IV
He was idly regarding himself in an immense mirror that topped thefireplace, and thinking that despite the stylishness of his accoutrementhe presented the appearance of a rather tousled and hairy person ofunromantic middle-age, when, in the glass, he saw the gilded door openand a woman enter the room. He did not move,--only stared at the image.He knew the woman intimately, profoundly, exhaustively, almost totally.He knew her as one knows the countryside in which one has grown up,where every feature of the scene has become a habit of the perceptions.And yet he had also a strange sensation of seeing her newly, of seeingher for the first time in his life and estimating her afresh. In a flashhe had compared her, in this boudoir, with Lady Massulam in LadyMassulam's bungalow. In a flash all the queer, frightening romance of 2a.m. in Frinton had swept through his mind. Well, she had not theimposingness nor the mystery of Lady Massulam, nor perhaps the challengeof Lady Massulam; she was very much more prosaic to him. But still headmitted that she had an effect on him, that he reacted to her presence,that she was at any rate at least as incalculable as Lady Massulam, andthat there might be bits of poetry gleaming in her prose, and thatafter a quarter of a century he had not arrived at a final judgmentabout her. Withal Lady Massulam had a quality which she lacked,--he didnot know what the quality was, but he knew that it excited him in anunprecedented manner and that he wanted it and would renounce it withregret. "Is it conceivable," he thought, shocked at himself, "that allthree of us are on the road to fifty years?"
Then he turned, and blushed, feeling exactly like an undergraduate.
"I knew you'd be bored up there in that hole." Eve greeted him.
"I wasn't bored for a single moment," said he.
"Don't tell me," said she.
She was very smart in her plumpness. The brim of her spreading hatbumped against his forehead as he bent to kiss her. The edge of thebrown veil came half-way down her face, leaving her mouth unprotectedfrom him, but obscuring her disturbing eyes. As he kissed her all hisdespondency and worry fell away from him, and he saw with extraordinaryclearness that since the previous evening he had been an irrational ass.The creature had done nothing unusual, nothing that he had notexplicitly left her free to do; and everything was all right.
"Did you see your friend Lady Massulam?" was her first question.
Marvellous the intuition--or the happy flukes--of women! Yet theirduplicity was still more marvellous. The creature's expressed anxietyabout the danger of Lady Massulam's society to Charlie must have beenpure, wanton, gratuitous pretence.
He told her of his meeting with Lady Massulam.
"I left her at 2 a.m.," said he, with well-feigned levity.
"I knew she wouldn't leave you alone for long. But I've no doubt youenjoyed it. I hope you did. You need adventure, my poor boy. You weregetting into a regular rut."
"Oh, was I!" he opposed. "And what are you doing here? Machin told meyou were out for lunch."
"Oh! You've been having a chat with your friend Machin, have you? Itseems she's shown you your beautiful dressing-room. Well, I was goingout for lunch. But when I heard you'd returned I gave it up and cameback. I knew so well you'd want looking after."
"And who told you I'd returned?"
"Carthew, of course! You're a very peculiar pair, you two. When I firstsaw him Carthew gave me to understand he'd left you at Frinton. But whenI see him again I learn that you're in town and that you spent lastnight at Claridge's. You did quite right, my poor boy. Quite right. Iwant you to feel free. It must have been great fun stopping atClaridge's, with your own home close by. I'll tell you something. Wewere dancing at Claridge's last night, but I suppose you'd gone to bed."
"The dickens you were!" said he. "By the way, you might instruct one ofyour butlers to telephone to the hotel for my things and have the billpaid."
"So you'll sleep here to-night?" said she, archly.
"If there's room," said he. "Anyway you've arranged all my clothes withthe most entrancing harmony and precision."
"Oh!" Eve exclaimed, in a tone suddenly changed. "That was MissWarburton more than me. She took an hour off from Charlie this morningin order to do it."
Then Mr. Prohack observed his wife's face crumble to pieces, and shemoved aside from him, sat down and began to cry.
"Now what next? What next?" he demanded with impatient amiability, forhe was completely at a loss to keep pace with the twistings of her mind.
"Arthur, why did you deceive me about that girl? How could you do it? Ihadn't the slightest idea it was M--miss W--instock. I can't make youout sometimes, Arthur--really I can't!"
The fellow had honestly forgotten that he had in fact grossly deceivedhis wife to the point of planting Mimi Winstock upon her as somebodyelse. He had been nourishing imaginary and absurd grievances against Evefor many hours, but her grievance against himself was genuine enough andlarge enough. No wonder she could not make him out. He could not makehimself out. His conscience awoke within him and became exceedinglyunpleasant. But being a bad man he laughed somewhat coarsely.
"Oh!" he said. "That was only a bit of a joke. But how did you find out,you silly child?"
"Ozzie saw her yesterday. He knew her. You can't imagine how awkward itwas. Naturally I had to laugh it off. But I cried half the night."
"But why? What did it matter? Ozzie's one of the family. The girl's notat all a bad sort, and I did it for her sake."
Eve dried her eyes and looked up at him reproachfully with wet cheeks.
"When I think," said she, "that that girl might so easily have killed mein that accident! And it would have been all her fault. And then wherewould you have been without me? Where _would_ you have been? You'd neverhave got over it. Never, never! You simply don't know what you'd be ifyou hadn't got me to look after you! And you bring her into the houseunder a false name, and you call it a joke! No, Arthur. Frankly Icouldn't have believed it of you."
Mr. Prohack was affected. He was not merely dazzled by the new lightwhich she was shedding on things,--he was emotionally moved.... WouldLady Massulam be capable of such an attitude as Eve's in such asituation? The woman was astounding. She was more romantic than anycreature in any bungalow of romantic Frinton. She beat him. She rent hisheart. So he said:
"Well, my beloved infant, if it's any use to you I'm prepared to admitonce for all that I was an ass. We'll never have the wretched Mimi inthe house again. I'll give the word to Charlie."
"Oh, not at all!" she murmured, smiling sadly. "I've got over it. Andyou must think of my dignity. How ridiculous it would be of me to make afuss about her being here! Now, wouldn't it? But I'm glad I've told you.I didn't mean to, really. I meant never to say a word. But the fact is Ican't keep anything from you."
She began to cry again, but differently. He soothed her, as none but hecould, thinking exultantly: "What a power I have over this chit!" Theywere perfectly happy. They lunched alone together, talking exclusivelyfor the benefit of Eve's majestic butler. And Mr. Prohack, with thatmany-sidedness that marked his strange regrettable mind, said to himselfat intervals: "Nevertheless she's still hiding from me her disgustingscheme for a big reception. And she knows jolly well I shall hate it."
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