Lord Stranleigh Abroad by Robert Barr (best free novels .TXT) 📖

few days, and be careful to rest her foot. The cure may be tedious, but not painful, thanks to prompt treatment."

Challis brought out his wife, and Stranleigh took them to the two-storied frame house, of which they occupied part. When the young man came out to thank the chauffeur, he found the street empty.

A week later, Stranleigh's passengers heard the purr of an automobile outside the cottage. Challis opened the door in response to the chauffeur's knock.

"Good morning," said Stranleigh, shaking hands cheerfully. "What a lovely day! I am delighted to know that Mrs. Challis has completely recovered. I did not care to trouble you with repeated calls, but the doctor has been very kind, and has kept me informed of her progress. It is with his permission that I come to offer you a spin in the car. I'll take you anywhere you wish to go, and this invitation is extended with the concurrence of Mr. Ponderby, so you may enjoy the run to the full. My name's Johnson; not Jack, the celebrated, but Henry, the unknown."

Challis laughed.

"I'm delighted to meet you again," he said. "Come in and see my wife. Her worry has been that she has never had the opportunity to thank you for your former kindness. Yes; I shall be glad of a ride. I have been too much in the house lately."

"Another day off, eh?"

"All days are off days now," growled Challis. "The grist mill has shut down."

Mrs. Challis received the alleged Johnson with a graciousness that was quite charming. She thanked him in a manner so winning that Stranleigh sat there overcome with an attack of the shyness he had never been able to shake off. He could not help noticing the subtle melancholy of her beautiful face, a hint of which he had received in that brief first glance as he passed in the automobile. He attributed it then to her mishap, but now realised its cause was something deeper and more permanent. He was astonished later to find her so resolute in refusing his invitation. She wished her husband to go for a drive, but would not avail herself of that pleasure. In vain Stranleigh urged the doctor's dictum that it would be good for her especially as the day was so fine, and she had endured a week of enforced idleness indoors.

"Some other day perhaps," she said, "but not now," and he speedily recognised that her firmness was not to be shaken.

All her own powers of persuasiveness, however were turned upon her husband.

"You must go, Jim," she insisted. "I have kept you a prisoner for a week, and you need the fresh air much more than I do."

James Challis, protesting more and more faintly at last gave way, and the two men drove off together while Mrs. Challis fluttered a handkerchief from her window in adieu.

Challis had refused to sit in the back seat, and took his place beside the chauffeur.

"Where shall we go?" asked the latter.

"Drive to the place where you found us," said his passenger, and there they went. On the way thither, neither spoke, but at a sign from Challis, Stranleigh stopped the car.

"You must not think," began the former, "that my wife did not wish to come. I know from the expression of her eyes that she did. Her reason for declining was one that I imagine any woman would consider adequate, and any man the reverse."

"I am an exception so far as the men are concerned," said Stranleigh, coming much nearer the truth than he suspected, "for I am sure that whatever motive actuated Mrs. Challis, it was commendable and right."

"Thank you," responded the other. "I am with you there. It is all a matter of clothes. My wife possesses no costume suitable for a motor excursion."

"In that case," cried Stranleigh impulsively, "the defect is easily remedied. I have saved a bit from the ample salary Mr. Ponderby allows me, and if I may offer you----"

"I could not accept anything," interrupted Challis.

"Merely a temporary loan, until the grist mill begins operations."

Challis shook his head.

"That mill will never grind again with the water that is past, nor the water that is to come. Fulmer has gone smash, and I could not accept a loan that I do not see my way to repay. Nevertheless, I appreciate fully the kindness of your offer, and if you don't mind, I will tell you how I got myself entangled, for there is no use in concealing from you what you must already have seen--that I am desperately poor, so much so that I sometimes lose courage, and consider myself a failure, which is not a pleasant state of mind to get into."

"Oh, I've often felt that way myself," said Stranleigh, "but nobody's a failure unless he thinks he is. You strike me as a capable man. You have youth and energy, and added to that, great good luck. I'm a believer in luck myself."

This commendation did not chase the gloom from the face of Challis.

"You have knocked from under me," he said, "the one frail prop on which I leaned. I have been excusing myself by blaming the run of horrid bad luck I have encountered."

Stranleigh shook his head.

"You can't truthfully say that," he rejoined quietly, "while you have had the supreme good fortune to enlist the affection of so clever and charming a wife."

The gloom disappeared from Challis's countenance as the shadow of a cloud at that moment flitted from the surface of the lake. He thrust forth his hand, and there being no onlookers, Stranleigh grasped it.

