City and town life -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction
“You're flattering me. You make me feel quite shy,” she said. “You know
HIM, too,” nodding toward Tembarom.
“Oh, yes,” he replied, and he looked up with a smile. “He is the one who
remembers. You said you did.” He had turned to Tembarom.
“You bet your life I do,” Tembarom answered. “And you will, too, before
long.”
“If I did not try so hard,” said Strangeways, thoughtfully. “It seems
as if I were shut up in a room, and so many things were knocking at the
doors--hundreds of them--knocking because they want to be let in. I am
damnably unhappy--damnably.” He hung his head and stared at the floor.
Tembarom put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a friendly shake.
“Don't you worry a bit,” he said. “You take my word for it. It'll all
come back. I'm working at it myself.” Strangeways lifted his head.
“You are the one I know best. I trust you.” But there was the beginning
of a slight drag in his voice. “I don't always--quite recollect--your
name. Not quite. Good heavens! I mustn't forget that.”
Little Ann was quite ready.
“You won't,” she said, “because it's different from other names. It
begins with a letter--just a letter, and then there is the name. Think.”
“Yes, yes,” he said anxiously.
Little Ann bent forward and fixed her eyes on his with concentrated
suggestion. They had never risked confusing him by any mention of
the new name. She began to repeat letters of the alphabet slowly and
distinctly until she reached the letter T.
“T,” she ended with much emphasis--“R. S. _T_.”
His expression cleared itself.
“T,” he repeated. “T--Tembarom. R, S, T. How clever you are!”
Little Ann's gaze concentrated itself still more intently.
“Now you'll never forget it again,” she said, “because of the T. You'll
say the other letters until you come to it. R, S, T.”
“T. Tembarom,” he ended relievedly. “How you help me!” He took her hand
and kissed it very gently.
“We are all going to help you,” Ann soothed him, “T. Tembarom most of
all.”
“Say,” Tembarom broke out in an aside to her, “I'm going to come here
and try things on him every day. When it seems like he gets on to
something, however little a thing it is, I'm going to follow it up and
see if it won't get somewhere.”
Ann nodded.
“There'll be something some day,” she said. “Are you quite comfortable
here?” she asked aloud to Strangeways.
“Very comfortable, thank you,” he answered courteously. “They are
beautiful rooms. They are furnished with such fine old things. This is
entirely Jacobean. It's quite perfect.” He glanced about him. “And so
quiet. No one comes in here but my man, and he is a very nice chap. I
never had a man who knew his duties better.”
Little Ann and Tembarom looked at each other.
“I shouldn't be a bit surprised,” she said after they had left the room,
“if it wouldn't be a good thing to get Pearson to try to talk to him now
and then. He's been used to a man-servant.”
“Yes,” answered Tembarom. “Pearson didn't rattle HIM, you bet your
life.”
CHAPTER XIV
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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