"Ah, I hope to be able to walk soon," she said, holding out her hand to him.
"What a charming man he is," Mrs. Beale remarked when he had gone. "There is no hope of his marrying, I suppose," she added, trying not to look at her daughter.
"Oh, no!" Mrs. Orton Beg exclaimed in an almost horrified tone.
Lord Dawne"s friends made no secret of his grand and chivalrous devotion to the distinguished woman known to them all as Ideala. Every one of them was aware, although he had never let fall a word on the subject, that he had remained single on her account--every one but Ideala herself. She never suspected it, or thought of love at all in connection with Lord Dawne--and, besides, she was married.
When her friends had gone that day Mrs. Orton Beg sat long in the gathering dusk, watching the newly lighted fire burn up, and thinking. She was thinking of Evadne chiefly, wondering why she had had no news of her, why her sister Elizabeth did not write, and tell her all about the wedding; and she was just on the verge of anxiety--in that state when various possibilities of trouble that might have occurred to account for delays begin to present themselves to the mind, when all at once, without hearing anything, she became conscious of a presence near her, and looking up she was startled to see Evadne herself.
"My dear child!" she gasped, "what has happened? Why are you here?"
"Nothing has happened, auntie; don"t be alarmed," Evadne answered. "I am here because I have been a fool."
She spoke quietly but with concentrated bitterness, then sat down and began to take off her gloves with that exaggerated show of composure which is a sign in some people of suppressed emotion.
Her face was pale, but her eyes were bright, and the pupils were dilated.
"I have come to claim your hospitality, auntie," she pursued, "to ask you for shelter from the world for a few days, _because_ I have been a fool. May I stay?"
"Surely, dear child," Mrs. Orton Beg replied, and then she waited, mastering the nervous tremor into which the shock of Evadne"s sudden appearance had thrown her with admirable self-control. And here again the family likeness between aunt and niece was curiously apparent. Both masked their agitation because both by temperament were shy, and ashamed to show strong feeling.
Evadne looked into the fire for a little, trying to collect herself. "I knew what was right," she began at last in a low voice, "I knew we should take nothing for granted, we should never be content merely to feel and suppose and hope for the best in matters about which we should know exactly. And yet I took no trouble to ascertain. I fell in love, and liked the sensation, and gave myself up to it unreservedly. Certainly, I was a fool--there is no other word for it."
"But are you married, Evadne?" Mrs. Orton Beg asked in a voice rendered unnatural by the rapid beating of her heart.
"Let me tell you, auntie, all about it," Evadne answered hoa.r.s.ely. She drew her chair a little closer to the fire, and spread her hands out to the blaze. There was no other light in the room by this time. The wind without howled dismally still, but at intervals, as if with an effort.
During one of its noisiest bursts the cathedral clock began to strike, and hushed it, as it were, suddenly. It seemed to be listening, to be waiting, and Evadne waited and listened too, raising her head. There was a perceptible, momentary pause, then came the chime, full, round, mournful, melodious, yet glad too, in the strength of its solemn a.s.surance, filling the desolate regions of sorrow and silence with something of hope whereon the weary mind might repose:
[Ill.u.s.tration: (musical notation); lyrics: He, watch-ing o-ver Is--ra--el, slumbers not, nor sleeps.]
When the last reverberation of the last note had melted out of hearing, Evadne sighed; then she straightened herself, as if collecting her energy, and began to speak.
"Yes, I am married," she said, "but when I went to change my dress after the ceremony I found this letter. It was intended, you see, to reach me some days before it did, but unfortunately it was addressed to Fraylingay, and time was lost in forwarding it." She handed it to her aunt, who raised her eyebrows when she saw the writing, as if she recognized it, hastily drew the letter from its envelope, and held it so that the blaze fell upon it while she read. Evadne knelt on the hearthrug, and stirred the fire, making it burn up brightly.
Mrs. Orton Beg returned the letter to the envelope when she had read it.
"What did you do?" she said.
"I read it before I went downstairs, and at first I could not think what to do, so we drove off together, but on the way to the station it suddenly flashed upon me that the proper thing to do would be to go at once and hear all that there was to tell, and fortunately Major Colquhoun gave me an opportunity of getting away without any dispute. He went to see about something, leaving me in the carriage, and I just got out, walked round the station, took a hansom, and drove off to the General Post Office to telegraph to my people."
"But why didn"t you go home?"
"For several reasons," Evadne answered, "the best being that I never thought of going home. I wanted to be alone and think. I fancied that at home they either could not or would not tell me anything of Major Colquhoun"s past life, and I was determined to know the truth exactly. And I can"t tell you how many sayings of my father"s recurred to me all at once with a new significance, and made me fear that there was some difference between his point of view and mine on the subject of a suitable husband. He told me himself that Major Colquhoun had been quite frank about his past career, and then, when I came to think, it appeared to me clearly that it was the frankness which had satisfied my father; the career itself was nothing. You heard how pleased they were about my engagement?"
"Yes," Mrs. Orton Beg answered slowly, "and I confess I was a little surprised when I heard from your mother that your _fiance_ had been "wild" in his youth, for I remembered some remarks you made last year about the kind of man you would object to marry, and it seemed to me from the description that Major Colquhoun was very much that kind of man."
"Then why didn"t you warn me?" Evadne exclaimed.
"I don"t know whether I quite thought it was a subject for warning," Mrs.
Orton Beg answered, "and at any rate, girls _do_ talk in that way sometimes, not really meaning it. I thought it was mere _youngness_ on our part, and theory; and I don"t know now whether I quite approve of your having been told--of this new departure, she added, indicating the letter.
