Chapter VII: Part 7

Travelling up through the lovely rocky valley of the Meuse, bright-hung with rain-drops, Farquhar sat watch in hand counting the minutes; for their train was late, and there was a doubt whether it could catch the main-line connection at Namur, and if they failed in that they could not cross that night and must wait a whole day more ere hearing Dolly’s decree. Seven found them passing Yvoir, the sky bare of clouds, and the wide Meuse rosing herself in the sunset’s glow, which stained the very granite cliffs and dyed the green of young leaves madder-brown. Half-past seven: they were coming into Namur station, ten minutes late, and the Brussels express was due. Standing up, Farquhar held himself in readiness. Before the wheels were still he had sprung out, leaping with the train to balance his initial velocity, and was running along the platform towards the main line, for he knew his way. Lucian did not know his way, but he did not stay to ask it; he ran after Farquhar. There was a crowd, and two stout Belgians, excitedly discussing the wonderful rescue at Vresse, got right in his way: as he reached the platform the train began to move, and Lucian, who was too much exhausted to do more than just clutch at the foot-board, would certainly have been left had not somebody opened the door of a first-class carriage and hauled him in by the collar and tail of his coat. Lucian collapsed, utterly spent, his face as white as paper; the stranger ministered to his needs with half a glass of brandy, and assisted him to a seat. There Lucian lay with his eyes shut for several minutes before he found energy even to feel curiosity concerning his saviour. To a person of Lucian’s inquisitive temper, three minutes is an æon of time.

When his heart had moderated its suffocating pulsations and his eyes had ceased to swim, he made use of them, and discovered that his companion was a slight, fair-haired, good-looking young Englishman dressed in grey—who was watching him with a good deal of friendliness out of a pair of dark-grey eyes. Lucian smiled back and gave him a military salute, being still beyond speech.

“You were almost left behind,” said the stranger. Lucian nodded. “I hope I didn’t tear your coat.”

Lucian put up his hand and found a long rent, but he smiled on. “No, it’s all right, thanks. I’m no end obliged to you. I was dead set on catching this train; there’d have been Holy Moses to settle if I’d missed it.”

“I’m glad.”

“You crossing to-night?”

“Yes, I’m going back,” said the stranger, taking a paper out of his bag. Lucian made a bet with himself as to what that paper would be, and transferred a sixpence from the right-hand pocket of his coat to the left when the _Spectator_ came into view. The _Engineer Journal_ followed. “Oho!” said Lucian to himself; “a soldier of the king, my friend, are you? That’s why you look so smart.” He went on aloud: “I’ve a kind of idea you saved my life, you know.”

“By pulling you in? Surely not.”

“No-o; not that way. By the kindly, felicitous, and opportunitatious administration of O. D. V.”

“You ought not to run if you have trouble with your heart,” said the stranger, unfolding the _Spectator_ preparatory to beginning to read.

“Thirteen different sawboneses have told me that very same thing,” Lucian confessed; “but it’s one of those things no fellow can remember.”

“I dare say it is difficult,” the stranger assented, his eyes on the printed page.

In face of that august _Spectator_, Lucian had not the impudence to go on talking, though his own thoughts were far from pleasant company. He amused himself by studying the delicate and rather feminine profile and the long eyelashes of his vis-à-vis, trying from them to read his character and from his clothes his position and prospects; and the longer he looked the more certain he grew that both should be known to him.

“Where have I seen your face before?
It seems so familiar to me!”

whistled Lucian softly to himself, trying to fit together fragments of memory, as in one of those terrible improving Scripture puzzles which had haunted the Sundays of his childhood. Bright sunshine, an architrave of light-coloured wood framing an open door, and some bright figure standing beside him: his brain served up these scraps of information, but he could not complete the picture. His feverish mind had cooled. Lucian was not by nature excitable; it was the electrical influence of Farquhar’s stormy temperament which threw him off his balance, and in his wildest movements he was never mastered by a single motive and passion to the exclusion of every other, as happened to Farquhar. So now, anxiety respecting Dolly lay like a core of ice within his heart while the surface of his fertile brain was occupied in weaving a romantic secret history for the quiet young aristocrat of the _Spectator_. By the time they had reached Brussels he had made him a bigamist inclining to trigamy, and was only not sure whether he had poisoned his first wife or his mother.

