Part 39 (1/2)

”Good news? Why, yes, thanks to you! I want first to thank you for your generosity. I was worrying so until I heard the news from John.”

”From whom?”

”Your husband. You see, he will always be John Riviere to me. That's how I knew him during these wonderful days at Arles and Nimes.” Her voice became dreamy with memories. ”I met him first, you know, at the arena at Arles. We sat for hours in the flooding sunlight reconstructing our pictures of the past. The stone tiers were vivid orange in the sunlight and deep purple in the shadows. A deep, greyish purple. We sat apart, I longing for him to speak to me and exchange thoughts. But there was no one to introduce us. How stupid convention is! At sunset we climbed up to the topmost tier and stood together as though on an island tower in the midst of a sea of marshland. I ached to speak to him, and still we remained silent and apart. That night came the introduction I longed for. I was wandering about the dark, narrow lanes of Arles when a half-drunken peasant tried to attack me. I cried out for help, and John came to my defence with his strong arm and his clenched fist. There was no need for formal introduction after that. We found we were staying at the same hotel....”

Olive made no comment.

Elaine continued: ”Nimes is fragrant with its memories for me. The Jardin de la Fontaine, the Maison Carree, the Druids' Tower, the dear Villa Clementine! There was a little pebbly garden and a fountain by which we used to sit for lunch--there were two lazy old goldfish I used to feed with crumbs. Darby and Joan!... Those memories of Nimes wash away the burn of the vitriol, now that you've been so kind and generous.”

”I fail to understand,” said Olive coldly. The interview was shaping itself very differently to what she had expected.

Elaine turned her bandaged head towards her in surprise. ”But John tells me you've offered to release him!”

”Offered to release him! My dear Miss Verney, Clifford must have been saying pretty things to soothe you. I'm sorry to pour cold water on your dreams, but you'll have to learn the truth some time, and it's kinder to tell you now. Release him! My husband is not an employee to be handed over to somebody else at a moment's notice. There are such things as marriage laws ... and divorce laws.”

”Aren't we talking at cross-purposes, Mrs Matheson? I quite understand all that. John tells me that you have promised to divorce him. That's very generous of you.”

”You seem to ignore the point that a divorce suit involves a co-respondent.”

”No; not at all. I wanted to see you in order to thank you; and then to arrange the details so that the matter can go through with as little trouble as possible. Of course, after your kindness, I shall let the suit go undefended.”

Olive searched the bandaged face of her rival with merciless scrutiny.

But the blinded girl seemed unconscious of that look of stabbing hatred and suspicion. She was apparently smiling happily--weaving day-dreams.

Her hand went out to the vase of white lilac caressingly.

For that was the part Elaine had set herself to play for the sake of the man she loved. He had been beaten down to his knees by Larssen and Olive in the s.h.i.+powner's office because he had had Elaine to protect. To save her from the mire of the divorce court he had had to give in and sign at Larssen's dictation.

Now she was determined to release him for free action. Whatever it might cost her in self-respect, she was going to make Olive believe that a divorce suit was the one thing she most ardently desired.

”I shall let the divorce suit go undefended,” she had said, smiling happily.

Olive made a decisive effort to regain the whip-hand. ”Divorce by collusion is out of the question!” she retorted sharply. ”The King's Proctor sees to that. You don't imagine that it's sufficient merely to say you don't defend the suit? There must be evidence before the Court.”

Elaine bowed her head.

”There is evidence,” she said in a low voice.

”At Arles, Nimes, or here?”

”At Nimes.”

”Then my husband lied to me! He swore to me on his word of honour that there was nothing between you!”

”John is very chivalrous.”

”You tell me he lied?”

”I don't know just what he said to you.... And I want you to realise this: the fault was on my side. I loved him. I love him still. I shall love him always. Always, whatever happens.”

Then she added, because in the playing of her part she had determined to spare herself no degradation: ”I care nothing for what people say. They may sneer and point at me, but nothing shall keep us apart.”