the bleak rawness of a grey december day held sway over st. james’s park, that sanctuary of lawn and tree and pool, into which the bourgeois innovator has rushed ambitiously time and again, to find that he must take the patent leather from off his feet, for the ground on which he stands is hallowed ground.
in the lonely hour of early afternoon, when the workers had gone back to their work, and the loiterers were scarcely yet gathered again, francesca bassington made her way restlessly along the stretches of gravelled walk that bordered the ornamental water. the overmastering unhappiness that filled her heart and stifled her thinking powers found answering echo in her surroundings. there is a sorrow that lingers in old parks and gardens that the busy streets have no leisure to keep by them; the dead must bury their dead in whitehall or the place de la concorde, but there are quieter spots where they may still keep tryst with the living and intrude the memory of their bygone selves on generations that have almost forgotten them. even in tourist-trampled versailles the desolation of a tragedy that cannot die haunts the terraces and fountains like a bloodstain that will not wash out; in the saxon garden at warsaw there broods the memory of long-dead things, coeval with the stately trees that shade its walks, and with the carp that swim today in its ponds as they doubtless swam there when “lieber augustin” was a living person and not as yet an immortal couplet. and st. james’s park, with its lawns and walks and waterfowl, harbours still its associations with a bygone order of men and women, whose happiness and sadness are woven into its history, dim and grey as they were once bright and glowing, like the faded pattern worked into the fabric of an old tapestry. it was here that francesca had made her way when the intolerable inaction of waiting had driven her forth from her home. she was waiting for that worst news of all, the news which does not kill hope, because there has been none to kill, but merely ends suspense. an early message had said that comus was ill, which might have meant much or little; then there had come that morning a cablegram which only meant one thing; in a few hours she would get a final message, of which this was the preparatory forerunner. she already knew as much as that awaited message would tell her. she knew that she would never see comus again, and she knew now that she loved him beyond all things that the world could hold for her. it was no sudden rush of pity or compunction that clouded her judgment or gilded her recollection of him; she saw him as he was, the beautiful, wayward, laughing boy, with his naughtiness, his exasperating selfishness, his insurmountable folly and perverseness, his cruelty that spared not even himself, and as he was, as he always had been, she knew that he was the one thing that the fates had willed that she should love. she did not stop to accuse or excuse herself for having sent him forth to what was to prove his death. it was, doubtless, right and reasonable that he should have gone out there, as hundreds of other men went out, in pursuit of careers; the terrible thing was that he would never come back. the old cruel hopelessness that had always chequered her pride and pleasure in his good looks and high spirits and fitfully charming ways had dealt her a last crushing blow; he was dying somewhere thousands of miles away without hope of recovery, without a word of love to comfort him, and without hope or shred of consolation she was waiting to hear of the end. the end; that last dreadful piece of news which would write “nevermore” across his life and hers.
the lively bustle in the streets had been a torture that she could not bear. it wanted but two days to christmas and the gaiety of the season, forced or genuine, rang out everywhere. christmas shopping, with its anxious solicitude or self-centred absorption, overspread the west end and made the pavements scarcely passable at certain favoured points. proud parents, parcel-laden and surrounded by escorts of their young people, compared notes with one another on the looks and qualities of their offspring and exchanged loud hurried confidences on the difficulty or success which each had experienced in getting the right presents for one and all. shouted directions where to find this or that article at its best mingled with salvos of christmas good wishes. to francesca, making her way frantically through the carnival of happiness with that lonely deathbed in her eyes, it had seemed a callous mockery of her pain; could not people remember that there were crucifixions as well as joyous birthdays in the world? every mother that she passed happy in the company of a fresh-looking clean-limbed schoolboy son sent a fresh stab at her heart, and the very shops had their bitter memories. there was the tea-shop where he and she had often taken tea together, or, in the days of their estrangement, sat with their separate friends at separate tables. there were other shops where extravagantly-incurred bills had furnished material for those frequently recurring scenes of recrimination, and the colonial outfitters, where, as he had phrased it in whimsical mockery, he had bought grave-clothes for his burying-alive. the “oubliette!” she remembered the bitter petulant name he had flung at his destined exile. there at least he had been harder on himself than the fates were pleased to will; never, as long as francesca lived and had a brain that served her, would she be able to forget. that narcotic would never be given to her. unrelenting, unsparing memory would be with her always to remind her of those last days of tragedy. already her mind was dwelling on the details of that ghastly farewell dinner-party and recalling one by one the incidents of ill-omen that had marked it; how they had sat down seven to table and how one liqueur glass in the set of seven had been shivered into fragments; how her glass had slipped from her hand as she raised it to her lips to wish comus a safe return; and the strange, quiet hopelessness of lady veula’s “good-bye”; she remembered now how it had chilled and frightened her at the moment.
the park was filling again with its floating population of loiterers, and francesca’s footsteps began to take a homeward direction. something seemed to tell her that the message for which she waited had arrived and was lying there on the hall table. her brother, who had announced his intention of visiting her early in the afternoon would have gone by now; he knew nothing of this morning’s bad news — the instinct of a wounded animal to creep away by itself had prompted her to keep her sorrow from him as long as possible. his visit did not necessitate her presence; he was bringing an austrian friend, who was compiling a work on the franco–flemish school of painting, to inspect the van der meulen, which henry greech hoped might perhaps figure as an illustration in the book. they were due to arrive shortly after lunch, and francesca had left a note of apology, pleading an urgent engagement elsewhere. as she turned to make her way across the mall into the green park a gentle voice hailed her from a carriage that was just drawing up by the sidewalk. lady caroline benaresq had been favouring the victoria memorial with a long unfriendly stare.
