Aladdin of London Part 16

It had been a great race upon a brilliant day of summer. Alban had accompanied her to the enclosure and feasted his eyes upon that rainbow scene, so amazing in its beauty, so bewildering in its glow of color that it stood, to his untrained imagination, for the whole glory of the world. Of the horses or their meaning he knew nothing at all. This picture of radiant women, laughing, feasting, flirting at the heart of a natural forest; the vast concourse of spectators--the thousand hues of color flas.h.i.+ng in the suns.h.i.+ne, the stands, the music, the royal procession, the superbly caparisoned horses, the State carriages--what a spectacle it was, how far surpa.s.sing all that he had been led to expect of Money and its kingdom. Let Anna move excitedly amid the throng, laughing with this man, changing wit with another--he was content just to watch the people, to reflect upon their happy lives, it may be to ask himself what justification they had when the children were wanting bread and the great hosts of the dest.i.tute lay encamped beyond the pale. Such philosophy, to be sure, had but a short shrift on such a day. The intoxication of the scene quickly ran hot in his veins and he surrendered to it willingly. These were hours to live, precious every one of them--and who would not wors.h.i.+p the gold which brought them, who would not turn to it as to the lodestar of desire?

And then the race! Anna had talked of nothing else since they set out in the motor to drive over to the course. Her anger against w.i.l.l.y Forrest appeared to be forgotten for the time being--he, on his part, eying Alban askance, but making no open complaint against him, met her in the paddock and repeated his a.s.surances that Lodestar could not lose.

"They run him down to evens, Anna," he said, "and precious lucky we were to get the price we did. There'll be some howls to-night, but what's that to us? Are we a philanthropic society, do we live to endow the mult.i.tude? Not much, by no means, oh dear, no. We live to make an honest bit--and we'll make it to-day if ever we did. You go easy and don't b.u.t.t in. I've laid all that can be got at the price and the rest's best in your pocket. You'll want a bit for the other races--eh, what?

You didn't come here to knit stockings, now did you, Anna?"

She laughed with him and returned to see the race. Her excitement gave her a superb color, heightened her natural beauty and turned many admiring eyes upon her. To Alban she whispered that she was going to make a fortune, and he watched her curiously, almost afraid for himself and for her. When the great thrill pa.s.sed over the stands and "they're off" echoed almost as a sound of distant thunder, he crept closer to her as though to share the excitement of which she was mistress. The specks upon the green were nothing to him--those dots of color moving swiftly across the scene, how odd to think that they might bring riches or beggary in their train! This he knew to be the stern fact, and when men began to shout hoa.r.s.ely, to press together and crane their necks, when that very torrent of sound which named the distance arose, he looked again at Anna and saw that she was smiling. "She has won," he said, "she will be happy to-night."

The horses pa.s.sed the post in a cl.u.s.ter. Alban, unaccustomed to the objects of a race-course, had not an eye so well trained that he could readily distinguish the colors or locate with certainty the position of the "pink--green sleeves--white cap"--the racing jacket of "Count Donato," as Anna was known to the Jockey Club. He could make out nothing more than a kaleidoscope of color changing swiftly upon a verdant arena, this and an unbroken line of people stretching away to the very confines of the woodlands and a rampart wall of stands and boxes and tents. For him there were no niceties of effort and of counter-effort. The jockeys appeared to be so many little monkeys clinging to the necks of wild chargers who rolled in their distress as though to shake off the imps tormenting them. The roar of voices affrighted him--he could not understand that l.u.s.t of gain which provoked the mad outcry, the sudden forgetfulness of self and dignity and environment, the absolute surrender to the desire of victory. Nor was the succeeding silence less mysterious. It came as the hush in an interval of tempests. The crowd drew back from the railings and moved about as quietly as though nothing of any consequence had happened. Anna herself, smiling still, stood just where she was; but her back was now toward the winning-post and she seemed to have forgotten its existence.

"Do you know," she said very slowly, "my horse has lost."

"What does that mean?" Alban asked with real earnestness.

She laughed again, looking about her a little wildly as though to read something of the story upon other faces.

"What does it mean--oh, lots of things. I wonder if we could get a cup of tea, Alban--I think I should like one."

