Great Porter Square: A Mystery. v. 3

  CHAPTER XXXV.

  FANNY DISCOVERS WHO RICHARD MANX IS.

  MY DARLING--What has occurred to-day must be related with calmness,although my mind is in a whirl of excitement. The presentiment I feltlast night that we were on the threshold of an important discovery hascome true. A discovery _has_ been made which neither you nor I couldever have dreamt of, and we have to thank Fanny for it. How wonderfullyall the circumstances of life seem to be woven into one another! Littledid I think, when I first met the poor, hungry little girl, and was kindto her, that she would repay me as she has repaid me, and that we shouldowe to her, perhaps, the happiness of our lives. I may be mistaken; Imay be speaking more out of my heart than my head, more out of my hopesthan my reason. But surely what Fanny has discovered will lead to adiscovery of greater moment. It is, as yet, the most important link inthe chain. We must consider what is best to be done. At noon, Fanny saidto me:

  "I want a holiday; I've got something to do."

  She spoke abruptly, and with great earnestness.

  "You don't intend to run away from me, Fanny," I said, and immediatelyrepented my words, for Fanny seized my hands, and kissed them, withtears running down her face.

  "Run away from you!" she cried. "Never--never--never! How could youthink it of me. I would die for you--indeed, indeed I would!"

  I quieted her, trying to excuse myself by saying that it was onlybecause she was keeping something secret from me that the words escapedme.

  "But I'm doing it for you," she said. "To-night I'll tell youeverything."

  Now, read how Fanny passed the day. I will relate it as nearly aspossible out of her lips.

  "When I went into Mr. Pelham's room, yesterday," she said, "inBuckingham Palace Road, I didn't suspect anything at first. I didn'tlike his looks, but that was nothing. There are lots of people I don'tlike the looks of. I remained there while he threw away the letter, andwhile he drank and smoked. He was drinking wine, and he emptied threeglasses one after another. It wasn't till he got up and went to his deskthat I noticed something--a twitch of his left shoulder upwards, just asa man does when he shrugs his shoulders. But Mr. Pelham did not shrughis two shoulders, he shrugged one--the left one. I only knew one otherman who did with his left shoulder what Mr. Pelham did, and I thought itfunny. While he was writing his letter he threw away his cigar, and tooka cigarette, and the way he put it into his mouth and rolled it betweenhis lips was just the same as the other man who twitched his shoulderas Mr. Pelham did. Well, as I walked back to Mrs. Holdfast's house, Iseemed to see the two men--Mr. Pelham and the other, shrugging theirleft shoulders, and rolling their cigarettes in their mouths, and whatthey did was as like as two peas, though they were two different men,though one was poor and the other rich. I couldn't help calling myself alittle fool when the idea came to me that they were not different menat all, and I said to myself, 'What do they mean by it? No good, that'scertain.' So I made up my mind to do something, and I did it to-day.

  "First, there was Richard Manx. I watched him out of the house. He camedown from his garret a little after twelve; I stood in the dark passage,and watched him coming downstairs; he seemed to be out of temper, and hegave the wall a great blow with his hand. I think he would have liked tohear it cry out, so that he might be sure he had hurt it. I thought Ishouldn't like him to strike _me_ in that way--but I don't suppose hewould if any one was looking. He would have hit me as he hit the wall,if he had known what I was up to--that is, if nobody was near.

  "He went out of the house, closing the street door, O, so quietly behindhim. Have you noticed how quietly he does everything? He walks like acat--well, so can other people. I waited a minute after he closed thestreet door, and then I slipped out after him. I looked all ways, and Isaw him just turning out of the Square into Great King Street. I soonturned the corner too, and there I was walking behind him on the otherside of the way, with my eyes glued to him. Well, as good as glued. Ican walk a long way behind a person, and never lose sight of him, myeyes are so sharp, and I didn't lose sight of Mr. Richard Manx, as hecalls himself. He walked Lambeth way, and I noticed that he was lookingabout in the funniest manner, as though he was afraid he was beingwatched. The farther he got from Great Porter Square the more he lookedabout him; but no one took any notice of him--only me. Well, he wentdown a street where half the houses were shops and half not, and at thecorner of the street was a coffee-shop. There were two doors facing him,one going into the shop where people are served, and the other goinginto a passage, very narrow and very dark. A little way up this passagewas a door, which pushed open. Mr. Manx, after looking about him morethan ever, went into the narrow dark passage, and pushed open the door.

