Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts

seat. The jingle of bells might have warned me; but the horse's hoofs came noiselessly on the half-frozen snow, which lay just deep enough to hide where the paveme

windows of the house opposite let fall their light across his red and astonished face. I laughed, and gave him another volley. My head was hot, though my feet and hands were cold; and I felt equal to cursi

n and women crossed the blinds, and

s; white tables heaped with roses and set with silver and crystal, jewelled fingers moving in the soft candle-light, bare necks bending, diamonds, odours, bubbles in the wine; blue water and white foam beneath the leaning shadow of sails; hot air flickering over str

perhaps than to any other. Did I long to pass behind it again? I thrust both hands into my poc

igh light in the portico flung the shadows of both down the crimson carpet laid on the entrance-steps. Snow had fallen and covered the edges o

o whistle for a hansom. But he turned, gave an order to the butler, and stepping briskly down into the street, made off eastwards. The door closed b

ozen but the thinnest crust of it. He was walking briskly, as men do in such weather, but with no appearance of hurry. At the corner of Sloane

now and here than in a crowded thoroughfare. My right hand gripped the revolver more tightly. No, there was plenty of time: and I was curious to know what had brought Gerva

se meet and pass a policeman, and altered my own pace to a lagging walk. Even so, the fellow eyed me suspiciously as I went by - or so I thought: and guessing that he kept a w

e to a halt, by the stone drinking-trough: and flattening myself against the railings, I saw him try the thin ice in the trough with his finger-tips, but in a hesitating way, as if his thoughts ran on somethin

ten minutes to one. At the entrance of Down Street he turned aside again, and began to lead me a z

rvase, and asked me what my game was. I demanded innocently enough to be shown the nearest way to Oxford Street, and the fellow, aft

growled, "straight on.

il well clear of the square. At the crossing of Davies and Grosveno

porch at my elbow a t

gentle

as a woman, stretching out one skinny hand a

copper. I've known bett

'm in the same case. And they cou

eld out her hand. I felt for my last coin, and her fingers close

gentle

re kind, ar

a nerveless tone let one

f at a shuffling run, I doubled back along Grosvenor Street and Bond Street to the point where I hoped to

my way. "Hi, you! Wait a moment, please;" then

my pocket: the next moment I found myself spra

se. He had turned leisurely back from the slope of Conduit Street

have reason to think

e answered cheerfully

ou knew i

In fact, he was follow

a lie, then?" grumbled

ok here," I put in, "I asked you the way to Oxford Street, that

r a bit," he growled.

letting flash a diamond finger-ring in the lamp-light. "He is a bit of a be

hand. The other constable had di

ame, it's

n his heartiest tone. "Here is my c

e satisfi

he pedestal from under me as a figure of tragedy. Five minutes ago I had been the implacable avenger tracking my unconscious victim across the city. Heaven knows how small an excuse it was for self-respect; but one who has lost character may yet chance to catch a dignity fro

equinade as easily as you might bash in a hat; and my enemy had refined the cruelty of it by coming to the rescue and ironically restarting the poor play on lines of comedy. I saw too late that I ought to have refused his help, to hav

strode on without deigning a single glance behind, still in cold derision presenting me his broad back and silently challenging me to shoot. And I foll

in the roadway crackled under our feet. At the Circus I began to guess, and when Gervase struck off into Great

eet in which it stood he halted

humb, "if you still have the entry. Thes

burning. He could not see this, nor could I

hen. You know the window, the one which opens into the passage leading

the daytime used only by their children, who played hop-scotch on the flagged pavement, where no one interrupted them. You wondered at its survival - from end to end it must have measured a good fifty yards - in a district where every square foot of ground fetched money; until you learned that the house

ven with the glimmer of snow to help me, I had to grope for the window-sill to make sure of my bearings. The minutes crawled by, and the only sound came from a stall where one of the horses had kicked through his th

have sent off the night porter. He tells me the bank is still

take it for a harmless studio - was merely a sheath, so to speak. Within, a corridor divided it from the true wall of the room

oportions, never used by the tenants of the house, and

a Duke of the Blood Royal, who could hardly be accused to his face. The Earl's sense of honour forbade him to accuse any meaner man while the big c

ing his expectant guests to the door, ushering them in with a wave of the hand, and taking his seat tranquilly amid the dead,

the shutters. The tables had mirrors for tops: the whole ceiling was one vast mirror. From it

s had lost half their rings and drooped askew from their soiled vallances. Across one of the wall-panels ran an ugly scar. A smell of rat pervaded the air. The present occupiers had no use for a room so obviously unsuitable to games of chance, as they unde

d I wished to be alone. I did not explain by what entrance I expected him. The people in the front cannot hear us. Have a cigar?" He pushed

