Rather more than an hour and a half later, Rose Otway, with bursting
heart, but with dry, gleaming eyes--for she had a nervous fear of her
mother's affectionate questioning, and she had already endured Anna's
well-meant, fussy, though still unspoken sympathy--stood at the
spare-room window of the Trellis House. From there she could watch,
undisturbed, the signs of departure now going busily on before the big
gates of the group of three Georgian houses known as "Robey's."
Piles of luggage, bags, suit-cases, golf sticks, and so on, were being
put outside and inside the mid-Victorian fly, which was still patronised
by the young gentlemen of "Robey's," in their goings and comings from
the station. And then, even before the old cab-horse had started his
ambling trot townwards, Mr. and Mrs. Robey, their two little girls, and
their three boys not long back from school, all appeared together at the
gate.
In their midst stood Jervis Blake, his tall figure towering above them
all.
Most young men would have felt, and perhaps a little resented the fact,
that the whole party looked slightly ridiculous. Not so this young man.
There had never been much of the schoolboy in Jervis Blake. Now he felt
very much a man, and he was grateful for the affectionate kindness which
made these good people anxious to give him what one of the little girls
had called "a grand send-off."
Rose saw that there was a moment of confusion, of hesitation at the
gate, and she divined that it was Jervis who suggested that they should
take the rather longer way round, that which led under the elm trees and
past the Cathedral. He did not wish to pass close by the Trellis House.
The girl standing by the window felt a sudden rush of understanding
tenderness. How strangely, how wonderfully their minds worked the one in
with the other! It would have been as intolerable to her as to him, to
have seen her mother run out and stop the little party--to have been
perchance summoned from upstairs "to wish good luck to Jervis Blake."
From where she stood Rose Otway commanded the whole Close, and during
the minutes which followed she saw the group of people walking with
quick, steady steps, stopped by passers-by three or four times, before
they disappeared out of her sight.
It had seemed to her, but that might have been only her fancy, that the
pace, obviously set by Jervis, quickened rather as they swept past the
little gate through which he and she had gone on their way to the porch,
on their way to--to Paradise.
* * * * *
Half-way through the morning there came an uncertain knock at the front
door of the Trellis House. It presaged a note brought by one of the
young Robeys for Mrs. Otway--a note written by Jervis Blake, telling her
of his good fortune, and explaining that he had not time to come and
thank her in person for all her many kindnesses to him. One sentence
ran: "The War Office order is that I come and report myself as soon as
possible--so of course I had to take the ten-twenty-five train." And he
signed himself, as he had never done before, "Your affectionate JERVIS
BLAKE."
Mrs. Otway felt mildly excited, and really pleased. "Rose will be very
glad to hear this!" she said to herself, and at once sought out her
daughter.
Rose was still upstairs, in the roomy, rather dark old linen cupboard
which was the pride of Anna's German heart.
"A most extraordinary thing has happened. Jervis Blake is to have a
commission after all, darling! He had a letter from the War Office this
morning. I suppose it's due to his father's influence." And as Rose
answered, in what seemed an indifferent voice, "I should think, mother,
that it's due to the War," Mrs. Otway exclaimed, "Oh no. I don't think
so! What could the War have to do with it? But whatever it's due to, I'm
very, very pleased that the poor boy has attained the wish of his heart.
He's written me such a very nice note, apologising for not coming to say
good-bye to us. He doesn't mention you in his letter, but I expect
you'll hear from him in a day or two. He generally does write during the
holidays, doesn't he, Rose?"
"Yes," said Rose quietly. "Jervis has always written to me during the
holidays, up to now."
As she spoke, the girl turned again to the shelves laden with the linen,
much of which had been beautifully embroidered and trimmed with crochet
lace by good old Anna's clever hands. Mrs. Otway had a curious
sensation, one she very, very seldom had--that of being dismissed.
