"I see. It does--or might."
"The headmaster will never sanction it when it"s put to him plainly."
"But why should I put it?" said Rickie, twisting the ribbons of his gown round his fingers.
"Because you"re the boy"s form-master."
"Is that a reason?"
"Of course it is."
"I only wondered whether--" He did not like to say that he wondered whether he need do it his first morning.
"By some means or other you must find out--of course you know already, but you must find out from the boy. I know--I have it! Where"s his health certificate?"
"He had forgotten it."
"Just like them. Well, when he brings it, it will be signed by Mrs. Orr, and you must look at it and say, "Orr--Orr--Mrs. Orr?" or something to that effect, and then the whole thing will come naturally out."
The bell rang, and they went in for the hour of school that concluded the morning. Varden brought his health certificate--a pompous doc.u.ment a.s.serting that he had not suffered from roseola or kindred ailments in the holidays--and for a long time Rickie sat with it before him, spread open upon his desk. He did not quite like the job. It suggested intrigue, and he had come to Sawston not to intrigue but to labour.
Doubtless Herbert was right, and Mr. Jackson and Mrs. Orr were wrong.
But why could they not have it out among themselves? Then he thought, "I am a coward, and that"s why I"m raising these objections," called the boy up to him, and it did all come out naturally, more or less. Hitherto Varden had lived with his mother; but she had left Sawston at Christmas, and now he would live with Mrs. Orr. "Mr. Jackson, sir, said it would be all right."
"Yes, yes," said Rickie; "quite so." He remembered Herbert"s dictum: "Masters must present a united front. If they do not--the deluge." He sent the boy back to his seat, and after school took the compromising health certificate to the headmaster. The headmaster was at that time easily excited by a breach of the const.i.tution. "Parents or guardians,"
he reputed--"parents or guardians," and flew with those words on his lips to Mr. Jackson. To say that Rickie was a cat"s-paw is to put it too strongly. Herbert was strictly honourable, and never pushed him into an illegal or really dangerous position; but there is no doubt that on this and on many other occasions he had to do things that he would not otherwise have done. There was always some diplomatic corner that had to be turned, always something that he had to say or not to say. As the term wore on he lost his independence--almost without knowing it. He had much to learn about boys, and he learnt not by direct observation--for which he believed he was unfitted--but by sedulous imitation of the more experienced masters. Originally he had intended to be friends with his pupils, and Mr. Pembroke commended the intention highly; but you cannot be friends either with boy or man unless you give yourself away in the process, and Mr. Pembroke did not commend this. He, for "personal intercourse," subst.i.tuted the safer "personal influence," and gave his junior hints on the setting of kindly traps, in which the boy does give himself away and reveals his shy delicate thoughts, while the master, intact, commends or corrects them. Originally Rickie had meant to help boys in the anxieties that they undergo when changing into men: at Cambridge he had numbered this among life"s duties. But here is a subject in which we must inevitably speak as one human being to another, not as one who has authority or the shadow of authority, and for this reason the elder school-master could suggest nothing but a few formulae.
Formulae, like kindly traps, were not in Rickie"s line, so he abandoned these subjects altogether and confined himself to working hard at what was easy. In the house he did as Herbert did, and referred all doubtful subjects to him. In his form, oddly enough, he became a martinet. It is so much simpler to be severe. He grasped the school regulations, and insisted on prompt obedience to them. He adopted the doctrine of collective responsibility. When one boy was late, he punished the whole form. "I can"t help it," he would say, as if he was a power of nature.
As a teacher he was rather dull. He curbed his own enthusiasms, finding that they distracted his attention, and that while he throbbed to the music of Virgil the boys in the back row were getting unruly. But on the whole he liked his form work: he knew why he was there, and Herbert did not overshadow him so completely.
