THE CONDITION SHE MADE
I think she meant to be silent, but desperation drove her to speak, and
she spoke.
I had a headache the last day out but one, and stayed in my cabin all
the afternoon. It seems that Mrs. Brandreth asked Jim if she might visit
me for a little while, and he consented.
I was half dozing when she came, with a green silk curtain drawn across
the window. I suggested that she should push this curtain back, so that
we might have light to see each other.
"Please, no!" she said. "I don't want light. I don't want to be seen.
Dear Lady Courtenaye--may I really call you 'Elizabeth,' as you asked me
to do?--I need so much to talk to you. And the darker it is, the
better."
"Very well--Rosemary!" I answered. "I've guessed that you are
worried--or not quite happy. There's nothing I should like so much as to
help you if I could. I believe you know that."
"Yes, I know--I feel it," she said. "I want your advice. I think you're
the only person whose advice I would take whether I liked it or not. I
don't understand why that is so. But it is. You're probably younger than
I am----"
"I'm getting on for twenty-three," I informed the girl, when I had made
her sit down beside my bed.
"And I'm nearly twenty-six!"
"You look twenty-one."
"I'm afraid I look lots of things that I'm not," she sighed, in a voice
too gloomy for the half-joking words. "Oh, now that I'm trying to speak,
I don't know how to begin, or how far to go! I must confess one thing
frankly: and that is, I can't tell you _everything_."
"Tell me what you want to tell: not a word more."
"Thank you. I thought you'd say that. Well, suppose you loved a man who
was very ill--so ill he couldn't possibly get well, and he begged you to
marry him--because then you might be in the same house till the end, and
he could die happily with you near: what would you do?"
"If I loved him _enough_, I would marry him the very first minute I
could," was my prompt answer.
"I do love him enough!" she exclaimed.
"But you hesitate?"
"Yes, because----Oh, Elizabeth, there's a terrible obstacle."
"An obstacle!" I echoed, forgetting my headache. "I can't understand
that, if--forgive me--if you're free."
"I am free," the girl said. "Free in the way you mean. There's no _man_
in the way. The obstacle is--a woman."
"Pooh!" I cried, my heart lightened. "I wouldn't let a woman stand
between me and the man I loved, especially if he needed me as much
as--as----"
"You needn't mind saying it. Of course you know as well as I do that
we're talking about Ralston Murray. And I believe he does need me. I
could make him happy--if I were always near him--for the few months he
has to live."
"He would have a new lease of life given him with you," I ventured.
The girl shook her head. "He says that the specialists gave him three
months at the most. And twelve days out of those three months have gone
already, since he left California."
For an instant a doubt of her shot through me. Ralston Murray had been a
get-rich-quick oil speculator, so I had heard, anyhow, he was supposed
to be extremely well off. Besides, there was that lovely old place in
Devonshire, of which his widow would be mistress. I knew nothing of
Rosemary Brandreth's circumstances, and little of her character or
heart, except as I might judge from her face, and voice, and charming
ways. Was I _wrong_ in the judgment I'd impulsively formed? Could it be
that she didn't truly care for Murray--that if she married him in spite
of the mysterious "obstacle," it would be for what she could get?
Actually I shivered as this question asked itself in my mind! And I was
ashamed of it. But her tone and look had been strange. When I tried to
cheer her by hinting that Murray's lease of life might be longer because
of her love, she had looked frightened, almost horrified.
For the first time I deliberately tried to read her soul, whose
sincerity I had more or less taken for granted. I stared into her eyes
through the green dusk which made us both look like mermaids under
water. Surely that exquisite face couldn't mask sordidness? I pushed the
doubt away.
"All the more reason for you to make radiant the days that are left, if
you're strong enough to bear the strain," I said. And Rosemary answered
that she was strong enough for anything that would help him. She would
tell Ralston, she added, that she had asked my advice.
"He wanted me to do it," she said. "He thought I oughtn't to decide
without speaking to a sweet, wise woman. And _you_ are a sweet, wise
woman, although you're so young! When you are better, will you come on
deck and talk to Ralston?"
"Of course I will, if you think he'd care to have me," I promised. And
it was extraordinary how soon that headache of mine passed away! I was
able to talk with Ralston that evening, and assure him that, in my
opinion, he wasn't _at all_ selfish in wanting Rosemary Brandreth to
"sacrifice" herself for him. It would be no sacrifice to a woman who
loved a man, I argued. He had done the right thing, it seemed to me, in
asking Mrs. Brandreth to marry him. If Jim were in his place, and I in
Rosemary's, I should have proposed if he hadn't!
