"I suppose you"ve never been tempted to go to sleep?"
Just then the train pa.s.sed through a coppice in which the grey undergrowth looked no more alive than firewood. Yet every twig in it was waiting for the spring. Rickie knew that the a.n.a.logy was false, but argument confused him, and he gave up this line of attack also.
"Do be more careful over life. If your body escapes you in one thing, why not in more? A man will have other temptations."
"You mean women," said Stephen quietly, pausing for a moment in this game. "But that"s absolutely different. That would be harming some one else."
"Is that the only thing that keeps you straight?"
"What else should?" And he looked not into Rickie, but past him, with the wondering eyes of a child. Rickie nodded, and referred himself to the window.
He observed that the country was smoother and more plastic. The woods had gone, and under a pale-blue sky long contours of earth were flowing, and merging, rising a little to bear some coronal of beeches, parting a little to disclose some green valley, where cottages stood under elms or beside translucent waters. It was Wiltshire at last. The train had entered the chalk. At last it slackened at a wayside platform. Without speaking he opened the door.
"What"s that for?"
"To go back."
Stephen had forgotten the threat. He said that this was not playing the game.
"Surely!"
"I can"t have you going back."
"Promise to behave decently then."
He was seized and pulled away from the door.
"We change at Salisbury," he remarked. "There is an hour to wait. You will find me troublesome."
"It isn"t fair," exploded Stephen. "It"s a lowdown trick. How can I let you go back?"
"Promise, then."
"Oh, yes, yes, yes. Y.M.C.A. But for this occasion only."
"No, no. For the rest of your holiday."
"Yes, yes. Very well. I promise."
"For the rest of your life?"
Somehow it pleased him that Stephen should bang him crossly with his elbow and say, "No. Get out. You"ve gone too far." So had the train.
The porter at the end of the wayside platform slammed the door, and they proceeded toward Salisbury through the slowly modulating downs. Rickie pretended to read. Over the book he watched his brother"s face, and wondered how bad temper could be consistent with a mind so radiant. In spite of his obstinacy and conceit, Stephen was an easy person to live with. He never fidgeted or nursed hidden grievances, or indulged in a shoddy pride. Though he spent Rickie"s money as slowly as he could, he asked for it without apology: "You must put it down against me," he would say. In time--it was still very vague--he would rent or purchase a farm. There is no formula in which we may sum up decent people. So Ansell had preached, and had of course proceeded to offer a formula: "They must be serious, they must be truthful." Serious not in the sense of glum; but they must be convinced that our life is a state of some importance, and our earth not a place to beat time on. Of so much Stephen was convinced: he showed it in his work, in his play, in his self-respect, and above all--though the fact is hard to face-in his sacred pa.s.sion for alcohol. Drink, today, is an unlovely thing. Between us and the heights of Cithaeron the river of sin now flows. Yet the cries still call from the mountain, and granted a man has responded to them, it is better he respond with the candour of the Greek.
"I shall stop at the Thompsons" now," said the disappointed reveller.
"Prayers."
Rickie did not press his triumph, but it was a happy moment, partly because of the triumph, partly because he was sure that his brother must care for him. Stephen was too selfish to give up any pleasure without grave reasons. He was certain that he had been right to disentangle himself from Sawston, and to ignore the threats and tears that still tempted him to return. Here there was real work for him to do. Moreover, though he sought no reward, it had come. His health was better, his brain sound, his life washed clean, not by the waters of sentiment, but by the efforts of a fellow-man. Stephen was man first, brother afterwards. Herein lay his brutality and also his virtue. "Look me in the face. Don"t hang on me clothes that don"t belong--as you did on your wife, giving her saint"s robes, whereas she was simply a woman of her own sort, who needed careful watching. Tear up the photographs. Here am I, and there are you. The rest is cant." The rest was not cant, and perhaps Stephen would confess as much in time. But Rickie needed a tonic, and a man, not a brother, must hold it to his lips.
"I see the old spire," he called, and then added, "I don"t mind seeing it again."
"No one does, as far as I know. People have come from the other side of the world to see it again."
"Pious people. But I don"t hold with bishops." He was young enough to be uneasy. The cathedral, a fount of superst.i.tion, must find no place in his life. At the age of twenty he had settled things.
"I"ve got my own philosophy," he once told Ansell, "and I don"t care a straw about yours." Ansell"s mirth had annoyed him not a little. And it was strange that one so settled should feel his heart leap up at the sight of an old spire. "I regard it as a public building," he told Rickie, who agreed. "It"s useful, too, as a landmark." His att.i.tude today was defensive. It was part of a subtle change that Rickie had noted in him since his return from Scotland. His face gave hints of a new maturity. "You can see the old spire from the Ridgeway," he said, suddenly laying a hand on Rickie"s knee, "before rain as clearly as any telegraph post."
"How far is the Ridgeway?"
"Seventeen miles."
"Which direction?"
"North, naturally. North again from that you see Devizes, the vale of Pewsey, and the other downs. Also towards Bath. It is something of a view. You ought to get on the Ridgeway."
"I shouldn"t have time for that."
"Or Beacon Hill. Or let"s do Stonehenge."
"If it"s fine, I suggest the Rings."
"It will be fine." Then he murmured the names of villages.
"I wish you could live here," said Rickie kindly. "I believe you love these particular acres more than the whole world."
Stephen replied that this was not the case: he was only used to them.
He wished they were driving out, instead of waiting for the Cadchurch train.
They had advanced into Salisbury, and the cathedral, a public building, was grey against a tender sky. Rickie suggested that, while waiting for the train, they should visit it. He spoke of the incomparable north porch. "I"ve never been inside it, and I never will. Sorry to shock you, Rickie, but I must tell you plainly. I"m an atheist. I don"t believe in anything."
"I do," said Rickie.
"When a man dies, it"s as if he"s never been," he a.s.serted. The train drew up in Salisbury station. Here a little incident took place which caused them to alter their plans.
They found outside the station a trap driven by a small boy, who had come in from Cadford to fetch some wire-netting. "That"ll do us," said Stephen, and called to the boy, "If I pay your railway-ticket back, and if I give you sixpence as well, will you let us drive back in the trap?" The boy said no. "It will be all right," said Rickie. "I am Mrs.
Failing"s nephew." The boy shook his head. "And you know Mr. Wonham?"
The boy couldn"t say he didn"t. "Then what"s your objection? Why? What is it? Why not?" But Stephen leant against the time-tables and spoke of other matters.
Presently the boy said, "Did you say you"d pay my railway-ticket back, Mr. Wonham?"
"Yes," said a bystander. "Didn"t you hear him?"
"I heard him right enough."
Now Stephen laid his hand on the splash-board, saying, "What I want, though, is this trap here of yours, see, to drive in back myself;" and as he spoke the bystander followed him in canon, "What he wants, though, is that there trap of yours, see, to drive hisself back in."
"I"ve no objection," said the boy, as if deeply offended. For a time he sat motionless, and then got down, remarking, "I won"t rob you of your sixpence."
"Silly little fool," snapped Rickie, as they drove through the town.