"I don"t believe it."
"Yet I was, physically, not a bad sample of a man. Now the Lord knows what I am!--a husk, I suppose. There"s a man inside me somewhere still."
"You look as if there were, and you sound it."
She laughed, not pleasantly. It was one of her defects that her laughter seldom had a pleasant sound, as if it were only the spirit of malice which had power to move her to mirth.
"You"ve confessed why you married me. Do you know why I wanted to marry you, or any one? I"d have married your friend Nannie if she"d agreed, but she refused point-blank."
"Is that true?"
"Quite. It was only when she persisted in her refusal that the doctor thought of the woman he"d found in a ditch. Since anything in the shape of a woman would serve he hauled you up the stairs." She was still. She was standing in her favourite position by the open window, looking out at the woods on the slope of the hill. "Shall I tell you why, when already looking into h.e.l.l--and I had a good look, I promise you!--I wanted to marry any one?"
"I know."
"Who told you?"
"Dr. Twelves."
"He seems to have imparted to you a good deal of useful information. What did he tell you?"
"That you"d made a will in some one"s favour, which you wanted to break, and that was the easiest way to break it."
"Did he tell you who the some one was?"
"No."
"It was a woman. Do you hear--it was a woman!"
"I hear."
"A young woman--younger than you and prettier. Prettier? My G.o.d!
You"re not bad-looking in a way, but there"s a streak of the vulgar in you now. No one could ever mistake you for a lady.
You"re one of the blowzy sort; you"ll become impossible; hard-featured; flame-coloured cheeks; bold, staring eyes; huge, unwieldy, gross. She!--she"s the most perfect woman G.o.d ever made, and she"ll only improve as the years go by."
"I"ve met that kind of woman before."
"Not you. She"s not to be found in the sort of society in which you"ve moved."
"She"s to be found in the penny novelettes--never out of them.
You and your perfect women! In spite of her perfection you don"t seem to have found her all milk and honey, or you wouldn"t have been so keen to break that will of yours."
"Do you know why I wanted to break it?"
"Some silly nonsense. Because she tried to scratch your eyes out, I daresay--serve you right if she did."
"Because she wouldn"t marry me."
"Because----!" She stopped to burst into noisy, strident laughter. "She must have been a fool. I should have thought any one would have married you if you"d made it worth their while."
"I told you that she was not the kind of woman you have ever met; she"s clean beyond your understanding. Put your hand underneath my pillow--gently. You"ll find a case; take it out."
Isabel looked at him, hesitating, as if in doubt of his meaning, then she did as he had told her. He was propped up on a nicely graduated series of pillows. As she withdrew her hand, the case between her fingers, she dragged one of the pillows with it right from under the one on which his head reposed, so that, denuded of its support, his head fell back. In a second he began to choke before her eyes. His face grew bluer and bluer; the veins stood out through his skin; he fought for breath; his stertorous gasps shook him from head to foot. She raised his head to its normal position, returning the pillow to its place.
As she watched him struggle back to what--to him--was life, she laughed.
"It wouldn"t take long to make an end of you."
By degrees he regained the use of his attenuated voice.
"I do want careful handling--that"s so. Still I wouldn"t murder me if I were you--it would be murder. Murder has to be paid for in full. It would be hardly worth your while to be compelled to render full payment for such a remnant as I am. Have you got the case? Open it."
She held a square Russia leather case, in corn-flower blue. She looked for a spring or for something which would enable her to get at its interior, but found nothing.
"Does it open? I don"t see how."
"It"s a little idea of my own that spring. I didn"t want any one to see what is inside but me. But it"s so long since I"ve seen that I have grown hungry for a look, so you shall have one too.
I think I should like you to have one. Hold the case between your finger and thumb, one of them exactly in the centre of each side, then press firmly."
Obeying him, immediately one of the sides flew open in the middle, revealing, framed in the other, the miniature of a young girl. Isabel was no artist; she was incapable of appreciating the artistic value of the portrait which confronted her. What struck her instantly was that it was surrounded by what looked like three rows of precious stones--pearls, sapphires, diamonds.
"Are they real?" she inquired.
"Do you mean the stones in the setting? They are. The pearls are there because she is the queen of pearls; the sapphires, because they are her favourite stones; the diamonds, because I chose to have them."
"They must be very valuable."
"They cost a lot of money, and they"d fetch a lot. That is the girl I wanted to marry me. What do you think of her?"
"She is pretty."
"Pretty! She"s beautiful."
"She"s too fair for me."
"That"s because you"re dark. I hate dark women--always have done. Hold the case open in front of me. Let me look at her."
She did as he asked. No change took place in his expression; none could take place. His voice remained the same; that also was incapable of modulation. Yet she knew that an alteration had taken place in him; that as he gazed the man of whom he had spoken, who was inside him somewhere, was stirred to his inmost depths.
"Not beautiful! She"s the most beautiful creature in the world.
She always has been; she always will be. G.o.d bless her! though He has been hard on me." Then, after a pause, "Take the case away and shut it, and put it back beneath my pillow--gently.
That glimpse will last me a long time, thank you. Though I may never look at her again, her face will be with me always to the end. Before you close the case you might look at her again more carefully. Perhaps, after you have gazed at her attentively, understanding may come to you; you may begin to perceive the beauty which was hidden from you at the first."
She returned, the case still open in her hand, to the window in front of which she had been standing.
CHAPTER IX