Maud Brereton was lying in a hammock underneath a big chestnut-tree in
the garden of the house at Windsor. She had been here a fortnight alone,
having been sent from London in disgrace by her mother after her
refusal, in consequence of her interview with Marie Alston, to accept
the riches and devotion of Anthony Maxwell. This fortnight she had spent
in sublime inaction, surrounded as she was by all those things which to
her made life lovable. Her dogs were here, her pony was here, the
meadows were tall with hay, the river brimming, and the garden-beds
presented every day some new miracle of unfolding colour. Each morning
she had got up early and ridden in the park, while the day was still
cool and dewy; she had read, not much; she had played the piano
diligently; she had been the centre of an adoring crowd of dogs and
gardeners; and for some days--not all this fortnight, indeed, but the
bigger and earlier half of it--she had been completely happy in her own
mild ruminative manner. It had been a source of great satisfaction to
compare the rival merits of the two systems: London on the one hand; on
the other, being in disgrace. For the sight of the hot square garden,
she had here this cool, green lawn; for the riband of dull wood pavement
up Grosvenor Street, the silver line of the Thames; for the
companionship of languid and heated mankind, the eager dogs; and for the
hopeless tedium of a ball, the cool vast night pouring in through the
open windows of the drawing-room.
This idyllic attitude towards life in general had lasted ten days or so,
but during the last four she no longer tried to conceal from herself her
mind had changed. The weather, perhaps, became rather hotter, or she
more languid; in any case, though she cared no less for the dogs and the
riot of vegetable life, she missed something. And that something, she
was beginning to be afraid, was people. Again and again she arrived at
this same disheartening conclusion, and though, as many times, she went
over in her mind the list of the people whom it was possible she might
miss, and found none desirable, it was none the less true that she
missed them _en masse_. Imagining them with her now, one by one, she
would have wished each of them away, but with them all away there was
something lacking. "Perhaps they are like a tonic," she said to herself.
"One doesn't want to take it, but one is the better for it."
She sat up in her hammock and surveyed her surroundings. The book she
had brought out to read had fallen, crumple-edged, on the grass, and
looking at the back, even the very title came as new to her. Dogs in
various stages of exhaustion were stretched round her, and at the sound
of her movement tails thumped the grass, but otherwise none stirred.
Overhead, the chestnut with green five-fingered leaves drooped in the
heat, and stars of wavering light fell through the interspaces of
foliage on to her dress. To the right the hay, already tall and ripe to
die, stood motionless in the dead calm; and the scent of clover and
flowering grass, which in the morning had been wafted in flow and ebb of
varying scent, hung heavy and stagnant in the air. Southwards the river
was a sheet of glass; a centreboard, hopelessly becalmed, lay with
flapping sail in the middle, and a splashed line of broken water showed
the paddling efforts of its master. To this side lay the lawn; the
croquet hoops were up, and leaning against the stick was a mallet; four
balls in as uninteresting position lay immobilized here and there, the
_débris_ of a game, red versus blue, which Maud had begun that morning,
but had found her honesty or her interest unable to cope with. Beyond
was the house, bandaged as to the windows with green sun-blinds, and
empty but for Maud's maid, who was in love with the caretaker, who
adored the kitchenmaid-cook, who adored nobody. There was also the
caretaker's wife, and nobody adored her.
The path which led from the lawn to the river was concealed by a
lilac-bush from Maud's hammock, and it was with a sudden quickening of
the pulse that she heard a crisp step passing along it. It was a man's
tread, so much was certain; it was certain also that it did not belong
to any of the gardeners, all of whose steps, Maud had noticed, were
marked by a sort of drowsy cumbersomeness, like people who are walking
about a dark room. Soon the crisp step paused and began to retrace
itself, left the gravel for the grass, and in another moment Anthony
Maxwell came round the lilac-bush.
Maud did not feel in the least surprised; her unconscious self had
probably guessed who it was. She rose from her sitting position on the
hammock, but gave him no word or gesture of greeting.
"I came down on my motor-car," he said. "It was particularly hot. May I
sit here a little while and get cool?"
