The craze for refugees cooled slightly in the neighbourhood after that.
The first rush of enthusiastic generosity abated, and when friends met
at knitting-parties and compared refugees there was a certain ægritude
on the part of those who had them, and a certain smiling superiority on
the part of those who had not. They were spoken of as if they were a
disease, like measles or mumps.
"I hear that Lady Osmond has them," said Mrs. Mellon.
"Has she really?"
"Yes. And poor Mrs. Whitaker, too."
"Mrs. Whitaker? You don't say so."
"Yes, indeed. Mrs. Whitaker has them. And she feels it badly."
"I will run over to see her," said the sympathetic Mrs. Mulholland. "I
am so fond of the dear soul."
But that very afternoon Mrs. Whitaker herself called on Mrs. Mulholland,
at Park House.
"How do you do, my poor dear Theresa?" began Mrs. Mulholland, taking
Mrs. Whitaker's hand and pressing it. "I hear----"
"Yes, yes," said Mrs. Whitaker rather fretfully, drawing her hand away.
"Of course you have heard that I have them." There was a brief silence.
"I must confess I did not expect quite such dreary ones."
"Dreary, are they?" exclaimed Mrs. Mulholland. "Is that all?"
"It's bad enough," sighed Mrs. Whitaker. "You have no idea what they are
like. Three creatures that look as if they had stepped out of a
nightmare."
But Mrs. Mulholland overflowed with her own grievances. "Do they borrow
your clothes and use all your letter-paper and order your dinners?"
asked Mrs. Mulholland, quivering with indignation. Her cook had just
given notice on account of Madame Pitou going into the kitchen and
making herself a _timbale de riz aux champignons_.
"No. They don't do that. But they sit about and never speak and look
like ghosts," said Mrs. Whitaker. "When you have time you might drop in
and see them."
"I think I'll run over with you now," said Mrs. Mulholland; "though I
don't for a moment believe they can be as bad as mine."
She put on her garden-hat and her macintosh, told Kitty not to let the
Pitous do any cooking in the drawing-room, and went out with Mrs.
Whitaker. They took the short cut across the fields to Acacia Lodge.
"What language do they speak?" asked Mrs. Mulholland, as she proceeded
with Mrs. Whitaker through the green garden-gate and down the drive.
"They never speak at all," replied Mrs. Whitaker; "and I must say I had
looked forward to a little French conversation for Eva and Tom. That is
really what I got them for."
They walked on under the chestnut-trees towards the house. Eva in trim
tennis attire and George in khaki came to meet them, running across the
lawn.
"I've beaten George by six four," cried Eva, waving her racket.
"That's because I let you," said her brother, shaking hands with Mrs.
Mulholland and allowing his mother to pat his brown cheek.
"Handsome lad," murmured Mrs. Mulholland, and wished she had brought
Kitty with her, even though the Pitous should profit by her absence to
prepare their _tête-de-veau en poulette_ on the drawing-room fire.
"Where are ... _they_?" she added, dropping her voice and looking round.
"I don't know," said Eva. "I have not seen them all the afternoon."
"I have," said George. "They are in the shrubbery."
"You might call them, dear boy," said his fond mother.
"Not I," said George.
"I will," said Eva, and ran down the flower-bordered path swinging her
racket.
"Sweet girl," said Mrs. Mulholland, following Eva's slim silhouette with
benevolent eyes, and then gazing even more benevolently at George
Whitaker's stalwart figure. "She and my Kitty should really see
something more of each other."
Mrs. Whitaker threw a penetrating glance at her friend's profile.
"Schemer," she murmured to herself. "Certainly," she said aloud. "As
soon as George goes to Aldershot I hope your dear daughter will often
come here."
"Cat," reflected Mrs. Mulholland. And aloud she said, "How delightful
for both the dear girls!"
George had sauntered with his long khaki limbs towards the shrubbery,
but Eva reappeared alone.
"They won't come," she said.
"What!" exclaimed Mrs. Mulholland.
"Why not?" asked Mrs. Whitaker.
"They don't want to," said Eva. "The tall one shook her head and said,
'_Merci_.'"
"I am not surprised," laughed George, "considering they have been
exhibited to half the county within the last three days."
"I'll fetch them myself," said Mrs. Whitaker sternly. Then she turned to
her son. "George, you who are half a Frenchman after your visit to
Montreux, do tell me--how do I say in French, 'I desire you all three
to come and be introduced to a very dear friend of mine?'"
