Chapter III: Book II: Sanchia at Wanless Hall (2)

He had, by the way, “picked up” that little Mrs. Wilmot on board ship. She was coming home in the convoy of Mrs. Devereux. Of course he had known Mrs. Devereux for years; she was an institution. The little Wilmot person was a widow, it seemed. Niceish sort of young woman; knew the Trenchards up here, was a kind of cousin of Lady Trenchard's. In fact, she was going on to them from here; but not due for a week or so. She had, you might say, asked to be asked, or spelled for it out of those eyes of hers. You get awfully friendly on board ship, you must know. You can say anything--and do most things--oh, all sorts of things! He had no objection--to her coming, he meant; indeed, he rather liked the young party. He thought Chevenix did, too. But Chevenix was very much at Sanchia's disposal; “he talked a lot about seeing you again, my girl.” To meet him again might carry her mind back--how long? Eight stricken years. Was it possible that she--he and she--had been here together eight years? Yes, he could see that she remembered. Dear, sweet Sancie!

There was bravado here on his part, and nervousness to be discerned beneath it; for it is most certain that her reverie was not exactly as he would have it. Her chin was in her hand, her caught other hand lay idle in his own; her eyes were far-gazing and sombre; her smile was bleak. Whatever she heard, whatever she thought of, she betrayed nothing.

Her brooding calm spurred him in that sensitive spot whose throb or ache tells a man whether he is centre of a woman's mind or not. He must know whether she was glad to have him back; the wanderer returned, eh? She had not told him so yet, he must observe; no, nor looked it. She was mysterious, it seemed to him. “And you can speak with your eyes, my dear; none better. Your tongue was never very loose; but your eyes! Now, you know what you can do with them, Sancie; you know very well. Speak to me, then, my dear, speak to me. Speak to me only with thine ... no, not _only!_ You can speak in a thousand ways--with your hands, with the tips of your fingers placed here or there, with a bend of the head on that lovely neck you have, with your faint colour, with your quick breath.” ...

Fired by his own words, he worked himself into enthusiasm, was enamoured of what himself proclaimed. “My beautiful--my goddess!” he called her, and drew her to his heart.

And she allowed him, allowed herself to be pressed there, while within her the dull fire smouldered, and the deep, slow resentment gathered like clouds about the sun. But he held her face now between his two hands and forced to meet his own her unresponsive eyes; and when with ardour he had kissed her grave lips, the flippancy of a fool ruined him, and his triumph was flattened into dust, as when one crushes a puff-ball.

He suddenly held her at arms' length as he was struck by an idea. “Oh, by the way, I forgot,” he said, and looked vaguely across the room. “Claire is dead.”

Sanchia's eyes concentrated and paled. The pupils of them were specks. She paled to the lips, then slowly flooded as with a tide of sanguine. She withdrew herself from him; simply dropped him off her. She said nothing; but she watched him steadily, while within her the masked fire gleamed and fitfully leapt.

Bravado made him hold on to his airy tone. “She died, I'm told, at Messina, some time in March. I heard it at Marseilles. Met a man who told me. Yes! She's dead--and buried.”

Sanchia had nothing to say. She looked, however, towards the door--and he detected that. Her silence spread about the room, caught him and enveloped him. That she was calculating how long it would be before she could escape by that door was absolutely clear, and the frost of her silence struck down upon him so that he could not gainsay her purpose. He paused irresolute, glancing askance at her directed eyes. Then he gave in, left her, opened the door for her. She went out, folded in her own mystery, but as she went by him he caught up her hand, and kissed the fingers. They were very cold, and made him shiver.

“Good-night, my dear,” he said, all his dash gone out of him.

She said good-night very simply and went away. He looked after her until she had turned the corridor, then went to the table and poured himself brandy and soda-water, drank deeply, and set down the tumbler with a crash. “By God! I am a fool,” he told himself.

From the garden that narrow chink of light which shone through Ingram's shutter was seen to collapse by one who watched it. Shortly afterwards, that same haunter of the dark saw a shining slit part the shutters of a window in the west wing, and sighed, short and quick. He returned, to prowl among the secret flowers.

V

When, after dinner, Mrs. Devereux had told her young friend that she was uncomfortable, there had been no need of the words; but the slow answering “I know” with which Mrs. Wilmot expressed sympathy was not intended to imply that she shared the feeling. She herself was not at all uncomfortable, because, while she saw the whole state of affairs, she was not unhopeful of coping with it. Touching the place where the tender point of her breast lay nestling, she assured herself that she could hope. But Mrs. Devereux, moving about in worlds not realised, was incensed. Nothing that followed during the next few days served to clear the surcharged air. It is hard to say what vexed her most, where all was as it should not be. Ingram, bluntly unconscious of her sufferings, gloomed over his own; Chevenix spied about for what he could not find, spy as he would, and made the cause of woe more conspicuous than ever. As for her, the disastrous fair, the deliberation with which she went about her duties, and ease with which she did or caused them to be done; her self-possession, gentleness, suavity, yes! and benevolence, were sights to make angels weep. Tears of blood! If Mrs. Devereux, by any means, could have compressed tears of blood, they had been shed. Nothing less vivid would have met the case: to exhibit her scarlet handkerchief to Ingram with a “There, see, I weep. Tears of blood!” Day by day in that mild spring weather, under pale blue skies, fanned by zephyrs, she could but pace the terrace walks, and stiffen herself, and stare about her--with dull disapproval for the very flowers, lest theirs, too, should be frail beauty, and repeat for her only comfort that she was most uncomfortable. So she was. But it was because she did not understand, not because she did. Curiosity ravaged her.

