FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON!
Norton Ward on a country visit gave the impression of a locomotive
engine in a siding. His repose was so obviously temporary and at the
mercy of any signal. He was not moving, but his thoughts were all of
movement--of his own moves, of other people's, of his counter-moves; or
of his party's moves, and the other party's counter-moves. He could not
at the moment be moulding and shaping his life; but, like a sculptor, he
was contemplating the clay in the intervals of actual work, and planning
all that he would do, so soon as he could get at it again. Even in hours
of idleness he was brimful of a restless energy which, denied action for
the moment, found its outlet in discussing, planning, speculating,
making maps of lives, careers, and policies.
"You bring London down with you in your portmanteau, Frank!" Sir
Christopher expostulated. "We might be in the Lobby instead of under the
trees here on a fine Sunday morning."
The old Judge lay back in a long chair. He was looking tired, delicate,
and frail, his skin pale and waxy; his hands were very thin. He had
arrived cheerful but complaining of fatigue. The work of the Term had
been hard; he was turned seventy, and must think of retiring--so he told
his hostess.
"It's so different," he went on, "when it comes to looking back on it
all, when it's all behind you. But, of course, men differ too. I never
meant business to the extent you do. I've done pretty well; I won't cry
down what is, after all, a fine position. It was thought rather a job,
by the way, making me a judge, but I was popular and what's called a
good fellow, and people swallowed the job without making a fuss. But
work and what it brings have never been all the world to me. I've loved
too many other things, and loved them too much."
"Oh, I know I'm a climber," laughed Norton Ward. "I can't help it. I try
sometimes to get up an interest in some dilettante business or other,
but I just can't! I'm an infernal Philistine; all that sort of thing
seems just waste of time to me."
"Well then, to you it is waste of time," said his wife.
"We must follow our natures, no help for it. And that's what one seems
to have done when one looks back. One gets a little doubtful about Free
Will, looking back."
"Yes, sir, but it's awfully hard to know what your nature is," Arthur
interposed. He was lying on the grass, pulling up blades of it and tying
them in knots for an amusement.
"It works of itself, I think, without your knowing much about it--till,
as I say, you can look back."
"But then it's too late to do anything about it!"
"Well, so it is, unless eternity is an eternity of education, as some
people say--a prospect which one's lower nature is inclined to regard
with some alarm."
"No amount of it will quite spoil you, Sir Christopher," Esther assured
him with an affectionate smile.
"If this life can't educate a man, what can?" asked Norton Ward.
"The view traditionally ascribed to Providence--with a most distressing
corollary!"
"I think, if a fellow's come a mucker, he ought to have another chance,"
said Arthur.
"That's what my criminals always tell me from the dock, Mr. Lisle."
"And what women say when they run away from their husbands," added
Norton Ward with a laugh. "By the way, I was talking to Elphinstone the
other day about the effect this Divorce Reform movement might have if
either party really took it up in earnest, and he was inclined to----"
"Shall we hear Sir John Elphinstone's views on this beautiful morning?"
asked the Judge.
Norton Ward laughed again--at himself. "Oh, I beg your pardon! But after
all it is some time since we touched on anything of practical interest."
"If death and judgment aren't of practical interest, I'll be hanged if I
know what is!"
"But neither of them exactly of immediate interest, Judge, we'll hope!"
"Well, what are you all talking about?" asked a voice from behind the
group. Bernadette stood there, with parasol and prayer-book. She had
been to church with Godfrey, Margaret, and Judith.
"Death and judgment, Bernadette," said Esther.
"Not very cheerful! You might as well have come to church, and dressed
the family pew for us."
"Oh, but we were cheerful; we had just concluded that neither threatened
any of us at present."
Bernadette took a seat among them, facing Arthur as he lay on the grass.
She gave him a little nod of recognition; she was especially glad to
find him there, it seemed to say. He smiled back at her, lazily happy,
indolently enjoying the fair picture she presented.
"It's very artistic of you to go to church in the country, Bernadette,"
said the Judge. "It's so much the right thing. But you always do the
right thing. In fact I rather expected you to go so far as to bring the
parson back to lunch. That was the ritual in my early days."
"I don't overdo things, not even my duties," smiled Bernadette. She was
looking very pretty, very serene, rather mischievous. None the less, the
parasol and the prayer-book gave her an orthodox air; she was quite
pronouncedly Mrs. Lisle of Hilsey, sitting on her own lawn. After
attending to her religious duties and setting a good example, she was
now entertaining her house-party.
"The others have gone for a walk before lunch, but it's much too hot for
walking," she went on.
"Oh, but you promised to go for a walk with me this afternoon, you
know," cried Arthur.
"We'll go and sit together somewhere instead, Arthur."
"We're warned off! That's pretty evident," laughed Norton Ward. "You
shouldn't give her away before all of us, Arthur. If she does make
assignations with you----"
"If she does make assignations, she keeps them--no matter who knows,"
said Bernadette. A little mocking smile hung persistently about her lips
as she sat there, regarded by them all, the ornament of the group, the
recipient of the flattery of their eyes.
