"This man smells not of books."--J. S. BLACKIE.
Lady Louisa Manvers was waiting for her nephew, propped up in bed,
clutching the bed-clothes with leaden, corpse-pale hands. She was
evidently at the last stage of some long and terrific illness, and her
hold on life seemed as powerless and as convulsive as that of her hands
upon the quilt. She felt that she was slipping into the grave, she the
one energetic and far-seeing member of the family, and that on her
exhausted shoulders lay the burden of arranging everything for the good
of her children, for they were totally incapable of doing anything for
themselves. In the long nights of unrest and weariness unspeakable, her
mind, accustomed to undisputed dominion, revolved perpetually round the
future of her children, and the means by which in her handicapped
condition she could still bring about what would be best for them, what
was essential for their well-being, especially Harry's. And all the
while her authority was slipping from her, in spite of her desperate
grasp upon it. The whole world and her stubborn children themselves were
in league against her, and the least opposition on their part aroused
in her a paroxysm of anger and despair. Why did every one make her heavy
task heavier? Why was she tacitly disobeyed when a swift and absolute
obedience was imperative? Why did they try to soothe her, and speak
smooth things to her, when they were virtually opposing her all the
time? She, a paralysed old woman, only longing for rest, was forced to
fight them all single-handed for their sakes.
To-night, as she lay waiting for her nephew, she touched a lower level
of despair than even she had yet reached. She suspected that Roger would
fail her. Janey had for the first time turned against her. Even Janey,
who had always yielded to her, always, always, even she had opposed
her--had actually refused to make the promise which was essential to the
welfare of poor Harry after she herself was gone. And she felt that she
was going, that she was being pushed daily and hourly nearer to the
negation of all things, the silence, the impotence of the grave. She
determined to act with strength while power to act still remained.
Roger's reluctant step came up the oak staircase, and his tap on the
door.
"May I come in?"
"Come in."
He came in, and stood as if he were stuffed in the middle of the room,
his eyes fixed on the cornice.
"I hope you are feeling better, Aunt Louisa?"
"I am still alive, as you see."
Deep-rooted jealousy of Roger dwelt in her, had dwelt in her ever since
the early days when her husband had adopted him against her wish when he
had been left an orphan. She had not wanted him in her nursery. Her
husband had always been fond of him, and later in life had leaned upon
him. In the depths of her bitter heart Lady Louisa believed he had
preferred his nephew to the two sons she had given him, Dick the
ne'er-do-well, and Harry the latecomer--the fool.
Roger moved his eyes slowly round the room, looking always away from the
bed, till they fell upon the cat curled up in the arm-chair.
"Holloa, puss!" he said. "Caught a mouse lately?"
"Did you get the power of attorney?" came the voice from the bed.
"No, Aunt Louisa."
The bed-clothes trembled.
"I told you not to come back without it."
Roger was silent.
"Had not Jane arranged everything?"
"Everything."
"And the doctor! Wasn't he there ready to witness it?"
"Oh Lord! Yes. He was there."
"Then I fail to understand why you came back without it."
"Dick wasn't fit to sign," said Roger doggedly.
"Didn't I warn you before you went that he had repeatedly told Jane
that he could not attend to business, and that was why it was so
important you should be empowered to act for him?--and the power of
attorney was his particular wish."
"Yes, you did. But I didn't know he'd be like that. He didn't know a
thing. It didn't seem as if he _could_ have had a particular wish one
way or the other. Aunt Louisa, he wasn't _fit_."
"And so you set up your judgment against mine, and his own doctor's? I
told you before you went, what you knew already, that he was not capable
of transacting business, and that you must have the power; and you said
you understood. And then you come back here and inform me that he was
not fit, which you knew before you started."
"No, no. You're wrong there."
How like he was to her dead husband as he said that, and how she hated
him for the likeness!
"Don't contradict me. You were asked to act in Dick's own interest and
in the interests of the property, and you promised to do it. And you
haven't done it."
"But, Aunt Louisa, he wasn't in a state to sign anything. He's not
alive. He's just breathing, that's all. Doesn't know anybody, or take
any notice. If you'd seen him you'd have known you _couldn't_ get his
signature."
"I did get it about the marsh-lands. I went to Paris on purpose last
November, when I was too ill to travel. I only sent you this time
because I could not leave my bed."
Roger paused, and then his honest face became plum colour, and he
blurted out--
"They were actually going to guide his hand."
Lady Louisa's cold eyes met his.
"Well! And if they were?"
Roger lost his embarrassment. His face became as pale as it had been
red. He came up to the bed and looked the sick woman straight in the
eyes.
"I was not the right man for the job," he said. "You should have sent
somebody else. I--stopped it."
"I hope when you are dying, Roger, that your son will carry out your
last wishes more effectively than my nephew has carried out mine."
"But, Aunt Louisa, upon my honour he wasn't----"
"Good-night. Ask Janey to send up Nurse to me as soon as she returns."
Roger left the room clumsily, but yet with a certain dignity. His
upright soul was shocked to the very core. He marched heavily downstairs
to the library, where Janey was keeping his coffee hot for him over a
little spirit-lamp. There was indignation in his clear grey eyes. And
over his coffee and his cigarette he recounted to her exactly how
everything had been, and how Dick wasn't fit, he really wasn't. And
Janey thought that when he had quite finished she would tell him of the
pressure her mother was bringing to bear on her to promise to make a
home for Harry after her death. But when at last Roger got off the
subject, and his cigarette had soothed him, he went on to tell Janey
about a man he had met on the boat, who oddly enough turned out to be a
cousin of a land agent he knew in Kent. This surprising incident took so
long, the approaches having been both gradual and circuitous, and
primarily connected with the proffer of a paper, that when it also had
been adequately dealt with and disposed of, it was getting late.
"I must be off," he said, rising. "Good-night, Janey. Keep a brave
heart, old girl." He nodded slightly to the room above, which was his
aunt's. "Rough on you sometimes, I'm afraid."
"You always cheer me up," she said, with perfect truthfulness. He _had_
cheered her. It would be a sad world for most of us if it were by our
conversational talents that we could comfort those we loved. But Roger
believed it was so in his case, and complacently felt that he had
broached a number of interesting Parisian subjects, and had refreshed
Janey, whom Lady Louisa led a dog's life and no mistake. He was fond of
her, and sorry for her beyond measure, and his voice and eyes were very
kindly as he bade her good-night. She went to the door with him, and
they stood a moment together in the moonlight under the clustering
stars of the clematis. He took his hat and stick and repeated his words:
"Keep a brave heart."
She said in a voice which she tried, and failed, to make as tranquil as
usual--
"I had been so afraid you weren't coming, that you had missed your
train."
"Oh no! I didn't miss it. But just as I got to the gate at eight o'clock
I met Miss Georges coming out of the churchyard, and it was pretty
dark--moon wasn't up--and I thought I ought to see her home first. That
was why I was late."
Janey bade him good-night again, and slipped indoors. The moonlight and
the clematis which a moment before had been so full of mysterious
meaning were suddenly emptied of all significance.