A PRUDENT COUNSELLOR
Arthur escaped from the house as soon as he could, leaving Bernadette
and Sir Oliver at tea together. He could not bear to be with them; he
had need to be alone with his anger and bewilderment. Perhaps if he were
alone for a bit he could see things better, get them in a true
perspective, and make up his mind whether he was being a fool now or had
been a fool--a sore fool--up to now. Which was the truth? Bernadette's
confusion, if real at all, had been momentary; Sir Oliver's cool
confidence had never wavered. He did not know what to think.
All its old peace and charm enveloped Hilsey that summer evening, but
they could not calm the ferment of his spirit. There was war within him;
the new idea clashed so terribly with all the old ones. The image of
Bernadette which he had fashioned and set up rocked on its pedestal. A
substitute began to form itself in his consciousness, not less
fascinating--alas, no!--but very different. He could not turn his eyes
from it now; it filled him with fear and anger.
He crossed the bridge and the meadows beyond it, making for the wood
which crowned the hill above, walking quickly, under an impulse of
restlessness, a desire to get away--though, again, the next instant he
would be seized with a mad idea of going straight back and "having it
out" with her, with Oliver--with somebody! Shaking it off, he would
stride forward again, his whole mind enmeshed in pained perplexity. Oh,
to know the truth! And yet the truth might be fearful, shattering.
The bark of a dog, short and sharp, struck on his ears. Then, "Patsy,
Patsy, come here!" and a laugh. Judith was sitting on the trunk of a
tree newly cut down, by the side of the path. She had a book in her lap;
Patsy had been on guard beside her.
"Where are you rushing to at six miles an hour?" she asked. "You
frightened Patsy."
He stopped in front of her. "Was I walking quickly? I--I'm not going
anywhere in particular--just for a stroll before dinner."
"A stroll!" She laughed again, raising her brows. "Sit down for a bit,
and then we'll walk back together. You look quite hot."
He sat down by her and lit a cigarette. But he did not meet her eyes. He
sat staring straight before him with a frowning face, as he smoked. She
made her inspection of him, unperceived herself, but she let him know
the result of it. "You look rather gloomy, Arthur. Has anything
happened?"
"No--Well, except that Oliver Wyse has got here--about an hour ago,
before tea."
"Sir Oliver is much as usual, I suppose?"
"I suppose so. I don't know him very well, you see."
"Meeting him doesn't seem to have had a very cheering effect upon you.
You look about as jolly as Hamlet."
He shook his head impatiently, but made no answer. He did look very
forlorn. She patted his shoulder. "Oh, come, cheer up! Whatever it is,
grouching won't help. We mustn't have you going to bed too, like
Godfrey." She gave him this lead, hoping that he would take it. It
seemed better to her now that he should realise the truth, or some of
it.
He turned his face towards her slowly. She looked at him with grave
eyes, but with a little smile--of protest, as it were, against any
overdoing of the tragedy.
"What does the fellow want here?" he asked in a very low voice.
"All he can get," she answered brusquely. "That's my opinion anyhow,
though I couldn't prove it."
He did not move; he looked at her still; his eyes were heavy with
another question. But he dared not put it--at least not yet. "Why is he
allowed to come here then?" he grumbled.
"Who's to stop him? Godfrey? From bed?"
The remembrance of Godfrey turning his face to the wall answered her
question. But she went on with a repressed vehemence, "Do you suppose
Godfrey needs telling? Well, then, what could I do? And I'm not sure I'd
do anything if I could. I've done my best with this family, but it's
pretty hopeless. Things must happen as they must, Arthur. And you've no
right to hold me responsible."
"I can't understand it," he muttered slowly.
"I thought you would by now--staying in the house."
"But she'd never--let him?" His voice sank to a whisper.
"I don't know. Women do, you know. Why not Bernadette?"
"But she's not like that, not that sort," he broke out, suddenly angry
again.
She turned rather hard and contemptuous. "Not that sort? She's a woman,
isn't she? She's never been like that with you--that's what you really
mean."
"It isn't," he declared passionately. "I've never--never had so much as
a thought of anything like that."
"I know. You've made something superhuman of her. Well, Sir Oliver
hasn't."
