"Oh, yes," she cried bitterly. "I have eaten of the tree--and lately--very lately."
And at the sight of her distress all Mr. Benoliel"s indignation vanished.
"I know," he said gently. "That"s why I wanted you to many, Cynthia."
"Is that the remedy?" she asked. And she shook her head slowly. "I am frightened of it."
She called to her groom, dismounted from her horse and taking Mr.
Benoliel by the arm cried:
"Come in. You haven"t seen my house since I bought it. You shall tell me what you think of it, now that it"s finished."
She ran up the steps and turned to him at the top with a look of compunction in her face:
"I talk to you of my troubles," she said. "I have no right to--no, neither to you nor to any one. I am ashamed of myself. I have food to eat, clothes to wear, money to spend, and friends. Yes, I am very fortunate," and her mind winged back to a dark night on the estancia when she had crouched in a big chair, listening to horrors set ready for her. "I ought to be grateful," she cried with a shudder at her memories. "Come in!"
She led him through the rooms and claimed his enthusiasm for this or that rare piece of satin-wood or mahogany. It had been a great joy to her in the early days of the year to ransack the dealers" shops and grow learned of Hepplewhite and Chippendale. She told Mr. Benoliel stories of her researches, seeking to recapture some savor of that past pleasure. But her sprightliness became an effort and in her own sitting-room she turned abruptly to him:
"But I have a distaste for it all now," she said and sat down in a chair. "I have no longer any pride in the house at all."
Mr. Benoliel stood over her and nodded his head in sympathy. She was distressed. She had a look of discomfort.
"Yes, I understand that, Cynthia," he said.
She took off her hard hat. It pressed upon her temples and made her head throb.
"How much do you know?" she asked.
"That Mrs. Royle is leaving you."
"Yes," said Cynthia moodily. "We have agreed to separate. Do you know anything more?"
"Yes. The missing panel of tapestry hangs again in Ludsey Town Hall."
"Yes. It was lying in a lumber-room under the roof of my house in Warwickshire. How long it had been lying there, or how it came there, I can"t discover. Diana ran across it by accident. It was tied up in a bale like an old carpet. She didn"t think it of any value--until she went one morning to the Town Hall with an American millionaire who was anxious to see the tapestry and buy it if he could."
"Yes. I took Cronin there myself. He was staying with me and I drove him into Ludsey and met Mrs. Royle in the street. That was the day before the election. We all three went into the Town Hall together. I remember Mrs. Royle saying that she had never been in the building before. I pointed out the tapestry and explained that a wide strip of it was missing. I think I suggested that it would one day be turned out of some old cupboard."
Cynthia nodded.
"That no doubt helped her to the truth. Anyway, she tried to persuade me to sell it. She merely told me that it was valuable and that I could get two thousand pounds for it. I didn"t connect it with the Ludsey tapestry. I thought that it might be worth while to bring it up to this house; and I refused to sell. Diana urged me again, however, and but that I don"t like selling things, I would have let her sell it, just because she was getting tiresome about it. Then Hartmann, the Bond Street dealer, called on me a month ago and told me what the strip was."
"Why did he call?" asked Benoliel.
"He was in the deal with another man. Both apparently were selling to Mr. Cronin, and they quarrelled over the division of the profits. So Hartmann came to me in revenge. He told me that Diana was to get eight thousand pounds if she could persuade me to sell and that they meant to sell the tapestry afterward to Mr. Cronin for twenty-five thousand pounds. It"s not a pretty story, is it?"
"No," said Benoliel. "So you gave it back to Ludsey?"
"Yes."
"Does Mrs. Royle know that you are aware of her share in the transaction?"
"Yes. We haven"t ever talked of it, but she knows and proposed of her own accord that we should separate. We couldn"t go on living together, could we? It would be too uncomfortable. I couldn"t trust her."
"When does she go?"
"In a week or two, now," said Cynthia. "She has taken a little house on the north side of the park. Of course, for my father"s sake"--thus she always spoke of Mr. Daventry--"I am looking after her;" and she suddenly struck her hands together. "Oh, but it"s all rather sordid, isn"t it?"
"Yes," said Mr. Benoliel. He was troubled and perplexed. "And what are you going to do?" he asked.
Cynthia shrugged her shoulders.
"I must engage a companion."
"That doesn"t sound very satisfactory."
"What else can I do?"
"Marry!" said Mr. Benoliel.
Cynthia rose petulantly to her feet.
"No," she cried. "That I won"t do." She turned away and looked out into the street, a storm of rebellion at her heart. Why should every one want to marry her off? Even her friend, her adviser, who should have stood by her, had turned, it seemed, against her. She came back to Mr. Benoliel, but he stood with so distressful a countenance that her indignation died away, and with a pretty compunction she made her apology:
"I know that you are thinking of me. I am sorry if I seemed to forget it. Forgive me! But you can"t really want me to marry just so that I may not be alone."
"My dear," said Mr. Benoliel gently, "It"s a very good reason."
Cynthia shook her head.
"For a girl?--I am little more. No. I may come to that belief in the end when I am older. But not yet. I must have a better reason now.
There are too many years ahead of me."
Mr. Benoliel smiled, with a little wistfulness in the smile.
"Dreams, Cynthia, dreams," he said.
"I am losing them," she returned, and with a smile too, the smile of humor, not of amus.e.m.e.nt. "I am making haste to lose them against my will. But this one I"ll keep for still a little while. I"ll still dream that while I am young I must have a better reason for marriage than the fear of being alone."
"Very well, Cynthia," said Mr. Benoliel disconsolately. "I"ll hope you are right."
He left the house and Cynthia sat down for a long time in her room.
She had run to the extreme of melancholy with the determination of youth to make the very worst or best of life"s daily provision. She had never felt so keenly the vanity of her illusions. She had seldom felt so lonely, she was sure. Even Harry Rames nowadays left her severely to herself. Why didn"t he come to see her? She asked the question with indignation. She had never seen him since the supper-party at his hotel in Ludsey on the night before the poll. She had never heard his voice since he had spoken to her over the telephone just after his election. Very likely he had grown tired of her appeals to him to be different from what he was. No doubt she was a bore. Sadly Cynthia admitted it. Yes, she was a bore, and Diana Royle was treacherous, and Harry Rames never came to see her, and, take it all in all, it was a gray and dismal world.
CHAPTER XVIII