SCARLET AND HYSSOP
By E. F. BENSON.
* * * * *
Scarlet and Hyssop.
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The Luck of the Vails.
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Mammon and Co.
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Dodo.
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The Rubicon.
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* * * * *
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK.
SCARLET AND HYSSOP
_A NOVEL_
By E. F. BENSON
AUTHOR OF DODO
MAMMON & CO.
THE LUCK
OF THE
VAILS
ETC.
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1902
COPYRIGHT, 1902
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
CHAPTER I
It has been ordained by the wisdom of Nature that the same fact shall
strike the majority of her foolish children almost simultaneously. This
phenomenon can hardly have escaped the most casual observer; the
majority of swallows, for instance, in any given area will agree,
practically in the same week, that our English autumn is no longer
tolerable, and with consenting twitterings set their heads southwards;
or in the spring, again, one may observe that in any given field daisies
and buttercups will determine, only to be nipped by unpunctual frosts,
that it is now time to come out, while even man, that most vacillating
and least uniform of all created things, has a certain sympathy in his
sensations; the sap stirs with moderately equal effervescence in the
most dissimilar units; and without further preamble, to take the case in
point, London settles without consultation, but with considerable
unanimity, when spring may be considered to have stopped and summer to
have begun. It is hardly necessary to state that London is, if not
always, at any rate very frequently, completely deceived--like the
buttercups and daisies--about a point so apparently palpable as even
this, and a few biting frosts about mid-May usually send it back to its
furs again; but the fact remains that on or about the same day the
streets suddenly wear a completely different garb. On all sides the
chrysalises burst, and butterflies gay or sober, according to their
temperaments, hover and try their wings over a ground strewn, so to
speak, with the brown husks of the "winter weeds outworn." Nor is this
bursting of the chrysalis confined to externals: the time has come; the
tides of vitality turn and flow through the town, and the reopened
houses, newly decked window-boxes, and the flush of colour in the
streets, are but symptomatic of the inward conviction of their
inhabitants that a fresh season for doing a quantity of things they
should not do, and as great an opportunity for leaving undone many
things that they should do, has been turned up by the spade of Time,
that irresponsible farmer of years.
Though not usually given to prosing, Lady Alston had been making remarks
somewhat to this effect as she sat with Mrs. Brereton after lunch in a
balconied window of her drawing-room in Park Lane looking over the haze
and warmth of the Park. Being for the moment, at any rate, in a
pessimistic mood, she accounted for it by a belittling explanation.
"We are so obvious; that is why we all do things simultaneously," she
said; "and a thing that everybody does is not in itself worth doing at
all. I don't suppose there ever was a race so utterly deficient in
originality."
The sun was not very hot, and Mrs. Brereton put down her parasol, and
pointed dramatically with it down Park Lane.
"What do you call that?" she asked. "Did you ever see anything so wildly
and colossally original? You have travelled, dear Marie, and have seen
Aztecs and wigwams and the gorgeous East in fee, whatever that may mean.
But have you ever seen anything to approach Park Lane?"
Lady Alston laughed.
"I don't call nightmares original," she said.
"I'm sure I don't know why not. I see nothing in the nature of a
nightmare which is incompatible with originality. Just look: there we
have a Gothic façade, followed by a very plain English erection which
reminds me of beef and beer and Sunday. A little further down you will
observe a kind of kiosk, and after that the front of the Erechtheum and
something from the slums of Nürnberg. If one could look round the
corner, we would see a rustic cottage, a bit of Versailles, a slice of
Buckingham Palace as _pièce de resistance_, and some Pompeian frescoes
by way of a savoury. There's richness for you."
"Scraps only, scraps from other places. It always reminds me of a dog's
dinner," said Lady Alston; "and all of us who live here are like scraps
for a dog's dinner, too. Bits of things, remnants, a jumble sale, with
everything priced above its proper value."
Mildred Brereton leaned back in her chair, so that the sun did not catch
her hair. The particular Titian shade she affected was so difficult to
please in a strong light, and she felt sure that at this moment there
was a sort of metallic iridescence on it. She would have to go to the
hair-dresser's again to-day.
"Dear Marie, what possesses you this lovely morning?" she asked. "Why
is the world so stupid?"
