Diana was “old enough,” as her recalcitrant lover had informed
her, to value the blessing of a good night’s rest. She had a clear
conscience,--she was, indeed, that _rara avis_, in these days, a
perfectly innocent-minded woman, and she slept as calmly and peacefully
as a child. When she woke to the light of a radiant morning, with the
sunshine making diamonds of the sea, she felt almost young again as she
tripped to and fro, putting the final touches of taste to the pretty
drawing-room, and giving to every nook and corner that indefinable
air of pleasant occupation which can only be bestowed by the hand of
a dainty, beauty-loving woman. At the appointed hour, the automobile
was sent to the station to meet Mr. and Mrs. James Polydore May, and
punctual to time the worthy couple arrived, both husband and wife
slightly out of humour with the heat of the fine summer’s day and the
fatigue of the journey from London.
“Well, Diana!” sighed her mother, turning a fat, buff-coloured cheek to
be kissed, “is the house really decent and comfortable?”
“It’s lovely!” declared Diana, cheerfully--“I’m sure you’ll be happy
here, Mother! The garden is perfectly delightful!”
“Your mother spoke of the house, not the garden,” interposed Mr. May,
judicially. “You really must be accurate, Diana! Yes--er--yes!--that
will do!”--this, as Diana somewhat shrinkingly embraced him. “Your
mother is always suspicious--and rightly so--of damp in rented country
houses, but I think we made ourselves certain that there was nothing
of that kind before we decided to take it. And no poultry clucking?--no
noises of a farmyard close by? No? That’s a comfort! Yes--er--it seems
fairly suitable. Is luncheon ready?”
Diana replied that it was, and the family of three were soon seated at
table in the dining-room, discussing lobster mayonnaise. As Mrs. May
bent her capacious bosom over her plate, her round eyes goggling with
sheer greed, and Mr. May ate rapidly as was his wont, casting sharp
glances about him to see if he could find fault with anything, Diana’s
heart sank more and more. It was just the same sort of luncheon as at
home in Richmond, tainted by the same sordid atmosphere of commonplace.
Her parents showed no spark of pleasurable animation or interest in the
change of scene or the loveliness of the garden and sea as glimpsed
through the open French windows,--everything had narrowed into the
savoury but compressed limit of lobster mayonnaise.
“Too much mustard in this, as usual,” said Mr. May, scraping his plate
noisily.
“Not at all,” retorted his wife, with placid obstinacy. “If there _is_
anything Marsh knows _how_ to make with absolute perfection, it _is_
mayonnaise.”
Marsh was the cook, and the cause of many a matrimonial wrangle.
“Oh, of course, Marsh is faultless!” sneered Mr. May. “This house has
been taken solely that Marsh shall have a change of air and extra
perquisites!”
Mrs. May’s eyes goggled a little more prominently, and protecting
her voluminous bust with a dinner-napkin, she took a fresh supply of
mayonnaise. Diana, who was a small eater and who rather grudged the
time her parents spent over their meals, took no part in this sort of
“sparring,” which always went on between the progenitors of her being.
She was thankful when luncheon was over and she could escape to her
own room. There she found the maid, Grace Laurie, with some letters
which had just arrived.
“These are for you, miss,” said Grace. “I brought them up out of the
hall, as I thought you’d like to be quiet for a bit.”
Diana smiled, gratefully.
“Thank you, Grace. Mother is coming upstairs directly to lie down--will
you see she has all she wants?”
“Yes, miss.” Then, after a pause, “It’s you that should lie down and
get a rest, Miss Diana,--you’ve been doing ever such a lot all these
days. You should just take it easy now.”
Diana smiled again. There was something of kindly compassion in
the “take it easy” suggestion--but she nodded assentingly and the
well-meaning maid left her.
There was a long mirror against the wall, and Diana suddenly saw her
own reflection in it. A hot flush of annoyance reddened her face,--what
a scarecrow she looked to herself! So angular and bony! Her plain navy
linen frock hung as straight as a man’s trousers; no gracious curves
of body gave prettiness to its uncompromising folds,--and as for her
poor worn countenance, she could have thrown things at it for its
doleful pointed chin and sharp nose! She looked steadfastly into her
own eyes,--they were curious in colour, and rather pretty with their
melting hues of blue and grey,--but, oh!--those crows’-feet at the
corners!--oh, the wrinkling of the eyelids!--oh, the tiredness, and
dimness and ache!
