Helen replied, "Good-morning, Mr. Wilc.o.x."
"Henry, she has had such a nice letter from the queer, cross boy. Do you remember him? He had a sad moustache, but the back of his head was young."
"I have had a letter too. Not a nice one--I want to talk it over with you"; for Leonard Bast was nothing to him now that she had given him her word; the triangle of s.e.x was broken for ever.
"Thanks to your hint, he"s clearing out of the Porphyrion."
"Not a bad business that Porphyrion," he said absently, as he took his own letter out of his pocket.
"Not a BAD--" she exclaimed, dropping his hand. "Surely, on Chelsea Embankment--"
"Here"s our hostess. Good-morning, Mrs. Munt. Fine rhododendrons.
Good-morning, Frau Liesecke; we manage to grow flowers in England, don"t we?"
"Not a BAD business?"
"No. My letter"s about Howards End. Bryce has been ordered abroad, and wants to sublet it--I am far from sure that I shall give him permission.
There was no clause in the agreement. In my opinion, subletting is a mistake. If he can find me another tenant, whom I consider suitable, I may cancel the agreement. Morning, Schlegel. Don"t you think that"s better than subletting?"
Helen had dropped her hand now, and he had steered her past the whole party to the seaward side of the house. Beneath them was the bourgeois little bay, which must have yearned all through the centuries for just such a watering-place as Swanage to be built on its margin.
The waves were colourless, and the Bournemouth steamer gave a further touch of insipidity, drawn up against the pier and hooting wildly for excursionists.
"When there is a sublet I find that damage--"
"Do excuse me, but about the Porphyrion. I don"t feel easy--might I just bother you, Henry?"
Her manner was so serious that he stopped, and asked her a little sharply what she wanted.
"You said on Chelsea Embankment, surely, that it was a bad concern, so we advised this clerk to clear out. He writes this morning that he"s taken our advice, and now you say it"s not a bad concern."
"A clerk who clears out of any concern, good or bad, without securing a berth somewhere else first, is a fool, and I"ve no pity for him."
"He has not done that. He"s going into a bank in Camden Town, he says.
The salary"s much lower, but he hopes to manage--a branch of Dempster"s Bank. Is that all right?"
"Dempster! Why goodness me, yes."
"More right than the Porphyrion?"
"Yes, yes, yes; safe as houses--safer."
"Very many thanks. I"m sorry--if you sublet--?"
"If he sublets, I shan"t have the same control. In theory there should be no more damage done at Howards End; in practice there will be. Things may be done for which no money can compensate. For instance, I shouldn"t want that fine wych-elm spoilt. It hangs--Margaret, we must go and see the old place some time. It"s pretty in its way. We"ll motor down and have lunch with Charles."
"I should enjoy that," said Margaret bravely.
"What about next Wednesday?"
"Wednesday? No, I couldn"t well do that. Aunt Juley expects us to stop here another week at least."
"But you can give that up now."
"Er--no," said Margaret, after a moment"s thought.
"Oh, that"ll be all right. I"ll speak to her."
"This visit is a high solemnity. My aunt counts on it year after year. She turns the house upside down for us; she invites our special friends--she scarcely knows Frieda, and we can"t leave her on her hands.
I missed one day, and she would be so hurt if I didn"t stay the full ten."
"But I"ll say a word to her. Don"t you bother."
"Henry, I won"t go. Don"t bully me."
"You want to see the house, though?"
"Very much--I"ve heard so much about it, one way or the other. Aren"t there pigs" teeth in the wych-elm?"
"PIGS TEETH?"
"And you chew the bark for toothache."
"What a rum notion! Of course not!"
"Perhaps I have confused it with some other tree. There are still a great number of sacred trees in England, it seems."
But he left her to intercept Mrs. Munt, whose voice could be heard in the distance; to be intercepted himself by Helen.
"Oh. Mr. Wilc.o.x, about the Porphyrion--" she began and went scarlet all over her face.
"It"s all right," called Margaret, catching them up. "Dempster"s Bank"s better."
"But I think you told us the Porphyrion was bad, and would smash before Christmas."
"Did I? It was still outside the Tariff Ring, and had to take rotten policies. Lately it came in--safe as houses now."
"In other words, Mr. Bast need never have left it."
"No, the fellow needn"t."
"--and needn"t have started life elsewhere at a greatly reduced salary."
"He only says "reduced,"" corrected Margaret, seeing trouble ahead.
"With a man so poor, every reduction must be great. I consider it a deplorable misfortune."
Mr. Wilc.o.x, intent on his business with Mrs. Munt, was going steadily on, but the last remark made him say: "What? What"s that? Do you mean that I"m responsible?"