THE next morning it still rained, a cold rain from the north-east, a very
disagreeable type of weather on the Fenmarket flats. Madge was not awake
until late, and when she caught sight of the grey sky and saw her finery
tumbled on the floor—no further use for it in any shape save as rags—and
the dirty crown, which she had brought upstairs, lying on the heap, the
leaves already fading, she felt depressed and miserable. The breakfast
was dull, and for the most part all three were silent. Mrs Hopgood and
Clara went away to begin their housework, leaving Madge alone.
‘Madge,’ cried Mrs Hopgood, ‘what am I to do with this thing? It is of
no use to preserve it; it is dead and covered with dirt.’
‘Throw it down here.’
She took it and rammed it into the fire. At that moment she saw Frank
pass. He was evidently about to knock, but she ran to the door and
opened it.
‘I did not wish to keep you waiting in the wet.’
‘I am just off but I could not help calling to see how you are. What!
burning your laurels, the testimony to your triumph?’
‘Triumph! rather transitory; finishes in smoke,’ and she pushed two or
three of the unburnt leaves amongst the ashes and covered them over. He
stooped down, picked up a leaf, smoothed it between his fingers, and then
raised his eyes. They met hers at that instant, as she lifted them and
looked in his face. They were near one another, and his hands strayed
towards hers till they touched. She did not withdraw; he clasped the
hand, she not resisting; in another moment his arms were round her, his
face was on hers, and he was swept into self-forgetfulness. Suddenly the
horn of the coach about to start awoke him, and he murmured the line from
one of his speeches of the night before—
‘But by immortal Providence she’s mine.’
She released herself a trifle, held her head back as if she desired to
survey him apart from her, so that the ecstasy of union might be renewed,
and then fell on his neck.
The horn once more sounded, she let him out silently, and he was off.
Mrs Hopgood and Clara presently came downstairs.
‘Mr Palmer came in to bid you good-bye, but he heard the coach and was
obliged to rush away.’
‘What a pity,’ said Mrs Hopgood, ‘that you did not call us.’
‘I thought he would be able to stay longer.’
The lines which followed Frank’s quotation came into her head,—
‘Sweet lord, you play me false.’
‘No, my dearest love,
I would not for the world.’
‘An omen,’ she said to herself; ‘“he would not for the world.”’
She was in the best of spirits all day long. When the housework was over
and they were quiet together, she said,—
‘Now, my dear mother and sister, I want to know how the performance
pleased you.’
‘It was as good as it could be,’ replied her mother, ‘but I cannot think
why all plays should turn upon lovemaking. I wonder whether the time
will ever come when we shall care for a play in which there is no
courtship.’
‘What a horrible heresy, mother,’ said Madge.
‘It may be so; it may be that I am growing old, but it seems astonishing
to me sometimes that the world does not grow a little weary of endless
variations on the same theme.’
‘Never,’ said Madge, ‘as long as it does not weary of the thing itself,
and it is not likely to do that. Fancy a young man and a young woman
stopping short and exclaiming, “This is just what every son of Adam and
daughter of Eve has gone through before; why should we proceed?”
Besides, it is the one emotion common to the whole world; we can all
comprehend it. Once more, it reveals character. In _Hamlet_ and
_Othello_, for example, what is interesting is not solely the bare love.
The natures of Hamlet and Othello are brought to light through it as they
would not have been through any other stimulus. I am sure that no
ordinary woman ever shows what she really is, except when she is in love.
Can you tell what she is from what she calls her religion, or from her
friends, or even from her husband?’
‘Would it not be equally just to say women are more alike in love than in
anything else? Mind, I do not say alike, but more alike. Is it not the
passion which levels us all?’
‘Oh, mother, mother! did one ever hear such dreadful blasphemy? That the
loves, for example, of two such cultivated, exquisite creatures as Clara
and myself would be nothing different from those of the barmaids next
door?’
‘Well, at anyrate, I do not want to see _my_ children in love to
understand what they are—to me at least.’
‘Then, if you comprehend us so completely—and let us have no more
philosophy—just tell me, should I make a good actress? Oh! to be able to
sway a thousand human beings into tears or laughter! It must be divine.’
‘No, I do not think you would,’ replied Clara.
‘Why not, miss? _Your_ opinion, mind, was not asked. Did I not act to
perfection last night?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then why are you so decisive?’
‘Try a different part some day. I may be mistaken.’
‘You are very oracular.’
She turned to the piano, played a few chords, closed the instrument,
swung herself round on the music stool, and said she should go for a
walk.