Chapter VI

MAX felt a little heavy and depressed as the motor whirled him up the last slope and he saw the chimneys of Farley against the sky. He wished it was not Saturday: there would certainly be guests, and he did not want to have to talk: he wanted to think. And yet he did not know, really, what there was to think about: his course was entirely plain, and must be followed. Thinking could only make it more difficult.

Norah, for a wonder, met him in the hall; and made haste to imply that it was quite by accident, in the unemotional way of sisters who try to be friends with their brothers.

" Ah! here you are," she said. " Had a good journey?" (They kissed.)

" Excellent, thanks. Anybody here? "

" Oh! yes: three or four. They're at tea. The Mainwarings are here," she added; " and the PakenhamFlaxes. You remember the rabbit-people, don't you? "

" Oh yes," said Max.

Tea, however, seemed over by the time they got into the drawing-room. Only Sir Robert was there, staring out at the lawn, a fine, soldierly figure, with his hands clasped behind his back.

" Ah! here you are! " he said. " I hear you've been at the grouse. Did you have good sport? "

" Excellent, thanks."

" I say," said Norah, " you can look after yourself, can't you? Gerald wants me."

" That's all right," said Max, inspecting the inside of the tea-pot.

Sir Robert seemed very friendly and communicative as Max helped himself. He came and sat in a low chair that seemed altogether out of harmony, in its prim chintz dress and sedate appearance, with this bright-eyed ivory-faced old man that had such an air of strength. He watched Max with a kindly look in his face, and talked pleasantly and easily. Max felt rather flattered.

" You came straight through town, I suppose? "

« Yes."

" Personally I like town in August. One really can have a little peace: one can get Punch in the smoking-room, and there really seem enough servants in the club, too. But you're going north altogether, soon, I suppose? "

" My people go in about ten days, I think," said Max. " But I'm not sure I'm going myself."

"Eh? How's that?"

" I think I may have to stop in town, after all. I'm not sure."

Certainly the tea was rather cold; yet, while it was not worth while ringing for more, it did not offer any great temptation to remain long over it. Max stood up after a cup.

" Where's everybody? " he asked.

" I saw Lady Merival going down to the gardens with Mrs. Pakenham-Flax," said Sir Robert, rising with him.

"Ah! you don't feel inclined for a cigarette? " said Max, thinking he had been a little too abrupt about his plans.

" I shall be charmed," said the General. " Let's go out: it's a delicious evening."

Certainly Sir Robert could be a very pleasant companion. Max always liked him; but this evening he felt for the first time that the old man found him a pleasant companion too, and there is no flattery more delicately soothing to a young man's vanity. By the time that they had gone half a dozen times up the terrace he felt that he would like to confide, not very much, but just a little, in this old gentleman. Guy's story about him appeared evidently false, in this genial presence.

" By the way," he said, rather abruptly. " I hope I didn't seem rude just now. The fact is that I haven't talked to my father yet about my plans: but I wonder if I might ask your advice."

" My dear boy," said the other, " you know how we old folks like to be consulted. It makes us feel important again."

" Well: it's this," said Max. " I want to do something. I feel rather an idle brute. You know I do nothing whatever, but hang about. And I was thinking of asking my father whether he couldn't put me into something."

" But this time of the year "

" Yes: I know. But I want to show my father that I really mean business. He thinks I'm a slacker, you know: which is exactly what I am. And I thought that if I went to him just when the shooting "

The old man put a fatherly hand on his arm.

" My dear boy: I understand perfectly — perfectly. And it does you credit. But what does your father think of it all? That's the point. Has he ever — well — criticised or found fault in any way? "

" No: as a matter of fact it's at his own wish that I live as I do. I've been getting up the estate-work, and all that, as he wanted."

" But then why change? You'll have the whole thing to manage, one day, you know: and in these days the more a landlord knows about such things the better."

" I want to be independent," said Max.

