The Moon out of Reach

by Margaret Pedler

  CHAPTER XIV

  RELATIONS-IN-LAW

  "I am very glad to meet you, my dear."

  The frosty voice entirely failed to confirm the sense of the words asLady Gertrude Trenby bent forward and imprinted a somewhat chilly kisson Nan's cheek.

  She was a tall woman, thin and aristocratic-looking, with a repressivemanner that inspired her domestic staff with awe and her acquaintanceswith a nervous anxiety to placate her.

  Nan shrank sensitively, and glanced upward to see if there wereanything in her future mother-in-law's face which might serve tocontradict the coldness of her greeting. But there was nothing. Itwas a stern, aquiline type of face, with a thin-lipped mouth and hard,obstinate chin, and the iron-grey hair, dressed in a high, stifffashion, which suggested that no single hair would ever be allowed tostray from its lawful place, seemed to emphasise its severity.

  The chilly welcome, then, was intentional--not the result of shyness ora natural awkwardness with strangers. Lady Gertrude was perfectlycomposed, and Nan felt an inward conviction that the news of Roger'sengagement had not met with her approval. Perhaps she resented theidea of relinquishing the reins of government at Trenby Hall in favourof a daughter-in-law. It was quite possible, few mothers of sons whohave retained their bachelorhood as long as Roger enjoy being relegatedto the position of dowager. They have reigned too long to relishabdication.

  As Nan replied conventionally to Lady Gertrude's greeting, some suchthoughts as these flashed fugitively through her mind, and with themcame a rather tender, girlish determination, to make the transition aseasy as possible to the elder woman when the time came for it. Thesituation made a quick appeal to her eager sympathies. She couldimagine so exactly how she herself would detest it if she were in theother woman's position. Somewhat absorbed in this line of thought, shefollowed her hostess into a stiff and formal-looking drawing-room whichconveyed the same sense of frigidity as Lady Gertrude's welcome.

  There are some rooms you seem to know and love almost the moment youenter them, while with others you feel that you will never get on termsof friendliness. Nan suddenly longed for the dear, comfortableintimacy of the panelled hall at Mallow, with its masses of freshly-cutflowers making a riot of colour against the dark oak background, itsPersian rugs dimmed to a mellow richness by the passage of time, andthe sweet, "homey" atmosphere of it all.

  Behind her back she made a desperate little gesture to Roger that heshould follow her, but he shook his head laughingly and went off inanother direction, thinking in his unsubtle mind that this was just theoccasion for his mother and his future wife to get well acquainted.

  He felt sure that Nan's charm would soon overcome the variousobjections which Lady Gertrude had raised to the engagement when he hadfirst confided his news to her. She had not minced matters.

  "But, my dear Roger, from all I've heard, Nan Davenant is a mostunsuitable woman to be your wife. For one thing, she is, I believe, aprofessional pianist." The thin lips seemed to grow still thinner asthey propounded the indictment.

  Most people, nowadays, would have laughed outright, but Roger, beingaltogether out of touch with the modern attitude towards such matters,regarded his mother's objection as quite a normal and reasonable one.It must be overcome in this particular instance, that was all.

  "But, of course, Nan will give up everything of that kind when she's mywife," he asserted confidently. And quite believed it, since he had atouching faith in the idea that a woman can be "moulded" by her husband.

  "Roger has rather taken me by surprise with the news of hisengagement," said Lady Gertrude, after she and Nan had exchanged a fewlaboured platitudes. "Do you think you will be happy with him? Welive a very simple country existence here, you know."

  To Nan, the use of the word "we" sounded rather as though she wereproposing to marry the family.

  "Oh, I like country life very much," she replied. "After all, you canalways vary the monotony by running up to town or going abroad, can'tyou?"

  "I don't think Roger cares much for travelling about. He is extremelyattached to his home. We have always made everything so easy andcomfortable for him here, you see," responded Lady Gertrude, with acertain significance.

  Nan surmised she was intended to gather that it would be her duty tomake everything "so easy and comfortable" for him in the future! Shealmost smiled. Most of the married men she knew were kept busy seeingthat everything was made easy and comfortable for their wives.

