Lexy

“ Houseman skipped stones with skill and earnest attention, and Lexy watched the minnows flitting past through the limpid water. The sky was an unclouded blue. The sunlight came through the branches, where the leaves were scarcely unfolded, and made little golden sparkles on the hurrying current. It was all so quiet—and yet it wasn’t peaceful. The world seemed too young, too warmly and joyously alive, for peace. ”

“ If it was me, now, I wouldn’t want that gas flaring and blaring away—and burning up good money,” she added, to herself.
“You’re right,” Lexy cheerfully agreed. “We’ll turn it down.”
The rain was falling fast outside, driving against the windows when the wind blew; and inside the young people sat by the fire, very content.
“Queer thing!” said Captain Grey meditatively. “Never been in this place before—never been in this country before—and yet it’s like coming home!”
“I know that feeling,” said Lexy. “I’ve had it before. I think only people who haven’t any real homes of their own ever have it.” ”

“ Most pitifully eloquent, they seemed to her—the hat that had covered Caroline’s fair hair, the coat that had fitted her slender shoulders. Lexy looked and looked, grave and sorrowful—and in that moment her resolution was made.
“I’m going to find her!” she said, half aloud. “I don’t care what any one else does or what any one else thinks. I know she’s in trouble of some sort, and I’m going to find her!”
The last trace of what Lexy had called “mawkish self-pity” had vanished now. She was no longer concerned with Mrs. Enderby’s attitude toward herself. ”

“ Mrs. Quelton was coming down the long room, a beautiful woman, dark and delicate, with a sort of plaintive languor in her manner. She held out her hand to Lexy.
“I’m so glad you’ve come!” she said. “George has told me so much about you—the first American girl he’s known!”
She glanced at her brother with a little smile. Lexy glanced at him, too; and she was surprised and very much touched by the look on his face. He couldn’t even smile. His face was grave, pale, almost solemn, and he was regarding his sister with something like reverence.
“Oh, poor fellow!” thought Lexy. “Poor lonely fellow! ”

“ Lexy inquired in a brisk and cheerful tone. “I like to come here!”
A curious thrill of exultation ran through her, for she saw on the doctor’s face the faintest shadow of a frown. He was perplexed! She baffled him, and he didn’t know whether she understood what had happened.
“It is a great pleasure to Mrs. Quelton and myself,” he said politely. Then he raised his eyes and looked directly at her. “Perhaps,” he went on, “you would be kind enough to spend a week here with us some time? Although I’m afraid you might find it very dull.”
“Oh, no!” Lexy assured him. ”

“ I want to run down on the beach for one instant!”
“In this rain?” he protested. “You can’t!”
“I’m not made of sugar,” said Lexy scornfully, “I’ve got to run down there just for an instant, before I go in.”
“But, I say, your nice little hat, you know!”
Lexy pulled off the nice little hat and laid it on his knee. Then she rapped on the window, the driver stopped, and Lexy opened the door.
“No! Look here! Please, Miss Moran!” cried Captain Grey. “Very well, then, if you will go, I’ll go with you!”
“I’d rather you didn’t,” said Lexy. “I feel as if I’d like to go alone just for one look. ”

“ Lexy waited to hear no more. She slipped down the stairs as quietly as she had come up, hurried along the hall, and went into her own room again. Her knees gave way and she collapsed into a chair, staring ahead of her with the most singular expression on her face.
She was, in fact, looking at a new idea, and it was not a welcome one.
“No!” she said to herself. “It’s out of the question. It’s too dangerous. ”

“ Then she heard Captain Grey’s voice speaking.
“My dear, my dear!” he said. “Can I do anything in the world for you? My dear!”
There was no answer. Lexy crossed the room to the window and looked out. The balcony, too, was dim, with Venetian blinds drawn down on every side, and on a narrow cot lay Muriel Quelton. There was a bandage over her forehead and covering her hair, and under it her face had a mystic and terrible beauty. She was as white as a ghost, with great dark circles beneath her eyes; and she was so still—so utterly still—that Lexy was stricken with terror. ”

“ Lexy, he said that even without that, without making the least change in my appearance, no one would have known me, because my mind was changed. He said there was no disguise in the world like that. Was it true, Lexy? Was I old, and—and horrible to every one?”
“No,” Lexy briefly replied.
“Then he went on. He said he had no more of the drug left, and that he’d have to dispose of me. ‘You know you’re very ill,’ he said. ‘The nurse and that young fool of a doctor agree with me. I think you’re likely to grow worse—very much worse—to-night. You’re very likely to die.’ Oh, Lexy! ”

