The question of the title had at length been settled: the simplest
solution was felt to be the best; and Mrs. Osborne need not have felt so
strange at the thought of changing her name, for she only changed the
“Mrs.” into “Lady.” The eminently respectable name of Osborne, after
all, was associated, as seen on the labels in the fish market at Venice,
with the idea of hardware all the world over, a thing which Mr. Osborne
had been anxious to “bring in,” and, at the same time, it had a faintly
territorial sound. Lady Osborne, however, was a little disappointed; she
would so much have enjoyed the necessity of getting quantities of table
linen with the new initial worked on it. As it was, it was only
necessary to have a coronet placed above it. Indeed, within a week
coronets blossomed everywhere, with the suddenness of the coming of
spring in the South--on the silver, on the hot-water cans, on writing
paper and envelopes, on the panels of carriages and cars, and an
enormous one, cut solid in limestone (the delivery of which seriously
impeded for a while the traffic in Park Lane), was hoisted into its
appropriate niche above the front door of No. 92 by the aid of a gang of
perspiring workmen and a small steam crane. It had been a smart
morning’s work, so said Lord Osborne, who looked out from the Gothic
windows of his snuggery every now and then to see how it was getting on;
and it became even smarter in the afternoon when gold-leaf had been
thickly laid on it.
It was on the evening of that day that Lady Osborne had only a family
party. She had planned that from the very beginning of the settlement of
the summer campaign, had declined a very grand invitation indeed in
order not to sacrifice it, and was going to send it to the _Morning
Post_ and other papers, just as if it had been a great party. Lady
Austell was there and Jim, Dora and Claude, Uncle Alf, Per and Mrs. Per,
and her husband and herself. That was absolutely all, and there was
nobody of any description coming in afterward; nor was any form of
entertainment, except such as they would indulge in among themselves, to
be provided. The idea was simply to have a family gathering, and not
heed anybody else, for just this one evening; to be homely and cosy and
comfortable.
So there they all were, as Lady Osborne thought delightedly to herself,
as she sat down with Jim on her right and Alfred on her left, just a
family party, and yet they were all folk of title now except Alfred. It
showed that money was not everything, for Alfred was the richest of them
all, while the Austells, who were the “highest,” were also the poorest.
She had looked forward immensely to this evening, but not without
trepidation, for if Alfred was “worried” he could spoil any party.
Alfred, however, seemed to be in the most excellent humour, and when, as
they sat down, she said to him, “Well, Alfred, it’s your turn next to be
made something,” he had replied that he had just received a most
pressing offer of a dukedom. And the witticism was much appreciated.
There was no keeping relations apart, of course, since they were all
relations, and Claude was sitting next his father, with Mrs. Per between
him and Jim, and it was his voice that his mother most listened for with
the unconscious ear that hearkens for sounds that are most beloved. He
was apologizing to his father for the mislaying of some key.
“I’m really awfully sorry,” he said, “but I’m such a bad hand at keys. I
never lock anything up myself. Everything’s always open in the flat,
isn’t it, Dora? But I’m very sorry, Dad. It was careless.”
“Ah, well, never mind,” said his father. “And I’m not one as locks up
overmuch either. Give me the key of my wine cellar and my cash box, and
the drawer of your mother’s letters to me when I was a-courting her, and
the Tantalus, and the drawer where I keep my cheque-book and cash box,
and I don’t ask for more. I’m no jailer, thank Heaven! But don’t you
even have a key to your cellar, my boy?”
“Oh, I suppose there is one, and I suppose Parker has it,” he said.
Jim, too, had caught some of this and turned to Lady Osborne.
“By Jove! that’s so like Claude,” he said.
Lady Osborne beamed delightedly upon him.
“Well, and it is,” she said. “There never was a boy so free with his
things. Lor’! he used to get into such hot water with his father when
first he went to Oxford. There was no question, as you may guess, of his
being kept short of money, but naturally his father wanted to hear where
it went, and there’s no denying he was a bit extravagant when he first
went up, as they say. But when Claude got his cheque-book, to look where
and how it had all gone, why, there wasn’t as much as a date or anything
on one of the bits you leave in. I never can remember the name.”
“Counterfoils?” suggested Jim.
“Yes, to be sure. And I’ll be bound he doesn’t enter half of them now.
