THE WORLDS OF MERITON.
The garden at Halton was a pleasant place on a fine evening, with a moon
waxing, yet not obtrusively full, with billowing shrubberies, clear-cut
walks, lawns spreading in a gentle drabness that would be bright green
in to-morrow's sun--a place pleasant in its calm, its spaciousness and
isolation. They all sat together in a ring for a while; smoke curled up;
a servant brought glasses that clinked as they were set down with a
cheery, yet not urgent, suggestion.
"I suppose you're right to go in for it," said Wellgood to Harry. "It's
your obvious line." (He was referring to a public career.) "But, after
all, it's casting pearls before swine."
"Swine!" The note of exclamation was large. "Our masters, Mr. Wellgood!"
"A decent allowance of bran, and a ring through their noses--that's the
thing for them!"
"Has anybody got a copy--well, another copy of 'Coriolanus'?" Harry
inquired in an affectation of eagerness.
"Casting pearls before swine is bad business, of course," said Belfield
in his husky voice--he was really unwise to be out of doors at all; "but
there are degrees of badness. If your pearls are indifferent as pearls,
and your swine admirable as swine? And that's often the truth of it."
"My husband is sometimes perverse in his talk, my dear," said Mrs.
Belfield, aside to Vivien, to whom she was being very kind. "You needn't
notice what he says."
"He's rather amusing," Vivien ventured, not quite sure whether the
adjective were respectful enough.
"Andy, pronounce!" cried Harry Belfield; for his friend sat in his usual
meditative absorbing silence.
"If I had to, I'd like to say a word from the point of view of
the--swine." Had the moon been stronger, he might have been seen to
blush. "I don't want to be--oh, well, serious. That's rot, I know--after
dinner. But--well, you're all in it--insiders--I'm an outsider. And I
say that what the swine want is--pearls!"
"If we've got them?" The question, or insinuation, was Belfield's. He
was looking at Andy with a real, if an only half-serious, interest.
"Swine are swine," remarked Wellgood. "They mustn't forget it. Neither
must we."
"But pearls by no means always pearls?" Belfield suggested. "Though they
may look the real thing if a pretty woman hangs them round her neck."
Their talk went only for an embellishment of their general state--so
comfortable, so serene, so exceptionally fortunate. Were not they
pearls? Andy had seen something of the swine, had perhaps even been one
of them. A vague protest stirred in him; were they not too serene, too
comfortable, too fortunate? Yet he loved it all; it was beautiful. How
many uglies go to make one beautiful? It is a bit of social arithmetic.
When you have got the result, the deduction may well seem difficult.
"It doesn't much matter whether they're real or not, if a really pretty
woman hangs them round her neck," Harry laughed. "The neck carries the
pearls!"
"But we'd all rather they were real," said Isobel Vintry suddenly, the
first of the women to intervene. "Other women guess, you see."
"Does it hurt so much if they do?" Belfield asked.
"The only thing that really does hurt," Isobel assured him, smiling.
"Oh, my dear, how disproportionate!" sighed Mrs. Belfield.
"I'd never have anything false about me--pearls, or lace, or hair,
or--or anything about me," exclaimed Vivien. "I should hate it!" Feeling
carried her into sudden unexpected speech.
Very gradually, very tentatively, Andy was finding himself able to speak
in this sort of company, to speak as an equal to equals, not socially
only, but in an intellectual regard.
"Riches seem to me all wrong, but what they produce, leaving out the
wasters, all right." He let it out, apprehensive of a censuring silence.
Belfield relieved him in a minute.
"I'm with you. I always admire most the things to which I'm on principle
opposed--a melancholy state of one's mental interior! Kings, lords, and
bishops--crowns, coronets, and aprons--all very attractive and
picturesque!"
"We all know that the governor's a crypto-Radical," said Harry.
"I thought Carlyle, among others, had taught that we were all Radicals
when in our pyjamas--or less," said Belfield. "But that's not the point.
The excellence of things that are wrong, the narrowness of the moral
view!"
