"Lebong, _May 10, 19--_.
"Captain Blair presents his compliments to Miss Beverley, and takes the
liberty of forwarding for her acceptance an antique brass box, which he
trusts may be considered worthy of a place in her collection.
"Katrine! It is such a delicious little name; it is the only name by
which I have ever heard you called. Will you forgive a lonely fellow,
six thousand miles away, if he writes to you as he thinks? It's
ridiculous to let conventions throw their shadow across the world, but
if you _will_ have it, enclosed is the conventional, colourless,
third-person missive. Keep it, and tear up the rest unread. I give you
full liberty to do it.
"But you won't.
"I might as well confess at once,--that box is a delusion and a snare.
I didn't `hit upon it'; I searched for it far and wide. Properly
regarded, it is not a box at all; it is an excuse; a decoy. I wanted
one badly, and it was the best I could find.
"The nuisance of it is that we meet on such unequal terms! You know my
name; you have probably gathered an impression that, as fellows go, I'm
not a bad fellow, though a trifle dull. Dorothea Middleton is an angel
of hospitality, but an up-country station has its limits even for a
saint. To your mind I'm dead as Queen Anne, but to me you are quite
distractingly alive. Why do you send out photographs taken in such a
fashion that your eyes look straight into the eyes of any lonely fellow
who chances to sit smoking his pipe in a friend's bungalow if you don't
want trouble to follow?
"There's one photograph which smiles. You know it! the one in the white
frock. When I'm pleased to be witty, I look at those eyes, and they
laugh back. My other hearers may be dull and unappreciative, but those
eyes never fail. Katrine and I have shared many a joke together during
these last years.
"There's another photograph--the dark one! A white, little face looking
out of the shadow; pensive this time, but always with those
straight-glancing eyes. It's your own fault, Katrine! If you had been
`taken' like ordinary folk, gazing blankly into space, all this might
never have happened... The pensive portrait is even deadlier than the
glad. It looks sorry for me. When I'm turning out at night leaving
Will and Dorothea alone, it understands how I feel. Its eyes follow me
to the door.
"I haven't a photograph to send you; I wouldn't send one if I had.
What's the use of a portrait of a big skeleton of a fellow, brown as a
nigger, and at thirty-five looking a lot more like forty? Let that
slide; but within the walls of the skeleton lives a lonely fellow who
has no one left to send him letters from home, and who for the last
three years has enjoyed his mail vicariously through extracts read from
a young girl's letters.
"You write wonderful letters, Katrine! I don't know if they are the
sort a literary critic would approve, but they bring new life into our
camp. Dorothea is generous in reading aloud all that she may, and I
could stand a pretty stiff examination upon your life in that delightful
little Cranford of a place, which you don't appreciate as you ought.
Those letters, plus the photograph, have done the damage.
"So this is what it comes to,--I want some letters for myself! I want
(it sounds appallingly conceited; never mind! Let it go at that), I
want you to know _me_, to realise my existence, even as I do yours.
Will you write to me sometimes? I give you fair notice that in any case
I mean to write to you. It can do you no harm to read my effusions, and
if you do violence to your natural curiosity and burn them instead, the
snub would miss its point, for I shall be no wiser. I'm not afraid that
you will burn them. The feminine in you is too strongly developed for
such a lack of curiosity, but will you answer them? That's the
question!
"Think it over, Katrine! At the moment of reading, you haven't a doubt
of what you will say. Sit down at once to write that haughty letter of
reproof and denial, but--don't send it off by the first post! Relieve
yourself by letting off steam, and then think out the thing calmly.
"Your own life is not all that you could wish, but compare it just for a
moment with mine, and consider the compensations which you enjoy!
Friends, books, papers, happenings of world-wide interest at your door,
or what _seems_ your door to exiles across the world--all these, and
into the bargain, home, and comfort, and _cool_! You must acknowledge,
Katrine, that the odds are on your side!
"If I could take a holiday and come home, you would receive me
graciously as Dorothea's friend. Why should it require a greater effort
to receive me in the spirit?
"Get away from the Cranford spirit, Katrine; refuse to be bound by it, I
see signs,--I tell you frankly, I see signs of its encroachment! Here's
a fine chance of throwing it to the winds. Are you brave enough, fine
enough, woman enough, to work out this thing for yourself, and to decide
as your heart dictates?
"I am very humble; I ask for the moment nothing more than an occasional
letter. Now, what are you going to do? At any rate there's that box!
