Trix

“ Trix exclaimed. The rest stood silent. There is a beauty so intense as to be beyond words of praise—so sweet, so solemn, as to hush the very beating of our hearts. It was such beauty as this they looked upon now.
They stood on the velvety sward—Sir Victor with Trixy on his arm, Charley and Edith side by side. A glowing mass of soft, scarlet drapery wrapped Miss Darrell, a coquettish hat, with a long, black ostrich plume, set off her Spanish face and eyes. They had dined—and when is moonlight half so poetical as after an excellent dinner? ”

“ If he ranked now rather with Fricker than with Mervyn or Constantine Blair, or the men of that sort who had been his colleagues and his equals, the heaviest of the blame rested on Trix. If the meshes of the Fricker net enveloped him more closely day by day, hers was the fault. Countenanced by an element of truth, carried the whole way by resentment, by jealousy, and by the impulse to acquit himself at another's expense, he would have rejoiced to make Trix his scapegoat and to lay on her the burden of his sins. ”

“ Trix’s method of asking favours was hardly as ingratiating as might be desired, and for a moment the chances seemed all in favour of a refusal. The colour flamed in Ruth’s cheeks, and her black brows drew ominously near together. She was fighting a hard battle against pride and resentment; but, as was usually the case, the better self won. She nodded back at Trix, and said—
“I will! ... Run and bring your books. We won’t venture into the dining-room, for the boys make such a noise that one can’t hear one’s own voice.” ”

“ Edith listened to the narration next day from the lips of Trix with surprise and disgust. Miss Stuart, on her own account, was full of triumph and happiness. Sir Victor had been most devoted, "most devoted" said Trix, in italics, "that is, for him. He danced with me very often, and he spoke several times of you, Dithy, dear. He couldn't understand why you absented yourself from the last party of the season—no more can I for that matter. A person may hate a person like poison—I often do myself—and yet go to that person's parties." ”

“ It will be good for Trix, too. The more you depend upon Trix the more she rises to the occasion. I have a shrewd suspicion that she is going to cut us out, and be the show daughter of the family. Mother will be blissfully happy building castles in the air; Trix will be blissfully happy playing eldest daughter, and bossing the family. We shall be blissfully happy not pretending, but actually being, Berengaria and Lucille. It’s all quite smooth and easy!”
Ruth heaved a sigh, half convinced, half reluctant. ”

“ The tone was utterly final. Trix felt the old childish fear of him surging over her. It was quite different from the nervousness she had just been experiencing, and, oddly enough, it gave her a kind of desperate courage. She had no intention of accepting his refusal without a struggle.
“I wouldn’t tell unless it became absolutely necessary,” she urged.
“It never can be absolutely necessary,” he retorted. “It would be no more dishonourable to tell a lie than break a promise.”
Trix went scarlet. ”

“ The poor young gentleman's a prey to unrequited affection. What are you shaking your head so vehemently at?"
"It isn't that," said Trix, looking solemn and mysterious, "it's worse!"
"Worse! Dear me. I didn't think anything could be worse. What is it then?"
"Murder!"
It was Trixy's turn to be sepulchral. Miss Darrell opened her big brown eyes. Miss Stuart's charnel-house tone was really blood curdling.
"My dearest Trix! Murder! Good gracious, you can't mean to say we've been dancing all night with a murderer? Who has he killed?"
"Edith, don't be an idiot! Did I say he killed any one? ”

“ After knowing Trix a fortnight she destined her for Beaufort Chance, who had a fair income, ambition at least equal to his talents, and a chance of the House of Lords some day. Before she had known Trix a month—so engaging and docile was Trix—Mrs. Bonfill began to wonder whether Beaufort Chance were good enough. Certainly Trix was making a very great success. What then? Should it be Mervyn, Mrs. Bonfill's prime card, her chosen disciple? A man destined, as she believed, to go very high—starting pretty high anyhow, and starts in the handicap are not to be disregarded. ”

“ Trix was walking over the moorland. The Duchessa and Miss Tibbutt had departed to what promised to be an exceedingly dull garden party some five miles distant. It had been decreed that it was entirely unnecessary to inflict the same probable dulness on Trix, therefore she had been left to freedom and her own devices for the afternoon.
Trix was playing the game of “I remember.” It can be a quite extraordinarily fascinating game, or an exceedingly painful one. Trix was finding it extraordinarily fascinating. ”

