by Edith Nesbit
“Now,” he said, “you are to lie quite still. You’ve been so good and dear and unselfish. You’ve always done everything I’ve asked, even difficult things. This is quite easy. Just lie and think about me till I come back.”
He bent over the bed and kissed her gently.
“Ah!” she sighed. There was a flacon on the table by the bed. He expected it to be jasmine. It was lavender water; he drenched her hair and brow and hands.
“That’s nice,” said she. “I’m not really ill. I think it’s nice to be ill. Quite still do you mean, like that?”
She folded her hands, the white roses still clasped. The white bed, the white dress, the white flowers. Horrible!
“Yes,” he said firmly, “just like that. I shall be back in five minutes.”
He was not gone three. He came back and — till the doctor came, summoned by the concierge — he sat by her, holding her hands, covering her with furs from the wardrobe when she shivered, bathing her wrists with perfumed water when she threw off the furs and spoke of the fire that burned in her secret heart of cold clouds.
When the doctor came he went out by that excellent Irishman’s direction and telegraphed for a nurse.
Then he waited in the cool shaded sitting-room, among the flowers. This was where he had hit her — as she said. There on the divan she had cried, leaning her head against his sleeve. Here, half-way to the door, they had kissed each other. No, he would certainly not go to England while she was ill. He felt sufficiently like a murderer already. But he would write. He glanced at her writing-table.
A little pang pricked him, and drove him to the balcony.
“No,” he said, “if we are to hit people, at least let us hit them fairly.” But all the same he found himself playing with the word-puzzle whose solution was the absolutely right letter to Betty’s father, asking her hand in marriage.
“Well,” he asked the doctor who closed softly the door of the bedroom and came forward, “is it brain-fever?”
“Holy Ann, no! Brain fever’s a fell disease invented by novelists — I never met it in all my experience. The doctors in novels have special advantages. No, it’s influenza — pretty severe touch too. She ought to have been in bed days ago. She’ll want careful looking after.”
“I see,” said Vernon. “Any danger?”
“There’s always danger, Lord — Saint-Croix isn’t it?”
“I have not the honour to be Lady St. Craye’s husband,” said Vernon equably. “I was merely calling, and she seemed so ill that I took upon myself to—”
“I see — I see. Well, if you don’t mind taking on yourself to let her husband know? It’s a nasty case. Temperature 104. Perhaps her husband ‘ud be as well here as anywhere.”
“He’s dead,” said Vernon.
“Oh!” said the doctor with careful absence of expression. “Get some woman to put her to bed and to stay with her till the nurse comes. She’s in a very excitable state. Good afternoon. I’ll look in after dinner.”
When Vernon had won the concierge to the desired service, had seen the nurse installed, had dined, called for news of Lady St. Craye, learned that she was “toujours très souffrante,” he went home, pulled a table into the middle of his large, bare, hot studio, and sat down to write to the Reverend Cecil Underwood.
“I mean to do it,” he told himself, “and it can’t hurt her my doing it now instead of a month ahead, when she’s well again. In fact, it’s better for all of us to get it settled one way or another while she’s not caring about anything.”
So he wrote. And he wrote a great deal, though the letter that at last he signed was quite short:
My Dear Sir:
I have the honour to ask the hand of your daughter in marriage. When you asked me, most properly, my intentions, I told you that I was betrothed to another lady. This is not now the case. And I have found myself wholly unable to forget the impression made upon me last year by Miss Desmond. My income is about £1,700 a year, and increases yearly. I beg to apologise for anything which may have annoyed you in my conduct last year, and to assure you that my esteem and affection for Miss Desmond are lasting and profound, and that, should she do me the honour to accept my proposal, I shall devote my life’s efforts to secure her happiness.
I am, my dear Sir, Your obedient servant,
Eustace Vernon.
