"Yes, I live alone, because I can"t help myself. What is a man to do, Mr. Bingham, when the woman he loves will not marry him, won"t look at him, treats him like dirt?"
"Marry somebody else," suggested Geoffrey.
"Oh, it is easy for you to say that--you have never loved anybody, and you don"t understand. I cannot marry anybody else, I want her only."
"Her? Whom?"
"Who! why, Beatrice--whom else could a man want to marry, if once he had seen her. But she will not have me; she hates me."
"Really," said Geoffrey.
"Yes, really, and do you know why? Shall I tell you why? I will tell you," and he grasped him by the arm and whispered hoa.r.s.ely in his ear: "Because she loves _you_, Mr. Bingham."
"I tell you what it is, Mr. Davies," said Geoffrey shaking his arm free, "I am not going to stand this kind of thing. You must be off your head."
"Don"t be angry with me," he answered. "It is true. I have watched her and I know that it is true. Why does she write to you every week, why does she always start and listen when anybody mentions your name? Oh, Mr. Bingham," Owen went on piteously, "be merciful--you have your wife and lots of women to make love to if you wish--leave me Beatrice. If you don"t I think that I shall go crazed. I have always loved her, ever since she was a child, and now my love travels faster and grows stronger every day, and carries me away with it like a rock rolling down a hill.
You can only bring Beatrice to shame, but I can give her everything, as much money as she wants, all that she wants, and I will make her a good husband; I will never leave her side."
"I have no doubt that would be delightful for her," answered Geoffrey; "but does it not strike you that all this is just a little undignified?
These remarks, interesting as they are, should be made to Miss Granger, not to me, Mr. Davies."
"I know," he said, "but I don"t care; it is my only chance, and what do I mind about being undignified? Oh, Mr. Bingham, I have never loved any other woman, I have been lonely all my days. Do not stand in my path now. If you only knew what I have suffered, how I have prayed G.o.d night after night to give me Beatrice, you would help me. Say that you will help me! You are one of those men who can do anything; she will listen to you. If you tell her to marry me she will do so, and I shall bless you my whole life."
Geoffrey looked upon this abject suppliant with the most unmitigated scorn. There is always something contemptible in the sight of one man pleading to another for a.s.sistance in his love affairs--that is a business which he should do for himself. How much greater, then, is the humiliation involved when the amorous person asks the aid of one whom he believes to be his rival--his successful rival--in the lady"s affection?
"Do you know, Mr. Davies," Geoffrey said, "I think that I have had enough of this. I am not in a position to force Miss Granger to accept advances which appear to be unwelcome according to your account. But if I get an opportunity I will do this: I will tell her what you say.
You really must manage the rest for yourself. Good morning to you, Mr.
Davies."
He turned sharply and went while Owen watched him go.
"I don"t believe him," he groaned to himself. "He will try to make her his lover. Oh, G.o.d help me--I cannot bear to think of it. But if he does, and I find him out, let him be careful. I will ruin him, yes, I will ruin him! I have the money and I can do it. Ah, he thinks me a fool, they all think me a fool, but I haven"t been quiet all these years for nothing. I can make a noise if necessary. And if he is a villain, G.o.d will help me to destroy him. I have prayed to G.o.d, and G.o.d will help me."
Then he went back to the Castle. Owen Davies was a type of the cla.s.s of religious men who believe that they can enlist the Almighty on the side of their desires, provided only that those desires receive the sanction of human law or custom.
Thus within twenty-four hours Geoffrey received no less than three appeals to help the woman whom he loved to the arms of a distasteful husband. No wonder then that he grew almost superst.i.tious about the matter.
CHAPTER XXII
A NIGHT OF STORM
That afternoon the whole Vicarage party walked up to the farm to inspect another litter of young pigs. It struck Geoffrey, remembering former editions, that the reproductive powers of Mr. Granger"s old sow were something little short of marvellous, and he dreamily worked out a calculation of how long it would take her and her progeny to produce a pig to every square yard of the area of plucky little Wales. It seemed that the thing could be done in six years, which was absurd, so he gave up calculating.
