For the time being, Ralph forgot the position in which he actually stood, and turned as if to accompany Mr. Tracy to the door when he rose to leave, but the sight of the warders, who had retired to the far end of the room, re-awakened him to the fact that he was a prisoner, and he flushed as he put out his hand.
"I'm awfully grateful, sir, for all you have done and are doing for me. If you succeed and clear my name, I may be able to show my gratitude practically."
"When I succeed, you mean," Mr. Tracy corrected him smilingly. "I must say good-bye now, but next time I come I hope I shall have good news for you. Don't brood over your grievance, Mr. Ashley. That may seem a counsel of perfection, but try to act up to it, if only for the sake of that charming young lady who is waiting for you. Faith in God and a clear conscience can make even prison tolerable, and nobody can rob you of those."
He put his bag down upon the table while he shook both Ralph's hands violently. Then he blew his nose with equal violence, seized his bag, and hurried away, scolding himself inwardly for being so upset by so commonplace an incident as an interview with a client. Not until he was in the railway carriage and on his way to town did he recover his usual equanimity. With his characteristic stare of mild surprise he surveyed the bag which reposed on the seat opposite to him, but the only remark which escaped his lips was when at length he removed his eyes from it, as if he had ascertained what was in it by some mental adaptation of the X ray process. His remark was brief and pregnant: "Well, I'm hanged."
CHAPTER XXII.
MR. TRACY BECOMES ACTIVE.
Melville's faculty of reading character did not err when it satisfied him that he might rely upon Lavender Sinclair keeping faithfully any secret which she had passed her word not to betray. There are plenty of women of whom the same might be said, all the gibes of all the cynics notwithstanding. But it also told him that he might be ill-advised in leaving her too much alone, especially just now, when the papers were so full of the trial and of speculations as to her own existence and whereabouts. The morning after the abortive trial, therefore, he determined to pay her an early visit, and donning a new suit of mourning, and an expression suited to the part he was being compelled to play in the Fairbridge tragedy, he walked out of his chambers as soon as he had finished his customary "brunch."
Thus it happened that he was not at home when a few minutes after his departure Mr. Tracy, who capriciously elected to walk upstairs without enquiring of the commissionaire whether Mr. Ashley was within, or troubling the lift attendant to convey him to the top floor, knocked at the outer door of his self-contained suite of apartments. Jervis opened the door.
"Mr. Ashley has only just gone out," he said, "and he gave me no instructions as to when he would return."
Mr. Tracy was visibly distressed; he was also elderly, and rather out of breath from scaling so many stairs.