  "Still," continued Lady Gertrude, "there could be no objection to yourmaking an occasional trip to London."

  She had a dry, decisive method of speech which gave one the impressionshe was well accustomed to laying down the law--and that her laws wereexpected to remain unbroken. The "occasional trip to London" soundedbleakly in Nan's ears. Still, she argued, Lady Gertrude would only beher mother-in-law--and she was sure she could "manage" Roger. There isa somewhat pathetic element in the way in which so many peoplelight-heartedly enter into marriage, the man confident in his abilityto "mould" his wife, the woman never doubting her power to "manage"him. It all seems quite simple during the adaptable period ofengagement, when romance spreads a veil of glamour over the two peopleconcerned, effectually concealing for the time being the wide gulf oftemperament that lies between them. It is only after the knot has beentied that the unlooked-for difficulties of managing and mouldingpresent themselves.

  Nan found it increasingly difficult to sustain her side of theconversation with Lady Gertrude. The latter's old-fashioned viewsclashed violently with her own modern ones, and there seemed to be nomutual ground upon which they could meet. Like her son, Lady Gertrudeclung blindly to the narrow outlook of a bygone period, and her ideasof matrimony were based strictly upon the English Marriage Service.

  She had not realised that the Great War had created a different worldfrom the one she had always known, and that women had earned theirfreedom as individuals by sharing the burden of the war side by sidewith men. Nor had Roger infused any fresh ideas into her mind on hisreturn from serving in the Army. He had volunteered immediately warbroke out, his sense of duty and loyalty to his country being as sturdyas his affection for every foot of her good brown earth he hadinherited. But he was not an impressionable man, and when peacefinally permitted him to return to his ancestral acres, he settled downagain quite happily into the old routine at Trenby Hall.

  So it was hardly surprising that Lady Gertrude had remained unchanged,expecting and requiring that the world should still run smoothlyon--without even a side-slip!--in the same familiar groove as that towhich she had always been accustomed. This being so, it was quiteclear to her that Nan would require a considerable amount of tutelagebefore she was fit to be Roger's wife. And she was equally prepared togive it.

  In some inexplicable manner her attitude of mind conveyed itself toNan, and the latter was rebelliously conscious of the older woman'sefforts to dominate her. It came as an inexpressible relief when atlast their tete-a-tete was interrupted.

  Through the closed door Nan could hear Roger's voice. He was evidentlyengaged in cheerful conversation with someone in the hall outside--awoman, from the light trill of laughter which came in response to someremark of his--and a moment later the door opened and Nan could see hishead and shoulders towering above those of the woman who preceded himinto the room.

  "Isobel, my dear!"

  For the first time since the beginning of their interview Nan heardLady Gertrude's voice soften to a more human note. Turning to Nan shecontinued, still in the same affectionate tone of voice:

  "This is my niece, Isobel Carson--though she is really more like adaughter to me."

  "So it looks as though we shall be sisters!" put in the newcomerlightly. "Really"--with a quick, bird-like glance, that includedeveryone in the room--"our relationships will get rather mixed up,won't they?"

  She held out a rather claw-like little hand for Nan to shake, and theunexpectedly tense and energetic grip of it was somewhat surprising.She wa
s a small, dark creature with bright, restless brown eyes set ina somewhat sallow face--its sallowness the result of severalhusband-hunting years spent in India, where her father had held a postin the Indian Civil Service.

  It was one of those rather incomprehensible happenings of life that shehad been left still blooming on her virgin stem. It would have beendifficult to guess her exact age. She owned to thirty-four, and adecade ago, when she had first joined her father in India, she musthave possessed a certain elfish prettiness of her own. Now, thanks tothose years spent under a tropical sun, she was a trifle faded andpassee-looking.

  Following upon the advent of Roger and his cousin the conversationbecame general for a few minutes, then Lady Gertrude drew her sontowards a French window opening on to the garden--a garden immaculatelylaid out, with flower-beds breaking the expanse of lawn at just thecorrect intervals--and eventually she and Roger passed out of the roomto discuss with immense seriousness the shortcomings of the gardener asexemplified in the shape of one of the geranium beds.