a match. Glancing round, I saw a hundred small flames spurt up

hand. He, too, glanced about him while he puffed. "Ugh!" He blew a

a world," said I fatuously,

for his elbow on the looking-glass table. "It takes only two sorts to make the world we've lived in, and that's you and

goes - if you must discuss it - I a

afterwards, when we came to grips, you were the under-dog,

Only if you suppose I came here to

m between his teeth and

the cards on the table?" He drew a small revolver from his pocket and laid it with a light clink on the tabl

this multiplied gesture. "Yes," he said, as

u know my purpose here, perh

oughly, it might be enough to say that I saw you standing outside my house a while ago; that I needed a talk with you alone, in some private place; th

d, "all that seem

g to the fireplace, turned his back on me and spread his palms to the blaze. "Well,

back staring - I daresay sulkily enough - at the two

uch things, and you haven't the nerve to sin off your own bat. Come"- he strolled back to his seat and leaned towards me across the table -"it's not much to boast of, but a

t. I never see you without wanting to ki

it. No: let's be honest about it. There was no r

was," I

se mirrors have taught me how to say it. Take a look at them - the world we

nd on it, slewing h

hat it meant: and with unlimited pocket-money and his wits about him any boy can make himself a power in a big school. That is what we did: towards the end we even set the fashion for a certain set; and a rank bad fashion it was. But, in truth, we had no business the

rly. I kept my hands in m

nd I- as utterly alone as two shipwrecked men on a raft. The others were shadows to us: we followed their code because we had to be gentlemen, but we did not understand it in the least. For, after all, the roots of that code lay in the breeding and

," said I. "You'

ensibly baser. The sanctity of gambling debts, on the other hand, we did nothing to impair: because we had money. I recall your virtuous indignation at the amount of paper floated by poor W-- towards the end of the great

are, Ge

d been warned off Newmarket Heath, if I'd been shown the door of the hell we

et Elaine

mit: but I was clever enough to keep my hold on the old set; and then, after office-hours, I met you constantly, and studied and hated you - studied you because I hated you. Elaine came between us. You fell in love with her. That I, too, should fall in love with her was no coincidence, but the severest of logic. Given such a woman and two such men, no other c

yed me again, and res

I had trained myself to look into your mind and anticipate its working. Don't I tell you that from the first you were the only real creature this world held for me? You were my only book, an

I mutter

r you - or for me: just

letting out a laugh

ha

ining me, you have

id, "I could time your intelligence over any fence. But to-night there's something wrong. Either I'm out of practi

o, give me time - between you and your aims, whatever they were. Very well. You trod over me; or, rather, you pulled me up by the

ell you. See - you and I- you and I- always you and I! Man, I pitched you into dark

ey

ke from him in a cry. "So help m

oke out laughing. "Jeshurun waxed fat and - turned s

y brother b

t play

x Gardens? Then you'd be able to contemplate me all day long, and no

ruth," said

e gras. Can't do without me, can't you? Well, I

e, but by George if I stand up and let you shoot me - well, I hate

it anyway

and folded his arms. "Sh

the revolver, hesit

said. "I've got my cod

e forbid suic

differen

who commits suicide k

ed man happens

t we have hated, we two, is not each other, but ourselves or our own likeness. I swear I believe we two have so shared natures in hate that no power can untwist and separate them to

on to tell me which of us two has been Elaine's husband, feeding daintil

g up his revolver and strid

ed, with a queer look, "and perhaps you may go back to

s detested face. It was white but curiously eager - hopeful even. I lowered my arm

is torture to you to live and do without me: well, I'll try you with that. It will do me good to hurt you a bit." I slipped the revolver into my pocket and tapped it. "Though I don't un

corridor, and climbing out through the

ow a revolver-shot rang o

! I waited for the sound of footsteps: waited for three minutes - perhaps longer. None came. To be sure, the room stood we

stable close by was still shuffling his

e, and tip-toed my way to the door. The candles were still burning in the Room

ammered. "I heard -

oke to was not Gervase, but my own reflected image, stepping forward with pale fac

nd towards the fire. I caught up a candle, and ben

bliterated in the flesh, gazed at me in a ring, a hundred times repeated behind a hundred

, but I flung it off and pelted down the lane and through the mews. Once in the street I breathed ag

t. I had, I say, no clear purpose in following this line rather than another. I had none for taking Lennox Gardens on the way to my squalid lodging

ding there and rolling up the strip of red carpet. As he p

od erect, and with the air

rva

re stood Elaine in her ball-

ave you been? We have b

lothes in the full glare of the lamp. And then I heard the butler catch his b

Reg - Mr. Travers. I beg

and stood before her: an

had better run to the police station. Stay: take this revolver. It won't count anythi

ide Elaine, and as I stooped to lift her - as my hand tou

I who cannot do without him - who m