ON THE USE OF SCRAPES
We were settling down. It was a week since the funeral. The borough and
the neighborhood had survived their first stupefaction at the apparition
of Miss Driver; the local journals had achieved their articles, organs
of wider circulation and greater dignity their paragraphs; the charities
which received legacies had given thanks, those which did not were
turning resigned but hopeful eyes to the future. The undertaker sent in
his bill, and the Town Council discussed the project of a Driver
Memorial Hall--with a hardly disguised anticipation of the quarter from
which the bulk of the money was to come.
There was really not much more to do till Miss Driver's first days of
mourning were over, and the fascinating speculations as to her personal
gifts and qualities could look to find some satisfaction from her
appearances on public and private occasions. Only Cartmell still
was--and would be for weeks--busy on the labors attendant on the
transfer of a great estate, and the rearrangements necessitated by the
loss of an able and experienced man--a masterly worker--and the
succession of a girl ignorant of business. For the rest we were, as I
say, settling down. Even Cartmell's activity caused us at Breysgate no
sense of bustle, for it took him to London the day after the funeral and
kept him there for above a fortnight.
When I say that "we" were settling down I mean the trio formed by Miss
Driver, myself--and Miss Emily Chatters. It is my duty to introduce Miss
Chatters with proper formality, and I will introduce her presently--but
let us take people in their order. Miss Driver had inspected her
property (except the wine cellar which, to Loft's dismay, she declined
to enter); she had chosen her own set of rooms and given orders for them
to be entirely refurnished; she had announced her intention--and small
blame to her--of extending the refurnishing process to all the
sitting-rooms--at least to the sitting-rooms; she had chosen her own
hack from the stables--and I have no doubt that she had done what was
immediately requisite as regards her wardrobe. At any rate, an air of
achievement dwelt about her. For my part I performed my duties, and
began to find that I had less work to do--and more time occupied in
doing it. In Mr. Driver's day we worked as few men except Mr. Driver
understood work from ten to one; then, as a rule, I was free. Under the
new _regime_ we worked at a gentler pressure--a much gentler
pressure--for the same morning hours; but I stayed to lunch always, I
came back to tea frequently, and I returned to dinner two or three
evenings in the week. My duties as secretary grew lighter, but I seemed
to be assuming the functions of a companion. I may do myself the
incidental justice of saying that I rather resented this tendency to
transform my office; but it was not easy to resist. She was paying for
my whole time as her father had paid for it; it was her right, within
wide limits, to say to what uses it should be put. Or--I could go. The
liberty--perhaps it is rather theoretical--of "chucking my job" remained
to me as to every free-born Englishman--who sees his way to getting
another whereby to live. Not that I wished to surrender mine; I was
interested and--to tell the truth--I grew, within our jurisdiction,
important. She approached the assumption of her power cautiously, and at
first would return almost any answer to almost any letter at my
suggestion. I did not expect this to last, but so it was for the moment.
For instance it was I, in ultimate reality, who offered that ten
thousand pounds toward the Memorial Hall. I had a great difficulty in
fixing the proper figure. If I may judge from the language employed by
the Mayor (Councillor Bindlecombe) in public, I exceeded all possible
anticipations of munificence; in private, I am told, he confessed to
having entertained a hope of fifteen thousand. I imagine that my figure
was not, on a balancing of considerations, far wide of the mark.
Cartmell thought five thousand would have served--but old Cartmell was a
screw with other people's money. I remembered "Give handsomely when you
give." So, I think, did Jenny Driver. All the same, Bindlecombe did, in
my opinion, open his mouth a bit too wide.
