'So you are not at church?'
The voice was Marsworth's as he stepped inside the flagged passage of
the farm, Nelly having just opened the door to him.
'It's so far!--in winter,' said Nelly a little guiltily. 'I go to
Grasmere in summer.'
'Oh! don't apologise--to a heathen like me! I'm only too thankful to
find you alone. Is your sister here?'
'Yes. But we've made a room for her in one of the outhouses. She works
there.'
'What at? Is she still learning Spanish?' asked Marsworth, smiling, as
he followed Nelly into the little white drawing-room.
'I don't know,' said Nelly, after a moment, in a tone of depression.
'Bridget doesn't tell me.'
The corners of Marsworth's strong mouth shewed amusement. He was not
well acquainted with Bridget Cookson, but as far as his observation
went, she seemed to him a curious specimen of the half-educated
pretentious woman so plentiful in our modern life. In place of
'psychology' and 'old Spanish,' the subjects in which Miss Cookson was
said to be engaged, he would have liked to prescribe for her--and all
her kin--courses of an elementary kind in English history and vulgar
fractions.
But, for Nelly Sarratt, Marsworth felt the tender and chivalrous respect
that natures like hers exact easily from strong men. To him, as to
Farrell, she was the 'little saint' and peacemaker, with her lovingness,
her sympathy, her lack of all the normal vanities and alloys that beset
the pretty woman. That she was not a strong character, that she was
easily influenced and guided by those who touched her affections, he
saw. But that kind of weakness in a woman--when that woman also
possesses the mysterious something, half physical, half spiritual, which
gives delight--is never unpleasing to such men as Marsworth, nor indeed
to other women. It was Marsworth's odd misfortune that he should have
happened to fall in love with a young woman who had practically none of
the qualities that he naturally and spontaneously admired in the sex.
It was, however, about that young woman that he had come to talk. For he
was well aware of Nelly's growing intimacy with Cicely, and had lately
begun to look upon that as his last hope.
Yet he was no sooner alone with Nelly than he felt a dim compunction.
This timid creature, with her dark haunting eyes, had problems enough of
her own to face. He perceived clearly that Farrell's passion for her was
mounting fast, and he had little or no idea what kind of response she
was likely to make to it. But all the same his own need drove him on.
And Nelly, who had scarcely slept all night, caught eagerly at some
temporary escape from her own perplexities.
'Dear Mrs. Sarratt!--have you _any_ idea, whether Cicely cares one brass
farthing for me, or not?'
To such broad and piteous appeal was a gallant officer reduced. Nelly
was sorry for him, but could not hide the smile in her eyes, as she
surveyed him.
'Have you really asked her?'
'Asked her? Many times!--in the dark ages. It is months, however, since
she gave me the smallest chance of doing it again. Everything I do or
say appears to annoy her, and of course, naturally, I have relieved her
of my presence as much as possible.'
Nelly had taken up her knitting.
'If you never come--perhaps--Cicely thinks you are tired of her.'
Marsworth groaned.
'Is that her line now? And yet you know--you are witness!--of how she
behaves when I do come.'
Nelly looked up boldly.
'You mustn't be angry, but--why can't you accept her--as she is--without
always wanting her different?'
Marsworth flushed slightly. The impressive effect of his fine iron-grey
head, and marked features, his scrupulously perfect dress, and general
look of competence and ability, was deplorably undone by the signs in
him of bewilderment and distress.
'You mean--you think I bully her?--she thinks so?'
'She--she feels--you so dreadfully disapprove of her!' said Nelly,
sticking to it, but smiling.
'She regards me as a first-class prig in fact?'
'No--but she thinks you don't always understand.'
'That I don't know what a splendid creature she is, really?' said
Marsworth with increasing agitation. 'But I do know it! I know it up and
down. Why everybody--except those she dislikes!--at that hospital,
adores her. She's wearing herself out at the work. None of us are fit to
black her boots. But if one ever tries to tell her so--my hat!'
'Perhaps she doesn't like being praised either,' said Nelly softly.
