B. M. Croker

“ Some of the neighbouring élite came up and claimed his acquaintance, and overpowered him with congratulations. He received them with a distant politeness none knew how to assume better than himself, and declining various offers of luncheon, arm-in-arm with the radiant Captain Campell, made his way to the Fairfax landau, where he was received as a hero indeed. This victory was something palpable, and Helen felt a pleasing consciousness that their carriage was the cynosure of many eyes and many opera-glasses, as her cousin shared the box-seat with Mary Ferrars. ”

“ A less shrewd observer than Geoffrey could see that this assumed gaiety covered a deeper emotion Reginald could hardly conceal.
“Well, here, Alice, is a kiss for you, by your lord and master’s kind permission.”
“Imagine you have had it, it will do as well,” cried Alice, waving him away with both hands.
“All right,” replied Geoffrey, rather huffed. “Imagination is no doubt better [Pg 239] than reality in this particular instance. I always knew if anyone could manage you, or get you along at all in double harness, it was our right honourable friend. ”

“ You can guess what it is, can you not?”
“I can, my dear Regy,” she replied, rising hastily—her active mind having grasped the truth in one second—and kissing him with effusion. “I know there is only one thing that could make you look so happy. Where is Alice?”
“This,” said Geoffrey with mock gravity, taking Reginald’s unwilling hand, “is Petruchio. Katharina has retired. In plain English, Alice was too bashful to return here, and desired me to accept your congratulations as her deputy. I’ve no doubt, Helen, that you and Miss Ferrars will find her in her room.” ”

“ Much as usual, thank you,” with an amused, superior smile.
“Well, now, as you have answered my questions, it is only fair to answer yours.”
“Yes,” he replied, looking at her eagerly.
“I would rather”—emphasizing every word—“be Alice Somebody than anyone else in the whole world. Now are you much wiser?” she added, giving him a mischievous glance.
“Of course! I KNOW, Alice, although you won’t tell me. But even if we had never met, you would not be Alice Saville now; so what is the good of wishing for your maiden-name? ”

“ It was some time before Steepshire society realised the stupendous fact that “Fairfax was dancing with his [Pg 159] wife.” It was: “Who is the pretty girl dancing with Fairfax?” or, “Who is the hussar Lady Fairfax has got hold of?” But when they had taken the idea well into their minds they were dumbfounded. “Where was the divorcée? Where was the enraged husband? Above all, where was the idiot who had promoted such a scandal? The Fairfaxes were on the very best of terms. They were the handsomest couple in the room; they were devoted to each other.” ”

“ Whilst he was below giving directions, Alice and the nurse administered a steaming hot bath to Maurice; but it was of no avail, his breathing was as laboured as ever. The nurse going downstairs, on an errand, met her master returning.
“Well, is he better?” he asked eagerly.
“No, sir; but worse! How long will it be before the doctor comes?”
“An hour, at the least,” replied Sir Reginald.
“An hour’s the very most he will last, poor lamb.” ”

“ Nevertheless, he abruptly put an end to her reminiscences, saying:
“Alice, there is nothing to be gained by referring to the past, nothing but pain. My past is dead and buried; the sooner you put yours under the ground the better. Never allude to our married life again. Let it be as though it had never been; it was a fiasco, a MISTAKE! We have only to deal with the present and the future.” ”

“ The same evening, after dinner, it being a splendid moonlight night, they all strolled out about the pleasure-ground, except Miss Saville, who had too much regard for her rheumatic old bones. The French windows in the drawing-room opened on a terrace which led down by a flight of steps to a broad gravel walk. Mary and Reginald had come in, and were standing just inside the open window. Alice and Geoffrey had lingered behind, quarrelling, as usual. They could hear their fresh young voices coming up the walk in high argument. ”

“ Reginald is a changed man—no longer silent, morose, and cynical; he is my own dear light-hearted Regy once more, and enters into everything with as much zest and spirit as Geoff himself. A happier couple than he and Alice could not be found. It is a pleasure to see them together. ”

“ With brilliant cheeks and sparkling eyes she looked the Alice of other days.
Bringing his horse to a walk, and casting [Pg 57] an approving glance at his companion, her husband said:
“I see you ride as well as ever, Alice, if not better!”
“I am fonder of it, if that is anything,” she replied, giving her habit a businesslike twitch. “It’s the only thing I care for in the way of amusement. I seem to be able to ride away from myself, to forget all my troubles, and to be Alice Saville once more.” ”

“ Her light hand seemed to have a wonderfully soothing effect on the fiery fretting chestnut. She had evidently given him a good gallop, if one was to judge by the state of heat he was in and the lather on his sides, and so subdued his exuberant impulses, but his wild eye and nervous ears spoke volumes: “Only for the lady on my back,” they said, “I would think very little of jumping into that dog-cart.”
“So you have come back?” exclaimed Alice cheerfully, “and not on a shutter,” with a glance at her husband. ”

“ Alice is at last obtaining a social success, dozens of partners vainly beg for dances. She is turning the heads of all the young men, and filling the breasts of her own sex with the devouring flame of envy.
Supper was served at round tables accommodating ten or twelve. Sir Reginald and his partner had taken their places at one at which he was a stranger to all the other guests. A fat red-faced man, who was voraciously gobbling down lobster-salad, remarked to his neighbours:
“Capital ball! capital supper!” ”