He said that he would see and led her across the enclosure toward the marquee. As they went a sybilant sound of hissing arose. The "Alright"

had come from the weighing-in room and the people were hissing the winner. Presently, from the far side of the course, a louder outcry could be heard. That which the men in the gray frock-coats were telling each other in whispers was being told also by the mob in stentorian tones. "The horse was pulled off his feet," said the knowing ones; "they ought to warn the whole crowd off."

Anna heard these cries and began dimly to understand them. She knew that w.i.l.l.y Forrest had done this in return for the slight she had put upon him at Henley. He had named his own jockey for the race and chosen one who had little reputation to lose. Between them they would have reason to remember the Royal Hunt Cup for many a day. Their gains could have been little short of thirty thousand pounds--and of this sum, Anna owed them nearly five thousand.

She heard the people's cries and the sounds affrighted her. Not an Englishwoman, none the less she had a good sense of personal honor, and her pride was wounded, not only because of this affront but that a strange people should put it upon her. Had it been any individual accusation, she would have faced it gladly--but this intangible judgment of the mult.i.tude, the whispering all about her, the sidelong glances of the men and the open contempt of the women, these she could not meet.

"Let us go back to the bungalow to tea," she exclaimed suddenly, as though it were but a whim of the moment; "this place makes my head ache.

Let us start now and avoid the crush. Don't you think it would be a great idea, Alban?"

He said that it would be--but chancing to look at her while she spoke, he perceived the tears gathering in her eyes and knew that she had suffered a great misfortune.

Richard Gessner knew nothing of Anna's racing escapades, nor had he any friend who made it his business to betray them. The day was rare when he made an inquiry concerning her amus.e.m.e.nts or the manner of them. Women were in his eyes just so many agreeable decorations for the tables at which men dined. Of their mental capacity he had no opinion whatever, and it was a common jest for him to declare their brain power consistently inferior to that of the male animal.

"There has been no woman financial genius since the world began," he would observe, and if those who contradicted him named the arts, he waved them aside. "What is art when finance is before us?" That Anna should amuse herself was well and proper. He wished her to marry well that he might have spoken of "my daughter, Lady Anna"--not with pride as most men would speak, but ironically as one far above such petty t.i.tles and able from his high place to deride them.

Of her daily life, it must be confessed that he knew very little. A succession of worthy if incompetent dependants acted the chaperones part for him and satisfied his conscience upon that score. He heard of her at this social function or at that, and was glad that she should go. Men would say, "There's a catch for you--old Gessner's daughter; he must be worth a million if he's worth a penny." Her culpable predisposition toward that pleasant and smooth-tongued rascal, w.i.l.l.y Forrest, annoyed him for the time being but was soon forgotten. He believed that the man would not dare to carry pursuit farther, and if he did, the remedy must be drastic.

"I will buy up his debts and send him through the Court," Gessner said.

"If that does not do, we must find out his past and see where we can have him. My daughter may not marry as I wish, but if she marries a jockey, I have done with her." And this at hazard, though he had not the remotest idea who Forrest really was and had not taken the trouble to find out. When the man ceased to visit "Five Gables" he forgot him immediately. He was the very last person in all London whom he suspected when Anna, upon the day following his return from Paris, asked that they might have a little talk together and named the half-hour immediately before dinner for that purpose. He received her in his study, whither Fellows had already carried him a gla.s.s of sherry and bitters, and being in the best of good humor, he frankly confessed his pleasure that she should so appeal to him.

"Come in, Anna, come in, my dear. What's the matter now--been getting into mischief? Oh, you girls--always the same story, a man or a milliner, and the poor old father to get you out of it. What is it this time--Paquin or Worth? Don't mind me, Anna. I can always live in a cottage on a pound a week. The doctor says I should be the better for it. Perhaps I should. Half the complaints we suffer from are just 'too much.' Think that over and add it up. You look very pale, my girl.

You're not ill, are you?"

The sudden change of tone occurred as Anna advanced into the light and seated herself in the bow-window overlooking the rose garden. She wore a delicate skirt of pink satin below a superb gown of chiffon and real lace. A single pink rose decorated her fine black hair which she had coiled upon her neck to betray a shapely contour of dazzlingly white skin beneath it. Her jewels were few but remarkable. The pearls about her neck had been called bronze in tint and were perfect in their shape.

