An anxious face met Hugh as he was shown into the drawing-room. Minna
had grown into a woman since her illness, and had hardened considerably
during the process. Instead of the lazy uplifting of silky lashes,
veiling swimming eyes, with which she had been wont to greet him, she
met him with a glance as keen as his own. The racial spirit of bargain
revealed itself in her expression. Once more he was struck by the latent
power of strength and hardness. She wore a dark red dinner dress and
heavy gold bracelets, and a diamond star shone in the dark clusters of
her hair.
“I am glad you have come early,” she said, receiving his kiss
mechanically. “I wanted to have a word with you before papa comes down.”
They walked slowly to the fireplace and stood turned towards each other,
leaning against the mantelpiece.
“Well?” he said.
“When are you going to tell papa?”
“After dinner--‘over the walnuts and the wine.’”
“Don’t. Wait until you have said good-bye to me.”
“How shall I let you know the result? You will be anxious.”
“Do you mind coming to me afterwards--the old way?”
“Not at all. But I shall have to wait outside until the house is quiet.”
“There will be a nice fire upstairs to warm you.”
“And my wife’s heart?”
“That depends,” she replied, with a curious smile. “Shall you be
perishing for it?”
“We must try to win back to each other again, Minna,” he said,
stretching out his hand so as to touch lightly her cheek. “It will not
be hard, for circumstances will be more favourable than they have been.
I am afraid I haven’t played a very noble part, my dear--and when a man
is conscious of that, he vents his spleen upon others. That’s not very
noble either, but it’s miserable human nature. Do you understand?”
“I am glad you see that you have treated me badly,” she said. “At any
rate it’s a hopeful beginning.”
The thought of her failure to grasp his meaning was dancing irritatingly
in his mind as he stepped forward to greet Israel Hart, who at that
moment entered the room.
“Very pleased to see you, Mr. Colman. Sorry I’m late. Kept in the city.
Cold, isn’t it?”
He rubbed his soft palms together and held them out to the blaze of the
fire.
“How’s business? Been letting loose lots of lucky gaol-birds lately?”
“Oh, we always believe firmly in our clients’ innocence,” retorted Hugh
with a laugh.
“That’s more than I do in mine,” said the moneylender.
The young man returned a light answer, but curled his moustache, and
drew himself up with unconscious haughtiness. The touch of vulgarity
jarred upon him. When one has to humble one’s pride before a man, one
is apt to become supersensitive of such things. Unfortunately for Hugh,
Israel evinced a more genial and familiar mood than usual, and, during
the elaborate meal that followed, allowed himself privileges of allusion
that a finer taste would have restrained. Aware of the senselessness
of feeling chafed at what, on other occasions, he would have let
pass almost unnoticed, Hugh conversed with a great outward show of
good-humour. But once or twice he caught Minna’s eyes fixed on him in a
malicious smile, which irritated him still further. The courses seemed
infinite. His host referred to each, now praising the merits of his
cook, now estimating its money value. As he grew more genial, the more
did he throw off the cloak of breeding that at times he well assumed,
and display the inevitable, impregnating colour of his mind. To the
man of artistic temperament money had no intrinsic value. It merely
represented power over the beauty and charm of life. To the Jew
financier, the making of it was an absorbing pursuit. Its possession
was an end in itself. He had his being in an atmosphere of money; could
scarcely conceive different environment--just as the average gamekeeper
cannot realise a life in which rabbits and partridges play no part. As
the bookmaker talks inevitable turf, so Israel talked inevitable money.
“Has my daughter ever shown you those bracelets, Mr. Colman? They’re
almost historical. Been in a great nobleman’s family for centuries. Take
one off and show it to Mr. Colman. The present countess came to grief
horse-racing--applied to me for money. Those were part of the security.
The same lady tried to do me with some paste diamonds, but I was down
too sharp. Solid things, aren’t they?”
“I come in for a lot of the plunder, don’t I, papa?” said Minna, gaily.
Hugh winced. Hitherto she had always expressed the profoundest distaste
for her father’s profession. Was this speech genuine, was it pure
malice, or was its intention that of keeping a stern parent in
good-humour? To save the situation he handed it back to Minna with a
little courtly bow.
