John did not consider himself a first-class whip: if he had been offered
the choice between swimming to meet his love like Leander, climbing into
her father's orchard like Romeo, and driving to meet her with a
dog-cart, he would certainly, had the engagement shown signs of being a
long one, have chosen any mode of trysting except the last. This
morning, however, he was not as usual oppressed by a sense of imperfect
sympathy between himself and the mare; he did not think she was going to
have hysterics when she blew her nose, nor fancy that she was on the
verge of bolting when she tossed her chestnut mane; the absence of
William the groom seemed a matter for congratulation rather than for
regret; he felt as reckless as Phaeton, as urgent as Jehu, and the mare
knew it. Generally, when her master held the reins, she would try to
walk up steep banks or emulate in her capricious greed the lofty
browsings of the giraffe; this morning at a steady swinging trot she
kept to the middle of the road, passed two motor-cars without trying to
box the landscape, and did not even shy at the new hat of the vicar's
wife.
Later on, however, when John was safe in the station-yard and saw the
familiar way in which Miss Hamilton patted the mare he decided not to
take any risk on the return journey and in spite of his brother's
parting gibe to hand over the reins to his secretary; nor was the
symbolism of the action distasteful. How charming she looked in that
mauve frieze! How well the color was harmonizing with the purple
hedgerows! How naturally she seemed to haunt the woodland scene!
"Oh, this exquisite country," she sighed. "Fancy staying in London when
you can write here!"
"It does seem absurd," the lucky author agreed. "But the house is very
full at present. We shall be rather exposed to interruptions until the
party breaks up."
He gave her an account of the Christmas festival, to which she seemed
able to listen comfortably and appreciatively in spite of the fact that
she was driving. This impressed John very much.
"I hope your mother wasn't angry at your leaving town," he said,
tentatively. "I thought of telegraphing an invitation to her; but there
really isn't room for another person."
"I'm afraid I can't say that she was gracious about my desertion of her.
Indeed, she's beginning to put pressure on me to give up my post. Quite
indirectly, of course, but one feels the effect just the same. Who
knows? I may succumb."
John nearly fell out of the dog-cart.
"Give up your post?" he gasped. "But, my dear Miss Hamilton, the
dog-roses won't be in bloom for some months."
"What have dog-roses got to do with my post?"
He laughed a little foolishly.
"I mean the play won't be finished for some months. Did I say dog-roses?
I must have been thinking of the dog-cart. You drive with such admirable
unconcern. Still, you ought to see these hedgerows in summer. Now the
time I like for a walk is about eight o'clock on a June evening. The
honeysuckle smells so delicious about eight o'clock. There's no doubt it
is ridiculous to live in London. I hope you made it quite clear to your
mother you had no intention of leaving me?"
"Ida Merritt did most of the arguing."
"Did she? What a very intelligent girl she is, by the way. I confess I
took a great fancy to her."
"You told mother once that she frightened you."
"Ah, but I'm always frightened by people when I meet them first. Though
curiously enough I was never frightened of you. Some people have told me
that _I_ am frightening at first. You didn't find that did you?"
"No, I certainly did not. And I can't imagine anybody else's doing so
either."
Although John rather plumed himself upon the alarm he was credited with
inspiring at first sight, he did not argue the point, because he really
never had had the least desire to frighten his secretary.
"And your relations don't seem to find you very frightening," she
murmured. "Good gracious, what an assemblage!"
The dog-cart had just drawn clear of the beechwood, and the whole of the
Ambles party could be seen vigilantly grouped by the gate to receive
them, which John thought was a lapse of taste on the part of his guests.
Nor was he mollified by the way in which after the introductions were
made Hugh took it upon himself to conduct Miss Hamilton indoors, while
he was left shouting for William the groom. If it was anybody's business
except his own to escort her into the house, it was Hilda's.
"What a very extraordinary thing," said John, fretfully, "that the
_only_ person who's wanted is not here. Where is that confounded boy?"
"I'm here," cried Bertram, responding to the epithet instinctively.
"Not you. Not you. I wanted William to take the mare."
When lunch was over John found that notwithstanding his secretary's
arrival he was less eager to begin work again upon his play than he had
supposed.
"I think I must be feeling rather worn out by Christmas," he told her.
"I wonder if a walk wouldn't do you good after the journey."
"Now that's a capital notion," exclaimed Hugh, who was standing close by
and overheard the suggestion. "We might tramp up to the top of Shalstead
Down."
"Oh yes," Harold chimed in. "I've never been there yet. Mother said it
was too far for me; but it isn't, is it, Uncle John?"
