"I thought you might pay some of those debts with the money and let me be your creditor instead," she said hesitatingly. "Of course, you would pay me back as you saved enough, just as you are doing now with the others. And it would be a sort of symbol of the new footing on which we start from to-day."
"Dear Margaret," he said, "please don"t try and press that on me. It won"t help me in the least, as you see yourself. Besides, what need have we of a symbol? I want you to believe in the new footing just as much without it. And then," he added, in a gayer note, "there is another reason why I can"t allow you to have such ideas. Heroines always do that sort of thing, and it"s quite too conventional for you."
She laughed and did not persist, though she had coloured still more.
And just then she bethought herself of the hour and drew forth her tiny watch.
"This is being wicked with a vengeance!" she exclaimed. "I really must be going back."
"You must let me come with you, else I shall be nervous all night and my hair may be grey by the morning."
"Part of the excitement of the adventure was to come alone and to go alone. But as I can"t have your hair turning grey----"
"Do they know at home where you were going?" he asked, as he helped her on with her jacket.
"I didn"t tell them, but I dare say they"ll guess, and I mean to let them know anyway. I"m going to leave you these," and she unfastened the bunch of forget-me-nots and put them on the table.
He saw her to her own door; it was long since he had set foot in Wimpole street. She gave him a long comrade"s hand-clasp, saying: "We had a charming Bohemian supper. You have made me happier to-night than I have been for years."
He turned away as she rang the bell and he walked all the way back to Southwark. Now that he had taken her into his life at last, he seemed to have unburdened himself of some overwhelming weight. Margaret knew everything at last, understood everything, and loved him through all.
His self-distrust had made him keep himself hidden from the Medhursts, but she had helped him to find and know his own strength. She was right. He was strong enough to accept her friendship.
Though he would have to be at his desk at the usual hour in the morning, he could not go to bed at once. The flowers she had left seemed to fill the room with sweetness. And something of lightness and fragrance seemed to remain with him, to be flitting here and there with the silence of a phantom, to be hovering in the air, to be bending over him, to be nestling close to him. Then, as he closed his eyes dreamily, Margaret seemed to float before him. He was aware of her eyes, her hair, her voice; he saw her just as she had sat there with her face and hands showing exquisite against the silver-blue of her dress, and the forget-me-nots at her throat and waist.
CHAPTER VIII.
In the autumn of the third year of Morgan"s engagement with the Upper Thames street firm of printers he found himself with enough money to pay off the balance due to his one remaining creditor. There had been a good deal of method displayed in the order in which he had enjoined Helen to settle the debts, and this particular firm had been left to the last because it had received a goodly sum in the first days when Cleo was using up their ready money.
It was Sat.u.r.day, and he had just got away from the works. He had been intending to take this last instalment to Helen that very afternoon; but the idea came to him that he would rather enjoy the sensation of making this last payment in person, and he proceeded immediately to act on it.
Arrived at the business place of the firm, he explained to a clerk that he wished to clear off an old matter, and recalled the occasion to him. The man looked surprised, and went to consult his princ.i.p.al.
An old ledger had to be looked up, and then Morgan was informed the account had been settled very shortly after the closing of the theatre. The princ.i.p.al now remembered the circ.u.mstances perfectly. A cheque had come from a certain firm of solicitors in the West End, much to his surprise. After some further searching the clerk was able to tell Morgan who these solicitors were.
This last piece of information simply corroborated what he had at once suspected. Helen had carried out, without consulting him, the very same suggestion that Margaret had once made to him, and was keeping the sums he had been sending her from time to time. He understood, though, that she must have done it mainly for the sake of the actors and workpeople.
He said nothing to her of his discovery when he called at Belgrave Square a couple of hours later, but just handed her the money, which she quietly placed in a drawer of her escritoire.
"And now I have to congratulate you, Morgan," she said. "You have shown the stuff you are made of. Tell me, how does it feel?"
"I feel extraordinarily light-hearted," he admitted.
"I"m sorry," she said, and looked it.
He stared at her.
"There is a story of a hungry peasant gorging himself on bread and cheese, and, when he couldn"t eat any more, they brought in the stuffed geese and other delicacies."
"Well?"
"Stupid! the stuffed geese and other delicacies have yet to come in.
If the coa.r.s.er part of the feast has made you so joyful, the rest will be wasted on you to-day."
"I feel more stupid than ever. Still, my capacities for storing away joy are unlimited, and, what is more, I shall appreciate every crumb."
