The problem I had set myself to unravel was what looked deucedly like a tough psychologic poser. But I was resolute to face it, and had formed my plan. It was no unusual thing for me to be out all night. That night, after dining, I spent in the “converted” flat in West Kensington.
I had brought with me—I confess to so much weakness—one of your portable electric lamps. The moment I was shut in and established, I pulled out the paper Miss Gray had typed for me, spread it under the glow and stared at it. Was it a copy of my circular? Would a sober “First Aid Society” Secretary be likely, do you think, to require circulars containing such expressions as “William! William! Come back to me! O, William, in God’s name! William! William! William!”—in monstrous iteration—the one cry, or the gist of it, for lines and lines in succession?
I am at the other end from humour in saying this. It is heaven’s truth. Line after line, half down the page, went that monotonous, heart-breaking appeal. It was so piercingly moving, my human terror of its unearthliness was all drowned, absorbed in an overflowing pity.
I am not going to record the experiences of that night. That unchanging mood of mine upheld me through consciousnesses and sub-consciousnesses which shall be sacred. Sometimes, submerged in these, I seemed to hear the clack of the instrument in the window, but at a vast distance. I may have seen—I may have dreamt—I accepted it all. Awaking in the chill grey of morning, I felt no surprise at seeing some loose sheets of paper lying on the floor. “William! William!” their text ran down, “Come back to me!” It was all that same wail of a broken heart. I followed Miss Gray’s example. I took out my match-box, and reverently, reverently burned them.
An hour or two later I was at Paul’s Exchange, privately interviewing my manager.
“Did you ever employ a Miss Lucy Rivers?”
“Certainly we did. Poor Lucy Rivers! She rented a machine of us. In fact——”
He paused.
“Well?”
“Well—it is a mere matter of business—she ‘flitted,’ and we had to reclaim our instrument. As it happens, it was the very one purchased by the young lady who so interested you here two days ago.”