"I won't believe it of her!"
The burden of grief and desolation in his voice made Judith gentle and
tender again. "Oh, I know you won't, my dear," she said, "unless you
absolutely have to, absolutely must." She got up and whistled to recall
her dog, which had strayed into the wood. "I must go back, or I shall be
late for dinner. Are you coming, Arthur?"
"Oh, there's plenty of time. I must think what to do."
She turned away with a shrug of her shoulders. What could he do? What
could anybody? Things must happen as they would--for good or evil as
they would.
Things were likely to happen now, and that quickly. At the very moment
when Arthur came upon them in Bernadette's room, Oliver had been telling
her of his completed plan. The yacht would be round to Southampton by
the following Tuesday. They would motor over--it was within a drive of
moderate length from Hilsey--go on board, and set sail over summer seas.
She had turned from that vision to meet Arthur's startled eyes; hence
her momentary confusion. But she was over it now. While they drank their
tea, Oliver well-nigh persuaded her that it had never existed--never, at
least, been visible. And besides, "What does it matter what he thinks?"
Oliver urged.
To this Bernadette would not quite agree. "I don't want him to--to have
any idea of it till--till the time comes," she said fretfully. "I don't
want anybody to have any idea till then--least of all Arthur."
"Well, it's not for long, and we'll be very careful," he said with a
laugh.
"Yes, you promised me that when I let you come back here," she reminded
him eagerly.
"I know. I'll keep my word." He looked into her eyes as he repeated,
"It's not for long."
If Oliver Wyse had not inspired her with a great passion--a thing that
no man perhaps could create from what there was to work on in her
soul--he had achieved an almost complete domination over her. He had
made his standards hers, his judgments the rule and measure of her
actions and thoughts. She saw through his eyes, and gave to things and
people much the dimensions that he did, the importance or the
unimportance. At his bidding she turned her back on her old life and
looked forward--forward only. But to one thing she clung tenaciously.
She had made up her mind to the crash and upheaval at Hilsey, but she
had no idea of its happening while she was there; she meant to give--to
risk giving--no occasion for that. Her ears should not hear nor her eyes
see the fall of the structure. No sight of it, scarcely a rumbling echo,
need reach her as she sailed the summer seas. Oliver himself had
insisted on the great plunge, the great break; so much benefit she was
entitled to get out of it.
"And be specially careful about Arthur," she urged. "Not even the
slightest risk another time!"
"Confound Arthur!" he laughed good-humouredly. "Why does that boy matter
so much?"
"Oh, he thinks such a lot of me, you know. And I am very fond of him.
We've been awfully good friends, Oliver. At all events he does
appreciate me." This was why she felt tender about Arthur, and was more
sorry for him than for the others who were to suffer by what she did.
She had not been enough to the others--neither to her husband nor to
Margaret--but to Arthur she knew that she had been and was a great deal.
Besides she could not possibly get up any case against Arthur, whatever
plausible complaints she might have about the others, on the score of
coldness, or indifference, or incompatibility, or sulks.
"In Arthur's presence I'll be as prim as a monk," Oliver promised her,
laughing again, as she left him before dinner.
He strolled out on to the lawn, to smoke a cigarette before going to
dress, and there met Judith Arden on her return from the wood.
"So you're back again, Sir Oliver!" she said, shaking hands.
"As you see. I hope you're not tired of me? It's only to be a short
stay, anyhow."
The two were on a well-established footing, chosen by Judith, acquiesced
in by Sir Oliver. He was pretty sure that she knew what he was about,
but thought she could cause him no hindrance, even if she wished. She
treated him with a cool irony that practically endorsed his opinion on
both points.
"If you're anxious to be told that we're all glad to see you, I'll give
you the formal assurance. I'm sorry my uncle is not well enough to
welcome you himself."
"Oh, I hope he'll be up and about to-morrow. Bernadette tells me it's
nothing serious."
"She ought to know, Sir Oliver, being his wife."
"The party has received an addition since I was here, I see."
"Yes. Some company for us when you and Bernadette go out motoring!"
"Do you think that the addition will be willing to fall in with
that--well, that grouping?"