Nine, ten, half-past. Darkness had fallen, spangled with stars, and the southwest wind came sweeping across the sky with a full and steady pressure which reminded Lucian of the strong blue tide of the Trades. Brussels sparkling in lights lay far behind, and Ghent was passed, and they tore through Bruges with three screeches, leaving a trail of opalescent smoke threaded with fire, and noisily rocking and stuffily smelling as a Belgian train alone can. Over the wide flat lands they raced, with a throbbing repeated in triplets as clear as the gait of a galloping horse. No tunnels were here; a grating rush and a roar told when they passed a canal and mirrored their square golden windows one after one in the glass of the water, so dark and so still. Lucian leaned out, received a peppering of grit from the engine, and got his first breath of the sea. There in the west the sky glowed over Ostend. He relegated the aristocratic stranger to a prison dark and drear, with prospects of the gallows, and turned from his own fancies to face the facts of life. Years dropped away like dead leaves; he lived again through the hours when he gambled with Meryon while his wife lay dead above. In those hours he had come to know despair; and now, displacing the veils which resolute courage drew across the face of truth, he saw the same inexorable lineaments confronting him. He had met them now in every path of life. He was a failure: Dolly was not for him. He had known this, while refusing to believe; he did acknowledge it now, and reached the nadir of his troubles before the final sentence fell.

“We shall have a rough crossing,” said the stranger, folding up his paper. “Are you a good sailor?”

“Tolerably vile; are you?”

“Couldn’t be worse,” said the stranger, laughing. “Do you go below?”

“No; I lie where I fall and abide in my misery until my journey’s end. _Sic transit_ is my motto; and sick it always is, too.”

“You’ll get wet through if you stay on deck to-night. Why don’t you try a private cabin? They’re comfortable.”

“To tell the plain but honest truth,” said Lucian, cheerfully leaning back and stretching a pair of muddy boots on the opposite seat, “because I’m clean cleaned out. I’ve nothing but my fare up from Dover.”

“I see.”

The stranger stood up to lift down his bag and put on his overcoat, in all of which actions he was as neat and quiet and dainty as a cat. After a short pause he turned to Lucian again and said, with some hesitation, “I shall have a deck cabin myself; will you share it?”

“I shall be awfully ill,” said Lucian, very much amazed.

“So shall I.”

“Well, under those circumstances you may be grateful and comforting; I’m disgusting. Sure you want me?”

“If I did not I should not have asked you,” said the stranger concisely.

“It’s really remarkably good of you.”

“Then that’s settled; thanks very much.”

Thus it came to pass that Lucian and Lal crossed the Channel in one cabin, and very ill were they both, especially Lal, who suffered like a martyr, without one groan. He could hardly have done a thing more unselfish than this, but, unluckily, his conscience was too lofty-minded to applaud him for a sacrifice merely of personal dignity. Virtue failed to reward itself here. Moreover, he was partly of opinion that he had made a fool of himself in making friends with a stranger. The hollow sound of Lucian’s cough and the mournful display of dripping passengers at Dover were consolatory, inasmuch as they permitted him to father his impulsive behaviour on common humanity.

Of those, dripping passengers Farquhar was the wettest and least pitiable. For the past four hours he had been leaning over the bows, watching the speed of the steamer, and formulating arguments that should be urgent enough to procure him a special at Dover. Those arguments only failed because the thing was impossible. Cursing high and cursing low, Farquhar went to look at a time-table, and found that the quickest way to reach Monkswell was by going straight past it in the express up to London, and coming down again by the slow. He went off to take his ticket, confident that though he and his rival might arrive at Monkswell together he would yet be the first to see Dolly at Fanes. How that could be was his secret.

