Nettie"s information could go no further, but it was considered to go far enough.
"So what do you sye to _that_?" Mrs. Courage demanded of Steptoe; "you that"s always so ready to defend my young lord?"
Steptoe was prepared to stand back to back with his employer. "I don"t defend "im. I"m not called on to defend "im. It"s Mr. Rashleigh"s "ouse. Any guest of "is must be your guest and mine."
"And what about Miss Walbrook, "er that"s to be missus "ere in the course of a few weeks?"
Steptoe colored, frostily. "She"s not missus "ere yet; and if she ever comes, there"ll be stormy weather for all of us. New missuses don"t generally get on with old servants like us--that"s been in the family for so many years--but when they don"t, it ain"t them as gets notice."
A bell rang sharply. Steptoe sprang to attention.
"There"s Mr. Rashleigh now. Don"t you women go to mykin" a to-do.
There"s lots o" troubles that "ud never "ave "appened if women "ad been able to "old their tongues."
"But I suppose, Steptoe, you don"t deny that there"s such a thing as right."
"I don"t deny that there"s such a thing as right, Mrs. Courage, but I only wonder if you knows more about it than the rest of us."
In Allerton"s room Steptoe found the young master of the house half dressed. Standing before a mirror, he was brushing his hair. His face and eyes, the reflection of which Steptoe caught in the gla.s.s, were like those of a man on the edge of going insane.
The old valet entered according to his daily habit and without betraying the knowledge of anything unusual. All the same his heart was sinking, as old hearts sink when beloved young ones are in trouble. The boy was his darling. He had been with his father for ten years before the lad was born, and had watched his growth with a more than paternal devotion. ""E"s all I "ave," he often said to himself, and had been known to let out the fact in the afore-mentioned group of English upper servants, a small but exclusive circle in the multiplex life of New York.
In Steptoe"s opinion Master Rash had never had a chance. Born many years after his parents had lived together childlessly, he had come into the world const.i.tutionally neurasthenic. Steptoe had never known a boy who needed more to be nursed along and coaxed along by affection, and now and then by indulgence. Instead, the system of severity had been applied with results little short of calamitous. He had been sent to schools famous for religion and discipline, from which he reacted in the first weeks of freedom in college, getting into dire academic sc.r.a.pes. Further severity had led to further sc.r.a.pes, and further sc.r.a.pes to something like disgrace, when the war broke out and a Red Cross job had kept him from going to the bad. The mother had been a self-willed and selfish woman, claiming more from her son than she ever gave him, and never perceiving that his was a nature requiring a peculiar kind of care. After her death Steptoe had prayed for a kind, sweet wife to come to the boy"s rescue, and the answer had been Miss Barbara Walbrook.
When the engagement was announced, Steptoe had given up hope. Of Miss Walbrook as a woman he had nothing to complain. Walter Wildgoose reported her a n.o.ble creature, splendid, generous, magnificent, only needing a strong hand. She was of the type not to be served but to be mastered. Rashleigh Allerton would goad her to frenzy, and she would do the same by him. She was already doing it. For weeks past Steptoe could see it plainly enough, and what would happen after they were married G.o.d alone knew. For himself he saw no future but to hang on after the wedding as long as the new mistress of the house would allow him, take his dismissal as an inevitable thing, and sneak away and die.
It was part of Steptoe"s training not to notice anything till his attention was called to it. So having said his "Good-morning, sir," he went to the closet, took down the hanger with the coat and waistcoat belonging to the suit of which he saw that Allerton had put on the trousers, and waited till the young man was ready for his ministrations.
Allerton was still brushing his hair, as he said over his shoulder: "There"s a young woman in the house, Steptoe. Been here all night."
"Yes, sir; I know--in the little back spare-room."
"Who told you?"
"Nettie went in for a pincushion, Mr. Rash, and the young woman was a-doin" of "er "air."
"What did Nettie say?"
"It ain"t what Nettie says, sir, if I may myke so bold. It"s what Mrs.
Courage and Jane says."
"Tell Mrs. Courage and Jane they needn"t be alarmed. The young woman is--" Steptoe caught the spasm which contracted the boy"s face--"the young woman is--my wife."
"Quite so, sir."