"My dear! Oh, well, my dear!" murmured Mrs. Belfield.
"I've got a touch of asthma--I must say what I like." Belfield
humorously traded on his infirmity. "A dishonest fellow who won't pay
his tradesmen, a flirtatious minx who will make mischief, a spoilt
urchin who insists on doing what he shouldn't--all rather attractive,
aren't they? If everybody behaved properly we should have no
'situations.' What would become of literature and the drama?"
"And if nobody had any spare cash, what would become of them, either?"
asked Harry.
"Well, we could do with a good deal less of them. I'll go so far as to
admit that," said Wellgood.
Belfield laughed. "Even from Wellgood we've extracted one plea for the
redistribution of wealth. A dialectical triumph! Let's leave it at
that."
Mrs. Belfield carried her husband off indoors; Wellgood went with them,
challenging his host to a game of bezique; Harry invited Vivien to a
stroll; Isobel Vintry and Andy were left together. She asked him a
sudden question:
"Do you think Harry Belfield a selfish man?"
"Selfish! Harry? Heavens, no! He'd do anything for his friends."
"I don't mean quite in that way. I daresay he would--and, of course,
he's too well-mannered to be selfish about trifles. But I suppose even
to ask questions about him is treason to you?"
"Oh, well, a little bit," laughed Andy. "I'm an old follower, you see!"
"Yes, and he thinks it natural you should be," she suggested quickly.
"Well, if it is natural, why shouldn't he think so?"
"It seems natural to him that he should always come first, and--and have
the pick of things."
"You mean he's spoilt? According to his father, that makes him more
attractive."
"Yes, I'm not saying it doesn't do that. Only--do you never mind it?
Never mind playing second fiddle?"
"Second fiddle seems rather a high position. I hardly reckon myself in
the orchestra at all," he laughed. "You remember--I'm accustomed to
following the hunt on foot."
"While Harry Belfield rides! Yes! Vivien rides too--and doesn't like
it!"
She was bending forward in her chair, handsome, sumptuous in her white
and gold (Wellgood had made her a present the quarter-day before), with
her smile very bitter. The smile told that she spoke with a meaning more
than literal. Andy surveyed, at his leisure, possible metaphorical
bearings.
"Oh yes, I think I see," he announced, after an interval fully
perceptible. "You mean she doesn't really appreciate her advantages? By
riding you mean--?"
"Oh, really, Mr. Hayes!" She broke into vexed amused laughter. "I
mustn't try it any more with you," she declared.
"But I shall understand if you give me time to think it over," Andy
protested. "Don't rush me, that's all, Miss Vintry."
"As if I could rush any one or anything!" she said, handsome still, now
handsomely despairing.
To Andy she was a problem, needing time to think over; to Wellgood she
was a postulate, assumed not proved, yet assumed to be proved; to Harry
she was--save for that subtle momentary feeling on the terrace by the
lake--Vivien's companion. She wanted to be something other than any of
these. Follow the hounds on foot? She would know what it was to ride!
Know and not like--in Vivien's fashion? Andy, slowly digesting, saw her
lips curve in that bitter smile again.
From a path near by, yet secluded behind a thick trim hedge of yew,
there sounded a girl's nervous flutter of a laugh, a young man's
exultant merriment. Harry and Vivien, not far away, seemed the space of
a world apart--to Isobel; Andy was normally conscious that they were not
more than twenty yards off, and almost within hearing if they spoke. But
he had been getting at Isobel's meaning--slowly and surely.
"Being able to ride--having the opportunity--and not caring--that's
pearls before--?"
"I congratulate you, Mr. Hayes. I can imagine you making a very good
speech--after the election is over!"
Andy laughed heartily, leaning back in his chair.
"That's jolly good, Miss Vintry!" he said.
"Ten minutes after the poll closed you'd begin to persuade the
electors!" She spoke rather lower. "Ten minutes after a girl had taken
another man, you'd--"
"Give me time! I've never thought about myself like that," cried Andy.