Miss Chatters came two days after the funeral--in the new black silk
dress: it rustled powerfully. She was tall, had pale-brown hair with a
broad parting in the middle, a very long inquiring nose, faded blue
eyes, an absolutely flat chin, and--inconceivable gentility. If we
others were settling she settled far quicker. She took the bedroom next
to Jenny Driver's; she annexed a small sitting-room for her own--next
but one to Jenny Driver's; she had a glass of the best port every day at
eleven. ("She came down to the cellar and chose the bin herself, sir,"
Loft informed me with a wry smile of grudge for his dearest
possessions.) Yet all these acts of proprietorship--for they pretty
nearly came to that--were performed with a meekness, a deprecation, a
ladylikeness (I can find no other word) that made opposition seem unkind
and criticism ungenerous. It was only "Poor Chat!" She had a habit of
talking to Jenny in a kind of baby-language, and used to refer to
herself as "Poor Chat." "Poor Chat doesn't know!" "Poor Chat's not
wise!" Also she did keep talking about her name and the respectability
of her descent. In fact she was a woman of a number of silly
affectations and one or two exasperating foibles, and Cartmell never
varied from his impromptu judgment--expressed before he had seen
her--that she was a fool. It is my deliberate opinion that she wished to
be thought more of a fool than she was--partly from an idea that little
sillinesses and affectations were genteel, partly with the notion that
they were disarming. She seemed always bent on showing you that she was
not the sort of person from whom any opposition need be feared, nor any
undue exercise of influence apprehended. It could only be supposed that
she had found this line of conduct useful in her relations toward her
employers; by contrast it flattered both their superior brains and their
superior positions. I allow for her natural taste, for her standards of
gentility. But she was a snob, too, "Poor Chat," and a time-server.
No harder words than those need be used about her--and they are too hard
perhaps; for there is one thing to be said on the other side--and it is
a thing of weight. Chat was fifty; as a governess she was hopelessly out
of date; I do not suppose that she saw her daily bread secure for three
months ahead. For a hundred pounds a year certain--secure from the
caprice of employers or of fate--she would probably have done or been
anything--even, so far as she could, honest.
But honesty alone, as she may well have reflected, does not breed
security of tenure in subordinate positions. I am far from saying that
it ought; on the whole I consider it to be a commoner, and therefore a
cheaper and more easily obtainable--and replaceable--commodity than
either a good brain or an agreeable demeanor. At any rate how easily it
may come near to costing a man his place I was very soon to discover by
my own experience. Well, perhaps, to honesty I ought to add a lack of
diplomacy and a temper naturally hot. But I am not sure: I cannot see
how any man could have done anything very different--given that he was
barely honest.
"There's a person in the drawing-room with the ladies, sir," said Loft
one day when I came up to tea at four o'clock.
Loft's social terminology was exact. When he said a "person" he did not
mean a "gentleman"--who was a gentleman--nor a "man"--who was a member
of the definitely lower orders of the community; he meant somebody in
between, one of the doubtful cases.
"A Mr. Powers, sir. He's been here perhaps half an hour."
It may readily be supposed that I had not forgotten the name of Powers;
the name and the incident were irrevocably--and uncomfortably--fixed in
my mind. This "person" might not be the same Powers, but in overwhelming
probability he was. Even if Jenny had not been in communication with
him--and I did not believe that she had--the paragraphs would easily
have brought about this visit--or visitation. He came scenting prey--he
had read of the heiress! But why had she let him in?
"Did he give you a card, Loft?"
"Yes, sir. I took it in, and Miss Driver told me to ask the person to
come in."
If it were not material, neither was it necessary to ask what Loft
thought about the matter. Plainly Mr. Powers was not up to his standard
for drawing-room visitors.
"Have you got the card?"
He took it from the hall table. "Mr. Nelson Powers." There was no
address.
"All right, Loft. But before I join them, I want to telephone to
London." Of course Mr. Driver had installed a telephone, and many a day
we had kept it very busy.
By luck I got into speedy communication with Cartmell at his hotel. He
heard my news. His answer was to the point: "Kick him out."
"But if I try to do that, it gives you away. You're not supposed to have
told me."
"Then give me away," came back instantly. "Only get him out. He's a
dangerous rascal--and not fit for any decent man or woman to talk to.
How in Heaven's name she can----"
"Perhaps she's frightened," I pleaded. He answered only "Kick him out,"
and cut off communication.