In common decency you must write once at least to acknowledge that!
Your answer ought, I calculate, to arrive about four weeks from to-day.
"Yours faithfully,
"Jim Blair."
"Well, I'm--!" ejaculated Katrine, and stopped aghast. The failure to
finish her sentence was attributable less to good feeling than the utter
inability to find a word strong enough to express the sentiments of the
moment. An onlooker, however, could not have failed to remark the fact
that, be the sentiment what it might, it was certainly extraordinarily
becoming. Katrine's eyes shone, her pale cheeks blazed a damask rose,
the firm lips gaped, showing a flash of small, white teeth. Seated bolt
upright in her high-backed chair, the blue dress outlining the fine
lines of her figure, she reached at that moment her highest
possibilities of beauty, but there was no one to see her, and for the
moment she was oblivious of her own good looks. The world of monotonous
order rocked in chaos beneath her feet; volcano-like, those written
words had convulsed the landscape, transforming the familiar features
into new and astounding shapes.
Out of the shock and amazement it was difficult to realise the
predominant sensation. Was it anger; was it excitement; was it relief
that at last, at last, something had happened to lift life out of the
eternal jog-trot? Katrine did not know, she did not trouble to think;
for the moment it was enough to sit still, and let the whirlwind rush
through her veins. Whether she were angry or glad, for the moment, at
least, the latent powers of feeling were stirred into being; she was
strongly, vitally, _alive_!
An unknown man had accosted her with what was virtually an expression of
love; had flung down the gage, and challenged her to the reply. "_For
the moment_" he demanded nothing more than an intimate correspondence,
with the object of gaining an opportunity to reveal his own identity,
and evoking her sympathy in return...
She looked at the brass box lying upon the table, the beautiful antique
whose real nature had been so openly confessed; she looked at the stiff,
three-lined message of decorum; she looked at the letter lying open in
her hand, at the strong, clear lettering of that opening
word.--"_Katrine_!" she murmured beneath her breath,--"Katrine!" The
word came to her ear with a new delight. The commonplace had vanished,
it seemed to breathe of beauty and romance. Her hands retained their
hold of the letter, she raised it from her knee, read it once more and
bit hard upon her lip. "What can he think of me? What impression must
my letters have left, if he can believe that it is _possible_ that I
could agree to such a suggestion? He can't have much respect--"
She fumed, flushed, scorched him with disdain, then suddenly found
herself faced by another paragraph, and suffered a humiliating collapse.
"_The Cranford cramp_." He had seen signs! How had he seen signs?
Could it indeed be true, that while she was complacently denouncing the
narrow-mindedness of her neighbours, the infection had touched herself?
Impulse prompted her to thrust aside so humiliating a suggestion, but a
doubt remained...
Was it possible to live for years in a narrow sphere, surrounded by an
atmosphere of petty detail, and yet keep one's own attitude broad and
free?
With a certain fierceness of sincerity Katrine searched her conscience,
summoned the image of herself before a mental bar, and passed sentence.
_It was true_! Compared with friends from afar; compared even with the
Katrine of years ago, she was slowly, surely stiffening into the
Cranford Model. Another ten years of steady following would find her
with a horizon limited by the High Street and the tennis ground, and a
mind incapable of braving the verdict of a village tea-party. Katrine
sighed; a short, impatient sigh. Self-pride suffered in the revelation,
but she told herself boldly that she was not to blame. She had had no
change, no distractions. Year after year she had vegetated in the same
small place. The past tense came unconsciously to her lips, for already
her thoughts dwelt upon yesterday as a far-off past. Yesterday Jim
Blair had been but a name, the most shadowy of figures; to-day, with
amazing audacity, the shadowy figure had stepped into the very
foreground of life!
Katrine searched her memory for the stray items of information which her
friend's letters had from time to time contained with regard to her
husband's friend. The two men were fellow-captains in the same
regiment. Blair was the senior of the two, but even so his chances of
promotion were small, owing to the hopeless blocking which is the
soldier's greatest handicap. Blair had seen active service, had
distinguished himself in an expedition to Tibet, could with ease have
achieved an exchange, but he was devoted to the regiment, a prime
favourite with the mess, and having private means, preferred to defer
the evil day.
