MORE THAN ONE CONCLUSION
The Warden came slowly towards them over the wide space of carpeted
floor.
Lady Dashwood, who knew every passing change in his face and manner
(they were photographed over and over again in every imaginable style in
her book of life), noticed that the sight of herself and May alone, that
is, without Gwen--had made him decide to come in. She drew her own
conclusions and smiled.
"When you pass that ball of wool, pick it up, Jim," she said.
She spoke too late, however, and the Warden kicked the ball with one
foot, and sent it rolling under a chair. It took the opportunity of
flinging itself round one leg, and tumbling against the second. With its
remaining strength it rolled half way round the third leg, and then lay
exhausted.
"I'm not going to apologise," said the Warden, in his most courteous
tones.
"You needn't do that, my dear, if you don't want to," said Lady
Dashwood. "But pick up the ball, please."
"If I pick the ball up," said the Warden, "the result will be disastrous
to somebody."
He looked at the ball and at the chair, and then, putting his cigar
between his teeth, he lifted the chair from the labyrinth of wool and
placed it out of mischief. Then he picked up the ball and stood holding
it in his hand. Who was the "somebody"? To whom did it belong? It was
obvious to whom it belonged! A long line of wool dropped from the ball
to the carpet. There it described a foolish pattern of its own, and then
from one corner of that pattern the line of wool ran straight to Mrs.
Dashwood's hands. She was sitting there, pretending that she didn't know
that she was very, very slowly and deliberately jerking out the very
vitals of that pattern, in fact disembowelling it. Then the Warden
pretended to discover suddenly that it was Mrs. Dashwood's ball, and
this discovery obliged him to look at her, and she, without glancing at
him, slightly nodded her head, very gravely. Lady Dashwood grasped her
book and pretended to read it.
"I suppose I must clear up this mess," said the Warden, as articulately
as a man can who is holding a cigar between his teeth.
He began to wind up the ball.
"How beautifully you are winding it!" said May Dashwood, without looking
up from her knitting.
The Warden cleared the pattern from the floor, and now a long line of
wool stretched tautly from his hands to those of Mrs. Dashwood.
"Please stop winding," she said quietly, and still she did not look up,
though she might have easily done so for she had left off knitting.
The Warden stopped, but he stood looking at her as if to challenge her
eyes. Then, as she remained obstinately unmoved, he came towards her
chair and dropped the ball on her lap.
"You couldn't know I was winding it beautifully because you never
looked."
"I knew without looking," said May. "I took for granted that you did
everything well."
"If you will look now," said the Warden, "you will see how crookedly
I've done it. So much for flattery."
He stood looking down at her bent head with its gold-brown hair lit up
to splendour by the electric light behind her. Her face was slightly in
shadow. The Warden stood so long that Lady Dashwood was seized with an
agreeable feeling of embarrassment. May Dashwood was apparently
unconscious of the figure beside her. But she raised her eyebrows. Her
eyebrows were often slightly raised as if inquiring into the state of
the world with sympathy tinged with surprise. She raised her eyebrows
instead of making any reply, as if she said: "I could make a retort, but
I am far too busy with more important matters."
The Warden at last moved, and putting a chair between the two ladies he
seated himself exactly opposite the glowing fire and the portrait above
it. Leaning back, he smoked in silence for a few moments looking
straight in front of him for the most part, only now and then turning
his eyes to Mrs. Dashwood, just to find out if her eyebrows were still
raised.
Lady Dashwood began smiling at her book because she had discovered that
she held it upside down.
"You were interested in Stockwell?" said the Warden suddenly. "He is
doing multifarious things now. He is an accomplished linguist, and we
couldn't manage without him--besides he is over military age by a long
way."
Lady Dashwood felt quite sure that his silence had been occupied by the
Warden in thinking of May, so that his question, "You were interested,"
etc., was merely the point at which his thoughts broke into words.
"I was very much interested in him," said May. "It was like reading a
witty book--only much more delightful."
"Stockwell is always worth listening to," said the Warden, "but he is
sometimes very silent. He needs the right sort of audience to draw him
out. Two or three congenial men--or one sympathetic woman." Here the
Warden paused and looked away from May Dashwood, then he added: "I'm
obliged to go to Cambridge to-morrow. You will be at Chartcote and you
will get some amusement out of Boreham. You find everybody interesting?"