Somehow it was clear that Rose was not as interested in the piece of
good news as her mother had thought she would be. And so Mrs. Otway went
downstairs again, grieving a little at her child's curious, cold
indifference to the lot of one who had been so much in and out of their
house during the last two years.
Eager for sympathy, she went into the kitchen. "Oh, Anna," she
exclaimed, "Mr. Blake is going into the Army after all! I'm so pleased.
He is so happy!"
"Far more than Major Guthrie young Mr. Blake the figure of a good
officer has," observed Anna thoughtfully. Anna had always liked Jervis
Blake. In the old days that now seemed so long ago he would sometimes
come with Miss Rose into her kitchen, and talk his poor, indifferent
German. Then they all three used to laugh heartily at the absurd
mistakes he made.
And now, to her mistress's astonishment, old Anna suddenly burst into
loud, noisy sobs.
"Anna, what _is_ the matter?"
"Afflicted I am----" sobbed the old woman. And then she stopped, and
began again: "Afflicted I am to think, gracious lady, of that young
gentleman, who to me kind has been, killing the soldiers of my country."
"I don't suppose he will have the chance of killing any of them," said
Mrs. Otway hastily. "You really mustn't be so silly, Anna! Why, the War
will be over long before Mr. Blake is ready to go out. They always keep
the young men two years at Sandhurst. That's the name of the officers'
training college, you know."
Anna wiped her eyes with her apron. She was now ashamed of having cried.
But it had come over her "all of a heap," as an English person would
have said.
She had had a sort of vision of that nice young gentleman, Mr. Jervis
Blake, in the thick of battle, cutting down German men and youths with a
sword. He was so big and strong--it made her turn sick to think of it.
But her good mistress, Mrs. Otway, had of course told the truth. The War
would be over long before Mr. Jervis Blake and his kind would be fit to
fight.
Fighting, as old Anna knew well, though most of the people about her
were ignorant of the fact, requires a certain apprenticeship, an
apprenticeship of which these pleasant-spoken, strong, straight-limbed
young Englishmen knew nothing. The splendidly trained soldiers of the
Fatherland would have fought and conquered long before peaceful, sleepy
England knew what war really meant. There was great comfort in that
thought.
* * * * *
As that second Saturday of August wore itself away, it is not too much
to say that the most interesting thing connected with the War which had
happened in Witanbury Close was the fact that Jervis Blake was now going
to be a soldier. When people met that day, coming and going about their
business, across the lawn-like green, and along the well-kept road which
ran round it, they did not discuss the little news there was in that
morning's papers. Instead they at once informed one another, and with a
most congratulatory air, "Jervis Blake has heard from the War Office!
He is going into the Army after all. Mr. and Mrs. Robey are _so_
pleased. The whole family went to the station with him this morning!"
And it was quite true that the Robeys were pleased. Mr. Robey was
positively triumphant. "I can't tell you how glad I am!" he said, first
to one, and then to the other, of his neighbours. "Young Blake will make
a splendid company officer. It's for the sake of the country, quite as
much as for his sake, and for that of his unpleasant father, that I'm
glad. What sort of book-learning had Napoleon's marshals? Or, for the
matter of that, Wellington's officers in the Peninsula, and at
Waterloo?"
As the day went on, and he began receiving telegrams from those of his
young men--they were not so very many after all--who had failed to pass,
containing the joyful news that now they were accepted, his wife,
instead of rejoicing, began to look grave. "It seems to me, my dear,
that our occupation in life will now be gone," she said soberly. And he
answered lightly enough, "Sufficient unto the day is the good thereof!"
And being the high-minded, sensible fellow that he was, he would allow
no selfish fear of the future to cloud his satisfaction in the present.
* * * * *
The only jarring note that day came from James Hayley. He had had to
take a later train than he had thought to do, and he only arrived at the
Trellis House, duly dressed for dinner, just before eight.
"Witanbury is certainly a most amusing place," he observed, as he shook
hands with his pretty cousin. "I met two of your neighbours as I came
along. Each of them informed me, with an air of extreme delight, that
young Jervis Blake had heard from the War Office that, in spite of his
many failures, his services will now be welcomed by a grateful country.