Dorothea's descriptions, though flattering, were somewhat vague. She
had stated frequently, and with conviction, that "Jim was a dear!" but
to which particular brand or type of dear he belonged was left to the
imagination. Jim was the godfather of the son and heir; in descriptions
of domestic scenes and conversations he seemed naturally to play a part;
Dorothea was complacently convinced that in the society of her husband
and herself he found complete satisfaction. It had never occurred to
her to consider the part played by a fourth person in those same
interviews! A quiet, well-mannered young person who sat on the
mantelpiece, taking notes!
"_Katrine and I_!"
The real Katrine gasped once more at the remembrance of those words. So
extraordinary were they, so unbelievable, that to make sure that they
were not the creation of her own brain, she turned back to the letter,
and re-read the sentence.
"Katrine and I have shared many a joke together."
For a moment the girl frowned, then suddenly a wistful expression stole
into her eyes. She herself had enjoyed so few jokes in these long flat
years! The photographs had the advantage there. She found herself for
the moment almost envying the photographs. The laughing one, that was
to say; not the sad. The sad one had been guilty of unpardonable
boldness in looking sorry for a strange man; in exchanging glances with
him, forsooth! from the doorway, in covert sympathy with his bachelor
estate!
"If it had been just an ordinary friendly correspondence, one might--
perhaps--have agreed! It would be interesting to be friends with a man,
but--but _it is not_! He doesn't mean it to be; he doesn't mean me to
believe that he means it. It's a kind of verbal `walking out'; a
correspondence `with a view to matrimony!' In a few months' time he
would be asking--"
Katrine jumped to her feet, and paced excitedly to the window, the
letter still clutched in her hand. It crackled beneath her fingers, as
she stood staring out into the lane.
A man in a white apron was walking rapidly along the farther side.
Rogers, the butcher's foreman, homeward bound for his mid-day meal. The
clock of Saint Dunstan's struck twelve chimes, and celebrated the
occasion by chiming a verse of "Onward, Christian Soldiers."
Every morning of the year that white-robed figure passed up the lane at
precisely the same hour; every morning the same verse was ground out on
the church bells.
"And there is Martin!" said Katrine, in a slow, dull tone of finality.
"There is Martin!"
For the first time in her experience she felt a flood of pity for her
own self-enforced celibacy. Hitherto marriage had presented no especial
lure and the two men who had appeared as suitors had failed to awaken
even a passing interest. No one could look at Katrine's face and fail
to realise that she was capable of deep and passionate love, but she had
none of the easy sentiment of the ordinary young girl, and having failed
to meet her mate, the softer part of her nature was still dormant.
Moreover she had an immense advantage over the ordinary unmarried woman,
in being mistress of a home, in the management of which she could
indulge to the full her natural feminine instincts. It had appeared to
her that if Martin were more responsive, she could be satisfied with her
lot. There was a certain flatness, no doubt; a certain dread in
envisaging the years, but experience showed that such moods were not
confined to spinsters alone. They followed as a natural sequence the
awakening from youth's bright dreams; to encourage them would be both
morbid and weak! But with the reading of that amazing letter a new
rebellion surged in her soul...
She was giving up her life for Martin, and Martin was not made happy
thereby. Her mind travelled back to the interview of an hour before--
she saw the tall figure, the weary droop of the shoulders; caught again
a glimpse of the lean dark profile, which, in contradistinction to the
pose, had still so boyish an air. Like a flash of light came a
realisation which galvanised into life the stereotyped pity of years.
He was _young_, poor Martin; still young, at an age when he might most
have enjoyed his life!
For the first time a faint doubt shot through the certainty of Katrine's
conviction that all that was best worth having was for Martin past and
over. A man of thirty-five, in the prime of health and vigour--was it
natural, was it _right_, that his heart should remain buried in the
grave of his girl wife? Loyalty would not allow Katrine to confess as
much in words, but deep down in her heart she realised that her brother
was growing yearly less loving, less lovable, more difficult to please.
Bereft of Juliet, thrown back upon himself, the best part of his nature
was slowly atrophying from disuse.
Was the fault on his side or hers? Woman of twenty-six though she was,
Katrine was curiously limited in her ideas on the great facts of life.
The Cranford cramp had laid its hand upon her, so that her judgments
were made from the standpoint of convention, not fact. It never
occurred to her to blame human nature for the fact that a brother and
sister of mature age had failed to find completeness in a life together;
instead, she peered anxiously into her own shortcomings of temper and
tact, and laboriously built up resolutions.
