The Beautiful White Devil Part 15

"I reckon, before we begin, we'd better do a little introducing, don't you? This lady (she pointed to her companion) is my very kind friend Mrs. Beecher, of Boston, with whom I am travelling; you've probably heard of Beecher's patent double-action sofa springs, I reckon? I am Kate Sanderson, of New York, only daughter of millionaire Sanderson, of Wall Street, whom I guess you've heard all about too. So you see we're both of the United States of America, and very much at your service."

"I am very glad to have met you," I answered. "My name is De Normanville, and I hail from London."

"Not Dr. De Normanville, of Cavendish Square, surely?"

"Yes, the same. Cavendish Square was my London address two years ago.

But how do you come to know it?"

"Well, now, if that isn't real extraordinary! I thought I recognised you directly I set eyes on you. But it's mighty plain you don't remember me! That's not much of a compliment any way you look at it.

Is it, Mrs. Beecher?"

The elder declined to commit herself, so Miss Sanderson once more turned to me.

"Just think now, Dr. De Normanville," she said. "Look at me well, and try to remember where we have met before."

I looked and looked, but for the life of me I could not recall her face, and yet somehow it seemed strangely familiar to me. All the time I was watching her she sat gazing at me with an amused smile upon her face, and when she saw that it was useless my cudgelling my brains any more, gave another little silvery laugh, and said--

"Do you remember, just three years ago, being called in to the Langham Hotel to attend a young American lady who had a fish-bone stuck in her throat?"

"I remember the circ.u.mstance perfectly," I answered, "but that young lady was only one or two and twenty."

"You think then I look older than that? Well! I reckon you are really not very complimentary. But you must remember that that was three years ago, and I was only a girl then. When once we get grown up, and past a certain point, over on our side, we age pretty fast. That's so, I reckon. Well now you know me, don't you? What a day that was, to be sure, wasn't it? Lor! how pap and mammie did go on! Anybody'd have thought I was going to Kingdom Come right away to have heard them.

D'you know, I reckon I must have got the marks of that bone in my throat to this day."

"It was a very nasty scratch, if I remember rightly," I answered, glad to have at last discovered who this talkative creature was, and where I had seen her face before.

"Are you remaining very long in Java, Mrs. Beecher?" I asked the elder lady, feeling that so far she had been rather neglected.

"No, I think not," she answered thoughtfully; "we are trying to make up our minds whether to take a British India steamer home from here, or to go up to Singapore and intercept a Peninsular and Oriental there. Miss Sanderson has taken a great fancy to the East, and I must confess I am very loth to leave it."

"You are quite right," I said. "I can fully sympathise with your feelings. I am sadly reluctant to go back to foggy old England myself, after my trip out here."

"And do you intend going back very soon?" asked Miss Sanderson, who had been smoothing out her gloves upon her knee.

"Within the next month or so," I answered, with a sigh. "My business in the East is at an end, and I have no excuse for staying longer."

From this point the talk drifted on to general topics, and when tea was finished I seized the first opportunity that presented itself, and, making an excuse, withdrew. Just as I stepped from the verandah, one of the small native _dos-a-dos_ carts entered the grounds and drew up near the end of my corridor. Two ladies descended from it, and, having paid the driver, entered their rooms. One was tall, and the other rather shorter. At last I felt convinced Alie had arrived.

As they disappeared the gong warned us to prepare for dinner; but, heedless of my costume, I seated myself outside my door and waited.

Though I remained there for some time, however, they did not emerge again, and at last I was compelled to go in and make myself presentable without having seen them.

At dinner, which was served in the palatial marble dining saloon standing in the centre of the gardens, I discovered to my annoyance that my place was laid at a long table at the further end, exactly opposite those occupied by the American ladies with whom I had taken tea.

From where I sat it was quite impossible for me to see all over the room, and, in consequence, I could not tell whether Alie was present or not. As soon, however, as the meal was over I rose, and, before walking out, looked about me. Some of the residents were still dining, and at the end of the middle table, farthest from me, were, without doubt, the two ladies whom I had seen arrive. At the distance I was from them it was quite impossible to tell who they were, but from the poise of her head and the shape of her beautiful arms and shoulders, I felt convinced that the taller of the two was the woman I loved, and whom I had all the afternoon been so anxiously expecting.