'Perhaps she thinks--an old friend--should take it all for granted.'
'Good Lord!' said Marsworth holding his head in desperation--'whatever I
do is wrong! Dear Mrs. Sarratt!--look here--I must speak up for myself.
You know how Cicely has taken of late to being intolerably rude to
anybody she thinks is my friend. She castigates me through them. That
poor little girl, Daisy Stewart--why she's ready at any moment to
worship Cicely! But Cicely tramples on her--_you_ know how she does
it--and if I interfere, I'm made to wish I had never been born! At the
present moment, Cicely won't speak to me. There was some silly shindy at
a parish tea last week--by the way, she's coming to you to-day?'
'She arrives for lunch,' said Nelly, looking at the clock.
'And the Stewarts are coming to the cottage in the afternoon!' said
Marsworth in despair. 'Can you keep her away?'
'I'll try--but you know it's not much good trying to manage Cicely.'
'Don't I know it! I return to my first question--does she care a
hapo'rth?'
Nelly was looking dreamily into the fire.
'You mean--does she care enough to give up her ways and take to yours?'
'Yes, I suppose I do mean that,' he said, with sudden seriousness.
Nelly shook her head, smiling.
'I don't know! But--Cicely's worth a deal of trouble.'
He assented with a mixture of fervour and depression.
'We've known each other since we were boy and girl. That's what makes
the difficulty, perhaps. We know each other too well. When she was a
child of fourteen, I was already in the Guards, and I used to try and
tackle her--because no one else would. Her father was dead. Her mother
had no influence with her; and Willy was too lazy. So I tried my hand.
And I find myself doing the same thing now. But of course it's
fatal--it's fatal!'
Nelly tried to cheer him up, but she was not herself very hopeful. She,
perceived too clearly the martinet in him and the rebel in Cicely. If
something were suddenly to throw them together, some common interest or
emotion, each might find the other's heart in a way past undoing. On the
other hand the jarring habit, once set up, has a way of growing worse,
and reducing everything else to dust and ashes. Finally she wound up
with a timid but emphatic counsel.
'Please--please--don't be sarcastic.'
He looked injured.
'I never am!'
Nelly laughed.
'You don't know when you are. And be very nice to her this afternoon.'
'How can I, if she shews me at once that I'm unwelcome? You haven't
answered my question.'
He was standing ready for departure. Nelly's face changed--became all
sad and tender pity.
'You must ask it yourself!' she said eagerly, 'Go on asking it. It would
be too--too dreadful, wouldn't it?--to miss everything--by being proud,
or offended, for nothing----'
'What do you mean by everything?'
'You know,' she said, after a moment, shielding her eyes as they looked
into the fire; 'I'm sure you know. It _is_ everything.'
As he walked back to the cottage, he found himself speculating not so
much about his own case as about his friend's. Willy was certainly in
love. And Nelly Sarratt was as softly feminine as Cicely was mannish
and strong. But he somehow did not feel that Willy's chances were any
safer than his own.
A car arrived at one o'clock bringing Cicely, much wrapped up in fur
coat and motor-veils. She came impetuously into the sitting-room, and
seemed to fill it. It took some time to peel her and reduce her to the
size of an ordinary mortal. She then appeared in a navy-blue coat and
skirt, with navy-blue boots buttoned almost to the knees. The skirt was
immensely full and immensely short. When the strange erection to which
the motor-veil was attached was removed, Cicely showed a dark head with
hair cut almost short, and parted on the left side. Her eyebrows were
unmistakably blackened, her lips unmistakably--strengthened; and Nelly
saw at once that her guest was in a very feverish and irritated
condition.
'Are you alone?' said Cicely, glancing imperiously round her, when the
disrobing was done.
'Bridget is here.'
'What are you going to do this afternoon?'
'Can't we have a walk, you and I, together?'
'Of course we can. Why should we be bothered with anyone else?'
'I suppose,' said Nelly timidly--'they will come in to tea?'