On one of these days, breakfast over at half-past ten, young Mr. Chevenix declared his intention with cheerfulness and point. “Twentieth of April--Dizzy's birthday, or Shakespeare's. Nevile, I'm going to fish your river. They are leaping like the boys in _Eugene Aram,_ and I'm going to give them something to leap at. Now, what are all you people going to do? Because, I'll be free with you, I don't want you to come and look on. Mrs. Devereux, I let you off. You needn't gillie me. Nevile, you run away and play. Amuse Mrs. Wilmot. Do now: she likes it. I'm all right.”

The elder lady fixed him keenly with a look which saw through his saucy assurance; Ingram's eyes sought those of Mrs. Wilmot across the table. She lent him their wonder for a moment, then looked down at her bosom. He was satisfied. There were still women in the world.

“What shall we do?” he asked her. “Will you be driven? Will you drive? Will you ride?” Another shaft rewarded him, which said, “Do with me as you will.”

Ingram rang the bell. Minnie appeared. “Tell Frodsham, the horses at a quarter past eleven. I ride Sea-King, Mrs. Wilmot Lorna Doone. He had better come--or Butters will do. That's all.”

Mrs. Devereux had been ignored, but was not displeased. It showed, at least, that Ingram knew she was not to be disposed of like a white rabbit. It was, however, necessary to say something, to declare one's presence, as it were; so she collected her papers. “I have letters to write. You will excuse me, I know.”

Chevenix sprang to the door. “By George, I should think so,” he said, which was well intended, but too brisk. He bowed her out, shut her out, and stood with his eyes on the others.

Ingram remained before the fire looking out of window. “She's in a wax. I don't know why.”

“Oh, don't you, my boy?” said Chevenix to himself.

Mrs. Wilmot trifled with her tea-spoon. “And I don't care--much,” he added. Mrs. Wilmot smiled.

Mr. Chevenix, going a-fishing, saw, as he had intended to see, Sanchia in the rose-garden, talking to Struan Glyde, who was tying ramblers. “Morning, Sanchia--morning, Glyde!” Each greeted him, but the youth grimly.

He talked at large. “I'm for murder. I must flesh my steel. It's too good a day to lose. Clouds scurry, sun is shy; air's balmy: a trout must die. That is very nearly poetry, Sancie. It is as near poetry as I can hope to get this side the harps and quires. Now, what on earth is Clyde doing to his roses at this time of year?”

The dark-skinned, sharp-chinned young man, aproned and shirt-sleeved, turned a shade darker. His black eyes glowed. He was quietly arrogant, even to her. “It doesn't matter,” he had once told her, “what you say or do. I love you, and that's the sum and end of it.” Now he allowed her to answer for him.

“There was a wind in the night which tore them about. I asked him to make them safe. I hate to think of their bruised ribs.”

Chevenix whistled his satisfaction with this and all things else. “I see. Works of mercy. There's a blessing on that, somewhere and somewhen. All to the good, you know, Clyde. You never know your luck, they tell me.” He left Clyde and his roses, and turned to the young lady. “Well now, look here, Sancie--if works of mercy are toward, what d'you say to one on your own account? Here I stand, an orphan boy, upon my honour. The master's gone riding with the widow.” He stopped his rattle, as a thought struck him serious for a moment. “By George, and he's a widower--so he is!” Discharged of that, he resumed--“Yes, and Mrs. Devereux has got the hump, as they say--and here I am at your mercy, to be made much of. Who's going to admire me? Who's going to hold my net? Who's going to say, 'Oh, what a beauty!'” He had now got her thoroughly at her old ease with him. Her eyes gleamed, and there was no doubting her smile. “Now, I'll tell you what. Your roses are all right. Glyde will see to that. You leave that to Glyde and his strong right arm. His strength is as the strength of ten, because... you follow me, I think? Now, Sancie, I put it to you--I'm an old friend of the family, and haven't seen you for--how many years? Aren't you going to give me half-an-hour of your morning?”

He pleaded by looks. He was quizzical, but in earnest. Her brow was clear.

“Yes,” she said. “I'll come--for half-an-hour.”

“Right! Right, goddess of the silver brake. Come, hold the pass with me.” He turned to go, and she caught him up. “I mix my poets like salad, but that's because I'm in such high spirits. By Jove, Sancie, it _is_ good to see you again.” She met his laughing eyes with hers. She swam by his side--took his net, and was happy. Her face glowed. She had the power of casting troubles behind, recuperative power, resiliency. Glyde, the olive-faced, watched them down the walk, and owned to a heart of lead. “As well shut down the west wind as a spirit like hers!” He turned to his affair.

Below the steps, in the nut-walk which led to the bridge, Chevenix altered his tone. “It's good of you to come with me, Sancie, my dear. I'm a very friendly beggar, and Nevile, you know--I say!” and he turned her a sober face--“You know, I suppose? His wife--eh? Dead, you know. Oh, but of course you did!”

She met him unfalteringly. “Yes, he told me.”

Chevenix shrugged. “I must say, you know--what? Oh, of course, it was a ghastly affair all along. But _you_ know all that, as well as I do. Why, her temper! Oh, awful! I've seen her myself dead-white in one of her rages--she had hold of a wine-glass so hard that it snapped, and cut her hand. She looked at the blood--she didn't know how it happened. And he--well, _you_ ought to know--was as bad, in his way. 'Pon my soul, Sancie, Vesuvius might just as well have married Etna--every bit. But there! What's the good of talking! Everybody knew how it would be.” Words failing him, he stared about him.

