PAULINE MARRABEL
The words which passed between Pauline Marrabel and her host at the
railway station were words which the whole world might have heard and
remained unedified. The first part of their drive homeward, even,
passed in complete silence. Yet if their faces told the story,
Rochester was with the woman he loved. He had driven a small pony-cart
to the station. There was no room, even, for a groom behind. They sat
side by side, jogging on through the green country lanes, until they
came to the long hill which led to the higher country. The luggage
cart and the omnibus, with her maid and the groom who had driven down
with Rochester, passed them soon after they had left the station. They
were alone in the country lane, alone behind a fat pony, who had ideas
of his own as to what was the proper pace to travel on a warm spring
afternoon.
More than once he looked at her. Her oval face was almost devoid of
color. There were rings underneath her large soft eyes. Her dark hair
was brushed simply back from her forehead. Her travelling clothes were
of the plainest. Yet she was always beautiful--more so than ever just
now, perhaps, when the slight hardness had gone from her mouth, and
the strain had passed from her features.
Rochester, too, was curiously altered by the change in the curve of
his lips. There was a new smile there, a new light in his eyes as they
jogged on between the honeysuckle-wreathed hedges. Their silence was
even curiously protracted, but underneath the holland apron his left
hand was clasping hers.
"How are things with you?" she asked softly.
"About the same," he answered. "We make the best of it, you know. Mary
amuses herself easily enough. She has what she wanted--a home, and I
have someone to entertain my guests. I believe that we are considered
quite a model couple."
Pauline sighed.
"Henry," she said, "it is beautiful to be here, to be here with you.
The days will not seem long enough."
Rochester, so apt of speech, seemed curiously tongue-tied. His fingers
pressed hers. He made no answer. She leaned a little forward and
looked into his face.
"Wonderful person!" she declared. "Never a line or a wrinkle!"
He smiled.
"I live quietly," he said. "I am out of doors all day. Excitement of
any sort has not touched my life for many years. Sometimes I feel that
this perfect health is a torture. Sometimes I am afraid of never
growing old."
She laughed very softly--a dear, familiar sound it was to him. He
turned his head to watch the curve of the lips that he loved, the
faint contraction of her eyebrows as the smile spread.
"You dear man!" she murmured. "To look at you makes me feel quite
_passee_."
"The _Daily Telegraph_ should reassure you," he answered. "I read this
morning that the most beautiful woman at the Opera last night was Lady
Marrabel."
"The _Daily Telegraph_ man is such a delightful creature," she
answered. "I do not like reporters, but I fancy that I must once have
been civil to this one by mistake. Henry, you have had the road
shortened. I am perfectly certain of it. We cannot be there."
"I am afraid it is the sad truth," he answered. "You see they are all
having tea upon the lawn."
He touched the pony with his whip, and turning off the main avenue,
drew up at the bottom of one of the lawns, before a sunk fence. A
servant came hurrying down to the pony's head, and together Pauline
and he made their way across the short green turf to where Lady Mary
was dispensing tea. Rochester's face suddenly darkened. Seated next to
his wife, with Lois on the other side of him, was Saton!
Lady Mary rose to welcome her guest, and Rochester exchanged greetings
with some callers who had just arrived. To Saton he merely nodded, but
when a little later Lois rose, and announced that she was going to
show Mr. Saton the orchid houses, he intervened lazily.
"We will all go," he said. "Lady Penarvon is interested in orchids,
and I am sure that Pauline would like to see the houses."
"I am interested in everything belonging to this delightful place,"
she declared, rising.
Lois frowned slightly. Saton's face remained inscrutable. In the
general exodus Rochester found himself for a moment behind with his
wife.
"Did you encourage that young man to stay to tea?" he asked. "I
thought you disliked him so much."
Lady Mary sighed. She was a gentle, fluffy little creature, who had a
new whim every few minutes.
"I am so changeable," she declared. "I detested him yesterday. He wore
such an ugly tie, and he would monopolize Lois. This afternoon I found
him most interesting. I believe he knows all about the future, if one
could only get him to tell us things."
"Really!" Rochester remarked politely.
"He has been talking in a most interesting fashion," continued Lady
Mary.
"Has he been telling you all your fortunes?"
"You put it so crudely, my dear Henry," his wife declared. "Of course
he doesn't tell fortunes! Only he's the sort of person that if one
really wanted to know anything, I believe his advice would be better
than most peoples'. Perhaps he will talk to us about it after dinner."
"What, is he dining here?" Rochester asked.
"I have asked him to," Lady Mary answered, complacently. "We are short
of young men, as you know, and really this afternoon he quite
fascinated us all. The dear Duchess is so difficult and heavy to
entertain, but she quite woke up when he began to talk. Lady Penarvon
just told me that she thought he was wonderful."
"He seems to have the knack of interesting women," Rochester remarked.
"And therefore, I suppose," Lady Mary said, "you men will all hate
him. Never mind, I have changed my opinion entirely. I think that he
is going to be an acquisition to the neighborhood, and I am going to
study occultism."
Rochester turned away with a barely concealed grimace. He went up to
Lois, calmly usurping Saton's place.
"My dear Lois," he said, as they fell behind a few paces, "so your
latest young man has been charming everybody."
"He is nice, isn't he?" she answered, turning to him a little
impulsively.
"Marvelously!" Rochester answered. "Hatefully so! Has he told you
anything, by the bye, about himself?"
She shook her head.
"Nothing that I can remember," she answered. "He is so clever," she
added, enthusiastically, "and he has explained all sorts of wonderful
things to me. If one had only brains," she continued, with a little
sigh, "there is so much to learn."
Rochester picked a great red rose and handed it to her.
"My dear child," he said, "there is nothing in knowledge so beautiful
as that flower. By the bye," he added, raising his voice to Saton, who
was just ahead, "I thought you were going to London to-day."
"I have put off my visit until to-morrow," Saton answered. "Your wife
has been kind enough to ask me to dine."
Rochester nodded. He carefully avoided endorsing the invitation.
"By the bye," he remarked, "we had the pleasure of directing a lady in
distress to your house this morning."
Saton paused for a moment before he answered.
"I am very much obliged to you," he said.
He offered no explanation. Rochester, with a little shrug of the
shoulders, rejoined Pauline. Lady Mary was called away to receive some
visitors, and for the first time Lois and Saton were alone.
"Mr. Rochester has taken a dislike to me," he said quietly.
Lois was distressed.
"I wonder why," she said. "As a rule he is so indifferent to people."
Saton shook his head a little sadly.
"I cannot tell," he answered. "Certainly I cannot think of anything I
have done to offend him. But I am nearly always unfortunate. The
people whom I would like to have care about me, as a rule don't."
"There are exceptions," she murmured.
She met his eyes, and looked away. He smiled softly to himself. Women
had looked away from him before like that!
"Fortunately," he continued, "Lady Mary seems to be a little more
gracious. It was very kind of her to ask me to dine to-night."
"She is always so interested," Lois said, "in things which she does
not understand. You talked so well this afternoon, Mr. Saton. I am
afraid I could not follow you, but it sounded very brilliant and very
wonderful."
"One speaks convincingly," he said, "when one really feels. Some day,
remember," he continued, "we are going to have a long, long talk. We
are going to begin at the beginning, and you are going to let me help
you to understand how many wonderful things there are in life which
scarcely any of us ever even think about. I wonder----"
"Well?" she asked, looking up at him.
"Will they let me take you down to dinner?"
She shook her head doubtfully.
"I am afraid not," she said. "I am almost certain to go in with
Captain Vandermere."
He sighed.
"After all," he said, "perhaps I had better have taken that train to
town."