A SHADOW ON THE HOUSE
"So here you are--at Hilsey at last!" said Bernadette.
"Yes, and, I say, what a jolly old place it is!" He paused for a moment.
"I very nearly didn't come at all, though."
She looked at him in amused surprise. "What was the counter-attraction?"
"I had a job. Consequently it became wildly possible that I might get
another."
"Oh, is that all? I hoped it was something interesting and romantic."
"It is interesting--though I suppose it's not romantic." In fact it had
possessed for him some of the qualities implied by that hard-worked
word. "But my clerk can wire me if anything turns up." He laughed at
himself. "Nothing will, you know, but it flatters my pride to think it
might."
"It won't flatter my pride if you run away from us again." She rose.
"Get your hat and I'll show you round a bit. The others are all out,
doing something."
"Who's here?"
"Only the Norton Wards and Sir Christopher. Sir Oliver's been here, but
he had to go up on some business. He's coming back in a few days. The
others are here just for the week-end."
"But I'm here for a month! Isn't that glorious?"
"Well, you know, something may happen----"
"Oh, no, I shan't be sent for. I'm sure I shan't. Anyhow I could come
back, couldn't I?"
"Yes, if you wanted to. The house would always be at your disposal,
Cousin Arthur." Her smile was mocking, but she laid her hand on his arm
with the old suggestion of a caress, adding, "Let's get out and enjoy
it, while we can, anyhow."
Bernadette looked a little pale and seemed rather tired--"run down after
the season," she had explained to Esther Norton Ward when that lady
commented on her appearance--but Arthur was too joyfully excited, by
meeting her again and by his first view of Hilsey, to notice fine
shades. It was true that he had suffered a momentary hesitation about
coming--a passing spasm of conscience or ambition induced by the great
case of _Tiddes v. the Universal Omnibus Company, Ltd._--but that was
all over with the sight of Bernadette and of his stock's ancestral home.
To see her there was to see the jewel in its proper setting, or (to
adopt Joe Halliday's hyperbole) the angel in her own paradise. As they
stepped out on the lawn in front of the old house, he exclaimed, "It's
beautiful, and it fits you just perfectly! You were made for one
another!"
She pursed up her lips for a minute, and then laughed. "Drink it in!"
she said, jeering at his enthusiasm, and perhaps at something else; the
idea of an innate harmony between herself and her husband's house
seemed, to say the least, far-fetched.
Whatever might be the case as to its mistress, Hilsey deserved his
praises. An old manor house, not very large, but perfect in design and
unimpaired by time or change, it stood surrounded by broad lawns,
bordered on the south side (towards which the principal rooms faced) by
a quick-running river. The pride of the garden lay in the roses and the
cedar trees; amongst all the wealth of beauty these first caught the
eye. Within the house, the old oak was rich in carving; the arms of the
Lisles and of their brides, escutcheons and mottoes, linked past and
present in an unbroken continuity. Grave gentlemen, and beauties, prim
or provocative, looked down from the panels. As he saw the staid and
time-laden perfection, the enshrined history, the form and presentment
of his ancestors, a novel feeling came to birth in Arthur Lisle, a sense
of family, of his own inalienable share in all this though he owned none
of it, of its claim on him. Henceforth, wherever he dwelt, he would know
this, in some way, for his true home. He confessed to his feelings
laughingly: "Now I understand what it is to be a Lisle of Hilsey!"
"Imperishable glory!" But she was rather touched. "I know. I think I
felt it too when Godfrey brought me here first. It is--awfully
charming."
"I don't care for show-places as a rule. They expect too much of you.
But this doesn't. It's just--well, appealing and insinuating, isn't it?"
"It's very genteel."
"Oh yes, it's unquestionably very genteel too!" he laughed.
The incomparable home and the incomparable cousin--his mind wedded them
at once.
"It was a stroke of genius that made Godfrey choose you to--to reign
here!"
Her smile was the least trifle wry now. What imp of perversity made the
boy say all the things which were not, at this moment, very appropriate?
"Reigns are short--and rhapsodies seem likely to be rather long, Arthur.
I think I'll go and write a letter, and leave you to simmer down a bit."
"Oh, I'm an ass, I know, but----"
"Yes, and not only about the house!" She turned to leave him, with a
wave of her hand. "You'll get over all of it some day."
He watched her slender white-frocked figure as she walked across the
lawn and into the porch. From there she looked back, waving her hand
again; he pictured, though he could not at the distance see, the
affectionate mocking little smile with which she was wont to meet his
accesses of extravagant admiration, disclaiming what she accepted,
ridiculing what she let him see was welcome. His memory took an enduring
portrait of her there in the doorway of her home.
His heart was gay as he wandered about, "drinking it in," as Bernadette
had bidden him. The sojourn before him seemed an eternity full of
delight. The future beyond that month was indeed charged with interest;
was there not the great farce, was there not now the strange fact of
Messrs. Wills and Mayne, with whose aid imagination could play almost
any trick it pleased? Still these things admitted of postponement.
Arthur postponed them thoroughly, to fling himself into the flood of
present happiness.