“That ought to do the trick,” he told himself. “Talk of old world courtesy and ceremonial! Anyhow, I shall know whether she’s at Long Barton by the time it takes to get an answer. If it’s two days, she’s there. If it’s longer she isn’t. He’ll send my letter on to her — unless he suppresses it. Your really pious people are so shockingly unscrupulous.”
There is nothing so irretrievable as a posted letter. This came home to Vernon as the envelope dropped on the others in the box at the Café du Dóme — came home to him rather forlornly.
Next morning he called with more roses for Lady St. Craye, pinky ones this time.
“Milady was toujours très souffrante. It would be ten days, at the least, before Milady could receive, even a very old friend, like Monsieur.”
The letter reached Long Barton between the Guardian and a catalogue of Some Rare Books. The Reverend Cecil read it four times. He was trying to be just. At first he thought he would write “No” and tell Betty years later. But the young man had seen the error of his ways. And £1,700 a year! —
The surprise visit with which the Reverend Cecil had always intended to charm his step-daughter suddenly found its date quite definitely fixed. This could not be written. He must go to the child and break it to her very gently, very tenderly — find out quite delicately and cleverly exactly what her real feelings were. Girls were so shy about those things.
Miss Julia Desmond had wired him from Suez that she would be in Paris next week — had astonishingly asked him to meet her there.
“Paris next Tuesday Gare St. Lazare 6:45. Come and see Betty via Dieppe,” had been her odd message.
He had not meant to go — not next Tuesday. He was afraid of Miss Julia Desmond. He would rather have his Lizzie all to himself. But now —
He wrote a cablegram to Miss Julia Desmond: “Care Captain S.S. Urania, Brindisi: Will meet you in Paris.” Then he thought that this might seem to the telegraph people not quite nice, so he changed it to: “Going to see Lizzie Tuesday.”
The fates that had slept so long were indeed waking up and beginning to take notice of Betty. Destiny, like the most attractive of the porters at the Gare de Lyon, “s’occupait d’elle.”
CHAPTER XXIV. THE CONFESSIONAL.
The concierge sat at her window under the arch of the porte-cochère at 57 Boulevard Montparnasse. She sat gazing across its black shade to the sunny street. She was thinking. The last twenty-four hours had given food for thought.
The trams passed and repassed, people in carriages, people on foot — the usual crowd — not interesting.
But the open carriage suddenly drawn up at the other side of the broad pavement was interesting, very. For it contained the lady who had given the 100 francs, and had promised another fifty on the first of the month. She had never come with that fifty, and the concierge having given up all hope of seeing her again, had acted accordingly.
Lady St. Craye, pale as the laces of her sea-green cambric gown, came slowly up the cobble-paved way and halted at the window.
“Good morning, Madame,” she said. “I bring you the little present.”
The concierge was genuinely annoyed. Why had she not waited a little longer? Still, all was not yet lost.
“Come in, Madame,” she said. “Madame has the air very fatigued.”
“I have been very ill,” said Lady St. Craye.
“If Madame will give herself the trouble to go round by the other door—” The concierge went round and met her visitor in the hall, and brought her into the closely furnished little room with the high wooden bed, the round table, the rack for letters, and the big lamp.
“Will Mada
me give herself the trouble to sit down? Would it be permitted to offer Madame something — a little glass of sugared water? No? I regret infinitely not having known that Madame was suffering. I should have acted otherwise.”
“What have you done?” she asked quickly. “You haven’t told anyone that I was here that night?”
“Do not believe it for an instant,” said the woman reassuringly. “‘No — after Madame’s goodness I held myself wholly at the disposition of Madame. But when the day appointed passed itself without your visit, I said to myself: ‘The little affaire has ceased to interest this lady; she is weary of it!’ My grateful heart found itself free to acknowledge the kindness of others.”
“Tell me exactly,” said Lady St. Craye, “what you have done.”
“It was but last week,” the concierge went on, rearranging a stiff bouquet in exactly the manner of an embarrassed ingénue on the stage, “but only last week that I received a letter from Mademoiselle Desmond. She sent me her address.”
