Unknown, even to himself, Roger"s pa.s.sion had been gradually rising towards flood-tide. Man being by nature a contradictory animal, the att.i.tude a.s.sumed by his mother and cousin towards the woman who was to be his wife had seemed to fan rather than smother the flame.
All at once the curb had snapped. He wanted Nan, the same Nan with whom he had fallen in love--the inconsequent feminine thing of elusive frocks and absurd, delicious faults and weaknesses--rather than a Nan moulded into shape by Lady Gertrude"s iron hand. An intense resentment of his mother"s interference had been gradually growing up within him.
He would do all the moulding that was required, after matrimony!
Not that he put all this to himself in so many words. But a sense of revolt, an overwhelming jealousy of everyone who made any claim at all on Nan--jealousy even of that merry Bohemian life of hers in which he had had no share--had been slowly gathering within him until it was almost more than he could endure. Isobel"s taunts at dinner had half maddened him. Whether he were Philistine or not, Nan had promised to marry him, and he would know neither rest nor peace of mind until that promise were fulfilled.
And Nan, as she lay in bed with wide eyes staring into the darkness, felt as though the door of the cage were slowly closing upon her.
CHAPTER XXI
LADY GERTRUDE"S POINT OF VIEW
It was a cheerless morning. Gusts of fine, sprinkling rain drove hither and thither on a bl.u.s.tering wind, while overhead hung a leaden sky with patches of black cloud scudding raggedly across it.
Nan, coming slowly downstairs to breakfast, regarded the state of the weather as merely in keeping with everything else. The constant friction of her visit to Trenby had been taking its daily toll of her natural buoyancy, and last night"s interview with Roger had tried her frayed nerves to the uttermost. This morning, after an almost sleepless night, she felt that to remain there any longer would be more than she could endure. She must get away--secure at least a few days" respite from the dreadful atmosphere of disapprobation and dislike which Lady Gertrude managed to convey.
The consciousness of it was never absent from her. Pride had upheld her so far, but underneath the pride lay a very sore heart. To anyone as sensitive as Nan, whose own lovableness had always. .h.i.therto evoked both love and friendship as naturally as flowers open to the sun, it was a new and bewildering experience to be disliked. She did not know how to meet it. It hurt inexpressibly, and she was tired of being hurt.
She hesitated nervously outside the morning-room door, whence issued the soft clink of china and a murmur of voices. The clock in the hall had struck the hour five minutes ago. She was late, and she knew that the instant she entered the room she would feel that unfriendly atmosphere rushing to meet her like a great black wave. Finally, with an effort, she turned the door-handle and went in.
For once Lady Gertrude refrained from comment upon her lack of punctuality. She seemed preoccupied and, to judge from the pinched closing of her lips, her thoughts were anything but pleasing, while Roger was in the sullen, rather impenetrable mood which Nan had learned to recognise as a sign of storm. He hardly spoke at all, and then only to fling out one or two curt remarks in connection with estate matters.
Immediately breakfast was at an end he rose from the table, remarking that he should not be in for lunch, and left the room.
Lady Gertrude looked up from her morning"s letters.
"I suppose he"s riding over to Berry Farm--the tenant wants some repairs done. He ought to take a few sandwiches with him if he won"t be here for lunch."
Isobel jumped up from her seat.
"I"ll see that he does," she said quickly, and went out of the room in search of him. Any need of Roger"s must be instantly supplied.
Lady Gertrude waited until the servants had cleared away the breakfast, then she turned to Nan with a very definite air of having something to say.
"Have you and Roger quarrelled?" she asked abruptly.
The girl started nervously. She had not expected this as a consequence of Roger"s taciturnity.
"No," she said, stumbling a little. "No, we haven"t--quarrelled."
Lady Gertrude scrutinised her with keen, light-grey eyes that had the same penetrating glance as Roger"s own, and Nan felt herself colouring under it.
"You"ve displeased him in some way or other," insisted Lady Gertrude, and waited for a reply.
