“I thought you could talk to Mark.” Miss Easter wept piteously, looking so very youthful that Julian felt inclined to relent.
“That shows how very little you know about it. I have no intention of insulting Mark by doing anything of the kind, and if I did, he would very properly kick me out of the house. Stop crying, please.”
“Wouldn’t it be better if Miss Marchrose were to leave the College?”
“What for? Now stop being so childish and let me fetch you a glass of water. Mr. Garrett will want to know why you have been crying.”
“I always, always tell Douglas everything. We’ve promised never to have any secrets from one another. Perfect confidence is the only way to married happiness.”
“You can tell me about that after you’ve been married a year or two. But now I want you to listen to me.”
Iris looked at him with drowned, forget-me-not eyes.
“I am going to forget what you have told me, as far as it is humanly possible to do so, and you must do the same. Promise me that you won’t mention what we have been discussing to anybody else, ever.”
“Oh, but Douglas! Oughtn’t I to tell Douglas?”
“No, certainly not”
“It seems so awful to begin one’s married life with a secret.”
Sir Julian had perhaps never before felt so much tempted to resort to physical violence.
“I assure you that it would be exceedingly dishonourable, and that you couldn’t do Mark a worse service, than to hint at such a thing to anybody on earth.”
“Then,” said Iris heroically, “I promise.”
Sir Julian relaxed his clenched hand, and opened the door for her.
“I never, never thought,” said Miss Easter, “that you and I would ever share a secret, Sir Julian! I used to be so dreadfully afraid of you but I never shall be again!”
Watching his departing confederate, restored once more to smiling animation, flutter from the room, Julian returned to his seat before the writing-table.
“For a man who professes to dislike officious interference,” he reflected ruefully, “I am the recipient of an unfortunate number of disastrous confidences.”
XIV
LADY ROSSITER, a few days later, put on a comparatively new set of black fox furs, which helped to enhance in her the agreeable conviction of being in a position to be kind to those less fortunate than herself, and drove to Culmouth College.
It was her intention to put the matter of the presentation upon a sound footing without delay, and she had purposely chosen a Saturday afternoon for her visit, knowing that the College would be almost empty and that Fairfax Fuller was generally to be found there alone until half -past two or three o’clock.
The Supervisor, however the window of whose private office gazed on to that side of the street by which the College was approached proved strangely difficult of access.
The place seemed almost deserted, but Lady Rossiter encountered downstairs the small and precocious-looking student of shorthand whom she and Iris had remarked at the speed test.
“Do you know if Mr. Fuller is here, little boy?” she enquired of him, with that extra distinct enunciation by which so many people indicate their consciousness of addressing a social inferior, but also with a very agreeable smile.
Edna believed much in the power of a smile, and sometimes quoted a few lines of those popular verses, “Just by smiling.”
“Ay,” said the little boy.
“Will you go and tell him that a lady would like to see him?” said Edna, who did not think the youth capable of reporting her name correctly.
“Ay.”
The messenger departed, whistling shrilly, and presently returned grinning broadly.
“Mr. Fuller, he’s so busy as ever he can be. Could you give a message, like?”
“I’m afraid not,” said Edna, suave but firm. “Tell him it’s Lady Rossiter.”
“I told him that,” said the youth, looking still more amused.
Edna began to feel that the value of smiles might be overrated.
“Thank you. I’d better go myself. I’m so much obliged to you.”
She nodded at the little boy rather distantly and went herself to knock at the closed door of Mr. Fuller’s office.
A voice within uttered a short, sharp ejaculation which Lady Rossiter, with an optimism that did more credit to her imagination than to her common-sense, interpreted to mean, “Come in!”
The room she entered was thick with the smoke and odour of the peculiarly rank tobacco affected by Mr. Fairfax Fuller, and in spite of an open window, a haze of blue fumes hung over the table at which he sat, his head thrust aggressively forward and his elbows squared.