And his uncle here played him a trick the other day--didn’t pay in his
quarter’s allowance, did you, Alf? And Claude never knew till he was
told; just said he was hard up and didn’t know why, bless him. Well, he
being his father’s son, it would be queer if he was tight-handed.”
Jim laughed.
“I shall be down on Mr.--Lord Osborne like a knife,” he said, “if he
doesn’t pay me his rent.”
“I’ll be bound you will, and quite right too, for money is money when
all’s said and done,” said Lady Osborne cordially. “Well, I’m sure that
sea trout is very good. I feel as I can take a mouthful more, Thoresby;
and give Lord Austell some more. I’m sure I can tempt you, Lord
Austell.”
“Nothing easier,” said Jim.
Uncle Alf came and sat next Dora in the drawing room when, after a
rather prolonged discussion of the ’40 port, the gentlemen joined the
rest of the circle again.
“I came up here from Richmond, making no end of smart speeches in the
carriage, my dear,” he said, “in order to make Maria and Eddie jump, but
I’ve not said one. She’s a good old sort, is Maria, and she was
enjoying herself so. My dear, what’s that great big gold thing they’ve
put up above the front door?”
“Oh! a coronet, I think,” said Dora.
“I thought it was, but I couldn’t be sure. Lord, what a set out! But
those two are having such a good time. I hadn’t the heart to make them
sit up. And I daresay they’ve got a lot of men in the House of Lords not
half so honest as Eddie.”
“I should never have forgiven you, Uncle Alf,” said she, “if you’d vexed
them.”
“Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t, then,” said he. “And what’s going to
happen now? You don’t mean to say Mrs. Per’s going to sing?”
It appeared that this was the case. Naturally she required a certain
amount of pressing, not because she had any intention of not singing but
because a little diffidence, a little fear that she had been naughty,
and hadn’t sung for weeks, was the correct thing.
Uncle Alfred heard this latter remark.
“She’s been practising every day. Per told us in the dining room,” he
said. “Lord, if Sabincourt would paint her as she looks when she sings
I’d give him his price for it. That woman will give me the indigestion
if I let my mind dwell on her.”
Mrs. Per sang with a great deal of expression such simple songs as did
not want much else. Indeed, her rendering of “Be good, sweet maid, and
let who will be cle-he-ver,” was chiefly expression. There was a great
deal of expression, too, in the concluding line, which she sang with her
eyes on the ceiling and a rapt smile playing about her tight little
mouth. “One lorng sweet sorng,” she sang on a quavering and throaty F:
“One lorng sweet sorng.” And she touched the last chord with the soft
pedal down and continued smiling for several seconds, with that “lost
look,” as Per described it, “that Lizzie gets when she is singing.”
Her mother-in-law broke the silence.
“If that isn’t nice!” she said. “And I declare if I know whether I like
the words or the music best. One seems to fit the other so. Lizzie, my
dear, you’re going to give us another, won’t you now?”
Lizzie had every intention of doing so, but again a little pressing was
necessary, and she finally promised to sing once more, just once, if
Claude would “do” something afterward. So she ran her hands over the
keys, and became light and frolicsome, and sang something about a shower
and a maid and a little kissing, which was very pretty and winsome.
After that she sang again and again.
Jim had seated himself opposite Dora, and in the middle of this their
eyes met for a moment. A faint smile quivered on the corner of Jim’s
mouth, but the moment after Mrs. Per came to the end of a song and he
warmly complimented her. Eventually she left the piano and called upon
Claude for the fulfilment of his promise.
Claude on occasion recited; he did so now. The piece he chose was a
favourite of his father’s, a little hackneyed, perhaps, for it was “The
Sands of Dee,” and Lord Osborne blew his nose when it was finished.
“Thank ye, my boy,” he said. “You said that beautiful. Just to think of
it, poor thing, her caught by the tide like that, and her hair getting
into the salmon nets. I’m glad we didn’t have that before dinner. I
couldn’t have eaten a morsel of that salmon.”
“My dear, you’re so fanciful,” said his wife, “and it was sea trout. But
Claude said it beautiful. I’m sure I’ve heard them at the music halls,
often and often, not half so good as that, for all that they are
professionals.”
“So that if your uncle cuts you off with a shilling, Claude,” said his
father, “you can still make a home for Dora; hey, Dora?”