No more sounds from the path behind the yew hedge. She was impatient
with Andy--would Harry never come back from that path?
He came back the next moment--he and Vivien. Vivien's face was a
confession, Harry's air a self-congratulation.
"I hope you've been making yourself amusing, Andy?" asked Harry. His
tone conveyed a touch of amusement at the idea of Andy being amusing.
"Miss Vintry's been pitching into me like anything," said Andy, smiling
broadly. "She says I'm always a day after the fair. I'm going to think
it over--and try to get a move on."
His good-nature, his simplicity, his serious intention to attempt
self-improvement, tickled Harry intensely. Why, probably Isobel had
wanted to flirt, and Andy had failed to play up to her! He burst into a
laugh; Vivien's laugh followed as an applauding echo.
"A lecture, was it, Miss Vintry?" Harry asked in banter.
"I could give you one too," said Isobel, colouring a little.
"She gives me plenty!" Vivien remarked, with a solemnly comic shake of
her head.
"It's my business in life," said Isobel.
Just for a second Harry looked at her; an impish smile was on his lips.
Did she think that, was she honest about it? Or was she provocative? It
crossed Harry's mind--past experiences facilitating the transit of the
idea--that she might be saying to him, "Is that all a young woman of my
looks is good for? To give lectures?"
"You shall give me one at the earliest opportunity, if you'll be so
kind," he laughed, his eyes boldly conveying that he would enjoy the
lesson. Vivien laughed again; it was great fun to see Harry chaffing
Isobel! She liked Isobel, but was in awe of her. Had not Isobel all the
difficult virtues which it was her own woeful task to learn? But Harry
could chaff her--Harry could do anything.
"If I do, I'll teach you something you don't know, Mr. Harry," Isobel
said, letting her eyes meet his with a boldness equal to his own. Again
that subtle feeling touched him, as it had on the terrace by the lake.
"I'm ready to learn my lesson," he assured her, with a challenging gleam
in his eye.
She nodded rather scornfully, but accepting his challenge. There was a
last bit of by-play between their eyes.
"It's really time to go, if Mr. Wellgood has finished his game," said
Isobel, rising.
The insinuation of the words, the by-play of the eyes, had passed over
Vivien's head and outside the limits of Andy's perspicacity. To both of
them the bandying of words was but chaff; by both the exchange of
glances went unmarked. Well, the whole thing was no more than chaff to
Harry himself; such chaff as he was very good at, a practised hand--and
not ignorant of why the chaff was pleasant. And Isobel? Oh yes, she
knew! Harry was amused to find this knowledge in Vivien's
companion--this provocation, this freemasonry of flirtation. Poor old
Andy had, of course, seen none of it! Well, perhaps it needed a bit of
experience--besides the temperament.
Indoors, farewell was soon said--hours ruled early at Meriton. Soon
said, yet not without some significance in the saying. Mrs. Belfield was
openly affectionate to Vivien, and Belfield paternal in a courtly way;
Harry very devoted to the same young lady, yet with a challenging
"aside" of his eyes for Isobel; Andy brimming over with a vain effort to
express adequately but without gush his thanks for the evening.
Belfield, being two pounds the better of Wellgood over their bezique,
was in more than his usual good-temper--it was spiced with malice, for
the defeat of Wellgood (a bad loser) counted for more than the forty
shillings--and gave Andy his hand and a pat on the back.
"It's not often one has to tell a man not to undervalue himself," he
remarked. "But I fancy I might say that to you. Well, I'm no prophet;
but at any rate be sure you're always welcome at this house for your own
sake, as well as for Harry's."
