"Good news? Why, yes, thanks to you! I want first to thank you for your generosity. I was worrying so until I heard the news from John."
"From whom?"
"Your husband. You see, he will always be John Riviere to me. That"s how I knew him during these wonderful days at Arles and Nimes." Her voice became dreamy with memories. "I met him first, you know, at the arena at Arles. We sat for hours in the flooding sunlight reconstructing our pictures of the past. The stone tiers were vivid orange in the sunlight and deep purple in the shadows. A deep, greyish purple. We sat apart, I longing for him to speak to me and exchange thoughts. But there was no one to introduce us. How stupid convention is! At sunset we climbed up to the topmost tier and stood together as though on an island tower in the midst of a sea of marshland. I ached to speak to him, and still we remained silent and apart. That night came the introduction I longed for. I was wandering about the dark, narrow lanes of Arles when a half-drunken peasant tried to attack me. I cried out for help, and John came to my defence with his strong arm and his clenched fist. There was no need for formal introduction after that. We found we were staying at the same hotel...."
Olive made no comment.
Elaine continued: "Nimes is fragrant with its memories for me. The Jardin de la Fontaine, the Maison Carree, the Druids" Tower, the dear Villa Clementine! There was a little pebbly garden and a fountain by which we used to sit for lunch--there were two lazy old goldfish I used to feed with crumbs. Darby and Joan!... Those memories of Nimes wash away the burn of the vitriol, now that you"ve been so kind and generous."
"I fail to understand," said Olive coldly. The interview was shaping itself very differently to what she had expected.
Elaine turned her bandaged head towards her in surprise. "But John tells me you"ve offered to release him!"
"Offered to release him! My dear Miss Verney, Clifford must have been saying pretty things to soothe you. I"m sorry to pour cold water on your dreams, but you"ll have to learn the truth some time, and it"s kinder to tell you now. Release him! My husband is not an employee to be handed over to somebody else at a moment"s notice. There are such things as marriage laws ... and divorce laws."
"Aren"t we talking at cross-purposes, Mrs Matheson? I quite understand all that. John tells me that you have promised to divorce him. That"s very generous of you."
"You seem to ignore the point that a divorce suit involves a co-respondent."
"No; not at all. I wanted to see you in order to thank you; and then to arrange the details so that the matter can go through with as little trouble as possible. Of course, after your kindness, I shall let the suit go undefended."
Olive searched the bandaged face of her rival with merciless scrutiny.
But the blinded girl seemed unconscious of that look of stabbing hatred and suspicion. She was apparently smiling happily--weaving day-dreams.
Her hand went out to the vase of white lilac caressingly.
For that was the part Elaine had set herself to play for the sake of the man she loved. He had been beaten down to his knees by Larssen and Olive in the shipowner"s office because he had had Elaine to protect. To save her from the mire of the divorce court he had had to give in and sign at Larssen"s dictation.
Now she was determined to release him for free action. Whatever it might cost her in self-respect, she was going to make Olive believe that a divorce suit was the one thing she most ardently desired.
"I shall let the divorce suit go undefended," she had said, smiling happily.
Olive made a decisive effort to regain the whip-hand. "Divorce by collusion is out of the question!" she retorted sharply. "The King"s Proctor sees to that. You don"t imagine that it"s sufficient merely to say you don"t defend the suit? There must be evidence before the Court."
Elaine bowed her head.
"There is evidence," she said in a low voice.
"At Arles, Nimes, or here?"
"At Nimes."
"Then my husband lied to me! He swore to me on his word of honour that there was nothing between you!"
"John is very chivalrous."
"You tell me he lied?"
"I don"t know just what he said to you.... And I want you to realise this: the fault was on my side. I loved him. I love him still. I shall love him always. Always, whatever happens."
Then she added, because in the playing of her part she had determined to spare herself no degradation: "I care nothing for what people say. They may sneer and point at me, but nothing shall keep us apart."
Olive went chalk-white with anger. She had not travelled the long journey to Wiesbaden to be fooled in this way. The ground had been cut from under her feet by Elaine"s most unexpected att.i.tude, and the situation needed some drastic counter-move on her part.
"A pretty story!" she retorted. "If you imagine your childish bluffing would deceive me, you"ve a lot to learn yet! Clifford was not lying, and you are! That"s the long and short of it!"
"Then call him here and ask him before me!"
Olive saw her opportunity. She could find out Riviere"s address from Dr.
Hegelmann or from one of the staff of the nursing home, and go to confront him before Elaine could see and warn him of the new development. It would be strategic to allay suspicion of her coming move, however.
"I want to see nothing more of Clifford," she replied. "We"ve agreed to part. He"s to go on with his life as John Riviere. If you like to marry him as John Riviere, you"re quite welcome to do so as far as I"m concerned."
"You mean that you want to get permission from the Courts to presume death, and then take possession of his property?"
"Any such arrangement is entirely a private matter between my husband and myself."
"I doubt if John would agree to that arrangement now. He would make you a suitable allowance, of course."
Olive could have choked this girl lying helpless in her chair, and yet holding the whip-hand in their triangle of conflicting interests. She felt as if she had been tripped and thrown without a word of warning. To have travelled to Wiesbaden to play the outraged wife sitting in judgment on the woman who had sinned, and now----!
If only Larssen were here to advise her!
She tried another move, altering her voice to as much sweetness as she could command under her white-hot anger.
"My dear, I appreciate your feelings," she said. "You want to fight for the man you love. You"d even blacken your character for his sake. You"d face the sneers of the world for his sake. I admire you for it. It brings us nearer together. I admit that I had misjudged you a little.
That was because I hadn"t seen you and spoken to you. Now I know what a fine character you are, and I want you not to bring unnecessary suffering on yourself. I"m older than you, and I"ve seen very much more of the world. I know that a good woman can"t live with a married man for long. The situation becomes intolerable after a time. One can"t ignore the conventions of the world one lives in."
"I"m ready to face all that. I"ve counted the cost."
"But is Clifford ready to? Think of him. Think of his work. He would not only be ostracised socially, but also scientifically. His work would be ignored. You would destroy his life-work. You would kill his ambition!"
Olive"s thrust went home, though not to the exact point she aimed at.
Elaine remained silent as the thought raced through her of how Olive, if she deemed it to her own interests, might kill Riviere"s work.
"So you see, dear," pursued Olive, "that our interests are really very much the same. We both care deeply for Clifford. We both want to help him in his life-work. We both want to do our best for him. That means that we must pull together and not against one another. We must each of us think matters out coolly and dispa.s.sionately. Isn"t that what you think as well as I?"
"Yes," admitted Elaine.
"Then I"ll say good-bye for the present. I mustn"t stay longer or Dr.
Hegelmann will call me over the coals. I have to remember that you"re not altogether strong again yet. So I"ll say good-bye now and call again to-morrow morning."
"Good-bye."
"Do you like lilies? I must send you some. As I pa.s.sed a florist"s in the Wilhelmstra.s.se I saw some splendid tiger-lilies. Good-bye, my dear."
Elaine waited with feverish impatience for three minutes to elapse, when she judged Olive would be clear of the house. Then she rang a bell by her side. She must get a message through to Riviere to let him know of the new development in the situation before Olive could reach him with _her_ story. Riviere knew nothing beforehand of Elaine"s plan of self-accusation; it was vital that he should know of it now, when it had been carried to so effective an end.
The nurse came to answer the call.