by H. G. Wells
CHAPTER II
MR. TEDDY HENFREY'S FIRST IMPRESSIONS
At four o'clock, when it was fairly dark and Mrs. Hall was screwingup her courage to go in and ask her visitor if he would take sometea, Teddy Henfrey, the clock-jobber, came into the bar. "My sakes!Mrs. Hall," said he, "but this is terrible weather for thin boots!"The snow outside was falling faster.
Mrs. Hall agreed, and then noticed he had his bag with him. "Nowyou're here, Mr. Teddy," said she, "I'd be glad if you'd give th'old clock in the parlour a bit of a look. 'Tis going, and it strikeswell and hearty; but the hour-hand won't do nuthin' but point atsix."
And leading the way, she went across to the parlour door and rappedand entered.
Her visitor, she saw as she opened the door, was seated in thearmchair before the fire, dozing it would seem, with his bandagedhead drooping on one side. The only light in the room was the redglow from the fire--which lit his eyes like adverse railway signals,but left his downcast face in darkness--and the scanty vestiges ofthe day that came in through the open door. Everything was ruddy,shadowy, and indistinct to her, the more so since she had just beenlighting the bar lamp, and her eyes were dazzled. But for a secondit seemed to her that the man she looked at had an enormous mouthwide open--a vast and incredible mouth that swallowed the whole ofthe lower portion of his face. It was the sensation of a moment:the white-bound head, the monstrous goggle eyes, and this huge yawnbelow it. Then he stirred, started up in his chair, put up his hand.She opened the door wide, so that the room was lighter, and she sawhim more clearly, with the muffler held up to his face just as shehad seen him hold the serviette before. The shadows, she fancied,had tricked her.
"Would you mind, sir, this man a-coming to look at the clock, sir?"she said, recovering from the momentary shock.
"Look at the clock?" he said, staring round in a drowsy manner,and speaking over his hand, and then, getting more fully awake,"certainly."
Mrs. Hall went away to get a lamp, and he rose and stretchedhimself. Then came the light, and Mr. Teddy Henfrey, entering, wasconfronted by this bandaged person. He was, he says, "taken aback."
"Good afternoon," said the stranger, regarding him--as Mr. Henfreysays, with a vivid sense of the dark spectacles--"like a lobster."
"I hope," said Mr. Henfrey, "that it's no intrusion."
"None whatever," said the stranger. "Though, I understand," he saidturning to Mrs. Hall, "that this room is really to be mine for myown private use."
"I thought, sir," said Mrs. Hall, "you'd prefer the clock--"
"Certainly," said the stranger, "certainly--but, as a rule, Ilike to be alone and undisturbed.
"But I'm really glad to have the clock seen to," he said, seeing acertain hesitation in Mr. Henfrey's manner. "Very glad." Mr. Henfreyhad intended to apologise and withdraw, but this anticipationreassured him. The stranger turned round with his back to thefireplace and put his hands behind his back. "And presently," hesaid, "when the clock-mending is over, I think I should like tohave some tea. But not till the clock-mending is over."
Mrs. Hall was about to leave the room--she made no conversationaladvances this time, because she did not want to be snubbed in frontof Mr. Henfrey--when her visitor asked her if she had made anyarrangements about his boxes at Bramblehurst. She told him she hadmentioned the matter to the postman, and that the carrier couldbring them over on the morrow. "You are certain that is theearliest?" he said.
She was certain, with a marked coldness.
"I should explain," he added, "what I was really too cold andfatigued to do before, that I am an experimental investigator."
"Indeed, sir," said Mrs. Hall, much impressed.
"And my baggage contains apparatus and appliances."
"Very useful things indeed they are, sir," said Mrs. Hall.
"And I'm very naturally anxious to get on with my inquiries."
"Of course, sir."
"My reason for coming to Iping," he proceeded, with a certaindeliberation of manner, "was ... a desire for solitude. I do notwish to be disturbed in my work. In addition to my work, anaccident--"
"I thought as much," said Mrs. Hall to herself.
"--necessitates a certain retirement. My eyes--are sometimes soweak and painful that I have to shut myself up in the dark forhours together. Lock myself up. Sometimes--now and then. Not atpresent, certainly. At such times the slightest disturbance, theentry of a stranger into the room, is a source of excruciatingannoyance to me--it is well these things should be understood."
"Certainly, sir," said Mrs. Hall. "And if I might make so bold asto ask--"
"That I think, is all," said the stranger, with that quietlyirresistible air of finality he could assume at will. Mrs. Hallreserved her question and sympathy for a better occasion.
