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Title: The old lady shows her medals
Author: Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
Language: English
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*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "The old lady shows her medals" ***
MEDALS ***
THE UNIFORM EDITION OF
THE PLAYS OF J. M. BARRIE
THE OLD LADY SHOWS
HER MEDALS
_WORKS BY J. M. BARRIE._
MARGARET OGILVY.
THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD.
AULD LICHT IDYLLS.
WHEN A MAN’S SINGLE.
A WINDOW IN THRUMS.
MY LADY NICOTINE.
PETER PAN IN KENSINGTON GARDENS.
With 50 Illustrations by ARTHUR RACKHAM.
PETER AND WENDY.
Illustrated by F. D. BEDFORD.
PETER PAN AND WENDY.
Illustrated by MABEL LUCIE ATTWELL.
THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.
Illustrated by HUGH THOMSON.
QUALITY STREET.
Illustrated by HUGH THOMSON.
_THE PLAYS OF J. M. BARRIE._
OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS, AND OTHER PLAYS.
THE TWELVE POUND LOOK, AND OTHER PLAYS.
THE PROFESSOR’S LOVE STORY.
QUALITY STREET.
THE ADMIRABLE CRICHTON.
LITTLE MARY.
ALICE SIT-BY-THE-FIRE.
WHAT EVERY WOMAN KNOWS.
A KISS FOR CINDERELLA.
DEAR BRUTUS.
PETER PAN.
SEVEN WOMEN.
_THE KIRRIEMUIR EDITION OF THE WORKS OF J. M. BARRIE._
In sets of Ten Volumes.
AULD LICHT IDYLLS.
BETTER DEAD.
AN EDINBURGH ELEVEN.
A WINDOW IN THRUMS.
MARGARET OGILVY.
WHEN A MAN’S SINGLE.
MY LADY NICOTINE.
THE LITTLE MINISTER.
THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD.
PETER AND WENDY.
SENTIMENTAL TOMMY.
TOMMY AND GRIZEL.
LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, LTD.
THE PLAYS OF
J. M. BARRIE
THE OLD LADY SHOWS
HER MEDALS
HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LIMITED LONDON
FOUR PLAYS
PAGE
THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS 3
THE NEW WORD 59
BARBARA’S WEDDING 97
A WELL-REMEMBERED VOICE 127
THE OLD LADY SHOWS
HER MEDALS
THE OLD LADY SHOWS HER MEDALS
Three nice old ladies and a criminal, who is even nicer, are discussing
the war over a cup of tea. The criminal, who is the hostess, calls it a
dish of tea, which shows that she comes from Caledonia; but that is not
her crime.
They are all London charwomen, but three of them, including the
hostess, are what are called professionally ‘charwomen _and_’ or simply
‘ands.’ An ‘and’ is also a caretaker when required; her name is entered
as such in ink in a registry book, financial transactions take place
across a counter between her and the registrar, and altogether she is
of a very different social status from one who, like Mrs. Haggerty, is
a charwoman but nothing else. Mrs. Haggerty, though present, is not at
the party by invitation; having seen Mrs. Dowey buying the winkles,
she followed her downstairs, and so has shuffled into the play and sat
down in it against our wish. We would remove her by force, or at least
print her name in small letters, were it not that she takes offence
very readily and says that nobody respects her. So, as you have slipped
in, you can sit there, Mrs. Haggerty; but keep quiet.
There is nothing doing at present in the caretaking way for Mrs. Dowey,
our hostess; but this does not damp her, caretaking being only to such
as she an extra financially and a halo socially. If she had the honour
of being served with an income-tax paper she would probably fill in
one of the nasty little compartments with the words, ‘Trade--charring;
Profession (if any)--caretaking.’ This home of hers (from which, to
look after your house, she makes occasionally temporary departures in
great style, escorting a barrow) is in one of those what-care-I streets
that you discover only when you have lost your way; on discovering
them, your duty is to report them to the authorities, who immediately
add them to the map of London. That is why we are now reporting Friday
Street. We shall call it, in the rough sketch drawn for to-morrow’s
press, ‘Street in which the criminal resided’; and you will find Mrs.
Dowey’s home therein marked with a ❌.
Her abode really consists of one room, but she maintains that there
are two; so, rather than argue, let us say that there are two. The
other one has no window, and she could not swish her old skirts in it
without knocking something over; its grandest display is of tin pans
and crockery on top of a dresser which has a lid to it; you have but
to whip off the utensils and raise the lid, and, behold, a bath with
hot and cold. Mrs. Dowey is very proud of this possession, and when she
shows it off, as she does perhaps too frequently, she first signs to
you with closed fist (funny old thing that she is) to approach softly.
She then tiptoes to the dresser and pops off the lid, as if to take the
bath unawares. Then she sucks her lips, and is modest if you have the
grace to do the exclamations.
In the real room is a bed, though that is putting the matter too
briefly. The fair way to begin, if you love Mrs. Dowey, is to say to
her that it is a pity she has no bed. If she is in her best form she
will chuckle, and agree that the want of a bed tries her sore; she
will keep you on the hooks, so to speak, as long as she can; and then,
with that mouse-like movement again, she will suddenly spring the bed
on you. You thought it was a wardrobe, but she brings it down from the
wall; and lo, a bed. There is nothing else in her abode (which we now
see to contain four rooms--kitchen, pantry, bedroom, and bathroom) that
is absolutely a surprise; but it is full of ‘bits,’ every one of which
has been paid ready money for, and gloated over and tended until it has
become part of its owner. Genuine Doweys, the dealers might call them,
though there is probably nothing in the place except the bed that would
fetch half-a-crown.
Her home is in the basement, so that the view is restricted to the
lower half of persons passing overhead beyond the area stairs. Here
at the window Mrs. Dowey sometimes sits of a summer evening gazing,
not sentimentally at a flower-pot which contains one poor bulb, nor
yearningly at some tiny speck of sky, but with unholy relish at holes
in stockings, and the like, which are revealed to her from her point of
vantage. You, gentle reader, may flaunt by, thinking that your finery
awes the street, but Mrs. Dowey can tell (and does) that your soles are
in need of neat repair.
Also, lower parts being as expressive as the face to those whose view
is thus limited, she could swear to scores of the passers-by in a court
of law.
These four lively old codgers are having a good time at the tea-table,
and wit is flowing free. As you can see by their everyday garments,
and by their pails and mops (which are having a little tea-party
by themselves in the corner), it is not a gathering by invitations
stretching away into yesterday, it is a purely informal affair; so
much more attractive, don’t you think? than banquets elaborately
pre-arranged. You know how they come about, especially in war-time.
Very likely Mrs. Dowey met Mrs. Twymley and Mrs. Mickleham quite
casually in the street, and meant to do no more than pass the time of
day; then, naturally enough, the word camouflage was mentioned, and
they got heated, but in the end Mrs. Twymley apologised; then, in the
odd way in which one thing leads to another, the winkle man appeared,
and Mrs. Dowey remembered that she had that pot of jam and that Mrs.
Mickleham had stood treat last time; and soon they were all three
descending the area stairs, followed cringingly by the Haggerty Woman.
They have been extremely merry, and never were four hard-worked old
ladies who deserved it better. All a woman can do in war-time they do
daily and cheerfully, just as their menfolk are doing it at the Front;
and now, with the mops and pails laid aside, they sprawl gracefully at
ease. There is no intention on their part to consider peace terms until
a decisive victory has been gained in the field (Sarah Ann Dowey),
until the Kaiser is put to the right-about (Emma Mickleham), and
singing very small (Amelia Twymley).
At this tea-party the lady who is to play the part of Mrs. Dowey is
sure to want to suggest that our heroine has a secret sorrow, namely,
the crime; but you should see us knocking that idea out of her head!
Mrs. Dowey knows she is a criminal, but, unlike the actress, she does
not know that she is about to be found out; and she is, to put it
bluntly in her own Scotch way, the merriest of the whole clanjamfry.
She presses more tea on her guests, but they wave her away from them in
the pretty manner of ladies who know that they have already had more
than enough.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Just one more winkle, Mrs. Mickleham?’ Indeed there is
only one more.
But Mrs. Mickleham indicates politely that if she took this
one it would have to swim for it. (The Haggerty Woman takes it
long afterwards when she thinks, erroneously, that no one is
looking.)
Mrs. Twymley is sulking. Evidently some one has contradicted
her. Probably the Haggerty Woman.
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘I say it is so.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘I say it may be so.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘I suppose I ought to know: me that has a son a prisoner
in Germany.’ She has so obviously scored that all good feeling seems to
call upon her to end here. But she continues rather shabbily, ‘Being
the only lady present that has that proud misfortune.’ The others are
stung.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘My son is fighting in France.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Mine is wounded in two places.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘Mine is at Salonaiky.’
The absurd pronunciation of this uneducated person moves the
others to mirth.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘You’ll excuse us, Mrs. Haggerty, but the correct
pronunciation is Salonikky.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN, to cover her confusion. ‘I don’t think.’ She feels
that even this does not prove her case. ‘And I speak as one that has
War Savings Certificates.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘We all have them.’
The Haggerty Woman whimpers, and the other guests regard her
with unfeeling disdain.
MRS. DOWEY, to restore cheerfulness, ‘Oh, it’s a terrible war.’
ALL, brightening, ‘It is. You may say so.’
MRS. DOWEY, encouraged, ‘What I say is, the men is splendid, but I’m
none so easy about the staff. That’s your weak point, Mrs. Mickleham.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM, on the defence, but determined to reveal nothing that
might be of use to the enemy, ‘You may take it from me, the staff’s all
right.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘And very relieved I am to hear you say it.’
It is here that the Haggerty Woman has the remaining winkle.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘You don’t understand properly about trench warfare. If
I had a map----’
MRS. DOWEY, wetting her finger to draw lines on the table. ‘That’s the
river Sommy. Now, if we had barrages here----’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Very soon you would be enfilided. Where’s your supports,
my lady?’ Mrs. Dowey is damped.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘What none of you grasps is that this is a artillery
war----’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN, strengthened by the winkle, ‘I say that the word
is Salonaiky.’ The others purse their lips.
MRS. TWYMLEY, with terrible meaning, ‘We’ll change the subject. Have
you seen this week’s _Fashion Chat_?’ She has evidently seen and
devoured it herself, and even licked up the crumbs. ‘The gabardine with
accordion pleats has quite gone out.’
MRS. DOWEY, her old face sparkling. ‘My sakes! You tell me?’
MRS. TWYMLEY, with the touch of haughtiness that comes of great topics,
‘The plain smock has come in again, with silk lacing, giving that
charming chic effect.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Oho!’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I must say I was always partial to the straight
line’--thoughtfully regarding the want of line in Mrs. Twymley’s
person--‘though trying to them as is of too friendly a figure.’
It is here that the Haggerty Woman’s fingers close
unostentatiously upon a piece of sugar.
MRS. TWYMLEY, sailing into the Empyrean, ‘Lady Dolly Kanister was seen
conversing across the railings in a dainty _de jou_.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Fine would I have liked to see her.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘She is equally popular as maid, wife, and
munition-worker. Her two children is inset. Lady Pops Babington was
married in a tight tulle.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘What was her going-away dress?’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘A champagny cream velvet with dreamy corsage. She’s
married to Colonel the Hon. Chingford--“Snubs,” they called him at
Eton.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN, having disposed of the sugar, ‘Very likely he’ll be
sent to Salonaiky.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Wherever he is sent, she’ll have the same tremors as
the rest of us. She’ll be as keen to get the letters wrote with pencils
as you or me.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Them pencil letters!’
MRS. DOWEY, in her sweet Scotch voice, timidly, afraid she may be going
too far, ‘And women in enemy lands gets those pencil letters and then
stop getting them, the same as ourselves. Let’s occasionally think of
that.’
She has gone too far. Chairs are pushed back.
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘I ask you!’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘That’s hardly language, Mrs. Dowey.’
MRS. DOWEY, scared, ‘Kindly excuse. I swear to death I’m none of your
pacifists.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Freely granted.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘I’ve heard of females that have no male relations, and
so they have no man-party at the wars. I’ve heard of them, but I don’t
mix with them.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘What can the likes of us have to say to them? It’s not
their war.’
MRS. DOWEY, wistfully, ‘They are to be pitied.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘But the place for them, Mrs. Dowey, is within doors
with the blinds down.’
MRS. DOWEY, hurriedly, ‘That’s the place for them.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I saw one of them to-day buying a flag. I thought it
was very impudent of her.’
MRS. DOWEY, meekly, ‘So it was.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM, trying to look modest with indifferent success, ‘I had
a letter from my son, Percy, yesterday.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Alfred sent me his photo.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘Letters from Salonaiky is less common.’
Three bosoms heave, but not, alas, Mrs. Dowey’s. Nevertheless
she doggedly knits her lips.
MRS. DOWEY, the criminal, ‘Kenneth writes to me every week.’ There are
exclamations. The dauntless old thing holds aloft a packet of letters.
‘Look at this. All his.’
The Haggerty Woman whimpers.
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Alfred has little time for writing, being a bombardier.’
MRS. DOWEY, relentlessly, ‘Do your letters begin “Dear mother”?’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Generally.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Invariable.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘Every time.’
MRS. DOWEY, delivering the knock-out blow. ‘Kenneth’s begin “Dearest
mother.”’
No one can think of the right reply.
MRS. TWYMLEY, doing her best, ‘A short man, I should say, judging by
yourself.’
She ought to have left it alone.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Six feet two--and a half.’
The gloom deepens.
MRS. MICKLEHAM, against her better judgment, ‘A kilty, did you tell me?’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Most certainly. He’s in the famous Black Watch.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN, producing her handkerchief, ‘The Surrey Rifles is
the famousest.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘There you and the King disagrees, Mrs. Haggerty. His
choice is the Buffs, same as my Percy’s.’
MRS. TWYMLEY, magnanimously, ‘Give me the R.H.A. and you can keep all
the rest.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘I’m sure I have nothing to say against the Surreys and
the R.H.A. and the Buffs; but they are just breeches regiments, I
understand.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘We can’t all be kilties.’
MRS. DOWEY, crushingly. ‘That’s very true.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. It is foolish of her, but she can’t help saying it. ‘Has
your Kenneth great hairy legs?’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Tremendous.’
The wicked woman: but let us also say ‘Poor Sarah Ann Dowey.’
For at this moment, enter Nemesis. In other words, the less
important part of a clergyman appears upon the stair.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘It’s the reverent gent!’
MRS. DOWEY, little knowing what he is bringing her, ‘I see he has had
his boots heeled.’
It may be said of Mr. Willings that his happy smile always
walks in front of him. This smile makes music of his life, it
means that once again he has been chosen, in his opinion, as
the central figure in romance. No one can well have led a more
drab existence, but he will never know it; he will always think
of himself, humbly though elatedly, as the chosen of the gods.
Of him must it have been originally written that adventures
are for the adventurous. He meets them at every street corner.
For instance, he assists an old lady off a bus, and asks her
if he can be of any further help. She tells him that she
wants to know the way to Maddox the butcher’s. Then comes the
kind, triumphant smile; it always comes first, followed by its
explanation, ‘I was there yesterday!’ This is the merest sample
of the adventures that keep Mr. Willings up to the mark.
Since the war broke out, his zest for life has become almost
terrible. He can scarcely lift a newspaper and read of a hero
without remembering that he knows some one of the same name.
The Soldiers’ Rest he is connected with was once a china
emporium, and (mark my words), he had bought his tea service at
it. Such is life when you are in the thick of it. Sometimes he
feels that he is part of a gigantic spy drama. In the course
of his extraordinary comings and goings he meets with Great
Personages, of course, and is the confidential recipient of
secret news. Before imparting the news he does not, as you
might expect, first smile expansively; on the contrary, there
comes over his face an awful solemnity, which, however, means
the same thing. When divulging the names of the personages, he
first looks around to make sure that no suspicious character
is about, and then, lowering his voice, tells you, ‘I had that
from Mr. Farthing himself--he is the secretary of the Bethnal
Green Branch,--h’sh!’
There is a commotion about finding a worthy chair for the
reverent, and there is also some furtive pulling down of
sleeves, but he stands surveying the ladies through his
triumphant smile. This amazing man knows that he is about to
score again.
MR. WILLINGS, waving aside the chairs, ‘I thank you. But not at all.
Friends, I have news.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘News?’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘From the Front?’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘My Alfred, sir?’
They are all grown suddenly anxious--all except the hostess,
who knows that there can never be any news from the Front for
her.
MR. WILLINGS. ‘I tell you at once that all is well. The news is for
Mrs. Dowey.’
She stares.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘News for me?’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘Your son, Mrs. Dowey--he has got five days’ leave.’ She
shakes her head slightly, or perhaps it only trembles a little on its
stem. ‘Now, now, good news doesn’t kill.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘We’re glad, Mrs. Dowey.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘You’re sure?’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘Quite sure. He has arrived.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘He is in London?’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘He is. I have spoken to him.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘You lucky woman.’
They might see that she is not looking lucky, but experience
has told them how differently these things take people.