“in primitive days,” she remarked, “i believe it was the fashion for great chiefs and rulers to have large numbers of their relatives and dependents killed and buried with them; in these more enlightened times we have invented quite another way of making a great sovereign universally regretted. my dear francesca,” she broke off suddenly, catching the misery that had settled in the other’s eyes, “what is the matter? have you had bad news from out there?”
“i am waiting for very bad news,” said francesca, and lady caroline knew what had happened.
“i wish i could say something; i can’t.” lady caroline spoke in a harsh, grunting voice that few people had ever heard her use.
francesca crossed the mall and the carriage drove on.
“heaven help that poor woman,” said lady caroline; which was, for her, startlingly like a prayer.
as francesca entered the hall she gave a quick look at the table; several packages, evidently an early batch of christmas presents, were there, and two or three letters. on a salver by itself was the cablegram for which she had waited. a maid, who had evidently been on the lookout for her, brought her the salver. the servants were well aware of the dreadful thing that was happening, and there was pity on the girl’s face and in her voice.
“this came for you ten minutes ago, ma’am, and mr. greech has been here, ma’am, with another gentleman, and was sorry you weren’t at home. mr. greech said he would call again in about half-an-hour.”
francesca carried the cablegram unopened into the drawing-room and sat down for a moment to think. there was no need to read it yet, for she knew what she would find written there. for a few pitiful moments comus would seem less hopelessly lost to her if she put off the reading of that last terrible message. she rose and crossed over to the windows and pulled down the blinds, shutting out the waning december day, and then reseated herself. perhaps in the shadowy half-light her boy would come and sit with her again for awhile and let her look her last upon his loved face; she could never touch him again or hear his laughing, petulant voice, but surely she might look on her dead. and her starving eyes saw only the hateful soulless things of bronze and silver and porcelain that she had set up and worshipped as gods; look where she would they were there around her, the cold ruling deities of the home that held no place for her dead boy. he had moved in and out among them, the warm, living, breathing thing that had been hers to love, and she had turned her eyes from that youthful comely figure to adore a few feet of painted canvas, a musty relic of a long departed craftsman. and now he was gone from her sight, from her touch, from her hearing for ever, without even a thought to flash between them for all the dreary years that she should live, and these things of canvas and pigment and wrought metal would stay with her. they were her soul. and what shall it profit a man if he save his soul and slay his heart in torment?
on a small table by her side was mervyn quentock’s portrait of her — the prophetic symbol of her tragedy; the rich dead harvest of unreal things that had never known life, and the bleak thrall of black unending winter, a winter in which things died and knew no reawakening.
francesca turned to the small envelope lying in her lap; very slowly she opened it and read the short message. then she sat numb and silent for a long, long time, or perhaps only for minutes. the voice of henry greech in the hall, enquiring for her, called her to herself. hurriedly she crushed the piece of paper out of sight; he would have to be told, of course, but just yet her pain seemed too dreadful to be laid bare. “comus is dead” was a sentence beyond her power to speak.
“i have bad news for you, francesca, i’m sorry to say,” henry announced. had he heard, too?
“henneberg has been here and looked at the picture,” he continued, seating himself by her side, “and though he admired it immensely as a work of art he gave me a disagreeable surprise by assuring me that it’s not a genuine van der meulen. it’s a splendid copy, but still, unfortunately, only a copy.”
henry paused and glanced at his sister to see how she had taken the unwelcome announcement. even in the dim light he caught some of the anguish in her eyes.
“my dear francesca,” he said soothingly, laying his hand affectionately on her arm, “i know that this must be a great disappointment to you, you’ve always set such store by this picture, but you mustn’t take it too much to heart. these disagreeable discoveries come at times to most picture fanciers and owners. why, about twenty per cent. of the alleged old masters in the louvre are supposed to be wrongly attributed. and there are heaps of similar cases in this country. lady dovecourt was telling me the other day that they simply daren’t have an expert in to examine the van dykes at columbey for fear of unwelcome disclosures. and besides, your picture is such an excellent copy that it’s by no means without a value of its own. you must get over the disappointment you naturally feel, and take a philosophical view of the matter . . . ”
francesca sat in stricken silence, crushing the folded morsel of paper tightly in her hand and wondering if the thin, cheerful voice with its pitiless, ghastly mockery of consolation would never stop.
