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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/39515-8.txt b/39515-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4563d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/39515-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13495 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mrs. Thompson, by William Babington Maxwell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mrs. Thompson + A Novel + +Author: William Babington Maxwell + +Release Date: April 23, 2012 [EBook #39515] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. THOMPSON *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +_BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + +NOVELS. + +FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE +GLAMOUR +THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP +THE DEVIL'S GARDEN +GENERAL MALLOCK'S SHADOW +IN COTTON WOOL +MRS. THOMPSON +THE REST CURE +SEYMOUR CHARLTON +HILL RISE +THE GUARDED FLAME +VIVIEN +THE RAGGED MESSENGER +THE COUNTESS OF MAYBURY +A LITTLE MORE + + +SHORT STORIES. + +LIFE CAN NEVER BE THE SAME +ODD LENGTHS +FABULOUS FANCIES + + + + +MRS. THOMPSON + +_A NOVEL_ + +BY + +W. B. MAXWELL + +AUTHOR OF "THE GUARDED FLAME," +"VIVIEN," ETC. + +[Illustration: Logo] + +NEW YORK + +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY + +1922 + + +Copyright, 1911, by +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY + +PRINTED IN U. S. A. + + +"Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in +the gates." + --PROVERBS. + + + + +MRS. THOMPSON + + + + +I + + +It was early-closing day in the town of Mallingbridge; and the +Thompson's, "established 1813," had begun to hide its wares from the +sunlight of High Street. Outside its windows the iron shutters were +rolling down; inside its doors male and female assistants, eager for the +weekly half-holiday, were despatching the last dilatory customers, +packing their shelves, spreading their dust-sheets, and generally +tidying up with anxious speed. + +Mrs. Thompson, the sole proprietress, emerging from internal offices and +passing through her prosperous realm, cast an attentive eye hither and +thither; and, wherever she glanced, saw all things right, and nothing +wrong. System, method, practised control visible in each department. +Carpets, Bedding, Curtains, House Furnishings, all as they should be--no +disturbing note, no hint of a dangerous element in the well-ordered +working scheme of Thompson's. + +Managerial Mr. Mears, a big elderly man, took his hands from beneath the +skirts of his frock-coat; smiled and bowed; and spoke to the +proprietress confidentially on one or two important matters. + +"By the way," said Mr. Mears. "About Household Crockery--is it to be a +promotion, or do you still think of getting someone in? Of course +there's a lot of talk--must be while the appointment remains open. But +you haven't made up your mind yet, have you?" + +"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Thompson, arranging her reticule, and not looking +at Mr. Mears. "I shall appoint Mr. Marsden." + +"Young Marsden? Never!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. + +"You surprise me. I admit it." + +"You don't think," said Mrs. Thompson, "that he is old enough for the +responsibility. But, Mr. Mears, he has _brains_ and he likes _work_. +Tell the others that the appointment is made." + +And big Mr. Mears did then what everyone in Thompson's always did--that +is to say, he immediately obeyed orders; and before the last shutter was +down, the news had flashed all through the restricted space of the +old-fashioned shop. + +"Dicky Marsden! Oh, drop me off a roof.... Marsden up again! Well, I'm +bust!" Thompson's young gentlemen murmuring their comments, expressed +astonishment, and a certain amount of envy. "Marsden over all our heads! +This is a rum go, if you like." + +"Fancy! What next! Would you believe it?" Thompson's young ladies, after +being breathless, became shrill. "Why, on'y six months ago he was Number +Three in the Carpets." + +"He'll be prouder than ever." + +"I shan't dare so much as speak to him." + +"He always treated one as dirt under his feet," said a dark-haired, +anĉmic young lady. "And _now_!" + +"With the increased screw," said a pert, blond young lady, "he'll be +able to buy more smart clothes, and he'll look more fetching than ever. +Yes, and you'll all be more in love with him than you are a'ready." + +"Speak for yourself." + +"Well, say I'm as bad as you. We're all a lot of fools together." + +Of course there must be talk. The Napoleonic rise of this fortunate +shopman had been sufficiently rapid to stir the whole of his little +shop-world. Starting thus, to what heights might he not attain in +Thompson's? There would be talk and more talk. + +But not within the hearing of Mr. Mears. + +"Jabber, jabber," said Mr. Mears with unusual severity. "Less of it. +You're like so many cackling hens in some back yard--instead of ladies +who know how to behave themselves in a high-class emporium." + +Evidently Mr. Mears was not pleased with the appointment. He stamped +off; and the girls observed the characteristic swish of the coat tails, +the manner in which he puffed out his chest, and the faint flush upon +his bearded face. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Thompson had passed onward and upward, through many +departments, to the door of communication on the first floor that led +from her public shop to her private house. + +Outwardly it was quite an old-fashioned shop, still encased with the +red-brick fabric of Georgian days; but inwardly its structure had been +almost entirely modernised. The bird-cage art of steel-girdering had +swept away division-walls, opened out the department to the widest +possible extent and given an unimpeded run of floor area where once the +goods used to be stored in rooms the size of pigeon-holes. The best +shop-architects had gutted the place, and, so far as they were +permitted, had "brought it up to date"; but in all recent improvements +the style of substantial, respectable grandeur was preserved. The new +mahogany staircases were of a Georgian pattern; there were no fantastic +white panellings, no coloured mosaics, no etagères of artificial +flowers. Really the vast looking-glasses were the only decoration that +one could condemn as altogether belonging to the vulgar new school. The +mirrors were perhaps overdone. + +So, as Mrs. Thompson ascended the short flight of stairs out of Bedding, +Etc., a pleasant, middle-aged woman in stately black with pendent +chatelaine, climbed opposing steps to meet her face to face on the +landing. As she moved on she was moving in many glasses, so that nearly +all the assistants could see her or her reflected image: a procession of +Mrs. Thompsons advancing from Woollens and Yarns, another converging +column of Mrs. Thompsons from Cretonnes and Chintzes, reinforcements +coming forward in the big glass opposite the entrance of Household +Linen; while the young men behind the Blankets counter raised their eyes +to watch the real Mrs. Thompson march by with a company of false Mrs. +Thompsons stretching in perfect line from the right--innumerable Mrs. +Thompsons shown by the glasses; some looking bigger, some looking +slighter; but all the glasses showing a large-bosomed, broad-hipped +woman of forty-five, with florid colouring and robust deportment; a +valiant solid creature seeming, as indeed she was, well able to carry +the burden of the whole shop on her firm shoulders. + +Then the glasses were empty again: Mrs. Thompson had disappeared through +the door of communication. + +On this side of the door lay all her working life, the struggle, the +fight, the courageous plans, and the unflagging labours; on the other +side of the door lay the object for which she had toiled, the end and +aim of every brave endeavour. + + +"Enid, my darling, are you there?... Yates, is Miss Enid in?" + +"Yes, ma'am, Miss Enid has lunched, and is upstairs--dressing for the +drive." + +Yates, the old servant, maid, housekeeper, and faithful friend, came +bustling and smiling to the welcome sounds of her employer's kind voice. + +Mrs. Thompson sat for a few minutes in the vacated dining-room, talking +to Yates and hearing the domestic news. + +The headache of Miss Enid, Yates reported, was much better; but she had +not been out this morning. She seemed to be rather languid, and, as +Yates guessed, perhaps felt a little dull and moped after the gaieties +and excitements of the country-house visit from which she had just +returned. + +"Ah, well," said Mrs. Thompson cheerfully, "our drive will do her good. +And now that the summer is coming on, she shall not want for occupation +and amusement." + +All through the snug little box of a house, filched out of the block of +shop premises, there was evidence of the occupations and amusements of +Miss Enid. Bookcases with choicely bound volumes of romance and poetry, +elegant writing-desks, various musical instruments, materials for +painting in oil or water colour, new inventions for the practice of +miniature sculpture, the most costly photographic cameras, tennis +rackets, hockey sticks, and other implements of sport and pastime--on +this floor as on the upper floors, in dining-room, drawing-room, +boudoir, as well as bedroom and dressing-room, were things that should +provide a young lady with occupation and amusement. + +The rooms were comfortably furnished and brightly ornamented, and all +had a homelike soothing aspect to their busy owner. To other people they +might seem lacking in the studious taste by which the rich and idle can +make of each apartment a harmonious picture. Here money had been spent +profusely but hurriedly, at odd times and not all together: whatever at +the moment had appeared to be desirable or necessary had been at once +procured. So that comfort and luxury rather jostled each other; the +Sheraton cabinets which were so charming to look at were apt to get +hidden by the leather armchairs which were so soothing to have a nap in; +and the Chelsea china in the glass-fronted corner cupboard completely +lost itself behind the Japanese screen that guarded against draughts +from the old sashed window. + +"Enid, may I come in?" Mrs. Thompson tapped softly at the door of her +daughter's dressing-room. + +"Mother dear, is that you?" The door was opened, and the two women +embraced affectionately. + +Miss Thompson, in her fawn-coloured coat and skirt, feathered hat and +spotted veil, was a tall, slim, graceful figure, ready now to adorn the +hired landau from Mr. Young's livery stables. Her hair was dark and her +complexion naturally pallid; with a long straight nose in a narrow face, +she resembled her dead father, but what was sheep-like and stupid in him +was rather pretty in the girl;--altogether, a decent-looking, fairly +attractive young woman of twenty-two, but not likely to obtain from the +world at large the gaze of admiring satisfaction with which an adoring +mother regarded her. + +"The carriage isn't there yet," said Mrs. Thompson, "and I promise not +to keep you waiting. I'll change my dress in a flash of lightning." + +"What did you think of wearing this afternoon?" + +Mrs. Thompson proposed to put on her new mauve gown and the hat with the +lilac blossoms; but her daughter made alternative suggestions. + +In the shop Mrs. Thompson carried a perpetual black; outside the shop +she was perhaps unduly fond of vivid tints, and it was Enid's custom to +check this rainbow tendency. + +"Very well," said Mrs. Thompson, "it shall be the brown again;" and she +laughed good-humouredly. "I bow to your judgment, my dear, if I don't +endorse its correctness." + +"You look sweet in the brown, mother." + +"Do I?... But remember what Miss Macdonald says. With my high +complexion, I _need_ colour." + +Yates soon braced and laced her mistress into the sober brown cloth and +velvet that Enid considered suitable for the occasion; a parlourmaid +with light rugs went forward to the carriage; and mother and daughter +came down the steep and narrow flight of stairs to their outer door. + +There was no ground floor to the dwelling-house--or rather the ground +floor formed an integral part of the shop. The street door stood in St. +Saviour's Court--the paved footway that leads from High Street to the +churchyard,--sandwiched with its staircase between the two side windows +that contained basket chairs and garden requisites. The court was +sufficiently wide and sufficiently pleasant: a quiet, dignified passage +of entry, with the peaceful calm of the old church walls at one end, and +the stir and bustle of the brilliant High Street at the other end. + +Enid and her mamma, following the neat and mincing parlourmaid, made a +stately procession to the main thoroughfare, where the really handsome +equipage provided by Mr. Young was awaiting their pleasure. + +The liveried coachman touched his hat, idle loungers touched their caps, +prosperous citizens uncovered and bowed. + +"There goes Mrs. Thompson." People ran to upper windows to see Mrs. +Thompson start for her Thursday drive. + +"There she goes." + +"Who?" + +"Mrs. Thompson." + +"Oh!" + +The genial May sunshine flashed gaily, lighting up the whole street, +making both ladies blink their eyes as the carriage rolled away. + +"What a crowd there is outside Bence's," said Miss Enid. "How mean it is +of him not to close!" + +The first shop they passed was Bence's drapery stores, and Mrs. Thompson +glanced carelessly at the thronged pavement in front of these improperly +open windows. + +"Mr. Bence's motto," said Mrs. Thompson, "is cheap and nasty," and she +laughed with an amused scorn for so mean a trade rival. "His method of +doing business is like the trumpery he offers to the public. I have a +rather impudent letter from him in my pocket now, and I want--" + +But then Mrs. Thompson's strong eyebrows contracted, and she shrugged +her shoulders and looked away from Bence's. She had just noticed two of +her own shop-girls going into Bence's to buy his trumpery. Something +distinctly irritating in the thought that these feather-headed girls +regularly carried half their wages across the road to Bence's! + +Throughout the length of High Street there were too many of such signs +of the vulgar times: the ever-changing trade, old shops giving place to +new ones--an American boot-shop, a branch of the famous cash +tobacconists, the nasty cheap restaurant opened by the great London +caterers, Parisian jewellery absorbing one window of the historic +clocksmiths,--everywhere indications of that love of tawdriness and +glitter which slowly atrophies the sense of solid worth, of genuineness +and durability. + +Yet everywhere, also, signs of the old life of the town still +vigorous--aldermen and councillors taking the air; Mr. Wiseman, the +wealthy corn-merchant; Mr. Dempsey, the auctioneer-mayor; Mr. Young, +owner of a hundred horses besides this pair of gallant greys that were +drawing Mrs. Thompson. + +Everyone of the solid old townsfolk knew her; all that was respectably +permanent bowed and smiled at her. The drive was like a royal progress +when they swept through the market square, past the ancient town hall +now a museum, under the shadows thrown by the new municipal buildings, +and the other and bigger church of Holy Trinity, out beneath the noble +gatehouse, and up into the sunlit slope of Hill Street. Hats off on +either side, broad masculine faces smiling in the sunlight. All the best +of the town knew her and was proud of her. + +Her story was of the simplest, and all knew it. Mr. Thompson had been +the last and most feeble representative of a powerful dynasty of +shop-keepers; at his death it became at once apparent that the grand old +shop was nothing but an effete, played out, and utterly exhausted +possession; his widow was left practically penniless, with an insolvent +business to wind up, and an orphaned little girl to support and rear. +And young Mrs. Thompson was ignorant of all business matters, knew +nothing more of shops than can be learned by any shop-customer. +Nevertheless, with indomitable energy, she threw herself into business +life. She did not shut up Thompson's; she kept it going. In two years it +was again a paying concern; in a few more years it was a stronger and +more flourishing enterprise than it had ever been since its +establishment in 1813; now it was immensely prosperous and a credit to +the town. + +They all knew how she had toiled until the success came, how generously +she had used the money that her own force and courage earned--a +large-minded, open-handed, self-reliant worker, combining a woman's +endurance with a man's strength,--and only one weakness: the pampering +devotion to her girl. She was making her daughter too much of a fine +lady; she had extravagantly worshipped this idol; she had _spoiled_ the +long-nosed Enid. The town knew all about that. + +Bowing to right and to left, Mrs. Thompson drove up Hill Street, and +then stopped the carriage outside the offices of Mr. Prentice, solicitor +and commissioner of oaths. + +"Only two or three words with him, Enid. I promise not to be more than +five minutes." + +Mr. Prentice came to the carriage door; and was asked to read the letter +from Mr. Bence the fancy draper. + +"Don't you think it's rather impertinent?" + +"Of course I do," said Mr. Prentice. "I wouldn't answer it. Throw it +into the waste-paper basket." + +"Oh, no, I shall answer it ... I can't allow Mr. Bence to suppose that I +should ever be afraid of him." + +"Afraid of him!" And Mr. Prentice laughed contemptuously. "_You_ afraid +of such a little bounder.... Look here. Shall I go round and kick the +brute?" + +Mrs. Thompson laughed, too. "No, no," she said, "that would scarcely be +professional." + +"I'll do it after office hours--in my private capacity--and of course +without entering it to your account." + +Mr. Prentice was a jolly red-faced man of fifty, with healthy +clean-shaven cheeks, and small grey whiskers of a sporting cut. +Altogether the most eminent solicitor in Mallingbridge, he had clients +among all the country gentlefolk of the neighbourhood; he rode to hounds +still, and kept his horses at Young's stables; he stood high in the +Masonic craft and could sing an excellent comic song. He was at once +Mrs. Thompson's trusted legal adviser, her staunch friend, and, as he +himself declared, her admiring slave. + +"One more word," said Mrs. Thompson. "It is time that I gave another +dinner at the Dolphin. There are two new men on the Council--and there +will be more new men next November. I shall want your help to act as +deputy host for me. Will you think it out--draw up a list of guests--and +arrange everything?" + +"It is for you to command, and for me to obey," said genial Mr. +Prentice. "But, upon my word, I don't know why you should go on feasting +people in this way." + +"I like to stand well with the town." + +"And so you do. So you would, if you never gave them another glass of +champagne.... I think your mamma is far too generous." + +But Miss Enid, who seemed unutterably bored, was staring out of the +carriage in the other direction. She had not been listening to Mr. +Prentice, and she did not hear him when he addressed her directly. + +"Then good-bye. Drive on, coachman.... There," and Mrs. Thompson turned +gaily to her daughter. "That's more than enough business for Thursday +afternoon, isn't it, Enid?" + + +They drove along the London road, through the pretty village of +Haggart's Cross, as far as the chalk cliffs beneath the broad downs; and +then, descending again, through beech woods and fir plantations to the +valley where the river Malling runs and twists beside the railway line +all the way home to the town. + +The world was fresh and bright, with the May wind blowing softly and the +May flowers budding sweetly. Cattle in the green fields, birds in the +blue sky, pinafored children chanting a lesson behind the latticed panes +of their schoolhouse, primroses peeping from grassy banks, and, far and +near, the white hawthorn shedding its perfume, giving its fragrant +message of spring, of hope, of life--plenty of things to look at with +pleasure, plenty of things to talk about, though one might often have +seen them before. + +But Enid was somehow languid, listless, even lumpish, and Mrs. Thompson +did nearly all the looking and talking. + +"I always think that is such an imposing place. The entrance seems to +warn one off--to tell one not to forget what a tremendous swell the +owner is." + +They were passing the lodge-gates of a great nobleman's seat, and one +had a rapid impression of much magnificence. Stone piers, sculptured +urns, floreated iron, massive chains; and behind the forbidding barrier +a vista of swept gravel and mown grass, with solemn conifers proudly +ranked, and standard rhododendrons just beginning pompously to bloom--no +glimpse of the mansion itself, but an intuitive perception of something +vast, remote, unattainable. + +Enid looked through the bars at my lord's gravel drive attentively, +almost wistfully, perhaps thinking of the few and august people to whom +these splendours would be familiar--of the lucky people who are brought +up in palaces instead of in shops. + +"It is a meet of hounds." Miss Enid broke a long silence to give her +mother this information. "And when I was staying at Colonel Salter's, I +met a man who had once been to a ball there." + +"Ah, well," said Mrs. Thompson, with cheerful briskness, "now you +mention hunting, that reminds me. We must get you on horseback again.... +You do like your riding, don't you?" + +"Oh, yes," said Enid listlessly. + +"Mr. Young said you were making such good progress. And," added Mrs. +Thompson gently, "it is a pity to take up things and drop them. It is +just wasted effort--if one stops before reaching the goal." + +The road, turning and crossing the railway, gave them a well-known view +of Mallingbridge--the town quite at its best, four miles away in the +middle of the broad plain, smoke and haze hanging over it, but with +tempered sunlight glistening on countless roofs, and the square tower of +St. Saviour's and the tall spire of Holy Trinity rising proudly above +the mass of lesser buildings. There, stretched at her feet, was Mrs. +Thompson's world, the world that she had conquered. + +In another mile they passed a residence that to her mind formed a +pleasant contrast with the oppressive splendour of the nobleman's +domain. Here there were white gates between mellow brick walls, easy +peeps into a terraced garden, stables and barns as at a farm, pigeons +settling on some thatch, friendly English trees guarding but not hiding +a dear old English country house. + +"Look, Enid," and Mrs. Thompson pointed to the broad eaves, the white +windows, and the solid chimney stacks, as they showed here and there +between the branches of oak and maple. "There. That's a place I fell in +love with the first time I saw it.... I would like a house just like +that--for you and me to live in when I am able to give up my work...." + +"What were you saying, mother?" Enid, not listening or absorbed by her +own thoughts, had not heard. + +"I was only saying, that's the sort of house I should like for us +two--when I retire." + +"Mother, I sometimes wish that you had retired years ago." + +"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Thompson meekly, "retiring is all very +well--but you and I wouldn't be sitting here driving so comfortably if I +had been afraid of my work and in a hurry to get done with it." + + + + +II + + +In her marriage she had sacrificed all the natural hopes and +inclinations of a healthy young woman. She and her widowed mother were +very poor, quite alone in the world; and it seemed a proper and a wise +thing to marry Mr. Thompson for his money. No one could guess that the +money was already a phantom and no longer a fact. The man was +middle-aged, feeble of body and mind, a stupid and a selfish person; but +it seemed that he would assure the future of his wife and provide a +comfortable home for his mother-in-law. + +Then after five years the man and his money were gone forever; the +mother for whom the sacrifice had been made was herself dead; only the +wife and her little child remained. Five years of dull submission to an +unloved husband; five years spent in the nursing of two invalids, with +the vapid meaningless monotony of wasted days broken sharply by the +pains of child-birth, the agonized cares of early motherhood, and the +shock of death;--and at the end of the years, a sudden call for +limitless courage and almost impossible energy. + +Quiet unobtrusive Mrs. Thompson answered the call fully. Deep-seated +fighting instincts arose in her; unsuspected powers were put forth to +meet the exigencies of the occasion; the hero-spirit that lies buried in +many natures sprang nobly upward. + +At first she possessed only one commercial asset, the reputation of +Thompson's. For so many years Thompson's had been known as a good shop +that here was a legend which might counterbalance debts, exhausted +credit, antiquated stock, and incompetent staff. + +The town and the country during generations had come to Thompson's for +good things--not cheap things, but the things that last: dress fabrics +that stand up by themselves, chairs and tables that you can leave intact +to your grandchildren, carpets that unborn men will be beating when you +yourself are dust. + +Mrs. Thompson, in her widow's weeds, went round the big supply houses, +telling the great trade chieftains that the legend was still alive, +though the man who already owed them so much money was dead; saying in +effect to all the people who held her fate in their hands, "Don't let +old Thompson's go down. Don't smash me. Help me. Give me time to secure +your twenty shillings in the pound, instead of the meagre seven and +sixpence which you can get now." + +The wholesale trade helped her. Little by little all the world came to +her aid. Mr. Prentice the solicitor was a skilful ally. As soon as it +could be seen locally that she was keeping her head above water, friends +on the bank began to beckon to her. Rich aldermen, advised that there +was now small risk, lent her money; and these loans rendered her +independent of Trade assistance. Soon she could get whatever sums she +required for the restoration and expansion of the business. + +In all her dealings she won respect. The confidence that she inspired +was her true commercial asset, her capital, her good-will, her +everything; and it was always growing. "Very remarkable," said +travellers, reporting at headquarters, "how that Mrs. Thompson has +pulled the fat out of the fire at Mallingbridge. What she wants now is +some sound business man for partner--and there's no knowing what she +mightn't do." + +Then some other and more philosophic traveller, impressed by the swift +revivification of Thompson's, said enthusiastically, "The best business +head in this town is on a woman's shoulders." The saying was quoted, +misquoted, echoed and garbled, until it concreted itself into an easy +popular formula which the whole town used freely. "The best man of +business in Mallingbridge is a woman." Everyone knew who that woman was. +Mrs. Thompson. And the town, speaking on important occasions through the +mouth of its mayor, aldermen, and councillors, for the first time said +that it was proud of her. + +And then the town began to ask her hand in wedlock. + +In these days, at the dawn of her success, Mrs. Thompson was not without +obvious personal attraction. She was fair and plump, with light wavy +hair, kind grey eyes beneath well-marked eyebrows, and good colour +warmly brightening a clean white skin;--she "looked nice" in her widow's +black, smiling at a hard world and so bravely tackling her life problem. +Quite a large number of well-to-do citizens were smilingly rejected by +the buxom widow. Pretenders were slow to believe in the finality of her +refusals; as the success became more patent, they tried their luck +again, and again, but always with the same emptiness of result. Indeed +it was a town joke, as well as an unquestionable fact, that old Chambers +the wine-merchant regularly proposed three times a year to nice-looking +Mrs. Thompson. + +She wanted no second husband. The fight and the child were enough for +her. Those deep and unsapped springs of love that might have gushed +forth to make a fountain stream of happiness for Alderman Brown or +Councillor Jones flowed calmly and steadfastly now in a concentrated +channel of motherly affection. To work for the child, to love and tend +the child--that was henceforth her destiny. And she felt strong enough +to watch in her own face the blurring destructive print of time, if she +might watch in her girl's face time's unfolding glories. + +For the cruel years took from her irrevocably those physical seductions +of neatly rounded form and smooth pinkness and whiteness. The colour +that had been sufficient became too much, plumpness changed to +stoutness--once, for a year, she was fat. But she tackled this trouble +too, bravely and unflinchingly,--went to London for Swedish exercises; +banted; brought herself down, down, down, until Dr. Eldridge told her +she must stop, or she would kill herself. After that she settled to a +steady solidness, a well-maintained amplitude of contour; and the years +seemed to leave her untouched as the wide-breasted, rotund-hipped, +stalwart Mrs. Thompson of a decade--red-cheeked, bright-eyed, gallant +and strong. + +Yet still she had suitors. The physical charm was gone, but other charm +was present--that blending of kindness and power which wins men's +hearts, if it does not stir their pulses, gave her a dominating +personality, and made the circle of her influence exactly as large as +the circle of her acquaintance. People at the circumference of the +circle seemed to be surely drawn, by a straight or vacillating radius, +to its centre. The better you knew her, the more you thought about her. +So that old friends after years of thought now and then surprised her by +suggesting that friendship should be exchanged for a closer bond; +pointing out the advantages of a common-sense union, the marriage of +convenience, sympathy, and mutual regard, that becomes appropriate when +the volcano glow of youth has faded; and inviting her to name an early +day for going to St. Saviour's Church with them. + +In the shop, among all grades of employees, there had ever been a dread +of St. Saviour's Church and wedding bells. They got on so well with +their mistress that the idea of a master was extraordinarily abhorrent +to them. But one day, a day now long past, Mrs. Thompson told Mr. Mears +authoritatively that joy bells would never sound for her again; Mr. +Mears, by permission, or in the exercise of his own discretion, passed +on the glad tidings; and the only dark thought that could worry a +contented staff was removed. + +"No, Mr. Mears, I don't say that I have never contemplated the +possibility of such an event; but I can say emphatically I have decided +that in my case it _is_ impossible." + +That was sufficient. What Mrs. Thompson said Mrs. Thompson meant. A +decision with her was a decision. + +Of all her trusty subordinates none had served her so loyally as big Mr. +Mears. His whole life had been spent in Thompson's. Once he had been boy +messenger, window-cleaner, boot-blacker; and now, at the age of sixty, +he had risen to managerial rank. He was the acknowledged chief of the +staff, Mrs. Thompson's right-hand man; and he was as proud of his +position and the culminating grandeurs of his career as if he had been a +successful general, a prime-minister, or a pope. Mrs. Thompson knew and +openly told him that he was invaluable to her. Such words were like wine +and music: they intoxicated and enchanted him. Truly he was +whole-hearted, faithful, devoted, with a deep veneration for his +mistress; with an intense and almost passionate esteem for her skill, +her comprehension, her vigour, and for her herself--perhaps too with a +love that he scarcely himself understood. + +Anyhow this heavy grey-haired shopman and his employer were very close +allies, generally thinking as one, and always acting as one, able to +talk together with a nearly absolute freedom on any question, however +intimately private in its character. + +"You see, Mr. Mears, if I ever meant to do it, I should have done it +ages ago. Now that my daughter is growing up, her claims for attention +are becoming stronger every day." + +Mr. Mears and the rest of the staff were more than satisfied. Perhaps +they blessed the idolized Enid for an increasing capacity to absorb +every energy and volition that Mrs. Thompson could spare from the shop. + +Whatever Enid wished for her mother provided. She racked her brains in +order to forestall the child's wishes. But the difficulty always was +this, one could not be quite sure what Enid really wished. She accepted +the pretty gifts, the conditions of her life, the plans for her future, +with a calm unruffled acquiescence. + +When Mrs. Thompson regretfully decided that it would be advisable to +dismiss the expensive governesses and send the home pupil to an +expensive school, Enid placidly and immediately agreed. Mrs. Thompson +thought that school would open Enid's mind, that school would give her +an opportunity of making nice girl-friends. Enid at once thought so, +too. + +"But, oh, my darling, what a gap there will be in this house! You'll +leave a sore and a sad heart behind you. I shall miss you woefully." + +"And I shall miss you, mamma." + +Then, when Enid had gone to the fashionable seminary at Eastbourne, with +the faithful Yates as escort, with a wonderful luncheon-basket of +delicacies in the first-class reserved compartment, with several huge +boxes of school trousseau in the luggage van, Mrs. Thompson began to +suffer torment. Was it not cruel to send the brave little thing away +from her? Might not her darling be now a prey to similar yearnings and +longings for a swift reunion? The torment became agony; and after two +days Mrs. Thompson rushed down to see for herself if the new scholar was +all right. + +Enid was entirely all right--playing with the other girls at the bottom +of the secluded garden. + +"Is that you, mummy?" This was a form of greeting peculiar to Enid from +very early days. "I am so glad to see you," and she kissed mamma +affectionately. + +She was uniformly affectionate, whether at school or at home, but never +explosive or demonstrative in the manifestations of her affection. There +was more warmth in her letters than in her spoken words. "My own dearest +mother," she used to write, "I am so looking forward to being with you +again. Do meet me at the station." But when the train arrived and Mrs. +Thompson, who had been pacing the Mallingbridge platform in a fever of +expectation, clasped the beloved object to her heart, she experienced +something akin to disappointment. It was a sedately composed young lady +that offered a cool cheek to the mother's tremulous lips. + +Now and then a school-friend came to stay with Enid. A Miss Salter, +whose parents proved large-minded enough to overlook the glaring fact of +the shop, was a fairly frequent visitor. During the visit one of Mr. +Young's carriages stood at the disposal of the young hostess and her +guest all day long; breakfasts were served in bed; a private box at the +local theatre might be occupied any evening between the cosy dinner and +the dainty little supper; and Mrs. Thompson arranged delightful +expeditions to London, where, under the guardianship of Yates, larger +sights and more exciting treats could be enjoyed than any attainable in +Mallingbridge. + +The condescending guest returned to her distinguished circle laden with +presents, and frankly owned that she had been given a royal time at the +queer shop-house in St. Saviour's Court. + +Enid in her turn visited the houses of her friends, and came home to +tell Mrs. Thompson of that pleasant gracious world in which people do +not work for their living, but derive their ample means from splendidly +interred ancestors. With satisfaction, if not with animation, she +described how greatly butlers and footmen surpass the art of +parlourmaids in waiting at table; how gay an effect is produced by young +men dining in red coats, how baronets often shoot with three guns, how +lords never use less than two horses in the hunting field, and so on. +And Mrs. Thompson was happy in the thought that her daughter should be +mingling with fine company and deriving pleasure from strange scenes. + +She was careful to obliterate herself in all such social intercourse. +Courteous letters were exchanged between her and Enid's hosts; but the +girl and Yates were despatched together, and Mrs. Thompson refused even +a glimpse of the Salters' mansion. + +"Later on," she told Enid, "when we have done with the shop, I shall +hope to take my place in society by my pretty daughter's side. But for +the present I must just keep to myself.... The old prejudice against +retail trade still lingers--more especially among the class that used to +be termed _country_ people." + +Enid dutifully agreed. Indeed she told her mother that the old prejudice +was much more active than anyone could guess who had not personally +encountered it. The shop was, so to speak, a very large pill, and needed +a considerable amount of swallowing. + +"I found that out in my first term at school, mother dear." + +"Mother dear" was now Enid's unvaried mode of address when talking to +her mamma. All her friends addressed their mammas as mother dear. School +was over in these days. Miss Thompson had been finished; she did her +country-house visiting with a maid of her own, and no longer with old +Yates; as much as she appeared to like anything, she liked staying about +at country-houses; she never refused an invitation--except when she was +previously engaged. + +Something perhaps wanting here in the finished article, as polished and +pointed by Eastbourne school-mistresses; something not quite right in +Enid's placid acquiescences and too rapid concurrences; something that +suggested the smooth surface of a languid shallow stream, and not the +broad calm that lies above deep strong currents! Perhaps Mrs. Thompson +would have preferred a more exuberant reciprocity in her great love; +perhaps she secretly yearned for a full response to the open appeal of +her expansive, generous nature. + +If so, she never said it. She was generous in thoughts as well as in +deeds. In big things as in small things she seemed to think that it was +for her to give and for others to receive. From the vicar craving funds +for his new organ to the crossing sweeper who ostentatiously slapped his +chest on cold mornings, all who asked for largesse received a handsome +dole. At the railway-station, when she appeared, ticket-collectors and +porters tumbled over one another in their rush to dance attendance--so +solid was her reputation as a lavishly tremendous tipper. + +"She is making so much money herself that she can afford to be free with +it." That was the view of the town, and her own view, too. So all the +tradesmen with whom she dealt flagrantly overcharged her--dressmakers, +livery stable keepers, wine-merchants, florists, every one of them said +it was a privilege to serve her, and then sent in an extortionate bill. +And she paid and thanked with a genial smile. + +Donations to the hospitals, subscriptions to the police concert, the +watermen's regatta, the railway servants' sports--really there was no +end to the demands that she met so cheerily. Christmas turkeys for the +Corporation underlings; cigars for the advertisement printers; small and +big dinners, with salvos of champagne corks threatening the Dolphin +ceilings, for aldermen, councillors, and all other urban +magnates--really it was no wonder that the town had a good word for her. + +Mr. Prentice, the solicitor, always tried and always failed to curb her +liberality. Mr. Prentice kept himself outside of the Corporation's +affairs, and expressed considerable contempt for the municipal +representatives and the local tradesmen. When Mrs. Thompson spoke with +gratitude of the kindness of friends who helped her by loans in her +early struggle, Mr. Prentice mocked at these spurious benefactors. + +"They did nothing for you," said Mr. Prentice. + +"Oh, how can you pretend that?" + +"They lent you money on excellent security and took high interest; and +you have been feasting them and flattering them ever since." + +"I do like to feel that I am on good terms with those about me." + +Then Mr. Prentice would laugh. "Oh, well, you have certainly got the +Corporation in your pocket. You make them your slaves--as you make me +and everyone else. So I'll say no more. No doubt you know your own +business best." + +And she did. That well-used formula of the town might have been a +high-flown compliment at the beginning, but it was sober truth now. No +man in Mallingbridge could touch her. The years, taking so much from +her, had also brought her much. With ripening judgment, widening +knowledge, and the accumulated treasure of experience, her business +faculty had developed into something very near the highest form of +genius. She had insight, sense of organization, the power of launching +out boldly and accepting heavy risks to secure large gains; but she had +also caution, concentration of purpose in minor aims, and rapid decision +in facing a failure and cutting short consequent losses. In a word, she +possessed all the best attributes of your good man of business, and the +little more that makes up greatness. + +She could always do that which very few men consistently achieve. She +mastered the situation of the moment, struck directly at the root of the +difficulty that confronted her, and, sweeping aside irrelevancies, +non-essentials, and entanglements, saw in the cold bright light of +logical thought the open road that leads from chaos to security. + +And no man could have been a more absolute ruler. Every year of her +success made her dominion more complete. Womanlike, she ruled her world +by kindness; but man-like, she enforced her law by a show of strength, +and weight, and even of mere noise. Not often, but whenever necessary, +she acted a man's violence, and used bad language. When Mrs. Thompson +swore the whole shop trembled. + +The swearing was a purely histrionic effort, but she carried it through +nobly. + +"Have you heard?" A tremulous whisper ran along the counters. "Mrs. T. +went out into the yard, and damned those carters into heaps.... Mrs. T. +'as just bin down into the packing room, and given 'em damson pie--and +I'm sure they jolly well deserved it.... Look out. Here she comes!" + +The brawny carters hung their heads, the hulking packers cleared their +throats huskily, the timorous shop-hands looked at the floor. Mrs. +Thompson passed like a silent whirlwind through the shop, and banged the +counting-house door behind her. + +When Enid was away from home the counting-house was sometimes occupied +to a late hour. Staff long since gone, lights out everywhere; but light +still shining in that inner room, fighting the darkness above the glass +partitions. The night watchman, pacing to and fro, kept himself alert--a +real watchman, ready with his lantern to conduct Mrs. Thompson through +the shrouded avenues of counter, and upstairs to the door of +communication. + +When Enid was away the house seemed empty; and the empty house, +curiously enough, always seemed smaller. It was as though because the +life of the house had contracted, the four walls had themselves drawn +nearer together. Yet the little rooms were just big enough to hold +ghosts and sad memories. + +"You look thoroughly fagged out, ma'am. You overdo it. Let me open you a +pint of champagne for your supper." + +"No, thank you, Yates.... But sit down, and talk to me." + +The old servant sat at the table, and kept her mistress company through +what would otherwise have been a lonely meal. In Miss Enid's absence she +had no house news to offer, so Mrs. Thompson gave her the shop news. + +"I swore at them to-day, Yates." + +"Did you indeed, ma'am?" + +"Yes." + +"What drove you to that, ma'am?" + +"Oh, the packing-room again--and those carters. I informed Mr. Mears +that I should do it; and he kept his eyes open, and came up quietly and +told me when.... Mr. Mears was delighted with it. He told me at closing +time that things had gone like clockwork ever since." + +In her comfortable bedroom Mrs. Thompson shivered. + +"Yates, I feel cold. I suppose it is because I'm tired." + +"Shall I make you a glass of hot grog to drink in bed?" + +"No.... But come in again when I ring--and stay with me for a few +minutes, will you, Yates?" + +The old servant sat by the bedside until her mistress became drowsy. + +"I'll leave you now, ma'am. Good-night, and pleasant dreams." + +"Yates--kiss me." + +Yates stooped over her lonely mistress, and kissed her. Then she softly +switched off the light, and left Mrs. Thompson alone in the darkness. + + + + +III + + +When old employees looked out of Thompson's windows they sometimes had a +queer impression that this side of the street was stationary, and that +the other side of the street was moving. Six years ago Bence the +fancy-draper had been eight doors off; but he had come nearer and nearer +as he absorbed his neighbours' premises one after another. Now the end +of Bence's just overlapped Thompson's. For three or four feet he was +fairly opposite. + +Just as Thompson's represented all that was good and stable in the trade +of Mallingbridge, Bence's stood for everything bad and evanescent. A +horrid catch-penny shop, increasing its business rapidly, practising the +odious modern methods of remorseless rivalry, Bence's was almost +universally hated. They outraged the feelings of old established +tradesmen by taking up lines which cut into one cruelly: they burst out +into books, into trunks, into ironmongery; at Christmas, in what they +called their grand annual bazaar, they had a cut at the trade of every +shop throughout the length of High Street. But especially, at all +seasons of the year, they cut into Thompson's. The marked deliberate +attack was when they first regularly took up Manchester goods. Then came +Carpets, then Crockery, and then Garden requisites. + +But Bence, in the person of Mr. Archibald, the senior partner, always +announced the coming attack to Mrs. Thompson. He said she was the +superior of all the other traders; he could never forget that she was a +lady, and that he himself was one of her most respectful yet most +ardent admirers; he desired ever to treat her with the utmost chivalry. +Thus now he came over, full of gallant compliments, to make a fresh +announcement. + +Mrs. Thompson always treated Bence and his dirty little tricks as a +joke. She used to laugh at him with a good-humoured tolerance. + +"Of course, Mrs. Thompson, I don't like seeming to run you hard in any +direction. But lor', how can _I_ hurt you? You're big--you're right up +there"--and Mr. Bence waved a thin hand above his bald head--"a colossal +statue, made of granite. And _I_, why I'm just a poor little insect +scrabbling about in the mud at your feet." + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Thompson, smiling pleasantly, "you're nothing of the +sort. You are a very clever enterprising gentleman. But I'm not in the +least afraid of you, Mr. Bence." + +"That's right," said Bence delightedly. "And always remember this. I am +not _fighting_ you. Any attempt at a real fight is simply foreign from +my nature--that is, where you are concerned." + +"Never mind me," said Mrs. Thompson once. "But take care on your own +account. Vaulting ambition sometimes o'erleaps itself." + +"Ah," said Bence. "There you show your marvellous power. You put your +finger on the sore spot in a moment. I _am_ ambitious. I might almost +say my ambitions are boundless. Work is life to me--and if I was by +myself, I don't believe anything would stop me. But," said Bence, with +solemn self-pity, "as all the world knows, Mrs. Thompson, there's a +_leak_ in my business." + +Mrs. Thompson perfectly understood what he meant. This working Bence was +a sallow, prematurely bald man with a waxed moustache and a cracked +voice, and he toiled incessantly; but there were two younger Bences, +bluff, hearty, hirsute men, who were sleeping partners, and eating, +drinking, and loose-living partners. While Mr. Archibald laboured in +Mallingbridge, Mr. Charles and Mr. George idled and squandered in +London. + +"That's the trouble with me," said Mr. Archibald sadly. "I'm the captain +on his bridge, sending the ship full speed ahead, but knowing full well +that there's a leak down below in the hold.... Never sufficient money +behind me.... Oh, Mrs. Thompson," cried Bence, in a burst of enthusiasm, +"if I only had the money behind me, I'd soon show you what's what and +who's who. But I'm a man fighting with tied hands." + +"Not fighting _me_, Mr. Bence. You said so yourself." + +"No, no. Never _you_. I was thinking of the others." + +Well then, Bence had come across the road once more. In the letter which +Mrs. Thompson, when showing it to her solicitor, had described as +impertinent, Bence presented his compliments and begged an early +appointment for a communication of some importance. Mr. Bence added that +"any hints from Mrs. Thompson in regard to his proposed new departure +would be esteemed a privileged favour." Mrs. Thompson considered the +suggestion that she should advise the rival in his attack as perhaps +something beyond the limits of a joke. Nevertheless, she gave the +appointment, and smilingly received the visitor in her own room behind +the counting-house. + +"May I begin by saying how splendidly well you are looking, Mrs. +Thompson?... When I came in at that door, I thought there'd been a +mistake. Seeing you sitting there at your desk, I thought, 'But this is +_Miss_ Thompson, and not my great friend _Mrs._ Thompson.' Mistook you +for your own daughter, till you turned round and showed me that +well-known respected countenance which--" + +"Now Mr. Bence," said Mrs. Thompson, laughing, "I can't allow you to +waste your valuable time in saying all these flattering things." + +"No flattery." + +"Please sit down and tell me what new wickedness you are contemplating." + +Then Mr. Bence made his announcement. It was Furniture this time. He had +bought out two more neighbours--the old-fashioned sadler and the +bookseller; and he proposed to convert these two shops into his new +furniture department. + +Mrs. Thompson's brows gathered in a stern frown; only by a visible +effort could she wipe out the aspect of displeasure, and speak with +careless urbanity. + +"Let me see exactly what it means, Mr. Bence.... I suppose you mean that +your Furniture windows will be exactly opposite mine." + +"Well, as near as makes no difference." + +"That will be very convenient--for both of us, won't it? I think it is +an excellent idea, Mr. Bence," and Mrs. Thompson laughed. "Customers who +can't see what they want here, can step across and look for it with +you." + +"Oh, I daren't hope that we should ever draw anybody from your pavement, +Mrs. Thompson." + +"You are much too modest. But if it should ever happen that you fail to +supply any customers with what they desire, you can send them across to +us. You'd do that, wouldn't you?" + +"Of course I will," said Bence heartily. "That's what I say. We don't +clash. We _can't_ clash." + +Mrs. Thompson struck the bell on her desk, and summoned a secretary. + +"Send Mr. Mears to me." + +The sight of Bence always ruffled and disturbed old Mears. Seeing Bence +complacently seated near the bureau in the proprietorial sanctum, his +face flushed, his grey beard bristled, and his dark eyes rolled angrily. + +When Mrs. Thompson told him all about the furniture, he grunted, but did +not at first trust himself to words. + +"Well, Mr. Mears, what do you think about it?" + +"I think," said Mears gruffly, "that it's _like_ Mr. Bence." + +"I was remarking," said Bence, nodding and grinning, "that we cannot +possibly clash. Our customers are poor little people--not like your rich +and influential clientele. Our whole scheme of business is totally +different from yours." + +"That's true," said Mears, and he gave another grunt. + +"You know," said Mrs. Thompson, "Mr. Bence is not _fighting_ us. He is +only carrying out his own system." + +"Yes," said Mears, "we are acquainted with his system, ma'am." + +"Then I think that no more need be said. We are quite prepared for any +opposition--or competition." + +"Quite, ma'am." + +"Then I won't detain you, Mr. Mears." + +"Good morning, Mr. Mears," said Bence politely. But Mr. Mears only +grunted at him. + +"What a sterling character," said Bence, as soon as Mr. Mears had closed +the glass door. "One of the good old school, isn't he? I do admire that +sort of dignified trustworthy personage. Gives the grand air to an +establishment.... But then if it comes to that, I admire all your +people, Mrs. Thompson;" and he wound up this morning call with +sycophantically profuse compliments. "Your staff strikes me as unique. I +don't know where you get 'em from. You seem to spot merit in the +twinkling of an eye.... But I have trespassed more than sufficient. I +see you wish to get back to your desk. _Good_ morning, Mrs. Thompson. +Ever your humble servant;" and Mr. Bence bowed himself out. + + + + +IV + + +Certainly, if Mrs. Thompson could not accept the bulk of Archibald +Bence's compliments, she might justly pride herself on being always +anxious to spot merit among her people. Unaided by any advice, she had +quickly spotted the young man in the Carpets department. + +Making her tour of inspection one day, she was drawn towards the wide +entrance of Carpets by the unseemly noise of a common female voice. +Looking into Carpets, she found the shrewish wife of an old farmer +raging and nagging at everybody, because she could not satisfy herself +with what was being offered to her. Half the stock was already on the +floor; Number One and Number Two were at their wits' ends, becoming +idiotic, on the verge of collapse; Number Three had just come to their +rescue. + +"Oh, take it away.... No--not a bit like what I'm asking for." And the +virago turned to her hen-pecked husband. "You were a fool to bring me +here. I told you we ought to have gone to London." + +"But madam knows the old saying. One may go farther and fare worse. I +can assure you, madam, there's nothing in the London houses that we +can't supply here." + +"Oh, yes, you're glib enough--but if you've got it, why don't you bring +it out?" + +"If madam will have patience, I guarantee that we will suit her--yes, in +less than three minutes." + +The young man spoke firmly yet pleasantly; and he looked and smiled at +this ugly vixenish customer as though she had been young, gracious, and +beautiful. + +Mrs. Thompson did not intervene: she stood near the entrance, watching +and listening. + +"Now, madam, if you want value for your money, look at this.... No?... +Very good. This is Axminster--genuine Axminster,--and very charming +colouring.... No?... What does madam think of _this_?... No?" + +He spun out the vast webs; with bowed back and quick movements of both +hands he trundled the enormous rollers across the polished floor; he ran +up the ladders and jerked the folded masses from the shelves; he flopped +down the cut squares so fast that the piled heaps seemed to grow by +magic before the customer's chair. + +Doubtless he knew that he was being observed, but he showed no knowledge +of the fact. As he hurried past Mrs. Thompson, she noticed that he was +perspiring. He dabbed his white forehead with his handkerchief as he +passed again, trundling a roll with one hand. + +Mrs. Thompson felt astounded by his personal strength. Mr. Mears was +strong, a man of comparatively huge girth and massive limbs; he could +lift big weights; but Mears in his prime could not have shifted the +carpet rolls as they were shifted by this slim-waisted stripling. + +Two minutes gone, and the querulous, nagging tones were modulated to the +note of vulgar affability. Two minutes--thirty seconds, and the customer +had decided that her carpet should be one of the three which she was +prodding at with her umbrella. She asked Mr. Marsden to help her in +making the final selection. + +Mr. Marsden was standing up now, Numbers One and Two clumsily hovering +about him, while he talked easily and confidentially to the 'mollified +customer. And while he talked, Mrs. Thompson scrutinized him carefully. + +He could not be more than twenty-seven--possibly less. He was +gracefully although so strongly built, of medium height, with an +excellent poise of the head. His hair was brownish, stiff, cut very +short; his small stiff moustache was brushed up in the military fashion; +his features were of the firmest masculine type--nose perhaps a shade +too thick and not sufficiently well modelled. She could not see the +colour of his eyes. + +But his manner! It was the salesman's art in its highest and rarest +form. He had charmed, fascinated, hypnotised the troublesome customer. +She bought her carpets, and two door mats; she smiled and nodded and +prattled; she seemed quite sorry to say good-bye to Mr. Marsden. + +"I shall tell my friends to come here," and then she giggled stupidly. +"And I shall tell them to ask for you." + +Without entering Carpets, Mrs. Thompson walked away. She did not utter a +word then; but she had determined to promote Number Three, to give him +more scope, and to see what she could make of him. + +She moved him through the Woollens, the Cretonnes; and then again, +upstairs into Crockery. + +Crockery, which had of late betrayed sluggishness, was one side of a +large department. Beginning with common pots and pans, it shaded off +into glass and china; and on this side ran up to the big money which was +properly demanded for the most delicate porcelain and ornamental +ware--such as best English dinner services and modern _Sèvres_ +candelabra. Young Marsden was given charge of the cheaper and +quicker-selling stuff, while Miss Woolfrey, a freckled, sandy lady of +forty, remained for the present in control of the expensive side. But +she was not a titular head; Mears and Mrs. Thompson herself +superintended her, allowing her little discretion, and instructing her +from day to day. + +After a week Marsden, the newcomer, got a distinct move on the sluggish +earthenware; and, after three weeks, Mears rather grudgingly confessed +that the whole department appeared to be brisker, livelier, more what +one would wish it to be. + +On the whole, then, Mrs. Thompson was well pleased with her protégé. She +spoke to him freely, encouraged him by carefully chosen words of +approval. + +One day, while talking to a desk-clerk, she saw him in an adjacent +mirror that gave one a round-the-corner view of Glass and China. He was +standing with a trade catalogue in his hands, surrounded by Miss +Woolfrey and three girls. He seemed to be expounding the catalogue, and +the women seemed to exhibit a docile attention. + +Mrs. Thompson went in and talked to them. + +There had been an accident, and Mr. Marsden was looking up the trade +price of the destroyed article. Poor Miss Woolfrey had broken a +cut-glass decanter--she got upon the steps to fetch it down, and it was +heavier than she expected. + +"Why," inquired Mrs. Thompson, "didn't you ask someone to help you?" + +"I never thought till it was too late, and I'd found out my mistake." + +There was no need to offer apologies to the proprietress, because all +breakages of this character were made good out of an insurance fund to +which all the employees subscribed. The whole shop was therefore +interested in each smash, since everybody would pay a share of the +damage. + +"Mr. Marsden," said Miss Woolfrey, "has so very kindly priced it for me. +He will send on the order at once. So it shall be replaced, ma'am, +without delay." + +The three interested girls lingered at Mr. Marsden's elbows; they +watched his face; they hung upon his words. Miss Woolfrey continued to +thank him for all the trouble he was taking. + +Mrs. Thompson walked away, thinking about Mr. Marsden. These women were +too obviously subject to the young man's personal fascination; their +silly glances were easy to interpret; and middle-aged Miss Woolfrey and +the three immature underlings had all betrayed the same weakness. This +implied a situation that must be thought out. Lady-killers, though +useful with the customers, may cause a lot of trouble with the staff. + +There was no indication of the professional heart-disturber in the young +fellow's general air. Mrs. Thompson had found his manner scrupulously +correct--except that, as she remembered now, there was perhaps something +too hardy in the way he kept his eyes fixed on her face. She attributed +this to sheer intentness, mingled with juvenile simplicity. Most of the +older men instinctively dropped their eyes in her presence. + +After a little thought she called Mears behind the glass, and +interrogated him. "Behind the glass" was a shop term for all the sacred +region masked by the glass partitions, and containing counting-house, +clerks' and secretary's offices, managerial and the proprietorial +departments. + +"If you want the plain fact," said Mr. Mears, "there's little difference +in the pack of 'em." + +"Do you mean they are _silly_ about him?" + +"Yes," said Mears scornfully. "Spoony sentimental--talking ridiculous +over him." + +"But is _he_ all right with the girls? What is _his_ attitude?... Find +out for me." + +Mrs. Thompson was always wisely strict on this most important point of +shop discipline. No playing the fool between the young ladies and young +gentlemen under the care of Mrs. Thompson. + +"I will not permit it," she said sternly; and she laid her open hand +upon the desk, to give weightier emphasis to the words. "We must have +no condoning of that sort of thing. If I catch him at it--if I catch +anyone, out he goes neck and crop." + +In the course of a few days Mr. Mears reported, still grudgingly, that +young Marsden's demeanour towards the young ladies was absolutely +perfect. Stoical indifference, calm disregard, not even a trace of that +flirting or innocently philandering tone which is so common, and to +which one can scarcely object. + +"Good," said Mrs. Thompson. "I'm glad to hear it--because now I shan't +be afraid of advancing him." + +"But," said Mears, "you _have_ advanced him. You aren't thinking of +putting him up again?" + +"I am not sure. Something must be done about Miss Woolfrey. I will think +about it." + +It was not long before Mears, young Marsden and Miss Woolfrey were all +summoned together behind the glass. The typewriting girl had been sent +out of the room; Mrs. Thompson sat in front of her bureau, looking like +a great general; Mr. Mears, at her side, looked like a glum +aide-de-camp; the young man looked like a soldier who had been beckoned +to step forward from the ranks. He stood at a respectful distance, and +his bearing was quite soldierlike--heels together, head well up, the +broad shoulders very square, and the muscular back straight and flat. +His eyes were on the general's face. + +Sandy, freckled Miss Woolfrey merely looked foolish and frightened. She +caught her breath and coughed when Mrs. Thompson informed her that Mr. +Marsden was to be put in charge of the whole department. + +"Over my head, ma'am?" + +"It will make no difference to you. Your salary will be no less. And +yours, Mr. Marsden, will be no more. But you will have fuller scope." + +Miss Woolfrey feebly protested. She had hoped,--she had naturally +hoped;--in a customary shop-succession the post should be hers. + +"Miss Woolfrey, do you feel yourself competent to fill it? Hitherto you +have been under the constant supervision of Mr. Mears. But do you +honestly feel you could stand alone?" + +"I'd do my best, ma'am." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson cordially, "I'm sure you would. But with the +best will in the world, there are limits to one's capacity. I have come +to the conclusion that this is a man's task;" and she turned to the +fortunate salesman. "Mr. Marsden, you will not in any way interfere with +Miss Woolfrey--but you will remember that the department is now in your +sole charge. If I have to complain, it will be to you. If things go +wrong, it is you that I shall call to account." + + +Nothing went wrong in China and Glass. But sometimes Mrs. Thompson +secretly asked herself if she or Mears had been right. Had she acted +wisely when pushing an untried man so promptly to the front? + +During these pleasant if enervating months of May and June she watched +him closely. + +Somehow he took liberties. It was difficult to define. He talked humbly. +His voice was always humble, and his words too--but his eyes were bold. +Something of aggressive virility seemed to meet and attempt to beat down +that long-assumed mastership to which everyone else readily submitted. +In the shop she was a man by courtesy--the boss, the cock of the walk; +and she was never made to remember, when issuing orders to the men who +served her, that she was not really and truly male. + +All this might be fancy; but it made a slight want of ease and comfort +in her intercourse with Mr. Marsden--a necessity felt only with him, an +instinct telling her that here was a servant who must be kept in his +place. + +Once or twice, when she was examining returns with him, his assiduous +attention bothered her. + +"Thank you, Mr. Marsden, I can see it for myself." + +And there was a certain look in his eyes while he talked to +her--respectfully admiring, pensively questioning, familiar,--no, not to +be analysed. But nevertheless it was a look that she did not at all care +about. + +The eyes that he used so hardily were of a lightish brown, speckled with +darker colour; and above them the dark eyebrows grew close together, +making almost an unbroken line across his brow. She saw or guessed that +his beard would be tawny, if he let it grow; but he was always +beautifully shaved. High on his cheeks there were tiny russet hairs, +like down, that he never touched with the razor. + +All through May China and Glass did better and better. Miss Woolfrey, +meekly submitting to fate, worked loyally under the new chief. "If +anyone had to be put above me," said poor Miss Woolfrey, "I'd rather it +was him." + +When a truly excellent week's returns were shown in June, Mrs. Thompson +took an opportunity of praising Mr. Marsden generously. And again, after +he had bowed and expressed his gratification, she saw the look that she +did not care about. + +She read it differently now. It was probably directly traceable to the +arrogance bred of youth and strength--and perhaps a fairly full measure +of personal conceit. Although so circumspect with the other sex, he had +a reliance on his handsome aspect. Perhaps unconsciously he was always +falling back on this--because hitherto it might never have failed him. + +It was Enid who made her think him handsome. Till Enid used the word, +she would have thought it too big. + +One morning she had brought her daughter to the China department in +order to select a wedding-present for a girlfriend. Miss Woolfrey was +serving her, but Mr. Marsden came to assist. Then Mrs. Thompson saw how +he looked at Enid. + +Some sort of introduction had been made--"Enid, my dear, Mr. Marsden +suggests this vase;" and the girl had immediately transferred her +attention from the insipid serving woman to the resourceful serving-man. +Mr. Marsden showed her more and more things--"This is good value. Two +guineas--if that is not beyond your figure. Or this is a quaint +notion--Parrots! They paint them so natural, don't they?" And Mrs. +Thompson saw the look, and winced. With his eyes on the girl's face, he +smiled--and Enid began to smile, too. + +"What is the joke, Mr. Marsden?" Mrs. Thompson had spoken coldly and +abruptly. + +"Joke?" he echoed. + +"You appear to be diverted by the idea of my daughter's purchase--when +really it is simply a matter of business." + +"Exactly--but if I can save you time by--" + +"Thank you, Miss Woolfrey is quite competent to show us all that we +require;" and Mrs. Thompson turned her broad back on the departmental +manager. + +Enid, when leaving China and Glass, glanced behind her, and nodded to +Mr. Marsden. + +"Mother," she whispered, "how handsome he is.... But how sharply you +spoke to him. You quite dropped on him." + +"Well, my dear, one has to drop on people sometimes; and Mr. Marsden is +just a little disposed to be pushing." + +"Oh," said Enid, "I thought he was such a favourite of yours." + +Alone in her room, Mrs. Thompson felt worried. A thought had made her +wince. This young man carried about with him an element of vague danger. +Of course Enid would never be foolish; and he would never dare to aspire +to such a prize; still Enid should get her next wedding present in +another department--or in another shop, if she must have china. + +It was only a brief sense of annoyance or discomfort, say five minutes +lost in a busy day. Mrs. Thompson dismissed it from her mind. But Mr. +Marsden brought it back again. + +Towards closing time, when she was signing letters at the big bureau, he +came behind the glass and entered her room. + +"What is it?" said Mrs. Thompson, without looking up. + +"Mrs. Thompson, I want to make an apology and a request." + +At the sound of his voice she perceptibly started. His presence down +here was unusual and unexpected. + +"I have been making myself rather unhappy about what happened when you +and Miss Thompson were in my department." + +"Nothing happened," said Mrs. Thompson decisively. + +"Oh, yes, ma'am, and I offer an apology for my mistake." + +"Mr. Marsden," said Mrs. Thompson, with dignity, "there is not the +slightest occasion for an apology. Please don't make mountains out of +molehills." + +"No--but I am in earnest. It is your own great kindness that led me to +forget. And I confess that I did for a moment forget the immense +difference of social station that lies between us. A shopman should +never speak to his employer--much less his employer's relatives--in a +tone implying the least friendliness or equality." + +"Mr. Marsden, you quite misunderstand." + +"You were angry with me?" + +"No," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. "To be frank, I was not exactly pleased +with you--and I took the liberty of showing it. That is a freedom to +which I am accustomed." + +"Then I humbly apologise." + +"I have told you it is unnecessary.... That will do, Mr. Marsden;" and +she took up her pen again. + +"But may I make one request--that when I am unfortunate enough to +deserve reproof, it may be administered privately and not in public?" + +"Mr. Marsden, I make no conditions. If people are discontented with my +methods--well, the remedy lies in their own hands." + +"Isn't that just a little cruel?" + +"It is my answer to your question." + +"I don't think, ma'am, you know the chivalrous and devoted feeling that +runs through this shop. There's not a man in it to whom your praise and +your blame don't mean light and darkness." + +Mrs. Thompson flushed. + +"Mr. Marsden, you are all very good and loyal. I recognize that. But I +don't care about compliments." + +"Compliments!... When a person is feeling almost crushed with the burden +of gratitude--" + +"But, Mr. Marsden, gratitude should be shown and not talked about." + +"And I'll show mine some day, please God." + +Mrs. Thompson turned right round on her revolving chair, and spoke very +gently. "I am sorry that you should have upset yourself about such a +trifle." + +Then Mr. Marsden asked if he might come down behind the glass for +direction and orders when he felt in doubt or perplexity. A few words +now and then would be helpful to him. + +Mrs. Thompson hesitated, and then answered kindly. + +"Certainly. Why not? I am accessible here to any of the staff--from Mr. +Mears to the door boy. That has always been a part of my system." + +After this the young man appeared from time to time, craving a draught +of wisdom at the fountain-head. The department was doing well, and he +never brought bad news. + +But he was a little too much inclined to begin talking about himself; +telling his story--an orphan who had made his own way in the world; +describing his efforts to improve a defective education, his speaking at +a debating society, his acting with the Kennington Thespian Troupe. + +"Your elocution," said Mrs. Thompson, "no doubt profited by the pains +you took.... But now, if you please--" + +Mrs. Thompson, with business-like firmness, stopped all idle chatter. A +hint was enough for him, and he promptly became intent on matters of +business. + +He worked hard upstairs. He was the first to come and the last to go. +Once or twice he brought papers down to the dark ground floor when Mrs. +Thompson was toiling late. + +One night he showed her the coloured and beautifully printed pictures +that had been sent with the new season's lists. + +"There. This is my choice." + +She laid her hand flat on a picture; and he, pushing about the other +pictures and talking, put his hand against hers. He went on talking, as +if unconscious that he had touched her, that he was now touching her. + +She moved her hand away, and for a moment an angry flame of thought +swept through her brain. Had it been an accident, or a monstrous +impertinence? He went on talking without a tremor in his voice; and she +understood that he was absolutely unconscious of what he had done. He +was completely absorbed by consideration of the coloured prints of tea +and dinner services. + +Mrs. Thompson abruptly struck the desk bell, drew back her chair, and +rose. + +"Davies," she called loudly, "bring your lantern. I am going through.... +Don't bother me any more about all that, Mr. Marsden. Make your own +selections--and get them passed by Mr. Mears. Good-night." + + + + +V + + +Miss Enid had again taken up riding, and she seemed unusually energetic +in her efforts to acquire a difficult art. During this hot dry weather +the roads were too hard to permit of hacking with much pleasure; but +Enid spent many afternoons in Mr. Young's fine riding school. She was +having jumping lessons; and she threw out hints to Mrs. Thompson that +next autumn she would be able not only to ride to meet, but even to +follow hounds. + +"Oh, my darling, I should never have a moment's peace of mind if I knew +you were risking your pretty neck out hunting." + +"I could easily get a good pilot," said Enid; "and then I should be +quite safe." + +One Thursday afternoon--early-closing day--Mr. Marsden, who happened to +know that Enid would be at the school, went round to see his friend Mr. +Whitehouse, the riding-master. He looked very smart in his blue serge +suit, straw hat, and brown boots; and the clerk in Mr. Young's office +quite thought he was one of the governor's toffs come to buy horses. + +Mr. Marsden sent his card to Mr. Whitehouse; and then waited in a +sloping sanded passage, obviously trodden by four-footed as well as +two-footed people, from which he could peep into the dark office, a +darker little dressing-room, and an open stable where the hind quarters +of horses showed in stalls. There was a queer staircase without stairs, +and he heard a sound of pawing over his head--horses upstairs as well +as downstairs. The whole place looked and smelt very horsey. + +The riding-master's horse was presently led past him; the lesson was +nearly over, and the young lady was about to take a few leaps. A groom +told him that he might go in. + +The vast hall had high and narrow double doors to admit the horses; and +inside, beneath the dirty glass roof, it was always twilight, with +strange echoes and reverberations issuing from the smooth plastered +walls; at a considerable height in one of the walls there was a large +window, opening out of a room that looked like the royal box of a +theatre. + +This hall had been the military school; it remained as a last evidence +of the demolished barracks, and the town was proud of its noble +dimensions--a building worthy of the metropolis. + +"How d'ye do," said the riding-master, a slim, tall, elegant young man +in check breeches and black boots. "Come and stand by us in the middle." + +There was another tall young man, who wore drab breeches and brown +gaiters on his long thin legs, and who was helping a stableman to drag +the barred hurdle across the tan and put it in position against the +wall. + +"Now, Miss Thompson.... Steady. Steady. Let her go." + +Enid on a heavily bandaged bay mare came slowly round, advanced in a +scrambling canter, and hopped over the low obstacle. + +"Very good." + +She looked charming as she came round again--her usually cold pale face +now warm and red, a wisp of her dark hair flying, the short habit +showing her neatly booted legs. + +"Very good." + +"I am lost in admiration," said Marsden; and the strange young man +stared hard at him. + +"Oh, is that you, Mr. Marsden," said Enid. "I didn't know I had an +audience." + +Then she jumped again. This time, in obedience to the directions of Mr. +Whitehouse, she rode at the hurdle much faster; the mare cocked her +ears, charged, and she and Enid sailed over the white bar in grand +style. + +But the thud of hoofs, the tell-tale reverberations roused the invisible +Mr. Young, and brought him to the window of the private box. + +"Not so fast--not nearly so fast," shouted Mr. Young. "There's no skill +or sense in that.... Mr. Whitehouse, I can't understand you. D'you want +that mare over-reaching herself?" And Mr. Young's voice, dropping in +tone, still betrayed his irritation. "Who are these gentlemen? We can't +have people in the school during lessons." + +"All right," said the young man in the brown gaiters. "I've come to look +at the new horse--the one you bought from Griffin." + +"Very good, Mr. Kenion. I didn't see who you were.... But who's the +other gentleman?" + +"He is a friend of mine," said Mr. Whitehouse. + +"Well, that's against our rules--visitors in lessons. You know that as +well as I do." + +"I am quite aware of your rules," said Mr. Whitehouse curtly. "But the +lesson is finished.... That will be sufficient, Miss Thompson. Three +minutes over your hour--and we don't want to tire you." + +Mr. Young snorted angrily, and disappeared. The strange young man +assisted Miss Enid to dismount and went out with her, the bandaged mare +following them with the helper. + +"Who," asked Marsden, "was that spindle-shanked ass?" + +"Oh, he's not a bad boy," said the riding-master patronisingly. "And he +can ride, mind you--which is more than most hunting men can." + +"Is he a hunting man? What's his name?" + +"Mr. Kenion.... Look here, don't hurry off. I want to have a yarn with +you." + +"But Mr. Young--" + +"Oh, blast Mr. Young. I want to talk to you, my boy, about the ladies." + +"Do you?" Marsden half closed his eyes, and showed his strong teeth in a +lazy smile. "What do you think of our young lady?" + +"Miss Thompson?" Mr. Whitehouse shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, not bad." + +Then long thin Mr. Kenion returned. + +"Let's try the new crock over your sticks," said Mr. Kenion languidly. +"I suppose he _is_ a crock--or he wouldn't be here?" + +"I won't bias your judgment," said Mr. Whitehouse as he strolled across +the tan. "See for yourself," and he rang a noisy bell. "But I must make +you known to each other;" and he introduced Mr. Marsden as "one of the +managers at Thompson's." + +Mr. Young's new purchase was brought in, and Mr. Kenion rode it. The +horse at first appeared to resent the silly jumping performance; but +Marsden heard the work of the rider's unspurred heels on the animal's +flanks, watched the effective use Mr. Whitehouse made of his whip as he +ran behind, and soon saw the hurdle negotiated in flying fashion, again +and again--and faster and faster. + +"_Not_ so fast! God bless my soul, I think you must all be mad this +afternoon." Old Young had come to his window, furious. "Mr. Kenion, I'm +surprised at you, yes, I am, sir." + +"How can I judge of a horse without trying him?" + +"Well, I don't want my horses tried like that. You may buy 'em or leave +'em." + +"All right," said Mr. Kenion, laughing. "Come out and have a drink. +You've stood me a ride, and I'll stand you a drink." + +Mr. Kenion, Mr. Young, and the jumping horse all disappeared, and +Marsden and the riding-master were left together on the tan. Here, in +the dim twilight that the glass roof made of this bright June day, they +had a long quiet chat about women. + +"Dicky," said the riding-master, "I'm going to talk to you like a Dutch +uncle." + +"Fire away." + +"All for your own good. See?... Now I suppose when you want a mash, you +don't think of looking outside the shop." + +"I never have a mash inside it." + +"Is that so?" Mr. Whitehouse seemed astonished. "Why, I thought you +smart managers with all those shop girls round you were like so many +grand Turks with their serrallyhos." + +"Not much. That's against etiquette--and a fool's game into the bargain. +You're safe to be pinched--and, second, you get so jolly sick of being +mewed up with 'em all day that you never want to speak to 'em out of +hours." + +"Then how do you get along? The customers?" + +"Yes," said Marsden; and he stroked his moustache, and smiled. +"Customers are often very kind." + +"Not real ladies?" + +"We don't ask their pedigrees. Go down St. Saviour's Court any fine +evening, and see the domestic servants waiting in their best clothes. +It'll remind you of Piccadilly Circus;" and both gentlemen laughed. + +"There's a parlourmaid," continued Marsden, "out of Adelaide +Crescent--who is simply a little lump of all right. Venetian red hair--a +picture." + +"Red hair," said Mr. Whitehouse reflectively. "They say with us, a good +horse has no colour. That means, if the horse is a good 'un, never mind +his colour;--and I suppose it's true of women.... I don't object to +chestnut horses--or red-haired gells.... But, look here, Master Dick, I +tell you frank, you're wasting your opportunities." + +"You can't teach me anything, old man." + +"Can't I? Never turn a deaf ear to a friendly tip--a chance tip may +alter a man's life. That's a motto with me--and I'm acting on it this +moment, myself." + +Then Mr. Whitehouse told his friend that he was about to leave +Mallingbridge forever. Mallingbridge was too small; he intended to throw +himself into the larger world of London. He had very nearly fixed up an +engagement with the big Bayswater people; it was practically a settled +thing. + +"That's why I checked the old bloke like I done just now. Mr. Young he +twigs there's something up; but he doesn't know what's in store for him. +The minute I've got my job definite, I shall open my chest to him--tell +him once for all what I think of him. 'E won't forget it;" and the +riding-master laughed confidently. + +"I'm sorry you're going." + +"Thanks. But why am I lighting out so determined and sudden, instead of +vegetating here half me life? Well--because I got a straight tip, and +all by chance." + +"How was that?" + +"About a month ago a chap comes in here with a lady for a lesson. +Captain Mellish--Meller--I forget the name. Anyhow, he was a son of a +gun of a swell to look at--sploshing it about up at the Dolphin; and he +brings in this actress from the theatre--not a chorus gell, mind you, +but the leading performer--who was drawing her hundred quid a week, so +they said. Well, he evidently fancied he was a bit of a horseman +himself, and he keeps chipping in. When I told her to get her hands +back, and hold her reins long, he says, 'yes, but you'll want to hold a +horse shorter by the head, if he balks at his fences.' I answered +without hesitation, 'I'm very well aware of refusing horses,' I said, +'and also how easy it is to hang on by a horse's mouth when you land +over a fence.... But,' I said, 'let me know who is giving the +lesson--you or me. Wait, miss,' I said, 'if the Captain has other +directions to give you.' She rounded on him at once, asking him to shut +his head. He turned it off with a laugh, and gave me a slap on the back. +'Have it your own way, Mr. Riding-Master.' You'll understand, he said +that sneering. + +"But I believe he thought the more of me before the lesson was over. +Anyhow, when his tart had gone to the dressing-room to change her +things, he and I got yarning here--exactly as if it had been you and +me--like we're doing now. + +"Mind you, he was a wrong 'un. You couldn't talk friendly to him without +twigging that. But, Holy Moses, he was fairly up to snuff.... We went +yarning on, and presently he says, 'It beats me why a knowledgeable +young chap like you should bury himself as a mere servant. Take my tip,' +he says, 'Get hold of a bit of money, and light out on your own.'... +'And how am I to get the money?' I asked him. + +"'Get it from the ladies,' he says. 'Take my tip. I suppose you make +love to all your pupils--you fellows always do. Well, make 'em pay.' I'm +giving you what he said, word for word. 'You're wasting yourself,' he +says. 'See? You're only young once. You've got something to bring to +market, and you're letting it go stale every hour.' + +"Then he run on about what women can do for a man nowadays--and he +_knew_, mind you. He'd _been_ there. Who makes the members of +parliament, the bishops, the prime ministers? Why, women. Leave them out +of your plans--if you want to labour in the sweat of your brow till you +drop. But if not, take the tip. It's the women that give a man his +short-cut to ease and comfort. See?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Marsden. "I see that--but I don't see anything new in +it." + +"Dicky," said Mr. Whitehouse solemnly, "it's a straight tip.... But +you'll never profit by it, my boy, until you stop messing about with +your dressed-up slaveys, and light out for something bigger." + +"I have told you," said Marsden, smiling, "that you can't teach me +anything." + +"You're too cock-sure," said Mr. Whitehouse, almost sadly; "but you're +just wasting yourself.... Here's the tip of a life-time. I've thought it +all out, and I see my own line clear. Drop the gells--and go for the +matrons. Pick your chance, and go for it hammer and tongs.... It's what +I shall do meself. Bayswater is full of rich Jewesses--some of 'em +fairly wallowing in it. And I shan't try to grab some budding beauty. I +shall pick a ripe flower." + +"I wish you luck." + +"Same to you, old pal. But you won't find it the way you're trying just +now;" and Mr. Whitehouse laughed enigmatically. "I can't teach you +anything, but I can give you a parting warning.... D'you think I don't +twig what you were after to-day--wanting to see me especial--and coming +round here,--and losing yourself in admiration of Miss Thompson? And I +don't say you mightn't have pulled it off, if you'd started a bit +earlier. But you're too late. Mr. Kenion has got there first." + +"Is that true--bar larks?" + +"You may bet your boots on it. He's here every time she comes. After the +lessons he sees her home--by a round-about way. The only reason he +didn't go with her this afternoon is because the shop is shut, and +they're afraid of meeting the old lady.... No, my little boy, your Miss +Enid is booked." + + + + +VI + + +Enid was away again, staying for a few days with some friends or friends +of the Salters; and during her absence her mother suffered from an +unusual depression of spirits. In the shop it was noticed that Mrs. +Thompson seemed, if not irritable, at least rather difficult to please; +but all understood that she felt lonely while deprived of the young +woman's society, and all sympathised with her. Assistants, who happened +to meet her after closing time, taking a solitary walk outside the +boundaries of the town, were especially sympathetic, and perhaps +ventured to think that fashionable Miss Enid left her too much alone. + +One evening after a blazing airless day, Dick Marsden, very carefully +dressed in his neat blue serge, with his straw hat jauntily cocked, came +swaggering through St. Saviour's Court, and attracted, as he passed, +many feminine glances of admiration. The pretty housemaid from Adelaide +Crescent ogled and languished; but he merely bowed and passed by. He +could not waste his time with her to-night. There was bigger game on +foot. + +At the bottom of Frederick Street he hurried down the walled passage +that leads to the railway embankment; thence through the vaultlike +tunnel under the line, past the gas-works; over the iron bridge that +spans the black water of the canal, and out into the open meadows. + +These meadows, a broad flat between the canal and the river, belonged to +the railway company; and almost every gate and post reminded one of +their legal owners. Notices in metal frames somewhat churlishly +announced that, "This gate will be closed and locked on one day in each +year"; "There is no right of way here"; "The public, who are only +admitted as visitors, will kindly act as visitors and refrain from +damage, or the privilege will be withdrawn." The public, enjoying the +privilege freely but not arrogantly, ranged about the pleasant fields, +played foot-ball in winter, picked buttercups and daisies in spring, and +even provided themselves with Corporation seats--to be removed at a +moment's notice if the Corporation should be bidden to remove them. On +warm summer evenings like this, the public were principally represented +by lovers strolling in linked pairs, looking into each other's eyes, and +making of the railway fields a road through dreamland to paradise. + +Marsden walked swiftly across the parched grass, moving with strong +light tread, and gazing here and there with clear keen vision. As he +moved thus lightly and swiftly, looking so strong and yet so agile, he +seemed a personification of masculine youth and vigour, the coarse male +animal in its pride of brutal health. Or, if one merely noticed the +catlike tread, so springy and easy in its muscular power, he might +suggest the graceful yet fierce beast of prey who paces through failing +sunlight and falling shadows in search of the inoffensive creature that +he will surely destroy. + +A solitary figure moving slowly between the trees by the river--Mr. +Marsden hurried on. + +"Good evening, Mrs. Thompson."--He took off his hat, and bowed very +respectfully. + +"Oh! Good evening, Mr. Marsden." + +"You don't often come this way?" + +"Oh, yes, I do," said Mrs. Thompson rather stiffly. "It is a favourite +walk of mine." + +"I venture to applaud your taste." And he pointed in the direction of +the town. "Old Mallingbridge looks quite romantic from along here.... +But the gas-works spoil the picture, don't they?" + +The town looked pretty enough in the mellow evening glow. Beyond the +railway embankment, where signal lamps began to show as spots of faint +red and green, the clustered roofs mingled into solid sharp-edged +masses, and the two church towers appeared strangely high and ponderous +against the infinitely pure depths of a cloudless sky. Soon a soft +greyness would rise from the horizon; indistinctness, vagueness, mystery +would creep over the town and the fields, blotting out the ugly +gas-works, hiding the common works of men, giving the world back to +nature; but there would be no real night. In these, the longest days of +the year, the light never quite died. + +The colour of her blue dress and of the pink roses in her toque was +clearly visible, as Mrs. Thompson and the young man walked on side by +side. For a minute she politely made conversation. + +"I have often wondered," she said, with brisk business-like tones, "what +use the railway company will eventually make of all this land." + +"Ah! I wonder." + +"They would not have bought it unless they had some remote object in +view; and they would not have held it if the object had vanished. +Sensible people don't keep two hundred acres of land lying idle unless +they have a purpose." + +"No." + +"It has often occurred to me--from what I have heard--that they will one +day convert it into some sort of depot. There is nothing in the levels +to prevent their doing so. The embankment is no height." + +"I should think you have made a very shrewd guess." + +"If that were to happen, the question would arise, Will it prove an +injury or a benefit to the town?" + +Then Mrs. Thompson ceased to make conversation; her manner became very +dignified and reserved; and she carried herself stiffly--perhaps wishing +to indicate by the slight change of deportment that the interview was +now at an end. + +But Marsden did not take the hint. He walked by her side, and soon began +to talk about himself. An effort was made to check him when he entered +on the subject of the great benefits that a kind hand had showered upon +him, but presently Mrs. Thompson was listening without remonstrance to +his voice. And her own voice, when in turn she spoke, was curiously soft +and gentle. + +"As this chance has come," he said humbly, "I avail myself of it. Though +I could never thank you sufficiently, I have been longing for an +opportunity to thank you _somehow_ for the confidence you have reposed +in me." + +"I'm sure you'll justify it, Mr. Marsden." + +"I don't know. I'm afraid you'll think not--when you hear the dreadful +confession that I have to make." + +Mrs. Thompson drew in her breath, and stopped short on the footpath. + +"Mr. Marsden"--she spoke quite gently and kindly--"You really must not +tell me about your private affairs. Unless your confession concerns +business matters--something to do with the shop--I cannot listen to it." + +"Oh, it only amounts to this--but I know it will sound ungrateful ... +Mrs. Thompson, in spite of everything, of all you have done for me, I am +not very happy down here." + +"Indeed?" She had drawn in her breath again, and she walked on while she +spoke. "Does that mean that you are thinking of leaving us?" + +"Yes, I sometimes think of that." + +"To better yourself?" + +"Oh, no--I should never find such another situation." + +"Then why are you discontented in this one?" + +With the permission conveyed by her question, he described at length his +queer state of mind--a man on whom fortune had smiled, a man with work +that he liked, yet feeling restless and unhappy, feeling alone in the +midst of a crowd, longing for sympathy, yearning for companionship. + +"That's how I feel," he said sadly, after a long explanation. + +Mrs. Thompson had been looking away from him, staring across the river. +She held herself rigidly erect, and she spoke now in another voice, with +a tone of hardness and coldness. + +"I think I recognize the symptoms, Mr. Marsden. When a young man talks +like this, the riddle is easy to guess." + +"Then guess it." + +"Well," she said coldly, "you force me to the only supposition. You are +telling me that you have fallen in love." + +"Yes." + +She winced almost as if he had struck her; and then the parted lips +closed, her whole face assumed a stonelike dignity. + +"Tell me all about it, Mr. Marsden--since you seem to wish to." + +"Love is a great crisis in a man's life. It generally makes him or +breaks him forever." + +"I hope that fate will read kindly--in your case." + +"He either fears his fate too much or his deserts are small--But, Mrs. +Thompson, I do fear my fate. It isn't plain-sailing for me. There are +difficulties, barriers--it's all darkness before me." + +"I hope you haven't made an injudicious choice." + +"Yes, I have--in one way. Shall we sit down here? It is still very +warm." + +It was as though the heated earth panted for breath; no evening breeze +stirred the leaves; the air was heavy and languorous. Mrs. Thompson +seemed glad to sit upon the Corporation bench. She sank down wearily, +leaned her back against the wooden support, and stared at the darkly +flowing water. + +"So difficult," he murmured. "So many difficulties." He looked behind +him at the empty meadows, and up and down the empty path. Then he took +off his hat, laid it on the seat beside him; and, bringing a silk +handkerchief from his sleeve, wiped his forehead. "There are almost +insurmountable barriers between us." + +"Have you given your heart to some married woman? Is she not free to +respond to your affections?" + +"No, she was married, but she's free now.... And I think it amuses her +to encourage me--and make me suffer." He had taken one of the hands that +lay listlessly in the wide lap. "She is _you_." + +Mrs. Thompson snatched her hand away, sprang up from the seat, and spoke +indignantly. + +"Mr. Marsden, have you gone out of your senses?" + +"Yes, I think I have. And who's to blame? Who's driven me out of them?" +He was standing close in front of her, barring the path. "Oh, I can't go +on with all this deception. I lied to you just now. I knew you were +coming here,--and I followed you. I felt I must once for all be with you +alone." + +"Not another word. I will not listen.... Oh!" + +Suddenly he had seized her. Roughly and fiercely he flung his arms round +her, forced her to him, and kissed her. + +"Mr. Marsden!... Shame!... How dare you?... Let me go." + +She was struggling in his arms, her head down, her two hands trying to +keep him off. Her broad bosom panted, her big shoulders heaved; but with +remorseless brutal use of his strength he held her tightly and closely +against him. + +"There," he said. "Don't fight. You'll have to go through it now.... You +women think you can play the fool with a man--set all his blood on fire, +and then tell him to behave himself." + +"Mr. Marsden, let me go--or I shall die of shame." + +"No you won't. Rot. D'you hear? Rot. You're a woman all through: and +that face was made to be kissed--like this--like this.... There, this is +my hour--" + +"Will you let me go?" + +"Yes, in a minute.... You'll dismiss me to-morrow, won't you? I'd better +pack to-night. But I shall always go on loving you.... Oh, my goodness, +what is my life to be without you?" + +And suddenly he released her, dropped upon the seat, and buried his face +in his hands. + +She walked fast away--and then slowly returned. He was still sitting, +with his head down, motionless. + +"Mr. Marsden!... You have insulted me in the most outrageous manner--and +the only possible excuse would be the absolute sincerity of the feelings +that you have expressed so brutally. If I could for a moment believe--" + +"Why can't you believe?" + +"Because it is too absurd. I am no longer young--the mother of a girl +old enough herself to marry." + +"I don't want any pasty-faced girls. I want _you_." + +He spoke without looking up at her, and his face remained hidden by his +hands. + +"If I sit down and talk to you quietly, will you promise that you won't +begin again?" + +"Yes." + +"You give me your word of honour that you won't--won't touch me?" + +"Oh, yes," he said dejectedly, "I promise." + +"When you began just now, you implied--you accused me as if you thought +I had been--encouraging you. But, Mr. Marsden, you must know that such +an accusation is unjust and untrue." + +"Is it? I don't think you women much care how you lead people on." + +"But indeed I do care. I should be bitterly ashamed of myself if I was +not certain that I had never given you the slightest encouragement." + +"Oh, never mind. What does it matter? I have made a fool of +myself--that's all. Love blinds a man to plain facts." + +He had raised his head again, and was looking at her. They sat side by +side, and the dusk began to envelope them so that their faces were white +and vague. + +"At the first," he went on, "I could see that it was hopeless. If social +position didn't interfere, the money would prove a barrier there'd be no +getting round. You are rich, and I am poor. At the first I saw how +unhappy it was going to make me. I saw it was hopeless--most of all, +because I'm not a man who could consent to pose as the pensioner of a +rich wife.... But then I forgot--and I began to hope. Yes, I did really +hope." + +"What is it you hoped for?" + +"Why, that chance would turn up lucky--that somehow I might be put more +on an equality. Or that you would marry me in spite of all--that you'd +come to think money isn't everything in this world, and love counts most +of all." + +"But, Mr. Marsden, how can I for one moment of time credit you +with--with the love you will go on talking about?" + +"Haven't I _shown_ it to you?" + +"I think--I am quite sure you are deceiving yourself. But nothing can +deceive me. You mistake the chivalrous romantic feelings of youth for +something far different." + +"No, I don't mistake." + +"The disparity in our years renders such a thing impossible. Between you +and me, love--the real love--is out of the question." + +"Yes, you can say that easily--because no doubt it's true on your side. +If you felt for me what I feel for you--then it would be another story." + +"But suppose I had been foolish enough to be taken with you, to let +myself be carried away by your eloquence--which I believe was all +acting!" + +"Acting? That's good--that's devilish good." + +"I say, suppose I had believed you--and yielded one day, don't you know +very well that all the world would laugh at me?" + +"Why?" + +"Why--because, my dear boy, I'm almost old enough to be your mother--and +I have done with love, and all that sort of thing." + +"No, you haven't. You're just ripe for love--I felt _that_ when I was +kissing you." + +Mrs. Thompson rose abruptly. + +"I must go home.... Come;" and they walked side by side through the +summer dusk towards the lamp-light of the town. + +"This must never be spoken of again," she said firmly; and before they +reached the last field gate, she had told him many times that her +rejection of his suit was final and irrevocable. Hers was a flat +deliberate refusal, and nothing could ever modify it. + +"Yes," he said sadly, "it's hopeless. I knew it all along, in my secret +heart--quite hopeless." + +But she told him that if he promised never to think of it again, she +would allow him to remain in the shop. + +"Frankly, I would much rather you should go--But that would be a pity. +It might break your career--or at least throw you too much on your own +resources at a critical point. Stay--at any rate until you get a +suitable opening." + +"Your word is my law." + +"Now leave me. I do not wish anyone to see us walking together." + +He obeyed her; and she walked on without an escort, through the dark +tunnel and into the lamp-light of Frederick Street. + + + + +VII + + +"You must 'a been a tremendous long walk," said Yates; "but you're +looking all the better for it, ma'am--though you aren't brought back an +appetite." + +Mrs. Thompson was trifling with her supper--only pretending to eat. The +electric light, shining on her hair, made the rounded coils and central +mass bright, smooth, and glossy; the colour in her cheeks glowed vividly +and faded quickly, and, as it came and went, the whole face seemed +softened and yet unusually animated; the parted lips were slightly +tremulous, and the eyes, with distended pupils, were darker and larger +than they had been in the daylight. By a queer chance the old servant +began to speak of her mistress's personal appearance. + +"Yes," said Yates, "it's the fresh air you want.--Stands to reason you +do, shut up in the shop all day. You look another woman to what you did +when you went out;" and she studied Mrs. Thompson's face critically and +admiringly. + +Mrs. Thompson smiled, and her lips were quite tremulous. + +"Another woman, Yates? What sort of woman do I look like now?" + +"A very handsome one," said Yates affectionately. "And more like the +girl Mr. Thompson led up the stairs such a long time ago--the first time +I ever set eyes on her, and was thinking however she and I would get on +together." + +"We've got on well together, haven't we, Yates?" + +"That we have," said Yates, with enthusiasm. + +"Yates, don't stare so;" and Mrs. Thompson laughed. "You make me +nervous. And I don't want you to flatter me.... But tell me, candidly, +supposing you met me now as a stranger--how old would you guess I was?" + +Yates, with her head slightly on one side, scrutinized her mistress very +critically. + +"Why, I don't believe that anyone seeing you as I do now would take you +for more than forty-two--at the outside." + +"Forty-two! Three years less than my real age. Thank you for nothing, +Yates." Mrs. Thompson laughed, but with little merriment in her laugh. +"You haven't joined my band of flatterers. You have given me an honest +answer." + +Perhaps, if some faint doubt was lingering in Mrs. Thompson's mind, +Yates had provided an answer to that as well as to the direct question. + +The mistress did not invite the servant to sit at table this evening and +help her through the lonely meal. Her thoughts were sufficient company. + + +At night she could not sleep. The contact with the fierce strong male +had completely upset her--never in all her life had she been so handled +by a man. And the extent of the contact seemed mysteriously to have +multiplied the effect of its local violences; the dreaded grip of the +powerful arms, the resistless pressure of the forcing hands, and the +cruel hot print of his kisses were the salient facts in her memory of +the embrace; but it seemed that from every point of the surface of her +body while compelled to touch him a nerve thrill had been sent vibrating +in her brain, and the diffused nerve-messages, concentrating there, had +produced overwhelmingly intense disturbance. + +And memory gave her back these sensations--the wide thrilling wave from +surface to brain, and the explosion of the central nerve-storm flashing +its rapid recognition back to the outer boundaries. Lying in her dark +room she lived through the experience again--was forced to suffer the +embrace not once but again and again. + +It was dreadful that a man, simply by reason of his sex, should have +this power, dreadful that he should abuse his power in thus treating a +woman,--and most dreadful that of all women in the world the woman +should be herself. + +And she thought of the late Mr. Thompson's timid and maladroit +caresses--inspired, monotonous, stereotyped endearments, totally devoid +of nervous excitation, dutifully borne by her, day after day, month +after month, throughout the long years. + +But memory, doing its faithful and accurate work, failed to restore to +her that glow of angry protest, that recoil of outraged dignity which +she had felt when the young man took her in his arms. She could feel his +arms about her still, but the sense of shame had gone. + +Here in the darkened room she could see him--she could not help seeing +him. Hot tears filled her eyes, she writhed and twisted, she tossed and +turned, as the mental pictures came and went; but nothing could drive +him away. He had taken possession of her thoughts; and she wept because +she understood that he had not achieved this tyrannous rule to-day, or +yesterday, but a long time ago, a disgracefully long time ago. In +imagination she was watching him among the china and glass, when +Woolfrey and the others showed her plainly how dangerous he really +was--and it had begun then. Why else should she have felt such a +wrathful discontent at the idea of his courting all the silly girls? In +imagination, she could see him among the carpets, trundling the great +rolls, fascinating, enthralling the rude customer,--and it seemed to her +that it had begun even then. She and the shrew were one in their +weakness; both had been hypnotised together. Mears said all the women +in the shop had submitted to the spell--but not the silliest, most +feather-headed slut of them all had fallen into such idiotic depths as +those in which their proud and stately chief lay weeping. + +She dried her eyes, got out of bed and drank water, stood at the open +window, turned on the light, turned off the light, lay down again and +tried desperately to sleep. + +In a moment her cheeks were burning.--She could feel the hot kisses; she +could hear the hurried words. "A face made to be kissed--setting one's +blood on fire.... You are a woman all through--you are ripe for love." + +Ah, if only one could give way to such a dream of rapture; if one could +believe that the lost years might be recovered, that all one has missed +in life--its passionate sweetness and its satisfying fullness--might be +won by a miraculous interposition of fate. Nothing less than a miracle +can bring back the wasted past. + +She did not sleep; but with the return of day she grew calmer. Thoughts +of Enid helped her. A second marriage--even what the world would call a +wise and fitting alliance--was utterly out of the question. It would be +the death of her daughter's love; it would render the story of her own +life meaningless; it would destroy all the results of twenty-two years' +maternal devotion. Enid had been all in all to her: Enid must remain +what she had always been. If on the mother's part there was a brave +renunciation of self, it belonged to the dim past; it was over and done +with--a solid fact, not to be modified, far less overturned. + +Least of all by such a marriage as this--laughter mingling with the +sound of bells, coarse jokes to be thrown after them instead of pretty +confetti, even the sacred words of the priest at the altar echoed by +derisive words of rabble in the porch! Enid would never forgive +her--were she ever to forgive herself. + +In the broad light of day, in the cold light of logic, she saw that it +was impossible. Her emotions might be roused, unsuspected sexual +instincts might be partially awakened, beneath the matronly time-worn +outer case a virginal mechanism might be stirring; but the whole +intellectual side of her nature was strong enough to reinforce the +special functions of her will. Too late to snatch at lost joys! Reason +rejected the impossibility. + +She was too old. The chance had gone years ago. The young man, even if +she could believe that he loved her now--much as a romantic subject +might fancy that he loved his queen,--would soon grow weary. Familiarity +would rob her of all queenly attributes; at the best nothing would be +left except disappointment, and at the worst disgust. And then she would +suffer intolerable torment. She saw it quite clearly--the martyrdom of a +middle-aged wife who cannot retain her young husband's love. + +None of that. She rose after the sleepless night with her decision +fortified. + + + + +VIII + + +But the fortifying of the decision had cost her much, and the +after-effects of nerve-strain were easily to be perceived. + +She was rather terrible in the shop, and all noticed a sudden and +mysterious change. Of a morning she used to appear with dark circles +round her eyes; her greetings, or acknowledgments of greetings, were +less cordial; she moved more slowly; and in her stern glance it seemed +that there was the certainty of finding something amiss, instead of the +hope of seeing nothing wrong. + +Rather terrible--easily irritated, impatient of argument, quick to +resent advice: as the young ladies put it, ready to snap your head off +at any minute. A whisper, somehow passing out of house to shop, said she +was suffering from continued sleeplessness; and the loyal staff were +eager to make allowances. But they wondered how long the change would +last; they hoped that she would soon get a comfortable night, and wake +up again as their kind and considerate mistress. + +In fact, many little things that once would not have worried her now +jarred upon tired nerves. She felt worried by Bence's, by her husband's +stupid relations, by Mr. Mears; and by Mr. Prentice, the solicitor, who +took the liberties permitted to an old friend. He and all other old +friends worried her. + +She was altogether unable to laugh as of old at the impudence of Bence. +She frowned and stamped her foot when, looking across the road, she +first read the placard on the shuttered frontage of the ancient sadler +and the bookseller. It was not in small print: you could read it from +Thompson's without a telescope. "These Premises," said the poster, "will +shortly be opened as the new Furniture department of Bence Brothers, and +a long-felt want will be supplied by an extensive stock of high-class +goods at reasonable prices." And this, if you please, immediately facing +the two windows that from immemorial time had exhibited Thompson's solid +oak chairs and polished walnut tables! The gross, large-typed piece of +impertinence annoyed her excessively. + +She had always been extraordinarily good to old Thompson's relatives, +who were common and troublesome. They all hung on to her, called her +Cousin Jenny, boasted about their prosperous connection by marriage; +they received benefits with scant thanks, grumbled when they fancied +themselves neglected; and they were all extremely jealous and watchful +of one another. Yet till now they had never exhausted her patience and +magnanimity. + +One of them, John Edward Thompson, a grocer in a small way of business +at Haggart's Cross, had often drawn heavily upon her for financial aid. +He was a short, squat, bearded man; and he used to come into the shop +unexpectedly, and meander about it aimlessly, to the trouble and +confusion of the shop-walkers. + +"What department, sir?" + +He did not answer. + +"What can I have the pleasure of showing you, sir?" + +"Don't mind me, young man. Go on with your work. I'm just looking round +to find my cousin." + +"May I be of assistance, sir? If you will be good enough to tell me your +cousin's name?" + +"My cousin's name," said John Edward shortly, "is _Mrs. Thompson_.... +There. Put that in your pipe and smoke it." + +It nearly always happened that he found Mrs. Thompson with her back +turned towards him. Then he would put two somewhat grubby hands on her +shoulders, with cousinly playfulness pull her round the right way, and +publicly kiss her. This was an act of affection, and a triumphant +assertion of the relationship--something more for those foppish +shopwalkers to put in their pipes and smoke. + +"Cousin Jenny, how goes it?" + +Then, after the kiss, he would look at her reproachfully, and begin to +grumble. + +"Cousin Jenny, you drove through Haggart's Cross last Thursday in your +carriage and pair. _I_ saw you. But you didn't see _me_. No, you didn't +think of stopping the horses for half a minute, and passing the time of +day to your cousin." + +Mrs. Thompson used smilingly to lead him into the counting-house, give +him kind words, give him good money. He took the money grumblingly, as +if it was the least that could be offered as atonement for the +neglectfulness of last Thursday; but he went home very happy. + +He had done all this scores of times, and Mrs. Thompson had borne it all +with unflinching generosity. But now, on a broiling July day, he did it +once too often. He got as far as the public salute, and no further. + +She was upstairs, standing near a desk, with her back towards China and +Glass. He came behind her, playfully laid hold of her, kissed her. She +gave a cry, turned upon him in a white fury, and, seeing who he was, +snapped his head off. + +That day he did not go home happy. + +Other cousins were old Mrs. Price and her two daughters, who would all +three have been in the workhouse but for Mrs. Thompson. Thanks to her, +they were living comfortably at Riverdale, with a pleasant rent-free +cottage, garden, and orchard. The Miss Prices made jam and brought it +as a present to Mrs. Thompson, keeping up a baseless tradition that she +loved their preserve--and taking immense gifts in exchange for it. They +visited their cousin twice in July, first to say they would soon make +the jam, secondly to bring the jam; and each time they spent a long day +at Mallingbridge, coming in and out of house and shop, cackling and +giggling, and almost driving Mrs. Thompson mad. + +Then there was Gordon Thompson, a farmer at Linkfield, who sometimes +came into town on market day, and ate his mid-day meal with his rich +cousin in St. Saviour's Court. He used to open the house door without +ringing the bell, and whistle a few notes as a familiar signal. "Cousin +Jen-ny! Cousin Jen-ny." He would shout this with an ascending +intonation, and then come clambering up the steep staircase. + +"Any dinner to-day for a poor relation?... Ah, my dear, you're not the +sort to turn a hungry man away from your table. Garr--but I can tell you +I'm sharp set." + +He was a hale and hearty-looking fellow, full of noisy jests, with a +great affectation of joviality; but in his twinkling eyes and about his +pursed lips there was the peasant's wariness, astuteness, and greed. +Truly he took all he could get from everybody, including his fortunate +cousin. Enid said his hob-nailed boots were dirty as well as ugly, +malodorous too; and she always fled at his approach, and did not +reappear while Mrs. Thompson feasted him and made much of him. + +Now, when Mrs. Thompson heard the well-known whistle in the hall, she +followed her daughter's example; forsaking the luncheon-dishes, she fled +back to the shop through the door of communication, and left Yates to +entertain hungry Gordon. + +Enid was at home, but she failed as a soothing and calming influence. +If her mother turned to her, endeavoured to lean upon her for support in +an unexpected need, she found a blank void, a totally inadequate +buttress. Enid was self-absorbed, busy with her own little affairs, +taking lessons from the new riding-master at Young's school, spending +long hours away from the house. She seemed like a person who really has +no intuitive sympathy to offer: a person locking up her life against +intruders, keeping close guard over secret emotions, and neither willing +to share her own hopes and fears nor to comprehend those of others. + +Perhaps Enid's coldness--so often felt, but never till now admitted in +the mother's thoughts--added to the hidden trouble of Mrs. Thompson. + +She entered the China department as rarely as possible, and her +intercourse with its head was of the most formal and distant character. +The conduct of Mr. Marsden was irreproachable: he was composed, polite, +respectful; and he never came down behind the glass. But he used his +eyes--a mute yet deadly attack, whenever she encountered them. She +dreaded the attack, braced herself for it when it could no longer be +avoided; and these meetings, however brief, had painful consequences. +They enervated her, sapped her energy, and left her with an incredible +sense of fatigue, so that after each of them she walked downstairs to +her room heavily and wearily, sat at the big desk breathing fast and +trembling, feeling for a little while quite unable to work--almost as if +she had been worn out by another physical tussle, instead of by a mere +exchange of glances. + +She was sitting thus, breathless and perturbed, when Mr. Mears came +bothering. Earlier in the day she had admonished the second in command +very sharply, and it appeared that he could not bear her momentary +censure. He said she had snapped at him as she had never, never +snapped. The vast ponderous man was completely overcome; his voice +shook, his hands shook, and tears trickled down his cheeks while he +solemnly tendered his resignation. + +"Resign? What nonsense are you talking, Mr. Mears?" + +But Mears said it was not nonsense: he meant every word of it. Rather +than suffer here, he would go out and brave the world in his old age. + +"Sit down, Mr. Mears--and don't be so foolish." + +"I don't recognise you these last weeks," said Mears sadly; and he told +her of how intensely he had always venerated her. "Everything you did +was right--It is almost a religion with me. And now I couldn't bear +it--it would break my heart if I was to be pushed aside." + +"You won't be pushed aside. No fear of that." + +"Or if there was to be any great changes in the shop." + +"There will be no great changes in the shop." + +"Nor in your private life?" + +Then Mrs. Thompson snapped again. + +"What do you mean by that? What is my private life to you--or anybody +else? What are you insinuating?... Answer me. What do you mean?" + +He would not, or he could not say. Perhaps he really did not know what +he meant; or some subtle instinct, telling him that a great peril to his +peace and comfort was drawing nearer and nearer, had enabled him to +pierce the mystery and had prompted the words of the offending question. +He sat gasping and gaping while she stormed at him. + +"Understand once for all that I won't be watched and spied upon." + +"I am no spy," he said huskily; "except when you've made me one." + +The door was closed, but her angry voice rang out above the glass +partitions. All through the offices it was known that the manager had +put Mrs. T. into tantrums. + +Suddenly the storm blew itself out. Mrs. Thompson paced the room; then +stopped near the empty fireplace, with her hands clasped behind her +back. Her attitude was altogether manlike. It was the big man, sitting +huddled on the chair, wiping his cheeks, and blowing his nose, who +displayed signs of womanish emotion. + +"Mr. Mears, don't let's have any more of it. You and I must never +quarrel. It would be too absurd. We are _friends_--we are _comrades_;" +and she went over to the chair, and shook hands with her comrade. +"That's right. You and I _know_ each other; you and I can _trust_ each +other." + +Then she again walked up and down the room, speaking as she moved. + +"To show how absolutely I trust you, I'll say to you what I wouldn't say +to anyone--no, not to my daughter. I am sorry if I have seemed fretful +of late. But the reason is this. I have been passing through a mental +struggle--a struggle that has tried me sorely." In her tone and the +whole aspect of her face as she made this confession, there was +something far above the narrow realm of sex, something that man or woman +might be proud to show--a generous candour, a fearless truth, a noble +simplicity. "A hard struggle, Mr. Mears--and I'm a little shaken, but +quite victorious.... Now this is between ourselves--and it must go no +further." + +"It never shall," said Mr. Mears earnestly. + +"And not a word either about our tiff, or your unkind threat to resign." + +"No--er, no. I shan't say another word about that." + +But unfortunately Mr. Mears had already said a word or two about it to +Mr. Prentice the solicitor; and very soon Mr. Prentice came, tactlessly +blundering, to see Mrs. Thompson. + +No one could admire her more than Mr. Prentice--truly his admiration +was so obviously genuine that people sometimes wondered what Mrs. +Prentice thought about it. Staunch friendship, skilled service, as well +as the admiration, had won him many privileges; but he overstepped their +limits now. + +"I say. Is it all serene between you and Mears? Let me advise you--don't +allow the breach to widen. I should consider it a great pity if you were +to part with your right-hand man because of any trifling difference +of--" + +Mrs. Thompson cut him short. + +"Mr. Prentice, there is one thing I cannot permit--even from you." She +was dignified, but terrible. "I cannot, and I will not permit +interference in what is my business, and my business only." + +"Sorry--very sorry.... No idea I should put you out like this." + +Mr. Prentice, with muttered apologies, hurried away, looking scared and +abashed, carrying his square bowler all through the shop into the +street, as if in his confusion he had forgotten that it belonged to his +head. + + + + +IX + + +Shortly after this unlucky visit Mr. Prentice wanted to tell Mrs. +Thompson some startling news, but he did not dare. He consulted Mr. +Mears, and asked him to tell her; but Mears did not dare either. Mears +advised the solicitor to take Yates into his confidence, and let Yates +tell her. + +So then at last Mrs. Thompson heard what so many people knew +already--that Enid was carrying on with a young man in a very unbecoming +fashion. Scandalized townsfolk had seen Enid at the school with him, in +the museum with him, in the train with him;--they had met her at +considerable distances from Mallingbridge, dressed for riding, with this +groomlike attendant, but without a horse. + +The news shocked and distressed Mrs. Thompson--during her first surprise +and pain, it seemed to her as cruel as if Enid had driven a sharp knife +into her heart. But was the thing true? Yates thought it was all +true--none of it exaggerated. + +Mrs. Thompson made a few discreet inquiries, ascertained the correctness +of the facts, and then tackled Enid. + +"Mother dear," said Enid, with self-possession but slightly ruffled, "no +one could help liking Charles. I'm sure you'll like him when you see +him." + +"Why haven't I seen him? Why have you left me to learn his name from the +lips of servants and busybodies? Oh, Enid," said Mrs. Thompson +indignantly, yet very sadly, "didn't you ever think how deeply this +would wound me?" + +"But, mother dear, you must have known that it would happen some +day--that sooner or later I should fall in love." + +"Yes, but I never guessed that, when the time came, or you fancied it +had come, you would keep me in the dark--treat me as if I was a +stranger, and not your best friend." + +"Charlie didn't wish me to tell you about it just yet." + +"And why not?" + +"He said we were both old enough to know our own minds, and we ought to +be quite sure that we really and truly suited each other before we +talked about it. But we are both sure now." + +"I think he has behaved very badly--almost wickedly." + +"How can you say that, mother?" + +"I say it emphatically. He is a man of the world--and he had no right to +allow you to act so foolishly." + +But Enid appeared not to understand her mother's meaning. She could not +measure the enormity of her conduct when indulging in those +train-journeys and museum-wanderings. She admitted everything; she was +ashamed of nothing. + +"Surely," said Mrs. Thompson, "you could see that a girl of your age +cannot do such things without malicious people saying unkind things?" + +"When one is in love, one cannot trouble to think what malicious people +will say." + +In fact Enid seemed to believe that she and Mr. Kenion had created a +small universe of their own, into which no one else had a right to push +themselves. + +"Mother dear," and for the first time she spoke pleadingly and +anxiously. "Please--please don't try to come between us. I could never +give him up." + +It was a turn of the knife with which she had stabbed her mother. The +words of the appeal would have been appropriate in addressing a harsh +and obdurate guardian, instead of an adoring parent. + +"If," said Mrs. Thompson sadly, "he is worthy of you, I shall be the +last person in the world who will ask you to give him up." + +Enid seemed delighted. + +"Mother dear, he is more than worthy." + +"We shall see.... But it all hangs on that _if_--a big _if_, I am much +afraid.... You must pull yourself together, Enid, and be a good and +brave girl--and you must prepare yourself for disappointment. So far, I +do not receive satisfactory reports of him." + +"No one on earth ought to be believed if they bring you tales against +him." + +And then little by little Enid told her mother of Mr. Kenion's many +charms and virtues, and of how and why he had won her love so easily. + +He came to dinner at the Salters, and he wore a red coat. She had never +seen him till she saw him dining in pink, with brass buttons and white +silk facings. He was a magnificent horseman--rode two winners at +Cambridge undergraduate races;--had since ridden several seconds in +point-to-points;--even Mr. Bedford, Young's new riding-master, confessed +that he had a perfect seat on a horse. And he belonged to one of the +oldest families in England. Although old Mr. Kenion was only a +clergyman, he had a cousin who was an English marquis, and another +cousin who was an Irish viscount--if six people had died, and a dozen +people hadn't legally married, or hadn't been blessed with children, +Charles himself would have been a lord. + + +Even if Mrs. Thompson had heard nothing to his disadvantage, the plain +facts of the case would have convinced her that he was a bad lot. As a +woman of business, she had little doubt that she was called upon to +deal with a worthless unprincipled adventurer. His game had been to +force her hand--by compromising the girl, insure the mother's consent to +an engagement. If not interrupted in his plan, he would bring matters to +a point where the choice lay between an imprudent marriage and the loss +of reputation. When Mrs. Thompson thought of her cowardly adversary, +anger made the blood beat at her temples. If she had been a father +instead of a mother, she would have bought one of the implements of the +chase to which he was so much addicted, and have given Mr. Kenion a +wholesome horse-whipping. + +But when she thought of Enid all her pride smarted, and anger changed to +dolorous regret. It was indescribably mortifying to think that Enid, the +carefully brought up young lady, the highly finished pupil of sedate +private governesses and a majestically fashionable school, should forget +the ordinary rules of delicacy, modesty, propriety, and exhibit less +reticence in her actions than might be expected from one of Bence's +drapery girls. Enid had been pointed at, laughed at, talked about. It +was horrible to Mrs. Thompson. It struck directly at her own sense of +dignity and importance. In cheapening herself, Enid had lowered the +value of everybody connected with her. Enid, slinking out of the house, +furtively hurrying to her lover, clandestinely meeting him, and +lingering at his side in unseemly obliviousness of the passing hours, +had been not only jeopardising her own good fame, but robbing her mother +of public esteem. + +Yet far worse than the wound to her pride was the bitter blow to her +affection. Half her life had been spent in proving that her greatest +wish, her single aim was her child's happiness; but all the years +counted for nothing. Trust and confidence extinguished; no natural +impulse to pour out the heart's secrets to a mother's ear--"Charlie +didn't wish me to tell you." Enid said this as if it formed a completely +adequate explanation: she must of course implicitly obey the strange +voice. The mother who worshipped her had sunk immediately to less than +nothing. A man in a red coat, a man in gaiters, the first man who +whistled to her--and Enid had gone freely and willingly to exchange the +dull old love for the bright new one. There lay the stinging pain of it. + +What to do? One must do something. Mrs. Thompson took up the business +side of it, and determined as a first step to tackle the young man. +Purchased horsewhips impossible; but carefully chosen words may produce +some effect. + +She told Enid--after several conversations on the disastrous +subject--that she desired an interview with Mr. Charles Kenion. Enid +might write, inviting him to call upon her mother, or Mrs. Thompson +would herself write. + +Enid said she would write to him without delay; but she begged that he +might be received at the house, and not be asked to enter the shop. She +seemed to dread the idea of bringing so fine a gentleman into close +touch with the common aspects of mercantile existence. + +"No," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. "Let him come to me in my shop. It is +purely a business interview, and I prefer to hold it in a place of +business." + + +It was a most unsatisfactory interview. + +Mrs. Thompson hated the young man at the very first glimpse of him as he +came lounging into her room. He was tall and skinny; his dark, straight +hair was plastered back from a low forehead; he had no moustache; and +his teeth, which showed too much in a narrow mouth, were ugly, set at a +slightly projecting angle, as with parrots. No reasonable being could +call him handsome; but of course his general air and manner were +gentlemanlike--Mrs. Thompson admitted so much at once, and disliked him +all the more for it. Gentlemanlikeness was his sole stock in trade: he +would push that for all it was worth, and she was immediately conscious +that in his easy tone and careless lounging attitude there was a quiet, +steady assumption of his social value as the well-bred young gentleman +whose father is related to the peerage. + +"Please be seated, Mr. Kenion." + +"Thanks." + +She had ignored his obvious intention of shaking hands, and he was not +apparently in the least disconcerted by her refusal of the friendly +overture. + +"I feel sure, Mr. Kenion, that if we have a good talk, you and I will be +able to understand each other." + +"Er--yes, I hope so." + +"I think it is important that you and I _should_ understand each other +as soon as possible." + +"Thanks awfully. I'm sure it's very good of you to let me come. I know +how busy you are." + +He was looking at various objects in the room, and a slow smile +flickered about his small mouth. He looked especially at some files on +the desk, and at the massive door of one of the big safes standing ajar +and displaying iron shelves. He looked at these things with childish +interest; and Mrs. Thompson felt annoyance from the thought that the +smile was intended to convey the inference of his never having seen such +things before, and of his being rather amused by them. + +But she permitted no indication of her thoughts to escape her. The +governing powers of her mind were concentrated on the business in hand; +her face was a solid mask, expressing quiet strength, firm resolution, +worldly shrewdness, and it never changed except in colour, now getting +a little redder, now a little paler; she sat squarely, so that her +revolving chair did not turn an inch to one side or the other; and +throughout the interview she seemed and was redoubtable. + +"My daughter tells me that you have proposed to her." + +"Yes--I may as well say at once that I'm awfully in love.... And Enid +has been good enough to--er--reciprocate. I'm sure I don't know what +I've done to deserve such luck." + +"Nor do I as yet, Mr. Kenion." + +"Exactly. Of course Enid is a stunner." + +"But it was about you, and not my daughter, that I wished to talk. +Perhaps it will save time if I ask you a few questions. That is usual on +these occasions, is it not?" + +"Well, as to that, I can't say," and he laughed stupidly. "This is the +first time I've been bowled over." + +"As a question to begin with--what about your prospects, in whatever +career you have planned?" + +"My plans, don't you know, would depend more or less on Enid." + +"But you can give me some account of your position in the world--and so +forth." + +"Oh, well, that's pretty well known--such as it is. Not brilliant, don't +you know.... But I relied on Enid to tell you all that." + +"No, please don't rely on her. Only rely on yourself, Mr. Kenion." + +Something of the quiet swagger had evaporated. The sunshine came +streaming down from a skylight and fell upon him. Mrs. Thompson had put +him where he would get all the light, and she scrutinized him +attentively. + +His suit of grey flannels, although not of sporting cut or material, +suggested nothing but a stable and horses; and beneath his casual air of +gentlemanly ease there was raffishness, looseness, disreputability. In +the bright sunbeams he looked sallow and bilious; his eyelids drooped, +an incipient yawn was lazily suppressed; and she thought that very +likely he had been drinking last night and would soon be drinking again +this morning. + +Mentally she compared him with another young man. In her mind she +carried now at all times the vividly detailed picture of a masculine +type; and it was impossible not to use it as a standard or measure. Mr. +Kenion seemed very weak and mean and valueless, when set beside her +standard. + +"What is your profession, Mr. Kenion?" + +He had no profession: as she well knew, he was what is called a +gentleman at large. With vague terms he conveyed the information to her +again. + +"Really? Not a professional man? Are you a man of property--landed +estates, and so on?" + +No, Mr. Kenion was acreless. + +"But you are expecting property at your father's death? Is it entailed +upon you? I mean, are you sure of the succession?" + +Mr. Kenion smilingly confessed that his father's death would not bring +him land. + +"But you are assured that he can supply you with ample means during his +lifetime?" + +Oh, no. Mr. Kenion explained that the vicar of Chapel-Norton was in no +sense a capitalist. + +"My governor couldn't do anything more for me--and I shouldn't care to +ask him. He has done a good deal for me already--it wouldn't be fair to +my brothers and sisters to ask him to stump up again;" and he went on to +hint plainly that in his opinion the fact of his being a gentleman--a +real gentleman--should counterbalance such a trifle as the deficiency of +material resources. + +Mrs. Thompson refused to comprehend the hint. + +"Surely, Mr. Kenion, if a young man proposes to a young lady--and asks +her to engage herself to him without her mother's knowledge, that should +imply that he is prepared to take over all responsibilities?" + +She had not uttered a single reproach, or even by innuendo upbraided him +for the improper course that he had pursued when persuading Enid to defy +the laws of chaperonage and go about with him alone. Her pride would not +permit her to make the slightest allusion to the girl's folly. Besides, +that would be to play his game for him. By her silence she intended to +show him that he had not scored a point. + +"Don't you admit as much as that, Mr. Kenion? If I were to countenance +the suggested engagement, how do you propose to maintain such a wife +suitably--in the manner in which she has been brought up?" + +"Well, of course I couldn't promise to open a shop for her;" and he +laughed with fatuous good-humour, as if what he had said was rather +funny, and not an impertinence. + +"There are worse things in the world than shops, Mr. Kenion." + +"Exactly;" and he laughed again. "As to ways and means--of course I +haven't made any inquiries of any sort. But Enid gave me to +understand--or I gathered, don't you know, that money was no object." + +"Indeed it is an object," said Mrs. Thompson warmly. "I might almost say +it has been the object of my life. I know how difficult it is to earn, +and how easy to waste.... But I doubt if anything can be gained by +further discussion. Your answers to my questions have left me no +alternative. I must altogether refuse my sanction to an engagement." + +"You won't consent to it?" + +"No, Mr. Kenion, the man who marries my daughter with my consent must +first prove to me that he is worthy of her." + +"But of course as to that--well, Enid tells me she is over twenty-one." + +"Oh, yes. I see what you mean. A man might marry her without my consent. +But then he would get her--and not one penny with her.... That, Mr. +Kenion, is quite final." + +He seemed staggered by the downright weight of this final statement. + +"Of course," he said, rather feebly, "we are desperately in love with +one another." + +Contempt flashed from her eyes as she asked him still another question +or two. + +"What did you expect--that I should welcome your proposal and thank you +for it?" + +"Well, Enid and I had made up our minds that you wouldn't thwart her +wishes." + +"But, Mr. Kenion, even if I had agreed and made everything easy and +pleasant for you, surely you would not be content to live as a pensioner +for the rest of your days?" + +She was thinking of what Dick Marsden had said to her in the dusk by the +river. "I could not pose as the pensioner of a rich wife." It seemed to +her a natural and yet a noble sentiment; and she contrasted the proper +manly frame of mind that found expression in such an utterance with the +mean-spirited readiness to depend on others that Mr. Kenion confessed so +shamelessly. Marsden was perhaps not a gentleman in the snobbish, +conventional sense, but how much more a man than this Kenion! + +"Don't you know," he was saying feebly; and, as he said it, he stifled +another yawn; "I should certainly try to do something myself." + +"What?" + +"Well, perhaps a little farming. I think I could help to keep the pot +on the boil by making and selling hunters--and a good deal can be done +with poultry, if you set to work in the right way.... Enid seemed to +like the notion of living in the country." + +Mrs. Thompson turned the revolving chair round a few inches towards the +desk, and politely told Mr. Kenion that she need not detain him any +further. + +He had come in loungingly, and he went out loungingly; but he was limper +after the interview than before it. He probably felt that the stuffing +had been more or less knocked out of him; for he presently turned into a +saloon bar, and sought to brace himself again with strong stimulants. + + +No doubt he complained bitterly enough to Enid of the severely chilling +reception that he had met with in the queer back room behind the shop. +Anyhow Enid complained with bitterness to her mother. Indeed at this +crisis of her life Enid was horrid. Yates begged her to be more +considerate, and committed a breach of confidence by telling her of how +her unkind tone had twice made the mistress weep; but Enid could attend +only to one thing at a time. She wanted her sweetheart, and she thought +it very hard that anybody should attempt to deprive her of him. + +"And it will all be no use, mother--because I never, never can give him +up." + +Thus the days passed miserably; and a sort of stalemate seemed to have +occurred. Kenion had not retired, but he was not coming on; and Enid was +horrid. + +In her perplexity and distress Mrs. Thompson went to Mr. Prentice, and +asked him for advice and aid. + +Mr. Prentice, delighted to be restored to favour after his recent +disgrace, was jovial and cheering. He pooh-poohed the notion that Enid +had in the smallest degree compromised herself; he talked of the wide +latitude given to modern girls, of their independence, their capacity to +take care of themselves in all circumstances; and stoutly declared his +belief that among fashionable people the chaperon had ceased to exist. + +"Don't you worry about that, my dear. No one is going to think any the +worse of her for being seen with a cavalier dangling at her heels." + +Nevertheless he heartily applauded Mrs. Thompson for her firm tackling +of the indigent suitor; he offered to find out everything about Kenion +and his family, and promised that he would render staunch aid in sending +him "to the right-abouts." + +When Mrs. Thompson called again Mr. Prentice had collected a formidable +dossier, and he read out the damaging details of Mr. Kenion's history +with triumphant relish. + +"Now this is private detective work, not solicitors' work--and I expect +a compliment for the quick way I've got the information.... Well then, +there's only one word for Mr. Kenion--he's a thorough rotter." + +And Mr. Prentice began to read his notes. + +"Our friend," as he called the subject of the memoir, was sent down from +Cambridge in dire disgrace. He had attempted an intricately dangerous +transaction, with a credit-giving jeweller and three diamond rings at +one end of it, and a pawnbroker at the other. The college authorities +heard of it--from whom do you suppose? _The police!_ Old Kenion paid the +bill, to avoid something worse than the curtailment of the university +curriculum. Since then "our friend" had been mixed up with horsedealers +of ill repute--riding their horses, taking commissions when he could +sell them. + +"He gambles," said Mr. Prentice with gusto; "he drinks; he womani--I +should say, his morals with the other sex are a minus quantity.... And +last of all, I can tell you this. I've seen the fellow--got a man to +point him out to me; and there's _blackguard_ written all over him." + +"Then how _can_ respectable people like the Salters entertain him?" + +"Ah," said Mr. Prentice philosophically, "that's the way we live +nowadays. The home is no longer sacred. People don't seem to care who +they let into their houses. If a fellow can ride and can show a few +decent relations, hunting folk forgive him a good deal. And the Salters +very likely hadn't heard--or at any rate didn't _know_ anything against +him." + +At his own suggestion, jumped at by his client, Mr. Prentice returned +with Mrs. Thompson to St. Saviour's Court, and told Miss Enid that it +would be madness for her any longer to encourage the attentions of such +a ne'er-do-well. + +"If you were my own daughter," said Mr. Prentice solemnly, "I should +forbid your ever seeing him again. And I give you my word of honour I +believe that before a year has past you'll thank Mrs. Thompson for +standing firm now." + +But Enid was still horrid. She seemed infatuated; she would not credit, +she would not listen to, anything of detriment to her sweetheart's +character. She spoke almost rudely to her mother; and when Mr. Prentice +took it on himself to reprove her, she spoke quite rudely to him. Then +she marched out of the room. + +"I am afraid," said Mr. Prentice, "there'll be a certain amount of +wretchedness before you bring her to reason." + + +There was wretchedness in the little house--Enid pining and moping, +assuming the airs of a victim; her mother trying to soften the +disappointment, arguing, consoling, promising better fish in the sea +than as yet had come out of it. Enid refused to go away from +Mallingbridge. Mrs. Thompson herself longed for change, and the chance +of forgetting all troubles; there was nothing to keep her here now, +although her presence would be required in September; but Enid seemed +tied by invisible strings to the home she was making so very +uncomfortable. + +She would not go away, and she would not undertake to refrain from +seeing or writing to Mr. Kenion. She did give her word that she would +not slink out and marry him on the sly. But she could safely promise +that, because, under the existing conditions of stalemate, it was very +doubtful if Mr. Kenion would abet her in so bold a measure. Probably she +was aware that Mr. Kenion's courtship had been successfully checked; and +the knowledge made her all the more difficult to deal with. Mr. Kenion +was neither retiring, nor coming forward: he was just beating time; and +perhaps Enid felt humiliated as well as angry when she observed his +stationary position. + +A pitiful state of affairs--mother and daughter separated in heart and +mind; on one side increasing coldness, on the other lessening hope; an +estrangement that widened every day. + +Then at last Enid consented to start with her mother for a rapid tour in +Switzerland. Mr. Kenion, it appeared, had crossed the Irish Channel on +some kind of horse-business; and so Lucerne and Mallingbridge had become +all one to Enid. + +They stayed in many hotels, visited many new scenes; and Mrs. Thompson, +looking at high mountains and broad lakes, was still vainly trying to +recover her lost child. Enid was calm again, polite again, even +conversational; but between herself and her mother she had made a wall +as high as the loftiest mountain and a chasm as wide as the biggest of +the lakes. + + + + +X + + +The books of Thompson's were made up and audited at the end of each +summer season, and in accordance with an unbroken custom the +proprietress immediately afterwards gave a dinner to the heads of +departments. Printed invitations were invariably issued for this small +annual banquet; the scene of the entertainment was the private house; +and the highly glazed cards, with which Mrs. Thompson requested the +honour of the company of Mr. Mears and the others in St. Saviour's Court +at 6:45 for 7 o'clock, used to be boastfully shown along the counters by +the eight or ten happy gentlemen who had received them. + +During the course of the dinner--the very best that the Dolphin could +send in--Mrs. Thompson would thank her loyal servants, give her views as +to where the shop had failed to achieve the highest possible results, +and discuss the plan of campaign for the next twelve months. The heads +of departments, warmed with the generous food, cheered with the +sparkling wine, charmed and almost overwhelmed by Mrs. Thompson's +gracious condescension, said the same things every year, made the same +suggestions, never by any chance contributed an original idea. But the +dinner was doing them good; they would think better and work harder when +it was only a memory. At the moment it was sufficient for them to +realize that they were here, sitting at the same luxurious table with +their venerated employer, revelling in her smiles, seeing her evening +robe of splendour instead of the shop black; admiring her bare shoulders +and her white gloves, her costly satin and lace, her glittering sequins +or shimmering beads; and most of all admiring her herself, the noble +presiding spirit of Thompson's. + +Jolly Mr. Prentice was always present--acting as a deputy-host; and at +the end of dinner he always gave the traditional toast. + +"Gentlemen, raise your glasses with me, and drink to the best man of +business in Mallingbridge. That is, to Mrs. Thompson.... Mrs. +Thompson.... Mrs. Thompson!" + +Then little Mr. Ridgway of Silks used to start singing. + +"'For she's a jolly good fellow'".... + +"Please, please," said Mrs. Thompson, picking up her fan, and rising. +"_Without_ musical honours, please;" and the chorus immediately stopped. +"Gentlemen, I thank you;" and she sailed out of the room, always turning +at the door for a last word. "Mr. Prentice, the cigars are on the side +table. Don't let my guests want for anything." + +Now once again the night of this annual feast had come round, the +champagne corks were popping, the Dolphin waiters were carrying their +dainty dishes; and Mrs. Thompson sat at the top of her table, like a +kindly queen beaming on her devoted courtiers. + +Yates, standing idle as a major-domo while the hirelings bustled to and +fro, was ravished by the elegant appearance of the queen. Yates had +braced her into some new tremendous fashionable stays from Paris, and +she thought the effect of slimness was astonishing. Truly Mrs. Thompson +had provided herself with a magnificent dress--a Paris model, of grey +satin with lace and seed pearls all over the bodice; and her opulent +shoulders, almost bursting from the pretty shoulder-straps, gleamed +finely and whitely in the lamp-light. Her hair made a grand full +coronet, low across the brow; her face seemed unusually pale; and there +were dark shadows about her glowing eyes. + +"Yes, Mr. Mears--as you say, travelling opens the mind. But I fear I +have brought home no new information." + +"What you have brought home," said Mr. Ridgway, gallantly, "is a +pleasure to see--and that is, if I may say so"-- The little man had +intended to pay a courageously direct compliment, by saying that Mrs. +Thompson had never looked so attractive as she did now after the brief +Continental tour; but suddenly his courage failed him, nervousness +overcame him, and, floundering, he tailed off weakly. "You have, I hope, +ma'am, brought home replenished health and renewed vigour." + +"Thank you, Mr. Ridgway;" and the nervousness seemed to have +communicated itself to Mrs. Thompson's voice. "A change of scene is +certainly stimulating." + +"I've always had a great ambition," said Mr. Fentiman of Woollens, "to +get a peep at Switzerland before I die." + +"Then you must arrange to do so," said Mrs. Thompson, with kindly +significance. "Some autumn--I'm sure it would be easy to arrange." + +"I figure it," said Mr. Fentiman sententiously, "as a gigantic +panorama--stupefying in its magnitude--and, ah, in all respects unique." + +"It is very beautiful," said Mrs. Thompson; and she glanced at Enid, who +was pensively playing with her breadcrumbs. + +"The Swiss," said Mr. Mears, "are reputed a thrifty race. Did you, +madam, observe signs of economic prosperity among the people?" + +Mr. Prentice chimed in boisterously from the bottom of the table. + +"What no one will ever observe among the Swiss people is a pretty girl. +Did you see a pretty girl on all your travels, Mrs. Thompson--except the +one you took with you?" And Mr. Prentice bowed to Enid, and then +laughed loudly and cheerfully. + +"Is that a fact?" asked Mr. Ridgway. "Are they really so ill-favoured?" + +"Plainest-headed lot in Europe," shouted Mr. Prentice. + +"And do you, madam, endorse the verdict?" + +"Oh, no. Far too sweeping;" and Mrs. Thompson laughed nervously, and +attempted to draw her daughter into the conversation. "Enid, Mr. Ridgway +is asking if we saw no pretty girls in Switzerland." + +But Enid was dull. She had volunteered to join the party, but she would +not assist the hostess in making it a success. She need not have been +here; and it was stupid or unkind of her to come, and yet not try to be +pleasant. + +"Didn't we, mother? I don't remember." + +All this strained talk about Switzerland was heavy and spiritless. One +heard the note of effort all through it. In the old days they would have +been chattering freely of the shop and themselves. Mrs. Thompson felt +painfully conscious that there was something wrong with the feast. No +gaiety. Some influence in the air that proved alternately chilling and +nerve-disturbing. She knew that Mr. Prentice felt it, too. He was +endeavouring to make things go; and when he wanted things to go, he +became noisy. He was growing noisier and noisier. + +She looked at her guests while Mr. Prentice bellowed in monologue. They +were eating and drinking, but somehow failing to enjoy themselves. + +Big Mr. Mears, sitting beside her, ate enormously. He wore a black bow +tie, with a low-cut black waistcoat and his voluminous frock-coat--he +would not go nearer to the conventional dress-clothes, not judging the +swallow-tail as befitting to his station in life, or his figure. Scrubby +little Mr. Ridgway, on her other side, emptied his glass with +surprising rapidity. Mr. Fentiman, a tall skinny man, ate almost as much +as Mr. Mears. He had cleared his plate and was looking at the ceiling, +with his long neck saliently exposed above a turn-down collar, as he +dreamed perhaps of next year's holiday and a foreign trip financed by a +liberal patroness. Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the familiar +commonplace faces--bald heads glistening, jaws masticating, hands busy +with knife and fork; but nowhere could she see any light-hearted jollity +or genuine amusement and interest. + +She looked at the head of China and Glass last of all. On this occasion +Mr. Marsden made his initial appearance at her hospitable board. It was, +of course, impossible to leave him out of the gathering; but great, very +great trouble of mind had been aroused by the necessity to include him. +She had feared the meeting under the relaxed conditions of friendly +informal intercourse. Perhaps, so far as she was concerned, all the +nerve-vibrating element in the atmosphere was caused by his quiet +unobtrusive presence. + +He wore faultless evening-dress, with a piqué shirt, a white waistcoat, +and a flower in his button-hole; and, sitting at the other end of the +table, near Mr. Prentice, he was very silent--almost as silent as Enid. +Not quite, because he spoke easily and naturally when anybody addressed +him. And his silence was smiling and gracious. Among the other men he +seemed to be a creature from a different world--so firm in his quiet +strength, so confident in his own power, so young, so self-possessed, +and so extraordinarily, overbearingly handsome. + +The dinner was more than half over; the Dolphin waiters were carving and +serving some savoury game; Mrs. Thompson exerted herself as a watchful +and attentive hostess. + +"Mr. Greig, you mustn't refuse the grouse. It was specially sent from +Scotland for us." + +"Really, madam," said Mr. Greig, the obese chief of Cretonnes etc., +"your menoo is that ample I find it difficult not to shirk my duties to +it. But still, since you're so kind as to mention it--yes, I thank you." + +"That's right, Mr. Greig." + +"Greig, my good friend," said Mr. Prentice, "you'd make a poor show at +the Guildhall or the Mansion House, if you can't stay the course without +all these protestations and excuses." + +"I've never dined with the Lord Mayor," said Mr. Greig; "but I cannot +believe his lordship offers the most distinguished company a more ample +menoo than this." + +"Enid," said Mrs. Thompson, "do have some grouse." + +"No, thank you, mother." + +It was Enid who cast a chill upon everything and everybody; all the cold +and depressing influence issued from her. She looked pretty enough in +her pink and silver frock, and she ought to have been a charming and +welcome addition to the party; but she would not put herself to the +trouble of talking and smiling. She made no slightest effort to set +these more or less humble folk at their ease. She showed that she was +absent-minded, and allowed people to guess that she was also bored. Now +Mr. Prentice was rallying her with genial, paternal freedom--and she +would not even answer his questions. He turned away, to bellow at Mr. +Fentiman; and obviously felt crushed by his failure to make things go. + +The point had been reached when it was customary to begin their friendly +business talk; but to-night it seemed impossible for them to speak +comfortably of the shop. The presence of the fashionable outsider tied +all their tongues. + +Old Mears ponderously started the ball; but no one could keep it +rolling. + +"Well, ma'am," said Mr. Mears. "Another year has come and gone. We are +in a position to look behind us; and, as usual, before we commence to +look ahead of us, any words that fall from your lips will be esteemed a +favour." + +"Hear, hear," said Mr. Ridgway, shyly and feebly. + +"Really, gentlemen," said Mrs. Thompson, "I don't know that I have any +words likely to be of value." + +"Always valuable--your words," said fat Mr. Greig. + +"But I take this opportunity," and Mrs. Thompson looked nervously at her +daughter--"this opportunity of thanking you for all you have done for me +in the past, and of assuring you that I place the fullest confidence in +you--in you all--for the future." + +Enid had thrown a blight over the proceedings. She made them all shy and +uneasy. Even Mrs. Thompson herself could not speak of the shop without +hesitating and stammering. + +"So, really," she went on, "that is all I need say, gentlemen. But, as +always, I shall be--shall be glad--extremely glad if you will give me +your candid views on any subjects--on all subjects.... Have you any +suggestions to make, Mr. Mears?" + +Mr. Mears coughed, and hummed and hawed before replying. + +"We must adhere to our maxims--and not get slack, no matter how good +business may be." + +"That's it," said Mr. Ridgway. "Keep up the high standard of Thompson's, +whatever else we do." + +"Any suggestions from _you_, Mr. Greig?" + +"No more," said Mr. Greig, "than the remarks which my confreers have +passed. I say the same myself." + +She asked them each in turn, hurrying through her questions, scarcely +waiting to hear the unusually imbecile answers. + +"Mr. Marsden--have you any suggestions to make?" + +"None," said Marsden, firmly and unhesitatingly. "Unless, madam, you +would authorise me to break the neck of Mr. Archibald Bence." + +This sally was received with universal applause and laughter. + +"Bravo," cried Mr. Prentice. "Take me with you, my boy, when you go on +that job." + +"And me, too." + +"And I must be there--if it's only to pick up the remains." + +"And to bury 'em decently." + +"Which is more than Master Bence deserves." + +They were all laughing heartily and happily, all talking at once, +gesticulating, pantomiming. Even old Mears beat upon the table with a +fork to express his satisfaction, and his agreement with the general +feeling. + +All the tongues were untied by the seasonable facetiousness of Mr. +Marsden. The hostess flashed a grateful glance at him; but he was not +looking in her direction. He was courteously listening to Mr. Prentice, +who had lowered his voice now that things had begun to go of their own +accord. + +And things continued to go well for the rest of the dinner. The name of +Bence had acted like a charm; they all could find something to say about +the hated and unworthy rival, and their hitherto frozen tongues now +wagged unceasingly. + +"Did you ever see such wretched little starveling girls as he puts into +the bazaar at Christmas?" + +"It's a disgrace to the town, importing such waifs and strays." + +"They tell me he gets 'em out of a place in Whitechapel--and they're in +charge of a couple of detectives all the time." + +"Yes, you bet. Two upon ten, or the poor little beggars would prig his +gimcracks as fast as he put them out." + +"I don't vouch for it--but I believe it myself: they had three cases of +pocket-picking in an hour. And it was one of his shop-girls who done +it." + +"That's a nice way of doing business! 'Step this way, miss, and look at +our twopenny 'a'penny toys'--and pick the customer's pocket as you are +serving her." + +While they talked so cheerily and pleasantly Mrs. Thompson several times +glanced down the table at her youngest manager. She need not have +dreaded the meeting. He had made it quite easy for her. He had proved +that he possessed the instincts of a true gentleman--not a make-believe +gentleman; he had displayed consideration, tact, good breeding; and by +his ready wit he had come to her aid and dissipated the dullness of her +guests. She sat smiling and nodding in the midst of their lively +chatter, and looked at Mr. Marsden's strong, clear-cut profile. It +seemed to her statuesque, noble, magnificent; and it did not once change +into a full face during all the time she watched it. + +Now the guests had eaten their dessert, and the hired waiters had gone +from the room. The moment had come for the toast. + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Prentice, "fill your glasses and drink a health. I +give you two people rolled into one--that is, the best Man of business +in Mallingbridge and Mrs. Thompson.... Mrs. Thompson!" + +"Now, all together," said Mr. Ridgway; and he began to sing. "'For +_she_'s a jolly good fel-low'".... + +"Please, please," said Mrs. Thompson, getting up from her chair, and +stopping the chorus. "No musical honours, _please_.... Gentlemen, I +thank you.... And now my daughter and I will leave you to your coffee +and cigars." + +Then she followed Enid to the door, and turned on the threshold. + +"Mr. Prentice, don't let our guests want for anything.... Yates has put +the cigars on the side-table." + + +In the other room Enid walked over to the piano, and, without uttering a +word, began to play. + +"After all," said Mrs. Thompson, with a sigh of relief, "it didn't go +off so badly." + +"No," said Enid, looking at her fingers as they slowly struck the notes, +"I suppose not." + +"What is it you are playing?" Mrs. Thompson asked the question abruptly. + +"Chopin." + +"Can't you play anything gayer? That's so sad." + +"Is it?... I don't feel very gay." + +The plaintive and depressing melody continued, while Mrs. Thompson +walked about the room restlessly. Then she came to the side of the +piano, and leaned her arm upon the folded lid. + +"Enid. Stop playing." She spoke eagerly and appealingly; and Enid, +looking up, saw that her eyes were wet with tears. + +"Mother, what's the matter?" + +"Everything is the matter;" and she stretched out her hand above the +ivory keys. "Enid, are you purposely, wilfully unkind to me?... Where +has my child gone?... It's wicked, and _stupid_ of you. Because I am +trying to save you from a great folly, you give me these cold tones; day +after day, you--you treat me as a stranger and an enemy." + +"Mother, I am sorry. But you must know what I feel about it.... Is it +any good going over the ground again?" + +"Yes, it _is_ good," said Mrs. Thompson impetuously; and she withdrew +the hand that had vainly invited another hand to clasp it. "You and I +must come to terms. This sort of thing is what I can't stand--what I +_won't_ stand." With a vigorous gesture she brushed away her tears, and +began to walk about the room again. + +Enid was looking down her long nose at the key-board; and her whole face +expressed the sheep-like but unshakable obstinacy that she had inherited +from her stupid father. + +"Mother," she said slowly, "I told you at the very beginning that I +could never give him up." + +Then Yates brought in the coffee. + +"Put it down there," said Mrs. Thompson, "and leave us." + +And Yates, with shrewd and rather scared glances at mother and daughter, +went out again. + +"I don't believe--I _know_ that this man is not worthy of you. I won't +tell you how meanly I think of him." + +"No, please don't speak against him any more. You have done that so +often already." + +"And haven't I the right to state my opinion--and to act on it, too? Am +I not your mother? Can I forget that--even if you forget it?" + +"Mother, I haven't forgotten. I remember all your goodness--up to now." + +"Mr. Kenion simply wants the money that I could give you, if I pleased." + +"He only wants us to have just sufficient to live on." + +"The money is his first aim." + +"Mother, if that were _true_, nothing would ever make me believe it." + +"No doubt he is fond of you--in a way.... Enid, I implore you not to +harden yourself against me.... Of course he is attracted by you. Who +wouldn't be? You are young and charming--with every grace and spell to +win men's love. Any man should love you--and other men will.... Be +reasonable--be brave. It isn't as if you could possibly feel that this +was the last chance--the last offer of love in a woman's life." + +"Mother, it must always be the last chance--the only chance, when one +has set one's heart on it." + +"Set your heart!" cried Mrs. Thompson, vehemently and passionately. +"Your heart? You haven't got a heart--or you couldn't, you couldn't make +me so miserably unhappy as you are doing now." + +"I am very sorry--but I share the unhappiness, don't I? Mother, I, too, +am most miserably unhappy." + +Mrs. Thompson was pacing to and fro rapidly and excitedly; her bosom +heaved, and the words were beginning to pour out with explosive force. + +"He is everything then--the sun, moon, and stars to you; and I am a +cipher. The mother who bore you counts for less than any Tom, Dick, or +Harry who puts his arms round your waist and pulls your silly face +towards him." + +"Mother!" + +"Yes, mother! That's my name still--and you use it from habit. Only the +fact--the plain meaning of the word is gone." + +"Mother, they'll hear you in the other room." + +"But I'm not a woman to be ignored and slighted--and pushed aside. +There's nothing of the patient Griselda in my nature. I am what I +_am_--all alive still--not done for, and on the shelf. I have +subordinated my life to yours--let you rule it how you chose. But you +must rule it by kindness--not by cold looks and cutting words. I don't +submit to that--I _won't_ submit to it." + +"Mother dear, I have told you how grateful I am." + +"And gratitude--as you understand it--is no use to me. I've a +_right_--yes, a right to your affection--the natural affection that I've +striven to retain, that I've done nothing to forfeit." + +"No, no. Mother dear, you have my affection." + +"Then what's it worth? Not much--no, not very much, if the first time I +appeal to your sense of duty too, it isn't to be found. I tell you not +to be a fool--and you swear I am wrecking your life. I'm the villain of +your trumpery little drama--plotting and scheming to frustrate your love +and spoil your life. That's too rich--that's too good, altogether too +good." + +The expression of Enid's face had changed from obstinacy to alarm. She +watched her mother apprehensively, and stammered some calming phrases. + +"Mother dear, I'm sorry. Don't, don't get excited--or I'm sure they'll +hear us in the other room." + +"Your life, yes. And what about _my_ life?" The words were pouring out +in an unchecked torrent. "Look back at my life and see what it has been. +You're twenty-two, aren't you? And I was that age more than twenty-two +years ago--and all the twenty-two years I've given you. Something for +something--not something for nothing. We traders like fair exchange--but +you've put yourself above all that.... No, leave me alone. Don't touch +me, since you have ceased to care for me." + +Enid had come from the piano, and was endeavouring to subdue the +emotional explosion by a soothing caress. + +"Leave me to myself--leave me alone. I'm nothing to you--and you know +it." + +Enid's caress was roughly repulsed; and Mrs. Thompson sat upon the sofa, +hid her flushed face upon her arms, and burst into a fit of almost +hysterical sobbing. + +"Mother, mother--don't, please don't;" and Enid sat beside her, patted +her shoulder, and begged her quickly to compose herself lest the +gentlemen should come and see her in her distress. + +"It's so cruel," sobbed Mrs. Thompson. "And now--now of all times, I +can't bear it.... But I mustn't let myself go like this. I daren't give +way like this." + +Then very soon her broad back ceased to shake; the convulsing gasping +sobs were suppressed, and she sat up and dried her eyes. + +"Enid, have I made a horrible fright of myself?" And she rose from the +sofa, and went to look in the glass over the fireplace. The tears had +left little trace; the reflection in the glass reassured her. + +She was comparatively calm when she returned to the sofa and sat down +again. + +"Enid, my dear, I'm ashamed to have been betrayed into such weakness," +and she smiled piteously. "But you have tested me too severely of +late--since this unlucky affair began. I have thought myself strong +enough; but the strongest things have their snapping point--even iron +and steel;--and I am only flesh and blood.... You don't understand, but +I warn you that I _need_ the sympathy and the kindness which you +withhold from me.... Be nice to me--be kind to me." + +But Enid was crying now. Tears trickled down her narrow face. The +strange sight of her mother's violent and explosive distress had quite +overcome her. + +"I do try to do what's right," she whimpered. + +"Yes, my darling girl," said Mrs. Thompson tenderly. "And so do I. It's +all summed up in that. We must do what's right and wise--not just what +seems easy and delightful. There. There.... Use my handkerchief;" and in +her turn she reminded Enid that the gentlemen would be with them at any +minute. + +"Mother, when you ask me to give him up, it's more than I _can_ do." + +"But would I ask you if I wasn't certain--as certain as I can be of +anything in the world--that you could never be happy with him? You'd be +risking a lifetime's regret." + +"I am ready to take the risk. Don't come between us." + +"Enid, my dearest--my own Enid, trust me--trust the mother who has +never, never thwarted you till now. You know I'm not selfish--not greedy +of money. Truly I have only worked for you.... And think--though I hate +to say it--of the many--the many, many things I have given up for your +sake. It wasn't difficult perhaps--because you were everything on earth +to me. But any middle-aged woman who knew my life would tell you that I +have made great sacrifices--and all for you." + +"I know you have, mother. It's dreadful to think of how you have worked, +year after year." + +"Then can't you make this one sacrifice for me?" + +"If it was anything else;" and Enid sniffed, and another tear or two +began to trickle. "If it was anything else, I'd obey you implicitly--and +know it was my duty." + +"Why isn't it your duty now?" + +"Because this is so different." + +"Enid, stop. Don't say any more." + +"But, mother dear, do understand what I mean." + +"Yes, I understand too well." + +"I'm not ungrateful. If you called on me to pay back some of my debt, +I'd work for you till I dropped. I'd try to make every sort of sacrifice +that you have made for me. But when it comes to a woman's love, she +_can't_ sacrifice herself." + +"Then, by God, I'll take you at your word." + +Mrs. Thompson had sprung up from the sofa; and once more she paced to +and fro, a prey to an increasing excitement. + +"Mother? You'll consent?" + +"Yes--I consent. A woman can't sacrifice her love! Very good. So be it. +That's your law. Then obey it--and, as there's a God in Heaven, I'll +obey it, too." + + +The gentlemen, leaving their dinner table, heard the raised voice, and +paused in surprise outside the drawing-room door. When they entered the +room, Mrs. Thompson, with blazing cheeks and flashing eyes, turned +towards them and gazed eagerly through the open doorway. + +"Mr. Marsden, where are you? Come here." + +Marsden went to her quickly; and she drew him away to the curtained +windows, and spoke in an eager whisper. + +"Did you mean what you told me by the river?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you mean it still?" + +"Yes." + +"On your honour as a man, is that true?" + +"Yes." + +Then she took his right hand in her two hands, and held it tightly. + +"Gentlemen--listen to me, please;" and she spoke with feverish +resolution. "This is not perhaps an opportune moment for making the +announcement--but I want you to know, I want all my friends to know +without further delay that Mr. Marsden and I are engaged to be married." + +Silence like a dead weight seemed to fall upon the room. + +Enid had uttered a half-stifled exclamation of horror, but blank +amazement rendered the guests dumb. Mr. Prentice, who had become +apoplectically red, opened and shut his mouth; but no sound issued from +it. Mr. Mears, with bowed head and heavily hanging arms, stared at the +carpet. Gradually every eye sank, and all were staring downwards--as if +unable to support the sight of the couple who stood hand in hand before +them. + +At last Mr. Ridgway tried to say something; and then Mr. Fentiman feebly +echoed his words. + +"You have taken our breath away, madam. But it behoves us +to--ah--congratu--to felicitate." + +"Or to proffer our good wishes." + +"And our best hopes." + +But Mrs. Thompson did not look at them or listen to them. Marsden was +speaking to her in a low voice. + +"Yes, yes, yes. Every word. Every word. I meant all I said then--and I +mean it a thousand times more now. You are making me the proudest of +mortals--but don't forget one thing." + +"What?" + +"Why, all I said about the difficulties--the, the inequality of our +position, which must somehow be got rid of. But of course you've thought +it out." + +"What do you mean?" She was gazing at him with love and admiration; but +an intense anxiety came into her eyes. + +"Well, I mean exactly what I said then. Nothing can change my mind. But, +as I told you, I can't have all the world pointing at me as a penniless +adventurer who has caught a rich wife.... But you've planned--you mean +to prevent--" + +His eyes did not meet hers. She dropped his hand, and looked at him now +with a passionate, yearning intentness. + +"Go on--quickly. Say what it is that you mean." + +"I mean, it is to be a thorough partnership--husband and wife on an +equal footing. You mean it, too, don't you? Partners in love and +partners in everything else!" + +"Yes," she said, after a scarcely perceptible hesitation. "I did mean +that. You have anticipated what I intended." + +"My sweetheart and my wife." As he whispered the words, her whole face +lit up with triumphant joy. "I knew that you meant it all along. And I'm +the happiest proudest man that ever lived.... Now you'd better tell +them. Let them know that, too." + +Again she hesitated. She was in a fever of excitement, with all real +thought obliterated by the flood of emotion; and yet perhaps already, +though unconsciously to herself, she had attained a complete knowledge +of the fatal nature of her mistake. + +"Do you want me to tell them now--at once?" + +"Yes," he said gaily. "No time like the present. Let them know how my +dear wife and I mean to stand--and then there'll be nothing for anybody +to chatter about." + +"Very well." + +"That's right;" and he gently drew her round towards her audience. +"That's _our_ way--side by side, shoulder to shoulder, you and I, facing +the world." + +"Gentlemen," said Mrs. Thompson firmly, "there's another thing that I +must add to what I have said. Mr. Marsden, when he comes into this house +as my husband, will come into the business as my partner." + +Marsden, with his head raised and his shoulders squared, stood boldly +smiling at the silent men. + + + + +XI + + +She was conscious that the whole world had turned against her; in every +face she could read her condemnation; when she drove through High Street +she felt like a deposed monarch--hats were still removed, but with +pitying courtesy instead of with loyal fervour. Constraint and +embarrassment sounded in every fresh voice to which she listened. Mr. +Prentice, taking her instructions, assumed a ridiculously hollow +cheerfulness, as if he had been speaking to somebody who had contracted +an incurable disease. The shop staff dared not look at her, and yet +could not look away from her with any air of naturalness; up and down +the counters male and female assistants, so soon as she appeared, became +preposterously busy; and she knew that they avoided meeting her eyes. +She knew also that the moment she had passed, their eyes followed +her--they were at once frightened and fascinated, as if she had been a +person who had confessed to a great crime, who was still at large, but +who would be arrested almost immediately. + +During the first few days of her engagement she suffered under the heavy +sense that every friend had abandoned her. In street, shop, or house, +she could find no comforter. Even Yates was cruel. + +"Why do you look so glum?" At last she roundly upbraided Yates. "Don't +wait upon me at all, if you can only do it as though you were going to a +funeral." + +Yates, in sorrowful tones said that her glumness was caused by her +thoughts. + +Then Mrs. Thompson piteously prayed for support from the old servant. + +"Are you going to drive me mad among you--make me commit suicide? Oh, +Yates, do stand by me." + +And Yates wept, and swore that henceforth she would stand by her +mistress. + +"Say you think I'm right in what I'm doing." + +"I'll say this, ma'am--that no one should be the judge except you of +what's right. No one hasn't any qualification to interfere with you in +what you please to do." + +"But, Yates, say you approve of it." + +"Well then, I do say it." + +Yates said that she approved; but no one else said so. Enid did not +pretend to approve--although she talked very little about her mother's +plans. She had obtained the desire of her own heart; she and Mr. Kenion +were to be made one as soon as possible; she was buying her trousseau, +and Mr. Prentice was drawing the marriage settlement. + +Both marriages were to be pushed on rapidly. No time like the present, +as Marsden joyously declared. "What's the good of waiting, when you have +made up your mind?" But Enid was to be cleared out of the way first; and +not till Enid had left the little house could her mother throw herself +completely into her own dream of bliss. + +There were some trifling difficulties, some slight delays. Mr. Kenion, +as one about to become a member of the family, frankly confessed that he +viewed the Marsden alliance with repugnance. He told Mr. Prentice that +it altered the whole condition of affairs, that his relatives begged him +to stand out for a much more liberal settlement than would previously +have appeared to be ample; and he hinted on his own account that if Mrs. +Thompson didn't stump up, he would feel justified in withdrawing +altogether. Mr. Prentice, however, made short work of this suitor's +questionings and threatenings. He did not mention that, on the strong +advice of Mr. Marsden, his client had largely cut down the proposed +amount; but he said that in his own opinion the settlement was quite +ample. + +"Of course," said Kenion, "what we get now is all we shall ever get. I +don't value Enid's further expectations at a brass farthing." + +"That's as it may be. Possibly you are wise in not building on the +future. But my instructions merely concern the present. As to the amount +decided on by my client, whether big or little--well, it is to take or +leave." + +Charlie Kenion, lounging deep in one of the solicitor's leather +armchairs, said that he would take it. + +At this period Mr. Prentice also received visits from the other suitor. +Marsden called several times, to talk about the terms of his +partnership, and to urge the importance of not overdoing it with regard +to the provision for Enid. These marriage settlements, he reminded the +solicitor, are irrevocable things--what you put into them you can't get +out of them. Nothing ever comes back to you. A woman in Mrs. Thompson's +position should therefore exercise some caution. She is rich now, but +she may not always be so rich; she must not give away more than she can +spare; it is folly not to keep a reserve fund. + +Then, when paying his last call before his departure for London, he slid +very naturally from the subject of Enid's settlement to a vague question +about a settlement in his own case. Was there any idea of making a +permanent provision for him? + +"Of course there is. You are to be a partner." + +That of course was understood, but Marsden had some doubt as to whether +there were other intentions. + +"I am only asking," he said pleasantly. "I leave myself entirely in +your hands--and I'd like to say that I've the utmost confidence in +_you_." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Prentice drily. + +"These settlements seem the usual things in marriages--so I thought the +rule would apply to my marriage." + +"In _your_ marriage, Mr. Marsden, there is very little that is +usual--but, nevertheless, I think the usual rules should apply." + +"You do? You think some moderate settlement would be proper." + +"Very proper indeed--if you have anything to settle. By giving you a +half share in her business Mrs. Thompson is treating you with a +generosity--a munificence--an unprecedented munificence--" + +"Oh, I know she is." + +"And if therefore you on your side can make a settlement--however +moderate--in her favour, it will be a graceful and a natural act." + +Marsden laughed, and shrugged his shoulders. + +"That's very funny--very neatly put. But I see what you mean. You think +I ought not to have made the suggestion." + +"Oh, no," said Mr. Prentice, obviously meaning, "Oh, yes." + +"I fancied that she herself might wish it; but I haven't said a word +about it to her.... Don't mention it to her.... Good morning." + +Meanwhile Enid was collecting garments, hats, frills, and feathers. She +had been given unlimited scope; prices need not be scrutinized; the best +London shops, as well as Thompson's, were open to her; and she went +about her business in a commendably business-like fashion. She did not +require Mrs. Thompson's advice--she knew exactly what she wanted. + +When those few trickling tears had been dried and the bombshell-tidings +of her mother's engagement had burst upon her with such appalling +violence, she hardened and grew cold again. Nothing now would soften +her. + +She calmly announced that Charles had been lucky enough to find just the +house they wished for--a farmhouse recently converted into a gentleman's +residence, with some land and excellent stabling, eight miles from +Mallingbridge, between Haggart's Cross and Chapel-Norton; but she did +not invite Mrs. Thompson to inspect the premises, or even to examine the +patterns of the new wallpapers. + +She disgusted Mr. Prentice by her obstinate support of her future +husband in his final contention that the life interest given to him +under the settlement should be absolute and inalienable. Mr. Prentice +naturally desired to protect her from obvious dangers; but, instead of +strengthening his hands, she idiotically declared her wish to compliment +Kenion by an exhibition of blind confidence. + +"It must be as Enid wishes," said Mrs. Thompson; and Mr. Prentice was +forced to give way. + +The days were racing by. Mornings had a snap of frost in the air; autumn +rains brought the yellow leaves tumbling from the churchyard elms, and +autumn winds sent them spinning and eddying over the iron railings into +St. Saviour's Court. Very soon now October would be here--and on the +first day of October the church bells were to ring for Enid Thompson, +spinster, of this parish. + +Mrs. Thompson heard the banns read; but she could not hear the other +banns in which the name of Thompson was again mumbled. Her emotion made +the sound of the parson's voice inaudible to her. + +One afternoon she saw Yates carrying up a large cardboard box to Enid's +dressing-room, and the printed label on the box gave her a stab of +pain. _Bence Brothers!_ Enid, pressed for time, or now careless of how +often she wounded her mother's sensibilities, had gone across the road +to buy her ultimate batch of fal-lals. + +Then one morning--a dull, grey first of October--Enid offered her cheek +to her mother's lips. + +"I hope you'll be very happy, mother." These were her last words. + +The rooks, startled by the clashing bells, flew up from the tops of the +churchyard trees; the misty air vibrated as the organ rolled out its +voluminous music; the keen, sharp-edged wind blew the dead leaves down +the court and past the house;--and Enid was blown away with them, into +her lover's arms and out of her mother's life, as it seemed, forever. + + +The days were swinging in a mad whirl; Mrs. Thompson had entered upon +her feverish dream; and nothing outside herself seemed of any +consequence to her now--except the man who was to be her husband. + +He was in London, well supplied with cash for his immediate necessities, +and he would not return until he came to lead her to the altar. Several +times she ran up to London with Yates, bought trousseau all the morning, +and then, casting off Yates, had luncheon with him at some smart +restaurant. + +A first glance told her that he was more splendid than any other man in +the building, and then everything about and beyond him became vague and +dim and unsubstantial. She could see nothing else. Light and sound +mingled; past and present fused, to make a panoramic changing background +in front of which he could stand out more solidly and brilliantly. She +heard the wheels of the train that had brought her to him, and at the +same time she heard the waltz played by this restaurant band; she was +surrounded by meaningless figures, from the field of vision and the fog +of memory; close to her sat fashionable people at little tables;--but +among them and through them moved the people she had seen in the open +street, at the dressmaker's, to-day, yesterday, or a year ago. + +But there was nothing vague or uncertain about him: he was +overpoweringly, gloriously distinct. She could see every thread in his +lovely new clothes, every hair in his perfumed, carefully brushed +moustache, each tiny speck of brown on the liquid amber of his eyes. +From those eyes, as she knew so well, he could shoot the darts of flame +that lodged a burning distress in one's breast, as easily as he could +send forth the gentle caressing beams that made one slowly melt in +ecstasy. + +His glance was always softly caressing now, soothing her, calming her, +filling her with joy. + +She could not eat. She could only look at him while he ate, with hearty +youthful vigour, quite enough for two. She drank a glassful out of his +bottle of wine, and found an incredible delight in watching him drink +the remainder. The waiter put the programme of the day's music by her +side; but it did not matter what the band played. Her music--the only +significant music--was in her sweetheart's voice. He called her Janey, +Little woman, My kind fairy; and each time that he spoke to her thus +endearingly she thrilled with rapture. + +"Well, Janey, what do you think of my new coat? I look all right, don't +I? You are not ashamed to be seen with me--eh, little woman?... And +how's Mallingbridge? What do they say of me down there?... + +"Oh, by the way, I haven't thanked my kind fairy for the present she +sent me yesterday. It's a dressing-case fit for a king;" and then he +laughed gaily. "Janey, take care. You are trying to spoil me." + +Sometimes for a moment he held her hand under the table-cloth, and +pressed it lovingly. + +When the luncheon was over she was glad to notice that he tipped the +waiter liberally. It would have been irksome to her, as a prodigious +tipper, to observe any economy--but Marsden gave almost as much as if +she herself had taken the money out of the purse. She used to hand him +her purse as they went into the restaurant, and he gave it back to her +as they came out again. + +Serving-girls at the fashionable London shops were inclined to smile +while they waited upon Mrs. Thompson choosing her nuptial finery. She +seemed to them so innocent--appealing to them with simple trustfulness, +and begging them to show her not merely pretty things, but the things +that gentlemen would think pretty. + +In truth, all her business faculty had temporarily forsaken her; the +strong will, the quick insight, the grit and the grip were gone; the +experience of long years had been washed out: she was an inexperienced +girl again, with all a girl's tremors, joyous hopes, and nameless fears +for the future. + +Her fingers shook as she smoothed and patted the wonderful underclothes +offered by a famous lingerie establishment; and as old Yates, sitting by +the side of her mistress, gave a casting vote for this or that daintily +laced garment, the lingerie young woman was obliged to turn a slim back +in order to conceal her mirth. Perhaps it would have made her cry if she +could have understood. But no one could see the poignantly touching +truth, that beneath the beaded mantle of this reddish, stoutish, +middle-aged customer, a maiden's heart was fondly beating. + +"You know, Yates, I'm not so stupid as to suppose that I shall always +be able to keep him tied to my apron strings." This was in the train, +when they were returning to Mallingbridge after an arduous day's +shopping. They had the compartment to themselves, and they nearly filled +it with their parcels. "Men must be allowed freedom and liberty." + +"Yes, ma'am, _bachelor_ gentlemen. But I'm not so sure about too much +liberty for _married_ gentlemen." + +"They can't be continually cooped up in their home--however comfortable +you make it for them. No, many happy marriages are upset by the wife's +silliness--in thinking that a husband is forever to be dancing +attendance on her. I shan't commit that error." + +"No, ma'am. Of course it isn't as if it was your first time." + +Truly, however, it was her first time. The recollection of the dead +husband and the loveless marriage made her wince. + +"A little tact," she said hurriedly. "A wife--especially in the early +days--is called on for a little tact." + +"Oh, ma'am, you'll manage him all right--with your knowledge of the +world." + +But her knowledge of the world had gone, and she did not wish it back +again. Each time that for a brief space she thought logically and +clearly, doubt and fear tortured her. + +In the night fear used to come. Suddenly her rainbow-tinted dream +disintegrated, fell into shreds and patches of cloud with wisps of +coloured light that gyrated and faded; and then she lay staring at the +blank wall of hard facts. This thing was monstrous--no valid hope of +permanent happiness in it. + +And she thought with dreadful clearness that she was either not young +enough or not old enough for such a marriage. If she had been ten years +older, it would not have mattered--it would be just a legalized +companionship--an easier arrangement, but essentially the same thing as +though she had adopted him as her son. But now it must be a _real_ +marriage--or a most tragic failure. He had made her believe that the +realm of passion and love was not closed to her; that he would give her +back what the years had taken from her; that she might drink at the +fountain of his youth and so renew her own. + +In the dark cold night when the dream vanished, fear ruled over her. The +words of the marriage service--heard so lately--echoed in her ears. +Solemnization or sacrament--it is impious, blasphemous to enter God's +house and ask for a blessing on the bond, unless the marriage falls +within the limits of nature's laws. She remembered what the priest says +about the causes for which matrimony was ordained; she remembered what +the woman has to say about God's holy ordinance; and best of all she +remembered what the man, taught by the priest, says when he slips the +ring on the woman's finger. + +"With my body I thee worship!"... Could it be possible? "Taught by the +Priest"--yes, but the man should need no teaching. The words on his lips +should be the light rippling murmur above the strong-flowing stream of +his secret thoughts, and the stream must be fed by deep springs of +perfectly normal love. Nothing less will satisfy, nothing less _can_ +satisfy the hungry heart that is surrendering itself to his power. +Respect, esteem, steadfast affection--none of that will do. It must be +love, or nothing. + +Yet after each of these troubled nights the day brought back her dream. + + +Yates had promised to stand by her, and she faithfully kept the promise. +She gave homely, well-meant advice; occasionally administered a little +dose of pain in what was intended for a sedative or stimulant; but was +always ready with sympathy, even when she failed to supply consolation +and encouragement. Apparently forgetting in the excitement of the hour +that she herself was an old spinster, she spoke with extreme confidence +of all the mysteries of the marriage state. + +There was uneasiness about little secrets concerning Mrs. Thompson's +toilet; but Yates made light of them. + +"Oh, nonsense," said Yates. "It isn't as if you were like some of these +meretrishis ladies with nothing genuine about 'em. You're all +genuine--and not a grey hair on your head." + +There was nothing very terrible in the secrets. The worst secret perhaps +was the diminution in aspect, the shrinking of the coronet of hair, when +the sustaining frame had been removed. + +But Yates, the old spinster, speaking so wisely and confidently, said, +"Don't tell me, ma'am. If he's fond of you, a little thing like that +isn't going to put him off.... Besides, you must fluff it out big--like +I'm doing;" and Yates worked on with brush and comb. "Now look at +yourself." + +And Mrs. Thompson peered at her reflection in the glass. The frame lay +on the dressing-table. Still she seemed to have a fine tawny mane of her +own, fluffed wide from her brows, and falling in respectably big masses. + +"Show me, Yates, exactly how you get the effect." + +And under the watchful tuition of Yates, Mrs. Thompson toiled at her +lesson. + +"Is that right?" + +"Yes, that's pretty near as well as I can work it out, myself.... Yes, +that'll do very nice.... You know, it'll only be at first that you need +take so much trouble." + +"Yates, I shall be nervous and clumsy--I shall forget, and make a mess +of it." + +"Then take me with you," said Yates earnestly. "I can't think why you +don't take me along with you." + +"Oh, I couldn't," said Mrs. Thompson. "I _couldn't_ have anyone with +me--least of all, anyone who'd known me before." + + +It had come to be the day before the day of days, and St. Saviour's +Court lay wrapped in drab-hued fog, so that from the windows of the +house she could not see as far as the churchyard on one side or the +street on the other; and all day long, behind the curtain of fog, the +chilly autumn rain was falling. + +Throughout the day she remained indoors, reviewing and arranging her +trousseau, watching Yates pack the new trunks and bags, and learning how +and where she was to find things when she and some strange hotel +chambermaid hastily did the unpacking. Now, late at night, her bedroom +was still in confusion--empty cardboard boxes littering the floor, +dressing-gowns trailing across the backs of chairs, irrepressible silk +skirts bulging from beneath trunk lids. + +At last Yates finished the task, prepared her mistress for bed, and left +her. + +"Good-night, ma'am--and mind you sleep sound. Don't get thinking about +to-morrow, and wearing yourself out instead of taking your rest." + +Unfortunately Mrs. Thompson was not able to follow this sensible advice. +A fire burned cheerfully in the grate, the room was warm and +comfortable, and she wandered about aimlessly and musingly--picking up +silver brushes and putting them down again, gently pressing the trunk +tops, looking at the new initials that had been painted on the glazed +leather. + +Presently she was stooping over one of the smaller trunks, smoothing and +patting the folded night-dress that she and Yates had so carefully +selected at the famous London shop. Her lips parted in a smile as she +looked at its infinitely delicate tucks and frills, and she let her +fingers play with the lace and feel the extraordinary lightness and +softness of its texture. + +Then, yielding to a sudden impulse, she pulled out the garment, carried +it to the bed, and, hastily stripping, tried it on. + +To-night Yates had done no fluffing-out of her hair. It was tightly +screwed against her head, in the metal curling-clips that were to give +it a pretty wave when pulled over the frame to-morrow; but it had a bald +aspect now, with its queer little rolled excrescences protruding above +the scalp, and two mean pigtails hanging limply behind the ears, and +hiding their ends in the lace of the night-dress collar. + +The electric light was shining full into the cheval glass as she came +and stood before it, with the smile of pleasure still on her lips. Then +she saw herself in the glass, and began to tremble. + +Through the diaphanous veil the strong light seemed to show her a +grotesque and lamentable figure: heavy fullness instead of shapely +slenderness, exaggerated curves, distorted outlines,--the pitiless +ravages wrought by time. + +With a sob of terror, she ran to the door, and again to the +dressing-table, switching off the light, desperately seeking the kindly +darkness. Her hands were shaking, she felt sick and faint, while she +tore the nightgown from her shoulders and kicked it from her on the +floor. Then she covered herself with a woollen dressing-gown and crept, +sobbing, into bed. + +The firelight flickered on the ceiling, but no heat was thrown by the +yellow flames or the red coals; a deadly chill seemed to have issued +from the polished surface of the big glass, striking at her heart, +reaching and gripping her bones. She lay shivering and weeping. + +Outside the windows the cruel autumn rain pattered on the stone flags, +the cruel autumn wind sighed and moaned and echoed from the cold brick +walls. The year was dying; the fertile joyous months were dead; soon the +barren hopeless winter would be here. And she felt that her own life was +dead; warmth, colour, beauty, had gone from it; only ugliness, +disfigurement, decay, were left. And she wept for her wasted youth, her +vanished grace, for all that makes the summer in a woman's life. + + +But next day she woke in sunlight. White clouds raced across a blue sky; +the air was warm and genial; and, as she walked up St. Saviour's Court, +leaning on the kind arm of Mr. Prentice, she was a girl again. + +There were many people in the church, but their curious glances did not +trouble her. Sunbeams streaming through painted glass made a rainbow +radiance on the chancel steps; and here she stood by her lover's side, +feeling happy and at ease in the radiant heart of the glorious dream. +Sweet music, sacred words--and then the sound of his voice, the pressure +of his fingers. Nothing could touch her now--she was safe in the dream, +beyond the reach of ridicule, high above the range of pity. + +Solemnization or sacrament--now at the last it did not matter which; for +she had brought to the rites all that priests can demand: pure and +unselfish thoughts, guileless faith, and innocent hope. + +The loud swelling pipes of the organ rolled forth their harmonious +thunders, filling the air with waves, making the book on the vestry +table throb beneath her hand. She was half laughing, half crying, and a +shaft of sunlight danced about her head. + +"Happy is the bride that the sun shines on," said Mr. Prentice, very, +very kindly. "God bless you, my dear." + + +Another day's sun was shining on the bride. This was the third day of +the wonderful, miraculously blissful honeymoon; and, with windows wide +open and the sweet clean air blowing in upon them, the husband and wife +lingered over their breakfast in the private sitting-room of the +tremendous and magnificent Brighton hotel. + +Presently Mr. Marsden got up, stretched himself; and, going to one of +the windows, looked down at the sparkling brightness and pleasant gaiety +of the King's Road. + +"Now, little woman, I'm going to smoke my cigar outside.... You can put +on your hat, and join me whenever you please." + +Mrs. Marsden followed him to the window, sat upon the arm of a large +velvet chair, and leaned her face against his coat sleeve. + +"Take care," he said, laughing, "or you'll find yourself on the floor." + +The chair had in fact shown signs of overturning, and Mrs. Marsden +playfully pretended that she could not retain her position, and allowed +herself to flop down upon her knees. + +"Isn't this my right place, Dick--kneeling on the ground at your feet?" + +Then with a gesture that would have been infinitely graceful in quite a +young girl, she took his hand and held it to her lips. + +"You foolish Janey, get up," and he gave her cheek a friendly tap. + +"My own boy," she murmured, "why shouldn't I kneel? You have opened the +gates of heaven for me." + +After he had left the room she stood at the window, and watched until he +reappeared on the broad pavement below. + +People were walking, riding, spinning along in motor-cars; gulls hovered +above the beach on lazy wings; pebbles, boat gunwales, lamp-posts, every +smooth hard surface, flashed in the sunlight; the gentle breeze smelt +deliciously fresh and clean;--all was bright and gay and splendid, +because so full of pulsing life. But the most splendid thing in sight +was her husband. The man out there--that glorious creature, with his hat +cocked and his stick twirling as he swaggered across the broad +roadway--was her handsome, splendid husband. + +The sun shone on her face, and the love shone out of it to meet the +genial vivifying rays. "My husband;" and she murmured the words aloud. +"My own darling boy. My strong, kind, noble husband." + +It was a real marriage. + + + + +XII + + +The abnormally bright weather continued in an unbroken spell, and it +seemed to her a part of the miracle that had been granted to her +prayers--as if nature had suddenly abrogated all laws, and when giving +her back love and youth, had given warmth and sunshine to the whole +world. + +One afternoon, as they were sauntering home to the hotel, he asked her +if there was not some special name for this snatch of unseasonable +autumn brightness. + +"It's more than we had a right to expect, Janey, so late in the year. +Here we are in the first week of November, and I'll swear to-day has +been as warm as May or June." + +"Yes, hasn't it?" + +"But what do they call it when the weather plays tricks at this time of +year? You know--not the Hunter's moon, but some name like that." + +"Oh, yes, I know what you mean--St. Martin's summer." + +"That's right--learned old girl! St. Martin's Summer." + +Then they turned to the shop windows, and considered the window-dressing +art as displayed by these Brighton tradesmen. All through their +honeymoon the King's Road shops provided a source of unfailing +entertainment. + +"I don't see that they know much," he said patronisingly. "I think I +could open their eyes. You wait, old girl, till we get back to +Mallingbridge, and I'll astonish you. I'm bubbling over with ideas.... +Halloa! That's rather tasty." + +They were looking into a jeweller's window, and his eye had been caught +by a cigarette case. + +"Now I wonder, Janey, what they'd have the cheek to ask for that." + +"Let us go in and enquire." + +"Oh, no. It's not worth while. Why, the gold alone, without the gems, +would cost fifteen quid; and if the stones are as good as they look, I +daresay this chap would expect a hundred guineas for it." + +"Well, we might enquire." + +"No, I mustn't think about it. Come on, old girl, or my mouth will begin +to water for it;" and, laughing, he linked his arm in hers, and led her +away from this too tempting shop. "Let 'em keep it till they can catch a +millionaire." + +They ordered tea in the great noisy hall of the hotel, which he +preferred to the quiet grandeur of the private sitting-room; and she, +pretending that she wished to go upstairs, hurried past the lift door, +dodged round by a crowd of new arrivals, ran down the steps, and left +the building. + +She was hot and red and breathless when, after twenty minutes, she came +bustling into the hall again. The tea-tray stood waiting for them; but +he had moved away to another table, and was drinking a whisky and soda +with some hotel acquaintances. These were a loud vulgar man and two +over-dressed, giggling, free-and-easy daughters. Marsden for a little +time did not see his wife: he was laughing and talking vivaciously; and +the young women contorted themselves in shrill merriment, ogled and +leered, and made chaffing, unbecomingly familiar interjections. + +"That fellow," said Marsden presently, when he had returned to his +wife's table, "is in a very big way of business--and he might be useful +to us some day or other. That's why I do the civil to him." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marsden. + +"But where the dickens did you slip away to? Your tea must be cold. +Shall I order a fresh pot?" + +"Oh, no, this is quite right, thank you." + +She drank a little of her tepid tea; and then, fumblingly, with fingers +that were slightly trembling, she brought the little parcel out of her +pocket and put it in his hand. + +"What on earth is this?" + +"Can't you guess?" + +"No--I can't imagine--unless"-- He was slowly unfolding the layers of +tissue paper; and until the precious metal discovered itself, he did not +raise his eyes. "Oh, I _say_! Janey! But you shouldn't have done it--you +really shouldn't. It's too bad--altogether too bad of you." + +"Dick!" + +"Come upstairs and let me kiss you--or I shall have to kiss you here, +with everybody looking at us." + +Then Mrs. Marsden was well content with her little act of extravagance. + +The culmination of the glorious weather came on Sunday. In the morning, +when she emerged from the dim church where she had been pouring out her +fervent gratitude for so much happiness, the glare of the sea-front +almost blinded her. All the wide lawns by the sea were densely thronged +with people, and amongst the moving crowd she searched in vain for her +husband. He had said he would meet her for this church parade. + +But at the hotel there was a note to explain his absence. "My friends," +she read, "insist on carrying me off for a long run in their car. Shall +try to be back for dinner. But don't wait." + +While she was kneeling in the church, thanking God for having given him +to her, he was rolling fast away--with that loud man and the two shrill +young women. + + +It was late in the afternoon--the close of the brilliant sun-lit day, +and the Hove lawns were still crowded. The sky preserved its clear blue, +unspoilt by the faint white stains of cloud; the sea sparkled; and the +shadows thrown by the green chairs and the iron railings crept +imperceptibly across the grass. Behind the railings the long façades of +the white houses stretched westward like a perspective-drawing; and down +the broad road a motor fizzed past every moment, changed to a black +speck, and vanished. The gaiety and life of the hours was lasting +bravely. Coloured flags floated above the pier; and from the monstrous +protuberance at its far end, the glass and iron castle of the tourist +mob, light flashed as though striking mirrors; a band was playing at a +distance; and the Worthing steamboat, as it hurriedly approached, made a +rhythmic beating on the water. + +Mrs. Marsden, in possession of a penny chair, sat alone, and watched the +crowd that had been walking all day long. She felt absolutely lost in +the crowd; and it seemed to her, coming from her quiet country town, +that the world could not contain so many people. + +She watched them with tired eyes. All sorts: fine ladies and gentlemen; +visitors and residents--down the scale to mere shopgirls and housemaids; +pale men who toiled indoors, bronzed men who lived in the open air; Jews +and Jewesses; smiling matrons, sour-visaged spinsters; girls with +powdered faces and immense hats--whom she classed as actresses, and +judged to be no better than they ought to be,--lounging and simpering +beside sawny cavaliers. + +She watched the various couples--boys and girls, men and women, young +and old; and she saw that every couple was of corresponding, _suitable_ +age: tottering old men and white-haired wrinkled dames--thinking of +their golden weddings; fat paunchy men in the prime of life with +gorgeous mature consorts; lithe and athletic men with long-legged, +striding, game-playing mates; and so on, like with like, or each the +normal complement of the other. + +It happened that, while she watched with a growing intentness, there +passed no Mays and Decembers. An old man and his daughter--or just +possibly his wife! But no young man with a middle-aged woman. Not even a +son escorting his mother. Age has no claim on youth. + +Then she saw the roaming solitary men who were seeking love or +adventure; saw how they stared at the girls,--stopped and turned,--with +their eyes wistfully followed the graceful gracious forms. + +And no man in all the vast crowd looked at her. Not even the +purple-cheeked veterans. None gave her the aldermanic approving glance +that might seem to say, "There's a well-preserved woman--not yet quite +devoid of charm." Not even a glance of curiosity. It was as if for a +penny the chair had rendered her invisible. + +A cold air came off the sea, and she shivered. Looking round, she saw +that the sun had just dipped behind the long white cornice of the +stately houses. The wide lawn was in shadow. + +She felt cold, and shivered several times as she walked home to the +noisy hotel. + + + + +XIII + + +They had been married nearly three months, and each month seemed longer +to her than any year of her previous existence. + +Many changes were visible at the shop. Indeed, from the back wall of the +carters' yard to the sign-board over the front doors, nothing was quite +as it used to be. The big white board, which told the world that the +business "Established 1813" now belonged to Thompson & Marsden, was a +makeshift affair; but the new partner had ordered a gigantic and +artistic fascia, and this, he said, would be a real ornament to High +Street. + +He promised soon to inaugurate new departments, to introduce +improvements in the old ones, to revolutionize old-fashioned +time-wasting methods of book-keeping and all other office work; but so +far he had only achieved something very like chaos. + +"Don't fuss," he used to say. "I'll soon get to work; but I can't attend +to it for the moment." + +Thus the little realm behind the glass had been turned upside down and +not yet replaced upon its feet again. The rooms were blocked with the +opened and unopened packing-cases that contained the materials for Mr. +Marsden's clever arrangement--innumerable desks and cabinets, immense +index cupboards, racks and sideless stands, by the use of which weapons +such antiquated devices as letter-presses, copying-machines, and +pigeon-holes would be abolished. Every shred of paper would be filed +flat; thousands of letters would lie in the space hitherto occupied by +half a dozen; each correspondent would be allotted a file to himself, +letter and answer together; and this novel system would deprive clerks +of the power of making mistakes; order would reign; confusion would be +impossible. But at present, with the two systems inextricably mixed, the +new system half started and the old system half discarded, confusion was +not only possible but unavoidable. + +"Let them rub along as they can pro tem. I'll straighten it out for them +directly I settle down to it." + +Just now he could throw himself into the business only by fits and +starts, but he assured everybody that it should soon secure his +undivided care. + +"_I'll_ wake 'em up;" and he tapped his forehead and laughed. "There's a +reservoir of enterprise here--the ideas simply bubbling over." Then he +would bring out his jewelled cigarette-case, light a cigarette, and +swagger off to keep some pleasant appointment. + +He was candidly enjoying the softer side of his new position, and +postponing its arduous duties. He both looked and felt very jolly. +Except when anyone accidentally made him angry, he was always ready to +laugh and joke. + +He had a small run-about car, and was rapidly learning to drive it while +a much bigger car was being built for him. He was renewing old +acquaintances and picking up fresh friends. He showed a fine catholic +taste for amusement, and handsomely supported the theatre, the +music-hall, the race-course. In the good company with which he was now +able to surround himself he dashed to and fro all over England, to see +the winter sport between the flags. He dressed grandly, drank bravely, +spent freely--in a word, he was hastily completing his education as a +gentleman. + +"Must have my fling, old girl"--He was nearly always jolly about it to +his wife. "But don't you fear that I'm turning into an idler. Not much. +This is my holiday. And no one can say I haven't _earned_ a holiday. +Ever since I was fourteen I've been putting my back into it like a good +'un." + +He was especially genial when luck had been kind to him and he had won a +few bets. Returning after a couple of fortunate days at Manchester or +Wolverhampton, he jingled the sovereigns in his pockets and chattered +gleefully. + +"Rare fun up there--and little Dick came out on top. Cheer up, Jane. +Give a chap a welcome. This doesn't cost one half what you might +guess.... Besides, anyhow, I've got to do it--for a bit--not forever.... +I'm young--don't forget that. Only one life to live--in this vale of +tears." + +He pleaded his youth, as if it must always prove a sufficient excuse for +anything; but she never invited either excuses or apologies. + +"Well, old girl, I'm leaving you to your own resources again--but, you +understand, don't you? Boys will be boys;" and he laughed. "This isn't +naughtiness--only what is called the levity of youth. Ta-ta--take care +of yourself." + +He liked to avail himself of a spare day between two race-meetings, and +run up to London, make a swift tour of the wholesale houses, and do a +little of that easiest and proudest sort of business which is known as +"buying for a sound firm." His vanity was flattered by the outward show +of respect with which these big London people received him. Managers +fawned upon him; even principals begged him to join them at their +luncheon table; and he described to his wife something of his +satisfaction when he found himself seated with the bosses, at places +that he used to enter a few years ago as a poor little devil trotting +about the city to match a ribbon or a tape string. + +He came home one night, when the rain was beating on the window-panes +and sending a river down St. Saviour's Court to swell the sea of mud in +High Street, and told her he had heard big news while lunching with his +silk merchants. + +She was waiting for him by the dining-room fire, and when he first came +in he displayed anger because the cabman had wanted more than his fare. + +"But he didn't get it. I took his number--and threatened to report +him.... It's infernally inconvenient not being able to drive up to your +own door--it's like living in a back alley." + +Then, with an air of rather surly importance, he told her his news about +Bence. + +"They're _afraid_ of him. They gave me the straight tip that he's shaky. +Mark my words, _that_ bubble is going to be burst." + +"But people have said so for so long." And she explained that the story +of Bence's approaching destruction was really a very old one. "Year +after year Mr. Prentice used to tell me the same thing--that Bence's +were financially rotten, and couldn't last." + +"Prentice is an old ass, and you're quite right not to believe all _he_ +tells you. Between you and me and the post, I reckon that Mr. P. wants a +precious sharp eye kept on him--I don't trust him an inch farther than I +can see him.... But what was I saying? Oh, yes, Bence's. Well, it is not +what Prentice says now--it's what _I_ say." + +Then he asked if there was anything in the house to eat. Yes, the dinner +that had been ready for him three hours ago was still being kept hot for +him. + +"I don't want any dinner. I dined in London.... But I think I could do +with a snack of supper." + +He went over to the sideboard, unlocked a lower division of it with his +private key, and drew forth a half-bottle of champagne. + +"If you'll help me, I'll make it a whole bottle." + +"No, thank you." + +Before re-locking the cupboard, he peered into it suspiciously. + +"I don't think my wine is any too safe in this cellaret. How do I know +how many keys there aren't knocking about the house? I may be wrong, but +I thought I counted three more bottles than what's left." + +Then he rang the bell, and at the same time called loudly for the +parlourmaid. + +"Mary! Mary! Why the devil doesn't she come in and ask if anything's +wanted?" He left the room, grumbling and fuming. + +Mrs. Marsden heard his voice outside, and the voice of Yates timidly +apologising. + +Mary the parlourmaid had a very bad cold, and Yates had ventured to +allow her to go to bed. + +"Thank you for nothing.... Where's the cook? Cook--wake up, please;" and +he went into the kitchen. + +The servants feared him. They stammered and became stupid when he spoke +to them crossly, but never failed to smile sycophantically when he +expressed pleasure. + +All that he required on this occasion from Cook was plenty of hot toast +and cayenne pepper. But he sent Yates to buy some smoked salmon or +herring at the restaurant in High Street. + +"And sharp's the word.... What are you waiting for?" + +"Oh, I don't mind going, sir--but I shall get wet to the skin." + +"Take my umbreller," said the cook. + +Yates went down the steep stairs, and the master looked in at the +dining-room door. + +"That woman is like some old cat--afraid of a drop of rain on her mangy +old fur." + +Then Mrs. Marsden heard his footsteps overhead in the dressing-room. +When he reappeared he had taken off his tie and collar, and was wearing +a crimson velvet smoking jacket. + +The toast sandwiches were promptly placed before him, and he sat eating +and drinking,--not really hungry, but avidly gulping the wine; and +rapidly becoming jolly again. + +"What was I talking about?" + +"Bence's." + +"Oh, yes. I tell you, he has just about got to the end of his tether. +All the best people funk having him on their books.... I give him two +years from to-day." + +"I wonder." + +"Mind you, he has fairly smacked us in the eye with his furniture." + +And it was unfortunately but too true that there had of late been an +ugly drop in the sales of Thompson's solid, well-made chairs and tables. + +"But," continued Marsden, "we aren't going to take it lying down any +longer. He has got a _man_ to reckon with henceforth. He'll learn what +tit-for-tat means.... It was too late to attempt anything last +Christmas. But let him wait till next December. Then it shall be, A very +happy Christmas to you, Mr. Bence." + +"What do you propose for Christmas?" + +"You wait, too." + +"Yes, but, Dick, you won't begin launching out without consulting +me--allowing some weight to my opinion?" + +"No, of course I shan't. We're partners, aren't we? I know what a +partnership is. But you won't need persuading. You'll jump at my ideas +when you hear them." + +"Why not let me hear them now? I could be thinking over them--I like to +brood upon plans." + +"Well, something is going to happen in our basement next Christmas, +which will be tidings of peace and great joy to everybody but Bence;" +and he laughed with riotous amusement. "Get me my pipe, old woman. I +can't go into business matters now. You wait, and trust your Dickybird." + +She brought him his pipe and tobacco; and he explained to her that he +fancied a pipe because he had been smoking cigars ever since the +morning, and the tip of his tongue felt sore. + +He puffed at the pipe in silence, and luxuriously stretched his +slippered feet towards the warmth of the fire. + +"You best go to by-by, Jane. I'm too tired to talk. I've had a heavy +day--one way and another; and a longish journey before me to-morrow.... +Good-night. Tell 'em I must be called at eight-thirty sharp." + +This was a typical evening. There were many evenings like it. + +Frequently two or three days passed without her once entering the shop. +Sometimes she could not brace herself sufficiently to go down and face +the staff. They all saw her subjection to her husband; and although they +endeavoured not to betray their thoughts, it was obvious that to almost +all of them she appeared as the once absolute princess who had, in +abdicating, sunk to a state of ignominious dependence. She walked among +them with downcast eyes; for too often she had surprised their glances +of pity. + +But she saw that in the street also--pity or contempt. One or other each +citizen's face seemed to show her plainly. She knew exactly what shop +and town said and thought of her new partner. + +At dusk on these winter afternoons, when she had not lately used the +door of communication, Miss Woolfrey or Mr. Mears would come through it +and inform her of the day's affairs. Miss Woolfrey's reports consisted +merely of vapid and irresponsible gossip, but Mrs. Marsden seemed to +have discovered fresh merits in this sandy, freckled, commonplace +chatter-box--perhaps for no other reason than because she belonged so +entirely to the old régime and was intellectually incapable of absorbing +unfamiliar ideas. But it was Mears who supplied any real instruction, +and it was with him that Mrs. Marsden talked seriously. + +One afternoon when he was about to leave her, she detained him. + +"Mr. Mears--I've something to ask you." + +"Yes, ma'am." + +She had laid her hand upon his great fore-arm; she was gazing at him +very earnestly; but she hesitated, with lips trembling nervously, and +seemed for a few moments unable to say any more. + +"Yes, ma'am." + +Then she spoke quickly and eagerly. + +"Stick to me, Mr. Mears. Whatever happens, don't give me up. I should be +truly lost without you. Even if it's difficult, stick to me." + +"As long as he lets me," said Mears huskily. + +"He's going to talk to you. Humour him. He has a great respect for you, +really." + +"He hasn't shown it so far." + +"Make allowances. It's his way. He has such notions about the new +style--which we--which you and I mayn't always approve. But he knows +your value. He has said so again and again." + +It was not long after this secret appeal--one morning that Marsden +spent in Mallingbridge--when the shop heard "the Guv'nor begin on Mr. +M." + +"Look here, my friend," said Mr. Marsden loudly, "it's about time that +we took each other's measure. Is it you or I who is to be cock of the +walk? Just step in here, please." + +This was said outside the counting-house. The proprietor and the manager +at once disappeared; and the news flew far and wide, downstairs and +upstairs. "He has got old Mears behind the glass.... He is giving old +Mears a dressing-down." All had known that the thing was infallibly +coming; the encounter between the greater and the lesser force had been +unaccountably delayed; every man and woman in the building now trembled +for the result. + +"You want to put your authority up against mine. That won't do. One boss +is enough in a larger establishment than this." + +But behind the glass old Mears was very firm. He made himself as big as +possible, standing at his full height, seeming to imitate Marsden's +trick of squaring the shoulders and throwing back the head. + +"_I_ am the boss. And what I say _goes_." + +"And your partner, sir? Mrs. Thompson, I should say Mrs. Marsden--are we +to disregard her?" + +"No. But I speak for self and partner. Please make a note of that." + +"Very good, sir." + +"Then that's all right. It was a case of '_Twiggez-vous?