She had another reason for her wish. She knew that Rupert had but
delayed what was inevitable, and when it came one night, a few weeks
later, she had no feeling beyond relief that the fight was over, that
she need no longer scheme to outwit George with her advances and
retreats. Afterwards, she suffered from a black anger that she must
serve the man she did not love, a dull despair from the knowledge that,
while both lived, the tie would hold. Her mind tried, and failed, to
make nothing of it; by nature she was bound to him who took most from
her, and when George had played the husband, he left her destitute. That
Zebedee would always have the best of her had been her boast, but for a
time, there was nothing he could have. She was George Halkett's woman.
The day was fogged with memories of the night, yet through that fog she
looked for his return. She was glad when she heard his step outside and,
going to the kitchen door, felt herself lifted off her feet. She did not
try to analyze the strange mingling of willingness and shrinking that
made up her feeling for him, but she found mental safety in abandoning
herself to what must be, a primitive pleasure in the fact of being
possessed, a shameful happiness in submission.
Nevertheless, it was only in his presence that she lost her red sense of
shame, and though she still walked nobly, looked with clear eyes, and
carried a high head, she fancied herself bent by broken pride, blinded
and dusty-haired. Zebedee's books helped her to blot out that vision of
herself and the other of Mildred Caniper still sitting by the fire and
refusing the fulness of the sun. What she read amazed her with its
profundity and amused her with its inconclusiveness. She had an awed
pity for men whose lives were occupied in these endless questionings,
and while Mildred idly turned the pages of periodicals she once had
scorned, Helen frowned and bit her lips over the problems of the ages.
They gave her and Zebedee something impersonal to talk of when he came
on his weekly visit.
"It's no good telling me," she warned him firmly, "that my poplars are
not really there. I can feel them and see them and hear them--always
hear them. If they weren't there, they would be! If I exist, so do
they."
"Quite so. You're doing very well. I told you the medicine would turn to
food."
"It's not food. What is it that nasty people chew? Gum? Yes,
chewing-gum. It keeps me going. I mean--"
He helped her over that abyss. "It's a most improper name for wisdom."
"This isn't wisdom. Wisdom is just going on--and--keeping the world
clean."
"Then," he said slowly, "you may count among the sages."
They stood together by the schoolroom window and watched the windy
sunshine darting among the laurel bushes and brightening the brass on
the harness of the patient horse outside the gate.
"I wonder," Helen said, speaking as if she were not quite awake,
"whether Mr. Pinderwell ever read philosophy."
"No," Zebedee answered in the same tones; "he took to wood-carving."
This time she leapt the abyss unaided and with a laugh.
"But then, he never had a stepmother nodding beside the fire. What is
going to happen to her?"
"She has very little strength."
"But she isn't going to die?"
"Not yet, I think, dear." The word slipped from him, and they both
listened to its echoes.
"I wish you'd go," she whispered.
"I'm going." He did not hesitate at the door or he would have seen her
drop into a chair and let her limp arms slide across the table as she
let out a noisy sob of happiness because his friendliness was still only
a cloak that could sometimes be lifted to show the man beneath.
Almost gaily, she went to Mildred Caniper's room.
"Zebedee stayed a long time today. I could hear you talking."
"Yes."
"Isn't he busy now?"
"He works all day and half the night."
"Oh." Mildred's twisted face regained a semblance of its old expression
and her voice some of its precision. "Then you ought to be looking after
him."
"I can't manage both of you."
"No, but Mrs. Samson could look after me." The words were slovenly
again; the face changed subtly as sand changes under water. It became
soft and indefinite and yielding, betraying the slackening of the mind.
"Mrs. Samson is a nice woman--very kind. She knows what I want. I must
have a good fire. I don't need very much. She doesn't bother me--or
talk. I don't want to be bothered--about anything. I'm still--rather
tired. I like to sit here and be warm. Give me that magazine, Helen.
There's a story--" She found the place and seemed to forget all she had
said.
Helen left the room and, as she sat on the topmost stair, she wished Mr.