"Probably only because I had a very short night. I am quite aware that
when one is dissatisfied with things in general, it means that one's
_vie interieure_, shall we say? is dissatisfied with something
particular."
"And what form does the dissatisfaction take?"
Lady Alston threw her hands wide with an admirably graceful gesture.
"I despair of the human race of the day," she said, "but I have enough
grace to include myself. Do you suppose there ever was such a stupid
class of people--especially we, Mildred, the women! We have all,
literally all, we should want to make ourselves happy in an animal
way--good health, sufficient money, and a deep abiding selfishness. But
we can't amuse ourselves; we are not happy; we are like dogs out for a
walk, we must continually have sticks thrown for us. We can none of us
invent anything ourselves. We can none of us stand solitude, which is in
itself a complete confession of our stupidity, our parasitic nature. We
go and hear people sing and act, and make music; and go and see horses
race; we play cards for hours because we have not got the wit to
talk--they say Bridge killed conversation. What nonsense! there was none
to kill. Our whole brains, such as they are, are occupied in devising
things to do to make the time pass. And we devise very badly: we are
always glad when each thing is over. We go to a concert. How long! We
live three months in London. How nice it will be to get down to the
country again! We play Bridge. Will the rubber never end? We spend the
autumn in the country. Will November never be over? On the top of that
we do all in our power to make it appear that time has not passed with
us. We dye our hair and paint our faces, in order to appear young, but
the moment we open our mouths it is obvious we are tired, withered old
women! There!"
Mrs. Brereton moved a little into the shadow.
"Don't mind me, dear," she said, "I am going to have it done again this
afternoon; it won't do at all."
Lady Alston laughed; she had noticed the iridescence.
"Now you, Mildred," she said, "you are an excellent case in point. Tell
me why you find it worth while to do that. What object is served by
your spending hours at your hair-dresser's? Can you find nothing better
to do?"
"You don't know my hair-dresser. He is a small Frenchman with a
lack-lustre eye, who sighs over the wickedness of the world. I sigh too;
and we find sympathy in each other's eyes. Some day I shall ask him to
dinner, and that will be disappointing. Besides, my hair is beginning to
be neatly picked out with gray, and when your hair is gray it looks as
if you were no longer young. Nor am I. I am thirty-six. But I have still
a greedy appetite for pleasure, which is the only real test of youth.
Therefore I cut my coat, or rather dye my hair, according to my
essential age, and pay no attention to the utterly misleading measure of
years."
"But what is the use of being young if it is only to be young?" asked
Lady Alston.
"That is a question which you will not ask when you are thirty-six. Most
delightful things are of no use whatever, and useful things are seldom
delightful. Go on about the want of originality in the world."
"There is really nothing to say about it. It is there, a colossal fact.
Nobody is serious--seriousness is considered the greatest of social
crimes--and we drift along like thistle-down. We are vicious; we are
idle. No one has any dignity or any manners, and there is no object
under the sun, except perhaps the avoidance of physical pain, for which
we would sacrifice our breakfast or dinner."
"There is no one under the sun," said Mildred, "for whom many of us
would not sacrifice our reputations."
"But not our dinner. Oh, I know I am only really speaking of--well, of
people you and I know best, among whom we choose to pass our time. There
again you see our utter want of originality. We are bound hand and foot
by conventions of our own making. Supposing I happened to go into the
country for a fortnight, instead of grilling here in London, every one
would say it was quite unheard of. And I have not got sufficient
originality to go, although I do think that it is simply silly and
absurd to live in a town in the summer."
"Every one would say a great deal more than that," remarked Mrs.
Brereton.
"I know they would. They would wonder whom I had gone with, and they
would speedily invent several people. I beg the pardon of the people
among whom we live. They have one passion, and it is scandal; the more
ill-natured the better."
"No; ill-nature has nothing to do with it," said Mrs. Brereton. "They
have a passion for scandal, it is true. What else is there to talk
about? I share it; in fact, I have a particularly large helping, but it
is the subject-matter of scandal which really interests people. I don't
see why you shouldn't call it the study of human nature. It is if you
come to think of it."
Lady Alston shook her head.