But they did not arrive at Monkswell together. Lucian’s unrecognised friend had a mind to follow Farquhar’s plan, and he went up by the express; Lucian bade him good-bye and remained at Dover. When crossing in the spring he had made the acquaintance of a porter; between the station and the pier they had become intimate friends. Lucian sought out this man now, and by dint of much persuasive eloquence seduced him into an alliance. There was no slow train up for some hours; but a goods train started immediately after the express. The porter and Lucian both talked to the driver of that engine from the time the boat came in till the goods train went off, and after its departure Lucian was no more to be seen at Dover Priory. It was strictly against the rules, no doubt, but rules are not unbreakable. The consequence was that Lucian was turned out at Faversham Junction at three in the morning, and there waited until a slow train up from the Kent coast-line carried him on to Monkswell.

First of the three, Lucian reached the station at ten minutes to seven, and set off to walk to Fanes, at two miles’ distance. He was utterly tired; the exhaustion of the previous day’s adventures, capped by a long journey, bad sea-sickness, a sleepless night, and exciting anxiety, weighed down each step he made. He had had nothing to eat, feeling disinclined at Dover and lacking the chance at Monkswell. The familiar morning-scented country lanes spun round him as he went.

Nine minutes after the up, the down train from town came in, bringing Noel Farquhar and Lal Laurenson. Seeing each other for the first time on the platform, they saluted distantly. Lal passed straight out of the station from the down platform, whence a field path led past the station-master’s pigsties and clothes-line to the road. Farquhar crossed over to the main buildings of the station, on the up platform, and there in the yard found his dog-cart waiting with an extremely sleepy groom. This was his trump card; he had telegraphed to Simpson from Gedinne before ever they started; by this he hoped to forestall Lucian at Fanes. And now all three had entered on the final stage of their journey.

Farquhar’s dog-cart flew down the hill and under the railway arch, noiselessly running on its rubber tyres: past the surgery and through the village and on into the country lanes, long tunnels of green sprinkled with sunlight. The irreproachable Simpson still sat behind. They turned a sharp corner, and the horse shied across the road: Farquhar checked him mercilessly, glanced back to see the cause of offence, and pulled him up short. Lucian sat clasping his knees by the way-side.

He looked up; consciousness of defeat blent with laughing and charitable defiance was writ on his face; impotent anger and deadly impatience on Farquhar’s. He tossed the reins to his groom with a curt, “Hold that,” sprang down, and went to Lucian.

“Come, will you? Confound you!”

Lucian’s face changed. “Going to give me a lift, sonny?”

“D’you suppose I can leave you here?”

“Right, then; I’m dead beat.”

For the second time Farquhar picked him up and deposited him in the dog-cart; and they drove on together.

Half a mile beyond this the gates of Fanes confronted the road. As the horse slackened to ascend the hill, the groom jumped down to throw them open, but when he turned he saw that they were open already, and that his master’s carriage was vanishing down the slope. He ran after it for a little way; then with great philosophy relapsed among the bushes and got out his pipe.

Farquhar drove noiselessly down the smooth yellow drive between snow-wreathed acacias, past the stream and past the lawn and past the rookery, till at the turn of the path where it widened to the sweep and the house came in sight, he again pulled up with a jerk.

In the fresh morning sunshine before the open door stood Dolly, in her blue frock, calling the pigeons to be fed. They sailed down to her, blue, and fawn, and white as snow, settling around and upon her, and she scattered handfuls of grain which glittered like gold. Her milk-white skin, her chestnut hair, her cornflower dress were bright and pure in colour as the sunlight itself. One pigeon floated down with outspread quiet wings and alit on her bare head, and she laughed as she shook it off: a careless laugh, a free gesture, which brought the blood to Lucian’s face. Then Farquhar’s hand fell on his arm, and he saw what he had not seen before, what Dolly, with her back turned, still did not see: the figure of a young man in a grey suit in the act of leaning a bicycle against the wall, a bicycle which unkindly refused to stand. He settled it at last, came noiselessly behind, and slipped his arm round the curve of her waist.

Dolly turned to him; the watchers saw her colour blossom and the breaking of light over her beautiful, vivid young face, as her basket slid down the curve of her drooping arm and spilled her golden store.