She paused. Lady St. Craye laid the bank note on the table.
“Madame wants the address?”
“I have the address. I want to know whether you have given it to anyone else.”
“No, Madame,” said the concierge with simple pride, “when you have given a thing you have it not any longer.”
“Well — pardon me — have you sold it?”
“For the same good reason, no, Madame.”
“Take the note,” said Lady St. Craye, “and tell me what you have done with the address.”
“This gentleman, whom Madame did not wish to know that she had been here that night—”
“I didn’t wish anyone to know!”
“Perfectly: this gentleman comes without ceasing to ask of me news of Mademoiselle Desmond. And always I have no news. But when Mademoiselle writes me: ‘I am at the hotel such and such — send to me, I pray you, letters if there are any of them,’ — then when Monsieur makes his eternal demand I reply: ‘I have now the address of Mademoiselle, — not to give, but to send her letters. If Monsieur had the idea to cause to be expedited a little billet? I am all at the service of Monsieur.’”
“So he wrote to her. Have you sent on the letter?”
“Alas, yes!” replied the concierge with heartfelt regret. “I kept it during a week, hoping always to see Madame — but yesterday, even, I put it at the post. Otherwise.... I beg Madame to have the goodness to understand that I attach myself entirely to her interests. You may rely on me.”
“It is useless,” said Lady St. Craye; “the affair is ceasing to interest me.”
“Do not say that. Wait only a little till you have heard. It is not only Monsieur that occupies himself with Mademoiselle. Last night arrives an aunt; also a father. They ask for Mademoiselle, are consternated when they learn of her departing. They run all Paris at the research of her. The father lodges at the Haute Loire. He is a priest it appears. Madame the aunt occupies the ancient apartment of Mademoiselle Desmond.”
“An instant,” said Lady St. Craye; “let me reflect.”
The concierge ostentatiously went back to her flowers.
“You have not given them Miss Desmond’s address?”
“Madame forgets,” said the concierge, wounded virtue bristling in her voice, “that I was, for the moment, devoted to the interest of Monsieur. No. I am a loyal soul. I have told nothing. Only to despatch the letter. Behold all!”
“I will give myself the pleasure of offering you a little present next week,” said Lady St. Craye; “it is only that you should say nothing — nothing — and send no more letters. And — the address?”
“Madame knows it — by what she says.”
“Yes, but I want to know if the address you have is the same that I have. Hotel Chevillon, Grez sur Loing. Is it so?”
“It is exact. I thank you, Madame. Madame would do well to return chez elle and to repose herself a little. Madame is all pale.”
“Is the aunt in Miss Desmond’s rooms now?”
“Yes; she writes letters without end, and telegrams; and the priest-father he runs with them like a sad old black dog that has not the habit of towns.”
“I shall go up and see her,” said Lady St. Craye, “and I shall most likely give her the address. But do not give yourself anxiety. You will gain more by me than by any of the others. They are not rich. Me, I am, Heaven be praised.”
She went out and along the courtyard. At the foot of the wide shallow stairs she paused and leaned on the dusty banisters.
“I feel as weak as any rat,” she said, “but I must go through with it — I must.”
She climbed the stairs, and stood outside the brown door. The nails that had held the little card “Miss E. Desmond” still stuck there, but only four corners of the card remained.
The door was not shut — it always shut unwillingly. She tapped.
“Come in,” said a clear, pleasant voice. And she went in.
The room was not as she had seen it on the two occasions when it had been the battle ground where she and Betty fought for a man. Plaid travelling-rugs covered the divans. A gold-faced watch in a leather bracelet ticked on the table among scattered stationery. A lady in a short sensible dress rose from the table, and the room was scented with the smell of Hungarian cigarettes.
“I beg your pardon. I thought it was my brother-in-law. Did you call to see Miss Desmond? She is away for a short time.”
