MORAL LESSONS
Mrs. Bonfill sore at the damage to her infallibility; Barmouth still
feeling that rude and sacrilegious thrust at ennobled ribs; Lady
Barmouth unable to look her neighbours in the face; Mervyn fearing the
whispers and the titters; Lady Blixworth again wearily donning her
armour, betaking herself to Barslett, goading Audrey Pollington into
making herself attractive; the Glentorlys and a score more of exalted
families feeling that they had been sadly 'let in,' treacherously
beguiled into petting and patronising an impossible person; Airey Newton
oppressed with scorn of himself, yet bound in his chains; Peggy
persuaded that something must be done, and shaken out of her usual
happiness by the difficulty of doing it--all these people, and no doubt
more besides, proved that if the world is not a football for every
wanton toe, neither is it an immovable unimpressionable mass, on which
individual effort and the vagaries of this man or that make absolutely
no impression. Trix's raid had met with defeat, but it had left its
effect on many lives, its marks in many quarters. A sense of this joined
with the recognition of her own present wretched state to create in Trix
the feelings with which she regarded her past proceedings and their
outcome. So many people must have grudges against her; if she was not
penitent she was frightened; her instinct was to hide, however much she
might still hanker after the glories of conspicuous station. Of Airey's
disturbance and of Peggy's fretting, indeed, she had only a vague
inkling; the world she had left was the vivid thing to her; it seemed
to ring with her iniquities as her guilty ears listened from the
seclusion of Harriet Street, Covent Garden. She knew it called her
impossible; she could not have resented Lord Glentorly's 'pirate craft.'
Not even on Mervyn himself had she been so great an influence as on
Beaufort Chance, and, great as the influence was, Beaufort greatly,
though not unnaturally, exaggerated it. He set down to her account all
the guilt of those practices for which he had suffered and of which
Fricker was in reality the chief inspirer; at any rate, if she had not
counselled them, she had impelled him to them and had then turned round
and refused him the reward for whose sake he had sinned. If he ranked
now rather with Fricker than with Mervyn or Constantine Blair, or the
men of that sort who had been his colleagues and his equals, the
heaviest of the blame rested on Trix. If the meshes of the Fricker net
enveloped him more closely day by day, hers was the fault. Countenanced
by an element of truth, carried the whole way by resentment, by
jealousy, and by the impulse to acquit himself at another's expense, he
would have rejoiced to make Trix his scapegoat and to lay on her the
burden of his sins. Though she could not bear his punishment, he
welcomed her as his partner in misfortune. He longed to see her in her
humiliation, and sought a way. When he asked himself what he meant to
say to her he could not answer; his impulse was to see her in the dust.
The Frickers often talked of Trix--Fricker with the quiet smile of a man
who has done what he had to do and done it well; Mrs. Fricker with heavy
self-complacent malevolence; Connie with a lighter yet still malicious
raillery. An instinct in Chance made him take small part in these
discussions and display some indifference towards them; but soon he
gleaned what he wanted from them. Fricker had found out where Trix was;
he had received a brief note from her, asking to be informed of the full
extent of her speculative liabilities. He described with amusement the
lucid explanation which he had sent.
'When she's paid that, and her other debts--which must be pretty
heavy--there won't be much left, I fancy,' he reflected.
'Where is she?' asked Connie, in passing curiosity.
'I forget. Oh, here's the letter. Thirty-four Harriet Street, Covent
Garden. Hardly sounds princely, does it, Connie?'
They all laughed, and Beaufort Chance with them. But he hoarded up the
address in his memory. The next moment, by an impulse to conceal his
thoughts, he stole an affectionate glance at Connie and received her sly
return of it. He knew that, whatever feeling took him to Trix
Trevalla's, his visit would not win approval from Connie Fricker.
On the following morning Mr. Fricker saw that address at the top of
another note, whose author introduced herself as a great friend of Mrs.
Trevalla. Smiling with increased amusement, he gave her what she
asked--an appointment for the following afternoon. It would be Saturday,
and Fricker bade her come to his house, not to his office. He had heard
Connie speak of her with some envy, and saw no reason why the two girls
should not become acquainted. The object of the visit was, he supposed,
to make an appeal on Trix Trevalla's behalf. Experience taught him that
women attached an extraordinary efficacy to a personal
interview--extraordinary, that is, where the other party to the
interview was not a fool. His anticipation of the meeting did not differ
much from Lady Blixworth's satirical suggestion of its course.
