"Opportunity creates a sinner: at least it calls him into action,
and like the warming sun invites the sleeping serpent from its
hole."
The dramas of love, of jealousy, of hatred, which play so awful a part
in human existence, only form eddies, perhaps it would be more true to
say whirlpools, on the vast placid current of life.
The owners of Rede Place were not allowed to forget for long that in
General Lingard they were entertaining a guest who belonged to the world
at large, rather than to them or to himself.
It had been arranged that the next day, the twenty-sixth of October,
Wantele was to take Lingard to a big shoot. Athena, when reminded of the
fact by a casual word the night before, felt curiously pleased. The
absence of the two men for a long day would relieve the strain, and make
it possible for her to have a serious talk with Jane Oglander. Somehow,
it seemed almost impossible to do so with Wantele and Lingard always
about.
Athena was no coward, and the time had come when she felt she must
discover what her friend knew, or rather, what her friend suspected--for
as yet there was very little to know. And if Jane suspected the
truth--the little, that is, there was to suspect--she must discover what
Jane meant to do.
The men made an early start, and from one of her bedroom windows Mrs.
Maule watched the dogcart spinning down the broad road through the park.
Dick Wantele was driving; Hew Lingard sitting stiffly, with folded arms,
by his side.
At last they turned the corner at the end of the avenue, and Athena went
back to bed with the feeling that it was pleasant to know that she need
not get up for another two hours, and also that, after her talk with
Jane Oglander, she would be free to do what she liked all day.
As she lay back, feeling a little stupid and drowsy, for she had taken a
dose of chloral the night before, Athena gave a regretful, kindly
thought to Bayworth Kaye.
Yes, though no one knew it but herself, the gods had shown the young man
that kindness which is said to prove their love. His only fault as a
lover--a serious one from Mrs. Maule's point of view--had been an almost
insane jealousy. He would have taken badly, perhaps very badly, her
marriage to such a man as General Lingard.
It was well for Bayworth, and, in a lesser sense, well for her also,
that he had died in this sad, sudden way. Death is the only final, as it
is the only simple, solution of many a painful riddle.
Athena had not allowed the thought of Bayworth Kaye to trouble her
unduly; but she had been uncomfortably aware that he might remain, for a
long time, a point of danger in her life. She acknowledged that in the
matter of this young man she had been imprudent, but he had come across
her at a moment when she was feeling dull and "under the weather."
Poor Bayworth! He had taken the whole thing far too seriously. He had
been so young, so ardent, so--so grateful. His death at this juncture
was a relief. Athena paid his memory the tribute of a sigh.
And then she turned her thoughts to Jane Oglander. During the last few
years she had had many proofs of Jane's deep and loyal affection for
herself; but the type of woman to which Mrs. Maule belonged can never
form any true intimacy with a member of her own sex.
Jane had always been ignorant of everything that concerned Athena's real
inward life--the vivid, exciting, emotional life, which she lived when
away from Rede Place. Bayworth Kaye had been the one exception to the
wise rule she had made for herself very soon after her arrival in
England.
Jane Oglander, so Athena was quite convinced, knew nothing of the
greatest of the great human games--had never fallen a victim to that
jealous, compelling passion which plays so tragic a part in the lives of
most of those sentient human beings who are not absorbed in one of the
other master-passions.
For Mrs. Maule had valued Jane's unquestioning love; she had rested in
the knowledge that Jane believed her to be as spotless a being as
herself. Why, Jane had not even suspected poor Bayworth Kaye's
infatuation! Athena forgot that Jane had never seen Bayworth and herself
together.
But though Mrs. Maule told Jane Oglander nothing of her own intimate
concerns, she had taken it for granted that she knew all Jane's innocent
secrets. And now, when musing over her coming conversation with her
friend, she felt a sharp pang of irritation when she remembered how
little Jane had really trusted her concerning Lingard. Why, she hadn't
even told her of the correspondence between them! Jane Oglander, Athena
was sorry to think of such a thing of one whom she had always set apart
in her mind as an exception, had been--sly.
Since the night of Jane Oglander's arrival at Rede Place, the night when
Jane had behaved, so Athena now reminded herself, so queerly, the two
women had never discussed Jane and Lingard's engagement--indeed, they
hardly ever found themselves alone together. This, of course, was Jane's
fault quite as much as hers.