And then Per did several very remarkable conjuring tricks, which nobody
could guess. You put a watch into a handkerchief and held it quite
tight, and then there wasn’t any, or else it was a rabbit, or something
quite different. Again, whatever card you chose, and wherever you put it
back into the pack, Per was on it in no time. Or you thought of
something, and Per blindfold, with the help of Mrs. Per, told you what
you had thought of. And the Zanzics were held not to be in it.
After the strain and bewilderment of these accomplishments it was almost
a relief to sit down to a good round game, the basis of which was a pack
of cards, some counters, a system of forfeits, and plenty of chaff.
And about twelve, after a little light supper, the party broke up, Alf
driving down to Richmond, and Lady Austell, who had made up her little
disagreement with Jim, dropping him at his rooms. It was but a step from
Park Lane there, but they held a short and pointed conversation on their
way.
“A delightful, charming evening,” she said; “all so genuine and honest,
with no forced gaiety or insincere welcome. How happy and content Dora
ought to be.”
“The question being whether she is,” remarked Jim.
“My dear, have you noticed anything?” asked his mother rather quickly.
“Certainly during that recitation she looked a little--a little
inscrutable. What a deplorable performance, was it not? And if that
odious woman had sung any more I think I should have screamed. But Dora
and Claude? Do you think the dear fellow is a little on her nerves?”
“Yes, I think the dear fellow is a little on her nerves,” said Jim, with
marked evenness of tone. “Can you not imagine the possibility of that?
Consider.”
It was very likely that Lady Austell considered. She did not, however,
think good to inform Jim of the result of this consideration.
“And he?” she asked.
“I am not in his confidence,” said Jim. “I am only in his flat. And here
it is. Thanks so much, dear mother, for the lift. Won’t you come in?
No?”
“I must speak to Dora,” said she, as the brougham stopped.
“I think that would be very unwise of you. She knows all you would say,
about his honour, his kindness, and so on. But at the present moment I
think she feels that all the cardinal virtues do not make up for--well,
for things like that recitation.”
Lady Austell thought over this for a moment as Jim got out.
“You are friends with Claude?” she asked. “Real friends, I mean?”
“No, I can’t stand him, and I think he can’t stand me.”
Lady Austell could not resist giving her son a little dab.
“And yet you use his flat?” she said.
“Oh, yes, and drink his wine and smoke his cigars. You would rather have
liked the flat, wouldn’t you? Perhaps he’ll lend it you another time. He
likes doing kind things that don’t incommode him. I think he likes
feeling it doesn’t matter to him, and I feel that the fact that we
dislike each other gives a certain piquancy to them. Good night; I’m so
glad you liked your party. It is refreshing after the glitter and
hollowness of the world to get close to family affection again.”
It seemed to her that a little flame of true bitterness, quite unlike
his usually genial cynicism and _insouciance_, shone in these words.
“Good night, dear,” she said very softly; “I hope nothing has disagreed
with you.”
* * * * *
Jim laughed a little to himself as he ascended the thickly carpeted
stairs to the flat on the first floor, but the laugh was not of long
duration or of very genuine quality. He felt at enmity with all the
world in spite of the excellent dinner he had eaten. He felt that Dora
was a fool to let little things like--well, like that recitation--come
between her and the immense enjoyment that could be got out of life if
only you had, as was the case with her, a limitless power of commanding
its pleasures. And yet, if those pleasures were to be indissolubly
wrapped up with an Osborne environment he felt he almost understood her
absence of content. To put a case--if he was given the choice of going
to Newmarket to-morrow with Lady Osborne in her two-thousand-pound
seventy-horse-power Napier, or of travelling there third class at his
own expense, what would he do? Certainly, if the choice was for one day
only, he would go in the car, but if the choice concerned going there
every day for the rest of his life, or hers, the question hardly needed
an answer. The thing would become unbearable. And Dora had to go, not to
Newmarket only, but everywhere, everywhere with Claude. And for himself,
he would sooner have gone anywhere with Mrs. Osborne than with him.
It is more blessed to give than to receive; in many cases it is
certainly easier to give with a good grace than to receive in the same
spirit. And if the gift is made without sacrifice it is, unless the
recipient is genuinely attached to the giver, most difficult to receive
it charitably. It may be received with gratitude if it is much wanted,
but the gratitude here is felt not toward the giver, but toward the
gift. Toward the giver there is liable to spring up, especially if he is
not liked before, a feeling compared with which mere dislike is mild. It
was so with Jim now.
