END AND BEGINNING
I
"Mrs. Tams!" said Mrs. Maldon, in a low, alarmed, and urgent voice.
The gas was turned down in the bedroom, and Mrs. Maldon, looking from
her bed across the chamber, could only just distinguish the stout,
vague form of the charwoman asleep in an arm-chair. The light from
the street lamp was strong enough to throw faint shadows of the
window-frames on the blinds. The sleeper did not stir.
Mrs. Maldon summoned again, more loudly--
"Mrs. Tams!"
And Mrs. Tams, starting out of another world, replied with
deprecation--
"Hey, hey!" as if saying: "I am here. I am fully awake and observant.
Please remain calm."
Mrs. Maldon said agitatedly--
"I've just heard the front door open. I'm sure whoever it was was
trying not to make a noise. There! Can't you hear anything?"
"That I canna'!" said Mrs. Tams.
"No!" Mrs. Maldon protested, as Mrs. Tams approached the gas to raise
it. "Don't touch the gas. If anybody's got in let them think we're
asleep."
The mystery of the vanished money and the fear of assassins seemed
suddenly to oppress the very air of the room. Mrs. Maldon was leaning
on one elbow in her bed.
Mrs. Tams said to her in a whisper--
"I mun go see."
"Please don't!" Mrs. Maldon entreated.
"I mun go see," said Mrs. Tams.
She was afraid, but she conceived that she ought to examine the house,
and no fear could have stopped her from going forth into the zone of
danger.
The next moment she gave a short laugh, and said in her ordinary
tone--
"Bless us! I shall be forgetting the nose on my face next. It's Miss
Rachel coming in, of course."
"Miss Rachel coming in!" repeated Mrs. Maldon. "Has she been out? I
was not aware. She said nothing--"
"Her came up a bit since, and said her had to do some shopping."
"Shopping! At this time of night!" murmured Mrs. Maldon.
Said Mrs. Tams laconically--
"To-morrow's Sunday--and pray God ye'll fancy a bite o' summat tasty."
While the two old women, equalized in rank by the fact of Mrs.
Maldon's illness, by the sudden alarm, and by the darkness of the
room, were thus conversing, sounds came from the pavement through
the slightly open windows--voices, and the squeak of the gate roughly
pushed open.
"That's Miss Rachel now," said Mrs. Tams.
"Then who was it came in before?" Mrs. Maldon demanded.
There was the tread of rapid feet on the stone steps, and then the
gate squeaked again.
Mrs. Tams went to the window and pulled aside the blind.
"Aye!" she announced simply. "It's Miss Rachel and Mr. Fores."
Mrs. Maldon caught her breath.
"You didn't tell me she was out with Mr. Fores," said Mrs. Maldon,
stiffly but weakly.
"It's first I knew of it," Mrs. Tams replied, still spying over the
pavement. "He's given her th' key. There! He's gone."
Mrs. Maldon muttered--
"The key? What key?"
"Th' latch-key belike."
"I must speak to Miss Rachel," breathed Mrs. Maldon in a voice of
extreme and painful apprehension.
The front door closing sent a vibration through the bedroom. Mrs.
Tarns hesitated an instant, and then raised the gas. Mrs. Maldon lay
with shut eyes on her left side and gave no sign of consciousness.
Light footsteps could be heard on the stairs.
"I'll go see," said Mrs. Tams.
In the heart of the aged woman exanimate on the bed, and in the heart
of the aging woman whose stout, coarse arm was still raised to the
gas-tap, were the same sentiments of wonder, envy, and pity, aroused
by the enigmatic actions of a younger generation going its perilous,
instinctive ways to keep the race alive.
Mrs. Tarns lighted a benzolene hand-lamp at the gas, and silently left
the bedroom. She still somewhat feared an unlawful invader, but the
arrival of Rachel had reassured her. Preceded by the waving
little flame, she passed Rachel's door, which was closed, and went
downstairs. Every mysterious room on the ground floor was in order and
empty. No sign of an invasion. Through the window of the kitchen she
saw the fresh cutlets under a wire cover in the scullery; and on the
kitchen table were the tin of pineapple and the tin of cocoa, with the
reticule near by. All doors that ought to be fastened were fastened.
She remounted the stairs and blew out the lamp on the threshold of the
mistress's bedroom. And as she did so she could hear Rachel winding
up her alarm-clock in quick jerks, and the light shone bright like a
silver rod under Rachel's door.