He had no words alone with Beatrice that afternoon. Indeed, a certain coldness seemed to have sprung up between them. With the almost supernatural quickness of a loving woman"s intuition, she had divined that something was pa.s.sing in his mind, inimical to her most vital interests, so she shunned his company, and received his conventional advances with a politeness which was as cold as it was crushing. This did not please Geoffrey; it is one thing (in her own interests, of course) to make up your mind heroically to abandon a lady whom you do not wish to compromise, and quite another to be snubbed by that lady before the moment of final separation. Though he never put the idea into words or even defined it in his mind--for Geoffrey was far too anxious and unhappy to be flippant, at any rate in thought--he would at heart have wished her to remain the same, indeed to wax ever tenderer, till the fatal time of parting arrived, and even to show appreciation of his virtuous conduct.
But to the utter destruction of most such hands as Geoffrey held, loving women never will play according to the book. Their conduct imperils everything, for it is obvious that it takes two to bring an affair of this nature to a dignified conclusion, even when the stakes are highest, and the matter is one of life and death. Beatrice after all was very much of a woman, and she did not behave much better than any other woman would have done. She was angry and suspicious, and she showed it, with the result that Geoffrey grew angry also. It was cruel of her, he thought, considering all things. He forgot that she could know nothing of what was in his mind, however much she might guess; also as yet he did not know the boundless depth and might of her pa.s.sion for him, and all that it meant to her. Had he realised this he would have acted very differently.
They came home and took tea, then Mr. Granger and Elizabeth made ready to go to evening service. To Geoffrey"s dismay Beatrice did the same. He had looked forward to a quiet walk with her--really this was not to be borne. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, she was ready the first, and he got a word with her.
"I did not know that you were going to church," he said; "I thought that we might have had a walk together. Very likely I shall have to go away early to-morrow morning."
"Indeed," answered Beatrice coldly. "But of course you have your work to attend to. I told Elizabeth that I was coming to church, and I must go; it is too sultry to walk; there will be a storm soon."
At this moment Elizabeth came in.
"Well, Beatrice," she said, "are you coming to church? Father has gone on."
Beatrice pretended not to hear, and reflected a moment. He would go away and she would see him no more. Could she let slip this last hour? Oh, she could not do it!
In that moment of reflection her fate was sealed.
"No," she answered slowly, "I don"t think that I am coming; it is too sultry to go to church. I daresay that Mr. Bingham will accompany you."
Geoffrey hastily disclaimed any such intention, and Elizabeth started alone. "Ah!" she said to herself, "I thought that you would not come, my dear."
"Well," said Geoffrey, when she had well gone, "shall we go out?"
"I think it is pleasanter here," answered Beatrice.
"Oh, Beatrice, don"t be so unkind," he said feebly.
"As you like," she replied. "There is a fine sunset--but I think that we shall have a storm."
They went out, and turned up the lonely beach. The place was utterly deserted, and they walked a little way apart, almost without speaking.
The sunset was magnificent; great flakes of golden cloud were driven continually from a home of splendour in the west towards the cold lined horizon of the land. The sea was still quiet, but it moaned like a thing in pain. The storm was gathering fast.
"What a lovely sunset," said Geoffrey at length.
"It is a fatal sort of loveliness," she answered; "it will be a bad night, and a wet morrow. The wind is rising; shall we turn?"
"No, Beatrice, never mind the wind. I want to speak to you, if you will allow me to do so."
"Yes," said Beatrice, "what about, Mr. Bingham."
To make good resolutions in a matter of this sort is comparatively easy, but the carrying of them out presents some difficulties. Geoffrey, conscience-stricken into priggishness, wished to tell her that she would do well to marry Owen Davies, and found the matter hard. Meanwhile Beatrice preserved silence.
"The fact is," he said at length, "I most sincerely hope you will forgive me, but I have been thinking a great deal about you and your future welfare."
"That is very kind of you," said Beatrice, with an ominous humility.
This was disconcerting, but Geoffrey was determined, and he went on in a somewhat flippant tone born of the most intense nervousness and hatred of his task. Never had he loved her so well as now in this moment when he was about to counsel her to marry another man. And yet he persevered in his folly. For, as so often happens, the shrewd insight and knowledge of the world which distinguished Geoffrey as a lawyer, when dealing with the affairs of others, quite deserted him in this crisis of his own life and that of the woman who worshipped him.