" Ah! Why, here's Lady Merival coming! "

Lady Merival could be quite adroit, sometimes, in her obscure way: in fact her obscurity helped her. This time she sailed down on the two, herself convoyed by the three " rabbit-people " as Norah had called them — Mrs. Pakenham-Flax and the two Misses Pakenham-Flax, a talkative mother with two silent daughters whose hair had just passed out of the pigtail stage. Yet, three minutes later — almost as soon as the greetings had been exchanged between Max and the guests — Lady Merival was gone again, practically unperceived. She had been taught in so stringent a school that her personality must be effaced, that she effaced it without any difficulty at all. She effaced it now, and went off to consult with Norah, who, she knew, would be on the look-out for her in her own sitting-room.

tl Well? " she said, with her face twitching a little, as was her manner in anxiety.

" It's all right, mother," said the girl; " he's an old dear; and quite understood."

Lady Merival sat down.

" I don't know what your father would say," she said. " It would be too dreadful."

" Not nearly as dreadful as what he would say, if... if things really did go wrong," said the girl.

Lady Merival twitched a little more violently.

" You quite understand that you spoke to Sir Robert on your own responsibility, don't you?"

" Oh, yes," said the girl a little wearily.

** It was your own responsibility, you know, my dear. You spoke to me first. I never dreamed of it till you told me."

Norah nodded.

" Tell me again," said her mother: " you have no reason to think "

Norah grew a little impatient.

" Mother: I've told you absolutely everything I know. I know they write to one another. I know that they met in town — Gerald told me. I am perfectly certain, though I can't prove it, that Max stayed behind to see her, the night of her breakdown in Isolde. But I don't suppose for a single moment that he's — well — compromised himself in any way, yet. I think Marion would have shown some signs of it if he had. That's what I think, anyhow."

" It would be too dreadful," said Lady Merival once more.

"Well: I've done my best, anyhow," said Norah.

" If any one can get at Max it'll be Sir Robert. He really is an old dear, and very, very much cleverer than any one would think. And what an advantage to have such an excellent reputation."

Lady Merival suddenly snapped. It is a characteristic of weak natures that, in anxiety, they turn almost savagely, and quite without justification, on the nearest person who won't snap back.

" I hold you responsible for all the trouble," she said. " It was you who first brought her here — I mean."

Norah stood up. This was a little too much.

" That's not in the least fair, mother: you asked her to dine again and again yourself."

" Because you pressed me," retorted Lady Merival, suddenly resembling a handsome rat who bites.

Norah flushed.

" Well: it wasn't I who wanted the PakenhamFlaxes here, anyhow! And if anything in the world.could drive Max to desperation it's those two girls."

" That's not a proper way to speak to me."

Norah murmured resentfully; but said nothing coherent. Her mother rose, with dignity: but her curiosity was too keen to be resisted; and, at the door, she turned.

" And may I ask what you mean by saying they will drive him to desperation? "

" I should have thought it was obvious."

" I will have an answer, please."

" Well: I suppose you want him to marry one of them, don't you? I know they're harmless and respectable and... and rich."

"Well? " demanded the poor lady, still as angry as she could be, but desperately curious.

" Max isn't a fool by any means: he sees all that well enough: and it'll just make him cross."

Lady Merival swept out of the room disdainfully.

Yet these two admirable actors behaved at dinner as if there were nothing in the world between them: at any rate no coarse-fibred man would have suspected anything. But Norah, between her smiles to Sir Robert, perceived that Max did not sit between the two rabbit-girls, after ah1.

It was not until the next night that there was any further chance for a proper talk. Two or three times Sir Robert made an attempt; but somebody came up, or a gong sounded, and the day slipped by in the solemn futilities of a country Sunday. The guests seemed drearier than ever, thought poor Max, whose interior conflict was really considerable, in spite of his resolute decision that there was nothing to conflict about. Once Miss Tenterden's name was mentioned by Sir Robert at lunch, and Max listened with an attention he had paid to nothing else; but the old man only spoke kindly and shortly of the sad loss of her voice, and remarked that he had had a charming talk to her one evening at Farley, not so very long ago. Max noticed that Norah was listening too; but she said nothing. He caught her eye.

The smoking-room at Farley is close to the stone stair that runs down into the garden, and a few minutes before the time of the usual dispersal, Max, who had been very silent all the evening, slipped out and went down for a stroll. As he reached the foot of the stairs he heard himself called.

" Ah! Going for a breath of fresh air before turning in? May I come, too? "

" Why: of course," said Max.