MR. WILLINGS, marvelling more and more as he unfolds his tale, ‘Ladies,
it is quite a romance. I was in the----’ he looks around cautiously,
but he knows that they are all to be trusted--‘in the Church Army
quarters in Central Street, trying to get on the track of one or two
of our missing men. Suddenly my eyes--I can’t account for it--but
suddenly my eyes alighted on a Highlander seated rather drearily on a
bench, with his kit at his feet.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘A big man?’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘A great brawny fellow.’ The Haggerty Woman groans. ‘“My
friend,” I said at once, “welcome back to Blighty.” I make a point of
calling it Blighty. “I wonder,” I said, “if there is anything I can
do for you?” He shook his head. “What regiment?” I asked.’ Here Mr.
Willings very properly lowers his voice to a whisper. ‘“Black Watch,
5th Battalion,” he said. “Name?” I asked. “Dowey,” he said.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I declare. I do declare.’
MR. WILLINGS, showing how the thing was done, with the help of a chair,
‘I put my hand on his shoulder as it might be thus. “Kenneth Dowey,” I
said, “I know your mother.”’
MRS. DOWEY, wetting her lips, ‘What did he say to that?’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘He was incredulous. Indeed, he seemed to think I was
balmy. But I offered to bring him straight to you. I told him how much
you had talked to me about him.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Bring him here!’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I wonder he needed to be brought.’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘He had just arrived, and was bewildered by the great
city. He listened to me in the taciturn Scotch way, and then he gave a
curious laugh.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Laugh?’
MR. WILLINGS, whose wild life has brought him into contact with the
strangest people, ‘The Scotch, Mrs. Twymley, express their emotions
differently from us. With them tears signify a rollicking mood, while
merriment denotes that they are plunged in gloom. When I had finished
he said at once, “Let us go and see the old lady.”’
MRS. DOWEY, backing, which is the first movement she has made since he
began his tale, ‘Is he--coming?’
MR. WILLINGS, gloriously, ‘He has come. He is up there. I told him I
thought I had better break the joyful news to you.’
Three women rush to the window. Mrs. Dowey looks at her pantry
door, but perhaps she remembers that it does not lock on the
inside. She stands rigid, though her face has gone very grey.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Kindly get them to go away.’
MR. WILLINGS. ‘Ladies, I think this happy occasion scarcely requires
you.’ He is not the man to ask of woman a sacrifice that he is not
prepared to make himself. ‘I also am going instantly.’ They all survey
Mrs. Dowey, and understand--or think they understand.
MRS. TWYMLEY, pail and mop in hand, ‘I would thank none for their
company if my Alfred was at the door.’
MRS. MICKLEHAM, similarly burdened, ‘The same from me. Shall I send him
down, Mrs. Dowey?’ The old lady does not hear her. She is listening,
terrified, for a step on the stairs. ‘Look at the poor, joyous thing,
sir. She has his letters in her hand.’
The three women go. Mr. Willings puts a kind hand on Mrs.
Dowey’s shoulder. He thinks he so thoroughly understands the
situation.
MR. WILLINGS. ‘A good son, Mrs. Dowey, to have written to you so often.’
Our old criminal quakes, but she grips the letters more
tightly. Private Dowey descends.
‘Dowey, my friend, there she is, waiting for you, with your
letters in her hand.’
DOWEY, grimly, ‘That’s great.’
Mr. Willings ascends the stair without one backward glance,
like the good gentleman he is; and the Doweys are left
together, with nearly the whole room between them. He is a
great rough chunk of Scotland, howked out of her not so much
neatly as liberally; and in his Black Watch uniform, all caked
with mud, his kit and nearly all his worldly possessions on
his back, he is an apparition scarcely less fearsome (but so
much less ragged) than those ancestors of his who trotted with
Prince Charlie to Derby. He stands silent, scowling at the old
lady, daring her to raise her head; and she would like very
much to do it, for she longs to have a first glimpse of her
son. When he does speak, it is to jeer at her.
‘Do you recognise your loving son, missis?’ (‘Oh, the fine
Scotch tang of him,’ she thinks.) ‘I’m pleased I wrote so
often.’ (‘Oh, but he’s _raized_,’ she thinks.) He strides
toward her, and seizes the letters roughly. ‘Let’s see them.’
There is a string round the package, and he unties it, and
examines the letters at his leisure with much curiosity. The
envelopes are in order, all addressed in pencil to Mrs. Dowey,
with the proud words ‘Opened by Censor’ on them. But the letter
paper inside contains not a word of writing.
‘Nothing but blank paper! Is this your writing in pencil on
the envelope?’ She nods, and he gives the matter further
consideration.
‘The covey told me you were a charwoman; so I suppose you
picked the envelopes out of waste-paper baskets, or such like,
and then changed the addresses?’ She nods again; still she dare
not look up, but she is admiring his legs. When, however, he
would cast the letters into the fire, she flames up with sudden
spirit. She clutches them.
‘Don’t you burn them letters, mister.’
‘They’re not real letters.’
‘They’re all I have.’
He returns to irony. ‘I thought you had a son?’
‘I never had a man nor a son nor anything. I just call myself
Missis to give me a standing.’
‘Well, it’s past my seeing through.’
He turns to look for some explanation from the walls. She gets
a peep at him at last. Oh, what a grandly set-up man! Oh, the
stride of him. Oh, the noble rage of him. Oh, Samson had been
like this before that woman took him in hand.
He whirls round on her. ‘What made you do it?’
‘It was everybody’s war, mister, except mine.’ She beats her
arms. ‘I wanted it to be my war too.’
‘You’ll need to be plainer. And yet I’m d--d if I care to hear
you, you lying old trickster.’
The words are merely what were to be expected, and so are
endurable; but he has moved towards the door.
‘You’re not going already, mister?’
‘Yes, I just came to give you an ugly piece of my mind.’
She holds out her arms longingly. ‘You haven’t gave it to me
yet.’
‘You have a cheek!’
She gives further proof of it. ‘You wouldn’t drink some tea?’
‘Me! I tell you I came here for the one purpose of blazing away
at you.’
It is such a roaring negative that it blows her into a chair.
But she is up again in a moment, is this spirited old lady.
‘You could drink the tea while you was blazing away. There’s
winkles.’
‘Is there?’ He turns interestedly toward the table, but his
proud Scots character checks him, which is just as well, for
what she should have said was that there had been winkles. ‘Not
me. You’re just a common rogue.’ He seats himself far from the
table. ‘Now, then, out with it. Sit down!’ She sits meekly;
there is nothing she would not do for him. ‘As you char, I
suppose you are on your feet all day.’
‘I’m more on my knees.’
‘That’s where you should be to me.’
‘Oh, mister, I’m willing.’
‘Stop it. Go on, you accomplished liar.’
‘It’s true that my name is Dowey.’
‘It’s enough to make me change mine.’
‘I’ve been charring and charring and charring as far back as I
mind. I’ve been in London this twenty years.’
‘We’ll skip your early days. I have an appointment.’
‘And then when I was old the war broke out.’
‘How could it affect you?’
‘Oh, mister, that’s the thing. It didn’t affect me. It affected
everybody but me. The neighbours looked down on me. Even the
posters, on the walls, of the woman saying, “Go, my boy,”
leered at me. I sometimes cried by myself in the dark. You
won’t have a cup of tea?’
‘No.’
‘Sudden like the idea came to me to pretend I had a son.’
‘You depraved old limmer! But what in the name of Old Nick made
you choose me out of the whole British Army?’
Mrs. Dowey giggles. There is little doubt that in her youth she
was an accomplished flirt. ‘Maybe, mister, it was because I
liked you best.’
‘Now, now, woman.’
‘I read one day in the papers, “In which he was assisted by
Private K. Dowey, 5th Battalion, Black Watch.”’
Private K. Dowey is flattered. ‘Did you, now! Well, I expect
that’s the only time I was ever in the papers.’
Mrs. Dowey tries it on again. ‘I didn’t choose you for that
alone. I read a history of the Black Watch first, to make sure
it was the best regiment in the world.’
‘Anybody could have told you that.’ He is moving about now in
better humour, and, meeting the loaf in his stride, he cuts
a slice from it. He is hardly aware of this, but Mrs. Dowey
knows. ‘I like the Scotch voice of you, woman. It drummles on
like a hill burn.’
‘Prosen Water runs by where I was born.’ Flirting again, ‘May
be it teached me to speak, mister.’
‘Canny, woman, canny.’
‘I read about the Black Watch’s ghostly piper that plays
proudly when the men of the Black Watch do well, and prouder
when they fall.’
‘There’s some foolish story of that kind.’ He has another
careless slice off the loaf. ‘But you couldn’t have been living
here at that time or they would have guessed. I suppose you
flitted?’
‘Yes, it cost me eleven and sixpence.’
‘How did you guess the _K_ in my name stood for Kenneth?’
‘Does it?’
‘Umpha.’
‘An angel whispered it to me in my sleep.’
‘Well, that’s the only angel in the whole black business.’ He
chuckles.
‘You little thought I would turn up!’ Wheeling suddenly on her.
‘Or did you?’
‘I was beginning to weary for a sight of you, Kenneth.’
‘What word was that?’
‘Mister.’
He helps himself to butter, and she holds out the jam pot to
him, but he haughtily rejects it. Do you think she gives in
now? Not a bit of it.
He returns to sarcasm. ‘I hope you’re pleased with me now you
see me.’
‘I’m very pleased. Does your folk live in Scotland?’
‘Glasgow.’
‘Both living?’
‘Ay.’
‘Is your mother terrible proud of you?’
‘Naturally.’
‘You’ll be going to them?’
‘After I’ve had a skite in London first.’
The old lady sniffs. ‘So she is in London!’
‘Who?’
‘Your young lady.’
‘Are you jealyous?’
‘Not me.’
‘You needna be. She’s a young thing.’
‘You surprises me. A beauty, no doubt?’
‘You may be sure.’ He tries the jam. ‘She’s a titled person.
She is equally popular as maid, wife and munition-worker.’
Mrs. Dowey remembers Lady Dolly Kanister, so familiar to
readers of fashionable gossip, and a very leery expression
indeed comes into her face.
‘Tell me more about her, man.’
‘She has sent me a lot of things, especially cakes, and a
worsted waistcoat, with a loving message on the enclosed card.’
The old lady is now in a quiver of excitement. She loses
control of her arms, which jump excitedly this way and that.
‘You’ll try one of my cakes, mister?’
‘Not me.’
‘They’re of my own making.’
‘No, I thank you.’
But with a funny little run she is in the pantry and back
again. She planks down a cake before him, at sight of which he
gapes.
‘What’s the matter? Tell me, oh, tell me, mister.’
‘That’s exactly the kind of cake that her ladyship sends me.’
Mrs. Dowey is now a very glorious old character indeed.
‘Is the waistcoat right, mister? I hope the Black Watch colours
pleased you.’
‘Wha--at! Was it you?’
‘I daredna give my own name, you see, and I was always reading
hers in the papers.’
The badgered man looms over her, terrible for the last time.
‘Woman, is there no getting rid of you!’
‘Are you angry?’
He sits down with a groan.
‘Oh, hell! Give me some tea.’
She rushes about preparing a meal for him, every bit of her
wanting to cry out to every other bit, ‘Oh, glory, glory,
glory!’ For a moment she hovers behind his chair. ‘Kenneth!’
she murmurs. ‘What?’ he asks, no longer aware that she is
taking a liberty. ‘Nothing,’ she says, ‘just Kenneth,’ and
is off gleefully for the tea-caddy. But when his tea is
poured out, and he has drunk a saucerful, the instinct of
self-preservation returns to him between two bites.
‘Don’t you be thinking, missis, for one minute that you have
got me.’
‘No, no.’
On that understanding he unbends.
‘I have a theatre to-night, followed by a randy-dandy.’
‘Oho! Kenneth, this is a queer first meeting!’
‘It is, woman, oh, it is,’ guardedly, ‘and it’s also a last
meeting.’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘So here’s to you--you old mop and pail. _Ave atque vale._’
‘What’s that?’
‘That means Hail and Farewell.’
‘Are you a scholar?’
‘Being Scotch, there’s almost nothing I don’t know.’
‘What was you to trade?’
‘Carter, glazier, orraman, any rough jobs.’
‘You’re a proper man to look at.’
‘I’m generally admired.’
‘She’s an enviable woman.’
‘Who?’
‘Your mother.’
‘Eh? Oh, that was just protecting myself from you. I have
neither father nor mother nor wife nor grandmama.’ Bitterly,
‘This party never even knew who his proud parents were.’
‘Is that’--gleaming--‘is that true?’
‘It’s gospel.’
‘Heaven be praised!’
‘Eh? None of that! I was a fool to tell you. But don’t think
you can take advantage of it. Pass the cake.’
‘I daresay it’s true we’ll never meet again, Kenneth, but--but
if we do, I wonder where it will be?’
‘Not in this world.’
‘There’s no telling’--leering ingratiatingly--‘It might be at
Berlin.’
‘Tod, if I ever get to Berlin, I believe I’ll find you there
waiting for me!’
‘With a cup of tea for you in my hand.’
‘Yes, and’--heartily--‘very good tea too.’
He has partaken heavily, he is now in high good humour.
‘Kenneth, we could come back by Paris!’
‘All the ladies,’ slapping his knees, ‘likes to go to Paris.’
‘Oh, Kenneth, Kenneth, if just once before I die I could be
fitted for a Paris gown with dreamy corsage!’
‘You’re all alike, old covey. We have a song about it.’ He
sings:
‘Mrs. Gill is very ill,
Nothing can improve her
But to see the Tuileries
And waddle through the Louvre.’
No song ever had a greater success. Mrs. Dowey is doubled up
with mirth. When she comes to, when they both come to, for
there are a pair of them, she cries:
‘You must learn me that,’ and off she goes in song also:
‘Mrs. Dowey’s very ill,
Nothing can improve her.’
‘Stop!’ cries clever Kenneth, and finishes the verse:
‘But dressed up in a Paris gown
To waddle through the Louvre.’
They fling back their heads, she points at him, he points at
her. She says ecstatically:
‘Hairy legs!’
A mad remark, which brings him to his senses; he remembers who
and what she is.
‘Mind your manners!’ Rising, ‘Well, thank you for my tea. I
must be stepping.’
Poor Mrs. Dowey, he is putting on his kit.
‘Where are you living?’
He sighs.
‘That’s the question. But there’s a place called The Hut, where
some of the 2nd Battalion are. They’ll take me in. Beggars,’
bitterly, ‘can’t be choosers.’
‘Beggars?’
‘I’ve never been here before. If you knew’--a shadow coming
over him--‘what it is to be in such a place without a friend.
I was crazy with glee, when I got my leave, at the thought of
seeing London at last, but after wandering its streets for
four hours, I would almost have been glad to be back in the
trenches.’
‘If you knew,’ he has said, but indeed the old lady knows.
‘That’s my quandorum too, Kenneth.’
He nods sympathetically.
‘I’m sorry for you, you poor old body,’ shouldering his kit.
‘But I see no way out for either of us.’
A cooing voice says, ‘Do you not?’
‘Are you at it again!’
She knows that it must be now or never. She has left her
biggest guns for the end. In her excitement she is rising up
and down on her toes.
‘Kenneth, I’ve heard that the thing a man on leave longs for
more than anything else is a bed with sheets, and a bath.’
‘You never heard anything truer.’
‘Go into that pantry, Kenneth Dowey, and lift the dresser-top,
and tell me what you see.’
He goes. There is an awful stillness. He returns, impressed.
‘It’s a kind of a bath!’
‘You could do yourself there pretty, half at a time.’
‘Me?’
‘There’s a woman through the wall that would be very willing to
give me a shakedown till your leave is up.’
He snorts.
‘Oh, is there!’
She has not got him yet, but there is still one more gun.
‘Kenneth, look!’
With these simple words she lets down the bed. She says
no more; an effect like this would be spoilt by language.
Fortunately he is not made of stone. He thrills.
‘My word! That’s the dodge we need in the trenches.’
‘That’s your bed, Kenneth.’
‘Mine?’ He grins at her. ‘You queer old divert. What can make
you so keen to be burdened by a lump like me?’
‘He! he! he! he!’
‘I tell you, I’m the commonest kind of man.’
‘I’m just the commonest kind of old wifie myself.’
‘I’ve been a kick-about all my life, and I’m no great shakes at
the war.’
‘Yes, you are. How many Germans have you killed?’
‘Just two for certain, and there was no glory in it. It was
just because they wanted my shirt.’
‘Your shirt?’
‘Well, they said it was their shirt.’
‘Have you took prisoners?’
‘I once took half a dozen, but that was a poor affair too.’
‘How could one man take half a dozen?’
‘Just in the usual way. I surrounded them.’
‘Kenneth, you’re just my ideal.’
‘You’re easily pleased.’
He turns again to the bed. ‘Let’s see how the thing works.’
He kneads the mattress with his fist, and the result is so
satisfactory that he puts down his kit.
‘Old lady, if you really want me, I’ll bide.’
‘Oh! oh! oh! oh!’
Her joy is so demonstrative that he has to drop a word of
warning.
‘But, mind you, I don’t accept you as a relation. For your
personal glory, you can go on pretending to the neighbours; but
the best I can say for you is that you’re on your probation.
I’m a cautious character, and we must see how you’ll turn out.’
‘Yes, Kenneth.’
‘And now, I think, for that bath. My theatre begins at
six-thirty. A cove I met on a ‘bus is going with me.’
She is a little alarmed.
‘You’re sure you’ll come back?’
‘Yes, yes,’ handsomely, ‘I leave my kit in pledge.’
‘You won’t liquor up too freely, Kenneth?’
