A few days before Christmas Ferdinand Walbridge and his youngest
daughter came home. It, was over two months since his wife had seen him,
and she was very much struck by his look of health and youth.
"The sea air has done you a world of good, Ferdie," she commented
gently.
He shot a quick glance at her out of marvellously cleared and unswollen
eyes.
"Torquay agrees with me," he answered shortly; "always did."
Then he told her with genuine pleasure--for, like so many men with whom
selfishness is almost a disease, he liked spending money, and was rather
generous than otherwise--that he had made a good thing from a tip in
copper, given him by a friend in Torquay.
"Sir John Barclay," he explained. "Grisel will have written you about
him."
She nodded. "Oh, yes. The kind old gentleman."
"Exactly, the kind old gentleman." He laughed. "He and I are very
friendly, and, as I say, he put me on to this thing, and I cleared a
couple of hundred pounds."
She was about to ask him if he couldn't manage some of the quarterly
bills with part of the money, when he cut the ground from under her feet
by taking from his pocket five five-pound notes and handing them to her.
"That's just a little present for you, old girl," he said, "to help you
out with Christmas."
Before she had finished thanking him, the house door had banged behind
him.
Grisel had not arrived yet, as she was coming by car with the Fords, who
were spending Christmas at the Savoy, and Mrs. Walbridge ran out and
bought some flowers to decorate the girl's room.
She had not forgiven Paul for the episode of the underdone mutton. He
had hurt her many times before, but he had never so thoroughly disgusted
her, and her indignation, that she knew to be justified and fair, was in
an odd way a strength to her. She had worked for hours every day on her
new book, and was behindhand in consequence with her Christmas plans,
but Grisel must have flowers. She spent nearly three pounds of the
twenty-five her husband had given her at the beautiful shop in Baker
Street, and then, because she was afraid of crushing them, took a taxi
home, and was met by a look of cold raillery by Paul, who was letting
himself into the house with his latchkey as she drove up.
"I hope Lubbock & Payne are paying you well for the new masterpiece," he
said, as she came up the steps laden with flowers. He was surprised at
the look she gave him in return.
"Your father made me a present this morning," she said quietly, "and if
I choose to buy flowers with some of it that doesn't concern you, my
dear Paul."
Up in the girls' room (as the upstairs sitting-room was still called,
although only one girl was left) she had half an hour of real pleasure,
filling vases with water and arranging flowers to the best advantage.
She was passionately devoted to the pretty things, but for many years
now had had to give up buying them, or trying to keep growing things in
the house. Growing plants need care and time, and Mrs. Walbridge had
little leisure for such delightful attentions.
But now Grisel was coming home, so she felt perfectly satisfied in
spending such an enormous sum of money as nearly three pounds on
adorning the girl's room.
Her husband had not known at what time the Fords and their guest would
reach London. They would, no doubt, lunch on the way, and as Sir John
Barclay was coming up with them, they would probably stop to explore any
old churches they might pass. He had a passion for routing about in
chilly, romantic old churches.
"Fond of arches, and architecture, and flying buttresses and things," he
added, with the pleasant disdain of one to whom those chaste joys make
no appeal.
So, when the flowers were arranged, and the blinds drawn down, and the
fire lit, Mrs. Walbridge went to her own room and put on her only
afternoon dress. It looked very shabby, she thought, as she stood in
front of the glass. It had never been much of a frock, and she had worn
it and worn it and worn it. It was of black silk, of some thin, papery
kind that looked cracked in a strong light, and the sleeves were very
old-fashioned, with something wrong about the shoulders. She sighed a
little, and then gave her pretty curly hair a last smooth of the brush
and went downstairs.
She was a little anxious lest one of the children might notice the
absence of her rings, and the seed pearl earrings, which, being one of
her husband's very few gifts, were a part of her immemorial gala attire;
she was almost sure that he would notice their absence, and she felt
that she would die with shame if any of them knew about the pawning.
The new cook had produced some unexpectedly tempting-looking cakes, and
Jessie, much elated by her reinstatement as a one-job woman, was waiting
in all the glories of new cap and apron, to open the door to Miss
Griselda, while the mistress, in the dreary drawing-room, sat down by
the fire to wait for her daughter.
She was lost in thought over her new book, which was engrossing her very
deeply. She heard a sudden knocking on the glass panel of the house
door, and jumped up and ran to open the door, flinging out her arms and
crying:
"Oh, my darling!"
"Thanks, Mrs. Walbridge. I like being called your darling. You might
kiss me too, if you don't mind. It's Christmas time."
Oliver Wick laughed cheerfully as the little lady started back in
fright. "That's what I call a nice warm welcome," the young man went on,
following her into the hall and hanging up his hat.
"Then she hasn't come? May I come in and wait? I've really come to see
her, you know, but I've got a very decent excuse--a note from my mother,
saying how delighted we shall be to dine with you on Christmas Eve." He
produced a letter and followed his hostess into the drawing-room,
carrying something that looked like a small hatbox with great care.
Mrs. Walbridge read the note and expressed her satisfaction at its
contents.
"What have you got in that box," she added.
"Flowers for Grisel," he answered promptly. "Beauties. Just look." He
raised the lid of his box and showed her an enormous bunch of closely
packed Parma violets. "Aren't they lovely?" he asked, beaming with
pleasure, "and won't she love them?"
"She will indeed. Let's go upstairs and put them in water, shall we?"