  "What I had to do now was to wait until he came out, and to dodge aboutso that I shouldn't be seen or caught watching for something I didn'tknow what. It was a hard job, as hard a job as ever I was at, and it wasall that I could do to keep people from watching me. I waited an hour,and another hour, and another hour, and Mr. Manx never came out of thecoffee shop. I was regularly puzzled, and tired, and bothered. But Ididn't know what a little fool I was till after waiting for at leastfour hours I found out that the coffee shop had two more doors on theside facing the other street; doors just like the others, one going intothe shop, and the other into a narrow dark passage. When I found thatout I thought that Mr. Manx must have gone in at one door in one streetand come out at the other door in the other street, and I was regularlyvexed with myself. But that didn't help me, and I walked away fromLambeth towards Buckingham Palace Road. I wanted to see with my own eyesif Mr. Pelham was at home. He was; I saw him stand for a minute at thewindow of his room on the front floor. Then I set to watching him. Iwanted to find out where he was going to, and what he was up to. Isuppose it was seven o'clock, and dark, before he came out. He walkedtill he met a cab, and as he got in I heard him give the direction ofMrs. Holdfast's house. That was enough for me; I followed him there, myfeet ready to drop off, I was that tired. But I wasn't going to giveup the job. No one came out of Mrs. Holdfast's house till nine o'clockstruck; then the street door was opened, and Mr. Pelham walked into thestreet. He stood still a little, and I thought to myself he is thinkingwhether he shall take a cab. He didn't take one till he was half-a-milefrom Mrs. Holdfast's house. I ran all the way after it. It was a goodjob for me that the cab was a four-wheeler, and that it went along slow,for running so hard set my heart beating to that extent that I thoughtit would jump out of my body. I scarcely knew where we were going, thenight was that dark, but I knew it was not in the direction ofBuckingham Palace Road. Mr. Pelham rode about a mile, then called out tothe cabby, and jumped on to the pavement. He paid the man, and the cabdrove away, and then Mr. Pelham walked slowly towards Lambeth, lookingabout him, although the night was so dark, in exactly the same way asMr. Manx had done when I followed him from Great Porter Square. I hadbeen on my feet all the day, and had walked miles and miles, and Ihadn't had a bit of bread in my mouth since breakfast--but when I wascertain that Mr. Pelham was walking to Lambeth I didn't feel hungry ortired. I said to myself, 'Fanny, your idea was right; but what does itall mean?' Well, I couldn't settle that; all I had to settle was thatthe two men who shrugged their left shoulders, and who rolled theircigarettes in their mouths in the way I had noticed, were not two menat all, but the same man, living in one place as a gentleman and anEnglishman, and in another as a poor foreigner without a shilling. So Iwas not at all surprised to see Mr. Pelham, dressed like a swell, stopat the coffee shop at which Mr. Manx had stopped, and push through thedark passage by the door I had not noticed when I was waiting in thestreet this morning for Mr. Manx, and I wasn't at all surprised that Mr.Pelham didn't come out again. The man who came was the man I wanted, andI followed him home here to Great Porter Square, and he is in the housenow." And here Fanny concluded the account of her day's adventures byasking, "Who came in five minutes before I did?"

  "Richard Manx," I replied.

  "It's all one," said Fanny, triumphantly; "Richard Manx is Mr. Pe
lham.There's no difference between them, except that one wears a wig, andpaints his face, and talks like a foreigner, and that the other livesin a fine house, and drinks wine, and dresses like a gentleman. Thatwas my idea last night. That was what I had to do when I asked you thismorning to let me go for the day. There's something in it; I don't knowwhat--that's for you to find out. Are you pleased with me?"

  I pressed the faithful child in my arms, and she gave a sigh andfainted. She was so eager to tell me of her discovery, and I was soanxious to hear it, that we both forgot that for fifteen hours not amorsel of food had passed her lips.