“ Pia laughed.
“These two,” she said, “Trix and Doctor Hilary. I told you, you remember, and said there were trains, though I never dreamed they would be utilized quite so literally. Of course it was yesterday?”
“Yes,” nodded Trix again. And then with a huge sigh, “Oh, Pia, I am so happy.”
Pia turned her round towards Miss Tibbutt.
“Tibby, look at her face, and then she tells us she is happy, as though it were necessary to advertise the fact to our slow intelligences.”
Trix laughed, though the tears were in her eyes. Laughter and tears are amazingly close together at times. ”

“ Anyhow it’s a pleasure to meet you, even though your entrance was a bit of——”
“An intrusion,” smiled Trix.
“I was going to say a surprise,” said Nicholas courteously. “And now you must allow me to give you some tea.”
Trix hesitated.
“Oh, but,” she demurred, “the butler will see me.”
“And a very pleasant sight for him,” responded Nicholas, “if you will permit an old man to pay you a compliment. Besides Jessop is used to holding his tongue.”
Trix laughed.
“That,” she said, “I can quite well imagine.”
Nicholas pressed the electric button attached to the arm of his chair. ”

“ Yet the recognition of that fact didn’t bring her in the smallest degree nearer the solution of the riddle. Again, who on earth was it? What social inferior was there, could there possibly be, at Woodleigh, to cause Pia a moment’s trouble? Every preconceived notion on Trix’s part, including the colour of the soap-bubble, vanished into thin air, and left her contemplating an inexplicable mystery. ”

“ Nicholas held out his hand without speaking. Trix got up from her chair, and put her own warm hand into his cold one.
“All right,” he said in an oddly gentle voice. “And you can speak to Doctor Hilary about it if you like. You’ll no doubt need a safety valve.” He looked again at her, still holding her hand. “Haven’t I seen you before?” he asked.
Trix nodded. “When I was a tiny child. My name is Trix Devereux. I used to come here with my father.”
“What!” exclaimed Nicholas, “Jack Devereux’s daughter! How is the old fellow?” ”

“ And that's what you want; that's the way to treat you. I should have known how to deal with you. What could a fool like Mervyn do with a woman like you? You're full of devil.'
Poor Trix, feeling at that moment by no means full of 'devil,' glanced at him with a new terror. She had set herself to endure his taunts, but the flavour that crept into them now was too much. ”

“ Instantly the eyes of both went over to the window, where Trixey was combing and brushing Bunchie’s hair, pulling and snarling it awfully, and talking all the time as fast as her tongue could fly. Yes, there was no mistake. Little Trix would fill the house the fullest and make the greatest to do, and Mrs. Hayden would never understand her, or make allowance for her busy, active ways; and Beatrice wanted her for herself, and said at last to Mrs. Morton: “Will you let me have Trixey, for as long a time as Mrs. Hayden would keep her? I know I can make her happy. You can trust her with me.” ”

“ A mound of half-carted leaf mould just without showed, to any one endowed with even the meanest powers of deduction, that someone—some man, probably—was busy in the neighbourhood.
Trix made hastily for the door. The next 188 moment she was through it, to find herself face to face with a man and a wheelbarrow. Trix came to a standstill, a standstill at once sudden and unpremeditated. The man dropped the wheelbarrow. They stared blankly at each other. And Trix was far too flustered to realize that his stare was infinitely more amazed than her own. ”

“ Mervyn turned from him in a distaste that he took no pains to conceal, and fixed his eyes on Trix's face. Was it possible—really possible—that she could be charged with having 'a flutter' under the auspices of Fricker, and stand dumb before the accusation?
Trix laughed nervously, and at last managed to speak.
'That's all very ancient history, Mr. Chance. You should have your gossip more up to date.'
'Then you've sold your Glowing Stars?' he retorted quickly. He desired the pleasure of making her lie and of knowing the degradation that she felt. ”

“ You seem to have grown into a very old hen,” cried Mollie disconsolately. She looked across the cab at the businesslike young woman, and wondered if a few weeks of home under the new conditions would work a similar transformation in herself and Ruth. It was a comfort to remember that Trix’s vocation kept her out of the house for the greater part of the day, for it would be distinctly trying to be “bossed” as a permanent thing.
Perhaps Trix’s thoughts had wandered to the same subject, for her welcome was the reverse of encouraging. ”

