An Unknown Lover by Mrs George de Horne Vaizey (hardest books to read TXT) š
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āAndāā he said hoarsely, āwas that the reason why you neverā?ā
Grizel put her head on one side, and stared thoughtfully into the blaze.
āPartly. Mostly. Yes! And my old Buddy. She wonāt live long, and I owe her so much. But mostly the idea of playing the game. Most of the men I have met have positions to maintain, and expect their wives to lend a hand. They canāt afford a love marriage, and Iām proud in my own little way. I shouldnāt like to turn out a disappointment.ā
āThere are some men who are old-fashioned enough to prefer to provide for their own wives, who would dread the fortune even more heartily than others do the lack of it.ā
āThere are. I realise that. Bless their dear hearts! But not the majority! Thereās an heir to a Dukedom hovering round now, Martin; not compromising himself, you understand, but by steady attention to business laying the foundation of a claim. If the old Buddy died and left me her heir, heād tell me that he had forborne to intrude, had valiantly subdued his impatience, etc., etc., I never want the money quite so badly as when I imagine that interview! Iām not spiteful as a rule, but I shall think fate treats me hardly if I never have a chance of scorching that young man... Well! weāll seeā!ā
āYou want then,āyou will be disappointed if you donāt get the money?ā
She turned her eyes full upon him, distended in the widest of stares.
āWell, I should just farther think I should! T-errifically disappointed! Squelched. Flum-macked. Laid out flat. For the hour, that is. I couldnāt go on being worried, for all the fortunes on earth. It will be a case of adapting myself to a new sort of happinessācāest tout! Thatās easily done.ā
The joy of the lover, the keen, appraising interest of the artist, were both eloquent in Martinās glance as he considered her eloquent face.
āYes! One cannot imagine Grizel less than happy and content. And yet to an ordinary nature, your life during these last years, for all its luxuries, would have seemed a poor thing. You have made your happiness by managing to love a very unlovable character. Itās a big feat, Grizel; a very big feat!ā
Grizel rubbed her nose, a slow, thoughtful rub with a raised forefinger. The homely movement seemed ridiculously out of character with the ethereal form and the transparent hand, on which the firelight woke the gleam of flawless diamonds.
āCan a āfeatā be something for which you have never tried? I never try to love any one. Either I love āem, orāI donāt bother! Disliking, hating,āitās too much trouble! I wipe āem out... Same way with things; therefore, as a logical conclusion nothing remains but what I do like. Therefore,ālogical inference again!āone must be happy, because thereās nothing to make one un-happy. Sounds easy enough, doesnāt it?ā
Martinās lip curled.
āI wonder,ā he said. āI wonder what Katrine would say if you propounded that theory to her? I fancy, poor girl, that the very opposite of your programme would come nearer to her outlook on life. She finds it as difficult to be happy as you do to be miserable. And yetāsheās had her chance!ā
āMartin, she has not! What chance has she had? Tucked away in this dark old house, with you shut up in your study all day, and in your moods all night? My old Buddy loves me; itās not an ordinary form of loving perhaps, but she does! Iām more to her than the whole world. And Iāve had my fling... Poor old Katrine has had no love, and no fling, nothing but duty, and brotherly affection, and home-made clothes. Itās enough to make any woman snap. Iām glad she is discontented. Iāll make her more discontented still, before Iāve done. Sheās pot-bound, like your stale old ferns, and needs uprooting, and shaking, and planting in fresh, strong earth. Then sheāll bloom, and you, poor bat! will be amazed at what a fine big bloom it is. It isnāt a sign of greatness, Martin, to blink in the sun, because one is too lazy too move, and is content to bask, and be stroked, and lick up cream. Thatās me! Katrine is bigger; it needs more to fill her life, but sheās only just beginning to grow. You donāt know, Martin, how sweet a woman Katrine is going to be!ā
Martin smiled; a smile of serene, unshakable conviction. He knew his sister. She was a good girl, well meaning, if a little difficult by nature; he, of all people on earth, would be the last to deny Katrineās good points, butāto compare her with Grizel, to account to her a greatness of nature above that of the sweetest, kindliest, most loving of women,āthat was a flight of fancy beyond even his well-trained powers!
āAnd who,ā queried Grizel, with sudden energy, āis Katrine thinking of, when she sits smiling into space, and giving silly answers to obvious questions, and putting horrid sugar into my tea,ātell me that, if you can! It is your profession in life to study men and women, and analyse their thoughts. What do you make of the mystery of the woman upon your hearth?ā
Martin smiled superior.