“But still--oh, damn it all! To hear of your wife's death--casually--on a platform--from a chap you happen to know--happen to have met somewhere--oh, well, I call it casual. That's the word, I believe--casual. Well, it _is_ pretty casual--what? Now, just tell me what you think--between friends, of course.”

She stopped him: she was short in the breath. “I think not. If you don't mind.”

He became as serious, immediately, as he was capable of being. “I'll do as you like, my dear--but you'll let me say this, that if I could see you with all your belongings about you again, I should sing a hymn. That's all, Sancie; but it means a lot. When you went out of Great Cumberland Place, it became, somehow, another kind of place. I hardly ever go there now, you know. And now they're all married but you, and--I say, you heard that Vicky had a son and heir? Did you hear that?”

She had averted her face, but she listened intensely, nodding her head. “Yes, yes, I knew that. Papa told me. He always writes to me, you know; from the office, poor darling!”

She appealed to him urgently. “Please don't talk about them just yet. Please don't.”

He saw the mist in her eyes, and was afraid. “All right, Sancie, all right. I'm frightfully sorry. Beastly painful all this, you know.” He was much disturbed. To his simple soul a fine day, a fine-fettled river demanded, as of right, a happy mood in man, for whom all things were made. And a fine girl by his side, a good, a brave, a splendid girl--down on her luck--on such a day! What could one do? If, when you began, she choked you off! Wouldn't meet you half-way--bottled it up! And here he was, geared for fishing, and without the heart to wet a line, because of all this misery. Sanchia, sharply in profile to him, from cheek to chin, from shoulder to low breast, all one sinuous, lax, beautiful line, broke in on his rueful meditations. “There's a rise,” she said. “Look, look.”

His eye swept the river. “You're right. By Gad, that's a whacker. That's a fish. Now, you stop just where you are, net in hand. Don't move, and you shall see something.”

He left her, and ran stooping down the bank, all his little soul concentrated in his cast. The dimpled water ran and swirled, the line flashed in the sun. Three casts, four; a splash, a taut line, and his shout, “Come on, quick; I've got him.” Sanchia glided swiftly down the bank, her eyes alight, the lines of neck and shoulder finely alert. Her eyes shone, her lips parted; she looked the Divine Huntress to whom Senhouse had once likened her. She stooped, the net jerked; she watched, waited, tense to the act. Within the swirling water the great fish plunged: she watched, strung to the pounce; the net dipped and darted; she lifted it to land.

Chevenix admired. “By George, you are a one--er, I must say! Born to it. You strike like an osprey. That's a fish--what?” They peered together into the net, where, coiled and massy, beaming rose and pale gold, the trout writhed.

“Splendid!” breathed Sanchia, glowing and alight.

Chevenix gloried in her beauty. “If Nevile don't know what his chances are--if he ain't on his knees--my heavens, what a mate for a chap!”

A shadow falling upon him caused him to look up. Mrs. Devereux, grey and tall, boa'd, gloved, umbrella'd, stood regarding him and his companion from the bank. Instinct prompted him immediately to screen Sanchia by dragging her into the party. He held up the net and plunged. “First prize,” he cried out, as heartfully as he could, “to me and Miss Percival.”

“So I see,” said Mrs. Devereux. “Ah, good morning.”

This was to Sanchia's bland greeting, which, as always, made the lady shiver. It is difficult to say what a shock it was to her to be greeted cheerfully by Sanchia. To see one in so painful a situation occupied by anything less painful, interested in anything at all, was truly shocking. Mrs. Devereux's idea of irregularity was that it absorbed the devoted victim, kept her aghast. If it did not, surely, there was no reward left to the virtuous. But here we had a highly irregular young woman behaving with extreme regularity. Was the world turning upside down? Was black, then, really white? She shivered, she blinked her eyes; but she descended the bank and stood beside the pair, yet rigidly apart.

Chevenix, having got her there, knew not what to do with her. It seemed to him that he had better, on the whole, go on, so turned the lady a knowing face.

“This is not the first time by any means that Miss Percival and I have gone fishing, you must know. We began by tickling 'em--we were urchins together, you see.”

“Really!” said Mrs. Devereux, who still saw nothing but depravity.

“I remember,” he went on, “the first time we went fishing. I was at Alnmouth with a governess; awful lonely little beggar I was. I used to moon about on the sands, while she read the _Morning Post_, with spectacles and a red parasol. And I used to hanker about all the other young 'uns, and wish I was one of 'em. _Her_ party was there, you know--five of 'em, all girls and all pretty girls--eh, Sancie? I would have given my hopes of heaven--if I'd had any, you know--to go and paddle with 'em. Jolly party you were, my dear--jolly old plump papa, rosy mamma--and Philippa like a young tree, and Melusine and Hawise bright as apples; and then Vicky and you--little dears, you were. I was like a spent salmon, I believe, lantern jawed, hollow-eyed little devil, as solitary as sin.” He turned, flushed, to Sanchia, and put his hand on her arm; she turned away her face, and Mrs. Devereux believed she saw tears. “It was _you_ who took me in, you know.”

“No,” said Sanchia, turning him her shining eyes. “It was Vicky. She asked you to come fishing.” He accepting her ruling.

“Bless me, it _was_ Vicky. Always a frisky one. But after that it was always you and Vicky and me. And we had the time of our lives--at least, I did.” Even Mrs. Devereux felt an emotion from the beam with which Sanchia rewarded him--a tender, compassionate look, as if she understood and excused him.

“You are old friends, I see,” she said; and her smile was not unfriendly.