"Your mother was right. It's at least three miles too far," said John,
firmly. "Oh, by the way, Hugh, I've been thinking over your scheme for
that summerhouse or whatever you call it, and I'm not sure that I don't
rather like the idea after all. You might put it in hand this afternoon.
You'd better keep Laurence with you. I want him to have it in the way he
likes it, although of course I shall undertake the expense. Where's
Bertram? Ah, there you are. Bertram, why don't you and Viola take Harold
down to the river and practice diving? I dare say Mr. Fenton will
superintend the necessary supply of air and reduce the chances of a
fatal accident."
"But the water's much too cold," Hilda protested in dismay.
"Oh well, there's always something to amuse one by a river without
actually going into the water," John said. "You like rivers, don't you,
Fenton? I'm afraid we can't offer you a very large one, but it wiggles
most picturesquely."
Aubrey Fenton, who was still feeling twinges of embarrassment on account
of his uninvited stay at Ambles, was prepared to like anything his host
put forward for his appreciation, and he spoke with as much enthusiasm
of a promenade along the banks of the small Hampshire stream as if he
were going to view the Ganges for the first time. John, having disposed
of him, looked around for other possible candidates for a walk.
"You look like hard work, James," he said, approvingly.
"I've a bundle of trash here for review," the critic growled.
"I'm sorry. I was going to propose a stroll up Shalstead Down. Never
mind. You'll have to walk into your victims instead." And, by gad, he
would walk into them too, John thought, after that dinner yesterday.
Beatrice and Eleanor were not about; old Mrs. Touchwood was unlikely at
her age to venture up the third highest elevation in Hampshire; Hilda
was occupied with household duties; Edith had a headache. Only George
now remained unoccupied, and John was sure he might safely risk an
invitation to him; he looked incapable of walking two yards.
"I suppose you wouldn't care for a constitutional, George?" he inquired,
heartily.
"A constitutional?" George repeated, gaping like a chub at a large
cherry. "No, no, no, no. I always knit after lunch. Besides I never walk
in the country. It ruins one's boots."
George always used to polish his own boots with as much passionate care
as he would have devoted to the coloring of a meerschaum pipe.
"Well, if nobody wants to climb Shalstead Down," said John beaming
happily, "what do you say, Miss Hamilton?"
A few minutes later they had crossed the twenty-acre field and were
among the chalk-flecked billows of the rising downs.
"You're a terrible fraud," she laughed. "You've always led me to believe
that you were completely at the mercy of your relations. Instead of
which, you order them about and arrange their afternoon and really bully
them into doing all sorts of things they never had any intention of
doing, or any wish to do, what's more."
"Yes, I seemed to be rather successful with my strategy to-day," John
admitted. "But they were stupefied by their Christmas dinner. None of
them was really anxious for a walk, and I didn't want to drag them out
unwillingly."
"Ah, it's all very well to explain it away like that, but don't ever ask
me to sympathize with you again. I believe you're a replica of my poor
mother. Her tyranny is deeply rooted in consideration for others. Why do
you suppose she is always trying to make me give up working for you? For
her sake? Oh, dear no! For mine."
"But _you_ don't forge my name and expect her to pay me back. _You_
don't arrive suddenly and deposit children upon her doorstep."
"I dare say I don't, but for my mother Ida Merritt represents all the
excesses of your relations combined in one person. I'm convinced that if
you and she were to compare notes you would find that you were both
suffering from acute ingratitude and thoroughly enjoying it. But come,
come, this is not a serious conversation. What about the fourth act?"
"The fourth act of what?" he asked, vaguely.
"The fourth act of Joan of Arc."
"Oh, Joan of Arc. I think I must give her a rest. I don't seem at all in
the mood for writing at present. The truth is that I find Joan rather
lacking in humanity and I'm beginning to think I made a mistake in
choosing such an abnormal creature for the central figure of a play."
"Then what have I come down to Hampshire for?" she demanded.
"Well, it's very jolly down here, isn't it?" John retorted in an
offended voice. "And anyway you can't expect me to burst into blank
verse the moment you arrive, like a canary that's been uncovered by the
housemaid. It would be an affectation to pretend I feel poetical this
afternoon. I feel like a jolly good tramp before tea. I can't stand
writers who always want to be literary. I have the temperament of a
country squire, and if I had more money and fewer relations I should
hardly write at all."
"Which would be a great pity," said his secretary.