When Peggy came at the appointed hour (she was so far human, Mr.
Fricker's suspicions so far justified, that she had taken much pains
with her toilet) she was ushered into the drawing-room, not the study,
and was met by Connie with profuse apologies. A gentleman had called on
papa most unexpectedly; papa had to see the gentleman because the
gentleman was leaving for Constantinople the next day. It was something
about the Trans-Euphratic Railway, or something tiresome. Would Miss
Ryle mind waiting half an hour and having a cup of tea? Mamma would be
so sorry to miss her, but it was Lady Rattledowney's day, and Lady
Rattledowney was lost without mamma. Did Miss Ryle know the
Rattledowneys? Such dear people the Rattledowneys were! They were also,
it may be observed, extremely impecunious.
Thus vivaciously inaugurated, the conversation prospered. Peggy, sorely
afraid of giggling, studied her companion with an amusement sternly
repressed, and an interest the greater for being coupled with
unhesitating condemnation. Connie ranged over the upper half of the
Fricker acquaintance; she had been warned to avoid mention of Trix
Trevalla, but she made haste to discover any other common friends: there
were the Eli-Simpkinsons and the Moresby-Jenkinses, of course; a few
more also whom Peggy knew. Mrs. Bonfill figured on Connie's list, though
not, she admitted, of their intimate circle. ('She has so much to do,
poor Mrs. Bonfill, one can never find her!' regretted Connie.) Over Lady
Blixworth, whose name Peggy introduced, she rather shied.
'Mamma doesn't think her very good form,' she said primly.
Rushing for any remark to avert the threatened laugh, Peggy made boldly
for Beaufort Chance.
'Oh, yes, he's a very particular friend of ours. We think him
delightful. So clever too! He's always in and out of the house, Miss
Ryle.' She blushed a little, and met Peggy's look with a conscious
smile.
Peggy smiled too, and followed the next direction taken by Miss Connie's
handsome eyes.
'I see you've got his photograph on the table.'
'Yes. Mamma lets me have that for my particular table.'
Evidently Peggy was to understand that her companion had a property in
Beaufort Chance; whether the intimation was for Peggy's own benefit or
for transmission to another was not clear. It was possibly no more than
an ebullition of vanity--but Peggy did not believe that.
'We ride together in the morning sometimes, and that always makes
people such friends. No stiffness, you know.'
Peggy, wondering when and where any stiffness would intrude into
Connie's friendship, agreed that riding was an admirable path to
intimacy.
'And then he's so much connected in business with papa; that naturally
brings him here a lot.'
'I don't suppose he minds,' suggested Peggy, playing the game.
'He says he doesn't,' laughed Connie, poking out her foot and regarding
it with coy intensity, as she had seen ladies do on the stage when the
topic of their affections happened to be touched upon.
Understanding the accepted significance, if not the inherent propriety,
of the attitude, Peggy ventured on a nod which intimated her
appreciation of the position.
'Oh, it's all nonsense anyhow, isn't it, Miss Ryle? What I say is, it's
just a bit of fun.' In this declaration Connie did less than justice to
herself. It was that, but it was something much more.
Peggy was vastly amused, and saw no reason to be more delicate or
reticent than the lady principally concerned.
'May we congratulate you yet?'
'Gracious, no, Miss Ryle! How you do get on!'
At this Peggy saw fair excuse for laughter, and made up her arrears
heartily. Connie was not at all displeased. Peggy 'got on' further,
chaffing Connie on her conquest and professing all proper admiration for
the victim.
'Mind you don't say anything to mamma,' Connie cautioned her. 'It's all
a dead secret.'
'I'm very good at secrets,' Peggy assured her.
'He gave me this,' murmured Connie, displaying a bangle.
'How perfectly sweet!' cried Peggy.
'It is rather nice, isn't it? I love diamonds and pearls. Don't you,
Miss Ryle? Lady Rattledowney admired it very much.'
'Did you tell her where it came from?'
'No--and mamma thinks I bought it!'
Peggy had arrived at the conclusion that this guilelessness was
overdone; she adopted, without serious doubt, the theory of
transmission. Nothing was to be repeated to mamma, but as much as she
chose might find its way to Trix Trevalla. The information was meant to
add a drop of bitterness to that sinner's cup. Peggy was willing to take
it on this understanding--and to deal with it as might chance to be
convenient.
