Mrs. Stratton was summoned home by her husband’s arrival just
before Christmas. Isabel preferred to delay yet a little, and reached
Chislehurst a fortnight later, accomplishing the journey with the
assistance of her maid only. It proved rather too much for her strength,
and for a day or two she had to keep her room. Then she joined the
family, very pale still, and not able to do much more than hold a kind
of court throned by the fireside, but with the light of happiness on her
face, listening with a bright smile to every one’s conversation, equally
interested in Master Edgar’s latest exploit by flood or field, and in
his mother’s rather trenchant comments on neighbouring families.
All the Strattons were at home. The four British youths had been keeping
what may best be described by Coleridge’s phrase, “Devil’s Yule.”
Colonel Stratton was by good luck a man of substance, and could maintain
an establishment corresponding to the needs of such a household. Though
Mrs. Stratton had spoken of her house as being too large, it would
scarcely be deemed so by the guests of mature age who shared it with the
two young Strattons already at Woolwich and Sandhurst, and the other
two who were still mewing their mighty youth at scholastic institutions.
There was a certain upper chamber in which were to be found appliances
for the various kinds of recreation sought after by robust young
Britons; here they put on “gloves,” and pummelled each other to their
hearts’ satisfaction--thud--thud! Here they vied with one another at
single-stick--thwack--thwack! Here they swung dumb-bells, and tumbled
on improvised trapezes. And hence, when their noble minds yearned for
variety, they rushed headlong, pell-mell into the lower regions of
the house, to the delights of the billiard-room. They had the use of a
couple of horses, and the frenzy of their over-full veins drove them
in turns, like demon huntsmen, over the frozen or muddy country. They
returned at the hour of dinner, and ate--ate in stolid silence, till
they had appeased the gnawing of hunger, then flung themselves here
and there about the drawing-room till their thoughts, released from the
brief employment of digestion, could formulate remarks on such subjects
as interest youth of their species.
Mrs. Stratton enjoyed it all. Her offspring were perfect in her eyes.
Had they been less riotous she would have conceived anxiety about their
health. When her third boy, Reginald, aged thirteen years, fell to
fisticuffs with a youthful tramp in a lane hard by, and came home
irrecognisable from blood and dirt, she viewed him with amused
astonishment, and, after setting him to rights with sponge and
sticking-plaster, laughingly recommended that in future he should fight
only with his social equals. With the two eldest she was a sort of
sister; they walked with her about the garden with their arms over
her shoulders; the confidence between her and them was perfect, and
certainly they were very fond of her. They were stalwart young ruffians,
these two, with immaculate complexions and the smooth roundness of
feature which entitles men to be called handsome by ladies who are
addicted to the use of that word. Mrs. Stratton would rather have been
their mother than have borne Shakespeare and Michael Angelo as twins.
Their father--one may be excused for almost forgetting him--was a man
of not more than medium height, but very solidly built, and like all his
boys, bullet-headed. His round chubby face was much bronzed, his auburn
hair and bushy beard of the same colour preserved to him a youthful
appearance, which was aided by the remarkably innocent and soft-tempered
look of his eyes. He was a man of weak will and great bodily strength;
his sons had a string of stories to illustrate the latter--the former
would perhaps have been best discoursed upon by Mrs. Stratton. A man of
extreme simplicity in his habits, and abnormally shy; with men he was by
no means at his ease till they became very old acquaintances, and with
women ease never came to him at all. The defect was the more painful
owing to his very limited _moyens_ in the matter of conversation; had it
not been for the existence of weather, the colonel would, under ordinary
circumstances, have preserved the silence for which nature intended him.
Of Mrs. Clarendon in particular he had a kind of fear, though at the
same time he was attracted to her by her unfailing charm; he knew
she sought opportunities of teasing him, and, though it cost him much
perspiration, he did not dislike the torment. With her he would have
been brought to talk if with any one; a fearful fascination often drew
him to her side, only to find, when he valorously opened his lips, that
a roguish smile had robbed him of every conception of what he was going
to say.
