And it had been a wonderful day. The weather was perfect. Every one was
in the highest possible spirits. The chef surpassed himself; every one
pronounced the lobster à l'Américaine perfect and the Charlotte Russe
Créole quite inimitable.
All afternoon tennis balls were flying, and there was coffee, ices and
iced drinks going all day on the lawn. At five o'clock the gipsy
musicians from Bonczhida arrived, and after that music never ceased.
Rosemary learned something of gipsy endurance that day, for this band of
twelve musicians never left off playing from the moment they arrived
until--until midnight, when time ceased to be and Fate began to swing
her long pendulum.
But between five o'clock and midnight there was music, ceaseless music.
While the guests arrived, while everyone played tennis, croquet, drank
coffee, walked, flirted, dressed, dined and danced there was
music--music all the time.
After dinner the young Roumanian officers from the garrison at Cluj came
over in several motors. Among them were the eleven cricketers, very
proud of themselves, feeling quite English and real sportsmen, delighted
to have been chosen to play in the historic match. Fine-looking young
men, most of them, with the unmistakable swaggering air of the conqueror
about their whole attitude towards the subject race. Elza was invariably
a perfect hostess; but Maurus, after a curt greeting, nursed his wrath
in a corner of the ballroom, surrounded by his own friends. He had been
drilled to keep his temper in check, and love for his only son, anxiety
for him and knowledge of danger gave him for this one evening a certain
amount of self-control. Rosemary admired him as much as she did the
others, for she knew what it cost Maurus to have these alien conquerors
in his house.
Anna's mother and sister had come over from Ujlak. The mother was a hard
woman, obviously selfish and unsympathetic. Her own grievances, the
confiscation of a great deal of her property, seemed to have smothered
every soft, womanly instinct in her. Apparently she knew nothing of the
danger that hung over her daughter, and Rosemary had the feeling that if
she had known she would not greatly have cared. Her eyes, which were
dark and set very wide apart in a flat, colourless face, only softened
once, and that was when she spoke about her husband, who had died just
before the war.
As for persecutions, humiliations, petty tyrannies, she dismissed them
with a shrug of the shoulders. "The Roumanians are the scum of the
earth," she said in her quiet, unemotional manner, through her thin,
colourless lips, "just a horde of uneducated peasantry; you can't expect
anything from a pig but a grunt. I am only thankful that Béla is not
here to see it all."
On the other hand, the young people who filled the stately château of
Kis-Imre with their flutterings like an army of gaily-painted
butterflies did not worry about political grievances. For them the
Roumanian officers were just dancing-partners, and their worth was only
measured by their proficiency in the latest steps. The mammas and papas
either played bridge or sat on the chairs that were ranged against the
walls all round the beautiful ballroom placidly admiring the evolutions
of their own progeny.
Rosemary, not to be outdone in self-discipline, was outwardly as gay as
any of them. She danced impartially with the Hungarians and the
Roumanians, and talked cricket knowledgeably with the team. For her the
atmosphere was electrical. At times it seemed to her over-strained
senses as if she could hear the whir of the spinning-wheel driven by the
Fates, the hum of the spindle, and the click of their scissors as they
made ready to cut the thread of these people's destiny.
Just before midnight the young Roumanian officers who formed the cricket
team left in the two motor-cars which were to take them direct to
Hódmezö, a matter of ninety odd miles. Rosemary found herself saying
good-bye to them like an automaton--counting them over as if they were
ninepins. A kind of mist was before her eyes through which their
good-looking faces seemed to be grinning at her, and their moustaches
bristling like Alice's Cheshire cat.
Elza, wonderful as ever, fussed around them, stuffing delicacies into
the cars at the last moment, fruit, bottles of wine, cakes, chocolates,
and lending them rugs and cushions.
"It is a long drive," she said, as she shook hands one by one with the
young officers, who clicked their heels together, jingled their spurs
and declared that they had had a very pleasant evening. "You will be
hungry when you get to Hódmezö," she added, "and all the restaurants
will be closed. You will be glad of a glass of wine and some of my
home-made cake."
Rosemary was standing next to Maurus Imrey at the time. She heard him
mutter between his teeth:
"And may it choke you when you eat and drink."
But even Maurus was wonderful. Wonderful! He shook hands. He
smiled--wryly; but he smiled. Wished them all God-speed. He had been
well drilled, and he was fully conscious of the danger to Philip and
Anna if he lost control over his temper now.
So he, too, gave directions for putting provisions into the cars. He had
four bottles of French red wine in his cellar and he insisted that the
young officers should have those. "It will make them play that silly
cricket better," he said. "And I hate the stuff myself."
The four men who were going with the team as servants were there
arranging the rugs, stowing the wine and fruit and cake in the cars.
Rosemary knew the two sons of Jànos, the miller, by sight. They were
fine, well-set-up young fellows, obviously of the stuff that heroes are
made of, for they were going to risk their lives for the children of
their feudal lords.