  "_You_ won't like it here!" observed Isobel Carson rather bluntly, whenthe two girls were left alone.

  "Why shouldn't I?" Nan smiled.

  "Because you won't fit in at all. You'll be like a rocket batteringabout in the middle of a set piece."

  Isobel lacked neither brains nor observation, though she had been wiseenough to conceal both these facts from Lady Gertrude.

  "Don't you like it here, then?"

  Isobel regarded her thoughtfully, as though speculating how far shedared be frank.

  "Of course I like it. But it's Hobson's choice with me," she repliedrather grimly. "When my father died I was left with very little moneyand no special training. Result--I spent a hateful year as nurserygoverness to a couple of detestable brats. Then Aunt Gertrude invitedme here on a visit--and that visit has prolonged itself up till thepresent moment. She finds me very useful, you know," she addedcynically.

  "Yes, I suppose she does," answered Nan, with some embarrassment. Shefelt no particular desire to hear a resume of Miss Carson's past life.There was something in the girl which repelled her.

  As though she sensed the other's distaste to the trend the conversationhad taken, Miss Carson switched briskly off to something else, and bythe time Lady Gertrude returned with Roger, suggesting that they shouldgo in to lunch, Nan had forgotten that odd feeling of repulsion whichIsobel had first aroused in her, and had come to regard her as "quite anice little thing who had had rather a rotten time."

  This was the impression Lady Gertrude's niece contrived to make on mostpeople. It suited her very well and secured her many gifts andpleasures which would not otherwise have come her way. She hadaccepted her aunt's invitation to stay at Trenby Hall rather guardedlyin the first instance, but when, as the visit drew towards its end,Lady Gertrude had proposed that she should make her home therealtogether, she had jumped at the offer.

  She speedily discovered that she and Trenby had many tastes in common,and with the sharp instinct of a woman who has tried hard to achieve asuccessful marriage and failed, there appeared to her no reason why inthis instance "something should not come of it"--to use thetime-honoured phrase which so delicately conveys so much. And but forthe fact that Nan Davenant was staying at Mallow, something might havecome of it! Since community of tastes is responsible for many a happyand contented marriage.

  Throughout the time she had lived at Trenby Hall, Isobel had contrivedto make herself almost indispensable to Roger. If a "damned button"flew off his coat, she was always at hand with needle and thread, and aquaint carved ivory thimble crowning one small finger, to sew it onagain. Or should his dress tie decline to adorn his collar inprecisely the proper manner, those nimble, claw-like little fingerscould always produce a well-tied bow in next to no time. It was Isobelwho found all the things which, manlike, he so constantly mislaid, whotramped over the fields with him, interesting herself in all theoutdoor side of his life, and she was almost as good at landing a troutas he himself.

  There seemed small likelihood of Roger's going far afield in search ofa wife, so that Isobel had not apprehended much danger to herhopes--more especially as she had a shrewd idea that Lady Gertrudewould look upon the marriage with the selfish approval of a woman whogains a daughter without losing the services of a niece who is "used toher ways."

  Such a union need not even upset existing arrangements. Isobel hadlearned by long experience how to "get on" amicably with her autocraticrelative, and the latter could remain--as her niece knew very well shewould wish to remain at Trenby Hall, still nominally its chatelaine.

  Lady Gertrude and Isobel had never been frequent visitors at Mallow,and it had so happened that neither they, nor Roger on the rareoccasions when he was home on leave from the Front, had chanced to meetNan Davenant during her former visits to Mallow Court.

  Now that she had seen her, Isobel's ideas were altogether bouleversee.Never for a single instant would she have imagined that a woman ofNan's type--artistic, emotional, elusive--could attract a man likeRoger Trenby. The fact remained, however, that Nan had succeeded wherehitherto she herself had failed, and Isobel's dreams of a secure futurehad come tumbling about her ears. She realised bitterly that love islike quicksilver, running this way or that at its own sweet will--andrarely into the channel we have ordained for it.