by Unknown
He rises. He is a stern old man. ‘A war! That’s it, is it? So now I know! Why wasn’t I told? Why haven’t I my marching orders? I’m not too old yet.’
‘Yes, John, you are too old, and all you can do now is to sit here and — and take care of me. You knew all about it quite clearly this morning. We stood together upstairs by the window listening to the aircraft guns.’
‘I remember! I thought it was a thunderstorm, Dering told me he heard nothing.’
‘Dering?’
‘Our gardener, you know.’ His voice becomes husky. ‘Haven’t I been talking with him, Ellen?’
‘It is a long time since we had a gardener, John.’
‘Is it? So it is! A war! That is why there is no more cricket on the green.’
‘They have all gone to the war, John.’
‘That’s it; even the little shavers.’ He whispers, ‘Why isn’t Billy boy fighting, Ellen?’
‘Oh, John!’
‘Is Billy boy dead?’ She nods. ‘Was he killed in action? Tell me, tell me!’ She nods again. ‘Good for Billy boy. I knew Billy boy was all right. Don’t cry, Ellen. I’ll take care of you. All’s well with Billy boy.’
‘Yes, I know, John.’
He hesitates before speaking again. ‘Ellen, who is the soldier? He comes here. He is a captain.’
‘He is a very gallant man, John. It is he who was married to Barbara to-day.’
Bitterly, ‘She has soon forgotten.’
His wife shakes her brave head. ‘She hasn’t forgotten, dear. And it’s nearly three years now since Billy died.’
‘So long! We have a medal he got, haven’t we?’
‘No, John; he died before he could win any medals.’
The Colonel moves about, ‘Karl will be sorry. They were very fond of each other, those two boys, Ellen.’
‘Karl fought against us, John. He died in the same engagement. They may even have killed each other.’
‘They hadn’t known, Ellen.’
She with, thin lips, ‘I daresay they knew.’
‘Billy boy and Karl!’
She tells him some more gossip. ‘John, I had Barbara married from here because she has no people of her own. I think Billy would have liked it.’
‘That was the thing to do, Ellen. Nice of you. I remember everything now. It’s Dering she has married. He was once my gardener!’
‘The world is all being re-made, dear. He is worthy of her.’
He lets this pass. He has remembered something almost as surprising, ‘Ellen, is Barbara a nurse?’
‘Yes, John, and one of the staidest and most serene. Who would have thought it of the merry madcap of other days! They are coming here, John, to say goodbye to you. They have only a few days’ leave. She is in France, too, you know. She was married in her nurse’s uniform.’
‘Was she? She told me to-day that — no, it couldn’t have been to-day.’
‘You have been fancying you saw them, I suppose.’ She grows tremulous again. ‘You will be nice to them, John, won’t you, and wish them luck? They have their trials before them.’
He says eagerly, ‘Tell me what to do, Ellen.’
‘Don’t say anything about Billy boy, John.’
‘No, no, let’s pretend.’
‘And I wouldn’t talk about the garden, John; just in case he is a little touchy about that.’
The Colonel is beginning to fancy himself as a tactician. ‘Not a word!’
She knows what is the way to put him on his mettle. ‘You see, I’m sure I would make a mess of it, so I’m trusting to you, John.’
He is very pleased, ‘Leave it all to me, Ellen. I’ll be frightfully sly. You just watch me.’
She goes to the window and calls to the married couple. Captain Dering, in khaki, is a fine soldierly figure. Barbara, in her Red Gross uniform, is quiet and resourceful. An artful old boy greets them. ‘Congratulations, Barbara. No, no, none of your handshaking; you don’t get past an old soldier in that way. Excuse me, young man.’ He kisses Barbara and looks at his wife to make sure that she is admiring him, ‘And to you, Captain Dering — you have won a prize.’
A gallant gentleman answers, ‘I know it; I’ll try to show I know it.’
The Colonel is perturbed. ‘I haven’t given Barbara a wedding present, Ellen, I should like — —’
Barbara breaks in, ‘Indeed you have, dear, and a lovely one. You haven’t forgotten?’
