A Laodicean : A Story of To-day

by Thomas Hardy

  BOOK THE SECOND. DARE AND HAVILL.

  I.

  Young Dare sat thoughtfully at the window of the studio in whichSomerset had left him, till the gay scene beneath became embrowned bythe twilight, and the brilliant red stripes of the marquees, thebright sunshades, the many-tinted costumes of the ladies, wereindistinguishable from the blacks and greys of the masculine contingentmoving among them. He had occasionally glanced away from the outwardprospect to study a small old volume that lay before him on thedrawing-board. Near scrutiny revealed the book to bear the title'Moivre's Doctrine of Chances.'

  The evening had been so still that Dare had heard conversations frombelow with a clearness unsuspected by the speakers themselves; and amongthe dialogues which thus reached his ears was that between Somerset andHavill on their professional rivalry. When they parted, and Somerset hadmingled with the throng, Havill went to a seat at a distance. Afterwardshe rose, and walked away; but on the bench he had quitted there remaineda small object resembling a book or leather case.

  Dare put away the drawing-board and plotting-scales which he had keptbefore him during the evening as a reason for his presence at that postof espial, locked up the door, and went downstairs. Notwithstanding hisdismissal by Somerset, he was so serene in countenance and easy in gaitas to make it a fair conjecture that professional servitude, howeverprofitable, was no necessity with him. The gloom now rendered itpracticable for any unbidden guest to join Paula's assemblage withoutcriticism, and Dare walked boldly out upon the lawn. The crowd on thegrass was rapidly diminishing; the tennis-players had relinquishedsport; many people had gone in to dinner or supper; and many others,attracted by the cheerful radiance of the candles, were gathering in thelarge tent that had been lighted up for dancing.

  Dare went to the garden-chair on which Havill had been seated, and foundthe article left behind to be a pocket-book. Whether because it wasunclasped and fell open in his hand, or otherwise, he did not hesitateto examine the contents. Among a mass of architect's customary memorandaoccurred a draft of the letter abusing Paula as an iconoclast orVandal by blood, which had appeared in the newspaper: the draft wasso interlined and altered as to bear evidence of being the originalconception of that ungentlemanly attack.

  The lad read the letter, smiled, and strolled about the grounds,only met by an occasional pair of individuals of opposite sex in deepconversation, the state of whose emotions led them to prefer the eveningshade to the publicity and glare of the tents and rooms. At last heobserved the white waistcoat of the man he sought.

  'Mr. Havill, the architect, I believe?' said Dare. 'The author of mostof the noteworthy buildings in this neighbourhood?'

  Havill assented blandly.

  'I have long wished for the pleasure of your acquaintance, and now anaccident helps me to make it. This pocket-book, I think, is yours?'

  Havill clapped his hand to his pocket, examined the book Dare held outto him, and took it with thanks. 'I see I am speaking to the artist,archaeologist, Gothic photographer--Mr. Dare.'

  'Professor Dare.'

  'Professor? Pardon me, I should not have guessed it--so young as youare.'

  'Well, it is merely ornamental; and in truth, I drop the title inEngland, particularly under present circumstances.'

  'Ah--they are peculiar, perhaps? Ah, I remember. I have heard that youare assisting a gentleman in preparing a design in opposition to mine--adesign--'

  '"That he is not competent to prepare himself," you were perhaps goingto add?'

  'Not precisely that.'

  'You could hardly be blamed for such words. However, you are mistaken.I did assist him to gain a little further insight into the working ofarchitectural plans; but our views on art are antagonistic, and I assisthim no more. Mr. Havill, it must be very provoking to a well-establishedprofessional man to have a rival sprung at him in a grand undertakingwhich he had a right to expect as his own.'

  Professional sympathy is often accepted from those whose condolence onany domestic matter would be considered intrusive. Havill walked up anddown beside Dare for a few moments in silence, and at last showed thatthe words had told, by saying: 'Every one may have his opinion. Had Ibeen a stranger to the Power family, the case would have been different;but having been specially elected by the lady's father as a competentadviser in such matters, and then to be degraded to the position of amere competitor, it wounds me to the quick--'

  'Both in purse and in person, like the ill-used hostess of the Garter.'

  'A lady to whom I have been a staunch friend,' continued Havill, notheeding the interruption.