_' But I think +you twig now that I don't stand nonsense--or go on paying salaries in +exchange for bounce and impudence." + +"May I ask if you think I am not earning my salary, sir?" + +"I haven't said you aren't." + +"Or do you think, sir, if you hunted the country, you'd find a man +who'd give the same service for the same money?" + +"Oh, if you want to blow your trumpet--" + +"No, sir, I want to find my bearings--to learn where I am--if I _can_. +It isn't boasting, it's only business. I've a value here, or I haven't. +I've been under the impression I was valuable. You know that, don't you, +sir?" + +"Oh, I've no quarrel with you--if you'll go on serving me faithfully." + +"I'll serve the firm faithfully, sir--with the uttermost best that's in +me." + +"All right then." + +"Because that's _my_ way, sir--the old-fashioned style I took up as a +boy--and couldn't change now, sir, if I wanted to." + +When Mears came from behind the glass his face was flushed; he breathed +stertorously; and he held his hands beneath the wide skirts of his frock +coat to conceal the fact that they were shaking. But he kept the +coat-tails swishing bravely, and he marched up and down between two +counters with so grand a tramp that no one dared look at him closely. + +Then, after a few minutes, Marsden came swaggering, with his hat cocked +and a lighted cigar in his mouth. Before going out into the street, he +ostentatiously paused; and spoke to Mr. Mears amicably, even jovially. + +And the shop comprehended that the battle was over, and that there was +to be a truce between the two men. + +On some days when Mrs. Marsden would probably have come down from the +house into the counting-house she was prevented from doing so by a +grievous headache. + +These headaches attacked her suddenly and with appalling force. At first +the pain was like toothache; then it was like earache, and then the +whole head seemed to be rent as if struck with an axe--and afterwards +for several hours there was a dull numbing discomfort, with occasional +neuralgic twinges and throbbings. + +Resting in her bedroom after such an attack, she was surprised by +receiving a visit from Enid. She was lying on a sofa that Yates had +pushed before the fire, and at the sound of voices outside the door she +started up and hastily scrambled to her feet. + +"Mother dear, may I come in? I'm so sorry you're ill." + +Since their parting last autumn they had not set eyes on each other, and +for a little while they talked almost as strangers. + +"Yates, bring up the tea." + +"Oh, but isn't it too early for tea?" + +"No. Get it as quickly as you can, Yates. Mrs. Kenion must be ready for +tea--after her long drive." + +"I came by train. Thank you--I own I should like a cup, if it isn't +really troubling you." + +"Of course not.... Do take the easy chair." + +"This is very comfortable.... But won't you lie down again? I have +disturbed you." + +"Not in the least. I think it will do me good to sit up. Won't you take +off your coat?" + +Enid let the fur boa fall back from her slender neck, and undid two +buttons of her long grey coat. + +"Really," she said, with a little laugh, "it's so cold that I haven't +properly thawed yet." + +She was charmingly dressed, and she looked very graceful and +well-bred--but not at all plump; in fact rather too thin. While they +drank their tea, she told her mother of the kindness of her husband's +relatives--a sister-in-law was a particular favourite; but everybody was +nice and kind; there were many pleasant neighbours, and all had called +and paid friendly attentions to the young couple. + +"I am so glad to hear that," said Mrs. Marsden. "My only fear of the +country was that you might sometimes feel yourself too much isolated." + +"Oh, I'm never in the least lonely. There's so much to do--and even if +there weren't people coming in and out perpetually, the house would take +up all my time." + +"Ah yes.... I suppose you are quite settled down by now." + +"No, I wish we were. Things are still rather at sixes and sevens. +Otherwise I should have begged you to come and see for yourself. We are +both so anxious to get you out there." + +"I shall be delighted to come, my dear. But I myself have been rather +rushed of late." + +"Of course you have.... Er--Mr. Marsden is away, Yates told me." + +"Yes, but only for a few days. I get him back to-morrow night;" and Mrs. +Marsden laughed cheerfully. "Do you know, he has taken a leaf out of Mr. +Kenion's book. He is quite mad about racing." + +"Is he? How amusing!" + +"These violent delights have violent ends. He says it is only a passing +fancy; and I suppose he'll be taking up something else directly--golf +perhaps--and going mad about that." + +"No doubt. Men all seem alike, don't they?" And Enid smiled and nodded +her head. "Though I must say, Charles is very true to his hunting. I +mean to wean him from steeple-chasing; but I like him to hunt. It keeps +him in such splendid health." + +"Yes, dear. It must be tremendous exercise. Do you ride to the meets +with him?" + +"No, I never seem to have time--and for the moment, though we've six +horses in the stable, there's not one that I quite see myself on." And +Enid laughed again, gaily. "Good enough for Charles, you know--but _he_ +can ride anything. He wants to get me a pony-cart, and I shall be safer +in that." + +The constraint was wearing off. While they talked, each availed herself +of any chance of investigating the other's face--a shy swift glance, +instantaneously deflected to the teacups or the mantelpiece, if a head +turned to meet it. At first there had been difficulty in speaking of the +husbands, but now it was quite easy; and it all sounded fairly natural. + +"Oh, but that is just the sort of thing Charlie says." The daughter +helped the mother. "Men always think they can manage things better than +we can--and they're _always_ troublesome about the servants. The only +occasions on which Charles makes one _really_ angry are when he upsets +the servants." + +And Mrs. Marsden helped Enid. + +"You must employ all your tact--men are so easily led, though they won't +be driven." + +"No, they must be led," said Enid, with a return to complete +artificiality of manner. "How true that is!" + +But there was a very subtle alteration in Enid. Beneath the artificial +manner gradually there became perceptible something altogether new and +strange. This was another Enid--not the old Enid. She had evidently +caught the peculiar tone of bucolic gentility and covert-side fashion +common to most of her new associates, and this had slightly altered her; +but deeper than the surface change lay the changes slowly manifesting +themselves to the instinctive penetration of her mother. Enid was +softer, more gentle, a thousand times more capable of sympathy. + +"Dick," Mrs. Marsden was saying, "is fearfully ambitious." + +"That's a good fault, mother." + +"He even talks of--of going into Parliament." + +"And why not?" + +"He belongs to the Conservative Club here--but he wants," and Mrs. +Marsden showed embarrassment,--"he would like to join the County Club." + +"Oh!" + +"Do you think Mr. Charles--or his family--would be kind enough to use +influence?" + +"Yes, mother dear, I'll make them--if possible." Enid had leant forward; +and she shyly took her mother's hand, and gently squeezed it. "But now I +must go. I do hope I haven't increased your headache." + +"No, my dear, you have done me good." + +Enid rose, buttoned her coat, and began to pull on her grey reindeer +gloves. + +"Mother! My old room--is it empty, or are you using it for anything?" + +"Oh, Dick uses that, dear." + +"And the dressing-room?" + +"He uses that, too." + +"Would you mind--would he mind if I went in and looked round?" + +"No.... Of course not." + +"Only for a peep. Then I'll come back--and say good-bye." + +But she was a long time in the other rooms; and when she returned Mrs. +Marsden saw and affected not to see that she had been crying. + +The warmth of the fire after the cold of the street, or the sight of her +old home after a few months in her new one, had properly thawed elegant, +long-nosed Enid. She sank on her knees by the sofa, flung her arms round +the neck of her mother, and kissed her again and again; and Mrs. Marsden +felt what in vain she had waited for during so many years--her child's +heart beating with expansive sympathy against her breast. + +"Mother, how good you were--oh, how good you were to me!" And she clung +and pressed and kissed as in all her life she had never done till now. + +"Enid--my darling." + +When she had gone, Mrs. Marsden lay musing by the fire. It was +impossible not to divine the very simple cause of this immense +alteration in Enid. Already poor Enid had learnt her lesson--she knew +what it was to have a rotten bad husband. + + + + +XIV + + +But not so bad as her own husband. No, that would be an impossibility. + +She did not want to think about it; but just now her control over her +thoughts had weakened, while the thoughts themselves were growing +stronger. She was subject to rapid ups and downs of health, the victim +of an astounding crisis of nerves, so that one hour she experienced a +queer longing for muscular fatigue, and the next hour laughed and wept +in full hysteria. At other times she felt so weak that she believed she +might sink fainting to the ground if she attempted to go for the +shortest walk. + +Generally on days when Marsden was away from Mallingbridge she crept to +bed at dusk. Yates used to aid her as of old, sit by the bed-side +talking to her; and then leave her in the fire-glow, to watch the +dancing shadows or listen to the whispering wind. + +She did not wish to think; but in spite of all efforts to forget facts +and to hold firmly to delusions, her old power of logical thought was +remorselessly returning to her. In defiance of her enfeebled will, the +past reconstituted itself, events grouped themselves in sequence; +hitherto undetected connections linked up, and made the solid chain that +dragged her from vague surmise to definite conclusions. Then with the +full vigour of the old penetrative faculties she thought of her mistake. + + +He did not care for her. He had never cared for her. It was all acting. +All that she relied on was false; all that had been real was the +steadfast sordid purpose sustaining him throughout his odious +dissimulation. + +His marriage was a brutal male prostitution, in which he had sold his +favours for her gold. And shame overwhelmed her as she thought of how +easily she had been trapped. While he was coldly calculating, she was +endowing him with every attribute of warm-blooded generosity; when her +fine protective instincts made her yearn over him, longing to give him +happiness, comfort, security, he was in truth playing with her as a cat +plays with a wounded mouse--no hurry, no excitement, but steel-bright +eyes watching, retracted claws waiting. And she remembered his studied +phrases that rang so true to the ear, till too late she discovered their +miserable falsity. With what art he had prepared the way for the final +disclosure of his effrontery! He could not brook the sense of +dependence, his manly spirit would not allow him to pose as the +pensioner of a rich wife, and so on--and then, even at the last, how he +waited until she had completely betrayed her secret, and he could be +certain that her pride as a woman would infallibly prevent her from +drawing back. Not till then, when she had taken the world into her +confidence, when escape had become impossible, did he drive his bargain. + +While the honeymoon was not yet over she imagined she could understand +the pain that lay before her. But in these three months she had suffered +more than she had conceived to be endurable by any living creature. If +pain can kill, she should be dead. + +Her punishment had been like the fabled torture of the Chinese--hundreds +of small lacerations, a thousand slicing cuts of the executioner's +sword, and the kind death-stroke craftily withheld. But the swordsman of +the East does not laugh while he mutilates. And _he_ struck at her with +a smiling face. + +She thought of how in every hour of their companionship he had wounded +her; with what unutterable baseness he had used his power over her--the +power given to him by her love. The love stripped her of every weapon of +defence; she was tied, naked, with not a guarding rag to shelter her +against the blows--and the pitiless blows fell upon her from her gagged +mouth to her pinioned feet. + +Daily he attacked her pride, her self-respect, her bodily health and her +mental equipoise; but most of all she suffered in her love--that +terrible flower of passion that refuses to die. Torn up by its bleeding +roots, it replants itself--and will thrive on the barren rock as well as +in life's richest garden. Robbed of light, air, sustenance, it will +cling to the dungeon wall, and bud and burst again for the prisoner to +touch its blossoms in his darkness. Its flame-petals can be seen by the +glazing eyes that have lost sight of all else, and its burning poisonous +fruit is still tasted in the earth of our graves. + +She thought of what he had said to her when they first came back to the +house that she had decorated and made luxurious for him. A laugh, a +nudge of the elbow--"This is the beginning of Chapter Two, Janey. We +can't be honeymooning forever, old girl;" and then some more +unforgettable words, to formulate the request that they might occupy +different rooms; and so, in the home-coming hour, he had struck a deadly +blow at her pride by the brutally direct implication that what she most +desired was that which every woman craves for least. As if the grosser +manifestations could satisfy, when all the spiritual joys are denied! + +But he judged her nature by his own. He was common as dirt. He was +savage as a beast of the forest, a creature of fierce strong appetites +that believes the appeasement of any physical craving--to drink deeply, +to eat greedily, to sleep heavily--is the highest pleasure open to the +animal kingdom; and that man the king is no higher than the dog, his +servant. + +He knew only worthless women, and he supposed that all women were alike. +Undoubtedly he remembered the innumerable conquests won simply by his +handsome face, the ready and absolute surrender to a sensual thraldom +that had made other women his abject slaves; and he dared to think that +his wife was as impotent as they to resist the viler impulses of the +ungoverned flesh. + +He dared to think it.--But was he wrong? And she recalled the episodic +renewal of their embraces during these last months. Once after high +words; once after he had found her weeping; once for no reason at all +that she knew of--except a carelessly systematic desire on his part to +keep her in good temper--or perhaps merely because he had the +prostitute's point of honour. A bargain is a bargain. He had been paid +his price without haggling, and he intended to fulfil the conditions of +the contract--so far as certain limits fixed by himself. + +Horrible scenes to look back at--when the cruelly bright light of reason +flashes upon the decorously obscured past and shows the ignominious +secrets of a life: blind instincts moving us, all that is high beaten +down by all that is low, the soul held in fetters by the flesh. + +Much of her slow agony had come from the stinging pricks of jealousy. He +was unfaithful--he was notoriously unfaithful. Already, after three +months, everyone in the shop knew that he frequently broke the marriage +vow. She would have known it anyhow--even if one of his vulgar friends, +turning to a more vulgar enemy, had not troubled to tell her in an +ill-spelt series of anonymous letters. She remembered how he once used +to look at her, and she saw how in her presence he now looked at other +women. Each look was an insult to her. Each word was an outrage. +"There's a pert little minx;" and he would smile as he watched some +passer-by. "Young hussy! Dressed up to the nines--wasn't she?" And he +swelled out his chest, and swaggered more arrogantly by the side of his +wife, unconscious of the swift completeness with which she could +interpret the thoughts behind his bold eyes and his lazily lascivious +smile. + +And she thought of how he harped upon the over-tightened string of +youth, making every fibre of her tired brain vibrate to the discord of +the jarring note. It was melody to him. Youth was his own paramount +merit, and he praised it as the only merit that he could admit of in +others. He had forgotten half the lies of his courtship. Age was +contemptible--the thing one should hide, or excuse, or ransom. "Only one +life! Remember, I'm young--I am not old." But her friends, the people +she trusted, were shamefully old, even a few years older than herself. +Old Prentice, Old Yates, Old Mears; and he never spoke of them without +the scornful epithet. + +But the jingling coin that she had put in his pockets would procure him +the solace to be derived from youthful companions. With the money she +had paid for all the love that he could give, he bought from loose women +all the love that he cared for. Of course when he stayed in London he +was carrying on his promiscuous amours.... Perhaps, too, here in +Mallingbridge. + +Yet when he came back to her, she had failed to resist him. She knew the +reflective air with which he considered her face when he proposed to +exercise his sway. She trembled when he lightly slapped her on the +shoulder, or took her chin in his hand, and spoke with caressing tones. +He was beginning to act the lover. He had made up his mind to wipe out +the past, to subjugate her afresh, to assure himself that his poor slave +was not slipping away. + +"Janey--dear old Janey.... I leave you alone, don't I?" And with an arm +round her waist, he would pull her to him, and hold her closer and +closer. "Have you missed me? Eh? Have you missed your Dickybird?" + +And she could not resist him. There was the abominable basis of the +tragedy--worse, infinitely worse than the imagined horrors that had +troubled her before the marriage. Love dies so slowly. + +But the night spent in the same room with him was like a fatal +abandonment to some degrading habit--as if in despair she had taken a +heavy dose of laudanum,--knowing that the drug is deadly, yet seeking +once more to stupefy herself, impelled at all hazards to pass again +through the gates of delirium into the vast blank halls of +unconsciousness. Next day she felt sick, broken, shattered--like the +drug-taker after his debauch. Each relapse seemed now an immeasurably +lower fall. Each awakening brought with it a sharper pang of despair: as +when a wrecked man on a raft, who in his madness of thirst has drunk at +the salt spray, wakes from frenzied dreams to see the wide immensity of +ocean mocking him with space great enough to hold all things except +one--hope. + + +Such thoughts as these came sweeping upon her like waves of light, +illuminating the darkest recesses of her mind, showing the innermost +meaning of every cruel mystery, forcing her to see and to know herself +as she was, and not as she wished to be. + +Then the light would suddenly fade. The stress of emotion had relaxed, +and she could consider her circumstances calmly--could try to make the +best of him. + +A difficult task--a poor best. + +She thought of his varied meannesses. In only one direction was he ever +really generous. He grudged nothing to himself--he could be lavish when +pandering to his own inclinations, reckless when gratifying the moment's +whim, and retrospectively liberal when counting the cost of past +amusements; but in his dealings with the rest of the world he was +cautious, watchful, tenaciously close-fisted. She felt a vicarious +humiliation in hearing him thank instead of tip; or seeing him, when he +had failed to dodge the necessity of a gift, make the gift so small as +to be ludicrous. Not since he carried her purse at the London +restaurants had he ever exhibited a large-handed kindness to +subordinates. + +He never alluded to the household expenses--had accepted as quite +natural the fact that the female partner should defray the expenses of +the household. Without a Please or a Thank-you he took board and lodging +free of charge; but he bought for himself cigars, liqueurs, and wine, +and he always spoke of my brandy, my champagne, etc. It was _our_ house, +but _my_ wine. Nevertheless, the habitual use in the singular of the +personal pronoun did not render him egotistically anxious to pay his own +bills. + +Once, when after delay a tobacconist addressed an account to her care, +and she timidly reproached the cigar-smoker for a lapse of memory that +might almost seem undignified, she was answered with chaffing, laughing, +joviality. + +"Well, my dear, if you're so afraid of our credit going down, there's an +easy way out of the difficulty. Write a cheque yourself, and clean the +slate for me." + +But one must make allowances. This was a favourite phrase of hers, and +it helped the drift of her calmer thoughts. As he said so often, youth +has its characteristic faults. Want of thought is not necessarily want +of heart. + +Perhaps when he began to work, he might improve. There was no doubt that +he possessed the capacity for work. He _had_ worked, hard and well. Many +a good horse that has not shied or swerved when kept into its collar +will, if given too much stable and too many beans, show unsuspected +vice and kick the cart to pieces. And the cure for your horse, the +medicine for your man, is work. + +Of course he had many redeeming traits. One was his jollity--not often +disturbed, if people would humour him. Comfort, too, in the recollection +that he treated her with respect--never consciously insulted her--in +public. + +Sometimes when the shadows and the flickering glow drowsily slackened in +their dance, and sleep with soft yet heavy fingers at last pressed upon +her eyelids, she was willing to believe that all her fiery thought and +shadowy dread was but morbid nonsense occasioned by the queer state of +her nerves, and by nothing else. + + +Truly, during this period of her extreme weakness, she was physically +incapable of standing up to him; there was no fight left in her. For a +time at least, she could not attempt to protect herself, or anyone else +who looked to her for protection. + +It pained her, but she was unable to interfere, when he roughly repulsed +Gordon Thompson. + +They were sitting at luncheon, with the servant going in and out of the +room; she heard the street door open and shut; there was a sound of +hob-nailed boots, and then came the familiar whistle--like a ghostly +echo from the past. + +"Who the devil's that?" + +"I--I think it must be my Linkfield cousin." + +"Oh, is it?" And Marsden jumped up, and went out to the landing. + +"Jen-ny! Jen-ny! You up there?" + +The farmer stood at the bottom of the steep stairs, and Marsden was at +the top, looking down at him. Mrs. Marsden heard nearly the whole of the +conversation, but dared not, could not interfere. + +"Any dinner for a hungry wayfarer?" + +Gordon Thompson, furious at the marriage, had missed many mid-day meals; +but now he came to pick up the severed thread of kindness. However, he +was not confident; his whistle had been feeble, tentative, and the +ascending note of his voice quavered. In order to propitiate, he had +brought from Linkfield a market-gardener's basket with celery and winter +cabbages. The present would surely make them glad to see him. + +"What do you want here? No orders are given at the door. We buy our +vegetables at Rogers's in High Street. Don't come cadging here. Get +out." + +Marsden wickedly pretended to mistake him for an itinerant greengrocer. + +"Mayn't I go up?... Is it to be cuts? Am I not to call on my cousin?" + +"Who's your cousin, I'd like to know." + +"Jen-ny Thompson." + +"No one of that name lives here." + +"Jen-ny Marsden then. I say--it's all right. You're him, I suppose. +Well, I'm Gordon Thompson--your wife's cousin." + +"My wife never had a cousin of that name. Before she married me, she +married a man called Thompson--though she didn't marry all his +humbugging beggarly relations." + +"Oh, I say--don't go on like that. Don't make it cuts." + +"Thompson--your cousin--is in the cemetery, if you wish to call on him. +He has been there a long time--waiting for you;" and Marsden laughed. +"The sexton will tell you where to find him.... Go and plant your +cabbages out there. We don't want 'em here." + +He returned to the luncheon table in the highest good-humour. + +"There, old girl, I've ridded you of _that_ nuisance. You won't be +bothered with _him_ any more." + +Mrs. Marsden could not answer. She could not even raise her eyes from +the table-cloth. But when her husband offered to give her a rare +afternoon treat by taking her for a run in his small two-seated car, she +looked up; and, meekly thanking him, accepted the invitation. + +As the car carried them slowly through the market-place, neatly +threading its way among laden carts and emptied stalls, she saw cousin +Gordon standing, rueful and disconsolate, outside the humble tavern at +which it was the custom of the lesser sort of farmers to dine together +on market-day. Had Gordon dined, or had anger and resentment deprived +him of appetite and spared his ill-filled purse? + +She would not think of it. She turned, and watched her husband's face. +It was hard as granite while with concentrated attention he manipulated +the steering wheel, moved a lever, or sounded his brazen-tongued +horn--the signal of danger to anyone who refused to get out of his road. + +Almost immediately, they were in the open country, whirling past bare +fields and leafless copses, leaping fiercely at each hill that opposed +them, and swooping with a shrill, buzzing triumph down the long slopes +of the valleys. + +"Now we are travelling," said Marsden joyously. + +She nodded her head, although she had not caught the words; and +presently he shouted close to her ear. + +"Moving now, aren't we? Doesn't she run smooth?" + +"Yes, yes. Capital." + +The wind, breaking on the glass screen, sang as it swept over them; +hedge-rows, telegraph poles, and wayside cottages hurried towards them, +rising and growing as they came; long stretches of straight road, along +which Mr. Young's horses used to plod for half an hour, were snatched +at, conquered, and contemptuously thrown behind, almost before one could +recognize them. + +That pretty country-house which she had always admired passed her; and, +passing, seemed like a faintly tinted picture in a book whose pages are +turned too fast by careless hands. Naked branches of high trees, broad +eaves and nestling windows, weak sunlight upon latticed glass, and pale +smoke rising from clustered chimneys--that was all she saw. A few dead +leaves pretended to be live things, scampered beside the long wall; a +few dead thoughts revived in her mind, and swiftly she recalled her old +fancies, the dream of the future, Enid and herself living together so +quietly beneath the grey roof;--and then the pretty house with its +pretty grounds had been left far behind. It had lost its brief aspect of +reality as completely as a half-forgotten dream. + +"There, we'll go easy now." They were approaching a village, and he +reduced the speed. "You're a good plucked 'un, Jane;" and he glanced at +her approvingly. "You don't funk a little bit of pace." + +They stopped at an inn, thirty miles from Mallingbridge, and drank +tea--that is to say, Mrs. Marsden drank tea and Mr. Marsden drank +something else, for the good of the house. + +Then, after a cigar, he lighted his lamps, and drove her home through +the greyness, the dusk, and the dark. And for the three hours or so that +she was with him, for the whole time that this outing lasted, she was +almost happy. + + + + +XV + + +The nervous distress had gone--with extraordinary suddenness; and a +curiously unruffled calm filled her mind. Nothing matters. This is not +_all_. + +She was a deeply religious woman, but quite unorthodox in the letter of +her faith. There might be as many rituals as there are social +communities, a different altar for every day of the year; but, however +you dressed the eternal glory and the limitless power in garments taken +from the poor wardrobe of man's imagination, the veritable God was +unchanged, unchanging. And her toleration of the diverse opinions of +others enabled her to worship as comfortably under the high-vaulted +magnificence of a Catholic cathedral as within the narrow shabbiness of +a Wesleyan chapel. The perfume of swinging censers did not cloud her +brain, nor the ugliness of white-washed walls grieve her eyes--any +consecrated place of prayer was good enough to pray in. + +But for the sake of old associations, by reason of its familiar +homeliness, its air of solidity without pomp, and a simplicity that yet +is not undignified, she loved this parish church of St. Saviour's; and +it was here, sitting through the long undecorated service, that mental +equanimity was most strangely if temporarily restored to her. Although +not participating, she stayed for the celebration of the communion; and +while the mystic, symbolic rites were performed, she neither prayed nor +meditated. For her it was a blank pause,--no thought,--nothing; but +nevertheless she became aware of a deepening perception of rest and +peace, and the feeling that she had been uplifted--raised to a spiritual +height from which she could look down on the common pains of earth, and +see their intrinsically trivial character. + +Our life, be it what it may, does not end here. This is not all. +Something wider, more massive, infinitely grander, is coming to us, if +we will wait patiently. + +She sat motionless until all the congregation had dispersed; and when +she left the church, there was an expression of gravity on her face and +a sense of contentment in her heart. At the sight of some children +romping by the church-yard railings, she smiled. A boy pushed a girl +with mirthful vigorousness, and she spoke to him gently. + +"Don't be rough, little boy. Take care, and don't hurt her--even in +play." + +Then she gave the children "silver sixpences to buy sweeties," and went +slowly down the court. She could think kindly and benignantly of all the +world. There was not a tinge of bitterness remaining when she thought of +her husband. + + +As she lay in bed one morning after a night of dreamless sleep, a chance +word dropped by Yates set her lazily thinking of the last date on which +she had suffered from those normal and not accidental fluctuations of +energy that are produced by periodically recurrent causes. Beginning to +count the weeks, she fancied that some error of memory was confusing +her--time of late had moved with such heavy feet; what seemed long was +really short in the story of her days. Then she began to count the days, +trying to make fixed points, and laboriously filling the gaps that +intervened. Then she stopped counting and thinking. + +Yates had gone out of the room, and she lay quite still, with relaxed +limbs and slackened respiration. + +And her mind seemed dull and void, though wonder stirred and thrilled. +It was like dawn in a hill-girt valley--black darkness mingling with +silver mist; shadows growing thin, but not retreating; the ribbed sides +of the mountains very slowly becoming more and more solidly stupendous, +but refusing to disclose the details of their form or colour, although, +beyond the vast ramparts with which they aid the night, the sun is +surely rising. Not till the sun bursts in fire above the eastern wall +does the day begin. + +So, with flooding golden light, the splendid hope came to her. + + +She waited for a few more days. There was no mistake; she knew that she +had counted correctly; but she pretended to herself that she must allow +a wide margin to cover the contingency of miscalculation. + +Then she spoke of the facts to Yates, after extracting a solemn vow of +secrecy. Yates said they could draw only one conclusion from the facts; +it was impossible to doubt--but they would know for certain next time. +They must count again; and, after allowing another wide margin, settle +the approaching date which would infallibly confirm their hopes or +cruelly dissipate them. + +For a little while longer, then, she must keep her splendid secret. + +Her heart was overflowing with a joy such as she had thought she could +never feel again. And with the warm stream of bliss there were gushing +fountains of gratitude. She will forgive her husband everything, because +he has crowned her life with this ineffable glory. + +It justifies her marriage; in a manner more perfect than she had dared +to imagine, it gives her back her youth. All mothers at the cradle have +one age--the age of motherhood. And irresistibly it will win his respect +and love--some love must come for the mother of his babe. + +Although she was waiting with so much anxiety until the second +significant epoch should be passed, she found that time glided by her +now easily and swiftly. Yates--the wise old spinster--assuming in a more +marked degree that air of matronly authority that she had worn before +the wedding, told her of the vital importance of taking good rest, good +nourishment, and good cheerful views regarding the future. + +So she often lay upon the sofa in her room--resting,--smiling and +dreaming. She had no real doubt now. It was miraculous, glorious, true. +She thought of the many symptoms that she had noticed but never +considered, so that the revelation of their meaning brought the same +glad surprise as to a young and innocent bride. She might have +guessed.--The dreadful instability of nerves; longings for the widest +outlet of physical effort, alternating with weak horrors of the +slightest task; and, above all, the facile tears always springing to her +eyes--these things, in one who by habit was firm of purpose and who wept +with difficulty, should have been promptly recognized as unfailing signs +of her condition. Lesser signs, too, had not been wanting--the vagrant +fancies, the mental ups and downs which correspond with the changed +states of the body; and she groped in the dim past, comparing her recent +sensations and reveries with those experienced twenty-three years ago, +before the birth of Enid. She might have guessed.--But truly perhaps she +had been too humble of spirit ever to prepare herself for the admission +of so proud a thought. Even in the brightly coloured dreams from which +realities had so rudely awakened her, she was not advancing towards so +triumphant an apotheosis. + +But no morning sickness! Not yet. It will begin later this time--for the +second child; and it will not be so bad. That first time--when poor Enid +was coming into the world--she was but a slip of a girl; depressed by +heavy care; worn out by the watchings and nursings of her mother's +illness. But now everything was and would be different. She possessed +robust and long-established health; her husband was a magnificently +strong man; their child would be a most noble gorgeous creature. + +And each time that she thought thus of the child's father, the fountain +springs of her intense gratitude rose and gushed higher and broader. She +was only vaguely conscious of the extent of the revulsion of her +feelings where he was concerned. The change seemed so natural and so +little mysterious that she did not measure it. With the awakening of the +new hopes, there had arisen a new love for him--a love purged of all +impurities. + +This was the real love--wide-reaching sympathy, infinite tenderness; the +love that can understand all and forgive all; the instinct of protection +blending with the instinct of submission; the maternal feeling extending +beyond the unborn child to its creator--making them both her children. + +One day when he said he wanted to ask her a favour, she told him, before +he added another word, that she felt sure she would grant the favour. +She was reading, in the drawing-room; and she slipped the book under the +cushion of the sofa, and looked up at him with an expectant smile. + +Then, showing some slight embarrassment, he explained that he had been +"outrunning the constable." + +All the arrangements of the partnership were formally settled; nothing +had been overlooked by clever Mr. Prentice; everything was cut and +dried; certain proportionately fixed sums were to be passed from time to +time to the private credit of each partner; and then at the appointed +seasons, when the true profits of the firm had been ascertained, amounts +making up the balance of earned income would be paid over. All the usual +precautions, and some that perhaps were rather unusual, had been adopted +in order to prevent the partners from anticipating profits by premature +drafts upon the funds of the firm. But now, as Marsden explained, he had +exhausted his private account and was in sad need of a little ready to +keep him going. + +She instantly agreed to give him the money--with the pleasure a too +indulgent mother might feel in giving to a spendthrift son. +Extravagance--what is it? Only one of those faults of youth by which the +thoughtless young culprits endear themselves to their elderly guardians. + +"Yes, Dick, I'll write the cheque at once. My chequebook is over there." + +She rose slowly from the sofa, and slowly moved across the room to the +Sheraton desk near the window. Yates had begged her to beware of abrupt +and hasty movements, and she walked about the house now with careful, +well-considered footsteps. + +"Of course, old girl, if you can see your way to making the amount for a +little _more_?" + +And she made it for a little more. + +He was delighted. "Upon my word, Jane, you're a trump. No rot about you. +When you see anyone in a hole, you don't badger him with a pack of +questions--you just pull him out of the hole...." + +He thanked her and praised her so much that she melted in tenderness, +and almost told him her secret. She looked at him fondly and admiringly. +He seemed so strong and so brave--with his stiff close-cropped hair and +his white evenly-shaped teeth,--laughing gleefully as he pocketed his +present,--like a great happy schoolboy. While she looked at him, the +secret was trying to escape, was burning her lips, and knocking at her +breast with each quickened heartbeat. + +She succeeded, however, in restraining the expansive impulse. The delay +can but heighten the triumph--it is so much grander to be able to say, +not "I _think_," but "I _know_." + +When he had hurried away to cash his cheque, she took out the Book that +she had been reading and had shyly concealed under the cushion. It was +the Bible. Reverently reopening it and musingly turning the leaves, she +glanced at those chapters of Genesis that tell of the first gift of +human life.... "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy +desire shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee." + +The softness and the exaltation of her mood showed very plainly in the +expression of her face as she read the nobly fabled origin of love and +marriage. While reading she made vows to God and to herself. If all went +well, she would cheerfully bear the hardest usage, at her husband's +hands. She would never reproach him, she would ever be a comfort to him. +And so long as their child lived, the torch-bearer carrying the fire of +life kindled from their joint lives should guide her steps through the +darkest places towards the distant glimmer of eternal light. + +That night she was roused from her first sleep by the sound of heavily +blundering footsteps. Mr. Marsden had come home in an unusually jolly +state. His wife heard him stumbling about the adjacent room, knocking +over a chair, laughing, and singing drunken snatches of song. + +He had never before been quite so jolly. For a minute the hilarious +music saddened her; but then she felt quite happy again. He was not +really drunk--merely excited, elated. And besides, this sort of thing +would not occur in the future: a generous fear of the questioning eyes +of an innocent child would help to keep him straight. + +And she fell to thinking of domestic arrangements that would be +necessary before the great event. His bedroom and the dressing-room used +to be the day and night nursery when Enid was a baby. The grandmother +slept in the room at present occupied by Yates, and Yates slept in a +smaller room. How would they manage now? This room should be the night +nursery--she herself could sleep anywhere. Probably Yates would have to +give up her nice room--but Yates would not mind. And, yes--the +difficulty must be confronted--Dick must give up his dressing-room. +Would he mind? + +No. Every difficulty would be surmounted. All would be smoothly and +easily arranged in the end. Dreamily sweeping away the difficulties, she +sank again into restful sleep. + + +That important second date was drawing near, and Yates was becoming more +and more fussily attentive. It taxed all her strength of mind to keep +the secret to herself; she longed for the time when it might be made +public property. + +"Look here, ma'am," she said mysteriously, "don't let anyone see us +opening this parcel. Let's go upstairs and open it there, quiet and +comfortable." + +"What is it, Yates?" + +Upstairs in the bedroom, Yates, with many shrewd nods and meaning +smiles, untied her parcel, and displayed to Mrs. Marsden its +entrancingly fascinating contents. + +"Oh, Yates!" + +They were the prettiest imaginable little baby-things--woollen socks, +flannel robes, etc., articles of costume suitable to the very earliest +stage; together with materials for binders, wrappers, and so on, that +would require cutting, stitching, _making_. + +"The work will do you good," said Yates. "Just to amuse yourself, when +you're sitting all alone up here--and to keep your mind off the strain." + +"Oh, Yates, they are lovely. Where did you get them?" + +"Don't you bother where I got them," said Yates, looking shame-faced +all at once. "I don't intend to tell you." But then she went on +defiantly: "Well, if you _must_ know, I got them in the children's +outfitting department--over at Bence's." + +Her mistress was not in the least angry. She smiled at the sound of the +rival's name;--and, of course, in this particular department there was +no rivalry between the two shops. + +Yates was particular that her interesting patient should enjoy a +moderate amount of fresh air, and advised that in these cases gentle +carriage exercise is distinctly beneficial. + +Several times therefore a brougham was procured from Mr. Young's +stables, and mistress and maid went for a quiet afternoon drive. Yates +would have preferred to enjoy these airings earlier in the day, but she +agreed with Mrs. Marsden that a morning drive might appear +"conspicuous." As it was, Yates made the excursion quite sufficiently +remarkable--hot-water bottle for the patient's feet, rugs for her legs, +three or four shawls for her shoulders. + +"And don't you drive too fast," said Yates sternly to Mr. Young's +coachman. "Take us along quiet.... And if you meet any of those great +engines on the road, just turn round and go the other way." + +"I don't want you frightened," she told Mrs. Marsden, "if only for half +a minute." + +Mr. Young's horses, at an easy jog trot, took them along very, very +quietly; some air, but not too much, blew in upon them pleasantly; and +throughout the drive the two women talked unceasingly of the same +engrossing subject. + +"Which do you hope for, yourself, ma'am?" + +"Yates, I scarcely know." + +"Well, ma'am, I'll tell you candid, it's a girl _I_ am hoping for." + +"But whichever it is--boy or girl--you'll love it just the same, won't +you, Yates?" + +"Indeed I shall, ma'am." + +And they discussed christian names. + +"If it is a boy, of course I shall wish him to have his father's name +for one." + +"Yes, I suppose so, ma'am." + +"Richard for his first name; and, if Mr. Marsden approves, I shall call +him Martin. I should like him to bear the name of Saint Martin--for a +little romantic reason of my own. And I also like the name of +Roderick--if that isn't too grand." + +"I like the plain names best," said Yates. "If it's a girl, I do hope +and trust you'll give her your own name, ma'am. You can never get a +better name than Jane. Let her be Miss Jane." + +They met no ugly traction engines to upset the horses, and disturb the +patient's composure. They chose the level sheltered roads, and avoided +the dangerous windy hills; and Mrs. Marsden looked through the half-shut +window at the featureless landscape, and thought it almost beautiful, +even at this dead time of the year. It was bare and nearly +colourless,--all the hedgerows of a dull brown, the far-off woods a +misty grey, and here and there, seen through the black field-gates, +patches of snow faintly sparkling beneath the feeble light. The tardy +spring as yet showed scarce a sign of nascent energy. But the winter had +no terrors for her now. There was summer in her heart. + + +The date had passed; and, passing, had left apparent certainty. + +Yates was wildly excited, irrepressibly jubilant. + +"You'll tell him now, won't you, ma'am?" + +"Yes, I can tell him now." + +"Everybody may know it now, ma'am--And, oh, won't they be glad to hear +the news in the shop." + +But naturally Mr. Marsden must hear the news before anybody else; and +unluckily Mr. Marsden was not in Mallingbridge to hear it. He had been +expected home two days ago, but something was detaining him in London. + +This final useless delay, after the long unavoidable delay, seemed more +than Mrs. Marsden could support. + +"Oh, why is he away? Oh, Yates, I want him--I want him with me. Oh, oh!" +She burst into a sobbing fit, and rung her hands piteously. "Yates, +fetch him. Bring my husband back to me. Don't let him leave me now--of +all times." + +This was in the morning, before Mrs. Marsden had got up. After sobbing +for a little while, she became suddenly faint and breathless, and sank +back upon her pillow. Yates, scared by her faintness and whiteness, ran +out of the room and despatched a hasty messenger. + +She could not fetch the husband; so the good soul did the next best +thing, and sent for the doctor. + +When she returned to the bedroom Mrs. Marsden seemed all right again. + +"Doctor Eldridge is coming to see you, ma'am." + +"Is he?" + +"It's only wise," said Yates authoritatively, "that he should take +charge of the case now. It's full time we had him in. He knows your +constitution--and you can trust him, and feel quite safe to go on just +as he advises you." + + +Dr. Eldridge was a long time alone with the patient. After Yates had +been told to leave them, he talked gently and gravely to his old friend. +He confessed to being rather sceptical by habit of mind; in forming a +diagnosis he was perhaps always disposed to err on the side of caution, +and thus he often declined to accept what at first sight seemed an +obvious inference until it had been corroborated by indisputable +evidence;--but then again, all his experience had shown him how prudent, +how necessary it is to prepare oneself for disappointment.... He thought +that Mrs. Marsden should, if possible, prepare herself for +disappointment. + +Outside the room, he spoke to Yates with a severity that was only +mitigated by contempt. + +"What nonsense have you been stuffing her up with? It's too bad of you." +And then the professional contempt for amateur doctors sounded in the +severe tone of his voice. "You ought to know better at your time of +life." + +He came again next day, and told Mrs. Marsden the bitter truth. The +correct interpretation of the symptoms was far, very far different from +that which she had imagined. And then he pronounced the words of doom. +It was not the birth of hope, but the death of hope. Somewhat earlier +than one would have predicted as likely, she had passed the +turning-point in the cyclic history of her existence. + + +A deadly, numbing apathy descended upon her. She was not ill; but in +order to escape the infinitely oppressive duties of dressing, sitting at +meals, walking up and down stairs, listening to voices and answering +questions, she pretended illness; and, to cover the pretence, Dr. +Eldridge frequently visited her. + +Day after day she lay upon her sofa, watching the feeble daylight turn +to dusk, staring at the red glow of the coals or the golden flicker of +burning wood--feeling too sad to reproach, too weak to curse the +inexorable laws of destiny. + +Her husband used to enter the room noisily and jovially, with a cigar in +his mouth and a shining silk hat on the back of his head. + +"What the dickens is the matter with you, Jane?" + +He did not guess. He could never read her thoughts. + +"I believe you ought to rouse yourself, old girl. I suppose old Eldridge +sees a chance of running up a nice little bill--and Yates will have her +bit out of it. Between them, they'll persuade you you're going to kick +the bucket." + +"I feel so tired, Dick." + +"Then go on taking it easy," said Marsden genially. "But here's my +tip--look out for another doctor, and another maid. I wouldn't bid +twopence, if both of them were put up to auction." + +Another time he said, "Jane, do you twig why I am wearing my topper? +That means _business_. Yes, I'm going to throw myself into my work now, +heart and soul. Buck up as soon as you can, and come and see how I'm +setting about me." + +While he stood by the door, talking and smoking, she looked at him with +dull but kind eyes. + +Some of the glamour of that vanished hope still hung about him; and the +sense of gratitude, although now meaningless, lingered for a long while. +But for herself, it would have been a fact instead of an hysterical +fancy. It was her fault, not his. + +When he had shut the door, she thought of herself dully, without pity, +in stupid wonder. + +This is the end. The heats of summer gone; the mimic warmth of autumn +gone, too; nothing left but the cold, dead winter--the end of all. + + + + +XVI + + +The state of apathetic indifference continued; the slow months dragged +by, and still she could not shake off her invincible weariness and spur +herself to resume activity. + +Once or twice Enid invited her to pay the long-postponed visit of +inspection; and, when these invitations were refused, she offered to +come to see her mother. But she was put off with vague excuses. The +weather seemed so doubtful this week; later in the year Mrs. Marsden +would certainly make the eight-mile journey, and examine the charming +home of her daughter and her son-in-law. + +It was an effort even to write a letter; nothing really interested her; +her highest wish was to be left alone. + +She heard and occasionally saw what was happening in the shop; but the +old keen delight in business had faded with all other delights. She was +not wanted down there behind the glass. Her husband was master there +now, and he did not require her assistance. He was pushing on with his +programme of change and innovation; he brought her architects' drawings +and builders' plans to sign, and she signed them without questioning; he +jauntily told her about his new Japanese department, his new agency +trade, his revolutionised carpet store, and she listened meekly to +everything, appeared willing to concur in anything. + +He was inordinately pleased with himself, and his boastful +self-confidence brimmed over in noisy chatter. He had declared war +against Bence; henceforth, he vowed, the tit-for-tat policy should be +pursued with implacable thoroughness. + +"Look out for yourself, Mr. Bence," he said vaingloriously. "It has +been very nice for you up to now. Because you saw a naked face, you +smacked it. But now you're smacked back--as you'll jolly well find. I +expect my new fascia has opened your eyes to what's coming." + +The new fascia had been erected. It was made of chestnut wood--a most +artistic up-to-date piece of work, with the names Thompson & Marsden +alternating in carved lozenges over all the windows, with linked +festoons of flowers, with high relief and intaglio cutting--with what +not decorative and grand. It ran the whole length of the street frontage +and round the corner up St. Saviour's Court, and it cost £750. + +But that expense was a fleabite when compared with the cost of the +structural alterations that were now fairly in hand. + +The yard was being completely covered. The carts would drive into what +would be the ground floor; and above this there would be three floors of +packing rooms, with every imaginable convenience of lifts, slides, and +shoots, for manipulating the goods and discharging them at the public. +Meanwhile, the old packing rooms had been huddled into unused cellars, +and the space that they had occupied in the basement, indeed the entire +basement, was being excavated to an astounding depth. Soon an immense +subterranean area would be scooped out; vast halls with wide staircases +would be constructed; a shop below a shop would be ready for Mr. +Marsden's use. + +But what he proposed to do with it he had not as yet disclosed. He was +feverishly anxious to get all the work finished, but the new basement +especially occupied his ambitious dreams. + +"Mears, old buck," he said often, "I'm itching to get down there. And +how damn slow they are, aren't they?" + +Having had his fling as a gentleman at large, he seemed to enjoy for a +little while the quieter but more massive importance derived from his +position as the proprietor of a successful business, the employer of +labour, the patron of art and manufacture. He paid handsomely for the +insertion of his portrait in the local newspaper, and arranged with the +editor that paragraphs about himself and his operations should appear +amongst news items without the objectionable word Advertisement. On +early closing day he swaggered about the town, feeling that he was one +of its most prominent citizens, and proving himself always ready to +stand a drink to anyone who would say so. + +When his architect came down from London to go over the works with the +contractor, he carried them off to the Dolphin, before anything had been +done, and gave them a sumptuous luncheon--sat bragging and drinking with +them for hours. When at dusk they returned to the shop, Marsden was red +and noisy, the architect was in a fuddled state, and the contractor +frankly hiccoughed. + +"Down with you, old boy," said Marsden jovially. "And buck 'em up--the +lazy bounders. Get a move on. I want this job finished; and it seems to +me you're all playing with it." + +After the governor had been lunching he lost that sense of decorum which +from long habit should make it almost as impossible to speak loudly in a +shop as in a church. All the assistants and several customers were +scandalized by the noisy tongues of Mr. Marsden and his architect. + +"And you jolly well remember that everything's to be done without +interference to my business. It's in the contract--and don't you forget +it. Start to finish--that was the bargain--business to be carried on as +usual." + +"Oh, we don't forget, Mist' Marsd---- No interferens. Bizniz muz go on +zactly as usual." + +But did it? Mears was appalled by the disturbance and confusion. +Outside in the street a long line of builders' carts blocked the +approach of carriage-folk; from beneath the windows, through the opened +gratings, earth and gravel and lumps of broken concrete were being +painfully hauled out; the pavement was covered with mud, obstructed with +débris, so that foot-people could not pass in comfort, and the Borough +Surveyor had sent three notices urgently requesting the abatement of +what was a public as well as a private nuisance. Inside the shop one +heard growling thunders from the depths below one's feet, and sudden +explosions as if one were walking over a volcano, while from every +entrance to the dark vaults there issued clouds of destructive lime +dust. Sometimes a department was shut up for an hour while a steel +girder was rolled along the floor by twenty perspiring men; processions +of bucket-bearers emerged unexpectedly; and one saw in every mirror a +grimy face or a plaster-stained back. + +What was the use of asking ladies to step upstairs and view our Oriental +novelties, when the nearest staircase was temporarily converted into a +slide for roped planks? + +Ladies said No, thank you; they would call again. + +"This is going to hit us, sir," said Mr. Mears gloomily. "It is going to +hit us hard if it continues much longer." + +"But it won't continue," said Marsden irritably. "They're bound by +contract to finish before the twentieth of next month. Besides, you +can't make an omelette without breaking eggs." + +There could be no doubt, thought Mears, as to the broken eggs; but the +question was, Would Mr. Marsden's omelette ever come to table, or would +it get tossed into the fire with so much else that seemed finding an end +there? + +Towards the completion of the contract time, Marsden more than once +forced his wife to come through the door of communication, and have a +look round the altered shop. She was admittedly convalescent now. She +had not demurred when the master of the house gave Dr. Eldridge what he +called "a straight tip" to cease paying professional visits. She had not +protested when, in her presence, an almost straighter tip was given to +Yates that the boring fuss about a malady of the imagination must cease. +In fact she herself had said that there was nothing the matter with her. + +She could not therefore refuse to show herself when he explicitly +commanded her to do so. + +Many changes--as she passed by Woollens and China and Glass, it was like +walking in a dream, among the distorted shadows of familiar objects. +Miss Woolfrey ran out of China and Glass to welcome her; but the other +assistants, male and female, seemed shy of attracting her attention. +Changes on all sides, which she looked at with indifferent eyes--but one +change that slowly compelled a more careful observation. Perhaps +downstairs this, the greatest of the changes, would not be observable? +But no, it was noticed as plainly downstairs as upstairs. + +There were fewer customers. + +She glanced at the clock outside the counting-house. Three-twenty! In +the middle of the afternoon, at this season of the year, the shop should +be thronged with customers; and it appeared to be, comparatively +speaking, empty. + +Marsden was waiting to receive her behind the glass, in her old sanctum. + +"Come in, Jane. Here I am--hard at it." + +Her bureau had disappeared. Where it used to stand there was a large but +compact American desk; and in front of this Mr. Marsden sat enthroned. +She glanced round the room, and saw a small new writing-table in the +space between the second safe and the wall. + +"I thought you could sit over there, Jane," said Marsden, pointing with +his patent self-feeding pen. "You'd be out of the draught--for one +thing." + +She was to be pushed into a corner, to be made to understand her +insignificant position under the new order of things,--but she did not +protest. + +"Now then. Come along." + +He took her first of all through the Furniture, and showed her his +sub-department for the sale of desks and all other office requisites +similar to those which he had purchased for his own use. This was what +he called agency work. + +"No risk, don't you see, old girl! Doing the trick with other people's +capital." And he explained how the German firm that supplied England +with these American goods had given him most advantageous terms. "A +splendid agreement for _us_! If the things don't go off quick, we just +shovel the lot back at them--and try something else. That's _trade_. +Keep a move on--don't go to sleep." + +Then presently he took her upstairs, to what he called his Japan +Exhibition. + +The Cretonne Department had been compressed and curtailed to make room +for this new feature, and she passed through the archway of an ornate +partition in order to admire and wonder at the Oriental novelties. + +"Now, Jane, this is what I'm really proud of." + +There was plenty to see and to think about--Marsden made her handle +carved and tinted ivory warriors with glittering swords and tiny +burnished helmets, dragons with jewelled eyes and enamelled jaws, +exquisite little cloisonne boxes; made her stoop to look at the +malachite plinths of huge squat vases; and made her stretch her neck to +look at gold-embossed friezes of great tall screens. + +All these goods were very expensive; and she asked if any of them had +been introduced, like the Yankee furniture, on sale or return. + +"No, these are our own racket--and tip-top stuff, the best of its kind, +never brought to Europe till last summer.... The stock stands us in +close on four thousand pounds. You wouldn't think it, would you? But +it's _art_. It's an education to possess such things." + +She hazarded another question. Did he think Mallingbridge would consent +to pay for such high-class education? + +"It'll be a great disappointment to me if they don't clear us out in +three months from now. Of course they haven't discovered yet what we're +offering them. But they _will_. I go on the double policy--play down to +your public in one department, but try to lift your public in another. +That's the way to keep alive." + +And, as they left the Japanese treasures and strolled about the upper +floor, he rattled off his glib catch-words. + +"These are hustling times. Get a move on somehow. That's what I tell +them--They'll soon tumble to it." + +He parted from her near the door of communication. + +"Ta-ta, old girl.... Oh, by the way, I shan't be in to dinner +to-night--or to-morrow either. I'm off to London. I'm wanted there about +my Christmas Baz----" And he checked himself. "But I'll ask old Mears to +tell you all about that." + +Then he ran downstairs, two steps at a time, and swaggered here and +there between the counters to impress the assistants with his hustlingly +Napoleonic air. + +Occasionally he loved to step forward, wave aside the assistant, and +himself serve a customer. He thoroughly enjoyed the awe-struck +admiration of the shop when he thus granted it a display of his skill. +It was his only real gift--the salesman art; and it never failed him. + +But it was something that he could not impart. Assistants who imitated +his method--trying to catch the smiling, almost chaffing manner that +could immediately convert a grumpy lethargic critic into a prompt and +cheerful buyer--were merely familiar and impudent, and ended by huffing +the customer. + +And the governor, when he happened to detect want of success in one of +his young gentlemen or young ladies, came down like a hundred of bricks. + +He treated the two sexes quite impartially, and the women could not say +that he bullied the men worse than he bullied them. But he had a deadly +sort of satire that the younger girls dreaded more than the angriest +storm of abuse. Thus if he saw one of them sitting down, he would +address her with apparently amiable solicitude. + +"Is that ledge hard, Miss Vincent? Couldn't someone get her a cushion? +Make yourself at home. Why don't you come round the counter and sit on +the customers' laps?... We must find you a comfortable seat +_somewhere_--and change of air, too. Mallingbridge isn't agreeing with +your constitution, if you feel as slack as all this." + +Like the people of his house, these people of his shop feared him, and, +perhaps without putting the thoughts into words, or troubling to quote +adages, understood that beggars on horseback always ride with reckless +disregard of the safety and comfort of the humble companions with whom +they were recently tramping along the hard road, and that no master is +so tyrannical as a promoted servant. In the opinion of the +shop-assistants, he could not go to London too often or stay there too +long. + +While he was away this time, Mears came to Mrs. Marsden with a long face +and a gloomy voice, and gave her the delayed information as to her +husband's Christmas programme. + +The new underground floor was to be used for a grand Bazaar, and Mears +had been told to win her round to the idea. + +Mears himself hated the idea. He thought the bazaar a brainless +plagiarism of Bence's, and altogether unworthy of Thompson's. It would +be exactly like Bence's, but on a much larger scale--beneath the good +respectable shop, a cheap and nasty shop, in which catchpenny travesties +of decent articles would be the only wares; fancy stationery, sham +jewellery, spurious metals; horrid little clocks that won't go, knives +and scissors that won't cut, collar-boxes more flimsy than the collars +they are intended to hold--everything beastly that crumples, bends, or +breaks before you can get home with it. + +"But he won't abandon the idea," said Mears. "That's a certainty. He's +mad keen on it. The only thing is for you to use your influence--and +I'll back you up solid--to persuade him to modify it." + +And Mears strongly advocated modification on these lines: make the +bazaar a fitting annex,--substitute boots and shoes for the sixpenny +toys, good leather trunks for the paper boxes, nice engravings for the +coloured photographs,--offer the public genuine stuff and not trash. + +Accordingly, Mr. Marsden, as soon as he returned, was begged by his +partner and his manager to grant their joint petition for a slightly +modified Christmas carnival. But he said it was too late. They ought to +have gone into the matter earlier. + +He had bought the trash,--had engaged his London girls,--was ready; and +like a general on the eve of campaign, he could not be bothered with +advice from subordinate officers. + +When discussing this horrible innovation, Mears had extracted from Mrs. +Marsden a distinct show of interest; several times afterwards he had +endeavoured to stimulate and increase the interest; and now, just before +Christmas, he earnestly implored her to rouse herself. + +"We miss you, ma'am, worse every day. It isn't _safe_ to let things +drift. We can't get on without you." + +Then one morning she had an early breakfast, dressed herself in her shop +black, came down behind the glass, took her seat at the little corner +table of her old room, and unobtrusively began working. + +Marsden, when he came in two or three hours later, was surprised to see +her. + +"Hullo, Jane, what do you think you are doing?" + +"Well, Dick," she said submissively, "I should like to help in the +shop--as I used to, you know." + +"Bravo. Excellent! I want all the help that anyone can give me;" and he +seated himself in the chair of honour. "But look here. Don't mess about +with the papers on this desk. I work after a system--and if my papers +are muddled, it simply upsets me and wastes my time." + + + + +XVII + + +It had been a fearful year for Thompson & Marsden's. From the moment +that the grand fascia permanently recorded the new style of the firm, +money had flowed out of the business like water--and like big water, +like mountain torrents or sea waves; while the feeding-stream of money +that flowed into the business was obstructed, deflected, and plainly +lessened in volume. And now, when all the immense outlay should begin to +prove remunerative, even Marsden himself confessed that results were +inadequate and unsatisfactory. + +The Bazaar was a disastrous fiasco. The builders had broken their +contract; the basement had not been completed on the stipulated date, +and a law-suit was pending. Marsden swore that he would recover damages +for the loss entailed by his builders' wickedness; but Mr. Prentice +advised that he had a weak case. + +When, to the strains of a Viennese orchestra, the public were invited to +go down and enjoy themselves underground, they flatly declined the +invitation. A peep into the brilliantly lighted depths was sufficient +for them. Damp exhaled from the plastered walls; the few adventurous +customers shivered and the girls sneezed in their faces. An epidemic of +sore throat, engendered down there, rose and spread through the upper +shop. After three weeks, Marsden's grand Christmas entertainment was +withdrawn--like a pantomime that is too stupid to attract the children; +the regiment of sneezing girls was disbanded; the mass of unsold rubbish +was sent to London, to be disposed of for what it would fetch. And that, +as the whole shop knew, was half nothing. + +The Japanese department was almost as bad a bargain; the little ivory +warriors terrified cautious citizens with their high prices; no one +would come to buy and be educated. But Marsden for a long time was +obstinate about his Oriental goods. He would not face the loss, and cut +it short. + +He seemed to have forgotten his American office equipments; but this +feature had also failed to fulfil expectations. Only three small +articles had been sold. However, as there was no risk here, the want of +success did not much matter; but still it must be counted as one more of +the governor's false moves. Indeed, as all now saw, everything attempted +by the governor during this period of his energetic efforts had gone +hopelessly wrong. + +But he himself could not brook the disappointment caused by his +failures. He was disgusted when he thought of what had happened since +his pompous declaration of war. Although he would not admit that so far +Bence was beating him, he inveighed against fate, against Mallingbridge, +against all the world. + +"What the devil can you do when you're buried in a dead and alive hole +like this, surrounded by idiotic prejudices, and dependent on a lot of +old fossils to carry out your ideas?" + +The fitful energy that had occasioned so much trouble was now quite +exhausted. He seemed to have entered another phase. He was never jolly +now, but always discontented, and generally querulous, morose, or +violently angry. + +One after another the old shop chieftains succumbed beneath his bullying +attacks. Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Fentiman had gone. Mr. Greig was going. + +Mrs. Marsden always recognized the beginning of his onslaught upon +anybody to whom in the old days she had been strongly attached. A few +sneering words--lightly and carelessly; and then, when he returned to +the charge, gross abuse of the doomed thing. She knew that it was +doomed. In the wreck of her life this too must go. Then very soon there +were insults and violences that rendered the position of the victim +untenable, unendurable. Thus he had forced Mr. Ridgway and the others to +resign. + +Yates, the servant and friend that she loved, was also doomed. She was +struggling to avert the stroke of doom, but she knew that sooner or +later it must fall. + +And during all this time his demands for cash were increasingly +frequent. By his colossal outlay he had mortgaged the profits of years, +and it was essential that the partners should wait patiently until they +came into their own again. But he would not wait, and vowed that he +could not further retrench his personal expenses. How was he to live +without _some_ ready cash? And if the firm could not furnish it, she +must. + +"I _am_ trying to sell my big car," he told her. "And I suppose you will +ask me to sell the little one next--and paddle about in the mud again. +But, no, thank you, that doesn't suit my book at all." + +At last she summoned to her aid something of that old resolution that +seemed to have left her forever, and refused to comply with his request. + +"No, Dick, I can't. It isn't fair. I can't." + +"You mean, you _won't_." + +"Well, if you force me to use that word, I shall use it." + +Then there was a terrible quarrel--or rather he abused her meanness and +selfishness with brutal violence, and she protested against his +injustice and cruelty with all the strength that she possessed. + +After this he absented himself for a fortnight. He sent no messages; he +left the business to take care of itself, or be run by the other +partner; nobody knew where he was. + +When he reappeared he showed a perceptible deterioration of aspect, as +if the vicious orgies through which probably he had been passing had set +their ugly print upon his mouth, and had tarnished the healthy +brightness of his eyes. Henceforth the evidences of his increasing +dissipation became more and more obvious. He had abandoned himself to +the influences of this second phase. He drank heavily. He was careless +about his clothes; never looked spick and span and well-groomed; often +looked quite seedy and shabby, lounging in and out of the Dolphin Hotel, +with cheeks unshaven, and an unbrushed pot hat on the back of his head. + +But although he neglected his work, he made people understand that he +still considered himself the boss, and whenever he came into the shop he +asserted his authority. After lying in bed sometimes till late in the +afternoon, he would come down and upset everybody just when the day's +work was drawing to a close. + +At the sight of him all eyes were lowered, and many hands began to +tremble behind the counters. Before he had progressed from the door of +communication to the top of the staircase, somebody, it was certain, +would be dropped on. But on whom would he drop? + +Once it was his ancient admirer and ally, Miss Woolfrey. Outside China & +Glass, she spoke to him pleasantly if nervously. + +"Good evening, sir. You'll find Mrs. Thompson downstairs in the office." + +"Who the devil are you talking about?" + +"Mrs. Thompson, sir--Oh, lor, how silly of me! Mrs. _Marsden_, sir." + +"Yes, that's the name; and I'll be obliged if you won't forget it." He +was always exceedingly angry if, as still often happened, the old +assistants accidentally used the name that from long habit sprang so +easily to their lips. + +"Mrs. Marsden, if you please. And not too much of that." He looked +about him wrathfully, involving half the upper floor in his displeasure. +"I wish you'd all learnt manners before you got yourselves taken on +here. 'Yes, Mrs. Marsden. No, Mrs. Marsden'--that's the way I hear you. +Don't any of you know that Madam is the proper form of address when +you're speaking to your employer's wife?" + +When he went behind the glass all the clerks began to blunder and to get +confused. He called for day-books, ledgers, and cash-books, and glanced +at them with lordly superciliousness while the poor clerks humbly held +them open before him. Nothing was ever quite right--he blamed somebody +for illegible hand-writing, someone else for a blot, someone else for +the dog's ear of a page. + +As promised by Miss Woolfrey, he found the late Mrs. Thompson quietly +working at the little corner table in his room. Then he stood before the +fire warming his legs, and haranguing about shop-etiquette, up-to-date +methods, time-saving systems, and complaining of the many faults that he +had discovered. + +His wife listened without discontinuing the work. + +Gradually, in spite of all his dictatorial interferences, he was +allowing her to do more and more work. He told the heads of the staff +that when he was out of the way, they were to take their instructions +from Mrs. Marsden. Then, when underlings came to him, obsequiously +asking for his orders in regard to small matters, he said he could not +be worried about trifles. Mrs. Marsden would direct them. He had more +than enough important things to think of, and could not descend to petty +details. + +One afternoon he came in from the street, turned the type-writing girl +out of the room, and told his wife to give him all her attention. + +"Attend to me, old girl. News. Great news." + +He slapped his legs, and laughed. He was elated and excited. It was a +flash of jollity after months of gloom. + +"Do you remember what I told you eighteen months ago?" + +"What did you tell me, Dick?" + +"I asked you to mark my words--and I said, that little bounder over +there wasn't going to last much longer." + +The old story of Bence's approaching bankruptcy had been revived again. +Marsden had heard it once more, at the Dolphin bar or in the +Conservative Club billiard room, and he greedily swallowed every word of +it. + +He said it was a hard-boiled fact this time. One of the profligate +brothers had died; the widow was taking his money out of the business; +and Archibald Bence, deprived of capital without which he could not +scrape along, would go phutt at any minute. + +"There, old girl, I thought it would buck you up to hear such news, so I +ran in to tell you. But now I must be off." + +And then, in his unusual good temper, he noticed the difficulties under +which she was labouring. + +"I say, you don't seem very comfortable with all your papers spread out +on chairs like that. It looks so infernally messy--but I suppose you +haven't space for them on your table." + +"I could do with more space, certainly." + +"Very well. You can sit at my desk--when I am not here. But don't fiddle +about with anything in the drawers;" and he laughed. "You'd better not +pry among my papers, or you may get your fingers snapped off. The whole +damned thing shut up with a bang when I was looking for something in a +hurry the other day." + +She wondered if there could be any valid reason for the persistent +recurrence of these stories of financial shakiness behind their rival's +outward show of prosperity. Were these little puffs of smoke, appearing +and disappearing so frequently, indicative of latent fire? She asked Mr. +Mears what he thought about the gossip carried in such triumph by her +credulous husband. + +Mears did not believe a word of it. + +"We've heard such yarns for ten years, haven't we?" And Mears nodded his +head in the direction of the street. "I've used my eyes, and I don't see +any signs of it--and I think Mr. Marsden shouldn't reckon on it." + +"No, I quite agree with you." + +"Although," said Mears, "it would be very convenient to us, if it _did_ +happen--and if it _is_ going to happen, the sooner it happens the +better." + +"It won't happen," said Mrs. Marsden, sadly and wearily. "The wish is +father to the thought--there's no real sense in it." + +At this time she often thought of Archibald Bence; and of how, when +alluding to his idle spendthrift brothers, he used to say with quaintly +candid self-pity, "There's a leak in my shop." + +Well, there was a leak on each side of the street, now. + +Availing herself of her husband's permission, she came out of the +corner, and was generally to be seen seated in the chair of honour at +the tricky American desk. + +Little by little she was resuming control over the ordinary routine +management of the shop; and, although in its greater and more momentous +affairs she remained practically impotent, she was allowed full +opportunities to supervise and encourage its daily traffic. + +Once or twice as Mears stood by her chair in the office and watched her +knitted brows while she considered the questions of the hour, he thought +and felt that it was quite like old times. + +But this was a transient thought. Old times could never really come +again. Stooping to take the papers on which she had scrawled her brief +and rapid directions, he noticed the coarse grey strands in the hair +that such a little while ago used to be so smooth, so glossy, and to his +mind so pretty. He could see, too, the differences in her whole face. +The face was slightly smaller; the florid colours were fading so fast +that occasionally she seemed sallow; the lines of the kind mouth had +grown harder; and there was a curious, passive, subdued look where once +there had been outpouring vitality. And the bodice of the black dress +hung loose, in small folds and creases, on the shoulders that used to +fill it with such handsome thoroughness. + +But instinctively Mears understood that behind the narrower and less +glowing mask the inward force was not extinguished--the indomitable +spirit was there still, not yet quenched, and perhaps unquenchable. + +He watched her--with a veneration deeper than he had ever felt in the +easy prosperous past--while she went on quietly, bravely working, day by +day, week after week. + + +One Saturday evening, after an uneventful but laborious week, when she +had supped alone and was reading by the dining-room fire, Marsden came +in and abruptly asked her for money. + +"This is serious, Jane--no rot about it. I'm stuck for a couple of +hundred, and I must have it." + +"Really, Dick, I cannot--" + +"I don't ask it as a gift. Of course I meant to pay you back the other +advances, but everything's been against me. I _will_ try to pay you. +Anyhow, this is a bona fide loan. It's only to tide me over." + +"But you said that last time." + +"Last time you refused--and I had to chuck away my little +run-about--simply chuck it away. And I wanted to keep that car as much +for your sake as for mine. I knew you enjoyed a ride in it." + +She had ridden in the car once, and once only. + +"Look here, old girl." And he removed his hat, and sat down on the other +side of the dinner-table. Perhaps he had hoped that she would give him a +cheque and let him go out again in two or three minutes; but now he saw +it would take longer. "I must have the money by Monday morning--or I +shall be in a devil of a hole. More or less a matter of honour.... Don't +be nasty. Help a pal. It's not _like_ you to refuse--when I tell you I'm +in earnest." + +"But, Dick, I am in earnest, too. Truly I can't do it." + +"Rot. You can do it without feeling it." And he assumed a facetious air. +"Just your autograph--that's all I ask for. I'll write out the cheque +myself--save you all trouble. Just sign your name." + +"No, I'm very sorry; but it's impossible." + +He got up, and began to walk about the room, fuming angrily. + +"Then I shall draw on the firm." + +"Then I shall have to call in Mr. Prentice, and ask him to protect the +firm--to go to the law courts if necessary." + +"Oh, that's all my aunt. I've had enough of Mr. Prentice--Mr. Prentice +isn't my wet nurse." + +"Dick, be reasonable. Be kind to me. Don't you see, yourself, that--" + +"I'm not going to have you and old Prentice treating me as if I was a +baby in arms--lecturing, and preaching to me about the firm. You and +Prentice aren't the firm. I'm just as much the firm as you are." + +"Have I put myself forward? Do I ever deny your rights?" + +"Be damned to Prentice." He took his hands out of his overcoat pockets, +and brandished them furiously. "Prentice was my enemy from the very +beginning;" and he raised his voice. It seemed as if he was purposely +working himself into a passion. "I was a fool to submit to his bounce. I +ought to have had a marriage settlement--money properly settled on +me--and I was a fool to let him jew me out of it." + +"I gave you a half share." + +"Yes, in the business--but _only_ the business." + +"Wasn't that enough for you?" + +"Yes, in good times, no doubt. But what about bad times? And what the +devil did I know of the business before I came into it? Nothing was +explained to me. I came in blindfold. I took everything on trust." + +"Oh, I think you understood it was a paying concern." + +"It wasn't _proved_ to me, anyhow. No one took the trouble to let me see +the books--and give me the plain figures. Oh, no, that would have been +beneath your dignity." + +"Or beneath yours, Dick?" + +"Yes, and I was a fool to consider my dignity. That was old Prentice +again. I suppose he took his cue from you. You had put your heads +together, and decided that I was to behave like the good boy in the +copy-books. Open your mouth and shut your eyes, and see what God will +send you." + +"Dick, please--please don't go on." + +Suddenly he stopped walking about, leaned his hands on the table, and +stared across at her. + +"Suppose the entire business goes to pot. What then?" + +"The business will recover, and continue--if it isn't drained to death." + +"Yes, but it's all mighty fine for _you_. You can afford to take a lofty +tone. Fat years are followed by lean years--We must wait for the fat +years again. I know all that cut and dried cackle--it's the way people +of property always talk. I came in with nothing--please to remember +that. I'm absolutely dependent on the business--if the profits go down +to nothing, am I to starve?" + +"You shan't starve;" and she looked round the comfortable, +well-furnished room. + +"_You_ had your private fortune--all that you'd put by,--and I suppose +you have got all of it still." + +"How can I have it all--when you know what I gave to Enid?" + +"You gave Enid a dashed sight too much--but you had plenty left, in +spite of that." + +"Dick, on my honour, I hadn't a large amount left. I used to count +myself a rich woman, but I was only relying on the business. What I took +out one year I put back into it another year. I was always trying to +improve it." + +"I'll swear you haven't put any back since you married me." + +"No, I haven't." + +"No, that I'll swear." He had lowered his voice, and he was speaking +with a scornful intensity. "No, good times or bad times in the shop, you +are content to pouch your dividends from all your stocks and shares, and +sit watching your nest-egg grow bigger and bigger, while--" + +"Dick! You are tiring me out. Don't go on." + +"Yes, I will go on. You started it--and now I mean to get to the bottom +of things. Let's get to plain figures at last. What are you worth +now--of your very own--apart from the firm?" + +"Not one penny more than I need--for my own safety." + +"Ha-ha! You're afraid to tell me." + +"Why should I tell you? Dick, don't go on. It's cruel of you to bully +me--when I'm so tired." + +"Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? How much? Oh, I dare say I can +figure it out for myself--without your help. Say twelve or fifteen +hundred a year, coming in like clockwork. Why I saved you two-fifty a +year myself, by cutting down what you intended to settle on Enid and +that skinny rascal of a horse-coper." + +"Dick--for pity's sake--" + +"Then answer me." And he raised his voice louder than before. "What are +you doing with your private income?" + +"This house costs _something_." + +"Oh, this house can't stand you in much. Where does the rest go--if you +aren't saving it? Are you giving it to Enid?... That's it, I suppose. If +that lazy swine wants two hundred to buy himself another thoroughbred +hunter, I suppose he sends Enid sneaking over here--when my back's +turned--and just taps you for it. You don't refuse _him_. But if _I_ +come to you, it's 'No, certainly not. Do you want to ruin me?'" + +"Dick!" + +"Then, will you let me have it?" + +Her face was drawn and haggard; she looked at him with piteous, +imploring eyes; and she hesitated. But the hesitation was caused by +dread of his wrath, and not by doubt as to her reply. + +"Dick. I am sorry. But I cannot do it." + +"Is that your answer?" + +"Yes, that is my answer." + +"Very good." He snatched up his hat, clapped it on the back of his head, +and stood for a few moments staring at her vindictively. Then, clenching +his fist and striking the table, he burst into a storm of abuse.... + +"But you'll be sorry for this, my grand lady. I'll make you pay for it +before I've done with you." This was after he had been raving at her for +a couple of minutes, and his voice had become hoarse. "You'll learn +better--or I'll know the reason why." + +Then he turned, flung open the door, and stamped out of the room. + +"What do you want here--you prying old hag? Stand on one side, unless +you wish me to pitch you down the stairs." + +Outside on the landing he had found Yates hastily moving away from the +dining-room door. Terrified by the noise, she had been irresistibly +drawn towards the room where her mistress was suffering. She longed to +aid, but did not dare. + +She came into the room now, and saw Mrs. Marsden leaning back in her +chair, white and nearly breathless, looking half dead. + +"Oh, ma'am--oh, ma'am! Whatever are we to do?" + +"It's all right, Yates. Don't distress yourself. It's nothing.... Mr. +Marsden lost his temper for the moment--but I assure you, it's all +right." + +"Let me get you upstairs to bed." + +"No, leave me alone, please. I am quite all right--but I'll stay here +quietly for a little while.... Go to bed, yourself. Don't sit up for +me." + +And her mistress was so firm that Yates felt reluctantly compelled to +obey orders. + +An hour passed; and Mrs. Marsden still sat before the fire, alone with +her thoughts in the silent house. And then a totally unexpected sound +startled her. The front door had been opened and shut; there were +footsteps on the stairs: the master of the house had returned, to resume +the conversation. + +But to resume it in a very different tone.--He took off his hat and +coat, came to the fire, warmed his hands; and then, resting an elbow on +the mantelpiece, smilingly looked down at his wife. + +"Jane, I'm penitent.... Really and truly, I'm ashamed of myself for +letting fly at you just now. But you did rile me awfully by saying you +hadn't _got_ the money. Anyhow, I've come back to ask for pardon." + +"Or have you come back to ask for the money again?" + +"No, no. Wash that out. If you don't want to part, there's no more to be +said. Forget all about it. Wash it all out. The word is, As you +were--eh?... Old Girl?" + +He was leaning down towards her, putting out his hand; and she was +shrinking away from him, watching him with terror in her eyes. Before +the hand could touch her face, she sprang from the chair and threw it +over, to make a barrier against his movement. + +"Janey! What's the matter with you? You naughty girl-- I've apologised, +haven't I? Let bygones be bygones--won't you?" + +She had run round the table, and was standing where he had stood an hour +ago. As he advanced she dodged away from him, keeping the length or the +breadth of the table between them. + +"Janey? What are you playing at? Hide and Seek--Catch who, Catch can? +How silly you are!" + +"Then stop. Don't touch me." + +"Well, I never!" He had stopped, and he laughed gaily. "What next? This +is a funny way to treat your lord and master. Janey, dear, you are +forgetting your duties. You're very, very naughty." + +He laughed again, and joined his hands in an attitude of devotion. + +"There, I'm praying to you--like a repulsed sweetheart, and not like a +husband who is being set at defiance. Dicky prays you to make it up. +Janey, be nice--be good.... Dear old Janey--don't you know what this +means?" + +"Yes--it means that you want the money very badly." + +Her face, that till now was so white, had flushed to a bright crimson. + +"What a horrid thing to say! I'd forgotten all about the money. Why +can't _you_ forget it?... No, hang the money. Money isn't everything.... +But, Jane, I've been thinking--for a long time--about the way you and I +are going on together." And he changed his tone again, and spoke with +affected solemnity. "It isn't _right_, you know. It has been going on a +good deal too long, Janey--and it's just how real estrangements +begin.... I don't know which of us is to blame--but I want to get back +into our jolly old ways." + +"That's impossible. We can never get back." + +"Oh, rot, my dear. Skittles to that. When we used to have a tiff--well, +we always made it up soon. It was like a lovers' squabble, and it only +made us fonder of each other.... Janey, I want to make it up." + +And with outstretched arms he advanced a step or two, pausing as she +retreated. + +"Oh, Janey--how can you?" + +Then he brought out all the old seductions--the half-closed eyes, from +which the simulated light of love was glittering; the half-opened lips, +that trembled with a mimic passion; the soft caressing tones, made to +vibrate with echoes of a feigned desire. To her it was all horrible--the +most miserable of failures, an effort to charm that merely produces +disgust. But he never was able to read her thoughts. He acted his little +comedy to the end--like the cockbird who has started his amatory dance +to fascinate the timid hen, he was perhaps too busy to observe results +till the dance had finished. + +"Dick--I implore you. Stop this hideous pretence." + +Then he saw how entirely he had failed. + +"All that is done with forever." Her face had become livid; she +shivered, and her mouth twitched, as if a wave of nausea had come +sweeping upward to her brain. "On my side it is dead--utterly dead;" and +she struck her breast with a closed hand. "On your side it never +existed.... So don't--don't think I can ever be deceived again." And she +spoke with a concentrated force that completely staggered him. "If you +didn't understand it--if you attempted to compel me, I believe--before +God--that I should go out and buy a revolver, and kill myself--or kill +you." + +"I say. Steady." + +He shrugged his shoulders, and turned away. Before he spoke again, he +had picked up the overturned chair and seated himself by the fire. + +"Very well, Jane. I twig;" and he laughed languidly. + +"I'm not such a cad as to make love to a lady against her will. I'm all +obedience. The next overture must come from you." + +She could read his thoughts always, though he could never read hers. +Moreover, he had ceased to act, and perhaps made no attempt to conceal +the sense of relief that sounded with such a brutal plainness. + +"But we can be friends, Dick--if you don't make it impossible. There +must be shreds of our self-respect left. We can patch them together--if +you don't tear them into smaller pieces." + +"Oh, you're having it all your own way now." + +"I'm bound to you; and I won't rebel--unless you drive me to despair. +I'm your wife still." As she said it, a sob choked the last words, and +tears suddenly filled her eyes. "I'm your wife still. I'll carry the +chain--until you consent to break it." + +"By Jove, you _are_ on the high rope to-night." + +"Now, about this money?" And she wiped her eyes, and blew her nose. +"You've proved to me that you must have it. You've shown that you +wouldn't shrink from any--from any ordeal in order to get it." + +He looked round with reawakened interest. + +"I do want it most damnably, or of course I wouldn't have asked you for +it." + +"Then for this once I suppose I must give it to you." + +"Jane! Do you really mean it?" + +"Yes. I'll give it you, if you'll tell me that you understand--if you'll +promise that this shall be the very last time.... But with or without +the promise, it will be useless to apply to me again." + +"There's my hand on it." + +He promised freely and readily. + + + + +XVIII + + +Next day she was too tired to get up for the morning service, but she +went to St. Saviour's church in the evening. + +More and more she loved the quiet hours spent in church. Here, and only +here, she was safely shut up in the world of her own thoughts, and could +feel certain that the thread of ideas would not be snapped by a rough +voice, or her nerves be shaken by the unanticipated violence of some +fresh misfortune. And St. Saviour's was even more restful at night than +in the daytime. + +She listened automatically to the beautiful opening prayer; and then she +retired deep into herself. + +Except for the chancel, the building was dimly lighted. The roof and the +empty galleries were almost hidden by shadows; lamps reflected +themselves feebly from the dark wood-work; and the people, sitting wide +apart from one another in the sparsely occupied pews, seemed vague black +figures and not strong living men and women. + +Each time that she rose, she looked from the semi-darkness towards the +brilliant light of the chancel--at the white surplices and the shining +faces of the choir, the golden tubes of the organ, and the soft radiance +that flashed from the brass of the altar rails. But all the while, +whether she sat down or stood up, her thoughts were struggling in +darkness and vainly seeking for the faintest glimmer of light. + +She thought of her husband and of the shop. He was holding her, would +hold her as a tied and gagged prisoner surrounded with the dark chaos +that he had caused. How could she save herself--or him? He concealed +facts from her; he told her lies; he never let her hear of a difficulty +until it was too late to find any means of escape. + +And she thought of the destruction of her whole lifework. She saw it +certainly approaching--the only possible end to such a partnership. All +that she had laboriously constructed was to be stupidly beaten down. + +The splendid old business would infallibly be ruined. No business, +however firmly established, can withstand the double attack of gross +mismanagement and reckless depletion of its funds. As she thought of it, +those words of her inveterately active rival echoed and re-echoed. A +leak, and no chance of stopping the leak--disaster foreseen, but not to +be averted. The leak was too great. All hands at the pumps would not +save the ship. + +A new and if possible more poignant bitterness filled her mind. It was +another long-drawn agony that lay before her; and it seemed to her, +looking back at the older pain, that this was almost worse. Confusion, +entanglement, darkness--no light, no hope, no chance of opening the +track that leads from chaos to security. Bitter, oh, most bitter--to +taste the failure one has not deserved, to work wisely and be frustrated +by folly, to watch passively while all that one has created and believed +to be permanent is slowly demolished and obliterated. + +Quite automatically, she had stood up again, and was looking towards the +brightly illuminated choir. They were singing the appointed psalms now; +and, as half consciously she listened to each chanted verse, the words +wove themselves into the burden of her thoughts.... + +... "They have compassed me about also + +... and fought against me without cause." + +Altogether without cause. There was the pity of it. If only he would +curb his insensate greed, put some check or limit to his excesses, the +business would soon recover from the shaking he had given it; and then +there would be enough to maintain him in idleness for the rest of his +days. She would work for him, if he would but let her. + +... "For the love that I had unto them, lo, they take now my contrary +part." + +Yes, in all things he would frustrate her efforts. + +... "Thus have they rewarded me evil for good; and hatred for my good +will." + +The good will! How much value had he knocked off the good will already? +If they tried to turn themselves into a company to-morrow, what price +could they put down for it? Soon there would be no good will left. + +"Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him; and let Satan stand at +his right hand." + +Ah! There spoke the implacable voice of the Hebrew king. No mercy for +the ungodly. + +"When sentence is given upon him, let him be condemned, and let his +prayer be turned into sin." + +Ah! There again. + +"Let his days be few; and let another take his office." + +She listened now fully, as the verses of condemnation followed one +another in a dreadful sequence. That was the spirit of the Old +Testament. The God of those days was anthropomorphic, a god of battles, +a leader, a fighter: the friend of our friends, but the foe to our foes. +He taught one to fight against the most desperate odds--and not to +forgive enemies, but to punish them. + +And to-night the spirit in her own breast responded to the ancient +barbarity of creed. That softer doctrine of the Gospel, with its +soothingly mystical miracles of forgiveness, was not substantial enough +for the stern facts of life. She felt too sore and too sick for the aid +that comes veiled with inscrutable symbolism, and seems to martyrize +when it seeks to save. All that faith was beautiful but dim, like the +unsubstantiality of these church columns ascending through the shadows +to the darkness that hid the roof. The reality was before her eyes, +where in the strong light those men stood firmly on their own feet, and, +singing the grand old psalm, craved swift retribution for the ungodly. + +These harder thoughts soon faded. As always happened, the hour in church +did her good. Self-pity, except as the most transient emotion, was well +nigh impossible to her. Courage was always renewing itself, and she +could not long retard the heightening glow that succeeded each fit of +depression. + +After all, she was in no worse a fix than when her first husband threw a +ruined business on her hands. While there's life there's hope. + +To her surprise she found Mr. Prentice waiting for her outside the +church porch. + +"Good evening, Mr. Prentice;" and she looked at him anxiously. "Nothing +wrong, I hope?" + +"No, no," said Mr. Prentice jovially. "The fact is, my wife is on the +sick list again; and as I'm at a loose end, I've come round to ask if +you could give me a bit of supper." + +The real fact was that earlier in the day he had seen Mr. Marsden +driving to the railway station with a valise and dressing-case on the +box of the fly. He knew that this gentleman was by now safe in London, +and he had grasped an opportunity of seeing his old friend alone. He +desired, and intended if possible, to cheer her up and put new heart +into her. + +"Come along then." She was obviously pleased to accept his company. "But +I'm afraid there won't be much supper--because Richard is away +to-night." + +"I'm not hungry. I over-ate myself at dinner--I always over-eat on +Sundays. Bread and cheese will do me grandly." + +"We'll try to produce something better than that"; and Mrs. Marsden +bustled up the stairs, calling loudly for Yates. + +Yates produced some cold meat; and Mr. Prentice said he thought it +delicious. Yates herself waited upon them. The cupboard that contained +the master's strong drink was of course locked; but there was a supply +of good soda water accessible, and Yates ran out and bought some +doubtful whisky. Mr. Prentice, however, declared that the whisky was +excellent. His kind face beamed; he chaffed Yates, and made her toss her +head and giggle as she filled his glass; he chatted gaily and easily +with his hostess;--he was so friendly, so genial, so thoroughly welcome, +that this was the happiest supper seen in St. Saviour's Court for a very +long time. + +No fire had been lighted in the drawing-room, so when their meal was +done they sat together by the dining-room fire. + +"What pleasant hours," said Mr. Prentice, looking round at the familiar +walls, "what pleasant, pleasant hours I've spent in this room. Those +autumn dinners--with Mears and the rest! How I used to enjoy them!" + +"You helped us to enjoy them." + +"You've discontinued them altogether--haven't you?" + +"Yes. Not without regret, both my husband and I decided that we could +not keep up that little festival. Of course you know, we have been +obliged to cut down expenses wherever possible. The times are not very +good." + +Of course he knew very well all about her difficulties in the house and +in the shop. + +"Better times are coming," he said cheerily. "I hear on all sides of the +low ebb of trade. It's a regular commercial crisis. But things are going +to improve. The rotten enterprises will go down, and the really sound +ones will come out stronger than ever." + +"Oh, I forgot. You like to smoke--but I'm afraid the cigars are locked +up, too." + +"I've plenty in my pocket--if you're sure you don't mind." + +She laughed amiably. "How can you ask? I'm quite smoke-dried. I let +Richard smoke all over the house." + +While he cut his cigar and lit it, he thought how wonderful she +was--with the mingled pride and courage that allowed her always to speak +of her Richard as if he had been everything that a husband should be. + +He sat smoking for a few minutes in a comfortable silence, while she, +with her hands placidly clasped upon her lap, gazed reflectively at the +fire. + +"Now," he said, holding his cigar over the fender and gently tapping it +until the whitened ash fell, "there are one or two little things that +I'd like to talk to you about." + +She raised her eyes, and looked at him attentively. + +"Nothing really worrying," he said quickly. "And something which you'll +consider very much the reverse. But I'll keep that for the last.... I +had a call the other day from your son-in-law, Mr. Kenion." + +"Did you?" + +"Yes. Amongst other matters, he went for me about the marriage +settlement;" and Mr. Prentice laughed and nodded his head. "You know, he +says that Enid ought to have been given power to raise money for his +advancement in life. His friends had told him it is always done, when +the wife has the money; and he thought that the trustees ought to manage +it somehow--because he has been offered a great opening. You'll smile +when you hear what it was." + +"What was it?" + +"There was a fellow called Whitehouse who used to be Young's +riding-master; and it seems he has made some money in London, and set up +a smart livery stable--and he proposed that Mr. Kenion should join +forces with him. Mr. Kenion was to go about the country, buying +horses--and so on.... But I only mentioned this to amuse you. Of course +I said Bosh--not to be thought of." + +"It does not sound very promising, or very reputable." + +"Besides, where did Enid come in? Was she to accompany him, or to stay +moping at home by herself?... Do you see much of them out there?" + +Mrs. Marsden confessed that she had not as yet ever seen the Kenions in +their home. + +"It isn't that there's the least bad blood between us," she hastened to +add. "No, dear Enid and I are now the best of friends. Ever since her +marriage she has been sweet to me. But life rushes on so fast--and +married women are not free agents. When Richard is away, I consider +myself responsible in the shop." + +"Just so." And Mr. Prentice, puffing out some smoke, looked at the +ceiling. "By the by, that's rather an awkward dispute that Mr. Marsden +has let himself into with those German people." + +"What is the dispute?" + +"Hasn't he told you about it?" + +"I don't seem to remember--but no doubt he told me." + +"Well, if he hasn't it's a good sign: because it probably means that he +intends to act on my advice after all." + +Then he explained the odious mess that Marsden had made of his American +office equipments. It appeared that, when arranging to sell these +wretched things for a handsome commission, he had undertaken to send his +principals accurate monthly reports and immediately account for all +moneys received; and had further bound himself, in default of carrying +out the precise provisions of the agreement, to take over at catalogue +price the entire stock that had been entrusted to his care. But he had +sent no reports; he had forgotten all his undertakings; he had received +cash for three small articles and had never furnished any account; and +the Germans said the goods now belonged to him, and not to them. + +Mr. Prentice declared that it was the most imprudent agreement he had +ever read; and, although speaking guardedly, he implied that in his +opinion no one but a fool would have signed it. But there it was, signed +and stamped; and he did not see how you could wriggle out of it. + +"Your husband vowed that he wouldn't give in to them. But I told him, +from the first, that he hadn't a leg to stand on." + +"I'll persuade him not to go to law about it." + +"Yes, I'm sure it will be best to settle the wrangle. You see, he took +such a high tone with them that they've turned nasty--talk big about +obtaining goods under false pretences, and so on. But that's +bluster--they'll be glad enough to get their money." + +She remembered her thoughts in church. It was hopeless. He kept her in +the dark. No business could stand it--the double attack: bleeding and +buffeting at the same time. He would destroy their credit too; these +continual blunders and the attempts to repudiate obligations would +become known; and the firm would acquire a bad name. + +"Don't look so grave, my dear. Your husband must pay up, and make the +best of it.... And now for my _bonne bouche_." Mr. Prentice's eyes +twinkled with kindly merriment; and he spoke slowly, in immense +enjoyment of his words. "This is something from which you cannot fail to +derive benefit. It is what I have always been hoping for. It will +altogether relieve the pressure." + +"What is it?" + +"Well--immediately facing you there is a large and flourishing +organization, known to the world as--" + +"O, Mr. Prentice!" Her face had brightened, but now it clouded once +more. "Don't say you are going to tell me again that Bence is smashing." + +"Yes, my dear, I am. A most tremendous smash!" + +And Mr. Prentice repeated the old story in a slightly altered form. +According to his certain knowledge, Archibald Bence was vainly striving +to raise money--was moving heaven and earth to obtain even a +comparatively small sum. About a year ago, one of Bence's bad brothers +had been bought out of the business; then the other brother died, and +Bence was compelled to satisfy the claims of the widow and children; and +since that period he had been drawing nearer and nearer to his +catastrophe. Now he was done for, unless he could get some capital to +replace what had been taken from him. For years he had been working with +the finest possible margin of cash to support his credit. At last he had +cut it too fine. The wholesale trade were tired of the risk they had run +in dealing with him. They would not supply him any further, unless he +showed them first his penny for each reel of cotton or yard of tape. + +"But what makes you believe all this?" + +"I am not free to mention the sources of my information. There is such a +thing as backstairs knowledge." + +Mr. Prentice nodded his head, and smiled enigmatically, as he said this. +Then he went on to speak of the solicitors who acted for Bence. Messrs. +Hyde & Collins were held in supreme contempt by old-fashioned Mr. +Prentice. They were--as he never scrupled to say--sharp practitioners, +shady beggars, dirty dogs; and at the offices in the side street that +gives entrance to Trinity Square, they looked after the dubious affairs +of a lot of shabby clients. It was a bad sign when a Mallingbridge +citizen went to Hyde & Collins: it meant that his finances were shaky, +or that he had become involved in some disreputable transaction. + +"It was enough for me," said Mr. Prentice, "to know that Bence was in +their hands. I guessed six years ago what would come of it." + +"Yes, but guesses, guesses! What are guesses?" + +"My dear, you have only to _look_ at Bence now. It is written in his +face--a desperate man." + +And Mr. Prentice reminded Mrs. Marsden of the fact that from his office +windows he had an uninterrupted view down the side street to the front +door of Hyde & Collins. Well, every day, and two or three times a day, +Archibald Bence could be seen hurrying to his solicitors--a man driven +by despair, a gold-seeker amidst unyielding rocks, a poor famished +little rat scampering to and fro in quest of food. + +"Of course," said Mr. Prentice, with a touch of pity in his voice, "it's +his brothers who have done for him. They have literally sucked him dry. +Really, if it wasn't for _you_, I could almost feel sorry for him. But +the dirty tricks he has played you put him out of court." + +"I wonder," said Mrs. Marsden, thoughtfully looking into the fire. + +"Don't wonder," said Mr. Prentice jovially. "Just wait and see. You +won't have long to wait." + +"I wish you could find out for certain." + +"I _am_ certain.... Well, you always get one's little secrets out of +one. I've no right to mention this. But Hyde & Collins recently +approached one of my own clients--to find out if he had more money than +brains. Coupled with the other information, that clinches it.... I stake +my reputation--for what it's worth--that unless Mr. Archibald procures +help within the next fortnight, he will have to put up his shutters." + +"A fortnight," said Mrs. Marsden absently. + +Then they talked of something else, and soon Mr. Prentice bade his +hostess good-night. + +It had been a pleasant evening for her--a respite from the storm and +stress of the days. But when she slept, the respite was immediately +over; in dreams she fell back upon doubt and difficulty; in troubled and +confused dreams she was desperately fighting for life. + + + + +XIX + + +At last Mrs. Marsden went to see her daughter, and in the next few +months she paid many visits. + +Enid had written, asking her to come as soon as possible, and giving her +a reason why she must not refuse this invitation. Enid had just +discovered that she was going to have a baby. The happy event was not +expected until the spring; but Enid said she longed to see her mother +without an hour's avoidable delay. + +Mrs. Marsden telegraphed her reply. She would come out to-morrow, +Thursday--early closing day--directly after luncheon. + +In the old days she would have driven in one of Mr. Young's luxurious +landaus; but now she travelled by train, in a second class carriage, and +walked the mile and a half from Haggart's Road station to the Kenions' +converted farmhouse. The day was bright and fine; and the air felt quite +mild, although there had been a sharp frost overnight. + +She had hoped that Enid might feel up to walking, and perhaps meet her +at the station--or somewhere on the road, if the station was too far. +But she saw no friendly face on the straight road, along which she +plodded with resolute vigour. + +Two road-menders near a quaint little stone church directed her to the +house. It was situated on sufficiently high ground, at the end of an +accommodation lane; and, as she passed through the gate and walked up +the little carriage drive, she thought it all looked very nice and +comfortable. The house itself seemed old and rather humble--less +attractive than she had anticipated; but the large outbuildings gave +the place a certain air of importance and gentility. She caught a +glimpse of the capacious stableyard, saw a groom crossing it, and heard +voices from an invisible saddle-room--Mr. Kenion's voice, as she +believed among the rest. The thick-growing ivy on the walls was pretty, +but it would have been the better for cutting; and the garden, on this +side of the house, appeared to be sadly neglected. + +The front door stood open; and while she waited for somebody to answer +the bell, she had an opportunity of glancing at the decorations of the +hall. They had all been paid for by her purse, so she was fairly +entitled to look at them critically if she pleased. She liked the +appearance of the painted ceiling-beams, the panelled dado, the modern +basket grate with the blue and white tiles; but she did not so much like +the sporting prints, the heads and tails of foxes, the hats and coats +lying so untidily on all the chairs, the immense number of whips and +sticks, and the ugly glass case that held horses' bits and men's spurs +and stirrups. _That_ was a decoration more suitable to Mr. Kenion's +harness room than to Mrs. Kenion's hall. She could hear the servants +talking somewhere quite near; and yet they could not hear the bell, +although she had rung it loudly enough three times. + +Presently, as if by chance, a maid showed herself. + +"Not at home," said the maid briskly. + +Mrs. Marsden gave her name, and explained that the mistress of the house +would certainly be at home to her. + +"Very good, ma'am," said the maid, doubtfully. "Step this way, and I'll +tell her. She's upstairs, lying down, I think." + +Then Mrs. Marsden was shown into what she supposed to be the +drawing-room, and left waiting there. There was something rather +chilling and disappointing in the whole manner of her reception at the +home that she had provided for Enid and her husband. + +She was allowed plenty of time to examine more ceiling beams and blue +tiles, to admire photographs in silver frames, or to read the sporting +newspapers and magazines that littered every table. The room was +pretty--but dreadfully untidy. She walked over to one of the windows, +and looked out. There had been no greater attempt at gardening on this +side of the house than on the other: the few shrubs were overgrown; the +gravel paths had almost disappeared under moss and weeds. + +Beyond iron railings she saw the grass fields that Enid had said were +like a park. As a park they were completely disfigured by some ugly +buildings with corrugated iron roofs--really hideous erections, which +she guessed to be horseboxes. In each meadow there was an artificially +made jump for the horses; and, looking farther away, she saw that these +sham obstacles together with the natural banks and hedges formed a +miniature steeplechase course. + +With a sigh she turned from the windows. Indoors and out of doors there +was too much evidence of the husband's amusements, and not enough +evidence of the wife's tastes and occupations. The whole place was +altogether too much like a bachelor's home to please Enid's mother. + +Suddenly the door opened, and Kenion slouched in. He had his hands in +the pockets of his riding breeches; and he looked gloomy, worried, +anything but glad to see the visitor. It was the first time that they +had met since the wedding, and it proved rather an unfortunate meeting. + +"How do you do--Mr. Charles?" + +"Oh, you've come after all. You got the news, I suppose?" + +"Yes, indeed I have." + +"Beastly unlucky, isn't it?" + +"What's that?" + +"But I _am_ unlucky." + +"_Unlucky_, Mr. Kenion!" Mrs. Marsden had flushed; and her face plainly +expressed the anger and contempt that she felt. + +"No one can say I'm to blame," Kenion went on gloomily and grumblingly. +"I'd have given fifty pounds to prevent its happening. It wasn't _my_ +fault. I knew she was as clever as a cat. I thought she _couldn't_ make +a mistake." + +"Mr. Kenion," said Mrs. Marsden hotly, "if you aren't ashamed to speak +like this, I am ashamed to listen to you." + +"Eh--what?" + +"Where is Enid?" And she moved towards the door. "I think your attitude +is unmanly--mean--and _despicable_; and I wish--yes, I wish Enid's child +was going to have a better father." + +"Eh--what?" + +"If you had a spark of proper feeling, you'd rejoice, you'd thank God +that this--this great blessing was coming to her." + +Kenion suddenly bent his thin back, and became completely doubled up +with a fit of cackling laughter. + +"It's too comic," he spluttered. "Best thing I ever heard--Ought to be +sent to _Punch_!" + +"If you are joking, Mr. Kenion, I'm sorry for your ideas of fun." + +"No. No--don't be angry. You'll laugh when you see the joke. Of course +you"--and again his own laughter interrupted him--"you--you were talking +about Enid's baby.... Well, _I_ was talking about Mrs. Bulford's mare." + +Then he explained the disaster that had befallen them. A very valuable +animal, the property of a friend, had been placed in his charge to train +it for a point-to-point race; and this morning it had broken its back +over one of the artificial jumps. + +"And we were all so upset--Enid has been crying about it--that I sent +you a telegram, telling you what had happened, and asking you not to +come out to-day. But you never got it really?" + +"No, it must have arrived after I started." + +"Well, I'm glad you've come--for you have given me a good laugh. Though +Heaven knows"--and he became gloomy again--"it isn't a laughing matter. +I wonder I was able to laugh." + +Then Enid came into the room. There were red rims round her eyes, and +her nose seemed swollen; evidently she had shed many tears. + +"Mother dear, isn't this dreadful?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"I'm so sorry for poor Charles." + +"So am I, dear," said Mrs. Marsden. "But we must be glad that he himself +escaped without injury." + +"Oh, I wasn't riding her," said Charles. + +"No," said Enid. "Tom was riding her--and he has broken his collar +bone." + +"Yes," said Charles, plunging his hands deep in his pockets and hunching +his shoulders. "That's another bit of luck. My second-horseman laid up, +just when I most wanted him." + +"It was the frost in the ground," said Enid sadly. "All the frost seemed +to be gone;" and she turned to her husband. "Charlie, it wasn't your +fault. Mrs. Bulford _can't_ blame you." + +"No, I don't believe she will. She's a stunner--but Bulford may kick up +a fuss." + +"Oh, how can he? He knew that the mare had to be trained." + +Mrs. Marsden made this first visit a very short one. The host and +hostess were too much perturbed and agitated to entertain visitors. + + +Next time she came out, Enid was less preoccupied with her husband's +affairs, and able to talk freely of her own hopes. She clung to her +mother affectionately, and once again was the new Enid who had knelt by +the sofa and sobbed her gratitude for past kindness. + +Each kept up the pretence of being satisfied and contented in her +married life. Enid never had a bad word to say of Charles; and Mrs. +Marsden spoke of Richard with as yet unabated courage. In fact there was +probably no one with whom she was so very careful to maintain a decorous +appearance of connubial happiness as with the daughter who, by the light +of her own experience, would most surely detect the imposture. + +But behind the dual reticences there was an ever increasing sympathy. +The hard facts which neither would admit were drawing them nearer and +nearer together. So that it seemed sometimes that on all subjects except +the two forbidden subjects they were now absolutely of the same mind. + +When Enid noticed the careworn, harassed look in her mother's face, she +used at once to think, "That brute has committed some fresh villainy +during the week." + +But what she said was something after this style: "Mother dear, I'm +afraid you have been working too hard"; or "Mother dear, you ought to +have had a fly from the station. I am afraid the walk has fatigued you." + +And when Mrs. Marsden saw Enid's worried, nervous manner, the traces of +more tears about the pretty grey eyes, she thought, "This selfish beast +has been tormenting her again. I suppose he does everything short of +beating her; and perhaps he'll do that before very long." + +But she merely said, "Enid, my dear, I hope you have had no more bother +about the horses. You mustn't let Charles' worries set you +fretting--especially _now_." + +The indications of Mr. Kenion's selfishness were so painfully plain that +little penetration was required to understand the discomfort that they +caused. No wife, however loyal, could feel any peace or comfort with +such a self-centred, insensible, shallow-pated companion. + +Whenever he appeared he made Mrs. Marsden supremely uncomfortable. When +indoors he was always restless. He wandered aimlessly about the house, +coming in and out of rooms, fidgetting and bothering about +trifles--behaving generally like the spoilt and rather vicious child who +on wet days renders existence intolerable to all the grown-up people +compelled to remain under the same roof with him. + +"Hullo! More tea!" And he would come lounging after the maid who was +bringing in the tea-things. "It seems as if you are having tea from +morning to night. What? I tell Enid she drinks a lot too much tea--and +it only makes her jumpy and peevish." + +He himself drank very little tea; and Mrs. Marsden gathered that not the +least of Enid's anxieties was occasioned by his intemperance. But this +was a summer trouble. In the hunting season men who regularly ride hard +can also regularly drink hard without apparently hurting themselves. + +Once when Mrs. Marsden was about to set out for her lonely tramp to the +station, Enid with some very pretty words asked her for a photograph. + +"There's not one of you in all the house, mother--and I want one now +badly.... If it is to be a girl, I want her to be like you--in all +things, mother--and not like me." + +Mrs. Marsden was more deeply touched by this request than she cared to +show. She kissed Enid smilingly, patted her hand, and promised to send +out a portrait. + +There was one in the drawing-room at home, which no doubt Mr. Marsden +could spare. + +Then, while putting on her gloves and talking cheerfully, she glanced at +Enid's collection of photographs in the silver frames. + +"Who is that lady, Enid?" + +"Oh, that's Mamie Bulford." + +Several of the frames contained pictures of this important personage, +who appeared to be a hard-visaged but rather handsome woman of thirty or +thirty-five. She was enormously rich, Enid said, and madly keen about +hunting; and she and her husband lived at a beautiful place called +Widmore Towers, two miles the other side of Linkfield village. This year +Charlie was acting as her pilot in the hunting field; and four horses +were kept at the Towers solely for the pilot's use. + +"Charlie," said Enid, "is such a magnificent pilot--for anyone who means +going. And Mamie _will_ be there, or thereabouts, don't you know, all +the time." + +"Does not Mr. Bulford go out hunting?" + +"Major Bulford! Yes, but he's crocked--stiff leg--so he hunts on +wheels--follows in a dog-cart. That's rather fun, you know. You see a +lot of sport that way." + +"Yes, dear, I remember you said you were going to do that, yourself." + +And Mrs. Marsden asked about the pony-cart that was to have been +procured for Enid. + +But the pony-cart had become impossible--and Enid vaguely hinted at hard +times, difficulty of finding spare cash for expenses that were not +urgently necessary, and so on. Besides, it was a perambulator and not a +pony carriage that Mr. Kenion must now buy. + + +The baby--a girl--was born early in April. + +Mrs. Marsden tried but failed to get a fly at Haggart's Road station, +and almost ran for the mile and a half that still separated her from her +daughter. + +Everything was all right; mother and child were doing well; it was the +finest and most beautiful infant that had ever been seen. The +grandmother, eagerly scanning its tiny features, was gratified by +recognizing the mother's grey eyes and what might be taken for the first +immature sketch of her long nose. She was, if possible, more pleased by +her inability to trace the faintest resemblance to the father. + +When in a few days she came again, it was to find Enid radiantly happy +and picking up strength delightfully. And at this visit Mrs. Marsden's +heart was made to overflow by the things that Enid said to her. + +Amongst the things was the emphatic statement that the child should be +called Jane, and that her grandmother should also be her godmother. + +Mr. Kenion accepted his blessing phlegmatically. + +"Pity it isn't a boy," he said to Mrs. Marsden. + +Enid said he hid his delight. It was a pose. He was really revelling in +the joy of being a father. + +But he had not yet bought the perambulator. He asked his mother-in-law's +advice--because, as he said, she was "up in that sort of thing." Did +people hire perambulators, or buy them right out? Could one get a decent +perambulator in Mallingbridge, or would one have to go fagging up to +London? + +Mrs. Marsden bought the perambulator, and sent it with her love in the +carrier's cart; and Mr. Kenion told Enid that he hoped her mother +hadn't given much for it, because it didn't look worth much. + +Once, before the christening, Enid slightly attacked those diplomatic +barriers of reserve that had been established by tacit consent between +her and her mother. + +She nervously and timidly asked if Mr. Marsden would mind not coming to +the little feast. + +But Mrs. Marsden was on the defensive in a moment. Even at this +auspicious and sentimental time she could not permit any breach in her +barrier. She said that her husband was generally considered very good +company, and he would have no wish to go where he was not wanted. + +"It is only," said Enid, "because I should be afraid of Charles and him +not getting on well together--and I do so want everything to go off +happily. You know, he wrote Charles a very indignant letter about the +County Club." + +"He felt rather sore on that subject, dear--and so did I." + +"Really, mother, Charles did all he could; but they made him withdraw +the candidature. Of course it's absurd--but they are so severe with +regard to retail trade." + +"Well, be all that as it may," said Mrs. Marsden, "you need not disturb +your mind about Richard. He could not have come in any case. I told him +the date--and he is not free on that day." + + +But for Mr. Charles, it might have been a satisfactory christening. + +He was a most uncomfortable host; continually getting up from the +luncheon table, walking about the room, worrying the maid-servants; and +wounding Enid by his facetiously disparaging remarks about the food. + +"Our meals are always rather a picnic," he told the guests; "so you must +look out for yourselves.... I say, how am I supposed to carve this? +What? A pudding! What's the good of dabbing a lot of sweets in front of +people, before they've had any meat? Enid, isn't there any fish? I +thought you said there was curried sole;" and he got up, and rambled +away to the sideboard. + +"Charles," said Enid plaintively, "this is the curry--here." + +"What? Then fire ahead with it.... But where's Harriet disappeared to?" + +"She is fetching the cutlets--and the other things. Do sit down." + +"Oh, Harriet, here you are.... Where the dickens have you hidden the +wine? This seems to be a very _dry_ party;" and he gave his stupid +cackling laugh just behind Mrs. Marsden's back. "Oh, here we are. Now +then, ladies and gentlemen, hock, claret, whisky and soda? Name your +tipple. And please excuse short-comings." + +But in truth there were no short-comings. Poor Enid had tried so hard to +have everything really nice--the best glass and china, pretty flowers, +and dainty appetising food, sufficient for twenty people and good enough +for princes. And she looked so charming at the head of the table--her +face rounder and plumper than it used to be, her figure fuller, her +complexion delicately glowing, her eyes shining softly,--the young +mother, in what should have been the hour of her undimmed glory. Mrs. +Marsden, as she listened to the cackling fool behind her chair and saw +the shadow of pain take the brightness from Enid's face, bridled and +grew warm. + +"Whisky and soda, Mrs. B?... Father, put a name to it." + +Mrs. Bulford--a hardy brunette, richly attired, and undoubtedly +handsome, but older than she looked in her photographs--was to be the +other godmother. She and the host were evidently on excellent terms, +understanding each other's form of humour, possessing little secret +jokes of their own--so that every time Charles cackled she had a +suffocating laugh ready. The hostess called her "Mamie," and even "Mamie +dear"; but Mrs. Marsden surmised that Enid did not really like her, and +had not wanted her for a godmother. + +Old Mr. Kenion--the vicar of Chapel Norton--was white-haired, thin, and +fragile; and Mrs. Marsden thought he seemed to be a good, weak, +over-burdened man. His manner was mild, courteous, kindly. Mrs. Kenion +was shabbily pretentious, with faded airs of fashion and dull echoes of +distinguished voices. They had brought one of their daughters with +them--a spinster of uncertain age in a tailor-made gown and a masculine +collar. The curate of the small stone church made up the party. + +But old Mr. Kenion would read the christening service, and not this +local clergyman. + +"Yes," he said, mildly beaming across the table at Mrs. Marsden, "I am +to have the privilege to hold my grandchild at the font." + +And then presently, when the servant had poured out some hock for him, +he addressed Mrs. Marsden again. + +"May I advert to a practice that has fallen into disuse, and drink a +glass of wine with you?... To our better acquaintance, Mrs. Marsden;" +and he bowed in quite a pleasant old-world style. + +"Bravo, governor," said Charles. "Fill, and fill again. Nothing like +toasts to keep the bottle moving." + +"Yes, I'm sure," said the vicar's wife, with patronising urbanity; "so +very pleased to make your acquaintance--at _last_, don't you know. We +only _saw_ one another at the wedding." And while Charles and Mrs. +Bulford took alternate parts in the telling of an anecdote, she +continued to talk to Mrs. Marsden. "Of course I have known you in your +_public_ capacity for years. My girls and I have always been devoted to +Thompson's. 'Get it at Thompson's'--that's what they always said." She +was honestly trying to be agreeable. Indeed she particularly wished to +please. "All my girls said it. Is it not so, Emily?... She does not +hear. She is too much amused by her brother's story.... But that was +always the cry. 'Get it at Thompson's!' And I'm sure we never failed at +Thompson's." + +"Oh, shut up, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford, loudly. "You're spoiling the +point. Let me go on by myself." + +"Yes, that's what you often say--but you're glad to have me ahead of you +when you think there's wire about." + +"Will you be quiet, Pontius?" + +And Mrs. Bulford was allowed to finish the anecdote in her own way. Then +she suffocated, and Charles cackled; but no one else, not even Mrs. +Kenion, could see the point of the little tale. + +The local curate, a shy, pink-complexioned young man, had scarcely +talked at all; but now he was endeavouring to make a little polite +conversation with Enid. He said he hoped the church would be found quite +warm; he had given orders that the hot-water apparatus should be set +working in good time; and he thought they were, moreover, fortunate to +have such genial bright weather. Sometimes April days proved +treacherously cold. Then he inquired if the godfather was to be present +at the ceremony. + +"No," said Charles, answering for his wife. "I am to be +proctor--proxy--what d'ye call it?--for Jack Gascoigne, a pal of +mine.... You must teach me the business, Mrs. B." + +"All right, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford gaily. "Copy me." + +"You will not come to the church in that costume," said old Kenion, with +sudden gravity. + +"Why not? Ain't I smart enough? These are a new pair of breeches." + +"Of course you must change your clothes, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford. "I +wouldn't be seen in church with you like that." + +Then old Kenion asked a question which Mrs. Marsden would herself have +wished to ask. + +"Why do you call my son Pontius?" + +"You'd better not ask her to tell you, father. She has been very badly +brought up--and she'll shock you." + +But Mrs. Bulford insisted upon telling the old vicar. + +"I call him Pontius because he is my _pilot_.... Don't you see? Pontius +Pilot!... There, I _have_ shocked him;" and she gave her suffocating +laugh and Charles began to cackle. + +His father looked distressed and confused; the curate, with the pink of +his complexion greatly intensified, examined the design on a dessert +plate; Mrs. Marsden frowned and bit her lip; old Mrs. Kenion opened a +voluble discourse on the virtues of fresh air for young children. + +"I hope, Enid, that you will bring up the little one as a hardy plant. +Windows wide--floods of air! I beg of you not to coddle her. I never +would allow any of my children to be coddled...." + +Charles sat dilatorily drinking port after luncheon; and, while he +changed his clothes, everybody was kept waiting with the baby at the +church. + +That is to say, everybody except Mrs. Bulford. She stayed at the house, +having promised to hustle Charles along as quickly as possible. But a +shower of rain detained them; and it seemed an immense time before they +finally appeared on the church path, walking arm in arm, under one +umbrella. + +When the service was over, and a group had assembled round the +perambulator at the church gate, and all were offering congratulations +to the proud mother, old Mrs. Kenion gently drew Mrs. Marsden aside and +spoke to her in urgent entreaty. + +"Now that they've given you a dear little granddaughter, you _will_ do +something for them, won't you?" + +"But I think," said Mrs. Marsden, rather grimly, "that I _have_ done +something for them." + +"Yes, but you'll do a little _more_ now, won't you?" + +"I fear that your son must not rely on me for further aid." + +"Oh, _do_," said Mrs. Kenion earnestly. "Poor Charles would not care to +ask you himself. So I determined to take my courage in both hands, and +speak to you with absolute candour. It _is_ such a tight fit for +him--and _now_, with nurses and all the rest of it! We would come to the +rescue so gladly, if we could--but, alas, how can we? You do know that +we would, don't you, dear Mrs. Marsden?... No, please, not a definite +answer now. Only think about it. Your kind heart will plead for them +more eloquently than any words of mine."... + +Mrs. Marsden had given the nurse a sovereign. She hurried back to the +church, and tipped the clerk and the pew-owner. Then she trudged off to +the railway station; and went home, like Sisyphus or the Danaides, to +take up her apparently impossible task. + + + + +XX + + +Two years had passed, and the grand old shop was plainly going down. + +It could not satisfy chance customers; it had begun to lose its +staunchest supporters. Gradually and fatally, cruel words were going +round the town and far out into the country villages. "It isn't what it +used to be.... It has had its day.... Nothing lasts forever." + +Fewer and fewer carriages of the local gentry were to be seen standing +outside its doors. Farmers' wives, who for more than a decade had driven +into Mallingbridge and spent Saturday afternoons picking and choosing at +Thompson's, now did all their shopping somewhere else. The whole world +seemed to be discovering that you could get whatever you wanted quite as +well and more cheaply somewhere else. And from somewhere else, your +goods--no matter where you lived, whether far or near--were delivered +free of charge, with marvellous celerity, and "returnable if damaged." + +Inside the sinking shop every assistant too well knew that horrid +expression, "Somewhere else." + +It paralysed the tongues of the shop girls; it struck them stupid. Each +time they heard it, their courage waned, their hopes drooped; they gave +up struggling. + +"Thank you, I won't trouble you any more." + +"Not the least trouble, I assure you." + +"No, you're very good--but I'm in a hurry. I'll try somewhere else." + +"Very well, madam." + +A lost customer--no more to be done. + +Yet the assistants had before their eyes a fine example of unflagging +courage. Of one of the partners at least, it could not be said that +there was supineness, neglect, or bungling practices to account for the +long-continued and increasing depression that all the employees were +feeling so severely. + +Of the other partner, the less said the better. They could not indeed +find words adequate for the expression of their opinions in regard to +_him_. + +When Mrs. Marsden, bravely facing the situation and calmly acknowledging +the logic of facts, had declared that it was imperatively necessary to +reduce what in railway management are called running expenses, and at +all hazards bring expenditure and receipts again to a proper working +ratio, the dominant partner selfishly jumped at the idea, converted it +into a fresh weapon of destruction, and used it with wicked force. + +Cut down the staff? Yes, this is a luminous notion. Where there have +been five assistants at a counter, let us have three--or only two. "We +must weed 'em out, Mears. No more cats than can catch mice! I'll soon +weed 'em out." + +It seemed to the people behind the counters that he took a diabolical +pleasure in the weeding-out process. Instead of getting through his +dismissals as quickly as possible, he kept the poor souls in +suspense--giving the sack to two or three every day; so that these black +weeks were a reign of terror, during which one rose each morning with +the dreadful doubt whether one would survive till night. + +When at last the executions ceased, almost every one of the important +heads had fallen. Why pay high wages for subordinate chieftains when the +over-lords can supervise for nothing? Mrs. Marsden received instructions +to keep an eye on all departments; shop-walkers were made by giving +counter-hands additional duties without additional pay; and Mr. Mears +and Miss Woolfrey could respectively be considered as remaining in +managerial charge of the whole ground floor and the whole first floor. + +The gigantic basement was in charge of darkness, damp, and the cold +spirit of failure. Marsden never spoke of it himself, and might not be +reminded about it by others. He wished to forget the deep hole into +which he had poured so much irretrievable gold. + +Miss Woolfrey could not boast of having been promoted: she had merely +survived: she obtained neither recompense nor praise for doing the extra +work that a stern master had pushed into her way. If Mr. Mears had not +been driven out into the street, it was because Marsden, whose selfish +folly was sometimes tempered by a certain shrewd cunning, had definitely +come to the conclusion that, bad as things were, they would be worse if +he deprived himself of the help of this faithful servant. Mears had +stood up to him; Mears had convinced him; Mears would never be +dismissed, because Mears could never be replaced. + +It was perhaps some slight comfort to Mrs. Marsden to know now that her +oldest shop friend would be allowed to keep his promise, and to stick to +her as long as he cared to do so. + +Soon after the reduction of the staff, Marsden introduced another +economy. Without warning he started an entirely new system of payment. +Hitherto all wages had been at fixed rates, with progressive rises; and +the staff, feeling security in their situations and able to look to an +assured future, had worked loyally without the stimulus of commission. +But Marsden said these methods were antiquated, exploded; they did very +well before Noah's flood, but they wouldn't do nowadays. Henceforth +everybody's screw must depend upon the commissions earned: in other +words, the basis for the calculation of wages must be the amount of the +shop's receipts. + +Mears, protesting but submitting, carried the new order into effect. + +"I've no objection on principle," said Mears heavily; "but you have +chosen a queer time to do it, sir--just when takings have dropped to +their lowest, and there's no movement in any line." + +Resentment, murmuring, discontent followed; half a dozen sufferers went +into voluntary exile; then there was silence. + +And then Marsden thought of a third economy. Thompson's had ever been +famed for keeping a generous table. You were sure of good sound grub, +and as much of it as you could stow away, to sustain you in your toil. +The kitchens and dining-rooms were controlled by a man and his wife, +with four cook-maids and three waitresses; and for many years these +people had given the utmost satisfaction, both to their employer and her +daily guests. Now Mr. Marsden swept the lot of them out of doors. He had +entered into an agreement with the cheap and nasty restaurant in High +Street; and henceforth the staff would be catered for at starvation +prices--so much, or rather so little, per head per meal. + +This was a fresh and a great misery--short commons bang on top of +mutilated salaries,--almost more than one could bear. + +Marsden, however, felt thoroughly pleased; and was willing to believe +that by the aid of his drastic remedies he had cured the evil which +afflicted him. For the end of each of these two years showed a +substantial profit. + +It was quite useless for Mrs. Marsden and Mears to point out the dangers +that lay ahead, to hint that profits now were essentially fictitious, to +warn him that what he had grasped at as income should more properly be +described as realisation of capital, to sigh and shake their heads, and +to plead for prompt renewal of diminished stock. He was too well +contented with immediate results. To-day is to-day; to-morrow can take +care of itself. He had given the business another ferocious squeeze; +and, under the pressure, it had yielded what he wanted--some cash to +keep him going. + +The turf was again engaging his attention; but he pursued his amusement +in a far less splendid manner than during those glorious days of fine +clothes and full pockets after the honey-moon. + +His nose had thickened, his whole face had become coarser and grosser; +and flesh round his eyes showed an unhealthy puffiness, and his neck +bulged large above an often dirty collar. He wore a brown bowler hat, a +weather-proof overcoat, and heavy field boots; crumpled newspapers +protruded from his breast, and a glass in a soiled and battered leather +case was negligently slung over his shoulders. In fact he looked now +like the typical racing man of the third or fourth class; and directly +he reached London he mingled with and was lost in a crowd of exactly +similar ruffians, hurrying together to make a train-load of +disreputability and scoundrelism for Hurst Park or Kempton. But at +Mallingbridge he was always noticeable. He produced a wretched +impression in the shop each time that, dressed for sport, he passed +through it; he was its secret destroyer and its visible disgrace; his +mere appearance was sufficient to send thousands of customers somewhere +else. + +While the cash lasted, the house saw little of him. As soon as the cash +gave out, the house again groaned under his presence. Till he could set +his hands on more cash, he must be lodged and boarded by the +stay-at-home partner. + +Many were the dark and dismal days to be remembered, if his wife ever +made a retrospect of two years' suffering; humiliations, +griefs--darkness with but few gleams of light. Visits from Enid with the +child and her nurse--an hour rescued from a long month--formed spots of +brightness to look back at. But, for the rest, there was black gloom, as +of moonless, starless nights. + +Perhaps his most malignant cruelty was the driving away of Yates. The +doomed wretch struggled so hard not to be torn from the side of her +beloved mistress. Mrs. Marsden knew that the struggle was futile, begged +her to go; but still she tried to stay--accepting insults and abuse, and +only piteously smiling at her persecutor. + +A cruel, most cruel hour, when one evening the shabby old trunks stood +corded and waiting at the foot of the stairs, and Yates in her bonnet +and shawl came into the drawing-room to say good-bye. That was the final +smashing of a home, for the mistress as well as for the maid. All that +made the house endurable to Mrs. Marsden had now gone from it--no sound +of a friendly voice to welcome her as she came through the door of +communication; no solace after the exhausting day; a strange face to +meet her, unfamiliar, clumsy hands to wait upon her at the lonely +supper. + +She never really learned to know the faces of her new servants. They +changed so often. No servant would stop with them for long. The work was +heavier than it used to be; after Yates had gone the mistress could not +afford to keep a maid-housekeeper; in these hard times a cook and a +housemaid must suffice for the establishment. Departing servants said +the mistress gave little trouble; she was patient and kind; they had no +fault to find with her--but the master was "a fair terror." + +Yet he had promised, when consummating the sacrifice of Yates, that he +would refrain from again upsetting the domestic arrangements. But what +promises would he not make? What promise had he ever failed to break? + +Once he promised not to parade his infidelity in Mallingbridge. This was +after the scandal he had caused by taking a set of bachelor rooms in the +new flats near the railway station, and bringing down a London woman to +occupy them from Saturdays to Mondays. Every Sunday he made himself +conspicuous by flaunting about the town with this brazen creature. + +Probably he was tired of his Sabbath promenades by the time that Mrs. +Marsden resolutely declared that, for the sake of the business as well +as for her own sake, she would not support so glaring an outrage. Anyhow +he said it should cease, and swore that he would for the future be more +circumspect. + +But he pretended to believe that his wife had given him a letter of +license, full authority to resume the habits of bachelorhood, the +freedom of manners that naturally accompanies a release from the closer +bonds of the marriage state. He had never for a moment thought she would +mind; but he vowed that what she was pleased to consider offensive and +derogatory to the reputation of herself and the shop should never occur +again. + +Nevertheless, it was soon known to everybody but Mrs. Marsden that he +was committing more local breaches of etiquette. On idle evenings he +would prowl about the streets, accosting servant girls and shop girls, +loitering at corners, and laughing and chaffing with any little sluts +who consented to entertain his badinage. Sense of shame and the last +remembrances of shop-propriety seemed to be deserting him. Soon his own +young ladies met him talking to the girls that belonged to his great +trade rival. That tow-haired huzzy who regularly came mincing up St. +Saviour's Court to wait for the guv'nor, was--and the thing seemed so +monstrous that it was recorded in an awed whisper--neither more nor less +than _a ribbon girl from Bence's_! + +Then, after a little while, the governor told Mears that he had engaged +a new hand for the upper floor. She would come in on Monday morning, and +Miss Woolfrey had better put her into China and Glass, and see how she +got on there. She was good at anything, and would soon pick up the hang +of everything. + +But what a whisper ran round the shop when the newcomer was seen by the +horror-struck assistants! The tow-haired minx from over the road! + +It was an open and egregious scandal, shocking everybody except the +unsuspecting female partner. The shop spoke of the new girl as "Miss +Bence." The governor was always trotting upstairs to murmur and chuckle +with Miss Bence. Someone saw him pinching Miss Bence's ear--and so on. +It was another outrage that could not be permitted to continue. + +Sadly and heavily old Mears told Mrs. Marsden all about it. + +The disclosure threw her into a quite unusual agitation. She seemed to +be more terrified than disgusted. It was as if, in spite of all attempts +to keep a bold front before the world, the mere name of their +remorseless and overwhelming rival now had power to set her +apprehensively trembling. + +"I don't want any communications passing between Bence's and us"--And +she showed that this idea was sufficient in itself to frighten her. "The +girl may be a spy. She may go back there." + +"She won't do that," said Mears. "She was dismissed for misconduct." + +Mrs. Marsden seemed relieved rather than shocked by hearing this. + +"Besides," added Mears, "Bence never takes anyone back." + +"I don't want people passing backwards and forwards--on any pretext. We +mustn't allow communications.... Where is Mr. Marsden? I must speak to +Mr. Marsden." + +There was a terrific scene behind the glass, with Marsden, his wife, and +Mears shut in together. Presently the cashier was summoned; books were +fetched; accounts were examined. That afternoon Mrs. Marsden went round +to the bank; and next day the tow-haired girl had disappeared. + +In the evening Mr. Marsden left Mallingbridge. It was understood that he +had gone to Monte Carlo. He would not be back for a fortnight at least. + + +Mears had said that Bence never allowed a discharged servant to return +to him, and it was equally true that he never gave back a stolen +customer. Bence's was the "somewhere else" to which Thompson & Marsden's +customers had nearly all repaired; and of the dozens, the hundreds, who, +throwing off their old allegiance, crossed the road to the opposite +pavement, not one was ever seen again. + +Evidently the claims of those two bad brothers had somehow been +satisfied. The leak was stopped; Bence had weathered the storm, and was +going full speed ahead. + +If there was any truth in the last story of the desperate plight to +which he had been reduced, the crisis had long since passed and he had +emerged from his difficulties stronger than ever. If one could attach +any importance to the firm belief of that sagacious solicitor, Mr. +Prentice, Bence must have found the money necessary to save him. Either +he had discovered a backer, or he had never needed one. Who could say +what was true or false in this connection? Sometimes of course a very +little money boldly hazarded will decide the fate of the very largest +enterprise; but in the business world it is precisely at such times +that it is almost impossible to meet with anyone shrewd enough and +courageous enough to risk a small loan on the off chance of making a +splendid investment. Therefore Bence had been lucky, or had not really +wanted luck. + +He was safe now--obviously, too obviously safe, with money behind him +and success before him. Employees at Thompson & Marsden's, with little +else to do, watched him arrive of a morning. His twelve-year-old +daughter drove him to business in a pretty basket car with a +high-stepping, long-tailed pony; a smart groom who had been waiting on +the pavement ascended the car in the place of the happy father, and Mr. +Archibald stood smiling and kissing the tips of his fingers as the car +drove away. It was a symbol of his greatness: a triumphal car. He +himself was neat and natty, perfumed and oiled, smelling of +success--with a flower in his coat, new wash-leather gloves on his +industrious hands and a shining topper upon his clever bald head. + +On window-dressing days he was up and down the street half the morning. +He stood with his back to Thompson's, studying the glorious effect of +his displays; ran quickly from window to window, and made imperative +signs to those within. He put his head one side, twirled his moustaches, +rubbed his small face with a rapidly moving paw--and looked now like a +sleek, well-fed little rat who meant to nibble away all the cake that +the town of Mallingbridge could provide. + +And the windows when done--who could resist them? Is it straw hats for +ladies? Do you wish one of the new fashionable Leghorns?... Two windows +have turned yellow; from ceiling to floor nothing but the finest straw; +here are more Leghorns than you would expect to see at a big London +warehouse, more than an ignorant person would have supposed that the +city of Leghorn could manufacture in a year.... See! Already his +Leghorns have caught the eye of the public; young women are bustling; +nursemaids with their perambulators have stopped--there is a block on +the pavement, and a constable has courteously requested people to keep +moving. + +There again, the constable is busy outside another window. Do you wish a +blouse of the prevailing tint? Mauve blouses, nothing except mauve, all +blouses, a window full of them--hardly to be described as for sale, +almost literally to be given away. + +On advertised bargain-days four policemen are required to regulate the +traffic; for Bence opens his doors and locks them--you must wait your +turn to get inside. But on all days there is more or less of a crowd +outside and inside the triumphant shop. + +At eleven A.M. the first batch of red carts go whirling away, round the +town and far out on the country roads. This is what Bence calls his +mid-day delivery. There will be two more deliveries before the day is +done. + +If the afternoon proves foggy and dull, there comes a tremendous +lightning flash along the extended frontage of Bence; and for a moment +you are blinded, as you look towards his windows. Bence has turned on +the electric. He makes no appointed hour for lighting up. He will have +light whenever he desires it. With his outside arcs and his inside +incandescents he makes a light strong enough to throw the shadows of +Thompson & Marsden's window columns straight backward across the floor, +even when their poor lamps are burning at their brightest. + +And no longer can one say that all the goods of Bence are rubbish. +High-class expensive articles are mingled with the cheap trash; solidity +and lasting value have now a place in his programme; he caters for the +large country house as well as for the restricted villa; he invites +patronage from prince and peasant: it is his aim to be a universal +provider. + +Truly it was an appalling competition; and if it was dangerous to so big +a rival as Thompson's, it was deadly to all the lesser powers. No small +shop could live beside Bence; and it seemed that he could kill even at a +considerable distance. + +After the collapse of the sadler and the bookseller, their next-door +neighbour, the ironmonger, failed; and the shell of him Bence also +swallowed. The man now next to Bence was Mr. Bennett, the +old-established butcher; beyond him was Mr. Adcock, the dispensing +chemist, and beyond him there were the baker and the auctioneer. Then +came Mr. Newall, the greengrocer, whose shop faced the far corner of +Thompson's. + +One morning the greengrocer did not take down his shutters. He had +flitted in the night. + +"Well," said Mr. Mears, looking sadly at the shop, "it's fortunate it +isn't alongside of Bence, or I suppose he'd grab that too." + +Next day workmen erected a hoarding outside the derelict shop. Soon the +boards were painted white, and curious saunterers lingered to read the +black-lettered notice. + + + "_These premises are being fitted, regardless of expense, in a + thoroughly up-to-date manner._ + + "_They will shortly be opened again._ + + "_But as what?_ + + "_Why, just what you want._" + + +"That's a catchpenny vulgar dodge," said Mears, "if ever I saw one." + +"I wonder what it is to be," said Miss Woolfrey. "I guess sweetstuff. It +can't be a shooting-gallery. It isn't deep enough." + +In a few weeks all knew what it was. Mr. Archibald himself came to see +the last boards of the hoarding removed, and to watch the first +customers troop into Bence's Fruit & Vegetable Market! + +But for a gap of seventy feet made by four ancient traders, Bence now +faced Marsden & Thompson for its whole length from end to end. Bence was +irresistible, overpowering, deadly. The hearts of many people opposite +sank into their boots. + + + + +XXI + + +Late one evening, when Marsden was taking what he called his night-cap +in the drawing-room, he began to ask questions about the Sheraton desk +and cabinets. + +"Those things are not at all bad--but they aren't genuine, I suppose?" + +"The desk is genuine," said Mrs. Marsden; "but the other things are +modern." + +"They are uncommonly good imitations," said Marsden; and he knelt in +front of one of the cabinets and studied it carefully. "This is an +excellently made piece--tip-top workmanship. Why, it must be worth +twenty or thirty guineas." + +"Yes, it cost something like that." + +"Where did you get it?" + +"It came out of the shop." + +"Ah. Exactly what I supposed;" and he got up from his knees, and stood +looking at her thoughtfully. "Out of the shop. Just so.... I must think +this out." + +But his train of thought was interrupted by a timid knock at the door. +It was their last new housemaid, come to ask if the master and the +mistress required anything further to-night. She remained on the +threshold, breathing hard, and staring shyly, while she waited for an +answer--a bouncing, apple-cheeked, country bumpkin of a girl, who had +accepted very modest wages for this her first place. + +"No," said Marsden shortly, "I don't want anything more--What's your +name?" + +"Susan, sir." + +"All right. Then shut the door, Susan." + +"Good night, Susan," said Mrs. Marsden kindly. + +"Where did you pick _her_ up?" asked Marsden, when the girl had gone. +"She's healthy enough and plump enough--but she looks half-baked." + +"She will do very well, if you give her time to learn." + +"Oh, _I_'ll let her learn, if _you_ can teach her.... But what was I +saying? Oh, yes--about the furniture!" + +Then he walked round the room, pointing at different things, and +continuing his questions. + +"Did this come out of the shop?" + +"Yes." + +"And this?... And those chairs?... And the sofa?" + +She did not understand why he asked. But he soon explained himself. He +said that all this furniture was taken out of the shop, and it therefore +belonged to the firm--or at any rate could not be considered as her +private property. + +"A partnership is a partnership," he added sententiously. + +"But it was ages before the partnership. And all the things were paid +for by me." + +"No, not paid for," he said quickly. "Not paid for in _cash_--just a +matter of writing down a debit somewhere and a credit somewhere else, +and saying it was accounted for. But from the point of view of the shop, +that's a bogus transaction." + +"How absurd!" + +"No, _not_ absurd--common sense. The shop never got a penny profit, and +it seems to me that--" + +"Oh, I won't dispute it with you. What is it that you want done?" + +"I want the _right_ thing to be done," he replied slowly, as if +deliberating on a knotty point. "And it isn't easy to say off-hand what +that is." + +"Do you want me to send the things back into the department?" + +"No.... No, the time has passed for doing that. It would muddle the +accounts. Come into the dining-room, and show me the shop things in +there." + +She obeyed him; and then he asked if there were any shop things +upstairs. + +"Yes, several." + +"Well, you can show me those to-morrow morning.... I begin to see my +way. Yes, I think I see now what's fair and proper." + +"Do you?" + +He said emphatically that in justice and equity he possessed a half +share of all goods taken out of his shop, no matter how long ago. And he +insisted on having his share. He would obtain a valuation of the goods, +and Mrs. Marsden could pay him cash for half the amount, and retain the +goods. Or he would send the goods to London and sell them by auction; +and they would each take half the proceeds. + +Mrs. Marsden chose the second method of dealing with the problem. + +"All right," said Marsden. "So be it. I dare say they'll fetch a tidy +sum--and it's share and share alike, of course, for the two of us." + +Two days after this the house was stripped of nearly all that had given +it an air of opulent comfort and decorative luxury. Mrs. Marsden went to +the department of the firm, and bought the cheapest bedroom things she +could find to fill the blank spaces and ugly gaps upstairs, and paid for +everything with her private purse. + +In a fortnight the furniture auctioneers wrote to inform Mr. Marsden +that the goods under the hammer had brought the respectable sum of one +hundred and thirty pounds. Account for commission, etc., with cheque to +balance, should follow shortly. And before long he duly received the +balancing cheque. + +But the loss of the cabinets and sofas made the living rooms seem bare +and forlorn. The house and the shop had become alike: in each one could +now see the empty, cheerless aspect of impending ruin. + +Enid, when next she brought her child to call on granny, uttered an +exclamation of surprise and distress. + +"Mother! What has happened? Where has everything gone?" + +"To London--to be sold." + +"Oh, mother. Has he obliged you to do this?" + +"Yes." + +The barrier of reserve so long maintained by Mrs. Marsden had worn very +thin. It gave small shelter now; and the brave defender seemed to be +growing careless of exposure. And Enid too was losing the power to +protect herself from pity and commiseration. The misery caused by both +husbands could not much longer be concealed. Yet Enid's state was surely +a happy one, when compared with the prevailing gloom in which her mother +vainly laboured. Enid had a child to console her. + +Weeks passed; but Marsden said nothing of the "share and share alike" +settlement that was to clear up that little difficulty of the furniture. +At last his wife asked him if he had heard from the auctioneers. + +"Oh, yes. Didn't I tell you? The things went pretty well." + +"What did they bring?" + +"Oh, about a hundred quid." + +"Then when may I have my share?" + +"Oh, you shall have your share all right--but you can't have it now." + +"Dick, have you spent it--have you spent what belonged to me?" + +"Who says I have spent it?" And he turned on her angrily. "If it isn't +convenient to me to square up at the moment, why can't you wait? What +does it matter to you when you get it? Why should you pretend to be in +such a deuce of a hurry?" + +This again was late at night. They were alone together in the dismantled +drawing-room. + +"Dick," she said quietly but resolutely, "I must have my share." + +"Then you'll jolly well wait for it.... Look here. Shut up. I'm not +going to be nagged at. Be damned to your share. You don't want it." + +"Yes, I do want it--I have relied on it." + +"Oh, _you_'re all right. You've plenty of money stowed away +_somewhere_." + +"On my honour, I have no money available." + +"Available! That's a good word. That means funds that you don't intend +to touch. Prices on change are down, are they?--and you don't care to +realise just now?" + +She looked at him steadily and unflinchingly. Her eyebrows were +contracted; her face had hardened. + +"Dick, this isn't fair. It is something that I can't allow," and she +spoke slowly and significantly. "Please pull yourself together. You +can't go on doing things of this sort. They are dangerous." + +"Will you shut up, and stop nagging?" + +It was by no means the first time that he had stuck to money when it +should have passed through his hands to hers. Indeed in all their +private transactions, whenever a chance offered, he had promptly cheated +her. But during the last six months it had come to her knowledge that he +was not confining his trickery to transactions which could be +considered as outside the business. + +"Dick, I _must_ go on. It is for your sake as well as mine. There is a +principle at stake." + +"Rot." + +"What you are doing is dishonest. It is embezzlement!" and she turned +from him, and looked at the empty fireplace. + +With an oath he seized her arm, and swung her round till she faced him +again. + +"Take that back--or you'll be sorry for it. Do you dare to say that word +again? Now we'll see." Holding her with one hand, he swayed her to and +fro, as if to force her down to her knees; and his other hand was raised +threateningly on a level with her face. + +"Are you going to strike me?" And she looked at him with still +unflinching eyes. "Why don't you do it? Why are you hesitating? Oh, my +God--it only wanted this to justify everything." + +Her courage seemed to increase his hesitation. He lowered the +threatening hand, but continued to hold her tightly. + +"Say what you mean. Out with it." + +"Dick, you know very well what I mean.... It must be stopped." + +"What must be stopped?" + +"Your dangerous irregularities." + +"I don't know what you're talking about. Someone has been telling you a +pack of lies. You're ready to believe any lie against _me_." + +"There was a cheque of the firm--made out to bearer--on the third of +last month." + +"I know nothing about it." + +"No more did I. They sent for me to the bank--to look at the signatures +and the initials." + +"Well?" + +"I told them it was all right." + +"Well, what about it?" + +"There was the hundred pounds that was to be paid Osborn & Gibbs on +account--to keep them quiet. It was written off in the books--you showed +their acknowledgment for it.... But what's the use of going on? Dick, +pull yourself together. I hold the _proof_ of your folly." + +He had let her go, and was walking about the room with his hands in his +pockets. When he spoke again, it was sullenly and grumblingly. + +"I know nothing whatever about it. I can keep accounts in my head just +as well as in the books.... If I seem unbusinesslike--it is because I'm +called away so often; and those fools don't understand my system.... I +go for facts, and don't bother about all the fuss of book-keeping--which +is generally in a muddle whenever I ask for plain statements.... No, +you've got on to a wrong track. But I'll go to the bottom of the matter +to-morrow--or the day after. I'm busy with other things to-morrow." + +"Never mind what's past, Dick; but go into matters for the future." + +"All right. Then say no more. Don't nag me.... And look here. Of course +I fully intend to pay you your share. I admit the debt. I owe you fifty +pounds." + +He had been cowed for a few moments; but now he was recovering his angry +bluster. + +"That's enough," he went on. "I'll settle as soon as I can. But, upon my +word, you _are_ turning into a harpy for ready money. What have you done +with all your own? How have you dribbled it away--and let yourself get +so low that you have to come howling for a beggarly fifty pounds?" + +Mrs. Marsden raised her hands to her forehead, with a gesture that he +might interpret as expressive of hopeless despair; but she did not +answer him in words. + +"Oh, all right," he growled, to himself rather than to her. "The old +explanation, I suppose. I'm to be the scapegoat! But I know jolly well +where your money has gone. Enid and that squalling brat have pretty near +cleared you out. Nothing's too much for Enid to ask.... If I wasn't a +fool, I should forbid her the house.... And I will too, if you drive me +to it." + +It maddened him to think of all the sovereigns that might have chinked +in his pocket, if Enid had not rapaciously intervened. + +But in fact Mrs. Marsden had given her daughter no money. And this was +not because Enid had refrained from asking for it. Compelled to do so by +Kenion, she had more than once reluctantly sued for substantial +assistance. + +"Enid dear, don't ask me again. Truly, it is impossible." + +Mrs. Marsden stood firm in the attitude that she had adopted when +pestered by old Mrs. Kenion at the christening. Of course she gave +presents to little Jane. The trifling aid that a young mother needs in +rearing a beloved child Enid might be sure of obtaining; but the source +of supply for a husband's selfish extravagance had run dry. + +"Enid, my darling, I can't do it--I simply _can't_. He should not send +you to me. I told his mother that it was useless to expect more from +me." + +Enid hugged Mrs. Marsden, said she felt a wretch, begged for +forgiveness; but soon she had to confess that Charles bore these rebuffs +very badly, and that it would be better for Mrs. Marsden never to come +any more to the farmhouse. If she came, Charles might insult her. + +And now Richard had hinted that he would not allow Enid to come to St. +Saviour's Court. It seemed that soon the mother and daughter would be +able to meet only by stealth and on rare occasions. + +If the barrier was shattered and broken in front of Enid, it was +completely down between Mrs. Marsden and Mr. Prentice. No further +pretence was possible to either of them: the strenuous pressure of open +facts had forced both to speak more or less plainly when they spoke of +Marsden. + +Although Marsden always abused the solicitor behind his back, he ran to +him for help every time he got into a scrape; and during the last year +one might almost say that he had kept Mr. Prentice busily employed. A +horrid mess with London book-makers; two rows with the railway company, +about cards in a third-class carriage, and no ticket in a first-class +carriage; a fracas with the billiard-marker at his club--one after +another, stupid and disgraceful scrapes. Mr. Prentice, doing his best +for the culprit, each time found it necessary to obtain Mrs. Marsden's +instructions, and to put things before her plainly. + +The club committee had eventually desired their obstreperous member to +forward a resignation; and, on his refusal to do so, had removed his +name from their list. Mr. Marsden, who in his boastful pride once +considered himself eligible for the select company of the County +gentlemen, had thus been ignominiously expelled from the large society +of petty tradesmen, clerks, tag, rag, and bobtail, known as the +Mallingbridge Conservative. + +At last, after a discussion concerning one of these scrapes, Mr. +Prentice abandoned the slightest shadow of pretence, and gave his old +client the plainest conceivable advice. + +"Screw yourself up to strong measures," said Mr. Prentice, "and get rid +of him." + +"How could I--even if I were willing?" + +"Go for a divorce." + +"I shouldn't be given one." + +"I think you would." + +They were in Mr. Prentice's room--the fine panelled room with the two +tall Queen Anne windows, and the pleasant view up Hill Street, and +through the side street into Trinity Square. Mrs. Marsden sat facing the +light, her back towards the big safe and the racks of tin boxes; and Mr. +Prentice, seated by his table, looked at her gravely and watched her +changing expression while he spoke. + +"I think that you would obtain your divorce," he repeated. + +Then he got up, and opened and closed the door. The passage to the +clerks' office was empty. He came back to his table, and sat down again. + +"Don't give him any more chances. Take it from me--he'll never reform. +Get rid of him now." + +"Oh no--quite impossible." + +"I had a talk the other day with Yates," said Mr. Prentice quietly. +"Yates is prepared to give evidence that he knocked you about." + +"But it's not true," said Mrs. Marsden hotly. + +The blood rose to her cheeks, and her lips trembled; but Mr. Prentice +had ceased to watch her face. He was playing with an inkless pen and +some white blotting-paper. + +"Yates is ready to go into the box and swear it." + +"Then she would be swearing an untruth." + +"Yates would be a very good witness. Really I don't see how anybody +could shake her.... I asked her a few questions.... She impressed me as +being just the right sort of witness." + +"Please don't say any more." + +"Honestly, I believe we should pull it off. And why not? If ever a woman +deserved--" + +But Mrs. Marsden would hear no more of this kind of advice. + +"I see no reason against it," said Mr. Prentice, persisting. + +"No, no," said Mrs. Marsden sadly. + +"It's the only thing to do." + +"You don't understand me." And as she said it, there was dignity as well +as sadness in her voice. "Even if it were all easy and straightforward, +I could never consent to allow the story of my married life to be told +in Court--to the public. I could not bear it. I simply could not bear +the shame of it." + +"Oh!... Well, it would be like having a tooth out. Soon over." + +"But that is only one reason. There are many others." + +"Are there?" + +"You shouldn't--you mustn't assume that he only is to blame. There are +faults on both sides. And I have this on my conscience--that perhaps he +would have done very well, if I hadn't married him." + +"My dear--forgive my saying so--that is magnanimous, but nonsense." + +"No," she said firmly, "it is the truth. He had some good qualities. He +was a worker. Idleness--with more money than he was accustomed +to--brought temptations;--and he was very young. If he had remained +poor, he might have developed into a better man." + +"I won't contradict you.... Only it isn't what he might have developed +into, but what he has developed into; and what fresh developments we can +reasonably expect.... I see no hope. Really, I must say it. I believe, +as sure as I sit here, that he'll eat you up--he'll ruin you, if you let +him--he'll land you in the workhouse before you've done with him. That's +why I say, get rid of him--at all costs." + +But Mrs. Marsden only shook her head sadly and wearily. + +Mr. Prentice stood at his window, looking down into the street, and +mournfully watching her as she walked away. + +She was dressed in black--she who had been so fond of bright colours +never wore anything but black now; and the black was growing shabby and +rusty. She seemed taller, now that she had become so much thinner; the +grey hair at the sides of her forehead and the unfashionable bonnet tied +with ribbons under her chin made her appear old; the florid complexion +had changed to a dull white--as she turned her face, and hurried across +the road, he thought that it showed almost a ghostly whiteness. And +truly she was the ghost of the prosperous, radiant, richly-clothed woman +that he remembered. + +She had been so strong, and now she had become so weak--so pitiably +weak; with a weakness that rendered it impossible to save her. His heart +ached as he thought of her weakness. + +She would be eaten up--soul and body. Secret information made him aware +that she had sold the various stocks that she held at her marriage. The +manager of the bank had regretfully told him so, at a meeting of the +Masonic lodge--a secret between tried friends and trusted Masons, to go +no further. She had employed the bank to sell these securities for her. +In the old days she would have come to him for advice, and he would have +sent the order direct to the stock-brokers; but now she was weakly +afraid of his knowing anything about her suicidal transactions. + +He was looking out from the same window one afternoon a few weeks later, +and he saw something that really horrified him. He could scarcely +believe his eyes. + +Mrs. Marsden had gone swiftly down the side street, and had vanished +through the front door of those shady, wicked solicitors, Hyde & +Collins. + +He felt so greatly discomposed that he snatched up his hat, ran down +into the side street, and stood waiting for her outside the hated and +ominous doorway. + +When after half an hour she emerged from the clutch of his unworthy +confrères, he took her arm and led her into Trinity Square; and, walking +with her round and round the small enclosure, reproached her for +deserting him in favour of such people. + +"But I haven't deserted you," she said meekly bearing the reproaches. +"This is only some private business that they are attending to." + +"But is it kind to me? You know what I think of them. I ask you, is it +kind to me?" + +"I meant no unkindness," she said earnestly. + +And she offered apologies based on vague generalities. Life is complex +and difficult. One is forced out of one's path by unusual circumstances. +Sometimes one is driven to do things of so private a nature that one +cannot speak about them to one's oldest and best friends. + +"Very well. But if you feel disinclined to confide everything to +me--there are other men that you could depend on. Go to Dickinson--he's +a thorough good sort. Or Loder--or Selby! Go to any one of them. But +don't--for mercy's sake--mix yourself up with these brutes." + +In order to defend herself, Mrs. Marsden was obliged to defend Hyde & +Collins. + +"They are quick to understand one. Really they seem sharp--" + +"_Sharp!_ Yes--too sharp--a thousand times too sharp. But ask anybody's +opinion of them. Look at their clients. They haven't got a single solid +client." + +"But they still act for Bence's--they do everything for Mr. Bence." + +"Yes," said Mr. Prentice contemptuously, "but who's Bence, when all's +said and done?" + +"Ah!" And Mrs. Marsden drew in her breath, as if she felt incapable of +continuing the conversation. + +"I grant you that Bence has done wonders--and proved me a bad prophet. +But we haven't got to the last chapter of Bence yet. I don't believe +Bence is really solid--and I never shall do, while I see him going in +and out of Hyde & Collins's." + +Mrs. Marsden meekly bore all reproaches; but she showed a stubbornness +that no warnings could shake. She met direct questions with generalized +vagueness. What is unwise in some circumstances may be not unwise in +other circumstances. Life is complex--and so on. + +When Mr. Prentice left her, he went back to his office full of the most +dismal forebodings. She had placed herself in the hands of Hyde & +Collins. She was indisputably done for. + + + + +XXII + + +Time was passing. One Sunday morning in November, while the vicar of St. +Saviour's preached a sermon about immortality, she looked at the +familiar faces of the congregation and thought sadly of the impermanence +of all earthly things. + +So many of the people she had known were gone; so few remained, and +these each showed so plainly the havoc and the change wrought by the +flying years. She glanced at the card in the metal frame that was half +hidden by her prayer-books--"Mrs. Marsden, two seats." Once the writing +on the card read "Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, three seats," and she had sat +there with her husband and mother. Then the writing changed again--"Mrs. +Thompson, two seats." How many years she and Enid had been here +together! + +And the other people in the pew--a man and a wife, with little children +who had slowly grown into men and women; two elderly ladies; a widower +and his sister--all had gone. She glanced across the side aisle at a +white-haired feeble old man, and a wizened monkey-like old dame who +nodded and shook unceasingly--Mr. Bennett, the High Street butcher, and +his palsied helpmate;--and she thought of what they were when first she +came to St. Saviour's: a hearty vigorous couple in the prime of life, +the man seeming big enough to knock down one of his bullocks, and the +woman singing the hymns so loudly that her neighbours could not hear the +choir. Now they had dwindled and shrunk to this--nerveless arms, +bloodless hues, and frozen silence. + +Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the same signs and could read the +same story--bowed backs, bald heads, blue-veined hands. Everyone had +grown old, everyone had grown feeble, of those who had seen her as a +young bride, as a young mother. And no new faces seemed to have replaced +the faces that had vanished. Fashion in recent years had leaned steadily +towards the other church. Holy Trinity possessed lighted candles on its +altars, embroidered copes on its priests, stringed instruments in its +organ loft: it was there that all the young people went--to be thrilled +with strange music, to be charmed with smart hats, to be set throbbing +with irrelevant dreams of courtship and love. Only the old and the worn +out had been true to quiet peaceful St. Saviour's. + +She herself was absolutely faithful to the church that she had used and +loved for so long. It had become her place of rest, her harbour of +refuge. It was only here that she ever felt quite at peace. She knew +that here she was safe for an hour at least; while the service lasted no +one could molest her; no one could even speak to her: during this brief +hour she belonged to herself. + +She could not forget the outside world, but she resolutely tried not to +think of it. Just now she had driven away a thought of Marsden. He was +lying in bed; perhaps he would sleep till late afternoon; perhaps he +would be lazily getting ready for his food when she returned to the +house;--but she need not think of him. He would not join her here. She +folded her hands, and listened to the kind old vicar as he told her of +things that are incomprehensible, immutable, and everlasting. + + +A man had come up the side aisle, and was stupidly staring at the people +in the pews. Mrs. Marsden, glancing at him inattentively, vaguely +wondered why he didn't take one of the many empty seats and sit down. +She knew him very well. He was a loafer of the better class; and on +Sundays he regularly made his beat up and down St. Saviour's Court, +picking up odd six-pences by running off to fetch cabs, bringing +forgotten umbrellas, or retailing second-hand newspapers to laggards who +had missed the paper-boy. + +Presently he discovered Mrs. Marsden's pew, entered it, and whispered +hoarsely. + +"You're wanted at the house. The gentleman said you was to come at +once." + +Followed by this seedy messenger, she hastened from the church. + +"What is it?" she asked him when they got outside. + +"I dunno. The gentleman hollered to me from the door, and sent me to +fetch you." + +The house door stood ajar; and her husband, in his dressing-gown and +slippers, was anxiously waiting for her and guarding the foot of the +stairs. + +"All right," he said to the loafer. "I'll remember you another time;" +and he shut the door and bolted it. + +From the top of the stairs there came a sound of wailing and +lamentation. + +"Jane, look here. I want you to stop this fool's mouth--what's her +name--Susan. I've somehow upset her. And that infernal cook is +encouraging her to squall the house down." + +Without a word Mrs. Marsden hurried upstairs. The cook, a sour-visaged +woman of thirty-five, was on the threshold of the kitchen; and Susan, +the apple-cheeked housemaid, was clinging to cook's arm, and sobbing and +howling. + +"Emily--Susan," said Mrs. Marsden quietly, "what _is_ all this noise and +fuss about?" + +"The master frightened her," said the cook, very sourly, "and she +wishes to go to the police." + +"The police! What nonsense! Why?" + +"The master rang, and she took up his shaving water--and what happened +frightened her." + +"Where's father and mother?" cried Susan. "I want my mother. Take me +home to tell father. Or let me go to the police station, and I'll tell +them." + +Marsden had followed his wife upstairs, and he showed himself at the +kitchen door. At sight of him, Susan ceased talking and began to howl +again. + +"She's frightened to death," said the cook. + +Mrs. Marsden was patting the girl's shoulder, studying her tear-stained +face eagerly and intently. + +"There, there," she said gently, as if reassured by all that the red +cheeks and streaming eyes had told her. "I think this is a great noise +about nothing at all." + +"Of course it is," said Marsden, at the door. + +"Don't leave me alone with him," bellowed Susan. "I won't be kep' a +prisoner. I want to see my mother--and my father." + +"Hush--Susan," said Mrs. Marsden, soothingly. "Compose yourself. There +is no need to cry any more." + +"No need to have cried at all," said Marsden. + +Obviously he was afraid: he alternately blustered and cringed. + +"You silly girl," he said cringingly, "what rubbish have you got into +your head? I pass a few chaffing remarks--and you suddenly behave like a +raving lunatic." And then he went on blusteringly. "Talk about going! +It's _us_ who ought to dismiss you for your impudence, and your +disrespect." + +"You did something to frighten her, sir," said the cook. + +"It's a lie--a damned lie." + +"If so," said the cook, with concentrated sourness, "why not let her go +to the police, as she wishes?" + +"No," shouted Marsden. "I can't have my servants libelling and +scandalizing me. I've a public position in this town--and I won't have +people sneaking out of my house to spread a lot of innuendos against +their employers." + +Then he beckoned his wife, and spoke to her in a whisper. "For God's +sake, shut her up. Give her a present--square her. Shut her mouth +somehow.... It's all right, you know--but we mustn't give her the chance +of slandering me;" and he went out of the kitchen. + +But he returned almost immediately, to beckon and whisper again. + +"Jane. Don't let her out of your sight." + +So this was her task for the remainder of the day of rest--to sit and +chat with a blubbering housemaid until a pacification of nerves and mind +had been achieved. + +She performed the task, but found it a fatiguing one. Susan made her +labours arduous by returning to the starting point every time that any +progress had been made. + +"I'd sooner go back 'ome at once, ma'am." + +"I think that would be a pity, Susan. If you leave me like this, I may +not be able to get you another place. Why should you throw up a +comfortable situation?" + +"It isn't comfortable." + +"Susan, you shouldn't say that. Haven't I treated you kindly?" + +"Yes, _you_ have." + +"And haven't I taken trouble in teaching you your duties? You are +getting on very nicely; and if you stay with me a little longer, I shall +be able to recommend you as competent." + +But this servant said what all other servants had said to Mrs. Marsden. +Susan had no fault to find with her mistress. + +"I should be comfortable, if it wasn't for _him_. But I've never been +comfortable with him." + +And then she went back to her starting point. + +"I'd rather go 'ome. I must ask mother's advice--and tell father too. I +don't believe father would wish it 'ushed up." + +However, Mrs. Marsden finally succeeded. By bedtime Susan was pacified. + +"Yes, I'll stay, ma'am. I'd like to stay with you--but may I sleep in +Em'ly's room?" + +"Of course you may." + + +Next morning no one came to call Mrs. Marsden; no fires were lighted; no +breakfast was being prepared. Both the servants had gone. In the night +cook had persuaded the girl to change her mind. + +A letter from cook, conspicuously displayed on the dining-room +mantelpiece, explained matters. + + + "_Dear Madame_,-- + + "We are sorry to leave you but feel we cannot stay in this house. I + have advised Susan to go to her Home and she has gone there. + + "Yours respectfully, + "MISS EMILY HOWARD." + + +Mrs. Marsden went to her husband's room, woke him, and repeated the +substance of Miss Howard's note. + +He was dreadful to see, in the cold morning light--unshaven, white and +puffy; sitting up in bed, biting his coarse fingers, and looking at her +with cowardly blood-shot eyes. + +"Where is her home?" + +Mrs. Marsden said that Susan's parents lived somewhere on the other side +of Linkfield. + +"Twelve miles away! She's gone out by train. She has got there by now. +What are we to do?" + +"I scarcely know." + +"Let me think a minute.... Yes, look here. Get hold of old +Prentice--He's a man of the world. He'll help you. He'll be able to shut +them up." + +And with terrified haste he gave her his directions. She was to run to +Mr. Prentice's private house, and catch him before he started for his +office. Then she was to run to Cartwright's garage and hire a motor-car +for the day; and then she and Mr. Prentice were to go scouring out into +the country, to silence Susan and all her relatives. + +"Tell Prentice to take plenty of money with him. And don't forget--ask +for Cartwright's open car. It's faster. And don't waste a minute--don't +wait for breakfast or anything--and don't let Prentice wait either." + +In an hour she and her old friend were spinning along the Linkfield road +in the hired motor-car. The east wind cut their faces, dirt sprinkled +their arms, gloomy thoughts filled their minds. + +This, then, was her Monday's task--to begin Sunday's toil, on a larger +scale, all over again. + +With some difficulty they found the cottage for which they were seeking. +Susan's mother opened the door in response to prolonged tappings. Susan +had safely reached home. + +"Oh, come inside," said the mother; and she pretended to shed tears. "Oh +dear, oh dear. Who could of believed such a thing 'appening?" + +"Nothing has happened," said Mr. Prentice, confidently and jovially; +"except that your daughter has left her situation without warning, and +we want to know what she means by it." + +"Oh, she's told me everything," said the mother, dolefully shaking her +head. "Everything." + +"There was nothing to tell," said Mr. Prentice; "beyond the fact that +she has behaved in a very stupid manner. Where is she?" + +The mother indicated a door behind her. "Poor dear, she's so exhausted, +I've been trying to persuade her to eat a morsel of something." + +Mr. Prentice lifted a latch, opened the inner door, and disclosed the +humble home-picture--Susan, with her mouth full of bacon and bread, +stretching a hearty hand towards the metal tea-pot. + +"Ah, thank goodness," said the mother, "she _'as_ bin able to pick a +bit. Don't be afraid, Susan--you're 'ome now, along of your own mother +and father;" and she addressed Mrs. Marsden. "'Er father 'as 'eard +everything, too." + +Mr. Prentice was laughing gaily. + +"Well done, Susan. Don't be afraid of another slice of bacon. Don't be +afraid of a fourth cup of tea." + +"No, sir," said Susan shyly. + +"Where _is_ her father?" asked Mr. Prentice. "I'd like to have a few +words with him." + +But father, having heard his daughter's tale, had started on a long +journey with an empty waggon. He would return with it full of manure any +time this afternoon. And going, and loading, and returning, he would be +thinking over everything, and deciding what he and Susan should next do. + +Mr. Prentice, considering that even a hired motor-car ought to be able +to overtake a manure waggon though empty, started in pursuit of father; +and Mrs. Marsden was left to conduct the pacific negotiations at the +cottage. + +It was a long and weary day, full of small difficulties--father, when +recovered, not a free man, unable to talk, compelled to attend to his +master's business; mother unable to express any opinion without previous +discussion with father; empty fruitless hours slowly dragging away; +meals at a public-house; a walk with Susan;--then darkness, and father +talking to Mr. Prentice in the parlour; and, finally, mother and Mrs. +Marsden summoned from the kitchen to assist at ratification of peace +proposals. + +It was late at night when Mrs. Marsden got back to St. Saviour's Court. +Her husband had not been out all day. He was sitting by the dining-room +fire, with his slippered feet on the fender, and a nearly emptied whisky +bottle on the corner of the table near his elbow. + +"Well?" He looked round anxiously and apprehensively. + +"It is over. There will be no trouble--not even a scandal." + +She was blue with cold; her hands were numbed, and hung limply at her +sides; her voice had become husky. + +"Bravo! Well done!" He stood up, and stretched and straightened himself, +as if throwing off the heavy load that had kept him crouched and bent in +the armchair. "Excellent! I knew you'd do it all right;" and he drew a +deep breath, and then began to chuckle. "And, by Jove, old girl, I'm +grateful to you.... Look here. Have you had your grub? Don't you want +some supper?" + +"No." + +"Well, understand--my best thanks;" and really he seemed to feel some +little gratitude as well as great satisfaction. "Jane, you're a brick. +You never show malice. You've a large heart." + +"No," she said huskily; and with a curious slow gesture, she raised her +numbed hands and pressed them against her breast. "I had a large heart +once; but it has grown smaller and smaller, and harder and harder--till +now it is a lump of stone." + +"No, no. Rot." + +"Yes. And that's lucky--or before this you would have broken it." + +He stood staring at the door when it had closed behind her. Then he +shrugged his shoulders, turned to the table, and replenished his glass +with whisky. + + + + +XXIII + + +It was immediately after this fatiguing episode that Mr. Prentice made +his last urgent prayer to Mrs. Marsden. Complying with his request for +an interview, she had come again to the panelled room in Hill Street. +But on this occasion she chose a different chair, and sat with her back +to the windows and her face in shadow. + +"You see for yourself," said Mr. Prentice, with culminating plainness: +"he is an unmitigated blackguard. Get rid of him." + +"I can't." + +"You can. Yates is still game--I mean, Yates has not forgotten anything. +Yates will swear to everything that she remembers.... So far as Yates +goes, her evidence may be all the better for the delay. It will be all +the more difficult to shake it after the lapse of time.... Of course we +shall be asked, 'Why have you sat down on your wrongs for so long?' But +we have our answer now. This is the answer. You put up with his +ill-usage and infidelities until he befouled your home. A disgraceful +affair with a servant girl under your own roof! That was the last +straw--and it has driven you to the Court, to ask for the relief to +which you have been entitled for years." + +"Oh, no--impossible." + +"I pledge you my word, we shan't fail. We shall pull it off to a +certainty." + +"No, I can't do it. And even if we succeeded, it would be only a half +relief. Divorce wouldn't end the business partnership." + +"No. But when once your marriage is dissolved, we shall be able to make +terms with him. Wipe him out as your husband, and he loses the +tremendous hold he has on you. Get rid of your incubus. Think what it +would mean to you. He would be gone--you would be alone again; able to +pull things together, work up the business, nurse it back to life. On my +honour, I think you are capable of restoring your fortunes even at this +late day." + +But Mrs. Marsden only shook her head, while Mr. Prentice continued to +entreat her to act on his advice. + +"Suppose you always have to go on paying him half of all you can make by +your industry? Never mind. What does it matter? You'll pay it to him at +a distance--you'll never have to see him--you will have swept him out of +your life. My dear, the years will roll off your back; you'll be able to +breathe, to _live_--you'll feel that you are your own self again." + +"No--impossible." + +"Yes. Leave it to me. I answer for everything, before and afterwards. +I'll manage my fine gentleman--I'll cut his claws so that he'll be a +very quiet sort of partner in the years to come. I'll work at it till I +drop--but I swear I'll put you on safe ground, if only you'll trust me +and let me tackle the job." + +And Mr. Prentice, leaning forward in his chair, took her hand and +pressed it imploringly. + +"You are what you have always been to me, Mr. Prentice,--the best, the +kindest of friends." She allowed him to retain her hand for a few +moments, and then gently withdrew it. "But it is difficult for me to +explain--so that you would understand me." + +"I shall understand any explanation." + +"I took him for better for worse. And once I promised him that I would +hold to him until he set me free." She paused, as if carefully putting +her thought into appropriate words. "It may come to it.... Yes, it is +what I hope for--that he himself may give me back my freedom." + +"But how?" + +"He might consent to a separation--without scandal, without publicity." + +"Why should he do that? While you've a shot in the locker, he'll stick +to you." + +Mr. Prentice's voice conveyed his sense of despair. She would not be +convinced. He got up, sat down again, and vigorously resumed his appeal. + +"Can't you see now the force of what I have told you so often? He will +not only disgrace you, he will eat you up. It is what he is doing--has +almost done. And when you have let him squander your last farthing, +he'll desert you--but he won't desert you till then." + +But Mrs. Marsden again shook her head, and once more fell back upon the +vagueness that baffles argument if it cannot refute it. + +"No--dear Mr. Prentice, I feel that I couldn't make any move now. Life +is so complicated--there are difficulties on all sides--my hands are +tied.... Perhaps I will ask you for your aid--but not now--and not for a +divorce." + +"But if you wait, no one will be able to aid you. The hour for aid will +have passed forever." And Mr. Prentice brought out all his eloquence in +vain. "Try to recover your old attitude of mind. Consider the thing as a +business woman. Tear away sentiment and feminine fancies. Make this +effort of mind--you would have been strong enough to do it a little +while ago,--and consider yourself and him as if you were different +people. Now--from the business point of view--and no sentiment! He is an +undeserving blackguard." + +"No. I can't do anything now.... I _have_ considered it as a business +woman. I have looked at it from every point of view. Believe me, I must +go my own way." + +This was the final appeal of Mr. Prentice. He said no more on the +subject then, or afterwards. He had shot his bolt. + + + + +XXIV + + +Early in the new year Marsden had a serious illness. He caught a chill +on a suburban racecourse, came home to shiver and groan and curse, and +two days afterwards was down with double pneumonia. + +He kept the hospital nurses, his wife, and the doctor busy for three +weeks; and throughout this time there was no point at which it could be +said that he was not in imminent danger of death. + +Then the shop assistants heard, with properly concealed feelings of +exultation, that a devoted wife, a clever doctor, and two skilled nurses +had saved the governor's life. The governor had pulled through. Dr. +Eldridge, as the shop understood, was able to make the gratifying +pronouncement that the patient possessed a naturally magnificent frame +and constitution, which had been but partially weakened or impaired by +carelessness and imprudence. They need not entertain any further fear. +The dear governor will last for a splendidly long time yet. + +But his convalescence was slow; and after the recovery of normal health +he passed swiftly into a third phase. He showed no inclination to rush +about; his mental indolence had become so great that the mere notion of +a train-journey fatigued him; he did his betting locally, and spent his +days with the red-haired barmaid in the Dolphin bar. + +At the Dolphin Hotel he had slid down a descending scale of importance +which emblematized, with a strange accurateness, his descent in the town +of Mallingbridge and in the world generally. Once he used to come +swaggering into the noble coffee room, and be flattered by the landlord +and fawned on by the manager while he gave his orders for sumptuous +luncheons and dinners à la carte, with champagne of the choicest brands, +and the oldest and costliest of liqueurs. After that, a period arrived +when the restaurant and a table-d'hôte repast, washed down with any +cheap but strong wine, were good enough for him. Then he was seen only +in the billiard room; or in the small grill-room, where he would sit +drinking for hours while relays of commercial travellers and minor +tradesmen bolted their chops and steaks. Now he had descended to what +was called the saloon bar; and here, since he had lost his club, he made +himself quite at ease, and was listened to with some semblance of +respect by the shabby frequenters, and always smiled upon by the +barmaid--who was an old, and of late a very intimate friend. He could +not drop any lower at the Dolphin, unless he went out to the stable yard +and sat with ostlers and fly-drivers in the taproom beneath the arch. + +At mid-day there were eatables of a light sort on the saloon counter; +but, rejecting such scratchy fare, Mr. Marsden regularly came home for +his solid luncheon. After lunching heavily he went back to the saloon, +stayed there through the tea hour, and returned to St. Saviour's Court +for dinner. He was regular in his attendance at meals, but except for +meal-time the house never saw him. In fact he was settling down into +stereotyped habits. When dinner was over he retired again--to take his +grog in the saloon, to help the barmaid close the saloon, and to escort +her thence to her modest little dwelling-house. + +Mrs. Marsden knew all about this barmaid, with her fascinating smiles +and her Venetian red hair--and indeed about her dwelling-house also. It +was common knowledge that a few years ago she had been a parlourmaid in +Adelaide Crescent; had somehow got into trouble; and somehow getting +out of it, had risen to the surface as a saloon siren, and proved +herself attractive to more persons than one. As to her place of +residence, an illuminating letter had reached Marsden & Thompson and +been duly opened behind the glass--"re No. 16 New Bridge Road. We beg to +remind you that your firm have guaranteed Miss Ingram's rent, and the +same being now nearly a quarter in arrear, we beg, etc., etc...." + +Then it was to Number Sixteen that Mr. Marsden walked every evening, wet +or fine. No one knew when he returned home again. But he was always +ready for his late breakfast in his own bed. + +Thanks to the regularity of these habits, Enid could now come and see +her mother without risk of encountering her stepfather. That cruel +threat of his had been often repeated, but never converted into an +explicit order; he disapproved of Mrs. Kenion's visits, and if they were +brought to his notice he would certainly prohibit them. But now the +house was safe ground between luncheon and dinner; and there were few +Thursday afternoons on which Enid did not come with her child to share +Mrs. Marsden's weekly half holiday. + +Little Jane was old enough to do without the constant vigilance of a +nurse; and almost old enough, it sometimes seemed, to understand that +she was her mother's only joy and consolation. + +"You must always be a good little girl," Mrs. Marsden used to say, "and +make mummy happy, and very proud of you." + +And the child, looking at granny with such wise eyes, said she was +always good, and never disturbed mummy in her room, or asked to be read +to when mummy was crying. Really, as she said this sort of thing, she +seemed to comprehend as clearly as her grandmother that there was +misery, deepening misery, in the ivy-clad farmhouse. + +"Mummy mustn't cry," said Mrs. Marsden tenderly. "Mummy must remember +that while she has you, she has everything.... Enid, don't give way." + +For mummy was there and then beginning to do just what she mustn't do. + +"Mother, I can't help it;" and Enid wiped her eyes. "I'm not brave like +you. And I feel now and then that I can't go on with it." + +Enid's barrier had fallen; she, too, abandoned the defence of an +impossible position. Often she showed a disposition to plunge into open +confidence, and tell the long tale of her trials and sorrows; but Mrs. +Marsden did not encourage a confidential outbreak, indeed checked all +tendencies in this direction. + +She used to take the child on her lap; and, after a little fondling and +whispering, Jane always fell asleep. Then, with the small flaxen head +nestled against her bosom, she talked quietly to her daughter, +endeavouring to put forward cheerful optimistic views, and providing the +philosophic generalities from which in troublous hours one should derive +stimulation and support. + +"She's tired from the journey. How pretty she is growing, Enid. She will +be extraordinarily pretty when she is grown-up. She will be exactly what +you were." + +"No one ever thought me pretty, except you, mother." + +"Nonsense, dear. Everyone admired you. You were enormously admired." + +"Then there was something wanting," said Enid bitterly. "I hadn't the +charms that have lasting power." + +But Mrs. Marsden would not allow the conversation to take an awkward +turn. + +"And Jane looks so well," she went on cheerfully. "Such limbs--and such +a _weight_! She is a glorious child. She does you credit, dear. You have +every reason to be proud of her--and you will be prouder and prouder, in +the time to come." + +"I hope so--I pray so. I shall have nothing else to be proud of." + +Once or twice, while the child was sleeping, Enid glided from obvious +hints to a bald statement, in spite of all Mrs. Marsden's endeavours to +restrain her. + +"Mother, my life is insupportable;" and tears began to flow. "Mother +dear, can't you help me?" + +"My darling, how can I? I have told you of my difficulties--but you +don't dream, you would never guess what they are." + +"It isn't money now," sobbed Enid. "I'd never again ask you for +money--and money, if you had thousands to give, would do me no good.... +Oh, I'm so wretched--so utterly wretched." + +"My dearest girl," and Mrs. Marsden, in the agitation caused by this +statement, moved uneasily and woke the little girl. "You tear me to +pieces when you ask me to help you. My own Enid, I can't help you. I +can't help you now. You must be brave, and carry your burdens by +yourself.... You say I am brave. Then be like me. I'm in the midst of +perils and fears--my hands are tied; yet I go on fighting. I swear to +you I am fighting hard. I've not given up hope. No, no. Don't think that +I'm not wanting to help you--longing to help you--_meaning_ to help you, +when the chance comes." + +Jane had extricated herself from the arms that held her; and, sliding to +the floor, she went to her mother's side. The energy of granny's voice +frightened her. + +"I'll do my best," said Enid. "I'll try to bear things submissively, as +you do." + +"And don't lose hope in the future," said Mrs. Marsden, dropping her +voice, and summoning every cheerful generality she could remember. "Be +patient. Wait--and clouds will pass. You are young--with more than half +your life before you. You have your sweet child. Go on hoping for happy +days. The clouds will pass. The sun will shine again." + + +But before any gleam of sunshine appeared, the sombre clouds that +lowered over Enid's head burst into a heavy storm. + +One morning Mrs. Marsden was engaged with Mears on what had become a +painful duty. They were stock-taking in the silk department; and, as the +empty shelves sadly confronted them, Mears looked at her with dull eyes, +opened and shut his mouth, but could not speak. He thought of what this +particular department had once been, and of his own delight in +especially fostering and tending it; of how it had improved under his +care; of how he and Mr. Ridgway had built up quite a respectable little +wholesale trade, as adjunct to the ordinary retail business, supplying +the smaller shops and steadily extending the connection. When he thought +of these things, it was no wonder that he could not speak. + +"Never mind, Mr. Mears," said Mrs. Marsden, in a whisper. Intuitively +she knew what was passing in his mind. "It's no good looking backwards. +We must look ahead." + +"Yes, no doubt," said Mears blankly. + +"I see what you mean. But we'll get an order through--before very long. +Meanwhile, you must do some more of your clever dressing." + +And it was just then--before Mr. Mears could promise to dress the empty +shelves--that the house servant appeared, and told her mistress of the +unexpected arrival of Mrs. Kenion. + +It was not a Thursday; and Enid came only on Thursdays, and never before +luncheon. Mrs. Marsden knew at once that something remarkable had +occurred. + +"Is Miss Jane with her?" + +"Yes, ma'am. They're waiting for you upstairs in the drawing-room." + +Mrs. Marsden hurried up to the first floor, and rushed through the door +of communication. + +"Enid, my dearest child." + +"Oh, mother, mother! It's all over." + +Enid was in a pitiable state of distress; the red circles round her eyes +were absolutely disfiguring; she wrung her hands, and contorted her +whole body. + +"Enid dear--tell me. Don't keep me in suspense." + +"He has gone--went to London this morning." + +"Who went? Charles? Do you mean Charles?" + +"Yes--and I don't believe he will ever come back to me." + +"Wait a moment, my love," said Mrs. Marsden. "Jane shall have a treat. +Jane, you shall come and play in the pantry. Won't that be nice?" + +And she took her grandchild by the hand, and led her from the room. +Outside in the passage she smiled at the little girl, patted her cheek, +stooped to hug and kiss her. Then she gave her over to the charge of the +housemaid--an elderly woman with an ugly face and an austere manner--and +walked briskly back to the dining-room. + +"Eliza will amuse Jane," she said cheerfully. "Eliza is kind, although +she seems so forbidding.... And now, my dear, you can tell me all about +this news--this great news--this _astonishing_ news of yours." + +Enid told her tale confusedly. She was too much distressed to record +events in their logical sequence. She worked backwards and forwards, +breaking the thread with ejaculations, laments, and sad reflections, +mixing yesterday with days that belonged to last year and the year +before last year. But Mrs. Marsden soon grasped the import of the tale. + +Mr. Kenion was the lover as well as the pilot of that rich hunting lady. +Enid had suspected the truth for a long time, had been certain of the +truth and suffered under the certainty for another long time--all that, +however, belonged to the past days and was quite unimportant. Yesterday +was the important day. + +Yesterday there had been a lawn meet--whether at Widmore Towers or +somewhere else, Mrs. Marsden did not gather. Mrs. Bulford's horse was +there; but as yet Mrs. Bulford had not shown herself. Charles was there, +dismounted for the moment, walking about among the gentlemen in front of +the house, taking nips of cherry brandy and nibbling biscuits offered by +the footmen with the trays. All was jollity and animation--promise of +fine sport; dull sky, gentle westerly breeze, dew-sprinkled earth; +kindly nature seemed to proclaim a good scenting day. + +And somebody, who has proved a very dull-nosed hound, is on the scent at +last. Here comes stiff-legged Major Bulford, armed with a hunting crop +although he only hunts on wheels, hobbling over the lawn among the +gentlemen. + +Hullo! What's up? Look! Bulford is wanging into Charlie, calling him +names as he slashes him across the face with stick and thong, using a +fist now,--hobbling after Charlie when Charlie has had enough, trying +with his uninjured leg to kick behind Charlie's back,--and tumbling at +full length on the damp grass. + +Mr. Kenion took his bleeding face home to be patched; and early this +morning he had gone to London--where Mrs. Bulford was waiting for him. + +"And, mother, he as good as said that I should never see him again. He +confessed that he and Mamie had been very imprudent--and Major Bulford +has discovered everything." + +"But, my darling, why do you cry? Why aren't you rejoicing--singing your +song of joy?" + +"Mother!" + +"All this is splendid good news--not bad news." + +"Mother, don't say it." + +"But I do say it. I say, Thank God--if this is going to give my girl +release from her slavery." Mrs. Marsden had spoken in a tone of +exaltation; but now her brows contracted, and her voice became grave. +"Enid, we mustn't run on so fast. To me it seems almost too good to be +true." + +"To me it seems dreadful." + +"Yes, at the moment. But later, you will know it is emancipation, +_life_. Only, let us keep calm. This man--Bulford--may not intend to +divorce her." + +"Oh, he _will_." + +"You think he will wish to cast her off?" + +"Yes. Charlie as good as said so." + +"But tell me this--You say they are very rich. Which of them has the +money--the husband or the wife?" + +"Oh, it is all Mrs. Bulford's--her very own." + +"Ah! The man may not divorce her--but if he does, there is one thing of +which you can be absolutely certain. Kenion will stick to her, and give +you your freedom." + +It was nearly one o'clock. Mrs. Marsden, glancing at the mantlepiece, +started. Her husband would soon return for his substantial mid-day meal. + +"Enid dear, I must take you and Jane out to lunch. I know you won't care +to meet Richard. Come! I shan't be a minute putting on my bonnet;" and +she hurried from the room. "Eliza! If Mr. Marsden asks for me, tell him +I shall not be in to luncheon.... That is all that you need say." + +To avoid the chance of being seen by her husband in High Street, she led +Enid and the little girl up the court instead of down it, round the +church-yard, and through devious ways to Gordon's, the confectioner's. +Here, at a small table in the back room, she gave them a comfortable and +sufficient repast--chicken for Enid, and nice soup and milk pudding for +Jane. She herself was unable to eat: excitement had banished all +appetite. She cut up toast for the soup, carved the chicken, dusted the +pudding with sugar; and smilingly watched over her guests. + +But every now and then she frowned, and became lost in deep thought. +Once, after a frowning pause, she leaned across the table and clutched +Enid's arm. + +"Enid," she whispered, with intense anxiety, "is this Bulford really an +upright honourable man who will do the right thing, and cast her off; or +is he a mean-spirited cur who will support his disgrace for the sake of +the cash?" + + +They remained at the confectioner's until Mrs. Marsden could feel no +doubt that her husband was now safe in his saloon; and then she took +them back to the house. + +She sent Mears a message to say that he and the shop must do without her +this afternoon, and she sat for a couple of quiet hours hearing the +remainder of Enid's grievous tale. Plainly it did Enid good to talk +about her troubles; the longer she talked the calmer she grew; and while +stage by stage she traced the history of her unhappy married life, Mrs. +Marsden thought very often of her own experiences. + +Jane, contented and replete, had fallen asleep upon granny's lap; and +Mrs. Marsden softly rocked her to and fro, to make the sleep sweeter and +easier. + +Unhappy Enid! She recited all her pains and pangs and torments. She had +loved the man, had thought him a fine gentleman, and had found him a +cruel beast. She had dreamed and awakened. She had tried to reconstitute +the dream, to shut her eyes to realities, and live in the dream that she +knew to be unreal. But he would not let her. She had forgiven misdeeds, +and even forgotten them; he had hurt her again and again and again; and +each time she had healed her wounds, and presented herself to him whole +and loyal once more. + +While Mrs. Marsden listened, she was thinking, "Yes, that is the +keynote, the apology, and the explanation. Love dies so slowly." + +Now Enid had come to the end of her tale. + +"Mother," she was saying, "I know I shall never see him any more;" and, +saying it, she began to cry again. "He spoke to me so kindly when he was +going from me.... And I looked at his poor face, all striped with the +sticking-plaster, and I thought of what he had been to me. It all came +back to me in a rush--the old feelings, mother,--and I begged him not to +go. And I asked him at least to kiss me--and he did it--and I knew that +he was sorry." + +Very quietly and carefully Mrs. Marsden got up, and placed the sleeping +child on her mother's lap. + +"Enid, take what is left to you. Put your arms round her, and hold her +against your heart. Hold her safe, and hold her close--for you are +holding all the world." + +Then, in great agitation, she walked up and down the room; and when she +stopped, and stood by Enid's chair, her eyes were streaming. + +"Never mind, my darling." An extraordinary exaltation sounded in her +voice; and, as she struggled to moderate its tone, there came a queer +vibration and huskiness. It seemed that but for dread of waking the +little girl, she would have shouted her words. "Never mind. You have +your child. Think of that. Nothing else matters. _I_ have suffered; +_you_ have suffered--never mind. Perhaps we women were intended to +suffer--and we have to bear some things so cruel that they must be borne +in silence. If we spoke of them, they might kill. But it is all nothing +compared with _this_;" and she stooped to kiss Enid's forehead, and very +gently and softly stroked the child's hair. "You and I have both made +our link in the wonderful chain of life. We have given what God gave us. +We carried the torch, and it has not been struck out of our hands and +extinguished.... We will rear your child; and I shall see you in her; +and she will grow tall and strong; and she will love--you most--the +mother,--but me too, when she understands that you came to her from +me.... And the sun shall shine again, and you shall be happy again--for +God is kind, and God is _just_.... And then there will be no more +tears--and a touch of your child's lips will destroy the memory of +tears." + + + + +XXV + + +Another year had slowly dragged by. + +Enid was still living with her child at the farmhouse; but all the +personal property of the child's father, all those numerous signs of too +engrossing amusements, had disappeared. Horses and grooms, brushes and +boots, spurs and bridles--all were gone. In the suit of Bulford vs. +Bulford and Kenion, the petitioner obtained a decree nisi; and soon the +decree will be made absolute. Another undefended suit--that of Kenion +vs. Kenion--is down for hearing. Very soon now Enid will be free. + +Meanwhile the big looking-glasses on the stairs and at department +entrances of Thompson & Marsden's shop had been growing tarnished, dull, +and spotted. They showed nothing new in their misty depths--emptiness +and desolation; unused space so great that it was not necessary to +multiply it by reflection; and a grey-haired black-robed woman passing +and repassing through the faint bluish fog, with shadowy, ghostly lines +of such sad figures marching and wheeling at her side. + +But there was no space for fog in the establishment across the road. +During these twelve slow months the visible, unmistakable prosperity of +Bence had been stupendous. + +He had bought out Mr. Bennett, the butcher. He would buy the whole +street. He had enlarged his popular market, adding Flowers to Fruit and +Vegetables. The old auctioneer had retired, in order to make room for +this addition; and where for a half a century there had been no objects +more interesting than sale bills and house registers and dangling +bunches of keys, beautiful unseasonable blossoms now shed their +fragrance throughout the year. Plainly there was nothing too old, or too +hard, or too large for Bence to swallow. + +And the reputation of Bence's, as well as its mere success, had steadily +been rising. It seemed as if the remorseless and triumphant Archibald +had not only stolen the entire trade of his principal rival, but had +also borrowed all the methods that in the old time built up the trade. +In his best departments the goods were now as solid and as real as those +which had made the glory of Thompson's at its zenith. But beyond this +laudable improvement of stock--a matter that no one could complain +of,--Bence betrayed a cruel persistence in imitating subsidiary +characteristics of Mrs. Thompson's tactical campaign. + +Gradually Bence had won the town. It was Bence who now feasted and +flattered the municipal authorities, exactly as Mrs. Thompson had done +years ago. Dinners to aldermen and councillors; soirées and receptions +for their wives; compliments, largesse, confidential attention flowing +out in a generous stream for the benefit of all--high and low--who could +possibly assist or hinder the welfare of Bence! Last Christmas--by way +of inaugurating his twentieth grand annual bazaar--he gave a ball to +four hundred people, with a military band and a champagne sit-down +supper. + +The ancient aldermen were nearly all gone; the council nowadays +professed themselves to be advocates of modern ideas; they said the +conditions of life are always changing; and they were ready to admit the +new style of trade as fundamentally correct. Then, making speeches after +snug Bence-provided banquets, they said that their host represented in +himself and his career the Spirit of the Age. They raised their glasses +in a toast which all would honour. "Mr. Archibald Bence, you are a +credit to the town of Mallingbridge; and speaking for the town, I say +the town is proud of you, sir.... Now, gentlemen, give him a +chorus--'For he's a jolly good fellow'".... + +Bence never stopped their music. He sat at the head of the table, +twirling his waxed moustache, fingering his jewelled studs, and smiling +enigmatically--as if he considered the adulation of his guests quite +natural and proper, or as if he felt amused by vulgar praise and a +homage which could be purchased with a little meat and drink. + +"Gentlemen," said Bence, rising to return thanks, and addressing the +assemblage in the usual tone of mock modesty, "I am overwhelmed by your +good-nature. I lay no claim to merit. The most I ever say of myself is +that I do work hard, and try my best. But I have been very lucky. +Anybody could have done what I have done, if they had been given the +same opportunity--and the same support." + +"No, no," cried the noisy guests. "Not one in a million. No one but +yourself, Mr. Bence. That's why we're so proud of you." + +And just as the town had turned towards Bence in his prosperity, so it +had turned away from Mrs. Marsden in her adversity. These people +worshipped success, and nothing else. The old shop was dying fast; its +legend was already dead. The ancient triumph of the brave young widow +was thus in a few years almost totally forgotten. It was a fabled +greatness that faded before her present insignificance. There were of +course some who still remembered; but they did not trouble to sustain or +revive her name and fame. + +Did she know how they spoke of her--these few who remembered? + +A pitiful story: a poor wretch who posed for a little while as a good +woman of business, and got absurd kudos for what was sheer luck. Just +clever enough to make a little money in propitious times; but without +staying power, unable to adapt herself to new methods--a _stupid_ +woman, really! That was the kindest talk. Others, who should have been +grateful and did not care to pay their debts, spoke of her as a +criminal. "I never forgave her that disgraceful marriage. I endeavoured +to prevent it, and warned her what would be the consequence of her--say +her folly; but I think one would be justified in using a stronger word. +Well, she has made her bed; and she must lie upon it." + +On a cold winter evening, when she had walked to the railway station +with Enid and was finding her a seat in the local train, a porter +officiously pointed out Bence. + +"There! That's Mr. Bence, ma'am. Mr. Bence--the small gentleman!" + +The local train was on one side of the platform, and on the other stood +the London express. And Bence, in fur coat and glossy topper, surrounded +with sycophantic inspectors and ticket-collectors, was approaching the +Pullman car. He was off to London, to buy fresh cargos of Leghorn hats +or whole warehouses of mauve blouses. + +The local train, with Enid in it, rolled away; and Mrs. Marsden, a +shabby insignificant black figure, remained motionless, waving a pocket +handkerchief and staring wistfully at the receding train. Then, as Bence +came bustling from the Pullman door to the book-stall at the end of the +platform, he and Mrs. Marsden met face to face. + +It was a strange encounter. Intelligent onlookers, if there had been any +on the platform, might have found food for much thought in studying this +chance meeting between the Spirit of the age and the Ghost of the past. + +There was nothing of the conqueror's exultant air in Bence's low bow. He +uncovered his bald head and bowed deeply, with ostentatious humbleness +and almost excessive respect--as if magnanimously determined to show +that greatness though fallen was still greatness to him. + +And there was nothing of the conquered in Mrs. Marsden's dignified +acknowledgment of the passing courtesy. Bowing, she looked at Bence and +through Bence; and her face seemed calm, cold, dispassionate: as +absolutely devoid of trouble or resentment as if one of the +ticket-collectors whom she used to tip had touched his hat to her. + +None of these greedy ruffians did salute her. In all the station, +through which she used to pass as a queen, only little Bence showed her +a sign of respect to-night. + + +In her deserted shop there were still faithful hearts; outside the shop, +in all Mallingbridge, it seemed as if she could not count more than one +true friend. + +Prentice was true as the magnet to the pole. For a long time he had +asked her no questions, given her no advice; and she told him nothing of +her affairs, either commercial or domestic. But he guessed that things +were going from bad to worse. He knew that she was more and more +frequently at the offices of Hyde & Collins. He saw her entering their +front door almost as often as he saw Bence entering it; and he +interpreted these visits as a certain indication that they were still +raising money for her. She had probably sold the last of her stocks and +shares, and now they were helping her to get rid of the small remainder +of her possessions. He knew of two or three houses in River Street, and +of a moderate mortgage on this property. Hyde & Collins might effect a +second mortgage perhaps; and then the houses would be practically gone, +as everything else had gone--into the bottomless pit. They would not +care how quickly she beggared herself. When she was squeezed dry, they +would just shut the door in her face. Insolent, unscrupulous brutes! And +he thought with anger of how cavalierly they would treat her even now, +before the end: breaking their appointments, telling her to call again, +leaving her to wait in outer rooms while they kow-towed to their best +client, their only prosperous client, the omnipotent Bence. + +To the mind of loyal Prentice the utter downfall of Mrs. Marsden was +abominable and intolerable. He could not bear it--this wreck of a life +that had been so noble. His hope of saving something from the wreck was +cruelly frustrated. He had tried again and again; but she would not +listen, she would not be guided. + +He thought sadly of the bright past, of her talent and genius; and, +above all, of her tremendous intellectual strength. In those days, when +he began to unfold a matter of business, she stopped him before he had +completed half a dozen sentences. It was enough--she had grasped the +whole position, sent beams from the search-light of her intelligence +flashing all round it, shown him essential points that he had not seen +himself. Difficulties never frightened her; she was subtle in defence, +swift in attack. Give her but a hint of danger, and in a moment she was +armed and ready. Before you knew what she would be at, she had sprung +into decisive action; and before you could hurry up with your feeble +reinforcements, the danger was over, the battle had been gained. + +But now she was weak as water--helpless, yet refusing help, hopeless and +making hope impossible, just drifting to her fate. At night Mr. Prentice +sometimes could not sleep. He lay awake, thinking of what it would come +to in the end--bankruptcy, her little hoard squandered, her last penny +gone in the futile effort to satisfy her husband and sustain the shop. + +And then? She was so proud that perhaps she might not allow Enid to +supply her simplest daily needs. He tossed and turned restlessly as he +thought of Enid's marriage settlement; and, remembering some of its +ill-advised clauses, he felt stung by remorse. He had bungled the +settlement. He ought to have stood firm, and not have permitted himself +to be overruled by the idiotic whims of a love-sick girl who was being +generous at another person's expense. He blamed himself bitterly now for +the manner in which funds had been permanently secured to Enid's +worthless husband. Of course the Divorce Court, exercising its statutory +powers, might wipe out the entire blunder, and handsomely punish the +offender by handsomely benefiting the wife; but he had small hope that +this would happen. No, the rascal Charles Kenion, when disposed of, will +still enjoy his life interest. The money that should come back now to +the hand that gave it is gone. Enid will not have more than she wants +for herself and her child. + +He could not sleep. The thought of Mrs. Marsden's pride made him shiver. +No prouder woman ever lived: famine and cold would not break her pride. +He had thought of her in the workhouse, or an almshouse, finishing her +days on the bread of charity. But no--great Heaven!