"No, the study of the worst side of it," she said. "So far, what you say
is true. All that most men think about is women, and all that women
think about is men. That is the coarse, raw truth of the thing; that is
the real indictment. Oh, it is inexplicable to me! All that we want in
this world is at our command--at any rate all the beautiful and
interesting things in existence can be read or heard or seen by us. But
we don't waste two thoughts on them all. We sit in corners and giggle
like barmaids with our young men. And, as long as there is no public
scandal, no scandal of the wrong sort--you know what I mean--the more
people that see us, the better we like it. We put our noses in the air
when we see a Harry and a Harriet with their arms round each other's
necks, having changed hats, and say, 'How those people _can_!' But we
can! And we do!"
Mrs. Brereton shrieked with laughter.
"Oh, Marie, you are too heavenly!" she said. "And you certainly have a
right to say those things, because nobody ever accused you of changing
hats with anybody. You don't draw them in, you know, dear. They call you
'Snowflake' and all sorts of things, I am told. And such lots of people
offer you their hats. Yet you never take one."
Lady Alston shifted her position slightly, as if something had suddenly
made her uncomfortable.
"It is no use talking about wickedness nowadays," she said, "because
people simply stare, as if they did not know what you meant. But I made
Blanche stare in a different kind of manner the other day, when I asked
her if she really had no idea how vulgar she was."
"Surely she did not mind being called vulgar?"
"She did when I explained carefully what I meant by vulgarity. Of course
a certain sort of vulgarity is _chic_ now. It is very vulgar not to be
vulgar, not to talk at the top of one's voice, and eat too much, and
laugh very loud at things which ought not to be said; but when I told
her what sort of a picture she makes when she sits simpering and ogling
Dick all across the room, and, so to speak, spreading herself on the
floor for him to walk over, she did not think I was so pleasant. But
that's exactly what she does."
Mrs. Brereton drew on her gloves.
"There is something very successful in your attitude, Marie," she said.
"You go about hurling home-truths at people; you hold up looking-glasses
to them, and make them see themselves; you point out what brutes they
are, and scold them for it; but they never bear you any ill-will, and
always want to see you. You really must not go into the country: we
cannot get on without you!"
"Ah, if I only was conceited enough to think that, I should go!"
"That is truly amiable. But what I mean is this: you have got somehow
the quality of centrality; our parties--I'm sure I don't know why--are
brilliant if you are there, and sensibly flatter if you are not. I
suppose it is because people are always talking about you, and it is so
nice in one's own house to be able to point to the original. At the same
time, I always feel about you as if you were the volcano on which we
were all dancing."
"I shan't explode: I am the least likely person in the world to
explode," said Marie.
"Ah, you never can tell about volcanoes. That is the joy of them. I
snatch a fearful joy from you, dear. I wish I was a volcano. How do you
manage it? Do you get very angry inside, and determine not to say
anything till the pressure is irresistible? By the way, Jim Spencer has
just come back. You know him, I suppose? Anyhow, you will meet him at
dinner this evening."
Marie looked up with a sudden vivacity.
"Jim Spencer? Why, of course I do. We were brought up together almost.
Then--well, then I married, and I lost sight of him somehow."
"One does," observed Mrs. Brereton. "Marriage often produces a sort of
moral cataract."
"Don't be foolish, Mildred. There is nothing cheaper or easier or falser
than that sort of innuendo. Besides, he went abroad; he has been away
two years, I should think."
"They do go abroad," said Mrs. Brereton.
"Oh, if you want to know, there is no earthly reason why I should not
tell you. He proposed to me. But I always liked him very much."
"I always said so," remarked Mrs. Brereton.
"Then you had no business to. Dear Jim! I shall be delighted to see him
again. He is one of the few really reasonable people I know. He has got
some sort of plan of his own; he has always known what he meant to do,
though he has not always done it. For instance, he wanted impossible
things; he had no money and I had none, so he proposed that we should
marry and support ourselves by his writings. He has appeared before now
in Christmas numbers."
"Then, perhaps you acted wisely. But he rolls in wealth now. A South
African millionaire, without anything South African about him: no local
colour, in fact. He is also remarkably handsome. Wealth, manners, good
looks! A fairy-prince combination."
Lady Alston laughed.
"Dear me! I shall like to see Jim with society at his feet," she said.
"You make certain it will go there?"
Lady Alston raised her eyebrows.