There was a brief silence; then George translated. "_Venny_," he said.
"Is that all?"
"Yes," said George.
His mother was about to go when Mrs. Mulholland suggested: "Had we not
both of us better take a turn round the garden, and casually saunter
into the shrubbery?"
"Perhaps so," said Mrs. Whitaker.
And so they did. George followed them slowly, with Eva hanging on his
arm. She was very fond and proud of her soldier brother.
They entered the shrubbery and saw seated upon a bench three figures
dressed in black, who rose to their feet at their hostess's approach.
"Goodness gracious! how uncanny they look!" whispered Mrs. Mulholland,
and added, with a smile of half-incredulous pleasure, "I believe they
really are worse than mine."
The three black figures stood silent and motionless, and Mrs. Mulholland
found herself gazing as if fascinated into the depths of three pairs of
startled, almost hallucinated eyes, fixed gloomily upon her.
Mrs. Whitaker addressed them in English, speaking very loud with an idea
of making them understand her better. They seemed not to hear, they
certainly made no attempt to answer her amiable platitudes.
Mrs. Mulholland, moved to something like pity by their stricken
appearance, put out her hand saying, "How do you do?" and two of them
laid their limp fingers in hers--the third, whom she now noticed was a
child although she wore a long black skirt, neither stirred nor removed
her stony gaze from her face. There was an embarrassing pause. Then Mrs.
Mulholland asked with a bright society smile--
"How do you like England?"
No answer.
"George, dear, ask them in French," said his mother.
George stepped forward blushing through his tan. "Um ... er ..." he
cleared his throat. "_S'il vous plaît Londres?_" he inquired timidly.
He addressed the tallest, but she gazed at him vacantly, not
understanding. The little girl stood next to her--the large tragic eyes
in her small pale face still fixed on the unknown countenance of Mrs.
Mulholland. She conveyed the impression that she had not heard any one
speak.
George, blushing deeper, turned towards the third ghost standing before
him, coughed again and repeated his question, "_S'il vous plaît
Londres?_"
Then a strange thing happened. The third ghost smiled. It was a real
smile, a gleaming smile, a smile with dimples. The ghost was suddenly
transformed into a girl. "_Merci. L'Angleterre nous plaît beaucoup._"
That was in order not to hurt the "half Frenchman's" feelings. Then she
added in English, "London is very nice."
"Oh," snapped the astonished Mrs. Whitaker, "you speak English?" and her
tone conveyed the impression that something belonging exclusively to her
had been taken and used without her permission.
"A little," was the murmured reply. The smile had quickly died away; the
dimples had vanished. Under Mrs. Whitaker's scrutiny the girl faded into
a ghost again. The two ladies nodded and moved away. George and Eva,
after a moment's hesitation and embarrassment, followed them.
"What strange, underhand behaviour!" commented Mrs. Whitaker; "never to
have told me she understood English until today."
"I suppose they were trying to find out all your family concerns," said
Mrs. Mulholland.
A word that sounded like "Bosh" proceeded from George, who had turned
his back and was walking into the house.
"I think they were just dazed," explained Eva. "They look almost as if
they were walking in their sleep. I never even noticed until today that
they were all so young. Why, the little one is a mere kiddy;" she
twisted round on her heel. "I think I shall go back and talk to them,"
she added.
"No," said her mother. "You will stay here."
That evening when Mr. Whitaker came back from the City his daughter had
much to tell him, and even the somewhat supercilious George took an
interest and joined in the conversation.
"The ghosts have spoken, papa!" cried Eva, dancing round him in the
hall. Then as soon as he was in the drawing-room she made him sit down
in his armchair and kissed him on the top of his benevolent bald head.
"And--do you know?--they are really not ghosts at all; are they,
mother?"
Mrs. Whitaker did not look up from her knitting. But her husband spoke.
"They are the wife, the sister, and the daughter of a doctor," he said.
"At the Belgian Consulate I was told they were quite decent people. My
dear Theresa," he added, looking at his wife, "I think we ought to have
asked them to take their meals with us."
"I did so," said Mrs. Whitaker, with some asperity. "I did so, although
they do look like scarecrows. But they say they prefer having their
meals by themselves."
"Then you must respect their wishes," said Mr. Whitaker, opening a
commercial review.
"Just fancy, Pops," said Eva, perching herself on the arm of her
father's chair, "the youngest one--the poor little creature with the
uncanny eyes--is deaf and dumb."
"How sad!" said her father, caressing his daughter's soft hair.