But while I was saying these things, I couldn't help wondering
underneath if she had mentioned the "obstacle" to Ralston, and if he
knew precisely what kind of "freedom to marry" her freedom was--whether
Mr. Blank Brandreth were dead or only divorced?
Somehow I had the strongest impression that Rosemary had told Major
Murray next to nothing about herself--had perhaps begged him not to ask
questions, and that he had obeyed for fear of distressing--perhaps even
losing--the woman he adored.
"Of course, I shall leave her everything," he announced, when Mrs.
Brandreth had strolled away with Jim in order to give me a few minutes
alone with Major Murray. "While she's gone, I'd like to talk with you
about that, because I want you to consult your husband for me. Rosemary
can't bear to discuss money and that sort of thing. I had almost to
force her to it to-day; for you see, I haven't long at best--and the
time may be shorter even than I think. At last I made her see my point
of view. I told her that I meant to make a new will, here on shipboard,
for fear I should----Well, you understand. I said it would be in her
favour, as Rosemary Brandreth, and then, after we were married--provided
I live to marry her, as I hope to do--I ought to add a codicil or
something--I don't quite know how one manages such things--changing
'Rosemary Brandreth' to 'my wife, Rosemary Murray.'"
"Yes," I agreed. "I suppose you would have to do that. I don't know very
much about wills, either--but I remember hearing that a legacy to a wife
might be disputed if the will were in her favour as an engaged girl, and
mentioning her by her maiden name."
"Brandreth isn't Rosemary's maiden name," he reminded me. "That was
Hillier. But it's the same thing legally. And disputes are what I want
to avoid. Still, I daren't delay, for fear of something happening to me.
There's a doctor chap in Devonshire, who would have inherited Ralston
Old Manor and the money that goes with it if my cousin hadn't chosen to
leave all he had to me instead. I believe, as a matter of fact, he's my
only living relative. I haven't seen him many times in my life, but we
correspond on business. Every penny I possess might go to Paul Jennings,
as well as the Ralston property--by some trick of the law--if I don't
tie it up for Rosemary in time. You see why I'm impatient. I want you
and Sir Jim to witness a will of sorts this very night. I shall sleep
better if it's done. But--there's a funny thing, Lady Courtenaye: a whim
of Rosemary's. I can't see light on it myself. Perhaps you could lead up
to the subject, and get her to explain."
"What is the funny thing?" I asked.
"Why, at first she implored me not to leave money to her--actually
begged, with tears in her eyes. However, I explained that if she didn't
get what I have, a stranger would, which would make me unhappy. My being
'unhappy' settled the matter for her! But she made a queer condition. If
she allowed me to leave everything to her, the legacy must be arranged
somehow without altering it to her married name when she is my wife. It
must be in favour of 'Rosemary Brandreth,' not 'Rosemary Murray.' I
begged her to tell my why she wanted such an odd thing, and she said it
was a prejudice she had about women changing their names and taking
their husbands' names. Well, as a matter of fact, I believe a woman
marrying _can_ keep her own name legally if she likes. Taking the
husband's name is a custom, not a necessity for a woman, I remember
hearing. But I'm not sure. Sir Jim may know. If not, he'll find out for
me. I haven't much strength, and it would be the greatest favour if he
would get some first-rate legal opinion about carrying out this wish of
Rosemary's."
"Jim will be glad to do anything he can," I said, warmly. "We shall be
neighbours, you know."
"Yes, thank Heaven!" he exclaimed. "I used not to think much about such
things, but I do feel as if you two had been sent me in my need, by
Providence. There was the wonderful coincidence of Rosemary being on my
ship--at least, one _calls_ it a coincidence, but it must be something
deeper and more mysterious than that. Then, finding such friends as you
and Sir Jim--neighbours on deck, and neighbours on shore. I can't tell
you the comfort it is to know that Rosemary won't be left alone when I'm
gone."
"Count on us," I repeated, "now and always."
"I do," Murray answered. "As for the present, my first will in favour of
Rosemary Brandreth will be clear sailing. It is the second one--or the
codicil--after marriage, that raises a question. I suppose I needn't
worry about that till the time comes: yet I do. I want to be sure that
Rosemary is safe. I wish you could persuade her not to stick to the
point she's so keen on."
"If you can't persuade her, it's not likely that I can," I objected. I
tried to keep my voice quite natural, but something in my tone must have
struck him.
"You have an idea in your mind about this condition Rosemary makes!" he
challenged.