She looked at him, surprised. What odd--and yes, rather improper things--Sir Jacques sometimes said! But--but he was a _very_ kind man.
Mrs. Otway was a simple woman, though she would have felt a good deal nettled had anyone told her so.
"I rather wonder," she said impulsively, "why _you_ never married. You seem to approve of marriage, Sir Jacques?" She was looking into his face with an eager, kindly look.
"If you look at me long enough," he said slowly, "I think you"ll be able to answer that question for yourself. The women I wanted--there were three of them----" and then, as he saw that she again looked slightly shocked, he added, "Not altogether, but consecutively, you understand--well, not one of them would have me! The women who might have put up with me--well, I didn"t seem to want them! But I should like to say one thing to you, Mrs. Otway. This particular affair in which you and I are interested does seem to me, if you"ll allow me to say so, "a marriage of true minds----"" He stopped abruptly, and to her great surprise left the room without finishing his sentence.
Such trifling, and at the time such seemingly unimportant, little happenings are often those which long afterwards leap out from the past, bringing with them poignant memories of joy, of sorrow, of pain, and of happiness.
Rose Blake will always remember that it was her poor old German nurse, Anna Bauer, who, on her wedding day, made her wear a white dress and a veil. She had meant to be married, in so far as she had given any thought to the matter at all, in her ordinary blue serge skirt and a clean blouse.
Those about her might be able to forget, for a few merciful hours, what lay before Jervis; but she, Rose Otway, could not forget it. She knew that she was marrying him now, not in order that she might be even closer to him than she felt herself to be--that seemed to her impossible--but in order that others might think so. She would have preferred the ceremony to take place only in the presence of his parents and of her mother. But as to that she had been given no say; Sir Jacques and Mr. and Mrs. Robey had announced as a matter of course that they would be present, and so she had a.s.sented to her mother"s suggestion that Miss Forsyth should be asked. If Mr. and Mrs. Robey and Sir Jacques were to be there, then she did not mind Miss Forsyth, her kind old friend, being there too.
Anna had protested with tearful vehemence against the blue serge skirt and the pretty blouse--nay, more, she had already taken the white gown she intended that her beloved nursling should wear, out of the bag which she, Anna, had made for it last year. It was a very charming frock, a fine exquisitely embroidered India muslin, the only really beautiful day-dress Rose had ever had in her young life. And oddly enough it had been a present from Miss Forsyth.
Miss Forsyth--it was nearly eighteen months ago--had invited Rose to come up to London with her for a day"s shopping, and then she had suddenly presented her young friend with this attractive, and yes, expensive gown. There had been a blue sash, but this had now been taken off by Anna, and a bluey-white satin band subst.i.tuted. As to that Rose now rebelled. "If I _am_ to wear this dress to-day, I should like the blue sash put back," she said quickly. "Blue is supposed to bring luck to brides, Anna."
What had really turned the scale in Rose"s mind had been Anna"s tears, and the fact that Miss Forsyth would be pleased to see her married in that gown.
But over the lace veil there had been something like a tug of war. And this time it was Mrs. Otway who had won the day. "If you wear that muslin dress, then I cannot see why you should not wear your grandmother"s wedding veil," she had exclaimed--and again Rose had given in.
Poor old Anna! It was a day of days for her--far more a day of days than had been the marriage of her own daughter. Yet Louisa Bauer"s wedding had been a great festival. And the old woman remembered what pains Mrs.
Otway had taken to make that marriage of five years ago, as far as was possible in such a very English place as Witanbury, a German bridal. In those days they had none of them guessed what an unsatisfactory fellow George Pollit was going to turn out; and Louisa had gone to her new home with quite a German trousseau--that is, with what would have appeared to English eyes stacks of under-clothing, each article beautifully embroidered with a monogram and lavishly trimmed with fine crochet; each set tied up with a washing band or _Waschebander_, a strip of canvas elaborately embroidered in cross-st.i.tch.
