Part 18 (1/2)
”I wasn't thinking seriously of being down to breakfast in any case,” he answered with a yawn
”Oh, don't be late It makes so much extra work for the et in to do your room”
He smothered an impatient retort and strolled to a table by the fire where Sybil and her father were sipping long tuulped home-made lemonade with avid enjoy the tray with critical eye He did not greatly want it for hiht the same plea had to be preferred, there was the sale, the sah the shocked stalwarts of te: ”You can't hiskey after claret _and_ port” He was being made to drink for conscience sake And it was intolerable that Waring, Benyon and Nares should have been sent into the night without a stirrup-cup
”It's in the dining-roo reproachfully to the door
”Here! All right! I'll ring,” Eric cried
”The servants are all in bed,” she answered ”Or, if they're not, they ought to be”
He thanked her suitably on her return, but one discordant, trifling incident coalesced with another, the tepid bath with the whiskey deular discomfort In a few hours he sees that were not worth winning The whole week-end would be a failure
The milk tumblers were returned to their tray; Sir Francis filled his corn-cob for the last ti a pile of library novels in one corner, and Lady Lane walked softly round the roo a top-heavy log into security and turning off unnecessary lights The hall clock, striking eleven, seemed to rouse and inspire theht oil too long,” said Lady Lane, brushi+ng Eric's forehead with her lips
”I simply couldn't sleep, if I went to bed now,” he told her
”Good-night, rew silent he brought in his despatch-box froh the skeleton of a novel which he had promised himself to write as soon as ”The Bomb-Shell” was safely launched In the second week of the war he had spent an afternoon in a recruiting office withforward for enrolment
Three over-worked doctors pounded and sounded the their height and chest expansion, testing their eyes Eric had tried to cheat byblack capitals while he lay on a sofa breathing freely or holding his breath as he was ordered; but the chart was changed before his turn ca doctor referred him to a row of three weary clerks at a baize-covered table, who informed him that he was rejected The folio for; he could not read the second word There was no appeal, and, after ato do but to go hohbour in the queue overtook and hailed him with the words: ”What luck?”
”They've spun ht slip through in the crowdWhat did they say to you?”
”I was spun, too,” his cohed uneasily and his face was drawn and dazed in the August sunshi+ne ”You wouldn't think you could haveabout it
I always thought I was a first-class life; I haven't had a day's illness in ten years----”
”What did they say?” Eric asked, as the other hesitated in bewilder between three and six rey lips ”One of the fellowstook me on one side, you knowasked me a few questions” He broke off and waved to a taxi which was rolling lazily down Whitehall ”I o and see my own man Good-bye”
”Good-bye! Good luck!” Eric cried
As he walked home he wondered how much composure he would shew if a sentence of death were slapped at him like an overdue bill He wondered, too, what he would do with those testing, supreme three months, if they were all that he was allowed Stoicisled mysticisms would join hands and hold revel round his soul for those twelve weeks, those eighty-four days, those two thousand and sixteen hoursThe speculation fascinated him until he almost fancied that the sentence had been passed on him Gradually he wove a drama round it; line by line it took shape for a book that was to be subtiler, finer andthat he had ever written If only he could find time for six months' uninterrupted work!
London had to be not only captured but held;that mattered
The clock in the library struck twelve, and he tossed the manuscript skeleton back into his despatch-box His uely disturbed with a sense of duty undone, until he re to tell Barbara if he heard any news of Jack Waring For ato her; but in fact there was no news, he would have only himself to blame if he re-established co whith; he would be back in full harness within thirty-six hours, and there would be no room for her madcap incursions into his life
4
The house was very silent when Eric at length rance of es and staircase with a drowsy scent; once a distantrattled treether and hesitated before striking; all else was deep-brooding peace
He turned out the lights and mounted to his roo, as he paused outside each door in the long, low passage He at least ake; his highly-strung new restlessness would not accord with the placidity of these contented people Twenty-five years ago, his mother had fetched him from Broadstairs for his first Christlad to see her and to be hoain So it had been every holiday; he started with an afternoon's preli the fas, critically watchful for change Now the change had cones had commented on it, his mother and Sybil had noticed it