His roving steps soon brought him to the banks of the stream; he had
been promised fishing there and was eager to make an inspection. But he
was to make an acquaintance instead. On a bench by the water a little
girl sat all by herself, nursing a doll without a head, and looking
across the river with solemn steady eyes. Directly Arthur saw her face
he knew her for Margaret, sole daughter of the house.
Hearing his step, the child turned towards him with a rather
apprehensive look, and hastily hid the headless doll behind her back.
She reminded him of her father so strongly that he smiled; there was the
same shy embarrassment; the profile too was a whimsical miniature of
Godfrey's, and her hair was the colour of his--it hung very straight,
without curls, without life or riot in it.
"You're Margaret, aren't you?" he asked, sitting down by her. She
nodded. "I'm Cousin Arthur."
"Oh yes, I knew you were coming."
"Why have you put dolly behind your back?"
"I thought you mightn't like her. Mummy says she's so ugly."
"Oh, bring her out. Let's have a look at her! How did she lose her
head?"
"Patsy bit it off and ate it--at least she ate the face. It made her
sick."
"Who's Patsy?" He was glad that Margaret had now put the doll back in
her lap; he took that for a mark of confidence. "Is she your dog?"
"No, she's Judith's; but she lives here always and Judith doesn't. I
wish Judith did."
"What's dolly's name?"
"Judith."
"I see you like Judith very much, don't you? The real Judith--as well as
dolly?"
"Yes, very much. Don't you?"
"Yes, very much." And then the conversation languished. Arthur was only
moderately apt with children, and Margaret's words had come slowly and
with an appearance of consideration; she did not at all suggest a
chatterbox. But presently she gave him a look of timid enquiry, and
remarked in a deprecating way "I expect you don't like guinea-pigs. Most
people don't. But if you did, I could show you mine. Only if you're sure
you like guinea-pigs!"
Arthur laughed outright. For all the world, it was like the way Godfrey
had invited him down to Hilsey! The same depreciation of what was
offered, the same anxiety not to force an unwilling acceptance!
"Guinea-pigs! I just love them!" he exclaimed with all possible
emphasis.
"Oh, well then!" said Margaret, almost resignedly, with a sort of "Your
blood be on your own head" manner, as she jumped down and put her free
hand into his; the other held tight hold of the headless doll. "In the
kitchen-garden!"
Over the guinea-pigs he made a little progress in her good graces. She
did not come out to meet a stranger with the fascinating trustfulness of
some children; she had none of that confidence that she would be liked
which makes liking almost inevitable. She was not pretty, though she was
refined. But somehow she made an appeal to Arthur, to his chivalry--just
as her father did to his generosity. Perhaps she too had not many
friends, and did not hope for new ones.
When the guinea-pigs gave out, she made him no more offers and risked no
more invitations. In a grave silence she led him back from the
kitchen-garden to the lawn. He was silent too, and grave, except for
twitching lips. He saw that she could not be "rushed" into intimacy--it
would never do to toss her up in the air and catch her, for
instance--but he felt that their first meeting had been a success.
A voice called from within a door adjacent to him: "Margaret, your tea's
ready." The child slipped her hand out of his and ran in without a word.
A minute passed, Arthur standing where he was, looking at the old house.
Judith came out and greeted him.
"You've made an impression on Margaret," she told him, smiling. "She
said to me, 'I've shown Cousin Arthur my guinea-pigs, and I _think_ he's
going to be nice.'"
"Guarded! At any rate, in the way you emphasise it."
"It's a lot from her, though, on so short an acquaintance."
He liked the look of Judith in country kit; she was dressed for exercise
and conveyed an agreeable suggestion of fresh air and energy. "I'm all
by myself; take me for a bit of a walk or something."
"All right. We've time for a stroll before tea--it's always late." She
set off towards a little bridge which crossed the river and led to a
path through the meadows towards a fir wood on rising ground beyond.
"How like the child is to Godfrey! I suppose they're very devoted to one
another?"
"Well, I think they are, really. But they rather need an intermediary,
all the same--somebody to tell Margaret that her father wants her, and
_vice versa_. My function, Arthur--among others which you may have
observed that I fulfil in the course of your study of the household."
He laughed. "I don't think I have studied it. What is there to study?"
"There's a good deal to study in every household, I expect." They had
scaled the hill and stood on the edge of the wood. "There's a pretty
view of the house from here," she said, turning round.
"By Jove, how jolly and--and peaceful, don't you know?--it all looks!"
Her eyes turned from the view to the young man's face. She smiled, a
little in scorn, more in pity. Because he really seemed to identify the
features of the landscape with the household at Hilsey Manor--a most
pathetic fallacy! But he had always been blind, strangely blind, dazzled
by the blaze of his adoration. Yet she liked him for his blindness, and
conceived it no business of hers to open his eyes. Though they were
opened to a full glare of knowledge and sorrow, how would that help?