--she would never +consent to do that. She would rather sell matches in the street. And he +imagined her appearance. An old woman in rags--creeping at dusk with +bent back,--pausing on a country road to hold her side and cough,--lying +down on the frozen ground beneath a haystack, and dying in the winter +storm. + +He knew--only too well--that these are the things that happen: the +inexorable facts of the world. But never should they happen in this +case--not while he had one sixpence to rub against another. + +He could not go on thinking about it without doing something. So he woke +up his invalid wife. That seemed the only thing he could do just +then;--and he told Mrs. Prentice that she must be kind to Mrs. Marsden; +she must begin being kind the first thing in the morning; she must +write a letter, pay a call, do _something_ to cheer and gladden his poor +old friend. + +Mrs. Prentice, an amiable nondescript woman, readily obeyed her husband; +and after this nocturnal conversation she used frequently to wait upon +Mrs. Marsden, often persuade her to go out for a drive, and now and then +entice her to come and dine in a quiet friendly fashion without any fuss +or ceremony. These pleasant evenings must have made bright and warm +spots amidst the cold dark gloom that now surrounded Mrs. Marsden. At +Mr. Prentice's comfortable private house she was treated with an honour +to which she had been long unaccustomed; there was nothing here to +remind her of her troubles; and she really appeared to forget them when +chatting freely with her kind host and hostess. + +"My dear Mrs. Prentice, it is too good of you to let me drop in on you +like this." + +"No, it is so good of you," said Mrs. Prentice, "to give us the pleasure +of your company." + +"It is a great pleasure to _me_," said Mrs. Marsden; "and I always +thoroughly enjoy myself." + +Mrs. Prentice liked her better in her adversity than in her prosperity. +She found it easy to join her husband in his admiration of the fortitude +and dignity of Mrs. Marsden as an ill-used wife and a broken-down +shopkeeper--now that the fable of her colossal brain-power was finally +shattered. Perhaps Mrs. Prentice's naturally kind heart had never opened +to Mrs. Marsden till the day when Mr. Prentice said that his idol was +acting like a fool. + +Their guest used to eat sparingly, although the hostess pressed her to +taste of every dish; and she scarcely drank more than half a glass of +wine, although the host had brought out his most highly prized vintage; +but she talked so cheerfully, so calmly, and so wisely, that her society +was as charming as it was welcome. Mr. Prentice, beaming on her and +listening with deference to her lightest words, was especially delighted +each time that he recognized something like a flash of the old light. + +Once they were discussing a rumour that had just reached Mallingbridge. +It was said that the War Office had purchased a tract of land on the +downs, and proposed to establish a large permanent camp up there. + +"Half a dozen regiments, with all their followers--an invasion!" + +"It will be dreadful for the town," said Mrs. Prentice. "Utterly destroy +its character." + +"That's what I think," said Mr. Prentice. "Do no good to anybody." + +"Do you know," said Mrs. Marsden, "I am inclined to disagree. Since the +soldiers came to Ellerford, trade--I am told--has picked up +wonderfully." + +"Ah, yes," said Prentice. "But that's a trifling affair--a very small +camp, compared with what this would be." + +"But, Mr. Prentice," and Mrs. Marsden smiled; "if a small camp does a +little good, why shouldn't a large camp do a lot of good?" + +It sounded quite simple, and yet only she would have said it. Mr. +Prentice laughed. It reminded him of the old way she had of going +straight to the point, and flooring you by a question that seemed +childishly naïve until all at once you found you could not answer it. + +Mrs. Prentice continued to lament the many degradations that +Mallingbridge had already undergone. + +"The Theatre Royal turned into a music hall! The Royal! That is the last +blow. _Three_ music halls in the place, and not one theatre where you +can go and see a real play.... I used to love the Royal. It seemed a +_part_ of Mallingbridge." + +"My dear Mrs. Prentice," said the guest, calmly and philosophically, +"the town that you and I loved has gone. It was inevitable--one can't +put back the clock. Time won't stand still for us." + +"No, but they're making the new town so ugly, so vulgar. Whenever they +pull down one of the dear old houses, they do build such gimcrack +monstrosities." + +"I fancy," said Mrs. Marsden, "that the distance from London decided our +destiny. It was just far enough off to reproduce and copy the +metropolis. Nowadays, the little places that remain unchanged are all +close to the suburban boundary." + +When she talked in this style, Prentice thought how effectually she gave +the lie to people who said of her, that she had failed because she +lacked the faculty of appreciating altered conditions. + +"Did you happen," she asked him, "to read the report of the general +meeting of the railway company?" + +"No--I don't think I did." + +"The chairman mentioned Mallingbridge." + +"What did he say about it?" + +"He said that they might before long have to consider the propriety of +building a new station, and putting it on another site." + +"Why should they do that?" + +"Why?" And again Mrs. Marsden smiled. "Why indeed? It set me +thinking--and I read the speech carefully. Later on, the chairman spoke +of the scheme for moving their carriage and engine works out of the +London area. Well, I put those two hints together; and this is what I +made of them. I believe that the company intend at last to develop all +that land of theirs--the fields by the river,--and I prophesy that +within three years they'll have built the new carriage works there." + +She said this exactly as she used to say those luminously clever things +that he remembered in the past. He listened wonderingly and admiringly. + +But when the ladies left him alone to smoke his cigar or finish the wine +that the guest had neglected, he sighed. She could give these flashes of +the old logic and insight; she could talk so wisely about matters that +in no way concerned her; but in the one great matter of her own life, +where common sense was most desperately required, she had behaved like a +lunatic. + +He let his cigar go out, and he could not drink any more wine. Rain was +pattering on the windows, and the wind moaned round the house--a sad +dark night. He rang the bell, and told the servant to order a fly for +Mrs. Marsden at a quarter to ten. + +The fly took her home comfortably; and when she alighted at the bottom +of St. Saviour's Court and offered the driver something more than his +fare, he refused it. + +"Mr. Prentice paid me, ma'am." + +"Oh!... Then you must accept this shilling for yourself." + +"No, ma'am. Mr. Prentice tipped me. Good-night, ma'am." + + + + +XXVI + + +Enid was free. The farmhouse stood empty, with the ivy hanging in +festoons and long streamers about the windows, the grass growing rank +and strong over the carriage drive, and a board at the gate offering +this eligible modernised residence to be let on lease. Its sometime +mistress had gone with her little daughter to the seaside for eight or +ten months. After her stay at Eastbourne she would return to +Mallingbridge, and take furnished apartments--or perhaps rent one of the +tiny new villas on the Linkfield Road. She wished to be near her mother, +and she apologized now for leaving Mrs. Marsden quite alone during so +many months; but, as she explained, Jane needed sea air. + +"Never mind about me," said Mrs. Marsden. "Only the child matters. Build +up her health. Make her strong. I shall do very well--though of course I +shall miss you both." + +She was getting accustomed to solitude and silence. Truly she had never +been so entirely isolated and lonely as now. In the far-off days when +Enid used by her absence to produce a wide-spreading sense of loss, +there had been the work and bustle of the thriving shop to counteract +the void and quiet of the house. And there had been Yates. Now there was +nobody but the plain-faced grim-mannered Eliza, who had become the one +general-servant of the broken home. + +Mr. Marsden still lunched and dined at the house, but he was never there +for breakfast. He did not go upstairs to his bedroom and dressing-room +once in a week. Sometimes for a fortnight he and his wife did not meet +at meals. His voracious appetite manifested itself intermittently; +there were days on which he gorged like a boa-constrictor, and others on +which he felt disinclined to eat at all. Then he required Eliza to tempt +him with savoury highly-spiced food, or to devise some dainty surprise +which would stimulate his jaded fancy and woo him to a condescending +patronage. He would toy with a bird--or a couple of dozen oysters--or a +bit of pickled mackerel. Now and then, after he had been drinking more +heavily than usual, he would himself inspire Eliza. + +"Eliza, I can't touch all that muck;" and he pointed with a slightly +tremulous hand at the dinner table. "But I believe I could do with just +a simple hunk of bread and cheese, and a quart of stout. Run out and get +some stout--get two or three bottles, with the screw tops. You know, the +large bottles." + +Then perhaps he would find eventually that this queer dinner-menu was a +false inspiration. The bread and cheese were more than he could grapple +with--and he asked for something else to assist the stout. + +In a word, he was rather troublesome about his meals; and Mrs. Marsden +fell into the habit of taking her scanty refreshment at irregular hours. +He did not upbraid her for keeping out of his way. Eliza looked after +him in a satisfactory manner; and he never upset or frightened Eliza. +Grim Eliza ran no risk of receiving undesired attentions. + +Everybody knew that Mr. Marsden often drank too much. One night when he +failed to appear at dinner time, he was found--not by Eliza but by the +Borough constabulary--in a state of total intoxication on the pavement +outside the Dolphin. + +After this regrettable incident the Dolphin dismissed him and his +barmaid together. The attendance at the saloon had been dropping off. A +siren cannot draw custom, when you have a great hulking bully who sits +in the corner and threatens to punch the head of every inoffensive +moderate-sized gentleman upon whom the siren begins to exert her spell. +The Dolphin was very glad to see the backs of Miss Ingram and her +friend. + +Miss Ingram secured an engagement at the bar of the Red Cow, and Mr. +Marsden faithfully followed her thither. The Red Cow was the +disreputable betting public-house of which the town council were so much +ashamed; people went there to bet, and it was likely to lose its +license; but Marsden was content to make it his temporary club, and +indeed seemed to settle down there comfortably enough. + +He still occasionally came to the shop. All eyes were averted when he +swung one of the street doors and slouched in. He seemed to know and +almost to admit that he was a disgrace and an eyesore, and though he +scowled at the shop-walker swiftly dodging away and diving into the next +department, he did not bellow a reprimand. He hurried up the shop; and +it was only when he got behind the glass that he attempted to display +anything like the old swagger and bluster. + +"Well, Mears, what's the best news with you?... You all look as if you +were starting for a funeral--as black as a lot of mutes. How's +business?" And he began to whistle, or to rattle the bunch of duplicate +shop-keys that he carried in his trousers pocket. "I say, Mears, old +pal--I'm run dry. Can't you and the missus do an advance--something on +account--however small--to keep me going?" + +A few shillings were generally produced, and the advance was solemnly +entered in the books, to the governor's name. + +Then he nearly always announced that he had come to the shop for the +purpose of keeping a business appointment. + +"Look here. I'm expecting a gentleman. Show him straight in." + +These gentlemen were more dreadful to look at than the governor himself. +He gave appointments to most terrific blacklegs--the unwashed rabble of +the Red Cow, book-makers and their clerks, race-course touts,--inviting +them to the shop in order to establish his credit, and prove to these +seedy wretches that he was veritably the Marsden of Thompson & +Marsden's. + +For such interviews he used to turn his wife out of the room. At a word +she meekly left the American desk and walked out. + +"That you, Rooney? Come into my office. Here I am, you see. Sit down." + +The Red Cow gentlemen were overcome by the grandeur of Mr. Marsden in +his own office; the size and magnificence of the establishment filled +them with awe and envy; it surpassed belief. + +"Blow me, but it's true," they said afterwards. "Every word what he told +us is the Gospel truth. He's the boss of the whole show. I witnessed it +with my own eyes." + +Yet if his visitors had possessed real business acumen, the shop would +have impressed them with anything but confidence. + +To a trade expert one glance would have sufficed. The forlorn aspect of +the ruined shop told the gloomy facts with unmistakable clearness. So +few assistants, so pitiably few customers, such a beggarly array of +goods! Those shelves have all been dressed with dummies; those rolls of +rich silk are composed of a wooden block, some paper, and half a yard of +soiled material; within those huge presses you will find only darkness. +Emptiness, desolation, death! + +And what could not be seen could readily be guessed. Behind the glass +only two people--a man laboriously muddling with unfilled ledgers, a +girl at a type-writing machine--only one type-writer, a sadly feeble +clicking in the midst of vast unoccupied space; not a sound in the +covered yard; no horses, no carts; no purchased goods to be handled in +the immense packing rooms; no stock, no cash, no credit, no nothing! + +When a customer appeared, the shop seemed to stir uneasily in the sleep +that was so like death; a faint vibration disturbed the heavy +atmosphere; shop-walkers flitted to and fro; assistants yawned and +stretched themselves. What is it? Yes, it _is_ another customer. + +"What can we show madam?" + +"Well, I wanted--but really I think I've made a mistake--" and the +stranger looked about her, and seemed perplexed. "My friends said it was +in High Street--but I see this isn't it. Yes, I've made a mistake. Good +morning." + +"_Good_ morning, madam." + +The bright spring sunshine pouring in at the windows lit up the +threadbare, colourless matting, showed the dust that danced above the +parquet after each footfall; but it could not reach the great mirror on +the stairs. The mirrors were growing dimmer and dimmer. As the black +figure passed and repassed, the first reflected Mrs. Marsden was +scarcely less vague and unsubstantial than the line of Mrs. Marsdens +walking by her side. + +Mr. Mears and Miss Woolfrey, disconsolately pacing the lower and the +upper floor, seemed like captains of a ship becalmed--like honest +captains of a water-logged ship, feeling it tremble and shiver as it +settled down beneath their feet, knowing that it was soon to sink, and +thinking that they were ready to go down with it. When they paused in +their rounds of inspection, it was because really there was nothing to +inspect. They turned their heads and looked, from behind the dusty piles +of carpets or the trays of fly-blown china, at the establishment over +the way--looked from death to life; and for a few minutes watched the +jostling crowd and the brilliant range of colours on the other side of +the road. + +No dust there. Here, it was impossible to prevent the dust. The +dust-sheets were in tatters; the brooms and sprinklers were worn out; +there were not enough hands to sweep and rub. Mears himself looked +dusty. + +And when the sunlight fell upon him, he looked very old, very grey, and +rather shaky. He never blew out his cheeks or swished his coat-tails +now. The voluminous frock-coat seemed several sizes too large for him; +it was greasy at the elbows, and frayed at the cuffs. The salary of +Mears was hopelessly in arrear. For a long time Mears, like the +governor, had found himself obliged to crave for something on +account--just to keep going with. + + +One sunny April day Marsden entered the shop about noon, went into the +office; and, not discovering his wife there, ordered the type-writing +girl to fetch her immediately. + +"What is it, Richard?" said Mrs. Marsden, presently appearing. + +"Oh, there you are--at last. You never seem to be in your right place +when you're wanted. I've been waiting here five minutes--and not a soul +on the lookout to receive people." + +"I am sorry." + +"Anybody could walk in from the street and march slap into this room, +without being asked who he was and what his business was. And a nice +idea it would give a stranger of our management." + +"I am sorry. But was that all you had to say to me?" + +"No. Look here," he went on grumblingly. "Bence, if you please, has +asked me for an appointment." + +"Will you see him?" + +"Yes--I think so." + +"Very good." + +"Yes, I've told the little bounder I'll see him." + +"Do you wish me to be present at the interview?" + +"No--better not." + +A quarter of an hour afterwards Mr. Archibald Bence was coming up the +empty shop. It was years since he had crossed the threshold; and +certainly his eyes were expert enough to see now, if he cared to look +about him, the dire results of his implacable rivalry. But he showed +nothing in his face: smugly self-possessed, smilingly imperturbable, he +followed the shop-walker straight to the counting-house. + +The shop-walker announced him at the door of the inner room, and he +marched in. He bowed low, as Mrs. Marsden, with a slight inclination of +the head, passed out. Then Marsden shut the door. + +But upstairs and downstairs the dull air vibrated as if electric +discharges were passing through it in all directions; the whole shop +stirred and throbbed; the whispering assistants quivered. "Did you see +him?" "I couldn't get a peep at him." "I just saw the top of his hat." +Bence had come to call upon the governor. Bence was in the shop. That +great man was behind their glass. + +Soon they heard sounds of the noisy interview--at least, Marsden was +making a lot of noise. The minutes seemed long; but there were only five +or six of them before the counting-house doors opened and Bence +reappeared. He was perfectly calm, talking quietly and politely, though +the governor bellowed. + +"All right, Mr. Marsden, don't excite yourself. I only asked a +question." + +"Yes, a blasted impertinent one." + +"Well, no bones broken, anyhow," and Bence smiled. + +"If you should ever change your mind--come over the road, and let me +know." + +"I'll see you damned first." + +Nothing, however, could ruffle Bence. + +"Just so. But, as I was saying, if you ever _should_ care to do +business--well, I'm not far off. Good morning to you." + +Mrs. Marsden, when she returned to the inner room, found her husband +standing near the desk, sullenly scowling at the floor. + +"I was a fool to swear at him. I ought to have kicked him down the +shop.... Can you guess what he came about?" + +"I'm not clever at guessing. I'll wait till you tell me." + +"He wanted us to close more than half the shop, and sublet it to him for +the remainder of the lease." And Marsden sullenly and growlingly +described the details of this impudent proposal. Bence suggested that +the yard and the new packing rooms could be used by him as a warehouse; +that all departments to the west of the silk counter might be +transferred to the eastern side; that he would build a party wall at his +own expense, and use all this western block "for one thing or another." +Bence's question in plain words therefore was, Would they now confess to +the universe that their premises were about four times too big for their +trade? + +"Not to be thought of," said Mrs. Marsden. + +"No. I suppose not;" and Marsden glanced at her furtively, and then +rattled the keys in his pocket. "We won't think of it." + + + + +XXVII + + +Another month had gone, and the end of all things was approaching. + +"Jane," said Marsden, "we're beat. We'd better own it. We are beat to +the world. It's no good going on." + +"What do you mean?" + +It was a dull and depressing afternoon--the sky obscured by heavy +clouds, a little rain falling at intervals,--so dark in the room behind +the glass that Mrs. Marsden was compelled to switch on the electric +light above the American desk. She had turned in her chair, and was +watching her husband's face intently; and the light from the lamp showed +that her own face had become extraordinarily pale. + +"It's no good, Jane. You must see it just the same as I do. We're +done--and the only thing is to consider how we are to escape a smash." + +Then he told her that Bence had offered to buy them out. Bence was ready +to swallow them whole. Bence was prepared to give them a fair price for +their entire property--long lease of the premises, stock, fittings, +assets, the complete bag of tricks. He would take it over as a still +going concern, with all its debts and liabilities. If they accepted +Bence's offer, they would merely have to put the money in their pockets, +and could wash their hands of a bitterly bad job. + +"Don't talk so loud. Someone may hear you." + +"No," he said, "there's no one outside, except Miss O'Donnell; and you +can hear her machine--so she can't be eavesdropping.... I'll give you +my reasons for saying it's a fair price." + +"Yes, please do.... You haven't mentioned the amount yet." + +"I'm coming to it. I want to prepare your mind. Of course I don't know +how it will strike you."... + +"Go on, please." + +"First of all, I'll say I'm certain it's more than we should get from +anyone else. I've gone to the root of everything. I have worked it out +with plain figures.... Well, then--Bence will give six thousand pounds." + +"No, I won't accept the offer." + +"It would be three thousand apiece." + +"I refuse to agree to the sale." + +"It will be ready money, you know--paid on the nail." + +"Richard, I can't agree to it." + +"Why not? Of course I know I can't jump you into it. I don't want to do +so. I simply want to persuade you that it's our only course." + +Then he began to argue and plead with her. He said that he considered it +would be madness obstinately to decline such an opportunity, and she +ought really to be grateful to him for cutting the knot of their +difficulties. He explained that only two days after Bence's memorable +visit, he had gone across the road and reopened negotiations on a wider +scale. He owned that he had at first resented the approach of Bence as a +gross insult; he had felt disposed to kick Bence; but _afterwards_, +calmly thinking it over, he had come to the conclusion that Bence--"if +properly, handled"--might eventually prove their best friend. In this +softer, calmer mood, he had made a return call on Bence--had handled him +magnificently, had bluffed him and jollied him, had slowly but surely +screwed him up to make a splendid and a firm offer. + +"But, Richard, supposing that we were to sell the business, what would +happen to you?" + +"I should go away--to California. I'm sick of this stinking town. It's +played out for me. At Mallingbridge I'm a dead-beat--people don't +believe in me--I've no real friends. But I should do all right out +West--and I want a decent climate. Between you and me and the post, I +funk another English winter." + +"Do you mean that you want to desert me altogether?" + +"Jane, what's the use of asking me that? You and I have got to the end +of our tether, haven't we? What good can I do sticking here any longer? +I can't help you--I can't help myself. We're done. You'd far wiser +divide what we can grab from Bence, and let me go." + +"But to a person of your tastes and habits, three thousand pounds is not +an inexhaustible sum. Do you think that, as your entire capital, it +would be enough for you?" + +"Yes, I do," he said eagerly. "Life is cheaper out there. In that lovely +climate one doesn't want to binge up. There aren't the same temptations. +I should turn over a new leaf--put the brake on--make a fresh start." + +"And should I never see you again?" + +"Oh, I don't say that. No--of course I should come back. I don't see +what real difference it would make to you. We're a semi-detached couple, +as it is." + +"Yes, but not quite detached." + +"Well, you'd let me go on a little longer string. That's all about it;" +and he laughed good-humouredly. He believed that he would soon overcome +her opposition. "I never meant any total severance, you know. We should +be like the swells--Mrs. Marsden is residing at Mallingbridge; Mr. +Marsden has gone to the Pacific Coast for the winter. We'd put it in the +paper, if you liked." + +"I see that you are very keen to close with--with Mr. Bence's +proposal." + +"Yes, I am--and I honestly believe you ought to be just as keen." + +And again he extolled his personal merit in screwing up the proposer. +Bence had pointed out that if he quietly waited until Thompson & Marsden +were forced as bankrupts to put up their shutters, he would buy all he +wanted at a much lower price. The premises, and the premises only, were +what Bence wanted. After a bankruptcy he could buy the lease at the +market price, and not have to give a penny for anything else. Bence said +his offer was extravagantly liberal; but he frankly admitted that he +felt in a hurry to clear up the street, and make it neat and tidy. He +would therefore fork out thus handsomely to avoid delay. + +"He said we were doing the street _harm_, Jane. And, upon my word, I +couldn't deny that. I've often told Mears we have got to look more like +a funeral than anything else." + +"And you wish us to be decently buried?" + +He laughed and shrugged his shoulders in the utmost good-humour. He felt +sure now that she would yield; and with increasing eagerness he urged +her to adopt his views. + +"Very well," she said at last. "It is your wish?" + +"Yes, it is." + +"Then on one condition," and she spoke in a hard, matter-of-fact +voice,--"on _one_ condition, I'll consent." + +"What's your condition?" + +"When we wind up our business relations, we must wind up all our other +relations.... It must be a total severance--I am using your own +word--and no half measures. When you leave Mallingbridge you must leave +it forever. You must undertake--bind yourself never to set foot in it +again." + +"Oh, I say." + +"You must execute a deed of separation." + +He seemed greatly surprised; and for a little while hesitated, as if +unable to express his thoughts. + +"Look here, Jane.... You're talking big, old lady. What next?... Deed of +separation! That's a very large order." + +"You are taking freedom for yourself. You must give me freedom." + +"Oh, no, you overdo that line," he said slowly. "I told you I would come +back--some day or other. Yet now you take up this high and mighty +tone--as though I had given you the right to cut me adrift altogether." + +"Ah! I understand. You thought you'd have _your_ three thousand to +spend, and _my_ three thousand to fall back upon. Then again I refuse +the offer." + +"Don't be hasty--and don't impute bad motives where none exist. No, you +have struck me all of a heap by what you demand. I wasn't prepared for +it--and it wants a bit of thought, before I can say yes or no." + +And he began to bargain about the deed of separation. He had seen an +unexpected chance, and he meant to make the most of it. + +"Let's be business-like, Jane. If I renounce all claims on you +forever--if I agree to make a formal renunciation,--well, surely that's +worth _something_ to you?" + +"Do you mean, worth money? Are you asking me to pay you?" + +"I want to start a new life out there--and I shall need all the money I +can get. You told me so, yourself--three thou. is devilish little to +face the world on." + +"Yes," she said quietly, "and with another person dependent on you." + +"What do you say?" + +"I say, you are not going alone.... We must think of your companion, as +well as of yourself." + +"Jane, you're hard on me." + +"Am I?" + +And the bargaining went on. + +Finally they came to terms. She was to give him half her share, in +exchange for absolute freedom. He would thus have four thousand five +hundred pounds as initial impetus for his new career. + +"Do you say _done_ to that?" + +"Yes," she replied coldly and firmly, "I say done." + +He sat down, drew out a dirty handkerchief, and wiped his forehead. His +argumentative efforts had made him warm; but he smiled contentedly. He +considered that "in the circs." it was a jolly good bargain. + +"Dick," and her voice suddenly softened. "Have you thought what _I_ am +to do? Fifteen hundred pounds isn't much for _me_--to start a new life +with." + +"You have money of your own.... I am certain that you have a tidy +nest-egg still." + +"If I were to tell you that I hadn't another penny in the world?" + +"I shouldn't believe it." + +"If I convinced you that it was literally true, would it make any +difference to you?" + +"I don't follow." + +"Would you still take half my share from me?" + +"What's the good of talking about it?" And he looked at her +thoughtfully. "Jane, the devil is driving me. I'm not the man I was. I +funk dangers. My health is broken.... You'll be all right. You have +friends. I have none. It's vital to me to know that we--that I shall +have enough to rub along with out there." + +Mrs. Marsden said no more. + +"Yes, you'll be all right, old girl. Never fear!" And he got up, and +stretched himself. "But I say! We've been jawing such a deuce of a time +that it'll be too late to do anything to-day, unless we look sharp.... +Will you give me a letter to Hyde & Collins, saying you accept?" + +"No, I'll go there, and tell them by word of mouth." + +"May I go with you?" + +"No, that's unnecessary." + +"But you _will_ go, Jane? I mean, at once. You do intend to go--and no +rot?" + +"I have told you I am going." + +"Yes, but hurry up then. They don't keep open all night." + +"I'll tell them within an hour." + + +Within an hour she had spoken to Mr. Bence's solicitors and gone on to +the office of Mr. Prentice. + +"Now," she said to her old friend, "you see me in my need. The time has +come. Help me with all your power." + +Then very rapidly she told him all that had happened. + +"So there goes the end of an old song," said Mr. Prentice. "Mind you, I +don't tell you that you are doing wrong. It may be--probably it +_is_--the only thing to do.... Six thousand pounds!" It was obvious that +Mr. Prentice had been astonished by the largeness of this sum. But he +would not admit the fact. He spoke cautiously. + +"It is more than anyone else would have given." + +"Possibly! But I might have got you better terms from Bence. Let me take +up the negotiations now. If he will give as much as six thousand, he may +give more." + +"No, I have told Hyde & Collins that we accept." + +"That was premature. But you referred them to me?" + +"No. I told them to prepare the conveyance at once." + +"But--good gracious--they can't act for both sides." + +"Of course they can. It will save time--it will save money. There is no +difficulty _there_. We sell all we have. A child could carry it +through." + +"Oh, but really, I don't know. Your interests must be guarded." + +"No, no." She was nervous and excited, and she spoke piteously and yet +irritably. "I have instructed them. They must attend to the sale. And +_you_ must attend to the deed of separation. Concentrate your mind--all +your mind on it.... Don't you understand, don't you see that this is +everything and the sale is nothing?" + +"No, I don't see that at all." + +"It is what I have been praying for night and day--it is my escape. And +he is granting it to me of his own consent--he consents to give me +unmolested freedom." + +And she implored Mr. Prentice to use his skill and sagacity to their +uttermost extent. + +"I want it to be a renunciation of all possible claims. It must be +absolutely clear that this is the end of our partnership." + +"Oh, as to that," said Mr. Prentice, "the partnership ends automatically +with the sale of the business." + +"But put it in the deed--explicitly. Make him surrender every +claim--even if it seems to you only the shadow of a claim." + +Then, without saying that she was to pay a price for Marsden's +acquiescence, she repeated the agreed conditions of the separation. She +became agitated when Mr. Prentice assured her that he would easily draft +the deed. + +"No, don't treat it as an easy task. Get counsel's opinion--the best +counsel. Spare no expense--in this case. It is life and death to me.... +Oh, Mr. Prentice, don't fail me _now_. Make the deed strong--make it so +binding that he can never slip out of it." + +"I won't fail you," said Mr. Prentice earnestly. "We'll make your deed +as strong--as effective--as is humanly possible--a deed that the Courts +will be far more inclined to support than to upset." + +"Yes, yes," she said, as if now satisfied. "That's all I ask for--as +strong as is humanly possible." + + + + +XXVIII + + +It was a bright May morning and the sunshine streamed into Mr. +Prentice's room gaily and warmly, lighting up the old panelled walls, +flickering on the bunch of keys that hung from the lock of the open +safe, and making the tin boxes show queer reflections of the windows, +the tops of houses on the other side of Hill Street, and even of the +blue sky above the chimney-pots. + +A large table had been brought in for the occasion; a clerk had +furnished it with newly-filled ink-stands and nice clean blotting paper; +another clerk was ready to receive the visitors as they came upstairs. +Mr. Prentice moved his armchair to the head of the table. He would sit +here, and preside over the meeting. He glanced at the clock.--A quarter +to twelve! + +At noon Mr. Archibald Bence or his representative was to complete the +purchase of Marsden & Thompson's by handing over cash; and at the same +time the domestic affairs of Mrs. Marsden were to be wound up forever. + +Mrs. Marsden was the first of the interested parties to arrive on the +scene. She looked careworn and nervous; and, as she shook hands, Mr. +Prentice noticed that her fingers trembled. + +"Now, my dear," he said kindly, "there's nothing to worry about. You sit +by my side here, and take things quietly." + +Mrs. Marsden, however, preferred to sit away from the table, on a chair +between the windows, with her back to the light. + +"Nothing to worry about now," repeated Mr. Prentice, confidently and +cheerily. "It'll soon be over." + +"But it won't be over without some unpleasantness." + +"Why? Mr. Marsden has been quite pleasant so far--really quite easy to +deal with." + +"But he won't be to-day--I know it." And she showed great anxiety. "You +say he has made all arrangements for his voyage?" + +"Yes. He tells me he sails on Thursday. And he goes to London to-night." + +"I wonder if he truly means it." + +"Of course he means it." + +"I suppose he does. The things he packed at our house went straight to +Liverpool. But--even now--he may change his mind." + +"How can he?... Hush!" + +There was a heavy footstep in the passage. The clerk opened the door, +and announced Mr. Marsden. + +"Am I late?" + +"No, you are in excellent time," said Prentice; and, looking at him, he +endeavoured not to manifest the thoughts aroused by his appearance. + +It seemed that Marsden, bracing himself for the day, was trying to +maintain a sort of buccaneering joviality. Evidently, too, he had made +some attempts to render himself presentable in general company. He had +visited the barber, and his bloated face was smooth and glistening after +a close shave; a neatly cut piece of plaster covered an eruption on the +back of his neck; he wore a clean collar, and the cheap violet satin +neck-tie conveyed the idea that it had been chosen by feminine taste. +Probably his travelling companion had assisted in brushing and cleaning +him, and sending him forth as nice as possible. + +Yet, in spite of this unusual care, he looked most ruffianly as he +lolled in a chair near the open safe, with the bright sunlight full upon +him. His eyes were slightly bloodshot; and the gross, overfed frame +suggested the characteristics of a beast of prey who for a long time has +ceased to undergo the invigorating activities of the chase and been +enabled without effort to gorge at will. Now he had come for his last +greedy and unearned meal. + +Mrs. Marsden, on the other side of the room, lowered her eyes, folded +her hands, sat silent and motionless. + +Mr. Collins of Hyde & Collins, followed by his own clerk, was the next +to arrive. He came bustling into the room, and immediately seemed to +take possession of it. + +"Good morning. Good morning. Here we are. Put my bag on the table.... +Where are you sitting, Prentice.... Over there? All right. Then I'll sit +here;" and he took the chair at the end of the table, opposite to Mr. +Prentice. "You sit there, Fielding;" and he waved to his clerk. "Sit +down. Don't stand." + +Mr. Prentice disliked Collins rather more than he disliked Hyde. To his +mind, Collins was everything that a solicitor should not be--impudent, +unscrupulous, vulgar; a discredit to the profession. His ragged beard, +his snout of a nose, his little ferret-eyes, shifting so rapidly behind +steel-rimmed spectacles, were all obnoxious; but what made Mr. Prentice +really angry was his irrepressible familiarity, with the odious +facetious manner that accompanied it. He said Prentice instead of +_Mister_ Prentice; and, refusing to recognize snubs, always pretended +that they were on the best of terms with each other. + +"Well," asked Marsden, "why don't we begin?" + +"No hurry, is there?" said Collins. He was busy with his ugly black bag, +getting out the important document, and unfolding some memorandum +papers. + +"Oh, _I_'m in no particular hurry," said Marsden. "But twelve o'clock +was the hour named." + +"Is it twelve.... Can you hear Holy Trinity clock from here, Prentice? +We hear it plainly at our place." + +Then dapper, smiling Mr. Archibald Bence was announced. + +"Come in," said Collins patronisingly. "Here we are, all assembled. Be +seated. Fielding, put a chair for Mr. Bence." + +Mr. Archibald looked splendid in the sunlight. He shone all over, from +his bald head to his patent leather boots. His black coat was +beautifully braided, elegantly padded on the shoulders, tightly pulled +in at the waist; his buff waistcoat exactly matched his wash-leather +gloves; and with him there entered the room a pleasing fragrance shed by +the moss roses in his button-hole. He bowed gallantly to the only lady +present, had an affable word for Prentice and Collins, and nodded rather +contemptuously to Marsden. + +"Gentlemen," he said blandly, "it is the sort of day on which one is +glad to be alive;" and he turned about, with a dandified air, to find a +vacant spot for his brand-new topper. + +"Take Mr. Bence's hat," said Collins; and his clerk did as he was bid. + +Bence, declining a chair, went and leaned against the wall near Mrs. +Marsden, and twirled his moustache. + +"What are we waiting for?" asked Marsden. + +"Only for one small trifle," said Mr. Collins facetiously. "But I don't +suppose you'd dispense with it. Not quite a matter of form." + +"What is it?" + +"The money--the purchase money, my dear sir." + +"What? Haven't you got it with you?" + +"Oh, dear me, no," said Mr. Collins. "But it's coming--oh, yes, it's +coming." + +"I understand that a clerk is bringing it from the bank," said Mr. +Prentice. He found the facetious manner of Mr. Collins utterly +insufferable. + +Marsden shrugged his shoulders, and crossed his legs. Archibald Bence +was looking at him; Collins looked at him; old Prentice looked at him; +and all at once he seemed to feel the necessity of asserting himself. + +"I never understood the use of appointments unless they are punctually +attended. It's waste of time asking people for twelve, if you don't +intend to get to work till half an hour later." + +Bence moved to the window, and looked out. + +"A thousand apologies for keeping you waiting, Mr. Marsden." He spoke +over his shoulder. "Ah, here the man comes;" and he pulled out his grand +gold watch. "Then I've really only wasted three minutes of your valuable +time." + +"All right," said Marsden sulkily. + +The bank clerk came in, and bowed to the company as he went to Mr. +Collins's side at the table. Then he opened his wallet and brought out +the white sheaves of bank-notes. + +"Will you go through them, sir?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Collins. "Will you kindly check them with me, Prentice?" + +"I'll count them after you," said Mr. Prentice. It did not suit his +dignity to leave his chair and go round the table to stand at Collins's +elbow. + +Mr. Collins found the total of the notes correct, pushed them across to +Prentice, and signed the bank receipt. + +"Then you won't want me any more," said the bank clerk. + +"Wait," said Collins pompously, as if the bank, as well as Mr. +Prentice's room, belonged to him. "Stand over there--or sit down, if +you please. My clerk will go back with you." + +Marsden had risen and approached the table. It was as if the bank-notes +had irresistibly drawn him. Perhaps, though in his career he had +dissipated so many notes singly or by small batches, he had never yet +seen such a good show of them, all together, at one time. And such noble +denominations! + +"Twice three thousand," said Prentice. "Quite right." While counting, he +had divided the notes into two piles; and now he slid them towards the +middle of the table, and put an ink-stand on top to prevent their +blowing away. + +Marsden stood over them. He could not leave the table now. + +"Then here we are. All in order," said Collins, as he spread out his +parchment and glanced at Mrs. Marsden. "I suppose, strictly speaking, it +should be ladies first. But as the pen is close to your hand, Mr. +Marsden--will you, sir, open the ball?" + +"Oh, that's the conveyance for the sale, eh? Where do I sign?" + +"There--against the seal--over the pencil marks.... And I'll witness +your signature." + +Then Mr. Marsden duly signed his name, and repeated the formula as +prompted by Collins. + +"I deliver it as my act and deed.... Now, Jane!" + +Mrs. Marsden had not stirred from her seat. + +"Don't put down your pen, Richard. There's the other deed to sign. Mr. +Prentice is ready for you." + +"All right--but you come and sign the conveyance;" and he moved to Mr. +Prentice's end of the table. "I ought to read this--but I suppose I may +take it as read." + +"Oh, yes, I think so," said Mr. Prentice. + +"It's exactly the same as the draft that I passed?" + +"Yes, of course." + +"I may trust you not to have dabbed in something artful that I'd never +heard of?" + +"You had better read it," said Prentice curtly, "if you _can't_ trust +me." + +"Oh, that's all right;" and Marsden laughed. "Now then--where do you +want my autograph?" + +Still chuckling, he affixed his signature; and, he smiled +good-humouredly while the witness filled the attestation space. + +Mrs. Marsden had come to the table, and was pulling off a rusty black +glove. + +"There you are," said her husband. "The conveyance first, Jane." + +"No," said Mrs. Marsden, looking at him resolutely. "I'll sign this deed +first. It's the one I'm most interested in;" and she turned to Mr. +Prentice. "But I must try the pen. Kindly let me have a bit of paper." + +Mr. Prentice fetched a half sheet of note-paper from his desk, and +handed it to her. + +"Thank you." Stooping over the table, she tested the pen by scribbling a +few words. Then she executed the deed; and, while Mr. Fielding was being +good enough to write his name and address as witness, she gave the +half-leaf of paper to Mr. Prentice. + +"Now then," said Marsden. "Look sharp. Don't be all night about it." He +had gone to the other end of the table, and he waited anxiously to see +the conveyance completed. + +Mr. Prentice was reading Mrs. Marsden's scribbled words. He looked at +her, and she pointed with her pen. She had written: "Lock the deed in +your safe, and put the keys in your pocket." + +"Now I am ready, Richard." + +But still she did not sign. She was watching Mr. Prentice. The door of +the safe shut with a faint, dull clank, and Mr. Prentice locked the door +and took out the keys. + +Then Mrs. Marsden signed the conveyance, and Fielding obligingly +witnessed her signature. + +"Thank you," she said; and, returning to her chair between the windows, +she sat down again. + +"That's done," said Collins; and he called to the bank clerk, who had +been patiently waiting in a corner of the room. "Mr. Fielding will go +back with you. This document is to be put away with Mr. Bence's papers. +My compliments to the manager. He knows all about it." + +"But," said Marsden, "doesn't Mr. Bence sign it?" + +"It isn't necessary," said Collins. + +"Are you sure?" And Marsden looked at Bence suspiciously. + +"He can sign it at his convenience," said Collins, "if he ever wishes to +do so.... Run along, young fellows. My compliments to the manager;" and +he addressed Marsden with extreme facetiousness. "We pay on this--so you +can be quite sure we are not deceiving you. The money _talks_. You can +take it whenever you please.... Ah! I see--you're not slow about that." + +And in fact, without waiting for Mr. Collins to conclude his invitation, +Marsden had pushed aside the ink-stand and picked up the notes. One +bundle he unceremoniously thrust into the breast pocket of his coat; and +now with a licked finger he was separating the edges of the other +bundle. + +"Stop," said Mr. Prentice. "What are you doing? Allow me, please;" and +he held out his hand. "I will attend to this." + +Marsden, without surrendering the notes, explained matters in a +confidential whisper. + +"Fifteen hundred goes to her, and the rest to me." + +"Indeed it doesn't," said Prentice warmly. + +"It's all right," said Marsden. "It was arranged between her and me." + +"But I know nothing of any such arrangement. I can't permit it for a +moment." + +"_You_ can't permit it!" said Marsden indignantly. "What the dickens has +it got to do with you?" + +Mr. Collins, with an assumption of tactful delicacy, had pushed back his +chair. "Excuse me. This is a private conversation. I hasten to +withdraw." And he went across to Archibald Bence and Mrs. Marsden, and +talked to them in a rapid undertone. + +Mr. Prentice went on protesting; and Marsden, cutting him short, called +loudly to his wife. + +"Jane, tell him that it is all right." + +"Yes," she said. "Quite all right, Mr. Prentice." + +"Oh, you mean that you are giving him a present of fifteen hundred +pounds?" + +"It's not a present," said Marsden. + +"No," said Mrs. Marsden, "it was a bargain." + +"Between ourselves, and concerning nobody else;" and Marsden glared at +Mr. Prentice. + +Nevertheless Mr. Prentice still expostulated. "I think it is highly +improper. I would never have consented to--" + +"Pardon me," said Collins, "if I intrude--but it has been impossible not +to catch the gist of your discussion. Really it seems to me that it is +too late for you, Prentice, to tender advice on the point--and that the +lady's wish must decide the matter. If Mrs. Marsden announces that she +wishes--" + +"Just so, Mr. Collins;" and Marsden looked at him gratefully. + +"Exactly," said Bence soothingly. "That's how it strikes me, too." + +Marsden looked at Bence with surprise and pleasure. + +They all seemed to be on his side. He appealed to his wife with a +rather boisterous joviality. + +"Jane, speak up for me. Tell them that you did wish it." + +"Yes, I did wish it." + +"Then there is no more to be said," continued Bence, smoothly and +glibly. "On an occasion like this, one naturally wishes to avoid any +acrimonious talk. Especially in a peculiar case like the present--when a +gentleman and a lady are parting,--there's no need for them to part +other than as good friends. That, madam, I feel certain is also your +wish." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marsden in a low voice, "I do greatly wish it." + +"Thank you, Jane. I'm sure I do. But I don't know why we should make +speeches about it, or get Mr. Bence to expound our sentiments." + +"Forgive me," said Bence, "if I trespass. You are leaving us, Mr. +Marsden--and I share Mrs. Marsden's desire that you should not leave us +with any feeling of ill-will." + +"Precisely," said Collins, picking up the word, almost as if taking his +cue in a rehearsed dialogue. "That is what everyone must feel." He had +reseated himself at the table; and he looked round with a comprehensive +smile, as if assuming sole charge of everything and everybody. "Mr. +Bence has touched the point very gracefully.... Pray be seated, Mr. +Marsden." + +"What, aren't we done?" + +"Yes, yes, my dear sir," said Collins with consequential urbanity. "Our +business is done. But spare us one minute for friendly chat. Do sit +down.... Thank you. As I was about to say, following the line of our +friend Bence: In the hour of separation, when two parties by mutual +agreement are saying good-bye, it is always well that they should +thoroughly understand the future situation." + +"What's all this gas about?" said Marsden. "Are you trying to pull my +leg? What are you getting at?" + +"Mr. Marsden, you are retiring from trade, you are going to the other +side of the world--I wish you health and prosperity." + +"And I, too," said Bence. "The best of luck, Mr. Marsden." + +Marsden got up again. "Thank you for nothing, Mr. Archibald Bence. +You're both trying to be funny, I suppose. Only I fail to see the +joke.... Good morning;" and he moved towards the door. "Jane, good-bye." + +"But," said Mr. Archibald, "we've wished you luck. Don't go without +wishing us luck." + +"Yes," said Collins, "don't go without wishing your wife luck." + +"Then here's luck, Jane;" and Marsden laughed. + +"And luck to Bence's," said Collins blandly. "Wish luck to Bence's." + +"No, I'll be damned if I do." + +"But that," said Collins, with a grin, "invalidates your other good +wish. You can't wish luck to your wife without wishing luck to Bence's;" +and he bowed to Mrs. Marsden. "I think you should now explain. He will +take it better from you." + +"Richard," said Mrs. Marsden quietly and firmly, "_I_ am Bence's." + +For a few moments there was silence. Then Marsden came slowly to the +table, leaned both hands on it, and stared across at his wife. + +"What do you mean by that, Jane? Is this another joke?" + +"Oh, no," said Mr. Archibald. "It is strictly accurate. Bence's, with +all that's in it--including your humble servant--practically belongs to +this lady." + +"And we all felt," said Collins, "that you ought to know the facts +before you started on your journey. We didn't want you coming back again +to inquire--don't you know." + +Marsden seemed not to hear. He stared at his wife, with his blood-shot +eyes widely distended; and he spoke only to her. + +"Jane, answer me. Is it true?" + +"Yes, Richard." + +"But _how_?" + +"You asked me what I did with my money--the remainder of my own money. +You were always asking me. Well, I gave it to Mr. Bence." + +"How much was it?" + +"Not very much," said Mrs. Marsden deprecatingly; "but he has done very +well with it." + +"But that was treachery--a damnable betrayal." + +"Richard, don't use strong words. It was no betrayal. It was common +sense. Remember, desperate diseases need desperate remedies." + +"You went over to my enemy. You helped him to destroy our business." + +"I didn't," said Mrs. Marsden earnestly. "I gave him my money; but I +gave you my work. I never ceased fighting him. Isn't that true, Mr. +Bence?" + +"Strictly accurate," said Bence. "She fought gamely to the bitter end." + +"You shut your head," said Marsden fiercely. "Don't interfere between me +and my wife. I must have this out with her first. I'll talk to you +directly." + +"I'll be ready for you," said Bence. "But till then, please moderate +your language;" and he moved to a window, and looked down into the +street. + +"So that's what you did, Jane, eh? Sneaked off behind my back, and sold +yourself to the enemy!" + +"I continued to serve you faithfully. Success or failure lay in your +hands, not mine. I never ceased working for the firm." + +"Oh, that's easy to say, isn't it?" + +"It's the truth." + +"It's a lie--and you know it." + +"Will you moderate your language?" said Bence. "Gentlemen, I beg your +support. This lady must be protected from insult." + +But the attention of Marsden and his wife was so entirely concentrated +on each other that neither of them seemed to hear the interruption. + +"Richard, don't go on like this--don't force me to say unkind things +which I shall regret later." + +"I knew there was some infernal mystery at the bottom of our troubles. +But, by Jove, I never guessed that it was _you_ who'd played false." + +"Richard, don't abuse me." + +"Abuse you? I shan't waste breath on abusing you. You have cheated +me--or you've _tried_ to cheat me. For I'm not going to let you;" and he +turned towards the others. "Take notice, all of you, that I shan't +submit to this. Prentice, do you understand? You were always hostile to +me. I suppose you helped to hatch this plot." + +Mr. Prentice was looking so absolutely bewildered that his face should +have been sufficient proof of his innocence. + +"No," he said feebly. "All this has come upon me as a complete +surprise." + +"Then you, Mr. Collins--understand it's all mighty fine, but it won't +wash." + +"Won't it?" said Collins. + +"No, I don't allow myself to be cheated--even by my wife." + +"Richard," said Mrs. Marsden, "don't call me a cheat again." + +"You there--Bence--take notice. I'll bring you to account for this. I'm +not the sort to be tricked and fooled by any little swine that gets +plotting with my wife. No, not if I know it. Cheating people is very +clever, but--" + +Mrs. Marsden sprang up from her chair by the wall. + +"How dare you call me a cheat?" + +Her eyes were blazing. She had clenched her fists; and, trembling with +passion, she came to the table and faced her husband. + +"What have you ever given me in exchange for all I gave you--except +shame and sorrow?" + +"I'm not going to listen to your yelling and--" + +"I gave you my love, and you trampled on it--I gave you my home, and you +polluted it--I gave you the work of my life, and you pulled it to pieces +before my eyes. Yet still I was true and loyal to you. I could have +divorced you, and I wouldn't do it. I promised you that I'd hold to you +till you yourself consented to set me free; and I kept my promise. You +were a liar--but I respected your words. You were a thief--but I dealt +with you as if you had been an honest man. I fed and clothed you when +you were well, I nursed you when you were sick--I hid your crimes, I +sheltered you from their consequences. At this minute I am keeping you +out of the prison that is your only proper place.... And yet--great +God--he has the audacity to say that I am cheating him!" + +And then Mrs. Marsden, shaking in excitement and anger, went back to her +chair and sat down. + +"You asked for that," said Collins, with renewed facetiousness, "and you +got it." + +Bence was looking out of the window; and he whistled and gently clapped +his hands, as if applauding the passionate force of Mrs. Marsden's +unexpected tirade. + +"I don't know what she means," said Marsden hoarsely. "And I dare say +she doesn't know, herself." He had been staggered by his wife's attack; +and at her last words he recoiled from the table, as if suddenly +daunted, almost cowed. Now he was pulling himself together again. "Who +cares what a woman says?" And he cleared his throat, and spoke loudly +and defiantly. "I don't, for one." + +"Richard," murmured Mrs. Marsden, in a still tremulous voice. "I'm sorry +I said it." + +"All right. That's enough.... But now, if you please, we men will talk;" +and he looked from one to another. The veins showed redly on his +forehead; his glistening jaw was protruded; and he squared his huge +shoulders pugnaciously. "I tell you, once for all, I'm not going to +stand any damned rot. As to the sale--Mr. Clever Bence,--I repudiate it +utterly. It was obtained under false pretences, and I'll have it set +aside. As to the separation--I'm speaking to you, Prentice,--that +bargain falls through with the other.... And to show you what I think of +it--I am now going to tear up the deed." + +"Oh no, you're not," said Collins. + +"I warn you all," said Marsden furiously: "if anyone touches me, he'll +be sorry for it. Now, Prentice, fetch out your deed again. You shoved it +away in that safe, didn't you? Well, out with it." And he moved to the +side of Mr. Prentice, and stood over him threateningly. "Out with +it--d'you hear?" + +Bence and Collins had both begun to clap their hands loudly. And with +this noisy applause other sounds were mingling. Mr. Prentice, as he rose +to confront Marsden, heard quick footsteps in the passage. The door was +abruptly opened, and two policemen came into the room. + +"This way, officers," said Collins pompously. "You are just in time to +prevent a breach of the peace. There's your man--keep your eyes on him." + +Marsden, turning hurriedly, saw the two uniforms and helmets solemnly +advance, and showed a craven dissatisfaction at the sight. + +"What are you up to now?" he asked glumly. + +But Collins, ignoring the question, continued to talk pompously to the +new arrivals. + +"As I told your superintendent, he is a dangerous character. He has been +threatening us with assault and battery--but we do not wish to give him +in charge, if we can help it. Your presence will probably be sufficient +to restrain him." + +"Very good, sir." + +"He is the same man who made the disturbance at the Red Cow--and I think +he has been charged once or twice as a drunk and disorderly." + +"You needn't introduce him so carefully," said Bence, with a snigger. +"Mr. Marsden is already well known to the police." + +"Yes, Mr. Bence," said one of the policemen, "_we_ know the gent." + +"Very well," continued Collins, with the air of a magistrate presiding +over a crowded court. "He is leaving the town to-night--forever,--and I +shall ask for a constable to see him off. From the mayor down to the +humblest citizen, Mallingbridge is tired of him--so he is going to the +western states of America. He will be more at home among the desperados +of some mining camp than he can be in a peaceful hum-drum town like +this." And Mr. Collins turned to Marsden, as though haranguing the +prisoner. "Now, sir, will you behave yourself, and let us finish our +conversation quietly and decently?" + +"Oh, you can finish your chin-music in any tune you like." Marsden +growled this out; but the voice was heavy and dejected, altogether +lacking in animation. Very obviously the arrival of the police had +crushed his spirit. + +"So be it," said Collins. "Then I think, officers, that will do. You may +safely leave us for the moment. But please wait outside the door, to +protect us if necessary." + +"Yes," said Bence, "we'll give you the same signal, if you're wanted +again." + +"All right, Mr. Bence." + +And the policemen left the room. To their eyes the famous Mr. Bence was +the natural chieftain of any assemblage, no matter how pompously anybody +else talked. Here, they were at his service, detailed for Bence's just +as much as if it had been a sale day and they and their mates were +regulating the traffic in front of the shop. + +"Now," said Collins, with a change of manner, and speaking in a +conciliatory if argumentative tone, "we can pick up our little debate. +Mr. Marsden, come now, after all, what is this fuss about?" + +Marsden laughed; but his laughter was dull and spiritless. + +"Go on--jabber, jabber." + +"Really now. What is the grievance? You have sold your business and been +paid for it. Of your own free will, you have parted with your interests. +You have renounced all claims upon your wife." + +"Yes--but I've been tricked into doing it." + +"Where's the trick?" + +"She made me think we were done." + +"So you were. You came to her and told her so. You prevailed on her to +agree to the sale. It wasn't her proposition, but yours." + +"I shouldn't have made it if I had known." + +"You thought you had got all you could out of her--and that was the +fact. You thought she was poor; and you find that she has made a good +investment--with her own private funds, mark you,--and she is therefore +not poor, but rather the reverse. Where's your quarrel with that?" + +"I am entitled to my share in her investment." + +"Oh, bosh! That's simply absurd." + +Marsden was standing up, resting his red hands on the back of a chair. +Now he moved the chair to Mr. Prentice's end of the table, sat down, and +spoke in an eager whisper. + +"Prentice, hostile or not, you _are_ honest. I call on you to see fair +play. She can't do this, can she?" + +"She _has_ done it," said Prentice feebly. + +"But tell her it isn't fair. She knows you're straight, and above board. +It's all mighty fine to bowl me out--and perhaps you don't think I +deserve any pity. But still, speak for me. She can't round on me like +this--she can't say 'Your firm is killed, and I've transferred myself +across the road to the firm that killed it.' Surely the law wouldn't +allow her to spoof me like that?" + +But sharp-eared Mr. Collins had heard the whisper. + +"Prentice, don't answer him. Mr. Marsden, I'll answer that question. I +answer for the law. I am your wife's legal adviser in all this. Please +address me, sir." + +Marsden turned with a final burst of fierce rage. + +"Then I say, curse you, I'll have the law on it." + +"Now look here, Marsden," and Mr. Collins's voice changed once more--to +an uncompromisingly ugly tone. "If you want the law, we'll give you your +bellyful of the law." + +"A good deal more than you'll like," said Bence, failing to ask for +moderation of language. + +"Your wife," Collins went on, "dropped a plain hint just now; and I was +very pleased to hear it, because I thought you'd understand. But I see I +must amplify it for you. Mrs. Marsden has been good enough to entrust +to my care all her private papers--that is, papers she has kept private +to oblige you." + +"I--I don't in the least follow--what you're driving at." + +"Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Specimens of your handwriting, and +so on--papers that the law would call incriminating documents,--papers +that the law would call conclusive evidence,--papers that the law would +call forgeries." + +"Prentice! Don't believe him." + +"Never mind Mr. Prentice. Attend to me.... Ah-ha,--you're beginning to +look rather foolish.... Now, how much law do you want?" + +"I think," said Bence, "if he has time to get safely out of the country, +that's all the law he ought to ask for." + +Marsden was cowed and beaten. He sat heavily and limply on his chair, +sprawling one red hand across the table, and nervously fingering his +lips with the other hand. + +"Well," said Collins mockingly, "what are you going to do--keep your +bargain, or go to law with us?" + +Marsden was thoroughly cowed and beaten. He cleared his throat several +times, and even then spoke huskily. + +"I must say a word or two to my wife;" and he rose from his chair +slowly.... "Of course, when a man's down, everyone can jump on him." + +And he went over to Mrs. Marsden, stooped, and whispered. + +Collins tapped his nose jocosely, and smiled at Mr. Prentice--seeming to +say without words, "What do you think of that, old boy? That's the way +Hyde & Collins tackle this sort of troublesome customer." + +Little Bence, resuming his dandified air and ostentatiously leaving Mrs. +Marsden and her husband to whisper together, picked up his glossy hat, +and dusted it with a neatly folded silk handkerchief. + +"Jane," said Marsden pleadingly, almost whimperingly, "you come out on +top--and I mustn't bear malice. But you _have_ been hard--cruelly hard." + +"Dick," said Mrs. Marsden, in a shaky whisper, "don't reproach me." + +"But don't you think you have been a _little_ hard." + +"No. Or it is _you_ who have made me hard. I wasn't hard--once. And +remember this, Dick. Even at the end, I tried to get one word of +tenderness from you--to make you say you cared just a little for what +happened to me. But no--" + +"I _did_ care." + +"No. You hadn't one kind word--or one kind thought. You and your--your +companion were going to new scenes, new hopes; and I might be left to +starve." + +"Jane, I swear I thought you were all right. I said so, again and again. +And now, you're rich--you're really rolling in money; and it is I who +may starve. Jane--for auld lang syne--do a bit more for me." + +"No;" and she shook her head resolutely. + +"Jane! Be like yourself.... I'm not grasping or avaricious. But at least +I ought to get as much as the business fetched. Let me have that extra +fifteen hundred." + +"Well--perhaps. I'll think about it." + +"Do it now--hand over now, or they'll only persuade you not to." + +"No--but I'll give it you later. I promise. I'll send it to your address +in California--as soon as I am sure that you have really arrived there." + +"All right. Thanks. Jane--I'll say it once again. I wish you luck. +You're a good plucked 'un--I always knew that." + +Then the meeting broke up. + +Marsden was the first to go. His wife watched him as he went slouching +down the street. When he disappeared she did not immediately turn from +the window. She had furtively produced her pocket handkerchief, and the +gentlemen heard her blow her nose loudly and strenuously; but no one saw +her wipe the tears from her eyes. + +Mr. Collins, on the threshold of the room, was dismissing the policemen +with pompous thanks, and promising to drop in upon their superintendent +shortly. + +"By the way," he said, looking round; "shall we let them escort Mrs. +Marsden home?" + +"No," said Mr. Archibald gallantly. "That shall be my honour and +pleasure. And there's no danger of his molesting her now." + +"I agree with you," said Collins. "We've fairly knocked the bounce out +of _him_." And he spoke to Mrs. Marsden with sentimental solicitude. +"There will be a plain-clothes constable in St. Saviour's Court, +watching your door till the evening. But you needn't be afraid. Our +friend won't venture to go there." + +Mr. Prentice sat at the head of his table, looking dazed and confused. +He and his whole house were taken possession of by Collins; policemen +walked in and out; astounding things happened--the morning's work had +been almost too much for him. + +With an effort he got upon his legs to bow and smile at Mrs. Marsden, as +she and Bence went out. + +"Well now," said Collins; and he shut his black bag. "I don't think +that, under the peculiar conditions of the case, anything could have +been more satisfactory--do you?" + +"Of course," said Mr. Prentice, sitting down again "you know, as well as +I do, that what Marsden said was true. He could make her account to the +firm for all her profits in Bence's. Such an investment isn't +allowed--it isn't lawful." + +"I'll tell you what it is," said Collins, enthusiastically blinking +behind his spectacles. "It's _great_--that's what it is; and I'm proud +to have carried it through for her." + +Mr. Prentice really did not know what to say. + +"And I'll tell you something more. If it isn't law, it's _justice_. I've +never been such a stickler as you for mere outward form. Here were two +people in terrible difficulty--Bence and Mrs. Marsden. She saw the way +to save them both, and had the grit to take all risks and do it. That +was good enough for me. As I say, I'm not so formal as you. I don't let +a string of red tape trip up a brave woman when she's running for her +life--that is, if I can prevent it.... Good morning, Prentice. Good +morning to you." + + + + +XXIX + + +However he might demur at first, Mr. Prentice soon came to the +conclusion that it was truly great. + +Perhaps at first he was so completely flabbergasted by the surprise of +the thing that he could not really take it all in; his numbed brain, +only partially working, fixed upon technical objections to the conduct +of affairs by Hyde & Collins; and then, with awakening comprehension of +a masterly coup, the sense of having been left out in the cold +diminished his delight. But this soon passed, and he began to glow +joyously. + +Yes, _great_! No other word for it! Magnificent justification of all +that he had ever said and thought of her! + +_Not_ weak, but strong--as strong as she used to be; no, stronger than +at any time. And he thought of her, overwhelmed with misfortunes, hemmed +round by insurmountable difficulties, brought lower and lower, until she +was apparently so impotent and negligible a unit in the town's life that +she had become an object of contemptuous pity to the very +crossing-sweepers. He thought of what the scientists say about the +conservation of energy and the indestructibility of matter. Great +natural forces cannot be wiped out. Just when they seem gone, you get a +fresh manifestation--the same force in another form. And so it was here. +Mrs. Marsden, seemingly abolished, bursts out in another place, explodes +the debris of ruin that was holding her down, changes direction, and +rises in blazing triumph on the other side of the street. + +Wonderful! "Not now; but perhaps later, when the time comes"--he +remembered her words. "I must do things my own way." Yes, her own way +was right--because her way is the way of genius. A veritable stroke of +genius--no lesser term will do,--seeming so simple to look back at, +although so impenetrable till it was explained! She had seen the only +means by which she could successfully extricate herself from an +impossible situation. Only she could have escaped the imminent disaster. +Only she could have turned an overwhelming defeat into a transcendent +victory. + +"Talk about giving women the vote," cried Mr. Prentice noisily. "That +woman ought to be prime minister." + +Mrs. Prentice, rejoicing at the good news, wished that her husband could +have told it less vociferously. It happened that this evening she was +the victim of a bilious headache, and she lay supine on a sofa, unable +to sit up for dinner. The slightest noise made her headache worse, and +the mere smell of food was distressing. + +Mr. Prentice, banging in and out of the room, let savoury odours reach +her; and his exultant voice set up a painful throbbing. "I told you so +all along.... What did I say from the beginning?... Colossal brain +power! No one like her!" + +This really was the substance of all that he had to say, and he had +already said it; yet he kept running in from the dinner table to say it +again. + +A bottle of the very best champagne was opened; and he brought the +invalid a glass of it, to drink Mrs. Marsden's health. Mrs. Prentice, +staunchly obeying, drank the old, still wine, and immediately felt as if +she had stepped from an ocean-going liner into a dancing row-boat. + +In the exuberance of his rapture, Mr. Prentice also invited the +parlourmaid to drink Mrs. Marsden's health. + +"There, toss that off--to the most remarkable lady _you_'ve ever seen." + +"Yes, sir. She _is_ a nice lady, sir--and always speaks so sensible." + +"_Sensible!_ Why, bless my soul, there's no one in the length and +breadth of England that can hold a candle to her for sheer--" But he +could not of course talk freely of these high matters to a parlourmaid. +So he trotted off to the other room, to tell Mrs. Prentice once again. + +As he walked to the office next morning, he hummed one of the comic +songs that he had not sung for years, and snapped his fingers by way of +castanet accompaniment. He felt so light-hearted and joyous that he +would have willingly thrown his square hat in the air, and cut capers on +the pavement. + +He could not work. For two or three days he was quite unable to attend +to ordinary business. When clients came to talk about themselves, he +scarcely listened; but, giving the conversation a violent wrench, began +talking to them about Mrs. Marsden. + +Then one afternoon he was taken with a burning desire for a quiet chat +with Archibald Bence. If he could get hold of little Archibald and ply +him with questions, he would obtain all sorts of delightful explanatory +details concerning Mrs. Marsden's splendid mystery. + +He hurried down High Street, and, approaching the old shop, was puzzled +by a strange phenomenon. + +The pavement in front of Marsden & Thompson's seemed to be blocked by a +dense crowd. The blinds were drawn on the upper floor; the iron shutters +masked the windows and doors on the ground floor: the whole shop was +closed--and yet there were infinitely more people lingering outside it +than when it had been open. + +White bills on all the shutters showed the cause of the phenomenon. +"Astonishing Bargains"--these two portentous words headed each white +placard in monstrous red capitals;--"Bence Brothers, having acquired +this old-established business, will clear the entire stock, together +with surplus and slightly soiled goods from their own house, at +heart-breaking reductions on cost;"--"Opening 9 A.M. Monday next. Come +early. This is not an ordinary bargain sale, but a forced sacrifice by +which only the public can benefit." And the public, eager for the +benefit, wishing that it was already Monday, pressed and strove to read +and reread the white and red notices on the iron shutters. + +"Don't push," said one nursemaid to another. "Take your turn. I've just +as much right to see as you have." + +Mr. Prentice laughed heartily and happily. He thought as he crossed the +road and entered Bence's, "What a dog this Archibald is--to be sure!" + +He found the grand little man in his private room, and was affably +received by him. + +"Oh, yes," said Archibald, sniggering modestly. "We hope to make rather +a big thing of our clearance sale.... How long shall we keep it going? +Well, that depends. It wouldn't last long, if we'd nothing to dispose of +beyond what's left over there; but we shall clear this side at the same +time." + +And Bence rattled on glibly, as though Mr. Prentice had come to +interview him for an article in an important newspaper. + +"The ancient notion was that this kind of special selling took the cream +off one's ordinary trade. But experience has taught us that such is not +the case. We find that trade breeds trade. And you can't _tire_ your +public--you can't over-stimulate them. It is the excited public that is +your best _buying_ public." + +Mr. Prentice listened respectfully; and then, after the manner of a +good interviewer, begged the host to pass from general views to personal +reminiscences. + +"What is it you wish to know?" + +"About you and her," said Prentice. "I should enormously like to know +the inward history of it." + +"Well, now that the secret's out," said Archibald, rubbing his chin, and +wrinkling the flesh round his bright little eyes, "I suppose there's no +harm in speaking about it." + +"Certainly not to me," said Prentice. "Although I wasn't in her +confidence about this, I am a real true friend of hers." + +"I know you are," said Bence cordially. "She has said so a hundred +times." + +"Tell me how it began--the very beginning of things." + +A gloomy cloud passed over Bence's animated face. + +"Upon my word, I don't care to look back upon those days. I _was_ in +such bitter trouble, Mr. Prentice." + +"When did you think of going to her?" + +"I never thought of it. _She_ came to me. I couldn't believe my ears +when she opened the matter." + +"What did she say?" + +"Oh, she didn't beat about the bush. She said, if it was really true +that I wanted money, she might supply it--on certain terms." + +"Yes, yes--and tell me, my dear fellow, what were her terms?" + +"Mr. Prentice," said Bence solemnly, "her terms were terrible--it was +just buying me at a knock-out price." + +"You don't say so?" + +"The fact.... This is as between Masons, isn't it?... I may consider +that we are tiled in." + +"Yes, yes--as brother to brother." + +And then Bence, who was never averse to hearing the sound of his own +voice when safe and suitable occasions offered, talked with unchecked +freedom and confidence. + +"You know, I'd always entertained the highest and most genuine respect +for her. When they used to say she was the best man of business in +Mallingbridge, there was no one more ready to admit it than I was. I +regarded her as right up there," and he waved his hand towards the +ceiling. "Right up--one of the largest and most comprehensive int'lects +of the age." + +"Just so--just so." + +"And I don't mind confessing I was always a bit afraid of her. Years +ago--oh, I don't know how many years ago--when I was passing compliments +to her, she'd look at me, not a bit unkind, but inscrutable--yes, that's +it--inscrutable, and say, 'You take care, Mr. Bence. Don't jump too big, +or one day you'll jump over yourself.'" + +"Meaning your various extensions?" + +"Yes. It always made me uncomfortable when she spoke like that--though I +just laughed it off. Anyhow, it seemed to show how clear she saw through +one." + +"Yes, nothing escaped her." + +"So I thought I knew what she was--but I never did really know what she +was, till we came to fair handy grips over this.... Mr. Prentice, I +flattered her--no go. I tried to bluff her--ditto. Then I sued to her +for mercy. I said, 'Madam, I'm like a wounded man on a field of battle +asking for a cup of water.' But she said, 'If I understand the position +correctly, Mr. Bence, you are more like a dead man; and you ask to be +brought to life again.'... And it was true. I was dead--down--done +for.... + +"It was my brothers--God forgive them--who had frustrated me--not bad +luck--or any faults of mine. Take, take, take--whatever my work +produced, out it went.... Well then, I was what she described--lying at +her feet, and praying for life. So I said I'd take it--on her own +terms.... + +"But when it was over, oh, Mr. Prentice the relief! I had lit'rally come +to life again. I was _safe_--with money behind me,--with _driving_ power +behind me. I went home that night to Mrs. Bence and cried as if I'd been +a baby--and after I'd had my cry, I _slept_. What's that proverb? Sleep, +it is a blessed thing! I hadn't slept sound for years. Don't you see? I +was certain we should go on all right now--now that the burden was on +_her_ shoulders." + +And then Bence had his idiosyncratic touch of self-pity. + +"I don't know whether you were aware of it, Mr. Prentice--these things +get about when one is more or less a public man,--but the incessant +worry had given me kidney disease. Well,--will you believe it?--from +that hour I got better. The doctors reported less,--less again,--and at +last, not a trace of it. I was simply another man." + +"But, Bence, my dear fellow, what fills me with such amazement and +admiration is the rapidity of your success from that point. You seemed +to be on the crest of the wave instantaneously." + +"Ah! That was the magician's wand. Instead of having our earnings +snatched out the moment they reached the till, the profits were being +put back into the concern. I was working on a salary--a very handsome +one--with my commission; and she never took out a penny more than was +absolutely necessary. There was the whole difference--and it's magic in +trade. I was given scope, capital, an easy road--with no blind +turnings." + +"But I suppose you did it all under her direction?" + +"Well, I don't know how to answer that;" and Bence grinned, and twirled +his moustache. "No. I suppose I ought to say no. I had full scope--and +was never interfered with.... We used to meet at Hyde & Collins's; and +I reported things--just reported them. She used to look at me in that +inscrutable way of hers, and say, 'I can't advise. I have nothing to do +with your business--beyond having my money in it: just as I might have +it in any other form of investment. But speaking merely as an outsider, +I think you are going on very nice. Go on just the same, Mr. Bence.' +Sometimes she did drop a word. It was always light.... Oh, she's unique, +Mr. Prentice--quite unique." + +Bence grinned more broadly as he went on. + +"Of course it was by her orders--or I ought to say, it was acting on a +hint she let fall, that I made myself so popular with the authorities. +You never came to one of my dinner-parties?... No, I did ask you; but +you wouldn't come.... Well, you're acquainted with Mallingbridge +oratory. After dinner, when the speeches began, they used to butter me +up to the skies; and I used to tell them straight--though of course they +couldn't see it--that I was only a figure-head, a dummy. 'Don't praise +_me_,' I told 'em, 'I'm nobody--just the outward sign of the enterprise +and spirit that lays behind me.' Yes, and I put it straighter than that +sometimes--it tickled me to give 'em the truth almost in the plainest +words.... And I knew there was no risk. _They_'d never tumble to it." + +After this delightful conversation, Mr. Prentice went across the road +again. He felt that he could not any longer refrain from calling upon +Mrs. Marsden; and, as the afternoon was now well advanced, he thought +that she might perhaps invite him to drink a cup of tea with her. + +In St. Saviour's Court the house door stood open; men from Bence's +Furniture department were busily delivering chairs and sofas; and the +narrow passage was obstructed by further goods. Mr. Prentice heard a +familiar voice issuing instructions with a sharp tone of command. + +"This is for the top floor. Front bedroom. Take this up too--same +room.... Who's that out there? Oh, is it you, Mr. Prentice?" + +"What, Yates, you are soon on duty again." + +Old Yates laughed and tossed her head. "Yes, sir, here I am.... That's +for the top floor--back. Take it up steady, now." + +"You seem to be refurnishing--and on a large scale." + +"Oh, no," said Yates. "We're only putting things straight. We're +expecting Mrs. Kenion and the young lady up from Eastbourne +to-night--and it's a job to get the house ready in the time." + +"Ah, then I am afraid visitors will hardly be welcome just now." + +"No, sir, not ordinary visitors--but Mrs. Thompson never counted you as +an ordinary visitor--did she, sir? I'll take on me to say _you_'ll be +welcome to Mrs. Thompson. Please go upstairs, sir. She's in the +dining-room." + +And truly this visitor was welcomed most cordially. + +"My _dear_ Mr. Prentice. How kind of you--how very kind of you to come! +I have been wishing so to see you." + +Yates without delay disengaged herself from the furniture men, and +brought in tea. Then the hostess seated herself at the table, and +insisted that the visitor should occupy the easiest of the new +armchairs--and she smiled at him, she waited upon him, she made much of +him; she lulled and soothed and charmed him, until he felt as if twenty +years had rolled away, and he and she were back again in the happiest of +the happy old days. + +"I trust that dear Mrs. Prentice is well.... Ah, yes, it _is_ headachy +weather, isn't it. I have ventured to send her a few flowers--and some +peaches and grapes." + +It seemed incredible. But she _looked_ younger--many years younger than +when he had seen her in the shadow cast by his office wall less than a +week ago. Her voice had something of the old resonance; she sat more +upright; she carried her head better. She was still dressed in black; +but this new costume was of fine material, fashionable cut, very +becoming pattern; and it gave to its wearer a quiet importance and a +sedate but opulent pomp. Very curious! It was as if all that impression +of shabbiness, insignificance, and poverty had been caused merely by the +shadow; and that as soon as she came out of the shadow into the +sunlight, one saw her as she really was, and not as one had foolishly +imagined her to be. + +This thought was in the mind of Mr. Prentice while he listened to her +pleasantly firm voice, and watched the play of light and life about her +kind and friendly eyes. The shadow that had lain so heavy upon her was +mercifully lifted. She had been a prisoner to the powers of darkness, +and now the sunshine had set her free. This was really all that had +happened. + +"I am so particularly glad," she was saying, "that you came to-day, +because I want your advice badly." + +"It is very much at your service." + +"Then do you think there would be any objection--would you consider it +might seem bad taste if henceforth I were to resume my old name? I have +an affection for the name of Thompson--though it isn't a very +high-sounding one." + +"I noticed that Yates called you Mrs. Thompson." + +"Yes, I mentioned my idea to Yates; but I told her I shouldn't do it +without consulting you. I did not think of dropping my real name +altogether, but I thought I might perhaps call myself Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson--with or without a hyphen." + +And she went on to explain that she was doubtful as to the legal +aspects of the case. She did not wish to advertise the change of name, +or to make it a formal and binding change. She just wished to call +herself Mrs. Marsden-Thompson. + +"Very well, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson, consider it done. For there's nothing +to prevent your doing it. Your friends will call you by any name you +tell them to use--with or without a hyphen." + +"Oh, I'm so glad you say that. I was afraid you might not approve.... +And now I want your advice about something else. It is a house with a +little land that I am most anxious to buy, if I can possibly manage +it--and I want you to find out if the owners would be inclined to sell." + +Mr. Prentice advised her on this and several other little matters. +Indeed, before his third cup of tea was finished, he had made +enlightening replies to questions that related to half a dozen different +subjects. + +"Thank you. A thousand thanks. Some more tea, Mr. Prentice?" + +But Mr. Prentice did not answer this last question. He put down his +empty cup, and began to laugh heartily. + +"Why are you laughing like that?" + +"Mrs. Marsden-Thompson," he said jovially. "For once I have seen through +you. All things are permissible to your sex; but if you were a man, I +should be tempted to say you are an impostor--an arch-impostor." + +"Oh, Mr. Prentice! Why?" + +"Because you don't really think my advice worth a straw. You don't want +my advice, or anybody else's. No one is capable of advising you. You +just do things in your own way--and a very remarkable way it is." + +"But really and truly I--" + +"No. Not a bit of it. You fancied that my feathers might have been +rubbed the wrong way by recent surprises; and ever since I came into +this room, you have been most delicately smoothing my ruffled plumage." + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Marsden-Thompson demurely, "I assure you--" + +"Yes, yes. But, my dear, it wasn't in the least necessary. I am just as +pleased as Punch, and I have quite forgiven you for keeping me so long +in the dark." + +"On my honour," she said earnestly, "I wouldn't have kept you in the +dark for _one_ day, if I could have avoided doing so. It was most +painful to me, dear Mr. Prentice, to practice--or rather, to allow of +any deception where _you_ were concerned.... But my course was so +difficult to steer." + +"You steered it splendidly." + +"But I do want you to understand. I shall be miserable if I think that +you could ever harbour the slightest feeling of resentment." + +"Of course I shan't." + +"Or if you don't believe that I trust you absolutely, and have the +greatest possible regard for your professional skill.... You may +remember how I _almost_ told you about it." + +"No, I'll be hanged if I remember that." + +"Well, I tried to explain--indirectly--that the whole affair was so +complicated.... There were so many things to be thought of. There was +Enid. I had to think of _her_ all the time.... Honestly, I put her +before myself. Until Enid could get rid of Kenion, it didn't seem much +use for me to get rid of poor Richard.... And if either of them had +guessed, everything might have gone wrong--I mean, might have worked out +differently. And of course it made _secrecy_ of such vital importance. +You do understand that, don't you?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Prentice, laughing contentedly, "I do understand. But +now I wonder--would you mind telling me when it was that you first +thought of the Bence coup?" + +"Well, I fancy that the germ of the idea came to me in church;" and Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson folded her hands, and looked reflectively at the +tea-cups. "I was thinking of Richard, and of Mr. Bence--and then some +verses in a psalm struck me most forcibly. One verse especially--I shall +never forget it. 'Let his days be few; and let another take his +office.'" + +"How did that apply?" + +"Well, I suppose I thought vaguely--quite vaguely--that if Richard was +bad at managing a business, Mr. Bence was rather good at it.... Then, +that very evening, you so kindly came in to supper, and told me as a +positive fact that Bence was nearly done for. And then it struck me at +once that, in the long run, Bence's failure could prove of advantage to +nobody, and that it ought to be prevented;" and she looked up brightly, +and smiled at Mr. Prentice. "So really and truly, it is _you_ that I +have to thank. You brought me that _invaluable_ information. _You_ +inspired me to do it." + +Mr. Prentice got up from the easy chair, and playfully shook a +forefinger at his hostess. + +"Now--now. Don't drag _me_ into it. I'm too old a bird to be caught with +chaff." + +"But I am truly forgiven?" And she stretched out her hand towards him. +"Not the smallest soreness left? You will still be what you have always +been--my best and kindest friend?" + +Mr. Prentice took her hand; and, with a graceful old-world air of +gallantry that perhaps the headachy lady at home had never seen, he +raised it to his lips. + +"I shall be what I have always been--your humble, admiring slave." + + + + +XXX + + +One of the oldest of her dreams had become partially true. She had +bought that pretty country-house, and was living in it with Enid. Not +the total fulfilment of the dream, because she had not retired from +business. She was busier than ever. + +Many things foretold by her had now come to pass. The military camp on +the downs, with its twenty thousand armed men and half as many thousand +followers, had brought increased prosperity to the neighbourhood; the +carriage and locomotive works established by the railway company had +added to the old town another town that by itself would have been big +enough to sustain a mayor and corporation; builders could not build fast +enough to house the rapidly swelling population; the well-filled suburbs +stretched for two long miles in all directions from the ancient town +boundaries; and by platform lecturers, by members of parliament, by +writers of statistical reviews, the growth of Mallingbridge was cited as +one of the most remarkable and gratifying achievements of the last +decade. + +In a word--the cant word--Mallingbridge had boomed. And right at the top +of the boom, rolling on to glory, was Bence's. + +The prodigious success of Bence's made the world gasp. Nothing could +hinder it. People fancied that the rebuilding might prove a dangerous, +if not a fatal crisis in its affairs; but the proprietress accomplished +the colossal operation without even a temporary set-back. She moved +Bence's bodily across the road, squashed it into the confines of old +Thompson's, and left it there for eighteen months while the new Bence +palace was being erected. The magnificence of these modern up-to-date +premises surpassed belief--facade of pure white stone; gigantic +caryatids, bearing on their heads the projected ledge of the second +floor, and holding in their hands the sculptured brackets of the +monstrous arc lamps; fluted columns from the second floor to the fourth; +and above the deep cornice, just visible from the street, the cupola on +top of the vast dome that was the crowning splendour of the whole. + +Then directly the shop had been moved back into this ornate frame, down +went the old red-brick block of Thompson's; and on the site still +another palace for Bence began to rise. It seemed no less magnificent +than the other; and it was finished off--by way of balance to the +dome--with a stupendous clock-tower. The local press, in a series of +articles describing this useful monument, said that the four-faced +time-piece was an exact replica of Big Ben at Westminster; the base of +the numeral twelve was one hundred and thirty-two feet above the +pavement; the small hand was as long as a short man, and the long hand +was longer than an excessively tall man;--and so on. The author of the +articles also stated that the architectural effect of Bence on both +sides of the street was very similar to the _coup d'oeil_ offered by the +dome and tower of the cathedral at Florence. + +Customers scarcely knew on which side of the street they were doing +their shopping: they went into one of the two palaces, and surprised +themselves by emerging from the other. You entered a lift, and, as it +swooped, the crowded floors flashed upward. "Which department, madam? +Parisian Jewellery?... Boots and Shoes! Step this way." You passed +through a long, narrow and brilliantly illuminated department, such as +Sham Diamonds or Opera Cloaks, where artificial light is a necessity +for correct selection; you went up a broad flight of shallow stairs; and +there you were, in Boots and Shoes. But the thing you didn't know, the +funny thing, was that all unconsciously you had been through a sub-way +under the road. Just when you stood to gape at the sparkling ear-rings +or to finger the rich soft cloaks, the heavy traffic of High Street was +bang over your head. + +And truly there was nothing that you could not buy now at Bence's--on +one side of the road or the other. Ball dresses for as much as fifty +guineas, tailor-made walking costumes for as little as eighteen +shillings, a thousand pound coat of Russian sable, or a farthing packet +of pins, palm trees for the conservatory or Brussels sprouts for the +kitchen--whatever the varied wants of the universe, it was Bence's proud +boast that they could be supplied here without failure or delay. + +Sometimes when business had taken Mrs. Marsden to London and she and +Yates were driving through the streets in a four-wheeled cab, she +studied the appearance of the great metropolitan shops, and mentally +compared them with what she had left behind her at Mallingbridge. Once, +when the dusk of an autumn day was falling and she chanced to pass the +most world-famous of all emporiums, she told the cabman to let his horse +walk; then, as they crawled by the endless frontage, she measured the +glare of the electric lamps, counted the big commissionaires, estimated +the volume of the crowd outside the glittering windows; and, critically +examining the thing in its entirety, she felt a supreme satisfaction. To +her eye and judgment it was no bigger, brighter, or more impressive than +Bence's. In all respects Bence's was every bit as good. + +Each morning, fair or foul, at nine-thirty sharp, she left her charming +and luxurious home, and came spinning in her small motor-car down the +three-mile slope that now divided house from shop. The car, avoiding +High Street, wheeled round through Trinity Square, worked its swift way +to the back of Bence's, swept into a quiet, stately court-yard, and +delivered her at the perron of a noble architraved doorway. This was the +private or business entrance to the domed palace. + +A porter in sombre livery was waiting on the marble steps to receive +her, to carry her shawl or reticule, to usher her to the golden gates of +the private lift. + +In a minute she had majestically soared to an upper floor. + +This managerial side of the building would not unworthily have formed a +portion of a public department, such as the Treasury or India Office: it +was all spacious, silent, grand. She passed through a wide and lofty +corridor, with mahogany doors on either hand--the closed doors of the +managers' rooms; and no sound of the shop was audible, no sign of it +visible. + +Her own room, at the end of the corridor, was very large, very high, +very plainly decorated. Mahogany book-cases, with a few busts on top of +them; one table with newspapers of all countries, another table with +four or five telephonic instruments--but absolutely no office equipment +of any sort: not so much as a writing desk, Yankee or British. She +scarcely ever writes a letter now; even marginal notes are dictated. +Time is too precious to be wasted on manual labour, however rapid. Time +is capital; and it must be invested in the way that will yield the +highest interest. + +"What is the time?" and she glanced at the clock on the carved stone +mantelpiece. + +"It wants seven minutes of ten." + +All clocks are correct, because they are carefully synchronized with the +clock in the tower; and that _must_ be correct, because time-signals +from Greenwich are continually instructing it--and the whole town works +by Bence time. + +"Good. Then I am not late." + +"No, madam." + +She came earlier now than she used to do a little while ago. But since +Mr. Archibald finally withdrew from affairs, she has been in sole charge +of the mighty organization. She could not refuse to let Archibald enjoy +his well-earned rest. Though still under fifty years of age, he was a +tired man, worn out by the battle, needing repose. And why should he go +on working? Thanks to the liberality of his patron, he possessed ample +means--almost one might say he was opulent. + +"I am ready." + +"Yes, madam." + +Then the day's toil begins. + +First it is the solemn entry of the managers, one after another +succinctly presenting his report. Then it is the turn of head clerks and +secretaries, who have gathered and are silently waiting outside the +door. After that, audience is given to buyers who have returned from or +are about to leave for the marts of the world. + +And with the fewest possible words she issues her commands. She sits +with folded hands, or paces to and fro with hands clasped behind her +back, or stands and knits her brows; but not a word, not a moment is +squandered. She says, Do this; but very rarely explains how it is to be +done. It is their duty to know how. If they don't know, they are +inefficient. It is for her to give orders: it is for subordinates to +carry them into effect. The general of an army must be something more +than a good regimental officer; the admiral of the fleet cannot teach +common sailors the best way to polish the brass on the binnacle. + +With surprising rapidity these opening labours are completed. Well +before noon the last of the clerks has gone, and Mrs. Marsden-Thompson +stands in an empty room--may take a breathing-pause, or, if she pleases, +fill it with tasks of light weight. + +Perhaps now an old friend is announced. It is Miss Woolfrey from China +and Glass. May she come in? Or shall she call again? No, ask Miss +Woolfrey to come in. + +And then time is flagrantly wasted. Miss Woolfrey has nothing to say, +can put forward no valid reason for bothering the commander-in-chief. +Miss Woolfrey giggles foolishly, gossips inanely, meanders with a stream +of senseless twaddle; but she is gratified by smiles and nods and +handshakings. + +"Well, now, really--my dear Miss Woolfrey--you cheer me with your +excellent account of this little storm in a tea-cup.... Yes, I'll +remember all you say.... How kind of you to ask! Yes, my daughter is +very well." + +And Miss Woolfrey goes away happy. She is a licensed offender--has been +accorded unlimited privilege to waste time. Incompetent as ever, and +totally unable to adapt herself to modern conditions, she enjoys a +splendid sinecure in the new China and Glass. She has clever people over +her to keep her straight, and will never be deprived of her salary until +she accepts a pension in exchange. + +Sooner or later during the forenoon, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson rings her +bell and asks for Mr. Mears. + +"Is Mr. Mears in his room?" + +"I believe so, madam." + +"Then give Mr. Mears my compliments, and say I shall be glad to see him +if it is convenient to him--only if convenient, not if he is occupied." + +It was always convenient to Mr. Mears. His convenience is her +convenience. Almost immediately the door opens, and he appears--and +very grand he looks, bowing on the threshold; massive and strong again; +no shaky dotard, but a vigorous elderly man, who might be mistaken for a +partner in a bank, a president of a chamber of commerce, a member of the +Privy Council, or anybody eminently prosperous and respectable. + +"Good morning, Mr. Mears. Please be seated." + +And then she discusses with him all those matters of which she can speak +to no one else. Mears is never a time-waster; he, too, makes few words +suffice; long practice has given him quickness in catching her thought. + +"Mr. Mears, what are we to do about Mr. Greig? Frankly, he is getting +past his work." + +"I admit it," says Mears. + +"It will be better for all parties if he retires." + +"He won't like the idea." + +Mr. Greig, the obese chieftain of Cretonnes in the days of old +Thompson's, is threatened with no real peril. If he ceases working +to-morrow, he will continue to receive his working wage till death; but +the difficulty is to remove him from the sphere of action without a +wound to his feelings. + +"Will you talk to him--introduce the idea to him gradually, bring him to +it little by little, so that if possible he may come to think that it is +his own idea, and that he himself wants to retire?" + +And Mears promises that he will deal thus diplomatically with the +faithful old servant. + +They are nearly all here--the old servants; from chieftains like Greig +and Ridgway to lieutenants like Davies the night watchman, each has +found his snug billet. All who shivered with her in the cold are welcome +to warmth and sunshine. She has forgotten no one: she could not forget +old friends. + +Sometimes, of course, her bounteous intentions have been rendered +nugatory by fate. A few friends are gone beyond the reach of help; +others it has been impossible to discover. Even now Mears has +occasionally to tell her of someone raked out of the past. For instance, +this morning he brings with him a small bundle of papers, and speaks to +her of such an one. + +They have only now found Mr. Fentiman, the lanky and sententious lord of +Thompson's Woollens. + +Mr. Fentiman had sunk very low--never knew that she was Bence's, never +saw her advertisements in agony columns, never guessed year after year +that a munificent protector was seeking him. But he has been found at +last, in a wretched little hosier's at Portsmouth--ill and weak and +pitifully poor. + +"Are you quite sure that he is our Fentiman?" + +"Quite," said Mears; and he laid the Fentiman dossier on the table. + +When Mears had left her she fetched an ink-pot from the mantelpiece, +opened a drawer, and extracted pens and note-paper. This morning it was +necessary to write a letter in her own hand. Secretaries could not +assist her with the task, and time must no longer be nicely measured. + +"My dear Mr. Fentiman, I am so glad to hear of you again, and so sorry +to learn that your health is not what it should be." Then she invited +him to resign his present situation and come to Mallingbridge, where it +would doubtless be easy to offer him an opening more suited to his +experience and capacity. If he would kindly advise Mr. Mears as to the +arrival of his train, Mr. Mears would meet him at the railway station +and conduct him to apartments. "Before you plunge into work again, I +must beg you to take a complete rest; and as soon as you feel strong +enough, I particularly wish you to spend a holiday in Switzerland. I +expressed this wish many years ago, one night when you had kindly given +me your company at dinner; but although you tacitly allowed me to +understand that you would comply with it, circumstances prevented its +fulfilment. If you are still of the same mind, it will afford me the +utmost pleasure to arrange for your Swiss tour." + +Having written so far, she laid down her pen, picked up a telephone +receiver, and spoke to the counting-house. + +She was writing again, and did not raise her eyes, when a clerk came +into the room. + +"Put them down." + +And the clerk placed the bank-notes on the table, and silently retired. + +"Meanwhile," she was writing, "I must ask you to accept my small +enclosure, and to believe me to be, Yours with sincere regard, Jane +Marsden-Thompson." + +Then she sealed the envelope, rang a bell, and told someone to despatch +her letter by registered post. + +Fentiman had mopped up a lot of time--but no matter. Nevertheless, she +moved with quick footsteps as she went from the room, and passed along +the lofty, silent corridors. Presently using a master-key, she opened a +fire-proof door, and entered a narrow passage. In this passage the +silence was broken by a vague murmuring sound--like the ripple of sea +waves heard echoing in a shell. + +She opened another door, and immediately the sound swelled to a confused +roar. Through this second door she had come out into a circular gallery +just beneath the huge concave of the dome. Looking downward, she could +see the extraordinary inverted perspective of circles, floor below +floor, each circle apparently smaller than the one above; she could see +long strands of gauze and lace, artfully festooned in void space from +the gilt rails of the Curtain department, like streamers of white cloud; +and beneath the pretty cloud she could see the rainbow colours of +delicate satins and silks; and still lower she could see the stir of +multitudinous life concentrating at this focal point of the busy shop. + +But she scarcely looked: she listened. Perched high in her dome, +solitary, motionless, august, she was like the queen-bee in the upper +part of a hive attentively listening to the buzz of industry. And it +seemed that the sound was sufficient: her instinct was so fine--she knew +by the quality of the humming note that Bence's was working well. + + + + +XXXI + + +All well at Bence's; and all well at home. + +It was pleasant to her, returning from her work on summer evenings, to +see the white gates and long wall speed towards her: as if coming once +again out of the land of dreams into the realm of facts, because she +called them to her. She had wished for them, and they were hers. While +her car glided from the gates to the porch, she enjoyed the full sight +of the things that, seen in glimpses, soothed her eyes so many years +ago--the comfortable eaves and latticed windows, the dark masses of +foliage casting restful shadows on the sun-lit lawns, the steps and +brickwork of the terraced garden giving value and form to the gay +exuberance of the summer flowers. + +"Are the ladies in?" + +When the footman said that the ladies were out, she gave a little sigh. +It was only a moment's disappointment. By the time that the butler had +come forward and was telling her where the ladies had gone, the faint +sense of emptiness and disillusionment had vanished. Really she liked +the ladies to be out and about as much as possible. There was a big +motor-car to take them far from home, and there were horses and +carriages to take them on quiet little journeys; for, pleasant as home +might be, they must not be allowed to feel themselves prisoners in it. +All this side of her life belonged to them: they ruled the world that +lay outside her work. + +When the footman told her that the ladies were to be found somewhere +beneath the eaves or within the walls of the garden, she sprang out of +the car as lightly as a girl. + +"I think Miss Jane is in the music room, ma'am." + +Her face lit up; she smiled contentedly, and hurried through the porch +to search for Miss Jane. + +The house was bigger in fact than it had been in the dream. She had +tacked on a new wing at each end of it; and her architect had so +cleverly preserved the external style that no one outside the building +could guess which was the old part and which the new. Inside, you might +guess by the size of the rooms. In one wing there was a large +dining-room, and in the other wing there was Miss Jane's school-room, +play-room, or music-room. + +This was an unexpectedly noble hall, containing an organ, a minstrel +gallery, and a raised stage for dramatic entertainment; here the young +lady had obtained much instruction and amusement; here she learned to +sing and dance, to fence and do Swedish exercises, to know the kings of +England and to spin tops, to talk French and to play badminton. + +Her grandmother, bustling to it, sometimes heard and always loved to +hear the music of organ or piano; sometimes all she heard was a young +voice talking or laughing--but that was the music that she loved best. + +"Granny dear!" + +"Mother dear!" + +The double welcome was her daily reward, the handsome payment that made +her think the long day's toil so light. + +A certain pomp was maintained in their manner of living: meals were +served with adequate ceremony; butler and footmen instead of +parlourmaids waited at table; the family wore rich dresses of an +evening;--but all this was to please Enid. Everything that Enid once had +seemed to care for must be provided now--the stateliness of liveried +men, the grandeur of formal dinner-parties, the small or big +extravagances that come with complete immunity from any thought of cost. +And on the little girl's account, too. It was essential that Enid +should be able to bring up her child in the midst of fitting, proper, +even fashionable surroundings. + +Enid took all these benefits placidly and naturally: very much as of +old, when she had been an unmarried girl receiving benefits from the +same source in St. Saviour's Court. Indeed she had insensibly dropped +back into her old way. Except for the one great permanent change that +sprang from a dual cause--her deepened affection for her mother and her +idolizing devotion to her daughter,--she was strikingly similar to the +graceful long-nosed Miss Thompson who went with a smile to meet her fate +at Mr. Young's riding-school. + +She looked scarcely a day older. She was neither thinner nor fatter; her +face, after being pinched by misfortune, had exactly filled out again to +the elegant oval of careless youth. The bad time with all its hard +lessons was almost obliterated by present ease and comfort: certainly it +did not seem to have left indelible marks. She could speak of it--did +often speak of it--without wincing, and in the even, unemotional tone +that she habitually used. + +Only when Jane was ill, she altogether burst through the smooth outer +surface of calm propriety, and showed that, if they could be reached, +there were some really strong feelings underneath. When Jane was ill, no +matter how slightly, Mrs. Kenion became almost demented. + +To some juvenile ailments the most jealously guarded child must submit +sooner or later. Jane has a sore throat and a cold in the head; Jane +slept badly last night; and, oh--merciful powers,--Jane exhibits red +spots on her little white chest. + +Dr. Eldridge says--now, don't be frightened by a word;--Dr. Eldridge +says he believes that, well, ah, yes--it is measles. But there is +nothing in that to distress or alarm; rather one might say it is a very +good thing. One cannot reasonably hope that Miss Jane will escape +measles all her life; and one may be glad that she has this propitious +chance to do her measling under practically ideal conditions. + +Yet, late in the afternoon, when wise Eldridge has gone, here is Enid +with fear-distended eyes and grief-stricken face, white, shaking, +absolutely frantic, as she clings to her mother's arm. + +"Mother, don't let her die. Oh, don't let her die." + +"She shall not die." + +In these emergencies Mrs. Marsden-Thompson is solid as her clock-tower. + +"But Dr. Eldridge mayn't be right--perhaps it's something a thousand +times worse than measles.... Oh, oh. What _can_ we do? It may be some +virulent fever--and when she drops off to sleep, she may never wake." + +What Mrs. Marsden-Thompson can do to allay Enid's anxiety, she does do, +and at once. She telephones to London, to the most famous physician of +the period. + +"There, my darling," she says presently; "now keep calm. Sir John is +coming--by the evening express." + +"Mother dear, how can I thank you enough?" + +"My own Enid, there's nothing to thank me for. It will relieve all our +minds to have the very highest opinion.... And Sir John will spend the +night here--that will be nice for you, to know that he is remaining on +the spot." + +Then in due course the illustrious Sir John arrives, and confirms the +diagnosis of Dr. Eldridge. It _is_ measles--and a very mild case of it. + +Jane grew up strong and hearty, none the worse for childish ailments, +and uninjured by the idolatry of her two nearest female relatives. As +Yates said, it was a miracle that Jane didn't get absolutely spoilt by +so much fussing care and loving worship. But Yates stoutly declared that +the young lady was not spoilt up to now; and attributed her escape from +spoiling to the fortunate circumstance that she took after her +grandmother. + +Outwardly she was like her mother, but perhaps inwardly she did somewhat +resemble her granny. At fourteen she was certainly more enthusiastic, +vivacious, and expansive than Enid had been at that age. And, unlike the +young Enid, she could not readily take the impress of other people's +minds and manners. Governesses said she was _very_ clever, but too much +disposed to rely on conclusions reached by trains of thought set in +motion by herself and running on lines of her own construction. +Governesses would not say she was obstinate--oh, no, far from it--but +perhaps guilty now and then of a certain intellectual arrogance that was +unbecoming in one so young. + +Fourteen--fifteen--past her sixteenth birthday! Jane is really growing +up; and nearer and nearer draws the time when mother and grandmother +will be confronted with the awful problem of finding her a suitable +husband--a _good_ husband, if such a thing exists on the broad surface +of the earth. It is appalling to think about; but it cannot be blinked +or evaded. The fiery chain of life must have its new link of flame: Jane +must carry the torch, and give it safely to the small hands that are +waiting somewhere in immeasurable darkness to grasp it and bear it still +onward. + +Once when Enid lightly hinted at this terrifying matter, Jane caught the +hint that was not intended for her ears, and replied very shrewdly. + +"It strikes me, mummy, that most likely you'll be married before I +shall." + +Mrs. Kenion laughed and flushed, and seemed rather gratified by this +compliment; but she promised never to introduce Jane to a stepfather. +No, she will never marry again--has no faintest inclination for further +experiments of that sort. Once bit, twice shy. She will act on the +adage; although, when she speaks so blandly of the bad ungrateful dog +that bit her, one might almost suppose that she had forgotten nearly all +the pain of the bite. + +"Mother dear, isn't it wonderful? He is riding again;" and Enid looks up +from the morning newspaper, sips her breakfast coffee, and speaks with +calm admiration. She always reads the sporting news, and never misses an +entry of Charlie's name in minor steeplechase meetings. + +Here it is:--Mrs. Charles Kenion's Dreadnought; Trainer, private; +Jockey, Mr. Kenion. + +"And Charles is over forty-five. Really, I do think it's wonderful," +says Enid calmly and admiringly. "But he shouldn't go on riding races. +She oughtn't to let him. It can only end"--and Enid says this with +unruffled calm--"in his breaking his neck." + +But it seems that Charlie's neck is charmed: that it cannot be broken +over the sticks, or--sinister thought!--that it is being preserved for +another and more formal method of dislocation. + +Nearer than the necessity of discovering a worthy mate for Jane, there +looms the smaller necessity of presenting her at Court, giving her a +London season, and so forth. As to the presentation, a very obliging +offer has been tendered by the great lady of the county--wife of that +local potentate who lives in the sheltered magnificence behind the +awe-inspiring iron gates. Her ladyship has voluntarily suggested that +she should take Miss Kenion, when properly feathered and betrained, into +the effulgent presence of her sovereign. + +Naturally, since those tremendous iron gates have opened to Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson, no lesser entrances are closed against her. Success, +if it is big enough, condones most offences; and the prejudiced +objection to retail trade, under which Enid once suffered, has been +generously waived. What she used artlessly to call county people make +much of her and her daughter. + +They are bidden to the very best houses; they may consort on equal terms +with the highest quality; there is no one so fine that he or she will +resent an invitation to dinner. + +"Oh yes, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson is an old dear. And her daughter is quite +charming. I don't know what to make of the girl--but of course you know, +she is going to be an immense heiress." + +Mrs. Marsden-Thompson, presiding at a banquet to the county, perhaps was +pleased to think that this, too, she had at last been able to give her +Enid. Really tip-top society--social concert-pitch, if compared with the +flat tinkling that Enid used to hear at Colonel Salter's. + +Gold plate on the table; liveried home-retainers, with soberly-clad aids +from Bence's refreshment departments; a white waistcoat or silver +buttons behind every chair; and, seated on the chairs, a most select and +notable company of guests, gracious smiling ladies and grandiosely +urbane lords; pink and white faces of candid young girls and sun-burnt +faces of gallant young soldiers; shimmer of pearls, glitter of diamonds, +flash of bright eyes, and a polite murmur of well-bred voices--surely +this is all that Enid could possibly desire. + +But it was not the society that the hostess really cared about. The +dinner-parties that she enjoyed were far different from this. She gave +this sort of feast to please Enid; but at certain seasons--at Christmas +especially--she gave a feast to please herself. + +Then the old friends came. The two motor-cars and the large landau went +to fetch some of the guests. Few of them were carriage-folk. Mr. and +Mrs. Archibald Bence had their own brougham of course; Mr. and Mrs. +Prentice used one of Young's flies; but most of the others were very +glad to accept a lift out and home. By special request they all came +early, and in morning-dress. + +"We dine at seven," wrote the hostess in her invitations; "but please +come early, so that we can have a chat before dinner. And as it is to be +just a friendly unceremonious gathering, do you mind wearing morning +dress?" + +Did they mind? What a thoughtless question, when she might have known +that some of them had nothing but morning dress! Mr. Mears, in spite of +his rise in the world, rigidly adhered to the frock coat, as the garment +most suitable to his years and his figure. Cousin Thompson--the +ex-grocer of Haggart's Cross--considered swallow-tails and white chokers +to be fanciful nonsense: he would not make a merry-andrew of himself to +please anybody. Neither of the two Miss Prices had ever possessed a +low-cut bodice--old Mrs. Price would probably have whipped her for her +immodesty if she had ever been caught in one. + +Then buttoned coats and no spreading shirt fronts, high-necked blouses +and no bare shoulders; but in other respects full pomp for this humbler +banquet: home-servants and Bence-servants; the electric light blazing on +the splendid epergnes, the exquisite Bohemian glass, and the piled fruit +in the Wedgewood china; the long table stretched to its last leaf; more +than thirty people eating, drinking, talking, laughing, shining with +satisfaction--and Mrs. Marsden-Thompson at the head of the sumptuous +board, shedding quick glances, kind smiles, friendly nods, making the +wine taste better and the lamps glow brighter, gladdening and cheering +every man and woman there. + +"Cousin Jenny!" It is our farmer cousin shouting from the end of the +table. "You're so far off that I shall have to whistle to you. You +haven't forgotten my whistle?" + +"No, that I haven't, cousin Gordon." + +And radiant cousin Gordon turns to tell Miss Jane the story of the +Welshman, the Irishman, and the Scotsman who met on London Bridge; and +Miss Jane is good enough to be amused. + +"Lord, how often I've told that story to your grandmother! I'll tell it +her again when we get back into the music-room. 'Tis a favourite of +hers." + +Jane and Enid are both very sweet on these occasions, loyally assisting +the hostess, and winning the hearts of the humblest guests. There is +perhaps a just perceptible effort in Enid's pretty manner; but with Jane +it is all entirely natural. + +"Mr. Prentice," says Jane impudently, "you mayn't know it, but you are +going to sing us a comic song after dinner." + +Mr. Prentice is delighted yet coy. + +"No, no--certainly not." + +"Oh yes, you will. Won't he, Mrs. Prentice?" + +"I'm sure he will, if you wish it, Miss Jane." + +Mr. Archibald Bence, looking rather wizened and wan, is just off to the +South of France for the remainder of the winter; and Mr. Fentiman, +talking across the table, urges him to see the falls of the Rhine on his +return journey. + +"When I was touring in Switzerland last autumn," says Fentiman +sententiously, "I gave one whole day to Schaffhausen, and it amply +repaid me for the time and trouble." + +Wherever the hostess turns her kind eyes, she can see someone looking at +her gratefully and affectionately. There is our grumbling cousin who +once was a poor little grocer. She has done so much for him that he has +almost entirely ceased to grumble. There is noisy, would-be-facetious +cousin Gordon, once a little struggling tenant, now a landlord +successfully farming his own land. There is corpulent Greig, on the +retired list, but jovial and contented, with his pride unwounded, +revelling in high-paid tranquillity. There are the cackling, stupid +Miss Prices and their greedy old mother. They have looked at workhouse +doors and shivered apprehensively; but now they chide the maid when she +fails to make up the drawing-room fire, and bully the butcher if he +sends them a scraggy joint for Sunday. There is faithful Mears in his +newest frock-coat, close beside her, as of right, very close to her +heart. And there, behind her chair, is faithful Yates--in rustling black +silk, with kerchief of real point lace. She does not of course appear +when the county dines with us; but to-night Yates stands an honorary +major-domo at the Christmas dinner--because she exactly understands the +spirit of the feast, and knows how her mistress wishes things to be +done. + +"And now," says Mr. Prentice, "I'm not going to break the rule. No +speeches. But just one toast.... Our hostess!" + +The faces of the guests all turn towards her; and the lamp-light, +flashing here and there, shows her gleams of gold. The golden shower +that falls so freely has left some drops on each of them. Her small +gifts are visible--the rings on their fingers, the brooches at their +necks; but the lamp-light cannot reach her greater gifts--the soft beds, +the warm fires, the money in their banks, the comfort in their breasts. + + + + +XXXII + + +Of course she had sent her husband money. Only Mears knew how much. +Mears acted as intermediary, conducted the correspondence; and in +despatching the doles, whether much or little, he rarely failed to +reiterate the proviso that the recipient was not to set foot in England. +That was the irrepealable condition under which aid from time to time +was granted. + +But of late it had become plain that no attempt would be made to set the +prohibition at defiance: Mr. Marsden would never revisit his native +land. During the last year his wife had written to him twice or thrice, +supplementing the communications of Mears with extra bounties and some +hopeful, cheering words. Mr. Marsden was begged to employ these +additional drafts in defraying the expenses of illness, to take care of +himself, and to fight against desponding thoughts. + +Now, one summer morning, when she entered her room at Bence's, Mr. Mears +stood by a window waiting for her arrival. + +"Good morning, Mr. Mears;" and she looked at his solemn face. "Anything +out of the way?" + +"Yes. Some news from California." + +"Ah!" And she pointed to the letter in his hand. "Is it the news that we +had reason to expect?" + +"Yes.... It's all over;" and Mr. Mears placed a chair for her, near the +newspaper table. + +She sat down, took the letter, spread it open on the table; and, shading +her eyes with a hand, began to read it. + +"Mr. Mears!" She spoke without looking up. "I shall do no work to-day. +Tell them all that I cannot see them." + +In the lofty corridor the doors of the managers' rooms were opening; the +chieftains were bringing their reports; secretaries and clerks were +silently assembling. + +Mr. Mears left the room, whisperingly dismissed everybody; and with +closed lips and noiseless footsteps, the little crowd dispersed. + +When he returned to the room she spoke to him again, still without +raising her eyes. + +"The car has gone home, of course. Please telephone to the house, and +tell them to send it back for me at once." + +He transmitted her order, and then went to a window and looked down into +the court-yard. + +"Mr. Mears!" + +She had finished the letter, and was carefully folding it. "There. You +had better keep it--with the other papers.... Sit down, please. Stay +with me till the car comes." + +Mr. Mears sat down, put the folded letter in his pocket, but did not +speak. He noticed that her eyes were free from moisture, and her quiet +voice betrayed no emotion of any sort. + +"Ah, well;" and she gave a little sigh. "He wanted for nothing. His +friend says so explicitly.... Mr. Mears, she cannot have been a bad +woman--according to her lights. You see, she has stuck to him +faithfully." + +Then, after a long pause, she spoke very kindly of the dead man; and +Mears noticed the pitying tenderness that had come into her voice. But +it could not have been called emotion: it was a benign, comprehensive +pity, a ready sympathy for weakness and misfortune, and no deep +disturbance of personal feeling. Mears had heard her talk in just such a +tone when she had been told about the sad end of a total stranger. + +"Poor fellow! A wasted life, Mr. Mears!... And he had many good points. +He was naturally a _worker_. Considerable capacity--he seemed to promise +great things in the beginning.... You know, _you_ thought well of him at +first." + +"At first," said Mears. "I admit it. He was a good salesman." + +"He was a _grand_ salesman, Mr. Mears.... I have never met a better +one." + +Enid was waiting for her at the white gates, when the car brought her +home. + +"Mother dear, is anything wrong? Are you ill?" + +The car had stopped; and Enid, clambering on the step, showed a white, +scared face. + +"No, my dear. I am quite all right. I'll get out here, and stroll in the +garden with you.... My sweet Enid, did the message frighten you?" + +"Yes, dreadfully." + +"It was inconsiderate of me not to say I wasn't ill.... I am taking the +day off. That is all." + +"But what has happened? Something has upset you. I can see it in your +face." + +Then, as they walked slowly to and fro along a terrace between bright +and perfumed flowers, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson quietly told her daughter +the news. + +"I am a widow, Enid dear.... No, it did not upset me. Mr. Mears and I +were both prepared to hear it.... But of course it takes one back into +the past; it sets one thinking--and I felt at once that I ought not to +attend to ordinary business, that it would be only proper to take the +day off.... + +"And I think, Enid, that henceforth I shall call myself Mrs. +Thompson--plain Mrs. Thompson, dropping the other name altogether."... +She had paused on the path, to pick a sprig of verbena; and she gently +crushed a thin leaf, and inhaled its perfume. "Yes, dear. I always liked +the old name best. But I felt that while he was living, it might seem +unkind, and in bad taste, if I altogether refused to bear his name. Now, +however, it cannot matter;" and she opened her hand and let the crushed +leaf fall. "He has gone. And he is quite forgotten. There is nobody who +can think it unkind if his name dies, too." + + + + +XXXIII + + +The pleasant years were slipping away, and Mrs. Thompson was just as +busy as she had ever been. She had long ago ceased to speak of retiring, +and now she did not even think of it. The success of Bence's had +continued to swell larger and larger; its trade grew steadily and +surely; its financial position was so strong that nothing could shake +it. + +Prentice and Archibald Bence often advised the proprietress to turn +herself into a company, and she was more or less disposed to adopt their +suggestion. Some day or other she might do it. But it would be a big +job--the promotion of a company on the grandest scale, with enormous +capital involved, wants careful consideration. Perhaps she was a little +inclined to shrink the preliminary labours of the scheme--and in any +event the flotation could not bring her more leisure, because she would +certainly be obliged to remain at Bence's as managing director. + +In these years Jane had made her bow at the Court of St. James's, and +had experienced the excitement of a London season; but as yet her +guardians had found her no suitable sweetheart. They were difficult to +please; and she herself appeared to be in no hurry. However, Jane at +twenty-two was so good-looking, so vivaciously amiable, so altogether +charming, that Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Kenion knew well that they would +not be able to put off the heavy day much longer. The right man, though +still unseen, must have drawn very near by now. + +On Thursday afternoons, weather permitting, Mrs. Thompson liked to drive +in the carriage; and it was always an especial treat when the social +engagements of her ladies allowed them to accompany her. As the big bay +horses trotted along the smooth roads she leaned back in her seat with +luxurious contentment and beamed at Jane, at Enid, at all the world. + +"Now is not this much nicer--the air, the quiet enjoyment, the gentle +motion--than if we were being whirled past everything in a motor-car?" + +"Yes, granny, it _is_ very nice." + +"I fear that you would have preferred the car, Enid?" + +"Oh no, mother dear. I think horses are delightful when you don't want +to go far, and time is no object." + +"That's just it," said Mrs. Thompson. "Time is no object. The horses +help me to remember that; and I like to remember it--because it gives +one the holiday feeling." + +"Poor granny!" Jane had taken one of grandmamma's hands, and was +squeezing it affectionately. "And it's only a _half_-holiday. You don't +get enough of the holiday feeling.... Oh, where's my Kodak? I must snap +those children." + +The carriage was stopped; Jane sprang out, and ran back to photograph +three little girls in a cottage garden. + +"There," said Mrs. Thompson triumphantly. "If we had been in the car, +she wouldn't have seen them. We should have passed too quickly." + +Jane stopped the carriage again, when they came to a point where the +road turns abruptly to cross a high bridge above the railway. + +"Here we are, granny. Here's your favourite view." + +Mrs. Thompson had always been fond of this view of Mallingbridge; and +though it was much too large for a snapshot photograph, Jane liked it, +too. + +Looking down from the bridge you have Mallingbridge, stretched as a +map, at your feet. Once the clustered roofs made a large spot four miles +away in the middle of the plain. Now the roofs had encroached until very +little plain was left. The town and its suburbs had rolled out in all +directions, burying green meadows beneath warehouses and factories, +stifling the copses with red-brick villas, planting the flowery slopes +with tram-lines and iron standards. To-day the light was bad; the sun +only here and there could pierce the drab clouds of smoke that rose from +countless chimneys, and drifted and hung over the central part of the +town; but the three big towers showed plainly enough--the square tower +of St. Saviour's, the steeple of Holy Trinity, and the pinnacled +monument of Bence's clock. And very plainly, with the sunshine suddenly +striking it, one saw the huge dome of Bence. + +A changed view, a widely extended map, since Mrs. Thompson first looked +at it. But there at her feet lay the world that she had conquered and +held. + +Perhaps, while the horses stood champing their bits and the coachman and +footman stifled yawns of ennui, Mrs. Thompson extracted from the wide +view a warm and comfortable sensation of happiness and pride. She was +quite happy, with every fierce passion burnt out, with the disturbing +energy of the emotions nearly all gone; but with the full and satisfying +work still left to her, and the zest for the work growing always keener, +keeping her young of spirit, defying the years. And she was proud--very +proud in her undiminished power of protecting those she loved. She had +never failed to protect. Her mother,--her dull old husband,--her +daughter,--her daughter's daughter: all who had touched the orbit of her +strength with love had found security. And she had been able to break as +well as to make. All who had served her were guarded and safe: all who +had opposed her were crushed and done for. + +"Shall I drive on, ma'am?" + +"Yes, drive on." + +The coachman and footman in their black liveries and white gloves had a +grand air; the bay horses were large highly-bred beasts; the carriage +was one of those four-seated victorias which are much affected by royal +persons--the whole equipage offered a majestic appearance. If the route +of the excursion led them by the avenues of new villas and through some +of the crowded streets of the town, Mrs. Thompson's weekly outing became +exactly like a queen's procession. + +Hats off on either side; continuous bowing to right and left; men and +women staring from open doors, running to upper windows, bumping into +one another on the pavement. + +"Who is it?" + +"Mrs. Thompson." + +"Oh!" + +"What is it? I couldn't see. Was it the fire-engine?" + +"No. Mrs. Thompson--taking her Thursday drive. Just gone round the +corner to Bridge Street." + +In Bridge Street, people on the top of trams stood up to stare at her; +and if it chanced that there rode on the car some stranger to +Mallingbridge, the conductor and all the passengers volubly instructed +him. + +"Who did you say it was?" + +"Mrs. Thompson!... She's _Bence's_; she is ... Mrs. Thompson, don't I +tell you? But Bence's is all hers.... She built that tower what you're +looking at now.... She gave the money to build the new hospital that +we're coming to presently.... Mrs. Thompson! They say she's rich enough +to buy the blooming town." + +When she got home she thanked her companions for giving her the treat. + +"It is sweet of you both--and I hope you haven't been bored. It has +been the greatest treat for me." + + +Another of her great treats--enjoyed more rarely than the carriage +drive--was on a Sunday night, when she and her granddaughter went in to +Mallingbridge for the evening service at St. Saviour's Church. + +"We won't ask your mother to come, because I fancy she is a little +tired. But if you feel up to it?" + +"_Rather_," said Jane. + +"Really and truly, you won't mind?" + +"I shall love it, granny." + +Then, time being an object, the small car was ordered, and the chauffeur +jumped gleefully to obey the sabbath-infringing order. He knew that he +would receive a thumping tip as guerdon for his extra pains. + +She sat in the old pew, with Jane by her side. She had retained the +places, although she could so infrequently use them; and the card in the +metal frame once again read, "Mrs. Thompson, two seats." + +The dim light fell softly on her white hair and pale face, on her ermine +fur and the purple velvet of her mantle; and the congregation, sparse +rows of vague, meaningless figures, sent shadowy glances at her back and +at her sides. There was no one here now who had seen her as a bride, +with her pretty hair and fresh, vividly coloured complexion; but all +knew who she was, and everybody seemed to be stirred by her dignified +presence. At her entrance a whisper and a movement had run along the +pews. "Look! Mrs. Thompson!" + +A young curate conducted the service with a kind of languid hurry. The +old broad church vicar was dead, and a low church vicar had obtained the +living. So there was less singing and chanting than of past days; and +the choir boys, standing or sitting in the brightly illuminated chancel, +had not so much work to do. It was all one to Mrs. Thompson--the old way +or the new way. The sensible view, the _business_ view of the matter +remained unaltered. Given a consecrated house of prayer, anyone who +isn't a faddist ought to be able to pray in it. + +The congregation had stood up, to recite the evening psalms in alternate +verses with the curate; and Mrs. Thompson, standing very erect, looked +from the darkness towards the light. + +... "The Lord is with them that uphold my soul;" and then the +congregation recited their verse. + +Jane glanced at granny's face--so fine, so strong, so brave; and +listened to her firm, resolute voice. + +"He shall reward evil until mine enemies: destroy thou them in thy +truth." + +While the curate read the next verse, Jane was still watching her +granny's face. + +"For," answered Mrs. Thompson, "he hath delivered me out of all my +trouble; and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies." + +"Glory be to the Father," said the curate, in a perfunctory tone, "and +to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;" + +"As it was in the beginning," said Mrs. Thompson, firmly and fervently, +"is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mrs. Thompson, by William Babington Maxwell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mrs. Thompson + A Novel + +Author: William Babington Maxwell + +Release Date: April 23, 2012 [EBook #39515] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. THOMPSON *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class = "mynote"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:<br /><br /> +A Table of Contents has been added.<br /></p></div> + +<hr /> + +<div class="block"><p class="bold"><i>BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR</i></p> + +<p class="bold">NOVELS.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">For Better, For Worse</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Glamour</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Mirror and the Lamp</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Devil's Garden</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">General Mallock's Shadow</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">In Cotton Wool</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Mrs. Thompson</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Rest Cure</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Seymour Charlton</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Hill Rise</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Guarded Flame</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Vivien</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Ragged Messenger</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">The Countess of Maybury</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">A Little More</span></p> + +<p class="bold">SHORT STORIES.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Life Can Never Be the Same</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Odd Lengths</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Fabulous Fancies</span></p></div> + +<hr /> + +<h1><span>MRS. THOMPSON<br /><br /><i>A NOVEL</i></span><br /> <span id="id1">BY</span> <span>W. B. MAXWELL</span></h1> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF "THE GUARDED FLAME,"<br />"VIVIEN," ETC.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.jpg" width='99' height='120' alt="logo" /></div> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">NEW YORK<br />DODD, MEAD & COMPANY<br />1922</p> + +<hr /> + +<p class="center">Copyright, 1911, by<br /><span class="smcap">Dodd, Mead & Company</span></p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p class="center">PRINTED IN U. S. A.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="block"><p>"Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in +the gates."<br /><span class="s9"> </span>—<span class="smcap">Proverbs.</span></p></div> + +<hr /> + +<h2><span>CONTENTS</span></h2> + +<table summary="CONTENTS"> + <tr> + <td></td> + <td><span class="smaller">PAGE</span></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>I</td> + <td><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>II</td> + <td><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>III</td> + <td><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>IV</td> + <td><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>V</td> + <td><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VI</td> + <td><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>VIII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>IX</td> + <td><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>X</td> + <td><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XI</td> + <td><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XIII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_130">130</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XIV</td> + <td><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XV</td> + <td><a href="#Page_156">156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XVI</td> + <td><a href="#Page_169">169</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XVII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_179">179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XVIII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XIX</td> + <td><a href="#Page_207">207</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XX</td> + <td><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXI</td> + <td><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_249">249</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXIII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_259">259</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXIV</td> + <td><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXV</td> + <td><a href="#Page_275">275</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXVI</td> + <td><a href="#Page_286">286</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXVII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_294">294</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXVIII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_303">303</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXIX</td> + <td><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXX</td> + <td><a href="#Page_338">338</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXXI</td> + <td><a href="#Page_348">348</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXXII</td> + <td><a href="#Page_358">358</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td>XXXIII</td> + <td> <a href="#Page_362">362</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<p class="bold2">MRS. THOMPSON</p> + +<h2><span>I</span></h2> + +<p>It was early-closing day in the town of Mallingbridge; and the +Thompson's, "established 1813," had begun to hide its wares from the +sunlight of High Street. Outside its windows the iron shutters were +rolling down; inside its doors male and female assistants, eager for the +weekly half-holiday, were despatching the last dilatory customers, +packing their shelves, spreading their dust-sheets, and generally +tidying up with anxious speed.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson, the sole proprietress, emerging from internal offices and +passing through her prosperous realm, cast an attentive eye hither and +thither; and, wherever she glanced, saw all things right, and nothing +wrong. System, method, practised control visible in each department. +Carpets, Bedding, Curtains, House Furnishings, all as they should be—no +disturbing note, no hint of a dangerous element in the well-ordered +working scheme of Thompson's.</p> + +<p>Managerial Mr. Mears, a big elderly man, took his hands from beneath the +skirts of his frock-coat; smiled and bowed; and spoke to the +proprietress confidentially on one or two important matters.</p> + +<p>"By the way," said Mr. Mears. "About Household Crockery—is it to be a +promotion, or do you still think of getting someone in? Of course +there's a lot of talk—must be while the appointment remains open. But +you haven't made up your mind yet, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Thompson, arranging her reticule,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> and not looking +at Mr. Mears. "I shall appoint Mr. Marsden."</p> + +<p>"Young Marsden? Never!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson firmly.</p> + +<p>"You surprise me. I admit it."</p> + +<p>"You don't think," said Mrs. Thompson, "that he is old enough for the +responsibility. But, Mr. Mears, he has <i>brains</i> and he likes <i>work</i>. +Tell the others that the appointment is made."</p> + +<p>And big Mr. Mears did then what everyone in Thompson's always did—that +is to say, he immediately obeyed orders; and before the last shutter was +down, the news had flashed all through the restricted space of the +old-fashioned shop.</p> + +<p>"Dicky Marsden! Oh, drop me off a roof.... Marsden up again! Well, I'm +bust!" Thompson's young gentlemen murmuring their comments, expressed +astonishment, and a certain amount of envy. "Marsden over all our heads! +This is a rum go, if you like."</p> + +<p>"Fancy! What next! Would you believe it?" Thompson's young ladies, after +being breathless, became shrill. "Why, on'y six months ago he was Number +Three in the Carpets."</p> + +<p>"He'll be prouder than ever."</p> + +<p>"I shan't dare so much as speak to him."</p> + +<p>"He always treated one as dirt under his feet," said a dark-haired, +anæmic young lady. "And <i>now</i>!"</p> + +<p>"With the increased screw," said a pert, blond young lady, "he'll be +able to buy more smart clothes, and he'll look more fetching than ever. +Yes, and you'll all be more in love with him than you are a'ready."</p> + +<p>"Speak for yourself."</p> + +<p>"Well, say I'm as bad as you. We're all a lot of fools together."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p><p>Of course there must be talk. The Napoleonic rise of this fortunate +shopman had been sufficiently rapid to stir the whole of his little +shop-world. Starting thus, to what heights might he not attain in +Thompson's? There would be talk and more talk.</p> + +<p>But not within the hearing of Mr. Mears.</p> + +<p>"Jabber, jabber," said Mr. Mears with unusual severity. "Less of it. +You're like so many cackling hens in some back yard—instead of ladies +who know how to behave themselves in a high-class emporium."</p> + +<p>Evidently Mr. Mears was not pleased with the appointment. He stamped +off; and the girls observed the characteristic swish of the coat tails, +the manner in which he puffed out his chest, and the faint flush upon +his bearded face.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Mrs. Thompson had passed onward and upward, through many +departments, to the door of communication on the first floor that led +from her public shop to her private house.</p> + +<p>Outwardly it was quite an old-fashioned shop, still encased with the +red-brick fabric of Georgian days; but inwardly its structure had been +almost entirely modernised. The bird-cage art of steel-girdering had +swept away division-walls, opened out the department to the widest +possible extent and given an unimpeded run of floor area where once the +goods used to be stored in rooms the size of pigeon-holes. The best +shop-architects had gutted the place, and, so far as they were +permitted, had "brought it up to date"; but in all recent improvements +the style of substantial, respectable grandeur was preserved. The new +mahogany staircases were of a Georgian pattern; there were no fantastic +white panellings, no coloured mosaics, no etagères of artificial +flowers. Really the vast looking-glasses were the only decoration that +one could condemn as altogether <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>belonging to the vulgar new school. The +mirrors were perhaps overdone.</p> + +<p>So, as Mrs. Thompson ascended the short flight of stairs out of Bedding, +Etc., a pleasant, middle-aged woman in stately black with pendent +chatelaine, climbed opposing steps to meet her face to face on the +landing. As she moved on she was moving in many glasses, so that nearly +all the assistants could see her or her reflected image: a procession of +Mrs. Thompsons advancing from Woollens and Yarns, another converging +column of Mrs. Thompsons from Cretonnes and Chintzes, reinforcements +coming forward in the big glass opposite the entrance of Household +Linen; while the young men behind the Blankets counter raised their eyes +to watch the real Mrs. Thompson march by with a company of false Mrs. +Thompsons stretching in perfect line from the right—innumerable Mrs. +Thompsons shown by the glasses; some looking bigger, some looking +slighter; but all the glasses showing a large-bosomed, broad-hipped +woman of forty-five, with florid colouring and robust deportment; a +valiant solid creature seeming, as indeed she was, well able to carry +the burden of the whole shop on her firm shoulders.</p> + +<p>Then the glasses were empty again: Mrs. Thompson had disappeared through +the door of communication.</p> + +<p>On this side of the door lay all her working life, the struggle, the +fight, the courageous plans, and the unflagging labours; on the other +side of the door lay the object for which she had toiled, the end and +aim of every brave endeavour.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>"Enid, my darling, are you there?... Yates, is Miss Enid in?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, ma'am, Miss Enid has lunched, and is upstairs—dressing for the +drive."</p> + +<p>Yates, the old servant, maid, housekeeper, and faithful friend, came +bustling and smiling to the welcome sounds of her employer's kind voice.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson sat for a few minutes in the vacated dining-room, talking +to Yates and hearing the domestic news.</p> + +<p>The headache of Miss Enid, Yates reported, was much better; but she had +not been out this morning. She seemed to be rather languid, and, as +Yates guessed, perhaps felt a little dull and moped after the gaieties +and excitements of the country-house visit from which she had just +returned.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well," said Mrs. Thompson cheerfully, "our drive will do her good. +And now that the summer is coming on, she shall not want for occupation +and amusement."</p> + +<p>All through the snug little box of a house, filched out of the block of +shop premises, there was evidence of the occupations and amusements of +Miss Enid. Bookcases with choicely bound volumes of romance and poetry, +elegant writing-desks, various musical instruments, materials for +painting in oil or water colour, new inventions for the practice of +miniature sculpture, the most costly photographic cameras, tennis +rackets, hockey sticks, and other implements of sport and pastime—on +this floor as on the upper floors, in dining-room, drawing-room, +boudoir, as well as bedroom and dressing-room, were things that should +provide a young lady with occupation and amusement.</p> + +<p>The rooms were comfortably furnished and brightly ornamented, and all +had a homelike soothing aspect to their busy owner. To other people they +might seem lacking in the studious taste by which the rich and idle can +make of each apartment a harmonious picture. Here money had been spent +profusely but hurriedly, at odd times and not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> all together: whatever at +the moment had appeared to be desirable or necessary had been at once +procured. So that comfort and luxury rather jostled each other; the +Sheraton cabinets which were so charming to look at were apt to get +hidden by the leather armchairs which were so soothing to have a nap in; +and the Chelsea china in the glass-fronted corner cupboard completely +lost itself behind the Japanese screen that guarded against draughts +from the old sashed window.</p> + +<p>"Enid, may I come in?" Mrs. Thompson tapped softly at the door of her +daughter's dressing-room.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, is that you?" The door was opened, and the two women +embraced affectionately.</p> + +<p>Miss Thompson, in her fawn-coloured coat and skirt, feathered hat and +spotted veil, was a tall, slim, graceful figure, ready now to adorn the +hired landau from Mr. Young's livery stables. Her hair was dark and her +complexion naturally pallid; with a long straight nose in a narrow face, +she resembled her dead father, but what was sheep-like and stupid in him +was rather pretty in the girl;—altogether, a decent-looking, fairly +attractive young woman of twenty-two, but not likely to obtain from the +world at large the gaze of admiring satisfaction with which an adoring +mother regarded her.</p> + +<p>"The carriage isn't there yet," said Mrs. Thompson, "and I promise not +to keep you waiting. I'll change my dress in a flash of lightning."</p> + +<p>"What did you think of wearing this afternoon?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson proposed to put on her new mauve gown and the hat with the +lilac blossoms; but her daughter made alternative suggestions.</p> + +<p>In the shop Mrs. Thompson carried a perpetual black; outside the shop +she was perhaps unduly fond of vivid tints, and it was Enid's custom to +check this rainbow tendency.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><p>"Very well," said Mrs. Thompson, "it shall be the brown again;" and she +laughed good-humouredly. "I bow to your judgment, my dear, if I don't +endorse its correctness."</p> + +<p>"You look sweet in the brown, mother."</p> + +<p>"Do I?... But remember what Miss Macdonald says. With my high +complexion, I <i>need</i> colour."</p> + +<p>Yates soon braced and laced her mistress into the sober brown cloth and +velvet that Enid considered suitable for the occasion; a parlourmaid +with light rugs went forward to the carriage; and mother and daughter +came down the steep and narrow flight of stairs to their outer door.</p> + +<p>There was no ground floor to the dwelling-house—or rather the ground +floor formed an integral part of the shop. The street door stood in St. +Saviour's Court—the paved footway that leads from High Street to the +churchyard,—sandwiched with its staircase between the two side windows +that contained basket chairs and garden requisites. The court was +sufficiently wide and sufficiently pleasant: a quiet, dignified passage +of entry, with the peaceful calm of the old church walls at one end, and +the stir and bustle of the brilliant High Street at the other end.</p> + +<p>Enid and her mamma, following the neat and mincing parlourmaid, made a +stately procession to the main thoroughfare, where the really handsome +equipage provided by Mr. Young was awaiting their pleasure.</p> + +<p>The liveried coachman touched his hat, idle loungers touched their caps, +prosperous citizens uncovered and bowed.</p> + +<p>"There goes Mrs. Thompson." People ran to upper windows to see Mrs. +Thompson start for her Thursday drive.</p> + +<p>"There she goes."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Thompson."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p><p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>The genial May sunshine flashed gaily, lighting up the whole street, +making both ladies blink their eyes as the carriage rolled away.</p> + +<p>"What a crowd there is outside Bence's," said Miss Enid. "How mean it is +of him not to close!"</p> + +<p>The first shop they passed was Bence's drapery stores, and Mrs. Thompson +glanced carelessly at the thronged pavement in front of these improperly +open windows.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Bence's motto," said Mrs. Thompson, "is cheap and nasty," and she +laughed with an amused scorn for so mean a trade rival. "His method of +doing business is like the trumpery he offers to the public. I have a +rather impudent letter from him in my pocket now, and I want—"</p> + +<p>But then Mrs. Thompson's strong eyebrows contracted, and she shrugged +her shoulders and looked away from Bence's. She had just noticed two of +her own shop-girls going into Bence's to buy his trumpery. Something +distinctly irritating in the thought that these feather-headed girls +regularly carried half their wages across the road to Bence's!</p> + +<p>Throughout the length of High Street there were too many of such signs +of the vulgar times: the ever-changing trade, old shops giving place to +new ones—an American boot-shop, a branch of the famous cash +tobacconists, the nasty cheap restaurant opened by the great London +caterers, Parisian jewellery absorbing one window of the historic +clocksmiths,—everywhere indications of that love of tawdriness and +glitter which slowly atrophies the sense of solid worth, of genuineness +and durability.</p> + +<p>Yet everywhere, also, signs of the old life of the town still +vigorous—aldermen and councillors taking the air; Mr. Wiseman, the +wealthy corn-merchant; Mr. Dempsey, the auctioneer-mayor; Mr. Young, +owner of a hundred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> horses besides this pair of gallant greys that were +drawing Mrs. Thompson.</p> + +<p>Everyone of the solid old townsfolk knew her; all that was respectably +permanent bowed and smiled at her. The drive was like a royal progress +when they swept through the market square, past the ancient town hall +now a museum, under the shadows thrown by the new municipal buildings, +and the other and bigger church of Holy Trinity, out beneath the noble +gatehouse, and up into the sunlit slope of Hill Street. Hats off on +either side, broad masculine faces smiling in the sunlight. All the best +of the town knew her and was proud of her.</p> + +<p>Her story was of the simplest, and all knew it. Mr. Thompson had been +the last and most feeble representative of a powerful dynasty of +shop-keepers; at his death it became at once apparent that the grand old +shop was nothing but an effete, played out, and utterly exhausted +possession; his widow was left practically penniless, with an insolvent +business to wind up, and an orphaned little girl to support and rear. +And young Mrs. Thompson was ignorant of all business matters, knew +nothing more of shops than can be learned by any shop-customer. +Nevertheless, with indomitable energy, she threw herself into business +life. She did not shut up Thompson's; she kept it going. In two years it +was again a paying concern; in a few more years it was a stronger and +more flourishing enterprise than it had ever been since its +establishment in 1813; now it was immensely prosperous and a credit to +the town.</p> + +<p>They all knew how she had toiled until the success came, how generously +she had used the money that her own force and courage earned—a +large-minded, open-handed, self-reliant worker, combining a woman's +endurance with a man's strength,—and only one weakness: the pampering +devotion to her girl. She was making her daughter too much of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> fine +lady; she had extravagantly worshipped this idol; she had <i>spoiled</i> the +long-nosed Enid. The town knew all about that.</p> + +<p>Bowing to right and to left, Mrs. Thompson drove up Hill Street, and +then stopped the carriage outside the offices of Mr. Prentice, solicitor +and commissioner of oaths.</p> + +<p>"Only two or three words with him, Enid. I promise not to be more than +five minutes."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice came to the carriage door; and was asked to read the letter +from Mr. Bence the fancy draper.</p> + +<p>"Don't you think it's rather impertinent?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I do," said Mr. Prentice. "I wouldn't answer it. Throw it +into the waste-paper basket."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, I shall answer it ... I can't allow Mr. Bence to suppose that I +should ever be afraid of him."</p> + +<p>"Afraid of him!" And Mr. Prentice laughed contemptuously. "<i>You</i> afraid +of such a little bounder.... Look here. Shall I go round and kick the +brute?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson laughed, too. "No, no," she said, "that would scarcely be +professional."</p> + +<p>"I'll do it after office hours—in my private capacity—and of course +without entering it to your account."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice was a jolly red-faced man of fifty, with healthy +clean-shaven cheeks, and small grey whiskers of a sporting cut. +Altogether the most eminent solicitor in Mallingbridge, he had clients +among all the country gentlefolk of the neighbourhood; he rode to hounds +still, and kept his horses at Young's stables; he stood high in the +Masonic craft and could sing an excellent comic song. He was at once +Mrs. Thompson's trusted legal adviser, her staunch friend, and, as he +himself declared, her admiring slave.</p> + +<p>"One more word," said Mrs. Thompson. "It is time that I gave another +dinner at the Dolphin. There are two new men on the Council—and there +will be more new men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> next November. I shall want your help to act as +deputy host for me. Will you think it out—draw up a list of guests—and +arrange everything?"</p> + +<p>"It is for you to command, and for me to obey," said genial Mr. +Prentice. "But, upon my word, I don't know why you should go on feasting +people in this way."</p> + +<p>"I like to stand well with the town."</p> + +<p>"And so you do. So you would, if you never gave them another glass of +champagne.... I think your mamma is far too generous."</p> + +<p>But Miss Enid, who seemed unutterably bored, was staring out of the +carriage in the other direction. She had not been listening to Mr. +Prentice, and she did not hear him when he addressed her directly.</p> + +<p>"Then good-bye. Drive on, coachman.... There," and Mrs. Thompson turned +gaily to her daughter. "That's more than enough business for Thursday +afternoon, isn't it, Enid?"</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>They drove along the London road, through the pretty village of +Haggart's Cross, as far as the chalk cliffs beneath the broad downs; and +then, descending again, through beech woods and fir plantations to the +valley where the river Malling runs and twists beside the railway line +all the way home to the town.</p> + +<p>The world was fresh and bright, with the May wind blowing softly and the +May flowers budding sweetly. Cattle in the green fields, birds in the +blue sky, pinafored children chanting a lesson behind the latticed panes +of their schoolhouse, primroses peeping from grassy banks, and, far and +near, the white hawthorn shedding its perfume, giving its fragrant +message of spring, of hope, of life—plenty of things to look at with +pleasure, plenty of things to talk about, though one might often have +seen them before.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>But Enid was somehow languid, listless, even lumpish, and Mrs. Thompson +did nearly all the looking and talking.</p> + +<p>"I always think that is such an imposing place. The entrance seems to +warn one off—to tell one not to forget what a tremendous swell the +owner is."</p> + +<p>They were passing the lodge-gates of a great nobleman's seat, and one +had a rapid impression of much magnificence. Stone piers, sculptured +urns, floreated iron, massive chains; and behind the forbidding barrier +a vista of swept gravel and mown grass, with solemn conifers proudly +ranked, and standard rhododendrons just beginning pompously to bloom—no +glimpse of the mansion itself, but an intuitive perception of something +vast, remote, unattainable.</p> + +<p>Enid looked through the bars at my lord's gravel drive attentively, +almost wistfully, perhaps thinking of the few and august people to whom +these splendours would be familiar—of the lucky people who are brought +up in palaces instead of in shops.</p> + +<p>"It is a meet of hounds." Miss Enid broke a long silence to give her +mother this information. "And when I was staying at Colonel Salter's, I +met a man who had once been to a ball there."</p> + +<p>"Ah, well," said Mrs. Thompson, with cheerful briskness, "now you +mention hunting, that reminds me. We must get you on horseback again.... +You do like your riding, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Enid listlessly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Young said you were making such good progress. And," added Mrs. +Thompson gently, "it is a pity to take up things and drop them. It is +just wasted effort—if one stops before reaching the goal."</p> + +<p>The road, turning and crossing the railway, gave them a well-known view +of Mallingbridge—the town quite at its best, four miles away in the +middle of the broad plain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> smoke and haze hanging over it, but with +tempered sunlight glistening on countless roofs, and the square tower of +St. Saviour's and the tall spire of Holy Trinity rising proudly above +the mass of lesser buildings. There, stretched at her feet, was Mrs. +Thompson's world, the world that she had conquered.</p> + +<p>In another mile they passed a residence that to her mind formed a +pleasant contrast with the oppressive splendour of the nobleman's +domain. Here there were white gates between mellow brick walls, easy +peeps into a terraced garden, stables and barns as at a farm, pigeons +settling on some thatch, friendly English trees guarding but not hiding +a dear old English country house.</p> + +<p>"Look, Enid," and Mrs. Thompson pointed to the broad eaves, the white +windows, and the solid chimney stacks, as they showed here and there +between the branches of oak and maple. "There. That's a place I fell in +love with the first time I saw it.... I would like a house just like +that—for you and me to live in when I am able to give up my work...."</p> + +<p>"What were you saying, mother?" Enid, not listening or absorbed by her +own thoughts, had not heard.</p> + +<p>"I was only saying, that's the sort of house I should like for us +two—when I retire."</p> + +<p>"Mother, I sometimes wish that you had retired years ago."</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Thompson meekly, "retiring is all very +well—but you and I wouldn't be sitting here driving so comfortably if I +had been afraid of my work and in a hurry to get done with it."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>II</span></h2> + +<p>In her marriage she had sacrificed all the natural hopes and +inclinations of a healthy young woman. She and her widowed mother were +very poor, quite alone in the world; and it seemed a proper and a wise +thing to marry Mr. Thompson for his money. No one could guess that the +money was already a phantom and no longer a fact. The man was +middle-aged, feeble of body and mind, a stupid and a selfish person; but +it seemed that he would assure the future of his wife and provide a +comfortable home for his mother-in-law.</p> + +<p>Then after five years the man and his money were gone forever; the +mother for whom the sacrifice had been made was herself dead; only the +wife and her little child remained. Five years of dull submission to an +unloved husband; five years spent in the nursing of two invalids, with +the vapid meaningless monotony of wasted days broken sharply by the +pains of child-birth, the agonized cares of early motherhood, and the +shock of death;—and at the end of the years, a sudden call for +limitless courage and almost impossible energy.</p> + +<p>Quiet unobtrusive Mrs. Thompson answered the call fully. Deep-seated +fighting instincts arose in her; unsuspected powers were put forth to +meet the exigencies of the occasion; the hero-spirit that lies buried in +many natures sprang nobly upward.</p> + +<p>At first she possessed only one commercial asset, the reputation of +Thompson's. For so many years Thompson's had been known as a good shop +that here was a legend which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> might counterbalance debts, exhausted +credit, antiquated stock, and incompetent staff.</p> + +<p>The town and the country during generations had come to Thompson's for +good things—not cheap things, but the things that last: dress fabrics +that stand up by themselves, chairs and tables that you can leave intact +to your grandchildren, carpets that unborn men will be beating when you +yourself are dust.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson, in her widow's weeds, went round the big supply houses, +telling the great trade chieftains that the legend was still alive, +though the man who already owed them so much money was dead; saying in +effect to all the people who held her fate in their hands, "Don't let +old Thompson's go down. Don't smash me. Help me. Give me time to secure +your twenty shillings in the pound, instead of the meagre seven and +sixpence which you can get now."</p> + +<p>The wholesale trade helped her. Little by little all the world came to +her aid. Mr. Prentice the solicitor was a skilful ally. As soon as it +could be seen locally that she was keeping her head above water, friends +on the bank began to beckon to her. Rich aldermen, advised that there +was now small risk, lent her money; and these loans rendered her +independent of Trade assistance. Soon she could get whatever sums she +required for the restoration and expansion of the business.</p> + +<p>In all her dealings she won respect. The confidence that she inspired +was her true commercial asset, her capital, her good-will, her +everything; and it was always growing. "Very remarkable," said +travellers, reporting at headquarters, "how that Mrs. Thompson has +pulled the fat out of the fire at Mallingbridge. What she wants now is +some sound business man for partner—and there's no knowing what she +mightn't do."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span></p><p>Then some other and more philosophic traveller, impressed by the swift +revivification of Thompson's, said enthusiastically, "The best business +head in this town is on a woman's shoulders." The saying was quoted, +misquoted, echoed and garbled, until it concreted itself into an easy +popular formula which the whole town used freely. "The best man of +business in Mallingbridge is a woman." Everyone knew who that woman was. +Mrs. Thompson. And the town, speaking on important occasions through the +mouth of its mayor, aldermen, and councillors, for the first time said +that it was proud of her.</p> + +<p>And then the town began to ask her hand in wedlock.</p> + +<p>In these days, at the dawn of her success, Mrs. Thompson was not without +obvious personal attraction. She was fair and plump, with light wavy +hair, kind grey eyes beneath well-marked eyebrows, and good colour +warmly brightening a clean white skin;—she "looked nice" in her widow's +black, smiling at a hard world and so bravely tackling her life problem. +Quite a large number of well-to-do citizens were smilingly rejected by +the buxom widow. Pretenders were slow to believe in the finality of her +refusals; as the success became more patent, they tried their luck +again, and again, but always with the same emptiness of result. Indeed +it was a town joke, as well as an unquestionable fact, that old Chambers +the wine-merchant regularly proposed three times a year to nice-looking +Mrs. Thompson.</p> + +<p>She wanted no second husband. The fight and the child were enough for +her. Those deep and unsapped springs of love that might have gushed +forth to make a fountain stream of happiness for Alderman Brown or +Councillor Jones flowed calmly and steadfastly now in a concentrated +channel of motherly affection. To work for the child, to love and tend +the child—that was henceforth her destiny. And she felt strong enough +to watch in her own face the blurring <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>destructive print of time, if she +might watch in her girl's face time's unfolding glories.</p> + +<p>For the cruel years took from her irrevocably those physical seductions +of neatly rounded form and smooth pinkness and whiteness. The colour +that had been sufficient became too much, plumpness changed to +stoutness—once, for a year, she was fat. But she tackled this trouble +too, bravely and unflinchingly,—went to London for Swedish exercises; +banted; brought herself down, down, down, until Dr. Eldridge told her +she must stop, or she would kill herself. After that she settled to a +steady solidness, a well-maintained amplitude of contour; and the years +seemed to leave her untouched as the wide-breasted, rotund-hipped, +stalwart Mrs. Thompson of a decade—red-cheeked, bright-eyed, gallant +and strong.</p> + +<p>Yet still she had suitors. The physical charm was gone, but other charm +was present—that blending of kindness and power which wins men's +hearts, if it does not stir their pulses, gave her a dominating +personality, and made the circle of her influence exactly as large as +the circle of her acquaintance. People at the circumference of the +circle seemed to be surely drawn, by a straight or vacillating radius, +to its centre. The better you knew her, the more you thought about her. +So that old friends after years of thought now and then surprised her by +suggesting that friendship should be exchanged for a closer bond; +pointing out the advantages of a common-sense union, the marriage of +convenience, sympathy, and mutual regard, that becomes appropriate when +the volcano glow of youth has faded; and inviting her to name an early +day for going to St. Saviour's Church with them.</p> + +<p>In the shop, among all grades of employees, there had ever been a dread +of St. Saviour's Church and wedding bells. They got on so well with +their mistress that the idea of a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> master was extraordinarily abhorrent +to them. But one day, a day now long past, Mrs. Thompson told Mr. Mears +authoritatively that joy bells would never sound for her again; Mr. +Mears, by permission, or in the exercise of his own discretion, passed +on the glad tidings; and the only dark thought that could worry a +contented staff was removed.</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Mears, I don't say that I have never contemplated the +possibility of such an event; but I can say emphatically I have decided +that in my case it <i>is</i> impossible."</p> + +<p>That was sufficient. What Mrs. Thompson said Mrs. Thompson meant. A +decision with her was a decision.</p> + +<p>Of all her trusty subordinates none had served her so loyally as big Mr. +Mears. His whole life had been spent in Thompson's. Once he had been boy +messenger, window-cleaner, boot-blacker; and now, at the age of sixty, +he had risen to managerial rank. He was the acknowledged chief of the +staff, Mrs. Thompson's right-hand man; and he was as proud of his +position and the culminating grandeurs of his career as if he had been a +successful general, a prime-minister, or a pope. Mrs. Thompson knew and +openly told him that he was invaluable to her. Such words were like wine +and music: they intoxicated and enchanted him. Truly he was +whole-hearted, faithful, devoted, with a deep veneration for his +mistress; with an intense and almost passionate esteem for her skill, +her comprehension, her vigour, and for her herself—perhaps too with a +love that he scarcely himself understood.</p> + +<p>Anyhow this heavy grey-haired shopman and his employer were very close +allies, generally thinking as one, and always acting as one, able to +talk together with a nearly absolute freedom on any question, however +intimately private in its character.</p> + +<p>"You see, Mr. Mears, if I ever meant to do it, I should have done it +ages ago. Now that my daughter is growing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> up, her claims for attention +are becoming stronger every day."</p> + +<p>Mr. Mears and the rest of the staff were more than satisfied. Perhaps +they blessed the idolized Enid for an increasing capacity to absorb +every energy and volition that Mrs. Thompson could spare from the shop.</p> + +<p>Whatever Enid wished for her mother provided. She racked her brains in +order to forestall the child's wishes. But the difficulty always was +this, one could not be quite sure what Enid really wished. She accepted +the pretty gifts, the conditions of her life, the plans for her future, +with a calm unruffled acquiescence.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Thompson regretfully decided that it would be advisable to +dismiss the expensive governesses and send the home pupil to an +expensive school, Enid placidly and immediately agreed. Mrs. Thompson +thought that school would open Enid's mind, that school would give her +an opportunity of making nice girl-friends. Enid at once thought so, +too.</p> + +<p>"But, oh, my darling, what a gap there will be in this house! You'll +leave a sore and a sad heart behind you. I shall miss you woefully."</p> + +<p>"And I shall miss you, mamma."</p> + +<p>Then, when Enid had gone to the fashionable seminary at Eastbourne, with +the faithful Yates as escort, with a wonderful luncheon-basket of +delicacies in the first-class reserved compartment, with several huge +boxes of school trousseau in the luggage van, Mrs. Thompson began to +suffer torment. Was it not cruel to send the brave little thing away +from her? Might not her darling be now a prey to similar yearnings and +longings for a swift reunion? The torment became agony; and after two +days Mrs. Thompson rushed down to see for herself if the new scholar was +all right.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p><p>Enid was entirely all right—playing with the other girls at the bottom +of the secluded garden.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, mummy?" This was a form of greeting peculiar to Enid from +very early days. "I am so glad to see you," and she kissed mamma +affectionately.</p> + +<p>She was uniformly affectionate, whether at school or at home, but never +explosive or demonstrative in the manifestations of her affection. There +was more warmth in her letters than in her spoken words. "My own dearest +mother," she used to write, "I am so looking forward to being with you +again. Do meet me at the station." But when the train arrived and Mrs. +Thompson, who had been pacing the Mallingbridge platform in a fever of +expectation, clasped the beloved object to her heart, she experienced +something akin to disappointment. It was a sedately composed young lady +that offered a cool cheek to the mother's tremulous lips.</p> + +<p>Now and then a school-friend came to stay with Enid. A Miss Salter, +whose parents proved large-minded enough to overlook the glaring fact of +the shop, was a fairly frequent visitor. During the visit one of Mr. +Young's carriages stood at the disposal of the young hostess and her +guest all day long; breakfasts were served in bed; a private box at the +local theatre might be occupied any evening between the cosy dinner and +the dainty little supper; and Mrs. Thompson arranged delightful +expeditions to London, where, under the guardianship of Yates, larger +sights and more exciting treats could be enjoyed than any attainable in +Mallingbridge.</p> + +<p>The condescending guest returned to her distinguished circle laden with +presents, and frankly owned that she had been given a royal time at the +queer shop-house in St. Saviour's Court.</p> + +<p>Enid in her turn visited the houses of her friends, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> came home to +tell Mrs. Thompson of that pleasant gracious world in which people do +not work for their living, but derive their ample means from splendidly +interred ancestors. With satisfaction, if not with animation, she +described how greatly butlers and footmen surpass the art of +parlourmaids in waiting at table; how gay an effect is produced by young +men dining in red coats, how baronets often shoot with three guns, how +lords never use less than two horses in the hunting field, and so on. +And Mrs. Thompson was happy in the thought that her daughter should be +mingling with fine company and deriving pleasure from strange scenes.</p> + +<p>She was careful to obliterate herself in all such social intercourse. +Courteous letters were exchanged between her and Enid's hosts; but the +girl and Yates were despatched together, and Mrs. Thompson refused even +a glimpse of the Salters' mansion.</p> + +<p>"Later on," she told Enid, "when we have done with the shop, I shall +hope to take my place in society by my pretty daughter's side. But for +the present I must just keep to myself.... The old prejudice against +retail trade still lingers—more especially among the class that used to +be termed <i>country</i> people."</p> + +<p>Enid dutifully agreed. Indeed she told her mother that the old prejudice +was much more active than anyone could guess who had not personally +encountered it. The shop was, so to speak, a very large pill, and needed +a considerable amount of swallowing.</p> + +<p>"I found that out in my first term at school, mother dear."</p> + +<p>"Mother dear" was now Enid's unvaried mode of address when talking to +her mamma. All her friends addressed their mammas as mother dear. School +was over in these days. Miss Thompson had been finished; she did her +country-house visiting with a maid of her own, and no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> longer with old +Yates; as much as she appeared to like anything, she liked staying about +at country-houses; she never refused an invitation—except when she was +previously engaged.</p> + +<p>Something perhaps wanting here in the finished article, as polished and +pointed by Eastbourne school-mistresses; something not quite right in +Enid's placid acquiescences and too rapid concurrences; something that +suggested the smooth surface of a languid shallow stream, and not the +broad calm that lies above deep strong currents! Perhaps Mrs. Thompson +would have preferred a more exuberant reciprocity in her great love; +perhaps she secretly yearned for a full response to the open appeal of +her expansive, generous nature.</p> + +<p>If so, she never said it. She was generous in thoughts as well as in +deeds. In big things as in small things she seemed to think that it was +for her to give and for others to receive. From the vicar craving funds +for his new organ to the crossing sweeper who ostentatiously slapped his +chest on cold mornings, all who asked for largesse received a handsome +dole. At the railway-station, when she appeared, ticket-collectors and +porters tumbled over one another in their rush to dance attendance—so +solid was her reputation as a lavishly tremendous tipper.</p> + +<p>"She is making so much money herself that she can afford to be free with +it." That was the view of the town, and her own view, too. So all the +tradesmen with whom she dealt flagrantly overcharged her—dressmakers, +livery stable keepers, wine-merchants, florists, every one of them said +it was a privilege to serve her, and then sent in an extortionate bill. +And she paid and thanked with a genial smile.</p> + +<p>Donations to the hospitals, subscriptions to the police concert, the +watermen's regatta, the railway servants' sports—really there was no +end to the demands that she met so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> cheerily. Christmas turkeys for the +Corporation underlings; cigars for the advertisement printers; small and +big dinners, with salvos of champagne corks threatening the Dolphin +ceilings, for aldermen, councillors, and all other urban +magnates—really it was no wonder that the town had a good word for her.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice, the solicitor, always tried and always failed to curb her +liberality. Mr. Prentice kept himself outside of the Corporation's +affairs, and expressed considerable contempt for the municipal +representatives and the local tradesmen. When Mrs. Thompson spoke with +gratitude of the kindness of friends who helped her by loans in her +early struggle, Mr. Prentice mocked at these spurious benefactors.</p> + +<p>"They did nothing for you," said Mr. Prentice.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how can you pretend that?"</p> + +<p>"They lent you money on excellent security and took high interest; and +you have been feasting them and flattering them ever since."</p> + +<p>"I do like to feel that I am on good terms with those about me."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Prentice would laugh. "Oh, well, you have certainly got the +Corporation in your pocket. You make them your slaves—as you make me +and everyone else. So I'll say no more. No doubt you know your own +business best."</p> + +<p>And she did. That well-used formula of the town might have been a +high-flown compliment at the beginning, but it was sober truth now. No +man in Mallingbridge could touch her. The years, taking so much from +her, had also brought her much. With ripening judgment, widening +knowledge, and the accumulated treasure of experience, her business +faculty had developed into something very near the highest form of +genius. She had insight, sense of organization, the power of launching +out boldly and accepting heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> risks to secure large gains; but she had +also caution, concentration of purpose in minor aims, and rapid decision +in facing a failure and cutting short consequent losses. In a word, she +possessed all the best attributes of your good man of business, and the +little more that makes up greatness.</p> + +<p>She could always do that which very few men consistently achieve. She +mastered the situation of the moment, struck directly at the root of the +difficulty that confronted her, and, sweeping aside irrelevancies, +non-essentials, and entanglements, saw in the cold bright light of +logical thought the open road that leads from chaos to security.</p> + +<p>And no man could have been a more absolute ruler. Every year of her +success made her dominion more complete. Womanlike, she ruled her world +by kindness; but man-like, she enforced her law by a show of strength, +and weight, and even of mere noise. Not often, but whenever necessary, +she acted a man's violence, and used bad language. When Mrs. Thompson +swore the whole shop trembled.</p> + +<p>The swearing was a purely histrionic effort, but she carried it through +nobly.</p> + +<p>"Have you heard?" A tremulous whisper ran along the counters. "Mrs. T. +went out into the yard, and damned those carters into heaps.... Mrs. T. +'as just bin down into the packing room, and given 'em damson pie—and +I'm sure they jolly well deserved it.... Look out. Here she comes!"</p> + +<p>The brawny carters hung their heads, the hulking packers cleared their +throats huskily, the timorous shop-hands looked at the floor. Mrs. +Thompson passed like a silent whirlwind through the shop, and banged the +counting-house door behind her.</p> + +<p>When Enid was away from home the counting-house was sometimes occupied +to a late hour. Staff long since gone, lights out everywhere; but light +still shining in that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> inner room, fighting the darkness above the glass +partitions. The night watchman, pacing to and fro, kept himself alert—a +real watchman, ready with his lantern to conduct Mrs. Thompson through +the shrouded avenues of counter, and upstairs to the door of +communication.</p> + +<p>When Enid was away the house seemed empty; and the empty house, +curiously enough, always seemed smaller. It was as though because the +life of the house had contracted, the four walls had themselves drawn +nearer together. Yet the little rooms were just big enough to hold +ghosts and sad memories.</p> + +<p>"You look thoroughly fagged out, ma'am. You overdo it. Let me open you a +pint of champagne for your supper."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, Yates.... But sit down, and talk to me."</p> + +<p>The old servant sat at the table, and kept her mistress company through +what would otherwise have been a lonely meal. In Miss Enid's absence she +had no house news to offer, so Mrs. Thompson gave her the shop news.</p> + +<p>"I swore at them to-day, Yates."</p> + +<p>"Did you indeed, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"What drove you to that, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the packing-room again—and those carters. I informed Mr. Mears +that I should do it; and he kept his eyes open, and came up quietly and +told me when.... Mr. Mears was delighted with it. He told me at closing +time that things had gone like clockwork ever since."</p> + +<p>In her comfortable bedroom Mrs. Thompson shivered.</p> + +<p>"Yates, I feel cold. I suppose it is because I'm tired."</p> + +<p>"Shall I make you a glass of hot grog to drink in bed?"</p> + +<p>"No.... But come in again when I ring—and stay with me for a few +minutes, will you, Yates?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p><p>The old servant sat by the bedside until her mistress became drowsy.</p> + +<p>"I'll leave you now, ma'am. Good-night, and pleasant dreams."</p> + +<p>"Yates—kiss me."</p> + +<p>Yates stooped over her lonely mistress, and kissed her. Then she softly +switched off the light, and left Mrs. Thompson alone in the darkness.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>III</span></h2> + +<p>When old employees looked out of Thompson's windows they sometimes had a +queer impression that this side of the street was stationary, and that +the other side of the street was moving. Six years ago Bence the +fancy-draper had been eight doors off; but he had come nearer and nearer +as he absorbed his neighbours' premises one after another. Now the end +of Bence's just overlapped Thompson's. For three or four feet he was +fairly opposite.</p> + +<p>Just as Thompson's represented all that was good and stable in the trade +of Mallingbridge, Bence's stood for everything bad and evanescent. A +horrid catch-penny shop, increasing its business rapidly, practising the +odious modern methods of remorseless rivalry, Bence's was almost +universally hated. They outraged the feelings of old established +tradesmen by taking up lines which cut into one cruelly: they burst out +into books, into trunks, into ironmongery; at Christmas, in what they +called their grand annual bazaar, they had a cut at the trade of every +shop throughout the length of High Street. But especially, at all +seasons of the year, they cut into Thompson's. The marked deliberate +attack was when they first regularly took up Manchester goods. Then came +Carpets, then Crockery, and then Garden requisites.</p> + +<p>But Bence, in the person of Mr. Archibald, the senior partner, always +announced the coming attack to Mrs. Thompson. He said she was the +superior of all the other traders; he could never forget that she was a +lady, and that he himself was one of her most respectful yet most<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> +ardent admirers; he desired ever to treat her with the utmost chivalry. +Thus now he came over, full of gallant compliments, to make a fresh +announcement.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson always treated Bence and his dirty little tricks as a +joke. She used to laugh at him with a good-humoured tolerance.</p> + +<p>"Of course, Mrs. Thompson, I don't like seeming to run you hard in any +direction. But lor', how can <i>I</i> hurt you? You're big—you're right up +there"—and Mr. Bence waved a thin hand above his bald head—"a colossal +statue, made of granite. And <i>I</i>, why I'm just a poor little insect +scrabbling about in the mud at your feet."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Mrs. Thompson, smiling pleasantly, "you're nothing of the +sort. You are a very clever enterprising gentleman. But I'm not in the +least afraid of you, Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>"That's right," said Bence delightedly. "And always remember this. I am +not <i>fighting</i> you. Any attempt at a real fight is simply foreign from +my nature—that is, where you are concerned."</p> + +<p>"Never mind me," said Mrs. Thompson once. "But take care on your own +account. Vaulting ambition sometimes o'erleaps itself."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Bence. "There you show your marvellous power. You put your +finger on the sore spot in a moment. I <i>am</i> ambitious. I might almost +say my ambitions are boundless. Work is life to me—and if I was by +myself, I don't believe anything would stop me. But," said Bence, with +solemn self-pity, "as all the world knows, Mrs. Thompson, there's a +<i>leak</i> in my business."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson perfectly understood what he meant. This working Bence was +a sallow, prematurely bald man with a waxed moustache and a cracked +voice, and he toiled incessantly; but there were two younger Bences, +bluff,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> hearty, hirsute men, who were sleeping partners, and eating, +drinking, and loose-living partners. While Mr. Archibald laboured in +Mallingbridge, Mr. Charles and Mr. George idled and squandered in +London.</p> + +<p>"That's the trouble with me," said Mr. Archibald sadly. "I'm the captain +on his bridge, sending the ship full speed ahead, but knowing full well +that there's a leak down below in the hold.... Never sufficient money +behind me.... Oh, Mrs. Thompson," cried Bence, in a burst of enthusiasm, +"if I only had the money behind me, I'd soon show you what's what and +who's who. But I'm a man fighting with tied hands."</p> + +<p>"Not fighting <i>me</i>, Mr. Bence. You said so yourself."</p> + +<p>"No, no. Never <i>you</i>. I was thinking of the others."</p> + +<p>Well then, Bence had come across the road once more. In the letter which +Mrs. Thompson, when showing it to her solicitor, had described as +impertinent, Bence presented his compliments and begged an early +appointment for a communication of some importance. Mr. Bence added that +"any hints from Mrs. Thompson in regard to his proposed new departure +would be esteemed a privileged favour." Mrs. Thompson considered the +suggestion that she should advise the rival in his attack as perhaps +something beyond the limits of a joke. Nevertheless, she gave the +appointment, and smilingly received the visitor in her own room behind +the counting-house.</p> + +<p>"May I begin by saying how splendidly well you are looking, Mrs. +Thompson?... When I came in at that door, I thought there'd been a +mistake. Seeing you sitting there at your desk, I thought, 'But this is +<i>Miss</i> Thompson, and not my great friend <i>Mrs.</i> Thompson.' Mistook you +for your own daughter, till you turned round and showed me that +well-known respected countenance which—"</p> + +<p>"Now Mr. Bence," said Mrs. Thompson, laughing, "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> can't allow you to +waste your valuable time in saying all these flattering things."</p> + +<p>"No flattery."</p> + +<p>"Please sit down and tell me what new wickedness you are contemplating."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Bence made his announcement. It was Furniture this time. He had +bought out two more neighbours—the old-fashioned sadler and the +bookseller; and he proposed to convert these two shops into his new +furniture department.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson's brows gathered in a stern frown; only by a visible +effort could she wipe out the aspect of displeasure, and speak with +careless urbanity.</p> + +<p>"Let me see exactly what it means, Mr. Bence.... I suppose you mean that +your Furniture windows will be exactly opposite mine."</p> + +<p>"Well, as near as makes no difference."</p> + +<p>"That will be very convenient—for both of us, won't it? I think it is +an excellent idea, Mr. Bence," and Mrs. Thompson laughed. "Customers who +can't see what they want here, can step across and look for it with +you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I daren't hope that we should ever draw anybody from your pavement, +Mrs. Thompson."</p> + +<p>"You are much too modest. But if it should ever happen that you fail to +supply any customers with what they desire, you can send them across to +us. You'd do that, wouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I will," said Bence heartily. "That's what I say. We don't +clash. We <i>can't</i> clash."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson struck the bell on her desk, and summoned a secretary.</p> + +<p>"Send Mr. Mears to me."</p> + +<p>The sight of Bence always ruffled and disturbed old Mears. Seeing Bence +complacently seated near the bureau<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> in the proprietorial sanctum, his +face flushed, his grey beard bristled, and his dark eyes rolled angrily.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Thompson told him all about the furniture, he grunted, but did +not at first trust himself to words.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Mears, what do you think about it?"</p> + +<p>"I think," said Mears gruffly, "that it's <i>like</i> Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>"I was remarking," said Bence, nodding and grinning, "that we cannot +possibly clash. Our customers are poor little people—not like your rich +and influential clientele. Our whole scheme of business is totally +different from yours."</p> + +<p>"That's true," said Mears, and he gave another grunt.</p> + +<p>"You know," said Mrs. Thompson, "Mr. Bence is not <i>fighting</i> us. He is +only carrying out his own system."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mears, "we are acquainted with his system, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Then I think that no more need be said. We are quite prepared for any +opposition—or competition."</p> + +<p>"Quite, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Then I won't detain you, Mr. Mears."</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Mr. Mears," said Bence politely. But Mr. Mears only +grunted at him.</p> + +<p>"What a sterling character," said Bence, as soon as Mr. Mears had closed +the glass door. "One of the good old school, isn't he? I do admire that +sort of dignified trustworthy personage. Gives the grand air to an +establishment.... But then if it comes to that, I admire all your +people, Mrs. Thompson;" and he wound up this morning call with +sycophantically profuse compliments. "Your staff strikes me as unique. I +don't know where you get 'em from. You seem to spot merit in the +twinkling of an eye.... But I have trespassed more than sufficient. I +see you wish to get back to your desk. <i>Good</i> morning, Mrs. Thompson. +Ever your humble servant;" and Mr. Bence bowed himself out.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>IV</span></h2> + +<p>Certainly, if Mrs. Thompson could not accept the bulk of Archibald +Bence's compliments, she might justly pride herself on being always +anxious to spot merit among her people. Unaided by any advice, she had +quickly spotted the young man in the Carpets department.</p> + +<p>Making her tour of inspection one day, she was drawn towards the wide +entrance of Carpets by the unseemly noise of a common female voice. +Looking into Carpets, she found the shrewish wife of an old farmer +raging and nagging at everybody, because she could not satisfy herself +with what was being offered to her. Half the stock was already on the +floor; Number One and Number Two were at their wits' ends, becoming +idiotic, on the verge of collapse; Number Three had just come to their +rescue.</p> + +<p>"Oh, take it away.... No—not a bit like what I'm asking for." And the +virago turned to her hen-pecked husband. "You were a fool to bring me +here. I told you we ought to have gone to London."</p> + +<p>"But madam knows the old saying. One may go farther and fare worse. I +can assure you, madam, there's nothing in the London houses that we +can't supply here."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, you're glib enough—but if you've got it, why don't you bring +it out?"</p> + +<p>"If madam will have patience, I guarantee that we will suit her—yes, in +less than three minutes."</p> + +<p>The young man spoke firmly yet pleasantly; and he looked and smiled at +this ugly vixenish customer as though she had been young, gracious, and +beautiful.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Thompson did not intervene: she stood near the entrance, watching +and listening.</p> + +<p>"Now, madam, if you want value for your money, look at this.... No?... +Very good. This is Axminster—genuine Axminster,—and very charming +colouring.... No?... What does madam think of <i>this</i>?... No?"</p> + +<p>He spun out the vast webs; with bowed back and quick movements of both +hands he trundled the enormous rollers across the polished floor; he ran +up the ladders and jerked the folded masses from the shelves; he flopped +down the cut squares so fast that the piled heaps seemed to grow by +magic before the customer's chair.</p> + +<p>Doubtless he knew that he was being observed, but he showed no knowledge +of the fact. As he hurried past Mrs. Thompson, she noticed that he was +perspiring. He dabbed his white forehead with his handkerchief as he +passed again, trundling a roll with one hand.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson felt astounded by his personal strength. Mr. Mears was +strong, a man of comparatively huge girth and massive limbs; he could +lift big weights; but Mears in his prime could not have shifted the +carpet rolls as they were shifted by this slim-waisted stripling.</p> + +<p>Two minutes gone, and the querulous, nagging tones were modulated to the +note of vulgar affability. Two minutes—thirty seconds, and the customer +had decided that her carpet should be one of the three which she was +prodding at with her umbrella. She asked Mr. Marsden to help her in +making the final selection.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marsden was standing up now, Numbers One and Two clumsily hovering +about him, while he talked easily and confidentially to the 'mollified +customer. And while he talked, Mrs. Thompson scrutinized him carefully.</p> + +<p>He could not be more than twenty-seven—possibly less.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> He was +gracefully although so strongly built, of medium height, with an +excellent poise of the head. His hair was brownish, stiff, cut very +short; his small stiff moustache was brushed up in the military fashion; +his features were of the firmest masculine type—nose perhaps a shade +too thick and not sufficiently well modelled. She could not see the +colour of his eyes.</p> + +<p>But his manner! It was the salesman's art in its highest and rarest +form. He had charmed, fascinated, hypnotised the troublesome customer. +She bought her carpets, and two door mats; she smiled and nodded and +prattled; she seemed quite sorry to say good-bye to Mr. Marsden.</p> + +<p>"I shall tell my friends to come here," and then she giggled stupidly. +"And I shall tell them to ask for you."</p> + +<p>Without entering Carpets, Mrs. Thompson walked away. She did not utter a +word then; but she had determined to promote Number Three, to give him +more scope, and to see what she could make of him.</p> + +<p>She moved him through the Woollens, the Cretonnes; and then again, +upstairs into Crockery.</p> + +<p>Crockery, which had of late betrayed sluggishness, was one side of a +large department. Beginning with common pots and pans, it shaded off +into glass and china; and on this side ran up to the big money which was +properly demanded for the most delicate porcelain and ornamental +ware—such as best English dinner services and modern <i>Sèvres</i> +candelabra. Young Marsden was given charge of the cheaper and +quicker-selling stuff, while Miss Woolfrey, a freckled, sandy lady of +forty, remained for the present in control of the expensive side. But +she was not a titular head; Mears and Mrs. Thompson herself +superintended her, allowing her little discretion, and instructing her +from day to day.</p> + +<p>After a week Marsden, the newcomer, got a distinct move on the sluggish +earthenware; and, after three weeks,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> Mears rather grudgingly confessed +that the whole department appeared to be brisker, livelier, more what +one would wish it to be.</p> + +<p>On the whole, then, Mrs. Thompson was well pleased with her protégé. She +spoke to him freely, encouraged him by carefully chosen words of +approval.</p> + +<p>One day, while talking to a desk-clerk, she saw him in an adjacent +mirror that gave one a round-the-corner view of Glass and China. He was +standing with a trade catalogue in his hands, surrounded by Miss +Woolfrey and three girls. He seemed to be expounding the catalogue, and +the women seemed to exhibit a docile attention.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson went in and talked to them.</p> + +<p>There had been an accident, and Mr. Marsden was looking up the trade +price of the destroyed article. Poor Miss Woolfrey had broken a +cut-glass decanter—she got upon the steps to fetch it down, and it was +heavier than she expected.</p> + +<p>"Why," inquired Mrs. Thompson, "didn't you ask someone to help you?"</p> + +<p>"I never thought till it was too late, and I'd found out my mistake."</p> + +<p>There was no need to offer apologies to the proprietress, because all +breakages of this character were made good out of an insurance fund to +which all the employees subscribed. The whole shop was therefore +interested in each smash, since everybody would pay a share of the +damage.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden," said Miss Woolfrey, "has so very kindly priced it for me. +He will send on the order at once. So it shall be replaced, ma'am, +without delay."</p> + +<p>The three interested girls lingered at Mr. Marsden's elbows; they +watched his face; they hung upon his words. Miss Woolfrey continued to +thank him for all the trouble he was taking.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Thompson walked away, thinking about Mr. Marsden. These women were +too obviously subject to the young man's personal fascination; their +silly glances were easy to interpret; and middle-aged Miss Woolfrey and +the three immature underlings had all betrayed the same weakness. This +implied a situation that must be thought out. Lady-killers, though +useful with the customers, may cause a lot of trouble with the staff.</p> + +<p>There was no indication of the professional heart-disturber in the young +fellow's general air. Mrs. Thompson had found his manner scrupulously +correct—except that, as she remembered now, there was perhaps something +too hardy in the way he kept his eyes fixed on her face. She attributed +this to sheer intentness, mingled with juvenile simplicity. Most of the +older men instinctively dropped their eyes in her presence.</p> + +<p>After a little thought she called Mears behind the glass, and +interrogated him. "Behind the glass" was a shop term for all the sacred +region masked by the glass partitions, and containing counting-house, +clerks' and secretary's offices, managerial and the proprietorial +departments.</p> + +<p>"If you want the plain fact," said Mr. Mears, "there's little difference +in the pack of 'em."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean they are <i>silly</i> about him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mears scornfully. "Spoony sentimental—talking ridiculous +over him."</p> + +<p>"But is <i>he</i> all right with the girls? What is <i>his</i> attitude?... Find +out for me."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson was always wisely strict on this most important point of +shop discipline. No playing the fool between the young ladies and young +gentlemen under the care of Mrs. Thompson.</p> + +<p>"I will not permit it," she said sternly; and she laid her open hand +upon the desk, to give weightier emphasis to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> words. "We must have +no condoning of that sort of thing. If I catch him at it—if I catch +anyone, out he goes neck and crop."</p> + +<p>In the course of a few days Mr. Mears reported, still grudgingly, that +young Marsden's demeanour towards the young ladies was absolutely +perfect. Stoical indifference, calm disregard, not even a trace of that +flirting or innocently philandering tone which is so common, and to +which one can scarcely object.</p> + +<p>"Good," said Mrs. Thompson. "I'm glad to hear it—because now I shan't +be afraid of advancing him."</p> + +<p>"But," said Mears, "you <i>have</i> advanced him. You aren't thinking of +putting him up again?"</p> + +<p>"I am not sure. Something must be done about Miss Woolfrey. I will think +about it."</p> + +<p>It was not long before Mears, young Marsden and Miss Woolfrey were all +summoned together behind the glass. The typewriting girl had been sent +out of the room; Mrs. Thompson sat in front of her bureau, looking like +a great general; Mr. Mears, at her side, looked like a glum +aide-de-camp; the young man looked like a soldier who had been beckoned +to step forward from the ranks. He stood at a respectful distance, and +his bearing was quite soldierlike—heels together, head well up, the +broad shoulders very square, and the muscular back straight and flat. +His eyes were on the general's face.</p> + +<p>Sandy, freckled Miss Woolfrey merely looked foolish and frightened. She +caught her breath and coughed when Mrs. Thompson informed her that Mr. +Marsden was to be put in charge of the whole department.</p> + +<p>"Over my head, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"It will make no difference to you. Your salary will be no less. And +yours, Mr. Marsden, will be no more. But you will have fuller scope."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p><p>Miss Woolfrey feebly protested. She had hoped,—she had naturally +hoped;—in a customary shop-succession the post should be hers.</p> + +<p>"Miss Woolfrey, do you feel yourself competent to fill it? Hitherto you +have been under the constant supervision of Mr. Mears. But do you +honestly feel you could stand alone?"</p> + +<p>"I'd do my best, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson cordially, "I'm sure you would. But with the +best will in the world, there are limits to one's capacity. I have come +to the conclusion that this is a man's task;" and she turned to the +fortunate salesman. "Mr. Marsden, you will not in any way interfere with +Miss Woolfrey—but you will remember that the department is now in your +sole charge. If I have to complain, it will be to you. If things go +wrong, it is you that I shall call to account."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Nothing went wrong in China and Glass. But sometimes Mrs. Thompson +secretly asked herself if she or Mears had been right. Had she acted +wisely when pushing an untried man so promptly to the front?</p> + +<p>During these pleasant if enervating months of May and June she watched +him closely.</p> + +<p>Somehow he took liberties. It was difficult to define. He talked humbly. +His voice was always humble, and his words too—but his eyes were bold. +Something of aggressive virility seemed to meet and attempt to beat down +that long-assumed mastership to which everyone else readily submitted. +In the shop she was a man by courtesy—the boss, the cock of the walk; +and she was never made to remember, when issuing orders to the men who +served her, that she was not really and truly male.</p> + +<p>All this might be fancy; but it made a slight want of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> ease and comfort +in her intercourse with Mr. Marsden—a necessity felt only with him, an +instinct telling her that here was a servant who must be kept in his +place.</p> + +<p>Once or twice, when she was examining returns with him, his assiduous +attention bothered her.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Marsden, I can see it for myself."</p> + +<p>And there was a certain look in his eyes while he talked to +her—respectfully admiring, pensively questioning, familiar,—no, not to +be analysed. But nevertheless it was a look that she did not at all care +about.</p> + +<p>The eyes that he used so hardily were of a lightish brown, speckled with +darker colour; and above them the dark eyebrows grew close together, +making almost an unbroken line across his brow. She saw or guessed that +his beard would be tawny, if he let it grow; but he was always +beautifully shaved. High on his cheeks there were tiny russet hairs, +like down, that he never touched with the razor.</p> + +<p>All through May China and Glass did better and better. Miss Woolfrey, +meekly submitting to fate, worked loyally under the new chief. "If +anyone had to be put above me," said poor Miss Woolfrey, "I'd rather it +was him."</p> + +<p>When a truly excellent week's returns were shown in June, Mrs. Thompson +took an opportunity of praising Mr. Marsden generously. And again, after +he had bowed and expressed his gratification, she saw the look that she +did not care about.</p> + +<p>She read it differently now. It was probably directly traceable to the +arrogance bred of youth and strength—and perhaps a fairly full measure +of personal conceit. Although so circumspect with the other sex, he had +a reliance on his handsome aspect. Perhaps unconsciously he was always +falling back on this—because hitherto it might never have failed him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>It was Enid who made her think him handsome. Till Enid used the word, +she would have thought it too big.</p> + +<p>One morning she had brought her daughter to the China department in +order to select a wedding-present for a girlfriend. Miss Woolfrey was +serving her, but Mr. Marsden came to assist. Then Mrs. Thompson saw how +he looked at Enid.</p> + +<p>Some sort of introduction had been made—"Enid, my dear, Mr. Marsden +suggests this vase;" and the girl had immediately transferred her +attention from the insipid serving woman to the resourceful serving-man. +Mr. Marsden showed her more and more things—"This is good value. Two +guineas—if that is not beyond your figure. Or this is a quaint +notion—Parrots! They paint them so natural, don't they?" And Mrs. +Thompson saw the look, and winced. With his eyes on the girl's face, he +smiled—and Enid began to smile, too.</p> + +<p>"What is the joke, Mr. Marsden?" Mrs. Thompson had spoken coldly and +abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Joke?" he echoed.</p> + +<p>"You appear to be diverted by the idea of my daughter's purchase—when +really it is simply a matter of business."</p> + +<p>"Exactly—but if I can save you time by—"</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Miss Woolfrey is quite competent to show us all that we +require;" and Mrs. Thompson turned her broad back on the departmental +manager.</p> + +<p>Enid, when leaving China and Glass, glanced behind her, and nodded to +Mr. Marsden.</p> + +<p>"Mother," she whispered, "how handsome he is.... But how sharply you +spoke to him. You quite dropped on him."</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, one has to drop on people sometimes; and Mr. Marsden is +just a little disposed to be pushing."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>"Oh," said Enid, "I thought he was such a favourite of yours."</p> + +<p>Alone in her room, Mrs. Thompson felt worried. A thought had made her +wince. This young man carried about with him an element of vague danger. +Of course Enid would never be foolish; and he would never dare to aspire +to such a prize; still Enid should get her next wedding present in +another department—or in another shop, if she must have china.</p> + +<p>It was only a brief sense of annoyance or discomfort, say five minutes +lost in a busy day. Mrs. Thompson dismissed it from her mind. But Mr. +Marsden brought it back again.</p> + +<p>Towards closing time, when she was signing letters at the big bureau, he +came behind the glass and entered her room.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" said Mrs. Thompson, without looking up.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Thompson, I want to make an apology and a request."</p> + +<p>At the sound of his voice she perceptibly started. His presence down +here was unusual and unexpected.</p> + +<p>"I have been making myself rather unhappy about what happened when you +and Miss Thompson were in my department."</p> + +<p>"Nothing happened," said Mrs. Thompson decisively.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, ma'am, and I offer an apology for my mistake."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden," said Mrs. Thompson, with dignity, "there is not the +slightest occasion for an apology. Please don't make mountains out of +molehills."</p> + +<p>"No—but I am in earnest. It is your own great kindness that led me to +forget. And I confess that I did for a moment forget the immense +difference of social station that lies between us. A shopman should +never speak to his employer—much less his employer's relatives—in a +tone implying the least friendliness or equality."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span></p><p>"Mr. Marsden, you quite misunderstand."</p> + +<p>"You were angry with me?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. "To be frank, I was not exactly pleased +with you—and I took the liberty of showing it. That is a freedom to +which I am accustomed."</p> + +<p>"Then I humbly apologise."</p> + +<p>"I have told you it is unnecessary.... That will do, Mr. Marsden;" and +she took up her pen again.</p> + +<p>"But may I make one request—that when I am unfortunate enough to +deserve reproof, it may be administered privately and not in public?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden, I make no conditions. If people are discontented with my +methods—well, the remedy lies in their own hands."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that just a little cruel?"</p> + +<p>"It is my answer to your question."</p> + +<p>"I don't think, ma'am, you know the chivalrous and devoted feeling that +runs through this shop. There's not a man in it to whom your praise and +your blame don't mean light and darkness."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson flushed.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden, you are all very good and loyal. I recognize that. But I +don't care about compliments."</p> + +<p>"Compliments!... When a person is feeling almost crushed with the burden +of gratitude—"</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Marsden, gratitude should be shown and not talked about."</p> + +<p>"And I'll show mine some day, please God."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson turned right round on her revolving chair, and spoke very +gently. "I am sorry that you should have upset yourself about such a +trifle."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Marsden asked if he might come down behind the glass for +direction and orders when he felt in doubt or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> perplexity. A few words +now and then would be helpful to him.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson hesitated, and then answered kindly.</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Why not? I am accessible here to any of the staff—from Mr. +Mears to the door boy. That has always been a part of my system."</p> + +<p>After this the young man appeared from time to time, craving a draught +of wisdom at the fountain-head. The department was doing well, and he +never brought bad news.</p> + +<p>But he was a little too much inclined to begin talking about himself; +telling his story—an orphan who had made his own way in the world; +describing his efforts to improve a defective education, his speaking at +a debating society, his acting with the Kennington Thespian Troupe.</p> + +<p>"Your elocution," said Mrs. Thompson, "no doubt profited by the pains +you took.... But now, if you please—"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson, with business-like firmness, stopped all idle chatter. A +hint was enough for him, and he promptly became intent on matters of +business.</p> + +<p>He worked hard upstairs. He was the first to come and the last to go. +Once or twice he brought papers down to the dark ground floor when Mrs. +Thompson was toiling late.</p> + +<p>One night he showed her the coloured and beautifully printed pictures +that had been sent with the new season's lists.</p> + +<p>"There. This is my choice."</p> + +<p>She laid her hand flat on a picture; and he, pushing about the other +pictures and talking, put his hand against hers. He went on talking, as +if unconscious that he had touched her, that he was now touching her.</p> + +<p>She moved her hand away, and for a moment an angry flame of thought +swept through her brain. Had it been an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> accident, or a monstrous +impertinence? He went on talking without a tremor in his voice; and she +understood that he was absolutely unconscious of what he had done. He +was completely absorbed by consideration of the coloured prints of tea +and dinner services.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson abruptly struck the desk bell, drew back her chair, and +rose.</p> + +<p>"Davies," she called loudly, "bring your lantern. I am going through.... +Don't bother me any more about all that, Mr. Marsden. Make your own +selections—and get them passed by Mr. Mears. Good-night."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>V</span></h2> + +<p>Miss Enid had again taken up riding, and she seemed unusually energetic +in her efforts to acquire a difficult art. During this hot dry weather +the roads were too hard to permit of hacking with much pleasure; but +Enid spent many afternoons in Mr. Young's fine riding school. She was +having jumping lessons; and she threw out hints to Mrs. Thompson that +next autumn she would be able not only to ride to meet, but even to +follow hounds.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my darling, I should never have a moment's peace of mind if I knew +you were risking your pretty neck out hunting."</p> + +<p>"I could easily get a good pilot," said Enid; "and then I should be +quite safe."</p> + +<p>One Thursday afternoon—early-closing day—Mr. Marsden, who happened to +know that Enid would be at the school, went round to see his friend Mr. +Whitehouse, the riding-master. He looked very smart in his blue serge +suit, straw hat, and brown boots; and the clerk in Mr. Young's office +quite thought he was one of the governor's toffs come to buy horses.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marsden sent his card to Mr. Whitehouse; and then waited in a +sloping sanded passage, obviously trodden by four-footed as well as +two-footed people, from which he could peep into the dark office, a +darker little dressing-room, and an open stable where the hind quarters +of horses showed in stalls. There was a queer staircase without stairs, +and he heard a sound of pawing over his head—horses upstairs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> as well +as downstairs. The whole place looked and smelt very horsey.</p> + +<p>The riding-master's horse was presently led past him; the lesson was +nearly over, and the young lady was about to take a few leaps. A groom +told him that he might go in.</p> + +<p>The vast hall had high and narrow double doors to admit the horses; and +inside, beneath the dirty glass roof, it was always twilight, with +strange echoes and reverberations issuing from the smooth plastered +walls; at a considerable height in one of the walls there was a large +window, opening out of a room that looked like the royal box of a +theatre.</p> + +<p>This hall had been the military school; it remained as a last evidence +of the demolished barracks, and the town was proud of its noble +dimensions—a building worthy of the metropolis.</p> + +<p>"How d'ye do," said the riding-master, a slim, tall, elegant young man +in check breeches and black boots. "Come and stand by us in the middle."</p> + +<p>There was another tall young man, who wore drab breeches and brown +gaiters on his long thin legs, and who was helping a stableman to drag +the barred hurdle across the tan and put it in position against the +wall.</p> + +<p>"Now, Miss Thompson.... Steady. Steady. Let her go."</p> + +<p>Enid on a heavily bandaged bay mare came slowly round, advanced in a +scrambling canter, and hopped over the low obstacle.</p> + +<p>"Very good."</p> + +<p>She looked charming as she came round again—her usually cold pale face +now warm and red, a wisp of her dark hair flying, the short habit +showing her neatly booted legs.</p> + +<p>"Very good."</p> + +<p>"I am lost in admiration," said Marsden; and the strange young man +stared hard at him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, is that you, Mr. Marsden," said Enid. "I didn't know I had an +audience."</p> + +<p>Then she jumped again. This time, in obedience to the directions of Mr. +Whitehouse, she rode at the hurdle much faster; the mare cocked her +ears, charged, and she and Enid sailed over the white bar in grand +style.</p> + +<p>But the thud of hoofs, the tell-tale reverberations roused the invisible +Mr. Young, and brought him to the window of the private box.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast—not nearly so fast," shouted Mr. Young. "There's no skill +or sense in that.... Mr. Whitehouse, I can't understand you. D'you want +that mare over-reaching herself?" And Mr. Young's voice, dropping in +tone, still betrayed his irritation. "Who are these gentlemen? We can't +have people in the school during lessons."</p> + +<p>"All right," said the young man in the brown gaiters. "I've come to look +at the new horse—the one you bought from Griffin."</p> + +<p>"Very good, Mr. Kenion. I didn't see who you were.... But who's the +other gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"He is a friend of mine," said Mr. Whitehouse.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's against our rules—visitors in lessons. You know that as +well as I do."</p> + +<p>"I am quite aware of your rules," said Mr. Whitehouse curtly. "But the +lesson is finished.... That will be sufficient, Miss Thompson. Three +minutes over your hour—and we don't want to tire you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Young snorted angrily, and disappeared. The strange young man +assisted Miss Enid to dismount and went out with her, the bandaged mare +following them with the helper.</p> + +<p>"Who," asked Marsden, "was that spindle-shanked ass?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's not a bad boy," said the riding-master <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>patronisingly. "And he +can ride, mind you—which is more than most hunting men can."</p> + +<p>"Is he a hunting man? What's his name?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kenion.... Look here, don't hurry off. I want to have a yarn with +you."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Young—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, blast Mr. Young. I want to talk to you, my boy, about the ladies."</p> + +<p>"Do you?" Marsden half closed his eyes, and showed his strong teeth in a +lazy smile. "What do you think of our young lady?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Thompson?" Mr. Whitehouse shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, not bad."</p> + +<p>Then long thin Mr. Kenion returned.</p> + +<p>"Let's try the new crock over your sticks," said Mr. Kenion languidly. +"I suppose he <i>is</i> a crock—or he wouldn't be here?"</p> + +<p>"I won't bias your judgment," said Mr. Whitehouse as he strolled across +the tan. "See for yourself," and he rang a noisy bell. "But I must make +you known to each other;" and he introduced Mr. Marsden as "one of the +managers at Thompson's."</p> + +<p>Mr. Young's new purchase was brought in, and Mr. Kenion rode it. The +horse at first appeared to resent the silly jumping performance; but +Marsden heard the work of the rider's unspurred heels on the animal's +flanks, watched the effective use Mr. Whitehouse made of his whip as he +ran behind, and soon saw the hurdle negotiated in flying fashion, again +and again—and faster and faster.</p> + +<p>"<i>Not</i> so fast! God bless my soul, I think you must all be mad this +afternoon." Old Young had come to his window, furious. "Mr. Kenion, I'm +surprised at you, yes, I am, sir."</p> + +<p>"How can I judge of a horse without trying him?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span></p><p>"Well, I don't want my horses tried like that. You may buy 'em or leave +'em."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Mr. Kenion, laughing. "Come out and have a drink. +You've stood me a ride, and I'll stand you a drink."</p> + +<p>Mr. Kenion, Mr. Young, and the jumping horse all disappeared, and +Marsden and the riding-master were left together on the tan. Here, in +the dim twilight that the glass roof made of this bright June day, they +had a long quiet chat about women.</p> + +<p>"Dicky," said the riding-master, "I'm going to talk to you like a Dutch +uncle."</p> + +<p>"Fire away."</p> + +<p>"All for your own good. See?... Now I suppose when you want a mash, you +don't think of looking outside the shop."</p> + +<p>"I never have a mash inside it."</p> + +<p>"Is that so?" Mr. Whitehouse seemed astonished. "Why, I thought you +smart managers with all those shop girls round you were like so many +grand Turks with their serrallyhos."</p> + +<p>"Not much. That's against etiquette—and a fool's game into the bargain. +You're safe to be pinched—and, second, you get so jolly sick of being +mewed up with 'em all day that you never want to speak to 'em out of +hours."</p> + +<p>"Then how do you get along? The customers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Marsden; and he stroked his moustache, and smiled. +"Customers are often very kind."</p> + +<p>"Not real ladies?"</p> + +<p>"We don't ask their pedigrees. Go down St. Saviour's Court any fine +evening, and see the domestic servants waiting in their best clothes. +It'll remind you of Piccadilly Circus;" and both gentlemen laughed.</p> + +<p>"There's a parlourmaid," continued Marsden, "out of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Adelaide +Crescent—who is simply a little lump of all right. Venetian red hair—a +picture."</p> + +<p>"Red hair," said Mr. Whitehouse reflectively. "They say with us, a good +horse has no colour. That means, if the horse is a good 'un, never mind +his colour;—and I suppose it's true of women.... I don't object to +chestnut horses—or red-haired gells.... But, look here, Master Dick, I +tell you frank, you're wasting your opportunities."</p> + +<p>"You can't teach me anything, old man."</p> + +<p>"Can't I? Never turn a deaf ear to a friendly tip—a chance tip may +alter a man's life. That's a motto with me—and I'm acting on it this +moment, myself."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Whitehouse told his friend that he was about to leave +Mallingbridge forever. Mallingbridge was too small; he intended to throw +himself into the larger world of London. He had very nearly fixed up an +engagement with the big Bayswater people; it was practically a settled +thing.</p> + +<p>"That's why I checked the old bloke like I done just now. Mr. Young he +twigs there's something up; but he doesn't know what's in store for him. +The minute I've got my job definite, I shall open my chest to him—tell +him once for all what I think of him. 'E won't forget it;" and the +riding-master laughed confidently.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you're going."</p> + +<p>"Thanks. But why am I lighting out so determined and sudden, instead of +vegetating here half me life? Well—because I got a straight tip, and +all by chance."</p> + +<p>"How was that?"</p> + +<p>"About a month ago a chap comes in here with a lady for a lesson. +Captain Mellish—Meller—I forget the name. Anyhow, he was a son of a +gun of a swell to look at—sploshing it about up at the Dolphin; and he +brings in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> this actress from the theatre—not a chorus gell, mind you, +but the leading performer—who was drawing her hundred quid a week, so +they said. Well, he evidently fancied he was a bit of a horseman +himself, and he keeps chipping in. When I told her to get her hands +back, and hold her reins long, he says, 'yes, but you'll want to hold a +horse shorter by the head, if he balks at his fences.' I answered +without hesitation, 'I'm very well aware of refusing horses,' I said, +'and also how easy it is to hang on by a horse's mouth when you land +over a fence.... But,' I said, 'let me know who is giving the +lesson—you or me. Wait, miss,' I said, 'if the Captain has other +directions to give you.' She rounded on him at once, asking him to shut +his head. He turned it off with a laugh, and gave me a slap on the back. +'Have it your own way, Mr. Riding-Master.' You'll understand, he said +that sneering.</p> + +<p>"But I believe he thought the more of me before the lesson was over. +Anyhow, when his tart had gone to the dressing-room to change her +things, he and I got yarning here—exactly as if it had been you and +me—like we're doing now.</p> + +<p>"Mind you, he was a wrong 'un. You couldn't talk friendly to him without +twigging that. But, Holy Moses, he was fairly up to snuff.... We went +yarning on, and presently he says, 'It beats me why a knowledgeable +young chap like you should bury himself as a mere servant. Take my tip,' +he says, 'Get hold of a bit of money, and light out on your own.'... +'And how am I to get the money?' I asked him.</p> + +<p>"'Get it from the ladies,' he says. 'Take my tip. I suppose you make +love to all your pupils—you fellows always do. Well, make 'em pay.' I'm +giving you what he said, word for word. 'You're wasting yourself,' he +says. 'See? You're only young once. You've got <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>something to bring to +market, and you're letting it go stale every hour.'</p> + +<p>"Then he run on about what women can do for a man nowadays—and he +<i>knew</i>, mind you. He'd <i>been</i> there. Who makes the members of +parliament, the bishops, the prime ministers? Why, women. Leave them out +of your plans—if you want to labour in the sweat of your brow till you +drop. But if not, take the tip. It's the women that give a man his +short-cut to ease and comfort. See?