Now at last had come the opportunity to--to "have it out" with Jane; to
defend herself, if need be, from any charge of disloyalty.
* * * * *
It took Mrs. Maule a considerable time to find her friend. Miss Oglander
was in none of the usual living-rooms, neither was she in her own room
or with Richard.
Was it possible that Jane had gone off for the day to the Small Farm in
order to avoid the very explanation Athena wished to provoke? That was a
disturbing thought.
And then, unexpectedly, she ran Jane to earth in a corner of the large
library which only Dick Wantele habitually used, and which was at the
extreme end of the house, furthest away from Mrs. Maule's boudoir.
"I've been looking for you everywhere," she exclaimed. "What made you
hide yourself here, Jane?"
"Dick wanted something copied out of a book, and I thought I would do it
now."
There was a look of fear, of painful constraint, in Jane Oglander's
face; and as she came forward she kept the book she had been holding, a
manual on practical cottage architecture, in her hand, open.
"There are such heaps of things I want to say to you, Jane, and somehow
we never seem to have a moment!"
Jane looked into Athena's face--it was a penetrating, questioning look.
Was it possible--perhaps it was possible--that Athena was speaking in
good faith?
The other hurried on, a little breathlessly: "Of course I want to hear
all about your plans. I know you mean to be married quietly in
London----" She vaguely remembered that Jane had said something to that
effect during their one conversation together. "But what will you do
afterwards? Hew is not obliged to take up his new appointment yet, is
he?"
There was a long pause--and then, "I don't know exactly what he means to
do," Jane answered in a low voice.
They were both standing before the fireplace; Jane Oglander was looking
straight at Athena, but Athena's lovely head was bent down.
"Haven't you thought about it? But I suppose you'll pay some visits
first."
There was a touch of sharp envy in Athena Maule's voice. It was absurd,
it was irritating, to think that Jane, even if only for a short time
longer, would be Hew Lingard's companion, sharer in his triumphal
progress--unless of course something could bring about the end of their
engagement--soon.
"I meant I did not know about his appointment." In each of the letters
he had written to Jane during the ten days they had been apart, Hew
Lingard had discussed the possibility of his being offered an immediate
appointment, but she was only now being made aware that the offer had
actually been made.
As a matter of fact, it had not been made.
Jane tried to believe that her ignorance of a fact so vital to Lingard
was not in any way Athena's fault--indeed, that it was nobody's fault
except perchance her own.
"You mean you don't know whether he will accept what will be offered
him? But, Jane, forgive my interference--he and I have become such
friends--you must _make_ him take it. It would be a splendid thing, a
stepping-stone to something really big. You'll have to train yourself
now to be a little worldly----"
Athena spoke with forced lightness. It would be dreadful if Jane in her
folly made Lingard do anything which would be irrevocable. "You can't
always live with your head in the clouds, you know!"
Jane felt as if the other had struck her; this flippant, hard-voiced
woman was not the Athena she had always known.
"I don't suppose," said Mrs. Maule, at last looking up, and smiling into
Jane's face, "that you've even made up your mind where you will spend
your honeymoon?"
She was feeling slightly ashamed,--ashamed and yet exhilarated by this
absurd, make-believe conversation.
Jane shut the book she held in her hand, and put it down.
"Athena," she said quietly, "I did not mean to tell you yet, but now I
think I had better do so. I am going to break my engagement. I see--of
course I can't help seeing--that it's been a mistake from the
beginning."
"He was not good enough for you, Jane," said Mrs. Maule impulsively.
"What he wants is a wife who will help him. You did not understand. I
saw that from the first----"
Jane went on quickly:
"After all, men--and women, too, I suppose,--often do make that sort of
mistake. It's a good thing when they find it out in time--as I have
done. But I would rather not talk about it."
She changed the subject abruptly: "I feel rather worried about Mabel
Digby. She's really quite ill. I thought of lunching there to-day, if
you have no objection."
"Yes, do go there! Surely you know I always want you to do just what you
like when you're here?"
Athena's voice sounded oddly loud in her own ears. It seemed to her as
if she had lost control over its modulations....
As the door of the library closed behind Jane Oglander, Athena Maule sat
down. She felt oppressed, almost scared, by this piece of good fortune.
She had never thought things would be made so easy for her.