Chevenix shook his head wisely. “Frightfully old--I've known 'em all--all my life.” Mrs. Devereux then made a distinct advance.

“It must be very nice for you,” she said to Sanchia.

Sanchia's eyes were now clear, and her smile absolutely general. “To see Mr. Chevenix? Yes, indeed.” She collected herself. “But I'm afraid I must go now. I've a great deal to do.” She admonished the young man. “Now you had better catch some more,” she told him. “I must go.”

His face fell--without any regard for Mrs. Devereux--to “Oh, I say!” but it was then revealed to him that there might be a part for him to play. “Right, Sancie--you're mistress here. See you later.” He met her eyes gallantly, and lifted his hat. Sanchia bent her head to Mrs. Devereux, and went staidly away, her duties gathering in her brows. The elder lady and the young man stood face to face without speaking. Then Mrs. Devereux sat deliberately down, and Chevenix braced himself.

“You said just now,” the lady began, “to Miss Percival, that she was mistress here. What did you mean by that, exactly?”

Chevenix sprang sideways to this flank attack. “Oh, you know, Mrs. Devereux! you can't take a chap--literally--what?”

He wanted time; but she gave him none. “You must forgive an old woman of the world--of a certain world. I come here--to a house which belonged to Nevile's father, an old, old friend, and I find--installed--a young lady--who does not dine--who is extremely capable. I am bewildered, naturally.”

Chevenix's “I know, I know,” and his friendly nods ran on as an accompaniment.

“And then,” said she, raising her voice, “I find that this young lady--and you--are old friends. You speak of her--people--as if they were really--of the sort which--as if she were--of the kind--whom--” It was impossible. “Really,” she said, “it's most unusual. I don't frankly know what I ought to do.”

Chevenix listened carefully to her truncated phrases, where what she did not say was the most eloquent part of her discourse. He nodded freely and sagely; he was conciliatory, but clear in opinion. “I know, I know,” he said. “It's very rum--you must naturally find it so. I know exactly how you feel about it. Oh, rum's the only word for it. Or rummy. Yes, you might call it rummy--or a go, you know--or anything like that.” Then he grew plausible. “But I'm sure it's all right. It's a long story, but I'm quite sure. You've no idea what a fine girl that is. Ah, but I know it.” He tapped his forehead. “I saw the whole thing through--from beginning to end. She's a perfect beauty, to begin with.”

That was a bad note. Mrs. Devereux asked him at once if he thought that a good reason. “Well,” he said, “I do, you know--in a way. I can't explain it--but I think you see it in her face, you know--and manner. Yes, in her manner. She's uncommon, you see, most uncommon. And as cool as--well, it would be hard to say how cool a hand I thought her.” He paused, having got off this effective estimate, round-eyed and triumphant.

“It seems to me, Mr. Chevenix,” said the dry lady, “that the less you say the better.”

“Not at all, Mrs. Devereux, not at all.” He was eager to explain. “I don't think you quite follow me. What I meant to say was, that when a young woman can be as cool as she can be; can run a big place like this, and manage a staff of servants,--outdoors, mind you, and in; no steward, only a bailiff; keep all the accounts; and hold her head up--for she does that, you know, uncommonly well; why, then I say that she must be allowed the benefit of the doubt, you know. You must say, 'Well, it's rum, it's rummy,' or how you like to put it--'but she's got a head on her shoulders, and I suppose she knows what she's doing. I suppose she's seen her way.' For she's all right, you know, Mrs. Devereux; she's as right as rain. It's irregular, dashed irregular--but, by George, I'll tell you this, Nevile was in a bad way when he first met her; and she's pulled him through. He's steady enough now, is Nevile. Don't drink--nor do other things. He threatened to be a waster in his day; but he's no waster now. She did that, you know; she pulled him through. Why, bless your heart, Mrs. Devereux, he used to rave about her--rave, and chuck himself about on sofas, and cry like anything, and bite his nails down. There never was such a girl under heaven, he used to say. He called her a goddess. Love! Oh, Lord! And I assure you, on my solemn oath, that he never did a better day's work in his life, nor any girl a finer, than when he put in his word for himself, poor devil, and she said, 'Yes, I'll do it.'”

“Did she--” Mrs. Devereux asked, or began to ask, and he shrugged, and exclaimed,

“Ah! There you have me. Now you've done it. I don't know. That's the fact--I don't know. Everybody thought so. She went on as if she did; but now,--no, I don't know. You see, she's such a cool hand, she's such a deep one--you can't tell. There's no telling with that sort. All I can say is, it looked uncommonly like the real thing. We all thought so at the time. The symptoms were right enough--or wrong enough, you'll say--and then, look at her since! She's stuck to him through everything--good report, bad report, everything. She's chucked her people--or been chucked. Had four beautiful sisters--glowing, upstanding, fine girls, all of them; and chucked. Old father, in the City: chucked. Mother, big, handsome, hot-tempered: chucked. And all for Nevile, who (between ourselves) ain't worth it. He's not a bad one, but he's not a good one, either. He's got a cruel temper, Nevile has--like that ghastly wife of his. But--” he cried, opening his arms--“there you are. They're like that, her sort. Mighty quiet about it, you know; was turned into the streets, you may say; father, mother, sisters, all showed their backs. What does she do? Sets her teeth together, looks straight ahead, and takes old Nevile. And here she is now oh, as--right as rain. What a girl, eh?”

Mrs. Devereux was certainly moved. She was almost prepared to admit a genuinely exceptional case. But she had a question to ask. Did Ingram intend to marry her--now?

At this Chevenix stepped back, as if to avoid a blow. “Ah!” he said. “Ah! That's it. Ask me another.”