“It has never adorned a fairer arm,” he said.
Minna’s quicker ear caught an ironical note, and she bit her lip. But
Israel was delighted.
“I like to hear a young man pay a pretty compliment,” he said, rolling
back in his chair. “The art is dying out.”
When Minna rose, Hugh held the door open for her. On passing him she
whispered:
“You are making a wonderful impression; keep it up.”
He bowed, closed the door upon her and came round to the fire, hating
the part so bluntly defined by his wife. To have to cajole this somewhat
vulgar old Jew of shady profession, his actual father-in-law! It was
trailing his pride in the mud. But he had been doing so ever since the
disastrous day of his marriage. A little extra soiling, he reflected
cynically, would make but faintly appreciable difference.
The grave butler entered with coffee and cigars. Hugh declined the
latter.
“Better have one,” said Israel, carefully selecting. “Don’t get this
sort of thing every day. I give seven pound ten a hundred for them.”
“I am a cigarette smoker,” said Hugh, “but still----”
He accepted a cigar courteously. For he knew that a man is apt to
be ruffled when you refuse an eighteen-penny havana, and he had
good reasons for not wishing to ruffle his host. Presently they went
upstairs. Minna moved to the piano. Usually she played with taste and
correctness. To-night she strummed abominably.
“We are not quite in the mood for Chopin,” said Hugh, who was turning
over her leaves. She stopped dead.
“No. This is more suitable to one’s irritation,” and she plunged into
Stephen Heller’s _Tarantella_. The old man, dozing in his chair, did not
notice the change.
“Don’t give it away at once,” she said in a low voice, as she played.
“Begin with a formal demand in marriage and see how he takes it.”
“I shall do whatever seems to me judicious,” he answered, curtly.
“Remember I am an interested party,” she retorted. “There is such a
thing as money to be considered, however much you may despise it.”
“You may trust to my not forgetting,” he replied.
The evening was over at last. He bade Minna good-bye.
“I should like to say a few words to you, Mr. Hart, before I go,” he
remarked on his way downstairs. His host, cordiality itself, showed him
into his study, poked the fire and lighted a cigar.
“Business?”
“Yes.”
“About the loan. I was wanting to discuss it. Best now, when we’re
comfortable. Wait a moment--allow me. What is the chance of your being
left a small legacy?”
“None whatever, I fear,” replied Hugh.
“It is devilish hard lines on me, Colman, you know. When I advanced you
that money, I thought your inheritance was as safe as a mortgage. You
are aware it is not my usual way of doing business. This is not an
actual reversion; it’s only a convenient term. But I liked you, and
somehow it’s pleasant now and then to do a friend a good turn.”
“I am deeply aware of all that,” said Hugh.
“And, as I mentioned, I considered the security safe.”
“So did I. You can scarcely blame me.”
“I believe you,” said the old man, cordially. “You meant to play square,
I know. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here, would you? But, all the same,
if your uncle were to die to-morrow, I should be done out of £5,000. I
don’t pretend to say that £5,000 would break me. Thank God I can run to
six figures with something bigger than a ‘1’ in front any day, when all
is called in. But money is money. Now, as a gentleman, would you feel
morally justified in abiding by your legal rights?”
“No,” said Hugh, “I wouldn’t. But circumstances----”
“I know,” interrupted the money-lender, with upraised hand. “They aren’t
quite yet what they ought to be. But you are going to be a successful
man. They will alter. Now I have a friendly proposal to make to you.”
“And I am coming with one to you, Mr. Hart,” said Hugh, with a smile.
“And I think you had better hear mine first. You consider me an honest
man?”
“I do.”
“And you don’t disapprove of me personally?”
“On the contrary, I’m very pleased and proud to call you a friend of
mine. You wouldn’t have had my money otherwise.”
“Then, Mr. Hart, you make easier what I have to say. It concerns your
daughter, Miss Hart.”
“What? Minna--my daughter?” said the old man, with a sharp change of
tone.
“I have the honour to ask you for her hand in marriage.”
“You!”