Turning abruptly away, she glanced at the small time-piece on her
dressing-table. It was three o’clock. Then she took off her navy
linen gown,--one of the “serviceable,” ugly sort of things her
father was never tired of recommending for her wear,--and slipped on
a plain little white wrapper which she had made for herself out of a
cheap length of nun’s veiling. She loosened her hair and brushed it
out,--it fell to her waist in pretty rippling waves, and it was full
of golden “glints,” so much so that spiteful persons of her own sex
had even said--“at her age it can’t be natural; it _must_ be dyed!”
Nevertheless, its curling tendency and its brightness were all its own,
but Diana took no heed of its beauty, and she would have been more
than incredulous had anyone told her that in this array, or, rather,
_dis_array, she had the appearance of a time-worn picture of some
delicate saint in a French mediæval “Book of Hours.” But such was her
aspect. And with the worn saint look upon her, she drew a reclining
chair to the window and lay down, stretching herself restfully at full
length, and gazing out to sea, her unopened letters on her lap. How
beautiful was that seemingly infinite line of shining water, melting
into shining sky!--how far removed from the little troubles and terrors
of the world of mankind!
“I wonder----!” she murmured. The old story again!--she was always
wondering! Then, with eyes growing almost youthful in their intense
longing for comprehension, she became absorbed in one of those vague
reveries, which, like the things of eternity, have no beginning and no
end. She “wondered”--yes!--she wondered why, for example, Nature was so
grand and reasonable, and Man so mean and petty, when surely he could,
if he chose, be master of his own fate,--master of all the miracles of
air, fire and water, and supreme sovereign of his own soul! A passage
in a book she had lately been reading recurred to her memory.
“If any man once mastered the secret of governing the chemical atoms of
which he is composed, he would discover the fruit of the Tree of Life
of which, as his Creator said, he would ‘take, eat and live for ever!’”
She sighed,--a sigh of weariness and momentary depression, then began
turning over her letters and glancing indifferently at the handwriting
on each envelope, till one, addressed in a remarkably clear, bold
caligraphy, made her smile in evidently pleasurable anticipation.
“From Sophy Lansing,” she said. “Dear little Sophy! She’s always
amusing, with her Suffragette enthusiasms, and her vivacious
independent ways! And she’s one of those very few clever women who
manage to keep womanly and charming in spite of their cleverness. Oh,
what a _fat_ letter!”
She opened it and read the dashing scrawl, still smiling.
“Dearest Di,
“I suppose you are now settling down ‘by the sad sea waves’ with Pa
and Ma! Oh, you poor thing! I can see you hard at it like a donkey at
a well, trotting ‘in the common round, the daily task’ of keeping Pa
as tolerable in temper as such an old curmudgeon can be, and Ma as
reposeful under her burden of superfluous flesh as is at all possible.
What a life for you, patient Grizel! Why don’t you throw it up? You
are really clever, and you could do so much. This is Woman’s Day, and
you are a woman of exceptional ability. You know I’ve asked you over
and over again to retire from the whole domestic ‘show,’ and leave
those most uninteresting and selfish old parents of yours to their own
devices, with a paid housekeeper to look after their food, which is
all they really care about. Come and live with me in London. We should
be quite happy together, for I’m good-natured and sensible, and so are
you, and we’re neither of us contending for a man, so we shouldn’t
quarrel. And you’d wake up, Diana!--you’d wake to find that there
are many more precious things in life than Pa and Ma! I could even
find you a few men to entertain you, though most of them become bores
after about an hour--especially the ones that think themselves vastly
amusing. Like your Pa, you know!--who, when he tells a very ancient
‘good story,’ thinks that God Himself ought to give up everything else
to listen to him! No, don’t be shocked! I’m not really irreverent--but
you know it’s true. Woe betide the hapless wight, male or female, who
dares utter a word while Pa Polydore is on the story trail! How I’ve
longed to throw things at him! and have only refrained for your sake!
