Chapter II

(i)

was in a state of intense and radiant excitement on the day that Val came home. Five minutes after she had risen from the breakfast-table in the " Room " she was beginning to pull the mattresses off Val's bed, in order to give them one more entirely unnecessary warming; and for the rest of the morning the baize door between her rooms and the boys' was continually being pushed open and banging gently again behind her, as she went to and fro bearing sheets and blankets and baskets full of mended socks and shirts.

She could not, of course, for one instant have analysed her own feelings precisely. She was always delighted when any of her " children " came home, especially Val; but there was a sense in her, this time, that a particular effort was demanded — she did not quite know why.

A rather ominous silence had prevailed on the subject of the crisis ever since Val had departed for Cambridge a little over two months ago. On the same morning the " mistress " had paid her another visit, and had managed to get into her mind the idea that no one was to speak of the matter any more. This was good, thought Benty; and yet she was not satisfied. She had not seen Val at all during the twelve hours of his stay, except for a moment, and as he passed her in the passage; and it appeared to her that the situation was not yet as entirely devoid of bitterness as she would have wished. A good deal, she thought, depended now on the way Val was greeted when he came home, and, for her part, she would do her best.

VaFs brougham could not possibly reach the house before twenty minutes to two; but by a quarter past one Benty had made her excuses in the " Room " and was busying herself in one of the spare bedrooms whose windows commanded a view of the drive. At twenty-five minutes to two she had given up even the pretence of occupation, and was honestly staring out with puckered eyes for the first glimpse of the carriage over the slope of the hill. She had to watch ten minutes before she had her heart's desire, and could get away to her baize door, whence she could command Val's approach to wash his hands.

" Eh-h-h," she cried, with lifted hands and radiant face, as he turned the corner from the stairs and came upon her suddenly.

"Why, Benty! " said Val, and kissed her twice.

Her boy did not look very well, she thought; but for no consideration imaginable would she have said so.

" Now, Master Val, there's some hot water ready. You must wash your hands and brush your hair before you see your mamma."

Val smiled properly in answer to this old gambit; but his face grew grave again too quickly to please her. And he said nothing at all about his mamma, as he generally did.

" There," said the old lady, pushing his door open. " And I've put you out your old brushes, till your bag's unpacked."

She hung about outside until he came out again, for her strategy was not finished; and as soon as he reappeared was on him again.

" There'll be company at tea," she said.

Val's face changed swiftly.

" Will there? I say, Benty, shall I come to tea with you? "

Her old face broke out into wrinkles of pure joy.

" Eh! if you would! " she said. " If your mamma wouldn't "

Again came that swift and anxious gravity, all the worse, since he smiled simultaneously.

" Oh! they won't mind," he said, " they'll like it."

" Nay now, Master "

Val took her hands again and pressed them. " I must go down to lunch," he said. " I'll be with you by five. Give me another kiss, Benty."

(n)

She pondered over it all as she sat over her work that afternoon, so far as it was possible within the limitations of loyalty which she observed so strictly and conscientiously. No one must be blamed — that was quite clear and certain; every Medd must be right; and yet it was perfectly obvious that there was something wrong; and there seemed to her no solution except the practical one of going downstairs about four o'clock and making the steward's boy polish her silver teapot, milk- jug, and sugar-basin — another set of gifts at the end of her twenty-five years' service — under her own eye. Then she went on to the still-room, made her selections and issued her orders; and by twenty minutes to five all was in place, and the teapot stood ready downstairs to be filled and brought up instantly by the still-room maid as soon as the nursery bell rang twice, together with the buttered buns already warming at the fire.

It was a delicious room, this, in summer, for it looked out from beneath the eaves on to the south gardens, and the surface of the great cedar fans, from beneath which came already the sound of talking from the " company " — one of the usual parties of friends' friends who had come over to see the house. Beyond the terrace on the further side of the cedar lay the meadow-land sloping down to the village, now all alight with summer glory of green and gold; and across this, walking slowly and alone, came presently the figure she longed for, with his hands in his pockets and a white hat on his head.... She felt uneasy at seeing him alone on this the day of his home-coming.... Never mind, he- would soon be up here at tea with her. As she heard, a minute or two later, the baize door swing, she rang the bell twice, according to arrangement.