She carried a diamond bracelet upon her right arm, and its glitter flashed about her as a radiant spirit of the riches whose emblems she wore. The pallor of her face was in keeping with the picture. The wild black eyes seemed alight with all the fires of tragedy unconfessed.

"I am not ill, father," she said, "but there is something about which I must speak to you."

"Yes, yes, Anna--of course. And this is neither Paquin nor Worth, it appears. Oh, you little rogue. To come to me like this--to come to your poor old father and bring him a son-in-law for dinner. Ha, ha,--I'll remember that--a son-in-law to dinner. Well, I sha'n't eat him, Anna, if he's all right. It wouldn't be Alban Kennedy now?"

He became serious in an instant, putting the question as though his favor depended upon her answer in the negative. Anna, however, quite ignored the suggestion when she replied.

"I came to speak to you about Ascot, father--"

"About Ascot--who's Ascot?"

"The races at Ascot. I ran a horse there and lost five thousand pounds."

"What--you lost--come, Anna, my dear child--you lost--think of it again--you lost fifty pounds? And who the devil took you there, I want to know--who's been playing the fool? I don't agree with young girls betting. I'll have none of that sort of thing in this house. Just tell him so--whoever he is. I'll have none of it, and if it's that--"

He broke off at the words, arrested in his banter by the sudden memory of a name. As in a flash he perceived the truth. The man Forrest was at the bottom of this.

"Now be plain with me," he cried, "you've seen w.i.l.l.y Forrest again and this is his doing. Yes or no, Anna? Don't you tell me a lie. It's Forrest--he took you to Ascot?"

She smiled at his anger.

"I ran a horse named Lodestar under the name of Count Donato. I believed that he would win and he lost. That's the story, father. Why drag any names into it?"

He regarded her, too amazed to speak. His daughter, this bit of a schoolgirl as he persisted in calling her, she had run a race-horse in her own name? What a thing to hear! But was it an evil thing. The girl had plenty of courage certainly. Very few would have had the pluck to do it at all. Of course it was unlucky that she had not won--but, after all, that could soon be put straight.

"You ran a race-horse--but who trained it for you? where did you keep it? Why did I know nothing about it? Look here, Anna, this isn't dealing very fair with me. I have never denied you any pleasure--you know I haven't. If you wanted to play this game, why couldn't you have come to me and told me so? I wouldn't have denied you--but five thousand; you're not serious about that--you don't mean to say that you lost five thousand pounds?"

"I lost five thousand pounds, father--and I must pay the money. They will call me a cheat if I do not. It must be paid on Monday--w.i.l.l.y says so--"

He turned upon her with a shout that was almost a roar. She knew in an instant how foolish she had been.

"w.i.l.l.y Forrest--did you lose the money to him? Come, speak out. I shall get at the truth somehow--did you lose the money to him?"

"I lost it through him--he made the bets for me."

"Then I will not pay a penny of it if it sends you to prison. Not a penny as I'm a living man."

She heard him calmly and delivered her answer as calmly.

"I shall marry him if you do not," she said.

Gessner stood quite still and watched her face closely. It had grown hard and cold, the face of a woman who has taken a resolution and will not be turned from it.

"You will marry Forrest?" he asked quietly.

"I shall marry him and he will pay my debts."

"He--he hasn't got two bra.s.s pieces to rub together. He's a needy out-at-elbow adventurer. Do you want to know who William Forrest is--well, my detectives shall tell me in the morning. I'll find out all about him for you. And you'd marry him! Well, my lady, there you'll do as you please. I've done with a daughter who tells me that to my face.

Go and marry him. Live in a kennel. But don't come to me for a bone, don't think I'm to be talked over, because that's not my habit. If you choose such a man as that--"

"I do not choose him. There are few I would not sooner marry. I am thinking of my good name--of our good name. If I marry w.i.l.l.y Forrest, they will say that I helped to cheat the public. Do you not know that it is being said already. The horse was pulled--I believe that I am not to be allowed to race again. Poor Mr. Farrier is terribly upset. They say that we were all cheats together. What can I do, father? If I pay the money and they know that we lost it, that is a good answer to them. If I do not, w.i.l.l.y is probably the one man who can put matters straight and I shall marry him."