CHAPTER III. A HOUSE OF WONDERS.
Robert McIntyre's face must have expressed the utter astonishment whichfilled his mind at this most unlooked-for announcement. For a moment hethought that his companion must be joking, but the ease and assurancewith which he lounged up the steps, and the deep respect with which arichly-clad functionary in the hall swung open the door to admit him,showed that he spoke in sober earnest. Raffles Haw glanced back, andseeing the look of absolute amazement upon the young artist's features,he chuckled quietly to himself.
"You will forgive me, won't you, for not disclosing my identity?" hesaid, laying his hand with a friendly gesture upon the other's sleeve."Had you known me you would have spoken less freely, and I should nothave had the opportunity of learning your true worth. For example, youmight hardly have been so frank upon the matter of wealth had you knownthat you were speaking to the master of the Hall."
"I don't think that I was ever so astonished in my life," gasped Robert.
"Naturally you are. How could you take me for anything but a workman?So I am. Chemistry is one of my hobbies, and I spend hours a day in mylaboratory yonder. I have only just struck work, and as I had inhaledsome not-over-pleasant gases, I thought that a turn down the road and awhiff of tobacco might do me good. That was how I came to meet you, andmy toilet, I fear, corresponded only too well with my smoke-grimed face.But I rather fancy I know you by repute. Your name is Robert McIntyre,is it not?"
"Yes, though I cannot imagine how you knew."
"Well, I naturally took some little trouble to learn something of myneighbours. I had heard that there was an artist of that name, and Ipresume that artists are not very numerous in Tamfield. But how do youlike the design? I hope it does not offend your trained taste."
"Indeed, it is wonderful--marvellous! You must yourself have anextraordinary eye for effect."
"Oh, I have no taste at all; not the slightest. I cannot tell good frombad. There never was such a complete Philistine. But I had the best manin London down, and another fellow from Vienna. They fixed it up betweenthem."
They had been standing just within the folding doors upon a huge matof bison skins. In front of them lay a great square court, paved withmany-coloured marbles laid out in a labyrinth of arabesque design. Inthe centre a high fountain of carved jade shot five thin feathers ofspray into the air, four of which curved towards each corner of thecourt to descend into broad marble basins, while the fifth mountedstraight up to an immense height, and then tinkled back into the centralreservoir. On either side of the court a tall, graceful palm-tree shotup its slender stem to break into a crown of drooping green leaves somefifty feet above their heads. All round were a series of Moorish arches,in jade and serpentine marble, with heavy curtains of the deepest purpleto cover the doors which lay between them. In front, to right and toleft, a broad staircase of marble, carpeted with rich thick Smyrna rugwork, led upwards to the upper storeys, which were arranged around thecentral court. The temperature within was warm and yet fresh, like theair of an English May.
"It's taken from the Alhambra," said Raffles Haw. "The palm-trees arepretty. They strike right through the building into the ground beneath,and their roots are all girt round with hot-water pipes. They seem tothrive very well."
"What beautifully delicate brass-work!" cried Robert, looking up withadmiring eyes at the bright and infinitely fragile metal trellis screenswhich adorned the spaces between the Moorish arches.
"It is rather neat. But it is not brass-work. Brass is not tough enoughto allow them to work it to that degree of fineness. It is gold. Butjust come this way with me. You won't mind waiting while I remove thissmoke?"
He led the way to a door upon the left side of the court, which, toRobert's surprise, swung slowly open as they approached it. "That isa little improvement which I have adopted," remarked the master of thehouse. "As you go up to a door your weight upon the planks releases aspring which causes the hinges to revolve. Pray step in. This is my ownlittle sanctum, and furnished after my own heart."
If Robert expected to see some fresh exhibition of wealth and luxuryhe was woefully disappointed, for he found himself in a large but bareroom, with a little iron truckle-bed in one corner, a few scatteredwooden chairs, a dingy carpet, and a large table heaped with books,bottles, papers, and all the other _debris_ which collect around a busyand untidy man. Motioning his visitor into a chair, Raffles Haw pulledoff his coat, and, turning up the sleeves of his coarse flannel shirt,he began to plunge and scrub in the warm water which flowed from a tapin the wall.