"Her's gone reet to bed," said Mrs. Tams softly, by the bedside of
Mrs. Maldon. "Ye've no cause for to worrit yerself. I've looked over
th' house."
Mrs. Maldon was fast asleep.
Mrs. Tams lowered the gas and resumed her chair, and the street lamp
once more threw the shadows of the window-frames on the blinds.
II
The next day Mrs. Tams, who had been appointed to sleep in the spare
room, had to exist under the blight of Rachel's chill disapproval
because she had not slept in the spare room--nor in any bed at all.
The arrangement had been that Mrs. Tams should retire at 4 a.m.,
Rachel taking her place with Mrs. Maldon. Mrs. Tams had not retired at
4 a.m. because Rachel had not taken her place.
As a fact, Rachel had been wakened by a bang of the front door,
at 10.30 a.m. only. Her first glance at the alarm-clock on her
dressing-table was incredulous. And she refused absolutely to believe
that the hour was so late. Yet the alarm-clock was giving its usual
sturdy, noisy tick, and the sun was high. Then she refused to believe
that the alarm had gone off, and in order to remain firm in her belief
she refrained from any testing of the mechanism, which might--indeed,
would--have proved that the alarm had in fact gone off. It became
with her an article of dogma that on that particular morning, of all
mornings, the very reliable alarm-clock had failed in its duty. The
truth was that she had lain awake till nearly three o'clock, turning
from side to side and thinking bitterly upon the imperfections of
human nature, and had then fallen into a deep, invigorating sleep from
which perhaps half a dozen alarm-clocks might not have roused her.
She arose full of health and anger, and in a few minutes she was out
of the bedroom, for she had not fully undressed; like many women, when
there was watching to be done, she loved to keep her armour on and to
feel the exciting strain of the unusual in every movement. She fell
on Mrs. Tams as Mrs. Tams was coming upstairs after letting out the
doctor and refreshing herself with cocoa in the kitchen. A careless
observer might have thought from their respective attitudes that it
was Mrs. Tarns, and not Rachel, who had overslept herself. Rachel
divided the blame between the alarm-clock and Mrs. Tams for not
wakening her; indeed, she seemed to consider herself the victim of
a conspiracy between Mrs. Tams and the alarm-clock. She explicitly
blamed Mrs. Tams for allowing the doctor to come and go without her
knowledge. Even the doctor did not get off scot-free, for he ought to
have asked for Rachel and insisted on seeing her.
She examined Mrs. Tams about the invalid's health as a lawyer examines
a hostile witness. And when Mrs. Tams said that the invalid had slept,
and was sleeping, stertorously in an unaccountable manner, and hinted
that the doctor was not undisturbed by the new symptom and meant to
call again later on, Rachel's tight-lipped mien indicated that this
might not have occurred if only Mrs. Tams had fulfilled her obvious
duty of wakening Rachel. Though she was hungry, she scornfully
repulsed the suggestion of breakfast. Mrs. Tams, thoroughly accustomed
to such behaviour in the mighty, accepted it as she accepted the
weather. But if she had had to live through the night again--after
all, a quite tolerable night--she would still not have wakened Rachel
at 4 a.m.
Rachel softened as the day passed. She ate a good dinner at one
o'clock, with Mrs. Tams in the kitchen, one or the other mounting at
short intervals to see if Mrs. Maldon had stirred. Then she changed
into her second-best frock, in anticipation of the doctor's Sunday
afternoon visit, strictly commanded Mrs. Tams (but with relenting
kindness in her voice) to go and lie down, and established herself
neatly in the sick-room.
Though her breathing had become noiseless again, Mrs. Maldon still
slept. She had wakened only once since the previous night. She lay
calm and dignified in slumber--an old and devastated woman, with that
disconcerting resemblance to a corpse shown by all aged people
asleep, but yet with little sign of positive illness save the slight
distortion of her features caused by the original attack. Rachel sat
idle, prim, in vague reflection, at intervals smoothing her petticoat,
or giving a faint cough, or gazing at the mild blue September sky. She
might have been reading a book, but she was not by choice a reader.
She had the rare capacity of merely existing. Her thoughts flitted to
and fro, now resting on Mrs. Maldon with solemnity, now on Mrs. Tams
with amused benevolence, now on old Batchgrew with lofty disgust, and
now on Louis Fores with unquiet curiosity and delicious apprehension.
She gave a little shudder of fright and instantly controlled it--Mrs.
Maldon, instead of being asleep, was looking at her. She rose and went
to the bedside and stood over the sick woman, by the pillow, benignly,
asking with her eyes what desire of the sufferer's she might fulfil.