Pinderwell would stop and speak to her, but he hurried up and down as he
had always done, intent on his own sad business of seeking what he had
lost. It was strange that he could not see the children who were so
plain to Helen. She turned to speak to them, but she had outgrown them
in these days, and even Jane was puzzled by her grief that Mildred
Caniper wanted to be kept warm, and, with some lingering faculty, wished
Helen to be happy, but needed her no longer.
Helen whispered into the dimness because her thoughts were unwholesome
and must be cast forth.
"She only wants to be kept warm! It was sweet of her to try to think of
me, but she couldn't go on thinking. Oh, Jane, Mrs. Samson and I are
just the same. She doesn't mind who puts coals on the fire. I wish she'd
die. I always loved her very much, and she loved me, but now she
doesn't. She's just a--bundle. It's ugly. If I stay here and look at
her, I shall get like her. Oh--she wants me to go and live with Zebedee.
Zebedee! He wouldn't like me to go on like this. The philosophers--but
that old bishop can't make me think that Notya isn't dying. That's what
she's doing, Jane--dying. But no, dying is good and death is splendid.
This is decay." She stood up and shuddered. "I mustn't stay here," she
murmured sensibly.
She called to Jim in a loud voice that attempted cheerfulness and
alarmed her with its noise in the silent house of sorrow and disease.
"The moor, Jim!" she said, and when she had passed through the garden
with the dog leaping round her, she shook her skirts and held up her
palms to get the freshness of the wind on them.
"We'll find water," she said, but she would not go to the stream that
ran into the larch-wood. Today, the taint of evil was about Halkett's
Farm, as that of decay was in Mildred Caniper's room.
"We'll go to the pool where the rushes are, Jim, and wash our hands and
face."
They ran fleetly, and as they went she saw George at a distance on his
horse. He waved his hat, and, before she knew what she was doing, she
answered with a grimace that mocked him viciously and horrified her with
its spontaneity. She cried aloud, and, sinking to the ground, she hid
her dishonoured face.
"No, no," she moaned. She hated that action like an obscenity. Surely
she was tainted, too.
Jim licked her covering hands, and whined when she paid no heed.
"Hateful! hateful!" were the words he heard and tried to understand. He
sat, alert and troubled, while clouds rolled across the sky, and dark
reflections of them made stately progress on the moor. Sheep, absorbed
in feeding, drew near, looked up and darted off with foolish, warning
bleats, but still his mistress kept her face hidden, and did not move
until he barked loudly at the sight of Halkett riding towards them.
"I couldn't keep away," the man said, bending from his saddle.
She rose and leaned against his knee. "George, what do I look like?"
His fervent answer was not the one she wanted.
"But do I look the same?"
He held her by the chin. "Have you been crying?"
"No."
"What is it then?"
She looked beyond him at the magnificence of the clouds and her troubles
dwindled. "I felt miserable. I was worried."
"And you're happier now?"
She nodded.
"Then give me a kiss."
She turned her cheek to him.
"No. I said, give me one."
"I can't reach you."
"You don't want to."
"I never want to kiss people."
"People! Then do it to please me."
His cheek hardly felt her pressure.
"It's the way a ghost would kiss," he said.
"That's how I shall haunt you when I'm dead."
"Nay, we'll have to die together."
She wrinkled her face. "But we can't do that without a lot of practice."
"What? Oh!" Her jokes made him uneasy. "I must go on. Helen, I'll see
you tonight."
"Yes, you'll see the ghost who gives the little kisses."
"Don't say it!"
"But it's nice to be a ghost, you feel so light and free. There isn't
any flesh to be corrupted. I'm glad I thought of that, George.
Good-bye."
"No. Come here again. Stand on my foot." He clinched her waist and
kissed her on the mouth and let her drop. "You are no ghost," he said,
and rode away.
She was indeed no ghost. Some instinct told him how to deal with her,
and when he insisted on her humanity, her body thrilled in answer and
agreement, and with each kiss and each insistence she became more his
own; yet she was thrall less to the impulses of her youth than to some
age-old willingness to serve him who possessed her. But her life had
mental complications, for she dreaded in Zebedee the disloyalty which
she reluctantly meted out to him when George had her in his arms. She
would not have Zebedee love another woman, and she longed for assurance
of his devotion, but she could not pass the barrier he had set up; she
could not try to pass it without another and crueller disloyalty to both
men. Her body was faithful to George and her mind to Zebedee, and the
two fought against each other and wearied her.