‘You’re the first,’ chuckling, ‘to care whether I do or not.’
Nothing she has said has pleased the lonely man so much as
this. ‘I promise. Tod, I’m beginning to look forward to being
wakened in the morning by hearing you cry, “Get up, you lazy
swine.” I’ve kind of envied men that had womenfolk with the
right to say that.’
He is passing to the bathroom when a diverting notion strikes
him.
‘What is it, Kenneth?’
‘The theatre. It would be showier if I took a lady.’
Mrs. Dowey feels a thumping at her breast.
‘Kenneth, tell me this instant what you mean. Don’t keep me on
the jumps.’
He turns her round.
‘No, it couldn’t be done.’
‘Was it me you were thinking of?’
‘Just for the moment,’ regretfully, ‘but you have no style.’
She catches hold of him by the sleeve.
‘Not in this, of course. But, oh, Kenneth, if you saw me in my
merino! It’s laced up the back in the very latest.’
‘Hum,’ doubtfully; ‘but let’s see it.’
It is produced from a drawer, to which the old lady runs with
almost indecent haste. The connoisseur examines it critically.
‘Looks none so bad. Have you a bit of chiffon for the neck?
It’s not bombs nor Kaisers nor Tipperary that men in the
trenches think of, it’s chiffon.’
‘I swear I have, Kenneth. And I have a bangle, and a muff, and
gloves.’
‘Ay, ay.’ He considers. ‘Do you think you could give your face
less of a homely look?’
‘I’m sure I could.’
‘Then you can have a try. But, mind you, I promise nothing. All
will depend on the effect.’
He goes into the pantry, and the old lady is left alone. Not
alone, for she is ringed round by entrancing hopes and dreadful
fears. They beam on her and jeer at her, they pull her this
way and that; with difficulty she breaks through them and
rushes to her pail, hot water, soap, and a looking-glass. Our
last glimpse of her for this evening shows her staring (not
discontentedly) at her soft old face, licking her palm, and
pressing it to her hair. Her eyes are sparkling.
* * * * *
One evening a few days later Mrs. Twymley and Mrs. Mickleham
are in Mrs. Dowey’s house, awaiting that lady’s return from
some fashionable dissipation. They have undoubtedly been
discussing the war, for the first words we catch are:
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I tell you flat, Amelia, I bows no knee to junkerdom.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Sitting here by the fire, you and me, as one to another,
what do you think will happen after the war? Are we to go back to being
as we were?’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Speaking for myself, Amelia, not me. The war has
wakened me up to a understanding of my own importance that is really
astonishing.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Same here. Instead of being the poor worms the like of
you and me thought we was, we turns out to be visible departments of a
great and haughty empire.’
They are well under weigh, and with a little luck we might now
hear their views on various passing problems of the day, such
as the neglect of science in our public schools. But in comes
the Haggerty Woman, and spoils everything. She is attired, like
them, in her best, but the effect of her is that her clothes
have gone out for a walk, leaving her at home.
MRS. MICKLEHAM, with deep distaste, ‘Here’s that submarine again.’
The Haggerty Woman cringes to them, but gets no encouragement.
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘It’s a terrible war.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Is that so?’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘I wonder what will happen when it ends?’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I have no idea.’
The intruder produces her handkerchief, but does not use it.
After all, she is in her best.
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘Are they not back yet?’
Perfect ladies must reply to a direct question.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘No,’ icily. ‘We have been waiting this half hour. They
are at the theatre again.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘You tell me! I just popped in with an
insignificant present for him, as his leave is up.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘The same errand brought us.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘My present is cigarettes.’
They have no intention of telling her what their presents are,
but the secret leaps from them.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘So is mine.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Mine too.’
Triumph of the Haggerty Woman. But it is short-lived.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Mine has gold tips.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘So has mine.’
The Haggerty Woman need not say a word. You have only to look
at her to know that her cigarettes are not gold-tipped. She
tries to brazen it out, which is so often a mistake.
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘What care I? Mine is Exquisytos.’
No wonder they titter.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Excuse us, Mrs. Haggerty (if that’s your name), but
the word is Exquiseetos.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘Much obliged’ (weeps).
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I think I heard a taxi.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘It will be her third this week.’
They peer through the blind. They are so excited that rank is
forgotten.
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘What is she in?’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘A new astrakhan jacket he gave her, with Venus
sleeves.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘Has she sold her gabardine coat?’
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Not her! She has them both at the theatre, warm night
though it is. She’s wearing the astrakhan, and carrying the gabardine,
flung careless-like over her arm.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘I saw her strutting about with him yesterday,
looking as if she thought the two of them made a procession.’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘Hsh!’ peeping. ‘Strike me dead, if she’s not coming
mincing down the stair, hooked on his arm!’
Indeed it is thus that Mrs. Dowey enters. Perhaps she had seen
shadows lurking on the blind, and at once hooked on to Kenneth
to impress the visitors. She is quite capable of it.
Now we see what Kenneth saw that afternoon five days ago
when he emerged from the bathroom and found the old trembler
awaiting his inspection. Here are the muff and the gloves and
the chiffon, and such a kind old bonnet that it makes you laugh
at once; I don’t know how to describe it, but it is trimmed
with a kiss, as bonnets should be when the wearer is old and
frail. We must take the merino for granted until she steps
out of the astrakhan. She is dressed up to the nines, there
is no doubt about it. Yes, but is her face less homely? Above
all, has she style? The answer is in a stout affirmative. Ask
Kenneth. He knows. Many a time he has had to go behind a door
to roar hilariously at the old lady. He has thought of her as
a lark to tell his mates about by and by; but for some reason
that he cannot fathom, he knows now that he will never do that.
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Kenneth,’ affecting surprise, ‘we have visitors!’
DOWEY. ‘Your servant, ladies.’
He is no longer mud-caked and dour. A very smart figure is this
Private Dowey, and he winks engagingly at the visitors, like
one who knows that for jolly company you cannot easily beat
charwomen. The pleasantries that he and they have exchanged
this week! The sauce he has given them. The wit of Mrs.
Mickleham’s retorts. The badinage of Mrs. Twymley. The neat
giggles of the Haggerty Woman. There has been nothing like it
since you took the countess in to dinner.
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘We should apologise. We’re not meaning to stay.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘You are very welcome. Just wait’--the ostentation
of this!--‘till I get out of my astrakhan--and my muff--and my
gloves--and’ (it is the bonnet’s turn now) ‘my Excelsior.’
At last we see her in the merino (a triumph).
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘You’ve given her a glory time, Mr. Dowey.’
DOWEY. ‘It’s her that has given it to me, missis.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Hey! hey! hey! hey! He just pampers me,’ waggling her
fists. ‘The Lord forgive us, but this being the last night, we had a
sit-down supper at a restaurant!’ Vehemently: ‘I swear by God that we
had champagny wine.’ There is a dead stillness, and she knows very well
what it means, she has even prepared for it: ‘And to them as doubts my
word--here’s the cork.’
She places the cork, in its lovely gold drapery, upon the table.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘I’m sure!’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘I would thank you, Mrs. Dowey, not to say a word against
my Alfred.’
MRS. DOWEY. ‘Me!’
DOWEY. ‘Come, come, ladies,’ in the masterful way that is so hard for
women to resist; ‘if you say another word, I’ll kiss the lot of you.’
There is a moment of pleased confusion.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Really, them sodgers!’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘The kilties is the worst!’
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘I’m sure,’ heartily, ‘we don’t grudge you your treats,
Mrs. Dowey; and sorry we are that this is the end.’
DOWEY. ‘Yes, it’s the end,’ with a troubled look at his old lady; ‘I
must be off in ten minutes.’
The little soul is too gallant to break down in company. She
hurries into the pantry and shuts the door.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘Poor thing! But we must run, for you’ll be having some
last words to say to her.’
DOWEY. ‘I kept her out long on purpose so as to have less time to say
them in.’
He more than half wishes that he could make a bolt to a
public-house.
MRS. TWYMLEY. ‘It’s the best way.’ In the important affairs of life
there is not much that any one can teach a charwoman. ‘Just a mere
nothing, to wish you well, Mr. Dowey.’
All three present him with the cigarettes.
MRS. MICKLEHAM. ‘A scraping, as one might say.’
THE HAGGERTY WOMAN. ‘The heart,’ enigmatically, ‘is warm though it may
not be gold-tipped.’
DOWEY. ‘You bricks!’
THE LADIES. ‘Good luck, cocky.’
DOWEY. ‘The same to you. And if you see a sodger man up there in a
kilt, he is one that is going back with me. Tell him not to come down,
but--but to give me till the last minute, and then to whistle.’
It is quite a grave man who is left alone, thinking what to do
next. He tries a horse laugh, but that proves of no help. He
says ‘Hell!’ to himself, but it is equally ineffective. Then he
opens the pantry door and calls.
‘Old lady.’
She comes timidly to the door, her hand up as if to ward off a
blow.
‘Is it time?’
An encouraging voice answers her.
‘No, no, not yet. I’ve left word for Dixon to whistle when go I
must.’
‘All is ended.’
‘Now, then, you promised to be gay. We were to help one
another.’
‘Yes, Kenneth.’
‘It’s bad for me, but it’s worse for you.’
‘The men have medals to win, you see.’
‘The women have their medals too.’ He knows she likes him to
order her about, so he tries it again.
‘Come here. No, I’ll come to you.’ He stands gaping at her
wonderingly. He has no power of words, nor does he quite know
what he would like to say. ‘God!’
‘What is it, Kenneth?’
‘You’re a woman.’
‘I had near forgot it.’
He wishes he was at the station with Dixon. Dixon is sure
to have a bottle in his pocket. They will be roaring a song
presently. But in the meantime--there is that son business.
Blethers, the whole thing, of course--or mostly blethers. But
it’s the way to please her.
‘Have you noticed you have never called me son?’
‘Have I noticed it! I was feared, Kenneth. You said I was on
probation.’
‘And so you were. Well, the probation’s ended.’ He laughs
uncomfortably.
‘The like of me! But if you want me you can have me.’
‘Kenneth, will I do?’
‘Woman,’ artfully gay, ‘don’t be so forward. Wait till I have
proposed.’
‘Propose for a mother?’
‘What for no?’ In the grand style, ‘Mrs. Dowey, you queer carl,
you spunky tiddy, have I your permission to ask you the most
important question a neglected orphan can ask of an old lady?’
She bubbles with mirth. Who could help it, the man has such a
way with him.
‘None of your sauce, Kenneth.’
‘For a long time, Mrs. Dowey, you cannot have been unaware of
my sonnish feelings for you.’
‘Wait till I get my mop to you!’
‘And if you’re not willing to be my mother, I swear I’ll never
ask another.’
The old divert pulls him down to her and strokes his hair.
‘Was I a well-behaved infant, mother?’
‘Not you, sonny, you were a rampaging rogue.’
‘Was I slow in learning to walk?’
‘The quickest in our street. He! he! he!’ She starts up. ‘Was
that the whistle?’
‘No, no. See here. In taking me over you have, in a manner of
speaking, joined the Black Watch.’
‘I like to think that, Kenneth.’
‘Then you must behave so that the ghost piper can be proud
of you. ’Tion!’ She stands bravely at attention. ‘That’s the
style. Now listen. I’ve sent in your name as being my nearest
of kin, and your allowance will be coming to you weekly in the
usual way.’
‘Hey! hey! hey! Is it wicked, Kenneth?’
‘I’ll take the responsibility for it in both worlds. You see, I
want you to be safeguarded in case anything hap----’
‘Kenneth!’
‘’Tion! Have no fear. I’ll come back, covered with mud and
medals. Mind you have that cup of tea waiting for me.’ He is
listening for the whistle. He pulls her on to his knee.
‘Hey! hey! hey! hey!’
‘What fun we’ll have writing to one another! Real letters this
time!’
‘Yes.’
‘It would be a good plan if you began the first letter as soon
as I’ve gone.’
‘I will.’
‘I hope Lady Dolly will go on sending me cakes.’
‘You may be sure.’
He ties his scarf round her neck.
‘You must have been a bonny thing when you were young.’
‘Away with you!’
‘That scarf sets you fine.’
‘Blue was always my colour.’
The whistle sounds.
‘Old lady, you are what Blighty means to me now.’
She hides in the pantry again. She is out of sight to us, but
she does something that makes Private Dowey take off his
bonnet. Then he shoulders his equipment and departs. That is he
laughing coarsely with Dixon.
* * * * *
We have one last glimpse of the old lady--a month or two after
Kenneth’s death in action. It would be rosemary to us to see
her in her black dress, of which she is very proud; but let us
rather peep at her in the familiar garments that make a third
to her mop and pail. It is early morning, and she is having a
look at her medals before setting off on the daily round. They
are in a drawer, with the scarf covering them, and on the scarf
a piece of lavender. First, the black frock, which she carries
in her arms like a baby. Then her War Saving Certificates,
Kenneth’s bonnet, a thin packet of real letters, and the famous
champagne cork. She kisses the letters, but she does not blub
over them. She strokes the dress, and waggles her head over
the certificates and presses the bonnet to her cheeks, and
rubs the tinsel of the cork carefully with her apron. She is
a tremulous old ’un; yet she exults, for she owns all these
things, and also the penny flag on her breast. She puts them
away in the drawer, the scarf over them, the lavender on the
scarf. Her air of triumph well becomes her. She lifts the pail
and the mop, and slouches off gamely to the day’s toil.
THE NEW WORD
Any room nowadays must be the scene, for any father and any son are the
_dramatis personæ_. We could pick them up in Mayfair, in Tooting, on
the Veldt, in rectories or in grocers’ back parlours, dump them down on
our toy stage and tell them to begin. It is a great gathering to choose
from, but our needs are small. Let the company shake hands, and all go
away but two.
The two who have remained (it is discovered on inquiry) are Mr.
Torrance and his boy; so let us make use of them. Torrance did not
linger in order to be chosen, he was anxious, like all of them, to be
off; but we recognised him, and sternly signed to him to stay. Not that
we knew him personally, but the fact is, we remembered him (we never
forget a face) as the legal person who reads out the names of the jury
before the court opens, and who brushes aside your reasons for wanting
to be let off. It pleases our humour to tell Mr. Torrance that we
cannot let him off.
He does not look so formidable as when last we saw him, and this is
perhaps owing to our no longer being hunched with others on those
unfeeling benches. It is not because he is without a wig, for we saw
him, on the occasion to which we are so guardedly referring, both
in a wig and out of it; he passed behind a screen without it, and
immediately (as quickly as we write) popped out in it, giving it a
finishing touch rather like the butler’s wriggle to his coat as he goes
to the door. There are the two kinds of learned brothers, those who use
the screen, and those who (so far as the jury knows) sleep in their
wigs. The latter are the swells, and include the judges; whom, however,
we have seen in the public thoroughfares without their wigs, a horrible
sight that has doubtless led many an onlooker to crime.
Mr. Torrance, then, is no great luminary; indeed, when we accompany
him to his house, as we must, in order to set our scene properly, we
find that it is quite a suburban affair, only one servant kept, and
her niece engaged twice a week to crawl about the floors. There is no
fire in the drawing-room, so the family remain on after dinner in the
dining-room, which rather gives them away. There is really no one in
the room but Roger. That is the truth of it, though to the unseeing eye
all the family are there except Roger. They consist of Mr., Mrs., and
Miss Torrance. Mr. Torrance is enjoying his evening paper and a cigar,
and every line of him is insisting stubbornly that nothing unusual is
happening in the house. In the home circle (and now that we think of
it, even in court) he has the reputation of being a somewhat sarcastic
gentleman; he must be dogged, too, otherwise he would have ceased long
ago to be sarcastic to his wife, on whom wit falls like pellets on
sandbags; all the dents they make are dimples.
Mrs. Torrance is at present exquisitely employed; she is listening to
Roger’s step overhead. You know what a delightful step the boy has. And
what is more remarkable is that Emma is listening to it too, Emma who
is seventeen, and who has been trying to keep Roger in his place ever
since he first compelled her to bowl to him. Things have come to a pass
when a sister so openly admits that she is only number two in the house.
Remarks well worthy of being recorded fall from these two ladies
as they gaze upward. ‘I think--didn’t I, Emma?’ is the mother’s
contribution, while it is Emma who replies in a whisper, ‘No, not yet!’
Mr. Torrance calmly reads, or seems to read, for it is not possible
that there can be anything in the paper as good as this. Indeed he
occasionally casts a humorous glance at his womenfolk. Perhaps he is
trying to steady them. Let us hope he has some such good reason for
breaking in from time to time on their entrancing occupation.
‘Listen to this, dear. It is very important. The paper says,
upon apparently good authority, that love laughs at locksmiths.’
His wife answers without lowering her eyes. ‘Did you speak,
John? I am listening.’
‘Yes, I was telling you that the Hidden Hand has at last been
discovered in a tub in Russell Square.’
‘I hear, John. How thoughtful.’
‘And so they must have been made of margarine, my love.’
‘I shouldn’t wonder, John.’
‘Hence the name Petrograd.’
‘Oh, was that the reason?’
‘You will be pleased to hear, Ellen, that the honourable
gentleman then resumed his seat.’
‘That was nice of him.’
‘As I,’ good-naturedly, ‘now resume mine, having made my usual
impression.’
‘Yes, John.’