Well! God a’ mercy on us, as Shakespeare’s Ophelia says, and defend us
from the anecdotal men!
“You’ll perhaps be interested to hear that a proposal of marriage
was made to me last night. The bold adventurer is rather like your
Pa,--well ‘on’ in years, rich, with a prosperous ‘tum’--and a general
aspect of assertive affluence. I said ‘No,’ of course, and he asked me
if I knew what I was doing? Exactly as if he thought I might be drunk,
or dreaming! I replied that I was quite aware of myself, of him, and
the general locality. ‘And yet you say No?’ he almost whispered, in a
kind of stupefied amazement. I repeated ‘No’--and ‘No,’--and clinched
the matter by the additional remark that he was the last sort of man
I would ever wish to marry. Then he smiled feebly, and said ‘Poor
child!--you have been sadly led astray! These new ideas----’ I cut
him short by ringing the bell and ordering tea, and fortunately just
at the moment in came Jane Prowser--_you_ know her!--the tall, bony
woman who goes in for ‘Eugenics,’ and she did the scarecrow business
quite effectively. As soon as she began to talk in her high, rasping
voice he went! Then I had tea alone with the Prowser--rather a trying
meal, as she would, she _would_ describe in detail all the deformities
and miseries of a child ‘wot ’adn’t no business to be born,’ as my
housemaid once remarked of a certain domestic upset. However, I got
rid of her after she had eaten all the cress and tomato sandwiches,
and then I started to read a batch of letters from abroad. I’m so
thankful for my foreign correspondents!--they write and spell so well,
and always have something interesting to say. One of my great friends
in Paris, Blanche de Rouailles, sent me a most curious advertisement,
which she tells me is appearing in all the French papers--I enclose
it for you, as you are so ‘scientific’ and it may interest you. It is
rather curiously worded and sounds ‘uncanny!’ But it occupies nearly
half a column in all the principal Paris papers and is repeated in
five different languages,--French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and
English. I suppose it’s a snare or a ‘do’ of some sort. The world
is full of scoundrels, even in science! Now remember what I tell
you! Come to me at once if Pa and Ma kick over the traces and allow
their ingrained selfishness to break out of bounds. There’s plenty of
room for you in my cosy little flat and we can have a real good time
together. Don’t bother about money,--with your talent and knowledge
of languages you can soon earn some, and I’ll put you in the way of
it. You really must do something for your own advantage,--surely you
don’t mean to waste your whole life in soothing Pa and massaging Ma?
It may be dutiful but it must be dull! I don’t think all the massaging
in the world will ever reduce Ma to normal proportions, and certainly
nothing can ever cure Pa of his detestable humours which are always
lurking in ambush below his surface ‘manner,’ ready to jump out like
little black devils on the smallest provocation. We can never be
really grateful enough, dear Di, for our single blessedness! Imagine
what life would have been for us with husbands like Pa! Absolute
misery!--for you and I could never have taken refuge in food and fat
like Ma! We would have died sooner than concentrate our souls on peas
and asparagus!--we would have gone to the stake like martyrs rather
than have allowed our bosoms to swell with the interior joys of roast
pork and stuffing! Oh yes!--there is much to be thankful for in our
spinsterhood,--we can go to our little beds in peace, knowing that
no pig-like snoring from the ‘superior’ brute will disturb the holy
hours of the night!--and if we _are_ clever enough to make a little
money, we can spend it as we like, without being cross-examined as to
why it is that the dress we wore four years ago is worn out, and why
we must have another! I could run on for pages and pages concerning
the blessings and privileges of unmarried women, but I’ll restrain
my enthusiasm till we meet. Let that meeting be soon!--and remember
that I am always at your service as a true friend and that I’ll do
anything in the world to help you out of your domestic harness. For
the old people who ‘drive’ you can’t and won’t see what a patient,
kind, helpful clever daughter they’ve got, and they don’t deserve to
keep you. Let them spend their spare cash on a housekeeper, who is
sure to cheat them (and a good job too!) and take your freedom. Get
away!--never mind how, or where, or when,--but don’t spend all your
life in drudging. You’ve done enough of it--get away! This is the best
of good advice from your loving friend,
“Sophy Lansing.”
