He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
That fears to put it to the touch
To win or lose it all!
_Marquess of Montrose._
Lady Mabel's dinner-party was a very cultured but also a somewhat
unconventional one. Twelve was the number of guests, and all of them
were young, lively, and either literary, scientific, artistic, or
otherwise professional.
Wynifred had been invited, as Jacqueline's penetration had divined,
solely on the score of "Cicely Montfort's" success.
If there was one thing that Lady Mabel loved, it was a gathering of this
sort: where everything imaginable was discussed, from anthropomorphism
to the growing of tobacco in England--from Egyptian hieroglyphics to the
latest _opera bouffe_. The relations of her ladyship's husband would
have had a fit could they have peeped from the heights of their English
starch and propriety at the _mixed_ company in Bruton Street. But, not
greatly to his wife's regret, Colonel Wynch-Frere's health had entailed
a sojourn in Egypt for the winter, and his relations were conspicuous by
their absence. Claud, her unconventional, happy-go-lucky brother, made
all the host she required. However little he might care for the young
actors and journalists who adored his sister, he was always genially
ready to shake hands and profess himself glad to see them; and when his
eldest brother, the earl, complained to him of Mabel's vagaries, he
would merely placidly reply that he did not see why the poor girl should
not have some pleasure in her life--let her take it how she pleased.
Her ladyship was, of course, a holder of that unwritten axiom which
governs modern culture, _Intelligence implies infidelity_.
If she met anyone who had read, or thought, on any subject whatever,
she took it for granted that they had decided that the gospels were
spurious, and St. Paul, as Festus discovered, beside himself. Of course
she, in common with everyone else equally enlightened, kindly conceded
the extreme beauty of the gospel narrative and the great force of St.
Paul's reasoning on false premises--as furnishing a kind of excuse to
those people who had ignorantly accepted them as a Divine message for so
long.
The great charm of holding these opinions was that she found so many to
sympathise with her, and she had invited a selection of these to dinner
that night, sure that the conversation would be most interesting and
instructive. Concerning Wynifred's views on this point she had no
definite knowledge. "Cicely Montfort" spoke of Christianity as still a
vital force, and of the Church Catholic as bearing a Divine charter to
the end of time; but, of course, Christianity is a very artistic theme,
with highly dramatic possibilities, and the most utter unbeliever may
use it effectively to suit the purposes of fiction. Anyway, Lady Mabel's
breadth of view constrained her to hope the best--to expect
enlightenment until ignorance and superstition had been openly avowed;
so she invited Miss Allonby to dinner.
Her pretty drawing-room was as complete as taste could make it; she
herself was a study, as she stood on the fur hearth-rug, receiving her
friends, with all her Irish grace of manner.
Wynifred was in anything but high spirits when she arrived. To begin
with, she was overworked. In her anxiety to render Osmond independent,
she had been taxing her strength to its utmost limits all the winter
through. In the next place, she was angry with herself for having
accepted the invitation; she thought that it showed a want of proper
pride on her part. Finally she was very unhappy over herself, on account
of her utter failure to drive the thought of Claud Cranmer from her
heart. Her self-control seemed gone. She had exacted too much from the
light heart of girlhood--had employed her powers of concentration too
unsparingly. Now the mainspring had suddenly failed; she felt weak and
frightened.
What was to be done if her hold over herself should give way altogether?
A nervous dread was upon her. If her old power over her feelings was
gone, on what could she depend? All the way to Bruton Street she was
calling up her pride, her maidenliness, everything she could think of to
sustain her; yet all the time with a secret consciousness that it was
like applying the spur to a jaded horse--sooner or later she must
stumble, and fall exhausted.
She looked worn and pale as she entered the room. Claud took note of it.
Had he been on the brink of falling in love, it might have checked him;
but, as he was already hopelessly in that condition, it merely inspired
him with tenderness unutterable. It no longer mattered to him whether
she were plain or pretty, youthful or worn; whatever she was, he loved
her.
