DIANA WINS
The steady hum, and rapid onward rush, of the motor were a physical
relief to Diana, after the continuous strain of the happenings of that
eventful day.
She lay back, watching the flying houses, hedges, trees, and
meadows,--and allowed every nerve to relax.
She felt so thankful it was all over, and that she was going
home--alone.
She felt very much as she had felt on her return to Riverscourt after
Uncle Falcon's funeral. It had been such a relief then to be returning
to a perfectly normal house, where every-day life could be resumed as
usual. She had realised with thankfulness that the blinds would be up
once more. There would be no hushed and silent room, which must be
passed with reverent step, and bated breath, because of the awesome
unnaturalness of the Thing which lay within. She had lost Uncle Falcon
on the night of his death. The day of the funeral involved no further
loss. It simply brought relief from a time of unnatural strain and
tension.
This shrinking of Life from Death, is the strongest verification of the
statement of Holy Scripture, that death came by sin. The redeemed soul
in its pure radiance has gone on to fuller life. "The body is dead,
because of sin." All that is left behind is "sinful flesh." Death lays a
relentless hand on this, claiming it as his due. Change and decay set
in; and even the tenderest mourning heart has to welcome the coffin lid,
grateful to kind Mother Earth for receiving and hiding that which--once
so precious--has now become a burden. Happy they who, standing at the
open grave, can appropriate and realise the great resurrection message:
"He is not here! He is risen!"
Diana shifted her seat in the bounding car, drawing the rugs more
closely around her.
Why was her mind dwelling thus on death and funerals, on the afternoon
of her wedding-day?
How wonderful it was that this should actually be her wedding-day; and
yet that she should still be Diana Rivers of Riverscourt, returning
alone to her own domain, free and unfettered.
How well her plan had succeeded; and what an unexpected touch of pure
romance had been added thereto, by the fact that, after all, she had, at
the last, done for David's sake, that which he thought he was doing for
hers. There was a selflessness about the motives of both, in this
marriage, which made it fragrant with the sublimest essence of
frankincense. Surely only good and blessing could ensue.
Diana contemplated with satisfaction the additional prestige and
assurance given to her position in the neighbourhood, by the fact that
she could now take her place in society as a married woman.
How much hateful gossip would be silenced forever; how many insolent
expectations would be disappointed; how many prudish criticisms and
censorious remarks would have to whisper themselves into shame-faced
silence.
Diana looked forward with gleeful amusement to answering the astonished
questions of her many friends. How perfectly she had vindicated the line
she had always taken up. Here she was, safely established, with all a
married woman's privileges, and none of her odious obligations.
The old frumps, whom it was amusing to shock, would be more shocked than
ever; while the younger spirits, who acclaimed her already, would hail
her more loudly than ever: "Diana! Victress! Queen!"
And all this she undoubtedly owed to David, who had made her his----
Then suddenly she found herself confronted by that which, ever since the
motor started, she had been fighting resolutely into her mental
background; a quiet retrospection of the moment of her parting with
David.
Brought face to face with it, by the chance mention of one word, Diana
at once--giving up fencing with side issues, past and future--turned and
faced this problem of the present. Brave at all times, she was not a
coward when alone.
She took off her hat, rested her head against the soft springiness of
the padded back of her motor; closed her eyes, and pressed both hands
tightly against her breast.
David had said: "Good-bye, my wife." It was the name he meant to use in
all his letters. "Good-bye, _my wife_."
* * * * *
It now seemed to Diana that the happenings of that whole day had been
moving toward that culminating moment, when David's deep tender voice
should call her his wife; yet he had not done so, until only a narrow
shifting plank, on which her feet already stood, lay between them, and
a last earthly farewell.
Diana had sped down the gangway; and when her feet touched the wharf she
had fled to her car, without looking back; knowing that if she looked
back, and saw David's earnest eyes watching her from the top, his boyish
figure standing, slim and erect--she would have turned and rushed back
up the gangway, caught his hand to her breast, and asked him to say
those words again. And, if David had called her his wife again--in that
tone which made all things sway and reel around her, and fortune, home,
friends, position seem as nothing to the fact that she was _that_ to
him--she could never have let go his hand again. They must have remained
forever on the same side of the gangway; either she sailing with David
to Central Africa, or David returning with her to Riverscourt.
