"It is just four years since I met the girl who was to be my wife. I was
taking a holiday in Ireland at the time; and daring a visit to an old
friend in Dublin I was introduced to a certain Mr. Payton, an Irish
squire, who had brought his two daughters up from the country for a few
weeks' gaiety. Well, we took a fancy to one another. I was always a
queer sort of chap, hating convention and all the trammels of society,
and I liked the old man at once. He was a big, jolly old boy, a thorough
sportsman and Irish to the backbone. Poor as a rat, yet living somehow
like a Prince; hospitable to a fault, and looking on debts and duns in
the light of a joke."
He paused for a second, then went on quietly:
"I went back with him and his two girls after their Dublin visit was
ended. They were all very kind to me, and there was a sort of charm
about the old castle where they lived, always in difficulties, yet
keeping open house, and managing, in some mysterious way, to have the
best of everything. There are people like that, you know--people who,
without possessing a penny, manage to acquire pounds' worth of
everything. It's an art, and old Squire Payton had it at his
finger-tips."
Outside the rain still fell. Inside the room everything was very quiet.
"Well, the end of it was that I fell in love with Eva Payton. She was
just eighteen--a bewitching age, I used to think, and as pretty as a
picture. Golden curls that were generally tied up with a blue ribbon,
big Irish eyes, put in, as they say, with a smutty finger, a little
mouth all soft curves, the tiniest, whitest teeth--oh, there's no
denying she was a beauty; and she made my heart beat faster every time
she looked at me."
He had spoken rather dreamily, and Toni sat still, fascinated by this
authentic peep into another's life; but with a sudden rather harsh
laugh, Herrick resumed his story in a different tone.
"Well, we were married. In those days I had a little money--not a great
deal, but I managed to make a fair income by painting. I never told you
I painted, did I? Well, I did--portraits chiefly; and made quite a
decent bit of money."
Toni, who knew nothing of art and artists, never suspected that she was
in the company of one of the best-known portrait-painters of the day;
and Herrick was well content to keep her in ignorance.
"So we were married and came back to London. We had a house in
Kensington--quite an unfashionable locality, but one of the big,
old-fashioned houses you find there, with a large garden which was worth
a fortune, to my way of thinking. But I soon found that my wife wasn't
satisfied to live quietly, out of the world, as it were. She hankered
after a house in St. John's Wood, among the 'other artists' or in
Hampstead among the rich people. She didn't want to be stuck down among
frumps and dowds, she said. West Kensington was all very well for women
who were churchy, given up to good works, but she wanted to be in a
lively, social, bridge-playing set; and she moped and pined so in our
quiet life that I gave in and we moved to a much smarter locality."
Toni, her eyes fixed on his face, said nothing when he paused; and after
a minute he resumed his narrative.
"Well, from the first it was an unlucky move--for me. The house was too
big, and required a lot of extra furnishing. The studio wasn't as good
as my other one had been, and there was only an apology for a garden.
But Eva had her wish. People called on her, and finding her pretty,
vivacious, clever in her quick Irish way, they took her up and made a
fuss of her. She was invited here and there, and of course her personal
expenditure rose in consequence. Unfortunately my work didn't increase
in proportion. I had the bad luck to fall ill--the only time in my life
I've ever had an illness--and for several months I was unable to touch a
brush. Of course I had a little money put by, and with ordinary prudence
we should have pulled through all right. But Eva had never learned
prudence. She had lived all her life in an atmosphere of debt and
dunning creditors and over in easy-going old Ireland no one cared a
straw if one were in debt or no. So to my horror when I was convalescent
I found my foolish little wife had been running up enormous bills.
Everything was in arrears. The housekeeping money had gone to pay for
her daily amusements, the servants were unpaid, the tradespeople
clamouring."
He laughed, rather drearily.
