by Hugh Walpole
They all waited then for Mrs. Trenchard; they did not doubt what she would say. Katherine, strangely, at that moment felt that she loved her mother as she had never loved her before. In the very fury of the indignation that would be directed against Philip would be the force of her love for her daughter.
This pause, as they all waited for Mrs. Trenchard to speak, was weighted with the indignation that they expected from her.
But Mrs. Trenchard laughed: “My dear Aggie: what a scene! really too stupid. As you have mentioned this, I may say that I have known — these things — about Philip for a long time. But I said nothing because — well, because it is really not my business what life Philip led before he met us. Perhaps I know more about young men and their lives, Aggie, than you do.”
“You knew!” Henry gasped.
“You’ve known!” Aggie cried.
Katherine had, at the sound of her mother’s voice, given her one flash of amazement: then she had turned to Philip, while she felt a cold shudder at her heart as though she were some prisoner suddenly clapt into a cage and the doors bolted.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Trenchard, “Mr. Seymour came a long time ago and told me things that he thought I ought to know. I said to Mr. Seymour that he must not do such things, and that if I ever spoke of it to Philip I should give him his name. I disapprove of such things. Yes, it was Mr. Seymour — I think he never liked you, Philip, because you contradicted him about Russia. He’s a nice, clever boy, but I daresay he’s wrong in his facts....” Then, as they still waited in silence, “I really think that’s all, Aggie. You must forgive me, dear, but I don’t think it was quite your business. Katherine is over age, you know, and in any case it isn’t quite nice in the drawing-room — and really only because your tea was cold, Aggie dear.”
“You’ve known ... you’ll do nothing, Harriet?” Aggie gasped.
Mrs. Trenchard looked at them before she turned back to her writing-table.
“You can ring for some fresh tea if you like,” she said.
But for a moment her eyes had caught Philip’s eyes. They exchanged the strangest look. Hers of triumph, sarcastic, ironic, amazingly triumphant, his of a dull, hopeless abandonment and submission.
Her attack at last, after long months of struggle, had succeeded. He was beaten. She continued her letter.
CHAPTER IV. THE WILD NIGHT
Ten minutes later Katherine and Philip were alone in the garden. There were signs that the gorgeous summer afternoon was to be caught into thunder. Beyond the garden-wall a black cloud crept toward the trees, and the sunlight that flooded the lawn seemed garish now, as though it had been painted in shrill colours on to the green; the air was intensely hot; the walls of the house glittered like metal.
They stood under the great oak bobbing in front of them.
“Well,” said Philip at last, “that’s the end, Katie dear — your mother’s a wonderful woman.”
Katherine was silent. He went on:
“That was my last hope. I suppose I’d been counting on it more than I ought. You’d have come with me, I know, if they’d turned me out? Not a bit of it. Your mother’s a wonderful woman, I repeat.” He paused, looked into her eyes, seemed to be startled by the pain in them. “My dear, don’t mind. She only wants to keep you because she can’t get on without you — and I shall settle down all right in a bit. What a fuss, after all, we’ve been making.”
Katherine said: “Tell me, Phil, have there been times, lately, in the last week, when you’ve thought of running away, going back to Russia? Tell me honestly.”
“Yes,” he answered, “there have — many times. But I always waited to see how things turned out. And then to-day when the moment did come at last, I saw quite clearly that I couldn’t leave you ever — that anything was better than being without you — anything — So that’s settled.”
“And you’ve thought,” Katherine pursued steadily, “of what it will be after we’re married. Mother always wanting me. Your having to be in a place that you hate. And even if we went to live somewhere else, of Mother always keeping her hand on us, never letting go, never allowing you to be free, knowing about Anna — their all knowing — you’ve faced it all?”
“I’ve faced it all,” he answered, trying to laugh. “I can’t leave you, Katie, and that’s the truth. And if I’ve got to have your mother and the family as well, why, then, I’ve got to have them.... But, oh! my dear, how your mother despises me! Well, I suppose I am a weak young man! And I shall forget Russia in time.... I’ve got to!” he ended, almost under his breath.