"Would it?" John replied in the voice of one who has found an unexpected
grievance and is determined to make the most of it. "I doubt if it
would. What is my work, after all? I don't deceive myself. There was
more in my six novels than in anything I've written since. I'm a failure
to myself. In the eyes of the public I may be a success, but in the
depths of my own heart--" he finished the sentence in a long sigh, all
the longer because he was a little out of breath with climbing.
"But you were so cheerful a few minutes ago. I'm sure that country
squires are not the prey to such swift changes of mood. I think you must
be a poet really."
"A poet!" he exclaimed, bitterly, with what he fancied was the kind of
laugh that is called hollow. "Do I look like a poet?"
"If you're going to talk in that childish way I sha'n't say any more,"
she warned him, severely. "Oh, there goes a hare!"
"Two hares," said John, trying to create an impression that in spite of
the weight of his despondency he would for her sake affect a
light-hearted interest in the common incidents of a country walk.
"And look at the peewits," she said. "What a fuss they make about
nothing, don't they?"
"I suppose you are comparing me to a peewit now?" John reproachfully
suggested.
"Well, a moment ago you compared yourself to an uncovered canary; so if
I've exceeded the bounds of free speech marked out for a secretary, you
must forgive me."
"My dear Miss Hamilton," he assured her, "I beg you to believe that you
are at liberty to compare me to anything you like."
Having surrendered his personality for the exercise of her wit John felt
more cheerful. The rest of the walk seemed to offer with its wide
prospects of country asleep in the winter sunlight a wider prospect of
life itself; even Joan of Arc became once again a human figure.
It was to be feared that John's manipulation of his guests after lunch
might have had the effect of uniting them against the new favorite; and
so it had. When he and Miss Hamilton got back to the house for tea the
family was obviously upon the defensive, so obviously indeed that it
gave the impression of a sculptor's group in which each figure was
contributing his posture to the whole. There was not as yet the least
hint of attack, but John would almost have preferred an offensive action
to this martyred withdrawal from the world in which it was suggested
that he and Miss Hamilton were living by themselves. It happened that a
neighbor, a colorless man with a disobedient and bushy dog, called upon
the Touchwoods that afternoon, and John could not help being aware that
to the eyes of his relations he and his secretary appeared equally
intrusive and disturbing; the manner in which Hilda offered Miss
Hamilton tea scarcely differed from the manner in which she propitiated
the dog with a bun; and it would have been rash to assert that she was
more afraid of the dog's biting Harold than of the secretary's doing so.
"Don't worry Miss Hamilton, darling. She's tired after her long walk.
Besides, she isn't used to little boys. And don't make Mr. Wenlow's dog
eat sugar if it doesn't want to."
Eleanor would ordinarily have urged Bertram to prove that he could
achieve what was denied to his cousin. Yet now in the face of a common
enemy she made overtures to Hilda by simultaneously calling off her
children from the intruders.
"If I'd known that animals were so welcomed down here," James grumbled,
"I should have brought Beyle with us."
It was not a polite remark; but the disobedient dog in an effusion of
cordiality had just licked the back of James' neck, and he was not
nearly so rude as he would have been about a human being who had
surprised him, speaking figuratively, in the same way.
"Lie down, Rover," whispered the colorless neighbor with so rich a blush
that until it subsided the epithet ceased to be appropriate.
Rover unexpectedly paid attention to the command, but chose Grandmama's
lap for his resting place, which made Viola laugh so ecstatically that
Frida felt bound to imitate her, with the result that a geyser of tea
spurted from her mouth and descended upon her father's leg. Laurence
rose and led his daughter from the room, saying:
"Little girls who choke in drawing-rooms must learn to choke outside."
"I'm afraid she has adenoids, poor child," said Eleanor, kindly.
"I know what that word means," Harold bragged with gloating knowledge.
"Shut up!" cried Bertram. "You know everything, glass-eyes. But you
don't know there are two worms in your tea-cup."
"There aren't," Harold contradicted.
"All right, drink it up and see. I put them there myself."
"Eleanor!" expostulated the horrified mother. "_Do_ you allow Bertram to
behave like this?"
She hurriedly poured away the contents of Harold's cup, which proved
that the worms were only an invention of his cousin. Yet the joke was
successful in its way, because there was no more tea, and therefore
Harold had to go without a third cup. Edith, whose agitation had been
intense while her husband was brooding in the passage over Frida's
chokes, could stay still no longer, but went out to assist with tugs and
taps of consolation. The colorless visitor departed with his disobedient
dog, and soon a thin pipe was heard in vain whistles upon the twilight
like the lisp of reeds along the dreary margin of a December stream.