“You!” she said. “Back already! I’ve wished ten times an hour I’d never sent you, Lal.”

Lucian shut his eyes. Farquhar, without a word, dragged the chestnut round and lashed him till he went flying back up the drive, scattering pebbles at every step.

XX

SO THEY TWO WENT ON

In the break that followed, both turned and looked after the dog-cart. Dolly spoke first. “There!” she said, clasping her hands together; “now it’s done!”

“They had no business to listen,” Lal said. It was his embarrassment that spoke, but Dolly turned on him in a flash. “Lucian listen? Lucian would no more listen than you would. They could not help seeing.” Again she pressed her hands together, and let them drop at her side with a gesture unconsciously tragic. “I wish it had not happened so, Lal!”

“I don’t wonder you like him; he’s very attractive.”

“I’m so sorry for him!” She lifted her candid eyes. “Because I say little, never think I don’t feel. Well, it can’t be helped now.” She turned the basket upside down over the pigeons crowding round her feet, and brushed the husks from her skirt. “Did you bring them back with you? Did you know they were coming? Last night’s paper said they were rescued, no more.”

Lal gave her an evening journal, price three centimes, whose themes were murder and sudden death and the seventh commandment, all printed in vile black type upon villanous drab paper. “When I got to Namur I saw this. I thought it useless to go on,” he said, while Dolly skimmed through a highly sensational narrative of Farquhar’s heroism and Lucian’s fortitude. “I actually travelled in the same carriage with De Saumarez, but I did not recognise him. Last time we met I think he had not shaved for several days,” he finished, with a smile. Dolly let her paper drop against her skirt.

“I never should have sent you, Lal; I ought to have known better. I to think he had hurt Lucian! Oh, I have been a fool. A baby could not be more harmless than Noel Farquhar when he cares for any one; and he does care for Lucian. There, I’ve been in the wrong all through. I like him; I like both of them. This is a hateful affair. I wonder, I do wonder what they’ll do.”

“I should fancy that Farquhar will console himself within the year,” said Lal, perversely. “I’m very sorry for De Saumarez.”

“That is sheer prejudice. Lucian is far more likely to get over it soon than Noel Farquhar. In fact, I don’t believe he ever will get over it. Well!” She looked away at the golden sky, sighing, her brows drawn down. “I can’t go to them myself, that’s certain, nor can you. I must write and explain, I suppose.”

“Dolly,” Lal said, detaining her, “you have never told me which, after all, you meant to take when you summoned them in that fashion.”

“I dare say you’ll think me a fool,” Dolly said, after a pause. “I hate vacillating people myself; but the truth is—I could _not_ make up my mind. I could hardly bear to refuse Lucian; yet Noel Farquhar fascinated me, I don’t deny it. His is such a strong character, and he did care for me. Then Lucian was penniless, while Mr. Farquhar was rich and in a good position; and I’m ambitious, Lal. Besides, Bernard was continually warning me against him. And I was so completely in love with you that I did not very much care what I did with myself. You _did_ trouble me so,” she broke off, her voice softening to a richer inflection. “You almost broke my heart. I was so proud of you for being what you are; and to find you in that place! I could have died for grief; I could have beaten out my eyes for seeing it.”

“Oh, Dolly!” said Lal, and bent down quickly to kiss her. The shy, swift, furtive movement brought tears to Dolly’s eyes. There was reverence in his touch, there was even awe; and so, for the first time, Dolly tasted the grace of true humility.

“Well”—she picked up the thread of her confession with a sigh—“I suppose it has to be told. As I say, I could not see what to do; and I did not care myself; and Bernard would advise me till I was mazed with thinking. So I ended by leaving it to chance.”

“And how did you settle it?”

“I said I would accept the one who reached me first.”

“I reached you first, Dolly.”

“And do you want more of me than you’ve got?” Dolly said, turning on him her face, full of sweetness and fire.

“What have I got? A bare ‘Yes,’ and nothing more!”

“Your own fault, for asking such a question in such a place. I longed to sink into the ground. Besides, I gave you the promise of my marriage vows; isn’t that enough?”

“What marriage vows?”

“Love; honour; obedience.”

