A few days later, Lady Kelsey and Lucy having gone on the river, Julia
Crowley went to Court Leys. When she came down to breakfast the day
after her arrival, she found waiting for her six pairs of long suede
gloves. She examined their size and their quality, smiled with
amusement, and felt a little annoyed. She really had every intention of
accepting Dick when he proposed to her, and she did not in the least
know why she had refused him. The conversation had carried her away in
her own despite. She loved a repartee and notwithstanding the
consequences could never resist making any that occurred to her. It was
very stupid of Dick to take her so seriously, and she was inclined to be
cross with him. Of course he had only gone to Paris to tease, and in a
week he would be back again. She knew that he was just as much in love
with her as she was with him, and it was absurd of him to put on airs.
She awaited the post each day impatiently, for she constantly expected a
letter from him to say he was coming down to luncheon. She made up her
mind about the _menu_ of the pleasant little meal she would set before
him, and in imagination rehearsed the scene in which she would at length
succumb to his passionate entreaties. It was evidently discreet not to
surrender with unbecoming eagerness. But no letter came. A week went by.
She began to think that Dick had no sense of humour. A second week
passed, and then a third. Perhaps it was because she had nothing to do
that Master Dick absorbed a quite unmerited degree of her attention. It
was very inconvenient and very absurd. She tormented herself with all
sorts of reasons to explain his absence, and once or twice, like the
spoiled child she was, she cried. But Mrs. Crowley was a sensible woman
and soon made up her mind that if she could not live without the
man--though heaven only knew why she wanted him--she had better take
steps to secure his presence. It was the end of August now, and she was
bored and lonely. She sent him a very untruthful telegram.
_I have to be in town on Friday to see my lawyer. May I come to tea
at five?_
_Julia._
His answer did not arrive for twenty-four hours, and then it was
addressed from Homburg.
_Regret immensely, but shall be away._
_Richard Lomas._
Julia stamped her tiny foot with indignation and laughed with amusement
at her own anger. It was monstrous that while she was leading the
dullest existence imaginable, he should be enjoying the gaieties of a
fashionable watering-place. She telegraphed once more.
_Thanks very much. Shall expect to see you on Friday._
_Julia._
She travelled up to town on the appointed day and went to her house in
Norfolk Street to see that the journey had left no traces on her
appearance. Mayfair seemed quite deserted, and half the windows were
covered with newspapers to keep out the dust. It was very hot, and the
sun beat down from a cloudless sky. The pavements were white and
dazzling. Julia realised with pleasure that she was the only cool person
in London, and the lassitude she saw in the passers-by added to her own
self-satisfaction. The month at the seaside had given an added freshness
to her perfection, and her charming gown had a breezy lightness that
must be very grateful to a gentleman of forty lately returned from
foreign parts. As she looked at herself in the glass, Mrs. Crowley
reflected that she did not know anyone who had a figure half so good as
hers.
When she drove up to Dick's house, she noticed that there were fresh
flowers in the window boxes, and when she was shown into his
drawing-room, the first thing that struck her was the scent of red roses
which were in masses everywhere. The blinds were down, and after the
baking street the dark coolness of the room was very pleasant. The tea
was on a little table, waiting to be poured out. Dick of course was
there to receive her. As she shook hands with him, she smothered a
little titter of wild excitement.
'So you've come back,' she said.
'I was just passing through town,' he answered, with an airy wave of the
hand.
'From where to where?'
'From Homburg to the Italian Lakes.'
'Rather out of your way, isn't it?' she smiled.
'Not at all,' he replied. 'If I were going from Manchester to Liverpool,
I should break the journey in London. That's one of my hobbies.'
Julia laughed gaily, and as they both made a capital tea, they talked
of all manner of trivial things. They were absurdly glad to see one
another again, and each was ready to be amused at everything the other
said. But the conversation would have been unintelligible to a listener,
since they mostly talked together, and every now and then made a little
scene when one insisted that the other should listen to what he was
saying.
Suddenly Mrs. Crowley threw up her hands with a gesture of dismay.
'Oh, how stupid of me!' she cried. 'I quite forgot to tell you why I
telegraphed to you the other day.'
'I know,' he retorted.
'Do you? Why?'
'Because you're the most disgraceful flirt I ever saw in my life,' he
answered promptly.
She opened her eyes wide with a very good imitation of complete
amazement.