Granny signs to the Colonel and he immediately says, with remarkable cunning, ‘Oh — that! I was just quizzing you, Barbara. I hope you will be as happy, dear, staid Barbara, as if you had married — —’ He sees that he has nearly given away the situation. He looks triumphantly at granny as much as to say, ‘Observe me; I’m not going to say a word about him.’
Granny comes to his aid. ‘Perhaps Captain Dering has some little things to do: and you, too, Barbara. They are leaving in an hour, John.’
For a moment the Colonel is again in danger. ‘If you would like to take Barbara into the garden, Captain Dering — —’ He recovers himself instantly. ‘No, not the garden, you wouldn’t know your way about in the garden.’
‘Wouldn’t I, Colonel?’ the Captain says, smiling.
The answer is quite decisive. ‘No, certainly not. I’ll show it you some day.’
He makes gleeful signs to granny. ‘But there is a nice meadow just beyond the shrubbery. Barbara knows the way; she often went there with—’ He checks himself. Granny signs to them to go, and Barbara, kisses both the Colonel’s hands. ‘The Captain will be jealous, you know,’ he says, twinkling.
‘Let me, dear,’ says Barbara, arranging his cushions professionally.
Granny nods. ‘She is much better at it than I am now, John.’
The Colonel has one last piece of advice to give. ‘I wouldn’t go down by the stream, Barbara — not to the pool where the alder is. There’s — there’s not a good view there, sir; and a boy — a boy I knew, he often — nobody in particular — just a boy who used to come about the house — he is not here now — he is on duty. I don’t think you should go to the alder pool, Barbara.’
‘We won’t go there, dear.’ She and her husband go out, and the Colonel scarcely misses them, he is so eager to hear what his wife thinks of him.
‘Did I do all right, Ellen?’
‘Splendidly. I was proud of you.’
He exults. ‘I put them completely off the scent! They haven’t a notion! I can be very sly, you know, at times. Ellen, I think I should like to have that alder tree cut down. There is no boy now, you see.’
‘I would leave it alone, John. There will be boys again. Shall I read to you; you like that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, read to me — something funny, if you please. About Sam Weller! No, I expect Sam has gone to the wars. Read about Mr. Pickwick. He is very amusing. I feel sure that if he had tried to catch the bulltrout he would have fallen in. Just as Barbara did this morning.’
‘Barbara?’
‘She is down at the alder pool. Billy is there with that nice German boy. The noise they make, shouting and laughing!’
She gets from its shelf the best book for wartime. ‘Which bit shall I read?’
‘About Mr. Pickwick going into the lady’s bedroom by mistake.’
‘Yes, dear, though you almost know it by heart. You see, you have begun to laugh already.’
‘You are laughing too, Ellen. I can’t help it!’
She begins to read; they are both chuckling.
A WELL-REMEMBERED VOICE
Out of the darkness comes the voice of a woman speaking to her dead son.
‘But that was against your wish, was it not? Was that against your wish? Would you prefer me not to ask that question?’
The room is so dark that we cannot see her. All we know is that she is one of four shapes gathered round a small table. Beyond the darkness is a great ingle-nook, in which is seated on a settle a man of fifty. Him we can discern fitfully by the light of the fire.
It is not sufficiently bright to enable him to read, but an evening paper lies on his knee. He seems wistful and meek. He is paying no attention to the party round the table. When he hears their voices it is only as empty sounds.
The mother continues. ‘Perhaps I am putting the question in the wrong way. Are you not able to tell us any more?’
A man’s voice breaks in. ‘There was a distinct movement that time, but it is so irregular.’
‘I thought so, but please don’t talk. Do you want to tell us more? Is it that you can’t hear me distinctly? He seems to want to tell us more, but something prevents him.’
‘In any case, Mrs. Don, it is extraordinary. This is the first seance I have ever taken part in, but I must believe now.’
‘Of course, Major, these are the simplest manifestations. They are only the first step. But if we are to go on, the less we talk the better. Shall we go on? It is not agitating you too much, Laura?’
A girl answers, ‘There was a moment when I — but I wish I was braver. I think it is partly the darkness. I suppose we can’t have a little light?’
‘Certainly we can, dear. Darkness is quite unnecessary, but I think it helps one to concentrate.’
