"Go back if you will," I said, "but not just yet. Give me a few weeks more to hold in memory. I am no traveler, you are my world."
I sought to evade the future and escape. But when I held her it was not the same; faith was gone, and the first ecstasy.
25.
We did not speak again of her departure. It was a bogey, thrust into the background by us both. For her sake I strove to appear lighthearted, without care. She did the same, for me. The summer weather was about us, and I soon grew strong again, at least to all appearance; but sometimes the pain in my head returned again, not with its full force, but stabbing, without warning, and for no good reason.
I did not tell her of it-what was the use? It did not come from physical exertion, or when I was outdoors, but only if I put my mind to thinking. Simple problems brought to me in the estate office by the tenants could even do it, so that a fog would seem to settle on me and I be unable to give them a decision.
More often, though, it would happen because of her. I would be looking at her, as we sat perhaps after dinner outside the drawing room window, for the June weather enabled us to sit without of an evening until past nine o"clock; and suddenly I would wonder what went on there, in her mind, as she sat drinking her tisana, watching the dusk creep closer to the trees that fringed the lawn. Did she ponder, in her secret self, how much longer she must endure this life of solitude? Did she think, secretively, "Next week, now he is well, I can safely go?"
That villa Sangalletti, back in Florence, had for me now another shape and atmosphere. Instead of the shuttered darkness I had seen on that one visit I saw it now as brightly lit, with all the windows wide. Those unknown people whom she called her friends wandered from room to room; there was gaiety and laughter, much noise of conversation. A sort of brilliance hung above the place, and all the fountains played. She would move from guest to guest, smiling and at ease, mistress of her domain. This, then, was the life she knew, and loved, and understood. Her months with me were an interlude. Thankfully, she would return to the home where she belonged. I could picture the first arrival, with the man Giuseppe and his wife flinging wide the iron gates to admit her carrozza, and then her happy eager pacing through the rooms she knew so well and had not seen for long, asking her servants questions, receiving their replies, opening the many letters there awaiting her, content, serene, with all the myriad threads of an existence to pick up again and hold that I could never know and never share. So many days and nights, no longer mine.
Presently she would feel my eyes upon her, and would say, "What is the matter, Philip?"
"Nothing," I would reply.
And as the shadow pa.s.sed across her face, doubtful, distressed, I felt myself a burden on her shoulders. She would be better quit of me. I tried to lose my energies, as of old, in the running of the place, in the common tasks of day by day; but it no longer meant the same to me. What if the Barton acres were all dried through lack of rain? I could not greatly care. And if our stock won prizes at the Show, and so were the champions of the county, was this glory? Last year, it might have been. But now, what an empty triumph.
I could see myself losing favor in the eyes of all who looked upon me as their master. "You are still weak, Mr. Ashley, after that sickness," said Billy Rowe, the farmer at the Barton; and there was a world of disappointment in his voice that I had failed to show enthusiasm for his achievements. It was the same with all the rest. Even Seecombe took me to task.
"You don"t seem to pick up as you should, Mr. Philip," he said. "We were talking of it, in the steward"s room, last evening. "What"s come to the master?" Tamlyn said to me. "He"s whisht as a ghost on Hallowe"en, and looks at nothing." I would advise marsala in the morning. There is nothing like a winegla.s.s of marsala to restore the blood."
"Tell Tamlyn," I said to Seecombe, "to go about his business. I am perfectly well."
The routine of Sunday dinner, with the Pascoes and the Kendalls, had not yet been restored, which was a mercy. I think poor Mary Pascoe had returned to the rectory, after I fell ill, with tales that I was mad. I saw her look at me askance, in church, the first morning that I went when I was well; and the whole family eyed me with a sort of pity, inquiring for me with low voices and averted gaze.