Few things could have been less expressive of welcome than his unsmiling “Good afternoon,” as he rose to his feet and laid his cherry-wood pipe upon the table.
“Don’t stop smoking, I’m quite used to it,” said Lady Rossiter, gasping a little. “Are you very busy?”
“Yes, very,” said Mr. Fuller uncompromisingly.
“Then I mustn’t keep you,” his visitor smilingly observed. “May I sit down?”
Fuller moved a chair about two inches in her direction and pushed into prominence the broad leather strap and silver watch on his hairy and powerful wrist.
Lady Rossiter affected not to observe this gesture, which she preferred to attribute to the awkwardness of embarrassment rather than to any want of cordiality.
“And is all well with our College?” she enquired brightly, and casting a friendly glance at the papers on the table, all of which Mr. Fuller immediately thrust into the nearest pigeon-hole.
“The College is all right.”
“That’s good. You know it’s very near my heart. I shall never forget how we’ve seen it grow from the very start, and the interest one’s had in every member of the staff. I’m sure you’re like me, Mr. Fuller, and care a great deal about the human element.”
Edna paused, but the sympathetic response which might reasonably have been expected was not forthcoming.
“We’ve been so like a little family party here, I always think especially those of us who saw the very beginning of all things. Let me see, I think you and I and Sir Julian, and of course Mr. Easter, are the only ones left of the original committee, aren’t we? Oh, and the old Alderman.”
Fuller emitted a sound that might conceivably pass for a rejoinder.
“They’re all so pleased about Miss Easter’s engagement a wedding is always an excitement, isn’t it? Have they,” said Edna, momentarily thoughtless, “have they told you of their little scheme for making her a presentation?”
“As I happen to be Supervisor of the staff, they naturally came to me in the first place, Lady Rossiter.”
“Of course they did. How stupid of me! One forgets all the grades and distinctions, there are so many of them now. But it was really about the presentation plans that I wanted to talk to you.”
She waited in vain for some assurance that the wish had been in any way mutual.
“I felt sure that you and I would understand one another,” said Edna, almost pleadingly, “if we had a little talk together.”
Silence.
Lady Rossiter could no longer disguise from herself that the little talk, if it was to take place at all, must do so in the form of an unsupported monologue. She began courageously:
“I like the idea, you know, and I think it will touch and gratify Miss Easter and her brother very much indeed. Only these schemes are always the better for tactful handling, don’t you agree with me? We don’t want any little awkwardnesses. And I’m not quite sure that I think the suggestion of having the presentation made by poor Miss Marchrose was a very wise one. Now, Mr. Fuller, I know I can speak to you in confidence, and I’m going to say something that I should never dream of saying to any other member of the staff. I am sorry to tell you that there are reasons I needn’t go into them, they are very painful ones why Miss Marchrose should not be selected to offer t
his little present to a young and innocent girl on behalf of the staff. I know I need not go into details.”
Fuller stared at Lady Rossiter with dark, smouldering eyes.
“I’m perfectly satisfied with Miss Marchrose’s behaviour since she’s been here,” he growled at last.
Up went Edna’s eyebrows, all too expressively. “That’s as it may be, Mr. Fuller. A woman is sometimes a good deal more clear-sighted than a man, in certain matters. But I happen to have heard a good deal about Miss Marchrose before she came here at all, and as a member of the General Committee, and also of Mr. Cooper’s little committee for the presentation, I may tell you that I very decidedly veto any suggestion of letting her represent the staff of this College.”
The Supervisor looked her full in the eyes.
“Are you telling me, Lady Rossiter, that that girl isn’t straight?”
Edna’s opaque white skin, that seldom registered alteration, coloured faintly.
“Mr. Fuller, God forbid that I should condemn any woman unheard. I won’t pretend not to know what you mean.”
“I can put it plainer if you like” Fuller retorted. “But I want yes or no, Lady Rossiter.”