"By all means," said Maud. Then, after a pause, "Do you think it was
right of you to come?" she said.
"I don't think anything about it," he said; "I had to."
Maud hardened and retreated into herself.
"You mean, I suppose, that my mother insisted on it," she said, with a
cold resentment in her voice.
"Your mother does not know I have come," said he. "I should have told
her, but I thought she would probably have forbidden me."
"Indeed she would not," said Maud. "She would certainly have encouraged
you."
"That would have been just as bad," said Anthony.
Suddenly Maud felt stimulated. During all this fortnight neither the
gardeners nor the dogs had said anything so interesting. She sat down
again.
"I should like you to explain that," she said, without confessing to
herself that explanation was unnecessary or that she wished to hear him
explain.
"You are sure?" he said.
"Quite."
"It is this, then," said he--"we have both been put in a false position.
We have been urged to marry each other, and you have refused me. It has
not been fair on either of us. In spite of the pressure which has been
put upon you, you have refused me; in spite of the pressure put upon me,
I want nothing else in the world but that you should marry me. Mind, I
quite sympathize with you, for if there is anything in the world which
would make one wish never to see a person again, it is to have that
person persistently hurled at one. I have been hurled at you. That is
one of the reasons why I came here, to tell you that I sympathize with
you. I am afraid people have made me an uncommon nuisance to you."
Anthony paused, raised his eyes a moment, and saw that Maud was looking
at him steadily, with grave consideration in her face. He felt, rightly,
that never before had she given him such favourable attention.
"I am not such a coxcomb as to suppose that you would have given me a
different answer if you had not quite naturally been 'put off' by the
way in which you have been treated," he continued; "but I do ask you to
remember that I have scarcely had a fair chance. Please try to think
that it has not been my fault."
"No; it has been my mother's," said Maud.
"Yes, it has been her fault. I suppose she thought that continued
perseverance would have some effect. It may or may not have had the
opposite effect to what she intended, but certainly not that."
"It has had the opposite effect," said Maud.
"Are you sure?"
"I am now."
"Can you try and banish it from your mind?"
"I will try."
Anthony, again looked at her, and his heart hammered against his ribs.
But even though he scarcely felt master of himself, he did not lose his
wisdom and press this point further.
"I do not hope to win you," he said, "by making myself importunate, and
perhaps, now I think of it, it was not wise of me to come. But I am not
sorry I came; nor do I give up hope. Very likely that is presumptuous of
me; but for myself, I am sure that I shall not change."
He sat on the ground playing with the ear of one of the dogs, but as he
said these last words his fingers made a sudden violent movement, and
the dog whimpered. "There, there!" he said, and fell to stroking it
again quietly.
"You said that this was one of the reasons why you came," said Maud.
"What was the other?"
"There was only one other. I wanted to see you. I was drawn by cords,"
he said.
"Poor Mr. Anthony," said she very quietly, and there was no shade of
irony in her voice.
"Thank you for that," he said.
Maud lifted her feet off the ground, and swung gently to and fro in the
hammock. She was naturally very reserved, and in matters of the
emotions still extraordinarily ignorant, and it would have puzzled her
to say exactly what she felt now. It was no tearing or violent emotion,
no storm, but rather the strong, serene press of a flowing tide.
Hitherto the human race, whether considered individually or
collectively, had not much occupied her, but something now within her
quickened and stirred and moved, and she was certainly at this moment
not indifferent to this plain young man who was so modest and so
self-assured. There was more about him to be learned than she had known,
and that book just opening promised to interest her. Of passion she felt
no touch, but her "poor Mr. Anthony" had contained authentic pity.
"You are quite right," she said. "Your various advantages have been
constantly told me by my mother. All the things which seemed to her such
excellent causes why I should marry you seemed to me to be very bad
causes indeed; but they were represented to me as most urgent. I did not
find them so." She paused, and Anthony said nothing, feeling that some
further word was on her lips. "I like you," she said at length. "Come
and have tea."
The moment she had said it she was afraid that he would do something
stupid, look fervent, even seize her hand. But she need not have been
afraid. Anthony rose at once.