'I hope you haven't found me very dull, Miss Ryle?'
'No!' cried Peggy, with obvious sincerity. Connie had been several
things which Peggy subsequently detailed, but she had not been tiresome.
The interview with Mr. Fricker was in a different key, the only likeness
being that the transmission theory still seemed applicable, and indeed
inevitable here and there. The giggles and the coyness were gone, and
with them the calculated guilelessness; the vulgarity was almost gone.
Fricker was not a gentleman, but, thanks to his quietness and freedom
from affectation, it was often possible to forget the fact. He had a dry
humour, she soon found, and it was stirred by the contrast between his
visitor's utter ignorance of business and her resolutely business-like
manner. It was evident that she did not intend to clasp his knees.
'I see you've taken my measure, Miss Ryle,' he remarked. 'Mrs. Trevalla
has shown you my letter, you tell me, and you have come to make me a
proposition?'
'It seems from the letter that they can go on making her pay money?'
'Precisely--at stated intervals and of definite amounts. Three several
amounts of one thousand pounds at intervals of not less than two
months--the first being due immediately, and the others sure to come
later.'
'Yes, I think I understand that.'
'I endeavour to express myself clearly, Miss Ryle.'
Peggy ignored a profane gleam of amusement in his eye.
'I suppose it's no good talking about how she came to buy such curious
shares,' began Peggy.
'I think you'll have gathered from Mrs. Trevalla that such a discussion
would not be fruitful,' interposed Fricker.
'Have you got to pay too?'
'That question is, pardon me, worse than fruitless; it's irrelevant.'
'She can't pay that money and what she owes besides unless she has time
given her. And, even if she has, she'll worry herself to death, waiting
and watching for the--for the----'
'Calls,' he suggested. 'That's the legal term.'
'Oh, yes. The calls.'
'I am not the company; I am not her creditors. I can't give Mrs.
Trevalla time.'
'You wouldn't if you could!' Peggy blazed out.
'Irrelevant again,' he murmured, gently shaking his head.
'I didn't come here to beg,' Peggy explained. 'But I've a sort of idea
that, if you had the shares instead of Trix, you could get out of it
cheaper somehow. I mean, you could make some arrangement with the
company, or get rid of the shares, or something. Anyhow I believe you
could manage to pay less than she'll have to.'
'It's possible you're flattering me there.'
'You'd try?'
'You may, I think, give me the credit of supposing I should try,' said
Fricker, smiling again.
'She'll have to pay, or--or try to pay----'
'She'll be liable to pay----'
'Yes, liable to pay three thousand pounds altogether?' He nodded. 'What
are the shares worth?'
'Three thousand pounds less than nothing, Miss Ryle.'
His terrible coolness appalled Peggy. She could not resist a glance of
horror, but she held herself in hand.
'Then, if you took them, the most you'd lose would be three thousand
pounds, and you'd have a very good chance of losing less?'
'I don't know about a good chance. Some chance, shall we say?' He was
more than tolerant; he was interested in Peggy's development of her
idea.
Peggy leant her elbows on the writing-table between them.
'I want her to be rid of the whole thing--to think it never happened. I
want you to take those shares from her: tell her that they've become of
value, or that you made a mistake, or anything you like of that sort,
and that you'll relieve her of them. If you did that, how much money
should you want?'
'You wish this done out of kindness? To take a weight off Mrs.
Trevalla's mind?'
'Yes, to take a weight off her mind. It's funny, but she frets more over
having bungled her money affairs and having been made--having been
silly, you know--than over anything else. She's very proud, you see.'
Fricker's smile broadened. 'I can quite believe she's proud,' he
remarked.
'Of course she knows nothing about my being here. It's my own idea. You
see what I want, don't you?'
'As a business transaction, I confess I don't quite see it. If you
appeal to my good-nature, and ask me to make sacrifices for Mrs.
Trevalla----'
'No. I don't expect you to lose by it.'
Fricker saw the look that she could not keep out of her eyes. He smiled
fixedly at her.
'But I thought that, if you could satisfy them--or get off
somehow--for--well, one thousand pounds or--or at most one thousand five
hundred pounds' (Peggy was very agitated over her amounts), 'that--that
I and some other friends could manage that, and then--why, we'd tell her
it was all right!' A hint of triumph broke through her nervousness as
she declared her scheme. 'I can't be absolutely sure of the money except
my own, but I believe I could get it.' She worked up to a climax. 'I can
give you five hundred pounds now--in notes, if you like,' she said,
producing a little leather bag of a purse.