She looked at him queerly.
“All right,” she said, “I know now what we’ve got to do.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Wait. I must go and speak to Uncle Tim. I shall be an hour. Be ready for me out here under this tree in an hour’s time. It will be seven o’clock.”
“What do you mean?” he asked her again, but she had gone.
She had picked up an old garden hat in the hall, and now very swiftly hurried up the village road. She walked, the dust rising about her and the black cloud gaining in size and strength behind her. Uncle Tim’s house stood by itself at the farther end of the village. She looked neither to right nor left, did not answer the greeting of the villagers, passed quickly through the little garden, over the public path and rang the rusty, creaking bell. An old woman, who had been Uncle Tim’s housekeeper for an infinite number of years, opened the door.
“Ah, Miss Kathie,” she said, smiling. “Do ee come in. ‘E’s gardenin’, poor soul. All of a sweat. Terrible ‘ot ’tis, tu. Makin’ up thunder I’m thinkin’.”
Katherine went into the untidy, dusty hall, then into her uncle’s study. This had, ever since her childhood, been the same, a litter of bats, fishing-rods, specimens of plants and flowers drying on blotting paper, books lying in piles on the floor, and a pair of trousers hanging by a nail on to the back of the door.
She waited, seeing none of these familiar things. She did not, at first, see her uncle when he came in from the garden, perspiration dripping down his face, his old cricket shirt open at the neck, his grey flannel trousers grimed with dust.
“Hullo, Katie!” he cried, “what do you want? And if it’s an invitation to dinner tell ’em I can’t come.” Then, taking another look at her, he said gravely, “What’s up, my dear?”
She sat down in an old arm-chair which boasted a large hole and only three legs; he drew up a chair close to her, then suddenly, as though he saw that she needed comfort, put his arms round her.
“What’s the matter, my dear?” he repeated.
“Uncle Tim,” she said, speaking rapidly but quietly and firmly, “you’ve got to help me. You’ve always said that you would if I wanted you.”
“Why, of course,” he answered simply. “What’s happened?”
“Everything. Things, as you know, have been getting worse and worse at home ever since — well, ever since Phil and I were engaged.”
“Yes, I know,” he said.
“It hasn’t been Phil’s fault,” she broke out with sudden fierceness. “He’s done everything. It’s been my fault. I’ve been blind and stupid from the beginning. I don’t want to be long, Uncle Tim, because there’s not much time, but I must explain everything so that you shall understand me and not think it wrong. We’ve got nearly two hours.”
“Two hours?” he repeated, bewildered.
“From the beginning Mother hated Phil. I always saw it of course, but I used to think that it would pass when she knew Phil better — that no one could help knowing him without loving him — and that was silly, of course. But I waited, and always hoped that things would be better. Then in the spring down here there was one awful Sunday, when Aunt Aggie at supper made a scene and accused Philip of leading Henry astray or something equally ridiculous. After that Philip wanted me to run away with him, and I — I don’t know — but I felt that he ought to insist on it, to make me go. He didn’t insist, and then I saw sud
denly that he wasn’t strong enough to insist on anything, and that instead of being the great character that I’d once thought him, he was really weak and under anyone’s influence. Well, that made me love him in a different way, but more — much more — than I ever had before. I saw that he wanted looking after and protecting. I suppose you’ll think that foolish of me,” she said fiercely.
“Not at all, my dear,” said Uncle Tim, “go on.”
“Well, there was something else,” Katherine went on. “One day some time before, when we first came to Garth, he told me that when he was in Russia he had loved another woman. They had a child, a boy, who died. He was afraid to tell me, because he thought that I’d think terribly of him.