The signs of strain were only in her eyes; her body had grown more
beautiful, and when Miriam arrived on a short visit to the moor, she
stopped in the doorway to exclaim, "But you're different! Why are you
different?"
"It is a long time since you went away," Helen said slowly. "Centuries."
"Not to me! The time has flown." She laughed at her recollections. "And,
anyhow, it's only a few months, and you have changed."
"I expect it is my clothes," Helen said calmly. "They must look queer to
you."
"They do. But nice. I've brought some new ones for you. I think you'll
soon be prettier than I am. Think of that!"
They had each other by the hand and looked admiringly in each other's
face, remembering small peculiarities they had half forgotten: there was
the soft hair on Helen's temples, trying, as Zebedee said, to curl;
there was the little tilt to Miriam's eyebrows, giving her that look of
some one not quite human, more readily moved to mischief than to
kindness, and never to be held at fault.
"Yes, it's centuries," Helen said.
"It's only a day!"
"Then you have been happy," Helen said, letting out a light sigh of
content.
"Yes, but I'm glad to be here again, so long as I needn't stay. I've
heaps to tell you." She stretched herself, like a cat. "I knew there was
fun in the world. I had faith, my dear, and I found it."
Helen was looking at her with her usual confusion of feelings: she
wanted to shake off Miriam's complacence roughly, while she was fondly
glad that she should have it, but this remark would not pass without a
word, and Helen shook her head.
"No; you didn't find it. Uncle Alfred gave it to you--he and I."
"You? Oh--yes, I suppose you did. Well--thank you very much, and don't
let us talk about it any more. You're like a drag-net, bringing up the
unpleasant. Don't let us quarrel."
"Quarrel! I couldn't," Helen said simply.
"Are you so pleased to see me?"
Helen's reluctant smile expanded. "I suppose it's that."
"Aha! It's lovely to be me! People go down like ninepins! Why?" Piously,
she appealed to Heaven. "Why?"
"They get up again, though," Helen said with a chuckle.
"For instance?" Miriam demanded truculently.
"Oh, I'm not going to be hard on you," Helen said, and though she spoke
with genuine amusement, she felt a little seed of anger germinating in
her breast. That was what George had done to her: he had made her heart
a fertile place for passions which her mind disdained.
"And I'm so glad to have you here," she added, defying harsh emotions.
"Ah! You're rather nice--and, yes, you are much prettier. How have you
done it? I should like to kiss you."
"Well, you may." She put her face close to Miriam's, and enjoyed the
coolness of that sisterly salute.
"But," Miriam said, startled by a thought, "need I kiss--her?"
"No. You won't want to do that. She isn't very nice to look at."
Miriam shrank against the wall. "Not ugly?"
"You must come and see," Helen said. She was shaken again by a moment's
anger as she looked on Miriam's lovely elegance and remembered the price
that had been paid for it. "You must come and see her," she repeated.
"Do you think you are the only one who hates deformity?"
"Deformity?" Miriam whispered.
"Her face is twisted. Oh--I see it every day!"
"Helen, don't! I'll go, but don't make me stay long. I'll go now," she
said, and went on timid feet.
Helen stayed outside the door, for she could not bring herself to
witness Mildred Caniper's betrayal of her decay to one who had never
loved her: there was an indecency in allowing Miriam to see it. Helen
leaned against the door and heard faint sounds of voices, and in
imagination she saw the scene. Mildred Caniper sat in her comfortable
chair by a bright fire, though it was now late June of a triumphant
summer, and Miriam stood near, answering questions quickly, her feet
light on the ground and ready to bear her off.
Very soon the door was opened and Miriam caught Helen's arm.
"I didn't think she would be like that," she whispered. "Helen,
she's--she's--"
"I know she is," Helen said deeply.
"But I can't bear it!"