To her own eyes there rested now a dark shadow over the house, a cloud
that might burst in storm. She felt a whimsical despair about her
companion. How he soared in a heaven of his own making, with an angel of
his own manufacture! With what a thud he would come to earth, and how
the angel would moult her wings, if a certain thing happened! Oh, what a
fool he was--yet attractive in his folly! For the sake of woman, she
could almost love him for the love he bore his Bernadette--who was not,
by a long way, the real one.
"I'm rather glad Wyse isn't going to be here for a bit yet," said Arthur
thoughtfully. "We shall be jollier by ourselves."
Queer that he should put a name so pat to the shadow which he could not
see!
"I like him all right, but he'd be rather in the way, wouldn't he?"
Of a surety he was in the way--right plump in the middle of it! There
was sore doubt whether the family coach could get by without a spill.
"Well, when he comes back, you mustn't expect to monopolise Bernadette."
"I don't think I ever try to do that, do I?" he asked quickly, flushing
a little. "I mean, I don't set up to--well, I don't make a bore of
myself, do I?"
"Goodness, no! I suppose I meant that you mustn't mind if Sir Oliver
monopolises her rather."
"Oh, but I shall mind that!" cried Arthur in dismay. Then he laughed.
"But I'm hanged if he shall do it! I'll put up a fight. What happened
when he was here before?"
"Well, he's her friend, you see, not mine or Godfrey's. So, naturally, I
suppose----"
"What did they do together?"
"Motored mostly."
"That'd mean she'd be out half the day!"
"Yes. All day sometimes."
By now they were strolling back. Arthur's spirits had fallen somewhat;
this man Wyse might be a considerable bore! But then, when he was there
before, there had been nobody else--no other man except Godfrey, and no
other guest except Judith, who was almost one of the family. He would
not find things quite the same when he came back, thought Arthur in his
heart, sublimely sure that Bernadette would not ill-use him. On this
reflection his spirits rose again, now spiced with combativeness. He
would hold his own.
"How did he and Godfrey hit it off?"
"Oh, Godfrey just retired--you know his way."
"Into his shell? Doesn't he like Sir Oliver?"
"Does he like anybody--except me and you?" she asked, smiling ruefully.
"And I think that perhaps he likes Sir Oliver rather less than most
people. But it's not easy to tell what he feels."
As a fact she had been much puzzled to know what Godfrey had been
thinking of late. He had said nothing to her; she would readily swear
that he had said nothing to Bernadette. He had been just a little more
silent, more invisible, more solitary than usual. Of what was in his
mind she knew really nothing. The pall of his passivity hid it all from
her sight.
It seemed to her that his passivity did more than hide him--that it must
also to a great extent put him out of action, render him negligible,
neutralise him, if and when it came to a fight. As an institution, as a
condition, as a necessary part of a certain state of things--in fine, as
being Mr. Lisle of Hilsey--he would no doubt, of necessity, receive
attention. In that aspect he meant and represented much--a whole
position, a whole environment, a whole life. Church and state, home and
society--Godfrey the Institution touched them all. But Godfrey the man,
the individual man--what consideration, what recognition could he expect
if he thus effaced himself? If he put forward no claim, none would be
admitted. If he made a nonentity of himself, he would be counted for
naught. It might be urged that such had been the position for years, and
that, with all its drawbacks, it had worked. The argument was futile
now. A new and positive weight in the other scale upset the balance.
"Well, do you like Sir Oliver yourself?" asked Arthur, after some
moments of silence.
She paused before answering. "Yes, I do," she said in the end. "At any
rate I rather admire him. There's a sort of force about him. And--yes--I
do like him too. You could trust him, I think." Then it seemed to
herself that this was an odd thing which had come to her lips--under
existing circumstances. It was in explanation to herself, rather than
for Arthur's information, that she added, "I mean that, if he undertook
anything towards you, he'd carry it out; you might rely on him."
"I don't want him to undertake anything towards me," said Arthur
loftily.
"Oh, the people outside those limits must shift for themselves--I think
that would be entirely Sir Oliver's view. But I'm not sure it's a wrong
one, are you?" It was still with her own thoughts that she was busy. She
could not quite understand why she was not more angry with Oliver Wyse.
She had no doubt by now of what he wanted. Surely it ought to make her
angry? She was pre-eminently Godfrey's friend--his kinswoman, not
Bernadette's. She ought to be terribly angry. Even apart from moral
considerations, family solidarity and friendly sympathy united to
condemn the trespasser. She was loth to confess it to herself, but at
the bottom of her heart she doubted if she were angry at all with Oliver
Wyse. It was all so natural in him; you might almost say that he was
invited. Bernadette and Godfrey between them had set up a situation that
invited the intervention of a strong man who knew what he wanted. Could
the one complain with justice of being tempted, or the other of being
wronged? To the friend and kinswoman her own impartial mind put these
searching questions.
"It's a view that I quite cheerfully accept as between Oliver Wyse and
myself," said Arthur. There was a note of hostility in his voice, of
readiness to accept a challenge. Then he realised that he was being
absurd; he had the grace often to recognise that. He smiled as he added,
"But, after all, he's done me no harm yet, has he?"
The shadow hung over the house--aye, over his own head--but he did not
see it.