He squirted some whisky into a glass, put a lump of clinking ice into
it, and added some Perrier water. All these things were Claude’s, so was
the chair in which he sat, so was the cigar, the end of which he had
just bitten off. This latter operation he had not performed with his
usual neatness; there was a piece of loose leaf detached, which might
spoil the even smoking of it, and he threw it away and took another.
They were all Claude’s, and if his drinks and his cigars had been made
of molten gold, Jim felt he would sit up till morning, even at the cost
of personal inconvenience, in order to consume as much as possible of
them. The evening too, “the charming, pleasant party,” of which his
mother had spoken so foolishly, had enraged him. There had been all
there that money, the one thing in the world he desired so much, could
possibly buy, and they had found nothing better to do than listen to
ridiculous songs, hear an unspeakable recitation, and play an absurd
round game. He hated them all, not only because they were rich, but
because they were ill-bred and contented. Jovial happiness (the more to
be resented because of its joviality), a happiness, he knew well, that
was really independent of money, trickled and oozed from them like resin
from a healthy fir tree; happiness was their sap, their life; they were
sticky with it. And he was afraid he knew where that came from; it came
not only from their good digestion, but from their kindness, their
simplicity, their nice natures. But if he at this moment had the
opportunity of changing his own nature with that of any of these
Osbornes, to take their kindness, their joviality, their simple
contentment with and pleasure in life, with all their wealth thrown in,
he would have preferred himself with all his disabilities and poverty.
There was something about them all, some inherent commonness, that he
would not have made part of himself at any price. Only a day or two ago
he had been telling Dora to put the purseholders in a good temper at
whatever cost, not to mind about their being not quite--and now he saw
her difficulty. It was not possible even to think of them in a humorous
light; they were awful grotesques, nightmares, for all their happiness
and wealth, if you were obliged to have much to do with them.
Jim finished his whisky and took more. Of all those tragic and
irritating figures, the one who appeared to him most deplorable and
exasperating was Claude, on whom he was living at this moment, and on
whom he proposed to live till the end of the month. After that he would
no doubt search out some means of living on him further. Rich people
were the cows provided for the poorer. It was quite unnecessary, because
you fattened on their milk, to like them. You liked their milk, not
them. And it was this very thing, this fact of his own indebtedness to
his brother-in-law, that made Claude the more insupportable. That Claude
was kind and generous, that Dora had married him, aggravated his
offence, and the unspeakable meanness of his own relationship to him, in
being thus dependent on him, aggravated it further. Yet his own meanness
was part of Claude’s offence; he would not have felt like this toward a
gentleman. But Claude, as he had said long ago to his mother, was a
subtle cad, the worst variety of that distressing species. So he lit
another of his cigars.
The butt of the one he had just thrown away had fallen inside the brass
fender, and the Persian rug in front of the fender had been pulled a
little too far inward, so that its fringe projected inside. The
smouldering end fell on to this fringe, and Jim watched it singe the
edge of the rug without getting up to take it off, justifying himself
the while. The interior of a fender was a proper receptacle for cigar
ends, and if the edge of a rug happened to be there too it was not his
fault. And the fact that he sat and watched it being singed was wholly
and completely symptomatic of his state of mind. He liked seeing even an
infinitesimal deterioration of Claude’s property. What business had
Claude with prints and Persian rugs and half-filled-in cheque-books? He
was generous because the generosity cost him absolutely nothing.
Had Jim been able to hear the conversation that took place in the
drawing-room of No. 92 after he and his mother had gone his evil humour
would probably have been further accentuated. Lord Osborne started it.
“Well, give me a family party every night,” he said, “and I ask for
nothing more, my lady, though, to be sure, I like your grand parties
second to none. Dora, my dear, that brother of yours is a sharp fellow.
He beat us all at our round game. I hope he’s comfortable in your flat,
eh, Claude? You’ve left some cigars and such-like, I hope, so that he
won’t wish to turn out, saying there’s more of comfort to be had at his
club.”
Claude reassured his father on this point, and Mrs. Per glided up to
Dora. She usually glided.