“Well, colonel?” she began, on a typical occasion, one morning when they
were alone together for a few minutes.
The colonel turned his eyes to the windows, coughed, and, looking
uneasily round, observed that it was astonishingly warm for the season.
“It is,” assented Isabel gravely. Whereupon, as if struck by the
similarity of their sentiments, he looked into her face, and repeated
his assertion with more emphasis.
“Astonishingly warm for January. You find it so? So do I. Yes, you
really notice it?”
“I have been thinking over it since I got up,” said Isabel. “I wonder
how many degrees we have in this room?”
With the delight of a shy man who has found something definite to speak
of, Colonel Stratton at once started up to go to the thermometer which
hung in the window; a half-suppressed laugh made him stop and turn
round.
“You don’t really care to know,” he said, flushing up to the eyes.
“That’s one of your jokes, Mrs. Clarendon. Ha, ha! Good!”
He stood before her, desperately nibbling both ends of his moustache--he
had acquired much skill in the habit of getting them both into his mouth
at the same time.
“Well, colonel?”
“You are in a--a frisky mood this morning, Mrs. Clarendon,” he burst
forth, laughing painfully.
“A what kind of mood?”
“I beg your pardon. I should have chosen a better word,” he exclaimed,
in much confusion. “It really is wonderfully warm for the season--you
notice it?”
“Colonel, I assure you I notice it.”
Fear at length overcame fascination.
“I must go and have a look at that new bay,” he murmured. “You--you’ll
excuse me, Mrs. Clarendon? Ah, here’s Rose! Don’t you notice how very
warm it is, my dear?”
“Rose,” said Mrs. Clarendon, when the colonel had made his escape at
quick time, “come here and answer me a rude question. Don’t be shocked;
it’s something I do so want to know. How did the colonel”--she lowered
her voice, her eyes were gleaming with fun--“how did the colonel propose
to you?”
“My dear,” was the reply, given in a humorous whisper, “I did it
myself.”
On another occasion, Colonel Stratton came into the room when Isabel
was reading. She just noticed his presence, but did not seem inclined to
talk, had, in fact, a shadow on her brow. The colonel observed this, by
side glances. He moved about a little, and somehow managed to get behind
her chair. Then, tapping her on the shoulder--it was his habit with male
acquaintances, and he was probably unconscious of the act--he said, in a
low voice but with much energy:
“It’s a damned shame! A damned shame!” He had disappeared when Isabel
turned to look at him.
She was not quite well that day, or something troubled her. After
lunch she went to her own room, and, when she had sat for some time
unoccupied, took from her writing-case a letter which she had written
the day before. It was to Ada. As she glanced over it, some painful
emotion possessed her.
“I can’t send it! I am ashamed!” Her lips uttered the words which she
had spoken only to herself.
She crumpled the sheet, and threw it into the fire.
She dined alone, and, a little later, Mrs. Stratton came to sit with
her. After various talk, Mrs. Stratton said:
“A couple of friends are coming from town to-morrow--one of them a
friend of yours.”
“Who?”
“Rather more than a friend; a relative, I suppose.”
“Robert Asquith?” said Isabel, surprised.
“Yes; I invited him some time ago, at Knightswell.”
“Why, I had a letter from him just before I left, and he didn’t say
anything about it. How came you to make such friends with him?”
“Oh, he took my fancy! And I thought it might be pleasant for you to
meet here.”
“Certainly; I am delighted.”
“I’m so glad you like him,” she added, after a pause. “I had no idea you
got on such good terms when he came down.”
“Why do you never speak of him?” Mrs. Stratton asked, smiling slightly.
“Don’t I? I really can’t say. I suppose I take Robert for granted. I
dare say he speaks as little of me as I of him.”
“Perhaps so,” said the other, in an unusually absent way. Then she
asked:
“He has never been married?”
“Oh no! Robert is a confirmed old bachelor.”
