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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/35414-8.txt b/35414-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..527a1ca --- /dev/null +++ b/35414-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9048 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker, by +John Strange Winter + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker + A Novel + + +Author: John Strange Winter + + + +Release Date: February 27, 2011 [eBook #35414] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. +WHITTAKER*** + + +E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. WHITTAKER + +A Novel + +by + +JOHN STRANGE WINTER + +Author of +"_Bootles' Baby_," "_The Truth-Tellers_," "_A Blaze of Glory_," +"_Marty_," "_Little Joan_," "_Cherry's Child_," +"_A Blameless Woman_," _etc._ + + + + + + + +Funk & Wagnalls Company +New York and London +1904 + +Copyright, 1904, by +Funk & Wagnalls Company + +[Published, June, 1904] + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. REGINA BROWN 9 + II. MRS. ALFRED WHITTAKER 17 + III. YE DENE 26 + IV. SKATING ON THIN ICE 35 + V. THE S. R. W. 45 + VI. REGINA'S VIEWS 54 + VII. "LITTLE PIGLETS OF ENGLISH" 64 + VIII. CANDID OPINIONS 73 + IX. THE GIRLS' DOMAIN 83 + X. A WEIGHTY BUSINESS 92 + XI. AMBITIONS 101 + XII. TWOPENNY DINNERS 110 + XIII. DETAILS 119 + XIV. DIAMOND EARRINGS 127 + XV. A GOLDEN DAY 136 + XVI. OTHER GODS 144 + XVII. REGINA COMES TO A CONCLUSION 152 + XVIII. THE FIRST LITTLE VANITIES 160 + XIX. BROKEN-HEARTED MIRANDA 168 + XX. FAMILY CRITICISM 176 + XXI. DEAR DIEPPE 183 + XXII. REGINA ON THE WARPATH 190 + XXIII. THE DRESSING-ROOM 198 + XXIV. RUMOR 208 + XXV. POOR MOTHER 216 + XXVI. THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH 224 + XXVII. ROUND EVERYWHERE 233 + XXVIII. A REJUVENATED REGINA 241 + XXIX. WARY AND PATIENT 247 + XXX. DADDY'S HEART 255 + XXXI. REGINA SETS FOOT ON THE DOWN GRADE 263 + XXXII. WISE JULIA 270 + XXXIII. GRASP YOUR NETTLE 277 + XXXIV. A TRENCHANT QUESTION 284 + XXXV. THE END OF IT ALL 292 + + + + +The Little Vanities of +Mrs. Whittaker + + + + +CHAPTER I + +REGINA BROWN + + There are many who think that the unfamiliar is best. + + +To begin my story properly, I must go back to the time when the Empress +Eugenie had not started the vogue of the crinoline, when the Indian +Mutiny had not stained the pages of history, and the Crimean War was as +yet but a cloud the size of a man's hand on the horizon of the +world--that is to say, to the very early fifties. + +It was then that a little girl-child was born into the world, a little +girl who was called by the name of Regina, and whose father and mother +bore the homely appellation of Mr. and Mrs. Brown; yes, plain, simple +and homely Brown, without even so much as an "e" placed at the tail +thereof to give it a distinction from all the other Browns. + +So far as I have ever heard, the young childhood of Regina Brown was +passed in quite an ordinary and conventional atmosphere. Her parents +were well-meaning, honest, kindly, well-disposed, middle-class persons. +According to their lights they educated their daughter extremely well; +that is to say, she was sent to a genteel seminary, she was always +nicely dressed, and she wore her hair in ringlets. + +This state of things continued, without any particular change, +until Regina was nearly twenty years old. By that time the great +Franco-Prussian War had beaten itself into peace, the horrors of the +Commune of Paris had come and gone, and the sun of Regina Brown's +twentieth birthday rose upon a world in which nations had come once +more, at least to outward seeming, to the conclusion that all men are +brothers. It might have been some long-forgotten echo from the early +days when France and England fought against Russia, or it might have +been in a measure owing to the conflict, so long, so deadly and so +bloody, between France and Germany, but certain is it that, when Regina +Brown realized that she was twenty years old, she came to the conclusion +that she was leading a wasted life. + +If the period in which she lived had been that of to-day, I think Regina +Brown would have entered herself at any hospital that would have +accepted her and would have trained for a nurse; but, in the early +seventies, nursing was not, as now, the almost regulation answer to the +question, "What shall we do with our girls?" + +"What shall I do with my life?" she said, looking in the modest little +glass which swung above her toilet-table. "What shall I do with my life? +Live here, pandering to my father and mother, listening to my father's +accounts of how some man at the club wagered a shilling on a matter +which could make no difference to anyone; hearing mother's elaborate +account of the delinquencies of Charlotte Ann, who really is not such a +bad girl, after all. I can't go on like this--I can't bear it any +longer. It's a waste of life; it's a waste of a strong, capable, +original brain. I must get out into the world and do something." + +In the course of life one comes across so many people who are always +yearning to go out into the world and do something, but Regina Brown was +not a young woman who could or would content herself with mere yearning. +With her to think was to do. With her a resolve was a fact practically +accomplished. + +"I will go in for the higher education," she said to herself. "What do I +know now? I can dance a little, play a little, paint a little. I know no +useful things. My mother sews my clothes and makes my under-linen; my +mother orders the dinner, and never will entrust the making of the +pastry to any hand but her own. What is there left for me? Nothing! I +must go out into the world. There is only one line in which I am likely +to make success, and I am not the class of woman who makes for failure. +I will become a great teacher. To become a great teacher, I must qualify +myself. I must work, and work hard. I must enter at some regular school +of learning, or, failing that, I must find a first-class tutor to work +with me." + +Eventually Regina Brown adopted the latter course. As a matter of fact, +she was not sufficiently advanced in any branch of education to enter at +any school of learning which admitted women to its curriculum. To Regina +it mattered little or nothing. For the next ten years she lived in an +atmosphere of hard learning. She proved herself a worker of no mean +ability. She passed all manner of examinations, she took numberless +degrees, and on the day on which she was thirty years old, she found +herself once more gazing at her face in the glass and wondering what she +was going to do with the knowledge that she had so laboriously acquired. + +"Regina Brown," she said to herself, "you are no nearer to becoming a +great teacher than you were ten years ago this very day. Will anyone +ever put you in charge of a high school? Will anyone give you a +responsible post in any of the spheres where women can prove that they +are the equals, and more than the equals, of men? It is very doubtful. +You know much, but you have no influence. Ten years ago to-day, Regina +Brown, you told yourself that your mode of existence was a waste of +life. Well, you are wasting your life still. The best thing you can do, +Regina Brown, is to get yourself married." + +So Regina Brown got herself married. + +Now, to put such an action in those words is not a romantic way of +describing the most--or what should be the most--romantic episode of a +woman's life; but I use Regina's own words, and I say that she got +herself married. + +She was not wholly unattractive. She had a pinky skin and frank grey +eyes, but her figure was of the pincushion order, and much study had +done away with that lissomness which is one of the most attractive +attributes of womenkind. Her hands were white, strong, determined; white +because they were mostly occupied about books and papers, strong because +she herself was strong, and determined because it was her nature to be +so. Her feet, frankly speaking, were large. She was a young woman who +sat solidly on a solid chair, and looked thoroughly in place. Her +features otherwise were neither bad nor good, and I think she was +probably one of the worst dressers that the world has ever seen. It was +no uncommon thing for Regina Brown to wear a salmon-pink ribbon twisted +about her ample waist and to crown her toilet with a covering of +turquoise blue. + +It was about this time that Regina received a valentine--the first in +her life. She held it sacred from any eye but her own, in fact she put +it into the fire before any of the family had time to see it. The words +ran thus:-- + + "Regina Brown, Regina Brown, + You think yourself a beauty; + In pink and green + And yellow sheen + You go to do your duty. + + Regina Brown, Regina Brown, + Whenever will you learn + That pink and green + And golden sheen + Are colors you should spurn? + + Regina Brown, Regina Brown, + Take lesson from the lily, + A lesson meek, + Not far to seek, + 'Twill keep you from being silly!" + +I cannot truthfully say that the valentine did Regina the smallest +amount of good. You know, my gentle reader, if we only look at things +the right way, we can find good in everything. As some poet has +beautifully put it in a couplet about sermons in stones and running +brooks--"And good in everything," Regina might even have found good out +of that malicious and spiteful valentine with its excellent likeness, +done in water colors, of herself clad in weird and wonderful garments, +the like of which even she had never attempted. But Regina consigned it +to the flames, and went on her way precisely as she had done before, for +Regina was a woman of strong nature and settled convictions. I give you +this piece of information because you will find by the story which I +shall tell and you will read, that this curious dominance of nature +proved to be one of the mainsprings of this remarkable character. + +So Regina went on her way and she got married. I don't say that it was a +brilliant alliance--by no means. The man was young, younger than Regina. +He was weak-looking and pretty, of a pink-and-white, wax-doll type, with +shining fair hair and rather watery blue eyes. To his weakness Regina's +dominant nature strongly appealed; perhaps, also, in some measure the +fact that she was the sole child of her father's house, and that her +father lived upon his means, and described himself as "gentleman" in the +various papers connected with the politics of his country which from +time to time reached him. Be that as it may, an engagement came about +between Regina Brown and this young man, who was "something in the city" +and who rejoiced in the name of Alfred Whittaker. + +I must confess that it was somewhat of a shock to Regina when she found +that among his fellows--young, vapid, rather raffish young men--he was +known by the abbreviative of "Alf." + +"Dearest," she said to him one day, after this unpalatable information +had come to her, "I noticed that your friend, Mr. Fitzsimmons, called +you 'Alf' last night." + +"Yes, the fellows mostly do," he replied. + +"But you were not called Alf at home, dearest," said Regina. + +She laid her substantial hand upon his arm and looked at him yearningly. + +"My mother and my sisters always called me Alfie," said he, returning +the gaze with interest, for he admired Regina with an admiration which +was wholly genuine. + +"I really couldn't call you Alfie," she said. + +"I don't see why you couldn't, Regina," he replied. "It seems to me such +an awful thing for people who love one another to be saying 'Regina' and +'Alfred.' There is something so chilly about it. Did your people never +call you by a pet name?" + +"Never," said Regina. + +"I should like to," said Alfred, still more yearningly. + +"If you can think of a pet name that will not be derogatory to my +dignity--" Regina began, when the weak and weedy Alfred insinuated an +arm about her ample waist and drew her nearer to him. + +Without some effort on the part of Regina Brown, I doubt if his +intention could have been carried into effect, but Regina yielded +herself to his tenderness with a shy coyness which was sufficiently +marked to have merited even the pet name of Tiny. + +"What would you like me to call you--Alfred?" she asked, with the +faintest possible pause before the last word. + +"Call me Alfie," said he in manly and imperative tones. + +"Dear Alfie!" said Regina. + +"Darling!" said Alfie. + +"You couldn't call me darling as a name," said Regina, coyly. + +"I shall always call you darling," he gurgled. "But I should like, as a +name, to call you Queenie." + +"You shall call me Anna Maria Stubbs if you like," said Regina, with a +sudden surrender of her dignity. + +And forthwith, from that moment, between themselves she was known no +longer by her real name, but sank into a state of hopeless adoration, +and was called Queenie. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MRS. ALFRED WHITTAKER + + It is curious how the possession of humble things satisfies the + souls of naturally ambitious people. + + +In due course Regina Brown merged her identity into that of Mrs. Alfred +Whittaker. + +They were not married in a hurry. Regina had come of old-fashioned +people, who held firmly to the belief that courting time is the sweetest +of a woman's life; that it is good for man to look and long for the +woman of his heart, and for woman to be coy and to hold him who will +eventually become her liege lord at arm's length for a suitable period. +To people of the Brown, and indeed of the Whittaker class, there is +something in a short engagement and a hurried-on marriage which borders +almost upon immodesty. + +"We won't be engaged very long," said Alfred, when he had been made the +happiest man in the world for nearly six weeks. + +"No, not long," returned Regina. "My father and mother were engaged for +seven years." + +"Good God!" exclaimed Alfred, who was somewhat given to strong language, +as many weak men are. "Good God, Regina, you have taken my breath +away!" + +"I wasn't proposing to be engaged to _you_ for seven years, Alfie dear," +she said to him, with an indulgent air. "Oh no. I always thought that +father and mother made such a mistake, although you couldn't get mother +to own it." + +"I should think so, indeed. Seven years! Seven months is nearer my idea +of the proper time for being engaged." + +"Seven months? Oh, that would be too soon. I couldn't possibly get my +things ready." + +"Oh, _things_," said he, with a manly disregard of chiffons which +appealed to Regina as nothing else would have done. + +"I must have things, Alfie." + +"Yes, darling, I know you must. And I don't say that a good start-out +wouldn't be very useful to us; but you won't spin it out too long, will +you?" + +"I never was brought up to sew," said Regina, "I am learning now." + +"Can't you buy 'em ready-made?" + +"They don't last," said Regina. "And mother's idea of the trousseau is +to give me three dozen of everything. And they've all got to be made. +I'm sewing white seams now, although I can't cut out and plan. Look at +my finger." + +He possessed himself of the firm, strong, first finger of his +_fiancée's_ left hand and kissed it rapturously. "Poor little finger," +said he, "poor dear little finger! Can't you have people in to do the +things?" + +"I am afraid that would go against mother's ideas," Regina returned, +"but I'll sound her on the point." + +Eventually Regina Brown's three dozen of everything were got together, +neatly folded, and tied up in half-dozens with delicate shades of +ribbon, and the wedding day was fixed to take place just fourteen months +after the engagement had come about. + +The bride's parents came down handsomely on the occasion. It was a great +event, that wedding. Eight bridesmaids, four in pink and four in blue, +followed Regina to the altar. Regina herself was dressed as a bride in +a shiny white silk, with a voluminous veil. There was a large company, +and much flying to and fro of hired carriages--mostly with white +horses--distributing of favors, and a popping of champagne corks, when +all was over and the two had been made man and wife. And then there was +a heart-broken parting, when Regina was torn away from the ample bosom +of her adoring mother, and a wild shower of rice and satin slippers, +such as strewed the road before the Brown domicile for many days after +the wedding was over. + +So Regina Brown became Mrs. Alfred Whittaker, and her place in her +father's house knew her no more. + +All things considered, she made an admirable wife. If Alfred adored +Regina, Regina worshipped Alfred, and under her care, and in the +sunshine of her lavish and outspoken admiration of his personal beauty, +he grew sleek and prosperous. + +If only a son had been born to them, a little son who would have carried +on the traditions of both families, who could have been called +Brown-Whittaker, and gladdened the hearts of three separate households. +But no son came--never a sign of a son. On the contrary, about a year +after their marriage a little daughter arrived on the scene, who was +welcomed as a precursor of the unborn Brown-Whittaker, and was named +Maud. And little Maud Whittaker grew and throve apace, went through the +usual early infantile troubles, and, about two years later, the process +which is known among domestic people as having her nose put out of +joint. + +And again it was a girl. + +For some reason not explained to the whole world, the second baby was +christened Julia, and forthwith became a very important item in the +world. + +"The next one _must_ be a boy," said Mrs. Alfred Whittaker, as she +cuddled the new arrival to her side. + +But there never was a next one, and slowly, as the second baby got +through her troubles and began to toddle about and to play games with +her sister, the truth was borne in upon her parents that what Maud had +begun Julia had finished--that no boy would come to gladden the hearts +of the Whittaker and Brown households, that no little Brown-Whittaker +would ever make history. + +Well, it was when Julia Whittaker was about six years old that her +mother's mind underwent a curious change. She was then just forty years +old, a fine, buxom, healthy woman, a good deal given to looking upon the +rest of the world with a superior eye, to feeling that whereas the other +married ladies of her set had been content with the genteel education +of a private seminary, she had gone further and had received the +wide-minded and broad education of a professional man. + +It was true enough. There was no subject on which Mrs. Alfred Whittaker +was not able to demonstrate an exceedingly pronounced and autocratic +opinion. She seldom wasted her time, even after her marriage, in reading +what she called trash, and other people spoke of as a "circulating +library." Deep thoughts filled her mind, great questions entranced her +interest, and high views dominated her life. She was keen on politics of +the most Radical order. She had sifted religion, and found it wanting. +She was an advanced Socialist--in her views, that is to say--and deep +down in her heart, although as yet it had never found expression, was an +innate admiration of men and an equal contempt for women. She felt, and +often she said, that she had a man's mind in an extremely feminine body. + +"I cannot," she declared one day, when discussing a great social +question with a clever friend of Alfred's, "shut my eyes to the fact +that I do not look on a question of this kind as an ordinary woman +would. An ordinary woman jumps to conclusions without knowing why or +wherefore. I, on the contrary, have a clear and logical mind, which gets +me perhaps to the same goal by a clear and definite process of +reasoning. We may come from the same, and we may arrive at the same, and +yet we are so different that neither has any sympathy with the other." + +And out of this conversation there arose in Regina Whittaker's mind an +idea that, after all, another decade had gone by, and she was still +wasting her life. + +"I asked myself a question at twenty," her thoughts ran. "I asked it +again at thirty, and now I have touched my fortieth birthday, here I am +asking it yet once more. I have fulfilled the functions of wife and +mother, and nothing else. Yet I am an extraordinary woman, far out of +the common in intelligence, brain power, logic, and in all mental +attributes. It only shows me that the time is not yet ripe for woman to +become the equal of man. It is not the fault of the woman. Through many +generations--nay, hundreds of years--she has been kept ignorant, +inefficient, downtrodden by her lord and master. She has been used as a +toy, and her one mission in life has been a mere function of nature--the +reproduction of the race. It makes me savage," she went on, talking to +herself, "when I hear it cited as an immense work that a woman has +produced so many babies. How many, I wonder, have produced those babies +with any love of duty, poor feeble souls? After all, there is so little +duty about it, and no choice midway. Well, here am I, who should be in a +big position in the world, I who should have made myself a name, I who +could have put George Eliot and all her set in the shade. I have +absolutely wasted my life. I suppose I began too late. I am out of the +common, but I do not rank as a woman out of the common. Still, I have +daughters. From this moment I dedicate my life to my little Maud and +Julia. They shall not begin their mission in the world too late. I would +rather have been the mother of boys, but as I have proved to be only the +mother of girls, I will try to make those girls what I have missed being +myself. They shall be out of the common; they shall belong to the New +Womanhood; they shall be brought up at least to be the equals of men." + +Now by this time the "something in the city" on which Regina and Alfred +had started housekeeping had resolved itself into a very solid and +prosperous position, though Alfred Whittaker--make no mistake about +it--was not, and was never likely to be, a millionaire, or even a +very wealthy man. But he was prosperous in a comfortable, assured, +middle-class way. He was ambitious too--I mean socially ambitious--and +he liked to feel that his wife was in a good set in the suburb in which +they lived. He liked to go to church occasionally, and to have his +own seat when he did so. He liked his rector to come to him as an +open-handed, clean-living man on whom he could depend for contributions +suitable to his style of living. He liked to be able to take his wife to +a theatre, and to dine her beforehand, and to give her a bit of supper +afterwards. He liked to go to the seaside for August, and to take a trip +to Paris at Easter if he was so inclined. And, above all things, Alfred +Whittaker liked a good dinner, a pretty, tasteful table, and a neat +handmaiden to wait upon him. To do him justice, he never lost his early +admiration for Regina. It was wonderful that he had not done so, for +with her improved circumstances and her improved position, Regina's +taste in dress had not advanced. Sometimes, on a birthday, or some +anniversary kept religiously by them, such as their day of engagement, +their wedding day, the day on which they first met, the day on which +they moved into the house they occupied--such domestic altars as most of +us erect during the course of our lives--he would bring her home a +present of a bonnet. He called it a bonnet, but it was generally a hat. +Alfred always called it a bonnet nevertheless, and Regina invariably +accepted it with blushes of admiration, and wore it with what, in +another woman, would have been the courage of a martyr. It was no +martyrdom to Regina. I have seen her with all her fair hair turned back +from her large face, crowned with a _modiste's_ edifice which would have +proved trying to a lovely girl of eighteen. + +"You like my hat?" said Regina, one day to a friend. "Isn't it lovely? +Dear Alfie brought it for me from town. I believe he sent to Paris for +it. It has a French name in the crown. Much more extravagant than I +should have got for myself--these white feathers won't wear, and all +this lovely sky-blue velvet and these delicate pearl ornaments are far +beyond what I should have chosen on my own responsibility. But I can't +help seeing how it becomes me." + +"Why don't you have a waistcoat of the same color--a front, you +know--this part?" asked her friend, making a line from her throat to +her belt buckle. + +"There is a sameness about the idea," said Regina, superbly. "I have +always flattered myself, Mrs. Marston, that I am one of the few women +who can bear to mix her colors. You remember the old story of the young +man who asked Sir Joshua Reynolds what he mixed his colors with, and his +reply--'Brains, sir, brains.'" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +YE DENE + + There is something very alluring in the idea of kicking down + conventions, yet if this be carried too far, it is possible + that all the feminine virtues will follow suit. A woman bereft + of all the feminine virtues is as pitiable a sight as a head + which has been shorn of its locks. + + +A couple of years went by, and again the circumstances of the Alfred +Whittakers were improved. For the old lady whose husband had courted her +for seven long years was taken ill and quite suddenly died. Her death +affected and upset Regina very much. It happened that she had not been +over to her old home for several days, though Regina, although she was +such a good wife, had continued to be also an extremely good daughter, +and usually contrived to visit the old people at least twice a week. +Just at this time, however, some trifling indisposition of little +Julia's had kept her from paying her usual visit to her parents. + +"Here is a letter from my father," she said one morning at breakfast to +Alfred. "He seems to think mother is not very well." + +"Oh, poor dear, poor dear. You had better go across and see her." + +"Yes. I should have gone yesterday but for the child not being quite +well," Regina responded. + +"Anyway, she's all right to-day--well enough for you to leave her with +nurse. You had better go across and spend the day, and I'll come round +that way and fetch you home in the evening." + +To this arrangement Regina agreed, and she went over to her father's +house as soon as she had concluded arrangements for the children's +meals. She did not, however, return to Fairview--as their house was +called--that evening with Alfred. No, she remained under the paternal +roof for a few days, and then, when she at length returned to her home +and her children, she was accompanied by the old man, who was as a ship +without a rudder when he found himself bereft of the wife for whom he +had served, even as Jacob served seven years for Rachel. + +It was the beginning of the end for old Mr. Brown. He declined +absolutely to go back to the house where he had lived so long and so +happily, and took up his permanent abode at Fairview. Very soon the +better part of the furniture, and certain priceless possessions with +which there was no thought of parting, were transferred from the one +house to the other, the old domicile was done up and eventually let, and +then, as so often happens with old people who have been uprooted from +their regular life, Mr. Brown sank into extreme illness. + +Poor man, he had never been ill in his life, and he took to it badly. +One paralytic stroke succeeded another, and, at last, after a few months +of much repining and wearing suffering, he passed quietly away, his +last words being that he was going to rejoin his dear wife on the other +side. + +It was then that the Alfred Whittakers left Fairview. + +"I shall never fancy the house again since poor father's death," said +Regina on the evening of the funeral. + +"No, I can quite believe that," returned Alfred Whittaker, +sympathetically. "Well," he added after a pause, "you will be able to +afford a larger house if you want it." + +"I should like a larger garden," said Regina. "I think children brought +up without a garden are generally unhappy little creatures, and ours are +getting big enough to enjoy it." + +By that time Julia was nine years old, and Maud, of course, two years +older still. Their father and mother therefore gave notice to their +landlord, and cast about in their minds for some new and desirable +neighborhood which would contain a new and desirable residence. + +They decided eventually on purchasing a house in the most artistic +suburb of London, that which is known among Londoners as Northampton +Park. They were lucky enough to find a house to be sold at a reasonable +price in the main road of this quaint little village. It stood well back +from the traffic, having a long garden between the gate and the +entrance. The gate was rustic and wooden, and was decorated with an art +copper plate of irregular shape, on which the name of the house was +embossed in quaint letters extremely difficult to read--"Ye Dene." + +"Why," asked Julia, when she and her sister were taken to see the new +domicile, "why do you call our new house Ye Den? Is it a den?" + +"Ye _Dene_, dearest--Ye _Dene_. It is old English spelling," said +Regina. "I think it is rather pretty, don't you Alfie?" + +"H'm, the house is nice enough, and you youngsters will enjoy the +garden, which is far better than you have ever had before. I believe it +costs a lot of money to alter the name of a house; in fact, I don't know +whether one is allowed to or not. I'll find out." + +But, somehow, they took possession of their new home without finding out +whether it was possible to alter the name thereof. + +"What about headed paper, Queenie?" said Alfred, when they were at +breakfast on the second morning after their entrance into the new +domicile. + +"Headed paper? Oh yes, we must have that, dear." + +"Well, will you stick to calling the house Ye Dene?" + +"Well," said Regina, "I went for a little turn yesterday, and I took +note of all the houses and what their names were. I passed Charles Lodge +and George Cottage, and The Poplars, The Elms, The Quarry, The Nook, +Ingleside, High Elms, The Briars, and a dozen different variations of +the same, such as Briar Cottage, High Elms Cottage, and so on; but I +didn't see any other house that seemed to be connected with this one. I +rather like the name, and that queer, irregular-shaped copper plate will +be a sort of landmark when our friends come from town to see us." + +"How would it be," suggested Alfred, "to have the shape of the plate +reproduced for our address--a kind of scroll the shape of that with 'Ye +Dene' in the middle?" + +"Yes, that's a good idea," said Regina. "But you will have to put +Northampton Park within the shield, or else it will look very odd." + +"Well, look here," said he, "I'll take the pattern of it and see what +Cuthberts can suggest." + +The result of this conversation was that Cuthberts, the celebrated +notepaper dealers, made a very pretty suggestion embodying the shield, +the name of Ye Dene and the further postal address, and the Whittakers +finally decided that they would not trouble to alter the name of their +new residence. + +It was at the Park--for I may as well follow the customs of its +inhabitants and speak of it as they do--that Mrs. Whittaker began to +seriously think of the education of her children. + +They made friends slowly. In due course the vicar called upon them, and +was followed a little later by his wife. Then the wife of a doctor just +across the road made it her business to welcome the newcomers, and the +neighbors on either side of Ye Dene called; but, all the same, they made +friends slowly. + +Mrs. Whittaker made many and searching inquiries into the possibilities +of education, and she finally concluded that she would send them to the +High School, at which all the youth of the Park received their learning. +So, morning after morning, the two quaint little figures set out from +Ye Dene at a little after nine o'clock, returning punctually at +half-past twelve and sallying forth again about a quarter-past two for +the afternoon school, which lasted until four. + +What queer, quaint little maids they were! Regina's own curious taste in +dress she did not reproduce in her children. She held lofty theories +that little girls should not be made vain by curled hair and flounced +frocks. Their hair was therefore cut close to their heads, as if they +had been two boys, and they wore curious little Quaker-brown jackets and +hoods, which gave them an air of having come out of the ark. + +"I regard it as terrible that children, who should be wholly +irresponsible and whose troubles will come soon enough, should ever have +to think of the care of their clothes," she said one day to the doctor's +wife across the road. + +"For my part," the lady replied, "I don't think that you can too early +inculcate a proper care of the person into little girls. My own child, +who was ten last week, is as particular about the fit and style of her +clothes as I am about mine. If you bring girls up, dear lady, to run +quite wild, do you not think that you do away with their domesticity, +that most precious quality of all women?" + +"I am only too anxious to do away with their domesticity," said Mrs. +Whittaker, quietly but very firmly. "You see, Mrs. M'Quade, I am no +ordinary woman myself. I have had the education of a man. I have a man's +brain. I believe that in the near future the position of women will be +entirely altered." + +"Then you are going to bring your girls up to professions?" + +"I am going to bring my girls up to follow the natural bent of their +minds. If they show any aptitude for and desire to follow one of the +learned professions, neither their father nor I will put any +stumbling-block in their way." + +"I see. Have you pushed them on already?" + +"No, that is altogether against my principles. I never do anything +against my principles. I think that all children should reach the age of +seven years before they imbibe any learning, except such as comes +through the eye and in a perfectly natural and simple manner. After the +age of seven, until ten years old, I believe that lessons should be of +the simplest and most harmless description. After that, the brain is +strong and is better able to bear forcing." + +"I see. Well, your plan may be a good one; my plan may be a good one. I +sent my little girl to a kindergarten when she was four years old, +because she was lonely; she was not happy, she was always bored, always +wanting somebody to play with her, and she yearned for playmates and +little occupations. When she went to the kindergarten, she took to it +like a duck to water. She loved her school then, and now that she is in +a more advanced class, she is well on with her studies." + +"I see. And you dress her very elaborately?" + +"Oh no, not elaborately," said Mrs. M'Quade. "I always try to dress her +daintily and smartly, but never elaborately." + +"It is not in accordance with my principles," said Regina, loftily. "I +have a set fashion for my children, and I intend to keep them to it +until they are old enough to choose for themselves. Then they will take +to the task of dressing themselves with minds untrammeled by the +opinions of other people, even of their own mother. I have always tried +so to bring up my girls as to make them thoroughly original in every +possible way. They are not quite like other children. They are children +as much out of the ordinary as their mother was before them; convention +has no part, and shall have no part in their lives whatsoever. Indeed, I +may say that conventions is one of the greatest bugbears of my +existence." + +"But we must have conventions," said the doctor's wife. + +"Must we?" said Mrs. Whittaker, with a superior smile. "Ah, I see that +you and I, dear Mrs. M'Quade, must agree to differ. Let me give you some +tea. I assure you it is quite conventional tea." + +"Thank you very much," said Mrs. M'Quade, smiling. + +In retailing the conversation to her husband that evening, Mrs. M'Quade +remarked that it was quite conventional tea. "I should think about +one-and-twopence a pound," was her comment. + +"And how did you like the lady?" her husband asked. + +"She is an extraordinary woman, a very extraordinary woman. I don't know +that I like her; on the other hand, I don't know whether there is +anything about her to dislike." + +"What age--what size--what sort of a woman is she?" he asked. + +"In age something over forty; in person plump and rather comely. A +large, solid woman, with no idea of making the best of herself. She had +a tea-gown on to-day that would have made the very angels weep." + +"Would any tea-gown make the angels weep?" + +"I think that one would. It was a dingy brown and a salmon-pink. +Wherever it was brown you wished it was salmon-pink, and wherever it was +salmon-pink you wished it was brown, except when you were wishing that +it was black altogether, without any relief at all." + +"Dear me! What was it like?" + +"Well, it was just the one garment that she should never have worn. She +wears old-fashioned stays, and though people may think they don't matter +in a tea-gown, I think stays have more effect on the general cut of a +tea-gown than they have on any other garment. I should like to have +dressed that lady in a plain coat and skirt from my own tailor, with a +loose white front, and a good black hat. But I don't think anybody would +know her." + +"Well, it's no business of yours, little woman," said the doctor, +cheerily. "And, after all, it's a new family--children--infantile +diseases--servants--people apparently thoroughly well-to-do. Bought the +house--done it up inside and out. It isn't for you and I to quarrel with +our bread and butter." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SKATING ON THIN ICE + + Was it, I wonder, a mother who first evolved the proverb: "Where + ignorance is bliss 'twere folly to be wise"? + + +It cannot be said that as a family the inhabitants of Ye Dene were a +success at Northampton Park. I have already said that they made friends +slowly, and in saying so I was of course speaking of Mr. and Mrs. +Whittaker and not of the children. The children, on the contrary, made +friends very quickly and as quickly got through them. I doubt indeed if +two more unpopular children had ever attended the Northampton Park High +School. Fortunately for them, I mean for their peace of mind as the time +went by, Mrs. Whittaker was not aware of the real reason for this state +of affairs. + +"I hear," she remarked one day to long-legged Maud, who had been for a +couple of years advanced to the dignity of a pigtail, "I hear that +Gwendoline Hammond had a party yesterday." + +Maudie went very red and looked extremely uncomfortable. "I--I--did hear +something about it," she stammered. + +"How was it that you were not asked?" inquired Regina, with an air very +much like that of a porcupine suddenly shooting its quills into +evidence. + +"Oh, Gwendoline Hammond is a mean little sneak!" burst out Julia, who +was much the bolder of the sisters. + +"A sneak? How a sneak? What had she to sneak about?" demanded Regina. + +"Well, it was like this, mother. Gwendoline is an awful bully, you +know, and poor little Tuppenny was being frightfully bullied by her +one day, and she's a dear little thing, she can't take care of +herself--somebody's got to stand up for her--and Maudie punched her +head." + +"Punched her head! And what was she doing?" + +"Well, she was twisting poor little Tuppenny's arm around." + +"What! That mere child? And Gwendoline head and shoulders taller than +she?" + +"Yes." + +"And you say Maudie--punched her head?" + +"Yes, and she punched it hard, too. And then Gwendoline went blubbering +home, and Mrs. Hammond came to Miss Drummond, and--" Well, really, my +reader, I hesitate to say what happened next, but as this is a true +chronicle I had better make the plunge and get it over and done +with--"and then," said Julia, solemnly, "there was the devil to pay!" + +"You had better not put it in that way," said Regina, hurriedly. I must +confess that she had the greatest difficulty to choke down a laugh. "You +had better not put it in that way. 'The devil to pay' is next door to +swearing itself, to say nothing of being what a great many people would +call excessively vulgar; and if you were heard to say such a thing at +school, you would get yourselves into dreadful trouble, and me too. I +shall be obliged, Julia, if you will not use that expression again." + +"Very well, mother," said Julia, with an air of great meekness, which, I +may say in passing, she was far from feeling. + +"With regard," went on Regina in her most magnificent manner, "with +regard to Gwendoline Hammond and her miserable party, I consider it +distinctly a feather in your cap, Maudie, that you were left uninvited. +If it were told to me, as I presume it was told to Mrs. Hammond, that +one of you had been brutally cruel to a child many sizes smaller than +yourself and incapable of self-defence, I should mete out the severest +punishment that it was possible for me to give you. You have never been +punished, because it has never been necessary. Some mothers," she +continued, "would punish you for using such a term as 'the devil to +pay.' I regard that as a venial offence which your own common-sense will +teach you is inexpedient as a phrase for everyday conversation. But +brutal cowardice is a matter which I should find it very difficult to +forgive, and I am extremely proud that you should have taken the part of +a poor little child who was not able to do it for herself. I shall tell +your father when he comes home, and I shall ask him to reward you in a +suitable manner; and meantime, when I see Miss Drummond--" + +"If you please, mother," broke in Julia, who was, as I have said, the +dominant one of the two sisters, "if you please, mother, just drop it +about Miss Drummond. We are quite able to fight our own battles at +school--we don't want Miss Drummond, or anybody else, to think that we +come peaching to you telling you everything. We tell you because we are +fond of you and you ask, and--and--we don't like to lie to you." She +stammered a little, because on occasion no one could tell a prettier lie +than Julia Whittaker. "In fact," ended Julia, "our lives wouldn't be +worth living if it was known that we came peaching home." + +"It is your duty to tell me everything," said Regina. + +"Well, you might say the same about Gwendoline Hammond," remarked Julia, +with a matter-of-fact air. + +"You are within your right," said Mrs. Whittaker; "you are within your +right. I apologize." + +"Oh, please don't do that," said Julia, magnanimously; "it isn't at all +necessary. But you please won't say anything to Miss Drummond about +it--not unless she should speak to you, which she won't. She was very +indignant with Gwendoline when she found the whole truth out, and I +believe she--at least I did hear that she paid a special visit to Mrs. +Hammond and made things extremely unpleasant for Gwendoline. I don't +wonder she didn't ask Maudie to her party, because her father happened +to be there, and he was very angry about it. He almost stopped her +having her party altogether, only Mrs. Hammond had asked some people and +she did not like to go back upon her word and disgrace Gwendoline before +everybody. So you understand, mother, not a word, please, to Miss +Drummond." + +"My dear child," said Regina, "my dear original, splendid child!" + +Julia coughed. She would have liked to have taken the praise to herself, +but with Maudie standing open-mouthed at her side it was not altogether +feasible. She coughed again. "You--you forget Maudie," she remarked +mildly. + +"My dear, noble, generous child! I forget nothing--and I will forget +nothing for either of you. Here," she went on, in ringing accents which +would have brought down the house if Regina had been speaking at any +public meeting, "is a small recognition from your mother, and at +dinner-time to-night your father shall speak to you." + +"I think," remarked Julia, ten minutes later, when she and her sister +were on the safe ground of that part of the garden which belonged +exclusively to them, "I think we got out of that uncommonly well, +Maudie, don't you?" + +"Yes, but it was skating on thin ice," said Maudie. "I don't know how +you dared, Ju. You told mother you didn't like telling lies!" + +"Well," said Julia, "it is to be hoped it will never come out, for if it +does there will be the devil to pay and no mistake about it." + +It was as well for Regina's peace of mind that the thin ice never broke, +and that the actual truth never came to light. You know what the poet +says--"A lie that is half a lie is ever the hardest to fight." Well, the +same idea holds good for a truth that is half a truth. I don't say that +Julia's account of the difference between themselves and Gwendoline +Hammond was wholly a lie, but it was certainly not wholly the truth; +indeed, it was such a garbled account that nobody concerned therein but +would have found it difficult to recognize it. + +"Wasn't mother's little sermon about the devil to pay lovely?" said +Julia, swinging idly to and fro while Maudie stood contemplating her +gravely. + +"Yes," said Maudie, "but she was quite right. That's the best of +mother--she's always so full of sound common-sense." + +"Except when she calls you her brave, noble child!" rejoined the sharp +wit. + +"I don't know," said Maudie, reflectively, "that that was altogether +mother's fault." + +"Perhaps it wasn't. It will be just as well for you and for both of us +as far as that goes, if mother doesn't happen to just mention the matter +to Tuppenny's mother. I think I was a fool not to have safeguarded that +point." + +"There's time enough," said Maudie. "You can lead up to it when you go +in, because, you know, Ju, if they ever do find out--" + +"Yes, there _will_ be the devil to pay," put in Julia. "You are quite +right." + +It was astonishing how sweet a morsel the phrase seemed to be to the +child. + +"You'll get saying it to Miss Drummond," said Maudie, warningly. + +"Well, if I do," retorted Julia, "I shall have had the pleasure of +saying it--that will be something." + +Now this was but one of many similar instances which occurred during the +childhood of Regina's two girls. They were so sharp--at least Julia +was--and as she was devoted to Maudie, she always put her wits at the +service of her sister, and the other children whom they knew not +unnaturally resented the fact that they were invariably to be found in +the wrong box in any discussion in which the Whittaker children had a +share. So they became more and more isolated as the years went by. + +"Why don't we like the Whittakers?" said a girl to her mother, who had +met Mrs. Whittaker and thought her a very remarkable woman. "Well, +because we don't." + +"Yes, but why?" + +"Oh, well, we don't exactly know why--but we don't. They're queer." + +Have you noticed, dear reader, how frequent it is to set down those who +are too sharp for you as "queer?" Well, it was just so at Northampton +Park, and what the girl didn't choose to put into plain words, she +stigmatized as queer. + +"And what do you mean by queer?" the mother asked. + +"Well, they _are_ queer. I think their mother must be queer, too, +because their dress is so funny." + +"Is it?" + +"Oh, awfully. They always wear brown." + +"What are they like?" + +"Well, Maudie is fairish and Julia is darkish. Maudie has quite a +straight nose and Julia's turns up--oh, it isn't an ugly turn-up nose, I +didn't mean that. But they are such guys, and what is worse, they don't +care a bit." + +"Really? What sort of guys?" asked the mother, who was immensely amused. + +"Well, they never have anything like anybody else. They've got long, +pokey frocks made of tough brown stuff, like--er--like--er--pictures of +Dutch children. And over them they wear long holland pinafores." + +"It sounds very sensible," remarked the mother. "And when they come out +of school?" + +"In the winter they've got long brown coats, with little bits here--you +know." + +"You mean a yoke?" + +"I don't know what you call it, mother--little bits, and skirts from it, +and poke bonnets, and brown wool gloves; brown stockings and brown +shoes, and little brown muffs. Oh, they really are awfully queer!" + +"And in the summer?" + +"In the summer? Well, in the summer they wear brown holland things. +They're queer, mother, I can't tell you any more--they're queer." + +"I see," said the mother. "But in themselves," she persisted, "what are +they like in themselves?" + +"Oh, I don't know. Nobody likes them much." + +"Poor children! I wish you would be a little kind to them." + +"Do you?" said the girl, rather wistfully. "Well, I will if you like, +but it would be an awful bore, and they wouldn't thank us." + +"I see," said the mother. But she was wrong; she only thought she saw. + +So time sped on, and these two children grew more and more long-legged, +more and more definite in character, and as they progressed towards what +Mrs. Whittaker fondly believed to be originality and unconventionalism, +so did her mother's heart bound and yearn within her. + +"I am amply satisfied with the result of our scheme of education," she +was wont to say. "No, it is not easy--it is much easier to bring up +children in the conventional way. But the result--oh, my dear lady, the +result, when you feel a thrill of pride that your children are different +to others, is worth the sacrifice." + +"Now I wonder what," said the lady in question in the bosom of her +family, "did that foolish woman particularly have to sacrifice? The +general feeling in the Park seems to be that the Whittakers are +horrid children--disagreeable, ill-bred, sententious, and altogether +ridiculous; too sharp in one way, too stupid for words in another. And +yet she talks about sacrifice!" + +"Oh, Maudie isn't sharp--at least, not particularly so," said her own +girl, who, being a couple of years older than Maudie Whittaker, knew +fairly well the lie of the land. "Julia's sharp--a needle isn't in it. +It's Julia who backs Maudie up in everything, and Julia is a horrid +little beast whom everybody hates and loathes. She tried it on with me +once when I was at school, but I soon put the young lady in her right +place with a good setting down, and she never tried it on any more. +They'd have been all right if they had been properly brought up, which +they weren't." + +"You think not?" + +"Oh no, mother. You have no idea how intensely silly Mrs. Whittaker is." + +"Is she? I thought she was such a brilliant woman." + +"I believe she calls herself so; nobody else agrees with her." + +"Do you know what I heard about Mrs. Whittaker only yesterday?" said the +mother, with a sudden gleam of remembrance. "She has gone in for public +speaking. They say it's too killing for words." + +"Speaking on what?" asked the girl. + +"On the improvement of the condition of women." + +"What! a political affair?" + +"No, no; not political at all; a something quite disconnected with +politics--quite above them. She has been chosen President of a new +society which is to be called 'The Society for the Regeneration of +Women.