Getting into the carriage with Isobel and her father, Vivien felt like
going back to school. But in all likelihood she would see Harry's eyes
again to-morrow. She did not forget to give a kindly glance to solid
Andy Hayes--not exciting, nor bewildering, nor inflaming (as another
was!), but somehow comforting and reassuring to think of. She sat down
on the narrow seat, fronting her father and Isobel. Yes--but school
wouldn't last much longer! And after school? Ineffable heaven! Being
with Harry, loving Harry, being loved by--? That vaulting imagination
seemed still almost--nay, it seemed quite--impossible. Yet if your own
eyes assure you of things impossible--well, there's a good case for
believing your eyes, and the belief is pleasant. Wellgood sore over his
two pounds, Isobel dissatisfied with fate but challenging it, sat
silent. The young girl's lips curved in sweet memories and triumphant
anticipations. The best thing in the world--was it actually to be hers?
Almost she knew it, though she would not own to the knowledge yet.
Happy was she in the handkerchief flung by her hero! Happy was Harry
Belfield in the ready devotion, the innocent happy surrender, of one
girl, and the vexed challenge of another whom he had--whom he had at
least meant to ignore; he could never answer for it that he would quite
ignore a woman who displayed such a challenge in the lists of sex. But
there was a happier being still among those who left Halton that night.
It was Andy Hayes, before whom life had opened so, who had enjoyed such
a wonderful day-off, who had been told not to undervalue himself, had
been reproached with being a day after the fair, had undergone (as it
seemed) an initiation into a life of which he had hardly dreamt, yet of
which he appeared, in that one summer's day, to have been accepted as a
part.
Yes, Andy was on the whole the happiest--happier even than Harry, to
whom content, triumph, and challenge were all too habitual; happier even
than Vivien, who had still some schooling to endure, still some of
love's finicking doubts, some of hope's artificially prudent
incredulity, to overcome; beyond doubt happier than Wellgood, who had
lost two pounds, or Isobel Vintry, who had challenged and had been told
that her challenge should be taken up--some day! Mrs. Belfield was
intent on sleeping well, as she always did; Mr. Belfield on not coughing
too much--as he generally did. They were not competitors in happiness.
Andy walked home. Halton lay half a mile outside the town; his lodgings
were at the far end of High Street. All through the long, broad,
familiar street--in old days he had known who lived in well-nigh every
house--his road lay. He walked home under the stars. The day had been
wonderful; they who had figured in it peopled his brain--delicate dainty
Vivien first; with her, brilliant Harry; that puzzling Miss Vintry; Mr.
Belfield, who talked so whimsically and had told him not to undervalue
himself; Wellgood, grim, hard, merciless, yet somehow with the stamp of
a man about him; Mrs. Belfield serenely matching with her house, her
Vandykes, her garden, and the situation to which it had pleased Heaven
to call her. Soberly now--soberly now--had he ever expected to be a part
of all this?
High Street lay dark and quiet. It was eleven o'clock. He passed the old
grammar school with a thought of the dear old father--B.A. Oxon, which
had something to do with his wonderful day. He passed the Lion, where
"the Bird" officiated, and Mr. Foulkes' office, where "Chinks" aspired
to become "gentleman, one etc."--so runs the formula that gives a
solicitor his status. All dark! Now if by chance Jack Rock were up, and
willing to listen to a little honest triumphing! It had been a day to
talk about.
Yes, Jack was up; his parlour lights glowed cosily behind red blinds.
Yet Andy was not to have a clear field for the recital of his
adventures; it was no moment for an exhibition of his honest pride,
based on an unimpaired humility. Jack Rock had a party. The table was
furnished with beer, whisky, gin, tobacco, and clay pipes. Round it sat
old friends--Chinks and the Bird; the Bird's father, Mr. Dove, landlord
of the Lion; and Cox, the veterinary surgeon. After the labours of the
week they were having a little "fling" on Saturday night--convivially,
yet in all reasonable temperance. The elder men--Jack, Mr. Dove, and
Cox--greeted Andy with intimate and affectionate cordiality; a certain
constraint marked the manner of Chinks and the Bird--they could not
forget the afternoon's encounter. His evening coat too, and his
shirt-front! Everybody marked them; but they had a notion that he might
have caught that habit in London.
