She came in with an indescribable air of virtue, rather white in the face, with her small chin carefully thrust out and her eyelids drooping.
It was a pose she was accustomed to admire in high-minded and aristocratic barmaids. Frank nodded at her and uttered a syllable or two of greeting.
She said nothing; she went round to the window, carrying a white cotton blouse she had been washing upstairs, and hung it on the clothes-line that ran inside the window. Then, still affecting to be busy with it, she fired her first shot, with her back to him.
"I"ll thank you to let my business alone...."
(Frank put another piece of herring into his mouth.)
"... And not to send round any more of your nasty cats," added Gertie after a pause.
There was silence from Frank.
"Well?" snapped Gertie.
"How dare you talk like that!" said Frank, perfectly quietly.
He spoke so low that Gertie mistook his att.i.tude, and, leaning her hands on the table, she poured out the torrent that had been gathering within her ever since the Mission-lady had left her at eleven o"clock that morning. The lady had not been tactful; she was quite new to the work, and quite fresh from a women"s college, and she had said a great deal more than she ought, with an earnest smile upon her face that she had thought conciliatory and persuasive. Gertie dealt with her faithfully now; she sketched her character as she believed it to be; she traced her motives and her att.i.tude to life with an extraordinary wealth of detail; she threw in descriptive pa.s.sages of her personal appearance, and she stated, with extreme frankness, her opinion of such persons as she had thought friendly, but now discovered to be hypocritical parsons in disguise. Unhappily I have not the skill to transcribe her speech in full, and there are other reasons, too, why her actual words are best unreported: they were extremely picturesque.
Frank ate on quietly till he had finished his herring; then he drank his last cup of tea, and turned a little in his chair towards the fire. He glanced at the clock, perceiving that he had still ten minutes, just as Gertie ended and stood back shaking and pale-eyed.
"Is that all?" he asked.
It seemed it was not all, and Gertie began again, this time on a slightly higher note, and with a little color in her face. Frank waited, quite simply and without ostentation. She finished.
After a moment"s pause Frank answered.
"I don"t know what you want," he said. "I talked to you myself, and you wouldn"t listen. So I thought perhaps another woman would do it better--"
"I did listen--"
"I beg your pardon," said Frank instantly. "I was wrong. You did listen, and very patiently. I meant that you wouldn"t do what I said. And so I thought--"
Gertie burst out again, against cats and sneaking hypocrites, but there was not quite the same venom in her manner.
"Very good," said Frank. "Then I won"t make the mistake again. I am very sorry--not in the least for having interfered, you understand, but for not having tried again myself." (He took up his cap.) "You"ll soon give in, Gertie, you know. Don"t you think so yourself?"
Gertie looked at him in silence.
"You understand, naturally, why I can"t talk to you while the Major"s here. But the next time I have a chance--"
The unlatched door was pushed open and the Major came in.
(II)
There was an uncomfortable little pause for a moment. It is extremely doubtful, even now, exactly how much the Major heard; but he must have heard something, and to a man of his mind the situation that he found must have looked extremely suspicious. Gertie, flushed now, with emotion very plainly visible in her bright eyes, was standing looking at Frank, who, it appeared, was a little disconcerted. It would have been almost miraculous if the Major had not been convinced that he had interrupted a little private love-making.
It is rather hard to a.n.a.lyze the Major"s att.i.tude towards Gertie; but what is certain is that the idea of anyone else making love to her was simply intolerable. Certainly he did not treat her with any great chivalry; he made her carry the heavier bundles on the tramp; he behaved to her with considerable disrespect; he discussed her freely with his friends on convivial occasions. But she was his property--his and no one else"s. He had had his suspicions before; he had come in quietly just now on purpose, and he had found himself confronted by this very peculiar little scene.
He looked at them both in silence. Then his lips sneered like a dog"s.
"Pardon me," he said, with extreme politeness. "I appear to be interrupting a private conversation."
No one said anything. Frank leaned his elbow on the mantelpiece.
"It was private, then?" continued the Major with all the poisonous courtesy at his command.
"Yes; it was private," said Frank shortly.
The Major put his bowler hat carefully upon the table.
"Gertie, my dear," he said. "Will you be good enough to leave us for an instant? I regret having to trouble you."
Gertie breathed rather rapidly for a moment or two. She was not altogether displeased. She understood perfectly, and it seemed to her rather pleasant that two men should get into this kind of situation over her. She was aware that trouble would come to herself later, probably in the form of personal chastis.e.m.e.nt, but to the particular kind of feminine temperament that she possessed even a beating was not wholly painful, and the cheap kind of drama in which she found herself was wholly attractive. After an instant"s pause, she cast towards Frank what she believed to be a "proud" glance and marched out.
"If you"ve got much to say," said Frank rapidly, as the door closed, "you"d better keep it for this evening. I"ve got to go in ... in two minutes."
"Two minutes will be ample," said the Major softly.
Frank waited.
"When I find a friend," went on the other, "engaged in an apparently exciting kind of conversation, which he informs me is private, with one who is in the position of my wife--particularly when I catch a sentence or two obviously not intended for my ears--I do not ask what was the subject of the conversation, but I--"
"My dear man," said Frank, "do put it more simply."
The Major was caught, so to speak, full in the wind. His face twitched with anger.
Then he flung an oath at Frank.
"If I catch you at it again," he said, "there"ll be trouble. G.o.d d.a.m.n you!"
"That is as it may be," said Frank.
The Major had had just one drink too much, and he was in the kind of expansive mood that changes very rapidly.
"Can you tell me you were not trying to take her from me?" he cried, almost with pathos in his voice.
This was, of course, exactly what Frank had been trying to do.
"You can"t deny it!... Then I tell you this, Mr. Frankie"--the Major sprang up--"one word more from you to her on that subject ... and ...
and you"ll know it. D"you understand me?"
He thrust his face forward almost into Frank"s.
It was an unpleasant face at most times, but it was really dangerous now. His lips lay back, and the peculiar hot smell of spirit breathed into Frank"s nostrils. Frank turned and looked into his eyes.
"I understand you perfectly," he said. "There"s no need to say any more.
And now, if you"ll forgive me, I must get back to my work."