If Allerton went no further, Steptoe could go no further; but inwardly he was like a man reprieved at the last minute, and against all hope, from sentence of death. "Then it won"t be "_er_," was all he could say to himself, ""er" being Barbara Walbrook. Whatever calamity had happened, that calamity at least would be escaped, which was so much to the good.
His arms trembled so that he could hardly hold up the waistcoat for Allerton to slip it on. But he didn"t slip it on. Instead he wheeled round from the mirror, threw the brushes with a crash to the toilet table, and cried with a rage all the more raging for being impotent:
"Steptoe, I"ve been every kind of fool."
"Yes, sir, I expect so."
"You"ve got to get me out of it, Steptoe. You must find a way to save me."
"I"ll do my best, sir." The joy of cooperation with the lad almost made up for the anguish at his anguish. "What "ud it be--you must excuse me, Mr. Rash--but what "ud it be that you"d like me to save you from?"
Allerton threw out his arms. "From this crazy marriage. This frightful mix-up. I went right off the handle yesterday. I was an infernal idiot. And now I"m in for it. Something"s got to be done, Steptoe, and I can"t think of any one but you to do it."
"Quite so, sir. Will you "ave your wystcoat on now, sir? You"re ready for it, I see. I"ll think it over, Mr. Rash, and let you know."
While first the waistcoat and then the coat were extended and slipped over the shoulders, Allerton did his best to put Steptoe in possession of the mad facts of the previous day. Though the account he gave was incoherent, the old man understood enough.
"It wasn"t her fault, you must understand," Allerton explained further, as Steptoe brushed his hat. "She didn"t want to. I persuaded her. I wanted to do something that would wring Miss Walbrook"s heart--and I"ve done it! Wrung my own, too! What"s to become of me, Steptoe? Is the best thing I can do to shoot myself? Think it over.
I"m ready to. I"m not sure that it wouldn"t be a relief to get out of this rotten life. I"m all on edge. I could jump out of that window as easily as not. But it wasn"t the girl"s fault. She"s a poor little waif of a thing. You must look after her and keep me from seeing her again, but she"s not bad--only--only--Oh, my G.o.d! my G.o.d!"
He covered his face with his hands and rocked himself about, so that Steptoe was obliged to go on brushing till his master calmed himself.
"Do you think, sir," he said then, "that this is the "at to go with this "ere suit? I think as the brown one would be a lot chicker--tone in with the sort of fawn stripe in the blue like, and ketch the note in your tie." He added, while diving into the closet in search of the brown hat and bringing it out, "There"s one thing I could say right now, Mr. Rash, and I think it might "elp."
"What is it?"
"Do you remember the time when you "urt your leg "unting down in Long Island?"
"Yes; what about it?"
"You was all for not payin" it no attention and for "oppin" about as if you "adn"t "urt it at all. A terr"ble fuss you myde when the doctor said as you was to keep still. Anybody "ud "ave thought "e"d bordered a hamputation. And yet it was keepin" still what got you out o" the trouble, now wasn"t it?"
"Well?"
"Well, now you"re in a worse trouble still it might do the syme again.
I"m a great believer in keepin" still, I am."
Allerton was off again. "How in thunder am I to keep still when----?"
"I"ll tell you one wye, sir. Don"t talk. Don"t _do_ nothink. Don"t beat your "ead against the wall. Be quiet. Tyke it natural. You"ve done this thing. Well, you "aven"t committed a murder. You "aven"t even done a wrong to the young lydy to whom you was engyged. By what I understand she"d jilted you, and you was free to marry any one you took a mind to."
"Nominally, perhaps, but----"
"If you"re nominally free, sir, you"re free, by what I can understand; and if you"ve gone and done a foolish thing it ain"t no one"s business but your own."
"Yes, but I can"t stand it!"
"O" course you can"t stand it, sir, but it"s because you can"t stand it that I"m arskin" of you to keep just as quiet as you can. Mistykes in our life is often like the twists we"ll give to our bodies. They"ll ache most awful, but let nyture alone and she"ll tyke care of "em.
It"s jest so with our mistykes. Let life alone and she"ll put "em stryght for us, nine times out o" ten, better than we can do it by workin" up into a wax."
Calmed to some extent Allerton went off to the club for breakfast, being unable to face this meal at home. Steptoe tidied up the room. He was troubled and yet relieved. It was a desperate case, but he had always found that in desperate cases desperate remedies were close at hand.