Emma slips upstairs to peep through a keyhole, and it strikes
her mother that John has been saying something. They are on too
good terms to make an apology necessary. She observes blandly,
‘John, I haven’t heard a word you said.’
‘I’m sure you haven’t, woman.’
‘I can’t help being like this, John.’
‘Go on being like yourself, dear.’
‘Am I foolish?’
‘Um.’
‘Oh, but, John, how can you be so calm--with him up there?’
‘He has been up there a good deal, you know, since we presented
him to an astounded world nineteen years ago.’
‘But he--he is not going to be up there much longer, John.’ She
sits on the arm of his chair, so openly to wheedle him that
it is not worth his while to smile. Her voice is tremulous;
she is a woman who can conceal nothing. ‘You will be nice to
him--to-night--won’t you, John?’
Mr. Torrance is a little pained. ‘Do I just begin to-night,
Ellen?’
‘Oh no, no; but I think he is rather--shy of you at times.’
‘That,’ he says a little wryly, ‘is because he is my son,
Ellen.’
‘Yes--it’s strange; but--yes.’
With a twinkle that is not all humorous, ‘Did it ever strike
you, Ellen, that I am a bit--shy of him?’
She is indeed surprised. ‘Of Rogie!’
‘I suppose it is because I am his father.’
She presumes that this is his sarcasm again, and lets it pass
at that. It reminds her of what she wants to say.
‘You are so sarcastic,’ she has never quite got the meaning of
this word, ‘to Rogie at times. Boys don’t like that, John.’
‘Is that so, Ellen?’
‘Of course I don’t mind your being sarcastic to _me_----’
‘Much good,’ groaning, ‘my being sarcastic to you! You are so
seldom aware of it.’
‘I am not asking you to be a mother to him, John.’
‘Thank you, my dear.’
She does not know that he is sarcastic again. ‘I quite
understand that a man can’t think all the time about his son as
a mother does.’
‘Can’t he, Ellen? What makes you so sure of that?’
‘I mean that a boy naturally goes to his mother with his
troubles rather than to his father. Rogie tells me everything.’
Mr. Torrance is stung. ‘I daresay he might tell me things he
wouldn’t tell you.’
She smiles at this. It is very probably sarcasm.
‘I want you to be serious just now. Why not show more warmth to
him, John?’
With an unspoken sigh, ‘It would terrify him, Ellen. Two men
show warmth to each other! Shame, woman!’
‘Two men!’ indignantly. ‘John, he is only nineteen.’
‘That’s all,’ patting her hand. ‘Ellen, it is the great age to
be to-day, nineteen.’
Emma darts in.
‘Mother, he has unlocked the door! He is taking a last look at
himself in the mirror before coming down!’
Having made the great announcement, she is off again.
‘You won’t be sarcastic, John?’
‘I give you my word--if you promise not to break down.’
Rashly, ‘I promise.’ She hurries to the door and back again.
‘John, I’ll contrive to leave you and him alone together for a
little.’
Mr. Torrance is as alarmed as if the judge had looked over the
bench and asked where he was. ‘For God’s sake, woman, don’t do
that! Father and son! He’ll bolt; or if he doesn’t, I will.’
Emma Torrance flings open the door grandly, and we learn what
all the to-do is about.
EMMA. ‘Allow me to introduce 2nd Lieutenant Torrance of the Royal
Sussex. Father--your son; 2nd Lieutenant Torrance--your father.
Mother--your little Rogie.’
Roger, in uniform, walks in, strung up for the occasion. Or the
uniform comes forward with Roger inside it. He has been a very
ordinary nice boy up to now, dull at his ‘books’; by an effort
Mr. Torrance had sent him to an obscure boarding-school, but
at sixteen it was evident that an office was the proper place
for Roger. Before the war broke out he was treasurer of the
local lawn tennis club, and his golf handicap was seven; he
carried his little bag daily to and from the city, and his
highest relaxation was giggling with girls or about them.
Socially he had fallen from the standards of the home; even now
that he is in his uniform the hasty might say something clever
about ‘temporary gentlemen.’ But there are great ideas buzzing
in Roger’s head, which would never have been there save for the
war. At present he is chiefly conscious of his clothes. His
mother embraces him with cries of rapture, while Mr. Torrance
surveys him quizzically over the paper; and Emma, rushing to
the piano, which is of such an old-fashioned kind that it can
also be used as a sideboard, plays ‘See the Conquering Hero
Comes.’
ROGER, in an agony, ‘Mater, do stop that chit making an ass of me.’
He must be excused for his ‘mater.’ That was the sort of
school; and his mother is rather proud of the phrase, though it
sometimes makes his father wince.
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘Emma, please, don’t. But I’m sure you deserve it, my
darling. Doesn’t he, John?’
MR. TORRANCE, missing his chance, ‘Hardly yet, you know. Can’t be
exactly a conquering hero the first night you put them on, can you,
Roger?’
ROGER, hotly, ‘Did I say I was?’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘Oh, John! Do turn round, Rogie. I never did--I never
did!’
EMMA. ‘Isn’t he a pet!’
ROGER. ‘Shut up, Emma.’
MRS. TORRANCE, challenging the world, ‘Though I say it who
shouldn’t--and yet, why shouldn’t I?’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘In any case you will--so go ahead, “mater.”’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I knew he would look splendid; but I--of course I
couldn’t know that he would look quite so splendid as this.’
ROGER. ‘I know I look a bally ass. That is why I was such a time in
coming down.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘We thought we heard you upstairs strutting about.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘John! Don’t mind him, Rogie.’
ROGER, haughtily, ‘I don’t.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Oh!’
ROGER. ‘But I wasn’t strutting.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘That dreadful sword! No, I would prefer you not to draw
it, dear--not till necessity makes you.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Come, come, Ellen; that’s rather hard lines on the boy.
If he isn’t to draw it here, where is he to draw it?’
EMMA, with pride, ‘At the Front, father.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘I thought they left them at home nowadays, Roger?’
ROGER. ‘Yes, mater; you see, they are a bit in the way.’
MRS. TORRANCE, foolishly, ‘Not when you have got used to them.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘That isn’t what Roger means.’
(His son glares.)
EMMA, who, though she has not formerly thought much of Roger, is now
proud to trot by his side and will henceforth count the salutes, ‘I
know what he means. If you carry a sword the snipers know you are an
officer, and they try to pick you off.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘It’s no wonder they are called Huns. Fancy a British
sniper doing that! Roger, you will be very careful, won’t you, in the
trenches?’
ROGER. ‘Honour bright, mater.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘Above all, don’t look up.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘The trenches ought to be so deep that they can’t look
up.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘What a good idea, John.’
ROGER. ‘He’s making game of you, mater.’
MRS. TORRANCE, unruffled, ‘Is he, my own?--very likely. Now about the
question of provisions----’
ROGER. ‘Oh, lummy, you talk as if I was going off to-night! I mayn’t go
for months and months.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I know--and, of course, there is a chance that you may
not be needed at all.’
ROGER, poor boy, ‘None of that, mater.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘There is something I want to ask you, John--How long
do you think the war is likely to last?’ Her John resumes his paper.
‘Rogie, I know you will laugh at me, but there are some things that I
could not help getting for you.’
ROGER. ‘You know, you have knitted enough things already to fit up my
whole platoon.’
MRS. TORRANCE, proud almost to tears, ‘His platoon.’
EMMA. ‘Have you noticed how fine all the words in -oon are? Platoon!
Dragoon!’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Spitoon!’
EMMA. ‘Colonel is good, but rather papaish; Major is nosey; Admiral of
the Fleet is scrumptious, but Maréchal de France--that is the best of
all.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I think there is nothing so nice as 2nd Lieutenant.’
Gulping, ‘Lot of little boys.’
ROGER. ‘Mater!’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I mean, just think of their cold feet.’ She produces
many parcels and displays their strange contents. ‘Those are for
putting inside your socks. Those are for outside your socks. I am told
that it is also advisable to have straw in your boots.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Have you got him some straw?’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I thought, John, he could get it there. But if you
think----’
ROGER. ‘He’s making fun of you again, mater.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I shouldn’t wonder. Here are some overalls. One is
leather and one fur, and this one is waterproof. The worst of it is
that they are from different shops, and each says that the others keep
the damp in, or draw the feet. They have such odd names, too. There are
new names for everything nowadays. Vests are called cuirasses. Are you
laughing at me, Rogie?’
MR. TORRANCE, sharply, ‘If he is laughing, he ought to be ashamed of
himself.’
ROGER, barking, ‘Who was laughing?’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘John!’
Emma cuffs her father playfully.
MR. TORRANCE. ‘All very well, Emma, but it’s past your bedtime.’
EMMA, indignantly, ‘You can’t expect me to sleep on a night like this.’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘You can try.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘2nd Lieutenant! 2nd Lieutenant!’
MR. TORRANCE, alarmed, ‘Ellen, don’t break down. You promised.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I am not going to break down; but--but there is a
photograph of Rogie when he was very small----’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Go to bed!’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I happen--to have it in my pocket----’
ROGER. ‘Don’t bring it out, mater.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘If I break down, John, it won’t be owing to the picture
itself so much as because of what is written on the back.’
She produces it dolefully.
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Then don’t look at the back.’
He takes it from her.
MRS. TORRANCE, not very hopeful of herself, ‘But I know what is written
on the back, “Roger John Torrance, aged two years four months, and
thirty-three pounds.”’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘Correct.’ She weeps softly. ‘There, there, woman.’ He
signs imploringly to Emma.
EMMA, kissing him, ‘I’m going to by-by. ’Night, mammy. ’Night, Rog.’
She is about to offer him her cheek, then salutes instead, and rushes
off, with Roger in pursuit.
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘I shall leave you together, John.’
MR. TORRANCE, half liking it, but nervous, ‘Do you think it’s wise?’
With a groan, ‘You know what I am.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘Do be nice to him, dear.’ Roger’s return finds her very
artful indeed. ‘I wonder where I put my glasses?’
ROGER. ‘I’ll look for them.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘No, I remember now. They are upstairs in such a funny
place that I must go myself. Do you remember, Rogie, that I hoped they
would reject you on account of your eyes?’
ROGER. ‘I suppose you couldn’t help it.’
MRS. TORRANCE, beaming on her husband, ‘Did you believe I really meant
it, John?’
MR. TORRANCE, curious, ‘Did _you_, Roger?’
ROGER. ‘Of course. Didn’t you, father?’
MR. TORRANCE. ‘No! I knew the old lady better.’
He takes her hand.
MRS. TORRANCE, sweetly, ‘I shouldn’t have liked it, Rogie dear. I’ll
tell you something. You know your brother Harry died when he was seven.
To you, I suppose, it is as if he had never been. You were barely five.’
ROGER. ‘I don’t remember him, mater.’
MRS. TORRANCE. ‘No--no. But I do, Rogie. He would be twenty-one now;
but though you and Emma grew up I have always gone on seeing him as
just seven. Always till the war broke out. And now I see him a man of
twenty-one, dressed in khaki, fighting for his country, same as you. I
wouldn’t have had one of you stay at home, though I had had a dozen.
That is, if it is the noble war they all say it is. I’m not clever,
Rogie, I have to take it on trust. Surely they wouldn’t deceive
mothers. I’ll get my glasses.’
She goes away, leaving the father and son somewhat moved. It is
Mr. Torrance who speaks first, gruffly.
‘Like to change your mother, Roger?’
The answer is also gruff. ‘What do _you_ think?’
Then silence falls. These two are very conscious of being
together, without so much as the tick of a clock to help them.
The father clings to his cigar, sticks his knife into it,
studies the leaf, tries crossing his legs another way. The son
examines the pictures on the walls as if he had never seen them
before, and is all the time edging toward the door.
Mr. Torrance wets his lips; it must be now or never, ‘Not
going, Roger?’
Roger counts the chairs. ‘Yes, I thought----’
‘Won’t you--sit down and--have a chat?’
Roger is bowled over. ‘A what? You and me!’
‘Why not?’ rather truculently.
‘Oh--oh, all right,’ sitting uncomfortably.
The cigar gets several more stabs.
‘I suppose you catch an early train to-morrow?’
‘The 5.20. I have flag-signalling at half-past six.’
‘Phew! Hours before I shall be up.’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Well, you needn’t dwell on it, Roger.’
Indignantly, ‘I didn’t.’ He starts up. ‘Good-night, father.’
‘Good-night. Damn. Come back. My fault. Didn’t I say I wanted
to have a chat with you?’
‘I thought we had had it.’
Gloomily, ‘No such luck.’
There is another pause. A frightened ember in the fire makes an
appeal to some one to say something. Mr. Torrance rises. It is
now he who is casting eyes at the door. He sits again, ashamed
of himself.
‘I like your uniform, Roger,’ he says pleasantly.
Roger wriggles. ‘Haven’t you made fun of me enough?’
Sharply, ‘I’m not making fun of you. Don’t you see I’m trying
to tell you that I’m proud of you?’
Roger is at last aware of it, with a sinking. He appeals, ‘Good
lord, father, _you_ are not going to begin now.’
The father restrains himself.
‘Do you remember, Roger, my saying that I didn’t want you to
smoke till you were twenty?’
‘Oh, it’s that, is it?’ Shutting his mouth tight, ‘I never
promised.’
Almost with a shout, ‘It’s not that.’ Then kindly, ‘Have a
cigar, my boy?’
‘Me?’
A rather shaky hand passes him a cigar case. Roger selects from
it and lights up nervously. He is now prepared for the worst.
‘Have you ever wondered, Roger, what sort of a fellow I am?’
Guardedly, ‘Often.’
Mr. Torrance casts all sense of decency to the winds; such is
one of the effects of war.
‘I have often wondered what sort of fellow you are, Roger. We
have both been at it on the sly. I suppose that is what makes a
father and son so uncomfortable in each other’s presence.’
Roger is not yet prepared to meet him halfway, but he casts a
line.
‘Do you feel the creeps when you are left alone with me?’
‘Mortally, Roger. My first instinct is to slip away.’
‘So is mine,’ with deep feeling.
‘You don’t say so!’ with such surprise that the father
undoubtedly goes up a step in the son’s estimation. ‘I always
seem to know what you are thinking, Roger.’
‘Do you? Same here.’
‘As a consequence it is better, it is right, it is only decent
that you and I should be very chary of confidences with each
other.’
Roger is relieved. ‘I’m dashed glad you see it in that way.’
‘Oh, quite. And yet, Roger, if you had to answer this question
on oath, “Whom do you think you are most like in this world?”
I don’t mean superficially, but deep down in your vitals, what
would you say? Your mother, your uncle, one of your friends on
the golf links?’
‘No.’
‘Who?’
Darkly, ‘You.’
‘Just how I feel.’
There is such true sympathy in the manly avowal that Roger
cannot but be brought closer to his father.
‘It’s pretty ghastly, father.’
‘It is. I don’t know which it is worse for.’
They consider each other without bitterness.
‘You are a bit of a wag at times, Roger.’
‘You soon shut me up.’
‘I have heard that you sparkle more freely in my absence.’
‘They say the same about you.’
‘And now that you mention it, I believe it is true; and yet,
isn’t it a bigger satisfaction to you to catch me relishing
your jokes than any other person?’
Roger’s eyes open wide. ‘How did you know that?’
‘Because I am so bucked if I see you relishing mine.’
‘_Are_ you?’ Roger’s hold on the certain things in life are
slipping. ‘You don’t show it.’
‘That is because of our awkward relationship.’
Roger lapses into gloom. ‘We have got to go through with it.’
His father kicks the coals. ‘There’s no way out.’
‘No.’
‘We have, as it were, signed a compact, Roger, never to let on
that we care for each other. As gentlemen we must stick to it.’
‘Yes. What are you getting at, father?’
‘There is a war on, Roger.’
‘That needn’t make any difference.’
‘Yes, it does. Roger, be ready; I hate to hit you without
warning. I’m going to cast a grenade into the middle of you.
It’s this, I’m fond of you, my boy.’
Roger squirms. ‘Father, if any one were to hear you!’
‘They won’t. The door is shut, Amy is gone to bed, and all is
quiet in our street. Won’t you--won’t you say something civil
to me in return, Roger?’
Roger looks at him and away from him. ‘I sometimes--bragged
about you at school.’
Mr. Torrance is absurdly pleased. ‘Did you? What sort of
things, Roger?’
‘I--I forget.’
‘Come on, Roger.’
‘Is this fair, father?’
‘No, I suppose it isn’t.’ Mr. Torrance attacks the coals again.
‘You and your mother have lots of confidences, haven’t you?’
‘I tell her a good deal. Somehow----’
‘Yes, somehow one can.’ With the artfulness that comes of
years, ‘I’m glad you tell her everything.’
Roger looks down his cigar. ‘Not everything, father. There are
things--about oneself----’
‘Aren’t there, Roger!’
‘Best not to tell her.’
‘Yes--yes. If there are any of them you would care to tell me
instead--just if you want to, mind--just if you are in a hole
or anything?’
‘No thanks,’ very stiffly.
‘Any little debts, for instance?’
‘That’s all right now. Mother----’
‘She did?’
Roger is ready to jump at him. ‘I was willing to speak to you
about them, but----’
‘She said, “Not worth while bothering father.”’
‘How did you know?’
‘Oh, I have met your mother before, you see. Nothing else?’
‘No.’
‘Haven’t been an ass about a girl or anything of that sort?’
