Part 6 (1/2)
The solicitor lifted his eyebrows.
”I daresay. She was in the stone-throwing raid last August. Fined 20s.
or a month, for damage in Pall Mall. She was in prison a week; then somebody paid her fine. She professed great annoyance, but one of the police told me it was privately paid by her own society. She's too important to them--they can't do without her. An extremely clever woman.”
”Then what on earth does she come and bury herself down here for?”
cried the Captain.
Masham shewed a meditative twist of the lip.
”Can't say, I'm sure. But they want money. And Miss Blanchflower is an important capture.”
”I hope that girl will soon have the sense to shake them off!” said the Captain with energy. ”She's a deal too beautiful for that kind of thing. I shall get my mother to come and talk to her.”
The solicitor concealed his smile behind his _Daily Telegraph_. He had a real liking and respect for the Captain, but the family affection of the Andrews household was a trifle too idyllic to convince a gentleman so well acquainted with the seamy side of life. What about that hunted-looking girl, the Captain's sister? He didn't believe, he never had believed that Mrs. Andrews was quite so much of an angel as she pretended to be.
Meanwhile, no sooner had the fly left the station than Delia turned to her companion--
”Gertrude!--did you see what that man was reading who pa.s.sed us just now? Our paper!--the _Tocsin_.”
Gertrude Marvell lifted her eyebrows slightly.
”No doubt he bought it at Waterloo--out of curiosity.”
”Why not out of sympathy? I thought he looked at us rather closely. Of course, if he reads the _Tocsin_ he knows something about you! What fun it would be to discover a comrade and a brother down here!”
”It depends entirely upon what use we could make of him,” said Miss Marvell. Then she turned suddenly on her companion--”Tell me really, Delia--how long do you want to stay here?”
”Well, a couple of months at least,” said Delia, with a rather perplexed expression. ”After all, Gertrude, it's my property now, and all the people on it, I suppose, will expect to see one and make friends. I don't want them to think that because I'm a suffragist I'm going to s.h.i.+rk. It wouldn't be good policy, would it?”
”It's all a question of the relative importance of things,” said the other quietly. ”London is our head quarters, and things are moving very rapidly.”
”I know. But, dear, you did promise! for a time”--pleaded Delia.
”Though of course I know how dull it must be for you, when you are the life and soul of so many things in London. But you must remember that I haven't a penny at this moment but what Mr. Winnington chooses to allow me! We must come to some understanding with him, mustn't we, before we can do anything? It is all so difficult!”--the girl's voice took a deep, pa.s.sionate note--”horribly difficult, when I long to be standing beside you--and the others--in the open--fighting--for all I'm worth.
But how can I, just yet? I ought to have eight thousand a year, and Mr.
Winnington can cut me down to anything he pleases. It's just as important that I should get hold of my money--at this particular moment--as that I should be joining raids in London,--more important, surely--because we want money badly!--you say so yourself. I don't want it for myself; I want it all--for the cause! But the question is, how to get it--with this will in our way. I--”
”Ah, there's that house again!” exclaimed Miss Marvell, but in the same low restrained tone that was habitual to her. She bent forward to look at the stately building, on the hill-side, which according to Captain Andrews' information, was the untenanted property of Sir Wilfrid Lang, whom a shuffle of offices had just admitted to the Cabinet.
”What house?”--said Delia, not without a vague smart under the sudden change of subject. She had a natural turn for declamation; a girlish liking to hear herself talk; and Gertrude, her tutor in the first place, and now her counsellor and friend, had a quiet way of snubbing such inclinations, except when they could be practically useful. ”You have the gifts of a speaker--we shall want you to speak more and more,”
she would say. But in private she rarely failed to interrupt an harangue, even the first beginnings of one.
However, the smart soon pa.s.sed, and Delia too turned her eyes towards the house among the trees. She gave a little cry of pleasure.
”Oh, that's Monk Lawrence!--such a lovely--lovely old place! I used often to go there as a child--I adored it. But I can't remember who lives there now.”
Gertrude Marvell handed on the few facts learned from the Captain.