And it was that spectre which from that hour haunted Rosemary; it would
not allow her to rest at night; it dogged her steps by day. When she
walked in the park and the soft summer breeze stirred the branches of
Lombardy poplars or the stately plumes of maize, ghostly voices would
seem to be whispering all around her: "Life and liberty for Philip and
Anna! Life and liberty for those two children who love and trust you,
who know nothing of the fate that hangs over them!" And when she was in
the house at meals or in the family circle, with Elza radiating
happiness and even Maurus unbending, with Philip almost feverishly gay
and Anna thoughtful, the eyes of all these kind, dear people whom she
loved seemed full of reproach to the one woman who could save them--if
she would.
Then Rosemary, unable to pretend any longer, would run up to her room;
and she--one of the most sane, most level-headed women in this neurotic
age--would throw herself on her knees and pray to be taken out of it
all. Oh! to be out of it--underground--anywhere! Just to be out of it,
not to see those smiles, that happiness, that contentment which she knew
must presently end in a devastating catastrophe. To be out of it when
the time came--in a few weeks--days--hours!
Hour followed hour, doll and leaden-footed. And they were all so happy
at Kis-Imre! Suspecting nothing! Knowing nothing, whilst Rosemary felt
her self-control slipping away from her day by day. At times she felt as
if she could not endure the situation any longer, as if she most tell
one of them. Tell Elza, or Maurus, or the children! Surely they should
know! There comes a time when a doctor, knowing that his patient cannot
recover, is bound in all humanity to tell him. Then surely it was
Rosemary's duty to say to them all: "You don't know! You have not
guessed! But you are doomed. Doomed! Philip and Anna to death! You Elza
and Maurus to worse than death--limitless sorrow. Now you are just
living on a volcano. In another few days--twenty, nineteen,
eighteen--the flames will break through, the earth will totter under
your feet, and everything you care for in the world will be engulfed.
You will perish. Yes, you! All of you! And then you will know about me!
How I might have saved you and did not. And you will hate me as no woman
has ever been hated before. And I shall go forth into the vast
wilderness which is called the world. And I, too, shall perish of sorrow
and endless regret!"
She had not again seen those mysterious eyes which that evening, while
little Anna was talking, had peered at her from behind the laurel
bushes; and she was far too sensible to dwell on what might only, after
all, have been the creation of overwrought nerves.
The time was drawing near for Jasper's return. "Fifteen days," he had
said; and she knew that, bar accidents, he would keep his word. But she
had no news of him, and after the first week she ceased to expect any.
She would not own, even to herself, that she had already ceased to build
hopes in that direction. Jasper had promised to wire as soon as he heard
anything definite, so in this case no news was bad news. Dear kind
Jasper! he knew how miserably anxious she was! He would not keep good
news from her--not one hour.
It was on the tenth day that Peter arrived at the castle. He had
announced his coming twenty-four hours previously, and in a moment there
was excitement from attic to cellar in the house. Everybody seemed to be
arranging something. Planning something. Tennis excursions, dancing!
Peter was such a good dancer! They would have the gipsies over from
Bonczhida. That was the finest band in the whole of Transylvania; and
they would ask the Keletys over from Hajdu and the Fejérs from Henger,
and perhaps Aunt Charlotte could be persuaded to come and bring Marie.
There was some talk of private theatricals, of tableaux, a tennis
tournament, perhaps a cricket match, English fashion. Peter was so
clever at all that sort of thing! Rosemary was consulted about the
cricket match and the tournament, for these were to be done on English
lines! But the dancing and the acting and the picnics, these were to be
truly and entirely Hungarian--pre-war Hungarian, the gayest, merriest
things darling Rosemary had ever seen.
How much she had looked forward to Peter's coming, Rosemary did not know
until after she had seen him. What hopes she had built on his mere
presence, on his nearness, she did not own to herself until afterwards.
He had not been in the house many hours before she realised that he had
changed. Not changed for the worse, of course not--but changed.
He seemed younger, more boyish--more English in many ways. At one time
the Hungarian strain had been very conspicuous in Peter--his tempestuous
love-making, his alternating moods of fatalism and rebellion had always
reminded Rosemary of those barbaric chieftains--his forebears about whom
she loved to read--who had been up and fought the Turks, while the rest
of Europe only trembled at thought of their approach.
