Orientations

by W. Somerset Maugham

  'Oh! that's Daisy all over. Whatever happens to her, she'll be as bold as brass.'

  'And she didn't choose her language,' he said, with mingled grief and horror.

  * * * * *

  They heard nothing more of Daisy for over a year, when George went up to London for the choir treat. He did not come back till three o'clock in the morning, but he went at once to his mother's room.

  He woke her very carefully, so as not to disturb his father. She started up, about to speak, but he prevented her with his hand.

  'Come outside; I've got something to tell you.'

  Mrs Griffith was about to tell him rather crossly to wait till the morrow, but he interrupted her,--

  'I've seen Daisy.'

  She quickly got out of bed, and they went together into the parlour.

  'I couldn't keep it till the morning,' he said.... 'What d'you think she's doing now? Well, after we came out of the Empire, I went down Piccadilly, and--well, I saw Daisy standing there.... It did give me a turn, I can tell you; I thought some of the chaps would see her. I simply went cold all over. But they were on ahead and hadn't noticed her.'

  'Thank God for that!' said Mrs Griffith, piously.

  'Well, what d'you think I did? I went straight up to her and looked her full in the face. But d'you think she moved a muscle? She simply looked at me as if she'd never set eyes on me before. Well, I was taken aback, I can tell you. I thought she'd faint. Not a bit of it.'

  'No, I know Daisy,' said Mrs Griffith; 'you think she's this and that, because she looks at you with those blue eyes of hers, as if she couldn't say bo to a goose, but she's got the very devil inside her.... Well, I shall tell her father that, just so as to let him see what she has come to.'...

  * * * * *

  The existence of the Griffith household went on calmly. Husband and wife and son led their life in the dull little fishing town, the seasons passed insensibly into one another, one year slid gradually into the next; and the five years that went by seemed like one long, long day. Mrs Griffith did not alter an atom; she performed her housework, went to church regularly, and behaved like a Christian woman in that state of life in which a merciful Providence had been pleased to put her. George got married, and on Sunday afternoons could be seen wheeling an infant in a perambulator along the street. He was a good husband and an excellent father. He never drank too much, he worked well, he was careful of his earnings, and he also went to church regularly; his ambition was to become churchwarden after his father. And even in Mr Griffith there was not so very much change. He was more bowed, his hair and beard were greyer. His face was set in an expression of passive misery, and he was extremely silent. But as Mrs Griffith said,--

  'Of course, he's getting old. One can't expect to remain young for ever'--she was a woman who frequently said profound things--'and I've known all along he wasn't the sort of man to make old bones. He's never had the go in him that I have. Why, I'd make two of him.'

  The Griffiths were not so well-to-do as before. As Blackstable became a more important health resort, a regular undertaker opened a shop there; and his window, with two little model coffins and an arrangement of black Prince of Wales's feathers surrounded by a white wreath, took the fancy of the natives, so that Mr Griffith almost completely lost the most remunerative part of his business. Other carpenters sprang into existence and took away much of the trade.

  'I've no patience with him,' said Mrs Griffith, of her husband. 'He lets these newcomers come along and just take the bread out of his hands. Oh, if I was a man, I'd make things different, I can tell you! He doesn't seem to care.'...

  * * * * *

  At last, one day George came to his mother in a state of tremendous excitement.

  'I say, mother, you know the pantomime they've got at Tercanbury this week?'

  'Yes.'

  'Well, the principal boy's Daisy.'

  Mrs Griffith sank into a chair, gasping.

  'Harry Ferne's been, and he recognised her at once. It's all over the town.'

  Mrs Griffith, for the first time in her life, was completely at a loss for words.

  'To-morrow's the last night,' added her son, after a little while, 'and all the Blackstable people are going.'

  'To think that this should happen to me!' said Mrs Griffith, distractedly. 'What have I done to deserve it? Why couldn't it happen to Mrs Garman or Mrs Jay? If the Lord had seen fit to bring it upon them--well, I shouldn't have wondered.'

  'Edith wants us to go,' said George--Edith was his wife.

  'You don't mean to say you're going, with all the Blackstable people there?'

  'Well, Edith says we ought to go, just to show them we don't care.'

  'Well, I shall come too!' cried Mrs Griffith.