It so happened that she was obliged, after just greeting him, to take a
seat at the further side of the room, and politeness forced him to
continue the discussion on Swinburne into which he had been drawn by the
last new poetess, a pretty little woman with soft eyes and a hard mouth,
who was living separated from her husband, but most touchingly devoted
to her two children. She was a spiritualist, and had written a book to
prove that Shakespeare was of the same following, so that her
conversation was, as will be divined, deeply interesting.
Wyn, for a few minutes, sat without speaking to anybody, taking in her
surroundings gradually. It seemed as if things were on a different
footing--as if all were changed since the old days at Edge. Claud, in
his simple faultless evening attire, with his smooth fair head under the
light of a yellow silk lamp-shade, and the last new book balanced
carelessly between his fingers as he leaned forward in his low chair,
was in some indefinable way a different Claud from him who had stood
with her in the garden of Poole Farm in the glowing twilight of the
early summer night, which had brought back life to Osmond.
The room was a mass of little luxuries--trifles too light and various to
be describable, all the nameless elegancies of modern life, with its
superfluities, its pretence of intellect, its discriminating taste. It
was not exactly the impression of great wealth which was conveyed--that,
as a rule, is self-assertive. Here the arrangement was absolutely
unconscious; there was no display, it was rather a total ignorance of
the value of money--the result of a condition of life where poverty in
detail was unknown. Lady Mabel had often experienced the want of money,
but that meant money in large quantities; she had been called upon to
forego a London season; she had never felt it necessary to deny herself
a guinea's-worth of hot-house flowers.
Wynifred sat in the circle of delicate light, feeling in every fibre of
her nature the rest and delight of her surroundings. The craving for
beautiful things, for ease and luxury, always so carefully smothered,
was wide awake to-night. Lady Mabel seemed environed in an atmosphere of
her own. The short skirts and thick boots which she had used in
Devonshire were things of the past. Her thick white silk gown swept the
rug at her feet, her emeralds flashed, her clumps of violets made the
air sweet all round her. It was something alien from the seamy side of
life which the girl knew so well. That very day she had travelled along
Holborn, in an omnibus, weary but hopeful, from an interview with her
publisher. Now the idea of that dingy omnibus, of the yellow fog, muddy
streets, dirty boots, and tired limbs;--of the lonely, ungirlish
battling for independence, sent through her a weak movement of false
shame. It was repented of as soon as felt; but the sting remained. It
was not wise of her to visit in Bruton Street. What had she in common
with Lady Mabel, or--Lady Mabel's brother? Her unpretentious black
evening dress, though it fitted well, and showed up the delicate skin
which was one of her definite attractions, seemed to belong to a lower
order of things than the mist of lace, silk, sparkles, and faint perfume
which clad her hostess.
No, she was not wise, she told herself, in the perturbation of her
spirits. What besides discontent could she achieve here?
This unhappy frame of mind lasted about a quarter-of-an-hour. Then she
began to call herself to order. Lady Mabel's attention was diverted by a
young man who was yearning to rave with her over the priceless depths of
truth revealed in the latest infidel romance, and the fearless manner in
which the devoted author had stripped Christianity of its superstitions,
to give it to the world in all its uninspired simplicity. Like the
authoress of the book in question, Lady Mabel had imbibed her Strauss
and her Hegel somewhat late in life, as well as a good deal late in her
century. Doctrines burst upon her with all the force of novelty which,
in the year 1858, a champion of Christianity had been able calmly to
describe as "a class of objections which were very popular a few years
ago, and are not yet entirely extinguished."
The calm disapproval with which Miss Allonby found that it was natural
to listen to the two speakers restored to her a little of her waning
self-respect. A wave of peace crept into her soul. Social distinctions
seemed very small when coupled with the thought of that divinity so
lightly discussed and rejected in this pretty drawing-room. A movement
at her side interrupted her thoughts. Claud had moved to the seat next
her.
"I wonder how you like Belfont in 'The Taming of the Shrew?'" he said,
as though purposely to turn her attention from what she could not avoid
hearing.