"I must be more careful, more considerate. He has nobody but me."
She sighed, and this time the sigh was undisguisedly wistful in tone.
"If it were possible! If she could indeed be brave enough, fine enough,
woman enough, to throw conventions to the winds, what a wonderful new
interest might come into her life! The arrival of Dorothea's letters
had made epochs in the week, but how much more--" She stopped short,
aghast at the suggestion. How could the letters of a strange man be
_more_ engrossing than those of the friend of years? Comparison between
them was ridiculous. The whole proposition was preposterous and
impossible. She would write at once, a firm and dignified rebuff.
Then suddenly, in the midst of her protests, Katrine caught sight of her
own image gazing at her from a mirror across the room--a transformed
image, youthful, glowing, incredibly alive. The eyes flashed, drooped
with a guilty shame, then flashed again bright and defiant. She looked,
and burst into a great peal of laughter; she threw out her arms with the
gesture of one pushing aside imprisoning chains, advanced with a
swaggering gait, and nodded defiance into the tell-tale glass.
"You're a fraud, Katrine Beverley; you're a fraud! It is all humbug and
pretence, and you _know_ that it is. His letters _would_ be more
interesting, just because he _is_ a man, who admires me, and
wants--_things_--he can never have! And I'm _not_ sorry, I'm _glad_.
If it wasn't for Martin, I'd say yes.--I'd say it at once, I _want_ to
say yes!"
Her face fell, she sighed despondently, then straightened herself,
reassured.
"At any rate there is the box. In common decency I must write to thank
him for the box!"
And meantime Martin was swinging along the country lanes, recalling the
morning's conversation, and pondering for the hundredth time how he
could best escape from the _impasse_ of his life.
"Any other woman would have understood--would have realised that I
_wanted_ to be alone, but the mischief of it is Katrine doesn't see, and
I can't be brute enough to tell her in so many words. If she could be
induced to take that Indian tour, we might start afresh after a year's
absence. Or she might marry out there. She's a handsome girl, and
would make a rattling wife,--to the right man! Poor old Katrine! I
hope I did not show her too plainly... The furniture will have an extra
polish this morning, and we shall have a superfine dinner, my favourite
dishes,--an ice, and Angels on Horseback,--for a ducat we'll have them,
and I shall buy her a box of chocolates on my way home... She tries her
best, poor girl. So do I, for that matter, and that is the devil of it.
Effort! Effort!"
The air seemed black with clouds; the pain which long custom had dulled
revived into throbbing life. He was racked with mental nausea: life
stretched before him level, uneventful, intolerably dull. His very work
was a mistake. Long months of effort, and struggle of spirit, and as a
result a few patronising reviews, and a monetary reward, which, worked
out on a time basis, approached a sweating wage. If he never wrote
another line, should he be missed; would the world be a whit the poorer?
What was the sum total when all was told, but amusement for an idle
hour!
It was in the depths of depression that Martin entered the golf club
half an hour later, but on the threshold his good angel stood waiting.
His favourite partner, a retired civil servant, living in an adjoining
village, stood within the pavilion and acclaimed him with delight; the
most intelligent of caddies was at his disposal, and half-an-hour's play
demonstrated the fact that the day was his.
By the end of two hours the vapours had disappeared beneath the combined
influences of bracing air, congenial companionship, and a succession of
long drives; and then as he climbed up the side of a heathery slope,
suddenly, mysteriously, in the fashion known to all writers of fiction,
inspiration flashed! The longed-for clue appeared, the tangles
smoothed, the barren scene vibrated with life.
Martin stood still on the hill-side, and his lungs expanded with a deep,
envious breath. Work! Work! The study table--the scattered leaves,
the click of the typewriter; the barren hours, the hours when thoughts
flew so fast that the pen could not keep pace,--each different phase of
work rose before him, and each in its turn seemed good. His former
lethargy disappeared. Useless? Valueless? Was it of no value to be
one of the few writers who in a decadent age kept his pages clean? When
so many streams ran foul, was it a light thing to provide a crystal
well? And this last book should be the best he had written; stronger,
deeper, more vital. Already in his own mind it was a living thing. He
conceived a man, and lived in his image; he made unto him a wife. The
two faces flashed at him out of the blue...
Ten minutes later, as he took up his position before a buried ball,
Martin was telling himself briskly: "Hang it all, it's _true_! It _is_
my house. I can ask whom I like--"