Victoria returned the letter to her son, pointing to the last sentence.
"It depends on what you expected. I never took to the young man."
"Why doesn"t he insist--or go!" cried Tatham.
"Apparently Melrose has bought him."
"I say, don"t let"s believe that till we know!"
When his mother left him, Tatham took his way to the moor, and spent an uncomfortable hour in rumination. Lydia had spoken of Faversham once or twice in her early letters from the south; but lately there had been no references to him at all. Was she disappointed--or too much interested?--too deeply involved? A vague but gnawing jealousy was fastening on Tatham day by day; and he had not been able to conceal it from his mother. Lydia was free--of course she was free! But friends have their right too. "If she is really going that way, I ought to know,"
thought poor Tatham.
Meanwhile Lydia herself would have been hard put to it to say whither she was going. But that moral and intellectual landscape which had lain so clear before her when she left Green Cottage was certainly beginning to blur; the mists were descending upon it.
She spent the August and September days working feverishly hard in Delorme"s studio, and her evenings in a pleasant society of young artists, of both s.e.xes, all gathered at the feet of the great man. But her mind was often far away; and rational theories as to the true relations between men and women were neither so clear nor so supporting as they had been.
She had now two intimate men friends; two ardent and devoted correspondents. Scarcely a day pa.s.sed that she was not in touch with both of them. Her knowledge of the male temperament and male ways of looking at things was increasing fast. So far she had her desire. And in her correspondence with the two men, she had amply "played up." She had given herself--her thoughts, feelings, imaginations--to both; in different ways, and different degrees.
And what was happening? Simply a natural, irresistible discrimination, which was like the slow inflooding of the tide through the river mouth it forces. Tatham"s letters were all pleasure. Not a word of wooing in them. He had given his word, and he kept it. But the unveiling of a character so simple, strong, and honest, to the eyes of this girl of four-and-twenty, conveyed of itself a tribute that could not but rouse both grat.i.tude and affection in Lydia. She did her best to reward him; and so far her "ideas" had worked.
Faversham"s letters, on the other hand, from the governing event of the day, had now become a pain and a distress. The exultant and exuberant self-confidence of the earlier correspondence, the practical dreams on paper which had stirred her enthusiasm and delight--they came, it seemed to her, to a sudden and jarring end, somewhere about the opening of September. The change was evidently connected with the return of Mr.
Melrose from abroad just at that time. The letters grew rambling, evasive, contradictory. Doubt and bitterness began to appear in them.
She asked for facts about his work, and they were not given her. Instead the figure of Melrose rose on the horizon, till he dominated the correspondence, a harsh and fantastic task-master, to whose will and conscience it was useless to appeal.
When two months of this double correspondence had gone by, and in the absence of Lydia"s usual friends and correspondents from the Pengarth neighbourhood, no other information from the north had arrived to supplement Faversham"s letters, Susy, who was in the Tyrol with a friend, might have drawn ample "copy," from her sister"s condition, had she witnessed it. Lydia was most clearly unhappy. She was desperately interested, and full of pity; yet apparently powerless to help. There was a tug at her heart, a grip on her thoughts, which increased perpetually. Faversham wrote to her often like a guilty man; why, she could not imagine. The appeal of his letters to her had begun to shake her nerves, to haunt her nights. She longed for the October day when Green Cottage would be free from its tenants, and she once more on the spot.
With the second week of October, Lady Tatham returned to Duddon. Tatham would have been with her, but that he was detained, grumbling, by a political demonstration at Newcastle. Never had he felt political speech-making so tedious. But for a foolish promise to talk drivel to a crowd of people who knew even less about the subject than he, he might have been spending the evening with Lydia. For the strangers in Green Cottage had departed, and Lydia was again within his reach.
The return to Duddon after an absence had never lost its freshness for Victoria. Woman of fifty as she was, she was still a bundle of pa.s.sions, in the intellectual and poetic sense. The sight of her own fells and streams, the sound of the c.u.mbrian "aa"s," and "oo"s," the scurrying of the sheep among the fern, the breath of the wind in the Glendarra woods, the scent of moss and heather--these things rilled her with just the same thrills and gushes of delight as in her youth. Such thrills and gushes were for her own use only; she never offered them for inspection by other people.
She had no sooner looked at her letters, and chatted with her housekeeper, on the day of her return, than clothed in her oldest gown and thickest shoes, she went out wandering by herself through the October dusk; ravished by the colour in which autumn had been wrapping the c.u.mbrian earth since she had beheld it last; the purples and golds and amethysts, the touches of emerald green, the fringes of blue and purple mist; by the familiar music of the streams, which is not as the Scotch music; and the scents of the hills, which are not as the scents of the Highlands. Yet all the time she was thinking of Harry and Lydia Penfold; trying to plan the winter, and what she was to do.
It was dark, with a rising moon when she got back to Duddon. The butler, an old servant, was watching for her in the hall. She noticed disturbance in his manner.