He turned again and looked at her--this time so searchingly that a
little colour rose in May Dashwood's cheek.
"Oh, not everybody," she said. "I wish I could!"
"My dear May," said Lady Dashwood, briskly seizing this brilliant
opportunity of pointing the moral and adorning the tale, "even you can't
pretend to be interested in little Gwendolen, though you have done your
best. Now that you have seen something of her, what do you think of
her?"
"Very pretty," said May Dashwood, and she became busy again with her
work.
"Exactly," said Lady Dashwood. "If she were plain even Belinda would not
have the impertinence to deposit her on people's doorsteps in the way
she does."
The Warden took his cigar out of his mouth, as if he had suddenly
remembered something that he had forgotten. He laid his hands on the
arms of his chair and seemed about to rise.
"You're not going, Jim!" exclaimed Lady Dashwood. "I thought you had
come to talk to us. We have been doing our duty since dawn of day, and
this is May's little holiday, you know. Stop and talk nicely to us. Do
cheer us up!" Her voice became appealing.
The Warden rose from his chair and stood with one hand resting on the
back of it as if about to make some excuse for going away. Except for
the glance, necessitated by courtesy, that May Dashwood gave the Warden
when he entered, she had kept her eyes obstinately upon her work. Now
she looked up and met his eyes, only for a moment.
"I'm not going," he said, "but I find the fire too hot. Excuse me if I
move away. It has got muggy and warm--Oxford weather!"
"Open one of the windows," said Lady Dashwood. "I'm sure May and I shall
be glad of it."
He moved away and walked slowly down the length of the room. Going
behind the heavy curtains he opened a part of the casement and then drew
aside one of the curtains slightly. Then he slowly came back to them in
silence.
This silence that followed was embarrassing, so embarrassing that Lady
Dashwood broke into it urgently with the first subject that she could
think of. "Tell May about the Barber's ghost, Jim."
"Where does he appear?" asked May, interestedly, but without looking up.
"What part of the college?"
"In the library," said the Warden.
"And at the witching hour of midnight, I suppose?" said May.
"Birds of ill omen, I believe, appear at night," said the Warden. "All
Souls College ought to have had an All Souls' ghost, but it hasn't, it
has only its 'foolish Mallard.'"
"And if he does appear," said May, "what apology are you going to offer
him for the injustice of your predecessor in the eighteenth century?"
The Warden turned and stood looking back across the room at the warm
space of light and the two women sitting in it, with the firelight
flickering between them.
"If I were to make myself responsible for all the misdemeanours of the
Reverend Charles Langley," he said, "I should have my hands full;" and
he came slowly towards them as he spoke. "You have only to look at
Langley's face, over the mantelpiece, and you will see what I mean."
May Dashwood glanced up at the portrait and smiled.
"Do you admire our Custos dilectissimus?" he asked.
The lights were below the level of the portrait, but the hard handsome
face with its bold eyes, was distinctly visible. He was looking lazily
watchful, listening sardonically to the conversation about himself.
"I admire the artist who painted his portrait," said May.
"Yes, the artist knew what he was doing when he painted Langley," said
the Warden. He seemed now to have recovered his ease, and stood leaning
his arms on the back of the chair he had vacated. "Your idea is a good
one," he went on. "I don't suppose it has occurred to any Warden since
Langley's time that a frank and pleasant apology might lay the Barber's
ghost for ever. Shall I try it?" he asked, looking at his guest.
"My dear," said Lady Dashwood slowly, "I wish you wouldn't even joke
about it--I dislike it. I wish people wouldn't invent ghost stories,"
she went on. "They are silly, and they are often mischievous. I wish you
wouldn't talk as if you believed it."
"It was you, Lena, who brought up the subject," said Middleton. "But I
won't talk about him if you dislike it. You know that I am not a
believer in ghosts."
Lady Dashwood nodded her head approvingly, and began turning more pages
of her book.
"I sometimes wonder," said the Warden, and now he turned his face
towards May Dashwood--"I wonder if men like Langley really believed in a
future life?"
May looked up at the portrait, but was silent.
