When Winifred had gone Clytie took an omnibus to Cheyne Walk, where
some friends of hers lived, and after her visit returned to her solitary
dinner. It argued some strength of mind in Clytie that she did not give
way, as many lonely women do, to a distaste for ordinary food, and a
corresponding craving for the miscellaneous and not over wholesome
meal denominated high tea. She had not reached the stage of feminine
depression and sense of helplessness when inchoate banqueting on
bread and butter and penny buns seems to bring cheerless solace. Her
temperament seemed almost virile in its vigour, and although she had her
sex's antipathy to gastronomy, she nevertheless found it reasonable
that she should be provided with a decently served dinner. Besides, Mrs.
Gurkins, who was professionally interested in food stuffs, held solid
views on the subject. She herself had a good appetite, and her little
girl children ate everything they could lay their little white teeth to;
she did not believe in not being hungry. It was one of her grievances
that her other lodger, Mr. Kent upstairs, cooked his own victuals
scramblingly, and would not allow her to see that his wants were duly
satisfied. Accordingly she bestowed extra care upon Clytie.
After the cloth was removed Clytie continued the book she had been
reading during the meal, and at last flung it aside. She rose and walked
about the room, somewhat restless. She felt lonely--vaguely desirous
of action, and yet idle. Was it a dumb premonition of fate, this
restlessness? At any rate it led her to perform a trivial action which
set in motion the currents of her future life.
She sat down at her writing table that stood in the recess between the
fireplace and the light-curtained window and lit a couple of candles,
whose pretty red paper shades threw a rosy glow around the corner of the
room. It was only a simple note that she scribbled, hastily, boldly,
as was her wont. Then she left the candles burning, and returned to her
armchair by the fire and gave herself up to meditation.
The boy model she had engaged that morning interested' her powerfully.
She shrank from an insistence upon the solution of the little problem
she had offered to Winifred during the afternoon, hovering over and
away from it. Her sense of type and personality was too acute not to be
profoundly struck by the difference between his mother and himself. On
the one hand was dulness, commonness, a coarse-fibred nature responsive
to the stirrings of neither hope nor despair, a dull, uncomplaining
drudge; on the other hand a quick, fiery temperament, showing itself in
flashing black eyes, delicate nostrils, wiry, curly brown hair--all made
picturesque by unqualified dirt. And yet, despite this refinement of
feature, there was cruelty, brutality even, written on the childish
face. That might be the fault of his upbringing, thought Clytie. But
his beauty--where did it come from? She smiled as she thought of King
Cophetua. It was the beggar maiden's grace that had won the king's
heart, and grace was a quality that Jack's mother most distinctly
lacked. Clytie felt dimly conscious of being on the verge of an
appalling discovery. Her reading had been catholic enough, and her
independent acquaintance with life sufficiently broad, to render the
fact familiar to her that kings and beggar maidens if they fall in love
with each other usually dispense with the ceremony of marriage. But then
love pardons all--a formula in Clytie's new theory of social statics,
perhaps wisely not accepted in Durdleham--and all the sorrow in
lawlessness that had come within Clytie's small experience had been in
her eyes sanctified by love. Yet who could have loved this woman? She
was not more than three-and-thirty now--young enough to show that she
had never possessed the mere attraction of comeliness. The boy remained,
however, a living proof.
She thought of Winifred, and sighed a little. Why should she be forever
craving after this strange hidden knowledge, after the taste of things
bitter, when there was so much sweetness in life? The thought of
Winifred's pure, gentle touch in flowers and delicate bloom of fruit and
calm, transparent glass came over her like a rebuke. And then she smiled
again, remembering how Winifred had coaxed her once to try and paint a
bunch of roses, and how dismayed she had been at the egregious failure.
No; the cobbler must not go beyond his last.
“I don't suppose I am very wicked after all,” she said to herself.
She rested her chin upon her hand and let her thoughts wander idly,
building up a romance for Jack. He was a foundling, of noble parents,
and Mrs. Burmester was only his foster mother. Then she roused herself
with a little exclamation of disgust:
“What a perfectly Durdleham solution!”
The next moment, with an instinct common to folks whether at Durdleham
or London, she sprang from her chair and cried:
“There's something burning!”
The room in fact was full of thin smoke, and, as Clytie rose, a snake of
red flame ran up the curtains by the writing-desk. She rushed to them,
but as soon as she had touched them, the folds being shaken out, the
whole burst into a blaze. She fled to the door about to scream “Fire!”
at the top of her voice.
What happened next neither she nor John Kent could afterwards exactly
explain. He was on his way downstairs when the door was suddenly thrown
open and a stream of light burst on to the gloomy landing. Clytie ran
almost into his arms crying, “My room is on fire!” and then he was
tearing down blazing, fiery curtains, smothering them with rugs, and
stamping out glowing masses of drapery amid much smoke and confusion. It
did not take very long to extinguish the flames, but the struggle while
it lasted was fierce and exciting. Clytie stood by watching him, her
hand at her throat. It was a new sensation to her to have a man acting
for her in an emergency. She had failed. She saw by the man's energy,
his fearless dealing with the blazing mass, his strength, his violence,
that she never could have succeeded. She admired him, was angry at it;
felt herself a helpless woman, was angry at that too; wished that the
danger had been a little greater, at which she was more angry than ever.
