Part 27 (2/2)

”Ah!”

Mrs. Davenport winced as with a sudden spasm of pain; then pity for Gertrude bred in her anger for Reggie. ”What do you mean?” she said sharply. ”I do not understand you in the least. You adored her, then; why not say love?”

”I didn't know it before,” said he, ”until this thing came, or, of course, I should have gone away. I am not a villain. But I know it now; I adored her, and I loved her--and--”

”And you do still?”

”Yes.”

There was a long silence, and the hum of the London streets came in at the open window. Mrs. Davenport found herself noticing tiny things, among others that Reggie had placed the ornament he had been fingering perilously near the edge of the mantelpiece. In a great crisis our large reflective and thinking powers get choked for a moment, and the ordinary surface perceptions, which are as instinctive and unnoticed as breathing, are left in command of our mind. The sight of that ornament there a.s.sumed an overwhelming importance to her, and she got up from her seat and put it back in a safer place. Then she turned to Reggie, who was standing still in the middle of the room, with his back towards her.

”Sit down here, Reggie,” she said quietly. ”I think we had better talk a little. Do you quite realise what that means?”

”Ah, don't talk to me like that,” he burst out. ”As if I was not in h.e.l.l already, without being reminded of it. Mummy, I don't mean that. You are all that is good and loving. You know that I know it. You are very gentle with me. I won't be angry again.”

Mrs. Davenport's anxiety for Gertrude made her very tender.

”Ah, my dear,” she said, ”I do not care for myself. It is very immaterial that you speak like that to me. I should be a very selfish woman if I thought of myself just now. There are others to think of, you and--and Gertrude.”

”Yes, I know, I know. But what am I to do? Tell me that, and I will do it.”

”Go to Aix,” said his mother promptly, ”and go at once.”

”Go to Aix!” said he. ”Why, that's just what I couldn't possibly do. G.o.d knows, I have done Gertrude injury enough, without insulting her!”

”Your waiting here in London is the worst insult you could do her. You must see that.”

”I can't do it!” he cried. ”You know I can't. How can I leave Eva--Lady Hayes--like this?”

Mrs. Davenport got up, and waited a moment till her voice was more under her control. But when she spoke, her anger vibrated through it so strongly, that even Reggie, in his almost impenetrable self-centred wretchedness, was startled.

”Has it ever occurred to you that there is another concerned in this besides yourself?” she said. ”Are you aware that Gertrude loves you in a way that it honours any man to be loved? Do you mean to make no effort to repair the injury you have done her? Be a man, Reggie; you have been a boy too long. Dare you say you ever loved Gerty, if you treat her like this--now? You wish to behave like a fool, and, what is worse, like a coward. I never thought I should be ashamed of you, as I shall be now, if you stop in London after what has happened.”

Once more there was a dead silence. Mrs. Davenport, as she knew, had played her ace of trumps; she had brought to bear the strongest motive that she could think of to influence Reggie. If he would not listen to her because she was his mother, if he cared nothing about the effect his action would have on her opinion of him, she knew that there was no more to be done by her.

Reggie flushed suddenly, as if he had been struck.

”But what good will it do if I go?” he cried; ”and where am I to go to?

I can't go to Gertrude now.”

”Your place is with her,” said Mrs. Davenport. ”If it is all over between you, it is your business to tell her. I don't wish you to tell her at once, but go there and wait a week. Don't be a coward, and don't think that it will be any the better for putting it off. What do you propose to do in the interval--to wait here? She will write to you, and you will not answer, or will you pretend that you are hers, as she is yours? That would not be a very honourable position, would it? Don't disgrace yourself and bring dishonour on us all. Have you no pride, even?”

Reggie looked up in amazement.

”Disgrace myself--bring dishonour on you--”

”Has it never struck you that you are on the verge of doing that?” said Mrs. Davenport.

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