He looked curiously weary and miserable, even as he came in, and began the elaborate humour that most delighted Benty's heart. He said, as in duty bound, that he hoped he- wasn't going to be given dry bread because he was two minutes late; that he wasn't going to change his feet however much Benty might talk; and that he hoped she had been a good girl all this long time that he had been away and not able to look after her. She made the proper responses and ejaculations as she poured out the tea, and put the buttered buns where he could reach them without stretching; but she was more than ever convinced that something really was wrong and that the situation was not what it should be.

Then, as at last he drank his last cup of tea and took out his cigarettes, he opened straight on to the subject himself.

" Benty," he said, " I'm a naughty boy, and my papa and mamma aren't pleased with me. Did you know that?"

Benty's face became suddenly distressed.

" Nay now; don't talk like that," she said.

" But it's true," said Val. " And I mustn't talk about it. I'm forbidden: So you must be very kind to me to make up."

" Nay now " she said again.

" The less they see of me the more they'll like it," went on Val, with a kind of resolute bitterness. " They've made that quite plain already. Oh, no; they haven't said anything, of course; but I know how it is. So I shall come up and see you very often indeed, Benty; and you'll give me tea and be nice to me, won't you?... Shall we run away together, and go to Gretna Green? "

" Now, Master Val? " began Benty, not in the least amused; but he interrupted her.

" My dear," he said, " it's perfectly true. Now I'll bet you a penny that nobody asks me whether I'll ride. They haven't yet, and they won't. You'll see.... What time are the horses ordered?"

" Masterman was saying, at half-past five."

"Well, there's five minutes more yet. Now you'll see."

" But they don't know where you are," complained the old lady, half rising. " I'll be off and "

" No you won't," said Val very deliberately. " You won't move. They'll be able to find me perfectly well if they want me; and, besides, the horses must be ready by now, and I haven't heard a word."

" What have you been doing this afternoon? " asked Benty, anxious to change the subject.

Val smiled with that same disagreeable irony he had shown before.

" I ate my lunch like a good little boy," he said, " and everyone asked me whether I had had a good journey and what time I left Cambridge. And then I went into the hall and we all drank coffee; and then my mamma asked my papa what time he would have the horses, and he said five; and then she said that he'd forgotten people were coming; and then May dropped the sugar-basin. And then I began to look at the Illustrated London News; and then everybody went away; and so I went away too. And — let's see, what did I do next? Oh, I went up to my room and filled my cigarette-case; and then I came down to the hall again, and nobody was there. So then I went out and began to knock the croquet-balls about, and nobody came. So then I went down to the farm to see whether the dogs were all right, and I took them for a run. And then I came back, and the company were under the cedar; so I went and said, ' How do you do? ' like a good little boy; and nobody said anything; and then I came up here.... Rollicking afternoon, wasn't it, Benty? Everybody so jolly pleased to see me, weren't they? "

His tone cut the old lady like a knife. He had raised his voice a little at the end, and the bitterness broke out undisguised.

She began to rebuke him.

" Nay, Master Val — then why didn't you go and talk to them yourself? I'm sure Miss May would have been only too pleased "

" Oh, yes; she'd have come and played croquet with me if I'd asked her. But that's just exactly what I wouldn't do. And they'd all say how nice it would be if I went downstairs now and ordered Quentin and went out riding; but that's just exactly what I'm not going to do. If they don't choose to ask me " He broke off.

" Master Val -

" Look here, Benty; it's just half-past. And you and me'll go and peep from the windows in front and see them start. Come along, old lady."

He jumped up and took her by the arm.

"Nay now "

"Come along!"

Together they went, she gently protesting, he hurrying her away, through the baize door, down the passage, and round to the right to the same room from which, before lunch, she had watched for his arrival. He shut the door carefully behind them.

" Now, then; behind the curtains," he said. " They mustn't see us."

" There," she cried, peeping as she was ordered. >{ There's Quentin all ready for you, Master Val. Now be a good boy and go downstairs."