“Then,” said Edna with dignity, “as far as I can tell, no.”
“I should damned well think not,” exploded Fuller, without a trace of apology. “I take my orders from Sir Julian Rossiter, and until he’s lost confidence in me, I run this staff the way I think best. You excuse me, Lady Rossiter, if I say that I think we’ve discussed the matter long enough.”
Edna stood up, more angry than she had ever allowed herself to be since the days of her girlhood.
“You forget yourself altogether, Mr. Fuller, and I feel certain that you will be the first person to realise that an apology is due to me when you are yourself again.”
For all answer, Fuller opened the door and banged it to again almost before she had crossed the threshold.
Lady Rossiter, in the hall outside, found her knees shaking under her in a manner hitherto unknown to her. Fairfax Fuller’s temper, displayed after the fashion of his kind, was a return to nature of which she had never before had experience. Not devoid of an instinctive reluctance to being found, shaken and agitated, in the College which had only been allowed to see her as a serene visiting goddess, Edna almost furtively made her way upstairs in search of an empty classroom in which to calm herself.
A general quiet pervaded the upper floor of the building; the smell of soap and water upon newlyscrubbed boards proclaimed the recent presence of the usual Saturday afternoon charwoman. Lady Rossiter, still shaking, felt the imperative need of a champion, and murmured something indignant to herself about a woman alone, which was shortly afterwards disproved by a distant and subdued sound of unceasing voices. Edna reflected that even young Cooper might be of solace, and was also not averse from seizing the opportunity of disclaiming all further connection with the presentation of Iris’ wedding-present.
She rose wearily, crossing the lobby in search of the just-audible voice that she judged to come from the smallest and most remote classroom. The door was shut, but through the upper panels of glass Lady Rossiter was only too well enabled to perceive that which struck fresh dismay to her mind.
Miss Marchrose was sitting at a small table in the window, her back to the door, her head bent, and her hands idle in her lap. Beside her sat Mark Easter, his voice still audible, and in front of him a disordered pile of papers at which he made no pretence of looking.
Lady Rossiter drew back almost upon the instant, but she had seen that he was speaking much more earnestly than was usual with him.
From sheer desire to gain time in which to consider these unwelcome phenomena, Edna retreated once more to the room across the landing.
She remained there in thought for nearly twenty minutes, subconsciously aware that the murmur of those two voices went on almost without intermission the while.
The noise as of heavily-nailed boots galloping up the uncarpeted stairs came to distract her, and the little boy whom she had seen earlier in the afternoon burst into the room.
“Were you looking for me?” Lady Rossiter enquired rather severely.
“Mr. Fuller axed me if you were here still.”
“It’s almost time for my car to call for me,” Edna said with dignity. “I am just coming down.”
She had entirely regained her usual poise, and faced Fairfax Fuller, who stood at the open door of his room, obviously awaiting her, with perfect composure.
The Supervisor looked very much heated, but spoke with grim formality.
“I must apologise for the expression I used to you just now, Lady Rossiter.”
Edna looked at him for a moment, and then let the wide charity of her slowly-dawning smile envelop his very patent anger and confusion.
“But that’s quite enough! Perhaps we both grew rather excited; but after all, the best of friends must have their little quarrels. I am more than ready to forget.”
“Say no more about it,” muttered Fuller, obviously under the impression that he was gracefully bringing matters to a conclusion.
“Ah, but one word more I must say,” Edna interposed quickly. “You know, I’m afraid I must hold quite, quite firm about the presentation. Or perhaps I had better tell Mr. Cooper that, much as I appreciate having been consulted, I prefer to withdraw from his committee.”
Fuller’s bulldog jaw was set hard.
“That’s as you like, of course.”
If Edna had not expected such a rejoinder, the tremor with which she received it was all but imperceptible.
“I’m sorry we don’t see things in the same light,” she said sweetly, “And I can’t tell you how heartily glad I should be to find myself in the wrong about poor Miss Marchrose.”
