"I should have thought you "d have preferred postage stamps," she said, gazing out of the window at a kiln that was blackening all the sky.
If he could have invented something clever and cutting in response to this sally he might have made the mistake of quitting his role of hard, unsentimental man of business. But he could think of nothing. So he proceeded sternly:
"Mr. Herbert Calvert has put all his property into my hands, and he has given me strict instructions that no rent is to be allowed to remain in arrear."
No answer from Ruth. Mr. Calvert was a little fellow of fifty who had made money in the mysterious calling of a "commission agent." By reputation he was, really, very much harder than Denry could even pretend to be; and indeed Denry had been considerably startled by the advent of such a client. Surely if any man in Bursley were capable of unmercifully collecting rents on his own account, Herbert Calvert must be that man!
"Let me see," said Denry further, pulling a book from his pocket and peering into it, "you owe five quarters" rent, 30."
He knew without the book precisely what Ruth owed, but the book kept him in countenance, supplied him with needed moral support.
Ruth Earp, without the least warning, exploded into a long peal of gay laughter. Her laugh was far prettier than her face. She laughed well.
She might, with advantage to Bursley, have given lessons in laughing as well as in dancing; for Bursley laughs without grace. Her laughter was a proof that she had not a care in the world, and that the world for her was naught but a source of light amus.e.m.e.nt.
Denry smiled guardedly.
"Of course with me it"s purely a matter of business," said he.
"So that"s what Mr. Herbert Calvert has done!" she exclaimed, amid the embers of her mirth. "I wondered what he would do! I presume you know all about Mr. Herbert Calvert," she added.
"No," said Denry. "I don"t know anything about him, except that he owns some property and I "m in charge of it. Stay," he corrected himself, "I think I do remember crossing his name off your programme once."
And he said to himself: "That"s one for her. If she likes to be so desperately funny about postage stamps, I don"t see why I should n"t have my turn." The recollection that it was precisely Herbert Calvert whom he had supplanted in the supper-dance at the Countess of Ch.e.l.l"s historic ball, somehow increased his confidence in his ability to manage the interview with brilliance.
Ruth"s voice grew severe and chilly. It seemed incredible that she had just been laughing.
"I will tell you about Mr. Herbert Calvert." She enunciated her words with slow, stern clearness. "Mr. Herbert Calvert took advantage of his visits here for his rent, to pay his attentions to me. At one time he was so far-well-gone, that he would scarcely take his rent."
"Really!" murmured Denry, genuinely staggered by this symptom of the distance to which Mr. Herbert Calvert was once "gone."
"Yes," said Ruth, still sternly and inimically. "Naturally a woman can"t make up her mind about these things all of a sudden," she continued.
"Naturally!" she repeated.
"Of course," Denry agreed, perceiving that his experience of life and deep knowledge of human nature were being appealed to.
"And when I did decide definitely, Mr. Herbert Calvert did not behave like a gentleman. He forgot what was due to himself and to me. I won"t describe to you the scene he made. I "m simply telling you this so that you may know. To cut a long story short, he behaved in a very vulgar way. And a woman does n"t forget these things, Mr. Machin." Her eyes threatened him. "I decided to punish Mr. Herbert Calvert. I thought if he would n"t take his rent before-well, let him wait for it now! I might have given him notice to leave. But I did n"t. I did n"t see why I should let myself be upset because Mr. Herbert Calvert had forgotten that he was a gentleman. I said, Let him wait for his rent, and I promised myself I would just see what he would dare to do."
"I don"t quite follow your argument," Denry put in.
"Perhaps you don"t," she silenced him. "I did n"t expect you would.
You and Mr. Herbert Calvert! ... So he didn"t dare to do anything himself, and he is paying you to do his dirty work for him! Very well!
Very well!..." She lifted her head defiantly. "What will happen if I don"t pay the rent?"
"I shall have to let things take their course," said Denry with a genial smile.
"All right, then," Ruth Earp responded. "If you choose to mix yourself up with people like Mr. Herbert Calvert, you must take the consequences!