“Rather strange that, don’t you think? He is in easy circumstances, I
think you told me?”
“Decidedly easy.”
“And good-looking.”
“You think so? Yes, I suppose he is,” mused Isabel.
“Suppose? You know very well he is, my dear. And what is he doing,
pray?”
“I really can’t say. He has rooms, and lives, I suppose, a very idle
life. I shouldn’t wonder if he goes back to the East some day.”
“Very much better for him to stay in England, it seems to me,” remarked
Mrs. Stratton drily. Isabel changed the subject.
She went to her bedroom early, and, when her attendant had helped her
into the easy costume of a dressing-gown, sat by the fire and let her
eyes dream on the shapes of glowing coal. Presently she shook loose her
hair, which was done up for the night, and spread it over her shoulders.
She took a tress between the fingers of her left hand and stroked its
smoothness, a smile growing upon her lips. Then she paced the length
of the room several times, standing a moment before the mirror when she
reached it. The dressing-gown became well the soft outlines of her
form; the long, dark hair, rippling in its sweep from brow to shoulder,
changed somewhat the ordinary appearance of her face, gave its sweetness
a graver meaning, a more earnest cast of thought.
“If he saw me now he would tell me I was beautiful.”
She smiled at herself, sighed a little, and, before resuming her seat,
took from a drawer three letters which she had received during her stay
here. Each was of many pages, closely written; he who wrote them had
much to say. Isabel had read them many, many times. No such letters had
ever before come to her; her pride and joy in them was that of a young
girl, touched, however, with the sadness and regret never absent from
joy which comes late. She thought how different her life would have been
if she had listened to words like these when the years spread out before
her a limitless field of hope. It seemed too much as if these letters
were addressed to some one else, and had only been given her to read.
She had to bring herself with conscious effort to an understanding
of all they implied, all they demanded. Yet they moved her to deepest
tenderness.
And that was the most marked quality of the letters themselves. In them
was sounded by turns every note of love. There was the grace of pure
worship, the lyric rapture of passion and desire, the soft rhythm of
resigned longing, the sweet sadness of apprehension; but the note of
an exquisite tenderness was ever recurrent, with it the music began
and ended. They were the love letters of a poet, one in whom melancholy
mingled with every emotion, whose brightest visions of joy were shadowed
by brooding mortality. There was nothing masterful, no exaction,
no distinctly masculine fervour. If a dread fell upon him lest the
happiness promised was too great, it found voice in passionate entreaty.
He told her much of his past life, its inner secrets, its yearnings, its
despair. Of her infinite pity she had chosen him; she would not let
him fall again into utter darkness? Love did not stir in him vulgar
ambitions; to dwell in the paradise of her presence was all that his
soul desired; let the world go its idle way. Too soft, too tender;
another would have read his outpourings with compassionate fear,
dreading the future of such a love. He visioned a happiness which has no
existence. Men win happiness, but not thus. To woo and win as pastime in
the pauses of the world’s battle, to make hearth and home a retreat in
ill-hap, a place of rest between the combats of day and day, to kindly
regard a wife for her usefulness, and children for the pride they
satisfy, thus, and not otherwise, do men come to content. Content that
is not worth much, perhaps; but what is the price current of misery?
Isabel wrote in reply to each letter; King-cote would have liked to pay
in gold the village postman who brought her writing to his door. She,
too, spoke with love’s poetry, and her passion rang true. How strange to
pen such words! She had always thought of such forms of expression with
raillery, perhaps with a little contempt. Boys and girls of course wrote
to each other in this way; it was excusable as long as one did not know
the world. For all her knowledge of the world she would not now have
surrendered the high privilege of language born of the heart. And in all
that she wrote--in her thoughts too--it was her effort to place _him_ in
that station of mastery which he would not claim for himself. Was there
already self-distrust, and was it only woman’s instinct of subjection?