What was amiss with Herbert? He had known that something was amiss, and had entered into partnership with open eyes. The man was kind and unselfish; more than that he was truly charitable, and it was a real pleasure to him to give--pleasure to others. Certainly he might talk too much about it afterwards; but it was the doing, not the talking, that he really valued, and benefactors of this sort are not too common. He was, moreover, diligent and conscientious: his heart was in his work, and his adherence to the Church of England no mere matter of form. He was capable of affection: he was usually courteous and tolerant. Then what was amiss? Why, in spite of all these qualities, should Rickie feel that there was something wrong with him--nay, that he was wrong as a whole, and that if the Spirit of Humanity should ever hold a judgment he would a.s.suredly be cla.s.sed among the goats? The answer at first sight appeared a graceless one--it was that Herbert was stupid. Not stupid in the ordinary sense--he had a business-like brain, and acquired knowledge easily--but stupid in the important sense: his whole life was coloured by a contempt of the intellect. That he had a tolerable intellect of his own was not the point: it is in what we value, not in what we have, that the test of us resides. Now, Rickie"s intellect was not remarkable. He came to his worthier results rather by imagination and instinct than by logic. An argument confused him, and he could with difficulty follow it even on paper. But he saw in this no reason for satisfaction, and tried to make such use of his brain as he could, just as a weak athlete might lovingly exercise his body. Like a weak athlete, too, he loved to watch the exploits, or rather the efforts, of others--their efforts not so much to acquire knowledge as to dispel a little of the darkness by which we and all our acquisitions are surrounded. Cambridge had taught him this, and he knew, if for no other reason, that his time there had not been in vain. And Herbert"s contempt for such efforts revolted him. He saw that for all his fine talk about a spiritual life he had but one test for things--success: success for the body in this life or for the soul in the life to come. And for this reason Humanity, and perhaps such other tribunals as there may be, would a.s.suredly reject him.
XVIII
Meanwhile he was a husband. Perhaps his union should have been emphasized before. The crown of life had been attained, the vague yearnings, the misread impulses, had found accomplishment at last. Never again must he feel lonely, or as one who stands out of the broad highway of the world and fears, like poor Sh.e.l.ley, to undertake the longest journey. So he reasoned, and at first took the accomplishment for granted. But as the term pa.s.sed he knew that behind the yearning there remained a yearning, behind the drawn veil a veil that he could not draw. His wedding had been no mighty landmark: he would often wonder whether such and such a speech or incident came after it or before.
Since that meeting in the Soho restaurant there had been so much to do--clothes to buy, presents to thank for, a brief visit to a Training College, a honeymoon as brief. In such a bustle, what spiritual union could take place? Surely the dust would settle soon: in Italy, at Easter, he might perceive the infinities of love. But love had shown him its infinities already. Neither by marriage nor by any other device can men insure themselves a vision; and Rickie"s had been granted him three years before, when he had seen his wife and a dead man clasped in each other"s arms. She was never to be so real to him again.
She ran about the house looking handsomer than ever. Her cheerful voice gave orders to the servants. As he sat in the study correcting compositions, she would dart in and give him a kiss. "Dear girl--" he would murmur, with a glance at the rings on her hand. The tone of their marriage life was soon set. It was to be a frank good-fellowship, and before long he found it difficult to speak in a deeper key.
One evening he made the effort. There had been more beauty than was usual at Sawston. The air was pure and quiet. Tomorrow the fog might be here, but today one said, "It is like the country." Arm in arm they strolled in the side-garden, stopping at times to notice the crocuses, or to wonder when the daffodils would flower. Suddenly he tightened his pressure, and said, "Darling, why don"t you still wear ear-rings?"
"Ear-rings?" She laughed. "My taste has improved, perhaps."
So after all they never mentioned Gerald"s name. But he hoped it was still dear to her. He did not want her to forget the greatest moment in her life. His love desired not ownership but confidence, and to a love so pure it does not seem terrible to come second.
He valued emotion--not for itself, but because it is the only final path to intimacy. She, ever robust and practical, always discouraged him.
She was not cold; she would willingly embrace him. But she hated being upset, and would laugh or thrust him off when his voice grew serious.
In this she reminded him of his mother. But his mother--he had never concealed it from himself--had glories to which his wife would never attain: glories that had unfolded against a life of horror--a life even more horrible than he had guessed. He thought of her often during these earlier months. Did she bless his union, so different to her own? Did she love his wife? He tried to speak of her to Agnes, but again she was reluctant. And perhaps it was this aversion to acknowledge the dead, whose images alone have immortality, that made her own image somewhat transient, so that when he left her no mystic influence remained, and only by an effort could he realize that G.o.d had united them forever.
They conversed and differed healthily upon other topics. A rifle corps was to be formed: she hoped that the boys would have proper uniforms, instead of shooting in their old clothes, as Mr. Jackson had suggested.
There was Tewson; could nothing be done about him? He would slink away from the other prefects and go with boys of his own age. There was Lloyd: he would not learn the school anthem, saying that it hurt his throat. And above all there was Varden, who, to Rickie"s bewilderment, was now a member of Dunwood House.
"He had to go somewhere," said Agnes. "Lucky for his mother that we had a vacancy."
"Yes--but when I meet Mrs. Orr--I can"t help feeling ashamed."