“Do you mean to say of your friend, and mine,” she pursued him, “that he would dare--after all that you tell me--to---”

“No,” said Chevenix, in a desperate stew; “no, I don't mean that. I think he would have her this moment--if he could get her. But--the fact is--Well, you know--” and he glanced anxiously at the lady, “I've nothing to go upon, absolutely nothing as yet; but the fact is, I'm not sure whether she would take him, you know--now.”

“Is that possible?” was all the lady could find to say, with a throw-up of the hands. “Is that possible?”

“Quite--with Sanchia,” said Chevenix. “Through with him, you know--got to the bottom of him--sick of him. I believe he bores her, you know.” Mrs. Devereux looked at him, more in sorrow than in anger, and then walked slowly away. Most eloquent comment.

VI

Whatever may have been the net result upon Mrs. Devereux's mind of the explanatory revelations made upon the river bank, two things became clear as day succeeded day. One was that Miss Percival avoided her, the other that she sought out Miss Percival. Being entirely unable to succeed, she did not renounce her now benevolent attitude towards the young lady, but she decided to leave Wanless.

All that she could do, she did. No wheedling of Mrs. Wilmot's could draw any further comment from her, and she said nothing to Ingram either for or against what she supposed now to be the desire, the honourable desire of his heart. Oddly enough, though it was against all her upbringing, Chevenix had so far succeeded in impressing her that she rather respected Sanchia the more for being cool now that rehabilitation was in full sight, and practically within touch of her hand. Chevenix, in fact, had made her see that Sanchia was a personality, not merely a pretty woman. You can't label a girl “unfortunate” if, with the chance of being most fortunate, she puts her hand to her chin, and reflects, and says, Hum, shall I? or shall I not? Short of deliberately knocking at the girl's door, she would have done anything to exchange views. That she could not do. She found herself waiting about in corridors and halls for Sanchia's possible passage. Once she had marked her down in the garden, flower-basket on arm, scissors in hand. She had been fluttered, positively felt her heart-beats, as she sailed down in pursuit; but then Sanchia, under the brim of her garden hat, must have divined her, for, with a few clear words of direction over her shoulder to the young gardener who was helping her, she had steered smoothly away, and, without running, could not have been caught. The thing was marked, not uncivilly, but quite clearly. What could one do?

Two more days of fine weather and perplexity, and she announced her departure as imminent. We were at Thursday. She must positively leave on Monday. “No more letters to write about my shortcomings,” was Ingram's comment upon this intelligence to Mrs. Wilmot apart. “It's a mistake to have people to stay with you who've known you all their lives. They are for ever at their contrasts: why isn't one still a chubby-faced boy, for instance? They see you in an Eton jacket once, and you're printed in it for ever. So you glare by contrast, you hurt, you wound. In other words, you have character, you see, which is dashed inconvenient to a woman who remembers you with none. You upset her calculations--and sometimes she upsets yours. No offence to Mrs. Devereux; but I rather wish she hadn't come.”

Mrs. Wilmot, who had no general conversation, thought that they ought to be “nice” to Mrs. Devereux; to which Ingram replied, snarling, that he was always “nice” to her, but that if a woman will spend her time writing letters or disapproving of her host, she can't expect to be happy in such a world as ours. But the worst of Mrs. Devereux, he went on to say, was that she couldn't be happy unless she did disapprove of somebody. Mrs. Wilmot, aware of whom the lady did disapprove, dug holes in the turf, and wondered what she herself ought to do. Supposing Mrs. Devereux went on Monday, ought not she--? Now, she didn't at all want to go just now.

At luncheon Ingram proposed a visit--to certain Sowerbys of Sowerby, and pointedly asked Mrs. Devereux to come. “You like her, you know. It's beyond dispute. So I do hope you'll come. I'll drive you over in the phaeton.”

Mrs. Devereux agreed to go. Chevenix said that he should fish. He hated calling--except on Mrs. Devereux, of course. He braved the discerning eyes of the lady, who had already caught him at his fishing.

The phaeton safely away, he found Sanchia, as he had hoped, in the garden. Her gauntlets were on, an apron covered her; she was flushed with the exercise of the hoe. Struan Glyde, silent and intent, worked abreast of her. He had just muttered something or another which had given her pause. She had her chin on her hands, her hands on her hoe, while she considered her reply. Then Chevenix heard her slow, “Yes, I suppose so. I don't like it at all, but I'm afraid you're right. We are poor creatures, made to be underneath.”

The cheerful youth rubbed his head. “Candid--what? Where _have_ we got to now?”

Glyde had stopped in the act to hoe: he was stopping still, his blade in the ground, but he turned his face sideways to answer her. “Not so,” he said, “unless you will have it so. She is queen of the world who is queen of herself.” Then Sanchia saw Chevenix, and waited for him.

“Philosophy--what?” the cheerful youth hailed them. “Plain living, hard thinking, what? Upon my soul, you are a pair! Now, Miss Sancie, I can expect the truth from you. What's Glyde preaching? Heresy? Schism? Sudden death?”

“He was talking about women,” Sanchia told him.

“Ah,” the youth mused aloud. “He was, was he? Glyde on Woman. He ought to wait for his beard to grow; then you might listen to him.”

Glyde, who was dumb in company, was hacking into the clods, while Chevenix, to whom he was negligible, pursued his own affair.