I didn't like to make the obvious answer----"
"And what is the obvious answer?" asked Rose, wrenching her hand away
from his. She told herself that she hated the feel of James's cold, hard
hand.
"That we must be jolly short of officers if they're already writing
round to those boys! But then, of course"--he lowered his voice, though
there was no one there to hear, "we are short--short of everything,
worse luck!"
But that was the only thing Cousin James said of any interest, and it
did not specially interest Rose. She did not connect this sinister
little piece of information with the matter that filled her heart for
the moment to the exclusion of everything else. It was not Jervis who
was short of anything--only Jervis's (and her) country.
After Mrs. Otway had come down and joined them, though James talked a
great deal, he yet said very little, and as the evening went on, his
kind hostess could not help feeling that the War had not improved James
Hayley. He seemed more supercilious, more dogmatic than usual, and at
one moment he threatened to offend her gravely by an unfortunate
allusion to her good old Anna's nationality.
By that time they were sitting out in the garden, enjoying the excellent
coffee Anna made so well, and as it was rather chilly, Rose had run into
the house to get her mother a shawl.
"I never realised how very German your maid is," he observed suddenly.
"It made me feel quite uncomfortable while we were talking at dinner! Do
you intend to keep her?"
"Yes, of course I do." Mrs. Otway felt hurt and angry. "I shouldn't
dream of sending her away! Anna has lived in England over twenty years,
and her only child is married to an Englishman." She waited a moment,
and as he said nothing, she went on: "My good old Anna is devoted to
England, though of course she loves her Fatherland too."
"I should have thought the two loves quite incompatible at the present
time," he objected drily.
Mrs. Otway flushed in the half darkness. "_I_ find them quite
compatible, James," she exclaimed. "Of course I'm sorry that the
military party should triumph in Germany--that, we all must feel, and
probably many Germans do too. But, after all, you may hate the sin and
love the sinner!"
"Will you feel the same when Germans have killed Englishmen?" he asked
idly. He was watching the door through which Rose had vanished a few
moments ago, longing with a restrained, controlled longing for her
return.
As a matter of fact he himself had never had any feeling of dislike of
the Germans; on the contrary, he had struck up an acquaintance which had
almost become friendship with one of the younger members of the German
Embassy. And suddenly Mrs. Otway remembered it.
"Why, you yourself," she cried, "you yourself, James, have a German
friend--I mean that young Von Lissing. I liked him so much that
week-end you brought him down. What's happened to him? I suppose he's
gone?"
"Gone?" He turned and looked at her in the twilight. Really, Aunt Mary
was sometimes very silly. "Of course, he's gone! As a matter of fact he
left London ten days before his chief." And then he added reflectively,
perhaps with more a wish to tease her than anything else, "I've rather
wondered this last week whether Von Lissing's friendship with me was
regarded by him as a business matter. He sometimes asked me such odd
questions. Of course one has always known that Germans are singularly
inquisitive--that they are always wanting to find out things. I confess
it never struck me at the time that his questions meant anything more
than that sort of insatiable wish _to know_ that all Germans have."
"What sort of things did he ask you, James?" asked Mrs. Otway curiously.
"Well, I'll tell you one thing he said, and it astonished me very much
indeed. He asked me what attitude I thought our colonies would take if
we became embroiled in a European war! I reminded him of what they'd
done in South Africa fourteen years ago, and he said he thought the
world had altered a good deal since then, and that people had become
more selfish. But he never asked me any question concerning my own
special department. In those ways he quite played the game--not that it
would have been of any use, because of course I shouldn't have told him
anything. But he was certainly oddly inquiring about other
departments."
Then Rose came out again, and James Hayley tried to make himself
pleasant. Fortunately for himself he did not know how little he
succeeded. Rose found his patronising, tutor-like manner intolerable.