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Mr. Lismore And The Widow
by
“Does she look as if she wanted money?” Mr. Lismore inquired.
“Oh dear, no! She comes in her carriage.”
“Is she young or old?”
“Old, sir.”
To Mr. Lismore, conscious of the disastrous influence occasionally exercised over busy men by youth and beauty, this was a recommendation in itself. He said, “Show her in.”
Observing the lady as she approached him with the momentary curiosity of a stranger, he noticed that she still preserved the remains of beauty. She had also escaped the misfortune, common to persons at her time of life, of becoming too fat. Even to a man’s eye, her dressmaker appeared to have made the most of that favourable circumstance. Her figure had its defects concealed, and its remaining merits set off to advantage. At the same time she evidently held herself above the common deceptions by which some women seek to conceal their age. She wore her own gray hair, and her complexion bore the test of daylight. On entering the room, she made her apologies with some embarrassment. Being the embarrassment of a stranger (and not of a youthful stranger) it failed to impress Mr. Lismore favourably.
“I am afraid I have chosen an inconvenient time for my visit,” she began.
“I am at your service,” he answered, a little stiffly, “especially if you will be so kind as to mention your business with me in few words.”
She was a woman of some spirit, and that reply roused her.
“I will mention it in one word,” she said, smartly.” My business is–gratitude.”
He was completely at a loss to understand what she meant, and he said so plainly. Instead of explaining herself she put a question.
“Do you remember the night of the 11th of March, between five and six years since?”
He considered for a moment.
“No,” he said, “I don’t remember it. Excuse me Mrs. Callender, I have affairs of my own to attend to which cause me some anxiety—“
“Let me assist your memory, Mr. Lismore, and I will leave you to your affairs. On the date that I have referred to you were on your way to the railway-station at Bexmore, to catch the night express from the north to London.”
As a hint that his time was valuable the ship-owner had hitherto remained standing. He now took his customary seat, and began to listen with some interest. Mrs. Callender had produced her effect on him already.
“It was absolutely necessary,” she proceeded, “that you should be on board your ship in the London docks at nine o’clock the next morning. If you had lost the express the vessel would have sailed without you.”
The expression of his face began to change to surprise.
“Who told you that?” he asked.
“You shall hear directly. On your way into the town your carriage was stopped by an obstruction on the highroad. The people of Bexmore were looking at a house on fire.”
He started to his feet.
“Good heavens! are you the lady?”
She held up her hand in satirical protest.
“Gently, sir! You suspected me just now of wasting your valuable time. Don’t rashly conclude that I am the lady until you find that I am acquainted with the circumstances.”
“Is there no excuse for my failing to recognise you?” Mr. Lismore asked. “We were on the dark side of the burning house; you were fainting, and I–“
“And you,” she interposed, “after saving me at the risk of your own life, turned a deaf ear to my poor husband’s entreaties when he asked you to wait till I had recovered my senses.”
“Your poor husband? Surely, Mrs. Callender, he received no serious injury from the fire?”
“The firemen rescued him under circumstances of peril,” she answered, “and at his great age he sank under the shock. I have lost the kindest and best of men. Do you remember how you parted from him–burned and bruised in saving me? He liked to talk of it in his last illness. ‘At least,’ he said to you, ‘tell me the name of the man who preserved my wife from a dreadful death.’ You threw your card to him out of the carriage window, and away you went at a gallop to catch your train. In all the years that have passed I have kept that card, and have vainly inquired for my brave sea-captain. Yesterday I saw your name on the list of speakers at the Mansion House. Need I say that I attended the meeting? Need I tell you now why I come here and interrupt you in business hours?”