Owen and his wife were sitting at dinner one evening when a note was
brought to Owen whose contents brought an angry exclamation to his lips
as he, read.
"By gad, Toni, this is a bit thick! What the devil does the woman mean?"
Toni, suddenly pale, bit her lips, while her eyes filled with
apprehension.
"I ... who is it from, Owen? What does it say?"
"There--read it yourself," said Owen, throwing the blue-grey sheet
across the table. "I suppose there is some explanation, though I confess
I can't understand it--yet."
Still deadly pale, her eyes shining like blue jewels, Toni took up the
sheet and read the letter which Lady Martin had written with so much
satisfaction a couple of hours earlier.
"DEAR MR. ROSE,
"After the occurrence of this afternoon I am sure you will see the
advisability of Mrs. Rose's resignation from the Badminton Club. It
is with great regret that I suggest this course; but after the
scene which took place this afternoon, in the presence of a dozen
members and several visitors, among them Lady Saxonby, a former
friend of your own, I speak for the Committee when I request you to
advise your wife to resign for the present season at least."
Toni laid the paper quietly down on the table and spoke to Owen with a
mingling of terror and defiance in her tone.
"Well?"
"Well?" Owen reached across the table and picked up the letter. "What is
all this about, Toni? Why should you be requested to resign?"
"I don't know"--Toni began in a lifeless voice; then suddenly--"yes, I
do know. It's all a plot of Lady Martin's and Mrs. Madgwick's. They hate
me, I always told you so--and now they want to make you hate me too."
"But what happened this afternoon?"
"Oh, it's a long story." Toni spoke recklessly. "To begin with, I was
elected to the Club a long time ago--in September; and when Mrs. Herrick
came home she wanted to be a member too. I tried to get her in, but they
didn't want her----"
"Of course not." Owen frowned. "You never seem to understand, Toni, that
all people are not so unworldly as you. It was a mistake for Mrs.
Herrick to attempt to enter a private club of that sort so soon. She
should have waited until the scandal had blown over."
"Well, she was very disappointed about it. But every member can take a
friend in once a month, so I took Eva this afternoon."
She broke off in dismay.
"Oh, Toni, will you never learn sense?" In spite of himself Owen spoke
sharply. "Of all the foolish things to do! Well, what happened when you
got there?"
"People weren't very nice." Toni flushed again at the memory of the
whispers and averted faces which had greeted her entrance with Mrs.
Herrick. "But we just sat down and watched, and everything would have
been all right if Lady Martin hadn't interfered."
"What did she do?"
"She had a woman with her--Lady Saxonby, someone called her--and she
heard me addressed as Mrs. Rose, and turned to me at once and asked me
if I were your wife."
"She did? By Jove!" Owen guessed that Vivian's curiosity had nerved her
to the step.
"Yes. So I said I was, and she was beginning to talk to me--quite
politely--but somehow as if she were taking me in all the time----"
Owen could well imagine how Lady Saxonby's eyes would scrutinize the
face of the girl with whom he had consoled himself after her defection;
and he felt both anger and surprise at the thought of the scrutiny.
"Well, go on." Insensibly his tone had hardened, and Toni hurried on.
"Well, as she was talking to me, Lady Martin came up and tried to draw
her away, but she wouldn't go. So Lady Martin got vexed, I suppose, and
she bent down and whispered something to her--something about Eva,
because I heard the words 'necklace' and 'prison' quite plainly, and Eva
heard it too and turned crimson."
"And then?"
"Then Lady Saxonby looked straight at me and asked me to give you a
message."
"Did she?" Owen was astonished. "What was it?"
"She asked me to say that she hoped you had forgiven her and were as
happy as she is."
"Gad, what impertinence!" He flushed darkly. "She had no right to send
me such a message; it was nothing but a piece of unwarranted presumption
on her part."
"Was it?" Toni spoke rather wistfully. "You see, I didn't know at first
who she was, and I thought she meant to be quite decent. But then Eva
jumped up and said very quickly that the woman who had jilted an
honourable man ought to be ashamed of sending such a message through
that man's wife--and when I said something she told me that Lady Saxonby
was the woman who threw you over when you came home, for all the world
to see."