And Mrs. Maldon looked up at her with another benignity. And they both
smiled.
"You've slept very well," said Rachel softly.
Mrs. Maldon, continuing to smile, gave a scarcely perceptible
affirmative movement of the head.
"Will you have some of your Revalenta? I've only got to warm it, here.
Everything's ready."
"Nothing, thank you, dear," said Mrs. Maldon, in a firm,
matter-of-fact voice.
The doctor had left word that food was not to be forced on her.
"Do you feel better?"
Mrs. Maldon answered, in a peculiar tone--
"My dear, I shall never feel any better than I do now."
"Oh, you mustn't talk like that!" said Rachel in gay protest.
"I want to talk to you, Rachel," said Mrs. Maldon, once more
reassuringly matter-of-fact. "Sit down there."
Rachel obediently perched herself on the bed, and bent her head. And
her face, which was now much closer to Mrs. Maldon's, expressed
the gravity which Mrs. Maldon would wish, and also the affectionate
condescension of youth towards age, and of health towards infirmity.
And as almost unconsciously she exulted in her own youth, and
strength, delicate little poniards of tragic grief for Mrs. Maldon's
helpless and withered senility seemed to stab through that personal
pride. The shiny, veined right hand of the old woman emerged from
under the bedclothes and closed with hot, fragile grasp on Rachel's
hand.
Within the impeccable orderliness of the bedroom was silence;
and beyond was the vast Sunday afternoon silence of the district,
producing the sensation of surcease, re-creating the impressive
illusion of religion even out of the brutish irreligion that was
bewailed from pulpits to empty pews in all the temples of all the Five
Towns. Only the smoke waving slowly through the clean-washed sky from
a few high chimneys over miles of deserted manufactories made a link
between Saturday and Monday.
"I've something I want to say to you," said Mrs. Maldon, in that
deceptive matter-of-fact voice. "I wanted to tell you yesterday
afternoon, but I couldn't. And then again last night, but I went off
to sleep."
"Yes?" murmured Rachel, duped by Mrs. Maldon's manner into perfect
security. She was thinking: "What's the poor old thing got into her
head now? Is it something fresh about the money?"
"It's about yourself," said Mrs. Maldon.
Rachel exclaimed impulsively--
"What about me?"
She could feel a faint vibration in Mrs. Maldon's hand.
"I want you not to see so much of Louis."
Rachel was shocked and insulted. She straightened her spine and threw
back her head sharply. But she dared not by force withdraw her hand
from Mrs. Maldon's. Moreover, Mrs. Maldon's clasp tightened almost
convulsively.
"I suppose Mr. Batchgrew's been up here telling tales while I was
asleep," Rachel expostulated, hotly and her demeanour was at once
pouting, sulky, and righteously offended.
Mrs. Maldon was puzzled.
"This morning, do you mean, dear?" she asked.
Tears stood in Rachel's eyes. She could not speak, but she nodded her
head. And then another sentence burst from her full breast: "And you
told Mrs. Tams she wasn't to tell me Mr. Batchgrew'd called!"
"I've not seen or heard anything of Mr. Batchgrew," said Mrs. Maldon.
"But I did hear you and Louis talking outside last night."
The information startled Rachel.
"Well, and what if you did, Mrs. Maldon?" she defended herself. Her
foot tapped on the floor. She was obliged to defend herself, and
with care. Mrs. Maldon's tranquillity, self-control, immense age and
experience, superior deportment, extreme weakness, and the respect
which she inspired, compelled the girl to intrench warily, instead
of carrying off the scene in one stormy outburst of resentment as
theoretically she might have done.
Mrs. Maldon said, cajolingly, flatteringly--
"My dear, do be your sensible self and listen to me."
It then occurred to Rachel that during the last day or so (the period
seemed infinitely longer) she had been losing, not her common
sense, but her immediate command of that faculty, of which she was,
privately, very proud. And she braced her being, reaching up towards
her own conception of herself, towards the old invulnerable Rachel
Louisa Fleckring. At any cost she must keep her reputation for common
sense with Mrs. Maldon.
And so she set a watch on her gestures, and moderated her voice,
secretly yielding to the benevolence of the old lady, and said, in
the tone of a wise and kind woman of the world and an incarnation of
profound sagacity--
"What do I see of Mr. Fores, Mrs. Maldon? I see nothing of Mr. Fores,
or hardly. I'm your lady help, and he's your nephew--at least, he's
your great-nephew, and it's your house he comes to. I can't help being
in the house, can I? If you're thinking about last night, well, Mr.