"Now I come to think of it, perhaps not. But there--you always get your
own way, don't you?"
"If that flattery were only sincere, it would be sweet to my ears, Miss
Judith."
"It's sincere enough. I didn't mean it as flattery. I spoke rather in a
spirit of resignation."
"The same spirit will animate our friend perhaps--the addition, I mean."
"It may; it's rather in the air at Hilsey. But he mayn't have been here
long enough to catch it. I rather think he hasn't."
"You invest the position with exciting possibilities! Unless I fight
hard, I may be done out of my motor rides!"
"That would leave me calm," she flung at him over her shoulder as she
went into the house.
He walked up and down a little longer, smiling to himself, well content.
The prospect of the summer seas was before his eyes too. He had counted
the cost of the voyage, and set it down at six months' decorous
retirement--enough to let people who felt that they must be shocked be
shocked at sufficient leisure. After that, he had no fear of not being
able to take his place in the world again. Nor need Bernadette fear any
extreme cold-shouldering from her friends. It was a case in which
everybody would be ready to make excuses, to find the thing more or less
pardonable. Why, one had only to tell the story of how, on the eve of
the crisis, the threatened husband took to his bed!
As Arthur watched Bernadette at dinner, serene, gracious, and
affectionate--wary too by reason of that tiny slip--his suspicions
seemed to his reason again incredible. Judith must be wrong, and he
himself wrong also. And her friend Sir Oliver--so composed, so urbane,
so full of interesting talk about odd parts of the world that he had
seen and the strange things which had befallen him! Surely people who
were doing or contemplating what they were suspected of could not behave
like that? That must be beyond human nature? He and Judith must be
wrong! But there was something within him which refused the comforting
conclusion. Not the old adoration which could see no flaw in her and
endure no slur on her perfection. His adoration was eager for the
conclusion, and pressed him towards it with all the force of habit and
preconception. It was that other, that new, current of feeling which had
rushed through him when he stood in the hall and saw them framed, as it
were, by the doorway of her room--a picture of lovers, whispered the new
feeling, sparing his recollection no detail of pose or air or look. And
lovers are very cunning, urged the new feeling, that compound of anger
and fear--the fear of another's taking what a man's desire claims for
himself. He had honestly protested to Judith that his adoration had been
honest, pure, and without self-regard. So it had, while no one shared or
threatened it. But now--how much of his anger, how much of his fear,
came from loyalty to Godfrey, sorrow for Margaret, sorrow for Bernadette
herself, grief for his own broken idol if this thing were true? These
were good reasons and motives for fear and anger; orthodox and sound
enough. But they had not the quality of what he felt--the heat, the
glow, the intense sense of rivalry which now possessed him, the piercing
vigilance with which he watched their every word and look and gesture.
These other reasons and motives but served to aid--really was it more
than to mask?--the change, the transmutation, that had set in at such a
pace. Under the threat of rivalry, the generous impulse to protect
became hatred of another's mastery, devotion took on the heat of
passion, and jealousy lent the vision of its hundred eyes.
But Bernadette too was watchful and wary; her position gave her an added
quickness of perception. Oliver's contemptuous self-confidence might
notice nothing, but, as she watched the other two, the effect of his
persuasions wore off; she became vaguely sensible of an atmosphere of
suspicion around her. She felt herself under observation, curious and
intense from Arthur, from Judith half-scornful, half-amused. And Judith
seemed to keep an eye on Arthur too--rather as if she were expecting, or
fearing, or waiting for something from him. Bernadette grew impatient
and weary under this sense of scrutiny. Surely it was something new in
Arthur? And was not Judith in some way privy to it?
"What are the plans for to-morrow?" asked Sir Oliver, as he sipped his
glass of port. "Can we go motoring? I've brought my car, you know, in
case yours is wanted."
"Well, we might take them both, and all go somewhere--Margaret too!" A
family party seemed now an excellently prudent and unsuspicious thing.
"Oh, but I forgot, there's a great cricket-match--Hilsey against
Marling! I ought to put in an appearance sometime, and I expect you're
wanted to play, aren't you, Arthur?"
"I believe I did tell Beard I'd play if I was wanted. I'd forgotten
about it."
