by Hugh Walpole
“The parson is like one of the prophets,” said Bethel. “Too strong for the Pendragon point of view. It’s a place of ruins, Trojan, and the congregation are like a crowd of ancient Britons — but you’ll like it.”
Mrs. Bethel was unwontedly quiet — it was obvious that she was in distress; Mary, too, seemed to speak at random, and there was an air of constraint in the room.
When they set off for church the grey sky had changed to blue; the sun had just set, and little pink clouds like fairy cushions hung round the moon. As they passed out of the town, through the crooked path down to the Cove, Harry had again that strong sense of Cornwall that came to him sometimes so suddenly, so strangely, that it was almost mysterious, for it seemed to have no immediate cause, no absolute relation to surrounding sights or sounds. Perhaps to-night it was in the misty half-light of the shining moon and the dying sun, the curious stillness of the air so that the sounds and cries of the town came distinctly on the wind, the scent of some wild flowers, the faint smell of the chrysanthemums that Mary was wearing at her breast.
“By Jove, it’s Cornwall,” he said, drawing a great breath. He was walking a little ahead with Mary, and he turned to her as she spoke. She was walking with her head bent, and did not seem to hear him. “What’s up?” he said.
“Nothing,” she answered, trying to smile.
“But there is,” he insisted. “I’m not blind. I’ve bored you with my worries. You might honour me with yours.”
“There isn’t anything really. One’s foolish to mind, and, indeed, it’s not for myself that I care — but it’s mother.”
“What have they done?”
“They don’t like us — none of them do. I don’t know why they should; we aren’t, perhaps, very likeable. But it is cruel of them to show it. Mother, you see, likes meeting people — we had it in London, friends I mean, lots of them, and then when we came here we had none. We have never had any from the beginning. We tried, perhaps a little too hard, to have some. We gave little parties and they failed, and then people began to think us peculiar, and if they once do that here you’re done for. Perhaps we didn’t see it quite soon enough and we went on trying, and then they began to snub us.”
“Snub you?”
“Yes, you know the kind of thing. You saw that first day we met you — —”
“And it hurts?”
“Yes — for mother. She still tries; she doesn’t see that it’s no good, and each time that she goes and calls, something happens and she comes back like she did to-day. I don’t suppose they mean to be unkind — it is only that we are, you see, peculiar, and that doesn’t do here. Father wears funny clothes and never sees any one, and so they think there must be something wrong — —”
“It’s a shame,” he said indignantly.
“No,” she answered, “it isn’t really. It’s one’s own fault — only sometimes I hate it all. Why couldn’t we have stayed in London? We had friends there, and father’s clothes didn’t matter. Here such little things make such a big difference” — which was, Harry reflected, a complete epitome of the life of Pendragon.
“I’m not whining,” she went on. “We all have things that we don’t like, but when you’re without a friend — —”
“Not quite,” he said; “you must count me.” He stopped for a moment. “You will count me, won’t you?”
“You realise what you are doing,” she said. “You are entering into alliance with outcasts.”
“You forget,” he answered, “that I, also, am an outcast. We can at least be outcasts together.”
“It is good of you,” she said gravely; “I am selfish enough to accept it. If I was really worth anything, I would never let you see us again. It means ostracism.”
“We will fight them,” he answered gaily. “We will storm the camp”; but in his heart he knew that their stronghold, with “The Flutes” as the heart of the defence, would be hard to overcome.
They climbed up the hill to the little church with the sea roaring at their feet. A strong wind was blowing, and, for a moment, at a steep turn of the hill, she laid her hand on his arm; at the touch his heart beat furiously — in that moment he knew that he loved her, that he had loved her from the first moment that he had seen her, and he passed on into the church.
It was, as Bethel had said, almost in ruins — the little nave was complete, but ivy clambered in the aisles and birds had built their nests in the pillars. Three misty candles flickered on the altar, and some lights burnt over the pulpit, but there were strange half-lights and shadows so that it seemed a place of ghosts. Through the open door the night air blew, bringing with it the beating of the sea, and the breath of grass and flowers. The congregation was scanty; some fishermen and their wives, two or three old women, and a baby that made no sound but listened wonderingly with its finger in its mouth. The clergyman was a tall man with a long white beard and he did everything, even playing the little wheezy harmonium. His sermon was short and simple, but was listened to with rapt attention. There was something strangely intense about it all, and the hymns were sung with an eagerness that Harry had never heard elsewhere. This was a contrast with the church of the morning, just as the Cove was a contrast with Pendragon; the parting of the ways seemed to face Harry at every moment of his day — his choice was being urgently demanded and he had no longer any hesitation.
Newsome was there, and he spoke to him for a moment on coming out. “You’ll be lonely ‘up-along,’” he said; “you belong to us.”
They all four walked back together.
“How do you like our ancient Britons?” said Bethel.
“It was wonderful,” said Harry. “Thank you for taking me.”
They were all very silent, but when they parted at the turning of the road Bethel laughed. “Now you are one of us, Trojan. We have claimed you.”
As he shook Mary’s hand he whispered, “This has been a great evening for me.”