A slight shadow of meditative gravity clouded Diana’s face as she
finished reading this letter. She was troubled by her own thoughts;
Sophy’s lively strictures on her parents were undoubtedly correct and
deserved,--and yet--“father and mother” were “father and mother” after
all! It is curious how these two words still keep their sentimental
significance, despite “state” education! “Mother” in the lower classes
is often a drab, and in the higher a frivolous wastrel; “father” in the
slums may beat his children black and blue, and in Mayfair neglect them
to the point of utmost indifference,--but “mother and father,” totally
undeserving as they often are, still come in for a share of their
offspring’s vague consideration and lingering respect. “Education” of
the wrong sort, however, is doing its best to deprive them of this
regard, and it appears likely that the younger generation will soon be
so highly instructed as to be able to ignore “mother and father” as
easily as full-fledged cygnets ignore the parent birds who drive them
away from their nesting haunts. But Diana was “old-fashioned”; she had
an affectionate nature, and she took pathetic pains to persuade herself
that “Pa” and “Ma” meant to be kind, and must in their hearts love her,
their only child. This was pure fallacy, but it was the only little
bit of hope and trust left to her in a hard world, and she was loth
to let it go. The smallest expression of tenderness from that ruffled
old human terrier, her father, would have brought her to his feet, an
even more willing slave to his moods than she already was,--a loving
embrace from her mother would have moved her almost to tears of joy
and gratitude, and would have doubly strengthened her unreasoning and
unselfish devotion to the “bogey” of her duty. But she never received
any such sign of affection or encouragement from year’s end to year’s
end,--and it was like a strange dream to her now to recall that when
she had been young, in the time of her “teens,” her father had called
her his “beautiful girl,” and her mother had chosen pretty frocks for
her “darling child!” Youth and the prospects of marriage had made this
difference in the temperature of parental tenderness. Now that she was
at that fatal stop-gap called “middle-age” and a hopeless spinster,
the pretty frocks and the “beautiful-girl-darling-child” period had
vanished with her matrimonial chances. There was no help for it.
At this point in her thoughts she gave a little half-unconscious
sigh. Mechanically she folded up Sophy Lansing’s letter, and as she
did so, noticed that a slip of printed paper had fallen out of it
and lay on the floor. She turned herself on her reclining chair and
stooped for it,--then as she picked it up realised that it must be
the advertisement in the five different languages which her friend
had mentioned. Glancing carelessly over it at first, but afterwards
more attentively, her interest was aroused by its unusual wording, and
then as she read it over and over again she found in it a singular
attraction. It ran as follows:
“To ANY WOMAN who is alone in the world WITHOUT CLAIMS on HER TIME or
HER AFFECTIONS.
“A SCIENTIST, engaged in very IMPORTANT and DIFFICULT WORK, requires
the ASSISTANCE and CO-OPERATION of a Courageous and Determined Woman
of mature years. She must have a fair knowledge of modern science, and
must not shrink from dangerous experiments or be afraid to take risks
in the pursuit of discoveries which may be beneficial to the human
race. Every personal care, consideration and courtesy will be shown
towards her, and she will be paid a handsome sum for her services
and be provided with full board and lodging in an elegant suite of
apartments placed freely at her disposal. She must be prepared to
devote herself for one or two years entirely to the study of very
intricate problems in chemistry, concerning which she will be expected
to maintain the strictest confidence. She must be well educated,
especially in languages and literature, and she must have no ties of
any kind or business which can interrupt or distract her attention
from the serious course of training which it will be necessary for
her to pursue. This Advertisement cannot be answered by letter. Each
applicant must present herself personally and alone between the hours
of 6 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays only to
“DR. FÉODOR DIMITRIUS,
“Château Fragonard,
“Geneva.”
