Part 13 (2/2)

”Suppose we go in again and have some tea?” he said.

Now they had barely concluded coffee. But she did not seem to mind.

”Well,” she said, ”it's always tea-time for _me_.”

He saw a clock. ”It's nearly four,” he said.

Thus justified of the clock, in they went, and sat down in the same seats which they had occupied at the commencement of the adventure in the main lounge. Priam discovered a bell-push, and commanded China tea and m.u.f.fins. He felt that he now, as it were, had an opportunity of making a fresh start in life. He grew almost gay. He could be gay without sinning against decorum, for Mrs. Challice's singular tact had avoided all reference to deaths and funerals.

And in the pause, while he was preparing to be gay, attractive, and in fact his true self, she, calmly stirring China tea, shot a bolt which made him see stars.

”It seems to me,” she observed, ”that we might go farther and fare worse--both of us.”

He genuinely did not catch the significance of it in the first instant, and she saw that he did not.

”Oh,” she proceeded, benevolently and rea.s.suringly, ”I mean it. I'm not gallivanting about. I mean that if you want my opinion I fancy we could make a match of it.”

It was at this point that he saw stars. He also saw a faint and delicious blush on her face, whose complexion was extraordinarily fresh and tender.

She sipped China tea, holding each finger wide apart from the others.

He had forgotten the origin of their acquaintance, forgotten that each of them was supposed to have a definite aim in view, forgotten that it was with a purpose that they had exchanged photographs. It had not occurred to him that marriage hung over him like a sword. He perceived the sword now, heavy and sharp, and suspended by a thread of appalling fragility. He dodged. He did not want to lose her, never to see her again; but he dodged.

”I couldn't think----” he began, and stopped.

”Of course it's a very awkward situation for a man,” she went on, toying with m.u.f.fin. ”I can quite understand how you feel. And with most folks you'd be right. There's very few women that can judge character, and if you started to try and settle something at once they'd just set you down as a wrong 'un. But I'm not like that. I don't expect any fiddle-faddle.

What I like is plain sense and plain dealing. We both want to get married, so it would be silly to pretend we didn't, wouldn't it? And it would be ridiculous of me to look for courting and a proposal, and all that sort of thing, just as if I'd never seen a man in his s.h.i.+rt-sleeves. The only question is: shall we suit each other? I've told you what I think. What do you think?”

She smiled honestly, kindly, but piercingly.

What could he say? What would you have said, you being a man? It is easy, sitting there in your chair, with no Mrs. Alice Challice in front of you, to invent diplomatic replies; but conceive yourself in Priam's place! Besides, he did think she would suit him. And most positively he could not bear the prospect of seeing her pa.s.s out of his life. He had been through that experience once, when his hat blew off in the Tube; and he did not wish to repeat it.

”Of course you've got no _home_!” she said reflectively, with such compa.s.sion. ”Suppose you come down and just have a little peep at mine?”

So that evening, a suitably paired couple chanced into the fishmonger's at the corner of Werter Road, and bought a bit of sole. At the newspaper shop next door but one, placards said: ”Impressive Scenes at Westminster Abbey,” ”Farll funeral, stately pageant,” ”Great painter laid to rest,”

etc.

CHAPTER VI

_A Putney Morning_

Except that there was marrying and giving in marriage, it was just as though he had died and gone to heaven. Heaven is the absence of worry and of ambition. Heaven is where you want nothing you haven't got.

Heaven is finality. And this was finality. On the September morning, after the honeymoon and the settling down, he arose leisurely, long after his wife, and, putting on the puce dressing-gown (which Alice much admired), he opened the window wider and surveyed that part of the universe which was comprised in Werter Road and the sky above. A st.u.r.dy old woman was coming down the street with a great basket of a.s.sorted flowers; he took an immense pleasure in the sight of the old woman; the sight of the old woman thrilled him. Why? Well, there was no reason, except that she was vigorously alive, a part of the magnificent earth.

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