" I won't," he said. " Ah! they're coming out."

From beneath, as they looked, advanced first the General, and then May holding up the skirt of her habit, across the paved space and to the head of the steps, where the three horses were being led to and fro. Masterman was already in waiting there. The distance was too great for them to hear through the closed window anything that was said, but it was obvious that a conversation was being held; and presently the butler came hurrying back to the house as the General went down the steps.

" Let me go, Master Val," cried the old lady. " The master's sent for you. Let me go and tell Masterman." He let go his clasp on her arm.

" Don't you bother, Benty; I'll go and tell him myself."

" Nay now "

" You be quiet," said Val, and went out.

She followed him, and stood listening when she saw him bend over the banisters.

" No — I'm not ready/' she heard him say. " Tell the General I didn't know he was expecting me; and that I'm not dressed."

She heard the murmur of the butler's voice from below.

" I can't," said the boy again. " Say that I haven't got my things on.... Or... or... wait; no, say I'll come after them. Tell them not to wait. Tell the man to keep Quentin at the steps."

As he straightened himself again, the old nurse was at his side.

"That's right, Master Val," she said. "And now you'll go and have a nice ride. How'll you know which way they've gone? "

He smiled.

" I'm going a nice ride all by myself," he said, " in exactly the opposite direction."

' That's right, my boy," said his mother, five minutes later, as he came to the hall door in his breeches. ' They left a message to say they were going over the Hurst. How was it you weren't ready?"

Val paused. The " company " was now being conducted over the house, and was ranged in a line below the famous portraits.

" I didn't know what time anyone was going out," he said, " till too late."

She looked at him uneasily. He was so exceedingly calm and self-possessed, on the one hand; and she, on the other, was perfectly aware that he had not been definitely asked whether he would ride when the arrangements had been made. She had meant to ask him herself, later; and had forgotten.

:t Well, make haste and catch them up."

Val made no answer, but moved on to the door, taking his whip from the rack as he did so. Just as he went out he turned again.

" Was it the Hurst, you said, mother? "

" Yes, my boy: make haste.... Have a nice ride."

She turned again a moment or two later, in the midst of her discourse on Anthony Medd, surprised at the noise of hoofs on turf, plainly audible through the open windows, for the way to the Hurst lay round by the stables; and there was Val, full gallop up the front, riding, as he had said to Benty, in exactly the opposite direction.

Benty was, of course, at the same window soon after seven o'clock. She had gone to and fro on her business, very heavy at heart, since Val's little scene with her, first clearing away the tea-things, and then paying more than one visit to his room, to reassure herself that all was as it should be and that Charles had done his duty. Then she had taken a piece of mending to the bedroom window again, telling herself that she could see better there than in her own room,.

She had not long to wait. Somewhere out of sight came the sound of hoofs, first on turf and then on gravel. Then she saw a groom run out from the stable shrubbery, and simultaneously Val come into sight and pull up. A minute later, as he was coming up the' steps, again came the noise of hoofs, and the two other riders came down the slope. Val paid no attention; he walked straight on without turning his head, and vanished into the house.

Benty bundled her mending under her arm and hurried out. She felt discomfort all around her and within her: she wished to reassure herself by another word or two with her boy.

As she reached the passage, whose banisters on one side stood out over the inner hall, she heard voices below.

" Yes; they're just coming, mother.... No, I missed them.... Yes; I went the other way over the Hurst; and thought perhaps I'd meet them. But I didn't."

There was silence, and then the sound of a closing door.

Benty hurried on, and was outside Val's room as the boy came up.

"Well, did you have a nice ride?" she asked timidly.

"Lovely!" said. Val. "And all by myself. Come in, Benty, and I'll tell you...."

" But you didn't go the right way, Master Val," she said when they were inside the room.

Val closed the door and looked at her. His face was a little flushed with the exercise; but there was no buoyancy in his eyes — only that same suggestion of bitterness under his half-lowered eyelids.

" I went over the Hurst," he said, " exactly as I said I would. And I went the opposite way. And when I heard them coming, I rode into the bracken and hid till they'd gone by. That was why we didn't meet. Wasn't it a pity? "