Was you hurt, sir? said Fearenside. Im rare sorry the darg
Not a bit, said the stranger. Never broke the skin. Hurry up with those things.
He then swore to himself, so Mr. Hall asserts.
Directly the first crate was, in accordance with his directions, carried into the parlour, the stranger flung himself upon it with extraordinary eagerness, and began to unpack it, scattering the straw with an utter disregard of Mrs. Halls carpet. And from it he began to produce bottles little fat bottles containing powders, small and slender bottles containing coloured and white fluids, fluted blue bottles labeled Poison, bottles with round bodies and slender necks, large green-glass bottles, large white-glass bottles, bottles with glass stoppers and frosted labels, bottles with fine corks, bottles with bungs, bottles with wooden caps, wine bottles, salad-oil bottles putting them in rows on the chiffonnier, on the mantel, on the table under the window, round the floor, on the bookshelf everywhere. The chemists shop in Bramblehurst could not boast half so many. Quite a sight it was. Crate after crate yielded bottles, until all six were empty and the table high with straw; the only things that came out of these crates besides the bottles were a number of test-tubes and a carefully packed balance.
And directly the crates were unpacked, the stranger went to the window and set to work, not troubling in the least about the litter of straw, the fire which had gone out, the box of books outside, nor for the trunks and other luggage that had gone upstairs.
When Mrs. Hall took his dinner in to him, he was already so absorbed in his work, pouring little drops out of the bottles into test-tubes, that he did not hear her until she had swept away the bulk of the straw and put the tray on the table, with some little emphasis perhaps, seeing the state that the floor was in. Then he half turned his head and immediately turned it away again. But she saw he had removed his glasses; they were beside him on the table, and it seemed to her that his eye sockets were extraordinarily hollow. He put on his spectacles again, and then turned and faced her. She was about to complain of the straw on the floor when he anticipated her.
I wish you wouldnt come in without knocking, he said in the tone of abnormal exasperation that seemed so characteristic of him.
I knocked, but seemingly
Perhaps you did. But in my investigations my really very urgent and necessary investigations the slightest disturbance, the jar of a door I must ask you
Certainly, sir. You can turn the lock if youre like that, you know. Any time.
A very good idea, said the stranger.
This stror, sir, if I might make so bold as to remark
Dont. If the straw makes trouble put it down in the bill. And he mumbled at her words suspiciously like curses.
He was so odd, standing there, so aggressive and explosive, bottle in one hand and test-tube in the other, that Mrs. Hall was quite alarmed. But she was a resolute woman. In which case, I should like to know, sir, what you consider
A shilling put down a shilling. Surely a shillings enough?
So be it, said Mrs. Hall, taking up the tablecloth and beginning to spread it over the table. If youre satisfied, of course
He turned and sat down, with his coat-collar toward her.
All the afternoon he worked with the door locked and, as Mrs. Hall testifies, for the most part in silence. But once there was a concussion and a sound of bottles ringing together as though the table had been hit, and the smash of a bottle flung violently down, and then a rapid pacing athwart the room. Fearing something was the matter, she went to the door and listened, not caring to knock.
I cant go on, he was raving. I cant go on. Three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand! The huge multitude! Cheated! All my life it may take me! Patience! Patience indeed! Fool! fool!
There was a noise of hobnails on the bricks in the bar, and Mrs. Hall had very reluctantly to leave the rest of his soliloquy. When she returned the room was silent again, save for the faint crepitation of his chair and the occasional clink of a bottle. It was all over; the stranger had resumed work.
When she took in his tea she saw broken glass in the corner of the room under the concave mirror, and a golden stain that had been carelessly wiped. She called attention to it.
Put it down in the bill, snapped her visitor. For Gods sake dont worry me. If theres damage done, put it down in the bill, and he went on ticking a list in the exercise book before him.
Ill tell you something, said Fearenside, mysteriously. It was late in the afternoon, and they were in the little beer-shop of Iping Hanger.
Well? said Teddy Henfrey.
This chap youre speaking of, what my dog bit. Well hes black. Leastways, his legs are. I seed through the tear of his trousers and the tear of his glove. Youd have expected a sort of pinky to show, wouldnt you? Well there wasnt none. Just blackness. I tell you, hes as black as my hat.
My sakes! said Henfrey. Its a rummy case altogether. Why, his nose is as pink as paint!
Thats true, said Fearenside. I knows that. And I tell ee what Im thinking. That marns a piebald, Teddy. Black here and white there in patches. And hes ashamed of it. Hes a kind of half-breed, and the colours come off patchy instead of mixing. Ive heard of such things before. And its the common way with horses, as any one can see.
Chapter IV
Mr. Cuss interviews the stranger
I have told the circumstances of the strangers arrival in Iping with a certain fulness of detail, in order that the curious impression he created may be understood by the reader. But excepting two odd incidents, the circumstances of his stay until the extraordinary day of the club festival may be passed over very cursorily. There were a number of skirmishes with Mrs. Hall on matters of domestic discipline, but in every case until late April, when the first signs of penury began, he overrode her by the easy expedient of an extra payment. Hall did not like him, and whenever he dared he talked of the advisability of getting rid of him; but he showed his dislike chiefly by concealing it ostentatiously, and avoiding his visitor as much as possible. Wait till the summer, said Mrs. Hall sagely, when the artisks are beginning to come. Then well see. He may be a bit overbearing, but bills settled punctual is bills settled punctual, whatever youd like to say.
The stranger did not go to church, and indeed made no difference between Sunday and the irreligious days, even in costume. He worked, as Mrs. Hall thought, very fitfully. Some days he would come down early and be continuously busy. On others he would rise late, pace his room, fretting audibly for hours together, smoke, sleep in the armchair by the fire. Communication with the world beyond the village he had none. His temper continued very uncertain; for the most part his manner was that of a man suffering under almost unendurable provocation, and once or twice things were snapped, torn, crushed, or broken in spasmodic gusts of violence. He seemed under a chronic irritation of the greatest intensity. His habit of talking to himself in a low voice grew steadily upon him, but though Mrs. Hall listened conscientiously she could make neither head nor tail of what she heard.
He rarely went abroad by daylight, but at twilight he would go out muffled up invisibly, whether the weather were cold or not, and he chose the loneliest paths and those most overshadowed by trees and banks. His goggling spectacles and ghastly bandaged face under the penthouse of his hat, came with a disagreeable suddenness out of the darkness upon one or two home-going labourers, and Teddy Henfrey, tumbling out of the Scarlet Coat one night, at half-past nine, was scared shamefully by the strangers skull-like head (he was walking hat in hand) lit by the sudden light of the opened inn door. Such children as saw him at nightfall dreamt of bogies, and it seemed doubtful whether he disliked boys more than they disliked him, or the reverse; but there was certainly a vivid enough dislike on either side.