“What a dear Lord Austell is, Dora,” she said. “And so aristocratic
looking. I wish I had a brother like that. Do you think that he liked my
little songs? Per and I wondered if he would come down to Sheffield in
the autumn. Per has some good shooting, I believe, though I can’t bear
the thought of it. Poor little birds! to be shot like that when they’re
so happy. I always stop my ears if they are shooting near the house.”
“Lizzie, my dear, you’re too kind-hearted,” said Lady Osborne. “What
would our dinners be like if it wasn’t for the shooting? Perpetual beef
and mutton, nothing tasty.”
Mrs. Per wheeled around with a twist of her serpentine neck.
“Ah, but you can never have read that dear little story by Gautier--or
is it Daudet?--about the quails,” she said. “I have never touched a
quail since I read it. But Lord Austell, dear Dora. We were going to
have a little party, very select, about the middle of September, and Per
and I wondered if Lord Austell would come. There are the races, you
know, for two days, and with two days’ shooting, and perhaps an
expedition to Fountains, I think he might like it. He told me he was so
interested in antiquities. And if you and Claude would come too----”
Mrs. Per broke off in some confusion. She had forgotten for the moment.
And she drew Dora a little aside.
“Dear Dora,” she said, “I quite forgot. Quite, quite, quite! So stupid!
But Claude, perhaps, if all is well? They are great friends, are they
not? Claude told me that Lord Austell was keeping his flat warm for him.
So kind and so nice of Claude to lend it, too, of course.”
Then Lord Osborne’s voice broke in again.
“Yes, the family party is the party to my mind,” he said. “No pomp; just
a plain dinner, and a song, and a conjuring trick, and no fatigue for my
lady, with standing up and saying ‘Glad to see you’ a thousand
times--not but what she isn’t glad, as we all are to see our friends;
but Lord, Mrs. O.--I beg your pardon, my lady--how nice to have a quiet
evening such as to-night, with my Lady Austell and her son just dropping
in neighbour-like, and no bother to anybody. Per, my boy, you’ve made a
conquest of Lord Austell; he was wrapped up in your tricks, and each
puzzled him more than the last. As he said to me, ‘You don’t know what
to expect: it may be an egg, or a watch, or the ten of spades.’”
“Well, I expect it would take a professional to see through my tricks,”
said Per; “and even then I’d warrant I’d puzzle him as often as not.
There’s a lot of practice goes to each, and there’s many evenings, when
Lizzie and I have been alone, when we’ve gone through them, and she
pulled me up short if ever she saw, so I might say, the wink of a shirt
cuff. But they went off pretty well to-night, though I say that who
shouldn’t.”
“And I’m sure I don’t know what pleased me best to-night,” said Lady
Osborne, “whether it was the conjuring tricks, or Lizzie’s singing, or
the ‘Sands of Dee,’ or the round game. Bless me! and it’s nearly one
o’clock. It’s time we were all in bed, for there’s no rest for anybody
to-morrow, I’m sure, not after the clock’s gone ten in the morning till
two the next morning and later.”
Lord Osborne gave a gigantic yawn.
“I’m sure I apologize to the company for gaping,” he said, “but it comes
upon one sometimes without knowing. And what has my lady planned for
to-morrow?”
“As if it was me as had planned it,” said his wife, “when you would have
half the Cabinet take their lunch with you, and a Mercy League of some
kind in the ballroom in the afternoon! Three hundred teas ordered, and
by your orders, Mr. O., which will but give you time to dress, if you’re
thinking to make a speech to them. But do be up to the time for dinner,
for we sit down thirty at table at a quarter past eight, and out of the
ballroom you must go, for if the servants clear it and air it for my
dance by eleven o’clock, it’s as much as you can expect of flesh and
blood!”
“And she carries it all in her head,” said her husband, “as if it was
twice five’s ten! Maria, my dear, you’re right, and it’s time to go to
the land of Nod. Not that there’ll be much nodding for me; I shall sleep
without them sort of preliminaries.”
“Well, and I’m sure you ought to after all the snoring exercise you went
through last night,” said Lady Osborne genially. “I couldn’t have
believed it if I hadn’t heard it. There, there, my dear, it’s only my
joke. And they tell me it shows a healthy pair of lungs to make all that
night music, as I may say. And, Dora, be sure as your brother knows he’s
welcome to dinner as well as the dance afterward, in case I didn’t say
it to him. I can always find an extra place at my table for them as are
always welcome.”
Lord Osborne got up.
