When Ralph Denham entered the room and saw Katharine seated with her
back to him, he was conscious of a change in the grade of the
atmosphere such as a traveler meets with sometimes upon the roads,
particularly after sunset, when, without warning, he runs from clammy
chill to a hoard of unspent warmth in which the sweetness of hay and
beanfield is cherished, as if the sun still shone although the moon is
up. He hesitated; he shuddered; he walked elaborately to the window and
laid aside his coat. He balanced his stick most carefully against the
folds of the curtain. Thus occupied with his own sensations and
preparations, he had little time to observe what either of the other
two was feeling. Such symptoms of agitation as he might perceive (and
they had left their tokens in brightness of eye and pallor of cheeks)
seemed to him well befitting the actors in so great a drama as that of
Katharine Hilbery’s daily life. Beauty and passion were the breath of
her being, he thought.
She scarcely noticed his presence, or only as it forced her to adopt a
manner of composure, which she was certainly far from feeling. William,
however, was even more agitated than she was, and her first instalment
of promised help took the form of some commonplace upon the age of the
building or the architect’s name, which gave him an excuse to fumble in
a drawer for certain designs, which he laid upon the table between the
three of them.
Which of the three followed the designs most carefully it would be
difficult to tell, but it is certain that not one of the three found
for the moment anything to say. Years of training in a drawing-room
came at length to Katharine’s help, and she said something suitable, at
the same moment withdrawing her hand from the table because she
perceived that it trembled. William agreed effusively; Denham
corroborated him, speaking in rather high-pitched tones; they thrust
aside the plans, and drew nearer to the fireplace.
“I’d rather live here than anywhere in the whole of London,” said
Denham.
(“And I’ve got nowhere to live”) Katharine thought, as she agreed
aloud.
“You could get rooms here, no doubt, if you wanted to,” Rodney replied.
“But I’m just leaving London for good—I’ve taken that cottage I was
telling you about.” The announcement seemed to convey very little to
either of his hearers.
“Indeed?—that’s sad.... You must give me your address. But you won’t
cut yourself off altogether, surely—”
“You’ll be moving, too, I suppose,” Denham remarked.
William showed such visible signs of floundering that Katharine
collected herself and asked:
“Where is the cottage you’ve taken?”
In answering her, Denham turned and looked at her. As their eyes met,
she realized for the first time that she was talking to Ralph Denham,
and she remembered, without recalling any details, that she had been
speaking of him quite lately, and that she had reason to think ill of
him. What Mary had said she could not remember, but she felt that there
was a mass of knowledge in her mind which she had not had time to
examine—knowledge now lying on the far side of a gulf. But her
agitation flashed the queerest lights upon her past. She must get
through the matter in hand, and then think it out in quiet. She bent
her mind to follow what Ralph was saying. He was telling her that he
had taken a cottage in Norfolk, and she was saying that she knew, or
did not know, that particular neighborhood. But after a moment’s
attention her mind flew to Rodney, and she had an unusual, indeed
unprecedented, sense that they were in touch and shared each other’s
thoughts. If only Ralph were not there, she would at once give way to
her desire to take William’s hand, then to bend his head upon her
shoulder, for this was what she wanted to do more than anything at the
moment, unless, indeed, she wished more than anything to be alone—yes,
that was what she wanted. She was sick to death of these discussions;
she shivered at the effort to reveal her feelings. She had forgotten to
answer. William was speaking now.
“But what will you find to do in the country?” she asked at random,
striking into a conversation which she had only half heard, in such a
way as to make both Rodney and Denham look at her with a little
surprise. But directly she took up the conversation, it was William’s
turn to fall silent. He at once forgot to listen to what they were
saying, although he interposed nervously at intervals, “Yes, yes, yes.”