"Shake!" cried Challis. "I'll never say 'ill-luck' again! I wish she had come with us."

"So do I," agreed Stranleigh.

"I'd like her to have heard you talk."

"Oh, not for that reason. I'd like her to enjoy this scenery."

"Yes, and the deuce of it is, she practically owns the scene. Look at that house across the lake."

"A mansion, I should call it."

"A mansion it is. That's where my wife came from. Think of my selfishness in taking her from such a home to wretched rooms in a cottage, and abject poverty."

"I prefer not to think of your selfishness, but rather of her nobility in going. It revives in a cynical man like myself his former belief in the genuine goodness of the world."

"It all came about in this way," continued Challis. "I graduated at a technical college--engineering. I began work at the bottom of the ladder, and started in to do my best, being ambitious. This was appreciated, and I got on."

"In what line?" asked Stranleigh.

"In a line which at that time was somewhat experimental. The firm for which I worked might be called a mechanical-medical association, or perhaps 'surgical' would be a better term. We had no plant, no factory; nothing but offices. We were advisers. I was sent here and there all over the country, to mills that were not in a good state of health; dividends falling off, business declining, competition too severe, and what-not. I looked over the works, talked with managers and men, formed conclusions, then sent a report to my firm containing details, and such suggestions as I had to offer. My firm communicated with the proprietor of the works accordingly, and collected its bill."

"That should be an interesting occupation," said Stranleigh, whose attention was enlisted.

"It was. One day, I was sent up here to inspect the factory of Stanmore Anson, a large stone structure which you could see from here were it not concealed by that hill to the right. It has been in the Anson family for three generations, and had earned a lot of money in its time, but is now as old-fashioned as Noah's Ark. It was cruelly wasteful of human energy and mechanical power. It should have had a set of turbines, instead of the ancient, moss-grown, overshot waterwheels. The machinery was out of date, and ill-placed. The material in course of manufacture had to go upstairs and downstairs, all over the building, handled and re-handled, backward and forward, instead of passing straight through the factory, entering as raw material, and coming out the finished product. I reported to my firm that the establishment needed a complete overhauling; that it ought to have new machinery, but that if it was compulsory to keep the old machines at work, they should be entirely rearranged in accordance with the sketch I submitted, so that unnecessary handling of the product might be avoided. I set down the minimum expense that must be incurred, and also submitted an estimate covering the cost of turbines and new machinery, which I admit was large in the bulk, but really the most economical thing to do."

"I see. And the old man objected to the expense, or perhaps had not the necessary capital to carry out your suggestion? What sort of a person is he? Unreasonable, I suppose you consider him?"

"Strangely enough, I never met him in my life."

"And you married his daughter?"

"Had to. I was determined to take the girl away, whether I reformed the factory or not, and here you see where good luck and the reverse mingled. When I arrived at Mr. Anson's factory, the old man was in New York, for the purpose, as I learned, of raising a loan, or of selling the property, neither of which projects was he able to carry out."

"That was his misfortune, rather than his fault, wasn't it?"

"In a way, yes; still, the Trust had offered him a reasonable figure for his factory. He not only refused, but he fought the Trust tooth and nail, thinking that with low taxation, and country wages, he could meet the competition, which, of course, with the factory in its present state, he could not do. The fact that he was up against the Trust became well known, so that he could neither borrow nor sell. While in New York, he called several times on Langdon, Bliss, and Co., the firm that employed me. When my report came in and was read to him, I understand he fell into a tremendous rage, and characterised our company as a body of swindlers. Mr. Langdon ordered him out of the office.

"That was the first spoke in my wheel. Mr. Langdon was a capable man, always courteous and very calm when dealing with his fellows, so I am sure that my father-in-law must have been exceedingly violent when he provoked Langdon to vocal wrath. I judge that Langdon, when he recovered from his outbreak, regretted it extremely, and was inclined to blame me for rather muddling the affair of Anson's mill. I may say that I had been placed in rather a difficult position. The proprietor was absent, and had not taken his foreman into his confidence, therefore this foreman put difficulties in the way of investigation. The employees were suspicious, not knowing what this research by a stranger meant, so I went to Anson's house, hoping to find there someone with sufficient authority to enable me to get the information I must have.

"I met Mrs. Anson, a kindly woman, but realised in a moment that no authority had been delegated to her. She appeared afraid to suggest anything, but called in her only daughter to assist at our conference. The girl at once said she would accompany me to the mill, and did so. I shall never forget with what infinite tact and persuasiveness she won over