This Was Ivor Trent полностью

“You can’t stay in this hotel much longer, can you?” he asked, one night when they were dining together. “What about your people?”

“I can’t make plans.”

“But you’ll have to, Rosalie!”

“I can’t! I’m stunned—and I want to remain stunned. My mother keeps writing to ask when I’m going to join her in Italy. I told you, didn’t I? that my father died a year ago, and since then mother practically lives in Italy with her sister. She spends nothing and keeps sending me money. But I can’t go to her yet.”

“But why not?”

“It will make the past real again. When I am with you, it does not exist—because you had no part in it. But, with her, I shall remember. I shall see faces and hear voices. Then I shall be ill again. Don’t you understand yet that I’m afraid?”

Rendell said nothing and a moment later she added:

“I shall have to go—soon. And then—explanations, lies, hypocrisy! Two women talking across an abyss!”

She was silent for the rest of the evening and Rendell regretted having questioned her.

But, a week later, she announced the date of her departure with characteristic suddenness, and in somewhat dramatic circumstances.

It was a Thursday. Rendell was to dine with Rosalie at eight o’clock. He had had a business appointment which had occupied most of the afternoon and returned to Potiphar Street to dress soon after six-thirty.

To his surprise, he found a letter, addressed in Rosalie’s writing, in a prominent position on the mantelpiece.

He tore it open and read:

Ten minutes later he entered her sitting-room, but instantly came to a standstill and looked round in astonishment. The room was a chaos of trunks and clothes.

She waved her maid to the bedroom, then crossed swiftly to him.

“Wait! Don’t speak! I’ve seen her!”

“Seen whom?” Rendell demanded.

“That woman—Vera Thornton.”

“You’ve seen——”

“Yes, yes, yes! I’ve just told you so.”

“But where?”

“At Potiphar Street. Listen. Do listen! Suddenly—this afternoon—I knew I’d have to go to Italy. I cabled, saying I was leaving to-morrow. Then, I couldn’t be alone. I wanted to see you. I thought you might be back earlier than you expected. So I—are you listening?”

“Of course, I’m listening!”

“So I got a taxi and went to Potiphar Street. I was just going to knock, when the door opened and—there she was. I told her I wanted to speak to her. I made her come into your room.”

“Well?”

“I made her sit down. She’s ill—did you know? She’s been unable to work for some days. Then I told her about myself and Ivor.”

“You mean you told her——”

“Everything! She looked like a ghost. At first she didn’t believe me. Then she told me that while Ivor and I were lovers, she had been visiting his flat regularly. And then I didn’t believe her.”

She paused, then raced on.

“But she was afraid of me. Wasn’t that odd? I said to her: ‘You were his lover too?’ And she blushed and said she wasn’t, and that she hated him. I thought she was going to faint. She stared at me as if she had never seen anyone like me.”

“I’ll bet a lot she hasn’t,” Rendell cut in, but Rosalie went on as if he had not spoken.

“Then, suddenly, she seemed to regret having told me she’d been to Ivor’s flat. She made me promise not to tell anyone. And then she began to cry. She sobbed—and I knelt and put my arms round her.”

“There’s no one in the least like you anywhere.”

“And I told her I was going away to-morrow. And that I would never tell anyone about her and Ivor. I don’t count you. And I also told her I should never see Ivor again.”

“You mean that?”

“Yes—never! That woman wasn’t lying. She had been to his flat regularly. She’s hopelessly in love with him—and she’s terrified of something. Help her, if you can, won’t you?”

“Yes. Did she mention me?”

“No. But help her—do help her. She’s not far from a collapse. I know the signs. Tell me, why did Ivor lie to me?”

“Did he—in so many words?”

She stared at him with blue bewildered eyes.

“Why, what do you mean?”

“Did he say you were the only woman?”

“No, but——”

“You assumed it. And so did Vera Thornton. And there may be others.” Rendell paused, then added: “You’re right not to see him again.”

“Never! But, whatever he is, I shall be grateful to him—always. He saved me. Nothing alters that.”

“How did you leave Vera?”

“I told her I would help her, if I could, and that you would have my address. Then I left her. But, in the hall, I ran into that woman with the lovely hair. You said she was a model, didn’t you?”

“Yes; Elsa. Did you speak to her?”

“No, it was all rather odd. Directly I saw her I stopped. We stood and gazed at each other. I felt I’d known her always. She smiled, then opened the front door for me. And I took her hand and said good bye.”

“But——”

“Later, later! I’m terribly busy.”