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Marsden. "I see that—but I don't see anything new in +it."</p> + +<p>"Dicky," said Mr. Whitehouse solemnly, "it's a straight tip.... But +you'll never profit by it, my boy, until you stop messing about with +your dressed-up slaveys, and light out for something bigger."</p> + +<p>"I have told you," said Marsden, smiling, "that you can't teach me +anything."</p> + +<p>"You're too cock-sure," said Mr. Whitehouse, almost sadly; "but you're +just wasting yourself.... Here's the tip of a life-time. I've thought it +all out, and I see my own line clear. Drop the gells—and go for the +matrons. Pick your chance, and go for it hammer and tongs.... It's what +I shall do meself. Bayswater is full of rich Jewesses—some of 'em +fairly wallowing in it. And I shan't try to grab some budding beauty. I +shall pick a ripe flower."</p> + +<p>"I wish you luck."</p> + +<p>"Same to you, old pal. But you won't find it the way you're trying just +now;" and Mr. Whitehouse laughed enigmatically. "I can't teach you +anything, but I can give you a parting warning.... D'you think I don't +twig what you were after to-day—wanting to see me especial—and coming +round here,—and losing yourself in admiration of Miss Thompson? And I +don't say you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> mightn't have pulled it off, if you'd started a bit +earlier. But you're too late. Mr. Kenion has got there first."</p> + +<p>"Is that true—bar larks?"</p> + +<p>"You may bet your boots on it. He's here every time she comes. After the +lessons he sees her home—by a round-about way. The only reason he +didn't go with her this afternoon is because the shop is shut, and +they're afraid of meeting the old lady.... No, my little boy, your Miss +Enid is booked."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>VI</span></h2> + +<p>Enid was away again, staying for a few days with some friends or friends +of the Salters; and during her absence her mother suffered from an +unusual depression of spirits. In the shop it was noticed that Mrs. +Thompson seemed, if not irritable, at least rather difficult to please; +but all understood that she felt lonely while deprived of the young +woman's society, and all sympathised with her. Assistants, who happened +to meet her after closing time, taking a solitary walk outside the +boundaries of the town, were especially sympathetic, and perhaps +ventured to think that fashionable Miss Enid left her too much alone.</p> + +<p>One evening after a blazing airless day, Dick Marsden, very carefully +dressed in his neat blue serge, with his straw hat jauntily cocked, came +swaggering through St. Saviour's Court, and attracted, as he passed, +many feminine glances of admiration. The pretty housemaid from Adelaide +Crescent ogled and languished; but he merely bowed and passed by. He +could not waste his time with her to-night. There was bigger game on +foot.</p> + +<p>At the bottom of Frederick Street he hurried down the walled passage +that leads to the railway embankment; thence through the vaultlike +tunnel under the line, past the gas-works; over the iron bridge that +spans the black water of the canal, and out into the open meadows.</p> + +<p>These meadows, a broad flat between the canal and the river, belonged to +the railway company; and almost every gate and post reminded one of +their legal owners. Notices in metal frames somewhat churlishly +announced that, "This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> gate will be closed and locked on one day in each +year"; "There is no right of way here"; "The public, who are only +admitted as visitors, will kindly act as visitors and refrain from +damage, or the privilege will be withdrawn." The public, enjoying the +privilege freely but not arrogantly, ranged about the pleasant fields, +played foot-ball in winter, picked buttercups and daisies in spring, and +even provided themselves with Corporation seats—to be removed at a +moment's notice if the Corporation should be bidden to remove them. On +warm summer evenings like this, the public were principally represented +by lovers strolling in linked pairs, looking into each other's eyes, and +making of the railway fields a road through dreamland to paradise.</p> + +<p>Marsden walked swiftly across the parched grass, moving with strong +light tread, and gazing here and there with clear keen vision. As he +moved thus lightly and swiftly, looking so strong and yet so agile, he +seemed a personification of masculine youth and vigour, the coarse male +animal in its pride of brutal health. Or, if one merely noticed the +catlike tread, so springy and easy in its muscular power, he might +suggest the graceful yet fierce beast of prey who paces through failing +sunlight and falling shadows in search of the inoffensive creature that +he will surely destroy.</p> + +<p>A solitary figure moving slowly between the trees by the river—Mr. +Marsden hurried on.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Mrs. Thompson."—He took off his hat, and bowed very +respectfully.</p> + +<p>"Oh! Good evening, Mr. Marsden."</p> + +<p>"You don't often come this way?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I do," said Mrs. Thompson rather stiffly. "It is a favourite +walk of mine."</p> + +<p>"I venture to applaud your taste." And he pointed in the direction of +the town. "Old Mallingbridge looks quite<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> romantic from along here.... +But the gas-works spoil the picture, don't they?"</p> + +<p>The town looked pretty enough in the mellow evening glow. Beyond the +railway embankment, where signal lamps began to show as spots of faint +red and green, the clustered roofs mingled into solid sharp-edged +masses, and the two church towers appeared strangely high and ponderous +against the infinitely pure depths of a cloudless sky. Soon a soft +greyness would rise from the horizon; indistinctness, vagueness, mystery +would creep over the town and the fields, blotting out the ugly +gas-works, hiding the common works of men, giving the world back to +nature; but there would be no real night. In these, the longest days of +the year, the light never quite died.</p> + +<p>The colour of her blue dress and of the pink roses in her toque was +clearly visible, as Mrs. Thompson and the young man walked on side by +side. For a minute she politely made conversation.</p> + +<p>"I have often wondered," she said, with brisk business-like tones, "what +use the railway company will eventually make of all this land."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I wonder."</p> + +<p>"They would not have bought it unless they had some remote object in +view; and they would not have held it if the object had vanished. +Sensible people don't keep two hundred acres of land lying idle unless +they have a purpose."</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"It has often occurred to me—from what I have heard—that they will one +day convert it into some sort of depot. There is nothing in the levels +to prevent their doing so. The embankment is no height."</p> + +<p>"I should think you have made a very shrewd guess."</p> + +<p>"If that were to happen, the question would arise, Will it prove an +injury or a benefit to the town?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>Then Mrs. Thompson ceased to make conversation; her manner became very +dignified and reserved; and she carried herself stiffly—perhaps wishing +to indicate by the slight change of deportment that the interview was +now at an end.</p> + +<p>But Marsden did not take the hint. He walked by her side, and soon began +to talk about himself. An effort was made to check him when he entered +on the subject of the great benefits that a kind hand had showered upon +him, but presently Mrs. Thompson was listening without remonstrance to +his voice. And her own voice, when in turn she spoke, was curiously soft +and gentle.</p> + +<p>"As this chance has come," he said humbly, "I avail myself of it. Though +I could never thank you sufficiently, I have been longing for an +opportunity to thank you <i>somehow</i> for the confidence you have reposed +in me."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you'll justify it, Mr. Marsden."</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I'm afraid you'll think not—when you hear the dreadful +confession that I have to make."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson drew in her breath, and stopped short on the footpath.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden"—she spoke quite gently and kindly—"You really must not +tell me about your private affairs. Unless your confession concerns +business matters—something to do with the shop—I cannot listen to it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it only amounts to this—but I know it will sound ungrateful ... +Mrs. Thompson, in spite of everything, of all you have done for me, I am +not very happy down here."</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" She had drawn in her breath again, and she walked on while she +spoke. "Does that mean that you are thinking of leaving us?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I sometimes think of that."</p> + +<p>"To better yourself?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, no—I should never find such another situation."</p> + +<p>"Then why are you discontented in this one?"</p> + +<p>With the permission conveyed by her question, he described at length his +queer state of mind—a man on whom fortune had smiled, a man with work +that he liked, yet feeling restless and unhappy, feeling alone in the +midst of a crowd, longing for sympathy, yearning for companionship.</p> + +<p>"That's how I feel," he said sadly, after a long explanation.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson had been looking away from him, staring across the river. +She held herself rigidly erect, and she spoke now in another voice, with +a tone of hardness and coldness.</p> + +<p>"I think I recognize the symptoms, Mr. Marsden. When a young man talks +like this, the riddle is easy to guess."</p> + +<p>"Then guess it."</p> + +<p>"Well," she said coldly, "you force me to the only supposition. You are +telling me that you have fallen in love."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>She winced almost as if he had struck her; and then the parted lips +closed, her whole face assumed a stonelike dignity.</p> + +<p>"Tell me all about it, Mr. Marsden—since you seem to wish to."</p> + +<p>"Love is a great crisis in a man's life. It generally makes him or +breaks him forever."</p> + +<p>"I hope that fate will read kindly—in your case."</p> + +<p>"He either fears his fate too much or his deserts are small—But, Mrs. +Thompson, I do fear my fate. It isn't plain-sailing for me. There are +difficulties, barriers—it's all darkness before me."</p> + +<p>"I hope you haven't made an injudicious choice."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, I have—in one way. Shall we sit down here? It is still very +warm."</p> + +<p>It was as though the heated earth panted for breath; no evening breeze +stirred the leaves; the air was heavy and languorous. Mrs. Thompson +seemed glad to sit upon the Corporation bench. She sank down wearily, +leaned her back against the wooden support, and stared at the darkly +flowing water.</p> + +<p>"So difficult," he murmured. "So many difficulties." He looked behind +him at the empty meadows, and up and down the empty path. Then he took +off his hat, laid it on the seat beside him; and, bringing a silk +handkerchief from his sleeve, wiped his forehead. "There are almost +insurmountable barriers between us."</p> + +<p>"Have you given your heart to some married woman? Is she not free to +respond to your affections?"</p> + +<p>"No, she was married, but she's free now.... And I think it amuses her +to encourage me—and make me suffer." He had taken one of the hands that +lay listlessly in the wide lap. "She is <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson snatched her hand away, sprang up from the seat, and spoke +indignantly.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden, have you gone out of your senses?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think I have. And who's to blame? Who's driven me out of them?" +He was standing close in front of her, barring the path. "Oh, I can't go +on with all this deception. I lied to you just now. I knew you were +coming here,—and I followed you. I felt I must once for all be with you +alone."</p> + +<p>"Not another word. I will not listen.... Oh!"</p> + +<p>Suddenly he had seized her. Roughly and fiercely he flung his arms round +her, forced her to him, and kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden!... Shame!... How dare you?... Let me go."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>She was struggling in his arms, her head down, her two hands trying to +keep him off. Her broad bosom panted, her big shoulders heaved; but with +remorseless brutal use of his strength he held her tightly and closely +against him.</p> + +<p>"There," he said. "Don't fight. You'll have to go through it now.... You +women think you can play the fool with a man—set all his blood on fire, +and then tell him to behave himself."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden, let me go—or I shall die of shame."</p> + +<p>"No you won't. Rot. D'you hear? Rot. You're a woman all through: and +that face was made to be kissed—like this—like this.... There, this is +my hour—"</p> + +<p>"Will you let me go?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in a minute.... You'll dismiss me to-morrow, won't you? I'd better +pack to-night. But I shall always go on loving you.... Oh, my goodness, +what is my life to be without you?"</p> + +<p>And suddenly he released her, dropped upon the seat, and buried his face +in his hands.</p> + +<p>She walked fast away—and then slowly returned. He was still sitting, +with his head down, motionless.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden!... You have insulted me in the most outrageous manner—and +the only possible excuse would be the absolute sincerity of the feelings +that you have expressed so brutally. If I could for a moment believe—"</p> + +<p>"Why can't you believe?"</p> + +<p>"Because it is too absurd. I am no longer young—the mother of a girl +old enough herself to marry."</p> + +<p>"I don't want any pasty-faced girls. I want <i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>He spoke without looking up at her, and his face remained hidden by his +hands.</p> + +<p>"If I sit down and talk to you quietly, will you promise that you won't +begin again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p><p>"You give me your word of honour that you won't—won't touch me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said dejectedly, "I promise."</p> + +<p>"When you began just now, you implied—you accused me as if you thought +I had been—encouraging you. But, Mr. Marsden, you must know that such +an accusation is unjust and untrue."</p> + +<p>"Is it? I don't think you women much care how you lead people on."</p> + +<p>"But indeed I do care. I should be bitterly ashamed of myself if I was +not certain that I had never given you the slightest encouragement."</p> + +<p>"Oh, never mind. What does it matter? I have made a fool of +myself—that's all. Love blinds a man to plain facts."</p> + +<p>He had raised his head again, and was looking at her. They sat side by +side, and the dusk began to envelope them so that their faces were white +and vague.</p> + +<p>"At the first," he went on, "I could see that it was hopeless. If social +position didn't interfere, the money would prove a barrier there'd be no +getting round. You are rich, and I am poor. At the first I saw how +unhappy it was going to make me. I saw it was hopeless—most of all, +because I'm not a man who could consent to pose as the pensioner of a +rich wife.... But then I forgot—and I began to hope. Yes, I did really +hope."</p> + +<p>"What is it you hoped for?"</p> + +<p>"Why, that chance would turn up lucky—that somehow I might be put more +on an equality. Or that you would marry me in spite of all—that you'd +come to think money isn't everything in this world, and love counts most +of all."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Marsden, how can I for one moment of time credit you +with—with the love you will go on talking about?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p><p>"Haven't I <i>shown</i> it to you?"</p> + +<p>"I think—I am quite sure you are deceiving yourself. But nothing can +deceive me. You mistake the chivalrous romantic feelings of youth for +something far different."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't mistake."</p> + +<p>"The disparity in our years renders such a thing impossible. Between you +and me, love—the real love—is out of the question."</p> + +<p>"Yes, you can say that easily—because no doubt it's true on your side. +If you felt for me what I feel for you—then it would be another story."</p> + +<p>"But suppose I had been foolish enough to be taken with you, to let +myself be carried away by your eloquence—which I believe was all +acting!"</p> + +<p>"Acting? That's good—that's devilish good."</p> + +<p>"I say, suppose I had believed you—and yielded one day, don't you know +very well that all the world would laugh at me?"</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Why—because, my dear boy, I'm almost old enough to be your mother—and +I have done with love, and all that sort of thing."</p> + +<p>"No, you haven't. You're just ripe for love—I felt <i>that</i> when I was +kissing you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson rose abruptly.</p> + +<p>"I must go home.... Come;" and they walked side by side through the +summer dusk towards the lamp-light of the town.</p> + +<p>"This must never be spoken of again," she said firmly; and before they +reached the last field gate, she had told him many times that her +rejection of his suit was final and irrevocable. Hers was a flat +deliberate refusal, and nothing could ever modify it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p><p>"Yes," he said sadly, "it's hopeless. I knew it all along, in my secret +heart—quite hopeless."</p> + +<p>But she told him that if he promised never to think of it again, she +would allow him to remain in the shop.</p> + +<p>"Frankly, I would much rather you should go—But that would be a pity. +It might break your career—or at least throw you too much on your own +resources at a critical point. Stay—at any rate until you get a +suitable opening."</p> + +<p>"Your word is my law."</p> + +<p>"Now leave me. I do not wish anyone to see us walking together."</p> + +<p>He obeyed her; and she walked on without an escort, through the dark +tunnel and into the lamp-light of Frederick Street.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>VII</span></h2> + +<p>"You must 'a been a tremendous long walk," said Yates; "but you're +looking all the better for it, ma'am—though you aren't brought back an +appetite."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson was trifling with her supper—only pretending to eat. The +electric light, shining on her hair, made the rounded coils and central +mass bright, smooth, and glossy; the colour in her cheeks glowed vividly +and faded quickly, and, as it came and went, the whole face seemed +softened and yet unusually animated; the parted lips were slightly +tremulous, and the eyes, with distended pupils, were darker and larger +than they had been in the daylight. By a queer chance the old servant +began to speak of her mistress's personal appearance.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Yates, "it's the fresh air you want.—Stands to reason you +do, shut up in the shop all day. You look another woman to what you did +when you went out;" and she studied Mrs. Thompson's face critically and +admiringly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson smiled, and her lips were quite tremulous.</p> + +<p>"Another woman, Yates? What sort of woman do I look like now?"</p> + +<p>"A very handsome one," said Yates affectionately. "And more like the +girl Mr. Thompson led up the stairs such a long time ago—the first time +I ever set eyes on her, and was thinking however she and I would get on +together."</p> + +<p>"We've got on well together, haven't we, Yates?"</p> + +<p>"That we have," said Yates, with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Yates, don't stare so;" and Mrs. Thompson laughed. "You make me +nervous. And I don't want you to flatter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> me.... But tell me, candidly, +supposing you met me now as a stranger—how old would you guess I was?"</p> + +<p>Yates, with her head slightly on one side, scrutinized her mistress very +critically.</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't believe that anyone seeing you as I do now would take you +for more than forty-two—at the outside."</p> + +<p>"Forty-two! Three years less than my real age. Thank you for nothing, +Yates." Mrs. Thompson laughed, but with little merriment in her laugh. +"You haven't joined my band of flatterers. You have given me an honest +answer."</p> + +<p>Perhaps, if some faint doubt was lingering in Mrs. Thompson's mind, +Yates had provided an answer to that as well as to the direct question.</p> + +<p>The mistress did not invite the servant to sit at table this evening and +help her through the lonely meal. Her thoughts were sufficient company.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>At night she could not sleep. The contact with the fierce strong male +had completely upset her—never in all her life had she been so handled +by a man. And the extent of the contact seemed mysteriously to have +multiplied the effect of its local violences; the dreaded grip of the +powerful arms, the resistless pressure of the forcing hands, and the +cruel hot print of his kisses were the salient facts in her memory of +the embrace; but it seemed that from every point of the surface of her +body while compelled to touch him a nerve thrill had been sent vibrating +in her brain, and the diffused nerve-messages, concentrating there, had +produced overwhelmingly intense disturbance.</p> + +<p>And memory gave her back these sensations—the wide thrilling wave from +surface to brain, and the explosion of the central nerve-storm flashing +its rapid recognition back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> to the outer boundaries. Lying in her dark +room she lived through the experience again—was forced to suffer the +embrace not once but again and again.</p> + +<p>It was dreadful that a man, simply by reason of his sex, should have +this power, dreadful that he should abuse his power in thus treating a +woman,—and most dreadful that of all women in the world the woman +should be herself.</p> + +<p>And she thought of the late Mr. Thompson's timid and maladroit +caresses—inspired, monotonous, stereotyped endearments, totally devoid +of nervous excitation, dutifully borne by her, day after day, month +after month, throughout the long years.</p> + +<p>But memory, doing its faithful and accurate work, failed to restore to +her that glow of angry protest, that recoil of outraged dignity which +she had felt when the young man took her in his arms. She could feel his +arms about her still, but the sense of shame had gone.</p> + +<p>Here in the darkened room she could see him—she could not help seeing +him. Hot tears filled her eyes, she writhed and twisted, she tossed and +turned, as the mental pictures came and went; but nothing could drive +him away. He had taken possession of her thoughts; and she wept because +she understood that he had not achieved this tyrannous rule to-day, or +yesterday, but a long time ago, a disgracefully long time ago. In +imagination she was watching him among the china and glass, when +Woolfrey and the others showed her plainly how dangerous he really +was—and it had begun then. Why else should she have felt such a +wrathful discontent at the idea of his courting all the silly girls? In +imagination, she could see him among the carpets, trundling the great +rolls, fascinating, enthralling the rude customer,—and it seemed to her +that it had begun even then. She and the shrew were one in their +weakness; both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> had been hypnotised together. Mears said all the women +in the shop had submitted to the spell—but not the silliest, most +feather-headed slut of them all had fallen into such idiotic depths as +those in which their proud and stately chief lay weeping.</p> + +<p>She dried her eyes, got out of bed and drank water, stood at the open +window, turned on the light, turned off the light, lay down again and +tried desperately to sleep.</p> + +<p>In a moment her cheeks were burning.—She could feel the hot kisses; she +could hear the hurried words. "A face made to be kissed—setting one's +blood on fire.... You are a woman all through—you are ripe for love."</p> + +<p>Ah, if only one could give way to such a dream of rapture; if one could +believe that the lost years might be recovered, that all one has missed +in life—its passionate sweetness and its satisfying fullness—might be +won by a miraculous interposition of fate. Nothing less than a miracle +can bring back the wasted past.</p> + +<p>She did not sleep; but with the return of day she grew calmer. Thoughts +of Enid helped her. A second marriage—even what the world would call a +wise and fitting alliance—was utterly out of the question. It would be +the death of her daughter's love; it would render the story of her own +life meaningless; it would destroy all the results of twenty-two years' +maternal devotion. Enid had been all in all to her: Enid must remain +what she had always been. If on the mother's part there was a brave +renunciation of self, it belonged to the dim past; it was over and done +with—a solid fact, not to be modified, far less overturned.</p> + +<p>Least of all by such a marriage as this—laughter mingling with the +sound of bells, coarse jokes to be thrown after them instead of pretty +confetti, even the sacred words of the priest at the altar echoed by +derisive words of rabble<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> in the porch! Enid would never forgive +her—were she ever to forgive herself.</p> + +<p>In the broad light of day, in the cold light of logic, she saw that it +was impossible. Her emotions might be roused, unsuspected sexual +instincts might be partially awakened, beneath the matronly time-worn +outer case a virginal mechanism might be stirring; but the whole +intellectual side of her nature was strong enough to reinforce the +special functions of her will. Too late to snatch at lost joys! Reason +rejected the impossibility.</p> + +<p>She was too old. The chance had gone years ago. The young man, even if +she could believe that he loved her now—much as a romantic subject +might fancy that he loved his queen,—would soon grow weary. Familiarity +would rob her of all queenly attributes; at the best nothing would be +left except disappointment, and at the worst disgust. And then she would +suffer intolerable torment. She saw it quite clearly—the martyrdom of a +middle-aged wife who cannot retain her young husband's love.</p> + +<p>None of that. She rose after the sleepless night with her decision fortified.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>VIII</span></h2> + +<p>But the fortifying of the decision had cost her much, and the +after-effects of nerve-strain were easily to be perceived.</p> + +<p>She was rather terrible in the shop, and all noticed a sudden and +mysterious change. Of a morning she used to appear with dark circles +round her eyes; her greetings, or acknowledgments of greetings, were +less cordial; she moved more slowly; and in her stern glance it seemed +that there was the certainty of finding something amiss, instead of the +hope of seeing nothing wrong.</p> + +<p>Rather terrible—easily irritated, impatient of argument, quick to +resent advice: as the young ladies put it, ready to snap your head off +at any minute. A whisper, somehow passing out of house to shop, said she +was suffering from continued sleeplessness; and the loyal staff were +eager to make allowances. But they wondered how long the change would +last; they hoped that she would soon get a comfortable night, and wake +up again as their kind and considerate mistress.</p> + +<p>In fact, many little things that once would not have worried her now +jarred upon tired nerves. She felt worried by Bence's, by her husband's +stupid relations, by Mr. Mears; and by Mr. Prentice, the solicitor, who +took the liberties permitted to an old friend. He and all other old +friends worried her.</p> + +<p>She was altogether unable to laugh as of old at the impudence of Bence. +She frowned and stamped her foot when, looking across the road, she +first read the placard on the shuttered frontage of the ancient sadler +and the bookseller.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> It was not in small print: you could read it from +Thompson's without a telescope. "These Premises," said the poster, "will +shortly be opened as the new Furniture department of Bence Brothers, and +a long-felt want will be supplied by an extensive stock of high-class +goods at reasonable prices." And this, if you please, immediately facing +the two windows that from immemorial time had exhibited Thompson's solid +oak chairs and polished walnut tables! The gross, large-typed piece of +impertinence annoyed her excessively.</p> + +<p>She had always been extraordinarily good to old Thompson's relatives, +who were common and troublesome. They all hung on to her, called her +Cousin Jenny, boasted about their prosperous connection by marriage; +they received benefits with scant thanks, grumbled when they fancied +themselves neglected; and they were all extremely jealous and watchful +of one another. Yet till now they had never exhausted her patience and +magnanimity.</p> + +<p>One of them, John Edward Thompson, a grocer in a small way of business +at Haggart's Cross, had often drawn heavily upon her for financial aid. +He was a short, squat, bearded man; and he used to come into the shop +unexpectedly, and meander about it aimlessly, to the trouble and +confusion of the shop-walkers.</p> + +<p>"What department, sir?"</p> + +<p>He did not answer.</p> + +<p>"What can I have the pleasure of showing you, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Don't mind me, young man. Go on with your work. I'm just looking round +to find my cousin."</p> + +<p>"May I be of assistance, sir? If you will be good enough to tell me your +cousin's name?"</p> + +<p>"My cousin's name," said John Edward shortly, "is <i>Mrs. Thompson</i>.... +There. Put that in your pipe and smoke it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p><p>It nearly always happened that he found Mrs. Thompson with her back +turned towards him. Then he would put two somewhat grubby hands on her +shoulders, with cousinly playfulness pull her round the right way, and +publicly kiss her. This was an act of affection, and a triumphant +assertion of the relationship—something more for those foppish +shopwalkers to put in their pipes and smoke.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Jenny, how goes it?"</p> + +<p>Then, after the kiss, he would look at her reproachfully, and begin to +grumble.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Jenny, you drove through Haggart's Cross last Thursday in your +carriage and pair. <i>I</i> saw you. But you didn't see <i>me</i>. No, you didn't +think of stopping the horses for half a minute, and passing the time of +day to your cousin."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson used smilingly to lead him into the counting-house, give +him kind words, give him good money. He took the money grumblingly, as +if it was the least that could be offered as atonement for the +neglectfulness of last Thursday; but he went home very happy.</p> + +<p>He had done all this scores of times, and Mrs. Thompson had borne it all +with unflinching generosity. But now, on a broiling July day, he did it +once too often. He got as far as the public salute, and no further.</p> + +<p>She was upstairs, standing near a desk, with her back towards China and +Glass. He came behind her, playfully laid hold of her, kissed her. She +gave a cry, turned upon him in a white fury, and, seeing who he was, +snapped his head off.</p> + +<p>That day he did not go home happy.</p> + +<p>Other cousins were old Mrs. Price and her two daughters, who would all +three have been in the workhouse but for Mrs. Thompson. Thanks to her, +they were living comfortably at Riverdale, with a pleasant rent-free +cottage, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>garden, and orchard. The Miss Prices made jam and brought it +as a present to Mrs. Thompson, keeping up a baseless tradition that she +loved their preserve—and taking immense gifts in exchange for it. They +visited their cousin twice in July, first to say they would soon make +the jam, secondly to bring the jam; and each time they spent a long day +at Mallingbridge, coming in and out of house and shop, cackling and +giggling, and almost driving Mrs. Thompson mad.</p> + +<p>Then there was Gordon Thompson, a farmer at Linkfield, who sometimes +came into town on market day, and ate his mid-day meal with his rich +cousin in St. Saviour's Court. He used to open the house door without +ringing the bell, and whistle a few notes as a familiar signal. "Cousin +Jen-ny! Cousin Jen-ny." He would shout this with an ascending +intonation, and then come clambering up the steep staircase.</p> + +<p>"Any dinner to-day for a poor relation?... Ah, my dear, you're not the +sort to turn a hungry man away from your table. Garr—but I can tell you +I'm sharp set."</p> + +<p>He was a hale and hearty-looking fellow, full of noisy jests, with a +great affectation of joviality; but in his twinkling eyes and about his +pursed lips there was the peasant's wariness, astuteness, and greed. +Truly he took all he could get from everybody, including his fortunate +cousin. Enid said his hob-nailed boots were dirty as well as ugly, +malodorous too; and she always fled at his approach, and did not +reappear while Mrs. Thompson feasted him and made much of him.</p> + +<p>Now, when Mrs. Thompson heard the well-known whistle in the hall, she +followed her daughter's example; forsaking the luncheon-dishes, she fled +back to the shop through the door of communication, and left Yates to +entertain hungry Gordon.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>Enid was at home, but she failed as a soothing and calming influence. +If her mother turned to her, endeavoured to lean upon her for support in +an unexpected need, she found a blank void, a totally inadequate +buttress. Enid was self-absorbed, busy with her own little affairs, +taking lessons from the new riding-master at Young's school, spending +long hours away from the house. She seemed like a person who really has +no intuitive sympathy to offer: a person locking up her life against +intruders, keeping close guard over secret emotions, and neither willing +to share her own hopes and fears nor to comprehend those of others.</p> + +<p>Perhaps Enid's coldness—so often felt, but never till now admitted in +the mother's thoughts—added to the hidden trouble of Mrs. Thompson.</p> + +<p>She entered the China department as rarely as possible, and her +intercourse with its head was of the most formal and distant character. +The conduct of Mr. Marsden was irreproachable: he was composed, polite, +respectful; and he never came down behind the glass. But he used his +eyes—a mute yet deadly attack, whenever she encountered them. She +dreaded the attack, braced herself for it when it could no longer be +avoided; and these meetings, however brief, had painful consequences. +They enervated her, sapped her energy, and left her with an incredible +sense of fatigue, so that after each of them she walked downstairs to +her room heavily and wearily, sat at the big desk breathing fast and +trembling, feeling for a little while quite unable to work—almost as if +she had been worn out by another physical tussle, instead of by a mere +exchange of glances.</p> + +<p>She was sitting thus, breathless and perturbed, when Mr. Mears came +bothering. Earlier in the day she had admonished the second in command +very sharply, and it appeared that he could not bear her momentary +censure. He said she had snapped at him as she had never, never +snapped.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> The vast ponderous man was completely overcome; his voice +shook, his hands shook, and tears trickled down his cheeks while he +solemnly tendered his resignation.</p> + +<p>"Resign? What nonsense are you talking, Mr. Mears?"</p> + +<p>But Mears said it was not nonsense: he meant every word of it. Rather +than suffer here, he would go out and brave the world in his old age.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, Mr. Mears—and don't be so foolish."</p> + +<p>"I don't recognise you these last weeks," said Mears sadly; and he told +her of how intensely he had always venerated her. "Everything you did +was right—It is almost a religion with me. And now I couldn't bear +it—it would break my heart if I was to be pushed aside."</p> + +<p>"You won't be pushed aside. No fear of that."</p> + +<p>"Or if there was to be any great changes in the shop."</p> + +<p>"There will be no great changes in the shop."</p> + +<p>"Nor in your private life?"</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Thompson snapped again.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that? What is my private life to you—or anybody +else? What are you insinuating?... Answer me. What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>He would not, or he could not say. Perhaps he really did not know what +he meant; or some subtle instinct, telling him that a great peril to his +peace and comfort was drawing nearer and nearer, had enabled him to +pierce the mystery and had prompted the words of the offending question. +He sat gasping and gaping while she stormed at him.</p> + +<p>"Understand once for all that I won't be watched and spied upon."</p> + +<p>"I am no spy," he said huskily; "except when you've made me one."</p> + +<p>The door was closed, but her angry voice rang out above the glass +partitions. All through the offices it was known that the manager had +put Mrs. T. into tantrums.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>Suddenly the storm blew itself out. Mrs. Thompson paced the room; then +stopped near the empty fireplace, with her hands clasped behind her +back. Her attitude was altogether manlike. It was the big man, sitting +huddled on the chair, wiping his cheeks, and blowing his nose, who +displayed signs of womanish emotion.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mears, don't let's have any more of it. You and I must never +quarrel. It would be too absurd. We are <i>friends</i>—we are <i>comrades</i>;" +and she went over to the chair, and shook hands with her comrade. +"That's right. You and I <i>know</i> each other; you and I can <i>trust</i> each +other."</p> + +<p>Then she again walked up and down the room, speaking as she moved.</p> + +<p>"To show how absolutely I trust you, I'll say to you what I wouldn't say +to anyone—no, not to my daughter. I am sorry if I have seemed fretful +of late. But the reason is this. I have been passing through a mental +struggle—a struggle that has tried me sorely." In her tone and the +whole aspect of her face as she made this confession, there was +something far above the narrow realm of sex, something that man or woman +might be proud to show—a generous candour, a fearless truth, a noble +simplicity. "A hard struggle, Mr. Mears—and I'm a little shaken, but +quite victorious.... Now this is between ourselves—and it must go no +further."</p> + +<p>"It never shall," said Mr. Mears earnestly.</p> + +<p>"And not a word either about our tiff, or your unkind threat to resign."</p> + +<p>"No—er, no. I shan't say another word about that."</p> + +<p>But unfortunately Mr. Mears had already said a word or two about it to +Mr. Prentice the solicitor; and very soon Mr. Prentice came, tactlessly +blundering, to see Mrs. Thompson.</p> + +<p>No one could admire her more than Mr. Prentice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>—truly his admiration +was so obviously genuine that people sometimes wondered what Mrs. +Prentice thought about it. Staunch friendship, skilled service, as well +as the admiration, had won him many privileges; but he overstepped their +limits now.</p> + +<p>"I say. Is it all serene between you and Mears? Let me advise you—don't +allow the breach to widen. I should consider it a great pity if you were +to part with your right-hand man because of any trifling difference +of—"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson cut him short.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Prentice, there is one thing I cannot permit—even from you." She +was dignified, but terrible. "I cannot, and I will not permit +interference in what is my business, and my business only."</p> + +<p>"Sorry—very sorry.... No idea I should put you out like this."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice, with muttered apologies, hurried away, looking scared and +abashed, carrying his square bowler all through the shop into the +street, as if in his confusion he had forgotten that it belonged to his head.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>IX</span></h2> + +<p>Shortly after this unlucky visit Mr. Prentice wanted to tell Mrs. +Thompson some startling news, but he did not dare. He consulted Mr. +Mears, and asked him to tell her; but Mears did not dare either. Mears +advised the solicitor to take Yates into his confidence, and let Yates +tell her.</p> + +<p>So then at last Mrs. Thompson heard what so many people knew +already—that Enid was carrying on with a young man in a very unbecoming +fashion. Scandalized townsfolk had seen Enid at the school with him, in +the museum with him, in the train with him;—they had met her at +considerable distances from Mallingbridge, dressed for riding, with this +groomlike attendant, but without a horse.</p> + +<p>The news shocked and distressed Mrs. Thompson—during her first surprise +and pain, it seemed to her as cruel as if Enid had driven a sharp knife +into her heart. But was the thing true? Yates thought it was all +true—none of it exaggerated.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson made a few discreet inquiries, ascertained the correctness +of the facts, and then tackled Enid.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear," said Enid, with self-possession but slightly ruffled, "no +one could help liking Charles. I'm sure you'll like him when you see +him."</p> + +<p>"Why haven't I seen him? Why have you left me to learn his name from the +lips of servants and busybodies? Oh, Enid," said Mrs. Thompson +indignantly, yet very sadly, "didn't you ever think how deeply this +would wound me?"</p> + +<p>"But, mother dear, you must have known that it would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> happen some +day—that sooner or later I should fall in love."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I never guessed that, when the time came, or you fancied it +had come, you would keep me in the dark—treat me as if I was a +stranger, and not your best friend."</p> + +<p>"Charlie didn't wish me to tell you about it just yet."</p> + +<p>"And why not?"</p> + +<p>"He said we were both old enough to know our own minds, and we ought to +be quite sure that we really and truly suited each other before we +talked about it. But we are both sure now."</p> + +<p>"I think he has behaved very badly—almost wickedly."</p> + +<p>"How can you say that, mother?"</p> + +<p>"I say it emphatically. He is a man of the world—and he had no right to +allow you to act so foolishly."</p> + +<p>But Enid appeared not to understand her mother's meaning. She could not +measure the enormity of her conduct when indulging in those +train-journeys and museum-wanderings. She admitted everything; she was +ashamed of nothing.</p> + +<p>"Surely," said Mrs. Thompson, "you could see that a girl of your age +cannot do such things without malicious people saying unkind things?"</p> + +<p>"When one is in love, one cannot trouble to think what malicious people +will say."</p> + +<p>In fact Enid seemed to believe that she and Mr. Kenion had created a +small universe of their own, into which no one else had a right to push +themselves.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear," and for the first time she spoke pleadingly and +anxiously. "Please—please don't try to come between us. I could never +give him up."</p> + +<p>It was a turn of the knife with which she had stabbed her mother. The +words of the appeal would have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>appropriate in addressing a harsh +and obdurate guardian, instead of an adoring parent.</p> + +<p>"If," said Mrs. Thompson sadly, "he is worthy of you, I shall be the +last person in the world who will ask you to give him up."</p> + +<p>Enid seemed delighted.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, he is more than worthy."</p> + +<p>"We shall see.... But it all hangs on that <i>if</i>—a big <i>if</i>, I am much +afraid.... You must pull yourself together, Enid, and be a good and +brave girl—and you must prepare yourself for disappointment. So far, I +do not receive satisfactory reports of him."</p> + +<p>"No one on earth ought to be believed if they bring you tales against +him."</p> + +<p>And then little by little Enid told her mother of Mr. Kenion's many +charms and virtues, and of how and why he had won her love so easily.</p> + +<p>He came to dinner at the Salters, and he wore a red coat. She had never +seen him till she saw him dining in pink, with brass buttons and white +silk facings. He was a magnificent horseman—rode two winners at +Cambridge undergraduate races;—had since ridden several seconds in +point-to-points;—even Mr. Bedford, Young's new riding-master, confessed +that he had a perfect seat on a horse. And he belonged to one of the +oldest families in England. Although old Mr. Kenion was only a +clergyman, he had a cousin who was an English marquis, and another +cousin who was an Irish viscount—if six people had died, and a dozen +people hadn't legally married, or hadn't been blessed with children, +Charles himself would have been a lord.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Even if Mrs. Thompson had heard nothing to his disadvantage, the plain +facts of the case would have convinced her that he was a bad lot. As a +woman of business, she had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> little doubt that she was called upon to +deal with a worthless unprincipled adventurer. His game had been to +force her hand—by compromising the girl, insure the mother's consent to +an engagement. If not interrupted in his plan, he would bring matters to +a point where the choice lay between an imprudent marriage and the loss +of reputation. When Mrs. Thompson thought of her cowardly adversary, +anger made the blood beat at her temples. If she had been a father +instead of a mother, she would have bought one of the implements of the +chase to which he was so much addicted, and have given Mr. Kenion a +wholesome horse-whipping.</p> + +<p>But when she thought of Enid all her pride smarted, and anger changed to +dolorous regret. It was indescribably mortifying to think that Enid, the +carefully brought up young lady, the highly finished pupil of sedate +private governesses and a majestically fashionable school, should forget +the ordinary rules of delicacy, modesty, propriety, and exhibit less +reticence in her actions than might be expected from one of Bence's +drapery girls. Enid had been pointed at, laughed at, talked about. It +was horrible to Mrs. Thompson. It struck directly at her own sense of +dignity and importance. In cheapening herself, Enid had lowered the +value of everybody connected with her. Enid, slinking out of the house, +furtively hurrying to her lover, clandestinely meeting him, and +lingering at his side in unseemly obliviousness of the passing hours, +had been not only jeopardising her own good fame, but robbing her mother +of public esteem.</p> + +<p>Yet far worse than the wound to her pride was the bitter blow to her +affection. Half her life had been spent in proving that her greatest +wish, her single aim was her child's happiness; but all the years +counted for nothing. Trust and confidence extinguished; no natural +impulse to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> pour out the heart's secrets to a mother's ear—"Charlie +didn't wish me to tell you." Enid said this as if it formed a completely +adequate explanation: she must of course implicitly obey the strange +voice. The mother who worshipped her had sunk immediately to less than +nothing. A man in a red coat, a man in gaiters, the first man who +whistled to her—and Enid had gone freely and willingly to exchange the +dull old love for the bright new one. There lay the stinging pain of it.</p> + +<p>What to do? One must do something. Mrs. Thompson took up the business +side of it, and determined as a first step to tackle the young man. +Purchased horsewhips impossible; but carefully chosen words may produce +some effect.</p> + +<p>She told Enid—after several conversations on the disastrous +subject—that she desired an interview with Mr. Charles Kenion. Enid +might write, inviting him to call upon her mother, or Mrs. Thompson +would herself write.</p> + +<p>Enid said she would write to him without delay; but she begged that he +might be received at the house, and not be asked to enter the shop. She +seemed to dread the idea of bringing so fine a gentleman into close +touch with the common aspects of mercantile existence.</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. "Let him come to me in my shop. It is +purely a business interview, and I prefer to hold it in a place of +business."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>It was a most unsatisfactory interview.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson hated the young man at the very first glimpse of him as he +came lounging into her room. He was tall and skinny; his dark, straight +hair was plastered back from a low forehead; he had no moustache; and +his teeth, which showed too much in a narrow mouth, were ugly, set at a +slightly projecting angle, as with parrots. No reasonable being could +call him handsome; but of course his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> general air and manner were +gentlemanlike—Mrs. Thompson admitted so much at once, and disliked him +all the more for it. Gentlemanlikeness was his sole stock in trade: he +would push that for all it was worth, and she was immediately conscious +that in his easy tone and careless lounging attitude there was a quiet, +steady assumption of his social value as the well-bred young gentleman +whose father is related to the peerage.</p> + +<p>"Please be seated, Mr. Kenion."</p> + +<p>"Thanks."</p> + +<p>She had ignored his obvious intention of shaking hands, and he was not +apparently in the least disconcerted by her refusal of the friendly +overture.</p> + +<p>"I feel sure, Mr. Kenion, that if we have a good talk, you and I will be +able to understand each other."</p> + +<p>"Er—yes, I hope so."</p> + +<p>"I think it is important that you and I <i>should</i> understand each other +as soon as possible."</p> + +<p>"Thanks awfully. I'm sure it's very good of you to let me come. I know +how busy you are."</p> + +<p>He was looking at various objects in the room, and a slow smile +flickered about his small mouth. He looked especially at some files on +the desk, and at the massive door of one of the big safes standing ajar +and displaying iron shelves. He looked at these things with childish +interest; and Mrs. Thompson felt annoyance from the thought that the +smile was intended to convey the inference of his never having seen such +things before, and of his being rather amused by them.</p> + +<p>But she permitted no indication of her thoughts to escape her. The +governing powers of her mind were concentrated on the business in hand; +her face was a solid mask, expressing quiet strength, firm resolution, +worldly shrewdness, and it never changed except in colour, now getting +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> little redder, now a little paler; she sat squarely, so that her +revolving chair did not turn an inch to one side or the other; and +throughout the interview she seemed and was redoubtable.</p> + +<p>"My daughter tells me that you have proposed to her."</p> + +<p>"Yes—I may as well say at once that I'm awfully in love.... And Enid +has been good enough to—er—reciprocate. I'm sure I don't know what +I've done to deserve such luck."</p> + +<p>"Nor do I as yet, Mr. Kenion."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. Of course Enid is a stunner."</p> + +<p>"But it was about you, and not my daughter, that I wished to talk. +Perhaps it will save time if I ask you a few questions. That is usual on +these occasions, is it not?"</p> + +<p>"Well, as to that, I can't say," and he laughed stupidly. "This is the +first time I've been bowled over."</p> + +<p>"As a question to begin with—what about your prospects, in whatever +career you have planned?"</p> + +<p>"My plans, don't you know, would depend more or less on Enid."</p> + +<p>"But you can give me some account of your position in the world—and so +forth."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, that's pretty well known—such as it is. Not brilliant, don't +you know.... But I relied on Enid to tell you all that."</p> + +<p>"No, please don't rely on her. Only rely on yourself, Mr. Kenion."</p> + +<p>Something of the quiet swagger had evaporated. The sunshine came +streaming down from a skylight and fell upon him. Mrs. Thompson had put +him where he would get all the light, and she scrutinized him +attentively.</p> + +<p>His suit of grey flannels, although not of sporting cut or material, +suggested nothing but a stable and horses; and beneath his casual air of +gentlemanly ease there was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>raffishness, looseness, disreputability. In +the bright sunbeams he looked sallow and bilious; his eyelids drooped, +an incipient yawn was lazily suppressed; and she thought that very +likely he had been drinking last night and would soon be drinking again +this morning.</p> + +<p>Mentally she compared him with another young man. In her mind she +carried now at all times the vividly detailed picture of a masculine +type; and it was impossible not to use it as a standard or measure. Mr. +Kenion seemed very weak and mean and valueless, when set beside her +standard.</p> + +<p>"What is your profession, Mr. Kenion?"</p> + +<p>He had no profession: as she well knew, he was what is called a +gentleman at large. With vague terms he conveyed the information to her +again.</p> + +<p>"Really? Not a professional man? Are you a man of property—landed +estates, and so on?"</p> + +<p>No, Mr. Kenion was acreless.</p> + +<p>"But you are expecting property at your father's death? Is it entailed +upon you? I mean, are you sure of the succession?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Kenion smilingly confessed that his father's death would not bring +him land.</p> + +<p>"But you are assured that he can supply you with ample means during his +lifetime?"</p> + +<p>Oh, no. Mr. Kenion explained that the vicar of Chapel-Norton was in no +sense a capitalist.</p> + +<p>"My governor couldn't do anything more for me—and I shouldn't care to +ask him. He has done a good deal for me already—it wouldn't be fair to +my brothers and sisters to ask him to stump up again;" and he went on to +hint plainly that in his opinion the fact of his being a gentleman—a +real gentleman—should counterbalance such a trifle as the deficiency of +material resources.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson refused to comprehend the hint.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>"Surely, Mr. Kenion, if a young man proposes to a young lady—and asks +her to engage herself to him without her mother's knowledge, that should +imply that he is prepared to take over all responsibilities?"</p> + +<p>She had not uttered a single reproach, or even by innuendo upbraided him +for the improper course that he had pursued when persuading Enid to defy +the laws of chaperonage and go about with him alone. Her pride would not +permit her to make the slightest allusion to the girl's folly. Besides, +that would be to play his game for him. By her silence she intended to +show him that he had not scored a point.</p> + +<p>"Don't you admit as much as that, Mr. Kenion? If I were to countenance +the suggested engagement, how do you propose to maintain such a wife +suitably—in the manner in which she has been brought up?"</p> + +<p>"Well, of course I couldn't promise to open a shop for her;" and he +laughed with fatuous good-humour, as if what he had said was rather +funny, and not an impertinence.</p> + +<p>"There are worse things in the world than shops, Mr. Kenion."</p> + +<p>"Exactly;" and he laughed again. "As to ways and means—of course I +haven't made any inquiries of any sort. But Enid gave me to +understand—or I gathered, don't you know, that money was no object."</p> + +<p>"Indeed it is an object," said Mrs. Thompson warmly. "I might almost say +it has been the object of my life. I know how difficult it is to earn, +and how easy to waste.... But I doubt if anything can be gained by +further discussion. Your answers to my questions have left me no +alternative. I must altogether refuse my sanction to an engagement."</p> + +<p>"You won't consent to it?"</p> + +<p>"No, Mr. Kenion, the man who marries my daughter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> with my consent must +first prove to me that he is worthy of her."</p> + +<p>"But of course as to that—well, Enid tells me she is over twenty-one."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. I see what you mean. A man might marry her without my consent. +But then he would get her—and not one penny with her.... That, Mr. +Kenion, is quite final."</p> + +<p>He seemed staggered by the downright weight of this final statement.</p> + +<p>"Of course," he said, rather feebly, "we are desperately in love with +one another."</p> + +<p>Contempt flashed from her eyes as she asked him still another question +or two.</p> + +<p>"What did you expect—that I should welcome your proposal and thank you +for it?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Enid and I had made up our minds that you wouldn't thwart her +wishes."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Kenion, even if I had agreed and made everything easy and +pleasant for you, surely you would not be content to live as a pensioner +for the rest of your days?"</p> + +<p>She was thinking of what Dick Marsden had said to her in the dusk by the +river. "I could not pose as the pensioner of a rich wife." It seemed to +her a natural and yet a noble sentiment; and she contrasted the proper +manly frame of mind that found expression in such an utterance with the +mean-spirited readiness to depend on others that Mr. Kenion confessed so +shamelessly. Marsden was perhaps not a gentleman in the snobbish, +conventional sense, but how much more a man than this Kenion!</p> + +<p>"Don't you know," he was saying feebly; and, as he said it, he stifled +another yawn; "I should certainly try to do something myself."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>"Well, perhaps a little farming. I think I could help to keep the pot +on the boil by making and selling hunters—and a good deal can be done +with poultry, if you set to work in the right way.... Enid seemed to +like the notion of living in the country."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson turned the revolving chair round a few inches towards the +desk, and politely told Mr. Kenion that she need not detain him any +further.</p> + +<p>He had come in loungingly, and he went out loungingly; but he was limper +after the interview than before it. He probably felt that the stuffing +had been more or less knocked out of him; for he presently turned into a +saloon bar, and sought to brace himself again with strong stimulants.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>No doubt he complained bitterly enough to Enid of the severely chilling +reception that he had met with in the queer back room behind the shop. +Anyhow Enid complained with bitterness to her mother. Indeed at this +crisis of her life Enid was horrid. Yates begged her to be more +considerate, and committed a breach of confidence by telling her of how +her unkind tone had twice made the mistress weep; but Enid could attend +only to one thing at a time. She wanted her sweetheart, and she thought +it very hard that anybody should attempt to deprive her of him.</p> + +<p>"And it will all be no use, mother—because I never, never can give him +up."</p> + +<p>Thus the days passed miserably; and a sort of stalemate seemed to have +occurred. Kenion had not retired, but he was not coming on; and Enid was +horrid.</p> + +<p>In her perplexity and distress Mrs. Thompson went to Mr. Prentice, and +asked him for advice and aid.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice, delighted to be restored to favour after his recent +disgrace, was jovial and cheering. He pooh-poohed the notion that Enid +had in the smallest degree<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> compromised herself; he talked of the wide +latitude given to modern girls, of their independence, their capacity to +take care of themselves in all circumstances; and stoutly declared his +belief that among fashionable people the chaperon had ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>"Don't you worry about that, my dear. No one is going to think any the +worse of her for being seen with a cavalier dangling at her heels."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless he heartily applauded Mrs. Thompson for her firm tackling +of the indigent suitor; he offered to find out everything about Kenion +and his family, and promised that he would render staunch aid in sending +him "to the right-abouts."</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Thompson called again Mr. Prentice had collected a formidable +dossier, and he read out the damaging details of Mr. Kenion's history +with triumphant relish.</p> + +<p>"Now this is private detective work, not solicitors' work—and I expect +a compliment for the quick way I've got the information.... Well then, +there's only one word for Mr. Kenion—he's a thorough rotter."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Prentice began to read his notes.</p> + +<p>"Our friend," as he called the subject of the memoir, was sent down from +Cambridge in dire disgrace. He had attempted an intricately dangerous +transaction, with a credit-giving jeweller and three diamond rings at +one end of it, and a pawnbroker at the other. The college authorities +heard of it—from whom do you suppose? <i>The police!</i> Old Kenion paid the +bill, to avoid something worse than the curtailment of the university +curriculum. Since then "our friend" had been mixed up with horsedealers +of ill repute—riding their horses, taking commissions when he could +sell them.</p> + +<p>"He gambles," said Mr. Prentice with gusto; "he drinks; he womani—I +should say, his morals with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> other sex are a minus quantity.... And +last of all, I can tell you this. I've seen the fellow—got a man to +point him out to me; and there's <i>blackguard</i> written all over him."</p> + +<p>"Then how <i>can</i> respectable people like the Salters entertain him?"</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Mr. Prentice philosophically, "that's the way we live +nowadays. The home is no longer sacred. People don't seem to care who +they let into their houses. If a fellow can ride and can show a few +decent relations, hunting folk forgive him a good deal. And the Salters +very likely hadn't heard—or at any rate didn't <i>know</i> anything against +him."</p> + +<p>At his own suggestion, jumped at by his client, Mr. Prentice returned +with Mrs. Thompson to St. Saviour's Court, and told Miss Enid that it +would be madness for her any longer to encourage the attentions of such +a ne'er-do-well.</p> + +<p>"If you were my own daughter," said Mr. Prentice solemnly, "I should +forbid your ever seeing him again. And I give you my word of honour I +believe that before a year has past you'll thank Mrs. Thompson for +standing firm now."</p> + +<p>But Enid was still horrid. She seemed infatuated; she would not credit, +she would not listen to, anything of detriment to her sweetheart's +character. She spoke almost rudely to her mother; and when Mr. Prentice +took it on himself to reprove her, she spoke quite rudely to him. Then +she marched out of the room.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid," said Mr. Prentice, "there'll be a certain amount of +wretchedness before you bring her to reason."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>There was wretchedness in the little house—Enid pining and moping, +assuming the airs of a victim; her mother trying to soften the +disappointment, arguing, consoling, promising better fish in the sea +than as yet had come out of it. Enid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> refused to go away from +Mallingbridge. Mrs. Thompson herself longed for change, and the chance +of forgetting all troubles; there was nothing to keep her here now, +although her presence would be required in September; but Enid seemed +tied by invisible strings to the home she was making so very +uncomfortable.</p> + +<p>She would not go away, and she would not undertake to refrain from +seeing or writing to Mr. Kenion. She did give her word that she would +not slink out and marry him on the sly. But she could safely promise +that, because, under the existing conditions of stalemate, it was very +doubtful if Mr. Kenion would abet her in so bold a measure. Probably she +was aware that Mr. Kenion's courtship had been successfully checked; and +the knowledge made her all the more difficult to deal with. Mr. Kenion +was neither retiring, nor coming forward: he was just beating time; and +perhaps Enid felt humiliated as well as angry when she observed his +stationary position.</p> + +<p>A pitiful state of affairs—mother and daughter separated in heart and +mind; on one side increasing coldness, on the other lessening hope; an +estrangement that widened every day.</p> + +<p>Then at last Enid consented to start with her mother for a rapid tour in +Switzerland. Mr. Kenion, it appeared, had crossed the Irish Channel on +some kind of horse-business; and so Lucerne and Mallingbridge had become +all one to Enid.</p> + +<p>They stayed in many hotels, visited many new scenes; and Mrs. Thompson, +looking at high mountains and broad lakes, was still vainly trying to +recover her lost child. Enid was calm again, polite again, even +conversational; but between herself and her mother she had made a wall +as high as the loftiest mountain and a chasm as wide as the biggest of +the lakes.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>X</span></h2> + +<p>The books of Thompson's were made up and audited at the end of each +summer season, and in accordance with an unbroken custom the +proprietress immediately afterwards gave a dinner to the heads of +departments. Printed invitations were invariably issued for this small +annual banquet; the scene of the entertainment was the private house; +and the highly glazed cards, with which Mrs. Thompson requested the +honour of the company of Mr. Mears and the others in St. Saviour's Court +at 6:45 for 7 o'clock, used to be boastfully shown along the counters by +the eight or ten happy gentlemen who had received them.</p> + +<p>During the course of the dinner—the very best that the Dolphin could +send in—Mrs. Thompson would thank her loyal servants, give her views as +to where the shop had failed to achieve the highest possible results, +and discuss the plan of campaign for the next twelve months. The heads +of departments, warmed with the generous food, cheered with the +sparkling wine, charmed and almost overwhelmed by Mrs. Thompson's +gracious condescension, said the same things every year, made the same +suggestions, never by any chance contributed an original idea. But the +dinner was doing them good; they would think better and work harder when +it was only a memory. At the moment it was sufficient for them to +realize that they were here, sitting at the same luxurious table with +their venerated employer, revelling in her smiles, seeing her evening +robe of splendour instead of the shop black; admiring her bare shoulders +and her white gloves, her costly satin and lace, her glittering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> sequins +or shimmering beads; and most of all admiring her herself, the noble +presiding spirit of Thompson's.</p> + +<p>Jolly Mr. Prentice was always present—acting as a deputy-host; and at +the end of dinner he always gave the traditional toast.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, raise your glasses with me, and drink to the best man of +business in Mallingbridge. That is, to Mrs. Thompson.... Mrs. +Thompson.... Mrs. Thompson!"</p> + +<p>Then little Mr. Ridgway of Silks used to start singing.</p> + +<p>"'For she's a jolly good fellow'"....</p> + +<p>"Please, please," said Mrs. Thompson, picking up her fan, and rising. +"<i>Without</i> musical honours, please;" and the chorus immediately stopped. +"Gentlemen, I thank you;" and she sailed out of the room, always turning +at the door for a last word. "Mr. Prentice, the cigars are on the side +table. Don't let my guests want for anything."</p> + +<p>Now once again the night of this annual feast had come round, the +champagne corks were popping, the Dolphin waiters were carrying their +dainty dishes; and Mrs. Thompson sat at the top of her table, like a +kindly queen beaming on her devoted courtiers.</p> + +<p>Yates, standing idle as a major-domo while the hirelings bustled to and +fro, was ravished by the elegant appearance of the queen. Yates had +braced her into some new tremendous fashionable stays from Paris, and +she thought the effect of slimness was astonishing. Truly Mrs. Thompson +had provided herself with a magnificent dress—a Paris model, of grey +satin with lace and seed pearls all over the bodice; and her opulent +shoulders, almost bursting from the pretty shoulder-straps, gleamed +finely and whitely in the lamp-light. Her hair made a grand full +coronet, low across the brow; her face seemed unusually pale; and there +were dark shadows about her glowing eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, Mr. Mears—as you say, travelling opens the mind. But I fear I +have brought home no new information."</p> + +<p>"What you have brought home," said Mr. Ridgway, gallantly, "is a +pleasure to see—and that is, if I may say so"— The little man had +intended to pay a courageously direct compliment, by saying that Mrs. +Thompson had never looked so attractive as she did now after the brief +Continental tour; but suddenly his courage failed him, nervousness +overcame him, and, floundering, he tailed off weakly. "You have, I hope, +ma'am, brought home replenished health and renewed vigour."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Ridgway;" and the nervousness seemed to have +communicated itself to Mrs. Thompson's voice. "A change of scene is +certainly stimulating."</p> + +<p>"I've always had a great ambition," said Mr. Fentiman of Woollens, "to +get a peep at Switzerland before I die."</p> + +<p>"Then you must arrange to do so," said Mrs. Thompson, with kindly +significance. "Some autumn—I'm sure it would be easy to arrange."</p> + +<p>"I figure it," said Mr. Fentiman sententiously, "as a gigantic +panorama—stupefying in its magnitude—and, ah, in all respects unique."</p> + +<p>"It is very beautiful," said Mrs. Thompson; and she glanced at Enid, who +was pensively playing with her breadcrumbs.</p> + +<p>"The Swiss," said Mr. Mears, "are reputed a thrifty race. Did you, +madam, observe signs of economic prosperity among the people?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice chimed in boisterously from the bottom of the table.</p> + +<p>"What no one will ever observe among the Swiss people is a pretty girl. +Did you see a pretty girl on all your travels, Mrs. Thompson—except the +one you took with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> you?" And Mr. Prentice bowed to Enid, and then +laughed loudly and cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Is that a fact?" asked Mr. Ridgway. "Are they really so ill-favoured?"</p> + +<p>"Plainest-headed lot in Europe," shouted Mr. Prentice.</p> + +<p>"And do you, madam, endorse the verdict?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. Far too sweeping;" and Mrs. Thompson laughed nervously, and +attempted to draw her daughter into the conversation. "Enid, Mr. Ridgway +is asking if we saw no pretty girls in Switzerland."</p> + +<p>But Enid was dull. She had volunteered to join the party, but she would +not assist the hostess in making it a success. She need not have been +here; and it was stupid or unkind of her to come, and yet not try to be +pleasant.</p> + +<p>"Didn't we, mother? I don't remember."</p> + +<p>All this strained talk about Switzerland was heavy and spiritless. One +heard the note of effort all through it. In the old days they would have +been chattering freely of the shop and themselves. Mrs. Thompson felt +painfully conscious that there was something wrong with the feast. No +gaiety. Some influence in the air that proved alternately chilling and +nerve-disturbing. She knew that Mr. Prentice felt it, too. He was +endeavouring to make things go; and when he wanted things to go, he +became noisy. He was growing noisier and noisier.</p> + +<p>She looked at her guests while Mr. Prentice bellowed in monologue. They +were eating and drinking, but somehow failing to enjoy themselves.</p> + +<p>Big Mr. Mears, sitting beside her, ate enormously. He wore a black bow +tie, with a low-cut black waistcoat and his voluminous frock-coat—he +would not go nearer to the conventional dress-clothes, not judging the +swallow-tail as befitting to his station in life, or his figure. Scrubby +little Mr. Ridgway, on her other side, emptied his glass with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> +surprising rapidity. Mr. Fentiman, a tall skinny man, ate almost as much +as Mr. Mears. He had cleared his plate and was looking at the ceiling, +with his long neck saliently exposed above a turn-down collar, as he +dreamed perhaps of next year's holiday and a foreign trip financed by a +liberal patroness. Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the familiar +commonplace faces—bald heads glistening, jaws masticating, hands busy +with knife and fork; but nowhere could she see any light-hearted jollity +or genuine amusement and interest.</p> + +<p>She looked at the head of China and Glass last of all. On this occasion +Mr. Marsden made his initial appearance at her hospitable board. It was, +of course, impossible to leave him out of the gathering; but great, very +great trouble of mind had been aroused by the necessity to include him. +She had feared the meeting under the relaxed conditions of friendly +informal intercourse. Perhaps, so far as she was concerned, all the +nerve-vibrating element in the atmosphere was caused by his quiet +unobtrusive presence.</p> + +<p>He wore faultless evening-dress, with a piqué shirt, a white waistcoat, +and a flower in his button-hole; and, sitting at the other end of the +table, near Mr. Prentice, he was very silent—almost as silent as Enid. +Not quite, because he spoke easily and naturally when anybody addressed +him. And his silence was smiling and gracious. Among the other men he +seemed to be a creature from a different world—so firm in his quiet +strength, so confident in his own power, so young, so self-possessed, +and so extraordinarily, overbearingly handsome.</p> + +<p>The dinner was more than half over; the Dolphin waiters were carving and +serving some savoury game; Mrs. Thompson exerted herself as a watchful +and attentive hostess.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Greig, you mustn't refuse the grouse. It was specially sent from +Scotland for us."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p><p>"Really, madam," said Mr. Greig, the obese chief of Cretonnes etc., +"your menoo is that ample I find it difficult not to shirk my duties to +it. But still, since you're so kind as to mention it—yes, I thank you."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Mr. Greig."</p> + +<p>"Greig, my good friend," said Mr. Prentice, "you'd make a poor show at +the Guildhall or the Mansion House, if you can't stay the course without +all these protestations and excuses."</p> + +<p>"I've never dined with the Lord Mayor," said Mr. Greig; "but I cannot +believe his lordship offers the most distinguished company a more ample +menoo than this."</p> + +<p>"Enid," said Mrs. Thompson, "do have some grouse."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, mother."</p> + +<p>It was Enid who cast a chill upon everything and everybody; all the cold +and depressing influence issued from her. She looked pretty enough in +her pink and silver frock, and she ought to have been a charming and +welcome addition to the party; but she would not put herself to the +trouble of talking and smiling. She made no slightest effort to set +these more or less humble folk at their ease. She showed that she was +absent-minded, and allowed people to guess that she was also bored. Now +Mr. Prentice was rallying her with genial, paternal freedom—and she +would not even answer his questions. He turned away, to bellow at Mr. +Fentiman; and obviously felt crushed by his failure to make things go.</p> + +<p>The point had been reached when it was customary to begin their friendly +business talk; but to-night it seemed impossible for them to speak +comfortably of the shop. The presence of the fashionable outsider tied +all their tongues.</p> + +<p>Old Mears ponderously started the ball; but no one could keep it +rolling.</p> + +<p>"Well, ma'am," said Mr. Mears. "Another year has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> come and gone. We are +in a position to look behind us; and, as usual, before we commence to +look ahead of us, any words that fall from your lips will be esteemed a +favour."</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear," said Mr. Ridgway, shyly and feebly.</p> + +<p>"Really, gentlemen," said Mrs. Thompson, "I don't know that I have any +words likely to be of value."</p> + +<p>"Always valuable—your words," said fat Mr. Greig.</p> + +<p>"But I take this opportunity," and Mrs. Thompson looked nervously at her +daughter—"this opportunity of thanking you for all you have done for me +in the past, and of assuring you that I place the fullest confidence in +you—in you all—for the future."</p> + +<p>Enid had thrown a blight over the proceedings. She made them all shy and +uneasy. Even Mrs. Thompson herself could not speak of the shop without +hesitating and stammering.</p> + +<p>"So, really," she went on, "that is all I need say, gentlemen. But, as +always, I shall be—shall be glad—extremely glad if you will give me +your candid views on any subjects—on all subjects.... Have you any +suggestions to make, Mr. Mears?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Mears coughed, and hummed and hawed before replying.</p> + +<p>"We must adhere to our maxims—and not get slack, no matter how good +business may be."</p> + +<p>"That's it," said Mr. Ridgway. "Keep up the high standard of Thompson's, +whatever else we do."</p> + +<p>"Any suggestions from <i>you</i>, Mr. Greig?"</p> + +<p>"No more," said Mr. Greig, "than the remarks which my confreers have +passed. I say the same myself."</p> + +<p>She asked them each in turn, hurrying through her questions, scarcely +waiting to hear the unusually imbecile answers.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden—have you any suggestions to make?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p><p>"None," said Marsden, firmly and unhesitatingly. "Unless, madam, you +would authorise me to break the neck of Mr. Archibald Bence."</p> + +<p>This sally was received with universal applause and laughter.</p> + +<p>"Bravo," cried Mr. Prentice. "Take me with you, my boy, when you go on +that job."</p> + +<p>"And me, too."</p> + +<p>"And I must be there—if it's only to pick up the remains."</p> + +<p>"And to bury 'em decently."</p> + +<p>"Which is more than Master Bence deserves."</p> + +<p>They were all laughing heartily and happily, all talking at once, +gesticulating, pantomiming. Even old Mears beat upon the table with a +fork to express his satisfaction, and his agreement with the general +feeling.</p> + +<p>All the tongues were untied by the seasonable facetiousness of Mr. +Marsden. The hostess flashed a grateful glance at him; but he was not +looking in her direction. He was courteously listening to Mr. Prentice, +who had lowered his voice now that things had begun to go of their own +accord.</p> + +<p>And things continued to go well for the rest of the dinner. The name of +Bence had acted like a charm; they all could find something to say about +the hated and unworthy rival, and their hitherto frozen tongues now +wagged unceasingly.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever see such wretched little starveling girls as he puts into +the bazaar at Christmas?"</p> + +<p>"It's a disgrace to the town, importing such waifs and strays."</p> + +<p>"They tell me he gets 'em out of a place in Whitechapel—and they're in +charge of a couple of detectives all the time."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, you bet. Two upon ten, or the poor little beggars would prig his +gimcracks as fast as he put them out."</p> + +<p>"I don't vouch for it—but I believe it myself: they had three cases of +pocket-picking in an hour. And it was one of his shop-girls who done +it."</p> + +<p>"That's a nice way of doing business! 'Step this way, miss, and look at +our twopenny 'a'penny toys'—and pick the customer's pocket as you are +serving her."</p> + +<p>While they talked so cheerily and pleasantly Mrs. Thompson several times +glanced down the table at her youngest manager. She need not have +dreaded the meeting. He had made it quite easy for her. He had proved +that he possessed the instincts of a true gentleman—not a make-believe +gentleman; he had displayed consideration, tact, good breeding; and by +his ready wit he had come to her aid and dissipated the dullness of her +guests. She sat smiling and nodding in the midst of their lively +chatter, and looked at Mr. Marsden's strong, clear-cut profile. It +seemed to her statuesque, noble, magnificent; and it did not once change +into a full face during all the time she watched it.</p> + +<p>Now the guests had eaten their dessert, and the hired waiters had gone +from the room. The moment had come for the toast.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Mr. Prentice, "fill your glasses and drink a health. I +give you two people rolled into one—that is, the best Man of business +in Mallingbridge and Mrs. Thompson.... Mrs. Thompson!"</p> + +<p>"Now, all together," said Mr. Ridgway; and he began to sing. "'For +<i>she</i>'s a jolly good fel-low'"....</p> + +<p>"Please, please," said Mrs. Thompson, getting up from her chair, and +stopping the chorus. "No musical honours, <i>please</i>.... Gentlemen, I +thank you.... And now my daughter and I will leave you to your coffee +and cigars."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p><p>Then she followed Enid to the door, and turned on the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Prentice, don't let our guests want for anything.... Yates has put +the cigars on the side-table."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>In the other room Enid walked over to the piano, and, without uttering a +word, began to play.</p> + +<p>"After all," said Mrs. Thompson, with a sigh of relief, "it didn't go +off so badly."</p> + +<p>"No," said Enid, looking at her fingers as they slowly struck the notes, +"I suppose not."</p> + +<p>"What is it you are playing?" Mrs. Thompson asked the question abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Chopin."</p> + +<p>"Can't you play anything gayer? That's so sad."</p> + +<p>"Is it?... I don't feel very gay."</p> + +<p>The plaintive and depressing melody continued, while Mrs. Thompson +walked about the room restlessly. Then she came to the side of the +piano, and leaned her arm upon the folded lid.</p> + +<p>"Enid. Stop playing." She spoke eagerly and appealingly; and Enid, +looking up, saw that her eyes were wet with tears.</p> + +<p>"Mother, what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Everything is the matter;" and she stretched out her hand above the +ivory keys. "Enid, are you purposely, wilfully unkind to me?... Where +has my child gone?... It's wicked, and <i>stupid</i> of you. Because I am +trying to save you from a great folly, you give me these cold tones; day +after day, you—you treat me as a stranger and an enemy."</p> + +<p>"Mother, I am sorry. But you must know what I feel about it.... Is it +any good going over the ground again?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, it <i>is</i> good," said Mrs. Thompson impetuously; and she withdrew +the hand that had vainly invited another hand to clasp it. "You and I +must come to terms. This sort of thing is what I can't stand—what I +<i>won't</i> stand." With a vigorous gesture she brushed away her tears, and +began to walk about the room again.</p> + +<p>Enid was looking down her long nose at the key-board; and her whole face +expressed the sheep-like but unshakable obstinacy that she had inherited +from her stupid father.</p> + +<p>"Mother," she said slowly, "I told you at the very beginning that I +could never give him up."</p> + +<p>Then Yates brought in the coffee.</p> + +<p>"Put it down there," said Mrs. Thompson, "and leave us."</p> + +<p>And Yates, with shrewd and rather scared glances at mother and daughter, +went out again.</p> + +<p>"I don't believe—I <i>know</i> that this man is not worthy of you. I won't +tell you how meanly I think of him."</p> + +<p>"No, please don't speak against him any more. You have done that so +often already."</p> + +<p>"And haven't I the right to state my opinion—and to act on it, too? Am +I not your mother? Can I forget that—even if you forget it?"</p> + +<p>"Mother, I haven't forgotten. I remember all your goodness—up to now."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kenion simply wants the money that I could give you, if I pleased."</p> + +<p>"He only wants us to have just sufficient to live on."</p> + +<p>"The money is his first aim."</p> + +<p>"Mother, if that were <i>true</i>, nothing would ever make me believe it."</p> + +<p>"No doubt he is fond of you—in a way.... Enid, I implore you not to +harden yourself against me.... Of course he is attracted by you. Who +wouldn't be? You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> are young and charming—with every grace and spell to +win men's love. Any man should love you—and other men will.... Be +reasonable—be brave. It isn't as if you could possibly feel that this +was the last chance—the last offer of love in a woman's life."</p> + +<p>"Mother, it must always be the last chance—the only chance, when one +has set one's heart on it."</p> + +<p>"Set your heart!" cried Mrs. Thompson, vehemently and passionately. +"Your heart? You haven't got a heart—or you couldn't, you couldn't make +me so miserably unhappy as you are doing now."</p> + +<p>"I am very sorry—but I share the unhappiness, don't I? Mother, I, too, +am most miserably unhappy."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson was pacing to and fro rapidly and excitedly; her bosom +heaved, and the words were beginning to pour out with explosive force.</p> + +<p>"He is everything then—the sun, moon, and stars to you; and I am a +cipher. The mother who bore you counts for less than any Tom, Dick, or +Harry who puts his arms round your waist and pulls your silly face +towards him."</p> + +<p>"Mother!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother! That's my name still—and you use it from habit. Only the +fact—the plain meaning of the word is gone."</p> + +<p>"Mother, they'll hear you in the other room."</p> + +<p>"But I'm not a woman to be ignored and slighted—and pushed aside. +There's nothing of the patient Griselda in my nature. I am what I +<i>am</i>—all alive still—not done for, and on the shelf. I have +subordinated my life to yours—let you rule it how you chose. But you +must rule it by kindness—not by cold looks and cutting words. I don't +submit to that—I <i>won't</i> submit to it."</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, I have told you how grateful I am."</p> + +<p>"And gratitude—as you understand it—is no use to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> me. I've a +<i>right</i>—yes, a right to your affection—the natural affection that I've +striven to retain, that I've done nothing to forfeit."</p> + +<p>"No, no. Mother dear, you have my affection."</p> + +<p>"Then what's it worth? Not much—no, not very much, if the first time I +appeal to your sense of duty too, it isn't to be found. I tell you not +to be a fool—and you swear I am wrecking your life. I'm the villain of +your trumpery little drama—plotting and scheming to frustrate your love +and spoil your life. That's too rich—that's too good, altogether too +good."</p> + +<p>The expression of Enid's face had changed from obstinacy to alarm. She +watched her mother apprehensively, and stammered some calming phrases.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, I'm sorry. Don't, don't get excited—or I'm sure they'll +hear us in the other room."</p> + +<p>"Your life, yes. And what about <i>my</i> life?" The words were pouring out +in an unchecked torrent. "Look back at my life and see what it has been. +You're twenty-two, aren't you? And I was that age more than twenty-two +years ago—and all the twenty-two years I've given you. Something for +something—not something for nothing. We traders like fair exchange—but +you've put yourself above all that.... No, leave me alone. Don't touch +me, since you have ceased to care for me."</p> + +<p>Enid had come from the piano, and was endeavouring to subdue the +emotional explosion by a soothing caress.</p> + +<p>"Leave me to myself—leave me alone. I'm nothing to you—and you know +it."</p> + +<p>Enid's caress was roughly repulsed; and Mrs. Thompson sat upon the sofa, +hid her flushed face upon her arms, and burst into a fit of almost +hysterical sobbing.</p> + +<p>"Mother, mother—don't, please don't;" and Enid sat<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> beside her, patted +her shoulder, and begged her quickly to compose herself lest the +gentlemen should come and see her in her distress.</p> + +<p>"It's so cruel," sobbed Mrs. Thompson. "And now—now of all times, I +can't bear it.... But I mustn't let myself go like this. I daren't give +way like this."</p> + +<p>Then very soon her broad back ceased to shake; the convulsing gasping +sobs were suppressed, and she sat up and dried her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Enid, have I made a horrible fright of myself?" And she rose from the +sofa, and went to look in the glass over the fireplace. The tears had +left little trace; the reflection in the glass reassured her.</p> + +<p>She was comparatively calm when she returned to the sofa and sat down +again.</p> + +<p>"Enid, my dear, I'm ashamed to have been betrayed into such weakness," +and she smiled piteously. "But you have tested me too severely of +late—since this unlucky affair began. I have thought myself strong +enough; but the strongest things have their snapping point—even iron +and steel;—and I am only flesh and blood.... You don't understand, but +I warn you that I <i>need</i> the sympathy and the kindness which you +withhold from me.... Be nice to me—be kind to me."</p> + +<p>But Enid was crying now. Tears trickled down her narrow face. The +strange sight of her mother's violent and explosive distress had quite +overcome her.</p> + +<p>"I do try to do what's right," she whimpered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my darling girl," said Mrs. Thompson tenderly. "And so do I. It's +all summed up in that. We must do what's right and wise—not just what +seems easy and delightful. There. There.... Use my handkerchief;" and in +her turn she reminded Enid that the gentlemen would be with them at any +minute.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p><p>"Mother, when you ask me to give him up, it's more than I <i>can</i> do."</p> + +<p>"But would I ask you if I wasn't certain—as certain as I can be of +anything in the world—that you could never be happy with him? You'd be +risking a lifetime's regret."</p> + +<p>"I am ready to take the risk. Don't come between us."</p> + +<p>"Enid, my dearest—my own Enid, trust me—trust the mother who has +never, never thwarted you till now. You know I'm not selfish—not greedy +of money. Truly I have only worked for you.... And think—though I hate +to say it—of the many—the many, many things I have given up for your +sake. It wasn't difficult perhaps—because you were everything on earth +to me. But any middle-aged woman who knew my life would tell you that I +have made great sacrifices—and all for you."</p> + +<p>"I know you have, mother. It's dreadful to think of how you have worked, +year after year."</p> + +<p>"Then can't you make this one sacrifice for me?"</p> + +<p>"If it was anything else;" and Enid sniffed, and another tear or two +began to trickle. "If it was anything else, I'd obey you implicitly—and +know it was my duty."</p> + +<p>"Why isn't it your duty now?"</p> + +<p>"Because this is so different."</p> + +<p>"Enid, stop. Don't say any more."</p> + +<p>"But, mother dear, do understand what I mean."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I understand too well."</p> + +<p>"I'm not ungrateful. If you called on me to pay back some of my debt, +I'd work for you till I dropped. I'd try to make every sort of sacrifice +that you have made for me. But when it comes to a woman's love, she +<i>can't</i> sacrifice herself."</p> + +<p>"Then, by God, I'll take you at your word."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson had sprung up from the sofa; and once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> more she paced to +and fro, a prey to an increasing excitement.</p> + +<p>"Mother? You'll consent?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—I consent. A woman can't sacrifice her love! Very good. So be it. +That's your law. Then obey it—and, as there's a God in Heaven, I'll +obey it, too."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>The gentlemen, leaving their dinner table, heard the raised voice, and +paused in surprise outside the drawing-room door. When they entered the +room, Mrs. Thompson, with blazing cheeks and flashing eyes, turned +towards them and gazed eagerly through the open doorway.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden, where are you? Come here."</p> + +<p>Marsden went to her quickly; and she drew him away to the curtained +windows, and spoke in an eager whisper.</p> + +<p>"Did you mean what you told me by the river?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean it still?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"On your honour as a man, is that true?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Then she took his right hand in her two hands, and held it tightly.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen—listen to me, please;" and she spoke with feverish +resolution. "This is not perhaps an opportune moment for making the +announcement—but I want you to know, I want all my friends to know +without further delay that Mr. Marsden and I are engaged to be married."</p> + +<p>Silence like a dead weight seemed to fall upon the room.</p> + +<p>Enid had uttered a half-stifled exclamation of horror, but blank +amazement rendered the guests dumb. Mr. Prentice, who had become +apoplectically red, opened and shut his mouth; but no sound issued from +it. Mr. Mears, with bowed head and heavily hanging arms, stared at the +carpet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> Gradually every eye sank, and all were staring downwards—as if +unable to support the sight of the couple who stood hand in hand before +them.</p> + +<p>At last Mr. Ridgway tried to say something; and then Mr. Fentiman feebly +echoed his words.</p> + +<p>"You have taken our breath away, madam. But it behoves us +to—ah—congratu—to felicitate."</p> + +<p>"Or to proffer our good wishes."</p> + +<p>"And our best hopes."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Thompson did not look at them or listen to them. Marsden was +speaking to her in a low voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, yes. Every word. Every word. I meant all I said then—and I +mean it a thousand times more now. You are making me the proudest of +mortals—but don't forget one thing."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Why, all I said about the difficulties—the, the inequality of our +position, which must somehow be got rid of. But of course you've thought +it out."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" She was gazing at him with love and admiration; but +an intense anxiety came into her eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, I mean exactly what I said then. Nothing can change my mind. But, +as I told you, I can't have all the world pointing at me as a penniless +adventurer who has caught a rich wife.... But you've planned—you mean +to prevent—"</p> + +<p>His eyes did not meet hers. She dropped his hand, and looked at him now +with a passionate, yearning intentness.</p> + +<p>"Go on—quickly. Say what it is that you mean."</p> + +<p>"I mean, it is to be a thorough partnership—husband and wife on an +equal footing. You mean it, too, don't you? Partners in love and +partners in everything else!"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, after a scarcely perceptible hesitation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> "I did mean +that. You have anticipated what I intended."</p> + +<p>"My sweetheart and my wife." As he whispered the words, her whole face +lit up with triumphant joy. "I knew that you meant it all along. And I'm +the happiest proudest man that ever lived.... Now you'd better tell +them. Let them know that, too."</p> + +<p>Again she hesitated. She was in a fever of excitement, with all real +thought obliterated by the flood of emotion; and yet perhaps already, +though unconsciously to herself, she had attained a complete knowledge +of the fatal nature of her mistake.</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to tell them now—at once?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said gaily. "No time like the present. Let them know how my +dear wife and I mean to stand—and then there'll be nothing for anybody +to chatter about."</p> + +<p>"Very well."</p> + +<p>"That's right;" and he gently drew her round towards her audience. +"That's <i>our</i> way—side by side, shoulder to shoulder, you and I, facing +the world."</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Mrs. Thompson firmly, "there's another thing that I +must add to what I have said. Mr. Marsden, when he comes into this house +as my husband, will come into the business as my partner."</p> + +<p>Marsden, with his head raised and his shoulders squared, stood boldly +smiling at the silent men.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XI</span></h2> + +<p>She was conscious that the whole world had turned against her; in every +face she could read her condemnation; when she drove through High Street +she felt like a deposed monarch—hats were still removed, but with +pitying courtesy instead of with loyal fervour. Constraint and +embarrassment sounded in every fresh voice to which she listened. Mr. +Prentice, taking her instructions, assumed a ridiculously hollow +cheerfulness, as if he had been speaking to somebody who had contracted +an incurable disease. The shop staff dared not look at her, and yet +could not look away from her with any air of naturalness; up and down +the counters male and female assistants, so soon as she appeared, became +preposterously busy; and she knew that they avoided meeting her eyes. +She knew also that the moment she had passed, their eyes followed +her—they were at once frightened and fascinated, as if she had been a +person who had confessed to a great crime, who was still at large, but +who would be arrested almost immediately.</p> + +<p>During the first few days of her engagement she suffered under the heavy +sense that every friend had abandoned her. In street, shop, or house, +she could find no comforter. Even Yates was cruel.</p> + +<p>"Why do you look so glum?" At last she roundly upbraided Yates. "Don't +wait upon me at all, if you can only do it as though you were going to a +funeral."</p> + +<p>Yates, in sorrowful tones said that her glumness was caused by her +thoughts.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p><p>Then Mrs. Thompson piteously prayed for support from the old servant.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to drive me mad among you—make me commit suicide? Oh, +Yates, do stand by me."</p> + +<p>And Yates wept, and swore that henceforth she would stand by her +mistress.</p> + +<p>"Say you think I'm right in what I'm doing."</p> + +<p>"I'll say this, ma'am—that no one should be the judge except you of +what's right. No one hasn't any qualification to interfere with you in +what you please to do."</p> + +<p>"But, Yates, say you approve of it."</p> + +<p>"Well then, I do say it."</p> + +<p>Yates said that she approved; but no one else said so. Enid did not +pretend to approve—although she talked very little about her mother's +plans. She had obtained the desire of her own heart; she and Mr. Kenion +were to be made one as soon as possible; she was buying her trousseau, +and Mr. Prentice was drawing the marriage settlement.</p> + +<p>Both marriages were to be pushed on rapidly. No time like the present, +as Marsden joyously declared. "What's the good of waiting, when you have +made up your mind?" But Enid was to be cleared out of the way first; and +not till Enid had left the little house could her mother throw herself +completely into her own dream of bliss.</p> + +<p>There were some trifling difficulties, some slight delays. Mr. Kenion, +as one about to become a member of the family, frankly confessed that he +viewed the Marsden alliance with repugnance. He told Mr. Prentice that +it altered the whole condition of affairs, that his relatives begged him +to stand out for a much more liberal settlement than would previously +have appeared to be ample; and he hinted on his own account that if Mrs. +Thompson didn't stump up, he would feel justified in withdrawing +altogether. Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>Prentice, however, made short work of this suitor's +questionings and threatenings. He did not mention that, on the strong +advice of Mr. Marsden, his client had largely cut down the proposed +amount; but he said that in his own opinion the settlement was quite +ample.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Kenion, "what we get now is all we shall ever get. I +don't value Enid's further expectations at a brass farthing."</p> + +<p>"That's as it may be. Possibly you are wise in not building on the +future. But my instructions merely concern the present. As to the amount +decided on by my client, whether big or little—well, it is to take or +leave."</p> + +<p>Charlie Kenion, lounging deep in one of the solicitor's leather +armchairs, said that he would take it.</p> + +<p>At this period Mr. Prentice also received visits from the other suitor. +Marsden called several times, to talk about the terms of his +partnership, and to urge the importance of not overdoing it with regard +to the provision for Enid. These marriage settlements, he reminded the +solicitor, are irrevocable things—what you put into them you can't get +out of them. Nothing ever comes back to you. A woman in Mrs. Thompson's +position should therefore exercise some caution. She is rich now, but +she may not always be so rich; she must not give away more than she can +spare; it is folly not to keep a reserve fund.</p> + +<p>Then, when paying his last call before his departure for London, he slid +very naturally from the subject of Enid's settlement to a vague question +about a settlement in his own case. Was there any idea of making a +permanent provision for him?</p> + +<p>"Of course there is. You are to be a partner."</p> + +<p>That of course was understood, but Marsden had some doubt as to whether +there were other intentions.</p> + +<p>"I am only asking," he said pleasantly. "I leave <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>myself entirely in +your hands—and I'd like to say that I've the utmost confidence in +<i>you</i>."</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Mr. Prentice drily.</p> + +<p>"These settlements seem the usual things in marriages—so I thought the +rule would apply to my marriage."</p> + +<p>"In <i>your</i> marriage, Mr. Marsden, there is very little that is +usual—but, nevertheless, I think the usual rules should apply."</p> + +<p>"You do? You think some moderate settlement would be proper."</p> + +<p>"Very proper indeed—if you have anything to settle. By giving you a +half share in her business Mrs. Thompson is treating you with a +generosity—a munificence—an unprecedented munificence—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know she is."</p> + +<p>"And if therefore you on your side can make a settlement—however +moderate—in her favour, it will be a graceful and a natural act."</p> + +<p>Marsden laughed, and shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"That's very funny—very neatly put. But I see what you mean. You think +I ought not to have made the suggestion."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Mr. Prentice, obviously meaning, "Oh, yes."</p> + +<p>"I fancied that she herself might wish it; but I haven't said a word +about it to her.... Don't mention it to her.... Good morning."</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Enid was collecting garments, hats, frills, and feathers. She +had been given unlimited scope; prices need not be scrutinized; the best +London shops, as well as Thompson's, were open to her; and she went +about her business in a commendably business-like fashion. She did not +require Mrs. Thompson's advice—she knew exactly what she wanted.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p><p>When those few trickling tears had been dried and the bombshell-tidings +of her mother's engagement had burst upon her with such appalling +violence, she hardened and grew cold again. Nothing now would soften +her.</p> + +<p>She calmly announced that Charles had been lucky enough to find just the +house they wished for—a farmhouse recently converted into a gentleman's +residence, with some land and excellent stabling, eight miles from +Mallingbridge, between Haggart's Cross and Chapel-Norton; but she did +not invite Mrs. Thompson to inspect the premises, or even to examine the +patterns of the new wallpapers.</p> + +<p>She disgusted Mr. Prentice by her obstinate support of her future +husband in his final contention that the life interest given to him +under the settlement should be absolute and inalienable. Mr. Prentice +naturally desired to protect her from obvious dangers; but, instead of +strengthening his hands, she idiotically declared her wish to compliment +Kenion by an exhibition of blind confidence.</p> + +<p>"It must be as Enid wishes," said Mrs. Thompson; and Mr. Prentice was +forced to give way.</p> + +<p>The days were racing by. Mornings had a snap of frost in the air; autumn +rains brought the yellow leaves tumbling from the churchyard elms, and +autumn winds sent them spinning and eddying over the iron railings into +St. Saviour's Court. Very soon now October would be here—and on the +first day of October the church bells were to ring for Enid Thompson, +spinster, of this parish.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson heard the banns read; but she could not hear the other +banns in which the name of Thompson was again mumbled. Her emotion made +the sound of the parson's voice inaudible to her.</p> + +<p>One afternoon she saw Yates carrying up a large cardboard box to Enid's +dressing-room, and the printed label on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> the box gave her a stab of +pain. <i>Bence Brothers!</i> Enid, pressed for time, or now careless of how +often she wounded her mother's sensibilities, had gone across the road +to buy her ultimate batch of fal-lals.</p> + +<p>Then one morning—a dull, grey first of October—Enid offered her cheek +to her mother's lips.</p> + +<p>"I hope you'll be very happy, mother." These were her last words.</p> + +<p>The rooks, startled by the clashing bells, flew up from the tops of the +churchyard trees; the misty air vibrated as the organ rolled out its +voluminous music; the keen, sharp-edged wind blew the dead leaves down +the court and past the house;—and Enid was blown away with them, into +her lover's arms and out of her mother's life, as it seemed, forever.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>The days were swinging in a mad whirl; Mrs. Thompson had entered upon +her feverish dream; and nothing outside herself seemed of any +consequence to her now—except the man who was to be her husband.</p> + +<p>He was in London, well supplied with cash for his immediate necessities, +and he would not return until he came to lead her to the altar. Several +times she ran up to London with Yates, bought trousseau all the morning, +and then, casting off Yates, had luncheon with him at some smart +restaurant.</p> + +<p>A first glance told her that he was more splendid than any other man in +the building, and then everything about and beyond him became vague and +dim and unsubstantial. She could see nothing else. Light and sound +mingled; past and present fused, to make a panoramic changing background +in front of which he could stand out more solidly and brilliantly. She +heard the wheels of the train that had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> brought her to him, and at the +same time she heard the waltz played by this restaurant band; she was +surrounded by meaningless figures, from the field of vision and the fog +of memory; close to her sat fashionable people at little tables;—but +among them and through them moved the people she had seen in the open +street, at the dressmaker's, to-day, yesterday, or a year ago.</p> + +<p>But there was nothing vague or uncertain about him: he was +overpoweringly, gloriously distinct. She could see every thread in his +lovely new clothes, every hair in his perfumed, carefully brushed +moustache, each tiny speck of brown on the liquid amber of his eyes. +From those eyes, as she knew so well, he could shoot the darts of flame +that lodged a burning distress in one's breast, as easily as he could +send forth the gentle caressing beams that made one slowly melt in +ecstasy.</p> + +<p>His glance was always softly caressing now, soothing her, calming her, +filling her with joy.</p> + +<p>She could not eat. She could only look at him while he ate, with hearty +youthful vigour, quite enough for two. She drank a glassful out of his +bottle of wine, and found an incredible delight in watching him drink +the remainder. The waiter put the programme of the day's music by her +side; but it did not matter what the band played. Her music—the only +significant music—was in her sweetheart's voice. He called her Janey, +Little woman, My kind fairy; and each time that he spoke to her thus +endearingly she thrilled with rapture.</p> + +<p>"Well, Janey, what do you think of my new coat? I look all right, don't +I? You are not ashamed to be seen with me—eh, little woman?... And +how's Mallingbridge? What do they say of me down there?...</p> + +<p>"Oh, by the way, I haven't thanked my kind fairy for the present she +sent me yesterday. It's a dressing-case fit<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> for a king;" and then he +laughed gaily. "Janey, take care. You are trying to spoil me."</p> + +<p>Sometimes for a moment he held her hand under the table-cloth, and +pressed it lovingly.</p> + +<p>When the luncheon was over she was glad to notice that he tipped the +waiter liberally. It would have been irksome to her, as a prodigious +tipper, to observe any economy—but Marsden gave almost as much as if +she herself had taken the money out of the purse. She used to hand him +her purse as they went into the restaurant, and he gave it back to her +as they came out again.</p> + +<p>Serving-girls at the fashionable London shops were inclined to smile +while they waited upon Mrs. Thompson choosing her nuptial finery. She +seemed to them so innocent—appealing to them with simple trustfulness, +and begging them to show her not merely pretty things, but the things +that gentlemen would think pretty.</p> + +<p>In truth, all her business faculty had temporarily forsaken her; the +strong will, the quick insight, the grit and the grip were gone; the +experience of long years had been washed out: she was an inexperienced +girl again, with all a girl's tremors, joyous hopes, and nameless fears +for the future.</p> + +<p>Her fingers shook as she smoothed and patted the wonderful underclothes +offered by a famous lingerie establishment; and as old Yates, sitting by +the side of her mistress, gave a casting vote for this or that daintily +laced garment, the lingerie young woman was obliged to turn a slim back +in order to conceal her mirth. Perhaps it would have made her cry if she +could have understood. But no one could see the poignantly touching +truth, that beneath the beaded mantle of this reddish, stoutish, +middle-aged customer, a maiden's heart was fondly beating.</p> + +<p>"You know, Yates, I'm not so stupid as to suppose that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> I shall always +be able to keep him tied to my apron strings." This was in the train, +when they were returning to Mallingbridge after an arduous day's +shopping. They had the compartment to themselves, and they nearly filled +it with their parcels. "Men must be allowed freedom and liberty."</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am, <i>bachelor</i> gentlemen. But I'm not so sure about too much +liberty for <i>married</i> gentlemen."</p> + +<p>"They can't be continually cooped up in their home—however comfortable +you make it for them. No, many happy marriages are upset by the wife's +silliness—in thinking that a husband is forever to be dancing +attendance on her. I shan't commit that error."</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am. Of course it isn't as if it was your first time."</p> + +<p>Truly, however, it was her first time. The recollection of the dead +husband and the loveless marriage made her wince.</p> + +<p>"A little tact," she said hurriedly. "A wife—especially in the early +days—is called on for a little tact."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ma'am, you'll manage him all right—with your knowledge of the +world."</p> + +<p>But her knowledge of the world had gone, and she did not wish it back +again. Each time that for a brief space she thought logically and +clearly, doubt and fear tortured her.</p> + +<p>In the night fear used to come. Suddenly her rainbow-tinted dream +disintegrated, fell into shreds and patches of cloud with wisps of +coloured light that gyrated and faded; and then she lay staring at the +blank wall of hard facts. This thing was monstrous—no valid hope of +permanent happiness in it.</p> + +<p>And she thought with dreadful clearness that she was either not young +enough or not old enough for such a marriage. If she had been ten years +older, it would not have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> mattered—it would be just a legalized +companionship—an easier arrangement, but essentially the same thing as +though she had adopted him as her son. But now it must be a <i>real</i> +marriage—or a most tragic failure. He had made her believe that the +realm of passion and love was not closed to her; that he would give her +back what the years had taken from her; that she might drink at the +fountain of his youth and so renew her own.</p> + +<p>In the dark cold night when the dream vanished, fear ruled over her. The +words of the marriage service—heard so lately—echoed in her ears. +Solemnization or sacrament—it is impious, blasphemous to enter God's +house and ask for a blessing on the bond, unless the marriage falls +within the limits of nature's laws. She remembered what the priest says +about the causes for which matrimony was ordained; she remembered what +the woman has to say about God's holy ordinance; and best of all she +remembered what the man, taught by the priest, says when he slips the +ring on the woman's finger.</p> + +<p>"With my body I thee worship!"... Could it be possible? "Taught by the +Priest"—yes, but the man should need no teaching. The words on his lips +should be the light rippling murmur above the strong-flowing stream of +his secret thoughts, and the stream must be fed by deep springs of +perfectly normal love. Nothing less will satisfy, nothing less <i>can</i> +satisfy the hungry heart that is surrendering itself to his power. +Respect, esteem, steadfast affection—none of that will do. It must be +love, or nothing.</p> + +<p>Yet after each of these troubled nights the day brought back her dream.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Yates had promised to stand by her, and she faithfully kept the promise. +She gave homely, well-meant advice; occasionally administered a little +dose of pain in what was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> intended for a sedative or stimulant; but was +always ready with sympathy, even when she failed to supply consolation +and encouragement. Apparently forgetting in the excitement of the hour +that she herself was an old spinster, she spoke with extreme confidence +of all the mysteries of the marriage state.</p> + +<p>There was uneasiness about little secrets concerning Mrs. Thompson's +toilet; but Yates made light of them.</p> + +<p>"Oh, nonsense," said Yates. "It isn't as if you were like some of these +meretrishis ladies with nothing genuine about 'em. You're all +genuine—and not a grey hair on your head."</p> + +<p>There was nothing very terrible in the secrets. The worst secret perhaps +was the diminution in aspect, the shrinking of the coronet of hair, when +the sustaining frame had been removed.</p> + +<p>But Yates, the old spinster, speaking so wisely and confidently, said, +"Don't tell me, ma'am. If he's fond of you, a little thing like that +isn't going to put him off.... Besides, you must fluff it out big—like +I'm doing;" and Yates worked on with brush and comb. "Now look at +yourself."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Thompson peered at her reflection in the glass. The frame lay +on the dressing-table. Still she seemed to have a fine tawny mane of her +own, fluffed wide from her brows, and falling in respectably big masses.</p> + +<p>"Show me, Yates, exactly how you get the effect."</p> + +<p>And under the watchful tuition of Yates, Mrs. Thompson toiled at her +lesson.</p> + +<p>"Is that right?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's pretty near as well as I can work it out, myself.... Yes, +that'll do very nice.... You know, it'll only be at first that you need +take so much trouble."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>"Yates, I shall be nervous and clumsy—I shall forget, and make a mess +of it."</p> + +<p>"Then take me with you," said Yates earnestly. "I can't think why you +don't take me along with you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I couldn't," said Mrs. Thompson. "I <i>couldn't</i> have anyone with +me—least of all, anyone who'd known me before."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>It had come to be the day before the day of days, and St. Saviour's +Court lay wrapped in drab-hued fog, so that from the windows of the +house she could not see as far as the churchyard on one side or the +street on the other; and all day long, behind the curtain of fog, the +chilly autumn rain was falling.</p> + +<p>Throughout the day she remained indoors, reviewing and arranging her +trousseau, watching Yates pack the new trunks and bags, and learning how +and where she was to find things when she and some strange hotel +chambermaid hastily did the unpacking. Now, late at night, her bedroom +was still in confusion—empty cardboard boxes littering the floor, +dressing-gowns trailing across the backs of chairs, irrepressible silk +skirts bulging from beneath trunk lids.</p> + +<p>At last Yates finished the task, prepared her mistress for bed, and left +her.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, ma'am—and mind you sleep sound. Don't get thinking about +to-morrow, and wearing yourself out instead of taking your rest."</p> + +<p>Unfortunately Mrs. Thompson was not able to follow this sensible advice. +A fire burned cheerfully in the grate, the room was warm and +comfortable, and she wandered about aimlessly and musingly—picking up +silver brushes and putting them down again, gently pressing the trunk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> +tops, looking at the new initials that had been painted on the glazed +leather.</p> + +<p>Presently she was stooping over one of the smaller trunks, smoothing and +patting the folded night-dress that she and Yates had so carefully +selected at the famous London shop. Her lips parted in a smile as she +looked at its infinitely delicate tucks and frills, and she let her +fingers play with the lace and feel the extraordinary lightness and +softness of its texture.</p> + +<p>Then, yielding to a sudden impulse, she pulled out the garment, carried +it to the bed, and, hastily stripping, tried it on.</p> + +<p>To-night Yates had done no fluffing-out of her hair. It was tightly +screwed against her head, in the metal curling-clips that were to give +it a pretty wave when pulled over the frame to-morrow; but it had a bald +aspect now, with its queer little rolled excrescences protruding above +the scalp, and two mean pigtails hanging limply behind the ears, and +hiding their ends in the lace of the night-dress collar.</p> + +<p>The electric light was shining full into the cheval glass as she came +and stood before it, with the smile of pleasure still on her lips. Then +she saw herself in the glass, and began to tremble.</p> + +<p>Through the diaphanous veil the strong light seemed to show her a +grotesque and lamentable figure: heavy fullness instead of shapely +slenderness, exaggerated curves, distorted outlines,—the pitiless +ravages wrought by time.</p> + +<p>With a sob of terror, she ran to the door, and again to the +dressing-table, switching off the light, desperately seeking the kindly +darkness. Her hands were shaking, she felt sick and faint, while she +tore the nightgown from her shoulders and kicked it from her on the +floor. Then she covered herself with a woollen dressing-gown and crept, +sobbing, into bed.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p><p>The firelight flickered on the ceiling, but no heat was thrown by the +yellow flames or the red coals; a deadly chill seemed to have issued +from the polished surface of the big glass, striking at her heart, +reaching and gripping her bones. She lay shivering and weeping.</p> + +<p>Outside the windows the cruel autumn rain pattered on the stone flags, +the cruel autumn wind sighed and moaned and echoed from the cold brick +walls. The year was dying; the fertile joyous months were dead; soon the +barren hopeless winter would be here. And she felt that her own life was +dead; warmth, colour, beauty, had gone from it; only ugliness, +disfigurement, decay, were left. And she wept for her wasted youth, her +vanished grace, for all that makes the summer in a woman's life.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>But next day she woke in sunlight. White clouds raced across a blue sky; +the air was warm and genial; and, as she walked up St. Saviour's Court, +leaning on the kind arm of Mr. Prentice, she was a girl again.</p> + +<p>There were many people in the church, but their curious glances did not +trouble her. Sunbeams streaming through painted glass made a rainbow +radiance on the chancel steps; and here she stood by her lover's side, +feeling happy and at ease in the radiant heart of the glorious dream. +Sweet music, sacred words—and then the sound of his voice, the pressure +of his fingers. Nothing could touch her now—she was safe in the dream, +beyond the reach of ridicule, high above the range of pity.</p> + +<p>Solemnization or sacrament—now at the last it did not matter which; for +she had brought to the rites all that priests can demand: pure and +unselfish thoughts, guileless faith, and innocent hope.</p> + +<p>The loud swelling pipes of the organ rolled forth their harmonious +thunders, filling the air with waves, making the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> book on the vestry +table throb beneath her hand. She was half laughing, half crying, and a +shaft of sunlight danced about her head.</p> + +<p>"Happy is the bride that the sun shines on," said Mr. Prentice, very, +very kindly. "God bless you, my dear."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Another day's sun was shining on the bride. This was the third day of +the wonderful, miraculously blissful honeymoon; and, with windows wide +open and the sweet clean air blowing in upon them, the husband and wife +lingered over their breakfast in the private sitting-room of the +tremendous and magnificent Brighton hotel.</p> + +<p>Presently Mr. Marsden got up, stretched himself; and, going to one of +the windows, looked down at the sparkling brightness and pleasant gaiety +of the King's Road.</p> + +<p>"Now, little woman, I'm going to smoke my cigar outside.... You can put +on your hat, and join me whenever you please."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden followed him to the window, sat upon the arm of a large +velvet chair, and leaned her face against his coat sleeve.</p> + +<p>"Take care," he said, laughing, "or you'll find yourself on the floor."</p> + +<p>The chair had in fact shown signs of overturning, and Mrs. Marsden +playfully pretended that she could not retain her position, and allowed +herself to flop down upon her knees.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this my right place, Dick—kneeling on the ground at your feet?"</p> + +<p>Then with a gesture that would have been infinitely graceful in quite a +young girl, she took his hand and held it to her lips.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p><p>"You foolish Janey, get up," and he gave her cheek a friendly tap.</p> + +<p>"My own boy," she murmured, "why shouldn't I kneel? You have opened the +gates of heaven for me."</p> + +<p>After he had left the room she stood at the window, and watched until he +reappeared on the broad pavement below.</p> + +<p>People were walking, riding, spinning along in motor-cars; gulls hovered +above the beach on lazy wings; pebbles, boat gunwales, lamp-posts, every +smooth hard surface, flashed in the sunlight; the gentle breeze smelt +deliciously fresh and clean;—all was bright and gay and splendid, +because so full of pulsing life. But the most splendid thing in sight +was her husband. The man out there—that glorious creature, with his hat +cocked and his stick twirling as he swaggered across the broad +roadway—was her handsome, splendid husband.</p> + +<p>The sun shone on her face, and the love shone out of it to meet the +genial vivifying rays. "My husband;" and she murmured the words aloud. +"My own darling boy. My strong, kind, noble husband."</p> + +<p>It was a real marriage.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XII</span></h2> + +<p>The abnormally bright weather continued in an unbroken spell, and it +seemed to her a part of the miracle that had been granted to her +prayers—as if nature had suddenly abrogated all laws, and when giving +her back love and youth, had given warmth and sunshine to the whole +world.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, as they were sauntering home to the hotel, he asked her +if there was not some special name for this snatch of unseasonable +autumn brightness.</p> + +<p>"It's more than we had a right to expect, Janey, so late in the year. +Here we are in the first week of November, and I'll swear to-day has +been as warm as May or June."</p> + +<p>"Yes, hasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"But what do they call it when the weather plays tricks at this time of +year? You know—not the Hunter's moon, but some name like that."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I know what you mean—St. Martin's summer."</p> + +<p>"That's right—learned old girl! St. Martin's Summer."</p> + +<p>Then they turned to the shop windows, and considered the window-dressing +art as displayed by these Brighton tradesmen. All through their +honeymoon the King's Road shops provided a source of unfailing +entertainment.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that they know much," he said patronisingly. "I think I +could open their eyes. You wait, old girl, till we get back to +Mallingbridge, and I'll astonish you. I'm <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>bubbling over with ideas.... +Halloa! That's rather tasty."</p> + +<p>They were looking into a jeweller's window, and his eye had been caught +by a cigarette case.</p> + +<p>"Now I wonder, Janey, what they'd have the cheek to ask for that."</p> + +<p>"Let us go in and enquire."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no. It's not worth while. Why, the gold alone, without the gems, +would cost fifteen quid; and if the stones are as good as they look, I +daresay this chap would expect a hundred guineas for it."</p> + +<p>"Well, we might enquire."</p> + +<p>"No, I mustn't think about it. Come on, old girl, or my mouth will begin +to water for it;" and, laughing, he linked his arm in hers, and led her +away from this too tempting shop. "Let 'em keep it till they can catch a +millionaire."</p> + +<p>They ordered tea in the great noisy hall of the hotel, which he +preferred to the quiet grandeur of the private sitting-room; and she, +pretending that she wished to go upstairs, hurried past the lift door, +dodged round by a crowd of new arrivals, ran down the steps, and left +the building.</p> + +<p>She was hot and red and breathless when, after twenty minutes, she came +bustling into the hall again. The tea-tray stood waiting for them; but +he had moved away to another table, and was drinking a whisky and soda +with some hotel acquaintances. These were a loud vulgar man and two +over-dressed, giggling, free-and-easy daughters. Marsden for a little +time did not see his wife: he was laughing and talking vivaciously; and +the young women contorted themselves in shrill merriment, ogled and +leered, and made chaffing, unbecomingly familiar interjections.</p> + +<p>"That fellow," said Marsden presently, when he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> returned to his +wife's table, "is in a very big way of business—and he might be useful +to us some day or other. That's why I do the civil to him."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Marsden.</p> + +<p>"But where the dickens did you slip away to? Your tea must be cold. +Shall I order a fresh pot?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, this is quite right, thank you."</p> + +<p>She drank a little of her tepid tea; and then, fumblingly, with fingers +that were slightly trembling, she brought the little parcel out of her +pocket and put it in his hand.</p> + +<p>"What on earth is this?"</p> + +<p>"Can't you guess?"</p> + +<p>"No—I can't imagine—unless"— He was slowly unfolding the layers of +tissue paper; and until the precious metal discovered itself, he did not +raise his eyes. "Oh, I <i>say</i>! Janey! But you shouldn't have done it—you +really shouldn't. It's too bad—altogether too bad of you."</p> + +<p>"Dick!"</p> + +<p>"Come upstairs and let me kiss you—or I shall have to kiss you here, +with everybody looking at us."</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Marsden was well content with her little act of extravagance.</p> + +<p>The culmination of the glorious weather came on Sunday. In the morning, +when she emerged from the dim church where she had been pouring out her +fervent gratitude for so much happiness, the glare of the sea-front +almost blinded her. All the wide lawns by the sea were densely thronged +with people, and amongst the moving crowd she searched in vain for her +husband. He had said he would meet her for this church parade.</p> + +<p>But at the hotel there was a note to explain his absence. "My friends," +she read, "insist on carrying me off for a long run in their car. Shall +try to be back for dinner. But don't wait."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p><p>While she was kneeling in the church, thanking God for having given him +to her, he was rolling fast away—with that loud man and the two shrill +young women.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>It was late in the afternoon—the close of the brilliant sun-lit day, +and the Hove lawns were still crowded. The sky preserved its clear blue, +unspoilt by the faint white stains of cloud; the sea sparkled; and the +shadows thrown by the green chairs and the iron railings crept +imperceptibly across the grass. Behind the railings the long façades of +the white houses stretched westward like a perspective-drawing; and down +the broad road a motor fizzed past every moment, changed to a black +speck, and vanished. The gaiety and life of the hours was lasting +bravely. Coloured flags floated above the pier; and from the monstrous +protuberance at its far end, the glass and iron castle of the tourist +mob, light flashed as though striking mirrors; a band was playing at a +distance; and the Worthing steamboat, as it hurriedly approached, made a +rhythmic beating on the water.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden, in possession of a penny chair, sat alone, and watched the +crowd that had been walking all day long. She felt absolutely lost in +the crowd; and it seemed to her, coming from her quiet country town, +that the world could not contain so many people.</p> + +<p>She watched them with tired eyes. All sorts: fine ladies and gentlemen; +visitors and residents—down the scale to mere shopgirls and housemaids; +pale men who toiled indoors, bronzed men who lived in the open air; Jews +and Jewesses; smiling matrons, sour-visaged spinsters; girls with +powdered faces and immense hats—whom she classed as actresses, and +judged to be no better than they ought to be,—lounging and simpering +beside sawny cavaliers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p><p>She watched the various couples—boys and girls, men and women, young +and old; and she saw that every couple was of corresponding, <i>suitable</i> +age: tottering old men and white-haired wrinkled dames—thinking of +their golden weddings; fat paunchy men in the prime of life with +gorgeous mature consorts; lithe and athletic men with long-legged, +striding, game-playing mates; and so on, like with like, or each the +normal complement of the other.</p> + +<p>It happened that, while she watched with a growing intentness, there +passed no Mays and Decembers. An old man and his daughter—or just +possibly his wife! But no young man with a middle-aged woman. Not even a +son escorting his mother. Age has no claim on youth.</p> + +<p>Then she saw the roaming solitary men who were seeking love or +adventure; saw how they stared at the girls,—stopped and turned,—with +their eyes wistfully followed the graceful gracious forms.</p> + +<p>And no man in all the vast crowd looked at her. Not even the +purple-cheeked veterans. None gave her the aldermanic approving glance +that might seem to say, "There's a well-preserved woman—not yet quite +devoid of charm." Not even a glance of curiosity. It was as if for a +penny the chair had rendered her invisible.</p> + +<p>A cold air came off the sea, and she shivered. Looking round, she saw +that the sun had just dipped behind the long white cornice of the +stately houses. The wide lawn was in shadow.</p> + +<p>She felt cold, and shivered several times as she walked home to the +noisy hotel.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XIII</span></h2> + +<p>They had been married nearly three months, and each month seemed longer +to her than any year of her previous existence.</p> + +<p>Many changes were visible at the shop. Indeed, from the back wall of the +carters' yard to the sign-board over the front doors, nothing was quite +as it used to be. The big white board, which told the world that the +business "Established 1813" now belonged to Thompson & Marsden, was a +makeshift affair; but the new partner had ordered a gigantic and +artistic fascia, and this, he said, would be a real ornament to High +Street.</p> + +<p>He promised soon to inaugurate new departments, to introduce +improvements in the old ones, to revolutionize old-fashioned +time-wasting methods of book-keeping and all other office work; but so +far he had only achieved something very like chaos.</p> + +<p>"Don't fuss," he used to say. "I'll soon get to work; but I can't attend +to it for the moment."</p> + +<p>Thus the little realm behind the glass had been turned upside down and +not yet replaced upon its feet again. The rooms were blocked with the +opened and unopened packing-cases that contained the materials for Mr. +Marsden's clever arrangement—innumerable desks and cabinets, immense +index cupboards, racks and sideless stands, by the use of which weapons +such antiquated devices as letter-presses, copying-machines, and +pigeon-holes would be abolished. Every shred of paper would be filed +flat; thousands of letters would lie in the space hitherto occupied by +half a dozen;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> each correspondent would be allotted a file to himself, +letter and answer together; and this novel system would deprive clerks +of the power of making mistakes; order would reign; confusion would be +impossible. But at present, with the two systems inextricably mixed, the +new system half started and the old system half discarded, confusion was +not only possible but unavoidable.</p> + +<p>"Let them rub along as they can pro tem. I'll straighten it out for them +directly I settle down to it."</p> + +<p>Just now he could throw himself into the business only by fits and +starts, but he assured everybody that it should soon secure his +undivided care.</p> + +<p>"<i>I'll</i> wake 'em up;" and he tapped his forehead and laughed. "There's a +reservoir of enterprise here—the ideas simply bubbling over." Then he +would bring out his jewelled cigarette-case, light a cigarette, and +swagger off to keep some pleasant appointment.</p> + +<p>He was candidly enjoying the softer side of his new position, and +postponing its arduous duties. He both looked and felt very jolly. +Except when anyone accidentally made him angry, he was always ready to +laugh and joke.</p> + +<p>He had a small run-about car, and was rapidly learning to drive it while +a much bigger car was being built for him. He was renewing old +acquaintances and picking up fresh friends. He showed a fine catholic +taste for amusement, and handsomely supported the theatre, the +music-hall, the race-course. In the good company with which he was now +able to surround himself he dashed to and fro all over England, to see +the winter sport between the flags. He dressed grandly, drank bravely, +spent freely—in a word, he was hastily completing his education as a +gentleman.</p> + +<p>"Must have my fling, old girl"—He was nearly always jolly about it to +his wife. "But don't you fear that I'm turning into an idler. Not much. +This is my holiday.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> And no one can say I haven't <i>earned</i> a holiday. +Ever since I was fourteen I've been putting my back into it like a good +'un."</p> + +<p>He was especially genial when luck had been kind to him and he had won a +few bets. Returning after a couple of fortunate days at Manchester or +Wolverhampton, he jingled the sovereigns in his pockets and chattered +gleefully.</p> + +<p>"Rare fun up there—and little Dick came out on top. Cheer up, Jane. +Give a chap a welcome. This doesn't cost one half what you might +guess.... Besides, anyhow, I've got to do it—for a bit—not forever.... +I'm young—don't forget that. Only one life to live—in this vale of +tears."</p> + +<p>He pleaded his youth, as if it must always prove a sufficient excuse for +anything; but she never invited either excuses or apologies.</p> + +<p>"Well, old girl, I'm leaving you to your own resources again—but, you +understand, don't you? Boys will be boys;" and he laughed. "This isn't +naughtiness—only what is called the levity of youth. Ta-ta—take care +of yourself."</p> + +<p>He liked to avail himself of a spare day between two race-meetings, and +run up to London, make a swift tour of the wholesale houses, and do a +little of that easiest and proudest sort of business which is known as +"buying for a sound firm." His vanity was flattered by the outward show +of respect with which these big London people received him. Managers +fawned upon him; even principals begged him to join them at their +luncheon table; and he described to his wife something of his +satisfaction when he found himself seated with the bosses, at places +that he used to enter a few years ago as a poor little devil trotting +about the city to match a ribbon or a tape string.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>He came home one night, when the rain was beating on the window-panes +and sending a river down St. Saviour's Court to swell the sea of mud in +High Street, and told her he had heard big news while lunching with his +silk merchants.</p> + +<p>She was waiting for him by the dining-room fire, and when he first came +in he displayed anger because the cabman had wanted more than his fare.</p> + +<p>"But he didn't get it. I took his number—and threatened to report +him.... It's infernally inconvenient not being able to drive up to your +own door—it's like living in a back alley."</p> + +<p>Then, with an air of rather surly importance, he told her his news about +Bence.</p> + +<p>"They're <i>afraid</i> of him. They gave me the straight tip that he's shaky. +Mark my words, <i>that</i> bubble is going to be burst."</p> + +<p>"But people have said so for so long." And she explained that the story +of Bence's approaching destruction was really a very old one. "Year +after year Mr. Prentice used to tell me the same thing—that Bence's +were financially rotten, and couldn't last."</p> + +<p>"Prentice is an old ass, and you're quite right not to believe all <i>he</i> +tells you. Between you and me and the post, I reckon that Mr. P. wants a +precious sharp eye kept on him—I don't trust him an inch farther than I +can see him.... But what was I saying? Oh, yes, Bence's. Well, it is not +what Prentice says now—it's what <i>I</i> say."</p> + +<p>Then he asked if there was anything in the house to eat. Yes, the dinner +that had been ready for him three hours ago was still being kept hot for +him.</p> + +<p>"I don't want any dinner. I dined in London.... But I think I could do +with a snack of supper."</p> + +<p>He went over to the sideboard, unlocked a lower division<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> of it with his +private key, and drew forth a half-bottle of champagne.</p> + +<p>"If you'll help me, I'll make it a whole bottle."</p> + +<p>"No, thank you."</p> + +<p>Before re-locking the cupboard, he peered into it suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"I don't think my wine is any too safe in this cellaret. How do I know +how many keys there aren't knocking about the house? I may be wrong, but +I thought I counted three more bottles than what's left."</p> + +<p>Then he rang the bell, and at the same time called loudly for the +parlourmaid.</p> + +<p>"Mary! Mary! Why the devil doesn't she come in and ask if anything's +wanted?" He left the room, grumbling and fuming.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden heard his voice outside, and the voice of Yates timidly +apologising.</p> + +<p>Mary the parlourmaid had a very bad cold, and Yates had ventured to +allow her to go to bed.</p> + +<p>"Thank you for nothing.... Where's the cook? Cook—wake up, please;" and +he went into the kitchen.</p> + +<p>The servants feared him. They stammered and became stupid when he spoke +to them crossly, but never failed to smile sycophantically when he +expressed pleasure.</p> + +<p>All that he required on this occasion from Cook was plenty of hot toast +and cayenne pepper. But he sent Yates to buy some smoked salmon or +herring at the restaurant in High Street.</p> + +<p>"And sharp's the word.... What are you waiting for?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't mind going, sir—but I shall get wet to the skin."</p> + +<p>"Take my umbreller," said the cook.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p><p>Yates went down the steep stairs, and the master looked in at the +dining-room door.</p> + +<p>"That woman is like some old cat—afraid of a drop of rain on her mangy +old fur."</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Marsden heard his footsteps overhead in the dressing-room. +When he reappeared he had taken off his tie and collar, and was wearing +a crimson velvet smoking jacket.</p> + +<p>The toast sandwiches were promptly placed before him, and he sat eating +and drinking,—not really hungry, but avidly gulping the wine; and +rapidly becoming jolly again.</p> + +<p>"What was I talking about?"</p> + +<p>"Bence's."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. I tell you, he has just about got to the end of his tether. +All the best people funk having him on their books.... I give him two +years from to-day."</p> + +<p>"I wonder."</p> + +<p>"Mind you, he has fairly smacked us in the eye with his furniture."</p> + +<p>And it was unfortunately but too true that there had of late been an +ugly drop in the sales of Thompson's solid, well-made chairs and tables.</p> + +<p>"But," continued Marsden, "we aren't going to take it lying down any +longer. He has got a <i>man</i> to reckon with henceforth. He'll learn what +tit-for-tat means.... It was too late to attempt anything last +Christmas. But let him wait till next December. Then it shall be, A very +happy Christmas to you, Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>"What do you propose for Christmas?"</p> + +<p>"You wait, too."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but, Dick, you won't begin launching out without consulting +me—allowing some weight to my opinion?"</p> + +<p>"No, of course I shan't. We're partners, aren't we? I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> know what a +partnership is. But you won't need persuading. You'll jump at my ideas +when you hear them."</p> + +<p>"Why not let me hear them now? I could be thinking over them—I like to +brood upon plans."</p> + +<p>"Well, something is going to happen in our basement next Christmas, +which will be tidings of peace and great joy to everybody but Bence;" +and he laughed with riotous amusement. "Get me my pipe, old woman. I +can't go into business matters now. You wait, and trust your Dickybird."</p> + +<p>She brought him his pipe and tobacco; and he explained to her that he +fancied a pipe because he had been smoking cigars ever since the +morning, and the tip of his tongue felt sore.</p> + +<p>He puffed at the pipe in silence, and luxuriously stretched his +slippered feet towards the warmth of the fire.</p> + +<p>"You best go to by-by, Jane. I'm too tired to talk. I've had a heavy +day—one way and another; and a longish journey before me to-morrow.... +Good-night. Tell 'em I must be called at eight-thirty sharp."</p> + +<p>This was a typical evening. There were many evenings like it.</p> + +<p>Frequently two or three days passed without her once entering the shop. +Sometimes she could not brace herself sufficiently to go down and face +the staff. They all saw her subjection to her husband; and although they +endeavoured not to betray their thoughts, it was obvious that to almost +all of them she appeared as the once absolute princess who had, in +abdicating, sunk to a state of ignominious dependence. She walked among +them with downcast eyes; for too often she had surprised their glances +of pity.</p> + +<p>But she saw that in the street also—pity or contempt. One or other each +citizen's face seemed to show her plainly.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> She knew exactly what shop +and town said and thought of her new partner.</p> + +<p>At dusk on these winter afternoons, when she had not lately used the +door of communication, Miss Woolfrey or Mr. Mears would come through it +and inform her of the day's affairs. Miss Woolfrey's reports consisted +merely of vapid and irresponsible gossip, but Mrs. Marsden seemed to +have discovered fresh merits in this sandy, freckled, commonplace +chatter-box—perhaps for no other reason than because she belonged so +entirely to the old régime and was intellectually incapable of absorbing +unfamiliar ideas. But it was Mears who supplied any real instruction, +and it was with him that Mrs. Marsden talked seriously.</p> + +<p>One afternoon when he was about to leave her, she detained him.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mears—I've something to ask you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am."</p> + +<p>She had laid her hand upon his great fore-arm; she was gazing at him +very earnestly; but she hesitated, with lips trembling nervously, and +seemed for a few moments unable to say any more.</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am."</p> + +<p>Then she spoke quickly and eagerly.</p> + +<p>"Stick to me, Mr. Mears. Whatever happens, don't give me up. I should be +truly lost without you. Even if it's difficult, stick to me."</p> + +<p>"As long as he lets me," said Mears huskily.</p> + +<p>"He's going to talk to you. Humour him. He has a great respect for you, +really."</p> + +<p>"He hasn't shown it so far."</p> + +<p>"Make allowances. It's his way. He has such notions about the new +style—which we—which you and I mayn't always approve. But he knows +your value. He has said so again and again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p><p>It was not long after this secret appeal—one morning that Marsden +spent in Mallingbridge—when the shop heard "the Guv'nor begin on Mr. +M."</p> + +<p>"Look here, my friend," said Mr. Marsden loudly, "it's about time that +we took each other's measure. Is it you or I who is to be cock of the +walk? Just step in here, please."</p> + +<p>This was said outside the counting-house. The proprietor and the manager +at once disappeared; and the news flew far and wide, downstairs and +upstairs. "He has got old Mears behind the glass.... He is giving old +Mears a dressing-down." All had known that the thing was infallibly +coming; the encounter between the greater and the lesser force had been +unaccountably delayed; every man and woman in the building now trembled +for the result.</p> + +<p>"You want to put your authority up against mine. That won't do. One boss +is enough in a larger establishment than this."</p> + +<p>But behind the glass old Mears was very firm. He made himself as big as +possible, standing at his full height, seeming to imitate Marsden's +trick of squaring the shoulders and throwing back the head.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> am the boss. And what I say <i>goes</i>."</p> + +<p>"And your partner, sir? Mrs. Thompson, I should say Mrs. Marsden—are we +to disregard her?"</p> + +<p>"No. But I speak for self and partner. Please make a note of that."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then that's all right. It was a case of '<i>Twiggez-vous?</i>' But I think +you twig now that I don't stand nonsense—or go on paying salaries in +exchange for bounce and impudence."</p> + +<p>"May I ask if you think I am not earning my salary, sir?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't said you aren't."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span></p><p>"Or do you think, sir, if you hunted the country, you'd find a man +who'd give the same service for the same money?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you want to blow your trumpet—"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, I want to find my bearings—to learn where I am—if I <i>can</i>. +It isn't boasting, it's only business. I've a value here, or I haven't. +I've been under the impression I was valuable. You know that, don't you, +sir?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've no quarrel with you—if you'll go on serving me faithfully."</p> + +<p>"I'll serve the firm faithfully, sir—with the uttermost best that's in +me."</p> + +<p>"All right then."</p> + +<p>"Because that's <i>my</i> way, sir—the old-fashioned style I took up as a +boy—and couldn't change now, sir, if I wanted to."</p> + +<p>When Mears came from behind the glass his face was flushed; he breathed +stertorously; and he held his hands beneath the wide skirts of his frock +coat to conceal the fact that they were shaking. But he kept the +coat-tails swishing bravely, and he marched up and down between two +counters with so grand a tramp that no one dared look at him closely.</p> + +<p>Then, after a few minutes, Marsden came swaggering, with his hat cocked +and a lighted cigar in his mouth. Before going out into the street, he +ostentatiously paused; and spoke to Mr. Mears amicably, even jovially.</p> + +<p>And the shop comprehended that the battle was over, and that there was +to be a truce between the two men.</p> + +<p>On some days when Mrs. Marsden would probably have come down from the +house into the counting-house she was prevented from doing so by a +grievous headache.</p> + +<p>These headaches attacked her suddenly and with appalling force. At first +the pain was like toothache; then it was like earache, and then the +whole head seemed to be rent as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> if struck with an axe—and afterwards +for several hours there was a dull numbing discomfort, with occasional +neuralgic twinges and throbbings.</p> + +<p>Resting in her bedroom after such an attack, she was surprised by +receiving a visit from Enid. She was lying on a sofa that Yates had +pushed before the fire, and at the sound of voices outside the door she +started up and hastily scrambled to her feet.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, may I come in? I'm so sorry you're ill."</p> + +<p>Since their parting last autumn they had not set eyes on each other, and +for a little while they talked almost as strangers.</p> + +<p>"Yates, bring up the tea."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but isn't it too early for tea?"</p> + +<p>"No. Get it as quickly as you can, Yates. Mrs. Kenion must be ready for +tea—after her long drive."</p> + +<p>"I came by train. Thank you—I own I should like a cup, if it isn't +really troubling you."</p> + +<p>"Of course not.... Do take the easy chair."</p> + +<p>"This is very comfortable.... But won't you lie down again? I have +disturbed you."</p> + +<p>"Not in the least. I think it will do me good to sit up. Won't you take +off your coat?"</p> + +<p>Enid let the fur boa fall back from her slender neck, and undid two +buttons of her long grey coat.</p> + +<p>"Really," she said, with a little laugh, "it's so cold that I haven't +properly thawed yet."</p> + +<p>She was charmingly dressed, and she looked very graceful and +well-bred—but not at all plump; in fact rather too thin. While they +drank their tea, she told her mother of the kindness of her husband's +relatives—a sister-in-law was a particular favourite; but everybody was +nice and kind; there were many pleasant neighbours, and all had called +and paid friendly attentions to the young couple.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p><p>"I am so glad to hear that," said Mrs. Marsden. "My only fear of the +country was that you might sometimes feel yourself too much isolated."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm never in the least lonely. There's so much to do—and even if +there weren't people coming in and out perpetually, the house would take +up all my time."</p> + +<p>"Ah yes.... I suppose you are quite settled down by now."</p> + +<p>"No, I wish we were. Things are still rather at sixes and sevens. +Otherwise I should have begged you to come and see for yourself. We are +both so anxious to get you out there."</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted to come, my dear. But I myself have been rather +rushed of late."</p> + +<p>"Of course you have.... Er—Mr. Marsden is away, Yates told me."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but only for a few days. I get him back to-morrow night;" and Mrs. +Marsden laughed cheerfully. "Do you know, he has taken a leaf out of Mr. +Kenion's book. He is quite mad about racing."</p> + +<p>"Is he? How amusing!"</p> + +<p>"These violent delights have violent ends. He says it is only a passing +fancy; and I suppose he'll be taking up something else directly—golf +perhaps—and going mad about that."</p> + +<p>"No doubt. Men all seem alike, don't they?" And Enid smiled and nodded +her head. "Though I must say, Charles is very true to his hunting. I +mean to wean him from steeple-chasing; but I like him to hunt. It keeps +him in such splendid health."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear. It must be tremendous exercise. Do you ride to the meets +with him?"</p> + +<p>"No, I never seem to have time—and for the moment, though we've six +horses in the stable, there's not one that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> I quite see myself on." And +Enid laughed again, gaily. "Good enough for Charles, you know—but <i>he</i> +can ride anything. He wants to get me a pony-cart, and I shall be safer +in that."</p> + +<p>The constraint was wearing off. While they talked, each availed herself +of any chance of investigating the other's face—a shy swift glance, +instantaneously deflected to the teacups or the mantelpiece, if a head +turned to meet it. At first there had been difficulty in speaking of the +husbands, but now it was quite easy; and it all sounded fairly natural.</p> + +<p>"Oh, but that is just the sort of thing Charlie says." The daughter +helped the mother. "Men always think they can manage things better than +we can—and they're <i>always</i> troublesome about the servants. The only +occasions on which Charles makes one <i>really</i> angry are when he upsets +the servants."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Marsden helped Enid.</p> + +<p>"You must employ all your tact—men are so easily led, though they won't +be driven."</p> + +<p>"No, they must be led," said Enid, with a return to complete +artificiality of manner. "How true that is!"</p> + +<p>But there was a very subtle alteration in Enid. Beneath the artificial +manner gradually there became perceptible something altogether new and +strange. This was another Enid—not the old Enid. She had evidently +caught the peculiar tone of bucolic gentility and covert-side fashion +common to most of her new associates, and this had slightly altered her; +but deeper than the surface change lay the changes slowly manifesting +themselves to the instinctive penetration of her mother. Enid was +softer, more gentle, a thousand times more capable of sympathy.</p> + +<p>"Dick," Mrs. Marsden was saying, "is fearfully ambitious."</p> + +<p>"That's a good fault, mother."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p><p>"He even talks of—of going into Parliament."</p> + +<p>"And why not?"</p> + +<p>"He belongs to the Conservative Club here—but he wants," and Mrs. +Marsden showed embarrassment,—"he would like to join the County Club."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think Mr. Charles—or his family—would be kind enough to use +influence?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mother dear, I'll make them—if possible." Enid had leant forward; +and she shyly took her mother's hand, and gently squeezed it. "But now I +must go. I do hope I haven't increased your headache."</p> + +<p>"No, my dear, you have done me good."</p> + +<p>Enid rose, buttoned her coat, and began to pull on her grey reindeer +gloves.</p> + +<p>"Mother! My old room—is it empty, or are you using it for anything?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Dick uses that, dear."</p> + +<p>"And the dressing-room?"</p> + +<p>"He uses that, too."</p> + +<p>"Would you mind—would he mind if I went in and looked round?"</p> + +<p>"No.... Of course not."</p> + +<p>"Only for a peep. Then I'll come back—and say good-bye."</p> + +<p>But she was a long time in the other rooms; and when she returned Mrs. +Marsden saw and affected not to see that she had been crying.</p> + +<p>The warmth of the fire after the cold of the street, or the sight of her +old home after a few months in her new one, had properly thawed elegant, +long-nosed Enid. She sank on her knees by the sofa, flung her arms round +the neck of her mother, and kissed her again and again; and Mrs. Marsden +felt what in vain she had waited for during so many years<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>—her child's +heart beating with expansive sympathy against her breast.</p> + +<p>"Mother, how good you were—oh, how good you were to me!" And she clung +and pressed and kissed as in all her life she had never done till now.</p> + +<p>"Enid—my darling."</p> + +<p>When she had gone, Mrs. Marsden lay musing by the fire. It was +impossible not to divine the very simple cause of this immense +alteration in Enid. Already poor Enid had learnt her lesson—she knew +what it was to have a rotten bad husband.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XIV</span></h2> + +<p>But not so bad as her own husband. No, that would be an impossibility.</p> + +<p>She did not want to think about it; but just now her control over her +thoughts had weakened, while the thoughts themselves were growing +stronger. She was subject to rapid ups and downs of health, the victim +of an astounding crisis of nerves, so that one hour she experienced a +queer longing for muscular fatigue, and the next hour laughed and wept +in full hysteria. At other times she felt so weak that she believed she +might sink fainting to the ground if she attempted to go for the +shortest walk.</p> + +<p>Generally on days when Marsden was away from Mallingbridge she crept to +bed at dusk. Yates used to aid her as of old, sit by the bed-side +talking to her; and then leave her in the fire-glow, to watch the +dancing shadows or listen to the whispering wind.</p> + +<p>She did not wish to think; but in spite of all efforts to forget facts +and to hold firmly to delusions, her old power of logical thought was +remorselessly returning to her. In defiance of her enfeebled will, the +past reconstituted itself, events grouped themselves in sequence; +hitherto undetected connections linked up, and made the solid chain that +dragged her from vague surmise to definite conclusions. Then with the +full vigour of the old penetrative faculties she thought of her mistake.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>He did not care for her. He had never cared for her. It was all acting. +All that she relied on was false; all that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> had been real was the +steadfast sordid purpose sustaining him throughout his odious +dissimulation.</p> + +<p>His marriage was a brutal male prostitution, in which he had sold his +favours for her gold. And shame overwhelmed her as she thought of how +easily she had been trapped. While he was coldly calculating, she was +endowing him with every attribute of warm-blooded generosity; when her +fine protective instincts made her yearn over him, longing to give him +happiness, comfort, security, he was in truth playing with her as a cat +plays with a wounded mouse—no hurry, no excitement, but steel-bright +eyes watching, retracted claws waiting. And she remembered his studied +phrases that rang so true to the ear, till too late she discovered their +miserable falsity. With what art he had prepared the way for the final +disclosure of his effrontery! He could not brook the sense of +dependence, his manly spirit would not allow him to pose as the +pensioner of a rich wife, and so on—and then, even at the last, how he +waited until she had completely betrayed her secret, and he could be +certain that her pride as a woman would infallibly prevent her from +drawing back. Not till then, when she had taken the world into her +confidence, when escape had become impossible, did he drive his bargain.</p> + +<p>While the honeymoon was not yet over she imagined she could understand +the pain that lay before her. But in these three months she had suffered +more than she had conceived to be endurable by any living creature. If +pain can kill, she should be dead.</p> + +<p>Her punishment had been like the fabled torture of the Chinese—hundreds +of small lacerations, a thousand slicing cuts of the executioner's +sword, and the kind death-stroke craftily withheld. But the swordsman of +the East does not laugh while he mutilates. And <i>he</i> struck at her with +a smiling face.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>She thought of how in every hour of their companionship he had wounded +her; with what unutterable baseness he had used his power over her—the +power given to him by her love. The love stripped her of every weapon of +defence; she was tied, naked, with not a guarding rag to shelter her +against the blows—and the pitiless blows fell upon her from her gagged +mouth to her pinioned feet.</p> + +<p>Daily he attacked her pride, her self-respect, her bodily health and her +mental equipoise; but most of all she suffered in her love—that +terrible flower of passion that refuses to die. Torn up by its bleeding +roots, it replants itself—and will thrive on the barren rock as well as +in life's richest garden. Robbed of light, air, sustenance, it will +cling to the dungeon wall, and bud and burst again for the prisoner to +touch its blossoms in his darkness. Its flame-petals can be seen by the +glazing eyes that have lost sight of all else, and its burning poisonous +fruit is still tasted in the earth of our graves.</p> + +<p>She thought of what he had said to her when they first came back to the +house that she had decorated and made luxurious for him. A laugh, a +nudge of the elbow—"This is the beginning of Chapter Two, Janey. We +can't be honeymooning forever, old girl;" and then some more +unforgettable words, to formulate the request that they might occupy +different rooms; and so, in the home-coming hour, he had struck a deadly +blow at her pride by the brutally direct implication that what she most +desired was that which every woman craves for least. As if the grosser +manifestations could satisfy, when all the spiritual joys are denied!</p> + +<p>But he judged her nature by his own. He was common as dirt. He was +savage as a beast of the forest, a creature of fierce strong appetites +that believes the appeasement of any physical craving—to drink deeply, +to eat greedily, to sleep heavily—is the highest pleasure open to the +animal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> kingdom; and that man the king is no higher than the dog, his +servant.</p> + +<p>He knew only worthless women, and he supposed that all women were alike. +Undoubtedly he remembered the innumerable conquests won simply by his +handsome face, the ready and absolute surrender to a sensual thraldom +that had made other women his abject slaves; and he dared to think that +his wife was as impotent as they to resist the viler impulses of the +ungoverned flesh.</p> + +<p>He dared to think it.—But was he wrong? And she recalled the episodic +renewal of their embraces during these last months. Once after high +words; once after he had found her weeping; once for no reason at all +that she knew of—except a carelessly systematic desire on his part to +keep her in good temper—or perhaps merely because he had the +prostitute's point of honour. A bargain is a bargain. He had been paid +his price without haggling, and he intended to fulfil the conditions of +the contract—so far as certain limits fixed by himself.</p> + +<p>Horrible scenes to look back at—when the cruelly bright light of reason +flashes upon the decorously obscured past and shows the ignominious +secrets of a life: blind instincts moving us, all that is high beaten +down by all that is low, the soul held in fetters by the flesh.</p> + +<p>Much of her slow agony had come from the stinging pricks of jealousy. He +was unfaithful—he was notoriously unfaithful. Already, after three +months, everyone in the shop knew that he frequently broke the marriage +vow. She would have known it anyhow—even if one of his vulgar friends, +turning to a more vulgar enemy, had not troubled to tell her in an +ill-spelt series of anonymous letters. She remembered how he once used +to look at her, and she saw how in her presence he now looked at other +women. Each look was an insult to her. Each word was an outrage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> +"There's a pert little minx;" and he would smile as he watched some +passer-by. "Young hussy! Dressed up to the nines—wasn't she?" And he +swelled out his chest, and swaggered more arrogantly by the side of his +wife, unconscious of the swift completeness with which she could +interpret the thoughts behind his bold eyes and his lazily lascivious +smile.</p> + +<p>And she thought of how he harped upon the over-tightened string of +youth, making every fibre of her tired brain vibrate to the discord of +the jarring note. It was melody to him. Youth was his own paramount +merit, and he praised it as the only merit that he could admit of in +others. He had forgotten half the lies of his courtship. Age was +contemptible—the thing one should hide, or excuse, or ransom. "Only one +life! Remember, I'm young—I am not old." But her friends, the people +she trusted, were shamefully old, even a few years older than herself. +Old Prentice, Old Yates, Old Mears; and he never spoke of them without +the scornful epithet.</p> + +<p>But the jingling coin that she had put in his pockets would procure him +the solace to be derived from youthful companions. With the money she +had paid for all the love that he could give, he bought from loose women +all the love that he cared for. Of course when he stayed in London he +was carrying on his promiscuous amours.... Perhaps, too, here in +Mallingbridge.</p> + +<p>Yet when he came back to her, she had failed to resist him. She knew the +reflective air with which he considered her face when he proposed to +exercise his sway. She trembled when he lightly slapped her on the +shoulder, or took her chin in his hand, and spoke with caressing tones. +He was beginning to act the lover. He had made up his mind to wipe out +the past, to subjugate her afresh, to assure himself that his poor slave +was not slipping away.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p><p>"Janey—dear old Janey.... I leave you alone, don't I?" And with an arm +round her waist, he would pull her to him, and hold her closer and +closer. "Have you missed me? Eh? Have you missed your Dickybird?"</p> + +<p>And she could not resist him. There was the abominable basis of the +tragedy—worse, infinitely worse than the imagined horrors that had +troubled her before the marriage. Love dies so slowly.</p> + +<p>But the night spent in the same room with him was like a fatal +abandonment to some degrading habit—as if in despair she had taken a +heavy dose of laudanum,—knowing that the drug is deadly, yet seeking +once more to stupefy herself, impelled at all hazards to pass again +through the gates of delirium into the vast blank halls of +unconsciousness. Next day she felt sick, broken, shattered—like the +drug-taker after his debauch. Each relapse seemed now an immeasurably +lower fall. Each awakening brought with it a sharper pang of despair: as +when a wrecked man on a raft, who in his madness of thirst has drunk at +the salt spray, wakes from frenzied dreams to see the wide immensity of +ocean mocking him with space great enough to hold all things except +one—hope.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Such thoughts as these came sweeping upon her like waves of light, +illuminating the darkest recesses of her mind, showing the innermost +meaning of every cruel mystery, forcing her to see and to know herself +as she was, and not as she wished to be.</p> + +<p>Then the light would suddenly fade. The stress of emotion had relaxed, +and she could consider her circumstances calmly—could try to make the +best of him.</p> + +<p>A difficult task—a poor best.</p> + +<p>She thought of his varied meannesses. In only one direction was he ever +really generous. He grudged nothing to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> himself—he could be lavish when +pandering to his own inclinations, reckless when gratifying the moment's +whim, and retrospectively liberal when counting the cost of past +amusements; but in his dealings with the rest of the world he was +cautious, watchful, tenaciously close-fisted. She felt a vicarious +humiliation in hearing him thank instead of tip; or seeing him, when he +had failed to dodge the necessity of a gift, make the gift so small as +to be ludicrous. Not since he carried her purse at the London +restaurants had he ever exhibited a large-handed kindness to +subordinates.</p> + +<p>He never alluded to the household expenses—had accepted as quite +natural the fact that the female partner should defray the expenses of +the household. Without a Please or a Thank-you he took board and lodging +free of charge; but he bought for himself cigars, liqueurs, and wine, +and he always spoke of my brandy, my champagne, etc. It was <i>our</i> house, +but <i>my</i> wine. Nevertheless, the habitual use in the singular of the +personal pronoun did not render him egotistically anxious to pay his own +bills.</p> + +<p>Once, when after delay a tobacconist addressed an account to her care, +and she timidly reproached the cigar-smoker for a lapse of memory that +might almost seem undignified, she was answered with chaffing, laughing, +joviality.</p> + +<p>"Well, my dear, if you're so afraid of our credit going down, there's an +easy way out of the difficulty. Write a cheque yourself, and clean the +slate for me."</p> + +<p>But one must make allowances. This was a favourite phrase of hers, and +it helped the drift of her calmer thoughts. As he said so often, youth +has its characteristic faults. Want of thought is not necessarily want +of heart.</p> + +<p>Perhaps when he began to work, he might improve. There was no doubt that +he possessed the capacity for work. He <i>had</i> worked, hard and well. Many +a good horse that has not shied or swerved when kept into its collar +will, if<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> given too much stable and too many beans, show unsuspected +vice and kick the cart to pieces. And the cure for your horse, the +medicine for your man, is work.</p> + +<p>Of course he had many redeeming traits. One was his jollity—not often +disturbed, if people would humour him. Comfort, too, in the recollection +that he treated her with respect—never consciously insulted her—in +public.</p> + +<p>Sometimes when the shadows and the flickering glow drowsily slackened in +their dance, and sleep with soft yet heavy fingers at last pressed upon +her eyelids, she was willing to believe that all her fiery thought and +shadowy dread was but morbid nonsense occasioned by the queer state of +her nerves, and by nothing else.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Truly, during this period of her extreme weakness, she was physically +incapable of standing up to him; there was no fight left in her. For a +time at least, she could not attempt to protect herself, or anyone else +who looked to her for protection.</p> + +<p>It pained her, but she was unable to interfere, when he roughly repulsed +Gordon Thompson.</p> + +<p>They were sitting at luncheon, with the servant going in and out of the +room; she heard the street door open and shut; there was a sound of +hob-nailed boots, and then came the familiar whistle—like a ghostly +echo from the past.</p> + +<p>"Who the devil's that?"</p> + +<p>"I—I think it must be my Linkfield cousin."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is it?" And Marsden jumped up, and went out to the landing.</p> + +<p>"Jen-ny! Jen-ny! You up there?"</p> + +<p>The farmer stood at the bottom of the steep stairs, and Marsden was at +the top, looking down at him. Mrs. Marsden heard nearly the whole of the +conversation, but dared not, could not interfere.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span></p><p>"Any dinner for a hungry wayfarer?"</p> + +<p>Gordon Thompson, furious at the marriage, had missed many mid-day meals; +but now he came to pick up the severed thread of kindness. However, he +was not confident; his whistle had been feeble, tentative, and the +ascending note of his voice quavered. In order to propitiate, he had +brought from Linkfield a market-gardener's basket with celery and winter +cabbages. The present would surely make them glad to see him.</p> + +<p>"What do you want here? No orders are given at the door. We buy our +vegetables at Rogers's in High Street. Don't come cadging here. Get +out."</p> + +<p>Marsden wickedly pretended to mistake him for an itinerant greengrocer.</p> + +<p>"Mayn't I go up?... Is it to be cuts? Am I not to call on my cousin?"</p> + +<p>"Who's your cousin, I'd like to know."</p> + +<p>"Jen-ny Thompson."</p> + +<p>"No one of that name lives here."</p> + +<p>"Jen-ny Marsden then. I say—it's all right. You're him, I suppose. +Well, I'm Gordon Thompson—your wife's cousin."</p> + +<p>"My wife never had a cousin of that name. Before she married me, she +married a man called Thompson—though she didn't marry all his +humbugging beggarly relations."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say—don't go on like that. Don't make it cuts."</p> + +<p>"Thompson—your cousin—is in the cemetery, if you wish to call on him. +He has been there a long time—waiting for you;" and Marsden laughed. +"The sexton will tell you where to find him.... Go and plant your +cabbages out there. We don't want 'em here."</p> + +<p>He returned to the luncheon table in the highest good-humour.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>"There, old girl, I've ridded you of <i>that</i> nuisance. You won't be +bothered with <i>him</i> any more."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden could not answer. She could not even raise her eyes from +the table-cloth. But when her husband offered to give her a rare +afternoon treat by taking her for a run in his small two-seated car, she +looked up; and, meekly thanking him, accepted the invitation.</p> + +<p>As the car carried them slowly through the market-place, neatly +threading its way among laden carts and emptied stalls, she saw cousin +Gordon standing, rueful and disconsolate, outside the humble tavern at +which it was the custom of the lesser sort of farmers to dine together +on market-day. Had Gordon dined, or had anger and resentment deprived +him of appetite and spared his ill-filled purse?</p> + +<p>She would not think of it. She turned, and watched her husband's face. +It was hard as granite while with concentrated attention he manipulated +the steering wheel, moved a lever, or sounded his brazen-tongued +horn—the signal of danger to anyone who refused to get out of his road.</p> + +<p>Almost immediately, they were in the open country, whirling past bare +fields and leafless copses, leaping fiercely at each hill that opposed +them, and swooping with a shrill, buzzing triumph down the long slopes +of the valleys.</p> + +<p>"Now we are travelling," said Marsden joyously.</p> + +<p>She nodded her head, although she had not caught the words; and +presently he shouted close to her ear.</p> + +<p>"Moving now, aren't we? Doesn't she run smooth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. Capital."</p> + +<p>The wind, breaking on the glass screen, sang as it swept over them; +hedge-rows, telegraph poles, and wayside cottages hurried towards them, +rising and growing as they came; long stretches of straight road, along +which Mr. Young's horses used to plod for half an hour, were snatched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> +at, conquered, and contemptuously thrown behind, almost before one could +recognize them.</p> + +<p>That pretty country-house which she had always admired passed her; and, +passing, seemed like a faintly tinted picture in a book whose pages are +turned too fast by careless hands. Naked branches of high trees, broad +eaves and nestling windows, weak sunlight upon latticed glass, and pale +smoke rising from clustered chimneys—that was all she saw. A few dead +leaves pretended to be live things, scampered beside the long wall; a +few dead thoughts revived in her mind, and swiftly she recalled her old +fancies, the dream of the future, Enid and herself living together so +quietly beneath the grey roof;—and then the pretty house with its +pretty grounds had been left far behind. It had lost its brief aspect of +reality as completely as a half-forgotten dream.</p> + +<p>"There, we'll go easy now." They were approaching a village, and he +reduced the speed. "You're a good plucked 'un, Jane;" and he glanced at +her approvingly. "You don't funk a little bit of pace."</p> + +<p>They stopped at an inn, thirty miles from Mallingbridge, and drank +tea—that is to say, Mrs. Marsden drank tea and Mr. Marsden drank +something else, for the good of the house.</p> + +<p>Then, after a cigar, he lighted his lamps, and drove her home through +the greyness, the dusk, and the dark. And for the three hours or so that +she was with him, for the whole time that this outing lasted, she was +almost happy.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XV</span></h2> + +<p>The nervous distress had gone—with extraordinary suddenness; and a +curiously unruffled calm filled her mind. Nothing matters. This is not +<i>all</i>.</p> + +<p>She was a deeply religious woman, but quite unorthodox in the letter of +her faith. There might be as many rituals as there are social +communities, a different altar for every day of the year; but, however +you dressed the eternal glory and the limitless power in garments taken +from the poor wardrobe of man's imagination, the veritable God was +unchanged, unchanging. And her toleration of the diverse opinions of +others enabled her to worship as comfortably under the high-vaulted +magnificence of a Catholic cathedral as within the narrow shabbiness of +a Wesleyan chapel. The perfume of swinging censers did not cloud her +brain, nor the ugliness of white-washed walls grieve her eyes—any +consecrated place of prayer was good enough to pray in.</p> + +<p>But for the sake of old associations, by reason of its familiar +homeliness, its air of solidity without pomp, and a simplicity that yet +is not undignified, she loved this parish church of St. Saviour's; and +it was here, sitting through the long undecorated service, that mental +equanimity was most strangely if temporarily restored to her. Although +not participating, she stayed for the celebration of the communion; and +while the mystic, symbolic rites were performed, she neither prayed nor +meditated. For her it was a blank pause,—no thought,—nothing; but +nevertheless she became aware of a deepening perception of rest and +peace, and the feeling that she had been uplifted—raised to a spiritual +height<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> from which she could look down on the common pains of earth, and +see their intrinsically trivial character.</p> + +<p>Our life, be it what it may, does not end here. This is not all. +Something wider, more massive, infinitely grander, is coming to us, if +we will wait patiently.</p> + +<p>She sat motionless until all the congregation had dispersed; and when +she left the church, there was an expression of gravity on her face and +a sense of contentment in her heart. At the sight of some children +romping by the church-yard railings, she smiled. A boy pushed a girl +with mirthful vigorousness, and she spoke to him gently.</p> + +<p>"Don't be rough, little boy. Take care, and don't hurt her—even in +play."</p> + +<p>Then she gave the children "silver sixpences to buy sweeties," and went +slowly down the court. She could think kindly and benignantly of all the +world. There was not a tinge of bitterness remaining when she thought of +her husband.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>As she lay in bed one morning after a night of dreamless sleep, a chance +word dropped by Yates set her lazily thinking of the last date on which +she had suffered from those normal and not accidental fluctuations of +energy that are produced by periodically recurrent causes. Beginning to +count the weeks, she fancied that some error of memory was confusing +her—time of late had moved with such heavy feet; what seemed long was +really short in the story of her days. Then she began to count the days, +trying to make fixed points, and laboriously filling the gaps that +intervened. Then she stopped counting and thinking.</p> + +<p>Yates had gone out of the room, and she lay quite still, with relaxed +limbs and slackened respiration.</p> + +<p>And her mind seemed dull and void, though wonder stirred and thrilled. +It was like dawn in a hill-girt valley—black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> darkness mingling with +silver mist; shadows growing thin, but not retreating; the ribbed sides +of the mountains very slowly becoming more and more solidly stupendous, +but refusing to disclose the details of their form or colour, although, +beyond the vast ramparts with which they aid the night, the sun is +surely rising. Not till the sun bursts in fire above the eastern wall +does the day begin.</p> + +<p>So, with flooding golden light, the splendid hope came to her.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>She waited for a few more days. There was no mistake; she knew that she +had counted correctly; but she pretended to herself that she must allow +a wide margin to cover the contingency of miscalculation.</p> + +<p>Then she spoke of the facts to Yates, after extracting a solemn vow of +secrecy. Yates said they could draw only one conclusion from the facts; +it was impossible to doubt—but they would know for certain next time. +They must count again; and, after allowing another wide margin, settle +the approaching date which would infallibly confirm their hopes or +cruelly dissipate them.</p> + +<p>For a little while longer, then, she must keep her splendid secret.</p> + +<p>Her heart was overflowing with a joy such as she had thought she could +never feel again. And with the warm stream of bliss there were gushing +fountains of gratitude. She will forgive her husband everything, because +he has crowned her life with this ineffable glory.</p> + +<p>It justifies her marriage; in a manner more perfect than she had dared +to imagine, it gives her back her youth. All mothers at the cradle have +one age—the age of motherhood. And irresistibly it will win his respect +and love—some love must come for the mother of his babe.</p> + +<p>Although she was waiting with so much anxiety until the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> second +significant epoch should be passed, she found that time glided by her +now easily and swiftly. Yates—the wise old spinster—assuming in a more +marked degree that air of matronly authority that she had worn before +the wedding, told her of the vital importance of taking good rest, good +nourishment, and good cheerful views regarding the future.</p> + +<p>So she often lay upon the sofa in her room—resting,—smiling and +dreaming. She had no real doubt now. It was miraculous, glorious, true. +She thought of the many symptoms that she had noticed but never +considered, so that the revelation of their meaning brought the same +glad surprise as to a young and innocent bride. She might have +guessed.—The dreadful instability of nerves; longings for the widest +outlet of physical effort, alternating with weak horrors of the +slightest task; and, above all, the facile tears always springing to her +eyes—these things, in one who by habit was firm of purpose and who wept +with difficulty, should have been promptly recognized as unfailing signs +of her condition. Lesser signs, too, had not been wanting—the vagrant +fancies, the mental ups and downs which correspond with the changed +states of the body; and she groped in the dim past, comparing her recent +sensations and reveries with those experienced twenty-three years ago, +before the birth of Enid. She might have guessed.—But truly perhaps she +had been too humble of spirit ever to prepare herself for the admission +of so proud a thought. Even in the brightly coloured dreams from which +realities had so rudely awakened her, she was not advancing towards so +triumphant an apotheosis.</p> + +<p>But no morning sickness! Not yet. It will begin later this time—for the +second child; and it will not be so bad. That first time—when poor Enid +was coming into the world—she was but a slip of a girl; depressed by +heavy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> care; worn out by the watchings and nursings of her mother's +illness. But now everything was and would be different. She possessed +robust and long-established health; her husband was a magnificently +strong man; their child would be a most noble gorgeous creature.</p> + +<p>And each time that she thought thus of the child's father, the fountain +springs of her intense gratitude rose and gushed higher and broader. She +was only vaguely conscious of the extent of the revulsion of her +feelings where he was concerned. The change seemed so natural and so +little mysterious that she did not measure it. With the awakening of the +new hopes, there had arisen a new love for him—a love purged of all +impurities.</p> + +<p>This was the real love—wide-reaching sympathy, infinite tenderness; the +love that can understand all and forgive all; the instinct of protection +blending with the instinct of submission; the maternal feeling extending +beyond the unborn child to its creator—making them both her children.</p> + +<p>One day when he said he wanted to ask her a favour, she told him, before +he added another word, that she felt sure she would grant the favour. +She was reading, in the drawing-room; and she slipped the book under the +cushion of the sofa, and looked up at him with an expectant smile.</p> + +<p>Then, showing some slight embarrassment, he explained that he had been +"outrunning the constable."</p> + +<p>All the arrangements of the partnership were formally settled; nothing +had been overlooked by clever Mr. Prentice; everything was cut and +dried; certain proportionately fixed sums were to be passed from time to +time to the private credit of each partner; and then at the appointed +seasons, when the true profits of the firm had been ascertained, amounts +making up the balance of earned income would be paid over. All the usual +precautions, and some that perhaps were rather unusual, had been adopted +in order to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> prevent the partners from anticipating profits by premature +drafts upon the funds of the firm. But now, as Marsden explained, he had +exhausted his private account and was in sad need of a little ready to +keep him going.</p> + +<p>She instantly agreed to give him the money—with the pleasure a too +indulgent mother might feel in giving to a spendthrift son. +Extravagance—what is it? Only one of those faults of youth by which the +thoughtless young culprits endear themselves to their elderly guardians.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Dick, I'll write the cheque at once. My chequebook is over there."</p> + +<p>She rose slowly from the sofa, and slowly moved across the room to the +Sheraton desk near the window. Yates had begged her to beware of abrupt +and hasty movements, and she walked about the house now with careful, +well-considered footsteps.</p> + +<p>"Of course, old girl, if you can see your way to making the amount for a +little <i>more</i>?"</p> + +<p>And she made it for a little more.</p> + +<p>He was delighted. "Upon my word, Jane, you're a trump. No rot about you. +When you see anyone in a hole, you don't badger him with a pack of +questions—you just pull him out of the hole...."</p> + +<p>He thanked her and praised her so much that she melted in tenderness, +and almost told him her secret. She looked at him fondly and admiringly. +He seemed so strong and so brave—with his stiff close-cropped hair and +his white evenly-shaped teeth,—laughing gleefully as he pocketed his +present,—like a great happy schoolboy. While she looked at him, the +secret was trying to escape, was burning her lips, and knocking at her +breast with each quickened heartbeat.</p> + +<p>She succeeded, however, in restraining the expansive impulse. The delay +can but heighten the triumph—it is so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> much grander to be able to say, +not "I <i>think</i>," but "I <i>know</i>."</p> + +<p>When he had hurried away to cash his cheque, she took out the Book that +she had been reading and had shyly concealed under the cushion. It was +the Bible. Reverently reopening it and musingly turning the leaves, she +glanced at those chapters of Genesis that tell of the first gift of +human life.... "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy +desire shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee."</p> + +<p>The softness and the exaltation of her mood showed very plainly in the +expression of her face as she read the nobly fabled origin of love and +marriage. While reading she made vows to God and to herself. If all went +well, she would cheerfully bear the hardest usage, at her husband's +hands. She would never reproach him, she would ever be a comfort to him. +And so long as their child lived, the torch-bearer carrying the fire of +life kindled from their joint lives should guide her steps through the +darkest places towards the distant glimmer of eternal light.</p> + +<p>That night she was roused from her first sleep by the sound of heavily +blundering footsteps. Mr. Marsden had come home in an unusually jolly +state. His wife heard him stumbling about the adjacent room, knocking +over a chair, laughing, and singing drunken snatches of song.</p> + +<p>He had never before been quite so jolly. For a minute the hilarious +music saddened her; but then she felt quite happy again. He was not +really drunk—merely excited, elated. And besides, this sort of thing +would not occur in the future: a generous fear of the questioning eyes +of an innocent child would help to keep him straight.</p> + +<p>And she fell to thinking of domestic arrangements that would be +necessary before the great event. His bedroom and the dressing-room used +to be the day and night nursery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> when Enid was a baby. The grandmother +slept in the room at present occupied by Yates, and Yates slept in a +smaller room. How would they manage now? This room should be the night +nursery—she herself could sleep anywhere. Probably Yates would have to +give up her nice room—but Yates would not mind. And, yes—the +difficulty must be confronted—Dick must give up his dressing-room. +Would he mind?</p> + +<p>No. Every difficulty would be surmounted. All would be smoothly and +easily arranged in the end. Dreamily sweeping away the difficulties, she +sank again into restful sleep.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>That important second date was drawing near, and Yates was becoming more +and more fussily attentive. It taxed all her strength of mind to keep +the secret to herself; she longed for the time when it might be made +public property.</p> + +<p>"Look here, ma'am," she said mysteriously, "don't let anyone see us +opening this parcel. Let's go upstairs and open it there, quiet and +comfortable."</p> + +<p>"What is it, Yates?"</p> + +<p>Upstairs in the bedroom, Yates, with many shrewd nods and meaning +smiles, untied her parcel, and displayed to Mrs. Marsden its +entrancingly fascinating contents.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Yates!"</p> + +<p>They were the prettiest imaginable little baby-things—woollen socks, +flannel robes, etc., articles of costume suitable to the very earliest +stage; together with materials for binders, wrappers, and so on, that +would require cutting, stitching, <i>making</i>.</p> + +<p>"The work will do you good," said Yates. "Just to amuse yourself, when +you're sitting all alone up here—and to keep your mind off the strain."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Yates, they are lovely. Where did you get them?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p><p>"Don't you bother where I got them," said Yates, looking shame-faced +all at once. "I don't intend to tell you." But then she went on +defiantly: "Well, if you <i>must</i> know, I got them in the children's +outfitting department—over at Bence's."</p> + +<p>Her mistress was not in the least angry. She smiled at the sound of the +rival's name;—and, of course, in this particular department there was +no rivalry between the two shops.</p> + +<p>Yates was particular that her interesting patient should enjoy a +moderate amount of fresh air, and advised that in these cases gentle +carriage exercise is distinctly beneficial.</p> + +<p>Several times therefore a brougham was procured from Mr. Young's +stables, and mistress and maid went for a quiet afternoon drive. Yates +would have preferred to enjoy these airings earlier in the day, but she +agreed with Mrs. Marsden that a morning drive might appear +"conspicuous." As it was, Yates made the excursion quite sufficiently +remarkable—hot-water bottle for the patient's feet, rugs for her legs, +three or four shawls for her shoulders.</p> + +<p>"And don't you drive too fast," said Yates sternly to Mr. Young's +coachman. "Take us along quiet.... And if you meet any of those great +engines on the road, just turn round and go the other way."</p> + +<p>"I don't want you frightened," she told Mrs. Marsden, "if only for half +a minute."</p> + +<p>Mr. Young's horses, at an easy jog trot, took them along very, very +quietly; some air, but not too much, blew in upon them pleasantly; and +throughout the drive the two women talked unceasingly of the same +engrossing subject.</p> + +<p>"Which do you hope for, yourself, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Yates, I scarcely know."</p> + +<p>"Well, ma'am, I'll tell you candid, it's a girl <i>I</i> am hoping for."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>"But whichever it is—boy or girl—you'll love it just the same, won't +you, Yates?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I shall, ma'am."</p> + +<p>And they discussed christian names.</p> + +<p>"If it is a boy, of course I shall wish him to have his father's name +for one."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I suppose so, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Richard for his first name; and, if Mr. Marsden approves, I shall call +him Martin. I should like him to bear the name of Saint Martin—for a +little romantic reason of my own. And I also like the name of +Roderick—if that isn't too grand."</p> + +<p>"I like the plain names best," said Yates. "If it's a girl, I do hope +and trust you'll give her your own name, ma'am. You can never get a +better name than Jane. Let her be Miss Jane."</p> + +<p>They met no ugly traction engines to upset the horses, and disturb the +patient's composure. They chose the level sheltered roads, and avoided +the dangerous windy hills; and Mrs. Marsden looked through the half-shut +window at the featureless landscape, and thought it almost beautiful, +even at this dead time of the year. It was bare and nearly +colourless,—all the hedgerows of a dull brown, the far-off woods a +misty grey, and here and there, seen through the black field-gates, +patches of snow faintly sparkling beneath the feeble light. The tardy +spring as yet showed scarce a sign of nascent energy. But the winter had +no terrors for her now. There was summer in her heart.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>The date had passed; and, passing, had left apparent certainty.</p> + +<p>Yates was wildly excited, irrepressibly jubilant.</p> + +<p>"You'll tell him now, won't you, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I can tell him now."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p><p>"Everybody may know it now, ma'am—And, oh, won't they be glad to hear +the news in the shop."</p> + +<p>But naturally Mr. Marsden must hear the news before anybody else; and +unluckily Mr. Marsden was not in Mallingbridge to hear it. He had been +expected home two days ago, but something was detaining him in London.</p> + +<p>This final useless delay, after the long unavoidable delay, seemed more +than Mrs. Marsden could support.</p> + +<p>"Oh, why is he away? Oh, Yates, I want him—I want him with me. Oh, oh!" +She burst into a sobbing fit, and rung her hands piteously. "Yates, +fetch him. Bring my husband back to me. Don't let him leave me now—of +all times."</p> + +<p>This was in the morning, before Mrs. Marsden had got up. After sobbing +for a little while, she became suddenly faint and breathless, and sank +back upon her pillow. Yates, scared by her faintness and whiteness, ran +out of the room and despatched a hasty messenger.</p> + +<p>She could not fetch the husband; so the good soul did the next best +thing, and sent for the doctor.</p> + +<p>When she returned to the bedroom Mrs. Marsden seemed all right again.</p> + +<p>"Doctor Eldridge is coming to see you, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Is he?"</p> + +<p>"It's only wise," said Yates authoritatively, "that he should take +charge of the case now. It's full time we had him in. He knows your +constitution—and you can trust him, and feel quite safe to go on just +as he advises you."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Dr. Eldridge was a long time alone with the patient. After Yates had +been told to leave them, he talked gently and gravely to his old friend. +He confessed to being rather sceptical by habit of mind; in forming a +diagnosis he was perhaps always disposed to err on the side of caution, +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> thus he often declined to accept what at first sight seemed an +obvious inference until it had been corroborated by indisputable +evidence;—but then again, all his experience had shown him how prudent, +how necessary it is to prepare oneself for disappointment.... He thought +that Mrs. Marsden should, if possible, prepare herself for +disappointment.</p> + +<p>Outside the room, he spoke to Yates with a severity that was only +mitigated by contempt.</p> + +<p>"What nonsense have you been stuffing her up with? It's too bad of you." +And then the professional contempt for amateur doctors sounded in the +severe tone of his voice. "You ought to know better at your time of +life."</p> + +<p>He came again next day, and told Mrs. Marsden the bitter truth. The +correct interpretation of the symptoms was far, very far different from +that which she had imagined. And then he pronounced the words of doom. +It was not the birth of hope, but the death of hope. Somewhat earlier +than one would have predicted as likely, she had passed the +turning-point in the cyclic history of her existence.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>A deadly, numbing apathy descended upon her. She was not ill; but in +order to escape the infinitely oppressive duties of dressing, sitting at +meals, walking up and down stairs, listening to voices and answering +questions, she pretended illness; and, to cover the pretence, Dr. +Eldridge frequently visited her.</p> + +<p>Day after day she lay upon her sofa, watching the feeble daylight turn +to dusk, staring at the red glow of the coals or the golden flicker of +burning wood—feeling too sad to reproach, too weak to curse the +inexorable laws of destiny.</p> + +<p>Her husband used to enter the room noisily and jovially, with a cigar in +his mouth and a shining silk hat on the back of his head.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p><p>"What the dickens is the matter with you, Jane?"</p> + +<p>He did not guess. He could never read her thoughts.</p> + +<p>"I believe you ought to rouse yourself, old girl. I suppose old Eldridge +sees a chance of running up a nice little bill—and Yates will have her +bit out of it. Between them, they'll persuade you you're going to kick +the bucket."</p> + +<p>"I feel so tired, Dick."</p> + +<p>"Then go on taking it easy," said Marsden genially. "But here's my +tip—look out for another doctor, and another maid. I wouldn't bid +twopence, if both of them were put up to auction."</p> + +<p>Another time he said, "Jane, do you twig why I am wearing my topper? +That means <i>business</i>. Yes, I'm going to throw myself into my work now, +heart and soul. Buck up as soon as you can, and come and see how I'm +setting about me."</p> + +<p>While he stood by the door, talking and smoking, she looked at him with +dull but kind eyes.</p> + +<p>Some of the glamour of that vanished hope still hung about him; and the +sense of gratitude, although now meaningless, lingered for a long while. +But for herself, it would have been a fact instead of an hysterical +fancy. It was her fault, not his.</p> + +<p>When he had shut the door, she thought of herself dully, without pity, +in stupid wonder.</p> + +<p>This is the end. The heats of summer gone; the mimic warmth of autumn +gone, too; nothing left but the cold, dead winter—the end of all.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XVI</span></h2> + +<p>The state of apathetic indifference continued; the slow months dragged +by, and still she could not shake off her invincible weariness and spur +herself to resume activity.</p> + +<p>Once or twice Enid invited her to pay the long-postponed visit of +inspection; and, when these invitations were refused, she offered to +come to see her mother. But she was put off with vague excuses. The +weather seemed so doubtful this week; later in the year Mrs. Marsden +would certainly make the eight-mile journey, and examine the charming +home of her daughter and her son-in-law.</p> + +<p>It was an effort even to write a letter; nothing really interested her; +her highest wish was to be left alone.</p> + +<p>She heard and occasionally saw what was happening in the shop; but the +old keen delight in business had faded with all other delights. She was +not wanted down there behind the glass. Her husband was master there +now, and he did not require her assistance. He was pushing on with his +programme of change and innovation; he brought her architects' drawings +and builders' plans to sign, and she signed them without questioning; he +jauntily told her about his new Japanese department, his new agency +trade, his revolutionised carpet store, and she listened meekly to +everything, appeared willing to concur in anything.</p> + +<p>He was inordinately pleased with himself, and his boastful +self-confidence brimmed over in noisy chatter. He had declared war +against Bence; henceforth, he vowed, the tit-for-tat policy should be +pursued with implacable thoroughness.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p><p>"Look out for yourself, Mr. Bence," he said vaingloriously. "It has +been very nice for you up to now. Because you saw a naked face, you +smacked it. But now you're smacked back—as you'll jolly well find. I +expect my new fascia has opened your eyes to what's coming."</p> + +<p>The new fascia had been erected. It was made of chestnut wood—a most +artistic up-to-date piece of work, with the names Thompson & Marsden +alternating in carved lozenges over all the windows, with linked +festoons of flowers, with high relief and intaglio cutting—with what +not decorative and grand. It ran the whole length of the street frontage +and round the corner up St. Saviour's Court, and it cost £750.</p> + +<p>But that expense was a fleabite when compared with the cost of the +structural alterations that were now fairly in hand.</p> + +<p>The yard was being completely covered. The carts would drive into what +would be the ground floor; and above this there would be three floors of +packing rooms, with every imaginable convenience of lifts, slides, and +shoots, for manipulating the goods and discharging them at the public. +Meanwhile, the old packing rooms had been huddled into unused cellars, +and the space that they had occupied in the basement, indeed the entire +basement, was being excavated to an astounding depth. Soon an immense +subterranean area would be scooped out; vast halls with wide staircases +would be constructed; a shop below a shop would be ready for Mr. +Marsden's use.</p> + +<p>But what he proposed to do with it he had not as yet disclosed. He was +feverishly anxious to get all the work finished, but the new basement +especially occupied his ambitious dreams.</p> + +<p>"Mears, old buck," he said often, "I'm itching to get down there. And +how damn slow they are, aren't they?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>Having had his fling as a gentleman at large, he seemed to enjoy for a +little while the quieter but more massive importance derived from his +position as the proprietor of a successful business, the employer of +labour, the patron of art and manufacture. He paid handsomely for the +insertion of his portrait in the local newspaper, and arranged with the +editor that paragraphs about himself and his operations should appear +amongst news items without the objectionable word Advertisement. On +early closing day he swaggered about the town, feeling that he was one +of its most prominent citizens, and proving himself always ready to +stand a drink to anyone who would say so.</p> + +<p>When his architect came down from London to go over the works with the +contractor, he carried them off to the Dolphin, before anything had been +done, and gave them a sumptuous luncheon—sat bragging and drinking with +them for hours. When at dusk they returned to the shop, Marsden was red +and noisy, the architect was in a fuddled state, and the contractor +frankly hiccoughed.</p> + +<p>"Down with you, old boy," said Marsden jovially. "And buck 'em up—the +lazy bounders. Get a move on. I want this job finished; and it seems to +me you're all playing with it."</p> + +<p>After the governor had been lunching he lost that sense of decorum which +from long habit should make it almost as impossible to speak loudly in a +shop as in a church. All the assistants and several customers were +scandalized by the noisy tongues of Mr. Marsden and his architect.</p> + +<p>"And you jolly well remember that everything's to be done without +interference to my business. It's in the contract—and don't you forget +it. Start to finish—that was the bargain—business to be carried on as +usual."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we don't forget, Mist' Marsd—— No interferens. Bizniz muz go on +zactly as usual."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p><p>But did it? Mears was appalled by the disturbance and confusion. +Outside in the street a long line of builders' carts blocked the +approach of carriage-folk; from beneath the windows, through the opened +gratings, earth and gravel and lumps of broken concrete were being +painfully hauled out; the pavement was covered with mud, obstructed with +débris, so that foot-people could not pass in comfort, and the Borough +Surveyor had sent three notices urgently requesting the abatement of +what was a public as well as a private nuisance. Inside the shop one +heard growling thunders from the depths below one's feet, and sudden +explosions as if one were walking over a volcano, while from every +entrance to the dark vaults there issued clouds of destructive lime +dust. Sometimes a department was shut up for an hour while a steel +girder was rolled along the floor by twenty perspiring men; processions +of bucket-bearers emerged unexpectedly; and one saw in every mirror a +grimy face or a plaster-stained back.</p> + +<p>What was the use of asking ladies to step upstairs and view our Oriental +novelties, when the nearest staircase was temporarily converted into a +slide for roped planks?</p> + +<p>Ladies said No, thank you; they would call again.</p> + +<p>"This is going to hit us, sir," said Mr. Mears gloomily. "It is going to +hit us hard if it continues much longer."</p> + +<p>"But it won't continue," said Marsden irritably. "They're bound by +contract to finish before the twentieth of next month. Besides, you +can't make an omelette without breaking eggs."</p> + +<p>There could be no doubt, thought Mears, as to the broken eggs; but the +question was, Would Mr. Marsden's omelette ever come to table, or would +it get tossed into the fire with so much else that seemed finding an end +there?</p> + +<p>Towards the completion of the contract time, Marsden more than once +forced his wife to come through the door of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> communication, and have a +look round the altered shop. She was admittedly convalescent now. She +had not demurred when the master of the house gave Dr. Eldridge what he +called "a straight tip" to cease paying professional visits. She had not +protested when, in her presence, an almost straighter tip was given to +Yates that the boring fuss about a malady of the imagination must cease. +In fact she herself had said that there was nothing the matter with her.</p> + +<p>She could not therefore refuse to show herself when he explicitly +commanded her to do so.</p> + +<p>Many changes—as she passed by Woollens and China and Glass, it was like +walking in a dream, among the distorted shadows of familiar objects. +Miss Woolfrey ran out of China and Glass to welcome her; but the other +assistants, male and female, seemed shy of attracting her attention. +Changes on all sides, which she looked at with indifferent eyes—but one +change that slowly compelled a more careful observation. Perhaps +downstairs this, the greatest of the changes, would not be observable? +But no, it was noticed as plainly downstairs as upstairs.</p> + +<p>There were fewer customers.</p> + +<p>She glanced at the clock outside the counting-house. Three-twenty! In +the middle of the afternoon, at this season of the year, the shop should +be thronged with customers; and it appeared to be, comparatively +speaking, empty.</p> + +<p>Marsden was waiting to receive her behind the glass, in her old sanctum.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Jane. Here I am—hard at it."</p> + +<p>Her bureau had disappeared. Where it used to stand there was a large but +compact American desk; and in front of this Mr. Marsden sat enthroned. +She glanced round the room, and saw a small new writing-table in the +space between the second safe and the wall.</p> + +<p>"I thought you could sit over there, Jane," said Marsden,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> pointing with +his patent self-feeding pen. "You'd be out of the draught—for one +thing."</p> + +<p>She was to be pushed into a corner, to be made to understand her +insignificant position under the new order of things,—but she did not +protest.</p> + +<p>"Now then. Come along."</p> + +<p>He took her first of all through the Furniture, and showed her his +sub-department for the sale of desks and all other office requisites +similar to those which he had purchased for his own use. This was what +he called agency work.</p> + +<p>"No risk, don't you see, old girl! Doing the trick with other people's +capital." And he explained how the German firm that supplied England +with these American goods had given him most advantageous terms. "A +splendid agreement for <i>us</i>! If the things don't go off quick, we just +shovel the lot back at them—and try something else. That's <i>trade</i>. +Keep a move on—don't go to sleep."</p> + +<p>Then presently he took her upstairs, to what he called his Japan +Exhibition.</p> + +<p>The Cretonne Department had been compressed and curtailed to make room +for this new feature, and she passed through the archway of an ornate +partition in order to admire and wonder at the Oriental novelties.</p> + +<p>"Now, Jane, this is what I'm really proud of."</p> + +<p>There was plenty to see and to think about—Marsden made her handle +carved and tinted ivory warriors with glittering swords and tiny +burnished helmets, dragons with jewelled eyes and enamelled jaws, +exquisite little cloisonne boxes; made her stoop to look at the +malachite plinths of huge squat vases; and made her stretch her neck to +look at gold-embossed friezes of great tall screens.</p> + +<p>All these goods were very expensive; and she asked if any of them had +been introduced, like the Yankee furniture, on sale or return.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p><p>"No, these are our own racket—and tip-top stuff, the best of its kind, +never brought to Europe till last summer.... The stock stands us in +close on four thousand pounds. You wouldn't think it, would you? But +it's <i>art</i>. It's an education to possess such things."</p> + +<p>She hazarded another question. Did he think Mallingbridge would consent +to pay for such high-class education?</p> + +<p>"It'll be a great disappointment to me if they don't clear us out in +three months from now. Of course they haven't discovered yet what we're +offering them. But they <i>will</i>. I go on the double policy—play down to +your public in one department, but try to lift your public in another. +That's the way to keep alive."</p> + +<p>And, as they left the Japanese treasures and strolled about the upper +floor, he rattled off his glib catch-words.</p> + +<p>"These are hustling times. Get a move on somehow. That's what I tell +them—They'll soon tumble to it."</p> + +<p>He parted from her near the door of communication.</p> + +<p>"Ta-ta, old girl.... Oh, by the way, I shan't be in to dinner +to-night—or to-morrow either. I'm off to London. I'm wanted there about +my Christmas Baz——" And he checked himself. "But I'll ask old Mears to +tell you all about that."</p> + +<p>Then he ran downstairs, two steps at a time, and swaggered here and +there between the counters to impress the assistants with his hustlingly +Napoleonic air.</p> + +<p>Occasionally he loved to step forward, wave aside the assistant, and +himself serve a customer. He thoroughly enjoyed the awe-struck +admiration of the shop when he thus granted it a display of his skill. +It was his only real gift—the salesman art; and it never failed him.</p> + +<p>But it was something that he could not impart. Assistants who imitated +his method—trying to catch the smiling, almost chaffing manner that +could immediately convert a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> grumpy lethargic critic into a prompt and +cheerful buyer—were merely familiar and impudent, and ended by huffing +the customer.</p> + +<p>And the governor, when he happened to detect want of success in one of +his young gentlemen or young ladies, came down like a hundred of bricks.</p> + +<p>He treated the two sexes quite impartially, and the women could not say +that he bullied the men worse than he bullied them. But he had a deadly +sort of satire that the younger girls dreaded more than the angriest +storm of abuse. Thus if he saw one of them sitting down, he would +address her with apparently amiable solicitude.</p> + +<p>"Is that ledge hard, Miss Vincent? Couldn't someone get her a cushion? +Make yourself at home. Why don't you come round the counter and sit on +the customers' laps?... We must find you a comfortable seat +<i>somewhere</i>—and change of air, too. Mallingbridge isn't agreeing with +your constitution, if you feel as slack as all this."</p> + +<p>Like the people of his house, these people of his shop feared him, and, +perhaps without putting the thoughts into words, or troubling to quote +adages, understood that beggars on horseback always ride with reckless +disregard of the safety and comfort of the humble companions with whom +they were recently tramping along the hard road, and that no master is +so tyrannical as a promoted servant. In the opinion of the +shop-assistants, he could not go to London too often or stay there too +long.</p> + +<p>While he was away this time, Mears came to Mrs. Marsden with a long face +and a gloomy voice, and gave her the delayed information as to her +husband's Christmas programme.</p> + +<p>The new underground floor was to be used for a grand Bazaar, and Mears +had been told to win her round to the idea.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>Mears himself hated the idea. He thought the bazaar a brainless +plagiarism of Bence's, and altogether unworthy of Thompson's. It would +be exactly like Bence's, but on a much larger scale—beneath the good +respectable shop, a cheap and nasty shop, in which catchpenny travesties +of decent articles would be the only wares; fancy stationery, sham +jewellery, spurious metals; horrid little clocks that won't go, knives +and scissors that won't cut, collar-boxes more flimsy than the collars +they are intended to hold—everything beastly that crumples, bends, or +breaks before you can get home with it.</p> + +<p>"But he won't abandon the idea," said Mears. "That's a certainty. He's +mad keen on it. The only thing is for you to use your influence—and +I'll back you up solid—to persuade him to modify it."</p> + +<p>And Mears strongly advocated modification on these lines: make the +bazaar a fitting annex,—substitute boots and shoes for the sixpenny +toys, good leather trunks for the paper boxes, nice engravings for the +coloured photographs,—offer the public genuine stuff and not trash.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, Mr. Marsden, as soon as he returned, was begged by his +partner and his manager to grant their joint petition for a slightly +modified Christmas carnival. But he said it was too late. They ought to +have gone into the matter earlier.</p> + +<p>He had bought the trash,—had engaged his London girls,—was ready; and +like a general on the eve of campaign, he could not be bothered with +advice from subordinate officers.</p> + +<p>When discussing this horrible innovation, Mears had extracted from Mrs. +Marsden a distinct show of interest; several times afterwards he had +endeavoured to stimulate and increase the interest; and now, just before +Christmas, he earnestly implored her to rouse herself.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>"We miss you, ma'am, worse every day. It isn't <i>safe</i> to let things +drift. We can't get on without you."</p> + +<p>Then one morning she had an early breakfast, dressed herself in her shop +black, came down behind the glass, took her seat at the little corner +table of her old room, and unobtrusively began working.</p> + +<p>Marsden, when he came in two or three hours later, was surprised to see +her.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, Jane, what do you think you are doing?"</p> + +<p>"Well, Dick," she said submissively, "I should like to help in the +shop—as I used to, you know."</p> + +<p>"Bravo. Excellent! I want all the help that anyone can give me;" and he +seated himself in the chair of honour. "But look here. Don't mess about +with the papers on this desk. I work after a system—and if my papers +are muddled, it simply upsets me and wastes my time."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XVII</span></h2> + +<p>It had been a fearful year for Thompson & Marsden's. From the moment +that the grand fascia permanently recorded the new style of the firm, +money had flowed out of the business like water—and like big water, +like mountain torrents or sea waves; while the feeding-stream of money +that flowed into the business was obstructed, deflected, and plainly +lessened in volume. And now, when all the immense outlay should begin to +prove remunerative, even Marsden himself confessed that results were +inadequate and unsatisfactory.</p> + +<p>The Bazaar was a disastrous fiasco. The builders had broken their +contract; the basement had not been completed on the stipulated date, +and a law-suit was pending. Marsden swore that he would recover damages +for the loss entailed by his builders' wickedness; but Mr. Prentice +advised that he had a weak case.</p> + +<p>When, to the strains of a Viennese orchestra, the public were invited to +go down and enjoy themselves underground, they flatly declined the +invitation. A peep into the brilliantly lighted depths was sufficient +for them. Damp exhaled from the plastered walls; the few adventurous +customers shivered and the girls sneezed in their faces. An epidemic of +sore throat, engendered down there, rose and spread through the upper +shop. After three weeks, Marsden's grand Christmas entertainment was +withdrawn—like a pantomime that is too stupid to attract the children; +the regiment of sneezing girls was disbanded; the mass of unsold rubbish +was sent to London, to be disposed of for what it would fetch. And that, +as the whole shop knew, was half nothing.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>The Japanese department was almost as bad a bargain; the little ivory +warriors terrified cautious citizens with their high prices; no one +would come to buy and be educated. But Marsden for a long time was +obstinate about his Oriental goods. He would not face the loss, and cut +it short.</p> + +<p>He seemed to have forgotten his American office equipments; but this +feature had also failed to fulfil expectations. Only three small +articles had been sold. However, as there was no risk here, the want of +success did not much matter; but still it must be counted as one more of +the governor's false moves. Indeed, as all now saw, everything attempted +by the governor during this period of his energetic efforts had gone +hopelessly wrong.</p> + +<p>But he himself could not brook the disappointment caused by his +failures. He was disgusted when he thought of what had happened since +his pompous declaration of war. Although he would not admit that so far +Bence was beating him, he inveighed against fate, against Mallingbridge, +against all the world.</p> + +<p>"What the devil can you do when you're buried in a dead and alive hole +like this, surrounded by idiotic prejudices, and dependent on a lot of +old fossils to carry out your ideas?"</p> + +<p>The fitful energy that had occasioned so much trouble was now quite +exhausted. He seemed to have entered another phase. He was never jolly +now, but always discontented, and generally querulous, morose, or +violently angry.</p> + +<p>One after another the old shop chieftains succumbed beneath his bullying +attacks. Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Fentiman had gone. Mr. Greig was going.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden always recognized the beginning of his onslaught upon +anybody to whom in the old days she had been strongly attached. A few +sneering words—lightly and carelessly; and then, when he returned to +the charge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> gross abuse of the doomed thing. She knew that it was +doomed. In the wreck of her life this too must go. Then very soon there +were insults and violences that rendered the position of the victim +untenable, unendurable. Thus he had forced Mr. Ridgway and the others to +resign.</p> + +<p>Yates, the servant and friend that she loved, was also doomed. She was +struggling to avert the stroke of doom, but she knew that sooner or +later it must fall.</p> + +<p>And during all this time his demands for cash were increasingly +frequent. By his colossal outlay he had mortgaged the profits of years, +and it was essential that the partners should wait patiently until they +came into their own again. But he would not wait, and vowed that he +could not further retrench his personal expenses. How was he to live +without <i>some</i> ready cash? And if the firm could not furnish it, she +must.</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> trying to sell my big car," he told her. "And I suppose you will +ask me to sell the little one next—and paddle about in the mud again. +But, no, thank you, that doesn't suit my book at all."</p> + +<p>At last she summoned to her aid something of that old resolution that +seemed to have left her forever, and refused to comply with his request.</p> + +<p>"No, Dick, I can't. It isn't fair. I can't."</p> + +<p>"You mean, you <i>won't</i>."