'My dear Mr. Lomas, have you never contemplated yourself in a
looking-glass?'
'You're not a bit repentant of the havoc you have wrought,' he cried
dramatically.
She did not answer, but looked at him with a smile so entirely
delightful that he cried out irritably:
'I wish you wouldn't look like that.'
'How am I looking?' she smiled.
'To my innocent and inexperienced gaze very much as if you wanted to be
kissed.'
'You brute!' she cried. 'I'll never speak to you again.'
'Why do you make such rash statements? You know you couldn't hold you
tongue for two minutes together.'
'What a libel! I never can get a word in edgeways when I'm with you,'
she returned. 'You're such a chatterbox.'
'I don't know why you put on that aggrieved air. You seem to forget that
it's I who ought to be furious.'
'On the contrary, you behaved very unkindly to me a month ago, and I'm
only here to-day because I have a Christian disposition.'
'You forget that for the last four weeks I've been laboriously piecing
together the fragments of a broken heart,' he answered.
'It was entirely your fault,' she laughed. 'If you hadn't been so
certain I was going to accept you, I should never have refused. I
couldn't resist the temptation of saying no, just to see how you took
it.'
'I flatter myself I took it very well.'
'You didn't,' she answered. 'You showed an entire lack of humour. You
might have known that a nice woman doesn't accept a man the first time
he asks her. It was very silly of you to go to Homburg as if you didn't
care. How was I to know that you meant to wait a month before asking me
again?'
He looked at her for a moment calmly.
'I haven't the least intention of asking you again.'
But it required much more than this to put Julia Crowley out of
countenance.
'Then why on earth did you invite me to tea?'
'May I respectfully remind you that you invited yourself?' he protested.
'That's just like a man. He will go into irrelevant details,' she
answered.
'Now, don't be cross,' he smiled.
'I shall be cross if I want to,' she exclaimed, with a little stamp of
her foot. 'You're not being at all nice to me.'
He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, and his eyes twinkled.
'Do you know what I'd do if I were you?'
'No, what?'
'Well, _I_ can't suffer the humiliation of another refusal. Why don't
you propose to me?'
'What cheek!' she cried.
Their eyes met, and she smiled.
'What will you say if I do?'
'That entirely depends on how you do it.'
'I don't know how,' she murmured plaintively.
'Yes, you do,' he insisted. 'You gave me an admirable lesson. First you
go on your bended knees, and then you say you're quite unworthy of me.'
'You are the most spiteful creature I've ever known,' she laughed.
'You're just the sort of man who'd beat his wife.'
'Every Saturday night regularly,' he agreed.
She hesitated, looking at him.
'Well?' he said.
'I shan't,' she answered.
'Then I shall continue to be a brother to you.'
She got up and curtsied.
'Mr. Lomas, I am a widow, twenty-nine years of age, and extremely
eligible. My maid is a treasure, and my dressmaker is charming. I'm
clever enough to laugh at your jokes and not so learned as to know where
they come from.'
'Really you're very long winded. I said it all in four words.'
'You evidently put it too briefly, since you were refused,' she smiled.
She stretched out her hands, and he took them.
'I think I'll do it by post,' she said. 'It'll sound so much more
becoming.'
'You'd better get it over now.'
'You know, I don't really want to marry you a bit. I'm only doing it to
please you.'
'I admire your unselfishness.'
'You will say yes if I ask you?'
'I refuse to commit myself.'
'Obstinate beast,' she cried.
She curtsied once more, as well as she could since he was firmly holding
her hands.
'Sir, I have the honour to demand your hand in marriage.'
He bowed elaborately.
'Madam, I have much pleasure in acceding to your request.'
Then he drew her towards him and put his arms around her.
'I never saw anyone make such a fuss about so insignificant a detail as
marriage,' she murmured.
'You have the softest lips I ever kissed,' he said.
'I wish to goodness you'd be serious,' she laughed. 'I've got something
very important to say to you.'
'You're not going to tell me the story of your past life,' he cried.
'No, I was thinking of my engagement ring. I make a point of having a
cabochon emerald: I collect them.'
'No sooner said than done,' he cried.
He took a ring from his pocket and slipped it on her finger. She looked
from it to him.
'You see, I know that you made a specialty of emeralds.'
'Then you meant to ask me all the time?'
'I confess it to my shame: I did,' he laughed.
