The Lion's Skin. Rafael Sabatini

with a sigh, and stepped back to the table for the tinder-box, that for the eleventh time he might relight his pipe. He sat down, blew a cloud of smoke to the ceiling, and considered. His nature triumphed now over his recent preoccupation; the matter of the moment, which concerned him not at all, engrossed him beyond any other matter of his life. He was intrigued to know in what relation one to the other stood the three so oddly assorted travellers he had seen arrive. He bethought him that, after all, the odd assortment arose from the presence of the parson; and he wondered what the plague should any Christian—and seemingly a gentleman at that—be doing travelling with a parson. Then there was the wild speed at which they had come.

      The matter absorbed and vexed him. I fear he was inquisitive by nature. There came a moment when he went so far as to consider making his way below to pursue his investigations in situ. It would have been at great cost to his dignity, and this he was destined to be spared.

      A knock fell upon his door, and the landlady came in. She was genial, buxom and apple-faced, as becomes a landlady.

      “There is a gentleman below—” she was beginning, when Mr. Caryll interrupted her.

      “I would rather that you told me of the lady,” said

      “La, sir!” she cried, displaying ivory teeth, her eyes cast upwards, hands upraised in gentle, mirthful protest. “La, sir! But I come from the lady, too.”

      He looked at her. “A good ambassador,” said he, “should begin with the best news; not add it as an afterthought. But proceed, I beg. You give me hope, mistress.”

      “They send their compliments, and would be prodigiously obliged if you was to give yourself the trouble of stepping below.”

      “Of stepping below?” he inquired, head on one side, solemn eyes upon the hostess. “Would it be impertinent to inquire what they may want with me?”

      “I think they want you for a witness, sir.”

      “For a witness? Am I to testify to the lady's perfection of face and shape, to the heaven that sits in her eyes, to the miracle she calls her ankle? Are these and other things besides of the same kind what I am required to witness? If so, they could not have sent for one more qualified. I am an expert, ma'am.”

      “Oh, sir, nay!” she laughed. “'Tis a marriage they need you for.”

      Mr. Caryll opened his queer eyes a little wider. “Soho!” said he. “The parson is explained.” Then he fell thoughtful, his tone lost its note of flippancy. “This gentleman who sends his compliments, does he send his name?”

      “He does not, sir; but I overheard it.”

      “Confide in me,” Mr. Caryll invited her.

      “He is a great gentleman,” she prepared him.

      “No matter. I love great gentlemen.”

      “They call him Lord Rotherby.”

      At that sudden and utterly unexpected mention of his half-brother's name—his unknown half-brother—Mr. Caryll came to his feet with an alacrity which a more shrewd observer would have set down to some cause other than mere respect for a viscount. The hostess was shrewd, but not shrewd enough, and if Mr. Caryll's expression changed for an instant, it resumed its habitual half-scornful calm so swiftly that it would have needed eyes of an exceptional quickness to have read it.

      “Enough!” he said. “Who could deny his lordship?”

      “Shall I tell them you are coming?” she inquired, her hand already upon the door.

      “A moment,” he begged, detaining her. “'Tis a runaway marriage this, eh?”

      Her full-hearted smile beamed on him again; she was a very woman, with a taste for the romantic, loving love. “What else, sir?” she laughed.

      “And why, mistress,” he inquired, eying her, his fingers plucking at his nether lip, “do they desire my testimony?”

      “His lordship's own man will stand witness, for one; but they'll need another,” she explained, her voice reflecting astonishment at his question.

      “True. But why do they need me?” he pressed her. “Heard you no reason given why they should prefer me to your chamberlain, your ostler or your drawer?”

      She knit her brows and shrugged impatient shoulders. Here was a deal of pother about a trifling affair. “His lordship saw you as he entered, sir, and inquired of me who you might be.”

      “His lordship flatters me by this interest. My looks pleased him, let us hope. And you answered him—what?”

      “That your honor is a gentleman newly crossed from France.”

      “You are well-informed, mistress,” said Mr. Caryll, a thought tartly, for if his speech was tainted with a French accent it was in so slight a degree as surely to be imperceptible to the vulgar.

      “Your clothes, sir,” the landlady explained, and he bethought him, then, that the greater elegance and refinement of his French apparel must indeed proclaim his origin to one who had so many occasions of seeing travelers from Gaul. That might even account for Mr. Green's attempts to talk to him of France. His mind returned to the matter of the bridal pair below.

      “You told him that, eh?” said he. “And what said his lordship then?”

      “He turned to the parson. 'The very man for us, Jenkins,' says he.”

      “And the parson—this Jenkins—what answer did he make?”

      “'Excellently thought,' he says, grinning.”

      “Hum! And you yourself, mistress, what inference did you draw?”

      “Inference, sir?”

      “Aye, inference, ma'am. Did you not gather that this was not only a runaway match, but a clandestine one? My lord can depend upon the discretion of his servant, no doubt; for other witness he would prefer some passer-by, some stranger who will go his ways to-morrow, and not be like to be heard of again.”

      “Lard, sir!” cried the landlady, her eyes wide with astonishment.

      Mr. Caryll smiled enigmatically. “'Tis so, I assure ye, ma'am. My Lord Rotherby is of a family singularly cautious in the unions it contracts. In entering matrimony he prefers, no doubt, to leave a back door open for quiet retreat should he repent him later.”

      “Your honor has his lordship's acquaintance, then?” quoth the landlady.

      “It is a misfortune from which Heaven has hitherto preserved me, but which the devil, it seems, now thrusts upon me. It will, nevertheless, interest me to see him at close quarters. Come, ma'am.”

      As they were going out, Mr. Caryll checked suddenly. “Why, what's o'clock?” said he.

      She stared, so abruptly came the question. “Past four, sir,” she answered.

      He uttered a short laugh. “Decidedly,” said he, “his lordship must be viewed at closer quarters.” And he led the way downstairs.

      In the passage he waited for her to come up with him. “You had best announce me by name,” he suggested. “It is Caryll.”

      She nodded, and, going forward, threw open a door, inviting him to enter.

      “Mr. Caryll,” she announced, obedient to his injunction, and as he went in she closed the door behind him.

      From the group of three that had been sitting about the polished walnut table, the tall gentleman in buff and silver rose swiftly, and advanced to the newcomer; what time Mr. Caryll made a rapid observation of this brother whom he was meeting under circumstances so odd and by a chance so peculiar.

      He beheld a man of twenty-five, or perhaps a little more, tall and well made, if already inclining to heaviness, with a swarthy face, full-lipped, big-nosed, black-eyed,