‘Good lord, father!’
‘I shouldn’t have said it. In my young days we
sometimes----It’s all different now.’
‘I don’t know. I could tell you things that would surprise you.’
‘No! Not about yourself?’
‘No. At least----’
‘Just as you like, Roger.’
‘It blew over long ago.’
‘Then there’s no need?’
‘No--oh no. It was just--you know--the old, old story.’
He eyes his father suspiciously, but not a muscle in Mr.
Torrance’s countenance is out of place.
‘I see. It hasn’t--left you bitter about the sex, Roger, I
hope?’
‘Not now. She--you know what women are.’
‘Yes, yes.’
‘You needn’t mention it to mother.’
‘I won’t.’ Mr. Torrance is elated to share a secret with Roger
about which mother is not to know. ‘Think your mother and I are
an aged pair, Roger?’
‘I never----of course you are not young.’
‘How long have you known that? I mean, it’s true--but I didn’t
know it till quite lately.’
‘That you’re old?’
‘Hang it, Roger, not so bad as that--elderly. This will stagger
you; but I assure you that until the other day I jogged along
thinking of myself as on the whole still one of the juveniles.’
He makes a wry face. ‘I crossed the bridge, Roger, without
knowing it.’
‘What made you know?’
‘What makes us know all the new things, Roger?--the war. I’ll
tell you a secret. When we realised in August of 1914 that
myriads of us were to be needed, my first thought wasn’t that I
had a son, but that I must get fit myself.’
‘You!’
‘Funny, isn’t it?’ says Mr. Torrance quite nastily. ‘But, as I
tell you, I didn’t know I had ceased to be young. I went into
Regent’s Park and tried to run a mile.’
‘Lummy, you might have killed yourself.’
‘I nearly did--especially as I had put a weight on my shoulders
to represent my kit. I kept at it for a week, but I knew the
game was up. The discovery was pretty grim, Roger.’
‘Don’t you bother about that part of it. You are doing your
share, taking care of mother and Emma.’
Mr. Torrance emits a laugh of self-contempt. ‘I am not taking
care of them. It is you who are taking care of them. My friend,
you are the head of the house now.’
‘Father!’
‘Yes, we have come back to hard facts, and the defender of the
house is the head of it.’
‘Me? Fudge.’
‘It’s true. The thing that makes me wince most is that some
of my contemporaries have managed to squeeze back: back into
youth, Roger, though I guess they were a pretty tight fit in
the turnstile. There is Coxon; he is in khaki now, with his
hair dyed, and when he and I meet at the club we know that we
belong to different generations. I’m a decent old fellow, but I
don’t really count any more, while Coxon, lucky dog, is being
damned daily on parade.’
‘I hate your feeling it in that way, father.’
‘I don’t say it is a palatable draught, but when the war is
over we shall all shake down to the new conditions. No fear of
my being sarcastic to you then, Roger. I’ll have to be jolly
respectful.’
‘Shut up, father!’
‘You’ve begun, you see. Don’t worry, Roger. Any rawness I
might feel in having missed the chance of seeing whether I
was a man--like Coxon, confound him!--is swallowed up in the
pride of giving the chance to you. I’m in a shiver about you,
but----It’s all true, Roger, what your mother said about
2nd Lieutenants. Till the other day we were so little of a
military nation that most of us didn’t know there _were_ 2nd
Lieutenants. And now, in thousands of homes we feel that
there is nothing else. 2nd Lieutenant! It is like a new word
to us--one, I daresay, of many that the war will add to our
language. We have taken to it, Roger. If a son of mine were to
tarnish it----’
‘I’ll try not to,’ Roger growls.
‘If you did, I should just know that there had been something
wrong about me.’
Gruffly, ‘You’re all right.’
‘If I am, you are.’ It is a winning face that Mr. Torrance
turns on his son. ‘I suppose you have been asking yourself of
late, what if you were to turn out to be a funk!’
‘Father, how did you know?’
‘I know because you are me. Because ever since there was talk
of this commission I have been thinking and thinking what were
you thinking--so as to help you.’
This itself is a help. Roger’s hand--but he withdraws it
hurriedly.
‘They all seem to be so frightfully brave, father,’ he says
wistfully.
‘I expect, Roger, that the best of them had the same qualms as
you before their first engagement.’
‘I--I kind of think, father, that I won’t be a funk.’
‘I kind of think so too, Roger.’ Mr. Torrance forgets himself.
‘Mind you don’t be rash, my boy; and for God’s sake, keep your
head down in the trenches.’
Roger has caught him out. He points a gay finger at his anxious
father.
‘You know you laughed at mother for saying that!’
‘Did I? Roger, your mother thinks that I have an unfortunate
manner with you.’
The magnanimous Roger says, ‘Oh, I don’t know. It’s just the
father-and-son complication.’
‘That is really all it is. But she thinks I should show my
affection for you more openly.’
Roger wriggles again. Earnestly, ‘I wouldn’t do that.’ Nicely,
‘Of course for this once--but in a general way I wouldn’t do
that. _We_ know, you and I.’
‘As long as we know, it’s no one else’s affair, is it?’
‘That’s the ticket, father.’
‘Still----’ It is to be feared that Mr. Torrance is now
taking advantage of his superior slyness. ‘Still, before your
mother--to please her--eh?’
Faltering, ‘I suppose it would.’
‘Well, what do you say?’
‘I know she would like it.’
‘Of course you and I know that display of that sort is all
bunkum--repellent even to our natures.’
‘Lord, yes!’
‘But to gratify her.’
‘I should be so conscious.’
Mr. Torrance is here quite as sincere as his son. ‘So should I.’
Roger considers it. ‘How far would you go?’
‘Oh, not far. Suppose I called you “Old Rogie”? There’s not
much in that.’
‘It all depends on the way one says these things.’
‘I should be quite casual.’
‘Hum. What would you like me to call you?’
Severely, ‘It isn’t what would _I_ like. But I daresay your
mother would beam if you called me “dear father.”’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘You know quite well that you think so, Roger.’
‘It’s so effeminate.’
‘Not if you say it casually.’
With something very like a snort Roger asks, ‘How does one say
a thing like that casually?’
‘Well, for instance, you could whistle while you said it--or
anything of that sort.’
‘Hum. Of course you--if we were to--be like that, you wouldn’t
_do_ anything.’
‘How do you mean?’
‘You wouldn’t paw me?’
‘Roger,’ with some natural indignation, ‘you forget yourself.’
But apparently it is for him to continue. ‘That reminds me of a
story I heard the other day of a French general. He had asked
for volunteers from his airmen for some specially dangerous
job--and they all stepped forward. Pretty good that. Then
three were chosen and got their orders and saluted, and were
starting off when he stopped them. “Since when,” he said, “have
brave boys departing to the post of danger omitted to embrace
their father?” They did it then. Good story?’
Roger lowers. ‘They were French.’
‘Yes, I said so. Don’t you think it’s good?’
‘Why do you tell it to me?’
‘Because it’s a good story.’
‘You are sure, father,’ sternly, ‘that there is no other
reason?’ Mr. Torrance tries to brazen it out, but he looks
guilty. ‘You know, father, that is barred.’
Just because he knows that he has been playing it low, Mr.
Torrance snaps angrily, ‘What is barred?’
‘You know,’ says his monitor.
Mr. Torrance shouts.
‘I know that you are a young ass.’
‘Really, father----’
‘Hold your tongue.’
Roger can shout also.
‘I must say, father----’
‘Be quiet, I tell you.’
It is in the middle of this competition that the lady who dotes
on them both chooses to come back, still without her spectacles.
‘Oh dear! And I had hoped----Oh, John!’
Mr. Torrance would like to kick himself. ‘My fault,’ he says
with a groan.
‘But whatever is the matter?’
‘Nothing, mater.’ The war is already making Roger quite smart.
‘Only father wouldn’t do as I told him.’
Mr. Torrance cannot keep pace with his son’s growth. He raps
out, ‘Why the dickens should I?’
Roger is imperturbable; this will be useful in France. ‘You
see, mater, he said I was the head of the house.’
‘You, Rogie!’ She goes to her husband’s side. ‘What nonsense!’
Roger grins. ‘Do you like my joke, father?’
The father smiles upon him and is at once uproariously happy.
He digs his boy boldly in the ribs.
‘Roger, you scoundrel!’
‘That’s better,’ says Mrs. Torrance at a venture.
Roger feels that things have perhaps gone far enough. ‘I think
I’ll go to my room now. You will come up, mater?’
‘Yes, dear. I shan’t be five minutes, John.’
‘More like half an hour.’
She hesitates. ‘There is nothing wrong, is there? I thought I
noticed a--a----’
‘A certain liveliness, my dear. No, we were only having a good
talk.’
‘What about, John?’ wistfully.
‘About the war,’ Roger breaks in hurriedly.
‘About tactics and strategy, wasn’t it, Roger?’
‘Yes.’
‘The fact is, Ellen, I have been helping Roger to take his
first trench.’ With a big breath, ‘And we took it too,
together, didn’t we, Roger?’
‘You bet,’ says Roger valiantly.
‘Though I suppose,’ sighing, ‘it is one of those trenches that
the enemy retake during the night.’
‘Oh, I--I don’t know, father.’
The lady asks, ‘Whatever are you two talking about?’
‘Aha,’ says Mr. Torrance in high feather, patting her, but
unable to resist a slight boast, ‘it is very private. _We_
don’t tell you everything, you know, Ellen.’
She beams, though she does not understand.
‘Come on, mater, it’s only his beastly sarcasm again. ’Night,
father; I won’t see you in the morning.’
‘’Night,’ says Mr. Torrance.
But Roger has not gone yet. He seems to be looking for
something--a book, perhaps. Then he begins to whistle--casually.
‘Good-night, dear father.’
Mr. John Torrance is left alone, rubbing his hands.
BARBARA’S WEDDING
The Colonel is in the sitting-room of his country cottage, staring
through the open windows at his pretty garden. He is a very old man,
and is sometimes bewildered nowadays. He calls to Dering, the gardener,
who is on a ladder, pruning. Dering, who comes to him, is a rough,
capable young fellow with fingers that are already becoming stumpy
because he so often uses his hands instead of a spade. This is a sign
that Dering will never get on in the world. His mind is in the same
condition as his fingers, working back to clods. He will get a rise of
one and sixpence in a year or two, and marry on it and become duller
and heavier; and, in short, the clever ones could already write his
epitaph.
‘A beautiful morning, Dering.’
‘Too much sun, sir. The roses be complaining, and, to make
matters worse, Miss Barbara has been watering of them--in the
heat of the day.’
The Colonel is a very gentle knight nowadays. ‘Has she?
She means well.’ But that is not what is troubling him. He
approaches the subject diffidently. ‘Dering, you heard it,
didn’t you?’ He is longing to be told that Dering heard it.
‘What was that, sir?’
‘The thunderstorm--early this morning.’
‘There was no thunderstorm, sir.’
Dispirited, ‘That is what they all say.’ The Colonel is too
courteous to contradict any one, but he tries again; there is
about him the insistence of one who knows that he is right. ‘It
was at four o’clock. I got up and looked out at the window. The
evening primroses were very beautiful.’
Dering is equally dogged. ‘I don’t hold much with evening
primroses, sir; but I was out and about at four; there was no
thunderstorm.’
The Colonel still thinks that there was a thunderstorm, but he
wants to placate Dering. ‘I suppose I just thought there was
one. Perhaps it was some thunderstorm of long ago that I heard.
They do come back, you know.’
Heavily, ‘Do they, sir?’
‘I am glad to see you moving about in the garden, Dering, with
everything just as usual.’
There is a cautious slyness about this, as if the Colonel was
fishing for information; but it is too clever for Dering, who
is going with a ‘Thank you, sir.’
‘No, don’t go.’ The old man lowers his voice and makes a
confession reluctantly, ‘I am--a little troubled, Dering.’
Dering knows that his master has a wandering mind, and he
answers nicely, ‘Everything be all right, sir.’
‘I’m glad of that,’ the Colonel says with relief. ‘It is
pleasant to see that you have come back, Dering. Why did you go
away for such a long time?’
‘Me, sir?’ Dering is a little aggrieved. ‘I haven’t had a day
off since Christmas.’
‘Haven’t you? I thought----’
The Colonel tries to speak casually, but there is a trembling
eagerness in his voice. ‘Is everything just as usual, Dering?’
‘Yes, sir. There never were a place as changed less than this.’
‘That’s true.’ The Colonel is appeased. ‘Thank you, Dering,
for saying that.’ But next moment he has lowered his voice
again. ‘Dering, there is nothing wrong, is there? Is anything
happening that I am not being told about?’
‘Not that I know of, sir.’
‘That is what they all say, but--I don’t know.’ He stares at
his old sword which is hanging on the wall. ‘Dering, I feel as
if I was needed somewhere. I don’t know where it is. No one
will tell me. Where is every one?’
‘They’re all about, sir. There’s a cricket match on at the
village green.’
‘Is there?’
‘If the wind had a bit of south in it you could hear their
voices. You were a bit of a nailer at cricket yourself, sir.’
The Colonel sees himself standing up to fast ones. He is
gleeful over his reminiscences.
‘Ninety-nine against Mallowfield, and then bowled off my pads.
Biggest score I ever made. Mallowfield wanted to add one to
make it the hundred, but I wouldn’t let them. I was pretty good
at steering them through the slips, Dering! Do you remember my
late cut? It didn’t matter where point stood, I got past him.
You used to stand at point, Dering.’
‘That was my grandfather, sir. If he was to be believed, he
used to snap you regular at point.’
The Colonel is crestfallen, but he has a disarming smile.
‘Did he? I daresay he did. I can’t play now, but I like to
watch it still.’ He becomes troubled again. ‘Dering, there’s
no cricket on the green to-day. I have been down to look. I
don’t understand it, Dering. When I got there the green was
all dotted with them--it’s the prettiest sight and sound in
England. But as I watched them they began to go away, one and
two at a time; they weren’t given out, you know, they went
as if they had been called away. Some of the little shavers
stayed on--and then they went off, as if they had been called
away too. The stumps were left lying about. Why is it?’
‘It’s just fancy, sir,’ Dering says soothingly. ‘I saw Master
Will oiling his bat yesterday.’
‘Did you?’ avidly. ‘I should have liked to see that. I have
often oiled their bats for them. Careless lads, they always
forget. Was that nice German boy with him?’
‘Mr. Karl? Not far off, sir. He was sitting by the bank of the
stream playing on his flute; and Miss Barbara, she had climbed
one of my apple-trees,--she says they are your trees.’ He
lowers.
‘They are, you know, Dering,’ the Colonel says meekly.
‘Yes, sir, in a sense,’ brushing the spurious argument aside,
‘but I don’t like any of you to meddle with them. And there she
sat, pelting the two of them with green apples.’
‘How like her!’ The Colonel shakes his head indulgently. ‘I
don’t know how we are to make a demure young lady of her.’
Dering smirks. ‘They say in the village, sir, that Master Will
would like to try.’
To the Colonel this is wit of a high order.
‘Ha! ha! he is just a colt himself.’ But the laughter breaks
off. He seems to think that he will get the truth if Dering
comes closer. ‘Who are all here now, Dering; in the house, I
mean? I sometimes forget. They grow old so quickly. They go out
at one door in the bloom of youth, and come back by another,
tired and grey. Haven’t you noticed it?’
‘No, sir. The only visitors staying here are Miss Barbara and
Mr. Karl. There’s just them and yourselves, sir, you and the
mistress and Master Will. That’s all.’
‘Yes, that’s all,’ his master says, still unconvinced. ‘Who is
the soldier, Dering?’
‘Soldier, sir? There is no soldier here except yourself.’
‘Isn’t there? There was a nurse with him. Who is ill?’
‘No one, sir. There’s no nurse.’ Dering backs away from the old
man. ‘Would you like me to call the mistress, sir?’
‘No, she has gone down to the village. She told me why, but I
forget. Miss Barbara is with her.’
‘Miss Barbara is down by the stream, sir.’
‘Is she? I think they said they were going to a wedding.’ With
an old man’s curiosity, ‘Who is being married to-day, Dering?’
‘I have heard of no wedding, sir. But here is Miss Barbara.’
It is perhaps the first time that Dering has been glad to see
Miss Barbara, who romps in, a merry hoyden, running over with
animal spirits.
‘Here’s the tomboy!’ the Colonel cries gaily.
Barbara looks suspiciously from one to the other.
‘Dering, I believe you are complaining to the Colonel about my
watering the flowers at the wrong time of day.’
‘Aha! Aha!’ The Colonel thinks she is even wittier than Dering,
who is properly abashed.
‘I did just mention it, miss.’
‘You horrid!’ Barbara shakes her mop of hair at the gardener.
‘Dear, don’t mind him. And every time he says they are _his_
flowers and _his_ apples, you tell me, and I shall say to his
face that they are _yours_.’
‘The courage of those young things!’ says the happy Colonel.
Dering’s underlip becomes very pronounced, but he goes off into
the garden. Barbara attempts to attend to the Colonel’s needs.
‘Let me make you comfy--the way granny does it.’
She arranges his cushions clumsily.
‘That is not quite the way she does it,’ the Colonel says
softly. ‘Do you call her granny, Barbara?’
‘She asked me to--for practice.’ Barbara is curious. ‘Don’t you
remember why?’
Of course the Colonel remembers.