Seeing, however, that it was just possible I might be mistaken, and remembering the instruction Alie had given me to let our meeting appear accidental, I could not walk down the length of the room and accost her, so I betook myself into the marble portico and waited for them to come out. But, as it happened, Miss Sanderson and her friend were the first to emerge, and the voluble young American took me by storm at once. From what she told me I gathered two things, first, that hitherto she had found her evenings dull, and, second, that on this particular occasion there was to be an open-air concert on the King's Plain, distant about a mile from the hotel. She and her friend had intended going, if they could find an escort, and there and then she asked me if I would officiate in that capacity. I did not know what to say. They were women, and I could not be rude; and, moreover as they had evidently set their hearts upon going, and I was not positively certain that Alie had arrived, I felt I had no right to decline the honour of escorting them. Accordingly I a.s.sented, and went across the garden to get my hat. Five minutes later they met me at the gates, and we strolled down the road together towards the plain.

There are few prettier places in the world than Batavia, and I have met with few handsomer girls than the distinguished-looking American by my side; but for all that I was not contented with my lot. I wanted to be back in the verandah at the hotel watching for Alie.

Leaving a handsome street behind us we pa.s.sed on to the plain, where a large crowd of people were promenading to the strains of a military band. At any other time the music would have been inspiriting, but, in the humour I was in, the gayest marches sounded like funeral dirges.

For over an hour we continued to promenade, until I began really to think that I should have to ask my friends to accompany me home or remain where they were without me. But at last the concert came to an end, and we once more turned our faces in the direction of our hotel.

"You have been very quiet this evening," said Miss Sanderson to me as we left the turf and stepped on to the road again.

"I hope my being so has not spoilt your enjoyment," I said, trying to beg the question.

"Oh; dear no!" Then, as if something had suddenly struck her, "Do you expect to see anyone in Batavia? I have noticed that you scan every lady we pa.s.s as if you were on the look-out for an acquaintance."

"I _did_ expect to see someone, I must confess," I answered. "You have sharp eyes, Miss Sanderson."

"They have been trained in a sharp school," was her brief reply.

By this time we were within five minutes walk of home, and in the act of crossing one of the numerous bridges that, in Dutch fas.h.i.+on, grace Batavia's streets. We paused for a few moments and leaned over the parapet to look down at the star-spangled water oozing its silent way towards the sea. It was all very quiet, and as far as we could see we had the street to ourselves. Suddenly Miss Sanderson dropped her American accent, and said in quite a different voice--

"Dr. De Normanville, this has gone far enough. Do you know me now?"

_It was Alie!_

To say that I was taken by surprise would not be to express my condition at all. I was simply overwhelmed with astonishment, and for some seconds could only stand and stare at her in complete amazement.

Her disguise was so perfect, her American accent was so real, her acting had been so wonderfully maintained, that I never for an instant suspected the trick she had been playing upon me.

"You! Alie," I cried when at last I found my voice. "Is it possible that Miss Sanderson has been a myth all the time?"

"Not only quite possible, but a fact," she answered, with a laugh.

"Yes! I am Alie, and no more Miss Sanderson, of New York, than you are. Do me the justice to remember I warned you I was good at disguising myself. My reason for not revealing my ident.i.ty to you before was that I wanted thoroughly to test the value of the part I was playing, and since you, who know me so well, did not recognise me, I am inclined to believe n.o.body else will."

"It is simply marvellous. If you had not declared yourself I should never have known you. And your companion is therefore not Mrs.

Beecher, whose husband's patent double-action sofa springs are so justly famous, any more than you are Miss Sanderson?"

"No, both the husband and the sofa springs are creations of my own imagination."

"But the incident you recalled to my memory. The bone in your throat that I extracted at the Langham, how do you account for that?"

"Easily! One day in your surgery at the settlement you casually mentioned having extracted a fish bone from a young American lady's throat at that hotel. I thought it unlikely, as it was the only time you ever saw her, that you would remember her name or face, so I a.s.sumed that character in order to try the effect of my disguise upon you."

"You are a wonderful actress; you would make your fortune on the stage."

"Do you think so? What a sensation it would cause in the East. Under the patronage of His Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong, the Admiral and Commander-in-Chief, the Beautiful White Devil as Ophelia, or Desdemona shall we say, why, what houses I should draw. But now to business. As we may not have another opportunity, let us see that our plans coincide. By the way, the French boat leaves to-morrow afternoon for Singapore. You have booked your pa.s.sage, of course?"

I nodded a.s.sent, and she continued--

"You must board her alone. We shall join just before she sails. When we get to Singapore we must drive separately to the Mandalay Hotel, and figure there in the light of casual travelling acquaintances.

Before you have been in the place half a day you will probably have been introduced to Mr. Ebbington, the man we want. He will see you talking to me, and by hook or crook you must introduce him to me.

Whatever you do, don't forget, however, that my name is Sanderson.

Having done this, leave the rest to me. Do you think you thoroughly understand?"

"Thoroughly."

"That's right. Now let us be getting home. To-morrow we must be early astir."