"I say, Vicky . . ." he began.
"Sit down, Jack, she"s coming with us. You don"t mind if we don"t go to Ventnor?"
Jack"s eyes opened in astonishment but he made no reply. Victoria pulled Betty sharply down the steps.
"Oh, let me get my things," she said weakly.
"No. They"d stop you. There, get in. Drive back to Elm Tree Place, cabman."
Half an hour later, lying at full length on the boudoir sofa, Betty was slowly sipping some hot cocoa. There was a smile on her tear-stained face. Victoria was a.n.a.lysing with horror the ravages that sorrow had wrought on her. She was pretty still, with her china blue eyes and her hair like pale filigree gold; but the bones seemed to start from her red wrists, so thin had she become. Even the smile of exhausted content on her lips did not redeem her emaciated cheeks.
"Betty, my poor Betty," said Victoria, taking her hand. "What have they done to you?"
The girl looked up at the ceiling as if in a dream.
"Tell me all about it," her friend went on, "what has happened to you since April?"
"Oh, lots of things, lots of things. I"ve had a hard time."
"Yes, I see. But what happened actually? Why did you leave the P.R.R.?"
"I had to. You see, Edward . . ." The flush returned.
"Yes?"
"Oh, Vic, I"ve been a bad girl and I"m so, so unhappy." Betty seized her friend"s hand to raise herself and buried her face on her breast. There Victoria let her sob, gently stroking the golden hair. She understood already, but Betty must not be questioned yet. Little by little, Betty"s weeping grew less violent and confidence burst from her pent up soul.
"He didn"t get a rise at Christmas, so he said we"d have to wait . . . I couldn"t bear it . . . it wasn"t his fault. I couldn"t let him come down in the world, a gentleman . . . he had only thirty shillings a week."
"Yes, yes, poor little girl."
"We never meant to do wrong . . . when baby was coming he said he"d marry me . . . I couldn"t drag him down . . . I ran away."
"Betty, Betty, why didn"t you write to me?"
The girl looked at her. She was beautiful in her reminiscence of sacrifice.
"I was ashamed . . . I didn"t dare . . . I only wanted to go where they didn"t know what I was. . . . I was mad. The baby came too early and it died almost at once."
"My poor little girl." Victoria softly stroked the rough back of her hand.
"Oh, I wasn"t sorry . . . it was a little girl . . . they don"t want any more in the world. Besides I didn"t care for anything; I"d lost him . . . and my job. I couldn"t go back. My landlady wrote me a character to go to Cornwall Road."
"And there I found you."
"I wonder what we are going to do for you," she went on. "Where is Edward now?"
"Oh, I couldn"t go back; I"m ashamed. . . ."
"Nonsense, you haven"t done anything wrong. He shall marry you."
"He would have," said Betty a little coldly, "he"s square."
"Yes, I know. He didn"t beg you very hard, did he? However, never mind.
I"m not going to let you go until I"ve made you happy. Now I"ll tuck you up with a rug, and you"re going to sleep before the fire."
Betty lay limp and unresisting in the ministering hands. The unwonted sensations of comfort, warmth and peace soothed her to sleepiness.
Besides, she felt as if she had wept every tear in her racked body. Soon her features relaxed, and she sank into profound, almost deathlike slumber.
Victoria meanwhile told her story to Jack, who sat in the dining room reading a novel and smoking cigarettes. He came out of his coma as Victoria unfolded the tale of Betty"s upbringing, her struggle to live, then love the meteor flashing through her horizon. His cheeks flushed and his mouth quivered as Victoria painted for him the picture of the girl half distraught, bearing the burden of her shame, unable to reason or to forsee, to think of anything except the saving of a gentleman from life on thirty bob a week.
"Something ought to be done," he said at length, closing his book with novel vivacity.
"Yes, but what?"
"I don"t know." His eyes questioned the wall; they grew vaguer and vaguer as his excitement decreased, as a ship in docks sinks further and further on her side while the water ebbs away.
"You think of something," he said at length, picking up his book again.
"I don"t care what it costs."
Victoria left him and went for a walk through the misty streets seeking a solution. There were not many. She could not keep Betty with her, for she was pure though betrayed; contact with the irregular would degrade her because habit would induce her to condone that which she morally condemned. It would spoil her and would ultimately throw her into a life for which she was not fitted because gentle and unspoiled.
"No," mused Victoria as she walked, "like most women, she cannot rule: a man must rule her. She is a reed, not an oak. All must come from man, both good and evil. What man has done man must undo."
By the time she returned to Elm Tree Place she had made up her mind.
There was no hope for Betty except in marriage. She must have her own fireside; and, from what she had said, her lover was no villain. He was weak, probably; and, while he strove to determine his line of conduct, events had slipped beyond his control. Perhaps, though, it was not fair to deliver Betty into his hands bound and defenceless, bearing the burden of their common imprudence. She was not fit to be free, but she should not be a slave. It might be well to be the slave of the strong, but not of the weak.
Therefore Victoria arrived at a definite solution. She would see the young man; and, if it was not altogether out of the question, he should marry Betty. They should have the little house at Shepherd"s Bush, and Betty should be made a free woman with a fortune of five hundred pounds in her own right, enough to place her for ever beyond sheer want. It only struck Victoria later that she need not, out of quixotic generosity, deplete her own store, for Holt would gladly give whatever sum she named.
"Now, Betty," she said as the girl drained the gla.s.s of claret which accompanied the piece of fowl, that composed her lunch, "tell me your young man"s name and Anderson & Dromo"s address. I"m going to see him."
"Oh, no, no, don"t do that." The look of fear returned to the blue eyes.
"No use, Betty, I"ve decided you"re going to be happy. I shall see him to-day at six, bring him here to-morrow at half past two, as it happens to be Sat.u.r.day. You will be married about the thirtieth of this month."
"Oh, Vic, don"t make me think of it. I can"t do it . . . it"s no good now. Perhaps he"s forgotten me, and it"s better for him."
"I don"t think he"s forgotten you," said Victoria. "He"ll marry you this month, and you"ll eat your Christmas dinner at Shepherd"s Bush. Don"t be shy, dear--you"re not going empty handed; you"re going to have a dowry of five hundred pounds."
"Vic! I can"t take it; it isn"t right . . . you need all you"ve got . . . you"re so good, but I don"t want him to marry me if . . . if. . . ."
"Oh, don"t worry, I shan"t tell him about the money until he says yes.
Now, no thanks; you"re my baby, besides it"s going to be a present from Mr Holt. Silence," she repeated as Betty opened her mouth, "or rather give me his name and address and not another word."
"Edward Smith, Salisbury House, but. . . ."
"Enough. Now, dear, don"t get up."
The events of that Friday and Sat.u.r.day formed in later days one of the sunbathed memories in Victoria"s dreary life. It was all so gentle, so full of sweetness and irresolute generosity. She remembered everything, the wait in the little dark room into which she was ushered by an amazed commissionaire who professed himself willing to break regulations for her sake and hand Mr Smith a note, the banging of her heart as she realised her responsibility and resolved to break her word if necessary and to buy a husband for Betty rather than lose him, then the quick interview, the light upon the young man"s face.