The Vanished MessengerOppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
General
The Vanished Messenger
Oppenheim, E. Phillips (Edward Phillips)
Detective and mystery stories; Fiction
“No,” she answered, “I do not remember those days. They do not belong to
me. It is some other woman you are thinking of.”
Their eyes met. Mr. Fentolin turned away first. He struck the bell at
his elbow. She rose at once.
“Be off!” he ordered. “When you look at me like that, you send shivers
through me! You’ll have to go; I can see you’ll have to go. I can’t keep
you any longer. You are the only person on the face of the earth who
dares to say things to me which make me think, the only person who
doesn’t shrink at the sound of my voice. You’ll have to go. Send Sarson
to me at once. You’ve upset me!”
She listened to his words in expressionless silence. When he had
finished, carrying her book in her hand, she very quietly moved towards
the door. He watched her, leaning a little forward in his chair,
his lips parted, his eyes threatening. She walked with steady, even
footsteps. She carried herself with almost machine-like erectness; her
skirts were noiseless. She had the trick of turning the handle of the
door in perfect silence. He heard her calm voice in the hall.
“Doctor Sarson is to go to Mr. Fentolin.”
Mr. Fentolin sat quite still, feeling his own pulse.
“That woman,” he muttered to himself, “that--woman--some day I shouldn’t
be surprised if she really--”
He paused. The doctor had entered the room.
“I am upset, Sarson,” he declared. “Come and feel my pulse quickly. That
woman has upset me.”
“Miss Price?”
“Miss Price, d--n it! Lucy--yes!”
“It seems unlike her,” the doctor remarked. “I have never heard her
utter a useless syllable in my life.”
Mr. Fentolin held out his wrist.
“It’s what she doesn’t say,” he muttered.
The doctor produced his watch. In less than a minute he put it away.
“This is quite unnecessary,” he pronounced. “Your pulse is wonderful.”
“Not hurried? No signs of palpitation?”
“You have seven or eight footmen, all young men,” Doctor Sarson replied
drily. “I will wager that there isn’t one of them has a pulse so
vigorous as yours.”
Mr. Fentolin leaned a little back in his chair. An expression of
satisfaction crept over his face.
“You reassure me, my dear Sarson. That is excellent. What of our
patient?”
“There is no change.”
“I am afraid,” Mr. Fentolin sighed, “that we shall have trouble with
him. These strong people always give trouble.”
“It will be just the same in the long run,” the doctor remarked,
shrugging his shoulders.
Mr. Fentolin held up his finger.
“Listen! A motor-car, I believe?”
“It is Miss Fentolin who is just arriving,” the doctor announced. “I saw
the car coming as I crossed the hall.”
Mr. Fentolin nodded gently.
“Indeed?” he replied. “Indeed? So my dear niece has returned. Open the
door, friend Sarson. Open the door, if you please. She will be anxious
to see me. We must summon her.”
CHAPTER X
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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