Part 77 (1/2)

And so the time goes by. There has been coming and going in the place outside. The guard has relieved the double sentries, the official lamp burns redly under the little penthouse. A reconnoitring-patrol ride out, the horses' hoofs sounding hollow on the earth-covered boards of the sloping way. The business of War goes on in its accustomed grooves, and the business of Life will soon be over for Beauvayse. Yet she has not come. And Saxham looks at his watch.

Nine o'clock. He has not eaten since early morning. He is wet to the skin and stiff with long sitting. But when the savoury odours of hot horse-soup and hot bean-coffee, accompanied by the clinking of crockery and tin pannikins, announce a meal in readiness, and would-be hosts come to the curtains and anxiously beg him to take food, he merely shakes his square black head and falls again to watching the unconscious face of Beauvayse.

The conscious brain behind its blankly-staring eyes is thinking:

”Those paragraphs.... In black and white the thing looked d.a.m.nable. And think of the gossip and tongue-wagging. Whatever they say about me ...

she'll be the one to suffer. They're never so hard on ... the man!”

He has uttered these last words audibly; they pierce to the heart's core of the mute, impa.s.sive watcher. Strong antipathy is as clairvoyant as strong sympathy, and with a leap of understanding, and a fresh surge of fierce resentment, Saxham acknowledges the deadly truth contained in those few halting words. She will be the one to suffer. Beside the martyrdom inevitably to be endured by the white saint, the agony of the sinner's death-bed pales and dwindles. There is a savage struggle once again between Saxham the man and Saxham the surgeon beside the bed of death.

His sudden irrepressible movement has knocked the tumbler from the little iron washstand at his elbow. It falls and s.h.i.+vers into fragments at his feet. And then--the upturned face slants a little, and the eyes that have been blankly staring at the roof-tarpaulins come down to the level of his own. He and her fallen enemy regard each other silently for a moment. Then Beauvayse says weakly, in the phantom of the old gay, boyish voice that wooed and won her:

”Thought it was Wrynche. Where is----”

The question ends in a groan.

Saxham the man shrinks from him with unutterable loathing. But Saxham the surgeon stoops over him, saying, in distinct, even tones:

”Captain Wrynche was here. He has been recalled to Hotchkiss Outpost North. Drink this.” This is a little measure of brandy-and-water, in which some tabloids of morphia have been dissolved. And Beauvayse obeys, panting:

”All right. But ... more a job for the Chaplain than the Doctor, isn't it?”

”Do you wish the Chaplain sent for?”

There is a glimmer of the old lazy, defiant humour in the beautiful dim eyes.

”What could he do?”

Saxham answers--how strangely for him, the Denier:

”He would probably pray beside you, and talk to you of G.o.d.”

There is a pause. The faint, almost breathless whisper asks:

”It's night, isn't it?”

”It is dark and stormy night.”

Beauvayse says, in the whispering voice interrupted by long, gasping sighs that are beginning to have a jarring rattle in them:

”Before to-morrow.... I shall know more of G.o.d ... than the whole Bench of Bishops.”

There is silence. And she does not come. The man on the bed makes a painful effort, gathering his nearly-spent forces for something he wants to say:

”Doctor!”

”Let me wipe your forehead. Yes?”

”I ... insulted you frightfully the other day.”