"Oh, do let us have tea," he said; "I am longing for it."
Maud's relief was great.
"It was stupid of me," she said. "Won't you have a whisky-and-soda? You
must be awfully thirsty."
"No, I should prefer tea, thanks," he said. "I hate drinks at odd times.
How lovely your garden looks!"
"Yes; but it's still rather backward. The chestnut-flowers should be out
by now, and they are still hardly budding."
"How can you remember that?"
"Oh, if one takes an interest in things, it is difficult to forget about
them," said Maud.
"That is perfectly true," remarked Anthony.
Soon after tea he left again, and took the white riband of the Bath Road
back into London. He could not help telling himself that he had
prospered beyond all expectation; and if he had been, as he had told
Maud, not hopeless before, he was, it may be supposed, on the sunny side
of hope now. But he intended to stop, once and for all, the risk of
mismanagement on the part of others, and having reached home he went
straight to his mother's room.
"I've been down to Windsor," said he, "and I had tea with Maud
Brereton--alone."
"You haven't got a spark of proper pride, Anthony," said his mother with
some heat. "To go dangling and mooning after a girl who's refused you
flat! I wonder what she sets up to be!"
"I think she sets up to be herself," said Anthony. "It is rather rare. I
like it. But I want to manage my own affair in my own way. I
particularly wish Lady Brereton not to say a word more of any kind to
Maud. I should like you to tell her so if you have an opportunity."
"Why, I'm sure she's been as eager as anybody," said Lady Maxwell.
"I shall not succeed with her because her mother wishes it," said
Anthony. "I'll play my hand alone, please."
In London, in the meantime, the fact that Maud had refused him had
become generally known, and London, with that admirable substitute for
altruism which is so characteristic of it, and consists in vividly
concerning one's self with those things that do not in the least
concern one, had been very voluble on the subject. There was scarcely
any divergence in the views expressed, and everybody was agreed that it
was a terrible thing for poor Mildred to find she had for a daughter so
obstinate and wrong-headed a girl. "Why, the Maxwells roll, my
dear--simply roll! Of course, Maud is wonderfully good-looking, and no
doubt lots of other men will be after her, but why not have accepted
Anthony provisionally? It is always so easy to let it be understood, if
anything else turned up, that a young girl like that hadn't known her
own mind----"
On the top of this there leaked out the fact that Marie Alston had
strongly dissuaded her from it, and the world, with the agility and
restlessness of monkeys, leaped to the new topic. Really Marie was
getting a little too strong! It was all very well to scatter those
amusing and general criticisms on people in general, and take the
unworldly pose; but when it came to putting her finger in the wheels of
the Society watch, so to speak, and stopping them from turning, it was
too much. How on earth were struggling mothers to hope to get their
daughters happily--yes, happily--married, if idealistic snowflakes were
ready to descend upon them at street corners and forbid the banns. Over
this Society grinned and showed its teeth for a little while, and then
was off again on a fresh tack. How would Mildred behave to Marie? Here
there were wheels within wheels, and the upshot was that Society was not
at all sure that there had not been a break on one side or the other
between Jack and her. Given that certain things had come to Marie's ear,
it would account for everything. What an ingenious revenge, too, on
Marie's part! Really, she was a person of brains. It required cool
thinking to hit upon a _riposte_ like that.
After this, sensation came hard on the heels of sensation. Mildred began
to be mentioned in the same breath as Jim Spencer, and, far more
remarkable, Jack began to be mentioned in the same breath as his wife.
They had dined out together twice last week; they had been together to
party after party. How curious and interesting! A complete resorting of
the cards, and without any fuss whatever; and the honour, as usual, in
Marie's hand. In one _partie_ she had recaptured her husband, shunted
off her admirer on to Mildred, scored heavily against her, all the time
with her nose in the air, as unapproachable and distinguished as ever.
But meanwhile Lady Ardingly sat like a spider in the middle of her web.
The threads had extended farther than even she had originally planned,
but she did not object in the least to that. And when people came and
told her the news, she was less severe than usual.