"My dear, how can you ask? He is rich--that is sufficient alone."
"He must not kick us, then. It is to be understood he gives us
halfpence, golden halfpence. And it is very interesting--that story
about him and you, I mean."
Lady Alston did not at once reply.
"You give one a bad taste in the mouth sometimes, Mildred," she said at
length.
"Very possibly. And you always tell one that one has done so."
"I know. That is why we are friends."
Mrs. Brereton looked doubtful.
"In spite of it, I should say."
"No, because of it. Ah! here is Jack."
Jack Alston was one of those people whom it was quite unnecessary to
point out, because he was distinctly visible not only to the outward,
but also to the inward eye. He was so large, that is to say, that you
could not fail to notice that he had come into a room, and at the same
time, he had about him the quality of making himself felt in some subtle
and silent manner. As a rule he spoke but little; but his silence, as
Mildred Brereton once remarked with more than her usual insight, took up
all the time. It could not be described as a rich silence, for it was
essentially dry, but somehow it compelled attention. Probably, if he
had been short and squat, it would have passed unnoticed, but coming as
it did from him, it was charged with a certain force, partaking of his
own quality. Also it was doubly unnecessary for his wife to call
attention to his entrance, for on no one did it produce such an effect
as on her. Thus, on this occasion, having remarked on it, she said no
more.
Jack lounged slowly into the balcony, shook hands with Mrs. Brereton,
and sat down on a basket chair sideways to his wife, so that he looked
straight at her profile.
"Decent afternoon for once, Mildred," he said. "Summer at last. You look
summery, too."
"What there is left of me," said she. "Marie has been taking the hide
off us all--skinning us."
Jack considered this a moment.
"Well, you look all right skinned," he said at length. "Bad habit of
Marie's, though. What has she been skinning you about?"
"She's been telling me we are all wicked and stupid, and vicious and
vulgar."
"That's a hobby of hers. One must have a hobby. Going out this
afternoon, Marie?"
Mildred took the hint instantly.
"I must be off," she said. "Really, Jack, you have the most brutal
manner. You send me to the right-about with the least possible ceremony.
So I wish to tell you I was going in any case. I've a hundred things to
do."
Jack rose.
"When have you not? I'll see you down. Wait a minute, Marie, if you're
not in a hurry; I want to have a word with you."
"Oh, don't trouble," said Mildred. "I can find my way."
Jack said nothing, but merely followed her into the house, and when they
had passed the drawing-room, "Has she been cutting up rough about
anything in particular?" he asked.
"Oh, no; merely the rigid attitude, fire-works, thunder-storms, what you
will."
"I'm rather tired of them. For several reasons she had better stop. I
believe most idiots find it amusing."
Mildred took a parasol out of the stand, with the air of a purchaser
selecting the one that most struck her fancy. As a matter of fact, it
happened to be her own.
"I should take care if I were you," she said in a low voice. "A man like
you cannot form the least idea of what a woman like Marie really is. Is
my carriage here? Just see, please."
She stood on the bottom step of the stairs, putting on her rather thick
and masculine driving-gloves, while Jack crossed the hall and rang the
bell. Then he came back to the bottom of the stairs again.
"Do you mean that she suspects anything?" he asked.
"No, of course not. What I do mean is that she is beginning to see what
we all are like. You and I, when we see that, are delighted. It is a
nice big playground. But it does not strike Marie as a playground. Also
you must remember that she is the--how shall I say it!--the sensation,
the latest, the fashion. You've got to be careful. She is capable of
exploding some day, and if she did it would be noticeable. It will
hardly be worth while picking up the fragments of you and me that
remain, Jack, if she does. Because if she does, it will be since
something has touched her personally."
"Well?"
"You are extraordinarily slow. Of course the person who is most likely
to touch her personally is you."
"I've got to mind my p's and q's, in fact. That's not the way to manage
her."
Mrs. Brereton's face clouded a little as she walked across the hall to
the door which was being held open for her.
"Well, _au revoir_," she said. "I shall have more to say to you
to-night. You dine with us, you know."