"Well, I sold out a little stock I had and set matters right or so I
thought. I put the rest of the money in the bank and told Eva she must
be rather careful. But imagine my horror when one day she came to me,
whimpering with fright, and confessed she had several personal bills
unpaid and the creditors were pressing her. At first she did not tell me
the whole truth. She prevaricated, showed me one or two bills not made
up to date, and was vague about the different amounts. Finally she owned
that she was in debt for nearly five hundred pounds."
"Five hundred pounds!" It was Toni's first interruption.
"Yes. Sounds a lot, doesn't it? We'd only been married a year. Still
there was nothing for it but to realize some more capital, and I did it,
and then asked for the bills. She brought them unwillingly, after a vain
attempt to get me to entrust the payment to her; and to my surprise and
relief, I found that three hundred would cover the lot."
"But----"
"Oh, it didn't--by a long way. By dint of a good deal of persuasion, I
got it out of my wife that the rest was owing to different friends for
bridge and racing debts. Of course I had forgotten that my little Irish
wife was a born horse-lover, and, I'm sorry to say, gambler; and I ought
not to have been surprised. But I was. And I'm afraid I was a bit
brutal. You see I couldn't help thinking it was rather hard that the
money I'd worked for was to be squandered; and I spoke rather sharply to
the poor child."
Toni, listening, thought he was justified in speaking sharply, but she
did not venture to say so.
"I scolded her first--she was like a child expecting to be sent to
bed--and then I got a statement of her debts and paid them. But I told
her, at the same time, that I should never do it again. I promised to
help her in little ways if the allowance I made her was insufficient;
but I pointed out to her that my income wouldn't stand the drain of huge
payments like these; and she cried pitifully and promised, solemnly,
that she would never play for money again."
"And she did?" Toni's interest in the story was her excuse.
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Of course. It was in her blood. Gambling in one form or another she
must have. Someone told me afterwards--after the crash--that it was an
almost uncanny sight to see my wife, looking like a child with her curls
and her big grey eyes, sitting at the bridge table playing feverishly
into the small hours of the morning; or talking to bookmakers' clerks
with an evidently inborn knowledge of the ways of horse-racing. I was a
fool, of course. Instead of sitting in my studio painting portraits, I
ought to have gone about with her--and yet, if I had, there'd have been
no money for either of us."
He sighed heavily.
"Well, the crash came eventually. Twice more I paid her debts and twice
she swore to give up her folly. Then I was sent for to a big place in
Wales, to paint some portraits--those of the three daughters of the
house--and of course I had to go. I had been there a month when I got an
urgent wire from my solicitors to return at once; and back to town I
went, to see what mischief my little wife had been getting into."
"And you found----"
"I found the house in an uproar. Waiting for me was my solicitor, and
with him a Jewish-looking man who was the head of a large jeweller's
business in the West End. Also--in another room--were a detective and a
well-known pawnbroker. Now--can you reconstruct the story they told
me--between them?"
She shook her head.
"No, I can't imagine what it was."
"You wouldn't." For a moment a sort of tenderness softened his tone,
which hardened again as he went on. "It seems my wife had never, from
the beginning, told me the truth, with regard to the extent of her
liabilities. Besides those I knew of, she owed two or three hundreds to
a money-lender, to whom she had gone in a panic on first discovering she
was in debt. He had lent her the money, at an enormous rate of interest,
and as she had been unable to pay anything he was now pressing for
immediate payment. Distracted by his threats, and by the other bills
which her extravagance had run up, too terrified to appeal to me after
her solemn promises, Eva conceived a really desperate plan. Taking
advantage of my absence she went to Jordan and Green, the jewellers, and
asked if she might have a very fine pearl necklace on approval. They
demurred a little, politely, at first, and asked her name, whereon she
gave it, without hesitation, as Lady Eileen Greenlay, an Irish girl with
whom she had been acquainted in Dublin, and to whom she bore a striking
resemblance. She gave them Lady Eileen's address in Hamilton Terrace,
and one of the clerks, who knew the lady by sight, advised the head of
the firm that this was really she. Of course they knew the family were
wealthy people, and as Eva was beautifully dressed, with furs--unpaid
for--worth two hundred pounds, they let her have the necklace, and off
she went with it."