Fores called to see how you were getting on, and I was just going out
to do some shopping. He walked down with me. I suppose I needn't tell
you I didn't ask him to walk down with me. He asked me. I couldn't
hardly say no, could I? And there were some parcels and he walked back
with me."
She felt so wise and so clever and the narrative seemed so entirely
natural, proper, and inevitable that she was tempted to continue--
"And supposing we _did_ go into a cinematograph for a minute or
two--what then?"
But she had no courage for the confession. As a wise woman she
perceived the advisability of letting well alone. Moreover, she hated
confessions, remorse, and gnashing of teeth.
And Mrs. Maldon regarded her worldly and mature air, with its touch of
polite condescension, as both comic and tragic, and thought sadly
of all the girl would have to go through before the air of mature
worldliness which she was now affecting could become natural to her.
"My dear," said Mrs. Maldon, "I have perfect confidence in you." It
was not quite true, because Rachel's protest as to Mr. Batchgrew,
seeming to point to strange concealed incidents, had most certainly
impaired the perfection of Mrs. Maiden's confidence in Rachel.
Rachel considered that she ought to pursue her advantage, and in a
voice light and yet firm, good-natured and yet restive, she said--
"I really don't think anybody has the right to talk to me about Mr.
Fores.... No, truly I don't."
"You mustn't misunderstand me, Rachel," Mrs. Maldon replied, and her
other hand crept out, and stroked Rachel's captive hand. "I am only
saying to you what it is my duty to say to you--or to any other young
woman that comes to live in my house. You're a young woman, and Louis
is a young man. I'm making no complaint. But it's my duty to warn you
against my nephew."
"But, Mrs. Maldon, I didn't know either him or you a month ago!"
Mrs. Maldon, ignoring the interruption, proceeded quietly--
"My nephew is not to be trusted."
Her aged face slowly flushed as in that single brief sentence she
overthrew the grand principle of a lifetime. She who never spoke ill
of anybody had spoken ill of one of her own family.
"But--" Rachel stopped. She was frightened by the appearance of the
flush on those devastated yellow cheeks, and by a quiver in the feeble
voice and in the clasping hand. She could divine the ordeal which Mrs.
Maldon had set herself and through which she had passed. Mrs. Maldon
carried conviction, and in so doing she inspired awe. And on the
top of all Rachel felt profoundly and exquisitely flattered by the
immolation of Mrs. Maiden's pride.
"The money--it has something to do with that!" thought Rachel.
"My nephew is not to be trusted," said Mrs. Maldon again. "I know
all his good points. But the woman who married him would suffer
horribly--horribly!"
"I'm so sorry you've had to say this," said Rachel, very kindly. "But
I assure you that there's nothing at all, nothing whatever, between
Mr. Fores and me." And in that instant she genuinely believed that
there was not. She accepted Mrs. Maldon's estimate of Louis. And
further, and perhaps illogically, she had the feeling of having
escaped from a fatal danger. She expected Mrs. Maldon to agree eagerly
that there was nothing between herself and Louis, and to reiterate
her perfect confidence. But, instead, Mrs. Maldon, apparently treating
Rachel's assurance as negligible, continued with an added solemnity--
"I shall only live a little while longer--a very little while." The
contrast between this and her buoyant announcement on the previous
day that she was not going to die just yet was highly disturbing,
but Rachel could not protest or even speak. "A very little while!"
repeated Mrs. Maldon reflectively. "I've not known you long--as you
say--Rachel. But I've never seen a girl I liked more, if you don't
mind me telling you. I've never seen a girl I thought better of. And I
don't think I could die in peace if I thought Louis was going to
cause you any trouble after I'm gone. No, I couldn't die in peace if I
thought that."
And Rachel, intimately moved, thought: "She has saved me from
something dreadful!" (Without trying to realize precisely from what.)
"How splendid she is!"
And she cast out from her mind all the multitudinous images of Louis
Fores that were there. And, full of affection, and flattered pride and
gratitude and childlike admiration, she bent down and rewarded the old
woman who had so confided in her with a priceless girlish kiss. And
she had the sensation of beginning a new life.
