"what do you think of mr. earlforward's health?" violet demanded peremptorily, in the bedroom. her features were alive with urgent emotion. she almost intimidated the doctor.
"ha!" he retorted defensively, with an explosive jerk. "i haven't examined him. i have—not—examined him. he strikes me as under-nourished."
"and he is. he refuses food."
"but why does he refuse food? there must be some cause."
"it's because he's set on being economical. he's got drawers full of money, and so have i—at least, i've got a good income of my own. but there you are. he won't eat, he won't eat. he won't eat enough, do what i will."
"is that the only reason?"
"of course it is. he's never had indigestion in his life."
"um! your maid, what's her name, seems to be pretty well nourished, at all events."
"have you been seeing her?" violet inquired sharply, her suspicion leaping up.
the doctor appreciated his own great careless indiscretion, and answered with admirable deceitful nonchalance:
"i noticed her one day last week in passing. at least, i took it to be her."
violet left the point there.
the electric light blazed down upon them; it had no shade; not a single light in the house had a shade. it showed harshly, realistically, violet half leaning against the foot of the bed, and dr. raste, upright as when in[pg 192] uniform he used to give orders in palestine, on the rag hearthrug. violet's baffled energy raged within her. she had at hand all the materials for tranquil happiness—affection, money, temperament, sagacity, an agreeable occupation—and they were stultified by the mysterious, morbid, absurd, inexcusable and triumphant volition of her loving husband. instead of happiness she felt doom—doom closing in on her, on him, on the sentient house.
"my husband is a miser. i've encouraged him for the sake of peace. and so now you know, doctor!"
an astounding confession to a stranger, a man to whom she had scarcely spoken before! but it relieved her. she made it with gusto, with passion. she had begun candour with elsie in the morning; she was growing used to it. the domestic atmosphere itself had changed within six hours. that which had been tacitly denied for months was now admitted openly. truth had burst out. a few minutes earlier—vain chatter about hospitals, trifling and vain commercial transactions, make-believes, incredible futilities, ghastly nothings! and now, the dreadful reality exposed! and at that very moment henry in his office, to maintain to himself the frightful pretence, was squandering the remains of his vitality in the intolerably petty details of business.
"well," said dr. raste primly—the first law of his actions was self-preservation—"there isn't a great deal to be done until you can persuade him to have professional advice.... and you? what is it with you? you don't look much better than your husband."
"oh, doctor!" violet cried, suddenly plaintive. "i don't know. you must examine me. perhaps i ought to have come to you before."
at this point the light went out and they were in darkness.
"oh, dear!"—a sort of despair in violet's voice now "i knew that lamp would be going soon." the fact was that the lamps in the house generally had begun to go. all of them had passed their allotted span of a thousand burning hours. two in the shop had failed.[pg 193] henry possessed no reserve of lamps, and he would not buy, and violet had not yet wound herself up to the resolve of buying in defiance of him. once a fuse had melted. for two days they had managed mainly with candles. violet, irritated, went forth secretly to buy fuse wire. she returned, and with a half-playful, half-resentful gesture threw the wire almost in his face; but it had happened that during her absence he had inserted a new fuse made from a double thickness of soda-water-bottle wire which he had picked up from somewhere. his reproaches, though unspoken, were hard for her to bear.
the doctor promptly struck a match, and violet lit the candle on the night-table.
"i'm afraid i can't examine you by that light," said the doctor.
"oh, dear!" she nearly wept, then masterfully took hold of herself. "i know!" she rushed to the bathroom, stood on the orange-box, and detached the bathroom lamp, and returned with it to the bedroom. "here! this will do."
the doctor climbed on to a chair. as soon as he had fixed the new lamp violet economically blew out the candle; and then, quaking, she yielded up her body, in the glacial chill of the room, for the trial and verdict which would reassure or agonize her. however, she was neither reassured or agonized; there was no verdict.
when dr. raste redescended the dark stairs the shop lay in darkness and the bookseller was wheeling in the bookstand. the doctor entered the still lighted office to get his two parcels, which he arranged on his left side exactly as before.