They walked without speaking for a few yards. The moon was just rising — the rim. of a great yellow shield beyond the eastern hills; and, as it had been a few weeks before when Marion was here, the night was still and breathless and full of scents. They walked together to the same corner where the girl and the old General had stood. Then Sir Robert put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

" My dear boy," he said. " I am an old man. I want to speak to you frankly. May I? "

Max felt his whole being stiffen and instantly relax.

" Of course, sir," he said.

" I've been putting two and two together. My boy, you aren't going to do anything rash? "

" But, how? I don't understand," stammered the other.

" Your talk last night — about wanting independence; that's one thing."

A thought flashed into Max's mind. He also saw how two and two made four.

" Has any one been speaking to you? " he said. " About me, I mean."

"My dear boy! Does that matter? "

" Ah! Well, I suppose it was Norah. But I don't see how she knew "

" Listen," said the old man gently. " She doesn't know. No one knows, except yourself. I can only guess. So can your sister. But she did speak to me; it's quite true. And I want to be of any service that I can. That is really all."

Then the repressed longing for advice burst up in the young man's soul — an instinct rather than a reasoned wish. His way was clear and he knew it: yet a confidant might make it easier to take it.

" Look here, sir: it's very good of you. But I've quite made up my mind. There's absolutely only one possibility, and I must do it. By the way, I suppose if you've guessed so much; or if Norah's been talking to you, you can guess who it is "

" Yes, I know who it is, and I understand perfectly; and I have every sympathy. I have heard from her, by the way."

"Ah 1"

"Yes: just a day or two ago. But, of course, she neither said nor hinted at anything of this sort."

" What did she write about, if I may ask? "

"Why, nothing: just a friendly little note. I haven't answered it yet."

Max looked up inquiringly.

" It's rather difficult to know what to say, you know.

She doesn't quite seem to understand " He broke off. "Well: may I speak frankly? I have every sympathy, as I said just now: but there is another side, you know. I wonder if you've thought of that? I wouldn't say a single word, of course, against that... that most charming and attractive young lady. I have nothing but the highest respect for her."

"Ah!" said Max, again: and again the old man put his white virile hand for an instant on his arm.

" But there are other considerations, you know. Of course I have no idea how far the thing is gone."

" I think I'd better " began Max.

" No. Please don't say anything. Let me finish. It'll be easier. Let me just put it like this. We'll say that you are hoping to make this young lady your wife. Well: I want to know if you'll allow me just to put one or two points before you that perhaps you have not fully considered."

" Go on, please," said Max quietly. His heart was beating excitedly: but his will was resolute. Certainly he would hear; he might as well keep what reputation he could, for sanity and reasonableness. But he knew where his duty lay: and he meant to perform it.

" Well: first there's the fact of her profession. Now I must be absolutely brutal about that. I am quite aware that a great many young fellows of... of our class have done precisely what you are thinking of doing: but I've never known, personally, one instance in which the experiment succeeded. I daresay there are some: only I haven't come across them. Let us allow that there are some. Well: I think you would probably find that in such instances there has been a very long period — giving a kind of momentum — during which the family has become established. Such people can do almost anything, and yet recover. Now in the case of both your family and my own this is not so. We are, both of us, comparatively new. I daresay this sounds very snobbish and foolish to you: but, you know, there is a good deal in these social matters, underneath all the nonsense — well: I think you see what I mean: I am speaking exactly as I have already spoken to my own son in another connection: I think you won't be annoyed? — eh? "

It really was impossible to be angry. The old gentleman spoke with such serene simplicity. Besides, what he said happened to be precisely true.

" Well," he went on, " that's one point. Her profession "

" She's left it," put in Max.

" Yes: I know. But, you know, it does remain. I am aware that this is what is called Worldliness in its very strongest form. But I've come to see, towards the end of a long life, that Worldliness is not altogether an unmixed evil. There really is something in Caste. At any rate it is a fact that we have to reckon with."

" Yes: I know," said Max, steadily.

" My dear boy; thank you for taking it so nicely. The next point is this young lady's own birth and upbringing. If she had been, really and truly, of your own class, I don't think the other affair — her profession— would have mattered very much — perhaps. But you know "

Max glanced, sharply and fiercely.