John welcomed this recrudescence of maternal competition, which seemed
likely to imperil the alliance, and he was grateful to Bertram and Viola
for their provocation of it. But he had scarcely congratulated himself,
when Hugh came in and at once laid himself out to be agreeable to Miss
Hamilton.
"You've put the summerhouse in hand?" John asked, fussily, in order to
make it perfectly clear to his brother that he was not the owner of
Ambles.
Hugh shook his head.
"My dear man, it's Boxing Day. Besides, I know you only wanted to get
rid of me this afternoon. By the way, Aubrey's going back to town
to-night. Can he have the dog-cart?"
John looked round at the unbidden guest with a protest on his lips; he
had planned to keep Aubrey as a diversion for Hugh, and had taken quite
a fancy to him. Aubrey however, had to be at the office next day, and
John was distressed to lose the cheerful young man's company, although
it had been embarrassing when Grandmama had shuddered every time he
opened his mouth. Another disadvantage of his departure was the
direction of the old lady's imagination toward an imminent marriage
between Hugh and Miss Hamilton, which was extremely galling to John,
especially as the rest of the family was united in suggesting a similar
conjunction between her and himself.
"I don't want to say a word against her, Johnnie," Grandmama began to
mutter one evening about a week later when every game of patience had
failed in turn through congestion of the hearts. "I'm not going to say
she isn't a lady, and perhaps she doesn't mean to make eyes at Hughie."
John would have liked to tell his mother that she was on the verge of
senile decay; but the dim old fetish of parental respect blinked at him
from the jungle of the past, and in a vain search for a way of stopping
her without being rude he let her ramble on.
"Of course, she has very nice eyes, and I can quite understand Hughie's
taking an interest in her. I don't grudge the dear boy his youth. We all
get old in time, and its natural that with us old fogies round him he
_should_ be a little interested in Miss Hamilton. All the same, it
wouldn't be a prudent match. I dare say she thinks I shall have
something to leave Hugh, but I told her only yesterday that I should
leave little or nothing."
"My dear Mama, I can assure you that my secretary--my secretary," John
repeated with as much pomposity as might impress the old lady, "is not
at all dazzled by the glamour of your wealth or James' wealth or
George's wealth or anybody's wealth for that matter."
He might have said that the donkey's ears were the only recognizable
feature of Midas in the Touchwood family had there been the least chance
of his mother's understanding the classical allusion.
"I don't mean to hint that she's _only_ after Hugh's money. I've no
doubt at all that she's excessively in love with him."
"Really?" John exclaimed with such a scornfully ironical intonation that
his mother asked anxiously if he had a sore throat.
"You might take a little honey and borax, my dear boy," she advised, and
immediately continued her estimate of the emotional situation. "Yes, as
I say, excessively in love! But there can't be many young women who
resist Hugh. Why, even as a boy he had his little love affairs. Dear me,
how poor papa used to laugh about them. 'He's going to break a lot of
hearts,' poor papa used to say."
"I don't know about hearts," John commented, gruffly. "But he's broken
everything else, including himself. However, I can assure you, Mama,
that Miss Hamilton's heart is not made of pie-crust, and that she is
more than capable of looking after herself."
"Then you agree with me that she has a selfish disposition. I _am_ glad
you agree with me. I didn't trust her from the beginning; but I thought
you seemed so wrapped up in her cleverness--though when I was young
women didn't think it necessary to be clever--that you were quite blind
to her selfishness. But I _am_ glad you agree with me. There's nobody
who has more sympathy for true love than I have. But though I always
said that love makes the world go round, I've never been partial to
vulgar flirtations. Indeed, if it had to be, I'd rather they got engaged
properly, even if it did mean a long engagement--but leading poor Hughie
on like this--well, I must speak plainly, Johnnie, for, after all, I am
your mother, though I know it's the fashion now to think that children
know more than their parents, and, in my opinion, you ought to put your
foot down. There! I've said what I've been wanting to say for a week,
and if you jump down my throat, well, then you must, and that's all
there is to it."
Now, although John thought his mother fondly stupid and was perfectly
convinced when he asked himself the question that Miss Hamilton was as
remote from admiring Hugh as he was himself, he was nevertheless unable
to resist observing Hugh henceforth with a little of the jealousy that
most men of forty-two feel for juniors of twenty-seven. He was not
prepared to acknowledge that his opinion of Miss Hamilton was colored by
any personal emotion beyond the unqualified respect he gave to her
practical qualities, and he was sure that the only reason for anxiety
about possible developments between her and Hugh was the loss to himself
of her valuable services.