And thus it was that when Griselda Walbridge reached home after having
stayed nearly two months with the Freddie Fords at Conroy Hall, Torquay,
she found Mr. Wick awaiting her with a curious air of belonging to the
household as much, or even more, than she did.
"You're fatter," he said, looking at her critically, his small eyes shut
as if she were a picture and he an expert, "and you've got that nasty
red stuff on your lips. Oh, fie!"
Mrs. Walbridge watched them happily, as she leant back in Hermione's
favourite old chair by the fire. There was something in this friendly,
busy youth that she loved. He gave her a safe feeling, and she decided,
as she watched his sparring with her daughter, that she would be glad to
see Grisel safely married to him. He was poor, she knew, but she had
unconsciously accepted his own ideas about his future, and knew that his
poverty was merely a temporary thing, and that he was headed straight
for power and wealth. Besides, power and wealth were not things that she
had ever greatly valued.
Grisel was thinner, she went on thinking. She looked taller in her
beautifully fitting chestnut brown skirt and chiffon tan blouse. The
girl had changed. She looked more grown up, more of what her mother
innocently characterised as "a society girl." Her manner, too, was
different. She seemed at once a little bored and excited about
something.
She had opened her dressing-case and taken out a variety of little
belongings and was darting about the room like, her mother thought, a
swallow, settling these things in their old places. A handsomely framed
photograph of her father (his gift on her last birthday) she put on the
mantelpiece, and turned with a little laugh.
"Isn't Dad looking splendid," she said. "He's been motoring a lot, you
know, and it's done him a world of good."
"Oh, I didn't know he went with you," her mother observed, surprised.
Grisel took a little silver and enamel cigarette box out of her pocket
and put it on the table.
"He didn't go with us," she answered carelessly. "The Crichells had
their car, you know, and he and Clara used to knock about a bit."
"Surely, my dear, you don't call Mrs. Crichell by her Christian name?"
"Don't I? I call everybody by their Christian names--everyone does. The
old ones hate being 'Miss-ed'--reminds them of their age, you see. Even
Elsie's mother hated being called Mrs. Hulbert, but, of course, I
wouldn't call her Pansy! She really _is_ old. Must be as old as you,
dear, though I must say she doesn't look it."
Oliver Wick glanced quickly at Mrs. Walbridge, but looked away in
relief, for he saw that she was untouched by the girl's careless remark,
and he realised with a pang of satisfaction that her sensitiveness lay
far from such matters as age and looks.
"Did you see much of that Mrs. Crichell?" he asked, as she sat down and
lit a cigarette. She laughed.
"Yes. I know you hate her, but she's really not so bad, and Mr. Crichell
and she entertained a good deal. They had an awfully nice house there."
"I don't hate her," said Oliver Wick quietly, "but she's vulgar, and too
idle and empty-headed to be much good, or happy. Women like that are
always on the edge of making beasts of themselves, even if they don't do
it."
"Oh, a Daniel come to judgment!" she jeered. "You seem very wise, this
afternoon."
"Yes," he answered drily. "I'm always rather sage on Saturdays. Friday's
pay day, you know, at my shop, and nothing makes a man feel so wise as
money in his breeches pocket. You," he added, "have, on the contrary,
gained chiefly in folly, I should say."
She laughed. "Have I? I'm not at all sure of that."
There was something thoughtful in her voice and face, and her mother
looked at her wonderingly.
Oliver's face was imperturbable. "Who's the man?" he asked, and she
actually jumped, so that her cigarette fell out of her amber holder to
the floor.
"What d'you say?" she asked, as she picked up the cigarette. "Who was
the what?"
"Man--the man you're contemplating marrying?"
All that there was of the new and the strange in Griselda seemed to her
mother to flower in her answer to the young man's question.
She threw back her head and laughed, her pretty throat shown to the best
advantage as she did so. Then coolly looking at Wick from under her
lashes in a consciously attractive way, she drawled:
"I'm not going to tell you his name, though you're perfectly right, oh
shrewd young knight of the fountain pen."
Wick was shrewd, but he was also very young, and Mrs. Walbridge felt a
little pang of pain as she saw how white he had grown and what a smitten
look had come to his face. After a second he rallied, and lit a
cigarette, but he had been badly hurt, and his face showed it as he
said, with a laugh:
"That's a phase all attractive young girls go through--trying to make up
their minds to marry some rich man they don't like, before they have the
sense to settle down with the handsome object of their true affections."
"The object being you, I suppose?" she retorted.
"Grisel, Grisel," her mother protested gently. "You really go too far,
my dear."
The girl laughed. "Poor mother. You're longing to tell me it isn't
womanly, aren't you? But it's very kind of you to have brought me the
violets, Oliver, and I'm glad to see you, and all that----" She held out
her hand carelessly, with something of the air of a stage queen, "but
I'm dining out, and must have a talk with mother before I dress, so I'm
afraid you must go now."
He rose at once, apologising nervously and sensitively for having stayed
too long, and Mrs. Walbridge went down to the door with him. He was very
slow in getting into his coat, and she purposely did not look at him.
She knew he was suffering, and she had an absurd feeling that he was
hers, that she had written him--that she knew exactly what he was going
through, and what he was going to do.
Then he opened the door and turned round, grinning broadly and holding
out his hand.
"She got the first one in that round, didn't she?" he asked. "Never
mind, I'll get her yet, the young minx! Oh, my word," he added,
relapsing suddenly into helpless, conscious pathos: "What a little
beauty she is! My knees feel like wet tissue paper."
Before she could speak he had bent and kissed her (for though he was not
very tall, he was taller than she), and was gone into the darkness.