‘I know! Billy boy.’
‘You _are_ quick to-day. Now, wait till I get your cane.’
‘I don’t need my cane while I’m sitting.’
‘You look so beau’ful, sitting holding your cane.’ She knocks
over his cushions. ‘Oh dear! I am a clumsy.’
Politely, ‘Not at all, but perhaps if I were to do it for
myself.’ He makes himself comfortable. ‘That’s better. Thank
you, Barbara, very much.’
‘_I_ didn’t do it. I’m all thumbs. What a ghastly nurse I
should make.’
‘Nurse?’ The Colonel’s troubles return to him. ‘Who is she,
Barbara?’
‘Who is who, dear?’
‘That nurse?’
‘There’s no nurse here.’
‘Isn’t there?’
Barbara feels that she is of less use than ever to-day. ‘Where
is granny?’
‘She has gone down to the village to a wedding.’
‘There’s no wedding. Who could be being married?’
‘I think it’s people I know, but I can’t remember who they are.
I thought you went too, Barbara.’
‘Not I. Catch me missing it if there had been a wedding!’
‘You and the nurse.’
‘Dear, you have just been imagining things again. Shall I play
to you, or sing?’ She knocks over a chair. ‘Oh dear, everything
catches in me. Would you like me to sing “Robin Adair,” dear?’
The Colonel is polite, but firm. ‘No, thank you, Barbara.’
For a few moments he forgets her; his mind has gone wandering
again. ‘Barbara, the house seems so empty. Where are Billy and
Karl?’
‘Billy is where Karl is, you may be sure.’
‘And where is Karl?’
‘He is where Billy boy is, you may be sure.’
‘And where are they both?’
‘Not far from where Barbara is, you bet.’ She flutters to the
window and waves her hand. ‘Do you hear Karl’s flute? They
have been down all the morning at the pool where the alder is,
trying to catch that bull-trout.’
‘They didn’t get him, I’ll swear!’
‘You can ask them.’
‘I spent a lot of my youth trying to get that bull-trout. I
tumbled in there sixty years ago.’
‘I tumbled in sixty minutes ago! It can’t be the same trout,
dear.’
‘Same old rascal!’
Billy and Karl come in by the window, leaving a fishing-rod
outside. They are gay, careless, attractive youths.
BARBARA, with her nose in the air, ‘You muddy things!’
COLONEL, gaily firing his dart, ‘Did you get the bull-trout, Billy boy?’
BILLY. ‘He’s a brute that.’
COLONEL. ‘He is, you know.’
BILLY. ‘He came up several times and had a look at my fly. Didn’t flick
it, or do anything as complimentary as that. Just yawned and went
down.’
COLONEL. ‘Yawned, did he? Used to wink in my time. Did you and Billy
fish at Heidelberg, Karl?’
KARL. ‘We were more worthily employed, sir, but we did unbend at times.
Billy, do you remember----’ He begins a gay dance.
BILLY. ‘Not I.’ Then he joins in.
BARBARA. ‘Young gentlemen, how disgraceful!’ She joins in.
COLONEL. ‘Harum-scarums!’
KARL. ‘Does he know about you two?’
BILLY. ‘He often forgets. I’ll tell him again. Grandfather, Barbara
and I have something to say to you. It’s this.’ He puts his arm round
Barbara.
COLONEL, smiling, ‘I know--I know. There’s nothing like it. I’m very
glad, Barbara.’
BARBARA. ‘You see, dear, I’ve loved Billy boy since the days when he
tried to catch the bull-trout with a string and a bent pin, and I
held on to his pinafore to prevent his tumbling in. We used to play
at school at marrying and giving in marriage, and the girl who was my
bridegroom had always to take the name of Billy. “Do you, woman, take
this man Billy----” the clergyman in skirts began, and before I could
answer diffidently, some other girl was sure to shout, “I should rather
think she does.”’
COLONEL, in high good humour, ‘Don’t forget the ring, Billy. You know,
when I was married I think I couldn’t find the ring!’
KARL. ‘Were you married here, sir?’
COLONEL. ‘Yes, at the village church.’
BILLY. ‘So were my father and mother.’
COLONEL, as his eyes wander to the garden, ‘I remember walking back
with my wife and bringing her in here through the window. She kissed
some of the furniture.’
BILLY. ‘I suppose you would like a grander affair, Barbara?’
BARBARA. ‘No, just the same.’
BILLY. ‘I hoped you would say that.’
BARBARA. ‘But, Billy, I’m to have such a dream of a wedding gown.
Granny is going with me to London to choose it’--laying her head on the
Colonel’s shoulder--‘if you can do without her for a day, dear.’
COLONEL, gallantly, ‘I shall go with you. I couldn’t trust you and
granny to choose the gown.’
KARL. ‘You must often be pretty lonely, sir, when we are all out and
about enjoying ourselves.’
COLONEL. ‘They all say that. But that is the time when I’m not lonely,
Karl. It’s then I see things most clearly--the past, I suppose. It all
comes crowding back to me--India, the Crimea, India again--and it’s
so real, especially the people. They come and talk to me. I seem to
see them; I don’t know they haven’t been here, Billy, till your granny
tells me afterwards.’
BILLY. ‘Yes, I know. I wonder where granny is.’
BARBARA. ‘It isn’t often she leaves you for so long, dear.’
COLONEL. ‘She told me she had to go out, but I forget where. Oh, yes,
she has gone down to the village to a wedding.’
BILLY. ‘A wedding?’
BARBARA. ‘It’s curious how he harps on that.’
COLONEL. ‘She said to me to listen and I would hear the wedding bells.’
BARBARA. ‘Not to-day, dear.’
BILLY. ‘Best not to worry him.’
BARBARA. ‘But granny says we should try to make things clear to him.’
BILLY. ‘Was any one with granny when she said she was going to a
wedding?’
COLONEL, like one begging her to admit it, ‘You were there, Barbara.’
BARBARA. ‘No, dear. He said that to me before. And something about a
nurse.’
COLONEL, obstinately, ‘She was there, too.’
BILLY. ‘Any one else?’
COLONEL. ‘There was that soldier.’
BARBARA. ‘A soldier also!’
COLONEL. ‘Just those three.’
BILLY. ‘But that makes four. Granny and Barbara and a nurse and a
soldier.’
COLONEL. ‘They were all there; but there were only three.’
BILLY. ‘Odd.’
BARBARA, soothingly, ‘Never mind, dear. Granny will make it all right.
She is the one for you.’
COLONEL. ‘She is the one for me.’
KARL. ‘If there had been a wedding, wouldn’t she have taken the Colonel
with her?’
BARBARA. ‘Of course she would.’
KARL. ‘You are not too old to have a kind eye for a wedding, sir.’
COLONEL, wagging his head, ‘Aha, aha! You know, if I had gone, very
likely I should have kissed the bride. Brides look so pretty on their
wedding day. They are often not pretty at other times, but they are all
pretty on their wedding day.’
KARL. ‘You have an eye for a pretty girl still, sir!’
COLONEL. ‘Yes, I have; yes, I have!’
BARBARA. ‘I do believe I see it all. Granny has been talking to you
about Billy boy and me, and you haven’t been able to wait; you have
hurried on the wedding!’
BILLY. ‘Bravo, Barbara, you’ve got it.’
COLONEL, doubtfully, ‘That may be it. Because I am sure you were to be
there, Barbara.’
BARBARA. ‘Our wedding, Billy!’
KARL. ‘It doesn’t explain those other people, though.’
The Colonel moves about in agitation.
BARBARA. ‘What is it, dear?’
COLONEL. ‘I can’t quite remember, but I think that is why she didn’t
take me. It is your wedding, Barbara, but I don’t think Billy boy is to
be there, my love.’
BARBARA. ‘Not at my wedding!’
BILLY. ‘Grandfather!’
COLONEL. ‘There’s something sad about it.’
BARBARA. ‘There can’t be anything sad about a wedding, dear. Granny
didn’t say it was a sad wedding, did she?’
COLONEL. ‘She was smiling.’
BARBARA. ‘Of course she was.’
COLONEL. ‘But I think that was only to please the nurse.’
BARBARA. ‘That nurse again! Dear, don’t think any more about it.
There’s no wedding.’
COLONEL, gently, though he wonders why they can go on deceiving him,
‘Is there not?’
The village wedding bells begin to ring. The Colonel is
triumphant. ‘I told you! There is a wedding!’
The bells ring on gaily. Billy and Barbara take a step nearer
to each other, but can go no closer. The bells ring on, and the
three young people fade from the scene.
When they are gone and he is alone, the Colonel still addresses
them. ‘It’s Barbara’s wedding. Billy boy, why are you not at
Barbara’s wedding?’
Soon the bells stop. He knows that he is alone now, but he does
not understand it. The sun is shining brightly, but he sits
very cold in his chair. He shivers. He is very glad to see his
wife coming to him through the open window. She is a dear old
lady, and is dressed brightly, as becomes one who has been to a
wedding. Her face beams to match her gown. She is really quite
a happy woman again, for it is several years since any deep
sorrow struck her; and that is a long time. No one, you know,
understands the Colonel as she does, no one can soothe him and
bring him out of his imaginings as she can. He hastens to her.
He is no longer cold. That is her great reward for all she does
for him.
‘I have come back, John,’ she says, smiling tranquilly on him.
‘It hasn’t seemed very long, has it?’
‘No, not long, Ellen. Had you a nice walk?’
She continues to smile, but she is watching him closely. ‘I
haven’t been for a walk. Don’t you remember where I told you I
was going, John?’
‘Yes, it was to a wedding.’
Rather tremulously, ‘You haven’t forgotten whose wedding, have
you?’
‘Tell me, Ellen.’ He is no longer troubled. He knows that Ellen
will tell him.
‘I have been seeing Barbara married, John.’
‘Yes, it was Barbara’s wedding. They wouldn’t----Ellen, why
wasn’t I there?’
Like one telling him amusing gossip, ‘I thought you might be a
little troubled if you went, John. Sometimes your mind--not
often, but sometimes if you are agitated--and then you think
you see--people who aren’t here any longer. Oh dear, oh dear,
help me with these bonnet strings.’
‘Yes, I know. I’m all right when you are with me, Ellen. Funny,
isn’t it?’
She raises her shoulders in a laugh. ‘It is funny, John. I ran
back to you, John. I was thinking of you all the time--even
more than of Billy boy.’
The Colonel is very gay. ‘Tell me all about it, Ellen. Did
Billy boy lose the ring? We always said he would lose the ring.’
She looks straight into his eyes. ‘You have forgotten again,
John. Barbara isn’t married to Billy boy.’
He draws himself up. ‘Not marry Billy! I’ll see about that.’
She presses him into his chair. ‘Sit down, dear, and I’ll tell
you something again. It is nothing to trouble you, because your
soldiering is done, John; and greatly done. My dear, there is
war again, and our old land is in it. Such a war as my soldier
never knew.’
He rises. He is a stern old man. ‘A war! That’s it, is it?
So now I know! Why wasn’t I told? Why haven’t I my marching
orders? I’m not too old yet.’
‘Yes, John, you are too old, and all you can do now is to sit
here and--and take care of me. You knew all about it quite
clearly this morning. We stood together upstairs by the window
listening to the aircraft guns.’
‘I remember! I thought it was a thunderstorm. Dering told me he
heard nothing.’
‘Dering?’
‘Our gardener, you know.’ His voice becomes husky. ‘Haven’t I
been talking with him, Ellen?’
‘It is a long time since we had a gardener, John.’
‘Is it? So it is! A war! That is why there is no more cricket
on the green.’
‘They have all gone to the war, John.’
‘That’s it; even the little shavers.’ He whispers, ‘Why isn’t
Billy boy fighting, Ellen?’
‘Oh, John!’
‘Is Billy boy dead?’ She nods. ‘Was he killed in action? Tell
me, tell me!’ She nods again. ‘Good for Billy boy. I knew Billy
boy was all right. Don’t cry, Ellen. I’ll take care of you.
All’s well with Billy boy.’
‘Yes, I know, John.’
He hesitates before speaking again. ‘Ellen, who is the soldier?
He comes here. He is a captain.’
‘He is a very gallant man, John. It is he who was married to
Barbara to-day.’
Bitterly, ‘She has soon forgotten.’
His wife shakes her brave head. ‘She hasn’t forgotten, dear.
And it’s nearly three years now since Billy died.’
‘So long! We have a medal he got, haven’t we?’
‘No, John; he died before he could win any medals.’
The Colonel moves about, ‘Karl will be sorry. They were very
fond of each other, those two boys, Ellen.’
‘Karl fought against us, John. He died in the same engagement.
They may even have killed each other.’
‘They hadn’t known, Ellen.’
She says with thin lips, ‘I daresay they knew.’
‘Billy boy and Karl!’
She tells him some more gossip. ‘John, I had Barbara married
from here because she has no people of her own. I think Billy
would have liked it.’
‘That was the thing to do, Ellen. Nice of you. I remember
everything now. It’s Dering she has married. He was once my
gardener!’
‘The world is all being re-made, dear. He is worthy of her.’
He lets this pass. He has remembered something almost as
surprising. ‘Ellen, is Barbara a nurse?’
‘Yes, John, and one of the staidest and most serene. Who would
have thought it of the merry madcap of other days! They are
coming here, John, to say good-bye to you. They have only
a few days’ leave. She is in France, too, you know. She was
married in her nurse’s uniform.’
‘Was she? She told me to-day that--no, it couldn’t have been
to-day.’
‘You have been fancying you saw them, I suppose.’ She grows
tremulous again. ‘You will be nice to them, John, won’t you,
and wish them luck? They have their trials before them.’
He says eagerly, ‘Tell me what to do, Ellen.’
‘Don’t say anything about Billy boy, John.’
‘No no, let’s pretend.’
‘And I wouldn’t talk about the garden, John; just in case he is
a little touchy about that.’
The Colonel is beginning to fancy himself as a tactician. ‘Not
a word!’
She knows what is the way to put him on his mettle. ‘You see,
I’m sure I would make a mess of it, so I’m trusting to you,
John.’
He is very pleased. ‘Leave it all to me, Ellen. I’ll be
frightfully sly. You just watch me.’
She goes to the window and calls to the married couple. Captain
Dering, in khaki, is a fine soldierly figure. Barbara, in her
Red Cross uniform, is quiet and resourceful. An artful old boy
greets them. ‘Congratulations, Barbara. No, no, none of your
handshaking; you don’t get past an old soldier in that way.
Excuse me, young man.’ He kisses Barbara and looks at his wife
to make sure that she is admiring him. ‘And to you, Captain
Dering--you have won a prize.’
A gallant gentleman answers, ‘I know it; I’ll try to show I
know it.’
The Colonel is perturbed. ‘I haven’t given Barbara a wedding
present, Ellen. I should like----’
Barbara breaks in, ‘Indeed you have, dear, and a lovely one.
You haven’t forgotten?’
Granny signs to the Colonel and he immediately says, with
remarkable cunning, ‘Oh--that! I was just quizzing you,
Barbara. I hope you will be as happy, dear, staid Barbara, as
if you had married----’ He sees that he has nearly given away
the situation. He looks triumphantly at granny as much as to
say, ‘Observe me; I’m not going to say a word about him.’
Granny comes to his aid. ‘Perhaps Captain Dering has some
little things to do: and you, too, Barbara. They are leaving in
an hour, John.’
For a moment the Colonel is again in danger. ‘If you would
like to take Barbara into the garden, Captain Dering----’ He
recovers himself instantly. ‘No, not the garden, you wouldn’t
know your way about in the garden.’
‘Wouldn’t I, Colonel?’ the captain says, smiling.
The answer is quite decisive. ‘No, certainly not. I’ll show it
you some day.’ He makes gleeful signs to granny. ‘But there is
a nice meadow just beyond the shrubbery. Barbara knows the
way; she often went there with----’ He checks himself. Granny
signs to them to go, and Barbara kisses both the Colonel’s
hands. ‘The Captain will be jealous, you know,’ he says,
twinkling.
‘Let me, dear,’ says Barbara, arranging his cushions
professionally.
Granny nods. ‘She is much better at it than I am now, John.’
The Colonel has one last piece of advice to give. ‘I wouldn’t
go down by the stream, Barbara--not to the pool where the alder
is. There’s--there’s not a good view there, sir; and a boy--a
boy I knew, he often--nobody in particular--just a boy who used
to come about the house--he is not here now--he is on duty. I
don’t think you should go to the alder pool, Barbara.’
‘We won’t go there, dear.’ She and her husband go out, and the
Colonel scarcely misses them, he is so eager to hear what his
wife thinks of him.
‘Did I do all right, Ellen?’
‘Splendidly. I was proud of you.’
He exults. ‘I put them completely off the scent! They haven’t a
notion! I can be very sly, you know, at times. Ellen, I think I
should like to have that alder tree cut down. There is no boy
now, you see.’
‘I would leave it alone, John. There will be boys again. Shall
I read to you; you like that, don’t you?’
‘Yes, read to me--something funny, if you please. About Sam
Weller! No, I expect Sam has gone to the wars. Read about
Mr. Pickwick. He is very amusing. I feel sure that if he had
tried to catch the bull-trout he would have fallen in. Just as
Barbara did this morning.’
‘Barbara?’
‘She is down at the alder pool. Billy is there with that nice
German boy. The noise they make, shouting and laughing!’