Owen, vexed to the soul by the thought of this miserable publicity, set
his teeth hard and said nothing; and Toni hurried on.
"Well, then there was a scene. Lady Saxonby turned on Eva quite
furiously, and said she had no right to talk of anyone being ashamed of
anything, seeing that everyone knew what she had done. And then all the
other women crowded round, and Eva lost her temper, and said it was
quite true and she had been in prison and was a criminal and all that,
but she'd sooner be that than a dishonourable, mercenary woman who would
jilt one man because another had more money and a title ... and ... oh,
there was a most frightful row, and the end was that the secretary
hurried up and asked me to take Eva away quickly before she said any
more. She was awfully cross, and said I ought not to have brought Mrs.
Herrick, and that Lady Saxonby would be sure to talk, and the Club would
be ruined."
"So you came away?"
"Yes. Eva was horribly upset--you know her nerves are all wrong--and she
fainted dead away in the hall and they had to send for a doctor and we
took her home ... and altogether," said Toni, breaking at last into
tears, "it was a fearful scene, and I wish I'd never gone near the
Club!"
"I wish to God you hadn't!" Owen sprang up, more upset than he cared to
confess. He could visualize the whole scene: Vivian, with her beautiful,
scornful face, taunting Eva, playing the hypocrite with Toni, and
sending insulting messages to the man she had jilted; and the mere
thought of the talk, the gossip, the raking up of old stories which
would inevitably follow, set all his nerves jarring furiously.
Even the sight of Toni's tears did not soften his heart. Rather he felt
exasperated with her, since it was her folly which had precipitated the
whole scene.
"Come, don't cry," he said rather curtly. "You've done a very silly
thing, and goodness knows where it will end; but it's no use crying and
making yourself ill."
Naturally his tone did not tend to set his wife at ease; and she cried
the more.
"Oh, for goodness' sake, stop!" Owen felt himself to be a brute, but the
thought of Vivian's malice was gall to his spirit. "The mischief's done,
and crying won't undo it. But I hope you've learned a lesson, Toni; I
always told you it was a mistake to go about with that woman, and you
wouldn't believe me. Well, now you see what's happened. You've made us
both ridiculous in the eyes of the world, and we shall be more severely
ostracized than ever."
Suddenly Toni's tears ceased and she raised her head to stare at him.
"You mean people will be horrid--to you--about it?"
"Well, naturally, they'll think me a fool for encouraging you," said
Owen rather irritably. "If only you would have been guided by me! But
it's been the same all through. You chose to go your own way, and the
end will be that we shall have to leave Greenriver and go to live
somewhere else."
"Leave Greenriver?" She echoed the words dully.
"Well, what can we do?" He spoke impatiently. "You have never seemed
very happy here, so far as the people go. And now, after this _fiasco_,
we may expect the neighbourhood to drop us altogether."
"Drop us?"
"Well, you know what I mean. Oh, I don't care two straws about the
people themselves. They're a stupid lot anyway, and too conventional to
know how to got the best out of life. But still--Greenriver's my home,
and I thought we should learn to settle down here."
"And I've prevented you?"
"Well, you've never hit it off with the people, have you? And after this
I don't see how we can settle down. I'm not going to have people
neglecting my wife or being rude to her, but still this Badminton Club
affair is a pretty big slap in the face for both of us."
Toni, resting her small chin on the cup of her hollowed hands, stared at
him thoughtfully, and in her eyes, still wet with tears, he caught again
that elusive hint of a tragic womanhood which had puzzled him on a
former occasion.
"Eva was right," she said, and her voice was low. "She said I was out of
place here, and so I am."
"Mrs. Herrick said that?" Owen's anger suddenly swung round. "Then it
was a damned silly thing to say, and I'm surprised you listened to it."
"But she was right. She said everyone wondered why you married me; and
now that I have seen Lady Saxonby, I wonder too."
Owen's heart sank.
"Toni, what do you mean?"