The Major lights a lamp, and though it casts shadows we see now that the room is an artist’s studio. The silent figure in the ingle-nook is the artist. Mrs. Don is his wife, the two men are Major Armitage and an older friend, Mr. Rogers. The girl is Laura Bell. These four are sitting round the table, their hands touching: they are endeavouring to commune with one who has ‘crossed the gulf.’
The Major and Mr. Rogers are but passing shadows in the play, and even nice Laura is only to flit across its few pages for a moment on her way to happier things. We scarcely notice them in the presence of Mrs. Don, the gracious, the beautiful, the sympathetic, whose magnetic force and charm are such that we wish to sit at her feet at once. She is intellectual, but with a disarming smile, religious, but so charitable, masterful, and yet loved of all. None is perfect, and there must be a flaw in her somewhere, but to find it would necessitate such a rummage among her many adornments as there is now no time for. Perhaps we may come upon it accidentally in the course of the play.
She is younger than Mr. Don, who, despite her efforts for many years to cover his deficiencies, is a man of no great account in a household where the bigger personality of his wife swallows him like an Aaron’s rod. Mr. Don’s deficiencies! She used to try very hard, or fairly hard, to conceal them from Dick; but Dick knew. His mother was his chum. All the lovely things which happened in that house in the days when Dick was alive were between him and her; those two shut the door softly on old Don, always anxious not to hurt his feelings, and then ran into each other’s arms.
In the better light Mr. Don is now able to read his paper if he chooses. If he has forgotten the party at the table, they have equally forgotten him.
MRS. DON. ‘You have not gone away, have you? We must be patient. Are you still there?’
ROGERS. ‘I think I felt a movement.’
MRS. DON. ‘Don’t talk, please. Are you still there?’
The table moves.
‘Yes! It is your mother who is speaking; do you understand that?’
The table moves.
‘Yes. What shall I ask him now?’
ROGERS. ‘We leave it to you, Mrs. Don.’
MRS. DON. ‘Have you any message you want to send us? Yes. Is it important? Yes. Are we to spell it out in the usual way? Yes. Is the first letter of the first word A? Is it B?’
She continues through the alphabet to L, when the table responds. Similarly she finds that the second letter is O.
‘Is the word Love? Yes. But I don’t understand that movement. You are not displeased with us, are you? No. Does the second word begin with A? — with B? Yes.’
The second word is spelt out Bade and the third Me.
‘Love Bade Me —— If it is a quotation, I believe I know it! Is the fourth word Welcome? Yes.’
LAURA. ‘Love Bade Me Welcome.’
MRS. DON. ‘That movement again! Don’t you want me to go on?’
LAURA. ‘Let us stop.’
MRS. DON. ‘Not unless he wishes it. Why are those words so important? Does the message end there? Is any one working against you? Some one antagonistic? Yes. Not one of ourselves surely? No. Is it any one we know? Yes. Can I get the name in the usual way? Yes. Is the first letter of this person’s name A? — B? — —’
It proves to be F. One begins to notice a quaint peculiarity of Mrs. Don’s. She is so accustomed to homage that she expects a prompt response even from the shades.
‘Is the second letter A?’
The table moves.
‘FA. Fa —— ?’
She is suddenly enlightened.
‘Is the word Father? Yes.’
They all turn and look for the first time at Mr. Don. He has heard, and rises apologetically.
MR. DON, distressed, ‘I had no intention — Should I go away, Grace?’
She answers sweetly without a trace of the annoyance she must surely feel.
MRS. DON. ‘Perhaps you had better, Robert.’
ROGERS. ‘I suppose it is because he is an unbeliever? He is not openly antagonistic, is he?’
MRS. DON, sadly enough, ‘I am afraid he is.’ They tend to discuss the criminal as if he was not present.
MAJOR. ‘But he must admit that we do get messages.’
MRS. DON, reluctantly, ‘He says we think we do. He says they would not want to communicate with us if they had such trivial things to say.’
ROGERS. ‘But we are only on the threshold, Don. This is just a beginning.’
LAURA. ‘Didn’t you hear, Mr. Don—”Love Bade Me Welcome”?’
MR. DON. ‘Does that strike you as important, Laura?’