She would have had him more assured of his lordship, would have desired
that he should worship with less humility. If a man have not strength,
love alone will not suffice to bind a woman to him; she will pardon
brutality, but weakness inspires her with fear. Isabel had no such
thoughts as these, but perchance had his letters contained one sentence
of hard practical planning at the end of all their tenderness she
would have found that something which unconsciously she lacked. She had
bridged the gulf between him and herself; she was ready to make good
words by deed, and, in spite of every obstacle, become his wife; it must
be his to bear her manfully from one threshold to the other. Once done,
she felt in her soul that she should regret nothing; she loved him with
the first love of her life. But his hand must uphold her, guide her, for
she would close her eyes when the moment came....
She was alone in Mrs. Stratton’s boudoir next morning, when the door was
pushed open; turning, she saw her cousin.
“I was told that I might come here in search of you,” said Robert, with
his genial smile. “How do you do?”
“Very well, thank you. How are you?--as the children answer. But I
needn’t ask that; you have a wonderful faculty for looking healthy.”
“I don’t think there’s often much amiss with me. Setting aside the
chance of breaking my neck over a fence, I think I may promise myself a
few more years.”
“And the risk of fences you are wise enough to avoid.”
“Nothing of the kind. I was hunting in Leicestershire only yesterday.”
“Impossible, Robert!”
“Indisputable fact----” He had it on his lips to call her “Isabel,”
but for some reason checked himself. “A friend of mine took me down and
mounted me. I enjoyed it thoroughly.”
“But you are becoming an Englishman.”
“Was I ever anything else?”
“I believe I generally think of you in an Oriental light. At all events,
you smoke a hookah, and very much prefer lying on a rug to sitting on a
chair.”
“The hookah I have abandoned; the rug comes of your imagination.”
“Oh dear no; it was one of the first things you said to me when you came
to see me last spring in town. It stamped you in my mind for ever.”
They laughed.
“But I want to know how you are?” Robert resumed, leaning to her,
with his hands on his knees. “Mrs. Stratton’s account is too vaguely
ladylike. How, in truth, are you?”
A ripple of laughter replied to him.
“You show me that you can be mirthful; that is much, no doubt. But you
must have a change.”
“Am I not having one?”
“Oh, I don’t call this a change. You must get fresh air.”
Asquith’s way of speaking with her was not quite what it had formerly
been. He assumed more of--was it cousinship?--than he had done, Possibly
the man himself had undergone certain changes during the last few
months. Oriental he had been to a certain extent; something of
over-leisureliness had marked his bearing; there had been an aloofness
in his way of remarking upon things and people, a kind of mild fatalism
in his modes of speech. An English autumn with its moor-sport and the
life of country houses; an English winter with growth of acquaintances
at hospitable firesides had doubtless not been without their modifying
influence; but other reasons were also discoverable for the change in
his manner towards Isabel. For one thing, he had heard of her refusal of
Lord Winterset; for another, he knew of Ada’s approaching marriage.
She made no reply to his advice, and he continued.
“You know Henry Calder?”
“Well.”
“You know that he has been absolutely ruined by a bank failure?”
“You don’t say so?”
“Indeed. The poor fellow is in a wretched state--utterly broken down;
they feared a few weeks ago that he was going crazy. You know that he
was great at yachting; of course he has had to sell his yacht, and I
have bought it.”
“What will you tell me next?”
“Why, this. It is essential that poor Calder should get away to the
South, and nothing would do him half as much good as a sail among the
islands. Now I propose to ask him to accompany me on such a cruise, say
at the beginning of next month. He and I have been on the best of
terms since we were lads, and there’s no kind of awkwardness in the
arrangement; he goes to put me up to the art of seamanship. Of course
his wife accompanies him, and probably their eldest girl.”
“That’s the kindest thing I have heard for a long time, Robert,” said
Isabel, giving him a look of admiration.
“Oh dear no; nothing could be simpler. And now--I want you to come with
them.” Isabel shook her head.
“But what is your objection?”
“I cannot leave England at present.”
“I don’t ask you to. We are at the middle of January; it will be time
enough in three weeks.”
