It was also an admirer, the only one who had survived from her war sojourn in Egypt--a cheery, happy, good-looking soldier, called Tremaine, now at home on leave from India--who had helped her in the actual task of settling in. Not that there had been much settling in to do--for the house had been left in perfect order by its last tenant. But Captain Tremaine had fetched her from the hotel where she had stayed in London; he had bought her first-cla.s.s ticket (Enid always liked someone to pay for her); they had shared a delightful picnic lunch which he provided in the train; and then, finally, reluctantly, he had left The Trellis House--after a rather silly, tiresome, little scene, during which he had vowed that she should marry him, even if it came to his kidnapping her by force!
While hoping and waiting, in nervous suspense, for G.o.dfrey Radmore, she cast a tender thought to Bob Tremaine. Nothing, so she told herself with a certain vehemence, would induce her to marry him, for he had only 200 a year beside his pay, and that, even in India, she believed would mean poverty. Also she had been told that no woman remained really pretty in India for very long. But she was fond of Tremaine--he was "her sort," and far, far more her ideal of what a man should be than was the rich man she had deliberately made up her mind to marry; but bitter experience had convinced Enid Crofton that money--plenty of money--was as necessary to her as the air she breathed.
Suddenly there broke on her ear the peal of an old-fashioned bell, followed by a short, sharp knock on the toy knocker of her front door.
Enid started up, her face full of eagerness and pleasure; something seemed to tell her that it was--it must be--Radmore!
While the maid was going to the door, her mind worked quickly. Surely it was very late for a call? He must have been wishing to see her as soon as he possibly could, or he would never have managed to get away from Old Place, and its many tiresome inmates. There came a mischievous smile over her face. Of one of those inmates, the rather priggish Jack Tosswill, she had made a real conquest. Under some flimsy excuse he had come every day, always staying for a considerable time. This very morning he had not gone till she had told him frankly that she only had lunch enough for one!
The door opened slowly, and her smile died away, giving place to a touching, pathetic expression. And then, instead of the tall, dark man she expected to see walk in, there advanced towards her a small, freckled-faced, fair-haired little boy--Timmy Tosswill, the child whom she was already beginning to regard with something akin to real distaste.
But Enid Crofton was never unpleasant in manner to anybody, and she even forced herself to smile, as she exclaimed:--"I was not expecting a visitor so late, but I"m very pleased to see you all the same, Master Timmy! How wonderful that you should have been able to reach my knocker.
It"s placed so very high up on the door--I think I must get it altered."
"I didn"t knock," said Timmy shortly, "it was my G.o.dfather who knocked, Mrs. Crofton."
And when Radmore followed his G.o.dson into the room he was surprised, even a little touched, at the warmth of Mrs. Crofton"s greeting.
She put out both her hands, "I _am_ glad to see you"--and then she added, characteristically, for truth was not in her, "I was afraid you wouldn"t have time to look me up for ever so long!"
But though Radmore was pleased by her evident joy in seeing him, he looked at her with a curiously critical eye. He was surprised to find her in a white frock--inclined, even, to be just a little bit shocked.
And there was something else. Enid Crofton had enjoyed the War--she had admitted this just a little shamefacedly a week ago, when they two were having dinner together at the Savoy Grill, where she had been easily the prettiest woman in the room. At the time he had felt indulgently that it was a good thing that someone should have gone through that awful time untouched by the pains and scars of war. But now everything seemed different, somehow. Beechfield was a place of mourning, and in a place of mourning this smiling, beautifully dressed, almost too pretty young creature looked out of place. Still that wasn"t her fault, after all.
As the three sat down, Timmy upset the narrow oak stool on which he had placed himself with a great clatter, and Radmore suddenly realised that he had made a mistake in bringing the boy. For the first time since his return to England he saw something like a frown gather on Mrs. Crofton"s face. Perhaps, unlike most nice women, she didn"t like children?
"I"m awfully grateful to you for having told me about Beechfield," she exclaimed. "Although I"ve hardly been here a week, I do feel what a delightful place it is! Everybody is so kind and friendly. Why the very first day I was here I was asked to supper at Old Place--and several people have left cards on me already. What sort of a woman is Miss--" she hesitated, "Pendarth?"
Timmy and Radmore looked at one another, but neither spoke for a moment.
Then Radmore answered, rather drily:--"In my time, Miss Pendarth was the greatest gossip and busy-body within a radius of thirty miles. She must be an old woman now."
"Oh, I don"t think she would like you to call her that!" exclaimed Timmy, and both his grown-up auditors laughed. But Enid Crofton felt a little disappointed, for on Miss Pendarth"s card had been written the words:--"I look forward to making your acquaintance. I think I must have known Colonel Crofton many years ago. There was a Cecil Crofton who was a great friend of my brother"s--they joined the Ninetieth on the same day." She had rather hoped to find a kindly friend and ally in the still unknown caller.
And then, as if answering her secret thought, Radmore observed carelessly:--"It"s wrong to prejudice you against Miss Pendarth; I"ve known her do most awfully kind things. But she had what the Scotch call a "scunner" against me when I was a boy. She"s the sort of woman who"s a good friend and a bad enemy."
"I must hope," said his hostess softly, "that she"ll be a good friend to me. At any rate, it was nice of her to come and call almost at once, wasn"t it?"
"You"ve delightful quarters here," observed Radmore. "The Trellis House was a very different place to this in my time; I can remember a hideous, cold and white wallpaper in this room--it looks twice as large as it did then."
"I found the things I sold made it possible for me to buy almost everything in The Trellis House. Tappin & Edge say that I got a great bargain."
"Yes," said Radmore hesitatingly, "I expect you did."