"Ah, my dear!" she would say, "how you fly about, and gather honey and
all sorts of curious other things! And I sit here. I never know anything
except what you are good enough to come and tell me. And so Jack is
_amouraché_ again of his wife? So charming, is she not? Let us play
Bridge immediately."
Mildred, however, did not think that things were quite so satisfactory.
At first the idea of Jack and Marie Darby-and-Joaning it together sent
her into fits of laughter. But after a week or so the joke began to lose
its point--or, to state it more accurately, the point became rather too
sharp for her liking. Jack and she had settled that they were to see
less of each other, and not give any ground for people to say behind
their backs what was perfectly and absolutely true; but she had not
bargained for this return to intimacy between husband and wife. Once she
had approached Jack on the subject.
"You are very realistic," she had said, "and have a great respect for
detail."
"To what are you referring?" he asked.
"Oh, don't be stupid! You are taking your part very seriously. You see
nothing of me--that is all right; but is it necessary to bore yourself
quite so much with Marie?"
"I don't bore myself," he had said.
"Bore her, then?"
"I try not to do that," said Jack with curdling equanimity. "But what
are you driving at? Do you want me to mourn for you, to watch the shadow
on your blind? That would be rather unconvincing to other people, would
it not?"
"No; they would say I was tired of you."
Jack considered this.
"I don't want them to say anything about us at all," he answered, and
again the sense of imperfect grip haunted the woman, and the sense of
having been talking to a cook the man.
Nor was this the sum of Mildred's discomfort. She had amiably proposed
not long ago to break with Marie, but now that the opportunity was ripe
she felt herself simply unable to do so. There was a deficiency of force
in her--moral or immoral, it matters not which--which was unable to
stand up to the other. Also, she was dimly aware that people in general
were watching her, looking at her rather as they had done when, now
years ago, her hair had turned golden in a single night. But now the
cause was not so tangible. Was it that she herself, not her hair only,
was turning gray? Certainly she was conscious of a failure of power. It
was in vain that she ate her many solid meals, or, as the whim took her,
lived on varalettes and lean meat, vowing that this treatment made the
whole difference to her; it was in vain she slept her solid six hours,
drove a great deal in the fresh air, and kept her windows unwontedly
open. People, the hundred diverting situations in which her friends
daily found themselves, diverted her less, and she wondered whether the
truth was, as fashion papers assured her, that the season was not very
brilliant, or whether it was she who was losing the power to be amused.
The thought of old age, a veritable bogey to one who has always felt
young, sat daily by her in the empty seat of the victoria, and flapped
in the wind-stirred blind of her bedroom at dark hours.
After she had left Jack that afternoon she had driven for an hour in the
Park. The day was very fine, and the roadway and the path beside the
Ladies' Mile were both crowded. She sat up very straight, as her custom
was, in her victoria, the anæmic Yorkshire terrier by her side, and put
up her veil so as both to see and be seen more distinctly. She was
dressed, she knew, with extreme success, and it had been pleasant, at a
block entering the Park, to see a gaunt female taking notes of the
occupants of the carriages. Her own had by singular good luck paused
exactly opposite this journalist, and she had out of the corner of her
eye seen her examining and writing down with the facility of long
practice the details of her costume: "Many smart people were in the
Park, driving and walking last Thursday. Among others, I noticed Lady
Brereton driving in her victoria, with her sweet little terrier by her
side, extremely stylishly gowned. Her Saturday-till-Monday parties are
still the attraction, and no wonder. On this occasion Lady Brereton had
a new 'creation,' which I must describe. The bodice was of yellow silk,
faced with orange colour; her bonnet," etc.
After this the crowd claimed her attention. Indeed, as "Diana" would say
next week, "all the smart world" was about. Silly Billy, as usual, was
taking his daily airing previous to clearing out the company at the
"Deuce of Spades" at Bridge, talking to a nameless female, who appeared
to want a lot of attention. Mildred just caught his eye, and, full of
tact as ever, immediately looked away. Further on was Arthur Naseby,
with hands wildly gesticulating, shrilly declaiming something of a
clearly screaming nature to Blanche Devereux and a small and select
company. He was standing close to the rails, and cried, "Dear lady! how
are you?" to her, and the select company smiled their sweetest at her.