“I was wrong to grumble to you,” she answered. “You have worries enough of your own. I release you from your pledge.”
“I will not be released,” he said.
That night Clare Trojan, before going to bed, went into Garrett’s room. He was working at his book, and, as usual, hinted that to take such advantage of his good-nature by her interruption was unfair.
“I suppose to-morrow morning wouldn’t do instead, Clare — it’s a bit late.”
“No, it wouldn’t — I want you to listen to me. It’s important.”
“Well?” He seated himself in the most comfortable chair and sighed. “Don’t be too long.”
She was excited and stood over him as though she would force him to be interested.
“It’s too much, Garrett. It’s got to stop.”
“What?”
“Harry. Some one must speak to him.”
Garrett smiled. “That, of course, will be you, Clare — you always do; but if it’s my permission that you want you may have it and welcome. But we’ve discussed all this before. What’s the new turn of affairs?”
“No. I want more than your permission; we must take some measures together. It’s no good unless we act at once. Miss Ponsonby told me this afternoon — it has become common talk — the things he does, I mean. She did not want to say anything, but I made her. He goes down continually to some low public-house in the Cove; he is with those Bethels all day, and will see nothing of any of the decent people in the place — he is becoming a common byword.”
“It is a pity,” Garrett said, “that he cannot choose his friends better.”
“He must — something must be done. It is not for ourselves only, though of course that counts. But it is the House — our name. They laugh at him, and so at all of us. Besides, there is Robin.”
Garrett looked at his sister curiously — he had never seen her so excited before. But she found it no laughing matter. Miss Ponsonby would not have spoken unless matters had gone pretty far. The Cove! The Bethels! Robin’s father!
For
, after all, it was for Robin that she cared. She felt that she was fighting his battles, and so subtly concealed from herself that she was, in reality, fighting her own. She was in a state of miserable uncertainty. She was not sure of her father, she was not sure of Robin, scarcely sure of Garrett — everything threatened disaster.
“What will you do?” Garrett had no desire that the responsibility should be shifted in his direction; he feared responsibility as the rock on which the ship of his carefully preserved proprieties might come to wreck.
“Do? Why, speak — it must be done. Think of him during the whole time that he has been here — not only to Pendragon, but to us. He has made no attempt whatever to fit in with our ways or thoughts; he has shown no desire to understand any of us; and now he must be pulled up, for his own sake as well as ours.”
But Garrett offered her little assistance. He had no proposals to offer, and was barren of all definite efforts; he hated definite lines of any kind, but he promised to fall in with her plans.
“I will come down to breakfast,” she said, “and will speak to him afterwards.”
Garrett nodded wearily and went back to his work. On the next morning the crisis came.
Breakfast was a silent meal at all times. Harry had learnt to avoid the cheerful familiarity of his first morning — it would not do. But the heavy solemnity of the massive silver teapot, the ham and cold game on the sideboard, the racks of toast that were so needlessly numerous, drove him into himself, and, like his brother and son, he disappeared behind folds of newspaper until the meal was over.
Clare frequently came down to breakfast, and therefore he saw nothing unusual in her appearance. The meal was quite silent; Clare had her letters — and he was about to rise and leave the room, when she spoke.
“Wait a minute, Harry. I want to say something. No, Robin, don’t go — what I’m going to say concerns us all.”
Garrett remained behind his newspaper, which showed that he had received previous warning. Robin looked up in surprise, and then quickly at his father, who had moved to the fireplace.
“About me, Clare?” He tried to speak calmly, but his voice shook a little. He saw that it was a premeditated attack, but he wished that Robin hadn’t been there. He was, on the whole, glad that the moment had come; the last week had been almost unbearable, and the situation was bound to arrive at a crisis — well, here it was, but he wished that Robin were not there. As he looked at the boy for a moment his face was white and his breath came sharply. He had never loved him quite so passionately as at that moment when he seemed about to lose him.
Clare had chosen her time and her audience well, and suddenly he felt that he hated her; he was immediately calm and awaited her attack almost nonchalantly, his hand resting on the mantelpiece, his legs crossed.
Clare was still sitting at the table, her face half turned to Harry, her glance resting on Robin. She tapped the table with her letters, but otherwise gave no sign of agitation.
“Yes — about you, Harry. It is only that I think we have reason — almost a right — to expect that you should yield a little more thoroughly to our wishes. Both Garrett” — this with emphasis— “and myself are sure that your failing to do so is only due to a misconception on your part, and it is because we are sure that you have only to realise them to give way a little to them, that I — we — are speaking.”
“I certainly had not realised that I had failed in deference to your wishes, Clare.”
“No, not failed — and it is absurd to talk of deference. It is only that I feel — we all feel” — this with another glance at Robin— “that it is naturally impossible for you to realise exactly what are the things required of us here. Things that would in New Zealand have been of no importance at all.”
“Such as —— ?”
“Well, you must remember that we have, as it were, the eyes of all the town upon us. We occupy a position of some importance, and we are definitely expected to maintain that position without lack of dignity.”