"If she made one with me," said Sir Christopher, "I don't think I should
be able to keep it to myself either. I should be carried away by pride,
as no doubt Mr. Lisle is."
"Would you kiss and tell, Sir Christopher?" smiled Bernadette.
"Poets do--and such a kiss might make even me a poet."
"Evidently you'd better not risk it, Bernadette," laughed Arthur.
"Well, it hasn't been the usual effect of my kisses," Bernadette
observed demurely.
The mischievous reference to her husband seemed obvious. It forced a
smile from all of them; Esther added a reproving shake of her head.
"Perhaps it's as well, because I don't think I should like poets, not
about the house, you know."
"Now tell us your ideal man, Bernadette," said the Judge.
"Oh, I'll tell each of you that in private!"
To Esther Norton Ward, who knew her well, there seemed something changed
in her. She was as serene, as gay, as gracious as ever. But her manner
had lost something of the absolute naturalness which had possessed so
great a charm. She seemed more conscious that she exercised attraction,
and more consciously to take pleasure--perhaps even a little pride--in
doing it. She had never been a flirt, but now her speeches and glances
were not so free from what makes flirtation, not so careless of the
effect they might produce or the response which might be evoked by them.
To some degree the airs of a beauty had infected her simplicity;
graceful and dainty as they were, to her old friend's thinking they
marred the rarer charm. She was not so childlike, not so free from
guile. But Esther did not suppose that the men would notice any change;
if they did, they would probably like it. For being neither willing nor
able to flirt herself, she was convinced that men liked flirts. Flirts
both flattered their pride and saved them trouble. Perhaps there was
some truth in her theory.
For Esther's own eyes the change in Bernadette was there, whether the
men saw it or not. It was not obvious or obtrusive; it was subtle. But
it was also pervasive. It tinged her words and looks with a
provocativeness, a challenge, a consciousness of feminine power formerly
foreign to them. She had meanings where she used to have none. She took
aim at her mark. She knew what she wanted to effect and used means
towards it. She no longer pleased herself and left her pleasure itself
to make her charming. This was not the old Bernadette, Esther thought,
as she watched her dexterously, triumphantly, keeping the three men in
play.
The men did notice, in varying degrees, though none with so clear a
perception as the woman. Norton Ward, not quick to note subtleties in
people and not curious about women, was content with thinking that
Bernadette Lisle seemed in remarkably good form and spirits that
Sunday--he observed on the fact at a later date. The Judge, a shrewder
and more experienced observer in this line, smiled tolerantly at the way
she was keeping her hand in by a flirtation with her handsome young
kinsman by marriage; she was not a fool, and it would do the boy good.
Arthur too saw the change, or rather felt it, as he would feel a
variation in the atmosphere. He could have given no such clear account
of wherein it lay as Esther had arrived at, nor any such simple
explanation as served for Norton Ward or Sir Christopher. Had he been
pressed, he might have said--doubtfully--that she seemed to have become
more his equal, and more like other women in a way, though still
infinitely more delightful. But, no man asking him to analyse his
feeling, he did not attempt the vain task. The effect on him was there,
whatever its explanation might be; in some vague fashion it was as
though she put out a hand to raise him from the ground where he lay at
her feet, his face hidden, and graciously intimated that he might kneel
before her and dare to raise his eyes to hers. She treated him more as a
man and less as a pet--was that it? This was the idea which came nearest
to explicitness in his mind; the proud pleasure with which he looked and
listened had its source in some such inkling as that. He had grown in
the last few months; both actually and in his own esteem he had
developed; a recognition of his progress from her would crown the
delight she gave him.
She saw not only the men's admiration, amused or dazzled; she perceived
also Esther's covert curiosity. She knew herself that she felt different
and was being different. Esther Norton Ward knew it too! Very well, let
her know. She did not know the reason yet. That she would learn
hereafter. She caught Esther's pondering glance and met it with a smile
of mutinous merriment; Esther might have pondered with more chance of
enlightenment, had she been at Hilsey during the week that Oliver Wyse
had spent there!
"Why don't you use your influence with that young man there and make him
work?" asked Norton Ward of her.
"The wise woman uses her influence to make men do what they want to do,
but think they oughtn't. Then they worship her, Frank."
"Oh, bosh! Henry's in despair about you, Arthur--he's pathetic!"
"I like that!" cried Arthur indignantly. "Didn't he tell you about my
case? It was only in the County Court, of course, but----"
"That's it! Henry said you were very promising, if you'd only----"
"Did you win a case, Arthur? Tell us about it."
Arthur told the story of his battle with Mr. Tiddes, and how Miss
Silcock betrayed the fortress.
"Splendid!" cried Bernadette, clapping her hands, her eyes all
sparkling. "Arthur, you shall defend me, the first time I'm in trouble.
Only I think I shall plead guilty, and throw myself on the mercy of his
lordship."
"You'd get none from me, you baggage!" said Sir Christopher, who was
wondering how the deuce any young fellow could resist her.
"Call witnesses to character, anyhow. We'd all come," laughed Norton
Ward.