"I've reached an age," he told his reflection, whose crow's-feet were
seeming more conspicuous than usual in the clear wintry weather, "when a
man becomes selfish in small matters. Let me be frank with myself. Let
me admit that I do dislike the idea of an entanglement with Hugh,
because I _have_ found in Miss Hamilton a perfect secretary whom I
should be extremely sorry to lose. Is that surprising? No, it is quite
natural. Curious! I noticed to-day that Hugh's hair is getting very thin
on top. Mine, however, shows no sign of baldness, though fair men nearly
always go bald before dark men. But I'm inclined to fancy that few
observers would give me fifteen years more than Hugh."
If John had really been conscious of a rival in his youngest brother, he
might have derived much encouragement from the attitude of all the other
members of the family, none of whom seemed to think that Hugh had a look
in. But, since he firmly declined to admit his secretary's potentiality
for anything except efficient clerical work, he was only irritated by
it.
"Are you going to marry Miss Hamilton?" Harold actually wanted to know
one evening. He had recently been snubbed for asking the company what
was the difference between gestation and digestion, and was determined
to produce a conundrum that could not be evaded by telling him that he
would not understand the answer. John's solution was to look at his
watch and say it was time for him and Bertram to be in bed, hoping that
Bertram would take it out of his cousin for calling attention to their
existence. One of Bertram's first measures at Ambles had been to
muffle, impede, disorganize and finally destroy the striking of the
drawing-room clock. When this had been accomplished he could count every
night on a few precious minutes snatched from the annihilation of bed
during which he sat mute as a mummy in a kind of cataleptic ecstasy. The
betrayer of this profound peace sullenly gathered up the rubbish with
which he was wont to litter the room every night, and John saw Bertram's
eye flash like a Corsican sharpening the knife of revenge. But whatever
was in store for Harold lacked savor when John heard from the group of
mothers, aunts, sisters, and sisters-in-law the two words "Children
know" dying away in a sibilance of affirmative sighs.
After that it was small consolation to hear a scuffle outside in the
hall followed by the crash of Harold's dispersed collections and a wail
of protest. For the sake of a childish quarrel Hilda and Eleanor were
not going to break up the alliance to which they were now definitely
committed.
"It's so nice for poor Harold to have Bertram to play with him,"
volunteered one mother.
"Yes, and it's nice for Bertram too, because Harold's such a little
worker," the other agreed.
Even George's opaque eyes glimmered with an illusion of life when he
heard his wife praise her nephew; she had not surprised him so
completely since on a wet afternoon, thirteen years ago, she accepted
his hand. It was even obvious to Edith that she must begin to think
about taking sides; and, having exhausted her intelligence by this
discovery, she had not enough wit left to see that now was her
opportunity to trade upon John's sentimental affection for herself, but
proceeded to sacrifice her own daughter to the success of the hostile
alliance.
"I think perhaps it's good for Frida to be teased sometimes," she
ventured.
As for Beatrice, she was not going to draw attention to her
childlessness by giving one more woman the chance of feeling superior to
herself, and her thwarted maternity was placed at the disposal of the
three mothers. Indeed it was she who led the first foray, in which she
was herself severely wounded, as will be seen.
Among the unnecessary vexations and unsatisfactory pleasures which the
human side of John inflicted upon the well-known dramatist, John
Touchwood, was the collection of press-cuttings about himself and his
work; one of Miss Hamilton's least congenial tasks was to preserve in a
scrap-book these tributes to egoism.
"You don't really want me to stick in this paragraph from _High Life_?"
she would protest.
"Which one is that?"
"Why, this ridiculous announcement that you've decided to live on the
upper slopes of the Andes for the next few months in order to gather
material for a tragedy about the Incas."
"Oh, I don't know. It's rather amusing, I think," John would insist,
apologetically. Then, rather lamely, he would add, "You see, I
subscribe."
Miss Hamilton, with a sigh, would dip her brush in the paste.
"I can understand your keeping the notices of your productions, which I
suppose have a certain value, but this sort of childish gossip...."
"Gossip keeps my name before the public."
Then he would fancy that he caught a faint murmur about "lack of
dignity," and once even he thought she whispered something about "lack
of humor."
Therefore, in view of the importance he seemed to attach to the most
irrelevant paragraph, Miss Hamilton could not be blamed for drawing his
attention to a long article in one of those critical quarterlies or
monthlies that are read in club smoking-rooms in the same spirit of
desperation in which at railway stations belated travelers read
time-tables. This article was entitled _What Is Wrong With Our Drama?_
and was signed with some obscurely allusive pseudonym.
"I suppose I am involved in the general condemnation?" said John, with
an attempt at a debonair indifference.
