Part 42 (1/2)

There was nothing to say. It was a moment in which silence was more helpful than words.

”We quarrelled about Cuthbert,” the man said, rising, and standing by the fireplace. ”She has been sitting to him for her portrait. That I don't object to; but what I do object to most emphatically--what seems so wrong, so unmanly on his part, so weak, so foolish on hers--is the fact that he has been getting money out of her. I taxed him with it....

He could not deny it. And when I brought the matter to her, and insisted on giving her back the money, she said very bitter things to me.”

He drew in his breath sharply; then, as if to himself, he said--

”What is there, who is there, that can help me to give this woman happiness? I hoped I was going to do it, but I have failed, failed right through!”

”How do you know that you have failed?” asked Caroline, speaking for the first time. ”She is not an easy person to deal with, yet it is just her very elusiveness which gives her her hold on us. And I know one thing. I can affirm this, that if there is a creature on this earth whom she honestly respects and values, you are that person.”

”Respect!” said Haverford. The fire-glow lit up his face, and she saw that he was smiling faintly. He was silent for a time, and then he said--

”I don't regard the question of Cuthbert as a serious one, notwithstanding that she has taken this peculiar att.i.tude, ranging herself with him against me, and declaring my resolution to let him work up to fortune and fame as a cruel, an almost unnatural, thing; there are other points far more serious, unfortunately, which make the situation so difficult just now. I have repeatedly asked her not to go to Lea Abbey, yet, you see, she has gone there. And I have felt myself compelled to absolutely forbid her to have any sort of intercourse with Sir Samuel Broxbourne. To-day I learned quite by chance that he has been staying in Devons.h.i.+re the greater part of the time she has been there. The man is her shadow. Wherever she goes he appears, and when we meet there is a look about him as though he would pick a quarrel with me.”

Then Haverford pulled himself up suddenly.

”I really beg your pardon,” he said. ”I am pouring out my troubles just like an old woman. How pleasant it is here,” he added abruptly, ”so quiet, and cosy, and home-like.” He paused again, then he asked hurriedly. ”How was she looking?”

”Ill,” Caroline answered, and added, ”very ill!”

Then her eyes flashed. ”Why don't you a.s.sert yourself? Why don't you insist on getting married? She belongs to you. When once she is your wife, all this nonsense will end. I think you are as much to blame as she is. After all, she has promised you; you ought to exact the fulfilment of her promise.”

He turned and looked at her.

”That is how you spoke the first night you came to my house,” he said, and his tone had a faint touch of amus.e.m.e.nt in it. ”You are a little bit of a mystery, Caroline. How any one so sharp and impatient as you are can handle children as you do is a marvel.”

Caroline was trembling with nervousness, and with a strange sick sensation of pain, but she laughed.

”Oh! I don't believe in fussing,” she said; ”if I had only had a little bit more spirit when I was with your mother, it would have been a better thing for me.” She moved away from him, and then she came back to him, and looked straight into his face. ”Do you know what you ought to do? You ought to go over now to Lea Abbey, and bring her back here.

You ought to keep her here, and marry her down here. If you want a witness, I'll be one.”

”I cannot do that to-night,” said Haverford. ”I have brought nothing with me, and I really must go back to town.”

She understood him. It was not the first time she had realized how supremely delicate was his att.i.tude towards Camilla. To follow her now might be to suggest to Camilla a desire to know what she was doing; to demonstrate to others his right to do this.

For all this thought and tact Caroline gave him keenest appreciation; at the same time she felt in her impatient way that it was the moment for action.

”Suppose I take the children to town to-morrow? I know she will come if I let her suppose she is wanted,” she suggested.

”But they are so happy here, and so well.”

”Oh!” said Caroline, almost sharply, ”we are not considering the children now; they don't count. And besides, they can always come back here.”

She sat down on the broad fender stool, and pondered a moment staring into the fire.

”Really and truly I believe if you pull her up sharply, let her know you are tired of being played with, all will go well. Mrs. Lancing is a bundle of nerves--she has had so much to try her, that she is really not able at this moment of taking matters into her own hands. I think it is so natural that she should be doubtful and nervous,” said Caroline; ”but one thing is sure, that the longer she delays, the more difficult it will seem to her to take any definite step. She wants some one else to show her the way. That is your duty.”

She looked up at him; and Haverford smiled as he looked down at her.