THE DARK FLOWER Page 20

  "Hallo, old chap! Awfully glad to see you! What you doin' with yourself? Workin' hard? How's your wife? You been away? Been doin' anything great?" And then the question that would have given him his chance, if he had liked to be so cruel:

  "Seen Nell?"

  "Yes, she came round this afternoon."

  "What d'you think of her? Comin' on nicely, isn't she?"

  That old query, half furtive and half proud, as much as to say: 'I know she's not in the stud-book, but, d--n it, I sired her!' And then the old sudden gloom, which lasted but a second, and gave way again to chaff.

  Lennan stayed very few minutes. Never had he felt farther from his old school-chum.

  No. Whatever happened, Johnny Dromore must be left out. It was a position he had earned with his goggling eyes, and his astute philosophy; from it he should not be disturbed.

  He passed along the railings of the Green Park. On the cold air of this last October night a thin haze hung, and the acrid fragrance from little bonfires of fallen leaves. What was there about that scent of burned-leaf smoke that had always moved him so? Symbol of parting!--that most mournful thing in all the world. For what would even death be, but for parting? Sweet, long sleep, or new adventure. But, if a man loved others--to leave them, or be left! Ah! and it was not death only that brought partings!

  He came to the opening of the street where Dromore lived. She would be there, sitting by the fire in the big chair, playing with her kitten, thinking, dreaming, and--alone! He passed on at such a pace that people stared; till, turning the last corner for home, he ran almost into the arms of Oliver Dromore.

  The young man was walking with unaccustomed indecision, his fur coat open, his opera-hat pushed up on his crisp hair. Dark under the eyes, he had not the proper gloss of a Dromore at this season of the year.

  "Mr. Lennan! I've just been round to you."

  And Lennan answered dazedly:

  "Will you come in, or shall I walk your way a bit?"

  "I'd rather--out here, if you don't mind."

  So in silence they went back into the Square. And Oliver said:

  "Let's get over by the rails."

  They crossed to the railings of the Square's dark garden, where nobody was passing. And with every step Lennan's humiliation grew. There was something false and undignified in walking with this young man who had once treated him as a father confessor to his love for Nell. And suddenly he perceived that they had made a complete circuit of the Square garden without speaking a single word.

  "Yes?" he said.

  Oliver turned his face away.

  "You remember what I told you in the summer. Well, it's worse now. I've been going a mucker lately in all sorts of ways to try and get rid of it. But it's all no good. She's got me!"

  And Lennan thought: You're not alone in that! But he kept silence. His chief dread was of saying something that he would remember afterwards as the words of Judas.

  Then Oliver suddenly burst out:

  "Why can't she care? I suppose I'm nothing much, but she's known me all her life, and she used to like me. There's something--I can't make out. Could you do anything for me with her?"

  Lennan pointed across the street.

  "In every other one of those houses, Oliver," he said, "there's probably some creature who can't make out why another creature doesn't care. Passion comes when it will, goes when it will; and we poor devils have no say in it."

  "What do you advise me, then?"

  Lennan had an almost overwhelming impulse to turn on his heel and leave the young man standing there. But he forced himself to look at his face, which even then had its attraction--perhaps more so than ever, so pallid and desperate it was. And he said slowly, staring mentally at every word:

  "I'm not up to giving you advice. The only thing I might say is: One does not press oneself where one isn't wanted; all the same-- who knows? So long as she feels you're there, waiting, she might turn to you at any moment. The more chivalrous you are, Oliver, the more patiently you wait, the better chance you have."

  Oliver took those words of little comfort without flinching. "I see," he said. "Thanks! But, my God! it's hard. I never could wait." And with that epigram on himself, holding out his hand, he turned away.

  Lennan went slowly home, trying to gauge exactly how anyone who knew all would judge him. It was a little difficult in this affair to keep a shred of dignity.

  Sylvia had not gone up, and he saw her looking at him anxiously. The one strange comfort in all this was that his feeling for her, at any rate, had not changed. It seemed even to have deepened--to be more real to him.

