Hushed Up! A Mystery of London. Le Queux William

impertinence – and very rightly, too.”

      “It was surely no impertinence to call upon me!” I exclaimed.

      “Well, it’s all a question of one’s definition of impertinence,” he said. “I made certain inquiries – rather searching inquiries regarding you – that was all.”

      “Why?” I asked.

      He moved uneasily in his padded writing-chair, then reached over and placed a box of cigarettes before me. After we had both lit up, he answered in a rather low, changed voice —

      “Well, I wanted to satisfy myself as to who you were, Mr. Biddulph,” he laughed. “Merely to gratify a natural curiosity.”

      “That’s just it,” I said. “Why should your curiosity have been aroused concerning me? I do not think I have ever made a secret to any one regarding my name or my position, or anything else.”

      “But you might have done, remember,” replied the thin-faced rector, looking at me calmly yet mysteriously with those straight grey eyes of his.

      “I don’t follow you, Mr. Shuttleworth,” I said, much puzzled.

      “Probably not,” was his response; “I had no intention to obtrude myself upon you. I merely called at Wilton Street in order to learn what I could, and I came away quite satisfied, even though your butler spoke so sharply.”

      “But with what motive did you make your inquiries?” I demanded.

      “Well, as a matter of fact, my motive was in your own interests, Mr. Biddulph,” he replied, as he thoughtfully contemplated the end of his cigarette. “This may sound strange to you, but the truth, could I but reveal it to you, would be found much stranger – a truth utterly incredible.”

      “The truth of what?”

      “The truth concerning a certain young lady in whom, I understand, you have evinced an unusual interest,” was his reply.

      I could see that he was slightly embarrassed. I recollected how he had silently watched us on that memorable night by the moonlit lake, and a feeling of resentment arose within me.

      “Yes,” I said anxiously next moment, “I am here to learn the truth concerning Miss Pennington. Tell me about her. She has explained to me that you are her friend – and I see, yonder, you have her photograph.”

      “It is true,” he said very slowly, in a low, earnest voice, “quite true, Son – er, Sylvia – is my friend,” and he coughed quickly to conceal the slip in the name.

      “Then tell me something about her, and her father. Who is he?” I urged. “At her request I left Gardone suddenly, and came home to England.”

      “At her request!” he echoed in surprise. “Why did she send you away from her side?”

      I hesitated. Should I reveal to him the truth?

      “She declared that it was better for us to remain apart,” I said.

      “Yes,” he sighed. “And she spoke the truth, Mr. Biddulph – the entire truth, remember.”

      “Why? Do tell me what you know concerning the man Pennington.”

      “I regret that I am not permitted to do that.”

      “Why?”

      For some moments he did not reply. He twisted his cigarette in his thin, nervous fingers, his gaze being fixed upon the lawn outside. At last, however, he turned to me, and in a low, rather strained tone said slowly —

      “The minister of religion sometimes learns strange family secrets, but, as a servant of God, the confidences and confessions reposed in him must always be treated as absolutely sacred. Therefore,” he added, “please do not ask me again to betray my trust.”

      His was, indeed, a stern rebuke. I saw that, in my eager enthusiasm, I had expected him to reveal a forbidden truth. Therefore I stammered an apology.

      “No apology is needed,” was his grave reply, his keen eyes fixed upon me. “But I hope you will forgive me if I presume to give you, in your own interests, a piece of advice.”

      “And what is that?”

      “To keep yourself as far as possible from both Pennington and his daughter,” he responded slowly and distinctly, a strange expression upon his clean-shaven face.

      “But why do you tell me this?” I cried, still much mystified. “Have you not told me that you are Sylvia’s friend?”

      “I have told you this because it is my duty to warn those in whose path a pitfall is spread.”

      “And is a pitfall spread in mine?”

      “Yes,” replied the grave-faced, ascetic-looking rector, as he leaned forward to emphasize his words. “Before you, my dear sir, there lies an open grave. Behind it stands that girl yonder” – and he pointed with his lean finger to the framed photograph – “and if you attempt to reach her you must inevitably fall into the pit – that death-trap so cunningly prepared. Do not, I beg of you, attempt to approach the unattainable.”

      I saw that he was in dead earnest.

      “But why?” I demanded in my despair, for assuredly the enigma was increasing hourly. “Why are you not open and frank with me? I – I confess I – ”