She hesitated for a moment, but neither the voice nor the expression of Mr. Fairfax Fuller appeared to denote any readiness to resume a discussion previously so much fraught with verbal disaster. So Edna, almost hearing herself pause to think, “Is it kind, is it wise, is it true?” said, “Good afternoon, Mr. Fuller,” with perfect cordiality, and descended the stairs, unescorted by the Supervisor.
On the doorstep she encountered old Alderman Bellew, who greeted her with the more cordiality that he had expected to find Sir Julian, of whom he was rather afraid.
“Seeing the car outside, I thought Sir Julian might have run in for a moment on business, and I was anxious to see him. But it’ll keep it’ll very well keep. I’ve had a little walk for nothing, that’s all, and it won’t do me any harm.”
The obese old man was panting.
“May I give you a lift anywhere? I always think that’s the best of a car one can be of use to people who haven’t got one.”
“Well, I declare that’s very kind of you. Would the Council House be out of your way?”
“Not at all.”
The Alderman dropped thankfully on to the comfortable seat offered him.
“Did you want to see my husband?” Edna sweetly enquired, not devoid of curiosity.
“Only on a little matter of business connected with the College. It came into my mind that I could get a word with him when I saw the car outside the door. But I daresay I shall see him next week or I can drop him a line.”
“Even Julian,” said Lady Rossiter intentionally, “is hardly more interested in our College than I am. You know how I’ve followed its career from the very beginning and always kept in the closest possible touch with the members of the staff. And I needn’t tell you that I’ve never yet missed a General Committee meeting.”
“Have you not, indeed!” responded the Alderman, obviously debating in his own mind whether or not he should take Lady Rossiter into his further confidence with regard to the affairs of Culmouth College.
She maintained a tactful silence.
“The fact is, Lady Rossiter, that a suggestion has been made this is quite confidential, you understand for opening a new branch of the College. They’re asking for somethi
ng of the same kind in Gloucestershire, and it appears that the municipal authorities are ready enough to guarantee the funds. I have a very gratifying letter, which I want your husband to see, speaking in most complimentary terms of our little show here. Of course, it’s quite understood to be more or less run on philanthropic lines. That chap Fuller has done marvels, and actually achieved a balance on the right side, but the concern isn’t primarily meant to be a paying one, as I needn’t tell you.”
“No, indeed. One’s idea was to fit the wage-earners rather more for their task to help the inhabitants of our little corner of the Empire to help themselves.”
“Quite so. And apparently the fame of our little enterprise has spread,” said the old man, with great satisfaction. “They actually want me to send a representative to look at the buildings they have in view, and put things in train a bit. Rather gratifying for little Culmouth, eh?”
“Yes, indeed.”
“Of course, it all depends on Sir Julian’s consent naturally, that’s an understood thing. After all he’s done for us, and his position and all.”
“I am quite sure you may count upon him,” said Edna graciously. “He will appreciate the compliment to our small experiment as much as I do.”
If the good Alderman felt slightly puzzled at the extremely proprietary attitude adopted by his listener, he knew better than to give any sign of it.
“There’ll be great excitement amongst the staff,” he said. “But, of course, they’ll know nothing about it for the present.”
“There’s something rather unsettled about the staff just now,” Edna thoughtfully rejoined. “You know how things can be felt in the air sometimes, and I’ve fancied rather an absence of our usual esprit de corps lately. I haven’t quite known what to attribute it to—”
Being at all events perfectly well aware of what she was going to attribute it to now, Lady Rossiter only paused long enough to make sure that the Alderman, listening open-mouthed, had no theory to put forward.
“May I speak quite frankly, and in confidence?”
“Of course, of course.”
“It’s a thing that’s rather difficult to speak of at all, but, of course, you know Mr. Easter’s circumstances as well as I do. He is a married man.”
Collected Works of E M Delafield Page 138