"He seemed glad at first, and then he looked displeased. Is that it?"
she asked, raising her voice again.
"That was what I thought," answered Clare. "Why don"t you have luncheon in your room, mother?" she asked suddenly.
"He would think I was afraid to meet him," said the elder woman.
A long silence followed, and Clare sat down on a stiff straw chair, looking out of the window. At last she turned to her mother again.
"You couldn"t tell me all about it, could you, mother dear?" she asked.
"It seems to me it would be so much easier for us both. Perhaps I could help you. And I myself--I should know better how to act."
"No. I can"t tell you. I only pray that I may never have to. As for you, darling--be natural. It is a very strange position to be in, but you cannot know it--you can"t be supposed to know it. I wish I could have kept my secret better--but I broke down when you told me about the yacht. You can only help me in one way--don"t ask me questions, dear. It would be harder for me, if you knew--indeed it would. Be natural. You need not run after them, you know--"
"I should think not!" cried Clare indignantly.
"I mean, you need not go and sit by them and talk to them for long at a time. But don"t be suddenly cold and rude to their son. There"s nothing against--I mean, it has nothing to do with him. You mustn"t think it has, you know. Be natural--be yourself."
"It"s not altogether easy to be natural under the circ.u.mstances," Clare answered, with some truth, and a great deal of repressed curiosity which she did her best to hide away altogether for her mother"s sake.
At luncheon the Johnstones were all three placed on the opposite side of the table, and Brook was no longer Clare"s neighbour. The Bowrings were already in their places when the three entered, Sir Adam giving his arm to his wife, who seemed to need help in walking, or at all events to be glad of it. Brook followed at a little distance, and Clare saw that he was looking at her regretfully, as though he wished himself at her side again. Had she been less young and unconscious and thoroughly innocent, she must have seen by this time that he was seriously in love with her.
Sir Adam held his wife"s chair for her, with somewhat old-fashioned courtesy, and pushed it gently as she sat down. Then he raised his head, and his eyes met Mrs. Bowring"s. For a few moments they looked at each other. Then his expression changed and softened, as it had when he had first met Clare, but Mrs. Bowring"s face grew hard and pale. He did not sit down, but to his wife"s surprise walked quietly all round the end of the table and up the other side to where Mrs. Bowring sat. She knew that he was coming, and she turned a little to meet his hand. The English old maids watched the proceedings with keen interest from the upper end.
Sir Adam held out his hand, and Mrs. Bowring took it.
"It is a great pleasure to me to meet you again," he said slowly, as though speaking with an effort. "Brook says that you have been very good to him, and so I want to thank you at once. Yes--this is your daughter--Brook introduced me. Excuse me--I"ll get round to my place again. Shall we meet after luncheon?"
"If you like," said Mrs. Bowring in a constrained tone. "By all means,"
she added nervously.
"My dear," said Sir Adam, speaking across the table to his wife, "let me introduce you to my old friend Mrs. Bowring, the mother of this young lady whom you have already met," he added, glancing down at Clare"s flaxen head.
Again Lady Johnstone slightly bent her apoplectic neck, but her expression was not stony, as it had been when she had first looked at Clare. On the contrary, she smiled very pleasantly and naturally, and her frank blue eyes looked at Mrs. Bowring with a friendly interest.
Clare thought that she heard a faint sigh of relief escape her mother"s lips just then. Sir Adam"s heavy steps echoed upon the tile floor, as he marched all round the table again to his seat. The table itself was narrow, and it was easy to talk across it, without raising the voice.
Sir Adam sat on one side of his wife, and Brook on the other, last on his side, as Clare was on hers.
There was very little conversation at first. Brook did not care to talk across to Clare, and Sir Adam seemed to have said all he meant to say for the present. Lady Johnstone, who seemed to be a cheerful, conversational soul, began to talk to Mrs. Bowring, evidently attracted by her at first sight.
"It"s a beautiful place when you get here," she said. "Isn"t it? The view from my window is heavenly! But to get here! Dear me! I was carried up by two men, you know, and I thought they would have died. I hope they are enjoying their dinner, poor fellows! I"m sure they never carried such a load before!"
And she laughed, with a sort of frank, half self-commiserating amus.e.m.e.nt at her own proportions.
"Oh, I fancy they must be used to it," said Mrs. Bowring, rea.s.suringly, for the sake of saying something.