An indescribable change came over the old man’s face. Instantly it lost
the sleek and coarse materialism of the money-getter, the half-sensual
content of the easy-going man who has well dined, the patronising
geniality of the prosperous host. A fire glowed in his eyes. His Jewish
features seemed to grow more prominent. The grey beard framed a strange,
patriarchal dignity. The Jew, proud and unconquered through centuries
of oppression, overwhelming all other accidents of life in the eternal
arrogance of race, was regarding, with angry and incredulous scorn, the
Gentile, the hybrid child of yesterday.
“You!” he repeated, almost insultingly.
The young man’s quick blood flamed in his cheeks. He started to his
feet.
“Yes, I. Why shouldn’t I?” he cried in a loud voice.
At that moment the door opened, and the butler entered, bearing a tray
with spirit-case and glasses. Hugh turned quickly, and bent towards the
fire with a spill, to light a cigarette. The butler set his trayload on
the great library table, secured the windows of the room and drew the
curtains, which had remained looped back.
“You need not sit up, Samuels,” said Israel. “I will let Mr. Colman out
and lock up.”
With discreet thanks the butler withdrew. Hugh threw his cigarette into
the grate, put his hands into his pockets and faced his host once more.
“I consider my proposal is quite justifiable, Mr. Hart.”
“Are you aware what you are asking?”
“Yes. I am a poor man. She is rich. I owe you money. But still----”
“Money? What has money to do with it?” interrupted the Jew, grandly. “If
you had the rent-roll of the Grosvenors it would make no difference.”
“If it’s a question of religion--I always thought your views were
latitudinarian.”
“I suppose Minna knows of this?” said Israel, apparently disregarding
the remark.
“Certainly.”
“Mr. Colman, I have no wish to wound your feelings. But I would sooner
have my daughter dead at my feet than see her married to a Christian.”
“Then it is useless to ask for your consent?”
“Quite useless.”
“In that case I fear we shall have to do without it. I am exceedingly
sorry to cause you pain--but the marriage will take place.”
Israel rose from his chair and poured some whiskey into the glasses, and
made a courteous motion with his hand towards the siphon of soda-water.
“We stand on opposite sides of a great gulf. I am a Jew. You are a
Gentile. We need not discuss the question. I can’t restrain my daughter
from carrying out her wishes. But I can solemnly curse her after the
manner of my people, and cut her adrift from me for ever. I shall warn
her. The wrath of the Almighty will be on her head. She will also be
disinherited.”
“That will ease my mind of a great burden,” said Hugh.
“To show you that it is no animosity towards you personally that
influences me,” continued Israel, with great dignity, inconceivable of
the man of an hour before, “I will let you see a copy of my will made
some time ago when the thought of you as a suitor never crossed my
mind.”
He drew a bunch of keys from his pocket and opened the great safe. From
a locked compartment he drew forth a document, and, folding it so that
only the particular paragraph should be visible, he showed it to Hugh.
Nothing could be more explicit. In the event of Minna marrying a Gentile
all the estate would pass from her and be devoted to specified Jewish
charities.
“I hope Minna will be able to persuade you to a more favourable view of
the case,” said Hugh.
“My daughter can do many things, but not that. She despises her
people, I know. But she shall marry among them or be cut off from our
congregation for ever.”
“There seems nothing more to be said, Mr. Hart,” said Hugh.
“You quite realise that when my daughter leaves this house, the clothes
that cover her will be her sole possession?”
“I have told you--I am immensely relieved. As to our business
relations----”
“They can be discussed on a future occasion.”
Proud as he was of his birth and breeding, Hugh could not but be abashed
before this pride of race that transformed the vulgar usurer into a
gentleman of fine feeling. Israel’s words and attitude had not conveyed
the slightest reproach on the score of fortune-hunting. He had cast
neither his poverty nor his debt in his teeth. A great feeling of
respect for the old man rose in his heart.
“Believe me,” he said after a turn across the room; “if fate would allow
it, I would give up the idea for your sake.”
“We all make our destiny,” replied the old man, bitterly. “I have made
mine.”
A few moments later Hugh took his leave. Israel accompanied him to the
front door, shook hands with him, and, turning out the light in the
hall, went back to his study. Then he remembered that he had forgotten
to secure the door.
“I will do it afterwards,” he said to himself.
