With curiosity which had in it a touch of amusement, Will was waiting
to hear from Norbert Franks. He waited for nearly a month, and was
beginning to feel rather hurt at his friend's neglect, perhaps a little
uneasy on another score, when there arrived an Italian postcard,
stamped Venice. "We have been tempted as far as this," ran the hurried
scrawl. "Must be home in ten days. Shall be delighted to see you
again." Warburton puckered his brows and wondered whether a previous
letter or card had failed to reach him. But probably not.
At the end of September, Franks wrote from his London address, briefly
but cordially, with an invitation to luncheon on the next day, which
was Sunday. And Warburton went.
He was nervous as he knocked at the door; he was rather more nervous as
he walked into the studio. Norbert advanced to him with a shout of
welcome, and from a chair in the background rose Mrs. Franks.
Perceptibly changed, both of them. The artist's look was not quite so
ingenuous as formerly; his speech, resolute in friendliness, had not
quite the familiar note. Rosamund, already more mature of aspect,
smiled somewhat too persistently, seemed rather too bent on showing
herself unembarrassed. They plunged into talk of Tyrol, of the
Dolomites, of Venice, and, so talking, passed into the dining-room.
"Queer little house this, isn't it?" said Mrs. Franks as she sat down
to table. "Everything is sacrificed to the studio; there's no room to
turn anywhere else. We must look at once for more comfortable quarters."
"It's only meant for a man living alone," said the artist, with a
laugh. Franks laughed frequently, whether what he said was amusing or
not. "Yes, we must find something roomier.
"A score of sitters waiting for you, I suppose?" said Warburton.
"Oh, several. One of them such an awful phiz that I'm afraid of her. If
I make her presentable, it'll be my greatest feat yet. But the labourer
is worthy of his hire, you know, and this bit of beauty-making will
have its price."
"You know how to interpret _that_, Mr. Warburton," said Rosamund, with
a discreetly confidential smile. "Norbert asks very much less than any
other portrait painter of his reputation would."
"He'll grow out of that bad habit," Will replied. His note was one of
joviality, almost of bluffness.
"I'm not sure that I wish him to," said the painter's wife, her eyes
straying as if in a sudden dreaminess. "It's a distinction nowadays not
to care for money. Norbert jokes about making an ugly woman beautiful,"
she went on earnestly, "but what he will really do is to discover the
very best aspect of the face, and so make something much more than an
ordinary likeness."
Franks fidgeted, his head bent over his plate.
"That's the work of the great artist," exclaimed Warburton, boldly
flattering.
"Humbug!" growled Franks, but at once he laughed and glanced nervously
at his wife.
Though this was Rosamund's only direct utterance on the subject,
Warburton discovered from the course of the conversation, that she
wished to be known as her husband's fervent admirer, that she took him
with the utmost seriousness, and was resolved that everybody else
should do so. The "great artist" phrase gave her genuine pleasure; she
rewarded Will with the kindest look of her beautiful eyes, and from
that moment appeared to experience a relief, so that her talk flowed
more naturally. Luncheon over, they returned to the studio, where the
men lit their pipes, while Rosamund, at her husband's entreaty,
exhibited the sketches she had brought home.
"Why didn't you let me hear from you?" asked Warburton. "I got nothing
but that flimsy postcard from Venice."
"Why, I was always meaning to write," answered the artist. "I know it
was too bad. But time goes so quickly--"
"With you, no doubt. But if you stood behind a counter all day--"
Will saw the listeners exchange a startled glance, followed by an
artificial smile. There was an instant's dead silence.
"Behind a counter--?" fell from Norbert, as if he failed to understand.
"The counter; _my_ counter!" shouted Will blusterously. "You know very
well what I mean. Your wife has told you all about it."
Rosamund flushed, and could not raise her eyes.
"We didn't know," said Franks, with his nervous little laugh, "whether
you cared--to talk about it--"
"I'll talk about it with any one you like. So you _do_ know? That's all
right. I still owe my apology to Mrs. Franks for having given her such
a shock. The disclosure was really too sudden."
"It is I who should beg you to forgive me, Mr. Warburton," replied
Rosamund, in her sweetest accents. "I behaved in a very silly way. But
my friend Bertha Cross treated me as I deserved. She declared that she
was ashamed of me. But do not, pray do not, think me worse than I was.
I ran away really because I felt I had surprised a secret. I was
embarrassed,--I lost my head. I'm sure you don't think me capable of
really mean feelings?"
"But, old man," put in the artist, in a half pained voice, "what the
deuce does it all mean? Tell us the whole story, do."
Will told it, jestingly, effectively.
"I was _quite_ sure," sounded, at the close, in Rosamund's voice of
tender sympathy, "that you had some noble motive. I said so at once to
Bertha."
"I suppose," said Will, "Miss Cross will never dare to enter the shop
again?"
"She doesn't come!"
"Never since," he answered laughingly. "Her mother has been once or
twice, and seems to regard me with a very suspicious eye. Mrs. Cross
was told no doubt?"
"That I really can't say," replied Rosamund, averting her eyes. "But
doesn't it do one good to hear such a story, Norbert?" she added
impulsively.
