"Do you think you"ll take him?" he said, bending over the little fellow. "He doesn"t look a bit himself to-day. It"s those abominable plums of Dora"s!"
He spoke with fierceness, as though Dora had been the veriest criminal.
"Well, but what nonsense!" cried Lucy; "they don"t upset other children. I can"t think what"s wrong with him."
"He isn"t like other children; he"s of a finer make," said David, laughing at his own folly, but more than half sincere in it all the same.
Lucy laughed too, and was appeased. She bent down to look at him, confessed that he was pale, and that she had better not take him lest there should be catastrophes.
"Well, then, I must go alone," she said, turning away discontentedly. "I don"t know what"s the good of it. n.o.body cares to see me without him or you."
The last sentence came out with a sudden energy, and as she looked back towards him he saw that her cheek was flushed.
"What, in that new gown?" he said, smiling, and looked her up and down approvingly.
Her expression brightened.
"Do you like it?" she said, more graciously.
"Very much. You look as young as when I first teased you! Come here and let me give you a "nip for new.""
She came docilely. He pretended to pinch the thin wrist she held out to him, and then, stooping, lightly kissed it.
"Now go and enjoy yourself," he said, "and I"ll take care of Sandy.
Don"t tire yourself. Take a cab when you want one."
She was moving away when a thought struck her.
"What are you going to say to Lord Driffield?"
A cloud crossed David"s look. "Well, what am I to say to him? You don"t really want to go, Lucy?"
In an instant the angry look came back.
"Oh, very well!" she cried. "If you"re ashamed of me, and don"t care to take me about with you, just say it, that"s all!"
"As if I wanted to go myself!" he remonstrated. "Why, I should be bored to death; so would you. I don"t believe there would be a person in the house whom either of us would ever have seen before, except Lord Driffield. And I can see Lord Driffield, and his books too, in much more comfortable ways than by going to stay with him."
Lucy stood silent a moment, trying to contain herself, then she broke out:
"That is just like you!" she said in a low bitter voice; "you won"t take any chance of getting on. It"s always the way. People say to me that you"re so clever--that you"re thought so much of in Manchester, you might be anything you like. And what"s the good?--that"s what I think!
If you do earn more money you won"t let us live any differently. It"s always, can"t we do without this? and can"t we do without that? And as to knowing people, you won"t take any trouble at all! Why can"t we get on, and make new friends, and be--be--as good as anybody? other people do. I believe you think I should disgrace myself--I should put my knife in my mouth, or something, if you took me to Lord Driffield"s. I can behave myself _perfectly_, thank you."
And Lucy looked at her husband in a perfect storm of temper and resentment. Her prettiness had lost much of its first bloom; the cheek-bones, always too high, were now more prominent than in first youth, and the whole face had a restless thinness which robbed it of charm, save at certain rare moments of unusual moral or physical well-being. David, meeting his wife"s sparkling eyes, felt a pang compounded of many mixed compunctions and misgivings.
"Look here, Lucy!" he said, laying down his pipe, and stretching out his free hand to her, "don"t say those things. They hurt me, and you don"t mean them. Come and sit down a moment, and let"s make up our minds about Lord Driffield."
Unwillingly she let herself be drawn down beside him on the garden bench. These quarrels and reproaches were becoming a necessity and a pleasure to her. David felt, with a secret dread, that the habit of them had been growing upon her.
"I haven"t done so very badly for you, have I?" he said affectionately, as she sat down, taking her two gloved hands in his one.
Lucy vehemently drew them away.
"Oh, if you mean to say," she cried, her eyes flaming, "that I had no money, and ought just to be thankful for what I can get, just _say it_, that"s all."
This time David flushed.
"I think, perhaps, you"d better go and pay your calls," he said, after a minute; "we can talk about this letter some other time."
Lucy sat silent her chest heaving. As soon as ever in these little scenes between them he began to show resentment, she began to give way.
"I didn"t mean that," she said, uncertainly, in a low voice looking ready to cry.
"Well, then, suppose you don"t say it," replied David, after a pause. "If you"ll try and believe it, Lucy, I don"t want to go to Lord Driffield"s simply and solely because I am sure we should neither of us enjoy it. Lady Driffield is a stuck-up sort of person, who only cares about her own set and relations. We should be patronised, we should find it difficult to be ourselves--there would be no profit for anybody. Lord Driffield would be too busy to look after us; besides, he has more power anywhere than in his own house."
"No one could patronise you," said Lucy, firing up again.
"I don"t know," said David, with a smile and a stretch; "I"m shy--on other people"s domains. If they"d come here I should know how to deal with them."
Lucy was silent for a while, twisting her mouth discontentedly.
David observed her. Suddenly he held out his hand to her again, relenting.
"Do you really want to go so much, Lucy?"
"Of course I do," she said, pouting, in a quick injured tone.
"It"s--it"s a chance, and I want to see what it"s like; and I should hardly have to buy anything new, unless it"s a new bonnet, and I can make that myself."
David sat considering.
"Well!" he said at last, trying to stifle his sigh, "I don"t mind.
I"ll write and accept."
Lucy"s eye gleamed. She edged closer to her husband.
"You won"t mind very much? It"s only two nights. Isn"t Sandy cramping your arm?"
"Oh, we shall get through, I dare say. No--the boy"s all right. I _say_"--with a groan--"shall I have to get a new dress suit?"
"Yes, of _course_," said Lucy, with indignant eagerness.
"Well, then, if you don"t go off, and let me earn some money, we shall be in the Bankruptcy Court. Good-bye! I shall take the boy into the study, and cover him up while I work."
Lucy stood before him an instant, then stooped and kissed him on the forehead. She would have liked to say a penitent word or two, but there was still something hard and hot in her heart which prevented her. Yet her husband, as he sat there, seemed to her the handsomest and most desirable of men.
David nodded to her kindly, and sat watching her slim straight figure as she tripped away from him across the garden and disappeared into the house. Then he bent over Sandy and raised him in his arms.
"Don"t wake, Sandy!" he said softly, as the little man half opened his eyes--"Daddy"s going to put you to bye in the study."
And he carried him in, the child breathing heavily against his shoulder, and deposited his bundle on an old horsehair sofa in the corner of his own room, turning the little face away from the light, and wrapping up the bare legs.