Mrs. Gainsborough's Diamonds, Chapters I-IV [pp. 430-442]

3AP?tLETONS' JO URNAL.
presently he added, "You will pardon me for pre suming to counsel you?"
"My dear sir, I am much obliged to you. My
idea is that the simplest precautions are the best. I
shall carry the stones in an inner pocket, and I shall
go armed. No one will suspect me; and, if I am at tacked, I shall make a good defense, at all events."
Mr. Birchmore said nothing more, and indeed
seemed scarcely to listen to my remarks. I now sug gested to him that he might show Rudolph his ring.
He put his hand to his waistcoat-pocket, and gave a
half-suppressed ejaculation of disappointment and
annoyance. He had left the ring at home!
"No matter; I will call to-morrow, Herr Ru dolph," he observed. "I've no doubt I shall find
what I want here, if anywhere. Good-morning that is, if you are ready, Mr. Gainsborough? By-the way, Rudolph, I suppose you put your treasures in a
safe at night?"
"Oh, by all means, Herr," replied the little Saxon.
"And I have a watchman also, who guards all night
long."
"A prudent fellow: yes, that will do," mur mured Mr. Birchmore, in an undertone to himself.
Then, with a parting nod and smile, to which the
jeweler did not respond, he sauntered out, I follow ing him. We walked back to the hotel. I did not
see him again until after dinner, when he offered me
a cigar; and when we had smoked together awhile
in silence, he said, abruptly "I've found that stone."
I looked at him inquiringly.
"The diamond out of my ring. In my trouserpocket, of all places in the world! Fell out while I
was groping for my keys, I suppose. Sorry to have
raised false hopes in your friend Rudolph. By-theway, he'll have finished that job of yours before very
long?"
"In about a week, I fancy. I shall be sorry to
leave Paris."
"Yes? Well, it is a nice place; but one gets
tired of the nicest places in time. I do. I like to
be moving."
"I shall have a month to spend on my way to
Rome. This is almost my first experience of the
Continent. I wish I hadsome traveling companion
who knew the ropes." This hint I let fall in the hope
that he might propose to join me; but, as he made
no rejoinder, I at length ventured to put it more
plainly. I gave a rough sketch of the route I proposed to follow, asked his opinion upon it, and finally said that, should his inclination lead him also in
that direction, I should be very glad of his company.
"Well, sir, I'm obliged to you," replied Mr.
Birchmore, after a pause of some moments. "You
couldn't pay a man a better compliment than to ask
him to travel with you; and I would accept your
offer as frankly and fearlessly as you make it, only
-well, the fact is, I'm not so entirely at my own
disposal as I may appear to you to be. I have been
through a good many experiences in life, and some
of the consequences are upon me still. When you
have reached my age-if you ever do reach it-you
will understand me better. I suppose I may be fif teen years your senior; well, fifteen years means a
good deal-a good deal." He puffed a meditative
cloud or two, and then added: "You're not hurt?
You see how it is? I would really like to accom pany you-but I can't."
Of course, I warmly disavowed all resentment,
and felt inwardly ashamed of having forced him, by
the freedom of my advances, into making this expla nation. Meanwhile, I could not help liking him bet ter than ever, and feeling more than ever interested,
not to say curious, about him. It was now certain
that some mystery or other attached to him. I cast
covert glances at him, in the vain attempt to read
something of his secret through his outward aspect.
But he was inscrutable, or, rather, there was nothing
especially noticeable in him. His face, as I have
said, was handsome in its contours; he wore a heavy
mustache, and a short, pointed beard on his chin.
His forehead was wide across the temples, but low;
and dark-brown hair, rather stiff, and streaked here
and there with gray, grew thickly over his head.
His hands were large, and hairy up to the second
joints of the fingers, but they were finely and pow erfully formed, and the fingers tapered beautifully,
with nails smoothly cut and polished. In figure he
was above the medium size, and appeared strongly
built, though he had complained to me more than
once of rheumatism or some other bodily failing.
In walking, he took rather short steps for a tall man,
and without any swaying of the shoulders; his hands
being generally thrust in the side-pockets of his coat,
and his face inclined toward the ground. But his
eyes, large, bright, and restless, were his most remarkable feature. They appeared to take note of
everything; they were seldom fixed, and never introspective. Compared with the general immobility
of the rest of his countenance, these eyes of Mr.
Birchmore seemed to have a life of their own-and
a very intense and watchful one. Whenever they
met mine fully (which was but seldom, and then
only for a moment at a time) I was conscious of a
kind of start or thrill, as if a fine spray of icy water
had swept my face. What had those eyes looked
upon? or what was it that lurked behind them?
"We may run across each other again-hope we
may," said Mr. Birchmore, when I shook hands with
him at parting, a few days later. "Glad to have
met you, Mr. Gainsborough-very glad, sir."
"Thanks; I am glad to have met you. Your
acquaintance has profited me not a little."
"Oh, as to that," said Mr. Birchmore, with a
smile, and one of those startling, straightforward
glances into my eyes-" as to that, the profit will
have been mutual, to say the least of it. Goodby!"
III.
MY route to Italy was rather a roundabout one.
Instead of running down to Marseilles, and so on
via Civita Vecchia to Rome, I set off eastward, and
crossed Germany, passing through Cologne, Frankfort-on-the-Main, and Nuremberg; thence I pro
432