“I say, Sancie, I'm going to ask a favour of you--not the first, by any means; but I always was a sturdy beggar. The Lord loveth a sturdy beggar, eh? Well, look here, I'm at a loose end again. Nevile's taken 'em out driving--to a tea-party--to the Sowerbys. I jibbed, though I was asked. I lied, because they drove me into a corner. I couldn't face old Sowerby's chin--and all those gels with their embroidered curates--what? You know what I mean. I mean their church-work, and the curates they do it for. So I said I was going fishing--which was a lie--and Mrs. Devereux as good as said it was a lie. Now, suppose you invite me to tea; how would that be?”

“Then you _do_ go fishing,” said Sanchia, and smiled. “Very well. I do invite you.”

“Bravo! You're a true friend. O woman, in our hours of ease...! Trust me for an apposite quotation ... and new, what? I believe I'm pretty good at quotations. My people used to play a game. You write down a name on a bit of paper; then you fold it down; then a quotation; then another name. That's my vein of gold. Now you have it--the secret's out. I'm coming, you know. I accept. Many thanks. What's your hour?”

“Half-past four,” she told him. He bowed, and left her with Glyde. He turned to look at them as he left the walled garden, and saw them near together,--Glyde vehement in his still way of undertones, she listening as she worked.

At half-past four she received him in her room. Though her blouse was of lace and her skirt of green cloth, she looked like a virgin of the Athenian procession. Her clothes flowed about her, clung to her like weed as she swam. As he met her friendly, silent welcome, he expressed her to himself--“By the gods above, you are--without exception--the healthiest--finest--bravest--young woman--that ever made the sun shine in grey weather.” Aloud, he made things easy.

“Here's your tea-party, Sancie, dressed in its best, eager for the fray. When I think of old Sowerby taking whisky-pegs while his family has tea and curates, I bless my happy stars that I've got a friend at court--to save me, don't you know, from the wicked man. When the wicked man--what? You know the quotation, I expect. Not one of my best--but give me time.”

While she made tea he pried about her room, looking at photographs. He paused here and there as one struck him, and commented aloud. “Old Nevile, with his sour mouth. Looks as if the tongs had nipped him in the act. Why _will_ he roll his moustache like that? It's not pretty--shows him like a boar, with his tusks out, don't you think? But he's a good-looking beggar, and knows it. Ah! and there you all are--or, rather, were--all five of you! Philippa, Hawise, Melusine, Vicky, you. What a bevy! I say--” He turned to her. “I met old Vicky, for a minute, the other day. Met her in Bond Street. Sinclair'd got the pip, or something, down at Aldershot. Expensive complaint, seemingly. So she'd come up to see a palmist, or some kind of an expert about him. She spoke of you, of her own accord. I said I was coming down here.”

Sanchia's hand at the kettle was steady, but her eyes flickered before they took the veil. “Tell me about Vicky. What did she say--of me?”

Chevenix came to the tea-table and stood by her. “I think Vicky's all right. I do indeed. It seems to me she'd give her ears to see you--simple ears. Sinclair, you'll find, is the trouble. He's the usual airy kind of ass. Makes laws for his womankind, and has 'em kept. Vicky likes it, too.”

“I suppose he is like that,” Sanchia said, as if it was a curious case. “I have never spoken to him. He was about, of course--but Vicky took him up after--my time.” For a moment emotion, like a wet cloud, drifted across her eyes. “I should like to see Vicky again. It's eight years.”

Chevenix was anxious. “I do think it could be managed, you know--with tact. I'd do any mortal thing, Sancie--you know I would, but--” He despaired. “Tact! Tact! That's what you want.”

Her soft mood chased away. She looked at him full. “I can't use what you call tact with Vicky. That means that I am to grovel.” She drove him back to his photographs. He peered into the little print on the wall.

“What have we here? A domestic scene, my hat! You appear to be bathing--well over the knee, anyhow. High-girt Diana, when no man is by. Awfully jolly you look. But he _is_ by. Who on earth's this chap?” He peered. Sanchia from her tea-table watched him, in happy muse. He shouted his discovery. “I remember the chap! Now, what on earth was he called? Your casual friend, who lived in a cart and only had three pair of bags. Nohouse--Senhouse! That was the man.” He looked with interest at the pair, then at Sanchia. “Mixed bathing--what?”

She laughed. “Yes--we both got wet to the skin. Percy Charnock took it ages ago--oh, ages! Before I was out, or knew Nevile, or anybody except you. It was ten years ago. I must have been eighteen. It was when I was at Gorston with Grace Mauleverer--trying to save water-lilies from drowning in green scum. He--Mr. Senhouse--came along in his cart, and saw me, and lent me his bed for a raft--and worked it himself. That was the first time I ever saw him--” she ended softly in a sigh: “before anything happened.”

Chevenix listened, nodding at the photograph. “Wish to heaven, my dear, nothing had ever happened. The less that happens to girls the better for them, I believe. Not but what _this_ chap would have been all right. If _he_ had happened, now! He was as mad as a hatter, but a real good sort. Did I tell you?” He grew suddenly reminiscent. “I saw him a little more than a year ago--with a pretty woman. Had a talk with him--asked him to come up and have a look at you. It was when Nevile went off on this trip. No, no, I liked old Senhouse. He was a nice-minded chap. Not the kind to eat you up--and take everything you've got as if he had a right to it. No. That's Nevile's line, that is. You wouldn't see Nevile lending you his bed, or risking his life after water-lilies.”

Sanchia's eyes were narrow and critical. She peered as if she were trying to find good somewhere in Nevile Ingram. “He'd risk anything to get what he thought were his rights. But not upon a bed for a raft. He'd write to London for the latest thing in coracles. He's very conventional.”