As the minutes passed, Ralph’s presence became more and more
intolerable to him, since there was so much that he must say to
Katharine; the moment he could not talk to her, terrible doubts,
unanswerable questions accumulated, which he must lay before Katharine,
for she alone could help him now. Unless he could see her alone, it
would be impossible for him ever to sleep, or to know what he had said
in a moment of madness, which was not altogether mad, or was it mad? He
nodded his head, and said, nervously, “Yes, yes,” and looked at
Katharine, and thought how beautiful she looked; there was no one in
the world that he admired more. There was an emotion in her face which
lent it an expression he had never seen there. Then, as he was turning
over means by which he could speak to her alone, she rose, and he was
taken by surprise, for he had counted on the fact that she would
outstay Denham. His only chance, then, of saying something to her in
private, was to take her downstairs and walk with her to the street.
While he hesitated, however, overcome with the difficulty of putting
one simple thought into words when all his thoughts were scattered
about, and all were too strong for utterance, he was struck silent by
something that was still more unexpected. Denham got up from his chair,
looked at Katharine, and said:
“I’m going, too. Shall we go together?”
And before William could see any way of detaining him—or would it be
better to detain Katharine?—he had taken his hat, stick, and was
holding the door open for Katharine to pass out. The most that William
could do was to stand at the head of the stairs and say good-night. He
could not offer to go with them. He could not insist that she should
stay. He watched her descend, rather slowly, owing to the dusk of the
staircase, and he had a last sight of Denham’s head and of Katharine’s
head near together, against the panels, when suddenly a pang of acute
jealousy overcame him, and had he not remained conscious of the
slippers upon his feet, he would have run after them or cried out. As
it was he could not move from the spot. At the turn of the staircase
Katharine turned to look back, trusting to this last glance to seal
their compact of good friendship. Instead of returning her silent
greeting, William grinned back at her a cold stare of sarcasm or of
rage.
She stopped dead for a moment, and then descended slowly into the
court. She looked to the right and to the left, and once up into the
sky. She was only conscious of Denham as a block upon her thoughts. She
measured the distance that must be traversed before she would be alone.
But when they came to the Strand no cabs were to be seen, and Denham
broke the silence by saying:
“There seem to be no cabs. Shall we walk on a little?”
“Very well,” she agreed, paying no attention to him.
Aware of her preoccupation, or absorbed in his own thoughts, Ralph said
nothing further; and in silence they walked some distance along the
Strand. Ralph was doing his best to put his thoughts into such order
that one came before the rest, and the determination that when he spoke
he should speak worthily, made him put off the moment of speaking till
he had found the exact words and even the place that best suited him.
The Strand was too busy. There was too much risk, also, of finding an
empty cab. Without a word of explanation he turned to the left, down
one of the side streets leading to the river. On no account must they
part until something of the very greatest importance had happened. He
knew perfectly well what he wished to say, and had arranged not only
the substance, but the order in which he was to say it. Now, however,
that he was alone with her, not only did he find the difficulty of
speaking almost insurmountable, but he was aware that he was angry with
her for thus disturbing him, and casting, as it was so easy for a
person of her advantages to do, these phantoms and pitfalls across his
path. He was determined that he would question her as severely as he
would question himself; and make them both, once and for all, either
justify her dominance or renounce it. But the longer they walked thus
alone, the more he was disturbed by the sense of her actual presence.
Her skirt blew; the feathers in her hat waved; sometimes he saw her a
step or two ahead of him, or had to wait for her to catch him up.
The silence was prolonged, and at length drew her attention to him.
First she was annoyed that there was no cab to free her from his
company; then she recalled vaguely something that Mary had said to make
her think ill of him; she could not remember what, but the
recollection, combined with his masterful ways—why did he walk so fast
down this side street?—made her more and more conscious of a person of
marked, though disagreeable, force by her side. She stopped and,
looking round her for a cab, sighted one in the distance. He was thus
precipitated into speech.
“Should you mind if we walked a little farther?” he asked. “There’s
something I want to say to you.”
