, but he seemed in no hurry to speak. On the contrary, he settled himself down in an easy-chair with the appearance of a man who had come to stay.

Julien, he remarked presently, you are up against it—up against it rather hard. Don't trouble to interrupt me. I know pretty well all about it. I said from the first you'd have to resign. There wasn't any other way out of it.

Quite right, Julien agreed. There wasn't. I've finished up everything to-day—resigned my office, applied for the Chiltern Hundreds, and I am going to clear out of the country to-night.

"And all because you wrote a foolish letter to