"They"ll hate the sight of me in a week!" said Lady Johnstone. "I mean to go everywhere, while I"m here--up all the hills, and down all the valleys. I always see everything when I come to a new place. It"s pleasant to sit still afterwards, and feel that you"ve done it all, don"t you know? I shall ruin you in porters, Adam," she added, turning her large round face slowly to her husband.
"Certainly, certainly," answered Sir Adam, nodding gravely, as he dissected the bones out of a fried sardine.
"You"re awfully good about it," said Lady Johnstone, in thanks for unlimited porters to come.
Like many unusually stout people, she ate very little, and had plenty of time for talking.
"You knew my husband a long time ago, then!" she began, again looking across at Mrs. Bowring.
Sir Adam glanced at Mrs. Bowring sharply from beneath his s.h.a.ggy brows.
"Oh yes," she said calmly. "We met before he was married."
The grey-headed man slowly nodded a.s.sent, but said nothing.
"Before his first marriage?" inquired Lady Johnstone gravely. "You know that he has been married twice."
"Yes," answered Mrs. Bowring. "Before his first marriage."
Again Sir Adam nodded solemnly.
"How interesting!" exclaimed Lady Johnstone. "Such old friends! And to meet in this accidental way, in this queer place!"
"We generally live abroad," said Mrs. Bowring. "Generally in Florence.
Do you know Florence?"
"Oh yes!" cried the fat lady enthusiastically. "I dote on Florence. I"m perfectly mad about pictures, you know. Perfectly mad!"
The vision of a woman cast in Lady Johnstone"s proportions and perfectly mad might have provoked a smile on Mrs. Bowring"s face at any other time.
"I suppose you buy pictures, as well as admire them," she said, glad of the turn the conversation had taken.
"Sometimes," answered the other. "Sometimes. I wish I could buy more.
But good pictures are getting to be most frightfully dear. Besides, you are hardly ever sure of getting an original, unless there are all the doc.u.ments--and that means thousands, literally thousands of pounds. But now and then I kick over the traces, you know."
Clare could not help smiling at the simile, and bent down her head.
Brook was watching her, he understood and was annoyed, for he loved his mother in his own way.
"At all events you won"t be able to ruin yourself in pictures here,"
said Mrs. Bowring.
"No--but how about the porters?" suggested Sir Adam.
"My dear Adam," said Lady Johnstone, "unless they are all Shylocks here, they won"t exact a ducat for every pound of flesh. If they did, you would certainly never get back to England."
It was impossible not to laugh. Lady Johnstone did not look at all the sort of person to say witty things, though she was the very incarnation of good humour--except when she thought that Brook was in danger of being married. And every one laughed, Sir Adam first, then Brook, and then the Bowrings. The effect was good. Lady Johnstone was really afflicted with curiosity, and her first questions to Mrs. Bowring had been asked purely out of a wish to make advances. She was strongly attracted by the quiet, pale face, with its excessive refinement and delicately traced lines of suffering. She felt that the woman had taken life too hard, and it was her instinct to comfort her, and warm her and take care of her, from the first. Brook understood and rejoiced, for he knew his mother"s tenacity about her first impressions, and he wished to have her on his side.
After that the ice was broken and the conversation did not flag. Sir Adam looked at Mrs. Bowring from time to time with an expression of uncertainty which sat strangely on his determined features, and whenever any new subject was broached he watched her uneasily until she had spoken. But Mrs. Bowring rarely returned his glances, and her eyes never lingered on his face even when she was speaking to him. Clare, for her part, joined in the conversation, and wondered and waited. Her theory was strengthened by what she saw. Clearly Sir Adam felt uncomfortable in her mother"s presence; therefore he had injured her in some way, and doubted whether she had ever forgiven him. But to the girl"s quick instinct it was clear that he did not stand to Mrs. Bowring only in the position of one who had harmed her. In some way of love or friendship, he had once been very fond of her. The youngest woman cannot easily mistake the signs of such bygone intercourse.
When they rose, Mrs. Bowring walked slowly, on her side of the table, so as not to reach the door before Lady Johnstone, who could not move fast under any circ.u.mstances. They all went out together upon the terrace.
"Brook," said the fat lady, "I must sit down, or I shall die. You know, my dear--get me one that won"t break!"