Two of the occupants of the carriages that Rendel had seen going rapidly
along the road knew the meaning of the scene that had taken place under
their eyes; the others were in a state of simmering curiosity.
"I should be glad," said Stamfordham, as they approached Schleppenheim,
"if nothing could be said about what happened."
He was sitting opposite to Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela in a landau.
There was no need, of course, to explain to what he was referring.
"Of course, of course," said Lady Chaloner, not quite knowing what to
say.
In the meantime Wentworth had got back, had been to see Rachel, and had
told her that Rendel was going to extend his walk a little further and
that he would be back without fail in time for dinner. He himself, he
added, had been obliged to come back for an engagement. Rachel accepted
quite placidly the fact that her husband would return later than she
expected; she thanked Wentworth with the same sweet smile of old, asked
where they had been, said the woods must have been delightful. Then,
feeling that he could do nothing, Wentworth, with some misgiving, left
her.
Rachel still felt the languor which succeeds illness,--not an unpleasant
condition when there is no call for activity,--a physical languor which
made her quite content to sit or lie out of doors most of the day,
sometimes walk a little way, and then come back to rest again. She had
accepted Rendel's unceasing solicitude for her with love and gratitude,
she clung to his presence more than ever now that both her parents being
gone she felt herself entirely alone: but for the rest she was strangely
content to let the days go by in a sort of luxury of sorrow, while she
recalled the happy time passed with those other two beloved ones who had
made up her life. But there was no bitterness in the recollection; there
was a sort of tender mystery over it still. At times she felt as if
there were something more; she had some dim, confused recollection of
her husband being connected with it all, and with Gore's illness; how,
she could not remember. And she did not try. Deep down in her mind was
the feeling that with a great effort it might all come back to her; but
she shrank from making the effort.
After Wentworth left her, it had occurred to her that, since Rendel was
not coming back again, she would venture outside the limits of their
garden and go to where the band was playing. She did not at all realise
what the surroundings of that band would be. The kind of life that she
had led before, when they had come abroad with Lady Gore, had not been
the sort of existence reigning at Schleppenheim. She strolled out,
feeling that everything was very strange and new, in the direction of
the music, following without knowing it a path which brought her into
the very middle of the promenade into the centre of a gaily dressed
throng of people, somewhat bewildering to one accustomed to pass all her
days in solitude. Shrinking back a little she turned out of the stream,
and, finding an unoccupied chair under a tree, sat down, looking timidly
about her. Then finding that no one was paying any attention to her, or
appeared to be conscious of the fact that she was venturing out alone,
she gradually became amused at watching all that was going on round her.
Presently two well-dressed women she did not know, an older and a
younger one, Lady Chaloner and Lady Adela Prestige in fact, on their way
to their bazaar, came along deep in talk, the older one stopping to
speak with some emphasis whenever the interest of the conversation
demanded it. One of these halts was made close by Rachel.
"I should like to know what it was," Lady Adela was saying.
"You may depend upon it," said Lady Chaloner, "that it was something
very bad. He is not the man to do that sort of thing for nothing."
"I am quite sure of it," Lady Adela replied, with a little tremor of
excitement. "One can't help feeling that it's something really bad; that
it was not only that he had run away with his neighbour's wife or
something of that kind. He must have done something that can't be
condoned."
"I am sure of it," Lady Chaloner said seriously. "There is no doubt
about that."
"Poor creature!" said Lady Adela. "Didn't he look awful?"
"Perfectly fearful!" said Lady Chaloner. "He looked like the villain in
a play, who is found out--the man who has cheated at cards, or something
of that sort."
"Perhaps that was it."
"I daresay," said Lady Chaloner. "I wonder if he has been playing
Bridge?"
"Dear me, I wish I knew!" said Lady Adela.
This sounded very interesting, Rachel thought--exactly the kind of thing
that happened in books at smart watering-places.
"Ah, there is Maddy," said Lady Adela. "I do wonder what she thought."
"By the way," said Lady Chaloner, "we must tell her not to say anything
about it."
But the Princess had driven back in the company of M. de Moricourt and
Mr. Marchmont, and had, therefore, not heard the warning given by
Stamfordham to his companions in the other landau.
"Well," said the Princess eagerly, coming up to the others, "what did
you think of that? Wasn't it amazing?"
"Yes," said Lady Adela. "What do you think it was, Maddy?"
