mrs. winstone sat in her charming drawing-room in tilney street, by a fire that cast a warm glow over her delicate good looks, further enhanced by a tea-gown of violet liberty velveteen and irish lace. the tea-table was beside her, and grouped about it were mr. pirie, mrs. macmanus, and lord algy—reinstated in her affections after an interval of fickleness; all were comfortably nibbling muffins and drinking their horrid mess of tea and cream while looking as gloomy as possible.
it was “black week” of december, 1899. methuen, gatacre, and buller had met with humiliating reverses in south africa, sir george white was shut up in ladysmith with twelve thousand men, and the boers were proving themselves possessed of a generalship, which, combined with the stores of ammunition they had been accumulating since the jameson raid, a complete knowledge of their puzzling hills, the strategic devices they had learned from the natives, and an indomitable spirit, had finally succeeded in quenching optimism in great britain.
“jove, you know,” said algy, “it can’t be only that they’re on their own ground—cursed ground, too, you know. fancy the beggars knowin’ how to fight.”
mr. pirie crossed his legs and smiled complacently. “i flatter myself that i was one of the three or four men in england that anticipated this. wolsely warned us. butler warned us. we wouldn’t listen. how could we be expected to when the south africans here never believed the boers would fight? and here we are!”
“i won’t believe it—that they can hold out a month longer,” said mrs. macmanus, resolutely. “it’s only a temporary advantage, because no british general would ever count upon a trickery of which he is incapable himself. and what is life without hope? i hated the thought of the war. is it true that bobs and kitchener are to be sent out?”
“beginning of chapter ii. wish i were not too old to go out. you’ll be volunteering, algy, i suppose?”
lord algy looked up with something like animation in his pale eyes. “rather,” he said. “one more lump, please. was accepted yesterday.” and two months later, with as little fuss, he died at pieter’s hill.
“oh, dear!” cried mrs. winstone. “what will become of us all? fancy your doin’ such a thing, algy! all the men are goin’, whether they have to or not. london will be too dull. geoffrey herbert’s regiment is under orders, and such ducks are in it. i wonder if bridgit cares?”
“she won’t miss him,” said mrs. macmanus, dryly. “she could hardly see less of him there than here, but she’s got a heart and no doubt would spare a tear if he fell.”
“i’ll tell you who cares,” said pirie, “and that’s jones. he’s loaded down with kaffirs, and is in a blue funk. glad i unloaded when every one else was rushin’ at ’em—thought the war would be over in two weeks, old jones did, ha! ha! he can’t get rid of a share.”
“will it matter to ishbel?” asked algy.
“not a bit,” said mrs. winstone. “she’s paid him off long since, and opened a dressmakin’ establishment, besides her hat shop. it’ll be just her luck to have all the smart people go into mournin’ at once.”
“well, thank heaven the jingoes have shut up a bit—what is the matter?”
mrs. winstone had exclaimed, “how odd! i just saw julia go up the stairs.”
at the same moment a maid entered and announced that mrs. france did not wish any tea, but would wait upstairs until mrs. winstone was free.
“tell her i’ll be with her presently, unless she’ll change her mind and come down. now, what can be the matter? come to think of it, i haven’t seen her since she went to white lodge in august or september. haven’t got over my disappointment yet, and preferred to forget her for a while. i do hope france hasn’t been misbehavin’ himself.”
“you may be sure he has,” said mrs. macmanus; “consolin’ himself for his second facer—no doubt he’s heard the news from bosquith.”
“what a bore,” exclaimed mrs. winstone. “julia gave me the impression when she first arrived in england that she’d rear at too heavy a bit; but she should be well broken in by this time.”
“do you think so?” asked pirie. “that sort never is broken in. high-spirited filly that runs all right under a light rein, but one cut and she’s over the traces. she was clever enough to manage france as long as he was satisfied, but doubt if she’ll have any resource except open war when he’s been bored and disappointed long enough. hope he’ll volunteer and get himself killed with the least possible delay. front’s a good place for rascally husbands; and as they’re generally automatically brave, no matter how degenerate, let us hope for a good cleanin’ out of undesirable husbands before we polish off the boers. good idea! it would reconcile even hannah to war.”