“Love—honour,” Lal repeated, strongly moved. “Do you give those to me, Dolly? You make me ashamed.”

“You know I give them. I give everything.”

“Even obedience? Dolly, will you ever obey anybody?”

“Certainly I shall,” Dolly said, with proud humility. “I take my stand with other women; we all promise to obey, and I shall obey. I always keep my promises. There, dearest, let me go now and write. Afterwards—”

* * * * *

Noel Farquhar came into his library at The Lilacs and unlocked his writing-table, one of those elegant roll-top American contrivances full of drawers and pigeon-holes. He took out his blotter, his writing-paper, and his revolver. He made sure that this was properly loaded, and then dipped pen in ink and began to write.

“TO THE CORONER

“DEAR SIR,—I wish it clearly to be understood that I write in
sound physical health, and that my brain is not, and never has
been, in danger of insanity. I purpose shortly to commit suicide
by shooting myself, and I do not wish my body to receive rites in
which I never have had a shadow of belief. In plain English, I, not
being a Christian, do not desire Christian burial. I have neither
hope nor wish for a joyful resurrection. This has been my lifelong
creed. I have been at the pains to belie it, and live as the model of
virtue, both in public and private, in order to earn the esteem of my
respectable British fellow-citizens. I challenge any man living to
say I have not succeeded. Honesty is unquestionably the best policy
for the man who wishes to thrive: _experto crede_. I would not wish
to die with a lie on my lips; the taste of truth is pleasantly novel.

“Within the last few months the issue of a love-affair, together with
certain pecuniary losses which endanger my political position, have
contrived to make life uninteresting, and even burdensome. I see no
chance of improvement, and have not the patience to undergo present
discomfort in the vague hope of a problematical future gain. I take
the only logical course. In shooting myself I carry out a purpose
conditionally framed as soon as I was old enough to think for myself.
Let me again repeat that I am not mad; and let me beg, let me beseech
the twelve worthy gentlemen who shall sit upon my body to burden
their consciences with no unnecessary perjury, but to cap the inquest
with a truthful verdict of _felo de se_.

“In conclusion, I commend to my biographers the study of my
birthplace, parentage, and nationality. I refer them for information
to the records of the province of Kiew, South Russia.

“I am, sir, faithfully yours,

“NOEL DMITRI FARQUHAR.

“The Lilacs, Monkswell, 2/7/03.”

When he had finished, he read over the letter with satisfaction. While he was so doing, somebody opened the door and came noiselessly in. Farquhar glanced angrily over his shoulder; but, seeing only Lucian de Saumarez, he went on with his reading, after taking the precaution of drawing his blotter across the revolver to hide it. With an indescribably guilty and shamefaced air, like a dog that has been caught stealing, Lucian went and lay down on the sofa. He was holding a handkerchief to his lips.

Farquhar closed the letter and took the revolver, glancing again at Lucian. Lucian heard the movement, turned his head, and for the moment took away the stained handkerchief.

“Farquhar, old man—” he began; he could not get any further.

Farquhar set his teeth on his underlip and swore. He sat immovable, looking dangerous, all rebellion; and then the inevitable law of his nature asserted itself, as it had done before, as in him it always would: the power that held him in bondage. He tore the letter across and across and across again and flung the fragments into the grate; he took up the revolver by the barrel and hurled it through the window across the flower-beds into the fountain on the lawn. He came and knelt by Lucian’s side, and lifted him with fierce tenderness against his breast.

“Confound you! What have you been doing to yourself?” he said.

THE END

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been
corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within
the text and consultation of external sources.

Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,
when a predominant preference was found in the original book.

Except for those changes noted below, alternative spellings,
misspellings and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Page 52: “chestnut gown” replaced by “chestnut gown.”.
Page 83: “streaming with blood” replaced by “streaming with blood.”.
Page 125: “gossipped” replaced by “gossiped”.
Page 138: “disqualifications” replaced by “disqualifications.”.
Page 161: “gallon a day,’”” replaced by “gallon a day,””.
Page 165: ‘I’d like to replaced by
“I’d like to.