"Come, Waddington, you know as well as I do that when a man"s knocked about the world like you and me, he gets an instinct; he can tell pretty well by looking at her whether a woman"s that sort or not."
"My dear Corbett, my instinct is at least as good as yours. I"ve known Mrs. Levitt for three years, and I can a.s.sure she"s as straight, as innocent, as your wife or mine."
"Clever--clever and a bit unscrupulous." Again Sir John quoted Major Markham. "A woman like that can get round simple fellows like you and me, Waddington, in no time, if she gives her mind to it. That"s why I won"t have anything to do with her. She may be as straight and innocent as you please; but somehow or other she"s causing a great deal of unpleasant talk, and if I were you I"d drop her. Drop her."
"I shall do nothing of the sort."
"My dear fellow, that"s all very well, but when everybody knows your wife hasn"t called on her--"
"There was no need for f.a.n.n.y to call on her. My relations with Mrs.
Levitt were on a purely business footing--"
"Well, I"d leave them there, and not too much footing either."
"What can I do? Here she is, a war widow with n.o.body but me to look after her interests. She"s got into the way of coming to me, and I"m not going back on the poor woman, Corbett, because of your absurd insinuations."
"Not _my_ insinuations."
"Anybody"s insinuations then. n.o.body has a right to insinuate anything about _me_. As for f.a.n.n.y, she"ll make a point of calling on her now. We were talking about it not long ago."
"A bit hard on Mrs. Waddington to be let in for that."
"You needn"t worry. f.a.n.n.y can afford to do pretty well what she likes."
He had him there. Sir John knew that this was true of f.a.n.n.y Waddington, as it was not true of Lady Corbett. He could remember the time when n.o.body called on his father and mother; and Lady Corbett could not, yet, afford to call on Mrs. Levitt before anybody else did.
"Well," he said, "so long as Mrs. Levitt doesn"t expect my wife to follow suit."
"Mrs. Levitt"s experience can"t have led her to expect much in the way of kindness here."
"Well, don"t be too kind. You don"t know how you may be landed. You don"t know," said Sir John fatally, "what ideas you may have put into the poor woman"s head."
"I should be very sorry," said Mr. Waddington, "if I thought for one moment I had roused any warmer feelings--"
But he wasn"t sorry. He tried hard to make his face express a chivalrous regret, and it wouldn"t. It was positively smiling, so agreeable was the idea conveyed by Sir John. He turned it over and over, drawing out its delicious flavour, while Sir John"s little laughing eyes observed his enjoyment.
"You don"t know," he said, "_what_ you may have roused."
There was something very irritating in his fat chuckle.
"You needn"t disturb yourself. These things will happen. A woman may be carried away by her feelings, but if a man has any tact and any delicacy he can always show her very well--without breaking off all relations.
That would be clumsy."
"Of course, if you want to keep up with her, keep up with her. Only take care you don"t get landed, that"s all."
"You may be quite sure that for the lady"s own sake I shall take care."
They rose; Mr. Waddington stood looking down at Sir John and his little round stomach and his little round eyes with their obscene twinkle. And for the life of him he couldn"t feel the indignation he would like to have felt. As his eyes encountered Sir John"s something secret and primitive in Mr. Waddington responded to that obscene twinkle; something reminiscent and antic.i.p.ating; something mischievous and subtle and delightful, subversive of dignity. It came up in his solemn face and simmered there. Here was Corbett, a thorough-paced man of the world, and he took it for granted that Mrs. Levitt"s feelings had been roused; he acknowledged, handsomely, as male to male, the fascination that had roused them. He, Corbett, knew what he was talking about. He saw the whole possibility of romantic adventure with such flattering cert.i.tude that it was impossible to feel any resentment.
At the same time his interference was a piece of abominable impertinence, and Mr. Waddington resented that. It made him more than ever determined to pursue his relations with Mrs. Levitt, just to show he wasn"t going to be dictated to, while the very fact that Corbett saw him as a figure of romantic adventure intensified the excitement of the pursuit. And though Elise, seen with certainty in the light of Corbett"s intimations, was not quite so enthralling to the fancy as the Elise of his doubt, she made a more positive and formidable appeal to his desire.