  IX

  Next evening half Blackstable took the special train to Tercanbury, which had been put on for the pantomime, and there was such a crowd at the doors that the impresario half thought of extending his stay. The Rev. Charles Gray and Mrs Gray were there, also James, their nephew. Mr Gray had some scruples about going to a theatre, but his wife said a pantomime was quite different; besides, curiosity may gently enter even a clerical bosom. Miss Reed was there in black satin, with her friend Mrs Howlett; Mrs Griffith sat in the middle of the stalls, flanked by her dutiful son and her daughter-in-law; and George searched for female beauty with his opera-glass, which is quite the proper thing to do on such occasions....

  The curtain went up, and the villagers of Dick Whittington's native place sang a chorus.

  'Now she's coming,' whispered George.

  All those Blackstable hearts stood still. And Daisy, as Dick Whittington, bounded on the stage--in flesh-coloured tights, with particularly scanty trunks, and her bodice--rather low. The vicar's nephew sniggered, and Mrs Gray gave him a reproachful glance; all the other Blackstable people looked pained; Miss Reed blushed. But as Daisy waved her hand and gave a kick, the audience broke out into prolonged applause; Tercanbury people have no moral sense, although Tercanbury is a cathedral city.

  Daisy began to sing,--

  I'm a jolly sort of boy, tol, lol, And I don't care a damn who knows it. I'm fond of every joy, tol, lol, As you may very well suppose it. Tol, lol, lol, Tol, lol, lol.

  Then the audience, the audience of a cathedral city, as Mr Gray said, took up the refrain,--

  Tol, lol, lol, Tol, lol, lol.

  However, the piece went on to the bitter end, and Dick Whittington appeared in many different costumes and sang many songs, and kicked many kicks, till he was finally made Lord Mayor--in tights.

  Ah, it was an evening of bitter humiliation for Blackstable people. Some of them, as Miss Reed said, behaved scandalously; they really appeared to enjoy it. And even George laughed at some of the jokes the cat made, though his wife and his mother sternly reproved him.

  'I'm ashamed of you, George, laughing at such a time!' they said.

  Afterwards the Grays and Miss Reed got into the same railway carriage with the Griffiths.

  'Well, Mrs Griffith,' said the vicar's wife, 'what do you think of your daughter now?'

  'Mrs Gray,' replied Mrs Griffith, solemnly, 'I haven't got a daughter.'

  'That's a very proper spirit in which to look at it,' answered the lady.... 'She was simply covered with diamonds.'

  'They must be worth a fortune,' said Miss Reed.

  'Oh, I daresay they're not real,' said Mrs Gray; 'at that distance and with the lime-light, you know, it's very difficult to tell.'

  'I'm sorry to say,' said Mrs Griffith, with some asperity, feeling the doubt almost an affront to her--'I'm sorry to say that I know they're real.'

  The ladies coughed discreetly, scenting a little scandalous mystery which they must get out of Mrs Griffith at another opportunity.

  'My nephew James says she earns at least thirty or forty pounds a week.'

  Miss Reed sighed at the thought of such depravity.

  'It's very sad,' she remarked, 'to think of such things happening to a fellow-creatur
e.'...

  * * * * *

  'But what I can't understand,' said Mrs Gray, next morning, at the breakfast-table, 'is how she got into such a position. We all know that at one time she was to be seen in--well, in a very questionable place, at an hour which left no doubt about her--her means of livelihood. I must say I thought she was quite lost.'...

  'Oh, well, I can tell you that easily enough,' replied her nephew. 'She's being kept by Sir Somebody Something, and he's running the show for her.'

  'James, I wish you would be more careful about your language. It's not necessary to call a spade a spade, and you can surely find a less objectionable expression to explain the relationship between the persons.... Don't you remember his name?'

  'No; I heard it, but I've really forgotten.'

  'I see in this week's Tercanbury Times that there's a Sir Herbert Ously-Farrowham staying at the "George" just now.'

  'That's it. Sir Herbert Ously-Farrowham.'

  'How sad! I'll look him out in Burke.'

  She took down the reference book, which was kept beside the clergy list.