  How could he help staying awake that night? How could he help thinking, then? And long time he lay, staring at the dark.

  As if thinking were any good for fever in the veins!

  X

  Passion never plays the game. It, at all events, is free from self-consciousness, and pride; from dignity, nerves, scruples, cant, moralities; from hypocrisies, and wisdom, and fears for pocket, and position in this world and the next. Well did the old painters limn it as an arrow or a wind! If it had not been as swift and darting, Earth must long ago have drifted through space untenanted--to let. . . .

  After that fevered night Lennan went to his studio at the usual hour and naturally did not do a stroke of work. He was even obliged to send away his model. The fellow had been his hairdresser, but, getting ill, and falling on dark days, one morning had come to the studio, to ask with manifest shame if his head were any good. After having tested his capacity for standing still, and giving him some introductions, Lennan had noted him down: "Five feet nine, good hair, lean face, something tortured and pathetic. Give him a turn if possible." The turn had come, and the poor man was posing in a painful attitude, talking, whenever permitted, of the way things had treated him, and the delights of cutting hair. This morning he took his departure with the simple pleasure of one fully paid for services not rendered.

  And so, walking up and down, up and down, the sculptor waited for Nell's knock. What would happen now? Thinking had made nothing clear. Here was offered what every warm-blooded man whose Spring is past desires--youth and beauty, and in that youth a renewal of his own; what all men save hypocrites and Englishmen would even admit that they desired. And it was offered to one who had neither religious nor moral scruples, as they are commonly understood. In theory he could accept. In practice he did not as yet know what he could do. One thing only he had discovered during the night's reflections: That those who scouted belief in the principle of Liberty made no greater mistake than to suppose that Liberty was dangerous because it made a man a libertine. To those with any decency, the creed of Freedom was--of all--the most enchaining. Easy enough to break chains imposed by others, fling his cap over the windmill, and cry for the moment at least: I am unfettered, free! Hard, indeed, to say the same to his own unfettered Self! Yes, his own Self was in the judgment-seat; by his own verdict and decision he must abide. And though he ached for the sight of her, and his will seemed paralyzed--many times already he had thought: It won't do! God help me!

  Then twelve o'clock had come, and she had not. Would 'The Girl on the Magpie Horse' be all he would see of her to-day--that unsatisfying work, so cold, and devoid of witchery? Better have tried to paint her--with a red flower in her hair, a pout on her lips, and her eyes fey, or languorous. Goya could have painted her!

  And then, just as he had given her up, she came.

  After taking one look at his face, she slipped in ever so quietly, like a very good child. . . . Marvellous the instinct and finesse of the young when they are women! . . . Not a vestige in her of yesterday's seductive power; not a sign that there had been a yesterday at all--just confiding, like a daughter. Sitting there, telling him about Ireland, showing him the little batch of drawings she had done while she was away. Had she brought them because she knew they would make him feel sorry for her? What could have been less dangerous, more appealing to the protective and paternal side of him than she was that mor
ning; as if she only wanted what her father and her home could not give her--only wanted to be a sort of daughter to him!

  She went away demurely, as she had come, refusing to stay to lunch, manifestly avoiding Sylvia. Only then he realized that she must have taken alarm from the look of strain on his face, been afraid that he would send her away; only then perceived that, with her appeal to his protection, she had been binding him closer, making it harder for him to break away and hurt her. And the fevered aching began again--worse than ever--the moment he lost sight of her. And more than ever he felt in the grip of something beyond his power to fight against; something that, however he swerved, and backed, and broke away, would close in on him, find means to bind him again hand and foot.

  In the afternoon Dromore's confidential man brought him a note. The fellow, with his cast-down eyes, and his well-parted hair, seemed to Lennan to be saying: "Yes, sir--it is quite natural that you should take the note out of eyeshot, sir--BUT I KNOW; fortunately, there is no necessity for alarm--I am strictly confidential."

