Miss Eppendorfer remained in bed until noon; she was “better” she said,
but exhausted and listless. Frances was inordinately busy. She typed
page after page of the authoress’s manuscript, and when there was
absolutely no more to copy, set to work cleaning the table silver. She
did not wish to think. It was the end of the world. Nothing ahead,
nothing she could endure to contemplate.
She hated Miss Eppendorfer because Lionel had been drunk. It was an
illogical and unjust feeling, but she couldn’t repress it. She kept away
from her as much as possible. She was very thankful to see her go out,
arm in arm, with her cousin Kurt, to a concert for which she had bought
tickets for a fabulous price. She thought she would go out herself,
perhaps to church; she had begun to get ready, in fact, when Lionel
arrived. Lionel exactly the same, nonchalant, superior, not a trace even
of fatigue----
“The hall-boy told me Miss E. and the German chap had gone out, so I
thought I’d come up,” he said.
Frances was frigidly silent.
“I owe you an explanation,” he went on, “only--I haven’t any. I ... had
an awful row with Horace, and it knocked me up, and I ... tried to--more
or less--forget it.”
“No doubt you succeeded.”
She spoke with cold precision, like a school teacher to a prejudged
culprit; and he, acknowledging her claims as he always did, forced
himself to explain. It was wretched for him, an almost intolerable
humiliation to be called to account in this way; he was ashamed of
himself, and he longed passionately to drop the subject forever. But
Frances was the woman who had promised to marry him, and he felt he owed
it to her.
“You see, he was offended.... He thought--wanted me to be more--gradual.
Stop on in his office, at least. And in the end, we quarrelled. I told
him I wouldn’t take anything more from him--all that you advised, and so
forth. And he--but what’s the use in repeating all that? It’s the first
row we’ve ever had.”
He could not tell her how he regretted old Horace, with what affection
and pain he remembered his benefits; couldn’t explain how much this
“row” had hurt him. He had been horribly tactless and had wounded and
infuriated Horace, without making it clear to him--or to himself--what
it was about.
If he expected sympathy he was disappointed. If he had only apologised,
said he was ashamed and sorry, she would have melted completely; it was
this insistence upon the misfortune of having quarrelled with Horace,
this cool passing over of his own beastliness, that she couldn’t stand.
She didn’t even ask him to sit down, but remained standing herself,
looking straight at him.
“I’m awfully sorry,” he said, “that I came here like that. Awfully
sorry. It wasn’t fair to you. But I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
Frances laughed shortly.
“Don’t bother to apologise. Why should I object to being alone all night
with two drunken beasts----”
“I say!” he protested.
“It’s evident,” she went on, “that you don’t know at all how I look at
that. How I _loathe_ it. I’d rather not talk about it at all. I’d rather
you’d go.”
“You don’t mean that, Frankie, old girl!”
“I do!”
He searched her face.
“Frankie, you don’t mean ... I see you do, though. Very well, I’ll
go.... But, Frankie!... Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!” said Frankie.