III
And yet, a few moments later, when Mrs. Maldon faintly murmured, "Some
one at the front door," Rachel grew at once uneasy, and the new life
seemed an illusion--either too fine to be true or too leaden to be
desired; and she was swaying amid uncertainties. Perhaps Louis was at
the front door. He had not yet called; but surely he was bound to call
some time during the day! Of the dozen different Rachels in Rachel,
one adventurously hoped that he would come, and another feared that he
would come; one ruled him sharply out of the catalogue of right-minded
persons, and another was ready passionately to defend him.
"I think not," said Rachel.
"Yes, dear; I heard some one," Mrs. Maldon insisted.
Mrs. Maldon, long practised in reconstructing the life of the street
from trifling hints of sound heard in bed, was not mistaken. Rachel,
opening the door of the bedroom, caught the last tinkling of the
front-door bell below. On the other side of the front door somebody
was standing--Louis Fores, or another!
"It may be the doctor," she said brightly, as she left the bedroom.
The coward in her wanted it to be the doctor. But, descending the
stairs, she could see plainly through the glass that Louis himself was
at the front door. The Rachel that feared was instantly uppermost in
her. She was conscious of dread. From the breathless sinking within
her bosom the stairs might have been the deck of a steamer pitching in
a heavy sea.
She thought--
"Here is the Louis to whom I am indifferent. There is nothing between
us, really. But shall I have strength to open the door to him?"
She opened the door, with the feeling that the act was tremendous and
irrevocable.
The street, in the Sabbatic sunshine, was as calm as at midnight.
Louis Fores, stiff and constrained, stood strangely against the
background of it. The unusualness of his demeanour, which was plain to
the merest glance, increased Rachel's agitation. It appeared to Rachel
that the two of them faced each other like wary enemies. She tried to
examine his face in the light of Mrs. Maldon's warning, as though it
were the face of a stranger; but without much success.
"Is auntie well enough for me to see her?" asked Louis, without
greeting or preliminary of any sort. His voice was imperfectly under
control.
Rachel replied curtly--
"I dare say she is."
To herself she said--
"Of course if he's going to sulk about last night--well, he must sulk.
Really and truly he got much less than he deserved. He had no business
at all to have suggested me going to the cinematograph with him. The
longer he sulks the better I shall be pleased."
And in fact she was relieved at his sullenness. She tossed her proud
head, but with primness. And she fervently credited to the full Mrs.
Maldon's solemn insinuations against the disturber.
Louis hesitated a second, then stepped in. Rachel marched
processionally upstairs, and with the detachment of a footman
announced to Mrs. Maldon that Mr. Fores waited below. "Oh, please
bring him up," said Mrs. Maldon, with a mild and casual benevolence
that surprised the girl; for Rachel, in the righteous ferocity of
her years, vaguely thought that an adverse moral verdict ought to be
swiftly followed by something in the nature of annihilation.
"Will you please come up," she invited Louis, from the head of the
stairs, adding privately--"I can be as stiff as you can--and stiffer.
How mistaken I was in you!"
She preceded him into the bedroom, and then with ostentatious
formality left aunt and nephew together. Nobody should ever say any
more that she encouraged the attentions of Louis Fores.
"What is the matter, dear?" Mrs. Maldon inquired from her bed,
perceiving the signs of emotion on Louis' face.
"Has Mr. Batchgrew been here yet?" Louis demanded.
"No. Is he coming?"
"Yes, he's just been to my digs. Came in his car. Auntie, do you know
that he's accusing me of stealing your money--and--and--all sorts of
things! I don't want to hide anything from you. It's true I was with
Rachel at the cinematograph last night, but--"
Mrs. Maldon raised her enfeebled, shaking hand.
"Louis!" she entreated. His troubled, ingenuous face seemed to torture
her.
"I know it's a shame to bother you, auntie. But what was I to do? He's
coming up here. I only want to tell you I've not got your money. I've
not stolen it. I'm absolutely innocent--absolutely. And I'll swear it
on anything you like." His voice almost broke under the strain of its
own earnestness. His plaintive eyes invoked justice and protection.
Who could have doubted that he was sincere in this passionate, wistful
protestation of innocence?
"Louis!" Mrs. Maldon entreated again, committing herself to naught,
taking no side, but finding shelter beneath the enigmatic, appealing
repetition of his name. It was the final triumph of age over crude
youth. "Louis!"
IV
Rachel stood expectant and watchful in the kitchen. She was now filled
with dread. She wanted to go up and waken Mrs. Tams, but was too
proud. The thought had come into her mind: "His coming like this has
something to do with the money. Perhaps he wasn't sulking with me
after all. Perhaps ..." But what it was that she dreaded she could
not have defined. And then she caught the sound of an approaching
automobile. The car threw its shadow across the glazed front door,
which she commanded from the kitchen, and stopped. And the front-door
bell rang uncannily over her head. She opened the door to Councillor
Batchgrew, whose breathing was irregular and rapid.