“You have to be,” said Chevenix with sudden energy. He wheeled round upon her as he spoke. “We all have to be. We go by clockwork. You get the striking all wrong if you play tricks.” He resumed the photograph. “By Jove, but that suits you. Child of Nature, what? I suppose you're happiest when you're larking?”

“Mud-larking?” she asked him, laughing and blushing.

“Well, we'll say rampageing; going as you please.”

“Yes.” She owned to it without hesitation. “I can't be happy, I think, unless I can do just what I like everywhere. It was one of the first things Jack Senhouse ever taught me. He was an anarchist, you know--and I suppose I'm one, too.”

“Your gypsy friend?” He jerked his head backwards to the photograph. “By Jove, my dear,” he added, “you must have knocked him sideways--even him--when you carried out his little ideas--as you did.”

She opened her eyes to a stare. She stared, rather ruefully. “Yes,” she said, “I believe I did. I know I did. He was dreadfully unhappy. He and I were never quite the same after that. But I couldn't help myself. It was before me--it had to be done.”

“No, no, no!” cried he vehemently, but checked himself. “Pardon, Sancie. We won't go over all that, but surely you see, now, that it won't do. Now that escapade in the pond, you know. That was all right--with only old Senhouse in the way. You must admit that you were rather _decolletee_, to say the least of it. Now, would you say that you can do those sort of things--go as you please, you know, anywhere?”

“Why not?” Her eyes were straightly at him.

“What! Whether you're seen or not?”

She frowned. “I don't want to know whether I'm seen or not.”

“And mostly you don't care?”

“And sometimes I don't care.”

“Ah,” said Chevenix, “there you are. Your 'sometimes' gives you away.”

She changed the subject. “Do have some tea. It will be quite cold.”

He had been staring again at the photograph--Sanchia's gleaming limbs, the gypsy's intent face shadowed over the water. He now relinquished it with an effort. “Thanks,” he said. “I like it cold.” He sat beside her, and they talked casually, like old, fast friends, of mutual acquaintance. But for him the air was charged; she was on his conscience. Reminiscences paled and talk died down; he found himself staring at the wall.

He resumed the great affair. “Nevile's rather jumpy, don't you think?”

Her serenity was proof. “Is he? Why should he be?”

“Ah, my dear!” cried the poor young man. “Let's say it's the old Devereux. _Salmo deverox_, eh? Sounds fierce.”

Not a flicker. “Mrs. Devereux? What has she been doing to him?”

“Nothing,” he said; “and that's just it. She won't have anything to say to him.”

Then she went a little too far. A man charged with friendly impulse, charged also with knowledge, must be handled tenderly. You must not be foolhardy. But here was bravado, nothing less. For she arched her brows, and showed her eyes innocently wide. “Oh!” she said, “why? Why won't Mrs. Devereux speak to Nevile?”

“Oh, come, you know.” He looked at her keenly. He didn't wink, but he blinked. Then he crossed the room. “Look here, Sancie. Will you let me talk to you--really--as an old friend?”

She looked up into his face, nodded and smiled. “Of course you may say what you like.”

He sat by her, collecting himself. “Well, then, what I shall say is just this. The whole thing is in your hands--now. You can put it square. There's absolutely nothing in your way--now--well, now that Claire's gone, you know.” He watched her anxiously for a sign, but got none. So still she sat, glooming, watching herself--as on a scene.

“Mind,” he said in a new tone. “You know all about me. I jibbed at first when you broke away. I'll own to that. I couldn't do otherwise. Why, old Senhouse himself went half off his head about it. Anything in the world to get you out of it, I'd have done. Any mortal thing, my dear. But there! There was no holding you--off you went! But when once the thing was started--the extraordinary thing was that I was on your side directly. And so I always have been. Ask Vicky--ask your mother. I've done, in my quiet way, what you would never have asked of me. You must forgive me--I've defended you everywhere. I won't mention names, but I've explained your case, only lately, in a rocky quarter--and I know I've made an impression. I'm not much good at talking, as a rule, but I do believe that I put the thing rather well. You make your own laws--eh? Like Napoleon Buonaparte--eh? And somehow--the way you do it--it's all right, eh, Sancie?”

He got nothing from her. She sat on rigid, with unwinking eyes, staring at herself, as she saw herself on the scene. Chevenix leaned to her.

“And Nevile knows it. He believes it. He would say it anywhere. He's difficult, is Nevile; a wayward beggar. He's been his own master since he was sixteen; asked, and had. It's hard to make him understand that he can't go on. But he can't, the old sweep, when you put in your say. You know his way--he puts his desires in the shape of truisms. He states them--that's all he has to do--they become immutable laws. Very imposing, his desires, put like that. They've imposed upon me; they've imposed upon _you_ in their day. Well, with a man like that, you know, you can't take him up too short. Go slow, go slow. What was it I heard Clyde saying to you just now? Who's queen of herself is queen of the world--what? Now, that's quite true. One for Clyde. Apply that to old Nevile. Queen of herself! Why, what else are you? And what's Nevile but the blundering world in a man's skin? Well, queen it, queen it--and there's your kingdom under your feet. Marry the old chap, Sancie. You put everything right; you take your proper place. The county! But what are counties to you? You smile--and you may well smile. Let the county go hang; but there's Vicky. She's more than county to you. There's Melusine, there's Philippa, there's Hawise; there's your good old dad, there's your lady mother. You get 'em all. And Nevile's biting his nails for it. And a free man. Come now.”