“Very well,” she replied, guessing that his request had something to do
with Mary Datchet.
“It’s quieter by the river,” he said, and instantly he crossed over. “I
want to ask you merely this,” he began. But he paused so long that she
could see his head against the sky; the slope of his thin cheek and his
large, strong nose were clearly marked against it. While he paused,
words that were quite different from those he intended to use presented
themselves.
“I’ve made you my standard ever since I saw you. I’ve dreamt about you;
I’ve thought of nothing but you; you represent to me the only reality
in the world.”
His words, and the queer strained voice in which he spoke them, made it
appear as if he addressed some person who was not the woman beside him,
but some one far away.
“And now things have come to such a pass that, unless I can speak to
you openly, I believe I shall go mad. I think of you as the most
beautiful, the truest thing in the world,” he continued, filled with a
sense of exaltation, and feeling that he had no need now to choose his
words with pedantic accuracy, for what he wanted to say was suddenly
become plain to him.
“I see you everywhere, in the stars, in the river; to me you’re
everything that exists; the reality of everything. Life, I tell you,
would be impossible without you. And now I want—”
She had heard him so far with a feeling that she had dropped some
material word which made sense of the rest. She could hear no more of
this unintelligible rambling without checking him. She felt that she
was overhearing what was meant for another.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “You’re saying things that you don’t
mean.”
“I mean every word I say,” he replied, emphatically. He turned his head
towards her. She recovered the words she was searching for while he
spoke. “Ralph Denham is in love with you.” They came back to her in
Mary Datchet’s voice. Her anger blazed up in her.
“I saw Mary Datchet this afternoon,” she exclaimed.
He made a movement as if he were surprised or taken aback, but answered
in a moment:
“She told you that I had asked her to marry me, I suppose?”
“No!” Katharine exclaimed, in surprise.
“I did though. It was the day I saw you at Lincoln,” he continued. “I
had meant to ask her to marry me, and then I looked out of the window
and saw you. After that I didn’t want to ask any one to marry me. But I
did it; and she knew I was lying, and refused me. I thought then, and
still think, that she cares for me. I behaved very badly. I don’t
defend myself.”
“No,” said Katharine, “I should hope not. There’s no defence that I can
think of. If any conduct is wrong, that is.” She spoke with an energy
that was directed even more against herself than against him. “It seems
to me,” she continued, with the same energy, “that people are bound to
be honest. There’s no excuse for such behavior.” She could now see
plainly before her eyes the expression on Mary Datchet’s face.
After a short pause, he said:
“I am not telling you that I am in love with you. I am not in love with
you.”
“I didn’t think that,” she replied, conscious of some bewilderment.
“I have not spoken a word to you that I do not mean,” he added.
“Tell me then what it is that you mean,” she said at length.
As if obeying a common instinct, they both stopped and, bending
slightly over the balustrade of the river, looked into the flowing
water.
“You say that we’ve got to be honest,” Ralph began. “Very well. I will
try to tell you the facts; but I warn you, you’ll think me mad. It’s a
fact, though, that since I first saw you four or five months ago I have
made you, in an utterly absurd way, I expect, my ideal. I’m almost
ashamed to tell you what lengths I’ve gone to. It’s become the thing
that matters most in my life.” He checked himself. “Without knowing
you, except that you’re beautiful, and all that, I’ve come to believe
that we’re in some sort of agreement; that we’re after something
together; that we see something.... I’ve got into the habit of
imagining you; I’m always thinking what you’d say or do; I walk along
the street talking to you; I dream of you. It’s merely a bad habit, a
schoolboy habit, day-dreaming; it’s a common experience; half one’s
friends do the same; well, those are the facts.”
Simultaneously, they both walked on very slowly.
“If you were to know me you would feel none of this,” she said. “We
don’t know each other—we’ve always been—interrupted.... Were you going
to tell me this that day my aunts came?” she asked, recollecting the
whole scene.