“But what did it matter, when he’d given her up and left her? Only this mattered — that I couldn’t forget her. I wasn’t jealous, but I was curious — terribly. I asked him questions, I wanted to see her as she was — it was so strange to me that there should be that woman, still living somewhere, who knew more, much more, about Phil than I did. Then the more questions I asked him about her the more he thought of her and of Russia, so that at last he asked me not to speak of her. But then she seemed to come between us, because we both thought of her, and I used to wonder whether he wanted to go back to her, and he wondered whether, after all, I was jealous about her. Then things got worse with everyone. I felt as though everyone was against us. After the Faunder wedding Henry and Phil had a quarrel, and Henry behaved like a baby.
“I’ve had a dreadful time lately. I’ve imagined anything. I’ve been expecting Phil to run away. Millie said he would — Mother’s been so strange. She hated Phil, but she asked him to Garth, and seemed to want to have him with her. She’s grown so different that I simply haven’t known her lately. And Phil too — it’s had a dreadful effect on him. He seems to have lost all his happiness — he hates Garth and everything in it, but he’s wanted to be near me, and so he’s come. So there we’ve all been.” She paused for a moment, then went on quickly. “Just now — this afternoon — it all came to a climax. Aunt Aggie had found out from Henry about the Russian woman. She lost her temper at tea, and told Mother before us all. Phil has been expecting this to happen for weeks, and had been almost hoping for it, because then he thought that Mother and Father would say that he must give me up, and that then I would refuse to leave him. In that way he’d escape.
“But it seemed” — here Katherine, dropping her voice, spoke more slowly— “that Mother had known all the time. That horrid Mr. Seymour in London had told her. She’d known for months, and had never said anything — Mother, who would have been horrified a year ago. But no — She said nothing. She only told Aunt Aggie that she oughtn’t to make scenes in the drawing-room, and that it wasn’t her business.
“Philip saw then that his last chance was gone, that she meant never to let me go, and that if she must have him as well she’d have him. He’s sure now that I’ll never give Mother up unless she makes me choose between him and her — and so he’s just resigned himself.”
Uncle Tim would have spoken, but she stopped him.
“And there’s more than that. Perhaps it’s foolish of me, but I’ve felt as though that woman — that Russian woman — had been coming nearer and nearer and nearer. There was an evening the other night when I felt that she’d come right inside the house. I went into the hall and listened. That must seem ridiculous to anyone outside the family, but it may be that thinking of anyone continually does bring them — does do something.... At least for me now she’s here, and she’s going to try and take Phil back again. Mother wants her, it’s Mother, perhaps, who has made her come. Mother can make Phil miserable in a thousand ways by reminding him of her, by suggesting, by ...” With a great cry Katherine broke off: “Oh, Mother, Mother, I did love you so!” and bursting into a passion of tears, clung to her uncle as though she were still a little child.
Then how he soothed her! stroking her hair, telling her that he loved her, that he would help her, that he would do anything for her. He held her in his arms, murmuring to her as he had done so many years ago:
“There, Katie, Katie ... it’s all right, it’s all right. Nobody will touch you. It’s all right, it’s all right.”
At last, with a sudden movement, as though she had realised that there was little time to waste, she broke from him and stood up, wiping her eyes with her handkerchief; then, with that strange note of fierceness, so foreign to the old mild Katherine, she said:
“But now I see — I see everything. What Millie said is true — I can’t have it both ways, I’ve got to choose. Mother doesn’t care for anything so much as for beating Philip, for humiliating him, for making him do everything that she says. That other woman too — she’d like to see him humiliated, laughed at — I know that she’s like that, cruel and hard.
“And he’s only got me in all the world. I can beat that other woman only by showing her that I’m stronger than she is. I thought once that it was Phil who would take me and look after me, but now it is I that must look after him.
“If we stay, if we do as Mother wishes, we shall never escape. I love everything here, I love them all, I can’t leave them unless I do it now, now! Even to-morrow I shall be weak again. Mother’s stronger than we are. She’s stronger, I do believe, than anyone. Uncle Tim, we must go to-night!”
“To-night!” he repeated, staring at her.