He loved his desire because it made him feel young, and, loving it, he thought he loved Elise.
And what Corbett was thinking, Markham and Thurston, and Hawtrey and young Hawtrey, and Grainger, would be thinking too. They would all see him as the still young, romantic adventurer, the inspirer of pa.s.sion.
And Bevan--But no, he didn"t want Bevan to see him like that. Or rather, he did, and yet again he didn"t. He had scruples when it came to Bevan, because of f.a.n.n.y. And because of f.a.n.n.y, while he rioted in visions of the possible, he dreaded more than anything an actual detection, the raking eyes and furtive tongues of the townspeople. If f.a.n.n.y called on Mrs. Levitt it would stop all the talking.
That was how f.a.n.n.y came to know Mrs. Levitt, and how Mrs. Levitt (and Toby) came to be asked to the September garden party at Lower Wyck Manor.
2
Mrs. Levitt, of the White House, Wyck-on-the-Hill, Gloucestershire.
She thought it sounded very well. She had been out, that is to say, she had judged it more becoming to her dignity not to be at home when f.a.n.n.y called; and f.a.n.n.y had been actually out when Mrs. Levitt called, so that they met for the first time at the garden party.
"It"s absurd our not knowing each other," f.a.n.n.y said, "when my husband knows you so well."
"I"ve always felt, Mrs. Waddington, that I ought to know you, if it"s only to tell you how good he"s been to me. But, of course, you know it."
"I know it quite well. He"s always being good to people. He likes it.
You must take off some of the credit for that."
She thought: "She has really very beautiful eyes." A lot of credit would have to be taken off for her eyes, too.
"But isn"t that," said Mrs. Levitt, "what being good _is_? To like being it? Only I suppose that"s just what lays him open--"
She lowered the eyes whose brilliance had blazed a moment ago on f.a.n.n.y; she toyed with her handbag, smiling a little secret, roguish smile.
"That lays him open?"
Mrs. Levitt looked up, smiling. "To the attacks of unscrupulous people like me."
It was risky, but it showed a masterly boldness and presence of mind. It was as if she and f.a.n.n.y Waddington had had their eyes fixed on a live scorpion approaching them over the lawn, and Mrs. Levitt had stooped down and grasped it by its tail and tossed it into the lavender bushes.
As if Mrs. Levitt had said, "My dear Mrs. Waddington, we both know that this horrible creature exists, but we aren"t going to let it sting us."
As if she knew why f.a.n.n.y had called on her and was grateful to her.
Perhaps if Mrs. Levitt had never appeared at that garden party, or if, having appeared, she had never been introduced, at their own request, to Major Markham, Mr. Thurston, Mr. Hawtrey and young Hawtrey and Sir John Corbett, Mr. Waddington might never have realized the full extent of her fascination.
She had made herself the centre of the party by her sheer power to seize attention and to hold it. You couldn"t help looking at her, again and again, where she sat in a clearing of the lawn, playing the clever, pointed play of her black and white, black satin frock, black satin cloak lined with white silk, furred with ermine; white stockings and long white gloves, the close black satin hat clipping her head; the vivid contrast and stress repeated in white skin, black hair, black eyes; black eyes and fine mouth and white teeth making a charming and perpetual movement.
She had been talking to Major Markham for the last ten minutes, displaying herself as the absurdly youthful mother of a grown-up son.
Toby Levitt, a tall and slender likeness of his mother, was playing tennis with distinction, ignoring young Horace, his partner, standing well up to the net and repeating the alternate smashing and sliding strokes that kept Ralph and Barbara bounding from one end of the court to the other. Mrs. Levitt was trying to reconcile the proficiency of Toby"s play with his immunity from conscription in the late war. The war led straight to Major Markham"s battery, and Major Markham"s battery to the battery once commanded by Toby"s father, which led to Poona and the great discovery.
"You don"t mean Frank Levitt, captain in the gunners?"
"I do."
"Was he by any chance stationed at Poona in nineteen-ten, eleven?"