Fricker gave a short dry laugh; the whole episode amused him very much,
and Peggy's appearance also gratified his taste. She unfastened the bag,
and he heard her fingers crackle the notes, as she sat with her eyes
fixed on his; appeal had been banished from Peggy's words, it spoke in
her eyes in spite of herself.
'Mrs. Trevalla has perhaps told you something of her relations with me?'
asked Fricker, clasping his long spare hands on the table.
'I don't defend her: but you don't fight with women, Mr. Fricker?'
'There are no women in business matters, Miss Ryle.'
'Or with people who are down?'
'Not fight, no. I keep my foot on them.'
He took up a half-smoked cigar and relit it.
'I'm not a Shylock,' he resumed with a smile. 'Shylock was a
sentimentalist. I'd have taken that last offer--a high one, if I
remember--and given up my pound of flesh. But you expect me to do it for
much less than market value. I like my pound of flesh, and I want
something above market value for it, Miss Ryle. I've taught Mrs.
Trevalla her little lesson. Perhaps there's no need to rub it in any
more. You want me to make her think that she can get out of Glowing
Stars without further loss?'
'Yes.'
'And you want me to take the risk on myself? The loss may run to three
thousand pounds, though, as you say, a lucky chance might enable me to
reduce it.' His fertile mind had inklings of a scheme already, though in
the vaguest outline.
'Yes,' said Peggy again, not trusting herself to say more.
'Very well; now we understand.' He leant right over towards her. 'I
think you're foolish,' he told her, 'you and the other friends. The
woman deserves all she's got; she didn't play fair with me. I haven't a
spark of sympathy for her. If I followed my feelings, I should show you
the door. But I don't follow my feelings when I see a fair profit in
the other direction. If Mrs. Trevalla had acted on that rule she
wouldn't be where she is.' He thrust his chair back suddenly and rose to
his feet. 'I'll do what you wish, and back up the story you mean to tell
her, if you'll come again and bring that pretty little bag with you, and
take out of it and lay on this table----' He paused in wilful malice,
tormenting Peggy and watching her parted lips and eager eyes. 'And lay
on the table,' he ended slowly, 'four thousand pounds.'
'Four----!' gasped Peggy, and could get no further.
'Three to cover risk, one as a solatium for the wound Mrs. Trevalla has
dealt to my pride.' His irony was unwontedly savage as he snarled out
his gibe.
Peggy's face suddenly grew flushed and her eyes dim. She looked at him,
and knew there was no mercy. He did not spare her his gaze, but when she
conquered her dismay and sat fronting him with firm lips again he smiled
a grim approval. He liked pluck, and when he had hit his hardest he
liked best to see the blow taken well. He became his old self-controlled
calm self again.
Peggy shut her bag with a click and rose in her turn. Her first words
surprised Mr. Fricker.
'That's a bargain, is it?' she asked.
'A bargain, certainly,' he said.
'Then will you put it in writing, please?' She pointed at the table with
a peremptory air.
Infinitely amused again, Fricker sat down and embodied his undertaking
in a letter, ceremoniously addressed to Miss Ryle, expressed and signed
in the name of his firm; he blotted the letter and gave it to her in an
open envelope.
'It's better not to trust to memory, however great confidence we may
have in one another, isn't it?' said he.
'Much,' agreed Peggy drily. 'I don't suppose I can get all that money,
but I'm going to try,' she announced.
'I daresay there are people who would do a great deal for you,' he
suggested in sly banter.
Peggy flushed again. 'I shouldn't ask anyone like that. I couldn't.'
She broke off, indignant with herself; she had taken almost a
confidential tone. 'It's not your concern where or how I get it.'
'You express the view I've always taken most exactly, Miss Ryle.'
He was openly deriding her, but she hardly hated him now. He was too
strange to hate, she was coming to think. She smiled at him as she asked
a question:--
'Does money always make people what you are?'
'Money?' Fricker stood with his hands in his pockets, seeming a little
puzzled.
'I mean, always bothering with it and thinking a lot of it, you know.'
'Oh, no! If it did, all men of business would be good men of business,
and luckily there are plenty of bad.'
'I see,' said Peggy. 'Well, I'll come back if I get the money, Mr.
Fricker.'
'I'm glad Connie gave you some tea.'