“ On any other subject she is as open as the day, but her married life she never alludes to; and well as I know her and love her—childish and young as she is—she is the last person into whose confidence I would thrust myself uninvited.”
Just at this instant Alice, who had hitherto eluded Geoffrey, came running up exhausted and out of breath with laughing.
“Save me, Mary, save me!” she cried, stretching out both hands, and at the same [Pg 118] time catching her foot in the tennis-rope she would have measured her length on the sward, had not her husband stepped forward and caught her in his arms. ”

“ Could he be going to forgive her after all? Her colour and her spirits rose at the thought; a little happiness goes a long way at twenty. Revived by a whole morning’s rest, she was meditating a move, when Geoffrey, with a broad smirk on his face and a fat frog in his handkerchief, lounged up to her.
“Here,” said he, “is the frog who would a-wooing go;” and he added, as he uncovered [Pg 116] the treasure, “he is come to pay his addresses to you, Alice,” making a feint of putting him in her lap.
“That he is not,” she cried, jumping up and dodging Geoffrey round a tree. ”

“ Little as Sir Reginald was prepared to expose his domestic concerns to public criticism, he felt that it behoved him to extend some hospitality to his two brother-officers—one of them his particular friend, so he exclaimed, with well-feigned cordiality:
“Sundown is in our part of the world—only eight miles from our place. Of course you will both come to Monkswood, and I can drive you over to the races to-morrow.”
“Thanks, my dear fellow, we shall be delighted,” returned Mr. Campell warmly, “if it won’t be putting you out—nor Lady Fairfax?” ”

“ Having once tasted blood, it will be hard to choke off your racing instincts. Why not scratch Tornado to-morrow and commence this reformation before the race?”
“Hear him!” cried Captain Campell [Pg 16] angrily; “and my four thousand and odd pounds, where would they be? Your advice is no doubt kindly meant, Vaughan; but we all know that ‘Il est plus facile d’être sage pour les autres que de l’être pour soi-même.’ I shall not begin my reformation, as you call it, until the day after to-morrow.”
Half-an-hour’s brisk walking brought the three pedestrians near Monkswood. ”

“ You will like to hear all about Alice and Regy from a third party, especially as I know how reticent Alice is about herself—her letters are probably filled with Maurice and Reginald, Reginald and Maurice.
“Four months in Italy have worked wonders for her. She has completely recovered her blooming cheeks, her gay spirits, and, above all, her health. She still looks a mere girl in her teens, and as little of the matron as ever. ”

“ If she only cares for me just one [Pg 215] quarter as much as I care for her we shall do very well,” he thought to himself joyfully, as he stepped out of the window and joined the party who were sitting in the pleasure-ground, basking in the moonlight, and inhaling the soft bracing air, heavy with the perfume of syringa, roses, and new-mown hay.
Mr. and Mrs. Mayhew, Miss Saville, and Mary were reposing in various garden-chairs.
“Where is Alice?” asked her husband abruptly.
“Oh, she and Geoffrey have gone to gather pears for the public weal.” ”

“ When the ladies had gone to bed, Reginald took a turn up and down the terrace, solus: “I cannot make her out,” he said to himself as he knocked the ashes off his cheroot. “At times, such as this evening for instance, I could almost imagine that the past was a bad dream, nothing more. It’s a curious thing that my own wife is the only woman who has ever puzzled me. One day she says we are to be strangers, the next friends; one day a cool shake hands, another a kiss. ”

“ A low but highly appreciative laugh from Reginald, as the tale concluded, showed that he had been an attentive listener. Raising himself on his elbow, he contributed his share to the general entertainment in a few short sentences; whatever he had said found entire favour with his audience, and elicited peals of applauding laughter from all three, as he once more subsided, and drew his hat over his eyes.
“He never thinks it worth his while to [Pg 184] amuse me now,” thought Alice, with a half-envious, half-wistful glance in that direction. ”

“ Come,” he added, putting his horse into a canter, “here is the lane to the Manister road; we had better get on.”
Somehow, Alice’s attempts at explanation or reconciliation were always failures. Her husband declined to meet her halfway. [Pg 62] He looked so cold and so unsympathetic that the words that came trembling to her lips died away unspoken, frozen into silence by the icy chilliness of his demeanour. Firm and intrepid resolutions she had made to brave him came to nothing when she found herself alone with him face to face. He would talk on any other topic but themselves—their past. ”

“ The sky is not going to fall, is it?” he added, looking up interrogatively.
“No; but really, Geoffrey, you shouldn’t have left her,” remonstrated Helen. “The garden is an awful eerie place by moonlight, I should not care to take a solitary walk there myself.”
The pear-tree, which was to have been the goal, was the pear-tree par excellence of the whole garden; it was trained along [Pg 218] a wall covered with fruit-trees, beneath which ran a broad gravel terrace, approached by several flights of steps, one of which was exactly opposite this particular tree. ”

“ Alice was in hopes of reaching her room unseen. But no such good fortune was in store for her. On the stairs she came face-to-face with Geoffrey, who, calmly surveying her tear-stained cheeks, gave a long and eloquent whistle, and chanted, as he passed downstairs:
“But, children, you should never let
Your angry passions rise,
Your little hands were never made
To tear each other’s eyes.”
On entering the library, he found Reginald making lame excuses for Alice’s non-appearance to Helen, who was pouring [Pg 199] out tea. ”

“ What a domestic treasure Reginald has kept quietly buried here! She would more than hold her own with the best ‘professionals,’” he mused as he glanced at [Pg 25] her furtively, whilst he pulled his long tawny moustache.
Reginald, and Reginald’s exploits, formed the topic of their conversation. His hostess made the very best of listeners, and eagerly drank in all the details of her husband’s campaign, his rash adventure, and his illness.
“She is an angel!” thought Captain Vaughan rapturously. ”