The Human Chord | Page 7

light of fire and lamp his face had the appearance of forty rather than
sixty as he had first judged; the eyes, always luminous, shone with
health and enthusiasm; a great air of youth and vitality glowed about
him. It was a fine head with that dominating nose and the shaggy tangle
of hair and beard; very big, fatherly and protective he looked, a quite
inexpressible air of tenderness mingled in everywhere with the strength.
Spinrobin felt immensely drawn to him as he looked. With such a
leader he could go anywhere, do anything. There, surely, was a man
whose heart was set not upon the things of this world.
An introduction to the housekeeper interrupted his reflections; it did not
strike him as at all out of the way; doubtless she was more mother than
domestic to the household. At the name of "Mrs." Mawle (courtesy-title,
obviously), he rose and bowed, and the old woman, looking from one
to the other, smiled becomingly, curtseyed, put her cap straight, and
turned to the teapot again. She said nothing.

"The only servant I have, practically," explained the clergyman, "cook,
butler, housekeeper and tyrant all in one; and, with her niece, the only
other persons in the house besides ourselves. A very simple _ménage_,
you see, Mr. Spinrobin. I ought to warn you, too, by-the-by," he added,
"that she is almost stone deaf, and has only got the use of one arm, as
perhaps you noticed. Her left arm is"--he hesitated for a fraction of a
second--"withered."
A passing wonder as to what the niece would be like accompanied the
swallowing of his buttered toast and tea, but the personalities of Mr.
Skale and his housekeeper had already produced emotions that
prevented this curiosity acquiring much strength. He could deal with
nothing more just yet. Bewilderment obstructed the way, and in his
room before dinner he tried in vain to sort out the impressions that so
thickly flooded him, though without any conspicuous degree of success.
The walls of his bedroom, like those of corridor and hall, were bare; the
furniture solid and old-fashioned; scanty, perhaps, yet more than he
was accustomed to; and the spaciousness was very pleasant after the
cramped quarters of stuffy London lodgings. He unpacked his few
things, arranged them with neat precision in the drawers of the tallboy,
counted his shirts, socks, and ties, to see that all was right, and then
drew up an armchair and toasted his toes before the comforting fire. He
tried to think of many things, and to decide numerous little questions
roused by the events of the last few hours; but the only thing, it seems,
that really occupied his mind, was the rather overpowering fact that he
was--with Mr. Skale and in Mr. Skale's house; that he was there on a
month's trial; that the nature of the work in which he was to assist was
unknown, immense, singular; and that he was already being weighed in
the balances by his uncommon and gigantic employer. In his mind he
used this very adjective. There was something about the big
clergyman--titanic.
He was in the middle of a somewhat jumbled consideration about
"Knowledge of Hebrew--tenor voice--courage and
imagination--unworldly," and so forth, when a knock at the door
announced Mrs. Mawle who came to inform him that dinner was ready.
She stood there, a motherly and pleasant figure in black, and she

addressed him in the third person. "If Mr. Spinrobin will please to come
down," she said, "Mr. Skale is waiting. Mr. Skale is always quite
punctual." She always spoke thus, in the third person; she never used
the personal pronoun if it could be avoided. She preferred the name
direct, it seemed. And as Spinrobin passed her on the way out, she
observed further, looking straight into his eyes as she said it: "and
should Mr. Spinrobin have need of anything, that," indicating it, "is the
bell that rings in the housekeeper's room. Mrs. Mawle can see it wag,
though she can't hear it. Day or night," she added with a faint curtsey,
"and no trouble at all, just as with the other gentlemen--"
So there had been other gentlemen, other secretaries! He thanked her
with a nod and a smile, and hurried pattering downstairs in a neat blue
suit, black silk socks and a pair of bright new pumps, Mr. Skale having
told him not to dress. The phrase "day or night," meanwhile, struck him
as significant and peculiar. He remembered it later. At the moment he
merely noted that it added one more to the puzzling items that caused
his bewilderment.
V
Before he had gone very far, however, there came another--crowningly
perplexing. For he was halfway down the darkened passage, making for
the hall that glimmered beyond like the