"Has Louis Fores been here?" Batchgrew asked.
"He's upstairs now with Mrs. Maldon."
Without warning, Thomas Batchgrew strode into the house and straight
upstairs. His long whiskers sailed round the turn of the stairs and
disappeared. Rachel was somewhat discomfited, and very resentful.
But her dread was not thereby diminished. "They'll kill the old lady
between them if they don't take care," she thought.
The next instant Louis appeared at the head of the stairs. With
astounding celerity Rachel slipped into the parlour. She could not
bear to encounter him in the lobby--it was too narrow. She heard Louis
come down the stairs, saw him take his hat from the oak chest and
heard him open the front gate. In the lobby he had looked neither
to right nor left. "How do, Ernest!" she heard him greet the amateur
chauffeur-in-chief of the Batchgrew family. His footfalls on the
pavement died away into the general silence of the street. Overhead
she could hear old Batchgrew walking to and fro. Without reflection
she went upstairs and hovered near the door of Mrs. Maldon's bedroom.
She said to herself that she was not eavesdropping. She listened,
while pretending not to listen, but there was no sign of conversation
within the room. And then she very distinctly heard old Batchgrew
exclaim--
"And they go gallivanting off together to the cinema!"
Upon which ensued another silence.
Rachel flushed with shame, fury, and apprehension. She hated
Batchgrew, and Louis, and all gross masculine invaders.
The mysterious silence within the room persisted. And then old
Batchgrew violently opened the door and glared at Rachel. He showed no
surprise at seeing her there on the landing.
"Ye'd better keep an eye on missis," he said gruffly. "She's gone to
sleep seemingly."
And with no other word he departed.
Before the car had given its warning hoot Rachel was at Mrs. Maldon's
side. The old lady lay in all tranquillity on her left arm. She was
indeed asleep, or she was in a stupor, and the peculiar stertorous
noise of her breathing had recommenced.
Rachel's vague dread vanished as she gazed at the worn features, and
gave place to a new and definite fright.
"They have killed her!" she muttered.
And she ran into the next room and called Mrs. Tams.
"Who's below?" asked Mrs. Tarns, as, wide awake, she came out on to
the landing.
"Nobody," said Rachel. "They've gone."
But the doctor was below. Mr. Batchgrew had left the front door open.
"What a good thing!" cried Rachel.
In the bedroom Dr. Yardley, speaking with normal loudness, just as
though Mrs. Maldon had not been present, said to Rachel--
"I expected this this morning. There's nothing to be done. If you
try to give her food she'll only get it into the lung. It's very
improbable that she'll regain consciousness."
"But are you sure, doctor?" Rachel asked.
The doctor answered grimly--
"No, I'm not--I'm never sure. She _may_ recover."
"She's been rather disturbed this afternoon."
The doctor lifted his shoulders.
"That's got nothing to do with it," said he. "As I told you, she's
had an embolus in one artery of the brain. It lessened at first for
a bit--they do sometimes--and now it's enlarging, that's all. Nothing
external could affect it either way."
"But how long--?" asked Rachel, recoiling.
V
Her chief sensation that evening was that she was alone, for Mrs.
Tams was not a companion, but a slave. She was alone with a grave and
strange responsibility, which she could not evade. Indeed, events had
occurred in such a manner as to make her responsibility seem
natural and inevitable, to give it the sanction of the most correct
convention. Between 4.30 and 6 in the afternoon four separate calls of
inquiry had been made at the house, thus demonstrating Mrs. Maldon's
status in the town. One lady had left a fine bunch of grapes. To all
these visitors Rachel had said the same things, namely, that Mrs.
Maldon had been better on the Saturday, but was worse; that the case
was very serious; that the doctor had been twice that day and was
coming again, that Councillor Batchgrew was fully informed and had
seen the patient; that Mr. Louis Fores, Mrs. Maldon's only near
relative in England, was constantly in and out; that she herself had
the assistance of Mrs. Tams, who was thoroughly capable, and that
while she was much obliged for offers of help, she could think of no
way of utilizing them.
So that when the door closed on the last of the callers, Rachel, who
a month earlier had never even seen Mrs. Maldon, was left in sole
rightful charge of the dying-bed. And there was no escape for her.