"You see how simple my own tastes are," he remarked, as he mopped hisdripping face and hair with the towel. "This is the only room in mygreat house where I find myself in a congenial atmosphere. It is homelyto me. I can read here and smoke my pipe in peace. Anything like luxuryis abhorrent to me."
"Really, I should not have though it," observed Robert.
"It is a fact, I assure you. You see, even with your views as to theworthlessness of wealth, views which, I am sure, are very sensible andmuch to your credit, you must allow that if a man should happen to bethe possessor of vast--well, let us say of considerable--sums of money,it is his duty to get that money into circulation, so that the communitymay be the better for it. There is the secret of my fine feathers. Ihave to exert all my ingenuity in order to spend my income, and yet keepthe money in legitimate channels. For example, it is very easy to givemoney away, and no doubt I could dispose of my surplus, or part of mysurplus, in that fashion, but I have no wish to pauperise anyone, or todo mischief by indiscriminate charity. I must exact some sort of money'sworth for all the money which I lay out You see my point, don't you?"
"Entirely; though really it is something novel to hear a man complain ofthe difficulty of spending his income."
"I assure you that it is a very serious difficulty with me. But I havehit upon some plans--some very pretty plans. Will you wash your hands?Well, then, perhaps you would care to have a look round. Just come intothis corner of the room, and sit upon this chair. So. Now I will situpon this one, and we are ready to start."
The angle of the chamber in which they sat was painted for about sixfeet in each direction of a dark chocolate-brown, and was furnished withtwo red plush seats protruding from the walls, and in striking contrastwith the simplicity of the rest of the apartment.
"This," remarked Raffles Haw, "is a lift, though it is so closely joinedto the rest of the room that without the change in colour it mightpuzzle you to find the division. It is made to run either horizontallyor vertically. This line of knobs represents the various rooms. You cansee 'Dining,' 'Smoking,' 'Billiard,' 'Library' and so on, upon them. Iwill show you the upward action. I press this one with 'Kitchen' uponit."
There was a sense of motion, a very slight jar, and Robert, withoutmoving from his seat, was conscious that the room had vanished, and thata large arched oaken door stood in the place which it had occupied.
"That is the kitchen door," said Raffles Haw. "I have my kitchen at thetop of the house. I cannot tolerate the smell of cooking. We have comeup eighty feet in a very few seconds. Now I press again and here we arein my room once more."
Robert McIntyre stared about him in astonishment.
"The wonders of science are greater than those of magic," he remarked.
"Yes, it is a pretty little mechanism. Now we try the horizontal. Ipress the 'Dining' knob and here we are, you see. Step towards the door,and you will find it open in front of you."
Robert did as he was bid, and found himself with his companion in alarge and lofty room, while the lift, the instant that it was freedfrom their weight, flashed back to its original position. With his feetsinking into the soft rich carpet, as though he were ankle-deep in somemossy bank, he stared about him at the great pictures which lined thewalls.
"Surely, surely, I see Raphael's touch there," he cried, pointing up atthe one which faced him.
"Yes, it is a Raphael, and I believe one of his best. I had a veryexciting bid for it with the
French Government. They wanted it for theLouvre, but of course at an auction the longest purse must win."
"And this 'Arrest of Catiline' must be a Rubens. One cannot mistake hissplendid men and his infamous women."
"Yes, it is a Rubens. The other two are a Velasquez and a Teniers,fair specimens of the Spanish and of the Dutch schools. I have only oldmasters here. The moderns are in the billiard-room. The furniture hereis a little curious. In fact, I fancy that it is unique. It is made ofebony and narwhals' horns. You see that the legs of everything are ofspiral ivory, both the table and the chairs. It cost the upholsterersome little pains, for the supply of these things is a strictly limitedone. Curiously enough, the Chinese Emperor had given a large order fornarwhals' horns to repair some ancient pagoda, which was fenced in withthem, but I outbid him in the market, and his celestial highness has hadto wait. There is a lift here in the corner, but we do not need it. Praystep through this door. This is the billiard-room," he continued as theyadvanced into the adjoining room. "You see I have a few recent picturesof merit upon the walls. Here is a Corot, two Meissoniers, a Bouguereau,a Millais, an Orchardson, and two Alma-Tademas. It seems to me to bea pity to hang pictures over these walls of carved oak. Look at thosebirds hopping and singing in the branches. They really seem to move andtwitter, don't they?"
