"I want you to tell me what to do, and how I can help them."
"My dear child," said the Crow, sententiously, as was his habit, "help them to what? She is married, of course, or Hector would not be in love with her. Do you want to help them to part or to meet? or to go to heaven or to h.e.l.l? or to spend what Monica Ellerwood calls "a Sat.u.r.day to Monday amid rural scenery," which means both of those things one after the other!"
"Crow, dear, you are disagreeable," said Lady Anningford, "and I have a cold in my head and cannot compete with you in words to-day."
"Then say what you want, and I"ll listen."
"Hector met them in Paris, it seems, and must have fallen wildly in love, because I have never seen him as he is now."
"How is he?--and who is "them"?"
"Why, she and the husband, of course, and Hector is looking sad and distrait--and has really begun to feel at last."
"Serve him right!"
"Crow, you are insupportable! Can you not see I am serious and want your help?"
"Fire away, then, my good child, and explain matters. You are too vague!"
So she told him all she knew--which was little enough; but she was eloquent upon Theodora"s beauty.
"She has the face of an angel," she ended her description with.
"Always mistrust "em," interjected the Crow.
"Such a figure and the nicest manner, and she is in love with Hector, too, of course--because she could not possibly help herself--could she?--if he is being lovely to her."
"I have not your prejudiced eyes for him--though Hector certainly is a decent fellow enough to look at," allowed Colonel Lowerby. "But all this does not get to what you want to do for them."
"I want them to be happy."
"Permanently, or for the moment?"
"Both."
"An impossible combination, with these abominably inconsiderate marriage laws we suffer under in this country, my child."
"Then what ought I to do?"
"You can do nothing but accelerate or hinder matters for a little. If Hector is really in love, and the woman, too, they are bound to dree their weird, one way or the other, themselves. You will be doing the greatest kindness if you can keep them apart, and avoid a scandal if possible."
"My dear Crow, I have never heard of your being so thoroughly unsympathetic before."
"And I have never heard of Hector being really in love before, and with an angel, too--deuced dangerous folk at the best of times!"
"Then there are mother and Morella Winmarleigh to be counted with."
"Neither of them can see beyond their noses. Miss Winmarleigh is sure of him, she thinks--and your mother, too."
"No; mother has her doubts."
"They will both be anti?"
"Extremely anti."
"To get back to facts, then, your plan is to a.s.sist your brother to see this "angel," and smooth the path to the final catastrophe."
"You worry me, Crow. Why should there be a catastrophe?"
"Is she a young woman?"
"A mere baby. Certainly not more than twenty or so."
"Then it is inevitable, if the husband don"t count. You have not described him yet."
"Because I have never seen him," said Lady Anningford. "Hector did say last night, though, that he was an impossible Australian millionaire."
"These people have a strong sense of personal rights--they are even blood-thirsty sometimes, and expect virtue in their women. If he had been just an English sn.o.b, the social bauble might have proved an immense eye-duster; but when you say Australian it gives me hope. He"ll take her away, or break Hector"s head, before things become too embarra.s.sing."
"Crow, you are brutal."
"And a good thing, too. That is what we all want, a little more brutality. The whole of the blessed show here is being ruined with this sickly sentimentality. Flogging done away with; every silly nerve pandered to. By Jove! the next time we have to fight any country we shall have an anaesthetic served round with the rations to keep Tommy Atkins"s delicate nerves from suffering from the consciousness of the slaughter he inflicts upon the enemy."
"Crow, you are violent."
"Yes, I am. I am sick of the whole thing. I would reintroduce prize-fighting and bear-baiting and gladiatorial shows to brace the nation up a bit. We"ll get jammed full of rotten vices like those beastly foreigners soon."
"I did not bring you into Regent"s Park to hear a tirade upon the nation"s needs, Crow," Anne reminded him, smiling, "but to get your sympathy and advice upon this affair of Hector. You know you are the only person in the world I ever talk to about intimate things."
"Dear Queen Anne," he said, "I will always do what I can for you. But I tell you seriously, when a man like Hector loves a woman really, you might as well try to direct Niagara Falls as to turn him any way but the one he means to go."
"He wants me to be kind to her. Do you advise me just to let the thing drop, then?"
"No; be as kind as you like--only don"t a.s.sist them to destruction."
"She goes into the country on Sat.u.r.day for Whitsuntide, as we all do.
Hector is going down to Bracondale alone."
"That looks desperate. I shall see Hector, and judge for myself."
"You must be sure to go to the ball at Harrowfield House to-night, then," Anne said. "They are both going. I say both because I know she is, and so, of course, Hector will be there too. I shall go, naturally, and then we can decide what we can do about it after we have seen them together."
And all this time Theodora was thinking how charming Anne was, and how kind, and that she felt a little happier because of her kindness. And, hard as it would be, she would not leave Josiah"s side that night or dance with Hector.
And Hector was thinking--
"What is the good of anything in this wide world without her? I _must_ see her. For good or ill, I cannot keep away."
He was deep in the toils of desire and pa.s.sionate love for a woman belonging to someone else and out of his reach, and for whom he was hungry. Thus the primitive forces of nature were in violent activity, and his soul was having a hard fight.