"What? What is it? What"s the matter?" he asked. "I did knock them in--or, rather, pulled them out."
"You left enough to scratch with," she replied, showing her hand. From the upper wrist to the knuckle of the little finger a welling red wound showed.
"Good--Gracious!" Oleron e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed.... "Here, come to the bathroom and bathe it quickly--"
He hurried her to the bathroom, turned on warm water, and bathed and cleansed the bad gash. Then, still holding the hand, he turned cold water on it, uttering broken phrases of astonishment and concern.
"Good Lord, how did that happen! As far as I knew I"d ... is this water too cold? Does that hurt? I can"t imagine how on earth ... there; that"ll do--"
"No--one moment longer--I can bear it," she murmured, her eyes closed....
Presently he led her back to the sitting-room and bound the hand in one of his handkerchiefs; but his face did not lose its expression of perplexity. He had spent half a day in opening and making serviceable the three window-boxes, and he could not conceive how he had come to leave an inch and a half of rusty nail standing in the wood. He himself had opened the lids of each of them a dozen times and had not noticed any nail; but there it was....
"It shall come out now, at all events," he muttered, as he went for a pair of pincers. And he made no mistake about it that time.
Elsie Bengough had sunk into a chair, and her face was rather white; but in her hand was the ma.n.u.script of _Romilly_. She had not finished with _Romilly_ yet. Presently she returned to the charge.
"Oh, Paul, it will be the greatest mistake you ever, _ever_ made if you do not publish this!" she said.
He hung his head, genuinely distressed. He couldn"t get that incident of the nail out of his head, and _Romilly_ occupied a second place in his thoughts for the moment. But still she insisted; and when presently he spoke it was almost as if he asked her pardon for something.
"What can I say, Elsie? I can only hope that when you see the new version, you"ll see how right I am. And if in spite of all you _don"t_ like her, well ..." he made a hopeless gesture. "Don"t you see that I _must_ be guided by my own lights?"
She was silent.
"Come, Elsie," he said gently. "We"ve got along well so far; don"t let us split on this."
The last words had hardly pa.s.sed his lips before he regretted them. She had been nursing her injured hand, with her eyes once more closed; but her lips and lids quivered simultaneously. Her voice shook as she spoke.
"I can"t help saying it, Paul, but you are so greatly changed."
"Hush, Elsie," he murmured soothingly; "you"ve had a shock; rest for a while. How could I change?"
"I don"t know, but you are. You"ve not been yourself ever since you came here. I wish you"d never seen the place. It"s stopped your work, it"s making you into a person I hardly know, and it"s made me horribly anxious about you.... Oh, how my hand is beginning to throb!"
"Poor child!" he murmured. "Will you let me take you to a doctor and have it properly dressed?"
"No--I shall be all right presently--I"ll keep it raised----"
She put her elbow on the back of her chair, and the bandaged hand rested lightly on his shoulder.
At that touch an entirely new anxiety stirred suddenly within him.
Hundreds of times previously, on their jaunts and excursions, she had slipped her hand within his arm as she might have slipped it into the arm of a brother, and he had accepted the little affectionate gesture as a brother might have accepted it. But now, for the first time, there rushed into his mind a hundred startling questions. Her eyes were still closed, and her head had fallen pathetically back; and there was a lost and ineffable smile on her parted lips. The truth broke in upon him. Good G.o.d!... And he had never divined it!
And stranger than all was that, now that he did see that she was lost in love of him, there came to him, not sorrow and humility and abas.e.m.e.nt, but something else that he struggled in vain against--something entirely strange and new, that, had he a.n.a.lysed it, he would have found to be petulance and irritation and resentment and ungentleness. The sudden selfish prompting mastered him before he was aware. He all but gave it words. What was she doing there at all? Why was she not getting on with her own work? Why was she here interfering with his? Who had given her this guardianship over him that lately she had put forward so a.s.sertively?--"Changed?" It was she, not himself, who had changed....
But by the time she had opened her eyes again he had overcome his resentment sufficiently to speak gently, albeit with reserve.
"I wish you would let me take you to a doctor."
She rose.
"No, thank you, Paul," she said. "I"ll go now. If I need a dressing I"ll get one; take the other hand, please. Good-bye--"
He did not attempt to detain her. He walked with her to the foot of the stairs. Half-way along the narrow alley she turned.
"It would be a long way to come if you happened not to be in," she said; "I"ll send you a postcard the next time."
At the gate she turned again.
"Leave here, Paul," she said, with a mournful look. "Everything"s wrong with this house."
Then she was gone.
Oleron returned to his room. He crossed straight to the window-box. He opened the lid and stood long looking at it. Then he closed it again and turned away.
"That"s rather frightening," he muttered. "It"s simply not possible that I should not have removed that nail...."
VI
Oleron knew very well what Elsie had meant when she had said that her next visit would be preceded by a postcard. She, too, had realised that at last, at last he knew--knew, and didn"t want her. It gave him a miserable, pitiful pang, therefore, when she came again within a week, knocking at the door unannounced. She spoke from the landing; she did not intend to stay, she said; and he had to press her before she would so much as enter.
Her excuse for calling was that she had heard of an inquiry for short stories that he might be wise to follow up. He thanked her. Then, her business over, she seemed anxious to get away again. Oleron did not seek to detain her; even he saw through the pretext of the stories; and he accompanied her down the stairs.
But Elsie Bengough had no luck whatever in that house. A second accident befell her. Half-way down the staircase there was the sharp sound of splintering wood, and she checked a loud cry. Oleron knew the woodwork to be old, but he himself had ascended and descended frequently enough without mishap....
Elsie had put her foot through one of the stairs.
He sprang to her side in alarm.
"Oh, I say! My poor girl!"
She laughed hysterically.
"It"s my weight--I know I"m getting fat--"
"Keep still--let me clear these splinters away," he muttered between his teeth.
She continued to laugh and sob that it was her weight--she was getting fat--
He thrust downwards at the broken boards. The extrication was no easy matter, and her torn boot showed him how badly the foot and ankle within it must be abraded.
"Good G.o.d--good G.o.d!" he muttered over and over again.
"I shall be too heavy for anything soon," she sobbed and laughed.
But she refused to reascend and to examine her hurt.