Simon Read online

  V

  THE THIRD VISITOR

  Miss Cicely Farmond's air as she entered Simon Rattar's room seemedcompounded of a little shyness, considerable trepidation, and yet moredetermination. In her low voice and with a fleeting smile she wished himgood morning, like an acquaintance with whom she was quite familiar, andthen with a serious little frown, and fixing her engaging eyes verystraight upon him, she made the surprising demand:

  "Mr. Rattar, I want you to tell me honestly who I am."

  For an instant Simon's cold eyes opened very wide, and then he wasgazing at her after his usual silent and steadfast manner.

  "Who you are?" he repeated after a few seconds' pause.

  "Yes. Indeed, Mr. Rattar, I _insist_ on knowing!"

  Simon smiled slightly.

  "And what makes you think I can assist you to--er--recover youridentity, Miss Farmond?"

  "To discover it, not recover it," she corrected.

  "Don't you really know that I am honestly quite ignorant?"

  Mr. Rattar shook his head cautiously.

  "It is not for me to hazard an opinion," he answered.

  "Oh please, Mr. Rattar," she exclaimed, "don't be so dreadfullycautious! Surely you can't have thought that I knew all the time!"

  Again he was silent for a moment, and then enquired:

  "Why do you come to me now?"

  "Because I _must_ know! Because--well, because it is so unsatisfactorynot knowing--for various reasons."

  "And why are you so positive that I can tell you?"

  "Because all my affairs and arrangements went through your hands, and ofcourse you know!"

  Again he seemed to reflect for a moment.

  "May I ask, Miss Farmond," he enquired, "why, in that case, you think Ishouldn't have told you before, and why--also in that case--I shouldtell you now?"

  This enquiry seemed to disconcert Miss Farmond a little.

  "Oh, of course I presume Sir Reginald and you had some reasons," sheadmitted.

  "And don't you think then we have them still?"

  "I can't honestly see why you should make such a mystery ofit--especially as I can guess the truth perfectly easily!"

  "If you can guess it----" he began.

  "Oh please don't answer me like that! Why won't you tell me?"

  He seemed to consider the point for a moment, and then he said:

  "I am not at all sure that I am at liberty to tell you, Miss Farmond,without further consultation."

  "Has Sir Reginald really any good reasons for not telling me?"

  "Have you asked him that question?"

  "No," she confessed. "He and Lady Cromarty have been so frightfullykind, and yet so--so reserved on that subject, that I have never likedto ask them direct. But they know that I have guessed, and they haven'tdone anything to prevent me finding out more for myself, which meansthat they really are quite willing to let me find out if I can."

  He shook his head.

  "I am afraid I shall require more authority than that."

  She pursed her lips and looked at the floor in silence, and then sherose.

  "Well, if you absolutely refuse to tell me _anything_, Mr. Rattar, Isuppose----"

  A dejected little shrug completed her sentence, and as she turnedtowards the door her eloquent eyes looked at him for a moment beneaththeir long lashes with an expression in them that might have moved astatue. Although Simon Rattar had the reputation of being impervious towoman's wiles, he may have been moved by this unspoken appeal. Hecertainly seemed struck by something, for even as her back was turningtowards him, he said suddenly, and in a distinctly different voice:

  "You say you can guess yourself?"

  She nodded, and added with a pathetic coaxing note in her low voice:

  "But I want to _know_!"

  "Supposing," he suggested, "you were to tell me precisely how much youdo know already, and then I could judge whether the rest might or mightnot be divulged."

  Her face brightened and she returned to her chair with a promptitudethat suggested she was not unaccustomed to win a lost battle with theseweapons.

  "Well," she said, "it was only six months ago--when mother died--that Ifirst had the least suspicion there was any mystery about me--anythingto hide. I knew she hadn't always been happy and that her trouble hadsomething to do with my father, simply because she hardly ever mentionedhim. But she lived at Eastbourne just like plenty of other widows and wehad a few friends, though never very many, and I was very happy atschool, and so I never troubled much about things."