He bowed his head.
“The day you told me of your engagement,” he said.
She thought, with a start, that she was no longer engaged.
“I deny that I should cease to feel this if I knew you,” he went on. “I
should feel it more reasonably—that’s all. I shouldn’t talk the kind of
nonsense I’ve talked to-night.... But it wasn’t nonsense. It was the
truth,” he said doggedly. “It’s the important thing. You can force me
to talk as if this feeling for you were an hallucination, but all our
feelings are that. The best of them are half illusions. Still,” he
added, as if arguing to himself, “if it weren’t as real a feeling as
I’m capable of, I shouldn’t be changing my life on your account.”
“What do you mean?” she inquired.
“I told you. I’m taking a cottage. I’m giving up my profession.”
“On my account?” she asked, in amazement.
“Yes, on your account,” he replied. He explained his meaning no
further.
“But I don’t know you or your circumstances,” she said at last, as he
remained silent.
“You have no opinion about me one way or the other?”
“Yes, I suppose I have an opinion—” she hesitated.
He controlled his wish to ask her to explain herself, and much to his
pleasure she went on, appearing to search her mind.
“I thought that you criticized me—perhaps disliked me. I thought of you
as a person who judges—”
“No; I’m a person who feels,” he said, in a low voice.
“Tell me, then, what has made you do this?” she asked, after a break.
He told her in an orderly way, betokening careful preparation, all that
he had meant to say at first; how he stood with regard to his brothers
and sisters; what his mother had said, and his sister Joan had
refrained from saying; exactly how many pounds stood in his name at the
bank; what prospect his brother had of earning a livelihood in America;
how much of their income went on rent, and other details known to him
by heart. She listened to all this, so that she could have passed an
examination in it by the time Waterloo Bridge was in sight; and yet she
was no more listening to it than she was counting the paving-stones at
her feet. She was feeling happier than she had felt in her life. If
Denham could have seen how visibly books of algebraic symbols, pages
all speckled with dots and dashes and twisted bars, came before her
eyes as they trod the Embankment, his secret joy in her attention might
have been dispersed. She went on, saying, “Yes, I see.... But how would
that help you?... Your brother has passed his examination?” so
sensibly, that he had constantly to keep his brain in check; and all
the time she was in fancy looking up through a telescope at white
shadow-cleft disks which were other worlds, until she felt herself
possessed of two bodies, one walking by the river with Denham, the
other concentrated to a silver globe aloft in the fine blue space above
the scum of vapors that was covering the visible world. She looked at
the sky once, and saw that no star was keen enough to pierce the flight
of watery clouds now coursing rapidly before the west wind. She looked
down hurriedly again. There was no reason, she assured herself, for
this feeling of happiness; she was not free; she was not alone; she was
still bound to earth by a million fibres; every step took her nearer
home. Nevertheless, she exulted as she had never exulted before. The
air was fresher, the lights more distinct, the cold stone of the
balustrade colder and harder, when by chance or purpose she struck her
hand against it. No feeling of annoyance with Denham remained; he
certainly did not hinder any flight she might choose to make, whether
in the direction of the sky or of her home; but that her condition was
due to him, or to anything that he had said, she had no consciousness
at all.
They were now within sight of the stream of cabs and omnibuses crossing
to and from the Surrey side of the river; the sound of the traffic, the
hooting of motor-horns, and the light chime of tram-bells sounded more
and more distinctly, and, with the increase of noise, they both became
silent. With a common instinct they slackened their pace, as if to
lengthen the time of semi-privacy allowed them. To Ralph, the pleasure
of these last yards of the walk with Katharine was so great that he
could not look beyond the present moment to the time when she should
have left him. He had no wish to use the last moments of their
companionship in adding fresh words to what he had already said. Since
they had stopped talking, she had become to him not so much a real
person, as the very woman he dreamt of; but his solitary dreams had
never produced any such keenness of sensation as that which he felt in
her presence. He himself was also strangely transfigured. He had
complete mastery of all his faculties. For the first time he was in
possession of his full powers. The vistas which opened before him
seemed to have no perceptible end. But the mood had none of the
restlessness or feverish desire to add one delight to another which had
hitherto marked, and somewhat spoilt, the most rapturous of his
imaginings. It was a mood that took such clear-eyed account of the
conditions of human life that he was not disturbed in the least by the
gliding presence of a taxicab, and without agitation he perceived that
Katharine was conscious of it also, and turned her head in that
direction. Their halting steps acknowledged the desirability of
engaging the cab; and they stopped simultaneously, and signed to it.