Andy's welcome over, Mr. Dove of the Lion took up his tale at the point
at which he had left it. Mr. Dove had not Jack Rock's education--he had
never been at the grammar school but he was a shrewd sensible old
fellow, who prided himself on the respectability of his "house" and felt
his responsibilities as a publican without being too fond of the folk
who were always dinning them into his ears.
"I says to the girl, 'We don't want no carryings-on at the Lion.' That's
what I says, Jack. She says, 'That wasn't nothing, Mr. Dove--only a give
and take o' nonsense. The bar between us too! W'ere's the 'arm?' 'I
don't like it, Miss Miles,' I says, 'I don't like it, that's all.' 'Oh,
very good, Mr. Dove! You're master 'ere, o' course; only, if you won't
'ave that, you won't keep up your takings, that's all!' That's the way
she put it, Jack."
"Bit of truth in it, perhaps," Jack opined.
"There's a lot of truth in it," said the Bird solemnly. "Fellers like to
show off before a good-looking girl--whether she's behind a bar or
whether she ain't."
"If there never 'adn't been barmaids, I wouldn't be the one to begin
it," said Mr. Dove. "I knows its difficulties. But there they are--all
them nice girls bred to it! What are ye to do with 'em, Jack?"
"A drink doesn't taste any worse for being 'anded--handed--to you by a
pretty girl," said Chinks with a knowing chuckle.
"Then you give 'er one--then you stand me one--then you 'ave another
yourself--just to say 'Blow the expense!' Oh, the girl knew the way of
it--I ain't saying she didn't!" Mr. Dove smoked fast, evidently puzzled
in his mind. "And she's a good girl 'erself too, ain't she, Tom?"
Tom blushed--blushed very visibly. Miss Miles was not a subject of
indifference to the Bird.
"She's very civil-spoken," he mumbled shamefacedly.
"That she is--and a fine figure of a girl too," added Jack Rock. "Know
her, Andy?"
Well, no! Andy did not know her; he felt profoundly apologetic. Miss
Miles was evidently a person whom one ought to know, if one would be in
the world of Meriton. The world of Meriton? It came home to him that
there was more than one.
Mr. Cox was a man who listened--in that respect rather like Andy
himself; but, when he did speak, he was in the habit of giving a
verdict, therein deviating from Andy's humble way.
"Barmaids oughtn't to a' come into existence," he said. "Being there,
they're best left--under supervision." He nodded at old Dove, as though
to say, "You won't get any further than that if you talk all night," and
put his pipe back into his mouth.
"The doctor's right, I daresay," said old Dove in a tone of relief. It
is always something of a comfort to be told that one's problems are
insoluble; the obligation of trying to solve them is thereby removed.
Jack accepted this ending to the discussion.
"And what have you been doing with yourself, Andy?" he asked.
Andy found a curious difficulty in answering. Tea and tennis at Nutley,
dinner at Halton--it seemed impossible to speak the words without
self-consciousness. He felt that Chinks and the Bird had their eyes on
him.
"Been at work all the week, Jack. Had a day-off to-day."
Luckily Jack fastened on the first part of his answer. He turned a keen
glance on Andy. "Business doin' well?"
"Not particularly," Andy confessed. "It's a bit hard for a new-comer to
establish a connection."
"You're right there, Andy," commented old Mr. Dove, serenely happy in
the knowledge of an ancient and good connection attaching to the Lion.
"Oh, not particularly well?" Jack nodded with an air of what looked like
satisfaction, though it would not be kind to Andy to be satisfied.
"Playing lawn-tennis at Nutley, weren't you?" asked Chinks suddenly.
All faces turned to Andy.
"Yes, I was, Chinks," he said.
"Half expected you to supper, Andy," said Jack Rock.
"Sorry, Jack. I would have come if I'd been free. But--"
"Well, where were you?"
There was no help for it.
"I was dining out, Jack."
Andy's tone became as airy as he could make it, as careless, as natural.
His effort in this kind was not a great success.
"Harry Belfield asked me to Halton."