LAURA. ‘He said it was.’
MRS. DON. ‘It might be very important to him, though we don’t understand why.’
She speaks gently, but there is an obstinacy in him, despite his meekness.
MR. DON. ‘I didn’t mean to be antagonistic, Grace. I thought. I wasn’t thinking of it at all.’
MRS. DON. ‘Not thinking of Dick, Robert? And it was only five months ago!’
MR. DON, who is somehow, without meaning it, always in the wrong, ‘I’ll go.’
ROGERS. ‘A boy wouldn’t turn his father out. Ask him.’
MR. DON, forlornly, ‘As to that — as to that — —’
MRS. DON. ‘I will ask him if you wish me to, Robert.’
MR. DON. ‘No, don’t.’
ROGERS. ‘It can’t worry you as you are a disbeliever.’
MR. DON. ‘No, but — I shouldn’t like you to think that he sent me away.’
ROGERS. ‘He won’t. Will he, Mrs. Don?’
MR. DON, knowing what her silence implies, ‘You see, Dick and I were not very — no quarrel or anything of that sort — but I, I didn’t much matter to Dick. I’m too old, perhaps.’
MRS. DON, gently, ‘I won’t ask him, Robert, if you would prefer me not to.’
MR. DON. ‘I’ll go.’
MRS. DON. ‘I’m afraid it is too late now.’ She turns away from earthly things. ‘Do you want me to break off?’
The table moves.
‘Yes. Do you send me your love, Dick? Yes. And to Laura? Yes.’ She raises her eyes to Don, and hesitates. ‘Shall I ask him —— ?’
MR. DON. ‘No, no, don’t.’
ROGERS. ‘It would be all right, Don.’
MR. DON. ‘I don’t know.’
They leave the table.
LAURA, a little agitated, ‘May I go to my room, Mrs. Don? I feel I — should like to be alone.’
MRS. DON. ‘Yes, yes, Laura dear. I shall come in and see you.’
Laura bids them goodnight and goes. She likes Mr. Don, she strokes his hand when he holds it out to her, but she can’t help saying, ‘Oh, Mr. Don, how could you?’
ROGERS. ‘I think we must all want to be alone after such an evenin
g. I shall say goodnight, Mrs. Don.’
MAJOR. ‘Same here. I go your way, Rogers, but you will find me a silent companion. One doesn’t want to talk ordinary things tonight. Rather not. Thanks, awfully.’
ROGERS. ‘Goodnight, Don. It’s a pity, you know; a bit hard on your wife.’
MR. DON. ‘Goodnight, Rogers. Goodnight, Major.’
The husband and wife, left together, have not much to say to each other. He is depressed because he has spoilt things for her. She is not angry. She knows that he can’t help being as he is, and that there are fine spaces in her mind where his thoughts can never walk with her. But she would forgive him seventy times seven because he is her husband. She is standing looking at a case of fishingrods against the wall. There is a Jock Scott still sticking in one of them. Mr. Don says, as if somehow they were evidence against him:
‘Dick’s fishingrods.’
She says forgivingly, ‘I hope you don’t mind my keeping them in the studio, Robert. They are sacred things to me.’
‘That’s all right, Grace.’
‘I think I shall go to Laura now.’
‘Yes,’ in his inexpressive way.
‘Poor child!’
‘I’m afraid I hurt her.’
‘Dick wouldn’t have liked it — but Dick’s gone.’ She looks a little wonderingly at him. After all these years, she can sometimes wonder a little still. ‘I suppose you will resume your evening paper!’
He answers quietly, but with the noble doggedness which is the reason why we write this chapter in his life. ‘Why not, Grace?’
She considers, for she is so sure that she must know the answer better than he. ‘I suppose it is just that a son is so much more to a mother than to a father.’
‘I daresay.’
A little gust of passion shakes her. ‘How you can read about the war nowadays!’
He says firmly to her — he has had to say it a good many times to himself, ‘I’m not going to give in.’ But he adds, ‘I am so sorry I was in the way, Grace. I wasn’t scouting you, or anything of that sort. It’s just that I can’t believe in it.’
‘Ah, Robert, you would believe if Dick had been to you what he was to me.’