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE S.R.W. + + Why is it that women are so fond of founding societies both for the + improvement of themselves and of each other? Is it a confession + of weakness, or is it one of the signs of the coming of the + millenium? + + +Mrs. Whittaker was a woman who never did things by halves. She +distinctly prided herself thereupon. + +"If a thing, my dear, is worth doing," I heard her say about the +time of which I am writing, "it is worth doing _well_. I have great +faith--although I have gone so far above the old-world thoughts of +religion--in the verse which says: 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, +do it with all thy might.' It is a grand precept, one that I instil +into my children--er--er--" + +"For all you are worth," remarked a flippant young woman who was +listening. + +"I--I shouldn't have expressed it in that way," stammered Regina, +somewhat taken aback. "But--but--er--it's what I mean." + +"And your children, are they the same?" + +"Yes, I am proud to say that my children are very much like me in that +respect. When they play, they play; when they work, they work; when they +idle they idle; and I am sure if ever they were naughty, that they +would be naughty with all their might." + +Poor Regina! Well, to make the story somewhat shorter, I must tell you +that when Regina Whittaker went into public life, she did so in no +half-hearted manner. + +"I am convinced," she remarked to the lord of her bosom, "I am convinced +that I am taking a step in the right direction. What do you think, +Alfie?" + +"My dear," said Alfred Whittaker, somewhat sleepily, for he had had a +hard day in the city and had eaten an extremely good dinner, "if it +pleases you, it pleases me. You have such a clear, sensible head," he +went on, feeling that perhaps he had been a little too unsympathetic, +"you have such a clear, sensible head, that I am sure you will take up +no question that is not a good one--an advantageous one." + +"I thought you would see it in that light, dear Alfie," said Mrs. +Whittaker in tones which betokened much pleasure. "You are so generous +and so just. Some men would hate to feel that their wives had any +interest outside their own homes." + +"Oh, my dear heart and soul!" exclaimed Alfred Whittaker, looking up in +a very wide-awake sort of way, "surely this is a land of liberty. I +don't want to tie you down to being no better than my slave. God knows +you fag enough and slave enough for all of us. It would be hard if you +couldn't have a few opinions and a few interests of your own." + +"Yes, dear; but it isn't quite that. It is not only of opinions that I +am speaking, it is the encouraging way in which you consent to my +entering on this somewhat pronounced question." + +"I have absolute faith in your judgment," said Alfred Whittaker; and +again he composed himself for his after-dinner nap. + +Regina sat looking at him as he slumbered. Her heart was very full, for +she was an affectionate woman, and, in spite of her little airs and +pretensions, she was really a good woman at bottom. Her heart swelled +with pride to think that this was her husband, this handsome, portly, +dignified man with a presence, an air of being somebody, this man who +was so good, so easy to live with, such a good husband and such an +affectionate father. And to think that he was hers! As I have said +already, her heart thrilled within her. + +It was true that others might not have agreed with Regina in her +estimate of her husband. The outer world might have thought him anything +but handsome, might have thought that he had anything rather than a +presence. What Regina called portly, a less tender critic might have +described in an extremely unpleasant manner; but, you see, Regina looked +at him with eyes of possession, and the eyes of possession are ever +somewhat biassed. + +So her thoughts ran pleasantly on. Yes, it was indeed sweet to be so +blessed as she was in her home life. She had once believed that her life +was a wasted one. Well, that was in the foolish days, before she had +tried her wings. Not that she ever regarded her flights into the world +of higher thought with the very smallest regret; that could never be. +Enlightenment is always enlightenment, whether it is actually paying in +a monetary sense or not. She firmly believed that an elaborate and +somewhat masculine education had enabled her to become a better wife and +mother than she would have been had she been contented with the genteel +education which her parents had thought good enough, further than which +indeed their minds had never attempted to fly. Perhaps, her thoughts +ran, her mission in life was to bring enlightenment to the minds of +other women, in a somewhat different way to that which she had hitherto +accepted as the most reasonable. Be that as it may, Regina entered upon +her duties as President of the S.R.W., armed with the full sanction of +her husband's permission and approval. + +To all her friends she was an amazing and, at the same time, an amusing +study about this epoch. + +"I am perfectly certain," remarked Mrs. M'Quade to the mother of the +little girl who at school was called Tuppenny, "I am perfectly certain +that Mrs. Whittaker has at last found her _metier_. Are you going to +join her scheme for the regeneration of women?" + +"I don't think so," replied the lady who lived at Highthorn. "My husband +is so very sneering when anything of the kind is mentioned. I shouldn't +mind for myself; I think it would be rather fun. They are going to have +tea-parties and _soirées_, and all sorts of amusements. But George would +be so full of his fun, that I don't feel somehow it would be good enough +for me to go into. Besides, it's three guineas a year. As far as I can +tell," she continued, "from what Mrs. Whittaker has told me, there won't +be any real regeneration of women in our day. It may come in the day of +our grandchildren, but I don't feel inclined to work for that." + +"That shows a great want of public spirit," remarked the doctor's wife, +laughingly. + +"Yes, I daresay it does, but I don't believe women are public-spirited, +except here and there--generally when they have made a failure of their +own lives, as my old man always says." + +"But Mrs. Whittaker hasn't made a failure of her life." + +"Well, she has and she hasn't. She has failed to become anything very +much out of the ordinary. She is very fond of calling herself an +unconventional woman who never does anything like anybody else, but I +fail to see very much in it excepting that she makes horrible guys of +her girls." + +"Well, I am going to join the society," said Mrs. M'Quade, with the air +of one who is prepared to receive ridicule. "No, I don't pretend for a +moment that I want regenerating myself--or even that other women do--but +Mrs. Whittaker has been a very good patient to the doctor one way and +another, and she's stuck to us, and I think the least I can do is to +join her pet scheme--and, mind you, it _is_ a pet scheme." + +"I call that absolutely Machiavellian," said her friend. + +"Oh, a doctor's wife has to be Machiavellian, my dear, and a thousand +other things," said Mrs. M'Quade, easily. "I have been fifteen years in +the Park, and I have kept in with everybody--never had a wrong word with +a single one of Jack's patients. You may call it Machiavellian, and +doubtless you are right, but I call it ripping good management myself." + +"So it is, my dear, so it is. And you shall have the full credit of it," +said Tuppenny's mother, who was a genial soul and loved a joke as well +as most people. + +And Regina meantime was taking life with considerable seriousness. She +fell into a habit of speaking of the S.R.W. as of her life's work; +indeed, she became a very important woman. No sooner was it known that +she was an excellent and dominant President of the S.R.W. than she came +into request for other societies of a kindred nature--no, I don't mean +societies solely for the regeneration of women, not a bit of it. There +was one for the sensible education of children between three and seven +years old, whose committee she was asked to join not many weeks after +the birth of the S.R.W.; and there was another society which bore the +name of "The Robin Redbreast," and provided the poor children of a south +London district with dinners for a halfpenny a head, and a number of +others that they provided with dinners for nothing at all. Then there +was a Shakespeare Society, which had long existed in the Park, and which +until Regina became a full-blown president had never thought of asking +her to come on to its committee. + +Now all this took Regina a good deal away from her home, and the result +of her absence and of these wider interests in life was that the two +girls at Ye Dene were enabled to shape their lives very much more in +their own way than ever they had done before. Regina had, it is true, +always aimed at inculcating a spirit of independence in her children. +She required them to do certain things during the course of the day, to +be punctual at meals, especially at breakfast, to report themselves when +they were going to school and when they returned; but otherwise, she +left them fairly free to spend the rest of their time as their own +inclinations led them. They had their own sitting-room and their own +tea-table, at which they could invite any children belonging to their +school, or indeed, for the matter of that, any of the children living in +the Park; and up to the advent of the S.R.W. it must be owned that this +system worked as well as any system could have worked with children of +such pronounced characters as the young Whittakers. But after their +mother became a public woman, Maudie and Julia may be said to have run +absolutely wild. No longer did they report themselves in the old way, +because they had a very complete contempt for servants, and there was +usually no one else to whom they could report themselves. + +"Does your mother never want to know where you are?" asked a +schoolfellow when Maudie was just sixteen. + +"Well, yes, we always tell her at night what we have done during the +day." + +"Oh, do you?" + +"Yes," returned Maudie. "Mother is most deeply interested in all our +doings. Did you think she wasn't? How funny of you! Isn't your mother +interested in what you do?" + +"Oh yes, of course mine is. But then mine is rather different to yours. +Mine is not a public character." + +"Well, I don't know that our mother is exactly a public character," said +Julia, who was keenly on the watch for a single word which would in any +way pour ridicule or contempt upon her mother. + +"Oh yes, she is. Father says she's a philanthropist." + +"Oh, does he? Well, I don't know I'm sure. Perhaps she is. I know she's +a jolly hard-worked woman, and if she wasn't as clever as daylight she +wouldn't be able to keep going as she does. As for her being a +philanthropist--well, after all, what is a philanthropist?" + +"Well, I did ask father, and he explained it, but he didn't make it very +clear. It seems to be a sort of person who goes about doing good." + +"That's mother all over," said Maudie. + +"Then who mends your stockings?" asked Evelyn Gage. + +"Our stockings? Why, mother has never mended our stockings. Sewing is +one of the things mother isn't great on. You couldn't expect it." + +"Why not? Mine does." + +"Oh, yes, but our mother is rather different. You see, she was educated +like a man." + +"How funny!" giggled Evelyn. + +"I think," said Maudie to Julia, half an hour later, when Evelyn Gage +had gone home and the two were getting out their lesson-books for their +home work, "I think it would be rather funny to have a mother like an +ordinary woman, don't you, Ju?" + +"Well, I don't know," returned Julia. "Evelyn's mother makes jam and +pickles and pastry and lovely little rock cakes, and things that our +mother never seems to think of. _She_ is always too much taken up with +great questions to bother herself with little etceteras, as old nurse +always called such things." + +"Perhaps, though, we should find it rather a bore to have a mother who +worried about our stockings and things, just an ordinary, average kind +of mother. But anyway, we haven't got a mother like that, so we must +make the best of what we have got." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +REGINA'S VIEWS + + A Parisian finishing school is for English girls like putting + French polish on British oak. + + +Nothing of any importance happened in the household at Ye Dene for two +years after this. Then it became time for Maudie to be introduced into +society. With most girls this epoch in life is one eagerly looked +forward to, tremulously entered upon, and very frequently looked back to +with a certain amount of disappointment. Regina herself, I am bound to +confess, thought with no small misgiving of the time when she should +have to be a wallflower for her daughter's sake. + +"The child must have her chance like other girls," she remarked to +Alfred one night when they were sitting together in the drawing-room at +Ye Dene. "She is very beautiful. She will not go empty-handed to her +husband. She ought to make a brilliant marriage." + +"Yes, she is a nice-looking girl," said Alfred Whittaker. + +"My daughters," said Regina, with an air of dignity which was very +pardonable in a mother, "are both beautiful in different styles. Maudie +is purely Greek in type; Julia is purely Irish--or I might say French. +I noticed when we were in Brittany, two years ago, how thoroughly Irish +one type of the peasantry was." + +"Yes, she's a good-looking girl. They're both all right," said Alfred +Whittaker, with the easy indifference of an ordinary father. "I daresay +you'll have your hands full a little bit further on, old lady, when we +get shoals of young men about Ye Dene, and you have to think out little +dances and suppers and theatre parties, and other things of that kind, +instead of giving up all your time to making other people happy." + +"Well, whatever I have to do, I hope I shall do it with all my might," +said Regina. + +"I am sure you will," said Alfred, tenderly; "I am sure you will, +Queenie." + +For his peace of mind's sake, it was just as well that Alfred Whittaker +was at business during the greater part of each day, for he might have +been upset, not to say scandalized, by the extremely independent, not to +say free-and-easy, life which was led by his two daughters. + +Regina herself was very strong on this point. "I like to hear everything +that my girls tell me," she said, in discussing the question about this +time with the doctor's wife, "but I don't demand it as a right. Nobody +would demand of a boy of nearly eighteen that he should tell his mother +everything that he has said, done and thought during the twenty-four +hours of the day. Why shouldn't a girl be brought up on the same +system?" + +"It is not the custom, that's all. I was amenable to my mother," Mrs. +M'Quade replied, "and I expect my daughter to be amenable to me. It is +not a question of want of independence; the child is independent +enough--but a girl's mind and a boy's mind are not the same, they're +different." + +"Only because men and foolish mothers have made them so," persisted +Regina. + +"Ah, well, you and I agree to differ on those points,--don't we, Mrs. +Whittaker? Heaven forbid that I should make my girl less independent +than I would wish to be myself, but to shut the mother out of her life +is no particular sign of a girl's independence--at least, that is the +way in which I look at it. Then I suppose," went on the doctor's wife, +"that you will, a little later on, allow your girls to have a latchkey?" + +"Certainly, if they wish to have a latchkey. Why not?" Mrs. Whittaker +demanded. "I should not expect them to come in at three o'clock in the +morning because I gave them the privilege of a latchkey. If they misused +the privilege, I should take it away from them." + +"You are beyond me," the doctor's wife cried. "With regard to my +Georgie, all I can say is, that until she is married she will have to +live just as I lived until I was married; that is to say, she will do +what I tell her, she will wear what I advise her to wear, or what I give +her to wear; she will have a very good time, but she will not have a +separate existence from mine until she goes into a home of her own, or +until I am carried out to my last long resting-place." + +"We are good friends," said Regina, with an air of superb tolerance, "we +are good friends, Mrs. M'Quade, and I hope we shall always continue so; +but in some of our ideas we are diametrically opposed to each other, and +we must agree to differ." + +But to go back to the question of the entrance of Maud Whittaker into +society, not a little to her parents' surprise, Maud absolutely declined +to do anything of the kind. + +"Come out--go into society!" she echoed. "Oh, there will be time enough +for that when Ju is ready." + +"Julia? Why, she is two years younger than you," Mrs. Whittaker +exclaimed. + +"Yes, dearest, I know it; but I am young for my age and Julia is old for +hers. If she comes out in another year, I can wait until she is ready." + +"But why? I never heard of such a thing!" + +"I am not very great on society," said Maud. "I would rather wait until +Ju is fully fledged." + +"And you will stay at school?" + +"Yes, I'd just as soon, only when one comes to think of it, I've learnt +all they can teach me, as far as I know. We are both of us much too big +to be at that school--it's a perfect farce. Why don't you take us away +and give us a course of lessons? That is the proper thing to do--like +they do in Paris. Or why don't you send us to Paris for a year? Then we +may contrive to speak French that is French, and not Park polyglot." + +"Maudie!" cried Regina. + +"Yes, I know, dearest. You may say 'Maudie!' but facts are facts. The +other day, being, or being supposed to be, the best French speaker in +the school, I was put up to talk to a French lady who was staying at the +Vicarage. You know Mrs. Charlton speaks French like a native--indeed, +I think she has French relations, and I think this was an old +schoolfellow. Anyway, I was put up to talk to her as being the show +girl at French conversation." + +"Well?" Regina's tone was as the sniff of a war-horse who scents the +battle from afar. + +"I couldn't make head or tail of her," said Maudie. "Ju did--at least, +in a kind of way she did. All the same she had to repeat everything she +said three times over, and then whatever-her-name-was had to make shots +at her meaning." + +"But, my dear children," exclaimed Regina, aghast. "I hear you talking +French to each other every day!" + +"Yes, I know," said Ju; "but you hear us talking something that isn't +French." + +"My education," said Regina, "did not include many modern subjects. That +was one reason why I was so very anxious that you two should learn +French and German." + +"Then you had better send us to Paris--because French is just what we +cannot speak. When we want to talk without the servants knowing, we +speak what we call the Park polyglot, but it doesn't go down with French +people. I could see that that friend of Mrs. Charlton's caught a word +here and there, and her native wit supplied the rest." + +"Perhaps she was not a person of position, and did not speak good +French," said Regina, who was loath to admit that a child of hers could +do anything badly. + +"Oh, not a bit of it! Mrs. Charlton kept calling her Comtesse. She was +all right." + +"And how did Miss Drummond come off?" + +"Oh, well, Miss Drummond speaks a little honest English-French, which +has no pretense of being the real thing." + +It is not surprising that after this, Regina's two girls were withdrawn +from the school at Northampton Park, and were, as she particularly told +everybody, by their own request sent to a school kept by a French lady +on the outskirts of Paris, to be particular in that off-shoot of Paris +which Regina called "Nully." + +During the year that followed, Regina worked harder than ever; indeed, +even her complacent husband now and again uttered a mild protest that +his wife should be absolutely absorbed by work which brought him neither +comfort nor emolument. + +"I had a wife, once," he said in joke to the doctor, one night when the +M'Quades were dining at Ye Dene; "but now I often think I've only got a +Chairman of Committee." + +Nevertheless, he said it with an air of pride, and later, when Regina +asked him seriously whether he would prefer that she should give up her +public duties and once more merge her identity into his, he exclaimed, +"God forbid! What makes you happy, my dear, makes me happy, as long as +you still regard me as the linch-pin of your existence." + +"I do, my dear Alfie, I do," she cried. "Indeed I'm the same Queenie +that you married all those years ago. My heart has never altered or +changed in the very least. No other man has ever crossed its threshold +since you first took possession of it." + +"As long as you feel that, my dear girl," he returned, putting his arm +about her ample waist and looking at her with fond eyes of loving, if +somewhat sleepy, devotion, "as long as you feel like that, you can do +what work you like and have what interests you like. And good luck go +with you, for I am sure you must be a great comfort to a good many +people." + +And Regina did work, like the traditional negro slave. Still, she never +neglected her home duties. Regularly every week she wrote to her girls, +and sometimes when she was dog-tired and found her eyes closing over the +sheet on which she was writing, she shook herself quite fiercely, and +reminded herself of her duty; then blamed herself passionately that her +letters to her girls, her own girls, who thought of her, loved her, +trusted her, made her the recipient of their hopes, doubts and fears, +joys and pleasures, and even such simple sorrows as had as yet entered +into their lives, should ever have come to be a duty--a mere duty. + +Poor Regina! I will not pretend that the two girls never wished to +hear from their mother, or that they would not have been bitterly +disappointed had she wholly and totally neglected them; but they were +happy in their school life, and they did not spend their time watching +for the arrival of the _facteur de poste_, as Regina fondly believed of +them. No, they quietly accepted their mother's letters when they +received them, read them, discussed them, and then put them on one side +to think about them no more. + +So time went on until the Christmas holidays arrived. The two girls did +not come home to the Park for their vacation, but their father and +mother made a little break in their respective callings and went to +Paris, where the girls joined them at a modest but comfortable +boarding-house. + +Now the boarding-house had been recommended by the lady of the school at +which the sisters were being educated. It was one kept by a French lady, +to which but few English people were in the habit of going. Of the +charming language of our neighbors across the Channel, Alfred Whittaker +did not know one word beyond a form of salutation which he called _bong +jour!_ and an equally useful word which he was pleased to call _messy_. +These two old people were therefore absolutely at the mercy of their +young daughters; and the young daughters themselves thanked Heaven many +times, during the three weeks which they passed together in Paris, that +French had not been included in the curriculum of either their father's +or mother's education. Oh, they meant no harm, don't think it for a +moment. There was no harm in either the one or the other. They were +modern, human girls, into whom a life of independence had been instilled +as a religion. Independent their mother wished them to be, and +independent they were to an abnormal and an aggressive degree. They +were as sharp as needles, exactly as their old schoolfellow had said +years before; they had acquired a knowledge of Paris which was simply +extraordinary considering that they had been immured in a _pensionnat_ +for demoiselles. They knew all the great emporiums quite intimately, and +having extracted some money from their father on the score that it was +no use their mother coming to Paris without buying clothes, and also +that their own wardrobes required renewing, they whisked their mother +from the _Louvre_, to the _Bon Marché_, from the _Bon Marché_ to the +_Mimosa_, and even got wind of that wonderful old market down in the +Temple, where the Jews hold high revel between the hours of nine o'clock +in the morning and noon. + +What a time it was. "My girls," said Regina to an elderly English lady +with whom she foregathered in one of the pretty little white _crêmeries_ +in the Rue de la Paix, "speak French like natives. I was educated in all +sorts of ways--I have taken degrees and done all sorts of things that +most women don't do--but when you put me down in Paris, I am utterly +undone. I never realized before what a terrible thing want of education +is." + +"And yet you have taken degrees," said the lady, admiringly. + +"Yes, but they are not much good when you come to Paris. But my +daughters," she added, with pride, "speak French like Parisians." + +It was a little wide of the mark. The girls did speak French with +considerable fluency, and they had the advantage of not being shy, +and of never allowing want of knowledge to keep them back from +communicating with their fellow-beings. And as they gabbled on, as +Alfred Whittaker frequently declared, nineteen to the dozen, Regina +stood by and admired. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"LITTLE PIGLETS OF ENGLISH" + + I doubt if even a universal _entente cordiale_ will ever make the + French mind and the English mind think alike. + + +Now it happened before Regina and her husband left Paris that Madame de +la Barre intimated through the girls that she would like to have a +little confidential chat with her pupils' mother. + +"Mother," said Julia to Regina, "Madame wants to see you." + +"She has seen me," said Regina. + +"Yes, yes, mother, but she wants to see you _toute seule_. I suppose she +wants to tell you some delinquencies of ours, or something." + +"I hope not," said Regina. + +"Well, dear, you must expect us to be human, like other girls. We have +never been in any trouble since we came here, and I don't know why she +wants to see you, but, anyway, she asks if you will do her the favor of +taking tea with her to-morrow afternoon at four o'clock." + +"I will," said Regina. + +"She doesn't speak one word of English, you know," said Julia. + +"We shall communicate somehow," said Regina, with a superb air. + +"I don't know how," said Julia, "since you can't speak two words of +French--" + +"_Excuse_ me," said Regina, pointedly. + +"Well, excuse me too, mother--I didn't mean to be rude. But your French +isn't equal to your Latin, is it?" + +"I will be there," said Regina, with a distinct accession of dignity. + +And so, punctual to the moment, Regina appeared in the _salon_ of the +schoolmistress. Their mode of communication was original, it was also +a little difficult, but both being determined women, they overcame the +difficulties of the situation with a supreme indifference to the effect +the one might have upon the other. As a matter of fact, Julia had been +a little wide of the mark when she had declared to her mother that +Madame did not speak one word of English. Madame spoke a little more +English than Regina spoke French, and by a series of contortions, +gesticulations, and other efforts which I need not attempt to reproduce +here, Madame de la Barre contrived to make known to Mrs. Whittaker her +object in seeking for the interview. And her object in seeking the +interview was that she should explain to her that she considered the +taste in dress of the demoiselles Whittaker to be something too +atrocious for words. + +"_C'est affreux! c'est affreux_," she exclaimed, when she found that +Regina was a little dense of understanding. "Horreeble--horreeble!" + +"I have never," said Regina, speaking very slowly and distinctly, and +with an indulgent air as if she were communicating with someone a little +short of being an idiot, "I have never trained my children to care about +those matters." + +"But they are young ladies! It is most important," Madame exclaimed, +with quite a tragic air. + +"It will come," said Regina, waving her substantial hand with a vast +gesture, as if good taste in dressing was likely to drop from the +clouds, "it will come. I never worry about things that are not +essential." + +"But it is essential for a young lady--a demoiselle--it is--it is for +her life." + +Poor Madame de la Barre! She tried very hard indeed to explain that the +many purchases made by the young ladies were not such as should have +been made by young girls not yet entered into the great world. She made +no impression upon Regina. + +"These are small matters," she said, with a magnificent air; "not +essentials in any way. They will make mistakes at first--I don't doubt +it, Madame--we have all done it in our day, but they will learn, oh, +they will learn." + +Madame shrugged her shoulders. She felt that she was dealing with a fool +of the first water, upon whom valuable breath was wasted. After all, +these were _English_ girls. What did it matter? They were going to live +in a land where it is the rule for women to make themselves such objects +as Madame Whittaker herself. It is no exaggeration to say that when +Mrs. Whittaker had finally swept out of the schoolmistress's presence, +Madame de la Barre sat down and closed her eyes with a genuine shudder. + +"What does it matter, these pigs of English, what they wear? Thou art +too good-natured, Helöise," she went on, apostrophizing herself. "Thou +canst forbid these little piglets of English from wearing their too +disgraceful garments. What happens to them after they have left thy roof +is no concern of thine. Thou art too good-natured, Helöise!" + +So the "little piglets of English" continued unchecked in their career +of vicious millinery, and when the time came for them to return to the +paternal roof, they went, taking with them a stock of garments +calculated to make the Park, as they put it, "sit up." + +And truly the Park did sit up, for the appearance of Regina's two girls +was something quite out of the common. + +"It is the latest fashion," said Regina, with an air of conviction to a +neighbor who remarked that Maudie's hat was a little startling. "The +girls brought all their things from Paris. It is the seat of good +dressing." + +You will observe that Regina never left any doubt in expressing her +opinions. Hers was a positive nature. She would say, "My daughters _are_ +beautiful, my daughters _are_ elegant, my daughters attract an enormous +amount of attention," but never "I _think_ my daughters are"--this, +that, or the other. + +So she gave forth, with the air of one whose fiat could not be +questioned, the intimation that as Maudie and Julia's things had come +from Paris, they must be the _dernier cri_. + +And the Park thought they were horrid. + +Poor Regina! She was very happy in the return of her girls, so happy +that she took a little holiday from her public work, and spent a whole +week in talking things over, in arranging and rearranging their rooms, +in examining all their purchases, in discussing what kind of life they +should live in the immediate future. + +"Now, what are your own ideas?" she demanded, on the second day after +the return home of the girls, when they had settled down to tea and +muffins. + +Maudie looked at Julia. As usual, Julia answered for Maudie. Regina +herself was full of suppressed eagerness. + +"Well, if you really wish us to tell you exactly what we do want, +mother," said Julia, "we will put it in a nutshell. We want father to +give us an allowance." + +"A decent allowance," put in Maudie. + +"Yes, yes, dears; yes, yes," murmured Regina, who had prepared herself +for an unfolding of great schemes, such as would have swayed her at her +girls' age. + +"The kind of allowance," Julia went on, "that he ought to give to +girls of our age and position--that is to say, of _our_ age and _his_ +position. Then we sha'n't go making sillies of ourselves; we shall know +how to cut our coat according to our cloth." + +"And how much do you think such an allowance ought to be?" Regina +inquired. + +"Oh, about a hundred a year each," said Julia. + +"A hundred a year? That's a very ample allowance. I never spend more +than that myself." + +"Well, mother, it just depends on what you want us to be. If you want +us to be smart, well-dressed girls with some position in the world, we +couldn't do it under. We have talked it over thoroughly with French +girls who know what society is, and with English girls of the same sort, +and they all say that a hundred a year is the least a girl can dress +herself decently on." + +"And that would include--?" Regina questioned. + +"It would include our clothes, our club subscriptions--" + +"Your what?" + +"Our club subscriptions." + +"Oh, you are going to join a club, are you?" + +"Of course. You have a club, mother. We want some place where we can +rest the soles of our feet when we are in London. It isn't as if you +lived right in Mayfair, you know." + +"No, no; you are quite right. I have no objection to your joining a +club, or doing anything else that is reasonable. So it would include +your club subscriptions?" + +"Oh yes, it would have to do that. And our personal expenses. We +shouldn't have to look to father for any money other than an occasional +present which he might like to give us if we were good, or if he could +afford it; or on some special occasion." + +"I see." + +"Then we should like to have--er--er" and here Julia stopped short +and eyed her mother with a certain amount of apprehension. + +"Well, go on, my darling. You would like to have what?" + +"We should like to have a sitting-room of our own." + +"Oh!" + +"To which," Julia went on, emboldened by her mother's mild expression +of face, "to which we could ask our friends without upsetting the house, +and--and--and--" + +"Go on," said Regina. + +"Well, you see, most girls nowadays have an At Home day of their +own--just for their own friends, irrespective of their mothers." + +"I haven't time for an At Home day," said Regina. "I used to have one, +but I gave it up when you went to Paris." + +"I think that was rather foolish of you, mother," said Julia. "A woman +is nothing nowadays if she doesn't have an At Home day. I don't quite +see myself what all your work brings you." + +"Brings me?" echoed Regina. + +"Yes, brings you. What's the good of working day and night, toiling into +the small hours of the morning for a lot of other people? What do they +ever do for you, mother?" + +"Do for me?" Regina seemed suddenly to have become an echo of her own +daughter. "I don't know that anybody does anything for me." + +"No, it is always Mrs. Albert Whittaker toiling and fagging and slaving +for other people's glorification. I don't see the force of it. It seems +to us," she went on, with a certain air of severity which ought to have +amused Regina, but did nothing of the kind, "it seems to us that you get +the worst of it in every way. We think, mother, that you ought to be +very glad that we have come home to take care of you." + +"Oh! Then you," said Regina, with a tinge of sarcasm in her tones, "you +and Maudie are to have all the independence, and I am to be taken care +of? That is very kind of you. Now, once for all let me speak, and then +for ever after hold my peace. I give you, as long as you remain in your +father's house, I give you the same amount of liberty that I had in mine +and which I wish to have for myself now, but I give it you on one +condition, which is that you never abuse it. If ever you should +disappoint me by doing so--which not for one moment do I anticipate--I +should instantly withdraw that free gift of liberty. But I want you to +remember that while you have your liberty, I still need and require +mine. One is so apt to forget, and particularly when one is devotedly +attached to anyone, the rights and liberties of others. You are quite +welcome, my children, to have your day at home, and your father will +certainly not wish to curtail you in the matter of provision therefor. I +shall not expect that your little entertainments will come out of your +own personal income. At any time that you seek my advice on any matter, +it will be there ready for your use. I shall never give it to you +unsought, unless I should see you going absolutely wrong. I will only +ask you to remember that before all things I have striven, since you +were tiny babies, first and foremost to preserve the originality of your +minds. The more original you are, the more completely will you please +me. There is so much in the circumstances and in the lives of women that +tend to trammel and to stifle their better judgment and their better +selves, that they have but little chance of letting any originality of +mind which they may possess have fair play. You are singularly blessed +in having an enlightened father and mother, who wish you to be in most +respects as free as air. Take care, therefore, children, that you don't +lose sight of this precious opportunity. Let honor and originality go +hand in hand. With your gifts and your beauty, you must land yourselves +upon the very crest of the wave. There," she went on, letting the +tension of her feelings find relief in a little laugh, "there ends my +little homily!" And she stretched forth her firm white hand and helped +herself to the last piece of muffin in the dish. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CANDID OPINIONS + + We train up our children, kindly or harshly, according to our + temperaments, that they may walk along a certain road. The + road is usually one of several, and it is an almost invariable + chance that our children will take one contrary to that of our + choice. + + +Let there be no mistake about the Whittaker girls. They were not in any +way deceived or blinded by their mother's partiality for them. + +"There is one thing you and I have got to make up our minds to, Maudie," +said Julia, the day after they had had the little serious talk with +their mother. "It's one thing to climb up a wall, it's another to topple +over on the other side. If we don't look out what we are doing, _we_ +shall topple over the other side of our wall." + +"I don't understand you," said Maudie; "at least not quite." + +"Well, it's like this," remarked Julia. "We have got to take everything +that mother says as partly being mother's way. I don't know whether you +have ever noticed it, Maudie, but mother never half does things. That's +why she's such a splendid worker on all these committees she goes in +for. Mother calls us beauties; she says you are purely Greek in type, +and that I am a cross between the French and Irish styles of beauty. +Well, that's as may be. We can't go against mother; it would be +rude--besides, it wouldn't be any good--but you and I needn't stuff each +other up--or even ourselves for that matter with the idea that we are +going to set the world on fire with our faces. We sha'n't," she ended +conclusively. + +"I think you are rather nice-looking, Ju," said Maudie. + +"Do you? I don't agree with you. But that's neither here nor there. As +to your being purely Greek--well, don't understand that either. I never +saw a Greek that was the least little bit like you. You remember those +girls at Madame's? Why, they had a touch of the East about them; they +were next door to natives. I used to talk to them about it. I told them +that I never knew Greeks were so dark--I always had an idea Greeks were +fair people--but Zoe declared they were the common or garden pattern, +and that a fair Greek was a thing almost unheard of." + +"That's all rubbish and nonsense!" said Maudie in a more dominant tone +than was her wont. "Do you remember Maurice Dolmanides?" + +"The man who was at the boarding-house in Paris? Of course I do." + +"Well, he was ginger." + +"So he was--yes. And he was a Greek, wasn't he? All the same, Maudie, he +had a Scotch mother, you know." + +"Ah, I see. Yes, that does make a difference." + +"I assure you," Julia went on, "that I talked it over with Zoe and +Olga, and they both declared that they were the ordinary Greek +type--round features, round black eyes, masses of coal-black hair, +palest of olive skins. There's a touch of the Orient about it. But you, +you are blonde; your nose has got a bump in the middle of it, your mouth +is far from Greek--" + +"Oh, my mouth," cried Maudie, with a look at herself in the glass, "my +mouth is a regular shark's mouth!" + +At this the two girls fell to laughing as heartily as if they were +discussing the merits of some animal rather than one of themselves. + +"In short," Julia went on, when they had somewhat recovered themselves, +"in short, you and I have got to consider, first and foremost, what we +can do to be original. We are not beauties, although mother, poor dear +lady, persists that we have inherited an amount of beauty which is +absolutely fatal. Dress us in an ordinary manner and we should look +horrid. If we want to be any good in the world at all, we must do +something a bit out of the common." + +"Follow in our mother's footsteps?" said Maudie. + +"Not a bit of it. What good does mother do by all her strenuous efforts +to improve the condition of women? Is mother's condition one that +requires improvement? Not a bit of it. Is our condition one that +requires improvement? Not a bit of it." + +"We don't know yet," said Maudie in a quiet, sensible tone. + +"No, we don't. And until we get married and see how we get on with our +respective husbands, we shall have to remain in our ignorance. One thing +is very certain, Maudie, that neither you nor I are girls that can go +in leading-strings. We have been made original and unconventional and +independent; in fact, originality and unconventionalism and independence +have been rammed down our throats from the time we could remember +anything. It has been the key-note of mother's life. But we have, before +we can do anything in our own set, to see to our room and arrange all +our things. Now that old playroom is just as we left it. It's an awfully +jolly room, capable of great things in the way of adornment. We must get +daddy to have it done up for us, and to give us a certain amount for +furnishing it. And we must have a piano." + +"A piano?" said Maudie. "I don't think a piano is at all a necessary +article. Clean paper and paint, a decent something to walk on--yes, that +we can fairly ask father to give us, and I'm sure he won't grudge it; +but seeing that neither you, nor I, nor mother knows one tune from +another, and that there is a piano that cost a hundred and twenty +guineas in the drawing-room, I don't think it would be fair to ask +father to spend even half that sum in such an instrument for our +exclusive use." + +"Perhaps you are right," said Julia. "I must think that over. But a +piano we _must_ have. If we are going to have an At Home day we must be +able to have music, even though we can't make it ourselves." + +"But why not have our At Home day in mother's drawing-room?" + +"Because that would very quickly degenerate into mother's At Home day, +and you know what mother's At Home day means--seven women, two girls, +and half a man. No, if we have an At Home day of our own, it must be in +our own room. I'll tell you what we'll do, Maudie, we'll go up to town +and choose a little piano somewhere, the kind of piano that you see in +the Army and Navy Stores' list as suitable for yachts, and we'll pay for +it out of our allowance." + +"But we can't." + +"Yes, we can. We can take three years to pay for it. If we spend thirty +pounds on a piano, that's quite enough. People can't walk into your room +and ask you whether your piano cost thirty pounds or ninety pounds. It +wouldn't be very much out of our allowance for each of us to pay fifteen +pounds in three years--only five pounds a year--then the piano will be +ours." + +"And suppose one of us gets married?" asked Maudie. + +"Well, if one of us gets married, she must leave it for the other one." + +"And the other one?" + +"Well, if the other one gets married, she must leave it for the use of +the home." + +"Oh, I see." + +"Well," said Julia, briskly, putting down the book that she held in her +hand, "let us go into the playroom and just cast our eyes over its +capabilities." + +So the two girls went off to their old playroom, which was just as they +had left it when they had departed for their school in Paris two years +before. + +"It's a good shape," said Julia. "That bow window and those two little +windows on that side give it great possibilities. We ought to have a +cosy corner there." + +"That will cost five-and-twenty guineas," said Maudie. + +"Oh no; I mean a rigged-up cosy corner. We'll take in _Home Blither_ for +a few weeks. We are sure to get an idea out of that." + +"I've never," remarked Maudie, "seen anything about a cosy corner in +_Home Blither_ that did not combine a washstand with it. We don't want a +washstand, Julia." + +"No, not in this room--certainly not. I propose that we have a delicate +French paper with bouquets of roses--perhaps a white satin stripe with +bouquets of roses tied up with delicate blue or mauve ribbons. That will +give us an interesting background to work upon." + +"Then for the curtains?" said Maudie. + +"Well, for the curtains I should have--well, now, what should I have? +Well, I'll tell you. I should have chintz." + +"I shouldn't; I should have cretonne. It will look warmer." + +"We don't want to look warm; we want to look dainty. Or we might have +lace curtains." + +"Yes, we might. And we might have those lovely dewdrops to hang in front +of the window, but of course it looks into the garden, and it would be +rather a pity to shut the garden out in any way." + +"Yes," said Julia. "A little desk there," she went on; "white wood, you +know, the kind of thing that you get in the High Street all ready for +painting, or poker work. We might sketch all over it, or get our friends +to autograph it." + +"Autograph it?" + +"Yes. And then varnish it over with a very clear, colorless varnish. It +would look very beautiful, and it would be original too." + +"Yes, it would be original. Supposing we have all the furniture like +that?" + +"No, no, not all the furniture--only the writing-table. There's +something appropriate about autographs on a writing-table," Julia +declared. + +Eventually Mr. Whittaker agreed to have the room done up according to +the girls' ideas, and to give them a certain sum for furnishing it +according to their own taste. + +"Now I do beg, dear Alfie," said Mrs. Whittaker, who, in spite of her +desire that her girls should be original, was a person who loved to have +a finger in every pie, "now I do beg, Alfie, that you will not be too +lavish. Have the room thoroughly done up according to their ideas; that +is only right. I like the notion of delicate bouquets of roses, tied +together with a sky-blue ribbon, on a white satin stripe. It is elegant, +refined, and capable of great things in the general effect. I would have +a suitable ceiling paper to match, and you must give them a pretty +electric light arrangement in place of this simple one. After that, +leave everything to the girls. Yes, dears, the paint will have to be +touched up. It won't require newly painting, because, you see, it has +been white, and it is not in very bad condition. So have it entirely +done, Alfie--ceiling, walls, paint--then give them a sum of money, just +enough for them to exercise their ingenuity in making it go the very +furthest." + +"I'll give you thirty pounds," said Alfred Whittaker, slapping his +pocket and thrusting his hand into it with an air of firm determination. +"Thirty pounds after I have done the decoration, and no more. If you +can't make a room look smart with thirty pounds, you don't deserve to +have a room of your own." + +"All right, daddy. Thank you very much," said Julia. + +"Yes, daddy dear, we'll make it do very nicely," said Maudie. + +And then they sat down to hold another council of war. + +"Maudie," said Julia, "thirty pounds won't go very far." + +"No," replied Maudie. "We can't possibly buy a carpet under ten pounds +for a room of that size." + +"Well, then, I'll tell you what we'll do--we'll polish the floor, and +we'll have two or three nice rugs. We shall get them for about a guinea +or thirty shillings apiece. And we must go in for bamboo." + +"Oh, I hate bamboo," Maudie cried. + +"We could enamel it white." + +"H'm--bamboo enamelled white," said Maudie, dubiously; "it doesn't sound +particularly fascinating." + +"Well, that was rather a nice stand we saw up at Derry & Tom's the other +day, wasn't it, with three sticks of bamboo arranged so as to hold a pot +in the middle? Enamelled white it would be rather fetching, particularly +if we had a nice trailing plant in it. Then we've got to get a fender; +and they've got some lovely basket chairs at Barker's, I know they have; +and I saw some tables at two-and-eleven in a shop down the High +Street--I don't know what the name is. Oh, we shall find it easy enough; +you can do a good deal at furnishing a room when you can get a table for +two-and-eleven." + +"Yes, I daresay you're right. You've got a wonderful headpiece, Ju. +Then, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll get our room papered and +painted, and then we'll have the floor done up--that's all quite plain +sailing--and then we shall be better able to decide whether we'll have a +small square of carpet or two or three rugs. We needn't have very +expensive ones; it isn't as if we had got a lot of boys to come clumping +about with muddy boots, is it?" + +"No, there's something in that. And I'll tell you what, Maudie--if we +have chintz for the curtains, we could have chintz covers for the big +old couch and the large armchair that we had in the room from the +beginning. One thing is very certain," Julia continued impressively, +"that we shall have to weigh every penny before we spend it." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE GIRLS' DOMAIN + + We learn most through our mistakes. + + +You know what the British workman is. Believe me, that the particular +specimen of the British workman who haunts Northampton Park has no fewer +sins than his fellow who inhabits the heart of London. The days dragged +on, dragged on, dragged on. Oh, that lovely sitting-room of Maudie and +Julia Whittaker's imagination, day by day it seemed as if it was +receding further and further into the Never-Never-Land. + +First of all, there was a difficulty about the paper. After a week's +delay, various samples of paper were submitted to them, papers that were +marvellously cheap, marvellously dainty. The choice being left entirely +to the girls, it fell upon one at two-and-four the piece. It was an +elegant paper; stripes of white satin alternated with a wide white rib, +upon which were flung at regular intervals delicate bouquets of banksia +roses and violets. The ribbon which tied each bouquet and meandered on +to the next was of the most delicate blue. The ceiling was of embossed +white satin (apparently), and the frieze, which was rather deep, was +composed of long festoons of the tiny roses caught at intervals with +bunches of violets. Oh, it was a lovely paper! But they had to wait for +it. For some occult reason, best known to the decorator who had +undertaken the work of transforming that particular room at Ye +Dene--which, by-the-bye, the girls determined to christen the +_parloir_--that particular paper was out of stock. Impatient Julia +suggested that they should choose another one, but the decorator blandly +informed her that it was such a favorite with fashionable people in the +West End that the manufacturers were reprinting, and he expected the +consignment for their room--which he had already ordered--to arrive at +any moment. + +And the days went by after the manner of days when there is a little +house-decorating on hand. The decorator suggested that they could get on +with the rest of the work, so on a duly-appointed day several gentlemen, +dressed in lily-white garments, arrived and began to work their will +upon the empty room. They swept the chimney--not the lily-white +gentlemen, but a black one who seemed to be on friendly terms with them; +they tore off the existing paper and they washed the ceiling, and then +they went away and thought about things. They thought about things for +several days, until at last the Whittaker girls hied them to the head +office and made representation to the master of the business. Then they +came and papered half the ceiling. + +"How lovely it looks, doesn't it?" said Maudie to Julia. + +"It would look lovelier if it were all done. I expect we shall have to +go and fetch them to paper the other half." + +It was quite true. But still, bit by bit, the room progressed towards a +thing of beauty, and at length, after a period of about five weeks, the +foreman in charge of the work announced in a tone of triumph that they +had come to bid the household at Ye Dene adieu. He didn't put it in +those words, my reader, but that was his meaning. + +"I am sure we are very much obliged to you," said Julia. "You have been +a very long time about it." + +"Well, lady, the workman gets blamed when the blame belongs to somebody +else. You see, we had to wait for the paper, and when we got the paper +we had to wait for the frieze, and then when we got the frieze we had to +wait for that bit of paint just to finish off the doors. Still, it'll +last much longer because it has been slow in doin'." + +"Oh, really, will it?" said Julia, rather taken aback. "Oh, I'm glad of +that, because, of course, as it takes such a long time doing, one +doesn't want to be often turned out of one's room for so long. Thank you +so much. Would you like a glass of beer?" + +"Well, lady, a glass of beer never comes amiss to a man at the end of a +hard day's work," rejoined the foreman. "Me and my mates thank you very +much." + +So Julia called to one of the servants and ordered "Beer for these +gentlemen" with a lavish air which the more frugal Regina might not have +approved had she happened to be at home. Regina was, however, at that +moment gracing with her dignified presence a platform devoted at that +hour to the restriction of the sale of strong drinks, and the incident +never came to her knowledge. + +"Now, Maudie," said Julia, "have you any suggestions to make?" + +Maudie stood looking round and round the room which was to be their +especial domain. + +"It's awfully pretty," she said. "Well, as to suggestions, I should +suggest that we get the floor done before we do anything else." + +"Yes. And then I suggest that we choose the chintz," said Julia. + +"I like cretonne better than chintz," replied Maudie. + +"No, cretonne is like flannelette at fourpence-ha'penny a yard--looks +like the loveliest flannel, and you make up your blouse and think you +have got a treasure that's going to last you for six weeks without +washing. You find out your mistake in about six days, and when you send +it to the wash, it comes back as rough as a badger and can never be worn +more than once afterwards. No, dear girl, let us have chintz." + +"I suppose," said Maudie, "if you want chintz you'll have chintz." + +"Well, we'll go up to the High Street to-morrow morning and we'll look +at both--" + +"Excuse me making so bold," said a voice at the door, "but if I might be +allowed to speak to you ladies--" + +They both turned with a start. The foreman, politely pressing the back +of his hand across his lips, was standing in the hall. "Well?" they said +in the same breath. + +"If I might make so bold, ladies, as to suggest, our guv'nor is a one-er +on chintzes." + +"Oh, really?" + +"Loose covers is his special'ty--his special'ty." He again passed the +back of his hand across his lips. "Thank you very much for the drink, +ladies. It was very welcome. If I might make so bold as to--" + +"You had better have another," said Julia. + +"I'm not saying no, miss. It's very polite of you, and I accepts it as +it's offered. If I might make so bold, I would suggest that I just speak +to the guv'nor as I go past the head office, and he'd send his book of +patterns up in the morning. He could send them up and then you could +look at them in the room itself. It's always more satisfactory than +seeing them at a distance. It isn't everyone," the foreman went on, +"that can hold a scheme of color in the heye and carry it to a shop +miles away, and take the exact match of it." + +"No," said Maudie, "I suppose not." + +"Well, I can," said Julia, with decision. "If there's one thing I can +do, it is to carry a scheme of color in my eye; but at the same time you +might as well tell Mr. Broxby to send in his book of chintz patterns, +and we'll have a look at them. But who shall we get to make them?" + +"Makin' loose covers is one of Mr. Broxby's special'ties," said the +foreman. He turned and held out his glass that he might have it +refilled. "My respects to you, ladies," he said politely, raising his +glass towards the two girls, "my respects to you. It isn't often that a +man in my position finishes a job with such pleasure as it's been to us +fellows to do this 'ere room for you young ladies, and if I can put any +little tip in your way, it's a great pleasure to me to do it." + +"Thank you," said Julia. "You are very kind. You have done the room +beautifully, we are most satisfied. And if you'll tell Mr. Broxby to +send us his chintzes to-morrow morning, we can look at them." + +Then began another period of waiting. Mr. Broxby arrived himself with +the books of patterns. He viewed the great roomy old couch on which for +years the girls had played, and which they had, as Julia frankly said, +used abominably, and he made one or two suggestions for adding to its +comfort at no great outlay of money. And finally they chose a chintz for +the curtains of the three windows, and for covers for the couch and the +large armchair. The cost thereof was a question into which Mr. Broxby +found it difficult to go. + +"I couldn't exactly say, Miss Whittaker, what the price will be, but it +won't be very much," he remarked. "You see, cretonne is cheaper than +chintz, that is why so many people chooses cretonne in preference to the +other; but when you come to the question of wear--why, chintz has it all +its own way." + +"Just what I said," said Julia, "just what I said. Well, now, look here, +Maudie, we'll have this chintz, and as to the cost--well, we must leave +it to Mr. Broxby's honor that he doesn't ruin us. If you ruin us," she +said, "you won't get your bill paid as soon, or nearly as soon, as if +you keep the prices down. Our father has given us a sum of money to do +this room up with. He pays for the papering, but he gives us a fixed +sum of money for everything else, and if you charge us too much you'll +have to leave half your bill till next year." + +"And who'll pay it then?" asked Maudie. + +"Oh, well, you and I will have to pay it." + +"I see." + +Now Maudie was a careful soul who detested procrastination: at any time +she preferred to go out in a pair of extremely dirty gloves rather than +procure others by forestalling her next quarter's money (for I must tell +you that for several years these girls had had a small allowance paid +quarterly which provided them with gloves and ties). + +Then there set in another period of waiting. The chintz, like the +wall-paper, was not in stock, and on learning this fact the two girls +went round and explained to Mr. Broxby that they would just as soon +choose another. + +"Now, young ladies, if you would allow me to advise you," said Mr. +Broxby--"it's the same thing to me, of course--but if you would allow me +to advise you, I should say wait and have the chintz that exactly suits +your wall-paper. There isn't another chintz in the book that exactly +goes with the wall-paper. If you chance on one that clashes with the +paper, well, your room is spoilt at once. I'll hurry them on all I know, +but I must say that it will give me more satisfaction to make things up +with a legitimate end in view." + +"There's something in that," said Maudie. "I should wait." + +"Very well," said Julia, "but if I have to wait another five weeks, all +I can say is, Mr. Broxby, that I shall come every morning and I shall +worry you until we do get the covers." + +"Young ladies, you will not come too often to please me," said Mr. +Broxby, gallantly. At which the two girls laughed, and literally took to +their heels and fled. + +I won't say that they waited quite five weeks for the chintz, but they +did have to wait; and when at length Mr. Broxby announced that he had +received the chintz, they had to wait yet a little time longer while the +curtains and covers were put together. + +"But doesn't it look sweet now it's done?" said Julia. "Isn't it sweet? +Yes, it's true they've cost a lot--you're quite right there, Maudie; and +they'll make a big hole in our thirty pounds. Of course, we ought to +have an Aubusson carpet, but we can't possibly afford that." + +"No," said Maudie, shaking her head resolutely, "that is certain, as +certain as that one day we shall both die. The best thing we can do is +to go for one of those square things we saw at Barker's the other +day--'cord squares,' I think they called them." + +"I wanted a carpet our feet would sink in," said Julia. + +"You can't have it, my dear. Besides, it wouldn't be much in keeping +with a girls' room. Have a pretty dark blue cord square. We shall get it +for about three pounds. We shall have endless bother with people +slipping about and smashing things if we try and make these boards look +like parquet." + +"You don't slip on parquet as you do on boards," said Julia. "You see, +we haven't very much left, and we must have two big basket chairs, a +couple of small chairs, and a stool or two; and we must have a +writing-table. And then we haven't got any sort of an over-mantel, no +sort of a looking-glass, and no pictures, so say nothing of a stand or +two to put plants in. I don't see where it is all coming from--still +less the piano. Oh, I haven't given up all idea of the piano. That we +must squeeze out of our dress allowance." + +"You don't think," said Maudie, "that we could put the piano off for +another year?" + +"No," said Julia, decidedly, "it's no good spoiling the ship for a +ha'porth of tar." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WEIGHTY BUSINESS + + I have always had a tender feeling about the great Idiot Asylum + which teaches its children by means of keeping shop, with + real pennies and real sweeties. + + +Now if there was one thing on which Julia Whittaker prided herself, it +was that she could carry color in her eye. A great many people have the +same belief, and it is a point upon which a very large number entirely +deceive themselves. + +On the very afternoon of the day that they had decided on the chintz for +the curtains and covers, the sisters hied themselves to that part of +London which is familiarly known as "the High Street." Knowing that +their mother would be away from the Park during all the hours which +intervened between breakfast and dinner, so the girls determined that +they would get something which would serve as lunch in one of the large +shops in Kensington High Street which catered for that particular meal. +Thus they had several hours before them for selection and consideration. + +"Maudie," said Julia, as they walked into the carpet room at John +Barker's, "there's one thing we've never given a thought to." + +"What's that?" asked Maudie. + +"The blinds. And, mind you, the blinds will cost us a pretty penny." + +"Won't those we have do?" Maudie suggested. + +"Oh Maudie!" + +"No, I suppose they won't," Maudie admitted. + +"Of course," Julia went on, "mother was right enough when she had those +green blinds to match the bedrooms at the back of the house--they were +quite good enough for a playroom, but they would be horrid for us. Well, +that keeps us down to the idea of a cord for the carpet. We want to look +at carpets," she said to a gentlemanly young man who came up asking her +pleasure. "No, nothing so expensive as that," she continued, casting +reflective eyes upon a very beautiful carpet square. "We want something +that will be--I think you call them a cord--something in deep blue, or +deep crimson, or a rich green." + +"I'm afraid," said the young man, shaking his head doubtfully, "that we +haven't anything quite in those colors. We have a blue, and we have a +terra-cotta. What size, madam?" + +Well, I needn't go through the process of buying a cheap carpet. The +transaction ended by the two girls purchasing a carpet which, as Julia +remarked, was really almost too ugly for words. It was not an ugly +carpet as carpets for that price go--it would have been admirable in a +bedroom, but for a sitting-room with a delicate Louis XV paper, with +exquisite chintzes to match, it was certainly not a little out of +keeping. + +"After all, the carpet doesn't matter," said Julia, with an air of +making the best of it, "so long as it's unobtrusive and neat." + +"I believe plain felt would have been the best," said Maudie, eyeing the +carpet with much disfavor. + +"They don't wear, do they?" said Julia, appealing to the young man. + +"No, a felt carpet doesn't wear, madam. It sweeps up into a good deal of +fluff, and it's apt to induce moths in the house, and we really don't +find them very satisfactory. It looks very nice at first," he ended with +a flourish, as if their brains were enough to fill up the rest of the +sentence. + +"Yes, I think so, too. Well, we'll have it, Maudie, eh? It will do for +us to begin with," she added in a whisper. "Now tell us, where are the +blinds?" + +"I can show you the blinds, madam. They are in the other end of the +department." + +I must confess that the blinds were another blow. Mind you there were +five windows to provide for--two single windows and a large bay of three +lights. + +"These blinds are ruinous," remarked Maudie, as the young man drew down +one rich linen and lace specimen after another. + +"I am afraid," said Julia, "we must have something more simple than +that." + +"A good blind, madam, is worth its money. Blinds don't wear out like +carpets," said the young gentleman. "I should personally recommend this +one. Yes, it is rather dear to begin with, but it gives the window an +air, and it will clean again and again and again. Perhaps your house is +in a very smoky district." + +"No, it isn't. We live in Northampton Park." + +"Ah, then I should recommend these--I should really. They will be more +satisfaction to you afterwards. A carpet is a very different thing. You +are walking on a carpet every day, and it's hidden by other things, but +blinds, unless you are having curtains quite stretched across the +window, blinds are always in view. Really, I should recommend these." + +And eventually they did buy them; and then they bade their tempter adieu +and went across the road to look into furniture. Well, the furnishing of +a room is always more or less a matter of taste, a matter of individual +taste, I may say, and the two girls that afternoon displayed their +individual taste in a most extraordinary manner. They bought the most +curious and unnecessary articles. First of all they fell in love with a +most elaborate over-mantel, which was ready to be enameled in any color +that the purchaser desired, or which might be stained to simulate oak. +For its centre it had a square of looking-glass with beveled edges, and +it had many little cupboards and shelves and pillars. It was a most +elaborate creation. Then Maudie fell in love with a couple of Japanese +vases. They were exceedingly meretricious in their art; they were the +most modern specimens of that style of Japanese handicraft which is +produced exclusively for the English market. The English have much to +answer for, and the prostitution of Japanese art, like the prostitution +of art in India, is among the sins for which one day England will surely +be called upon to justify herself. The price of these vases was +twelve-and-nine-pence. You know perhaps what it is to buy your first +piece of porcelain, either new or old. It's like that first downward +step out of the rigid paths of honesty which leads eventually to the +gallows. The Whittaker girls took the step at a jump. + +The consequences were disastrous. Oh, the rubbish they bought that day, +the absurd little tables that turned over almost with being looked at, +the ridiculous plant stands, the preposterous little cupboards for +hanging on the wall. Then they must needs have a horrible curtain of +reeds and beads and string, and a three-fold screen, which was a marvel +of cheapness because it was the last one left in stock. Then their taste +went to Venetian glass--such Venetian glass!--some modern faïence from +Rouen, and some Wedgewood which surely would cause the originator of +that great art to turn in his grave could he have beheld it. Fans they +bought also, and a gypsy pot for a coal pan, and then they remembered +that they must have a fender, and they did themselves rather nicely in a +black curb with a brass railing. Then they reminded each other that they +must have a set of fireirons, and then they went off to see the basket +chairs. + +"They're very ugly," said Maudie. + +"And they're not very comfortable," rejoined Julia. "But there, we have +spent such a lot of money already that we certainly must get our chairs +before we think of anything else." + +"And we have no small chairs." + +"No, we haven't. I don't know where we shall get small chairs--we can't +possibly afford expensive ones." + +"If I were you, ladies, I should go and look in the second-hand +furniture department," suggested the young lady who was convoying them +round the basket department. + +"Yes, that's a good idea. We might pick up some odd chairs there. That's +a good idea," said Julia. "Well, then, Maudie, if we have those two big +lounge chairs and those two little occasional chairs, that ought to do +us very well." + +"Will you have them cushioned, madam?" + +"Cushioned? Of course we ought to have them cushioned. Is there much +difference in the price?" + +"Oh, no, madam, not very much. Cushions in a pretty cretonne are quite +inexpensive." + +So eventually, without any reference either to the carpet or the +wall-paper, or the chintz curtains and covers, they chose a pretty +cretonne of a nice salmon-pink shade. And then they went to the +second-hand department and looked out two or three occasional chairs, +which were in reality the most sensible purchases that they made. + +I wish I could adequately paint the scene the following morning, when +the van conveying all the purchases, with the exception of the blinds +and the chairs, which had still to be cushioned, drew up at the door of +Ye Dene. First of all came the carpet, which was promptly laid down and +tacked into position. + +"It clashes with everything," said Maudie, quite tragically. + +"I don't think it does. It goes quite well with that blue in the +wall-paper. I carried the color in my eye," said Julia. "And, after all, +it won't show much. There's a lot to go on it." + +And true enough, compared with the other things, the carpet was +absolutely inoffensive. + +"You would like the over-mantel put up, lady?" said the workman who laid +the carpet. + +"Yes, I think so." + +"You wouldn't like to have it enameled first?" + +"No, I think we'll keep it as it is," Julia replied. "Don't you think +so, Maudie?" + +"Oh yes," said Maudie, in a voice of complete despair, "keep it as it +is." + +Honestly, I do not know how to describe this room, the room that had +started so well. With a few articles of real Louis Quinze furniture to +give it a tone, and the rest decently shrouded in the exquisite chintz +which the girls had chosen, the room might have been one whose equal was +not to be found in the length and breadth of the Park. As it was, it +ended by having the air of a bazaar stall, put together by somebody who +did not properly understand the business. + +"There, that looks awfully nice and cosy behind the couch," said Julia, +eyeing with much satisfaction the three-fold screen, which was of a +vivid scarlet embroidered in garish colors. "At least it will do when +the couch gets its pretty new frock on." + +"And what are you going to do with this?" asked Maudie, holding up a +mass of bright-colored beads and string depending from a lath. + +"I thought we would hang it over that window." + +"But you want them over all the windows." + +"Well, do you know I really don't know what we did have that for. Look +here, we've gone on the conventional line in this room, let's start and +have something that's not at all conventional. We'll hang it on one side +of the bay window--yes, just up there." + +"Well, we can't fix it up ourselves. We'll have to get one of Broxby's +men to come in." + +"It will look awfully well," said Julia, "and it will screen off that +part of the room. Maudie," she went on, breaking off sharp as a new idea +struck her, "what on earth were we thinking of? We ought to have had a +window seat." + +"That would have been a good idea--I wonder we never thought of it," +Maudie cried. + +"Well, we can't now," said Julia in a very matter-of-fact tone, "because +we haven't any money left. As it is, I don't believe thirty pounds will +cover all we spent yesterday." + +"Neither do I, for when the blinds come you'll find they will be ever so +much dearer than we bargained for. Shall we stand this tall bamboo thing +for plants here?" + +"Yes--just in front of where the reed and bead curtain is to go. Well, +then, since we haven't a window seat," Julia went on, "we must put one +of the big wicker chairs there." + +"But who's going to sit there alone?" + +"Oh, we can put a small occasional chair beside it. The man can sit on +that." + +"And a table?" + +"Yes--oh yes, I should put a table for their tea-cups. Well, then, when +the piano comes--and by-the-bye don't forget we have to go up to-day +and choose it--when the piano comes, what do you say to standing it out +here?" + +"It would not look bad." + +"And this wicker chair like that--a little table there--" + +"Oh, it will be exquisite! There won't be another room in the Park like +it." + +"And there are all these things, Julia," said Maudie, looking down upon +a great dust-sheet on which were spread the rest of their many +purchases. "I don't know where we shall put everything. All these little +knick-knacks and odds and ends, they are awfully quaint and funny and +pretty, but I'm sure I don't know what we are to do with them. Here, you +have got the eye; you must say just where they are to go." + +And Julia, having the eye, did say where they were to go; in fact, with +her own energetic hands she spread them about the room--crawling +beetles, grinning devils, spotted cats with exaggerated green eyes, odds +and ends of pottery, glass and porcelain. + +"Do you think we need have that over-mantel enameled?" she asked Maudie +at last. + +"No, I should have it stained black--ebonized, that's the word," said +Maudie, looking round. "As it is, the room is too new, too ornate, too +dazzlingly modern. There isn't a touch of shadow in it anywhere--it's +like a face without any eyelashes." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AMBITIONS + + Many people look upon mental blindness as they do upon physical + blindness--as a terrible affliction. Yet, when the mentally + blind suddenly see, their condition is not usually improved + thereby. + + +If the Whittaker girls had been unpopular as children, they certainly +made up for it, so far as Northampton Park was concerned, when they +became young women. The innovation of having an At Home day of their +own, at which their mother made a point of not appearing, was so daring +that every girl in the Park made it her duty to be present thereat, and +when it was bruited abroad that it was really a girl's At Home, with no +overshadowing mothers and such like sober persons, that the girls had +their own room and their own tea-things, and excellent provision in the +way of cakes, and that cigarettes were allowed after six o'clock, then +not only the girls, but also their brothers, soon came flocking into Ye +Dene in considerable numbers. The whole winter did this state of things +continue, until the At Home days at Ye Dene were no longer a nine days' +wonder but an established fact. + +Then Maudie and Julia began to meet with other girls further afield +than their own immediate vicinity, girls who were connections or friends +of the girls who lived in the Park, and invitations began to shower in +upon Regina's daughters. They were perfectly independent--Regina wished +them to be so, and prided herself on the fact that they were so--and as +their comings and goings did not interfere with the comfort of their +father, Alfred Whittaker saw nothing to which he could frame any +reasonable objection in his daughters' mode of life. + +It happened one afternoon that the two girls were having tea and muffins +in their own sitting-room. It was just before Easter, that week when the +tide of suburban entertaining lulls a little, and the two were sitting +by a blazing fire in big wicker chairs drawn close up to the fender, the +low Moorish tea-table conveniently placed between them. + +"Maudie," said Julia, suddenly, "I think we shall have to pull up." + +"Pull up! why?" Maudie's tone was blank, for she herself had a +particular reason for not wanting to pull up in any shape or form just +then. + +"We're getting too cheap," said Julia. + +"Cheap! and we've spent nearly all our dress allowance!" Maudie +exclaimed. + +"I don't mean cheap in that way. No, we're getting cheap socially. +Anybody thinks they can come to our days and bring anyone they like, and +we do half the entertaining of the Park for people who do nothing for +us." + +"It makes us popular," said Maudie, helping herself to another piece of +muffin. + +"Yes, yes, but is such popularity worth it?" + +"I don't know." + +"Are we going on right through the season?" + +"Well, you know, Ju, the season doesn't make much difference to us." + +"It's going to," said Julia. + +"Is it going to this season?" Maudie demanded. "That's the question--is +it going to this season?" + +"I don't see why not. We've got any amount of invitations for next +month, and not more than a third of them are in the Park. A third? A +quarter, I should say. Now I'll tell you what I propose doing." + +"Well?" + +"I propose, as it is the regulation thing to do, to chuck our 'day' +until next autumn." + +"Julia!" Maudie was so taken back that she was surprised into giving her +sister her full name, the diminutive thereof not seeming to express +sufficiently what was in her mind. + +"You may say 'Julia,' but my head is screwed on the right way. I suppose +I shall never get mother and the dad to move away from Ye Dene." + +"From the Park?" + +"Yes. We have got too much of the Park about us. It's all Park. Dad is +very well off, mother has money of her own--why shouldn't we go and live +in Kensington? We could shunt all these Park people, excepting just the +best--those we have been the most intimate with--and get into a real +good set. What's the use of having a well-off father and a very +distinguished mother if we hide our light under a bushel in such a place +as this?" + +"The people that live here are just as good as we are." + +"Well, perhaps they are, and perhaps they're not, Maudie," Julia +retorted sharply. "If we satisfy them, I'm quite sure they don't satisfy +me. I don't believe myself in sitting on the bottom rung of the ladder +when you can easily and comfortably climb up to the top." + +"But shall we ever get to the top?" + +"No, never; that means strawberry leaves. But there are a dozen reasons +for getting out of Ye Dene. In the first place, the dad has to get up at +an ungodly hour in the morning so as to get to his office at the usual +time. Mother spends half her life in the train, and you know neither of +them are as young as they were. I went up to town with mother yesterday, +and I'm sure it was pitiful to see her dragging herself up those steep +station stairs. She ought to be able to get into a cab and go to her +meetings, a woman of her substance." + +"Perhaps. But we shall never get a house like this--never, never, Ju. We +shall have to do without our own sitting-room, or else have a little box +somewhere at the back of the house, looking into a yard. We shall have +to have clean curtains every fortnight like the Brookeses. We shall have +to sleep up on the third or fourth story--and it will all be horrid, +horrid, horrid!" + +"Not at all. My dear, there are plenty of houses quite as good as this +in Kensington." + +"They'll be three times the rent." + +"Not a bit of it, not the least bit of it. Look at that house where the +Ponsonby-Piggots live; garden--charming garden, tea-house at the end, +greenhouse, shrubs, lawn, three lovely sitting-rooms on the entrance +floor, and only two stories above. We don't want a castle with eight or +nine bedrooms--what should we do with them? _Why, the Ponsonby-Piggots +keep fowls!_" + +"Oh, well, I suppose you'll have your own way. You had better talk to +mother about it." + +"I've learned a lot from the Ponsonby-Piggots," Julia went on. "They +don't just trust to tea and cakes and cigarettes, and a song or two, to +make them somebody. Each of those three plain girls--and _that's_ rather +paying them a compliment--has got some special line of her own. Gwenny +is engaged to the ugliest man in London, and she makes a parade of +having his presentment everywhere--statuettes, photographs, pastels, +miniatures, everything you can think of--to bring the man into +prominence. And he hasn't got twopence; and though he's a gentleman, +they probably won't be able to marry for the next ten years. Theo +collects Napoleon relics. Didn't you notice that the end of their +sitting-room is devoted to Napoleon?" + +"Yes, I did, but I didn't know why," said Maudie in rather a wondering +tone. + +"Well, that's why. And Stella, the little one with the curley red hair, +she collects half-a-dozen things--postcards, autographs, souvenir +teaspoons, and old lustre ware. These girls only have an allowance of +forty pounds a year for their dresses--each, I mean," she added +hurriedly. "And if they want more they make it." + +"But how?" + +"Oh, in various ways. Gwenny, I believe, is secretary to a big doctor up +in town. She only has to attend from ten till five, and she gets a +rousing good salary, and she's putting it all away towards house +furnishing. Then Theo, she does a bit of journalism, and Stella, well, +she's the most original of all. She's a regular little Jew." + +"How do you mean--regular little Jew?" + +"Oh, she's always chopping and changing among her collections. She made +a hundred and twenty pounds last year in selling things at a thoroughly +good profit that she had picked up for nothing. If her mother would let +her, she'd go into a flat with Theo and open a regular business. But +Mrs. Ponsonby-Piggot says that the girls have plenty of money for their +needs, and always will have." + +"Well, if so, why should they? You wouldn't like to open a shop?" + +"I'd do anything rather than stick in the mud," said Julia, "anything in +the wide world." + +"Stick in the mud!" echoed Maudie. "And this is all that has come of +mother's higher education!" + +"Well, mother higher-educated herself. She made a huge mistake, and +nobody knows it better than mother. She is up in all sorts of learned +and abstruse subjects that she has never been able to turn to account in +any shape or form, and the ordinary things that women ought to know she +is perfectly ignorant of. Fancy setting mother to make a pie!" + +"Fancy setting _you_ to make a pie," retorted Maudie. + +"Oh, well, I've been thinking it wouldn't be half a bad idea if we were +to enter at the Park Polytechnic and take a course of dressmaking, +another of millinery, another of cooking, and, for the matter of that, +we might take a fourth at housekeeping." + +"How should we get it all in?" + +"Oh, well, that's easy enough. You pay two guineas a year, and you can +join any class you like. The classes are going on all day long, so Rita +Mackenzie tells me, and you pay sixpence each as a sort of entrance +fee." + +"Then we couldn't do that if we left Ye Dene." + +"Ah, but we sha'n't leave Ye Dene to-day, nor to-morrow--I never thought +of that for a moment. But if we once graft into the dad's head that it +is possible we may one day want to leave Ye Dene, he'll put himself in +the right channel for getting good offers for it. Don't make any mistake +about the value of Ye Dene. It's freehold, it is in the main road, and +it is in the best position in the main road. It's in perfect repair +inside and out. I don't believe, if the dad was to put it in the hands +of two or three good agents, that we should be here two months." + +"What is Rita Mackenzie going in for?" + +"House decoration. My dear, I went in to see her yesterday--I forgot to +tell you; it was when you were over at the Marksbys'. You know there's a +studio to their house?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"Well, her father has made it over to her. She took a course of +lessons, and she's decorated it herself. It's a dream!" said Julia. +"When I look round this room and think of Rita's, it makes me feel +sick." + +"What's the matter with this room?" + +"Oh, what's the matter! Just this, Maudie, that since we evolved this +room out of our own ignorant, vulgar minds, I've been getting educated." + +"My dear, I thought we had finished our education long ago," said +Maudie, somewhat taken aback. + +"That's where your limitations come in, Maudie. If ever you get married, +you'll find that you have everything to learn that will make life happy +and comfortable to you, unless you enter yourself at the Polytechnic +beforehand." + +"I might do worse," said Maudie, looking round. She honestly couldn't +see, poor, prosaic girl that she was, that anything was amiss with their +own especial sanctum. It was bright, cheerful, dainty, and scrupulously +clean. There were evidences on all sides that it was a room in which +people lived a great share of their lives. A great Persian cat lay on a +blue velvet cushion on one side of the hearth, and a very presentable +black spaniel was curled up in a padded basket on the other. "I'm sure," +she said, looking into the blazing depths of the fire, and then helping +herself to another piece of muffin, "I'm sure there's not a prettier +room in the Park than ours." + +"Oh, my dear, don't talk nonsense! It's horrid. We've got a Louis Quinze +paper, Louis Quinze chintz, and make-believe Japanese bead and reed +curtains. We've got cheap bazaar rubbish all over the place, and not one +scrap of furniture worth calling furniture in it. The carpet gets up +and hits the walls, and the walls in their turn slap the screen, and the +screen clashes with the chintz, and you and I clash with everything +else. Oh, it's dreadful, it's horrible!" + +"We've spent most of our dress allowance on it," wailed Maudie. + +"That's the piano. You know, Maudie, you would have a good one. And +by-the-bye," she added, letting her remark fly into the air like a +bombshell, "and by-the-bye, if either of us gets married before the +piano is paid for, will the other poor wretch have to finish off the +payments by herself?" + +"Well, even if she does," said Maudie, "the one that has to finish off +the payments will have the piano." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWOPENNY DINNERS + + Possession to some natures seems always to demand value in what is + possessed; to others it has exactly the opposite effect. + + +Julia duly implanted in her parents' minds the preliminary idea that a +change from Ye Dene might be desirable. But the Whittakers did not leave +the Park just then, for it was only a few days after the conversation +between the two girls on the subject of removal, that quiet, unoriginal +Maudie cast a veritable bombshell into the family circle. For Maudie got +engaged to be married. + +I have spoken earlier in this story of a house in the immediate +neighborhood of Ye Dene which was called Ingleside, and I have just +mentioned a family of the name of Marksby. The Marksbys lived at +Ingleside, and Ingleside was almost exactly opposite to Ye Dene; the +Marksbys, indeed, were next-door neighbors of the M'Quades. They had not +very long been in possession of that desirable residence, and, mind you, +Ingleside was a most desirable residence, one of the best to be found in +the length and breadth of the Park. The family consisted of the father +and mother, two daughters and a son. Mr. Marksby, as far as the Park was +concerned, was that mysterious "something in the city" which covers such +a multitude of sins, or if not sins, at least of blemishes, social and +otherwise. They did themselves and their neighbors extremely well, kept +good-class servants, had the smartest window curtains and flower-boxes +in the Park, went to church regularly, gave largely in charity and +entertained freely. What wonder that, in their case, people did not too +closely inquire into the exact definition of "something in the city." + +From the very first it had been Maudie rather than Julia who had caught +on with the Marksbys. The Marksby girls were quiet and singularly +unassuming, and as Maudie Whittaker grew older she was attracted, +perhaps because of Julia's excessive energy, by quietness rather than +the reverse, and was indeed herself a girl of singularly few words. But +if the Marksby girls were quiet, then young Harry Marksby did not share +their nature. He was himself the gayest of the gay, one who, a century +ago, would have been called an "agreeable rattle;" indeed he was a young +man who prided himself on stirring things up. He by no means approved of +the fact that his father and mother had turned their backs upon +convenient Bayswater in favor of the more distant Park. He was a young +man who worked hard when he worked, and who abandoned himself to +amusement when he was not working. But he was a sensible young man and +did not see the force of burning the candle at both ends, so that he +stayed a great deal more at home in the evenings than many a young man +of his age and general proclivities would have done; and thus it was +that he came somehow to fall in love with Regina Whittaker's eldest +girl. And, as I said, the news fell upon the Whittaker family like a +bombshell. + +Not that they were displeased! Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker had been too happy +in their own married life to grudge either of their girls entering upon +the same joys. But they had not seen it coming. Parents are often like +that, and so the news came upon them with startling suddenness. + +"I am not surprised, though," said Regina to her husband and Julia when +the great news had been broached and Harry Marksby had gone to seek his +lady-love in the seclusion of the girls' own sitting-room, "I am not +surprised. She is very beautiful." + +"Oh, mother, how can you stuff her up like that?" cried Julia. "Nobody +thinks Maudie very beautiful but yourself--not even Harry. You shouldn't +do it, dear. It gives us such a wrong idea of ourselves, or it might do +if we hadn't got the sense to see what we see in our looking-glasses." + +"Your modesty," said Regina, "is most becoming. I honor and admire you +for it--" + +"I'm off to my housekeeping class," said Julia, whisking herself out of +the room. + +"That is the most wonderful thing about our girls," said Regina to +Alfred, when they found themselves alone, "that is the most wonderful +thing about our girls--their utter absence of self-consciousness. Beauty +has never been a bane to them, because they have never had a vain +thought between them. It is a beautiful and wonderful thing." + +"They're good-looking enough," said Alfred, "but they'll never, either +of them, be a patch upon you, dearest." + +"Upon _me_?" She blushed rosy red in spite of her fifty and odd years. +"Why, Alfie, looks were never my strong point. They get their looks from +you." + +"Nobody but yourself ever thought so, Queenie," said Alfred Whittaker, +with an indulgent glance at his wife; "and everybody may not think of +our girls just as you do." + +"And as you do, Alfie?" + +"And as I do. All the same, I don't know that I should call them +beautiful myself. They're good-looking, wholesome, straight, clean, +desirable girls, as good as gold and as merry as grigs. By the way," he +added, "the Marksbys must be very well off." + +"Indeed! What makes you think so?" + +"From what he told me of his circumstances." + +"But what _are_ the Marksbys?" asked Regina. + +"He's in his father's business." + +"But what _is_ his father's business?" + +Alfred Whittaker stretched out his hand and took hold of his wife's. +"Queenie," he said, "we have never been very proud people, have we?" + +"I hope we have always had proper pride, and no more," said Regina. + +"He is a nice young chap," Alfred went on, as if he were following out a +train of thought; "and Maudie seems to be very much taken with him--" + +"Alfie," said Regina in a tone of apprehension, "you are trying to break +something to me." + +"Well, in one sense, I am," he said, smiling; "and on the other hand I +am not. Myself I believe in honest character and good solid comfort +before all other considerations, and I feel that you will be sensible +and do the same. Maudie has still to learn, as far as I know, the exact +nature of the way in which the Marksbys' money is made." + +"Go on," said Regina, impatiently. + +"Well, to go on," said Mr. Whittaker, "is to let the blow fall without +any further fuss." + +"Let it fall!" cried Regina in a tone of tragedy. + +"Marksby," returned Alfred, "is their private name. They trade under a +different one." + +"Yes?" + +"And Marksby," went on Alfred, slowly, "is the Twopenny Dinner King." + +"The Twopenny Dinner King!" cried Regina. "You mean they sell twopenny +dinners?" + +"Yes, Queenie--twopenny dinners. I'm told they are excellent--indeed, +young Harry told me so himself just now. He has invited me to go down +and have lunch with him one day, and he promises he will give me the +regular twopenny fare--not by way of entertaining me, but rather in +order to show me that it really could be done at such a price." + +"And--and--does Harry wear an apron--and--and _serve_ twopenny dinners?" + +"No, no! The concern's too big for that," Mr. Whittaker replied. "He has +never done anything of that kind. It's a regular going concern--they +employ hundreds of hands, make all their own sausages, make their own +beef, mutton, veal, pork and ham pies, cook their own potatoes and green +vegetables. They've got about thirty of these shops--Bundaby's Eating +Houses they are called. They must be coining money." + +"_My_ daughter married to a sausage-maker!" said Regina in a bewildered +tone. + +"There's nothing in that," Alfred Whittaker rejoined; "there's nothing +in that, my dear girl, provided he makes his sausages good and wholesome +and enough of 'em. But I was afraid it would be a bit of a blow to you." + +"My daughter--_my_ daughter married to a sausage-maker!" Regina +repeated. + +"Now, come, come, Queenie, you mustn't--you mustn't--hang it all, I +don't know what you mustn't do! The girl fancies the boy, and he has +plenty of money. He's a nice, gentlemanly chap, and she'll live in +style. He's going to have a motor car; she'll live in far better style +than we've ever done." + +"But you are not a sausage-maker," said Regina. "Alfie, Alfie, I'm +afraid I couldn't have married you if you had been a sausage-maker." + +The word "sausage" seemed positively to stick in Regina's throat. + +"Queenie," said Alfred, "you know perfectly well that what I was had +nothing to do with your feelings towards me. If I had been a +crossing-sweeper--" + +"Alfie," said she, interrupting him, "a duke might sweep a crossing and +sweep it nobly, and remain a duke, unsullied and unsoiled; but a duke +would never make sausages!" + +"No, but sausages may make a duke," said Alfred, promptly. "I know just +how you feel, my dear girl--I felt a sort of a lump come in my throat +myself when he told me--but he was frank and unashamed. I should hate +one of my girls to marry a man who was ashamed of his calling, whatever +it was." + +"My noble Alfred!" cried Regina. + +"I don't know that I'm particularly noble," said Alfred. "I never feel +it if I am. I'm afraid it's only your eyes that see me in such a light. +But I did feel a bit of a lump in my throat, a sort of extra big stone +in my gizzard, don't you know. And then it came over me that it is the +girl's own choice, and that it is not for me to damp it." + +"But Maudie doesn't know." + +"In a way she does, and in another way she doesn't. I asked young Harry +if he had told her the exact nature of his business. He said no, he +hadn't. He had told her he was in business in the city, that they had a +great many branches, but he had not told her the exact nature of it. 'We +never think about it,' he said 'excepting as the business; and if our +friends don't know that Bundaby's Eating Houses belong to us, well, we +don't see why we should enlighten them.'" + +"If nobody knows--" began Regina. + +"Come, come, old lady, you'll have to swallow it, and we shall have to +break it to the little girl, unless young Harry does it himself." + +It was eleven o'clock before they had any opportunity of speaking on the +subject to Maudie; indeed, they were still talking the affair over when +they heard the pair come into the hall, and Maudie opened the door of +the room in which they were sitting. + +"Yes, I must go now," said Harry Marksby. "I've got to be up so +fearfully early in the morning. To-morrow night I shall be able to stay +a bit later." + +He came in, as he said, just to say good-night, and his way of saying +good-night to Maudie's mother did a good deal to wipe the word "sausage" +off the slate of Regina's impressionability. + +"I've only come in for a minute, Mrs. Whittaker," he said. "I must be +off home, because I've got to be up awfully early in the morning. I made +half-a-dozen business appointments for to-morrow ever so early, before I +knew that Maudie and I would quite come to an understanding to-night. +May I come to-morrow evening?" + +"You may come whenever you like," said Regina. "You had better begin, +Harry, as you mean to go on. I have no son of my own, and the young men +who take my girls away from me must not think they are going to rob me +of my daughters--on the contrary, they must make me forget that I never +had sons." + +"I shall be very willing to do that," Harry Marksby returned. "I've +always managed to get on with my own mother all right, and I don't see +why I shouldn't get on with my mother-in-law. It won't be my fault if I +don't." + +"I'm sure it won't be mine," said Regina. + +"No, I'm sure it won't," said he heartily. "Well, good-night, Mrs. +Whittaker." He bent down and kissed her just as frankly as if she had +been his own mother, and Regina choked a little as the boy and girl went +out of the room together. + +In a couple of minutes or so Maudie came back, came in with quite a rush +for one of her quiet nature, and flung herself down at her mother's +feet. + +"I am so happy, mother dear," she said. "You have been happy in your +married life, and you can understand what I feel. To-morrow will be a +great day for me. I'm going to meet Harry in Bond Street at four +o'clock, and we're going to choose our ring together; and after that I'm +going right down to the city with him, and I'm going to have my tea at +one of the Bundaby shops. I always did think I should like to keep a +shop mother," she went on, "you have heard me say so lots of times, but +I never thought that I should one day be at the head of at least +thirty!