“ Good gracious, Trixy, this is awful!"
"You know what I mean," pursued Trix loftily. "You got him in love with you. Then, all the way to Killarney you flirted with Charley—poor Charley—and made him jealous, and jealousy finished him. You're a very clever girl, Edith, and I wish you a great deal of joy."
"Thank you; you say it as if you did. I don't take the trouble to deny your charges; they're not worth it—they are false, and you know them to be so. I never sought out Sir Victor Catheron, either in New York, on board ship, or elsewhere. ”

“ Bonfill could not be held wrong for seeking to temper her young friend's arrogance.
[Pg 53]
'It's not my idea of making love, that's all,' said Trix obstinately.
'We live and learn.' Mrs. Bonfill implied that Trix had much to learn. 'Don't lose your head, child,' she added warningly. 'You've made plenty of people envious. Don't give them any chance.' She paused before she asked, 'Do you see much of Beaufort now?'
'A certain amount.' Trix did not wish to be drawn on this point. ”

“ Miss Tibbutt walked towards the house with him,—to fetch some more knitting, so she announced. Trix suspected a little mental stroking.
“What’s the matter, Pia?” asked Trix calmly, leaning back in her chair.
“The matter?” said Pia, the faintest suspicion of a flush in her cheeks.
“You were very—very snubbing to Doctor Hilary,” announced Trix, still calmly. Inwardly she was not so calm. In fact, her heart was thumping quite loudly.
“My dear Trix,” replied the Duchessa coldly, “I have an excellent gardener. I do not care for recommendations emanating from a complete stranger.” ”

“ Perhaps it’s both.”
“I thought that was the New Thought Idea,” said Pia.
Trix shook her head. “Oh no, the New Thought people think a lot about one’s body. They give us lots of bodies.”
“Really?” queried Doctor Hilary doubtfully.
“Oh yes,” responded Trix. “I once went to one of their lectures.”
“My dear Trix!” ejaculated Miss Tibbutt flustered.
“It was quite an accident,” said Trix reassuringly. “A friend of mine, Sybil Martin, was coming up to town and wanted me to meet her. She suggested I should meet her at Paddington, and then go to a lecture on psychometry with her, and tea afterwards. ”

“ Edith turns once more to Trix—faithful, friendly, loyal Trix—and stretches forth both hands, with a swift, graceful impulse, tears standing, large and bright, in her eyes.
"My own dear Trix!" is what she says.
"And now I'll run away," Miss Seton exclaims brightly; "auntie will expect me, and I know Trix has ten thousand things to tell and to hear. No, Trixy, not a word. Charley, what are you doing with your hat? put it down instantly—I don't want you. I would very much rather go home alone."
"Yes, it's so likely I'll let you. There's no earthly reason why you shouldn't stay ”

“ She lapsed into silence. Suddenly she looked up, an elfin smile of pure mischief dancing in her eyes. “And now I know you’re not dead,” she remarked. 197 “Exactly,” said Nicholas. “You know I’m not dead.”
“Well?” demanded Trix.
“Well, of course you can go and publish the news to the world,” he remarked smoothly.
“And equally of course,” retorted Trix, “I shall do nothing of the kind. Quite possibly you mayn’t trust me, because—because I did sneeze. ”

“ She says we are to bury her at Sandypoint, beside her mother—not send her body to England. She told me, when she was dead, to tell you the story of her separation from Sir Victor. Shall I tell it to you now, Charley?"
He makes a motion of assent; and Trix begins, in a broken voice, and tells him the sad, strange story of the two Sir Victors, father and son, and of Edith's life from her wedding-day. The twilight deepens into darkness, the room is wrapped in shadow long before she has finished. He never stirs, he never speaks, he sits and listens to the end. ”

“ Yet Trix did them, and nobody asked any questions except Mrs. Bonfill, and she was assured that Trix was living well within her means. May not 'means' denote capital as well as income? The distinction was in itself rather obscure to Trix, and, Vesey Trevalla having made no settlement, there was nothing to drive it home. Lastly, Trix was most prettily docile and submissive to Mrs. Bonfill—grateful, attentive, and obedient. She earned a reward. Any woman with half an eye could see what that reward should be. ”