My G.o.dfather came to see me, also Louise. They too a.s.sumed an unaccustomed manner, a blend of cheerfulness and sympathy, suited to a child who had been sick; and I felt they had been warned not to touch upon any subject that might cause me concern. The four of us sat like strangers in the drawing room. My G.o.dfather, I thought, is ill at ease, and wishing he had not come, but feels it to be his duty to call upon me; while Louise, with some odd instinct possessed by women, knows what has happened here and shrinks at thought of it. Rachel, as always, was in command of the situation, and kept the tenor of the conversation on the level that was required. The county Show, the betrothal of the second Pascoe daughter, the warmth of the present weather, the prospect of a change in Government-all these were easy matters. But what if we spoke the things we really thought?
"Get out of England soon, before you destroy yourself and this boy with you," thus my G.o.dfather.
"You love her more than ever. I can see it, by your eyes," from Louise.
"I must prevent them from making Philip anxious, at all costs," so Rachel.
And myself, "Leave me alone with her, and go..."
Instead, we clung to courtesy, and lied. Each one of us breathed the easier at the termination of the visit, and as I watched them drive to the park gates, no doubt thankful to be away, I wished I could erect a fence about the property, as in the old enchanted tales of childhood, to keep away all callers, and disaster too.
It seemed to me, though she said nothing, that she planned the first steps towards departure. I would find her, of an evening, sorting through her books, arranging them as people do who wish to make a choice between the volumes they take with them and those they leave behind. Another time she would be sitting at the bureau, putting her papers into order, filling the wastepaper basket with torn sc.r.a.ps and discarded letters, and tying up the rest with bands of tape. All this would stop, once I came into the boudoir, and going to her chair she would take up her work, or sit beside the window; but I was not deceived. Why the sudden desire for making all things straight, unless she was soon to leave the boudoir empty?
It seemed to me the room looked barer than it had before. Trifles were missing. A work-basket that had stood through the spring and winter in one corner, a shawl that had lain over the elbow of a chair, a crayon sketch of the house, presented to her by a caller one winter"s day, that used to be on the mantelpiece-all were there no more. It took me back to my boyhood, before I went away for the first time, to school. Seecombe had made a clearance in the nursery, tying my books in bundles that would go with me, and the rest, that were not favorites, were placed in a separate box for the children on the estate. There were coats I had outgrown, which were sadly worn; and I remember he insisted that I should hand them down to smaller boys less fortunate than I, which I resented. It was as though he took the happy past away from me. Now something of the same atmosphere clung to Rachel"s boudoir. That shawl, had she given it away because she would not need it in a warmer climate? The workbox, was it dismantled, and now reposing at the bottom of a trunk? No sign, as yet, of actual trunks themselves. That would be the final warning. The heavy footsteps in the attic, the boys descending, boxes borne between them, and a kind of dusty cobweb smell, woven about with camphor. Then I would know the worst, and like the dogs with uncanny sense of change, await the end. Another thing was that she started to go out driving in the morning, which she had not done before. She would tell me she had shopping she wished to do, and business at the bank. These things were possible. I should have thought one journey would have settled them. But three mornings in one week followed upon each other, with one day s.p.a.ced between, and now yet again, in the week that was upon us, twice she had driven into town. The first time it was a morning. The second, afternoon. "You have," I said to her, "the devil of a lot of shopping of a sudden, and business too..."
"I would have done it all before," she answered, "but could not do so all the weeks that you were ill."
"Do you meet anyone as you go about the town?"
"Why, no, not in particular. Yes, now I think of it. I saw Belinda Pascoe and the curate to whom she is engaged. They sent you their respects."
"But," I insisted, "you were away all afternoon. Did you buy up all the contents of the drapers?"
"No," she said. "You are really very curious, and prying. Can I not order the carriage when I please, or do you fear to tire the horses?"
"Drive to Bodmin or to Truro if you please," I said, "you will find better shopping there, and more to see."
She did not care for it, then, when I questioned her. Her business must be very personal and private, that she was so reserved.
The next time she ordered the carriage the groom did not go with them. Wellington drove her alone. It seemed that Jimmy had the earache. I had been in the office, and I found him sitting in the stable, nursing his injured ear.