"Very well." She took up a journal from the table near her. "Let me read you this paragraph: "In the course of the coming session an extraordinary case will be reached in the Divorce Courts. The pet.i.tioner is a lady of t.i.tle belonging to one of the n.o.blest and oldest families in the kingdom, and the respondent is a well-known novelist and dramatist. The parties were married barely three years back and the wedding was much discussed at the time. It is rumoured that facts of a strange and sensational character are likely to come to light at the trial, and the occasion will not be the first one on which the pet.i.tioner has figured in the same Court.""
She pa.s.sed him the paper--it was a gossippy society weekly--and he read the paragraph again. For a moment quick vague flashes seemed to rise in his brain as from a vain attempt to strike a flint; then light came to him.
"Ingram and Cleo," he cried. "She went back to him!"
"Precisely," smiled Helen. "You will remember my lamenting I could not be the good fairy of your life, because things were already destined to work themselves out for your happiness. You see now I was a true prophet."
But a sort of dizziness came to him on account of his stumbling efforts to think, to trace the significance of things.
"Don"t faint, please. I"m only a helpless woman, and I"m sure I couldn"t rise to the occasion. Perhaps I"ve been too precipitate. I"ve made you swallow the whole stuffed goose at once."
"I"m not so sure that my personal life is going to be affected by it,"
he began.
"Stuff and nonsense!" she cried. "Your proceedings will be reduced to the utmost simplicity. There will be no defence at all. I have been, watching affairs patiently for three years now, and what has happened was bound to come. Do you know who sent your Cleo those bank-notes she had at Dover? Do you know where she went directly after leaving you?
There is a certain house in Hampstead you know quite well. It has a room in it with a fountain, and really pretty hanging lamps, and peac.o.c.ks on the windows. Well, she immediately took repossession of it. And very glad her rightful lord and master was to have her back again! The distraction of his affections by the engrossing interest of ambitious matrimonial schemes had been only temporary. As for his wife--well, about the living one should be silent unless one has something nice to say. Therefore I"ll say nothing about her. Before long, Morgan, you"ll be a free man, and a certain chapter of your life will be erased. Fox & Kraft are an excellent firm of solicitors--almost a pity to employ such steam-hammers to crack such a very simple nut."
"You are going along much too fast, Helen. You know I am leaving Upper Thames street next week; it is an old promise made to my father. I must consult him first. Of course, I shall be glad to have this meaningless tie that binds me to Cleo cut right through, and for ever.
But I do not care to let my happiness rest on such a basis. Margaret and I shall remain friends and nothing more."
"Stuff and nonsense!" she cried again. "Your father is too wise a man not to agree with me. And so I am quite content you shall abide by his counsel. Otherwise I"d have to force you into happiness even if I had to do it by threatening suicide, and you know my threats are not idle ones."
"I shall be guided by my father," he conceded. "But don"t overwhelm me so much, please. My emotions at this moment are much too complex for my understanding."
"Then let me give you some tea. It will put all your notions--and your emotions--in order."
The tea certainly did soothe him. He had never known that the beverage could be so delicious.
"How did you find out about Ingram and Cleo?" he asked suddenly.
"Oh, that was very easy. The moment I heard she had bank-notes I had a very strong suspicion of the truth. As I was eager to learn whether I could be your good fairy, I had that house watched. When my suspicions were corroborated I waltzed round my room sixteen times, and, you may be sure, I was determined never to lose sight of your Cleo for a moment. But my task was not a difficult one. That delightful room seems to have been as fatal to her imagination as she was to yours.
She made some desperate attempts to leave it; twice she crossed to America and made obscure appearances on the boards, and once she sojourned in Paris for several months. But all in vain--she _had_ to go back and sit on her gilded couch. Do you know, I rather like her; after all, she has never tried to turn to account her connection with you, Morgan. She"s no mere vulgar adventuress. There"s something really taking about her. But I"d like to slap her sisters. When do you leave for the country?"
"A fortnight hence, I hope," said Morgan. "But I am rather vague about what immediately is going to follow. In a general way it is understood that I am to work in the bank, which is precisely what I refused to do thirteen years ago."
"Thirteen years! That is a good stretch out of a life," said Helen, with a half sigh, "Time flies. I scarcely realise that I am thirty-six already. And the years seem to bring nothing but perplexity and embarra.s.sment at the increase of my fortune. It is perfectly meaningless and absurd to me, this monstrous fortune. I feel I haven"t any right to it; though, as I derive no happiness from it, that feeling ought not to give me very much concern. Happiness depends on one"s personal relations with others--a few others, that is--and though I shake hands with a vast crowd, I have no close personal relations; not, at least, in the sense in which I understand the phrase. A sort of subtle fusion must accompany. I should have preferred to leave my fortune to you, Morgan, but I knew you wouldn"t like to benefit by my death, so I have disposed of it otherwise."
He looked hard at her.
"Why this sudden lugubriousness?" he asked.