She had listened, that's certain; she hadn't been displeased. He had seen her eyes grow dreamy, he had marked her rising breast. Rising and falling, rising and falling, like lilies swayed by flowing water. That betokened no storm, nor flood; that meant the stirring of the still deeps, not by violent access, but by slow-moving, slow-gathered, inborn forces. Had he had eloquence, he thought, as he watched her, he had won. But he was anxious. She was such a deep one.

When she spoke there sounded to be a tinge of weariness in her voice; she dragged her sentences, as if she foresaw her own acts, and was tired in advance. She seemed almost to be pitying her fate. At first she looked down at her hands in her lap, at her fingers idly interweaving; but midway of her drawn-out soliloquy--for she seemed to be talking to herself--she turned him her eyes, and he plumbed their depths in vain.

“It's very nice of you to be interested in me. You are much more interested than I am--and it's a compliment, a great compliment. I think you are very loyal--if I can call it loyalty--if you'll let me call it that. I like my work here; I'm perfectly happy doing it. It was hard at first. I knew absolutely nothing of housekeeping and managing things when I came here. I had to work--to learn book-keeping and accounts--cooking--building--carpentering--stock-raising--oh, everything. I had to feel that I knew very nearly as much about everything as the people who were to do what I told them. And of course that was quite true; but it wasn't at all easy. It has taken me eight years to get as far as I am now. And I could go on for years more. There's nobody on the place whom I can't manage: they all like me. I'm quite comfortable--if I can be let alone.”

... Speaking so, she believed it. But, thinking it over she was driven to explain herself.

“People seem to think that girls--that women--care for nothing but one thing--being married, I mean. I'm sure that's a mistake. One gets interested, one may get absorbed--and then there's a difficulty. For it's very true, I think, that unless we care for the one thing, and that thing only, we don't care for it at all. At least, that is how I feel about it. I have got lots of interests in life--all these things here--management of things. I don't want Nevile--or to be married. I don't want anything of the sort; I can't be bothered. I cared once--frightfully; but now I don't care. All that was long ago; at the beginning--eight years ago. Now it's done with, I only want to be let alone--to do my work here. It doesn't seem to me much to ask; but--” ...

It was then that she looked at him, and was beyond the power of his sounding. She grew vehement, full of still, passionless rage. She was like a goddess pronouncing a decree; she was final.

“I don't want to marry Nevile. It bores me. And he doesn't want me, really. He thinks he does, because he thinks that he can't have me any other way. But he would be miserable, and so should I. It seems to me impossible. You can't put life into dead things. When he came back here the other day he had been away a year: a year and ten days. He had written to me twice--”

Chevenix interrupted. “Excuse me,” he said. “How many times had you written to him?” He had guessed at pique; but he was wrong.

She replied slowly. “I forwarded his letters. I hadn't written at all.” Her simplicity! Chevenix allowed her to go on.

“The thing--all that it began with--was over. I felt that. I showed him that the first evening he was here. He has never spoken to me again--of that sort of thing, and I don't think he ever will. He doesn't understand being refused anything. I suppose he never has been before in his life.”

“Weren't you, perhaps, a little bit short?” he hazarded; and she considered the possibility.

“No, I don't think so. I wasn't more abrupt than he was--after a year.” She paused. “He threw out her death--Mrs. Ingram's death--” she forced herself to the name--“quite casually, as if he had been saying, 'By-the-by, the Rector's coming to dine.' If he had wanted me, do you think he would have put it like that?”

“Nevile,” said Chevenix, “would put anything--like anything. He's that sort, you know. He'd take for granted that you understood lots of things which he couldn't express. But I will say this for Nevile. He's not petty. He's fairly large-minded. For instance, I'll bet you what you like he didn't mind your not writing to him--or reproach you with it.”

She opened her eyes. “Of course he didn't. He was perfectly happy. He told me he had been idiotically happy. He knew I was here, because I forwarded his letters--and that was all he cared about. I was here for--when he chose. I assure you he didn't want me at all until I showed him that he couldn't have me.”

“But he did, you know,” said Chevenix; “he does. He was sure of you all through, from the beginning, as you say. That's why he didn't write or expect letters from you. He nattered himself that he was secure. Poor old Nevile!” He felt sorry now for Ingram. She was really adamantine.

She arose, with matches in her hand, knelt before the fire and kindled it. She blew into it with her mouth, and watched the climbing flames. “I don't think you need pity Nevile, really,” she said. “He will always be happy. But I am going to be made unhappy.” She proclaimed her fate as a fact in which she had no concern at all. Chevenix rose and paced the room.

“Well, you know--I must be allowed to say--your happiness is so entirely in your own hands. It's difficult--I've no right to suggest--to interfere in any way. I'm nothing at all, of course--”

“You are my friend, I hope,” she said, watching the young fire--still on her knees before it, worshipping it, as it seemed. Chevenix expanded his chest.

“You make me very proud. I thank you for that. Yes, I am your friend. That's why I risk your friendship by asking you something. You won't answer me unless you choose, of course. But--come now, Sancie, is there, might there be--somebody else?”

She looked round at him from where she knelt. Her hands were opened to the fire; her face was warmed by its glow; it was the pure face of a seraph. “No. There's nobody at all--now.”

He was again standing before the little photograph of the nymph thigh-deep in water. That seemed to attract him; but he heard her “now,” and started. “I take your word for it, absolutely. But, seeing what you felt for Nevile in the beginning, I should have thought--in any ordinary case--there must have been a tender spot--unless, of course, you had changed your mind--for reasons--”

She got up from her knees, and stood, leaning by the mantelpiece. Her low voice stirred him strangely.

“There are reasons. The spot, as you call it, is so tender that it's raw.”

“Good Lord,” said Chevenix. “What do you mean?”