A short silence followed. They were good fellows, one and all of them;
nobody had a jibe for him; the envy, if envy there were, was even as his
own for Harry Belfield. Cox looked round and raised his glass.
"'Ere's to you, Andy! You went to the war, you went to foreign parts. If
you've learned a bit and got on a bit, nobody in Meriton's goin' to
grudge it you--least of all them as knew your good father, who was a
gentleman if ever there was one--and I've known some of the best,
consequent on my business layin' mainly with 'orses."
"Dined at Halton, did you?" Old Jack Rock beamed, then suddenly grew
thoughtful.
"Well, of course, I've always known Harry Belfield, and--" He was
apologizing.
"The old gentleman used to dine there--once a year reg'lar," Jack
reminded him. "Quite right of 'em to keep it up with you." But still
Jack looked thoughtful.
Eleven-thirty sounded from the squat tower of the long low church which
presided over the west end--the Fyfold end--of High Street. Old Cox
knocked out his pipe decisively. "Bedtime!" he pronounced.
Nobody contested the verdict. Only across Andy's mind flitted an
outlandish memory that it was the hour at which one sat down to supper
at the great restaurant--with Harry, the Nun, sardonic Miss Dutton,
Billy Foot, and London at large--and at liberty.
"You stop a bit, my lad," said Jack with affection, also with a touch of
old-time authority. "I've something to say to you, Andy."
Andy stayed willingly enough; he liked Jack, and he was loth to end that
day.
Jack filled and pressed, lit, pressed, and lit again, a fresh clay pipe.
"You like all that sort of thing, Andy?" he asked. "Oh, you know what I
mean--what you've been doin' to-day."
"Yes, I like it, Jack." Andy saw that his dear old friend--dear Nancy's
brother--had something of moment on his mind.
"But it don't count in the end. It's not business, Andy." Jack's tone
had become, suddenly and strangely, persuasive, reasonably
persuasive--almost what one might call coaxing.
"I've never considered it in the light of business, Jack."
"Don't let it turn you from business, Andy. You said the timber was
worth about two hundred a year to you?"
"About that; it'll be more--or less--before I'm six months older. It's
sink or swim, you know."
"You've no call to sink," said Jack Rock with emphasis. "Your father's
son ain't goin' to sink while Jack Rock can throw a lifebelt to him."
"I know, Jack. I'd ask you for half your last crust, and you'd soak it
in milk for me as you used to--if you had to steal the milk! But--well,
what's up?"
"I'm gettin' on in life, boy. I've enough to do with the horses. I do
uncommon well with the horses. I've a mind to give myself to that. Not
but what I like the meat. Still I've a mind to give myself to the
horses. The meat's worth--Oh, I'll surprise you, Andy, and don't let it
go outside o' this room--the meat's worth nigh on five hundred a year!
Aye, nigh on that! The chilled meat don't touch me much, nor the London
stores neither. Year in, year out, nigh on five hundred! Nancy loved
you; the old gentleman never said a word as showed he knew a difference
between me and him. Though he must have known it. I'm all alone, Andy.
While I can I'll keep the horses--Lord, I love the horses! You drop your
timber. Take over the meat, Andy. You're a learnin' chap; you'll soon
pick it up from me and Simpson. Take over the meat, Andy. It's a safe
five hundred a year!"
So he pleaded to have his great benefaction accepted. He had meant to
give in a manner perhaps somewhat magnificent; what he gave was to him
great. The news of tea and tennis at Nutley, of dinner at Halton,
induced a new note. Proud still, yet he pleaded. It was a fine
business--the meat! Nor chilled meat, nor stores mattered seriously; his
connection was so high-class. Five hundred a year! It was luxury,
position, importance; it was all these in Meriton. His eyes waited
anxiously for Andy's answer.
Andy caught his hand across the table. "Dear old Jack, how splendid of
you!"
"Well, lad?"
For the life of him Andy could say nothing more adequate, nothing less
disappointing, less ungrateful, than "I'd like to think it over. And
thanks, Jack!"