But, even while he reached out toward freedom, he thought — “All these experiences I pass through are making me into the being that will be the ultimate me. They are necessary to me. They are part of me.” Remote pictures, almost of babyhood, flashed into his mind — himself, tossed up and caught in his father’s hands — himself, carried on Renny’s shoulder, supporting himself by a clutched handful of Renny’s red hair — then a sudden vision of that middle-aged woman who had captivated him four years ago, not from love of her but from hers for him. He laughed when he thought of that affair, which now seemed almost as far away as childhood. The glory of the sun, the brightness an expanse of the fields ran through him like a poem and he longed to write something far, far better than he had yet done. For the hundredth time he thought of the verses he had sent to an American magazine more than a month ago, and no word of them yet. Time was as nothing to those editors, yet his impatience was almost unbearable, for he knew, yes, he was certain he had never written anything better than those verses. What he would write tonight was already stirring his imagination.
The path led him into the pine wood, ancient trees of the primeval forest, with massive trunks and boughs heavy with pointed foliage. Here and there a fallen branch lay and, in one spot, a whole tree sunk down, not blown by a gale, but, from a rotting within, just sunk quietly to join the earth. About it there were a few bright-red mushrooms and a pallid plant called Indian pipe. He sat down on the trunk of the fallen tree, lighted a cigarette, and gave himself up to dreaming. All thoughts of the Indigo Lake Mine left him and the first lines of a poem sprang into his mind. Birds did not like this dark wood but now an unseen small bird, having found himself here, began a pensive song. Never did he get past his first lines but sang them over and over, while Eden sitting on the tree trunk got no further with his.
He heard steps approaching and turned a defensive face toward them. Finch appeared, scuffling the carpet of pine needles as he slowly advanced. Eden looked into Finch’s face, his own expression of defensiveness melting into interest. What an odd face the youngster had! Long and rather melancholy. But his eyes were a good shape and his nose too. Eden felt rather sorry for young Finch, sharing as he did a room with Piers and often roughly treated by him.
Finch raised his eyes and saw Eden. He quickened his steps, with a deprecating grin, as though to get himself as quickly out of the way as possible.
“Hello,” Eden called out, suddenly hospitable, as though the pine wood were his private room and the log his easy chair. “Come and sit down.”
Finch dropped to the log beside him, miscalculated its width and all but toppled over backward.
“Well,” remarked Eden affably — “holidays are nearly over. I suppose you’re counting the days till school opens. Nice thought, isn’t it?”
“Uh-huh,” groaned Finch. And he added, like an elderly man — “it’s terrible how time flies.”
“What do you want to be, Finch?”
“I dunno. I’ve never thought.”
“Horse breeder, like Renny?”
“Gosh, no.”
“Go into farming, like Piers?”
“Gosh, no.”
“Lawyer — like me?”
“Gosh, no.”
“Look here, brother Finch, can’t you say anything but gosh no?”
“Gosh — I mean — I didn’t know I was. What I mean is I haven’t the least idea.”
“But you know what you don’t want to be.”
“That’s pretty well everything, I guess. I don’t seem to have an inclination to be anything I’ve ever heard of.”
“I remember when you wanted to be a railway engineer.”
“Gosh, I’d hate it now…. Eden, do you like the idea of being a lawyer?”
“Not in the least.”
“Then why —”
“Well, it seems an easy life, and I thought that as I shall probably have no clients it will give me plenty of time for other things.”
“Like writing poetry?”
“Doubtless. I shall likely come home to eat.”
“I guess you’ll be a famous poet some time.”
“Me! Never. But I like to hear you say it.”
After a slightly embarrassed pause Finch said — “There’s something sort of mysterious about words.”
“Yes?” Eden gave him an amused but penetrating look.
“They can turn things you know into something different. I mean more beautiful and better.”
“You feel a power working within you, eh, Finch?”
Scarlet from embarrassment Finch burst out — “I’m not like you.
I’m not talented. I’ll never be anything.” He got to his feet. “Well, I must be going. I’m on an errand for Meg.”
