The train was a little overdue. Not many people were travelling, and she was able to secure an empty first-class compartment. Her first action was to fling down both windows for the atmosphere was suffocating close; it was one of those heavy, sluggish, overcast, depressing mornings which are the sure forerunners of steady rain. As they ran into Worthing, a few spots already began to gather on the left-hand side windows.
She found Judge waiting for her at the Parade end of South Street. He was smartly clad, had his hands behind him, and was gazing idly, yet with dignity, at the outside shelves of a book-dealer's shop. No one could have guessed from his manner that he was there by appointment. When she touched him lightly on the arm, his start of surprise nearly deceived herself into imagining that the meeting was accidental; but then she remembered her own caution to him.
"I am the one you're waiting for, I hope?" she asked, with a smile.
He replaced his hat. "I would have come to the station, but your instructions were definite."
"Then let's get on to the front. It's going to rain, isn't it?"
"I fear so-and you have no protection."
"I've nothing on to spoil."
They crossed the road to the Parade, and started to walk in the direction of the Burlington. There were a few people abroad, and certainly no one she knew, yet the mere fact that she was in a strange town, strolling with a strange man, had a peculiarly exciting effect upon her nerves. Everyone they passed seemed to be regarding her with suspicion.
"You didn't mind meeting me here this morning, Mr. Judge?"
"Just the reverse, Miss Loment. I regard it as a great honour."
"It's nothing very dreadful. I just wanted to talk things over."
"I quite understand." But he looked rather puzzled.
She waited till some approaching women had met and passed. "First of all, Mr. Judge-did you find my scarf?"
"Yes; it's in my pocket, and you shall have it when we separate. I've made a small parcel of it."
"Where was it found, then?"
He hesitated. "In a very queer resting-place, I'm afraid. On getting home last evening I found it reposing neatly folded in my breast-pocket."
"I see."
"Doubtless a practical joke on someone's part-a kind of joke, I must admit, I don't much care about."
"You mean Roger, I suppose? I don't think he would have done it. Couldn't you have placed it there yourself in a fit of abstraction?"
"No, that is entirely out of the question. I think we must call it a joke."
There was an interval of silence, and then she turned to him quietly:
"Mr. Judge…"
"Yes, Miss Loment?"
"When you disappeared yesterday afternoon, where were you?"
"Surely I have explained that?"
"I don't blame you for giving an untrue account of your movements, because, of course, you had to say something. But you'll tell me the truth now, won't you?"
"But, really!…"
"You did go up those stairs, didn't you?"
Judge gave her a swift sidelong glance. "What stairs?"
"That strange staircase leading out of the East Room."
"Mr. Marshall Stokes told you, then?"
"Please leave him out of it. My information is first-hand."
It now came on to rain more sharply, and they were forced to take refuge in an adjacent shelter, which luckily proved to be vacant. They sat facing the sea. Judge rested both hands on his gold-headed stick, and stared straight before him.
"Yet I distinctly gathered that you have never personally visited that room, Miss Loment?"
"Nor have I. Your house has more mysteries than you are aware of, Mr. Judge. The hall also has its staircase."
"What staircase?" He frowned. "I don't quite know how to take this."
"Not only have I seen it with my own eyes, but I have twice set foot on it-once being yesterday afternoon. I want you to believe that I am being quite serious, and not fabricating in the least."
"Yesterday afternoon?"
"Five minutes after you had all gone upstairs."
"Could you describe them-those stairs?"
"The were plain, narrow, wooden stairs, going up through an opening in the wall; no handrail. The top was out of sight."
"This is indeed extraordinary! Can you tell me your experience?"
"No; for I remember nothing of it. But I went up them and came down again."
There was a long pause, during which Judge frequently cleared his throat.
"I must believe you, Miss Loment, and yet…And this was the second occasion, you tell me? Were you by yourself the first time as well?"
"Yes."
"I can't doubt your word; the same thing has happened to me more than a few times. Astonishing as your statement is, Miss Loment, in a sense I'm relieved by it. I may as well confess it-I have sometimes been alarmed for my reason. The stable laws of Nature are the foundation of the whole of our experience, and when once in a while we seem to see them no longer valid, it is inevitable that we should prefer to suspect our understanding."
"Then you did go up yesterday?"
"Yes, I did go up."
"And remember nothing?"
"Nothing whatever."
"Nothing that strikes you?"
"Might not we have met in that upper part of the house?"
Judge looked up quickly. "What makes you think that?"
"You don't realise that it might explain my scarf's being in your possession?" she asked in a very low voice.
"Your scarf?"
"Don't be in a hurry. Think it over for a minute, Mr. Judge. It's important."
"I cannot see how our meeting there, or anywhere else, would account for your scarf's being in my pocket."
"If you cannot see, I cannot help you."
"I am not a thief, and why should such a gift by made?"
"But perhaps it was made."
"I cannot imagine what you mean," said Judge, turning pale.
Isbel cast uneasy glances around her. She drew a little closer to him, re-arranging her skirt with nervous impatience.
"That's the another thing I wanted to talk about, Mr. Judge. I don't know how we really stand towards each other…Of course we're friends… Since yesterday, our relationship has somehow seemed to me very undefined. It has been worrying me."
"I think I understand what you mean."
"Is it our experience in common, or is it something else? Do try and help me. It's frightfully difficult for me to speak of all this."
"But is it necessary to, Miss Loment? As you say, we are friends. Perhaps if we show ourselves too curious, we shall merely be robbing ourselves of what we already possess."
"Oh, don't you see? If we don't know how we stand, we can't even be friends. How can I have a man for a friend whose feelings I have to guess at?…I believe I'm justified in asking you, I don't require you to commit yourself in any way, and whatever you tell me, I shan't take advantage of it-but I think I ought to know just how it stands with you."
Judge kept closing and opening his hand agitatedly.
"We are really carrying the conversation too far, Miss Loment. You must see that you and I have no right whatever to discuss feelings."
"You don't or won't understand. If you have feelings which refer to me, they are my property, and I have a perfect right to know what they are." Her voice quietened. "I must ask you to tell me…Do you regard me…in any special manner? Or…Can't you see how awkwardly I am situated till I know how…we stand to each other?" she concluded weakly.