"But how risky!" Toni breathed the word in horror.
"A desperate woman sticks at very little," Herrick reminded her grimly.
"Well, the misguided girl took her trophy and went off to Rockborough,
the big pawnbroker, where she displayed the necklace and asked for a
loan. Seeing no reason to doubt her genuineness, they advanced her a
large sum--though not, of course, the full value of the jewels, and she
took the money and paid the money-lender and one or two more people who
were pressing her. But it happened by a queer coincidence that a day or
two later Jordan and Green had a visit from an aunt of the real Lady
Eileen's, who wished to send her a little diamond pendant for a birthday
present; and when she gave the address to which it was to be sent as one
of the best hotels in Mentone, the jewellers became uneasy. They
instituted inquiries, found the young lady's family were all out of
town, the Hamilton Terrace house closed; and it became pretty evident
they had been hoaxed."
He paused; but Toni did not speak.
"The first thing they did was to make inquiries at the big pawnbrokers,
and of course they knew in an hour or two that they had been done. With
a queer sort of cleverness, Eva had given herself out, to the second lot
of people, as an actress to whom the necklace--a present--was worth
little compared with the value in cash; and they had believed her story.
But naturally it was soon proved to be false; and at first matters were
at a deadlock. Well, the police were called in; and by dint of many
inquiries among taxi-drivers, the girl was finally traced to the
money-lender's office in Holborn. He, of course, was as close as the
grave; but one of his clerks was bribed into giving the lady's name; and
everything was easy after that."
"Oh, poor girl!" Toni's soft heart felt a great compassion for the
frightened wife.
"At first, of course, she denied everything. Unfortunately, Lord Thirsk,
the father of the girl she had impersonated, took up a very violent
attitude and demanded the utmost restitution; and since so many people
were in the secret it was absolutely impossible to hush it up. I did my
best; I offered everything I had in the world if they would let the
matter drop without a prosecution, but it was useless. The thing had to
go to court, and there was a big excitement over the case."
"And----"
"Oh, the result was a foregone conclusion. In spite of everything, in
spite of her denials, her terrified lies, her vain attempts to clear
herself by"--he hesitated--"by implicating me, the case against her was
as clear as the day. I tried my hardest--I perjured myself to try to
clear her of the worst guilt--I strove my best to make her out my tool,
but it wasn't any good. The Counsel on the other side simply turned me
inside out in two minutes. In spite of all my efforts I couldn't
convince him I'd had a hand in it--and of course my absence from town
showed the truth pretty plainly. Well, Eva spoke out, in the end."
Ho set his lips as he thought of the miserable girl's confession,
following on hours of mental torture at the hands of the prosecuting
Counsel.
"In the end I think it was a relief to her to speak the truth. After
seeing all her lies, all the pitiful, sordid little lies, torn to
pieces, after hearing all the weight of evidence against her, seeing the
net close in on her--on one helpless, terrified little girl--she gave in
and begged desperately for mercy. She seemed to think if she told the
truth--at last--they would pardon her, let her off, and she poured out
the whole story and cried out for forgiveness. She couldn't believe they
would send her to prison...."
His brow was wet with the reminiscent agony of those closing scenes.
"Of course they could do nothing but sentence her. Then, when she
understood that she was to be sent to prison after all, she went nearly
off her head with fright ... she swore she'd lied, retracted everything
she'd said ... oh, there was a terrible scene--she shrieked when they
tried to silence her, clung to the dock so that they shouldn't take her
away ... my God! It was horrible, horrible to see her, so little and
fragile, screaming to me to save her from the men who were all against
her...."
Toni, white to the lips, could see it all. She had forgotten her own
griefs now in contemplation of this far more terrible sorrow.
"Even the Judge was upset when he had to sentence her. The court was
full of women--I told you the case had attracted a lot of attention--but
thank God they were rendered miserable by their presence there in the
end. When she heard her sentence--eighteen months in the second
division--she couldn't grasp it at first--and then just as I was
beginning to feel I must do something or I should go mad, she fainted
clean away and was carried out insensible."