"You must ask the mistress for some oil," I said to him. "I"m told that is the remedy."
"Yes, sir," he said, disconsolate, "she promised to see to it for me, by and by on her return. I think I caught cold in it yesterday. There was a fresh wind blowing on the quay."
"What were you doing on the quay?" I asked.
"We were waiting a long while for the mistress," he answered, "so Mr. Wellington thought best to bait the horses in the Rose and Crown, and he let me go off and watch the boats in the harbor."
"Was the mistress shopping then all afternoon?" I asked.
"No, sir," he replied, "she didn"t shop at all. She was in the parlor at the Rose and Crown, the same as always."
I stared at him in disbelief. Rachel in the parlor of the Rose and Crown? Did she sit taking tea with the landlord and his wife? For a moment I thought to question him further, then decided against it. It might be he was speaking out of turn, and would be scolded by Wellington for blabbing. All things were kept from me these days, it seemed. The whole household was in league against me, in a conspiracy of silence. "Well, Jim," I said, "I hope your ear will soon be better," and left him in the stable. But here was mystery. Had Rachel grown so desirous of company that she had to seek it in the town inn? Knowing my dislike of visitors, did she hire the parlor for a morning, or an afternoon, and bid people visit her there? I said nothing of the matter, on her return, but merely asked her if she had pa.s.sed a pleasant afternoon, and she replied she had.
The following day she did not order the carriage. She told me, at luncheon, that she had letters to write, and went up to her boudoir. I said I had to walk to Coombe, to see the farmer there, which was true enough, and so I did. But I went further. Into the town myself. It was a Sat.u.r.day, and because of the fine weather many folk were out about the streets, people from the neighboring market towns, who did not know me by sight, so that I pa.s.sed among them un.o.bserved. I saw no one I knew. The "quality," as Seecombe termed them, never went into the town of an afternoon, and never on a Sat.u.r.day.
I leaned over the harbor wall, near to the quay, and saw some boys fishing from a boat, getting themselves entangled in their lines. Presently they sculled towards the steps and clambered out. One of them I recognized. It was the lad who helped behind the bar in the Rose and Crown. He had three or four fine ba.s.s on a piece of string.
"You"ve done well," I said. "Are they for supper?"
"Not for me, sir," he grinned, "they"ll be welcome at the inn though, I"ll be bound."
"Do you serve ba.s.s now with the cider?" I asked.
"No," he said, "this fish is for the gentleman in the parlor. He had a piece of salmon yesterday, from up the river."
A gentleman in the parlor. I pulled some silver from my pocket.
"Well," I said, "I hope he pays you well. Here"s this for luck. Who is your visitor?"
He screwed his face into another grin. "Don"t know his name, sir," he replied, "Italian, they say he is. From foreign parts."
And he ran off across the quay, with his fish dangling from the string over his shoulder. I glanced at my watch. It was after three o"clock. No doubt the gentleman from foreign parts would dine at five. I walked through the town, and down the narrow alleyway to the boathouse where Ambrose had kept his sails and gear for the sailing boat he used to use. The small pram was made fast to the frape. I pulled in the pram, and climbed down into it; then paddled out into the harbor and lay off, a little distance from the quay.
There were several fellows pulling to and from the vessels anch.o.r.ed in the channel, to the town steps; and they did not notice me, or if they did cared little, and took me for a fisherman. I threw the weight into the water and rested on my paddles, and watched the entrance of the Rose and Crown. The bar entrance was in the side street. He would not enter that way. If he came at all, it would be by the front. An hour pa.s.sed. The church clock struck four. Still I waited. At a quarter before five I saw the landlord"s wife come out of the parlor entrance and look about her, as though in search of someone. Her visitor was late for supper. The fish was cooked. I heard her call out to a fellow standing by the boats that were fastened to the steps, but I did not catch her words. He shouted back at her and, turning, pointed out towards the harbor. She nodded her head, and went back inside the inn. Then, ten minutes after five, I saw a boat approaching the town steps. Pulled by a l.u.s.ty fellow in the bows, the boat itself new varnished, it had all the air of one hired out for strangers, who cared to be rowed about the harbor for their pleasure.