“Not but what you didn’t fair stick him over your conjuring tricks,
Per,” he said. “And did you cast your eye over the coronet I’ve had put
up above the front door? It’s a fine bit of carving. Well, good night to
all and sundry. Claude, my boy, you take good care of Per, and mind to
put out the lights when you come to bed. One o’clock! I should never
have guessed it was past twelve.”
The Newmarket meeting began next day, and Jim was not put to the odious
degradation of paying for his own ticket, as he motored down with a
friend. No more delightful way of spending the morning could be desired
than this swift progress through the summer air over these smooth roads;
and that, with a confident belief in the soundness of his betting book
and the anticipation of a pleasant and lucrative afternoon, entirely
dissipated the evil humour of the evening before. After all, in this
imperfect world, it was wiser to take the bad with the good, and if the
manners and customs of the Osborne family got on his nerves, it must be
put down to their credit, not to the aggravation of their offences, as
he had been disposed to think last night, that they treated him in so
open-handed a way. Certainly they would appear in a far more
disagreeable light if they were close-handed with their money. It was,
of course, a sin and an iniquity that other people should have money and
not he; but since Providence (and that deplorable Derby week) had chosen
to make this disposition of affairs, it was as well that certain mines
of bullion should be accessible to him. And here already was the Heath,
and the crowds, and the roar of the ring.
Like most gamblers, Jim, though practical enough in the ordinary affairs
of life, had a vein of fantastic superstition about him, and it occurred
to him after the first race, in which he had the good fortune to back
the winner, that his luck had turned, and he cast about to think of the
cause that had turned it. At once he hit on it: he had paid Claude back
the sovereign which he had found on his dressing table and had given to
the cook. That had been a happy inspiration of his: the action itself
had been of the nature of casting bread on the waters, for Claude
probably was unconscious of having left a sovereign there, and in any
case would not ask for it; and here, not after many days, but the very
next day, he had picked up fifty of them before lunch. Apparently some
sort of broad-minded guardian angel looked after his bets and his
morals, and, if he was good, turned the luck for him (for this
broad-minded angel clearly did not object to a little horse racing) and
enabled him to back winners. And after this initial success Jim went
back to his friend’s motor and ate an extremely good lunch.
Whether the broad-minded angel looked back over Jim’s past record and
found something that he could not quite stand, Jim never reasoned out
with any certainty; all that was certain was that after that first race
the carefully made up, almost gilt-edged book went to pieces. Once in a
sudden access of caution he hedged over a horse he had backed; that was
the only winner he was concerned with for the rest of the day.
Jim returned to town that evening in a frame of mind that was not yet
desperate, but sufficiently serious to make him uncomfortable.
Outwardly, he took his losses admirably, was cheerfully cynical about
them, and behaved in nowise other than he would have behaved if he had
been winning all afternoon. He had promised to dine at the Savoy, but on
arrival at the flat he found a telephone message written out which had
come from Dora after his departure that morning, asking him to dine at
No. 92. At that his mood of last evening flashed up again.
“I’ll be damned if I ever set foot in that house again!” he said to
himself. And regretted into the telephone.
There was a telegram for him as well. It was from a very well-informed
quarter, giving him the tip to back Callisto, an outsider, for the big
race to-morrow.
He crumpled it up impatiently; how many well-informed tips, he wondered,
had he acted on, and what percentage of them had come off? Scarcely one
in a hundred. No; backing outsiders was a good enough game if you were
on your luck, and also happened to be solvent.
He did not go to Newmarket next day, but sat all afternoon in his club,
making frequent journeys to the tape, that ticked out inexorably and
without emotion things so momentous to him. It was a little out of
order, and now and then, after the announcement “Newmarket,” it would
reel off a rapid gabble of meaningless letters like a voluble drunkard,
or give some extraneous information about what was happening at Lord’s.
Then it pulled itself together again, and he saw that Callisto had won.
Harry Franklin was looking over his shoulder as this information came
out, and gave a cackle of laughter.
“Hurrah! fur coat for May and new gun for me,” he said.
“Lucky dog!” said Jim. “I thought you never betted.”
“Oh, once in a blue moon! Moon was blue yesterday. Somebody gave me this
tip last night, and I had a shy.”
“I didn’t shy,” said Jim. “Rather a pity. Twenty-five to one, wasn’t
it?”