She gets from its shelf the best book for war-time. ‘Which bit
shall I read?’
‘About Mr. Pickwick going into the lady’s bedroom by mistake.’
‘Yes, dear, though you almost know it by heart. You see, you
have begun to laugh already.’
‘You are laughing too, Ellen. I can’t help it!’
She begins to read; they are both chuckling.
A WELL-REMEMBERED VOICE
Out of the darkness comes the voice of a woman speaking to her dead son.
‘But that was against your wish, was it not? Was that against your
wish? Would you prefer me not to ask that question?’
The room is so dark that we cannot see her. All we know is that she is
one of four shapes gathered round a small table. Beyond the darkness
is a great ingle-nook, in which is seated on a settle a man of fifty.
Him we can discern fitfully by the light of the fire. It is not
sufficiently bright to enable him to read, but an evening paper lies on
his knee. He seems wistful and meek. He is paying no attention to the
party round the table. When he hears their voices it is only as empty
sounds.
The mother continues. ‘Perhaps I am putting the question in the wrong
way. Are you not able to tell us any more?’
A man’s voice breaks in. ‘There was a distinct movement that time, but
it is so irregular.’
‘I thought so, but please don’t talk. Do you want to tell us more? Is
it that you can’t hear me distinctly? He seems to want to tell us more,
but something prevents him.’
‘In any case, Mrs. Don, it is extraordinary. This is the first séance I
have ever taken part in, but I must believe now.’
‘Of course, Major, these are the simplest manifestations. They are only
the first step. But if we are to go on, the less we talk the better.
Shall we go on? It is not agitating you too much, Laura?’
A girl answers. ‘There was a moment when I--but I wish I was braver.
I think it is partly the darkness. I suppose we can’t have a little
light?’
‘Certainly we can, dear. Darkness is quite unnecessary, but I think it
helps one to concentrate.’
The Major lights a lamp, and though it casts shadows we see now that
the room is an artist’s studio. The silent figure in the ingle-nook is
the artist. Mrs. Don is his wife, the two men are Major Armitage and
an older friend, Mr. Rogers. The girl is Laura Bell. These four are
sitting round the table, their hands touching: they are endeavouring to
commune with one who has ‘crossed the gulf.’
The Major and Mr. Rogers are but passing shadows in the play, and even
nice Laura is only to flit across its few pages for a moment on her
way to happier things. We scarcely notice them in the presence of Mrs.
Don, the gracious, the beautiful, the sympathetic, whose magnetic force
and charm are such that we wish to sit at her feet at once. She is
intellectual, but with a disarming smile, religious, but so charitable,
masterful, and yet loved of all. None is perfect, and there must be a
flaw in her somewhere, but to find it would necessitate such a rummage
among her many adornments as there is now no time for. Perhaps we may
come upon it accidentally in the course of the play.
She is younger than Mr. Don, who, despite her efforts for many years to
cover his deficiencies, is a man of no great account in a household
where the bigger personality of his wife swallows him like an Aaron’s
rod. Mr. Don’s deficiencies! She used to try very hard, or fairly hard,
to conceal them from Dick; but Dick knew. His mother was his chum. All
the lovely things which happened in that house in the days when Dick
was alive were between him and her; those two shut the door softly on
old Don, always anxious not to hurt his feelings, and then ran into
each other’s arms.
In the better light Mr. Don is now able to read his paper if he
chooses. If he has forgotten the party at the table, they have equally
forgotten him.
MRS. DON. ‘You have not gone away, have you? We must be patient. Are
you still there?’
ROGERS. ‘I think I felt a movement.’
MRS. DON. ‘Don’t talk, please. Are you still there?’
The table moves.
‘Yes! It is your mother who is speaking; do you understand
that?’
The table moves.
‘Yes. What shall I ask him now?’
ROGERS. ‘We leave it to you, Mrs. Don.’
MRS. DON. ‘Have you any message you want to send us? Yes. Is it
important? Yes. Are we to spell it out in the usual way? Yes. Is the
first letter of the first word A? Is it B?’
She continues through the alphabet to L, when the table
responds. Similarly she finds that the second letter is O.
‘Is the word _Love_? Yes. But I don’t understand that movement.
You are not displeased with us, are you? No. Does the second
word begin with A?--with B? Yes.’
The second word is spelt out _Bade_ and the third _Me_.
‘Love Bade Me----If it is a quotation, I believe I know it! Is
the fourth word _Welcome_? Yes.’
LAURA. ‘Love Bade Me Welcome.’
MRS. DON. ‘That movement again! Don’t you want me to go on?’
LAURA. ‘Let us stop.’
MRS. DON. ‘Not unless he wishes it. Why are those words so important?
Does the message end there? Is any one working against you? Some one
antagonistic? Yes. Not one of ourselves surely? No. Is it any one we
know? Yes. Can I get the name in the usual way? Yes. Is the first
letter of this person’s name A?--B?----’
It proves to be F. One begins to notice a quaint peculiarity of
Mrs. Don’s. She is so accustomed to homage that she expects a
prompt response even from the shades.
‘Is the second letter A?’
The table moves.
‘FA. Fa----?’
She is suddenly enlightened.
‘Is the word Father? Yes.’
They all turn and look for the first time at Mr. Don. He has
heard, and rises apologetically.
MR. DON, distressed, ‘I had no intention----Should I go away, Grace?’
She answers sweetly without a trace of the annoyance she must
surely feel.
MRS. DON. ‘Perhaps you had better, Robert.’
ROGERS. ‘I suppose it is because he is an unbeliever? He is not openly
antagonistic, is he?’
MRS. DON, sadly enough, ‘I am afraid he is.’
They tend to discuss the criminal as if he was not present.
MAJOR. ‘But he must admit that we do get messages.’
MRS. DON, reluctantly, ‘He says we think we do. He says they would not
want to communicate with us if they had such trivial things to say.’
ROGERS. ‘But we are only on the threshold, Don. This is just a
beginning.’
LAURA. ‘Didn’t you hear, Mr. Don--“Love Bade Me Welcome”?’
MR. DON. ‘Does that strike you as important, Laura?’
LAURA. ‘He said it was.’
MRS. DON. ‘It might be very important to him, though we don’t
understand why.’
She speaks gently, but there is an obstinacy in him, despite
his meekness.
MR. DON. ‘I didn’t mean to be antagonistic, Grace. I thought. I wasn’t
thinking of it at all.’
MRS. DON. ‘Not thinking of Dick, Robert? And it was only five months
ago!’
MR. DON, who is somehow, without meaning it, always in the wrong, ‘I’ll
go.’
ROGERS. ‘A boy wouldn’t turn his father out. Ask him.’
MR. DON, forlornly, ‘As to that--as to that----’
MRS. DON. ‘I will ask him if you wish me to, Robert.’
MR. DON. ‘No, don’t.’
ROGERS. ‘It can’t worry you as you are a disbeliever.’
MR. DON. ‘No, but--I shouldn’t like you to think that he sent me away.’
ROGERS. ‘He won’t. Will he, Mrs. Don?’
MR. DON, knowing what her silence implies, ‘You see, Dick and I were
not very--no quarrel or anything of that sort--but I, I didn’t much
matter to Dick. I’m too old, perhaps.’
MRS. DON, gently, ‘I won’t ask him, Robert, if you would prefer me not
to.’
MR. DON. ‘I’ll go.’
MRS. DON. ‘I’m afraid it is too late now.’ She turns away from earthly
things. ‘Do you want me to break off?’
The table moves.
‘Yes. Do you send me your love, Dick? Yes. And to Laura?
Yes.’ She raises her eyes to Don, and hesitates. ‘Shall I ask
him----?’
MR. DON. ‘No, no, don’t.’
ROGERS. ‘It would be all right, Don.’
MR. DON. ‘I don’t know.’
They leave the table.
LAURA, a little agitated, ‘May I go to my room, Mrs. Don? I feel
I--should like to be alone.’
MRS. DON. ‘Yes, yes, Laura dear. I shall come in and see you.’
Laura bids them good-night and goes. She likes Mr. Don, she
strokes his hand when he holds it out to her, but she can’t
help saying, ‘Oh, Mr. Don, how could you?’
ROGERS. ‘I think we must all want to be alone after such an evening. I
shall say good-night, Mrs. Don.’
MAJOR. ‘Same here. I go your way, Rogers, but you will find me a silent
companion. One doesn’t want to talk ordinary things to-night. Rather
not. Thanks, awfully.’
ROGERS. ‘Good-night, Don. It’s a pity, you know; a bit hard on your
wife.’
MR. DON. ‘Good-night, Rogers. Good-night, Major.’
The husband and wife, left together, have not much to say to
each other. He is depressed because he has spoilt things for
her. She is not angry. She knows that he can’t help being as
he is, and that there are fine spaces in her mind where his
thoughts can never walk with hers. But she would forgive him
seventy times seven because he is her husband. She is standing
looking at a case of fishing-rods against the wall. There is a
Jock Scott still sticking in one of them. Mr. Don says, as if
somehow they were evidence against him:
‘Dick’s fishing-rods.’
She says forgivingly, ‘I hope you don’t mind my keeping them in
the studio, Robert. They are sacred things to _me_.’
‘That’s all right, Grace.’
‘I think I shall go to Laura now.’
‘Yes,’ in his inexpressive way.
‘Poor child!’
‘I’m afraid I hurt her.’
‘Dick wouldn’t have liked it--but Dick’s gone.’ She looks a
little wonderingly at him. After all these years, she can
sometimes wonder a little still. ‘I suppose you will resume
your evening paper!’
He answers quietly, but with the noble doggedness which is the
reason why we write this chapter in his life. ‘Why not, Grace?’
She considers, for she is so sure that she must know the answer
better than he. ‘I suppose it is just that a son is so much
more to a mother than to a father.’
‘I daresay.’
A little gust of passion shakes her. ‘How you can read about
the war nowadays!’
He says firmly to her--he has had to say it a good many times
to himself, ‘I’m not going to give in.’ But he adds, ‘I am
so sorry I was in the way, Grace. I wasn’t scouting you, or
anything of that sort. It’s just that I can’t believe in it.’
‘Ah, Robert, you would believe if Dick had been to you what he
was to me.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘In a sense you may be glad that you don’t miss him in the way
I do.’
‘Yes, perhaps.’
‘Good-night, Robert.’
‘Good-night, dear.’
He is alone now. He stands fingering the fishing-rods tenderly,
then wanders back into the ingle-nook. In the room we could
scarcely see him, for it has gone slowly dark there, a grey
darkness, as if the lamp, though still burning, was becoming
unable to shed light. Through the greyness we see him very
well beyond it in the glow of the fire. He sits on the settle
and tries to read his paper. He breaks down. He is a pitiful
lonely man.
In the silence something happens. A well-remembered voice says,
‘Father.’ Mr. Don looks into the greyness from which this
voice comes, and he sees his son. We see no one, but we are
to understand that, to Mr. Don, Dick is standing there in his
habit as he lived. He goes to his boy.
‘Dick!’
‘I have come to sit with you for a bit, father.’
It is the gay, young, careless voice.
‘It’s you, Dick; it’s you!’
‘It’s me all right, father. I say, don’t be startled, or
anything of that kind. We don’t like that.’
‘My boy!’
Evidently Dick is the taller, for Mr. Don has to look up to
him. He puts his hands on the boy’s shoulders.
‘How am I looking, father?’
‘You haven’t altered, Dick.’
‘Rather not. It’s jolly to see the old studio again!’ In a
cajoling voice, ‘I say, father, don’t fuss. Let us be our
ordinary selves, won’t you?’
‘I’ll try, I’ll try. You didn’t say you had come to sit with
_me_, Dick? Not with _me_!’
‘Rather!’
‘But your mother----’
‘It’s you I want.’
‘Me?’
‘We can only come to one, you see.’
‘Then why me?’
‘That’s the reason.’ He is evidently moving about, looking
curiously at old acquaintances. ‘Hello, here’s your old jacket,
greasier than ever!’
‘Me? But, Dick, it is as if you had forgotten. It was your
mother who was everything to you. It can’t be you if you have
forgotten that. I used to feel so out of it; but, of course,
you didn’t know.’
‘I didn’t know it till lately, father; but heaps of things that
I didn’t know once are clear to me now. I didn’t know that you
were the one who would miss me most; but I know now.’
Though the voice is as boyish as ever, there is a new note
in it of which his father is aware. Dick may not have grown
much wiser, but whatever he does know now he seems to know for
certain.
‘_Me_ miss you most? Dick, I try to paint just as before. I
go to the club. Dick, I have been to a dinner-party. I said I
wouldn’t give in.’
‘We like that.’
‘But, my boy----’
Mr. Don’s arms have gone out to him again. Dick evidently
wriggles away from them. He speaks coaxingly.
‘I say, father, let’s get away from that sort of thing.’
‘That is so like you, Dick! I’ll do anything you ask.’
‘Then keep a bright face.’
‘I’ve tried to.’
‘Good man! I say, put on your old greasy; you are looking so
beastly clean.’
The old greasy is the jacket, and Mr. Don obediently gets into
it.
‘Anything you like. No, that’s the wrong sleeve. Thanks, Dick.’
They are in the ingle-nook now, and the mischievous boy catches
his father by the shoulders.
‘Here, let me shove you into your old seat.’
Mr. Don is propelled on to the settle.
‘How’s that, umpire!’
‘Dick,’ smiling, ‘that’s just how you used to butt me into it
long ago!’
Dick is probably standing with his back to the fire, chuckling.
‘When I was a kid.’
‘With the palette in my hand.’
‘Or sticking to your trousers.’
‘The mess we made of ourselves, Dick.’
‘I sneaked behind the settle and climbed up it.’
‘Till you fell off.’
‘On top of you and the palette.’
It is good fun for a father and son; and the crafty boy has
succeeded in making the father laugh. But soon,
‘Ah, Dick.’
The son frowns. He is not going to stand any nonsense.
‘Now then, behave! What did I say about that face?’
Mr. Don smiles at once, obediently.
‘That’s better. I’ll sit here.’
We see from his father’s face which is smiling with difficulty
that Dick has plopped into the big chair on the other side of
the ingle-nook. His legs are probably dangling over one of its
arms.
Rather sharply, ‘Got your pipe?’
‘I don’t--I don’t seem to care to smoke nowadays, Dick.’
‘Rot! Just because I am dead! You that pretend to be plucky!
I won’t have it, you know. You get your pipe, and look slippy
about it.’
‘Yes, Dick,’ the old man says obediently. He fills his pipe
from a jar on the mantelshelf. We may be sure that Dick is
watching closely to see that he lights it properly.
‘Now, then, burn your thumb with the match--you always did, you
know. That’s the style. You’ve forgotten to cock your head to
the side. Not so bad. That’s you. Like it?’
‘It’s rather nice, Dick. Dick, you and me by the fire!’
‘Yes, but sit still. How often we might have been like this,
father, and weren’t.’
‘Ah!’
‘Face. How is Fido?’
‘Never a dog missed her master more.’
‘Oh,’ frowning. ‘She doesn’t want to go and sit on my grave, or
any of that tosh, does she? As if I were there!’
‘No, no,’ hastily; ‘she goes ratting, Dick.’
‘Good old Fido!’
‘Dick, here’s a good one. We oughtn’t to keep a dog at all
because we are on rations now; but what do you think Fido ate
yesterday?’
‘Let me guess. The joint?’
‘Almost worse than that. She ate all the cook’s meat tickets.’
They laugh together, but when Dick says light-heartedly, ‘That
dog will be the death of me,’ his father shivers. Dick does not
notice this; his eyes have drawn him to the fishing-rods.
‘Hullo!’
‘Yes, those are your old fishing-rods.’
‘Here’s the little hickory! Do you remember, father, how I got
the seven-pounder on a burn-trout cast? No, you weren’t there.
That was a day. It was really only six and three-quarters. I
put a stone in its mouth the second time we weighed it!’
‘You loved fishing, Dick.’
‘Didn’t I? Why weren’t you oftener with me? I’ll tell you a
funny thing. When I went a-soldiering I used to pray--just
standing up, you know--that I shouldn’t lose my right arm,
because it would be so awkward for casting.’ He cogitates as he
returns to the ingle-nook. ‘Somehow I never thought I should be
killed. Lots of fellows thought that about themselves, but I
never did. It was quite a surprise to me.’
‘Oh, Dick!’
‘What’s the matter? Oh, I forgot. Face!’ He is apparently
looking down at his father wonderingly. ‘Haven’t you got over it
yet, father? I got over it so long ago. I wish you people would
understand what a little thing it is.’
‘Tell me,’ very humbly; ‘tell me, Dick.’
‘All right.’ He is in the chair again. ‘Mind, I can’t tell you
where I was killed; it’s against the regulations.’
‘I know where.’
Curiously, ‘You got a wire, I suppose?’
‘Yes.’
‘There’s always a wire for officers, even for 2nd Lieutenants.
It’s jolly decent of them.’
‘Tell me, Dick, about the--the veil. I mean the veil that is
drawn between the living and the----’
‘The dead? Funny how you jib at that word.’
‘I suppose the veil is like a mist?’
‘The veil’s a rummy thing, father. Yes, like a mist. But when
one has been at the Front for a bit, you can’t think how thin
the veil seems to get; just one layer of it. I suppose it seems
thin to you out there because one step takes you through it.