“Out of the question.”
She still shook her head, smiling. Robert reflected for a moment.
“When does this marriage take place?” he asked abruptly.
“Very shortly, I suppose. I have written to Mr. Lacour to request him
to make arrangements as soon as he likes. I shall meet him in London on
Monday.”
“Good. Then you are absolutely free.”
“I am not free.”
He glanced at her inquiringly.
“I am not free,” Isabel repeated, looking straight before her.
“I suppose I shall be grossly impertinent if I ask what it is that holds
you?”
“I cannot now tell you, Robert, but--I must remain in England.”
Her voice had a tremor in it, which she did her best to subdue. She was
smiling still, but in a forced, self-conscious way.
Asquith leaned back; he had lost his look of cheerful confidence.
“But it isn’t such a grave matter, after all,” said Isabel, restoring
the former tone. “It was a very kind thought of yours, very kind--but
you won’t quarrel with me because I can’t come? It will make no
difference in your plan for the Calders, surely?”
“I can’t say, I’m sure,” Asquith replied, in an almost petulant manner,
strangely at variance with his ordinary tone. He had thrust his hands
into his pockets, and was tapping the carpet with his foot.
“What nonsense!” Isabel exclaimed, with growing good humour. “As if you
would allow such a scheme to be overthrown just because one of the party
failed you! I can suggest half a dozen delightful people who will be
happy to go with you.”
“No doubt; but I wanted you.”
“Robert, you are undeniably Oriental; the despotic habit still clings
to you. If one swallow doesn’t make a summer, neither does one day’s
hunting make an Englishman.”
His countenance cleared.
“Well,” he said, “this is certainly not final. Let us wait till that
wedding is over.”
“It is final,” she returned, very positively. “The wedding will not in
the least alter things.”
“What then are you going to do?” he asked, with deliberation, gazing at
her steadily.
Her eyes fell, and she seemed half to resent his persistence, as she
answered:
“I am going to live on three hundred a year.”
“H’m! Do you think of living in London?”
“No; I do not think of living in London. Proceed, sir, with the
cross-examination.”
“I think I have been rude enough for one day,” he returned, with a quiet
smile as he rose from his chair.
She held her hand to him with the friendly grace which could repay even
when it disappointed.
“Thank you, with all my heart,” she said. “Only--remember how dear
independence must be to me.”
“Are you acquainted with Mr. Lyster?” Robert asked, with a transition to
easier topics.
“I don’t think I know any one of that name.”
“Some one who arrived here a few minutes after I did. It seems we came
in the same train.”
“To be sure; a friend the Strattons were expecting. Shall we go to the
drawingroom?”
There they found the gentleman in question conversing with Mrs.
Stratton, a man of smooth appearance and fluent speech. His forte seemed
to be politics, on which subject he discoursed continuously during
luncheon. There happened to be diplomatic difficulties with Russia,
and Mr. Lyster--much concerned, by-the-bye, with Indian commerce--was
emphatic in denunciation of Slavonic craft and treachery, himself taking
the stand-point of disinterested honesty, of principle in politics.
“We shall have to give those fellows a licking yet,” remarked Colonel
Stratton, with confidence inspired by professional feeling.
“I should think so, indeed!” put in Frank Stratton, the eldest son. The
two schoolboys had by this time returned to their football, and only the
representatives of Woolwich and Sandhurst remained to grace the family
table. “And the sooner the better.”
“What I want to know,” exclaimed Mr. Lyster, “is whether England is a
civilising power or not. If so, it is our duty to go to war; if not, of
course we may prepare to go to the----”
“Don’t hesitate, Mr. Lyster,” said Mrs. Stratton good-naturedly, “I’m
sure we all agree with you.”
