He lit a cigarette and waited on the merely improbable chance of her
return; the minutes grew into half an hour before he realised that he
might wait hours, and that it would be easy to inquire if she were still
living there. All the same, he lingered, as if he were loath to take his
eyes from that door through which she had come to him as an angel of
rescue--no, far better, as a pure, a brave woman.
Presently he heard the sound of slow footsteps ascending the stairs.
They paused on the floor beneath him, and Derrick, descending quickly,
saw the thin, bent figure of an old man; he held a violin-case and a
small parcel of grocery under his arm, and was on the point of unlocking
the door immediately beneath that of the girl. The old man turned his
head as Derrick came down upon him, and Derrick, notwithstanding the
state of his mind, was struck by the nobility and dignity of the thin,
wasted face and the dark, penetrating eyes.
"I beg your pardon," said Derrick. "Can you tell me----?"
He stopped, for the old man had dropped the parcel and stood looking,
not at it, but at Derrick. Derrick hastened to pick it up, and,
instinctively, raised his hat as he handed the small package.
"I'm afraid I startled you, sir," he said, with that note of respect and
deference which came into Derrick's voice when he was addressing women
and the aged: it was just one of those little characteristics which
attracted people to the young man, and made them take to him at first
acquaintance. "I wanted to ask you a question about a young lady, the
young lady who lives in the room above this." For the life of him, he
could not bring himself to ask the question straight out.
Mr. Clendon regarded him with a calm and courteous scrutiny, which, for
all its courteousness, had a note of guardedness and caution. "What do
you wish to ask about her?" he inquired. He unlocked the door as he put
the question, and waving his long, white hand towards the room, added,
"Will you not come in?"
Derrick stepped into the plain, meagrely-furnished room, and took the
seat to which Mr. Clendon motioned him. The old man set the parcel and
violin-case on the table and, taking a chair, sat with his back to the
light and waited in silence.
"I am afraid I am intruding," said Derrick, still with that deferential
note in his voice. "I shall be glad if you can tell me if the young lady
is still living above you."