Jack Alston did not appear to be in any particular hurry to go upstairs
again after Mrs. Brereton had gone. He waited on the door-step to see
her get in, a groom who barely reached up to the horses' heads holding
them while she took up the reins, then running stiffly to scramble in
behind, as she went off down Park Lane in the most approved fashion,
elbows square, a whip nearly perpendicular, and her horses stepping as
if there were a succession of hurdles to negotiate, each to be taken in
the stride. Her remarks about the importance of taking care had annoyed
Jack a little, and still more his own annoyance at being annoyed. He had
his own ideas about the management of his affairs, among which, about
halfway down, came his wife, and the hint that she might, even
conceivably, make matters unpleasant for him was the same sort of
indignity as a suggestion that he could not quite manage his own dogs
or horses. But after a minute he turned.
"For what time is her ladyship's carriage ordered?" he asked of the
footman.
"Half-past three, my lord."
"Tell them to come round at a quarter to four instead," he said, and
went slowly upstairs again.
He found his wife on the balcony where he had left her, with her maid
beside her with two hats in her hand.
"Yes, that one will do," she said, "and send the other back. No, I will
take it myself this afternoon. It is all wrong. Put it in a box and
leave it in the hall. I am going out immediately."
The maid retired with the condemned hat, and while Marie pinned the
other on, she turned to her husband.
"You wanted to speak to me?" she said, not lifting her eyes.
Jack looked at her in silence a moment, and lit another cigar.
"Finish pinning on your hat first," he said.
Marie found herself obeying him, with a sense of wanting, just in order
to see what happened, not to do as he told her. However, she pinned her
hat on.
"Well?" she said again.
"Jim Spencer has come back," he said.
"I knew that. Mildred told me just now."
"I wanted to say a few words to you about him. I find people have not
forgotten that he was very much attached to you once."
She looked up at him with eyes of indifferent wonder, as if he had asked
her some inane unanswerable sort of riddle.
"People are quite at liberty to remember or forget what they like, as
far as I am concerned," she said. "Is that all you have to say to me? If
so, I will go out, I think. The carriage ought to be round."
"Not yet. I told them not to come round till a quarter to four. And I
have more to say."
"Please consult me another time," she said, "before you take it upon
yourself to alter my arrangements."
Jack did not reply at once. Then in a voice expressive neither of
compunction nor annoyance, "It is no use making a fuss," he said. "I
wish merely to warn you that people have not forgotten. I wish also to
ask you to behave reasonably. People, very likely, will connect your
names again: you know what they are."
She rose flushing.
"So you wanted a quiet quarter of an hour in which to insult me," she
said.
He pointed to a chair.
"Sit down, Marie," he said.
"Supposing I choose not to?"
"We will not suppose anything so absurd. There! Why not have done it at
once? As I was saying, this will inevitably happen, and so I should
advise you to accept it. That will entail certain alterations in
your--your general style. I have often heard you criticising rather
mercilessly the world you live in; Mildred tells me you were doing so
this afternoon. I don't mind your doing that: you have a racy sort of
way of talking, and no doubt all your criticisms are perfectly true. But
with the return of Jim Spencer, I should advise you either to drop that
sort of thing, or else not see very much of him."
He paused, and flicked the end of his cigar-ash over the balcony.
"Not that I mind your doing either the one or the other in themselves,"
he continued, "but to do both will show a want of wisdom."
"Ah, you don't mind what I do, but only what people say!"
"Exactly. You have quite grasped my meaning."
Again she rose from the chair in which she had sat at his bidding.
"That is all, then, I imagine," she said. "Five minutes was enough."
"Yes, for what I had to say. I thought you might like to talk over it."
"I have not the least desire to."
Jack reached out his hand for an early edition of the evening paper, and
unfolded it.
"Perhaps you would tell me what you mean to do."
"I have no intention of doing anything. Certainly I have no intention of
discussing the question with you."
Jack did not show the slightest impatience.
"There's no use in being so nettled about it," he observed. "If a woman
behaves in a certain way, she gets talked about. That is all. I have
indicated to you that if you do certain things you will get talked
about; I do not want that."
"From your point of view, I wonder why. Mildred is talked about, so I am
told; but I never knew that you considered that a reason for not seeing
her a good deal."
For one moment he looked quickly up, then turned back a fluttering leaf
of his paper.
"Quite true. And if you were anybody else's wife, I should not mind how
much you were talked about. But you are mine--it happens you are mine."
Marie did not reply.
