‘Hullo, Tom,’ she said. ‘Jerry, this is Tom Barclay, he’s a great friend of mine. This is Jerry Grant, I mean he’s a captain and he’s going to let me go on the Fire Engine when they do night practice.’
Captain Grant, a not quite young man with an intelligent face and a slight limp, said he would certainly not let Miss Marling ride on the Fire Engine and would probably be put in the Tower if he did.
‘Oh, rot,’ said Lucy in high good humour. ‘What are they doing, Tom?’
She looked towards the other car.
‘Only Mlle Duchaux’s nephew’s friends come to fetch him,’ said Captain Barclay. ‘I’m going to show them the way to the stables. Lettice is giving him tea there.’
‘Oh, all right,’ said Lucy. ‘Come on, Jerry, and we’ll see if tea is ready. And after tea, I’ll tell you what —’
Her voice died away as she and Captain Grant went in and shut the door.
Captain Barclay apologised to the visitors and got into the car. As soon as they reached the stables he asked them to wait and he would send their friend out to them. Up the steep stair he went, put his things down in the hall and walked into Lettice’s sitting-room.
About ten minutes earlier Lettice, emerging from the trance induced by M. Duval’s analysis of his anti-religious experiences, had come to with a start and said how very interesting that was. M. Duval, gratified but not surprised, said that one of the many advantages that French education had over an English education was that the mind was trained to make a logical examination of its own processes of thought. His friends, he said, might arrive to fetch him now at any moment. ‘Mais, puisque j’ai encore quelques instants à vous sacrifier,’ he continued, he would explain to her in what consisted the essential superiority of the French education over the English education which was entirely on a wrong system. It was a question, he said, on which he had deeply reflected and upon which he would now constate his ideas in a manner clear and precise. And this he was still doing when Captain Barclay walked in.
Captain Barclay took one glance at the situation, and that glance was enough. Lettice looked white with fatigue and her eyes met his with the appeal of a very patient dog who has a thorn in his foot and hopes his master will be able to take it out.
Captain Barclay, who had fought in France before the Belgian retreat, at once recognised Lettice’s visitor as no general, but a corporal. He acted at once. Before Corporal Duval knew where he was he had said goodbye to his hostess, got his coat and cap and was out of the front door, and so hypnotised was he by Captain Barclay’s air of command that he automatically did violence to his own feelings by saluting him. Captain Barclay waited at the door till the visitor had reached the bottom of the stairs, heard the engine being started and the party going off to wherever they had come from. Then he shut the door and came back to the sitting-room.
‘Put your feet up on the sofa,’ he said to Lettice.
She obeyed.
Captain Barclay pulled a chair up beside her and took her hand. As she did not seem to mind he held her hand in both of his.
‘Do you have to be so silly?’ he said.
Lettice, enchanted to be called silly, said what did he mean.
‘Letting that fellow kill you,’ said Captain Barclay. ‘You haven’t the first idea how to look after yourself. What you need is a keeper.’
Lettice made no answer, but her free hand found its way to its fellow, an action of which she appeared to be quite unconscious.
‘Well?’ said Captain Barclay.
‘Oh, Tom,’ said Lettice.
‘Mind,’ said Captain Barclay, ‘I am not breaking my word. I said I wouldn’t speak about it again unless you asked me and I’m jolly well not going to.’
Lettice said she wasn’t quite sure if she understood what he meant.
‘Yes you do,’ said Captain Barclay. ‘Perfectly well. But as you apparently have to be silly I will break my oath and tell you again that I love you like anything. I’m likely to be in England for another six months at least, so you know what the chances are and can make up your mind. And what is more you must make up your mind, now.’
He released her hands and got up.
‘Oh, Tom, I cannot bear not to have you with me,’ said Lettice, sitting up. ‘It has been quite dreadful being afraid that you wouldn’t talk about it again and I thought I would die.’
‘This is your last chance,’ said Captain Barclay. ‘If you find you really don’t want to marry me, tell me now. If not I shall marry you and that’s that.’
‘I can’t quite explain,’ said Lettice. ‘I do love you, Tom, so much that I feel I oughtn’t to marry you. I mean after all I am a widow with two little girls and you aren’t. I mean you have never been married before and it seems so unfair for you to have a widow and two children in the house. It isn’t that I don’t love you quite hurtingly. But you see, I did love Roger very much too and —’
As Captain Barclay’s face became troubled, her voice trailed away.
‘Very well, my precious, precious Lettice,’ he said. ‘I daresay you are right. Forgive me if I have made things difficult for you again. I love you too much to try to interfere. If Roger is in your thoughts I have no right there. Bless you.’
He looked once at Lettice, walked slowly towards the door and opened it.
‘Oh, Tom,’ said Lettice.
He turned.
‘Don’t say any more,’ he said. ‘Bless you. Goodbye.’
‘But, Tom, I can’t explain if you don’t listen,’ said Lettice. ‘I only wanted to say something. About Roger. Of course I did love him very, very much and I always shall, though I mostly never think about him now. But there was always one thing —’
She paused. Captain Barclay stood in the doorway, wondering how long his patience would last.
‘You see,’ she said, ‘Marling is rather a nice name and though I really did love Roger with all my heart, I have never quite liked the name Watson. Mrs Watson is not a very interesting name. I can’t be Marling again, but – if you didn’t much mind —’
Just then Nurse came along the passage, evidently bound on some errand to Lettice.
‘Just a moment, Nurse, Mrs Watson is engaged,’ said Captain Barclay, and he went into the sitting-room and shut the door.
Marling Hall Page 34