But all the same he felt that his pretty friend had made a mistake, for he remembered some of Colonel Crofton"s furniture as having been very good. In the bedroom in which he had slept at Fildy Fe Manor there had been a walnut-wood tallboy of the best Jacobean period. That one piece must certainly have been worth more than all the furniture in this particular room put together.
Poor Enid Crofton! The call to which she had been looking forward so greatly was not turning out a success. G.o.dfrey Radmore seemed a very different man here, in Beechfield, from what he had seemed in London.
They talked in a desultory way, with none of the pleasant, cosy, intimacy to which she had insensibly accustomed him; and though Timmy remained absolutely quiet and silent after that unfortunate accident with the stool, his presence in some way affected the atmosphere.
All at once Radmore asked:--"And where"s Boo-boo? It"s odd I never thought of asking you in London, but somehow one expects to see a dog in the country, even as highly civilised and smart a little dog as Boo-boo!"
"I sold her," answered Mrs. Crofton, in a low, pained tone. "I got 40 for her, and a most awfully good home. Still," she sighed, "of course I miss my darling little Boo--" and then a sharp tremor ran through her, for there suddenly fell on her ears the sound of a dog, howling.
Now Enid Crofton did not believe that what she heard so clearly were real howls, proceeding from a flesh-and-blood dog. She thought that her nerves were betraying her, as they had a way of doing since her husband"s death.
Often when she fell asleep, there would come to her a strange and horrible nightmare. It was such a queer, uncanny kind of dream for a grown-up woman to have! She used to dream that she was a rat--and that Colonel Crofton"s own terrier, a fierce brute called Dandy, was after her.
"That"s Flick! Perhaps I"d better go and let him out?" Timmy jumped up as he spoke. "I thought you didn"t like dogs, Mrs. Crofton, and so I shut Flick up in your stable-yard. I expect he"s got bored, being in there all by himself, in the dark!"
The boy"s words brought delicious relief, and then, all at once, she felt unreasonably angry. How stupid of this odious little fellow to have brought his horrid, savage dog with him--after what had happened the other night!
Timmy shot out of the room and so through the front door, and Radmore got up too. "I"m afraid we ought to be going," he said.
His white-clad hostess came up close to him:--"It"s so good of you to have come to see me so soon," she murmured. "Though I do like Beechfield, and the people here are awfully kind, I feel very forlorn, Mr. Radmore.
Seeing you has cheered me up very much. I hope you"ll come again soon."
There fell on the still air the voice of Timmy talking to his dog outside. Mrs. Crofton went quickly past Radmore into the tiny hall; she shut the front door, which had been left ajar; and then she came back.
"It"s quite true that I don"t like dogs!" she exclaimed. "Poor Cecil"s terriers got thoroughly on my nerves last winter. I sometimes dream of them even now."
He looked at her, surprised, and rather concerned. Poor little woman!
There were actually tears in her eyes.
"Yes," she went on, as if she could not help the words coming out, "that"s the real reason I sold Boo-boo. I even felt as if my poor little Boo-boo had turned against me." There was a touch of excitement, almost of defiance, in her low voice, and Radmore felt exceedingly taken aback and puzzled. This was an Enid Crofton he had never met. "Come, come--you mustn"t feel like that"--he took her hand in his and held it closely.
She looked up at him and her eyes filled with tears, and then, suddenly, her heart began beating deliciously. She saw flash into his dark face a look she had seen flash into many men"s faces, but never in his, till now--the excited, tender look that she had longed to see there. She swayed a little towards him; dropping her hand, he put out his arms--in another moment, what she felt sure such a man as Radmore would have regarded as irreparable would have happened, had not the door just behind them burst open.
They fell apart quickly, and Radmore, with a sudden revulsion of feeling--a sensation that he had been saved from doing a very foolish thing--turned to see his G.o.dson, Timmy Tosswill.
Enid Crofton looked at Timmy, too, and if evil thoughts could kill, the child would have fallen dead. But evil thoughts do not kill, and so all that happened was that Timmy had a sudden, instinctive feeling that he must account for his presence.
Looking up into his G.o.dfather"s face, he said breathlessly:--"The front door was shut, so I came in, through the kitchen. It"s ever so late, G.o.dfrey--after half past seven. Dad _will_ be upset if you"re not back to speak to him before dinner!"
As the two, the tall man and the short boy, walked away into the darkness, Radmore was possessed by an extraordinary mixture of feelings.
"You"ve had an escape! You"ve got well out of what would have been not only a dangerous but an absurd situation," so whispered a secret, inner voice. And yet there was a side of him which felt not only balked and disappointed, but exasperated...
"Do you ever think of people"s faces when they"re not there?" asked Timmy suddenly, and then, without waiting for an answer, he went on:--"When I shut my eyes, before I go quite off to sleep, you know, I see a row of faces. Sometimes they"re people I"ve never seen at all; but last night I kept seeing Mrs. Crofton"s face, looking just as it looked when Flick ran in and growled at her the other night. It was such an awful look--I don"t think I shall ever forget it."
As Radmore said nothing, the little boy asked another question: "Do you think Mrs. Crofton pretty?" This time Timmy waited for an answer.
"Yes, I think she"s very pretty. But gentlemen don"t discuss ladies and their looks, old boy."
"Don"t they? How stupid of them!" said Timmy. He added a little shyly, "I suppose a gentleman may talk of his sister?"
Radmore turned hot in the darkness. Was Timmy going to say something of Betty, and of that old, painful, now he hoped forgotten, episode? But Timmy only observed musingly:--"You haven"t seen Rosamund yet. Of course we never say so to her, because it might make her vain, but I do think, G.o.dfrey, that she"s very, _very_ pretty."
And then, rather to his companion"s discomfiture, his queer little mind swung back to the woman to whose house they had just been. "Mrs.