He picked up the will, glanced through it and replaced it in the safe.
For half an hour he sat in deep thought; then rose, went upstairs and
returned, bringing with him a small padlocked ledger. He sat down in his
writing-chair by the table, but remained in deep thought, tapping the
unopened book with his fingers.
“My own daughter--Sara’s child--married, to a Christian.”
Long he sat in an awful loneliness, his eyes dull and weary, looking at
the spectres of the past. At length he took from a drawer at his side a
double sheet of blue foolscap, and dipped a pen very slowly in the ink.
“_I, Israel Hart, will and bequeath_----”
“No,” he said. “Not now--I must think it out again. Ask God for
guidance.”
He rose, put the paper in the fire, and sank into the great armchair
close by. And there he sat, thinking, thinking. At last his eyelids
closed and he slept.
*****
Hugh went out into a night of utter blackness and icy sleet. Great
splashes of half-melted snow fell against his face and oozed down in
liquid. He made his way along the drive and out of the front gate.
Dimly through the darkness the sound reached him of the Sunnington
clock striking the half hour. Halfpast eleven. He would wait till twelve
before keeping his appointment with Minna. A mile up the Heath Road and
a mile back would fill up the time. He walked on through the darkness,
splashing through the mud and drawing his head down into the collar of
his ulster so as to keep the frozen rain from his neck. Not a soul was
visible. On his return he saw a bull’s-eye lantern flash within the
grounds of a house. It was a policeman examining the fastenings. Hugh
hurried on, turned down the lane that led from the Heath Road to the
wood and waste lands behind The Lindens. At last he came to the brick
wall enclosing the property. A key in his possession opened a small side
door leading into a garden which Minna’s caprice had made so exclusively
her own, that entrance to it was not practicable from any portion of
the grounds. On the right were green-houses, closing off egress from
the back-while, following the line of the side of the house, a thick
box hedge ran to meet the front wall, and thus separated the little
pleasance from the front lawn, through which curved the carriage drive.
The house was in total darkness, scarcely discernible against the
pitch-black sky. Hugh crossed the turf, walking warily so as to avoid
the shrubs with which it was thickly planted, ever and anon thrusting
his hand through the icy, dripping foliage.
“Thank Heaven this is the last time,” he muttered to himself.
He came to the house, to whose walls stretched the carpet of turf. A
low verandah, reached by a flight of steps, and communicating with the
interior by means of French windows, now closely barred, extended not
quite the breadth of the building. Masking its end rose a tall clipped
yew. Behind this he crept, and a low window, whose sash he lifted,
thanks to Minna’s previous unbarring, admitted him into the house. It
was a tiny chamber, used by Minna as a dark-room during an intermittent
photographic fever.
Outside this was a heavily carpeted staircase, up which Hugh stole
noiselessly.
The handle turned smoothly beneath his grasp, and he found himself at
last in his wife’s presence. The large room was lit only by the leaping
flames of the fire, that threw quick flashes on the richly curtained
bed and the luxurious appointments of a wealthy woman’s bedchamber. In
a long chair before the fire, the tips of fur-lined slippers thrust
on bare feet, resting on the fender, lay Minna. She wore a rich
dressing-gown, with lace at throat and wrists. Her dark hair clustered
about her shoulders. A delicate odour of toilette-washes and powder hung
on the warmth of the room. Hugh stopped for a moment on the threshold,
with a little catch at his breath. The subtle charm of the woman’s
shrine stole gratefully over him. After all, it was sweet to have the
right of such intimacy. He took off his dripping ulster and laid it
aside before coming forward. Then he stooped and kissed her.
“Oh! how wet you are!” she cried, with a little grimace, rubbing her
cheek with her handkerchief. “Do come and dry yourself. You will find
your slippers in the secret drawer, as usual.”
She handed him a key which she took from her dressing-gown pocket, and
while he was changing his wet boots:
“Well?” she said. “What news?”
“Bad. Your father will not consent, because I am a Christian. We shall
have to elope.”
“Then you haven’t told him all?”
“No. I thought it wiser. There seemed no necessity. It will be better
for us to get married again--publicly.”
He drew up an armchair by her side, close to the fire, and, leaning
forward, warmed himself appreciatively.