“Civilisation!” proceeded the politician, when the laugh had subsided;
“that is what England represents, and civilisation rests upon a military
basis, if it has any basis at all. It’s all very well to talk about the
humanity of arbitration and fudge of that kind; it only postpones the
evil day. Our position is the result of good, hard fighting, and mere
talking won’t keep it up; we must fight again. Too long a peace means
loss of prestige, and loss of prestige means the encroachment of
barbarians, who are only to be kept in order by repeated thrashings.
They forget that we are a civilising power; unfortunately we are too
much disposed to forget it ourselves.”
“The mistake is,” remarked Frank Stratton, “to treat with those fellows
at all. Why don’t we take a map of Asia and draw a line just where it
seems good to us, and bid the dogs keep on their own side of it? Of
course they wouldn’t do so--and then we lick’em!”
His mother looked at him with pride.
“I respect our constitution,” pursued Mr. Lyster, who was too much
absorbed in his own rhetoric to pay much attention to the frivolous
remarks of others; “but I’ve often thought it wouldn’t be amiss if we
could have a British Bizmarck”--so he pronounced the name. “A Bizmarck
would make short work with Radical humbug. He would keep up patriotism;
he would remind us of our duties as a civilising power.”
“And he’d establish conscription,” remarked Frank. “That’s what we
want.”
“Eh? Conscription? Well, I won’t go quite so far as that. It is one of
our English glories that there are always men ready to volunteer for
active service; men who are prepared to fight and, if need be, to die
for their country. I shouldn’t like to see that altered. I think the
voluntary system a good one. We are Englishmen; we don’t need to be
driven to battle.”
Robert Asquith glanced at Isabel and smiled.
The weather was so bad in the afternoon that it was impossible to leave
the house. The two young Strattons went to try and break each other’s
heads at single-stick; the colonel, with his guests, repaired to the
billiard-room, where they smoked, talked, and handled the cues. Asquith
was not quite in the mood for billiards. When he had played with the
colonel for half an hour, Mr. Lyster took his place, and he strolled
round the room, examining the guns, cricket-bats, horse-whips, and
pictures, which invited observation. Going to one of the seats to
repose himself, he found a book lying close by on the floor, open
leaves downwards, just as it had fallen. It was one of Captain Marryat’s
novels. Robert threw up his legs on to the couch, and began to read.
Our friend was anything but a man of literary tastes; with the exception
of purchases at railway stations, it is doubtful whether he had
ever bought a book in his life. He read newspapers assiduously; they
satisfied his need of mental pabulum. For the rest, he made the world
his book, and had the faculty of extracting amusement from it in
sufficient quantities to occupy his leisure time. He was anything but an
ignorant man; conversation, and the haphazard experiences of life, had
supplied him in a living way with knowledge which ordinarily has to
be sought from the printed page; but intellectual tendencies, properly
speaking, he had none. Art he only cared for in the elementary way;
for music, he plainly confessed he had no ear. On men and manners, he
habitually reflected, and had fair natural power of insight; problems of
life were non-existent for him.
The story which he had picked up absorbed him; he read on and on with
a boy’s simple enjoyment. His body rested in a corner of the seat, his
legs were stretched at full length, one over the other, he held the book
up in both hands; often he laughed aloud, and at other times his face
wore an expression of the gravest interest. The billiard players had
passed out of his world.
When at length he put down the book, he found himself alone in the room.
He jumped up, flung the book on to the green table, yawned, stretched
his arms, slapped his legs to restore circulation, and walked to the
window. It was growing dark. In the leafless garden the rain fell
steadily; occasionally drops made their way down the chimney, and
hissed upon the fire. Robert had the feeling of one who awakes after
dissipation, a debauched and untidy sensation. He felt the necessity of
plunging his face in water.
Having done so, he made his way to the drawing-room. Visitors were not
to be expected such an afternoon as this, and at first he thought the
room was empty. But Mrs. Stratton was sitting with her back to him; the
ruffling of a newspaper she held apprised him of her presence.
“So some one has appeared at last,” said the lady, “not for my company,
of course, but for a cup of tea. Would you be so good as to ring the
bell?”