"You don't have to."
They went into Phoebe's room and shut the door, and it was a comfort
to Miriam to have two solid blocks of wood between her and the
deterioration in the chair.
"I know I ought to stay with you--all alone in this house--no one to
talk to--and at night--Are you afraid? Do you have to sleep with her?"
"Sometimes," Helen said, and drew both hands down her face.
"She might get up and walk about and say things. It isn't right for you,
or for me and you, to have to live here. Why doesn't Zebedee do
something? Why doesn't he take you away?"
"And leave her? I wouldn't go. The moor has hold of me, and it will keep
me always. I'm rooted here, and I shall tell George to bury me on a dark
night in some marshy place that's always green. And I shall make it
greener. You're frightened of me! Don't be silly! I'm saner than most
people, I think, but living alone makes one different, perhaps. Don't
look like that. I'm the same Helen."
"Yes. I won't be frightened. But why did you say 'George'?"
Helen took a breath as though she lifted something heavy.
"Because he is my husband," she said clearly. She had never used the
word before, and she enjoyed the pain it gave her.
There were no merciful shadows in the room: daylight poured in at the
windows and revealed Helen standing with hands clasped before her and
gazing with wide eyes at Miriam's pale face, her parted lips, her
horrified amazement.
"George?" she asked huskily.
"Yes."
"But why?"
"Why does one marry?"
"Oh, tell me, Helen! You can't have loved him."
"Perhaps he loved me."
"But--that night! Have you forgotten it?"
"No. I remember."
"So do I! I dream about it! Helen, tell me. What was it? There's
Zebedee. And it was me that George loved."
Helen spoke sharply. "He didn't love you. You bewitched him. He loves
me."
"You haven't told me everything."
"There is no reason why I should."
Miriam spoke on a sob. "You needn't be unkind. And where's your ring?
You haven't said you love him. You're not really married, are you?"
"Yes, I am."
Crying without stint, Miriam went blindly to the window.
"I wish I hadn't come--!"
"You mustn't be unhappy. I'm not. It isn't very polite to George--or
me."
"But when--when you think of that night--Oh! You must be miserable."
"Then you should be."
"I?"
"It was your doing. You tormented him. You played with him. You liked to
draw him on and push him back. You turned a man into a--into what we saw
that night. George isn't the only man who can be changed into a beast
when--when he meets Circe! With me--" Her voice broke with her quickened
breathing. Her indignation was no longer for her own maimed life: it was
for George, who had been used lightly as a plaything, broken, and given
to her for mending.
For a long time Miriam cried, and did not speak, and when she turned to
ask a question Helen had almost forgotten her; for all her pity had gone
out to George and beautified him and made him dear.
"Tell me one thing," Miriam said earnestly. "It hadn't anything to do
with me?"
"What?"
"Marrying him. You see, I fainted, didn't I?"
"Yes."
"Something might have happened then."
"It did."
"What was it?"
"He fell in love with me!" She laughed. "It's possible, because it
happened! Otherwise, of course, neither of us could believe it! Oh,
don't be silly. Don't look miserable."
"I can't help it. It's my fault. It's my fault if Zebedee is unhappy and
if you are. Yes, it is, because if I hadn't--Still, I don't know why you
married him."
"I think it was meant to be. If we look back it seems as if it must have
been." It was not Helen who looked through the window. "Yes," she said
softly, "it is all working to one end. It had to be. Don't talk about it
any more."
Wide-eyed above her tear-stained cheeks, her throat working piteously,
Miriam stared at this strange sister. "But tell me if you are happy,"
she said in a breaking voice.
"Yes, I am. I love him," she said softly. Now, she did not lie. The pity
that had taught her to love Mildred Caniper had the same lesson in
regard to George, and that night, when she looked into the garden and
saw him standing there, because he had been forbidden the house, she
leaned from her bedroom window and held out her hands and ran downstairs
to speak to him.
"You looked so lonely," she told him.
"Didn't you want me a little?" he asked. He looked down, big and gentle,
and she felt her heart flutter as with wings. She nodded, and leaned
against him. It was the truth: she did want him a little.