Had he been alone he might have refrained from a descent into
particulars, but having laid so much stress upon the salvage of
worthless flotsam, he could not in Miss Hamilton's presence ignore this
large wreck.
"_Let us pause now to contemplate the roundest and the rosiest of our
romantic cherubs._ Ha-ha! I suppose the fellow thinks that will irritate
me. As a matter of fact, I think it's rather funny, don't you? Rather
clever, I mean. Eh? _But, after all, should we take Mr. Touchwood
seriously? He is only an exuberant schoolboy prancing about with a
pudding-dish on his head and shouting 'Let's pretend I'm a
Knight-at-Arms' to a large and susceptible public. Let us say to Mr.
Touchwood in the words of an earlier romantic who was the fount and
origin of all this Gothic stucco:_
_'O what can ail thee, Knight-at-Arms,_
_So staggered by the critics' tone?_
_The pit and gallery are full,_
_And the play has gone.'_
"I don't mind what he says about _me_," John assured his secretary. "But
I do resent his parodying Keats. Yes, I do strongly resent that. I
wonder who wrote it. I call it rather personal for anonymous criticism."
"Shall I stick it in the book?"
"Certainly," the wounded lion uttered with a roar of disdain. At least
that was the way John fancied he said "certainly."
"Do you really want to know who wrote this article?" she asked,
seriously, a minute or two later.
"It wasn't James?" the victim exclaimed in a flash of comprehension.
"Well, all I can tell you is that two or three days ago your brother
received a copy of the review and a letter from the editorial offices. I
was sorting out your letters and noticed the address on the outside.
Afterwards at breakfast he opened it and took out a check."
"James would call me a rosy cherub," John muttered. "Moreover, I did
tell him about Bertram and the pudding-dish when he was playing at
Perseus. And--no, James doesn't admire Keats."
"Poor man," said Miss Hamilton, charitably.
"Yes, I suppose one ought to be sorry for him rather than angry," John
agreed, snatching at the implied consolation. "All the same, I think I
ought to speak to him about his behavior. Of course, he's quite at
liberty to despise my work, but I don't think he should take advantage
of our relationship to introduce a note of personal--well, really, I
don't think he has any right to call me a round and rosy cherub in
print. After all, the public doesn't know what a damned failure James
himself is. I shouldn't so mind if it really was a big pot calling the
kettle black. I could retaliate then. But as it is I can do nothing."
"Except stick it in your press-cutting book," suggested Miss Hamilton,
with a smile.
"And then my mother goes and presents him with all the silver! No, I
will not overlook this lapse of taste; I shall speak to him about it
this morning. But suppose he asks me how I found out?"
"You must tell him."
"You don't mind?"
"I'm your secretary, aren't I?"
"By Jove, Miss Hamilton, you know, you really are...."
John stopped. He wanted to tell her what a balm her generosity was to
his wound; but he felt that she would prefer him to be practical.
It was like the critic to welcome with composure the accusation of what
John called his duplicity, or rather of what he called duplicity in the
privacy of his own thoughts: to James he began by referring to it as
exaggerated frankness.
"I said nothing more than I've said a hundred times to your face," his
brother pointed out.
"That may be, but you didn't borrow money from me on the strength of
what you said. You told me you had an article on Alfred de Vigny
appearing shortly. You didn't tell me that you were raising the money as
a post obit on my reputation."
"My dear Johnnie, if you're going to abuse me in metaphors, be just at
any rate. Your reputation was a corpse before I dissected it."
"Very well, then," cried John, hotly, "have it your own way and admit
that you're a body-snatcher."
"However," James continued, with a laugh that was for him almost
apologetic, "though I hate excuses, I must point out that the money I
borrowed from you was genuinely on account of Alfred de Vigny and that
this was an unexpected windfall. And to show I bear you no ill will,
which is more than can be said for most borrowers, here's the check I
received. I'm bound to say you deserve it."
"I don't want the money."
"Yet in a way you earned it yourself," the critic chuckled. "But let me
be quite clear. Is this a family quarrel? I don't want to quarrel with
you personally. I hate your work. I think it false, pretentious and
demoralizing. But I like you very much. Do, my dear fellow, let us
contract my good taste in literature and bad taste in manners with your
bad taste in literature and good taste in manners. Like two pugilists,
let's shake hands and walk out of the ring arm-in-arm. Even if I hit you
below the belt, you must blame your curves, Johnnie. You're so plump and
rosy that...."
"That word is becoming an obsession with you. You seem to think it
annoys me, but it doesn't annoy me at all."