She did not look at all frightened when I went in. She was standing
opposite Powers, smiling gayly and mischievously. Powers was apparently
just taking his leave. So much gained! I determined to go to the hall
with him and give him a hint, on Cartmell's behalf, that he need not
come again. But things were not to be as easy as that.
"Well, then, we shall see you at eight o'clock," said Jenny, giving him
her hand.
"Delighted," said he, bowing low. "Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Miss
Chatters." Chat was sitting by, tatting. She habitually tatted.
"This is my old friend Mr. Nelson Powers," said Jenny. "Mr. Powers--Mr.
Austin." We bowed--neither of us cordially. The man's eyes were wary and
very alert; he looked at me as though I might be a policeman in plain
clothes; possibly my expression gave him some excuse.
Jenny rang the bell. "Mr. Powers is coming back to dinner. You'll come,
of course? We shall have a pleasant little party of four!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm engaged to dinner to-night."
Jenny gave me a quick look, Chat gave me a long one. Loft appeared. "_Au
revoir_, Mr. Powers!" With a pronounced bow over his hat Powers was out
of the room. I made no effort to follow. Jenny's face told me that the
battle was to be fought where we were.
She poured out a cup of tea and gave it to me. Then, as she sat down,
she said, "I'm sorry you can't come to-night. Where are you going?"
I did not want Chat there--but I remembered what happened to Cartmell
when he did not want me there.
"I'm not going anywhere," I said.
Her pallid face flushed a little, but she smiled. Chat looked at her and
got up; no, Chat was not altogether a fool! "Yes, please, Chat," said
Jenny very quietly. Chat left us. I finished my tea--it was cold, and
easy to gulp down--and waited for the storm.
"You've nothing to add to your polite excuses?" she inquired.
"Does that gentleman come from Cheltenham?"
"Yes, from Cheltenham, Mr. Austin. But how did you come to know that?
Did my father mention him?" She was not embarrassed--only very angry.
"No."
"It was Mr. Cartmell?"
"Yes. He had no right, I daresay, but I'm glad he did--and so will he
be."
"If both my solicitor and my secretary are glad--!" She broke off with a
scornful laugh. "I'm not going to discuss the matter with you, but I
like people who are about me to receive my invitations with politeness."
"This isn't easy for me, Miss Driver, but--that man oughtn't to come to
this house. He oughtn't to be allowed to see you."
She rose from her chair, her eyes set unmovingly on my face. Her voice
was low. "How dare you say that? How dare you? Am I to take orders from
you--my secretary--my servant?"
"You called me your friend the other day."
"I seem to have been hasty. A kind friend indeed to listen to stories
against me!"
"The story is against the man--not against you."
"Are you dining with any other friends to-night?"
"I've told you that I'm not."
"Then I request--I desire--that you will make it convenient to give me
the pleasure of your company--to meet my friend, Mr. Powers."
My temper went suddenly. "I won't sit at meat with the blackguard--above
all, not in your company."
I saw her fist clench itself by her side. "I repeat my request," she
said.
"I repeat my refusal, but I can do no less than offer you my
resignation."
"You won't accept my offer--but I accept yours very gladly."
"It will be kind of you to relieve me from my duties as soon as
possible."
"To-morrow." She turned her back on me and walked off to the window. I
stood there a minute, and then went to the door. She turned round, and
our eyes met. I waited for a moment, but she faced round to the window
again, and I went out.
I walked quickly down the hill. I was very unhappy, but I was not
remorseful. I knew that another man could have done the thing much
better, but it had been the right thing to do and I had done it as well
as I could. She had made no attempt to defend Powers, nor to deny what
she must have known that Cartmell had said about him. Yet, while tacitly
admitting that he was a most obnoxious description of blackguard, she
asked him to dinner--and ordered me to sit by and see them together. If
her service entailed that sort of thing, then indeed there must be an
end to service with her. But grieved as I was that this must be so--and
the blow to me was heavy on all grounds, whether of interest or of
feeling--I grieved more that she should sit with him herself than that
she bade me witness what seemed in my eyes her degradation. What was the
meaning of it? I was at that time nowhere near understanding her.