“ The doctor has gone out.”
“But the nurse—”
“Put on your best commanding officer’s air,” said Lexy. “You can be awfully impressive when you like. If I were you, there’s nothing I’d stop at.”
“Yes, but look here—what can I say to Quelton when he hears about it?”
“Laugh it off,” said Lexy.
The idea of Captain Grey trying to laugh off anything made her grin from ear to ear.
“Not much of a joke, though, is it?” he said rather stiffly. “Suppose he hoofs us out of the house?”
“Oh, dear!” cried Lexy. “You’re not a bit resourceful! Let’s try it, anyhow. It’s horrible to think of her shut up like that. ”

“ There was a silence.
“Could we possibly have a little supper?” asked Lexy politely.
“Yes, indeed you can!” said Mrs. Royce. “Right away!” But still she lingered. “Mrs. Quelton’s brother!” she said. “Well, I never!”
Then she tore herself away, leaving Lexy and Captain Grey alone in the parlor.
“Seems to bother her,” he said. “I wonder why!”
Lexy was also wondering, and longing to ask questions, but she felt that it wouldn’t be good manners.
“People in small places like this are always awfully curious,” she observed.
“Yes,” said he; “and Muriel may be a bit eccentric, you know. ”

“ Go, now, and bear in mind that you can always trust Miss Craigie. She is an imbecile, but she can be trusted. Adieu!”
Lexy’s eyes filled with tears.
“Au revoir!” she said stoutly; and then, with one of her sudden impulses, she put both arms around Mrs. Enderby’s neck and returned her kiss vigorously. “I’m sorry!” she said. “I’m awfully sorry!”
This was their parting. Lexy was thankful that it had been like this, very glad that she could leave the house in good will and kindliness. It strengthened her beyond measure. She wanted to help Caroline, and she wanted to help Mrs. Enderby, too. ”

“ Lexy flung the roses down on the table, not even troubling to put them into water.
“Anything to get rid of him!” she said to herself. “I want to be let alone!”
She lay down on the bed again, pulling a blanket over herself. Downstairs she could hear Mrs. Royce moving about in the kitchen, and Captain Grey’s singularly agreeable voice talking to the landlady. It seemed to her that they were in a different world, and that she was shut outside, in a black and terrible solitude. ”

“ I’ve asked her two or three times, but she always puts me off. Do you think it bores her?”
“Perhaps it does,” replied Lexy.
“Well,” said the young man, “when a woman’s bored by a jewel like that, she’s in a bad way. I wish you could see it!”
“I wish I could,” said Lexy, and added to herself: “But I don’t think I ever shall. Probably her husband’s got it.”
They had now reached the Tower. The parlor maid opened the door for them, and at once conducted Lexy upstairs to her room. ”

“ Seeing Lexy still frankly bewildered, Mrs. Enderby lost her patience.
“The man!” she said. “Who is the man?”
“I never heard Caroline speak of any man,” said Lexy.
She spoke firmly enough, and she was telling the truth; but she remembered that telephone call, and the memory brought a faint flush into her cheeks. Mrs. Enderby did not fail to notice it.
“Listen!” she said. “There is one thing you can do—only one thing. You can hold your tongue. Tell no one. Let no one know that Caroline is not here. You understand?” ”

“ With this solemn warning in her ears, Lexy descended the stairs. She saw Dr. Quelton standing in the hall, hat in hand, waiting for her. The doctor was rather a disappointment. He was not the dark, sinister figure he should have been. He was a big man, powerfully built, with a clumsy stoop to his tremendous shoulders. ”

“ He was silent for a moment.
“After all,” he said, “I’m not a beggar. I can hold my own pretty well in the world, and I could look after a wife.”
“I know it!” cried Lexy, with vehemence. She felt curiously touched by his words, and quite indignant against the Enderbys and any one else who did not appreciate him.
“I asked Caroline to marry me,” he went on. “I told her I couldn’t give her much, but we could have had a jolly sort of life. Look here! Are you crying?”
“A little bit,” Lexy admitted; “but don’t pay any attention to it. Go on!” ”