The more Diana studied this singular announcement, the more remarkable
and fascinating did it seem. The very hours named as the only suitable
ones for interviewing applicants, between six and eight in the morning,
were unusual enough, and the whole wording of the advertisement implied
something mysterious and out of the common.
“Though I dare say it is, as Sophy suggests, only a snare of some
sort,” she thought. “And yet to me it sounds genuine. But I don’t
think this Dr. Féodor Dimitrius will get the kind of woman he wants
easily. A handsome salary with board and lodging are tempting enough,
but few women would be inclined to ‘take risks’ in the inventions
and discoveries of modern science. Some of them are altogether too
terrible!”
She read the advertisement carefully through again, then rose and
locked it away in her desk with Sophy Lansing’s letter. She glanced
through the rest of her correspondence, which was not exciting,--one
note asking for the character of a servant, another for the pattern
of a blouse, and a third enclosing a recipe for a special sort of jam,
“with love to your sweet kind mother!”
She put them all by, and stretching her arms languidly above her head,
caught another glimpse of herself in the mirror. This time it was
more satisfactory. Her hair, hanging down to her waist, was full of a
brightness, made brighter just now by the sunlight streaming through
the window, and her nun’s veiling “rest gown” had a picturesque grace
in its white fall and flow which softened the tired look of her face
and eyes into something like actual prettiness. The fair ghost of her
lost youth peeped at her for a moment, awakening a smarting sense of
regretful tears. A light tap at the door fortunately turned the current
of her thoughts, and the maid Grace Laurie entered, bearing a dainty
little tray with a cup of tea invitingly set upon it.
“I’ve just taken some tea to Mrs. May in her bedroom,” she said. “And I
thought you’d perhaps like a cup.”
“You’re a treasure, Grace!”--and Diana sat down to the proffered
refreshment. “What shall we all do when you go away to be married?”
Grace laughed and tossed her head.
“Well, there’s time enough for that, miss!” she replied. “_He_ ain’t
in no hurry, nor am I! You see when you’re married you’re just done
for,--there’s no more fun. It’s drudge, wash, cook and sew for the rest
of your days, and no way of getting out of it.”
Diana, sipping her tea, looked at her, smiling.
“If that’s the way you think, you shouldn’t marry,” she said.
“Oh yes, I should!” and Grace laughed again. “A woman like me wants a
home and a man to work for her. I don’t care to be in service all my
days,--I may as well wash and sew for a man of my own as for anybody
else.”
“But you love him, don’t you?” asked Diana.
“Well, he isn’t much to love!” declared Grace, with twinkling eyes.
“His looks wouldn’t upset anyone’s peace! I’ve never thought of love at
all--all I want is to be warm and comfortable in a decent house with
plenty to eat,--and a good husband is a man who can do that, and keep
it going. As for loving, that’s all stuff and nonsense!--as I always
say you should never care more for a man with your ’ed than you can
kick off with your ’eels.”
This profound utterance had the effect of moving Diana to the most
delightful mirth. She laughed and laughed again,--and her laughter was
so sweet and fresh that it was like a little chime of bells. Her voice,
as already hinted, was her great charm, and whether she laughed or
spoke her accents broke the air into little bars of music.
“Oh, Grace, Grace!” she said, at last. “You are too funny for words!
I must learn that wise saying of yours by heart! What is it? ‘Never
care more for a man with your ’ed than you can kick off with your
’eels’?--Splendid! And you mean it?”
Grace nodded emphatically.
“Of course I mean it! It don’t do to care too much for a man,--he’s
always a sort o’ spoilt babe, and what he gets easy he don’t care for,
and what he can’t have he’s always crying, crying after. You’ll find
that true, Miss Diana!”
The sparkle of laughter quenched itself in Diana’s eyes and left her
looking weary.
“Yes--I daresay you are right,” she said--“quite right, Grace!” And
looking up, she spoke slowly and rather sadly. “Perhaps it’s true--some
people say it is--that men like bad women better than good,--and that
if a woman is thoroughly selfish, vain and reckless, treating men with
complete indifference and contempt, they admire her much more than if
she were loving and faithful.”
“Of course!” assented Grace, positively. “Look at Mrs.
