It had come over me in the small hours in the shape of an obsession, a fixed idea, that there was nothing in the ridiculous relics and that my exaggerated scruples were making a fool of me.It was ten to one they were rubbish, they were vain, they were empty; that they had been even a practical joke on the part of some weak-minded gentleman of leisure, the former possessor of the confounded davenport.The longer I hovered about them with such precautions the longer I was taken in, and the sooner I exposed their insignificance the sooner Ishould get back to my usual occupations.This conviction made my hand so uncontrollable that that morning before breakfast I broke one of the seals.It took me but a few minutes to perceive that the contents were not rubbish; the little bundle contained old letters--very curious old letters."
"I know--I know; 'private and confidential.' So you broke the other seals?" Mrs.Ryves looked at him with the strange apprehension he had seen in her eyes when she appeared at his door the moment after his discovery.
"You know, of course, because I told you an hour later, though you would let me tell you very little."Baron, as he met this queer gaze, smiled hard at her to prevent her guessing that he smarted with the fine reproach conveyed in the tone of her last words; but she appeared able to guess everything, for she reminded him that she had not had to wait that morning till he came downstairs to know what had happened above, but had shown him at the moment how she had been conscious of it an hour before, had passed on her side the same tormented night as he, and had had to exert extraordinary self-command not to rush up to his rooms while the study of the open packets was going on."You're so sensitively organised and you've such mysterious powers that you re uncanny,"Baron declared.
"I feel what takes place at a distance; that's all.""One would think somebody you liked was in danger.""I told you that that was what was present to me the day I came up to see you.""Oh, but you don't like me so much as that," Baron argued, laughing.
She hesitated."No, I don't know that I do.""It must be for someone else--the other person concerned.The other day, however, you wouldn't let me tell you that person's name."Mrs.Ryves, at this, rose quickly."I don't want to know it; it's none of my business.""No, fortunately, I don't think it is," Baron rejoined, walking with her along the Parade.She had Sidney by the hand now, and the young man was on the other side of her.They moved toward the station--she had offered to go part of the way."But with your miraculous gift it's a wonder you haven't divined.""I only divine what I want," said Mrs.Ryves.
"That's very convenient!" exclaimed Peter, to whom Sidney had presently come round again."Only, being thus in the dark, it's difficult to see your motive for wishing the papers destroyed."Mrs.Ryves meditated, looking fixedly at the ground."I thought you might do it to oblige me.""Does it strike you that such an expectation, formed in such conditions, is reasonable?"Mrs.Ryves stopped short, and this time she turned on him the clouded clearness of her eyes."What do you mean to do with them?"It was Peter Baron's turn to meditate, which he did, on the empty asphalt of the Parade (the "season," at Dover, was not yet), where their shadows were long in the afternoon light.He was under such a charm as he had never known, and he wanted immensely to be able to reply: "I'll do anything you like if you'll love me." These words, however, would have represented a responsibility and have constituted what was vulgarly termed an offer.An offer of what? he quickly asked himself here, as he had already asked himself after making in spirit other awkward dashes in the same direction--of what but his poverty, his obscurity, his attempts that had come to nothing, his abilities for which there was nothing to show? Mrs.Ryves was not exactly a success, but she was a greater success than Peter Baron.
Poor as he was he hated the sordid (he knew she didn't love it), and he felt small for talking of marriage.Therefore he didn't put the question in the words it would have pleased him most to hear himself utter, but he compromised, with an angry young pang, and said to her:
"What will you do for me if I put an end to them?"She shook her head sadly--it was always her prettiest movement."Ican promise nothing--oh, no, I can't promise! We must part now," she added."You'll miss your train."He looked at his watch, taking the hand she held out to him.She drew it away quickly, and nothing then was left him, before hurrying to the station, but to catch up Sidney and squeeze him till he uttered a little shriek.On the way back to town the situation struck him as grotesque.