"You'd all come as witnesses to my character?" Her laugh came low but
rich, hearty, charged with malicious enjoyment. "I wonder if you would!"
"Witnesses to character don't help the prisoner very much, and in
ninety-nine cases out of a hundred convict themselves--of stupidity,
which they invite the Judge to share. What they really come to say is
'We've made a mistake about this fellow all these years. He's been too
clever for us!' Why should that help him? I'm very careful about letting
that sort of thing interfere with my sentences."
"But oughtn't the prisoner to get a reward for past good character, Sir
Christopher? Because it may not have been a case of deceiving his
friends. He may have changed himself."
"Well, it's the changed man I'm sentencing. Why shouldn't he get it
hot?"
"I shall not throw myself on the mercy of this particular lordship,"
said Bernadette. "He hasn't got any, that's obvious."
"No, you'd better get out of my jurisdiction."
"That would be the best thing to do, I think--get out of the
jurisdiction." She rose with a laugh. "Also I'm going to get out of this
church-going frock and into something cool and comfortable for lunch."
Before she went, she had a last word for Sir Christopher. "The prisoner
may have deceived himself as well as his friends, mayn't he? And he may
surprise himself in the end just as much as he surprises them. Come
along, Arthur, and help me to make some hock-cup before I
change--Barber's no good at it."
The Judge looked after her as she walked away, attended by Arthur. "That
was rather an acute remark of hers," he said.
"Yes, I wonder what made her say it!" Esther was looking puzzled and
thoughtful again.
"Oh, come, we all of us make intelligent general observations at times,
Esther."
"I don't think Bernadette's much given to general observations, though."
"Anyhow it's good to see her in such spirits," said Norton Ward. "Rather
surprising too, since you're talking of surprises. Because between
ourselves--and now that the family's out of hearing--I may say that our
host is even unusually poor company just now."
"As Bernadette's very little in his company, that doesn't so much
matter."
"Esther, my dear, you sound rather tart," said Sir Christopher. "Come
and drink the hock-cup; it'll make you more mellow."
Bernadette's gay and malicious humour persisted through lunch, but when,
according to her promise, she sat with Arthur on the seat by the river,
sheltered by a tree, her mood had changed; she was very friendly, but
pensive and thoughtful beyond her wont. She looked at him once or twice
as if she meant to speak, but ended by saying nothing. At last she asked
him whether he has seen anything of the Sarradets lately.
"Not since my lunch--when you met Marie," he answered. He was smoking
his pipe and now and then throwing pebbles into the river--placidly
happy.
"I liked her awfully. You musn't drop her, Arthur. She's been a good
friend to you, hasn't she?"
"Oh, she's a rare good sort, Marie! I don't want to drop her, but
somehow I've got out of the way of seeing so much of her. You know what
I mean? I don't go where she does, and she doesn't go much where I do."
"But you could make efforts--more lunches, for instance," she suggested.
"Oh, yes, I could--sometimes I do. But--well, it's just that the course
of my life has become different."
"I'm afraid the course of your life means me to a certain extent."
He laughed. "You began it, of course, when you came to Bloomsbury
Street. Do you remember?"
"Yes, I remember all right. But I don't want you to lose your friends
through me." Again she glanced at him in hesitation, but this time she
spoke. "You may find me a broken reed, after all, Cousin Arthur."
He smoked for a moment, then laid down his pipe. "I'm fond of you all,"
he said. "You know how well Godfrey and I get on. I've made friends with
Judith, and I'm making friends with Margaret. And--we're too good pals
to say much--but you know what you are to me, Bernadette."
"Yes, I know, Cousin Arthur."
"So I don't know what you mean by talking about broken reeds."
She gave a little sigh, but said no more for the moment. She seemed to
be on another tack when she spoke again. "It's a wonderful thing to be
alive, isn't it? I don't mean just to breathe and eat and sleep, but to
be alive really--to--to tingle!"
"It's a wonderful thing to see in you sometimes," he laughed. "Why, this
morning, for instance, you--you seemed to be on fire with it. And for no
particular reason--except, I suppose, that it was a fine day."
She smiled again as she listened, but now rather ruefully. "For no
particular reason!" She could not help smiling at that. "Well, I hope I
didn't scorch anybody with my fire," she said.
"You made us all madly in love with you, of course."
She gave him a little touch on the arm. "Never mind the others. You
mustn't be that, Cousin Arthur."
He turned to her in honest seriousness. "As long as you'll be to me just
what you are now, there's nothing to worry about. I'm perfectly
content."
"But suppose I should--change?"
"I shan't suppose anything of the sort," he interrupted half-angrily.
"Why should you say that?"
Her heart failed her; she could not give him further warning. Words
would not come to her significant enough without being blunt and plain;
that again she neither could nor would be. Something of her malice
revived in her; if he could not see, he must remain blind--till the
flash of the tempest smote light even into his eyes. It must be so. She
gave a little shrug of her shoulders.
"A mood, I suppose! Just as I had a mood this morning--and, as you say,
for no particular reason!"