How mistaken she had been in Jane's attitude, not only to Hew Lingard,
but to life! And how mistaken Lingard had been! Athena could not help
feeling a certain contempt for him; but all men, so she reminded
herself, are vain where women are concerned. They always put a far
higher value on themselves than does the woman on whom they are wasting
their pity, their--their remorse.
Why, Jane had shown herself more than reasonable just now. She had made
no stupid "fuss," attempted no disagreeable accusations. She hadn't even
cried! But then, Jane Oglander was just--Jane; that is a sensible, a
thoughtful, to tell truth, a cold creature! Athena, to be sure, had seen
her moved, terribly so, over that business of her brother, but all the
emotional side of the girl's nature had been exhausted over that sad
affair.
What Athena was beginning to long for with all the strength of her being
had now entered the domain of immediate possibility.
There would be some disagreeable, difficult moments to go through before
she could become Hew Lingard's wife. Mrs. Richard Maule, sitting there
in the library of Rede Place, faced that fact with the cool, calculating
courage which was perhaps her chief asset in the battle of life.
But she was popular, well liked by a large circle of people; she had
little doubt that many of them would take her part--again she reminded
herself that it would be very difficult for anyone to do anything else
who, knowing her, had ever seen Richard Maule as he now was. She had
heard of women doing far stranger things than that she was about to do
in order to attain their wish.
She tried to remember the two or three names Mrs. Stanwood had uttered
in a similar connection--but they were gone, irretrievably gone from
her memory. No matter, the position of a woman whose marriage has been
dissolved is quite other than that of a divorcée. Little as she really
knew of English sentiment and prejudice, Mrs. Maule could be sure of
that.
Athena's violet eyes grew tender. Hew Lingard respected as well as
worshipped her; and should her dream, the delightful dream which was now
taking such living shape, become reality, should she, that is, become
Lingard's wife, she would never, never allow him to regret it.
She renewed, and most solemnly, the vow she had taken two nights ago.
Ah! yes indeed--her wild oats were all sown! Athena Lingard would be a
very different woman from Athena Maule. Besides, as Lingard's wife she
would be free of England for a while.
She remembered vividly the day that he had casually told her that he
expected an appointment abroad, for it had been the first time she had
realised how utterly unsuited Jane was to be Lingard's wife.
Athena possessed the confident belief in herself and in her own powers
that every beautiful woman is apt early to acquire in her progress
through an admiring world. Such a wife as herself would be of
immeasurable use to such a man as was Hew Lingard. Of that she could
have no doubt.
Hew was not exactly a man of the world, in fact he seemed astonishingly
indifferent to other people's opinion. Well, that told two ways. Just
now, it was a good thing that he cared so little what others might say
or think. Instinct told her that as long as he was at peace with his own
conscience, his own sense of honour, Lingard would care mighty little
what the world said--besides, the world would have nothing to say. They,
she and Lingard, would have to be careful till the legal matter was
settled--that was all.
During the long hour that she sat alone in the library of Rede Place,
Athena Maule had time to think of many things, for she was no longer
anxious or excited now--everything was going well. The rest, to such a
woman as herself, presented no real difficulty.
She dwelt with a feeling of exultation on the thought of the punishment
she was going to inflict on Richard. She wondered idly whether the step
she was about to take would affect her marriage settlements. They had
been splendid--with none of those tiresome "if and if clauses" that she
was told settlements often contain. Well, that was a matter of
comparatively small consequence. From what she knew of Lingard, it was
unlikely that he would allow her to continue in receipt of another man's
money. From a practical point of view it was a pity, of course, that Hew
was like that, but she liked him the better for it.
She could not, as yet, form any very definite plan of action. There was
plenty of time for that now that Jane was out of the way. She would go
to London--London was very pleasant at this time of year--and once there
she would get one of her clever friends to recommend her a really good
lawyer.
Constructive thought--thought such as Athena had now been indulging in
for an hour--is a fatiguing mental process. She felt tired, and quite
ready for lunch, the principal meal of her day, when the gong sounded.
But before going off to her solitary meal, Mrs. Maule went over to that
portion of the library where were kept several rows of old law books
that had belonged to Dick Wantele's father. She marked the place where
stood a solid volume inscribed, "A Digest of the Marriage Laws of
England."
When she had a quiet hour to spare, and when no one was likely to see
her engaged on the task, she would take that book down, and study it
carefully: it doubtless contained information as to several matters of
which she was as yet ignorant, and which it now behoved her to know.