Flames. Robert Hichens

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СКАЧАТЬ pardon, gents. I thought it was a bit further on," said the cabby, leering down cheerfully. "Nice night, sir, ain't it?"

      He shook the reluctant drops of moisture from his waterproof-shrouded hat, and drove off.

      Valentine opened the damp iron gate, and they walked up the paved alley to the door.

CHAPTER IV

       Table of Contents

      THE EUSTON ROAD EPISODE

      Opening the door, they found themselves in a squalid passage. A room on the left was fronted by a sort of counter, above which was a long window giving onto the passage, and as the shrill tinkle of a bell announced their entrance this window was pushed up, and the large red face and furtive observant eyes of a man stared upon them inquiringly.

      "Do you require a room for the night?" he asked, in a husky voice, invaded by a strong French accent. "Because—"

      "No," interrupted Julian.

      The man nodded, and, strange to say, with apparent content.

      "There is trouble in my house," he said. "I am unlucky; I come to England from my country to earn an honest living, and before two years, I have the police here last night."

      "Yes," said Julian, "I know."

      "What? You know it? Well, it is not my fault. The gentleman come last night with a lady, his wife, I suppose. How am I to know? He ask for a room. He look perfectly well. I give them the room. They go to bed. At four o'clock in the morning I hear a bell ring. I get up. I go on the landing to listen. I hear the bell again. I run to the chamber of the lady and gentleman. The lady is gone. The gentleman falls back on the bed as I come in and dies. Mon Dieu! It is—"

      He suddenly paused in his excited narrative. Valentine had moved his position slightly and was now standing almost immediately under the gas-lamp that lit the glass door.

      "You—you are relation of him?" he said. "You come to see him?"

      "I have come to see him, certainly," said Valentine. "But I am no relation of his. This gentleman," and he pointed to Julian, "knew him well, and wished to look at him once more."

      The landlord seemed puzzled. He glanced from Valentine to Julian, then back again to Valentine.

      "But," he began, once more addressing himself to the latter, "you are like—there is something; when the poor gentleman fell on the bed and died he had your eyes. Yes, yes, you are relation of him."

      "No," Valentine said; "you are mistaken."

      "I should think so," exclaimed Julian. "Poor Marr's face was as utterly different from yours, Valentine, as darkness is different from light."

      "No, no; it is not the eyes of the gentleman," the landlord continued, leaning forward through his window, and still violently scrutinizing Valentine—"it is not the eyes. But there is something—the voice, the manner—yes, I say there is something, I cannot tell."

      "You are dreaming, my friend," Valentine calmly interposed. "Now, Julian, what do you want to do?"

      Julian came forward and leant his arm on the counter.

      "I am the poor gentleman's great friend," he said. "You must let me see him."

      The landlord held up his fat hands with a large gesticulation of refusal.

      "I cannot, sir. To-morrow they remove him. They sit on the poor gentleman—"

      "I know—the inquest. All this is very hard upon you, an honest man trying to make an honest living."

      Julian put some money into one of the agitated hands.

      "My friend and I only wish to see him for a moment."

      "Monsieur, I cannot. I—"

      Julian insinuated another sovereign into his protesting fingers. They took it as an anemone takes a shrimp, and made a gesture of abdication.

      "Well, if Monsieur is the friend of the poor gentleman, I have not the heart, I am tender-hearted, I am foolish—"

      He disappeared muttering from the window, and in a moment appeared at a door on the left, disclosing himself now fully as a degraded, flaccid-looking, frouzy ruffian of a very low type, flashily dressed, and of a most unamiable expression. Taking a candlestick from a dirty marble-topped slab that projected from the passage-wall, he struck a match, lit the candle, and preceded them up the narrow flight of stairs, his boots creaking loudly at every step. On the landing at the top a smart maid-servant with a very pale face reconnoitered the party for a moment with furtive curiosity, then flitted away in the darkness to the upper regions of the house.

      The landlord paused by a door numbered with a black number.

      "He is in here," he whispered hoarsely. "Tomorrow they sit on him. After that he go from me. Mon Dieu! I am glad when he is gone. My custom he is spoilt. My house get a bad name, and like a dog they hang him. Mon Dieu!"

      He opened the door stealthily, forming "St!" with his fat, coarse lips.

      "I light the gas. It is all dark."

      "No, no," Julian said, taking the candle from him, "I will do that. Go down."

      He motioned him away, and entered the room, followed by Valentine, at whom the landlord again stared with a greedy consideration and curiosity, before turning to retreat softly down the narrow stairs.

      They found themselves in a good-sized room, typically of London. It was full of the peculiar and unmistakable metropolitan smell, a stale odor of the streets that suggests smuts to the mind. Two windows, with a long dingy mirror set between them, looked out towards the Euston Road. Venetian blinds and thin white curtains looped with yellow ribbon shrouded them. On a slab that stuck out under the mirror was placed a bundle of curling-pins tied with white tape, a small brush and comb, and a bottle of cherry-blossom scent. Near the mirror stood a narrow sofa covered with red rep. Upon this lay a man's upturned top-hat, in the corner of which reposed a pair of reindeer gloves. A walking-stick with a gold top stood against the wall, in a corner by the marble mantlepiece. In the middle of the room lay a small open portmanteau, disclosing a disorder of shirts, handkerchiefs, and boots, a cheque-book, a bottle of brandy, and some brushes. By the fireplace there was a vulgar-looking arm-chair upholstered in red. The room was full of the faint sound of London voices and London traffic.

      Julian went straight up to the gas chandelier and lit all three jets. His action was hurried and abrupt. Then he set the candle down beside the bundle of curling-pins, and turned sharply round to face the bed. The room was now a glare of light, and in this glare of light the broad bed with its white counterpane and sheets stood out harshly enough. The sheets were turned smoothly down under the blue chin of the dead man, who lay there upon his back, his face with fast-shut eyes dusky white, or rather grey, among the pillows. As Julian looked upon him he exclaimed:

      "Good God, it isn't Marr! Valentine, it isn't Marr!"

      "Not?"

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