My home was no more than a cottage, built against the south wall of the
Old Priory. The front door opened straight into my parlor, without hall
or vestibule; a steep little stair ran up from the corner of the room
itself and led to my bedroom on the floor above. Behind my parlor lay
the kitchen and two other rooms, occupied by my housekeeper, Mrs. Field,
and her husband, who was one of the gardeners. It was all very small,
but it was warm, snug, and homely. The walls were covered almost
completely with my books, which overflowed on to chairs and tables, too.
When fire and lamp were going in the evening, the little room seemed to
glow with a studious cheerfulness, and my old leather arm-chair wooed me
with affectionate welcome. In four years I had taken good root in my
little home. I had to uproot myself--to-morrow.
With this pang, there came suddenly one deeper. I was about to
lose--perforce--what was now revealed to me as a great, though a very
new, interest in my life. From the first both Cartmell and I had been
keenly interested in the heiress--the lonely girl who came to reign over
Breysgate and to dispose of those millions of money. We had both, I
think, been touched with a certain romantic, or pathetic, element in the
situation. We had not talked about it, much less had we talked about
what we felt ourselves or about what we meant to do; but it had grown
into a tacit understanding between us that more than our mere paid
services were due from us to Jenny Driver. No man had been very near her
father, but we had been nearest; we did not mean that his daughter
should be without friends if she would accept friendship. Nay, I think
we meant a little more than that. She was young and ignorant; Nick
Driver's daughter might well be willful and imperious. We meant that she
should not easily escape our service and our friendship; they should be
more than offered; they should be pressed; if need be, they should be
secretly given. It had been an honest idea of ours--but it seemed hard
to work in practice. Such service as I could give was ended well-nigh
before it had begun. I thought it only too likely that Cartmell's also
would soon end, save, at least, for strictly professional purposes. And
I could not see how this end was to be avoided in his case any more than
it had been found possible to avoid it in mine. With the best will in
the world, there were limits. "Some things are impossible to some men,"
old Mr. Driver had said in that letter; it had been impossible to me--as
it would, I think, have been to most men--to see Powers welcomed by her
as a gentleman and a friend.
Yet I began almost to be sorry--almost to ask why I had not swallowed
Powers and accepted the invitation to dinner. Might I, in that way, have
had a better chance of getting rid of Powers in the end? It would have
been a wrong thing to do--I was still quite clear about that--wrong in
every way, and very disgusting, to boot; quite fatal to my self-respect,
and an acquiescence in a horrible want of self-respect in Jenny. But I
might have been useful to her. Now I could be of no use. That evening I
first set my feet on what I may perhaps call a moral slope. It looked a
very gentle slope; there did not appear to be any danger in it; it did
not look as though you could slip on it or as if it would be difficult
to recover yourself if slip you did. But, in fact, at the bottom of that
moral slope--which grew steeper as it descended--lay a moral precipice.
Nothing less can I call the conclusion that anything which might be
useful to Jenny Driver became, by the mere force of that possible
utility, morally right--conduct, so to speak, becoming to an officer and
a gentleman. I was not, of course, at all aware that my insidious
doubt--or, rather, my puzzling discontent with myself--could lead to any
such chasm as that.
I ate my chop and tried to settle down to my books. First I tried
theology, the study of which I had by no means abandoned. But I was not
theologically inclined that night. Then I took up a magazine; politics
emphatically would not do! I fell back on anthropology, and got on there
considerably better. Yet presently my attention wandered even from that.
I sat with the book open before me, at a page where three members of the
Warramunga tribe were represented in adornments that, on an ordinary
evening, would have filled me with admiration. No, I was languid about
it. The last thing I remembered was hearing the back door locked--which
meant that the Fields were going to bed. After that I fail to trace
events, but I imagine that I speedily fell sound asleep--with the book
open before me and my pipe lying by it on the table.