Potter-Barney!--the one the halfpenny newspapers call the ‘beautiful
Mrs. Barney’! I know a maid who was told by another maid that she got
five hundred guineas for a kiss!--and Lady Wasterwick has had thousands
of pounds for----”
Diana held up a hand,--she smiled still, but a trifle austerely.
“That will do, Grace!”
Grace coughed discreetly and subsided.
“Is mother still lying down?” then asked Diana.
“Yes, miss. She’ll be on her bed till the dinner dressing bell rings.
And Mr. May’s asleep over his newspaper in the garden.”
Again Diana laughed her clear, pretty laugh. The somnolent habits of
her parents were so enlivening, and made home-life so cheerful!
“Well, all right, Grace,” she said. “If there’s nothing for me to do I
shall go for a walk presently. So you’ll know what to say if I’m asked
for.”
Grace assented, and then departed. Diana finished her cup of tea in
meditative mood,--then, resolving to throw her retrospective thoughts
to the winds, prepared to go out. It was an exceptionally fine
afternoon, warm and brilliant, and instead of her navy linen gown
which had seen considerable wear and tear, she put on a plain white
one which became her much better than the indigo blue, and, completing
her costume with a very simple straw hat and white parasol, she went
downstairs and out of the house into the garden. She had meant to
avoid her father, whom she saw on the lawn, under the spreading boughs
of a cedar tree, seated in one rustic arm-chair, with his short legs
comfortably disposed on another, and the day’s newspaper modestly
spread as a coverlet over his unbuttoned waistcoat,--but an inquisitive
wasp happening to buzz too near his nose he made a dart at it with one
hand, and opening his eyes, perceived her white figure moving across
the grass.
“Who’s that? What’s that?” he called out, sharply. “Don’t glide about
like a ghost! Is it you, Diana?”
“Yes,--it’s me,” she replied, and came up beside him.
He gave her a casual look,--then sniffed and smiled sardonically.
“Dear me! How fine we are! I thought it was some young girl of the
neighbourhood leaving cards on your mother! Why are you wearing white?
Going to a wedding?”
Diana coloured to the roots of her pretty hair.
“It’s one of my washing frocks,” she submitted.
“Oh, is it? Well, I like to see you in dark colours--they are more
suited to--to your age. Only very young people should wear white.”
He yawned capaciously. “Only very young people,” he repeated, closing
his eyes. “Try and remember that.”
“Mrs. Ross-Percival wears white,” said Diana, quietly. “You are always
holding her up to admiration. And she’s sixty, if she’s a day.”
Mr. Polydore May opened his eyes and bounced up in his chair.
“Mrs. Ross-Percival is a very beautiful woman!” he snapped out. “One of
_the_ beautiful women of society. And she’s married.”
“Oh, yes, she’s a grandmother,” murmured Diana, smiling. “But you don’t
tell _her_ not to wear white.”
“Good God, of course not! It’s no business of mine! What are you
talking about? She’s not my daughter!”
Diana laughed her pretty soft laugh.
“No, indeed! Poor Pa! That _would_ be terrible!--she’d make you seem so
old if she were! But perhaps you wouldn’t mind as she’s so beautiful!”
Mr. May stared at her wrathfully with the feeling that he was being
made fun of.
“She _is_ beautiful!” he said, firmly. “Only a jealous woman would dare
to question it!”
Diana laughed again.
“Very well, she _is_ beautiful! Wig and all!” she said, and moved away,
opening her parasol as she passed from the shadow of the cedar boughs
into the full sun.
“She’s getting beyond herself!” thought her father, watching her as she
went, and noting what he was pleased to consider “affectation” in her
naturally graceful way of walking. “And if she once begins that sort of
game, she’ll be unbearable! Nothing can be worse than an old maid who
gets beyond herself or above herself! She’ll be fancying some man is in
love with her next!”
