She would do the right thing, the kind and wise thing, but the certain, the predicted thing. She lived from a great depth of being and peace personified was hers, the peace of G.o.d indeed!--but--
"She has no changes, no surprises," he thought, "all even surface, even depth."
He admired all her care and watchfulness of him with deep aesthetic pleasure. It was beautiful and he loved beauty. But now and then, it bored him as applied to himself. After six months of the unchanging gold and blue of Italy and Greece, he remembered how he had longed for a grey, weeping sky, with ashen cirrus clouds, heaped tumuli of smoke-grey and cold pearl. And sometimes after a lifeless, rotting autumn and an iron-winter, how every fibre cried out for the sun and the South!
He remembered that a man of letters, who had got into dreadful trouble and had served a period of imprisonment, had remarked to him that the food of penal servitude was plentiful and good, but that it was its dreadful monotony that made it a contributory torture.
And who could live for ever upon honey-comb? Not he at any rate.
Mary was "always her sweet self"--just like a phrase in a girl"s novel.
There were men who liked that, and preferred it, of course. Even when she was angry with him, he knew exactly how the quarrel would go--a tune he had heard many times before. The pa.s.sion of their early love had faded; as it must always do. She was beautiful and desirable still, but too calm, too peaceful, sometimes!
This was one of those times. One must be trained to appreciate Heaven properly, Paradise must be experienced first--otherwise, would not almost every one want a little holiday sometimes? He thought of a meeting of really good people, men and women--one stumbled in upon such a thing now and then. How appallingly dull they generally were! Did they never crave for madder music and stronger wine?
... He could not read. Restless and rebellious thoughts occupied his mind.
The Fiend Alcohol was at work once more, though Lothian had no suspicion of it. The new and evil Ego, created by alcohol, which the doctor had told him of, was awake within him, a.s.serting itself, stirring uneasily, finding its ident.i.ty diminishing, its vitality lowered and thus clamant for its rights.
And if this, in all its horror, is not true demoniacal possession, what else is? What more does the precise scientific language of those who study the psychology of the inebriate mean than "He was possessed of a Devil"?
The fiend, the new Ego, went on with its work as the poet lay there and the long lights of the summer afternoon filled the room with gold-dust.
The house was absolutely still. Mary had given orders that there was to be no noise at all, "in order that the Master might sleep, if he could."
It was a summer"s afternoon, the scent of some flowers below in the garden came up to Gilbert with a curious familiarity. What _was_ the scent? What memory, which would not come, was it trying to evoke?
A motor-car droned through the village beyond the grounds.
Memory leaped up in a moment.
Of course! The ride to Brighton, the happy afternoon with Rita Wallace.
That was it! He had thought of her a good deal on the journey down from London--until he had sat in the dining car with those shooting men from Thetford and had had too many whiskeys and sodas. During the last three days in bed, she had not "occurred" to him vividly. Yet all the time there had been something at the back of his mind of which he had been conscious, but was unable to explain to himself. The nasty knock on his head, when he had taken a toss from the dogcart, was the reason, no doubt.
Yet, there had been a distinct sense of hidden thought-treasure, something to draw upon as it were. And now he knew! and abandoned himself to the luxury of the discovery.
He must write to her, of course. He had promised to do so at once.
Already she would be wondering. He would write her a wonderful letter.
Such a letter as few men could write, and certainly such as she had never received. He would put all he knew into it. His sweet girl-friend should marvel at the jewelled words.
The idea excited him. His pulses began to beat quicker, his eyes grew brighter. But he would not do it now. Night was the time for such a present as he would make for her, when all the house was sleeping and Mary was in her own room. Then, in the night-silence, his brain should be awake, weaving a coloured tapestry of prose with words for threads, this new, delicious impulse of friendship the shuttle to carry them.
Like some coa.r.s.er epicure, arranging and gloating over the details of a feast to come, he made his plans.
He pressed the electric b.u.t.ton at the side of the bed and Blanche, the housemaid, answered the summons.
"Where is Tumpany, Blanche?" he asked.
"In the garden, sir."
"Well, tell him to come up, please. I want to speak to him."
In a minute or two heavy steps resounded down the corridor, accompanied by a curious scuffling noise. There was a knock, the door opened, a yelp of joy, and the Dog Trust had leapt upon the bed and was rolling over and over upon the counterpane, licking his master"s hands, making loving dashes for his face, his faithful little heart bursting with emotions he was quite unable to express.
"Thought you"d like to see him, sir," said Tumpany. "He know"d you"d come back right enough, and he"s been terrible restless."
Lothian captured the dog at last, and held him pressed to his side.
"I am very glad to see the old chap again. Look here, William, just you go quietly over to the Mortland Arms, don"t look as if you were going on any special errand,--but you know--and get a bottle of whiskey. Draw the cork and put it back in the bottle so that I can take it out with my fingers when I want to. Then bring it quietly up here."
"Yessir," said Tumpany. "That"ll be all right, sir," and departed with a somewhat ludicrous air of secrecy and importance that tickled his master"s sense of humour and made him smile.
It was by no means the first time that Tumpany had carried out these little confidential missions.
In ten minutes the man was back again, with the bottle.
"Shall I leave the dog, sir?"
"Yes, you may as well. He"s quite happy."
Tumpany went away.
Gilbert rose from bed, the bottle in his hand, and looked round for a hiding-place. The wardrobe! That would do. He put it in one of the big inside pockets of a shooting-coat which was hanging there and carefully closed the door.
As he did so, he caught sight of his face in the panel-mirror. It was sly and unpleasant. Something horrible seemed to be peeping out.
He shook his head and a slight blush came to his cheeks.
The eyes under the bandaged brow, the smirk upon the clear-cut mouth... . "Beastly!" he said aloud, as if speaking of some one else--as indeed he really was, had he but realised it.
Now he would sleep, to be fresh for the night. Bromide--always a good friend, though not so certain in its action as in the past--Ammonium Bromide should paralyse his racing brain to sleep.
He dissolved five tablets in a little water and drank the mixture.
When Mary came noiselessly into the room, three hours later, he was sleeping calmly. One arm was round the Dog Trust, who was sleeping too.
Her husband looked strangely youthful and innocent. A faint smile hung about his lips and her whole heart went out to him as he slept.
It was after midnight.
Deep peace brooded over the poet"s household. Only he was awake. The dog slumbered in his kennel, the servants in their rooms, the Sweet Chatelaine of the Old House lay in tranquil sleep in her own chamber.
... On a small oak table by Gilbert"s bedside, three tall candles were burning in holders of silver. Upon it also was an open bottle of whiskey, the carafe of water from the washstand and a bedroom tumbler.
The door was locked.