'"They"? Oh! you mean Willy and Captain Marsworth? It is such a pity
Willy can't find somebody more agreeable for these Sundays.'
Cicely threw herself back in her chair, and lifted a navy-blue boot to
the fire.
'More agreeable than Captain Marsworth?'
'Exactly. Willy can't do anything without him, when he's in these parts;
and it spoils everything!'
Nelly dropped a kiss on Cicely's hair, as she stood beside her.
'Why didn't you put off coming till next week?'
'Why should I allow my plans to be interfered with by Captain
Marsworth?' said Cicely, haughtily. 'I came to see _you_!'
'Well, we needn't see much of him,' said Nelly, soothingly, as she
dropped on a stool beside her friend.
'I'm not going to be kept out of the cottage, by Captain Marsworth, all
the same!' said Cicely hastily. 'There are several books there I want.'
'Oh, Cicely, what have you been doing?' said Nelly, laying her head on
her guest's knees.
'Doing? Nothing that I hadn't a perfect right to do. But I suppose--that
very particular gentleman--has been complaining?'
Nelly looked up, and met an eye, fiercely interrogative, yet trying hard
not to be interrogative.
'I've been doing my best to pick up the pieces.'
'Then he has been complaining?'
'A little narrative of facts,' said Nelly mildly.
'Facts--_facts_!' said Cicely, with the air of a disturbed lioness. 'As
if a man whose ideas of manners and morals date from about--a million
years before the Flood.'
'Dear!--there weren't any manners or morals a million years before the
Flood.'
Cicely drew a breath of exasperation.
'It's all very well to laugh, but if you only knew how _impossible_ that
man is!'
'Then why not get a Sunday free from him?'
Cicely flushed against her will, and said nothing. Nelly's black eyes
observed her with as much sarcasm in their sweetness as she dared to
throw into them. She changed her tone.
'Don't go to the cottage this afternoon, Cicely.'
'Why?' The voice was peremptory.
'Well, because----' Nelly described Farrell's chance meeting with the
Stewarts and the inevitable invitation. Cicely's flush deepened. But she
tried to speak carelessly.
'Of course, the merest device on that girl's part! She arranged it all.'
'I really don't think she did.'
'Ah, well, _you_ haven't seen what's been going on. A more shameless
pursuit----'
Cicely stopped abruptly. There was a sudden sparkle in Nelly's look,
which seemed to shew that the choice of the word 'pursuit' had been
unlucky.
Miss Farrell quieted down.
'Of course,' she said, with a very evident attempt to recapture whatever
dignity might be left on the field, 'neither Willy nor I like to see an
old friend throwing himself away on a little pink and white nonentity
like Daisy Stewart. We can't be expected to smile upon it.'
'But I understand, from one of the parties principally concerned, that
there is really nothing in it!' said Nelly, smiling.
'One of the perjuries I suppose at which Jove laughs!' said Cicely
getting up, and hastily rearranging her short curls with the help of
various combs, before the only diminutive looking-glass the farm
sitting-room provided. 'However, we shall see what happens. I have no
doubt Miss Daisy has arranged the proposal scene for this very
afternoon. We shall be in for the last act of the play.'
'Then you _are_ going to the cottage?'
'Certainly!' said Cicely, with a clearing brow. 'Don't let's talk any
more about it. Do give me some lunch. I'm ravenous. Ah, here's your
sister!'
For through a back window looking on what had once been a farm-yard, and
was now a small garden, Cicely saw Bridget emerge from the rebuilt
outhouse where an impromptu study had been devised for her, and walk
towards the farm.
'I say, what's happened to your sister?'
'Happened to her? What do you mean?'
'She looks so much older.'
'I suppose she's been working too hard,' said Nelly, remorsefully. 'I
wish I knew what it was all about.'
'Well, I can tell you'--said Cicely laughing and whispering--'that
Willy doesn't think it's about anything in particular!'
'Hush!' said Nelly, with a pained look. 'Perhaps we shall all turn out
to be quite wrong. We shall discover that it was something--'
'Desperately interesting and important? Not it! But I'm going to be as
good as good. You'll see.'