“Who isn’t? I’ve never knowing anyone who keeps so many others busy. What’s your errand?”
“I’m to find Noah Binns and tell him Meg wants him. He’s cutting down a tree for Mr. Warden.”
“Trees? What trees?”
“Those two silver birches.”
Eden sprang up. “No! He can’t do that. Why should he want to cut them down?”
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll go with you.”
The brothers, now as active as a moment ago they had been languid, strode along the bridle path together. They left the wood, crossed a field, and passed through a gate on to a country road. On its either side were scattered buses with well-kept gardens owned by retired farmers or business men retired from city life. In front of the most pretentious of these lay two birch-trees, not quite full grown, their pure white stumps, now no more than two ridiculous white posts, standing beside them. Resting on his axe was the middle-aged labourer, Noah Binns, triumphant but panting a little, his parted lips showing his black teeth.
Not waiting to open the gate in the neat white picket fence Eden vaulted it and demanded:
“Why the dickens have you done this?”
Noah Binns grinned. “Hired to. That’s why. Hired by the owner.”
“He must be mad. There weren’t two lovelier trees in the countryside.”
“Well, they’ll be firewood now and serve ’em right. They ate the good out of the ground.”
Eden gazed down at the two fair forms bright in their summer leafage. “It’s a crime,” he mourned.
Finch came and stood beside him. “They don’t know yet what’s happened to them,” he said.
Noah chuckled in derision. “But they will when the hot suns blasts ’em. They’ll wilt then, dang ’em.”
The door of the white house opened and Mr. Warden, its owner, came out. He was a large gentle-looking man with a greyish cast on the skin, as though from suffering. He had a speaking acquaintance with the brothers and now gave them a polite good morning. He was a widower.
He said — “I’m afraid you are not pleased by what Noah’s been doing but those trees had become a nuisance. I can’t persuade the grass to grow under them. Time and again I’ve sown the seed. The grass comes up and it dies. If there’s one thing above another I’ve set my heart on it’s a nice green lawn.”
“But anyone,” cried Eden “can have a lawn. “Those birch trees — look at them, Mr. Warden — why, I’d give a year of my life to see them, standing again!”
“Ah, no, you wouldn’t. That’s just talk, young man. As for life — it’s given me a new lease of life to see them taken down.” Raising his head as though he breathed more freely and putting his shoulders back, he left them with dignity and went into his house.
Looking after him, Noah Binns remarked — “What he needs is more room for scope.”
Finch gave a snort of laughter which caused Noah to repeat with great firmness — “Room for scope. That’s what he needs.” He began with ferocity to lop off the delicate branches of the nearest tree.
The brothers turned away. Suddenly Eden began to laugh.
“I suppose that’s what we all crave,” he said. “Room for scope.”
They walk
ed in silence for a space, enjoying the free movement of long legs in unison over the quiet country road, Finch happily aware that Eden was pleased by his company. He moved closer to Eden as though he would touch him. At last Eden spoke.
“You know that Aunt Augusta is coming and bringing a forty-second cousin with her — Dilly Warkworth?”
“Yes, I know,” Finch groaned. “I wish she weren’t.”
“My God, so do I…. I don’t mean Aunty. Just the horrible girl. She’s been jilted or something.”
Finch gave a giggle of delight. “Lovesick damsel in the house, eh?
Hell — what a thought!” Then, seriously — “Did you ever see one?”
Eden said — “I don’t remember seeing one. I ran away when I perceived the sickness developing.” He spoke in a pompous tone, putting on an act for Finch.
“All love is rather sickening, isn’t it?” Finch gave his brother a sidelong glance.
“My advice is — keep away from it.” Now Eden spoke as the experienced lover of a dozen affairs.
“Never shall I fall in love.”
Eden gave him a smile of pity. “My poor Finch, why should I waste advice on you? You’ll be helpless. Victim of the first female who goes for you — tooth and claw. As for this Dilly, she’ll forget the lad she left behind once she sets eyes on our red-headed brother. Mark my words.”