'Oh, I wish I'd known that before.'
'What would you have done?'
'I'd have refused you again, you silly.'
* * *
Dick Lomas and Mrs. Crowley said nothing about their engagement to
anyone, since it seemed to both that the marriage of a middle-aged
gentleman and a widow of uncertain years could concern no one but
themselves. The ceremony was duly performed in a deserted church on a
warm September day, when there was not a soul in London. Mrs. Crowley
was given away by her solicitor, and the verger signed the book. The
happy pair went to Court Leys for a fortnight's honeymoon and at the
beginning of October returned to London; they made up their minds that
they would go to America later in the autumn.
'I want to show you off to all my friends in New York,' said Julia,
gaily.
'Do you think they'll like me?' asked Dick.
'Not at all. They'll say: That silly little fool Julia Crowley has
married another beastly Britisher.'
'That is more alliterative than polite,' he retorted.
'On the other hand my friends and relations are already saying: What on
earth has poor Dick Lomas married an American for? We always thought he
was very well-to-do.'
They went into roars of laughter, for they were in that state of
happiness when the whole world seemed the best of jokes, and they spent
their days in laughing at one another and at things in general. Life
was a pleasant thing, and they could not imagine why others should not
take it as easily as themselves.
They had engaged rooms at the _Carlton_ while they were furnishing a new
house. Each had one already, but neither would live in the other's, and
so it had seemed necessary to look out for a third. Julia vowed that
there was an air of bachelordom about Dick's house which made it
impossible for a married woman to inhabit; and Dick, on his side,
refused to move into Julia's establishment in Norfolk Street, since it
gave him the sensation of being a fortune-hunter living on his wife's
income. Besides, a new house gave an opportunity for extravagance which
delighted both of them since they realised perfectly that the only
advantage of having plenty of money was to spend it in unnecessary
ways. They were a pair of light-hearted children, who refused firmly to
consider the fact that they were more than twenty-five.
Lady Kelsey and Lucy had gone from the River to Spa, for the elder
woman's health, and on their return Julia went to see them in order to
receive their congratulations and display her extreme happiness. She
came back thoughtfully. When she sat down to luncheon with Dick in their
sitting-room at the hotel, he saw that she was disturbed. He asked her
what was the matter.
'Lucy has broken off her engagement with Robert Boulger,' she said.
'That young woman seems to make a speciality of breaking her
engagements,' he answered drily.
'I'm afraid she's still in love with Alec MacKenzie.'
'Then why on earth did she accept Bobbie?'
'My dear boy, she only took him in a fit of temper. When that had
cooled down she very wisely thought better of it.'
'I can never sufficiently admire the reasonableness of your sex,' said
Dick, ironically.
Julia shrugged her pretty shoulders.
'Half the women I know merely married their husbands to spite somebody
else. I assure you it's one of the commonest causes of matrimony.'
'Then heaven save me from matrimony,' cried Dick.
'It hasn't,' she laughed.
But immediately she grew serious once more.
'Mr. MacKenzie was in Brussels while they were in Spa.'
'I had a letter from him this morning.'
'Lady Kelsey says that according to the papers he's going to Africa
again. I think it's that which has upset Lucy. They made a great fuss
about him in Brussels.'
'Yes, he tells me that everything is fixed up, and he proposes to start
quite shortly. He's going to do some work in the Congo Free State. They
want to find a new waterway, and the King of the Belgians has given him
a free hand.'
'I suppose the King of the Belgians looks upon one atrocity more or less
with equanimity,' said Julia.
They were silent for a minute or two, while each was occupied with his
own thoughts.
'You saw him after Lucy broke off the engagement,' said Julia,
presently. 'Was he very wretched?'
'He never said a word. I wanted to comfort him, but he never gave me a
chance. He never even mentioned Lucy's name.'
'Did he seem unhappy?'
'No. He was just the same as ever, impassive and collected.'
'Really, he's inhuman,' exclaimed Julia impatiently.
'He's an anomaly in this juvenile century,' Dick agreed. 'He's an
ancient Roman who buys his clothes in Savile Row.'
'Then he's very much in the way in England, and it's much better that he
should go back to Africa.'
'I suppose it is. Here he reminds one of an eagle caged with a colony of
canaries.'
Julia looked at her husband reflectively.
'I think you're the only friend who has stuck to him,' she said.