She could not telegraph--the day being Sunday. Moreover, except Thomas
Batchgrew, there was nobody to whom she might telegraph. And she did
not want Mr. Batchgrew. Though Mr. Batchgrew certainly had not guessed
the relapse, she felt no desire whatever to let him have news.
She hated his blundering intrusions; and in spite of the doctor's
statements she would insist to herself that he and Louis between them
had somehow brought about the change in Mrs. Maldon. Of course she
might fetch Louis. She did not know his exact address, but he could
be discovered. At any rate, Mrs. Tams might be sent for him. But she
could not bring herself to make any advance towards Louis.
At a little after six o'clock, when the rare chapel-goers had ceased
to pass, and the still rarer church-goers were beginning to respond
to distant bells, Mrs. Tams informed her that tea was ready for her in
the parlour, and she descended and took tea, utterly alone. Mrs. Tams
had lighted the fire, and had moved the table comfortably towards the
fire--act of astounding initiative and courage, in itself a dramatic
proof that Mrs. Maldon no longer reigned at Bycars. Tea finished,
Rachel returned to the sick-room, where there was nothing whatever
to do except watch the minutes recede. She thought of her father and
brother in America.
Then Mrs. Tams, who had been clearing away the tea-things, came into
the bedroom and said--
"Here's Mr. Fores, miss."
Rachel started.
"Mr. Fores! What does he want?" she asked querulously.
Mrs. Tams preserved her blandness.
"He asked for you, miss."
"Didn't he ask how Mrs. Maldon is?"
"No, miss."
"Well, I don't want to see him. You might run down and tell him what
the doctor said, Mrs. Tams." She tried to make her voice casually
persuasive.
"Shall I, miss?" said Miss Tams doubtfully, and turned to the door.
Rachel was again full of fear and resentment. Louis had committed the
infamy of luring her into the cinematograph. It was through him that
she had "got herself talked about." Mrs. Maldon's last words had
been a warning against him. He and Mr. Batchgrew had desecrated the
sick-room with their mysterious visitations. And now Louis was come
again. From what catastrophes had not Mrs. Maldon's warning saved her!
"Here! I'll go," said Rachel, in a sudden resolve.
"I'm glad on it," said Mrs. Tams simply.
In the parlour Louis stood in front of the fire. Although the blinds
were drawn, the gas had not been lighted; but the fire and the
powerful street lamp together sufficed to give clearness to every
object in the room. The table had been restored to its proper
situation. The gift of grapes ornamented the sideboard.
"Good-evening," said Rachel sullenly, as if pouting. She avoided
looking at Louis, and sat down on the Chesterfield.
Louis broke forth in a cascade of words--
"I say, I'm most awfully sorry. I hadn't the faintest notion this
afternoon she was any worse--not the faintest. Otherwise I shouldn't
have dreamt--I met the doctor just now in Moorthorne Road, and he told
me."
"What did he tell you?" asked Rachel, still with averted head, picking
at her frock.
"Well, he gave me to understand there's very little hope, and nothing
to be done. If I'd had the faintest notion--"
"You needn't worry about that," said Rachel. "Your coming made no
difference. The doctor said so." And she asked herself why she should
go out of her way to reassure Louis. It would serve him right to think
that his brusque visit, with Mr. Batchgrew's, was the origin of the
relapse.
"Is there any change?" Louis asked.
Rachel shook her head "No," she said. "We just have to sit and watch."
"Doctor's coming in again to-night, isn't he?"
Rachel nodded.
"It seems it's an embolus."
Rachel nodded once more. She had still no conception of what an
embolus was; but she naturally assumed that Louis could define an
embolus with exactitude.
"I say," said Louis, and his voice was suddenly charged with magical
qualities of persuasion, entreaty, and sincerity--"I say, you might
look at me."
She flushed, but she looked up at him. She might have sat straight and
remarked: "Mr. Fores, what do you mean by talking to me like that?"
But she raised her eyes and her crimson cheeks for one timid instant,
and dropped them. His voice had overcome her. With a single phrase,
with a mere inflection, he had changed the key of the interview. And
the glance at him had exposed her to the appeal of his face, more
powerful than ten thousand logical arguments and warnings. His
face proved that he was a sympathetic, wistful, worried
fellow-creature--and miraculously, uniquely handsome. His face in the
twilight was the most romantic face that Rachel had ever seen. His
gestures had a celestial charm.
He said--
"I know I ought to apologize for the way I came in this afternoon. I
do. But if you knew what cause I had ...! Would you believe that old
Batch had come to my place, and practically accused me of stealing the
old lady's money--_stealing_ it!"