VII
A SECRET AMONG THEM
With the power of attorney signed it was all so easy for Eden, with Mr. Kronk’s accomplished help. Adeline’s government bonds, to the amount of ten thousand dollars, were sold and the money reinvested in Indigo Lake Mines. Eden’s intention had been to deposit all that he acquired on commission into a savings account and watch it, bit by bit, increase, till he had enough saved for the trip abroad. Once abroad, who knew what might happen? But, with this investment of his grandmother’s, his savings account reached such proportions that boyishly he one day boasted of it to Mr. Kronk, who showed, by the way he spoke rather than by what he said, how short-sighted he considered this. What he said was that it reminded him of peasants who hoarded their gold in a stocking. Eden, who had taken a serene pleasure in watching his little pile increase and had examined his deposit book at least five times a day, now swept all from the bank and handed it over to Mr. Kronk to invest in Indigo Lake. Mr. Kronk could not resist pointing out to him what he had lost by not investing it earlier. By the time the first leaves were beginning to fall the stocks of the Indigo Lake Gold Mine had soared to a still more spectacular height. Typewritten reports arrived at intervals giving this exhilarating “market information.” Eden, Piers, their uncles, and their grandmother were walking on air — if a woman of almost one hundred years could be said to walk on air. So eager was Piers to make more money to invest that he was ready to do the work of two on the farm. Renny was actually worried about this boy and his passion for work combined with his parsimony.
One day he demanded abruptly — “Piers, what are you doing with all this money?”
Piers, never communicative, drew back, with a defensive stare in his prominent blue eyes.
“Doing with it? Why, saving it, of course.”
“How much have you saved?”
Piers’s defensive stare became a scowl. He muttered — “Nearly all of it.”
“What are you saving for? Any special object?”
“No. Just saving.”
“Well, school opens next week. You’l be working with your brain for a change.”
Piers said eagerly — “Oh, I shall find time to work. I was just going to speak about that. I can work for an hour before I go in the morning, and another hour at night. And most of Saturday. Is that O.K.?”
Renny agreed, but looked on Piers’s behaviour as still more unnatural.
As for Eden, there were times when he almost wished he never had drawn his grandmother into the secret speculation. Far from investing her ten thousand dollars and then letting the affair slip from her mind, as he had expected, she never seemed to forget it. At the most inopportune times she would fix him with her still dominant gaze and give him such a grin of complicity as made him grow hot all over.
She would even ejaculate — “We know a thing or two, don’t we, my beauty?” or “We weren’t born yesterday, were we, you rascal?”
Her two sons were considerably disturbed by these signs of a secret bond between her and Eden. They wanted no interloper of his generation to come between them and their mother’s fortune. They loved her dearly. No one could deny that they had been devoted sons. Yet, with her end so nearly approaching, it was only natural that they should guard her against the designs of younger members of the family. No one, with the exception of her lawyer, Mr. Patton, knew the contents of her will. She had let it be known, however, that her money was to be left to one heir alone. “I will not have the bit I leave cut up into pieces like a cake.”
After one of her indiscretions Eden snatched the first opportunity of speaking to her alone. He leant over her chair and whispered fiercely — “Look here, Gran, you must not talk about our secret in front of the others. You’ll let the cat out of the bag and where shall we be then?”
Peering up into his face, wheezing a little, she said — “You’re like your poor mother — afraid of people. I’m not afraid.”
“It’s not a question of courage, Gran. It’s whether or not you want Uncle Nicholas and Uncle Ernest to know about your investing in Indigo Lake.”
“It’s none of their business.”
“But they’ll make it their business.”
“Yes, yes, we must keep it secret. Ha, I do enjoy getting the best of them. How much am I worth now?”
“Worth, Gran! You mean how much have the stocks risen?”
“Yes, what am I worth?”
“The price of the stock has doubled.”
“Then I’ve doubled me money.” She gave an hilarious chuckle. “I invested ten thousand dollars, didn’t I? Now it’s doubled. It’s twenty thousand.”