"The eighteenth century was not tormented with the question as we are
now!" said the Warden, and again he looked at the auburn head and the
dark lashes hiding the downcast eyes. "Those who doubt," he said slowly
and tentatively, "whether after all the High Gods want us--those who
doubt whether there are High Gods--even those doubt with regret--now."
He waited for a response and May Dashwood suddenly raised her eyes to
his.
"There is no truculence in modern unbelief," he said, "it is a matter of
passionate regret. And belief has become a passionate hope."
Lady Dashwood knew that not a word of this was meant for her. She
disliked all talk about the future world. It made her feel dismal. Her
life had been spent in managing first her father, then her brother, and
now her husband, and incidentally many of her friends.
Some people dislike having plans made for them, some endure it, some
positively like it, and for those who liked it, Lady Dashwood made
extensive plans. Her brain worked now almost automatically in plans. For
herself she had no plans, she was the planner. But her plans were about
this world. To the "other world" Lady Dashwood felt secretly inimical;
that "unknown" lurking in the future, would probably, not so long hence,
engulf her husband, leaving her, alas! still on this side--with no heart
left for making any more plans.
If she had been alone with the Warden he would not have mentioned the
"future life," nor would he have spoken of the "High Gods." He knew her
mind too well. Was he probing the mind of May Dashwood? Either he was
deliberately questioning her, or there was something in her presence
that drew from him his inmost thoughts. Lady Dashwood felt a pang of
indignation at herself for "being in the way" when to be "out of the
way" at such a moment was absolutely necessary. She must leave these two
people alone together--now--at this propitious moment. What should she
do? She began casting about wildly in her brain for a plan of escape
that would not be too obvious in its intention. The Warden had never
been with May alone for five minutes. To-morrow would be a blank
day--there was Chartcote first and then when they returned the Warden
would be still away and very probably would not be visible that evening.
She could see May's raised face looking very expressive--full of
thoughts. Lady Dashwood rose from her chair confident that inspired
words would come to her lips--and they came!
"My dear Jim," she heard herself saying, "your mentioning the High Gods
has made me remember that I left about some letters that ought to be
answered. Horribly careless of me--I must go and find them. I'll only be
away a moment. So sorry to interrupt when you are just getting
interesting!" And still murmuring Lady Dashwood made her escape.
She had done the best she could under the circumstances, and she smiled
broadly as she went through the corridor.
"That for Belinda and Co.!" she exclaimed half aloud, and she snapped
her fingers.
And what was going to happen after Belinda and Co. were defeated,
banished for ever from the Lodgings? What was going to happen to the
Warden? He had been successfully rescued from one danger--but what about
the future? Was he going to fall in love with May Dashwood?
"It sounded to me uncommonly like a metaphysical wooing of May," said
Lady Dashwood to herself. "_That_ I must leave in the hands of
Providence;" and she went up to her room smiling. There she found
Louise.
"Madame is gay," said the Frenchwoman, catching sight of the entering
smile. "Gay in this sad Oxford!"
"Sad!" said Lady Dashwood, her smile still lingering. "The hospitals
are sad, Louise, yes, very sad, and the half-empty Colleges."
"Oh, it is sad, incredibly sad," said the maid. "What kind of city is
it, it contains only grey monasteries, no boulevards, no shops. There is
one shop, perhaps, but what is that?"
Lady Dashwood had gone to the toilet table, for she caught sight of the
letters lying on the top of the jewel drawers. She had seen them several
times that day, and had always intended tearing them up, for neither of
them needed an answer. But they had served a good purpose. She had
escaped from the drawing-room with their aid. She took them up and
opened them and looked at them again. Louise watched her covertly. She
glanced at the first and tore it up; then at the second and tore that
up. She opened the third and glanced at it. And now the faint remains of
the smile that had lingered on her face suddenly vanished.
"My dear Gwen," (Lena badly written, of course).
"I hope you understood that Lady Dashwood will keep you till the 3rd.
You don't mention the Warden! Does that mean that you are making no
progress in that direction? Perhaps taking no trouble! The question
is----"
Here Lady Dashwood stopped. She looked at the signature of the writer.
But that was not necessary--the handwriting was Belinda Scott's.
For a moment or two Lady Dashwood stood as if she intended to remain in
the same position for the rest of her life. Then she breathed rather
heavily and her nostrils dilated.