"Yes, that's pluck," replied her husband, with the old spontaneity, in
his eyes the old honest look which hitherto had somehow been a little
obscured. "I know very well that _I_ couldn't have done it." Warburton
had not looked at Rosamund since her explanation and apology. He was
afraid of meeting her eyes; afraid as a generous man who shrinks from
inflicting humiliation. For was it conceivable that Rosamund could
support his gaze without feeling humiliated? Remembering what had
preceded that discovery at the shop; bearing in mind what had followed
upon it; he reflected with astonishment on the terms of her
self-reproach. It sounded so genuine; to the ears of her husband it
must have been purest, womanliest sincerity. As though she could read
his thoughts, Rosamund addressed him again in the most naturally
playful tone.
"And you have been in the Basque country since we saw you. I'm so glad
you really took your holiday there at last; you often used to speak of
doing so. And you met my sister--Winifred wrote to me all about it. The
Coppingers were delighted to see you. Don't you think them nice people?
Did poor Mrs. Coppinger seem any better?"
In spite of himself, Will encountered her look, met the beautiful eyes,
felt their smile envelop him. Never till now had he known the passive
strength of woman, that characteristic which at times makes her a force
of Nature rather than an individual being. Amazed, abashed, he let his
head fall--and mumbled something about Mrs. Coppinger's state of health.
He did not stay much longer. When he took his leave, it would have
seemed natural if Franks had come out to walk a little way with him,
but his friend bore him company only to the door.
"Let us see you as often as possible, old man. I hope you'll often come
and lunch on Sunday; nothing could please us better."
Franks' handgrip was very cordial, the look and tone were affectionate,
but Will said to himself that the old intimacy was at an end; it must
now give place to mere acquaintanceship. He suspected that Franks was
afraid to come out and walk with him, afraid that it might not please
his wife. That Rosamund was to rule--very sweetly of course, but
unmistakably--no one could doubt who saw the two together for five
minutes. It would be, in all likelihood, a happy subjugation, for
Norbert was of anything but a rebellious temper; his bonds would be of
silk; the rewards of his docility would be such as many a
self-assertive man might envy. But when Warburton tried to imagine
himself in such a position, a choked laugh of humourous disdain heaved
his chest.
He wandered homewards in a dream. He relived those moments on the
Embankment at Chelsea, when his common sense, his reason, his true
emotions, were defeated by an impulse now scarcely intelligible; he saw
himself shot across Europe, like a parcel despatched by express; and
all that fury and rush meaningless as buffoonery at a pantomime! Yet
this was how the vast majority of men "fell in love"--if ever they did
so at all. This was the prelude to marriages innumerable, marriages
destined to be dull as ditchwater or sour as verjuice. In love,
forsooth! Rosamund at all events knew the value of that, and had saved
him from his own infatuation. He owed her a lifelong gratitude.
That evening he re-read a long letter from Jane which had reached him
yesterday. His sister gave him a full description of the new home in
Suffolk, and told of the arrangement she had made with Miss Winter,
whereby, in a twelvemonth, she would be able to begin earning a little
money, and, if all went well, before long would become self-supporting.
Could he not run down to see them? Their mother had borne the removal
remarkably well, and seemed, indeed, to have a new vigour; possibly the
air might suit her better than at The Haws. Will mused over this, but
had no mind to make the journey just yet. It would be a pain to him to
see his mother in that new place; it would shame him to see his sister
at work, and to think that all this change was on his account. So he
wrote to mother and sister, with more of expressed tenderness than
usual, begging them to let him put off his visit yet a few weeks.
Presently they would be more settled. But of one thing let them be
sure; his daily work was no burden whatever to him, and he hardly knew
whether he would care to change it for what was called the greater
respectability of labour in an office. His health was good; his spirits
could only be disturbed by ill news from those he loved. He promised
that at all events he would spend Christmas with them.
September went by. One of the Sundays was made memorable by a visit to
Ashtead. Will had requested Franks to relate in that quarter the story
of Mr. Jollyman, and immediately after hearing it, Ralph Pomfret wrote
a warm-hearted letter which made the recipient in Fulham chuckle with
contentment. At Ashtead he enjoyed himself in the old way, gladdened by
the pleasure with which his friends talked of Rosamund's marriage. Mrs.
Pomfret took an opportunity of speaking to him apart, a bright smile on
her good face.
"Of course we know who did much, if not everything, to bring it about.
Rosamund came and told me how beautifully you had pleaded Norbert's
cause, and Norbert confided to my husband that, but for you, he would
most likely have married a girl he really didn't care about at all. I
doubt whether a _mere man_ ever did such a thing so discreetly and
successfully before!"
In October, Will began to waver in his resolve not to go down into
Suffolk before Christmas. There came a letter from his mother which
deeply moved him; she spoke of old things as well as new, and declared
that in her husband and in her children no woman had ever known truer
happiness. This was at the middle of the week; Will all but made up his
mind to take an early train on the following Sunday. On Friday he wrote
to Jane, telling her to expect him, and, as he walked home from the
shop that evening he felt glad that he had overcome the feelings which
threatened to make this first visit something of a trial to his
self-respect.
"There's a telegram a-waiting for you, sir," said Mrs. Wick, as he
entered.
The telegram contained four words:
"Mother ill. Please come."