However, when the last traces of the fire were extinguished, and the
man stood before her, somewhat out of breath, wiping his forehead, this
little train of emotions came to an end. She gazed piteously at her
curtainless windows and scorched wainscoting. He turned and opened
the window, whence the damp, gusty wind whirled the smoke in billowing
drifts about the room.
“There!” he said, with a breath of relief.
“Oh, how can I thank you?” said Clytie. + “Don't,” he replied with
cheerful laconism. “I am glad I was handy--for your sake as well as my
own. I live upstairs.”
“I know; I have seen you come in and out. In fact, you passed us to-day.
But still you have saved the whole house, and I thank you very, very
much!”
“How did it all happen?” he asked, removing for the first time his white
slouch hat and disclosing a shock of brown curly hair.
“The candle-shade on the desk; do you see? It must have caught fire and
toppled over on to the curtains. I was sitting here and forgot I had
left the candles alight; and then I smelled something burning and saw
the curtains in a blaze. Then I ran out to call somebody.”
“That was very stupid,” said Kent, pushing back the desk from the middle
of the room, where he had wheeled it; “by opening the door you made the
things burn quicker. All you had to do was to drag down the curtains and
cover them with the hearthrug. And then it is very silly to use paper
candle-shades. They are no good, and they are always causing accidents.
I hope you are not going to get any more.”
The assured paternal air with which Kent delivered himself of this
little speech did away with its apparent rudeness. Clytie, who at first
looked rather resentfully at her rebuker, laughed.
They bent down together to restore order among the singed rugs. Beneath
them was Kent's waterproof, on to which he had thrown the blazing
curtains. It was very badly burned and of course rendered useless.
“It is utterly ruined!” exclaimed Clytie, examining the holes with a
helpless expression of regret on her face.
And then her eyes suddenly fell upon a great ugly red splash upon his
hand. He withdrew it hastily, but she caught the sleeve of his coat. The
stuff came away between her fingers.
“You have burned yourself horribly. Oh, what can I do?”
“It's nothing,” said Kent. “It doesn't hurt. I'll go and put something
on it. Please don't trouble. Goodnight.”
He moved towards the door, with his hat and burned waterproof in his
hand. But Clytie could not let him leave in this way. The woman in her
was moved.
“Oh, please don't go until I have seen what harm you have got. I should
feel so unhappy about it. I may be able to dress it for you--until you
can see a doctor.”
She spoke so sincerely, so frankly, and looked at him with such genuine
concern, that he surrendered with a good grace. He came forward to
the table where the big lamp was burning and put out his arm for her
inspection. It was really injured, and was beginning to be exceedingly
painful.
“What can I do for it?” she asked rather helplessly.
“Oh, some olive oil and a bit of rag will be the best.”
Clytie produced some cotton wool and some oil from a cruet in the
sideboard and then sought after some linen to bandage with. Kent noticed
that she did not ask him for his handkerchief, nor did she use her own,
but went rather impulsively to a workbasket and tore off a strip of soft
material that was lying on the top. It was very expensive stuff, and the
whole piece of work of which it was to form a part was spoiled. It was
characteristic of her. Another woman would have remembered where she had
stored some odds and ends of old linen.
Kent watched her curiously as she was bending over his hand. He had
often seen her before, but his life went on so far outside the sphere of
women that he had scarcely given her a thought as he had passed her by.
He had never even inquired her name. From the mere fact of her renting
the studio it had come involuntarily to his knowledge that she followed
pursuits more or less artistic; but his curiosity had never been
aroused. Now that he had been suddenly thrown into close contact with
her he was interested. He smiled at himself for the unwonted pleasure
he found in watching the lights dancing through her hair, the brows
contracted ever so little in the absorption of her occupation, the long
nervous fingers, set on the broad palm, deftly arranging the cotton
wool, the scrap of old lace at her throat and wrists. She was pretty,
striking, to look upon, but he had not formed a very high impression of
her otherwise. It was just the sort of thing a woman would do, to run
out of the room when it was on fire, to give up thinking for herself in
any emergency and trust blindly in Providence--or a man. It is a strange
thing that those men who see least of women know most concerning them.
As she raised her head after pinning the bandage she caught the
expression of amusement on his face. He was quick to note the little
shadow of resentment that passed over hers.
“I was thinking what a mess I should have made of it by myself,” he said
with a tact that surprised him. “Thank you very much.”
“It was the least I could do,” replied Clytie. “I feel so guilty about
it all--and your poor waterproof too.”
