Rosa Mundi by Ethel May Dell (e books free to read .TXT) 📖

his footsteps, Nina sank down into a chair and burst into tears.


VI
AN OFFER OF HELP

On the following morning Nina did not descend the stairs till she had heard the car leave the house. The strain of the previous night's interview had told upon her. She felt that she had not the resolution to face such another.
The heat was intense. She remembered with regret that she had promised to attend a charitable bazaar in the City that afternoon. Somehow she could summon no relish either for that or the prospect of the theatre with Archie at night. She wondered whither her husband had proposed to take her, half wishing she had yielded a point to go.
She went to the bazaar, fully prepared to be bored. The first person she saw, however, was Archie, and at once the atmosphere seemed to lighten.
He attached himself to her without a moment's delay.
"I say," he said, "send your car back! I'll take you home. I've got my hansom here. It's much more exciting than a motor. We'll go and have tea somewhere presently."
Nina hesitated for barely a second, then did as he required.
Archie's eyes were frankly tender. But, after all, why not? They had known each other all their lives. She laughed at the momentary scruple as they strolled through the bazaar together.
Archie bought her an immense fan--"to keep off the flies," as he elegantly expressed it; and she made a few purchases herself as in duty bound, and conversed with several acquaintances.
Then, her companion becoming importunate for departure, she declined tea in the hall and went away with him.
Archie was enjoying himself hugely.
"Now, where would you like to go for tea?" he asked as they drove away.
"I don't care in the least," she said, "only I'm nearly dead. Let it be somewhere close at hand."
Archie promptly decided in favour of a tea-shop in St. Paul's Churchyard.
"I suppose you have read the morning papers?" he said, as they sat down. "I thought your husband had something up his sleeve."
"What do you mean?" queried Nina quickly. "No, I know nothing."
Archie laughed.
"Don't you really? Well, he has made a few thousands sit up, I can tell you. You've heard of the Crawley gold fields? Heaven knows where they are, but that doesn't matter--somewhere in Australia of course. No one knew anything about them till recently. Well, they were boomed tremendously a little while ago. Your husband was the prime mover. He went in for them largely. Everyone went for them. They held for a bit, then your husband began to sell as fast as he could. And then, of course, the shares went down to zero. People waited a bit, then sold--for what they could get. No one knew who did the buying till yesterday. My dear Nina, your husband has bought the lot. He has got the whole concern into his hands for next to nothing. The gold fields have turned up trumps. They stand three times as high as they ever did before. He was behind the scenes. He merely sold to create a slump. If he chose to sell again he could command almost any price he cared to ask. Well, one man's loss is another man's gain. But he's as rich as Croesus. They say there are a good many who would like to be at his throat."
Nina listened with disgust undisguised on her face.
"How I loathe money!" she said abruptly.
"Oh, I say!" protested Archie. "You're not such an extremist as that. Think of the host of good things that can't be done without it."
"What good things does he do?" she demanded contemptuously. "He simply lives to heap up wealth."
"You can't say for certain that he doesn't do a few decent things when no one's looking," suggested Archie, who liked to be fair, even to those for whom he felt no liking. "People--rich men like that--do, you know. Why, only last night I heard of a man--he's a West End physician--who runs a sort of private hospital somewhere in the back slums, and actually goes and practises there when his consulting hours are over. Pure philanthropy that, you know. And no one but the slummers any the wiser. They say he's simply adored among them. They go to him in all their troubles, physical or otherwise. That's only an instance. I don't say your husband does that sort of thing. But he may."
Nina uttered her bitter little laugh.
"You always were romantic, Archie," she said. "But I'm afraid I'm past the romantic age. Anyhow I'm an unbeliever."
Archie gave her a keen look.
"I say--" he said, and stopped.
"Well?" Nina looked back at him questioningly.
"I beg your pardon," he said, colouring boyishly. "You won't like what I was going to say. I think I won't say it."
"You needn't consider my feelings," she returned, "I assure you I am not used to it."
"Oh, well," he said. "I was going to say that you talk as if he were a beast to you. Is he?"
Nina raised her dark eyebrows and did not instantly reply. Archie looked away from her. He felt uncomfortably that he had gone too far.
Then slowly she made answer:
"No, he is not. I think he has begun to realize that the battle is not always to the strong."
Struck by something in her tone, Archie glanced at her again.
"Jove!" he suddenly said. "How you hate him!"
The words were out almost before he knew it. Nina's face changed instantly. But Archie's contrition was as swift.
"Oh, I say, forgive me!" he broke in, with a persuasive hand on her arm. "Do, if you can! I know it was unpardonable of me. I'm so awfully sorry. You see, I--"
She interrupted hastily.
"It doesn't matter--it doesn't matter. I understand. It was quite an excusable mistake. Please don't look so distressed! It hasn't hurt me much. I think it would have hurt me more if it had been literally true."
The sentences ran out rapidly. She was as agitated as he. They had the little recess to themselves, and their voices scarcely rose above a whisper.
"Then it wasn't true?" Archie said, with a look of relief.
Nina drew back. She was not prepared to go as far as that. All her life she had sought to be honest in her dealings.
"It hasn't come actually to that yet," she said under her breath. "But it may--it may."
Somehow it relieved the burden that pressed upon her to be able to speak thus openly to her life-long comrade. But Archie looked grieved, almost shocked.
"What will you do if it does?" he asked.
"I shall leave him," she said, her face growing hard. "I think he understands that."
There was a heavy silence between them. Then impulsively, with pure generosity, Archie spoke.
"Nina," he said, "if you should need--help--of any sort, you know--will you count on me?"
Nina hesitated for a moment.
"Please!" said Archie gently.
She bent her head.
"Thank you," she said. "I will."


