Part 9 (1/2)

Gabrielle left them and he prepared to hear her story. She was very agitated, and found it difficult to express herself. For a little time, in spite of Considine's encouragements, she beat about the bush.

She felt that her revelation would amount to a criticism of Considine's management.

At last, realising that she was getting no further, she produced her doc.u.ments and handed them to him.

Considine examined them slowly and judicially without a flicker of emotion. It seemed to Mrs. Payne a very solemn moment, full of awful possibilities. She waited breathlessly for his verdict.

”Well?” he said at last, putting the papers aside.

”Arthur wrote them.”

”Yes.... I recognised his writing.”

”He is in love with some woman.”

”Presumably ... yes. But I'm not so sure of that.”

”What do you mean?” She gasped at the prospect of relief.

He explained to her at length. It was a very common thing for boys of Arthur's age, he said, to write verse.

”Verses of that kind?”

Yes... even verses of that kind. To be perfectly candid he himself, when a boy in his teens, had done very much the same sort of thing. It was true perhaps that the verses which he had written had not been quite so ... perhaps frank was the best word. On the other hand his own development had followed more normal lines. He hadn't, in the manner of Arthur, burst suddenly into blossom. All boys wrote verses.

Often they wrote verses of an amatory character, not particularly because they happened to be in love, but because the bulk of English lyrical poetry, to which they went for their models, was, regrettably, of an amatory character. At this stage in a boy's development, even in the development of the greatest poets (and Arthur, he noticed in pa.s.sing, did not show any signs of amazing genius) the verses were usually imitative. It rather looked as if he had been reading Herrick, or possibly the Shakespeare sonnets ... the dark lady, you know.

Seriously, he didn't think there was anything to worry about. He folded the papers and handed them back to her.

For once in a way Considine didn't satisfy her. There were other things, she said. Things that she hadn't attached any value to at the time when they happened, but which now seemed significant. When she came to think of it Arthur's whole behaviour during the holidays had been that of a youth who was in love. With all deference to Dr.

Considine she felt that she couldn't pa.s.s the matter over. It was her plain duty to enquire into it, and find, if possible, a more obvious reason for this strange and sudden outburst.

Considine agreed that no harm could be done by a little quiet investigation. At the same time he couldn't possibly see what opportunities Arthur could have had for falling in love at Lapton.

”We're very isolated here,” he said. ”The Manor is a kingdom in itself. It seems to me that circ.u.mstances would force him to invent an ideal for the want of any living model.”

She shook her head. There was no isolation, she said, into which love could not enter; and this, in the face of cla.s.sical precedent, Considine was forced to admit. Could she, then, make any suggestions?

Mrs. Payne said, ”Servants,” and blushed.

Considine also blushed, but with irritation. The suggestion brought the matter uncomfortably near home.

”I think you can put that out of your mind,” he said. ”I'll admit that I did not consider this point when I engaged them, but I do not think you'll find any one peculiarly attractive among them.”

”They're women,” said Mrs. Payne obstinately.

It seemed to her that Considine's incredulity was forcing them both into a blind alley.

”If you don't mind,” she said, ”I think it would be better for me to talk the matter over with your wife. A woman, if you'll allow me to say so, is much more acutely sensitive to ... this kind of thing.”

Again Considine blushed. The prospect of engaging Gabrielle in the matter was altogether against his principles. He had always made it a rule that her essential femininity should not be compromised by any contact with the business of the school. He did not even like her to take an intimate share in the management of the house. After all she was a Hewish and a cousin of the august Halbertons. That was why he had employed Mrs. Bemerton as housekeeper.

”I shall be obliged,” he said, ”if you don't mention a matter that may possibly become unsavoury, to Mrs. Considine. She knows nothing of the servants, and I prefer her to take no part in the affairs of my pupils.”