E was not (said Mrs. Bosnell) what you would call an attractive-looking gentleman, but, so far as I am aware, there is no law to prevent anyone from having a sturdy figure and rather prominent ears, if they care to do so. He had an agitated way with him on the occasion when he called to ask if I'd got a room to let, and I suppose it was partly this which made me say "Yes!" without thinking. On the moment, he stepped inside, hung up his soft hat, and murmured to himself "Sanctuary, sanctuary!" I have heard people say grace in a less thankful manner.
"Your name, sir, please," I asked, glancing at the blank label on his suit-case.
"Darling," he ejaculated.
I told him pretty sharply he was not to talk to a woman of my age in that way. He answered that he shared the surname with a well-known judge. I mentioned the inclusive terms per week, and he agreed to them so promptly that I half wished But I shall know what to ask another time.
My two daughters came home from business that evening at the usual hour, and their young gentlemen called in at their usual hour. Your girls of to-day can always find fault in anything their mothers do, and mine declared I ought not to have taken Mr. Darling without references. They appealed to the gentlemen, who, very wisely, declined to take sides, and some argument followed, and went on until a knock came at the door.
"Mrs. Bosnell!" called Mr. Darling.
"Yes, sir?" I said.
"Would you mind asking your visitors to make less noise. I can't get on with my
writing."
"I'll give them a hint, sir."
My daughters quietened down. They admitted Mr. Darling had a pleasant way of speaking, and this was in his favour; the great point was the discovery that he wrote. Both Muriel and Queenie are gone on books, and it has always been a desire with them to meet an author. They wondered whether he chanced to be a bachelor. The young gentlemen believed that, in a general way, authors were married men, but, on being challenged, were unable to give any reason for this view; one said that most of them gave way, sooner or later, to drink, and Queenie remarked that genius was entitled to certain peculiarities. We laid the table for supper, and Queenie went up to tell Mr. Darling the meal was ready. She returned with her eyes nearly bolting out of her head.
"He's evidently," she announced in a whisper, "in what is called the throes of composition." I suggested the cough mixture that I always pin my faith to; Queenie and Muriel exclaimed, "Oh, mother, you are, really!" and I held my tongue. Mr. Darling, it appeared, did not want supper, but wished for an evening newspaper. Queenie's young gentleman took a penny from the mantelpiece and went along to the newsagent shop; when he came back he mentioned that cricket was opening well. Queenie snatched the journal from him and glanced at the headlines. We all looked over her shoulder.
"There you are!" she cried, pointing to one of the columns. "What did I tell you?" It was headed "Strange Disappearance of a Novelist." I took the newspaper upstairs when we had had a read and a good look at the portrait; it was a snapshot, rather blurred, and conveyed nothing in particular. Over supper we discussed the matter. Muriel's young gentleman said, "Wait. Do nothing until a reward is offered," and this was carried, as they say at committee meetings, verb. sap.
I felt somewhat worried about it all, but interested, too. Mr. Darling (to keep to the name he had first offered) gave little or no trouble, and a more considerate lodger I could not wish for. He kept to the house all day, and strolled out only in the evenings, and on these occasions muffled himself up around his neck, and pulled his soft hat well over the eyes. Whilst he was out, the girls and myself went through the contents of his suit-case, more out of curiosity than anything else, and Queenie pointed out that he owned no less than two fountain pens. The foolscap sheets on which he had been writing were torn up; Muriel said it was a shame to think a masterpiece had thus been lost to the world. The suit-case contained a photograph, and my girls said that the lady seemed to have a will of her own.