“It's a very old one,” he replied good-humouredly, holding the garment
out for inspection. “My friends will be delighted. They have threatened
to cut me in the streets if they saw me in it again. So you see you have
secured my friendship for me. And I shall get on much better with an
umbrella to-night.”
“But you're surely not going out to-night!” cried Clytie, moving to the
window and shutting it, as if he were intending to escape through it.
“It is pouring wet, and you would catch cold in your hand--it would get
inflamed, or something dreadful. It is stupid of people not to take care
of themselves. It's hurting fearfully, isn't it? Tell me.”
She looked at him so frankly, her head thrown back a little, and spoke
with such a faint touch of imperiousness in her voice, that Kent checked
his impulse of retreat. “Of course it hurts. But I don't mind. If one
minded all the little pains of this life, one would have no time for
anything else. Besides, I am used to rough it a bit. It is my own
choice, more or less, and I like it.”
Clytie remembered the strange stories Mrs. Gurkins had told her about
Kent's way of life. She had listened to them with idle interest, never
imagining that Kent and herself would ever become acquainted. Now that
he alluded to his habits she felt bound to confess her share in the
gossip, which she did somewhat rebelliously, checking certain more
timorous promptings of silence.
“So you see I know all about you,” she said in conclusion. “When people
are eccentric they become, as it were, public characters. Now if you
were to talk to Mrs. Gurkins----”
“Heavens forbid!” cried Kent with much warmth. “I was fleeing from her
this afternoon when I nearly knocked you down.”
“Why?” asked Clytie, laughing.
“I don't know--instinct, I suppose. Perhaps I have been wrong. Otherwise
I might have known something more of you. It's a bad compliment, I am
aware, but I have been here a whole year and I have never seen or heard
your name. Might I know whom I have had the pleasure of assisting? I did
not in the least care before, but now it is different.”
There was an honesty and directness in his voice that pleased Clytie.
She felt glad he had asked her. There is a touch of susceptible vanity
even in the most emancipated of women.
“My name is Davenant, and I am by way of being an artist--that is to
say, I gain my living by it.”
Her eyes wandered unconsciously round the room hung with many of her
half-finished sketches. Kent followed her glance, and then crossed to
the wall and examined one or two of the pictures.
“Are these yours?” he asked, turning round quickly.
They were charcoal sketches of street scenes, direct and daring. Kent
received Clytie's nod of assent, and glanced at the pictures and then at
her again, as if trying to reconcile the two.
“Is all your work of this kind?”
“Mostly. Sometimes I draw it milder,” she added, with a smile, “when
definite orders come in; but I feel more at home with this sort of
thing.”
Kent returned to the centre of the room, where he had been standing
before.
“I am not an artist myself,” he said, “but I have been brought up in
an atmosphere of art and I love it. My father was Rupert Kent,
painter-etcher; he did that little thing over your mantelpiece.”
“Isn't it a perfect little piece of work?” said Clytie, looking round at
it. “I am very fond of it.”
“So was my father. Well, you see, I am not a Philistine in art matters,
and when I say your work interests me I mean it. I should like to look
at some more of it. Where is it to be found?”
“You can come anytime to my studio if you like. It is my place of
business, you know, and perhaps you may get me some orders. Art is
terribly mercenary in these days.”
“I want to see the things you do for yourself,” said Kent bluntly,
ignoring the little hedge wherewith she had fenced her invitation. “It
will be very kind of you to let me come.”
Clytie held out her hand to him as he bade her goodnight and thanked him
for his help.
“And now that we know each other,” she said, “I hope--I hope you won't
cut me on the stairs.”
When he had gone Clytie looked ruefully at the damage that had been
done. Her pretty inside curtains were destroyed; the heavy outer ones
burned into great charred holes. The carpet and hearthrug were badly
scorched, and the side of her writing-table warped and blistered. As she
gazed at the wreck she went over the little scene in her mind. Why had
she stood still, leaving the whole of the work to Kent? What must he
have thought of her?
If he had been any ordinary man of her acquaintance she would have been
still angry with herself for her helplessness, and her anger would have
reflected itself on him. But now she put the question to herself more
through curiosity than irritation. There was a simplicity about the man
that attracted her. His words had been blunt, almost rude sometimes, but
his voice had been kind, his manner protective, straightforward. She
had signally marked her approbation for him by asking him to visit
her studio, a privilege she only accorded to a few tried and very
sympathetic men friends. Kent interested her, and yet she had not the
slightest desire to transfer her impression of him to canvas.
The next morning she gave Winifred an account of the last evening's
incidents, confessing her own impressions in her wilful, half-cynical
way. Her friend listened meekly, wondering at her earnestness. The
curtains had caught fire, a gentleman had come opportunely to her aid,
had burned his hand, which she had tended in common courtesy. It was
all so very natural. As for feeling humiliated at being helped by a man,
what are women put in the world for except to yield and give way before
men?
But Winifred did not say this to Clytie.