A People's Man. E. Phillips Oppenheim

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      "I know no one," he confessed.

      "I am Elisabeth Landon," she told him. "Mr. Foley is my uncle. My mother and I live with him and always help him to entertain."

      "Hence your interest in a lonely stranger," he remarked. "Please have no qualms about me. I am always interested when I am permitted to watch my fellow creatures, especially when the types are novel to me."

      She looked at him searchingly for a moment. As yet she had not succeeded in placing him. His features were large but well-shaped, his cheek-bones a little high, his forehead massive, his deep-set eyes bright and marvellously penetrating. He had a mouth long and firm, with a slightly humorous twist at the corners. His hair was black and plentiful. He might have been of any age between thirty-five and forty. His limbs and body were powerful; his head was set with the poise of an emperor. His clothes were correct and well worn, he was entirely at his ease. Yet Elisabeth, who was an observant person, looked at him and wondered. He would have been more at home, she thought, out in the storms of life than in her uncle's drawing-rooms. Yet what was he? He lacked the trimness of the soldier; of the debonair smartness of the modern fighting man there was no trace whatsoever in his speech or appearance. The politicians who were likely to be present she knew. What was there left? An explorer, perhaps, or a colonial. Her curiosity became imperious.

      "You have not told me your name," she reminded him.

      "My name is Maraton," he replied, a little grimly.

      "You—Maraton!"

      There was a brief silence—not without a certain dramatic significance to the girl who stood there with slightly parted lips. The smooth serenity of her forehead was broken by a frown; her beautiful blue eyes were troubled. She seemed somehow to have dilated, to have drawn herself up. Her air of politeness, half gracious, half condescending, had vanished. It was as though in spirit she were preparing for battle.

      "You seem to have heard of me," he remarked drily.

      "Who has not heard of you!" she answered in a low tone. "I am sorry.

       You have made me break my word."

      "I?"

      She was recovering herself now. A certain icy aloofness seemed to have crept into her manner. Her head was held at a different angle. Even the words seemed to leave her lips differently. Her tone was one of measured indignation.

      "Yes, you! When Mr. Foley told me that he had asked you to come here to-night, I vowed that I would not speak to you."

      "A perfectly reasonable decision," he agreed, without the slightest change of expression, "but am I really to be blamed for this unfortunate incident? You cannot say that I thrust myself upon your notice."

      His eyebrows were ever so slightly uplifted. She was not absolutely sure that there was not something very suggestive of amusement in his deep-set eyes. She bit her lip. Naturally he was not a gentleman!

      "I thought that you were a neglected guest," she explained coldly. "I do not understand how it is that you have managed to remain undiscovered."

      He shook his head doubtfully.

      "I made my entrance with the others. I saw a very charming lady at the head of the stairs—your mother, I believe—who gave me her fingers and called me Mr. Martin. Your uncle shook hands with me, looking over my head to welcome some one behind. I passed on with the rest. The fault remains, beyond a doubt, with your majordomo and my uncommon name."

      "Since I have discovered you, then," she declared, "you had better let me take you to my uncle. He has been looking everywhere for you for the last hour. We will go this way."

      She laid the extreme tips of her fingers upon his coat sleeve. He glanced down at them for a moment. Her reluctance was evident.

      "Perhaps," he suggested coolly, "we should make faster progress if I were to follow you."

      She took no further notice of him for some time. Then very suddenly she drew him to one side out of the throng, into an almost empty anteroom—a dismal little apartment lined with shelves full of blue books and Parliamentary records.

      "I am content to obey my guide," he remarked, "but why this abrupt flight?"

      She hesitated. Then she raised her eyes and looked at him. Perhaps some instinct told her that the truth was best.

      "Because Mr. Culvain was in that crowd," she told him. "Mr. Culvain has been looking for you everywhere. It is only to see you that he came here this evening. My uncle is anxious to talk with you first."

      "I am flattered," he murmured, smiling.

      "I think that you should be," she asserted. "Personally, I do not understand my uncle's attitude."

      "With regard to me?"

      "With regard to you."

      "You think, perhaps, that I should not be permitted here at all as a guest?"

      "I do think that," she replied, looking steadily into his eyes. "I think more than that. I think that your place is in Sing Sing prison."

      The corners of his mouth twitched. His amusement maddened her; her eyes flashed. Underneath her white satin gown her bosom was rising and falling quickly.

      He became suddenly grave.

      "Do you take life seriously, Lady Elisabeth?" he asked.

      "Certainly," she answered firmly. "I do not think that human life is a thing to be trifled with. I agree with the Times."

      "In what it said about me?"

      "Yes!

      "And what was that? It is neglectful of me, I know, but I never see the

       Times."

      "It held you entirely responsible for the death of those poor men in

       Chicago," she told him. "It named you as their murderer."

      "A very sensible paper, the Times," he agreed. "The responsibility was entirely mine."

      She looked at him for a moment in horror.

      "You can dare to admit that here—to me?"

      "Why not?" he answered calmly. "So long as it is my conviction, why not proclaim it? I love the truth. It is the one virtue which has never been denied me."

      Her eyes flashed. She made no effort whatever to conceal her detestation.

      "And they let you go—those Americans?" she cried. "I do not understand!"

      "There are probably many other considerations in connection with the affair which you do not understand," he observed. "However—they had their opportunity. I walked the streets openly, I travelled to New York openly, I took my steamer ticket to England under my own name. The papers, I believe, chronicled every stage of my journey."

      "It was disgraceful!" СКАЧАТЬ