Then, as her carriage passed at a foot's pace, she again heard his
voice--in a different key and much lower. She could not catch the words,
but felt sure that he was saying something about her. Then followed Jim
Spencer alone. To him she waved her hand and beckoned him to the vacant
seat in her victoria. But he, with seeming obtuseness, appeared not to
understand, and went on his way. Then came Lady Davies, driving in the
opposite direction, who passed without recognising her; soon after Kitty
Paget, making violent love to her husband; and presently a tandem, which
she recognised while yet some way off as Jack's. He was driving himself;
a woman was seated by him. At the same moment the muscles of Mildred's
face hauled up as by a crane all the paraphernalia of smiles, for the
woman was her dear friend and Jack's wife. Immediately afterwards the
smile had to be tied to the mast again, for close behind them was Lady
Ardingly, "got up to kill," as Mildred angrily said to herself. She
looked like a Turner landscape of the later period, with a lopsided
sunset of auburn hair perched negligently on the top. Her mouth seemed
to crack a little by way of recognition, and she passed in a flash of
winking lacquer.
But Marie driving with Jack! That penultimate meeting was the most
surprising. Did he really think she--Mildred--or, indeed, Marie, was the
sort of woman to stand a _ménage à trois_, especially when one of the
three was his wife? Then, like an earthquake wave laden with the dead
slime of the stirred depths, the sense of her own impotence came over
her. Only a fortnight ago she had airily told Jack that she was glad
that concealment was at an end--that she would now break with Marie. But
what if something else was at an end? What if her revolt at a _ménage à
trois_ was altogether ill-founded? Out of three people there were two
mathematically possible arrangements _à deux_. In this case one would
have to be left out.
She had put up her veil, and at this moment something line-like crossed
the field of her left eye. She put up her hand, and found between her
finger and thumb a long hair, golden, but gray near the root. One hair
only, and they were all numbered! But this was not number one.... There
were certain savage tribes that could only count up to eight. She rather
envied them their blissful incapacity.
There came a sudden stop, and she found herself in a queue of carriages
at the side of the road. Down the centre came the royal outriders,
followed by the carriage. The King and one of the Princesses were seated
in it. He took off his hat to some one in the carriage immediately in
front of hers, then turned and spoke to his companion. Probably his
oversight of her was quite unintentional. But something within her
said, "What if--" For some weeks now she had been a little uneasy; she
had felt that her case was under consideration. Perhaps her not being
recognised was the formal declaration to her of her sentence.
Then, in a flash, she was herself again, back to the wall, fighting
desperately for her position, which was equivalent to her life. She
would show everybody if she was done with yet. A gray hair or two! What
did that matter, when a woman like Lady Ardingly had no hairs at all,
gray or any other colour, and all the world knew it? She had money--any
amount of it--which was of more consequence than anything else; she had,
what was almost better than wit, a quick and incisive tongue--an
instrument, it is true, not to be used except on such occasions as when
a man may draw his revolver, to defend himself at close quarters, but as
valuable, when people knew you had it, as the revolver. She was selfish,
ambitious, greedy of worse things than food, unscrupulous, ready to
amuse, and easy to be amused. She had everything, in fact, which was
needful to make up the kind of success which she desired, and which, in
point of fact, she had hitherto enjoyed. Yet she had industriously and
carefully been making a private little hell for herself during this last
hour simply because Marie went driving with her husband, and the King
happened not to see her!
Like all wise people, though she would not admit it to any one else, she
frankly admitted to herself that she had made a mistake--such a little
one, too--when she had allowed Silly Billy to talk about Marie and Jim
Spencer, and this mistake, she was aware, had ramified further than she
had anticipated. She ought never to have started it. She had not got
enough beam, so to speak, to sail against Marie. Yet what a tempting
prospect, if only she could have won! Marie really besmirched! How
unspeakably convenient! But apparently this was not to be. She confessed
that she had failed, and was genuinely sorry she had attempted it.