Nan flared up at the older woman"s arbitrary manner.
"That"s rather a funny way to put it, isn"t it?" she said quickly.
"I"m--I"m not a child, you know."
"You behave very much like one at times," retorted Lady Gertrude. "I"ve done my utmost since you came here to fit you to be Roger"s wife, and without any appreciable result. You seem to be exactly as irresponsible and thoughtless as when you arrived."
The cold, contemptuous criticism flicked the girl"s raw nerves like the point of a lash. She sprang to her feet, her eyes very bright, as though tears were not far distant, her young breast rising and falling unevenly with her hurrying breath.
"Is that what you think of me?" she said unsteadily. "Because then I"d better go away. It"s what I want--to go away! I--I can"t bear it here any longer." Her fingers gripped the edge of the table tensely. She was struggling to keep down the rising sobs which threatened to choke her speech. "I know you don"t want me to be Roger"s wife--you don"t think I"m fit for it! You"ve just said so! And--and you"ve let me see it every day. I"ll go--I"ll go!"
Lady Gertrude"s face remained quite unchanged. Only the steely gleam in her eyes hardened.
"When this hysterical outburst is quite over," she said scathingly, "I shall be better able to talk to you."
Nan made no answer. It was all she could do to prevent herself from bursting into tears.
"Sit down again." Lady Gertrude pointed to a chair, and Nan, who felt her legs trembling under her, sat down obediently. "You"re quite mistaken in thinking I don"t wish you to be Roger"s wife," continued Lady Gertrude quietly. "I do wish it."
Nan glanced across at her in astonishment. This was the last thing she had expected her to say--irreconcilable with her whole att.i.tude throughout the last two months. Lady Gertrude returned the glance with one of faint amus.e.m.e.nt. She could make a good guess at what the girl was thinking.
"I wish it," she pursued, "because Roger wishes it. I should like my son to have everything he wants. To be perfectly frank, I don"t consider he has made a very suitable choice, but since he wants you--why, he must have you. No, don"t interrupt me, please"--for Nan, quivering with indignation, was about to protest. "When--if ever you are a mother you will understand my point of view. Roger has made his choice--and of course he hasn"t the least idea how unsuitable a one it is. Men rarely get beyond a pretty face. So it devolves upon me to make you better fitted to be his wife than you are at present."
The cold, dispa.s.sionate speech roused Nan to a fury of exasperation and revolt. Evidently, in Lady Gertrude"s mind, Roger was the only person who mattered. She herself was of the utmost unimportance except for the fact that he wanted her for his wife! She felt as though she were a slave who had been bartered away to a new owner.
"You understand, now?"
Lady Gertrude"s clear, unmoved accents dropped like ice into the midst of her burning resentment.
"Yes, I do understand!" she exclaimed, in a voice that she hardly recognised as her own. "And I think everything you"ve said is horrible!
If I thought Roger looked at things like that, I"d break our engagement to-morrow! But he doesn"t--I know he doesn"t. It"s only you who think such hateful things. And--and I won"t stay here! I--I _can"t_!"
"It"s foolish to talk of breaking off your engagement," returned Lady Gertrude composedly. "Roger is not a man to be picked up and put down at any woman"s whim--as you would find out if you tried to do it."
Inwardly Nan felt bitterly conscious that this was true. She didn"t believe for a moment that Roger would release her, however much she might implore him to. And unless he himself released her, her pledge to him must stand.
"As to going away"--Lady Gertrude was speaking again. "Where would you go?"
"To the flat, of course."
"Do you mean to the flat you used to share with Mrs. Fenton?"--on a glacial note of incredulity.
"Yes."
"Who is living there?"
Nan looked puzzled. What did it matter to Lady Gertrude who lived there?
"No one, just now. The Fentons are going to stay there, when they come back, while they look for a house."
"But they are not there now?" persisted Lady Gertrude.
Nan shook her head, wondering what was the drift of so much questioning.