"Did her mother tell you so?" asked Mrs. Whitaker, looking up from the
grey scarf she was knitting.
"No, not her mother," explained Eva; "the other one told me. The one
with the dimples, who speaks English. She is sweet!" cried the impulsive
Eva, and her father patted her hair again and smiled.
"Her name is Sherry," remarked George.
"Oh, George, you silly," exclaimed Eva. "You mean Chérie."
"How do you know her name?" snapped Mrs. Whitaker, laying down her
knitting in her lap and fixing stern inquisitorial eyes upon her son.
"She told me," said George, with a nonchalant air.
"She told you!" said his mother. "I never knew you had any conversation
with those women."
"It wasn't conversation," said George. "I met her in the garden and I
stopped her and said, 'What is your name?' and she answered, 'Sherry.'
That's all."
"Queer name," said his father.
"My dear Anselm, that is really not the point--" began Mrs. Whitaker,
but the dressing-gong sounded and they all promptly dispersed to their
rooms, so Anselm never knew what the point really was.
After dinner Eva, as usual, went to the piano, opened it and lit the
candles, while her father sat in the dining-room with the folding-doors
thrown wide open, as he declared he could not enjoy his port or his pipe
without Eva's music.
"What shall it be tonight, Paterkins?" Eva called out in her birdlike
voice. "Rachmaninoff?"
"No. The thing you played yesterday," said her father, settling himself
comfortably in his armchair, while the neat maid quietly cleared the
table.
"Why, that _was_ Rachmaninoff, my angel-dad," laughed Eva, and twisted
the music-stool to suit her height.
George came close to her and bending down said something in an
undertone.
"Good idea," said Eva. "Ask the mater."
"You ask her," said George, sauntering into the adjoining room, where he
sat down beside his father and lit a cigarette.
Eva went to her mother, and coaxed her into consenting to what she
asked. Then she ran out of the room and reappeared soon after, bringing
with her the three figures in black. As they hesitated on the threshold,
she slipped her arm through the arm of the reluctant "Sherry" and drew
her forward. "Do come!--_Venny!_" she said, and the three entered the
room.
They were quite like ghosts again, with pale faces and staring eyes and
the rigid gait of sleep-walkers.
They sat down silently in a row near the wall, and Eva went to the piano
and played. She played the Rachmaninoff "Prelude," and when she had
finished they neither moved nor spoke. She wandered off into the gentle
sadness of Godard's "Barcarole," and the three ghosts sat motionless.
Schumann's "Carnaval" did not cheer them, nor did the "Moonlight Sonata"
move them. When Eva at last closed the piano they rose, and the two
eldest, having silently bowed their thanks, they left the room,
conducting between them the little one, whose pallor seemed more
spectral and whose silence seemed even deeper than theirs.
"Poor souls! poor souls!" growled Mr. Whitaker, clearing his throat and
knitting his brows. "Theresa, my dear," to his wife, "see that they lack
for nothing. And I hope the children are always very kind and
considerate in their behaviour to them. George," he added, turning what
he believed to be a beetling brow upon his handsome son, "I noticed that
you stared at them. Do not do so again. Grief is sensitive and prefers
to remain unnoticed."
George mumbled that he hadn't stared and marched out of the room. Eva
put her arms round her father's neck and pressed on his cheek the loud,
childish kisses that he loved.
"May I go and talk to them a little?" she asked, in a coaxing whisper.
"Of course you may," said her father, and Eva ran out quickly, just as
her mother looked up to say, "What is it?"
"I have sent Eva to talk to those unhappy creatures," said Mr. Whitaker.
"We must try and cheer them a little. It is nothing less than a duty.
Poor souls!" he repeated, "I have never seen anything so dismal."
"I think we fulfil our duty in providing them with shelter and food,"
said Mrs. Whitaker.
"You think nothing of the kind, Theresa," said Mr. Whitaker.
"I do," asserted his wife. "And as for Eva, she is already inclined to
be exaggeratedly sentimental in regard to these people. She is
constantly running after them with flowers and cups of tea."
"Nice child," said her father, with a little tightening in his throat.
"She is not a child, Anselm. She is nineteen. And I do not wish her to
have anything to do with those women."
"Theresa?" said her husband, in a high questioning voice. "Theresa. Come
here."
Mrs. Whitaker did not move. "Come here," he repeated in the threatening
and terrible tone that he sometimes used to the children and to his old
retriever Raven--a tone which frightened neither child nor beast. "Come
here."
