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Page 28
My American acquaintance having returned to his seat and having added a
very little water to the whisky went on:
"Now, sir," said he, "my name is Colin Camber, formerly of Richmond,
Virginia, United States of America, but now of the Guest House, Surrey,
England, at your service."
Taking my cue from Mr. Camber's gloomy but lofty manner, I bowed
formally and mentioned my name.
"I am delighted to make your acquaintance, Mr. Knox," he assured me;
"and now, sir, to answer your question. When you came in a few moments
ago you glanced at me. Your eyes did not open widely as is the case
when one recognizes, or thinks one recognizes, an acquaintance, they
narrowed. This indicated retrospection. For a moment they turned aside.
You were focussing a fugitive idea, a memory. You captured it. You
looked at me again, and your successive glances read as follows: The
hair worn uncommonly long, the mathematical brow, the eyes of a poet,
the slight moustache, small mouth, weak chin; the glass at his elbow.
The resemblance is complete. Knowing how complete it is myself, sir, I
ventured to test my theory, and it proved to be sound."
Now, as Mr. Colin Camber had thus spoken in the serious manner of a
slightly drunken man, I had formed the opinion that I stood in the
presence of a very singular character. Here was that seeming
m�salliance which not infrequently begets genius: a powerful and
original mind allied to a weak will. I wondered what Mr. Colin Camber's
occupation might be, and somewhat, too, I wondered why his name was
unfamiliar to me. For that the possessor of that brow and those eyes
could fail to make his mark in any profession which he might take up I
was unwilling to believe.
"Your exposition has been very interesting, Mr. Camber," I said. "You
are a singularly close observer, I perceive."
"Yes," he replied, "I have passed my life in observing the ways of my
fellowmen, a study which I have pursued in various parts of the world
without appreciable benefit to myself. I refer to financial benefit."
He contemplated me with a look which had grown suddenly pathetic.
"I would not have you think, sir," he added, "that I am an habitual
toper. I have latterly been much upset by--domestic worries, and--er--"
He emptied his glass at a draught. "Surely, Mr. Knox, you are going
to replenish? Whilst you are doing so, would you kindly request Mrs.
Wootton to extend the same favour to myself?"
But at that moment Mrs. Wootton in person appeared behind the counter.
"Time, please, gentlemen," she said; "it is gone half-past two."
"What!" exclaimed Mr. Camber, rising. "What is that? You decline to
serve me, Mrs. Wootton?"
"Why, not at all, Mr. Camber," answered the landlady, "but I can serve
no one now; it's after time."
"You decline to serve me," he muttered, his speech becoming slurred.
"Am I, then, to be insulted?"
I caught a glance of entreaty from the landlady. "My dear sir," I said,
genially, "we must bow to the law, I suppose. At least we are better
off here than in America."
"Ah, that is true," agreed Mr. Camber, throwing his head back and
speaking the words as though they possessed some deep dramatic
significance. "Yes, but such laws are an insult to every intelligent
man."
He sat down again rather heavily, and I stood looking from him to the
landlady, and wondering what I should do. The matter was decided for
me, however, in a way which I could never have foreseen. For, hearing a
light footfall upon the step which led up to the bar-parlour, I turned
--and there almost beside me stood a wrinkled little Chinaman!
He wore a blue suit and a tweed cap, he wore queer, thick-soled
slippers, and his face was like a smiling mask hewn out of very old
ivory. I could scarcely credit the evidence of my senses, since the
Lavender Arms was one of the last places in which I should have looked
for a native of China.
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