The gay season in Madras was now at its height. Mr. Alfred Rayner hailed
the opportunity of taking his charming bride everywhere, and occasions
were numerous. The weather, though never deserving to be registered
"cold," was pleasantly cool. Fashionable calls could be made with
comfort in the middle of the day, and in the discharge of this social
duty, Hester's husband kept her emphatically up to the mark. The
afternoon and evening were divided into quite a distracting whirl of
entertainments. Every day of the week had gymkanas, amateur concerts,
dances, and dinner-parties.
Mr. and Mrs. Rayner were early guests at Government House, Mrs.
Glanton's "neutral garden-party" had been followed by a speedy
invitation to dinner, and there and everywhere the young barrister
greeted with satisfaction, proofs that, as he expressed it, "Hester was
a stunning success," and had lent that element of social prestige to his
position which hitherto it had lacked, and which now he hungrily
welcomed.
He had been eager to make an early return for the varied hospitalities
which as a young married couple they had received. These dinner-parties
at Clive's Road were a source of no little anxiety to the young hostess,
chiefly because she realised Alfred's eagerness that they should attain
perfection. It is true her husband kept the direction of everything in
his own hands, insisting that no obtainable luxury should be absent from
his board; though before long, Hester's feminine sense had perceived
that much less might have been expended, and all gracious hospitality
enhanced by less ostentatious methods, recalling delightful
dinner-parties at home in which neither _pâté de foie gras_ nor dry
champagne were component parts. But seeing Mr. Rayner's ambition was to
impress the little society with his affluence, he certainly, by means of
his elegant festivities, succeeded in doing so; the result being that
the young couple became popular as charming entertainers, and by many
were valued accordingly.
On the surface all seemed to be going well with Hester. Nevertheless,
the painful incident which marked the visit of her old friend seemed to
have struck the hour for the vanishing of the unreal glamour under whose
pervading influence she had been conscious of being since she set foot
on Indian soil. Her individuality began to assert itself, she reverted
more to her home standards, and began to try to bring her days into line
with them. The social amenities which belong to refined circles had
always made a part of Hester's home life, though she was only beginning,
when she left, to have any active share in them. But she knew enough to
be aware that with her parents they had never been regarded as the
be-all and end-all of existence as they seemed to be to her husband. She
instinctively felt the preoccupation vulgar and selfish, though she
shrank from putting that feeling into words, and felt almost guilty in
thus judging. Since the morning on which Alfred had allowed himself to
speak such cruel words about Mr. Morpeth, he had seemed eager to atone,
had acquiesced in occasional morning visits to her friend Mrs. Fellowes,
and had even accepted good-naturedly a proposal that Hester should help
her with her Eurasian Girls' Club.
Though Hester had many acquaintances, Mrs. Fellowes was the only person
to whom she turned as a real friend. It was indeed the pleasantest
afternoon of the week for her when she drove towards the white-washed
room in the crowded quarter of Vepery, where she could always reckon on
a little talk with her friend before the arrival of the girls. These
interests were becoming every day keener to her, and formed an antidote
to the social environment of perpetual gaiety and flattery which
otherwise might have proved too engrossing.
Mrs. Fellowes, having had a slight breakdown, was ordered a month's
rest. During her absence Hester had undertaken to superintend the Girls'
Club, though she felt herself a poor substitute for the versatile
organiser. Having the need to consult her on some details, she responded
all the more gladly to Mrs. Fellowes' invitation to spend a day with her
in her retreat, which was within driving distance of Madras. Her husband
expressed himself delighted that she should have the opportunity of
making the acquaintance of a pretty bit of the Coromandel coast.
When she returned in the evening Hester was glowing in her praise of
Ennore, and full of a project which she and Mrs. Fellowes had planned
together.
"Won't it be delightful, Alfred, for those poor girls to have a whole
day in that lovely spot?" she said joyfully, as she unfolded the plan to
her husband while they sat in the verandah after dinner. "And we've
decided not to drive them out in those horrid native boxes on wheels
they call _jatkas_," continued Hester. "We mean to engage carriages from
Waller's, and with Mrs. Fellowes to welcome them at the other end, it
will all seem like fairy-land to them. Mrs. Fellowes says seventy-five
rupees will quite cover the hire, so I thought I might undertake that
part of it."
"Seventy-five rupees! To be good for that? Surely that was a rash
promise, Hester?" exclaimed her husband with an annoyed air. "My word, I
don't intend to have myself bled to that extent for those half-caste
creatures."
But remembering his resolve not to criticise her efforts for them, he
decided to put his objection on another footing. "The fact is, I'm none
too flush of rupees at this moment. This has been a triumphant season
for us, and no mistake, Hester, but one must pay for such triumphs!"
"But, Alfred, I promised," faltered Hester.
"Then you must just wriggle out if it, my dear. Write to Mrs. Fellowes
and say we've too many engagements here--can't find any spare day. She's
a sensible woman, she'll read between the lines. Rupees ain't so
plentiful with her."