But now Peter was much more like the conventional young English athlete:
not very loquacious, very placid, ashamed of showing emotion or
excitement, standing about for the most part with his hands in his
trousers pockets, contemplating the toes of his boots, and smoking
innumerable cigarettes. He had not seemed like this at first. He arrived
in the late afternoon, and Rosemary was downstairs in the paved
courtyard when the carriage drove in through the gates, with its four
spanking greys, shining with lather, for the day had been very hot and
the roads were dusty. Peter was on the box, having dislodged the
coachman, who sat beside him, the groom being relegated to the cushioned
seat of the victoria.
There was such a halloing and a shouting, everyone screaming a welcome,
grooms rushing to hold the horses, the greys pawing and champing and
snorting, that Rosemary hardly saw Peter when he threw the reins to the
coachman, jumped down from the box, and was lost in a forest of
welcoming arms that hid him completely from view.
It was only after dinner, when the whole company went out into the
garden to get a breath of air, that Rosemary found herself for a few
moments alone with him. It had been desperately hot indoors, and the
noise of all these dear people all talking and laughing at the same time
had been overpowering. Fortunately everyone thought it would be lovely
in the garden, and still laughing and chattering they trooped out like a
covey of chickens let out of a coop. Rosemary had wandered on ahead of
the others, and presently she turned down the path that ran along the
perennial border, now a riot of colour and a tangle of late lilies,
crimson pentstemons and evening primroses.
Rosemary did not hear Peter coming. No one ever dressed for dinner at
Kis-Imre, and Peter had his tennis shoes on, and the rubber soles made
not the slightest sound upon the smooth, gravel path. She had stopped to
look at a clump of tiger lilies, when suddenly a wonderful sense of
well-being seemed to descend upon her soul. It was as if she had stepped
out of a boat that had been tossed about on a stormy sea, and had all of
a sudden set her foot upon firm ground. The first words he said were so
like the foolish, lighthearted Peter she knew.
"You wonderful pixie!" he said, "I can't believe that it is really you!"
She did not immediately turn to look at him, but went on studying the
markings on the lilies; then she said, as indifferently as she could:
"Why didn't you let me know sooner, Peter, that you were coming to
Transylvania? In fact," she went on coolly, "you never did let me know
at all. I first heard through--others that you were here."
"Who told you?" he asked.
"I think Jasper did first," she replied. "He had heard the news from
General Naniescu."
Then only did she turn and look at him. She had to look up, because,
though she herself was very tall, one always had to look up at Peter,
who was a young giant. At this moment she certainly did not think that
he was changed. He looked just the same, with his very boyish face and
laughing grey eyes, and his fair hair that so often looked as if it had
been Marcel-waved. He was looking down at her when she turned to him,
and suddenly he said:
"You don't look happy, Rosemary!"
Of course she laughed and told him not to make silly remarks. How could
she help being happy here with these dear, kind people? Never, never in
all her life had she met with such kindness and hospitality. Peter
shrugged his shoulders. He thrust his hands in the pockets of his
flannel trousers, and looked down at the toes of his shoes.
"Very well," he said lightly, "if you won't tell me, you won't. And
that's that. But let me tell you this: though I dare say I am a bit of a
fool, I am not quite such an ass as not to see the difference in you.
You've got thinner. When I first arrived and shook hands with you, your
hand felt hot, and your eyes----"
He broke off abruptly, and then said with sudden irrelevance: "Where's
Jasper?"
"Gone to----," she began, and suddenly came to a halt. When she promised
Jasper not to breathe a word of Philip's and Anna's affairs to Peter,
she had not realised how difficult this would be. Would she be breaking
her promise if she now told Peter that Jasper was in Bucharest? Peter
would want to know why Jasper had gone to Bucharest. He would ask
questions, more questions which Rosemary's promise bound her not to
answer.
"He has been called away on business," she said curtly.
Her hesitation had only lasted a second or two; she hoped that Peter had
not noticed it. Anyway, when he asked: "To Budapest?" she replied,
without hesitation this time: "Yes, to Budapest." And she added quite
gaily: "He'll be back at the end of the week. You can't think, Peter,
how I miss him when he is away! Perhaps that is why I am looking thin,
and why my hands are hot."