"Then it is a family quarrel. Come, your young lady has opened her
campaign well. I congratulate her. By the way, when am I to congratulate
you?"
"This," said John, rising with grave dignity, "is going too far."
He left his brother, armed himself with a brassey, proceeded to the
twenty-acre field, and made the longest drive of his experience. At
lunch James announced that he and Beatrice must be getting back to town
that afternoon, a resolution in which his host acquiesced without even a
conventional murmur of protest. Perhaps it was this attitude of John's
that stung Beatrice into a challenge, or perhaps she had been egged on
by the mothers who, with their children's future to consider, were not
anxious to declare open war upon the rich uncle. At any rate, in her
commonest voice she said:
"It's plain that Jimmie and I are not wanted here any longer."
The mothers looked down at their plates with what they hoped was a
strictly neutral expression. Yet it was impossible not to feel that they
were triumphantly digging one another in the ribs with ghostly fingers,
such an atmosphere of suppressed elation was discernible above the
modest attention they paid to the food before them. Nobody made an
effort to cover the awkwardness created by the remark, and John was
faced with the alternative of contradicting it or acknowledging its
truth; he was certainly not going to be allowed to ignore it in a burst
of general conversation.
"I think that is rather a foolish remark, Beatrice," was his comment.
She shrugged her shoulders so emphatically that her stays creaked in the
horrid silence that enveloped the table.
"Well, we can't all be as clever as Miss Hamilton, and most of us
wouldn't like to be, what's more."
"The dog-cart will be round at three," John replied, coldly.
His sister-in-law, bursting into tears, rushed from the room. James
guffawed and helped himself to potatoes. The various mothers reproved
their children for breaches of table manners. George looked nervously at
his wife as if she was on the point of following the example of
Beatrice. Grandmama, who was daily receding further and further into the
past, put on her spectacles and told John, reproachfully, that he ought
not to tease little Beatrice. Hugh engaged Miss Hamilton in a
conversation about Bernard Shaw. John, forgetting he had already dipped
twice in mustard the morsel of beef upon his fork, dipped it again, so
that his eyes presently filled with tears, to which the observant Harold
called everybody's attention.
"Don't make personal remarks, darling," his mother whispered.
"That's what Johnnie said to me this morning," James chuckled.
When the dog-cart drove off with James and Beatrice at three o'clock to
catch the 3:45 train up to town, John retired to his study in full
expectation that when the mare came back she would at once turn round
for the purpose of driving Miss Hamilton to catch the 5:30 train up to
town: no young woman in her position would forgive that vulgar scene at
lunch. But when he reached his desk he found his secretary hard at work
upon the collection of material for the play as if nothing had happened.
In the presence of such well-bred indifference the recollection of
Beatrice's behavior abashed him more than ever, and, feeling that any
kind of even indirect apology from him would be distasteful to Miss
Hamilton, he tried to concentrate upon the grouping of the trial scene
with an equal show of indifference to the mean events of family life. He
was so far successful that the afternoon passed away without any
allusion to Beatrice, and when the gong sounded for tea his equanimity
was in order again.
After tea, however, Eleanor managed to get hold of John for what she
called a little chat about the future, but which he detected with the
mind's nose as an unpleasant rehash of the morning's pasticcio. He
always dreaded this sister-in-law when she opened with zoological
endearments, and his spirits sank to hear her exclaim boisterously:
"Now, look here, you poor wounded old lion, I'm going to talk to you
seriously about Beatrice."
"There's nothing more to be said," John assured her.
"Now don't be an old bear. You've already made one poor aunt cry; don't
upset me too."
Anybody less likely to be prostrated by grief than Eleanor at that
moment John could not have imagined. She seemed to him the incarnation
of a sinister self-assurance.
"Rubbish," he snapped. "In any case, yours would only be stage tears,
you old crocodile--if I may copy your manner of speech."
"Isn't he in a nasty, horrid, cross mood?" she demanded, with an
affected glance at an imaginary audience. "No, but seriously, John! I do
want to give you a little advice. I suppose it's tactless of me to talk
about advising the great man, but don't bite my head off."
"In what capacity?" the great man asked. "You've forgotten to specify
the precise carnivore that will perform the operation."
"Oh dear, aren't we sarcastic this afternoon?" she asked, opening wide
her eyes. "However, you're not going to frighten me, because I'm
determined to have it out with you, even if you order the dog-cart
before dinner. Johnnie, is it fair to let a complete stranger make
mischief among relations?"
John played the break in Eleanor's voice with beautiful ease.
"I will not have Miss Hamilton's name dragged into these sordid family
squabbles," he asseverated.