“Good God, Granny, don’t talk so loud.”
She looked suddenly keen. “And you’re sure it’s all safe and sound?”
“I never was more sure of anything.”
“Are you making a little yourself?”
“A little.”
“And what will you do with it?”
“Go abroad. To France — Italy — Greece.”
“Ireland too. Don’t forget Ireland.”
“Yes. Ireland too.”
She put up two long arms and clasped him to her. “Ah, what fun it is! I feel ten years younger. What age would that make me?”
He hesitated, struck by pity. “Why — just over eighty, Gran.”
“That’s not young enough. I feel twenty years younger.”
“And you promise not to be indiscreet?”
“I promise.”
But she could not keep her promise. It was too much for her. Over a cup of tea, over a game of backgammon, this feeling of well-being, of adventure, would overtake her and she would utter such enigmatic remarks, make what almost amounted to strange prophecies, that her sons grew quite anxious about her. They would have been much more anxious had she not been so well. She walked less bent and her appetite, always good, became so much better that Ernest sometimes feared for her.
“Mamma,” he said, when she demanded more gravy on her second baked potato, “do you think it is wise?”
“If I haven’t learned wisdom at my age, I never shall. More gravy, Renny.” Then across the table she caught Eden’s eye. Warningly he returned the look.
She said, “We can keep our mouths shut — when we choose — can’t we? And open ’em when we choose.”
She did open hers and introduced a fork mounded with potato. This rendered her for the moment speechless, and in that moment Eden was able to introduce a new topic of conversation. It was one of many escapes for him. Yet the temptation to allow Adeline to increase her investment in Indigo Lake Mines became more insistent as the price of th
e stock rose. What a benefit to her and to her heir (whichever he might be) after her death! And what a benefit to himself at this moment! In truth, the fire of speculation was burning brightly in him, as it was in Nicholas, Ernest, and Adeline. The two uncles had already increased their original purchase. Ernest, who was a born speculator, did not rest till Eden had arranged a meeting between him and Mr. Kronk. Eden was not eager to do this. He preferred to act as go-between and doubted if such a meeting would be successful. But he had no need to doubt. Mrs. Kronk was present at the meeting, her manner more suitably dignified for the occasion. Mr. Kronk’s manner was even cosier and more confidential than usual. Ernest Whiteoak, who flattered himself that he was a judge of character, told Eden afterwards how greatly his feeling of security had increased with this meeting. And seeing the three together in earnest and sincere talk had added to Eden’s own confidence in Indigo Lake. He pocketed his commission and allowed his grandmother to sign another power of attorney for the further sale of government bonds.
The tangled web of his machinations so complicated his life that he looked forward, almost with relief, to returning to the study of law in the fall. Now the family at Jalna were divded into two parts for him — those who were investors in Indigo Lake and those who were not. On the one hand, himself, Meg, Piers, his uncles, and grandmother. On the other, Renny, and the two young boys. Knowing Renny’s constant shortage of money he ingenuously longed to draw him into the golden net. But any reference to speculation, excepting in horse-flesh, brought no response from him but rather a nervous drawing back, as though in fear of having his pocket picked.
Eden was constantly having conferences, as Mr. Kronk called them, with his fellow investors, behind closed doors with the older ones, in the open with Piers. With him it was largely a matter of showing off in front of his junior. They would stride along the bridle path through the woods, now and again stopping to eat the wild blackberries and smoking cigarettes, always supplied by Eden, who was as open-handed as Piers was the reverse. Eden would boast of the money he was making on commission, taking care not to implicate any others of the family, but referring to nebulous “clients” who were literally falling over each other in their eagerness to invest in Indigo Lake. Eden talked of France and Italy and Greece and knew almost to a week the date of his sailing and the steamship of his choice. But he did not intend to spend the rest of his life in Europe. He would always want to visit those at Jalna.
Books 5-8: Whiteoak Heritage / Whiteoak Brothers / Jalna / Whiteoaks of Jalna Page 37