“ No! I’m not ill—not ill, Lexy, only tired. Oh, you don’t know! You won’t let him come here, Lexy?”
“I promise you he’ll never trouble you again,” replied Lexy quietly.
She saw Captain Grey standing in the doorway, behind the head of the bed. She glanced at him, and then at Caroline again. Let him stay! Whatever had happened, he ought to know.
“I don’t understand,” said Caroline, clinging fast to Lexy’s hand. “I want to tell you—all of it. You know, Lexy, I did a horrible, wretched thing. I said I’d marry a man. I promised to meet him here in Wyngate, because it was near to dear Miss Craigie’s. ”

“ She wasn’t that sort of girl. Quiet, shy, and patient, she had never shown any trace of resentment against her restricted life, or any desire for the good times that other girls of her age enjoyed. The more Lexy thought about it, the more clearly she realized the strangeness of all this, and the more uneasy she became.
When the little Dresden clock on the mantelpiece struck one, it came as a shock. Lexy sprang to her feet and looked about the room, filled with unreasoning fear. One o’clock, and Caroline hadn’t come back! Suppose—suppose she never came back? ”

“ She looked at this one, and then returned to her magazines.
She had a weakness for detective stories, and she was reading one now—reading it in the proper spirit, uncritical and absorbed. Whenever the train stopped at a station, she glanced up, and more than once, as she turned her head, she caught the stranger’s eye. She wondered, later on, why she hadn’t had some sort of premonition. People in stories always did. They always recognized at once the other people who were going to be in the story with them; but Lexy did not. ”

“ It was not a very difficult matter to touch Lexy’s heart. Whatever resentment she may have felt against Mrs. Enderby vanished now, lost in a sincere pity and respect; but she was firm in her purpose.
“I’ve got to tell one person,” she said. “If I do, I shall be able to tell you something you ought to know. I wish you could trust me! I wish you could believe that all I’m thinking of is—Caroline!”
“I do believe you,” said Mrs. Enderby. “You are very honest, and very, very young. You wish to do good, but you do harm. ”

“ It seemed to Lexy, for a moment, that she could not raise her hand.
But she did. She knocked, and she was answered. She turned the handle and went in. An oil lamp stood on the bureau, and outside the circle of its mellow light, in the shadow, Mrs. Quelton was sitting on the edge of the bed; and it seemed to Lexy that she had never seen such a forlorn and pitiful figure. [Pg 363]
“Oh, my dear!” she cried impulsively, and held out her arms.
Mrs. Quelton rose. She came toward Lexy, her hands outstretched—when a sudden cry from Mrs. Royce arrested her. ”

“ Dr. Quelton and Captain Grey were playing chess. They sat facing each other at a small table, in a haze of tobacco smoke, silent and intent, as if they had been gods deciding human destinies. Mrs. Quelton lay on her chaise longue, doing nothing at all. If Lexy spoke to her, she answered in a low tone, but cheerfully enough; but she so obviously preferred not to talk that Lexy had taken up a book and vainly attempted to read. ”

“ You can’t imagine what it’s like to see one of your own people, you know—after such a long time.”
Lexy sat down again.
“Was she as you expected her to be?” she asked.
“I don’t quite know what I expected,” he said. “Only—”
He paused for a long time, and Lexy waited patiently, for she felt very sorry for Captain Grey. At first sight she had imagined him to be haughty, stiff, and aloof. She knew now that he was a very sensitive man. He was terribly moved, and he wanted to tell her, but he couldn’t.
She tried to help him.
“Dr. Quelton came to see me this morning,” she observed. ”

“ She realized, too, that even the most strictly brought up jeune fille needed some sort of youthful society, and in Lexy she had found pretty well what she wanted—a well mannered, well bred young woman of unimpeachable honesty. So she had permitted Lexy and Caroline to go shopping alone, and sometimes to a matinée or to a tea room. She asked them shrewd questions when they came home, and their answers satisfied her perfectly. They had never even spoken to a man!
“And yet,” thought Miss Moran, “somehow Caroline has been carrying on with some one, without even me finding out! ”

“ He went into every room, lit the gas, looked about, and found nothing. Lexy grew confused with the opening and closing of doors, the sudden flare of light in the darkness, the succession of empty rooms.
He went up into the cupola. Nothing there, nor in the servants’ rooms. Then downstairs, through the long library, the dining room, the sitting room, the kitchen, the pantry. He proceeded with a sort of merciless deliberation, opened every door, looked into every cupboard.
Finding a stable lantern in the kitchen, he lighted it and carried it with him. The door to the cellar stood open. ”