VII
THE DELIVERER

Half-an-hour later they went out again into the blazing sunshine.
"What do you think of my hack?" Archie asked, as they drove away westwards. "I got him at Tattersall's the other day. I haven't driven him before to-day. He's a bit jumpy. But I like an animal that can jump, don't you know."
"I know you do," laughed Nina. "I believe that is purely why you haven't started a motor yet. They can do everything that is vicious and extraordinary except jump. But do you really like a horse to shy at everything he passes? Look at him now! He doesn't like that hand-cart with red paint."
"He's an artist," grinned Archie. "It offends his eye; and no wonder. Don't be alarmed, though! He won't do anything outrageous. My man knows how to manage him."
Nina leant back. She was not, as a rule, nervous, but, as Archie's new purchase was forced protesting past the object of his fright, she was conscious of a very decided feeling of uneasiness. The animal looked to her vicious as well as alarmed.
They got safely past the hand-cart, and a brief interval of tranquillity followed as they trotted briskly down Ludgate Hill.
"He won't have time to look at anything now," said Archie cheerfully.
The words had scarcely left his lips when the tire of a stationary car they were passing exploded with a report like a rifle shot. In a second Archie's animal leapt into the air, struck the ground with all four hoofs together--and bolted.
"My man's got him," said Archie. "Sit still! Nothing's going to happen."
He put his arm in front of Nina and gripped the farther side of the hansom.
But Nina had not the smallest intention of losing her head. During the first few moments her sensations were more of breathless interest than fear. Certainly she was very far from panic.
She saw the roadway before them clear as if by magic before their galloping advance. She heard shouts, warning cries, yells of excitement. She also heard, very close to her, Archie's voice, swearing so evenly and deliberately that she was possessed by an insane desire to laugh at him. Above everything else, she heard the furious, frantic rhythm of the flying hoofs before them. And yet somehow inexplicably she did not at first feel afraid.
They tore with a speed that seemed to increase momentarily straight down the thoroughfare that a few seconds before had seemed choked with traffic. They shaved by vans, omnibuses, hand-barrows. Houses and shops seemed to whirl past them, like a revolving nightmare--ever the same, yet somehow ever different. A train was thundering over the bridge as they galloped beneath it. The maddened horse heard and stretched himself to his utmost speed.
And then came tragedy--- the tragedy that Nina always felt that she had known from the beginning of that wild gallop must come.
As they raced on to Ludgate Circus she had a momentary glimpse of a boy on a bicycle traversing the street before them at right angles. Archie ceased suddenly to swear. The reins that till then had been taut sagged down abruptly. He made a clutch at them and failed to catch them. They slipped away sideways and dragged on the ground.
There came a shock, a piercing cry. Nina started forward for the first time, but Archie flung his arms round her, holding her fast. Then they were free of the obstacle and dashing on again.
"Let me see!" she gasped. "Let me see!"
They bumped against a curb and nearly overturned. Then one of their wheels caught another vehicle. The hansom was whizzed half round, but the pitiless hoofs still tore on and almost miraculously the worst was still averted.
Archie's hold was close and nearly suffocated her; but over his shoulder Nina still managed to look ahead.
And thus looking she saw the most wonderful, and the most terrifying, episode of the whole adventure.
She saw a man in faultless City attire leap suddenly from the footway to the road in front of them. For a breathless instant she saw him poised to spring, and in her heart there ran a sudden, choking sense of anguished recognition. She shut her eyes and cowered in Archie's arms. Deliverance was coming. She felt it in every nerve. But how? And by whom?
There came a jerk and a plunge, a furious, straining effort. The fierce galloping ceased, yet they made still for a few yards a halting, difficult progress.
Then they stopped altogether, and she felt the shock of hoofs upon the splashboard.
Another moment and that, too, ceased. They stood still, and Archie's arms relaxed.
Nina lifted her head and saw her husband hatless in the road, his face set and