"oh?" said mr. earlforward, approaching him. it was an interrogation.
"i should prefer not to say anything at present," the doctor announced in loud, prim, clearly articulated syllables. "there may be nothing abnormal, nothing at all. at any rate, it is quite impossible to judge under existing conditions. i shall call again in a week or ten days—perhaps earlier. no immediate cause for anxiety."[pg 194]
he had been but little more communicative than this to violet herself. he was inhuman again—for his patients. within him, however, glowed the longing to see his child's eyes kindle when he presented her with the globe shakspere for her very own.
that night, contrary to custom, henry went to bed earlier than violet. he stated that he felt decidedly better, but that he had finished all his book-keeping and oddments of work, and that it would be a pity to keep the office fire alive for nothing. violet, in her mantle, had to darn a curtain in the front-room. when she went into the bedroom and switched on the light she saw him, with the counterpane well up to his chin, lying flat on his back, eyes shut, but not asleep. he had the pallor of a corpse, and the corpse-like effect was enhanced by the indications of his straight, thin body under the clothes. she stood bent by the side of the bed and looked at him, as it were passionately, but vainly trying by the intensity of her gaze to wrench out and drag up from hidden depths the inaccessible secrets of his mind.
though saying little to her about her trouble he had behaved to her through the evening with the most considerate kindliness. he had caressed her with his voice. and about her trouble she had not expected him to say much. he had a very inadequate conception of the physical risks which women by nature are condemned to run. and she had never talked much in such directions, for not only was he a strangely modest man, but she deliberately practised the reserve which he himself practised. she argued, somewhat vindictively: "he tells me nothing. i will tell him nothing." moreover, the doctor's calm non-committal attitude had given henry an exceptional occasion to exercise his great genius for postponement. never would henry go half-way to meet an ordeal of any sort. lastly, his reactions were generally slow. fear, anxiety, seemed to come late to him.
he opened his eyes. she gave him one of the long kisses which he loved. could he guess (she wondered) that her kiss was absent-minded that night, perfunctory,[pg 195] a kiss that emerged inattentive to him from the dark, virginal fastnesses of her being, which neither he nor any other would or could invade. with intention she pressed her lips on his.
"come to bed," he murmured gently, "and get that light out."
half undressed she looked carefully at herself in the mirror of the perfectly made, solid, everlasting victorian wardrobe. yes, her face showed evidence of illness; it frightened her. no, she was merely indisposed; she was frightening herself. she had no pain, or extremely little. she thought, as she regarded herself in the glass, how inscrutable, how enigmatic, how feminine she was, and how impossible it was for him to comprehend her. she felt superior to him, as a complex mind to a simple one. she thought that she, far better than he, could appreciate the significance of the terrible day. she was overwhelmed by it. situations were evolving one out of another. nothing had happened, and yet all was changed. the night was twenty years away from the morning.
"do you know about that girl?" he asked with soft weariness when she had slipped into bed and the light was out.
"no. elsie? what?"
"she's eaten two-thirds of the cheese in the cage—at least two-thirds. must have eaten it before she went out."
the "cage" was the wire-netted larder hung outside the kitchen window. henry had taken to buying cheese, because it was as nourishing as meat, and cheaper. he had "discovered" cheese as a food—especially a food for servants. violet said no word, but she sighed. she was staggered, deeply discouraged, by this revelation of elsie's incredible greed and guile; it was a blow that somehow finished her off.
"yes," henry went on, and his mild voice passed through the darkness into violet's ear with an uncanny effect. "i happened to go up into the kitchen just before[pg 196] i came to bed." (and he had not rushed back to tell her of the calamity. he had characteristically kept it to ripen in his brain. and how characteristic of him to wander ferreting into the kitchen! naught could escape his vigilance.) "did you see her when she came home?"
"yes. she went straight to bed."
a silence.
"something will have to be done about that girl," he said at length.
"what does he mean?" thought violet, alarmed anew. "does he mean we must get rid of her? no, that would be too much." but she was not afraid of the extra work for herself which getting rid of elsie would entail. she was afraid of being left to live all alone with henry. she trembled at such a prospect.