"Perhaps," Peter assented laconically.
Then somehow the conversation flagged, and all the happy feeling that
Rosemary had experienced when Peter first stood near her slipped away
from her. She suddenly felt cold, although the evening was so hot that a
little while ago she had scarcely been able to breathe. At some little
distance behind her Philip's voice sounded cheerful and homely, and
Maurus Imrey's throaty laugh, and Elza's happy little giggle rang
through the sweet-scented evening air. Poor Rosemary shivered.
"Shall we walk on," she asked, "or wait for the others?"
"Let's walk on," Peter replied; then added in a clumsy, boyish fashion:
"Rather!"
They walked on side by side. Rosemary, at a loss what to say next, had
thrown out an inquiry about the cricket match. This set Peter talking.
All at once he threw off his abrupt, constrained air, and prattled away
nineteen to the dozen. The cricket match was going to be a huge success.
Didn't Rosemary think it was a grand idea? Talk about the League of
Nations, or whatever the thing was called! In Peter's opinion, there was
nothing like a jolly good cricket or football match to bring people
together. Make them understand one another, was Peter's motto. Of
course, all these dagoes over here had got to learn to be proper sports.
No sulking if they got beaten. Peter would see to that. Anyhow, the old
General What's-his-name had been a brick. He had helped Peter no end to
get the Roumanian team together, and had given them all free passes to
Hódmezö where the match would take place. Hódmezö was in Hungary,
and old What's-his-name--meaning Naniescu--said he would rather the
Roumanian team went to Hungary than that the Hungarian team came over
here. Well, Peter didn't mind which. It was going to be a topping
affair. He was going to captain the Roumanian team, and Payson was
captaining the Hungarians. Did Rosemary know Payson? Jolly chap with a
ripping wife--done splendid work in the Air Force during the war. He had
something to do with the Military Commission on disarmaments. He was at
Budapest now, and Jasper would probably see him while he was there.
Payson was coming over to Hódmezö by aeroplane. Wouldn't that create a
sensation? There was a splendid landing ground quite close to Hódmezö
fortunately. Payson's wife was coming with him. She was so keen on
flying. Ripping couple, they were! Didn't Rosemary think so? Oh! and
Peter had had telegrams of good wishes from no end of people, and a
jolly letter from dear old Plum Warner. Did Rosemary know Plum Warner?
There was a cricketer if you like! No one like him, in Peter's opinion.
The science of the man! Well, the dagoes should learn that cricket is
the finest game in the world! Didn't Rosemary agree with him?
Rosemary gave monosyllabic replies whenever Peter gave her the chance of
putting in a word. She could not help smiling at his enthusiasm, of
course. It was so young, so English, so thoroughly, thoroughly fine! But
somehow she could not recapture that lovely feeling of security, that
sheer joy in having Peter near her, and she kept asking herself whether
it was really Peter who had changed--who had become younger, or she who
had grown old. In this youthful athlete with his self-assurance and his
slang, she vainly sought the wayward, sometimes moody, always
captivating Peter, whose tempestuous love-making had once swept her off
her feet.
At one moment she tried to lead the conversation into a more serious
channel: "How do you think Anna is looking?" she asked abruptly.
"A bit peaky," Peter replied lightly, "poor little mole! When you go
back to England," he went on more gravely, "you ought to take her with
you. It would do her all the good in the world. Take her out of herself,
I mean."
"She wouldn't come," Rosemary replied earnestly.
"Don't you think so?"
"Why, Peter," she retorted, feeling exasperated with him for this air of
indifference even where Anna was concerned, "you know Anna would not
come. For one thing," Rosemary added impulsively, "I don't suppose she
would be allowed to."
"You mean her mother wouldn't let her?"
"No," she replied laconically. "I didn't mean that."
"Well, then?" he retorted. Then, as Rosemary, shocked, angry, remained
silent, holding her lips tightly pressed together, almost as if she were
afraid that words would slip out against her will, Peter shrugged his
broad shoulders and rejoined flippantly:
"Oh, I suppose you mean old What's-his-name--Naniescu--and all that
rubbish. I don't think he would worry much. He has been a brick, letting
Anna and Philip out like that. I expect he would just as soon see them
both out of the country as not. Jolly good thing it would be for both of
them! They would learn some sense, the monkeys!"