"Oh, Mrs. Orr! Who cares for her? Her teeth are drawn. If she chooses to insinuate that we planned it, let her. Hers was rank dishonesty. She attempted to set up a boarding-house."
Mrs. Orr, who was quite rich, had attempted no such thing. She had taken the boy out of charity, and without a thought of being unconst.i.tutional.
But in had come this officious "Limpet" and upset the headmaster, and she was scolded, and Mrs. Varden was scolded, and Mr. Jackson was scolded, and the boy was scolded and placed with Mr. Pembroke, whom she revered less than any man in the world. Naturally enough, she considered it a further attempt of the authorities to snub the day-boys, for whose advantage the school had been founded. She and Mrs. Jackson discussed the subject at their tea-parties, and the latter lady was sure that no good, no good of any kind, would come to Dunwood House from such ill-gotten plunder.
"We say, "Let them talk,"" persisted Rickie, "but I never did like letting people talk. We are right and they are wrong, but I wish the thing could have been done more quietly. The headmaster does get so excited. He has given a gang of foolish people their opportunity. I don"t like being branded as the day-boy"s foe, when I think how much I would have given to be a day-boy myself. My father found me a nuisance, and put me through the mill, and I can never forget it particularly the evenings."
"There"s very little bullying here," said Agnes.
"There was very little bullying at my school. There was simply the atmosphere of unkindness, which no discipline can dispel. It"s not what people do to you, but what they mean, that hurts."
"I don"t understand."
"Physical pain doesn"t hurt--at least not what I call hurt--if a man hits you by accident or play. But just a little tap, when you know it comes from hatred, is too terrible. Boys do hate each other: I remember it, and see it again. They can make strong isolated friendships, but of general good-fellowship they haven"t a notion."
"All I know is there"s very little bullying here."
"You see, the notion of good-fellowship develops late: you can just see its beginning here among the prefects: up at Cambridge it flourishes amazingly. That"s why I pity people who don"t go up to Cambridge: not because a University is smart, but because those are the magic years, and--with luck--you see up there what you couldn"t see before and mayn"t ever see again.
"Aren"t these the magic years?" the lady demanded.
He laughed and hit at her. "I"m getting somewhat involved. But hear me, O Agnes, for I am practical. I approve of our public schools. Long may they, flourish. But I do not approve of the boarding-house system. It isn"t an inevitable adjunct--"
"Good gracious me!" she shrieked. "Have you gone mad?"
"Silence, madam. Don"t betray me to Herbert, or I"ll give us the sack.
But seriously, what is the good of, throwing boys so much together?
Isn"t it building their lives on a wrong basis? They don"t understand each other. I wish they did, but they don"t. They don"t realize that human beings are simply marvellous. When they do, the whole of life changes, and you get the true thing. But don"t pretend you"ve got it before you have. Patriotism and esprit de corps are all very well, but masters a little forget that they must grow from sentiment. They cannot create one. Cannot-cannot--cannot. I never cared a straw for England until I cared for Englishmen, and boys can"t love the school when they hate each other. Ladies and gentlemen, I will now conclude my address.
And most of it is copied out of Mr. Ansell."
The truth is, he was suddenly ashamed. He had been carried away on the flood of his old emotions. Cambridge and all that it meant had stood before him pa.s.sionately clear, and beside it stood his mother and the sweet family life which nurses up a boy until he can salute his equals.
He was ashamed, for he remembered his new resolution--to work without criticizing, to throw himself vigorously into the machine, not to mind if he was pinched now and then by the elaborate wheels.
"Mr. Ansell!" cried his wife, laughing somewhat shrilly. "Aha! Now I understand. It"s just the kind of thing poor Mr. Ansell would say. Well, I"m brutal. I believe it does Varden good to have his ears pulled now and then, and I don"t care whether they pull them in play or not. Boys ought to rough it, or they never grow up into men, and your mother would have agreed with me. Oh yes; and you"re all wrong about patriotism. It can, can, create a sentiment."
She was unusually precise, and had followed his thoughts with an attention that was also unusual. He wondered whether she was not right, and regretted that she proceeded to say, "My dear boy, you mustn"t talk these heresies inside Dunwood House! You sound just like one of that reactionary Jackson set, who want to fling the school back a hundred years and have nothing but day-boys all dressed anyhow."
"The Jackson set have their points."
"You"d better join it."
"The Dunwood House set has its points." For Rickie suffered from the Primal Curse, which is not--as the Authorized Version suggests--the knowledge of good and evil, but the knowledge of good-and-evil.