If she has been indiscreet she has her excuses. I choose to whitewash her. Do you understand? I pay dearly enough for my social position, and I certainly claim its privileges. I recognize Mrs. Mannering, and I require my friends to do so."
Sir Leslie rose up.
"You are, if you will forgive my saying so," he remarked, drily, "more generous than wise."
"That," she answered, "is my affair. Here comes Clara. Before you start, find Mr. Mannering. He is in the hotel somewhere writing letters, and tell him that when he has finished I wish to speak to him."
Sir Leslie only bowed. He felt himself opposed by a will as strong as his own, and he was too seriously annoyed to trust himself to speech. Clara, in her cool white linen dress, came strolling up.
"What have you been doing to Sir Leslie?" she asked, laughing. "He has just gone into the hotel with a face like a thunder-cloud."
"I have been giving him a lesson in Christian charity," Berenice answered. "He needs it."
Clara nodded. She understood.
"I think you are awfully kind," she said.
Berenice smiled.
"I hate all narrowness," she said, "and if there is a man on G.o.d"s earth who deserves to have people kind to him it is your uncle."
Sir Leslie returned, and he and Clara departed for the golf links.
Berenice was left alone in the little grey courtyard, fragrant with the perfume of scented shrubs and blossoming plants, filled too, with the warm sunlight, which seemed to find its way into every corner. She sat at her little table, paler than a few moments ago, her teeth clenched, her white fingers clasped together. Underneath her muslin blouse her heart had suddenly commenced to beat fiercely--a sense of excitement, long absent, was stealing through her veins. The bonds which a year"s studied self-repression had forged were snapped apart. She knew now what it meant, the great inexpressible thing, the one eternal emotion which has come throbbing down the world from the days when poets sung their first song and painters flung truth on to canvas. She was a woman like the others, and she loved. Her unique position in society, her carefully studied life, her lofty ambitions, were like vain things crumbling into dust before her eyes. A year of cold misery seemed atoned for by the simple fact that within a few yards of her he sat writing--that within a few minutes he would be by her side. Of the future she scarcely thought.
Hers was the woman"s love, content with small things. Its pa.s.sion was of the soul, and its song was self-sacrifice. But if she had known--if she had only known!
He came out to her soon. His manner was quiet and a little grave.
Self-control came easier to him because the truth had been with him longer. Nevertheless, he was not wholly at his ease.
"You know what has happened?" she asked, smiling. "The Redfords have taken Mrs. Mannering and her daughter motoring, and Sir Leslie and Clara have gone to the golf links. You and I are left to entertain one another."
"What would you like to do?" he asked, simply.
"I should like to walk," she answered, "down by the sea somewhere. I am ready now."
They made their way through the little town, along the promenade and on to the sands beyond. Then a climb, and they found themselves in a thick wood stretching back inland from the sea. She pointed to a fallen trunk.
"Let us sit down," she said. "There are so many things I want to ask you."
On the way they had spoken only of indifferent matters, yet from the first Mannering had felt the presence of a subtle something in her deportment towards him, for which he could find no explanation. He himself was feeling the tension of this meeting. He had expected to find her so different. Gracious, perhaps, because she was a great lady, but certainly without any of these suggestions of something kept back, which continually, without any sort of direct expression, made themselves felt.
And when they sat down she said nothing. He had the feeling that it was because she dared not trust herself to speak. Surprise and agitation kept him, too, silent.
At last she spoke. Her voice was not very steady, and she avoided looking at him.
"I should like," she said, "to have you tell me about yourself--about your life--and your work."
"It is told in a few words," he answered. "Somewhere, somehow, I have failed! I could not adopt the Birmingham programme, I could not oppose it. You know what isolation means politically?--abuse from one side and contempt from the other. That is what I am experiencing. The working cla.s.ses have some faith in me, I believe. My work, such as it is, is solely for them. I suppose the papers tell the truth when they say that mine is a ruined career--only, you see, I am trying to do the best I can with the pieces."
"Yes," she said, softly, "that is something. To do the best one can with the pieces. We all might try to do that."
He smiled.
"You, at least, have no need to consider such a thing," he said. "So far as any woman can be preeminent in politics you have succeeded in becoming so. I saw that a lady"s paper a few weeks ago said that your influence outside the Cabinet was more powerful than any one man"s within it."
"Yes," she said, calmly, "the papers talk like that. It gives their readers something to laugh at! I wonder what you would say, my friend, if I told you that I, too, am engaged in that same thankless task. I, too, am striving to do the best I can with the pieces."
"You are not serious!" he protested.
"I am very serious indeed," she declared. "Shall I tell you more? Shall I tell you when I made my mistake?"
"No!" he cried, hoa.r.s.ely.
"But I shall," she continued, suddenly gripping his arm. "I meant to tell you. I brought you here to tell you. I made my mistake when I let Leslie Borrowdean take you back to Lord Redford just as we were entering the rose-garden at Bayleigh. Do you remember? I made my mistake when I suffered anything in this great world to come between me and a woman"s only chance of happiness! I made my mistake when I was too proud to tell you that I loved you, and that nothing else in the world mattered. There!
You tried me hard! You know that! But my mistake was none the less fatal.
I ought to have held fast by you, and I let you go. And I shall suffer for it all my days."
"You cared like that?" he cried.
"Worse!" she answered, turning her flushed face towards him. "I care now.
Kiss me, Lawrence!"
He held her in his arms. Time stood still until she stole away with an odd little laugh.
"There," she said, "I have vindicated myself. No one can ever call me a proud woman again. And you know the truth! I might have had you all to myself and I let you go. Now I am going to do the best I can with the pieces. The half of you I want belongs to your wife. I must be content with the other half. I suppose I may have that?"
"But your friends--"
"Bosh! My friends and your wife must make the best of it. I shan"t rob her again as I did just now. You can blot that out--antedate it. It belonged to the past. But I am not going through life as I have gone through this last year, longing for a sight of you, longing to hear you speak, and denying myself just because you are married. Live with your wife, Lawrence, and make her as happy as you can, but remember that you owe me a great deal, too, and you must do your best to pay it. Don"t look at me as though I were talking nonsense."
He held her hand. She placed it in his unresistingly. All the lines in his face seemed smoothed out. The fire of youth was in his eyes.
"Do you wonder that I am surprised?" he asked. "All this year you have made no sign. All the time I have been schooling myself to forget you."
"Don"t dare to tell me that you have succeeded!" she exclaimed.
"Not an iota!" he answered. "It was the most miserable failure of my life."
She smiled upon him delightfully, and gently withdrew her hand.
"Lawrence," she said, "I am going to talk to you seriously for one minute. You are too conscientious for a politician. Don"t let the same vice spoil our friendship! Certain things you owe to your wife. Mind, I admit that, though from some points of view even that might be disputed. But you also owe me certain things--and I mean to be paid.
I won"t be avoided, mind. I want to be treated as a very close--and dear--companion--and--kiss me once more, Lawrence, and then we"ll begin,"
she wound up, with a little sob in her throat.
An hour later the whole party had _dejeuner_ together in the courtyard of the little hotel. The d.u.c.h.ess was noticeably kind to Mrs. Mannering, and she snubbed Sir Leslie. Clara looked on a little gravely. The situation contained many elements of interest.
CHAPTER III