“Yes,” said Lady St. Craye. “I know. I wanted to see you. The concierge told me—”
“Oh, these concierges! They tell everything! It’s what they were invented for, I believe. And you wanted—” She stopped, looked hard at the young woman and went on: “What you want is a good stiff brandy and soda. Here, where’s the head of the pin? — I always think it such a pity bonnets went out. One could undo strings. That’s it. Now, put your feet up. That’s right, I’ll be back in half a minute.”
Lady St. Craye found herself lying at full length on Betty’s divan, her feet covered with a Tussore driving-rug, her violet-wreathed hat on a table at some distance.
She closed her eyes. It was just as well. She could get back a little strength — she could try to arrange coherently what she meant to say. No: it was not unfair to the girl. She ought to be taken care of. And, besides, there was no such thing as “unfair.” All was fair in — Well, she was righting for her life. All was fair when one was fighting for one’s life — that was what she meant. Meantime, to lie quite still and draw long, even breaths — telling oneself at each breath: “I am quite well, I am quite strong—” seemed best.
There was a sound, a dull plop, the hiss and fizzle of a spurting syphon, then:
“Drink this: that’s right. I’ve got you.”
A strong arm round her shoulders — something buzzing and spitting in a glass under her nose.
“Drink it up, there’s a good child.”
She drank. A long breath.
“Now the rest.” She was obedient.
“Now shut your eyes and don’t bother. When you’re better we’ll talk.”
Silence — save for the fierce scratching of a pen.
“I’m better,” announced Lady St. Craye as the pen paused for the folding of the third letter.
The short skirted woman came and sat on the edge of the divan, very upright.
“Well then. You oughtn’t to be out, you poor little thing.”
The words brought the tears to the eyes of one weak with the self-pitying weakness of convalescence.
“I wanted—”
“Are you a friend of Betty’s?”
“Yes — no — I don’t know.”
“A hated rival perhaps,” said the elder woman cheerfully. “You didn’t come to do her a good turn, anyhow, did you?”
“I — I don’t know.” Again this was all that would come.
“I do, though. Well, which of us is to begin? You see, child, the difficulty is that we neither of us know how much the other knows and we don’t wan
t to give ourselves away. It’s so awkward to talk when it’s like that.”
“I think I know more than you do. I — you needn’t think I want to hurt her. I should have liked her awfully, if it hadn’t been—”
“If it hadn’t been for the man. Yes, I see. Who was he?”
Lady St. Craye felt absolutely defenceless. Besides, what did it matter?
“Mr. Vernon,” she said.
“Ah, now we’re getting to the horses! My dear child, don’t look so guilty. You’re not the first; you won’t be the last — especially with eyes the colour his are. And so you hate Betty?”
“No, I don’t. I should like to tell you all about it — all the truth.”
“You can’t,” said Miss Desmond, “no woman can. But I’ll give you credit for trying to, if you’ll go straight ahead. But first of all — how long is it since you saw her?”
“Nearly a month.”
“Well; she’s disappeared. Her father and I got here last night. She’s gone away and left no address. She was living with a Madame Gautier and—”
“Madame Gautier died last October,” said Lady St. Craye—”the twenty-fifth.”
“I had a letter from her brother — it got me in Bombay. But I couldn’t believe it. And who has Betty been living with?”
“Look here,” said Lady St. Craye. “I came to give the whole thing away, and hand her over to you. I know where she is. But now I don’t want to. Her father’s a brute, I know.”
“Not he,” said Miss Desmond; “he’s only a man and a very, very silly one. I’ll pledge you my word he’ll never approach her, whatever she’s done. It’s not anything too awful for words, I’m certain. Come, tell me.”
Lady St. Craye told Betty’s secret at some length.
“Did she tell you this?”
“No.”
“He did then?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, men are darlings! The soul of honour — unsullied blades! My word! Do you mind if I smoke?”
She lighted a cigarette.
“I suppose I’m very dishonourable too,” said Lady St. Craye.
“You? Oh no, you’re only a woman! — And then?”
“Well, at last I asked her to go away, and she went.”