"Something awful, you may depend upon it," said the Princess; "and I am
sure little Marchmont knows. We tried to make him tell us on the way
back, but he wouldn't. But I gathered somehow that Lord Stamfordham
couldn't have done anything else."
Lord Stamfordham! Did they say Stamfordham? Rachel thought to herself
wonderingly. Was he here? And she had some kind of queer, puzzled
feeling that he was connected in her mind with something that had
happened lately. What was it?
"And Pateley doesn't know anything about it either," said the Princess.
"I met him just now and asked him."
"Did you?" said Lady Chaloner. "I don't think you ought to have done
that. I was going to tell you that Stamfordham said it was not to be
mentioned."
"Did he?" said the Princess, somewhat taken aback. "I asked Mr. Pateley
because I thought he would be sure to know. But I made him promise not
to tell anybody."
"I believe he did know, though," said Moricourt, who, though he spoke
his own language, understood perfectly everything that was said in
English. "I wonder what the quiet and charming wife that Wentworth
admires so much thinks?"
"Poor thing!" said Lady Chaloner gravely.
"By the way," said Lady Adela with a sudden idea, "Wentworth was with
him. Wentworth must know all about it, of course. He is sure to come to
the bazaar. We'll ask him."
"Wentworth was with him?" said Rachel to herself with an involuntary
movement, rising from her seat. Of whom were they speaking? What was it
all about? She was unconscious that she was standing scrutinising the
faces of the group near her as though trying to gather from them what
their words might mean. They, deep in their conversation, did not notice
her. Then, with a feeling of extraordinary relief--she hardly knew
why--she saw a familiar, substantial person coming along the promenade
with a sort of friendly swagger. She went forward to meet him, still
feeling as though she were walking in her sleep.
"Mrs. Rendel!" said Pateley in his usual hearty tone, in which there was
now an inflection of surprise and almost of anxiety.
Pateley had not met either of the Rendels since the day of his last
interview with Sir William Gore, and he had carefully not investigated
further the incident which had been of such great advantage to himself.
But in the last half-hour, since, under the seal of profound secrecy, it
had been confided to him what had happened at the luncheon, and he had
been anxiously asked what was the cloud hanging over Rendel, he had
pieced things together in a way which brought him pretty near the truth.
It was beginning to be clear to him that Stamfordham had somehow visited
upon Rendel the treachery into which he himself had practically led
Gore. Stamfordham had asked Pateley at the time of the disclosure how
the _Arbiter_ had become possessed of the information. Pateley had
apologetically declined to give an explanation. But the ardent support
given by the _Arbiter_ to Stamfordham's action in the matter and to all
his subsequent policy had made it tolerably certain that Stamfordham
would not bear him much malice. And, as a matter of fact, the whole
affair had added to Stamfordham's reputation. The masterly way in which
he had caught up the situation and dealt with it after the premature
disclosure of the Agreement had added a fresh laurel to his crown.
As Pateley uttered the words, "Mrs. Rendel," the whole of the group who
were standing near turned with a common impulse as if a thunderbolt had
fallen into their midst, and he grasped at once that they had been
talking within earshot of her of something she ought not to have heard.
Lady Adela was the first to recover her presence of mind.
"Come," she said; "we must go and take our places. I mean to have some
tea if we can get it before the opening," and she made a move in which
the others joined.
Pateley, remaining by Rachel, lifted his hat to them as they strolled
away. "How long have you been at Schleppenheim?" he asked. "I had no
idea you were here."
"We have been here," said Rachel--"let me see--about a week."
She looked anxious and disturbed.
"And where are you staying?" said Pateley.
"In the little pavilion behind the Hotel de Londres," and she pointed.
"Charming place," said Pateley. "And how is your husband?"
"He is very well, thank you," said Rachel. "He has been out for a long
walk to-day; he went for an expedition to the woods with Mr. Wentworth."
And she looked as if something else that she did not say were on the tip
of her tongue.
"It must have been delightful in the woods to-day," said Pateley, hardly
knowing what he answered. He also was preoccupied by the story he had
heard and wondering how much she knew of it. "Are you going home now?"
he said, as Rachel turned away from the promenade in the direction she
had pointed out.
"I think so. I am a little tired," said Rachel, holding out her hand.
"May I come and see you?" Pateley said.
"Please do," said Rachel.
"I certainly shall," Pateley said. "It will be delightful to get away
for a little while from this seething mass of humanity."
And he again gave one of his loud laughs as he also went towards the
tent, to plunge with the greatest zest into the seething mass whose
company he had been contemning.