We sometimes mix up those who have gone through with those who
haven’t. I daresay if I were to go back to my old battalion the
living chaps would just nod to me.’
‘Dick!’
‘Where’s that pipe? Death? Well, to me, before my day came,
it was like some part of the line I had heard a lot about but
never been in. I mean, never been in to stay, because, of
course, one often popped in and out.’
‘Dick, the day that you----’
‘My day? I don’t remember being hit, you know. I don’t remember
anything till the quietness came. When you have been killed it
suddenly becomes very quiet; quieter even than you have ever
known it at home. Sunday used to be a pretty quiet day at my
tutors, when Trotter and I flattened out on the first shady
spot up the river; but it is quieter than that. I am not boring
you, am I?’
‘My boy!’
‘When I came to, the veil was so thin that I couldn’t see it
at all; and my first thought was, Which side of it have I come
out on? The living ones lying on the ground were asking that
about themselves, too. There we were, all sitting up and asking
whether we were alive or dead; and some were one, and some were
the other. Sort of fluke, you know.’
‘I--I--oh, Dick!’
‘As soon as each had found out about himself he wondered how it
had gone with his chums. I halloo’d to Johnny Randall, and he
halloo’d back that he was dead, but that Trotter was living.
That’s the way of it. A good deal of chaff, of course. By that
time the veil was there, and getting thicker, and we lined up
on our right sides. Then I could only see the living ones in
shadow and hear their voices from a distance. They sang out
to us for a while; but just at first, father, it was rather
lonely when we couldn’t hear their tread any longer. What are
you fidgeting about? You needn’t worry; that didn’t last long;
we were heaps more interested in ourselves than in them. You
should have heard the gabbling! It was all so frightfully
novel, you see; and no one quite knew what to do next, whether
all to start off together, or wait for some one to come for us.
I say, what a lot I’m talking!’
‘What happened, Dick?’
‘Oh!’ a proud ring coming into the voice, ‘Ockley came for us.
He used to be alive, you know--the Ockley who was keeper of the
fives in my first half. I once pointed him out to mother. I was
jolly glad he was the one who came for us. As soon as I saw it
was Ockley I knew we should be all right.’
‘Dick, I like that Ockley.’
‘Rather. I wish I could remember something funny to tell you
though. There are lots of jokes, but I am such a one for
forgetting them.’
He laughs boisterously. We may be sure that he flings back his
head. You remember how Dick used to fling back his head when he
laughed?--No, you didn’t know him.
‘Father, do you remember little Wantage who was at my private
and came on to Ridley’s house in my third half? His mother was
the one you called Emily.’
‘Emily Wantage’s boy.’
‘That’s the card. We used to call him Jemima, because he and
his mother were both caught crying when lock-up struck, and she
had to clear out.’
‘She was very fond of him, Dick.’
‘Oh, I expect no end. Tell her he’s killed.’
‘She knows.’
‘She had got a wire. That isn’t the joke, though. You see he
got into a hopeless muddle about which side of the veil he had
come out on; and he went off with the other ones, and they
wouldn’t have him, and he got lost in the veil, running up
and down it, calling to us; and just for the lark we didn’t
answer.’ He chuckles. ‘I expect he has become a ghost!’ With
sudden consideration, ‘Best not tell his mother that.’
Mr. Don rises, wincing, and Dick also is at once on his feet,
full of compunction.
‘Was that shabby of me? Sorry, father. We are all pretty young,
you know, and we can’t help having our fun still.’
‘I’m glad you still have your fun,’ the father says, once more
putting his hands on Dick’s shoulders. ‘Let me look at you
again, Dick. There is such a serenity about you now.’
‘Serenity, that’s the word! None of us could remember what
the word was. It’s a ripping good thing to have. I should be
awfully bucked if you would have it, too.’
‘I’ll try.’
‘I say, how my tongue runs on! But, after all, it was my show.
Now, you tell me some things.’
‘What about, Dick? The war?’
‘No,’ almost in a shout. ‘We have a fine for speaking about the
war. And you know, those fellows we were fighting--I forget who
they were?’
‘The Germans.’
‘Oh yes. Some of them were on the same side of the veil with
us, and they were rather decent; so we chummed up in the end
and Ockley took us all away together. They were jolly lucky in
getting Ockley. There I go again! Come on, it’s your turn. Has
the bathroom tap been mended yet?’
‘I’m afraid it is--just tied up with that string still, Dick.
It works all right.’
‘It only needs two screw-nails, you know.’
‘I’ll see to it.’
‘Do you know whether any one at my tutors got his fives choice
this half?’
‘I’m sorry, Dick, but----’
‘Or who is the captain of the boats?’
‘No, I----’
‘Whatever have you been doing?’ He is moving about the room.
‘Hullo, here’s mother’s workbox! Is mother all right?’
‘Very sad about you, Dick.’
‘Oh, I say, that isn’t fair. Why doesn’t she cheer up?’
‘It isn’t so easy, my boy.’
‘It’s pretty hard lines on me, you know.’
‘How is that?’
‘If you are sad, I have to be sad. That’s how we have got to
work it off. You can’t think how we want to be bright.’
‘I’ll always remember that, and I’ll tell your mother. Ah, but
she won’t believe me, Dick; you will have to tell her yourself.’
‘I can’t do that, father. I can only come to one.’
‘She should have been the one; she loved you best, Dick.’
‘Oh, I don’t know. Do you ever,’ with a slight hesitation, ‘see
Laura now?’
‘She is staying with us at present.’
‘Is she? I think I should like to see her.’
‘If Laura were to see you----’
‘Oh, she wouldn’t see me. She is not dressed in black, is she?’
‘No, in white.’
‘Good girl! I suppose mother is in black?’
‘Surely, Dick.’
‘It’s too bad, you know.’
‘You weren’t exactly--engaged to Laura, were you, Dick?’ A bold
question from a father, but the circumstances were unusual.
Apologetically, ‘I never rightly knew.’
‘No!’ Dick has flung back his head again. Confidentially,
‘Father, I sometimes thought of it, but it rather scared me! I
expect that is about how it was with her, too.’
‘She is very broken about you now.’
Irritated, ‘Oh, hang!’
‘Would you like her to forget you, Dick?’
‘Rather not. But she might help a fellow a bit. Hullo!’
What calls forth this exclamation is the little table at which
the séance had taken place. The four chairs are still standing
round it, as if they were guarding something.
‘Here’s something new, father; this table.’
‘Yes, it is usually in the drawing-room.’
‘Of course. I remember.’
Mr. Don sets his teeth. ‘Does that table suggest anything to
you, Dick?’
‘To me? Let me think. Yes, I used to play backgammon on it.
What is it doing here?’
‘Your mother brought it in.’
‘To play games on? Mother!’
‘I don’t--know that it was a game, Dick.’
‘But to play anything! I’m precious glad she can do that. Was
Laura playing with her?’
‘She was helping her.’
‘Good for Laura.’ He is looking at some slips of paper on the
table. ‘Are those pieces of paper used in the game? There is
writing on them: “The first letter is H--the second letter is
A--the third letter is R.” What does it mean?’
‘Does it convey no meaning to you, Dick?’
‘To me? No; why should it?’
Mr. Don is enjoying no triumph. ‘Let us go back to the fire, my
boy.’
Dick follows him into the ingle-nook. ‘But, why should it
convey a meaning to me? I was never much of a hand at indoor
games.’ Brightly, ‘I bet you Ockley would be good at it.’ After
a joyous rumble, ‘Ockley’s nickname still sticks to him!’
‘I don’t think I know it.’
‘He was a frightful swell, you know. Keeper of the field, and
played against Harrow the same year. I suppose it did go just a
little to his head.’
They are back in their old seats, and Mr. Don leans forward in
gleeful anticipation. Probably Dick is leaning forward in the
same way, and this old father is merely copying him.
‘What did you nickname him, Dick?’
‘It was his fags that did it!’
‘I should like to know it. I say, do tell me, Dick.’
‘He is pretty touchy about it now, you know.’
‘I won’t tell any one. Come on, Dick.’
‘His fags called him K.C.M.G.’
‘Meaning, meaning, Dick?’
‘Meaning “Kindly Call Me God!”’
Mr. Don flings back his head; so we know what Dick is doing.
They are a hilarious pair, perhaps too noisy, for suddenly Mr.
Don looks at the door.
‘I think I heard some one, Dick!’
‘Perhaps it’s mother!’
‘She may,’ nervously, ‘have heard the row.’
Dick’s eyes must be twinkling. ‘I say, father, you’ll catch it!’
‘I can’t believe, Dick,’ gazing wistfully into the chair, ‘that
she won’t see you.’
It is a sadder voice than his own for the moment that answers,
‘Only one may see me.’
‘You will speak to her, Dick. Let her hear your voice.’
‘Only one may hear me. I could make her the one; but it would
mean your losing me.’
‘I can’t give you up, Dick.’
Mrs. Don comes in, as beautiful as ever, but a little aggrieved.
‘I called to you, Robert.’
‘Yes, I thought--I was just going to----’
He has come from the ingle-nook to meet her. He looks from her
to Dick, whom he sees so clearly, standing now by the fire. An
awe falls upon Mr. Don. He says her name, meaning, ‘See, Grace,
who is with us.’
Her eyes follow his, but she sees nothing, not even two arms
outstretched to her. ‘What is it, Robert? What is the matter?’
She does not hear a voice say, ‘Mother!’
‘I heard you laughing, Robert; what on earth at?’
The father cannot speak.
‘Now you’re in a hole, father!’ says a mischievous voice.
‘Can I not be told, Robert?’
‘Something in the paper,’ the voice whispers.
Mr. Don lifts the paper feebly, and his wife understands. ‘Oh,
a newspaper joke! Please, I don’t want to hear it.’
‘Was it my laughing that brought you back, Grace?’
‘No, that would only have made me shut my door. If Dick thought
you could laugh!’ She goes to the little table. ‘I came back
for these slips of paper.’ She lifts them and presses them to
her breast. ‘These precious slips of paper!’
Dick was always a curious boy, and forgetting that she cannot
hear him, he blurts out, ‘How do you mean, mother? Why are they
precious?’
Mr. Don forgets also and looks to her for an answer.
‘What is it, Robert?’
‘Didn’t you--hear anything, Grace?’
‘No. Perhaps Laura was calling; I left her on the stair.’
‘I wish,’ Mr. Don is fighting for Dick now, ‘I wish Laura would
come back and say good-night to me.’
‘I daresay she will.’
‘And,’ valiantly, ‘if she could be--rather brighter, Grace.’
‘Robert!’
‘I think Dick would like it.’
Her fine eyes reproach him mutely, but she says, ever
forgiving, ‘Is that how you look at it, Robert? Very well,
laugh your fill--if you can. But if Dick were to appear before
me to-night----’
In his distress Mr. Don cries aloud to the figure by the fire,
‘Dick, if you can appear to your mother, do it.’
There is a pause in which anything may happen, but nothing
happens. Yes, something has happened: Dick has stuck to his
father.
‘Really, Robert!’ Mrs. Don says, and, without a word of
reproach, she goes away. Evidently Dick comes to his father,
who has sunk into a chair, and puts a loving hand on him. Mr.
Don clasps it without looking up.
‘Father, that was top-hole of you! Poor mother, I should have
liked to hug her; but I can’t.’
‘You should have gone to her, Dick; you shouldn’t have minded
me.’
The wiser boy says, ‘Mother’s a darling, but she doesn’t need
me as much as you do.’
‘I don’t know.’
‘That’s all right. I’m glad she’s so keen about that game,
though.’
He has returned to the ingle-nook when Laura comes in, eager to
make amends to Dick’s father if she hurt him when she went out.
Softly, ‘I have come to say good-night, Mr. Don.’
‘It’s nice of you, Laura,’ taking both her hands.
Dick speaks. ‘I want her to come nearer to the fire; I can’t
see her very well there.’
For a moment Mr. Don is caught out again; but Laura has heard
nothing. He becomes quite cunning in Dick’s interests.
‘Your hands are cold, Laura; go over to the fire. I want to
look at you.’
She sits on the hearthstone by Dick’s feet.
Shyly, ‘Am I all right?’
It is Dick who answers. ‘You’re awfully pretty, Laura. You are
even prettier than I thought. I remember I used to think, she
can’t be quite as pretty as I think her; and then when you
came you were just a little prettier.’
She has been warming her hands. ‘Why don’t you say anything?’
she asks Mr. Don.
‘I was thinking of you and Dick, Laura.’
‘What a pretty soul she has, father,’ says the boy; ‘I can see
right down into it now.’
‘If Dick had lived, Laura, do you think that you and he----?’
With shining eyes, ‘I think--if he had wanted it very much.’
‘I expect he would, my dear.’
There is an odd candour about Dick’s contribution, ‘I think so,
too, but I never was quite sure.’ They are a very young pair.
Laura is trembling a little. ‘Mr. Don----’
‘Yes, Laura?’
‘I think there is something wicked about me. I sometimes
feel--quite light-hearted--though Dick has gone.’
‘Perhaps, nowadays, the fruit trees have that sort of shame
when they blossom, Laura; but they can’t help doing it. I hope
you are yet to be a happy woman, a happy wife.’
‘It seems so heartless to Dick.’
‘Not a bit; it’s what I should like,’ Dick says.
‘It’s what he would like, Laura.’
‘Do you remember, Laura,’ Dick goes on, ‘I kissed you once. It
was under a lilac in the Loudon Woods. I knew at the time that
you were angry, and I should have apologised. I’m sorry, Laura.’
His sweetheart has risen, tasting something bitter-sweet. ‘What
is it, Laura?’ Mr. Don asks.
‘Somehow--I don’t know how--but, for a moment I seemed to feel
the smell of lilac. Dick was once--nice to me under a lilac.
Oh, Mr. Don----’ She goes to him like a child, and he soothes
and pets her.
‘There, there! That will be all right, quite all right.’ He
takes her to the door. ‘Good-night, my dear.’
‘Good-night, Mr. Don.’
‘Good-bye, Laura,’ says the third voice.
Mr. Don is looking so glum that the moment they are alone Dick
has to cry warningly, ‘Face!’ He is probably looking glum
himself, for he says candidly, ‘Pretty awful things, these
partings. Father, don’t feel hurt though I dodge the good-bye
business when I leave you.’
‘That’s so like you, Dick!’
‘I’ll have to go soon.’
‘Oh, Dick! Can’t you----’
‘There’s something I want not to miss, you see.’
‘I’m glad of that.’
‘I’m not going yet; but I mean that when I do I’ll just slip
away.’
‘What I am afraid of is that you won’t come back.’
‘I will--honest Injun--if you keep bright.’
‘But, if I do that, Dick, you might think I wasn’t missing you
so much.’
‘We know better than that. You see, if you’re bright, I’ll get
a good mark for it.’
‘I’ll be bright.’
Dick pops him into the settle again.
‘Remember your pipe.’
‘Yes, Dick.’
‘Do you still go to that swimming-bath, and do your dumb-bell
exercises?’
‘No, I----’
‘You must.’
‘All right, Dick, I will.’
‘And I want you to be smarter next time. Your hair’s awful.’
‘I’ll get it cut, Dick.’
‘Are you hard at work over your picture of those three Graces?’
‘No. I put that away. I’m just doing little things nowadays. I
can’t----’
‘Look here, sonny, you’ve got to go on with it. You don’t seem
to know how interested I am in your future.’
‘Very well, Dick; I’ll bring it out again.’
Mr. Don hesitates.
‘Dick, there is something I have wanted to ask you all the
time.’
Some fear seems to come into the boy’s voice. ‘Don’t ask it,
father.’
‘I shall go on worrying about it if I don’t--but just as you
like, Dick.’
‘Go ahead, father; ask me.’
‘It is this. Would you rather be--here--than there?’
After a pause the boy says, ‘Not always.’
‘What is the great difference, Dick?’
‘Well, down here one knows he has risks to run.’
‘And you miss that?’
‘It must be rather jolly.’
‘Did you know that was what I was to ask?’
‘Yes. But, remember, I’m young at it.’
‘And your gaiety, Dick; is it all real, or only put on to help
me?’
‘It’s--it’s half and half, father.’
‘Face!’ he cries, next moment. Then cajolingly, ‘Father,
K.C.M.G.!’
‘When will you come again, Dick?’
‘There’s no saying. One can’t always get through. They keep
changing the password.’ His voice grows troubled. ‘It’s
awfully difficult to get the password.’
‘What was it to-night?’
‘Love Bade Me Welcome.’
Mr. Don rises; he stares at his son.
‘How did you get it, Dick?’
‘I’m not sure.’ Dick seems to go closer to his father, as if
for protection. ‘There are lots of things I don’t understand
yet.’
‘There are things I don’t understand either. Dick, did you ever
try to send messages--from there--to us?’
‘Me? No.’
‘Or get messages from us?’
‘No. How could we?’
‘Is there anything in it?’
Mr. Don is not speaking to his son. He goes to the little table
and looks long at it. Has it taken on a sinister aspect? Those
chairs, are they guarding a secret?
‘Dick, this table--your mother--how could they----’
He turns, to find that Dick has gone.
‘Dick! My boy! Dick!’
The well-remembered voice leaves a message behind it.
‘Be bright, father.’
Mr. Don sits down by the fire to think it all out.
* * * * *
Printed in Great Britain by T. and A. CONSTABLE LTD.
at the Edinburgh University Press
Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other
spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_.
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