“rather. poor julia! you don’t mean to tell me, maria, that you haven’t looked after her these three months she’s been alone with france?”
“looked after her?” cried mrs. winstone, indignantly. “she is a married woman of nearly five years’ standing, and quite able to look after herself. why should i be annoyed? do toddle along, all of you. i want to hear the worst at once. come back to dinner, algy, and give an account of yourself.”
she went slowly up to her bedroom after her guests had gone, endeavoring to arrange her features into a semblance of cordiality. she deeply resented julia’s failure to capture the great prize which would have been so useful to herself. one cannot remain young and fascinating forever, and if one has not riches to substitute, the next best thing is a wealthy relative in the peerage with whom one can always be on intimate terms. she and the present duchess of kingsborough, a good plain soul, but astute withal, would never hit it off. surely, julia, if she had played her cards carefully, could have kept matrimonial ideas out of the duke’s mind. no doubt she had antagonized him with her independent notions and theories, which any really clever woman always kept to herself. julia, in her mind, was a failure, and mrs. winstone detested failures.
but as she entered her bedroom and saw julia standing by the hearth, she said brightly, “so glad to see you, dear,” and kissed the cheek presented to her. “sorry you wouldn’t come in and meet my cronies—why—what is the matter?”
julia had turned her face to the light.
“good heavens! are you ill? really, you must be careful—you were thin and white enough already—and—and—” her irritation found vent. “your clothes are not put on properly.”
julia, who had looked at her aunt with longing eyes, stiffened and said coldly: “probably not. you see, i had to run away, and i dressed in a hurry. i could not make even the attempt until harold had drunk a certain amount—and it takes a good deal?—”
“what on earth do you mean? run away?” mrs. winstone sat down. “surely you can come to town when you choose.”
“i am forbidden to leave the grounds.”
“but—you know, you really shouldn’t run away—this is only a mood of harold’s. you should be careful to do nothing to make yourself conspicuous. you are not in a position to afford it. no doubt many ill-natured people have—laughed at you. you’ve had a frightful come-down, and that sort of thing always delights spiteful women—who envied you before. and harold—poor thing—no doubt he guesses this—has wanted to keep quiet for a time. upon my word, i think it is rather the decent thing to do. that is the reason i haven’t dug you out. and of course he is horribly disappointed?—”
her fluent tongue halted, and she moved uneasily. julia’s figure was rigid, but although mrs. winstone had addressed the window, she felt that those big disconcerting eyes she had never quite liked were fixed upon her.
“ah!” said julia. “disappointment? that is a mild word to apply to his present frame of mind, or rather the one in possession until he began upon his present course of consolation. his former was such that i am forced to leave him.”
“now—what do you mean by that?”
“i mean that i am married either to a maniac or a fiend, and that if i remain with him long enough i shall either be killed or go mad.”
“oh! you young things are so extravagant in your expressions—and you never were quite like any one else. france is a bad lot more or less, but you have managed him wonderfully. go on managing him, but for heaven’s sake don’t make a fuss.”
“i’ve left him, and i shall not go back. it would be impossible to exaggerate. i haven’t enough imagination.”
“do you mean that he—beats you?” mrs. winstone hesitated over the ugly word. she did so hate the ugly things of life, even mere words. she felt nothing of the morbid curiosity another woman might have felt, but as long as she could not escape this confidence, better have it over as soon as possible.
“no. for some reason he has not—yet. he locks me in a room and snaps a whip at me by the hour, promising that at a given moment it shall cut through my skin. why he has not cut me to ribbons, i don’t know, except that he enjoys tormenting me mentally, and defers the other pleasure. he has practised every other form of mental torture he has been able to conceive. he wakes me up twenty times a night, flashing a light before my eyes, or shrieking in my ear. he makes me sit up in bed and listen to the most awful stories, and the bloodcurdling ones are not the worst. he threatens to pinch me from head to foot, but so far merely pretends to?—”
“for heaven’s sake hush! i can’t listen to such things. how does he treat you before the servants?”
“oh, always amiably.”
“i thought so. you haven’t a leg to stand on so far as the law is concerned. he’d deny everything blandly, and you would be set down as an hysteric.”
“i think he is insane.”