“Then you will let me know your decision as soon as you can?” he asked,
with his hand on the door.
She hesitated for a moment. She could not immediately recall what the
question was that she had to decide.
“I will write,” she said vaguely. “No,” she added, in a second,
bethinking her of the difficulties of writing anything decided upon a
question to which she had paid no attention, “I don’t see how to manage
it.”
She stood looking at Denham, considering and hesitating, with her foot
upon the step. He guessed her difficulties; he knew in a second that
she had heard nothing; he knew everything that she felt.
“There’s only one place to discuss things satisfactorily that I know
of,” he said quickly; “that’s Kew.”
“Kew?”
“Kew,” he repeated, with immense decision. He shut the door and gave
her address to the driver. She instantly was conveyed away from him,
and her cab joined the knotted stream of vehicles, each marked by a
light, and indistinguishable one from the other. He stood watching for
a moment, and then, as if swept by some fierce impulse, from the spot
where they had stood, he turned, crossed the road at a rapid pace, and
disappeared.
He walked on upon the impetus of this last mood of almost supernatural
exaltation until he reached a narrow street, at this hour empty of
traffic and passengers. Here, whether it was the shops with their
shuttered windows, the smooth and silvered curve of the wood pavement,
or a natural ebb of feeling, his exaltation slowly oozed and deserted
him. He was now conscious of the loss that follows any revelation; he
had lost something in speaking to Katharine, for, after all, was the
Katharine whom he loved the same as the real Katharine? She had
transcended her entirely at moments; her skirt had blown, her feather
waved, her voice spoken; yes, but how terrible sometimes the pause
between the voice of one’s dreams and the voice that comes from the
object of one’s dreams! He felt a mixture of disgust and pity at the
figure cut by human beings when they try to carry out, in practice,
what they have the power to conceive. How small both he and Katharine
had appeared when they issued from the cloud of thought that enveloped
them! He recalled the small, inexpressive, commonplace words in which
they had tried to communicate with each other; he repeated them over to
himself. By repeating Katharine’s words, he came in a few moments to
such a sense of her presence that he worshipped her more than ever. But
she was engaged to be married, he remembered with a start. The strength
of his feeling was revealed to him instantly, and he gave himself up to
an irresistible rage and sense of frustration. The image of Rodney came
before him with every circumstance of folly and indignity. That little
pink-cheeked dancing-master to marry Katharine? that gibbering ass with
the face of a monkey on an organ? that posing, vain, fantastical fop?
with his tragedies and his comedies, his innumerable spites and prides
and pettinesses? Lord! marry Rodney! She must be as great a fool as he
was. His bitterness took possession of him, and as he sat in the corner
of the underground carriage, he looked as stark an image of
unapproachable severity as could be imagined. Directly he reached home
he sat down at his table, and began to write Katharine a long, wild,
mad letter, begging her for both their sakes to break with Rodney,
imploring her not to do what would destroy for ever the one beauty, the
one truth, the one hope; not to be a traitor, not to be a deserter, for
if she were—and he wound up with a quiet and brief assertion that,
whatever she did or left undone, he would believe to be the best, and
accept from her with gratitude. He covered sheet after sheet, and heard
the early carts starting for London before he went to bed.