"Yet just think what she does," said Hester with dilating eyes. "Her
purse is always open! But, Alfred, I'm really in honour bound to carry
through this treat. It's too late to draw back now, you would never ask
me do such a thing."
"To draw back? Of course, that's precisely what you must do! It's an
absurd project! I'll be bound, it wasn't for that sort of thing Binny's
Bungalow was lent to Mrs. Fellowes!" said Mr. Rayner, rising as if to
end the discussion.
"It's too late to draw back now," returned Hester decisively. "I
happened to meet two of the Vepery girls as I was driving home. I
stopped the carriage to tell them of the happy day Mrs. Fellowes was
planning for them----"
"Vepery, did you say?" asked Alfred, turning with a start. "I understood
your class was at Royapooram."
Though he had tacitly acquiesced in his wife's helping her friend in
what he called her "quixotic projects," he had taken no further
interest. It disturbed him not a little now to know that the meeting
might contain, his objectionable acquaintance, Leila Baltus, and sheer
alarm drove him to more indignant remonstrances than before. At length
he summoned his office-bandy, and at that unwonted hour ordered the
sleepy syce to light the lamps, and drove off to town, leaving his wife
in tears.
Hester, sorely vexed as she was, never for a moment contemplated
abandoning the project which she decided she was in duty bound to Mrs.
Fellowes, as well as to the Club girls, to carry out. Hurrying
up-stairs she counted her own little store which she had laid aside for
Christmas presents for those at home. It proved more than the required
sum.
When her landau appeared next forenoon to take her for a round of
visits, she told the syce to drive her instead to Waller's Stables,
where the hire of the required carriages was speedily arranged. She
resolved to tell her husband on the first opportunity that the carriage
difficulty was now solved, and to try, when she did so, to hide the
soreness which still rankled in her heart concerning it.
There was an air of apology in Mr. Rayner's manner when he returned from
the High Court that afternoon. He evidently did not forget that he had
lost his temper on the previous evening, and his wife hoped this state
of mind might make it easier for her to broach the vexed question.
This she was about to do as they sat in the verandah after dinner, when
her husband turned to her with a gracious smile.
"You're looking lovely to-night, Hester! Your day at Ennore yesterday
has brought back the English roses to your cheeks. Fine birds deserve
fine feathers, shall we say? See what I've brought to adorn your lovely
white neck!"
He opened an elegant leather case and held up triumphantly a beautiful
diamond pendant.
"Oh, Alfred," gasped Hester, after a moment's silence. "Have you
actually got that for me? Oh, I can't--I won't have it! You must give it
back! You will return it?"
"Return it, forsooth! A nice suggestion when an affectionate husband
presents his wife with a gift! Besides, Hester, you really haven't the
correct toilette without jewels. That trumpery gold cross is the only
thing you have to wear. It's been my despair at all our parties to see
you without diamonds when the frowsy dowagers are resplendent with
them--and the young brides into the bargain. This pendant is a simple
necessity. I'll add a tiara when I can."
"Never! I wouldn't wear one for the world! And if you want to make me
happy you'll return this. Oh, how could you waste money on it,
especially"--she paused with a little catch in her voice--"especially
since you said you couldn't afford to give me the rupees to pay for
those carriages though I told you I had promised them."
"Well, don't you see I had it in my mind to give you this surprise--and
a nice reception you've given it!"
Mr. Rayner snapped the lid of the elegant case with an angry air.
"Anyhow the diamonds are yours and you must wear them," he added,
throwing the case into her lap. "I'm not going to be made a fool of,
taking them back with my tail between my legs like a whipped puppy. Why,
it would soon get out that I am a hen-pecked husband, and so I am,
between one thing or another," he ended sulkily, and betook himself to
the perusal of the _Madras Mail_.
Hester, though she hated concealment, felt that this was not the moment
to announce that the carriages for Ennore had been duly arranged for,
and that she would have to go next day to help Mrs. Fellowes to
entertain the Eurasian girls. Neither could she, at this moment, make
any further remonstrance concerning the foolish gift. She would watch
for an early opportunity when her husband was in a better mood, and try
to persuade him to return it to the jewellers. The pendant was, in
itself, vulgar and ostentatious. She felt she could never wear it. She
smiled when she pictured her mother's face if she saw the flaring jewel
upon her young daughter's neck. Mrs. Bellairs disapproved of jewellery
for girls, even for young matrons, and her prejudice was so well known
in her circle that among Hester's numerous wedding gifts there had been
a marked absence of trinkets of any kind, and her husband had more than
once expressed his regret that his wife should be unadorned save by the
little antique gold cross.
Perhaps she had been unkind in making such a determined stand, Hester
thought now. But when she recalled her husband's assurance that they
were spending so largely that even seventy-five rupees would prove a
strain on their month's finances, she felt reassured that she would only
be acting as a true wife should in urging that the gaudy gift should
again take its place among the jeweller's wares; and, if she remained
firm, surely Alfred would not force it upon her.