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you force me to use that word, I shall use it."</p> + +<p>Then there was a terrible quarrel—or rather he abused her meanness and +selfishness with brutal violence, and she protested against his +injustice and cruelty with all the strength that she possessed.</p> + +<p>After this he absented himself for a fortnight. He sent no messages; he +left the business to take care of itself, or be run by the other +partner; nobody knew where he was.</p> + +<p>When he reappeared he showed a perceptible <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>deterioration of aspect, as +if the vicious orgies through which probably he had been passing had set +their ugly print upon his mouth, and had tarnished the healthy +brightness of his eyes. Henceforth the evidences of his increasing +dissipation became more and more obvious. He had abandoned himself to +the influences of this second phase. He drank heavily. He was careless +about his clothes; never looked spick and span and well-groomed; often +looked quite seedy and shabby, lounging in and out of the Dolphin Hotel, +with cheeks unshaven, and an unbrushed pot hat on the back of his head.</p> + +<p>But although he neglected his work, he made people understand that he +still considered himself the boss, and whenever he came into the shop he +asserted his authority. After lying in bed sometimes till late in the +afternoon, he would come down and upset everybody just when the day's +work was drawing to a close.</p> + +<p>At the sight of him all eyes were lowered, and many hands began to +tremble behind the counters. Before he had progressed from the door of +communication to the top of the staircase, somebody, it was certain, +would be dropped on. But on whom would he drop?</p> + +<p>Once it was his ancient admirer and ally, Miss Woolfrey. Outside China & +Glass, she spoke to him pleasantly if nervously.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, sir. You'll find Mrs. Thompson downstairs in the office."</p> + +<p>"Who the devil are you talking about?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Thompson, sir—Oh, lor, how silly of me! Mrs. <i>Marsden</i>, sir."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's the name; and I'll be obliged if you won't forget it." He +was always exceedingly angry if, as still often happened, the old +assistants accidentally used the name that from long habit sprang so +easily to their lips.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p><p>"Mrs. Marsden, if you please. And not too much of that." He looked +about him wrathfully, involving half the upper floor in his displeasure. +"I wish you'd all learnt manners before you got yourselves taken on +here. 'Yes, Mrs. Marsden. No, Mrs. Marsden'—that's the way I hear you. +Don't any of you know that Madam is the proper form of address when +you're speaking to your employer's wife?"</p> + +<p>When he went behind the glass all the clerks began to blunder and to get +confused. He called for day-books, ledgers, and cash-books, and glanced +at them with lordly superciliousness while the poor clerks humbly held +them open before him. Nothing was ever quite right—he blamed somebody +for illegible hand-writing, someone else for a blot, someone else for +the dog's ear of a page.</p> + +<p>As promised by Miss Woolfrey, he found the late Mrs. Thompson quietly +working at the little corner table in his room. Then he stood before the +fire warming his legs, and haranguing about shop-etiquette, up-to-date +methods, time-saving systems, and complaining of the many faults that he +had discovered.</p> + +<p>His wife listened without discontinuing the work.</p> + +<p>Gradually, in spite of all his dictatorial interferences, he was +allowing her to do more and more work. He told the heads of the staff +that when he was out of the way, they were to take their instructions +from Mrs. Marsden. Then, when underlings came to him, obsequiously +asking for his orders in regard to small matters, he said he could not +be worried about trifles. Mrs. Marsden would direct them. He had more +than enough important things to think of, and could not descend to petty +details.</p> + +<p>One afternoon he came in from the street, turned the type-writing girl +out of the room, and told his wife to give him all her attention.</p> + +<p>"Attend to me, old girl. News. Great news."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p><p>He slapped his legs, and laughed. He was elated and excited. It was a +flash of jollity after months of gloom.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember what I told you eighteen months ago?"</p> + +<p>"What did you tell me, Dick?"</p> + +<p>"I asked you to mark my words—and I said, that little bounder over +there wasn't going to last much longer."</p> + +<p>The old story of Bence's approaching bankruptcy had been revived again. +Marsden had heard it once more, at the Dolphin bar or in the +Conservative Club billiard room, and he greedily swallowed every word of +it.</p> + +<p>He said it was a hard-boiled fact this time. One of the profligate +brothers had died; the widow was taking his money out of the business; +and Archibald Bence, deprived of capital without which he could not +scrape along, would go phutt at any minute.</p> + +<p>"There, old girl, I thought it would buck you up to hear such news, so I +ran in to tell you. But now I must be off."</p> + +<p>And then, in his unusual good temper, he noticed the difficulties under +which she was labouring.</p> + +<p>"I say, you don't seem very comfortable with all your papers spread out +on chairs like that. It looks so infernally messy—but I suppose you +haven't space for them on your table."</p> + +<p>"I could do with more space, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Very well. You can sit at my desk—when I am not here. But don't fiddle +about with anything in the drawers;" and he laughed. "You'd better not +pry among my papers, or you may get your fingers snapped off. The whole +damned thing shut up with a bang when I was looking for something in a +hurry the other day."</p> + +<p>She wondered if there could be any valid reason for the persistent +recurrence of these stories of financial shakiness behind their rival's +outward show of prosperity. Were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> these little puffs of smoke, appearing +and disappearing so frequently, indicative of latent fire? She asked Mr. +Mears what he thought about the gossip carried in such triumph by her +credulous husband.</p> + +<p>Mears did not believe a word of it.</p> + +<p>"We've heard such yarns for ten years, haven't we?" And Mears nodded his +head in the direction of the street. "I've used my eyes, and I don't see +any signs of it—and I think Mr. Marsden shouldn't reckon on it."</p> + +<p>"No, I quite agree with you."</p> + +<p>"Although," said Mears, "it would be very convenient to us, if it <i>did</i> +happen—and if it <i>is</i> going to happen, the sooner it happens the +better."</p> + +<p>"It won't happen," said Mrs. Marsden, sadly and wearily. "The wish is +father to the thought—there's no real sense in it."</p> + +<p>At this time she often thought of Archibald Bence; and of how, when +alluding to his idle spendthrift brothers, he used to say with quaintly +candid self-pity, "There's a leak in my shop."</p> + +<p>Well, there was a leak on each side of the street, now.</p> + +<p>Availing herself of her husband's permission, she came out of the +corner, and was generally to be seen seated in the chair of honour at +the tricky American desk.</p> + +<p>Little by little she was resuming control over the ordinary routine +management of the shop; and, although in its greater and more momentous +affairs she remained practically impotent, she was allowed full +opportunities to supervise and encourage its daily traffic.</p> + +<p>Once or twice as Mears stood by her chair in the office and watched her +knitted brows while she considered the questions of the hour, he thought +and felt that it was quite like old times.</p> + +<p>But this was a transient thought. Old times could never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> really come +again. Stooping to take the papers on which she had scrawled her brief +and rapid directions, he noticed the coarse grey strands in the hair +that such a little while ago used to be so smooth, so glossy, and to his +mind so pretty. He could see, too, the differences in her whole face. +The face was slightly smaller; the florid colours were fading so fast +that occasionally she seemed sallow; the lines of the kind mouth had +grown harder; and there was a curious, passive, subdued look where once +there had been outpouring vitality. And the bodice of the black dress +hung loose, in small folds and creases, on the shoulders that used to +fill it with such handsome thoroughness.</p> + +<p>But instinctively Mears understood that behind the narrower and less +glowing mask the inward force was not extinguished—the indomitable +spirit was there still, not yet quenched, and perhaps unquenchable.</p> + +<p>He watched her—with a veneration deeper than he had ever felt in the +easy prosperous past—while she went on quietly, bravely working, day by +day, week after week.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>One Saturday evening, after an uneventful but laborious week, when she +had supped alone and was reading by the dining-room fire, Marsden came +in and abruptly asked her for money.</p> + +<p>"This is serious, Jane—no rot about it. I'm stuck for a couple of +hundred, and I must have it."</p> + +<p>"Really, Dick, I cannot—"</p> + +<p>"I don't ask it as a gift. Of course I meant to pay you back the other +advances, but everything's been against me. I <i>will</i> try to pay you. +Anyhow, this is a bona fide loan. It's only to tide me over."</p> + +<p>"But you said that last time."</p> + +<p>"Last time you refused—and I had to chuck away my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> little +run-about—simply chuck it away. And I wanted to keep that car as much +for your sake as for mine. I knew you enjoyed a ride in it."</p> + +<p>She had ridden in the car once, and once only.</p> + +<p>"Look here, old girl." And he removed his hat, and sat down on the other +side of the dinner-table. Perhaps he had hoped that she would give him a +cheque and let him go out again in two or three minutes; but now he saw +it would take longer. "I must have the money by Monday morning—or I +shall be in a devil of a hole. More or less a matter of honour.... Don't +be nasty. Help a pal. It's not <i>like</i> you to refuse—when I tell you I'm +in earnest."</p> + +<p>"But, Dick, I am in earnest, too. Truly I can't do it."</p> + +<p>"Rot. You can do it without feeling it." And he assumed a facetious air. +"Just your autograph—that's all I ask for. I'll write out the cheque +myself—save you all trouble. Just sign your name."</p> + +<p>"No, I'm very sorry; but it's impossible."</p> + +<p>He got up, and began to walk about the room, fuming angrily.</p> + +<p>"Then I shall draw on the firm."</p> + +<p>"Then I shall have to call in Mr. Prentice, and ask him to protect the +firm—to go to the law courts if necessary."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all my aunt. I've had enough of Mr. Prentice—Mr. Prentice +isn't my wet nurse."</p> + +<p>"Dick, be reasonable. Be kind to me. Don't you see, yourself, that—"</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to have you and old Prentice treating me as if I was a +baby in arms—lecturing, and preaching to me about the firm. You and +Prentice aren't the firm. I'm just as much the firm as you are."</p> + +<p>"Have I put myself forward? Do I ever deny your rights?"</p> + +<p>"Be damned to Prentice." He took his hands out of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> overcoat pockets, +and brandished them furiously. "Prentice was my enemy from the very +beginning;" and he raised his voice. It seemed as if he was purposely +working himself into a passion. "I was a fool to submit to his bounce. I +ought to have had a marriage settlement—money properly settled on +me—and I was a fool to let him jew me out of it."</p> + +<p>"I gave you a half share."</p> + +<p>"Yes, in the business—but <i>only</i> the business."</p> + +<p>"Wasn't that enough for you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in good times, no doubt. But what about bad times? And what the +devil did I know of the business before I came into it? Nothing was +explained to me. I came in blindfold. I took everything on trust."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I think you understood it was a paying concern."</p> + +<p>"It wasn't <i>proved</i> to me, anyhow. No one took the trouble to let me see +the books—and give me the plain figures. Oh, no, that would have been +beneath your dignity."</p> + +<p>"Or beneath yours, Dick?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I was a fool to consider my dignity. That was old Prentice +again. I suppose he took his cue from you. You had put your heads +together, and decided that I was to behave like the good boy in the +copy-books. Open your mouth and shut your eyes, and see what God will +send you."</p> + +<p>"Dick, please—please don't go on."</p> + +<p>Suddenly he stopped walking about, leaned his hands on the table, and +stared across at her.</p> + +<p>"Suppose the entire business goes to pot. What then?"</p> + +<p>"The business will recover, and continue—if it isn't drained to death."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but it's all mighty fine for <i>you</i>. You can afford to take a lofty +tone. Fat years are followed by lean years—We must wait for the fat +years again. I know all that cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> and dried cackle—it's the way people +of property always talk. I came in with nothing—please to remember +that. I'm absolutely dependent on the business—if the profits go down +to nothing, am I to starve?"</p> + +<p>"You shan't starve;" and she looked round the comfortable, +well-furnished room.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> had your private fortune—all that you'd put by,—and I suppose +you have got all of it still."</p> + +<p>"How can I have it all—when you know what I gave to Enid?"</p> + +<p>"You gave Enid a dashed sight too much—but you had plenty left, in +spite of that."</p> + +<p>"Dick, on my honour, I hadn't a large amount left. I used to count +myself a rich woman, but I was only relying on the business. What I took +out one year I put back into it another year. I was always trying to +improve it."</p> + +<p>"I'll swear you haven't put any back since you married me."</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't."</p> + +<p>"No, that I'll swear." He had lowered his voice, and he was speaking +with a scornful intensity. "No, good times or bad times in the shop, you +are content to pouch your dividends from all your stocks and shares, and +sit watching your nest-egg grow bigger and bigger, while—"</p> + +<p>"Dick! You are tiring me out. Don't go on."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will go on. You started it—and now I mean to get to the bottom +of things. Let's get to plain figures at last. What are you worth +now—of your very own—apart from the firm?"</p> + +<p>"Not one penny more than I need—for my own safety."</p> + +<p>"Ha-ha! You're afraid to tell me."</p> + +<p>"Why should I tell you? Dick, don't go on. It's cruel of you to bully +me—when I'm so tired."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p><p>"Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? How much? Oh, I dare say I can +figure it out for myself—without your help. Say twelve or fifteen +hundred a year, coming in like clockwork. Why I saved you two-fifty a +year myself, by cutting down what you intended to settle on Enid and +that skinny rascal of a horse-coper."</p> + +<p>"Dick—for pity's sake—"</p> + +<p>"Then answer me." And he raised his voice louder than before. "What are +you doing with your private income?"</p> + +<p>"This house costs <i>something</i>."</p> + +<p>"Oh, this house can't stand you in much. Where does the rest go—if you +aren't saving it? Are you giving it to Enid?... That's it, I suppose. If +that lazy swine wants two hundred to buy himself another thoroughbred +hunter, I suppose he sends Enid sneaking over here—when my back's +turned—and just taps you for it. You don't refuse <i>him</i>. But if <i>I</i> +come to you, it's 'No, certainly not. Do you want to ruin me?'"</p> + +<p>"Dick!"</p> + +<p>"Then, will you let me have it?"</p> + +<p>Her face was drawn and haggard; she looked at him with piteous, +imploring eyes; and she hesitated. But the hesitation was caused by +dread of his wrath, and not by doubt as to her reply.</p> + +<p>"Dick. I am sorry. But I cannot do it."</p> + +<p>"Is that your answer?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, that is my answer."</p> + +<p>"Very good." He snatched up his hat, clapped it on the back of his head, +and stood for a few moments staring at her vindictively. Then, clenching +his fist and striking the table, he burst into a storm of abuse....</p> + +<p>"But you'll be sorry for this, my grand lady. I'll make you pay for it +before I've done with you." This was after he had been raving at her for +a couple of minutes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> and his voice had become hoarse. "You'll learn +better—or I'll know the reason why."</p> + +<p>Then he turned, flung open the door, and stamped out of the room.</p> + +<p>"What do you want here—you prying old hag? Stand on one side, unless +you wish me to pitch you down the stairs."</p> + +<p>Outside on the landing he had found Yates hastily moving away from the +dining-room door. Terrified by the noise, she had been irresistibly +drawn towards the room where her mistress was suffering. She longed to +aid, but did not dare.</p> + +<p>She came into the room now, and saw Mrs. Marsden leaning back in her +chair, white and nearly breathless, looking half dead.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ma'am—oh, ma'am! Whatever are we to do?"</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Yates. Don't distress yourself. It's nothing.... Mr. +Marsden lost his temper for the moment—but I assure you, it's all +right."</p> + +<p>"Let me get you upstairs to bed."</p> + +<p>"No, leave me alone, please. I am quite all right—but I'll stay here +quietly for a little while.... Go to bed, yourself. Don't sit up for +me."</p> + +<p>And her mistress was so firm that Yates felt reluctantly compelled to +obey orders.</p> + +<p>An hour passed; and Mrs. Marsden still sat before the fire, alone with +her thoughts in the silent house. And then a totally unexpected sound +startled her. The front door had been opened and shut; there were +footsteps on the stairs: the master of the house had returned, to resume +the conversation.</p> + +<p>But to resume it in a very different tone.—He took off his hat and +coat, came to the fire, warmed his hands; and then, resting an elbow on +the mantelpiece, smilingly looked down at his wife.</p> + +<p>"Jane, I'm penitent.... Really and truly, I'm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> ashamed of myself for +letting fly at you just now. But you did rile me awfully by saying you +hadn't <i>got</i> the money. Anyhow, I've come back to ask for pardon."</p> + +<p>"Or have you come back to ask for the money again?"</p> + +<p>"No, no. Wash that out. If you don't want to part, there's no more to be +said. Forget all about it. Wash it all out. The word is, As you +were—eh?... Old Girl?"</p> + +<p>He was leaning down towards her, putting out his hand; and she was +shrinking away from him, watching him with terror in her eyes. Before +the hand could touch her face, she sprang from the chair and threw it +over, to make a barrier against his movement.</p> + +<p>"Janey! What's the matter with you? You naughty girl— I've apologised, +haven't I? Let bygones be bygones—won't you?"</p> + +<p>She had run round the table, and was standing where he had stood an hour +ago. As he advanced she dodged away from him, keeping the length or the +breadth of the table between them.</p> + +<p>"Janey? What are you playing at? Hide and Seek—Catch who, Catch can? +How silly you are!"</p> + +<p>"Then stop. Don't touch me."</p> + +<p>"Well, I never!" He had stopped, and he laughed gaily. "What next? This +is a funny way to treat your lord and master. Janey, dear, you are +forgetting your duties. You're very, very naughty."</p> + +<p>He laughed again, and joined his hands in an attitude of devotion.</p> + +<p>"There, I'm praying to you—like a repulsed sweetheart, and not like a +husband who is being set at defiance. Dicky prays you to make it up. +Janey, be nice—be good.... Dear old Janey—don't you know what this +means?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—it means that you want the money very badly."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p><p>Her face, that till now was so white, had flushed to a bright crimson.</p> + +<p>"What a horrid thing to say! I'd forgotten all about the money. Why +can't <i>you</i> forget it?... No, hang the money. Money isn't everything.... +But, Jane, I've been thinking—for a long time—about the way you and I +are going on together." And he changed his tone again, and spoke with +affected solemnity. "It isn't <i>right</i>, you know. It has been going on a +good deal too long, Janey—and it's just how real estrangements +begin.... I don't know which of us is to blame—but I want to get back +into our jolly old ways."</p> + +<p>"That's impossible. We can never get back."</p> + +<p>"Oh, rot, my dear. Skittles to that. When we used to have a tiff—well, +we always made it up soon. It was like a lovers' squabble, and it only +made us fonder of each other.... Janey, I want to make it up."</p> + +<p>And with outstretched arms he advanced a step or two, pausing as she +retreated.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Janey—how can you?"</p> + +<p>Then he brought out all the old seductions—the half-closed eyes, from +which the simulated light of love was glittering; the half-opened lips, +that trembled with a mimic passion; the soft caressing tones, made to +vibrate with echoes of a feigned desire. To her it was all horrible—the +most miserable of failures, an effort to charm that merely produces +disgust. But he never was able to read her thoughts. He acted his little +comedy to the end—like the cockbird who has started his amatory dance +to fascinate the timid hen, he was perhaps too busy to observe results +till the dance had finished.</p> + +<p>"Dick—I implore you. Stop this hideous pretence."</p> + +<p>Then he saw how entirely he had failed.</p> + +<p>"All that is done with forever." Her face had become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> livid; she +shivered, and her mouth twitched, as if a wave of nausea had come +sweeping upward to her brain. "On my side it is dead—utterly dead;" and +she struck her breast with a closed hand. "On your side it never +existed.... So don't—don't think I can ever be deceived again." And she +spoke with a concentrated force that completely staggered him. "If you +didn't understand it—if you attempted to compel me, I believe—before +God—that I should go out and buy a revolver, and kill myself—or kill +you."</p> + +<p>"I say. Steady."</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders, and turned away. Before he spoke again, he +had picked up the overturned chair and seated himself by the fire.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Jane. I twig;" and he laughed languidly.</p> + +<p>"I'm not such a cad as to make love to a lady against her will. I'm all +obedience. The next overture must come from you."</p> + +<p>She could read his thoughts always, though he could never read hers. +Moreover, he had ceased to act, and perhaps made no attempt to conceal +the sense of relief that sounded with such a brutal plainness.</p> + +<p>"But we can be friends, Dick—if you don't make it impossible. There +must be shreds of our self-respect left. We can patch them together—if +you don't tear them into smaller pieces."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're having it all your own way now."</p> + +<p>"I'm bound to you; and I won't rebel—unless you drive me to despair. +I'm your wife still." As she said it, a sob choked the last words, and +tears suddenly filled her eyes. "I'm your wife still. I'll carry the +chain—until you consent to break it."</p> + +<p>"By Jove, you <i>are</i> on the high rope to-night."</p> + +<p>"Now, about this money?" And she wiped her eyes, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> blew her nose. +"You've proved to me that you must have it. You've shown that you +wouldn't shrink from any—from any ordeal in order to get it."</p> + +<p>He looked round with reawakened interest.</p> + +<p>"I do want it most damnably, or of course I wouldn't have asked you for +it."</p> + +<p>"Then for this once I suppose I must give it to you."</p> + +<p>"Jane! Do you really mean it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'll give it you, if you'll tell me that you understand—if you'll +promise that this shall be the very last time.... But with or without +the promise, it will be useless to apply to me again."</p> + +<p>"There's my hand on it."</p> + +<p>He promised freely and readily.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XVIII</span></h2> + +<p>Next day she was too tired to get up for the morning service, but she +went to St. Saviour's church in the evening.</p> + +<p>More and more she loved the quiet hours spent in church. Here, and only +here, she was safely shut up in the world of her own thoughts, and could +feel certain that the thread of ideas would not be snapped by a rough +voice, or her nerves be shaken by the unanticipated violence of some +fresh misfortune. And St. Saviour's was even more restful at night than +in the daytime.</p> + +<p>She listened automatically to the beautiful opening prayer; and then she +retired deep into herself.</p> + +<p>Except for the chancel, the building was dimly lighted. The roof and the +empty galleries were almost hidden by shadows; lamps reflected +themselves feebly from the dark wood-work; and the people, sitting wide +apart from one another in the sparsely occupied pews, seemed vague black +figures and not strong living men and women.</p> + +<p>Each time that she rose, she looked from the semi-darkness towards the +brilliant light of the chancel—at the white surplices and the shining +faces of the choir, the golden tubes of the organ, and the soft radiance +that flashed from the brass of the altar rails. But all the while, +whether she sat down or stood up, her thoughts were struggling in +darkness and vainly seeking for the faintest glimmer of light.</p> + +<p>She thought of her husband and of the shop. He was holding her, would +hold her as a tied and gagged prisoner surrounded with the dark chaos +that he had caused. How could she save herself—or him? He concealed +facts from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> her; he told her lies; he never let her hear of a difficulty +until it was too late to find any means of escape.</p> + +<p>And she thought of the destruction of her whole lifework. She saw it +certainly approaching—the only possible end to such a partnership. All +that she had laboriously constructed was to be stupidly beaten down.</p> + +<p>The splendid old business would infallibly be ruined. No business, +however firmly established, can withstand the double attack of gross +mismanagement and reckless depletion of its funds. As she thought of it, +those words of her inveterately active rival echoed and re-echoed. A +leak, and no chance of stopping the leak—disaster foreseen, but not to +be averted. The leak was too great. All hands at the pumps would not +save the ship.</p> + +<p>A new and if possible more poignant bitterness filled her mind. It was +another long-drawn agony that lay before her; and it seemed to her, +looking back at the older pain, that this was almost worse. Confusion, +entanglement, darkness—no light, no hope, no chance of opening the +track that leads from chaos to security. Bitter, oh, most bitter—to +taste the failure one has not deserved, to work wisely and be frustrated +by folly, to watch passively while all that one has created and believed +to be permanent is slowly demolished and obliterated.</p> + +<p>Quite automatically, she had stood up again, and was looking towards the +brightly illuminated choir. They were singing the appointed psalms now; +and, as half consciously she listened to each chanted verse, the words +wove themselves into the burden of her thoughts....</p> + +<p>... "They have compassed me about also</p> + +<p>... and fought against me without cause."</p> + +<p>Altogether without cause. There was the pity of it. If only he would +curb his insensate greed, put some check or limit to his excesses, the +business would soon recover from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> the shaking he had given it; and then +there would be enough to maintain him in idleness for the rest of his +days. She would work for him, if he would but let her.</p> + +<p>... "For the love that I had unto them, lo, they take now my contrary +part."</p> + +<p>Yes, in all things he would frustrate her efforts.</p> + +<p>... "Thus have they rewarded me evil for good; and hatred for my good +will."</p> + +<p>The good will! How much value had he knocked off the good will already? +If they tried to turn themselves into a company to-morrow, what price +could they put down for it? Soon there would be no good will left.</p> + +<p>"Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him; and let Satan stand at +his right hand."</p> + +<p>Ah! There spoke the implacable voice of the Hebrew king. No mercy for +the ungodly.</p> + +<p>"When sentence is given upon him, let him be condemned, and let his +prayer be turned into sin."</p> + +<p>Ah! There again.</p> + +<p>"Let his days be few; and let another take his office."</p> + +<p>She listened now fully, as the verses of condemnation followed one +another in a dreadful sequence. That was the spirit of the Old +Testament. The God of those days was anthropomorphic, a god of battles, +a leader, a fighter: the friend of our friends, but the foe to our foes. +He taught one to fight against the most desperate odds—and not to +forgive enemies, but to punish them.</p> + +<p>And to-night the spirit in her own breast responded to the ancient +barbarity of creed. That softer doctrine of the Gospel, with its +soothingly mystical miracles of forgiveness, was not substantial enough +for the stern facts of life. She felt too sore and too sick for the aid +that comes veiled with inscrutable symbolism, and seems to martyrize +when it seeks to save. All that faith was beautiful but dim, like the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>unsubstantiality of these church columns ascending through the shadows +to the darkness that hid the roof. The reality was before her eyes, +where in the strong light those men stood firmly on their own feet, and, +singing the grand old psalm, craved swift retribution for the ungodly.</p> + +<p>These harder thoughts soon faded. As always happened, the hour in church +did her good. Self-pity, except as the most transient emotion, was well +nigh impossible to her. Courage was always renewing itself, and she +could not long retard the heightening glow that succeeded each fit of +depression.</p> + +<p>After all, she was in no worse a fix than when her first husband threw a +ruined business on her hands. While there's life there's hope.</p> + +<p>To her surprise she found Mr. Prentice waiting for her outside the +church porch.</p> + +<p>"Good evening, Mr. Prentice;" and she looked at him anxiously. "Nothing +wrong, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Mr. Prentice jovially. "The fact is, my wife is on the +sick list again; and as I'm at a loose end, I've come round to ask if +you could give me a bit of supper."</p> + +<p>The real fact was that earlier in the day he had seen Mr. Marsden +driving to the railway station with a valise and dressing-case on the +box of the fly. He knew that this gentleman was by now safe in London, +and he had grasped an opportunity of seeing his old friend alone. He +desired, and intended if possible, to cheer her up and put new heart +into her.</p> + +<p>"Come along then." She was obviously pleased to accept his company. "But +I'm afraid there won't be much supper—because Richard is away +to-night."</p> + +<p>"I'm not hungry. I over-ate myself at dinner—I always over-eat on +Sundays. Bread and cheese will do me grandly."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p><p>"We'll try to produce something better than that"; and Mrs. Marsden +bustled up the stairs, calling loudly for Yates.</p> + +<p>Yates produced some cold meat; and Mr. Prentice said he thought it +delicious. Yates herself waited upon them. The cupboard that contained +the master's strong drink was of course locked; but there was a supply +of good soda water accessible, and Yates ran out and bought some +doubtful whisky. Mr. Prentice, however, declared that the whisky was +excellent. His kind face beamed; he chaffed Yates, and made her toss her +head and giggle as she filled his glass; he chatted gaily and easily +with his hostess;—he was so friendly, so genial, so thoroughly welcome, +that this was the happiest supper seen in St. Saviour's Court for a very +long time.</p> + +<p>No fire had been lighted in the drawing-room, so when their meal was +done they sat together by the dining-room fire.</p> + +<p>"What pleasant hours," said Mr. Prentice, looking round at the familiar +walls, "what pleasant, pleasant hours I've spent in this room. Those +autumn dinners—with Mears and the rest! How I used to enjoy them!"</p> + +<p>"You helped us to enjoy them."</p> + +<p>"You've discontinued them altogether—haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Not without regret, both my husband and I decided that we could +not keep up that little festival. Of course you know, we have been +obliged to cut down expenses wherever possible. The times are not very +good."</p> + +<p>Of course he knew very well all about her difficulties in the house and +in the shop.</p> + +<p>"Better times are coming," he said cheerily. "I hear on all sides of the +low ebb of trade. It's a regular commercial crisis. But things are going +to improve. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>rotten enterprises will go down, and the really sound +ones will come out stronger than ever."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I forgot. You like to smoke—but I'm afraid the cigars are locked +up, too."</p> + +<p>"I've plenty in my pocket—if you're sure you don't mind."</p> + +<p>She laughed amiably. "How can you ask? I'm quite smoke-dried. I let +Richard smoke all over the house."</p> + +<p>While he cut his cigar and lit it, he thought how wonderful she +was—with the mingled pride and courage that allowed her always to speak +of her Richard as if he had been everything that a husband should be.</p> + +<p>He sat smoking for a few minutes in a comfortable silence, while she, +with her hands placidly clasped upon her lap, gazed reflectively at the +fire.</p> + +<p>"Now," he said, holding his cigar over the fender and gently tapping it +until the whitened ash fell, "there are one or two little things that +I'd like to talk to you about."</p> + +<p>She raised her eyes, and looked at him attentively.</p> + +<p>"Nothing really worrying," he said quickly. "And something which you'll +consider very much the reverse. But I'll keep that for the last.... I +had a call the other day from your son-in-law, Mr. Kenion."</p> + +<p>"Did you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Amongst other matters, he went for me about the marriage +settlement;" and Mr. Prentice laughed and nodded his head. "You know, he +says that Enid ought to have been given power to raise money for his +advancement in life. His friends had told him it is always done, when +the wife has the money; and he thought that the trustees ought to manage +it somehow—because he has been offered a great opening. You'll smile +when you hear what it was."</p> + +<p>"What was it?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>"There was a fellow called Whitehouse who used to be Young's +riding-master; and it seems he has made some money in London, and set up +a smart livery stable—and he proposed that Mr. Kenion should join +forces with him. Mr. Kenion was to go about the country, buying +horses—and so on.... But I only mentioned this to amuse you. Of course +I said Bosh—not to be thought of."</p> + +<p>"It does not sound very promising, or very reputable."</p> + +<p>"Besides, where did Enid come in? Was she to accompany him, or to stay +moping at home by herself?... Do you see much of them out there?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden confessed that she had not as yet ever seen the Kenions in +their home.</p> + +<p>"It isn't that there's the least bad blood between us," she hastened to +add. "No, dear Enid and I are now the best of friends. Ever since her +marriage she has been sweet to me. But life rushes on so fast—and +married women are not free agents. When Richard is away, I consider +myself responsible in the shop."</p> + +<p>"Just so." And Mr. Prentice, puffing out some smoke, looked at the +ceiling. "By the by, that's rather an awkward dispute that Mr. Marsden +has let himself into with those German people."</p> + +<p>"What is the dispute?"</p> + +<p>"Hasn't he told you about it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't seem to remember—but no doubt he told me."</p> + +<p>"Well, if he hasn't it's a good sign: because it probably means that he +intends to act on my advice after all."</p> + +<p>Then he explained the odious mess that Marsden had made of his American +office equipments. It appeared that, when arranging to sell these +wretched things for a handsome commission, he had undertaken to send his +principals accurate monthly reports and immediately account for all +moneys received; and had further bound himself, in default of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>carrying +out the precise provisions of the agreement, to take over at catalogue +price the entire stock that had been entrusted to his care. But he had +sent no reports; he had forgotten all his undertakings; he had received +cash for three small articles and had never furnished any account; and +the Germans said the goods now belonged to him, and not to them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice declared that it was the most imprudent agreement he had +ever read; and, although speaking guardedly, he implied that in his +opinion no one but a fool would have signed it. But there it was, signed +and stamped; and he did not see how you could wriggle out of it.</p> + +<p>"Your husband vowed that he wouldn't give in to them. But I told him, +from the first, that he hadn't a leg to stand on."</p> + +<p>"I'll persuade him not to go to law about it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm sure it will be best to settle the wrangle. You see, he took +such a high tone with them that they've turned nasty—talk big about +obtaining goods under false pretences, and so on. But that's +bluster—they'll be glad enough to get their money."</p> + +<p>She remembered her thoughts in church. It was hopeless. He kept her in +the dark. No business could stand it—the double attack: bleeding and +buffeting at the same time. He would destroy their credit too; these +continual blunders and the attempts to repudiate obligations would +become known; and the firm would acquire a bad name.</p> + +<p>"Don't look so grave, my dear. Your husband must pay up, and make the +best of it.... And now for my <i>bonne bouche</i>." Mr. Prentice's eyes +twinkled with kindly merriment; and he spoke slowly, in immense +enjoyment of his words. "This is something from which you cannot fail to +derive benefit. It is what I have always been hoping for. It will +altogether relieve the pressure."</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>"Well—immediately facing you there is a large and flourishing +organization, known to the world as—"</p> + +<p>"O, Mr. Prentice!" Her face had brightened, but now it clouded once +more. "Don't say you are going to tell me again that Bence is smashing."</p> + +<p>"Yes, my dear, I am. A most tremendous smash!"</p> + +<p>And Mr. Prentice repeated the old story in a slightly altered form. +According to his certain knowledge, Archibald Bence was vainly striving +to raise money—was moving heaven and earth to obtain even a +comparatively small sum. About a year ago, one of Bence's bad brothers +had been bought out of the business; then the other brother died, and +Bence was compelled to satisfy the claims of the widow and children; and +since that period he had been drawing nearer and nearer to his +catastrophe. Now he was done for, unless he could get some capital to +replace what had been taken from him. For years he had been working with +the finest possible margin of cash to support his credit. At last he had +cut it too fine. The wholesale trade were tired of the risk they had run +in dealing with him. They would not supply him any further, unless he +showed them first his penny for each reel of cotton or yard of tape.</p> + +<p>"But what makes you believe all this?"</p> + +<p>"I am not free to mention the sources of my information. There is such a +thing as backstairs knowledge."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice nodded his head, and smiled enigmatically, as he said this. +Then he went on to speak of the solicitors who acted for Bence. Messrs. +Hyde & Collins were held in supreme contempt by old-fashioned Mr. +Prentice. They were—as he never scrupled to say—sharp practitioners, +shady beggars, dirty dogs; and at the offices in the side street that +gives entrance to Trinity Square, they looked after the dubious affairs +of a lot of shabby clients. It was a bad sign when a Mallingbridge +citizen went to Hyde & Collins: it meant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> that his finances were shaky, +or that he had become involved in some disreputable transaction.</p> + +<p>"It was enough for me," said Mr. Prentice, "to know that Bence was in +their hands. I guessed six years ago what would come of it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but guesses, guesses! What are guesses?"</p> + +<p>"My dear, you have only to <i>look</i> at Bence now. It is written in his +face—a desperate man."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Prentice reminded Mrs. Marsden of the fact that from his office +windows he had an uninterrupted view down the side street to the front +door of Hyde & Collins. Well, every day, and two or three times a day, +Archibald Bence could be seen hurrying to his solicitors—a man driven +by despair, a gold-seeker amidst unyielding rocks, a poor famished +little rat scampering to and fro in quest of food.</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Mr. Prentice, with a touch of pity in his voice, "it's +his brothers who have done for him. They have literally sucked him dry. +Really, if it wasn't for <i>you</i>, I could almost feel sorry for him. But +the dirty tricks he has played you put him out of court."</p> + +<p>"I wonder," said Mrs. Marsden, thoughtfully looking into the fire.</p> + +<p>"Don't wonder," said Mr. Prentice jovially. "Just wait and see. You +won't have long to wait."</p> + +<p>"I wish you could find out for certain."</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> certain.... Well, you always get one's little secrets out of +one. I've no right to mention this. But Hyde & Collins recently +approached one of my own clients—to find out if he had more money than +brains. Coupled with the other information, that clinches it.... I stake +my reputation—for what it's worth—that unless Mr. Archibald procures +help within the next fortnight, he will have to put up his shutters."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>"A fortnight," said Mrs. Marsden absently.</p> + +<p>Then they talked of something else, and soon Mr. Prentice bade his +hostess good-night.</p> + +<p>It had been a pleasant evening for her—a respite from the storm and +stress of the days. But when she slept, the respite was immediately +over; in dreams she fell back upon doubt and difficulty; in troubled and +confused dreams she was desperately fighting for life.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XIX</span></h2> + +<p>At last Mrs. Marsden went to see her daughter, and in the next few +months she paid many visits.</p> + +<p>Enid had written, asking her to come as soon as possible, and giving her +a reason why she must not refuse this invitation. Enid had just +discovered that she was going to have a baby. The happy event was not +expected until the spring; but Enid said she longed to see her mother +without an hour's avoidable delay.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden telegraphed her reply. She would come out to-morrow, +Thursday—early closing day—directly after luncheon.</p> + +<p>In the old days she would have driven in one of Mr. Young's luxurious +landaus; but now she travelled by train, in a second class carriage, and +walked the mile and a half from Haggart's Road station to the Kenions' +converted farmhouse. The day was bright and fine; and the air felt quite +mild, although there had been a sharp frost overnight.</p> + +<p>She had hoped that Enid might feel up to walking, and perhaps meet her +at the station—or somewhere on the road, if the station was too far. +But she saw no friendly face on the straight road, along which she +plodded with resolute vigour.</p> + +<p>Two road-menders near a quaint little stone church directed her to the +house. It was situated on sufficiently high ground, at the end of an +accommodation lane; and, as she passed through the gate and walked up +the little carriage drive, she thought it all looked very nice and +comfortable. The house itself seemed old and rather humble—less +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>attractive than she had anticipated; but the large outbuildings gave +the place a certain air of importance and gentility. She caught a +glimpse of the capacious stableyard, saw a groom crossing it, and heard +voices from an invisible saddle-room—Mr. Kenion's voice, as she +believed among the rest. The thick-growing ivy on the walls was pretty, +but it would have been the better for cutting; and the garden, on this +side of the house, appeared to be sadly neglected.</p> + +<p>The front door stood open; and while she waited for somebody to answer +the bell, she had an opportunity of glancing at the decorations of the +hall. They had all been paid for by her purse, so she was fairly +entitled to look at them critically if she pleased. She liked the +appearance of the painted ceiling-beams, the panelled dado, the modern +basket grate with the blue and white tiles; but she did not so much like +the sporting prints, the heads and tails of foxes, the hats and coats +lying so untidily on all the chairs, the immense number of whips and +sticks, and the ugly glass case that held horses' bits and men's spurs +and stirrups. <i>That</i> was a decoration more suitable to Mr. Kenion's +harness room than to Mrs. Kenion's hall. She could hear the servants +talking somewhere quite near; and yet they could not hear the bell, +although she had rung it loudly enough three times.</p> + +<p>Presently, as if by chance, a maid showed herself.</p> + +<p>"Not at home," said the maid briskly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden gave her name, and explained that the mistress of the house +would certainly be at home to her.</p> + +<p>"Very good, ma'am," said the maid, doubtfully. "Step this way, and I'll +tell her. She's upstairs, lying down, I think."</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Marsden was shown into what she supposed to be the +drawing-room, and left waiting there. There was something rather +chilling and disappointing in the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> manner of her reception at the +home that she had provided for Enid and her husband.</p> + +<p>She was allowed plenty of time to examine more ceiling beams and blue +tiles, to admire photographs in silver frames, or to read the sporting +newspapers and magazines that littered every table. The room was +pretty—but dreadfully untidy. She walked over to one of the windows, +and looked out. There had been no greater attempt at gardening on this +side of the house than on the other: the few shrubs were overgrown; the +gravel paths had almost disappeared under moss and weeds.</p> + +<p>Beyond iron railings she saw the grass fields that Enid had said were +like a park. As a park they were completely disfigured by some ugly +buildings with corrugated iron roofs—really hideous erections, which +she guessed to be horseboxes. In each meadow there was an artificially +made jump for the horses; and, looking farther away, she saw that these +sham obstacles together with the natural banks and hedges formed a +miniature steeplechase course.</p> + +<p>With a sigh she turned from the windows. Indoors and out of doors there +was too much evidence of the husband's amusements, and not enough +evidence of the wife's tastes and occupations. The whole place was +altogether too much like a bachelor's home to please Enid's mother.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the door opened, and Kenion slouched in. He had his hands in +the pockets of his riding breeches; and he looked gloomy, worried, +anything but glad to see the visitor. It was the first time that they +had met since the wedding, and it proved rather an unfortunate meeting.</p> + +<p>"How do you do—Mr. Charles?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you've come after all. You got the news, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, indeed I have."</p> + +<p>"Beastly unlucky, isn't it?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p><p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"But I <i>am</i> unlucky."</p> + +<p>"<i>Unlucky</i>, Mr. Kenion!" Mrs. Marsden had flushed; and her face plainly +expressed the anger and contempt that she felt.</p> + +<p>"No one can say I'm to blame," Kenion went on gloomily and grumblingly. +"I'd have given fifty pounds to prevent its happening. It wasn't <i>my</i> +fault. I knew she was as clever as a cat. I thought she <i>couldn't</i> make +a mistake."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Kenion," said Mrs. Marsden hotly, "if you aren't ashamed to speak +like this, I am ashamed to listen to you."</p> + +<p>"Eh—what?"</p> + +<p>"Where is Enid?" And she moved towards the door. "I think your attitude +is unmanly—mean—and <i>despicable</i>; and I wish—yes, I wish Enid's child +was going to have a better father."</p> + +<p>"Eh—what?"</p> + +<p>"If you had a spark of proper feeling, you'd rejoice, you'd thank God +that this—this great blessing was coming to her."</p> + +<p>Kenion suddenly bent his thin back, and became completely doubled up +with a fit of cackling laughter.</p> + +<p>"It's too comic," he spluttered. "Best thing I ever heard—Ought to be +sent to <i>Punch</i>!"</p> + +<p>"If you are joking, Mr. Kenion, I'm sorry for your ideas of fun."</p> + +<p>"No. No—don't be angry. You'll laugh when you see the joke. Of course +you"—and again his own laughter interrupted him—"you—you were talking +about Enid's baby.... Well, <i>I</i> was talking about Mrs. Bulford's mare."</p> + +<p>Then he explained the disaster that had befallen them. A very valuable +animal, the property of a friend, had been placed in his charge to train +it for a point-to-point race; and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> this morning it had broken its back +over one of the artificial jumps.</p> + +<p>"And we were all so upset—Enid has been crying about it—that I sent +you a telegram, telling you what had happened, and asking you not to +come out to-day. But you never got it really?"</p> + +<p>"No, it must have arrived after I started."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm glad you've come—for you have given me a good laugh. Though +Heaven knows"—and he became gloomy again—"it isn't a laughing matter. +I wonder I was able to laugh."</p> + +<p>Then Enid came into the room. There were red rims round her eyes, and +her nose seemed swollen; evidently she had shed many tears.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, isn't this dreadful?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear."</p> + +<p>"I'm so sorry for poor Charles."</p> + +<p>"So am I, dear," said Mrs. Marsden. "But we must be glad that he himself +escaped without injury."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wasn't riding her," said Charles.</p> + +<p>"No," said Enid. "Tom was riding her—and he has broken his collar +bone."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Charles, plunging his hands deep in his pockets and hunching +his shoulders. "That's another bit of luck. My second-horseman laid up, +just when I most wanted him."</p> + +<p>"It was the frost in the ground," said Enid sadly. "All the frost seemed +to be gone;" and she turned to her husband. "Charlie, it wasn't your +fault. Mrs. Bulford <i>can't</i> blame you."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't believe she will. She's a stunner—but Bulford may kick up +a fuss."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how can he? He knew that the mare had to be trained."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Marsden made this first visit a very short one. The host and +hostess were too much perturbed and agitated to entertain visitors.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Next time she came out, Enid was less preoccupied with her husband's +affairs, and able to talk freely of her own hopes. She clung to her +mother affectionately, and once again was the new Enid who had knelt by +the sofa and sobbed her gratitude for past kindness.</p> + +<p>Each kept up the pretence of being satisfied and contented in her +married life. Enid never had a bad word to say of Charles; and Mrs. +Marsden spoke of Richard with as yet unabated courage. In fact there was +probably no one with whom she was so very careful to maintain a decorous +appearance of connubial happiness as with the daughter who, by the light +of her own experience, would most surely detect the imposture.</p> + +<p>But behind the dual reticences there was an ever increasing sympathy. +The hard facts which neither would admit were drawing them nearer and +nearer together. So that it seemed sometimes that on all subjects except +the two forbidden subjects they were now absolutely of the same mind.</p> + +<p>When Enid noticed the careworn, harassed look in her mother's face, she +used at once to think, "That brute has committed some fresh villainy +during the week."</p> + +<p>But what she said was something after this style: "Mother dear, I'm +afraid you have been working too hard"; or "Mother dear, you ought to +have had a fly from the station. I am afraid the walk has fatigued you."</p> + +<p>And when Mrs. Marsden saw Enid's worried, nervous manner, the traces of +more tears about the pretty grey eyes, she thought, "This selfish beast +has been tormenting her again. I suppose he does everything short of +beating her; and perhaps he'll do that before very long."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p><p>But she merely said, "Enid, my dear, I hope you have had no more bother +about the horses. You mustn't let Charles' worries set you +fretting—especially <i>now</i>."</p> + +<p>The indications of Mr. Kenion's selfishness were so painfully plain that +little penetration was required to understand the discomfort that they +caused. No wife, however loyal, could feel any peace or comfort with +such a self-centred, insensible, shallow-pated companion.</p> + +<p>Whenever he appeared he made Mrs. Marsden supremely uncomfortable. When +indoors he was always restless. He wandered aimlessly about the house, +coming in and out of rooms, fidgetting and bothering about +trifles—behaving generally like the spoilt and rather vicious child who +on wet days renders existence intolerable to all the grown-up people +compelled to remain under the same roof with him.</p> + +<p>"Hullo! More tea!" And he would come lounging after the maid who was +bringing in the tea-things. "It seems as if you are having tea from +morning to night. What? I tell Enid she drinks a lot too much tea—and +it only makes her jumpy and peevish."</p> + +<p>He himself drank very little tea; and Mrs. Marsden gathered that not the +least of Enid's anxieties was occasioned by his intemperance. But this +was a summer trouble. In the hunting season men who regularly ride hard +can also regularly drink hard without apparently hurting themselves.</p> + +<p>Once when Mrs. Marsden was about to set out for her lonely tramp to the +station, Enid with some very pretty words asked her for a photograph.</p> + +<p>"There's not one of you in all the house, mother—and I want one now +badly.... If it is to be a girl, I want her to be like you—in all +things, mother—and not like me."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Marsden was more deeply touched by this request than she cared to +show. She kissed Enid smilingly, patted her hand, and promised to send +out a portrait.</p> + +<p>There was one in the drawing-room at home, which no doubt Mr. Marsden +could spare.</p> + +<p>Then, while putting on her gloves and talking cheerfully, she glanced at +Enid's collection of photographs in the silver frames.</p> + +<p>"Who is that lady, Enid?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's Mamie Bulford."</p> + +<p>Several of the frames contained pictures of this important personage, +who appeared to be a hard-visaged but rather handsome woman of thirty or +thirty-five. She was enormously rich, Enid said, and madly keen about +hunting; and she and her husband lived at a beautiful place called +Widmore Towers, two miles the other side of Linkfield village. This year +Charlie was acting as her pilot in the hunting field; and four horses +were kept at the Towers solely for the pilot's use.</p> + +<p>"Charlie," said Enid, "is such a magnificent pilot—for anyone who means +going. And Mamie <i>will</i> be there, or thereabouts, don't you know, all +the time."</p> + +<p>"Does not Mr. Bulford go out hunting?"</p> + +<p>"Major Bulford! Yes, but he's crocked—stiff leg—so he hunts on +wheels—follows in a dog-cart. That's rather fun, you know. You see a +lot of sport that way."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, I remember you said you were going to do that, yourself."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Marsden asked about the pony-cart that was to have been +procured for Enid.</p> + +<p>But the pony-cart had become impossible—and Enid vaguely hinted at hard +times, difficulty of finding spare cash for expenses that were not +urgently necessary, and so on.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> Besides, it was a perambulator and not a +pony carriage that Mr. Kenion must now buy.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>The baby—a girl—was born early in April.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden tried but failed to get a fly at Haggart's Road station, +and almost ran for the mile and a half that still separated her from her +daughter.</p> + +<p>Everything was all right; mother and child were doing well; it was the +finest and most beautiful infant that had ever been seen. The +grandmother, eagerly scanning its tiny features, was gratified by +recognizing the mother's grey eyes and what might be taken for the first +immature sketch of her long nose. She was, if possible, more pleased by +her inability to trace the faintest resemblance to the father.</p> + +<p>When in a few days she came again, it was to find Enid radiantly happy +and picking up strength delightfully. And at this visit Mrs. Marsden's +heart was made to overflow by the things that Enid said to her.</p> + +<p>Amongst the things was the emphatic statement that the child should be +called Jane, and that her grandmother should also be her godmother.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kenion accepted his blessing phlegmatically.</p> + +<p>"Pity it isn't a boy," he said to Mrs. Marsden.</p> + +<p>Enid said he hid his delight. It was a pose. He was really revelling in +the joy of being a father.</p> + +<p>But he had not yet bought the perambulator. He asked his mother-in-law's +advice—because, as he said, she was "up in that sort of thing." Did +people hire perambulators, or buy them right out? Could one get a decent +perambulator in Mallingbridge, or would one have to go fagging up to +London?</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden bought the perambulator, and sent it with her love in the +carrier's cart; and Mr. Kenion told Enid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> that he hoped her mother +hadn't given much for it, because it didn't look worth much.</p> + +<p>Once, before the christening, Enid slightly attacked those diplomatic +barriers of reserve that had been established by tacit consent between +her and her mother.</p> + +<p>She nervously and timidly asked if Mr. Marsden would mind not coming to +the little feast.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Marsden was on the defensive in a moment. Even at this +auspicious and sentimental time she could not permit any breach in her +barrier. She said that her husband was generally considered very good +company, and he would have no wish to go where he was not wanted.</p> + +<p>"It is only," said Enid, "because I should be afraid of Charles and him +not getting on well together—and I do so want everything to go off +happily. You know, he wrote Charles a very indignant letter about the +County Club."</p> + +<p>"He felt rather sore on that subject, dear—and so did I."</p> + +<p>"Really, mother, Charles did all he could; but they made him withdraw +the candidature. Of course it's absurd—but they are so severe with +regard to retail trade."</p> + +<p>"Well, be all that as it may," said Mrs. Marsden, "you need not disturb +your mind about Richard. He could not have come in any case. I told him +the date—and he is not free on that day."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>But for Mr. Charles, it might have been a satisfactory christening.</p> + +<p>He was a most uncomfortable host; continually getting up from the +luncheon table, walking about the room, worrying the maid-servants; and +wounding Enid by his facetiously disparaging remarks about the food.</p> + +<p>"Our meals are always rather a picnic," he told the guests; "so you must +look out for yourselves.... I say, how am I supposed to carve this? +What? A pudding!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> What's the good of dabbing a lot of sweets in front of +people, before they've had any meat? Enid, isn't there any fish? I +thought you said there was curried sole;" and he got up, and rambled +away to the sideboard.</p> + +<p>"Charles," said Enid plaintively, "this is the curry—here."</p> + +<p>"What? Then fire ahead with it.... But where's Harriet disappeared to?"</p> + +<p>"She is fetching the cutlets—and the other things. Do sit down."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Harriet, here you are.... Where the dickens have you hidden the +wine? This seems to be a very <i>dry</i> party;" and he gave his stupid +cackling laugh just behind Mrs. Marsden's back. "Oh, here we are. Now +then, ladies and gentlemen, hock, claret, whisky and soda? Name your +tipple. And please excuse short-comings."</p> + +<p>But in truth there were no short-comings. Poor Enid had tried so hard to +have everything really nice—the best glass and china, pretty flowers, +and dainty appetising food, sufficient for twenty people and good enough +for princes. And she looked so charming at the head of the table—her +face rounder and plumper than it used to be, her figure fuller, her +complexion delicately glowing, her eyes shining softly,—the young +mother, in what should have been the hour of her undimmed glory. Mrs. +Marsden, as she listened to the cackling fool behind her chair and saw +the shadow of pain take the brightness from Enid's face, bridled and +grew warm.</p> + +<p>"Whisky and soda, Mrs. B?... Father, put a name to it."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Bulford—a hardy brunette, richly attired, and undoubtedly +handsome, but older than she looked in her photographs—was to be the +other godmother. She and the host were evidently on excellent terms, +understanding each other's form of humour, possessing little secret +jokes of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> their own—so that every time Charles cackled she had a +suffocating laugh ready. The hostess called her "Mamie," and even "Mamie +dear"; but Mrs. Marsden surmised that Enid did not really like her, and +had not wanted her for a godmother.</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Kenion—the vicar of Chapel Norton—was white-haired, thin, and +fragile; and Mrs. Marsden thought he seemed to be a good, weak, +over-burdened man. His manner was mild, courteous, kindly. Mrs. Kenion +was shabbily pretentious, with faded airs of fashion and dull echoes of +distinguished voices. They had brought one of their daughters with +them—a spinster of uncertain age in a tailor-made gown and a masculine +collar. The curate of the small stone church made up the party.</p> + +<p>But old Mr. Kenion would read the christening service, and not this +local clergyman.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, mildly beaming across the table at Mrs. Marsden, "I am +to have the privilege to hold my grandchild at the font."</p> + +<p>And then presently, when the servant had poured out some hock for him, +he addressed Mrs. Marsden again.</p> + +<p>"May I advert to a practice that has fallen into disuse, and drink a +glass of wine with you?... To our better acquaintance, Mrs. Marsden;" +and he bowed in quite a pleasant old-world style.</p> + +<p>"Bravo, governor," said Charles. "Fill, and fill again. Nothing like +toasts to keep the bottle moving."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'm sure," said the vicar's wife, with patronising urbanity; "so +very pleased to make your acquaintance—at <i>last</i>, don't you know. We +only <i>saw</i> one another at the wedding." And while Charles and Mrs. +Bulford took alternate parts in the telling of an anecdote, she +continued to talk to Mrs. Marsden. "Of course I have known you in your +<i>public</i> capacity for years. My girls and I have always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> been devoted to +Thompson's. 'Get it at Thompson's'—that's what they always said." She +was honestly trying to be agreeable. Indeed she particularly wished to +please. "All my girls said it. Is it not so, Emily?... She does not +hear. She is too much amused by her brother's story.... But that was +always the cry. 'Get it at Thompson's!' And I'm sure we never failed at +Thompson's."</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut up, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford, loudly. "You're spoiling the +point. Let me go on by myself."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that's what you often say—but you're glad to have me ahead of you +when you think there's wire about."</p> + +<p>"Will you be quiet, Pontius?"</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Bulford was allowed to finish the anecdote in her own way. Then +she suffocated, and Charles cackled; but no one else, not even Mrs. +Kenion, could see the point of the little tale.</p> + +<p>The local curate, a shy, pink-complexioned young man, had scarcely +talked at all; but now he was endeavouring to make a little polite +conversation with Enid. He said he hoped the church would be found quite +warm; he had given orders that the hot-water apparatus should be set +working in good time; and he thought they were, moreover, fortunate to +have such genial bright weather. Sometimes April days proved +treacherously cold. Then he inquired if the godfather was to be present +at the ceremony.</p> + +<p>"No," said Charles, answering for his wife. "I am to be +proctor—proxy—what d'ye call it?—for Jack Gascoigne, a pal of +mine.... You must teach me the business, Mrs. B."</p> + +<p>"All right, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford gaily. "Copy me."</p> + +<p>"You will not come to the church in that costume," said old Kenion, with +sudden gravity.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p><p>"Why not? Ain't I smart enough? These are a new pair of breeches."</p> + +<p>"Of course you must change your clothes, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford. "I +wouldn't be seen in church with you like that."</p> + +<p>Then old Kenion asked a question which Mrs. Marsden would herself have +wished to ask.</p> + +<p>"Why do you call my son Pontius?"</p> + +<p>"You'd better not ask her to tell you, father. She has been very badly +brought up—and she'll shock you."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Bulford insisted upon telling the old vicar.</p> + +<p>"I call him Pontius because he is my <i>pilot</i>.... Don't you see? Pontius +Pilot!... There, I <i>have</i> shocked him;" and she gave her suffocating +laugh and Charles began to cackle.</p> + +<p>His father looked distressed and confused; the curate, with the pink of +his complexion greatly intensified, examined the design on a dessert +plate; Mrs. Marsden frowned and bit her lip; old Mrs. Kenion opened a +voluble discourse on the virtues of fresh air for young children.</p> + +<p>"I hope, Enid, that you will bring up the little one as a hardy plant. +Windows wide—floods of air! I beg of you not to coddle her. I never +would allow any of my children to be coddled...."</p> + +<p>Charles sat dilatorily drinking port after luncheon; and, while he +changed his clothes, everybody was kept waiting with the baby at the +church.</p> + +<p>That is to say, everybody except Mrs. Bulford. She stayed at the house, +having promised to hustle Charles along as quickly as possible. But a +shower of rain detained them; and it seemed an immense time before they +finally appeared on the church path, walking arm in arm, under one +umbrella.</p> + +<p>When the service was over, and a group had assembled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> round the +perambulator at the church gate, and all were offering congratulations +to the proud mother, old Mrs. Kenion gently drew Mrs. Marsden aside and +spoke to her in urgent entreaty.</p> + +<p>"Now that they've given you a dear little granddaughter, you <i>will</i> do +something for them, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"But I think," said Mrs. Marsden, rather grimly, "that I <i>have</i> done +something for them."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you'll do a little <i>more</i> now, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"I fear that your son must not rely on me for further aid."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>do</i>," said Mrs. Kenion earnestly. "Poor Charles would not care to +ask you himself. So I determined to take my courage in both hands, and +speak to you with absolute candour. It <i>is</i> such a tight fit for +him—and <i>now</i>, with nurses and all the rest of it! We would come to the +rescue so gladly, if we could—but, alas, how can we? You do know that +we would, don't you, dear Mrs. Marsden?... No, please, not a definite +answer now. Only think about it. Your kind heart will plead for them +more eloquently than any words of mine."...</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden had given the nurse a sovereign. She hurried back to the +church, and tipped the clerk and the pew-owner. Then she trudged off to +the railway station; and went home, like Sisyphus or the Danaides, to +take up her apparently impossible task.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XX</span></h2> + +<p>Two years had passed, and the grand old shop was plainly going down.</p> + +<p>It could not satisfy chance customers; it had begun to lose its +staunchest supporters. Gradually and fatally, cruel words were going +round the town and far out into the country villages. "It isn't what it +used to be.... It has had its day.... Nothing lasts forever."</p> + +<p>Fewer and fewer carriages of the local gentry were to be seen standing +outside its doors. Farmers' wives, who for more than a decade had driven +into Mallingbridge and spent Saturday afternoons picking and choosing at +Thompson's, now did all their shopping somewhere else. The whole world +seemed to be discovering that you could get whatever you wanted quite as +well and more cheaply somewhere else. And from somewhere else, your +goods—no matter where you lived, whether far or near—were delivered +free of charge, with marvellous celerity, and "returnable if damaged."</p> + +<p>Inside the sinking shop every assistant too well knew that horrid +expression, "Somewhere else."</p> + +<p>It paralysed the tongues of the shop girls; it struck them stupid. Each +time they heard it, their courage waned, their hopes drooped; they gave +up struggling.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I won't trouble you any more."</p> + +<p>"Not the least trouble, I assure you."</p> + +<p>"No, you're very good—but I'm in a hurry. I'll try somewhere else."</p> + +<p>"Very well, madam."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p><p>A lost customer—no more to be done.</p> + +<p>Yet the assistants had before their eyes a fine example of unflagging +courage. Of one of the partners at least, it could not be said that +there was supineness, neglect, or bungling practices to account for the +long-continued and increasing depression that all the employees were +feeling so severely.</p> + +<p>Of the other partner, the less said the better. They could not indeed +find words adequate for the expression of their opinions in regard to +<i>him</i>.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Marsden, bravely facing the situation and calmly acknowledging +the logic of facts, had declared that it was imperatively necessary to +reduce what in railway management are called running expenses, and at +all hazards bring expenditure and receipts again to a proper working +ratio, the dominant partner selfishly jumped at the idea, converted it +into a fresh weapon of destruction, and used it with wicked force.</p> + +<p>Cut down the staff? Yes, this is a luminous notion. Where there have +been five assistants at a counter, let us have three—or only two. "We +must weed 'em out, Mears. No more cats than can catch mice! I'll soon +weed 'em out."</p> + +<p>It seemed to the people behind the counters that he took a diabolical +pleasure in the weeding-out process. Instead of getting through his +dismissals as quickly as possible, he kept the poor souls in +suspense—giving the sack to two or three every day; so that these black +weeks were a reign of terror, during which one rose each morning with +the dreadful doubt whether one would survive till night.</p> + +<p>When at last the executions ceased, almost every one of the important +heads had fallen. Why pay high wages for subordinate chieftains when the +over-lords can supervise for nothing? Mrs. Marsden received instructions +to keep an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> eye on all departments; shop-walkers were made by giving +counter-hands additional duties without additional pay; and Mr. Mears +and Miss Woolfrey could respectively be considered as remaining in +managerial charge of the whole ground floor and the whole first floor.</p> + +<p>The gigantic basement was in charge of darkness, damp, and the cold +spirit of failure. Marsden never spoke of it himself, and might not be +reminded about it by others. He wished to forget the deep hole into +which he had poured so much irretrievable gold.</p> + +<p>Miss Woolfrey could not boast of having been promoted: she had merely +survived: she obtained neither recompense nor praise for doing the extra +work that a stern master had pushed into her way. If Mr. Mears had not +been driven out into the street, it was because Marsden, whose selfish +folly was sometimes tempered by a certain shrewd cunning, had definitely +come to the conclusion that, bad as things were, they would be worse if +he deprived himself of the help of this faithful servant. Mears had +stood up to him; Mears had convinced him; Mears would never be +dismissed, because Mears could never be replaced.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps some slight comfort to Mrs. Marsden to know now that her +oldest shop friend would be allowed to keep his promise, and to stick to +her as long as he cared to do so.</p> + +<p>Soon after the reduction of the staff, Marsden introduced another +economy. Without warning he started an entirely new system of payment. +Hitherto all wages had been at fixed rates, with progressive rises; and +the staff, feeling security in their situations and able to look to an +assured future, had worked loyally without the stimulus of commission. +But Marsden said these methods were antiquated, exploded; they did very +well before Noah's flood, but they wouldn't do nowadays. Henceforth +everybody's screw must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> depend upon the commissions earned: in other +words, the basis for the calculation of wages must be the amount of the +shop's receipts.</p> + +<p>Mears, protesting but submitting, carried the new order into effect.</p> + +<p>"I've no objection on principle," said Mears heavily; "but you have +chosen a queer time to do it, sir—just when takings have dropped to +their lowest, and there's no movement in any line."</p> + +<p>Resentment, murmuring, discontent followed; half a dozen sufferers went +into voluntary exile; then there was silence.</p> + +<p>And then Marsden thought of a third economy. Thompson's had ever been +famed for keeping a generous table. You were sure of good sound grub, +and as much of it as you could stow away, to sustain you in your toil. +The kitchens and dining-rooms were controlled by a man and his wife, +with four cook-maids and three waitresses; and for many years these +people had given the utmost satisfaction, both to their employer and her +daily guests. Now Mr. Marsden swept the lot of them out of doors. He had +entered into an agreement with the cheap and nasty restaurant in High +Street; and henceforth the staff would be catered for at starvation +prices—so much, or rather so little, per head per meal.</p> + +<p>This was a fresh and a great misery—short commons bang on top of +mutilated salaries,—almost more than one could bear.</p> + +<p>Marsden, however, felt thoroughly pleased; and was willing to believe +that by the aid of his drastic remedies he had cured the evil which +afflicted him. For the end of each of these two years showed a +substantial profit.</p> + +<p>It was quite useless for Mrs. Marsden and Mears to point out the dangers +that lay ahead, to hint that profits now were essentially fictitious, to +warn him that what he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> grasped at as income should more properly be +described as realisation of capital, to sigh and shake their heads, and +to plead for prompt renewal of diminished stock. He was too well +contented with immediate results. To-day is to-day; to-morrow can take +care of itself. He had given the business another ferocious squeeze; +and, under the pressure, it had yielded what he wanted—some cash to +keep him going.</p> + +<p>The turf was again engaging his attention; but he pursued his amusement +in a far less splendid manner than during those glorious days of fine +clothes and full pockets after the honey-moon.</p> + +<p>His nose had thickened, his whole face had become coarser and grosser; +and flesh round his eyes showed an unhealthy puffiness, and his neck +bulged large above an often dirty collar. He wore a brown bowler hat, a +weather-proof overcoat, and heavy field boots; crumpled newspapers +protruded from his breast, and a glass in a soiled and battered leather +case was negligently slung over his shoulders. In fact he looked now +like the typical racing man of the third or fourth class; and directly +he reached London he mingled with and was lost in a crowd of exactly +similar ruffians, hurrying together to make a train-load of +disreputability and scoundrelism for Hurst Park or Kempton. But at +Mallingbridge he was always noticeable. He produced a wretched +impression in the shop each time that, dressed for sport, he passed +through it; he was its secret destroyer and its visible disgrace; his +mere appearance was sufficient to send thousands of customers somewhere +else.</p> + +<p>While the cash lasted, the house saw little of him. As soon as the cash +gave out, the house again groaned under his presence. Till he could set +his hands on more cash, he must be lodged and boarded by the +stay-at-home partner.</p> + +<p>Many were the dark and dismal days to be remembered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> if his wife ever +made a retrospect of two years' suffering; humiliations, +griefs—darkness with but few gleams of light. Visits from Enid with the +child and her nurse—an hour rescued from a long month—formed spots of +brightness to look back at. But, for the rest, there was black gloom, as +of moonless, starless nights.</p> + +<p>Perhaps his most malignant cruelty was the driving away of Yates. The +doomed wretch struggled so hard not to be torn from the side of her +beloved mistress. Mrs. Marsden knew that the struggle was futile, begged +her to go; but still she tried to stay—accepting insults and abuse, and +only piteously smiling at her persecutor.</p> + +<p>A cruel, most cruel hour, when one evening the shabby old trunks stood +corded and waiting at the foot of the stairs, and Yates in her bonnet +and shawl came into the drawing-room to say good-bye. That was the final +smashing of a home, for the mistress as well as for the maid. All that +made the house endurable to Mrs. Marsden had now gone from it—no sound +of a friendly voice to welcome her as she came through the door of +communication; no solace after the exhausting day; a strange face to +meet her, unfamiliar, clumsy hands to wait upon her at the lonely +supper.</p> + +<p>She never really learned to know the faces of her new servants. They +changed so often. No servant would stop with them for long. The work was +heavier than it used to be; after Yates had gone the mistress could not +afford to keep a maid-housekeeper; in these hard times a cook and a +housemaid must suffice for the establishment. Departing servants said +the mistress gave little trouble; she was patient and kind; they had no +fault to find with her—but the master was "a fair terror."</p> + +<p>Yet he had promised, when consummating the sacrifice of Yates, that he +would refrain from again upsetting the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>domestic arrangements. But what +promises would he not make? What promise had he ever failed to break?</p> + +<p>Once he promised not to parade his infidelity in Mallingbridge. This was +after the scandal he had caused by taking a set of bachelor rooms in the +new flats near the railway station, and bringing down a London woman to +occupy them from Saturdays to Mondays. Every Sunday he made himself +conspicuous by flaunting about the town with this brazen creature.</p> + +<p>Probably he was tired of his Sabbath promenades by the time that Mrs. +Marsden resolutely declared that, for the sake of the business as well +as for her own sake, she would not support so glaring an outrage. Anyhow +he said it should cease, and swore that he would for the future be more +circumspect.</p> + +<p>But he pretended to believe that his wife had given him a letter of +license, full authority to resume the habits of bachelorhood, the +freedom of manners that naturally accompanies a release from the closer +bonds of the marriage state. He had never for a moment thought she would +mind; but he vowed that what she was pleased to consider offensive and +derogatory to the reputation of herself and the shop should never occur +again.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, it was soon known to everybody but Mrs. Marsden that he +was committing more local breaches of etiquette. On idle evenings he +would prowl about the streets, accosting servant girls and shop girls, +loitering at corners, and laughing and chaffing with any little sluts +who consented to entertain his badinage. Sense of shame and the last +remembrances of shop-propriety seemed to be deserting him. Soon his own +young ladies met him talking to the girls that belonged to his great +trade rival. That tow-haired huzzy who regularly came mincing up St. +Saviour's Court to wait for the guv'nor, was—and the thing seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> so +monstrous that it was recorded in an awed whisper—neither more nor less +than <i>a ribbon girl from Bence's</i>!</p> + +<p>Then, after a little while, the governor told Mears that he had engaged +a new hand for the upper floor. She would come in on Monday morning, and +Miss Woolfrey had better put her into China and Glass, and see how she +got on there. She was good at anything, and would soon pick up the hang +of everything.</p> + +<p>But what a whisper ran round the shop when the newcomer was seen by the +horror-struck assistants! The tow-haired minx from over the road!</p> + +<p>It was an open and egregious scandal, shocking everybody except the +unsuspecting female partner. The shop spoke of the new girl as "Miss +Bence." The governor was always trotting upstairs to murmur and chuckle +with Miss Bence. Someone saw him pinching Miss Bence's ear—and so on. +It was another outrage that could not be permitted to continue.</p> + +<p>Sadly and heavily old Mears told Mrs. Marsden all about it.</p> + +<p>The disclosure threw her into a quite unusual agitation. She seemed to +be more terrified than disgusted. It was as if, in spite of all attempts +to keep a bold front before the world, the mere name of their +remorseless and overwhelming rival now had power to set her +apprehensively trembling.</p> + +<p>"I don't want any communications passing between Bence's and us"—And +she showed that this idea was sufficient in itself to frighten her. "The +girl may be a spy. She may go back there."</p> + +<p>"She won't do that," said Mears. "She was dismissed for misconduct."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden seemed relieved rather than shocked by hearing this.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p><p>"Besides," added Mears, "Bence never takes anyone back."</p> + +<p>"I don't want people passing backwards and forwards—on any pretext. We +mustn't allow communications.... Where is Mr. Marsden? I must speak to +Mr. Marsden."</p> + +<p>There was a terrific scene behind the glass, with Marsden, his wife, and +Mears shut in together. Presently the cashier was summoned; books were +fetched; accounts were examined. That afternoon Mrs. Marsden went round +to the bank; and next day the tow-haired girl had disappeared.</p> + +<p>In the evening Mr. Marsden left Mallingbridge. It was understood that he +had gone to Monte Carlo. He would not be back for a fortnight at least.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Mears had said that Bence never allowed a discharged servant to return +to him, and it was equally true that he never gave back a stolen +customer. Bence's was the "somewhere else" to which Thompson & Marsden's +customers had nearly all repaired; and of the dozens, the hundreds, who, +throwing off their old allegiance, crossed the road to the opposite +pavement, not one was ever seen again.</p> + +<p>Evidently the claims of those two bad brothers had somehow been +satisfied. The leak was stopped; Bence had weathered the storm, and was +going full speed ahead.</p> + +<p>If there was any truth in the last story of the desperate plight to +which he had been reduced, the crisis had long since passed and he had +emerged from his difficulties stronger than ever. If one could attach +any importance to the firm belief of that sagacious solicitor, Mr. +Prentice, Bence must have found the money necessary to save him. Either +he had discovered a backer, or he had never needed one. Who could say +what was true or false in this connection? Sometimes of course a very +little money boldly hazarded will decide the fate of the very largest +enterprise; but in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>business world it is precisely at such times +that it is almost impossible to meet with anyone shrewd enough and +courageous enough to risk a small loan on the off chance of making a +splendid investment. Therefore Bence had been lucky, or had not really +wanted luck.</p> + +<p>He was safe now—obviously, too obviously safe, with money behind him +and success before him. Employees at Thompson & Marsden's, with little +else to do, watched him arrive of a morning. His twelve-year-old +daughter drove him to business in a pretty basket car with a +high-stepping, long-tailed pony; a smart groom who had been waiting on +the pavement ascended the car in the place of the happy father, and Mr. +Archibald stood smiling and kissing the tips of his fingers as the car +drove away. It was a symbol of his greatness: a triumphal car. He +himself was neat and natty, perfumed and oiled, smelling of +success—with a flower in his coat, new wash-leather gloves on his +industrious hands and a shining topper upon his clever bald head.</p> + +<p>On window-dressing days he was up and down the street half the morning. +He stood with his back to Thompson's, studying the glorious effect of +his displays; ran quickly from window to window, and made imperative +signs to those within. He put his head one side, twirled his moustaches, +rubbed his small face with a rapidly moving paw—and looked now like a +sleek, well-fed little rat who meant to nibble away all the cake that +the town of Mallingbridge could provide.</p> + +<p>And the windows when done—who could resist them? Is it straw hats for +ladies? Do you wish one of the new fashionable Leghorns?... Two windows +have turned yellow; from ceiling to floor nothing but the finest straw; +here are more Leghorns than you would expect to see at a big London +warehouse, more than an ignorant person would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> have supposed that the +city of Leghorn could manufacture in a year.... See! Already his +Leghorns have caught the eye of the public; young women are bustling; +nursemaids with their perambulators have stopped—there is a block on +the pavement, and a constable has courteously requested people to keep +moving.</p> + +<p>There again, the constable is busy outside another window. Do you wish a +blouse of the prevailing tint? Mauve blouses, nothing except mauve, all +blouses, a window full of them—hardly to be described as for sale, +almost literally to be given away.</p> + +<p>On advertised bargain-days four policemen are required to regulate the +traffic; for Bence opens his doors and locks them—you must wait your +turn to get inside. But on all days there is more or less of a crowd +outside and inside the triumphant shop.</p> + +<p>At eleven <span class="smaller">A.M.</span> the first batch of red carts go whirling away, round the +town and far out on the country roads. This is what Bence calls his +mid-day delivery. There will be two more deliveries before the day is +done.</p> + +<p>If the afternoon proves foggy and dull, there comes a tremendous +lightning flash along the extended frontage of Bence; and for a moment +you are blinded, as you look towards his windows. Bence has turned on +the electric. He makes no appointed hour for lighting up. He will have +light whenever he desires it. With his outside arcs and his inside +incandescents he makes a light strong enough to throw the shadows of +Thompson & Marsden's window columns straight backward across the floor, +even when their poor lamps are burning at their brightest.</p> + +<p>And no longer can one say that all the goods of Bence are rubbish. +High-class expensive articles are mingled with the cheap trash; solidity +and lasting value have now a place in his programme; he caters for the +large country house as well<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> as for the restricted villa; he invites +patronage from prince and peasant: it is his aim to be a universal +provider.</p> + +<p>Truly it was an appalling competition; and if it was dangerous to so big +a rival as Thompson's, it was deadly to all the lesser powers. No small +shop could live beside Bence; and it seemed that he could kill even at a +considerable distance.</p> + +<p>After the collapse of the sadler and the bookseller, their next-door +neighbour, the ironmonger, failed; and the shell of him Bence also +swallowed. The man now next to Bence was Mr. Bennett, the +old-established butcher; beyond him was Mr. Adcock, the dispensing +chemist, and beyond him there were the baker and the auctioneer. Then +came Mr. Newall, the greengrocer, whose shop faced the far corner of +Thompson's.</p> + +<p>One morning the greengrocer did not take down his shutters. He had +flitted in the night.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Mr. Mears, looking sadly at the shop, "it's fortunate it +isn't alongside of Bence, or I suppose he'd grab that too."</p> + +<p>Next day workmen erected a hoarding outside the derelict shop. Soon the +boards were painted white, and curious saunterers lingered to read the +black-lettered notice.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>These premises are being fitted, regardless of expense, in a +thoroughly up-to-date manner.</i></p> + +<p>"<i>They will shortly be opened again.</i></p> + +<p>"<i>But as what?</i></p> + +<p>"<i>Why, just what you want.</i>"</p></blockquote> + +<p>"That's a catchpenny vulgar dodge," said Mears, "if ever I saw one."</p> + +<p>"I wonder what it is to be," said Miss Woolfrey. "I guess sweetstuff. It +can't be a shooting-gallery. It isn't deep enough."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p><p>In a few weeks all knew what it was. Mr. Archibald himself came to see +the last boards of the hoarding removed, and to watch the first +customers troop into Bence's Fruit & Vegetable Market!</p> + +<p>But for a gap of seventy feet made by four ancient traders, Bence now +faced Marsden & Thompson for its whole length from end to end. Bence was +irresistible, overpowering, deadly. The hearts of many people opposite +sank into their boots.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXI</span></h2> + +<p>Late one evening, when Marsden was taking what he called his night-cap +in the drawing-room, he began to ask questions about the Sheraton desk +and cabinets.</p> + +<p>"Those things are not at all bad—but they aren't genuine, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"The desk is genuine," said Mrs. Marsden; "but the other things are +modern."</p> + +<p>"They are uncommonly good imitations," said Marsden; and he knelt in +front of one of the cabinets and studied it carefully. "This is an +excellently made piece—tip-top workmanship. Why, it must be worth +twenty or thirty guineas."</p> + +<p>"Yes, it cost something like that."</p> + +<p>"Where did you get it?"</p> + +<p>"It came out of the shop."</p> + +<p>"Ah. Exactly what I supposed;" and he got up from his knees, and stood +looking at her thoughtfully. "Out of the shop. Just so.... I must think +this out."</p> + +<p>But his train of thought was interrupted by a timid knock at the door. +It was their last new housemaid, come to ask if the master and the +mistress required anything further to-night. She remained on the +threshold, breathing hard, and staring shyly, while she waited for an +answer—a bouncing, apple-cheeked, country bumpkin of a girl, who had +accepted very modest wages for this her first place.</p> + +<p>"No," said Marsden shortly, "I don't want anything more—What's your +name?"</p> + +<p>"Susan, sir."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p><p>"All right. Then shut the door, Susan."</p> + +<p>"Good night, Susan," said Mrs. Marsden kindly.</p> + +<p>"Where did you pick <i>her</i> up?" asked Marsden, when the girl had gone. +"She's healthy enough and plump enough—but she looks half-baked."</p> + +<p>"She will do very well, if you give her time to learn."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>I</i>'ll let her learn, if <i>you</i> can teach her.... But what was I +saying? Oh, yes—about the furniture!"</p> + +<p>Then he walked round the room, pointing at different things, and +continuing his questions.</p> + +<p>"Did this come out of the shop?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And this?... And those chairs?... And the sofa?"</p> + +<p>She did not understand why he asked. But he soon explained himself. He +said that all this furniture was taken out of the shop, and it therefore +belonged to the firm—or at any rate could not be considered as her +private property.</p> + +<p>"A partnership is a partnership," he added sententiously.</p> + +<p>"But it was ages before the partnership. And all the things were paid +for by me."</p> + +<p>"No, not paid for," he said quickly. "Not paid for in <i>cash</i>—just a +matter of writing down a debit somewhere and a credit somewhere else, +and saying it was accounted for. But from the point of view of the shop, +that's a bogus transaction."</p> + +<p>"How absurd!"</p> + +<p>"No, <i>not</i> absurd—common sense. The shop never got a penny profit, and +it seems to me that—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I won't dispute it with you. What is it that you want done?"</p> + +<p>"I want the <i>right</i> thing to be done," he replied slowly, as if +deliberating on a knotty point. "And it isn't easy to say off-hand what +that is."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>"Do you want me to send the things back into the department?"</p> + +<p>"No.... No, the time has passed for doing that. It would muddle the +accounts. Come into the dining-room, and show me the shop things in +there."</p> + +<p>She obeyed him; and then he asked if there were any shop things +upstairs.</p> + +<p>"Yes, several."</p> + +<p>"Well, you can show me those to-morrow morning.... I begin to see my +way. Yes, I think I see now what's fair and proper."</p> + +<p>"Do you?"</p> + +<p>He said emphatically that in justice and equity he possessed a half +share of all goods taken out of his shop, no matter how long ago. And he +insisted on having his share. He would obtain a valuation of the goods, +and Mrs. Marsden could pay him cash for half the amount, and retain the +goods. Or he would send the goods to London and sell them by auction; +and they would each take half the proceeds.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden chose the second method of dealing with the problem.</p> + +<p>"All right," said Marsden. "So be it. I dare say they'll fetch a tidy +sum—and it's share and share alike, of course, for the two of us."</p> + +<p>Two days after this the house was stripped of nearly all that had given +it an air of opulent comfort and decorative luxury. Mrs. Marsden went to +the department of the firm, and bought the cheapest bedroom things she +could find to fill the blank spaces and ugly gaps upstairs, and paid for +everything with her private purse.</p> + +<p>In a fortnight the furniture auctioneers wrote to inform Mr. Marsden +that the goods under the hammer had brought the respectable sum of one +hundred and thirty pounds. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>Account for commission, etc., with cheque to +balance, should follow shortly. And before long he duly received the +balancing cheque.</p> + +<p>But the loss of the cabinets and sofas made the living rooms seem bare +and forlorn. The house and the shop had become alike: in each one could +now see the empty, cheerless aspect of impending ruin.</p> + +<p>Enid, when next she brought her child to call on granny, uttered an +exclamation of surprise and distress.</p> + +<p>"Mother! What has happened? Where has everything gone?"</p> + +<p>"To London—to be sold."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mother. Has he obliged you to do this?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>The barrier of reserve so long maintained by Mrs. Marsden had worn very +thin. It gave small shelter now; and the brave defender seemed to be +growing careless of exposure. And Enid too was losing the power to +protect herself from pity and commiseration. The misery caused by both +husbands could not much longer be concealed. Yet Enid's state was surely +a happy one, when compared with the prevailing gloom in which her mother +vainly laboured. Enid had a child to console her.</p> + +<p>Weeks passed; but Marsden said nothing of the "share and share alike" +settlement that was to clear up that little difficulty of the furniture. +At last his wife asked him if he had heard from the auctioneers.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Didn't I tell you? The things went pretty well."</p> + +<p>"What did they bring?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, about a hundred quid."</p> + +<p>"Then when may I have my share?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you shall have your share all right—but you can't have it now."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p><p>"Dick, have you spent it—have you spent what belonged to me?"</p> + +<p>"Who says I have spent it?" And he turned on her angrily. "If it isn't +convenient to me to square up at the moment, why can't you wait? What +does it matter to you when you get it? Why should you pretend to be in +such a deuce of a hurry?"</p> + +<p>This again was late at night. They were alone together in the dismantled +drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"Dick," she said quietly but resolutely, "I must have my share."</p> + +<p>"Then you'll jolly well wait for it.... Look here. Shut up. I'm not +going to be nagged at. Be damned to your share. You don't want it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do want it—I have relied on it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>you</i>'re all right. You've plenty of money stowed away +<i>somewhere</i>."</p> + +<p>"On my honour, I have no money available."</p> + +<p>"Available! That's a good word. That means funds that you don't intend +to touch. Prices on change are down, are they?—and you don't care to +realise just now?"</p> + +<p>She looked at him steadily and unflinchingly. Her eyebrows were +contracted; her face had hardened.</p> + +<p>"Dick, this isn't fair. It is something that I can't allow," and she +spoke slowly and significantly. "Please pull yourself together. You +can't go on doing things of this sort. They are dangerous."</p> + +<p>"Will you shut up, and stop nagging?"</p> + +<p>It was by no means the first time that he had stuck to money when it +should have passed through his hands to hers. Indeed in all their +private transactions, whenever a chance offered, he had promptly cheated +her. But during the last six months it had come to her knowledge that he +was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> confining his trickery to transactions which could be +considered as outside the business.</p> + +<p>"Dick, I <i>must</i> go on. It is for your sake as well as mine. There is a +principle at stake."</p> + +<p>"Rot."</p> + +<p>"What you are doing is dishonest. It is embezzlement!" and she turned +from him, and looked at the empty fireplace.</p> + +<p>With an oath he seized her arm, and swung her round till she faced him +again.</p> + +<p>"Take that back—or you'll be sorry for it. Do you dare to say that word +again? Now we'll see." Holding her with one hand, he swayed her to and +fro, as if to force her down to her knees; and his other hand was raised +threateningly on a level with her face.</p> + +<p>"Are you going to strike me?" And she looked at him with still +unflinching eyes. "Why don't you do it? Why are you hesitating? Oh, my +God—it only wanted this to justify everything."</p> + +<p>Her courage seemed to increase his hesitation. He lowered the +threatening hand, but continued to hold her tightly.</p> + +<p>"Say what you mean. Out with it."</p> + +<p>"Dick, you know very well what I mean.... It must be stopped."</p> + +<p>"What must be stopped?"</p> + +<p>"Your dangerous irregularities."</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you're talking about. Someone has been telling you a +pack of lies. You're ready to believe any lie against <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"There was a cheque of the firm—made out to bearer—on the third of +last month."</p> + +<p>"I know nothing about it."</p> + +<p>"No more did I. They sent for me to the bank—to look at the signatures +and the initials."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"I told them it was all right."</p> + +<p>"Well, what about it?"</p> + +<p>"There was the hundred pounds that was to be paid Osborn & Gibbs on +account—to keep them quiet. It was written off in the books—you showed +their acknowledgment for it.... But what's the use of going on? Dick, +pull yourself together. I hold the <i>proof</i> of your folly."</p> + +<p>He had let her go, and was walking about the room with his hands in his +pockets. When he spoke again, it was sullenly and grumblingly.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing whatever about it. I can keep accounts in my head just +as well as in the books.... If I seem unbusinesslike—it is because I'm +called away so often; and those fools don't understand my system.... I +go for facts, and don't bother about all the fuss of book-keeping—which +is generally in a muddle whenever I ask for plain statements.... No, +you've got on to a wrong track. But I'll go to the bottom of the matter +to-morrow—or the day after. I'm busy with other things to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"Never mind what's past, Dick; but go into matters for the future."</p> + +<p>"All right. Then say no more. Don't nag me.... And look here. Of course +I fully intend to pay you your share. I admit the debt. I owe you fifty +pounds."</p> + +<p>He had been cowed for a few moments; but now he was recovering his angry +bluster.</p> + +<p>"That's enough," he went on. "I'll settle as soon as I can. But, upon my +word, you <i>are</i> turning into a harpy for ready money. What have you done +with all your own? How have you dribbled it away—and let yourself get +so low that you have to come howling for a beggarly fifty pounds?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p><p>Mrs. Marsden raised her hands to her forehead, with a gesture that he +might interpret as expressive of hopeless despair; but she did not +answer him in words.</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right," he growled, to himself rather than to her. "The old +explanation, I suppose. I'm to be the scapegoat! But I know jolly well +where your money has gone. Enid and that squalling brat have pretty near +cleared you out. Nothing's too much for Enid to ask.... If I wasn't a +fool, I should forbid her the house.... And I will too, if you drive me +to it."</p> + +<p>It maddened him to think of all the sovereigns that might have chinked +in his pocket, if Enid had not rapaciously intervened.</p> + +<p>But in fact Mrs. Marsden had given her daughter no money. And this was +not because Enid had refrained from asking for it. Compelled to do so by +Kenion, she had more than once reluctantly sued for substantial +assistance.</p> + +<p>"Enid dear, don't ask me again. Truly, it is impossible."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden stood firm in the attitude that she had adopted when +pestered by old Mrs. Kenion at the christening. Of course she gave +presents to little Jane. The trifling aid that a young mother needs in +rearing a beloved child Enid might be sure of obtaining; but the source +of supply for a husband's selfish extravagance had run dry.</p> + +<p>"Enid, my darling, I can't do it—I simply <i>can't</i>. He should not send +you to me. I told his mother that it was useless to expect more from +me."</p> + +<p>Enid hugged Mrs. Marsden, said she felt a wretch, begged for +forgiveness; but soon she had to confess that Charles bore these rebuffs +very badly, and that it would be better for Mrs. Marsden never to come +any more to the farmhouse. If she came, Charles might insult her.</p> + +<p>And now Richard had hinted that he would not allow Enid to come to St. +Saviour's Court. It seemed that soon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> the mother and daughter would be +able to meet only by stealth and on rare occasions.</p> + +<p>If the barrier was shattered and broken in front of Enid, it was +completely down between Mrs. Marsden and Mr. Prentice. No further +pretence was possible to either of them: the strenuous pressure of open +facts had forced both to speak more or less plainly when they spoke of +Marsden.</p> + +<p>Although Marsden always abused the solicitor behind his back, he ran to +him for help every time he got into a scrape; and during the last year +one might almost say that he had kept Mr. Prentice busily employed. A +horrid mess with London book-makers; two rows with the railway company, +about cards in a third-class carriage, and no ticket in a first-class +carriage; a fracas with the billiard-marker at his club—one after +another, stupid and disgraceful scrapes. Mr. Prentice, doing his best +for the culprit, each time found it necessary to obtain Mrs. Marsden's +instructions, and to put things before her plainly.</p> + +<p>The club committee had eventually desired their obstreperous member to +forward a resignation; and, on his refusal to do so, had removed his +name from their list. Mr. Marsden, who in his boastful pride once +considered himself eligible for the select company of the County +gentlemen, had thus been ignominiously expelled from the large society +of petty tradesmen, clerks, tag, rag, and bobtail, known as the +Mallingbridge Conservative.</p> + +<p>At last, after a discussion concerning one of these scrapes, Mr. +Prentice abandoned the slightest shadow of pretence, and gave his old +client the plainest conceivable advice.</p> + +<p>"Screw yourself up to strong measures," said Mr. Prentice, "and get rid +of him."</p> + +<p>"How could I—even if I were willing?"</p> + +<p>"Go for a divorce."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't be given one."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p><p>"I think you would."</p> + +<p>They were in Mr. Prentice's room—the fine panelled room with the two +tall Queen Anne windows, and the pleasant view up Hill Street, and +through the side street into Trinity Square. Mrs. Marsden sat facing the +light, her back towards the big safe and the racks of tin boxes; and Mr. +Prentice, seated by his table, looked at her gravely and watched her +changing expression while he spoke.</p> + +<p>"I think that you would obtain your divorce," he repeated.</p> + +<p>Then he got up, and opened and closed the door. The passage to the +clerks' office was empty. He came back to his table, and sat down again.</p> + +<p>"Don't give him any more chances. Take it from me—he'll never reform. +Get rid of him now."</p> + +<p>"Oh no—quite impossible."</p> + +<p>"I had a talk the other day with Yates," said Mr. Prentice quietly. +"Yates is prepared to give evidence that he knocked you about."</p> + +<p>"But it's not true," said Mrs. Marsden hotly.</p> + +<p>The blood rose to her cheeks, and her lips trembled; but Mr. Prentice +had ceased to watch her face. He was playing with an inkless pen and +some white blotting-paper.</p> + +<p>"Yates is ready to go into the box and swear it."</p> + +<p>"Then she would be swearing an untruth."</p> + +<p>"Yates would be a very good witness. Really I don't see how anybody +could shake her.... I asked her a few questions.... She impressed me as +being just the right sort of witness."</p> + +<p>"Please don't say any more."</p> + +<p>"Honestly, I believe we should pull it off. And why not? If ever a woman +deserved—"</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Marsden would hear no more of this kind of advice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span></p><p>"I see no reason against it," said Mr. Prentice, persisting.</p> + +<p>"No, no," said Mrs. Marsden sadly.</p> + +<p>"It's the only thing to do."</p> + +<p>"You don't understand me." And as she said it, there was dignity as well +as sadness in her voice. "Even if it were all easy and straightforward, +I could never consent to allow the story of my married life to be told +in Court—to the public. I could not bear it. I simply could not bear +the shame of it."</p> + +<p>"Oh!... Well, it would be like having a tooth out. Soon over."</p> + +<p>"But that is only one reason. There are many others."</p> + +<p>"Are there?"</p> + +<p>"You shouldn't—you mustn't assume that he only is to blame. There are +faults on both sides. And I have this on my conscience—that perhaps he +would have done very well, if I hadn't married him."</p> + +<p>"My dear—forgive my saying so—that is magnanimous, but nonsense."</p> + +<p>"No," she said firmly, "it is the truth. He had some good qualities. He +was a worker. Idleness—with more money than he was accustomed +to—brought temptations;—and he was very young. If he had remained +poor, he might have developed into a better man."</p> + +<p>"I won't contradict you.... Only it isn't what he might have developed +into, but what he has developed into; and what fresh developments we can +reasonably expect.... I see no hope. Really, I must say it. I believe, +as sure as I sit here, that he'll eat you up—he'll ruin you, if you let +him—he'll land you in the workhouse before you've done with him. That's +why I say, get rid of him—at all costs."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Marsden only shook her head sadly and wearily.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p><p>Mr. Prentice stood at his window, looking down into the street, and +mournfully watching her as she walked away.</p> + +<p>She was dressed in black—she who had been so fond of bright colours +never wore anything but black now; and the black was growing shabby and +rusty. She seemed taller, now that she had become so much thinner; the +grey hair at the sides of her forehead and the unfashionable bonnet tied +with ribbons under her chin made her appear old; the florid complexion +had changed to a dull white—as she turned her face, and hurried across +the road, he thought that it showed almost a ghostly whiteness. And +truly she was the ghost of the prosperous, radiant, richly-clothed woman +that he remembered.</p> + +<p>She had been so strong, and now she had become so weak—so pitiably +weak; with a weakness that rendered it impossible to save her. His heart +ached as he thought of her weakness.</p> + +<p>She would be eaten up—soul and body. Secret information made him aware +that she had sold the various stocks that she held at her marriage. The +manager of the bank had regretfully told him so, at a meeting of the +Masonic lodge—a secret between tried friends and trusted Masons, to go +no further. She had employed the bank to sell these securities for her. +In the old days she would have come to him for advice, and he would have +sent the order direct to the stock-brokers; but now she was weakly +afraid of his knowing anything about her suicidal transactions.</p> + +<p>He was looking out from the same window one afternoon a few weeks later, +and he saw something that really horrified him. He could scarcely +believe his eyes.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden had gone swiftly down the side street, and had vanished +through the front door of those shady, wicked solicitors, Hyde & +Collins.</p> + +<p>He felt so greatly discomposed that he snatched up his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> hat, ran down +into the side street, and stood waiting for her outside the hated and +ominous doorway.</p> + +<p>When after half an hour she emerged from the clutch of his unworthy +confrères, he took her arm and led her into Trinity Square; and, walking +with her round and round the small enclosure, reproached her for +deserting him in favour of such people.</p> + +<p>"But I haven't deserted you," she said meekly bearing the reproaches. +"This is only some private business that they are attending to."</p> + +<p>"But is it kind to me? You know what I think of them. I ask you, is it +kind to me?"</p> + +<p>"I meant no unkindness," she said earnestly.</p> + +<p>And she offered apologies based on vague generalities. Life is complex +and difficult. One is forced out of one's path by unusual circumstances. +Sometimes one is driven to do things of so private a nature that one +cannot speak about them to one's oldest and best friends.</p> + +<p>"Very well. But if you feel disinclined to confide everything to +me—there are other men that you could depend on. Go to Dickinson—he's +a thorough good sort. Or Loder—or Selby! Go to any one of them. But +don't—for mercy's sake—mix yourself up with these brutes."</p> + +<p>In order to defend herself, Mrs. Marsden was obliged to defend Hyde & +Collins.</p> + +<p>"They are quick to understand one. Really they seem sharp—"</p> + +<p>"<i>Sharp!</i> Yes—too sharp—a thousand times too sharp. But ask anybody's +opinion of them. Look at their clients. They haven't got a single solid +client."</p> + +<p>"But they still act for Bence's—they do everything for Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Prentice contemptuously, "but who's Bence, when all's +said and done?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span></p><p>"Ah!" And Mrs. Marsden drew in her breath, as if she felt incapable of +continuing the conversation.</p> + +<p>"I grant you that Bence has done wonders—and proved me a bad prophet. +But we haven't got to the last chapter of Bence yet. I don't believe +Bence is really solid—and I never shall do, while I see him going in +and out of Hyde & Collins's."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden meekly bore all reproaches; but she showed a stubbornness +that no warnings could shake. She met direct questions with generalized +vagueness. What is unwise in some circumstances may be not unwise in +other circumstances. Life is complex—and so on.</p> + +<p>When Mr. Prentice left her, he went back to his office full of the most +dismal forebodings. She had placed herself in the hands of Hyde & +Collins. She was indisputably done for.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXII</span></h2> + +<p>Time was passing. One Sunday morning in November, while the vicar of St. +Saviour's preached a sermon about immortality, she looked at the +familiar faces of the congregation and thought sadly of the impermanence +of all earthly things.</p> + +<p>So many of the people she had known were gone; so few remained, and +these each showed so plainly the havoc and the change wrought by the +flying years. She glanced at the card in the metal frame that was half +hidden by her prayer-books—"Mrs. Marsden, two seats." Once the writing +on the card read "Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, three seats," and she had sat +there with her husband and mother. Then the writing changed again—"Mrs. +Thompson, two seats." How many years she and Enid had been here +together!</p> + +<p>And the other people in the pew—a man and a wife, with little children +who had slowly grown into men and women; two elderly ladies; a widower +and his sister—all had gone. She glanced across the side aisle at a +white-haired feeble old man, and a wizened monkey-like old dame who +nodded and shook unceasingly—Mr. Bennett, the High Street butcher, and +his palsied helpmate;—and she thought of what they were when first she +came to St. Saviour's: a hearty vigorous couple in the prime of life, +the man seeming big enough to knock down one of his bullocks, and the +woman singing the hymns so loudly that her neighbours could not hear the +choir. Now they had dwindled and shrunk to this—nerveless arms, +bloodless hues, and frozen silence.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span></p><p>Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the same signs and could read the +same story—bowed backs, bald heads, blue-veined hands. Everyone had +grown old, everyone had grown feeble, of those who had seen her as a +young bride, as a young mother. And no new faces seemed to have replaced +the faces that had vanished. Fashion in recent years had leaned steadily +towards the other church. Holy Trinity possessed lighted candles on its +altars, embroidered copes on its priests, stringed instruments in its +organ loft: it was there that all the young people went—to be thrilled +with strange music, to be charmed with smart hats, to be set throbbing +with irrelevant dreams of courtship and love. Only the old and the worn +out had been true to quiet peaceful St. Saviour's.</p> + +<p>She herself was absolutely faithful to the church that she had used and +loved for so long. It had become her place of rest, her harbour of +refuge. It was only here that she ever felt quite at peace. She knew +that here she was safe for an hour at least; while the service lasted no +one could molest her; no one could even speak to her: during this brief +hour she belonged to herself.</p> + +<p>She could not forget the outside world, but she resolutely tried not to +think of it. Just now she had driven away a thought of Marsden. He was +lying in bed; perhaps he would sleep till late afternoon; perhaps he +would be lazily getting ready for his food when she returned to the +house;—but she need not think of him. He would not join her here. She +folded her hands, and listened to the kind old vicar as he told her of +things that are incomprehensible, immutable, and everlasting.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>A man had come up the side aisle, and was stupidly staring at the people +in the pews. Mrs. Marsden, glancing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> at him inattentively, vaguely +wondered why he didn't take one of the many empty seats and sit down. +She knew him very well. He was a loafer of the better class; and on +Sundays he regularly made his beat up and down St. Saviour's Court, +picking up odd six-pences by running off to fetch cabs, bringing +forgotten umbrellas, or retailing second-hand newspapers to laggards who +had missed the paper-boy.</p> + +<p>Presently he discovered Mrs. Marsden's pew, entered it, and whispered +hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"You're wanted at the house. The gentleman said you was to come at +once."</p> + +<p>Followed by this seedy messenger, she hastened from the church.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she asked him when they got outside.</p> + +<p>"I dunno. The gentleman hollered to me from the door, and sent me to +fetch you."</p> + +<p>The house door stood ajar; and her husband, in his dressing-gown and +slippers, was anxiously waiting for her and guarding the foot of the +stairs.</p> + +<p>"All right," he said to the loafer. "I'll remember you another time;" +and he shut the door and bolted it.</p> + +<p>From the top of the stairs there came a sound of wailing and +lamentation.</p> + +<p>"Jane, look here. I want you to stop this fool's mouth—what's her +name—Susan. I've somehow upset her. And that infernal cook is +encouraging her to squall the house down."</p> + +<p>Without a word Mrs. Marsden hurried upstairs. The cook, a sour-visaged +woman of thirty-five, was on the threshold of the kitchen; and Susan, +the apple-cheeked housemaid, was clinging to cook's arm, and sobbing and +howling.</p> + +<p>"Emily—Susan," said Mrs. Marsden quietly, "what <i>is</i> all this noise and +fuss about?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><p>"The master frightened her," said the cook, very sourly, "and she +wishes to go to the police."</p> + +<p>"The police! What nonsense! Why?"</p> + +<p>"The master rang, and she took up his shaving water—and what happened +frightened her."</p> + +<p>"Where's father and mother?" cried Susan. "I want my mother. Take me +home to tell father. Or let me go to the police station, and I'll tell +them."</p> + +<p>Marsden had followed his wife upstairs, and he showed himself at the +kitchen door. At sight of him, Susan ceased talking and began to howl +again.</p> + +<p>"She's frightened to death," said the cook.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden was patting the girl's shoulder, studying her tear-stained +face eagerly and intently.</p> + +<p>"There, there," she said gently, as if reassured by all that the red +cheeks and streaming eyes had told her. "I think this is a great noise +about nothing at all."</p> + +<p>"Of course it is," said Marsden, at the door.</p> + +<p>"Don't leave me alone with him," bellowed Susan. "I won't be kep' a +prisoner. I want to see my mother—and my father."</p> + +<p>"Hush—Susan," said Mrs. Marsden, soothingly. "Compose yourself. There +is no need to cry any more."</p> + +<p>"No need to have cried at all," said Marsden.</p> + +<p>Obviously he was afraid: he alternately blustered and cringed.</p> + +<p>"You silly girl," he said cringingly, "what rubbish have you got into +your head? I pass a few chaffing remarks—and you suddenly behave like a +raving lunatic." And then he went on blusteringly. "Talk about going! +It's <i>us</i> who ought to dismiss you for your impudence, and your +disrespect."</p> + +<p>"You did something to frighten her, sir," said the cook.</p> + +<p>"It's a lie—a damned lie."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>"If so," said the cook, with concentrated sourness, "why not let her go +to the police, as she wishes?"</p> + +<p>"No," shouted Marsden. "I can't have my servants libelling and +scandalizing me. I've a public position in this town—and I won't have +people sneaking out of my house to spread a lot of innuendos against +their employers."</p> + +<p>Then he beckoned his wife, and spoke to her in a whisper. "For God's +sake, shut her up. Give her a present—square her. Shut her mouth +somehow.... It's all right, you know—but we mustn't give her the chance +of slandering me;" and he went out of the kitchen.</p> + +<p>But he returned almost immediately, to beckon and whisper again.</p> + +<p>"Jane. Don't let her out of your sight."</p> + +<p>So this was her task for the remainder of the day of rest—to sit and +chat with a blubbering housemaid until a pacification of nerves and mind +had been achieved.</p> + +<p>She performed the task, but found it a fatiguing one. Susan made her +labours arduous by returning to the starting point every time that any +progress had been made.</p> + +<p>"I'd sooner go back 'ome at once, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"I think that would be a pity, Susan. If you leave me like this, I may +not be able to get you another place. Why should you throw up a +comfortable situation?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't comfortable."</p> + +<p>"Susan, you shouldn't say that. Haven't I treated you kindly?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>you</i> have."</p> + +<p>"And haven't I taken trouble in teaching you your duties? You are +getting on very nicely; and if you stay with me a little longer, I shall +be able to recommend you as competent."</p> + +<p>But this servant said what all other servants had said to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> Mrs. Marsden. +Susan had no fault to find with her mistress.</p> + +<p>"I should be comfortable, if it wasn't for <i>him</i>. But I've never been +comfortable with him."</p> + +<p>And then she went back to her starting point.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather go 'ome. I must ask mother's advice—and tell father too. I +don't believe father would wish it 'ushed up."</p> + +<p>However, Mrs. Marsden finally succeeded. By bedtime Susan was pacified.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll stay, ma'am. I'd like to stay with you—but may I sleep in +Em'ly's room?"</p> + +<p>"Of course you may."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Next morning no one came to call Mrs. Marsden; no fires were lighted; no +breakfast was being prepared. Both the servants had gone. In the night +cook had persuaded the girl to change her mind.</p> + +<p>A letter from cook, conspicuously displayed on the dining-room +mantelpiece, explained matters.</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<i>Dear Madame</i>,—</p> + +<p>"We are sorry to leave you but feel we cannot stay in this house. I +have advised Susan to go to her Home and she has gone there.</p> + +<p class="right">"Yours respectfully,<span class="s6"> </span><br /> +"<span class="smcap">Miss Emily Howard</span>."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden went to her husband's room, woke him, and repeated the +substance of Miss Howard's note.</p> + +<p>He was dreadful to see, in the cold morning light—unshaven, white and +puffy; sitting up in bed, biting his coarse fingers, and looking at her +with cowardly blood-shot eyes.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p><p>"Where is her home?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden said that Susan's parents lived somewhere on the other side +of Linkfield.</p> + +<p>"Twelve miles away! She's gone out by train. She has got there by now. +What are we to do?"</p> + +<p>"I scarcely know."</p> + +<p>"Let me think a minute.... Yes, look here. Get hold of old +Prentice—He's a man of the world. He'll help you. He'll be able to shut +them up."</p> + +<p>And with terrified haste he gave her his directions. She was to run to +Mr. Prentice's private house, and catch him before he started for his +office. Then she was to run to Cartwright's garage and hire a motor-car +for the day; and then she and Mr. Prentice were to go scouring out into +the country, to silence Susan and all her relatives.</p> + +<p>"Tell Prentice to take plenty of money with him. And don't forget—ask +for Cartwright's open car. It's faster. And don't waste a minute—don't +wait for breakfast or anything—and don't let Prentice wait either."</p> + +<p>In an hour she and her old friend were spinning along the Linkfield road +in the hired motor-car. The east wind cut their faces, dirt sprinkled +their arms, gloomy thoughts filled their minds.</p> + +<p>This, then, was her Monday's task—to begin Sunday's toil, on a larger +scale, all over again.</p> + +<p>With some difficulty they found the cottage for which they were seeking. +Susan's mother opened the door in response to prolonged tappings. Susan +had safely reached home.</p> + +<p>"Oh, come inside," said the mother; and she pretended to shed tears. "Oh +dear, oh dear. Who could of believed such a thing 'appening?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing has happened," said Mr. Prentice, confidently and jovially; +"except that your daughter has left her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>situation without warning, and +we want to know what she means by it."</p> + +<p>"Oh, she's told me everything," said the mother, dolefully shaking her +head. "Everything."</p> + +<p>"There was nothing to tell," said Mr. Prentice; "beyond the fact that +she has behaved in a very stupid manner. Where is she?"</p> + +<p>The mother indicated a door behind her. "Poor dear, she's so exhausted, +I've been trying to persuade her to eat a morsel of something."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice lifted a latch, opened the inner door, and disclosed the +humble home-picture—Susan, with her mouth full of bacon and bread, +stretching a hearty hand towards the metal tea-pot.</p> + +<p>"Ah, thank goodness," said the mother, "she <i>'as</i> bin able to pick a +bit. Don't be afraid, Susan—you're 'ome now, along of your own mother +and father;" and she addressed Mrs. Marsden. "'Er father 'as 'eard +everything, too."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice was laughing gaily.</p> + +<p>"Well done, Susan. Don't be afraid of another slice of bacon. Don't be +afraid of a fourth cup of tea."</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said Susan shyly.</p> + +<p>"Where <i>is</i> her father?" asked Mr. Prentice. "I'd like to have a few +words with him."</p> + +<p>But father, having heard his daughter's tale, had started on a long +journey with an empty waggon. He would return with it full of manure any +time this afternoon. And going, and loading, and returning, he would be +thinking over everything, and deciding what he and Susan should next do.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice, considering that even a hired motor-car ought to be able +to overtake a manure waggon though empty, started in pursuit of father; +and Mrs. Marsden was left to conduct the pacific negotiations at the +cottage.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p><p>It was a long and weary day, full of small difficulties—father, when +recovered, not a free man, unable to talk, compelled to attend to his +master's business; mother unable to express any opinion without previous +discussion with father; empty fruitless hours slowly dragging away; +meals at a public-house; a walk with Susan;—then darkness, and father +talking to Mr. Prentice in the parlour; and, finally, mother and Mrs. +Marsden summoned from the kitchen to assist at ratification of peace +proposals.</p> + +<p>It was late at night when Mrs. Marsden got back to St. Saviour's Court. +Her husband had not been out all day. He was sitting by the dining-room +fire, with his slippered feet on the fender, and a nearly emptied whisky +bottle on the corner of the table near his elbow.</p> + +<p>"Well?" He looked round anxiously and apprehensively.</p> + +<p>"It is over. There will be no trouble—not even a scandal."</p> + +<p>She was blue with cold; her hands were numbed, and hung limply at her +sides; her voice had become husky.</p> + +<p>"Bravo! Well done!" He stood up, and stretched and straightened himself, +as if throwing off the heavy load that had kept him crouched and bent in +the armchair. "Excellent! I knew you'd do it all right;" and he drew a +deep breath, and then began to chuckle. "And, by Jove, old girl, I'm +grateful to you.... Look here. Have you had your grub? Don't you want +some supper?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Well, understand—my best thanks;" and really he seemed to feel some +little gratitude as well as great satisfaction. "Jane, you're a brick. +You never show malice. You've a large heart."</p> + +<p>"No," she said huskily; and with a curious slow gesture, she raised her +numbed hands and pressed them against her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> breast. "I had a large heart +once; but it has grown smaller and smaller, and harder and harder—till +now it is a lump of stone."</p> + +<p>"No, no. Rot."</p> + +<p>"Yes. And that's lucky—or before this you would have broken it."</p> + +<p>He stood staring at the door when it had closed behind her. Then he +shrugged his shoulders, turned to the table, and replenished his glass +with whisky.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXIII</span></h2> + +<p>It was immediately after this fatiguing episode that Mr. Prentice made +his last urgent prayer to Mrs. Marsden. Complying with his request for +an interview, she had come again to the panelled room in Hill Street. +But on this occasion she chose a different chair, and sat with her back +to the windows and her face in shadow.</p> + +<p>"You see for yourself," said Mr. Prentice, with culminating plainness: +"he is an unmitigated blackguard. Get rid of him."</p> + +<p>"I can't."</p> + +<p>"You can. Yates is still game—I mean, Yates has not forgotten anything. +Yates will swear to everything that she remembers.... So far as Yates +goes, her evidence may be all the better for the delay. It will be all +the more difficult to shake it after the lapse of time.... Of course we +shall be asked, 'Why have you sat down on your wrongs for so long?' But +we have our answer now. This is the answer. You put up with his +ill-usage and infidelities until he befouled your home. A disgraceful +affair with a servant girl under your own roof! That was the last +straw—and it has driven you to the Court, to ask for the relief to +which you have been entitled for years."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no—impossible."</p> + +<p>"I pledge you my word, we shan't fail. We shall pull it off to a +certainty."</p> + +<p>"No, I can't do it. And even if we succeeded, it would be only a half +relief. Divorce wouldn't end the business partnership."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span></p><p>"No. But when once your marriage is dissolved, we shall be able to make +terms with him. Wipe him out as your husband, and he loses the +tremendous hold he has on you. Get rid of your incubus. Think what it +would mean to you. He would be gone—you would be alone again; able to +pull things together, work up the business, nurse it back to life. On my +honour, I think you are capable of restoring your fortunes even at this +late day."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Marsden only shook her head, while Mr. Prentice continued to +entreat her to act on his advice.</p> + +<p>"Suppose you always have to go on paying him half of all you can make by +your industry? Never mind. What does it matter? You'll pay it to him at +a distance—you'll never have to see him—you will have swept him out of +your life. My dear, the years will roll off your back; you'll be able to +breathe, to <i>live</i>—you'll feel that you are your own self again."</p> + +<p>"No—impossible."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Leave it to me. I answer for everything, before and afterwards. +I'll manage my fine gentleman—I'll cut his claws so that he'll be a +very quiet sort of partner in the years to come. I'll work at it till I +drop—but I swear I'll put you on safe ground, if only you'll trust me +and let me tackle the job."</p> + +<p>And Mr. Prentice, leaning forward in his chair, took her hand and +pressed it imploringly.</p> + +<p>"You are what you have always been to me, Mr. Prentice,—the best, the +kindest of friends." She allowed him to retain her hand for a few +moments, and then gently withdrew it. "But it is difficult for me to +explain—so that you would understand me."</p> + +<p>"I shall understand any explanation."</p> + +<p>"I took him for better for worse. And once I promised him that I would +hold to him until he set me free." She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> paused, as if carefully putting +her thought into appropriate words. "It may come to it.... Yes, it is +what I hope for—that he himself may give me back my freedom."</p> + +<p>"But how?"</p> + +<p>"He might consent to a separation—without scandal, without publicity."</p> + +<p>"Why should he do that? While you've a shot in the locker, he'll stick +to you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice's voice conveyed his sense of despair. She would not be +convinced. He got up, sat down again, and vigorously resumed his appeal.</p> + +<p>"Can't you see now the force of what I have told you so often? He will +not only disgrace you, he will eat you up. It is what he is doing—has +almost done. And when you have let him squander your last farthing, +he'll desert you—but he won't desert you till then."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Marsden again shook her head, and once more fell back upon the +vagueness that baffles argument if it cannot refute it.</p> + +<p>"No—dear Mr. Prentice, I feel that I couldn't make any move now. Life +is so complicated—there are difficulties on all sides—my hands are +tied.... Perhaps I will ask you for your aid—but not now—and not for a +divorce."</p> + +<p>"But if you wait, no one will be able to aid you. The hour for aid will +have passed forever." And Mr. Prentice brought out all his eloquence in +vain. "Try to recover your old attitude of mind. Consider the thing as a +business woman. Tear away sentiment and feminine fancies. Make this +effort of mind—you would have been strong enough to do it a little +while ago,—and consider yourself and him as if you were different +people. Now—from the business point of view—and no sentiment! He is an +undeserving blackguard."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span></p><p>"No. I can't do anything now.... I <i>have</i> considered it as a business +woman. I have looked at it from every point of view. Believe me, I must +go my own way."</p> + +<p>This was the final appeal of Mr. Prentice. He said no more on the +subject then, or afterwards. He had shot his bolt.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXIV</span></h2> + +<p>Early in the new year Marsden had a serious illness. He caught a chill +on a suburban racecourse, came home to shiver and groan and curse, and +two days afterwards was down with double pneumonia.</p> + +<p>He kept the hospital nurses, his wife, and the doctor busy for three +weeks; and throughout this time there was no point at which it could be +said that he was not in imminent danger of death.</p> + +<p>Then the shop assistants heard, with properly concealed feelings of +exultation, that a devoted wife, a clever doctor, and two skilled nurses +had saved the governor's life. The governor had pulled through. Dr. +Eldridge, as the shop understood, was able to make the gratifying +pronouncement that the patient possessed a naturally magnificent frame +and constitution, which had been but partially weakened or impaired by +carelessness and imprudence. They need not entertain any further fear. +The dear governor will last for a splendidly long time yet.</p> + +<p>But his convalescence was slow; and after the recovery of normal health +he passed swiftly into a third phase. He showed no inclination to rush +about; his mental indolence had become so great that the mere notion of +a train-journey fatigued him; he did his betting locally, and spent his +days with the red-haired barmaid in the Dolphin bar.</p> + +<p>At the Dolphin Hotel he had slid down a descending scale of importance +which emblematized, with a strange accurateness, his descent in the town +of Mallingbridge and in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> world generally. Once he used to come +swaggering into the noble coffee room, and be flattered by the landlord +and fawned on by the manager while he gave his orders for sumptuous +luncheons and dinners à la carte, with champagne of the choicest brands, +and the oldest and costliest of liqueurs. After that, a period arrived +when the restaurant and a table-d'hôte repast, washed down with any +cheap but strong wine, were good enough for him. Then he was seen only +in the billiard room; or in the small grill-room, where he would sit +drinking for hours while relays of commercial travellers and minor +tradesmen bolted their chops and steaks. Now he had descended to what +was called the saloon bar; and here, since he had lost his club, he made +himself quite at ease, and was listened to with some semblance of +respect by the shabby frequenters, and always smiled upon by the +barmaid—who was an old, and of late a very intimate friend. He could +not drop any lower at the Dolphin, unless he went out to the stable yard +and sat with ostlers and fly-drivers in the taproom beneath the arch.</p> + +<p>At mid-day there were eatables of a light sort on the saloon counter; +but, rejecting such scratchy fare, Mr. Marsden regularly came home for +his solid luncheon. After lunching heavily he went back to the saloon, +stayed there through the tea hour, and returned to St. Saviour's Court +for dinner. He was regular in his attendance at meals, but except for +meal-time the house never saw him. In fact he was settling down into +stereotyped habits. When dinner was over he retired again—to take his +grog in the saloon, to help the barmaid close the saloon, and to escort +her thence to her modest little dwelling-house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden knew all about this barmaid, with her fascinating smiles +and her Venetian red hair—and indeed about her dwelling-house also. It +was common knowledge that a few years ago she had been a parlourmaid in +Adelaide <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>Crescent; had somehow got into trouble; and somehow getting +out of it, had risen to the surface as a saloon siren, and proved +herself attractive to more persons than one. As to her place of +residence, an illuminating letter had reached Marsden & Thompson and +been duly opened behind the glass—"re No. 16 New Bridge Road. We beg to +remind you that your firm have guaranteed Miss Ingram's rent, and the +same being now nearly a quarter in arrear, we beg, etc., etc...."</p> + +<p>Then it was to Number Sixteen that Mr. Marsden walked every evening, wet +or fine. No one knew when he returned home again. But he was always +ready for his late breakfast in his own bed.</p> + +<p>Thanks to the regularity of these habits, Enid could now come and see +her mother without risk of encountering her stepfather. That cruel +threat of his had been often repeated, but never converted into an +explicit order; he disapproved of Mrs. Kenion's visits, and if they were +brought to his notice he would certainly prohibit them. But now the +house was safe ground between luncheon and dinner; and there were few +Thursday afternoons on which Enid did not come with her child to share +Mrs. Marsden's weekly half holiday.</p> + +<p>Little Jane was old enough to do without the constant vigilance of a +nurse; and almost old enough, it sometimes seemed, to understand that +she was her mother's only joy and consolation.</p> + +<p>"You must always be a good little girl," Mrs. Marsden used to say, "and +make mummy happy, and very proud of you."</p> + +<p>And the child, looking at granny with such wise eyes, said she was +always good, and never disturbed mummy in her room, or asked to be read +to when mummy was crying. Really, as she said this sort of thing, she +seemed to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>comprehend as clearly as her grandmother that there was +misery, deepening misery, in the ivy-clad farmhouse.</p> + +<p>"Mummy mustn't cry," said Mrs. Marsden tenderly. "Mummy must remember +that while she has you, she has everything.... Enid, don't give way."</p> + +<p>For mummy was there and then beginning to do just what she mustn't do.</p> + +<p>"Mother, I can't help it;" and Enid wiped her eyes. "I'm not brave like +you. And I feel now and then that I can't go on with it."</p> + +<p>Enid's barrier had fallen; she, too, abandoned the defence of an +impossible position. Often she showed a disposition to plunge into open +confidence, and tell the long tale of her trials and sorrows; but Mrs. +Marsden did not encourage a confidential outbreak, indeed checked all +tendencies in this direction.</p> + +<p>She used to take the child on her lap; and, after a little fondling and +whispering, Jane always fell asleep. Then, with the small flaxen head +nestled against her bosom, she talked quietly to her daughter, +endeavouring to put forward cheerful optimistic views, and providing the +philosophic generalities from which in troublous hours one should derive +stimulation and support.</p> + +<p>"She's tired from the journey. How pretty she is growing, Enid. She will +be extraordinarily pretty when she is grown-up. She will be exactly what +you were."</p> + +<p>"No one ever thought me pretty, except you, mother."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, dear. Everyone admired you. You were enormously admired."</p> + +<p>"Then there was something wanting," said Enid bitterly. "I hadn't the +charms that have lasting power."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Marsden would not allow the conversation to take an awkward +turn.</p> + +<p>"And Jane looks so well," she went on cheerfully.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> "Such limbs—and such +a <i>weight</i>! She is a glorious child. She does you credit, dear. You have +every reason to be proud of her—and you will be prouder and prouder, in +the time to come."</p> + +<p>"I hope so—I pray so. I shall have nothing else to be proud of."</p> + +<p>Once or twice, while the child was sleeping, Enid glided from obvious +hints to a bald statement, in spite of all Mrs. Marsden's endeavours to +restrain her.</p> + +<p>"Mother, my life is insupportable;" and tears began to flow. "Mother +dear, can't you help me?"</p> + +<p>"My darling, how can I? I have told you of my difficulties—but you +don't dream, you would never guess what they are."</p> + +<p>"It isn't money now," sobbed Enid. "I'd never again ask you for +money—and money, if you had thousands to give, would do me no good.... +Oh, I'm so wretched—so utterly wretched."</p> + +<p>"My dearest girl," and Mrs. Marsden, in the agitation caused by this +statement, moved uneasily and woke the little girl. "You tear me to +pieces when you ask me to help you. My own Enid, I can't help you. I +can't help you now. You must be brave, and carry your burdens by +yourself.... You say I am brave. Then be like me. I'm in the midst of +perils and fears—my hands are tied; yet I go on fighting. I swear to +you I am fighting hard. I've not given up hope. No, no. Don't think that +I'm not wanting to help you—longing to help you—<i>meaning</i> to help you, +when the chance comes."</p> + +<p>Jane had extricated herself from the arms that held her; and, sliding to +the floor, she went to her mother's side. The energy of granny's voice +frightened her.</p> + +<p>"I'll do my best," said Enid. "I'll try to bear things submissively, as +you do."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p><p>"And don't lose hope in the future," said Mrs. Marsden, dropping her +voice, and summoning every cheerful generality she could remember. "Be +patient. Wait—and clouds will pass. You are young—with more than half +your life before you. You have your sweet child. Go on hoping for happy +days. The clouds will pass. The sun will shine again."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>But before any gleam of sunshine appeared, the sombre clouds that +lowered over Enid's head burst into a heavy storm.</p> + +<p>One morning Mrs. Marsden was engaged with Mears on what had become a +painful duty. They were stock-taking in the silk department; and, as the +empty shelves sadly confronted them, Mears looked at her with dull eyes, +opened and shut his mouth, but could not speak. He thought of what this +particular department had once been, and of his own delight in +especially fostering and tending it; of how it had improved under his +care; of how he and Mr. Ridgway had built up quite a respectable little +wholesale trade, as adjunct to the ordinary retail business, supplying +the smaller shops and steadily extending the connection. When he thought +of these things, it was no wonder that he could not speak.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Mr. Mears," said Mrs. Marsden, in a whisper. Intuitively +she knew what was passing in his mind. "It's no good looking backwards. +We must look ahead."</p> + +<p>"Yes, no doubt," said Mears blankly.</p> + +<p>"I see what you mean. But we'll get an order through—before very long. +Meanwhile, you must do some more of your clever dressing."</p> + +<p>And it was just then—before Mr. Mears could promise to dress the empty +shelves—that the house servant appeared,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> and told her mistress of the +unexpected arrival of Mrs. Kenion.</p> + +<p>It was not a Thursday; and Enid came only on Thursdays, and never before +luncheon. Mrs. Marsden knew at once that something remarkable had +occurred.</p> + +<p>"Is Miss Jane with her?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am. They're waiting for you upstairs in the drawing-room."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden hurried up to the first floor, and rushed through the door +of communication.</p> + +<p>"Enid, my dearest child."</p> + +<p>"Oh, mother, mother! It's all over."</p> + +<p>Enid was in a pitiable state of distress; the red circles round her eyes +were absolutely disfiguring; she wrung her hands, and contorted her +whole body.</p> + +<p>"Enid dear—tell me. Don't keep me in suspense."</p> + +<p>"He has gone—went to London this morning."</p> + +<p>"Who went? Charles? Do you mean Charles?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and I don't believe he will ever come back to me."</p> + +<p>"Wait a moment, my love," said Mrs. Marsden. "Jane shall have a treat. +Jane, you shall come and play in the pantry. Won't that be nice?"</p> + +<p>And she took her grandchild by the hand, and led her from the room. +Outside in the passage she smiled at the little girl, patted her cheek, +stooped to hug and kiss her. Then she gave her over to the charge of the +housemaid—an elderly woman with an ugly face and an austere manner—and +walked briskly back to the dining-room.</p> + +<p>"Eliza will amuse Jane," she said cheerfully. "Eliza is kind, although +she seems so forbidding.... And now, my dear, you can tell me all about +this news—this great news—this <i>astonishing</i> news of yours."</p> + +<p>Enid told her tale confusedly. She was too much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span>distressed to record +events in their logical sequence. She worked backwards and forwards, +breaking the thread with ejaculations, laments, and sad reflections, +mixing yesterday with days that belonged to last year and the year +before last year. But Mrs. Marsden soon grasped the import of the tale.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kenion was the lover as well as the pilot of that rich hunting lady. +Enid had suspected the truth for a long time, had been certain of the +truth and suffered under the certainty for another long time—all that, +however, belonged to the past days and was quite unimportant. Yesterday +was the important day.</p> + +<p>Yesterday there had been a lawn meet—whether at Widmore Towers or +somewhere else, Mrs. Marsden did not gather. Mrs. Bulford's horse was +there; but as yet Mrs. Bulford had not shown herself. Charles was there, +dismounted for the moment, walking about among the gentlemen in front of +the house, taking nips of cherry brandy and nibbling biscuits offered by +the footmen with the trays. All was jollity and animation—promise of +fine sport; dull sky, gentle westerly breeze, dew-sprinkled earth; +kindly nature seemed to proclaim a good scenting day.</p> + +<p>And somebody, who has proved a very dull-nosed hound, is on the scent at +last. Here comes stiff-legged Major Bulford, armed with a hunting crop +although he only hunts on wheels, hobbling over the lawn among the +gentlemen.</p> + +<p>Hullo! What's up? Look! Bulford is wanging into Charlie, calling him +names as he slashes him across the face with stick and thong, using a +fist now,—hobbling after Charlie when Charlie has had enough, trying +with his uninjured leg to kick behind Charlie's back,—and tumbling at +full length on the damp grass.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kenion took his bleeding face home to be patched;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> and early this +morning he had gone to London—where Mrs. Bulford was waiting for him.</p> + +<p>"And, mother, he as good as said that I should never see him again. He +confessed that he and Mamie had been very imprudent—and Major Bulford +has discovered everything."</p> + +<p>"But, my darling, why do you cry? Why aren't you rejoicing—singing your +song of joy?"</p> + +<p>"Mother!"</p> + +<p>"All this is splendid good news—not bad news."</p> + +<p>"Mother, don't say it."</p> + +<p>"But I do say it. I say, Thank God—if this is going to give my girl +release from her slavery." Mrs. Marsden had spoken in a tone of +exaltation; but now her brows contracted, and her voice became grave. +"Enid, we mustn't run on so fast. To me it seems almost too good to be +true."</p> + +<p>"To me it seems dreadful."</p> + +<p>"Yes, at the moment. But later, you will know it is emancipation, +<i>life</i>. Only, let us keep calm. This man—Bulford—may not intend to +divorce her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he <i>will</i>."</p> + +<p>"You think he will wish to cast her off?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Charlie as good as said so."</p> + +<p>"But tell me this—You say they are very rich. Which of them has the +money—the husband or the wife?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is all Mrs. Bulford's—her very own."</p> + +<p>"Ah! The man may not divorce her—but if he does, there is one thing of +which you can be absolutely certain. Kenion will stick to her, and give +you your freedom."</p> + +<p>It was nearly one o'clock. Mrs. Marsden, glancing at the mantlepiece, +started. Her husband would soon return for his substantial mid-day meal.</p> + +<p>"Enid dear, I must take you and Jane out to lunch. I know you won't care +to meet Richard. Come! I shan't be a minute putting on my bonnet;" and +she hurried from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> the room. "Eliza! If Mr. Marsden asks for me, tell him +I shall not be in to luncheon.... That is all that you need say."</p> + +<p>To avoid the chance of being seen by her husband in High Street, she led +Enid and the little girl up the court instead of down it, round the +church-yard, and through devious ways to Gordon's, the confectioner's. +Here, at a small table in the back room, she gave them a comfortable and +sufficient repast—chicken for Enid, and nice soup and milk pudding for +Jane. She herself was unable to eat: excitement had banished all +appetite. She cut up toast for the soup, carved the chicken, dusted the +pudding with sugar; and smilingly watched over her guests.</p> + +<p>But every now and then she frowned, and became lost in deep thought. +Once, after a frowning pause, she leaned across the table and clutched +Enid's arm.</p> + +<p>"Enid," she whispered, with intense anxiety, "is this Bulford really an +upright honourable man who will do the right thing, and cast her off; or +is he a mean-spirited cur who will support his disgrace for the sake of +the cash?"</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>They remained at the confectioner's until Mrs. Marsden could feel no +doubt that her husband was now safe in his saloon; and then she took +them back to the house.</p> + +<p>She sent Mears a message to say that he and the shop must do without her +this afternoon, and she sat for a couple of quiet hours hearing the +remainder of Enid's grievous tale. Plainly it did Enid good to talk +about her troubles; the longer she talked the calmer she grew; and while +stage by stage she traced the history of her unhappy married life, Mrs. +Marsden thought very often of her own experiences.</p> + +<p>Jane, contented and replete, had fallen asleep upon granny's lap; and +Mrs. Marsden softly rocked her to and fro, to make the sleep sweeter and +easier.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p><p>Unhappy Enid! She recited all her pains and pangs and torments. She had +loved the man, had thought him a fine gentleman, and had found him a +cruel beast. She had dreamed and awakened. She had tried to reconstitute +the dream, to shut her eyes to realities, and live in the dream that she +knew to be unreal. But he would not let her. She had forgiven misdeeds, +and even forgotten them; he had hurt her again and again and again; and +each time she had healed her wounds, and presented herself to him whole +and loyal once more.</p> + +<p>While Mrs. Marsden listened, she was thinking, "Yes, that is the +keynote, the apology, and the explanation. Love dies so slowly."</p> + +<p>Now Enid had come to the end of her tale.</p> + +<p>"Mother," she was saying, "I know I shall never see him any more;" and, +saying it, she began to cry again. "He spoke to me so kindly when he was +going from me.... And I looked at his poor face, all striped with the +sticking-plaster, and I thought of what he had been to me. It all came +back to me in a rush—the old feelings, mother,—and I begged him not to +go. And I asked him at least to kiss me—and he did it—and I knew that +he was sorry."</p> + +<p>Very quietly and carefully Mrs. Marsden got up, and placed the sleeping +child on her mother's lap.</p> + +<p>"Enid, take what is left to you. Put your arms round her, and hold her +against your heart. Hold her safe, and hold her close—for you are +holding all the world."</p> + +<p>Then, in great agitation, she walked up and down the room; and when she +stopped, and stood by Enid's chair, her eyes were streaming.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, my darling." An extraordinary exaltation sounded in her +voice; and, as she struggled to moderate its tone, there came a queer +vibration and huskiness. It seemed that but for dread of waking the +little girl, she would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> shouted her words. "Never mind. You have +your child. Think of that. Nothing else matters. <i>I</i> have suffered; +<i>you</i> have suffered—never mind. Perhaps we women were intended to +suffer—and we have to bear some things so cruel that they must be borne +in silence. If we spoke of them, they might kill. But it is all nothing +compared with <i>this</i>;" and she stooped to kiss Enid's forehead, and very +gently and softly stroked the child's hair. "You and I have both made +our link in the wonderful chain of life. We have given what God gave us. +We carried the torch, and it has not been struck out of our hands and +extinguished.... We will rear your child; and I shall see you in her; +and she will grow tall and strong; and she will love—you most—the +mother,—but me too, when she understands that you came to her from +me.... And the sun shall shine again, and you shall be happy again—for +God is kind, and God is <i>just</i>.... And then there will be no more +tears—and a touch of your child's lips will destroy the memory of tears."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXV</span></h2> + +<p>Another year had slowly dragged by.</p> + +<p>Enid was still living with her child at the farmhouse; but all the +personal property of the child's father, all those numerous signs of too +engrossing amusements, had disappeared. Horses and grooms, brushes and +boots, spurs and bridles—all were gone. In the suit of Bulford vs. +Bulford and Kenion, the petitioner obtained a decree nisi; and soon the +decree will be made absolute. Another undefended suit—that of Kenion +vs. Kenion—is down for hearing. Very soon now Enid will be free.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the big looking-glasses on the stairs and at department +entrances of Thompson & Marsden's shop had been growing tarnished, dull, +and spotted. They showed nothing new in their misty depths—emptiness +and desolation; unused space so great that it was not necessary to +multiply it by reflection; and a grey-haired black-robed woman passing +and repassing through the faint bluish fog, with shadowy, ghostly lines +of such sad figures marching and wheeling at her side.</p> + +<p>But there was no space for fog in the establishment across the road. +During these twelve slow months the visible, unmistakable prosperity of +Bence had been stupendous.</p> + +<p>He had bought out Mr. Bennett, the butcher. He would buy the whole +street. He had enlarged his popular market, adding Flowers to Fruit and +Vegetables. The old auctioneer had retired, in order to make room for +this addition; and where for a half a century there had been no objects +more interesting than sale bills and house registers and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>dangling +bunches of keys, beautiful unseasonable blossoms now shed their +fragrance throughout the year. Plainly there was nothing too old, or too +hard, or too large for Bence to swallow.</p> + +<p>And the reputation of Bence's, as well as its mere success, had steadily +been rising. It seemed as if the remorseless and triumphant Archibald +had not only stolen the entire trade of his principal rival, but had +also borrowed all the methods that in the old time built up the trade. +In his best departments the goods were now as solid and as real as those +which had made the glory of Thompson's at its zenith. But beyond this +laudable improvement of stock—a matter that no one could complain +of,—Bence betrayed a cruel persistence in imitating subsidiary +characteristics of Mrs. Thompson's tactical campaign.</p> + +<p>Gradually Bence had won the town. It was Bence who now feasted and +flattered the municipal authorities, exactly as Mrs. Thompson had done +years ago. Dinners to aldermen and councillors; soirées and receptions +for their wives; compliments, largesse, confidential attention flowing +out in a generous stream for the benefit of all—high and low—who could +possibly assist or hinder the welfare of Bence! Last Christmas—by way +of inaugurating his twentieth grand annual bazaar—he gave a ball to +four hundred people, with a military band and a champagne sit-down +supper.</p> + +<p>The ancient aldermen were nearly all gone; the council nowadays +professed themselves to be advocates of modern ideas; they said the +conditions of life are always changing; and they were ready to admit the +new style of trade as fundamentally correct. Then, making speeches after +snug Bence-provided banquets, they said that their host represented in +himself and his career the Spirit of the Age. They raised their glasses +in a toast which all would honour. "Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> Archibald Bence, you are a +credit to the town of Mallingbridge; and speaking for the town, I say +the town is proud of you, sir.... Now, gentlemen, give him a +chorus—'For he's a jolly good fellow'"....</p> + +<p>Bence never stopped their music. He sat at the head of the table, +twirling his waxed moustache, fingering his jewelled studs, and smiling +enigmatically—as if he considered the adulation of his guests quite +natural and proper, or as if he felt amused by vulgar praise and a +homage which could be purchased with a little meat and drink.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," said Bence, rising to return thanks, and addressing the +assemblage in the usual tone of mock modesty, "I am overwhelmed by your +good-nature. I lay no claim to merit. The most I ever say of myself is +that I do work hard, and try my best. But I have been very lucky. +Anybody could have done what I have done, if they had been given the +same opportunity—and the same support."</p> + +<p>"No, no," cried the noisy guests. "Not one in a million. No one but +yourself, Mr. Bence. That's why we're so proud of you."</p> + +<p>And just as the town had turned towards Bence in his prosperity, so it +had turned away from Mrs. Marsden in her adversity. These people +worshipped success, and nothing else. The old shop was dying fast; its +legend was already dead. The ancient triumph of the brave young widow +was thus in a few years almost totally forgotten. It was a fabled +greatness that faded before her present insignificance. There were of +course some who still remembered; but they did not trouble to sustain or +revive her name and fame.</p> + +<p>Did she know how they spoke of her—these few who remembered?</p> + +<p>A pitiful story: a poor wretch who posed for a little while as a good +woman of business, and got absurd kudos for what was sheer luck. Just +clever enough to make a little money in propitious times; but without +staying power,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> unable to adapt herself to new methods—a <i>stupid</i> +woman, really! That was the kindest talk. Others, who should have been +grateful and did not care to pay their debts, spoke of her as a +criminal. "I never forgave her that disgraceful marriage. I endeavoured +to prevent it, and warned her what would be the consequence of her—say +her folly; but I think one would be justified in using a stronger word. +Well, she has made her bed; and she must lie upon it."</p> + +<p>On a cold winter evening, when she had walked to the railway station +with Enid and was finding her a seat in the local train, a porter +officiously pointed out Bence.</p> + +<p>"There! That's Mr. Bence, ma'am. Mr. Bence—the small gentleman!"</p> + +<p>The local train was on one side of the platform, and on the other stood +the London express. And Bence, in fur coat and glossy topper, surrounded +with sycophantic inspectors and ticket-collectors, was approaching the +Pullman car. He was off to London, to buy fresh cargos of Leghorn hats +or whole warehouses of mauve blouses.</p> + +<p>The local train, with Enid in it, rolled away; and Mrs. Marsden, a +shabby insignificant black figure, remained motionless, waving a pocket +handkerchief and staring wistfully at the receding train. Then, as Bence +came bustling from the Pullman door to the book-stall at the end of the +platform, he and Mrs. Marsden met face to face.</p> + +<p>It was a strange encounter. Intelligent onlookers, if there had been any +on the platform, might have found food for much thought in studying this +chance meeting between the Spirit of the age and the Ghost of the past.</p> + +<p>There was nothing of the conqueror's exultant air in Bence's low bow. He +uncovered his bald head and bowed deeply, with ostentatious humbleness +and almost excessive respect—as if magnanimously determined to show +that greatness though fallen was still greatness to him.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p><p>And there was nothing of the conquered in Mrs. Marsden's dignified +acknowledgment of the passing courtesy. Bowing, she looked at Bence and +through Bence; and her face seemed calm, cold, dispassionate: as +absolutely devoid of trouble or resentment as if one of the +ticket-collectors whom she used to tip had touched his hat to her.</p> + +<p>None of these greedy ruffians did salute her. In all the station, +through which she used to pass as a queen, only little Bence showed her +a sign of respect to-night.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>In her deserted shop there were still faithful hearts; outside the shop, +in all Mallingbridge, it seemed as if she could not count more than one +true friend.</p> + +<p>Prentice was true as the magnet to the pole. For a long time he had +asked her no questions, given her no advice; and she told him nothing of +her affairs, either commercial or domestic. But he guessed that things +were going from bad to worse. He knew that she was more and more +frequently at the offices of Hyde & Collins. He saw her entering their +front door almost as often as he saw Bence entering it; and he +interpreted these visits as a certain indication that they were still +raising money for her. She had probably sold the last of her stocks and +shares, and now they were helping her to get rid of the small remainder +of her possessions. He knew of two or three houses in River Street, and +of a moderate mortgage on this property. Hyde & Collins might effect a +second mortgage perhaps; and then the houses would be practically gone, +as everything else had gone—into the bottomless pit. They would not +care how quickly she beggared herself. When she was squeezed dry, they +would just shut the door in her face. Insolent, unscrupulous brutes! And +he thought with anger of how cavalierly they would treat her even now, +before the end: breaking their appointments, telling her to call again, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>leaving her to wait in outer rooms while they kow-towed to their best +client, their only prosperous client, the omnipotent Bence.</p> + +<p>To the mind of loyal Prentice the utter downfall of Mrs. Marsden was +abominable and intolerable. He could not bear it—this wreck of a life +that had been so noble. His hope of saving something from the wreck was +cruelly frustrated. He had tried again and again; but she would not +listen, she would not be guided.</p> + +<p>He thought sadly of the bright past, of her talent and genius; and, +above all, of her tremendous intellectual strength. In those days, when +he began to unfold a matter of business, she stopped him before he had +completed half a dozen sentences. It was enough—she had grasped the +whole position, sent beams from the search-light of her intelligence +flashing all round it, shown him essential points that he had not seen +himself. Difficulties never frightened her; she was subtle in defence, +swift in attack. Give her but a hint of danger, and in a moment she was +armed and ready. Before you knew what she would be at, she had sprung +into decisive action; and before you could hurry up with your feeble +reinforcements, the danger was over, the battle had been gained.</p> + +<p>But now she was weak as water—helpless, yet refusing help, hopeless and +making hope impossible, just drifting to her fate. At night Mr. Prentice +sometimes could not sleep. He lay awake, thinking of what it would come +to in the end—bankruptcy, her little hoard squandered, her last penny +gone in the futile effort to satisfy her husband and sustain the shop.</p> + +<p>And then? She was so proud that perhaps she might not allow Enid to +supply her simplest daily needs. He tossed and turned restlessly as he +thought of Enid's marriage settlement; and, remembering some of its +ill-advised clauses,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> he felt stung by remorse. He had bungled the +settlement. He ought to have stood firm, and not have permitted himself +to be overruled by the idiotic whims of a love-sick girl who was being +generous at another person's expense. He blamed himself bitterly now for +the manner in which funds had been permanently secured to Enid's +worthless husband. Of course the Divorce Court, exercising its statutory +powers, might wipe out the entire blunder, and handsomely punish the +offender by handsomely benefiting the wife; but he had small hope that +this would happen. No, the rascal Charles Kenion, when disposed of, will +still enjoy his life interest. The money that should come back now to +the hand that gave it is gone. Enid will not have more than she wants +for herself and her child.</p> + +<p>He could not sleep. The thought of Mrs. Marsden's pride made him shiver. +No prouder woman ever lived: famine and cold would not break her pride. +He had thought of her in the workhouse, or an almshouse, finishing her +days on the bread of charity. But no—great Heaven!—she would never +consent to do that. She would rather sell matches in the street. And he +imagined her appearance. An old woman in rags—creeping at dusk with +bent back,—pausing on a country road to hold her side and cough,—lying +down on the frozen ground beneath a haystack, and dying in the winter +storm.</p> + +<p>He knew—only too well—that these are the things that happen: the +inexorable facts of the world. But never should they happen in this +case—not while he had one sixpence to rub against another.</p> + +<p>He could not go on thinking about it without doing something. So he woke +up his invalid wife. That seemed the only thing he could do just +then;—and he told Mrs. Prentice that she must be kind to Mrs. Marsden; +she must begin being kind the first thing in the morning; she must<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +write a letter, pay a call, do <i>something</i> to cheer and gladden his poor +old friend.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prentice, an amiable nondescript woman, readily obeyed her husband; +and after this nocturnal conversation she used frequently to wait upon +Mrs. Marsden, often persuade her to go out for a drive, and now and then +entice her to come and dine in a quiet friendly fashion without any fuss +or ceremony. These pleasant evenings must have made bright and warm +spots amidst the cold dark gloom that now surrounded Mrs. Marsden. At +Mr. Prentice's comfortable private house she was treated with an honour +to which she had been long unaccustomed; there was nothing here to +remind her of her troubles; and she really appeared to forget them when +chatting freely with her kind host and hostess.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Prentice, it is too good of you to let me drop in on you +like this."</p> + +<p>"No, it is so good of you," said Mrs. Prentice, "to give us the pleasure +of your company."</p> + +<p>"It is a great pleasure to <i>me</i>," said Mrs. Marsden; "and I always +thoroughly enjoy myself."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prentice liked her better in her adversity than in her prosperity. +She found it easy to join her husband in his admiration of the fortitude +and dignity of Mrs. Marsden as an ill-used wife and a broken-down +shopkeeper—now that the fable of her colossal brain-power was finally +shattered. Perhaps Mrs. Prentice's naturally kind heart had never opened +to Mrs. Marsden till the day when Mr. Prentice said that his idol was +acting like a fool.</p> + +<p>Their guest used to eat sparingly, although the hostess pressed her to +taste of every dish; and she scarcely drank more than half a glass of +wine, although the host had brought out his most highly prized vintage; +but she talked so cheerfully, so calmly, and so wisely, that her society +was as charming as it was welcome. Mr. Prentice, beaming on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> her and +listening with deference to her lightest words, was especially delighted +each time that he recognized something like a flash of the old light.</p> + +<p>Once they were discussing a rumour that had just reached Mallingbridge. +It was said that the War Office had purchased a tract of land on the +downs, and proposed to establish a large permanent camp up there.</p> + +<p>"Half a dozen regiments, with all their followers—an invasion!"</p> + +<p>"It will be dreadful for the town," said Mrs. Prentice. "Utterly destroy +its character."</p> + +<p>"That's what I think," said Mr. Prentice. "Do no good to anybody."</p> + +<p>"Do you know," said Mrs. Marsden, "I am inclined to disagree. Since the +soldiers came to Ellerford, trade—I am told—has picked up +wonderfully."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes," said Prentice. "But that's a trifling affair—a very small +camp, compared with what this would be."</p> + +<p>"But, Mr. Prentice," and Mrs. Marsden smiled; "if a small camp does a +little good, why shouldn't a large camp do a lot of good?"</p> + +<p>It sounded quite simple, and yet only she would have said it. Mr. +Prentice laughed. It reminded him of the old way she had of going +straight to the point, and flooring you by a question that seemed +childishly naïve until all at once you found you could not answer it.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prentice continued to lament the many degradations that +Mallingbridge had already undergone.</p> + +<p>"The Theatre Royal turned into a music hall! The Royal! That is the last +blow. <i>Three</i> music halls in the place, and not one theatre where you +can go and see a real play.... I used to love the Royal. It seemed a +<i>part</i> of Mallingbridge."</p> + +<p>"My dear Mrs. Prentice," said the guest, calmly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> philosophically, +"the town that you and I loved has gone. It was inevitable—one can't +put back the clock. Time won't stand still for us."</p> + +<p>"No, but they're making the new town so ugly, so vulgar. Whenever they +pull down one of the dear old houses, they do build such gimcrack +monstrosities."</p> + +<p>"I fancy," said Mrs. Marsden, "that the distance from London decided our +destiny. It was just far enough off to reproduce and copy the +metropolis. Nowadays, the little places that remain unchanged are all +close to the suburban boundary."</p> + +<p>When she talked in this style, Prentice thought how effectually she gave +the lie to people who said of her, that she had failed because she +lacked the faculty of appreciating altered conditions.</p> + +<p>"Did you happen," she asked him, "to read the report of the general +meeting of the railway company?"</p> + +<p>"No—I don't think I did."</p> + +<p>"The chairman mentioned Mallingbridge."</p> + +<p>"What did he say about it?"</p> + +<p>"He said that they might before long have to consider the propriety of +building a new station, and putting it on another site."</p> + +<p>"Why should they do that?"</p> + +<p>"Why?" And again Mrs. Marsden smiled. "Why indeed? It set me +thinking—and I read the speech carefully. Later on, the chairman spoke +of the scheme for moving their carriage and engine works out of the +London area. Well, I put those two hints together; and this is what I +made of them. I believe that the company intend at last to develop all +that land of theirs—the fields by the river,—and I prophesy that +within three years they'll have built the new carriage works there."</p> + +<p>She said this exactly as she used to say those luminously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> clever things +that he remembered in the past. He listened wonderingly and admiringly.</p> + +<p>But when the ladies left him alone to smoke his cigar or finish the wine +that the guest had neglected, he sighed. She could give these flashes of +the old logic and insight; she could talk so wisely about matters that +in no way concerned her; but in the one great matter of her own life, +where common sense was most desperately required, she had behaved like a +lunatic.</p> + +<p>He let his cigar go out, and he could not drink any more wine. Rain was +pattering on the windows, and the wind moaned round the house—a sad +dark night. He rang the bell, and told the servant to order a fly for +Mrs. Marsden at a quarter to ten.</p> + +<p>The fly took her home comfortably; and when she alighted at the bottom +of St. Saviour's Court and offered the driver something more than his +fare, he refused it.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Prentice paid me, ma'am."</p> + +<p>"Oh!... Then you must accept this shilling for yourself."</p> + +<p>"No, ma'am. Mr. Prentice tipped me. Good-night, ma'am."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXVI</span></h2> + +<p>Enid was free. The farmhouse stood empty, with the ivy hanging in +festoons and long streamers about the windows, the grass growing rank +and strong over the carriage drive, and a board at the gate offering +this eligible modernised residence to be let on lease. Its sometime +mistress had gone with her little daughter to the seaside for eight or +ten months. After her stay at Eastbourne she would return to +Mallingbridge, and take furnished apartments—or perhaps rent one of the +tiny new villas on the Linkfield Road. She wished to be near her mother, +and she apologized now for leaving Mrs. Marsden quite alone during so +many months; but, as she explained, Jane needed sea air.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about me," said Mrs. Marsden. "Only the child matters. Build +up her health. Make her strong. I shall do very well—though of course I +shall miss you both."</p> + +<p>She was getting accustomed to solitude and silence. Truly she had never +been so entirely isolated and lonely as now. In the far-off days when +Enid used by her absence to produce a wide-spreading sense of loss, +there had been the work and bustle of the thriving shop to counteract +the void and quiet of the house. And there had been Yates. Now there was +nobody but the plain-faced grim-mannered Eliza, who had become the one +general-servant of the broken home.</p> + +<p>Mr. Marsden still lunched and dined at the house, but he was never there +for breakfast. He did not go upstairs to his bedroom and dressing-room +once in a week. Sometimes for a fortnight he and his wife did not meet +at meals. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> voracious appetite manifested itself intermittently; +there were days on which he gorged like a boa-constrictor, and others on +which he felt disinclined to eat at all. Then he required Eliza to tempt +him with savoury highly-spiced food, or to devise some dainty surprise +which would stimulate his jaded fancy and woo him to a condescending +patronage. He would toy with a bird—or a couple of dozen oysters—or a +bit of pickled mackerel. Now and then, after he had been drinking more +heavily than usual, he would himself inspire Eliza.</p> + +<p>"Eliza, I can't touch all that muck;" and he pointed with a slightly +tremulous hand at the dinner table. "But I believe I could do with just +a simple hunk of bread and cheese, and a quart of stout. Run out and get +some stout—get two or three bottles, with the screw tops. You know, the +large bottles."</p> + +<p>Then perhaps he would find eventually that this queer dinner-menu was a +false inspiration. The bread and cheese were more than he could grapple +with—and he asked for something else to assist the stout.</p> + +<p>In a word, he was rather troublesome about his meals; and Mrs. Marsden +fell into the habit of taking her scanty refreshment at irregular hours. +He did not upbraid her for keeping out of his way. Eliza looked after +him in a satisfactory manner; and he never upset or frightened Eliza. +Grim Eliza ran no risk of receiving undesired attentions.</p> + +<p>Everybody knew that Mr. Marsden often drank too much. One night when he +failed to appear at dinner time, he was found—not by Eliza but by the +Borough constabulary—in a state of total intoxication on the pavement +outside the Dolphin.</p> + +<p>After this regrettable incident the Dolphin dismissed him and his +barmaid together. The attendance at the saloon had been dropping off. A +siren cannot draw custom, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> you have a great hulking bully who sits +in the corner and threatens to punch the head of every inoffensive +moderate-sized gentleman upon whom the siren begins to exert her spell. +The Dolphin was very glad to see the backs of Miss Ingram and her +friend.</p> + +<p>Miss Ingram secured an engagement at the bar of the Red Cow, and Mr. +Marsden faithfully followed her thither. The Red Cow was the +disreputable betting public-house of which the town council were so much +ashamed; people went there to bet, and it was likely to lose its +license; but Marsden was content to make it his temporary club, and +indeed seemed to settle down there comfortably enough.</p> + +<p>He still occasionally came to the shop. All eyes were averted when he +swung one of the street doors and slouched in. He seemed to know and +almost to admit that he was a disgrace and an eyesore, and though he +scowled at the shop-walker swiftly dodging away and diving into the next +department, he did not bellow a reprimand. He hurried up the shop; and +it was only when he got behind the glass that he attempted to display +anything like the old swagger and bluster.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mears, what's the best news with you?... You all look as if you +were starting for a funeral—as black as a lot of mutes. How's +business?" And he began to whistle, or to rattle the bunch of duplicate +shop-keys that he carried in his trousers pocket. "I say, Mears, old +pal—I'm run dry. Can't you and the missus do an advance—something on +account—however small—to keep me going?"</p> + +<p>A few shillings were generally produced, and the advance was solemnly +entered in the books, to the governor's name.</p> + +<p>Then he nearly always announced that he had come to the shop for the +purpose of keeping a business appointment.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p><p>"Look here. I'm expecting a gentleman. Show him straight in."</p> + +<p>These gentlemen were more dreadful to look at than the governor himself. +He gave appointments to most terrific blacklegs—the unwashed rabble of +the Red Cow, book-makers and their clerks, race-course touts,—inviting +them to the shop in order to establish his credit, and prove to these +seedy wretches that he was veritably the Marsden of Thompson & +Marsden's.</p> + +<p>For such interviews he used to turn his wife out of the room. At a word +she meekly left the American desk and walked out.</p> + +<p>"That you, Rooney? Come into my office. Here I am, you see. Sit down."</p> + +<p>The Red Cow gentlemen were overcome by the grandeur of Mr. Marsden in +his own office; the size and magnificence of the establishment filled +them with awe and envy; it surpassed belief.</p> + +<p>"Blow me, but it's true," they said afterwards. "Every word what he told +us is the Gospel truth. He's the boss of the whole show. I witnessed it +with my own eyes."</p> + +<p>Yet if his visitors had possessed real business acumen, the shop would +have impressed them with anything but confidence.</p> + +<p>To a trade expert one glance would have sufficed. The forlorn aspect of +the ruined shop told the gloomy facts with unmistakable clearness. So +few assistants, so pitiably few customers, such a beggarly array of +goods! Those shelves have all been dressed with dummies; those rolls of +rich silk are composed of a wooden block, some paper, and half a yard of +soiled material; within those huge presses you will find only darkness. +Emptiness, desolation, death!</p> + +<p>And what could not be seen could readily be guessed. Behind the glass +only two people—a man laboriously <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>muddling with unfilled ledgers, a +girl at a type-writing machine—only one type-writer, a sadly feeble +clicking in the midst of vast unoccupied space; not a sound in the +covered yard; no horses, no carts; no purchased goods to be handled in +the immense packing rooms; no stock, no cash, no credit, no nothing!</p> + +<p>When a customer appeared, the shop seemed to stir uneasily in the sleep +that was so like death; a faint vibration disturbed the heavy +atmosphere; shop-walkers flitted to and fro; assistants yawned and +stretched themselves. What is it? Yes, it <i>is</i> another customer.</p> + +<p>"What can we show madam?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I wanted—but really I think I've made a mistake—" and the +stranger looked about her, and seemed perplexed. "My friends said it was +in High Street—but I see this isn't it. Yes, I've made a mistake. Good +morning."</p> + +<p>"<i>Good</i> morning, madam."</p> + +<p>The bright spring sunshine pouring in at the windows lit up the +threadbare, colourless matting, showed the dust that danced above the +parquet after each footfall; but it could not reach the great mirror on +the stairs. The mirrors were growing dimmer and dimmer. As the black +figure passed and repassed, the first reflected Mrs. Marsden was +scarcely less vague and unsubstantial than the line of Mrs. Marsdens +walking by her side.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mears and Miss Woolfrey, disconsolately pacing the lower and the +upper floor, seemed like captains of a ship becalmed—like honest +captains of a water-logged ship, feeling it tremble and shiver as it +settled down beneath their feet, knowing that it was soon to sink, and +thinking that they were ready to go down with it. When they paused in +their rounds of inspection, it was because really there was nothing to +inspect. They turned their heads and looked, from behind the dusty piles +of carpets or the trays of fly-blown china,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> at the establishment over +the way—looked from death to life; and for a few minutes watched the +jostling crowd and the brilliant range of colours on the other side of +the road.</p> + +<p>No dust there. Here, it was impossible to prevent the dust. The +dust-sheets were in tatters; the brooms and sprinklers were worn out; +there were not enough hands to sweep and rub. Mears himself looked +dusty.</p> + +<p>And when the sunlight fell upon him, he looked very old, very grey, and +rather shaky. He never blew out his cheeks or swished his coat-tails +now. The voluminous frock-coat seemed several sizes too large for him; +it was greasy at the elbows, and frayed at the cuffs. The salary of +Mears was hopelessly in arrear. For a long time Mears, like the +governor, had found himself obliged to crave for something on +account—just to keep going with.</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>One sunny April day Marsden entered the shop about noon, went into the +office; and, not discovering his wife there, ordered the type-writing +girl to fetch her immediately.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Richard?" said Mrs. Marsden, presently appearing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, there you are—at last. You never seem to be in your right place +when you're wanted. I've been waiting here five minutes—and not a soul +on the lookout to receive people."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry."</p> + +<p>"Anybody could walk in from the street and march slap into this room, +without being asked who he was and what his business was. And a nice +idea it would give a stranger of our management."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry. But was that all you had to say to me?"</p> + +<p>"No. Look here," he went on grumblingly. "Bence, if you please, has +asked me for an appointment."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p><p>"Will you see him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—I think so."</p> + +<p>"Very good."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I've told the little bounder I'll see him."</p> + +<p>"Do you wish me to be present at the interview?"</p> + +<p>"No—better not."</p> + +<p>A quarter of an hour afterwards Mr. Archibald Bence was coming up the +empty shop. It was years since he had crossed the threshold; and +certainly his eyes were expert enough to see now, if he cared to look +about him, the dire results of his implacable rivalry. But he showed +nothing in his face: smugly self-possessed, smilingly imperturbable, he +followed the shop-walker straight to the counting-house.</p> + +<p>The shop-walker announced him at the door of the inner room, and he +marched in. He bowed low, as Mrs. Marsden, with a slight inclination of +the head, passed out. Then Marsden shut the door.</p> + +<p>But upstairs and downstairs the dull air vibrated as if electric +discharges were passing through it in all directions; the whole shop +stirred and throbbed; the whispering assistants quivered. "Did you see +him?" "I couldn't get a peep at him." "I just saw the top of his hat." +Bence had come to call upon the governor. Bence was in the shop. That +great man was behind their glass.</p> + +<p>Soon they heard sounds of the noisy interview—at least, Marsden was +making a lot of noise. The minutes seemed long; but there were only five +or six of them before the counting-house doors opened and Bence +reappeared. He was perfectly calm, talking quietly and politely, though +the governor bellowed.</p> + +<p>"All right, Mr. Marsden, don't excite yourself. I only asked a +question."</p> + +<p>"Yes, a blasted impertinent one."</p> + +<p>"Well, no bones broken, anyhow," and Bence smiled.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p><p>"If you should ever change your mind—come over the road, and let me +know."</p> + +<p>"I'll see you damned first."</p> + +<p>Nothing, however, could ruffle Bence.</p> + +<p>"Just so. But, as I was saying, if you ever <i>should</i> care to do +business—well, I'm not far off. Good morning to you."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden, when she returned to the inner room, found her husband +standing near the desk, sullenly scowling at the floor.</p> + +<p>"I was a fool to swear at him. I ought to have kicked him down the +shop.... Can you guess what he came about?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not clever at guessing. I'll wait till you tell me."</p> + +<p>"He wanted us to close more than half the shop, and sublet it to him for +the remainder of the lease." And Marsden sullenly and growlingly +described the details of this impudent proposal. Bence suggested that +the yard and the new packing rooms could be used by him as a warehouse; +that all departments to the west of the silk counter might be +transferred to the eastern side; that he would build a party wall at his +own expense, and use all this western block "for one thing or another." +Bence's question in plain words therefore was, Would they now confess to +the universe that their premises were about four times too big for their +trade?</p> + +<p>"Not to be thought of," said Mrs. Marsden.</p> + +<p>"No. I suppose not;" and Marsden glanced at her furtively, and then +rattled the keys in his pocket. "We won't think of it."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXVII</span></h2> + +<p>Another month had gone, and the end of all things was approaching.</p> + +<p>"Jane," said Marsden, "we're beat. We'd better own it. We are beat to +the world. It's no good going on."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>It was a dull and depressing afternoon—the sky obscured by heavy +clouds, a little rain falling at intervals,—so dark in the room behind +the glass that Mrs. Marsden was compelled to switch on the electric +light above the American desk. She had turned in her chair, and was +watching her husband's face intently; and the light from the lamp showed +that her own face had become extraordinarily pale.</p> + +<p>"It's no good, Jane. You must see it just the same as I do. We're +done—and the only thing is to consider how we are to escape a smash."</p> + +<p>Then he told her that Bence had offered to buy them out. Bence was ready +to swallow them whole. Bence was prepared to give them a fair price for +their entire property—long lease of the premises, stock, fittings, +assets, the complete bag of tricks. He would take it over as a still +going concern, with all its debts and liabilities. If they accepted +Bence's offer, they would merely have to put the money in their pockets, +and could wash their hands of a bitterly bad job.</p> + +<p>"Don't talk so loud. Someone may hear you."</p> + +<p>"No," he said, "there's no one outside, except Miss O'Donnell; and you +can hear her machine—so she can't be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> eavesdropping.... I'll give you +my reasons for saying it's a fair price."</p> + +<p>"Yes, please do.... You haven't mentioned the amount yet."</p> + +<p>"I'm coming to it. I want to prepare your mind. Of course I don't know +how it will strike you."...</p> + +<p>"Go on, please."</p> + +<p>"First of all, I'll say I'm certain it's more than we should get from +anyone else. I've gone to the root of everything. I have worked it out +with plain figures.... Well, then—Bence will give six thousand pounds."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't accept the offer."</p> + +<p>"It would be three thousand apiece."</p> + +<p>"I refuse to agree to the sale."</p> + +<p>"It will be ready money, you know—paid on the nail."</p> + +<p>"Richard, I can't agree to it."</p> + +<p>"Why not? Of course I know I can't jump you into it. I don't want to do +so. I simply want to persuade you that it's our only course."</p> + +<p>Then he began to argue and plead with her. He said that he considered it +would be madness obstinately to decline such an opportunity, and she +ought really to be grateful to him for cutting the knot of their +difficulties. He explained that only two days after Bence's memorable +visit, he had gone across the road and reopened negotiations on a wider +scale. He owned that he had at first resented the approach of Bence as a +gross insult; he had felt disposed to kick Bence; but <i>afterwards</i>, +calmly thinking it over, he had come to the conclusion that Bence—"if +properly, handled"—might eventually prove their best friend. In this +softer, calmer mood, he had made a return call on Bence—had handled him +magnificently, had bluffed him and jollied him, had slowly but surely +screwed him up to make a splendid and a firm offer.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p><p>"But, Richard, supposing that we were to sell the business, what would +happen to you?"</p> + +<p>"I should go away—to California. I'm sick of this stinking town. It's +played out for me. At Mallingbridge I'm a dead-beat—people don't +believe in me—I've no real friends. But I should do all right out +West—and I want a decent climate. Between you and me and the post, I +funk another English winter."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you want to desert me altogether?"</p> + +<p>"Jane, what's the use of asking me that? You and I have got to the end +of our tether, haven't we? What good can I do sticking here any longer? +I can't help you—I can't help myself. We're done. You'd far wiser +divide what we can grab from Bence, and let me go."</p> + +<p>"But to a person of your tastes and habits, three thousand pounds is not +an inexhaustible sum. Do you think that, as your entire capital, it +would be enough for you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do," he said eagerly. "Life is cheaper out there. In that lovely +climate one doesn't want to binge up. There aren't the same temptations. +I should turn over a new leaf—put the brake on—make a fresh start."</p> + +<p>"And should I never see you again?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't say that. No—of course I should come back. I don't see +what real difference it would make to you. We're a semi-detached couple, +as it is."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but not quite detached."</p> + +<p>"Well, you'd let me go on a little longer string. That's all about it;" +and he laughed good-humouredly. He believed that he would soon overcome +her opposition. "I never meant any total severance, you know. We should +be like the swells—Mrs. Marsden is residing at Mallingbridge; Mr. +Marsden has gone to the Pacific Coast for the winter. We'd put it in the +paper, if you liked."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p><p>"I see that you are very keen to close with—with Mr. Bence's +proposal."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am—and I honestly believe you ought to be just as keen."</p> + +<p>And again he extolled his personal merit in screwing up the proposer. +Bence had pointed out that if he quietly waited until Thompson & Marsden +were forced as bankrupts to put up their shutters, he would buy all he +wanted at a much lower price. The premises, and the premises only, were +what Bence wanted. After a bankruptcy he could buy the lease at the +market price, and not have to give a penny for anything else. Bence said +his offer was extravagantly liberal; but he frankly admitted that he +felt in a hurry to clear up the street, and make it neat and tidy. He +would therefore fork out thus handsomely to avoid delay.</p> + +<p>"He said we were doing the street <i>harm</i>, Jane. And, upon my word, I +couldn't deny that. I've often told Mears we have got to look more like +a funeral than anything else."</p> + +<p>"And you wish us to be decently buried?"</p> + +<p>He laughed and shrugged his shoulders in the utmost good-humour. He felt +sure now that she would yield; and with increasing eagerness he urged +her to adopt his views.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said at last. "It is your wish?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is."</p> + +<p>"Then on one condition," and she spoke in a hard, matter-of-fact +voice,—"on <i>one</i> condition, I'll consent."</p> + +<p>"What's your condition?"</p> + +<p>"When we wind up our business relations, we must wind up all our other +relations.... It must be a total severance—I am using your own +word—and no half measures. When you leave Mallingbridge you must leave +it forever. You must undertake—bind yourself never to set foot in it +again."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, I say."</p> + +<p>"You must execute a deed of separation."</p> + +<p>He seemed greatly surprised; and for a little while hesitated, as if +unable to express his thoughts.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Jane.... You're talking big, old lady. What next?... Deed of +separation! That's a very large order."</p> + +<p>"You are taking freedom for yourself. You must give me freedom."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, you overdo that line," he said slowly. "I told you I would come +back—some day or other. Yet now you take up this high and mighty +tone—as though I had given you the right to cut me adrift altogether."</p> + +<p>"Ah! I understand. You thought you'd have <i>your</i> three thousand to +spend, and <i>my</i> three thousand to fall back upon. Then again I refuse +the offer."</p> + +<p>"Don't be hasty—and don't impute bad motives where none exist. No, you +have struck me all of a heap by what you demand. I wasn't prepared for +it—and it wants a bit of thought, before I can say yes or no."</p> + +<p>And he began to bargain about the deed of separation. He had seen an +unexpected chance, and he meant to make the most of it.</p> + +<p>"Let's be business-like, Jane. If I renounce all claims on you +forever—if I agree to make a formal renunciation,—well, surely that's +worth <i>something</i> to you?"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean, worth money? Are you asking me to pay you?"</p> + +<p>"I want to start a new life out there—and I shall need all the money I +can get. You told me so, yourself—three thou. is devilish little to +face the world on."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said quietly, "and with another person dependent on you."</p> + +<p>"What do you say?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p><p>"I say, you are not going alone.... We must think of your companion, as +well as of yourself."</p> + +<p>"Jane, you're hard on me."</p> + +<p>"Am I?"</p> + +<p>And the bargaining went on.</p> + +<p>Finally they came to terms. She was to give him half her share, in +exchange for absolute freedom. He would thus have four thousand five +hundred pounds as initial impetus for his new career.</p> + +<p>"Do you say <i>done</i> to that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied coldly and firmly, "I say done."</p> + +<p>He sat down, drew out a dirty handkerchief, and wiped his forehead. His +argumentative efforts had made him warm; but he smiled contentedly. He +considered that "in the circs." it was a jolly good bargain.</p> + +<p>"Dick," and her voice suddenly softened. "Have you thought what <i>I</i> am +to do? Fifteen hundred pounds isn't much for <i>me</i>—to start a new life +with."</p> + +<p>"You have money of your own.... I am certain that you have a tidy +nest-egg still."</p> + +<p>"If I were to tell you that I hadn't another penny in the world?"</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't believe it."</p> + +<p>"If I convinced you that it was literally true, would it make any +difference to you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't follow."</p> + +<p>"Would you still take half my share from me?"</p> + +<p>"What's the good of talking about it?" And he looked at her +thoughtfully. "Jane, the devil is driving me. I'm not the man I was. I +funk dangers. My health is broken.... You'll be all right. You have +friends. I have none. It's vital to me to know that we—that I shall +have enough to rub along with out there."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden said no more.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, you'll be all right, old girl. Never fear!" And he got up, and +stretched himself. "But I say! We've been jawing such a deuce of a time +that it'll be too late to do anything to-day, unless we look sharp.... +Will you give me a letter to Hyde & Collins, saying you accept?"</p> + +<p>"No, I'll go there, and tell them by word of mouth."</p> + +<p>"May I go with you?"</p> + +<p>"No, that's unnecessary."</p> + +<p>"But you <i>will</i> go, Jane? I mean, at once. You do intend to go—and no +rot?"</p> + +<p>"I have told you I am going."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but hurry up then. They don't keep open all night."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell them within an hour."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Within an hour she had spoken to Mr. Bence's solicitors and gone on to +the office of Mr. Prentice.</p> + +<p>"Now," she said to her old friend, "you see me in my need. The time has +come. Help me with all your power."</p> + +<p>Then very rapidly she told him all that had happened.</p> + +<p>"So there goes the end of an old song," said Mr. Prentice. "Mind you, I +don't tell you that you are doing wrong. It may be—probably it +<i>is</i>—the only thing to do.... Six thousand pounds!" It was obvious that +Mr. Prentice had been astonished by the largeness of this sum. But he +would not admit the fact. He spoke cautiously.</p> + +<p>"It is more than anyone else would have given."</p> + +<p>"Possibly! But I might have got you better terms from Bence. Let me take +up the negotiations now. If he will give as much as six thousand, he may +give more."</p> + +<p>"No, I have told Hyde & Collins that we accept."</p> + +<p>"That was premature. But you referred them to me?"</p> + +<p>"No. I told them to prepare the conveyance at once."</p> + +<p>"But—good gracious—they can't act for both sides."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span></p><p>"Of course they can. It will save time—it will save money. There is no +difficulty <i>there</i>. We sell all we have. A child could carry it +through."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but really, I don't know. Your interests must be guarded."</p> + +<p>"No, no." She was nervous and excited, and she spoke piteously and yet +irritably. "I have instructed them. They must attend to the sale. And +<i>you</i> must attend to the deed of separation. Concentrate your mind—all +your mind on it.... Don't you understand, don't you see that this is +everything and the sale is nothing?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't see that at all."</p> + +<p>"It is what I have been praying for night and day—it is my escape. And +he is granting it to me of his own consent—he consents to give me +unmolested freedom."</p> + +<p>And she implored Mr. Prentice to use his skill and sagacity to their +uttermost extent.</p> + +<p>"I want it to be a renunciation of all possible claims. It must be +absolutely clear that this is the end of our partnership."</p> + +<p>"Oh, as to that," said Mr. Prentice, "the partnership ends automatically +with the sale of the business."</p> + +<p>"But put it in the deed—explicitly. Make him surrender every +claim—even if it seems to you only the shadow of a claim."</p> + +<p>Then, without saying that she was to pay a price for Marsden's +acquiescence, she repeated the agreed conditions of the separation. She +became agitated when Mr. Prentice assured her that he would easily draft +the deed.</p> + +<p>"No, don't treat it as an easy task. Get counsel's opinion—the best +counsel. Spare no expense—in this case. It is life and death to me.... +Oh, Mr. Prentice, don't fail me <i>now</i>. Make the deed strong—make it so +binding that he can never slip out of it."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p><p>"I won't fail you," said Mr. Prentice earnestly. "We'll make your deed +as strong—as effective—as is humanly possible—a deed that the Courts +will be far more inclined to support than to upset."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she said, as if now satisfied. "That's all I ask for—as +strong as is humanly possible."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXVIII</span></h2> + +<p>It was a bright May morning and the sunshine streamed into Mr. +Prentice's room gaily and warmly, lighting up the old panelled walls, +flickering on the bunch of keys that hung from the lock of the open +safe, and making the tin boxes show queer reflections of the windows, +the tops of houses on the other side of Hill Street, and even of the +blue sky above the chimney-pots.</p> + +<p>A large table had been brought in for the occasion; a clerk had +furnished it with newly-filled ink-stands and nice clean blotting paper; +another clerk was ready to receive the visitors as they came upstairs. +Mr. Prentice moved his armchair to the head of the table. He would sit +here, and preside over the meeting. He glanced at the clock.—A quarter +to twelve!</p> + +<p>At noon Mr. Archibald Bence or his representative was to complete the +purchase of Marsden & Thompson's by handing over cash; and at the same +time the domestic affairs of Mrs. Marsden were to be wound up forever.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden was the first of the interested parties to arrive on the +scene. She looked careworn and nervous; and, as she shook hands, Mr. +Prentice noticed that her fingers trembled.</p> + +<p>"Now, my dear," he said kindly, "there's nothing to worry about. You sit +by my side here, and take things quietly."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden, however, preferred to sit away from the table, on a chair +between the windows, with her back to the light.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p><p>"Nothing to worry about now," repeated Mr. Prentice, confidently and +cheerily. "It'll soon be over."</p> + +<p>"But it won't be over without some unpleasantness."</p> + +<p>"Why? Mr. Marsden has been quite pleasant so far—really quite easy to +deal with."</p> + +<p>"But he won't be to-day—I know it." And she showed great anxiety. "You +say he has made all arrangements for his voyage?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He tells me he sails on Thursday. And he goes to London to-night."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if he truly means it."</p> + +<p>"Of course he means it."</p> + +<p>"I suppose he does. The things he packed at our house went straight to +Liverpool. But—even now—he may change his mind."</p> + +<p>"How can he?... Hush!"</p> + +<p>There was a heavy footstep in the passage. The clerk opened the door, +and announced Mr. Marsden.</p> + +<p>"Am I late?"</p> + +<p>"No, you are in excellent time," said Prentice; and, looking at him, he +endeavoured not to manifest the thoughts aroused by his appearance.</p> + +<p>It seemed that Marsden, bracing himself for the day, was trying to +maintain a sort of buccaneering joviality. Evidently, too, he had made +some attempts to render himself presentable in general company. He had +visited the barber, and his bloated face was smooth and glistening after +a close shave; a neatly cut piece of plaster covered an eruption on the +back of his neck; he wore a clean collar, and the cheap violet satin +neck-tie conveyed the idea that it had been chosen by feminine taste. +Probably his travelling companion had assisted in brushing and cleaning +him, and sending him forth as nice as possible.</p> + +<p>Yet, in spite of this unusual care, he looked most ruffianly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> as he +lolled in a chair near the open safe, with the bright sunlight full upon +him. His eyes were slightly bloodshot; and the gross, overfed frame +suggested the characteristics of a beast of prey who for a long time has +ceased to undergo the invigorating activities of the chase and been +enabled without effort to gorge at will. Now he had come for his last +greedy and unearned meal.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden, on the other side of the room, lowered her eyes, folded +her hands, sat silent and motionless.</p> + +<p>Mr. Collins of Hyde & Collins, followed by his own clerk, was the next +to arrive. He came bustling into the room, and immediately seemed to +take possession of it.</p> + +<p>"Good morning. Good morning. Here we are. Put my bag on the table.... +Where are you sitting, Prentice.... Over there? All right. Then I'll sit +here;" and he took the chair at the end of the table, opposite to Mr. +Prentice. "You sit there, Fielding;" and he waved to his clerk. "Sit +down. Don't stand."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice disliked Collins rather more than he disliked Hyde. To his +mind, Collins was everything that a solicitor should not be—impudent, +unscrupulous, vulgar; a discredit to the profession. His ragged beard, +his snout of a nose, his little ferret-eyes, shifting so rapidly behind +steel-rimmed spectacles, were all obnoxious; but what made Mr. Prentice +really angry was his irrepressible familiarity, with the odious +facetious manner that accompanied it. He said Prentice instead of +<i>Mister</i> Prentice; and, refusing to recognize snubs, always pretended +that they were on the best of terms with each other.</p> + +<p>"Well," asked Marsden, "why don't we begin?"</p> + +<p>"No hurry, is there?" said Collins. He was busy with his ugly black bag, +getting out the important document, and unfolding some memorandum +papers.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, <i>I</i>'m in no particular hurry," said Marsden. "But twelve o'clock +was the hour named."</p> + +<p>"Is it twelve.... Can you hear Holy Trinity clock from here, Prentice? +We hear it plainly at our place."</p> + +<p>Then dapper, smiling Mr. Archibald Bence was announced.</p> + +<p>"Come in," said Collins patronisingly. "Here we are, all assembled. Be +seated. Fielding, put a chair for Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>Mr. Archibald looked splendid in the sunlight. He shone all over, from +his bald head to his patent leather boots. His black coat was +beautifully braided, elegantly padded on the shoulders, tightly pulled +in at the waist; his buff waistcoat exactly matched his wash-leather +gloves; and with him there entered the room a pleasing fragrance shed by +the moss roses in his button-hole. He bowed gallantly to the only lady +present, had an affable word for Prentice and Collins, and nodded rather +contemptuously to Marsden.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he said blandly, "it is the sort of day on which one is +glad to be alive;" and he turned about, with a dandified air, to find a +vacant spot for his brand-new topper.</p> + +<p>"Take Mr. Bence's hat," said Collins; and his clerk did as he was bid.</p> + +<p>Bence, declining a chair, went and leaned against the wall near Mrs. +Marsden, and twirled his moustache.</p> + +<p>"What are we waiting for?" asked Marsden.</p> + +<p>"Only for one small trifle," said Mr. Collins facetiously. "But I don't +suppose you'd dispense with it. Not quite a matter of form."</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"The money—the purchase money, my dear sir."</p> + +<p>"What? Haven't you got it with you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear me, no," said Mr. Collins. "But it's coming—oh, yes, it's +coming."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span></p><p>"I understand that a clerk is bringing it from the bank," said Mr. +Prentice. He found the facetious manner of Mr. Collins utterly +insufferable.</p> + +<p>Marsden shrugged his shoulders, and crossed his legs. Archibald Bence +was looking at him; Collins looked at him; old Prentice looked at him; +and all at once he seemed to feel the necessity of asserting himself.</p> + +<p>"I never understood the use of appointments unless they are punctually +attended. It's waste of time asking people for twelve, if you don't +intend to get to work till half an hour later."</p> + +<p>Bence moved to the window, and looked out.</p> + +<p>"A thousand apologies for keeping you waiting, Mr. Marsden." He spoke +over his shoulder. "Ah, here the man comes;" and he pulled out his grand +gold watch. "Then I've really only wasted three minutes of your valuable +time."</p> + +<p>"All right," said Marsden sulkily.</p> + +<p>The bank clerk came in, and bowed to the company as he went to Mr. +Collins's side at the table. Then he opened his wallet and brought out +the white sheaves of bank-notes.</p> + +<p>"Will you go through them, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Collins. "Will you kindly check them with me, Prentice?"</p> + +<p>"I'll count them after you," said Mr. Prentice. It did not suit his +dignity to leave his chair and go round the table to stand at Collins's +elbow.</p> + +<p>Mr. Collins found the total of the notes correct, pushed them across to +Prentice, and signed the bank receipt.</p> + +<p>"Then you won't want me any more," said the bank clerk.</p> + +<p>"Wait," said Collins pompously, as if the bank, as well as Mr. +Prentice's room, belonged to him. "Stand over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> there—or sit down, if +you please. My clerk will go back with you."</p> + +<p>Marsden had risen and approached the table. It was as if the bank-notes +had irresistibly drawn him. Perhaps, though in his career he had +dissipated so many notes singly or by small batches, he had never yet +seen such a good show of them, all together, at one time. And such noble +denominations!</p> + +<p>"Twice three thousand," said Prentice. "Quite right." While counting, he +had divided the notes into two piles; and now he slid them towards the +middle of the table, and put an ink-stand on top to prevent their +blowing away.</p> + +<p>Marsden stood over them. He could not leave the table now.</p> + +<p>"Then here we are. All in order," said Collins, as he spread out his +parchment and glanced at Mrs. Marsden. "I suppose, strictly speaking, it +should be ladies first. But as the pen is close to your hand, Mr. +Marsden—will you, sir, open the ball?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's the conveyance for the sale, eh? Where do I sign?"</p> + +<p>"There—against the seal—over the pencil marks.... And I'll witness +your signature."</p> + +<p>Then Mr. Marsden duly signed his name, and repeated the formula as +prompted by Collins.</p> + +<p>"I deliver it as my act and deed.... Now, Jane!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden had not stirred from her seat.</p> + +<p>"Don't put down your pen, Richard. There's the other deed to sign. Mr. +Prentice is ready for you."</p> + +<p>"All right—but you come and sign the conveyance;" and he moved to Mr. +Prentice's end of the table. "I ought to read this—but I suppose I may +take it as read."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, I think so," said Mr. Prentice.</p> + +<p>"It's exactly the same as the draft that I passed?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p><p>"Yes, of course."</p> + +<p>"I may trust you not to have dabbed in something artful that I'd never +heard of?"</p> + +<p>"You had better read it," said Prentice curtly, "if you <i>can't</i> trust +me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's all right;" and Marsden laughed. "Now then—where do you +want my autograph?"</p> + +<p>Still chuckling, he affixed his signature; and, he smiled +good-humouredly while the witness filled the attestation space.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden had come to the table, and was pulling off a rusty black +glove.</p> + +<p>"There you are," said her husband. "The conveyance first, Jane."</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Marsden, looking at him resolutely. "I'll sign this deed +first. It's the one I'm most interested in;" and she turned to Mr. +Prentice. "But I must try the pen. Kindly let me have a bit of paper."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice fetched a half sheet of note-paper from his desk, and +handed it to her.</p> + +<p>"Thank you." Stooping over the table, she tested the pen by scribbling a +few words. Then she executed the deed; and, while Mr. Fielding was being +good enough to write his name and address as witness, she gave the +half-leaf of paper to Mr. Prentice.</p> + +<p>"Now then," said Marsden. "Look sharp. Don't be all night about it." He +had gone to the other end of the table, and he waited anxiously to see +the conveyance completed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice was reading Mrs. Marsden's scribbled words. He looked at +her, and she pointed with her pen. She had written: "Lock the deed in +your safe, and put the keys in your pocket."</p> + +<p>"Now I am ready, Richard."</p> + +<p>But still she did not sign. She was watching Mr. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span>Prentice. The door of +the safe shut with a faint, dull clank, and Mr. Prentice locked the door +and took out the keys.</p> + +<p>Then Mrs. Marsden signed the conveyance, and Fielding obligingly +witnessed her signature.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," she said; and, returning to her chair between the windows, +she sat down again.</p> + +<p>"That's done," said Collins; and he called to the bank clerk, who had +been patiently waiting in a corner of the room. "Mr. Fielding will go +back with you. This document is to be put away with Mr. Bence's papers. +My compliments to the manager. He knows all about it."</p> + +<p>"But," said Marsden, "doesn't Mr. Bence sign it?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't necessary," said Collins.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" And Marsden looked at Bence suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"He can sign it at his convenience," said Collins, "if he ever wishes to +do so.... Run along, young fellows. My compliments to the manager;" and +he addressed Marsden with extreme facetiousness. "We pay on this—so you +can be quite sure we are not deceiving you. The money <i>talks</i>. You can +take it whenever you please.... Ah! I see—you're not slow about that."</p> + +<p>And in fact, without waiting for Mr. Collins to conclude his invitation, +Marsden had pushed aside the ink-stand and picked up the notes. One +bundle he unceremoniously thrust into the breast pocket of his coat; and +now with a licked finger he was separating the edges of the other +bundle.</p> + +<p>"Stop," said Mr. Prentice. "What are you doing? Allow me, please;" and +he held out his hand. "I will attend to this."</p> + +<p>Marsden, without surrendering the notes, explained matters in a +confidential whisper.</p> + +<p>"Fifteen hundred goes to her, and the rest to me."</p> + +<p>"Indeed it doesn't," said Prentice warmly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p><p>"It's all right," said Marsden. "It was arranged between her and me."</p> + +<p>"But I know nothing of any such arrangement. I can't permit it for a +moment."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> can't permit it!" said Marsden indignantly. "What the dickens has +it got to do with you?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Collins, with an assumption of tactful delicacy, had pushed back his +chair. "Excuse me. This is a private conversation. I hasten to +withdraw." And he went across to Archibald Bence and Mrs. Marsden, and +talked to them in a rapid undertone.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice went on protesting; and Marsden, cutting him short, called +loudly to his wife.</p> + +<p>"Jane, tell him that it is all right."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said. "Quite all right, Mr. Prentice."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you mean that you are giving him a present of fifteen hundred +pounds?"</p> + +<p>"It's not a present," said Marsden.</p> + +<p>"No," said Mrs. Marsden, "it was a bargain."</p> + +<p>"Between ourselves, and concerning nobody else;" and Marsden glared at +Mr. Prentice.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless Mr. Prentice still expostulated. "I think it is highly +improper. I would never have consented to—"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," said Collins, "if I intrude—but it has been impossible not +to catch the gist of your discussion. Really it seems to me that it is +too late for you, Prentice, to tender advice on the point—and that the +lady's wish must decide the matter. If Mrs. Marsden announces that she +wishes—"</p> + +<p>"Just so, Mr. Collins;" and Marsden looked at him gratefully.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Bence soothingly. "That's how it strikes me, too."</p> + +<p>Marsden looked at Bence with surprise and pleasure.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p><p>They all seemed to be on his side. He appealed to his wife with a +rather boisterous joviality.</p> + +<p>"Jane, speak up for me. Tell them that you did wish it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did wish it."</p> + +<p>"Then there is no more to be said," continued Bence, smoothly and +glibly. "On an occasion like this, one naturally wishes to avoid any +acrimonious talk. Especially in a peculiar case like the present—when a +gentleman and a lady are parting,—there's no need for them to part +other than as good friends. That, madam, I feel certain is also your +wish."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mrs. Marsden in a low voice, "I do greatly wish it."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Jane. I'm sure I do. But I don't know why we should make +speeches about it, or get Mr. Bence to expound our sentiments."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," said Bence, "if I trespass. You are leaving us, Mr. +Marsden—and I share Mrs. Marsden's desire that you should not leave us +with any feeling of ill-will."</p> + +<p>"Precisely," said Collins, picking up the word, almost as if taking his +cue in a rehearsed dialogue. "That is what everyone must feel." He had +reseated himself at the table; and he looked round with a comprehensive +smile, as if assuming sole charge of everything and everybody. "Mr. +Bence has touched the point very gracefully.... Pray be seated, Mr. +Marsden."</p> + +<p>"What, aren't we done?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, my dear sir," said Collins with consequential urbanity. "Our +business is done. But spare us one minute for friendly chat. Do sit +down.... Thank you. As I was about to say, following the line of our +friend Bence: In the hour of separation, when two parties by mutual +agreement are saying good-bye, it is always well that they should +thoroughly understand the future situation."