  "And knew nothing up till six months ago?" asked Simon, who wasfollowing her story very attentively.

  "Nothing at all. Then, about a month after mother's death, I got a notefrom you asking me to go up to London and meet Sir Reginald Cromarty. Ihad never even heard of him before! Well, I went and he was simply askind as--well, as he always is to everybody, and said he was a kind ofconnection of my family and asked me to pay them a long visit toKeldale."

  "How long ago precisely was that?"

  She looked a little surprised.

  "Oh, you know exactly. Almost just four months ago, wasn't it?"

  He nodded, but said nothing, and she went on:

  "From the very first it had seemed very strange that I had never heard aword about the Cromartys from mother, and as soon as I got to Keldaleand met Lady Cromarty, I felt sure there was something wrong. I meanthat I wasn't an ordinary distant relation. For one thing they neverspoke of our relationship and exactly what sort of cousins we were, andconsidering how keen Sir Reginald is on his pedigree and all hisrelations and everybody, that alone made me certain I wasn't theordinary kind. That was obvious, wasn't it?"

  "It seems so," the lawyer admitted cautiously.

  "Of course it was! Well, one day I happened to be looking over an oldphotograph album and suddenly I saw my father's photograph! Mother had aminiature of him--I have it still, and I was certain it was the sameman. I pulled myself together and asked Sir Reginald in a very ordinaryvoice who that was, and I could see that both he and Lady Cromartyjumped a little. He had to tell me it was his brother Alfred and Idiscovered he had long been dead, but I didn't try to get any moreinformation from them. I applied to Bisset."

  She gave a little laugh and looked at him with a touch of defiance. Hisinscrutable countenance appeared to annoy her.

  "Well?" he remarked.

  "Perhaps you think I oughtn't to have gone to a butler about such athing, but Bisset is practically one of the family and I didn't give himthe least idea of what I was after. I simply drew him on the subject ofthe Cromarty family history and among other things--that didn't so muchinterest me--I found that Mr. Alfred Cromarty was never married andseemed to have had rather a gay reputation."

  She looked at him with an expression that would have immediatelyconverted any susceptible man into a fellow conspirator, and asked inher most enticing voice:

  "Need you ask what I guessed? What is the use in not telling me simplywhether I have guessed right!"

  Silent Simon's face remained a mask.

  "What precisely did you guess?"

  "That my mother wasn't married," she said, her voice falling very low,"and I am really Sir Reginald's niece though he never can acknowledgeit--and I don't want him to! But I do want to be sure. Dear Mr. Rattar,won't you tell me?"

  Dear Mr. Rattar never relaxed a muscle.

  "Your guess seems very probable," he admitted.

  "But tell me definitely."

  "Why?" he enquired coldly.

  "Oh, have you no _curiosity_ yourself--especially about who your parentswere; supposing you didn't know?"

  "Then it's only out of curiosity that you enquired?"

  "Only!" she repeated with a world of woman's scorn. "But what sort ofmotives did you expect? I have walked in the whole way this morning justto end the suspense of wondering! Of course, I'll never tell a soul youtold me."

  She threw on him a moving smile.

  "You needn't actually tell me outright.
Just use some legalword--'Alibi' if I am right and 'forgery' if I'm wrong!"

  Silent Simon's sudden glance chilled her smile. She evidently felt shehad been taking the law in vain.

  "I only meant----" she began anxiously.

  "I must consult Sir Reginald," he interrupted brusquely.

  She made no further effort. That glance seemed to have subdued herspirit.

  "I am sorry I have bothered you," she said as she went.

  As the door closed behind her, Mr. Rattar took out his handkerchief andwiped his brow and his neck. And then he fell to work again upon therecent records of the firm. Yet, absorbed though he seemed, whenever adoor opened or shut sharply or a step sounded distinctly outside hisroom, he would look up quickly and listen, or that expression would comeinto his eye which both Mary MacLean and Mr. Ison had described as thelook of one who was watched.