  'Dear me, he's only twenty-nine.... And he's got a house in Cavendish Square and a house in the country. He must be very well-to-do; and he belongs to the Junior Carlton and two other clubs.... And he's got a sister who's married to Lord Edward Lake.' Mrs Gray closed the book and held it with a finger to mark the place, like a Bible. 'It's very sad to think of the dissipation of so many members of the aristocracy. It sets such a bad example to the lower classes.'

  X

  They showed old Griffith a portrait of Daisy in her theatrical costume.

  'Has she come to that?' he said.

  He looked at it a moment, then savagely tore it in pieces and flung it in the fire.

  'Oh, my God!' he groaned; he could not get out of his head the picture, the shamelessness of the costume, the smile, the evident prosperity and content. He felt now that he had lost his daughter indeed. All these years he had kept his heart open to her, and his heart had bled when he thought of her starving, ragged, perhaps dead. He had thought of her begging her bread and working her beautiful hands to the bone in some factory. He had always hoped that some day she could return to him, purified by the fire of suffering.... But she was prosperous and happy and rich. She was applauded, worshipped; the papers were full of her praise. Old Griffith was filled with a feeling of horror, of immense repulsion. She was flourishing in her sin, and he loathed her. He had been so ready to forgive her when he thought her despairing and unhappy; but now he was implacable.

  * * * * *

  Three months later Mrs Griffith came to her husband, trembling with excitement, and handed him a cutting from a paper,--

  'We hear that Miss Daisy Griffith, who earned golden opinions in the provinces last winter with her Dick Whittington, is about to be married to Sir Herbert Ously-Farrowham. Her friends, and their name is legion, will join with us in the heartiest congratulations.'

  He returned the paper without answering.

  'Well?' asked his wife.

  'It is nothing to me. I don't know either of the parties mentioned.'

  At that moment there was a knock at the door, and Mrs Gray and Miss Reed entered, having met on the doorstep. Mrs Griffith at once regained her self-possession.

  'Have you heard the news, Mrs Griffith?' said Miss Reed.

  'D'you mean about the marriage of Sir Herbert Ously-Farrowham?' She mouthed the long name.

  'Yes,' replied the two ladies together.

  'It is nothing to me.... I have no daughter, Mrs Gray.'

  'I'm sorry to hear you say that, Mrs Griffith,' said Mrs Gray very stiffly. 'I think you show a most unforgiving spirit.'

  'Yes,' said Miss Reed; 'I can't help thinking that if you'd treated poor Daisy in a--well, in a more Christian way, you might have saved her from a great deal.'

  'Yes,' added Mrs Gray. 'I must say that all through I don't think you've shown a nice spirit at all. I remember poor, dear Daisy quite well, and she had a very sweet character. And I'm sure that if she'd been treated a little more gently, nothing of all this would have happened.'

  Mrs Gray and Miss Reed looked at Mrs Griffith sternly and reproachfully; they felt themselves like God Almighty judging a miserable sinner. Mrs Griffith was extremely angry; she felt that she was being blamed most unjustly, and, moreover, she was not used to being blamed.

  'I'm sure you're very kind, Mrs Gray and Miss Reed, but I must take the liberty of saying that I know best what my daughter was.'

  'Mrs Griffith, all I say is this--you are not a good mother.'

  'Excuse me, madam.'... said Mrs Griffith, having grown red with anger; but Mrs Gray interrupted.

  'I am truly sorry to have to say it to one of my parishioners, but you are not a good Christian. And we all know that your husband's business isn't going at all well, and I think it's a judgment of Providence.'

  'Very well, ma'am,' said Mrs Griffith, getting up. 'You're at liberty to think what you please, but I shall not come to church again. Mr Friend, the Baptist minister, has asked me to go to his chapel, and I'm sure he won't treat me like that.'

  'I'm sure we don't want you to come to church in that spirit, Mrs Griffith. That's not the spirit with which you can please God, Mrs Griffith. I can quite imagine now why dear Daisy ran away. You're no Christian.'

  'I'm sure I don't care what you think, Mrs Gray, but I'm as good as you are.'

  'Will you open the door for me, Mrs Griffith?' said Mrs Gray, with outraged dignity.

  'Oh, you can open it yourself, Mrs Gray!' replied Mrs Griffith.

  XI

  Mrs Griffith went to see her daughter-in-law.