He paused and looked round at Rosemary. Then, as she seemed to persist
in her silence, he insisted:
"Don't you agree with me?"
"Perhaps," she replied, with a weary sigh.
"Anyway, you'll think it over, won't you?" Peter went on. "I am sure you
could fix it up with old Naniescu. He admires you tremendously, you
know."
It was all wrong, all wrong. Peter used to be so fond of little Anna.
"Give her a kiss for me," were almost the last words he had spoken to
Rosemary on the day of her wedding. His own affairs evidently pushed
every other consideration into the remotest corner of his brain; and
cricket matches were apparently of more importance than the danger which
threatened Anna and Philip. Nor had Rosemary any longer the desire to
break her promise to Jasper. She no longer wished to speak to Peter
about Anna and Philip, or about the horrible alternative which Naniescu
had put before her. Peter--this Peter--would not understand. Jasper had
not understood either--but he had misunderstood in a different way.
Rosemary realized how right he had been to extract that promise from
her. Was not Jasper always right? And was it intuition that had prompted
him, after all, rather than an attack of jealousy of which Rosemary, in
her heart, had been so ready to accuse him?
Suddenly she felt a longing to get away from Peter, from this Peter whom
she neither knew nor trusted. "I'll go in now, I think," she said
abruptly; "the dew is rising, and my shoes are very thin."
And she started to walk more quickly. Slowly the shades of evening had
been drawing in. Rosemary had not noticed before how dark it was
getting. The line of shrubbery behind the perennial border was like a
solid wall; and on the other side of the path the stretch of lawn, with
its great clumps of pampas grass and specimen trees, became merged in
the gathering shadows. Beyond the lawn glimmered the lights of the
château, and the veranda in front of the drawing-room was like a great
patch of golden light, broken by the long, straight lines of its
supporting columns. There was no moon, only an infinity of stars; and in
the flower border the riot of colour had faded into the gloom, leaving
just the white flowers--the nicotiana, the Madonna lilies, a few
violas--to break the even mantle spread by the night.
From the direction of the château there came a loud call of "Halloo!"
to which Peter gave a lusty response. A voice shouted: "We are going
in!"
"Right-o!" Peter responded. "We'll come too!"
Then suddenly he gave a bound, and in an instant had leaped the border
and disappeared in the shrubbery beyond. Rosemary, taken completely by
surprise, had come to a halt. From the shrubbery there came a loud cry
of terror, then a swear-word from Peter, and finally a string of
ejaculations, all in Hungarian, and of distressful appeals for mercy in
the name of all the saints in the calendar. The next moment Peter's
white flannels glimmered through the foliage, and a second or two later
he reappeared lower down, coming up the path and half dragging, half
pushing in front of him a huddled-up mass, scantily clothed in ragged
shirt and trousers, and crowned with a broad-brimmed hat, from beneath
which came a succession of dismal howls.
"What is it?" Rosemary cried.
"That's what I want to know," was Peter's reply. "I caught sight of this
blighter sneaking in the shrubbery, and got him by the ear, which he
does not seem to like, eh, my friend?"
He gave the ear which he held between his fingers another tweak, and in
response drew a howl from his victim, fit to wake the seven sleepers.
"Mercy, gracious lord! Mercy on a poor man! I was not doing anything
wrong; I swear by holy Joseph I was not doing anything wrong!"
The creature, whoever he was, succeeded in wriggling himself free of
Peter's unpleasant hold. At once he turned to flee, but Peter caught him
by the shoulder, and proceeded this time to administer something more
severe in the way of punishment.
"Leave the man alone, Peter," Rosemary cried indignantly. "You have no
right to ill-use him like that!"
"Oh, haven't I? We'll soon see about that!" Peter retorted roughly. "Now
then, my friend," he went on, speaking in Hungarian to the bundle of
rags that had collapsed at his feet, "listen to me. You have tasted the
weight of my boot on your spine, so you know pretty well what you can
expect if you don't tell me at once what you are doing at this hour of
the night in the gracious Count's garden?"
The man, however, seemed unable to speak for the moment; loud hiccoughs
shook his tall, spare frame. He held his two hands against the base of
his spine, and with knees bent he executed a series of desperate
contortions in a vain attempt to get his right shoulder out of Peter's
grip.