Things had been very happy and comfortable before, and she ought to have
been content. She felt, indeed, rather like a person who cannot swim,
who has capsized near the bank, but in the first moment of immersion
does not know whether he is within his depth or not. In any case, a few
floundering plunges towards land would settle the matter, and she would
be safe again--not, indeed, on the other bank, which had looked so
inviting, but where she was before, and very enjoyable it had been!
As a matter of fact, one of Mildred's depressed conjectures had been
quite correct, and had she known what was being said a mile or so behind
her, she would not have found it so easy, perhaps, to brace herself up
to make her efforts.
"Busily employed," said Arthur Naseby shrilly, "in taking the plug out
of the bottom of her own boat. She exhibits a marvellous dexterity in
doing it. What is the use of trying to start a scandal which nobody will
believe? It was so stale, too. You and I certainly had done our level
best to believe it long before, Lady Devereux. That Sunday down at
Windsor--don't you remember?"
"Yes, I tried for a week, with both hands and my eyes shut," said
Blanche.
"And I tried with my eyes open," said Arthur; "so we have given
ourselves every chance. It, too, had every chance. It was launched
without a hitch, and the colours waved madly on the winds of heaven.
Silly Billy, the 'Deuce of Spades,' the overhearing of it by Jack! All
brilliant accessories! But the piece was damned from the first!"
"It really is too shocking!" said Mrs. Leighton, with her mouth
underneath her left ear. "Such a mistake on dear Mildred's part!
Gracious powers below! did you see?" she said, pointing with her parasol
at Jack and Marie in the tandem. "Yes, too heavenly, is it not?" she
screamed at them. "Mildred has just passed, like Solomon in all his
glory, with the Yorkshire terrier. And there are the lilies of the
field," she continued, looking after Marie. "Poor dear Solomon!"
"There is a decided flavour of the best French farces in the air,"
remarked Arthur. "Enter, also, Madame la Marquise."
Lady Ardingly said something violent to her coachman, who drew up with a
jerk.
"Ah, my dears!" she said with extreme graciousness. "How are you all?
Why do none of you drive with poor Mildred? I have just passed her all
alone. I am alone, too--am I not?--but I am used to it."
"Do let me come and drive with you, Lady Ardingly!" cried Arthur.
"And leave these enchanting ladies?" said she. "They would say all sorts
of horrible things, and not come to my parties any more, nor tell me the
news! What has been happening?"
"Jack and Marie have just passed in the tandem!" said Arthur.
"Indeed! And Black Care was going in the other direction, not sitting
behind them. So much better! Ah, here are the outriders! I am not fit to
be seen."
She put up an immense mauve-coloured parasol to shut herself out, and
the others rose, as the carriage passed in a whirl of dust.
"And what else?" she continued.
"Well, it is supposed that Black Care has annexed Jim Spencer."
"Ah, you have heard that, too? She has a genius for annexation. Your
Government would have saved a world of trouble if they had sent her out
to the Transvaal years ago. That is very nice, and we shall all live
peaceably again now. Marie and Jack in the tandem, and dear Mildred
provided for! Good-bye, my dears; I must get home. I am playing a little
Bridge this afternoon. You are all coming to my party to-night, are you
not? That is so kind of you! Drive on. What a dolt!" she said to the
coachman.
"There is only one Lady Ardingly," said Arthur in a reverent tone; "and
I am her devoted admirer. How does she do it?"
Mrs. Leighton considered a moment.
"I would get a wig, and call my coachman fool, and ask everybody for
news, in a minute, if it would do any good," she said; "but it wouldn't.
People would consider me slightly cracked, and I'm sure I shouldn't
wonder."
Blanche got up with a sigh.
"She takes the taste out of everybody else," she said. "I shall go home
and practise doing it before a glass;" and she waved to her footman.
Arthur Naseby rose also.
"I believe she is running this whole show," he said. "She never
contradicted us once. But what is she playing at?"
But since collectively they could not have mustered one-third of Lady
Ardingly's brains, it was no wonder that none of them could suggest an
answer.
But as he handed Blanche into her carriage, Arthur summed up the
situation.
"The fact is that it takes four or five of us to understand one-half of
what she says," he remarked.