After Mrs. Hall had left the room, he remained standing in front ofthe fire, glaring, so Mr. Henfrey puts it, at the clock-mending. Mr.Henfrey not only took off the hands of the clock, and the face, butextracted the works; and he tried to work in as slow and quiet andunassuming a manner as possible. He worked with the lamp close tohim, and the green shade threw a brilliant light upon his hands,and upon the frame and wheels, and left the rest of the roomshadowy. When he looked up, coloured patches swam in his eyes.Being constitutionally of a curious nature, he had removed theworks--a quite unnecessary proceeding--with the idea of delaying hisdeparture and perhaps falling into conversation with the stranger.But the stranger stood there, perfectly silent and still. So still,it got on Henfrey's nerves. He felt alone in the room and looked up,and there, grey and dim, was the bandaged head and huge blue lensesstaring fixedly, with a mist of green spots drifting in front ofthem. It was so uncanny to Henfrey that for a minute they remainedstaring blankly at one another. Then Henfrey looked down again. Veryuncomfortable position! One would like to say something. Should heremark that the weather was very cold for the time of year?
He looked up as if to take aim with that introductory shot. "Theweather--" he began.
"Why don't you finish and go?" said the rigid figure, evidently ina state of painfully suppressed rage. "All you've got to do is tofix the hour-hand on its axle. You're simply humbugging--"
"Certainly, sir--one minute more. I overlooked--" and Mr. Henfreyfinished and went.
But he went feeling excessively annoyed. "Damn it!" said Mr. Henfreyto himself, trudging down the village through the thawing snow; "aman must do a clock at times, surely."
And again, "Can't a man look at you?--Ugly!"
And yet again, "Seemingly not. If the police was wanting you youcouldn't be more wropped and bandaged."
At Gleeson's corner he saw Hall, who had recently married thestranger's hostess at the "Coach and Horses," and who now drovethe Iping conveyance, when occasional people required it, toSidderbridge Junction, coming towards him on his return from thatplace. Hall had evidently been "stopping a bit" at Sidderbridge,to judge by his driving. "'Ow do, Teddy?" he said, passing.
"You got a rum un up home!" said Teddy.
Hall very sociably pulled up. "What's that?" he asked.
"Rum-looking customer stopping at the 'Coach and Horses,'" saidTeddy. "My sakes!"
And he proceeded to give Hall a vivid description of his grotesqueguest. "Looks a bit like a disguise, don't it? I'd like to see aman's face if I had him stopping in _my_ place," said Henfrey. "Butwomen are that trustful--where strangers are concerned. He's tookyour rooms and he ain't even given a name, Hall."
"You don't say so!" said Hall, who was a man of sluggish apprehension.
"Yes," said Teddy. "By the week. Whatever he is, you can't get ridof him under the week. And he's got a lot of luggage comingto-morrow, so he says. Let's hope it won't be stones in boxes, Hall."
He told Hall how his aunt at Hastings had been swindled by astranger with empty portmanteaux. Altogether he left Hall vaguelysuspicious. "Get up, old girl," said Hall. "I s'pose I must see'bout this."
Teddy trudged on his way with his mind considerably relieved.
Instead of "seeing 'bout it," however, Hall on his return wasseverely rated by his wife on the length of time he had spent inSidderbridge, and his mild inquiries were answered snappishly andin a manner not to the point. But the seed of suspicion Teddyhad sown germinated in the mind of Mr. Hall in spite of thesediscouragements. "You wim' don't know everything," said Mr. Hall,resolved to ascertain more about the personality of his guest atthe earliest possible opportunity. And after the stranger had goneto bed, which he did about half-past nine, Mr. Hall went veryaggressively into the parlour and looked very hard at his wife'sfurniture, just to show that the stranger wasn't master there,and scrutinised closely and a little contemptuously a sheet ofmathematical computations the stranger had left. When retiringfor the night he instructed Mrs. Hall to look very closely atthe stranger's luggage when it came next day.
"You mind your own business, Hall," said Mrs. Hall, "and I'll mindmine."
She was all the more inclined to snap at Hall because the strangerwas undoubtedly an unusually strange sort of stranger, and she wasby no means assured about him in her own mind. In the middle of thenight she woke up dreaming of huge white heads like turnips, thatcame trailing after her, at the end of interminable necks, and withvast black eyes. But being a sensible woman, she subdued herterrors and turned over and went to sleep again.