"Peter," Rosemary cried again, "let the poor wretch go. You must! Or I
shall hate you."
But Peter only retorted harshly: "If you weren't here, Rosemary, I'd
thrash the vermin to within an inch of his life. Now then," he
commanded, "stop that howling. What were you doing in that shrubbery?"
"I only wanted to speak with the gracious Countess," the man contrived
to murmur at last, through the hiccoughs that still seemed to choke the
words in his throat. "I have a message for her!"
"That's why I caught you with this in your belt, eh?" Peter queried
sternly, and drew something out of his pocket, which Rosemary could not
see; he showed it to the man, who promptly made a fresh appeal to the
saints.
"The roads are not safe for poor gipsies, gracious lord. And I had the
message----"
"Who gave you a message for the gracious Countess?" Rosemary asked him
gently.
"I--I don't know, gracious lady. A fine gentleman on a horse called to
me when I was gathering wood over by the forest of Normafa. He gave me
a letter. Take it, he said, to the gracious Countess over at Kis-Imre,
but do not give it into any hands but hers, and only give it to her when
she is alone."
"Where is the letter?"
"It is here, gracious lady," the man replied, and fumbling with the belt
that held his ragged trousers round his waist, he drew from underneath
it a soiled and crumpled rag that effectively looked like a letter in a
sealed envelope. Peter would have snatched it out of his hand, but
Rosemary interposed.
"Peter," she said gravely, and stretched a protecting arm over the
gipsy's hand, "the man was told not to give it in any hand but Elza's!"
"The man is a liar," Peter riposted harshly.
Just then Philip's voice reached them from across the lawn.
"What are you two doing over there?"
"Philip, is your mother with you?" Rosemary shouted in response.
"Yes! We are just going in."
"Ask her to wait a moment then."
"What has happened?" Elza called.
"Nothing, darling," Rosemary replied. "Send the others in and wait for
me, will you?" Then she turned to the gipsy, and said kindly: "Walk
beside me, and don't try to run away; the gracious lord will not hurt
you if you walk quietly beside me."
And so the three of them walked across the lawn toward the château,
Rosemary in front, and beside her the gipsy, whose long thin hands
almost swept the grass as he walked with bent knees and arched back,
throwing from time to time anxious glances behind him. But Peter was
lagging behind.
When they were dose to the château, they saw Elza coming down the
veranda steps. Rosemary ordered the gipsy to wait, and ran to meet Elza;
in a few words she told her what had occurred. Elza then came across the
gravel path, and said to the gipsy: "I am the Countess Imrey. You may
give me the letter!"
The man's back became more curved than ever; he nearly touched the
ground with his forehead. In the darkness Rosemary seemed to sect his
long, thin body, curling itself up almost into a ball.
"I was told," he murmured meekly, "to give the letter in the hands of
the gracious Countess only when she was alone."
Instinctively Rosemary turned to look for Peter. To her surprise she saw
him just above her, going up the veranda steps. He had his hands in the
pockets of his trousers, and he was whistling a tune.
The gipsy whom he had so maltreated a little while ago no longer seemed
to interest him. Rosemary called to him rather impatiently:
"Peter!"
He paused and looked down at her. "Hallo!" he said coolly.
"Do you think it is all right for Elza to talk with this man alone?"
Peter shrugged his shoulders. "Why not?" he said, with a laugh.
Then he called out to Elza:
"I say, Aunt Elza, if the wretch should try to kiss you, sing out, won't
you?"
Elza laughed good-humouredly.
"Of course I am not afraid," she said. "And I do want to know about this
mysterious letter."
Rosemary would have liked to argue the point. She could not understand
how it was that Peter took the matter so lightly all of a sudden.
However, as Elza was playfully pushing her out of the way, whilst Peter
calmly continued to stroll up the stairs, she only said with a final
note of earnestness: "I shall be quite close, Elza. You have only to
call, you know."
"I know, I know," Elza rejoined, still laughing. "You don't suppose that
I am frightened of a gipsy, do you?"
She waited a moment or two until Rosemary was out of sight, then she
turned back to the man, and said:
"I am alone now. You may give me the letter."