  And this was what the note contained:

  "You promised to ride with me once--you DID promise, and you never have. Do please ride with me to-morrow; then you will get what you want for the statuette instead of being so cross with it. You can have Dad's horse--he has gone to Newmarket again, and I'm so lonely. Please--to-morrow, at half-past two--starting from here. --NELL."

  To hesitate in view of those confidential eyes was not possible; it must be 'Yes' or 'No'; and if 'No,' it would only mean that she would come in the morning instead. So he said:

  "Just say 'All right!'"

  "Very good, sir." Then from the door: "Mr. Dromore will be away till Saturday, sir."

  Now, why had the fellow said that? Curious how this desperate secret feeling of his own made him see sinister meaning in this servant, in Oliver's visit of last night--in everything. It was vile--this suspiciousness! He could feel, almost see, himself deteriorating already, with this furtive feeling in his soul. It would soon be written on his face! But what was the use of troubling? What would come, would--one way or the other.

  And suddenly he remembered with a shock that it was the first of November--Sylvia's birthday! He had never before forgotten it. In the disturbance of that discovery he was very near to going and pouring out to her the whole story of his feelings. A charming birthday present, that would make! Taking his hat, instead, he dashed round to the nearest flower shop. A Frenchwoman kept it.

  What had she?

  What did Monsieur desire? "Des oeillets rouges? J'en ai de bien beaux ce soir."

  No--not those. White flowers!

  "Une belle azalee?"

  Yes, that would do--to be sent at once--at once!

  Next door was a jeweller's. He had never really known if Sylvia cared for jewels, since one day he happened to remark that they were vulgar. And feeling that he had fallen low indeed, to be trying to atone with some miserable gewgaw for never having thought of her all day, because he had been thinking of another, he went in and bought the only ornament whose ingredients did not make his gorge rise, two small pear-shaped black pearls, one at each end of a fine platinum chain. Coming out with it, he noticed over the street, in a clear sky fast deepening to indigo, the thinnest slip of a new moon, like a bright swallow, with wings bent back, flying towards the ground. That meant--fine weather! If it could only be fine weather in his heart! And in order that the azalea might arrive first, he walked up and down the Square which he and Oliver had patrolled the night before.

  When he went in, Sylvia was just placing the white azalea in the window of the drawing-room; and stealing up behind her he clasped the little necklet round her throat. She turned round and clung to him. He could feel that she was greatly moved. And remorse stirred and stirred in him that he was betraying her with his kiss.

  But, even while he kissed her, he was hardening his heart.

  XI

  Next day, still following the lead of her words about fresh air and his tired look, he told her that he was going to ride, and did not say with whom. After applauding his resolution, she was silent for a little--then asked:

  "Why don't you ride with Nell?"

  He had already so lost his dignity, that he hardly felt disgraced in answering:

  "It might bore her!"

  "Oh, no; it wouldn't bore her."

  Had she meant anything by that? And feeling as if he were fencing with his own soul, he said:

  "Very well, I will."

  He had perceived suddenly that he did not know his wife, having always till now believed that it was she who did not quite know him.

  If she had not been out at lunch-time, he would have lunched out himself--afraid of his own face. For feverishness in sick persons mounts steadily with the approach of a certain hour. And surely his face, to anyone who could have seen him being conveyed to Piccadilly, would have suggested a fevered invalid rather than a healthy, middle-aged sculptor in a cab.

  The horses were before the door--the little magpie horse, and a thoroughbred bay mare, weeded from Dromore's racing stable. Nell, too, was standing ready, her cheeks very pink, and her eyes very bright. She did not wait for him to mount her, but took the aid of the confidential man. What was it that made her look so perfect on that little horse--shape of limb, or something soft and fiery in her spirit that the little creature knew of?

  They started in silence, but as soon as the sound of hoofs died on the tan of Rotten Row, she turned to him.