"Somehow the matter has grown to larger dimensions than I had intended,"
he added. "I only meant to give you quite a friendly and, in a way,
insignificant word of warning. But somehow you have put it all into
capital letters. There, go out for your drive. Really, Marie, I had not
the slightest conception you would make such an affair of it."
"You think I have been unreasonable."
"I do."
She made a great effort with herself.
"Very well, I will forget all about it. You see, we rub each other up
the wrong way, Jack. It is a great pity."
"Yes. But it's not worth bothering about."
The paper appeared to have nothing much in it, and it was only a few
moments after his wife had left him that Jack put it down, and finished
his cigar without other employment than his own thoughts. This short
scene with Marie had disturbed him in the same way as a fall in the
barometer may disturb a picnic-giver: it may come to nothing, but there
is a hint of the fair weather breaking. At the same time, he was
perfectly well accustomed to be utterly at variance with her, and never
contemplated any divergence of opinion between them which could result
in his having to give way. It is only selfish people who cannot believe
that they are selfish, and Jack never passed moral judgments on himself
or anybody else. To be critical of any behaviour that did not annoy him
personally he held to be an absurd attitude to adopt; it was only
behaviour that might prove inconvenient to one's self that could
reasonably be criticised, or, rather, not so much criticised as
corrected. He knew quite well that the small but well-dressed fragment
of the world that at all concerned him, was perfectly aware that his
marriage with Marie had not been a romantic success, though personally
he considered it quite up to the average. To a nature like his, unbroken
constancy and devotion to one's wife is not only an achievement never
aimed at, but an achievement not even contemplated. He had married, as
many men do, simply because many men do marry, and an heir is certainly
the natural complement to estates and a title. But no heir had been
born, and, in a manner of speaking, Marie had made his estates and title
appear ridiculous and lopsided; she had not fulfilled her part of the
bargain.
It is not meant to be understood that he stated these things to himself
with the foregoing baldness, but none the less, if he had analyzed the
springs of action that determined the course of the life he led, he
would have admitted that they represented its ground-motives with
sufficient accuracy. But Jack was not in the habit of analyzing
anything: inquiry into the reasons for conduct seemed to him a
profitless pursuit, since--again to put the matter baldly--he did not
care at all whether a person acted wickedly or not. In fact, as his wife
had said, there were many people who simply stared if you talked of
wickedness. Her husband was among them, but he did not even stare.
It is commonly said that modern life is too full and too complex, but
this generalization requires limiting. Certainly to a man, or in
particular a woman, not belonging to "the world," a sudden plunge into
that frothy mill-race would be complex to the verge of distraction. But
there are many ways of simplifying this complexity, and one of the most
convenient and efficient is to strike out, without further
consideration, all moral obligations, positive and negative. When once
one no longer thinks it necessary to reflect whether one ought or ought
not to do or to avoid a thing, the saving of time and tissue is quite
enormous. For it is not so much doing things as thinking about them
which consumes the minutes and the nerves, and once having made an
unalterable rule to do a thing if it is pleasant, and refrain from it if
it is not, one can get into a single day a number of delightful
experiences which would appear to those who do not know the recipe quite
incredible. Again, as among wild beasts, so in the world, the weak go to
the wall. There is no place for them, and no use for them. Every one has
to look out for himself, and fight for his own possessions and those of
other people. Not to recognise this spells failure. Such, at any rate,
was Lord Alston's experience, and he was generally understood to have
had a good deal of it.
But as he sat now with the stale paper on his knees he had a vague
sense of being balked. He knew his own section of the world fairly well,
and having broken his rose-coloured spectacles a long time ago, and not
having desired to get new ones, he realized that people certainly
remembered Jim Spencer's attachment to his wife, and that piecing
together with their habitual amiability, their opinion of the
ill-success of his own marriage with her, her frankly low opinion of the
world, and the possibility of the renewed intimacy of his wife and this
man, they would say things which would annoy him personally. He had
hoped that Marie would see this, or if not that, at any rate learn it by
heart, so to speak, from a few well-chosen remarks of his. But she had
done neither the one nor the other; she had taken the well-chosen
remarks, so he considered, remarkably ill, and the only _amende_ had
been to say that she would forget all about it. To Jack's mind this was
but poor wifely conduct.