A silver-framed photograph stood on her dressing-table, and she picked it up, wondering who it might be. The hair and gown were old-fashioned, and the face seemed old-fashioned also, but, in a moment, she had recognised her mother.
[Sidenote: The Newcomer in Green]
Tenderness for the dead and the living filled her heart. How dear it was of Madame to have placed it there--this little young mother, just budding into womanhood! It had been taken long before she had known of Edith, or had more than dreamed of love.
The arrival of the trunk compelled her to brush away a few foolish tears. She did not stop to unpack, but only took out the dinner gown that lay on top.
Promptly at half-past seven, she went down into the living-room, where Alden and his mother were waiting to receive her. Madame smiled with pure delight at the vision that greeted her, but the young man forgot his manners and stared--stared like the veriest schoolboy at the tall, stately figure, clad in shimmering pale green satin that rippled about her feet as she walked, brought out a bit of colour in her cheeks and lips, deepened the brown of her eyes, and, like the stalk and leaves of a tiger-lily, faded into utter insignificance before the burnished ma.s.ses of her red-gold hair.
VIII
"Whom G.o.d Hath Joined"
[Sidenote: A Fortunate Woman]
Breakfast had been cleared away and Alden, with evident regret, had gone to school. Madame gave her orders for the day, attended to a bit of dusting which she would trust no one else to do, gathered up the weekly mending and came into the living-room, where the guest sat, idly, robed in a gorgeous negligee of sea-green crepe which was fully as becoming as her dinner-gown had been the night before.
Madame had observed that Mrs. Lee was one of the rarely fortunate women who look as well in the morning as in the evening. Last night, in the glow of the pink-shaded candles, she had been beautiful, and this morning she was no less lovely, though she sat in direct sunlight that made a halo of her hair.
The thick, creamy skin, a direct legacy from Louise Lane, needed neither powder nor rouge, and the scarlet lips asked for no touch of carmine.
But the big brown eyes were wistful beyond words, the dark hollows beneath spoke of sleepless nights, and the corners of the sweet mouth drooped continually, in spite of valiant efforts to smile.
[Sidenote: Why She Came]
"I think I should have known you anywhere," Madame began. "You look so much like your mother."
"Thank you. It was dear of you to put her picture on my dressing-table.
It seemed like a welcome from her."
Madame asked a few questions about her old schoolmate, receiving monosyllabic answers, then waited. The silence was not awkward, but of that intimate sort which, with women, precedes confidences.
"I suppose you wonder why I came," the younger woman said, after a long pause.
"No," Madame replied, gently, "for you told me in your note that you were troubled and thought I could help you."
"I don"t know why I should have thought of you especially, though I have never forgotten what mother told me about coming to you, if I were in trouble, but two or three days ago, it came to me all at once that I was wandering in a maze of darkness and that you could show me the way out."
"I hope I may," the old lady murmured. "I shall be very glad to, if I can. What has gone wrong?"
"Everything," she returned, her brown eyes filling with mist. "Of course it"s my husband. It always is, isn"t it?"
[Sidenote: Running Away]
"I don"t know why it should be. Is he cruel to you?"
"No, that is, he doesn"t beat me or anything of that sort. He isn"t coa.r.s.e. But there"s a refined sort of cruelty that hurts worse. I--I couldn"t bear it any longer, and so I came away."
"Was he willing for you to come?"
"I didn"t ask him. I just came."
Madame"s gla.s.ses dropped from her aristocratic nose in astonishment.
"Why, my dear Mrs. Lee! How could you!"
"Edith, please, if you will," she answered, wiping her eyes. Then she laughed bitterly. "Don"t be kind to me, for I"m not used to it and it weakens my armour of self-defence. Tell me I"m horrid and have done with it."
"Poor child," breathed Madame. "Poor, dear child!"
For a few moments the young woman bit her lips, keeping back the tears by evident effort. Then, having gained her self-control, she went on.
"I"m twenty-eight, now," she said. "I remember mother used to say she always had her suspicions of a woman who was willing to tell the truth about her age."
"Sounds just like her," commented Madame, taking up a dainty lavender silk stocking that had "run down" from the hem.
"I"ve been married six years, but it seems like twenty. Almost from the first, there has been friction between us, but n.o.body knows it, except you--unless he"s told his friends, and I don"t think he"d do that. We"ve both had a preference for doing the family laundry work on the premises."
[Sidenote: Marital Troubles]
"What?" queried Madame, missing the allusion.
"Not washing our soiled linen in public," Edith explained. "While I live with my husband as his wife, we stand together before the world as far as it is in my power to manage it. I do not intentionally criticise him to anyone, nor permit anyone to criticise him. I endeavour to look ahead, protect him against his own weakness or folly, and, as far as a woman"s tact and thought may do, shield him from the consequences of his own mistakes. I lie for him whenever necessary or even advisable. I have tried to be, for six years, shelter, strength, comfort, courage. And,"
she concluded bitterly, "I"ve failed."
"How so?"
"We live in the same house, but alien and apart. We talk at the table as two strangers might in a crowded restaurant or hotel, that is, when he"s there. I dare not ask people to dinner, for I never know whether he"s coming or not. He might promise faithfully to come, and then appear at midnight, without apology or excuse."
[Sidenote: All Sorts of Subterfuges]
"He supports you," suggested Madame, glancing at the sea-green crepe.
"Yes, of course. That is, the question of money hasn"t arisen between us, one way or another. I have no children, father and mother left me plenty of money, and I don"t mind using it in any way that seems advisable. In fact, if I had to, I"d rather pay the household bills than beg for money, as many a wife is compelled to do--or, for that matter, even ask for it. It isn"t as if I had to earn it myself, you know. If I had to, I"d probably feel differently about it, but, as it is, money doesn"t matter between us at all.
"Friends of mine," she resumed, "have to resort to all sorts of subterfuges. I know women who bribe the tradespeople to make their bills larger than they should be and give them the difference in cash. I know men who seem to think they do their wives a favour by paying for the food they themselves eat, and by paying their own laundry bills. Then, every once in a while, I see in some magazine an article written by a man who wonders why women prefer to work in shops and factories, rather than to marry. It must be better to get a pay-envelope every Sat.u.r.day night without question or comment, than it is to humiliate your immortal soul to the dust it arose from, begging a man for money to pay for the dinner he ate last night, or for the price of a new veil to cover up your last year"s hat."
[Sidenote: Defiance]
"All this," said Madame, threading her needle again, "is new to me. I live so out of the world, that I know very little of what is going on outside."
"Happy woman! Perhaps I should be happy, also, since this particular phase of the problem doesn"t concern me. Money may not be your best friend, but it"s the quickest to act, and seems to be favourably recognised in more places than most friends are. For the size of it, a check book is about the greatest convenience I know of."
The brown eyes were cold now, and their soft lights had become a glitter. The scarlet mouth was no longer sweet and womanly, but set into a hard, tight line. Colour burned in her cheeks--not a delicate flush, but the crimson of defiance, of daring. She was, as she sat there, a living challenge to Fate.
"Is he happy?" queried Madame.