"I'm not going to say a word against Miss Hamilton. I think she's a
charming young woman--a little too charming perhaps for you, you
susceptible old goose."
"For goodness sake," John begged, "stick to the jungle and leave the
farmyard alone."
"Now you're not going to rag me out of what I'm going to say. You know
that I'm a real Bohemian who doesn't pay attention to the stupid little
conventionalities that, for instance, Hilda or Edith might consider.
Therefore I'm sure you won't misunderstand me when I warn you about
people talking. Of course, you and I are accustomed to the freedom of
the profession, and as far as I'm concerned you might engage half a
dozen handsome lady secretaries without my even noticing it. But the
others don't understand. They think it's funny."
"Good heavens, what are you trying to suggest?" John demanded.
He could manage the break, but this full pitch made him slog wildly.
"_I_'m not trying to suggest anything. I'm simply telling you what other
people may think. You see, after all, Hilda and Edith couldn't help
noticing that you did allow Miss Hamilton to make mischief between you
and your brother. I dare say James was in the wrong; but is it a part of
a secretary's duties to manage her employer? And James _is_ your
brother. The natural deduction for conventional people like Hilda and
Edith was that--now, don't be annoyed at what I'm going to say, but I
always speak out--I'm famous for my frankness. Well, to put it frankly,
they think that Miss Hamilton can twist you round her little finger.
Then, of course, they ask themselves why, and for conventional people
like Hilda and Edith there's only one explanation. Of course, I told
them it was all nonsense and that you were as innocent as an old lamb. I
dare say you don't mind people talking. That's your business, but I
shouldn't have been a good pal if I hadn't warned you that people will
talk, if they aren't talking already."
"You've got the mind of an usher," said John. "I can't say worse than
that of anybody. Wasn't it you who suggested a French governess should
be given the freedom of Church Row and who laughed at me for being an
old beaver or some other prudish animal because I objected? If I can be
trusted with a French governess, I can surely be trusted with a
confidential secretary. Besides, we're surrounded by an absolute
_chevaux de frise_ of chaperons, for I suppose that Hilda and Edith may
fairly be considered efficient chaperons, even if you are still too
youthfully Bohemian for the post."
Eleanor's age was the only vulnerable spot in her self-confidence, and
John took advantage of it to bring her little chat to a bitter end.
"My dear Johnnie," she said, tartly, "I'm not talking about the present.
I'm warning you about the future. However, you're evidently not in the
mood to listen to anybody."
"No, I'm not," he assented, warmly. "I'm as deaf as an old adder."
The next day John, together with Mrs. Worfolk and Maud, left for
Hampstead, and his secretary traveled with him up to town.
"Yes," his housekeeper was overheard observing to Elsa in the hall of 36
Church Row, "dog-cart is a good name for an unnatural conveyance, but
give me a good old London cab for human beings. Turn again, Whittington,
they say, and they're right. They may call London noisy if they like,
but it's as quiet as a mouse when you put it alongside of all that
baaring and mooing and cockadoodledoing in the country. Well, I mean to
say, Elsa, I'm getting too old for the country. And the master's getting
too old for the country, in my opinion. I'm in hopes he'll settle down
now, and not go wearing himself out any more with the country. Believe
me or not as you will, Elsa, when I tell you that the pore fellow had to
play at ball like any little kid to keep himself amused."
"Fancy that, Mrs. Worfolk," Elsa murmured with a gentle intake of
astonished breath.
"Yes, it used to make me feel all over melancholy to see him. All by
himself in a great field. Pore fellow. He's lonely, that's what it is,
however...."
At this point the conversation born upon whispers and tut-tut passed out
of John's hearing toward the basement.
"I suppose my own servants will start gossiping next," he grumbled to
himself. "Luckily I've learnt to despise gossip. Hullo, here's another
bundle of press-cuttings.
"_It is rumored that John Touchwood's version of Joan of Arc which he is
writing for that noble tragedienne, Miss Janet Bond, will exhibit the
Maid of Orleans in a new and piquant light. The distinguished dramatist
has just returned from France where he has been obtaining some
startling scenic effects for what is confidently expected will be the
playwright's most successful production. We are sorry to hear that Miss
Bond has been suffering from a sharp attack of 'flu, but a visit to Dr.
Brighton has--_"
These and many similar paragraphs were all pasted into the album by his
secretary the next morning, and John was quite annoyed when she referred
to them as worthless gossip.
"You don't know what gossip is," he said, thinking of Eleanor. "I ignore
real gossip."
Miss Hamilton smiled to herself.