“Won’t you come to the point, Clare? It is a little hard to see — —”
“Oh, things are obvious enough — surely, Harry, you must see for yourself. People were ready to give you a warm welcome when you returned. I — we — all of us, were only too glad. But you repulsed us all. Why, on the very day after your arrival you were extremely — I am sorry, but there is no other word — discourteous to the Miss Ponsonbys. You have made your friends almost entirely amongst the fisher class, a strange thing, surely, for a Trojan to do, and you now, I believe, spend your evenings frequently in a low public-house resorted to by such persons — at any rate you have spent them neither here nor at the Club, the two obvious places. I am only mentioning these things because I think that you may not have seen that such matters — trivial as they may seem to you — reflect discredit, not only on yourself, but also, indirectly, on all of us.”
“You forget, Clare, that I have many old friends down at the Cove. They were there when I was a boy. The people in Pendragon have changed very largely, almost entirely. There is scarcely any one whom I knew twenty years ago; it is, I should have thought, quite natural that I should go to see my old friends again after so long an absence.”
He was trying to speak quietly and calmly. His heart was beating furiously, but he knew that if he once lost control, he would lose, too, his position. But, as he watched them, and saw their cold, unmoved attitude his anger rose; he had to keep it down with both hands clenched — it was only by remembering Robin that the effort was successful.
“Natural to go and see them on your return — of course. But to return, to go continually, no. I cannot help feeling, Harry, that you have been a little selfish. That you have scarcely seen our side of the question. Things have changed in the last twenty years — changed enormously. We have seen them, studied them, and, I think, understood them. You come back and face them without any preparation; surely you cannot expect to understand them quite as we do.”
“This seems to me, I must confess, Clare, a great deal of concern about a very little matter. Surely I am not a person of such importance that a few visits to the Cove can ruin us socially?”
“Ah! that is what you don’t understand! Little things matter here. People watch, and are, I am afraid, only too ready to fasten on matters that do not concern them. Besides, it is not only the Cove — there are other things — there are, for instance, the Bethels.”
At the name Robin started. He liked Mary Bethel, had liked her very much indeed, but he had known that his aunt disapproved of them and had been careful to disguise his meetings. But the instant thought in his mind concerned the Feverels. If the Bethels were impossible socially, what about Dahlia and her mother? What would his aunt say if she knew of that little affair? And the question which had attacked him acutely during the last week in various forms hurt him now like a knife.
He watched his father curiously. He did not look as if he cared very greatly. Of course Aunt Clare was perfectly right. He had been selfishly indifferent, had cared nothing for their feelings. Randal had shown plainly enough how impossible he was. Indeed the shadow of Randal lurked in the room in a manner that would have pleased that young gentleman intensely had he known it. Clare had it continually before her, urging her, advising her, commanding her.
At the mention of the Bethels, Harry looked up sharply.
“I think we had better leave them out of the discussion.” His voice trembled a little.
“Why? Are they so much to you? They have, however, a good deal to do with my argument. Do you think it was wise to neglect the whole of Pendragon for the society of the Bethels — people of whom one is an idler and loafer and the other a lunatic?” Clare was becoming excited.
“You forget, Clare, that I first met them in your drawing-room.”
“They were there entirely against my will. I showed them that quite distinctly at the time. They will not come again.”
“That may be. But they are, as you have said, my friends. I
cannot, therefore, hear them insulted. They must be left out of the discussion.”
On any other matter he could have heard her quietly, but the Bethels she must leave alone. He could see Mary, as he spoke, turning on the hill and laying her hand on his arm; her hair blew in the wind and the light in her eyes shone under the moon. He had for a moment forgotten Robin.
“At any rate, I have made my meaning clear. We wish you — out of regard for us, if for no other reason — to be a little more careful both of your company and of your statements. It is hard for you to see the position quite as we do, I know, but I cannot say that you have made any attempt whatsoever to see it with our eyes. It seems useless to appeal to you on behalf of the House, but that, too, is worth some consideration. We have been here for many hundreds of years; we should continue in the paths that our ancestors have marked out. I am only saying what you yourself feel, Garrett?”
“Absolutely.” Garrett looked up from his paper. “I think you must see, Harry, that we are quite justified in our demands — Clare has put it quite plainly.”
“Quite,” said Harry. “And you, Robin?”
“I think that Aunt Clare is perfectly right,” answered Robin coldly.
Harry’s face was very white. He spoke rapidly and his hand gripped the marble of the mantelpiece; he did not want them to see that his legs were trembling.
“Yes. I am glad to know exactly where we stand. It is better for all of us. I might have taken it submissively, Clare, had you left out your last count against me. That was unworthy of you. But haven’t you, perhaps, seen just a little too completely your own point of view and omitted mine? I came back a stranger. I was ready to do anything to win your regard. I was perhaps a little foolishly sentimental about it, but I am a very easy person to understand — it could not have been very difficult. I imagined, foolishly, that things would be quite easy — that there would be no complications. I soon found that I had made a mistake; you have taught me more during the last fortnight than I had ever learnt in all my twenty years abroad. I have learnt that to expect affection from your own relations, even from your son, is absurd — affection is bad form; that, of course, was rather a shock.