Part 25 (1/2)
”But what.”
”I had better come to you again and tell you all.” The words were no sooner out of his mouth than he remembered that he had resolved that he would never go to her again. But yet, after what had pa.s.sed, something must be done. He had also made up his mind that he wouldn't write. He had quite made up his mind about that. The words that are written remain. It would perhaps be better that he should go to her and tell her everything.
”Of course you will come again,” she said. ”What is it ails you? You are unhappy because she is here with my cousin Jack?” It was intolerable to him that any one should suspect him of jealousy. ”Jack has a way of getting intimate with people, but it means nothing.” It was dreadful to him that an allusion should be made to the possibility of anybody ”meaning anything” with his wife.
Just at this moment Jack's voice was heard coming back round the corner, and also the laughter of the Dean. Captain De Baron had been describing the persons represented on the base of the monument, and had done so after some fas.h.i.+on of his own that had infinitely amused not only Lady George but her father also. ”You ought to be appointed Guide to the Memorial,” said the Dean.
”If Lady George will give me a testimonial no doubt I might get it, Dean,” said Jack.
”I don't think you know anything about any of them,” said Lady George.
”I'm sure you've told me wrong about two. You're the last man in the world that ought to be a guide to anything.”
”Will you come and be guide, and I'll just sweep the steps!”
Lord George heard the last words, and allowed himself to be annoyed at them, though he felt them to be innocent. He knew that his wife was having a game of pleasant play, like a child with a pleasant play-fellow. But then he was not satisfied that his wife should play like a child,--and certainly not with such a playfellow. He doubted whether his wife ought to allow playful intimacy from any man. Marriage was to him a very serious thing. Was he not prepared to give up a real pa.s.sion because he had made this other woman his wife? In thinking over all this his mind was not very logical, but he did feel that he was justified in exacting particularly strict conduct from her because he was going to make Mrs. Houghton understand that they two, though they loved each other, must part. If he could sacrifice so much for his wife, surely she might sacrifice something for him.
They returned altogether to Hyde Park Corner and then they separated.
Jack went away towards Berkeley Square with his cousin; the Dean got himself taken in a cab to his club; and Lord George walked his wife down Const.i.tution Hill towards their own home. He felt it to be necessary that he should say something to his wife; but, at the same time, was specially anxious that he should give her no cause to suspect him of jealousy. Nor was he jealous, in the ordinary sense of the word.
He did not suppose for a moment that his wife was in love with Jack De Baron, or Jack with his wife. But he did think that whereas she had very little to say to her own husband she had a great deal to say to Jack. And he was sensible, also, of a certain unbecomingness in such amus.e.m.e.nt on her part. She had to struggle upwards, so as to be able to sustain properly the position and dignity of Lady George Germain, and the possible dignity of the Marchioness of Brotherton. She ought not to want playfellows. If she would really have learned the names of all those artists on the base of the Memorial, as she might so easily have done, there would have been something in it. A lady ought to know, at any rate, the names of such men. But she had allowed this Jack to make a joke of it all, and had rather liked the joke. And the Dean had laughed loud,--more like the son of a stable-keeper than a Dean. Lord George was almost more angry with the Dean than with his wife. The Dean, when at Brotherton, did maintain a certain amount of dignity; but here, up in London, he seemed to be intent only on ”having a good time,” like some schoolboy out on a holiday.
”Were you not a little loud when you were on the steps of the Memorial?” he said.
”I hope not, George; not too loud.”
”A lady should never be in the least loud, nor for the matter of that would a gentleman either if he knew what he was about.”
She walked on a little way, leaning on his arm in silence, considering whether he meant anything by what he was saying, and how much he meant.
She felt almost sure that he did mean something disagreeable, and that he was scolding her. ”I don't quite know what you mean by loud, George?
We were talking, and of course wanted to make each other hear. I believe with some people loud means--vulgar. I hope you didn't mean that.”
He certainly would not tell his wife that she was vulgar. ”There is,”
he said, ”a manner of talking which leads people on to--to--being boisterous.”
”Boisterous, George? Was I boisterous?”
”I think your father was a little.”
She felt herself blush beneath her veil as she answered. ”Of course if you tell me anything about myself, I will endeavour to do as you tell me; but, as for papa, I am sure he knows how to behave himself. I don't think he ought to be found fault with because he likes to amuse himself.”
”And that Captain De Baron was very loud,” said Lord George, conscious that though his ground might be weak in reference to the Dean, he could say what he pleased about Jack De Baron.
”Young men do laugh and talk, don't they, George?”
”What they do in their barracks, or when they are together, is nothing to you or me. What such a one may do when he is in company with my wife is very much to me, and ought to be very much to you.”
”George,” she said, again pausing for a moment, ”do you mean to tell me that I have misbehaved myself? Because, if so, speak it out at once.”
”My dear, that is a foolish question for you to ask. I have said nothing about misbehaviour, and you ought, at any rate, to wait till I have done so. I should be very sorry to use such a word, and do not think that I shall ever have occasion. But surely you will admit that there may be practices, and manners, and customs on which I am at liberty to speak to you. I am older than you.”