  "It was lovely of you to come! I thought you'd be afraid--you ARE afraid of me."

  And Lennan thought: You're right!

  "But please don't look like yesterday. To-day's too heavenly. Oh! I love beautiful days, and I love riding, and--" She broke off and looked at him. 'Why can't you just be nice to me'--she seemed to be saying--'and love me as you ought!' That was her power--the conviction that he did, and ought to love her; that she ought to and did love him. How simple!

  But riding, too, is a simple passion; and simple passions distract each other. It was a treat to be on that bay mare. Who so to be trusted to ride the best as Johnny Dromore?

  At the far end of the Row she cried out: "Let's go on to Richmond now," and trotted off into the road, as if she knew she could do with him what she wished. And, following meekly, he asked himself: Why? What was there in her to make up to him for all that he was losing--his power of work, his dignity, his self-respect? What was there? Just those eyes, and lips, and hair?

  And as if she knew what he was thinking, she looked round and smiled.

  So they jogged on over the Bridge and across Barnes Common into Richmond Park.

  But the moment they touched turf, with one look back at him, she was off. Had she all the time meant to give him this breakneck chase--or had the loveliness of that Autumn day gone to her head-- blue sky and coppery flames of bracken in the sun, and the beech leaves and the oak leaves; pure Highland colouring come South for once.

  When in the first burst he had tested the mare's wind, this chase of her, indeed, was sheer delight. Through glades, over fallen tree-trunks, in bracken up to the hocks, out across the open, past a herd of amazed and solemn deer, over rotten ground all rabbit- burrows, till just as he thought he was up to her, she slipped away by a quick turn round trees. Mischief incarnate, but something deeper than mischief, too! He came up with her at last, and leaned over to seize her rein. With a cut of her whip that missed his hand by a bare inch, and a wrench, she made him shoot past, wheeled in her tracks, and was off again like an arrow, back amongst the trees--lying right forward under the boughs, along the neck of her little horse. Then out from amongst the trees she shot downhill. Right down she went, full tilt, and after her went Lennan, lying back, and expecting the bay mare to come down at every stride. This was her idea of fun! She switched round at the bottom and went galloping along the foot of the hill; and he thought: Now I've got her! She could not break back up that hill, and there was no other cover for fully half a mile.

 
; Then he saw, not thirty yards in front, an old sandpit; and Great God! she was going straight at it! And shouting frantically, he reined his mare outwards. But she only raised her whip, cut the magpie horse over the flank, and rode right on. He saw that little demon gather its feet and spring--down, down, saw him pitch, struggle, sink--and she, flung forward, roll over and lie on her back. He felt nothing at the moment, only had that fixed vision of a yellow patch of sand, the blue sky, a rook flying, and her face upturned. But when he came on her she was on her feet, holding the bridle of her dazed horse. No sooner did he touch her, than she sank down. Her eyes were closed, but he could feel that she had not fainted; and he just held her, and kept pressing his lips to her eyes and forehead. Suddenly she let her head fall back, and her lips met his. Then opening her eyes, she said: "I'm not hurt, only--funny. Has Magpie cut his knees?"

  Not quite knowing what he did, he got up to look. The little horse was cropping at some grass, unharmed--the sand and fern had saved his knees. And the languid voice behind him said: "It's all right-- you can leave the horses. They'll come when I call."

  Now that he knew she was unhurt, he felt angry. Why had she behaved in this mad way--given him this fearful shock? But in that same languid voice she went on: "Don't be cross with me. I thought at first I'd pull up, but then I thought: 'If I jump he can't help being nice'--so I did-- Don't leave off loving me because I'm not hurt, please."

  Terribly moved, he sat down beside her, took her hands in his, and said:

  "Nell! Nell! it's all wrong--it's madness!"

  "Why? Don't think about it! I don't want you to think--only to love me."

  "My child, you don't know what love is!"

  For answer she only flung her arms round his neck; then, since he held back from kissing her, let them fall again, and jumped up.