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span></p><p>"What's all this gas about?" said Marsden. "Are you trying to pull my +leg? What are you getting at?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Marsden, you are retiring from trade, you are going to the other +side of the world—I wish you health and prosperity."</p> + +<p>"And I, too," said Bence. "The best of luck, Mr. Marsden."</p> + +<p>Marsden got up again. "Thank you for nothing, Mr. Archibald Bence. +You're both trying to be funny, I suppose. Only I fail to see the +joke.... Good morning;" and he moved towards the door. "Jane, good-bye."</p> + +<p>"But," said Mr. Archibald, "we've wished you luck. Don't go without +wishing us luck."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Collins, "don't go without wishing your wife luck."</p> + +<p>"Then here's luck, Jane;" and Marsden laughed.</p> + +<p>"And luck to Bence's," said Collins blandly. "Wish luck to Bence's."</p> + +<p>"No, I'll be damned if I do."</p> + +<p>"But that," said Collins, with a grin, "invalidates your other good +wish. You can't wish luck to your wife without wishing luck to Bence's;" +and he bowed to Mrs. Marsden. "I think you should now explain. He will +take it better from you."</p> + +<p>"Richard," said Mrs. Marsden quietly and firmly, "<i>I</i> am Bence's."</p> + +<p>For a few moments there was silence. Then Marsden came slowly to the +table, leaned both hands on it, and stared across at his wife.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean by that, Jane? Is this another joke?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Mr. Archibald. "It is strictly accurate. Bence's, with +all that's in it—including your humble servant—practically belongs to +this lady."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p><p>"And we all felt," said Collins, "that you ought to know the facts +before you started on your journey. We didn't want you coming back again +to inquire—don't you know."</p> + +<p>Marsden seemed not to hear. He stared at his wife, with his blood-shot +eyes widely distended; and he spoke only to her.</p> + +<p>"Jane, answer me. Is it true?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Richard."</p> + +<p>"But <i>how</i>?"</p> + +<p>"You asked me what I did with my money—the remainder of my own money. +You were always asking me. Well, I gave it to Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>"How much was it?"</p> + +<p>"Not very much," said Mrs. Marsden deprecatingly; "but he has done very +well with it."</p> + +<p>"But that was treachery—a damnable betrayal."</p> + +<p>"Richard, don't use strong words. It was no betrayal. It was common +sense. Remember, desperate diseases need desperate remedies."</p> + +<p>"You went over to my enemy. You helped him to destroy our business."</p> + +<p>"I didn't," said Mrs. Marsden earnestly. "I gave him my money; but I +gave you my work. I never ceased fighting him. Isn't that true, Mr. +Bence?"</p> + +<p>"Strictly accurate," said Bence. "She fought gamely to the bitter end."</p> + +<p>"You shut your head," said Marsden fiercely. "Don't interfere between me +and my wife. I must have this out with her first. I'll talk to you +directly."</p> + +<p>"I'll be ready for you," said Bence. "But till then, please moderate +your language;" and he moved to a window, and looked down into the +street.</p> + +<p>"So that's what you did, Jane, eh? Sneaked off behind my back, and sold +yourself to the enemy!"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p><p>"I continued to serve you faithfully. Success or failure lay in your +hands, not mine. I never ceased working for the firm."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's easy to say, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"It's the truth."</p> + +<p>"It's a lie—and you know it."</p> + +<p>"Will you moderate your language?" said Bence. "Gentlemen, I beg your +support. This lady must be protected from insult."</p> + +<p>But the attention of Marsden and his wife was so entirely concentrated +on each other that neither of them seemed to hear the interruption.</p> + +<p>"Richard, don't go on like this—don't force me to say unkind things +which I shall regret later."</p> + +<p>"I knew there was some infernal mystery at the bottom of our troubles. +But, by Jove, I never guessed that it was <i>you</i> who'd played false."</p> + +<p>"Richard, don't abuse me."</p> + +<p>"Abuse you? I shan't waste breath on abusing you. You have cheated +me—or you've <i>tried</i> to cheat me. For I'm not going to let you;" and he +turned towards the others. "Take notice, all of you, that I shan't +submit to this. Prentice, do you understand? You were always hostile to +me. I suppose you helped to hatch this plot."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice was looking so absolutely bewildered that his face should +have been sufficient proof of his innocence.</p> + +<p>"No," he said feebly. "All this has come upon me as a complete +surprise."</p> + +<p>"Then you, Mr. Collins—understand it's all mighty fine, but it won't +wash."</p> + +<p>"Won't it?" said Collins.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't allow myself to be cheated—even by my wife."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span></p><p>"Richard," said Mrs. Marsden, "don't call me a cheat again."</p> + +<p>"You there—Bence—take notice. I'll bring you to account for this. I'm +not the sort to be tricked and fooled by any little swine that gets +plotting with my wife. No, not if I know it. Cheating people is very +clever, but—"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden sprang up from her chair by the wall.</p> + +<p>"How dare you call me a cheat?"</p> + +<p>Her eyes were blazing. She had clenched her fists; and, trembling with +passion, she came to the table and faced her husband.</p> + +<p>"What have you ever given me in exchange for all I gave you—except +shame and sorrow?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to listen to your yelling and—"</p> + +<p>"I gave you my love, and you trampled on it—I gave you my home, and you +polluted it—I gave you the work of my life, and you pulled it to pieces +before my eyes. Yet still I was true and loyal to you. I could have +divorced you, and I wouldn't do it. I promised you that I'd hold to you +till you yourself consented to set me free; and I kept my promise. You +were a liar—but I respected your words. You were a thief—but I dealt +with you as if you had been an honest man. I fed and clothed you when +you were well, I nursed you when you were sick—I hid your crimes, I +sheltered you from their consequences. At this minute I am keeping you +out of the prison that is your only proper place.... And yet—great +God—he has the audacity to say that I am cheating him!"</p> + +<p>And then Mrs. Marsden, shaking in excitement and anger, went back to her +chair and sat down.</p> + +<p>"You asked for that," said Collins, with renewed facetiousness, "and you +got it."</p> + +<p>Bence was looking out of the window; and he whistled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> and gently clapped +his hands, as if applauding the passionate force of Mrs. Marsden's +unexpected tirade.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what she means," said Marsden hoarsely. "And I dare say +she doesn't know, herself." He had been staggered by his wife's attack; +and at her last words he recoiled from the table, as if suddenly +daunted, almost cowed. Now he was pulling himself together again. "Who +cares what a woman says?" And he cleared his throat, and spoke loudly +and defiantly. "I don't, for one."</p> + +<p>"Richard," murmured Mrs. Marsden, in a still tremulous voice. "I'm sorry +I said it."</p> + +<p>"All right. That's enough.... But now, if you please, we men will talk;" +and he looked from one to another. The veins showed redly on his +forehead; his glistening jaw was protruded; and he squared his huge +shoulders pugnaciously. "I tell you, once for all, I'm not going to +stand any damned rot. As to the sale—Mr. Clever Bence,—I repudiate it +utterly. It was obtained under false pretences, and I'll have it set +aside. As to the separation—I'm speaking to you, Prentice,—that +bargain falls through with the other.... And to show you what I think of +it—I am now going to tear up the deed."</p> + +<p>"Oh no, you're not," said Collins.</p> + +<p>"I warn you all," said Marsden furiously: "if anyone touches me, he'll +be sorry for it. Now, Prentice, fetch out your deed again. You shoved it +away in that safe, didn't you? Well, out with it." And he moved to the +side of Mr. Prentice, and stood over him threateningly. "Out with +it—d'you hear?"</p> + +<p>Bence and Collins had both begun to clap their hands loudly. And with +this noisy applause other sounds were mingling. Mr. Prentice, as he rose +to confront Marsden, heard quick footsteps in the passage. The door was +abruptly opened, and two policemen came into the room.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span></p><p>"This way, officers," said Collins pompously. "You are just in time to +prevent a breach of the peace. There's your man—keep your eyes on him."</p> + +<p>Marsden, turning hurriedly, saw the two uniforms and helmets solemnly +advance, and showed a craven dissatisfaction at the sight.</p> + +<p>"What are you up to now?" he asked glumly.</p> + +<p>But Collins, ignoring the question, continued to talk pompously to the +new arrivals.</p> + +<p>"As I told your superintendent, he is a dangerous character. He has been +threatening us with assault and battery—but we do not wish to give him +in charge, if we can help it. Your presence will probably be sufficient +to restrain him."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir."</p> + +<p>"He is the same man who made the disturbance at the Red Cow—and I think +he has been charged once or twice as a drunk and disorderly."</p> + +<p>"You needn't introduce him so carefully," said Bence, with a snigger. +"Mr. Marsden is already well known to the police."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Mr. Bence," said one of the policemen, "<i>we</i> know the gent."</p> + +<p>"Very well," continued Collins, with the air of a magistrate presiding +over a crowded court. "He is leaving the town to-night—forever,—and I +shall ask for a constable to see him off. From the mayor down to the +humblest citizen, Mallingbridge is tired of him—so he is going to the +western states of America. He will be more at home among the desperados +of some mining camp than he can be in a peaceful hum-drum town like +this." And Mr. Collins turned to Marsden, as though haranguing the +prisoner. "Now, sir, will you behave yourself, and let us finish our +conversation quietly and decently?"</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, you can finish your chin-music in any tune you like." Marsden +growled this out; but the voice was heavy and dejected, altogether +lacking in animation. Very obviously the arrival of the police had +crushed his spirit.</p> + +<p>"So be it," said Collins. "Then I think, officers, that will do. You may +safely leave us for the moment. But please wait outside the door, to +protect us if necessary."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Bence, "we'll give you the same signal, if you're wanted +again."</p> + +<p>"All right, Mr. Bence."</p> + +<p>And the policemen left the room. To their eyes the famous Mr. Bence was +the natural chieftain of any assemblage, no matter how pompously anybody +else talked. Here, they were at his service, detailed for Bence's just +as much as if it had been a sale day and they and their mates were +regulating the traffic in front of the shop.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Collins, with a change of manner, and speaking in a +conciliatory if argumentative tone, "we can pick up our little debate. +Mr. Marsden, come now, after all, what is this fuss about?"</p> + +<p>Marsden laughed; but his laughter was dull and spiritless.</p> + +<p>"Go on—jabber, jabber."</p> + +<p>"Really now. What is the grievance? You have sold your business and been +paid for it. Of your own free will, you have parted with your interests. +You have renounced all claims upon your wife."</p> + +<p>"Yes—but I've been tricked into doing it."</p> + +<p>"Where's the trick?"</p> + +<p>"She made me think we were done."</p> + +<p>"So you were. You came to her and told her so. You prevailed on her to +agree to the sale. It wasn't her proposition, but yours."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have made it if I had known."</p> + +<p>"You thought you had got all you could out of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>—and that was the +fact. You thought she was poor; and you find that she has made a good +investment—with her own private funds, mark you,—and she is therefore +not poor, but rather the reverse. Where's your quarrel with that?"</p> + +<p>"I am entitled to my share in her investment."</p> + +<p>"Oh, bosh! That's simply absurd."</p> + +<p>Marsden was standing up, resting his red hands on the back of a chair. +Now he moved the chair to Mr. Prentice's end of the table, sat down, and +spoke in an eager whisper.</p> + +<p>"Prentice, hostile or not, you <i>are</i> honest. I call on you to see fair +play. She can't do this, can she?"</p> + +<p>"She <i>has</i> done it," said Prentice feebly.</p> + +<p>"But tell her it isn't fair. She knows you're straight, and above board. +It's all mighty fine to bowl me out—and perhaps you don't think I +deserve any pity. But still, speak for me. She can't round on me like +this—she can't say 'Your firm is killed, and I've transferred myself +across the road to the firm that killed it.' Surely the law wouldn't +allow her to spoof me like that?"</p> + +<p>But sharp-eared Mr. Collins had heard the whisper.</p> + +<p>"Prentice, don't answer him. Mr. Marsden, I'll answer that question. I +answer for the law. I am your wife's legal adviser in all this. Please +address me, sir."</p> + +<p>Marsden turned with a final burst of fierce rage.</p> + +<p>"Then I say, curse you, I'll have the law on it."</p> + +<p>"Now look here, Marsden," and Mr. Collins's voice changed once more—to +an uncompromisingly ugly tone. "If you want the law, we'll give you your +bellyful of the law."</p> + +<p>"A good deal more than you'll like," said Bence, failing to ask for +moderation of language.</p> + +<p>"Your wife," Collins went on, "dropped a plain hint just now; and I was +very pleased to hear it, because I thought you'd understand. But I see I +must amplify it for you.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> Mrs. Marsden has been good enough to entrust +to my care all her private papers—that is, papers she has kept private +to oblige you."</p> + +<p>"I—I don't in the least follow—what you're driving at."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Specimens of your handwriting, and +so on—papers that the law would call incriminating documents,—papers +that the law would call conclusive evidence,—papers that the law would +call forgeries."</p> + +<p>"Prentice! Don't believe him."</p> + +<p>"Never mind Mr. Prentice. Attend to me.... Ah-ha,—you're beginning to +look rather foolish.... Now, how much law do you want?"</p> + +<p>"I think," said Bence, "if he has time to get safely out of the country, +that's all the law he ought to ask for."</p> + +<p>Marsden was cowed and beaten. He sat heavily and limply on his chair, +sprawling one red hand across the table, and nervously fingering his +lips with the other hand.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Collins mockingly, "what are you going to do—keep your +bargain, or go to law with us?"</p> + +<p>Marsden was thoroughly cowed and beaten. He cleared his throat several +times, and even then spoke huskily.</p> + +<p>"I must say a word or two to my wife;" and he rose from his chair +slowly.... "Of course, when a man's down, everyone can jump on him."</p> + +<p>And he went over to Mrs. Marsden, stooped, and whispered.</p> + +<p>Collins tapped his nose jocosely, and smiled at Mr. Prentice—seeming to +say without words, "What do you think of that, old boy? That's the way +Hyde & Collins tackle this sort of troublesome customer."</p> + +<p>Little Bence, resuming his dandified air and ostentatiously leaving Mrs. +Marsden and her husband to whisper together,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> picked up his glossy hat, +and dusted it with a neatly folded silk handkerchief.</p> + +<p>"Jane," said Marsden pleadingly, almost whimperingly, "you come out on +top—and I mustn't bear malice. But you <i>have</i> been hard—cruelly hard."</p> + +<p>"Dick," said Mrs. Marsden, in a shaky whisper, "don't reproach me."</p> + +<p>"But don't you think you have been a <i>little</i> hard."</p> + +<p>"No. Or it is <i>you</i> who have made me hard. I wasn't hard—once. And +remember this, Dick. Even at the end, I tried to get one word of +tenderness from you—to make you say you cared just a little for what +happened to me. But no—"</p> + +<p>"I <i>did</i> care."</p> + +<p>"No. You hadn't one kind word—or one kind thought. You and your—your +companion were going to new scenes, new hopes; and I might be left to +starve."</p> + +<p>"Jane, I swear I thought you were all right. I said so, again and again. +And now, you're rich—you're really rolling in money; and it is I who +may starve. Jane—for auld lang syne—do a bit more for me."</p> + +<p>"No;" and she shook her head resolutely.</p> + +<p>"Jane! Be like yourself.... I'm not grasping or avaricious. But at least +I ought to get as much as the business fetched. Let me have that extra +fifteen hundred."</p> + +<p>"Well—perhaps. I'll think about it."</p> + +<p>"Do it now—hand over now, or they'll only persuade you not to."</p> + +<p>"No—but I'll give it you later. I promise. I'll send it to your address +in California—as soon as I am sure that you have really arrived there."</p> + +<p>"All right. Thanks. Jane—I'll say it once again. I wish you luck. +You're a good plucked 'un—I always knew that."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p><p>Then the meeting broke up.</p> + +<p>Marsden was the first to go. His wife watched him as he went slouching +down the street. When he disappeared she did not immediately turn from +the window. She had furtively produced her pocket handkerchief, and the +gentlemen heard her blow her nose loudly and strenuously; but no one saw +her wipe the tears from her eyes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Collins, on the threshold of the room, was dismissing the policemen +with pompous thanks, and promising to drop in upon their superintendent +shortly.</p> + +<p>"By the way," he said, looking round; "shall we let them escort Mrs. +Marsden home?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Mr. Archibald gallantly. "That shall be my honour and +pleasure. And there's no danger of his molesting her now."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you," said Collins. "We've fairly knocked the bounce out +of <i>him</i>." And he spoke to Mrs. Marsden with sentimental solicitude. +"There will be a plain-clothes constable in St. Saviour's Court, +watching your door till the evening. But you needn't be afraid. Our +friend won't venture to go there."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice sat at the head of his table, looking dazed and confused. +He and his whole house were taken possession of by Collins; policemen +walked in and out; astounding things happened—the morning's work had +been almost too much for him.</p> + +<p>With an effort he got upon his legs to bow and smile at Mrs. Marsden, as +she and Bence went out.</p> + +<p>"Well now," said Collins; and he shut his black bag. "I don't think +that, under the peculiar conditions of the case, anything could have +been more satisfactory—do you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course," said Mr. Prentice, sitting down again "you know, as well as +I do, that what Marsden said was true. He could make her account to the +firm for all her profits in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> Bence's. Such an investment isn't +allowed—it isn't lawful."</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you what it is," said Collins, enthusiastically blinking +behind his spectacles. "It's <i>great</i>—that's what it is; and I'm proud +to have carried it through for her."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice really did not know what to say.</p> + +<p>"And I'll tell you something more. If it isn't law, it's <i>justice</i>. I've +never been such a stickler as you for mere outward form. Here were two +people in terrible difficulty—Bence and Mrs. Marsden. She saw the way +to save them both, and had the grit to take all risks and do it. That +was good enough for me. As I say, I'm not so formal as you. I don't let +a string of red tape trip up a brave woman when she's running for her +life—that is, if I can prevent it.... Good morning, Prentice. Good +morning to you."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXIX</span></h2> + +<p>However he might demur at first, Mr. Prentice soon came to the +conclusion that it was truly great.</p> + +<p>Perhaps at first he was so completely flabbergasted by the surprise of +the thing that he could not really take it all in; his numbed brain, +only partially working, fixed upon technical objections to the conduct +of affairs by Hyde & Collins; and then, with awakening comprehension of +a masterly coup, the sense of having been left out in the cold +diminished his delight. But this soon passed, and he began to glow +joyously.</p> + +<p>Yes, <i>great</i>! No other word for it! Magnificent justification of all +that he had ever said and thought of her!</p> + +<p><i>Not</i> weak, but strong—as strong as she used to be; no, stronger than +at any time. And he thought of her, overwhelmed with misfortunes, hemmed +round by insurmountable difficulties, brought lower and lower, until she +was apparently so impotent and negligible a unit in the town's life that +she had become an object of contemptuous pity to the very +crossing-sweepers. He thought of what the scientists say about the +conservation of energy and the indestructibility of matter. Great +natural forces cannot be wiped out. Just when they seem gone, you get a +fresh manifestation—the same force in another form. And so it was here. +Mrs. Marsden, seemingly abolished, bursts out in another place, explodes +the debris of ruin that was holding her down, changes direction, and +rises in blazing triumph on the other side of the street.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p><p>Wonderful! "Not now; but perhaps later, when the time comes"—he +remembered her words. "I must do things my own way." Yes, her own way +was right—because her way is the way of genius. A veritable stroke of +genius—no lesser term will do,—seeming so simple to look back at, +although so impenetrable till it was explained! She had seen the only +means by which she could successfully extricate herself from an +impossible situation. Only she could have escaped the imminent disaster. +Only she could have turned an overwhelming defeat into a transcendent +victory.</p> + +<p>"Talk about giving women the vote," cried Mr. Prentice noisily. "That +woman ought to be prime minister."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Prentice, rejoicing at the good news, wished that her husband could +have told it less vociferously. It happened that this evening she was +the victim of a bilious headache, and she lay supine on a sofa, unable +to sit up for dinner. The slightest noise made her headache worse, and +the mere smell of food was distressing.</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice, banging in and out of the room, let savoury odours reach +her; and his exultant voice set up a painful throbbing. "I told you so +all along.... What did I say from the beginning?... Colossal brain +power! No one like her!"</p> + +<p>This really was the substance of all that he had to say, and he had +already said it; yet he kept running in from the dinner table to say it +again.</p> + +<p>A bottle of the very best champagne was opened; and he brought the +invalid a glass of it, to drink Mrs. Marsden's health. Mrs. Prentice, +staunchly obeying, drank the old, still wine, and immediately felt as if +she had stepped from an ocean-going liner into a dancing row-boat.</p> + +<p>In the exuberance of his rapture, Mr. Prentice also invited the +parlourmaid to drink Mrs. Marsden's health.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p><p>"There, toss that off—to the most remarkable lady <i>you</i>'ve ever seen."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. She <i>is</i> a nice lady, sir—and always speaks so sensible."</p> + +<p>"<i>Sensible!</i> Why, bless my soul, there's no one in the length and +breadth of England that can hold a candle to her for sheer—" But he +could not of course talk freely of these high matters to a parlourmaid. +So he trotted off to the other room, to tell Mrs. Prentice once again.</p> + +<p>As he walked to the office next morning, he hummed one of the comic +songs that he had not sung for years, and snapped his fingers by way of +castanet accompaniment. He felt so light-hearted and joyous that he +would have willingly thrown his square hat in the air, and cut capers on +the pavement.</p> + +<p>He could not work. For two or three days he was quite unable to attend +to ordinary business. When clients came to talk about themselves, he +scarcely listened; but, giving the conversation a violent wrench, began +talking to them about Mrs. Marsden.</p> + +<p>Then one afternoon he was taken with a burning desire for a quiet chat +with Archibald Bence. If he could get hold of little Archibald and ply +him with questions, he would obtain all sorts of delightful explanatory +details concerning Mrs. Marsden's splendid mystery.</p> + +<p>He hurried down High Street, and, approaching the old shop, was puzzled +by a strange phenomenon.</p> + +<p>The pavement in front of Marsden & Thompson's seemed to be blocked by a +dense crowd. The blinds were drawn on the upper floor; the iron shutters +masked the windows and doors on the ground floor: the whole shop was +closed—and yet there were infinitely more people lingering outside it +than when it had been open.</p> + +<p>White bills on all the shutters showed the cause of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> phenomenon. +"Astonishing Bargains"—these two portentous words headed each white +placard in monstrous red capitals;—"Bence Brothers, having acquired +this old-established business, will clear the entire stock, together +with surplus and slightly soiled goods from their own house, at +heart-breaking reductions on cost;"—"Opening 9 <span class="smaller">A.M.</span> Monday next. Come +early. This is not an ordinary bargain sale, but a forced sacrifice by +which only the public can benefit." And the public, eager for the +benefit, wishing that it was already Monday, pressed and strove to read +and reread the white and red notices on the iron shutters.</p> + +<p>"Don't push," said one nursemaid to another. "Take your turn. I've just +as much right to see as you have."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice laughed heartily and happily. He thought as he crossed the +road and entered Bence's, "What a dog this Archibald is—to be sure!"</p> + +<p>He found the grand little man in his private room, and was affably +received by him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," said Archibald, sniggering modestly. "We hope to make rather +a big thing of our clearance sale.... How long shall we keep it going? +Well, that depends. It wouldn't last long, if we'd nothing to dispose of +beyond what's left over there; but we shall clear this side at the same +time."</p> + +<p>And Bence rattled on glibly, as though Mr. Prentice had come to +interview him for an article in an important newspaper.</p> + +<p>"The ancient notion was that this kind of special selling took the cream +off one's ordinary trade. But experience has taught us that such is not +the case. We find that trade breeds trade. And you can't <i>tire</i> your +public—you can't over-stimulate them. It is the excited public that is +your best <i>buying</i> public."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice listened respectfully; and then, after the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> manner of a +good interviewer, begged the host to pass from general views to personal +reminiscences.</p> + +<p>"What is it you wish to know?"</p> + +<p>"About you and her," said Prentice. "I should enormously like to know +the inward history of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, now that the secret's out," said Archibald, rubbing his chin, and +wrinkling the flesh round his bright little eyes, "I suppose there's no +harm in speaking about it."</p> + +<p>"Certainly not to me," said Prentice. "Although I wasn't in her +confidence about this, I am a real true friend of hers."</p> + +<p>"I know you are," said Bence cordially. "She has said so a hundred +times."</p> + +<p>"Tell me how it began—the very beginning of things."</p> + +<p>A gloomy cloud passed over Bence's animated face.</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, I don't care to look back upon those days. I <i>was</i> in +such bitter trouble, Mr. Prentice."</p> + +<p>"When did you think of going to her?"</p> + +<p>"I never thought of it. <i>She</i> came to me. I couldn't believe my ears +when she opened the matter."</p> + +<p>"What did she say?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she didn't beat about the bush. She said, if it was really true +that I wanted money, she might supply it—on certain terms."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes—and tell me, my dear fellow, what were her terms?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Prentice," said Bence solemnly, "her terms were terrible—it was +just buying me at a knock-out price."</p> + +<p>"You don't say so?"</p> + +<p>"The fact.... This is as between Masons, isn't it?... I may consider +that we are tiled in."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes—as brother to brother."</p> + +<p>And then Bence, who was never averse to hearing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> sound of his own +voice when safe and suitable occasions offered, talked with unchecked +freedom and confidence.</p> + +<p>"You know, I'd always entertained the highest and most genuine respect +for her. When they used to say she was the best man of business in +Mallingbridge, there was no one more ready to admit it than I was. I +regarded her as right up there," and he waved his hand towards the +ceiling. "Right up—one of the largest and most comprehensive int'lects +of the age."</p> + +<p>"Just so—just so."</p> + +<p>"And I don't mind confessing I was always a bit afraid of her. Years +ago—oh, I don't know how many years ago—when I was passing compliments +to her, she'd look at me, not a bit unkind, but inscrutable—yes, that's +it—inscrutable, and say, 'You take care, Mr. Bence. Don't jump too big, +or one day you'll jump over yourself.'"</p> + +<p>"Meaning your various extensions?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It always made me uncomfortable when she spoke like that—though I +just laughed it off. Anyhow, it seemed to show how clear she saw through +one."</p> + +<p>"Yes, nothing escaped her."</p> + +<p>"So I thought I knew what she was—but I never did really know what she +was, till we came to fair handy grips over this.... Mr. Prentice, I +flattered her—no go. I tried to bluff her—ditto. Then I sued to her +for mercy. I said, 'Madam, I'm like a wounded man on a field of battle +asking for a cup of water.' But she said, 'If I understand the position +correctly, Mr. Bence, you are more like a dead man; and you ask to be +brought to life again.'... And it was true. I was dead—down—done +for....</p> + +<p>"It was my brothers—God forgive them—who had frustrated me—not bad +luck—or any faults of mine. Take, take, take—whatever my work +produced, out it went....<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> Well then, I was what she described—lying at +her feet, and praying for life. So I said I'd take it—on her own +terms....</p> + +<p>"But when it was over, oh, Mr. Prentice the relief! I had lit'rally come +to life again. I was <i>safe</i>—with money behind me,—with <i>driving</i> power +behind me. I went home that night to Mrs. Bence and cried as if I'd been +a baby—and after I'd had my cry, I <i>slept</i>. What's that proverb? Sleep, +it is a blessed thing! I hadn't slept sound for years. Don't you see? I +was certain we should go on all right now—now that the burden was on +<i>her</i> shoulders."</p> + +<p>And then Bence had his idiosyncratic touch of self-pity.</p> + +<p>"I don't know whether you were aware of it, Mr. Prentice—these things +get about when one is more or less a public man,—but the incessant +worry had given me kidney disease. Well,—will you believe it?—from +that hour I got better. The doctors reported less,—less again,—and at +last, not a trace of it. I was simply another man."</p> + +<p>"But, Bence, my dear fellow, what fills me with such amazement and +admiration is the rapidity of your success from that point. You seemed +to be on the crest of the wave instantaneously."</p> + +<p>"Ah! That was the magician's wand. Instead of having our earnings +snatched out the moment they reached the till, the profits were being +put back into the concern. I was working on a salary—a very handsome +one—with my commission; and she never took out a penny more than was +absolutely necessary. There was the whole difference—and it's magic in +trade. I was given scope, capital, an easy road—with no blind +turnings."</p> + +<p>"But I suppose you did it all under her direction?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't know how to answer that;" and Bence grinned, and twirled +his moustache. "No. I suppose I ought to say no. I had full scope—and +was never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>interfered with.... We used to meet at Hyde & Collins's; and +I reported things—just reported them. She used to look at me in that +inscrutable way of hers, and say, 'I can't advise. I have nothing to do +with your business—beyond having my money in it: just as I might have +it in any other form of investment. But speaking merely as an outsider, +I think you are going on very nice. Go on just the same, Mr. Bence.' +Sometimes she did drop a word. It was always light.... Oh, she's unique, +Mr. Prentice—quite unique."</p> + +<p>Bence grinned more broadly as he went on.</p> + +<p>"Of course it was by her orders—or I ought to say, it was acting on a +hint she let fall, that I made myself so popular with the authorities. +You never came to one of my dinner-parties?... No, I did ask you; but +you wouldn't come.... Well, you're acquainted with Mallingbridge +oratory. After dinner, when the speeches began, they used to butter me +up to the skies; and I used to tell them straight—though of course they +couldn't see it—that I was only a figure-head, a dummy. 'Don't praise +<i>me</i>,' I told 'em, 'I'm nobody—just the outward sign of the enterprise +and spirit that lays behind me.' Yes, and I put it straighter than that +sometimes—it tickled me to give 'em the truth almost in the plainest +words.... And I knew there was no risk. <i>They</i>'d never tumble to it."</p> + +<p>After this delightful conversation, Mr. Prentice went across the road +again. He felt that he could not any longer refrain from calling upon +Mrs. Marsden; and, as the afternoon was now well advanced, he thought +that she might perhaps invite him to drink a cup of tea with her.</p> + +<p>In St. Saviour's Court the house door stood open; men from Bence's +Furniture department were busily delivering chairs and sofas; and the +narrow passage was obstructed by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> further goods. Mr. Prentice heard a +familiar voice issuing instructions with a sharp tone of command.</p> + +<p>"This is for the top floor. Front bedroom. Take this up too—same +room.... Who's that out there? Oh, is it you, Mr. Prentice?"</p> + +<p>"What, Yates, you are soon on duty again."</p> + +<p>Old Yates laughed and tossed her head. "Yes, sir, here I am.... That's +for the top floor—back. Take it up steady, now."</p> + +<p>"You seem to be refurnishing—and on a large scale."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Yates. "We're only putting things straight. We're +expecting Mrs. Kenion and the young lady up from Eastbourne +to-night—and it's a job to get the house ready in the time."</p> + +<p>"Ah, then I am afraid visitors will hardly be welcome just now."</p> + +<p>"No, sir, not ordinary visitors—but Mrs. Thompson never counted you as +an ordinary visitor—did she, sir? I'll take on me to say <i>you</i>'ll be +welcome to Mrs. Thompson. Please go upstairs, sir. She's in the +dining-room."</p> + +<p>And truly this visitor was welcomed most cordially.</p> + +<p>"My <i>dear</i> Mr. Prentice. How kind of you—how very kind of you to come! +I have been wishing so to see you."</p> + +<p>Yates without delay disengaged herself from the furniture men, and +brought in tea. Then the hostess seated herself at the table, and +insisted that the visitor should occupy the easiest of the new +armchairs—and she smiled at him, she waited upon him, she made much of +him; she lulled and soothed and charmed him, until he felt as if twenty +years had rolled away, and he and she were back again in the happiest of +the happy old days.</p> + +<p>"I trust that dear Mrs. Prentice is well.... Ah, yes, it <i>is</i> headachy +weather, isn't it. I have ventured to send her a few flowers—and some +peaches and grapes."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p><p>It seemed incredible. But she <i>looked</i> younger—many years younger than +when he had seen her in the shadow cast by his office wall less than a +week ago. Her voice had something of the old resonance; she sat more +upright; she carried her head better. She was still dressed in black; +but this new costume was of fine material, fashionable cut, very +becoming pattern; and it gave to its wearer a quiet importance and a +sedate but opulent pomp. Very curious! It was as if all that impression +of shabbiness, insignificance, and poverty had been caused merely by the +shadow; and that as soon as she came out of the shadow into the +sunlight, one saw her as she really was, and not as one had foolishly +imagined her to be.</p> + +<p>This thought was in the mind of Mr. Prentice while he listened to her +pleasantly firm voice, and watched the play of light and life about her +kind and friendly eyes. The shadow that had lain so heavy upon her was +mercifully lifted. She had been a prisoner to the powers of darkness, +and now the sunshine had set her free. This was really all that had +happened.</p> + +<p>"I am so particularly glad," she was saying, "that you came to-day, +because I want your advice badly."</p> + +<p>"It is very much at your service."</p> + +<p>"Then do you think there would be any objection—would you consider it +might seem bad taste if henceforth I were to resume my old name? I have +an affection for the name of Thompson—though it isn't a very +high-sounding one."</p> + +<p>"I noticed that Yates called you Mrs. Thompson."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I mentioned my idea to Yates; but I told her I shouldn't do it +without consulting you. I did not think of dropping my real name +altogether, but I thought I might perhaps call myself Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson—with or without a hyphen."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span></p><p>And she went on to explain that she was doubtful as to the legal +aspects of the case. She did not wish to advertise the change of name, +or to make it a formal and binding change. She just wished to call +herself Mrs. Marsden-Thompson.</p> + +<p>"Very well, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson, consider it done. For there's nothing +to prevent your doing it. Your friends will call you by any name you +tell them to use—with or without a hyphen."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so glad you say that. I was afraid you might not approve.... +And now I want your advice about something else. It is a house with a +little land that I am most anxious to buy, if I can possibly manage +it—and I want you to find out if the owners would be inclined to sell."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice advised her on this and several other little matters. +Indeed, before his third cup of tea was finished, he had made +enlightening replies to questions that related to half a dozen different +subjects.</p> + +<p>"Thank you. A thousand thanks. Some more tea, Mr. Prentice?"</p> + +<p>But Mr. Prentice did not answer this last question. He put down his +empty cup, and began to laugh heartily.</p> + +<p>"Why are you laughing like that?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Marsden-Thompson," he said jovially. "For once I have seen through +you. All things are permissible to your sex; but if you were a man, I +should be tempted to say you are an impostor—an arch-impostor."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Prentice! Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because you don't really think my advice worth a straw. You don't want +my advice, or anybody else's. No one is capable of advising you. You +just do things in your own way—and a very remarkable way it is."</p> + +<p>"But really and truly I—"</p> + +<p>"No. Not a bit of it. You fancied that my feathers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> might have been +rubbed the wrong way by recent surprises; and ever since I came into +this room, you have been most delicately smoothing my ruffled plumage."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said Mrs. Marsden-Thompson demurely, "I assure you—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. But, my dear, it wasn't in the least necessary. I am just as +pleased as Punch, and I have quite forgiven you for keeping me so long +in the dark."</p> + +<p>"On my honour," she said earnestly, "I wouldn't have kept you in the +dark for <i>one</i> day, if I could have avoided doing so. It was most +painful to me, dear Mr. Prentice, to practice—or rather, to allow of +any deception where <i>you</i> were concerned.... But my course was so +difficult to steer."</p> + +<p>"You steered it splendidly."</p> + +<p>"But I do want you to understand. I shall be miserable if I think that +you could ever harbour the slightest feeling of resentment."</p> + +<p>"Of course I shan't."</p> + +<p>"Or if you don't believe that I trust you absolutely, and have the +greatest possible regard for your professional skill.... You may +remember how I <i>almost</i> told you about it."</p> + +<p>"No, I'll be hanged if I remember that."</p> + +<p>"Well, I tried to explain—indirectly—that the whole affair was so +complicated.... There were so many things to be thought of. There was +Enid. I had to think of <i>her</i> all the time.... Honestly, I put her +before myself. Until Enid could get rid of Kenion, it didn't seem much +use for me to get rid of poor Richard.... And if either of them had +guessed, everything might have gone wrong—I mean, might have worked out +differently. And of course it made <i>secrecy</i> of such vital importance. +You do understand that, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Mr. Prentice, laughing contentedly, "I do<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> understand. But +now I wonder—would you mind telling me when it was that you first +thought of the Bence coup?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I fancy that the germ of the idea came to me in church;" and Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson folded her hands, and looked reflectively at the +tea-cups. "I was thinking of Richard, and of Mr. Bence—and then some +verses in a psalm struck me most forcibly. One verse especially—I shall +never forget it. 'Let his days be few; and let another take his +office.'"</p> + +<p>"How did that apply?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose I thought vaguely—quite vaguely—that if Richard was +bad at managing a business, Mr. Bence was rather good at it.... Then, +that very evening, you so kindly came in to supper, and told me as a +positive fact that Bence was nearly done for. And then it struck me at +once that, in the long run, Bence's failure could prove of advantage to +nobody, and that it ought to be prevented;" and she looked up brightly, +and smiled at Mr. Prentice. "So really and truly, it is <i>you</i> that I +have to thank. You brought me that <i>invaluable</i> information. <i>You</i> +inspired me to do it."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice got up from the easy chair, and playfully shook a +forefinger at his hostess.</p> + +<p>"Now—now. Don't drag <i>me</i> into it. I'm too old a bird to be caught with +chaff."</p> + +<p>"But I am truly forgiven?" And she stretched out her hand towards him. +"Not the smallest soreness left? You will still be what you have always +been—my best and kindest friend?"</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice took her hand; and, with a graceful old-world air of +gallantry that perhaps the headachy lady at home had never seen, he +raised it to his lips.</p> + +<p>"I shall be what I have always been—your humble, admiring slave."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXX</span></h2> + +<p>One of the oldest of her dreams had become partially true. She had +bought that pretty country-house, and was living in it with Enid. Not +the total fulfilment of the dream, because she had not retired from +business. She was busier than ever.</p> + +<p>Many things foretold by her had now come to pass. The military camp on +the downs, with its twenty thousand armed men and half as many thousand +followers, had brought increased prosperity to the neighbourhood; the +carriage and locomotive works established by the railway company had +added to the old town another town that by itself would have been big +enough to sustain a mayor and corporation; builders could not build fast +enough to house the rapidly swelling population; the well-filled suburbs +stretched for two long miles in all directions from the ancient town +boundaries; and by platform lecturers, by members of parliament, by +writers of statistical reviews, the growth of Mallingbridge was cited as +one of the most remarkable and gratifying achievements of the last +decade.</p> + +<p>In a word—the cant word—Mallingbridge had boomed. And right at the top +of the boom, rolling on to glory, was Bence's.</p> + +<p>The prodigious success of Bence's made the world gasp. Nothing could +hinder it. People fancied that the rebuilding might prove a dangerous, +if not a fatal crisis in its affairs; but the proprietress accomplished +the colossal operation without even a temporary set-back. She moved +Bence's bodily across the road, squashed it into the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>confines of old +Thompson's, and left it there for eighteen months while the new Bence +palace was being erected. The magnificence of these modern up-to-date +premises surpassed belief—facade of pure white stone; gigantic +caryatids, bearing on their heads the projected ledge of the second +floor, and holding in their hands the sculptured brackets of the +monstrous arc lamps; fluted columns from the second floor to the fourth; +and above the deep cornice, just visible from the street, the cupola on +top of the vast dome that was the crowning splendour of the whole.</p> + +<p>Then directly the shop had been moved back into this ornate frame, down +went the old red-brick block of Thompson's; and on the site still +another palace for Bence began to rise. It seemed no less magnificent +than the other; and it was finished off—by way of balance to the +dome—with a stupendous clock-tower. The local press, in a series of +articles describing this useful monument, said that the four-faced +time-piece was an exact replica of Big Ben at Westminster; the base of +the numeral twelve was one hundred and thirty-two feet above the +pavement; the small hand was as long as a short man, and the long hand +was longer than an excessively tall man;—and so on. The author of the +articles also stated that the architectural effect of Bence on both +sides of the street was very similar to the <i>coup d'œil</i> offered by +the dome and tower of the cathedral at Florence.</p> + +<p>Customers scarcely knew on which side of the street they were doing +their shopping: they went into one of the two palaces, and surprised +themselves by emerging from the other. You entered a lift, and, as it +swooped, the crowded floors flashed upward. "Which department, madam? +Parisian Jewellery?... Boots and Shoes! Step this way." You passed +through a long, narrow and brilliantly illuminated department, such as +Sham Diamonds or Opera<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> Cloaks, where artificial light is a necessity +for correct selection; you went up a broad flight of shallow stairs; and +there you were, in Boots and Shoes. But the thing you didn't know, the +funny thing, was that all unconsciously you had been through a sub-way +under the road. Just when you stood to gape at the sparkling ear-rings +or to finger the rich soft cloaks, the heavy traffic of High Street was +bang over your head.</p> + +<p>And truly there was nothing that you could not buy now at Bence's—on +one side of the road or the other. Ball dresses for as much as fifty +guineas, tailor-made walking costumes for as little as eighteen +shillings, a thousand pound coat of Russian sable, or a farthing packet +of pins, palm trees for the conservatory or Brussels sprouts for the +kitchen—whatever the varied wants of the universe, it was Bence's proud +boast that they could be supplied here without failure or delay.</p> + +<p>Sometimes when business had taken Mrs. Marsden to London and she and +Yates were driving through the streets in a four-wheeled cab, she +studied the appearance of the great metropolitan shops, and mentally +compared them with what she had left behind her at Mallingbridge. Once, +when the dusk of an autumn day was falling and she chanced to pass the +most world-famous of all emporiums, she told the cabman to let his horse +walk; then, as they crawled by the endless frontage, she measured the +glare of the electric lamps, counted the big commissionaires, estimated +the volume of the crowd outside the glittering windows; and, critically +examining the thing in its entirety, she felt a supreme satisfaction. To +her eye and judgment it was no bigger, brighter, or more impressive than +Bence's. In all respects Bence's was every bit as good.</p> + +<p>Each morning, fair or foul, at nine-thirty sharp, she left her charming +and luxurious home, and came spinning in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> small motor-car down the +three-mile slope that now divided house from shop. The car, avoiding +High Street, wheeled round through Trinity Square, worked its swift way +to the back of Bence's, swept into a quiet, stately court-yard, and +delivered her at the perron of a noble architraved doorway. This was the +private or business entrance to the domed palace.</p> + +<p>A porter in sombre livery was waiting on the marble steps to receive +her, to carry her shawl or reticule, to usher her to the golden gates of +the private lift.</p> + +<p>In a minute she had majestically soared to an upper floor.</p> + +<p>This managerial side of the building would not unworthily have formed a +portion of a public department, such as the Treasury or India Office: it +was all spacious, silent, grand. She passed through a wide and lofty +corridor, with mahogany doors on either hand—the closed doors of the +managers' rooms; and no sound of the shop was audible, no sign of it +visible.</p> + +<p>Her own room, at the end of the corridor, was very large, very high, +very plainly decorated. Mahogany book-cases, with a few busts on top of +them; one table with newspapers of all countries, another table with +four or five telephonic instruments—but absolutely no office equipment +of any sort: not so much as a writing desk, Yankee or British. She +scarcely ever writes a letter now; even marginal notes are dictated. +Time is too precious to be wasted on manual labour, however rapid. Time +is capital; and it must be invested in the way that will yield the +highest interest.</p> + +<p>"What is the time?" and she glanced at the clock on the carved stone +mantelpiece.</p> + +<p>"It wants seven minutes of ten."</p> + +<p>All clocks are correct, because they are carefully synchronized with the +clock in the tower; and that <i>must</i> be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> correct, because time-signals +from Greenwich are continually instructing it—and the whole town works +by Bence time.</p> + +<p>"Good. Then I am not late."</p> + +<p>"No, madam."</p> + +<p>She came earlier now than she used to do a little while ago. But since +Mr. Archibald finally withdrew from affairs, she has been in sole charge +of the mighty organization. She could not refuse to let Archibald enjoy +his well-earned rest. Though still under fifty years of age, he was a +tired man, worn out by the battle, needing repose. And why should he go +on working? Thanks to the liberality of his patron, he possessed ample +means—almost one might say he was opulent.</p> + +<p>"I am ready."</p> + +<p>"Yes, madam."</p> + +<p>Then the day's toil begins.</p> + +<p>First it is the solemn entry of the managers, one after another +succinctly presenting his report. Then it is the turn of head clerks and +secretaries, who have gathered and are silently waiting outside the +door. After that, audience is given to buyers who have returned from or +are about to leave for the marts of the world.</p> + +<p>And with the fewest possible words she issues her commands. She sits +with folded hands, or paces to and fro with hands clasped behind her +back, or stands and knits her brows; but not a word, not a moment is +squandered. She says, Do this; but very rarely explains how it is to be +done. It is their duty to know how. If they don't know, they are +inefficient. It is for her to give orders: it is for subordinates to +carry them into effect. The general of an army must be something more +than a good regimental officer; the admiral of the fleet cannot teach +common sailors the best way to polish the brass on the binnacle.</p> + +<p>With surprising rapidity these opening labours are <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>completed. Well +before noon the last of the clerks has gone, and Mrs. Marsden-Thompson +stands in an empty room—may take a breathing-pause, or, if she pleases, +fill it with tasks of light weight.</p> + +<p>Perhaps now an old friend is announced. It is Miss Woolfrey from China +and Glass. May she come in? Or shall she call again? No, ask Miss +Woolfrey to come in.</p> + +<p>And then time is flagrantly wasted. Miss Woolfrey has nothing to say, +can put forward no valid reason for bothering the commander-in-chief. +Miss Woolfrey giggles foolishly, gossips inanely, meanders with a stream +of senseless twaddle; but she is gratified by smiles and nods and +handshakings.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, really—my dear Miss Woolfrey—you cheer me with your +excellent account of this little storm in a tea-cup.... Yes, I'll +remember all you say.... How kind of you to ask! Yes, my daughter is +very well."</p> + +<p>And Miss Woolfrey goes away happy. She is a licensed offender—has been +accorded unlimited privilege to waste time. Incompetent as ever, and +totally unable to adapt herself to modern conditions, she enjoys a +splendid sinecure in the new China and Glass. She has clever people over +her to keep her straight, and will never be deprived of her salary until +she accepts a pension in exchange.</p> + +<p>Sooner or later during the forenoon, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson rings her +bell and asks for Mr. Mears.</p> + +<p>"Is Mr. Mears in his room?"</p> + +<p>"I believe so, madam."</p> + +<p>"Then give Mr. Mears my compliments, and say I shall be glad to see him +if it is convenient to him—only if convenient, not if he is occupied."</p> + +<p>It was always convenient to Mr. Mears. His convenience is her +convenience. Almost immediately the door opens, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> he appears—and +very grand he looks, bowing on the threshold; massive and strong again; +no shaky dotard, but a vigorous elderly man, who might be mistaken for a +partner in a bank, a president of a chamber of commerce, a member of the +Privy Council, or anybody eminently prosperous and respectable.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Mr. Mears. Please be seated."</p> + +<p>And then she discusses with him all those matters of which she can speak +to no one else. Mears is never a time-waster; he, too, makes few words +suffice; long practice has given him quickness in catching her thought.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mears, what are we to do about Mr. Greig? Frankly, he is getting +past his work."</p> + +<p>"I admit it," says Mears.</p> + +<p>"It will be better for all parties if he retires."</p> + +<p>"He won't like the idea."</p> + +<p>Mr. Greig, the obese chieftain of Cretonnes in the days of old +Thompson's, is threatened with no real peril. If he ceases working +to-morrow, he will continue to receive his working wage till death; but +the difficulty is to remove him from the sphere of action without a +wound to his feelings.</p> + +<p>"Will you talk to him—introduce the idea to him gradually, bring him to +it little by little, so that if possible he may come to think that it is +his own idea, and that he himself wants to retire?"</p> + +<p>And Mears promises that he will deal thus diplomatically with the +faithful old servant.</p> + +<p>They are nearly all here—the old servants; from chieftains like Greig +and Ridgway to lieutenants like Davies the night watchman, each has +found his snug billet. All who shivered with her in the cold are welcome +to warmth and sunshine. She has forgotten no one: she could not forget +old friends.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, of course, her bounteous intentions have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> rendered +nugatory by fate. A few friends are gone beyond the reach of help; +others it has been impossible to discover. Even now Mears has +occasionally to tell her of someone raked out of the past. For instance, +this morning he brings with him a small bundle of papers, and speaks to +her of such an one.</p> + +<p>They have only now found Mr. Fentiman, the lanky and sententious lord of +Thompson's Woollens.</p> + +<p>Mr. Fentiman had sunk very low—never knew that she was Bence's, never +saw her advertisements in agony columns, never guessed year after year +that a munificent protector was seeking him. But he has been found at +last, in a wretched little hosier's at Portsmouth—ill and weak and +pitifully poor.</p> + +<p>"Are you quite sure that he is our Fentiman?"</p> + +<p>"Quite," said Mears; and he laid the Fentiman dossier on the table.</p> + +<p>When Mears had left her she fetched an ink-pot from the mantelpiece, +opened a drawer, and extracted pens and note-paper. This morning it was +necessary to write a letter in her own hand. Secretaries could not +assist her with the task, and time must no longer be nicely measured.</p> + +<p>"My dear Mr. Fentiman, I am so glad to hear of you again, and so sorry +to learn that your health is not what it should be." Then she invited +him to resign his present situation and come to Mallingbridge, where it +would doubtless be easy to offer him an opening more suited to his +experience and capacity. If he would kindly advise Mr. Mears as to the +arrival of his train, Mr. Mears would meet him at the railway station +and conduct him to apartments. "Before you plunge into work again, I +must beg you to take a complete rest; and as soon as you feel strong +enough, I particularly wish you to spend a holiday in Switzerland. I +expressed this wish many years ago, one night when you had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> kindly given +me your company at dinner; but although you tacitly allowed me to +understand that you would comply with it, circumstances prevented its +fulfilment. If you are still of the same mind, it will afford me the +utmost pleasure to arrange for your Swiss tour."</p> + +<p>Having written so far, she laid down her pen, picked up a telephone +receiver, and spoke to the counting-house.</p> + +<p>She was writing again, and did not raise her eyes, when a clerk came +into the room.</p> + +<p>"Put them down."</p> + +<p>And the clerk placed the bank-notes on the table, and silently retired.</p> + +<p>"Meanwhile," she was writing, "I must ask you to accept my small +enclosure, and to believe me to be, Yours with sincere regard, Jane +Marsden-Thompson."</p> + +<p>Then she sealed the envelope, rang a bell, and told someone to despatch +her letter by registered post.</p> + +<p>Fentiman had mopped up a lot of time—but no matter. Nevertheless, she +moved with quick footsteps as she went from the room, and passed along +the lofty, silent corridors. Presently using a master-key, she opened a +fire-proof door, and entered a narrow passage. In this passage the +silence was broken by a vague murmuring sound—like the ripple of sea +waves heard echoing in a shell.</p> + +<p>She opened another door, and immediately the sound swelled to a confused +roar. Through this second door she had come out into a circular gallery +just beneath the huge concave of the dome. Looking downward, she could +see the extraordinary inverted perspective of circles, floor below +floor, each circle apparently smaller than the one above; she could see +long strands of gauze and lace, artfully festooned in void space from +the gilt rails of the Curtain department, like streamers of white cloud; +and beneath the pretty cloud she could see the rainbow colours of +delicate satins and silks;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> and still lower she could see the stir of +multitudinous life concentrating at this focal point of the busy shop.</p> + +<p>But she scarcely looked: she listened. Perched high in her dome, +solitary, motionless, august, she was like the queen-bee in the upper +part of a hive attentively listening to the buzz of industry. And it +seemed that the sound was sufficient: her instinct was so fine—she knew +by the quality of the humming note that Bence's was working well.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXXI</span></h2> + +<p>All well at Bence's; and all well at home.</p> + +<p>It was pleasant to her, returning from her work on summer evenings, to +see the white gates and long wall speed towards her: as if coming once +again out of the land of dreams into the realm of facts, because she +called them to her. She had wished for them, and they were hers. While +her car glided from the gates to the porch, she enjoyed the full sight +of the things that, seen in glimpses, soothed her eyes so many years +ago—the comfortable eaves and latticed windows, the dark masses of +foliage casting restful shadows on the sun-lit lawns, the steps and +brickwork of the terraced garden giving value and form to the gay +exuberance of the summer flowers.</p> + +<p>"Are the ladies in?"</p> + +<p>When the footman said that the ladies were out, she gave a little sigh. +It was only a moment's disappointment. By the time that the butler had +come forward and was telling her where the ladies had gone, the faint +sense of emptiness and disillusionment had vanished. Really she liked +the ladies to be out and about as much as possible. There was a big +motor-car to take them far from home, and there were horses and +carriages to take them on quiet little journeys; for, pleasant as home +might be, they must not be allowed to feel themselves prisoners in it. +All this side of her life belonged to them: they ruled the world that +lay outside her work.</p> + +<p>When the footman told her that the ladies were to be found somewhere +beneath the eaves or within the walls of the garden, she sprang out of +the car as lightly as a girl.</p> + +<p>"I think Miss Jane is in the music room, ma'am."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span></p><p>Her face lit up; she smiled contentedly, and hurried through the porch +to search for Miss Jane.</p> + +<p>The house was bigger in fact than it had been in the dream. She had +tacked on a new wing at each end of it; and her architect had so +cleverly preserved the external style that no one outside the building +could guess which was the old part and which the new. Inside, you might +guess by the size of the rooms. In one wing there was a large +dining-room, and in the other wing there was Miss Jane's school-room, +play-room, or music-room.</p> + +<p>This was an unexpectedly noble hall, containing an organ, a minstrel +gallery, and a raised stage for dramatic entertainment; here the young +lady had obtained much instruction and amusement; here she learned to +sing and dance, to fence and do Swedish exercises, to know the kings of +England and to spin tops, to talk French and to play badminton.</p> + +<p>Her grandmother, bustling to it, sometimes heard and always loved to +hear the music of organ or piano; sometimes all she heard was a young +voice talking or laughing—but that was the music that she loved best.</p> + +<p>"Granny dear!"</p> + +<p>"Mother dear!"</p> + +<p>The double welcome was her daily reward, the handsome payment that made +her think the long day's toil so light.</p> + +<p>A certain pomp was maintained in their manner of living: meals were +served with adequate ceremony; butler and footmen instead of +parlourmaids waited at table; the family wore rich dresses of an +evening;—but all this was to please Enid. Everything that Enid once had +seemed to care for must be provided now—the stateliness of liveried +men, the grandeur of formal dinner-parties, the small or big +extravagances that come with complete immunity from any thought of cost. +And on the little girl's account, too. It was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>essential that Enid +should be able to bring up her child in the midst of fitting, proper, +even fashionable surroundings.</p> + +<p>Enid took all these benefits placidly and naturally: very much as of +old, when she had been an unmarried girl receiving benefits from the +same source in St. Saviour's Court. Indeed she had insensibly dropped +back into her old way. Except for the one great permanent change that +sprang from a dual cause—her deepened affection for her mother and her +idolizing devotion to her daughter,—she was strikingly similar to the +graceful long-nosed Miss Thompson who went with a smile to meet her fate +at Mr. Young's riding-school.</p> + +<p>She looked scarcely a day older. She was neither thinner nor fatter; her +face, after being pinched by misfortune, had exactly filled out again to +the elegant oval of careless youth. The bad time with all its hard +lessons was almost obliterated by present ease and comfort: certainly it +did not seem to have left indelible marks. She could speak of it—did +often speak of it—without wincing, and in the even, unemotional tone +that she habitually used.</p> + +<p>Only when Jane was ill, she altogether burst through the smooth outer +surface of calm propriety, and showed that, if they could be reached, +there were some really strong feelings underneath. When Jane was ill, no +matter how slightly, Mrs. Kenion became almost demented.</p> + +<p>To some juvenile ailments the most jealously guarded child must submit +sooner or later. Jane has a sore throat and a cold in the head; Jane +slept badly last night; and, oh—merciful powers,—Jane exhibits red +spots on her little white chest.</p> + +<p>Dr. Eldridge says—now, don't be frightened by a word;—Dr. Eldridge +says he believes that, well, ah, yes—it is measles. But there is +nothing in that to distress or alarm; rather one might say it is a very +good thing. One cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> reasonably hope that Miss Jane will escape +measles all her life; and one may be glad that she has this propitious +chance to do her measling under practically ideal conditions.</p> + +<p>Yet, late in the afternoon, when wise Eldridge has gone, here is Enid +with fear-distended eyes and grief-stricken face, white, shaking, +absolutely frantic, as she clings to her mother's arm.</p> + +<p>"Mother, don't let her die. Oh, don't let her die."</p> + +<p>"She shall not die."</p> + +<p>In these emergencies Mrs. Marsden-Thompson is solid as her clock-tower.</p> + +<p>"But Dr. Eldridge mayn't be right—perhaps it's something a thousand +times worse than measles.... Oh, oh. What <i>can</i> we do? It may be some +virulent fever—and when she drops off to sleep, she may never wake."</p> + +<p>What Mrs. Marsden-Thompson can do to allay Enid's anxiety, she does do, +and at once. She telephones to London, to the most famous physician of +the period.</p> + +<p>"There, my darling," she says presently; "now keep calm. Sir John is +coming—by the evening express."</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, how can I thank you enough?"</p> + +<p>"My own Enid, there's nothing to thank me for. It will relieve all our +minds to have the very highest opinion.... And Sir John will spend the +night here—that will be nice for you, to know that he is remaining on +the spot."</p> + +<p>Then in due course the illustrious Sir John arrives, and confirms the +diagnosis of Dr. Eldridge. It <i>is</i> measles—and a very mild case of it.</p> + +<p>Jane grew up strong and hearty, none the worse for childish ailments, +and uninjured by the idolatry of her two nearest female relatives. As +Yates said, it was a miracle that Jane didn't get absolutely spoilt by +so much fussing care and loving worship. But Yates stoutly declared that +the young lady was not spoilt up to now; and attributed her escape from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> +spoiling to the fortunate circumstance that she took after her +grandmother.</p> + +<p>Outwardly she was like her mother, but perhaps inwardly she did somewhat +resemble her granny. At fourteen she was certainly more enthusiastic, +vivacious, and expansive than Enid had been at that age. And, unlike the +young Enid, she could not readily take the impress of other people's +minds and manners. Governesses said she was <i>very</i> clever, but too much +disposed to rely on conclusions reached by trains of thought set in +motion by herself and running on lines of her own construction. +Governesses would not say she was obstinate—oh, no, far from it—but +perhaps guilty now and then of a certain intellectual arrogance that was +unbecoming in one so young.</p> + +<p>Fourteen—fifteen—past her sixteenth birthday! Jane is really growing +up; and nearer and nearer draws the time when mother and grandmother +will be confronted with the awful problem of finding her a suitable +husband—a <i>good</i> husband, if such a thing exists on the broad surface +of the earth. It is appalling to think about; but it cannot be blinked +or evaded. The fiery chain of life must have its new link of flame: Jane +must carry the torch, and give it safely to the small hands that are +waiting somewhere in immeasurable darkness to grasp it and bear it still +onward.</p> + +<p>Once when Enid lightly hinted at this terrifying matter, Jane caught the +hint that was not intended for her ears, and replied very shrewdly.</p> + +<p>"It strikes me, mummy, that most likely you'll be married before I +shall."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Kenion laughed and flushed, and seemed rather gratified by this +compliment; but she promised never to introduce Jane to a stepfather. +No, she will never marry again—has no faintest inclination for further +experiments of that sort. Once bit, twice shy. She will act on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> +adage; although, when she speaks so blandly of the bad ungrateful dog +that bit her, one might almost suppose that she had forgotten nearly all +the pain of the bite.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, isn't it wonderful? He is riding again;" and Enid looks up +from the morning newspaper, sips her breakfast coffee, and speaks with +calm admiration. She always reads the sporting news, and never misses an +entry of Charlie's name in minor steeplechase meetings.</p> + +<p>Here it is:—Mrs. Charles Kenion's Dreadnought; Trainer, private; +Jockey, Mr. Kenion.</p> + +<p>"And Charles is over forty-five. Really, I do think it's wonderful," +says Enid calmly and admiringly. "But he shouldn't go on riding races. +She oughtn't to let him. It can only end"—and Enid says this with +unruffled calm—"in his breaking his neck."</p> + +<p>But it seems that Charlie's neck is charmed: that it cannot be broken +over the sticks, or—sinister thought!—that it is being preserved for +another and more formal method of dislocation.</p> + +<p>Nearer than the necessity of discovering a worthy mate for Jane, there +looms the smaller necessity of presenting her at Court, giving her a +London season, and so forth. As to the presentation, a very obliging +offer has been tendered by the great lady of the county—wife of that +local potentate who lives in the sheltered magnificence behind the +awe-inspiring iron gates. Her ladyship has voluntarily suggested that +she should take Miss Kenion, when properly feathered and betrained, into +the effulgent presence of her sovereign.</p> + +<p>Naturally, since those tremendous iron gates have opened to Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson, no lesser entrances are closed against her. Success, +if it is big enough, condones most offences; and the prejudiced +objection to retail trade, under which Enid once suffered, has been +generously waived.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> What she used artlessly to call county people make +much of her and her daughter.</p> + +<p>They are bidden to the very best houses; they may consort on equal terms +with the highest quality; there is no one so fine that he or she will +resent an invitation to dinner.</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson is an old dear. And her daughter is quite +charming. I don't know what to make of the girl—but of course you know, +she is going to be an immense heiress."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Marsden-Thompson, presiding at a banquet to the county, perhaps was +pleased to think that this, too, she had at last been able to give her +Enid. Really tip-top society—social concert-pitch, if compared with the +flat tinkling that Enid used to hear at Colonel Salter's.</p> + +<p>Gold plate on the table; liveried home-retainers, with soberly-clad aids +from Bence's refreshment departments; a white waistcoat or silver +buttons behind every chair; and, seated on the chairs, a most select and +notable company of guests, gracious smiling ladies and grandiosely +urbane lords; pink and white faces of candid young girls and sun-burnt +faces of gallant young soldiers; shimmer of pearls, glitter of diamonds, +flash of bright eyes, and a polite murmur of well-bred voices—surely +this is all that Enid could possibly desire.</p> + +<p>But it was not the society that the hostess really cared about. The +dinner-parties that she enjoyed were far different from this. She gave +this sort of feast to please Enid; but at certain seasons—at Christmas +especially—she gave a feast to please herself.</p> + +<p>Then the old friends came. The two motor-cars and the large landau went +to fetch some of the guests. Few of them were carriage-folk. Mr. and +Mrs. Archibald Bence had their own brougham of course; Mr. and Mrs. +Prentice used one of Young's flies; but most of the others were very +glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> to accept a lift out and home. By special request they all came +early, and in morning-dress.</p> + +<p>"We dine at seven," wrote the hostess in her invitations; "but please +come early, so that we can have a chat before dinner. And as it is to be +just a friendly unceremonious gathering, do you mind wearing morning +dress?"</p> + +<p>Did they mind? What a thoughtless question, when she might have known +that some of them had nothing but morning dress! Mr. Mears, in spite of +his rise in the world, rigidly adhered to the frock coat, as the garment +most suitable to his years and his figure. Cousin Thompson—the +ex-grocer of Haggart's Cross—considered swallow-tails and white chokers +to be fanciful nonsense: he would not make a merry-andrew of himself to +please anybody. Neither of the two Miss Prices had ever possessed a +low-cut bodice—old Mrs. Price would probably have whipped her for her +immodesty if she had ever been caught in one.</p> + +<p>Then buttoned coats and no spreading shirt fronts, high-necked blouses +and no bare shoulders; but in other respects full pomp for this humbler +banquet: home-servants and Bence-servants; the electric light blazing on +the splendid epergnes, the exquisite Bohemian glass, and the piled fruit +in the Wedgewood china; the long table stretched to its last leaf; more +than thirty people eating, drinking, talking, laughing, shining with +satisfaction—and Mrs. Marsden-Thompson at the head of the sumptuous +board, shedding quick glances, kind smiles, friendly nods, making the +wine taste better and the lamps glow brighter, gladdening and cheering +every man and woman there.</p> + +<p>"Cousin Jenny!" It is our farmer cousin shouting from the end of the +table. "You're so far off that I shall have to whistle to you. You +haven't forgotten my whistle?"</p> + +<p>"No, that I haven't, cousin Gordon."</p> + +<p>And radiant cousin Gordon turns to tell Miss Jane the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> story of the +Welshman, the Irishman, and the Scotsman who met on London Bridge; and +Miss Jane is good enough to be amused.</p> + +<p>"Lord, how often I've told that story to your grandmother! I'll tell it +her again when we get back into the music-room. 'Tis a favourite of +hers."</p> + +<p>Jane and Enid are both very sweet on these occasions, loyally assisting +the hostess, and winning the hearts of the humblest guests. There is +perhaps a just perceptible effort in Enid's pretty manner; but with Jane +it is all entirely natural.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Prentice," says Jane impudently, "you mayn't know it, but you are +going to sing us a comic song after dinner."</p> + +<p>Mr. Prentice is delighted yet coy.</p> + +<p>"No, no—certainly not."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes, you will. Won't he, Mrs. Prentice?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he will, if you wish it, Miss Jane."</p> + +<p>Mr. Archibald Bence, looking rather wizened and wan, is just off to the +South of France for the remainder of the winter; and Mr. Fentiman, +talking across the table, urges him to see the falls of the Rhine on his +return journey.</p> + +<p>"When I was touring in Switzerland last autumn," says Fentiman +sententiously, "I gave one whole day to Schaffhausen, and it amply +repaid me for the time and trouble."</p> + +<p>Wherever the hostess turns her kind eyes, she can see someone looking at +her gratefully and affectionately. There is our grumbling cousin who +once was a poor little grocer. She has done so much for him that he has +almost entirely ceased to grumble. There is noisy, would-be-facetious +cousin Gordon, once a little struggling tenant, now a landlord +successfully farming his own land. There is corpulent Greig, on the +retired list, but jovial and contented, with his pride unwounded, +revelling in high-paid tranquillity. There are the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> cackling, stupid +Miss Prices and their greedy old mother. They have looked at workhouse +doors and shivered apprehensively; but now they chide the maid when she +fails to make up the drawing-room fire, and bully the butcher if he +sends them a scraggy joint for Sunday. There is faithful Mears in his +newest frock-coat, close beside her, as of right, very close to her +heart. And there, behind her chair, is faithful Yates—in rustling black +silk, with kerchief of real point lace. She does not of course appear +when the county dines with us; but to-night Yates stands an honorary +major-domo at the Christmas dinner—because she exactly understands the +spirit of the feast, and knows how her mistress wishes things to be +done.</p> + +<p>"And now," says Mr. Prentice, "I'm not going to break the rule. No +speeches. But just one toast.... Our hostess!"</p> + +<p>The faces of the guests all turn towards her; and the lamp-light, +flashing here and there, shows her gleams of gold. The golden shower +that falls so freely has left some drops on each of them. Her small +gifts are visible—the rings on their fingers, the brooches at their +necks; but the lamp-light cannot reach her greater gifts—the soft beds, +the warm fires, the money in their banks, the comfort in their breasts.</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXXII</span></h2> + +<p>Of course she had sent her husband money. Only Mears knew how much. +Mears acted as intermediary, conducted the correspondence; and in +despatching the doles, whether much or little, he rarely failed to +reiterate the proviso that the recipient was not to set foot in England. +That was the irrepealable condition under which aid from time to time +was granted.</p> + +<p>But of late it had become plain that no attempt would be made to set the +prohibition at defiance: Mr. Marsden would never revisit his native +land. During the last year his wife had written to him twice or thrice, +supplementing the communications of Mears with extra bounties and some +hopeful, cheering words. Mr. Marsden was begged to employ these +additional drafts in defraying the expenses of illness, to take care of +himself, and to fight against desponding thoughts.</p> + +<p>Now, one summer morning, when she entered her room at Bence's, Mr. Mears +stood by a window waiting for her arrival.</p> + +<p>"Good morning, Mr. Mears;" and she looked at his solemn face. "Anything +out of the way?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Some news from California."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" And she pointed to the letter in his hand. "Is it the news that we +had reason to expect?"</p> + +<p>"Yes.... It's all over;" and Mr. Mears placed a chair for her, near the +newspaper table.</p> + +<p>She sat down, took the letter, spread it open on the table; and, shading +her eyes with a hand, began to read it.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mears!" She spoke without looking up. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> shall do no work to-day. +Tell them all that I cannot see them."</p> + +<p>In the lofty corridor the doors of the managers' rooms were opening; the +chieftains were bringing their reports; secretaries and clerks were +silently assembling.</p> + +<p>Mr. Mears left the room, whisperingly dismissed everybody; and with +closed lips and noiseless footsteps, the little crowd dispersed.</p> + +<p>When he returned to the room she spoke to him again, still without +raising her eyes.</p> + +<p>"The car has gone home, of course. Please telephone to the house, and +tell them to send it back for me at once."</p> + +<p>He transmitted her order, and then went to a window and looked down into +the court-yard.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Mears!"</p> + +<p>She had finished the letter, and was carefully folding it. "There. You +had better keep it—with the other papers.... Sit down, please. Stay +with me till the car comes."</p> + +<p>Mr. Mears sat down, put the folded letter in his pocket, but did not +speak. He noticed that her eyes were free from moisture, and her quiet +voice betrayed no emotion of any sort.</p> + +<p>"Ah, well;" and she gave a little sigh. "He wanted for nothing. His +friend says so explicitly.... Mr. Mears, she cannot have been a bad +woman—according to her lights. You see, she has stuck to him +faithfully."</p> + +<p>Then, after a long pause, she spoke very kindly of the dead man; and +Mears noticed the pitying tenderness that had come into her voice. But +it could not have been called emotion: it was a benign, comprehensive +pity, a ready sympathy for weakness and misfortune, and no deep +disturbance of personal feeling. Mears had heard her talk in just such a +tone when she had been told about the sad end of a total stranger.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p><p>"Poor fellow! A wasted life, Mr. Mears!... And he had many good points. +He was naturally a <i>worker</i>. Considerable capacity—he seemed to promise +great things in the beginning.... You know, <i>you</i> thought well of him at +first."</p> + +<p>"At first," said Mears. "I admit it. He was a good salesman."</p> + +<p>"He was a <i>grand</i> salesman, Mr. Mears.... I have never met a better +one."</p> + +<p>Enid was waiting for her at the white gates, when the car brought her +home.</p> + +<p>"Mother dear, is anything wrong? Are you ill?"</p> + +<p>The car had stopped; and Enid, clambering on the step, showed a white, +scared face.</p> + +<p>"No, my dear. I am quite all right. I'll get out here, and stroll in the +garden with you.... My sweet Enid, did the message frighten you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dreadfully."</p> + +<p>"It was inconsiderate of me not to say I wasn't ill.... I am taking the +day off. That is all."</p> + +<p>"But what has happened? Something has upset you. I can see it in your +face."</p> + +<p>Then, as they walked slowly to and fro along a terrace between bright +and perfumed flowers, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson quietly told her daughter +the news.</p> + +<p>"I am a widow, Enid dear.... No, it did not upset me. Mr. Mears and I +were both prepared to hear it.... But of course it takes one back into +the past; it sets one thinking—and I felt at once that I ought not to +attend to ordinary business, that it would be only proper to take the +day off....</p> + +<p>"And I think, Enid, that henceforth I shall call myself Mrs. +Thompson—plain Mrs. Thompson, dropping the other name altogether."... +She had paused on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> path, to pick a sprig of verbena; and she gently +crushed a thin leaf, and inhaled its perfume. "Yes, dear. I always liked +the old name best. But I felt that while he was living, it might seem +unkind, and in bad taste, if I altogether refused to bear his name. Now, +however, it cannot matter;" and she opened her hand and let the crushed +leaf fall. "He has gone. And he is quite forgotten. There is nobody who +can think it unkind if his name dies, too."</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p> + +<h2><span>XXXIII</span></h2> + +<p>The pleasant years were slipping away, and Mrs. Thompson was just as +busy as she had ever been. She had long ago ceased to speak of retiring, +and now she did not even think of it. The success of Bence's had +continued to swell larger and larger; its trade grew steadily and +surely; its financial position was so strong that nothing could shake +it.</p> + +<p>Prentice and Archibald Bence often advised the proprietress to turn +herself into a company, and she was more or less disposed to adopt their +suggestion. Some day or other she might do it. But it would be a big +job—the promotion of a company on the grandest scale, with enormous +capital involved, wants careful consideration. Perhaps she was a little +inclined to shrink the preliminary labours of the scheme—and in any +event the flotation could not bring her more leisure, because she would +certainly be obliged to remain at Bence's as managing director.</p> + +<p>In these years Jane had made her bow at the Court of St. James's, and +had experienced the excitement of a London season; but as yet her +guardians had found her no suitable sweetheart. They were difficult to +please; and she herself appeared to be in no hurry. However, Jane at +twenty-two was so good-looking, so vivaciously amiable, so altogether +charming, that Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Kenion knew well that they would +not be able to put off the heavy day much longer. The right man, though +still unseen, must have drawn very near by now.</p> + +<p>On Thursday afternoons, weather permitting, Mrs. Thompson liked to drive +in the carriage; and it was always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> an especial treat when the social +engagements of her ladies allowed them to accompany her. As the big bay +horses trotted along the smooth roads she leaned back in her seat with +luxurious contentment and beamed at Jane, at Enid, at all the world.</p> + +<p>"Now is not this much nicer—the air, the quiet enjoyment, the gentle +motion—than if we were being whirled past everything in a motor-car?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, granny, it <i>is</i> very nice."</p> + +<p>"I fear that you would have preferred the car, Enid?"</p> + +<p>"Oh no, mother dear. I think horses are delightful when you don't want +to go far, and time is no object."</p> + +<p>"That's just it," said Mrs. Thompson. "Time is no object. The horses +help me to remember that; and I like to remember it—because it gives +one the holiday feeling."</p> + +<p>"Poor granny!" Jane had taken one of grandmamma's hands, and was +squeezing it affectionately. "And it's only a <i>half</i>-holiday. You don't +get enough of the holiday feeling.... Oh, where's my Kodak? I must snap +those children."</p> + +<p>The carriage was stopped; Jane sprang out, and ran back to photograph +three little girls in a cottage garden.</p> + +<p>"There," said Mrs. Thompson triumphantly. "If we had been in the car, +she wouldn't have seen them. We should have passed too quickly."</p> + +<p>Jane stopped the carriage again, when they came to a point where the +road turns abruptly to cross a high bridge above the railway.</p> + +<p>"Here we are, granny. Here's your favourite view."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Thompson had always been fond of this view of Mallingbridge; and +though it was much too large for a snapshot photograph, Jane liked it, +too.</p> + +<p>Looking down from the bridge you have Mallingbridge,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> stretched as a +map, at your feet. Once the clustered roofs made a large spot four miles +away in the middle of the plain. Now the roofs had encroached until very +little plain was left. The town and its suburbs had rolled out in all +directions, burying green meadows beneath warehouses and factories, +stifling the copses with red-brick villas, planting the flowery slopes +with tram-lines and iron standards. To-day the light was bad; the sun +only here and there could pierce the drab clouds of smoke that rose from +countless chimneys, and drifted and hung over the central part of the +town; but the three big towers showed plainly enough—the square tower +of St. Saviour's, the steeple of Holy Trinity, and the pinnacled +monument of Bence's clock. And very plainly, with the sunshine suddenly +striking it, one saw the huge dome of Bence.</p> + +<p>A changed view, a widely extended map, since Mrs. Thompson first looked +at it. But there at her feet lay the world that she had conquered and +held.</p> + +<p>Perhaps, while the horses stood champing their bits and the coachman and +footman stifled yawns of ennui, Mrs. Thompson extracted from the wide +view a warm and comfortable sensation of happiness and pride. She was +quite happy, with every fierce passion burnt out, with the disturbing +energy of the emotions nearly all gone; but with the full and satisfying +work still left to her, and the zest for the work growing always keener, +keeping her young of spirit, defying the years. And she was proud—very +proud in her undiminished power of protecting those she loved. She had +never failed to protect. Her mother,—her dull old husband,—her +daughter,—her daughter's daughter: all who had touched the orbit of her +strength with love had found security. And she had been able to break as +well as to make. All who had served her were guarded and safe: all who +had opposed her were crushed and done for.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p><p>"Shall I drive on, ma'am?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, drive on."</p> + +<p>The coachman and footman in their black liveries and white gloves had a +grand air; the bay horses were large highly-bred beasts; the carriage +was one of those four-seated victorias which are much affected by royal +persons—the whole equipage offered a majestic appearance. If the route +of the excursion led them by the avenues of new villas and through some +of the crowded streets of the town, Mrs. Thompson's weekly outing became +exactly like a queen's procession.</p> + +<p>Hats off on either side; continuous bowing to right and left; men and +women staring from open doors, running to upper windows, bumping into +one another on the pavement.</p> + +<p>"Who is it?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Thompson."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>"What is it? I couldn't see. Was it the fire-engine?"</p> + +<p>"No. Mrs. Thompson—taking her Thursday drive. Just gone round the +corner to Bridge Street."</p> + +<p>In Bridge Street, people on the top of trams stood up to stare at her; +and if it chanced that there rode on the car some stranger to +Mallingbridge, the conductor and all the passengers volubly instructed +him.</p> + +<p>"Who did you say it was?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Thompson!... She's <i>Bence's</i>; she is ... Mrs. Thompson, don't I +tell you? But Bence's is all hers.... She built that tower what you're +looking at now.... She gave the money to build the new hospital that +we're coming to presently.... Mrs. Thompson! They say she's rich enough +to buy the blooming town."</p> + +<p>When she got home she thanked her companions for giving her the treat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p><p>"It is sweet of you both—and I hope you haven't been bored. It has +been the greatest treat for me."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>Another of her great treats—enjoyed more rarely than the carriage +drive—was on a Sunday night, when she and her granddaughter went in to +Mallingbridge for the evening service at St. Saviour's Church.</p> + +<p>"We won't ask your mother to come, because I fancy she is a little +tired. But if you feel up to it?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Rather</i>," said Jane.</p> + +<p>"Really and truly, you won't mind?"</p> + +<p>"I shall love it, granny."</p> + +<p>Then, time being an object, the small car was ordered, and the chauffeur +jumped gleefully to obey the sabbath-infringing order. He knew that he +would receive a thumping tip as guerdon for his extra pains.</p> + +<p>She sat in the old pew, with Jane by her side. She had retained the +places, although she could so infrequently use them; and the card in the +metal frame once again read, "Mrs. Thompson, two seats."</p> + +<p>The dim light fell softly on her white hair and pale face, on her ermine +fur and the purple velvet of her mantle; and the congregation, sparse +rows of vague, meaningless figures, sent shadowy glances at her back and +at her sides. There was no one here now who had seen her as a bride, +with her pretty hair and fresh, vividly coloured complexion; but all +knew who she was, and everybody seemed to be stirred by her dignified +presence. At her entrance a whisper and a movement had run along the +pews. "Look! Mrs. Thompson!"</p> + +<p>A young curate conducted the service with a kind of languid hurry. The +old broad church vicar was dead, and a low church vicar had obtained the +living. So there was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> less singing and chanting than of past days; and +the choir boys, standing or sitting in the brightly illuminated chancel, +had not so much work to do. It was all one to Mrs. Thompson—the old way +or the new way. The sensible view, the <i>business</i> view of the matter +remained unaltered. Given a consecrated house of prayer, anyone who +isn't a faddist ought to be able to pray in it.</p> + +<p>The congregation had stood up, to recite the evening psalms in alternate +verses with the curate; and Mrs. Thompson, standing very erect, looked +from the darkness towards the light.</p> + +<p>... "The Lord is with them that uphold my soul;" and then the +congregation recited their verse.</p> + +<p>Jane glanced at granny's face—so fine, so strong, so brave; and +listened to her firm, resolute voice.</p> + +<p>"He shall reward evil until mine enemies: destroy thou them in thy +truth."</p> + +<p>While the curate read the next verse, Jane was still watching her +granny's face.</p> + +<p>"For," answered Mrs. Thompson, "he hath delivered me out of all my +trouble; and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies."</p> + +<p>"Glory be to the Father," said the curate, in a perfunctory tone, "and +to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;"</p> + +<p>"As it was in the beginning," said Mrs. Thompson, firmly and fervently, +"is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen."</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mrs. Thompson, by William Babington Maxwell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mrs. Thompson + A Novel + +Author: William Babington Maxwell + +Release Date: April 23, 2012 [EBook #39515] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. THOMPSON *** + + + + +Produced by Robert Cicconetti, Martin Pettit and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive) + + + + + + +_BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHOR_ + + +NOVELS. + +FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE +GLAMOUR +THE MIRROR AND THE LAMP +THE DEVIL'S GARDEN +GENERAL MALLOCK'S SHADOW +IN COTTON WOOL +MRS. THOMPSON +THE REST CURE +SEYMOUR CHARLTON +HILL RISE +THE GUARDED FLAME +VIVIEN +THE RAGGED MESSENGER +THE COUNTESS OF MAYBURY +A LITTLE MORE + + +SHORT STORIES. + +LIFE CAN NEVER BE THE SAME +ODD LENGTHS +FABULOUS FANCIES + + + + +MRS. THOMPSON + +_A NOVEL_ + +BY + +W. B. MAXWELL + +AUTHOR OF "THE GUARDED FLAME," +"VIVIEN," ETC. + +[Illustration: Logo] + +NEW YORK + +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY + +1922 + + +Copyright, 1911, by +DODD, MEAD & COMPANY + +PRINTED IN U. S. A. + + +"Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in +the gates." + --PROVERBS. + + + + +MRS. THOMPSON + + + + +I + + +It was early-closing day in the town of Mallingbridge; and the +Thompson's, "established 1813," had begun to hide its wares from the +sunlight of High Street. Outside its windows the iron shutters were +rolling down; inside its doors male and female assistants, eager for the +weekly half-holiday, were despatching the last dilatory customers, +packing their shelves, spreading their dust-sheets, and generally +tidying up with anxious speed. + +Mrs. Thompson, the sole proprietress, emerging from internal offices and +passing through her prosperous realm, cast an attentive eye hither and +thither; and, wherever she glanced, saw all things right, and nothing +wrong. System, method, practised control visible in each department. +Carpets, Bedding, Curtains, House Furnishings, all as they should be--no +disturbing note, no hint of a dangerous element in the well-ordered +working scheme of Thompson's. + +Managerial Mr. Mears, a big elderly man, took his hands from beneath the +skirts of his frock-coat; smiled and bowed; and spoke to the +proprietress confidentially on one or two important matters. + +"By the way," said Mr. Mears. "About Household Crockery--is it to be a +promotion, or do you still think of getting someone in? Of course +there's a lot of talk--must be while the appointment remains open. But +you haven't made up your mind yet, have you?" + +"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Thompson, arranging her reticule, and not looking +at Mr. Mears. "I shall appoint Mr. Marsden." + +"Young Marsden? Never!" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. + +"You surprise me. I admit it." + +"You don't think," said Mrs. Thompson, "that he is old enough for the +responsibility. But, Mr. Mears, he has _brains_ and he likes _work_. +Tell the others that the appointment is made." + +And big Mr. Mears did then what everyone in Thompson's always did--that +is to say, he immediately obeyed orders; and before the last shutter was +down, the news had flashed all through the restricted space of the +old-fashioned shop. + +"Dicky Marsden! Oh, drop me off a roof.... Marsden up again! Well, I'm +bust!" Thompson's young gentlemen murmuring their comments, expressed +astonishment, and a certain amount of envy. "Marsden over all our heads! +This is a rum go, if you like." + +"Fancy! What next! Would you believe it?" Thompson's young ladies, after +being breathless, became shrill. "Why, on'y six months ago he was Number +Three in the Carpets." + +"He'll be prouder than ever." + +"I shan't dare so much as speak to him." + +"He always treated one as dirt under his feet," said a dark-haired, +anaemic young lady. "And _now_!" + +"With the increased screw," said a pert, blond young lady, "he'll be +able to buy more smart clothes, and he'll look more fetching than ever. +Yes, and you'll all be more in love with him than you are a'ready." + +"Speak for yourself." + +"Well, say I'm as bad as you. We're all a lot of fools together." + +Of course there must be talk. The Napoleonic rise of this fortunate +shopman had been sufficiently rapid to stir the whole of his little +shop-world. Starting thus, to what heights might he not attain in +Thompson's? There would be talk and more talk. + +But not within the hearing of Mr. Mears. + +"Jabber, jabber," said Mr. Mears with unusual severity. "Less of it. +You're like so many cackling hens in some back yard--instead of ladies +who know how to behave themselves in a high-class emporium." + +Evidently Mr. Mears was not pleased with the appointment. He stamped +off; and the girls observed the characteristic swish of the coat tails, +the manner in which he puffed out his chest, and the faint flush upon +his bearded face. + +Meanwhile Mrs. Thompson had passed onward and upward, through many +departments, to the door of communication on the first floor that led +from her public shop to her private house. + +Outwardly it was quite an old-fashioned shop, still encased with the +red-brick fabric of Georgian days; but inwardly its structure had been +almost entirely modernised. The bird-cage art of steel-girdering had +swept away division-walls, opened out the department to the widest +possible extent and given an unimpeded run of floor area where once the +goods used to be stored in rooms the size of pigeon-holes. The best +shop-architects had gutted the place, and, so far as they were +permitted, had "brought it up to date"; but in all recent improvements +the style of substantial, respectable grandeur was preserved. The new +mahogany staircases were of a Georgian pattern; there were no fantastic +white panellings, no coloured mosaics, no etageres of artificial +flowers. Really the vast looking-glasses were the only decoration that +one could condemn as altogether belonging to the vulgar new school. The +mirrors were perhaps overdone. + +So, as Mrs. Thompson ascended the short flight of stairs out of Bedding, +Etc., a pleasant, middle-aged woman in stately black with pendent +chatelaine, climbed opposing steps to meet her face to face on the +landing. As she moved on she was moving in many glasses, so that nearly +all the assistants could see her or her reflected image: a procession of +Mrs. Thompsons advancing from Woollens and Yarns, another converging +column of Mrs. Thompsons from Cretonnes and Chintzes, reinforcements +coming forward in the big glass opposite the entrance of Household +Linen; while the young men behind the Blankets counter raised their eyes +to watch the real Mrs. Thompson march by with a company of false Mrs. +Thompsons stretching in perfect line from the right--innumerable Mrs. +Thompsons shown by the glasses; some looking bigger, some looking +slighter; but all the glasses showing a large-bosomed, broad-hipped +woman of forty-five, with florid colouring and robust deportment; a +valiant solid creature seeming, as indeed she was, well able to carry +the burden of the whole shop on her firm shoulders. + +Then the glasses were empty again: Mrs. Thompson had disappeared through +the door of communication. + +On this side of the door lay all her working life, the struggle, the +fight, the courageous plans, and the unflagging labours; on the other +side of the door lay the object for which she had toiled, the end and +aim of every brave endeavour. + + +"Enid, my darling, are you there?... Yates, is Miss Enid in?" + +"Yes, ma'am, Miss Enid has lunched, and is upstairs--dressing for the +drive." + +Yates, the old servant, maid, housekeeper, and faithful friend, came +bustling and smiling to the welcome sounds of her employer's kind voice. + +Mrs. Thompson sat for a few minutes in the vacated dining-room, talking +to Yates and hearing the domestic news. + +The headache of Miss Enid, Yates reported, was much better; but she had +not been out this morning. She seemed to be rather languid, and, as +Yates guessed, perhaps felt a little dull and moped after the gaieties +and excitements of the country-house visit from which she had just +returned. + +"Ah, well," said Mrs. Thompson cheerfully, "our drive will do her good. +And now that the summer is coming on, she shall not want for occupation +and amusement." + +All through the snug little box of a house, filched out of the block of +shop premises, there was evidence of the occupations and amusements of +Miss Enid. Bookcases with choicely bound volumes of romance and poetry, +elegant writing-desks, various musical instruments, materials for +painting in oil or water colour, new inventions for the practice of +miniature sculpture, the most costly photographic cameras, tennis +rackets, hockey sticks, and other implements of sport and pastime--on +this floor as on the upper floors, in dining-room, drawing-room, +boudoir, as well as bedroom and dressing-room, were things that should +provide a young lady with occupation and amusement. + +The rooms were comfortably furnished and brightly ornamented, and all +had a homelike soothing aspect to their busy owner. To other people they +might seem lacking in the studious taste by which the rich and idle can +make of each apartment a harmonious picture. Here money had been spent +profusely but hurriedly, at odd times and not all together: whatever at +the moment had appeared to be desirable or necessary had been at once +procured. So that comfort and luxury rather jostled each other; the +Sheraton cabinets which were so charming to look at were apt to get +hidden by the leather armchairs which were so soothing to have a nap in; +and the Chelsea china in the glass-fronted corner cupboard completely +lost itself behind the Japanese screen that guarded against draughts +from the old sashed window. + +"Enid, may I come in?" Mrs. Thompson tapped softly at the door of her +daughter's dressing-room. + +"Mother dear, is that you?" The door was opened, and the two women +embraced affectionately. + +Miss Thompson, in her fawn-coloured coat and skirt, feathered hat and +spotted veil, was a tall, slim, graceful figure, ready now to adorn the +hired landau from Mr. Young's livery stables. Her hair was dark and her +complexion naturally pallid; with a long straight nose in a narrow face, +she resembled her dead father, but what was sheep-like and stupid in him +was rather pretty in the girl;--altogether, a decent-looking, fairly +attractive young woman of twenty-two, but not likely to obtain from the +world at large the gaze of admiring satisfaction with which an adoring +mother regarded her. + +"The carriage isn't there yet," said Mrs. Thompson, "and I promise not +to keep you waiting. I'll change my dress in a flash of lightning." + +"What did you think of wearing this afternoon?" + +Mrs. Thompson proposed to put on her new mauve gown and the hat with the +lilac blossoms; but her daughter made alternative suggestions. + +In the shop Mrs. Thompson carried a perpetual black; outside the shop +she was perhaps unduly fond of vivid tints, and it was Enid's custom to +check this rainbow tendency. + +"Very well," said Mrs. Thompson, "it shall be the brown again;" and she +laughed good-humouredly. "I bow to your judgment, my dear, if I don't +endorse its correctness." + +"You look sweet in the brown, mother." + +"Do I?... But remember what Miss Macdonald says. With my high +complexion, I _need_ colour." + +Yates soon braced and laced her mistress into the sober brown cloth and +velvet that Enid considered suitable for the occasion; a parlourmaid +with light rugs went forward to the carriage; and mother and daughter +came down the steep and narrow flight of stairs to their outer door. + +There was no ground floor to the dwelling-house--or rather the ground +floor formed an integral part of the shop. The street door stood in St. +Saviour's Court--the paved footway that leads from High Street to the +churchyard,--sandwiched with its staircase between the two side windows +that contained basket chairs and garden requisites. The court was +sufficiently wide and sufficiently pleasant: a quiet, dignified passage +of entry, with the peaceful calm of the old church walls at one end, and +the stir and bustle of the brilliant High Street at the other end. + +Enid and her mamma, following the neat and mincing parlourmaid, made a +stately procession to the main thoroughfare, where the really handsome +equipage provided by Mr. Young was awaiting their pleasure. + +The liveried coachman touched his hat, idle loungers touched their caps, +prosperous citizens uncovered and bowed. + +"There goes Mrs. Thompson." People ran to upper windows to see Mrs. +Thompson start for her Thursday drive. + +"There she goes." + +"Who?" + +"Mrs. Thompson." + +"Oh!" + +The genial May sunshine flashed gaily, lighting up the whole street, +making both ladies blink their eyes as the carriage rolled away. + +"What a crowd there is outside Bence's," said Miss Enid. "How mean it is +of him not to close!" + +The first shop they passed was Bence's drapery stores, and Mrs. Thompson +glanced carelessly at the thronged pavement in front of these improperly +open windows. + +"Mr. Bence's motto," said Mrs. Thompson, "is cheap and nasty," and she +laughed with an amused scorn for so mean a trade rival. "His method of +doing business is like the trumpery he offers to the public. I have a +rather impudent letter from him in my pocket now, and I want--" + +But then Mrs. Thompson's strong eyebrows contracted, and she shrugged +her shoulders and looked away from Bence's. She had just noticed two of +her own shop-girls going into Bence's to buy his trumpery. Something +distinctly irritating in the thought that these feather-headed girls +regularly carried half their wages across the road to Bence's! + +Throughout the length of High Street there were too many of such signs +of the vulgar times: the ever-changing trade, old shops giving place to +new ones--an American boot-shop, a branch of the famous cash +tobacconists, the nasty cheap restaurant opened by the great London +caterers, Parisian jewellery absorbing one window of the historic +clocksmiths,--everywhere indications of that love of tawdriness and +glitter which slowly atrophies the sense of solid worth, of genuineness +and durability. + +Yet everywhere, also, signs of the old life of the town still +vigorous--aldermen and councillors taking the air; Mr. Wiseman, the +wealthy corn-merchant; Mr. Dempsey, the auctioneer-mayor; Mr. Young, +owner of a hundred horses besides this pair of gallant greys that were +drawing Mrs. Thompson. + +Everyone of the solid old townsfolk knew her; all that was respectably +permanent bowed and smiled at her. The drive was like a royal progress +when they swept through the market square, past the ancient town hall +now a museum, under the shadows thrown by the new municipal buildings, +and the other and bigger church of Holy Trinity, out beneath the noble +gatehouse, and up into the sunlit slope of Hill Street. Hats off on +either side, broad masculine faces smiling in the sunlight. All the best +of the town knew her and was proud of her. + +Her story was of the simplest, and all knew it. Mr. Thompson had been +the last and most feeble representative of a powerful dynasty of +shop-keepers; at his death it became at once apparent that the grand old +shop was nothing but an effete, played out, and utterly exhausted +possession; his widow was left practically penniless, with an insolvent +business to wind up, and an orphaned little girl to support and rear. +And young Mrs. Thompson was ignorant of all business matters, knew +nothing more of shops than can be learned by any shop-customer. +Nevertheless, with indomitable energy, she threw herself into business +life. She did not shut up Thompson's; she kept it going. In two years it +was again a paying concern; in a few more years it was a stronger and +more flourishing enterprise than it had ever been since its +establishment in 1813; now it was immensely prosperous and a credit to +the town. + +They all knew how she had toiled until the success came, how generously +she had used the money that her own force and courage earned--a +large-minded, open-handed, self-reliant worker, combining a woman's +endurance with a man's strength,--and only one weakness: the pampering +devotion to her girl. She was making her daughter too much of a fine +lady; she had extravagantly worshipped this idol; she had _spoiled_ the +long-nosed Enid. The town knew all about that. + +Bowing to right and to left, Mrs. Thompson drove up Hill Street, and +then stopped the carriage outside the offices of Mr. Prentice, solicitor +and commissioner of oaths. + +"Only two or three words with him, Enid. I promise not to be more than +five minutes." + +Mr. Prentice came to the carriage door; and was asked to read the letter +from Mr. Bence the fancy draper. + +"Don't you think it's rather impertinent?" + +"Of course I do," said Mr. Prentice. "I wouldn't answer it. Throw it +into the waste-paper basket." + +"Oh, no, I shall answer it ... I can't allow Mr. Bence to suppose that I +should ever be afraid of him." + +"Afraid of him!" And Mr. Prentice laughed contemptuously. "_You_ afraid +of such a little bounder.... Look here. Shall I go round and kick the +brute?" + +Mrs. Thompson laughed, too. "No, no," she said, "that would scarcely be +professional." + +"I'll do it after office hours--in my private capacity--and of course +without entering it to your account." + +Mr. Prentice was a jolly red-faced man of fifty, with healthy +clean-shaven cheeks, and small grey whiskers of a sporting cut. +Altogether the most eminent solicitor in Mallingbridge, he had clients +among all the country gentlefolk of the neighbourhood; he rode to hounds +still, and kept his horses at Young's stables; he stood high in the +Masonic craft and could sing an excellent comic song. He was at once +Mrs. Thompson's trusted legal adviser, her staunch friend, and, as he +himself declared, her admiring slave. + +"One more word," said Mrs. Thompson. "It is time that I gave another +dinner at the Dolphin. There are two new men on the Council--and there +will be more new men next November. I shall want your help to act as +deputy host for me. Will you think it out--draw up a list of guests--and +arrange everything?" + +"It is for you to command, and for me to obey," said genial Mr. +Prentice. "But, upon my word, I don't know why you should go on feasting +people in this way." + +"I like to stand well with the town." + +"And so you do. So you would, if you never gave them another glass of +champagne.... I think your mamma is far too generous." + +But Miss Enid, who seemed unutterably bored, was staring out of the +carriage in the other direction. She had not been listening to Mr. +Prentice, and she did not hear him when he addressed her directly. + +"Then good-bye. Drive on, coachman.... There," and Mrs. Thompson turned +gaily to her daughter. "That's more than enough business for Thursday +afternoon, isn't it, Enid?" + + +They drove along the London road, through the pretty village of +Haggart's Cross, as far as the chalk cliffs beneath the broad downs; and +then, descending again, through beech woods and fir plantations to the +valley where the river Malling runs and twists beside the railway line +all the way home to the town. + +The world was fresh and bright, with the May wind blowing softly and the +May flowers budding sweetly. Cattle in the green fields, birds in the +blue sky, pinafored children chanting a lesson behind the latticed panes +of their schoolhouse, primroses peeping from grassy banks, and, far and +near, the white hawthorn shedding its perfume, giving its fragrant +message of spring, of hope, of life--plenty of things to look at with +pleasure, plenty of things to talk about, though one might often have +seen them before. + +But Enid was somehow languid, listless, even lumpish, and Mrs. Thompson +did nearly all the looking and talking. + +"I always think that is such an imposing place. The entrance seems to +warn one off--to tell one not to forget what a tremendous swell the +owner is." + +They were passing the lodge-gates of a great nobleman's seat, and one +had a rapid impression of much magnificence. Stone piers, sculptured +urns, floreated iron, massive chains; and behind the forbidding barrier +a vista of swept gravel and mown grass, with solemn conifers proudly +ranked, and standard rhododendrons just beginning pompously to bloom--no +glimpse of the mansion itself, but an intuitive perception of something +vast, remote, unattainable. + +Enid looked through the bars at my lord's gravel drive attentively, +almost wistfully, perhaps thinking of the few and august people to whom +these splendours would be familiar--of the lucky people who are brought +up in palaces instead of in shops. + +"It is a meet of hounds." Miss Enid broke a long silence to give her +mother this information. "And when I was staying at Colonel Salter's, I +met a man who had once been to a ball there." + +"Ah, well," said Mrs. Thompson, with cheerful briskness, "now you +mention hunting, that reminds me. We must get you on horseback again.... +You do like your riding, don't you?" + +"Oh, yes," said Enid listlessly. + +"Mr. Young said you were making such good progress. And," added Mrs. +Thompson gently, "it is a pity to take up things and drop them. It is +just wasted effort--if one stops before reaching the goal." + +The road, turning and crossing the railway, gave them a well-known view +of Mallingbridge--the town quite at its best, four miles away in the +middle of the broad plain, smoke and haze hanging over it, but with +tempered sunlight glistening on countless roofs, and the square tower of +St. Saviour's and the tall spire of Holy Trinity rising proudly above +the mass of lesser buildings. There, stretched at her feet, was Mrs. +Thompson's world, the world that she had conquered. + +In another mile they passed a residence that to her mind formed a +pleasant contrast with the oppressive splendour of the nobleman's +domain. Here there were white gates between mellow brick walls, easy +peeps into a terraced garden, stables and barns as at a farm, pigeons +settling on some thatch, friendly English trees guarding but not hiding +a dear old English country house. + +"Look, Enid," and Mrs. Thompson pointed to the broad eaves, the white +windows, and the solid chimney stacks, as they showed here and there +between the branches of oak and maple. "There. That's a place I fell in +love with the first time I saw it.... I would like a house just like +that--for you and me to live in when I am able to give up my work...." + +"What were you saying, mother?" Enid, not listening or absorbed by her +own thoughts, had not heard. + +"I was only saying, that's the sort of house I should like for us +two--when I retire." + +"Mother, I sometimes wish that you had retired years ago." + +"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Thompson meekly, "retiring is all very +well--but you and I wouldn't be sitting here driving so comfortably if I +had been afraid of my work and in a hurry to get done with it." + + + + +II + + +In her marriage she had sacrificed all the natural hopes and +inclinations of a healthy young woman. She and her widowed mother were +very poor, quite alone in the world; and it seemed a proper and a wise +thing to marry Mr. Thompson for his money. No one could guess that the +money was already a phantom and no longer a fact. The man was +middle-aged, feeble of body and mind, a stupid and a selfish person; but +it seemed that he would assure the future of his wife and provide a +comfortable home for his mother-in-law. + +Then after five years the man and his money were gone forever; the +mother for whom the sacrifice had been made was herself dead; only the +wife and her little child remained. Five years of dull submission to an +unloved husband; five years spent in the nursing of two invalids, with +the vapid meaningless monotony of wasted days broken sharply by the +pains of child-birth, the agonized cares of early motherhood, and the +shock of death;--and at the end of the years, a sudden call for +limitless courage and almost impossible energy. + +Quiet unobtrusive Mrs. Thompson answered the call fully. Deep-seated +fighting instincts arose in her; unsuspected powers were put forth to +meet the exigencies of the occasion; the hero-spirit that lies buried in +many natures sprang nobly upward. + +At first she possessed only one commercial asset, the reputation of +Thompson's. For so many years Thompson's had been known as a good shop +that here was a legend which might counterbalance debts, exhausted +credit, antiquated stock, and incompetent staff. + +The town and the country during generations had come to Thompson's for +good things--not cheap things, but the things that last: dress fabrics +that stand up by themselves, chairs and tables that you can leave intact +to your grandchildren, carpets that unborn men will be beating when you +yourself are dust. + +Mrs. Thompson, in her widow's weeds, went round the big supply houses, +telling the great trade chieftains that the legend was still alive, +though the man who already owed them so much money was dead; saying in +effect to all the people who held her fate in their hands, "Don't let +old Thompson's go down. Don't smash me. Help me. Give me time to secure +your twenty shillings in the pound, instead of the meagre seven and +sixpence which you can get now." + +The wholesale trade helped her. Little by little all the world came to +her aid. Mr. Prentice the solicitor was a skilful ally. As soon as it +could be seen locally that she was keeping her head above water, friends +on the bank began to beckon to her. Rich aldermen, advised that there +was now small risk, lent her money; and these loans rendered her +independent of Trade assistance. Soon she could get whatever sums she +required for the restoration and expansion of the business. + +In all her dealings she won respect. The confidence that she inspired +was her true commercial asset, her capital, her good-will, her +everything; and it was always growing. "Very remarkable," said +travellers, reporting at headquarters, "how that Mrs. Thompson has +pulled the fat out of the fire at Mallingbridge. What she wants now is +some sound business man for partner--and there's no knowing what she +mightn't do." + +Then some other and more philosophic traveller, impressed by the swift +revivification of Thompson's, said enthusiastically, "The best business +head in this town is on a woman's shoulders." The saying was quoted, +misquoted, echoed and garbled, until it concreted itself into an easy +popular formula which the whole town used freely. "The best man of +business in Mallingbridge is a woman." Everyone knew who that woman was. +Mrs. Thompson. And the town, speaking on important occasions through the +mouth of its mayor, aldermen, and councillors, for the first time said +that it was proud of her. + +And then the town began to ask her hand in wedlock. + +In these days, at the dawn of her success, Mrs. Thompson was not without +obvious personal attraction. She was fair and plump, with light wavy +hair, kind grey eyes beneath well-marked eyebrows, and good colour +warmly brightening a clean white skin;--she "looked nice" in her widow's +black, smiling at a hard world and so bravely tackling her life problem. +Quite a large number of well-to-do citizens were smilingly rejected by +the buxom widow. Pretenders were slow to believe in the finality of her +refusals; as the success became more patent, they tried their luck +again, and again, but always with the same emptiness of result. Indeed +it was a town joke, as well as an unquestionable fact, that old Chambers +the wine-merchant regularly proposed three times a year to nice-looking +Mrs. Thompson. + +She wanted no second husband. The fight and the child were enough for +her. Those deep and unsapped springs of love that might have gushed +forth to make a fountain stream of happiness for Alderman Brown or +Councillor Jones flowed calmly and steadfastly now in a concentrated +channel of motherly affection. To work for the child, to love and tend +the child--that was henceforth her destiny. And she felt strong enough +to watch in her own face the blurring destructive print of time, if she +might watch in her girl's face time's unfolding glories. + +For the cruel years took from her irrevocably those physical seductions +of neatly rounded form and smooth pinkness and whiteness. The colour +that had been sufficient became too much, plumpness changed to +stoutness--once, for a year, she was fat. But she tackled this trouble +too, bravely and unflinchingly,--went to London for Swedish exercises; +banted; brought herself down, down, down, until Dr. Eldridge told her +she must stop, or she would kill herself. After that she settled to a +steady solidness, a well-maintained amplitude of contour; and the years +seemed to leave her untouched as the wide-breasted, rotund-hipped, +stalwart Mrs. Thompson of a decade--red-cheeked, bright-eyed, gallant +and strong. + +Yet still she had suitors. The physical charm was gone, but other charm +was present--that blending of kindness and power which wins men's +hearts, if it does not stir their pulses, gave her a dominating +personality, and made the circle of her influence exactly as large as +the circle of her acquaintance. People at the circumference of the +circle seemed to be surely drawn, by a straight or vacillating radius, +to its centre. The better you knew her, the more you thought about her. +So that old friends after years of thought now and then surprised her by +suggesting that friendship should be exchanged for a closer bond; +pointing out the advantages of a common-sense union, the marriage of +convenience, sympathy, and mutual regard, that becomes appropriate when +the volcano glow of youth has faded; and inviting her to name an early +day for going to St. Saviour's Church with them. + +In the shop, among all grades of employees, there had ever been a dread +of St. Saviour's Church and wedding bells. They got on so well with +their mistress that the idea of a master was extraordinarily abhorrent +to them. But one day, a day now long past, Mrs. Thompson told Mr. Mears +authoritatively that joy bells would never sound for her again; Mr. +Mears, by permission, or in the exercise of his own discretion, passed +on the glad tidings; and the only dark thought that could worry a +contented staff was removed. + +"No, Mr. Mears, I don't say that I have never contemplated the +possibility of such an event; but I can say emphatically I have decided +that in my case it _is_ impossible." + +That was sufficient. What Mrs. Thompson said Mrs. Thompson meant. A +decision with her was a decision. + +Of all her trusty subordinates none had served her so loyally as big Mr. +Mears. His whole life had been spent in Thompson's. Once he had been boy +messenger, window-cleaner, boot-blacker; and now, at the age of sixty, +he had risen to managerial rank. He was the acknowledged chief of the +staff, Mrs. Thompson's right-hand man; and he was as proud of his +position and the culminating grandeurs of his career as if he had been a +successful general, a prime-minister, or a pope. Mrs. Thompson knew and +openly told him that he was invaluable to her. Such words were like wine +and music: they intoxicated and enchanted him. Truly he was +whole-hearted, faithful, devoted, with a deep veneration for his +mistress; with an intense and almost passionate esteem for her skill, +her comprehension, her vigour, and for her herself--perhaps too with a +love that he scarcely himself understood. + +Anyhow this heavy grey-haired shopman and his employer were very close +allies, generally thinking as one, and always acting as one, able to +talk together with a nearly absolute freedom on any question, however +intimately private in its character. + +"You see, Mr. Mears, if I ever meant to do it, I should have done it +ages ago. Now that my daughter is growing up, her claims for attention +are becoming stronger every day." + +Mr. Mears and the rest of the staff were more than satisfied. Perhaps +they blessed the idolized Enid for an increasing capacity to absorb +every energy and volition that Mrs. Thompson could spare from the shop. + +Whatever Enid wished for her mother provided. She racked her brains in +order to forestall the child's wishes. But the difficulty always was +this, one could not be quite sure what Enid really wished. She accepted +the pretty gifts, the conditions of her life, the plans for her future, +with a calm unruffled acquiescence. + +When Mrs. Thompson regretfully decided that it would be advisable to +dismiss the expensive governesses and send the home pupil to an +expensive school, Enid placidly and immediately agreed. Mrs. Thompson +thought that school would open Enid's mind, that school would give her +an opportunity of making nice girl-friends. Enid at once thought so, +too. + +"But, oh, my darling, what a gap there will be in this house! You'll +leave a sore and a sad heart behind you. I shall miss you woefully." + +"And I shall miss you, mamma." + +Then, when Enid had gone to the fashionable seminary at Eastbourne, with +the faithful Yates as escort, with a wonderful luncheon-basket of +delicacies in the first-class reserved compartment, with several huge +boxes of school trousseau in the luggage van, Mrs. Thompson began to +suffer torment. Was it not cruel to send the brave little thing away +from her? Might not her darling be now a prey to similar yearnings and +longings for a swift reunion? The torment became agony; and after two +days Mrs. Thompson rushed down to see for herself if the new scholar was +all right. + +Enid was entirely all right--playing with the other girls at the bottom +of the secluded garden. + +"Is that you, mummy?" This was a form of greeting peculiar to Enid from +very early days. "I am so glad to see you," and she kissed mamma +affectionately. + +She was uniformly affectionate, whether at school or at home, but never +explosive or demonstrative in the manifestations of her affection. There +was more warmth in her letters than in her spoken words. "My own dearest +mother," she used to write, "I am so looking forward to being with you +again. Do meet me at the station." But when the train arrived and Mrs. +Thompson, who had been pacing the Mallingbridge platform in a fever of +expectation, clasped the beloved object to her heart, she experienced +something akin to disappointment. It was a sedately composed young lady +that offered a cool cheek to the mother's tremulous lips. + +Now and then a school-friend came to stay with Enid. A Miss Salter, +whose parents proved large-minded enough to overlook the glaring fact of +the shop, was a fairly frequent visitor. During the visit one of Mr. +Young's carriages stood at the disposal of the young hostess and her +guest all day long; breakfasts were served in bed; a private box at the +local theatre might be occupied any evening between the cosy dinner and +the dainty little supper; and Mrs. Thompson arranged delightful +expeditions to London, where, under the guardianship of Yates, larger +sights and more exciting treats could be enjoyed than any attainable in +Mallingbridge. + +The condescending guest returned to her distinguished circle laden with +presents, and frankly owned that she had been given a royal time at the +queer shop-house in St. Saviour's Court. + +Enid in her turn visited the houses of her friends, and came home to +tell Mrs. Thompson of that pleasant gracious world in which people do +not work for their living, but derive their ample means from splendidly +interred ancestors. With satisfaction, if not with animation, she +described how greatly butlers and footmen surpass the art of +parlourmaids in waiting at table; how gay an effect is produced by young +men dining in red coats, how baronets often shoot with three guns, how +lords never use less than two horses in the hunting field, and so on. +And Mrs. Thompson was happy in the thought that her daughter should be +mingling with fine company and deriving pleasure from strange scenes. + +She was careful to obliterate herself in all such social intercourse. +Courteous letters were exchanged between her and Enid's hosts; but the +girl and Yates were despatched together, and Mrs. Thompson refused even +a glimpse of the Salters' mansion. + +"Later on," she told Enid, "when we have done with the shop, I shall +hope to take my place in society by my pretty daughter's side. But for +the present I must just keep to myself.... The old prejudice against +retail trade still lingers--more especially among the class that used to +be termed _country_ people." + +Enid dutifully agreed. Indeed she told her mother that the old prejudice +was much more active than anyone could guess who had not personally +encountered it. The shop was, so to speak, a very large pill, and needed +a considerable amount of swallowing. + +"I found that out in my first term at school, mother dear." + +"Mother dear" was now Enid's unvaried mode of address when talking to +her mamma. All her friends addressed their mammas as mother dear. School +was over in these days. Miss Thompson had been finished; she did her +country-house visiting with a maid of her own, and no longer with old +Yates; as much as she appeared to like anything, she liked staying about +at country-houses; she never refused an invitation--except when she was +previously engaged. + +Something perhaps wanting here in the finished article, as polished and +pointed by Eastbourne school-mistresses; something not quite right in +Enid's placid acquiescences and too rapid concurrences; something that +suggested the smooth surface of a languid shallow stream, and not the +broad calm that lies above deep strong currents! Perhaps Mrs. Thompson +would have preferred a more exuberant reciprocity in her great love; +perhaps she secretly yearned for a full response to the open appeal of +her expansive, generous nature. + +If so, she never said it. She was generous in thoughts as well as in +deeds. In big things as in small things she seemed to think that it was +for her to give and for others to receive. From the vicar craving funds +for his new organ to the crossing sweeper who ostentatiously slapped his +chest on cold mornings, all who asked for largesse received a handsome +dole. At the railway-station, when she appeared, ticket-collectors and +porters tumbled over one another in their rush to dance attendance--so +solid was her reputation as a lavishly tremendous tipper. + +"She is making so much money herself that she can afford to be free with +it." That was the view of the town, and her own view, too. So all the +tradesmen with whom she dealt flagrantly overcharged her--dressmakers, +livery stable keepers, wine-merchants, florists, every one of them said +it was a privilege to serve her, and then sent in an extortionate bill. +And she paid and thanked with a genial smile. + +Donations to the hospitals, subscriptions to the police concert, the +watermen's regatta, the railway servants' sports--really there was no +end to the demands that she met so cheerily. Christmas turkeys for the +Corporation underlings; cigars for the advertisement printers; small and +big dinners, with salvos of champagne corks threatening the Dolphin +ceilings, for aldermen, councillors, and all other urban +magnates--really it was no wonder that the town had a good word for her. + +Mr. Prentice, the solicitor, always tried and always failed to curb her +liberality. Mr. Prentice kept himself outside of the Corporation's +affairs, and expressed considerable contempt for the municipal +representatives and the local tradesmen. When Mrs. Thompson spoke with +gratitude of the kindness of friends who helped her by loans in her +early struggle, Mr. Prentice mocked at these spurious benefactors. + +"They did nothing for you," said Mr. Prentice. + +"Oh, how can you pretend that?" + +"They lent you money on excellent security and took high interest; and +you have been feasting them and flattering them ever since." + +"I do like to feel that I am on good terms with those about me." + +Then Mr. Prentice would laugh. "Oh, well, you have certainly got the +Corporation in your pocket. You make them your slaves--as you make me +and everyone else. So I'll say no more. No doubt you know your own +business best." + +And she did. That well-used formula of the town might have been a +high-flown compliment at the beginning, but it was sober truth now. No +man in Mallingbridge could touch her. The years, taking so much from +her, had also brought her much. With ripening judgment, widening +knowledge, and the accumulated treasure of experience, her business +faculty had developed into something very near the highest form of +genius. She had insight, sense of organization, the power of launching +out boldly and accepting heavy risks to secure large gains; but she had +also caution, concentration of purpose in minor aims, and rapid decision +in facing a failure and cutting short consequent losses. In a word, she +possessed all the best attributes of your good man of business, and the +little more that makes up greatness. + +She could always do that which very few men consistently achieve. She +mastered the situation of the moment, struck directly at the root of the +difficulty that confronted her, and, sweeping aside irrelevancies, +non-essentials, and entanglements, saw in the cold bright light of +logical thought the open road that leads from chaos to security. + +And no man could have been a more absolute ruler. Every year of her +success made her dominion more complete. Womanlike, she ruled her world +by kindness; but man-like, she enforced her law by a show of strength, +and weight, and even of mere noise. Not often, but whenever necessary, +she acted a man's violence, and used bad language. When Mrs. Thompson +swore the whole shop trembled. + +The swearing was a purely histrionic effort, but she carried it through +nobly. + +"Have you heard?" A tremulous whisper ran along the counters. "Mrs. T. +went out into the yard, and damned those carters into heaps.... Mrs. T. +'as just bin down into the packing room, and given 'em damson pie--and +I'm sure they jolly well deserved it.... Look out. Here she comes!" + +The brawny carters hung their heads, the hulking packers cleared their +throats huskily, the timorous shop-hands looked at the floor. Mrs. +Thompson passed like a silent whirlwind through the shop, and banged the +counting-house door behind her. + +When Enid was away from home the counting-house was sometimes occupied +to a late hour. Staff long since gone, lights out everywhere; but light +still shining in that inner room, fighting the darkness above the glass +partitions. The night watchman, pacing to and fro, kept himself alert--a +real watchman, ready with his lantern to conduct Mrs. Thompson through +the shrouded avenues of counter, and upstairs to the door of +communication. + +When Enid was away the house seemed empty; and the empty house, +curiously enough, always seemed smaller. It was as though because the +life of the house had contracted, the four walls had themselves drawn +nearer together. Yet the little rooms were just big enough to hold +ghosts and sad memories. + +"You look thoroughly fagged out, ma'am. You overdo it. Let me open you a +pint of champagne for your supper." + +"No, thank you, Yates.... But sit down, and talk to me." + +The old servant sat at the table, and kept her mistress company through +what would otherwise have been a lonely meal. In Miss Enid's absence she +had no house news to offer, so Mrs. Thompson gave her the shop news. + +"I swore at them to-day, Yates." + +"Did you indeed, ma'am?" + +"Yes." + +"What drove you to that, ma'am?" + +"Oh, the packing-room again--and those carters. I informed Mr. Mears +that I should do it; and he kept his eyes open, and came up quietly and +told me when.... Mr. Mears was delighted with it. He told me at closing +time that things had gone like clockwork ever since." + +In her comfortable bedroom Mrs. Thompson shivered. + +"Yates, I feel cold. I suppose it is because I'm tired." + +"Shall I make you a glass of hot grog to drink in bed?" + +"No.... But come in again when I ring--and stay with me for a few +minutes, will you, Yates?" + +The old servant sat by the bedside until her mistress became drowsy. + +"I'll leave you now, ma'am. Good-night, and pleasant dreams." + +"Yates--kiss me." + +Yates stooped over her lonely mistress, and kissed her. Then she softly +switched off the light, and left Mrs. Thompson alone in the darkness. + + + + +III + + +When old employees looked out of Thompson's windows they sometimes had a +queer impression that this side of the street was stationary, and that +the other side of the street was moving. Six years ago Bence the +fancy-draper had been eight doors off; but he had come nearer and nearer +as he absorbed his neighbours' premises one after another. Now the end +of Bence's just overlapped Thompson's. For three or four feet he was +fairly opposite. + +Just as Thompson's represented all that was good and stable in the trade +of Mallingbridge, Bence's stood for everything bad and evanescent. A +horrid catch-penny shop, increasing its business rapidly, practising the +odious modern methods of remorseless rivalry, Bence's was almost +universally hated. They outraged the feelings of old established +tradesmen by taking up lines which cut into one cruelly: they burst out +into books, into trunks, into ironmongery; at Christmas, in what they +called their grand annual bazaar, they had a cut at the trade of every +shop throughout the length of High Street. But especially, at all +seasons of the year, they cut into Thompson's. The marked deliberate +attack was when they first regularly took up Manchester goods. Then came +Carpets, then Crockery, and then Garden requisites. + +But Bence, in the person of Mr. Archibald, the senior partner, always +announced the coming attack to Mrs. Thompson. He said she was the +superior of all the other traders; he could never forget that she was a +lady, and that he himself was one of her most respectful yet most +ardent admirers; he desired ever to treat her with the utmost chivalry. +Thus now he came over, full of gallant compliments, to make a fresh +announcement. + +Mrs. Thompson always treated Bence and his dirty little tricks as a +joke. She used to laugh at him with a good-humoured tolerance. + +"Of course, Mrs. Thompson, I don't like seeming to run you hard in any +direction. But lor', how can _I_ hurt you? You're big--you're right up +there"--and Mr. Bence waved a thin hand above his bald head--"a colossal +statue, made of granite. And _I_, why I'm just a poor little insect +scrabbling about in the mud at your feet." + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Thompson, smiling pleasantly, "you're nothing of the +sort. You are a very clever enterprising gentleman. But I'm not in the +least afraid of you, Mr. Bence." + +"That's right," said Bence delightedly. "And always remember this. I am +not _fighting_ you. Any attempt at a real fight is simply foreign from +my nature--that is, where you are concerned." + +"Never mind me," said Mrs. Thompson once. "But take care on your own +account. Vaulting ambition sometimes o'erleaps itself." + +"Ah," said Bence. "There you show your marvellous power. You put your +finger on the sore spot in a moment. I _am_ ambitious. I might almost +say my ambitions are boundless. Work is life to me--and if I was by +myself, I don't believe anything would stop me. But," said Bence, with +solemn self-pity, "as all the world knows, Mrs. Thompson, there's a +_leak_ in my business." + +Mrs. Thompson perfectly understood what he meant. This working Bence was +a sallow, prematurely bald man with a waxed moustache and a cracked +voice, and he toiled incessantly; but there were two younger Bences, +bluff, hearty, hirsute men, who were sleeping partners, and eating, +drinking, and loose-living partners. While Mr. Archibald laboured in +Mallingbridge, Mr. Charles and Mr. George idled and squandered in +London. + +"That's the trouble with me," said Mr. Archibald sadly. "I'm the captain +on his bridge, sending the ship full speed ahead, but knowing full well +that there's a leak down below in the hold.... Never sufficient money +behind me.... Oh, Mrs. Thompson," cried Bence, in a burst of enthusiasm, +"if I only had the money behind me, I'd soon show you what's what and +who's who. But I'm a man fighting with tied hands." + +"Not fighting _me_, Mr. Bence. You said so yourself." + +"No, no. Never _you_. I was thinking of the others." + +Well then, Bence had come across the road once more. In the letter which +Mrs. Thompson, when showing it to her solicitor, had described as +impertinent, Bence presented his compliments and begged an early +appointment for a communication of some importance. Mr. Bence added that +"any hints from Mrs. Thompson in regard to his proposed new departure +would be esteemed a privileged favour." Mrs. Thompson considered the +suggestion that she should advise the rival in his attack as perhaps +something beyond the limits of a joke. Nevertheless, she gave the +appointment, and smilingly received the visitor in her own room behind +the counting-house. + +"May I begin by saying how splendidly well you are looking, Mrs. +Thompson?... When I came in at that door, I thought there'd been a +mistake. Seeing you sitting there at your desk, I thought, 'But this is +_Miss_ Thompson, and not my great friend _Mrs._ Thompson.' Mistook you +for your own daughter, till you turned round and showed me that +well-known respected countenance which--" + +"Now Mr. Bence," said Mrs. Thompson, laughing, "I can't allow you to +waste your valuable time in saying all these flattering things." + +"No flattery." + +"Please sit down and tell me what new wickedness you are contemplating." + +Then Mr. Bence made his announcement. It was Furniture this time. He had +bought out two more neighbours--the old-fashioned sadler and the +bookseller; and he proposed to convert these two shops into his new +furniture department. + +Mrs. Thompson's brows gathered in a stern frown; only by a visible +effort could she wipe out the aspect of displeasure, and speak with +careless urbanity. + +"Let me see exactly what it means, Mr. Bence.... I suppose you mean that +your Furniture windows will be exactly opposite mine." + +"Well, as near as makes no difference." + +"That will be very convenient--for both of us, won't it? I think it is +an excellent idea, Mr. Bence," and Mrs. Thompson laughed. "Customers who +can't see what they want here, can step across and look for it with +you." + +"Oh, I daren't hope that we should ever draw anybody from your pavement, +Mrs. Thompson." + +"You are much too modest. But if it should ever happen that you fail to +supply any customers with what they desire, you can send them across to +us. You'd do that, wouldn't you?" + +"Of course I will," said Bence heartily. "That's what I say. We don't +clash. We _can't_ clash." + +Mrs. Thompson struck the bell on her desk, and summoned a secretary. + +"Send Mr. Mears to me." + +The sight of Bence always ruffled and disturbed old Mears. Seeing Bence +complacently seated near the bureau in the proprietorial sanctum, his +face flushed, his grey beard bristled, and his dark eyes rolled angrily. + +When Mrs. Thompson told him all about the furniture, he grunted, but did +not at first trust himself to words. + +"Well, Mr. Mears, what do you think about it?" + +"I think," said Mears gruffly, "that it's _like_ Mr. Bence." + +"I was remarking," said Bence, nodding and grinning, "that we cannot +possibly clash. Our customers are poor little people--not like your rich +and influential clientele. Our whole scheme of business is totally +different from yours." + +"That's true," said Mears, and he gave another grunt. + +"You know," said Mrs. Thompson, "Mr. Bence is not _fighting_ us. He is +only carrying out his own system." + +"Yes," said Mears, "we are acquainted with his system, ma'am." + +"Then I think that no more need be said. We are quite prepared for any +opposition--or competition." + +"Quite, ma'am." + +"Then I won't detain you, Mr. Mears." + +"Good morning, Mr. Mears," said Bence politely. But Mr. Mears only +grunted at him. + +"What a sterling character," said Bence, as soon as Mr. Mears had closed +the glass door. "One of the good old school, isn't he? I do admire that +sort of dignified trustworthy personage. Gives the grand air to an +establishment.... But then if it comes to that, I admire all your +people, Mrs. Thompson;" and he wound up this morning call with +sycophantically profuse compliments. "Your staff strikes me as unique. I +don't know where you get 'em from. You seem to spot merit in the +twinkling of an eye.... But I have trespassed more than sufficient. I +see you wish to get back to your desk. _Good_ morning, Mrs. Thompson. +Ever your humble servant;" and Mr. Bence bowed himself out. + + + + +IV + + +Certainly, if Mrs. Thompson could not accept the bulk of Archibald +Bence's compliments, she might justly pride herself on being always +anxious to spot merit among her people. Unaided by any advice, she had +quickly spotted the young man in the Carpets department. + +Making her tour of inspection one day, she was drawn towards the wide +entrance of Carpets by the unseemly noise of a common female voice. +Looking into Carpets, she found the shrewish wife of an old farmer +raging and nagging at everybody, because she could not satisfy herself +with what was being offered to her. Half the stock was already on the +floor; Number One and Number Two were at their wits' ends, becoming +idiotic, on the verge of collapse; Number Three had just come to their +rescue. + +"Oh, take it away.... No--not a bit like what I'm asking for." And the +virago turned to her hen-pecked husband. "You were a fool to bring me +here. I told you we ought to have gone to London." + +"But madam knows the old saying. One may go farther and fare worse. I +can assure you, madam, there's nothing in the London houses that we +can't supply here." + +"Oh, yes, you're glib enough--but if you've got it, why don't you bring +it out?" + +"If madam will have patience, I guarantee that we will suit her--yes, in +less than three minutes." + +The young man spoke firmly yet pleasantly; and he looked and smiled at +this ugly vixenish customer as though she had been young, gracious, and +beautiful. + +Mrs. Thompson did not intervene: she stood near the entrance, watching +and listening. + +"Now, madam, if you want value for your money, look at this.... No?... +Very good. This is Axminster--genuine Axminster,--and very charming +colouring.... No?... What does madam think of _this_?... No?" + +He spun out the vast webs; with bowed back and quick movements of both +hands he trundled the enormous rollers across the polished floor; he ran +up the ladders and jerked the folded masses from the shelves; he flopped +down the cut squares so fast that the piled heaps seemed to grow by +magic before the customer's chair. + +Doubtless he knew that he was being observed, but he showed no knowledge +of the fact. As he hurried past Mrs. Thompson, she noticed that he was +perspiring. He dabbed his white forehead with his handkerchief as he +passed again, trundling a roll with one hand. + +Mrs. Thompson felt astounded by his personal strength. Mr. Mears was +strong, a man of comparatively huge girth and massive limbs; he could +lift big weights; but Mears in his prime could not have shifted the +carpet rolls as they were shifted by this slim-waisted stripling. + +Two minutes gone, and the querulous, nagging tones were modulated to the +note of vulgar affability. Two minutes--thirty seconds, and the customer +had decided that her carpet should be one of the three which she was +prodding at with her umbrella. She asked Mr. Marsden to help her in +making the final selection. + +Mr. Marsden was standing up now, Numbers One and Two clumsily hovering +about him, while he talked easily and confidentially to the 'mollified +customer. And while he talked, Mrs. Thompson scrutinized him carefully. + +He could not be more than twenty-seven--possibly less. He was +gracefully although so strongly built, of medium height, with an +excellent poise of the head. His hair was brownish, stiff, cut very +short; his small stiff moustache was brushed up in the military fashion; +his features were of the firmest masculine type--nose perhaps a shade +too thick and not sufficiently well modelled. She could not see the +colour of his eyes. + +But his manner! It was the salesman's art in its highest and rarest +form. He had charmed, fascinated, hypnotised the troublesome customer. +She bought her carpets, and two door mats; she smiled and nodded and +prattled; she seemed quite sorry to say good-bye to Mr. Marsden. + +"I shall tell my friends to come here," and then she giggled stupidly. +"And I shall tell them to ask for you." + +Without entering Carpets, Mrs. Thompson walked away. She did not utter a +word then; but she had determined to promote Number Three, to give him +more scope, and to see what she could make of him. + +She moved him through the Woollens, the Cretonnes; and then again, +upstairs into Crockery. + +Crockery, which had of late betrayed sluggishness, was one side of a +large department. Beginning with common pots and pans, it shaded off +into glass and china; and on this side ran up to the big money which was +properly demanded for the most delicate porcelain and ornamental +ware--such as best English dinner services and modern _Sevres_ +candelabra. Young Marsden was given charge of the cheaper and +quicker-selling stuff, while Miss Woolfrey, a freckled, sandy lady of +forty, remained for the present in control of the expensive side. But +she was not a titular head; Mears and Mrs. Thompson herself +superintended her, allowing her little discretion, and instructing her +from day to day. + +After a week Marsden, the newcomer, got a distinct move on the sluggish +earthenware; and, after three weeks, Mears rather grudgingly confessed +that the whole department appeared to be brisker, livelier, more what +one would wish it to be. + +On the whole, then, Mrs. Thompson was well pleased with her protege. She +spoke to him freely, encouraged him by carefully chosen words of +approval. + +One day, while talking to a desk-clerk, she saw him in an adjacent +mirror that gave one a round-the-corner view of Glass and China. He was +standing with a trade catalogue in his hands, surrounded by Miss +Woolfrey and three girls. He seemed to be expounding the catalogue, and +the women seemed to exhibit a docile attention. + +Mrs. Thompson went in and talked to them. + +There had been an accident, and Mr. Marsden was looking up the trade +price of the destroyed article. Poor Miss Woolfrey had broken a +cut-glass decanter--she got upon the steps to fetch it down, and it was +heavier than she expected. + +"Why," inquired Mrs. Thompson, "didn't you ask someone to help you?" + +"I never thought till it was too late, and I'd found out my mistake." + +There was no need to offer apologies to the proprietress, because all +breakages of this character were made good out of an insurance fund to +which all the employees subscribed. The whole shop was therefore +interested in each smash, since everybody would pay a share of the +damage. + +"Mr. Marsden," said Miss Woolfrey, "has so very kindly priced it for me. +He will send on the order at once. So it shall be replaced, ma'am, +without delay." + +The three interested girls lingered at Mr. Marsden's elbows; they +watched his face; they hung upon his words. Miss Woolfrey continued to +thank him for all the trouble he was taking. + +Mrs. Thompson walked away, thinking about Mr. Marsden. These women were +too obviously subject to the young man's personal fascination; their +silly glances were easy to interpret; and middle-aged Miss Woolfrey and +the three immature underlings had all betrayed the same weakness. This +implied a situation that must be thought out. Lady-killers, though +useful with the customers, may cause a lot of trouble with the staff. + +There was no indication of the professional heart-disturber in the young +fellow's general air. Mrs. Thompson had found his manner scrupulously +correct--except that, as she remembered now, there was perhaps something +too hardy in the way he kept his eyes fixed on her face. She attributed +this to sheer intentness, mingled with juvenile simplicity. Most of the +older men instinctively dropped their eyes in her presence. + +After a little thought she called Mears behind the glass, and +interrogated him. "Behind the glass" was a shop term for all the sacred +region masked by the glass partitions, and containing counting-house, +clerks' and secretary's offices, managerial and the proprietorial +departments. + +"If you want the plain fact," said Mr. Mears, "there's little difference +in the pack of 'em." + +"Do you mean they are _silly_ about him?" + +"Yes," said Mears scornfully. "Spoony sentimental--talking ridiculous +over him." + +"But is _he_ all right with the girls? What is _his_ attitude?... Find +out for me." + +Mrs. Thompson was always wisely strict on this most important point of +shop discipline. No playing the fool between the young ladies and young +gentlemen under the care of Mrs. Thompson. + +"I will not permit it," she said sternly; and she laid her open hand +upon the desk, to give weightier emphasis to the words. "We must have +no condoning of that sort of thing. If I catch him at it--if I catch +anyone, out he goes neck and crop." + +In the course of a few days Mr. Mears reported, still grudgingly, that +young Marsden's demeanour towards the young ladies was absolutely +perfect. Stoical indifference, calm disregard, not even a trace of that +flirting or innocently philandering tone which is so common, and to +which one can scarcely object. + +"Good," said Mrs. Thompson. "I'm glad to hear it--because now I shan't +be afraid of advancing him." + +"But," said Mears, "you _have_ advanced him. You aren't thinking of +putting him up again?" + +"I am not sure. Something must be done about Miss Woolfrey. I will think +about it." + +It was not long before Mears, young Marsden and Miss Woolfrey were all +summoned together behind the glass. The typewriting girl had been sent +out of the room; Mrs. Thompson sat in front of her bureau, looking like +a great general; Mr. Mears, at her side, looked like a glum +aide-de-camp; the young man looked like a soldier who had been beckoned +to step forward from the ranks. He stood at a respectful distance, and +his bearing was quite soldierlike--heels together, head well up, the +broad shoulders very square, and the muscular back straight and flat. +His eyes were on the general's face. + +Sandy, freckled Miss Woolfrey merely looked foolish and frightened. She +caught her breath and coughed when Mrs. Thompson informed her that Mr. +Marsden was to be put in charge of the whole department. + +"Over my head, ma'am?" + +"It will make no difference to you. Your salary will be no less. And +yours, Mr. Marsden, will be no more. But you will have fuller scope." + +Miss Woolfrey feebly protested. She had hoped,--she had naturally +hoped;--in a customary shop-succession the post should be hers. + +"Miss Woolfrey, do you feel yourself competent to fill it? Hitherto you +have been under the constant supervision of Mr. Mears. But do you +honestly feel you could stand alone?" + +"I'd do my best, ma'am." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Thompson cordially, "I'm sure you would. But with the +best will in the world, there are limits to one's capacity. I have come +to the conclusion that this is a man's task;" and she turned to the +fortunate salesman. "Mr. Marsden, you will not in any way interfere with +Miss Woolfrey--but you will remember that the department is now in your +sole charge. If I have to complain, it will be to you. If things go +wrong, it is you that I shall call to account." + + +Nothing went wrong in China and Glass. But sometimes Mrs. Thompson +secretly asked herself if she or Mears had been right. Had she acted +wisely when pushing an untried man so promptly to the front? + +During these pleasant if enervating months of May and June she watched +him closely. + +Somehow he took liberties. It was difficult to define. He talked humbly. +His voice was always humble, and his words too--but his eyes were bold. +Something of aggressive virility seemed to meet and attempt to beat down +that long-assumed mastership to which everyone else readily submitted. +In the shop she was a man by courtesy--the boss, the cock of the walk; +and she was never made to remember, when issuing orders to the men who +served her, that she was not really and truly male. + +All this might be fancy; but it made a slight want of ease and comfort +in her intercourse with Mr. Marsden--a necessity felt only with him, an +instinct telling her that here was a servant who must be kept in his +place. + +Once or twice, when she was examining returns with him, his assiduous +attention bothered her. + +"Thank you, Mr. Marsden, I can see it for myself." + +And there was a certain look in his eyes while he talked to +her--respectfully admiring, pensively questioning, familiar,--no, not to +be analysed. But nevertheless it was a look that she did not at all care +about. + +The eyes that he used so hardily were of a lightish brown, speckled with +darker colour; and above them the dark eyebrows grew close together, +making almost an unbroken line across his brow. She saw or guessed that +his beard would be tawny, if he let it grow; but he was always +beautifully shaved. High on his cheeks there were tiny russet hairs, +like down, that he never touched with the razor. + +All through May China and Glass did better and better. Miss Woolfrey, +meekly submitting to fate, worked loyally under the new chief. "If +anyone had to be put above me," said poor Miss Woolfrey, "I'd rather it +was him." + +When a truly excellent week's returns were shown in June, Mrs. Thompson +took an opportunity of praising Mr. Marsden generously. And again, after +he had bowed and expressed his gratification, she saw the look that she +did not care about. + +She read it differently now. It was probably directly traceable to the +arrogance bred of youth and strength--and perhaps a fairly full measure +of personal conceit. Although so circumspect with the other sex, he had +a reliance on his handsome aspect. Perhaps unconsciously he was always +falling back on this--because hitherto it might never have failed him. + +It was Enid who made her think him handsome. Till Enid used the word, +she would have thought it too big. + +One morning she had brought her daughter to the China department in +order to select a wedding-present for a girlfriend. Miss Woolfrey was +serving her, but Mr. Marsden came to assist. Then Mrs. Thompson saw how +he looked at Enid. + +Some sort of introduction had been made--"Enid, my dear, Mr. Marsden +suggests this vase;" and the girl had immediately transferred her +attention from the insipid serving woman to the resourceful serving-man. +Mr. Marsden showed her more and more things--"This is good value. Two +guineas--if that is not beyond your figure. Or this is a quaint +notion--Parrots! They paint them so natural, don't they?" And Mrs. +Thompson saw the look, and winced. With his eyes on the girl's face, he +smiled--and Enid began to smile, too. + +"What is the joke, Mr. Marsden?" Mrs. Thompson had spoken coldly and +abruptly. + +"Joke?" he echoed. + +"You appear to be diverted by the idea of my daughter's purchase--when +really it is simply a matter of business." + +"Exactly--but if I can save you time by--" + +"Thank you, Miss Woolfrey is quite competent to show us all that we +require;" and Mrs. Thompson turned her broad back on the departmental +manager. + +Enid, when leaving China and Glass, glanced behind her, and nodded to +Mr. Marsden. + +"Mother," she whispered, "how handsome he is.... But how sharply you +spoke to him. You quite dropped on him." + +"Well, my dear, one has to drop on people sometimes; and Mr. Marsden is +just a little disposed to be pushing." + +"Oh," said Enid, "I thought he was such a favourite of yours." + +Alone in her room, Mrs. Thompson felt worried. A thought had made her +wince. This young man carried about with him an element of vague danger. +Of course Enid would never be foolish; and he would never dare to aspire +to such a prize; still Enid should get her next wedding present in +another department--or in another shop, if she must have china. + +It was only a brief sense of annoyance or discomfort, say five minutes +lost in a busy day. Mrs. Thompson dismissed it from her mind. But Mr. +Marsden brought it back again. + +Towards closing time, when she was signing letters at the big bureau, he +came behind the glass and entered her room. + +"What is it?" said Mrs. Thompson, without looking up. + +"Mrs. Thompson, I want to make an apology and a request." + +At the sound of his voice she perceptibly started. His presence down +here was unusual and unexpected. + +"I have been making myself rather unhappy about what happened when you +and Miss Thompson were in my department." + +"Nothing happened," said Mrs. Thompson decisively. + +"Oh, yes, ma'am, and I offer an apology for my mistake." + +"Mr. Marsden," said Mrs. Thompson, with dignity, "there is not the +slightest occasion for an apology. Please don't make mountains out of +molehills." + +"No--but I am in earnest. It is your own great kindness that led me to +forget. And I confess that I did for a moment forget the immense +difference of social station that lies between us. A shopman should +never speak to his employer--much less his employer's relatives--in a +tone implying the least friendliness or equality." + +"Mr. Marsden, you quite misunderstand." + +"You were angry with me?" + +"No," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. "To be frank, I was not exactly pleased +with you--and I took the liberty of showing it. That is a freedom to +which I am accustomed." + +"Then I humbly apologise." + +"I have told you it is unnecessary.... That will do, Mr. Marsden;" and +she took up her pen again. + +"But may I make one request--that when I am unfortunate enough to +deserve reproof, it may be administered privately and not in public?" + +"Mr. Marsden, I make no conditions. If people are discontented with my +methods--well, the remedy lies in their own hands." + +"Isn't that just a little cruel?" + +"It is my answer to your question." + +"I don't think, ma'am, you know the chivalrous and devoted feeling that +runs through this shop. There's not a man in it to whom your praise and +your blame don't mean light and darkness." + +Mrs. Thompson flushed. + +"Mr. Marsden, you are all very good and loyal. I recognize that. But I +don't care about compliments." + +"Compliments!... When a person is feeling almost crushed with the burden +of gratitude--" + +"But, Mr. Marsden, gratitude should be shown and not talked about." + +"And I'll show mine some day, please God." + +Mrs. Thompson turned right round on her revolving chair, and spoke very +gently. "I am sorry that you should have upset yourself about such a +trifle." + +Then Mr. Marsden asked if he might come down behind the glass for +direction and orders when he felt in doubt or perplexity. A few words +now and then would be helpful to him. + +Mrs. Thompson hesitated, and then answered kindly. + +"Certainly. Why not? I am accessible here to any of the staff--from Mr. +Mears to the door boy. That has always been a part of my system." + +After this the young man appeared from time to time, craving a draught +of wisdom at the fountain-head. The department was doing well, and he +never brought bad news. + +But he was a little too much inclined to begin talking about himself; +telling his story--an orphan who had made his own way in the world; +describing his efforts to improve a defective education, his speaking at +a debating society, his acting with the Kennington Thespian Troupe. + +"Your elocution," said Mrs. Thompson, "no doubt profited by the pains +you took.... But now, if you please--" + +Mrs. Thompson, with business-like firmness, stopped all idle chatter. A +hint was enough for him, and he promptly became intent on matters of +business. + +He worked hard upstairs. He was the first to come and the last to go. +Once or twice he brought papers down to the dark ground floor when Mrs. +Thompson was toiling late. + +One night he showed her the coloured and beautifully printed pictures +that had been sent with the new season's lists. + +"There. This is my choice." + +She laid her hand flat on a picture; and he, pushing about the other +pictures and talking, put his hand against hers. He went on talking, as +if unconscious that he had touched her, that he was now touching her. + +She moved her hand away, and for a moment an angry flame of thought +swept through her brain. Had it been an accident, or a monstrous +impertinence? He went on talking without a tremor in his voice; and she +understood that he was absolutely unconscious of what he had done. He +was completely absorbed by consideration of the coloured prints of tea +and dinner services. + +Mrs. Thompson abruptly struck the desk bell, drew back her chair, and +rose. + +"Davies," she called loudly, "bring your lantern. I am going through.... +Don't bother me any more about all that, Mr. Marsden. Make your own +selections--and get them passed by Mr. Mears. Good-night." + + + + +V + + +Miss Enid had again taken up riding, and she seemed unusually energetic +in her efforts to acquire a difficult art. During this hot dry weather +the roads were too hard to permit of hacking with much pleasure; but +Enid spent many afternoons in Mr. Young's fine riding school. She was +having jumping lessons; and she threw out hints to Mrs. Thompson that +next autumn she would be able not only to ride to meet, but even to +follow hounds. + +"Oh, my darling, I should never have a moment's peace of mind if I knew +you were risking your pretty neck out hunting." + +"I could easily get a good pilot," said Enid; "and then I should be +quite safe." + +One Thursday afternoon--early-closing day--Mr. Marsden, who happened to +know that Enid would be at the school, went round to see his friend Mr. +Whitehouse, the riding-master. He looked very smart in his blue serge +suit, straw hat, and brown boots; and the clerk in Mr. Young's office +quite thought he was one of the governor's toffs come to buy horses. + +Mr. Marsden sent his card to Mr. Whitehouse; and then waited in a +sloping sanded passage, obviously trodden by four-footed as well as +two-footed people, from which he could peep into the dark office, a +darker little dressing-room, and an open stable where the hind quarters +of horses showed in stalls. There was a queer staircase without stairs, +and he heard a sound of pawing over his head--horses upstairs as well +as downstairs. The whole place looked and smelt very horsey. + +The riding-master's horse was presently led past him; the lesson was +nearly over, and the young lady was about to take a few leaps. A groom +told him that he might go in. + +The vast hall had high and narrow double doors to admit the horses; and +inside, beneath the dirty glass roof, it was always twilight, with +strange echoes and reverberations issuing from the smooth plastered +walls; at a considerable height in one of the walls there was a large +window, opening out of a room that looked like the royal box of a +theatre. + +This hall had been the military school; it remained as a last evidence +of the demolished barracks, and the town was proud of its noble +dimensions--a building worthy of the metropolis. + +"How d'ye do," said the riding-master, a slim, tall, elegant young man +in check breeches and black boots. "Come and stand by us in the middle." + +There was another tall young man, who wore drab breeches and brown +gaiters on his long thin legs, and who was helping a stableman to drag +the barred hurdle across the tan and put it in position against the +wall. + +"Now, Miss Thompson.... Steady. Steady. Let her go." + +Enid on a heavily bandaged bay mare came slowly round, advanced in a +scrambling canter, and hopped over the low obstacle. + +"Very good." + +She looked charming as she came round again--her usually cold pale face +now warm and red, a wisp of her dark hair flying, the short habit +showing her neatly booted legs. + +"Very good." + +"I am lost in admiration," said Marsden; and the strange young man +stared hard at him. + +"Oh, is that you, Mr. Marsden," said Enid. "I didn't know I had an +audience." + +Then she jumped again. This time, in obedience to the directions of Mr. +Whitehouse, she rode at the hurdle much faster; the mare cocked her +ears, charged, and she and Enid sailed over the white bar in grand +style. + +But the thud of hoofs, the tell-tale reverberations roused the invisible +Mr. Young, and brought him to the window of the private box. + +"Not so fast--not nearly so fast," shouted Mr. Young. "There's no skill +or sense in that.... Mr. Whitehouse, I can't understand you. D'you want +that mare over-reaching herself?" And Mr. Young's voice, dropping in +tone, still betrayed his irritation. "Who are these gentlemen? We can't +have people in the school during lessons." + +"All right," said the young man in the brown gaiters. "I've come to look +at the new horse--the one you bought from Griffin." + +"Very good, Mr. Kenion. I didn't see who you were.... But who's the +other gentleman?" + +"He is a friend of mine," said Mr. Whitehouse. + +"Well, that's against our rules--visitors in lessons. You know that as +well as I do." + +"I am quite aware of your rules," said Mr. Whitehouse curtly. "But the +lesson is finished.... That will be sufficient, Miss Thompson. Three +minutes over your hour--and we don't want to tire you." + +Mr. Young snorted angrily, and disappeared. The strange young man +assisted Miss Enid to dismount and went out with her, the bandaged mare +following them with the helper. + +"Who," asked Marsden, "was that spindle-shanked ass?" + +"Oh, he's not a bad boy," said the riding-master patronisingly. "And he +can ride, mind you--which is more than most hunting men can." + +"Is he a hunting man? What's his name?" + +"Mr. Kenion.... Look here, don't hurry off. I want to have a yarn with +you." + +"But Mr. Young--" + +"Oh, blast Mr. Young. I want to talk to you, my boy, about the ladies." + +"Do you?" Marsden half closed his eyes, and showed his strong teeth in a +lazy smile. "What do you think of our young lady?" + +"Miss Thompson?" Mr. Whitehouse shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, not bad." + +Then long thin Mr. Kenion returned. + +"Let's try the new crock over your sticks," said Mr. Kenion languidly. +"I suppose he _is_ a crock--or he wouldn't be here?" + +"I won't bias your judgment," said Mr. Whitehouse as he strolled across +the tan. "See for yourself," and he rang a noisy bell. "But I must make +you known to each other;" and he introduced Mr. Marsden as "one of the +managers at Thompson's." + +Mr. Young's new purchase was brought in, and Mr. Kenion rode it. The +horse at first appeared to resent the silly jumping performance; but +Marsden heard the work of the rider's unspurred heels on the animal's +flanks, watched the effective use Mr. Whitehouse made of his whip as he +ran behind, and soon saw the hurdle negotiated in flying fashion, again +and again--and faster and faster. + +"_Not_ so fast! God bless my soul, I think you must all be mad this +afternoon." Old Young had come to his window, furious. "Mr. Kenion, I'm +surprised at you, yes, I am, sir." + +"How can I judge of a horse without trying him?" + +"Well, I don't want my horses tried like that. You may buy 'em or leave +'em." + +"All right," said Mr. Kenion, laughing. "Come out and have a drink. +You've stood me a ride, and I'll stand you a drink." + +Mr. Kenion, Mr. Young, and the jumping horse all disappeared, and +Marsden and the riding-master were left together on the tan. Here, in +the dim twilight that the glass roof made of this bright June day, they +had a long quiet chat about women. + +"Dicky," said the riding-master, "I'm going to talk to you like a Dutch +uncle." + +"Fire away." + +"All for your own good. See?... Now I suppose when you want a mash, you +don't think of looking outside the shop." + +"I never have a mash inside it." + +"Is that so?" Mr. Whitehouse seemed astonished. "Why, I thought you +smart managers with all those shop girls round you were like so many +grand Turks with their serrallyhos." + +"Not much. That's against etiquette--and a fool's game into the bargain. +You're safe to be pinched--and, second, you get so jolly sick of being +mewed up with 'em all day that you never want to speak to 'em out of +hours." + +"Then how do you get along? The customers?" + +"Yes," said Marsden; and he stroked his moustache, and smiled. +"Customers are often very kind." + +"Not real ladies?" + +"We don't ask their pedigrees. Go down St. Saviour's Court any fine +evening, and see the domestic servants waiting in their best clothes. +It'll remind you of Piccadilly Circus;" and both gentlemen laughed. + +"There's a parlourmaid," continued Marsden, "out of Adelaide +Crescent--who is simply a little lump of all right. Venetian red hair--a +picture." + +"Red hair," said Mr. Whitehouse reflectively. "They say with us, a good +horse has no colour. That means, if the horse is a good 'un, never mind +his colour;--and I suppose it's true of women.... I don't object to +chestnut horses--or red-haired gells.... But, look here, Master Dick, I +tell you frank, you're wasting your opportunities." + +"You can't teach me anything, old man." + +"Can't I? Never turn a deaf ear to a friendly tip--a chance tip may +alter a man's life. That's a motto with me--and I'm acting on it this +moment, myself." + +Then Mr. Whitehouse told his friend that he was about to leave +Mallingbridge forever. Mallingbridge was too small; he intended to throw +himself into the larger world of London. He had very nearly fixed up an +engagement with the big Bayswater people; it was practically a settled +thing. + +"That's why I checked the old bloke like I done just now. Mr. Young he +twigs there's something up; but he doesn't know what's in store for him. +The minute I've got my job definite, I shall open my chest to him--tell +him once for all what I think of him. 'E won't forget it;" and the +riding-master laughed confidently. + +"I'm sorry you're going." + +"Thanks. But why am I lighting out so determined and sudden, instead of +vegetating here half me life? Well--because I got a straight tip, and +all by chance." + +"How was that?" + +"About a month ago a chap comes in here with a lady for a lesson. +Captain Mellish--Meller--I forget the name. Anyhow, he was a son of a +gun of a swell to look at--sploshing it about up at the Dolphin; and he +brings in this actress from the theatre--not a chorus gell, mind you, +but the leading performer--who was drawing her hundred quid a week, so +they said. Well, he evidently fancied he was a bit of a horseman +himself, and he keeps chipping in. When I told her to get her hands +back, and hold her reins long, he says, 'yes, but you'll want to hold a +horse shorter by the head, if he balks at his fences.' I answered +without hesitation, 'I'm very well aware of refusing horses,' I said, +'and also how easy it is to hang on by a horse's mouth when you land +over a fence.... But,' I said, 'let me know who is giving the +lesson--you or me. Wait, miss,' I said, 'if the Captain has other +directions to give you.' She rounded on him at once, asking him to shut +his head. He turned it off with a laugh, and gave me a slap on the back. +'Have it your own way, Mr. Riding-Master.' You'll understand, he said +that sneering. + +"But I believe he thought the more of me before the lesson was over. +Anyhow, when his tart had gone to the dressing-room to change her +things, he and I got yarning here--exactly as if it had been you and +me--like we're doing now. + +"Mind you, he was a wrong 'un. You couldn't talk friendly to him without +twigging that. But, Holy Moses, he was fairly up to snuff.... We went +yarning on, and presently he says, 'It beats me why a knowledgeable +young chap like you should bury himself as a mere servant. Take my tip,' +he says, 'Get hold of a bit of money, and light out on your own.'... +'And how am I to get the money?' I asked him. + +"'Get it from the ladies,' he says. 'Take my tip. I suppose you make +love to all your pupils--you fellows always do. Well, make 'em pay.' I'm +giving you what he said, word for word. 'You're wasting yourself,' he +says. 'See? You're only young once. You've got something to bring to +market, and you're letting it go stale every hour.' + +"Then he run on about what women can do for a man nowadays--and he +_knew_, mind you. He'd _been_ there. Who makes the members of +parliament, the bishops, the prime ministers? Why, women. Leave them out +of your plans--if you want to labour in the sweat of your brow till you +drop. But if not, take the tip. It's the women that give a man his +short-cut to ease and comfort. See?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Marsden. "I see that--but I don't see anything new in +it." + +"Dicky," said Mr. Whitehouse solemnly, "it's a straight tip.... But +you'll never profit by it, my boy, until you stop messing about with +your dressed-up slaveys, and light out for something bigger." + +"I have told you," said Marsden, smiling, "that you can't teach me +anything." + +"You're too cock-sure," said Mr. Whitehouse, almost sadly; "but you're +just wasting yourself.... Here's the tip of a life-time. I've thought it +all out, and I see my own line clear. Drop the gells--and go for the +matrons. Pick your chance, and go for it hammer and tongs.... It's what +I shall do meself. Bayswater is full of rich Jewesses--some of 'em +fairly wallowing in it. And I shan't try to grab some budding beauty. I +shall pick a ripe flower." + +"I wish you luck." + +"Same to you, old pal. But you won't find it the way you're trying just +now;" and Mr. Whitehouse laughed enigmatically. "I can't teach you +anything, but I can give you a parting warning.... D'you think I don't +twig what you were after to-day--wanting to see me especial--and coming +round here,--and losing yourself in admiration of Miss Thompson? And I +don't say you mightn't have pulled it off, if you'd started a bit +earlier. But you're too late. Mr. Kenion has got there first." + +"Is that true--bar larks?" + +"You may bet your boots on it. He's here every time she comes. After the +lessons he sees her home--by a round-about way. The only reason he +didn't go with her this afternoon is because the shop is shut, and +they're afraid of meeting the old lady.... No, my little boy, your Miss +Enid is booked." + + + + +VI + + +Enid was away again, staying for a few days with some friends or friends +of the Salters; and during her absence her mother suffered from an +unusual depression of spirits. In the shop it was noticed that Mrs. +Thompson seemed, if not irritable, at least rather difficult to please; +but all understood that she felt lonely while deprived of the young +woman's society, and all sympathised with her. Assistants, who happened +to meet her after closing time, taking a solitary walk outside the +boundaries of the town, were especially sympathetic, and perhaps +ventured to think that fashionable Miss Enid left her too much alone. + +One evening after a blazing airless day, Dick Marsden, very carefully +dressed in his neat blue serge, with his straw hat jauntily cocked, came +swaggering through St. Saviour's Court, and attracted, as he passed, +many feminine glances of admiration. The pretty housemaid from Adelaide +Crescent ogled and languished; but he merely bowed and passed by. He +could not waste his time with her to-night. There was bigger game on +foot. + +At the bottom of Frederick Street he hurried down the walled passage +that leads to the railway embankment; thence through the vaultlike +tunnel under the line, past the gas-works; over the iron bridge that +spans the black water of the canal, and out into the open meadows. + +These meadows, a broad flat between the canal and the river, belonged to +the railway company; and almost every gate and post reminded one of +their legal owners. Notices in metal frames somewhat churlishly +announced that, "This gate will be closed and locked on one day in each +year"; "There is no right of way here"; "The public, who are only +admitted as visitors, will kindly act as visitors and refrain from +damage, or the privilege will be withdrawn." The public, enjoying the +privilege freely but not arrogantly, ranged about the pleasant fields, +played foot-ball in winter, picked buttercups and daisies in spring, and +even provided themselves with Corporation seats--to be removed at a +moment's notice if the Corporation should be bidden to remove them. On +warm summer evenings like this, the public were principally represented +by lovers strolling in linked pairs, looking into each other's eyes, and +making of the railway fields a road through dreamland to paradise. + +Marsden walked swiftly across the parched grass, moving with strong +light tread, and gazing here and there with clear keen vision. As he +moved thus lightly and swiftly, looking so strong and yet so agile, he +seemed a personification of masculine youth and vigour, the coarse male +animal in its pride of brutal health. Or, if one merely noticed the +catlike tread, so springy and easy in its muscular power, he might +suggest the graceful yet fierce beast of prey who paces through failing +sunlight and falling shadows in search of the inoffensive creature that +he will surely destroy. + +A solitary figure moving slowly between the trees by the river--Mr. +Marsden hurried on. + +"Good evening, Mrs. Thompson."--He took off his hat, and bowed very +respectfully. + +"Oh! Good evening, Mr. Marsden." + +"You don't often come this way?" + +"Oh, yes, I do," said Mrs. Thompson rather stiffly. "It is a favourite +walk of mine." + +"I venture to applaud your taste." And he pointed in the direction of +the town. "Old Mallingbridge looks quite romantic from along here.... +But the gas-works spoil the picture, don't they?" + +The town looked pretty enough in the mellow evening glow. Beyond the +railway embankment, where signal lamps began to show as spots of faint +red and green, the clustered roofs mingled into solid sharp-edged +masses, and the two church towers appeared strangely high and ponderous +against the infinitely pure depths of a cloudless sky. Soon a soft +greyness would rise from the horizon; indistinctness, vagueness, mystery +would creep over the town and the fields, blotting out the ugly +gas-works, hiding the common works of men, giving the world back to +nature; but there would be no real night. In these, the longest days of +the year, the light never quite died. + +The colour of her blue dress and of the pink roses in her toque was +clearly visible, as Mrs. Thompson and the young man walked on side by +side. For a minute she politely made conversation. + +"I have often wondered," she said, with brisk business-like tones, "what +use the railway company will eventually make of all this land." + +"Ah! I wonder." + +"They would not have bought it unless they had some remote object in +view; and they would not have held it if the object had vanished. +Sensible people don't keep two hundred acres of land lying idle unless +they have a purpose." + +"No." + +"It has often occurred to me--from what I have heard--that they will one +day convert it into some sort of depot. There is nothing in the levels +to prevent their doing so. The embankment is no height." + +"I should think you have made a very shrewd guess." + +"If that were to happen, the question would arise, Will it prove an +injury or a benefit to the town?" + +Then Mrs. Thompson ceased to make conversation; her manner became very +dignified and reserved; and she carried herself stiffly--perhaps wishing +to indicate by the slight change of deportment that the interview was +now at an end. + +But Marsden did not take the hint. He walked by her side, and soon began +to talk about himself. An effort was made to check him when he entered +on the subject of the great benefits that a kind hand had showered upon +him, but presently Mrs. Thompson was listening without remonstrance to +his voice. And her own voice, when in turn she spoke, was curiously soft +and gentle. + +"As this chance has come," he said humbly, "I avail myself of it. Though +I could never thank you sufficiently, I have been longing for an +opportunity to thank you _somehow_ for the confidence you have reposed +in me." + +"I'm sure you'll justify it, Mr. Marsden." + +"I don't know. I'm afraid you'll think not--when you hear the dreadful +confession that I have to make." + +Mrs. Thompson drew in her breath, and stopped short on the footpath. + +"Mr. Marsden"--she spoke quite gently and kindly--"You really must not +tell me about your private affairs. Unless your confession concerns +business matters--something to do with the shop--I cannot listen to it." + +"Oh, it only amounts to this--but I know it will sound ungrateful ... +Mrs. Thompson, in spite of everything, of all you have done for me, I am +not very happy down here." + +"Indeed?" She had drawn in her breath again, and she walked on while she +spoke. "Does that mean that you are thinking of leaving us?" + +"Yes, I sometimes think of that." + +"To better yourself?" + +"Oh, no--I should never find such another situation." + +"Then why are you discontented in this one?" + +With the permission conveyed by her question, he described at length his +queer state of mind--a man on whom fortune had smiled, a man with work +that he liked, yet feeling restless and unhappy, feeling alone in the +midst of a crowd, longing for sympathy, yearning for companionship. + +"That's how I feel," he said sadly, after a long explanation. + +Mrs. Thompson had been looking away from him, staring across the river. +She held herself rigidly erect, and she spoke now in another voice, with +a tone of hardness and coldness. + +"I think I recognize the symptoms, Mr. Marsden. When a young man talks +like this, the riddle is easy to guess." + +"Then guess it." + +"Well," she said coldly, "you force me to the only supposition. You are +telling me that you have fallen in love." + +"Yes." + +She winced almost as if he had struck her; and then the parted lips +closed, her whole face assumed a stonelike dignity. + +"Tell me all about it, Mr. Marsden--since you seem to wish to." + +"Love is a great crisis in a man's life. It generally makes him or +breaks him forever." + +"I hope that fate will read kindly--in your case." + +"He either fears his fate too much or his deserts are small--But, Mrs. +Thompson, I do fear my fate. It isn't plain-sailing for me. There are +difficulties, barriers--it's all darkness before me." + +"I hope you haven't made an injudicious choice." + +"Yes, I have--in one way. Shall we sit down here? It is still very +warm." + +It was as though the heated earth panted for breath; no evening breeze +stirred the leaves; the air was heavy and languorous. Mrs. Thompson +seemed glad to sit upon the Corporation bench. She sank down wearily, +leaned her back against the wooden support, and stared at the darkly +flowing water. + +"So difficult," he murmured. "So many difficulties." He looked behind +him at the empty meadows, and up and down the empty path. Then he took +off his hat, laid it on the seat beside him; and, bringing a silk +handkerchief from his sleeve, wiped his forehead. "There are almost +insurmountable barriers between us." + +"Have you given your heart to some married woman? Is she not free to +respond to your affections?" + +"No, she was married, but she's free now.... And I think it amuses her +to encourage me--and make me suffer." He had taken one of the hands that +lay listlessly in the wide lap. "She is _you_." + +Mrs. Thompson snatched her hand away, sprang up from the seat, and spoke +indignantly. + +"Mr. Marsden, have you gone out of your senses?" + +"Yes, I think I have. And who's to blame? Who's driven me out of them?" +He was standing close in front of her, barring the path. "Oh, I can't go +on with all this deception. I lied to you just now. I knew you were +coming here,--and I followed you. I felt I must once for all be with you +alone." + +"Not another word. I will not listen.... Oh!" + +Suddenly he had seized her. Roughly and fiercely he flung his arms round +her, forced her to him, and kissed her. + +"Mr. Marsden!... Shame!... How dare you?... Let me go." + +She was struggling in his arms, her head down, her two hands trying to +keep him off. Her broad bosom panted, her big shoulders heaved; but with +remorseless brutal use of his strength he held her tightly and closely +against him. + +"There," he said. "Don't fight. You'll have to go through it now.... You +women think you can play the fool with a man--set all his blood on fire, +and then tell him to behave himself." + +"Mr. Marsden, let me go--or I shall die of shame." + +"No you won't. Rot. D'you hear? Rot. You're a woman all through: and +that face was made to be kissed--like this--like this.... There, this is +my hour--" + +"Will you let me go?" + +"Yes, in a minute.... You'll dismiss me to-morrow, won't you? I'd better +pack to-night. But I shall always go on loving you.... Oh, my goodness, +what is my life to be without you?" + +And suddenly he released her, dropped upon the seat, and buried his face +in his hands. + +She walked fast away--and then slowly returned. He was still sitting, +with his head down, motionless. + +"Mr. Marsden!... You have insulted me in the most outrageous manner--and +the only possible excuse would be the absolute sincerity of the feelings +that you have expressed so brutally. If I could for a moment believe--" + +"Why can't you believe?" + +"Because it is too absurd. I am no longer young--the mother of a girl +old enough herself to marry." + +"I don't want any pasty-faced girls. I want _you_." + +He spoke without looking up at her, and his face remained hidden by his +hands. + +"If I sit down and talk to you quietly, will you promise that you won't +begin again?" + +"Yes." + +"You give me your word of honour that you won't--won't touch me?" + +"Oh, yes," he said dejectedly, "I promise." + +"When you began just now, you implied--you accused me as if you thought +I had been--encouraging you. But, Mr. Marsden, you must know that such +an accusation is unjust and untrue." + +"Is it? I don't think you women much care how you lead people on." + +"But indeed I do care. I should be bitterly ashamed of myself if I was +not certain that I had never given you the slightest encouragement." + +"Oh, never mind. What does it matter? I have made a fool of +myself--that's all. Love blinds a man to plain facts." + +He had raised his head again, and was looking at her. They sat side by +side, and the dusk began to envelope them so that their faces were white +and vague. + +"At the first," he went on, "I could see that it was hopeless. If social +position didn't interfere, the money would prove a barrier there'd be no +getting round. You are rich, and I am poor. At the first I saw how +unhappy it was going to make me. I saw it was hopeless--most of all, +because I'm not a man who could consent to pose as the pensioner of a +rich wife.... But then I forgot--and I began to hope. Yes, I did really +hope." + +"What is it you hoped for?" + +"Why, that chance would turn up lucky--that somehow I might be put more +on an equality. Or that you would marry me in spite of all--that you'd +come to think money isn't everything in this world, and love counts most +of all." + +"But, Mr. Marsden, how can I for one moment of time credit you +with--with the love you will go on talking about?" + +"Haven't I _shown_ it to you?" + +"I think--I am quite sure you are deceiving yourself. But nothing can +deceive me. You mistake the chivalrous romantic feelings of youth for +something far different." + +"No, I don't mistake." + +"The disparity in our years renders such a thing impossible. Between you +and me, love--the real love--is out of the question." + +"Yes, you can say that easily--because no doubt it's true on your side. +If you felt for me what I feel for you--then it would be another story." + +"But suppose I had been foolish enough to be taken with you, to let +myself be carried away by your eloquence--which I believe was all +acting!" + +"Acting? That's good--that's devilish good." + +"I say, suppose I had believed you--and yielded one day, don't you know +very well that all the world would laugh at me?" + +"Why?" + +"Why--because, my dear boy, I'm almost old enough to be your mother--and +I have done with love, and all that sort of thing." + +"No, you haven't. You're just ripe for love--I felt _that_ when I was +kissing you." + +Mrs. Thompson rose abruptly. + +"I must go home.... Come;" and they walked side by side through the +summer dusk towards the lamp-light of the town. + +"This must never be spoken of again," she said firmly; and before they +reached the last field gate, she had told him many times that her +rejection of his suit was final and irrevocable. Hers was a flat +deliberate refusal, and nothing could ever modify it. + +"Yes," he said sadly, "it's hopeless. I knew it all along, in my secret +heart--quite hopeless." + +But she told him that if he promised never to think of it again, she +would allow him to remain in the shop. + +"Frankly, I would much rather you should go--But that would be a pity. +It might break your career--or at least throw you too much on your own +resources at a critical point. Stay--at any rate until you get a +suitable opening." + +"Your word is my law." + +"Now leave me. I do not wish anyone to see us walking together." + +He obeyed her; and she walked on without an escort, through the dark +tunnel and into the lamp-light of Frederick Street. + + + + +VII + + +"You must 'a been a tremendous long walk," said Yates; "but you're +looking all the better for it, ma'am--though you aren't brought back an +appetite." + +Mrs. Thompson was trifling with her supper--only pretending to eat. The +electric light, shining on her hair, made the rounded coils and central +mass bright, smooth, and glossy; the colour in her cheeks glowed vividly +and faded quickly, and, as it came and went, the whole face seemed +softened and yet unusually animated; the parted lips were slightly +tremulous, and the eyes, with distended pupils, were darker and larger +than they had been in the daylight. By a queer chance the old servant +began to speak of her mistress's personal appearance. + +"Yes," said Yates, "it's the fresh air you want.--Stands to reason you +do, shut up in the shop all day. You look another woman to what you did +when you went out;" and she studied Mrs. Thompson's face critically and +admiringly. + +Mrs. Thompson smiled, and her lips were quite tremulous. + +"Another woman, Yates? What sort of woman do I look like now?" + +"A very handsome one," said Yates affectionately. "And more like the +girl Mr. Thompson led up the stairs such a long time ago--the first time +I ever set eyes on her, and was thinking however she and I would get on +together." + +"We've got on well together, haven't we, Yates?" + +"That we have," said Yates, with enthusiasm. + +"Yates, don't stare so;" and Mrs. Thompson laughed. "You make me +nervous. And I don't want you to flatter me.... But tell me, candidly, +supposing you met me now as a stranger--how old would you guess I was?" + +Yates, with her head slightly on one side, scrutinized her mistress very +critically. + +"Why, I don't believe that anyone seeing you as I do now would take you +for more than forty-two--at the outside." + +"Forty-two! Three years less than my real age. Thank you for nothing, +Yates." Mrs. Thompson laughed, but with little merriment in her laugh. +"You haven't joined my band of flatterers. You have given me an honest +answer." + +Perhaps, if some faint doubt was lingering in Mrs. Thompson's mind, +Yates had provided an answer to that as well as to the direct question. + +The mistress did not invite the servant to sit at table this evening and +help her through the lonely meal. Her thoughts were sufficient company. + + +At night she could not sleep. The contact with the fierce strong male +had completely upset her--never in all her life had she been so handled +by a man. And the extent of the contact seemed mysteriously to have +multiplied the effect of its local violences; the dreaded grip of the +powerful arms, the resistless pressure of the forcing hands, and the +cruel hot print of his kisses were the salient facts in her memory of +the embrace; but it seemed that from every point of the surface of her +body while compelled to touch him a nerve thrill had been sent vibrating +in her brain, and the diffused nerve-messages, concentrating there, had +produced overwhelmingly intense disturbance. + +And memory gave her back these sensations--the wide thrilling wave from +surface to brain, and the explosion of the central nerve-storm flashing +its rapid recognition back to the outer boundaries. Lying in her dark +room she lived through the experience again--was forced to suffer the +embrace not once but again and again. + +It was dreadful that a man, simply by reason of his sex, should have +this power, dreadful that he should abuse his power in thus treating a +woman,--and most dreadful that of all women in the world the woman +should be herself. + +And she thought of the late Mr. Thompson's timid and maladroit +caresses--inspired, monotonous, stereotyped endearments, totally devoid +of nervous excitation, dutifully borne by her, day after day, month +after month, throughout the long years. + +But memory, doing its faithful and accurate work, failed to restore to +her that glow of angry protest, that recoil of outraged dignity which +she had felt when the young man took her in his arms. She could feel his +arms about her still, but the sense of shame had gone. + +Here in the darkened room she could see him--she could not help seeing +him. Hot tears filled her eyes, she writhed and twisted, she tossed and +turned, as the mental pictures came and went; but nothing could drive +him away. He had taken possession of her thoughts; and she wept because +she understood that he had not achieved this tyrannous rule to-day, or +yesterday, but a long time ago, a disgracefully long time ago. In +imagination she was watching him among the china and glass, when +Woolfrey and the others showed her plainly how dangerous he really +was--and it had begun then. Why else should she have felt such a +wrathful discontent at the idea of his courting all the silly girls? In +imagination, she could see him among the carpets, trundling the great +rolls, fascinating, enthralling the rude customer,--and it seemed to her +that it had begun even then. She and the shrew were one in their +weakness; both had been hypnotised together. Mears said all the women +in the shop had submitted to the spell--but not the silliest, most +feather-headed slut of them all had fallen into such idiotic depths as +those in which their proud and stately chief lay weeping. + +She dried her eyes, got out of bed and drank water, stood at the open +window, turned on the light, turned off the light, lay down again and +tried desperately to sleep. + +In a moment her cheeks were burning.--She could feel the hot kisses; she +could hear the hurried words. "A face made to be kissed--setting one's +blood on fire.... You are a woman all through--you are ripe for love." + +Ah, if only one could give way to such a dream of rapture; if one could +believe that the lost years might be recovered, that all one has missed +in life--its passionate sweetness and its satisfying fullness--might be +won by a miraculous interposition of fate. Nothing less than a miracle +can bring back the wasted past. + +She did not sleep; but with the return of day she grew calmer. Thoughts +of Enid helped her. A second marriage--even what the world would call a +wise and fitting alliance--was utterly out of the question. It would be +the death of her daughter's love; it would render the story of her own +life meaningless; it would destroy all the results of twenty-two years' +maternal devotion. Enid had been all in all to her: Enid must remain +what she had always been. If on the mother's part there was a brave +renunciation of self, it belonged to the dim past; it was over and done +with--a solid fact, not to be modified, far less overturned. + +Least of all by such a marriage as this--laughter mingling with the +sound of bells, coarse jokes to be thrown after them instead of pretty +confetti, even the sacred words of the priest at the altar echoed by +derisive words of rabble in the porch! Enid would never forgive +her--were she ever to forgive herself. + +In the broad light of day, in the cold light of logic, she saw that it +was impossible. Her emotions might be roused, unsuspected sexual +instincts might be partially awakened, beneath the matronly time-worn +outer case a virginal mechanism might be stirring; but the whole +intellectual side of her nature was strong enough to reinforce the +special functions of her will. Too late to snatch at lost joys! Reason +rejected the impossibility. + +She was too old. The chance had gone years ago. The young man, even if +she could believe that he loved her now--much as a romantic subject +might fancy that he loved his queen,--would soon grow weary. Familiarity +would rob her of all queenly attributes; at the best nothing would be +left except disappointment, and at the worst disgust. And then she would +suffer intolerable torment. She saw it quite clearly--the martyrdom of a +middle-aged wife who cannot retain her young husband's love. + +None of that. She rose after the sleepless night with her decision +fortified. + + + + +VIII + + +But the fortifying of the decision had cost her much, and the +after-effects of nerve-strain were easily to be perceived. + +She was rather terrible in the shop, and all noticed a sudden and +mysterious change. Of a morning she used to appear with dark circles +round her eyes; her greetings, or acknowledgments of greetings, were +less cordial; she moved more slowly; and in her stern glance it seemed +that there was the certainty of finding something amiss, instead of the +hope of seeing nothing wrong. + +Rather terrible--easily irritated, impatient of argument, quick to +resent advice: as the young ladies put it, ready to snap your head off +at any minute. A whisper, somehow passing out of house to shop, said she +was suffering from continued sleeplessness; and the loyal staff were +eager to make allowances. But they wondered how long the change would +last; they hoped that she would soon get a comfortable night, and wake +up again as their kind and considerate mistress. + +In fact, many little things that once would not have worried her now +jarred upon tired nerves. She felt worried by Bence's, by her husband's +stupid relations, by Mr. Mears; and by Mr. Prentice, the solicitor, who +took the liberties permitted to an old friend. He and all other old +friends worried her. + +She was altogether unable to laugh as of old at the impudence of Bence. +She frowned and stamped her foot when, looking across the road, she +first read the placard on the shuttered frontage of the ancient sadler +and the bookseller. It was not in small print: you could read it from +Thompson's without a telescope. "These Premises," said the poster, "will +shortly be opened as the new Furniture department of Bence Brothers, and +a long-felt want will be supplied by an extensive stock of high-class +goods at reasonable prices." And this, if you please, immediately facing +the two windows that from immemorial time had exhibited Thompson's solid +oak chairs and polished walnut tables! The gross, large-typed piece of +impertinence annoyed her excessively. + +She had always been extraordinarily good to old Thompson's relatives, +who were common and troublesome. They all hung on to her, called her +Cousin Jenny, boasted about their prosperous connection by marriage; +they received benefits with scant thanks, grumbled when they fancied +themselves neglected; and they were all extremely jealous and watchful +of one another. Yet till now they had never exhausted her patience and +magnanimity. + +One of them, John Edward Thompson, a grocer in a small way of business +at Haggart's Cross, had often drawn heavily upon her for financial aid. +He was a short, squat, bearded man; and he used to come into the shop +unexpectedly, and meander about it aimlessly, to the trouble and +confusion of the shop-walkers. + +"What department, sir?" + +He did not answer. + +"What can I have the pleasure of showing you, sir?" + +"Don't mind me, young man. Go on with your work. I'm just looking round +to find my cousin." + +"May I be of assistance, sir? If you will be good enough to tell me your +cousin's name?" + +"My cousin's name," said John Edward shortly, "is _Mrs. Thompson_.... +There. Put that in your pipe and smoke it." + +It nearly always happened that he found Mrs. Thompson with her back +turned towards him. Then he would put two somewhat grubby hands on her +shoulders, with cousinly playfulness pull her round the right way, and +publicly kiss her. This was an act of affection, and a triumphant +assertion of the relationship--something more for those foppish +shopwalkers to put in their pipes and smoke. + +"Cousin Jenny, how goes it?" + +Then, after the kiss, he would look at her reproachfully, and begin to +grumble. + +"Cousin Jenny, you drove through Haggart's Cross last Thursday in your +carriage and pair. _I_ saw you. But you didn't see _me_. No, you didn't +think of stopping the horses for half a minute, and passing the time of +day to your cousin." + +Mrs. Thompson used smilingly to lead him into the counting-house, give +him kind words, give him good money. He took the money grumblingly, as +if it was the least that could be offered as atonement for the +neglectfulness of last Thursday; but he went home very happy. + +He had done all this scores of times, and Mrs. Thompson had borne it all +with unflinching generosity. But now, on a broiling July day, he did it +once too often. He got as far as the public salute, and no further. + +She was upstairs, standing near a desk, with her back towards China and +Glass. He came behind her, playfully laid hold of her, kissed her. She +gave a cry, turned upon him in a white fury, and, seeing who he was, +snapped his head off. + +That day he did not go home happy. + +Other cousins were old Mrs. Price and her two daughters, who would all +three have been in the workhouse but for Mrs. Thompson. Thanks to her, +they were living comfortably at Riverdale, with a pleasant rent-free +cottage, garden, and orchard. The Miss Prices made jam and brought it +as a present to Mrs. Thompson, keeping up a baseless tradition that she +loved their preserve--and taking immense gifts in exchange for it. They +visited their cousin twice in July, first to say they would soon make +the jam, secondly to bring the jam; and each time they spent a long day +at Mallingbridge, coming in and out of house and shop, cackling and +giggling, and almost driving Mrs. Thompson mad. + +Then there was Gordon Thompson, a farmer at Linkfield, who sometimes +came into town on market day, and ate his mid-day meal with his rich +cousin in St. Saviour's Court. He used to open the house door without +ringing the bell, and whistle a few notes as a familiar signal. "Cousin +Jen-ny! Cousin Jen-ny." He would shout this with an ascending +intonation, and then come clambering up the steep staircase. + +"Any dinner to-day for a poor relation?... Ah, my dear, you're not the +sort to turn a hungry man away from your table. Garr--but I can tell you +I'm sharp set." + +He was a hale and hearty-looking fellow, full of noisy jests, with a +great affectation of joviality; but in his twinkling eyes and about his +pursed lips there was the peasant's wariness, astuteness, and greed. +Truly he took all he could get from everybody, including his fortunate +cousin. Enid said his hob-nailed boots were dirty as well as ugly, +malodorous too; and she always fled at his approach, and did not +reappear while Mrs. Thompson feasted him and made much of him. + +Now, when Mrs. Thompson heard the well-known whistle in the hall, she +followed her daughter's example; forsaking the luncheon-dishes, she fled +back to the shop through the door of communication, and left Yates to +entertain hungry Gordon. + +Enid was at home, but she failed as a soothing and calming influence. +If her mother turned to her, endeavoured to lean upon her for support in +an unexpected need, she found a blank void, a totally inadequate +buttress. Enid was self-absorbed, busy with her own little affairs, +taking lessons from the new riding-master at Young's school, spending +long hours away from the house. She seemed like a person who really has +no intuitive sympathy to offer: a person locking up her life against +intruders, keeping close guard over secret emotions, and neither willing +to share her own hopes and fears nor to comprehend those of others. + +Perhaps Enid's coldness--so often felt, but never till now admitted in +the mother's thoughts--added to the hidden trouble of Mrs. Thompson. + +She entered the China department as rarely as possible, and her +intercourse with its head was of the most formal and distant character. +The conduct of Mr. Marsden was irreproachable: he was composed, polite, +respectful; and he never came down behind the glass. But he used his +eyes--a mute yet deadly attack, whenever she encountered them. She +dreaded the attack, braced herself for it when it could no longer be +avoided; and these meetings, however brief, had painful consequences. +They enervated her, sapped her energy, and left her with an incredible +sense of fatigue, so that after each of them she walked downstairs to +her room heavily and wearily, sat at the big desk breathing fast and +trembling, feeling for a little while quite unable to work--almost as if +she had been worn out by another physical tussle, instead of by a mere +exchange of glances. + +She was sitting thus, breathless and perturbed, when Mr. Mears came +bothering. Earlier in the day she had admonished the second in command +very sharply, and it appeared that he could not bear her momentary +censure. He said she had snapped at him as she had never, never +snapped. The vast ponderous man was completely overcome; his voice +shook, his hands shook, and tears trickled down his cheeks while he +solemnly tendered his resignation. + +"Resign? What nonsense are you talking, Mr. Mears?" + +But Mears said it was not nonsense: he meant every word of it. Rather +than suffer here, he would go out and brave the world in his old age. + +"Sit down, Mr. Mears--and don't be so foolish." + +"I don't recognise you these last weeks," said Mears sadly; and he told +her of how intensely he had always venerated her. "Everything you did +was right--It is almost a religion with me. And now I couldn't bear +it--it would break my heart if I was to be pushed aside." + +"You won't be pushed aside. No fear of that." + +"Or if there was to be any great changes in the shop." + +"There will be no great changes in the shop." + +"Nor in your private life?" + +Then Mrs. Thompson snapped again. + +"What do you mean by that? What is my private life to you--or anybody +else? What are you insinuating?... Answer me. What do you mean?" + +He would not, or he could not say. Perhaps he really did not know what +he meant; or some subtle instinct, telling him that a great peril to his +peace and comfort was drawing nearer and nearer, had enabled him to +pierce the mystery and had prompted the words of the offending question. +He sat gasping and gaping while she stormed at him. + +"Understand once for all that I won't be watched and spied upon." + +"I am no spy," he said huskily; "except when you've made me one." + +The door was closed, but her angry voice rang out above the glass +partitions. All through the offices it was known that the manager had +put Mrs. T. into tantrums. + +Suddenly the storm blew itself out. Mrs. Thompson paced the room; then +stopped near the empty fireplace, with her hands clasped behind her +back. Her attitude was altogether manlike. It was the big man, sitting +huddled on the chair, wiping his cheeks, and blowing his nose, who +displayed signs of womanish emotion. + +"Mr. Mears, don't let's have any more of it. You and I must never +quarrel. It would be too absurd. We are _friends_--we are _comrades_;" +and she went over to the chair, and shook hands with her comrade. +"That's right. You and I _know_ each other; you and I can _trust_ each +other." + +Then she again walked up and down the room, speaking as she moved. + +"To show how absolutely I trust you, I'll say to you what I wouldn't say +to anyone--no, not to my daughter. I am sorry if I have seemed fretful +of late. But the reason is this. I have been passing through a mental +struggle--a struggle that has tried me sorely." In her tone and the +whole aspect of her face as she made this confession, there was +something far above the narrow realm of sex, something that man or woman +might be proud to show--a generous candour, a fearless truth, a noble +simplicity. "A hard struggle, Mr. Mears--and I'm a little shaken, but +quite victorious.... Now this is between ourselves--and it must go no +further." + +"It never shall," said Mr. Mears earnestly. + +"And not a word either about our tiff, or your unkind threat to resign." + +"No--er, no. I shan't say another word about that." + +But unfortunately Mr. Mears had already said a word or two about it to +Mr. Prentice the solicitor; and very soon Mr. Prentice came, tactlessly +blundering, to see Mrs. Thompson. + +No one could admire her more than Mr. Prentice--truly his admiration +was so obviously genuine that people sometimes wondered what Mrs. +Prentice thought about it. Staunch friendship, skilled service, as well +as the admiration, had won him many privileges; but he overstepped their +limits now. + +"I say. Is it all serene between you and Mears? Let me advise you--don't +allow the breach to widen. I should consider it a great pity if you were +to part with your right-hand man because of any trifling difference +of--" + +Mrs. Thompson cut him short. + +"Mr. Prentice, there is one thing I cannot permit--even from you." She +was dignified, but terrible. "I cannot, and I will not permit +interference in what is my business, and my business only." + +"Sorry--very sorry.... No idea I should put you out like this." + +Mr. Prentice, with muttered apologies, hurried away, looking scared and +abashed, carrying his square bowler all through the shop into the +street, as if in his confusion he had forgotten that it belonged to his +head. + + + + +IX + + +Shortly after this unlucky visit Mr. Prentice wanted to tell Mrs. +Thompson some startling news, but he did not dare. He consulted Mr. +Mears, and asked him to tell her; but Mears did not dare either. Mears +advised the solicitor to take Yates into his confidence, and let Yates +tell her. + +So then at last Mrs. Thompson heard what so many people knew +already--that Enid was carrying on with a young man in a very unbecoming +fashion. Scandalized townsfolk had seen Enid at the school with him, in +the museum with him, in the train with him;--they had met her at +considerable distances from Mallingbridge, dressed for riding, with this +groomlike attendant, but without a horse. + +The news shocked and distressed Mrs. Thompson--during her first surprise +and pain, it seemed to her as cruel as if Enid had driven a sharp knife +into her heart. But was the thing true? Yates thought it was all +true--none of it exaggerated. + +Mrs. Thompson made a few discreet inquiries, ascertained the correctness +of the facts, and then tackled Enid. + +"Mother dear," said Enid, with self-possession but slightly ruffled, "no +one could help liking Charles. I'm sure you'll like him when you see +him." + +"Why haven't I seen him? Why have you left me to learn his name from the +lips of servants and busybodies? Oh, Enid," said Mrs. Thompson +indignantly, yet very sadly, "didn't you ever think how deeply this +would wound me?" + +"But, mother dear, you must have known that it would happen some +day--that sooner or later I should fall in love." + +"Yes, but I never guessed that, when the time came, or you fancied it +had come, you would keep me in the dark--treat me as if I was a +stranger, and not your best friend." + +"Charlie didn't wish me to tell you about it just yet." + +"And why not?" + +"He said we were both old enough to know our own minds, and we ought to +be quite sure that we really and truly suited each other before we +talked about it. But we are both sure now." + +"I think he has behaved very badly--almost wickedly." + +"How can you say that, mother?" + +"I say it emphatically. He is a man of the world--and he had no right to +allow you to act so foolishly." + +But Enid appeared not to understand her mother's meaning. She could not +measure the enormity of her conduct when indulging in those +train-journeys and museum-wanderings. She admitted everything; she was +ashamed of nothing. + +"Surely," said Mrs. Thompson, "you could see that a girl of your age +cannot do such things without malicious people saying unkind things?" + +"When one is in love, one cannot trouble to think what malicious people +will say." + +In fact Enid seemed to believe that she and Mr. Kenion had created a +small universe of their own, into which no one else had a right to push +themselves. + +"Mother dear," and for the first time she spoke pleadingly and +anxiously. "Please--please don't try to come between us. I could never +give him up." + +It was a turn of the knife with which she had stabbed her mother. The +words of the appeal would have been appropriate in addressing a harsh +and obdurate guardian, instead of an adoring parent. + +"If," said Mrs. Thompson sadly, "he is worthy of you, I shall be the +last person in the world who will ask you to give him up." + +Enid seemed delighted. + +"Mother dear, he is more than worthy." + +"We shall see.... But it all hangs on that _if_--a big _if_, I am much +afraid.... You must pull yourself together, Enid, and be a good and +brave girl--and you must prepare yourself for disappointment. So far, I +do not receive satisfactory reports of him." + +"No one on earth ought to be believed if they bring you tales against +him." + +And then little by little Enid told her mother of Mr. Kenion's many +charms and virtues, and of how and why he had won her love so easily. + +He came to dinner at the Salters, and he wore a red coat. She had never +seen him till she saw him dining in pink, with brass buttons and white +silk facings. He was a magnificent horseman--rode two winners at +Cambridge undergraduate races;--had since ridden several seconds in +point-to-points;--even Mr. Bedford, Young's new riding-master, confessed +that he had a perfect seat on a horse. And he belonged to one of the +oldest families in England. Although old Mr. Kenion was only a +clergyman, he had a cousin who was an English marquis, and another +cousin who was an Irish viscount--if six people had died, and a dozen +people hadn't legally married, or hadn't been blessed with children, +Charles himself would have been a lord. + + +Even if Mrs. Thompson had heard nothing to his disadvantage, the plain +facts of the case would have convinced her that he was a bad lot. As a +woman of business, she had little doubt that she was called upon to +deal with a worthless unprincipled adventurer. His game had been to +force her hand--by compromising the girl, insure the mother's consent to +an engagement. If not interrupted in his plan, he would bring matters to +a point where the choice lay between an imprudent marriage and the loss +of reputation. When Mrs. Thompson thought of her cowardly adversary, +anger made the blood beat at her temples. If she had been a father +instead of a mother, she would have bought one of the implements of the +chase to which he was so much addicted, and have given Mr. Kenion a +wholesome horse-whipping. + +But when she thought of Enid all her pride smarted, and anger changed to +dolorous regret. It was indescribably mortifying to think that Enid, the +carefully brought up young lady, the highly finished pupil of sedate +private governesses and a majestically fashionable school, should forget +the ordinary rules of delicacy, modesty, propriety, and exhibit less +reticence in her actions than might be expected from one of Bence's +drapery girls. Enid had been pointed at, laughed at, talked about. It +was horrible to Mrs. Thompson. It struck directly at her own sense of +dignity and importance. In cheapening herself, Enid had lowered the +value of everybody connected with her. Enid, slinking out of the house, +furtively hurrying to her lover, clandestinely meeting him, and +lingering at his side in unseemly obliviousness of the passing hours, +had been not only jeopardising her own good fame, but robbing her mother +of public esteem. + +Yet far worse than the wound to her pride was the bitter blow to her +affection. Half her life had been spent in proving that her greatest +wish, her single aim was her child's happiness; but all the years +counted for nothing. Trust and confidence extinguished; no natural +impulse to pour out the heart's secrets to a mother's ear--"Charlie +didn't wish me to tell you." Enid said this as if it formed a completely +adequate explanation: she must of course implicitly obey the strange +voice. The mother who worshipped her had sunk immediately to less than +nothing. A man in a red coat, a man in gaiters, the first man who +whistled to her--and Enid had gone freely and willingly to exchange the +dull old love for the bright new one. There lay the stinging pain of it. + +What to do? One must do something. Mrs. Thompson took up the business +side of it, and determined as a first step to tackle the young man. +Purchased horsewhips impossible; but carefully chosen words may produce +some effect. + +She told Enid--after several conversations on the disastrous +subject--that she desired an interview with Mr. Charles Kenion. Enid +might write, inviting him to call upon her mother, or Mrs. Thompson +would herself write. + +Enid said she would write to him without delay; but she begged that he +might be received at the house, and not be asked to enter the shop. She +seemed to dread the idea of bringing so fine a gentleman into close +touch with the common aspects of mercantile existence. + +"No," said Mrs. Thompson firmly. "Let him come to me in my shop. It is +purely a business interview, and I prefer to hold it in a place of +business." + + +It was a most unsatisfactory interview. + +Mrs. Thompson hated the young man at the very first glimpse of him as he +came lounging into her room. He was tall and skinny; his dark, straight +hair was plastered back from a low forehead; he had no moustache; and +his teeth, which showed too much in a narrow mouth, were ugly, set at a +slightly projecting angle, as with parrots. No reasonable being could +call him handsome; but of course his general air and manner were +gentlemanlike--Mrs. Thompson admitted so much at once, and disliked him +all the more for it. Gentlemanlikeness was his sole stock in trade: he +would push that for all it was worth, and she was immediately conscious +that in his easy tone and careless lounging attitude there was a quiet, +steady assumption of his social value as the well-bred young gentleman +whose father is related to the peerage. + +"Please be seated, Mr. Kenion." + +"Thanks." + +She had ignored his obvious intention of shaking hands, and he was not +apparently in the least disconcerted by her refusal of the friendly +overture. + +"I feel sure, Mr. Kenion, that if we have a good talk, you and I will be +able to understand each other." + +"Er--yes, I hope so." + +"I think it is important that you and I _should_ understand each other +as soon as possible." + +"Thanks awfully. I'm sure it's very good of you to let me come. I know +how busy you are." + +He was looking at various objects in the room, and a slow smile +flickered about his small mouth. He looked especially at some files on +the desk, and at the massive door of one of the big safes standing ajar +and displaying iron shelves. He looked at these things with childish +interest; and Mrs. Thompson felt annoyance from the thought that the +smile was intended to convey the inference of his never having seen such +things before, and of his being rather amused by them. + +But she permitted no indication of her thoughts to escape her. The +governing powers of her mind were concentrated on the business in hand; +her face was a solid mask, expressing quiet strength, firm resolution, +worldly shrewdness, and it never changed except in colour, now getting +a little redder, now a little paler; she sat squarely, so that her +revolving chair did not turn an inch to one side or the other; and +throughout the interview she seemed and was redoubtable. + +"My daughter tells me that you have proposed to her." + +"Yes--I may as well say at once that I'm awfully in love.... And Enid +has been good enough to--er--reciprocate. I'm sure I don't know what +I've done to deserve such luck." + +"Nor do I as yet, Mr. Kenion." + +"Exactly. Of course Enid is a stunner." + +"But it was about you, and not my daughter, that I wished to talk. +Perhaps it will save time if I ask you a few questions. That is usual on +these occasions, is it not?" + +"Well, as to that, I can't say," and he laughed stupidly. "This is the +first time I've been bowled over." + +"As a question to begin with--what about your prospects, in whatever +career you have planned?" + +"My plans, don't you know, would depend more or less on Enid." + +"But you can give me some account of your position in the world--and so +forth." + +"Oh, well, that's pretty well known--such as it is. Not brilliant, don't +you know.... But I relied on Enid to tell you all that." + +"No, please don't rely on her. Only rely on yourself, Mr. Kenion." + +Something of the quiet swagger had evaporated. The sunshine came +streaming down from a skylight and fell upon him. Mrs. Thompson had put +him where he would get all the light, and she scrutinized him +attentively. + +His suit of grey flannels, although not of sporting cut or material, +suggested nothing but a stable and horses; and beneath his casual air of +gentlemanly ease there was raffishness, looseness, disreputability. In +the bright sunbeams he looked sallow and bilious; his eyelids drooped, +an incipient yawn was lazily suppressed; and she thought that very +likely he had been drinking last night and would soon be drinking again +this morning. + +Mentally she compared him with another young man. In her mind she +carried now at all times the vividly detailed picture of a masculine +type; and it was impossible not to use it as a standard or measure. Mr. +Kenion seemed very weak and mean and valueless, when set beside her +standard. + +"What is your profession, Mr. Kenion?" + +He had no profession: as she well knew, he was what is called a +gentleman at large. With vague terms he conveyed the information to her +again. + +"Really? Not a professional man? Are you a man of property--landed +estates, and so on?" + +No, Mr. Kenion was acreless. + +"But you are expecting property at your father's death? Is it entailed +upon you? I mean, are you sure of the succession?" + +Mr. Kenion smilingly confessed that his father's death would not bring +him land. + +"But you are assured that he can supply you with ample means during his +lifetime?" + +Oh, no. Mr. Kenion explained that the vicar of Chapel-Norton was in no +sense a capitalist. + +"My governor couldn't do anything more for me--and I shouldn't care to +ask him. He has done a good deal for me already--it wouldn't be fair to +my brothers and sisters to ask him to stump up again;" and he went on to +hint plainly that in his opinion the fact of his being a gentleman--a +real gentleman--should counterbalance such a trifle as the deficiency of +material resources. + +Mrs. Thompson refused to comprehend the hint. + +"Surely, Mr. Kenion, if a young man proposes to a young lady--and asks +her to engage herself to him without her mother's knowledge, that should +imply that he is prepared to take over all responsibilities?" + +She had not uttered a single reproach, or even by innuendo upbraided him +for the improper course that he had pursued when persuading Enid to defy +the laws of chaperonage and go about with him alone. Her pride would not +permit her to make the slightest allusion to the girl's folly. Besides, +that would be to play his game for him. By her silence she intended to +show him that he had not scored a point. + +"Don't you admit as much as that, Mr. Kenion? If I were to countenance +the suggested engagement, how do you propose to maintain such a wife +suitably--in the manner in which she has been brought up?" + +"Well, of course I couldn't promise to open a shop for her;" and he +laughed with fatuous good-humour, as if what he had said was rather +funny, and not an impertinence. + +"There are worse things in the world than shops, Mr. Kenion." + +"Exactly;" and he laughed again. "As to ways and means--of course I +haven't made any inquiries of any sort. But Enid gave me to +understand--or I gathered, don't you know, that money was no object." + +"Indeed it is an object," said Mrs. Thompson warmly. "I might almost say +it has been the object of my life. I know how difficult it is to earn, +and how easy to waste.... But I doubt if anything can be gained by +further discussion. Your answers to my questions have left me no +alternative. I must altogether refuse my sanction to an engagement." + +"You won't consent to it?" + +"No, Mr. Kenion, the man who marries my daughter with my consent must +first prove to me that he is worthy of her." + +"But of course as to that--well, Enid tells me she is over twenty-one." + +"Oh, yes. I see what you mean. A man might marry her without my consent. +But then he would get her--and not one penny with her.... That, Mr. +Kenion, is quite final." + +He seemed staggered by the downright weight of this final statement. + +"Of course," he said, rather feebly, "we are desperately in love with +one another." + +Contempt flashed from her eyes as she asked him still another question +or two. + +"What did you expect--that I should welcome your proposal and thank you +for it?" + +"Well, Enid and I had made up our minds that you wouldn't thwart her +wishes." + +"But, Mr. Kenion, even if I had agreed and made everything easy and +pleasant for you, surely you would not be content to live as a pensioner +for the rest of your days?" + +She was thinking of what Dick Marsden had said to her in the dusk by the +river. "I could not pose as the pensioner of a rich wife." It seemed to +her a natural and yet a noble sentiment; and she contrasted the proper +manly frame of mind that found expression in such an utterance with the +mean-spirited readiness to depend on others that Mr. Kenion confessed so +shamelessly. Marsden was perhaps not a gentleman in the snobbish, +conventional sense, but how much more a man than this Kenion! + +"Don't you know," he was saying feebly; and, as he said it, he stifled +another yawn; "I should certainly try to do something myself." + +"What?" + +"Well, perhaps a little farming. I think I could help to keep the pot +on the boil by making and selling hunters--and a good deal can be done +with poultry, if you set to work in the right way.... Enid seemed to +like the notion of living in the country." + +Mrs. Thompson turned the revolving chair round a few inches towards the +desk, and politely told Mr. Kenion that she need not detain him any +further. + +He had come in loungingly, and he went out loungingly; but he was limper +after the interview than before it. He probably felt that the stuffing +had been more or less knocked out of him; for he presently turned into a +saloon bar, and sought to brace himself again with strong stimulants. + + +No doubt he complained bitterly enough to Enid of the severely chilling +reception that he had met with in the queer back room behind the shop. +Anyhow Enid complained with bitterness to her mother. Indeed at this +crisis of her life Enid was horrid. Yates begged her to be more +considerate, and committed a breach of confidence by telling her of how +her unkind tone had twice made the mistress weep; but Enid could attend +only to one thing at a time. She wanted her sweetheart, and she thought +it very hard that anybody should attempt to deprive her of him. + +"And it will all be no use, mother--because I never, never can give him +up." + +Thus the days passed miserably; and a sort of stalemate seemed to have +occurred. Kenion had not retired, but he was not coming on; and Enid was +horrid. + +In her perplexity and distress Mrs. Thompson went to Mr. Prentice, and +asked him for advice and aid. + +Mr. Prentice, delighted to be restored to favour after his recent +disgrace, was jovial and cheering. He pooh-poohed the notion that Enid +had in the smallest degree compromised herself; he talked of the wide +latitude given to modern girls, of their independence, their capacity to +take care of themselves in all circumstances; and stoutly declared his +belief that among fashionable people the chaperon had ceased to exist. + +"Don't you worry about that, my dear. No one is going to think any the +worse of her for being seen with a cavalier dangling at her heels." + +Nevertheless he heartily applauded Mrs. Thompson for her firm tackling +of the indigent suitor; he offered to find out everything about Kenion +and his family, and promised that he would render staunch aid in sending +him "to the right-abouts." + +When Mrs. Thompson called again Mr. Prentice had collected a formidable +dossier, and he read out the damaging details of Mr. Kenion's history +with triumphant relish. + +"Now this is private detective work, not solicitors' work--and I expect +a compliment for the quick way I've got the information.... Well then, +there's only one word for Mr. Kenion--he's a thorough rotter." + +And Mr. Prentice began to read his notes. + +"Our friend," as he called the subject of the memoir, was sent down from +Cambridge in dire disgrace. He had attempted an intricately dangerous +transaction, with a credit-giving jeweller and three diamond rings at +one end of it, and a pawnbroker at the other. The college authorities +heard of it--from whom do you suppose? _The police!