A man, with a broad-brimmed hat upon his head, was seated in the stern. They came to the steps. The man climbed out and gave the fellow money, after slight argument, then turned towards the inn. As he stood for a moment on the steps, before entering the Rose and Crown, he took off his hat and looked about him, with that air of putting a price on all he saw that I could not mistake. I was so near, I could have tossed a biscuit at him. Then he went inside. It was Rainaldi.
I hauled up the weight and pulled back to the boathouse, made the boat fast, walked through the town, and up the rope walk to the cliffs. I think I covered the four miles to home in forty minutes. Rachel was in the library waiting for me. Dinner had been put back because I had not come. She came towards me, anxious.
"At last you have returned," she said. "I have been very worried. Where were you, then?"
"Out rowing, in the harbor," I answered her. "Fine weather for excursions. Far better on the water than inside the Rose and Crown."
The startled shock that came into her eyes was all I needed for the final proof.
"All right, I know your secret," I continued. "Don"t think up any lies."
Seecombe came in to ask if he should serve dinner.
"Do so, at once," I said, "I shall not change."
I stared at her, saying no more, and we went in to dinner. Seecombe was all concern, sensing something wrong. He hovered at my elbow like a doctor, tempting me to taste the dishes that he proffered.
"You have overtaxed your strength, sir," he said, "this will not do at all. We shall have you ill again."
He looked at Rachel for confirmation, and for backing. She said nothing. As soon as dinner was over, which each of us had barely tasted, Rachel rose to her feet and went straight upstairs. I followed her. When she came to the door of the boudoir she would have closed it against me, but I was too quick for her and stood inside the room, with my back against it. The look of apprehension came to her eyes again. She went away from me, and stood by the mantelpiece.
"How long has Rainaldi been staying at the Rose and Crown?" I said.
"That is my business," she replied.
"Mine also. Answer me," I said.
I think she saw there was no hope to keep me quiet, or fob me off with fables. "Very well then, for the past two weeks," she answered.
"Why is he here?" I said.
"Because I asked him. Because he is my friend. Because I needed his advice, and, knowing your dislike, could not ask him to this house."
"Why should you need his advice?"
"That, again, is my business. Not yours. Stop behaving like a child, Philip, and have some understanding."
I was glad to see her so distressed. It showed she was at fault.
"You ask me to have understanding," I said. "Do you expect me to understand deceit? You have been lying every day to me for the past two weeks, and cannot deny it."
"If I have deceived you, it was not willingly," she said. "I did it for your sake only. You hate Rainaldi. If you had known that I was meeting him, this scene would have come the sooner, and you would have been ill in consequence. Oh, G.o.d-must I go through this all again? First with Ambrose, and now with you?"
Her face was white and strained, but whether from fear or anger was hard to tell. I stood with my back against the door and watched her.
"Yes," I said, "I hate Rainaldi, as did Ambrose. And with reason."
"What reason, for pity"s sake?"
"He is in love with you. And has been, now, for years."
"What utter nonsense..." She paced up and down the little room, from the fireplace to the window, her hands clasped in front of her. "Here is a man who has stood beside me through every trial and trouble. Who has never misjudged me, or tried to see me as other than I am. He knows my faults, my weaknesses, and does not condemn them, but accepts me at my own value. Without his help, through all the years that I have known him-years of which you know nothing-I would have been lost indeed. Rainaldi is my friend. My only friend."
She paused, and looked at me. No doubt it was the truth, or so distorted in her mind that, to her, it became so. It made no difference to my judging of Rainaldi. Some of his reward he held already. The years of which, so she just told me, I knew nothing. The rest would come in time. Next month, perhaps, next year-but finally. He had a wealth of patience. But not I, nor Ambrose.
"Send him away, back where he belongs," I said.