I awoke with a little shiver, pretended to myself that I had never
stopped reading, gave up the pretence, pushed back my chair from the
table, rose, and turned to the fire behind me.
In my old leather arm-chair sat Jenny Driver.
She wore a black evening dress, with a cloak of brown fur thrown open in
front--both, no doubt, new acquisitions. The fire had died down to a
small heap of bright red embers. When first I saw her, she was crouching
close over it--the night was chilly--and her face was red with its glow.
"Miss Driver! I--I'm afraid I've been asleep," I stammered. "Have you
been here long?"
She glanced at the clock; it was half-past ten. "About twenty minutes.
I've had a good look round--at your room, and your books, and that queer
picture which seems to have sent you to sleep. Your room's very
comfortable."
"Yes, it's a jolly little room," I agreed. "But what----?"
"And I've had a good look at you, too," she continued. "Do you know, Mr.
Austin, you're really rather handsome?"
"I daresay I look my best by lamplight," I suggested, smiling.
"No, really I think you are--in the thin ascetic style. I like
that--anyhow for a change. Well, I wanted a word with you, so I waited
till Chat went to bed, and then slipped down."
It was on the tip of my tongue to observe that it was rather late; but a
smile on Jenny's lips somehow informed me that she expected just such an
objection. So I said nothing.
"Chat and I are going to London to-morrow--to shop. Perhaps we may go on
to Paris. I thought you might like to say good-by."
"That's very kind of you. I'm glad we're not to part in--well, as we
parted this afternoon."
"If you regretted that, you might have done something to prevent it.
Light your pipe again; you'll be able to think better--and I want you to
think a little."
I obeyed her direction, she sitting for the moment silent. I came and
stood opposite to her, leaning my elbow on the mantelpiece.
"When I first knew Mr. Powers, I was sixteen, and I'd been with the
Smalls since I was eleven. You didn't get very discriminating, living
with the Smalls. I met him at a subscription dance: I didn't know
anything about his wife. He was clerk to an architect, or surveyor, or
something of that sort. I met him a good many times afterwards--for
walks. He was good-looking in his way, and he said he was in love with
me. I fell in love with him and, when I couldn't get away to meet him, I
wrote letters. Then I heard about the wife--and I wrote more letters.
You know the sort--very miserable, and, I suppose, very silly--that I
didn't know what to do, only the world was over for me--and so on. You
can imagine the sort of letter. And I saw him--once or twice. He told me
that he was in great trouble; he'd been racing and playing cards and
couldn't pay; he'd be shown up, and lose his place--and what would
become of his wife and child? I flared up and said that I was the last
person who was likely to care about his wife and child. Then he
suggested that I should get money from my father--he knew all about my
father--by saying that I was in some trouble. I told him I couldn't
possibly; I was never allowed to write and should only get an answer
from a lawyer if I did--and certainly no money. He persisted--and I
persisted. He threatened vaguely what he could do. I told him to do as
he liked--that I'd done with him for good. I never wrote again--and I
never saw him till to-day."
"When you asked him to dinner!"
She smiled, but took no more heed. "Well, I was in a scrape, wasn't I? I
saw that clearly--rather a bad scrape. I didn't see what to do, though I
did a lot of thinking. Being in a scrape does teach one to think,
doesn't it? Then suddenly--when I was at my wits' end--it flashed across
me that possibly it might all have happened for the best. My great
object all through my girlhood was, somehow or other, to get into touch
with my father. I believed that, if I could get a fair chance, I could
win him over and persuade him to let me pay him a visit--even live with
him perhaps. That was my great dream--and I was prepared to go through a
lot for the hope of it. Well, it didn't come off. I don't know what Mr.
Powers did--but it was not my father who came, it was Mr. Cartmell. I
was taken away from the Smalls, but not allowed to come here. I was sent
to the Simpsons. My father never wrote one word, good or bad, to me. Mr.