  'I've never been spoken to in that way before,' she said. 'Fancy me not being a Christian! I'm a better Christian than Mrs Gray, any day. I like Mrs Gray, with the airs she gives herself--as if she'd got anything to boast about!... No, Edith, I've said it, and I'm not the woman to go back on what I've said--I'll not go to church again. From this day I go to chapel.'

  * * * * *

  But George came to see his mother a few days later.

  'Look here, mother, Edith says you'd better forgive Daisy now.'

  'George,' cried his mother, 'I've only done my duty all through, and if you think it's my duty to forgive my daughter now she's going to enter the bonds of holy matrimony, I will do so. No one can say that I'm not a Christian, and I haven't said the Lord's Prayer night and morning ever since I remember for nothing.'

  Mrs Griffith sat down to write, looking up to her son for inspiration.

  'Dearest Daisy!' he said.

  'No, George,' she replied, 'I'm not going to cringe to my daughter, although she is going to be a lady; I shall simply say, "Daisy."'

  The letter was very dignified, gently reproachful, for Daisy had undoubtedly committed certain peccadilloes, although she was going to be a baronet's wife; but still it was completely forgiving, and Mrs Griffith signed herself, 'Your loving and forgiving mother, whose heart you nearly broke.'

  But the letter was not answered, and a couple of weeks later the same Sunday paper contained an announcement of the date of the marriage and the name of the church. Mrs Griffith wrote a second time.

  'MY DARLING DAUGHTER,--I am much surprised at receiving no answer to my long letter. All is forgiven. I should so much like to see you again before I die, and to have you married from your father's house. All is forgiven.--Your loving mother,

  'MARY ANN GRIFFITH.'

  This time the letter was returned unopened.

  'George,' cried Mrs Griffith, 'she's got her back up.'

  'And the wedding's to-morrow,' he replied.

  'It's most awkward, George. I've told all the Blackstable people that I've forgiven her and that Sir Herbert has written to say he wants to make my acquaintance. And I've got a new dress on purpose to go to the wedding. Oh! she's a cruel and exasperating thing, George; I never liked her. You were always my favourite.'

  'Well, I do think she's not acting as she should,' r
eplied George. 'And I'm sure I don't know what's to be done.'

  But Mrs Griffith was a woman who made up her mind quickly.

  'I shall go up to town and see her myself, George; and you must come too.'

  'I'll come up with you, mother, but you'd better go to her alone, because I expect she's not forgotten the last time I saw her.'

  They caught a train immediately, and having arrived at Daisy's house, Mrs Griffith went up the steps while George waited in a neighbouring public-house. The door was opened by a smart maid--much smarter than the Vicarage maid at Blackstable, as Mrs Griffith remarked with satisfaction. On finding that Daisy was at home, she sent up a message to ask if a lady could see her.

  The maid returned.

  'Would you give your name, madam? Miss Griffith cannot see you without.'

  Mrs Griffith had foreseen the eventuality, and, unwilling to give her card, had written another little letter, using Edith as amanuensis, so that Daisy should at least open it. She sent it up. In a few minutes the maid came down again.

  'There's no answer,' and she opened the door for Mrs Griffith to go out.

  That lady turned very red. Her first impulse was to make a scene and call the housemaid to witness how Daisy treated her own mother; but immediately she thought how undignified she would appear in the maid's eyes. So she went out like a lamb....

  She told George all about it as they sat in the private bar of the public-house, drinking a little Scotch whisky.

  'All I can say,' she remarked, 'is that I hope she'll never live to repent it. Fancy treating her own mother like that!

  'But I shall go to the wedding; I don't care. I will see my own daughter married.'

  That had been her great ambition, and she would have crawled before Daisy to be asked to the ceremony.... But George dissuaded her from going uninvited. There were sure to be one or two Blackstable people present, and they would see that she was there as a stranger; the humiliation would be too great.

  'I think she's an ungrateful girl,' said Mrs Griffith, as she gave way and allowed George to take her back to Blackstable.

  XII

  But the prestige of the Griffiths diminished. Everyone in Blackstable came to the conclusion that the new Lady Ously-Farrowham had been very badly treated by her relatives, and many young ladies said they would have done just the same in her place. Also Mrs Gray induced her husband to ask Griffith to resign his churchwardenship.