"_I_ do," said Evadne decidedly. "I would stop the imposition, approved of custom, connived at by parents, made possible by the state of ignorance in which we are carefully kept--the imposition upon a girl"s innocence and inexperience of a disreputable man for a husband."
Mrs. Orton Beg was startled by this bold a.s.sertion, which was so unprecedented in her experience that for a moment she could not utter a word; and when she did speak she avoided a direct reply, because she thought any discussion on the subject of marriage, except from the sentimental point of view, was indelicate.
"But tell me your position exactly," she begged--"what you did next: why you are here!"
"I went by the night mail North," Evadne answered, "and saw them. They were very kind. They told me everything. I can"t repeat the details; they disgust me."
"No, pray don"t!" Mrs. Orton Beg exclaimed hastily. She had no mind for anything unsavoury.
"They had been abroad, you know," Evadne pursued; "Otherwise I should have heard from them as soon as the engagement was announced. They hoped to be in time, however. They had no idea the marriage would take place so soon."
Mrs. Orton Beg reflected for a little, and then she asked in evident trepidation, for she had more than a suspicion of what the reply would be: "Anc what are you going to do?"
"Decline to live with him," Evadne answered.
This was what Mrs. Orton Beg had begun to suspect, but there is often an element of surprise in the confirmation of our shrewdest suspicions, and now she sat upright, leant forward, and looked at her niece aghast.
"_What_?" she demanded.
"I shall decline to live with him," Evadne repeated with emphasis.
Mrs. Orton Beg slowly resumed her reclining position, acting as one does who has heard the worst, and realizes that there is nothing to be done but to recover from the shock.
"I thought you loved him," she ventured, after a prolonged pause.
"Yes, so did I," Evadne answered, frowning--"but I was mistaken. It was a mere affair of the senses, to be put off by the first circ.u.mstance calculated to cause a revulsion of feeling by lowering him in my estimation--a thing so slight that, after reading the letter, as we drove to the station--even so soon! I could see him as he is. I noticed at once-- but it was for the first time--I noticed that, although his face is handsome, the expression of it is not n.o.ble at all." She shuddered as at the sight of something repulsive. "You see," she explained, "my taste is cultivated to so fine an extent, I require something extremely well-flavoured for the dish which is to be the _piece de resistance_ of my life-feast. My appet.i.te is delicate, it requires to be tempted, and a husband of that kind, a moral leper"--she broke off with a gesture, spreading her hands, palms outward, as if she would fain put some horrid idea far from her. "Besides, marrying a man like that, allowing him an a.s.sured position in society, is countenancing vice, and"--she glanced round apprehensively, then added in a fearful whisper--"_helping to spread it_."
Mrs. Orton Beg knew in her head that reason and right were on Evadne"s side, but she felt in her heart the full force of the custom and prejudice that would be against her, and shrank appalled by the thought of what the cruel struggle to come must be if Evadne persisted in her determination.
In view of this, she sat up in her chair once more energetically, prepared to do her best to dissuade her; but then again she relapsed, giving in to a doubt of her own capacity to advise in such an emergency, accompanied by a sudden and involuntary feeling of respect for Evadne"s principles, however peculiar and unprecedented they might be, and for the strength of character which had enabled her so far to act upon them. "You must obey your own conscience, Evadne," was what she found herself saying at last.
"I will help you to do that. I would rather not influence you. You may be right. I cannot be sure--and yet--I don"t agree with you. For I know if I could have my husband back with me, I would welcome him, even if he were--a leper." Evadne compressed her lips in steady disapproval. "I should think only of his future. I should forgive the past."
"That is the mistake you good women all make," said Evadne. "You set a detestably bad example. So long as women like you will forgive anything, men will do anything. You have it in your power to set up a high standard of excellence for men to reach in order to have the privilege of a.s.sociating with you. There is this quality in men, that they will have the best of everything; and if the best wives are only to be obtained by being worthy of them, they will strive to become so. As it is, however, why should they? Instead of punishing them for their depravity, you encourage them in it by overlooking it; and besides," she added, "you must know that there is no past in the matter of vice. The consequences become hereditary, and continue from generation to generation."
Again Mrs. Orton Beg felt herself checked.
"Where did you hear all this, Evadne!" she asked,
"I never heard it. I read--and I thought," she answered. "But I am only now beginning to understand," she added. "I suppose moral axioms are always the outcome of pained reflection. Knowledge cries to us in vain as a rule before experience has taken the sharp edge off our egotism--by experience, I mean the addition of some personal feeling to our knowledge."
"I don"t understand you in the least, Evadne," Mrs. Orton Beg replied.
"Your husband was a good man," Evadne answered indirectly. "You have never thought about what a woman ought to do who has married a bad one--in an emergency like mine, that is. You think I should act as women have been always advised to act in such cases, that I should sacrifice myself to save that one man"s soul. I take a different view of it. I see that the world is not a bit the better for centuries of self-sacrifice on the woman"s part and therefore I think it is time we tried a more effectual plan. And I propose now to sacrifice the man instead of the woman."
Mrs. Orton Beg was silent.
"Have you nothing to say to me, auntie?" Evadne asked at last, caressingly.
"I do not like to hear you talk so, Evadne. Every word you say seems to banish something--something from this room--something from my life to which I cling. I think it is my faith in love--and loving. You may be right, but yet--the consequences! the struggle, if we must resist! It is best to submit. It is better not to know."