“It’s an infernal night. You don’t know how sweet and cosy it is here.”
“It was kind of you to come,” she said, with cold politeness.
Her tone chilled the reviving glow of his imagination, which already
was beginning to picture gentle possibilities of their married life.
He remained silent for some time. When he spoke again, it was in less
genial accents.
“I am afraid, Minna, that in marrying me you have unwittingly made a
tremendous sacrifice.”
“Not more than most women, I suppose.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
With much tact and delicacy he put her in possession of all the details
of his recent interview. She said not a word until he had finished, but
clenched her fingers on the arms of her chair and looked rigidly into
the fire.
“I had an awful horror of this,” she said, in a toneless voice.
“It will make an enormous difference to you. God knows I realise it.
But, after all, we shall not starve.”
She darted a quick, sidelong glance at him, then, with a shudder, put
her hands before her face.
“I knew it would be woe and misery,” she said, “whilst we were walking
away from that horrible registrar’s office. Oh, God! I wish it had never
been!”
“It need not be misery. It shan’t be misery, if I can help it.”
“You? You have robbed me of my birthright!”
“Perhaps your taunt is just, Minna,” he replied, a scornful generosity
forgetting that with her had lain considerable initiative in the matter
of the marriage.
“But it scarcely can mend our happiness.”
“Happiness!” she echoed, contemptuously. “A poky little house, and
rechauffés dinners, and a cheap gown once a year. The gingerbread would
have been pretty enough ten months ago. Now the gilt is off.”
With great patience, knowing that on him, the man, the stronger, the
more rational, the less in love of the two, rested the responsibility
of the disaster, he strove to reassure her, to paint their coming life
together in the most cheerful colours. Grand style of living he could
not offer her. But comfort, a certain social position, clever and bright
society--all that was within his reach. He had done her a wrong in
marrying her, would repair it by devoting the rest of his life to her
happiness. He pleaded to a hardened heart. She either listened stonily
or broke into petulant recriminations. The talk grew spasmodic,
interrupted by long gaps of silence. Imperceptibly the night wore on.
Once he noticed that she had fallen info a weary doze. He watched for a
long time her face, lit up by the flickering flames. How hard and common
and sullen it had grown! He read in it the history of the last few
months--of her previous life--of her soul. A revulsion of feeling turned
his heart against her and against himself. The man with ambitions and
wide interests in the world of action revolted against the slavery to
such a woman.
There was little use in staying longer. He rose to go. His movement
startled her, and she opened her eyes.
“Don’t go yet. I am not asleep. I have been thinking.”
He sat down again, watched her as she looked into the fire with eyes
that in the fantastic light seemed haggard, and waited for her to speak.
“I cannot forfeit my money,” she said. “It would kill me. Even if I
loved you I couldn’t do it. And you have made me hate you. Our living
together as you propose would be a ghastly mockery. I could not share
the same room with you any more,” she continued, hurriedly, “not for
millions!”
“I should not desire it,” he replied, coldly.
“Then why should we not keep our secret--as we have kept it--and part
now, for ever and ever?”
She turned eager, imploring eyes upon him, yet hard as agates.
“I don’t quite understand,” he said.
“It is not difficult. You have told no one of our marriage?”
“Not a soul.”
“Is it likely that it will ever be made public from the registrar’s
office?”
“Practically impossible.”
“Don’t you see, then? the only interested witness, is as faithful as
a dog--the other witness and the registrar have forgotten our
existence--don’t you see that for all practical purposes the fact of our
marriage lies buried in a book in Brighton that no one will ever look
at? that, if we give ourselves out as unmarried to the end of our lives
no one will be a bit the wiser? We will never see each other again,
except accidentally in the streets. We will wipe each other clean out of
our lives and start afresh. Isn’t that possible?”
“Yes,” he replied, “it is perfectly feasible.”
“I shall keep my money--spend it as I like--go where I like. You shall
be free to do whatever you want--marry, if you choose--why shouldn’t
you?”
“It happens to be a felony,” said Hugh.
“That would be your own look out. I should never take any steps to
prosecute, you may be quite sure. Will you give me the same freedom?”
“You must let me think before I answer,” he said.