_ Old Kenion paid the +bill, to avoid something worse than the curtailment of the university +curriculum. Since then "our friend" had been mixed up with horsedealers +of ill repute--riding their horses, taking commissions when he could +sell them. + +"He gambles," said Mr. Prentice with gusto; "he drinks; he womani--I +should say, his morals with the other sex are a minus quantity.... And +last of all, I can tell you this. I've seen the fellow--got a man to +point him out to me; and there's _blackguard_ written all over him." + +"Then how _can_ respectable people like the Salters entertain him?" + +"Ah," said Mr. Prentice philosophically, "that's the way we live +nowadays. The home is no longer sacred. People don't seem to care who +they let into their houses. If a fellow can ride and can show a few +decent relations, hunting folk forgive him a good deal. And the Salters +very likely hadn't heard--or at any rate didn't _know_ anything against +him." + +At his own suggestion, jumped at by his client, Mr. Prentice returned +with Mrs. Thompson to St. Saviour's Court, and told Miss Enid that it +would be madness for her any longer to encourage the attentions of such +a ne'er-do-well. + +"If you were my own daughter," said Mr. Prentice solemnly, "I should +forbid your ever seeing him again. And I give you my word of honour I +believe that before a year has past you'll thank Mrs. Thompson for +standing firm now." + +But Enid was still horrid. She seemed infatuated; she would not credit, +she would not listen to, anything of detriment to her sweetheart's +character. She spoke almost rudely to her mother; and when Mr. Prentice +took it on himself to reprove her, she spoke quite rudely to him. Then +she marched out of the room. + +"I am afraid," said Mr. Prentice, "there'll be a certain amount of +wretchedness before you bring her to reason." + + +There was wretchedness in the little house--Enid pining and moping, +assuming the airs of a victim; her mother trying to soften the +disappointment, arguing, consoling, promising better fish in the sea +than as yet had come out of it. Enid refused to go away from +Mallingbridge. Mrs. Thompson herself longed for change, and the chance +of forgetting all troubles; there was nothing to keep her here now, +although her presence would be required in September; but Enid seemed +tied by invisible strings to the home she was making so very +uncomfortable. + +She would not go away, and she would not undertake to refrain from +seeing or writing to Mr. Kenion. She did give her word that she would +not slink out and marry him on the sly. But she could safely promise +that, because, under the existing conditions of stalemate, it was very +doubtful if Mr. Kenion would abet her in so bold a measure. Probably she +was aware that Mr. Kenion's courtship had been successfully checked; and +the knowledge made her all the more difficult to deal with. Mr. Kenion +was neither retiring, nor coming forward: he was just beating time; and +perhaps Enid felt humiliated as well as angry when she observed his +stationary position. + +A pitiful state of affairs--mother and daughter separated in heart and +mind; on one side increasing coldness, on the other lessening hope; an +estrangement that widened every day. + +Then at last Enid consented to start with her mother for a rapid tour in +Switzerland. Mr. Kenion, it appeared, had crossed the Irish Channel on +some kind of horse-business; and so Lucerne and Mallingbridge had become +all one to Enid. + +They stayed in many hotels, visited many new scenes; and Mrs. Thompson, +looking at high mountains and broad lakes, was still vainly trying to +recover her lost child. Enid was calm again, polite again, even +conversational; but between herself and her mother she had made a wall +as high as the loftiest mountain and a chasm as wide as the biggest of +the lakes. + + + + +X + + +The books of Thompson's were made up and audited at the end of each +summer season, and in accordance with an unbroken custom the +proprietress immediately afterwards gave a dinner to the heads of +departments. Printed invitations were invariably issued for this small +annual banquet; the scene of the entertainment was the private house; +and the highly glazed cards, with which Mrs. Thompson requested the +honour of the company of Mr. Mears and the others in St. Saviour's Court +at 6:45 for 7 o'clock, used to be boastfully shown along the counters by +the eight or ten happy gentlemen who had received them. + +During the course of the dinner--the very best that the Dolphin could +send in--Mrs. Thompson would thank her loyal servants, give her views as +to where the shop had failed to achieve the highest possible results, +and discuss the plan of campaign for the next twelve months. The heads +of departments, warmed with the generous food, cheered with the +sparkling wine, charmed and almost overwhelmed by Mrs. Thompson's +gracious condescension, said the same things every year, made the same +suggestions, never by any chance contributed an original idea. But the +dinner was doing them good; they would think better and work harder when +it was only a memory. At the moment it was sufficient for them to +realize that they were here, sitting at the same luxurious table with +their venerated employer, revelling in her smiles, seeing her evening +robe of splendour instead of the shop black; admiring her bare shoulders +and her white gloves, her costly satin and lace, her glittering sequins +or shimmering beads; and most of all admiring her herself, the noble +presiding spirit of Thompson's. + +Jolly Mr. Prentice was always present--acting as a deputy-host; and at +the end of dinner he always gave the traditional toast. + +"Gentlemen, raise your glasses with me, and drink to the best man of +business in Mallingbridge. That is, to Mrs. Thompson.... Mrs. +Thompson.... Mrs. Thompson!" + +Then little Mr. Ridgway of Silks used to start singing. + +"'For she's a jolly good fellow'".... + +"Please, please," said Mrs. Thompson, picking up her fan, and rising. +"_Without_ musical honours, please;" and the chorus immediately stopped. +"Gentlemen, I thank you;" and she sailed out of the room, always turning +at the door for a last word. "Mr. Prentice, the cigars are on the side +table. Don't let my guests want for anything." + +Now once again the night of this annual feast had come round, the +champagne corks were popping, the Dolphin waiters were carrying their +dainty dishes; and Mrs. Thompson sat at the top of her table, like a +kindly queen beaming on her devoted courtiers. + +Yates, standing idle as a major-domo while the hirelings bustled to and +fro, was ravished by the elegant appearance of the queen. Yates had +braced her into some new tremendous fashionable stays from Paris, and +she thought the effect of slimness was astonishing. Truly Mrs. Thompson +had provided herself with a magnificent dress--a Paris model, of grey +satin with lace and seed pearls all over the bodice; and her opulent +shoulders, almost bursting from the pretty shoulder-straps, gleamed +finely and whitely in the lamp-light. Her hair made a grand full +coronet, low across the brow; her face seemed unusually pale; and there +were dark shadows about her glowing eyes. + +"Yes, Mr. Mears--as you say, travelling opens the mind. But I fear I +have brought home no new information." + +"What you have brought home," said Mr. Ridgway, gallantly, "is a +pleasure to see--and that is, if I may say so"-- The little man had +intended to pay a courageously direct compliment, by saying that Mrs. +Thompson had never looked so attractive as she did now after the brief +Continental tour; but suddenly his courage failed him, nervousness +overcame him, and, floundering, he tailed off weakly. "You have, I hope, +ma'am, brought home replenished health and renewed vigour." + +"Thank you, Mr. Ridgway;" and the nervousness seemed to have +communicated itself to Mrs. Thompson's voice. "A change of scene is +certainly stimulating." + +"I've always had a great ambition," said Mr. Fentiman of Woollens, "to +get a peep at Switzerland before I die." + +"Then you must arrange to do so," said Mrs. Thompson, with kindly +significance. "Some autumn--I'm sure it would be easy to arrange." + +"I figure it," said Mr. Fentiman sententiously, "as a gigantic +panorama--stupefying in its magnitude--and, ah, in all respects unique." + +"It is very beautiful," said Mrs. Thompson; and she glanced at Enid, who +was pensively playing with her breadcrumbs. + +"The Swiss," said Mr. Mears, "are reputed a thrifty race. Did you, +madam, observe signs of economic prosperity among the people?" + +Mr. Prentice chimed in boisterously from the bottom of the table. + +"What no one will ever observe among the Swiss people is a pretty girl. +Did you see a pretty girl on all your travels, Mrs. Thompson--except the +one you took with you?" And Mr. Prentice bowed to Enid, and then +laughed loudly and cheerfully. + +"Is that a fact?" asked Mr. Ridgway. "Are they really so ill-favoured?" + +"Plainest-headed lot in Europe," shouted Mr. Prentice. + +"And do you, madam, endorse the verdict?" + +"Oh, no. Far too sweeping;" and Mrs. Thompson laughed nervously, and +attempted to draw her daughter into the conversation. "Enid, Mr. Ridgway +is asking if we saw no pretty girls in Switzerland." + +But Enid was dull. She had volunteered to join the party, but she would +not assist the hostess in making it a success. She need not have been +here; and it was stupid or unkind of her to come, and yet not try to be +pleasant. + +"Didn't we, mother? I don't remember." + +All this strained talk about Switzerland was heavy and spiritless. One +heard the note of effort all through it. In the old days they would have +been chattering freely of the shop and themselves. Mrs. Thompson felt +painfully conscious that there was something wrong with the feast. No +gaiety. Some influence in the air that proved alternately chilling and +nerve-disturbing. She knew that Mr. Prentice felt it, too. He was +endeavouring to make things go; and when he wanted things to go, he +became noisy. He was growing noisier and noisier. + +She looked at her guests while Mr. Prentice bellowed in monologue. They +were eating and drinking, but somehow failing to enjoy themselves. + +Big Mr. Mears, sitting beside her, ate enormously. He wore a black bow +tie, with a low-cut black waistcoat and his voluminous frock-coat--he +would not go nearer to the conventional dress-clothes, not judging the +swallow-tail as befitting to his station in life, or his figure. Scrubby +little Mr. Ridgway, on her other side, emptied his glass with +surprising rapidity. Mr. Fentiman, a tall skinny man, ate almost as much +as Mr. Mears. He had cleared his plate and was looking at the ceiling, +with his long neck saliently exposed above a turn-down collar, as he +dreamed perhaps of next year's holiday and a foreign trip financed by a +liberal patroness. Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the familiar +commonplace faces--bald heads glistening, jaws masticating, hands busy +with knife and fork; but nowhere could she see any light-hearted jollity +or genuine amusement and interest. + +She looked at the head of China and Glass last of all. On this occasion +Mr. Marsden made his initial appearance at her hospitable board. It was, +of course, impossible to leave him out of the gathering; but great, very +great trouble of mind had been aroused by the necessity to include him. +She had feared the meeting under the relaxed conditions of friendly +informal intercourse. Perhaps, so far as she was concerned, all the +nerve-vibrating element in the atmosphere was caused by his quiet +unobtrusive presence. + +He wore faultless evening-dress, with a pique shirt, a white waistcoat, +and a flower in his button-hole; and, sitting at the other end of the +table, near Mr. Prentice, he was very silent--almost as silent as Enid. +Not quite, because he spoke easily and naturally when anybody addressed +him. And his silence was smiling and gracious. Among the other men he +seemed to be a creature from a different world--so firm in his quiet +strength, so confident in his own power, so young, so self-possessed, +and so extraordinarily, overbearingly handsome. + +The dinner was more than half over; the Dolphin waiters were carving and +serving some savoury game; Mrs. Thompson exerted herself as a watchful +and attentive hostess. + +"Mr. Greig, you mustn't refuse the grouse. It was specially sent from +Scotland for us." + +"Really, madam," said Mr. Greig, the obese chief of Cretonnes etc., +"your menoo is that ample I find it difficult not to shirk my duties to +it. But still, since you're so kind as to mention it--yes, I thank you." + +"That's right, Mr. Greig." + +"Greig, my good friend," said Mr. Prentice, "you'd make a poor show at +the Guildhall or the Mansion House, if you can't stay the course without +all these protestations and excuses." + +"I've never dined with the Lord Mayor," said Mr. Greig; "but I cannot +believe his lordship offers the most distinguished company a more ample +menoo than this." + +"Enid," said Mrs. Thompson, "do have some grouse." + +"No, thank you, mother." + +It was Enid who cast a chill upon everything and everybody; all the cold +and depressing influence issued from her. She looked pretty enough in +her pink and silver frock, and she ought to have been a charming and +welcome addition to the party; but she would not put herself to the +trouble of talking and smiling. She made no slightest effort to set +these more or less humble folk at their ease. She showed that she was +absent-minded, and allowed people to guess that she was also bored. Now +Mr. Prentice was rallying her with genial, paternal freedom--and she +would not even answer his questions. He turned away, to bellow at Mr. +Fentiman; and obviously felt crushed by his failure to make things go. + +The point had been reached when it was customary to begin their friendly +business talk; but to-night it seemed impossible for them to speak +comfortably of the shop. The presence of the fashionable outsider tied +all their tongues. + +Old Mears ponderously started the ball; but no one could keep it +rolling. + +"Well, ma'am," said Mr. Mears. "Another year has come and gone. We are +in a position to look behind us; and, as usual, before we commence to +look ahead of us, any words that fall from your lips will be esteemed a +favour." + +"Hear, hear," said Mr. Ridgway, shyly and feebly. + +"Really, gentlemen," said Mrs. Thompson, "I don't know that I have any +words likely to be of value." + +"Always valuable--your words," said fat Mr. Greig. + +"But I take this opportunity," and Mrs. Thompson looked nervously at her +daughter--"this opportunity of thanking you for all you have done for me +in the past, and of assuring you that I place the fullest confidence in +you--in you all--for the future." + +Enid had thrown a blight over the proceedings. She made them all shy and +uneasy. Even Mrs. Thompson herself could not speak of the shop without +hesitating and stammering. + +"So, really," she went on, "that is all I need say, gentlemen. But, as +always, I shall be--shall be glad--extremely glad if you will give me +your candid views on any subjects--on all subjects.... Have you any +suggestions to make, Mr. Mears?" + +Mr. Mears coughed, and hummed and hawed before replying. + +"We must adhere to our maxims--and not get slack, no matter how good +business may be." + +"That's it," said Mr. Ridgway. "Keep up the high standard of Thompson's, +whatever else we do." + +"Any suggestions from _you_, Mr. Greig?" + +"No more," said Mr. Greig, "than the remarks which my confreers have +passed. I say the same myself." + +She asked them each in turn, hurrying through her questions, scarcely +waiting to hear the unusually imbecile answers. + +"Mr. Marsden--have you any suggestions to make?" + +"None," said Marsden, firmly and unhesitatingly. "Unless, madam, you +would authorise me to break the neck of Mr. Archibald Bence." + +This sally was received with universal applause and laughter. + +"Bravo," cried Mr. Prentice. "Take me with you, my boy, when you go on +that job." + +"And me, too." + +"And I must be there--if it's only to pick up the remains." + +"And to bury 'em decently." + +"Which is more than Master Bence deserves." + +They were all laughing heartily and happily, all talking at once, +gesticulating, pantomiming. Even old Mears beat upon the table with a +fork to express his satisfaction, and his agreement with the general +feeling. + +All the tongues were untied by the seasonable facetiousness of Mr. +Marsden. The hostess flashed a grateful glance at him; but he was not +looking in her direction. He was courteously listening to Mr. Prentice, +who had lowered his voice now that things had begun to go of their own +accord. + +And things continued to go well for the rest of the dinner. The name of +Bence had acted like a charm; they all could find something to say about +the hated and unworthy rival, and their hitherto frozen tongues now +wagged unceasingly. + +"Did you ever see such wretched little starveling girls as he puts into +the bazaar at Christmas?" + +"It's a disgrace to the town, importing such waifs and strays." + +"They tell me he gets 'em out of a place in Whitechapel--and they're in +charge of a couple of detectives all the time." + +"Yes, you bet. Two upon ten, or the poor little beggars would prig his +gimcracks as fast as he put them out." + +"I don't vouch for it--but I believe it myself: they had three cases of +pocket-picking in an hour. And it was one of his shop-girls who done +it." + +"That's a nice way of doing business! 'Step this way, miss, and look at +our twopenny 'a'penny toys'--and pick the customer's pocket as you are +serving her." + +While they talked so cheerily and pleasantly Mrs. Thompson several times +glanced down the table at her youngest manager. She need not have +dreaded the meeting. He had made it quite easy for her. He had proved +that he possessed the instincts of a true gentleman--not a make-believe +gentleman; he had displayed consideration, tact, good breeding; and by +his ready wit he had come to her aid and dissipated the dullness of her +guests. She sat smiling and nodding in the midst of their lively +chatter, and looked at Mr. Marsden's strong, clear-cut profile. It +seemed to her statuesque, noble, magnificent; and it did not once change +into a full face during all the time she watched it. + +Now the guests had eaten their dessert, and the hired waiters had gone +from the room. The moment had come for the toast. + +"Gentlemen," said Mr. Prentice, "fill your glasses and drink a health. I +give you two people rolled into one--that is, the best Man of business +in Mallingbridge and Mrs. Thompson.... Mrs. Thompson!" + +"Now, all together," said Mr. Ridgway; and he began to sing. "'For +_she_'s a jolly good fel-low'".... + +"Please, please," said Mrs. Thompson, getting up from her chair, and +stopping the chorus. "No musical honours, _please_.... Gentlemen, I +thank you.... And now my daughter and I will leave you to your coffee +and cigars." + +Then she followed Enid to the door, and turned on the threshold. + +"Mr. Prentice, don't let our guests want for anything.... Yates has put +the cigars on the side-table." + + +In the other room Enid walked over to the piano, and, without uttering a +word, began to play. + +"After all," said Mrs. Thompson, with a sigh of relief, "it didn't go +off so badly." + +"No," said Enid, looking at her fingers as they slowly struck the notes, +"I suppose not." + +"What is it you are playing?" Mrs. Thompson asked the question abruptly. + +"Chopin." + +"Can't you play anything gayer? That's so sad." + +"Is it?... I don't feel very gay." + +The plaintive and depressing melody continued, while Mrs. Thompson +walked about the room restlessly. Then she came to the side of the +piano, and leaned her arm upon the folded lid. + +"Enid. Stop playing." She spoke eagerly and appealingly; and Enid, +looking up, saw that her eyes were wet with tears. + +"Mother, what's the matter?" + +"Everything is the matter;" and she stretched out her hand above the +ivory keys. "Enid, are you purposely, wilfully unkind to me?... Where +has my child gone?... It's wicked, and _stupid_ of you. Because I am +trying to save you from a great folly, you give me these cold tones; day +after day, you--you treat me as a stranger and an enemy." + +"Mother, I am sorry. But you must know what I feel about it.... Is it +any good going over the ground again?" + +"Yes, it _is_ good," said Mrs. Thompson impetuously; and she withdrew +the hand that had vainly invited another hand to clasp it. "You and I +must come to terms. This sort of thing is what I can't stand--what I +_won't_ stand." With a vigorous gesture she brushed away her tears, and +began to walk about the room again. + +Enid was looking down her long nose at the key-board; and her whole face +expressed the sheep-like but unshakable obstinacy that she had inherited +from her stupid father. + +"Mother," she said slowly, "I told you at the very beginning that I +could never give him up." + +Then Yates brought in the coffee. + +"Put it down there," said Mrs. Thompson, "and leave us." + +And Yates, with shrewd and rather scared glances at mother and daughter, +went out again. + +"I don't believe--I _know_ that this man is not worthy of you. I won't +tell you how meanly I think of him." + +"No, please don't speak against him any more. You have done that so +often already." + +"And haven't I the right to state my opinion--and to act on it, too? Am +I not your mother? Can I forget that--even if you forget it?" + +"Mother, I haven't forgotten. I remember all your goodness--up to now." + +"Mr. Kenion simply wants the money that I could give you, if I pleased." + +"He only wants us to have just sufficient to live on." + +"The money is his first aim." + +"Mother, if that were _true_, nothing would ever make me believe it." + +"No doubt he is fond of you--in a way.... Enid, I implore you not to +harden yourself against me.... Of course he is attracted by you. Who +wouldn't be? You are young and charming--with every grace and spell to +win men's love. Any man should love you--and other men will.... Be +reasonable--be brave. It isn't as if you could possibly feel that this +was the last chance--the last offer of love in a woman's life." + +"Mother, it must always be the last chance--the only chance, when one +has set one's heart on it." + +"Set your heart!" cried Mrs. Thompson, vehemently and passionately. +"Your heart? You haven't got a heart--or you couldn't, you couldn't make +me so miserably unhappy as you are doing now." + +"I am very sorry--but I share the unhappiness, don't I? Mother, I, too, +am most miserably unhappy." + +Mrs. Thompson was pacing to and fro rapidly and excitedly; her bosom +heaved, and the words were beginning to pour out with explosive force. + +"He is everything then--the sun, moon, and stars to you; and I am a +cipher. The mother who bore you counts for less than any Tom, Dick, or +Harry who puts his arms round your waist and pulls your silly face +towards him." + +"Mother!" + +"Yes, mother! That's my name still--and you use it from habit. Only the +fact--the plain meaning of the word is gone." + +"Mother, they'll hear you in the other room." + +"But I'm not a woman to be ignored and slighted--and pushed aside. +There's nothing of the patient Griselda in my nature. I am what I +_am_--all alive still--not done for, and on the shelf. I have +subordinated my life to yours--let you rule it how you chose. But you +must rule it by kindness--not by cold looks and cutting words. I don't +submit to that--I _won't_ submit to it." + +"Mother dear, I have told you how grateful I am." + +"And gratitude--as you understand it--is no use to me. I've a +_right_--yes, a right to your affection--the natural affection that I've +striven to retain, that I've done nothing to forfeit." + +"No, no. Mother dear, you have my affection." + +"Then what's it worth? Not much--no, not very much, if the first time I +appeal to your sense of duty too, it isn't to be found. I tell you not +to be a fool--and you swear I am wrecking your life. I'm the villain of +your trumpery little drama--plotting and scheming to frustrate your love +and spoil your life. That's too rich--that's too good, altogether too +good." + +The expression of Enid's face had changed from obstinacy to alarm. She +watched her mother apprehensively, and stammered some calming phrases. + +"Mother dear, I'm sorry. Don't, don't get excited--or I'm sure they'll +hear us in the other room." + +"Your life, yes. And what about _my_ life?" The words were pouring out +in an unchecked torrent. "Look back at my life and see what it has been. +You're twenty-two, aren't you? And I was that age more than twenty-two +years ago--and all the twenty-two years I've given you. Something for +something--not something for nothing. We traders like fair exchange--but +you've put yourself above all that.... No, leave me alone. Don't touch +me, since you have ceased to care for me." + +Enid had come from the piano, and was endeavouring to subdue the +emotional explosion by a soothing caress. + +"Leave me to myself--leave me alone. I'm nothing to you--and you know +it." + +Enid's caress was roughly repulsed; and Mrs. Thompson sat upon the sofa, +hid her flushed face upon her arms, and burst into a fit of almost +hysterical sobbing. + +"Mother, mother--don't, please don't;" and Enid sat beside her, patted +her shoulder, and begged her quickly to compose herself lest the +gentlemen should come and see her in her distress. + +"It's so cruel," sobbed Mrs. Thompson. "And now--now of all times, I +can't bear it.... But I mustn't let myself go like this. I daren't give +way like this." + +Then very soon her broad back ceased to shake; the convulsing gasping +sobs were suppressed, and she sat up and dried her eyes. + +"Enid, have I made a horrible fright of myself?" And she rose from the +sofa, and went to look in the glass over the fireplace. The tears had +left little trace; the reflection in the glass reassured her. + +She was comparatively calm when she returned to the sofa and sat down +again. + +"Enid, my dear, I'm ashamed to have been betrayed into such weakness," +and she smiled piteously. "But you have tested me too severely of +late--since this unlucky affair began. I have thought myself strong +enough; but the strongest things have their snapping point--even iron +and steel;--and I am only flesh and blood.... You don't understand, but +I warn you that I _need_ the sympathy and the kindness which you +withhold from me.... Be nice to me--be kind to me." + +But Enid was crying now. Tears trickled down her narrow face. The +strange sight of her mother's violent and explosive distress had quite +overcome her. + +"I do try to do what's right," she whimpered. + +"Yes, my darling girl," said Mrs. Thompson tenderly. "And so do I. It's +all summed up in that. We must do what's right and wise--not just what +seems easy and delightful. There. There.... Use my handkerchief;" and in +her turn she reminded Enid that the gentlemen would be with them at any +minute. + +"Mother, when you ask me to give him up, it's more than I _can_ do." + +"But would I ask you if I wasn't certain--as certain as I can be of +anything in the world--that you could never be happy with him? You'd be +risking a lifetime's regret." + +"I am ready to take the risk. Don't come between us." + +"Enid, my dearest--my own Enid, trust me--trust the mother who has +never, never thwarted you till now. You know I'm not selfish--not greedy +of money. Truly I have only worked for you.... And think--though I hate +to say it--of the many--the many, many things I have given up for your +sake. It wasn't difficult perhaps--because you were everything on earth +to me. But any middle-aged woman who knew my life would tell you that I +have made great sacrifices--and all for you." + +"I know you have, mother. It's dreadful to think of how you have worked, +year after year." + +"Then can't you make this one sacrifice for me?" + +"If it was anything else;" and Enid sniffed, and another tear or two +began to trickle. "If it was anything else, I'd obey you implicitly--and +know it was my duty." + +"Why isn't it your duty now?" + +"Because this is so different." + +"Enid, stop. Don't say any more." + +"But, mother dear, do understand what I mean." + +"Yes, I understand too well." + +"I'm not ungrateful. If you called on me to pay back some of my debt, +I'd work for you till I dropped. I'd try to make every sort of sacrifice +that you have made for me. But when it comes to a woman's love, she +_can't_ sacrifice herself." + +"Then, by God, I'll take you at your word." + +Mrs. Thompson had sprung up from the sofa; and once more she paced to +and fro, a prey to an increasing excitement. + +"Mother? You'll consent?" + +"Yes--I consent. A woman can't sacrifice her love! Very good. So be it. +That's your law. Then obey it--and, as there's a God in Heaven, I'll +obey it, too." + + +The gentlemen, leaving their dinner table, heard the raised voice, and +paused in surprise outside the drawing-room door. When they entered the +room, Mrs. Thompson, with blazing cheeks and flashing eyes, turned +towards them and gazed eagerly through the open doorway. + +"Mr. Marsden, where are you? Come here." + +Marsden went to her quickly; and she drew him away to the curtained +windows, and spoke in an eager whisper. + +"Did you mean what you told me by the river?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you mean it still?" + +"Yes." + +"On your honour as a man, is that true?" + +"Yes." + +Then she took his right hand in her two hands, and held it tightly. + +"Gentlemen--listen to me, please;" and she spoke with feverish +resolution. "This is not perhaps an opportune moment for making the +announcement--but I want you to know, I want all my friends to know +without further delay that Mr. Marsden and I are engaged to be married." + +Silence like a dead weight seemed to fall upon the room. + +Enid had uttered a half-stifled exclamation of horror, but blank +amazement rendered the guests dumb. Mr. Prentice, who had become +apoplectically red, opened and shut his mouth; but no sound issued from +it. Mr. Mears, with bowed head and heavily hanging arms, stared at the +carpet. Gradually every eye sank, and all were staring downwards--as if +unable to support the sight of the couple who stood hand in hand before +them. + +At last Mr. Ridgway tried to say something; and then Mr. Fentiman feebly +echoed his words. + +"You have taken our breath away, madam. But it behoves us +to--ah--congratu--to felicitate." + +"Or to proffer our good wishes." + +"And our best hopes." + +But Mrs. Thompson did not look at them or listen to them. Marsden was +speaking to her in a low voice. + +"Yes, yes, yes. Every word. Every word. I meant all I said then--and I +mean it a thousand times more now. You are making me the proudest of +mortals--but don't forget one thing." + +"What?" + +"Why, all I said about the difficulties--the, the inequality of our +position, which must somehow be got rid of. But of course you've thought +it out." + +"What do you mean?" She was gazing at him with love and admiration; but +an intense anxiety came into her eyes. + +"Well, I mean exactly what I said then. Nothing can change my mind. But, +as I told you, I can't have all the world pointing at me as a penniless +adventurer who has caught a rich wife.... But you've planned--you mean +to prevent--" + +His eyes did not meet hers. She dropped his hand, and looked at him now +with a passionate, yearning intentness. + +"Go on--quickly. Say what it is that you mean." + +"I mean, it is to be a thorough partnership--husband and wife on an +equal footing. You mean it, too, don't you? Partners in love and +partners in everything else!" + +"Yes," she said, after a scarcely perceptible hesitation. "I did mean +that. You have anticipated what I intended." + +"My sweetheart and my wife." As he whispered the words, her whole face +lit up with triumphant joy. "I knew that you meant it all along. And I'm +the happiest proudest man that ever lived.... Now you'd better tell +them. Let them know that, too." + +Again she hesitated. She was in a fever of excitement, with all real +thought obliterated by the flood of emotion; and yet perhaps already, +though unconsciously to herself, she had attained a complete knowledge +of the fatal nature of her mistake. + +"Do you want me to tell them now--at once?" + +"Yes," he said gaily. "No time like the present. Let them know how my +dear wife and I mean to stand--and then there'll be nothing for anybody +to chatter about." + +"Very well." + +"That's right;" and he gently drew her round towards her audience. +"That's _our_ way--side by side, shoulder to shoulder, you and I, facing +the world." + +"Gentlemen," said Mrs. Thompson firmly, "there's another thing that I +must add to what I have said. Mr. Marsden, when he comes into this house +as my husband, will come into the business as my partner." + +Marsden, with his head raised and his shoulders squared, stood boldly +smiling at the silent men. + + + + +XI + + +She was conscious that the whole world had turned against her; in every +face she could read her condemnation; when she drove through High Street +she felt like a deposed monarch--hats were still removed, but with +pitying courtesy instead of with loyal fervour. Constraint and +embarrassment sounded in every fresh voice to which she listened. Mr. +Prentice, taking her instructions, assumed a ridiculously hollow +cheerfulness, as if he had been speaking to somebody who had contracted +an incurable disease. The shop staff dared not look at her, and yet +could not look away from her with any air of naturalness; up and down +the counters male and female assistants, so soon as she appeared, became +preposterously busy; and she knew that they avoided meeting her eyes. +She knew also that the moment she had passed, their eyes followed +her--they were at once frightened and fascinated, as if she had been a +person who had confessed to a great crime, who was still at large, but +who would be arrested almost immediately. + +During the first few days of her engagement she suffered under the heavy +sense that every friend had abandoned her. In street, shop, or house, +she could find no comforter. Even Yates was cruel. + +"Why do you look so glum?" At last she roundly upbraided Yates. "Don't +wait upon me at all, if you can only do it as though you were going to a +funeral." + +Yates, in sorrowful tones said that her glumness was caused by her +thoughts. + +Then Mrs. Thompson piteously prayed for support from the old servant. + +"Are you going to drive me mad among you--make me commit suicide? Oh, +Yates, do stand by me." + +And Yates wept, and swore that henceforth she would stand by her +mistress. + +"Say you think I'm right in what I'm doing." + +"I'll say this, ma'am--that no one should be the judge except you of +what's right. No one hasn't any qualification to interfere with you in +what you please to do." + +"But, Yates, say you approve of it." + +"Well then, I do say it." + +Yates said that she approved; but no one else said so. Enid did not +pretend to approve--although she talked very little about her mother's +plans. She had obtained the desire of her own heart; she and Mr. Kenion +were to be made one as soon as possible; she was buying her trousseau, +and Mr. Prentice was drawing the marriage settlement. + +Both marriages were to be pushed on rapidly. No time like the present, +as Marsden joyously declared. "What's the good of waiting, when you have +made up your mind?" But Enid was to be cleared out of the way first; and +not till Enid had left the little house could her mother throw herself +completely into her own dream of bliss. + +There were some trifling difficulties, some slight delays. Mr. Kenion, +as one about to become a member of the family, frankly confessed that he +viewed the Marsden alliance with repugnance. He told Mr. Prentice that +it altered the whole condition of affairs, that his relatives begged him +to stand out for a much more liberal settlement than would previously +have appeared to be ample; and he hinted on his own account that if Mrs. +Thompson didn't stump up, he would feel justified in withdrawing +altogether. Mr. Prentice, however, made short work of this suitor's +questionings and threatenings. He did not mention that, on the strong +advice of Mr. Marsden, his client had largely cut down the proposed +amount; but he said that in his own opinion the settlement was quite +ample. + +"Of course," said Kenion, "what we get now is all we shall ever get. I +don't value Enid's further expectations at a brass farthing." + +"That's as it may be. Possibly you are wise in not building on the +future. But my instructions merely concern the present. As to the amount +decided on by my client, whether big or little--well, it is to take or +leave." + +Charlie Kenion, lounging deep in one of the solicitor's leather +armchairs, said that he would take it. + +At this period Mr. Prentice also received visits from the other suitor. +Marsden called several times, to talk about the terms of his +partnership, and to urge the importance of not overdoing it with regard +to the provision for Enid. These marriage settlements, he reminded the +solicitor, are irrevocable things--what you put into them you can't get +out of them. Nothing ever comes back to you. A woman in Mrs. Thompson's +position should therefore exercise some caution. She is rich now, but +she may not always be so rich; she must not give away more than she can +spare; it is folly not to keep a reserve fund. + +Then, when paying his last call before his departure for London, he slid +very naturally from the subject of Enid's settlement to a vague question +about a settlement in his own case. Was there any idea of making a +permanent provision for him? + +"Of course there is. You are to be a partner." + +That of course was understood, but Marsden had some doubt as to whether +there were other intentions. + +"I am only asking," he said pleasantly. "I leave myself entirely in +your hands--and I'd like to say that I've the utmost confidence in +_you_." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Prentice drily. + +"These settlements seem the usual things in marriages--so I thought the +rule would apply to my marriage." + +"In _your_ marriage, Mr. Marsden, there is very little that is +usual--but, nevertheless, I think the usual rules should apply." + +"You do? You think some moderate settlement would be proper." + +"Very proper indeed--if you have anything to settle. By giving you a +half share in her business Mrs. Thompson is treating you with a +generosity--a munificence--an unprecedented munificence--" + +"Oh, I know she is." + +"And if therefore you on your side can make a settlement--however +moderate--in her favour, it will be a graceful and a natural act." + +Marsden laughed, and shrugged his shoulders. + +"That's very funny--very neatly put. But I see what you mean. You think +I ought not to have made the suggestion." + +"Oh, no," said Mr. Prentice, obviously meaning, "Oh, yes." + +"I fancied that she herself might wish it; but I haven't said a word +about it to her.... Don't mention it to her.... Good morning." + +Meanwhile Enid was collecting garments, hats, frills, and feathers. She +had been given unlimited scope; prices need not be scrutinized; the best +London shops, as well as Thompson's, were open to her; and she went +about her business in a commendably business-like fashion. She did not +require Mrs. Thompson's advice--she knew exactly what she wanted. + +When those few trickling tears had been dried and the bombshell-tidings +of her mother's engagement had burst upon her with such appalling +violence, she hardened and grew cold again. Nothing now would soften +her. + +She calmly announced that Charles had been lucky enough to find just the +house they wished for--a farmhouse recently converted into a gentleman's +residence, with some land and excellent stabling, eight miles from +Mallingbridge, between Haggart's Cross and Chapel-Norton; but she did +not invite Mrs. Thompson to inspect the premises, or even to examine the +patterns of the new wallpapers. + +She disgusted Mr. Prentice by her obstinate support of her future +husband in his final contention that the life interest given to him +under the settlement should be absolute and inalienable. Mr. Prentice +naturally desired to protect her from obvious dangers; but, instead of +strengthening his hands, she idiotically declared her wish to compliment +Kenion by an exhibition of blind confidence. + +"It must be as Enid wishes," said Mrs. Thompson; and Mr. Prentice was +forced to give way. + +The days were racing by. Mornings had a snap of frost in the air; autumn +rains brought the yellow leaves tumbling from the churchyard elms, and +autumn winds sent them spinning and eddying over the iron railings into +St. Saviour's Court. Very soon now October would be here--and on the +first day of October the church bells were to ring for Enid Thompson, +spinster, of this parish. + +Mrs. Thompson heard the banns read; but she could not hear the other +banns in which the name of Thompson was again mumbled. Her emotion made +the sound of the parson's voice inaudible to her. + +One afternoon she saw Yates carrying up a large cardboard box to Enid's +dressing-room, and the printed label on the box gave her a stab of +pain. _Bence Brothers!_ Enid, pressed for time, or now careless of how +often she wounded her mother's sensibilities, had gone across the road +to buy her ultimate batch of fal-lals. + +Then one morning--a dull, grey first of October--Enid offered her cheek +to her mother's lips. + +"I hope you'll be very happy, mother." These were her last words. + +The rooks, startled by the clashing bells, flew up from the tops of the +churchyard trees; the misty air vibrated as the organ rolled out its +voluminous music; the keen, sharp-edged wind blew the dead leaves down +the court and past the house;--and Enid was blown away with them, into +her lover's arms and out of her mother's life, as it seemed, forever. + + +The days were swinging in a mad whirl; Mrs. Thompson had entered upon +her feverish dream; and nothing outside herself seemed of any +consequence to her now--except the man who was to be her husband. + +He was in London, well supplied with cash for his immediate necessities, +and he would not return until he came to lead her to the altar. Several +times she ran up to London with Yates, bought trousseau all the morning, +and then, casting off Yates, had luncheon with him at some smart +restaurant. + +A first glance told her that he was more splendid than any other man in +the building, and then everything about and beyond him became vague and +dim and unsubstantial. She could see nothing else. Light and sound +mingled; past and present fused, to make a panoramic changing background +in front of which he could stand out more solidly and brilliantly. She +heard the wheels of the train that had brought her to him, and at the +same time she heard the waltz played by this restaurant band; she was +surrounded by meaningless figures, from the field of vision and the fog +of memory; close to her sat fashionable people at little tables;--but +among them and through them moved the people she had seen in the open +street, at the dressmaker's, to-day, yesterday, or a year ago. + +But there was nothing vague or uncertain about him: he was +overpoweringly, gloriously distinct. She could see every thread in his +lovely new clothes, every hair in his perfumed, carefully brushed +moustache, each tiny speck of brown on the liquid amber of his eyes. +From those eyes, as she knew so well, he could shoot the darts of flame +that lodged a burning distress in one's breast, as easily as he could +send forth the gentle caressing beams that made one slowly melt in +ecstasy. + +His glance was always softly caressing now, soothing her, calming her, +filling her with joy. + +She could not eat. She could only look at him while he ate, with hearty +youthful vigour, quite enough for two. She drank a glassful out of his +bottle of wine, and found an incredible delight in watching him drink +the remainder. The waiter put the programme of the day's music by her +side; but it did not matter what the band played. Her music--the only +significant music--was in her sweetheart's voice. He called her Janey, +Little woman, My kind fairy; and each time that he spoke to her thus +endearingly she thrilled with rapture. + +"Well, Janey, what do you think of my new coat? I look all right, don't +I? You are not ashamed to be seen with me--eh, little woman?... And +how's Mallingbridge? What do they say of me down there?... + +"Oh, by the way, I haven't thanked my kind fairy for the present she +sent me yesterday. It's a dressing-case fit for a king;" and then he +laughed gaily. "Janey, take care. You are trying to spoil me." + +Sometimes for a moment he held her hand under the table-cloth, and +pressed it lovingly. + +When the luncheon was over she was glad to notice that he tipped the +waiter liberally. It would have been irksome to her, as a prodigious +tipper, to observe any economy--but Marsden gave almost as much as if +she herself had taken the money out of the purse. She used to hand him +her purse as they went into the restaurant, and he gave it back to her +as they came out again. + +Serving-girls at the fashionable London shops were inclined to smile +while they waited upon Mrs. Thompson choosing her nuptial finery. She +seemed to them so innocent--appealing to them with simple trustfulness, +and begging them to show her not merely pretty things, but the things +that gentlemen would think pretty. + +In truth, all her business faculty had temporarily forsaken her; the +strong will, the quick insight, the grit and the grip were gone; the +experience of long years had been washed out: she was an inexperienced +girl again, with all a girl's tremors, joyous hopes, and nameless fears +for the future. + +Her fingers shook as she smoothed and patted the wonderful underclothes +offered by a famous lingerie establishment; and as old Yates, sitting by +the side of her mistress, gave a casting vote for this or that daintily +laced garment, the lingerie young woman was obliged to turn a slim back +in order to conceal her mirth. Perhaps it would have made her cry if she +could have understood. But no one could see the poignantly touching +truth, that beneath the beaded mantle of this reddish, stoutish, +middle-aged customer, a maiden's heart was fondly beating. + +"You know, Yates, I'm not so stupid as to suppose that I shall always +be able to keep him tied to my apron strings." This was in the train, +when they were returning to Mallingbridge after an arduous day's +shopping. They had the compartment to themselves, and they nearly filled +it with their parcels. "Men must be allowed freedom and liberty." + +"Yes, ma'am, _bachelor_ gentlemen. But I'm not so sure about too much +liberty for _married_ gentlemen." + +"They can't be continually cooped up in their home--however comfortable +you make it for them. No, many happy marriages are upset by the wife's +silliness--in thinking that a husband is forever to be dancing +attendance on her. I shan't commit that error." + +"No, ma'am. Of course it isn't as if it was your first time." + +Truly, however, it was her first time. The recollection of the dead +husband and the loveless marriage made her wince. + +"A little tact," she said hurriedly. "A wife--especially in the early +days--is called on for a little tact." + +"Oh, ma'am, you'll manage him all right--with your knowledge of the +world." + +But her knowledge of the world had gone, and she did not wish it back +again. Each time that for a brief space she thought logically and +clearly, doubt and fear tortured her. + +In the night fear used to come. Suddenly her rainbow-tinted dream +disintegrated, fell into shreds and patches of cloud with wisps of +coloured light that gyrated and faded; and then she lay staring at the +blank wall of hard facts. This thing was monstrous--no valid hope of +permanent happiness in it. + +And she thought with dreadful clearness that she was either not young +enough or not old enough for such a marriage. If she had been ten years +older, it would not have mattered--it would be just a legalized +companionship--an easier arrangement, but essentially the same thing as +though she had adopted him as her son. But now it must be a _real_ +marriage--or a most tragic failure. He had made her believe that the +realm of passion and love was not closed to her; that he would give her +back what the years had taken from her; that she might drink at the +fountain of his youth and so renew her own. + +In the dark cold night when the dream vanished, fear ruled over her. The +words of the marriage service--heard so lately--echoed in her ears. +Solemnization or sacrament--it is impious, blasphemous to enter God's +house and ask for a blessing on the bond, unless the marriage falls +within the limits of nature's laws. She remembered what the priest says +about the causes for which matrimony was ordained; she remembered what +the woman has to say about God's holy ordinance; and best of all she +remembered what the man, taught by the priest, says when he slips the +ring on the woman's finger. + +"With my body I thee worship!"... Could it be possible? "Taught by the +Priest"--yes, but the man should need no teaching. The words on his lips +should be the light rippling murmur above the strong-flowing stream of +his secret thoughts, and the stream must be fed by deep springs of +perfectly normal love. Nothing less will satisfy, nothing less _can_ +satisfy the hungry heart that is surrendering itself to his power. +Respect, esteem, steadfast affection--none of that will do. It must be +love, or nothing. + +Yet after each of these troubled nights the day brought back her dream. + + +Yates had promised to stand by her, and she faithfully kept the promise. +She gave homely, well-meant advice; occasionally administered a little +dose of pain in what was intended for a sedative or stimulant; but was +always ready with sympathy, even when she failed to supply consolation +and encouragement. Apparently forgetting in the excitement of the hour +that she herself was an old spinster, she spoke with extreme confidence +of all the mysteries of the marriage state. + +There was uneasiness about little secrets concerning Mrs. Thompson's +toilet; but Yates made light of them. + +"Oh, nonsense," said Yates. "It isn't as if you were like some of these +meretrishis ladies with nothing genuine about 'em. You're all +genuine--and not a grey hair on your head." + +There was nothing very terrible in the secrets. The worst secret perhaps +was the diminution in aspect, the shrinking of the coronet of hair, when +the sustaining frame had been removed. + +But Yates, the old spinster, speaking so wisely and confidently, said, +"Don't tell me, ma'am. If he's fond of you, a little thing like that +isn't going to put him off.... Besides, you must fluff it out big--like +I'm doing;" and Yates worked on with brush and comb. "Now look at +yourself." + +And Mrs. Thompson peered at her reflection in the glass. The frame lay +on the dressing-table. Still she seemed to have a fine tawny mane of her +own, fluffed wide from her brows, and falling in respectably big masses. + +"Show me, Yates, exactly how you get the effect." + +And under the watchful tuition of Yates, Mrs. Thompson toiled at her +lesson. + +"Is that right?" + +"Yes, that's pretty near as well as I can work it out, myself.... Yes, +that'll do very nice.... You know, it'll only be at first that you need +take so much trouble." + +"Yates, I shall be nervous and clumsy--I shall forget, and make a mess +of it." + +"Then take me with you," said Yates earnestly. "I can't think why you +don't take me along with you." + +"Oh, I couldn't," said Mrs. Thompson. "I _couldn't_ have anyone with +me--least of all, anyone who'd known me before." + + +It had come to be the day before the day of days, and St. Saviour's +Court lay wrapped in drab-hued fog, so that from the windows of the +house she could not see as far as the churchyard on one side or the +street on the other; and all day long, behind the curtain of fog, the +chilly autumn rain was falling. + +Throughout the day she remained indoors, reviewing and arranging her +trousseau, watching Yates pack the new trunks and bags, and learning how +and where she was to find things when she and some strange hotel +chambermaid hastily did the unpacking. Now, late at night, her bedroom +was still in confusion--empty cardboard boxes littering the floor, +dressing-gowns trailing across the backs of chairs, irrepressible silk +skirts bulging from beneath trunk lids. + +At last Yates finished the task, prepared her mistress for bed, and left +her. + +"Good-night, ma'am--and mind you sleep sound. Don't get thinking about +to-morrow, and wearing yourself out instead of taking your rest." + +Unfortunately Mrs. Thompson was not able to follow this sensible advice. +A fire burned cheerfully in the grate, the room was warm and +comfortable, and she wandered about aimlessly and musingly--picking up +silver brushes and putting them down again, gently pressing the trunk +tops, looking at the new initials that had been painted on the glazed +leather. + +Presently she was stooping over one of the smaller trunks, smoothing and +patting the folded night-dress that she and Yates had so carefully +selected at the famous London shop. Her lips parted in a smile as she +looked at its infinitely delicate tucks and frills, and she let her +fingers play with the lace and feel the extraordinary lightness and +softness of its texture. + +Then, yielding to a sudden impulse, she pulled out the garment, carried +it to the bed, and, hastily stripping, tried it on. + +To-night Yates had done no fluffing-out of her hair. It was tightly +screwed against her head, in the metal curling-clips that were to give +it a pretty wave when pulled over the frame to-morrow; but it had a bald +aspect now, with its queer little rolled excrescences protruding above +the scalp, and two mean pigtails hanging limply behind the ears, and +hiding their ends in the lace of the night-dress collar. + +The electric light was shining full into the cheval glass as she came +and stood before it, with the smile of pleasure still on her lips. Then +she saw herself in the glass, and began to tremble. + +Through the diaphanous veil the strong light seemed to show her a +grotesque and lamentable figure: heavy fullness instead of shapely +slenderness, exaggerated curves, distorted outlines,--the pitiless +ravages wrought by time. + +With a sob of terror, she ran to the door, and again to the +dressing-table, switching off the light, desperately seeking the kindly +darkness. Her hands were shaking, she felt sick and faint, while she +tore the nightgown from her shoulders and kicked it from her on the +floor. Then she covered herself with a woollen dressing-gown and crept, +sobbing, into bed. + +The firelight flickered on the ceiling, but no heat was thrown by the +yellow flames or the red coals; a deadly chill seemed to have issued +from the polished surface of the big glass, striking at her heart, +reaching and gripping her bones. She lay shivering and weeping. + +Outside the windows the cruel autumn rain pattered on the stone flags, +the cruel autumn wind sighed and moaned and echoed from the cold brick +walls. The year was dying; the fertile joyous months were dead; soon the +barren hopeless winter would be here. And she felt that her own life was +dead; warmth, colour, beauty, had gone from it; only ugliness, +disfigurement, decay, were left. And she wept for her wasted youth, her +vanished grace, for all that makes the summer in a woman's life. + + +But next day she woke in sunlight. White clouds raced across a blue sky; +the air was warm and genial; and, as she walked up St. Saviour's Court, +leaning on the kind arm of Mr. Prentice, she was a girl again. + +There were many people in the church, but their curious glances did not +trouble her. Sunbeams streaming through painted glass made a rainbow +radiance on the chancel steps; and here she stood by her lover's side, +feeling happy and at ease in the radiant heart of the glorious dream. +Sweet music, sacred words--and then the sound of his voice, the pressure +of his fingers. Nothing could touch her now--she was safe in the dream, +beyond the reach of ridicule, high above the range of pity. + +Solemnization or sacrament--now at the last it did not matter which; for +she had brought to the rites all that priests can demand: pure and +unselfish thoughts, guileless faith, and innocent hope. + +The loud swelling pipes of the organ rolled forth their harmonious +thunders, filling the air with waves, making the book on the vestry +table throb beneath her hand. She was half laughing, half crying, and a +shaft of sunlight danced about her head. + +"Happy is the bride that the sun shines on," said Mr. Prentice, very, +very kindly. "God bless you, my dear." + + +Another day's sun was shining on the bride. This was the third day of +the wonderful, miraculously blissful honeymoon; and, with windows wide +open and the sweet clean air blowing in upon them, the husband and wife +lingered over their breakfast in the private sitting-room of the +tremendous and magnificent Brighton hotel. + +Presently Mr. Marsden got up, stretched himself; and, going to one of +the windows, looked down at the sparkling brightness and pleasant gaiety +of the King's Road. + +"Now, little woman, I'm going to smoke my cigar outside.... You can put +on your hat, and join me whenever you please." + +Mrs. Marsden followed him to the window, sat upon the arm of a large +velvet chair, and leaned her face against his coat sleeve. + +"Take care," he said, laughing, "or you'll find yourself on the floor." + +The chair had in fact shown signs of overturning, and Mrs. Marsden +playfully pretended that she could not retain her position, and allowed +herself to flop down upon her knees. + +"Isn't this my right place, Dick--kneeling on the ground at your feet?" + +Then with a gesture that would have been infinitely graceful in quite a +young girl, she took his hand and held it to her lips. + +"You foolish Janey, get up," and he gave her cheek a friendly tap. + +"My own boy," she murmured, "why shouldn't I kneel? You have opened the +gates of heaven for me." + +After he had left the room she stood at the window, and watched until he +reappeared on the broad pavement below. + +People were walking, riding, spinning along in motor-cars; gulls hovered +above the beach on lazy wings; pebbles, boat gunwales, lamp-posts, every +smooth hard surface, flashed in the sunlight; the gentle breeze smelt +deliciously fresh and clean;--all was bright and gay and splendid, +because so full of pulsing life. But the most splendid thing in sight +was her husband. The man out there--that glorious creature, with his hat +cocked and his stick twirling as he swaggered across the broad +roadway--was her handsome, splendid husband. + +The sun shone on her face, and the love shone out of it to meet the +genial vivifying rays. "My husband;" and she murmured the words aloud. +"My own darling boy. My strong, kind, noble husband." + +It was a real marriage. + + + + +XII + + +The abnormally bright weather continued in an unbroken spell, and it +seemed to her a part of the miracle that had been granted to her +prayers--as if nature had suddenly abrogated all laws, and when giving +her back love and youth, had given warmth and sunshine to the whole +world. + +One afternoon, as they were sauntering home to the hotel, he asked her +if there was not some special name for this snatch of unseasonable +autumn brightness. + +"It's more than we had a right to expect, Janey, so late in the year. +Here we are in the first week of November, and I'll swear to-day has +been as warm as May or June." + +"Yes, hasn't it?" + +"But what do they call it when the weather plays tricks at this time of +year? You know--not the Hunter's moon, but some name like that." + +"Oh, yes, I know what you mean--St. Martin's summer." + +"That's right--learned old girl! St. Martin's Summer." + +Then they turned to the shop windows, and considered the window-dressing +art as displayed by these Brighton tradesmen. All through their +honeymoon the King's Road shops provided a source of unfailing +entertainment. + +"I don't see that they know much," he said patronisingly. "I think I +could open their eyes. You wait, old girl, till we get back to +Mallingbridge, and I'll astonish you. I'm bubbling over with ideas.... +Halloa! That's rather tasty." + +They were looking into a jeweller's window, and his eye had been caught +by a cigarette case. + +"Now I wonder, Janey, what they'd have the cheek to ask for that." + +"Let us go in and enquire." + +"Oh, no. It's not worth while. Why, the gold alone, without the gems, +would cost fifteen quid; and if the stones are as good as they look, I +daresay this chap would expect a hundred guineas for it." + +"Well, we might enquire." + +"No, I mustn't think about it. Come on, old girl, or my mouth will begin +to water for it;" and, laughing, he linked his arm in hers, and led her +away from this too tempting shop. "Let 'em keep it till they can catch a +millionaire." + +They ordered tea in the great noisy hall of the hotel, which he +preferred to the quiet grandeur of the private sitting-room; and she, +pretending that she wished to go upstairs, hurried past the lift door, +dodged round by a crowd of new arrivals, ran down the steps, and left +the building. + +She was hot and red and breathless when, after twenty minutes, she came +bustling into the hall again. The tea-tray stood waiting for them; but +he had moved away to another table, and was drinking a whisky and soda +with some hotel acquaintances. These were a loud vulgar man and two +over-dressed, giggling, free-and-easy daughters. Marsden for a little +time did not see his wife: he was laughing and talking vivaciously; and +the young women contorted themselves in shrill merriment, ogled and +leered, and made chaffing, unbecomingly familiar interjections. + +"That fellow," said Marsden presently, when he had returned to his +wife's table, "is in a very big way of business--and he might be useful +to us some day or other. That's why I do the civil to him." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marsden. + +"But where the dickens did you slip away to? Your tea must be cold. +Shall I order a fresh pot?" + +"Oh, no, this is quite right, thank you." + +She drank a little of her tepid tea; and then, fumblingly, with fingers +that were slightly trembling, she brought the little parcel out of her +pocket and put it in his hand. + +"What on earth is this?" + +"Can't you guess?" + +"No--I can't imagine--unless"-- He was slowly unfolding the layers of +tissue paper; and until the precious metal discovered itself, he did not +raise his eyes. "Oh, I _say_! Janey! But you shouldn't have done it--you +really shouldn't. It's too bad--altogether too bad of you." + +"Dick!" + +"Come upstairs and let me kiss you--or I shall have to kiss you here, +with everybody looking at us." + +Then Mrs. Marsden was well content with her little act of extravagance. + +The culmination of the glorious weather came on Sunday. In the morning, +when she emerged from the dim church where she had been pouring out her +fervent gratitude for so much happiness, the glare of the sea-front +almost blinded her. All the wide lawns by the sea were densely thronged +with people, and amongst the moving crowd she searched in vain for her +husband. He had said he would meet her for this church parade. + +But at the hotel there was a note to explain his absence. "My friends," +she read, "insist on carrying me off for a long run in their car. Shall +try to be back for dinner. But don't wait." + +While she was kneeling in the church, thanking God for having given him +to her, he was rolling fast away--with that loud man and the two shrill +young women. + + +It was late in the afternoon--the close of the brilliant sun-lit day, +and the Hove lawns were still crowded. The sky preserved its clear blue, +unspoilt by the faint white stains of cloud; the sea sparkled; and the +shadows thrown by the green chairs and the iron railings crept +imperceptibly across the grass. Behind the railings the long facades of +the white houses stretched westward like a perspective-drawing; and down +the broad road a motor fizzed past every moment, changed to a black +speck, and vanished. The gaiety and life of the hours was lasting +bravely. Coloured flags floated above the pier; and from the monstrous +protuberance at its far end, the glass and iron castle of the tourist +mob, light flashed as though striking mirrors; a band was playing at a +distance; and the Worthing steamboat, as it hurriedly approached, made a +rhythmic beating on the water. + +Mrs. Marsden, in possession of a penny chair, sat alone, and watched the +crowd that had been walking all day long. She felt absolutely lost in +the crowd; and it seemed to her, coming from her quiet country town, +that the world could not contain so many people. + +She watched them with tired eyes. All sorts: fine ladies and gentlemen; +visitors and residents--down the scale to mere shopgirls and housemaids; +pale men who toiled indoors, bronzed men who lived in the open air; Jews +and Jewesses; smiling matrons, sour-visaged spinsters; girls with +powdered faces and immense hats--whom she classed as actresses, and +judged to be no better than they ought to be,--lounging and simpering +beside sawny cavaliers. + +She watched the various couples--boys and girls, men and women, young +and old; and she saw that every couple was of corresponding, _suitable_ +age: tottering old men and white-haired wrinkled dames--thinking of +their golden weddings; fat paunchy men in the prime of life with +gorgeous mature consorts; lithe and athletic men with long-legged, +striding, game-playing mates; and so on, like with like, or each the +normal complement of the other. + +It happened that, while she watched with a growing intentness, there +passed no Mays and Decembers. An old man and his daughter--or just +possibly his wife! But no young man with a middle-aged woman. Not even a +son escorting his mother. Age has no claim on youth. + +Then she saw the roaming solitary men who were seeking love or +adventure; saw how they stared at the girls,--stopped and turned,--with +their eyes wistfully followed the graceful gracious forms. + +And no man in all the vast crowd looked at her. Not even the +purple-cheeked veterans. None gave her the aldermanic approving glance +that might seem to say, "There's a well-preserved woman--not yet quite +devoid of charm." Not even a glance of curiosity. It was as if for a +penny the chair had rendered her invisible. + +A cold air came off the sea, and she shivered. Looking round, she saw +that the sun had just dipped behind the long white cornice of the +stately houses. The wide lawn was in shadow. + +She felt cold, and shivered several times as she walked home to the +noisy hotel. + + + + +XIII + + +They had been married nearly three months, and each month seemed longer +to her than any year of her previous existence. + +Many changes were visible at the shop. Indeed, from the back wall of the +carters' yard to the sign-board over the front doors, nothing was quite +as it used to be. The big white board, which told the world that the +business "Established 1813" now belonged to Thompson & Marsden, was a +makeshift affair; but the new partner had ordered a gigantic and +artistic fascia, and this, he said, would be a real ornament to High +Street. + +He promised soon to inaugurate new departments, to introduce +improvements in the old ones, to revolutionize old-fashioned +time-wasting methods of book-keeping and all other office work; but so +far he had only achieved something very like chaos. + +"Don't fuss," he used to say. "I'll soon get to work; but I can't attend +to it for the moment." + +Thus the little realm behind the glass had been turned upside down and +not yet replaced upon its feet again. The rooms were blocked with the +opened and unopened packing-cases that contained the materials for Mr. +Marsden's clever arrangement--innumerable desks and cabinets, immense +index cupboards, racks and sideless stands, by the use of which weapons +such antiquated devices as letter-presses, copying-machines, and +pigeon-holes would be abolished. Every shred of paper would be filed +flat; thousands of letters would lie in the space hitherto occupied by +half a dozen; each correspondent would be allotted a file to himself, +letter and answer together; and this novel system would deprive clerks +of the power of making mistakes; order would reign; confusion would be +impossible. But at present, with the two systems inextricably mixed, the +new system half started and the old system half discarded, confusion was +not only possible but unavoidable. + +"Let them rub along as they can pro tem. I'll straighten it out for them +directly I settle down to it." + +Just now he could throw himself into the business only by fits and +starts, but he assured everybody that it should soon secure his +undivided care. + +"_I'll_ wake 'em up;" and he tapped his forehead and laughed. "There's a +reservoir of enterprise here--the ideas simply bubbling over." Then he +would bring out his jewelled cigarette-case, light a cigarette, and +swagger off to keep some pleasant appointment. + +He was candidly enjoying the softer side of his new position, and +postponing its arduous duties. He both looked and felt very jolly. +Except when anyone accidentally made him angry, he was always ready to +laugh and joke. + +He had a small run-about car, and was rapidly learning to drive it while +a much bigger car was being built for him. He was renewing old +acquaintances and picking up fresh friends. He showed a fine catholic +taste for amusement, and handsomely supported the theatre, the +music-hall, the race-course. In the good company with which he was now +able to surround himself he dashed to and fro all over England, to see +the winter sport between the flags. He dressed grandly, drank bravely, +spent freely--in a word, he was hastily completing his education as a +gentleman. + +"Must have my fling, old girl"--He was nearly always jolly about it to +his wife. "But don't you fear that I'm turning into an idler. Not much. +This is my holiday. And no one can say I haven't _earned_ a holiday. +Ever since I was fourteen I've been putting my back into it like a good +'un." + +He was especially genial when luck had been kind to him and he had won a +few bets. Returning after a couple of fortunate days at Manchester or +Wolverhampton, he jingled the sovereigns in his pockets and chattered +gleefully. + +"Rare fun up there--and little Dick came out on top. Cheer up, Jane. +Give a chap a welcome. This doesn't cost one half what you might +guess.... Besides, anyhow, I've got to do it--for a bit--not forever.... +I'm young--don't forget that. Only one life to live--in this vale of +tears." + +He pleaded his youth, as if it must always prove a sufficient excuse for +anything; but she never invited either excuses or apologies. + +"Well, old girl, I'm leaving you to your own resources again--but, you +understand, don't you? Boys will be boys;" and he laughed. "This isn't +naughtiness--only what is called the levity of youth. Ta-ta--take care +of yourself." + +He liked to avail himself of a spare day between two race-meetings, and +run up to London, make a swift tour of the wholesale houses, and do a +little of that easiest and proudest sort of business which is known as +"buying for a sound firm." His vanity was flattered by the outward show +of respect with which these big London people received him. Managers +fawned upon him; even principals begged him to join them at their +luncheon table; and he described to his wife something of his +satisfaction when he found himself seated with the bosses, at places +that he used to enter a few years ago as a poor little devil trotting +about the city to match a ribbon or a tape string. + +He came home one night, when the rain was beating on the window-panes +and sending a river down St. Saviour's Court to swell the sea of mud in +High Street, and told her he had heard big news while lunching with his +silk merchants. + +She was waiting for him by the dining-room fire, and when he first came +in he displayed anger because the cabman had wanted more than his fare. + +"But he didn't get it. I took his number--and threatened to report +him.... It's infernally inconvenient not being able to drive up to your +own door--it's like living in a back alley." + +Then, with an air of rather surly importance, he told her his news about +Bence. + +"They're _afraid_ of him. They gave me the straight tip that he's shaky. +Mark my words, _that_ bubble is going to be burst." + +"But people have said so for so long." And she explained that the story +of Bence's approaching destruction was really a very old one. "Year +after year Mr. Prentice used to tell me the same thing--that Bence's +were financially rotten, and couldn't last." + +"Prentice is an old ass, and you're quite right not to believe all _he_ +tells you. Between you and me and the post, I reckon that Mr. P. wants a +precious sharp eye kept on him--I don't trust him an inch farther than I +can see him.... But what was I saying? Oh, yes, Bence's. Well, it is not +what Prentice says now--it's what _I_ say." + +Then he asked if there was anything in the house to eat. Yes, the dinner +that had been ready for him three hours ago was still being kept hot for +him. + +"I don't want any dinner. I dined in London.... But I think I could do +with a snack of supper." + +He went over to the sideboard, unlocked a lower division of it with his +private key, and drew forth a half-bottle of champagne. + +"If you'll help me, I'll make it a whole bottle." + +"No, thank you." + +Before re-locking the cupboard, he peered into it suspiciously. + +"I don't think my wine is any too safe in this cellaret. How do I know +how many keys there aren't knocking about the house? I may be wrong, but +I thought I counted three more bottles than what's left." + +Then he rang the bell, and at the same time called loudly for the +parlourmaid. + +"Mary! Mary! Why the devil doesn't she come in and ask if anything's +wanted?" He left the room, grumbling and fuming. + +Mrs. Marsden heard his voice outside, and the voice of Yates timidly +apologising. + +Mary the parlourmaid had a very bad cold, and Yates had ventured to +allow her to go to bed. + +"Thank you for nothing.... Where's the cook? Cook--wake up, please;" and +he went into the kitchen. + +The servants feared him. They stammered and became stupid when he spoke +to them crossly, but never failed to smile sycophantically when he +expressed pleasure. + +All that he required on this occasion from Cook was plenty of hot toast +and cayenne pepper. But he sent Yates to buy some smoked salmon or +herring at the restaurant in High Street. + +"And sharp's the word.... What are you waiting for?" + +"Oh, I don't mind going, sir--but I shall get wet to the skin." + +"Take my umbreller," said the cook. + +Yates went down the steep stairs, and the master looked in at the +dining-room door. + +"That woman is like some old cat--afraid of a drop of rain on her mangy +old fur." + +Then Mrs. Marsden heard his footsteps overhead in the dressing-room. +When he reappeared he had taken off his tie and collar, and was wearing +a crimson velvet smoking jacket. + +The toast sandwiches were promptly placed before him, and he sat eating +and drinking,--not really hungry, but avidly gulping the wine; and +rapidly becoming jolly again. + +"What was I talking about?" + +"Bence's." + +"Oh, yes. I tell you, he has just about got to the end of his tether. +All the best people funk having him on their books.... I give him two +years from to-day." + +"I wonder." + +"Mind you, he has fairly smacked us in the eye with his furniture." + +And it was unfortunately but too true that there had of late been an +ugly drop in the sales of Thompson's solid, well-made chairs and tables. + +"But," continued Marsden, "we aren't going to take it lying down any +longer. He has got a _man_ to reckon with henceforth. He'll learn what +tit-for-tat means.... It was too late to attempt anything last +Christmas. But let him wait till next December. Then it shall be, A very +happy Christmas to you, Mr. Bence." + +"What do you propose for Christmas?" + +"You wait, too." + +"Yes, but, Dick, you won't begin launching out without consulting +me--allowing some weight to my opinion?" + +"No, of course I shan't. We're partners, aren't we? I know what a +partnership is. But you won't need persuading. You'll jump at my ideas +when you hear them." + +"Why not let me hear them now? I could be thinking over them--I like to +brood upon plans." + +"Well, something is going to happen in our basement next Christmas, +which will be tidings of peace and great joy to everybody but Bence;" +and he laughed with riotous amusement. "Get me my pipe, old woman. I +can't go into business matters now. You wait, and trust your Dickybird." + +She brought him his pipe and tobacco; and he explained to her that he +fancied a pipe because he had been smoking cigars ever since the +morning, and the tip of his tongue felt sore. + +He puffed at the pipe in silence, and luxuriously stretched his +slippered feet towards the warmth of the fire. + +"You best go to by-by, Jane. I'm too tired to talk. I've had a heavy +day--one way and another; and a longish journey before me to-morrow.... +Good-night. Tell 'em I must be called at eight-thirty sharp." + +This was a typical evening. There were many evenings like it. + +Frequently two or three days passed without her once entering the shop. +Sometimes she could not brace herself sufficiently to go down and face +the staff. They all saw her subjection to her husband; and although they +endeavoured not to betray their thoughts, it was obvious that to almost +all of them she appeared as the once absolute princess who had, in +abdicating, sunk to a state of ignominious dependence. She walked among +them with downcast eyes; for too often she had surprised their glances +of pity. + +But she saw that in the street also--pity or contempt. One or other each +citizen's face seemed to show her plainly. She knew exactly what shop +and town said and thought of her new partner. + +At dusk on these winter afternoons, when she had not lately used the +door of communication, Miss Woolfrey or Mr. Mears would come through it +and inform her of the day's affairs. Miss Woolfrey's reports consisted +merely of vapid and irresponsible gossip, but Mrs. Marsden seemed to +have discovered fresh merits in this sandy, freckled, commonplace +chatter-box--perhaps for no other reason than because she belonged so +entirely to the old regime and was intellectually incapable of absorbing +unfamiliar ideas. But it was Mears who supplied any real instruction, +and it was with him that Mrs. Marsden talked seriously. + +One afternoon when he was about to leave her, she detained him. + +"Mr. Mears--I've something to ask you." + +"Yes, ma'am." + +She had laid her hand upon his great fore-arm; she was gazing at him +very earnestly; but she hesitated, with lips trembling nervously, and +seemed for a few moments unable to say any more. + +"Yes, ma'am." + +Then she spoke quickly and eagerly. + +"Stick to me, Mr. Mears. Whatever happens, don't give me up. I should be +truly lost without you. Even if it's difficult, stick to me." + +"As long as he lets me," said Mears huskily. + +"He's going to talk to you. Humour him. He has a great respect for you, +really." + +"He hasn't shown it so far." + +"Make allowances. It's his way. He has such notions about the new +style--which we--which you and I mayn't always approve. But he knows +your value. He has said so again and again." + +It was not long after this secret appeal--one morning that Marsden +spent in Mallingbridge--when the shop heard "the Guv'nor begin on Mr. +M." + +"Look here, my friend," said Mr. Marsden loudly, "it's about time that +we took each other's measure. Is it you or I who is to be cock of the +walk? Just step in here, please." + +This was said outside the counting-house. The proprietor and the manager +at once disappeared; and the news flew far and wide, downstairs and +upstairs. "He has got old Mears behind the glass.... He is giving old +Mears a dressing-down." All had known that the thing was infallibly +coming; the encounter between the greater and the lesser force had been +unaccountably delayed; every man and woman in the building now trembled +for the result. + +"You want to put your authority up against mine. That won't do. One boss +is enough in a larger establishment than this." + +But behind the glass old Mears was very firm. He made himself as big as +possible, standing at his full height, seeming to imitate Marsden's +trick of squaring the shoulders and throwing back the head. + +"_I_ am the boss. And what I say _goes_." + +"And your partner, sir? Mrs. Thompson, I should say Mrs. Marsden--are we +to disregard her?" + +"No. But I speak for self and partner. Please make a note of that." + +"Very good, sir." + +"Then that's all right. It was a case of '_Twiggez-vous?_' But I think +you twig now that I don't stand nonsense--or go on paying salaries in +exchange for bounce and impudence." + +"May I ask if you think I am not earning my salary, sir?" + +"I haven't said you aren't." + +"Or do you think, sir, if you hunted the country, you'd find a man +who'd give the same service for the same money?" + +"Oh, if you want to blow your trumpet--" + +"No, sir, I want to find my bearings--to learn where I am--if I _can_. +It isn't boasting, it's only business. I've a value here, or I haven't. +I've been under the impression I was valuable. You know that, don't you, +sir?" + +"Oh, I've no quarrel with you--if you'll go on serving me faithfully." + +"I'll serve the firm faithfully, sir--with the uttermost best that's in +me." + +"All right then." + +"Because that's _my_ way, sir--the old-fashioned style I took up as a +boy--and couldn't change now, sir, if I wanted to." + +When Mears came from behind the glass his face was flushed; he breathed +stertorously; and he held his hands beneath the wide skirts of his frock +coat to conceal the fact that they were shaking. But he kept the +coat-tails swishing bravely, and he marched up and down between two +counters with so grand a tramp that no one dared look at him closely. + +Then, after a few minutes, Marsden came swaggering, with his hat cocked +and a lighted cigar in his mouth. Before going out into the street, he +ostentatiously paused; and spoke to Mr. Mears amicably, even jovially. + +And the shop comprehended that the battle was over, and that there was +to be a truce between the two men. + +On some days when Mrs. Marsden would probably have come down from the +house into the counting-house she was prevented from doing so by a +grievous headache. + +These headaches attacked her suddenly and with appalling force. At first +the pain was like toothache; then it was like earache, and then the +whole head seemed to be rent as if struck with an axe--and afterwards +for several hours there was a dull numbing discomfort, with occasional +neuralgic twinges and throbbings. + +Resting in her bedroom after such an attack, she was surprised by +receiving a visit from Enid. She was lying on a sofa that Yates had +pushed before the fire, and at the sound of voices outside the door she +started up and hastily scrambled to her feet. + +"Mother dear, may I come in? I'm so sorry you're ill." + +Since their parting last autumn they had not set eyes on each other, and +for a little while they talked almost as strangers. + +"Yates, bring up the tea." + +"Oh, but isn't it too early for tea?" + +"No. Get it as quickly as you can, Yates. Mrs. Kenion must be ready for +tea--after her long drive." + +"I came by train. Thank you--I own I should like a cup, if it isn't +really troubling you." + +"Of course not.... Do take the easy chair." + +"This is very comfortable.... But won't you lie down again? I have +disturbed you." + +"Not in the least. I think it will do me good to sit up. Won't you take +off your coat?" + +Enid let the fur boa fall back from her slender neck, and undid two +buttons of her long grey coat. + +"Really," she said, with a little laugh, "it's so cold that I haven't +properly thawed yet." + +She was charmingly dressed, and she looked very graceful and +well-bred--but not at all plump; in fact rather too thin. While they +drank their tea, she told her mother of the kindness of her husband's +relatives--a sister-in-law was a particular favourite; but everybody was +nice and kind; there were many pleasant neighbours, and all had called +and paid friendly attentions to the young couple. + +"I am so glad to hear that," said Mrs. Marsden. "My only fear of the +country was that you might sometimes feel yourself too much isolated." + +"Oh, I'm never in the least lonely. There's so much to do--and even if +there weren't people coming in and out perpetually, the house would take +up all my time." + +"Ah yes.... I suppose you are quite settled down by now." + +"No, I wish we were. Things are still rather at sixes and sevens. +Otherwise I should have begged you to come and see for yourself. We are +both so anxious to get you out there." + +"I shall be delighted to come, my dear. But I myself have been rather +rushed of late." + +"Of course you have.... Er--Mr. Marsden is away, Yates told me." + +"Yes, but only for a few days. I get him back to-morrow night;" and Mrs. +Marsden laughed cheerfully. "Do you know, he has taken a leaf out of Mr. +Kenion's book. He is quite mad about racing." + +"Is he? How amusing!" + +"These violent delights have violent ends. He says it is only a passing +fancy; and I suppose he'll be taking up something else directly--golf +perhaps--and going mad about that." + +"No doubt. Men all seem alike, don't they?" And Enid smiled and nodded +her head. "Though I must say, Charles is very true to his hunting. I +mean to wean him from steeple-chasing; but I like him to hunt. It keeps +him in such splendid health." + +"Yes, dear. It must be tremendous exercise. Do you ride to the meets +with him?" + +"No, I never seem to have time--and for the moment, though we've six +horses in the stable, there's not one that I quite see myself on." And +Enid laughed again, gaily. "Good enough for Charles, you know--but _he_ +can ride anything. He wants to get me a pony-cart, and I shall be safer +in that." + +The constraint was wearing off. While they talked, each availed herself +of any chance of investigating the other's face--a shy swift glance, +instantaneously deflected to the teacups or the mantelpiece, if a head +turned to meet it. At first there had been difficulty in speaking of the +husbands, but now it was quite easy; and it all sounded fairly natural. + +"Oh, but that is just the sort of thing Charlie says." The daughter +helped the mother. "Men always think they can manage things better than +we can--and they're _always_ troublesome about the servants. The only +occasions on which Charles makes one _really_ angry are when he upsets +the servants." + +And Mrs. Marsden helped Enid. + +"You must employ all your tact--men are so easily led, though they won't +be driven." + +"No, they must be led," said Enid, with a return to complete +artificiality of manner. "How true that is!" + +But there was a very subtle alteration in Enid. Beneath the artificial +manner gradually there became perceptible something altogether new and +strange. This was another Enid--not the old Enid. She had evidently +caught the peculiar tone of bucolic gentility and covert-side fashion +common to most of her new associates, and this had slightly altered her; +but deeper than the surface change lay the changes slowly manifesting +themselves to the instinctive penetration of her mother. Enid was +softer, more gentle, a thousand times more capable of sympathy. + +"Dick," Mrs. Marsden was saying, "is fearfully ambitious." + +"That's a good fault, mother." + +"He even talks of--of going into Parliament." + +"And why not?" + +"He belongs to the Conservative Club here--but he wants," and Mrs. +Marsden showed embarrassment,--"he would like to join the County Club." + +"Oh!" + +"Do you think Mr. Charles--or his family--would be kind enough to use +influence?" + +"Yes, mother dear, I'll make them--if possible." Enid had leant forward; +and she shyly took her mother's hand, and gently squeezed it. "But now I +must go. I do hope I haven't increased your headache." + +"No, my dear, you have done me good." + +Enid rose, buttoned her coat, and began to pull on her grey reindeer +gloves. + +"Mother! My old room--is it empty, or are you using it for anything?" + +"Oh, Dick uses that, dear." + +"And the dressing-room?" + +"He uses that, too." + +"Would you mind--would he mind if I went in and looked round?" + +"No.... Of course not." + +"Only for a peep. Then I'll come back--and say good-bye." + +But she was a long time in the other rooms; and when she returned Mrs. +Marsden saw and affected not to see that she had been crying. + +The warmth of the fire after the cold of the street, or the sight of her +old home after a few months in her new one, had properly thawed elegant, +long-nosed Enid. She sank on her knees by the sofa, flung her arms round +the neck of her mother, and kissed her again and again; and Mrs. Marsden +felt what in vain she had waited for during so many years--her child's +heart beating with expansive sympathy against her breast. + +"Mother, how good you were--oh, how good you were to me!" And she clung +and pressed and kissed as in all her life she had never done till now. + +"Enid--my darling." + +When she had gone, Mrs. Marsden lay musing by the fire. It was +impossible not to divine the very simple cause of this immense +alteration in Enid. Already poor Enid had learnt her lesson--she knew +what it was to have a rotten bad husband. + + + + +XIV + + +But not so bad as her own husband. No, that would be an impossibility. + +She did not want to think about it; but just now her control over her +thoughts had weakened, while the thoughts themselves were growing +stronger. She was subject to rapid ups and downs of health, the victim +of an astounding crisis of nerves, so that one hour she experienced a +queer longing for muscular fatigue, and the next hour laughed and wept +in full hysteria. At other times she felt so weak that she believed she +might sink fainting to the ground if she attempted to go for the +shortest walk. + +Generally on days when Marsden was away from Mallingbridge she crept to +bed at dusk. Yates used to aid her as of old, sit by the bed-side +talking to her; and then leave her in the fire-glow, to watch the +dancing shadows or listen to the whispering wind. + +She did not wish to think; but in spite of all efforts to forget facts +and to hold firmly to delusions, her old power of logical thought was +remorselessly returning to her. In defiance of her enfeebled will, the +past reconstituted itself, events grouped themselves in sequence; +hitherto undetected connections linked up, and made the solid chain that +dragged her from vague surmise to definite conclusions. Then with the +full vigour of the old penetrative faculties she thought of her mistake. + + +He did not care for her. He had never cared for her. It was all acting. +All that she relied on was false; all that had been real was the +steadfast sordid purpose sustaining him throughout his odious +dissimulation. + +His marriage was a brutal male prostitution, in which he had sold his +favours for her gold. And shame overwhelmed her as she thought of how +easily she had been trapped. While he was coldly calculating, she was +endowing him with every attribute of warm-blooded generosity; when her +fine protective instincts made her yearn over him, longing to give him +happiness, comfort, security, he was in truth playing with her as a cat +plays with a wounded mouse--no hurry, no excitement, but steel-bright +eyes watching, retracted claws waiting. And she remembered his studied +phrases that rang so true to the ear, till too late she discovered their +miserable falsity. With what art he had prepared the way for the final +disclosure of his effrontery! He could not brook the sense of +dependence, his manly spirit would not allow him to pose as the +pensioner of a rich wife, and so on--and then, even at the last, how he +waited until she had completely betrayed her secret, and he could be +certain that her pride as a woman would infallibly prevent her from +drawing back. Not till then, when she had taken the world into her +confidence, when escape had become impossible, did he drive his bargain. + +While the honeymoon was not yet over she imagined she could understand +the pain that lay before her. But in these three months she had suffered +more than she had conceived to be endurable by any living creature. If +pain can kill, she should be dead. + +Her punishment had been like the fabled torture of the Chinese--hundreds +of small lacerations, a thousand slicing cuts of the executioner's +sword, and the kind death-stroke craftily withheld. But the swordsman of +the East does not laugh while he mutilates. And _he_ struck at her with +a smiling face. + +She thought of how in every hour of their companionship he had wounded +her; with what unutterable baseness he had used his power over her--the +power given to him by her love. The love stripped her of every weapon of +defence; she was tied, naked, with not a guarding rag to shelter her +against the blows--and the pitiless blows fell upon her from her gagged +mouth to her pinioned feet. + +Daily he attacked her pride, her self-respect, her bodily health and her +mental equipoise; but most of all she suffered in her love--that +terrible flower of passion that refuses to die. Torn up by its bleeding +roots, it replants itself--and will thrive on the barren rock as well as +in life's richest garden. Robbed of light, air, sustenance, it will +cling to the dungeon wall, and bud and burst again for the prisoner to +touch its blossoms in his darkness. Its flame-petals can be seen by the +glazing eyes that have lost sight of all else, and its burning poisonous +fruit is still tasted in the earth of our graves. + +She thought of what he had said to her when they first came back to the +house that she had decorated and made luxurious for him. A laugh, a +nudge of the elbow--"This is the beginning of Chapter Two, Janey. We +can't be honeymooning forever, old girl;" and then some more +unforgettable words, to formulate the request that they might occupy +different rooms; and so, in the home-coming hour, he had struck a deadly +blow at her pride by the brutally direct implication that what she most +desired was that which every woman craves for least. As if the grosser +manifestations could satisfy, when all the spiritual joys are denied! + +But he judged her nature by his own. He was common as dirt. He was +savage as a beast of the forest, a creature of fierce strong appetites +that believes the appeasement of any physical craving--to drink deeply, +to eat greedily, to sleep heavily--is the highest pleasure open to the +animal kingdom; and that man the king is no higher than the dog, his +servant. + +He knew only worthless women, and he supposed that all women were alike. +Undoubtedly he remembered the innumerable conquests won simply by his +handsome face, the ready and absolute surrender to a sensual thraldom +that had made other women his abject slaves; and he dared to think that +his wife was as impotent as they to resist the viler impulses of the +ungoverned flesh. + +He dared to think it.--But was he wrong? And she recalled the episodic +renewal of their embraces during these last months. Once after high +words; once after he had found her weeping; once for no reason at all +that she knew of--except a carelessly systematic desire on his part to +keep her in good temper--or perhaps merely because he had the +prostitute's point of honour. A bargain is a bargain. He had been paid +his price without haggling, and he intended to fulfil the conditions of +the contract--so far as certain limits fixed by himself. + +Horrible scenes to look back at--when the cruelly bright light of reason +flashes upon the decorously obscured past and shows the ignominious +secrets of a life: blind instincts moving us, all that is high beaten +down by all that is low, the soul held in fetters by the flesh. + +Much of her slow agony had come from the stinging pricks of jealousy. He +was unfaithful--he was notoriously unfaithful. Already, after three +months, everyone in the shop knew that he frequently broke the marriage +vow. She would have known it anyhow--even if one of his vulgar friends, +turning to a more vulgar enemy, had not troubled to tell her in an +ill-spelt series of anonymous letters. She remembered how he once used +to look at her, and she saw how in her presence he now looked at other +women. Each look was an insult to her. Each word was an outrage. +"There's a pert little minx;" and he would smile as he watched some +passer-by. "Young hussy! Dressed up to the nines--wasn't she?" And he +swelled out his chest, and swaggered more arrogantly by the side of his +wife, unconscious of the swift completeness with which she could +interpret the thoughts behind his bold eyes and his lazily lascivious +smile. + +And she thought of how he harped upon the over-tightened string of +youth, making every fibre of her tired brain vibrate to the discord of +the jarring note. It was melody to him. Youth was his own paramount +merit, and he praised it as the only merit that he could admit of in +others. He had forgotten half the lies of his courtship. Age was +contemptible--the thing one should hide, or excuse, or ransom. "Only one +life! Remember, I'm young--I am not old." But her friends, the people +she trusted, were shamefully old, even a few years older than herself. +Old Prentice, Old Yates, Old Mears; and he never spoke of them without +the scornful epithet. + +But the jingling coin that she had put in his pockets would procure him +the solace to be derived from youthful companions. With the money she +had paid for all the love that he could give, he bought from loose women +all the love that he cared for. Of course when he stayed in London he +was carrying on his promiscuous amours.... Perhaps, too, here in +Mallingbridge. + +Yet when he came back to her, she had failed to resist him. She knew the +reflective air with which he considered her face when he proposed to +exercise his sway. She trembled when he lightly slapped her on the +shoulder, or took her chin in his hand, and spoke with caressing tones. +He was beginning to act the lover. He had made up his mind to wipe out +the past, to subjugate her afresh, to assure himself that his poor slave +was not slipping away. + +"Janey--dear old Janey.... I leave you alone, don't I?" And with an arm +round her waist, he would pull her to him, and hold her closer and +closer. "Have you missed me? Eh? Have you missed your Dickybird?" + +And she could not resist him. There was the abominable basis of the +tragedy--worse, infinitely worse than the imagined horrors that had +troubled her before the marriage. Love dies so slowly. + +But the night spent in the same room with him was like a fatal +abandonment to some degrading habit--as if in despair she had taken a +heavy dose of laudanum,--knowing that the drug is deadly, yet seeking +once more to stupefy herself, impelled at all hazards to pass again +through the gates of delirium into the vast blank halls of +unconsciousness. Next day she felt sick, broken, shattered--like the +drug-taker after his debauch. Each relapse seemed now an immeasurably +lower fall. Each awakening brought with it a sharper pang of despair: as +when a wrecked man on a raft, who in his madness of thirst has drunk at +the salt spray, wakes from frenzied dreams to see the wide immensity of +ocean mocking him with space great enough to hold all things except +one--hope. + + +Such thoughts as these came sweeping upon her like waves of light, +illuminating the darkest recesses of her mind, showing the innermost +meaning of every cruel mystery, forcing her to see and to know herself +as she was, and not as she wished to be. + +Then the light would suddenly fade. The stress of emotion had relaxed, +and she could consider her circumstances calmly--could try to make the +best of him. + +A difficult task--a poor best. + +She thought of his varied meannesses. In only one direction was he ever +really generous. He grudged nothing to himself--he could be lavish when +pandering to his own inclinations, reckless when gratifying the moment's +whim, and retrospectively liberal when counting the cost of past +amusements; but in his dealings with the rest of the world he was +cautious, watchful, tenaciously close-fisted. She felt a vicarious +humiliation in hearing him thank instead of tip; or seeing him, when he +had failed to dodge the necessity of a gift, make the gift so small as +to be ludicrous. Not since he carried her purse at the London +restaurants had he ever exhibited a large-handed kindness to +subordinates. + +He never alluded to the household expenses--had accepted as quite +natural the fact that the female partner should defray the expenses of +the household. Without a Please or a Thank-you he took board and lodging +free of charge; but he bought for himself cigars, liqueurs, and wine, +and he always spoke of my brandy, my champagne, etc. It was _our_ house, +but _my_ wine. Nevertheless, the habitual use in the singular of the +personal pronoun did not render him egotistically anxious to pay his own +bills. + +Once, when after delay a tobacconist addressed an account to her care, +and she timidly reproached the cigar-smoker for a lapse of memory that +might almost seem undignified, she was answered with chaffing, laughing, +joviality. + +"Well, my dear, if you're so afraid of our credit going down, there's an +easy way out of the difficulty. Write a cheque yourself, and clean the +slate for me." + +But one must make allowances. This was a favourite phrase of hers, and +it helped the drift of her calmer thoughts. As he said so often, youth +has its characteristic faults. Want of thought is not necessarily want +of heart. + +Perhaps when he began to work, he might improve. There was no doubt that +he possessed the capacity for work. He _had_ worked, hard and well. Many +a good horse that has not shied or swerved when kept into its collar +will, if given too much stable and too many beans, show unsuspected +vice and kick the cart to pieces. And the cure for your horse, the +medicine for your man, is work. + +Of course he had many redeeming traits. One was his jollity--not often +disturbed, if people would humour him. Comfort, too, in the recollection +that he treated her with respect--never consciously insulted her--in +public. + +Sometimes when the shadows and the flickering glow drowsily slackened in +their dance, and sleep with soft yet heavy fingers at last pressed upon +her eyelids, she was willing to believe that all her fiery thought and +shadowy dread was but morbid nonsense occasioned by the queer state of +her nerves, and by nothing else. + + +Truly, during this period of her extreme weakness, she was physically +incapable of standing up to him; there was no fight left in her. For a +time at least, she could not attempt to protect herself, or anyone else +who looked to her for protection. + +It pained her, but she was unable to interfere, when he roughly repulsed +Gordon Thompson. + +They were sitting at luncheon, with the servant going in and out of the +room; she heard the street door open and shut; there was a sound of +hob-nailed boots, and then came the familiar whistle--like a ghostly +echo from the past. + +"Who the devil's that?" + +"I--I think it must be my Linkfield cousin." + +"Oh, is it?" And Marsden jumped up, and went out to the landing. + +"Jen-ny! Jen-ny! You up there?" + +The farmer stood at the bottom of the steep stairs, and Marsden was at +the top, looking down at him. Mrs. Marsden heard nearly the whole of the +conversation, but dared not, could not interfere. + +"Any dinner for a hungry wayfarer?" + +Gordon Thompson, furious at the marriage, had missed many mid-day meals; +but now he came to pick up the severed thread of kindness. However, he +was not confident; his whistle had been feeble, tentative, and the +ascending note of his voice quavered. In order to propitiate, he had +brought from Linkfield a market-gardener's basket with celery and winter +cabbages. The present would surely make them glad to see him. + +"What do you want here? No orders are given at the door. We buy our +vegetables at Rogers's in High Street. Don't come cadging here. Get +out." + +Marsden wickedly pretended to mistake him for an itinerant greengrocer. + +"Mayn't I go up?... Is it to be cuts? Am I not to call on my cousin?" + +"Who's your cousin, I'd like to know." + +"Jen-ny Thompson." + +"No one of that name lives here." + +"Jen-ny Marsden then. I say--it's all right. You're him, I suppose. +Well, I'm Gordon Thompson--your wife's cousin." + +"My wife never had a cousin of that name. Before she married me, she +married a man called Thompson--though she didn't marry all his +humbugging beggarly relations." + +"Oh, I say--don't go on like that. Don't make it cuts." + +"Thompson--your cousin--is in the cemetery, if you wish to call on him. +He has been there a long time--waiting for you;" and Marsden laughed. +"The sexton will tell you where to find him.... Go and plant your +cabbages out there. We don't want 'em here." + +He returned to the luncheon table in the highest good-humour. + +"There, old girl, I've ridded you of _that_ nuisance. You won't be +bothered with _him_ any more." + +Mrs. Marsden could not answer. She could not even raise her eyes from +the table-cloth. But when her husband offered to give her a rare +afternoon treat by taking her for a run in his small two-seated car, she +looked up; and, meekly thanking him, accepted the invitation. + +As the car carried them slowly through the market-place, neatly +threading its way among laden carts and emptied stalls, she saw cousin +Gordon standing, rueful and disconsolate, outside the humble tavern at +which it was the custom of the lesser sort of farmers to dine together +on market-day. Had Gordon dined, or had anger and resentment deprived +him of appetite and spared his ill-filled purse? + +She would not think of it. She turned, and watched her husband's face. +It was hard as granite while with concentrated attention he manipulated +the steering wheel, moved a lever, or sounded his brazen-tongued +horn--the signal of danger to anyone who refused to get out of his road. + +Almost immediately, they were in the open country, whirling past bare +fields and leafless copses, leaping fiercely at each hill that opposed +them, and swooping with a shrill, buzzing triumph down the long slopes +of the valleys. + +"Now we are travelling," said Marsden joyously. + +She nodded her head, although she had not caught the words; and +presently he shouted close to her ear. + +"Moving now, aren't we? Doesn't she run smooth?" + +"Yes, yes. Capital." + +The wind, breaking on the glass screen, sang as it swept over them; +hedge-rows, telegraph poles, and wayside cottages hurried towards them, +rising and growing as they came; long stretches of straight road, along +which Mr. Young's horses used to plod for half an hour, were snatched +at, conquered, and contemptuously thrown behind, almost before one could +recognize them. + +That pretty country-house which she had always admired passed her; and, +passing, seemed like a faintly tinted picture in a book whose pages are +turned too fast by careless hands. Naked branches of high trees, broad +eaves and nestling windows, weak sunlight upon latticed glass, and pale +smoke rising from clustered chimneys--that was all she saw. A few dead +leaves pretended to be live things, scampered beside the long wall; a +few dead thoughts revived in her mind, and swiftly she recalled her old +fancies, the dream of the future, Enid and herself living together so +quietly beneath the grey roof;--and then the pretty house with its +pretty grounds had been left far behind. It had lost its brief aspect of +reality as completely as a half-forgotten dream. + +"There, we'll go easy now." They were approaching a village, and he +reduced the speed. "You're a good plucked 'un, Jane;" and he glanced at +her approvingly. "You don't funk a little bit of pace." + +They stopped at an inn, thirty miles from Mallingbridge, and drank +tea--that is to say, Mrs. Marsden drank tea and Mr. Marsden drank +something else, for the good of the house. + +Then, after a cigar, he lighted his lamps, and drove her home through +the greyness, the dusk, and the dark. And for the three hours or so that +she was with him, for the whole time that this outing lasted, she was +almost happy. + + + + +XV + + +The nervous distress had gone--with extraordinary suddenness; and a +curiously unruffled calm filled her mind. Nothing matters. This is not +_all_. + +She was a deeply religious woman, but quite unorthodox in the letter of +her faith. There might be as many rituals as there are social +communities, a different altar for every day of the year; but, however +you dressed the eternal glory and the limitless power in garments taken +from the poor wardrobe of man's imagination, the veritable God was +unchanged, unchanging. And her toleration of the diverse opinions of +others enabled her to worship as comfortably under the high-vaulted +magnificence of a Catholic cathedral as within the narrow shabbiness of +a Wesleyan chapel. The perfume of swinging censers did not cloud her +brain, nor the ugliness of white-washed walls grieve her eyes--any +consecrated place of prayer was good enough to pray in. + +But for the sake of old associations, by reason of its familiar +homeliness, its air of solidity without pomp, and a simplicity that yet +is not undignified, she loved this parish church of St. Saviour's; and +it was here, sitting through the long undecorated service, that mental +equanimity was most strangely if temporarily restored to her. Although +not participating, she stayed for the celebration of the communion; and +while the mystic, symbolic rites were performed, she neither prayed nor +meditated. For her it was a blank pause,--no thought,--nothing; but +nevertheless she became aware of a deepening perception of rest and +peace, and the feeling that she had been uplifted--raised to a spiritual +height from which she could look down on the common pains of earth, and +see their intrinsically trivial character. + +Our life, be it what it may, does not end here. This is not all. +Something wider, more massive, infinitely grander, is coming to us, if +we will wait patiently. + +She sat motionless until all the congregation had dispersed; and when +she left the church, there was an expression of gravity on her face and +a sense of contentment in her heart. At the sight of some children +romping by the church-yard railings, she smiled. A boy pushed a girl +with mirthful vigorousness, and she spoke to him gently. + +"Don't be rough, little boy. Take care, and don't hurt her--even in +play." + +Then she gave the children "silver sixpences to buy sweeties," and went +slowly down the court. She could think kindly and benignantly of all the +world. There was not a tinge of bitterness remaining when she thought of +her husband. + + +As she lay in bed one morning after a night of dreamless sleep, a chance +word dropped by Yates set her lazily thinking of the last date on which +she had suffered from those normal and not accidental fluctuations of +energy that are produced by periodically recurrent causes. Beginning to +count the weeks, she fancied that some error of memory was confusing +her--time of late had moved with such heavy feet; what seemed long was +really short in the story of her days. Then she began to count the days, +trying to make fixed points, and laboriously filling the gaps that +intervened. Then she stopped counting and thinking. + +Yates had gone out of the room, and she lay quite still, with relaxed +limbs and slackened respiration. + +And her mind seemed dull and void, though wonder stirred and thrilled. +It was like dawn in a hill-girt valley--black darkness mingling with +silver mist; shadows growing thin, but not retreating; the ribbed sides +of the mountains very slowly becoming more and more solidly stupendous, +but refusing to disclose the details of their form or colour, although, +beyond the vast ramparts with which they aid the night, the sun is +surely rising. Not till the sun bursts in fire above the eastern wall +does the day begin. + +So, with flooding golden light, the splendid hope came to her. + + +She waited for a few more days. There was no mistake; she knew that she +had counted correctly; but she pretended to herself that she must allow +a wide margin to cover the contingency of miscalculation. + +Then she spoke of the facts to Yates, after extracting a solemn vow of +secrecy. Yates said they could draw only one conclusion from the facts; +it was impossible to doubt--but they would know for certain next time. +They must count again; and, after allowing another wide margin, settle +the approaching date which would infallibly confirm their hopes or +cruelly dissipate them. + +For a little while longer, then, she must keep her splendid secret. + +Her heart was overflowing with a joy such as she had thought she could +never feel again. And with the warm stream of bliss there were gushing +fountains of gratitude. She will forgive her husband everything, because +he has crowned her life with this ineffable glory. + +It justifies her marriage; in a manner more perfect than she had dared +to imagine, it gives her back her youth. All mothers at the cradle have +one age--the age of motherhood. And irresistibly it will win his respect +and love--some love must come for the mother of his babe. + +Although she was waiting with so much anxiety until the second +significant epoch should be passed, she found that time glided by her +now easily and swiftly. Yates--the wise old spinster--assuming in a more +marked degree that air of matronly authority that she had worn before +the wedding, told her of the vital importance of taking good rest, good +nourishment, and good cheerful views regarding the future. + +So she often lay upon the sofa in her room--resting,--smiling and +dreaming. She had no real doubt now. It was miraculous, glorious, true. +She thought of the many symptoms that she had noticed but never +considered, so that the revelation of their meaning brought the same +glad surprise as to a young and innocent bride. She might have +guessed.--The dreadful instability of nerves; longings for the widest +outlet of physical effort, alternating with weak horrors of the +slightest task; and, above all, the facile tears always springing to her +eyes--these things, in one who by habit was firm of purpose and who wept +with difficulty, should have been promptly recognized as unfailing signs +of her condition. Lesser signs, too, had not been wanting--the vagrant +fancies, the mental ups and downs which correspond with the changed +states of the body; and she groped in the dim past, comparing her recent +sensations and reveries with those experienced twenty-three years ago, +before the birth of Enid. She might have guessed.--But truly perhaps she +had been too humble of spirit ever to prepare herself for the admission +of so proud a thought. Even in the brightly coloured dreams from which +realities had so rudely awakened her, she was not advancing towards so +triumphant an apotheosis. + +But no morning sickness! Not yet. It will begin later this time--for the +second child; and it will not be so bad. That first time--when poor Enid +was coming into the world--she was but a slip of a girl; depressed by +heavy care; worn out by the watchings and nursings of her mother's +illness. But now everything was and would be different. She possessed +robust and long-established health; her husband was a magnificently +strong man; their child would be a most noble gorgeous creature. + +And each time that she thought thus of the child's father, the fountain +springs of her intense gratitude rose and gushed higher and broader. She +was only vaguely conscious of the extent of the revulsion of her +feelings where he was concerned. The change seemed so natural and so +little mysterious that she did not measure it. With the awakening of the +new hopes, there had arisen a new love for him--a love purged of all +impurities. + +This was the real love--wide-reaching sympathy, infinite tenderness; the +love that can understand all and forgive all; the instinct of protection +blending with the instinct of submission; the maternal feeling extending +beyond the unborn child to its creator--making them both her children. + +One day when he said he wanted to ask her a favour, she told him, before +he added another word, that she felt sure she would grant the favour. +She was reading, in the drawing-room; and she slipped the book under the +cushion of the sofa, and looked up at him with an expectant smile. + +Then, showing some slight embarrassment, he explained that he had been +"outrunning the constable." + +All the arrangements of the partnership were formally settled; nothing +had been overlooked by clever Mr. Prentice; everything was cut and +dried; certain proportionately fixed sums were to be passed from time to +time to the private credit of each partner; and then at the appointed +seasons, when the true profits of the firm had been ascertained, amounts +making up the balance of earned income would be paid over. All the usual +precautions, and some that perhaps were rather unusual, had been adopted +in order to prevent the partners from anticipating profits by premature +drafts upon the funds of the firm. But now, as Marsden explained, he had +exhausted his private account and was in sad need of a little ready to +keep him going. + +She instantly agreed to give him the money--with the pleasure a too +indulgent mother might feel in giving to a spendthrift son. +Extravagance--what is it? Only one of those faults of youth by which the +thoughtless young culprits endear themselves to their elderly guardians. + +"Yes, Dick, I'll write the cheque at once. My chequebook is over there." + +She rose slowly from the sofa, and slowly moved across the room to the +Sheraton desk near the window. Yates had begged her to beware of abrupt +and hasty movements, and she walked about the house now with careful, +well-considered footsteps. + +"Of course, old girl, if you can see your way to making the amount for a +little _more_?" + +And she made it for a little more. + +He was delighted. "Upon my word, Jane, you're a trump. No rot about you. +When you see anyone in a hole, you don't badger him with a pack of +questions--you just pull him out of the hole...." + +He thanked her and praised her so much that she melted in tenderness, +and almost told him her secret. She looked at him fondly and admiringly. +He seemed so strong and so brave--with his stiff close-cropped hair and +his white evenly-shaped teeth,--laughing gleefully as he pocketed his +present,--like a great happy schoolboy. While she looked at him, the +secret was trying to escape, was burning her lips, and knocking at her +breast with each quickened heartbeat. + +She succeeded, however, in restraining the expansive impulse. The delay +can but heighten the triumph--it is so much grander to be able to say, +not "I _think_," but "I _know_." + +When he had hurried away to cash his cheque, she took out the Book that +she had been reading and had shyly concealed under the cushion. It was +the Bible. Reverently reopening it and musingly turning the leaves, she +glanced at those chapters of Genesis that tell of the first gift of +human life.... "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy +desire shall be to thy husband; and he shall rule over thee." + +The softness and the exaltation of her mood showed very plainly in the +expression of her face as she read the nobly fabled origin of love and +marriage. While reading she made vows to God and to herself. If all went +well, she would cheerfully bear the hardest usage, at her husband's +hands. She would never reproach him, she would ever be a comfort to him. +And so long as their child lived, the torch-bearer carrying the fire of +life kindled from their joint lives should guide her steps through the +darkest places towards the distant glimmer of eternal light. + +That night she was roused from her first sleep by the sound of heavily +blundering footsteps. Mr. Marsden had come home in an unusually jolly +state. His wife heard him stumbling about the adjacent room, knocking +over a chair, laughing, and singing drunken snatches of song. + +He had never before been quite so jolly. For a minute the hilarious +music saddened her; but then she felt quite happy again. He was not +really drunk--merely excited, elated. And besides, this sort of thing +would not occur in the future: a generous fear of the questioning eyes +of an innocent child would help to keep him straight. + +And she fell to thinking of domestic arrangements that would be +necessary before the great event. His bedroom and the dressing-room used +to be the day and night nursery when Enid was a baby. The grandmother +slept in the room at present occupied by Yates, and Yates slept in a +smaller room. How would they manage now? This room should be the night +nursery--she herself could sleep anywhere. Probably Yates would have to +give up her nice room--but Yates would not mind. And, yes--the +difficulty must be confronted--Dick must give up his dressing-room. +Would he mind? + +No. Every difficulty would be surmounted. All would be smoothly and +easily arranged in the end. Dreamily sweeping away the difficulties, she +sank again into restful sleep. + + +That important second date was drawing near, and Yates was becoming more +and more fussily attentive. It taxed all her strength of mind to keep +the secret to herself; she longed for the time when it might be made +public property. + +"Look here, ma'am," she said mysteriously, "don't let anyone see us +opening this parcel. Let's go upstairs and open it there, quiet and +comfortable." + +"What is it, Yates?" + +Upstairs in the bedroom, Yates, with many shrewd nods and meaning +smiles, untied her parcel, and displayed to Mrs. Marsden its +entrancingly fascinating contents. + +"Oh, Yates!" + +They were the prettiest imaginable little baby-things--woollen socks, +flannel robes, etc., articles of costume suitable to the very earliest +stage; together with materials for binders, wrappers, and so on, that +would require cutting, stitching, _making_. + +"The work will do you good," said Yates. "Just to amuse yourself, when +you're sitting all alone up here--and to keep your mind off the strain." + +"Oh, Yates, they are lovely. Where did you get them?" + +"Don't you bother where I got them," said Yates, looking shame-faced +all at once. "I don't intend to tell you." But then she went on +defiantly: "Well, if you _must_ know, I got them in the children's +outfitting department--over at Bence's." + +Her mistress was not in the least angry. She smiled at the sound of the +rival's name;--and, of course, in this particular department there was +no rivalry between the two shops. + +Yates was particular that her interesting patient should enjoy a +moderate amount of fresh air, and advised that in these cases gentle +carriage exercise is distinctly beneficial. + +Several times therefore a brougham was procured from Mr. Young's +stables, and mistress and maid went for a quiet afternoon drive. Yates +would have preferred to enjoy these airings earlier in the day, but she +agreed with Mrs. Marsden that a morning drive might appear +"conspicuous." As it was, Yates made the excursion quite sufficiently +remarkable--hot-water bottle for the patient's feet, rugs for her legs, +three or four shawls for her shoulders. + +"And don't you drive too fast," said Yates sternly to Mr. Young's +coachman. "Take us along quiet.... And if you meet any of those great +engines on the road, just turn round and go the other way." + +"I don't want you frightened," she told Mrs. Marsden, "if only for half +a minute." + +Mr. Young's horses, at an easy jog trot, took them along very, very +quietly; some air, but not too much, blew in upon them pleasantly; and +throughout the drive the two women talked unceasingly of the same +engrossing subject. + +"Which do you hope for, yourself, ma'am?" + +"Yates, I scarcely know." + +"Well, ma'am, I'll tell you candid, it's a girl _I_ am hoping for." + +"But whichever it is--boy or girl--you'll love it just the same, won't +you, Yates?" + +"Indeed I shall, ma'am." + +And they discussed christian names. + +"If it is a boy, of course I shall wish him to have his father's name +for one." + +"Yes, I suppose so, ma'am." + +"Richard for his first name; and, if Mr. Marsden approves, I shall call +him Martin. I should like him to bear the name of Saint Martin--for a +little romantic reason of my own. And I also like the name of +Roderick--if that isn't too grand." + +"I like the plain names best," said Yates. "If it's a girl, I do hope +and trust you'll give her your own name, ma'am. You can never get a +better name than Jane. Let her be Miss Jane." + +They met no ugly traction engines to upset the horses, and disturb the +patient's composure. They chose the level sheltered roads, and avoided +the dangerous windy hills; and Mrs. Marsden looked through the half-shut +window at the featureless landscape, and thought it almost beautiful, +even at this dead time of the year. It was bare and nearly +colourless,--all the hedgerows of a dull brown, the far-off woods a +misty grey, and here and there, seen through the black field-gates, +patches of snow faintly sparkling beneath the feeble light. The tardy +spring as yet showed scarce a sign of nascent energy. But the winter had +no terrors for her now. There was summer in her heart. + + +The date had passed; and, passing, had left apparent certainty. + +Yates was wildly excited, irrepressibly jubilant. + +"You'll tell him now, won't you, ma'am?" + +"Yes, I can tell him now." + +"Everybody may know it now, ma'am--And, oh, won't they be glad to hear +the news in the shop." + +But naturally Mr. Marsden must hear the news before anybody else; and +unluckily Mr. Marsden was not in Mallingbridge to hear it. He had been +expected home two days ago, but something was detaining him in London. + +This final useless delay, after the long unavoidable delay, seemed more +than Mrs. Marsden could support. + +"Oh, why is he away? Oh, Yates, I want him--I want him with me. Oh, oh!" +She burst into a sobbing fit, and rung her hands piteously. "Yates, +fetch him. Bring my husband back to me. Don't let him leave me now--of +all times." + +This was in the morning, before Mrs. Marsden had got up. After sobbing +for a little while, she became suddenly faint and breathless, and sank +back upon her pillow. Yates, scared by her faintness and whiteness, ran +out of the room and despatched a hasty messenger. + +She could not fetch the husband; so the good soul did the next best +thing, and sent for the doctor. + +When she returned to the bedroom Mrs. Marsden seemed all right again. + +"Doctor Eldridge is coming to see you, ma'am." + +"Is he?" + +"It's only wise," said Yates authoritatively, "that he should take +charge of the case now. It's full time we had him in. He knows your +constitution--and you can trust him, and feel quite safe to go on just +as he advises you." + + +Dr. Eldridge was a long time alone with the patient. After Yates had +been told to leave them, he talked gently and gravely to his old friend. +He confessed to being rather sceptical by habit of mind; in forming a +diagnosis he was perhaps always disposed to err on the side of caution, +and thus he often declined to accept what at first sight seemed an +obvious inference until it had been corroborated by indisputable +evidence;--but then again, all his experience had shown him how prudent, +how necessary it is to prepare oneself for disappointment.... He thought +that Mrs. Marsden should, if possible, prepare herself for +disappointment. + +Outside the room, he spoke to Yates with a severity that was only +mitigated by contempt. + +"What nonsense have you been stuffing her up with? It's too bad of you." +And then the professional contempt for amateur doctors sounded in the +severe tone of his voice. "You ought to know better at your time of +life." + +He came again next day, and told Mrs. Marsden the bitter truth. The +correct interpretation of the symptoms was far, very far different from +that which she had imagined. And then he pronounced the words of doom. +It was not the birth of hope, but the death of hope. Somewhat earlier +than one would have predicted as likely, she had passed the +turning-point in the cyclic history of her existence. + + +A deadly, numbing apathy descended upon her. She was not ill; but in +order to escape the infinitely oppressive duties of dressing, sitting at +meals, walking up and down stairs, listening to voices and answering +questions, she pretended illness; and, to cover the pretence, Dr. +Eldridge frequently visited her. + +Day after day she lay upon her sofa, watching the feeble daylight turn +to dusk, staring at the red glow of the coals or the golden flicker of +burning wood--feeling too sad to reproach, too weak to curse the +inexorable laws of destiny. + +Her husband used to enter the room noisily and jovially, with a cigar in +his mouth and a shining silk hat on the back of his head. + +"What the dickens is the matter with you, Jane?" + +He did not guess. He could never read her thoughts. + +"I believe you ought to rouse yourself, old girl. I suppose old Eldridge +sees a chance of running up a nice little bill--and Yates will have her +bit out of it. Between them, they'll persuade you you're going to kick +the bucket." + +"I feel so tired, Dick." + +"Then go on taking it easy," said Marsden genially. "But here's my +tip--look out for another doctor, and another maid. I wouldn't bid +twopence, if both of them were put up to auction." + +Another time he said, "Jane, do you twig why I am wearing my topper? +That means _business_. Yes, I'm going to throw myself into my work now, +heart and soul. Buck up as soon as you can, and come and see how I'm +setting about me." + +While he stood by the door, talking and smoking, she looked at him with +dull but kind eyes. + +Some of the glamour of that vanished hope still hung about him; and the +sense of gratitude, although now meaningless, lingered for a long while. +But for herself, it would have been a fact instead of an hysterical +fancy. It was her fault, not his. + +When he had shut the door, she thought of herself dully, without pity, +in stupid wonder. + +This is the end. The heats of summer gone; the mimic warmth of autumn +gone, too; nothing left but the cold, dead winter--the end of all. + + + + +XVI + + +The state of apathetic indifference continued; the slow months dragged +by, and still she could not shake off her invincible weariness and spur +herself to resume activity. + +Once or twice Enid invited her to pay the long-postponed visit of +inspection; and, when these invitations were refused, she offered to +come to see her mother. But she was put off with vague excuses. The +weather seemed so doubtful this week; later in the year Mrs. Marsden +would certainly make the eight-mile journey, and examine the charming +home of her daughter and her son-in-law. + +It was an effort even to write a letter; nothing really interested her; +her highest wish was to be left alone. + +She heard and occasionally saw what was happening in the shop; but the +old keen delight in business had faded with all other delights. She was +not wanted down there behind the glass. Her husband was master there +now, and he did not require her assistance. He was pushing on with his +programme of change and innovation; he brought her architects' drawings +and builders' plans to sign, and she signed them without questioning; he +jauntily told her about his new Japanese department, his new agency +trade, his revolutionised carpet store, and she listened meekly to +everything, appeared willing to concur in anything. + +He was inordinately pleased with himself, and his boastful +self-confidence brimmed over in noisy chatter. He had declared war +against Bence; henceforth, he vowed, the tit-for-tat policy should be +pursued with implacable thoroughness. + +"Look out for yourself, Mr. Bence," he said vaingloriously. "It has +been very nice for you up to now. Because you saw a naked face, you +smacked it. But now you're smacked back--as you'll jolly well find. I +expect my new fascia has opened your eyes to what's coming." + +The new fascia had been erected. It was made of chestnut wood--a most +artistic up-to-date piece of work, with the names Thompson & Marsden +alternating in carved lozenges over all the windows, with linked +festoons of flowers, with high relief and intaglio cutting--with what +not decorative and grand. It ran the whole length of the street frontage +and round the corner up St. Saviour's Court, and it cost L750. + +But that expense was a fleabite when compared with the cost of the +structural alterations that were now fairly in hand. + +The yard was being completely covered. The carts would drive into what +would be the ground floor; and above this there would be three floors of +packing rooms, with every imaginable convenience of lifts, slides, and +shoots, for manipulating the goods and discharging them at the public. +Meanwhile, the old packing rooms had been huddled into unused cellars, +and the space that they had occupied in the basement, indeed the entire +basement, was being excavated to an astounding depth. Soon an immense +subterranean area would be scooped out; vast halls with wide staircases +would be constructed; a shop below a shop would be ready for Mr. +Marsden's use. + +But what he proposed to do with it he had not as yet disclosed. He was +feverishly anxious to get all the work finished, but the new basement +especially occupied his ambitious dreams. + +"Mears, old buck," he said often, "I'm itching to get down there. And +how damn slow they are, aren't they?" + +Having had his fling as a gentleman at large, he seemed to enjoy for a +little while the quieter but more massive importance derived from his +position as the proprietor of a successful business, the employer of +labour, the patron of art and manufacture. He paid handsomely for the +insertion of his portrait in the local newspaper, and arranged with the +editor that paragraphs about himself and his operations should appear +amongst news items without the objectionable word Advertisement. On +early closing day he swaggered about the town, feeling that he was one +of its most prominent citizens, and proving himself always ready to +stand a drink to anyone who would say so. + +When his architect came down from London to go over the works with the +contractor, he carried them off to the Dolphin, before anything had been +done, and gave them a sumptuous luncheon--sat bragging and drinking with +them for hours. When at dusk they returned to the shop, Marsden was red +and noisy, the architect was in a fuddled state, and the contractor +frankly hiccoughed. + +"Down with you, old boy," said Marsden jovially. "And buck 'em up--the +lazy bounders. Get a move on. I want this job finished; and it seems to +me you're all playing with it." + +After the governor had been lunching he lost that sense of decorum which +from long habit should make it almost as impossible to speak loudly in a +shop as in a church. All the assistants and several customers were +scandalized by the noisy tongues of Mr. Marsden and his architect. + +"And you jolly well remember that everything's to be done without +interference to my business. It's in the contract--and don't you forget +it. Start to finish--that was the bargain--business to be carried on as +usual." + +"Oh, we don't forget, Mist' Marsd---- No interferens. Bizniz muz go on +zactly as usual." + +But did it? Mears was appalled by the disturbance and confusion. +Outside in the street a long line of builders' carts blocked the +approach of carriage-folk; from beneath the windows, through the opened +gratings, earth and gravel and lumps of broken concrete were being +painfully hauled out; the pavement was covered with mud, obstructed with +debris, so that foot-people could not pass in comfort, and the Borough +Surveyor had sent three notices urgently requesting the abatement of +what was a public as well as a private nuisance. Inside the shop one +heard growling thunders from the depths below one's feet, and sudden +explosions as if one were walking over a volcano, while from every +entrance to the dark vaults there issued clouds of destructive lime +dust. Sometimes a department was shut up for an hour while a steel +girder was rolled along the floor by twenty perspiring men; processions +of bucket-bearers emerged unexpectedly; and one saw in every mirror a +grimy face or a plaster-stained back. + +What was the use of asking ladies to step upstairs and view our Oriental +novelties, when the nearest staircase was temporarily converted into a +slide for roped planks? + +Ladies said No, thank you; they would call again. + +"This is going to hit us, sir," said Mr. Mears gloomily. "It is going to +hit us hard if it continues much longer." + +"But it won't continue," said Marsden irritably. "They're bound by +contract to finish before the twentieth of next month. Besides, you +can't make an omelette without breaking eggs." + +There could be no doubt, thought Mears, as to the broken eggs; but the +question was, Would Mr. Marsden's omelette ever come to table, or would +it get tossed into the fire with so much else that seemed finding an end +there? + +Towards the completion of the contract time, Marsden more than once +forced his wife to come through the door of communication, and have a +look round the altered shop. She was admittedly convalescent now. She +had not demurred when the master of the house gave Dr. Eldridge what he +called "a straight tip" to cease paying professional visits. She had not +protested when, in her presence, an almost straighter tip was given to +Yates that the boring fuss about a malady of the imagination must cease. +In fact she herself had said that there was nothing the matter with her. + +She could not therefore refuse to show herself when he explicitly +commanded her to do so. + +Many changes--as she passed by Woollens and China and Glass, it was like +walking in a dream, among the distorted shadows of familiar objects. +Miss Woolfrey ran out of China and Glass to welcome her; but the other +assistants, male and female, seemed shy of attracting her attention. +Changes on all sides, which she looked at with indifferent eyes--but one +change that slowly compelled a more careful observation. Perhaps +downstairs this, the greatest of the changes, would not be observable? +But no, it was noticed as plainly downstairs as upstairs. + +There were fewer customers. + +She glanced at the clock outside the counting-house. Three-twenty! In +the middle of the afternoon, at this season of the year, the shop should +be thronged with customers; and it appeared to be, comparatively +speaking, empty. + +Marsden was waiting to receive her behind the glass, in her old sanctum. + +"Come in, Jane. Here I am--hard at it." + +Her bureau had disappeared. Where it used to stand there was a large but +compact American desk; and in front of this Mr. Marsden sat enthroned. +She glanced round the room, and saw a small new writing-table in the +space between the second safe and the wall. + +"I thought you could sit over there, Jane," said Marsden, pointing with +his patent self-feeding pen. "You'd be out of the draught--for one +thing." + +She was to be pushed into a corner, to be made to understand her +insignificant position under the new order of things,--but she did not +protest. + +"Now then. Come along." + +He took her first of all through the Furniture, and showed her his +sub-department for the sale of desks and all other office requisites +similar to those which he had purchased for his own use. This was what +he called agency work. + +"No risk, don't you see, old girl! Doing the trick with other people's +capital." And he explained how the German firm that supplied England +with these American goods had given him most advantageous terms. "A +splendid agreement for _us_! If the things don't go off quick, we just +shovel the lot back at them--and try something else. That's _trade_. +Keep a move on--don't go to sleep." + +Then presently he took her upstairs, to what he called his Japan +Exhibition. + +The Cretonne Department had been compressed and curtailed to make room +for this new feature, and she passed through the archway of an ornate +partition in order to admire and wonder at the Oriental novelties. + +"Now, Jane, this is what I'm really proud of." + +There was plenty to see and to think about--Marsden made her handle +carved and tinted ivory warriors with glittering swords and tiny +burnished helmets, dragons with jewelled eyes and enamelled jaws, +exquisite little cloisonne boxes; made her stoop to look at the +malachite plinths of huge squat vases; and made her stretch her neck to +look at gold-embossed friezes of great tall screens. + +All these goods were very expensive; and she asked if any of them had +been introduced, like the Yankee furniture, on sale or return. + +"No, these are our own racket--and tip-top stuff, the best of its kind, +never brought to Europe till last summer.... The stock stands us in +close on four thousand pounds. You wouldn't think it, would you? But +it's _art_. It's an education to possess such things." + +She hazarded another question. Did he think Mallingbridge would consent +to pay for such high-class education? + +"It'll be a great disappointment to me if they don't clear us out in +three months from now. Of course they haven't discovered yet what we're +offering them. But they _will_. I go on the double policy--play down to +your public in one department, but try to lift your public in another. +That's the way to keep alive." + +And, as they left the Japanese treasures and strolled about the upper +floor, he rattled off his glib catch-words. + +"These are hustling times. Get a move on somehow. That's what I tell +them--They'll soon tumble to it." + +He parted from her near the door of communication. + +"Ta-ta, old girl.... Oh, by the way, I shan't be in to dinner +to-night--or to-morrow either. I'm off to London. I'm wanted there about +my Christmas Baz----" And he checked himself. "But I'll ask old Mears to +tell you all about that." + +Then he ran downstairs, two steps at a time, and swaggered here and +there between the counters to impress the assistants with his hustlingly +Napoleonic air. + +Occasionally he loved to step forward, wave aside the assistant, and +himself serve a customer. He thoroughly enjoyed the awe-struck +admiration of the shop when he thus granted it a display of his skill. +It was his only real gift--the salesman art; and it never failed him. + +But it was something that he could not impart. Assistants who imitated +his method--trying to catch the smiling, almost chaffing manner that +could immediately convert a grumpy lethargic critic into a prompt and +cheerful buyer--were merely familiar and impudent, and ended by huffing +the customer. + +And the governor, when he happened to detect want of success in one of +his young gentlemen or young ladies, came down like a hundred of bricks. + +He treated the two sexes quite impartially, and the women could not say +that he bullied the men worse than he bullied them. But he had a deadly +sort of satire that the younger girls dreaded more than the angriest +storm of abuse. Thus if he saw one of them sitting down, he would +address her with apparently amiable solicitude. + +"Is that ledge hard, Miss Vincent? Couldn't someone get her a cushion? +Make yourself at home. Why don't you come round the counter and sit on +the customers' laps?... We must find you a comfortable seat +_somewhere_--and change of air, too. Mallingbridge isn't agreeing with +your constitution, if you feel as slack as all this." + +Like the people of his house, these people of his shop feared him, and, +perhaps without putting the thoughts into words, or troubling to quote +adages, understood that beggars on horseback always ride with reckless +disregard of the safety and comfort of the humble companions with whom +they were recently tramping along the hard road, and that no master is +so tyrannical as a promoted servant. In the opinion of the +shop-assistants, he could not go to London too often or stay there too +long. + +While he was away this time, Mears came to Mrs. Marsden with a long face +and a gloomy voice, and gave her the delayed information as to her +husband's Christmas programme. + +The new underground floor was to be used for a grand Bazaar, and Mears +had been told to win her round to the idea. + +Mears himself hated the idea. He thought the bazaar a brainless +plagiarism of Bence's, and altogether unworthy of Thompson's. It would +be exactly like Bence's, but on a much larger scale--beneath the good +respectable shop, a cheap and nasty shop, in which catchpenny travesties +of decent articles would be the only wares; fancy stationery, sham +jewellery, spurious metals; horrid little clocks that won't go, knives +and scissors that won't cut, collar-boxes more flimsy than the collars +they are intended to hold--everything beastly that crumples, bends, or +breaks before you can get home with it. + +"But he won't abandon the idea," said Mears. "That's a certainty. He's +mad keen on it. The only thing is for you to use your influence--and +I'll back you up solid--to persuade him to modify it." + +And Mears strongly advocated modification on these lines: make the +bazaar a fitting annex,--substitute boots and shoes for the sixpenny +toys, good leather trunks for the paper boxes, nice engravings for the +coloured photographs,--offer the public genuine stuff and not trash. + +Accordingly, Mr. Marsden, as soon as he returned, was begged by his +partner and his manager to grant their joint petition for a slightly +modified Christmas carnival. But he said it was too late. They ought to +have gone into the matter earlier. + +He had bought the trash,--had engaged his London girls,--was ready; and +like a general on the eve of campaign, he could not be bothered with +advice from subordinate officers. + +When discussing this horrible innovation, Mears had extracted from Mrs. +Marsden a distinct show of interest; several times afterwards he had +endeavoured to stimulate and increase the interest; and now, just before +Christmas, he earnestly implored her to rouse herself. + +"We miss you, ma'am, worse every day. It isn't _safe_ to let things +drift. We can't get on without you." + +Then one morning she had an early breakfast, dressed herself in her shop +black, came down behind the glass, took her seat at the little corner +table of her old room, and unobtrusively began working. + +Marsden, when he came in two or three hours later, was surprised to see +her. + +"Hullo, Jane, what do you think you are doing?" + +"Well, Dick," she said submissively, "I should like to help in the +shop--as I used to, you know." + +"Bravo. Excellent! I want all the help that anyone can give me;" and he +seated himself in the chair of honour. "But look here. Don't mess about +with the papers on this desk. I work after a system--and if my papers +are muddled, it simply upsets me and wastes my time." + + + + +XVII + + +It had been a fearful year for Thompson & Marsden's. From the moment +that the grand fascia permanently recorded the new style of the firm, +money had flowed out of the business like water--and like big water, +like mountain torrents or sea waves; while the feeding-stream of money +that flowed into the business was obstructed, deflected, and plainly +lessened in volume. And now, when all the immense outlay should begin to +prove remunerative, even Marsden himself confessed that results were +inadequate and unsatisfactory. + +The Bazaar was a disastrous fiasco. The builders had broken their +contract; the basement had not been completed on the stipulated date, +and a law-suit was pending. Marsden swore that he would recover damages +for the loss entailed by his builders' wickedness; but Mr. Prentice +advised that he had a weak case. + +When, to the strains of a Viennese orchestra, the public were invited to +go down and enjoy themselves underground, they flatly declined the +invitation. A peep into the brilliantly lighted depths was sufficient +for them. Damp exhaled from the plastered walls; the few adventurous +customers shivered and the girls sneezed in their faces. An epidemic of +sore throat, engendered down there, rose and spread through the upper +shop. After three weeks, Marsden's grand Christmas entertainment was +withdrawn--like a pantomime that is too stupid to attract the children; +the regiment of sneezing girls was disbanded; the mass of unsold rubbish +was sent to London, to be disposed of for what it would fetch. And that, +as the whole shop knew, was half nothing. + +The Japanese department was almost as bad a bargain; the little ivory +warriors terrified cautious citizens with their high prices; no one +would come to buy and be educated. But Marsden for a long time was +obstinate about his Oriental goods. He would not face the loss, and cut +it short. + +He seemed to have forgotten his American office equipments; but this +feature had also failed to fulfil expectations. Only three small +articles had been sold. However, as there was no risk here, the want of +success did not much matter; but still it must be counted as one more of +the governor's false moves. Indeed, as all now saw, everything attempted +by the governor during this period of his energetic efforts had gone +hopelessly wrong. + +But he himself could not brook the disappointment caused by his +failures. He was disgusted when he thought of what had happened since +his pompous declaration of war. Although he would not admit that so far +Bence was beating him, he inveighed against fate, against Mallingbridge, +against all the world. + +"What the devil can you do when you're buried in a dead and alive hole +like this, surrounded by idiotic prejudices, and dependent on a lot of +old fossils to carry out your ideas?" + +The fitful energy that had occasioned so much trouble was now quite +exhausted. He seemed to have entered another phase. He was never jolly +now, but always discontented, and generally querulous, morose, or +violently angry. + +One after another the old shop chieftains succumbed beneath his bullying +attacks. Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Fentiman had gone. Mr. Greig was going. + +Mrs. Marsden always recognized the beginning of his onslaught upon +anybody to whom in the old days she had been strongly attached. A few +sneering words--lightly and carelessly; and then, when he returned to +the charge, gross abuse of the doomed thing. She knew that it was +doomed. In the wreck of her life this too must go. Then very soon there +were insults and violences that rendered the position of the victim +untenable, unendurable. Thus he had forced Mr. Ridgway and the others to +resign. + +Yates, the servant and friend that she loved, was also doomed. She was +struggling to avert the stroke of doom, but she knew that sooner or +later it must fall. + +And during all this time his demands for cash were increasingly +frequent. By his colossal outlay he had mortgaged the profits of years, +and it was essential that the partners should wait patiently until they +came into their own again. But he would not wait, and vowed that he +could not further retrench his personal expenses. How was he to live +without _some_ ready cash? And if the firm could not furnish it, she +must. + +"I _am_ trying to sell my big car," he told her. "And I suppose you will +ask me to sell the little one next--and paddle about in the mud again. +But, no, thank you, that doesn't suit my book at all." + +At last she summoned to her aid something of that old resolution that +seemed to have left her forever, and refused to comply with his request. + +"No, Dick, I can't. It isn't fair. I can't." + +"You mean, you _won't_." + +"Well, if you force me to use that word, I shall use it." + +Then there was a terrible quarrel--or rather he abused her meanness and +selfishness with brutal violence, and she protested against his +injustice and cruelty with all the strength that she possessed. + +After this he absented himself for a fortnight. He sent no messages; he +left the business to take care of itself, or be run by the other +partner; nobody knew where he was. + +When he reappeared he showed a perceptible deterioration of aspect, as +if the vicious orgies through which probably he had been passing had set +their ugly print upon his mouth, and had tarnished the healthy +brightness of his eyes. Henceforth the evidences of his increasing +dissipation became more and more obvious. He had abandoned himself to +the influences of this second phase. He drank heavily. He was careless +about his clothes; never looked spick and span and well-groomed; often +looked quite seedy and shabby, lounging in and out of the Dolphin Hotel, +with cheeks unshaven, and an unbrushed pot hat on the back of his head. + +But although he neglected his work, he made people understand that he +still considered himself the boss, and whenever he came into the shop he +asserted his authority. After lying in bed sometimes till late in the +afternoon, he would come down and upset everybody just when the day's +work was drawing to a close. + +At the sight of him all eyes were lowered, and many hands began to +tremble behind the counters. Before he had progressed from the door of +communication to the top of the staircase, somebody, it was certain, +would be dropped on. But on whom would he drop? + +Once it was his ancient admirer and ally, Miss Woolfrey. Outside China & +Glass, she spoke to him pleasantly if nervously. + +"Good evening, sir. You'll find Mrs. Thompson downstairs in the office." + +"Who the devil are you talking about?" + +"Mrs. Thompson, sir--Oh, lor, how silly of me! Mrs. _Marsden_, sir." + +"Yes, that's the name; and I'll be obliged if you won't forget it." He +was always exceedingly angry if, as still often happened, the old +assistants accidentally used the name that from long habit sprang so +easily to their lips. + +"Mrs. Marsden, if you please. And not too much of that." He looked +about him wrathfully, involving half the upper floor in his displeasure. +"I wish you'd all learnt manners before you got yourselves taken on +here. 'Yes, Mrs. Marsden. No, Mrs. Marsden'--that's the way I hear you. +Don't any of you know that Madam is the proper form of address when +you're speaking to your employer's wife?" + +When he went behind the glass all the clerks began to blunder and to get +confused. He called for day-books, ledgers, and cash-books, and glanced +at them with lordly superciliousness while the poor clerks humbly held +them open before him. Nothing was ever quite right--he blamed somebody +for illegible hand-writing, someone else for a blot, someone else for +the dog's ear of a page. + +As promised by Miss Woolfrey, he found the late Mrs. Thompson quietly +working at the little corner table in his room. Then he stood before the +fire warming his legs, and haranguing about shop-etiquette, up-to-date +methods, time-saving systems, and complaining of the many faults that he +had discovered. + +His wife listened without discontinuing the work. + +Gradually, in spite of all his dictatorial interferences, he was +allowing her to do more and more work. He told the heads of the staff +that when he was out of the way, they were to take their instructions +from Mrs. Marsden. Then, when underlings came to him, obsequiously +asking for his orders in regard to small matters, he said he could not +be worried about trifles. Mrs. Marsden would direct them. He had more +than enough important things to think of, and could not descend to petty +details. + +One afternoon he came in from the street, turned the type-writing girl +out of the room, and told his wife to give him all her attention. + +"Attend to me, old girl. News. Great news." + +He slapped his legs, and laughed. He was elated and excited. It was a +flash of jollity after months of gloom. + +"Do you remember what I told you eighteen months ago?" + +"What did you tell me, Dick?" + +"I asked you to mark my words--and I said, that little bounder over +there wasn't going to last much longer." + +The old story of Bence's approaching bankruptcy had been revived again. +Marsden had heard it once more, at the Dolphin bar or in the +Conservative Club billiard room, and he greedily swallowed every word of +it. + +He said it was a hard-boiled fact this time. One of the profligate +brothers had died; the widow was taking his money out of the business; +and Archibald Bence, deprived of capital without which he could not +scrape along, would go phutt at any minute. + +"There, old girl, I thought it would buck you up to hear such news, so I +ran in to tell you. But now I must be off." + +And then, in his unusual good temper, he noticed the difficulties under +which she was labouring. + +"I say, you don't seem very comfortable with all your papers spread out +on chairs like that. It looks so infernally messy--but I suppose you +haven't space for them on your table." + +"I could do with more space, certainly." + +"Very well. You can sit at my desk--when I am not here. But don't fiddle +about with anything in the drawers;" and he laughed. "You'd better not +pry among my papers, or you may get your fingers snapped off. The whole +damned thing shut up with a bang when I was looking for something in a +hurry the other day." + +She wondered if there could be any valid reason for the persistent +recurrence of these stories of financial shakiness behind their rival's +outward show of prosperity. Were these little puffs of smoke, appearing +and disappearing so frequently, indicative of latent fire? She asked Mr. +Mears what he thought about the gossip carried in such triumph by her +credulous husband. + +Mears did not believe a word of it. + +"We've heard such yarns for ten years, haven't we?" And Mears nodded his +head in the direction of the street. "I've used my eyes, and I don't see +any signs of it--and I think Mr. Marsden shouldn't reckon on it." + +"No, I quite agree with you." + +"Although," said Mears, "it would be very convenient to us, if it _did_ +happen--and if it _is_ going to happen, the sooner it happens the +better." + +"It won't happen," said Mrs. Marsden, sadly and wearily. "The wish is +father to the thought--there's no real sense in it." + +At this time she often thought of Archibald Bence; and of how, when +alluding to his idle spendthrift brothers, he used to say with quaintly +candid self-pity, "There's a leak in my shop." + +Well, there was a leak on each side of the street, now. + +Availing herself of her husband's permission, she came out of the +corner, and was generally to be seen seated in the chair of honour at +the tricky American desk. + +Little by little she was resuming control over the ordinary routine +management of the shop; and, although in its greater and more momentous +affairs she remained practically impotent, she was allowed full +opportunities to supervise and encourage its daily traffic. + +Once or twice as Mears stood by her chair in the office and watched her +knitted brows while she considered the questions of the hour, he thought +and felt that it was quite like old times. + +But this was a transient thought. Old times could never really come +again. Stooping to take the papers on which she had scrawled her brief +and rapid directions, he noticed the coarse grey strands in the hair +that such a little while ago used to be so smooth, so glossy, and to his +mind so pretty. He could see, too, the differences in her whole face. +The face was slightly smaller; the florid colours were fading so fast +that occasionally she seemed sallow; the lines of the kind mouth had +grown harder; and there was a curious, passive, subdued look where once +there had been outpouring vitality. And the bodice of the black dress +hung loose, in small folds and creases, on the shoulders that used to +fill it with such handsome thoroughness. + +But instinctively Mears understood that behind the narrower and less +glowing mask the inward force was not extinguished--the indomitable +spirit was there still, not yet quenched, and perhaps unquenchable. + +He watched her--with a veneration deeper than he had ever felt in the +easy prosperous past--while she went on quietly, bravely working, day by +day, week after week. + + +One Saturday evening, after an uneventful but laborious week, when she +had supped alone and was reading by the dining-room fire, Marsden came +in and abruptly asked her for money. + +"This is serious, Jane--no rot about it. I'm stuck for a couple of +hundred, and I must have it." + +"Really, Dick, I cannot--" + +"I don't ask it as a gift. Of course I meant to pay you back the other +advances, but everything's been against me. I _will_ try to pay you. +Anyhow, this is a bona fide loan. It's only to tide me over." + +"But you said that last time." + +"Last time you refused--and I had to chuck away my little +run-about--simply chuck it away. And I wanted to keep that car as much +for your sake as for mine. I knew you enjoyed a ride in it." + +She had ridden in the car once, and once only. + +"Look here, old girl." And he removed his hat, and sat down on the other +side of the dinner-table. Perhaps he had hoped that she would give him a +cheque and let him go out again in two or three minutes; but now he saw +it would take longer. "I must have the money by Monday morning--or I +shall be in a devil of a hole. More or less a matter of honour.... Don't +be nasty. Help a pal. It's not _like_ you to refuse--when I tell you I'm +in earnest." + +"But, Dick, I am in earnest, too. Truly I can't do it." + +"Rot. You can do it without feeling it." And he assumed a facetious air. +"Just your autograph--that's all I ask for. I'll write out the cheque +myself--save you all trouble. Just sign your name." + +"No, I'm very sorry; but it's impossible." + +He got up, and began to walk about the room, fuming angrily. + +"Then I shall draw on the firm." + +"Then I shall have to call in Mr. Prentice, and ask him to protect the +firm--to go to the law courts if necessary." + +"Oh, that's all my aunt. I've had enough of Mr. Prentice--Mr. Prentice +isn't my wet nurse." + +"Dick, be reasonable. Be kind to me. Don't you see, yourself, that--" + +"I'm not going to have you and old Prentice treating me as if I was a +baby in arms--lecturing, and preaching to me about the firm. You and +Prentice aren't the firm. I'm just as much the firm as you are." + +"Have I put myself forward? Do I ever deny your rights?" + +"Be damned to Prentice." He took his hands out of his overcoat pockets, +and brandished them furiously. "Prentice was my enemy from the very +beginning;" and he raised his voice. It seemed as if he was purposely +working himself into a passion. "I was a fool to submit to his bounce. I +ought to have had a marriage settlement--money properly settled on +me--and I was a fool to let him jew me out of it." + +"I gave you a half share." + +"Yes, in the business--but _only_ the business." + +"Wasn't that enough for you?" + +"Yes, in good times, no doubt. But what about bad times? And what the +devil did I know of the business before I came into it? Nothing was +explained to me. I came in blindfold. I took everything on trust." + +"Oh, I think you understood it was a paying concern." + +"It wasn't _proved_ to me, anyhow. No one took the trouble to let me see +the books--and give me the plain figures. Oh, no, that would have been +beneath your dignity." + +"Or beneath yours, Dick?" + +"Yes, and I was a fool to consider my dignity. That was old Prentice +again. I suppose he took his cue from you. You had put your heads +together, and decided that I was to behave like the good boy in the +copy-books. Open your mouth and shut your eyes, and see what God will +send you." + +"Dick, please--please don't go on." + +Suddenly he stopped walking about, leaned his hands on the table, and +stared across at her. + +"Suppose the entire business goes to pot. What then?" + +"The business will recover, and continue--if it isn't drained to death." + +"Yes, but it's all mighty fine for _you_. You can afford to take a lofty +tone. Fat years are followed by lean years--We must wait for the fat +years again. I know all that cut and dried cackle--it's the way people +of property always talk. I came in with nothing--please to remember +that. I'm absolutely dependent on the business--if the profits go down +to nothing, am I to starve?" + +"You shan't starve;" and she looked round the comfortable, +well-furnished room. + +"_You_ had your private fortune--all that you'd put by,--and I suppose +you have got all of it still." + +"How can I have it all--when you know what I gave to Enid?" + +"You gave Enid a dashed sight too much--but you had plenty left, in +spite of that." + +"Dick, on my honour, I hadn't a large amount left. I used to count +myself a rich woman, but I was only relying on the business. What I took +out one year I put back into it another year. I was always trying to +improve it." + +"I'll swear you haven't put any back since you married me." + +"No, I haven't." + +"No, that I'll swear." He had lowered his voice, and he was speaking +with a scornful intensity. "No, good times or bad times in the shop, you +are content to pouch your dividends from all your stocks and shares, and +sit watching your nest-egg grow bigger and bigger, while--" + +"Dick! You are tiring me out. Don't go on." + +"Yes, I will go on. You started it--and now I mean to get to the bottom +of things. Let's get to plain figures at last. What are you worth +now--of your very own--apart from the firm?" + +"Not one penny more than I need--for my own safety." + +"Ha-ha! You're afraid to tell me." + +"Why should I tell you? Dick, don't go on. It's cruel of you to bully +me--when I'm so tired." + +"Twenty thousand? Thirty thousand? How much? Oh, I dare say I can +figure it out for myself--without your help. Say twelve or fifteen +hundred a year, coming in like clockwork. Why I saved you two-fifty a +year myself, by cutting down what you intended to settle on Enid and +that skinny rascal of a horse-coper." + +"Dick--for pity's sake--" + +"Then answer me." And he raised his voice louder than before. "What are +you doing with your private income?" + +"This house costs _something_." + +"Oh, this house can't stand you in much. Where does the rest go--if you +aren't saving it? Are you giving it to Enid?... That's it, I suppose. If +that lazy swine wants two hundred to buy himself another thoroughbred +hunter, I suppose he sends Enid sneaking over here--when my back's +turned--and just taps you for it. You don't refuse _him_. But if _I_ +come to you, it's 'No, certainly not. Do you want to ruin me?'" + +"Dick!" + +"Then, will you let me have it?" + +Her face was drawn and haggard; she looked at him with piteous, +imploring eyes; and she hesitated. But the hesitation was caused by +dread of his wrath, and not by doubt as to her reply. + +"Dick. I am sorry. But I cannot do it." + +"Is that your answer?" + +"Yes, that is my answer." + +"Very good." He snatched up his hat, clapped it on the back of his head, +and stood for a few moments staring at her vindictively. Then, clenching +his fist and striking the table, he burst into a storm of abuse.... + +"But you'll be sorry for this, my grand lady. I'll make you pay for it +before I've done with you." This was after he had been raving at her for +a couple of minutes, and his voice had become hoarse. "You'll learn +better--or I'll know the reason why." + +Then he turned, flung open the door, and stamped out of the room. + +"What do you want here--you prying old hag? Stand on one side, unless +you wish me to pitch you down the stairs." + +Outside on the landing he had found Yates hastily moving away from the +dining-room door. Terrified by the noise, she had been irresistibly +drawn towards the room where her mistress was suffering. She longed to +aid, but did not dare. + +She came into the room now, and saw Mrs. Marsden leaning back in her +chair, white and nearly breathless, looking half dead. + +"Oh, ma'am--oh, ma'am! Whatever are we to do?" + +"It's all right, Yates. Don't distress yourself. It's nothing.... Mr. +Marsden lost his temper for the moment--but I assure you, it's all +right." + +"Let me get you upstairs to bed." + +"No, leave me alone, please. I am quite all right--but I'll stay here +quietly for a little while.... Go to bed, yourself. Don't sit up for +me." + +And her mistress was so firm that Yates felt reluctantly compelled to +obey orders. + +An hour passed; and Mrs. Marsden still sat before the fire, alone with +her thoughts in the silent house. And then a totally unexpected sound +startled her. The front door had been opened and shut; there were +footsteps on the stairs: the master of the house had returned, to resume +the conversation. + +But to resume it in a very different tone.--He took off his hat and +coat, came to the fire, warmed his hands; and then, resting an elbow on +the mantelpiece, smilingly looked down at his wife. + +"Jane, I'm penitent.... Really and truly, I'm ashamed of myself for +letting fly at you just now. But you did rile me awfully by saying you +hadn't _got_ the money. Anyhow, I've come back to ask for pardon." + +"Or have you come back to ask for the money again?" + +"No, no. Wash that out. If you don't want to part, there's no more to be +said. Forget all about it. Wash it all out. The word is, As you +were--eh?... Old Girl?" + +He was leaning down towards her, putting out his hand; and she was +shrinking away from him, watching him with terror in her eyes. Before +the hand could touch her face, she sprang from the chair and threw it +over, to make a barrier against his movement. + +"Janey! What's the matter with you? You naughty girl-- I've apologised, +haven't I? Let bygones be bygones--won't you?" + +She had run round the table, and was standing where he had stood an hour +ago. As he advanced she dodged away from him, keeping the length or the +breadth of the table between them. + +"Janey? What are you playing at? Hide and Seek--Catch who, Catch can? +How silly you are!" + +"Then stop. Don't touch me." + +"Well, I never!" He had stopped, and he laughed gaily. "What next? This +is a funny way to treat your lord and master. Janey, dear, you are +forgetting your duties. You're very, very naughty." + +He laughed again, and joined his hands in an attitude of devotion. + +"There, I'm praying to you--like a repulsed sweetheart, and not like a +husband who is being set at defiance. Dicky prays you to make it up. +Janey, be nice--be good.... Dear old Janey--don't you know what this +means?" + +"Yes--it means that you want the money very badly." + +Her face, that till now was so white, had flushed to a bright crimson. + +"What a horrid thing to say! I'd forgotten all about the money. Why +can't _you_ forget it?... No, hang the money. Money isn't everything.... +But, Jane, I've been thinking--for a long time--about the way you and I +are going on together." And he changed his tone again, and spoke with +affected solemnity. "It isn't _right_, you know. It has been going on a +good deal too long, Janey--and it's just how real estrangements +begin.... I don't know which of us is to blame--but I want to get back +into our jolly old ways." + +"That's impossible. We can never get back." + +"Oh, rot, my dear. Skittles to that. When we used to have a tiff--well, +we always made it up soon. It was like a lovers' squabble, and it only +made us fonder of each other.... Janey, I want to make it up." + +And with outstretched arms he advanced a step or two, pausing as she +retreated. + +"Oh, Janey--how can you?" + +Then he brought out all the old seductions--the half-closed eyes, from +which the simulated light of love was glittering; the half-opened lips, +that trembled with a mimic passion; the soft caressing tones, made to +vibrate with echoes of a feigned desire. To her it was all horrible--the +most miserable of failures, an effort to charm that merely produces +disgust. But he never was able to read her thoughts. He acted his little +comedy to the end--like the cockbird who has started his amatory dance +to fascinate the timid hen, he was perhaps too busy to observe results +till the dance had finished. + +"Dick--I implore you. Stop this hideous pretence." + +Then he saw how entirely he had failed. + +"All that is done with forever." Her face had become livid; she +shivered, and her mouth twitched, as if a wave of nausea had come +sweeping upward to her brain. "On my side it is dead--utterly dead;" and +she struck her breast with a closed hand. "On your side it never +existed.... So don't--don't think I can ever be deceived again." And she +spoke with a concentrated force that completely staggered him. "If you +didn't understand it--if you attempted to compel me, I believe--before +God--that I should go out and buy a revolver, and kill myself--or kill +you." + +"I say. Steady." + +He shrugged his shoulders, and turned away. Before he spoke again, he +had picked up the overturned chair and seated himself by the fire. + +"Very well, Jane. I twig;" and he laughed languidly. + +"I'm not such a cad as to make love to a lady against her will. I'm all +obedience. The next overture must come from you." + +She could read his thoughts always, though he could never read hers. +Moreover, he had ceased to act, and perhaps made no attempt to conceal +the sense of relief that sounded with such a brutal plainness. + +"But we can be friends, Dick--if you don't make it impossible. There +must be shreds of our self-respect left. We can patch them together--if +you don't tear them into smaller pieces." + +"Oh, you're having it all your own way now." + +"I'm bound to you; and I won't rebel--unless you drive me to despair. +I'm your wife still." As she said it, a sob choked the last words, and +tears suddenly filled her eyes. "I'm your wife still. I'll carry the +chain--until you consent to break it." + +"By Jove, you _are_ on the high rope to-night." + +"Now, about this money?" And she wiped her eyes, and blew her nose. +"You've proved to me that you must have it. You've shown that you +wouldn't shrink from any--from any ordeal in order to get it." + +He looked round with reawakened interest. + +"I do want it most damnably, or of course I wouldn't have asked you for +it." + +"Then for this once I suppose I must give it to you." + +"Jane! Do you really mean it?" + +"Yes. I'll give it you, if you'll tell me that you understand--if you'll +promise that this shall be the very last time.... But with or without +the promise, it will be useless to apply to me again." + +"There's my hand on it." + +He promised freely and readily. + + + + +XVIII + + +Next day she was too tired to get up for the morning service, but she +went to St. Saviour's church in the evening. + +More and more she loved the quiet hours spent in church. Here, and only +here, she was safely shut up in the world of her own thoughts, and could +feel certain that the thread of ideas would not be snapped by a rough +voice, or her nerves be shaken by the unanticipated violence of some +fresh misfortune. And St. Saviour's was even more restful at night than +in the daytime. + +She listened automatically to the beautiful opening prayer; and then she +retired deep into herself. + +Except for the chancel, the building was dimly lighted. The roof and the +empty galleries were almost hidden by shadows; lamps reflected +themselves feebly from the dark wood-work; and the people, sitting wide +apart from one another in the sparsely occupied pews, seemed vague black +figures and not strong living men and women. + +Each time that she rose, she looked from the semi-darkness towards the +brilliant light of the chancel--at the white surplices and the shining +faces of the choir, the golden tubes of the organ, and the soft radiance +that flashed from the brass of the altar rails. But all the while, +whether she sat down or stood up, her thoughts were struggling in +darkness and vainly seeking for the faintest glimmer of light. + +She thought of her husband and of the shop. He was holding her, would +hold her as a tied and gagged prisoner surrounded with the dark chaos +that he had caused. How could she save herself--or him? He concealed +facts from her; he told her lies; he never let her hear of a difficulty +until it was too late to find any means of escape. + +And she thought of the destruction of her whole lifework. She saw it +certainly approaching--the only possible end to such a partnership. All +that she had laboriously constructed was to be stupidly beaten down. + +The splendid old business would infallibly be ruined. No business, +however firmly established, can withstand the double attack of gross +mismanagement and reckless depletion of its funds. As she thought of it, +those words of her inveterately active rival echoed and re-echoed. A +leak, and no chance of stopping the leak--disaster foreseen, but not to +be averted. The leak was too great. All hands at the pumps would not +save the ship. + +A new and if possible more poignant bitterness filled her mind. It was +another long-drawn agony that lay before her; and it seemed to her, +looking back at the older pain, that this was almost worse. Confusion, +entanglement, darkness--no light, no hope, no chance of opening the +track that leads from chaos to security. Bitter, oh, most bitter--to +taste the failure one has not deserved, to work wisely and be frustrated +by folly, to watch passively while all that one has created and believed +to be permanent is slowly demolished and obliterated. + +Quite automatically, she had stood up again, and was looking towards the +brightly illuminated choir. They were singing the appointed psalms now; +and, as half consciously she listened to each chanted verse, the words +wove themselves into the burden of her thoughts.... + +... "They have compassed me about also + +... and fought against me without cause." + +Altogether without cause. There was the pity of it. If only he would +curb his insensate greed, put some check or limit to his excesses, the +business would soon recover from the shaking he had given it; and then +there would be enough to maintain him in idleness for the rest of his +days. She would work for him, if he would but let her. + +... "For the love that I had unto them, lo, they take now my contrary +part." + +Yes, in all things he would frustrate her efforts. + +... "Thus have they rewarded me evil for good; and hatred for my good +will." + +The good will! How much value had he knocked off the good will already? +If they tried to turn themselves into a company to-morrow, what price +could they put down for it? Soon there would be no good will left. + +"Set thou an ungodly man to be ruler over him; and let Satan stand at +his right hand." + +Ah! There spoke the implacable voice of the Hebrew king. No mercy for +the ungodly. + +"When sentence is given upon him, let him be condemned, and let his +prayer be turned into sin." + +Ah! There again. + +"Let his days be few; and let another take his office." + +She listened now fully, as the verses of condemnation followed one +another in a dreadful sequence. That was the spirit of the Old +Testament. The God of those days was anthropomorphic, a god of battles, +a leader, a fighter: the friend of our friends, but the foe to our foes. +He taught one to fight against the most desperate odds--and not to +forgive enemies, but to punish them. + +And to-night the spirit in her own breast responded to the ancient +barbarity of creed. That softer doctrine of the Gospel, with its +soothingly mystical miracles of forgiveness, was not substantial enough +for the stern facts of life. She felt too sore and too sick for the aid +that comes veiled with inscrutable symbolism, and seems to martyrize +when it seeks to save. All that faith was beautiful but dim, like the +unsubstantiality of these church columns ascending through the shadows +to the darkness that hid the roof. The reality was before her eyes, +where in the strong light those men stood firmly on their own feet, and, +singing the grand old psalm, craved swift retribution for the ungodly. + +These harder thoughts soon faded. As always happened, the hour in church +did her good. Self-pity, except as the most transient emotion, was well +nigh impossible to her. Courage was always renewing itself, and she +could not long retard the heightening glow that succeeded each fit of +depression. + +After all, she was in no worse a fix than when her first husband threw a +ruined business on her hands. While there's life there's hope. + +To her surprise she found Mr. Prentice waiting for her outside the +church porch. + +"Good evening, Mr. Prentice;" and she looked at him anxiously. "Nothing +wrong, I hope?" + +"No, no," said Mr. Prentice jovially. "The fact is, my wife is on the +sick list again; and as I'm at a loose end, I've come round to ask if +you could give me a bit of supper." + +The real fact was that earlier in the day he had seen Mr. Marsden +driving to the railway station with a valise and dressing-case on the +box of the fly. He knew that this gentleman was by now safe in London, +and he had grasped an opportunity of seeing his old friend alone. He +desired, and intended if possible, to cheer her up and put new heart +into her. + +"Come along then." She was obviously pleased to accept his company. "But +I'm afraid there won't be much supper--because Richard is away +to-night." + +"I'm not hungry. I over-ate myself at dinner--I always over-eat on +Sundays. Bread and cheese will do me grandly." + +"We'll try to produce something better than that"; and Mrs. Marsden +bustled up the stairs, calling loudly for Yates. + +Yates produced some cold meat; and Mr. Prentice said he thought it +delicious. Yates herself waited upon them. The cupboard that contained +the master's strong drink was of course locked; but there was a supply +of good soda water accessible, and Yates ran out and bought some +doubtful whisky. Mr. Prentice, however, declared that the whisky was +excellent. His kind face beamed; he chaffed Yates, and made her toss her +head and giggle as she filled his glass; he chatted gaily and easily +with his hostess;--he was so friendly, so genial, so thoroughly welcome, +that this was the happiest supper seen in St. Saviour's Court for a very +long time. + +No fire had been lighted in the drawing-room, so when their meal was +done they sat together by the dining-room fire. + +"What pleasant hours," said Mr. Prentice, looking round at the familiar +walls, "what pleasant, pleasant hours I've spent in this room. Those +autumn dinners--with Mears and the rest! How I used to enjoy them!" + +"You helped us to enjoy them." + +"You've discontinued them altogether--haven't you?" + +"Yes. Not without regret, both my husband and I decided that we could +not keep up that little festival. Of course you know, we have been +obliged to cut down expenses wherever possible. The times are not very +good." + +Of course he knew very well all about her difficulties in the house and +in the shop. + +"Better times are coming," he said cheerily. "I hear on all sides of the +low ebb of trade. It's a regular commercial crisis. But things are going +to improve. The rotten enterprises will go down, and the really sound +ones will come out stronger than ever." + +"Oh, I forgot. You like to smoke--but I'm afraid the cigars are locked +up, too." + +"I've plenty in my pocket--if you're sure you don't mind." + +She laughed amiably. "How can you ask? I'm quite smoke-dried. I let +Richard smoke all over the house." + +While he cut his cigar and lit it, he thought how wonderful she +was--with the mingled pride and courage that allowed her always to speak +of her Richard as if he had been everything that a husband should be. + +He sat smoking for a few minutes in a comfortable silence, while she, +with her hands placidly clasped upon her lap, gazed reflectively at the +fire. + +"Now," he said, holding his cigar over the fender and gently tapping it +until the whitened ash fell, "there are one or two little things that +I'd like to talk to you about." + +She raised her eyes, and looked at him attentively. + +"Nothing really worrying," he said quickly. "And something which you'll +consider very much the reverse. But I'll keep that for the last.... I +had a call the other day from your son-in-law, Mr. Kenion." + +"Did you?" + +"Yes. Amongst other matters, he went for me about the marriage +settlement;" and Mr. Prentice laughed and nodded his head. "You know, he +says that Enid ought to have been given power to raise money for his +advancement in life. His friends had told him it is always done, when +the wife has the money; and he thought that the trustees ought to manage +it somehow--because he has been offered a great opening. You'll smile +when you hear what it was." + +"What was it?" + +"There was a fellow called Whitehouse who used to be Young's +riding-master; and it seems he has made some money in London, and set up +a smart livery stable--and he proposed that Mr. Kenion should join +forces with him. Mr. Kenion was to go about the country, buying +horses--and so on.... But I only mentioned this to amuse you. Of course +I said Bosh--not to be thought of." + +"It does not sound very promising, or very reputable." + +"Besides, where did Enid come in? Was she to accompany him, or to stay +moping at home by herself?... Do you see much of them out there?" + +Mrs. Marsden confessed that she had not as yet ever seen the Kenions in +their home. + +"It isn't that there's the least bad blood between us," she hastened to +add. "No, dear Enid and I are now the best of friends. Ever since her +marriage she has been sweet to me. But life rushes on so fast--and +married women are not free agents. When Richard is away, I consider +myself responsible in the shop." + +"Just so." And Mr. Prentice, puffing out some smoke, looked at the +ceiling. "By the by, that's rather an awkward dispute that Mr. Marsden +has let himself into with those German people." + +"What is the dispute?" + +"Hasn't he told you about it?" + +"I don't seem to remember--but no doubt he told me." + +"Well, if he hasn't it's a good sign: because it probably means that he +intends to act on my advice after all." + +Then he explained the odious mess that Marsden had made of his American +office equipments. It appeared that, when arranging to sell these +wretched things for a handsome commission, he had undertaken to send his +principals accurate monthly reports and immediately account for all +moneys received; and had further bound himself, in default of carrying +out the precise provisions of the agreement, to take over at catalogue +price the entire stock that had been entrusted to his care. But he had +sent no reports; he had forgotten all his undertakings; he had received +cash for three small articles and had never furnished any account; and +the Germans said the goods now belonged to him, and not to them. + +Mr. Prentice declared that it was the most imprudent agreement he had +ever read; and, although speaking guardedly, he implied that in his +opinion no one but a fool would have signed it. But there it was, signed +and stamped; and he did not see how you could wriggle out of it. + +"Your husband vowed that he wouldn't give in to them. But I told him, +from the first, that he hadn't a leg to stand on." + +"I'll persuade him not to go to law about it." + +"Yes, I'm sure it will be best to settle the wrangle. You see, he took +such a high tone with them that they've turned nasty--talk big about +obtaining goods under false pretences, and so on. But that's +bluster--they'll be glad enough to get their money." + +She remembered her thoughts in church. It was hopeless. He kept her in +the dark. No business could stand it--the double attack: bleeding and +buffeting at the same time. He would destroy their credit too; these +continual blunders and the attempts to repudiate obligations would +become known; and the firm would acquire a bad name. + +"Don't look so grave, my dear. Your husband must pay up, and make the +best of it.... And now for my _bonne bouche_." Mr. Prentice's eyes +twinkled with kindly merriment; and he spoke slowly, in immense +enjoyment of his words. "This is something from which you cannot fail to +derive benefit. It is what I have always been hoping for. It will +altogether relieve the pressure." + +"What is it?" + +"Well--immediately facing you there is a large and flourishing +organization, known to the world as--" + +"O, Mr. Prentice!" Her face had brightened, but now it clouded once +more. "Don't say you are going to tell me again that Bence is smashing." + +"Yes, my dear, I am. A most tremendous smash!" + +And Mr. Prentice repeated the old story in a slightly altered form. +According to his certain knowledge, Archibald Bence was vainly striving +to raise money--was moving heaven and earth to obtain even a +comparatively small sum. About a year ago, one of Bence's bad brothers +had been bought out of the business; then the other brother died, and +Bence was compelled to satisfy the claims of the widow and children; and +since that period he had been drawing nearer and nearer to his +catastrophe. Now he was done for, unless he could get some capital to +replace what had been taken from him. For years he had been working with +the finest possible margin of cash to support his credit. At last he had +cut it too fine. The wholesale trade were tired of the risk they had run +in dealing with him. They would not supply him any further, unless he +showed them first his penny for each reel of cotton or yard of tape. + +"But what makes you believe all this?" + +"I am not free to mention the sources of my information. There is such a +thing as backstairs knowledge." + +Mr. Prentice nodded his head, and smiled enigmatically, as he said this. +Then he went on to speak of the solicitors who acted for Bence. Messrs. +Hyde & Collins were held in supreme contempt by old-fashioned Mr. +Prentice. They were--as he never scrupled to say--sharp practitioners, +shady beggars, dirty dogs; and at the offices in the side street that +gives entrance to Trinity Square, they looked after the dubious affairs +of a lot of shabby clients. It was a bad sign when a Mallingbridge +citizen went to Hyde & Collins: it meant that his finances were shaky, +or that he had become involved in some disreputable transaction. + +"It was enough for me," said Mr. Prentice, "to know that Bence was in +their hands. I guessed six years ago what would come of it." + +"Yes, but guesses, guesses! What are guesses?" + +"My dear, you have only to _look_ at Bence now. It is written in his +face--a desperate man." + +And Mr. Prentice reminded Mrs. Marsden of the fact that from his office +windows he had an uninterrupted view down the side street to the front +door of Hyde & Collins. Well, every day, and two or three times a day, +Archibald Bence could be seen hurrying to his solicitors--a man driven +by despair, a gold-seeker amidst unyielding rocks, a poor famished +little rat scampering to and fro in quest of food. + +"Of course," said Mr. Prentice, with a touch of pity in his voice, "it's +his brothers who have done for him. They have literally sucked him dry. +Really, if it wasn't for _you_, I could almost feel sorry for him. But +the dirty tricks he has played you put him out of court." + +"I wonder," said Mrs. Marsden, thoughtfully looking into the fire. + +"Don't wonder," said Mr. Prentice jovially. "Just wait and see. You +won't have long to wait." + +"I wish you could find out for certain." + +"I _am_ certain.... Well, you always get one's little secrets out of +one. I've no right to mention this. But Hyde & Collins recently +approached one of my own clients--to find out if he had more money than +brains. Coupled with the other information, that clinches it.... I stake +my reputation--for what it's worth--that unless Mr. Archibald procures +help within the next fortnight, he will have to put up his shutters." + +"A fortnight," said Mrs. Marsden absently. + +Then they talked of something else, and soon Mr. Prentice bade his +hostess good-night. + +It had been a pleasant evening for her--a respite from the storm and +stress of the days. But when she slept, the respite was immediately +over; in dreams she fell back upon doubt and difficulty; in troubled and +confused dreams she was desperately fighting for life. + + + + +XIX + + +At last Mrs. Marsden went to see her daughter, and in the next few +months she paid many visits. + +Enid had written, asking her to come as soon as possible, and giving her +a reason why she must not refuse this invitation. Enid had just +discovered that she was going to have a baby. The happy event was not +expected until the spring; but Enid said she longed to see her mother +without an hour's avoidable delay. + +Mrs. Marsden telegraphed her reply. She would come out to-morrow, +Thursday--early closing day--directly after luncheon. + +In the old days she would have driven in one of Mr. Young's luxurious +landaus; but now she travelled by train, in a second class carriage, and +walked the mile and a half from Haggart's Road station to the Kenions' +converted farmhouse. The day was bright and fine; and the air felt quite +mild, although there had been a sharp frost overnight. + +She had hoped that Enid might feel up to walking, and perhaps meet her +at the station--or somewhere on the road, if the station was too far. +But she saw no friendly face on the straight road, along which she +plodded with resolute vigour. + +Two road-menders near a quaint little stone church directed her to the +house. It was situated on sufficiently high ground, at the end of an +accommodation lane; and, as she passed through the gate and walked up +the little carriage drive, she thought it all looked very nice and +comfortable. The house itself seemed old and rather humble--less +attractive than she had anticipated; but the large outbuildings gave +the place a certain air of importance and gentility. She caught a +glimpse of the capacious stableyard, saw a groom crossing it, and heard +voices from an invisible saddle-room--Mr. Kenion's voice, as she +believed among the rest. The thick-growing ivy on the walls was pretty, +but it would have been the better for cutting; and the garden, on this +side of the house, appeared to be sadly neglected. + +The front door stood open; and while she waited for somebody to answer +the bell, she had an opportunity of glancing at the decorations of the +hall. They had all been paid for by her purse, so she was fairly +entitled to look at them critically if she pleased. She liked the +appearance of the painted ceiling-beams, the panelled dado, the modern +basket grate with the blue and white tiles; but she did not so much like +the sporting prints, the heads and tails of foxes, the hats and coats +lying so untidily on all the chairs, the immense number of whips and +sticks, and the ugly glass case that held horses' bits and men's spurs +and stirrups. _That_ was a decoration more suitable to Mr. Kenion's +harness room than to Mrs. Kenion's hall. She could hear the servants +talking somewhere quite near; and yet they could not hear the bell, +although she had rung it loudly enough three times. + +Presently, as if by chance, a maid showed herself. + +"Not at home," said the maid briskly. + +Mrs. Marsden gave her name, and explained that the mistress of the house +would certainly be at home to her. + +"Very good, ma'am," said the maid, doubtfully. "Step this way, and I'll +tell her. She's upstairs, lying down, I think." + +Then Mrs. Marsden was shown into what she supposed to be the +drawing-room, and left waiting there. There was something rather +chilling and disappointing in the whole manner of her reception at the +home that she had provided for Enid and her husband. + +She was allowed plenty of time to examine more ceiling beams and blue +tiles, to admire photographs in silver frames, or to read the sporting +newspapers and magazines that littered every table. The room was +pretty--but dreadfully untidy. She walked over to one of the windows, +and looked out. There had been no greater attempt at gardening on this +side of the house than on the other: the few shrubs were overgrown; the +gravel paths had almost disappeared under moss and weeds. + +Beyond iron railings she saw the grass fields that Enid had said were +like a park. As a park they were completely disfigured by some ugly +buildings with corrugated iron roofs--really hideous erections, which +she guessed to be horseboxes. In each meadow there was an artificially +made jump for the horses; and, looking farther away, she saw that these +sham obstacles together with the natural banks and hedges formed a +miniature steeplechase course. + +With a sigh she turned from the windows. Indoors and out of doors there +was too much evidence of the husband's amusements, and not enough +evidence of the wife's tastes and occupations. The whole place was +altogether too much like a bachelor's home to please Enid's mother. + +Suddenly the door opened, and Kenion slouched in. He had his hands in +the pockets of his riding breeches; and he looked gloomy, worried, +anything but glad to see the visitor. It was the first time that they +had met since the wedding, and it proved rather an unfortunate meeting. + +"How do you do--Mr. Charles?" + +"Oh, you've come after all. You got the news, I suppose?" + +"Yes, indeed I have." + +"Beastly unlucky, isn't it?" + +"What's that?" + +"But I _am_ unlucky." + +"_Unlucky_, Mr. Kenion!" Mrs. Marsden had flushed; and her face plainly +expressed the anger and contempt that she felt. + +"No one can say I'm to blame," Kenion went on gloomily and grumblingly. +"I'd have given fifty pounds to prevent its happening. It wasn't _my_ +fault. I knew she was as clever as a cat. I thought she _couldn't_ make +a mistake." + +"Mr. Kenion," said Mrs. Marsden hotly, "if you aren't ashamed to speak +like this, I am ashamed to listen to you." + +"Eh--what?" + +"Where is Enid?" And she moved towards the door. "I think your attitude +is unmanly--mean--and _despicable_; and I wish--yes, I wish Enid's child +was going to have a better father." + +"Eh--what?" + +"If you had a spark of proper feeling, you'd rejoice, you'd thank God +that this--this great blessing was coming to her." + +Kenion suddenly bent his thin back, and became completely doubled up +with a fit of cackling laughter. + +"It's too comic," he spluttered. "Best thing I ever heard--Ought to be +sent to _Punch_!" + +"If you are joking, Mr. Kenion, I'm sorry for your ideas of fun." + +"No. No--don't be angry. You'll laugh when you see the joke. Of course +you"--and again his own laughter interrupted him--"you--you were talking +about Enid's baby.... Well, _I_ was talking about Mrs. Bulford's mare." + +Then he explained the disaster that had befallen them. A very valuable +animal, the property of a friend, had been placed in his charge to train +it for a point-to-point race; and this morning it had broken its back +over one of the artificial jumps. + +"And we were all so upset--Enid has been crying about it--that I sent +you a telegram, telling you what had happened, and asking you not to +come out to-day. But you never got it really?" + +"No, it must have arrived after I started." + +"Well, I'm glad you've come--for you have given me a good laugh. Though +Heaven knows"--and he became gloomy again--"it isn't a laughing matter. +I wonder I was able to laugh." + +Then Enid came into the room. There were red rims round her eyes, and +her nose seemed swollen; evidently she had shed many tears. + +"Mother dear, isn't this dreadful?" + +"Yes, dear." + +"I'm so sorry for poor Charles." + +"So am I, dear," said Mrs. Marsden. "But we must be glad that he himself +escaped without injury." + +"Oh, I wasn't riding her," said Charles. + +"No," said Enid. "Tom was riding her--and he has broken his collar +bone." + +"Yes," said Charles, plunging his hands deep in his pockets and hunching +his shoulders. "That's another bit of luck. My second-horseman laid up, +just when I most wanted him." + +"It was the frost in the ground," said Enid sadly. "All the frost seemed +to be gone;" and she turned to her husband. "Charlie, it wasn't your +fault. Mrs. Bulford _can't_ blame you." + +"No, I don't believe she will. She's a stunner--but Bulford may kick up +a fuss." + +"Oh, how can he? He knew that the mare had to be trained." + +Mrs. Marsden made this first visit a very short one. The host and +hostess were too much perturbed and agitated to entertain visitors. + + +Next time she came out, Enid was less preoccupied with her husband's +affairs, and able to talk freely of her own hopes. She clung to her +mother affectionately, and once again was the new Enid who had knelt by +the sofa and sobbed her gratitude for past kindness. + +Each kept up the pretence of being satisfied and contented in her +married life. Enid never had a bad word to say of Charles; and Mrs. +Marsden spoke of Richard with as yet unabated courage. In fact there was +probably no one with whom she was so very careful to maintain a decorous +appearance of connubial happiness as with the daughter who, by the light +of her own experience, would most surely detect the imposture. + +But behind the dual reticences there was an ever increasing sympathy. +The hard facts which neither would admit were drawing them nearer and +nearer together. So that it seemed sometimes that on all subjects except +the two forbidden subjects they were now absolutely of the same mind. + +When Enid noticed the careworn, harassed look in her mother's face, she +used at once to think, "That brute has committed some fresh villainy +during the week." + +But what she said was something after this style: "Mother dear, I'm +afraid you have been working too hard"; or "Mother dear, you ought to +have had a fly from the station. I am afraid the walk has fatigued you." + +And when Mrs. Marsden saw Enid's worried, nervous manner, the traces of +more tears about the pretty grey eyes, she thought, "This selfish beast +has been tormenting her again. I suppose he does everything short of +beating her; and perhaps he'll do that before very long." + +But she merely said, "Enid, my dear, I hope you have had no more bother +about the horses. You mustn't let Charles' worries set you +fretting--especially _now_." + +The indications of Mr. Kenion's selfishness were so painfully plain that +little penetration was required to understand the discomfort that they +caused. No wife, however loyal, could feel any peace or comfort with +such a self-centred, insensible, shallow-pated companion. + +Whenever he appeared he made Mrs. Marsden supremely uncomfortable. When +indoors he was always restless. He wandered aimlessly about the house, +coming in and out of rooms, fidgetting and bothering about +trifles--behaving generally like the spoilt and rather vicious child who +on wet days renders existence intolerable to all the grown-up people +compelled to remain under the same roof with him. + +"Hullo! More tea!" And he would come lounging after the maid who was +bringing in the tea-things. "It seems as if you are having tea from +morning to night. What? I tell Enid she drinks a lot too much tea--and +it only makes her jumpy and peevish." + +He himself drank very little tea; and Mrs. Marsden gathered that not the +least of Enid's anxieties was occasioned by his intemperance. But this +was a summer trouble. In the hunting season men who regularly ride hard +can also regularly drink hard without apparently hurting themselves. + +Once when Mrs. Marsden was about to set out for her lonely tramp to the +station, Enid with some very pretty words asked her for a photograph. + +"There's not one of you in all the house, mother--and I want one now +badly.... If it is to be a girl, I want her to be like you--in all +things, mother--and not like me." + +Mrs. Marsden was more deeply touched by this request than she cared to +show. She kissed Enid smilingly, patted her hand, and promised to send +out a portrait. + +There was one in the drawing-room at home, which no doubt Mr. Marsden +could spare. + +Then, while putting on her gloves and talking cheerfully, she glanced at +Enid's collection of photographs in the silver frames. + +"Who is that lady, Enid?" + +"Oh, that's Mamie Bulford." + +Several of the frames contained pictures of this important personage, +who appeared to be a hard-visaged but rather handsome woman of thirty or +thirty-five. She was enormously rich, Enid said, and madly keen about +hunting; and she and her husband lived at a beautiful place called +Widmore Towers, two miles the other side of Linkfield village. This year +Charlie was acting as her pilot in the hunting field; and four horses +were kept at the Towers solely for the pilot's use. + +"Charlie," said Enid, "is such a magnificent pilot--for anyone who means +going. And Mamie _will_ be there, or thereabouts, don't you know, all +the time." + +"Does not Mr. Bulford go out hunting?" + +"Major Bulford! Yes, but he's crocked--stiff leg--so he hunts on +wheels--follows in a dog-cart. That's rather fun, you know. You see a +lot of sport that way." + +"Yes, dear, I remember you said you were going to do that, yourself." + +And Mrs. Marsden asked about the pony-cart that was to have been +procured for Enid. + +But the pony-cart had become impossible--and Enid vaguely hinted at hard +times, difficulty of finding spare cash for expenses that were not +urgently necessary, and so on. Besides, it was a perambulator and not a +pony carriage that Mr. Kenion must now buy. + + +The baby--a girl--was born early in April. + +Mrs. Marsden tried but failed to get a fly at Haggart's Road station, +and almost ran for the mile and a half that still separated her from her +daughter. + +Everything was all right; mother and child were doing well; it was the +finest and most beautiful infant that had ever been seen. The +grandmother, eagerly scanning its tiny features, was gratified by +recognizing the mother's grey eyes and what might be taken for the first +immature sketch of her long nose. She was, if possible, more pleased by +her inability to trace the faintest resemblance to the father. + +When in a few days she came again, it was to find Enid radiantly happy +and picking up strength delightfully. And at this visit Mrs. Marsden's +heart was made to overflow by the things that Enid said to her. + +Amongst the things was the emphatic statement that the child should be +called Jane, and that her grandmother should also be her godmother. + +Mr. Kenion accepted his blessing phlegmatically. + +"Pity it isn't a boy," he said to Mrs. Marsden. + +Enid said he hid his delight. It was a pose. He was really revelling in +the joy of being a father. + +But he had not yet bought the perambulator. He asked his mother-in-law's +advice--because, as he said, she was "up in that sort of thing." Did +people hire perambulators, or buy them right out? Could one get a decent +perambulator in Mallingbridge, or would one have to go fagging up to +London? + +Mrs. Marsden bought the perambulator, and sent it with her love in the +carrier's cart; and Mr. Kenion told Enid that he hoped her mother +hadn't given much for it, because it didn't look worth much. + +Once, before the christening, Enid slightly attacked those diplomatic +barriers of reserve that had been established by tacit consent between +her and her mother. + +She nervously and timidly asked if Mr. Marsden would mind not coming to +the little feast. + +But Mrs. Marsden was on the defensive in a moment. Even at this +auspicious and sentimental time she could not permit any breach in her +barrier. She said that her husband was generally considered very good +company, and he would have no wish to go where he was not wanted. + +"It is only," said Enid, "because I should be afraid of Charles and him +not getting on well together--and I do so want everything to go off +happily. You know, he wrote Charles a very indignant letter about the +County Club." + +"He felt rather sore on that subject, dear--and so did I." + +"Really, mother, Charles did all he could; but they made him withdraw +the candidature. Of course it's absurd--but they are so severe with +regard to retail trade." + +"Well, be all that as it may," said Mrs. Marsden, "you need not disturb +your mind about Richard. He could not have come in any case. I told him +the date--and he is not free on that day." + + +But for Mr. Charles, it might have been a satisfactory christening. + +He was a most uncomfortable host; continually getting up from the +luncheon table, walking about the room, worrying the maid-servants; and +wounding Enid by his facetiously disparaging remarks about the food. + +"Our meals are always rather a picnic," he told the guests; "so you must +look out for yourselves.... I say, how am I supposed to carve this? +What? A pudding! What's the good of dabbing a lot of sweets in front of +people, before they've had any meat? Enid, isn't there any fish? I +thought you said there was curried sole;" and he got up, and rambled +away to the sideboard. + +"Charles," said Enid plaintively, "this is the curry--here." + +"What? Then fire ahead with it.... But where's Harriet disappeared to?" + +"She is fetching the cutlets--and the other things. Do sit down." + +"Oh, Harriet, here you are.... Where the dickens have you hidden the +wine? This seems to be a very _dry_ party;" and he gave his stupid +cackling laugh just behind Mrs. Marsden's back. "Oh, here we are. Now +then, ladies and gentlemen, hock, claret, whisky and soda? Name your +tipple. And please excuse short-comings." + +But in truth there were no short-comings. Poor Enid had tried so hard to +have everything really nice--the best glass and china, pretty flowers, +and dainty appetising food, sufficient for twenty people and good enough +for princes. And she looked so charming at the head of the table--her +face rounder and plumper than it used to be, her figure fuller, her +complexion delicately glowing, her eyes shining softly,--the young +mother, in what should have been the hour of her undimmed glory. Mrs. +Marsden, as she listened to the cackling fool behind her chair and saw +the shadow of pain take the brightness from Enid's face, bridled and +grew warm. + +"Whisky and soda, Mrs. B?... Father, put a name to it." + +Mrs. Bulford--a hardy brunette, richly attired, and undoubtedly +handsome, but older than she looked in her photographs--was to be the +other godmother. She and the host were evidently on excellent terms, +understanding each other's form of humour, possessing little secret +jokes of their own--so that every time Charles cackled she had a +suffocating laugh ready. The hostess called her "Mamie," and even "Mamie +dear"; but Mrs. Marsden surmised that Enid did not really like her, and +had not wanted her for a godmother. + +Old Mr. Kenion--the vicar of Chapel Norton--was white-haired, thin, and +fragile; and Mrs. Marsden thought he seemed to be a good, weak, +over-burdened man. His manner was mild, courteous, kindly. Mrs. Kenion +was shabbily pretentious, with faded airs of fashion and dull echoes of +distinguished voices. They had brought one of their daughters with +them--a spinster of uncertain age in a tailor-made gown and a masculine +collar. The curate of the small stone church made up the party. + +But old Mr. Kenion would read the christening service, and not this +local clergyman. + +"Yes," he said, mildly beaming across the table at Mrs. Marsden, "I am +to have the privilege to hold my grandchild at the font." + +And then presently, when the servant had poured out some hock for him, +he addressed Mrs. Marsden again. + +"May I advert to a practice that has fallen into disuse, and drink a +glass of wine with you?... To our better acquaintance, Mrs. Marsden;" +and he bowed in quite a pleasant old-world style. + +"Bravo, governor," said Charles. "Fill, and fill again. Nothing like +toasts to keep the bottle moving." + +"Yes, I'm sure," said the vicar's wife, with patronising urbanity; "so +very pleased to make your acquaintance--at _last_, don't you know. We +only _saw_ one another at the wedding." And while Charles and Mrs. +Bulford took alternate parts in the telling of an anecdote, she +continued to talk to Mrs. Marsden. "Of course I have known you in your +_public_ capacity for years. My girls and I have always been devoted to +Thompson's. 'Get it at Thompson's'--that's what they always said." She +was honestly trying to be agreeable. Indeed she particularly wished to +please. "All my girls said it. Is it not so, Emily?... She does not +hear. She is too much amused by her brother's story.... But that was +always the cry. 'Get it at Thompson's!' And I'm sure we never failed at +Thompson's." + +"Oh, shut up, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford, loudly. "You're spoiling the +point. Let me go on by myself." + +"Yes, that's what you often say--but you're glad to have me ahead of you +when you think there's wire about." + +"Will you be quiet, Pontius?" + +And Mrs. Bulford was allowed to finish the anecdote in her own way. Then +she suffocated, and Charles cackled; but no one else, not even Mrs. +Kenion, could see the point of the little tale. + +The local curate, a shy, pink-complexioned young man, had scarcely +talked at all; but now he was endeavouring to make a little polite +conversation with Enid. He said he hoped the church would be found quite +warm; he had given orders that the hot-water apparatus should be set +working in good time; and he thought they were, moreover, fortunate to +have such genial bright weather. Sometimes April days proved +treacherously cold. Then he inquired if the godfather was to be present +at the ceremony. + +"No," said Charles, answering for his wife. "I am to be +proctor--proxy--what d'ye call it?--for Jack Gascoigne, a pal of +mine.... You must teach me the business, Mrs. B." + +"All right, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford gaily. "Copy me." + +"You will not come to the church in that costume," said old Kenion, with +sudden gravity. + +"Why not? Ain't I smart enough? These are a new pair of breeches." + +"Of course you must change your clothes, Pontius," said Mrs. Bulford. "I +wouldn't be seen in church with you like that." + +Then old Kenion asked a question which Mrs. Marsden would herself have +wished to ask. + +"Why do you call my son Pontius?" + +"You'd better not ask her to tell you, father. She has been very badly +brought up--and she'll shock you." + +But Mrs. Bulford insisted upon telling the old vicar. + +"I call him Pontius because he is my _pilot_.... Don't you see? Pontius +Pilot!... There, I _have_ shocked him;" and she gave her suffocating +laugh and Charles began to cackle. + +His father looked distressed and confused; the curate, with the pink of +his complexion greatly intensified, examined the design on a dessert +plate; Mrs. Marsden frowned and bit her lip; old Mrs. Kenion opened a +voluble discourse on the virtues of fresh air for young children. + +"I hope, Enid, that you will bring up the little one as a hardy plant. +Windows wide--floods of air! I beg of you not to coddle her. I never +would allow any of my children to be coddled...." + +Charles sat dilatorily drinking port after luncheon; and, while he +changed his clothes, everybody was kept waiting with the baby at the +church. + +That is to say, everybody except Mrs. Bulford. She stayed at the house, +having promised to hustle Charles along as quickly as possible. But a +shower of rain detained them; and it seemed an immense time before they +finally appeared on the church path, walking arm in arm, under one +umbrella. + +When the service was over, and a group had assembled round the +perambulator at the church gate, and all were offering congratulations +to the proud mother, old Mrs. Kenion gently drew Mrs. Marsden aside and +spoke to her in urgent entreaty. + +"Now that they've given you a dear little granddaughter, you _will_ do +something for them, won't you?" + +"But I think," said Mrs. Marsden, rather grimly, "that I _have_ done +something for them." + +"Yes, but you'll do a little _more_ now, won't you?" + +"I fear that your son must not rely on me for further aid." + +"Oh, _do_," said Mrs. Kenion earnestly. "Poor Charles would not care to +ask you himself. So I determined to take my courage in both hands, and +speak to you with absolute candour. It _is_ such a tight fit for +him--and _now_, with nurses and all the rest of it! We would come to the +rescue so gladly, if we could--but, alas, how can we? You do know that +we would, don't you, dear Mrs. Marsden?... No, please, not a definite +answer now. Only think about it. Your kind heart will plead for them +more eloquently than any words of mine."