"Never!" Rachel murmured.
"Yes, he did. The fact is, he knew jolly well he'd no business to
have left it in the house that night, so he wanted to get out of it by
making _me_ suffer. You know he's always been down on me. Well,
I came straight up here and I told auntie. Of course I couldn't make a
fuss, with her ill in bed. So I simply told her I hadn't got her money
and I hadn't stolen it, and I left it at that. I thought the less said
the better. But I had to say that much. I wonder what Julian would
have said if he'd been accused. I just wonder!" He repeated the word,
queerly evocative: "Julian!"
"What did Mrs. Maldon say?" Rachel asked.
"Well, she didn't say much. She believed me, naturally. And then old
Batch came. I wasn't going to have a regular scene with him up there,
so I left. I thought that was the only dignified thing to do. I wanted
to tell you, and I've told you. Don't you think it's a shame?"
Rachel answered passionately--
"I do."
She answered thus because she had a tremendous desire to answer thus.
To herself she said: "Do I?... Yes, I do." Louis' eyes drew sympathy
out of her. It seemed to her to be of the highest importance that
those appealing eyes should not appeal in vain.
"Item, he made a fearful fuss about you and me being at the cinema
last night."
"I should like to know what it's got to do with him!" said Rachel,
almost savagely. The word "item" puzzled her. Not understanding it,
she thought she had misheard.
"That's what I thought, too," said Louis, and added, very gravely:
"At the same time I'm really awfully sorry. Perhaps I oughtn't to
have asked you. It was my fault. But old Batch would make the worst of
anything."
Rachel replied with feverish conviction--
"Mr. Batchgrew ought to be ashamed. You weren't to blame, and I won't
hear of it!"
Louis started forward with a sudden movement of the left arm.
"You're magnificent," he said, with emotion.
Rachel trembled, and shut her eyes. She heard his voice again, closer
to her, repeating with even greater emotion: "You're magnificent."
Tears were in her eyes. Through them she looked at him. And his form
was so graceful, his face so nice, so exquisitely kind and lovable and
loving, that her admiration became intense, even to the point of
pain. She thought of Batchgrew, not with hate, but with pity. He was
a monster, but he could not help it. He alone was responsible for all
slanders against Louis. He alone had put Mrs. Maldon against Louis.
Louis was obviously the most innocent of beings. Mrs. Maiden's
warning, "The woman who married him would suffer horribly," was
manifestly absurd. "Suffer horribly"--what a stinging phrase, like a
needle broken in a wound! She felt tired and weak, above all tired of
loneliness.
His hand was on hers. She trembled anew. She was not Rachel, but
some new embodiment of surrender and acquiescence. And the change was
delicious, fearful.... She thought: "I could die for him." She forgot
that a few minutes before she had been steeling herself against him.
She wanted him to kiss her, and waited an eternity. And when he had
kissed her, and she was in a maze of rapture, a tiny idea shaped
itself clearly in her mind for an instant: "This is wrong. But I don't
care. He is mine"--and then melted like a cloud in a burning sky. And
a sense of the miraculousness of destiny overcame her. In two days had
happened enough for two years. It was staggering to think that only
two days earlier she had been dreaming of him as of a star. Could
so much, indeed, happen in two days? She imagined blissfully, in her
ignorance of human experience, that her case was without precedent.
Nay, her case appalled her in the rapidity of its development! And was
thereby the more thrilling! She thought again: "Yes, I could die
for him--and I would!" He was still the star, but--such was the
miracle--she clasped him.
They heard Mrs. Tams knocking at the door. Nothing would ever cure the
charwoman's habit of knocking before entering. Rachel arose from the
sofa as out of a bush of blossoms. And in the artless, honest glance
of her virginity and her simplicity, her eyes seemed to say to Mrs.
Tams: "Behold the phoenix among men! He is to be my husband." Her
pride in the strange, wondrous, incredible state of being affianced
was tremendous, to the tragic point.
"Can ye hear, begging yer pardon?" said Mrs. Tams, pointing through
the open door and upward. "Her's just begun to breathe o' that'n [like
that]."
The loud, stertorous sound of Mrs. Maldon unconsciously drawing the
final breaths of life filled the whole house. Louis and Rachel glanced
at each other, scared, shamed, even horrified, to discover that the
vast pendulum of the universe was still solemnly ticking through their
ecstasy.
"I'm coming," said Rachel.