He gave a snort of scorn and composed himself to sleep again; meanwhile
Diana had left the garden and was walking at an easy pace, which was
swift without seeming hurried, down to the sea shore. It was very
lovely there at this particular afternoon hour,--the tide was coming
in, and the long shining waves rolled up one after the other in smooth
lines of silver on sand that shone in wet patches like purest gold. The
air was soft and warm but not oppressive, and as the solitary woman
lifted her eyes to the peaceful blue sky arched like a sheltering dome
above the peaceful blue sea, her solitude was for the moment more
intensified. More keenly than ever she felt that there was no one to
whom she could look for so much as a loving word,--not in her own
home, at any rate. Her friends were few; Sophy Lansing was one of the
most intimate,--but Sophy lived such a life of activity, throwing her
energies into so many channels, that it was not possible to get into
very close or constant companionship with her.
“While I live,” she said to herself, deliberately, “I shall have no one
to care for me--I must make up my mind to that. And when I die,--if I
go to heaven there will be no one there who cares for me,--and, if I
go to hell, no one there either!” She laughed at this idea, but there
were tears in her eyes. “It’s curious not to have anyone on earth or in
heaven or hell who wants you! I wonder if there are many like that! And
yet--I’ve never done anything wicked or spiteful to deserve being left
so unloved.”
She had come to a small, deep cove, picturesquely walled in by high
masses of rock whose summits were gay with creeping plants, grass and
flowers, and though the sea was calm, the pressure of the incoming tide
through the narrow inlet made waves that were almost boisterous, as
they rushed in and out with a musical splash and roar. It was hardly
safe or prudent to walk further on. “Any of those waves could carry
one off one’s feet in a minute,” she thought, and went upwards from
the beach beyond the highest mark left by the fringes of the sea,
where the fragments of an old broken boat made a very good seat. Here
she rested awhile, allowing vague ideas of a possible future to drift
through her brain. The prospect of a visit to Sophy Lansing seemed
agreeable enough,--but she very well knew that it would be opposed by
her parents,--that her mother would say she could not spare her,--and
that her father would demand angrily:
“What have I taken this seaside house for? Out of pure good-nature and
unselfishness, just to give you and your mother a summer holiday, and
now you want to go away! That’s the way I’m rewarded for my kindness!”
If anyone had pointed out that he had only thought of himself and his
own convenience in taking the “seaside house,” and that he had chosen
it chiefly because it was close to the golf links and also to the
Club, where there was a billiard-room, and that his “women folk” were
scarcely considered in the matter at all, he would have been extremely
indignant. He never saw himself in any other light but that of justice,
generosity and nobility of disposition. Diana knew his “little ways,”
and laughed at them though she regretted them.
“Poor Pa!” she would sigh. “He would be so much more lovable if he were
not quite so selfish. But I suppose he can’t help it.”
And, on turning all the pros and cons over in her mind, she came to
the conclusion that it would not be fair to leave her mother alone to
arrange all the details of daily life in a strange house and strange
neighbourhood where the tradespeople were not accustomed to the worthy
lady’s rather vague ideas of domestic management, such as the ordering
of the dinner two hours before it ought to be cooked, and other similar
trifles, resulting in kitchen chaos.
“After all, I ought to be very contented!” and lifting her head, she
smiled resignedly at the placid sea. “It’s lovely down here,--and
I can always read a good deal,--and sew,--I can finish my bit of
tapestry,--and I can master that wonderful new treatise on Etheric
Vibration----”
Here something seemed to catch her breath,--she felt a curious
quickening thrill as though an “etheric vibration” had touched her own
nerves and set them quivering. Some words of the advertisement she
had lately read sounded on her ears as though spoken by a voice close
beside her:
“She must have a fair knowledge of modern science and must not shrink
from dangerous experiments, or be afraid to take risks in the pursuit
of discoveries which may be beneficial to the human race.”
She rose from her seat a little startled, her cheeks flushing with the
stir of some inexplicable excitement in her blood.
“How strange that I should think of that just now!” she said. “I
wonder”--and she laughed--“I wonder whether I should suit Dr. Féodor
Dimitrius!”
The idea amused her,--it was so new,--so impracticable and absurd! Yet
it remained in her mind, giving sparkle to her eyes and colour and
animation to her face as she walked slowly home in a sort of visionary
reverie.