“Yes; that fiver of mine will go a long way,” said Harry. “Come and dine
to-night. Dora and Claude Osborne are coming.”
“Thanks awfully, but I’m engaged,” said Jim.
He went back to his flat when the last race was recorded to see just
where he stood. He had nothing more on for the last day of the meeting,
and thus his accounts were ready to be made up. A rather lengthy
addition, with a very short subtraction of winnings, showed him just
what he had lost. And he owed nearly five hundred pounds more than he
could possibly pay. The exact sum was £476. It would have to be paid by
Monday next.
It was true in a sense, that, as he told Harry Franklin, he was engaged
that night, though the engagement was to himself only. It was necessary
to sit and think. The money was necessary to him, and necessity is a
lawless force. The money had to be obtained; so much might be taken for
granted. It was no use considering what would happen if it was not
obtained; therefore, all that might be dismissed, for it had to be
obtained. That was the terminus from which he started.
He had telephoned from the club that he would be in for dinner, and
would dine alone, and Claude’s admirable cook, it appeared, understood
the science of providing single dinners as well as she understood more
festive provisions. Dinner was light and short, and Parker, without
prompting, gave him a half-bottle of Veuve Clicquot, iced to the right
point and no further, and a glass of port that seemed to restore him to
his normal level. What he had to face was no longer unfaceable; he felt
he could go out and meet necessity.
Other possibilities detained him but little; it was no use applying to
his mother for money, for he might as well apply to the workhouse; and
he could not apply to the Osbornes. He tried to think of himself asking
Claude to lend him this sum; he tried to picture himself going to Lord
Osborne with his story. But the picture was unpaintable: it had no
possible existence.
And the other way--the way which already had taken form and feature in
his mind--was not so difficult, far less impossible of contemplation,
simply because his nature was not straight, and the moral difficulty of
stealing appeared to him to be within his power to deal with. He had
never been straight; but even now he made excuses for himself, said that
it was a necessity that forced him into a path that was abhorrent to
him. Perhaps he did dislike it a little; certainly he did not take it
for amusement. Simply there was no other way open to him. There remained
only to consider the chances of detection. They did not seem to him
great. The cheque-book with which he would shortly be concerned had
clearly been left in its drawer as finished with, for the last cheque
was used, though not the one immediately preceding it. Claude, too, had
almost bragged about his carelessness with regard to money, and the
truth of his boast had been endorsed by his mother only two nights ago,
when she told him how he had never noticed that his quarter’s allowance
had not been paid in. That was a matter of nearly four thousand pounds;
this of hardly more than the same number of hundreds.
Besides, it if were detected, what would Claude do? Proceed against his
wife’s brother? He believed he need not waste time in considering such a
possibility, for, to begin with, the possibility itself was so remote.
Then for a moment some little voice of honour made itself heard, and he
had to argue it down. Not to pay such debts--debts of honour, as they
were called--was among those very few things that a man must not do, and
for which, if he does them, he gets no quarter from society in general.
No doubt he could get his debts paid if he went to the Osbornes; but
that he could not do. It was much harder for him than that which he
proposed to do. So the little voice was silenced again, almost before it
began to speak. But it was used to being taken lightly, to be not
listened to.
He was not often at home in the evening, but when he was he usually sat
in Claude’s room, which, though small, was cooler than the
southward-facing drawing room, and he took his cigar there now. A tray
of whisky and Perrier had already been placed there, but since he did
not wish to be disturbed he rang the bell to tell Parker he wished to be
called at eight next morning, and wanted nothing more that night. And
then he took some writing paper from a drawer in the knee-hole table,
and drew up his chair to it. He had found there also a carefully written
out speech by Claude, designed for his constituents. He read a page or
two, and found it dealt with local taxation. Large sums like “five
million” were written in figures. Smaller sums, as in phrases
“fivepence in the pound,” were written out in full. This was convenient.
There was also a frequent occurrence of “myself” in the speech. Part of
that word concerned Jim. And Claude wrote with a stylograph: there were
several of them in the pen tray. Jim had used them regularly since he
came into the flat.
* * * * *
Dora was to call for him next morning at twelve, with the design of
spending the afternoon at Lord’s to see the cricket, and, arriving there
a little before her appointed time, was told that he was out, but had
left word that he would be back by twelve. Accordingly, since the heat
was great in the street, she came up to the flat and waited for him
there.
