"What have you come to see mamma about?" asked Vera shrilly.
"To find out how to keep little girls in order," answered John, facetiously rebuking curiosity.
"I expect you"ve come about papa," observed Vera, with disconcerting calmness and an obvious contempt for his joke.
"I"m going to start, anyhow," declared poor Suzette. "Come along, dears, do!"
"Well, if there"s a great row, Garrett"ll hear some of it and tell us,"
said Sophy, consoling herself and her sisters as they reluctantly walked away from the centre of interest.
John Fanshaw"s happiness was with him still--the happiness which Caylesham"s cheque had brought. It was not banked yet, but it would be to-morrow; and in the last two days John had taken steps to rea.s.sure everybody, to tell everybody that they would be paid without question or difficulty, to scatter the cloud of gossip and suspicion which had gathered round his credit in the City. It was now quite understood that John"s firm had weathered any trouble which had threatened it, and could be trusted and fully relied on again. Hence John"s happy mind, and, a result of the happy mind, a sanguine and eager wish to effect some good, to bring about some sort of reconciliation and a _modus vivendi_ in the Courtland family. His hopes were not visionary or unreasonable: he did not expect to establish romantic bliss there; a _modus vivendi_ commended itself to him as the best way of expressing what he was going to suggest to Lady Harriet. In this flush of happy and benevolent feeling he was really glad that he had consented to undertake the emba.s.sy.
Lady Harriet liked John Fanshaw. She called him John and, though he did not quite venture to reciprocate the familiarity, he felt that it gave him a position in dealing with her. Also he thought her a very handsome woman; and since she was aware of this, there was another desirable element in their acquaintance. And he thought that he knew how to manage women--he was sure he would not have made such a bad job of it as poor Tom had. So he went in without any fear, and found justification in the cordiality of his welcome. Indeed the welcome was too cordial, inasmuch as it was based on an erroneous notion.
"You"re the very man of all men I wanted to see! I was thinking of sending for you. Come and sit down, John, and I"ll tell you all about it."
"But I know all about it," he protested, "and I want to have a talk to you."
"n.o.body can know but me; and I believe you"re the best friend I have. I want to tell you everything and take your advice how I"m to act."
Evidently she didn"t suppose that he was in any sense an amba.s.sador from her husband. He was to be her friend. John found it difficult to correct this mistake of hers.
"I"m at the end of my patience," she said solemnly. "I"m sure anybody would be. You know what"s happening as well as I do, and I intend to put an end to it."
"Oh, don"t say that! I--well, I"m here just to prevent you from saying that."
"To prevent me? You know what"s happening? Do you know he"s staying away from home again? What do the servants think? What must the children begin to think? Am I to be exposed to that?"
She looked very handsome and spirited, with just the right amount of colour in her cheeks and an animated sparkle in her eyes.
"Why, I could name the woman!" she exclaimed. "And so could you, I daresay?"
"Don"t make too much of it," he urged. "We"re not children. He doesn"t really care about the woman. It"s only because he"s unhappy."
"And whose fault is it he"s unhappy?"
"And because of that he"s being foolish--wasting all his money too, I"m afraid."
"Oh, I"ve got my settlement. I shall be all right in case of proceedings."
"Now pray don"t think of proceedings, Lady Harriet."
"Not think of them! I"ve made up my mind to them. I wanted to ask you how to set about it."
"But it would ruin his career; it would destroy his public position."
"I can"t help that. He should have thought of that for himself."
"And then think of the girls!"
"Anything would be better than going on like this--yes, better for them too."
John saw that he must face an explanation of his emba.s.sy. He got up and stood on the hearthrug.
"I"m here as the friend of you both," he began.
The colour and the sparkle both grew brighter.
"Oh, are you?" said Lady Harriet.
"It comes to this. Tom"s friends--I and one or two more--have been speaking seriously to him. We"ve got him to say that he"s ready to drop--to drop what you very properly object to--and to make another effort to find a--a _modus vivendi_."
"I"m glad he"s got so much decent feeling! Only it comes rather late. He wants me to forgive him, does he?"
"I don"t think we can put it quite so simply as that." John risked a timid smile. "There must be a give-and-take, Lady Harriet--a give-and-take, you know."
"Well?" She was relapsing into that dangerous stillness of hers. She was very quiet, but her eyes shone very bright. Tom Courtland would have known the signs, so would the girls.
"We"ve got him to say what I"ve told you; but there must be something from your side."
"What am I to do, John?" she asked, with deceptive meekness.
"Well, I think you might--well--er--express some regret that--that things haven"t gone more harmoniously at home. You might hold out an olive branch, you know."
"Express regret?"
"Don"t stand on a point of pride now. Haven"t you sometimes been--well, a little exacting--a little quick-tempered?"
"Oh, you"re in that old story, are you? Quick-tempered? Suppose I am!
Haven"t I enough to make me quick-tempered?"
"Yes, now you have. But what about the beginning?"
"Do you mean it was my fault in the beginning?"
"Don"t you think so yourself? Partly, at all events?"
Lady Harriet took up a tortoisesh.e.l.l paper-knife and played with it. Her eyes were set hard on John, who did not like the expression in them. He became less glad that he had undertaken the emba.s.sy.
"May a man desert and deceive his wife because she"s a little quick-tempered?"
"No, no, of course not; that"s absurd."
"It"s what you"re saying, isn"t it?"
"We must look at it as men and women of the world."
"I look at it as a wife and a mother. Do you mean to say it was my fault in the beginning?"