"Oh, Mr. Herrick,"--Toni, her eyes full of tears, spoke
impetuously--"how terrible for you--for you both! Did you go to her and
try to comfort her?"
He was silent for a long moment. Then--
"That was the worst of all." His voice was grim. "When once she realised
that she was helpless, that she was to be kept in prison, against her
will, for eighteen long months, all her love for me turned to hate. By a
queer, perverted instinct she blamed me for everything that had
happened. She persisted in asserting that I could have saved her if I
would. It was quite useless for me to say anything. I was allowed to see
her once more--with my solicitor--and she heaped reproaches on my head
till my blood ran cold. She called me a scoundrel, a coward, because I
hadn't succeeded in shifting the blame to my own shoulders. She raged
against her fate, swore she wouldn't obey the rules, would starve
herself to death--and taunted me with the fact, that while she was
suffering, starving, in a prison cell, I should be warm and well-fed at
home. She screamed out that she hated me, wished me dead--and my last
glimpse of her was as she disappeared, her face distorted with passion
till all the soft childish beauty had vanished."
"And she is there now?"
"In prison? Yes."
"But--is the time nearly over?"
"Yes. Four weeks to-day Eva will be set free." He stared out of the
window with unseeing eyes. "And then will come the question--what are we
to do?"
"To do?" She did not understand.
"Yes. You know, she will never forgive me. In her childish, unreasonable
way, she persists in thinking everything that happened was my fault. If
I had given her more money, she would not have got into debt. If I
hadn't gone to Wales and left her alone she would never have done the
thing; and if I had only lied better, the blame would have been
mine--and the punishment."
"But it was she who was guilty----"
"I know--but if I could have gone to prison in her stead, God knows I'd
have gone--willingly. Things are so different for men. When I think of
her, the little, soft, fragile thing I married, shut up alone in a cell,
wearing prison garments, eating rough prison food, being ordered about
by harsh, domineering women, why, I almost curse myself that I am free
to walk about under God's blue sky!"
"Shall you go back to London--when she is free?"
"I don't know--I don't know," he said rather drearily. "I let the house
at once--gave it up at the next quarter, and our things are stored. I
wanted to get away from it all, so I came down here and took the
bungalow, but of course it won't suit Eva."
"Couldn't you--change your name?"
"That's done already," he said. "Just after the trial an uncle
obligingly died and left me nine thousand pounds on the understanding I
should take his name; so I did, of course, and turned myself from James
Vyse into James Herrick."
"Then no one will know?"
"No. But this life, this vagabond river life that both you and I love,
wouldn't suit Eva very long. No, I'm afraid we shall have to seek some
'city of bricks and mortar'--but even my wife won't be keen on London,
and it's the only city one can live in properly."
While he talked, the rain had ceased; and he rose as he spoke the last
words.
"Well, Mrs. Rose, I've showed you the skeleton in my cupboard--and he's
a pretty grisly object, isn't he? But I don't want to depress you with a
recital of my woes. After all, life's sweet, sister--and you and I,
thanks be to God, have the soul of the gipsy within us, which is made
quite happy, poor feckless thing, by the sight of the sun or the music
of the breeze!"
Her eyes kindled with sudden comprehension.
"Yes--and you've shown me what a fool I am to think myself unhappy!" She
too sprang up, and her body was full of vigour and youth again. "I won't
give in, Mr. Herrick! You've not given in, and you've heaps more cause
than I have. After all, I'm young and I love nature and--and my
husband--and I _have_ a soul--you told me so! And in time Owen will be
satisfied with me, won't he?"
"Of course he will!" In his heart Herrick thought the man who was
dissatisfied with this eager, enthusiastic, courageous youth must be
hard indeed to please.
