"Oh, here you are," she said with her faint smile. "I was afraid you would come by the field." She looked down at herself and made a weak and ineffective effort to gather her loosened laces together. "I"m--I"m not very tidy, am I?"
Lawrence was carrying an overcoat on his arm. He put her into it, and, as she did not seem able to cope with it, b.u.t.toned it for her. "What has happened, dear?"
"Bernard has turned me out," said Laura with the same piteous, bewildered smile. "Indeed he never let me in. I went home soon after you left me. The door was shut, I tried the window, but that was shut too, so I had to go back to the door. I couldn"t open it and I rang. He answered me through the door, "Who"s there?"" She ended as if the motive power of speech had died down in her.
"And you--?"
"Oh, I said, "It"s I--Laura.""
"Go on, dear," Lawrence gently prompted her.
"I said "I"m your wife." He said "I have no wife." And he called me--coa.r.s.e names, words I couldn"t repeat to any one. I couldn"t answer him. Then he said "Where"s Hyde? Are you there, Hyde?"
and that you were a coward or you wouldn"t stand by and hear him calling me a--what he had called me. So I told him you weren"t there, that you had gone back with Isabel and Val. He said: after you had had all you wanted out of me--I beg your pardon?"
"Nothing. Go on, dear: tell me all about it."
"But ought I to?" said Laura, raising her dimmed eyes to his face. "It"s such a horrible story to tell a man, especially the very man who--I feel so queer, Lawrence: don"t let me say anything I ought not!"
"Laura dear, whatever you say is sacred to me. Besides, I"m your cousin by marriage, and it"s my business to think and act for you: let me help you into this alley." A little further on there was a by-path through the shrubberies, and Lawrence drew her towards it, but her limbs were giving way under her, and after a momentary hesitation he carried her into it in his arms. "There: sit on this bank. Lean on me," he sat down by her. "Is that better?"
"Oh yes: thank you: I"m so glad to be out of the drive," said Laura, letting her head fall, like a child, on his shoulder. "I seem to have been there such a long while. I didn"t know where to go. Once a tradesman"s cart drove by, the butcher"s it was: you know Bernard gets so cross because they will drive this way to save the long round by the stables. He stared at me, but I didn"t know what to do." Lawrence repressed a groan: it would be all over the village then, there was no help for it. "Where was I to go in these clothes? I did wish you would come, I always feel so safe with you."
Lawrence silently stroked her hair. His heart was riven. "So safe?" and this was all his doing.
"Was the door locked?"
"Yes."
"And he refused to open it?"
"No, he did open it."
"He did open it, do you say?"
"Yes, because--oh, my head."
"You aren"t hurt anywhere, are you?" asked Lawrence, feeling cold to his fingertips.
"No, no," she roused herself, dimly sensible of his anxiety, "it"s only that I feel faint, but it"s pa.s.sing off. No, I don"t want any water! I"d far rather you stayed with me. It"s such a comfort to have you here." Lawrence was speechless. Her hands went to her hair. "Oh dear, I wish I weren"t so untidy! Never mind, I shall be all right directly: it does me more good than anything else just to tell you about it."
"Well, tell me then."
"The door was locked," she continued languidly but a thought more clearly, "and the chain was up and Bernard"s couch was drawn across inside. He must have got Barry to wheel it over. When I begged him to let me in he unlocked the door but left it on the chain so that it would only open a few inches. I tried to push my way in, but he held me back."
"Laura, did he strike you?"
"No, no," said Laura with greater energy than she had yet shown.
Lawrence drew a breath of relief. He had felt a horrible fear that her faintness might be the result of a blow or a fall. "Oh, how could you think that? All he did was to put his hand out flat against my chest and push me back."
"But your dress is torn" said Lawrence, sickening over the question yet feeling that he must know all.
"His ring caught in it. These crepe de chine dresses tear if you look at them."
"Well, did you give it up after that?"
"No, oh no: I never can be angry with Berns because it--it isn"t Berns really," she glanced up at Lawrence with her pleading eyes.
"It"s a possession of the devil. He suffers so frightfully, Lawrence: he never ceases to rebel, and no one can soothe him but me. So that I hadn"t the heart to leave him. You"ll think it poor-spirited of me, but I--I can"t help loving the real Bernard, a Bernard you"ve never seen. So I waited because--I never can make Yvonne understand--I am so sorry for him: he hurts himself more than me--"
Lawrence started. The echo struck strangely on his ear. "I understand."
"You always understand. So I tried again; I said: would he at least let me go to my room and change my clothes and get some money. But he said it was your turn to buy my clothes now. When I"d convinced myself that he was unapproachable, I thought of trying to get in by a side door or through the kitchen. It would have been ignominious, but anything was better than standing on the steps; Bernard was talking at the top of his voice, and the maids were at the bedroom windows overhead. I didn"t look up but I saw the curtains flutter."
"Servants don"t matter much. But you did quite right. What happened?"
"He held me by the arm as I turned to go, and told me that all the doors and windows were locked and that he had given orders not to admit me: not to admit either of us."
"Either you or--?"
"Yourself. If we liked to stay out all night together we could stay out for ever."
"And then?"
"Don"t ask me." She shuddered and drooped, and the colour came up into her face, a rose-pink patch of fever. "I can"t remember any more."
"He must have gone raving mad."
"He is not mad, Lawrence. But he has indulged his imagination too long and now it has the mastery of him," said Laura slowly.
"It"s fatal to do that. "Withstand the beginning: after-remedies come too late." Ever since you came he"s been nursing an imaginary jealousy of you: though he knew it was imaginary, he indulged it as though it were genuine: and now it has turned on him and got him by the throat. Oh, he is so unhappy? But what can I do?"
What, indeed? Lawrence, recalling Val"s warning, subdued a curse or a groan. "A house full of the materials for an explosion."
And he had lived in that house--blind fool!--week after week and had noticed nothing! "Why--why did no one warn me before?"
he stammered. "My poor Laura! Why didn"t you send me away?"
"But if it hadn"t been you it would have been someone else!" said Mrs. Clowes simply. "At one time it was Val: then it was Dr.
Verney"s junior partner, who attended me for influenza while Dr.
Verney was away: and once it was a young chauffeur we had, who happened to be a University man. I did get rid of him, because he found out, and that made everything so awkward. But I couldn"t get rid of Val, and in many ways I was most unwilling to let you go,--you did him so much good. But I"d made up my mind to turn you out: Yvonne was at me--" she paused--"yes, it really was only yesterday! I promised her to speak to you this morning. Well, I"ve done it!"
"Did you explain to Bernard that Selincourt and Isabel were with us all the time?"
"He talked me down."
"He must be made to listen to reason."
"He won"t: not yet. Later, perhaps, but not in time to save the situation. Never mind, you"re not married, and if he does divorce me people will only say "Another Selincourt gone wrong.""
A dreary and rather cynical gleam of humour played over Laura"s lips. "I"m sorry mainly for Yvonne, Jack"s people are so particular; they hated the marriage, and now, when she"s lived it all down and made them fond of her, I must needs go and compromise myself and drag our wretched family into the mud again!"
"Good heavens! he can"t propose to divorce you?"
"He said he would."