'I wouldn't put it in that way. After all, I'm the only friend he ever
had. It was not unnatural that a number of acquaintances should drop him
when he got into hot water.'
'It must have been a great help to find someone who believed in him
notwithstanding everything.'
'I'm afraid it sounds very immoral, but whatever his crimes were, I
should never like Alec less. You see, he's been so awfully good and kind
to me, I can look on with fortitude while he plays football with the Ten
Commandments.'
Julia's emotions were always sudden, and the tears came to her eyes as
she answered.
'I'm really beginning to think you a perfect angel, Dick.'
'Don't say that,' he retorted quickly. 'It makes me feel so middle-aged.
I'd much sooner be a young sinner than an elderly cherub.'
Smiling, she stretched out her hand, and he held it for a moment.
'You know, though I can't help liking you, I don't in the least approve
of you.'
'Good heavens, why not?' he cried.
'Well, I was brought up to believe that a man should work, and you're
disgracefully idle.'
'Good heavens, to marry an American wife is the most arduous profession
in the world,' he cried. 'One has to combine the energy of the Universal
Provider with the patience of an ambassador at the Sublime Porte.'
'You foolish creature,' she laughed.
But her thoughts immediately reverted to Lucy. Her pallid, melancholy
face still lingered in Julia's memory, and her heart was touched by the
hopeless woe that dwelt in her beautiful eyes.
'I suppose there's no doubt that those stories about Alec MacKenzie were
true?' she said, thoughtfully.
Dick gave her a quick glance. He wondered what was in her mind.
'I'll tell you what I think,' he said. 'Anyone who knows Alec as well as
I do must be convinced that he did nothing from motives that were mean
and paltry. To accuse him of cowardice is absurd--he's the bravest man
I've ever known--and it's equally absurd to accuse him of weakness. But
what I do think is this: Alec is not the man to stick at half measures,
and he's taken desperately to heart the maxim which says that he who
desires an end desires the means also. I think he might be very
ruthless, and on occasion he might be stern to the verge of brutality.
Reading between the lines of those letters that Macinnery sent to the
_Daily Mail_, I have wondered if Alec, finding that someone must be
sacrificed, didn't deliberately choose George Allerton because he was
the least useful to him and could be best spared. Even in small
undertakings like that there must be some men who are only food for
powder. If Alec had found George worthless to him, no consideration for
Lucy would have prevented him from sacrificing him.'
'If that were so why didn't he say it outright?'
'Do you think it would have made things any better? The British public
is sentimental; they will not understand that in warfare it is necessary
sometimes to be inhuman. And how would it have served him with Lucy if
he had confessed that he had used George callously as a pawn in his game
that must be sacrificed to win some greater advantage?'
'It's all very horrible,' shuddered Julia.
'And so far as the public goes, events have shown that he was right to
keep silence. The agitation against him died down for want of matter,
and though he is vaguely discredited, nothing is proved definitely
against him. Public opinion is very fickle, and already people are
beginning to forget, and as they forget they will think they have
misjudged him. When it is announced that he has given his services to
the King of the Belgians, ten to one there will be a reaction in his
favour.'
They got up from luncheon, and coffee was served to them. They lit their
cigarettes. For some time they were silent.
'Lucy wants to see him before he goes,' said Julia suddenly.
Dick looked at her and gave an impatient shrug of the shoulders.
'I suppose she wants to indulge a truly feminine passion for making
scenes. She's made Alec quite wretched enough already.'
'Don't be unkind to her, Dick,' said Julia, tears welling up in her
bright eyes. 'You don't know how desperately unhappy she is. My heart
bled to see her this morning.'
'Darling, I'll do whatever you want me to,' he said, leaning over her.
Julia's sense of the ridiculous was always next door to her sense of the
pathetic.
'I don't know why you should kiss me because Lucy's utterly miserable,'
she said, with a little laugh.
And then, gravely, as she nestled in his encircling arm:
'Will you try and manage it? She hesitates to write to him.'
'I'm not sure if I had not better leave you to impart the pleasing
information yourself,' he replied. 'I've asked Alec to come here this
afternoon.'
'You're a selfish beast,' she answered. 'But in that case you must leave
me alone with him, because I shall probably weep gallons of tears, and
you'll only snigger at me.'
'Bless your little heart! Let us put handkerchiefs in every conceivable
place.'
'On occasions like this I carry a bagful about with me.'