"There are two ladies, my lady, in the drawing-room."
"Two ladies!--Hurst!" The tone was reproachful. Victoria did not always suffer her neighbours gladly, and Hurst knew her ways. The first evening at home was sacred.
"I could not help it, my lady. I told them you were out, and might not be in till dark. They said they must see you--they had come from Italy--and it was most important."
"From Italy!" repeated Victoria, wondering--"who on earth--Did they give their name?"
"No, my lady, they said you"d know them quite well."
Victoria hurried on to the drawing-room. Two figures rose as she entered the room, which was only lit by the firelight; and then stood motionless.
Victoria advanced bewildered.
"Will you kindly tell me your names?"
"Don"t you remember me, Lady Tatham?" said a low, excited voice.
Victoria turned on an electric switch close to her hand, and the room was suddenly in a blaze of light. She looked in scrutinizing astonishment at the figure in dingy black, standing before her, and at a girl, looking about sixteen--deathly pale--who seemed to be leaning on a chair in the background.
That strange, triangular face, with the sharp chin, and the abnormal eyes--where, in what dim past, had she seen it before? For some seconds memory wrestled. Then, old and new came together; and she recognized her visitor.
"Mrs. Melrose!" she said, in incredulous amazement. The woman in black came nearer, and spoke brokenly--the bitter emotion beneath gradually forcing its way.
"I am in great distress--I don"t know what to do. My daughter and I are starving--and I remembered you"d come to see me--that once--at Threlfall.
I knew all about you. I"ve asked English people often. I thought perhaps you"d help me--you"d tell me how to make my husband do something for me--for me--and for his daughter! Look at her"--Netta paused and pointed--"she"s ill--she"s dropping. We had to hurry through from Lucca.
We couldn"t afford to stop on the way. We sold everything we had; some people collected a hundred francs for us; and we just managed to buy our tickets. Felicia didn"t want to come, but I made her. I couldn"t see her die before my eyes. We"ve starved for months. We"ve parted with everything, and I"ve written to Mr. Melrose again and again. He"s never answered--till a few weeks ago, and he said if we troubled him again he"d stop the money. He"s a bad, bad man."
Shaking, her teeth chattering, her hands clenched at her side, the forlorn creature stared at Victoria. She was not old, but she was a wreck; a withered, emaciated wreck of the woman Victoria had once seen twenty years before.
Victoria, laying a gentle hand upon her, drew an armchair forward.
"Sit down, please, and rest. You shall have food directly. I will have rooms got ready. And this is your daughter?"
She went up to the girl who stood shivering like her mother, and speechless. But her proud black eyes met Victoria"s with a pa.s.sion in them that seemed to resent a touch, a look. "She ought to be lovely!"
thought Victoria; "she is--if one could feed and dress her."
"You poor child! Come and lie down."
She took hold of the girl and guided her to a sofa. When they reached it, the little creature fell half fainting upon it. But she controlled herself by an astonishing effort, thanked Victoria in Italian, and curling herself up in a corner she closed her eyes. The white profile on the dark sofa cushion was of a most delicate perfection, and as Victoria helped to remove her hat she saw a small dark head covered with short curls like a boy"s.
Netta Melrose looked round the beautiful room, its pictures, its deep sofas and chairs, its bright fire, and then at the figures of Victoria and the housekeeper in the distance. Victoria was giving her orders. The tears were on Netta"s cheeks. Yet she had the vague, ineffable feeling of one just drawn from the waves. She had done right. She had saved herself and Felicia.
Food was brought, and wine. They were coaxed to eat, warmed and comforted. Then Victoria took them up through the broad, scented pa.s.sages of the beautiful house to rooms that had been got ready for them.
"Don"t talk any more to-night. You shall tell me everything to-morrow. My maid will help you. I will come back presently to see you have everything you want."
Felicia, frowning, wished to unpack their small hand-bag, with its shabby contents, for herself. But she was too feeble, and the maid, in spite of what seemed to the two forlorn ones her fine clothes and fine ways, was kind and tactful. Victoria"s wardrobe was soon laid under contribution; beautiful linen, and soft silken things she possessed but seldom wore, were brought out for her dest.i.tute guests.
Victoria came in to say good-night. Netta looked at the stately woman, the hair just beginning to be gray, the strong face with its story of fastidious thought, of refined and sheltered living.
"You"re awfully good to us. It"s twenty years!--" Her voice failed her.
"Twenty years--yes, indeed! since I drove over to see you that time! Your daughter was a little toddling thing."
"We"ve had such a life--these last few years--oh, such an awful life! My old father"s still alive--but would be better if he were dead.
My mother depended on us entirely--she"s dead. But I"ll explain everything--everything."
It was clear, however, that till sleep had knit up the ravelled nerves of the poor lady, no coherent conversation was possible. Victoria hastened to depart.
"To-morrow you shall tell me all about yourself. My son will be home to-morrow. We will consult him and see what can be done."