  At that moment sounds seemed to come from Dare which bore a remarkableresemblance to the words, 'Ho, ho, Havill!' It was hardly credible,and yet, could he be mistaken? Havill turned. Dare's eye was twistedcomically upward.

  'What does that mean?' said Havill coldly, and with some amazement.

  'Ho, ho, Havill! "Staunch friend" is good--especially after "aniconoclast and Vandal by blood"--"monstrosity in the form of a Greektemple," and so on, eh!'

  'Sir, you have the advantage of me. Perhaps you allude to that anonymousletter?'

  'O-ho, Havill!' repeated the boy-man, turning his eyes yet furthertowards the zenith. 'To an outsider such conduct would be natural;but to a friend who finds your pocket-book, and looks into it beforereturning it, and kindly removes a leaf bearing the draft of a letterwhich might injure you if discovered there, and carefully conceals itin his own pocket--why, such conduct is unkind!' Dare held up theabstracted leaf.

  Havill trembled. 'I can explain,' he began.

  'It is not necessary: we are friends,' said Dare assuringly.

  Havill looked as if he would like to snatch the leaf away, but alteringhis mind, he said grimly: 'Well, I take you at your word: we arefriends. That letter was concocted before I knew of the competition:it was during my first disgust, when I believed myself entirelysupplanted.'

  'I am not in the least surprised. But if she knew YOU to be the writer!'

  'I should be ruined as far as this competition is concerned,' saidHavill carelessly. 'Had I known I was to be invited to compete, I shouldnot have written it, of course. To be supplanted is hard; and therebyhangs a tale.'

  'Another tale? You astonish me.'

  'Then you have not heard the scandal, though everybody is talking aboutit.'

  'A scandal implies indecorum.'

  'Well, 'tis indecorous. Her infatuated partiality for him is patent tothe eyes of a child; a man she has only known a few weeks, and one whoobtained admission to her house in the most irregular manner! Had she awatchful friend beside her, instead of that moonstruck Mrs. Goodman, shewould be cautioned against bestowing her favours on the first adventurerwho appears at her door. It is a pity, a great pity!'

  'O, there is love-making in the wind?' said Dare slowly. 'That altersthe case for me. But it is not proved?'

  'It can easily be proved.'

  'I wish it were, or disproved.'

  'You have only to come this way to clear up all doubts.'

  Havill took the lad towards the tent, from which the strains of a waltznow proceeded, and on whose sides flitting shadows told of the progressof the dance. The companions looked in. The rosy silk lining of themarquee, and the numerous coronas of wax lights, formed a canopy to aradiant scene which, for two at least of those who composed it, was anintoxicating one. Paula and Somerset were dancing together.

  'That proves nothing,' said Dare.

  'Look at their rapt faces, and say if it does not,' sneered Havill.

  Dare objected to a judgment based on looks alone.

  'Very well--time will show,' said the architect, dropping thetent-curtain.... 'Good God! a girl worth fifty thousand and more a yearto throw herself away upon a fellow like that--she ought to be whipped.'

  'Time must NOT show!' said Dare.

  'You speak with emphasis.'

  'I have reason. I would give something to be sure on this point, one wayor the other. Let us wait till the dance is over, and obse
rve them morecarefully. Horensagen ist halb gelogen! Hearsay is half lies.'

  Sheet-lightnings increased in the northern sky, followed by thunder likethe indistinct noise of a battle. Havill and Dare retired to the trees.When the dance ended Somerset and his partner emerged from the tent,and slowly moved towards the tea-house. Divining their goal Dare seizedHavill's arm; and the two worthies entered the building unseen, by firstpassing round behind it. They seated themselves in the back part of theinterior, where darkness prevailed.

  As before related, Paula and Somerset came and stood within the door.When the rain increased they drew themselves further inward, their formsbeing distinctly outlined to the gaze of those lurking behind by thelight from the tent beyond. But the hiss of the falling rain and thelowness of their tones prevented their words from being heard.

  'I wish myself out of this!' breathed Havill to Dare, as he buttoned hiscoat over his white waistcoat. 'I told you it was true, but you wouldn'tbelieve. I wouldn't she should catch me here eavesdropping for theworld!'

  'Courage, Man Friday,' said his cooler comrade.