'We had a very nice talk, thank you.'
'I won't ask you to remember me to Mrs. Trevalla.'
'She's not to know I've seen you. You've put that in the letter?'
'Bless my soul, I'd forgotten! How valuable that written record is! Yes,
you'll find it there all right. The transaction is to be absolutely
confidential so far as Mrs. Trevalla is concerned.'
He escorted her to the door. As they passed through the hall, Connie's
voice came from upstairs:--
'Won't Miss Ryle take a glass of wine before she goes, papa?'
Fricker looked at Peggy with a smile.
'I don't drink wine,' said Peggy, rather severely.
'Of course not--between meals. Connie's so hospitable, though. Well, I
hope to see you again.'
'I really don't believe you do,' said Peggy. 'You love money, but----'
'I love a moral lesson more? Possibly, Miss Ryle; but I at least keep
my bargains. You can rely on my word if--if you come again, you know.'
Peggy's hansom was at the door, and he helped her in. She got into the
corner of it, nodded to him, and then sank her face far into the fluffy
recesses of a big white feather boa. All below her nose was hidden; her
eyes gleamed out fixed and sad; her hands clutched the little bag very
tightly. She had so hoped to bring it back empty; she had so hoped to
have a possible though difficult task set her. Now she could hear and
think of nothing but those terrible figures set out in Fricker's
relentless tones--'Four thousand pounds!'
Fricker turned back into his house, smiling in ridicule touched with
admiration. It was all very absurd, but she was a girl of grit.
'Straight too,' he decided approvingly.
Connie ran downstairs to meet him.
'Oh, what did she want? I've been sitting in the drawing-room just
devoured by curiosity! Do tell me about it, papa!'
'Not a word. It's business,' he said curtly, but not unkindly.
'Inquisitiveness is an old failing of yours. Ah!'
His exclamation was called forth by an apparently slight cause. Connie
wore a white frock; to the knees of it adhered a long strip of
fawn-coloured wool.
'You were sitting in the drawing-room devoured by curiosity?' he asked
reflectively.
'Just devoured, papa,' repeated Connie gaily.
Mr. Fricker took hold of her ear lightly and began to walk her towards
his study.
'Odd!' he said gently. 'Because the drawing-room's upholstered in red,
isn't it?'
'Well, of course.' Connie laughed rather uneasily.
'And, so far as I know, the only fawn-coloured wool mat in the house is
just outside my study door.'
'What do you mean, papa?' Connie was startled, and tried to jump away;
Mr. Fricker's firm hold on her ear made it plain that she would succeed
only at an impossible sacrifice.
'And that's the precise colour of that piece of wool clinging to your
frock. Look!' They were on the mat now; the study door was open, and
there was ample light for Connie to make the suggested comparison.
'Look!' urged Fricker, smiling and pinching his daughter's ear with
increasing force. 'Look, Connie, look!'
'Papa! Oh, you're hurting me!'
'Dear me, I'm sorry,' said Fricker. 'But the thought of people listening
outside my door made me forget what I was doing.' It seemed to have the
same effect again, for Connie writhed. 'How difficult it is to get
straightforward dealing!' reflected Fricker sadly. 'My dear Connie, if
you happen to have caught any of the conversation, you will know that
Mrs. Trevalla has learnt the advantage of straightforward dealing.'
Connie had nothing to say; she began to cry rather noisily. Fricker
involuntarily thought of a girl he had seen that day who would neither
have listened nor cried.
'Run away,' he said, releasing her; his tone was kind, but a trifle
contemptuous. 'You'd better keep my secrets if I'm to keep yours, you
know.'
Connie went off, heaving sobs and rubbing her assaulted ear. She was
glad to escape so cheaply, and the sobs stopped when she got round the
first corner.
'Connie's a good girl,' said Fricker, addressing the study walls in a
thoughtful soliloquy. 'Yes, she's a good girl. But there's a difference.
Yes, there is a difference.' He shrugged his shoulders, lit a fresh
cigar, and sat down at his writing-table. 'It doesn't matter whether
Connie knows or not,' he reflected, 'but we must have moral lessons, you
know. That's what pretty Miss Ryle had to understand--and Mrs. Trevalla,
and now Connie. It'll do all of 'em good.'
Then he looked up the position of the Glowing Star, and thought that an
amalgamation might possibly be worked and things put in a little better
trim. But it would be troublesome, and--he preferred the moral lesson
after all.