“The tea will be grateful, I admit,” returned Robert, doing her bidding,
“but your society no less. In fact, I want to speak to you.”
“Yes?”
“Mrs. Clarendon refuses my invitation--that I mentioned in my letter,
you remember.”
“Refuses? What is her objection?”
“Nothing definite. She says she cannot leave England, that’s all. Has
she--I don’t think there’s any harm in asking you, is there?--has she
spoken with you at all of what she is going to do?”
“Well, no. In fact, it’s a subject she won’t approach. I don’t think she
has formed any plans whatever yet.”
Asquith reflected, and at the same time tea was brought in and lamps
lit.
“I half supposed,” said Mrs. Stratton, glancing aside at him, as she
held up the teapot, “that you were the most likely person to know of her
plans.”
“I assure you, Mrs. Stratton, that was a mistake, an entire mistake.”
The lady raised her eyebrows a little and carefully removed a tea-leaf
from her cup.
“You take it for granted,” she asked, after a moment, “that she will
really quit Knights-well?”
“How otherwise? I am perfectly sure that nothing would induce her to
continue living there under the new _régime_. If the persons concerned
had been--had been other than they of course the affair might have been
very simple. But not as it is.”
“By-the-bye,” he added, “she gave me one piece of information. She does
not intend to live in London.”
“Where then, I wonder?”
“I can’t conjecture.”
“I would repeat the invitation, I think,” said Mrs. Stratton, looking at
him.
“I shall do so, though not just yet.”
The colonel and Mr. Lyster came in talking loudly. .
“Ah, we left you asleep,” said the former to Robert. “Didn’t like to
disturb you. We’ve had a walk.”
“A walk, in this weather!” exclaimed his wife.
“Oh yes; a little rain does one no harm. Not a bad afternoon; there’s
a pleasant warmth in the air. Don’t you notice a warmth in the air,
Asquith?”
“Yes, here in the drawing-room. I can’t answer for outside.”
“Oh, it’s distinctly warm. Eh, Lyster?”
Mrs. Clarendon appeared in the room. The colonel lost his ease, and
began to walk about. The conversation became general.
There were several other people at dinner. It fell to Asquith to take
down a certain Miss Pye, a tall young lady with a long thin nose, simply
dressed in white, with much exposure of bust. This _décolleté_ costume
was a thing Robert found it impossible to get used to; he felt that if
he went on dining with ladies for another five-and-twenty years there
would still arise in him the same sensation of amazement as often as
he turned to speak and had his eyes regaled with a vision of the female
form divine, with its most significant developments insisted upon.
Singular questions of social economy invariably suggested themselves.
How far was this fashion a consequence of severe competition in the
marriage market? He always found it a little difficult to look his
fair neighbour in the face, and, when he at length did so, experienced
surprise at her placid equanimity. Miss Pye’s equanimity it would have
taken much to disturb. As in duty bound, Robert made his endeavour
to interest her in various kinds of conversation. The affirmative
and negative particles alone replied to him. She ate with steady
application; she smiled feebly when he attempted a very evident joke;
she appeared to have no concern in any of the things about which men and
women use or abuse the gift of speech. Yet he succeeded at last.
“Did you ever read a book called------?” he asked, naming the novel of
Marryat’s which had absorbed him through the afternoon.
“I should think so!” exclaimed Miss Pye, her eyes gleaming with
appreciation. “Isn’t it awfully jolly? And----”
She proceeded to name half a dozen other works by the same refined and
penetrating author.
“That’s the kind of book I like,” she said. “I believe I ought to have
been a boy by rights. My brothers have all Marryat, and Mayne Reid, and
Cooper; and I know them all by heart. ‘Valentine Vox,’ too; do you know
that? Oh, you just get it, as soon as you can. And ‘Tom Burke of Ours’;
that’s Lever. And ‘Handy Andy.’ You _haven’t_ read ‘Handy Andy’? But
what a great deal you have to read yet.”