Mrs. Whitaker approached. "Sit down," he said, indicating a footstool
in front of him; and Mrs. Whitaker obeyed. "Now, wife," he said, "are
you growing hard and sour in your old age? Are you?"
"Yes," said Mrs. Whitaker. "I am."
"Ah," said Mr. Whitaker, "that's right. I knew you weren't." And he
laughed, and patted her cheek.
This was not the answer Mrs. Whitaker was prepared for and she had
nothing ready to say. So the wily Mr. Whitaker went on, "I have noticed
lately in you certain assumed asperities, a certain simulated
acrimony.... Now, Theresa, tell me; what does this make-believe bad
temper mean?"
Mrs. Whitaker felt that she could weep with rage. What is the good of
having a bad temper when it is not believed in? Of what use is it to be
sore and sour, to feel bitter and hard, in the face of smiling
incredulity?
"With other people, my dear," continued Mr. Whitaker, "you may pretend
that you are disagreeable and irascible, but not with me. I know
better."
This simple strategy had proved perfectly successful for twenty years
and it answered today, as it always did.
"I _am_ disagreeable, I _am_ irascible, I _am_ bitter, and hard, and
cross," said Mrs. Whitaker, whereupon Mr. Whitaker closed his eyes,
smiled and shook his head.
"Don't keep on shaking your head like a Chinese toy," she added.
"Anselm, you really are the stupidest man I have ever seen." And then
she laughed. "It is dreadful," she added, putting aside the hand he had
laid on her shoulder, "not to be believed when one is cross, not to be
feared when one is angry. It makes one feel so helpless."
"You may be helpless," he said; "womanly women mostly are. But you are
never cross and you are never angry. So don't pretend to be."
Now Mrs. Whitaker was tall and large and square; she was strong-minded
and strong-featured; she was what you would call a "capable woman"--and
none but her own inmost soul knew the melting joy that overcame her at
being told that she was helpless. She raised her hand to the hand that
lay on her shoulder again, and patted it. She bent her head sideways and
laid her cheek upon it.
"Now, what's the trouble?" said her husband.
"The trouble ... I can hardly express it," she spoke hesitantly, "either
to myself or to you. Anselm!" she turned her eyes to him suddenly, the
eyes full of blueness and temper and courage he had fallen in love with
in Dublin long ago. "I hate those three miserable women," she said. "I
hate them."
"What!" cried her husband, drawing his hand away from hers.
"I fear them, and I hate them!" she repeated.
"What have they done?"
"They have done nothing," said his wife, with drooping head and downcast
eyes. "But I cannot help it. I hate and fear them ... for the children's
sake."
"What do you mean?" Mr. Whitaker was sitting very straight. The thin
soft hair still crowning his brow was ruffled.
"The mystery that surrounds them frightens me," said Mrs. Whitaker. "I
don't know where they come from, what they have seen, what they have
lived through. I should like to be kind to them, I should like to
encourage the children to cheer them and speak to them. But there is
something ... something in their eyes that repels me, something that
makes me want to draw Eva away from them. I cannot express it. I don't
know what it is."
There was a brief silence. Then her husband spoke. "A woman's instinct
in these things is right, I suppose. But to me it sounds uncharitable
and cruel."
Mrs. Whitaker rose to her feet, her face flushing painfully. "Are we
called upon to sacrifice our daughter's purity of mind, her ignorance of
evil, to these strangers? Is it our duty to encourage an intercourse
which will tear the veil of innocence from her eyes?"
"I am afraid so," said Mr. Whitaker gravely. "How can our daughter have
pity on human suffering while she does not know its meaning? True
charity, Theresa, cannot be blind; compassion must know the ills it
tries to heal. My dear, we are face to face with one of the
problems--one of the minor problems perhaps, but still a very real
problem--which this ghastly war has raised. Think for a moment, Theresa;
how can our girls, who are called upon to nurse the wounded in body, and
comfort the stricken in soul, live in the midst of puerile ignorance any
longer? Painful though it may be, the veil you speak of, the white veil
that hides from a maiden's eyes the sins and sorrows of life, must be
rent asunder."
"It is cruel! it is cruel!" cried the mother.
"Yes. War is cruel. And life is cruel. But do not let us--you and I--add
to the cruelty of the world. If our daughter must learn to know evil in
order to be merciful, then let innocence die in her young heart, in
order that pity which is nobler, may be born." There was a long silence.
Then Mrs. Whitaker raised her husband's hand to her lips and kissed it.