And when Bridget appeared, Cicely did indeed behave herself with
remarkable decorum. Her opinion was that Nelly's strange sister had
grown more unlike other people than ever since she had last seen her.
She seemed to be in a perpetual brown study, which was compatible,
however, with a curious watchfulness which struck Cicely particularly.
She was always aware of any undercurrent in the room--of anyone going in
or out--of persons passing in the road. At lunch she scarcely opened her
lips, but Cicely was all the time conscious of being observed. After
luncheon Bridget got up abruptly, and said she was going down to
Grasmere to post a letter.
'Oh, then,' said Nelly--'you can ask if there are any for me.'
For there was no delivery at the farm on Sunday morning. Bridget nodded,
and they soon saw her emerge from the farm gate and take the Grasmere
road.
'I must say your sister seems greatly to prefer her own company to
ours,' said Cicely, lighting her cigarette.
Again Nelly looked distressed.
'She was always like that,' she said at last. 'It doesn't really mean
anything.'
'Do I know you well enough to ask whether you get on with her?'
Nelly coloured. 'I try my best'--she said, rather despairingly. Then she
added--'she does all sorts of things for me that I'm too lazy to do for
myself!'
'I believe she likes Willy better than most people!' laughed Cicely.
'I'm not suggesting, please, that she has designs upon him. But she is
certainly more forthcoming to him than to anybody else, isn't she?'
Nelly did not reply. The remark only clouded her look still more. For
her inner mind was perfectly aware of Bridget's attitude towards William
Farrell, and understood it only too well. She knew by this time, past
any doubt, that Bridget was hungry for the Farrell wealth, and was
impatient with herself as a little fool who had not yet made certain of
it. If she stuck to her purpose--if she went away and cut off all
communication with Carton--Bridget would probably quarrel with her for
good.
Would she stick to her purpose? Her mind was miserably swaying to and
fro. She felt morally as she had once felt--physically--on a summer
afternoon long before, when she, who could not swim, had gone
imperceptibly out of her depth, while bathing, and had become suddenly
aware of a seaward current, carrying her away. No help was near. For
five minutes, which had seemed five years, she had wrestled against the
deadly force, which if her girlish strength had been a fraction less,
would have swept her out, a lifeless plaything to the open sea.
Spiritually, it was the same now. Farrell's will, and--infinitely less
important, but still, to be reckoned with--Bridget's will, were pressing
her hard. She did not know if she could keep her footing.
Meanwhile Cicely, in complete ignorance of the new and agonised tension
in Nelly's mind, was thinking only of her own affairs. As soon as her
after-luncheon cigarette was done, she sprang up and began to put on her
hat.
'So you _are_ going to the cottage?' said Nelly.
'Certainly. How do you like my boots?'
She held up one for inspection.
'I don't like them!'
'Fast, you think? Ah, wait till you see my next costume! High Russian
boots, delicious things, up to there!' Cicely indicated a point above
the knee, not generally reached by the female boot--'hand-painted and
embroidered--with tassels--you know!--corduroy trousers!'
'Cicely!--you won't!'
'Shan't I--and a pink jersey, the new shade? I saw a friend of mine in
this get-up, last week. Ripping! Only she had red hair, which completed
it. Perhaps I might dye mine!'
They sallied forth into a mild winter afternoon. Nelly would have
avoided the cottage and Farrell if she could, but Cicely had her own way
as usual. Presently they turned into a side lane skirting the tarn, from
which the cottage and its approaches could be seen, at a distance. From
the white-pillared porch, various figures were emerging, four in all.
Cicely came to a stop.
'There, you see!' she said, in her sharpest voice--'Look there!' For two
of the figures, whom it was easy to identify as Captain Marsworth and
Miss Stewart, diverging from the other pair, went off by themselves in
the direction of Skelwith, with a gay wave of the hand to the old Rector
and Farrell left behind.
