In Friendships Guise

In Friendship's Guise

The Project Gutenberg EBook of In Friendship's Guise, by Wm. Murray Graydon This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: In Friendship's Guise
Author: Wm. Murray Graydon
Release Date: May 31, 2005 [EBook #15965]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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In Friendship's Guise
BY WM. MURRAY GRAYDON
AUTHOR OF "The Cryptogram," etc.
1899

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER.
I.--The Duplicate Rembrandt
II.--Five Years Afterwards
III.--An Old Friend
IV.--Number 320 Wardour Street
V.--A Mysterious Discussion
VI.--A Visitor from Paris
VII.--Love's Young Dream
VIII.--An Attraction in Pall Mall
IX.--Uncle and Nephew
X.--A London Sensation
XI.--A Mysterious Discovery
XII.--A Cowardly Communication
XIII.--The Tempter
XIV.--The Dinner at Richmond
XV.--From the Dead
XVI.--The Last Card
XVII.--Two Passengers from Calais
XVIII.--Home Again
XIX.--A Shock for Sir Lucius
XX.--At a Night Club
XXI.--A Quick Decision
XXII.--Another Chance
XXIII.--On the Track
XXIV.--A Fateful Decision
XXV.--A Fruitless Errand
XXVI.--A Thunderbolt from the Blue
XXVII.--An Amateur Detective
XXVIII.--A Discovery
XXIX.--The Vicar of Dunwold
XXX.--Run to Earth
XXXI.--Noah Hawker's Disclosure
XXXII.--How the Day Ended
XXXIII.--Conclusion

IN FRIENDSHIP'S GUISE.

CHAPTER I.
THE DUPLICATE REMBRANDT.
The day began well. The breakfast rolls were crisper than usual, the butter was sweeter, and never had Diane's slender white hands poured out more delicious coffee. Jack Clare was in the highest spirits as he embraced his wife and sallied forth into the Boulevard St. Germain, with a flat, square parcel wrapped in brown paper under his arm. From the window of the entresol Diane waved a coquettish farewell.
"Remember, in an hour," she called down to him. "I shall be ready by then, Jack, and waiting. We will lunch at Bignon's--"
"And drive in the Bois, and wind up with a jolly evening," he interrupted, throwing a kiss. "I will hasten back, dear one. Be sure that you put on your prettiest frock, and the jacket with the ermine trimming."
It was a clear and frosty January morning, in the year 1892, and the streets of Paris were dry and glistening. There was intoxication in the very air, and Jack felt thoroughly in harmony with the fine weather. What mattered it that he had but a few francs in his pocket--that the quarterly remittance from his mother, who dreaded the Channel passage and was devoted to her foggy London, would not be due for a fortnight? The parcel under his arm meant, without doubt, a check for a nice sum. He and Diane would spend it merrily, and until the morrow at least his fellow-workers at Julian's Academy would miss him from his accustomed place.
Bright-eyed grisettes flung coy looks at the young artist as he strode along, admiring his well-knit figure, his handsome boyish features chiseled as finely as a cameo, the crisp brown hair with a slight tendency to curl, his velvet jacket and flowing tie. Jack nodded and smiled at a familiar face now and then, or paused briefly to greet a male acquaintance; for the Latin Quarter had been his little world for three years, and he was well-known in it from the Boulevard St. Michel to the quays of the Seine. He snapped his fingers at a mounted cuirassier in scarlet and silver who galloped by him on the Point Royal, and whistled a few bars of "The British Grenadiers" as he passed the red-trowsered, meek-faced, under-sized soldiers who shouldered their heavy muskets in the courts of the Louvre. The memory of Diane's laughing countenance, as she leaned from the window, haunted him in the Avenue de l'Opera.
"She's a good little girl, except when she's in a temper," he said to himself, "and I love her every bit as much as I did when we were married a year ago. Perhaps I was a fool, but I don't regret it. She was as straight as a die, with a will of her own, and it was either lose her altogether or do the right thing. I couldn't bear to part with her, and I wasn't blackguard enough to try to deceive her. I'm afraid there will be a row some day, though, when the Mater learns the truth. What would she say if she knew that Diane Merode, one of the most popular and fascinating dancers of the Folies Bergere, was now Mrs. John Clare?"
It was not a cheerful thought, but Jack's momentary depression vanished as he stopped before the imposing facade of the Hotel Netherlands, in the vicinity of the Opera. He entered boldly and inquired for Monsieur Martin Von Whele. The gentleman was gone, a polite garcon explained. He had received a telegram during the night to say that his wife was very ill, and he had left Paris by the first train.
The happiness faded from Jack's eyes.
"Gone--gone back to Amsterdam?" he exclaimed incredulously.
"Yes, to his own country, monsieur."
"And he left no message for