" Yes: I know what you are thinking. I am not going to say that, for one moment. I know perfectly well that in a very deep sense of the word she is a lady — most simple and good and unaffected: it is wonderful to me, on the whole, how she kept her head "

"On the whole?"

" Well, I withdraw that phrase. I cannot justify it. I will say, in every detail, exteriorly as well as interiorly. But, you know, birth and breeding must mean something, though neither you nor I can see how it does in this instance. But surely, in the long run "

It was very delicately said. Max's sense of offence found no crevice in which to fasten precisely. Besides, had not these very thoughts occurred to him, too, again and again? Did he not continually find it necessary, interiorly, to answer these very arguments?

"Well: I'll say no more on that point," went on Sir Robert. " But of course you see that's my difficulty about answering her note. It would be simply cruel to pretend that the loss of her voice makes no difference. It does make an enormous difference, and that's just what she does not seem to see."

" I don't quite understand," said Max.

" Why, my dear fellow, her voice was her appeal. No girl of her age is accustomed to receive the... the kind of homage Miss Tenterden has been receiving, unless she has some very exceptional gift. Well, Miss Tenterden, poor soul! no longer has that gift."

" That seems to me rather brutal," observed Max, a little tremulously.

The other made a gesture with both hands.

" Exactly. Most brutal. That is just what I mean. The world is brutal; and Miss Tenterden doesn't seem to know it. But you know she must learn facts, sometime. However — may I go on? "

" Please."

" Well. The last point is her Religion. Now I don't see how it's possible for you to understand what a tremendous difference "

Max interrupted.

" Look here, sir: I must betray a confidence. I can't help. it. I know you will keep it as absolutely sacred. Miss Tenterden is going to give up her religion; at least she is not going to demand of me the promises that her

Church lays down as necessary. Doesn't that fact make a difference? "

" Ah," said the old gentleman. But he did not seem in the least disconcerted. " Of course that makes a difference one way: but it raises a further difficulty in another. I happen to know a good deal about Roman Catholics; I was mixed up in a case once. Well — if I understand you rightly, you mean that Miss Tenter-den is ready — or rather that you understand that she would be ready, in case of necessity, to marry you without her Church's sanction. Is that right? And do you quite realise what that means? "

"How?"

" Well: she will be considered not married at all, by those of her own faith. She will lose every friend she has "

Max could bear it no more. One by one all his own torturing doubts — or the vast ma j ority of them, at least — rose before him again: and he perceived that they were not mere fancies of his own, as he had sometimes hoped. Here was a man, famous in Europe — a type, not just of the ordinary superficial man of the world, but of the exceptional; a man whose name stood for a very high standard of honour and chivalry and even piety — the kind of man whom parents secretly, and sometimes openly, hoped that their own sons might resemble — putting into reasonable and well-weighed words the very instincts and arguments that, for himself, he had been striving with all his might to reject as worldly and ungenerous and mean. The conflict waxed higher than ever. He must smash it down, or he might yield.

" Look here> sir," he said, with a voice that shook.

" It's no good. I'm very grateful: but it's no good. I must go through with it. I have given my word. We are actually engaged to one another. I can tell you that, plainly, now."

" Ah! Is that so? " said Sir Robert gently. " I'm sorry."

He stood surveying the young man, kindly and tenderly, in the moonlight.

" There! " he said. " Then that's all I have to say. You'll forgive me, I know."

He held out his hand.

It is never good for any one to feel heroic, although it is impossible to believe that spiritual fact at the time. At the time, it appears to lend strength and encouragement; but it is a Dutch kind of courage at the best.

Max came down to breakfast feeling heroic — so heroic, in fact, that he had resolved to say not one word of reproach to Norah for meddling in his concerns. But his heroism deserted him when he caught her understanding and sympathetic eye resting on him two or three times, and instantly withdrawn so soon as he saw it. Certainly it was most confounded impertinence on her part. Besides, how did she know?

He got his chance, as the guests drove away in the large motor wagonette, just before the second post came in. Norah put her hand understandingly through his arm — an action he loathed. But this time he retained it till other people had cleared away.

" Look here," he said. " Come for a stroll. I've got something to say."

They were twenty yards up the grass before he opened.

