Part 8 (1/2)
”Probably his spell in the army aged him. It must have been a formative experience.”
This time Isabel had no doubt about it, there was certainly a touch of cruel irony in Hyde's soft voice. Her breath came fast.
”Why do you say that”: she cried--”say it like that?”
The smile faded: Lawrence turned, startled out of his self-possession.
”Like what?”
”As if you we're sneering at Val!”
”I?-- My dear Miss Isabel, aren't you a little fanciful?”
Isabel supposed so too, on second thoughts: how could any man sneer at a record like Val's: unless indeed it were with that peculiarly graceless sneer which springs from jealousy? And, little as she liked Captain Hyde, she could not think him weak enough for that. She blushed again, this time without any rubric, and hung her head. ”I'm sorry! But you did say it as if you didn't mean it. Perhaps you think we make too much fuss over Val? But in these sleepy country villages exciting things don't happen every day. I dare say you've had scores of adventures since that time you met Val. But Chilmark hasn't had any. That makes us remember.”
”My dear child,” said Lawrence with an earnest gentleness foreign to his ordinary manner, ”you misunderstood me altogether. I liked your brother very much. Remember, I was there when he won his decoration--” He broke off. An intensely visual memory had flashed over him. Now he knew of whom Isabel had reminded him that morning: she had her brother's eyes.
”At the very time? Were you really? Do, do, do tell me about it! Major Clowes never will--he pretends he can't remember.”
”Has Val never told you?”
”Hardly any more than was in the official account--that he was left between the lines after one of our raids, and went back in spite of his wound to bring in Mr. Dale. He had to wait till after dark?” Lawrence nodded.. ”And 'under particularly trying conditions.' Why was that?”
”Because Dale was so close to the German lines. He was entangled in their wire.”
Isabel shuddered. ”It seems so long ago. One can't understand why such cruelties were ever allowed. Of course they will never be again.” This naive voice of the younger generation made Lawrence smile. ”And Val had to cut their wire?”
”To peel it off Dale, or peel Dale off it--what was left of him.
He didn't live more than twenty minutes after he was brought in.”
”Did you know Dale?”
”Not well: he was in my cousin's company, not in mine.”
”And was Val under fire at the time?”
”Under heavy fire. The Boches were sending up starsh.e.l.ls that made the place as light as day.”
”I can't understand how Val could do it with his broken arm.”
”His arm wasn't broken when he cut their wires.”
”Oh! When was it then?”
Hyde flicked with his stick at the airy heads of gra.s.s that rose up thin-sown out of a burnished carpet of lady's slipper. His manner was even but his face was dark. ”He had it splintered by a revolver--shot on his way home, near our lines.”
”Oh! But the Army doctors said the shot must have been fired at close quarters?”
”There, you see I'm not much of an authority, am I? No doubt, if they said so, they were right. The fact is I was knocked out myself that afternoon with a rifle bullet in the ribs. It was a hot corner for the Wintons and Dorsets.”
”Were you? I'm sorry.” Isabel ran her eyes with a touch of whimsical solicitude over Hyde's tall easy figure and the exquisite keeping of his white clothes. Difficult to connect him with the b.l.o.o.d.y disarray of war! ”Were you too left lying between the lines?”