"I mean that I understand now. Lady Saxonby was the woman you were to
have married. She is very beautiful," said Toni simply. "And she would
have been the right mistress for Greenriver. I can't understand how it
was you married me. Eva said--when we were driving home--that it must
have been pique. She said you wanted to show the other woman you did not
care ... and when I thought about it, I saw that it was true."
"Toni, it wasn't true." All thought of personal anger was swallowed up
in Owen's sudden longing to convince the girl that Eva had lied. "I
married you because"--in spite of himself he faltered--"because I loved
you. What if Vivian did treat me badly? I was well out of it, since she
was a woman of that kind."
"Oh, I don't mind--now," said Toni, with a faint smile. "I did at first.
When Lady Martin and Mrs. Madgwick said it, last summer, I thought my
heart would break; but I suppose I got used to the idea, and when I saw
Lady Saxonby to-day I knew it was just one of the things that no one can
help."
Owen, not understanding her, only stared.
"You see, I knew all the time it wasn't likely, really, that you would
care for me," said Toni quietly. "I tried to make myself believe you
did, but I don't think I ever _really_ believed it. Only I was so fond
of you--you were so kind--and when we were married you were so good to
me that I began to hope you might grow fond of me in time."
"Toni--for God's sake----"
"But I soon found out it was a mistake--our marriage--for you. I wasn't
half clever enough. I was only an ignorant, silly, unformed girl, and
you were so different. Oh, I tried my hardest to improve. I wanted to
prove to you that I wasn't quite such a little fool as you thought me. I
wanted to show you I had a soul--Mr. Herrick said I had, and I tried to
make myself more companionable to you--oh, I know I didn't succeed very
well," said Toni humbly, "but, you see, you didn't understand. I only
bothered you when I tried to help you in your work; and of course you
didn't want to talk to me about the things that really mattered to you."
"Toni--Toni--don't say such things."
"But you were always kind," said Toni wistfully, "and I sometimes
wondered if I had been wrong and you did care for me a little. But I
always knew, deep down in my heart, that it was all a mistake, and
now"--suddenly the composure which had supported her so far gave
way--"now I know I ought not to have married you--and--and I'm sorry,
Owen--I'm most frightfully sorry----"
All at once she pressed her hands to her eyes as though to shut out the
sight of his face; and then, as he started forward, vague words of
comfort on his lips, she flung her arms out over the table and laid her
head down on them in an attitude of utter desolation.
For a moment Owen stood motionless, while the light from the rose-shaded
candles played over the silky black hair and cast a pool of red colour
on the smooth white neck rising out of its chiffon draperies. The scene
was one which would never fade from Owen's memory; and in after days he
could visualize it to the minutest detail.
The red and yellow of the chrysanthemums in a big silver bowl, the
purple bloom of the piled-up grapes before Toni, the ruby of the wine in
the decanters, the reflections cast by the candles in the shining
surface of the uncovered table, the ruddy glow of the firelight playing
over Toni's pale-coloured skirts--to the day of his death Owen would be
able to recall the scene at will: and never would he forget the chill in
his veins as he realized that the girl he had thought a child was a
woman after all....
"Toni--Toni dear." He laid his hand on her shoulder. "For heaven's sake,
Toni, look up and tell me you don't mean all the terrible things you've
been saying. Of course I love you. Why, haven't I shown you that all
along? Toni, don't let those silly women and their chatter hurt you. You
can believe me, can't you? And I tell you I married you because I loved
you--and Lady Saxonby and all the rest can go to Jericho!"
He half thought he had won her ear; in another moment he felt sure he
would have had her in his arms, sobbing her heart out--since she must
cry--in the safe shelter of his breast; but at that moment the young
butler, deceived by the low voices into thinking the room empty, entered
briskly to fulfil his duties; and Toni sprang up before Andrews had time
to advance round the big screen, which fortunately hid her from his
eyes.
Owen swore softly under his breath at this most untimely interruption;
but Toni was already half-way to the door, and he judged it best to
engage Andrews in conversation about the wine and leave Toni to seek the
sanctuary she desired.
* * * * *
The next day the Secretary of the Badminton Club received Mrs. Rose's
resignation; and there, for the present, the matter ended.