" Look here," he said again, with an air, and a sense, of extraordinary restraint. " I hear you've been talking to Sir Robert. Isn't that so? "

Norah pressed his arm again.

" Yes," she said, in an artlessly low voice.

" Well: look here. If it made any difference I should probably be angry. But I assure you it doesn't."

" Max " she began.

" It's so entirely futile," he went on resolutely, " that I'm not even going to discuss it. But what I want to know is, How in the world did you guess anything was up? "

Then she was silent.

" Norah," he said, " if you don't tell me, I shall be really angry."

She laughed quietly; and the very assurance annoyed him.

" My dear boy — you won't like it. But you're as transparent as glass. You were a great deal too careful, for one thing, not to mention her name: and you were a great deal too attentive, when any one else did."

" Do you mean to say you noticed? "*

"Why, of course I did," she said. "And then all that motif-playing in the music-room. You've never quite left off that."

" And you know how far it's gone? "

" Well — I suppose you correspond with her. It's exactly that that's so dangerous. With a girl of that kind, you know "

It was his turn to be amused.

" Ah! you aren't so clever as you think," he said. " Well: I suppose I may as well tell you. I've been engaged to her ever since January."

" Max! You don't mean that! "

" Indeed I do. Then you didn't guess that! "

She had withdrawn her hand and was looking at him aghast. His sense of heroism, elevated him now above all mundane prudence.

" Do you mean what you say? " she asked.

" I mean precisely what I say. You've always been honourable: I'll say that for you. And I know you'll tell nobody."

"Max! That isn't fair."

" It's absolutely fair. You've pried and poked about. So I've opened the door."

" It's simply impossible," she said. " You can no more marry Marion Tenterden than... than a charwoman. It would just mean ruin. Why she's even lost her voice."

Then for once his sense of heroism really inspired him.

" Norah, old girl," he said: " you mustn't say things like that. I know you don't mean them. I know she's lost her voice: if anything, that's one more reason. Sir Robert was very plain about that — I mean that people wouldn't find her so interesting now. Well, do you think that now's the time for me to desert her too? She's a good girl — as good as gold — you know that as well as I do. There's not the faintest reason, except the very flattest kind of convention against it. I kirow they'll kick up the deuce of a fuss: but I'm not going to tell them yet. I'm going to make my plans first. And you've got to stick by me. I've no one else. You've never thrown me over yet, and I know you won't this time. Will you? "

For answer her eyes filled with tears.

The second post was being laid on the hall-table as they came back ten minutes later. Norah had really broken down as she realised how much worse the matter was than she had dreamed — she had broken down, that is to say, so far as to cry a little quietly; for the news really did affect her considerably. The consequence was that Max felt once more almost superhuman in his loftiness of character.

It was not that he did not care for Marion. H£ really did. The thought of seeing her again, the fact that she had not made an appointment for this last week, really touched his heart. He had a very great tenderness for her indeed. But what was beginning to happen to him was that the light of common day was dawning and the illumination of the footlights had begun to wane. He still pictured her as she had been when he had first met her a year ago — a gallant, alert figure. He held to his determination to marry her, firmly and resolutely. No doubt, he had begun to say to himself, in a year or two they would stand to one another in very much the same kind of relationship as that in which most married couples found themselves after the same period. Meanwhile he must not behave like a cad.

He eyed the letters sharply as he came round the table with Norah following. He still was conscious of a sharp prick of disappointment when Marion did not write. But there was no disappointment this time.

He darted his hand forward and took up a letter addressed to him, lying apart.

" Yes," he said, in answer to Norah's pale look of inquiry.

He tore the envelope open. It was very short.

" DEAUESO? MAX,

" I want you to come down and see me next week. It's really important. All times are the same to me. You said you could come. Well, will you? And will you let me know when?

" Yours,

" M. T."

Obviously there was nothing sacredly private about this: and it would clench the information he had given to Norah just now.

" Here," he said, handing it to her. " See for yourself."

When she gave it back her eyes had an odd question^ ing look.

" Well? " he said rather sharply.

" Oh. Nothing," said Norah. " Thanks for showing it me. I suppose you'll go? "

" I shall go on Wednesday," he said with an air of decision.