Cicely's sudden scarlet ebbed in a moment, leaving her quite white. She
walked on with difficulty, her eyes on the ground. Nelly dared not
address her, or slip a sympathising hand into hers. And it was too late
to retreat. Farrell had perceived them, and he and his companion came
towards them. Cicely pulled herself rapidly together.
Nelly too had need of a minute or two's recollection before Farrell
joined them. He and she were still to meet as usual, while meeting was
possible--wasn't that how it stood? After all, her new plans could not
be made in a moment. She had promised nothing; but he had
promised--would she be able to hold him to it? Her heart trembled as he
came nearer.
But he met her in a sunny mood, introducing her to the white-haired old
clergyman, and watching Cicely with eyes that shewed a hidden amusement.
'The other two seemed to have some private business to discuss,' he said
carelessly. 'So they've got rid of us for a while. They're walking round
the other side of the tarn and will join us at the top of Red Bank. At
least if you're up to a walk?'
He addressed Nelly, who could do nothing but assent, though it meant a
tête-à-tête with him, while Cicely and the old Rector followed.
Mr. Stewart found Miss Farrell anything but an agreeable companion. He
was not a shrewd observer, and the love-affairs especially of his
fellow-creatures were always a surprise and a mystery to him. But he
vaguely understood that his little granddaughter was afraid of Miss
Farrell and did not get on with her. He, too, was afraid of Cicely and
her sharp tongue, while her fantastic dress and her rouge put him in
mind of passages in the prophet Ezekiel, the sacred author of whom he
was at that moment making a special study with a view to a Cambridge
University sermon. It would be terrible if Daisy were ever to take to
imitating Miss Farrell. He was a little disturbed about Daisy lately.
She had been so absent-minded, and sometimes--even--a little flighty.
She had forgotten the day before, to look out some passages for him; and
there was a rent in his old overcoat she had not mended. He was
disagreeably conscious of it. And what could she have to say to Captain
Marsworth? It was all rather odd--and annoying. He walked in a
preoccupied silence.
Farrell and Nelly meanwhile were, it seemed, in no lack of conversation.
He told her that he might possibly be going to France, in a week or two,
for a few days. The Allied offensive on the Somme was apparently
shutting down for the winter. 'The weather in October just broke
everybody's heart, vile luck! Nothing to be done but to make the winter
as disagreeable to the Boche as we can, and to go on piling up guns and
shells for the spring. I'm going to look at hospitals at X---' he named
a great base camp--'and I daresay they'll let me have a run along some
bit of the front, if there's a motor to be had.'
Nelly stopped abruptly. He could see the colour fluctuating in her
delicate face.
'You're going to X---? You--you might see Dr. Howson?'
'Howson?' he said, surprised. 'Do you know him? Yes, I shall certainly
see Howson. He's now the principal surgeon at one of the General
Hospitals there, where I specially want to look at some new splints
they've been trying.'
Nelly moved on without speaking for a little. At last she said, almost
inaudibly--
'He promised me--to make enquiries.'
'Did he?' Farrell spoke in the grave, deep voice he seemed to keep for
her alone, which was always sweet to her ear. 'And he has never
written?' She shook her head. 'But he would have written--instantly--you
may be quite sure, if there had been the slightest clue.'
'Oh yes, I know, I know,' she said hastily.
'Give me any message for him you like--or any questions you'd like me to
ask.'
'Yes'--she said, vaguely.
It seemed to him she was walking languidly, and he was struck by her
weary look. The afternoon had turned windy and cold with gusts of rain.
But when he suggested an immediate return to the cottage, Nelly would
have none of it.
'We were to meet Captain Marsworth and Miss Stewart. Where are they?'
They emerged at the moment from the cottage grounds, upon the high road;
Farrell pointed ahead, and Nelly saw Marsworth and Miss Stewart walking
fast up the hill before them, and evidently in close conversation.
'What can they have to talk about?' said Nelly, wondering.
'Wouldn't you like to know!'
'You're not going to tell me?'
'Not a word.'