Robert admitted that such was the case. Miss Pye had got upon her
subject, and Asquith drew her out. She was something of a new female
type to him; but only so because he had long been unused to the society
of English girls. Had he mentioned a book by George Eliot she would
have told him that her mother didn’t approve of that writer, who was an
atheist and immoral.
Later he found himself by Isabel. Her proximity was pleasant to him. He
would have preferred just now to sit by her in silence, an glance at her
face occasionally, but that was scarcely possible.
“You will let me hear from you when that business is over?” he said.
“I will. Remember it is not my function to send invitations for the
wedding.”
“I suppose not.”
Somebody else drew near.
As they passed from the dining-room after breakfast next morning, Isabel
said to Mrs. Stratton:
“Come to the boudoir; I have a letter I want to show you.”
The letter was this:
“Dear Mrs. Clarendon,
“I want to tell you in as few words as possible that my marriage is
indefinitely postponed. It will not, in any event, take place before I
complete my twenty-first year. My second purpose in writing to you is
to ask your permission to go at once to London and live in Mr. Meres’
house. This is for purposes of study. I am unable to procure at
Knightswell the materials I need. Will you oblige me with a reply as
soon as you can?
“Faithfully yours,
“Ada Warren.”
“It does not in the very least surprise me,” observed Mrs. Stratton,
smiling urbanely.
“I don’t think I could say that. I _am_ surprised. I believed Ada would
stick to a purpose through thick and thin.”
“My dear, she accepted that man in a moment of pique, and she has very
wisely repented whilst there is time.”
Isabel was silent.
“And her wanting to go to London,” pursued the other. “It’s all
perfectly clear. She’s ashamed of herself; she can’t face you.”
Isabel seated herself and mused, the letter on her lap. Her cheek had a
flush of excitement, and her eyes were very bright.
“Look at this, too,” she said, with a laugh, taking from its envelope
another letter she was holding. “From Mrs. Bruce Page. I wonder _she_ is
not ashamed of herself, I really do!”
“My dearest Mrs. Clarendon,” ran this epistle, “it would be a mercy if
you would let me know what your latest news is about that boy. Do you
hear from or of him? Has he done anything surprising yet? I shouldn’t a
bit wonder if he does--I mean in this affair. He is capable of anything.
Do let me know at once if you have any curious news either from him or
Ada.”
“It looks as if she anticipated it,” said Mrs. Stratton.
“It does. It would be no great wonder if she proved to be at the bottom
of it.”
“Of the postponement, or rupture, or whatever it is?”
Isabel nodded.
“But what shall you do immediately?”
“Nothing. What is there to do? Merely write and give her the permission
she asks for.”
“I am really delighted at this!” Mrs. Stratton exclaimed.
“Why should you be delighted? I assure you it is nothing to me.”
“My dear, it is everything--you will tell Mr. Asquith?”
“I suppose so. It will annoy him.”
She reddened, and corrected herself.
“Nonsense, I didn’t mean to say that. I dare say he will take it very
much as you do. But you will both be wrong, both be wrong.”
“Isabel, you are mysterious.”
“Am I?” she asked with a laugh, not a very joyous one.
“Yes, more mysterious than I like.”
“Then indeed it won’t be mysterious at all. It’s only in your
imagination, Rose. Oh dear, oh dear!” she sighed, “this world is a hard
one!”
“I wonder whether you will hear from Mr. Lacour?” Mrs. Stratton asked,
after trying to read her friend’s face.
“I wonder,” said Isabel absently.
Their conversation soon came to an end. There was to be driving before
lunch as the sky had cleared, and it was not till afternoon that Isabel
had an opportunity of informing her cousin of the news she had received.
Robert heard it calmly.
“I really do not know whether to congratulate you or not,” he said, with
meaning.
“At all events, you may congratulate Ada.”
“Probably. Do you stay here much longer?”
“I go at the end of the week, the day after to-morrow.”
“So soon?”
“Yes, Knightswell must not be left empty.”
They gazed at each other without definite expression.