It was done, as she had learnt that all his graceful little acts were
done, with a complete show of unconsciousness; but her gratitude made
her answering look radiant with the vivid expression which was to him so
irresistible.
Yet, even as she met his kind eyes, she experienced a pang. Why was this
man placed out of her reach--this one man whose sympathies were so
wonderfully akin to her own? He could interpret her very thoughts; the
least thing that jarred upon her seemed to distress him also.
"You were out, when I called," said he, after a few minutes.
She could find nothing more striking in reply than a bare "Yes."
"I saw your brother," he went on, diffidently. "Did he mention our
conversation to you?"
"No; that is, nothing particular."
"Ah! I was afraid I had put my foot into it," said Claud, taking up the
black lace fan from her knee and playing with it.
"What did you say?" asked the girl, with eager anxiety.
"It was a thankless task--one usually burns one's own fingers by trying
to meddle with other people's affairs; but I thought," said the young
man, "as I had seen a good deal of Allonby last summer, that I would be
doing him a good turn if I let him know the state of affairs?"
"The state of affairs?"
"Yes: with regard to my friend Percivale and Miss Brabourne. You see,
she knew nothing and nobody when your brother spoke to her last summer.
It was unfortunate ... but it could not be helped ... the long and short
of it is, however, that I am afraid she has changed her mind."
Wynifred controlled herself; after all, it was only a definite statement
of what she had known must be the case.
"You--told Osmond this?" she faltered.
"I tried to; I daresay I bungled; anyhow he took it in very bad part.
Said it was a pity for outsiders to meddle in these things, especially
when they were so imperfectly informed."
"Oh!"
"I daresay it was entirely my fault; but I thought, in case he had been
abusing me, that I must justify myself with you.... I mean, I want you
to believe that my motive was kind."
"I do believe it."
How thankful she felt that the room was full of people! Had they been
alone she must have broken down. As it was, he must see that her eyes
were full of tears; and, had her life depended upon it, she could not
have helped answering his tender gaze of sympathy with such a look as
she had never given him before. It was a look of utter, defenceless
weakness--a look of girlish helplessness--it sent his heart knocking
wildly against his side. He drew his breath in sharply, through his set
teeth. Had there been no audience he would have tried his fate there and
then.
Surely it was the subdued woman's heart that appealed to him from those
pathetic eyes. Ah, would she only overlook his inadequacy, his
short-comings, and let him be to her what an inner consciousness told
him that he alone could! He sat gazing at her, oblivious for the moment
of his surroundings; she scattered his dream by a hurried question--the
eloquent silence was more than she could bear.
"Forgive my asking,--but--is anything decided yet?"
"I think you have every right to know as much as I do of the matter.
Percivale proposed to her last night, and was accepted. Of course,
nothing can be announced until the Misses Willoughby sanction the
engagement. He has written this afternoon; but I cannot imagine that any
difficulty will be made on their part; he is so altogether
unexceptionable."
As he spoke, a door opposite them opened, and Elsa appeared in the
doorway. She was smiling--her soft dreamy smile--and her hands were full
of flowers. Her lover was just behind her, his face aglow with happiness
and satisfaction. They came in together; a sudden shade dropped over
Elsa's face as her eyes met those of Wynifred. A slight color rose to
her cheeks, and she hesitated.
Wynifred rose, went forward, shook hands, and inquired after the Misses
Willoughby in a perfectly natural manner; but she failed to reassure the
girl, who answered hurriedly, with a look of guilty consciousness, and
escaped as soon as she possibly could to the other side of the room.
"It is very natural," said Wyn, with a sad little smile to Claud, "that
she should be shy of me; but she need not. I do not blame her in the
least; if anyone is to blame in the matter it is poor Osmond. I fancy he
is likely to suffer pretty severely for his imprudence."
"Miss Allonby," said Lady Mabel, approaching with the young man she had
been talking to, "I want to introduce you to a most interesting person
to take you down to dinner. He is an esoteric Buddhist--so earnest and
devoted, as well as intensely enlightened. Mr. Kleber--Miss Allonby."