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"I didn't see Dr. Rendall or Mr. O'Brien in church," I remarked. "They very seldom come to church," said she. "I gather that Mr. O'Brien is visiting the doctor," I observed. "Yes," said she, in a tone that promised little further information. "Has he been staying with him long?" I preserved. "For some time." "Old friends, I suppose."
She showed me into a room and closed the door, and in the course of the next few minutes I came to one or two pretty obvious conclusions. She was clearly Mr. Rendall's daughter, and they were equally clearly in the habit of receiving visits at odd times from Mr. O'Brien; in fact they evidently concluded it was he, or Miss Rendall herself would scarcely have opened the door to me.
"I set out to call on Mr. Rendall and the time is passing." "Damned pleasantly in our society, eh?" put in O'Brien with the same sardonic laugh. They both saw me to the door, and we said good-bye, without enthusiasm on the doctor's part, with a grin on Mr. O'Brien's, and with very mixed emotions on my own. I was very thankful to get out of that depressing house and away from Mr.
By the time I got back to the big house, I had very nearly ceased to believe in the tale myself. Rendall. He rose and went out, leaving his daughter and myself each apparently immersed in a book. She may genuinely have been, but I was making the covers of mine a screen for inward debate. Had I made a mere fool of myself and should I make a clean breast of everything to my hosts?
"Did you think then it was Mr. Rendall down among the rocks?" I enquired. "No," she said, "and it wasn't." Her father had been standing perfectly silent during this bout, a towering figure muffled in a heavy ulster and scarf, with the rim of his hat turned down over his face. Now he spoke in his dry caustic way, "Have you had enough exercise, Mr. Merton?" "Quite, thank you."
"This is very nice of you to come so soon, Mr. Hobhouse," she said. "I am glad I hadn't gone further before you appeared." "Oh, but don't let me stop you, Miss Rendall," said Mr. Hobhouse anxiously. "Really, I can't allow it; no, no, really not. You mustn't turn back, indeed you mustn't! Perhaps I shall find Mr. Rendall at home." "I was only going for a walk to nowhere in particular."
A little later, with what he hoped was equal tact, he returned to it again. Assuring the doctor of his anxiety to give no trouble, he said, "I'll do just as the last fellow did. You just put me into his shoes, doctor, and then you'll always know where you are." There was no doubt about the oddness of the glance which Dr. Rendall shot at his guest this time.
I still think it was a shot well worth risking, but to be quite candid it failed to come off. At least it did not come off entirely. Both the gentlemen certainly looked a little startled, but all Dr. Rendall did was to stare at me very hard, while O'Brien exclaimed. "Faith, he's a dealer!"
He had evidently gone out again and I was not sorry to be left alone. A little later, in the same absent-minded way, I heard the front door bell faintly ring and I only woke out of my reverie when the smoking room door opened. "Dr. Rendall is out, I hear," said a voice that made me jump up very hurriedly. It was Jean Rendall, delightful to look at as ever, but with a new expression on her face.
But with some one I could confide in, some one who would know everybody in the island and a good deal about them, and who could advise and abet me, it seemed heavy odds against my vanished friend evading me for long. "I think perhaps I ought to pay my respects to Mr. Rendall," I said in a doubtful ruminating way, as though I were debating whether it were quite a safe move.
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