... + +Mrs. Marsden had given the nurse a sovereign. She hurried back to the +church, and tipped the clerk and the pew-owner. Then she trudged off to +the railway station; and went home, like Sisyphus or the Danaides, to +take up her apparently impossible task. + + + + +XX + + +Two years had passed, and the grand old shop was plainly going down. + +It could not satisfy chance customers; it had begun to lose its +staunchest supporters. Gradually and fatally, cruel words were going +round the town and far out into the country villages. "It isn't what it +used to be.... It has had its day.... Nothing lasts forever." + +Fewer and fewer carriages of the local gentry were to be seen standing +outside its doors. Farmers' wives, who for more than a decade had driven +into Mallingbridge and spent Saturday afternoons picking and choosing at +Thompson's, now did all their shopping somewhere else. The whole world +seemed to be discovering that you could get whatever you wanted quite as +well and more cheaply somewhere else. And from somewhere else, your +goods--no matter where you lived, whether far or near--were delivered +free of charge, with marvellous celerity, and "returnable if damaged." + +Inside the sinking shop every assistant too well knew that horrid +expression, "Somewhere else." + +It paralysed the tongues of the shop girls; it struck them stupid. Each +time they heard it, their courage waned, their hopes drooped; they gave +up struggling. + +"Thank you, I won't trouble you any more." + +"Not the least trouble, I assure you." + +"No, you're very good--but I'm in a hurry. I'll try somewhere else." + +"Very well, madam." + +A lost customer--no more to be done. + +Yet the assistants had before their eyes a fine example of unflagging +courage. Of one of the partners at least, it could not be said that +there was supineness, neglect, or bungling practices to account for the +long-continued and increasing depression that all the employees were +feeling so severely. + +Of the other partner, the less said the better. They could not indeed +find words adequate for the expression of their opinions in regard to +_him_. + +When Mrs. Marsden, bravely facing the situation and calmly acknowledging +the logic of facts, had declared that it was imperatively necessary to +reduce what in railway management are called running expenses, and at +all hazards bring expenditure and receipts again to a proper working +ratio, the dominant partner selfishly jumped at the idea, converted it +into a fresh weapon of destruction, and used it with wicked force. + +Cut down the staff? Yes, this is a luminous notion. Where there have +been five assistants at a counter, let us have three--or only two. "We +must weed 'em out, Mears. No more cats than can catch mice! I'll soon +weed 'em out." + +It seemed to the people behind the counters that he took a diabolical +pleasure in the weeding-out process. Instead of getting through his +dismissals as quickly as possible, he kept the poor souls in +suspense--giving the sack to two or three every day; so that these black +weeks were a reign of terror, during which one rose each morning with +the dreadful doubt whether one would survive till night. + +When at last the executions ceased, almost every one of the important +heads had fallen. Why pay high wages for subordinate chieftains when the +over-lords can supervise for nothing? Mrs. Marsden received instructions +to keep an eye on all departments; shop-walkers were made by giving +counter-hands additional duties without additional pay; and Mr. Mears +and Miss Woolfrey could respectively be considered as remaining in +managerial charge of the whole ground floor and the whole first floor. + +The gigantic basement was in charge of darkness, damp, and the cold +spirit of failure. Marsden never spoke of it himself, and might not be +reminded about it by others. He wished to forget the deep hole into +which he had poured so much irretrievable gold. + +Miss Woolfrey could not boast of having been promoted: she had merely +survived: she obtained neither recompense nor praise for doing the extra +work that a stern master had pushed into her way. If Mr. Mears had not +been driven out into the street, it was because Marsden, whose selfish +folly was sometimes tempered by a certain shrewd cunning, had definitely +come to the conclusion that, bad as things were, they would be worse if +he deprived himself of the help of this faithful servant. Mears had +stood up to him; Mears had convinced him; Mears would never be +dismissed, because Mears could never be replaced. + +It was perhaps some slight comfort to Mrs. Marsden to know now that her +oldest shop friend would be allowed to keep his promise, and to stick to +her as long as he cared to do so. + +Soon after the reduction of the staff, Marsden introduced another +economy. Without warning he started an entirely new system of payment. +Hitherto all wages had been at fixed rates, with progressive rises; and +the staff, feeling security in their situations and able to look to an +assured future, had worked loyally without the stimulus of commission. +But Marsden said these methods were antiquated, exploded; they did very +well before Noah's flood, but they wouldn't do nowadays. Henceforth +everybody's screw must depend upon the commissions earned: in other +words, the basis for the calculation of wages must be the amount of the +shop's receipts. + +Mears, protesting but submitting, carried the new order into effect. + +"I've no objection on principle," said Mears heavily; "but you have +chosen a queer time to do it, sir--just when takings have dropped to +their lowest, and there's no movement in any line." + +Resentment, murmuring, discontent followed; half a dozen sufferers went +into voluntary exile; then there was silence. + +And then Marsden thought of a third economy. Thompson's had ever been +famed for keeping a generous table. You were sure of good sound grub, +and as much of it as you could stow away, to sustain you in your toil. +The kitchens and dining-rooms were controlled by a man and his wife, +with four cook-maids and three waitresses; and for many years these +people had given the utmost satisfaction, both to their employer and her +daily guests. Now Mr. Marsden swept the lot of them out of doors. He had +entered into an agreement with the cheap and nasty restaurant in High +Street; and henceforth the staff would be catered for at starvation +prices--so much, or rather so little, per head per meal. + +This was a fresh and a great misery--short commons bang on top of +mutilated salaries,--almost more than one could bear. + +Marsden, however, felt thoroughly pleased; and was willing to believe +that by the aid of his drastic remedies he had cured the evil which +afflicted him. For the end of each of these two years showed a +substantial profit. + +It was quite useless for Mrs. Marsden and Mears to point out the dangers +that lay ahead, to hint that profits now were essentially fictitious, to +warn him that what he had grasped at as income should more properly be +described as realisation of capital, to sigh and shake their heads, and +to plead for prompt renewal of diminished stock. He was too well +contented with immediate results. To-day is to-day; to-morrow can take +care of itself. He had given the business another ferocious squeeze; +and, under the pressure, it had yielded what he wanted--some cash to +keep him going. + +The turf was again engaging his attention; but he pursued his amusement +in a far less splendid manner than during those glorious days of fine +clothes and full pockets after the honey-moon. + +His nose had thickened, his whole face had become coarser and grosser; +and flesh round his eyes showed an unhealthy puffiness, and his neck +bulged large above an often dirty collar. He wore a brown bowler hat, a +weather-proof overcoat, and heavy field boots; crumpled newspapers +protruded from his breast, and a glass in a soiled and battered leather +case was negligently slung over his shoulders. In fact he looked now +like the typical racing man of the third or fourth class; and directly +he reached London he mingled with and was lost in a crowd of exactly +similar ruffians, hurrying together to make a train-load of +disreputability and scoundrelism for Hurst Park or Kempton. But at +Mallingbridge he was always noticeable. He produced a wretched +impression in the shop each time that, dressed for sport, he passed +through it; he was its secret destroyer and its visible disgrace; his +mere appearance was sufficient to send thousands of customers somewhere +else. + +While the cash lasted, the house saw little of him. As soon as the cash +gave out, the house again groaned under his presence. Till he could set +his hands on more cash, he must be lodged and boarded by the +stay-at-home partner. + +Many were the dark and dismal days to be remembered, if his wife ever +made a retrospect of two years' suffering; humiliations, +griefs--darkness with but few gleams of light. Visits from Enid with the +child and her nurse--an hour rescued from a long month--formed spots of +brightness to look back at. But, for the rest, there was black gloom, as +of moonless, starless nights. + +Perhaps his most malignant cruelty was the driving away of Yates. The +doomed wretch struggled so hard not to be torn from the side of her +beloved mistress. Mrs. Marsden knew that the struggle was futile, begged +her to go; but still she tried to stay--accepting insults and abuse, and +only piteously smiling at her persecutor. + +A cruel, most cruel hour, when one evening the shabby old trunks stood +corded and waiting at the foot of the stairs, and Yates in her bonnet +and shawl came into the drawing-room to say good-bye. That was the final +smashing of a home, for the mistress as well as for the maid. All that +made the house endurable to Mrs. Marsden had now gone from it--no sound +of a friendly voice to welcome her as she came through the door of +communication; no solace after the exhausting day; a strange face to +meet her, unfamiliar, clumsy hands to wait upon her at the lonely +supper. + +She never really learned to know the faces of her new servants. They +changed so often. No servant would stop with them for long. The work was +heavier than it used to be; after Yates had gone the mistress could not +afford to keep a maid-housekeeper; in these hard times a cook and a +housemaid must suffice for the establishment. Departing servants said +the mistress gave little trouble; she was patient and kind; they had no +fault to find with her--but the master was "a fair terror." + +Yet he had promised, when consummating the sacrifice of Yates, that he +would refrain from again upsetting the domestic arrangements. But what +promises would he not make? What promise had he ever failed to break? + +Once he promised not to parade his infidelity in Mallingbridge. This was +after the scandal he had caused by taking a set of bachelor rooms in the +new flats near the railway station, and bringing down a London woman to +occupy them from Saturdays to Mondays. Every Sunday he made himself +conspicuous by flaunting about the town with this brazen creature. + +Probably he was tired of his Sabbath promenades by the time that Mrs. +Marsden resolutely declared that, for the sake of the business as well +as for her own sake, she would not support so glaring an outrage. Anyhow +he said it should cease, and swore that he would for the future be more +circumspect. + +But he pretended to believe that his wife had given him a letter of +license, full authority to resume the habits of bachelorhood, the +freedom of manners that naturally accompanies a release from the closer +bonds of the marriage state. He had never for a moment thought she would +mind; but he vowed that what she was pleased to consider offensive and +derogatory to the reputation of herself and the shop should never occur +again. + +Nevertheless, it was soon known to everybody but Mrs. Marsden that he +was committing more local breaches of etiquette. On idle evenings he +would prowl about the streets, accosting servant girls and shop girls, +loitering at corners, and laughing and chaffing with any little sluts +who consented to entertain his badinage. Sense of shame and the last +remembrances of shop-propriety seemed to be deserting him. Soon his own +young ladies met him talking to the girls that belonged to his great +trade rival. That tow-haired huzzy who regularly came mincing up St. +Saviour's Court to wait for the guv'nor, was--and the thing seemed so +monstrous that it was recorded in an awed whisper--neither more nor less +than _a ribbon girl from Bence's_! + +Then, after a little while, the governor told Mears that he had engaged +a new hand for the upper floor. She would come in on Monday morning, and +Miss Woolfrey had better put her into China and Glass, and see how she +got on there. She was good at anything, and would soon pick up the hang +of everything. + +But what a whisper ran round the shop when the newcomer was seen by the +horror-struck assistants! The tow-haired minx from over the road! + +It was an open and egregious scandal, shocking everybody except the +unsuspecting female partner. The shop spoke of the new girl as "Miss +Bence." The governor was always trotting upstairs to murmur and chuckle +with Miss Bence. Someone saw him pinching Miss Bence's ear--and so on. +It was another outrage that could not be permitted to continue. + +Sadly and heavily old Mears told Mrs. Marsden all about it. + +The disclosure threw her into a quite unusual agitation. She seemed to +be more terrified than disgusted. It was as if, in spite of all attempts +to keep a bold front before the world, the mere name of their +remorseless and overwhelming rival now had power to set her +apprehensively trembling. + +"I don't want any communications passing between Bence's and us"--And +she showed that this idea was sufficient in itself to frighten her. "The +girl may be a spy. She may go back there." + +"She won't do that," said Mears. "She was dismissed for misconduct." + +Mrs. Marsden seemed relieved rather than shocked by hearing this. + +"Besides," added Mears, "Bence never takes anyone back." + +"I don't want people passing backwards and forwards--on any pretext. We +mustn't allow communications.... Where is Mr. Marsden? I must speak to +Mr. Marsden." + +There was a terrific scene behind the glass, with Marsden, his wife, and +Mears shut in together. Presently the cashier was summoned; books were +fetched; accounts were examined. That afternoon Mrs. Marsden went round +to the bank; and next day the tow-haired girl had disappeared. + +In the evening Mr. Marsden left Mallingbridge. It was understood that he +had gone to Monte Carlo. He would not be back for a fortnight at least. + + +Mears had said that Bence never allowed a discharged servant to return +to him, and it was equally true that he never gave back a stolen +customer. Bence's was the "somewhere else" to which Thompson & Marsden's +customers had nearly all repaired; and of the dozens, the hundreds, who, +throwing off their old allegiance, crossed the road to the opposite +pavement, not one was ever seen again. + +Evidently the claims of those two bad brothers had somehow been +satisfied. The leak was stopped; Bence had weathered the storm, and was +going full speed ahead. + +If there was any truth in the last story of the desperate plight to +which he had been reduced, the crisis had long since passed and he had +emerged from his difficulties stronger than ever. If one could attach +any importance to the firm belief of that sagacious solicitor, Mr. +Prentice, Bence must have found the money necessary to save him. Either +he had discovered a backer, or he had never needed one. Who could say +what was true or false in this connection? Sometimes of course a very +little money boldly hazarded will decide the fate of the very largest +enterprise; but in the business world it is precisely at such times +that it is almost impossible to meet with anyone shrewd enough and +courageous enough to risk a small loan on the off chance of making a +splendid investment. Therefore Bence had been lucky, or had not really +wanted luck. + +He was safe now--obviously, too obviously safe, with money behind him +and success before him. Employees at Thompson & Marsden's, with little +else to do, watched him arrive of a morning. His twelve-year-old +daughter drove him to business in a pretty basket car with a +high-stepping, long-tailed pony; a smart groom who had been waiting on +the pavement ascended the car in the place of the happy father, and Mr. +Archibald stood smiling and kissing the tips of his fingers as the car +drove away. It was a symbol of his greatness: a triumphal car. He +himself was neat and natty, perfumed and oiled, smelling of +success--with a flower in his coat, new wash-leather gloves on his +industrious hands and a shining topper upon his clever bald head. + +On window-dressing days he was up and down the street half the morning. +He stood with his back to Thompson's, studying the glorious effect of +his displays; ran quickly from window to window, and made imperative +signs to those within. He put his head one side, twirled his moustaches, +rubbed his small face with a rapidly moving paw--and looked now like a +sleek, well-fed little rat who meant to nibble away all the cake that +the town of Mallingbridge could provide. + +And the windows when done--who could resist them? Is it straw hats for +ladies? Do you wish one of the new fashionable Leghorns?... Two windows +have turned yellow; from ceiling to floor nothing but the finest straw; +here are more Leghorns than you would expect to see at a big London +warehouse, more than an ignorant person would have supposed that the +city of Leghorn could manufacture in a year.... See! Already his +Leghorns have caught the eye of the public; young women are bustling; +nursemaids with their perambulators have stopped--there is a block on +the pavement, and a constable has courteously requested people to keep +moving. + +There again, the constable is busy outside another window. Do you wish a +blouse of the prevailing tint? Mauve blouses, nothing except mauve, all +blouses, a window full of them--hardly to be described as for sale, +almost literally to be given away. + +On advertised bargain-days four policemen are required to regulate the +traffic; for Bence opens his doors and locks them--you must wait your +turn to get inside. But on all days there is more or less of a crowd +outside and inside the triumphant shop. + +At eleven A.M. the first batch of red carts go whirling away, round the +town and far out on the country roads. This is what Bence calls his +mid-day delivery. There will be two more deliveries before the day is +done. + +If the afternoon proves foggy and dull, there comes a tremendous +lightning flash along the extended frontage of Bence; and for a moment +you are blinded, as you look towards his windows. Bence has turned on +the electric. He makes no appointed hour for lighting up. He will have +light whenever he desires it. With his outside arcs and his inside +incandescents he makes a light strong enough to throw the shadows of +Thompson & Marsden's window columns straight backward across the floor, +even when their poor lamps are burning at their brightest. + +And no longer can one say that all the goods of Bence are rubbish. +High-class expensive articles are mingled with the cheap trash; solidity +and lasting value have now a place in his programme; he caters for the +large country house as well as for the restricted villa; he invites +patronage from prince and peasant: it is his aim to be a universal +provider. + +Truly it was an appalling competition; and if it was dangerous to so big +a rival as Thompson's, it was deadly to all the lesser powers. No small +shop could live beside Bence; and it seemed that he could kill even at a +considerable distance. + +After the collapse of the sadler and the bookseller, their next-door +neighbour, the ironmonger, failed; and the shell of him Bence also +swallowed. The man now next to Bence was Mr. Bennett, the +old-established butcher; beyond him was Mr. Adcock, the dispensing +chemist, and beyond him there were the baker and the auctioneer. Then +came Mr. Newall, the greengrocer, whose shop faced the far corner of +Thompson's. + +One morning the greengrocer did not take down his shutters. He had +flitted in the night. + +"Well," said Mr. Mears, looking sadly at the shop, "it's fortunate it +isn't alongside of Bence, or I suppose he'd grab that too." + +Next day workmen erected a hoarding outside the derelict shop. Soon the +boards were painted white, and curious saunterers lingered to read the +black-lettered notice. + + + "_These premises are being fitted, regardless of expense, in a + thoroughly up-to-date manner._ + + "_They will shortly be opened again._ + + "_But as what?_ + + "_Why, just what you want._" + + +"That's a catchpenny vulgar dodge," said Mears, "if ever I saw one." + +"I wonder what it is to be," said Miss Woolfrey. "I guess sweetstuff. It +can't be a shooting-gallery. It isn't deep enough." + +In a few weeks all knew what it was. Mr. Archibald himself came to see +the last boards of the hoarding removed, and to watch the first +customers troop into Bence's Fruit & Vegetable Market! + +But for a gap of seventy feet made by four ancient traders, Bence now +faced Marsden & Thompson for its whole length from end to end. Bence was +irresistible, overpowering, deadly. The hearts of many people opposite +sank into their boots. + + + + +XXI + + +Late one evening, when Marsden was taking what he called his night-cap +in the drawing-room, he began to ask questions about the Sheraton desk +and cabinets. + +"Those things are not at all bad--but they aren't genuine, I suppose?" + +"The desk is genuine," said Mrs. Marsden; "but the other things are +modern." + +"They are uncommonly good imitations," said Marsden; and he knelt in +front of one of the cabinets and studied it carefully. "This is an +excellently made piece--tip-top workmanship. Why, it must be worth +twenty or thirty guineas." + +"Yes, it cost something like that." + +"Where did you get it?" + +"It came out of the shop." + +"Ah. Exactly what I supposed;" and he got up from his knees, and stood +looking at her thoughtfully. "Out of the shop. Just so.... I must think +this out." + +But his train of thought was interrupted by a timid knock at the door. +It was their last new housemaid, come to ask if the master and the +mistress required anything further to-night. She remained on the +threshold, breathing hard, and staring shyly, while she waited for an +answer--a bouncing, apple-cheeked, country bumpkin of a girl, who had +accepted very modest wages for this her first place. + +"No," said Marsden shortly, "I don't want anything more--What's your +name?" + +"Susan, sir." + +"All right. Then shut the door, Susan." + +"Good night, Susan," said Mrs. Marsden kindly. + +"Where did you pick _her_ up?" asked Marsden, when the girl had gone. +"She's healthy enough and plump enough--but she looks half-baked." + +"She will do very well, if you give her time to learn." + +"Oh, _I_'ll let her learn, if _you_ can teach her.... But what was I +saying? Oh, yes--about the furniture!" + +Then he walked round the room, pointing at different things, and +continuing his questions. + +"Did this come out of the shop?" + +"Yes." + +"And this?... And those chairs?... And the sofa?" + +She did not understand why he asked. But he soon explained himself. He +said that all this furniture was taken out of the shop, and it therefore +belonged to the firm--or at any rate could not be considered as her +private property. + +"A partnership is a partnership," he added sententiously. + +"But it was ages before the partnership. And all the things were paid +for by me." + +"No, not paid for," he said quickly. "Not paid for in _cash_--just a +matter of writing down a debit somewhere and a credit somewhere else, +and saying it was accounted for. But from the point of view of the shop, +that's a bogus transaction." + +"How absurd!" + +"No, _not_ absurd--common sense. The shop never got a penny profit, and +it seems to me that--" + +"Oh, I won't dispute it with you. What is it that you want done?" + +"I want the _right_ thing to be done," he replied slowly, as if +deliberating on a knotty point. "And it isn't easy to say off-hand what +that is." + +"Do you want me to send the things back into the department?" + +"No.... No, the time has passed for doing that. It would muddle the +accounts. Come into the dining-room, and show me the shop things in +there." + +She obeyed him; and then he asked if there were any shop things +upstairs. + +"Yes, several." + +"Well, you can show me those to-morrow morning.... I begin to see my +way. Yes, I think I see now what's fair and proper." + +"Do you?" + +He said emphatically that in justice and equity he possessed a half +share of all goods taken out of his shop, no matter how long ago. And he +insisted on having his share. He would obtain a valuation of the goods, +and Mrs. Marsden could pay him cash for half the amount, and retain the +goods. Or he would send the goods to London and sell them by auction; +and they would each take half the proceeds. + +Mrs. Marsden chose the second method of dealing with the problem. + +"All right," said Marsden. "So be it. I dare say they'll fetch a tidy +sum--and it's share and share alike, of course, for the two of us." + +Two days after this the house was stripped of nearly all that had given +it an air of opulent comfort and decorative luxury. Mrs. Marsden went to +the department of the firm, and bought the cheapest bedroom things she +could find to fill the blank spaces and ugly gaps upstairs, and paid for +everything with her private purse. + +In a fortnight the furniture auctioneers wrote to inform Mr. Marsden +that the goods under the hammer had brought the respectable sum of one +hundred and thirty pounds. Account for commission, etc., with cheque to +balance, should follow shortly. And before long he duly received the +balancing cheque. + +But the loss of the cabinets and sofas made the living rooms seem bare +and forlorn. The house and the shop had become alike: in each one could +now see the empty, cheerless aspect of impending ruin. + +Enid, when next she brought her child to call on granny, uttered an +exclamation of surprise and distress. + +"Mother! What has happened? Where has everything gone?" + +"To London--to be sold." + +"Oh, mother. Has he obliged you to do this?" + +"Yes." + +The barrier of reserve so long maintained by Mrs. Marsden had worn very +thin. It gave small shelter now; and the brave defender seemed to be +growing careless of exposure. And Enid too was losing the power to +protect herself from pity and commiseration. The misery caused by both +husbands could not much longer be concealed. Yet Enid's state was surely +a happy one, when compared with the prevailing gloom in which her mother +vainly laboured. Enid had a child to console her. + +Weeks passed; but Marsden said nothing of the "share and share alike" +settlement that was to clear up that little difficulty of the furniture. +At last his wife asked him if he had heard from the auctioneers. + +"Oh, yes. Didn't I tell you? The things went pretty well." + +"What did they bring?" + +"Oh, about a hundred quid." + +"Then when may I have my share?" + +"Oh, you shall have your share all right--but you can't have it now." + +"Dick, have you spent it--have you spent what belonged to me?" + +"Who says I have spent it?" And he turned on her angrily. "If it isn't +convenient to me to square up at the moment, why can't you wait? What +does it matter to you when you get it? Why should you pretend to be in +such a deuce of a hurry?" + +This again was late at night. They were alone together in the dismantled +drawing-room. + +"Dick," she said quietly but resolutely, "I must have my share." + +"Then you'll jolly well wait for it.... Look here. Shut up. I'm not +going to be nagged at. Be damned to your share. You don't want it." + +"Yes, I do want it--I have relied on it." + +"Oh, _you_'re all right. You've plenty of money stowed away +_somewhere_." + +"On my honour, I have no money available." + +"Available! That's a good word. That means funds that you don't intend +to touch. Prices on change are down, are they?--and you don't care to +realise just now?" + +She looked at him steadily and unflinchingly. Her eyebrows were +contracted; her face had hardened. + +"Dick, this isn't fair. It is something that I can't allow," and she +spoke slowly and significantly. "Please pull yourself together. You +can't go on doing things of this sort. They are dangerous." + +"Will you shut up, and stop nagging?" + +It was by no means the first time that he had stuck to money when it +should have passed through his hands to hers. Indeed in all their +private transactions, whenever a chance offered, he had promptly cheated +her. But during the last six months it had come to her knowledge that he +was not confining his trickery to transactions which could be +considered as outside the business. + +"Dick, I _must_ go on. It is for your sake as well as mine. There is a +principle at stake." + +"Rot." + +"What you are doing is dishonest. It is embezzlement!" and she turned +from him, and looked at the empty fireplace. + +With an oath he seized her arm, and swung her round till she faced him +again. + +"Take that back--or you'll be sorry for it. Do you dare to say that word +again? Now we'll see." Holding her with one hand, he swayed her to and +fro, as if to force her down to her knees; and his other hand was raised +threateningly on a level with her face. + +"Are you going to strike me?" And she looked at him with still +unflinching eyes. "Why don't you do it? Why are you hesitating? Oh, my +God--it only wanted this to justify everything." + +Her courage seemed to increase his hesitation. He lowered the +threatening hand, but continued to hold her tightly. + +"Say what you mean. Out with it." + +"Dick, you know very well what I mean.... It must be stopped." + +"What must be stopped?" + +"Your dangerous irregularities." + +"I don't know what you're talking about. Someone has been telling you a +pack of lies. You're ready to believe any lie against _me_." + +"There was a cheque of the firm--made out to bearer--on the third of +last month." + +"I know nothing about it." + +"No more did I. They sent for me to the bank--to look at the signatures +and the initials." + +"Well?" + +"I told them it was all right." + +"Well, what about it?" + +"There was the hundred pounds that was to be paid Osborn & Gibbs on +account--to keep them quiet. It was written off in the books--you showed +their acknowledgment for it.... But what's the use of going on? Dick, +pull yourself together. I hold the _proof_ of your folly." + +He had let her go, and was walking about the room with his hands in his +pockets. When he spoke again, it was sullenly and grumblingly. + +"I know nothing whatever about it. I can keep accounts in my head just +as well as in the books.... If I seem unbusinesslike--it is because I'm +called away so often; and those fools don't understand my system.... I +go for facts, and don't bother about all the fuss of book-keeping--which +is generally in a muddle whenever I ask for plain statements.... No, +you've got on to a wrong track. But I'll go to the bottom of the matter +to-morrow--or the day after. I'm busy with other things to-morrow." + +"Never mind what's past, Dick; but go into matters for the future." + +"All right. Then say no more. Don't nag me.... And look here. Of course +I fully intend to pay you your share. I admit the debt. I owe you fifty +pounds." + +He had been cowed for a few moments; but now he was recovering his angry +bluster. + +"That's enough," he went on. "I'll settle as soon as I can. But, upon my +word, you _are_ turning into a harpy for ready money. What have you done +with all your own? How have you dribbled it away--and let yourself get +so low that you have to come howling for a beggarly fifty pounds?" + +Mrs. Marsden raised her hands to her forehead, with a gesture that he +might interpret as expressive of hopeless despair; but she did not +answer him in words. + +"Oh, all right," he growled, to himself rather than to her. "The old +explanation, I suppose. I'm to be the scapegoat! But I know jolly well +where your money has gone. Enid and that squalling brat have pretty near +cleared you out. Nothing's too much for Enid to ask.... If I wasn't a +fool, I should forbid her the house.... And I will too, if you drive me +to it." + +It maddened him to think of all the sovereigns that might have chinked +in his pocket, if Enid had not rapaciously intervened. + +But in fact Mrs. Marsden had given her daughter no money. And this was +not because Enid had refrained from asking for it. Compelled to do so by +Kenion, she had more than once reluctantly sued for substantial +assistance. + +"Enid dear, don't ask me again. Truly, it is impossible." + +Mrs. Marsden stood firm in the attitude that she had adopted when +pestered by old Mrs. Kenion at the christening. Of course she gave +presents to little Jane. The trifling aid that a young mother needs in +rearing a beloved child Enid might be sure of obtaining; but the source +of supply for a husband's selfish extravagance had run dry. + +"Enid, my darling, I can't do it--I simply _can't_. He should not send +you to me. I told his mother that it was useless to expect more from +me." + +Enid hugged Mrs. Marsden, said she felt a wretch, begged for +forgiveness; but soon she had to confess that Charles bore these rebuffs +very badly, and that it would be better for Mrs. Marsden never to come +any more to the farmhouse. If she came, Charles might insult her. + +And now Richard had hinted that he would not allow Enid to come to St. +Saviour's Court. It seemed that soon the mother and daughter would be +able to meet only by stealth and on rare occasions. + +If the barrier was shattered and broken in front of Enid, it was +completely down between Mrs. Marsden and Mr. Prentice. No further +pretence was possible to either of them: the strenuous pressure of open +facts had forced both to speak more or less plainly when they spoke of +Marsden. + +Although Marsden always abused the solicitor behind his back, he ran to +him for help every time he got into a scrape; and during the last year +one might almost say that he had kept Mr. Prentice busily employed. A +horrid mess with London book-makers; two rows with the railway company, +about cards in a third-class carriage, and no ticket in a first-class +carriage; a fracas with the billiard-marker at his club--one after +another, stupid and disgraceful scrapes. Mr. Prentice, doing his best +for the culprit, each time found it necessary to obtain Mrs. Marsden's +instructions, and to put things before her plainly. + +The club committee had eventually desired their obstreperous member to +forward a resignation; and, on his refusal to do so, had removed his +name from their list. Mr. Marsden, who in his boastful pride once +considered himself eligible for the select company of the County +gentlemen, had thus been ignominiously expelled from the large society +of petty tradesmen, clerks, tag, rag, and bobtail, known as the +Mallingbridge Conservative. + +At last, after a discussion concerning one of these scrapes, Mr. +Prentice abandoned the slightest shadow of pretence, and gave his old +client the plainest conceivable advice. + +"Screw yourself up to strong measures," said Mr. Prentice, "and get rid +of him." + +"How could I--even if I were willing?" + +"Go for a divorce." + +"I shouldn't be given one." + +"I think you would." + +They were in Mr. Prentice's room--the fine panelled room with the two +tall Queen Anne windows, and the pleasant view up Hill Street, and +through the side street into Trinity Square. Mrs. Marsden sat facing the +light, her back towards the big safe and the racks of tin boxes; and Mr. +Prentice, seated by his table, looked at her gravely and watched her +changing expression while he spoke. + +"I think that you would obtain your divorce," he repeated. + +Then he got up, and opened and closed the door. The passage to the +clerks' office was empty. He came back to his table, and sat down again. + +"Don't give him any more chances. Take it from me--he'll never reform. +Get rid of him now." + +"Oh no--quite impossible." + +"I had a talk the other day with Yates," said Mr. Prentice quietly. +"Yates is prepared to give evidence that he knocked you about." + +"But it's not true," said Mrs. Marsden hotly. + +The blood rose to her cheeks, and her lips trembled; but Mr. Prentice +had ceased to watch her face. He was playing with an inkless pen and +some white blotting-paper. + +"Yates is ready to go into the box and swear it." + +"Then she would be swearing an untruth." + +"Yates would be a very good witness. Really I don't see how anybody +could shake her.... I asked her a few questions.... She impressed me as +being just the right sort of witness." + +"Please don't say any more." + +"Honestly, I believe we should pull it off. And why not? If ever a woman +deserved--" + +But Mrs. Marsden would hear no more of this kind of advice. + +"I see no reason against it," said Mr. Prentice, persisting. + +"No, no," said Mrs. Marsden sadly. + +"It's the only thing to do." + +"You don't understand me." And as she said it, there was dignity as well +as sadness in her voice. "Even if it were all easy and straightforward, +I could never consent to allow the story of my married life to be told +in Court--to the public. I could not bear it. I simply could not bear +the shame of it." + +"Oh!... Well, it would be like having a tooth out. Soon over." + +"But that is only one reason. There are many others." + +"Are there?" + +"You shouldn't--you mustn't assume that he only is to blame. There are +faults on both sides. And I have this on my conscience--that perhaps he +would have done very well, if I hadn't married him." + +"My dear--forgive my saying so--that is magnanimous, but nonsense." + +"No," she said firmly, "it is the truth. He had some good qualities. He +was a worker. Idleness--with more money than he was accustomed +to--brought temptations;--and he was very young. If he had remained +poor, he might have developed into a better man." + +"I won't contradict you.... Only it isn't what he might have developed +into, but what he has developed into; and what fresh developments we can +reasonably expect.... I see no hope. Really, I must say it. I believe, +as sure as I sit here, that he'll eat you up--he'll ruin you, if you let +him--he'll land you in the workhouse before you've done with him. That's +why I say, get rid of him--at all costs." + +But Mrs. Marsden only shook her head sadly and wearily. + +Mr. Prentice stood at his window, looking down into the street, and +mournfully watching her as she walked away. + +She was dressed in black--she who had been so fond of bright colours +never wore anything but black now; and the black was growing shabby and +rusty. She seemed taller, now that she had become so much thinner; the +grey hair at the sides of her forehead and the unfashionable bonnet tied +with ribbons under her chin made her appear old; the florid complexion +had changed to a dull white--as she turned her face, and hurried across +the road, he thought that it showed almost a ghostly whiteness. And +truly she was the ghost of the prosperous, radiant, richly-clothed woman +that he remembered. + +She had been so strong, and now she had become so weak--so pitiably +weak; with a weakness that rendered it impossible to save her. His heart +ached as he thought of her weakness. + +She would be eaten up--soul and body. Secret information made him aware +that she had sold the various stocks that she held at her marriage. The +manager of the bank had regretfully told him so, at a meeting of the +Masonic lodge--a secret between tried friends and trusted Masons, to go +no further. She had employed the bank to sell these securities for her. +In the old days she would have come to him for advice, and he would have +sent the order direct to the stock-brokers; but now she was weakly +afraid of his knowing anything about her suicidal transactions. + +He was looking out from the same window one afternoon a few weeks later, +and he saw something that really horrified him. He could scarcely +believe his eyes. + +Mrs. Marsden had gone swiftly down the side street, and had vanished +through the front door of those shady, wicked solicitors, Hyde & +Collins. + +He felt so greatly discomposed that he snatched up his hat, ran down +into the side street, and stood waiting for her outside the hated and +ominous doorway. + +When after half an hour she emerged from the clutch of his unworthy +confreres, he took her arm and led her into Trinity Square; and, walking +with her round and round the small enclosure, reproached her for +deserting him in favour of such people. + +"But I haven't deserted you," she said meekly bearing the reproaches. +"This is only some private business that they are attending to." + +"But is it kind to me? You know what I think of them. I ask you, is it +kind to me?" + +"I meant no unkindness," she said earnestly. + +And she offered apologies based on vague generalities. Life is complex +and difficult. One is forced out of one's path by unusual circumstances. +Sometimes one is driven to do things of so private a nature that one +cannot speak about them to one's oldest and best friends. + +"Very well. But if you feel disinclined to confide everything to +me--there are other men that you could depend on. Go to Dickinson--he's +a thorough good sort. Or Loder--or Selby! Go to any one of them. But +don't--for mercy's sake--mix yourself up with these brutes." + +In order to defend herself, Mrs. Marsden was obliged to defend Hyde & +Collins. + +"They are quick to understand one. Really they seem sharp--" + +"_Sharp!_ Yes--too sharp--a thousand times too sharp. But ask anybody's +opinion of them. Look at their clients. They haven't got a single solid +client." + +"But they still act for Bence's--they do everything for Mr. Bence." + +"Yes," said Mr. Prentice contemptuously, "but who's Bence, when all's +said and done?" + +"Ah!" And Mrs. Marsden drew in her breath, as if she felt incapable of +continuing the conversation. + +"I grant you that Bence has done wonders--and proved me a bad prophet. +But we haven't got to the last chapter of Bence yet. I don't believe +Bence is really solid--and I never shall do, while I see him going in +and out of Hyde & Collins's." + +Mrs. Marsden meekly bore all reproaches; but she showed a stubbornness +that no warnings could shake. She met direct questions with generalized +vagueness. What is unwise in some circumstances may be not unwise in +other circumstances. Life is complex--and so on. + +When Mr. Prentice left her, he went back to his office full of the most +dismal forebodings. She had placed herself in the hands of Hyde & +Collins. She was indisputably done for. + + + + +XXII + + +Time was passing. One Sunday morning in November, while the vicar of St. +Saviour's preached a sermon about immortality, she looked at the +familiar faces of the congregation and thought sadly of the impermanence +of all earthly things. + +So many of the people she had known were gone; so few remained, and +these each showed so plainly the havoc and the change wrought by the +flying years. She glanced at the card in the metal frame that was half +hidden by her prayer-books--"Mrs. Marsden, two seats." Once the writing +on the card read "Mr. and Mrs. Thompson, three seats," and she had sat +there with her husband and mother. Then the writing changed again--"Mrs. +Thompson, two seats." How many years she and Enid had been here +together! + +And the other people in the pew--a man and a wife, with little children +who had slowly grown into men and women; two elderly ladies; a widower +and his sister--all had gone. She glanced across the side aisle at a +white-haired feeble old man, and a wizened monkey-like old dame who +nodded and shook unceasingly--Mr. Bennett, the High Street butcher, and +his palsied helpmate;--and she thought of what they were when first she +came to St. Saviour's: a hearty vigorous couple in the prime of life, +the man seeming big enough to knock down one of his bullocks, and the +woman singing the hymns so loudly that her neighbours could not hear the +choir. Now they had dwindled and shrunk to this--nerveless arms, +bloodless hues, and frozen silence. + +Wherever she turned her eyes, she saw the same signs and could read the +same story--bowed backs, bald heads, blue-veined hands. Everyone had +grown old, everyone had grown feeble, of those who had seen her as a +young bride, as a young mother. And no new faces seemed to have replaced +the faces that had vanished. Fashion in recent years had leaned steadily +towards the other church. Holy Trinity possessed lighted candles on its +altars, embroidered copes on its priests, stringed instruments in its +organ loft: it was there that all the young people went--to be thrilled +with strange music, to be charmed with smart hats, to be set throbbing +with irrelevant dreams of courtship and love. Only the old and the worn +out had been true to quiet peaceful St. Saviour's. + +She herself was absolutely faithful to the church that she had used and +loved for so long. It had become her place of rest, her harbour of +refuge. It was only here that she ever felt quite at peace. She knew +that here she was safe for an hour at least; while the service lasted no +one could molest her; no one could even speak to her: during this brief +hour she belonged to herself. + +She could not forget the outside world, but she resolutely tried not to +think of it. Just now she had driven away a thought of Marsden. He was +lying in bed; perhaps he would sleep till late afternoon; perhaps he +would be lazily getting ready for his food when she returned to the +house;--but she need not think of him. He would not join her here. She +folded her hands, and listened to the kind old vicar as he told her of +things that are incomprehensible, immutable, and everlasting. + + +A man had come up the side aisle, and was stupidly staring at the people +in the pews. Mrs. Marsden, glancing at him inattentively, vaguely +wondered why he didn't take one of the many empty seats and sit down. +She knew him very well. He was a loafer of the better class; and on +Sundays he regularly made his beat up and down St. Saviour's Court, +picking up odd six-pences by running off to fetch cabs, bringing +forgotten umbrellas, or retailing second-hand newspapers to laggards who +had missed the paper-boy. + +Presently he discovered Mrs. Marsden's pew, entered it, and whispered +hoarsely. + +"You're wanted at the house. The gentleman said you was to come at +once." + +Followed by this seedy messenger, she hastened from the church. + +"What is it?" she asked him when they got outside. + +"I dunno. The gentleman hollered to me from the door, and sent me to +fetch you." + +The house door stood ajar; and her husband, in his dressing-gown and +slippers, was anxiously waiting for her and guarding the foot of the +stairs. + +"All right," he said to the loafer. "I'll remember you another time;" +and he shut the door and bolted it. + +From the top of the stairs there came a sound of wailing and +lamentation. + +"Jane, look here. I want you to stop this fool's mouth--what's her +name--Susan. I've somehow upset her. And that infernal cook is +encouraging her to squall the house down." + +Without a word Mrs. Marsden hurried upstairs. The cook, a sour-visaged +woman of thirty-five, was on the threshold of the kitchen; and Susan, +the apple-cheeked housemaid, was clinging to cook's arm, and sobbing and +howling. + +"Emily--Susan," said Mrs. Marsden quietly, "what _is_ all this noise and +fuss about?" + +"The master frightened her," said the cook, very sourly, "and she +wishes to go to the police." + +"The police! What nonsense! Why?" + +"The master rang, and she took up his shaving water--and what happened +frightened her." + +"Where's father and mother?" cried Susan. "I want my mother. Take me +home to tell father. Or let me go to the police station, and I'll tell +them." + +Marsden had followed his wife upstairs, and he showed himself at the +kitchen door. At sight of him, Susan ceased talking and began to howl +again. + +"She's frightened to death," said the cook. + +Mrs. Marsden was patting the girl's shoulder, studying her tear-stained +face eagerly and intently. + +"There, there," she said gently, as if reassured by all that the red +cheeks and streaming eyes had told her. "I think this is a great noise +about nothing at all." + +"Of course it is," said Marsden, at the door. + +"Don't leave me alone with him," bellowed Susan. "I won't be kep' a +prisoner. I want to see my mother--and my father." + +"Hush--Susan," said Mrs. Marsden, soothingly. "Compose yourself. There +is no need to cry any more." + +"No need to have cried at all," said Marsden. + +Obviously he was afraid: he alternately blustered and cringed. + +"You silly girl," he said cringingly, "what rubbish have you got into +your head? I pass a few chaffing remarks--and you suddenly behave like a +raving lunatic." And then he went on blusteringly. "Talk about going! +It's _us_ who ought to dismiss you for your impudence, and your +disrespect." + +"You did something to frighten her, sir," said the cook. + +"It's a lie--a damned lie." + +"If so," said the cook, with concentrated sourness, "why not let her go +to the police, as she wishes?" + +"No," shouted Marsden. "I can't have my servants libelling and +scandalizing me. I've a public position in this town--and I won't have +people sneaking out of my house to spread a lot of innuendos against +their employers." + +Then he beckoned his wife, and spoke to her in a whisper. "For God's +sake, shut her up. Give her a present--square her. Shut her mouth +somehow.... It's all right, you know--but we mustn't give her the chance +of slandering me;" and he went out of the kitchen. + +But he returned almost immediately, to beckon and whisper again. + +"Jane. Don't let her out of your sight." + +So this was her task for the remainder of the day of rest--to sit and +chat with a blubbering housemaid until a pacification of nerves and mind +had been achieved. + +She performed the task, but found it a fatiguing one. Susan made her +labours arduous by returning to the starting point every time that any +progress had been made. + +"I'd sooner go back 'ome at once, ma'am." + +"I think that would be a pity, Susan. If you leave me like this, I may +not be able to get you another place. Why should you throw up a +comfortable situation?" + +"It isn't comfortable." + +"Susan, you shouldn't say that. Haven't I treated you kindly?" + +"Yes, _you_ have." + +"And haven't I taken trouble in teaching you your duties? You are +getting on very nicely; and if you stay with me a little longer, I shall +be able to recommend you as competent." + +But this servant said what all other servants had said to Mrs. Marsden. +Susan had no fault to find with her mistress. + +"I should be comfortable, if it wasn't for _him_. But I've never been +comfortable with him." + +And then she went back to her starting point. + +"I'd rather go 'ome. I must ask mother's advice--and tell father too. I +don't believe father would wish it 'ushed up." + +However, Mrs. Marsden finally succeeded. By bedtime Susan was pacified. + +"Yes, I'll stay, ma'am. I'd like to stay with you--but may I sleep in +Em'ly's room?" + +"Of course you may." + + +Next morning no one came to call Mrs. Marsden; no fires were lighted; no +breakfast was being prepared. Both the servants had gone. In the night +cook had persuaded the girl to change her mind. + +A letter from cook, conspicuously displayed on the dining-room +mantelpiece, explained matters. + + + "_Dear Madame_,-- + + "We are sorry to leave you but feel we cannot stay in this house. I + have advised Susan to go to her Home and she has gone there. + + "Yours respectfully, + "MISS EMILY HOWARD." + + +Mrs. Marsden went to her husband's room, woke him, and repeated the +substance of Miss Howard's note. + +He was dreadful to see, in the cold morning light--unshaven, white and +puffy; sitting up in bed, biting his coarse fingers, and looking at her +with cowardly blood-shot eyes. + +"Where is her home?" + +Mrs. Marsden said that Susan's parents lived somewhere on the other side +of Linkfield. + +"Twelve miles away! She's gone out by train. She has got there by now. +What are we to do?" + +"I scarcely know." + +"Let me think a minute.... Yes, look here. Get hold of old +Prentice--He's a man of the world. He'll help you. He'll be able to shut +them up." + +And with terrified haste he gave her his directions. She was to run to +Mr. Prentice's private house, and catch him before he started for his +office. Then she was to run to Cartwright's garage and hire a motor-car +for the day; and then she and Mr. Prentice were to go scouring out into +the country, to silence Susan and all her relatives. + +"Tell Prentice to take plenty of money with him. And don't forget--ask +for Cartwright's open car. It's faster. And don't waste a minute--don't +wait for breakfast or anything--and don't let Prentice wait either." + +In an hour she and her old friend were spinning along the Linkfield road +in the hired motor-car. The east wind cut their faces, dirt sprinkled +their arms, gloomy thoughts filled their minds. + +This, then, was her Monday's task--to begin Sunday's toil, on a larger +scale, all over again. + +With some difficulty they found the cottage for which they were seeking. +Susan's mother opened the door in response to prolonged tappings. Susan +had safely reached home. + +"Oh, come inside," said the mother; and she pretended to shed tears. "Oh +dear, oh dear. Who could of believed such a thing 'appening?" + +"Nothing has happened," said Mr. Prentice, confidently and jovially; +"except that your daughter has left her situation without warning, and +we want to know what she means by it." + +"Oh, she's told me everything," said the mother, dolefully shaking her +head. "Everything." + +"There was nothing to tell," said Mr. Prentice; "beyond the fact that +she has behaved in a very stupid manner. Where is she?" + +The mother indicated a door behind her. "Poor dear, she's so exhausted, +I've been trying to persuade her to eat a morsel of something." + +Mr. Prentice lifted a latch, opened the inner door, and disclosed the +humble home-picture--Susan, with her mouth full of bacon and bread, +stretching a hearty hand towards the metal tea-pot. + +"Ah, thank goodness," said the mother, "she _'as_ bin able to pick a +bit. Don't be afraid, Susan--you're 'ome now, along of your own mother +and father;" and she addressed Mrs. Marsden. "'Er father 'as 'eard +everything, too." + +Mr. Prentice was laughing gaily. + +"Well done, Susan. Don't be afraid of another slice of bacon. Don't be +afraid of a fourth cup of tea." + +"No, sir," said Susan shyly. + +"Where _is_ her father?" asked Mr. Prentice. "I'd like to have a few +words with him." + +But father, having heard his daughter's tale, had started on a long +journey with an empty waggon. He would return with it full of manure any +time this afternoon. And going, and loading, and returning, he would be +thinking over everything, and deciding what he and Susan should next do. + +Mr. Prentice, considering that even a hired motor-car ought to be able +to overtake a manure waggon though empty, started in pursuit of father; +and Mrs. Marsden was left to conduct the pacific negotiations at the +cottage. + +It was a long and weary day, full of small difficulties--father, when +recovered, not a free man, unable to talk, compelled to attend to his +master's business; mother unable to express any opinion without previous +discussion with father; empty fruitless hours slowly dragging away; +meals at a public-house; a walk with Susan;--then darkness, and father +talking to Mr. Prentice in the parlour; and, finally, mother and Mrs. +Marsden summoned from the kitchen to assist at ratification of peace +proposals. + +It was late at night when Mrs. Marsden got back to St. Saviour's Court. +Her husband had not been out all day. He was sitting by the dining-room +fire, with his slippered feet on the fender, and a nearly emptied whisky +bottle on the corner of the table near his elbow. + +"Well?" He looked round anxiously and apprehensively. + +"It is over. There will be no trouble--not even a scandal." + +She was blue with cold; her hands were numbed, and hung limply at her +sides; her voice had become husky. + +"Bravo! Well done!" He stood up, and stretched and straightened himself, +as if throwing off the heavy load that had kept him crouched and bent in +the armchair. "Excellent! I knew you'd do it all right;" and he drew a +deep breath, and then began to chuckle. "And, by Jove, old girl, I'm +grateful to you.... Look here. Have you had your grub? Don't you want +some supper?" + +"No." + +"Well, understand--my best thanks;" and really he seemed to feel some +little gratitude as well as great satisfaction. "Jane, you're a brick. +You never show malice. You've a large heart." + +"No," she said huskily; and with a curious slow gesture, she raised her +numbed hands and pressed them against her breast. "I had a large heart +once; but it has grown smaller and smaller, and harder and harder--till +now it is a lump of stone." + +"No, no. Rot." + +"Yes. And that's lucky--or before this you would have broken it." + +He stood staring at the door when it had closed behind her. Then he +shrugged his shoulders, turned to the table, and replenished his glass +with whisky. + + + + +XXIII + + +It was immediately after this fatiguing episode that Mr. Prentice made +his last urgent prayer to Mrs. Marsden. Complying with his request for +an interview, she had come again to the panelled room in Hill Street. +But on this occasion she chose a different chair, and sat with her back +to the windows and her face in shadow. + +"You see for yourself," said Mr. Prentice, with culminating plainness: +"he is an unmitigated blackguard. Get rid of him." + +"I can't." + +"You can. Yates is still game--I mean, Yates has not forgotten anything. +Yates will swear to everything that she remembers.... So far as Yates +goes, her evidence may be all the better for the delay. It will be all +the more difficult to shake it after the lapse of time.... Of course we +shall be asked, 'Why have you sat down on your wrongs for so long?' But +we have our answer now. This is the answer. You put up with his +ill-usage and infidelities until he befouled your home. A disgraceful +affair with a servant girl under your own roof! That was the last +straw--and it has driven you to the Court, to ask for the relief to +which you have been entitled for years." + +"Oh, no--impossible." + +"I pledge you my word, we shan't fail. We shall pull it off to a +certainty." + +"No, I can't do it. And even if we succeeded, it would be only a half +relief. Divorce wouldn't end the business partnership." + +"No. But when once your marriage is dissolved, we shall be able to make +terms with him. Wipe him out as your husband, and he loses the +tremendous hold he has on you. Get rid of your incubus. Think what it +would mean to you. He would be gone--you would be alone again; able to +pull things together, work up the business, nurse it back to life. On my +honour, I think you are capable of restoring your fortunes even at this +late day." + +But Mrs. Marsden only shook her head, while Mr. Prentice continued to +entreat her to act on his advice. + +"Suppose you always have to go on paying him half of all you can make by +your industry? Never mind. What does it matter? You'll pay it to him at +a distance--you'll never have to see him--you will have swept him out of +your life. My dear, the years will roll off your back; you'll be able to +breathe, to _live_--you'll feel that you are your own self again." + +"No--impossible." + +"Yes. Leave it to me. I answer for everything, before and afterwards. +I'll manage my fine gentleman--I'll cut his claws so that he'll be a +very quiet sort of partner in the years to come. I'll work at it till I +drop--but I swear I'll put you on safe ground, if only you'll trust me +and let me tackle the job." + +And Mr. Prentice, leaning forward in his chair, took her hand and +pressed it imploringly. + +"You are what you have always been to me, Mr. Prentice,--the best, the +kindest of friends." She allowed him to retain her hand for a few +moments, and then gently withdrew it. "But it is difficult for me to +explain--so that you would understand me." + +"I shall understand any explanation." + +"I took him for better for worse. And once I promised him that I would +hold to him until he set me free." She paused, as if carefully putting +her thought into appropriate words. "It may come to it.... Yes, it is +what I hope for--that he himself may give me back my freedom." + +"But how?" + +"He might consent to a separation--without scandal, without publicity." + +"Why should he do that? While you've a shot in the locker, he'll stick +to you." + +Mr. Prentice's voice conveyed his sense of despair. She would not be +convinced. He got up, sat down again, and vigorously resumed his appeal. + +"Can't you see now the force of what I have told you so often? He will +not only disgrace you, he will eat you up. It is what he is doing--has +almost done. And when you have let him squander your last farthing, +he'll desert you--but he won't desert you till then." + +But Mrs. Marsden again shook her head, and once more fell back upon the +vagueness that baffles argument if it cannot refute it. + +"No--dear Mr. Prentice, I feel that I couldn't make any move now. Life +is so complicated--there are difficulties on all sides--my hands are +tied.... Perhaps I will ask you for your aid--but not now--and not for a +divorce." + +"But if you wait, no one will be able to aid you. The hour for aid will +have passed forever." And Mr. Prentice brought out all his eloquence in +vain. "Try to recover your old attitude of mind. Consider the thing as a +business woman. Tear away sentiment and feminine fancies. Make this +effort of mind--you would have been strong enough to do it a little +while ago,--and consider yourself and him as if you were different +people. Now--from the business point of view--and no sentiment! He is an +undeserving blackguard." + +"No. I can't do anything now.... I _have_ considered it as a business +woman. I have looked at it from every point of view. Believe me, I must +go my own way." + +This was the final appeal of Mr. Prentice. He said no more on the +subject then, or afterwards. He had shot his bolt. + + + + +XXIV + + +Early in the new year Marsden had a serious illness. He caught a chill +on a suburban racecourse, came home to shiver and groan and curse, and +two days afterwards was down with double pneumonia. + +He kept the hospital nurses, his wife, and the doctor busy for three +weeks; and throughout this time there was no point at which it could be +said that he was not in imminent danger of death. + +Then the shop assistants heard, with properly concealed feelings of +exultation, that a devoted wife, a clever doctor, and two skilled nurses +had saved the governor's life. The governor had pulled through. Dr. +Eldridge, as the shop understood, was able to make the gratifying +pronouncement that the patient possessed a naturally magnificent frame +and constitution, which had been but partially weakened or impaired by +carelessness and imprudence. They need not entertain any further fear. +The dear governor will last for a splendidly long time yet. + +But his convalescence was slow; and after the recovery of normal health +he passed swiftly into a third phase. He showed no inclination to rush +about; his mental indolence had become so great that the mere notion of +a train-journey fatigued him; he did his betting locally, and spent his +days with the red-haired barmaid in the Dolphin bar. + +At the Dolphin Hotel he had slid down a descending scale of importance +which emblematized, with a strange accurateness, his descent in the town +of Mallingbridge and in the world generally. Once he used to come +swaggering into the noble coffee room, and be flattered by the landlord +and fawned on by the manager while he gave his orders for sumptuous +luncheons and dinners a la carte, with champagne of the choicest brands, +and the oldest and costliest of liqueurs. After that, a period arrived +when the restaurant and a table-d'hote repast, washed down with any +cheap but strong wine, were good enough for him. Then he was seen only +in the billiard room; or in the small grill-room, where he would sit +drinking for hours while relays of commercial travellers and minor +tradesmen bolted their chops and steaks. Now he had descended to what +was called the saloon bar; and here, since he had lost his club, he made +himself quite at ease, and was listened to with some semblance of +respect by the shabby frequenters, and always smiled upon by the +barmaid--who was an old, and of late a very intimate friend. He could +not drop any lower at the Dolphin, unless he went out to the stable yard +and sat with ostlers and fly-drivers in the taproom beneath the arch. + +At mid-day there were eatables of a light sort on the saloon counter; +but, rejecting such scratchy fare, Mr. Marsden regularly came home for +his solid luncheon. After lunching heavily he went back to the saloon, +stayed there through the tea hour, and returned to St. Saviour's Court +for dinner. He was regular in his attendance at meals, but except for +meal-time the house never saw him. In fact he was settling down into +stereotyped habits. When dinner was over he retired again--to take his +grog in the saloon, to help the barmaid close the saloon, and to escort +her thence to her modest little dwelling-house. + +Mrs. Marsden knew all about this barmaid, with her fascinating smiles +and her Venetian red hair--and indeed about her dwelling-house also. It +was common knowledge that a few years ago she had been a parlourmaid in +Adelaide Crescent; had somehow got into trouble; and somehow getting +out of it, had risen to the surface as a saloon siren, and proved +herself attractive to more persons than one. As to her place of +residence, an illuminating letter had reached Marsden & Thompson and +been duly opened behind the glass--"re No. 16 New Bridge Road. We beg to +remind you that your firm have guaranteed Miss Ingram's rent, and the +same being now nearly a quarter in arrear, we beg, etc., etc...." + +Then it was to Number Sixteen that Mr. Marsden walked every evening, wet +or fine. No one knew when he returned home again. But he was always +ready for his late breakfast in his own bed. + +Thanks to the regularity of these habits, Enid could now come and see +her mother without risk of encountering her stepfather. That cruel +threat of his had been often repeated, but never converted into an +explicit order; he disapproved of Mrs. Kenion's visits, and if they were +brought to his notice he would certainly prohibit them. But now the +house was safe ground between luncheon and dinner; and there were few +Thursday afternoons on which Enid did not come with her child to share +Mrs. Marsden's weekly half holiday. + +Little Jane was old enough to do without the constant vigilance of a +nurse; and almost old enough, it sometimes seemed, to understand that +she was her mother's only joy and consolation. + +"You must always be a good little girl," Mrs. Marsden used to say, "and +make mummy happy, and very proud of you." + +And the child, looking at granny with such wise eyes, said she was +always good, and never disturbed mummy in her room, or asked to be read +to when mummy was crying. Really, as she said this sort of thing, she +seemed to comprehend as clearly as her grandmother that there was +misery, deepening misery, in the ivy-clad farmhouse. + +"Mummy mustn't cry," said Mrs. Marsden tenderly. "Mummy must remember +that while she has you, she has everything.... Enid, don't give way." + +For mummy was there and then beginning to do just what she mustn't do. + +"Mother, I can't help it;" and Enid wiped her eyes. "I'm not brave like +you. And I feel now and then that I can't go on with it." + +Enid's barrier had fallen; she, too, abandoned the defence of an +impossible position. Often she showed a disposition to plunge into open +confidence, and tell the long tale of her trials and sorrows; but Mrs. +Marsden did not encourage a confidential outbreak, indeed checked all +tendencies in this direction. + +She used to take the child on her lap; and, after a little fondling and +whispering, Jane always fell asleep. Then, with the small flaxen head +nestled against her bosom, she talked quietly to her daughter, +endeavouring to put forward cheerful optimistic views, and providing the +philosophic generalities from which in troublous hours one should derive +stimulation and support. + +"She's tired from the journey. How pretty she is growing, Enid. She will +be extraordinarily pretty when she is grown-up. She will be exactly what +you were." + +"No one ever thought me pretty, except you, mother." + +"Nonsense, dear. Everyone admired you. You were enormously admired." + +"Then there was something wanting," said Enid bitterly. "I hadn't the +charms that have lasting power." + +But Mrs. Marsden would not allow the conversation to take an awkward +turn. + +"And Jane looks so well," she went on cheerfully. "Such limbs--and such +a _weight_! She is a glorious child. She does you credit, dear. You have +every reason to be proud of her--and you will be prouder and prouder, in +the time to come." + +"I hope so--I pray so. I shall have nothing else to be proud of." + +Once or twice, while the child was sleeping, Enid glided from obvious +hints to a bald statement, in spite of all Mrs. Marsden's endeavours to +restrain her. + +"Mother, my life is insupportable;" and tears began to flow. "Mother +dear, can't you help me?" + +"My darling, how can I? I have told you of my difficulties--but you +don't dream, you would never guess what they are." + +"It isn't money now," sobbed Enid. "I'd never again ask you for +money--and money, if you had thousands to give, would do me no good.... +Oh, I'm so wretched--so utterly wretched." + +"My dearest girl," and Mrs. Marsden, in the agitation caused by this +statement, moved uneasily and woke the little girl. "You tear me to +pieces when you ask me to help you. My own Enid, I can't help you. I +can't help you now. You must be brave, and carry your burdens by +yourself.... You say I am brave. Then be like me. I'm in the midst of +perils and fears--my hands are tied; yet I go on fighting. I swear to +you I am fighting hard. I've not given up hope. No, no. Don't think that +I'm not wanting to help you--longing to help you--_meaning_ to help you, +when the chance comes." + +Jane had extricated herself from the arms that held her; and, sliding to +the floor, she went to her mother's side. The energy of granny's voice +frightened her. + +"I'll do my best," said Enid. "I'll try to bear things submissively, as +you do." + +"And don't lose hope in the future," said Mrs. Marsden, dropping her +voice, and summoning every cheerful generality she could remember. "Be +patient. Wait--and clouds will pass. You are young--with more than half +your life before you. You have your sweet child. Go on hoping for happy +days. The clouds will pass. The sun will shine again." + + +But before any gleam of sunshine appeared, the sombre clouds that +lowered over Enid's head burst into a heavy storm. + +One morning Mrs. Marsden was engaged with Mears on what had become a +painful duty. They were stock-taking in the silk department; and, as the +empty shelves sadly confronted them, Mears looked at her with dull eyes, +opened and shut his mouth, but could not speak. He thought of what this +particular department had once been, and of his own delight in +especially fostering and tending it; of how it had improved under his +care; of how he and Mr. Ridgway had built up quite a respectable little +wholesale trade, as adjunct to the ordinary retail business, supplying +the smaller shops and steadily extending the connection. When he thought +of these things, it was no wonder that he could not speak. + +"Never mind, Mr. Mears," said Mrs. Marsden, in a whisper. Intuitively +she knew what was passing in his mind. "It's no good looking backwards. +We must look ahead." + +"Yes, no doubt," said Mears blankly. + +"I see what you mean. But we'll get an order through--before very long. +Meanwhile, you must do some more of your clever dressing." + +And it was just then--before Mr. Mears could promise to dress the empty +shelves--that the house servant appeared, and told her mistress of the +unexpected arrival of Mrs. Kenion. + +It was not a Thursday; and Enid came only on Thursdays, and never before +luncheon. Mrs. Marsden knew at once that something remarkable had +occurred. + +"Is Miss Jane with her?" + +"Yes, ma'am. They're waiting for you upstairs in the drawing-room." + +Mrs. Marsden hurried up to the first floor, and rushed through the door +of communication. + +"Enid, my dearest child." + +"Oh, mother, mother! It's all over." + +Enid was in a pitiable state of distress; the red circles round her eyes +were absolutely disfiguring; she wrung her hands, and contorted her +whole body. + +"Enid dear--tell me. Don't keep me in suspense." + +"He has gone--went to London this morning." + +"Who went? Charles? Do you mean Charles?" + +"Yes--and I don't believe he will ever come back to me." + +"Wait a moment, my love," said Mrs. Marsden. "Jane shall have a treat. +Jane, you shall come and play in the pantry. Won't that be nice?" + +And she took her grandchild by the hand, and led her from the room. +Outside in the passage she smiled at the little girl, patted her cheek, +stooped to hug and kiss her. Then she gave her over to the charge of the +housemaid--an elderly woman with an ugly face and an austere manner--and +walked briskly back to the dining-room. + +"Eliza will amuse Jane," she said cheerfully. "Eliza is kind, although +she seems so forbidding.... And now, my dear, you can tell me all about +this news--this great news--this _astonishing_ news of yours." + +Enid told her tale confusedly. She was too much distressed to record +events in their logical sequence. She worked backwards and forwards, +breaking the thread with ejaculations, laments, and sad reflections, +mixing yesterday with days that belonged to last year and the year +before last year. But Mrs. Marsden soon grasped the import of the tale. + +Mr. Kenion was the lover as well as the pilot of that rich hunting lady. +Enid had suspected the truth for a long time, had been certain of the +truth and suffered under the certainty for another long time--all that, +however, belonged to the past days and was quite unimportant. Yesterday +was the important day. + +Yesterday there had been a lawn meet--whether at Widmore Towers or +somewhere else, Mrs. Marsden did not gather. Mrs. Bulford's horse was +there; but as yet Mrs. Bulford had not shown herself. Charles was there, +dismounted for the moment, walking about among the gentlemen in front of +the house, taking nips of cherry brandy and nibbling biscuits offered by +the footmen with the trays. All was jollity and animation--promise of +fine sport; dull sky, gentle westerly breeze, dew-sprinkled earth; +kindly nature seemed to proclaim a good scenting day. + +And somebody, who has proved a very dull-nosed hound, is on the scent at +last. Here comes stiff-legged Major Bulford, armed with a hunting crop +although he only hunts on wheels, hobbling over the lawn among the +gentlemen. + +Hullo! What's up? Look! Bulford is wanging into Charlie, calling him +names as he slashes him across the face with stick and thong, using a +fist now,--hobbling after Charlie when Charlie has had enough, trying +with his uninjured leg to kick behind Charlie's back,--and tumbling at +full length on the damp grass. + +Mr. Kenion took his bleeding face home to be patched; and early this +morning he had gone to London--where Mrs. Bulford was waiting for him. + +"And, mother, he as good as said that I should never see him again. He +confessed that he and Mamie had been very imprudent--and Major Bulford +has discovered everything." + +"But, my darling, why do you cry? Why aren't you rejoicing--singing your +song of joy?" + +"Mother!" + +"All this is splendid good news--not bad news." + +"Mother, don't say it." + +"But I do say it. I say, Thank God--if this is going to give my girl +release from her slavery." Mrs. Marsden had spoken in a tone of +exaltation; but now her brows contracted, and her voice became grave. +"Enid, we mustn't run on so fast. To me it seems almost too good to be +true." + +"To me it seems dreadful." + +"Yes, at the moment. But later, you will know it is emancipation, +_life_. Only, let us keep calm. This man--Bulford--may not intend to +divorce her." + +"Oh, he _will_." + +"You think he will wish to cast her off?" + +"Yes. Charlie as good as said so." + +"But tell me this--You say they are very rich. Which of them has the +money--the husband or the wife?" + +"Oh, it is all Mrs. Bulford's--her very own." + +"Ah! The man may not divorce her--but if he does, there is one thing of +which you can be absolutely certain. Kenion will stick to her, and give +you your freedom." + +It was nearly one o'clock. Mrs. Marsden, glancing at the mantlepiece, +started. Her husband would soon return for his substantial mid-day meal. + +"Enid dear, I must take you and Jane out to lunch. I know you won't care +to meet Richard. Come! I shan't be a minute putting on my bonnet;" and +she hurried from the room. "Eliza! If Mr. Marsden asks for me, tell him +I shall not be in to luncheon.... That is all that you need say." + +To avoid the chance of being seen by her husband in High Street, she led +Enid and the little girl up the court instead of down it, round the +church-yard, and through devious ways to Gordon's, the confectioner's. +Here, at a small table in the back room, she gave them a comfortable and +sufficient repast--chicken for Enid, and nice soup and milk pudding for +Jane. She herself was unable to eat: excitement had banished all +appetite. She cut up toast for the soup, carved the chicken, dusted the +pudding with sugar; and smilingly watched over her guests. + +But every now and then she frowned, and became lost in deep thought. +Once, after a frowning pause, she leaned across the table and clutched +Enid's arm. + +"Enid," she whispered, with intense anxiety, "is this Bulford really an +upright honourable man who will do the right thing, and cast her off; or +is he a mean-spirited cur who will support his disgrace for the sake of +the cash?" + + +They remained at the confectioner's until Mrs. Marsden could feel no +doubt that her husband was now safe in his saloon; and then she took +them back to the house. + +She sent Mears a message to say that he and the shop must do without her +this afternoon, and she sat for a couple of quiet hours hearing the +remainder of Enid's grievous tale. Plainly it did Enid good to talk +about her troubles; the longer she talked the calmer she grew; and while +stage by stage she traced the history of her unhappy married life, Mrs. +Marsden thought very often of her own experiences. + +Jane, contented and replete, had fallen asleep upon granny's lap; and +Mrs. Marsden softly rocked her to and fro, to make the sleep sweeter and +easier. + +Unhappy Enid! She recited all her pains and pangs and torments. She had +loved the man, had thought him a fine gentleman, and had found him a +cruel beast. She had dreamed and awakened. She had tried to reconstitute +the dream, to shut her eyes to realities, and live in the dream that she +knew to be unreal. But he would not let her. She had forgiven misdeeds, +and even forgotten them; he had hurt her again and again and again; and +each time she had healed her wounds, and presented herself to him whole +and loyal once more. + +While Mrs. Marsden listened, she was thinking, "Yes, that is the +keynote, the apology, and the explanation. Love dies so slowly." + +Now Enid had come to the end of her tale. + +"Mother," she was saying, "I know I shall never see him any more;" and, +saying it, she began to cry again. "He spoke to me so kindly when he was +going from me.... And I looked at his poor face, all striped with the +sticking-plaster, and I thought of what he had been to me. It all came +back to me in a rush--the old feelings, mother,--and I begged him not to +go. And I asked him at least to kiss me--and he did it--and I knew that +he was sorry." + +Very quietly and carefully Mrs. Marsden got up, and placed the sleeping +child on her mother's lap. + +"Enid, take what is left to you. Put your arms round her, and hold her +against your heart. Hold her safe, and hold her close--for you are +holding all the world." + +Then, in great agitation, she walked up and down the room; and when she +stopped, and stood by Enid's chair, her eyes were streaming. + +"Never mind, my darling." An extraordinary exaltation sounded in her +voice; and, as she struggled to moderate its tone, there came a queer +vibration and huskiness. It seemed that but for dread of waking the +little girl, she would have shouted her words. "Never mind. You have +your child. Think of that. Nothing else matters. _I_ have suffered; +_you_ have suffered--never mind. Perhaps we women were intended to +suffer--and we have to bear some things so cruel that they must be borne +in silence. If we spoke of them, they might kill. But it is all nothing +compared with _this_;" and she stooped to kiss Enid's forehead, and very +gently and softly stroked the child's hair. "You and I have both made +our link in the wonderful chain of life. We have given what God gave us. +We carried the torch, and it has not been struck out of our hands and +extinguished.... We will rear your child; and I shall see you in her; +and she will grow tall and strong; and she will love--you most--the +mother,--but me too, when she understands that you came to her from +me.... And the sun shall shine again, and you shall be happy again--for +God is kind, and God is _just_.... And then there will be no more +tears--and a touch of your child's lips will destroy the memory of +tears." + + + + +XXV + + +Another year had slowly dragged by. + +Enid was still living with her child at the farmhouse; but all the +personal property of the child's father, all those numerous signs of too +engrossing amusements, had disappeared. Horses and grooms, brushes and +boots, spurs and bridles--all were gone. In the suit of Bulford vs. +Bulford and Kenion, the petitioner obtained a decree nisi; and soon the +decree will be made absolute. Another undefended suit--that of Kenion +vs. Kenion--is down for hearing. Very soon now Enid will be free. + +Meanwhile the big looking-glasses on the stairs and at department +entrances of Thompson & Marsden's shop had been growing tarnished, dull, +and spotted. They showed nothing new in their misty depths--emptiness +and desolation; unused space so great that it was not necessary to +multiply it by reflection; and a grey-haired black-robed woman passing +and repassing through the faint bluish fog, with shadowy, ghostly lines +of such sad figures marching and wheeling at her side. + +But there was no space for fog in the establishment across the road. +During these twelve slow months the visible, unmistakable prosperity of +Bence had been stupendous. + +He had bought out Mr. Bennett, the butcher. He would buy the whole +street. He had enlarged his popular market, adding Flowers to Fruit and +Vegetables. The old auctioneer had retired, in order to make room for +this addition; and where for a half a century there had been no objects +more interesting than sale bills and house registers and dangling +bunches of keys, beautiful unseasonable blossoms now shed their +fragrance throughout the year. Plainly there was nothing too old, or too +hard, or too large for Bence to swallow. + +And the reputation of Bence's, as well as its mere success, had steadily +been rising. It seemed as if the remorseless and triumphant Archibald +had not only stolen the entire trade of his principal rival, but had +also borrowed all the methods that in the old time built up the trade. +In his best departments the goods were now as solid and as real as those +which had made the glory of Thompson's at its zenith. But beyond this +laudable improvement of stock--a matter that no one could complain +of,--Bence betrayed a cruel persistence in imitating subsidiary +characteristics of Mrs. Thompson's tactical campaign. + +Gradually Bence had won the town. It was Bence who now feasted and +flattered the municipal authorities, exactly as Mrs. Thompson had done +years ago. Dinners to aldermen and councillors; soirees and receptions +for their wives; compliments, largesse, confidential attention flowing +out in a generous stream for the benefit of all--high and low--who could +possibly assist or hinder the welfare of Bence! Last Christmas--by way +of inaugurating his twentieth grand annual bazaar--he gave a ball to +four hundred people, with a military band and a champagne sit-down +supper. + +The ancient aldermen were nearly all gone; the council nowadays +professed themselves to be advocates of modern ideas; they said the +conditions of life are always changing; and they were ready to admit the +new style of trade as fundamentally correct. Then, making speeches after +snug Bence-provided banquets, they said that their host represented in +himself and his career the Spirit of the Age. They raised their glasses +in a toast which all would honour. "Mr. Archibald Bence, you are a +credit to the town of Mallingbridge; and speaking for the town, I say +the town is proud of you, sir.... Now, gentlemen, give him a +chorus--'For he's a jolly good fellow'".... + +Bence never stopped their music. He sat at the head of the table, +twirling his waxed moustache, fingering his jewelled studs, and smiling +enigmatically--as if he considered the adulation of his guests quite +natural and proper, or as if he felt amused by vulgar praise and a +homage which could be purchased with a little meat and drink. + +"Gentlemen," said Bence, rising to return thanks, and addressing the +assemblage in the usual tone of mock modesty, "I am overwhelmed by your +good-nature. I lay no claim to merit. The most I ever say of myself is +that I do work hard, and try my best. But I have been very lucky. +Anybody could have done what I have done, if they had been given the +same opportunity--and the same support." + +"No, no," cried the noisy guests. "Not one in a million. No one but +yourself, Mr. Bence. That's why we're so proud of you." + +And just as the town had turned towards Bence in his prosperity, so it +had turned away from Mrs. Marsden in her adversity. These people +worshipped success, and nothing else. The old shop was dying fast; its +legend was already dead. The ancient triumph of the brave young widow +was thus in a few years almost totally forgotten. It was a fabled +greatness that faded before her present insignificance. There were of +course some who still remembered; but they did not trouble to sustain or +revive her name and fame. + +Did she know how they spoke of her--these few who remembered? + +A pitiful story: a poor wretch who posed for a little while as a good +woman of business, and got absurd kudos for what was sheer luck. Just +clever enough to make a little money in propitious times; but without +staying power, unable to adapt herself to new methods--a _stupid_ +woman, really! That was the kindest talk. Others, who should have been +grateful and did not care to pay their debts, spoke of her as a +criminal. "I never forgave her that disgraceful marriage. I endeavoured +to prevent it, and warned her what would be the consequence of her--say +her folly; but I think one would be justified in using a stronger word. +Well, she has made her bed; and she must lie upon it." + +On a cold winter evening, when she had walked to the railway station +with Enid and was finding her a seat in the local train, a porter +officiously pointed out Bence. + +"There! That's Mr. Bence, ma'am. Mr. Bence--the small gentleman!" + +The local train was on one side of the platform, and on the other stood +the London express. And Bence, in fur coat and glossy topper, surrounded +with sycophantic inspectors and ticket-collectors, was approaching the +Pullman car. He was off to London, to buy fresh cargos of Leghorn hats +or whole warehouses of mauve blouses. + +The local train, with Enid in it, rolled away; and Mrs. Marsden, a +shabby insignificant black figure, remained motionless, waving a pocket +handkerchief and staring wistfully at the receding train. Then, as Bence +came bustling from the Pullman door to the book-stall at the end of the +platform, he and Mrs. Marsden met face to face. + +It was a strange encounter. Intelligent onlookers, if there had been any +on the platform, might have found food for much thought in studying this +chance meeting between the Spirit of the age and the Ghost of the past. + +There was nothing of the conqueror's exultant air in Bence's low bow. He +uncovered his bald head and bowed deeply, with ostentatious humbleness +and almost excessive respect--as if magnanimously determined to show +that greatness though fallen was still greatness to him. + +And there was nothing of the conquered in Mrs. Marsden's dignified +acknowledgment of the passing courtesy. Bowing, she looked at Bence and +through Bence; and her face seemed calm, cold, dispassionate: as +absolutely devoid of trouble or resentment as if one of the +ticket-collectors whom she used to tip had touched his hat to her. + +None of these greedy ruffians did salute her. In all the station, +through which she used to pass as a queen, only little Bence showed her +a sign of respect to-night. + + +In her deserted shop there were still faithful hearts; outside the shop, +in all Mallingbridge, it seemed as if she could not count more than one +true friend. + +Prentice was true as the magnet to the pole. For a long time he had +asked her no questions, given her no advice; and she told him nothing of +her affairs, either commercial or domestic. But he guessed that things +were going from bad to worse. He knew that she was more and more +frequently at the offices of Hyde & Collins. He saw her entering their +front door almost as often as he saw Bence entering it; and he +interpreted these visits as a certain indication that they were still +raising money for her. She had probably sold the last of her stocks and +shares, and now they were helping her to get rid of the small remainder +of her possessions. He knew of two or three houses in River Street, and +of a moderate mortgage on this property. Hyde & Collins might effect a +second mortgage perhaps; and then the houses would be practically gone, +as everything else had gone--into the bottomless pit. They would not +care how quickly she beggared herself. When she was squeezed dry, they +would just shut the door in her face. Insolent, unscrupulous brutes! And +he thought with anger of how cavalierly they would treat her even now, +before the end: breaking their appointments, telling her to call again, +leaving her to wait in outer rooms while they kow-towed to their best +client, their only prosperous client, the omnipotent Bence. + +To the mind of loyal Prentice the utter downfall of Mrs. Marsden was +abominable and intolerable. He could not bear it--this wreck of a life +that had been so noble. His hope of saving something from the wreck was +cruelly frustrated. He had tried again and again; but she would not +listen, she would not be guided. + +He thought sadly of the bright past, of her talent and genius; and, +above all, of her tremendous intellectual strength. In those days, when +he began to unfold a matter of business, she stopped him before he had +completed half a dozen sentences. It was enough--she had grasped the +whole position, sent beams from the search-light of her intelligence +flashing all round it, shown him essential points that he had not seen +himself. Difficulties never frightened her; she was subtle in defence, +swift in attack. Give her but a hint of danger, and in a moment she was +armed and ready. Before you knew what she would be at, she had sprung +into decisive action; and before you could hurry up with your feeble +reinforcements, the danger was over, the battle had been gained. + +But now she was weak as water--helpless, yet refusing help, hopeless and +making hope impossible, just drifting to her fate. At night Mr. Prentice +sometimes could not sleep. He lay awake, thinking of what it would come +to in the end--bankruptcy, her little hoard squandered, her last penny +gone in the futile effort to satisfy her husband and sustain the shop. + +And then? She was so proud that perhaps she might not allow Enid to +supply her simplest daily needs. He tossed and turned restlessly as he +thought of Enid's marriage settlement; and, remembering some of its +ill-advised clauses, he felt stung by remorse. He had bungled the +settlement. He ought to have stood firm, and not have permitted himself +to be overruled by the idiotic whims of a love-sick girl who was being +generous at another person's expense. He blamed himself bitterly now for +the manner in which funds had been permanently secured to Enid's +worthless husband. Of course the Divorce Court, exercising its statutory +powers, might wipe out the entire blunder, and handsomely punish the +offender by handsomely benefiting the wife; but he had small hope that +this would happen. No, the rascal Charles Kenion, when disposed of, will +still enjoy his life interest. The money that should come back now to +the hand that gave it is gone. Enid will not have more than she wants +for herself and her child. + +He could not sleep. The thought of Mrs. Marsden's pride made him shiver. +No prouder woman ever lived: famine and cold would not break her pride. +He had thought of her in the workhouse, or an almshouse, finishing her +days on the bread of charity. But no--great Heaven!--she would never +consent to do that. She would rather sell matches in the street. And he +imagined her appearance. An old woman in rags--creeping at dusk with +bent back,--pausing on a country road to hold her side and cough,--lying +down on the frozen ground beneath a haystack, and dying in the winter +storm. + +He knew--only too well--that these are the things that happen: the +inexorable facts of the world. But never should they happen in this +case--not while he had one sixpence to rub against another. + +He could not go on thinking about it without doing something. So he woke +up his invalid wife. That seemed the only thing he could do just +then;--and he told Mrs. Prentice that she must be kind to Mrs. Marsden; +she must begin being kind the first thing in the morning; she must +write a letter, pay a call, do _something_ to cheer and gladden his poor +old friend. + +Mrs. Prentice, an amiable nondescript woman, readily obeyed her husband; +and after this nocturnal conversation she used frequently to wait upon +Mrs. Marsden, often persuade her to go out for a drive, and now and then +entice her to come and dine in a quiet friendly fashion without any fuss +or ceremony. These pleasant evenings must have made bright and warm +spots amidst the cold dark gloom that now surrounded Mrs. Marsden. At +Mr. Prentice's comfortable private house she was treated with an honour +to which she had been long unaccustomed; there was nothing here to +remind her of her troubles; and she really appeared to forget them when +chatting freely with her kind host and hostess. + +"My dear Mrs. Prentice, it is too good of you to let me drop in on you +like this." + +"No, it is so good of you," said Mrs. Prentice, "to give us the pleasure +of your company." + +"It is a great pleasure to _me_," said Mrs. Marsden; "and I always +thoroughly enjoy myself." + +Mrs. Prentice liked her better in her adversity than in her prosperity. +She found it easy to join her husband in his admiration of the fortitude +and dignity of Mrs. Marsden as an ill-used wife and a broken-down +shopkeeper--now that the fable of her colossal brain-power was finally +shattered. Perhaps Mrs. Prentice's naturally kind heart had never opened +to Mrs. Marsden till the day when Mr. Prentice said that his idol was +acting like a fool. + +Their guest used to eat sparingly, although the hostess pressed her to +taste of every dish; and she scarcely drank more than half a glass of +wine, although the host had brought out his most highly prized vintage; +but she talked so cheerfully, so calmly, and so wisely, that her society +was as charming as it was welcome. Mr. Prentice, beaming on her and +listening with deference to her lightest words, was especially delighted +each time that he recognized something like a flash of the old light. + +Once they were discussing a rumour that had just reached Mallingbridge. +It was said that the War Office had purchased a tract of land on the +downs, and proposed to establish a large permanent camp up there. + +"Half a dozen regiments, with all their followers--an invasion!" + +"It will be dreadful for the town," said Mrs. Prentice. "Utterly destroy +its character." + +"That's what I think," said Mr. Prentice. "Do no good to anybody." + +"Do you know," said Mrs. Marsden, "I am inclined to disagree. Since the +soldiers came to Ellerford, trade--I am told--has picked up +wonderfully." + +"Ah, yes," said Prentice. "But that's a trifling affair--a very small +camp, compared with what this would be." + +"But, Mr. Prentice," and Mrs. Marsden smiled; "if a small camp does a +little good, why shouldn't a large camp do a lot of good?" + +It sounded quite simple, and yet only she would have said it. Mr. +Prentice laughed. It reminded him of the old way she had of going +straight to the point, and flooring you by a question that seemed +childishly naive until all at once you found you could not answer it. + +Mrs. Prentice continued to lament the many degradations that +Mallingbridge had already undergone. + +"The Theatre Royal turned into a music hall! The Royal! That is the last +blow. _Three_ music halls in the place, and not one theatre where you +can go and see a real play.... I used to love the Royal. It seemed a +_part_ of Mallingbridge." + +"My dear Mrs. Prentice," said the guest, calmly and philosophically, +"the town that you and I loved has gone. It was inevitable--one can't +put back the clock. Time won't stand still for us." + +"No, but they're making the new town so ugly, so vulgar. Whenever they +pull down one of the dear old houses, they do build such gimcrack +monstrosities." + +"I fancy," said Mrs. Marsden, "that the distance from London decided our +destiny. It was just far enough off to reproduce and copy the +metropolis. Nowadays, the little places that remain unchanged are all +close to the suburban boundary." + +When she talked in this style, Prentice thought how effectually she gave +the lie to people who said of her, that she had failed because she +lacked the faculty of appreciating altered conditions. + +"Did you happen," she asked him, "to read the report of the general +meeting of the railway company?" + +"No--I don't think I did." + +"The chairman mentioned Mallingbridge." + +"What did he say about it?" + +"He said that they might before long have to consider the propriety of +building a new station, and putting it on another site." + +"Why should they do that?" + +"Why?" And again Mrs. Marsden smiled. "Why indeed? It set me +thinking--and I read the speech carefully. Later on, the chairman spoke +of the scheme for moving their carriage and engine works out of the +London area. Well, I put those two hints together; and this is what I +made of them. I believe that the company intend at last to develop all +that land of theirs--the fields by the river,--and I prophesy that +within three years they'll have built the new carriage works there." + +She said this exactly as she used to say those luminously clever things +that he remembered in the past. He listened wonderingly and admiringly. + +But when the ladies left him alone to smoke his cigar or finish the wine +that the guest had neglected, he sighed. She could give these flashes of +the old logic and insight; she could talk so wisely about matters that +in no way concerned her; but in the one great matter of her own life, +where common sense was most desperately required, she had behaved like a +lunatic. + +He let his cigar go out, and he could not drink any more wine. Rain was +pattering on the windows, and the wind moaned round the house--a sad +dark night. He rang the bell, and told the servant to order a fly for +Mrs. Marsden at a quarter to ten. + +The fly took her home comfortably; and when she alighted at the bottom +of St. Saviour's Court and offered the driver something more than his +fare, he refused it. + +"Mr. Prentice paid me, ma'am." + +"Oh!... Then you must accept this shilling for yourself." + +"No, ma'am. Mr. Prentice tipped me. Good-night, ma'am." + + + + +XXVI + + +Enid was free. The farmhouse stood empty, with the ivy hanging in +festoons and long streamers about the windows, the grass growing rank +and strong over the carriage drive, and a board at the gate offering +this eligible modernised residence to be let on lease. Its sometime +mistress had gone with her little daughter to the seaside for eight or +ten months. After her stay at Eastbourne she would return to +Mallingbridge, and take furnished apartments--or perhaps rent one of the +tiny new villas on the Linkfield Road. She wished to be near her mother, +and she apologized now for leaving Mrs. Marsden quite alone during so +many months; but, as she explained, Jane needed sea air. + +"Never mind about me," said Mrs. Marsden. "Only the child matters. Build +up her health. Make her strong. I shall do very well--though of course I +shall miss you both." + +She was getting accustomed to solitude and silence. Truly she had never +been so entirely isolated and lonely as now. In the far-off days when +Enid used by her absence to produce a wide-spreading sense of loss, +there had been the work and bustle of the thriving shop to counteract +the void and quiet of the house. And there had been Yates. Now there was +nobody but the plain-faced grim-mannered Eliza, who had become the one +general-servant of the broken home. + +Mr. Marsden still lunched and dined at the house, but he was never there +for breakfast. He did not go upstairs to his bedroom and dressing-room +once in a week. Sometimes for a fortnight he and his wife did not meet +at meals. His voracious appetite manifested itself intermittently; +there were days on which he gorged like a boa-constrictor, and others on +which he felt disinclined to eat at all. Then he required Eliza to tempt +him with savoury highly-spiced food, or to devise some dainty surprise +which would stimulate his jaded fancy and woo him to a condescending +patronage. He would toy with a bird--or a couple of dozen oysters--or a +bit of pickled mackerel. Now and then, after he had been drinking more +heavily than usual, he would himself inspire Eliza. + +"Eliza, I can't touch all that muck;" and he pointed with a slightly +tremulous hand at the dinner table. "But I believe I could do with just +a simple hunk of bread and cheese, and a quart of stout. Run out and get +some stout--get two or three bottles, with the screw tops. You know, the +large bottles." + +Then perhaps he would find eventually that this queer dinner-menu was a +false inspiration. The bread and cheese were more than he could grapple +with--and he asked for something else to assist the stout. + +In a word, he was rather troublesome about his meals; and Mrs. Marsden +fell into the habit of taking her scanty refreshment at irregular hours. +He did not upbraid her for keeping out of his way. Eliza looked after +him in a satisfactory manner; and he never upset or frightened Eliza. +Grim Eliza ran no risk of receiving undesired attentions. + +Everybody knew that Mr. Marsden often drank too much. One night when he +failed to appear at dinner time, he was found--not by Eliza but by the +Borough constabulary--in a state of total intoxication on the pavement +outside the Dolphin. + +After this regrettable incident the Dolphin dismissed him and his +barmaid together. The attendance at the saloon had been dropping off. A +siren cannot draw custom, when you have a great hulking bully who sits +in the corner and threatens to punch the head of every inoffensive +moderate-sized gentleman upon whom the siren begins to exert her spell. +The Dolphin was very glad to see the backs of Miss Ingram and her +friend. + +Miss Ingram secured an engagement at the bar of the Red Cow, and Mr. +Marsden faithfully followed her thither. The Red Cow was the +disreputable betting public-house of which the town council were so much +ashamed; people went there to bet, and it was likely to lose its +license; but Marsden was content to make it his temporary club, and +indeed seemed to settle down there comfortably enough. + +He still occasionally came to the shop. All eyes were averted when he +swung one of the street doors and slouched in. He seemed to know and +almost to admit that he was a disgrace and an eyesore, and though he +scowled at the shop-walker swiftly dodging away and diving into the next +department, he did not bellow a reprimand. He hurried up the shop; and +it was only when he got behind the glass that he attempted to display +anything like the old swagger and bluster. + +"Well, Mears, what's the best news with you?... You all look as if you +were starting for a funeral--as black as a lot of mutes. How's +business?" And he began to whistle, or to rattle the bunch of duplicate +shop-keys that he carried in his trousers pocket. "I say, Mears, old +pal--I'm run dry. Can't you and the missus do an advance--something on +account--however small--to keep me going?" + +A few shillings were generally produced, and the advance was solemnly +entered in the books, to the governor's name. + +Then he nearly always announced that he had come to the shop for the +purpose of keeping a business appointment. + +"Look here. I'm expecting a gentleman. Show him straight in." + +These gentlemen were more dreadful to look at than the governor himself. +He gave appointments to most terrific blacklegs--the unwashed rabble of +the Red Cow, book-makers and their clerks, race-course touts,--inviting +them to the shop in order to establish his credit, and prove to these +seedy wretches that he was veritably the Marsden of Thompson & +Marsden's. + +For such interviews he used to turn his wife out of the room. At a word +she meekly left the American desk and walked out. + +"That you, Rooney? Come into my office. Here I am, you see. Sit down." + +The Red Cow gentlemen were overcome by the grandeur of Mr. Marsden in +his own office; the size and magnificence of the establishment filled +them with awe and envy; it surpassed belief. + +"Blow me, but it's true," they said afterwards. "Every word what he told +us is the Gospel truth. He's the boss of the whole show. I witnessed it +with my own eyes." + +Yet if his visitors had possessed real business acumen, the shop would +have impressed them with anything but confidence. + +To a trade expert one glance would have sufficed. The forlorn aspect of +the ruined shop told the gloomy facts with unmistakable clearness. So +few assistants, so pitiably few customers, such a beggarly array of +goods! Those shelves have all been dressed with dummies; those rolls of +rich silk are composed of a wooden block, some paper, and half a yard of +soiled material; within those huge presses you will find only darkness. +Emptiness, desolation, death! + +And what could not be seen could readily be guessed. Behind the glass +only two people--a man laboriously muddling with unfilled ledgers, a +girl at a type-writing machine--only one type-writer, a sadly feeble +clicking in the midst of vast unoccupied space; not a sound in the +covered yard; no horses, no carts; no purchased goods to be handled in +the immense packing rooms; no stock, no cash, no credit, no nothing! + +When a customer appeared, the shop seemed to stir uneasily in the sleep +that was so like death; a faint vibration disturbed the heavy +atmosphere; shop-walkers flitted to and fro; assistants yawned and +stretched themselves. What is it? Yes, it _is_ another customer. + +"What can we show madam?" + +"Well, I wanted--but really I think I've made a mistake--" and the +stranger looked about her, and seemed perplexed. "My friends said it was +in High Street--but I see this isn't it. Yes, I've made a mistake. Good +morning." + +"_Good_ morning, madam." + +The bright spring sunshine pouring in at the windows lit up the +threadbare, colourless matting, showed the dust that danced above the +parquet after each footfall; but it could not reach the great mirror on +the stairs. The mirrors were growing dimmer and dimmer. As the black +figure passed and repassed, the first reflected Mrs. Marsden was +scarcely less vague and unsubstantial than the line of Mrs. Marsdens +walking by her side. + +Mr. Mears and Miss Woolfrey, disconsolately pacing the lower and the +upper floor, seemed like captains of a ship becalmed--like honest +captains of a water-logged ship, feeling it tremble and shiver as it +settled down beneath their feet, knowing that it was soon to sink, and +thinking that they were ready to go down with it. When they paused in +their rounds of inspection, it was because really there was nothing to +inspect. They turned their heads and looked, from behind the dusty piles +of carpets or the trays of fly-blown china, at the establishment over +the way--looked from death to life; and for a few minutes watched the +jostling crowd and the brilliant range of colours on the other side of +the road. + +No dust there. Here, it was impossible to prevent the dust. The +dust-sheets were in tatters; the brooms and sprinklers were worn out; +there were not enough hands to sweep and rub. Mears himself looked +dusty. + +And when the sunlight fell upon him, he looked very old, very grey, and +rather shaky. He never blew out his cheeks or swished his coat-tails +now. The voluminous frock-coat seemed several sizes too large for him; +it was greasy at the elbows, and frayed at the cuffs. The salary of +Mears was hopelessly in arrear. For a long time Mears, like the +governor, had found himself obliged to crave for something on +account--just to keep going with. + + +One sunny April day Marsden entered the shop about noon, went into the +office; and, not discovering his wife there, ordered the type-writing +girl to fetch her immediately. + +"What is it, Richard?" said Mrs. Marsden, presently appearing. + +"Oh, there you are--at last. You never seem to be in your right place +when you're wanted. I've been waiting here five minutes--and not a soul +on the lookout to receive people." + +"I am sorry." + +"Anybody could walk in from the street and march slap into this room, +without being asked who he was and what his business was. And a nice +idea it would give a stranger of our management." + +"I am sorry. But was that all you had to say to me?" + +"No. Look here," he went on grumblingly. "Bence, if you please, has +asked me for an appointment." + +"Will you see him?" + +"Yes--I think so." + +"Very good." + +"Yes, I've told the little bounder I'll see him." + +"Do you wish me to be present at the interview?" + +"No--better not." + +A quarter of an hour afterwards Mr. Archibald Bence was coming up the +empty shop. It was years since he had crossed the threshold; and +certainly his eyes were expert enough to see now, if he cared to look +about him, the dire results of his implacable rivalry. But he showed +nothing in his face: smugly self-possessed, smilingly imperturbable, he +followed the shop-walker straight to the counting-house. + +The shop-walker announced him at the door of the inner room, and he +marched in. He bowed low, as Mrs. Marsden, with a slight inclination of +the head, passed out. Then Marsden shut the door. + +But upstairs and downstairs the dull air vibrated as if electric +discharges were passing through it in all directions; the whole shop +stirred and throbbed; the whispering assistants quivered. "Did you see +him?" "I couldn't get a peep at him." "I just saw the top of his hat." +Bence had come to call upon the governor. Bence was in the shop. That +great man was behind their glass. + +Soon they heard sounds of the noisy interview--at least, Marsden was +making a lot of noise. The minutes seemed long; but there were only five +or six of them before the counting-house doors opened and Bence +reappeared. He was perfectly calm, talking quietly and politely, though +the governor bellowed. + +"All right, Mr. Marsden, don't excite yourself. I only asked a +question." + +"Yes, a blasted impertinent one." + +"Well, no bones broken, anyhow," and Bence smiled. + +"If you should ever change your mind--come over the road, and let me +know." + +"I'll see you damned first." + +Nothing, however, could ruffle Bence. + +"Just so. But, as I was saying, if you ever _should_ care to do +business--well, I'm not far off. Good morning to you." + +Mrs. Marsden, when she returned to the inner room, found her husband +standing near the desk, sullenly scowling at the floor. + +"I was a fool to swear at him. I ought to have kicked him down the +shop.... Can you guess what he came about?" + +"I'm not clever at guessing. I'll wait till you tell me." + +"He wanted us to close more than half the shop, and sublet it to him for +the remainder of the lease." And Marsden sullenly and growlingly +described the details of this impudent proposal. Bence suggested that +the yard and the new packing rooms could be used by him as a warehouse; +that all departments to the west of the silk counter might be +transferred to the eastern side; that he would build a party wall at his +own expense, and use all this western block "for one thing or another." +Bence's question in plain words therefore was, Would they now confess to +the universe that their premises were about four times too big for their +trade? + +"Not to be thought of," said Mrs. Marsden. + +"No. I suppose not;" and Marsden glanced at her furtively, and then +rattled the keys in his pocket. "We won't think of it." + + + + +XXVII + + +Another month had gone, and the end of all things was approaching. + +"Jane," said Marsden, "we're beat. We'd better own it. We are beat to +the world. It's no good going on." + +"What do you mean?" + +It was a dull and depressing afternoon--the sky obscured by heavy +clouds, a little rain falling at intervals,--so dark in the room behind +the glass that Mrs. Marsden was compelled to switch on the electric +light above the American desk. She had turned in her chair, and was +watching her husband's face intently; and the light from the lamp showed +that her own face had become extraordinarily pale. + +"It's no good, Jane. You must see it just the same as I do. We're +done--and the only thing is to consider how we are to escape a smash." + +Then he told her that Bence had offered to buy them out. Bence was ready +to swallow them whole. Bence was prepared to give them a fair price for +their entire property--long lease of the premises, stock, fittings, +assets, the complete bag of tricks. He would take it over as a still +going concern, with all its debts and liabilities. If they accepted +Bence's offer, they would merely have to put the money in their pockets, +and could wash their hands of a bitterly bad job. + +"Don't talk so loud. Someone may hear you." + +"No," he said, "there's no one outside, except Miss O'Donnell; and you +can hear her machine--so she can't be eavesdropping.... I'll give you +my reasons for saying it's a fair price." + +"Yes, please do.... You haven't mentioned the amount yet." + +"I'm coming to it. I want to prepare your mind. Of course I don't know +how it will strike you."... + +"Go on, please." + +"First of all, I'll say I'm certain it's more than we should get from +anyone else. I've gone to the root of everything. I have worked it out +with plain figures.... Well, then--Bence will give six thousand pounds." + +"No, I won't accept the offer." + +"It would be three thousand apiece." + +"I refuse to agree to the sale." + +"It will be ready money, you know--paid on the nail." + +"Richard, I can't agree to it." + +"Why not? Of course I know I can't jump you into it. I don't want to do +so. I simply want to persuade you that it's our only course." + +Then he began to argue and plead with her. He said that he considered it +would be madness obstinately to decline such an opportunity, and she +ought really to be grateful to him for cutting the knot of their +difficulties. He explained that only two days after Bence's memorable +visit, he had gone across the road and reopened negotiations on a wider +scale. He owned that he had at first resented the approach of Bence as a +gross insult; he had felt disposed to kick Bence; but _afterwards_, +calmly thinking it over, he had come to the conclusion that Bence--"if +properly, handled"--might eventually prove their best friend. In this +softer, calmer mood, he had made a return call on Bence--had handled him +magnificently, had bluffed him and jollied him, had slowly but surely +screwed him up to make a splendid and a firm offer. + +"But, Richard, supposing that we were to sell the business, what would +happen to you?" + +"I should go away--to California. I'm sick of this stinking town. It's +played out for me. At Mallingbridge I'm a dead-beat--people don't +believe in me--I've no real friends. But I should do all right out +West--and I want a decent climate. Between you and me and the post, I +funk another English winter." + +"Do you mean that you want to desert me altogether?" + +"Jane, what's the use of asking me that? You and I have got to the end +of our tether, haven't we? What good can I do sticking here any longer? +I can't help you--I can't help myself. We're done. You'd far wiser +divide what we can grab from Bence, and let me go." + +"But to a person of your tastes and habits, three thousand pounds is not +an inexhaustible sum. Do you think that, as your entire capital, it +would be enough for you?" + +"Yes, I do," he said eagerly. "Life is cheaper out there. In that lovely +climate one doesn't want to binge up. There aren't the same temptations. +I should turn over a new leaf--put the brake on--make a fresh start." + +"And should I never see you again?" + +"Oh, I don't say that. No--of course I should come back. I don't see +what real difference it would make to you. We're a semi-detached couple, +as it is." + +"Yes, but not quite detached." + +"Well, you'd let me go on a little longer string. That's all about it;" +and he laughed good-humouredly. He believed that he would soon overcome +her opposition. "I never meant any total severance, you know. We should +be like the swells--Mrs. Marsden is residing at Mallingbridge; Mr. +Marsden has gone to the Pacific Coast for the winter. We'd put it in the +paper, if you liked." + +"I see that you are very keen to close with--with Mr. Bence's +proposal." + +"Yes, I am--and I honestly believe you ought to be just as keen." + +And again he extolled his personal merit in screwing up the proposer. +Bence had pointed out that if he quietly waited until Thompson & Marsden +were forced as bankrupts to put up their shutters, he would buy all he +wanted at a much lower price. The premises, and the premises only, were +what Bence wanted. After a bankruptcy he could buy the lease at the +market price, and not have to give a penny for anything else. Bence said +his offer was extravagantly liberal; but he frankly admitted that he +felt in a hurry to clear up the street, and make it neat and tidy. He +would therefore fork out thus handsomely to avoid delay. + +"He said we were doing the street _harm_, Jane. And, upon my word, I +couldn't deny that. I've often told Mears we have got to look more like +a funeral than anything else." + +"And you wish us to be decently buried?" + +He laughed and shrugged his shoulders in the utmost good-humour. He felt +sure now that she would yield; and with increasing eagerness he urged +her to adopt his views. + +"Very well," she said at last. "It is your wish?" + +"Yes, it is." + +"Then on one condition," and she spoke in a hard, matter-of-fact +voice,--"on _one_ condition, I'll consent." + +"What's your condition?" + +"When we wind up our business relations, we must wind up all our other +relations.... It must be a total severance--I am using your own +word--and no half measures. When you leave Mallingbridge you must leave +it forever. You must undertake--bind yourself never to set foot in it +again." + +"Oh, I say." + +"You must execute a deed of separation." + +He seemed greatly surprised; and for a little while hesitated, as if +unable to express his thoughts. + +"Look here, Jane.... You're talking big, old lady. What next?... Deed of +separation! That's a very large order." + +"You are taking freedom for yourself. You must give me freedom." + +"Oh, no, you overdo that line," he said slowly. "I told you I would come +back--some day or other. Yet now you take up this high and mighty +tone--as though I had given you the right to cut me adrift altogether." + +"Ah! I understand. You thought you'd have _your_ three thousand to +spend, and _my_ three thousand to fall back upon. Then again I refuse +the offer." + +"Don't be hasty--and don't impute bad motives where none exist. No, you +have struck me all of a heap by what you demand. I wasn't prepared for +it--and it wants a bit of thought, before I can say yes or no." + +And he began to bargain about the deed of separation. He had seen an +unexpected chance, and he meant to make the most of it. + +"Let's be business-like, Jane. If I renounce all claims on you +forever--if I agree to make a formal renunciation,--well, surely that's +worth _something_ to you?" + +"Do you mean, worth money? Are you asking me to pay you?" + +"I want to start a new life out there--and I shall need all the money I +can get. You told me so, yourself--three thou. is devilish little to +face the world on." + +"Yes," she said quietly, "and with another person dependent on you." + +"What do you say?" + +"I say, you are not going alone.... We must think of your companion, as +well as of yourself." + +"Jane, you're hard on me." + +"Am I?" + +And the bargaining went on. + +Finally they came to terms. She was to give him half her share, in +exchange for absolute freedom. He would thus have four thousand five +hundred pounds as initial impetus for his new career. + +"Do you say _done_ to that?" + +"Yes," she replied coldly and firmly, "I say done." + +He sat down, drew out a dirty handkerchief, and wiped his forehead. His +argumentative efforts had made him warm; but he smiled contentedly. He +considered that "in the circs." it was a jolly good bargain. + +"Dick," and her voice suddenly softened. "Have you thought what _I_ am +to do? Fifteen hundred pounds isn't much for _me_--to start a new life +with." + +"You have money of your own.... I am certain that you have a tidy +nest-egg still." + +"If I were to tell you that I hadn't another penny in the world?" + +"I shouldn't believe it." + +"If I convinced you that it was literally true, would it make any +difference to you?" + +"I don't follow." + +"Would you still take half my share from me?" + +"What's the good of talking about it?" And he looked at her +thoughtfully. "Jane, the devil is driving me. I'm not the man I was. I +funk dangers. My health is broken.... You'll be all right. You have +friends. I have none. It's vital to me to know that we--that I shall +have enough to rub along with out there." + +Mrs. Marsden said no more. + +"Yes, you'll be all right, old girl. Never fear!" And he got up, and +stretched himself. "But I say! We've been jawing such a deuce of a time +that it'll be too late to do anything to-day, unless we look sharp.... +Will you give me a letter to Hyde & Collins, saying you accept?" + +"No, I'll go there, and tell them by word of mouth." + +"May I go with you?" + +"No, that's unnecessary." + +"But you _will_ go, Jane? I mean, at once. You do intend to go--and no +rot?" + +"I have told you I am going." + +"Yes, but hurry up then. They don't keep open all night." + +"I'll tell them within an hour." + + +Within an hour she had spoken to Mr. Bence's solicitors and gone on to +the office of Mr. Prentice. + +"Now," she said to her old friend, "you see me in my need. The time has +come. Help me with all your power." + +Then very rapidly she told him all that had happened. + +"So there goes the end of an old song," said Mr. Prentice. "Mind you, I +don't tell you that you are doing wrong. It may be--probably it +_is_--the only thing to do.... Six thousand pounds!" It was obvious that +Mr. Prentice had been astonished by the largeness of this sum. But he +would not admit the fact. He spoke cautiously. + +"It is more than anyone else would have given." + +"Possibly! But I might have got you better terms from Bence. Let me take +up the negotiations now. If he will give as much as six thousand, he may +give more." + +"No, I have told Hyde & Collins that we accept." + +"That was premature. But you referred them to me?" + +"No. I told them to prepare the conveyance at once." + +"But--good gracious--they can't act for both sides." + +"Of course they can. It will save time--it will save money. There is no +difficulty _there_. We sell all we have. A child could carry it +through." + +"Oh, but really, I don't know. Your interests must be guarded." + +"No, no." She was nervous and excited, and she spoke piteously and yet +irritably. "I have instructed them. They must attend to the sale. And +_you_ must attend to the deed of separation. Concentrate your mind--all +your mind on it.... Don't you understand, don't you see that this is +everything and the sale is nothing?" + +"No, I don't see that at all." + +"It is what I have been praying for night and day--it is my escape. And +he is granting it to me of his own consent--he consents to give me +unmolested freedom." + +And she implored Mr. Prentice to use his skill and sagacity to their +uttermost extent. + +"I want it to be a renunciation of all possible claims. It must be +absolutely clear that this is the end of our partnership." + +"Oh, as to that," said Mr. Prentice, "the partnership ends automatically +with the sale of the business." + +"But put it in the deed--explicitly. Make him surrender every +claim--even if it seems to you only the shadow of a claim." + +Then, without saying that she was to pay a price for Marsden's +acquiescence, she repeated the agreed conditions of the separation. She +became agitated when Mr. Prentice assured her that he would easily draft +the deed. + +"No, don't treat it as an easy task. Get counsel's opinion--the best +counsel. Spare no expense--in this case. It is life and death to me.... +Oh, Mr. Prentice, don't fail me _now_. Make the deed strong--make it so +binding that he can never slip out of it." + +"I won't fail you," said Mr. Prentice earnestly. "We'll make your deed +as strong--as effective--as is humanly possible--a deed that the Courts +will be far more inclined to support than to upset." + +"Yes, yes," she said, as if now satisfied. "That's all I ask for--as +strong as is humanly possible." + + + + +XXVIII + + +It was a bright May morning and the sunshine streamed into Mr. +Prentice's room gaily and warmly, lighting up the old panelled walls, +flickering on the bunch of keys that hung from the lock of the open +safe, and making the tin boxes show queer reflections of the windows, +the tops of houses on the other side of Hill Street, and even of the +blue sky above the chimney-pots. + +A large table had been brought in for the occasion; a clerk had +furnished it with newly-filled ink-stands and nice clean blotting paper; +another clerk was ready to receive the visitors as they came upstairs. +Mr. Prentice moved his armchair to the head of the table. He would sit +here, and preside over the meeting. He glanced at the clock.--A quarter +to twelve! + +At noon Mr. Archibald Bence or his representative was to complete the +purchase of Marsden & Thompson's by handing over cash; and at the same +time the domestic affairs of Mrs. Marsden were to be wound up forever. + +Mrs. Marsden was the first of the interested parties to arrive on the +scene. She looked careworn and nervous; and, as she shook hands, Mr. +Prentice noticed that her fingers trembled. + +"Now, my dear," he said kindly, "there's nothing to worry about. You sit +by my side here, and take things quietly." + +Mrs. Marsden, however, preferred to sit away from the table, on a chair +between the windows, with her back to the light. + +"Nothing to worry about now," repeated Mr. Prentice, confidently and +cheerily. "It'll soon be over." + +"But it won't be over without some unpleasantness." + +"Why? Mr. Marsden has been quite pleasant so far--really quite easy to +deal with." + +"But he won't be to-day--I know it." And she showed great anxiety. "You +say he has made all arrangements for his voyage?" + +"Yes. He tells me he sails on Thursday. And he goes to London to-night." + +"I wonder if he truly means it." + +"Of course he means it." + +"I suppose he does. The things he packed at our house went straight to +Liverpool. But--even now--he may change his mind." + +"How can he?... Hush!" + +There was a heavy footstep in the passage. The clerk opened the door, +and announced Mr. Marsden. + +"Am I late?" + +"No, you are in excellent time," said Prentice; and, looking at him, he +endeavoured not to manifest the thoughts aroused by his appearance. + +It seemed that Marsden, bracing himself for the day, was trying to +maintain a sort of buccaneering joviality. Evidently, too, he had made +some attempts to render himself presentable in general company. He had +visited the barber, and his bloated face was smooth and glistening after +a close shave; a neatly cut piece of plaster covered an eruption on the +back of his neck; he wore a clean collar, and the cheap violet satin +neck-tie conveyed the idea that it had been chosen by feminine taste. +Probably his travelling companion had assisted in brushing and cleaning +him, and sending him forth as nice as possible. + +Yet, in spite of this unusual care, he looked most ruffianly as he +lolled in a chair near the open safe, with the bright sunlight full upon +him. His eyes were slightly bloodshot; and the gross, overfed frame +suggested the characteristics of a beast of prey who for a long time has +ceased to undergo the invigorating activities of the chase and been +enabled without effort to gorge at will. Now he had come for his last +greedy and unearned meal. + +Mrs. Marsden, on the other side of the room, lowered her eyes, folded +her hands, sat silent and motionless. + +Mr. Collins of Hyde & Collins, followed by his own clerk, was the next +to arrive. He came bustling into the room, and immediately seemed to +take possession of it. + +"Good morning. Good morning. Here we are. Put my bag on the table.... +Where are you sitting, Prentice.... Over there? All right. Then I'll sit +here;" and he took the chair at the end of the table, opposite to Mr. +Prentice. "You sit there, Fielding;" and he waved to his clerk. "Sit +down. Don't stand." + +Mr. Prentice disliked Collins rather more than he disliked Hyde. To his +mind, Collins was everything that a solicitor should not be--impudent, +unscrupulous, vulgar; a discredit to the profession. His ragged beard, +his snout of a nose, his little ferret-eyes, shifting so rapidly behind +steel-rimmed spectacles, were all obnoxious; but what made Mr. Prentice +really angry was his irrepressible familiarity, with the odious +facetious manner that accompanied it. He said Prentice instead of +_Mister_ Prentice; and, refusing to recognize snubs, always pretended +that they were on the best of terms with each other. + +"Well," asked Marsden, "why don't we begin?" + +"No hurry, is there?" said Collins. He was busy with his ugly black bag, +getting out the important document, and unfolding some memorandum +papers. + +"Oh, _I_'m in no particular hurry," said Marsden. "But twelve o'clock +was the hour named." + +"Is it twelve.... Can you hear Holy Trinity clock from here, Prentice? +We hear it plainly at our place." + +Then dapper, smiling Mr. Archibald Bence was announced. + +"Come in," said Collins patronisingly. "Here we are, all assembled. Be +seated. Fielding, put a chair for Mr. Bence." + +Mr. Archibald looked splendid in the sunlight. He shone all over, from +his bald head to his patent leather boots. His black coat was +beautifully braided, elegantly padded on the shoulders, tightly pulled +in at the waist; his buff waistcoat exactly matched his wash-leather +gloves; and with him there entered the room a pleasing fragrance shed by +the moss roses in his button-hole. He bowed gallantly to the only lady +present, had an affable word for Prentice and Collins, and nodded rather +contemptuously to Marsden. + +"Gentlemen," he said blandly, "it is the sort of day on which one is +glad to be alive;" and he turned about, with a dandified air, to find a +vacant spot for his brand-new topper. + +"Take Mr. Bence's hat," said Collins; and his clerk did as he was bid. + +Bence, declining a chair, went and leaned against the wall near Mrs. +Marsden, and twirled his moustache. + +"What are we waiting for?" asked Marsden. + +"Only for one small trifle," said Mr. Collins facetiously. "But I don't +suppose you'd dispense with it. Not quite a matter of form." + +"What is it?" + +"The money--the purchase money, my dear sir." + +"What? Haven't you got it with you?" + +"Oh, dear me, no," said Mr. Collins. "But it's coming--oh, yes, it's +coming." + +"I understand that a clerk is bringing it from the bank," said Mr. +Prentice. He found the facetious manner of Mr. Collins utterly +insufferable. + +Marsden shrugged his shoulders, and crossed his legs. Archibald Bence +was looking at him; Collins looked at him; old Prentice looked at him; +and all at once he seemed to feel the necessity of asserting himself. + +"I never understood the use of appointments unless they are punctually +attended. It's waste of time asking people for twelve, if you don't +intend to get to work till half an hour later." + +Bence moved to the window, and looked out. + +"A thousand apologies for keeping you waiting, Mr. Marsden." He spoke +over his shoulder. "Ah, here the man comes;" and he pulled out his grand +gold watch. "Then I've really only wasted three minutes of your valuable +time." + +"All right," said Marsden sulkily. + +The bank clerk came in, and bowed to the company as he went to Mr. +Collins's side at the table. Then he opened his wallet and brought out +the white sheaves of bank-notes. + +"Will you go through them, sir?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Collins. "Will you kindly check them with me, Prentice?" + +"I'll count them after you," said Mr. Prentice. It did not suit his +dignity to leave his chair and go round the table to stand at Collins's +elbow. + +Mr. Collins found the total of the notes correct, pushed them across to +Prentice, and signed the bank receipt. + +"Then you won't want me any more," said the bank clerk. + +"Wait," said Collins pompously, as if the bank, as well as Mr. +Prentice's room, belonged to him. "Stand over there--or sit down, if +you please. My clerk will go back with you." + +Marsden had risen and approached the table. It was as if the bank-notes +had irresistibly drawn him. Perhaps, though in his career he had +dissipated so many notes singly or by small batches, he had never yet +seen such a good show of them, all together, at one time. And such noble +denominations! + +"Twice three thousand," said Prentice. "Quite right." While counting, he +had divided the notes into two piles; and now he slid them towards the +middle of the table, and put an ink-stand on top to prevent their +blowing away. + +Marsden stood over them. He could not leave the table now. + +"Then here we are. All in order," said Collins, as he spread out his +parchment and glanced at Mrs. Marsden. "I suppose, strictly speaking, it +should be ladies first. But as the pen is close to your hand, Mr. +Marsden--will you, sir, open the ball?" + +"Oh, that's the conveyance for the sale, eh? Where do I sign?" + +"There--against the seal--over the pencil marks.... And I'll witness +your signature." + +Then Mr. Marsden duly signed his name, and repeated the formula as +prompted by Collins. + +"I deliver it as my act and deed.... Now, Jane!" + +Mrs. Marsden had not stirred from her seat. + +"Don't put down your pen, Richard. There's the other deed to sign. Mr. +Prentice is ready for you." + +"All right--but you come and sign the conveyance;" and he moved to Mr. +Prentice's end of the table. "I ought to read this--but I suppose I may +take it as read." + +"Oh, yes, I think so," said Mr. Prentice. + +"It's exactly the same as the draft that I passed?" + +"Yes, of course." + +"I may trust you not to have dabbed in something artful that I'd never +heard of?" + +"You had better read it," said Prentice curtly, "if you _can't_ trust +me." + +"Oh, that's all right;" and Marsden laughed. "Now then--where do you +want my autograph?" + +Still chuckling, he affixed his signature; and, he smiled +good-humouredly while the witness filled the attestation space. + +Mrs. Marsden had come to the table, and was pulling off a rusty black +glove. + +"There you are," said her husband. "The conveyance first, Jane." + +"No," said Mrs. Marsden, looking at him resolutely. "I'll sign this deed +first. It's the one I'm most interested in;" and she turned to Mr. +Prentice. "But I must try the pen. Kindly let me have a bit of paper." + +Mr. Prentice fetched a half sheet of note-paper from his desk, and +handed it to her. + +"Thank you." Stooping over the table, she tested the pen by scribbling a +few words. Then she executed the deed; and, while Mr. Fielding was being +good enough to write his name and address as witness, she gave the +half-leaf of paper to Mr. Prentice. + +"Now then," said Marsden. "Look sharp. Don't be all night about it." He +had gone to the other end of the table, and he waited anxiously to see +the conveyance completed. + +Mr. Prentice was reading Mrs. Marsden's scribbled words. He looked at +her, and she pointed with her pen. She had written: "Lock the deed in +your safe, and put the keys in your pocket." + +"Now I am ready, Richard." + +But still she did not sign. She was watching Mr. Prentice. The door of +the safe shut with a faint, dull clank, and Mr. Prentice locked the door +and took out the keys. + +Then Mrs. Marsden signed the conveyance, and Fielding obligingly +witnessed her signature. + +"Thank you," she said; and, returning to her chair between the windows, +she sat down again. + +"That's done," said Collins; and he called to the bank clerk, who had +been patiently waiting in a corner of the room. "Mr. Fielding will go +back with you. This document is to be put away with Mr. Bence's papers. +My compliments to the manager. He knows all about it." + +"But," said Marsden, "doesn't Mr. Bence sign it?" + +"It isn't necessary," said Collins. + +"Are you sure?" And Marsden looked at Bence suspiciously. + +"He can sign it at his convenience," said Collins, "if he ever wishes to +do so.... Run along, young fellows. My compliments to the manager;" and +he addressed Marsden with extreme facetiousness. "We pay on this--so you +can be quite sure we are not deceiving you. The money _talks_. You can +take it whenever you please.... Ah! I see--you're not slow about that." + +And in fact, without waiting for Mr. Collins to conclude his invitation, +Marsden had pushed aside the ink-stand and picked up the notes. One +bundle he unceremoniously thrust into the breast pocket of his coat; and +now with a licked finger he was separating the edges of the other +bundle. + +"Stop," said Mr. Prentice. "What are you doing? Allow me, please;" and +he held out his hand. "I will attend to this." + +Marsden, without surrendering the notes, explained matters in a +confidential whisper. + +"Fifteen hundred goes to her, and the rest to me." + +"Indeed it doesn't," said Prentice warmly. + +"It's all right," said Marsden. "It was arranged between her and me." + +"But I know nothing of any such arrangement. I can't permit it for a +moment." + +"_You_ can't permit it!" said Marsden indignantly. "What the dickens has +it got to do with you?" + +Mr. Collins, with an assumption of tactful delicacy, had pushed back his +chair. "Excuse me. This is a private conversation. I hasten to +withdraw." And he went across to Archibald Bence and Mrs. Marsden, and +talked to them in a rapid undertone. + +Mr. Prentice went on protesting; and Marsden, cutting him short, called +loudly to his wife. + +"Jane, tell him that it is all right." + +"Yes," she said. "Quite all right, Mr. Prentice." + +"Oh, you mean that you are giving him a present of fifteen hundred +pounds?" + +"It's not a present," said Marsden. + +"No," said Mrs. Marsden, "it was a bargain." + +"Between ourselves, and concerning nobody else;" and Marsden glared at +Mr. Prentice. + +Nevertheless Mr. Prentice still expostulated. "I think it is highly +improper. I would never have consented to--" + +"Pardon me," said Collins, "if I intrude--but it has been impossible not +to catch the gist of your discussion. Really it seems to me that it is +too late for you, Prentice, to tender advice on the point--and that the +lady's wish must decide the matter. If Mrs. Marsden announces that she +wishes--" + +"Just so, Mr. Collins;" and Marsden looked at him gratefully. + +"Exactly," said Bence soothingly. "That's how it strikes me, too." + +Marsden looked at Bence with surprise and pleasure. + +They all seemed to be on his side. He appealed to his wife with a +rather boisterous joviality. + +"Jane, speak up for me. Tell them that you did wish it." + +"Yes, I did wish it." + +"Then there is no more to be said," continued Bence, smoothly and +glibly. "On an occasion like this, one naturally wishes to avoid any +acrimonious talk. Especially in a peculiar case like the present--when a +gentleman and a lady are parting,--there's no need for them to part +other than as good friends. That, madam, I feel certain is also your +wish." + +"Yes," said Mrs. Marsden in a low voice, "I do greatly wish it." + +"Thank you, Jane. I'm sure I do. But I don't know why we should make +speeches about it, or get Mr. Bence to expound our sentiments." + +"Forgive me," said Bence, "if I trespass. You are leaving us, Mr. +Marsden--and I share Mrs. Marsden's desire that you should not leave us +with any feeling of ill-will." + +"Precisely," said Collins, picking up the word, almost as if taking his +cue in a rehearsed dialogue. "That is what everyone must feel." He had +reseated himself at the table; and he looked round with a comprehensive +smile, as if assuming sole charge of everything and everybody. "Mr. +Bence has touched the point very gracefully.... Pray be seated, Mr. +Marsden." + +"What, aren't we done?" + +"Yes, yes, my dear sir," said Collins with consequential urbanity. "Our +business is done. But spare us one minute for friendly chat. Do sit +down.... Thank you. As I was about to say, following the line of our +friend Bence: In the hour of separation, when two parties by mutual +agreement are saying good-bye, it is always well that they should +thoroughly understand the future situation." + +"What's all this gas about?" said Marsden. "Are you trying to pull my +leg? What are you getting at?" + +"Mr. Marsden, you are retiring from trade, you are going to the other +side of the world--I wish you health and prosperity." + +"And I, too," said Bence. "The best of luck, Mr. Marsden." + +Marsden got up again. "Thank you for nothing, Mr. Archibald Bence. +You're both trying to be funny, I suppose. Only I fail to see the +joke.... Good morning;" and he moved towards the door. "Jane, good-bye." + +"But," said Mr. Archibald, "we've wished you luck. Don't go without +wishing us luck." + +"Yes," said Collins, "don't go without wishing your wife luck." + +"Then here's luck, Jane;" and Marsden laughed. + +"And luck to Bence's," said Collins blandly. "Wish luck to Bence's." + +"No, I'll be damned if I do." + +"But that," said Collins, with a grin, "invalidates your other good +wish. You can't wish luck to your wife without wishing luck to Bence's;" +and he bowed to Mrs. Marsden. "I think you should now explain. He will +take it better from you." + +"Richard," said Mrs. Marsden quietly and firmly, "_I_ am Bence's." + +For a few moments there was silence. Then Marsden came slowly to the +table, leaned both hands on it, and stared across at his wife. + +"What do you mean by that, Jane? Is this another joke?" + +"Oh, no," said Mr. Archibald. "It is strictly accurate. Bence's, with +all that's in it--including your humble servant--practically belongs to +this lady." + +"And we all felt," said Collins, "that you ought to know the facts +before you started on your journey. We didn't want you coming back again +to inquire--don't you know." + +Marsden seemed not to hear. He stared at his wife, with his blood-shot +eyes widely distended; and he spoke only to her. + +"Jane, answer me. Is it true?" + +"Yes, Richard." + +"But _how_?" + +"You asked me what I did with my money--the remainder of my own money. +You were always asking me. Well, I gave it to Mr. Bence." + +"How much was it?" + +"Not very much," said Mrs. Marsden deprecatingly; "but he has done very +well with it." + +"But that was treachery--a damnable betrayal." + +"Richard, don't use strong words. It was no betrayal. It was common +sense. Remember, desperate diseases need desperate remedies." + +"You went over to my enemy. You helped him to destroy our business." + +"I didn't," said Mrs. Marsden earnestly. "I gave him my money; but I +gave you my work. I never ceased fighting him. Isn't that true, Mr. +Bence?" + +"Strictly accurate," said Bence. "She fought gamely to the bitter end." + +"You shut your head," said Marsden fiercely. "Don't interfere between me +and my wife. I must have this out with her first. I'll talk to you +directly." + +"I'll be ready for you," said Bence. "But till then, please moderate +your language;" and he moved to a window, and looked down into the +street. + +"So that's what you did, Jane, eh? Sneaked off behind my back, and sold +yourself to the enemy!" + +"I continued to serve you faithfully. Success or failure lay in your +hands, not mine. I never ceased working for the firm." + +"Oh, that's easy to say, isn't it?" + +"It's the truth." + +"It's a lie--and you know it." + +"Will you moderate your language?" said Bence. "Gentlemen, I beg your +support. This lady must be protected from insult." + +But the attention of Marsden and his wife was so entirely concentrated +on each other that neither of them seemed to hear the interruption. + +"Richard, don't go on like this--don't force me to say unkind things +which I shall regret later." + +"I knew there was some infernal mystery at the bottom of our troubles. +But, by Jove, I never guessed that it was _you_ who'd played false." + +"Richard, don't abuse me." + +"Abuse you? I shan't waste breath on abusing you. You have cheated +me--or you've _tried_ to cheat me. For I'm not going to let you;" and he +turned towards the others. "Take notice, all of you, that I shan't +submit to this. Prentice, do you understand? You were always hostile to +me. I suppose you helped to hatch this plot." + +Mr. Prentice was looking so absolutely bewildered that his face should +have been sufficient proof of his innocence. + +"No," he said feebly. "All this has come upon me as a complete +surprise." + +"Then you, Mr. Collins--understand it's all mighty fine, but it won't +wash." + +"Won't it?" said Collins. + +"No, I don't allow myself to be cheated--even by my wife." + +"Richard," said Mrs. Marsden, "don't call me a cheat again." + +"You there--Bence--take notice. I'll bring you to account for this. I'm +not the sort to be tricked and fooled by any little swine that gets +plotting with my wife. No, not if I know it. Cheating people is very +clever, but--" + +Mrs. Marsden sprang up from her chair by the wall. + +"How dare you call me a cheat?" + +Her eyes were blazing. She had clenched her fists; and, trembling with +passion, she came to the table and faced her husband. + +"What have you ever given me in exchange for all I gave you--except +shame and sorrow?" + +"I'm not going to listen to your yelling and--" + +"I gave you my love, and you trampled on it--I gave you my home, and you +polluted it--I gave you the work of my life, and you pulled it to pieces +before my eyes. Yet still I was true and loyal to you. I could have +divorced you, and I wouldn't do it. I promised you that I'd hold to you +till you yourself consented to set me free; and I kept my promise. You +were a liar--but I respected your words. You were a thief--but I dealt +with you as if you had been an honest man. I fed and clothed you when +you were well, I nursed you when you were sick--I hid your crimes, I +sheltered you from their consequences. At this minute I am keeping you +out of the prison that is your only proper place.... And yet--great +God--he has the audacity to say that I am cheating him!" + +And then Mrs. Marsden, shaking in excitement and anger, went back to her +chair and sat down. + +"You asked for that," said Collins, with renewed facetiousness, "and you +got it." + +Bence was looking out of the window; and he whistled and gently clapped +his hands, as if applauding the passionate force of Mrs. Marsden's +unexpected tirade. + +"I don't know what she means," said Marsden hoarsely. "And I dare say +she doesn't know, herself." He had been staggered by his wife's attack; +and at her last words he recoiled from the table, as if suddenly +daunted, almost cowed. Now he was pulling himself together again. "Who +cares what a woman says?" And he cleared his throat, and spoke loudly +and defiantly. "I don't, for one." + +"Richard," murmured Mrs. Marsden, in a still tremulous voice. "I'm sorry +I said it." + +"All right. That's enough.... But now, if you please, we men will talk;" +and he looked from one to another. The veins showed redly on his +forehead; his glistening jaw was protruded; and he squared his huge +shoulders pugnaciously. "I tell you, once for all, I'm not going to +stand any damned rot. As to the sale--Mr. Clever Bence,--I repudiate it +utterly. It was obtained under false pretences, and I'll have it set +aside. As to the separation--I'm speaking to you, Prentice,--that +bargain falls through with the other.... And to show you what I think of +it--I am now going to tear up the deed." + +"Oh no, you're not," said Collins. + +"I warn you all," said Marsden furiously: "if anyone touches me, he'll +be sorry for it. Now, Prentice, fetch out your deed again. You shoved it +away in that safe, didn't you? Well, out with it." And he moved to the +side of Mr. Prentice, and stood over him threateningly. "Out with +it--d'you hear?" + +Bence and Collins had both begun to clap their hands loudly. And with +this noisy applause other sounds were mingling. Mr. Prentice, as he rose +to confront Marsden, heard quick footsteps in the passage. The door was +abruptly opened, and two policemen came into the room. + +"This way, officers," said Collins pompously. "You are just in time to +prevent a breach of the peace. There's your man--keep your eyes on him." + +Marsden, turning hurriedly, saw the two uniforms and helmets solemnly +advance, and showed a craven dissatisfaction at the sight. + +"What are you up to now?" he asked glumly. + +But Collins, ignoring the question, continued to talk pompously to the +new arrivals. + +"As I told your superintendent, he is a dangerous character. He has been +threatening us with assault and battery--but we do not wish to give him +in charge, if we can help it. Your presence will probably be sufficient +to restrain him." + +"Very good, sir." + +"He is the same man who made the disturbance at the Red Cow--and I think +he has been charged once or twice as a drunk and disorderly." + +"You needn't introduce him so carefully," said Bence, with a snigger. +"Mr. Marsden is already well known to the police." + +"Yes, Mr. Bence," said one of the policemen, "_we_ know the gent." + +"Very well," continued Collins, with the air of a magistrate presiding +over a crowded court. "He is leaving the town to-night--forever,--and I +shall ask for a constable to see him off. From the mayor down to the +humblest citizen, Mallingbridge is tired of him--so he is going to the +western states of America. He will be more at home among the desperados +of some mining camp than he can be in a peaceful hum-drum town like +this." And Mr. Collins turned to Marsden, as though haranguing the +prisoner. "Now, sir, will you behave yourself, and let us finish our +conversation quietly and decently?" + +"Oh, you can finish your chin-music in any tune you like." Marsden +growled this out; but the voice was heavy and dejected, altogether +lacking in animation. Very obviously the arrival of the police had +crushed his spirit. + +"So be it," said Collins. "Then I think, officers, that will do. You may +safely leave us for the moment. But please wait outside the door, to +protect us if necessary." + +"Yes," said Bence, "we'll give you the same signal, if you're wanted +again." + +"All right, Mr. Bence." + +And the policemen left the room. To their eyes the famous Mr. Bence was +the natural chieftain of any assemblage, no matter how pompously anybody +else talked. Here, they were at his service, detailed for Bence's just +as much as if it had been a sale day and they and their mates were +regulating the traffic in front of the shop. + +"Now," said Collins, with a change of manner, and speaking in a +conciliatory if argumentative tone, "we can pick up our little debate. +Mr. Marsden, come now, after all, what is this fuss about?" + +Marsden laughed; but his laughter was dull and spiritless. + +"Go on--jabber, jabber." + +"Really now. What is the grievance? You have sold your business and been +paid for it. Of your own free will, you have parted with your interests. +You have renounced all claims upon your wife." + +"Yes--but I've been tricked into doing it." + +"Where's the trick?" + +"She made me think we were done." + +"So you were. You came to her and told her so. You prevailed on her to +agree to the sale. It wasn't her proposition, but yours." + +"I shouldn't have made it if I had known." + +"You thought you had got all you could out of her--and that was the +fact. You thought she was poor; and you find that she has made a good +investment--with her own private funds, mark you,--and she is therefore +not poor, but rather the reverse. Where's your quarrel with that?" + +"I am entitled to my share in her investment." + +"Oh, bosh! That's simply absurd." + +Marsden was standing up, resting his red hands on the back of a chair. +Now he moved the chair to Mr. Prentice's end of the table, sat down, and +spoke in an eager whisper. + +"Prentice, hostile or not, you _are_ honest. I call on you to see fair +play. She can't do this, can she?" + +"She _has_ done it," said Prentice feebly. + +"But tell her it isn't fair. She knows you're straight, and above board. +It's all mighty fine to bowl me out--and perhaps you don't think I +deserve any pity. But still, speak for me. She can't round on me like +this--she can't say 'Your firm is killed, and I've transferred myself +across the road to the firm that killed it.' Surely the law wouldn't +allow her to spoof me like that?" + +But sharp-eared Mr. Collins had heard the whisper. + +"Prentice, don't answer him. Mr. Marsden, I'll answer that question. I +answer for the law. I am your wife's legal adviser in all this. Please +address me, sir." + +Marsden turned with a final burst of fierce rage. + +"Then I say, curse you, I'll have the law on it." + +"Now look here, Marsden," and Mr. Collins's voice changed once more--to +an uncompromisingly ugly tone. "If you want the law, we'll give you your +bellyful of the law." + +"A good deal more than you'll like," said Bence, failing to ask for +moderation of language. + +"Your wife," Collins went on, "dropped a plain hint just now; and I was +very pleased to hear it, because I thought you'd understand. But I see I +must amplify it for you. Mrs. Marsden has been good enough to entrust +to my care all her private papers--that is, papers she has kept private +to oblige you." + +"I--I don't in the least follow--what you're driving at." + +"Oh, you know what I'm talking about. Specimens of your handwriting, and +so on--papers that the law would call incriminating documents,--papers +that the law would call conclusive evidence,--papers that the law would +call forgeries." + +"Prentice! Don't believe him." + +"Never mind Mr. Prentice. Attend to me.... Ah-ha,--you're beginning to +look rather foolish.... Now, how much law do you want?" + +"I think," said Bence, "if he has time to get safely out of the country, +that's all the law he ought to ask for." + +Marsden was cowed and beaten. He sat heavily and limply on his chair, +sprawling one red hand across the table, and nervously fingering his +lips with the other hand. + +"Well," said Collins mockingly, "what are you going to do--keep your +bargain, or go to law with us?" + +Marsden was thoroughly cowed and beaten. He cleared his throat several +times, and even then spoke huskily. + +"I must say a word or two to my wife;" and he rose from his chair +slowly.... "Of course, when a man's down, everyone can jump on him." + +And he went over to Mrs. Marsden, stooped, and whispered. + +Collins tapped his nose jocosely, and smiled at Mr. Prentice--seeming to +say without words, "What do you think of that, old boy? That's the way +Hyde & Collins tackle this sort of troublesome customer." + +Little Bence, resuming his dandified air and ostentatiously leaving Mrs. +Marsden and her husband to whisper together, picked up his glossy hat, +and dusted it with a neatly folded silk handkerchief. + +"Jane," said Marsden pleadingly, almost whimperingly, "you come out on +top--and I mustn't bear malice. But you _have_ been hard--cruelly hard." + +"Dick," said Mrs. Marsden, in a shaky whisper, "don't reproach me." + +"But don't you think you have been a _little_ hard." + +"No. Or it is _you_ who have made me hard. I wasn't hard--once. And +remember this, Dick. Even at the end, I tried to get one word of +tenderness from you--to make you say you cared just a little for what +happened to me. But no--" + +"I _did_ care." + +"No. You hadn't one kind word--or one kind thought. You and your--your +companion were going to new scenes, new hopes; and I might be left to +starve." + +"Jane, I swear I thought you were all right. I said so, again and again. +And now, you're rich--you're really rolling in money; and it is I who +may starve. Jane--for auld lang syne--do a bit more for me." + +"No;" and she shook her head resolutely. + +"Jane! Be like yourself.... I'm not grasping or avaricious. But at least +I ought to get as much as the business fetched. Let me have that extra +fifteen hundred." + +"Well--perhaps. I'll think about it." + +"Do it now--hand over now, or they'll only persuade you not to." + +"No--but I'll give it you later. I promise. I'll send it to your address +in California--as soon as I am sure that you have really arrived there." + +"All right. Thanks. Jane--I'll say it once again. I wish you luck. +You're a good plucked 'un--I always knew that." + +Then the meeting broke up. + +Marsden was the first to go. His wife watched him as he went slouching +down the street. When he disappeared she did not immediately turn from +the window. She had furtively produced her pocket handkerchief, and the +gentlemen heard her blow her nose loudly and strenuously; but no one saw +her wipe the tears from her eyes. + +Mr. Collins, on the threshold of the room, was dismissing the policemen +with pompous thanks, and promising to drop in upon their superintendent +shortly. + +"By the way," he said, looking round; "shall we let them escort Mrs. +Marsden home?" + +"No," said Mr. Archibald gallantly. "That shall be my honour and +pleasure. And there's no danger of his molesting her now." + +"I agree with you," said Collins. "We've fairly knocked the bounce out +of _him_." And he spoke to Mrs. Marsden with sentimental solicitude. +"There will be a plain-clothes constable in St. Saviour's Court, +watching your door till the evening. But you needn't be afraid. Our +friend won't venture to go there." + +Mr. Prentice sat at the head of his table, looking dazed and confused. +He and his whole house were taken possession of by Collins; policemen +walked in and out; astounding things happened--the morning's work had +been almost too much for him. + +With an effort he got upon his legs to bow and smile at Mrs. Marsden, as +she and Bence went out. + +"Well now," said Collins; and he shut his black bag. "I don't think +that, under the peculiar conditions of the case, anything could have +been more satisfactory--do you?" + +"Of course," said Mr. Prentice, sitting down again "you know, as well as +I do, that what Marsden said was true. He could make her account to the +firm for all her profits in Bence's. Such an investment isn't +allowed--it isn't lawful." + +"I'll tell you what it is," said Collins, enthusiastically blinking +behind his spectacles. "It's _great_--that's what it is; and I'm proud +to have carried it through for her." + +Mr. Prentice really did not know what to say. + +"And I'll tell you something more. If it isn't law, it's _justice_. I've +never been such a stickler as you for mere outward form. Here were two +people in terrible difficulty--Bence and Mrs. Marsden. She saw the way +to save them both, and had the grit to take all risks and do it. That +was good enough for me. As I say, I'm not so formal as you. I don't let +a string of red tape trip up a brave woman when she's running for her +life--that is, if I can prevent it.... Good morning, Prentice. Good +morning to you." + + + + +XXIX + + +However he might demur at first, Mr. Prentice soon came to the +conclusion that it was truly great. + +Perhaps at first he was so completely flabbergasted by the surprise of +the thing that he could not really take it all in; his numbed brain, +only partially working, fixed upon technical objections to the conduct +of affairs by Hyde & Collins; and then, with awakening comprehension of +a masterly coup, the sense of having been left out in the cold +diminished his delight. But this soon passed, and he began to glow +joyously. + +Yes, _great_! No other word for it! Magnificent justification of all +that he had ever said and thought of her! + +_Not_ weak, but strong--as strong as she used to be; no, stronger than +at any time. And he thought of her, overwhelmed with misfortunes, hemmed +round by insurmountable difficulties, brought lower and lower, until she +was apparently so impotent and negligible a unit in the town's life that +she had become an object of contemptuous pity to the very +crossing-sweepers. He thought of what the scientists say about the +conservation of energy and the indestructibility of matter. Great +natural forces cannot be wiped out. Just when they seem gone, you get a +fresh manifestation--the same force in another form. And so it was here. +Mrs. Marsden, seemingly abolished, bursts out in another place, explodes +the debris of ruin that was holding her down, changes direction, and +rises in blazing triumph on the other side of the street. + +Wonderful! "Not now; but perhaps later, when the time comes"--he +remembered her words. "I must do things my own way." Yes, her own way +was right--because her way is the way of genius. A veritable stroke of +genius--no lesser term will do,--seeming so simple to look back at, +although so impenetrable till it was explained! She had seen the only +means by which she could successfully extricate herself from an +impossible situation. Only she could have escaped the imminent disaster. +Only she could have turned an overwhelming defeat into a transcendent +victory. + +"Talk about giving women the vote," cried Mr. Prentice noisily. "That +woman ought to be prime minister." + +Mrs. Prentice, rejoicing at the good news, wished that her husband could +have told it less vociferously. It happened that this evening she was +the victim of a bilious headache, and she lay supine on a sofa, unable +to sit up for dinner. The slightest noise made her headache worse, and +the mere smell of food was distressing. + +Mr. Prentice, banging in and out of the room, let savoury odours reach +her; and his exultant voice set up a painful throbbing. "I told you so +all along.... What did I say from the beginning?... Colossal brain +power! No one like her!" + +This really was the substance of all that he had to say, and he had +already said it; yet he kept running in from the dinner table to say it +again. + +A bottle of the very best champagne was opened; and he brought the +invalid a glass of it, to drink Mrs. Marsden's health. Mrs. Prentice, +staunchly obeying, drank the old, still wine, and immediately felt as if +she had stepped from an ocean-going liner into a dancing row-boat. + +In the exuberance of his rapture, Mr. Prentice also invited the +parlourmaid to drink Mrs. Marsden's health. + +"There, toss that off--to the most remarkable lady _you_'ve ever seen." + +"Yes, sir. She _is_ a nice lady, sir--and always speaks so sensible." + +"_Sensible!_ Why, bless my soul, there's no one in the length and +breadth of England that can hold a candle to her for sheer--" But he +could not of course talk freely of these high matters to a parlourmaid. +So he trotted off to the other room, to tell Mrs. Prentice once again. + +As he walked to the office next morning, he hummed one of the comic +songs that he had not sung for years, and snapped his fingers by way of +castanet accompaniment. He felt so light-hearted and joyous that he +would have willingly thrown his square hat in the air, and cut capers on +the pavement. + +He could not work. For two or three days he was quite unable to attend +to ordinary business. When clients came to talk about themselves, he +scarcely listened; but, giving the conversation a violent wrench, began +talking to them about Mrs. Marsden. + +Then one afternoon he was taken with a burning desire for a quiet chat +with Archibald Bence. If he could get hold of little Archibald and ply +him with questions, he would obtain all sorts of delightful explanatory +details concerning Mrs. Marsden's splendid mystery. + +He hurried down High Street, and, approaching the old shop, was puzzled +by a strange phenomenon. + +The pavement in front of Marsden & Thompson's seemed to be blocked by a +dense crowd. The blinds were drawn on the upper floor; the iron shutters +masked the windows and doors on the ground floor: the whole shop was +closed--and yet there were infinitely more people lingering outside it +than when it had been open. + +White bills on all the shutters showed the cause of the phenomenon. +"Astonishing Bargains"--these two portentous words headed each white +placard in monstrous red capitals;--"Bence Brothers, having acquired +this old-established business, will clear the entire stock, together +with surplus and slightly soiled goods from their own house, at +heart-breaking reductions on cost;"--"Opening 9 A.M. Monday next. Come +early. This is not an ordinary bargain sale, but a forced sacrifice by +which only the public can benefit." And the public, eager for the +benefit, wishing that it was already Monday, pressed and strove to read +and reread the white and red notices on the iron shutters. + +"Don't push," said one nursemaid to another. "Take your turn. I've just +as much right to see as you have." + +Mr. Prentice laughed heartily and happily. He thought as he crossed the +road and entered Bence's, "What a dog this Archibald is--to be sure!" + +He found the grand little man in his private room, and was affably +received by him. + +"Oh, yes," said Archibald, sniggering modestly. "We hope to make rather +a big thing of our clearance sale.... How long shall we keep it going? +Well, that depends. It wouldn't last long, if we'd nothing to dispose of +beyond what's left over there; but we shall clear this side at the same +time." + +And Bence rattled on glibly, as though Mr. Prentice had come to +interview him for an article in an important newspaper. + +"The ancient notion was that this kind of special selling took the cream +off one's ordinary trade. But experience has taught us that such is not +the case. We find that trade breeds trade. And you can't _tire_ your +public--you can't over-stimulate them. It is the excited public that is +your best _buying_ public." + +Mr. Prentice listened respectfully; and then, after the manner of a +good interviewer, begged the host to pass from general views to personal +reminiscences. + +"What is it you wish to know?" + +"About you and her," said Prentice. "I should enormously like to know +the inward history of it." + +"Well, now that the secret's out," said Archibald, rubbing his chin, and +wrinkling the flesh round his bright little eyes, "I suppose there's no +harm in speaking about it." + +"Certainly not to me," said Prentice. "Although I wasn't in her +confidence about this, I am a real true friend of hers." + +"I know you are," said Bence cordially. "She has said so a hundred +times." + +"Tell me how it began--the very beginning of things." + +A gloomy cloud passed over Bence's animated face. + +"Upon my word, I don't care to look back upon those days. I _was_ in +such bitter trouble, Mr. Prentice." + +"When did you think of going to her?" + +"I never thought of it. _She_ came to me. I couldn't believe my ears +when she opened the matter." + +"What did she say?" + +"Oh, she didn't beat about the bush. She said, if it was really true +that I wanted money, she might supply it--on certain terms." + +"Yes, yes--and tell me, my dear fellow, what were her terms?" + +"Mr. Prentice," said Bence solemnly, "her terms were terrible--it was +just buying me at a knock-out price." + +"You don't say so?" + +"The fact.... This is as between Masons, isn't it?... I may consider +that we are tiled in." + +"Yes, yes--as brother to brother." + +And then Bence, who was never averse to hearing the sound of his own +voice when safe and suitable occasions offered, talked with unchecked +freedom and confidence. + +"You know, I'd always entertained the highest and most genuine respect +for her. When they used to say she was the best man of business in +Mallingbridge, there was no one more ready to admit it than I was. I +regarded her as right up there," and he waved his hand towards the +ceiling. "Right up--one of the largest and most comprehensive int'lects +of the age." + +"Just so--just so." + +"And I don't mind confessing I was always a bit afraid of her. Years +ago--oh, I don't know how many years ago--when I was passing compliments +to her, she'd look at me, not a bit unkind, but inscrutable--yes, that's +it--inscrutable, and say, 'You take care, Mr. Bence. Don't jump too big, +or one day you'll jump over yourself.'" + +"Meaning your various extensions?" + +"Yes. It always made me uncomfortable when she spoke like that--though I +just laughed it off. Anyhow, it seemed to show how clear she saw through +one." + +"Yes, nothing escaped her." + +"So I thought I knew what she was--but I never did really know what she +was, till we came to fair handy grips over this.... Mr. Prentice, I +flattered her--no go. I tried to bluff her--ditto. Then I sued to her +for mercy. I said, 'Madam, I'm like a wounded man on a field of battle +asking for a cup of water.' But she said, 'If I understand the position +correctly, Mr. Bence, you are more like a dead man; and you ask to be +brought to life again.'... And it was true. I was dead--down--done +for.... + +"It was my brothers--God forgive them--who had frustrated me--not bad +luck--or any faults of mine. Take, take, take--whatever my work +produced, out it went.... Well then, I was what she described--lying at +her feet, and praying for life. So I said I'd take it--on her own +terms.... + +"But when it was over, oh, Mr. Prentice the relief! I had lit'rally come +to life again. I was _safe_--with money behind me,--with _driving_ power +behind me. I went home that night to Mrs. Bence and cried as if I'd been +a baby--and after I'd had my cry, I _slept_. What's that proverb? Sleep, +it is a blessed thing! I hadn't slept sound for years. Don't you see? I +was certain we should go on all right now--now that the burden was on +_her_ shoulders." + +And then Bence had his idiosyncratic touch of self-pity. + +"I don't know whether you were aware of it, Mr. Prentice--these things +get about when one is more or less a public man,--but the incessant +worry had given me kidney disease. Well,--will you believe it?--from +that hour I got better. The doctors reported less,--less again,--and at +last, not a trace of it. I was simply another man." + +"But, Bence, my dear fellow, what fills me with such amazement and +admiration is the rapidity of your success from that point. You seemed +to be on the crest of the wave instantaneously." + +"Ah! That was the magician's wand. Instead of having our earnings +snatched out the moment they reached the till, the profits were being +put back into the concern. I was working on a salary--a very handsome +one--with my commission; and she never took out a penny more than was +absolutely necessary. There was the whole difference--and it's magic in +trade. I was given scope, capital, an easy road--with no blind +turnings." + +"But I suppose you did it all under her direction?" + +"Well, I don't know how to answer that;" and Bence grinned, and twirled +his moustache. "No. I suppose I ought to say no. I had full scope--and +was never interfered with.... We used to meet at Hyde & Collins's; and +I reported things--just reported them. She used to look at me in that +inscrutable way of hers, and say, 'I can't advise. I have nothing to do +with your business--beyond having my money in it: just as I might have +it in any other form of investment. But speaking merely as an outsider, +I think you are going on very nice. Go on just the same, Mr. Bence.' +Sometimes she did drop a word. It was always light.... Oh, she's unique, +Mr. Prentice--quite unique." + +Bence grinned more broadly as he went on. + +"Of course it was by her orders--or I ought to say, it was acting on a +hint she let fall, that I made myself so popular with the authorities. +You never came to one of my dinner-parties?... No, I did ask you; but +you wouldn't come.... Well, you're acquainted with Mallingbridge +oratory. After dinner, when the speeches began, they used to butter me +up to the skies; and I used to tell them straight--though of course they +couldn't see it--that I was only a figure-head, a dummy. 'Don't praise +_me_,' I told 'em, 'I'm nobody--just the outward sign of the enterprise +and spirit that lays behind me.' Yes, and I put it straighter than that +sometimes--it tickled me to give 'em the truth almost in the plainest +words.... And I knew there was no risk. _They_'d never tumble to it." + +After this delightful conversation, Mr. Prentice went across the road +again. He felt that he could not any longer refrain from calling upon +Mrs. Marsden; and, as the afternoon was now well advanced, he thought +that she might perhaps invite him to drink a cup of tea with her. + +In St. Saviour's Court the house door stood open; men from Bence's +Furniture department were busily delivering chairs and sofas; and the +narrow passage was obstructed by further goods. Mr. Prentice heard a +familiar voice issuing instructions with a sharp tone of command. + +"This is for the top floor. Front bedroom. Take this up too--same +room.... Who's that out there? Oh, is it you, Mr. Prentice?" + +"What, Yates, you are soon on duty again." + +Old Yates laughed and tossed her head. "Yes, sir, here I am.... That's +for the top floor--back. Take it up steady, now." + +"You seem to be refurnishing--and on a large scale." + +"Oh, no," said Yates. "We're only putting things straight. We're +expecting Mrs. Kenion and the young lady up from Eastbourne +to-night--and it's a job to get the house ready in the time." + +"Ah, then I am afraid visitors will hardly be welcome just now." + +"No, sir, not ordinary visitors--but Mrs. Thompson never counted you as +an ordinary visitor--did she, sir? I'll take on me to say _you_'ll be +welcome to Mrs. Thompson. Please go upstairs, sir. She's in the +dining-room." + +And truly this visitor was welcomed most cordially. + +"My _dear_ Mr. Prentice. How kind of you--how very kind of you to come! +I have been wishing so to see you." + +Yates without delay disengaged herself from the furniture men, and +brought in tea. Then the hostess seated herself at the table, and +insisted that the visitor should occupy the easiest of the new +armchairs--and she smiled at him, she waited upon him, she made much of +him; she lulled and soothed and charmed him, until he felt as if twenty +years had rolled away, and he and she were back again in the happiest of +the happy old days. + +"I trust that dear Mrs. Prentice is well.... Ah, yes, it _is_ headachy +weather, isn't it. I have ventured to send her a few flowers--and some +peaches and grapes." + +It seemed incredible. But she _looked_ younger--many years younger than +when he had seen her in the shadow cast by his office wall less than a +week ago. Her voice had something of the old resonance; she sat more +upright; she carried her head better. She was still dressed in black; +but this new costume was of fine material, fashionable cut, very +becoming pattern; and it gave to its wearer a quiet importance and a +sedate but opulent pomp. Very curious! It was as if all that impression +of shabbiness, insignificance, and poverty had been caused merely by the +shadow; and that as soon as she came out of the shadow into the +sunlight, one saw her as she really was, and not as one had foolishly +imagined her to be. + +This thought was in the mind of Mr. Prentice while he listened to her +pleasantly firm voice, and watched the play of light and life about her +kind and friendly eyes. The shadow that had lain so heavy upon her was +mercifully lifted. She had been a prisoner to the powers of darkness, +and now the sunshine had set her free. This was really all that had +happened. + +"I am so particularly glad," she was saying, "that you came to-day, +because I want your advice badly." + +"It is very much at your service." + +"Then do you think there would be any objection--would you consider it +might seem bad taste if henceforth I were to resume my old name? I have +an affection for the name of Thompson--though it isn't a very +high-sounding one." + +"I noticed that Yates called you Mrs. Thompson." + +"Yes, I mentioned my idea to Yates; but I told her I shouldn't do it +without consulting you. I did not think of dropping my real name +altogether, but I thought I might perhaps call myself Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson--with or without a hyphen." + +And she went on to explain that she was doubtful as to the legal +aspects of the case. She did not wish to advertise the change of name, +or to make it a formal and binding change. She just wished to call +herself Mrs. Marsden-Thompson. + +"Very well, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson, consider it done. For there's nothing +to prevent your doing it. Your friends will call you by any name you +tell them to use--with or without a hyphen." + +"Oh, I'm so glad you say that. I was afraid you might not approve.... +And now I want your advice about something else. It is a house with a +little land that I am most anxious to buy, if I can possibly manage +it--and I want you to find out if the owners would be inclined to sell." + +Mr. Prentice advised her on this and several other little matters. +Indeed, before his third cup of tea was finished, he had made +enlightening replies to questions that related to half a dozen different +subjects. + +"Thank you. A thousand thanks. Some more tea, Mr. Prentice?" + +But Mr. Prentice did not answer this last question. He put down his +empty cup, and began to laugh heartily. + +"Why are you laughing like that?" + +"Mrs. Marsden-Thompson," he said jovially. "For once I have seen through +you. All things are permissible to your sex; but if you were a man, I +should be tempted to say you are an impostor--an arch-impostor." + +"Oh, Mr. Prentice! Why?" + +"Because you don't really think my advice worth a straw. You don't want +my advice, or anybody else's. No one is capable of advising you. You +just do things in your own way--and a very remarkable way it is." + +"But really and truly I--" + +"No. Not a bit of it. You fancied that my feathers might have been +rubbed the wrong way by recent surprises; and ever since I came into +this room, you have been most delicately smoothing my ruffled plumage." + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Marsden-Thompson demurely, "I assure you--" + +"Yes, yes. But, my dear, it wasn't in the least necessary. I am just as +pleased as Punch, and I have quite forgiven you for keeping me so long +in the dark." + +"On my honour," she said earnestly, "I wouldn't have kept you in the +dark for _one_ day, if I could have avoided doing so. It was most +painful to me, dear Mr. Prentice, to practice--or rather, to allow of +any deception where _you_ were concerned.... But my course was so +difficult to steer." + +"You steered it splendidly." + +"But I do want you to understand. I shall be miserable if I think that +you could ever harbour the slightest feeling of resentment." + +"Of course I shan't." + +"Or if you don't believe that I trust you absolutely, and have the +greatest possible regard for your professional skill.... You may +remember how I _almost_ told you about it." + +"No, I'll be hanged if I remember that." + +"Well, I tried to explain--indirectly--that the whole affair was so +complicated.... There were so many things to be thought of. There was +Enid. I had to think of _her_ all the time.... Honestly, I put her +before myself. Until Enid could get rid of Kenion, it didn't seem much +use for me to get rid of poor Richard.... And if either of them had +guessed, everything might have gone wrong--I mean, might have worked out +differently. And of course it made _secrecy_ of such vital importance. +You do understand that, don't you?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Prentice, laughing contentedly, "I do understand. But +now I wonder--would you mind telling me when it was that you first +thought of the Bence coup?" + +"Well, I fancy that the germ of the idea came to me in church;" and Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson folded her hands, and looked reflectively at the +tea-cups. "I was thinking of Richard, and of Mr. Bence--and then some +verses in a psalm struck me most forcibly. One verse especially--I shall +never forget it. 'Let his days be few; and let another take his +office.'" + +"How did that apply?" + +"Well, I suppose I thought vaguely--quite vaguely--that if Richard was +bad at managing a business, Mr. Bence was rather good at it.... Then, +that very evening, you so kindly came in to supper, and told me as a +positive fact that Bence was nearly done for. And then it struck me at +once that, in the long run, Bence's failure could prove of advantage to +nobody, and that it ought to be prevented;" and she looked up brightly, +and smiled at Mr. Prentice. "So really and truly, it is _you_ that I +have to thank. You brought me that _invaluable_ information. _You_ +inspired me to do it." + +Mr. Prentice got up from the easy chair, and playfully shook a +forefinger at his hostess. + +"Now--now. Don't drag _me_ into it. I'm too old a bird to be caught with +chaff." + +"But I am truly forgiven?" And she stretched out her hand towards him. +"Not the smallest soreness left? You will still be what you have always +been--my best and kindest friend?" + +Mr. Prentice took her hand; and, with a graceful old-world air of +gallantry that perhaps the headachy lady at home had never seen, he +raised it to his lips. + +"I shall be what I have always been--your humble, admiring slave." + + + + +XXX + + +One of the oldest of her dreams had become partially true. She had +bought that pretty country-house, and was living in it with Enid. Not +the total fulfilment of the dream, because she had not retired from +business. She was busier than ever. + +Many things foretold by her had now come to pass. The military camp on +the downs, with its twenty thousand armed men and half as many thousand +followers, had brought increased prosperity to the neighbourhood; the +carriage and locomotive works established by the railway company had +added to the old town another town that by itself would have been big +enough to sustain a mayor and corporation; builders could not build fast +enough to house the rapidly swelling population; the well-filled suburbs +stretched for two long miles in all directions from the ancient town +boundaries; and by platform lecturers, by members of parliament, by +writers of statistical reviews, the growth of Mallingbridge was cited as +one of the most remarkable and gratifying achievements of the last +decade. + +In a word--the cant word--Mallingbridge had boomed. And right at the top +of the boom, rolling on to glory, was Bence's. + +The prodigious success of Bence's made the world gasp. Nothing could +hinder it. People fancied that the rebuilding might prove a dangerous, +if not a fatal crisis in its affairs; but the proprietress accomplished +the colossal operation without even a temporary set-back. She moved +Bence's bodily across the road, squashed it into the confines of old +Thompson's, and left it there for eighteen months while the new Bence +palace was being erected. The magnificence of these modern up-to-date +premises surpassed belief--facade of pure white stone; gigantic +caryatids, bearing on their heads the projected ledge of the second +floor, and holding in their hands the sculptured brackets of the +monstrous arc lamps; fluted columns from the second floor to the fourth; +and above the deep cornice, just visible from the street, the cupola on +top of the vast dome that was the crowning splendour of the whole. + +Then directly the shop had been moved back into this ornate frame, down +went the old red-brick block of Thompson's; and on the site still +another palace for Bence began to rise. It seemed no less magnificent +than the other; and it was finished off--by way of balance to the +dome--with a stupendous clock-tower. The local press, in a series of +articles describing this useful monument, said that the four-faced +time-piece was an exact replica of Big Ben at Westminster; the base of +the numeral twelve was one hundred and thirty-two feet above the +pavement; the small hand was as long as a short man, and the long hand +was longer than an excessively tall man;--and so on. The author of the +articles also stated that the architectural effect of Bence on both +sides of the street was very similar to the _coup d'oeil_ offered by the +dome and tower of the cathedral at Florence. + +Customers scarcely knew on which side of the street they were doing +their shopping: they went into one of the two palaces, and surprised +themselves by emerging from the other. You entered a lift, and, as it +swooped, the crowded floors flashed upward. "Which department, madam? +Parisian Jewellery?... Boots and Shoes! Step this way." You passed +through a long, narrow and brilliantly illuminated department, such as +Sham Diamonds or Opera Cloaks, where artificial light is a necessity +for correct selection; you went up a broad flight of shallow stairs; and +there you were, in Boots and Shoes. But the thing you didn't know, the +funny thing, was that all unconsciously you had been through a sub-way +under the road. Just when you stood to gape at the sparkling ear-rings +or to finger the rich soft cloaks, the heavy traffic of High Street was +bang over your head. + +And truly there was nothing that you could not buy now at Bence's--on +one side of the road or the other. Ball dresses for as much as fifty +guineas, tailor-made walking costumes for as little as eighteen +shillings, a thousand pound coat of Russian sable, or a farthing packet +of pins, palm trees for the conservatory or Brussels sprouts for the +kitchen--whatever the varied wants of the universe, it was Bence's proud +boast that they could be supplied here without failure or delay. + +Sometimes when business had taken Mrs. Marsden to London and she and +Yates were driving through the streets in a four-wheeled cab, she +studied the appearance of the great metropolitan shops, and mentally +compared them with what she had left behind her at Mallingbridge. Once, +when the dusk of an autumn day was falling and she chanced to pass the +most world-famous of all emporiums, she told the cabman to let his horse +walk; then, as they crawled by the endless frontage, she measured the +glare of the electric lamps, counted the big commissionaires, estimated +the volume of the crowd outside the glittering windows; and, critically +examining the thing in its entirety, she felt a supreme satisfaction. To +her eye and judgment it was no bigger, brighter, or more impressive than +Bence's. In all respects Bence's was every bit as good. + +Each morning, fair or foul, at nine-thirty sharp, she left her charming +and luxurious home, and came spinning in her small motor-car down the +three-mile slope that now divided house from shop. The car, avoiding +High Street, wheeled round through Trinity Square, worked its swift way +to the back of Bence's, swept into a quiet, stately court-yard, and +delivered her at the perron of a noble architraved doorway. This was the +private or business entrance to the domed palace. + +A porter in sombre livery was waiting on the marble steps to receive +her, to carry her shawl or reticule, to usher her to the golden gates of +the private lift. + +In a minute she had majestically soared to an upper floor. + +This managerial side of the building would not unworthily have formed a +portion of a public department, such as the Treasury or India Office: it +was all spacious, silent, grand. She passed through a wide and lofty +corridor, with mahogany doors on either hand--the closed doors of the +managers' rooms; and no sound of the shop was audible, no sign of it +visible. + +Her own room, at the end of the corridor, was very large, very high, +very plainly decorated. Mahogany book-cases, with a few busts on top of +them; one table with newspapers of all countries, another table with +four or five telephonic instruments--but absolutely no office equipment +of any sort: not so much as a writing desk, Yankee or British. She +scarcely ever writes a letter now; even marginal notes are dictated. +Time is too precious to be wasted on manual labour, however rapid. Time +is capital; and it must be invested in the way that will yield the +highest interest. + +"What is the time?" and she glanced at the clock on the carved stone +mantelpiece. + +"It wants seven minutes of ten." + +All clocks are correct, because they are carefully synchronized with the +clock in the tower; and that _must_ be correct, because time-signals +from Greenwich are continually instructing it--and the whole town works +by Bence time. + +"Good. Then I am not late." + +"No, madam." + +She came earlier now than she used to do a little while ago. But since +Mr. Archibald finally withdrew from affairs, she has been in sole charge +of the mighty organization. She could not refuse to let Archibald enjoy +his well-earned rest. Though still under fifty years of age, he was a +tired man, worn out by the battle, needing repose. And why should he go +on working? Thanks to the liberality of his patron, he possessed ample +means--almost one might say he was opulent. + +"I am ready." + +"Yes, madam." + +Then the day's toil begins. + +First it is the solemn entry of the managers, one after another +succinctly presenting his report. Then it is the turn of head clerks and +secretaries, who have gathered and are silently waiting outside the +door. After that, audience is given to buyers who have returned from or +are about to leave for the marts of the world. + +And with the fewest possible words she issues her commands. She sits +with folded hands, or paces to and fro with hands clasped behind her +back, or stands and knits her brows; but not a word, not a moment is +squandered. She says, Do this; but very rarely explains how it is to be +done. It is their duty to know how. If they don't know, they are +inefficient. It is for her to give orders: it is for subordinates to +carry them into effect. The general of an army must be something more +than a good regimental officer; the admiral of the fleet cannot teach +common sailors the best way to polish the brass on the binnacle. + +With surprising rapidity these opening labours are completed. Well +before noon the last of the clerks has gone, and Mrs. Marsden-Thompson +stands in an empty room--may take a breathing-pause, or, if she pleases, +fill it with tasks of light weight. + +Perhaps now an old friend is announced. It is Miss Woolfrey from China +and Glass. May she come in? Or shall she call again? No, ask Miss +Woolfrey to come in. + +And then time is flagrantly wasted. Miss Woolfrey has nothing to say, +can put forward no valid reason for bothering the commander-in-chief. +Miss Woolfrey giggles foolishly, gossips inanely, meanders with a stream +of senseless twaddle; but she is gratified by smiles and nods and +handshakings. + +"Well, now, really--my dear Miss Woolfrey--you cheer me with your +excellent account of this little storm in a tea-cup.... Yes, I'll +remember all you say.... How kind of you to ask! Yes, my daughter is +very well." + +And Miss Woolfrey goes away happy. She is a licensed offender--has been +accorded unlimited privilege to waste time. Incompetent as ever, and +totally unable to adapt herself to modern conditions, she enjoys a +splendid sinecure in the new China and Glass. She has clever people over +her to keep her straight, and will never be deprived of her salary until +she accepts a pension in exchange. + +Sooner or later during the forenoon, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson rings her +bell and asks for Mr. Mears. + +"Is Mr. Mears in his room?" + +"I believe so, madam." + +"Then give Mr. Mears my compliments, and say I shall be glad to see him +if it is convenient to him--only if convenient, not if he is occupied." + +It was always convenient to Mr. Mears. His convenience is her +convenience. Almost immediately the door opens, and he appears--and +very grand he looks, bowing on the threshold; massive and strong again; +no shaky dotard, but a vigorous elderly man, who might be mistaken for a +partner in a bank, a president of a chamber of commerce, a member of the +Privy Council, or anybody eminently prosperous and respectable. + +"Good morning, Mr. Mears. Please be seated." + +And then she discusses with him all those matters of which she can speak +to no one else. Mears is never a time-waster; he, too, makes few words +suffice; long practice has given him quickness in catching her thought. + +"Mr. Mears, what are we to do about Mr. Greig? Frankly, he is getting +past his work." + +"I admit it," says Mears. + +"It will be better for all parties if he retires." + +"He won't like the idea." + +Mr. Greig, the obese chieftain of Cretonnes in the days of old +Thompson's, is threatened with no real peril. If he ceases working +to-morrow, he will continue to receive his working wage till death; but +the difficulty is to remove him from the sphere of action without a +wound to his feelings. + +"Will you talk to him--introduce the idea to him gradually, bring him to +it little by little, so that if possible he may come to think that it is +his own idea, and that he himself wants to retire?" + +And Mears promises that he will deal thus diplomatically with the +faithful old servant. + +They are nearly all here--the old servants; from chieftains like Greig +and Ridgway to lieutenants like Davies the night watchman, each has +found his snug billet. All who shivered with her in the cold are welcome +to warmth and sunshine. She has forgotten no one: she could not forget +old friends. + +Sometimes, of course, her bounteous intentions have been rendered +nugatory by fate. A few friends are gone beyond the reach of help; +others it has been impossible to discover. Even now Mears has +occasionally to tell her of someone raked out of the past. For instance, +this morning he brings with him a small bundle of papers, and speaks to +her of such an one. + +They have only now found Mr. Fentiman, the lanky and sententious lord of +Thompson's Woollens. + +Mr. Fentiman had sunk very low--never knew that she was Bence's, never +saw her advertisements in agony columns, never guessed year after year +that a munificent protector was seeking him. But he has been found at +last, in a wretched little hosier's at Portsmouth--ill and weak and +pitifully poor. + +"Are you quite sure that he is our Fentiman?" + +"Quite," said Mears; and he laid the Fentiman dossier on the table. + +When Mears had left her she fetched an ink-pot from the mantelpiece, +opened a drawer, and extracted pens and note-paper. This morning it was +necessary to write a letter in her own hand. Secretaries could not +assist her with the task, and time must no longer be nicely measured. + +"My dear Mr. Fentiman, I am so glad to hear of you again, and so sorry +to learn that your health is not what it should be." Then she invited +him to resign his present situation and come to Mallingbridge, where it +would doubtless be easy to offer him an opening more suited to his +experience and capacity. If he would kindly advise Mr. Mears as to the +arrival of his train, Mr. Mears would meet him at the railway station +and conduct him to apartments. "Before you plunge into work again, I +must beg you to take a complete rest; and as soon as you feel strong +enough, I particularly wish you to spend a holiday in Switzerland. I +expressed this wish many years ago, one night when you had kindly given +me your company at dinner; but although you tacitly allowed me to +understand that you would comply with it, circumstances prevented its +fulfilment. If you are still of the same mind, it will afford me the +utmost pleasure to arrange for your Swiss tour." + +Having written so far, she laid down her pen, picked up a telephone +receiver, and spoke to the counting-house. + +She was writing again, and did not raise her eyes, when a clerk came +into the room. + +"Put them down." + +And the clerk placed the bank-notes on the table, and silently retired. + +"Meanwhile," she was writing, "I must ask you to accept my small +enclosure, and to believe me to be, Yours with sincere regard, Jane +Marsden-Thompson." + +Then she sealed the envelope, rang a bell, and told someone to despatch +her letter by registered post. + +Fentiman had mopped up a lot of time--but no matter. Nevertheless, she +moved with quick footsteps as she went from the room, and passed along +the lofty, silent corridors. Presently using a master-key, she opened a +fire-proof door, and entered a narrow passage. In this passage the +silence was broken by a vague murmuring sound--like the ripple of sea +waves heard echoing in a shell. + +She opened another door, and immediately the sound swelled to a confused +roar. Through this second door she had come out into a circular gallery +just beneath the huge concave of the dome. Looking downward, she could +see the extraordinary inverted perspective of circles, floor below +floor, each circle apparently smaller than the one above; she could see +long strands of gauze and lace, artfully festooned in void space from +the gilt rails of the Curtain department, like streamers of white cloud; +and beneath the pretty cloud she could see the rainbow colours of +delicate satins and silks; and still lower she could see the stir of +multitudinous life concentrating at this focal point of the busy shop. + +But she scarcely looked: she listened. Perched high in her dome, +solitary, motionless, august, she was like the queen-bee in the upper +part of a hive attentively listening to the buzz of industry. And it +seemed that the sound was sufficient: her instinct was so fine--she knew +by the quality of the humming note that Bence's was working well. + + + + +XXXI + + +All well at Bence's; and all well at home. + +It was pleasant to her, returning from her work on summer evenings, to +see the white gates and long wall speed towards her: as if coming once +again out of the land of dreams into the realm of facts, because she +called them to her. She had wished for them, and they were hers. While +her car glided from the gates to the porch, she enjoyed the full sight +of the things that, seen in glimpses, soothed her eyes so many years +ago--the comfortable eaves and latticed windows, the dark masses of +foliage casting restful shadows on the sun-lit lawns, the steps and +brickwork of the terraced garden giving value and form to the gay +exuberance of the summer flowers. + +"Are the ladies in?" + +When the footman said that the ladies were out, she gave a little sigh. +It was only a moment's disappointment. By the time that the butler had +come forward and was telling her where the ladies had gone, the faint +sense of emptiness and disillusionment had vanished. Really she liked +the ladies to be out and about as much as possible. There was a big +motor-car to take them far from home, and there were horses and +carriages to take them on quiet little journeys; for, pleasant as home +might be, they must not be allowed to feel themselves prisoners in it. +All this side of her life belonged to them: they ruled the world that +lay outside her work. + +When the footman told her that the ladies were to be found somewhere +beneath the eaves or within the walls of the garden, she sprang out of +the car as lightly as a girl. + +"I think Miss Jane is in the music room, ma'am." + +Her face lit up; she smiled contentedly, and hurried through the porch +to search for Miss Jane. + +The house was bigger in fact than it had been in the dream. She had +tacked on a new wing at each end of it; and her architect had so +cleverly preserved the external style that no one outside the building +could guess which was the old part and which the new. Inside, you might +guess by the size of the rooms. In one wing there was a large +dining-room, and in the other wing there was Miss Jane's school-room, +play-room, or music-room. + +This was an unexpectedly noble hall, containing an organ, a minstrel +gallery, and a raised stage for dramatic entertainment; here the young +lady had obtained much instruction and amusement; here she learned to +sing and dance, to fence and do Swedish exercises, to know the kings of +England and to spin tops, to talk French and to play badminton. + +Her grandmother, bustling to it, sometimes heard and always loved to +hear the music of organ or piano; sometimes all she heard was a young +voice talking or laughing--but that was the music that she loved best. + +"Granny dear!" + +"Mother dear!" + +The double welcome was her daily reward, the handsome payment that made +her think the long day's toil so light. + +A certain pomp was maintained in their manner of living: meals were +served with adequate ceremony; butler and footmen instead of +parlourmaids waited at table; the family wore rich dresses of an +evening;--but all this was to please Enid. Everything that Enid once had +seemed to care for must be provided now--the stateliness of liveried +men, the grandeur of formal dinner-parties, the small or big +extravagances that come with complete immunity from any thought of cost. +And on the little girl's account, too. It was essential that Enid +should be able to bring up her child in the midst of fitting, proper, +even fashionable surroundings. + +Enid took all these benefits placidly and naturally: very much as of +old, when she had been an unmarried girl receiving benefits from the +same source in St. Saviour's Court. Indeed she had insensibly dropped +back into her old way. Except for the one great permanent change that +sprang from a dual cause--her deepened affection for her mother and her +idolizing devotion to her daughter,--she was strikingly similar to the +graceful long-nosed Miss Thompson who went with a smile to meet her fate +at Mr. Young's riding-school. + +She looked scarcely a day older. She was neither thinner nor fatter; her +face, after being pinched by misfortune, had exactly filled out again to +the elegant oval of careless youth. The bad time with all its hard +lessons was almost obliterated by present ease and comfort: certainly it +did not seem to have left indelible marks. She could speak of it--did +often speak of it--without wincing, and in the even, unemotional tone +that she habitually used. + +Only when Jane was ill, she altogether burst through the smooth outer +surface of calm propriety, and showed that, if they could be reached, +there were some really strong feelings underneath. When Jane was ill, no +matter how slightly, Mrs. Kenion became almost demented. + +To some juvenile ailments the most jealously guarded child must submit +sooner or later. Jane has a sore throat and a cold in the head; Jane +slept badly last night; and, oh--merciful powers,--Jane exhibits red +spots on her little white chest. + +Dr. Eldridge says--now, don't be frightened by a word;--Dr. Eldridge +says he believes that, well, ah, yes--it is measles. But there is +nothing in that to distress or alarm; rather one might say it is a very +good thing. One cannot reasonably hope that Miss Jane will escape +measles all her life; and one may be glad that she has this propitious +chance to do her measling under practically ideal conditions. + +Yet, late in the afternoon, when wise Eldridge has gone, here is Enid +with fear-distended eyes and grief-stricken face, white, shaking, +absolutely frantic, as she clings to her mother's arm. + +"Mother, don't let her die. Oh, don't let her die." + +"She shall not die." + +In these emergencies Mrs. Marsden-Thompson is solid as her clock-tower. + +"But Dr. Eldridge mayn't be right--perhaps it's something a thousand +times worse than measles.... Oh, oh. What _can_ we do? It may be some +virulent fever--and when she drops off to sleep, she may never wake." + +What Mrs. Marsden-Thompson can do to allay Enid's anxiety, she does do, +and at once. She telephones to London, to the most famous physician of +the period. + +"There, my darling," she says presently; "now keep calm. Sir John is +coming--by the evening express." + +"Mother dear, how can I thank you enough?" + +"My own Enid, there's nothing to thank me for. It will relieve all our +minds to have the very highest opinion.... And Sir John will spend the +night here--that will be nice for you, to know that he is remaining on +the spot." + +Then in due course the illustrious Sir John arrives, and confirms the +diagnosis of Dr. Eldridge. It _is_ measles--and a very mild case of it. + +Jane grew up strong and hearty, none the worse for childish ailments, +and uninjured by the idolatry of her two nearest female relatives. As +Yates said, it was a miracle that Jane didn't get absolutely spoilt by +so much fussing care and loving worship. But Yates stoutly declared that +the young lady was not spoilt up to now; and attributed her escape from +spoiling to the fortunate circumstance that she took after her +grandmother. + +Outwardly she was like her mother, but perhaps inwardly she did somewhat +resemble her granny. At fourteen she was certainly more enthusiastic, +vivacious, and expansive than Enid had been at that age. And, unlike the +young Enid, she could not readily take the impress of other people's +minds and manners. Governesses said she was _very_ clever, but too much +disposed to rely on conclusions reached by trains of thought set in +motion by herself and running on lines of her own construction. +Governesses would not say she was obstinate--oh, no, far from it--but +perhaps guilty now and then of a certain intellectual arrogance that was +unbecoming in one so young. + +Fourteen--fifteen--past her sixteenth birthday! Jane is really growing +up; and nearer and nearer draws the time when mother and grandmother +will be confronted with the awful problem of finding her a suitable +husband--a _good_ husband, if such a thing exists on the broad surface +of the earth. It is appalling to think about; but it cannot be blinked +or evaded. The fiery chain of life must have its new link of flame: Jane +must carry the torch, and give it safely to the small hands that are +waiting somewhere in immeasurable darkness to grasp it and bear it still +onward. + +Once when Enid lightly hinted at this terrifying matter, Jane caught the +hint that was not intended for her ears, and replied very shrewdly. + +"It strikes me, mummy, that most likely you'll be married before I +shall." + +Mrs. Kenion laughed and flushed, and seemed rather gratified by this +compliment; but she promised never to introduce Jane to a stepfather. +No, she will never marry again--has no faintest inclination for further +experiments of that sort. Once bit, twice shy. She will act on the +adage; although, when she speaks so blandly of the bad ungrateful dog +that bit her, one might almost suppose that she had forgotten nearly all +the pain of the bite. + +"Mother dear, isn't it wonderful? He is riding again;" and Enid looks up +from the morning newspaper, sips her breakfast coffee, and speaks with +calm admiration. She always reads the sporting news, and never misses an +entry of Charlie's name in minor steeplechase meetings. + +Here it is:--Mrs. Charles Kenion's Dreadnought; Trainer, private; +Jockey, Mr. Kenion. + +"And Charles is over forty-five. Really, I do think it's wonderful," +says Enid calmly and admiringly. "But he shouldn't go on riding races. +She oughtn't to let him. It can only end"--and Enid says this with +unruffled calm--"in his breaking his neck." + +But it seems that Charlie's neck is charmed: that it cannot be broken +over the sticks, or--sinister thought!--that it is being preserved for +another and more formal method of dislocation. + +Nearer than the necessity of discovering a worthy mate for Jane, there +looms the smaller necessity of presenting her at Court, giving her a +London season, and so forth. As to the presentation, a very obliging +offer has been tendered by the great lady of the county--wife of that +local potentate who lives in the sheltered magnificence behind the +awe-inspiring iron gates. Her ladyship has voluntarily suggested that +she should take Miss Kenion, when properly feathered and betrained, into +the effulgent presence of her sovereign. + +Naturally, since those tremendous iron gates have opened to Mrs. +Marsden-Thompson, no lesser entrances are closed against her. Success, +if it is big enough, condones most offences; and the prejudiced +objection to retail trade, under which Enid once suffered, has been +generously waived. What she used artlessly to call county people make +much of her and her daughter. + +They are bidden to the very best houses; they may consort on equal terms +with the highest quality; there is no one so fine that he or she will +resent an invitation to dinner. + +"Oh yes, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson is an old dear. And her daughter is quite +charming. I don't know what to make of the girl--but of course you know, +she is going to be an immense heiress." + +Mrs. Marsden-Thompson, presiding at a banquet to the county, perhaps was +pleased to think that this, too, she had at last been able to give her +Enid. Really tip-top society--social concert-pitch, if compared with the +flat tinkling that Enid used to hear at Colonel Salter's. + +Gold plate on the table; liveried home-retainers, with soberly-clad aids +from Bence's refreshment departments; a white waistcoat or silver +buttons behind every chair; and, seated on the chairs, a most select and +notable company of guests, gracious smiling ladies and grandiosely +urbane lords; pink and white faces of candid young girls and sun-burnt +faces of gallant young soldiers; shimmer of pearls, glitter of diamonds, +flash of bright eyes, and a polite murmur of well-bred voices--surely +this is all that Enid could possibly desire. + +But it was not the society that the hostess really cared about. The +dinner-parties that she enjoyed were far different from this. She gave +this sort of feast to please Enid; but at certain seasons--at Christmas +especially--she gave a feast to please herself. + +Then the old friends came. The two motor-cars and the large landau went +to fetch some of the guests. Few of them were carriage-folk. Mr. and +Mrs. Archibald Bence had their own brougham of course; Mr. and Mrs. +Prentice used one of Young's flies; but most of the others were very +glad to accept a lift out and home. By special request they all came +early, and in morning-dress. + +"We dine at seven," wrote the hostess in her invitations; "but please +come early, so that we can have a chat before dinner. And as it is to be +just a friendly unceremonious gathering, do you mind wearing morning +dress?" + +Did they mind? What a thoughtless question, when she might have known +that some of them had nothing but morning dress! Mr. Mears, in spite of +his rise in the world, rigidly adhered to the frock coat, as the garment +most suitable to his years and his figure. Cousin Thompson--the +ex-grocer of Haggart's Cross--considered swallow-tails and white chokers +to be fanciful nonsense: he would not make a merry-andrew of himself to +please anybody. Neither of the two Miss Prices had ever possessed a +low-cut bodice--old Mrs. Price would probably have whipped her for her +immodesty if she had ever been caught in one. + +Then buttoned coats and no spreading shirt fronts, high-necked blouses +and no bare shoulders; but in other respects full pomp for this humbler +banquet: home-servants and Bence-servants; the electric light blazing on +the splendid epergnes, the exquisite Bohemian glass, and the piled fruit +in the Wedgewood china; the long table stretched to its last leaf; more +than thirty people eating, drinking, talking, laughing, shining with +satisfaction--and Mrs. Marsden-Thompson at the head of the sumptuous +board, shedding quick glances, kind smiles, friendly nods, making the +wine taste better and the lamps glow brighter, gladdening and cheering +every man and woman there. + +"Cousin Jenny!" It is our farmer cousin shouting from the end of the +table. "You're so far off that I shall have to whistle to you. You +haven't forgotten my whistle?" + +"No, that I haven't, cousin Gordon." + +And radiant cousin Gordon turns to tell Miss Jane the story of the +Welshman, the Irishman, and the Scotsman who met on London Bridge; and +Miss Jane is good enough to be amused. + +"Lord, how often I've told that story to your grandmother! I'll tell it +her again when we get back into the music-room. 'Tis a favourite of +hers." + +Jane and Enid are both very sweet on these occasions, loyally assisting +the hostess, and winning the hearts of the humblest guests. There is +perhaps a just perceptible effort in Enid's pretty manner; but with Jane +it is all entirely natural. + +"Mr. Prentice," says Jane impudently, "you mayn't know it, but you are +going to sing us a comic song after dinner." + +Mr. Prentice is delighted yet coy. + +"No, no--certainly not." + +"Oh yes, you will. Won't he, Mrs. Prentice?" + +"I'm sure he will, if you wish it, Miss Jane." + +Mr. Archibald Bence, looking rather wizened and wan, is just off to the +South of France for the remainder of the winter; and Mr. Fentiman, +talking across the table, urges him to see the falls of the Rhine on his +return journey. + +"When I was touring in Switzerland last autumn," says Fentiman +sententiously, "I gave one whole day to Schaffhausen, and it amply +repaid me for the time and trouble." + +Wherever the hostess turns her kind eyes, she can see someone looking at +her gratefully and affectionately. There is our grumbling cousin who +once was a poor little grocer. She has done so much for him that he has +almost entirely ceased to grumble. There is noisy, would-be-facetious +cousin Gordon, once a little struggling tenant, now a landlord +successfully farming his own land. There is corpulent Greig, on the +retired list, but jovial and contented, with his pride unwounded, +revelling in high-paid tranquillity. There are the cackling, stupid +Miss Prices and their greedy old mother. They have looked at workhouse +doors and shivered apprehensively; but now they chide the maid when she +fails to make up the drawing-room fire, and bully the butcher if he +sends them a scraggy joint for Sunday. There is faithful Mears in his +newest frock-coat, close beside her, as of right, very close to her +heart. And there, behind her chair, is faithful Yates--in rustling black +silk, with kerchief of real point lace. She does not of course appear +when the county dines with us; but to-night Yates stands an honorary +major-domo at the Christmas dinner--because she exactly understands the +spirit of the feast, and knows how her mistress wishes things to be +done. + +"And now," says Mr. Prentice, "I'm not going to break the rule. No +speeches. But just one toast.... Our hostess!" + +The faces of the guests all turn towards her; and the lamp-light, +flashing here and there, shows her gleams of gold. The golden shower +that falls so freely has left some drops on each of them. Her small +gifts are visible--the rings on their fingers, the brooches at their +necks; but the lamp-light cannot reach her greater gifts--the soft beds, +the warm fires, the money in their banks, the comfort in their breasts. + + + + +XXXII + + +Of course she had sent her husband money. Only Mears knew how much. +Mears acted as intermediary, conducted the correspondence; and in +despatching the doles, whether much or little, he rarely failed to +reiterate the proviso that the recipient was not to set foot in England. +That was the irrepealable condition under which aid from time to time +was granted. + +But of late it had become plain that no attempt would be made to set the +prohibition at defiance: Mr. Marsden would never revisit his native +land. During the last year his wife had written to him twice or thrice, +supplementing the communications of Mears with extra bounties and some +hopeful, cheering words. Mr. Marsden was begged to employ these +additional drafts in defraying the expenses of illness, to take care of +himself, and to fight against desponding thoughts. + +Now, one summer morning, when she entered her room at Bence's, Mr. Mears +stood by a window waiting for her arrival. + +"Good morning, Mr. Mears;" and she looked at his solemn face. "Anything +out of the way?" + +"Yes. Some news from California." + +"Ah!" And she pointed to the letter in his hand. "Is it the news that we +had reason to expect?" + +"Yes.... It's all over;" and Mr. Mears placed a chair for her, near the +newspaper table. + +She sat down, took the letter, spread it open on the table; and, shading +her eyes with a hand, began to read it. + +"Mr. Mears!" She spoke without looking up. "I shall do no work to-day. +Tell them all that I cannot see them." + +In the lofty corridor the doors of the managers' rooms were opening; the +chieftains were bringing their reports; secretaries and clerks were +silently assembling. + +Mr. Mears left the room, whisperingly dismissed everybody; and with +closed lips and noiseless footsteps, the little crowd dispersed. + +When he returned to the room she spoke to him again, still without +raising her eyes. + +"The car has gone home, of course. Please telephone to the house, and +tell them to send it back for me at once." + +He transmitted her order, and then went to a window and looked down into +the court-yard. + +"Mr. Mears!" + +She had finished the letter, and was carefully folding it. "There. You +had better keep it--with the other papers.... Sit down, please. Stay +with me till the car comes." + +Mr. Mears sat down, put the folded letter in his pocket, but did not +speak. He noticed that her eyes were free from moisture, and her quiet +voice betrayed no emotion of any sort. + +"Ah, well;" and she gave a little sigh. "He wanted for nothing. His +friend says so explicitly.... Mr. Mears, she cannot have been a bad +woman--according to her lights. You see, she has stuck to him +faithfully." + +Then, after a long pause, she spoke very kindly of the dead man; and +Mears noticed the pitying tenderness that had come into her voice. But +it could not have been called emotion: it was a benign, comprehensive +pity, a ready sympathy for weakness and misfortune, and no deep +disturbance of personal feeling. Mears had heard her talk in just such a +tone when she had been told about the sad end of a total stranger. + +"Poor fellow! A wasted life, Mr. Mears!... And he had many good points. +He was naturally a _worker_. Considerable capacity--he seemed to promise +great things in the beginning.... You know, _you_ thought well of him at +first." + +"At first," said Mears. "I admit it. He was a good salesman." + +"He was a _grand_ salesman, Mr. Mears.... I have never met a better +one." + +Enid was waiting for her at the white gates, when the car brought her +home. + +"Mother dear, is anything wrong? Are you ill?" + +The car had stopped; and Enid, clambering on the step, showed a white, +scared face. + +"No, my dear. I am quite all right. I'll get out here, and stroll in the +garden with you.... My sweet Enid, did the message frighten you?" + +"Yes, dreadfully." + +"It was inconsiderate of me not to say I wasn't ill.... I am taking the +day off. That is all." + +"But what has happened? Something has upset you. I can see it in your +face." + +Then, as they walked slowly to and fro along a terrace between bright +and perfumed flowers, Mrs. Marsden-Thompson quietly told her daughter +the news. + +"I am a widow, Enid dear.... No, it did not upset me. Mr. Mears and I +were both prepared to hear it.... But of course it takes one back into +the past; it sets one thinking--and I felt at once that I ought not to +attend to ordinary business, that it would be only proper to take the +day off.... + +"And I think, Enid, that henceforth I shall call myself Mrs. +Thompson--plain Mrs. Thompson, dropping the other name altogether."... +She had paused on the path, to pick a sprig of verbena; and she gently +crushed a thin leaf, and inhaled its perfume. "Yes, dear. I always liked +the old name best. But I felt that while he was living, it might seem +unkind, and in bad taste, if I altogether refused to bear his name. Now, +however, it cannot matter;" and she opened her hand and let the crushed +leaf fall. "He has gone. And he is quite forgotten. There is nobody who +can think it unkind if his name dies, too." + + + + +XXXIII + + +The pleasant years were slipping away, and Mrs. Thompson was just as +busy as she had ever been. She had long ago ceased to speak of retiring, +and now she did not even think of it. The success of Bence's had +continued to swell larger and larger; its trade grew steadily and +surely; its financial position was so strong that nothing could shake +it. + +Prentice and Archibald Bence often advised the proprietress to turn +herself into a company, and she was more or less disposed to adopt their +suggestion. Some day or other she might do it. But it would be a big +job--the promotion of a company on the grandest scale, with enormous +capital involved, wants careful consideration. Perhaps she was a little +inclined to shrink the preliminary labours of the scheme--and in any +event the flotation could not bring her more leisure, because she would +certainly be obliged to remain at Bence's as managing director. + +In these years Jane had made her bow at the Court of St. James's, and +had experienced the excitement of a London season; but as yet her +guardians had found her no suitable sweetheart. They were difficult to +please; and she herself appeared to be in no hurry. However, Jane at +twenty-two was so good-looking, so vivaciously amiable, so altogether +charming, that Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Kenion knew well that they would +not be able to put off the heavy day much longer. The right man, though +still unseen, must have drawn very near by now. + +On Thursday afternoons, weather permitting, Mrs. Thompson liked to drive +in the carriage; and it was always an especial treat when the social +engagements of her ladies allowed them to accompany her. As the big bay +horses trotted along the smooth roads she leaned back in her seat with +luxurious contentment and beamed at Jane, at Enid, at all the world. + +"Now is not this much nicer--the air, the quiet enjoyment, the gentle +motion--than if we were being whirled past everything in a motor-car?" + +"Yes, granny, it _is_ very nice." + +"I fear that you would have preferred the car, Enid?" + +"Oh no, mother dear. I think horses are delightful when you don't want +to go far, and time is no object." + +"That's just it," said Mrs. Thompson. "Time is no object. The horses +help me to remember that; and I like to remember it--because it gives +one the holiday feeling." + +"Poor granny!" Jane had taken one of grandmamma's hands, and was +squeezing it affectionately. "And it's only a _half_-holiday. You don't +get enough of the holiday feeling.... Oh, where's my Kodak? I must snap +those children." + +The carriage was stopped; Jane sprang out, and ran back to photograph +three little girls in a cottage garden. + +"There," said Mrs. Thompson triumphantly. "If we had been in the car, +she wouldn't have seen them. We should have passed too quickly." + +Jane stopped the carriage again, when they came to a point where the +road turns abruptly to cross a high bridge above the railway. + +"Here we are, granny. Here's your favourite view." + +Mrs. Thompson had always been fond of this view of Mallingbridge; and +though it was much too large for a snapshot photograph, Jane liked it, +too. + +Looking down from the bridge you have Mallingbridge, stretched as a +map, at your feet. Once the clustered roofs made a large spot four miles +away in the middle of the plain. Now the roofs had encroached until very +little plain was left. The town and its suburbs had rolled out in all +directions, burying green meadows beneath warehouses and factories, +stifling the copses with red-brick villas, planting the flowery slopes +with tram-lines and iron standards. To-day the light was bad; the sun +only here and there could pierce the drab clouds of smoke that rose from +countless chimneys, and drifted and hung over the central part of the +town; but the three big towers showed plainly enough--the square tower +of St. Saviour's, the steeple of Holy Trinity, and the pinnacled +monument of Bence's clock. And very plainly, with the sunshine suddenly +striking it, one saw the huge dome of Bence. + +A changed view, a widely extended map, since Mrs. Thompson first looked +at it. But there at her feet lay the world that she had conquered and +held. + +Perhaps, while the horses stood champing their bits and the coachman and +footman stifled yawns of ennui, Mrs. Thompson extracted from the wide +view a warm and comfortable sensation of happiness and pride. She was +quite happy, with every fierce passion burnt out, with the disturbing +energy of the emotions nearly all gone; but with the full and satisfying +work still left to her, and the zest for the work growing always keener, +keeping her young of spirit, defying the years. And she was proud--very +proud in her undiminished power of protecting those she loved. She had +never failed to protect. Her mother,--her dull old husband,--her +daughter,--her daughter's daughter: all who had touched the orbit of her +strength with love had found security. And she had been able to break as +well as to make. All who had served her were guarded and safe: all who +had opposed her were crushed and done for. + +"Shall I drive on, ma'am?" + +"Yes, drive on." + +The coachman and footman in their black liveries and white gloves had a +grand air; the bay horses were large highly-bred beasts; the carriage +was one of those four-seated victorias which are much affected by royal +persons--the whole equipage offered a majestic appearance. If the route +of the excursion led them by the avenues of new villas and through some +of the crowded streets of the town, Mrs. Thompson's weekly outing became +exactly like a queen's procession. + +Hats off on either side; continuous bowing to right and left; men and +women staring from open doors, running to upper windows, bumping into +one another on the pavement. + +"Who is it?" + +"Mrs. Thompson." + +"Oh!" + +"What is it? I couldn't see. Was it the fire-engine?" + +"No. Mrs. Thompson--taking her Thursday drive. Just gone round the +corner to Bridge Street." + +In Bridge Street, people on the top of trams stood up to stare at her; +and if it chanced that there rode on the car some stranger to +Mallingbridge, the conductor and all the passengers volubly instructed +him. + +"Who did you say it was?" + +"Mrs. Thompson!... She's _Bence's_; she is ... Mrs. Thompson, don't I +tell you? But Bence's is all hers.... She built that tower what you're +looking at now.... She gave the money to build the new hospital that +we're coming to presently.... Mrs. Thompson! They say she's rich enough +to buy the blooming town." + +When she got home she thanked her companions for giving her the treat. + +"It is sweet of you both--and I hope you haven't been bored. It has +been the greatest treat for me." + + +Another of her great treats--enjoyed more rarely than the carriage +drive--was on a Sunday night, when she and her granddaughter went in to +Mallingbridge for the evening service at St. Saviour's Church. + +"We won't ask your mother to come, because I fancy she is a little +tired. But if you feel up to it?" + +"_Rather_," said Jane. + +"Really and truly, you won't mind?" + +"I shall love it, granny." + +Then, time being an object, the small car was ordered, and the chauffeur +jumped gleefully to obey the sabbath-infringing order. He knew that he +would receive a thumping tip as guerdon for his extra pains. + +She sat in the old pew, with Jane by her side. She had retained the +places, although she could so infrequently use them; and the card in the +metal frame once again read, "Mrs. Thompson, two seats." + +The dim light fell softly on her white hair and pale face, on her ermine +fur and the purple velvet of her mantle; and the congregation, sparse +rows of vague, meaningless figures, sent shadowy glances at her back and +at her sides. There was no one here now who had seen her as a bride, +with her pretty hair and fresh, vividly coloured complexion; but all +knew who she was, and everybody seemed to be stirred by her dignified +presence. At her entrance a whisper and a movement had run along the +pews. "Look! Mrs. Thompson!" + +A young curate conducted the service with a kind of languid hurry. The +old broad church vicar was dead, and a low church vicar had obtained the +living. So there was less singing and chanting than of past days; and +the choir boys, standing or sitting in the brightly illuminated chancel, +had not so much work to do. It was all one to Mrs. Thompson--the old way +or the new way. The sensible view, the _business_ view of the matter +remained unaltered. Given a consecrated house of prayer, anyone who +isn't a faddist ought to be able to pray in it. + +The congregation had stood up, to recite the evening psalms in alternate +verses with the curate; and Mrs. Thompson, standing very erect, looked +from the darkness towards the light. + +... "The Lord is with them that uphold my soul;" and then the +congregation recited their verse. + +Jane glanced at granny's face--so fine, so strong, so brave; and +listened to her firm, resolute voice. + +"He shall reward evil until mine enemies: destroy thou them in thy +truth." + +While the curate read the next verse, Jane was still watching her +granny's face. + +"For," answered Mrs. Thompson, "he hath delivered me out of all my +trouble; and mine eye hath seen his desire upon mine enemies." + +"Glory be to the Father," said the curate, in a perfunctory tone, "and +to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;" + +"As it was in the beginning," said Mrs. Thompson, firmly and fervently, +"is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen." + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mrs. Thompson, by William Babington Maxwell + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MRS. 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