It"s all the same to me, after all."
"Then it is n"t convenient for you to pay anything on account?" said Denry, more and more affable.
"Convenient!" she cried. "It"s perfectly convenient, only I don"t care to. I won"t pay a penny until I am forced. Let Mr. Herbert Calvert do his worst, and then I "ll pay. And not before! And the whole town shall hear all about Mr. Herbert Calvert!"
"I see!" he laughed easily.
"Convenient!" she reiterated, contemptuously. "I think everybody in Bursley knows how my clientele gets larger and larger every year! ...
Convenient!"
"So that"s final, Miss Earp?"
"Perfectly," said Miss Earp.
He rose. "Then the simplest thing will be for me to send round a bailiff to-morrow morning, early." He might have been saying: "The simplest thing will be for me to send round a bunch of orchids."
Another man would have felt emotion, and probably expressed it. But not Denry, the rent-collector and manager of estates large and small. There were several different men in Denry, but he had the great gift of not mixing up two different Denrys when he found himself in a complicated situation.
Ruth Earp rose also. She dropped her eyelids and looked at him from under them. And then she gradually smiled.
"I thought I "d just see what you "d do," she said in a low confidential voice from which all trace of hostility had suddenly departed. "You "re a strange creature," she went on, curiously, as though fascinated by the problems presented by his individuality. "Of course I shan"t let it go as far as that. I only thought I "d see what you "d say. I "ll write you to-night."
"With a cheque?" Denry demanded, with suave, jolly courtesy. "I don"t collect postage stamps."
(And to himself: "She"s got her postage stamps back.")
She hesitated. "Stay!" she said. "I "ll tell you what will be better.
Can you call to-morrow afternoon? The bank will be closed now."
"Yes," he said, "I can call. What time?"
"Oh," she answered, "any time. If you come in about four, I "ll give you a cup of tea into the bargain. Though you don"t deserve it!" After an instant, she added rea.s.suringly: "Of course I know business is business with you. But I "m glad I "ve told you the real truth about your precious Mr. Herbert Calvert, all the same."
And as he walked slowly home Denry pondered upon the singular, erratic, incalculable strangeness of woman, and of the possibly magic effect of his own personality on women.
II
It was the next afternoon in July. Denry wore his new summer suit, but with a necktie of higher rank than the previous days. As for Ruth, that plain but piquant girl was in one of her more elaborate and foamier costumes. The wonder was that such a costume could survive even for an hour the s.m.u.ts that lend continual interest and excitement to the atmosphere of Bursley. It was a white muslin, spotted with spots of opaque white, and founded on something pink. Denry imagined that he had seen parts of it before-at the ball; and he had; but it was now a tea-gown, with long languishing sleeves; the waves of it broke at her shoulders sending lacy surf high up the precipices of Ruth"s neck.
Denry did not know it was a tea-gown. But he knew that it had a most peculiar and agreeable effect on himself and that she had promised him tea. He was glad that he had paid her the homage of his best necktie.
Although the month was July, Ruth wore a kind of shawl over the tea-gown. It was not a shawl, Denry noted, it was merely about two yards of very thin muslin. He puzzled himself as to its purpose. It could not be for warmth, for it would not have helped to melt an icicle.
Could it be meant to fulfil the same function as muslin in a confectioner"s shop? She was pale. Her voice was weak, had an imploring quality.
She led him, not into the inhospitable wooden academy, but into a very small room which like herself was dressed in muslin and bows of ribbon.
Photographs of amiable men and women decorated the pinkish-green walls.
The mantelpiece was concealed in drapery as though it had been a sin. A writing-desk as green as a leaf stood carelessly in one corner; on the desk a vase containing some Cape gooseberries. In the middle of the room a small table; on the table a spirit-lamp in full blast, and on the lamp a kettle practising scales; a tray occupied the remainder of the table. There were two easy chairs; Ruth sank delicately into one, and Denry took the other with precautions.
He was nervous. Nothing equals muslin for imparting nervousness in the nave. But he felt pleased.