"They are perfect. I never saw such exquisite work. But why do you callit a billiard-room, Mr. Haw? I do not see any board."
"Oh, a board is such a clumsy uncompromising piece of furniture. It isalways in the way unless you actually need to use it. In this case theboard is covered by that square of polished maple which you see let intothe floor. Now I put my foot upon this motor. You see!" As he spoke,the central portion of the flooring flew up, and a most beautifultortoise-shell-plated billiard-table rose up to its proper position.He pressed a second spring, and a bagatelle-table appeared in the samefashion. "You may have card-tables or what you will by setting thelevers in motion," he remarked. "But all this is very trifling. Perhapswe may find something in the museum which may be of more interest toyou."
He led the way into another chamber, which was furnished in antiquestyle, with hangings of the rarest and richest tapestry. The floor wasa mosaic of coloured marbles, scattered over with mats of costly fur.There was little furniture, but a number of Louis Quatorze cabinets ofebony and silver with delicately-painted plaques were ranged round theapartment.
"It is perhaps hardly fair to dignify it by the name of a museum," saidRaffles Haw. "It consists merely of a few elegant trifles which I havepicked up here and there. Gems are my strongest point. I fancy thatthere, perhaps, I might challenge comparison with any private collectorin the world. I lock them up, for even the best servants may betempted."
He took a silver key from his watch chain, and began to unlock and drawout the drawers. A cry of wonder and of admiration burst from RobertMcIntyre, as his eyes rested upon case after case filled with themost magnificent stones. The deep still red of the rubies, the clearscintillating green of the emeralds, the hard glitter of the diamonds,the many shifting shades of beryls, of amethysts, of onyxes, ofcats'-eyes, of opals, of agates, of cornelians seemed to fill the wholechamber with a vague twinkling, many-coloured light. Long slabs of thebeautiful blue lapis lazuli, magnificent bloodstones, specimens of pinkand red and white coral, long strings of lustrous pearls, all these weretossed out by their owner as a careless schoolboy might pour marblesfrom his bag.
"This isn't bad," he said, holding up a great glowing yellow mass aslarge as his own head. "It is really a very fine piece of amber. Itwas forwarded to me by my agent at the Baltic. Twenty-eight pounds,it weighs. I never heard of so fine a one. I have no very largebrilliants--there were no very large ones in the market--but my averageis good. Pretty toys, are they not?" He picked up a double handful ofemeralds from a drawer, and then let them trickle slowly back into theheap.
"Good heavens!" cried Robert, as he gazed from case to case. "It is animmense fortune in itself. Surely a hundred thousand pounds would hardlybuy so splendid a collection."
"I don't think that you would do for a valuer of precious stones," saidRaffles Haw, laughing. "Why, the contents of that one little drawerof brilliants could not be bought for the sum which you name. I have amemo. here of what I have expended up to date on my collection, thoughI have agents at work who will probably make very considerable additionsto it within the next few weeks. As matters stand, however, I havespent--let me see-pearls one forty thousand; emeralds, seven fifty;rubies, eight forty; brilliants, nine twenty; onyxes--I have severalvery nice onyxes-two thirty. Other gems, carbuncles, agates--hum!Yes, it figures out at just over four million seven hundred and fortythousand. I dare say that we may say five millions, for I have notcounted the odd money."
"Good gracious!" cried the young artist, with staring eyes.
"I have a certain feeling of duty in the matter. You see the cutting,polishing, and general sale of stones is one of those industries whichis entirely dependent upon wealth. If we do not support it, it mustlanguish, which means misfortune to a considerable number of people. Thesame applies to the gold filigree work which you noticed in thecourt. Wealth has its responsibilities, and the encouragement of thesehandicrafts are among the most obvious of them. Here is a nice ruby. Itis Burmese, and the fifth largest in existence. I am inclined to thinkthat if it were uncut it would be the second, but of course cuttingtakes away a great deal." He held up the blazing red stone, about thesize of a chestnut, between his finger and thumb for a moment, and thenthrew it carelessly back into its drawer. "Come into the smoking-room,"he said; "you will need some little refreshment, for they say thatsight-seeing is the most exhausting occupation in the world."