Cartmell gave me a lecture. I didn't mind that. I was so furious with
him for coming that I didn't care a straw what he said."
"His coming upset your brilliant idea?"
"Yes--that time. One can't always succeed. Still it's wonderful how
often a scrape can be turned to account, if you think how to use it.
You're in a corner: that sharpens your brains; you hit on something."
"Perhaps it does. You seem to speak from experience."
"Well, nobody means to get into them, of course, but you get drawn on.
It's fun to see how far you can go--and what other people will do, and
so on."
"Rather dangerous!"
"Well, perhaps that's part of the fun. By the by, I suppose I might get
into a little scrape if I stayed here much longer. Chat would be very
shocked--Loft, too, I expect!"
"It is getting on for eleven o'clock."
"Yes." She rose and drew her cloak round her. "Mr. Powers didn't come to
dinner," she said. "On reflection, I wrote to him and told him that it
was better not to renew our acquaintance, and that he must accept that
as my final decision."
"That's something gained, anyhow," said I, with a sigh of relief.
"Something gained for you?" she asked quickly and suspiciously.
"I don't believe I was thinking of myself at the moment."
She looked at me closely. "No, I don't think you were--and there's no
real reason why it should make any difference to you. Well, that depends
on yourself! Mr. Powers is of no consequence one way or the other. The
question is--are we two to try and get on together."
"I got on with your father," said I.
"You didn't tell my father what he was to do and not to do."
"Yes, sometimes--in social matters. It may surprise you to hear it, but
your father was always ready to learn things that other people could
tell him."
"Well, here are my concessions. Never mind what I said this afternoon--I
was in a rage. I won't call you a servant again; I won't make you come
to dinner when you don't want to; I won't demand that you meet my
friends if you don't want to."
"That's very kind and handsome of you."
"Wait a minute. Now for my side. Mr. Austin, if you're not a servant
here, neither are you a master. Oh, I know, you disclaim any such idea,
but still--think over this afternoon! You can't stay here as a master. I
daresay you think I want a master. I don't think so. If I do, I suppose
I can marry!"
"For my own part I venture to hope you will marry--soon and very
happily."
"But my father? 'Suspect and fear marriage.' 'You need fear no man
except the man to whom you have given yourself.'"
"Your father's experience was, you know, unhappily not fortunate."
Her face clouded to melancholy. "I don't believe mine would be," she
murmured. Then she raised her voice again and smiled. "Neither servant
nor master--but friend, Mr. Austin?" And she held out her hand to me.
"I accept most heartily, and I'll try to keep the bargain." I put out my
hand to take hers, but, as if on a sudden thought, she drew hers back.
"Wait a moment still. What do you mean by a friend? One who likes me,
has my happiness at heart?"
"Yes."
"Gives me the best advice he can, speaking his mind honestly, without
fear and in friendship?"
"Yes."
A touch of mockery in her eyes warned me neither to take the questions
too seriously nor to make my answers too grave. The mockery crept into
her tone with the next interrogation.
"When I don't take his advice and get into a scrape, says, 'I told you
so. I'm all right--you get out of your scrape in the best way you can?'"
"Call me no friend when I say that," I answered.
"Ah!" she whispered and gave me the hand which she before had withdrawn.
"Now really!" she cried gayly, with a glance at the clock. "You go back
to sleep--I have to get ready for a journey. No, don't come with me.
I'll run up to the house by myself. Good night, my--friend!"
I opened the door for her, answering, "Good night." But she had one more
word for me before she went, turning her face to me, merry with a smile
and twinkling eyes--
"I suppose you haven't got a wife anywhere, have you, Mr. Austin?" She
ran off, not waiting for an answer.
The appearance of Mr. Powers had not cost me my place: but it had
defined my position--to Jenny's complete satisfaction! It had also
elicited from her some interesting observations on the value of
scrapes--the place they hold in life, and how a man--or woman--may turn
them to account. I felt that I knew Jenny better for our quarrel and our
talk.