"He will go, when he is ready," she replied, "but if I need him he will stay. Indeed, if you try and threaten me again I will have him in this house, as my protector."
"You would not dare," I said.
"Dare? Why not? The house is mine."
So we had come to battle. Her words were a challenge that I could not meet. Her woman"s brain worked differently from mine. All argument was fair, all blows were foul. Physical strength alone disarmed a woman. I made one step towards her, but she was at the fireplace, with her hand upon the bell-rope.
"Stay where you are," she cried, "or I shall ring for Seecombe. Do you want to be shamed in front of him, when I tell him that you tried to strike me?"
"I was not going to strike you," I replied. I turned, and opened wide the door. "All right," I said, "call for Seecombe, if you wish. Tell him all that has happened here, between us. If we must have violence and shame, let us have it in full measure."
She stood by the bell-rope, I by the open door. She let the bell-rope fall. I did not move. Then, tears coming to her eyes, she looked at me and said, "A woman can"t suffer twice. I have had all this before." And lifting her fingers to her throat she added, "Even the hands around my neck. That too. Now will you understand?"
I looked over her head, straight at the portrait above the mantelpiece, and the young face of Ambrose staring at me was my own. She had defeated both of us.
"Yes," I said, "I understand. If you want to see Rainaldi, ask him here. I would rather that, than that you crept to meet him at the Rose and Crown."
And I left her in the boudoir, and went back to my room.
Next day he came to dinner. She had sent a note to me at breakfast, asking permission to invite him, her challenge of the night before forgotten no doubt, or expediently put aside, to restore me to position. I sent a note back in return, saying I would give orders for Wellington to fetch him in the carriage. He arrived at half-past four.
It happened that I was alone in the library when he came, and by some error on the part of Seecombe he was shown in to me, and not into the drawing room. I rose from my chair, and bade him good afternoon. He seemed greatly at his ease, and offered me his hand.
"I hope you are recovered," he said, in greeting me. "In fact, I think you look better than I expected. All the reports I had of you were bad. Rachel was much concerned."
"Indeed, I am very well," I said to him.
"The fortune of youth," he said. "What it is to have good lungs, and good digestion, so that in the s.p.a.ce of a few weeks all traces of sickness leave you. No doubt you are already galloping about the countryside on horseback. Whereas we older people, like your cousin and myself, go carefully, to avoid all strain. Personally, I consider a nap in the immediate afternoon essential to middle age."
I asked him to sit down and he did so, smiling a little as he looked about him. "No alterations to this room as yet?" he said. "Perhaps Rachel intends to leave it so, as giving atmosphere. Just as well. The money can be better spent on other things. She tells me much has been already done about the grounds, since my last visit. Knowing Rachel, I can well believe it. But I must see first, before I give approval. I regard myself as a trustee, to hold a balance."
He took a thin cigar from his case, and lit it, still smiling as he did so. "I had a letter to you, written in London," he said, "after you made over your estate, and would have sent it, but that I had the news of your illness. There was little in the letter that I can"t say now to your face. It was merely thanking you, for Rachel"s sake, and a.s.suring you that I would take great care to see there was no great loss to you in the transaction. I shall watch all expenditure." He puffed a cloud of smoke into the air, and gazed up at the ceiling. "That candelabra," he said, "was not chosen with great taste. We could do better for you than that, in Italy. I must remember to tell Rachel to make a note of these things. Good pictures, good furniture and fittings, are all sound investments. Eventually, you will find we shall hand the property back to you with double value. However, that"s in the distant future. And you by that time, no doubt, with grown sons of your own. Rachel and myself, old people in wheeled chairs." He laughed, and smiled at me again. "And how is the charming Miss Louise?" he said to me.
I told him I believed that she was well. I watched him smoking his cigar, and thought how smooth his hands were for a man. They had a kind of feminine quality that did not fit in with the rest of him, and the great ring, on his little finger, was out of place.
"When do you go back to Florence?" I asked him.
He flicked the ash that had fallen on his coat down to the grate.