“Take your time,” she replied, and lay back again in her chair, covering
her eyes with her hands. For the second time Hugh replenished the fire.
From outside came still the confused soughing of the wind, and strange
creakings filled the sleeping house. The wing that Minna occupied was
far apart from the other bedrooms. Only Anna, who was sleeping close
by in Minna’s dressing-room, was within earshot. At any time they could
talk in moderate tones and be secure from discovery; on this blustering
night scarcely any caution was necessary. Absorbed in this final
settlement of their lives, neither of them noted the passing of the
hours. After a long interval of deep consideration, Hugh agreed to the
main of her proposal, and there followed a full and anxious debate upon
points of detail.
“What do you propose do to--to get through your life?” he asked at
length.
“I shall go abroad--to gay places. I shall procure a companion to suit
me--money can do most things. I may first go with Anna to Smyrna and
hunt up my mother’s people. They may prove interesting. I can’t live on
any longer here.”
“I thought not. It was to escape this that you were willing to live with
me, had your father consented.”
“Exactly.”
Another long pause. Hugh viewed the new position in all its aspects.
Humanly speaking, the secret of their marriage was exclusively their
own. Anything like a reconciliation was out of the question. If he
had spoiled her life by marrying her, he could make reparation by this
irregular divorce. Yet he felt bound to give her old love one more
chance.
“Are you certain, Minna, that you care for me no longer--in no way?”
“Oh, don’t re-open that,” she said. “All that was killed for ever--at
Brighton--in December. And even if it wasn’t, do you think I could
willingly give up two hundred thousand pounds for you?” She laughed
scornfully. “You indeed set a high value upon yourself. Do you know,”
she added with a sudden firmness, to which the deep tones of her voice
gave a savage intensity, “I would commit any crime rather than give up
that money? All such talk is useless. Let me have your final answer and
be done with it.”
“Very well,” he replied, decisively. “I will grant you your absolute
freedom on one condition: that this compact between us is irrevocable.”
“It shall be. Will you swear to it, on your side--a solemn, binding
oath?”
“I give you my word of honour.”
“I don’t much believe in a man’s honour,” she said, contemptuously. “An
oath is different.”
“I will do as you like,” he replied.
She rose, vanished for a moment among the shadows of the room, and
returned with an Old Testament.
“I swear on this, by the God of my fathers, that in no circumstances
whatever will I reveal the fact of my marriage with you. I renounce
you for ever as my husband. I renounce all claims upon your support,
sympathy, and consideration. I swear never to interfere in any shape
or form with your actions, leaving you free to marry again without any
previous notification to me. So help me God.”
She stood deadly pale, her teeth chattering, worn out by the stiffness
and exhaustion of her long vigil, and handed him the book that she held
in shaking fingers.
“Since you desire a formal oath,” he said, “I will take it in the form
you have prescribed.”
And there he renounced her eternally as she had just before renounced
him.
He looked at his watch. To his utter astonishment it was past six
o’clock. With an exclamation of dismay, he set about preparing for
departure.
How the night had passed so quickly he could not tell. “There is no need
for you to keep these any longer,” he said, holding up the slippers. She
herself had worked them for him in a fit of adoring industry.
“No. Nor the other things.”
She took a small bundle neatly wrapped up in brown paper and handed it
to him. He thrust it beneath his arm.
“Good-bye, Minna,” he said, holding out his hand. “We did not swear to
be enemies. May your new life be happier than the old.”
“It could not well be more miserable,” she answered. But she gave him
her hand, cold and nerveless. “Poor child,” he said, “God help you.”
He turned, left the room, and then the house by the way by which he had
entered. A fine snow was falling through the not yet lifting darkness.
He hurried homewards blindly, thinking of nothing but the strange
chapter of the night, his heart relieved already of enormous burdens,
but his temples throbbing with the strain of casting them off.
He met not a soul until he had passed the Merriams’ house. Then, as
he neared the town, dark, straggling figures of workmen passed him,
trudging on sleepily through the snow and darkness.
The hall porter was just opening the great outer door of the mansion
when he arrived. “Cold morning, sir,” said the porter. “Bitter,” he
replied, mechanically, and he sprang up the stone stairs.