Anna, equally self-possessed, flitted among the guests like a little
fairy. She had on a pale blue dress, and out in the open her slim figure
was hardly distinguishable in the gloom; only her small, white face told
as if carved out of alabaster: that dear little face, with the big eyes
that were so like Peter's. When she was saying "good-bye" to one of the
young officers, who had been her dancing-partner, she said with a pout:
"I think it was horrid of you to telephone to Peter Blakeney yesterday
and take him away from us. I don't believe you would have had any
difficulty with the hotel people about your rooms. And, anyway, you
might have let Peter have another day's enjoyment."
The young man appeared genuinely bewildered.
"Will the gracious lady deign to explain?" he asked.
"Oh, there is nothing to explain," Anna said, with a light laugh. "We
were all of us very angry with you for sending that telephone message
which took Peter Blakeney away from us."
"But pardon me, dear lady," the officer rejoined, "we didn't send any
telephone message to Monsieur Blakeney. As a matter of fact, we fully
expected to find him here."
"But about your rooms----?" Anna insisted.
"Our rooms at Hódmezö have been arranged for ages ago. Everything
there is in perfect order and----"
"Anna, dear," Rosemary broke in quickly, "Peter didn't say who sent him
the telephone message. He only said that he had one. It may have come
from Hódmezö--from one of the hotel people--he didn't say----"
What had prompted Rosemary to interpose at this moment she did not know.
It was just an instinct: the blind instinct to protect, to shield Peter
from something ugly and vague, that she had not yet had time to see
clearly, and Anna then went on lightly:
"Oh, of course he didn't say. Anyway, when you see Peter, tell him he
was very silly to go away, and that he missed a great deal by not being
here to-night. You can tell him that Marie never danced so well in all
her life, and the gipsies from Bonczhida simply surpassed themselves."
Whereupon the young officer clicked his heels and promised that he would
deliver the message.
"But we shan't see Monsieur Blakeney," he said, "until the evening. You
know the match is not until Thursday. Monsieur Blakeney arranged to meet
us in Hódmezö on Wednesday evening, and this is only Tuesday."
"It will be Wednesday morning before we start," one of his friends broke
in lightly, "if you don't hurry, you old chatterbox."
After that, more "good-byes" and waving of hands as the motor-cars
rounded the courtyard and finally swung out of the gates. Rosemary
looked round to catch sight of Elza. She was quite placid, and on her
dear, round face there was a set smile. Evidently she was unconscious of
the fact that something stupendous had happened, something that had hit
Rosemary on the head like a blow from a sledgehammer. No, no! Elza had
not noticed. Elza's mind was no longer here. It was way out upon the
dusty road, watching a motor-car travelling at full speed over the
frontier away from this land of bondage, to Hungary to freedom. Elza had
noticed nothing. Anna and Philip were still laughing and chattering,
Maurus muttering curses. No one had noticed anything. Only for Rosemary
had the world--her own beautiful world of truth and loyalty--come to an
end. Peter had lied. Peter was playing a double game. It was no use
arguing, no use hoping. The only thing to do was to go on groping in
this mystery that deepened and deepened, until it became tangible,
material like a thick, dark fog through which glided ghouls and demons
who whispered and laughed. And they whispered and laughed because Peter
had lied and because she, Rosemary, saw all her hopes, her faith, her
ideals lying shattered in a tangled heap at her feet. Peter had lied. He
had acted a lie. He told her that he had promised to go to Hódmezö to
see about rooms for the cricket team. Well, that was not true. Rosemary
had interposed, made some excuse for Peter. She wouldn't have those
Roumanians think that Peter was a liar. They would have smiled,
suggested some amorous intrigue which Monsieur Blakeney wished to keep
dark. At the thought Rosemary's gorge rose, and she put in a lame
defence for Peter. But all the time she knew that he had lied. If Peter
did not go to Hódmezö yesterday, where was he now? Why all this
secrecy? These lies?
Why? Oh, God, why?
Rosemary had found a quiet corner in the hall where she could sit and
think for a moment. Yet thinking was the one thing she could not do.
Always, at every turn she was confronted with that hideous query: Why
had Peter lied? After a while she had to give up trying to think. Fate's
spindle was whirring, the scissors clinking. She, Rosemary, a mere atom
in the hands of Fate, must continue to play her part.
A quarter of an hour must have gone by while she sat--trying to
think--in the dark. Perhaps more. Anyway, when she returned to the
ballroom she found the company much diminished in numbers. All the
Roumanian officers had gone, also one large party who lived just the
other side of Cluj. Only a few remained whose châteaux were too far
away for a midnight start, seeing that motors were forbidden to the
conquered race. They were going to spend the night at Kis-Imre, and
probably make a start in the morning. The young people had already
resumed dancing; the gipsies were playing the latest fox-trot. The
mammas and papas were placidly admiring their respective progeny.
All this Rosemary took in at a glance.
Then she looked round for Elza. But neither Elza nor Maurus was there.
And Philip and Anna had also gone.