“Now, at once, in an hour’s time. We can drive to Rasselas. There’s the London Express at eight o’clock. It’s in London by midnight. I can wire to Rachel. She’ll have me. We can be married, by special licence, to-morrow!”
He did not seem astonished by her impetuosity. He got up slowly from his chair, knocked over with his elbow the blotting-paper upon which were the dried flowers, swore, bent down and picked them up slowly one by one, rose at last and, very red in the face with his exertions, looked at her. Then he smiled gently, stroking his fingers through his beard.
“My dear, how you’ve changed!” he said.
“You understand, Uncle Tim,” she urged. “I couldn’t tell Millie. They’d make it bad for her afterwards, and it would hurt Mother too. I don’t want Mother to be left alone. It’s the only thing to do. I saw it all in a flash this evening when Mother was speaking. Even to-morrow may be too late, when I see the garden again and the village and when they’re all kind to me. And perhaps after all it will be all right. Only I must show them that Phil comes first, that if I must choose, I choose Phil.”
She paused, breathlessly. He was grave again when he spoke:
“You know, my dear, what you are doing, don’t you? I won’t say whether I think you right or wrong. It’s for you to decide, and only you. But just think. It’s a tremendous thing. It’s more than just marrying Philip. It’s giving up, perhaps, everything here — giving up Garth and Glebeshire and the house. Giving up your Mother may be for ever. I know your Mother. It is possible that she will never forgive you.”
Katherine’s under lip quivered. She nodded her head.
“And it’s hurting her,” he went on, “hurting her more than ever anything has done. It’s her own fault in a way. I warned her long ago. But never mind that. You must realise what you’re doing.”
“I do realise it,” Katherine answered firmly. “It needn’t hurt her really, if her love for me is stronger than her hatred of Philip. I’ve thought it all out. If she loves me she’ll see that my love for her isn’t changed at all, — that it’s there just as it always was; that it’s only that she has made me choose, either Phil’s happiness or unhappiness. I can only choose one way. He’s ready to give up everything, surrender all the splendid things he was going to do, give up half of me, perhaps more, to the family — perhaps more. He hates the life here, but he’ll live it, under Mother and grandfather and the rest, for my sake. It isn’t fair that he should. Mother, if she loves me, will see that. But I don’t believe,” here Katherine’s voice trembled again, “that she cares for anything so much as beating Philip.
He’s the first person in the world who ever opposed her.... She knows that I’ll love her always, always, but Phil’s life shan’t be spoilt. Nothing matters beside that.”
She stopped, her breast heaving, her eyes flashing; he looked at her and was amazed, as in his queer, isolated life he had never been before, at what love can do to the soul.
“Life’s for the young,” he said, “you’re right, Katherine. Your Mother will never forgive me, but I’ll help you.”
“No,” Katherine said, “you’re not to be involved, Uncle Tim. Mother mustn’t lose anyone afterwards. You’re to know nothing about it. I shall leave a note with someone to be taken up to the house at half-past nine. I’ve told you because I wanted you to know, but you’re not to have anything to do with it. But you’ll love me just the same, won’t you? You won’t be any different, will you? I had to know that. With you and Millie and Aunt Betty and Father caring for me afterwards, it won’t be quite like breaking with the family. Only, Uncle Tim, I want you to do for me what you can with Mother. I’ve explained everything to you, so that you can tell her — show her.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said. Then he caught her and hugged her.
“Good luck,” he said — and she was gone.
Although she had been less than her hour with her uncle, she knew that she had no time to spare. She was haunted, as she hurried back again down the village road by alarms, regrets, agonising reproaches that she refused to admit. She fortified her consciousness against everything save the immediate business to which she had bound herself, but every tree upon the road, every hideous cottage, every stone and flower besieged her with memories. “You are leaving us for ever. Why? For Panic?... For Panic?” ... She could hear the voices that would follow the retreat. “But why did she run away like that? It wasn’t even as though their engagement had been forbidden. To be married all in a hurry and in secret — I don’t like the look of it.... She was always such a quiet, sensible girl.”