"Ah! Well!" said Louise to herself, and she nodded her head ominously.
Soon Lady Dashwood recovered herself and folded up the letter. She
looked at the envelope. It was addressed to Miss Gwendolen Scott. She
put the letter back into its envelope.
Had she opened the letter and then laid it aside with the others,
without perceiving that the letter was not addressed to her and without
reading it? Was it possible that she, in her hurry last evening, had
done this? If so, Gwen had never received the letter or read it.
Of course she could not have read it. If she had, it would not have been
laid on the toilet table. If Gwen had read it and left it about, it
would have either been destroyed or taken to her room.
"Does Madame wish to go to bed immediately?" asked Louise innocently.
She had been waiting nearly twenty-four hours for something to happen
about that letter. She was beginning to be afraid that it might be
discovered when she would not be there to see the effect it had on
Madame. Ah! the letter was all that Louise's fancy had painted it. See
the emotion in Madame's back! How expressive is the back! What
abominable intrigue! It was not necessary, indeed, to go to Paris to
find wickedness. And, above all, the Warden---- Oh, my God! Never, never
shall I repose confidence even in the Englishman the most respectable!
"Presently," said Lady Dashwood, in answer to Louise's question.
Lady Dashwood had made up her mind. She must have opened all three
letters but only read two of them. There was no other explanation
possible. What was to be done with Gwen's letter? What was to be done
with this--vile scribble?
Lady Dashwood's fingers were aching to tear the letter up, but she
refrained. It would need some thinking over. The style of this letter
was probably familiar to Gwendolen--her mind had already been corrupted.
And to think that Jim might have had Belinda and Co., and all that
Belinda and Co. implied, hanging round his neck and dragging him
down--till he dropped into his grave from the sheer dead weight of it!
"Yes, immediately," said Lady Dashwood. She would not go downstairs
again. It was of vital importance that Jim and May should be alone
together, yes, alone together.
Lady Dashwood put the letter away in a drawer and locked it. She must
have time to think.
A few minutes later Louise was brushing out her mistress's hair--a mass
of grey hair, still luxuriant, that had once been black.
"I find that Oxford does not agree with Madame's hair," said Louise, as
she plied vigorously with the brush.
Lady Dashwood made no reply.
"I find that Oxford does not agree with Madame's hair at all, at all,"
repeated Louise, firmly.
"Is it going greyer?" said Lady Dashwood indifferently, for her mind was
working hard on another subject.
"It grows not greyer, but it becomes dead, like the hair of a corpse--in
this atmosphere of Oxford," said Louise, even more firmly.
"Try not to exaggerate, Louise," said Lady Dashwood, quite unmoved.
"Madame cannot deny that the humidity of Oxford is bad both for skin and
hair," said Louise, with some resentment in her tone.
"Damp is not bad for the skin, Louise," said her mistress, "but it may
be for the hair; I don't know and I don't care."
"It's bad for the skin," said Louise. "I have seen Madame looking grave,
the skin folded, in Oxford. It is the climate. It is impossible to
smile--in Oxford. One lies as if under a tomb."
"Every place has its bad points," said Lady Dashwood. "It is important
to make the best of them."
"But I do not like to see Madame depressed by the climate here,"
continued Louise, obstinately, "and Madame has been depressed here
lately."
"Not at all," said Lady Dashwood. "You needn't worry, Louise; any one
who can stand India would find the climate of Oxford admirable. Now, as
soon as you have done my hair, I want you to go down to the
drawing-room, where you will find Mrs. Dashwood, and apologise to her
for my not coming down again. Say I have a letter that will take me some
time to answer. Bid her good night, also the Warden, who will be with
her, I expect."
Louise had been momentarily plunged into despair. She had been
unsuccessful all the way round. It looked as if the visit to Oxford was
to go on indefinitely, and as to the letter--well--Madame was
unfathomable--as she always was. She was English, and one must not
expect them to behave as if they had a heart.
But now her spirits rose! This message to the drawing-room! The Warden
was alone with Mrs. Dashwood! The Warden, this man of apparent
uprightness who was the seducer of the young! Lady Dashwood had
discovered his wickedness and dared not leave Mrs. Dashwood, a widow and
of an age (twenty-eight) when a woman is still young, alone with him. So
she, Louise, was sent down, _bien entendu_, to break up the
_tete-a-tete_!