"Have you made up your mind about going to London to-morrow?" asked
Judith.
Bernadette pricked up her ears--in pure metaphor, though; she was too
alert to let any outward sign of interest appear. Yet it now seemed to
her very desirable that Arthur should go to London--for a few days
anyhow. The quick look of surprise with which he met Judith's question
did nothing to lessen this feeling.
He had forgotten all about going to London next day! The plight of the
farce, the possible briefs--Joe Halliday's appeal, and the renewed
enquiry from Wills and Mayne, so flattering to professional hopes--where
were they? Where are the snows of yester year? They had gone clean out
of his head, out of his life again. They had become unimportant,
irrelevant. Again, for the moment, Hilsey closed around him on every
side.
He did not answer Judith for a moment. "You know you told me you thought
you might have to," she said, "for a little while anyhow, on some
business."
"Oh yes, I know. But----"
"What business, Arthur?" Bernadette asked. "Briefs? How exciting!"
"Oh, nothing in particular!"
"Nonsense! I want to hear. I'm interested. I want to know all about it."
He could not tell her with his old pleasure, his old delight at any
interest she might be gracious enough to shew in his affairs; but
neither could he refuse to tell. That would be a bit of useless
sulking--after Godfrey's fashion. Besides, perhaps they were wrong--he
and Judith. So he told her about Wills and Mayne's flattering if
abortive enquiry, and how Mr. Claud Beverley and Mr. Langley Etheringham
were at loggerheads over the farce. Sir Oliver, now at his cigar,
listened benevolently. Bernadette fastened on the latter topic; it
interested her more--she thought it probably interested Arthur more
also. "That really is rather important, now! It's sort of referred to
you, to your decision, isn't it? And it's awfully important, isn't it,
Sir Oliver? Perhaps you don't know, though--Arthur's put a lot of money
in the piece."
"Then I certainly think he'd better run up and look after it," smiled
Sir Oliver. "I should."
"I don't think I shall go. I expect the thing can wait; things generally
can."
"I don't think you're being very wise, Cousin Arthur," Bernadette said
gently. "We shall be sorry to lose you, but if it's only for a little
while, and Mr. Halliday makes such a point of it----!"
"Joe always exaggerates things."
"I like having you here--well, I needn't tell you that--but not if I
have to feel that we're interfering with your work or your prospects."
Here Jealousy had a private word for Arthur's ear. "That sounds well,
very nice and proper! But rather a new solicitude, isn't it? Much she
used to care about your work!"
"After all, what do I know about the third acts of farces?"
"I expect that's just why they want you--in a way. You'll be like one of
the public. They want to know how it strikes one of the public. Don't
you think that's it, Sir Oliver?"
Sir Oliver thought so--but Jealousy was mean enough to suggest that the
lady was more ingenious than convincing.
"Don't you think he ought to go, Judith?"
The ironic comedy of this conversation (started too by herself, in all
innocence, purely _à propos_ of the village cricket-match!) between the
prudent counsellor and the idle apprentice was entirely to Judith's
humour. They argued their false point so plausibly. The farce had been a
great thing to him, and would be again, it was to be hoped. And to
Bernadette, for his sake, it had been "exciting" and possibly--just
possibly--would be again. But it was not the fate of the farce that
concerned either of them now. They could not humbug her in that fashion!
Her smile was mocking as she answered: "Yes, I think he'd better go,
Bernadette. I'm sure you're advising him for his own good."
Bernadette gave her a quick glance, bit her lip, and rose from the
table. "We'll have coffee in the drawing-room. Bring your cigar, Sir
Oliver."
Sir Oliver was smiling too; that girl Judith amused him; he appreciated
the dexterous little stabs of her two-edged dagger.
But Arthur was listening to another whisper in his ear: "Very anxious to
get you away, isn't she? Curiously anxious!"
When Bernadette gave him his cup of coffee she said in a low voice,
"Don't be foolish, Arthur. I really think you ought to go."
He looked her full in the eyes and answered, "I see you want me to, at
all events."
Those whispers in his ear had done their work. He turned abruptly away
from her, not seeing the sudden fear in her eyes. His voice had been
full of passionate resentment.