"I've read nearly all those books," she said proudly, "and I can read
French ever so much better now. And I won't care for Miss Loder's cold
stares and her amused little laugh when I do something silly. And if I
go on trying, I shall soon be a fit companion for Owen, shan't I, Mr.
Herrick?"
"Dear little child," he said, laying his hand on her shoulder, "don't
try too hard! Read your books, study languages, take an interest in the
vital questions of the day--but don't lose your tenderness, your
sympathy, your freshness of heart. Grow up if you will, but don't grow
too fast! And in cultivating your soul, don't forget that a woman's
heart is her sweetest, rarest treasure after all!"
He released her gently.
"There! My sermon's over--and so, apparently, is the rain. And that
blithe footstep I hear outside surely heralds the approach of Mrs.
Spencer!"
He was right. After a loud knock the door opened briskly to disclose
Mrs. Spencer bearing a lighted lamp; and Herrick went forward to relieve
her of her burden.
"Enter the Lady with the Lamp!" quoth he, smiling. "Well, Mrs. Spencer,
the rain's over and gone, and it's time we went too, eh, Mrs. Rose?"
"I suppose so." She took up the coat she had thrown aside. "Has the
chauffeur had some tea, Mrs. Spencer?"
"Lor yes, ma'am, and enjoyed it too," responded the landlady, beaming.
"A rare good trencherman he be an' all! I'd sooner meat him for a week
nor a fortnight, as they say in our parts."
"Meet him?" Even Herrick did not recognise the idiom.
"Yes, sir--board him, give him his meat," explained Mrs. Spencer
volubly. "But I can't say as much for you and the young lady, sir."
She looked regretfully at the still loaded plates.
"We've had a lovely tea, Mrs. Spencer," said Toni, her heart very warm
towards this comely woman who had known her father. "I shall come and
see you again some day. May I?"
Mrs. Spencer immediately invited her to come as often as she liked; and
then covered both Toni and Herrick with confusion by refusing to take a
penny for their tea.
"What--me take money from Roger Gibbs' lass?" she said, her manner
filled with the mingled independence and respect of the best type of
countrywoman. "Not I, sir. We Yorkshire folks don't grudge a cup o' tea
and a bit of fatty cake to them as is like ourselves, exiles in a
strange land. Besides, it's been a rare treat to see the young lady. To
think that Roger Gibbs' lile lass should come drivin' up in one of they
great mutter-cars, too!"
"Yes, and it's really time she drove away in it," responded Herrick
pleasantly. "I think I hear Fletcher bringing it round."
There was a tentative hoot from Fletcher's horn at that moment; and
after a grateful farewell, and a vain attempt to pay, at least, for
Fletcher's tea, Herrick took Toni out and installed her in the car.
He refused her invitation to drive home with her, alleging that his
health required exercise; and though Toni might have been forgiven for
thinking fifteen miles' ride over a wet and muddy road, under a still
cloudy sky, rather a strenuous form of exercise, some newly acquired
intuition told her he really wished to be alone.
She said good-bye, therefore, without attempting to press the matter;
and a moment later the car glided away, its lamps gleaming in the rural
blackness of the village street.
As he rode home, his tyres splashing through puddles, and spattering him
with mud, Herrick's face was very tired and worn, but in his eyes there
lurked a little faint light of happiness that he had helped another
weary soul a few steps forward on its pilgrimage over a thorny road.
"Poor little soul!" He smiled as he recognized the form his sympathy
took. "After all she's right--she has a soul--and even though it brings
her suffering and tears, it's worth the price. And yet--I wonder if it
would have been kinder to leave her alone--not to encourage that hope of
hers to make herself more intellectually worthy of her husband? I didn't
make much success of waking _my_ Undine's soul to life! All I got was
her hatred--and from the beginning she lied to me!"
Luckily at that moment his lamp blew out, viciously; and with a muttered
execration of the creatures he called Boo-Boos, he dismounted and
relighted the flame, whose vagaries throughout the rest of the long ride
kept him so fully occupied that he had neither time nor inclination to
meditate on such abstractions as souls.