  Paula and her lover backed yet further, till the hem of her skirttouched Havill's feet. Their attitudes were sufficient to prove theirrelations to the most obstinate Didymus who should have witnessed them.Tender emotions seemed to pervade the summer-house like an aroma. Thecalm ecstasy of the condition of at least one of them was not withouta coercive effect upon the two invidious spectators, so that they mustneed have remained passive had they come there to disturb or annoy. Theserenity of Paula was even more impressive than the hushed ardour ofSomerset: she did not satisfy curiosity as Somerset satisfied it; shepiqued it. Poor Somerset had reached a perfectly intelligible depth--onewhich had a single blissful way out of it, and nine calamitous ones; butPaula remained an enigma all through the scene.

  The rain ceased, and the pair moved away. The enchantment worked bytheir presence vanished, the details of the meeting settled down inthe watchers' minds, and their tongues were loosened. Dare, turning toHavill, said, 'Thank you; you have done me a timely turn to-day.'

  'What! had you hopes that way?' asked Havill satirically.

  'I! The woman that interests my heart has yet to be born,' said Dare,with a steely coldness strange in such a juvenile, and yet almostconvincing. 'But though I have not personal hopes, I have an objectionto this courtship. Now I think we may as well fraternize, the situationbeing what it is?'

  'What is the situation?'

  'He is in your way as her architect; he is in my way as her lover: wedon't want to hurt him, but we wish him clean out of the neighbourhood.'

  'I'll go as far as that,' said Havill.

  'I have come here at some trouble to myself, merely to observe: I find Iought to stay to act.'

  'If you were myself, a married man with people dependent on him, who hashad a professional certainty turned to a miserably remote contingencyby these events, you might say you ought to act; but what conceivabledifference it can make to you who it is the young lady takes to herheart and home, I fail to understand.'

  'Well, I'll tell you--this much at least. I want to keep the placevacant for another man.'

  'The place?'

  'The place of husband to Miss Power, and proprietor of that castle anddomain.'

  'That's a scheme with a vengeance. Who is the man?'

  'It is my secret at present.'

  'Certainly.' Havill drew a deep breath, and dropped into a tone ofdepression. 'Well, scheme as you will, there will be small advantage tome,' he murmured. 'The castle commission is as good as gone, and a billfor two hundred pounds falls due next week.'

  'Cheer up, heart! My position, if you only knew it, has ten timesthe difficulties of yours, since this disagreeable discovery. Let usconsider if we can assist each other. The competition drawings are to besent in--when?'

  'In something over six weeks--a fortnight before she returns from theScilly Isles, for which place she leaves here in a few days.'

  'O, she goes away--that's better. Our lover will be working here at hisdrawings, and she not present.'

  'Exactly. Perhaps she is a little ashamed of the intimacy.'

  'And if your design is considered best by the committee, he will haveno further reason for staying, assuming that they are not definitelyengaged to marry by that time?'

  'I suppose so,' murmured Havill discontentedly. 'The conditions, as sentto me, state that the designs are to be adjudicated on by three membersof the Institute called in for the purpose; so that she may return, andhave seemed to show no favour.'

  'Then it amounts to this: your design MUST be best. It must combine theexcellences of your invention with the excellences of his. Meanwhile acoolness should be made to arise between her and him: and as therewould be no artistic reason for his presence here after the verdict ispronounced, he would perforce hie back to town. Do you see?'

  'I see the ingenuity of the plan, but I also see two insurmountableobstacles to it. The first is, I cannot add the excellences of hisdesign to mine without knowing what those excellences are, which hewill of course keep a secret. Second, it will not be easy to promote acoolness between such hot ones as they.'

  'You make a mistake. It is only he who is so ardent. She is onlylukewarm. If we had any spirit, a bargain would be struck between us:you would appropriate his design; I should cause the coolness.'

  'How could I appropriate his design?'

  'By copying it, I suppose.'

  'Copying it?'

  'By going into his studio and looking it over.'

  Havill turned to Dare, and stared. 'By George, you don't stick attrifles, young man. You don't suppose I would go into a man's rooms andsteal his inventions like that?'

  'I scarcely suppose you would,' said Dare indifferently, as he rose.

  'And if I were to,' said Havill curiously, 'how is the coolness to becaused?'

  'By the second man.'

  'Who is to produce him?'

  'Her Majesty's Government.'

  Havill looked meditatively at his companion, and shook his head. 'Inthese idle suppositions we have been assuming conduct which would bequite against my principles as an honest man.'