She felt rather fagged this morning, for the last week had been
strenuous, while privately her emotional calendar had made many entries
against the days. That estrangement from Claude, that alienation without
a quarrel, and therefore the more difficult to terminate, had in some
secret way got very much worse; his presence even had begun to irritate
her; and he certainly saw that irritation (it did not require much
perspicacity), and spared her as much as he could, never, if possible,
being alone with her. Instead he threw himself into the hospitalities of
the house; looked after Mrs. Per, taking her to picture-galleries and
concerts, until Per had declared that he was getting to feel quite an
Othello, and performed with zeal all the duties of a resident son of the
house. And bitterly Dora saw how easy it was to him, how without any
effort he caught the _rôle_. Like some mysterious stain, appearing again
after years, the resemblance between him and his family daily
manifested itself more clearly.
The sight of the flat caused these thoughts to inflict themselves very
vividly on her mind, and, sitting here alone, waiting, it was almost
with shuddering that she expected Claude to enter. How often in these
familiar surroundings she had sat just here, expecting and longing for
him to come, to know that he and she would be alone together in their
nest. And now the walls seemed to observe her with alien eyes, even as
with alien eyes she looked at them. It was a blessing, anyhow, that they
had gone to Park Lane: the dual solitude here would have been
intolerable.
She had not got to wait long, for Jim’s step soon sounded in the
passage. She heard him whistling to himself as he went into his bedroom,
and next moment he came in.
“I’m not late,” he said, “so don’t scold me. It’s you who are early,
which is the most outrageous form of unpunctuality. Well, Dora, how goes
it?”
She got up and came across the room to him.
“It doesn’t go very nicely,” she said; “but you seem cheerful, which is
to the good. Jim, it is so nice to see somebody cheerful without being
jocose. We are all very jocose at Park Lane, and Claude flirts with Mrs.
Per.”
Dora gave a little laugh.
“I didn’t mean to speak of it,” she said, “and I won’t again. Let’s have
a day off, and not regret or wonder or wish. What lots of times you and
I have gone up to Lord’s together, though we usually went by
Underground. Now we go in a great, noble motor. Let’s have fun for one
day; I haven’t had fun for ages.”
Jim nodded at her.
“That just suits me,” he said. “I want a day off, and we’ll have it.
Pretend you’re about eighteen again and me twenty-one. After all, it’s
only putting the clock back a couple of years.”
“And I feel a hundred,” said Dora pathetically.
“Well, don’t. I felt a hundred yesterday, and it was a mistake.”
“Jim, I was so sorry about your bad luck at Newmarket. Somebody told me
you had done nothing but lose. What an ass you are, dear! Why do you go
on?”
Jim’s face darkened but for a moment.
“It’s nothing the least serious,” he said. “I did have rather a bad
time, but I’ve pulled through and have paid every penny. In fact, that
is what kept me this morning. I hate to give away all those great,
crisp, crackling notes! I hate it! And then on my way home I determined
not to think about it any more, nor about anything unpleasant that had
ever happened, and I get here to find you had come to the same excellent
determination. Let’s have a truce for one day.”
“Amen!” said Dora.
It is astonishing what can be done by acting in pairs. Dora would have
been perfectly incapable alone of watching cricket with attention, far
less, as proved to be possible, with rapture; and it might also be open
to reasonable doubt as to whether alone Jim could have found any
occupation that would have deeply interested him. But together they gave
the slip to their anxieties and preoccupations, and Jim did not even
want to bet on the result of the match. All afternoon they sat there,
and waited till at half-past six the stumps were drawn. Then Dora gave a
great sigh.
“Oh dear! it’s over,” she said, “and I suppose we’ve got to begin again.
What a nice day we’ve had. I--I quite forgot everything.”
* * * * *
Jim came home rather late that night, and found letters waiting for him
in the little room where he had sat the night before. There was nothing
of importance, and nothing that needed an answer, and in a few minutes
he moved toward the door in order to go to bed. And then quite suddenly,
with the pent-up rush of thought which all day he had dammed up in a
corner of his brain, he realized what he had done, and his face went
suddenly white, and strange noises buzzed in his ears, and his very soul
was drowned in terror. But it was too late: his terror should have been
imagined by him twenty-four hours ago. Now it was authentic; there was
no imagination required, and he was alone with it.