To her, and her only, he showed his real self.
"He has a strange complex nature," she said once to her husband. "He is very reserved, there are some things of which he never speaks. He has not once mentioned his son. I should not have known he had one, only I saw the name of Alwyn Gaythorne in a book. "I thought your first name was John?" I said rather heedlessly.
""So it is, John Alwyn," he returned; "that book belonged to my son,"
but his voice was so constrained that I did not venture to say more.
Depend upon it there is a mystery there, Marcus."
""Perhaps Alwyn the younger is a Nihilist," returned Marcus, in a teasing voice. "Probably he is at Portland at the present moment, undergoing his sentence. No wonder poor Mr. Gaythorne is such a recluse;" but Olivia refused to be entertained by this badinage.
"I am quite in earnest," she returned, with a grave air. "So you need not trouble yourself to be ridiculous, Marcus. Why should he talk so much of his daughter and never mention his only son?"
"According to you he is almost as silent on the subject of his wife."
"Oh, that is different," she answered, hastily. "He once said to me that he could never bear even to hear her name mentioned, that it upset him so. "I was a happy man as long as she lived," he said, so sadly, "but it was all up with me when I lost her. She was a peacemaker, she always kept things smooth; her name was Olivia too.""
"Poor old boy," was Marcus"s irrelevant remark at this.
"Yes, he is a strange mixture," went on Olivia, thoughtfully. "He has an affectionate nature, but he is hard too; he could be terribly hard, I am sure of that. And then see how good he is to those poor Traverses and to Aunt Madge. Could anyone be more generous. And yet he is not liberal by nature. That very day that he sent Mrs. Crampton to the Models with all those good things--jellies and beef-tea and chicken and actually two bottles of port wine--he was as angry as possible with Phoebe, because she had broken his medicine gla.s.s. Mrs. Crampton had orders to deduct the price of the gla.s.s from her wages. "I always do that," he said to me, "it teaches them to be careful," but poor Phoebe cried about it afterwards.
""I call it real mean of master," Phoebe had said; "it is the first thing that ever I broke in this house, and it was all through Eros getting between my feet. It is not the few pence I mind, for we have good wages paid down on the day, but I call it shabby of master to be down on a poor servant-girl like that."
"His servants don"t seem to love him," went on Olivia. "They serve him well, because it is their interest to do so, but even Mrs. Crampton, who has been with him twenty years, does not dare to contradict him."
"Anyhow, he is liberal to us," returned Marcus, patting his waistcoat pocket, for he had that morning received his first cheque.
Marcus"s first act had been to go to the coal merchant and order in a ton of excellent coal, then he had gone home and told his wife in a peremptory tone to put on her hat and jacket.
"I am going to take you to Harvey and Phelps to get a new dress and jacket," he said, severely. "I am not going to put up with that rusty old serge any longer," and Olivia had remonstrated in vain against such extravagance.
It was all very well to blow bubbles and furnish Kempton Lodge from garret to bas.e.m.e.nt, but when it came to spending Marcus"s first cheque----!
"Marcus, dear," she said, imploringly, "my old dress is quite tidy. I put new braid round it yesterday, and I would so much rather you got a new great-coat. Even Aunt Madge noticed that your present one was dreadfully shabby."
"Of course I shall get a new coat too," returned Dr. Luttrell, coolly.
Then at the thought of this lavishness Olivia was stricken dumb.
Marcus made his purchases with great discretion; the grey tweed and warm jacket to match suited Olivia"s tall supple figure perfectly--he had a momentary debate with himself before he ventured on a modest black straw hat with velvet tr.i.m.m.i.n.gs, but in the end the order was given.
"Oh, Marcus, how could you!" exclaimed Olivia, who was at fever point by this time.
"Hold your tongue, Livy!" returned Marcus, good-humouredly. "I mean my wife to be well-dressed for once in her life. Now I must go to the tailor"s for that great-coat. There won"t be much of Mr. Gaythorne"s cheque left by the time I get home. We shall want the balance for Christmas groceries."
Olivia groaned in spirit over Marcus"s recklessness, but she could not bear to damp his enjoyment. She unburdened her mind to Mrs. Broderick the next day.
"Don"t you think it would have been wiser to have put it by for a rainy day?" she said, anxiously. But Aunt Madge did not seem quite to share this opinion.