“possibly. that may be the explanation of harold france. but that will do you no good, either, so long as he is able to hide it. two alienists must see him in a condition that is, unmistakably, insanity, and sign a certificate to that effect. only a short time ago the husband of an american friend of mine acted at times in such an eccentric manner that there was no doubt in the minds of those who saw him as to his state. but he fooled the doctors. she feared for her life, and two of her brothers had to come over and inveigle him on board an ocean liner—in the united states, it seems, they are not so particular. and quite right in this case, for the man is now raving.”
“do you mean to say that the laws of england will not take care of me?”
“not unless you can persuade him to beat you before the servants. then you might get a separation—not a divorce without infidelity. i think you had best go back to nevis.”
“i’ll not do that. mother has been angry with me for a long time. just after the tays were at bosquith i wrote her i was unhappy and disappointed—and horrified. you see, daniel tay made me feel almost a child again, and i longed for my mother’s sympathy. she wrote back that i was a romantic and ungrateful child; that i had enough to make any girl happy; and that there was nothing really wrong. all men were nuisances. she seemed afraid i might run away and spoil her plans. since then our letters have been stiff and infrequent—until the duke married, when she was more angry with me still. now we don’t write at all. besides, i never wish her to know of this. she may be hard, but she is old, and she has had disappointments enough.”
“and what, may i ask, do you mean to do?”
“surely the law—”
“the law will do nothing—as matters are at present. and for heaven’s sake keep out of the courts.”
“very well, then, i’ll go to work.”
“work?”
“yes. i intended to do that meanwhile, in any case. i went to ishbel’s on the way here, but mr. jones is ill and i couldn’t see her. so i thought you would let me stay here?—”
“oh, of course. but i don’t like this silly idea of yours, at all. much better you go back to nevis. that is the only real solution. people here will think you have merely gone to pay a visit to your mother—natural enough—and when you don’t return—well, people are soon forgotten in london.”
“and i shall be comfortably buried! i shall, of course, go to nevis sooner or later, but not while i am in trouble. and i never could remain there. after five years of england? i am as weaned as you are. i should die of inanition.”
mrs. winstone got up and moved about the room restlessly. in her well-ordered life few problems were permitted to enter, and not only did she resent this sudden influx of deadly seriousness, but she practised a certain form of cheap “occultism” much in vogue: avoiding everything that contained an element of darkness, depression, and disturbance, and everybody that persisted in having troubles. she manufactured an atmosphere to keep herself young and happy much as she manufactured her famous expression daily before the mirror, and anchored herself so successfully in the warm bright shallows of life that what springs of emotion she may originally have possessed had dried up long since. but she could still feel intense annoyance, and she felt it now. moreover, she was puzzled. as the tiresome creature’s only relative in england, she should be equally criticised if she refused her shelter and sympathy in her trouble, or if she identified herself with her revolt. what in heaven’s name was to be done? well, this was december, and the world out of london. and this war would fill everybody’s thoughts if it only lasted long enough. she returned to her chair.
“my dear! really! what shall i say? you know i only came up for a day or two—on my way to a lot of visits. came up to see hannah, who is off for rome. there are only two servants in the house. i am off again to-morrow; but of course you can stay here if you are sure he doesn’t know where you are.”
“he’ll know nothing for a week.”
“ah! i have it! how clever of me! i’ll write him that i’ve packed you off to nevis. that will gain time. perhaps he’ll go there in search of you?—”
“i prefer that the law should free me fairly. i’m sick of lies.”
“the law will do nothing. put that idea out of your head. have you any money in hand?”
“about thirty pounds.”
“the duke ought to make you a separate allowance. possibly he would if you told him how matters stand, and promised to keep quiet.”
“he would not believe me, not for a moment. it is his cherished fiction that no member of the british aristocracy can do wrong, much less a member of his family. he would preach, tell me that i had hysterical delusions, and send for harold. i prefer him to know nothing about it.”
“i won’t have you in a shop.”
julia rose.
“oh, for heaven’s sake sit down. don’t let us talk about it any more. stay here for the present. something is sure to turn up. you’ll find it very dull?—”
“oh!”
“did you bring any clothes?”
“a portmanteau, that is all.”
“well! better go to your room and rest. i’ll write at once to france, telling him that you sailed to-day. if he doesn’t read it for a week, so much the better.”