āThere is none. She is thinking of the grocer, and determining to hurl another complaint at his head, because he will insist upon sending us sandy grit, instead of honest West Indian sugar, or of the butcher, whom she suspects of frozen meat, orāor of the Y.W., who has left smudges on the plates... Nothing more romantic, I assure you.ā
āBlind bat of a man! thatās all you know. Iāll take to novel-writing myself at this rate. If this is the insight and inner vision of āone of the most popular of our young writersā thereās room for Grizel Dundas! I have not been in the house a week, but I know two thingsāSome one is making love to Katrine, andāKatrine enjoys the process! By a process of elucidation I know also that it is not the doctor with the beard, nor the curate with the smile, nor the Caldecote squire who rides the white horse, nor the squeaky person who sings. It isnāt this neighbourhood which holds the treasure. She has an air of calmness and detachment in partaking of your rural joys. Not a flicker of āWill he come?ā ... Methinks my friend, he lives afar!ā
The smile broadened upon Martinās lips. Women, the most sensible of women, had a way of searching for sentimental reasons for the most prosaic happenings; it was an interesting trait, and from the altitude of a manās sound common-sense, attractive enough. It pleased him to hear Grizel imagining love stories with Katrine as heroine, without foundation as they were.
āCanāt you go a little further and discover his name and address? It would be interesting to know.ā
āJim. India,ā replied Grizel with a promptness which startled her hearer into attention at last. The face which confronted him was full of triumph, and a malicious delight in his discomfiture. He stared discomfited, amazed, subtly aggrieved.
āJim, India! There is no Jim! She knows no one there, not a soul, except Jack Middleton and Dorothea. What put it into your head to fancy such a thing? Has sheā?ā
āThere is a Jim, and the Middletons know him. Dorothea wrote about some commissions, and Katrine showed me the noteāwanting my advice. There was a reference to one āJim,āāsheād forgotten that, quite a colourless reference, but when I questioned, she blushed!ā Grizel covered her cheeks with her hands, in eloquent gesture. āOh, such a blush! I looked away, but I thought: āWhy should one blush at a name?ā and after that I went on thinking. Itās Jim, IndiaāMartin, you may take my word for it, though how, and why, and when, I have no more idea than you have yourself. Thereās a new interest in her life; any one with two eyes can see that, and she writes huge, huge letters...ā
āTo Dorothea! Sheās done that for years. Iāve often wondered what she finds to say.ā
Grizel rolled eloquent eyes to the ceiling.
āI have been young,ā she declaimed dramatically, āand now am old, yet have I never seen a woman staring into space, smirking, and looking silly, considering how she can best turn a sentence, to another woman! I tell you that which I do know and, Martin dear, itās not disloyalty... I wouldnāt have breathed a word, if it had not been for the hope of helping both. Keep your own eyes open, and act! Katrineās conscience is of the good, old-fashioned, Nonconformist type which urges her on to do the thing she most dislikes, out of a deluded idea that it must needs be right! Sheās quite capable of playing suttee with her life. Donāt let her do it!ā
āHow can I help it? I know nothing. I am not consulted. I believe the whole thing is imagination. If there had been anything real she would surely have confided in you.ā
āMe? Iām the last person,āthe last person in the worldāā
The words were spoken on the impulse of the moment, and apparently regretted as soon as they were pronounced. Grizel flushed; obviously, unmistakably, even in the glow of the firelight. She flushed, and pushing back her chair rose hurriedly to her feet.
āWhew! That fire! Katrine was right,āit does get close. And I believe it is going to clear.āIāll go and see.ā
āWhy are you the last? Why?ā
Martin had followed her, was questioning with a new light in his eyesāeager, curious, anticipatory. On her way towards the door her progress was blocked by his tall form.
āWhy the last, Grizel?ā he repeated urgently. āTell me! I want to know. Why should Katrineā?ā
Never before had he seen a trace of embarrassment break the lazy serenity of Grizelās mien. The sight of it, and the possibility of an intoxicating explanation of her statement, fired his blood. For the last two years he had been fighting against this love, fighting it as a forbidden thing, a thing of which to be ashamed, but lately, subtly, the mental position had changed. Life was forcibly pushing him from one standpoint after another, proving its untenability, sending him forth to find fresh fields.
āWhy should Katrineā?ā he cried, and at that moment the door opened and Katrine herself stood upon the threshold.
Her face was pale, her eyes grave and gentle, the picture of her as she appeared at that moment dwelt in Martinās mind, and brought with it a startled recognition of his sisterās charm, then in a flash, she stiffened; the softness passed from the eyes, and was replaced by a chilly scorn. This was a love scene upon which she had intruded,āGrizel flushed, protesting, Martin flushed, appealing, and her own name āKatrineā bandied upon his lipāno doubt to be waved aside, as an obstacle blocking the way.
It was in a voice icily bereft of expression that she delivered her message:
āI have just taken a message for you, Grizel. They have rung up to say that Lady Griselda is worse. You are wanted at home at once.ā
Lady Griselda Dundas lay a-dying on her great oak bed. For two long weeks after Grizelās summons home she had lingered on, until now her aquiline features were attenuated to a knife-like sharpness, and every particle of flesh seemed to have departed from the skeleton form, but the eyes were alive, conscious, yet with a puzzled wistfulness in their glance. Her brain had cleared, as often happens immediately before the great change; the present was clear, but over the past the cloud
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