Louise put down the brush and smiled to herself as she went down to the
drawing-room.
She, through her devotion to duty, had become an important instrument in
the hands of Providence.
When Lady Dashwood found herself alone, she took up her keys and jingled
them, unable to make up her mind.
She had only read the first two or three sentences of Belinda's letter;
she had only read--until the identity and meaning of the letter had
suddenly come to her.
She opened the drawer and took out the letter. Then she walked a few
steps in the room, thinking as she walked. No, much as she despised
Belinda, she could not read a private letter of hers. Perhaps, because
she despised her, it was all the more urgent that she should not read
anything of hers.
What Lady Dashwood longed to do was to have done with Belinda and never
see her or hear from her again. She wanted Belinda wiped out of the
world in which she, Lena Dashwood, moved and thought.
What was she to do with the letter? Jim was safe now, the letter was
harmless--as far as he was concerned. But what about Gwen? Was it not
like handing on to her a dose of moral poison?
On the other hand, the poison belonged to Gwen and had been sent to her
by her mother!
The matter could not be settled without more reflection. Perhaps some
definite decision would frame itself during the night; perhaps she would
awake in the morning, knowing exactly what was the best to be done.
She put away the letter again, and again locked the drawer. She was
putting away her keys when the door opened and she heard her maid come
in.
There was something in the way Louise entered and stood at the door that
made Lady Dashwood turn round and look at her. That excellent
Frenchwoman was standing very stiffly, her eyes wide and agitated, and
her features expressive of extreme excitement. She breathed loudly.
"What's the matter?" demanded Lady Dashwood.
"Madame Dashwood was not visible in the drawing-room!" said Louise, and
she tightened her lips after this pronouncement.
"She had gone up to her bedroom?"
"Madame Dashwood is not in her bedroom!" said Louise, with ever
deepening tragedy in her voice.
"Did you look for her in the library?" demanded Lady Dashwood.
"Madame Dashwood is not in the library!" said Louise. She did not move
from her position in front of the door. She stood there looking the
personification of domestic disaster, her chest heaving.
"Mrs. Dashwood isn't ill?" Lady Dashwood felt a sudden pang of fear at
her heart.
"No, Madame!" said Louise.
"Then what is the matter?" demanded Lady Dashwood, sternly. "Don't be a
fool, Louise. Say what has happened!"
"How can I tell Madame? It is indeed unbelievably too sad! I did not see
Madame Dashwood but I heard her voice," began Louise. "Oh, Madame, that
I should have to pronounce such words to you! I open the door of the
drawing-room! It is scarcely at all lighted! No one is visible! I stand
and for a moment I look around me! I hear sounds! I listen again! I hear
the voice of Madame Dashwood! Ah! what surprise! Where is she? She is
hidden behind the great curtains of the window, completely hidden! Why?
And to whom does she speak? Ah, Madame, what frightful surprise, what
shock to hear reply the voice, also behind the curtain, of Monsieur the
Warden! I cannot believe it, it is incredible, but also it is true! I
stop no longer, for shame! I fly, I meet Robinson in the gallery, but I
pass him--like lightning--I speak not! No word escapes from my mouth! I
come direct to Madame's room! In entering, I know not what to say, I say
nothing! I dare not! I stand with the throat swelling, the heart
oppressed, but with the lips closed! I speak only because Madame
insists, she commands me to speak, to say all! I trust in God! I obey
Madame's command! I speak! I disclose frankly the painful truth! I
impart the boring information!"
While Louise was speaking Lady Dashwood's face had first expressed
astonishment, and then it relaxed into amusement, and when her maid
stopped speaking for want of breath, she sank down upon a chair and
burst into laughter.
"My poor Louise?" she said. "You never will understand English people.
If Mrs. Dashwood and the Warden are behind the window curtains, it is
because they want to look out of the window!"
Louise's face became passionately sceptical.
"In the rain, Madame!" she remarked. "In a darkness of the tomb?"
"Yes, in the rain and darkness," said Lady Dashwood. "You must go down
again in a moment, and give them my message!"