"Never mind about the jewel-case!" said Lady Sellingworth.
"But--"
"It"s gone!"
"Gone, my lady!" said the maid, looking aghast. "Gone where?"
"It was taken at the station in Paris."
"Taken, my lady! But it was in the carriage by the side of your ladyship! I never left it. I had it in my own hands till your ladyship--"
"I know--I know! Don"t say anything more about it. It"s gone, and we shall never see it again."
The maid stared, horrified, and scenting a mystery.
"Get that porter! Make haste!"
They got down from the train. Lady Sellingworth turned to make her way to the ship.
"But, my lady, surely we ought to speak to the police? All your beautiful jewels--"
"The police could do nothing. It is too late! I should only have endless trouble, and no good would come of it."
"But your ladyship was in the carriage with them!"
"Yes, I know! Now don"t say any more about the matter!"
There was something in her tone which struck the maid to silence. She said not another word till they were on the ship.
Then Lady Sellingworth went to the cabin which she had telegraphed for.
"I am going to lie down," she said. "You can leave me."
"Yes, my lady."
After arranging things in the cabin the maid was about to go when Lady Sellingworth said:
"You have been with me a long time, Henderson. You have been very useful to me. And I think I have been a good mistress to you."
"Oh, yes, my lady, indeed you have. I would do anything for your ladyship."
"Would you? Then try to hold your tongue about this unfortunate occurrence. Talking can do no good. I shall not inform the police. The jewels are gone, and I shan"t get them back. I have a great dislike of fuss and gossip, and only wish to be left in peace. If you talk, all this is sure to get into the papers. I should hate that."
"Yes, my lady. But surely the police--"
"It is my business, and no one else"s, to decide what is best in this matter. So hold your tongue, if you can. You will not repent it if you do."
"Yes, my lady. Certainly, my lady."
The maid was obviously horrified and puzzled. But she left her mistress without another word.
They arrived in Berkeley Square in the evening.
That evening which Lady Sellingworth spent in solitude was the turning point in her life. During it and the succeeding night she went down to the bedrock of realization. She allowed her brains full liberty. Or they took full liberty as their right. The woman of the grey matter had it out with the woman of the blood. She stared her wildness in the face and saw it just as it was, and resolved once for all to dominate it for the rest of her days. She was not such a fool as to think that she could ever destroy it. No doubt it would always be there to trouble her, perhaps often to torture her. But rule her, as it had ruled her in the past, it never should again. Her resolve about that was hard, of a rock-like quality.
She had done with a whole side of life, and it was the side for which she had lived ever since she was a girl of sixteen. The renunciation was tremendous, devastating almost. She thought of a landslide carrying away villages, whole populations. How true had been the instinct which had told her that she was drawing near to a climax in her life! Had ever a woman before her been brought in a flash to such a cruel insight? It was as if a tideless sea, by some horrible miracle, retreated, leaving naked rocks which till that moment had never been seen by mortal eyes, hideous and grotesque rocks covered with slime and ooze.
And she stood alone, staring at them.
She remembered the dinner in her house at which there had been the discussion about happiness, and the desire of the old Anglo-Indian for complete peace of mind. Could a woman gain that mysterious benefit by giving up? Could such a thing ever be hers? She did not believe it. But she knew all the torture of striving. In her renunciation she would at least be able to rest, to rest in being frankly and openly what she was.
And she knew she was tired. She was very tired. Perhaps some of the "old guard" were made of cast iron. But she was not.
The "old guard"! With the thought of that body of wonderful women came a flood of memories. She remembered "The Hags" Hop." She saw Rocheouart standing before her; Rupert Louth; other young men, all lively, handsome, ardent, bursting with life and the wish to enjoy.
Was there ever a time when the human being could utterly forego the wish to enjoy? To her there seemed to be hidden in desire seeds of eternity.
The struggle for her, then, was not yet over. Perhaps it would only cease in the grave. And after? Sellingworth had often told her that there was no hereafter. And at the time she had believed him. But she was not sure now. For even the persistence of desire seemed to point to something beyond. But she would not bother about that. She was held fast enough in the present.
What would the "old guard" say of her, think of her, in a very short time? What a defection hers would be! For she had resolved to take a plunge into middle age. No gliding into it for her! She would let everything go which was ready to go naturally. Her Greek had already lost his job, although as yet he did not know it.
Caroline Briggs would believe that the change which was at hand, the change which would be discussed, perhaps laughed at, praised by some, condemned by others, had been brought about by the conversation in the Persian Room. She would never know the truth. No one of Lady Sellingworth"s set would ever know it. For no one, except a thief and his underlings, knew of the last folly of poor old Adela Sellingworth!
Poor old Adela Sellingworth!
As Lady Sellingworth called herself bitterly by that name tears at last came into her luminous eyes. Secretly she wept over herself, although the tears did not fall down upon her cheeks. She had done many foolish things, many wild things, many almost crazy things in her life. But that day she had surely been punished for them all. When she thought of the thieves" plot against her, of the working out of it, she saw herself lying, like a naked thing, in the dust. Such men! How had they known her character? Somehow they must have got to know it, and devised their plan to appeal to it. They had woven just the right net to catch her in its folds. She seemed to hear their hideous discussions about her. The long look in Bond Street had been the first move in the horrible game. And she in her folly had connected the game with romance, with something like love even.
Love! A life such as hers had been was the prost.i.tution of love, and now she deserved to be loveless for the rest of her life. Vanity and sensuality had been her subst.i.tutes for love. She had dealt in travesty and had pretended, even to herself, that she was following reality. It was amazing how she had managed to deceive herself.
She would never do that again.
Very late that night, alone in her bedroom, she sat before a mirror and looked into it, saying good-bye to the self which she had cherished and fostered so long, had lived for recklessly sometimes, ruthlessly almost always. She saw a worn, but still very handsome woman. But she told herself that the woman was hideous. For really she was looking at the woman underneath, the woman who was going to emerge very soon into the daylight with a frankly lined face crowned with grey or perhaps even white hair, at the woman who was the truth, at _herself_. This woman before her was only a counterfeit, a marvellously clever artificiality.
There were two electric lights at the sides of the mirror. She turned them both on. She wanted crude light just then. Cruelty she was taking to her bosom. She was grasping her nettle with both hands.
Yes, the artificiality was marvellously clever! The Greek had been worth his money. He had created a sort of human orchid whose petals showed few, wonderfully few, signs of withering.
But she had wanted to be not the orchid but really the rose. And so she was down in the dust.
Poor old Adela Sellingworth, who in a very short time--how long exactly would the Greek"s work take to crumble--would look even older than fifty!
She turned out the lights presently and got into bed. When she had made the big bedroom dark, and had stretched her long body out between the sheets of Irish linen, she felt terrifically tired, tired in body and spirit, but somehow not in mind. Her mind was almost horribly alive and full of agility. It brought visions before her; it brought voices into her ears.
She saw men of the underworld sitting together in shadows and whispering about her, using coa.r.s.e words, undressing her character, commenting upon it without mercy, planning how they would make use of it to their advantage. She heard them laughing about her and about all the women like her.
And presently she saw an old woman with a white face, a withered throat and vague eyes, an old woman in a black wig, smiling as she decked herself out in the Sellingworth jewels.