"My dear," she said, shrewdly, "I think Marcus knows what he is about; it would never do for him to go to those good houses in a shabby greatcoat. A little outlay is sometimes a good investment."
"Oh, yes, but I was thinking of the dress and jacket and that hat, Aunt Madge----"
"Ah, well, we must forgive Marcus that extravagance! It hurt his pride to see you calling at Galvaston House in that old serge dress. He is not really improvident, Livy. You have enough in hand for present necessities, and there will be something coming in next month."
"Oh, dear, yes; and do you know, Aunt Madge, they have sent for Marcus to attend the lodger at number seventeen. He is a music-teacher and very respectable, and can afford to pay his doctor, so that is swallow number three."
"Then I am sure you can wear your new dress with an easy conscience,"
and then Olivia"s last scruples vanished.
Olivia looked so distinguished in her grey tweed that Marcus made her blush by telling her that she had never looked so handsome.
Mr. Gaythorne gave her an odd penetrating glance when she entered the library.
"I hardly knew you, Mrs. Luttrell," he said, dryly, and then his manner changed and softened. "That was her favourite colour," he said.
"Olive was always a grey bird; she liked soft, subdued tints; she was a bit of a Puritan. I often told her so."
"I am glad you like my new dress," returned Olivia, simply. "My husband chose it for me, he has such good taste."
"You need not tell me that, Mrs. Luttrell." And again Olivia blushed like a girl at the implied compliment.
Mr. Gaythorne was looking over a portfolio of water-colour paintings.
Olivia had not yet seen them, and she was full of outspoken admiration, as Mr. Gaythorne placed one after another before her.
"They are all the work of a young artist who died at Rome," he said.
"I bought them of his widow. They are very well done; he had great promise, poor fellow. If he had lived, he would have done good work.
These were merely pot-boilers, as he called them--little things he painted on the spur of the moment."
"To me they are perfectly beautiful," returned Olivia. "Those two are so lovely that I could not choose between them. Please let me look at them a little longer, Mr. Gaythorne, I want to tell Aunt Madge about them." And Olivia, who was always charmingly natural in her movements, propped her chin on her hands, and looked long and earnestly at the pictures.
Their beauty lay in the soft rich colouring and a certain suggestiveness in the subject.
One was a little grey church on a hill-side; the church was ruinous and out of repair, the churchyard full of weeds and thistles; a storm had just broken, and an old shepherd in a ragged smock had taken refuge in the porch, his rough-looking dog at his feet. The bowed figure and knotted hands, and the peaceful look in the wrinkled face were wonderfully striking, the patient eyes turned upwards were gazing at the rainbow. ""Tis a love token, I reckon," were the words written underneath the sketch.
Olivia could almost hear them through the parted lips; ruins and thistles and weeds and a broken storm, and beyond them the message of peace, written on the bright tints of the rainbow, for one simple heart to read.
"Aunt Madge would understand that," she said to herself; "she would like that picture best, but this is just as beautiful to my mind."
The second sketch was equally suggestive; it was a cornfield with poppies growing in it; under the hedge in the cool shade lay a brown baby asleep. A dish tied up in a blue handkerchief and a stone bottle lay beside the infant; an old terrier kept watch over them both.
"Keeping watch and ward" was the t.i.tle of this picture; it was certainly very well painted. A breeze seemed rippling through the corn in the nook where the child lay; there were festoons of honeysuckle and dog-roses, and long sprays of traveller"s joy. The stumpy grey terrier sitting erect at his post of duty was full of significance and individuality. The mother was evidently among the reapers in the far distance.
"One would never be tired of looking at that cornfield," observed Olivia, and though Mr. Gaythorne smiled at her enthusiasm, he would not spoil her enjoyment by pointing out to her one or two defects that he had already noticed.
By-and-by he called her to pour out the coffee--Mr. Gaythorne never indulged in afternoon tea.
"This is not much like Christmas weather," he said, looking out at the cold mizzling rain; "the forecasts promise a change, however. I suppose I must not ask if you dislike Christmas, it would not be a fair question at your age."
"No, indeed; I love it dearly. I have only had one sad Christmas--the year dear mother died--it is my birthday too, that makes it doubly festive. I am so glad I was born on such a beautiful day; that is why my second name is Noel."
"And you hold high festival on it?"