Yet she did not want to go to Africa; and she certainly did not want
David at Riverscourt! Her whole plan of life was to reign supreme in her
own possessions, mistress of her home, mistress of her time, and, most
important of all, mistress of herself.
Then what was the meaning of this strange disturbance in the hitherto
unruffled calm of her inner being? What angel had come down, on
lightning wing, to trouble the still waters of her deepest self?
Diana was confronted by that most illusive of psychological problems,
the solving of the mystery of a woman's heart--and she possessed no key
thereto. Her knowledge of the world, her advanced ideas, her
indiscriminate reading, had not supplied her with the golden key, which
lies in the fact of the utter surrender of a noble woman, to the mighty
love, and the infinite need, of a strong, good, man.
She had chosen to go home alone. She had preferred this parting of the
ways. Then why was it so desperately sweet to recall David's voice
saying: "Good-bye, _my wife_"? Why did nothing still this strange aching
at her breast, save the remembrance of the touch of his hand, as she had
pressed it against her?
She would have stopped the motor and bidden her man race back to the
wharf, on the chance of having a last sight of David, standing on the
deck of the liner, had he not bidden her go at once, without delay; so
that, in thus going, she was rendering him the one act of obedience
possible, in their brief wedded life.
* * * * *
The wintry sun soon set behind the Hampshire hills.
The primrose of the sky faded into purple twilight; twilight was quickly
merged in chilly darkness.
The car paused a moment for the kindling of its huge acetylene lamps;
then rushed onward, more rapidly than before.
Diana sat on in shadow. One touch of a button would have flooded the
interior of her motor with light; but she preferred the quiet darkness.
In it she could better hear her husband's voice, and see the gleam of
his deep earnest eyes.
"Good-bye, my wife--my wife--my wife--. Good-bye, my wife!"
* * * * *
Diana must have fallen asleep. The opening of the door of the motor
roused her.
William had turned on the lights, lifted out the rug, and stood with it
flung over his arm, waiting for her to step out.
Half dazed, she took up her hat and smoothed her tumbled hair.
She glanced at the seat beside her, almost expecting to see David.
Then she remembered, and quickly stepped out of the motor.
The great doors of Riverscourt stood wide. A ruddy light from the
blazing log fire in the hall, streamed out over the newly fallen snow.
Old Rodgers, deferential, yet very consciously paternal, his hands
shaking with suppressed excitement, stood just within.
The housekeeper, expectant and alert, a bow of white satin ribbon in a
prominent position in her cap, waited at the foot of the wide oak
staircase.
The poodle, his tufts tied up with white ribbon, moved forward to greet
his mistress; then advanced gravely into the portico, and inspected the
empty motor. The poodle's heart was in the grave of Uncle Falcon.
Weddings did not interest him. But the non-arrival of the
bridegroom--who had once, with a lack of discrimination quite
remarkable, even in a human being, mistaken him for Mrs. Marmaduke
Vane--seemed a fact which required verification and investigation. The
poodle returned, smiling, from his inspection of the empty interior of
the motor. He had not paid much attention to the lengthy discussions in
the servants' hall. But this much he knew. Old Rodgers had won his bet.
The housekeeper would have to pay. This pleased the poodle, who resented
the fact that the housekeeper had first trimmed her own cap, and then
tied him up with the remnants;--adding to this obvious slight, a callous
disregard of his known preference for green or crimson, where the colour
of his bows was concerned.
As Diana entered the house, the old clock in the hall began to strike
six; distant Westminster chimes sounded from an upper landing; an unseen
cuckoo jerked out its note six times, then slammed its door; while the
old clock, measured and sonorous, refusing to be either hurried or
interrupted, slowly finished its six strokes.
Diana flung her cloak to Rodgers, and ordered tea in the library. Then,
with a greeting to her housekeeper, she passed upstairs to her own room.
Mrs. David Rivers had come home.