a raw london morning is a terrible foe to romance—visions that have danced elf-like before the view on the foregoing night tend to lose their charm or even to merge themselves wholly in the commonplace. so it was with me. when i came down to breakfast and reviewed the situation calmly, i was ready to laugh at my faith in what seemed the wild vagaries of schwartz and burnett. the memory of the queer little parlour and its queerer tenants had lost its over-night vividness and given place to a suspicion that either i or my hosts had indulged too freely in whisky. the little plate, however, was still in my possession, and this very tangible witness sufficed, despite a growing scepticism, to give me pause. “a striking discovery no doubt,” was my verdict, “but the dream of hartmann, as burnett calls it, is not so easily realized.” still i should know all—if anything worth the mention 37was to be known—on saturday night if i showed up at the odd trysting-place named by burnett—a trysting-place which at that hour meant a scramble over palings, and a possible trouble with the police. but these things were trifles. all things considered, i should do well to present myself with or without burnett, for the boasted a?ronef apart, the threats of the anarchists had begun to perplex me mightily, and the wish to meet their notorious leader, the so terrible son of my old friend mrs. hartmann, was not to be summarily exorcised.
i had passed the morning in study. luncheon over, i jotted down some notes for my speech on the following saturday. next, i sent lena a note promising to look in on sunday afternoon, sallied out with it to the post, and then ensconced myself in an omnibus which was plying in the direction of islington. whither was i bound? for the house of my friend mrs. hartmann, whom, as already mentioned, i had not seen for some time, and whose conversation just now might be fraught with peculiar interest. had the son as yet seen the mother? had any inkling of these vaguely discussed new plots reached her? had she any clue to the mystery tapped over-night? questions such as these surged up in dozens, and i determined, if possible, to feel my way to their answers.
38it was late in the afternoon when i reached mrs. hartmann’s modest villa in islington. the maid who admitted me said that she was not at home, having gone to visit a sick child in the neighbourhood. she expected her back to tea, and meanwhile perhaps i would like to wait. there was clearly no resource open to me but to do so, and entering the narrow hall i was shown into a drawing-room, simply but withal not uncomfortably furnished. the bay window which lighted the apartment looked on to a neat grass-plot diversified by some small but well-kept parterres.
there was little within to catch the eye. exploring the walls i came across a shelf full of musty books, mathematical and engineering text-books, and a variety of treatises on political economy and the sciences, evidently mementos of the son! while glancing through some and noting the numerous traces of careful study, the thought struck me that the photograph of their misguided possessor might also be accessible. i had been many times in the room before, but had never been favoured with the old lady’s confidences on the score of her son. the wound caused by his crime was ever green, and i, at least, was not cruel enough to disturb it. however, being now left alone i resolved to consult her albums, 39which, at any rate, might serve to while away the hour. loosening the clasp of one that lay near to hand, i turned over its leaves rapidly. as a rule, i dislike collections of this sort; there is a prosiness peculiar to albums which forbids incautious research. but here the hunt was of interest. true, there were mediocre denizens in plenty, shoals of cousins, sisters, and aunts, hordes of nonentities whom burnett would have dubbed only “fit for fuel,” but there was discoverable one very satisfactory tenant—a loose photograph marked on the back, “r. hartmann, taken when twenty-three years of age,” just about the time of the celebrated bridge incident.
it was the face of a young man evidently of high capacity and unflinching resolution. a slight moustache brushed the upper lip, and set off a clear-cut but somewhat cruel mouth. a more completely independent expression i never saw. the lineaments obscured by time defied accurate survey, but the general effect produced was that they indicated an arbitrary and domineering soul, utterly impatient of control and loftily contemptuous of its kind.
i was carefully conning the face when i heard the garden-gate creak on its hinges, a sound followed by the rattle of a latch-key in the lock of the front door. mrs. hartmann had returned. passing into the room, 40she met me with a pleasant smile which showed up in curious contrast to the look of depression so familiar to me of yore. i interpreted that brightness in an instant. hartmann had returned, and had paid her the visit of one raised from the dead. but of his terrible designs, of his restless hatred of society, he had clearly told her nothing.
hers was an expressive face, and the shadows upon it were few enough to warrant that inference. probably he had smoothed over the past and fooled her with some talk of a reformed life and a changed creed. it is so easy for an only son to persuade a mother—particularly when he rises after long years from a supposed grave.