His eyes laughed at her. They walked on beside each other, strangely
content. And yet, with what undercurrents of sensitive and wounded
consciousness on her side, of anxiety on his!
At the top of Red Bank they came up with Marsworth and Miss Stewart.
Nelly's curiosity was more piqued than ever. If all that Marsworth had
said to her was true, why this evident though suppressed agitation on
the girl's part, and these shades of mystery in the air? Daisy Stewart
was what anybody would have called 'a pretty little thing.' She was
small, round-cheeked, round-eyed, round-limbed; light upon her feet;
shewing a mass of brown hair brushed with gold under her hat, and the
fresh complexion of a mountain maid. Nelly guessed her age about three
and twenty, and could not help keenly watching the meeting between her
and Cicely. She saw Cicely hold out a limp hand, and the girl's timid,
almost entreating eyes.
But, the next moment, her attention was diverted to a figure slowly
mounting the steep hill from Grasmere, on the top of which the cottage
party were now standing, uncertain whether to push on for their walk, or
to retreat homewards before the increasing rain. The person approaching
was Bridget. As she perceived her, Nelly was startled into quick
recollection of Cicely's remark of the morning--'Your sister seems to
have grown much older.' But not only older--_different!_ Nelly could not
have analysed her own impression, but it was so painful that she ran
down to meet her.
'Bridget, it's too far for you to Grasmere!--and coming back up this
awful hill! You look quite done. Do go home and lie down, or will you
come to the cottage for tea first? It's nearer.'
Bridget looked at her coldly.
'Why do you make such a fuss? I'm all right. But I'm not coming to the
cottage, thank you. I've got things to do.'
The implication was that everyone else was idle. Nelly drew back,
rebuffed. And as Bridget reached the group at the top of the hill it was
as though the rain and darkness suddenly deepened. All talk dropped.
Farrell, indeed, greeted her courteously, introduced her to the
Stewarts, and asked her to come back to the cottage for tea. But he was
refused as Nelly had been. Bridget went on her way alone towards the
farm. But after parting from the others she turned back suddenly to
say--'There were no letters for you, Nelly.'
'What a mercy!' said Farrell, as Bridget disappeared. 'Don't you think
so? I never have any forwarded here.'
'Ah, but you get so many,' said Nelly wistfully. 'But still, letters
don't matter to me--now.'
He said nothing, but it roused in him a kind of fierce soreness that she
would always keep the past so clearly before herself and him.
Violent rain came on, and they hurried back to the cottage for shelter.
Cicely was talking extravagantly all the time. She was tired to death,
she said, of everything patriotic. The people who prattled about
nursing, and the people who prattled about the war--especially the
people who talked about women's work--were all equally intolerable. She
meant to give up everything very soon. Somebody must amuse themselves,
or the world would go mad. Farrell threw at her some brotherly jibes;
the old Rector looked scared; and Marsworth said nothing.
* * * * *
There were bright fires in the cottage, and the dripping walkers were
glad to crowd round them; all except Cicely and Marsworth, who seemed to
Nelly's watching sense to be oddly like two wrestlers pacing round each
other, and watching the opportunity to close. Each would take out a book
from the shelves and put it back, or take up a newspaper from the
tables--crossing repeatedly, but never speaking. And meanwhile Nelly
also noticed that Daisy Stewart, now that Cicely's close contact was
removed, was looking extraordinarily pretty. Radiance, not to be
concealed, shone from her charming childish face.
Suddenly Marsworth paused in front of Cicely, intercepting her as she
was making for the door.
'Would you be an angel, Miss Farrell, and help me to find a particular
Turner drawing I want to see? Willy says it's in the studio somewhere.'
Cicely paused, half haughty, half irresolute.
'Willy knows his way about the portfolios much better than I do.'
Marsworth came nearer, and leaning one hand on the table between them,
bent over to her. He was smiling, but there was emotion in his look.
'Willy is looking after these people. Won't you?'
Cicely considered.
'All right!' she said carelessly, at last, and led the way.