Page:The Collector by May Sinclair.djvu/10

328 and be massaged; oh, and an Immense linen cupboard let into the wall, with hot water-pipes running up ami down it. There was n't a detail of that bath- room that he missed, and he seems to have made considerable explorations ' in Aba- dam's dressing-room, too. But just at first he kept pretty quiet. He lay on the couch, and gave himself up to the great white peace and purity of it all. He had n't any idea in his head, or any plan. It was only when the maid came to get Mrs. Abadam 's bath ready, and began trying all the doors, that he acted, and then it was by an ungovernable impulse. It was the sight of the beautiful white porcelain bath that made him do it, and possibly the feeling that he had got to ac- count for being there* Anyhow, before he really knew what • he was about, he 'cl turned on the hot water, undressed, and got into the bath. It might have been better, he said after- ward, if he M got into the linen cupboard and kept quiet ; but the rushing of the hot water covered him, and made him feel so safe.. More than all, he wanted to wash those infernal feelers off his spine. So. he splashed about; and when he was tired of splashing, he just lav and soaked, turning on the water hoc and hot. And when he was tired of the big bath", he tried the shower-bath, just to see what it was like, Tt was what the shower-bath did to him that put his idea into his head. You see, he M got to get out of the house somehow, and he did n't quite know how. • He supposed it would have to be through one of the bed roams, down the big front staircase, through the great hall where everybody would be collected, and he did n't want to be recognized. Remember, he had the range of Aba- dam's dressing-room. He could n't have been up there more than rive and twenty minutes when Aba- dam came to me in the supper-room and took me aside mysteriously. When I saw his face, I knew it was all up with my pic- ture-show. He was followed by a young footman. He said: "It was you who brought that fellow, Watt Gunn, here, was n't it ?" I said it was, and that Mrs. Abadam — but he cut me short. He said : "He 's been having supper," I stared, because that was precisely what he had n't had, poor chap! "He 's been having supper, and he *s got into my wife's bath-room and he won't come out." We sneaked out of the dining-room,' Abadam and Furnival and I. The young foomian led us up the back stairs and through a door— the door by the house- maid's cupboard where Watt Gunn had seen the housemaid standing, and so into the corridor. We found a small crowd gathered be- fore the bath-room door. There was Mrs. Abadam 's maid, with a nightgown and a loose wrapper over her arm, and a pair of gorgeous slippers in her hand. She was trying to look indignant and superior. There were the upper housemaid, the un- der housemaid, and Abadam s valet. The girls were sniggering and giggling, while the valet endeavored to parley respectfully with Watt Gunn through the bath-room door. And you could hear Watt Gunn*s voice, all irascible and squeaky, coming through the door: " 'Ang it all, I can't come until you tell me—" Abadam said: "What 's that he says?" The valet put his ear to the door. "He says he can't come out, sir. He- says he wants to know if Mrs. — Mrs. — What 's the name, sir? — Mrs. Folyat- Raikes is still here, sir. He seems to have got her on his mind, sir." "Tell him he can't see Mrs. Raikes. He is n't in a fit state. 3 ' You could hear Watt Gunn still squeak- ing frantically and the valet parleying and interpreting. "He says he does n't want to sec her, sir. And— what 's that, sir? Oh, he does n't want her to see him, sir." Abadam said he was glad he was sober enough for that. We could n't hear what Watt Gunn said, but wc heard the valet. "I 'm sure I can't tell you, sir. He won't open the door for me, sir." Then Abadam turned savagely on me. "Here, see what you can do, Simpson, You brought him in, and it 's up to you to get him out," 1 wriggled through to the door. "It s all right, old chap," I said, "You can come out now." I could just hear his small, thin voice saying: