CHAPTER XX.
Mr. Rayner had promised to return from Palaveram in time for dinner, butlong, solitary hours till dusk still stretched before Hester on herreturn from morning service. She had not as yet yielded to the habit oftaking a siesta, though she was assured that when the hot weather cameshe would find the need of it imperative. She sought insteadcompanionship in her piano, rehearsing some of her old favourites, andthen turned to a prettily bound volume of hymns set to music, which hadbeen a wedding present from a Wesleyan friend. She tried over some ofthe airs, and coming on one which attracted her began to sing the words.Her sweet voice, which was so much missed in the ivy-mantled villagechurch, vibrated melodiously through the verandah. So absorbed was shein her solace of song that she did not hear the arrival of a carriage onthe gravel-sweep. Its occupant indeed stood at her elbow, silentlylooking down at her as her fingers strayed along the keys, before shewas aware of his presence.
"Mark Cheveril!" she exclaimed at length, looking up with joy in herface. "This is a happy surprise!"
"It is so for me, anyhow. I wanted to have come earlier in the day towish you a merry Christmas, but the Collector seemed dull, and Icouldn't leave him. But better late than never. And to be greeted by thesound of your voice was good," he added, glancing at the slender,girlish figure on the music stool on which she had wheeled round togreet him in her surprise at his presence. "This will make a delightfulparagraph in the letter to your mother I mean to date 'Christmas Day,Madras.' But I must really tell you before we pass on to other things astrange coincidence about this very hymn you were singing. You rememberMr. Morpeth whom we met at Mrs. Fellowes' that morning? I felt so drawnto him that I did what I don't think I ever confessed to you--I soughthim out. When I stepped into his verandah I found him alone, and singingthat very hymn." Mark hummed some of the lines--
"Light of those whose dreary dwellings Borders on the shades of death."
"It has haunted me ever since. I must tell him of this coincidence. Ihave been corresponding with him, and mean to keep up the acquaintance.I heard from him that you had found your way to Vepery too, Hester, andare doing wonders there."
"Ah, that reminds me, Mark! A little bird told me only yesterday thatyou were the kind donor of our lovely piano for the girls' club. Youcan't think what a boon it is."
"I hope it's a decent one. I fear pianos are rather a lottery out here,and it would have lost a whole season to have ordered one from home."
"It has a beautiful tone, Mrs. Fellowes just loves it. It was a goodthought of yours, Mark. How pleased mother will be when she hears youwere the giver of the piano I told her about! I'm so glad Mrs. Felloweswormed the secret out of Mr. Morpeth. Do you know I've never seen himsince you left? He seems to elude me still--perhaps it's no wonder."Hester lowered her eyes, for she suddenly recalled her husband'sreception of him, which she feared Mark must have overheard. "Butnotwithstanding," she said with a smile, "I don't think he does bear mea grudge, for Mrs. Fellowes told me he seemed pleased to hear I wishedto go to see him with her. She says his house is full of interestingthings."
"It is," returned Mark cordially. "But the man--his personality, histalk--is the most interesting of all. Truly fate has been very good tome since I came to the East. In my first week I met two of the best menI've ever known, David Morpeth and Felix Worsley. To be sure, they arevery unlike--as far as the poles asunder in almost everything. The oneseemed to me a wise, patient saint, while the Collector is the mostimpatient of men. I fear, too, he would say I was defaming the name if Iwas to dub him 'a saint,' yet there is about him the beauty of realdominant goodness. For instance, people say he is proud and allthat--well, I find him full of the most winning humility."
"Why, I've always pictured Mr. Worsley as a most terrifying person fromthe stray remarks I've heard about him. Surely you idealise him, Mark,and see in him the reflection of your own good self. I think that's howCharlie would interpret your feelings."
"Ah, I see I shan't win you over to my hero till you see him."
"With your eyes?" said Hester, with an arch smile.
"No, with your own, if I mistake not! I only wish I could bring about ameeting. But I confess my hero is somewhat incorrigible. Nothing willinduce him to face a fashionable dinner-party, and that reminds me,Hester, I must tell you how sorry I was not to be with you last nightand not to bring the Collector--but he simply wouldn't hear of going toa dinner-party."
"Yes, Alfred was disappointed. He said he was once introduced to Mr.Worsley, and seemed to set his heart on having him as his guest," saidHester simply.
Mark felt a sharp twinge of self-reproach, for had not the truth beenthat the Collector had rejected the invitation stormily, saying he"declined to dine with Zynool's partner"? As Mark recalled it he fearedthat some of the borrowed stigma might also attach itself to this sweetfriend in Mr. Worsley's mind--until they met, at least. When that hourstruck, he felt confident that all would be well. As he glanced atHester, he perceived that there was a subtle change in his old comrade.Her beauty had strengthened and deepened. There was a new air of tendergrace in all her movements; but she was paler and thinner, the plump,girlish contour had vanished. The features, more delicately pencilledthan heretofore, seemed written over with a bit of life-history not freefrom fret and jar, even blurred by patient tears. How could it beotherwise, he asked himself, with this high-souled girl exposed to thedaily companionship of a nature so vain, so shallow, and he feared, sofalse, as he was reluctantly discovering Alfred Rayner to be? Herecalled with fresh anxiety his shifty air when he had met him atPuranapore during his mysterious visit to the unprincipled Zynool. Buthappy chance had thrown Hester and him together on this Day of GladTidings. He must do all in his power to bring some pure, healthfulpleasure into those few days on which he would be near her.
"By the way," he said, as he rose to take a cup of tea from Hester'shand, "I mustn't forget that one of the chief objects of my call to-dayis to ask you to ride with me one morning. Some of the roads here arecapital."
"Oh, that would be delightful--just like old times," said Hesterbrightening. "I haven't ridden since I came here. Alfred doesn't likeriding, though he is so devoted to driving. Even when he was at theRectory after our engagement, which you know was very short, he wouldn'tgo out with Charlie and me. Charlie thought he was really timid, andtold me not to urge him. He won't mind my riding--at least I don't thinkso," she added, a shadow crossing her face not unnoticed by her visitor."But he'll be here presently, and we'll ask him. You'll stay to dinnerand see him, won't you?"
"With pleasure. I'm quite free this evening and we'll arrange this oneride anyhow. I've seen a perfect horse for you at Wallers'. I shallbring it round to-morrow morning. What do you say to going to St.Thomas's Mount? It's a place I've a fancy to explore. Have you beenthere?"
"No, I've really seen very few places round about--beyond the range ofthe wide compounds. I think your touring must be delightful. But youhaven't told me anything of Puranapore yet except about the Collector,and I didn't get much from Alfred even after he had visited you."
Mark was silent. Rayner then had given his wife the impression that hehad been at the English station while at Puranapore, and had, no doubt,concealed the fact that he was visiting Zynool. The discovery wasdisturbing, and he wondered if it would be wise to enlighten Hesterthere and then. He felt, however, that he could not bear to bring adeeper shadow to the sweet face, and proceeded instead to give someannals of the station-life.
"Well, to begin with the ladies. There's Mrs. Samptor, wife of theSuperintendent of the District Jail, a big giant of a man, and a capitalfellow. She is a little country-bred person who had never been toEngland and has a perfect horror of Eurasians."
Hester's eyes opened wider. She was about to exclaim: "Just likeAlfred!" But that topic had cut too deep for her to touch it lightly.
"You wonder perhaps how she tolerates me," said Mark with a smile, as ifdivining her thoughts. "Well, as it happens, we are very good friends.Her
mental process regarding the matter is peculiar, I allow, but itseems to her convincing, as she is a lady who prides herself on knowingeverything about everybody. She volunteers to prove from my hands, mynails, and from my toes, I expect, if she were allowed to inspect them,from every feature of my face in fact, that I do not belong to the raceshe detests."
"And does the Collector like this little lady?"
"He does, I think. She amuses him. I sometimes accuse him of evenencouraging her gossip. In that connection I once reminded him of theold proverb: 'One man may steal a horse, another may not look over thestable door,' as a case in point. The Collector's denunciations againstgossip are most scathing, for instance, where Mrs. Goldring, the Judge'swife, is in question. She is a pompous, snobbish woman, and theCollector thinks that she sits on her little husband, the Judge, of whomhe is very fond. Nor can he forgive her for her treatment of herweird-looking daughter Jane. The poor girl hates station life, and wantsto go home and do governessing with some beloved aunts who keep aschool. Then we have a Civil Surgeon and his wife, Dr. and Mrs.Campbell, delightful Scotch people."
"I wonder Alfred did not tell me about all these people. He must havemet them when he was at Puranapore," said Hester, with a thoughtful airwhich Mark noticed, and he at once led the conversation into otherchannels.
Hester narrated to him the errand which had obliged her husband to go toPalaveram on this Christmas day, and they talked with sobered hearts ofthe sadness of it all; of the great entanglement in the meshes of whichpoor young Hyde had fallen a victim; and of the ever haunting mystery oflife where evil triumphs in lives which seem inclined to good ratherthan to evil.
Shortly before the dinner-hour a telegram arrived from Palaveram to saythat Mr. Rayner to his great regret would be unable to eat his Christmasdinner with his wife. But so congenially did the talk glide on betweenthese two old friends, the young hostess decided, as she sat at dinner,that, after all, two might be an even more ideal number than eight forthe complete enjoyment of the dinner-table.
When Mark rose to go, he was rejoiced to see Hester looking more likeher old self than she had done since they had met in their newsurroundings. She seemed to hold to her decision that there was noobstacle to the morning ride which he had suggested, saying as theyparted:
"Alfred has so often reproached me for not going further afield in mydrives, I'm sure he will be pleased to hear I've been adventurous enoughto scale St. Thomas's Mount. You can't think what a joy an hour onhorseback will be to me! It's a delightful suggestion, Mark, and I thankyou for it," she said, with happy, grateful eyes, as she bade himgood-night.
A Bottle in the Smoke: A Tale of Anglo-Indian Life Page 20