"Well?" asked Chatteris.
"There is smuggling still," said the Sea Lady, with an air of some one who decides not to tell an anecdote that is suddenly found to be half forgotten.
"There"s no doubt it happens," said Chatteris, missing it all. "But it doesn"t appear in the electioneering. I certainly sha"n"t agitate for a faster revenue cutter. However things may be in that respect, I take the line that they are very well as they are. That"s my line, of course."
And he looked out to sea. The eyes of Melville and the Sea Lady had an intimate moment.
"There, you know, is just a specimen of the sort of thing we do," said Chatteris. "Are you prepared to be as intricate as that?"
"Quite," said the Sea Lady.
My cousin was reminded of an anecdote.
The talk degenerated into anecdotes of canva.s.sing, and ran shallow. My cousin was just gathering that Mrs. Bunting and Miss Bunting had been with the Sea Lady and had gone into the town to a shop, when they returned. Chatteris rose to greet them and explained--what had been by no means apparent before--that he was on his way to Adeline, and after a few further trivialities he and Melville went on together.
A brief silence fell between them.
"Who is that Miss Waters?" asked Chatteris.
"Friend of Mrs. Bunting," prevaricated Melville.
"So I gather.... She seems a very charming person."
"She is."
"She"s interesting. Her illness seems to throw her up. It makes a pa.s.sive thing of her, like a picture or something that"s--imaginary.
Imagined--anyhow. She sits there and smiles and responds. Her eyes--have something intimate. And yet----"
My cousin offered no a.s.sistance.
"Where did Mrs. Bunting find her."
My cousin had to gather himself together for a second or so.
"There"s something," he said deliberately, "that Mrs. Bunting doesn"t seem disposed----"
"What can it be?"
"It"s bound to be all right," said Melville rather weakly.
"It"s strange, too. Mrs. Bunting is usually so disposed----"
Melville left that to itself.
"That"s what one feels," said Chatteris.
"What?"
"Mystery."
My cousin shares with me a profound detestation of that high mystic method of treating women. He likes women to be finite--and nice. In fact, he likes everything to be finite--and nice. So he merely grunted.
But Chatteris was not to be stopped by that. He pa.s.sed to a critical note. "No doubt it"s all illusion. All women are impressionists, a patch, a light. You get an effect. And that is all you are meant to get, I suppose. She gets an effect. But how--that"s the mystery. It"s not merely beauty. There"s plenty of beauty in the world. But not of these effects. The eyes, I fancy."
He dwelt on that for a moment.
"There"s really nothing in eyes, you know, Chatteris," said my cousin Melville, borrowing an alien argument and a tone of a.n.a.lytical cynicism from me. "Have you ever looked at eyes through a hole in a sheet?"
"Oh, I don"t know," said Chatteris. "I don"t mean the mere physical eye.... Perhaps it"s the look of health--and the bath chair. A bold discord. You don"t know what"s the matter, Melville?"
"How?"
"I gather from Bunting it"s a disablement--not a deformity."
"He ought to know."
"I"m not so sure of that. You don"t happen to know the nature of her disablement?"
"I can"t tell at all," said Melville in a speculative tone. It struck him he was getting to prevaricate better.
The subject seemed exhausted. They spoke of a common friend whom the sight of the Metropole suggested. Then they did not talk at all for a time, until the stir and interest of the band stand was pa.s.sed. Then Chatteris threw out a thought.
"Complex business--feminine motives," he remarked.
"How?"
"This canva.s.sing. _She_ can"t be interested in philanthropic Liberalism."
"There"s a difference in the type. And besides, it"s a personal matter."
"Not necessarily, is it? Surely there"s not such an intellectual gap between the s.e.xes! If _you_ can get interested----"
"Oh, I know."
"Besides, it"s not a question of principles. It"s the fun of electioneering."
"Fun!"
"There"s no knowing what won"t interest the feminine mind," said Melville, and added, "or what will."
Chatteris did not answer.
"It"s the district visiting instinct, I suppose," said Melville. "They all have it. It"s the canva.s.sing. All women like to go into houses that don"t belong to them."
"Very likely," said Chatteris shortly, and failing a reply from Melville, he gave way to secret meditations, it would seem still of a fairly agreeable sort.
The twelve o"clock gun thudded from Shornecliffe Camp.
"By Jove!" said Chatteris, and quickened his steps.