“Why, surely, Mr Narth,” she said, a little amused.
“Go there first,” said Stephen, still looking past her. “If she hasn’t got what you want you needn’t buy it. I’ve half promised I’d send you there, and it will be good for me too, though the business is a flourishing one.”
He wrote the address on a card and pushed it across the table to her.
“Don’t think because it’s a poor-looking place that she hasn’t got the dresses you want,” he continued. “And Joan, I’m rather fussy about little things. Don’t keep cabs waiting, my dear; they eat up money, and dressmakers keep you a long time. Always pay off the cabman when you go into a dressmaker’s, Joan; you can generally get another without any trouble. No, no, don’t count the money, it doesn’t matter. If you want more you must ask and I will let you have it. Goodbye.”
His face was as white as death, his eyes held an apprehension which almost terrified her. She took the cold, clammy hand and shook it, but he stopped her thanks brusquely.
“Go to Madame Ferroni’s first, won’t you? I promised her you would.”
The door closed on her and he gave her time to get out of the building, and then he walked to the door and locked it. As he did so, the second door which led to the boardroom opened slowly and Fing-Su came in. Stephen Narth turned, a glare of hate in his eyes.
“Well, I’ve done it,” he jerked. “If any harm comes to that girl, Fing-Su–-“
Fing-Su smiled broadly and flicked a speck of invisible dust from his well-fitting morning coat.
“No harm will come to her, my dear man,” he said in his soft, suave way. “It is merely a move in the great game. A tactical point gained, that the strategical plan may be brought to complete success.”
Narth was fingering the telephone.
“I’ve a good mind to stop her,” he said huskily. “I could call Lynne and he would get there first.”
Fing-Su smiled again, and his eye did not leave the telephone and the nervous hand that played with the receiver.
“That would be a catastrophe for you, Mr Narth,” he said. “You owe us fifty thousand pounds which you can never repay.”
“Never repay?” snarled the other. “You seem to forget that I’m the heir of Joe Bray.”
The Chinaman showed his white teeth in a humorous grin.
“An heirship is not of very much value until the testator dies,” he said.
“But Joe Bray is dead!” gasped the other.
“Joe Bray,” said Fing-Su coolly, as he tapped a cigarette upon a golden box he had taken from his waistcoat pocket, “is very much alive. In fact, I heard him with my own ears last night!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
With no other thought save one of perplexity at Stephen Narth’s changed appearance, Joan went forth on a mission which would have been dear to any woman but was especially pleasing to her in the circumstances. She counted the money as she sat in the taxi: there was Ł320—an enormous sum to one who had never owned more than ten pounds in her life.
Madame Ferroni’s address she had given to the driver, and for the next ten minutes she was interested in the skill with which he threaded his way through the traffic, worked round the blocks at every busy street crossing, till he reached the comparative freedom of the Euston Road.
Fitzroy Square has a peculiar character of its own; its proximity to the West End trading centres has saved it from the indignity which has befallen so many of the obscure squares of London and has converted fine old Queen Anne houses into tenements. It boasted a restaurant of some reputation, a dancing club or two, and numerous business offices.
The doorpost of No. 704 was almost entirely covered with brass plates announcing the variegated professions and trades which were carried on behind its open doorway. Painted at the top were the words: “Madame Ferroni, Modiste, 3rd floor back.” The paint, she noticed, was still wet.
She had dismissed the cabman to satisfy the frugal views of her relation, and mounting the stairs she came at last, a little out of breath but elated with the exhilarating character of her visit, to a door on which, also newly painted, was the dressmaker’s name. She knocked, and was immediately admitted. The woman who opened the door to her was dark-faced and forbidding. She was dressed in black, and this emphasized her sallow complexion. Hers was a complexion distinct from the normal darkness of European races; there were faint, livid shadows under her eyes; her lips were thick, her nose a little squat. She was unquestionably a half caste. The slant eyes, the yellow tinge to her skin, marked her unmistakably to a student of ethnology—but Joan was not such a student.
This would not have alarmed the girl but for the fact that the room into which she was ushered was almost empty and the door that closed upon her was immediately locked. There was an inner door of baize, and this also the woman fastened.
Joan looked round a room bare except for a big wardrobe, a settee and a tea table which had been laid, and the kettle on which was steaming. Of dresses there was none, unless they were in the wardrobe, which, she saw, was a fixture.
“Please do not be alarmed, Miss Bray,” said the sallow woman, with an effort at amiability which made her plain face even more unprepossessing. “I do not keep my dresses here; this is where I interview my clients.”
“Why did you fasten the door?” asked the girl, and although she summoned her reserves of courage to her aid, she felt the colour leaving her face.
Madame Ferroni cringed double in her anxiety to preserve the confidence of her visitor.
“I do not wish to be interrupted while I have a very important client, Miss Bray,” she said. “You see, miss, your uncle, Mr Narth, put all his money into this business and I wish to please him. It is natural! I have the dresses at my shop in Savoy Street, and we will go there at once and you shall choose what you wish. But first I wanted to have a little talk with you—to obtain ideas of your requirements.”
She spoke with a certain precision, almost as though she were reciting passages which she had committed to memory.
“You must join me in a cup of tea,” she went on. “This tea habit is one which I have acquired since I came to this country.”
Joan was not especially interested in habits, except the habit of locked doors that remained fastened.
“Madame Ferroni—I am afraid I cannot stay now. I will come back later.”
Joan pulled open the green baize, but the key had been taken from the lock of the outer door.
“Certainly, if you wish,” Madame Ferroni had a trick of shrugging one shoulder. “But you realize that if I do not please you I may lose my job?”
She had the awkwardness of a foreigner making tea, and now poured forth the strong dark-brown liquid, treated it over-generously with milk, and handed the cup to the girl. She had need of stimulant, but would have welcomed a glass of water, for her mouth had gone dry with fear, and she found an increasing difficulty in speaking.
One thought was at the back of her mind—she must not let the woman know she was afraid, or that she suspected there was anything unusual in this method of receiving a possible client. She stirred the tea and drank eagerly, as Madame took the key from the table and, walking slowly to the door, slipped it in the lock and turned it. She turned it twice, once to open and once to close it again, but of this fact Joan was unaware.