“well, mr. stanley, you are the last person i expected to see. i heard you were to be in paris to-day.”
“so, my dear mrs. hartmann, i was, but the northertons, you see, have returned, and i had hoped to have done some touring with the old gentleman.”
“or perhaps with miss lena. no, don’t look so innocent, for she tells me more than you think. but what of this return? i had a note from her when she was in paris, but she said nothing about it?”
“some will business,” i explained. “you will be glad to hear she comes in for ￡5000 by it.”
41“a nice little nest-egg to begin house-keeping upon. i think, mr. stanley, you two young people ought to do very well.”
“i hope so,” i said, foregoing useless secrecy—what a chatterbox lena could be! “at any rate i see no very dangerous rocks ahead at present.”
the photograph.
the conversation wandered for some time among various topics, when i mentioned that i had been looking over the album.
“and very stupid work you must have found it,” she said.
“oh, it kept me busy while waiting. by the way, 42one of the photographs is loose,” and i handed her that of her son, this time with the face upwards. the ruse was effective, and the conversation took the desired course.
“have you never seen that face before? it is that of rudolf, my misguided son, of whom you must have heard. poor boy! ten years have rolled by since his death.”
admirably cool this mother; she at least was not to be “squeezed” offhand. but my watched-for chance had come.
“my dear mrs. hartmann, he is alive, and you know it. two days ago he was in this very house.” i had drawn my bow at a venture, but the shaft served me well. the coup was decisive. the old lady’s face betrayed complete discomfiture mingled with obvious signs of alarm. she made no attempt to contradict me. “what!” she stammered out at length. “are you also in the secret? are you, too, one of——”
“no,” i replied bluntly, anticipating her meaning. “i have never met your son, though i know something perhaps of his movements. but believe me you may trust me as you would yourself. he was a dynamitard, but he is your son, and that is enough for me. rest assured of my silence.”
43her distress visibly abated.
“thanks, many thanks. i feel i can rely on you—even to lend him a helping hand should the time ever come. ah! he is a changed man, an entirely changed man. a bright future may await him even now across the sea. but this visit to me—so sudden, so brief—i fear lest it may cost him dear. you, a private man, have found it out; why may not the lynx-eyed police also? it is terrible, this suspense. how can i be sure that he is safe at this moment?”
“oh, as to that, happily i can reassure you. your son is safe enough—nay, as safe as the most anxious mother could desire. how or where i cannot say, but i have it on the best possible authority. in fact, only last night i heard as much from the lips of one who should surely know—michael schwartz himself!”
“that evil genius! is he too in london? ah! if he is content, all is well. no tigress ever watched better over her cub than schwartz over my son. would his likings had blown elsewhere! that man was my son’s tutor in vice. but for him rudolf might have been an honour to his country. and what is he now? an outlaw, in the shadow of the gallows,”—and she hid her face in her handkerchief and wept bitterly. i waited patiently till the tempest was over, putting in a soothing phrase here and there 44and painting black white with the zeal of a skilful casuist. one need not be too scrupulous when sufferers such as this are concerned.
“he has told you nothing of his movements?” i remarked cautiously.
“nothing, except that he was leaving shortly for hamburg, whence he was to proceed immediately to new york. some months later on i may join him there, but for the present all is uncertain.” one more deception of hartmann’s, but a kindly one; obviously it was better not to disturb the illusions which the old lady thus fondly cherished—her reformed son, his prospective honourable life, the vision of a lasting reunion abroad. were she to suspect that mischief was again being plotted by the anarchist, what a cruel scattering of her hopes would follow!
i assured her that the chances were all in her son’s favour, and that once in america he could set at naught all possibilities of discovery. meanwhile, i had become aware that nothing of importance to my quest was to be drawn from mrs. hartmann. her son's meteoric visit, prompted by some gleam of noble sentiment, had evidently left her ignorant of his new inhuman plottings. ere long i rose to leave, not, however, without having promised that, should 45hartmann ever cross my path, i would stand by him for her sake in a possible hour of danger. under what circumstances i was to meet this extraordinary man—how absurd then my poor well-meant promise of assistance was to appear—will be manifest from the ensuing narrative.