It seemed strangely sad and unnatural that Anna"s gracious young lady should have no trousseau at all! But that doubtless would come afterwards, and she, Anna, felt sure that she would be allowed to have a hand in choosing it. This thought was full of consolation, as was also her secret supposition that the future trousseau would be paid for by the bridegroom.
There was certainly cause for satisfaction in that thought, for Anna had become conscious of late that her dear mistress felt anxious about money. Prices were going up, but thanks to her, Anna"s, zealous care, the housekeeping bills at the Trellis House were still kept wonderfully low. It was unfortunate that Mrs. Otway, being the kind of gracious lady she was, scarcely gave Anna sufficient credit for this. It was not that she was ungrateful, it was simply that she did not think anything about it--she only remembered that she was short of money when the household books were there, open in front of her.
CHAPTER XXV
And now the small group of men and women who were to be present at the marriage of Rose Otway and Jervis Blake were gathered together in Mrs.
Robey"s large drawing-room. Seven people in all, for the Dean had not yet arrived.
In addition to the master and mistress of the hospitable house in which they now all found themselves, there were there Sir John and Lady Blake; Miss Forsyth--who, alone of the company, had dressed herself with a certain old-fashioned magnificence; Sir Jacques, who had just come into the room after taking Rose and her mother up to Jervis"s room; and lastly good old Anna Bauer, who sat a little apart by herself, staring with a strange, rather wild look at the group of people standing before her.
To Anna"s excited mind, they did not look like a wedding party; they looked, with the exception of Miss Forsyth, who wore a light grey silk dress trimmed with white lace, like people waiting to start for a funeral.
No one spoke, with the exception of Lady Blake, who occasionally addressed a nervous question, in an undertone, to Mrs. Robey.
At last there came the sound of the front door opening and shutting. Mr.
Robey went out, rather hurriedly, and his wife exclaimed, "I think that must be the Dean. My husband is taking him upstairs----" And then she waited a moment, and glanced anxiously at her brother-in-law, Sir Jacques. It was strange how even she, who had never particularly liked Sir Jacques, looked to him for guidance to-day.
In answer to that look he moved forward a little, and made a queer little sound, as if clearing his throat. Then, very deliberately, he addressed the people before him.
"Before we go upstairs," he began, "I want to say something to you all.
I cannot help noticing that you all look very sad. Now of course I don"t ask you to try and look gay during the coming half-hour, but I do earnestly beg of you to try and feel happy. Above all--" and he looked directly at Lady Blake as he spoke--"above all," he repeated, "I must beg of you very earnestly indeed to allow yourselves no show of emotion.
We not only hope, but we confidently expect, that our young friends are beginning to-day what will be an exceptionally happy, and--and----" he waited for a moment, then apparently found the word he wanted--"an exceptionally harmonious married life. I base that view of what we all believe, not on any exaggerated notion of what life generally brings to the average married couple, but on the knowledge we possess of both these young people"s characters. Nothing can take away from Jervis Blake his splendid past, and we may reasonably believe that he is going to have with this sweet, brave young woman, who loves him so well, a contented future."
Again Sir Jacques paused, and then not less earnestly he continued: "I want Jervis Blake to look back on to-day as on a happy and hallowed day.
If anyone here feels that they will not be able to command themselves, then I beg him or her most strongly to stay away."
He turned and opened the door behind him, and as he did so, his sister-in-law heard him mutter to himself: "Of course at the great majority of weddings if the people present knew what was going to come afterwards, they would do nothing but cry. But this is not that sort of wedding, thank G.o.d!"
Sir Jacques and old Anna came last up the staircase leading to Jervis Blake"s room. He and the old German woman were on very friendly terms.
Before the War Sir Jacques had been in constant correspondence with two eminent German surgeons, and as a young man he had spent a year of study in Vienna. He now addressed a few cheerful, heartening remarks in German to Rose"s old nurse, winding up rather peremptorily with the words: "There must be no tears. There is here only matter for rejoicing." And Anna, in a submissive whisper, had answered, "Ja! Ja!"
And then, as she walked last into the room, Anna uttered a guttural expression of delighted surprise, for it was as if every hothouse flower in Witanbury had been gathered to do honour to the white-clad, veiled figure who now stood, with downcast eyes, by the bridegroom"s bedside.
The flowers were Mr. Robey"s gift. He had gone out quite early that morning and had pressed all those of his acquaintances who had greenhouses, as well as the flower shops in Witanbury, under contribution; and the delicate, bright colouring with which the room was now filled gave a festive, welcoming air to this bridal chamber.
Rose looked up, and as her eyes met the loving, agitated glance of her nurse, she felt a sudden thrill of warm grat.i.tude to good old Anna, for Jervis had whispered, "How lovely you look, darling! Somehow I thought you would wear an everyday dress--but this is much, much nicer!"
Those present followed the order of the marriage service with very varying emotions, and never had the Dean delivered the familiar, awesome words with more feeling and more grace of diction.
But the only two people in that room whose b.r.e.a.s.t.s were stirred to really happy memories were Mr. and Mrs. Robey. They, standing together a little in the background, almost unconsciously clasped each other"s hands.
Across the mind of Sir John Blake there flashed a vivid memory of his own wedding day. The marriage had been celebrated in the cantonment church of an up-country station, where, after a long, wearying engagement, and a good deal of what he had even then called "shilly-shallying," his betrothed had come out from England to marry him. He remembered, in a queer jumble of retrospective grat.i.tude and impatience, how certain of the wives of his brother officers had decorated the little plain church; and the mingled scents of the flowers now ma.s.sed about him recalled that of the orange blossoms and the tuberoses at his own wedding.
But real as that long-vanished scene still was to Jervis"s father, what he now remembered best of all the emotions which had filled his heart as he had stood waiting at the chancel steps for his pretty, nervous bride were the good resolutions he had made--made and so soon broken....
As for Sir Jacques, he had never been to a wedding since he had been last forced to do so as a boy by his determined mother. The refusal of all marriage invitations was an eccentricity which friends and patients easily pardoned to the successful and popular surgeon, and so the present ceremony had the curious interest of complete novelty. He had meant to read over the service to see what part he himself had to play, but the morning had slipped away and he had not had time.
Jervis, in answer to perhaps the most solemn and awful question ever put to man, had just answered fervently "I will," and Rose"s response had also been uttered very clearly, when suddenly someone gave Sir Jacques a little prod, and the Dean, with the words, "Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?" made him a quiet sign.
Sir Jacques came forward, and in answer, said "_I_ do," in a loud tone.
And then he saw the Dean take Jervis"s right hand and place it in Rose"s left, and utter the solemn words with which even he was acquainted.
"I, Jervis, take thee, Rose, to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part, according to G.o.d"s holy ordinance; and thereto I plight thee my troth."
A series of tremendous promises to make and to keep! But for the moment cynicism had fallen away from Sir Jacques"s heart, and somehow he felt sure that, at any rate in this case, those tremendous promises would be kept.
He had been afraid that the Dean would make an address, or at the least would say a few words that would reduce some of the tiny congregation to tears. But Dr. Haworth was too wise for that, and perhaps he knew that nothing he could say could improve on the _Beati omnes_.
And it was then, towards the close of that wedding ceremony, that Sir Jacques suddenly made up his mind what should be the words graven inside what he intended should be his wedding gift to Rose Blake--that gift was a fine old-fashioned ruby ring, the only one of his mother"s jewels he possessed, and the words he then chose in his own mind were those of the Psalmist, "O well is thee, and happy shalt thou be."
CHAPTER XXVI
"DEAR MRS. OTWAY,
"I am so very glad to be able to send you the enclosed. Of course I have not read it. In fact I do not know German. But I gather that it contains news of Major Guthrie, and that it is written with a kindly intention. It was probably intended to arrive for Christmas.