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +DETAILS + + The young rush along the pathway of life cheerfully surmounting or + overturning every obstacle, while their more cautious elders + look on aghast at their nerve. + + +When once Harry Marksby had taken the plunge and was accepted as a lover +of Maudie's, he was determined not to let the grass grow under his feet. +May was then about three parts over, and Harry insisted that the wedding +should be, as he called it, "pulled off" before the end of July. + +"But why this hurry?" asked Regina, who, in spite of her modernity, +still retained some traces of her aboriginal ways of thought. + +"No hurry at all; but why waste time, Mrs. Whittaker?" said Harry. "What +is there to wait for? We have plenty of money. I always go away for +August, and, for an occasion like this, my father won't think anything +of it if I take a good share of September too. A man only gets married +now and again, you know." + +"But why not leave it till the autumn?" + +"Because I want to take Maudie for a good trip abroad. She wishes it--I +wish it. What do you say? Clothes? Oh, surely we needn't consider a few +clothes. Get as little as she can do with for a continental trip--lay +the wedding gown up in lavender, and let Maudie buy the rest of her +things in Paris as we come home." + +"There's reason in it," said Alfred Whittaker, from the depths of his +big chair. + +"I don't like my daughter being married in such a hurry as this," said +Regina, half hesitatingly. + +"But why? Hurried marriages are the fashion nowadays. Royalty pulls it +off in a couple of months or so--long engagements are out of date. I +knew a man once," Harry went on--"I didn't know him very well, but I met +him--who had been engaged to a girl for thirteen years, and they somehow +or other didn't altogether hit it off when they did get married. There's +nothing to be gained by waiting. You don't really get to know one +another until the knot is actually tied. I know Maudie as well now as I +should know her if I was engaged to her for seven years." + +"I don't want you to wait seven years," said Regina. + +"Well, I should hope not," replied Harry. + +"But as many months--" began Regina, when Harry Marksby impetuously +interrupted her. + +"Oh no, Mrs. Whittaker," he exclaimed. "Maudie would be worn to +fiddlestrings long before seven months were over. The end of July, if +you please. I can work all my business up to that point--then +everything's slack, it's a sort of off-time, so to speak--and I can go +away with a clear conscience and give my wife a ripping honeymoon--get +a ripping honeymoon myself, for the matter of that." + +"You have decided where you want to go?" Regina inquired. + +"Yes, we're going to Switzerland, taking the Rhine on our way and the +Italian lakes as we come back; get a fortnight in Paris, or if we drive +it too late for that, stay three or four days in Paris, and perhaps go +back again for a few days in the early autumn--if Maudie wants clothes, +that is to say." + +"I sha'n't," said Maudie. "I am not going to get my dresses in Paris. +I've come to see now that we made fools of ourselves when we came home +from school with everything Parisian. They were horrid, and were a full +year in advance of the fashions here. I hate being a year ahead of the +fashions--it's quite as bad as being two years behind them. I would much +rather not have all my things bought now, mother. I think Harry is quite +right. A couple of good tailor-dresses, a few muslins, my wedding dress, +and a tea-gown, and other things of that kind, are necessary, but I can +get my further trousseau as I want it." + +"I call that a practical suggestion," put in Alfred Whittaker. + +"Most practical," agreed Harry. "That was why I was fascinated in the +first instance by Maudie--she is so practical." + +"Do you want a wife to be altogether practical?" demanded Julia, while +Maudie looked up anxiously, as if her beloved Harry was about to find +some flaw in her. + +A most odd look flashed across the young man's keen face. "You'll +understand one day," he said, addressing Julia directly. "You'll +understand, and you'll sympathize with me. A fellow likes a wife who +knows how many beans make five. A fool has no charm for any man, except +he's too big a black-guard to want his wife to find him out. As regards +frocks, and the spending of money, and the business side of life, a man +does like his wife to be altogether practical." + +"That implies another side of the picture," said Julia. + +"Yes, it does. And the other side of the picture is me and those that +may come after me; and if a man is a straight, clean wholesome man, he +likes his wife to be altogether sentimental as regards him, and those +that come after him. You will understand me some day, Julia, my dear." + +Maudie's face dropped instantly, and something like the flash of +diamonds came into her eyes. She heaved a great sigh, a tremulous sigh, +not one of pain; and hearing it, Harry Marksby caught hold of her hand +and tried to pull her ring off. And Maudie began to laugh with those +tell-tale little twinkling drops bedewing her eyelashes, and Regina +looked on, much as an elephant might regard her offspring at play, with +a look which only required a little encouragement for her to put it into +words. And if that look had been put into words, they would have been +but three--"_My noble boy!_" + +"Ah, well," said Julia, now busy a few yards away, "you are not half +good enough for our Maudie, Harry. You are taking away the biggest part +of my life, and of course you are very cock o' whoop about it; but if +you're not good to her, Harry, you will have to reckon with _me_." + +"All right, I'll be there when you want me," Harry replied. "Then we may +take it, Mrs. Whittaker," he continued, with a change of tone, "that the +end of July will be the date to work to?" + +"I suppose so," said Regina, "if her father has no objection." + +"I detest long engagements myself," said Alfred Whittaker. "I never +could see the good of them. I was engaged much too long to you, my +dear." + +"It was the happiest time of my life--" Regina began, somewhat +wistfully. + +"Oh, don't say that," her husband interrupted, "don't say that. It might +have been happier than any time that went before--I know it was for +me--but at best it is only a foreshadowing, it's only like water to +wine, like moonlight to sunlight. There, there, children," he said, +flinging out his hands with a deprecating gesture, "there, there, your +old dad doesn't often get so sentimental as that. The end of July let it +be, and after that we shall all go away and breathe freely." + +As a matter of fact, after that Ye Dene became like a seething +whirlpool. Such a coming and going, such a dumping of parcels and +patterns and presents, such sending out of invitations and receiving of +congratulations there was, that more than once even Regina herself +admitted that two months was quite long enough for a young couple to be +engaged in these modern days. + +The Marksby family were frankly and undeniably delighted and overjoyed +at the new state of affairs. They received Maudie with wide-open arms, +lavished their love and admiration and gifts upon her. Papa Marksby came +across to Ye Dene one evening, and was solemnly closeted with Alfred +Whittaker for the space of a whole hour, during which time they smoked +extremely long cigars, drank whisky-and-soda out of extremely long +tumblers, and went solemnly, although in very friendly fashion, into +extremely long figures. + +And then Alfred Whittaker introduced his future son-in-law's father into +the circle in the drawing-room, and Papa Marksby informed Regina in a +voice of much satisfaction and some oiliness, that he and his good +friend and neighbor had settled all the little details of future ways +and means for the young couple. + +"Fifty thousand pounds, my dear Queenie," said Alfred Whittaker, when he +found himself once more alone with his wife. + +"Fifty thousand pounds, Alfie? What do you mean?" + +"Fifty thousand pounds, as our neighbor across the road puts it, 'to be +tied to Maudie's tail!'" + +"You mean to say he's going to settle fifty thousand pounds upon her?" + +"I do. Papa Marksby isn't the man to do things by halves. He puts it +very clearly and in a very business-like manner, that he has set aside +the sum of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds to be divided equally, +on their marriage, between his two daughters and his prospective +daughter-in-law. He says he can well afford it, that it won't affect the +business the least little bit in the world, and, whatever happens, the +three girls will always be safe, they and their children after them. +It's a wonderful thing," he went on, "that two girls like Rachel and +Emmeline Marksby, with fifty thousand pounds apiece to their fortune--to +their immediate fortune, one may say--should remain unmarried, and our +little Maudie, who hasn't and never will have, more than a third of that +sum, should snap up a big prize as she has done." + +"I knew they were well off," said Regina, "I knew it in many ways as +soon as they came here, but I am not surprised that Maudie has made this +wealthy marriage. She is very beautiful--_very_ beautiful. What +surprises me is that the Marksbys should turn out to have so much money. +He gave over a hundred pounds for her engagement ring, and next week +he's going to buy her a diamond necklace. Think of _my_ daughter with a +diamond necklace." + +"That is as it should be," said Alfred, complacently. "Even when it is +made out of sausages." + +"Dear, dear, Alfie, how you do harp on those sausages!" + +"My dear, I went and lunched on them the other day--excellent, +excellent! Don't know how they do it for the money. I saw the whole +process--went over the factory. Everything as clean as a new pin; you +could eat your dinner off the floor." + +"I--I--don't know," said Regina. "It seems a little.--However, having +put my hand to the plough, I am not one to look back. Once my daughter +has married sausages, I will honor sausages!" + +"You will certainly be able to honor a good deal that sausages will give +her," said Alfred Whittaker. "And now, Queenie, there's a subject on +which I have been trying to get a word with you for the last week or +more. What are we going to give, Queenie, for our wedding present?" + +But that was not a question to be answered off-hand. It was a matter +requiring much consideration, consultation--divination, I might say. The +major points of the coming ceremony were all arranged; the bride's +dress, the costumes of the maids, the favors for the men, and the +wording of the invitations. It was the last and greatest, and perhaps +the least easy to decide--what should be the present of the father and +mother of the bride. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DIAMOND EARRINGS + + It is an accepted rule that a gift is enhanced if it comes in the + nature of a surprise. + + +The great question was not settled exclusively by Mr. and Mrs. +Whittaker. + +"You must," said Alfred to his wife in the sanctity of their sleeping +apartment, "find out what Maudie would like to have for her wedding +present from us. I wouldn't buy her 'a pig in a poke,' she'll have too +many of such articles, and it is important that she should have +something from us that she really wants." + +"The question is," said Regina to her lord, "what your ideas are on the +subject." + +"No, my dear Queenie, my ideas will not make the least difference," he +returned, as he carefully examined one side of his respectable face to +see if he had scraped it sufficiently clean. "I can afford, my dear +Queenie, to give you a free hand in this matter. I only stipulate that +it shall be something that Maudie wants--really wants. A grand piano?" + +"Not a grand piano," said Regina. "Mr. Marksby's rich aunt is giving +them that." + +"Bless me! I didn't know they had a rich aunt. I thought Mr. Marksby had +made all the money in the family. Well, there are plenty of things to +make a choice of, silver for the table, furniture for the drawing-room, +a brougham--anything else that she likes and that you like." + +"Well, I will have a little chat with Julia," said Regina, with that +rapt air of contemplation which was all her own. "Julia is a girl with +ideas, Julia is far removed from the commonplace, Julia is a genius." + +"Well," said Alfred Whittaker, "I don't know that it takes much genius +to choose a wedding present." + +"In a sense, dear Alfie, in a sense. But there is one question, dearest, +that you must decide. How much is our wedding present to cost?" + +"Well," said Alfred, as he gave his face a final rub with the towel, +"thank God I am able to give a hundred pounds for my girl's wedding +present, to give her a decent trousseau and to give her a decent dot. +What you like to add to that is your own affair. There, now," he said, +as he threw the towel on the rail by the washstand, "I can't waste +another moment, I must get my tub, charming as your conversation always +is." + +He whisked out of the room, a quaint figure enough in his demi-toilette. +But Regina saw nothing quaint about her lord and master. "A handsome man +with a presence," was her usual description of him. But there are +moments when the state of being which we describe as "a presence" has +its grotesque aspects, and surely the flight to the bathroom is one of +them. Mrs. Whittaker might have been the little blind god herself for +all she saw of the grotesque in her noble Alfred. + +"A hundred pounds," she murmured, stopping in the process of arranging +her hair for the day in order to rest the end of her hair brush on the +edge of the toilet-table, and gazing at herself fixedly in the glass. "A +hundred pounds! And, thank goodness, I can if need be put a hundred +pounds of my own to it; I have only two darlings. I must consult Julia." + +Mrs. Whittaker took the earliest opportunity of a chat with her younger +flower. It was not many minutes after Alfred Whittaker had departed for +his office that a maid-servant came running across from Ingleside with a +message to the effect that three large parcels had come for the bride, +as she was affectionately called on both sides of the road, and would +Miss Maudie please come across and open them, as the young ladies were +dying to know what they contained. So Maudie disappeared in the +direction of Ingleside, and Mrs. Whittaker seized the opportunity of +broaching the important subject that was uppermost in her mind to Julia. + +"Don't go away, Julia," she said, almost nervously. + +"Yes, mother darling, what is the matter?" + +"Nothing is the matter. But I want to consult you." + +"Oh," said Julia, with a little air of conscious pride, "and what do you +want to consult me about?" + +"It is about our present--your father's and mine." + +"I should ask Maudie herself." + +"No, your father wants it to be a surprise, quite a surprise. I thought +if you knew, or could find out something she really wants, I could go to +town and meet your father and get it settled." + +"What is daddy's idea?" + +"Your father's idea is a grand piano, but Mr. Marksby's aunt is giving +them that." + +"Well, they don't want two," said Julia, sensibly. "The employees are +giving them table silver, and the directors are giving them three silver +bowls. If I were you I should give Maudie diamond earrings." + +"You think she would like them?" + +"Yes, dear mother; every woman who has had her ears pierced likes +diamond earrings." + +"What sort of diamond earrings?" + +"Oh," said Julia, "there can be no doubt the sort. Have the biggest +single stones that you can squeeze out of the money." + +So the great question was settled, and a day or two later Mrs. Whittaker +and Julia went up to town and lunched with the noble Alfred. They +lunched at a very cosy little restaurant not a thousand yards from +Charing Cross. A spoonful of white soup, a scrap of salmon, a serve of +chicken stewed in the French fashion in the pot, and some asparagus, +washed down by some excellent white wine, and followed by a black coffee +and a liqueur, made the trio very much inclined to look on the rosy side +of life. Then they got into a hansom, Julia sitting bodkin-wise, and +drove off to the jeweler's at which Mrs. Whittaker had decided that they +would buy Maudie's earrings. Their choice fell upon a pair which the +shopman described as "fit for an empress." They were not vulgarly +large, but they were of the purest water, and of the most dazzling +brilliance. + +"You think," said Mrs. Whittaker to Julia, "you think that Maudie would +like these better than the larger ones?" + +"Oh yes, mother, there's no comparison. The big ones don't look better +than paste; these are unmistakably the real thing." + +"It is a pleasure to sell diamonds to so good a judge," said the +gentleman who was attending to them. + +"I should have thought," said Alfred Whittaker, in his most prosaic +manner, "that as long as you sold your goods it would not matter to whom +you sold them." + +"Excuse me, sir, that is where you make a mistake. We have a lady +customer--she is a duchess--who frequently brings her jewels to be +cleaned. She says her maid is a child at jewel-cleaning. It is not our +business to say to the contrary, but that lady kills every diamond in +her possession." + +"How kills?" said Julia. + +"I cannot say, madam. Something in her magnetism causes the stones to +look dead and slatey. The stones that she has had in her possession and +worn continually for the last twenty years are not now worth a twentieth +part of what was originally paid for them--all the fire has gone out of +them. Whether they would recover themselves by being worn by a magnetic +wearer I do not know. We have a young lady here in our establishment of +quite radiant magnetism. She does no work, but gets a good salary and +simply remains here and occupies herself as she likes and wears certain +jewels a certain number of times. Sometimes when that particular +lady--the duchess--is anxious to make a great appearance on some special +occasion, we have her best stones for a month or even longer. This young +lady of ours wears them all day long, and I can assure you it is an odd +sight to see her with her two hands covered with rings, even her thumbs, +her arms loaded with bracelets, one diamond necklace worn in the +ordinary way, and another one worn over her shoulders." + +"And the diamonds recover their color?" + +"Oh yes, madam, but these are only the stones that her Grace wears +occasionally. I have been told," he went on, "that their brilliance +never lasts with her, and that long before the Drawing-room, or +whatever the function may be, is over, they look as if they had been +black-leaded. You can quite understand, sir," he said, turning to +Alfred Whittaker, "that it is positive pain to me to sell any of our +best diamonds to such a wearer." + +"Well," said Alfred, "the lady who is going to wear these earrings will +never, I think, trouble you in the same way." + +"Oh no!" said Julia. + +And then, somehow, the idea was born that Alfred Whittaker should give a +little trifle of remembrance to Regina and their daughter. The little +trifle of remembrance consisted of a very handsome turquoise ring for +the mother and a very smart bangle for the girl. + +"I had no idea, dear daddy," said Julia, "of your buying me anything +to-day. I have been wanting one of these bangles for, oh! such a long +time." + +"And you never breathed it!" said Regina. + +"I never thought of it," said Julia; "but I am all the more delighted +because I did not think of anything for myself." + +Then they departed carrying with them the lovely earrings which Maudie +was to wear in remembrance of home as long as she should live. + +"They know you in that shop, daddy," said Julia, as they walked back +toward Piccadilly. + +"Oh yes, I have gone there for years; but how do you know that they knew +me?" + +"Oh--from the way they said 'good day' to you when you went in, and then +you brought the earrings away with you and only paid for them by +cheque--to say nothing of my beautiful bangle and mother's ring." + +At this Alfred Whittaker laughed and said that being known at shops like +this was one of the advantages of having a solid business behind one. +Then they looked into one or two windows, and Mrs. Whittaker beguiled +Alfred into a certain lace shop under the excuse that she was going to +wear a lace garment at the wedding and that she wanted him to help her +to choose it. Then they went to some very smart tea-rooms and refreshed +themselves after the usual manner of five o'clock, and then they went +home to Ye Dene, where they found Maudie, who had just come in, +struggling with a perfect avalanche of presents. + +"Where did you get that heart?" said Julia, looking fixedly at her +sister. + +Maudie's hand, the one with the diamonds on it, touched the jewel. "Oh, +my heart," she said in her soft, cooing voice. "Harry has been over, he +brought it from town--he wants me to wear it always. See, it's got a +little miniature of him at the back. He thought I should like to have it +to be married in--just his heart, you know--because I had decided not to +wear my necklace, or--my--er--fender." + +"A very pretty idea," said Regina, beaming proudly upon the bride-elect, +with an expression as if the thought had emanated from her brain instead +of that of the bridegroom-to-be. "We have come from town, your father +and I, and we have brought you a present." + +"Oh! you darlings! What have you brought me? But I know it is something +nice." + +"It's not very big," said her father, producing the little packet from +his waistcoat pocket, "but we hope you will like it all the same." + +"Oh, a ring," cried Maudie, as she caught sight of the box. "I love +rings more than anything else, and it is so sweet and kind of you to +remember my little tastes, and to give me something that I can carry +about with me always when I am not living here any more." + +Regina looked hard out of the window. In spite of her pride at her +girl's approaching marriage, it was a bitter wrench to her to think that +she soon would have only one child in the home nest. Indeed, she looked +forward further still to the time when she and Alfred would be Darby and +Joan, with no young life to disturb the serenity of their daily round. +It was the voice of Julia which brought her back to earth again. + +"Now come, don't stand there rhapsodizing about it, but open your +parcel, old lady, and see what luck will send you," she said to her +sister. "I am sure Harry has given you rings enough. You don't credit +mother and father with over-much sense when you think they would give +you something of which Harry has already given you a dozen." + +At this moment Maudie gave a faint scream. "Oh, you darlings! you +darlings! I never thought of this; I don't know which of you to kiss +first. Oh, oh, what will Harry say? Oh! Julia, you had a hand in this. +Single stone earrings! Oh, they are too good for me." + +"Why should you say they are too good for you?" said Regina. "Nothing is +too good for me to give my daughter." + +"But you were right in one thing," said Julia, as Maudie slipped one of +the sparkling stones from its nest of white velvet, and insinuated the +gold ring into her ear, "they have given you something that you can wear +every day." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A GOLDEN DAY + + Most people detest tears at a wedding, and yet weddings give much + more cause for tears than funerals. + + +At last Maudie Whittaker's wedding day dawned--a golden July day, fair +and still, without being oppressively hot. I think I have already said +that the houses of Marksby and Whittaker were situated in one of the +main roads of that favorite residential locality which is known to +Londoners as Northampton Park, and to its residents as "the Park," +without any distinguishing prefix. A stranger passing along Milton +Avenue might have wondered what great function was afoot, for at both +houses flags were flying, and on lines stretched across from house to +house, amidst streaming pennons, was a great green and white marriage +bell. From the gate to the porch of Ye Dene Alfred Whittaker had, some +two years before, erected a covered glass way, almost a conservatory. +This was lined with flowers and carpeted with red felt. A couple of +stalwart commissionaires stood at either side of the entrance, and a +crowd of the poorer denizens of the Park had gathered to watch the +coming and going of the wedding guests. I must tell you at once that on +this occasion Regina was truly great. + +"Mother," Maudie had said on the previous evening, when she bade her +parents good-night for the last time as Maudie Whittaker. "Mother +darling, there's one thing that you must not do to-morrow." + +"What is that, my love?" said Regina. + +"You will not cry when you get to church, and you will not cry when we +go away, will you? Remember that in Harry you are gaining a son, not +losing a daughter." + +"No," said Regina, "no, I shall not disgrace you. At the same time, +Maudie, my love, if I am not losing a daughter I am losing my little +girl." + +"Not a bit of it, mother," said Julia, chiming in to support her sister +and resolutely keeping her thoughts turned from the fact that on the +morrow half her life would be torn away; "you mustn't think that, +dearest. You know the old saying, 'my son is my son till he gets him a +wife, but my daughter's my daughter all the days of my life.'" + +"Then I hope," said Regina, solemnly, to the bride-elect, "that you will +never make that poor little woman across the road feel that _her_ son is +her son till he gets him a wife. But rest assured of one thing, Maudie +darling, your mother will not disgrace you on your wedding day. I was at +a wedding a few years ago when the bride's mother howled persistently +all through the ceremony and till the bride departed on her honeymoon. +They had not been on such terms as we have always been--in fact, if +Constance Colquhoun had not fortunately found a husband, it is very +certain that Mrs. Colquhoun and she would have parted company rather +than have gone on living together in a continual state of wrangling. I +have no regrets for the past and very few fears for the future. You will +have your ups and downs, my darling, as your mother has had before you +and as your children will have after you. You must look for them in this +vale of tears, but anticipation of them on a joyful occasion is foolish +even to criminality." + +Probably no sweeter bride had ever passed up the aisle of the fantastic +little church which was alike the spiritual and material centre of +Northampton Park. It was not that Maudie Whittaker was a very pretty +girl--no one but her mother had ever given a second thought to personal +beauty as one of her attributes--but she was soft and round and fair, +with radiant eyes and a winning smile. Her bridal gown was simple and +girlish, and her veil of plain tulle enveloped her like a cloud of +innocence. Her only jewel was the diamond heart which her bridegroom had +given her for his wedding-day present. Her bouquet was a real ornament, +a loosely-arranged posy of flowers tied with broad white ribbon--not the +usual over-weighted bundle of blossoms showering from the hand to the +ground, conveying the idea that if the bride was sufficiently unlucky to +tread upon the mass of trails, the result would be the complete downfall +of bride and bouquet alike. The bridesmaids were quite reasonably +attired. Maudie had been inflexible on that point. "My dear Ju," she had +said to her sister when the question was first mooted, "the bride ought +to choose the bridesmaids' dresses. I have seen bridesmaids in Charles +II. dresses, in Tudor dresses, in Directoire costumes, and such close +copies of Boughton's Dutch maidens, that one felt they only wanted +sabots to be entirely correct. I have seen bridesmaids with their +gathers under their arms, and with pouches down to their knees. +I am going to have none of these monstrosities. You and I are +ordinary-looking girls, but, between ourselves, we are dreams of +style compared with Rachel and Emmeline Marksby." + +"Harry seems to have monopolized all the style in the Marksby family," +said Julia, with a judicial air. + +"Oh, Harry has style enough," rejoined Maudie, with not a little pride +in her tones. + +"Yes, you are quite right, Rachel and Emmeline are two dear little +girls, but they are dumpy and snub-nosed, and would look ridiculous in +any sort of fancy dress. You could hardly find a greater contrast than +the Ponsonby-Piggots." + +"Oh, my dear, where could you find a greater contrast than the +Ponsonby-Piggots themselves? One girl as tall as a lamp post, has +straight features, and is definite and rather commanding; and the other +is a little slip of a thing, with curly red hair, misty blue eyes, and +an air of fragility which completely deceives the ordinary observer. So +no monstrosities and eccentricities of bridesmaids' dresses for me. I +should like white _crêpe de chine_ frocks over turquoise blue +petticoats, belts of some handsome embroidery with clasps studded with +big blue stones that will look like turquoise, and big black hats with a +touch of blue under the brim; Harry is going to give them blue enamel +watches. There, I think that is as smart an idea for bridesmaids' +dresses as we need trouble about." + +So it was decided, and the eight bridesmaids who followed Maudie +Whittaker to the altar were all dressed alike, as I have just described. +On her left breast each wore the enamel watch given by the bridegroom, +while the bride's gifts to her bridesmaids were the embroidered belts +studded with blue stones. + +Yes, it was a very pretty wedding, and Regina, resplendent in ruby +velvet, with a white feather waving in her coronet bonnet, and over her +ample shoulders a large cape arrangement of rich lace, sailed up the +aisle on the arm of Mr. Marksby. She had an air of "alone I did it" +about her which was at the same time touching and misleading. In her +tightly-gloved hand she carried a large posy of roses, and truly there +was nothing of Niobe in her expression and demeanor. The service went +off without a hitch, the decorations were lavish, and the little boys, +who were all that could be mustered of the regular choir, wore clean +surplices. The favors were extremely choice, and the happy face of the +bride was more than matched by the radiant self-satisfaction of the +bridegroom. "A delightful wedding" was the general verdict. And then +there was the streaming back to the house just down the road, there was +the string of carriages belonging to friends from town, the Park guests +having followed the simpler plan of going afoot. How shall I describe it +all? The palms, the flowers, the gay dresses, the gently-murmured +felicitations, the health drinking, the speech making, the cake cutting, +the present inspecting, which is the usual course of the smart wedding. +These things were all there, for the Alfred Whittakers had given their +daughter what is generally called "a good send-off." + +Then there came the terrible moment when Regina might have been forgiven +for breaking down. But Regina was equal to the occasion--Regina was a +woman of her word. + +"Oh, no, I am not at all inclined to break down," she said in reply to a +friend who was offering judicious sympathy. "I feel that in my girl's +husband I have gained what I have always longed for--a son. I am going +to be a mother-in-law quite out of the ordinary run, and I am not going +to begin by making him feel himself a cruel marauder who is taking away +my most valued possession. I should not like to have children who did +not marry; it is a natural thing, and Maudie's choice is so absolutely +ours that I have nothing to regret and everything to be delighted with." + +"But did not Maudie choose her own husband?" said someone who was +standing by. + +"Oh, of course she did, but if we had chosen her husband our choice +would have been Harry Marksby." + +It chanced that Harry was just entering the house, having been across +the road to change his wedding garments for traveling gear. He was in +time to hear the whole of his mother-in-law's reply to the question as +to whether Maudie had chosen her own husband. He slipped his hand under +her arm and twisted her round a little. + +"You are not going to be a mother-in-law out of the common," he said, +"because you are one. Nothing you could do would be in the common. But I +cannot thank you enough for saying that if you had chosen Maudie's +husband you would have chosen me. And I'm so glad," he went on in a +lower tone, "that you did not think it necessary to treat us to the +usual shower of maternal tears on this occasion." + +"Perhaps I should have done," cried Mrs. Whittaker, "if I were not so +perfectly happy in Maudie's choice. Why should I want to weep over my +girl's happiness? Why should your mother want to make herself look a +silly fright because you have married the girl of your heart? We are +agreed, are we not, Mrs. Marksby?" + +"Oh, yes, I always did believe in young men getting married as soon as +they are in a position to marry comfortably. As I said to Harry as we +were having a little talk last night, 'Remember, my boy, that you are +marrying in a very different position to what pa and me did. Pa and me +married to a little house with three bedrooms in the southeast district, +with never a thought that we should end up west, and see our boy married +as we have seen him married this day'--didn't we pa?" + +"Yes, mother, we did. And I don't know that we've had any cause to +regret it." + +"I don't know about you, pa," said Mrs. Marksby, bridling visibly. + +"Oh, I don't say but that you might have done better," said Mr. Marksby, +"but we were very happy in that little house, and I only hope that the +young people will be as happy in their beginning as we were in ours." + +"We shall not be less happy because we are able to afford a decent house +in the West End," said Harry, sensibly. "If we are, you may take it as +certain that we should have been just as unhappy in the cottage with +three bedrooms. But, I say, Mrs. Whittaker, isn't Maudie nearly ready? +We sha'n't catch that train if we don't look out. Ah, here she is. Come +along, my dear girl, come along; we've got none too much time to spare." + +Perhaps it was as well. There was a moment's hesitation as Maudie said +"good-bye" to her mother; for one instant, Julia standing by, vigilant +and keen, feared that her mother was going to break down in spite of all +her good resolves. But Mrs. Whittaker was a valiant soul; she pulled +herself up sharply as the little bride, holding her father's hand, went +out to face the storm of rice and old slippers which was awaiting them +outside the house. + +"I know," she said, her voice a little tremulous in spite of her +self-control, "I know she will make a good wife, because she has been +such a good daughter." + +"We can cry quits, Mrs. Whittaker," said the mother of the bridegroom, +"for a better boy to his father and mother than our Harry I don't +believe you could find from one end of the earth to the other." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OTHER GODS + + How little noise people make when they are suddenly stricken with + great mental anguish. + + +They say that after a storm there comes a calm, and a very true saying +it is. After the storm of orange blossoms that raged around Ye Dene on +that July day, there came a calm which was broken only by the excitement +of watching for the postman. The most valuable of the wedding presents +were safely packed up on the evening of the wedding day and consigned to +Alfred Whittaker's private safe. The others were left in the girls' +sitting-room, carefully covered up, in preparation for the long trip in +which the bride and bridegroom were indulging themselves, prior to +regular housekeeping. + +For years the Whittakers had made a point of seeking a fresh holiday +resort with each summer, and this year, by a kind of instinct, they +decided not to go to an English watering-place. Perhaps the feeling that +the bride and groom were enjoying themselves in the Bernese Oberland, +and meant to cover a good deal of ground before they turned their +footsteps homewards, made them feel that the contrast of an English +watering-place would be too much. They therefore decided that Dieppe +would be a bright and convenient change for them; but they were not due +to leave home until some ten days after the wedding. + +Now, it happened that Regina, instead of following the usual course of +mothers, and making the little absent bride into a sort of deity, was +possessed of a feeling that she would like in some way to reward her +younger girl for her helpfulness at the time of the wedding, and the +unselfish manner in which she had deferred in every possible way to her +sister's wishes. She therefore determined that she would give Julia a +little surprise present. No, it was not a birthday, it was not any kind +of commemoration, but she felt that this was an occasion on which she +could appropriately spend a little money. Now Regina was amply blessed +with this world's goods--I mean in her own right. Alfred Whittaker had +done extremely well in the world, and whereas Regina had once loomed in +his horizon as an heiress in a modest way, she was now the wife of an +exceedingly warm man, and happy in the possession of a tidy little +income of her own. She breathed not a word of her purpose to a soul. She +did not intend her little gift to take the form of raiment. Julia's +father gave her an ample dress allowance, and Regina was in the habit of +adding to it with special offerings at such times as birthdays and the +season of Christmas. It was not difficult for her to carry out her +purpose, for she had but seldom gone to town in company with her girls. +She was so busy a woman, she had so many excuses, so many appointments +and engagements of a semi-business kind, that her comings and goings +were not often questioned. + +"What are you doing to-day, Julia?" she asked, one morning at breakfast, +about a week after the wedding. + +"To-day, mother dear? Well, I have to go out with Emmeline Marksby this +morning, and unless you want me I am going to lunch there. And then I am +going to get my new white frock fitted on, and I am going to tea at the +Dravens." + +"So you will be occupied all day?" + +"Why, do you want me?" + +"Not at all, dear child, only I feel that you must be lonely now that +Maudie has gone, and I have at least a dozen things to occupy me." + +"Oh, don't worry yourself about me; I shall be busy right up to dinner +time." + +So they went their separate ways, and two hours later Mrs. Whittaker +might have been seen deliberately pacing up the arcade in which was +situated the shop at which Maudie's earrings had been bought. A +smooth-spoken young gentleman came forward to receive her. Regina +explained her pleasure; she wanted earrings. No, not for the bride; for +the young lady who was with her when she bought the bride's earrings. +Solitaire earrings? Yes. Turquoise were very nice, but she fancied that +Miss Whittaker did not care much about turquoise. Did she fancy pink +coral? Yes, that was a happy idea, so suitable for a young lady. So +Regina was shown various solitaire earrings in that most delicate and +girlish substance. But even then she was not satisfied, and the pink +coral earrings were set in diamonds. No, it was not the expense; that +was not the question, but Mrs. Whittaker thought that not even tiny +diamonds should find a place in the jewel-box of a very young girl. + +"Pink coral without--?" + +"Just a few sparks, madam," said the gentleman on the other side of the +counter, "they will be a little--well, a little insignificant--as +earrings." + +"Perhaps," Mrs. Whittaker admitted, "you might let me see the turquoise, +I could have those without diamonds." + +"Yes, or pearls. Solitaire pearls are quite young ladies' jewelry." + +"And are they very expensive?" asked Regina. + +"Oh no, madam. Let me show you the pearls." + +So another tray was handed out, and yet another tray; one containing all +manner of turquoise studs for the ears, and the other showing an +assortment of pearl earrings, from modest ones at five guineas a pair to +some which were far beyond Regina's means or Julia's necessities. +Eventually a pair of pearl solitaires were chosen and paid for. + +"Yes, I shall take them with me," said Regina, opening her smart black +and gold wrist bag in order that the little jewel-case might be +comfortably nested in company with her small purse and her +pocket-handkerchief. + +"I hope, madam," said the shopman, "that you liked Mr. Whittaker's last +present to you." + +"I like it very much," said Regina, smoothing the back of her hand, and +gazing admiringly at the big turquoise ring that adorned it, "I think +it is a very handsome ring." Then she looked straight into the young +man's eyes, "You were not speaking of this?" she said, with a gesture of +her hand to show that she was speaking of the ring. + +"No, madam," he stammered, "I remember Mr. Whittaker buying the ring and +the bangle for the young lady--I--I was thinking of quite another +customer." + +At that moment another figure came from the office behind the shop. It +was, indeed, the assistant who had actually attended to their wants on +the occasion of her previous visit. + +"I hope," said he, "that the bracelet that Mr. Whittaker bought the +other day met with your approval, madam." + +For a moment Regina felt as if the earth were opening under her feet; a +wild impulse seized her to catch violently hold of something, and scream +in a series of sharp intermittent yelps as a locomotive does when +something has gone wrong, and a wild instinct to catch the two +smooth-faced young men on the other side of the counter by the ears and +bang their heads together--a feeling as if heaven and earth were +slipping away from her. But Regina was a remarkable woman! She had her +vanities and her weaknesses, but in all the emergencies of life Regina +might be counted upon for not losing her head. In spite of the sea of +tempestuous emotions which surged within her at that moment, she +maintained her dignity and her common-sense. + +"No," said she, "I have not yet seen it. I am afraid that you have +given my husband away; as a matter of fact I have a birthday next week." + +It was the first plump and deliberate lie that Regina had ever told in +her life. She did not hurry out of the shop--she even went so far as to +choose a little present for her lord, going back with a curious +persistence to the idea of pink coral, and bought for him what Julia +would have described as a perfectly sweet tie pin, consisting of a bit +of pink coral set between two small but fiery diamonds. + +"Mr. Johnson," said the younger of the two assistants, as the door +closed behind Regina, "you have put your foot in it this time." + +"Why--how--what d'you mean?" + +"Simply this, that Mr. Alfred Whittaker, of Ye Dene, Northampton Park, +won't thank you for letting on to that good lady that he was here last +week buying a bracelet that she don't know anything about." + +"Oh Lord! I never thought of it. She said she had a birthday next week." + +"She said, yes, she _said_, but that ain't any proof to me; I never saw +an old girl pull herself together in a neater manner; she even went so +far as to buy a tie pin on the strength of it. But, mark my words, Mr. +Alfred Whittaker won't thank you for letting on to that lady that he was +here last week buying that bracelet." + +"If I thought that," said Mr. Johnson, "I'd put my head straight in a +bag." + +"If it had been me," said the other, "being a youngster I might have +been excused, but an old hand like you--tittle-tattling about other +customers' purchases--you ought to know better." + +"You are quite right; I deserve anything that may come of it; I don't +think that I have ever done such an idiotic thing in my life. What can I +do to make up for it?" + +"Nothing," said the other. "If anything is said, swear that Mr. +Whittaker told you that the present was for his wife." + +"I think he did." + +"That's as may be. Anyway, stick to it through thick and thin that he +mentioned that it actually was for his wife." + +"Well, don't tell any of the others, Dick." + +"I shouldn't dream of doing that, it isn't likely. I might make a slip +myself one day, so I am not going to point out the slips of other +people." Which, considering the very near shave the young gentleman had +had of making the very same slip not ten minutes before, might be +considered a very feeling remark. + +Meantime Regina had gone blindly along the arcade. She was dressed in +summer garments, and not a few very curious glances were cast at her. +Twice she stopped to look in shop windows with eyes that saw nothing. +The first was a gunsmith's, and the second was a man's window of a +distinguished bootmaker's. Regina never knew the exact objects at which +she had gazed during that painful peregrination. When she got to the end +of the arcade she turned and walked back again, and all the time there +beat to and fro in her brain an idea which said that Alfred, her noble +Alfred, had gone after other gods--after other gods! Well, in the worst +trials of life, in the griefs and shocks and sorrows of the newest and +most unaccustomed kind, a woman cannot walk up and down a fashionable +arcade forever. When she again reached the entrance by which she had +gone in, it occurred to her that she must sit down and think--she must +go somewhere where she could be quiet, where she could face this new +sensation which had come into her life. Her club? No, not her club. She +would meet there women who were interested in the same work as herself. +If she lunched, and she could not be there in the lunch hour without +lunching, someone would join her. There was a little pastry-cook's where +she sometimes lunched when she was in a hurry; she had never seen +anybody there she knew, she would go there. To eat! No--no!--not to eat! +Regina Whittaker was sure that she would never eat with relish again. So +she bent her steps toward this little side-street haven, and, like all +women in dire trouble, ordered tea and a muffin! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +REGINA COMES TO A CONCLUSION + + Have you ever noticed how accurately women judge from small + circumstances. Men call this intuition, and men think of + intuition as being on the same level as instinct. + + +If Regina had ordered a plate of soup it would have been brought to her +immediately, because at one o'clock that comestible would have been +ready and awaiting the wishes of customers. But Regina, as I have said, +like most women in trouble, ordered the food and drink that were nearest +her heart, and therefore she had to wait while the tea was brewed and +the muffin toasted. The waiting did her good. She was alone, as it +happened, in the comfortable room over the shop, and thus she was able +to grasp the situation more clearly than she had done while still +talking to the jeweler's assistant, when she had had to consider the +ordinary conventions of existence. Poor Regina! She sat there by the +tall mantelshelf and stared at the paper roses which filled the summer +grate. Her Alfred, her noble Alfred, had fallen from his pedestal--he +was hers no longer! In all the years of their married life, indeed in +their knowledge of each other, she had never wronged Alfred by even so +much as a doubt of his nobility. To her he had been noble, truly noble, +kind, affectionate, dignified and a highly successful man--and now all +was over; her house of matrimony had fallen about her ears like a pack +of cards--she had been supplanted by another. Truly Regina's thoughts +were very bitter. She had been supplanted by another--what was she going +to do? It came to her memory that in times gone by, when other women had +fallen upon evil days of a like description, she had helped to bear +their sorrows with a very light heart. Well, it had not then entered her +head that their portion might one day be hers; but now the blow had +fallen upon herself, and she must perforce give herself the same advice +that she had given to others. "My dear," she had remarked once to a poor +little woman whose husband had been spoiled by over-much adoration, "you +have made one mistake in your life: you have been too good to that +husband of yours. What? Nobody could be too good to him? You have, my +dear, and it doesn't do to be too good to a man for all time whether he +behaves himself or not; it doesn't do to put all your wares in your +front window. Keep something back; let there be always some little +corner of womanly dignity which men, even husbands, must respect." "But, +Mrs. Whittaker," the little woman had replied, "I haven't any dignity +where Jack is concerned; I don't want any dignity, I only want Jack, and +he has gone away and left me." How well she remembered the words as she +sat alone in the pastry-cook's shop in Regent Street, how well she +remembered! Well, she felt very much as that little woman had felt--she +did not care about her dignity any more; she only wanted Alfred, and +if Alfred was deceiving her, if Alfred was living a double life and +sharing his heart with another, she only wanted to go back to the +blissful time of blind ignorance, when to her he had been the embodiment +of manly dignity and robust virtue. + +She got up and looked at herself in the long strip of glass which was +set between the two tall windows. It was not a becoming glass, nor was +it placed in a particularly becoming light, and Regina, who had been +through a storm of tempestuous emotion, and who bore upon her strongly +marked countenance the visible signs of her mental upheaval, looked, +frankly speaking, quite hideous. At that moment the young lady who had +taken her order for tea and muffin came into the room carrying a little +tray, and Regina made a slight pretence of adjusting her hair before she +went back to the table. + +"Would you prefer to sit here, or by the window?" + +"I think by the window," said Regina. Her tone was admirably +careless--so careless that it almost deceived herself. + +"Will you have cream also with your tea?" + +"Yes, I think I will have cream. Thank you very much." + +A couple of minutes later Regina was once more alone. Certainly the open +window was more comfortable than the empty fireplace with its paper +roses. The tea was freshly made, and was good of its kind, the cream was +rich, and the muffin was the perfection of a muffin, and Regina sat with +the summer wind fanning her troubled brow, and ate and drank her simple +fare and was comforted. As she sat she stole a glance at herself in +another strip of looking-glass, in which she could see herself by +turning her head an inch or two. And as she sat there and her +storm-tossed soul was soothed and comforted by her little meal, she +began to turn things over in her mind with a less tragic spirit than she +had done before. Perhaps if Alfred had been drawn away to other gods it +had been her own fault; Alfred was so handsome, so manly, had such a +presence, and she had despised all the trifling feminine womanly things. +She had given up so much of her time to the regeneration of women that +she had let the material part of Regina Whittaker take its own course, +and Nature, left to take its own course, is never very attractive. She +was too stout. There are people of the plump little partridge order who +would look frightful in a nearer approach to their bones, but Regina had +gone fat in lumps, and Regina's eyes had never been aware of the fact +until this morning. Too much chin, too much nape of the neck, too much +at the top of the arms, too much of that which, even back in Scripture +days when coupled with "a proud look," was ever a subject for derision. + +"Never proud to my Alfred," said she, leaning back in her chair; "but," +and here she crossed her hands just below her waist, "the other is an +indisputable fact." + +As she decided the question in her own mind she laid her hand upon the +little bell which stood beside her on the table. + +"Did I ring?" said she. "Oh, I was not conscious of it. I think I made a +mistake in having this kind of meal. I am not accustomed to it, I feel +as if I had taken nothing." + +"Try a sandwich, madam," said the young lady. + +"Sandwich? I think I am not equal to sandwich to-day. Something has +happened to me; I have had a shock, and you know how we weak women fly +to feminine articles of food when we are in trouble." + +"I am sorry you are in trouble, madam." + +"I came in here knowing I should be quiet, and it is very quiet." + +"It is the end of July. In another week we shall be more quiet still, +and after that, when the country people come, we shall not know where to +turn. When you come back from abroad or from your sojourn by the sea we +shall be as you always see us." + +"I think I will have another muffin." + +"I would, madam. I will tell them to put plenty of butter on it. And a +pot of tea, and a little more cream?" + +"Yes," said Regina, rather weakly. The girl disappeared again, and +Regina sat back in her chair, a very comfortable one, and felt that it +was pleasant to be ministered to, and then fell to thinking about +herself again. How strange that she had never noticed any change in +Alfred! He had never seemed to find her wanting in any way. More than +once, even of late years, he had told her that the girls would never be +a patch upon her for looks, and she had accepted his tribute to her +charms in all good faith. And then she turned to the glass again and +regarded herself with new eyes--critical eyes--and she saw that her +dress was hideous, her bonnet a travesty, her hair, fine in quality and +very decent in color, made nothing of, her gloves were too small or her +hands too large. What did it matter, the result was the same; she was +inelegant, unfashionable, grotesquely stout--she was all wrong, and it +seemed as if all she had done by her work for the regeneration of +womanhood had been to cut herself adrift from her own husband. + +I have said that Regina Whittaker was a very remarkable character, and I +have tried to show that she was a woman who was accustomed to judge for +herself in most circumstances of life, and who, even if she took the +wrong line, took it on her own, so to speak. Now, in what I may honestly +say was the bitterest moment of her life, she decided, judged and +determined on her own line of action just as she had done in previous +times. At this moment the relay of muffin and fresh tea arrived, and +Regina, with a smile of thanks, began with an excellent appetite to eat +the second half of her meal, and as she ate her thoughts were working +busily. + +Alfred had fallen a victim to a hussy! That she was a hussy of tender +years, as compared with Regina herself, was evident. There was no +evidence to prove it, but once the idea had entered Regina's mind it +remained there and throve apace. This ignorant, youthful, gay little +hussy _must be supplanted_, her influence must be undermined, and Alfred +must be lured back to his original nobility. It was curious that no +shadow of blame for the noble Alfred presented itself to Regina. If he +had been unfaithful it was because he had been tempted by a hussy from +the allegiance which had stood the test of over twenty years. If he had +left her for other divinities it was because she had not made herself +sufficiently alluring to him; and Regina, as she ate the last piece of +the second muffin, determined there and then that she would mend her +ways. + +"I will go to a beauty doctor," she told herself. "I will get rid of +every blemish that has lessened my attractions for him; I will put +myself in the hands of an expert dressmaker; she shall dress me like a +fashion-plate; I will be young, I will be slim, I will be attractive, I +will win my husband's heart back again." + +Then her thoughts ran towards the Society for the Regeneration of +Women--that darling project of her later years, which she now realized +had cost her very dear. From that she must free herself; not publicly, +not with any ostensible reason, except that she had worked sufficiently +long. Others must take the reins from her hands and she must put forward +the plea that new blood was necessary, even essential, in all such +undertakings. When she had arrived at this point she was already quite +cheerful. She took out her purse from her black and gold bag and +deposited a bright new sixpence under her muffin plate as a delicate +little reward to the girl whose kindly words had been her first solace, +then satisfied herself with a long look at Julia's earrings, and then +she opened the little case which contained the tie pin that she intended +as an offering to her lord and master. This she determined she would not +present to him. A curious fancy took possession of her that she would +give him some little symbol of her unaltered affection for him. She had +never heard that pink coral was coupled with any particular meaning; it +had no place among what may be called the birthday stones. Now, Alfred's +birthday was in October, so she would choose him an opal--yes, a little +tie pin of opals with a single diamond like a crystallized tear-drop, +and she could say to him, "This opal is to bring you luck in your later +years, and the diamond has a meaning which I will tell you at some +future time--not now." + +Then Regina rose up, strong in her new resolve, and, having paid her +money at the desk, went out into the summer sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE FIRST LITTLE VANITIES + + We are often blamed for not speaking out as soon as a doubt enters + our mind, yet oftentimes the reticence which such a doubt begets + is a saving grace which redeems and sanctifies our whole + character. + + +It was with quite a cheerful countenance that Regina went through the +rest of her day's work. Arriving home at Ye Dene in time for dinner she +changed her dress for a cool and light tea-gown, in which, I am bound to +confess, she looked more than anything like a gigantic perambulating +baby's bassinette. She laved her face with a little scented water, and, +for the first time in her life, she dusted her countenance with a little +powder. She did not herself possess such things as a powder-box and +puff, but in Maudie's deserted bedroom she found on her dressing-table +the one which she had used up to the morning of her marriage, for she +had naturally taken with her on her wedding-tour the smartly fitted +dressing-case which had been among her husband's wedding presents to +her. It was with quite unaccustomed hands that Regina sought for the +powder-box, and she used the powder too thickly. Maudie had had a pretty +taste in powder, and prided herself on never using a common kind. Being +so very fair she used that of a pure white tint, and when Mrs. Whittaker +had finished her application of it I must confess she looked ghastly. + +"How dreadful!" her thoughts ran. "How can women ever use this stuff?" + +Then she took a towel from the towel-rail and rubbed her face +vigorously, shook the puff out of the window, and started again, +succeeding this time in merely making herself of a delicate pallor. As +she descended the stairs her husband turned in at the gate and came +along the covered way to the porch. He noticed at once that there was +something unusual in her appearance. + +"Well, Regina, my love," he remarked, "have you been grilling in town +this hot day?" + +"Yes, I have been to town, Alfred," she replied, trying hard to make her +tone quite an ordinary one. + +"You must have over-tired yourself, my dear; you are as pale as a +sheet," he remarked, looking at her keenly. "Here, come with me." He led +the way into the dining-room, that large, cool, pleasant apartment in +which Regina had so often sat admiring him, and, going to the sideboard, +poured her out a glass of port. + +"Here, drink this down at once. I am sure you have been over-doing it. +Have you been to any of those beastly meetings?" + +"I have not been to a meeting, though I looked in at the offices of the +S.R.W." + +"I feel very much inclined to say 'Damn the S.R.W.,'" said Alfred +Whittaker, warmly. "I can't bear to see you looking so jaded and +worn-out as you do now. Here, drink this down; it will pull you together +better than anything else." + +He was an old-fashioned man, who believed in a glass of port, and +Regina, with unwonted meekness and the same happy feeling of being +ministered to that she had felt in the pastry-cook's shop, obediently +swallowed the pleasant potion. + +"I shall be very glad," Alfred Whittaker continued, "when we are off on +our holiday, for I never felt the need of one so badly as I do this +year. I suppose it is the excitement of Maudie's wedding, but I can't +bear to see you looking as you do now." + +"I am better--I feel better," said Regina, nervously. It was hard for +her to resist the inclination to fling herself upon Alfred's broad bosom +and tell him everything that was in her mind. It would have been better +if she had done so, but she resisted the inclination from a desire not +to give way to unusual weakness. + +"Now sit down quietly by the window and rest while I run up and change +my coat." + +It was his habit to make what might be called a half-toilette for +dinner--to take off his frock-coat and substitute for it a sort of +smoking-jacket, quite a glorified garment, in which Regina admired him +as some women admire their husbands when they get drunk, with that +curious admiration for the breaking off of shackles, even merely +conventional ones. It was a delight to Regina, strong-minded, +commanding, magnetic, almost eccentric nature that she was, to give her +husband's behests instant obedience, and she sat down in the huge +armchair by the window with a sigh of relief. Well, some hussy might +have got hold of him, yes--but his heart was with her. + +She owned to herself that there was a little bit of the hypocrite in +her, but she forgave herself the infinitesimal sin because Alfred had +noticed instantly that she was paler than usual. Ought she to have told +him that she had been using powder, and that she was not really more +worn-out than usual? Perhaps so, and yet, she told herself, no woman on +earth could have forced herself to be so strictly just. Then there was a +sound of the gong in the hall, and Alfred came down, Julia coming with +him. + +"I'm afraid, my bird," he was saying, as they crossed the threshold, +"that you miss Maudie more every day that goes by, and soon you'll be +marrying yourself, and there'll only be old Darby and Joan to jog along +together." + +"I've not gone yet, daddy," said Julia. "Maudie had what we may call +adequate temptation. I may go on for years before I meet anybody who +takes my fancy as completely as Harry took hers." + +"Meantime, I think you ought to go out with your mother a little more. +She looks worn-out to-day." + +"Do you, darling?" looking toward the large white figure at the window. +"I declare you do. Why, you told me that you would be busy all day and +wouldn't want me." + +"Did I?" said Regina. "I do not think quite that, dearest. But it was +true, I did not want you with me to-day; I was full of business of one +sort or another." + +"Well, well, come to dinner," said Alfred, genially, "come to dinner. We +needn't live to eat, but we must eat to live, and here is a bit of +salmon that would gladden the heart of a king." + +He was very full of joke that night, telling wife and daughter of one or +two little incidents which had happened to him during the day, and +making merry exceedingly. + +"You're very mischievous and gay to-night," said Julia. "What have you +been doing to-day?" + +Regina looked across the table involuntarily. + +"Oh, I have been doing the usual thing, my dear--making money for you to +spend. By the way, I have had an excellent offer for the house." + +"For the house!" cried Julia. "Have you taken it?" + +"I've not taken it; I shouldn't think of doing so until I have consulted +your mother. It is a good offer, and I have a week to think it over in. +The question is, Do we really want to leave the Park?" + +"Yes," said Julia. + +"What do you say, Queenie?" + +"I do not know." + +"But, mother, you find it such a fag and such a drag getting to and fro +to your committees." + +For a moment Regina did not speak; she put her fish knife and fork down +upon her plate. + +"I don't know that we need consider my committees," she said quietly. "I +am thinking of giving them all up." + +"Your committees!" cried Julia in a tone that was almost frightened. + +"My dear--!" said Alfred. + +"I have worked for others during the last ten years, Alfred," said +Regina, leaning back in her chair and looking at her husband, "but I am +not sure if I've done quite the right thing in giving up so much of my +time to outside work." + +"My dear, I have never complained." + +"No, dear, you have never complained. I do not know that you might not +have done." + +"My dear girl, what does it matter to me how you amuse yourself while I +am at business?" + +"No, there's something in that. On the other hand, in a sense it does +matter. I have worked long enough; I think I want to be a little more in +my own home--I'm not so young as I was." + +"You're worn-out, that's about the English of it," said Alfred +Whittaker, putting his knife and fork on his plate and sitting back. "As +long as it amused you it was all right; it was as good as spending your +life in running from one hot, stuffy party to another. Cut it, my dear, +cut it. There's one axiom in business that never fails, 'cut your +loss'--at least, I have never known it fail yet. By-the-bye," he said, +"I have brought you a little present." + +Regina almost screamed aloud. So she had been wrong all the time; there +was no hussy, his solicitude for her pale looks had been the solicitude +of the old affectionate Alfred who had been ever and always her _beau +ideal_ of what a husband should be. She gasped a little. "Yes," she said +faintly. + +"Something nice?" said Julia. "Jewelry?" + +"Well," said Alfred Whittaker, and his face wore a curious little smile, +"yes--it's jewelry. I came by it in an odd fashion. I had some business +up west this morning, a very unexpected bit of business; it took me +right out of my regular track. I was going along a little street at the +back of Manchester Square and I saw something in a little shop that +attracted my attention. It was a quaint little shop, half jeweler's and +half curiosity dealer's." + +"And you stopped and bought it?" + +"Not at all; I stopped and looked at it. It was a tea-service of that +scale blue Worcester which fetches such tremendous prices at Christie's, +only I don't think that particular set will ever have a show at +Christie's, handsome as it is, and while I was looking at it I noticed +this. I haven't seen such a thing for ages, and I've never seen anything +like it at the price before, so I bought it and paid for it, and here it +is." He took a little parcel from his pocket wrapped in tissue paper, +and pushed it along the table to Julia. "Give that to your mother. No, I +did not buy anything for you." + +"Then you did not go to Templeton's for it?" said Regina, as her fingers +closed over the little parcel. + +"Templeton's? Oh, no, this is not modern; it is an antique. The people +haven't the faintest idea of its value; it is worth ten times what I +gave for it. It happened to be one of the things in which I am +interested and which I understand. No, when I want jewels, I go to +Templeton's. I don't understand gems and I can trust them." + +"And their discretion?" said Regina. + +"Yes, if it were necessary I would trust their discretion too. Now, what +do you think of that?" + +Regina opened the parcel with fingers which visibly trembled. He had +bought her a present; his mind, at the moment of looking into that +little shop, half jeweler's, half curiosity shop, on seeing something in +which he was personally interested, had instantly flown to her. He might +have given a bracelet to a hussy, but his interest had remained with +Regina. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +BROKEN-HEARTED MIRANDA + + When we are in trouble we often take means to comfort ourselves + that we should utterly despise in others. + + +Mrs. Whittaker in no way faltered in her resolve to win back Alfred to +his old allegiance. The dinner was excellent. + +"A very good bit of salmon," said Alfred, looking inquiringly at his +wife as he held the fish server and fork suggestively toward the dish; +"you will have a bit more, dearest?" + +"A little bit more," said Regina. + +In spite of the blow which had fallen upon her she was honestly and +genuinely hungry. To a woman who lives well and eats her three meals a +day, to say nothing of a very good tea thrown in, the loss of a meal is +a very serious matter. Muffins, though consoling, are not possessed of +much staying power, and Regina was, in spite of being so upset, +genuinely famished. + +"Cook is improving in her sharp sauce," Alfred went on cheerfully as he +helped himself a second time. "I often think," he continued, "what a +lucky thing it is that salmon is a summer fish, it is such a refreshing +dish in hot weather." + +"Yes, I confess I like a bit of salmon myself," said Regina, rather +tamely. + +Julia looked up. Something in her mother's tone struck her as unusual. +"Don't you feel well to-day, mother?" she asked. + +Alfred looked up sharply. "Don't you feel all right?" + +"Yes, quite all right," she replied; "I think I want to get away." + +"You're over-doing it," said Alfred in genial yet uneasy tones. "Why +don't you take a little rest--not a holiday, but a rest from your +outside work? You're over-doing it." + +"I think so too," said Regina. "I went down to the offices to-day and +told them to prepare my resignation as President of the S.R.W." + +"Mother!" cried Julia in sharp staccato accents. + +"Oh, come, come, you needn't say 'mother' in that tone. It is the best +bit of news I have heard for a long time. My dear, I look toward +you--Stay, we'll have a glass of fizz on the strength of it. Margaret, +here, take my keys, go down to the cellar, look in bin marked number +three and bring up a bottle." + +"Large or small, sir?" + +"Oh, a large one." + +"If you did not like it, Alfred, I wish you had told me before," said +Regina, as the door closed behind Margaret. + +"It isn't that I did not like it, or that I grudged your amusing +yourself in your own way, or making your life interests in your own way, +but when I see you looking so worn and harried, so pulled down and +fagged out--well, I naturally begin to wonder where it is going to +end." + +"I'm getting older," said Regina. + +"Nonsense, nonsense, fiddle-faddle! we're all getting older, as a matter +of fact, but you are still a young woman in the very prime of life. When +you have had a good change and a little sea air, when you give yourself +a little more ease and a little more personal indulgence, you'll look +ten years younger, my dear child, ten years younger." + +Regina only replied by a smile. At that moment Margaret came back +carrying, with the care of a thoroughly well-trained parlor-maid, the +bottle of champagne in which they were to drink, as Alfred put it five +minutes later, to the degeneration of Mrs. Whittaker. + +"They'll be very angry, they'll never replace you," he went on, leaning +back in his chair and nursing his stomach in the manner peculiar to +elderly gentlemen who do not despise their dinner; "I think they ought +to give you a diamond star to show their appreciation of the star you +have been to them." + +"I hope not," said Regina, decidedly. + +"Don't fuss yourself," put in Julia, whose fears for her mother were +somewhat allayed; "they won't. I notice that when women give things to +women it is generally something they've got cheap. They'll give you an +illuminated address, no doubt, and you can frame it and hang it in the +hall." + +"Not in the hall," said Regina, who was not strong in the point of +humor, "not in the hall, Julia darling." + +After that the evening passed over very quietly. Julia ran over to the +house of Marksby and was seen no more till bed-time. Alfred sat down in +his own special easy-chair in the cool, pleasant drawing-room, and, over +a pretence of reading the newest art journal, gently dosed off into +slumber, and Regina, in her corresponding chair in the big bow window, +sat and thought she would leave nothing to chance. As for fate, she +would brave it. Like her husband, she was making a pretence of reading, +and as she sat thinking things over she became conscious that she was +looking at the portrait of a very beautiful woman, exquisite in face, +elegant in figure, luxuriously gowned. The journal she was holding in +her hand was one devoted to feminine interests, and this was an +interview with a lady very highly placed in Society. Some impulse made +Regina turn to the beginning of the article and read it. "Devoted +mother, idolized wife, adored _châtelaine_, the lady bountiful of her +village, her highest aim is gratified in being her husband's countess." +There was a portrait of the husband, who, in Regina's eyes, was not to +be named in the same twelvemonth with the noble Alfred sleeping on the +other side of the room. There were pictures of the children, of her +ladyship's boudoir, of her village school and her cottage hospital. "The +world has but little attraction for the beautiful subject of our +sketch," the article ended; "she is seen occasionally at Court and at +great functions, as a part of her duties, but that is all. Her heart is +in her beautiful country home with her husband and her children, and +there she shares the joys and sorrows of all who are brought in touch +with the great historic name which she bears." + +Regina's heart was stirred by new and conflicting emotions. She had, all +her life, thought much of those who could be credited with working for +eternity, whose toil was to benefit the whole world, to whom the +personal touch had but small value. The picture of this great lady with +her indisputable charms of beauty and disposition, came to her with an +alluring sense of restfulness; here was one who wished to be far removed +from the struggles of a contentious world, and somehow there came a +second picture which linked itself with the first in a strange +sweetness, the picture of an anxious, busy housewife, eager to honor the +great guest, and through the summer night there seemed to float to +Regina's disturbed senses that simple, soft and sweet reproach, that was +only a little bit of a reproach, "she hath chosen the better part and it +shall not be taken away." Yes, she was glad that she had laid the train +for the resignation of her presidential office, she was glad that she +was going to be all in all to her husband and children--well, husband +and child. Perhaps before long Julia would take wings and fly away from +the old nest as her sister had done before her. But Alfred would remain, +and she determined in that soft summer evening hour that for Alfred's +sake she would choose the better part, and her title to honor should be +within rather than without doors. Having arrived at this point in her +thoughts, she began idly turning over the leaves of the journal in her +hand. It contained nothing of particular interest to Regina; there were +accounts of entertainments given by people to whom she was unknown; +there was a page devoted to fashionable weddings, including a portrait +of her own girl and of Harry Marksby, and a glowing account of the +wedding just gone by; and then she came to a column of answers to +correspondents which appeared under the heading of "Feminine Wants." +Regina's heart gave a sick thrill as she saw the two words, "Feminine +Wants." The woes of womanhood seemed to crowd in upon her in an +overwhelming wave of sorrow and desolation. Doubtless other women had +suffered more than she had done. The first answer ran, "Humming Bird. I +am so sorry for you, poor little thing, bravely struggling along in your +little flat without a servant to do the rough work. Keep a brave heart, +little wife, and always make a toilette for dinner. I know this may +sound ridiculous, and I do not mean you to put on a low-necked dress, or +commit any folly of that kind, but when you have set your dinner in +train, go and dress yourself. Change your day dress for a silk blouse, +do your hair smartly and neatly, have a smile ready for 'him' when he +comes home, for he is just as tired and ready for refreshment as you +are. You will enjoy your dinner twice as well if you have a little +change in your gear, and you can easily put the dinner things on one +side to be washed up in the morning. Be sure, after doing any dirty +work, to wash your hands thoroughly with a spoonful of Lux in the water, +then rub in a mixture of equal parts of glycerine and lemon juice. This +will keep your hands soft and white. Write to me again if there is any +way in which I can help you." + +Regina drew a long breath. It was hard on the little soul to have no +servant, but, after all, they were boy and girl together; no hussy had +crept in to dispute her kingdom. At that moment Regina would cheerfully +have consented to wash dishes and clean doorsteps for the price of +Alfred's undivided affection. + +"Sad Maudie," was the next reply. "Yes, you are, indeed a sad Maudie, +and I am truly sorry for you, for I well know the trouble that acne +gives." "Acne--that's something to do with the skin," said Regina to +herself. "Send me a stamped and addressed envelope, and I will send you +a prescription which will do wonders for this troublesome complaint. I +would insert it here, but my editor does not like me to deal with +medical matters in this column." + +"Cheerful Sally. It is _not_ etiquette to introduce callers when they +meet in your drawing-room. Life would become utterly impossible if one +were liable to meet one's next-door neighbor, whom one had taken +infinite pains to avoid, when merely paying a call. I should be very +strict on this point if I were you, particularly as you are a newcomer +in your neighborhood." + +Regina gave a sniff of disgust and passed on. + +"Delia W. My dear Delia, you can't be old and faded at your age, but you +have let anxiety and worry get the better of you, and you should remedy +these ill-effects at once. Go to Mrs. Vansittant, the famous beauty +specialist, and put yourself unreservedly in her hands. It will cost +you a few guineas, but to win your heart's love, what is that?" + +A sudden resolution seized hold of Regina. She would write to the +editress of "Feminine Wants." She got up softly and went to her +writing-table. + + "DEAR EDITRESS," she wrote, "I am a woman of middle age. I have + reason to believe that my husband has swerved from his allegiance + to me. Tell me, what can I do to win him back? I am too stout, I + have never taken care of my skin, I have let my hair take care of + itself, I do not think I have good taste in dress. Pray advise your + broken-hearted + + "MIRANDA." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +FAMILY CRITICISM + + Sometimes it is a good thing to be aroused out of sleep, especially + if the sleep has been a fool's paradise. + + +Mrs. Whittaker crept softly out of the room, and went as softly out of +the house. There was a pillar-box a little way along the road, and it +was not an infrequent habit with her to carry her own letters to the +post without troubling to make any sort of outdoor toilette. So on that +soft summer night she gathered up her voluminous skirts, and with the +letter in her hand went down the covered way to the gate and walked as +far as the pillar-box. + +"My dear," said a neighbor, who had been to the club and was on his way +home, as he entered the room where his wife was sitting, "I met Mrs. +Whittaker just now. I never saw anything so remarkable." + +"Really! She's always rather remarkable in her dress, but how?" + +"I don't know, but it was white; it looked like a voluminous exaggerated +nightgown." + +"Mrs. Whittaker in a nightgown, Charley? She must have been out of her +mind, or was she walking in her sleep, do you think?" + +"Oh, no, I don't think she was; she was evidently going to the post-box, +but her gown--'Pon my word, she looked like a dressed-up figure in a +carnival." + +"Oh, she is quite mad," said the little wife; "they say she's very nice, +but quite mad." + +Meanwhile, Regina, all unconscious of the strictures which had been +passed upon her appearance, had gone back into Ye Dene, and lingered in +the covered way adjusting a plant here and a leaf there, as if she had +no higher object in life than the arrangement of her house. It happened +that Alfred woke up as his wife gently closed the door behind her. + +"I thought Queenie was here. Dear me, it is quite chilly--what a fool I +was to go to sleep here! I suppose it's a sign of old age." + +Then he stretched out one arm and then the other one. + +"I suppose I ought to write that letter to Jenkinson," was his next +thought. So he heaved himself up out of his comfortable chair, picked up +the art magazine, and sought his own little sanctum, which was behind +the dining-room. There he wrote a letter of three lines making an +appointment for the next morning, and then he too set off for the +pillar-box. + +"Hullo! Queenie, are you here?" he exclaimed, as he saw the tall figure +in the voluminous white draperies. "Walk up as far as the post with me." + +"Oh, are you going to the post?" she said. "I have just been. Yes, I +will come with you, certainly." + +He opened the gate to let her pass out in front of him. + +"You won't take cold?" he said anxiously. + +"Oh, no, not a night like this." + +"I don't know," he remarked, as they sauntered up the pathway together, +"that there is much protection in a frock like this." + +"It's not a frock, dear, it's a tea-gown." + +"Oh, is it?" + +"What the French call _saute de lit_." + +"It's flimsy. I don't know that I altogether like it," said Alfred, +slipping his hand under her arm. + +"It has the advantage of being cool," said Regina. + +"Yes, I daresay it is cool, but this kind of gown makes you look--" He +wobbled his hand about to express something that was not very clear to +either of them. + +"I know, it makes me look too fat," said Regina in quite a crushed tone. +"I am _too_ fat." + +"Oh, I don't know--you're just comfortable." + +"No, Alfred, I'm too fat," Regina reiterated with an air of firm +conviction. + +"Well, as to that," said Alfred, slipping the letter into the +letter-box, and wheeling round, still keeping hold of his wife's arm, "I +never did admire the 'two-deal-board' style of woman myself." + +Regina immediately decided in her own mind that the hussy was of the +plump little partridge order. + +"When I take hold of a lady's arm," continued Alfred, with the facetious +air of a heavy father, "I like an arm that I can feel; I object to +taking hold of a bone. No, no, my dear, you are not at all too fat, but +I don't think you ought to wear gowns, except purely for reasons of +comfort, that tend to increase your apparent size." + +"But you don't think it matters much?" + +"I'm sure it does not matter very much." + +"Alfred, do you think that I am greatly altered?" She asked the question +wistfully, as if the issue of life and death hung upon his reply. + +"As a matter of fact," said Alfred Whittaker, promptly, "I think you are +the least altered of any woman I ever knew in my life. I see other women +going to pieces in the most extraordinary manner. Now, Mrs. Chamberlain +came into the office this morning. My goodness, what a wreck! Yellow as +a guinea, her face lined all over--she made me think of a mummy." + +"Yet she is younger than I am," said Regina. + +"Oh, years--they have nothing to do with the case. You have been a happy +woman, a prosperous woman, a healthy woman; there has been nothing in +your life to seam your face with lines and generally stamp you with all +the worry that is too plainly visible on poor Mrs. Chamberlain's +features. Well, here we are, and here is Julia skipping across the +road." + +As the words left his lips a slim young figure in white emerged from the +rustic gate that gave entrance and egress to the house of Marksby. They +stood until Julia came running across the road. + +"Have you two dear things been out for an airing?" she exclaimed as she +reached the foot-path. + +"No, only to the post-box," said Regina. + +"Mother dear," said Julia, "you look exactly as if you were walking +about in your nightgown--a very voluminous and sublimated nightgown, but +a nightgown all the same." + +For a moment Regina was too dashed to speak. The thought came fluttering +through her mind, and seemed to fall to the floor of her heart with a +great crash, that surely it was hopeless for her ever to try to win back +Alfred from the hussy by personal means. Evidently she was hopelessly +out of it as regards all questions of dress and the toilette. + +"Of course," she hastened to reply, for she did not wish Julia to think +that she was annoyed by her criticism, "it really is a bedroom garment. +I put it on because I was so hot to-day, and in this little country sort +of place I thought going to the post in it would not matter, and--we--we +did not meet anyone, did we, Alfred?" + +"It would not have mattered if you had," said Julia; "what you wear is a +matter for your own consideration. But it does look like a nightgown." + +"And your mother," said Alfred, "looks better in a sort of glorified +nightgown than most women do in their best frocks. And now don't you +think we had better go off to bed? You will have the least as ever was, +dear?" + +Regina's face broke into a smile. "The least as ever was," she replied. +So the two went into the dining-room, where, as usual, the refreshment +tray was set out upon the table. Julia, with a laughing declaration +that she did not want even the least as ever was, went gayly upstairs to +her bedroom. + +"I shall be very glad to get away," said Alfred, sitting on the edge of +the oaken dining-table and holding his whisky-and-soda up to the light. +"I want a change badly this year. We are not as young as we were, +Queenie; I've taken a lot out of myself lately." + +"You've been so busy." + +"Yes, we've never had such a good year in business as the last one, but +there's something wrong with Chamberlain." + +"How wrong?" + +"I don't know, I can't make it out. Whether there's a screw loose at +home, or whether his wife's health is worrying him, I don't know." + +"Does she own to being ill?" + +"No, never. This morning I quite offended her by telling her that she +did not look very well." + +"And they are not going away till September?" + +"No, she has just come back." + +"She has been to the sea?" + +"Yes." + +"Then she came up specially for Maudie's wedding?" + +"I suppose so. I did not know she had been away till Chamberlain told me +this morning. He seems dull and gloomy--ah, there's a screw loose there, +but I don't know just where it is. Anyway, I know I want my holiday very +badly this year and glad I shall be when we have packed up and are off +for La Belle France." + +"And I," said Regina, with a sigh which, though quickly suppressed, was +full of meaning. Somehow, she could not sleep that night; during the day +some of her most cherished ideals had been ruthlessly torn up by the +roots. Never in all her life before had she had even so much as a +suspicion of her noble Alfred's matrimonial integrity, and she had come +to see flaws in her own life and rents in her own robes. Indeed, had she +not been, as it were, aroused out of sleep, the regeneration of women +had been like to cost her very dear. But, God be thanked! she had been +awakened in time, and in future she would leave the great question of +womanhood to look after itself, and she would devote her time and +thought and the use of her astute brain to regaining her husband's love. +"Think," her thoughts ran, "think--Maudie is married, Julia is young and +beautiful, and fascinating to the opposite sex, you cannot hope to keep +her long in the home nest; think what your life would be living alone +with a husband whose heart was wholly gone from you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +DEAR DIEPPE + + There is occasionally a time in our life which proves a veritable + oasis in a desert of doubt and suspicion. + + +During the month which they spent in the fascinating little town on the +northern coast, Regina lived a very _dolce far niente_ kind of life. Her +anxieties as to the hussy were, for a time, lulled to sleep. They stayed +at a comfortable hotel on the front, had rooms overlooking that +wonderful stretch of sea which is one of the great charms of Dieppe, and +they did themselves remarkably well; that is to say, they went without +nothing that would give them pleasure. As soon as they arrived and were +settled down, Alfred Whittaker went to the extravagance of engaging a +motor car for their exclusive use during their stay. It was a very +comfortable car, and held six persons in addition to the chauffeur, and +almost every day they made excursions into the green heart of the quiet +country, lunching at some snug French hostelry on homely but delicious +fare. Personally, I have always thought that one of the chief reasons +why art and sentiment nourish and thrive apace in sunny France is +because the people live upon food so much less gross than is the case +with ourselves. In the poorest little inn on the other side of the +Channel one is always sure of an excellent soup, a delicious omelette, +bread and butter that are beyond reproach, and a sound and excellent +drink, be it of red wine or only of homely cider. To Regina, the freedom +from household cares, which she detested, and from all questions of +orderings and caterings, made this quite the most charming holiday of +her whole life. She was happy, too, that Julia was happy, that Julia +made many friends of her own age and condition, that she, as the phrase +goes, danced her feet off four nights a week, and was able to enter with +zest and enjoyment into the young life of the place. As for Alfred +Whittaker himself, he so thoroughly enjoyed the rest and change, seemed +so happy and contented with himself and everything around him, that +sometimes Regina caught herself wondering if she had been entirely +mistaken in imagining that there was, after all, a hussy in the +background. He was loud in his expressions of satisfaction in the new +ground which they had broken. How they ever came to go year after year +to a dull English watering-place, and never thought of coming abroad, +was really beyond him. + +"But we have been abroad," said Regina. + +"Yes, for a trip, for a fortnight in Paris, for tours in different parts +of Europe; there's no rest in that kind of thing, it is an excitement, +an opening of one's mind--quite different to this," he rejoined. "It's +very improving to one's mind to go up the Rhine in a steamer, and go +round all the sights of Cologne; to gaze at Ehrenbreitstein, and wonder +whether it really is like Gibraltar or not; to feed the carp at +Frankfort; to gaze at the falls at Schaffhausen; but it is not restful, +it is not really a holiday. It is a nice fillip for a placid, blank or +uneventful life, but for a man overdone with the stress of business, +give me this. Restful without being dull, interesting without being +overwhelming, and bright and gay without being fagging." + +"You are always so sensible," said Regina. She felt at that moment that +the hussy was farther away than ever. Yet, a little later, when she and +Alfred were taking a stroll down the Grande Rue, it being market +morning, and therefore unusually interesting, she was reminded of the +skeleton in her cupboard as sharply and unexpectedly as the jerk with +which the proverbial bird, tied by a string to the leg, is stopped in +its peregrinations. As a rule on market morning the world promenades in +the middle of the street, in the actual roadway, but it happened on this +occasion that Alfred and Regina met a carriage and pair coming slowly +between the market people squalling on the edge of the pavement. To +avoid the carriage they stepped on to the _trottoir_, and this brought +them under the awning of a jeweler's shop. + +"I think I ought to buy you a present," said Alfred, "for I won last +night." + +"Did you? You never told me." + +"I didn't think of it. I was so sleepy I was glad to tumble into bed and +forget everything," Alfred replied. "I only had five louis in my pocket +when I went into the Casino, and this morning I find that I have +twenty-five. Now, twenty louis is sixteen pounds. If I keep it I shall +lose it all back to the tables again, whether it is at the fascinating +little horses or the more fascinating green cloth in the Grand Cercle. +Come, what would you like? Here's a jeweler's shop; there are sixteen +good English pounds lying at your feet, make your choice." + +"In francs?" asked Regina. + +"In francs--well, in francs it's four hundred. Now, there's a ring, I +call that a very good bargain for four hundred francs--there's something +for your money, there's body in it." He pointed to a large and +deep-colored sapphire set in a circle of diamonds. Regina saw that the +ring was beautiful, but, womanlike, her eyes wandered to the other +gewgaws displayed in the window. + +"I have a good many rings," she said hesitatingly. Then her eyes fell +upon a thick gold curb bracelet clasped by a horse-shoe of diamonds. + +"This is handsome," she said. Her voice was quite faint, for she felt +that she was approaching that subject which had troubled her so much. + +"Oh, horrid!" said he. "I love to see you with plenty of rings, but as +to bracelets--I can't endure them." + +"Never?" said Regina. "Never?" + +"No, I never buy a bracelet for anybody. I like to give you something +that you can wear for weeks or years together. Bracelets always seem in +the way, they don't set off a pretty wrist, and they draw attention to +an ugly one. Besides, they are intensely disagreeable if you happen to +put your arm around my neck. Come, let us go inside and see how the +sapphire suits your hand." + +He led the way into the shop, as a man always does when he is going to +buy something for a woman. Have you ever noticed, my reader, how the +most polite of men, who stands aside on all occasions for the lady to +precede him, marches into a shop right in front of her when he is going +to make her a present? + +Now, Alfred Whittaker's knowledge of French was what may be described as +infinitesimal, and it being his habit to state his business whenever he +entered a shop of any kind, he did not wait for Regina's faulty but more +understandable explanations. + +"_Vous-avez un ring la_," pointing with a sturdy British thumb toward +the window, "_sappheer_." + +"_Ah, ah, une broche, monsieur?_" + +"Regina, what does she mean by that?" + +Now, for the life of her Regina could not think of the French word for +ring. + +"She means 'brooch' of course," she replied. "I really don't know what +ring is in French." + +"_Pas une broche?_" the lady of the establishment demanded. + +"No, not a brooch," Alfred Whittaker shouted at her, as if her +understanding lay at the back of deaf ears. + +"_Un bracelet, peut-etre?_" the Frenchwoman asked, touching her wrist +with a gesture that conveyed more than her words. + +"No, no," said Alfred, tapping his first finger. + +"_Ah, ah, une bague._" She quickly opened the window and brought out +several sapphire rings, including the one which had taken Alfred's +fancy, and then, as he had already, being a business man, grasped the +initial weakness of the Norman character, there began a period of +haggling which Alfred Whittaker would never have thought of employing in +the case of the establishment of Templeton. Eventually Regina left the +shop with the beautiful sapphire ring upon her finger. + +"My dear girl," said Alfred (he always called her his dear girl when he +was best pleased), "eighteen pounds for a ring like that is dirt cheap +She said it was an occasion, what did she mean by 'an occasion'?" + +"I haven't the least idea, but she certainly said it." + +"However, no matter what she may have meant, the ring is given away at +the price--it's worth thirty pounds if it's worth a penny. You found it, +so to speak, for I won the money that paid for it." + +"Not quite all." + +"No, not quite all, but the other was a mere bagatelle. I like to see +you with plenty of rings; some women have not the hands to show them +off." + +It occurred to Regina that the hussy's hands were of the kind that look +best in gloves. Then a second thought came, one of blame and reproach to +herself for even thinking of the hussy at such a moment when Alfred had +generously been thinking only of her. + +"It is a beautiful ring, dear Alfred," she said, putting her hand under +his arm and squeezing it very gratefully, "it is a beautiful ring and +you are very good to me, and I'm not quite sure that I deserve it." + +She meant what she said. A curious idea had taken possession of her +that while Alfred was so kind and generous to her she ought not to +inquire or wish to inquire into his outer life; there might be fifty +explanations, and while she was evidently first with him it was her duty +to remain content. It was wonderful how that little present, which, +after all, had not cost Alfred Whittaker very much, soothed Regina's +suspicions and lulled them to sleep. And so, in perfect happiness and +harmony, that month went by, and it was with genuine regret that they +bade adieu to the town of many colors and turned their faces toward the +duller tones of home. + +"We will come back again next year," said Regina, gazing sentimentally +at the fast-receding shore, now looking most uninteresting. "Dear +Dieppe, we have been so happy and had such a good time, we will come +again next year." + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Alfred Whittaker, in a tone of +ludicrous jocosity, "I shouldn't be surprised, for my part, if Darby and +Joan found themselves at Dieppe by themselves. Just you and I, you know, +Queenie." + +"Wherever you are, Alfred," said she, leaning over the side of the ship +and keeping her eyes carefully from observing the motion of the water, +"wherever you are I am always perfectly happy and content." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +REGINA ON THE WARPATH + + There is much more value in the many "cures" that we take nowadays + than is at first apparent to the eye. One cannot take a cure for + the renovation of any part of one's body without, at the same + time, renovating part of one's mind. + + +The immediate effect of going home again was to make Regina more +convinced than ever that the hussy had a very real and tangible +existence. On the very first day Alfred made haste to catch the earlier +of the two trains by which he had been in the habit of traveling to +town. There was nothing in that circumstance--oh no. He had been away +for a full month, and Regina's opinion of her husband's partner was but +small. He had brought the bulk of the money into the firm, while Alfred +had supplied the major part of the brains, and had, in fact, built up +the business to its present flourishing state; so, of course, there was +nothing in the actual circumstance that Alfred should hurry through his +breakfast so as to catch the earlier train. He fussed and fumed a +little, too, and let fall a word to the effect that he knew he should +find everything at sixes and sevens, and that he wanted to have one or +two things settled before the Chamberlains went away for their autumn +holiday. Regina too, on her side, was naturally extremely busy that +morning. She had to look after her housekeeping, to lay in supplies, to +hold consultations with each of her servants, and to look out a couple +of dresses of slightly more solid material than those which she had worn +at Dieppe--not that she needed them for warmth, for the weather was, as +the weather so frequently is in September, mild even to sultriness. The +sun and the sea air had made the gowns which Regina had taken to Dieppe +appear to her worn and shabby, and she therefore would have to fall back +upon a couple of spring gowns until she could get her new autumn +clothes, the clothes with which she was to win back Alfred. Now, the +hussy had been for some time far from Regina's thoughts, her suspicions +had been lulled to rest, not only by Alfred's devotion, but by his +naturalness of demeanor. In a sort of gush of tenderness toward him she +almost determined that she would do nothing to regain his allegiance; +she would only be herself. Then her tidy eye fell upon a piece of paper +lying on the carpet between Alfred's chair and the door. She went across +the room and picked it up, following the house-wifely instinct which +moves nine women out of ten, and glanced at it to see whether it was +something to keep or something to throw away. It was only a folded sheet +of paper on which was written in a woman's handwriting, 27 Terrisina +Road, St. John's Wood, N. W. For a moment Regina was almost too stunned +to speak; she stared at the paper. Luckily, Julia had already gone down +to that part of the Park called the town to get some flowers with which +to deck the house. All the doubts and suspicions of the past came back +in great waves, and broke cruelly upon Regina's palpitating heart. +There was a hussy! This had been written by the hussy! This was where +the hussy dwelt, 27 Terrisina Road, St. John's Wood, N. W. It was far +removed from the side of London on which the Park was situate; he had +laid his plans carefully and well--or she had. Well, 27 Terrisina Road +should not get him or keep him without a struggle; it should be war to +the knife. Doubtless this was a little soft-eyed creature young enough +to be Regina's child. But Regina would be soft-eyed, Regina would +rejuvenate herself, Regina would win all along the line. It was in this +spirit that Regina went upstairs and examined her wardrobe. She would +leave the house to take care of itself, merely throwing out a few hints +as to dinner, and betake herself to town in order to consult the +specialists whom she had had in her mind during the last month. She +picked out the smartest of the frocks which she had not taken away with +her, and, casting off her white cambric wrapper in which she had +breakfasted, she began to dress herself with feverishly eager fingers. + +Alack and alas! The effect of careering through the fresh country air, +tinged as it was with the brine of the ocean, had been to make Regina +thoroughly enjoy the lunches by the wayside, and the more elaborate +dinners of the evening hour. We all know the effect of good French soup, +various kinds of omelettes, in short, of excellent bourgeois cooking, +and this effect had stolen upon Regina like a thief in the night, and +neither by coaxing nor force could she get herself into the garment in +which she desired to travel to town. + +"Good heavens!" she exclaimed in a tone of anxiety, "I must have put on +stones while I have been away. The old proverb says 'Laugh and grow +fat,' and I take it that laughter and happiness have the same effect if +one has a tendency that way. What shall I do?" + +There was only one thing to be done, and that was to get into one of the +despised and discarded gowns in which she had loomed large and important +on the French horizon, and take herself in quest of new ones as quickly +as possible. Then she remembered that she had sent a little message on +the wings of unanimity, a little message which had been signed, "Your +broken-hearted Miranda." Surely by now there would be a reply to it. She +finished her toilette, hiding as much of her gown as she could by the +addition of a large lace cape which she had bought as a bargain in the +little French town where she had been so happy, and then she went +downstairs and sought for the back numbers of the ladies' periodical to +which she had written. They were in their accustomed place, the four +numbers which she had not yet seen. She began with the last. "Faded +Iras," "White Heather," "White Rose," "Pussy Cat," were the first words +which met her eyes. There was no "Broken-hearted Miranda," and she went +on to the next number, and there, at the top of the column, was the name +she was seeking. + + "My poor broken-hearted Miranda," the reply ran, "how grieved and + sorry I am for you! Are you sure that your conjectures are correct? + I have known wives who made themselves very unhappy on very small + grounds--not that I wish to imply that your grounds for uneasiness + are small, but are you quite sure? If I were you I would take every + means of finding out. With regard to what you tell me of yourself, I + can see you, my poor Miranda, in my mind's eye, and I hasten to + assure you that, whether you are right or wrong, you will not regret + taking yourself in hand in the beauty sense. For your adipose + tissue, I would recommend you to try Madame Winifred Polson's little + brown tablets. They are wonderful in their effect on stout figures, + particularly in reducing bulk below the waist. If you begin them, be + sure that you give them a very good trial, and that you carry out + her instructions fully and to the very letter. Now, for your + complexion, I can advise you no better than to go to Madame Alvara. + You needn't be the least nervous of going to her, as it is not a + shop, but she has an elegant private house on the best side of + Grosvenor Square. You will probably meet three duchesses on the + stairs, and may have to wait some time, unless you make an + appointment. Place yourself unreservedly in Madame Alvara's hands; + she will restore to you the skin of your childhood. For your + hair--well, that is difficult. I think you ought to write to me + again and tell me what kind of hair you have, whether it is thin or + grey, that I may advise you whether to go to a hair specialist or an + artiste in _toupes_. Write to me again, my dear Miranda, and pray + believe that nothing is too much trouble if I have the reward of + knowing that I have helped you to your legitimate end." + +Involuntarily Regina put up her hands and passed them over her head. +She had let her hair take care of itself--that did not mean that she was +grey or that she had a mere whisp; she had thick and luxuriant hair, +turned back from her face and done into a simple coil at the turn of the +head. + +"I will not write to-day," she said to herself; "I will go and see the +face specialist and the beauty specialist, and I will pay a visit to the +lady of the little brown tablets, and then I will go to my tailor. +Something I must have to wear every day. If I get a smart coat and +skirt, something loose and _chic_, I can put off the rest of my wardrobe +until I have got my figure down to its normal size." + +She went into the hall intending to leave a message with the cook for +Julia, but the parlor-maid happened to be going through the dining-room +to the pantry with a tray of silver things in her hands. + +"Oh, Margaret, tell Miss Julia I shall, in all probability, not be in to +lunch, and tell her not to wait for me. She will be occupied during the +rest of the day." + +"Very good, ma'am." + +Then Regina sailed down the covered way and got into the omnibus which +would carry her to the railway station. What a day of disappointments it +was! She found the beauty specialist had not yet returned to town, and +there was nobody to take her place. Not that she was unceremoniously +told this at the door--oh no; she was shown into a room, and the great +lady's secretary informed her that Madame Alvara had been very +unwell--she had had such a terribly heavy season--carriages standing a +dozen deep at the door all day long--everybody clamoring for Madame's +own opinion--and she was so popular, socially. + +"Madame will not be back until the end of the month; I can make an +appointment for the first week in October." + +"Can you recommend me any harmless lotion to begin with?" said Regina. + +"Oh no, I should not dare to interfere in Madame's province; I am only +the secretary; I arrange appointments, and so on." + +"But you have a skin like a rose leaf," said Regina, wistfully. + +"Yes, I have to thank Madame Alvara for that. You see, if I were to give +you my recipe you might ruin your skin. Oh, every case has quite +individual attention and treatment. The staff only work under Madame +Alvara's directions. Yes, they are busy, fairly busy, continuing the +treatment of cases which were begun last season. No new cases will be +taken till Madame Alvara returns." + +So Regina had no choice but to make an appointment for the 5th of +October, that being the first hour which could be placed at her +disposal. She then went off, after disappointment one, to Madame +Winifred Polson. She had difficulty in finding the place, and when she +did find it, it did not commend itself to her ideas of shrewd +common-sense. However, she left a couple of guineas behind her and +brought away instead a little box of something which rattled. Then she +went and had some lunch--not tea and muffins this time, but a good hot +lunch at a famous drapery establishment which she frequently patronized. +After that she made some purchases, and then she went in search of an +establishment whose advertisements she had noticed in a ladies' paper +which she had taken up while waiting for her lunch to be served. "To +Ladies," it said. "If you have no lady's maid you cannot possibly care +for your own hair as the glory of womanhood should be cared for. Go and +consult the ladies who run The Dressing-Room. You can have special +treatment for hair that is not quite in health, special brushings for +hair that merely needs attention, and can consult with experts as to the +most becoming way of wearing your hair." + +"That is the place for me," said Regina, taking note of the address. And +so, after paying her two guineas to Madame Polson, she next turned her +steps toward the street wherein she should find The Dressing-Room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DRESSING-ROOM + + I am convinced that there is a huge opening for what I would call + an all-round advice bureau. Its claims would reach far and wide, + its clients would be drawn from all classes. Among them would be + the women who have no taste in dress. The only difficulty would + be to convince them of the fact. + + +Regina found The Dressing-Room without difficulty. To be exact, it was +situated in Berners Street and the number was forty-five. Regina gained +admittance, was greeted pleasantly, and expressed a certain portion of +her wishes. + +"You would like to have your hair brushed?" said the charming little +lady who received her. "Oh, but you have beautiful hair," she said, +having enveloped Regina in a snowy garment, unfastened the still +abundant coils, and allowed the locks to stray over her shoulders. "O, +you have lovely hair, but how little you make of it!" + +"That is exactly why I have come"--her tone was pathetic in its +eagerness. "How would you advise me to wear it?" + +"I don't know, I never like to give an opinion off-hand. I'll brush it +thoroughly, see how it lies, study you face and figure--" + +"Oh--my figure!" said Regina. + +"Why, what is the matter with it?" + +"Too fat," Regina sighed. + +"Too fat? I'd be glad of a little of your complaint," said the little +woman, who was herself about as fat as a match. + +"But I am too fat," Regina cried. + +"Well, perhaps you might do with a little less, but I shouldn't +overdo it in the other direction. Of course, there is no doubt that +good-looking women are generally those who are inclined to be stout, but +keep themselves within reasonable limits. They have the best skin, the +best hair, they have so few lines and so few wrinkles, and they escape +the withered look of age." + +She was brushing softly yet vigorously at Regina's soft brown locks. + +"You are beginning to wear your hair off your forehead." + +"I have always worn it off my forehead," said Regina, with dignity. + +"No--I don't mean that, I mean that the continued brushing in one +direction has begun to wear it away, and your forehead seems higher than +it really is." + +"Yes, it is wearing back." + +"Now, we ought to contradict that tendency." + +"I can't wear a fringe," said Regina. + +"No, a fringe would be out of keeping with your general appearance, and +I never advocate a fringe if it can be dispensed with, but you have been +wearing your hair so tightly dressed. Now, would you let me shampoo your +hair?" + +"Oh yes, do what you like," said Regina, with child-like faith and very +unchild-like patience. + +"It will help you a little--in this way, it gives the hair a fresh +start. One should never try to dress one's hair in a new fashion without +shaking off as much as possible the old way." + +So Regina's hair was washed and dried, and then came the great question +of what style of hair-dressing she should adopt. + +"I would like you not to look in the glass," said Madame Florence, as +the little lady had asked Regina to call her. "I should like you to see +the finished picture of yourself without your seeing the process. So +often what comes to one as a surprise is so much better than what comes +gradually." + +She opened a large box on a table at her right hand, and chose from it a +light frame of the exact color of Regina's hair. This she put on +Regina's head, then she deftly manipulated the abundant tresses, +gathered them loosely over the frame into a knot at the top of the head, +fixing it here and there with combs, and then slightly waved the looser +portions of hair. + +"In most instances," she said when she had reached this point, "I should +recommend the wearing of a net, but your hair is so much of a length, +and so unlikely to become untidy, that I should not recommend you to +trouble to do more than I have done. Now look at yourself." + +It was such a glorified vision of Regina that met that lady's gaze when +she looked at herself that she positively jumped out of her seat. + +"It is really me?" she cried. + +"Yes, it is really you," said Madame Florence. + +"But how shall I be able to do it myself, I--I do not keep a maid." + +"Well, wear it to-day, see how you like it, see how your people +appreciate it, do it as well as you can and come back again to me +to-morrow. I will do it for you until your hair has got into condition +and takes these lines naturally. How do you like it?" + +"I think I must have looked a perfect fright before," said Regina in a +burst of confidence. + +"Well, compared with what you do now, you certainly did. It was a sin to +see all that lovely hair wasted and made nothing of. By the way, about +your combs--I have put you in my ordinary combs; would you like to have +a proper set?" + +"Oh yes," said Regina, "I will have everything that is necessary," for, +as I have already explained, money was not a matter of paramount +importance to her. + +"I have put in ordinary imitation tortoise-shell combs just to try. Take +the glass, if you please, and look at yourself all round. See, I will +turn on the light. Do you like the shape of the head? You see the combs +improve it. I should advise you to have real tortoise-shell; it is +better for the hair, and more in accordance with your age and position +than little cheap ones." + +"Oh yes, I will have good combs." + +Madame Florence touched a bell and immediately there came into the room +a young girl of intelligent aspect and stylish exterior. + +"Miss Margaret," said Madame Florence, "will you get me the good combs?" + +"In sets?" said Miss Margaret. + +"Yes, like these, only real." + +"Certainly." + +As the girl left the room Regina turned to Madame Florence. "You have a +quaint custom here of using the Christian name," she said. + +"We wish to be impersonal," said Madame Florence. "Our establishment is +called The Dressing-Room, that is sufficient for our purpose, and as we +must have some distinguishing mark, my partner and I are Madame Florence +and Madame Cynthia, and our helpers are Miss Margaret, Miss Bertha and +Miss Violet. It gives us a personality here which has nothing to do with +our private personality. We find that it works excellently well." She +broke off as Miss Margaret came back into the room carrying a large box. +Regina chose a set of combs and Madame Florence adjusted them in her +hair, taking away the cheaper ones with which she had first dressed it. + +"Now," she said, "you may find your toque a little difficult--well, I +should like to see your toque on." + +The effect was terrible, for Regina's toques were never things of +beauty, and this one was less beautiful than most of her headgear. + +"It is impossible!" + +"Well, it is rather impossible. Forgive me for saying so, but how could +you buy such a thing?" + +"Madame Florence," said Regina, "you are a lady." + +"I hope so; I have always believed myself to be such." + +"I recognized it. I recognize it still more as I remain in your +presence. I will be frank with you, I will be candid. I see you have a +copy of the _Illustrated Ladies' Joy_ on the table. I should like to +speak to you alone," she said in an undertone. + +Madame Florence gave a look at the younger lady, which she interpreted, +and immediately disappeared from the room. + +"I may speak to you in confidence?" + +"Certainly." + +"Give me the number of the _Illustrated Ladies' Joy_ for the week before +last." + +"Certainly. Here it is." + +Regina turned with trembling fingers to the answers to correspondents on +matters connected with the toilette. "Read that," she said, pointing to +the answer which was headed "broken-hearted Miranda." + +"I am that woman; I am 'broken-hearted Miranda.'" + +"Dear, dear, dear," said Madame Florence, "are you really sure that it +is so?" + +"I am afraid so. My husband is the noblest of men--generous, brave, +true-hearted--he has been got hold of, Madame Florence." + +"And you must get him back again," said Madame Florence in sharp +staccato accents. "You are a good-looking woman, a little stout, but +that can be got rid of by judicious means." + +"I have taken means; I have just bought some of Madame Winifred +Polson's little brown tablets." + +"Two guineas' worth?" + +"Yes." + +"I would not take them if I were you. They will eat away the lining of +your stomach, they will make you dyspeptic, they will perforate your +bowels and do all sorts of horrible things. They are made of iodine and +sea wrack. Put them into the fire, my dear lady." + +"But I paid two guineas for them," said Regina. + +Madame Florence laughed. "Well, take them home with you if you like, and +look at them occasionally and say 'These cost me two guineas,' but don't +take them. If you want to get thin, go to a medical man who thoroughly +understands the science of food and fat--or fat and food." + +"Are there such people?" + +"Oh yes. You say you like simple diet, and take all sorts of starchy +foods and think that makes your skin fine and clear. My dear lady, it is +not the milky foods you take, the bread and butter and cream and the +extra two lumps of sugar in your tea that make your skin fine and clear; +it is simply that you were born with a fine skin, and have been doing +everything you could to ruin it during the whole of your life." + +"You think that under diet my skin will regain its normal beauty?" + +"Of course it will. If you put yourself into proper hands, you won't +know yourself. When I say 'proper hands' I do not mean my own. My +business is connected entirely with the hair, nothing else, but I know +who are skilled in all matters of diet. I will give you the name and +address of a doctor in Harley Street who will charge you a fixed sum for +your course, and who will give you the smallest and closest directions +for getting rid of your superfluous fat without making you in the least +bit skinny or withered." + +"I am very grateful to you," said Regina; "I wish I had not gone to +Madame Polson. Not that two guineas is a matter of very great +importance, but I hate being done." + +"Of course you do, all nice, sensible people do. But you will not take +those tablets, will you?" + +"Not in the face of what you have told me. Will you give me the address +of the doctor in Harley Street? I will go to him now." + +"You cannot go to him now; you see it is past his hours--you have been +here so long. Let me give you a cup of tea." + +"You are very kind." + +"And you will let me do your hair for a week?" + +"Yes, I will come every day for a week. Tell me, how do you charge for +your treatments?" + +"Well, we give so many for a guinea. A simple treatment is brushing it +and arranging it in the ordinary way. Shampooing is extra, the combs are +extra, the frame is extra, and waving the hair is again another charge. +We will put your treatment to-day at a lump sum--half-a-guinea. You +should take another guinea's worth of simple treatments--that is to say, +I will brush your hair every day for a week, wave it and dress it like +this for a guinea. After that, if you come to me once a week you will +find that your hair will be kept in perfect condition. Occasionally you +will care to have a shampoo, but that is as you feel. I have many +clients who never have their heads touched except with my hair brushes." + +"But about my toque? I cannot go out like this. I must put my hair back +to-day. I _must_ get home." + +"I never like," said Madame Florence, "I never like to recommend special +means if my clients are restricted in the way of money. I--er--it is the +season of changing one's clothes; you will be buying new toques?" + +"Oh yes." + +"We have another business--nothing to do with me--but another business +is run under this roof," said Madame Florence. "Would you care to see +some toques?" + +"Oh, have you? Then I will have a new toque," said Regina. "I--I will be +frank and candid with you. I am a very remarkable woman--I am Mrs. +Alfred Whittaker. I have been for many years President of the Society +for the Regeneration of Womanhood--I have regenerated all sorts of +things connected with women, and now I want to regenerate myself. I have +given up my presidency, I have worked for others long enough, and some +hussy has, in a measure, supplanted me with my husband. I want--I want +to learn a great deal, I want to go to school again. I have never known +how to dress myself, I have never known how to make the most of myself. +Dear Madame Florence, I like you; you have faithful eyes, I can see you +are a woman to be trusted--it has been my business for years past to +judge characters by exteriors--you inspire me with confidence. Will you +help me, will you come and choose something to put on my head?" + +I am bound to say that it was with great difficulty that Madame Florence +restrained the broadest of broad smiles. + +"Madame Clementine," she said, "has a suite of rooms on the first floor. +If you will come with me I will introduce her to you. No, I would not +put your toque on, it is so ugly. Best not to let her know you have ever +worn anything so unbecoming. I will send a message down to make sure she +is alone." She touched a bell, and again Miss Margaret came into the +room. "Just go down and see if Madame Clementine is below and alone. +This lady is going down to choose a toque." + +Two minutes later Regina found herself following Madame Florence down +the stairs leading to the first floor. + +"Good afternoon, Madame Clementine," said Madame Florence, cheerfully, +"I have brought you a new client. This is Mrs. Alfred Whittaker--so well +known--all women know the name of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker. I have been +arranging her hair, and I want you to crown my efforts with the +prettiest toque you have in your show-rooms." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +RUMOR + + Have you ever noticed how a lie spreads and grows as it flies + along? What a pity it is that the truth does not increase in + the same proportion! + + +"Pray be seated, madame," said Madame Clementine. "I am delighted to be +honored by a visit from so distinguished a lady. Certainly I know your +name well, everyone interested in the cause of womanhood knows the name +of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker." + +Regina smiled and bowed. She was well accustomed to this kind of +flattery, but it had never lost its charm for her, and now, after all +those years, she accepted it at its face value. + +"Mademoiselle Gabrielle," called Madame Clementine. + +"_Mais oui_, Madame," answered a voice from another room, and +immediately a little French girl came running in. + +"Now, mademoiselle, here is a very distinguished lady--This is my right +hand," said Madame Clementine, turning to Regina. "Now, something very +_chic_. Yes, look Mrs. Whittaker well over. You see, Gabrielle looks +from this point and from that point, she takes in the whole. It is not +with us to sell any hat that comes first, but to sell madame a hat that +will always give madame satisfaction when she looks in the glass." + +"Mrs. Whittaker has not been very pleased with her milliner heretofore," +said Madame Florence. + +"Ah madame, now you will never go anywhere else. My clients never leave +me, because I believe in what you English call 'the personal note.' We +have models--oh yes, that is absolutely necessary, because we have +ladies who come in and say, 'I want a hat, I want to wear it now,' and +they pay for it and go away. Well, we must supply their needs, but, when +we have regular clients, we like to have a day or two of notice, to see +the dress madame is wearing, the mood madame is in, and her state of +health, then we make a toque that is madame's toque, not a toque that +you will meet three times between this and Oxford Street." + +"If you suit me," said Regina, "and give me something that I can go home +in, I will put myself unreservedly in your hands in the future. I know +little or nothing about dress," she went on, with a superior, platform +kind of air--an assertion which made the lively Frenchwoman positively +shudder--"yet I am feminine enough to wish to be well dressed." + +"Ah, we will satisfy madame. Well, Gabrielle?" + +"I think," said little Mademoiselle Gabrielle, "that madame will find +the toque that came down yesterday would suit her as well as anything +not specially made for her. I will get it, madame." + +She disappeared into the next room, returning with a large black toque +in her hand. It was light in fabric, it was bright with jet, and a +couple of handsome black plumes fell over the coiffure at the back. + +"Ah, yes, Gabrielle, yes. Now try it on, madame. Not with those pins, +they do not fit with the style of the hat. Madame will not mind to buy +hat-pins?" + +"If they are not ruinous," said Regina, who was in a very much "in for a +penny, in for a pound" kind of mind. + +"Antoinette, Antoinette, bring the box of 'at-pins," said Mademoiselle +Gabrielle. + +Immediately another little French girl came out carrying a large tray of +hat-pins. + +"Madame is not in mourning? We will not have jet--no, no! Now these?" + +She pounced upon some cut-steel hat-pins which matched the ornaments on +the hat, and then with deft and soft little fingers she firmly fixed the +toque on Regina's head. + +"You see," said Madame Clementine, spreading her hands, and looking at +Madame Florence for approval. "Yes, that is the hat for madame. Regard +yourself, madame--give madame the 'and-glass." + +Regina got up and walked with stately mien to the long glass set so as +to catch the best light from the windows. Indeed, the toque was most +becoming. She saw herself a different woman, more like those gracious, +well-furnished superb British matrons whom she was accustomed to see +sitting behind prancing horses and powdered footmen on those rare +occasions when she had allowed herself to be inveigled into the Park. It +was not a cheap toque, but Regina had the sense to see that it was worth +the money asked for it. + +"It is not ver' cheap," said Madame Clementine, "non, but it is good, it +will last, it is not a toque for a day and then another for to-morrow. +Then these plumes, they will come in again and again." + +"I will have it," said Regina; "I am quite satisfied with it. I only +feel, Madame Clementine, that--er--my--my upper part is, well--is +superior to my lower part, what in our vernacular we call 'a ha'-penny +head and a farthing tail.'" + +"Oh, ver' good, ver' good," cried Madame Clementine, with your true +Parisienne's shriek of laughter. "You see, Gabrielle, the gros sou for +the head and the little sou for the tail. Oh, that is most expressive. +But, madame, you can remedy that." + +"Oh yes, I suppose I can," said Regina, doubtfully, "I wish you were a +dressmaker." + +"Oh, indeed, no! It does not do, you have not _chic_ if you mix all +sorts together. To be _modiste_ and to be _couturière_ is like being a +painter and a singer at the same time. But I can tell you of a little +Frenchwoman--she could dress you--ah--eugh!" And she kissed the tips of +her fingers. + +"Well, if you will give me her address I will go to her," said Regina. + +"To-day? But it is too late," said Madame Florence. "Mrs. Whittaker is +coming upstairs to have tea with me," she added; "it will be ready now." + +"Does your friend live far away?" said Regina to Madame Clementine. + +"No, not very far, just three streets away. It is _une vraie +artiste_--no great price, she is not known. By-and-bye she will +be--unattainable, excepting to her old clients. Antoinette, write down +the address of Madame d'Estelle. And when you have arranged your gowns +with her, you will come back to me for suitable toques?" + +"Yes," said Regina, "I will put myself unreservedly in your hands. I +feel you are a woman of taste, an artiste. I frankly confess that I +am--_not_." + +It was with many wreathed smiles, becks and bows and assurances of +welcome when she should come again that Regina was finally allowed to +return to The Dressing-Room for the tea which was waiting her. Finally, +after having written a cheque for her preliminary treatments, she found +herself walking along Berners Street in the direction of Oxford Street, +and a feeling took possession of her that, after all, fashionable women +knew what they were doing when they patronized private establishments. +She had heard of them, because details of dress had not wholly ebbed by +leaving her high and dry on the shore of high principle, devoid of the +herbage of feminine grace. She had heard that no well-dressed woman, no +really well-dressed woman, would ever get her clothes at a shop, and her +keen and busy brain turned over the subject as she walked away from The +Dressing-Room. After all, she had learned much during her years at the +helm of the Society for the Regeneration of Women, and she had learned, +above all things, to set a true value on the quality which is called +individualism. She had learned that you cannot herd humanity with +success, and she was now learning that you cannot dress humanity +_en bloc_. She felt a curious shyness as she caught sight of her +unaccustomed appearance in the shop windows as she passed, and once she +stopped as she was walking along Oxford Street, at a large furniture +establishment, and looked at herself searchingly. Yes, in spite of the +feeling of looseness about her head which worried her not a little, she +could see the intense becomingness of the new way in which her hair was +arranged. It was then after five o'clock, but she steadily pursued her +way in search of Madame d'Estelle. I need not go into the details of her +visit. Madame d'Estelle made short work of her new client. + +"Yes, madame," she said, "you want a little frock built for that toque. +Well, leave it to me, leave it to me; I will make you a little +frock--say ten guineas? (Take madame's measure.) While they take your +measurements I will walk round and study you. You will come again in +three days for a fitting, then, if it is necessary you will come again +three days after that, then in three days more you will have your frock. +I will make you something consistent with your personality--it will be a +little black frock, nothing very important, but it will give us a +sufficient start. (Write, madame, a note--ten guineas--and the day of +the fitting.) Leave yourself to me, madame, it will be all right." + +Then Regina went home. She felt that everybody in the Park was looking +at her. So they were, for the story had gone round that Mrs. Whittaker +had become a little wrong in her head. The story had been going round +that she had been seen walking up the road in her nightgown and many +variations of it had already found credence. "Have you heard the news? +That Mrs. Whittaker of Ye Dene has gone off her dot." "Oh, my dear!" +"Well, Charley says he met her walking up the road in her nightgown." +"Oh, nonsense." "Well, that's what I said, but Charley met her himself." +"Was she walking in her sleep?" "Charley didn't seem to think so." Then +a little later, "You know Mrs. Whittaker of Ye Dene, they're saying +she's got a tile off." "Well, I always did think she was a peculiar kind +of woman; no woman would dress like that who was altogether right in her +head." "Yes, but I didn't think she was as bad as that. Why! she, the +President of some society for making new women. Who says she's got a +tile off?" "Well, my sister was at the Wingfield-Jacksons' yesterday, +and Mrs. Jackson told her that Charley had seen her walking up the road +in her nightgown, so she must be quite dotty, you know." A few days +after the story spread still further. "You've heard the latest, of +course." "No, I've heard nothing particular, most people are away." +"They've taken poor Mrs. Whittaker away to a lunatic asylum." "Oh, my +dear, you don't say so. What for?" "Well, I suppose she's gone out of +her mind. Perhaps the wedding, the fuss--so many presents--ah, I thought +at the time they were rather over-doing it." "But I thought she was such +a strong-minded woman." "Ah, but don't you think there's always +something abnormal about these strong-minded women. Just as my Harry +said when he told me--_he_ got it from the club, of course; all the +gossip in the place comes from the club--as he said, it's all very well +to take women out of their rightful sphere and let them regenerate the +world, but it doesn't pay; that that's just how we ordinary women, who +haven't got souls above our natural duties, may take comfort to +ourselves." "When did it happen?" "I don't know, but when they were +supposed to go abroad she was taken away to a lunatic asylum. They say +she's at Bolitho House, and I did hear that she is kept in a padded +room." "But, my dear," said the other woman, "just turn your eyes to the +window. There's Mrs. Whittaker walking down the road with her hair +dressed a new way and the smartest hat on her head that I've ever seen +in my life!" "Well, I never!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +POOR MOTHER + + I think that nothing in the world shows truer affection than that + curious resentment against any change in the appearance of those + we love. + + +Regina, all unconscious of the gossip that with her for its central +figure was floating about the Park, went slowly down the road in the +direction of Ye Dene. Truth to tell, she was a little shy of facing her +family in her new guise. It was then after six o'clock; in fact, it was +fast approaching the hour of seven. Now it happened that Julia had been +off on an expedition to town with one of the Marksby girls, and had only +arrived home about ten minutes previously, and being tired had gone into +the pleasant sitting-room which she and Maudie had hitherto shared +between them. When Mrs. Whittaker came up the covered way Julia saw her +from where she was sitting, for both the sitting-room door and the front +door were wide open. + +"Hullo, mother, are you back?" she called out. + +Regina with a certain accession of color and a certain acceleration of +heart beating, replied with a pleasant word and walked into Julia's +sitting-room. + +"Oh, you've not been back long?" she said. + +Julia did not reply. It was not perhaps a remark that called for any +special attention in the way of answer, but if it had it would have been +all the same. + +"Why, _mother_--" and she stared at Regina as if she were indeed fitted +for the padded room which had been mentioned a few minutes previously. + +"I have got a new toque," said Regina. + +"Oh, the toque is all right--a little big--" + +"I don't think so. It was chosen for me by a Frenchwoman whose taste is +indisputable." + +"I have not always found French taste indisputable," said Julia, +remembering with a certain shame some of the purchases that she and +Maudie had made in days gone by. "Your toque's all right, but what have +you been doing to your hair?" + +"I have had my hair shampooed and brushed, and I intend to wear it in +another mode." + +"It looks horrid!" said Julia. + +"I don't think so," answered Regina, her color still heightened and a +great accession of dignity in her manner. "You do not always wear your +hair the same, why should I? I have got to that time of life when what +suited me at thirty does not still suit me at fifty, and my hair showed +signs of wearing off the forehead, and I do not like a bald forehead +either in a man or a woman." + +"Oh, I daresay you are right. Of course, you are at liberty to make +whatever sort of a guy you like of yourself, only don't ask me to admire +it, that's all." + +The tone was rude, and Regina felt stabbed to the heart. + +"I do not always admire your taste in dress, Julia," she said very +quietly. "I sometimes think that if a mother had all her life had a +frightful wart on her nose, her children would resent its removal +because they had grown accustomed to it. I have chosen, my dear, to do +my hair in a new fashion, and I am not to be turned from my purpose by +even your wishes. I have come to the conclusion that I have paid too +little attention in the past to the details which most women think of +paramount importance. I am going to change all that and I have begun +with my hair and my toque." + +She did not wait for Julia to reply, but turned and went quietly and +quickly out of the room, leaving Julia speechless and astonished. + +"Now, what has happened to her?" said Julia. "Why should she, all at +once, take to altering herself like that? Surely mother isn't going to +be frivolous in her old age. I wonder what daddy will say. She's going +to 'alter all that.' Well, of course--she's at liberty to please +herself. I suppose I ought not to have jumped on her like that--poor +mother!" + +She got up and ran up the broad and shallow stairs, knocked at her +mother's door, and, without waiting for an answer, entered the room. + +"I say, mother," she said. + +Regina was standing before the glass, evidently in the act of taking the +pins out of her hat. She turned round. + +"You want me?" she asked. Her tone was quite pleasant and sweet, but +there was an indefinable sense of woundedness about it which touched +Julia to the very quick. + +"Oh, I say, mother, I was beastly rude to you just now. But I didn't +mean to be." + +"I am sure you didn't." + +"You see, when one has a mother that one thinks an awful lot of, and who +always wears her hair the same, one feels sort of blank when she makes +herself look different. But I was rude, and I'm awfully sorry; I didn't +mean it for that." + +She came to the side of the dressing-table and stood looking at her +mother with honest, troubled eyes. Regina caught her by the hand and +drew her to her ample bosom. + +"I felt myself growing such a frump," she said. "I don't know when, I +think it was about the time of Maudie's wedding, that I felt, all at +once, that I was getting into a fossil like all other women workers. I +never saw it all those years till about that time, and I hated myself +for being frumpy and ridiculous." + +"You never were that to us," said Julia, with quick reproach. "I hope +you never thought we thought so, for we never did." + +"Well, well, well, I will wear my hair this way for a little while, and +if you and dear father do not like it I will put it back into the old +way again. It is bad for the hair to dress it always in the same +fashion." + +"Well, now I come to think of it, it looks awfully nice, and you've +lovely hair and a glorious complexion." + +At this the color on Regina's cheeks deepened into a veritable rose +blush. Julia hurried on--"It's a beautiful hat," she said. "Where did +you get it? How did you light on this Frenchwoman? Was it very +expensive? It's worth it, whatever it cost." + +"No," said Regina, "it was four guineas; I don't call that very +expensive for a hat with good feathers." + +"Oh, not a bit! And even if it was, you can afford it. I think you are +quite right, now you have chucked the regeneration business, to start +regenerating your own person. I admit it gave me a shock when you came +in. You know, somehow one doesn't like the first idea of one's mother +being tampered with." + +Then Regina told Julia how she came to put herself in the hands of +Madame Florence and the little Frenchwoman on the first floor--that is +to say, she told her in part, not giving her reasons, her actual +reasons, or the source of her information concerning them. + +"But how will you do your hair to-morrow morning?" + +"I do not know quite how I shall do it. I am going to Madame Florence +every day for a week, so that she may do it and get it into the proper +set. When she had arranged my hair she gave me a lesson on a dummy, so +that I really do know how things should be, and she thinks after a week +I shall be quite able to do it myself. Besides, as she says, it makes +such a difference--the way your hair is accustomed to go." + +"You'll never be able to wave your own hair, mother." + +"Well, I don't like to think about that part of it," said Regina. + +"Darling," said Julia, feeling that she had smoothed over her previous +indiscretions, "why don't you have a maid? She would be so useful to +both of us. Think of somebody who would be able to make smart blouses, +do up frocks and touch up hats and generally make life easy and +comfortable. Why don't you have a maid?" + +"It seems such an expense," said Regina. + +"But you can afford it--I shall talk to father." + +"If I did have a maid I should pay her myself; I shouldn't think of +coming on your father for an extravagance of that sort." + +"Well, you have more money than you ever spend. Dearest, you have got +into the habit of going without things, and we have got into the habit +of regarding you as a person of no vanities, so that we resent it when +you show the smallest sign of anything feminine in your nature. Now I +come to look at you again," said Julia, with her head on one side, "I +think I do like you better like this. It is more important looking; it +seems to make your head more of a size with the rest of you. I like you +in black--you know, mother, you never wear black. Do you mind if I try +it on?" + +"Why of course not." It was with pride that Regina stood by and saw her +daughter poise the beautiful black toque upon her own abundant locks. + +"Oh yes, it's a ravishing hat," Julia declared. "I think I must go and +see your Madame Clementine. You won't mind?--Ah, there is daddy coming." + +At that moment Alfred's solid footstep was heard upon the landing. +"Hullo, young woman," he said a moment later as he entered the room, +"got a new hat?" + +"_It's mother's hat_," said Julia with emphasis and awaited +developments. + +"Your mother's? Well, my dear, you have been doing yourself very well. +Why--bless my soul--what have you been doing to your head?" + +"I have been having my hair brushed and cared for," said Regina, feeling +that she must take her bull by the horns and grasp her nettle without +delay. + +"Why didn't they put it up as it was--let me look at you. I don't +know"--and he passed his thumb down one cheek and his fingers down the +other till they met at the lowest point of his chin, "I don't know--it +isn't you, you see." + +"Don't say you dislike it, Alfred," said Regina, with pathetic +wistfulness. + +"I don't say I dislike it, at the same time--it isn't you," he replied. +"Put the hat on--let's see you in it. Yes--I don't know. It's a pity to +hide a forehead like yours with all that loose hair. I know women are +all wearing it so; but at the same time, I think it is a pity." + +"I've got to look such a frump, Alfred," said Regina, taking the hat off +again and patting her hair into place. + +"No, my dear, that you never did. You have a distinctiveness all your +own. As to this new-fangled arrangement--well, if it pleases you to do +it that way, you must do it that way and we must get used to it. +Perhaps, in a little while, we shall like it better than as it was +before." + +"But it does not meet with your unqualified approval, Alfred?" said +Regina. + +"No, I can't say that it does." + +"It makes me look younger," she asserted. + +"But I don't want you to look younger. We were a very good match for +each other as we were, and I don't know that it _does_ make you look +younger. Well, well, let it be for a day or two till one gets accustomed +to the change. As it is, it doesn't seem right to have you, of all women +in the world, thinking about vanities." + +"Why not?" said Regina in a very small voice. + +At that moment Julia betook herself out of the room, shutting the door +as if she did not want to hear any more of what passed between her +parents. + +"Why not?" repeated Regina. + +"Well, they don't seem to be in keeping with you. One never thinks of +you as having nerves or the megrims, of being offended about nothing and +having to be coaxed back again into a good temper. You are the kind of +woman one gives a present to because one desires to give you pleasure, +not because you are to be made to forget some vexation or some +disappointment. You are unlike other women, Regina." + +And Regina immediately decided that the hussy was a person of moods! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH + + It is odd that, while business is a mantle sufficiently ample to + cover a whole lifetime of sins, we usually credit any pastime + with being the cloak of a good deal of wickedness. + + +In the face of the indisputable fact that neither husband nor child +approved of the change she had made in her coiffure, Regina entered +upon a course of what can only be called complete prevarication. The +following day she rose betimes in the morning as was her wont, as one of +her fixed habits was always, under all circumstances short of absolute +illness, to be ready for breakfast in time to give Alfred a quiet and +ample meal. She had from the very beginning conceived it to be her bare +duty to be the one to speed him on his daily quest into the city, +and to welcome him when he returned to his home in the evening, and to +do her full justice, Regina had rarely failed in this particular. She +had left her children more or less to shape their own lives, and +being of extremely dominant personalities, they had shaped them +accordingly--Maudie in the direction of the soft, domestic, luxurious +type, which later developes into the "feather bed;" Julia in a keen, +alert, downright, make-your-own-world-as-you-go fashion. She had +arranged her domestic affairs so that when she took up the regeneration +of women her housekeeping arrangements did not suffer by her absence, +and as I have said, she was always down in ample time to breakfast, +always having made a decently becoming toilette, and she was always or +almost always the first person that Alfred saw when he came home again +in time for dinner. On this occasion she knew it would be impossible for +her to arrange her hair in a new and unaccustomed way with anything like +success and at the same time be ready at the usual breakfast time. So +she merely combed her hair up and twisted it into a knot on the top of +her head. Truth to tell, it was much more becoming than any style she +had done it in before, though less elaborate than the arrangement of +Madame Florence. She donned a plain white cambric wrapper, touched her +face with powder, and tied a broad blue ribbon round her waist, bringing +the bow low down, and pinning it with a huge brooch at a point about +six inches lower than she usually wore her buckle. In the past one of +Regina's landmarks had been what is usually called the Holbein curve, +and the mere fact of pinning her waist ribbon a few inches lower than +usual was sufficient to transform Regina if not from the ridiculous to +the sublime, at least from the grotesque to the prevailing mode. She was +already in the spacious and comfortable dining-room reading her letters +when Alfred made his appearance. + +"Whew!" he said, "it's going to be a blazing hot day; the city will be +like a grill room!" + +"And I suppose you are too busy to take an hour or two off?" + +"Why, do you want me to go anywhere?" + +"No, I was thinking it would be good for you if you could take an hour +or two off and get a little fresh air." + +"Utterly impossible, my dear. With any other partner, perhaps, but not +with Chamberlain. To put it plainly, my dear, Chamberlain put in the +money when I wanted to spread myself, and I did spread myself. The +experiment was a success, and I am saddled with Chamberlain for the rest +of my natural life." + +"Is he no help to you?" said Regina. + +"Well, he is less than no help. I think I shall be obliged to suggest +taking in another partner; the business is too big now to have the whole +responsibility on one pair of shoulders. I must have a holiday now and +again--goodness knows, it isn't often for a man of my substance--but +anything like the muddle in which I found things I never imagined even +Chamberlain could accomplish. He's a dear chap, too full of apologies, +perfectly aware of his own shortcomings, always in a domestic +pickle--which is not to be wondered at--but as a partner he is +hopeless." + +"My poor Alfred!" said Regina. + +"Ah, you may well say that. Of course, when one just comes back off a +holiday, one doesn't feel like doing collar work all the time, all +uphill and no easement. But it will pass, and I must seriously think of +taking someone else in." + +"Have you anyone in your eye?" + +"Well, of course, Tomkinson's a splendid man. One wouldn't give him a +full share, wouldn't make him an equal exactly, but I think it would be +a wise thing if we were to make him a junior partner. Besides that, +someone else might get hold of him; he is well known as a first-class +man." + +"I should, my dear. But why should you go on working and toiling like +this? If you were to realize, and with what money I have we should be +quite comfortable." + +"Oh no, oh no, thank you, Queenie, not while I am strong and well. I +should like a little more time to myself; I should like to be able to +run over to Paris for a week or to spend a few days by the seaside. I'm +thinking of taking up golf--I began to take an interest in the game at +Dieppe. It's good for the liver; a mild craze for golf has saved many a +man from an attack of paralysis." + +"You would join a golf club?" + +"Oh, yes, one of those clubs round London." + +"And you would get an afternoon twice a week or so? Could I--could--I +walk round with you?" + +"Oh, I don't think so; I don't think they allow ladies' on men's golf +links. No, no, if you want to start playing yourself, my dear, you must +join a ladies' club and play on your own. It would be good for you." + +"Yes--it would. Won't you have any more coffee?" + +"No, thanks. I may be late for dinner; possibly I may not be able to get +back--I'll send you a wire. By the way, when we leave Ye Dene we will +have a telephone put up." + +"Yes," she said, "it would be most convenient." + +For some time after he had caught his 'bus and gone off to town she sat +thinking. Golf, two afternoons a week--that would mean enjoyments in +which she could take no part. She knew she was growing suspicious--well, +she had enough to make her so. When the scales fall from blind eyes the +eyes are not to be blamed for seeing. Some five minutes after Regina had +come to this conclusion the door opened and Julia came in. + +"All alone, ducky?" she remarked. "Well, I _am_ late. I'd no idea daddy +was gone." + +"Yes, you are late, or I fancy, to be correct, he was unusually early. +He is almost killed with work--or I should say, over-work. However, he +thinks he will get things straight in a few days and then it will be a +little easier." + +"Dear daddy! I really don't see what use Mr. Chamberlain is to him," +said Julia, holding out her hand for the coffee cup which her mother had +just filled. + +"No, he is no help in a business sense, but he put the money into the +concern. What are you going to do to-day, Julia?" + +Julia looked up in unmitigated astonishment. "To-day--oh--ah--I shall be +out and about all day," she returned promptly. + +"I rather wanted you to go to town with me." + +"Awfully sorry, dear, I can't go to-day," Julia answered. + +Regina felt exactly as she might have felt if someone had flung a pail +of cold water in her face. + +"I was going to the West End," she said half hesitatingly. "I thought +you might like to go and see this new milliner of mine." + +"I should have loved it," said Julia, "if I had known before, but I've +made several engagements for to-day." + +She did not vouchsafe any information as to her movements, and Regina +hastened to explain things for Julia. + +"You are going with one of the Marksbys?" + +"No, I'm not. I'm going to lunch at the club, then I'm going to do a +little shopping and later I'm going to tea with the Ponsonby-Piggots." + +"Really! Are you lunching at the club with somebody?" + +"No, I've somebody lunching with me." + +Again Regina felt that curious sensation of a douche of cold water +administered over her entire person. Well, she had brought up her +children to be independent, to have wills, caprices, likes and dislikes +of their own, she could not blame them if they were not of the clinging, +great-chum-with-mother type which she would have preferred them to be at +this moment. + +"Suppose we make it a fixture for the day after to-morrow?" said Julia, +helping herself to more delicate strips of bacon from the covered silver +dish before her. + +"Yes, certainly." + +"Shall we lunch here or in town?" Julia went on. + +"Whichever you like." + +"Your club is such a long way," said Julia, with a faint accent +of disparagement in her tones; "to my mind that is the worst of +professional clubs; they're always so ultra-professional that one can't +find a corner for anything at all fashionable. Suppose you come and +lunch with me, mother dear? If you are giving up your societies why +don't you join a good West-End club? You'd find it so useful, living +out as far as we do." + +"I think I must." + +"I shouldn't recommend mine. It's all very well for me, but it's a cheap +little club and it wouldn't do for you. Now, why don't you join one of +the big clubs in Petticoat Lane?" + +"Petticoat Lane!" + +"Oh--I beg your pardon, mummy, I meant Dover Street. There are +half-a-dozen of them. Shall I see if I can get your name put up? I +daresay you will have to wait some little time. Which would you +like--one that improves your mind or one that improves your +convenience?" + +"Certainly not one that improves my mind." + +"No, I think you are quite right; I hate clubs where they have lectures +and debates and other beastly things that they never have in men's +clubs. Now there's the Kaiserin, that would suit you very well: handsome +clubhouse, excellent cooking arrangements, spacious entertaining-room +which you can hire and have all to yourself, every necessity and comfort +to make a club thoroughly comfy--in fact, a second home without any +bother." + +"But how do you know?" said Regina in a curiously small voice. + +"Oh, I know several women who belong to the Kaiserin," Julia answered +carelessly. "What are you going to do to-day, dearest? Going to see your +milliner again?" + +"No, I'm going to have my hair dressed; I can't do it properly myself +for a few days, and I have one or two other things to do." + +Now it happened that of the one or two other things that Regina had to +do, the most important was a visit to the distinguished specialist in +whose hands the fashionable world was content to put itself with a view +to getting rid of superfluous tissue. It was just on the stroke of noon +when Regina found herself walking across Cavendish Square in the +direction of that street of sighs which most of us know, alas! too well. +She was kept waiting some little time, but the dining-room in which she +spent the period of detention, along with three other ladies much fatter +than herself, was cheerful, and the papers were of the newest (which is +not always the case, let me remind you, in the houses of medical +specialists). At last her turn came to penetrate to the sanctum of the +great man. Regina was quite nervous, needlessly so, but in five minutes +the bland and friendly personality whom she had come to consult had put +her quite at ease. She was weighed! I do not think it would be exactly +delicate to tell you the precise weight at which she turned the scale, +but I have always held her up to you as a woman of that type which is +called "a fine figure." + +"Let me see, you want to get rid of four stones," said the doctor, +genially; "well, that's not a very severe case. It will take you four or +five months; you must take no liberties with yourself and I will send +you a card this evening telling you exactly what you may and may not eat +and drink. You must live by the card, literally by the card. Remember, +no vagaries, no irregularities, no coquetting with the 'one time that +never hurts one.' You must make up your mind that you will give up your +own will until you have reached the required standard, and believe me, +dear lady, you will be a happier woman, a healthier woman and a +handsomer woman when you have attained your object." + +Regina wrote a check and went out into the sunlight, out of the land of +liberty and into the straight and narrow path of a strict and severe +_régime_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +ROUND EVERYWHERE + + Young eyes see so clearly that we must often be very thankful that + young people do not have the deciding voice in our lives. + + +Regina duly received the promised card or diet sheet. I may say that she +took it from its enveloping wrapper with a certain feeling of mystery +akin to awe, and she studied its items carefully. Its directions were +many and explicit; it not only gave the foods which she might eat, but +also the foods which she might not eat, the drinks she might take and +the drinks she might not take, and it gave the weights of each portion +and the number of each special biscuit. Acting according to the +instructions from the specialist, Regina had ordered a sufficient +quantity of the specially prepared diet biscuits which were part of the +_régime_, and it occurred to her, when the parcel arrived a little later +than the diet sheet reached her, that she would have to account to her +husband and family for the startling change in her diet. Now, Regina was +perfectly sure of one thing: that she would be most unwise to tell +Alfred the exact nature of the _régime_ on which she was about to start. +She felt that a wife who was taking elaborate means, and undergoing +great self-sacrifice, putting herself into prison, so to speak, for the +sole and express purpose of thinning herself down, would show to great +disadvantage beside a person of the plump order who was probably twenty +years her junior, and able to peck greedily at the most fattening kinds +of food. So Regina entered upon a course of what I may call harmless +prevarication. + +"I have something to tell you, dear Alfred," she said that evening when +he had well dined and had not noticed that she had passed about half the +items of dinner; "I want to have a little talk with you." + +"Yes, my dear girl, about having a celebration of the home-coming? Oh +yes, you would wish it, and, of course it was arranged before the +wedding." + +"No, it is about myself." + +"Yourself, dearest? And what about yourself?" + +"Alfred, I have not been feeling myself lately." + +"Why--how--what d'you mean? You're not ill, are you?" + +"Well, not exactly ill; I can't truthfully say that; yet I've not been +myself, I've not felt myself, I've not looked myself--" + +"No, I've noticed how very much paler you have grown; you seem to have +lost your nice fresh color." + +She _had_ lost her nice fresh color; it had disappeared with the advent +of the powder box, and Alfred had not, to use a very slang phrase, +dropped down to the fact. + +"Well, I don't believe in leaving these things to mend themselves," +Regina went on, busily pleating and unpleating the deep black lace which +adorned the sleeves of her handsome tea-gown, "it's better to stop +anything of that sort at the outset." + +"Well, you've been to a doctor?" + +"Yes, I've been strongly advised to go to Dr. Money-Berry in Harley +Street. You see, I've got so very stout lately, Alfred, and he thinks my +having gained in weight has put me all wrong. My heart is very +feeble--compared with what it used to be." + +"My--_dear_! Ough! Tut, tut, tut--think of our going on and living our +ordinary life and all the time you are suffering--it's dreadful to think +of." + +"Well, not exactly suffering; I'm not quite an invalid. Dr. Money-Berry +advised me to live very carefully during the next few months; he thinks +I shall be all right if I leave off starchy foods--they are so bad for +the valves of the heart and--and I don't want to leave you, Alfred," she +said in a pathetic little voice. + +"Good heavens! Go away and leave me! What are you talking of, Queenie? +If you were to go away and leave me--for another man--I should blow my +brains out," and here he began to walk about the room. "And if I didn't, +I should go to the devil." + +I am ashamed to record that there arose in Regina's mind a picture of +Alfred, her noble Alfred! going headlong to the devil with a hussy of +plump proportions. + +Alfred continued excitedly, "And if you were to leave me in the other +sense--I don't know what I should do." + +"Dear Alfred, you would probably marry again," she observed quietly. + +"Never--never! Put that thought out of your mind once and for all. I +should live out the rest of my life as best I could--but I really can't +talk about it. You were perfectly right to go to a specialist, and you +must follow out his treatment to the very letter. Now, promise me you +will do everything he tells you, take all the medicine he gives you, and +live by line and rule until he tells you that you are really out of +danger." + +The heart of Regina was sick within her. She knew she was deceiving +Alfred; she felt herself to be the basest and blackest and most +ungrateful woman that had ever been born into the world, and yet, she +told herself, her deception was a harmless one, that if she was sinning +against him, she was sinning to a good end. And so Regina entered upon +her course of penal servitude, for I can call it nothing more or less. +The same explanation which was given to Alfred was given to Julia, and +henceforth Regina, although she ate at the same table, ate alone. She +did not in any way attempt to curtail the meals of her husband and +child, but supplied the table in exactly the usual manner. + +"Why do you buy salmon when you can't touch it yourself?" Alfred asked +over and over again. + +"Because you work hard and want your meals. If you had the same +necessity for living as I do, I should keep you up to it." + +"I don't believe you would buy salmon for yourself," said Alfred, almost +vexedly; "it must be a temptation to you, so fond of it as you are." + +"Oh, no, because I have an object in view. Believe me, I often have +sweetbreads for lunch." + +"But you do not fling them in my face at dinner; that is quite another +matter." + +So the martyrdom went on, and Regina's figure became smaller by degrees +and beautifully less. When she had been dieting for about two months she +had lost a couple of stones in weight. She had a couple of smart gowns +from Madame d'Estelle in which she had allowed that adroit lady free +play for her taste and imagination. The result was that she gradually +presented to the eyes of her family a subdued and refined Regina, much +more attractive to the outer world, but not the Regina to whom the +inhabitants of Ye Dene had been accustomed. + +It was about two months from the beginning of Regina's martyrdom that +Alfred Whittaker began to be aware that his wife was losing flesh. "My +dear," he said one morning, as he sat opposite his wife at the +breakfast-table, "I'm not quite satisfied with that doctor of yours." + +"Why not, dear?" + +"Why, I don't think he's doing well by you." + +"But I am so much better." + +"You don't look it; you're half the size you were." + +"Oh, no, Alfred! There's still plenty of me." + +"You are much smaller, and since you have taken to wearing black and +indefinable gray gowns, you seem to be wasting away to nothing. When is +it going to stop?" + +"When he is satisfied that I am just the right weight. I am much +stronger, Alfred; I can walk miles!" + +"Can you? Well, I don't know that it is necessary for you to walk miles; +you can afford to take a cab whenever you want one." + +"Yes, dear, but I am much better." + +"I know you say so, and you've been awfully plucky about your diet and +so on, but when is it going to end? I don't want a wife like a thread +paper." + +Julia had come into the room while he was speaking. "Dear daddy," she +said, "you're very dense. Mother's getting vain in her old age. She's +got a French milliner, she's got a French dressmaker, she does her hair +a new way, and she's getting her figure back again. She's quite a new +woman, she's given up working for womanhood generally, and she's getting +frivolous. She's got a club--I mean a real club--in the West End, and +one of these days she's going to give a dinner party and ask you and me +to it." + +"Well, well, well, if you're quite sure you are not doing anything +foolish," said Alfred Whittaker; "I only want you to be happy in your +own way. But I want you to be _quite_ sure that you are not doing +anything foolish. It's not natural for a woman of your age to be starved +down to skin and bone." + +"My dear Alfred! Think of the breakfast I have made this morning; I have +had twice as much as you." + +"I rather doubt that," said Alfred, patting himself in the region he had +just filled, "I rather doubt that. But I should be more satisfied if +you went to a heart specialist. Who is Dr. Money-Berry? What's his +line?" + +"He is a specialist," said Regina, with an air, "on all matters +connected with the internal organs above the belt, and those bound in +the chains of fatty degeneration of the heart, he sets free. To those +whose food does not digest properly, he seems able to give a new +digestion. I have full faith in his integrity and his skill, and I beg, +dear Alfred, that you will not worry yourself. I am quite a new woman, +regenerated, rejuvenated." + +"Yes, I know, but you are getting so thin." + +"And don't you like me better thinner?" + +"No, I couldn't like you better, that's impossible, but if you are +better in health for being thinner it's all very well. But if you are +going on reducing yourself to a miserable skeleton nothing will make me +believe it is good for you or make me declare I admire you, for I never +shall." + +After he had gone she sat with a flushed and uneasy expression on her +smooth face. As the gate clicked behind her father's departing form +Julia burst into laughter. + +"Lor', mother," she said, "how can you bamboozle poor daddy as you do?" + +"Julia!" + +"Yes, I mean it. Poor daddy doesn't see one inch before his nose, and +you are a sensible woman. You let him think that Dr. Money-Berry is a +specialist for fat round the heart." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Well, Dr. Money-Berry is a specialist for fat round everywhere, whom +fashionable women go to to have their figures made sylph-like. If Dr. +Money-Berry depended upon cases of heart trouble he wouldn't hang out +very long in Harley Street, and nobody knows that better than you, +mother." + +"Julia!" + +"But," Julia continued, "you've changed immensely during the last few +months. I don't know what made you throw up your societies and try to +make yourself into a mere domestic woman; but you have regenerated +yourself, that's true enough." + +"I was too fat, Julia; it was not wholesome." + +"You were not more fat than you had been for the last ten years. I never +remember you so thin as you are now. You have changed your milliner, you +have changed your dressmaker, you do your hair a new way--you are a +totally different woman, and I think daddy is quite right when he asks, +'Where is it going to end?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +A REJUVENATED REGINA + + How one admires a woman who takes an unexpected facer without + making a scene! + + +Regina had come to the end of her period of martyrdom. Her weight +was ten stones seven pounds, her waist was twenty-five inches. Her +family had grown used to what both father and daughter stigmatized as +"mother's little vanities." She was now a radiantly healthy, pleasing, +well-dressed person of comely, middle-aged womanhood. It is true that +she was hopelessly dependent upon Madame d'Estelle for her taste in +dress and upon Madame Clementine for her choice of millinery. She was +still an excellent customer at The Dressing-Room, and went there +regularly to have her luxuriant hair brushed and waved in the fashion to +which Alfred Whittaker and Julia no longer raised any objection. She had +started a day at her club so that friends at a distance might take a cup +of tea with her without journeying out to Northampton Park. She was not +yet the chaperon of her daughter, for her daughter had long ago got +into the habit of arranging her own life, but she was fully convinced +that the new ways were a wide advance upon the old ways, and nothing +would have induced her to go back to her original state of benighted +self-sufficiency. Never had Regina Whittaker known herself so thoroughly +as since she had become aware of the existence of the hussy. And yet, it +must be confessed that although she had absolutely remodeled her life, +changed her way of being, taken a new standpoint from which to look out +upon the world, she was no nearer the consummation of her dearest hopes, +she was no more certain than she had been six months before that the +heart of Alfred was indisputably hers and hers alone. + +"You are going to dine in town again!" she said to him one dreary winter +morning. + +"My dear girl, you may rest assured that I should not dine in town if +there were the ghost of a chance of my being able to get my dinner here, +but I shall not be back till late, and I don't know why you and the +child should ruin your dinner because I can't get back in reasonable +time." + +"But Maudie and Harry are coming." + +"I can't help that; you must explain to them. My dear girl, there's such +a lot at stake just now that I simply dare not leave it to chance. Come, +come, be reasonable. One would think," and he smiled benevolently down +upon her, "that we were a young couple like our turtle doves, and that +one could not dine without the other. I admit that I shall not enjoy it +so much." + +"Shall you not?" + +"Now, how can I? Probably there isn't a man in London who is fonder of +his home than I am, but at the same time one wants to do the right +thing by one's home as well as to enjoy it." + +"But, Alfred, you don't wish me to understand that the firm is in +difficulties?" + +"No, no, not in the sense you mean, but in another sense it is. The fact +is, Queenie, I must stick to the ship now at whatever inconvenience to +myself." + +"And to me," said Regina. + +"Well, dearest, and to you. But, come now, you are a strong-minded +woman, you know how many beans make five as well as any woman I have +ever met--better than most. I've got myself tied up with the biggest ass +in London, whether he's going out of his great mind, or whether he's +going to continue on, a danger to everyone with whom he comes in touch, +I don't know. The fact is, he's not mad enough to be shut up in a +lunatic asylum and he's not sane enough to be allowed to come and go as +he likes." + +"But you took in Tomkinson to relieve you." + +"And so he will in time, but he isn't the head of the firm and I am. +He's a splendid man and I should have been furious if any other house in +the same line had got hold of him; at the same time you can't expect a +man to take my place in the first six months of becoming a partner; it +wouldn't be reasonable, particularly as Chamberlain is such a difficult +card to handle." + +"And where are you dining?" said Regina. + +"Well, to-night I've got to dine possibly at the Criterion and talk over +a business matter that Chamberlain has let himself in for, and which he +is most anxious to get clear of with as little publicity and fuss as +possible. Of course the situation with his wife is very difficult; she +is a jealous, absurd, sensitive woman, and he makes her a shocking bad +husband. It's a pity he was not born to be a clerk with a pound a week, +to have to keep his nose down to the grindstone to provide board and +lodging; then he would have managed to keep himself straight. I shall +get things straightened out in a few months if I can manage it, and then +we will take that trip South that we were talking about. You'd like +that, wouldn't you?" + +"I shall be happy anywhere with you." + +"We'll take that trip South, it will do you good, and it will be a +heaven-sent holiday for me, but I can't go as things are now, and you +mustn't worry until I have got matters into something like order." + +"You are sure we are not spending too much money?" + +"Oh no, no, no, it isn't a question of money, but in one way it's a +question of business. Now I must be off." + +It happened that Julia had been listening during the entire +conversation. "I say, mother," she said, "if daddy is not coming home to +dinner, why give Harry and Maudie the fag of coming out here? Let's go +and dine at the Trocadero and do a theatre afterward; it isn't often +that you and I have the chance of getting off on the loose by ourselves. +We could easily send a wire or I could run over and see Maudie, and she +could 'phone to Harry from their house." + +"Yes, that's a very good idea," said Regina, who certainly did not want +to sit at her own table in the absence of her lord and master and +explain the exact circumstances of his absence. "You'd better wire, +or--no--you might run over." + +"Then I'll lunch with Maudie." + +"All right. We'll dine at seven o'clock." + +"What theatre shall we go to?" + +"You can settle that with Maudie, can't you? Then you can 'phone from +her house to any theatre you want to go to." + +"Very good. Do you know, mother, I think daddy is very worried. I wonder +why everything seems to be Mr. Chamberlain; our house seems to be +dominated by Mr. Chamberlain. I don't know why daddy doesn't get rid of +him; he's no good to anybody." + +"Ah, that's easier said than done with a partner of any kind. Mr. +Chamberlain may be a little wrong in his head, but he knows right enough +when he is in for a good thing; it's no use thinking about that, so we +may as well make the best of it." + +So at seven o'clock a well-dressed and extremely happy quartette arrived +in pairs at the Trocadero and took up a position at a table in the +gallery. The dinner was excellent, the music was alluring, the company +was abundant and well-dressed, and Regina, released from the thraldom of +Dr. Money-Berry, was at liberty to eat whatever came in due course. +Harry Marksby had chosen the champagne, and all was merry as a marriage +bell, when suddenly Julia made a remark, "Why, there's daddy," she said, +looking over the balustrade. + +Regina looked in the opposite direction. "Really! he said he was going +to dine at the Criterion or somewhere. I suppose his friend preferred to +come here." + +"His friend is a lady," said Julia. + +Regina's heart gave a sick throb, her eyes followed the direction of +Julia's gaze, and the next instant she beheld her noble Alfred sitting +with his elbow on the table talking earnestly to a young and pretty +woman. + +"Don't faint, darling," said Julia in a soft undertone. + +"I'm not in the least likely to faint," said Regina, with superb +dignity. "Doubtless your father will give a perfectly simple explanation +of his being here with a lady. Thank you, Harry, I will have a little +more champagne." + +Oh, she was a plucky woman, Regina Whittaker! It was not in her nature +to show the white feather! Her suspicions had crystallized themselves +into human form. There was the hussy who had haunted her for months +past, there she was in the flesh! "And I must say," said Regina to her +own heart, "that Alfred does not look as if he were enjoying himself." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +WARY AND PATIENT + + As a rule, especially in the greater issues of life, little or + nothing is to be gained by precipitancy. + + +During the rest of the dinner Regina made a valiant effort to appear as +thoroughly at ease as if the portly gentleman down below was no kith or +kin of hers. When she had once pulled herself together and realized the +worst, she became the life and soul of the table, and Regina, mind you, +was a woman of intellect, a woman of wit, when it pleased her to exert +herself in that respect. She did not again allude to the fact that her +husband was dining under the same roof as herself, until they made a +move, intending to go to the theatre. Then Maudie, who was not endowed +with much tact, demurred at leaving without making their presence known +to her father. + +"I must go and speak to daddy," she said. + +"Nothing of the kind," said Regina in a fierce whisper, "nothing of the +kind; I absolutely forbid it. Harry, you will back me up in this?" + +Her tone was one of anxious entreaty, and Harry Marksby, who had been +rather a gay dog in his very young days, although always tempered with a +large amount of common-sense which had saved him from getting into a +hole, took in his mother-in-law's meaning at a glance. + +"No, you can't go downstairs now, my dear," he said, giving her a +vigorous nudge with his elbow, and Maudie, without in the least +understanding, took the hint and said no more. "We'll meet you at the +theatre," he added. + +So presently Regina found herself sitting in a hansom with Julia beside +her. + +"I say, mother," said Julia, as the cab started from the doorway, "that +was a little awkward, wasn't it? And how silly of Maudie! I really +thought she had more sense." + +"Not one word of this to your father," said Mrs. Whittaker in the same +tone of fierce repression. "You children are quite mistaken, I +understand it perfectly. You will not speak to your father of our having +seen him? He would not be able to explain the circumstances to you." + +"Oh, certainly, not if you don't wish it, darling. You'd better tell +Harry to give Maudie warning because she's sure to blab it out. Who is +she?" + +"I don't know what her name is," said Regina; "she is a person your +father has some business with--business connected with the firm," she +added, with a dexterity of explanation which astounded even herself. "I +have known of her existence for some time; your father has been almost +worried out of his life about it, and it would worry him much more if he +thought you children misconstrued his actions." + +"Oh, well, I suppose daddy is perfectly at liberty to do as he likes as +long as he makes matters clear to you. We have no right to dictate who +he shall take to the Trocadero to dine." + +"My dear child--my precious child--" said Regina almost breaking down, +but recovering herself with a snap as it were. Then she went on in the +same fierce tone, "I shall not forget this, Julia, my darling; one can +always rely on you in a moment of emergency, Maudie has not half your +sound common-sense--she's a feather head compared to you." + +"Oh, she'll be all right. You tip Harry the wink--" + +"What!" + +"Oh! I beg your pardon, mummy, I forgot. Shall I tell Harry to stop +Maudie blabbing?" + +"I wish you would. You might explain to him a little. Now, here we are, +here we are, now don't let us speak of it again; it's all much more +simple than you children think." + +Now it happened that on the way down to the theatre, Harry Marksby had +given Maudie a hint, or, as Julia would have put it, tipped her the +wink, to say nothing whatever about what had occurred. + +"I don't understand why," she had replied. "Why should daddy be dining +with that bold-looking woman when mother thought he was dining with a +friend at the Criterion?" + +"Well, you can't tell. As long as your mother doesn't want it spoken of, +it's no business of ours. Now, hold your tongue, Maudie darling; I rely +upon you not to say a word, you'll only upset everybody's apple-cart if +you do." + +"Well, I'm not likely to say anything against my own father. All the +same," said Maudie, with the suspicion of a pout, "I do think that +father ought to feel it incumbent upon him not to disgrace us in public +places. If he was only dining with a friend why couldn't I go and speak +to him--I'm his own child? And if he was dining with somebody he +wouldn't like to take home--" + +"And you can bet your bottom dollar he wouldn't," said Harry. + +"Then I think he ought to give an account of himself." + +"Oh yes, I know, that's justice, man's justice. Come, come, come, Mrs. +Harry Marksby," said Harry in a tone of cheerful warning; "and here we +are at the theatre. Now, don't say a word to your mother, she's upset +enough, poor old lady." + +Now, as Mrs. Whittaker had dined the little party, it became Harry's +pleasing duty to give them supper, and from the theatre they went to a +certain fashionable supper-room, again by means of a couple of hansoms. +This time it was Julia who shared the hansom of her brother-in-law. + +"Now, look here, Harry," she said, "for goodness' sake don't say +anything about having seen daddy to-night." + +"Why, what do you take me for? Do you think I was born yesterday--or the +day after to-morrow?" + +"But mother says she knows all about it, and that it's much more simple +than we think, and she thinks that Maudie will go blabbing it out." + +"Oh, that's all right, I have given her a hint already. At the same +time, I think your father ought to--well--ought to make things a little +more secure." + +"Yes, I know, but he had not the least idea that we were dining out +to-night; it was quite an impromptu arrangement and daddy might be vexed +if Maudie said anything to him about it--'We saw you dining with a lady +the other night'--you know, that sort of thing." + +"Is he--um--um--" + +"What do you mean by um--?" + +"Is he touchy?" + +"Oh no, take him all round he is the most amiable person I know; but +there are limits to every man's patience, and if daddy is bothered with +the firm's business, as mother seems to imply, it might vex him; +besides, mother doesn't wish it mentioned, and that's enough; he's _her_ +husband." + +"And, Julia," said Harry Marksby, as they drove up to the door of the +restaurant, "if every woman was as wise as your mother, there wouldn't +be much domestic broiling to worry the world." And then he jumped out +and held out his hand for Julia to alight. + +Regina behaved admirably at this juncture; she kept it up, she made a +very good supper; but then, you know, that was one of Regina's excellent +qualities; when in tribulation her appetite did not fail her. Finally +Regina and Julia drove down to the nearest station on the district +railway and took train for the Park. They found Mr. Whittaker already +come in. + +"Well, dearest," he said, as they rustled into the dining-room where he +was sitting reading, "you never told me you were going to galavant." + +"No; for, you see, we took it into our heads that we would go to a +theatre, and then Harry and Maudie gave us supper at the Golden +Butterfly afterwards. We have had a great time, haven't we, Julia?" + +"A great time," said Julia. "I like a little supper after a theatre, it +always seems so dull, bundling out and scrambling off to one's train. +And how long have you been home, daddy?" + +"Oh, ever so long; I got home before ten. And what theatre did you go +to?" + +Regina explained, and Alfred mixed her a little whisky-and-soda, and +Julia said she would go to bed, for she was dead beat, and so on; and +still Regina said nothing beyond throwing out a feeler in order that her +husband might confide anything to her if he wished to do so. + +"You got through your business, Alfred?" + +"Yes--yes, yes." + +"And brought it to a successful issue?" + +"Well--I can't exactly say that, but I have put things in train." He +gave a short angry sigh, as if he were vexed with himself and the world +in general. + +It was on the tip of Regina's tongue to ask where he had dined. Perhaps +if she had done so an explanation would have taken place between them +and her mind have been set at rest; but a certain delicacy overcame her +as if she, in dining at the Trocadero, without giving her husband due +warning of the fact, had committed an indiscretion. So she simulated a +fatigue which she was far from feeling and she went off to bed, followed +two minutes later by Alfred, who declared himself to be tired out, and +it was not until Regina found herself in bed in the dark, with her +husband sleeping the sleep of the--shall we say?--just, beside her that +she gave herself up to reviewing the situation. Well, "hope deferred +maketh the heart sick." It may be so, but certain it is that Regina's +heart was very sore and sorry that night. Hope was deferred no longer, +uncertainty had become certainty; she knew the worst! She had seen the +hussy! It was beyond her understanding to know why Alfred could have +allowed himself to be entangled by such a creature--so common, +attractive only with a common attractiveness, pretty only in a common +type of prettiness; young, yet not blooming. He had not looked happy; he +sighed in his sleep. + +"What shall I do?" said Regina to herself. "Tell him? No, no; never, +never own for one instant that I have the smallest knowledge or +suspicion that my husband is shared by a creature like that." + +She lay awake for hours during that night, and when the first faint +streaks of morning came struggling in at the window, she had come to the +conclusion that he was unhappy in that relationship, that he had been +entangled and that freedom would be infinitely precious to him. + +"I must work hard at my task of supplanting such a person," she told +herself, "I must be wary and wily and sweet, and must make myself +attractive. Alfred has been most attentive to me since I went to Madame +d'Estelle, and since Clementine made my hats for me and Florence +rearranged my hair. I must be wary and patient, always wary and +patient, give him no excuse for wanting to go away from home, give him +no sense of rest in any other place than under his own roof. It will not +be easy--no, it will be most difficult. Poor fellow! he's so set on +keeping faith with me that he even resents any little thing that I do to +change myself. I hate that woman! Yes, I have never hated anyone in my +life as I hate that woman!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +DADDY'S HEART + + I wonder is there a woman in the world who is not touched by a gift + of beautiful furs? + + +It was fortunate for Regina that she had been in the past accustomed to +live her life a good deal to herself. An ordinary wife and mother who +started out on a scheme of rejuvenation as elaborate as that of Mrs. +Whittaker's would find it extremely difficult to account for the hours +which she would have to spend outside her own house. The ordinary young +girl in decent society usually has to explain to her mother what she has +done with her day, sometimes what she is going to do, and must generally +gain permission for any expedition which she desires to make. I have +known young girls who considered surveillance to be what they +indignantly termed espionage, and I have known much heart burning, much +kicking against the pricks from the girls of the family because they +were not, like their brothers, free as the wind, to go where they +listed. But I must tell my readers that the espionage of mothers over +daughters is as nothing compared to the espionage of daughters over a +popular mother. + +In a certain household with which I am intimately acquainted, these are +some scraps of conversation which may frequently be heard: + +"Well, darling, where are you going to-day?" + +"Oh, I'm going out and about; I want to go along the High Street, and +then perhaps I'll go to tea with So-and-So, and I half promised to go to +Fuller's to tea with such and such a boy. I'm not going far away. I +shall be out and about. Why--do you want me?" + +"Oh no, dear. Be in by dinner time." + +On the other hand, this is a scrap or conversation from the same family: + +"Are you going out to-day, mother?" + +"Yes." + +"Where are you going?" + +"Oh, I'm going out." + +"Yes, but where?" Then follows a string of questions--"What are you +going to do? What are you going to get? What time shall you be in? Do +you want me to go with you? Is daddy going with you?" and so on. The +simple answer, "I'm going out and about," or "I'm going for a walk," +would in no wise serve that mother. If she managed to slip out without +her family knowing the exact details of her programme she would +certainly have to explain how she had spent every minute of her time +when she got home again. "Well, where did you go? Who did you see? Where +did you have tea? How many teas did you have? Did you have a good time? +Are you tired? Why didn't you let me know you were going? I wanted to go +with you." These are only a few of the questions that this particular +mother has to answer whenever she happens to go out without attendance; +and I say lucky it was for Regina that she had early inculcated the +liberty of the subject into the hearts of her daughters twain. + +Just at first, after giving up public life, she had made a feeble effort +to assert the ordinary _rôle_ of motherhood, but she had found herself +brought sharply to a realization of her own principles, that she was +free as air, to do as she liked, and that Julia had the same privileges +as herself. Fortunate it was for Regina that it was so, for she was able +to continue her work of regeneration, carried out on the most +twentieth-century lines, without being hindered by objections and +comments from her husband and daughters. For Julia was accustomed to +spend her days among her own friends and to follow her own inclinations, +and Regina had been for many years accustomed to come and go without +hindrance or comment. + +Now, at this time, she became almost too busy to worry about even the +existence of the hussy. Twice a week she spent an hour at The +Dressing-Room, having her hair brushed and kept beautiful. Twice a week +she attended the _salons_ of her beauty specialist, who did all manner +of quaint things to her complexion, smoothing, washing, patting, +kneading, dabbing, spraying, using electricity and washes, and employing +various other modes of rendering her skin beautifully smooth. Then twice +a week she attended the classes of a fashionable expert in physical +culture, and at her bidding Regina, clad in black satin knickers and a +white blouse, innocent of corsets or any other artificial means of +making a figure, went through a series of antics, from blowing her nose +scientifically to hopping about in attitudes suggestive of a gigantic +frog--only that Regina grew less and less gigantic, and more and more +approached to the proportions of her daughters. And then Regina took to +learning the bicycle. Her modesty suggested that she should start on a +machine with three wheels, but the professor of that art, who ran a show +in Regent's Park--well removed from Regina's own domain--assured her +that it was absurd for a person of her age and generally healthy aspect +to begin on a machine that he would recommend to anyone old enough to be +her mother. So Regina, with many misgivings, set out to learn the +bicycle. She was not an easy pupil to teach, but there is no doubt that +the nose blowing, hopping, rolling over and over on the floor, and going +through the many exercises which the expert in physical culture ordained +for her had given her a degree of lissomeness which she had never +enjoyed in the whole course of her existence. + +These pursuits necessitated her lunching in town every single day in the +week, and, having some time still on her hands, she devoted one hour in +the week to learning fencing, and then she joined a bridge class +connected with her club. And truly she proved what marvelous changes an +ordinary, stout, podgy, somewhat self-indulgent woman, getting near her +half century, can make in herself if she chooses. + +"Regina," said Alfred, one evening when she came down to dinner wearing +a bewitching little confection of silk and lace, which, if he had only +known it, was called a coffee-coat, "my dear, are you still going to +that doctor of yours?" + +"Yes." + +"How often?" + +"Once a week, or so." + +"I feel very anxious about you." + +"But why, when I'm so well?" + +"My dear girl, you are fading away, you are going to nothing, you are +not as well covered as you were when we were married." + +"I am not skinny, Alfred!" said Regina, with dignity. + +"Skinny! God forbid! But where are you going to stop?" + +"In your heart, Alfred," said Regina, looking at him very sweetly. + +"But if you go on as you are at present, there won't be anything of you +left to stop!" + +"Oh, you don't understand. I had so given myself up to public life that +I had let myself grow fat and ungainly, and I despised things that all +women should think much of. But I have seen the error of my ways--and I +feel as gay as a bird, as light as air. I only wish, dearest, that you +would pay a little more attention to yourself." + +"I? Dear, dear, dear! You don't mean to say that you want me to live on +dog biscuits. I decline to do it, Regina, even to please you. I lead a +busy life, although, thank God! I am able to make money. I often scamp +my lunch--just taking anything that comes handy, but my good breakfast +in the morning and my good dinner at night I insist upon having." + +"Oh, those good dinners!" said Regina, but she said it good-naturedly, +and Alfred only laughed and began to serve the soup. + +"Now try a little of this, Palestine soup--your favorite." + +"No, not soup, dear." + +"Why punish yourself? You are as thin as a match already." + +"Dr. Money-Berry warned me against soups." + +"Well, this once? I bought something for you to-day. Now, to please me +you must have a little of this." + +"Very well." + +"Your sins shall be upon my head," said Alfred. + +"No, I will take my sins on my own shoulders," said Regina. + +It was not until the maid had left them alone that she asked him what +the present was that he had bought for her that day. + +"Ah, you wait till after dinner, old lady. I had the chance of buying +something very nice at a quite reasonable price, and I took it, as I had +to take it or leave it without any chance of consulting you. If you +don't like it you can hand it over to one of the girls." + +"I shall like it," said Regina, and she asked no further questions. + +It was after dinner, when they had retired to the pleasant drawing-room, +that Alfred brought forth his purchase. It was a rather flat parcel, +looking like a rather large cardboard box done up in brown paper. With +masculine pride Alfred snipped the string, undid the wrappings and +brought to view the cardboard box that Regina had expected. Within were +more wrappings of tissue paper, and these undone disclosed a large +tippet or stole and a big muff of the order usually called "granny," +made of the finest dark sables. + +"Alfred!" cried Regina, all in a flutter. + +"Ah, I thought you'd say that. No question of handing them over to the +girls, eh?" + +"I should think not indeed. Why, darling boy, you must have given a +fortune for them." + +He slipped the tippet over her head and kissed her at the same time. +"Not too much for you, Queenie, but they did cost, well, a penny or two, +but it was a bargain all the same. Now, put your hands in the muff and +look at yourself." + +"Oh, Alfred--oh, Alfred, you do love me?" said Regina. + +"Love you! Ever have cause to doubt it?" he asked quite sharply. + +Regina was almost choked by her emotion. The psychic moment had arrived +for her to make her confession, to tell him all her doubts and fears, +all her efforts to make herself lovely in his eyes. "My Alfred, my noble +Alfred," she exclaimed, flinging her arms round his neck and clasping +the muff against his head. She was on the point of saying, "I _have_ +something to tell you," but she hesitated, in a manner unusual with her, +for a choice of words. In the rush of gratitude she almost let slip that +she had something to confess when the door opened, and Maudie, followed +by her husband, came into the room. + +"Furs! Dark sables! Darling, daddy _has_ been opening his heart to you." + +"Daddy's heart is always open to me," said Regina. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +REGINA SETS FOOT ON THE DOWN GRADE + + There is a great deal of wisdom in the old saying "Truth will out." + + +Somehow those sables served to put Regina further from her husband +instead of drawing her nearer to him. I'm sure that Alfred Whittaker +himself would have been shocked had he known the effect that his gift +had upon his spouse. Every day--nay, every hour tended to confirm her +belief that the hussy she had seen dining with Alfred at the Trocadero +had complete ascendancy over him, and yet those sables stopped her time +after time from broaching the subject to him. They were, so to speak, a +sop in the pot, and whenever Regina was on the point of laying her hand +on Alfred's shoulder and saying to him, plump and straight, "Alfred, is +your heart still mine?" a vision of dark sables seemed to rise up and +choke the very words in her throat. Most women would love to have a +danger-signal in the shape of dark sables, rich and elegant, soft and +cosy, at once luxurious and comforting, but there were times when Regina +almost hated her sables because they seemed to have raised an extra +barrier between herself and Alfred. + +"Mother," said Julia, one morning, when Regina was about to leave the +house on one of her strictly-personal expeditions, "are you going to Dr. +Money-Berry again?" + +"Yes, dear, I am. Why?" + +"Do you think he is doing very much good?" + +"Oh, I do, indeed! I consider that he has set me free, body and soul, +from the burden that I used to carry about with me." + +"Oh--you mean--fat, darling? Don't you think it suits you to be a little +fat?" + +"I don't think it suits anybody to be fat," said Regina, with the +enthusiasm of the recent convert. + +"And yet I have heard you describe daddy as a man of commanding +presence. How would you like it if daddy were to starve himself down +until all the command of his presence disappeared into nothingness?" + +"Ah, but I was gross," said Regina. + +"I never knew you when you were gross," said Julia. "I thought at +Maudie's wedding you looked lovely, and daddy said to me--" + +"What did your father say to you?" + +Julia drew a step nearer to her mother, and smoothed down, with tender +yet nervous fingers, the stole of soft gray fur which was around her +shoulders. + +"Why don't you ever wear your sables?" she asked irrelevantly. + +"My sables?" said Regina. "Oh, I don't like to wear them every day." + +"But when you are going to town, among smart West-End physicians--that +doesn't mean every day. I don't suggest that you should put them on to +go up the village in. Don't you like them?" + +"Oh, yes, no woman in the world would dislike them." + +"That's what I thought. You know, mother dear, you're cooking up +something about daddy." + +"No, I would rather not discuss it with you, my darling." + +"Sometimes," said Julia, still smoothing the stole up and down, +"sometimes it's better to get it off your chest." + +"What a very vulgar remark!" said Regina. + +"Yes, perhaps, but very practical. Now, I've been watching you." + +"I wish you wouldn't," said Regina. + +"Yes, we all wish others wouldn't. You see, that night at the Trocadero +let us all behind the scenes a little. Yes--I must speak, it's been +trembling on the tip of my tongue for weeks past, but, somehow, you +always put me off. I believe that daddy could explain it all." + +"There is no necessity for explanation." + +She looked very stern, very severe; but Julia was minded to speak, and +when Julia was minded to speak she generally had her say. + +"You are quite a different woman to what you were when Maudie was +married. You're not fretting after her, that's certain--an outsider +might think so, but I know better. You've never told daddy a word about +our having seen him at the Trocadero that night. You didn't notice him +very much; you resolutely kept your eyes away from him. I had no such +delicacy of feeling, I watched him very closely. That woman is nothing +to him. I don't know why he was dining with her, I don't know why he +didn't tell you about it, but he was bored and annoyed. He was trying to +pull something off, and he couldn't get what he wanted. If she ever had +any sort of hold over him, that hold has long since ceased to be an +attractive one--he was bored to death with her. I don't know that Maudie +wasn't right." + +"You have discussed it with Maudie?" + +"I have, or rather she has discussed it with me. She was all for going +down and tackling daddy right away, and I believe her instinct was +right, and that daddy would rather you knew he was there." + +"And Maudie thinks--?" + +"Maudie? Oh, Maudie's mind works in quite a different way to +mine--always did. Maudie thinks it is just an ordinary affair of that +kind, and left alone she would have gone down and taxed him with it, but +Harry wouldn't hear of it. But daddy was there and she was there--and a +horrid-looking brute she was--but whoever she was, and whatever she may +be, I am perfectly sure there is not the slightest occasion for you to +worry about her, one way or the other." + +"I don't--" Regina began, but Julia promptly cut her short. + +"Oh, yes, darling, you do. You were quite a changed woman after that +night--ah, and before that night, too. I know perfectly well that you +are worrying, I could burst out crying sometimes to see the look on your +face, and poor old daddy is quite unconscious, he hasn't the least idea +why you are so quiet and so unlike yourself. He asked me quite +anxiously the other day if I thought you were over-doing the treatment +with Dr. Money-Berry." + +"I believe," said Regina, who before all things was loyal to her Alfred, +"I believe that all persons inclining to stoutness would be better in +health, and in mind too, if they would take means to keep themselves to +proper proportions. Oh, Dr. Money-Berry is quite right in saying that +fat is a disease, and should be treated as such. I have been to him once +or twice lately because I was not sure that my symptoms were desirable. +I am really going to him to-day to say good-by for the second time. +Don't worry about me, darling child, and don't discuss your father with +Maudie. I have never entered into details of business and I never intend +to. Your father distinctly told me that he was dining with somebody on +business; it would be intolerable for him, placed as he is, if his wife +were to worry him to death every time he spoke to another woman. Dear +little girl, you'll be marrying one of these days, and you'll have a +husband of your own; then you will realize that between husband and wife +discretion is truly the better part of valor. And I wish you would put +that incident right out of your head--regard it as a business +matter--and not think of it every time you think I am not looking as gay +as usual. You know, my darling, I have many thoughts busying to and fro +in my brain. I have never been a mere machine for ordering dinner, and +although I have given up public life, I have not given up all my +thoughts--I still have an intellect. Your father is the best and noblest +man I ever knew. One of these days he will explain what, so far, he has +only told me in part. But I must be going, I am rather late already. +Tell me, are you occupied all day?" + +"Yes, that is to say, I am lunching with Maudie, and then I am going on +to my club." + +"No, come and have tea at mine. I shall expect you between half-past +four and five." + +"Right you are, mother." + +And then Mrs. Whittaker went out, passed down the tessellated covered +way and turned her face toward the station, conscious that she had that +day graduated as a first-class liar. Well, if she had lied, she had lied +in a good cause. If she had succeeded in restoring the faith of her +child in husband and father, she had lied to some purpose, and surely +the recording angel would drop showers of tears over the spot, and it +would be blotted out forever. Her thoughts had reached this point when +she reached the ticket office. She had to stand and wait for some time +while two ladies fumbled with their purses, and while they discussed +whether they would travel first or second. + +"First-class to Baker Street--oh, yes, it's horrid on that line, I +always go first to Baker Street--and, my dear, if I didn't meet him the +very next day, walking along with a creature--oh! Twopence more? Thank +you, I'm so sorry to give you so much trouble--yes, I met him walking +with a bold, brazen hussy, and I never saw a man looking so crestfallen +as Mr. Whittaker did when he saw me." + +There was a little waiting-room hard by the ticket office and Regina +turned sharply round and took refuge in this dingy little retreat. + +"My dear!" said the lady who had been listening to the one who had +mentioned Mr. Whittaker's name, "you have done the most awful thing you +ever did in your life. Mrs. Whittaker was standing just behind you, and +she heard every word you said." + +"Poor woman! Did she, really? I _am_ sorry! Well, I never believe in +making mischief between husband and wife, but it's a shame, and I do +think that a man who is carrying on a double game ought to be found +out." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +WISE JULIA + + There is a certain class of woman who loves a fracas of any kind. + + +The waiting-room at Northampton Park boasted of no attendant, so Regina +was able to sit down by the bare mahogany table and wait until the storm +which possessed her had passed by. Poor Regina! The first thought that +came to her was that after all she had lied to no purpose. It was no +small thing to a woman of her sturdy and open mind that she had spun a +perfect tissue of lies to her own child. She knew that she had lied in a +double sense, for she had not deceived Julia, and she knew now that +others were on the track of Alfred's wrongdoings. She was shaking now, +shaking like a leaf, and as she sat there, her sad eyes roaming over the +customary literature that one finds on the table of a suburban +waiting-room, she wished she had been left in her fool's paradise. She +realized with a great shock the truth of the old saw, "If ignorance is +bliss, 'twere folly to be wise." Yes, she would rather have been left in +her fool's paradise! But there, since the outer world was already +talking of Alfred's doings, it was small wonder that she had lit upon +the truth also. + +Her talk with Julia, and the little incident that had caused her to take +refuge in the waiting-room, had made her hopelessly late for her +appointments, but that, Regina felt, could not be helped. She turned, +when she left the waiting-room, and walked across the green into the +Post-Office, where she sent off a couple of telegrams, and then she took +the next train to London and went straight to her club, where she +lunched by herself. I need not go into the details of her day. She kept +her appointments, behaved herself in a perfectly rational manner, and +went home, poor woman, with a heart as heavy as lead. When she got home +a terrible shock was waiting for her. Mr. Whittaker had come home, +inquired for her, and gone off with a portmanteau and left a note for +her on the dining-room mantelshelf. + +"The master was so put out," the intelligent parlor-maid declared, +looking quite reproachfully at Regina, "he came in at five o'clock; of +course there wasn't a soul at home. I knew Miss Julia had gone to Mrs. +Marksby's, and I told master so, and he went to the telephone to speak +through to Miss Maudie--I mean Mrs. Marksby, but the young ladies, they +were gone out somewhere or other, and Mr. Harry wasn't in, and I'd no +idea where you was. Master _was_ put out! He had a cup of tea, and +packed his bag and he tramped up and down the road, and then he said to +me, 'Margaret,' said he, 'I must go or I sha'n't catch my train, but +I've written a note to the mistress, and be sure you take care of her +whilst I am away.' Those were his last words, 'be sure you take care of +her whilst I am away!'" + +"Well, well," said Regina, who did not believe in giving way in the +presence of servants, "well, well, your master has had to go away on +business, no doubt. His letter will explain everything." + +Her exterior was calm, but her heart was beating fast as she turned into +the dining-room and took the letter off the chimney-shelf. She felt that +the fatal moment had come, and that Alfred was gone. Alfred _was_ gone, +but not in the sense in which her doubting heart had feared. + + "DEAREST QUEENIE"--the letter ran--"I am dreadfully upset not to + find you at home, as I 'phoned up to you directly I knew that I + should have to go away on most important business. I am just off to + Paris. Just imagine my going to Paris without you, dearest! It + seems preposterous. If I get my business through in a day or two, + perhaps you will join me there? If I don't get my business through, + I may have to go on elsewhere, and I could not drag you about, on + what may be a wild-goose chase, half over Europe. I could have + given you an outline of the story if you had been at home, but I + haven't time to write it. When I think of myself, a respectable + British householder, tearing off on this mad errand, I feel + inclined to pinch myself to make sure that I am awake. Till we + meet.--Your fond and devoted + + "ALFRED." + +Regina sat down and gasped. What did it mean? Surely the hussy was not +at the bottom of this. Just then Julia came in, having run across the +road to speak to one of the Marksby girls whom she had seen standing at +the gate as they came toward Ye Dene. + +"What's this Margaret says about daddy?" she asked. + +"Nothing, my dear, nothing," Regina rejoined, quite airily. "Your father +has had to go away on business for a few days." + +"Oh, I thought, from Margaret's demeanor, that daddy had gone away for +good and all." + +"Julia!" + +"Well, Margaret seemed to make such a mouthful of it." + +"He came home very much fussed not to find us at home, and I suppose +Margaret imagined that something serious had happened. It's nothing at +all. Here, you can read the letter." + +"Paris!" said Julia, when she reached that point of information as she +read her father's good-by note. + +"Well--how nice! If you do join him you will have a lovely time--a +little honeymoon trip. Perhaps he will ask me to go, too--that would be +lovely. How silly of Margaret to be so mysterious about it! Well, I'll +go and tidy for dinner." + +Mother and daughter were quite cheerful as they discussed the evening +meal. At about nine o'clock there was a sound of electricity, and Julia +lifted her head from her book. + +"I believe that's Harry and Maudie; it sounded like their brougham." + +Then there was a peal at the bell, and Julia ran out into the hall. + +"Maudie, is it you?" she asked. + +"Yes, we thought we would come out and see you. How's mother?" + +"Oh, all right. I thought you were going to a theatre?" + +"Yes, we did think about it, but we changed our minds. Julia, has +anything happened?" + +"No--at least, only that daddy has gone to Paris for a few days. We came +home and found he had been here, fussed because mother wasn't in, packed +his own bag, and left a note to say where he has gone and to say +'good-by' and--_voilà tout_." + +"But it isn't all," cried Maudie, "it's only the beginning of it. My +dear, daddy's gone to Paris with _her_! It was by the merest chance we +know. Harry was coming up the Strand--walking--he came up with a man in +his cab as far as Charing Cross because they wanted to talk business; he +got out at the corner of Villiers Street, and as he crossed over to the +entrance of the station he saw daddy drive up in a cab with a +portmanteau on the top. Immediately after, he saw a four-wheeled cab +with _her_ inside." + +"What--you mean the woman we saw at the Trocadero?" + +"Yes--he was so struck by the coincidence of their both being at Charing +Cross with luggage at the same time that he just walked quietly in and +saw them both go off together." + +"Not together--Maudie!" + +"Together--in the same carriage--a reserved compartment. And Harry says +he bought a sheaf of papers and positively threw them at her." + +"It's a mystery!" ejaculated Julia, blankly. "His letter to mother was +everything that a letter could be. He laughs at himself ever so for +going away on a mad errand, suggests that she should join him in a few +days' time, and signs himself, 'till we meet, your fond and devoted +Alfred.'" + +"I tell you what it is, Ju," said Maudie, dropping her young married +woman air and becoming Maudie Whittaker once more, "I'm sorry to say it +because he's my father, but between you and me, daddy's a regular bad +lot." + +"It does seem so," said Julia, "and the curious part of it is that he +looks so respectable. Mother won't believe it, you know. I was talking +to her only to-day, she won't believe a word against him." + +"Well, so much the better for her, that's what Harry says, but we came +to tell her--" + +"Not to tell her--?" + +"Oh no, I wouldn't tell her for the world. Let her go on believing in +him as long as she can; the awakening will come soon enough." + +"Then what did you come for?" asked Julia, practical as usual. + +"My dear, I thought if daddy had gone off and perhaps left mother a +letter to say that he was never coming back, she would want somebody to +stand by her--and Harry and I are prepared to do that." + +"And where do I come in?" asked Julia, a little scornfully. + +"Oh, Ju, darling, you are always the practical common-sense one, you are +a tower of strength, and many are the times I have leaned upon you; but +if the worst had happened you might have been too stunned yourself to +help mother very much. I think a woman needs a man at such a crisis of +her life." + +"There isn't going to be any crisis," said Julia, quite prosaically, +"there isn't going to be any crisis. But it was nice of you to come, and +I do think you and Harry are two dear things. There's an explanation to +all this. There's nothing of the real bad lot about daddy, and as for +mother--there's no doubt about it, he worships her. Don't tell me that +when a man is tired of a woman he brings home dark sables without so +much as a hint that they will be welcome--it isn't human nature, at all +events it isn't man nature." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +GRASP YOUR NETTLE + + There is a wide difference between grasping your nettle and rushing + in where angels fear to tread. + + +Several days had gone by and still the anxiously-looked-for summons had +not arrived from Alfred Whittaker to his wife. To outward seeming Regina +was as calm in the face of this new development of events as if no trace +of cloud had ever arisen to come between her and her noble Alfred, but +in her heart of hearts she watched every post with an anxiety that was +absolutely at fever heat. At night, poor soul, she seemed to have given +up sleeping, and Regina was a woman who needed, and had always taken, a +fixed amount of time in bed--when I say that I mean of actual, sound, +solid sleep. She was one of those persons who, docked of sleep, show the +signs of wear and tear with fatal rapidity. + +During the greater part of the week she did not go out of the Park, but +left word with the sympathetic Margaret, who was perfectly aware that +something out of the common was on foot, that in case of a telegram she +was to be fetched from such and such a house. Then Maudie came gliding +along in her motor brougham, full of sympathy, and, I must confess, at +the same time, full of anxiety as to her mother's condition. + +"How is it you are coming to the Park every day now?" Mrs. Whittaker +asked on the sixth morning when Maudie arrived about lunch time. + +"I was anxious about you, I thought you were not looking very well," +Maudie remarked. + +"I am perfectly well." + +"Are you, dear? I fancied you were not quite yourself." + +Julia was safely out of the road, or perhaps young Mrs. Marksby would +not have said so much. + +"I do wish, dear, you would get out of this depressing neighborhood. I +assure you I feel quite a different woman since I was married and got +away from this depressing place." + +"One generally does when one gets married," said Regina, with a slight +smile. + +"Yes, I know, dear, but it takes a month of Sundays to get here even +with a motor. I wish you would persuade daddy to come and live in the +West End." + +"It is not at all unlikely that we may do so, dear, a little later on. +Oh--what's that?" + +"That" was nothing more important than the knock of the postman. + +"I will go," said Maudie, and Maudie did go. "Two letters for Julia and +four for you." + +"One from your father?" said Mrs. Whittaker, with an eagerness which, +for the life of her, she could not suppress. + +"Nothing in daddy's handwriting," said Maudie. "Mother dear, have you +heard from daddy since he left home?" + +"Oh yes, darling." + +"Every day?" + +"Not every day," said Regina, "no, not every day." + +"Before I was married," said Maudie in her most severe tone, "on the few +occasions when daddy went away without you, he made a rule of writing +every day." + +"He's on business," said Regina, feebly. + +"Yes, darling, but he was on business then. You _have_ heard from him?" + +"I have," said Regina. + +"Oh, mother--I may as well tell you what's in my mind." + +"I think you had better not," said Regina faintly. + +"I'm sure I ought to do so. I can't bear to go on deceiving you any +longer." + +"Deceiving me?" said Regina. Her tone was feeble but questioning. + +"Yes, deceiving you," cried Maudie. "Daddy--daddy's not gone away in an +ordinary manner on business--oh yes, he calls it business, but he's gone +away with that woman." + +"Maud!" + +"Harry saw them go away together, and you are watching for letters that +never come--my poor, crushed darling," Maudie cried. + +"Harry saw them go? Them? You mean that person, that creature we saw +dining with daddy at the Trocadero?" + +Then Maudie burst forth with the entire story as she had told it to +Julia. + +"And that is why I come every day. I knew you would want some support, +and as I am a married woman, I knew I should be more support than Julia, +although she _is_ so farseeing. It's a bitter blow, darling, but bear it +like the martyr you are. Of course, Harry will be awfully angry with me; +he says you never ought to interfere between husband and wife, even when +they are your own father and mother." + +"I would rather know the worst," said Regina; "it is no kindness to keep +a woman of my calibre in the dark. I can't discuss it, Maudie darling, +even with you. If your father has really left me for that other person I +will bear the blow and face the world with what dignity I can. You--you +had better not tell Harry that you have told me the truth, we will keep +it a little secret between ourselves. I shouldn't like to feel that +because of your sense of justice to me the first little rift had come +between yourself and your husband. You are lunching with me to-day, +dear?" + +She turned the conversation into a conventional channel with a skill +which was truly admirable, and Maudie, who was inclined to take her +color from another, took her cue on that occasion from her mother and +answered in the same strain. + +"No, I'm lunching with Harry's mother. I'd rather stay here with you, +darling, but if I don't go now and again without Harry the old lady is +inclined to be a bit cranky, and I want to keep in with her, you know." + +"Certainly! Most wise of you! By all means keep in with your husband's +people; there is nothing to be gained by not doing so," said Regina. +"Then you and I will say no more just now, darling. You will come across +before you go back?" + +"Yes, mother dear, I will. I have ordered the brougham for four +o'clock." + +"Engagements in town?" said Regina. + +"Yes, one or two things on," Maudie answered. She talked as if their +conversation had been all along of a most unimportant and trivial +character. + +"Then I shall see you again," said Regina. "Good-by, dearest." + +She sat just where Maudie had left her for some little time after young +Mrs. Marksby had disappeared into the ancestral mansion across the road, +a dozen schemes revolving in her active brain. What should she do? +Should she sit down meekly and tamely under this new revelation, and let +Alfred deal with their lives as he would, or should she make a +determined step and meet disaster face to face? "Grasp your nettle" had +ever been a favorite saying with Regina, and she felt very much like +grasping her nettle now. Then Margaret came in and told her that +luncheon was served, and Regina went into the dining-room and +thoughtfully helped herself. Appetite she had none. Now, let me tell +you, when Regina's appetite failed her, then indeed she was in a +distinctly bad way. + +"Something has happened in this 'ere house," said Margaret in the +confidential atmosphere of the kitchen. "Missus have had no lunch +to-day, not enough to keep a fly alive. Just look at this plate, and +that little dish you tossed up is one of her favorites. Why, she hasn't +even picked the mushrooms out of it." + +"Lor'! she must be bad," said the faithful cook. "Poor missus! I wonder +if it's true what they be saying, that master's gone away for good and +all. Six days he's been away and only one post-card has he sent home. +Why, generally he writes home every day and sometimes twice. Ah, men! +they're all alike, not a pin to choose between 'em. Now the last place +that I was in, I only stayed my month, for the lady she had fifteen +servants in one year and she only kept two, so you can guess what sort +of a place I had lighted on. Master, he carried on something shameful, +not that I blame him, for a man what comes home and can't get his meals +regular and never knows whether missus will be in or out and everything +else in the same way--well, you can't expect a house to be run what you +can call comfortable, at least it never is, and this was a poor, +feckless thing that didn't understand how to order a dinner for a +gentleman, and didn't understand how to let the cook make a suggestion. +All the same, the way that man carried on was fair disgraceful. Now, +master here has kept his doings dark, and indeed if it hadn't been for +what you overheard Miss Maudie that was tell Miss Julia, I don't know +that we should have been any wiser than we were before. But there, men +are all alike. Look at Bill Jackson, he kept company with Annie +Hodgkinson for five years and a half, and then he up and fair jilts her +for the sake of a little bit of a girl that doesn't know one end of a +ham from the other. Of course he's miserable and he doesn't deserve to +be anything else." + +"For the matter of that," retorted the fair Margaret, "neither does she; +she knew well enough what she was doing when she set her cap at Bill +Jackson. Don't tell me that those innocent eyes don't see more than they +pretend to, nasty little hussy! I'm sure, whatever happens in this +house, missus has my profoundest sympathy, and that's more than I'd say +for any missus, and as for master, he's like all the rest of them--fair +disgraceful, I call it." + +"Me too," said the cook, "me too." + +Meanwhile Regina was sitting pecking, I can call it nothing else, at a +dainty little pudding. Her thoughts were very bitter and her heart was +full of a stern resolve. Yes, she would grasp her nettle, she would +remain in doubt not a single day longer. She would just take a handbag, +as Alfred had done, and she would leave a note for Julia, and she would +go off to Paris by the night boat. She would grasp her nettle; she +would, at least, learn the worst. If Alfred were no longer hers--well, +she would shape her life accordingly. There should be no half measures, +it should be all or nothing. Truly she had given all that she had to +give freely. She had, as she believed, accepted and valued the whole of +her husband's love. There should be no betwixt and between, it should be +her or the other one, Regina or the hussy. And then Regina remembered +that to carry out her scheme she must at once put on her things and go +to the bank and get some money. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A TRENCHANT QUESTION + + When months of doubt have been crystallized into one simple + question how easy the way seems! + + +Mrs. Whittaker laid her plans for leaving Ye Dene with the skill of a +diplomat and the secrecy of a detective. She determined that she would +take nobody into her confidence. If there was going to be a hideous +scene with Alfred when she got to the end of her journey, she preferred +to have it without witnesses, especially either of her own children. She +went down to the bank and drew out sufficient money to cover all +expenses and a little over, and then returned home in order to prepare +for her journey. She chose her plainest frock, a rough brown tweed, +tailor built, according to the advice and under the direction of Madame +d'Estelle, who did not make tailor gowns herself, but introduced clients +to a gentleman in that line, and generally supervised the taste of her +customers. On her carefully arranged coiffure she wore a toque to match +her dress--when I say "to match her dress" I mean it was a creation of +brown velvet, with a strip of sable, some gold buckles and a twist of +yellowish lace. Over her shoulders she put the dark sables which Alfred +had given her, took the muff upon her arm, and then she went down to +her own desk, where she wrote a letter to Julia:-- + + "DEAREST"--she wrote--"I am going to join your father in Paris. I + leave you ten pounds; if you want more money than this before I + return, which is not very likely, here are a couple of signed + cheeks for you to use. I know that you won't mind being left alone + for a few days. If you do, you might go and stay with Maudie. I am + leaving by the Calais-Dover route and will let you know as soon as + I arrive in Paris.--Your fond and loving + + "MOTHER." + +Then Mrs. Whittaker called the servants in one by one, paid their wages, +told them to look after Miss Julia, and said that she was going to Paris +to join the master for a few days. + +"Which it's very funny," remarked the cook to Margaret, a few minutes +after Mrs. Whittaker and her small portmanteau had gone off in a cab to +the station, "which it's very funny. Missus have had no letter from +master since the day after he went away, when she had a post-card which +I took in myself and likewise read, saying, 'Arrived safe. Hope all well +at home. Writing later.' Which he never have written later. There was no +telegram for missus to-day?" + +"No," said Margaret, "there's no telegram come to this house to-day." + +"Then, you know, missus might have been rung up on the telephone from +the office." + +"She might, but I've not heard her on the telephone all day, and I've +not heard the telephone go once. Anyway, missus she have gone to Paris +to join master, and I'm sure, poor lady, I hope she won't find a pretty +to-do when she gets there." + +It was barely half an hour later when Maudie Marksby's motor brougham +came spinning up to the door of the house opposite. + +"There's Mrs. Marksby's carriage," said Margaret, craning her head over +the muslin blinds that shrouded the doings of the kitchen from the +passers-by. "I wonder if missus told her she was going to Paris. Oh, +here she comes." + +Maudie herself, with her gait of swimming importance, came mincing +across the road. Margaret went down to the outer porch to meet her. + +"Is my mother in, Margaret?" + +"Lor'! Mrs. Marksby, missus have gone away!" + +"Away! Where?" + +"She's gone to Paris to join master." + +"Did she have a telegram?" + +"No, miss--I beg your pardon, I mean ma'am." + +"Oh--oh--she's gone to Paris, has she? Well, it's no use my waiting +then, is it?" + +"What did she look like?" said the cook. + +"She looked struck all of a heap," said Margaret. "It's my opinion that +missus has taken French leave, and she's going to steal a march on them +both." + +Meanwhile, Regina, full of her stern resolve, was already on her way to +Dover, not being minded to wait for the regular boat train, and perhaps +risk a scene from one or other of her daughters, finding her on the +platform and attempting to dissuade her from taking the fatal step. + +"I must be firm, I must be resolute, I must know exactly what I'm going +to do," she told herself as the luxurious train whizzed past the +suburbs. "I will have a good dinner when I get to Dover; I wish to +arrive in Paris as calm and unmoved as a rock." + +Now, take it all round, this was extremely sensible advice to give +herself. Regina had a cup of tea on board the train. She made a valiant +effort to read one or two magazines which she had with her, and arrived +at Dover, she went on board the steamer, chose her berth, and then went +into the town to seek a suitable place for dinner. I feel that it is +much to her credit that she chose the best hotel in the town. And yet it +was a very haggard and sad-eyed Regina who reached the terminus at +Paris. Still, she never turned from her resolve. She chartered her +_fiacre_, and involuntarily, as they drove down the Rue Amsterdam, her +eyes turned to the wonderful bazaar in which in former days she and +Alfred had spent some money and a certain amount of time, experiencing +at a very small cost the delirious joy of shopping in Paris. So on, +through the bright Paris streets, already teeming with life, and down +into the heart of the city where was situate the hotel from which Alfred +had written. It was not one at which Regina had ever stayed herself--no, +it was small and unpretentious, with a quaint little courtyard adorned +by a few shrubs in square wooden boxes painted a brighter green than the +leaves. + +"Yes, M. Vittequere, he is staying in the hotel," so the handsome and +voluble landlady informed her. + +"With a lady?" Regina asked. + +"Well," she admitted, there was a lady, but she was not staying in the +hotel; she was not Mr. Whittaker's wife; on the contrary, she was a +client, and madame had found her an excellent lodging in an adjacent +house--one, in fact, belonging to the mother of madame herself. "And she +is a Frenchwoman; she knows her Paris well." + +"A Frenchwoman?" Regina echoed. "And monsieur, he is risen?" + +"If monsieur has risen he is but just descended from his bedchamber." + +She called to a passing waiter, and demanded to know whether M. +Whittaker, _numéro treize_, was yet descended. + +"Monsieur is at breakfast with madame," was the man's reply. + +The Frenchwoman, who had taken in the situation at a glance, and knew +from Regina's general appearance, and perhaps especially from her +sables, that this was the legitimate Madame Whittaker, frowned at the +man, who, as Regina plainly saw, cast about mentally for a way of +retrieving his mistake. + +"Show me the way," said Regina. "No, it is not necessary to warn +monsieur; I know him extremely well. Ah, in the _salle_? I will go by +myself." + +"_Polisson--bête_," hissed the Frenchwoman in the waiter's ear. But +abuse was worse than useless, for Regina was already sailing, head up, +in the direction of the dining-room. She made her entrance without being +perceived. Alfred was, indeed, turned three-parts away from the door by +which she had entered, and he was leaning over the table studying some +papers. Knowing him so well, she perceived by his attitude that he was +thoroughly engrossed by business. His companion, who wore a hat, and who +was much smarter and more Parisian in appearance than when Regina saw +her at the Trocadero, was steadily eating her breakfast. At last, Alfred +Whittaker put the sheet he was reading down on several others like it, +and patted his hand upon it as much as to say, "That is settled and done +with," upon which Regina went forward. She gently laid her hand upon her +husband's shoulder. + +"Alfred," she said in a very quiet tone. I am bound to confess that +Alfred nearly jumped out of his skin. + +"My God! Queenie, is that you? Oh, my dear, what a turn you gave me. I'd +no idea you were within a hundred miles of me. What's the matter?" He +sprang out of his chair and held her by both her elbows. "If anything's +the matter tell me at once; don't break it to me." + +"Nothing's the matter; I will explain it to you afterwards--I wanted to +come to Paris, and I thought I might as well join you. Who is this +lady?" + +The noble Alfred drew a long breath of relief, gripped his wife's elbows +very hard indeed, and then bent forward and touched her lightly on +either cheek. + +"This lady is a client of the firm," he said. "Let me make her known to +you--Madame Raumonier." + +The Frenchwoman sprang to her feet, looking the very image of guilty +surprise. "This is madame your wife?" she said, speaking excellent +English. + +"This is Mrs. Whittaker, my wife. Sit down, Queenie. _Garçon, garçon_, +breakfast for madame. They make an excellent _omelette aux fines herbes_ +here, Queenie. Fresh coffee for madame. Sit down, Madame Raumonier, sit +down." + +"You would like to be alone with madame your wife?" + +"Not at all; I shall be alone with her presently, when you have finished +breakfast." He turned back to Regina. "Queenie," he said, "I can't tell +you how glad I am to see you. This just concludes the business which +brought me over to Paris. I've had the greatest difficulty and trouble +to get things settled. It's such a disadvantage to a man in my position +not to speak French well, and I am in the position of not speaking +French at all, so I have had to do everything by means of madame's +translations, and she does not see the legal aspect as I should if I +could read French as well as she can. I was going to telegraph to you +this very day to beg you to come over. Some wave thought must have +warned you that I was thinking of it." + +"No," said Regina, deliberately sitting down by the table, and beginning +carefully to peel the gloves off her hands. "No, Alfred, I do not think +it was a wave thought. I wanted to come to Paris, and I came." + +"They are all well at home? You brought Julia with you?" + +"No, I did not bring Julia; she can come across in a few days by +herself." + +"Ah, yes, we can talk of that later." + +Then Madame Raumonier made another effort to escape. + +"I am sure you would like to be alone with madame, your wife. I have +quite finished breakfast. If you wish to see me will you intimate +through madame the landlady? May I wish you good morning, madame?" + +Regina rose and ceremoniously shook hands with the Frenchwoman; Alfred +bowed, followed her across the room, stayed a moment talking, bowed +again, rubbed his hands, and came back with that curious air of a +conqueror with which a man meets a woman who is much to him on all +occasions after a parting. + +"Queenie, my darling, thank God that woman's gone. I must apologize to +you," and here he put his hand over hers and held it very close, "I must +apologize to you for having, of necessity, made her known to you. She is +not a person for you to know; she's--she's a woman with a history." + +"Then, Alfred," said Regina, not moving her hand, but looking at him +with eyes which were like the eyes of the angel with the naming sword. +"Then, Alfred, if she is not fit for me to know, what does she do here +with you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE END OF IT ALL + + A woman who can prove herself generous and wide-minded is the woman + who gets the greatest advantage in every circumstance of life. + + +"How is it," said Regina, "that she is here with you?" + +The words dropped out one by one. There was a world of torture and +suffering, tinged with reproach and bitterness, in Mrs. Whittaker's +tones. Alfred Whittaker gave a great start, and drew his wife down to +her seat. + +"Queenie," he said, "you haven't had it in your mind that that creature +is anything to me?" + +"I'm afraid I have," said Regina, and under the comfort of the word +"creature" her voice took a softer tone. + +"That mixture of fire and vulgarity! Oh, my dear!--Come, come, you've +been traveling all night, you must have your breakfast. Here is the +finest omelette in Paris. I say, waiter, _garçon_, try if you can't get +madame a few strawberries to follow the _bifteck Chateaubriand_.--I'm +sure, Queenie," he went on as the waiter whisked the cover off and +betook himself away, "that a good breakfast is more important to you at +this moment than even the state of my morals. You see, I've had my +breakfast, so you can hear all about Madame Raumonier while you are +taking yours. Now, what could have put it into your head, since you knew +I was over here on her business--" + +"But I didn't," said Regina. + +"Then what made you come?" + +The omelette was good and hot, and Regina took two mouthfuls before she +answered. + +"Alfred," she said, "this has been going on for a long time. I know +everything." + +"Then you are a clever woman. Now, what do you know?" + +"You bought her a bracelet." + +"I? I've never bought a bracelet for anyone but you in my life." + +"Well, Templeton told me so." + +At this Alfred Whittaker burst out laughing. "I did buy a bracelet, you +are quite right, but it was for Mrs. Chamberlain." + +"You gave a bracelet to Mrs. Chamberlain?" said Regina. + +"No, no, no, I didn't do anything of the kind. I bought the bracelet for +Chamberlain to give his wife. Chamberlain had been in an extremely ugly +corner for some time past. I didn't tell you anything about it, because +I thought it more than likely that Mrs. Chamberlain might come round +pumping you. If you didn't know anything, I felt you wouldn't be able to +tell her anything." + +"Surely you might have trusted me?" + +"It isn't that I couldn't trust you, for I can and always have done. As +it happened, Mrs. Chamberlain was, as you know, by way of being an +heiress, and Chamberlain was ridiculously in love." + +"Can a man be ridiculously in love?" put in Regina. + +"Yes, very much so. When I married you I told you everything that had +happened to me, good, bad and indifferent--Chamberlain didn't, and Mrs. +Chamberlain is possessed of a demon of jealousy. She got fixed in her +silly little head that Chamberlain had been a sort of King Arthur until +she met him. A moment's reflection would have told the silly little fool +that the less she inquired into her husband's past the better, and +Chamberlain was so much in love with her, and in such a hurry to catch +the little heiress, that he did not completely sever ties that he had +contracted previously, and trusted to luck to go on shelling out to this +Frenchwoman who had had an affair with him lasting some years before his +marriage. The French lady did not like being put on short commons, still +less did she like being pensioned off, and she began to make herself +unpleasant. Poor old Chamberlain got himself into an awful muddle, and +confided everything to me. I thought him a fool, and I told him so very +plainly; but he's my partner, and I couldn't refuse to help him out. The +day that I went to Templeton's and bought that bracelet, Chamberlain +went in quite a different direction to have an interview with Madame +Raumonier and try to bring her to reason. At that time Mrs. Chamberlain +used to make stringent inquiries as to how he had spent every moment of +his time. As a matter of fact she had come to the office for him that +very day, and was told that he had already gone. When he got home she +was told some necessary and harmless lies to the effect that he had been +to Templeton's to buy her a bracelet. Heaven only knows what would have +happened if she had found out that Chamberlain had never been near +Templeton's." + +"But why were you dragged into it?" + +"Oh, I was trying to get a settlement." + +"Why did you bring her to Paris?" + +"Well, it was like this. Chamberlain and I finally agreed between +ourselves that the only way to get a settlement of the affair was to +provide Madame Raumonier with an income sufficient to live upon for the +rest of her life. He didn't grudge that, he's not a mean man, and he +offered to settle five pounds a week upon her on one condition: that she +cleared out of England and never crossed the Channel again." + +"Oh, I see. But why did you have to come to Paris to settle that?" + +"My dear child, Madame Raumonier is no fool. She had no notion of being +cut adrift from Chamberlain and left stranded at her age--she must be at +least five-and-thirty--without the certainty of a provision being made +for her. I took her out to dinner one night--dined at the Trocadero--" + +"Yes, I saw you," said Regina. + +"What!" + +"I was there." + +"You were dining at the Trocadero the night I took Madame Raumonier +there?" + +"I was." + +"And you never told me!" + +"No, Alfred, I never told you." Regina finished the last bit of omelette +with relish, and sat back in her chair and waited for the rest of the +story. + +"You never told me!" repeated Alfred. "You cooked it up--you mean to +tell me that you thought I was dining with her on my own account?" + +"What else was I to think?" + +"Who were you dining with?" + +"I was not dining with a gentleman, at least not by myself," said +Regina. "Julia and I were dining with Maudie and Harry." + +"And they saw--?" + +"They did." + +"And they thought--?" + +"They did." + +"That I was dining on my own with that creature! I never felt so +insulted in my life." + +"Insulted, Alfred?" + +"Insulted, Queenie. When I take to dining ladies on my own, they shall +be women who are something to look at. Damn it all!" he went on, "I've +been accustomed to taking a smart woman about. This creature wasn't even +amusing, and what's more, she's the least French of any Frenchwoman I +ever came across in my life." + +"Well, go on. You were telling me--?" + +"Oh, I don't know what I was telling you--I don't know what I was +telling you. Oh, well, I know, I was telling you about dining her at the +Trocadero. Yes, she was willing enough to have the settlement, she was +willing enough to go back to her beloved France; she hated London and +everything in it--didn't know why she ever left sunny France. But like +all Frenchwomen, she was a woman of business, and she didn't mean to +leave go her hold upon poor old Chamberlain unless her settlement was +perfectly secure. My dear, if she had been a lawyer fifty times over she +couldn't have been sharper at her job." + +"I don't blame her," said Regina, "I never blame a woman for getting the +better of a man." + +"Yes, I know, my dear, you always held that opinion. But the long and +the short of it was that she would accept nothing but a definite +settlement in Paris, and I can tell you, even when you come over with +the money in your hand, it's not such a simple matter as it would seem +to arrange a bit of business in this land of liberty, equality and +brotherhood. From the way these people have spun it out one would have +thought that I was getting something out of them, instead of making an +ample settlement on one of their countrywomen. And the funniest part of +the whole thing has been that every one of them thinks that Chamberlain +and I are one and the same person. Gad! You thought so too! My dear," +putting his hand on the papers again, "this is the final note; this will +be signed this afternoon; I shall hand Madame Raumonier bank-notes for a +hundred pounds, and then I shall wash my hands of her altogether for +good and all." + +For a moment Regina did not speak, but applied her attention entirely to +the very excellent _bifteck_ on her plate. Then she looked up at her +husband with penitent eyes. + +"Alfred," she said, "I really feel I ought to apologize to you." + +"Apologize?" said Alfred, "apologize? Nay, if any apology is needed it +is from me to you for having apparently given you cause for uneasiness; +but, thank God! Queenie, there is no need of apology on either side. +There's been a little misapprehension, but it's all over now, and we are +as much together again as we were when we set out on our honeymoon. Did +it make you very miserable, Queenie?" He laid his hand on hers as he +spoke, and Regina looked up at him with shining eyes. + +"I've been so miserable, Alfred," she said, "that I almost wished I +could die, and I think I should have died or put myself out of the +road--or something--if I hadn't resolved to win you back at any cost." + +"But you are satisfied now?" + +"Satisfied! Oh, I'm so happy--so happy. I'll never let such a cloud come +between us--next time I'll tell you the very first suspicion that +crosses my mind." + +"There isn't going to be a next time," said Alfred. "Poor old +Chamberlain! he's come to the end of his tether now." + +"Alfred," said Regina, after a long pause, "I don't think I would waste +any pity on 'poor old Chamberlain'; it seems to me that he has met with +more than his deserts. If I have any feeling of pity for any of the +three it is for the unfortunate Frenchwoman who trusted him where he was +not fit to be trusted. These people in the hotel thought I was going to +spring a mine upon you; I saw the landlady frown at the waiter when he +said you were breakfasting together. I have always been a wide-minded +woman, Alfred, and I am a very happy one this morning. Let us ask Madame +Raumonier to join us to-night by way of celebrating the settlement of +her affairs." + +For a moment Alfred did not--indeed, could not--speak. + +"Queenie," he said, "I have always admired you, I have always loved you, +but this morning, at this moment, I feel that, compared with you in your +benevolence, your real wide-mindedness, I am a mere worm." + +"My noble Alfred!" said Regina, "my noble Alfred!" + + THE END + + + + + LOVE AND THE + SOUL HUNTERS + +By John Oliver Hobbes + +_Author of_ "_The Gods, Some Morals, and Lord Wickenham_," "_The Herb +Moon_," "_Schools for Saints_," "_Robert Grange_," _etc., etc._ + + +In this new novel Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) has made, according +to her own statement, the great effort of her life. It is the most +brilliant creation of an author whose talent and versatility have +surprised readers and critics in both Europe and America for several +years. It treats of unique examples of human nature as they are, and not +merely as they ought to be. Swayed by complex motives, they are always +attractive, but often do what is least expected of them. The story is +graphically told, and is full of action. Each personage is distinctively +drawn to the life. + +"There is much that is worth remembering in her writings."--_Mail and +Express_, New York. + +"More than any other woman who is now writing, Mrs. Craigie is, in the +true manly sense, a woman of letters. She is not a woman with a few +personal emotions to express: she is what a woman so rarely is--an +artist."--_The Star_, London. + +"Few English writers have so lapidarian a style of writing as Mrs. +Craigie, and few such a capacity for writing epigrams."--_The Toronto +Globe._ + + _12mo, Cloth. $1.50_ + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers + NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + + A BRILLIANT SATIRE ON MILITARISM + CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO + +By Ernest Crosby + +A satirical novel based on the military history of the United States +since the outbreak of the Spanish War. It is a smiting denunciation of +militarism and the military spirit, and a biting burlesque on cheap hero +worship. The parallel between savagery and soldiery is unerringly drawn. +It is full of wit and sarcasm. + +_The Philadelphia Item_, March 8: "It is the best bit of satire that has +seen the light for years. It is more than clever: it is brilliant. Its +sarcasm is like pointed steel, while its humor is of the most rollicking +order. In fact, it is hilarious with fun, while its pungency in satire +is remarkable for keenness, and for the incisive way in which every +point is driven home." + +_Worcester Spy_, Worcester, Mass., March 9: "Beard's illustrations are +equally clever and original, the best that he has ever made. As a +collection of cartoons alone the book should make a hit." + +_Twenty-five Clever Drawings by Dan Beard. 12mo, Cloth. Ornamental +Cover. Price. $1.50, post-paid._ + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, + NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + +_St. Louis Globe-Democrat:_ "It is a simple, gentle, quietly-humorous +narrative, with several love affairs in it." + + UNDER MY + OWN ROOF + +By Adelaide L. Rouse + +_Author of_ "_The Deane Girls_," "_Westover House_," _etc._ + +A story of a "nesting impulse" and what came of it. A newspaper woman +determines to build a home for herself in a Jersey suburb. The story of +its planning is delightfully told, simply and with a literary-humorous +flavor that will appeal to lovers of books and of the fireside. + +Before the house-building details are allowed to tire the reader, a love +story is begun, and catches the interest. It concerns the home-builder, +an old flame, and an old friend, the third of whom has become a +next-door neighbor. With this romance are entwined a number of heart +affairs as well as warm friendships. + +The style is bright, and the humor genial and pervasive. The "literary +worker" and the "suburbanite" particularly will enjoy the book. Women of +culture everywhere should appreciate its delicate style. + +Illustrations by Harrie A. Stoner. 12mo, Cloth. Price, $1.20, net; +postage, 13 cents. + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, + NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + +THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES + +_A Series of Entertaining Novelettes Illustrated and Issued in Dainty +Dress._ + +Small 12mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents per volume. +Postage, 5 cents. + +I. + +THE COURTSHIP _of_ SWEET ANNE PAGE + +By Ellen V. Talbot + +A brisk, dainty little love story incidental to "The Merry Wives of +Windsor," full of fun and frolic and telling of the courtship of Sweet +Anne Page by the three lovers: Abraham Slender, the tallow-faced gawk, +chosen by her father; Dr. Caius, the garlic-scented favorite of her +mother; and the "gallant Fenton," the choice of her own wilful self. + +II. + +THE SANDALS + +By Rev. Z. Grenell + +A beautiful little idyl of sacred story about the sandals of Christ. It +tells of their wanderings and who were their wearers, from the time that +they fell to the lot of a Roman soldier when Christ's garments were +parted among his crucifiers to the day when they came back to Mary, the +Mother of Jesus. The book exhibits both strength and beauty of literary +style. + +III. + +THE TRANSFIGURATION _of_ MISS PHILURA + +By Florence Morse Kingsley + +_Author of_ "_Titus_," "_Prisoners of the Sea_," _etc._ + +An entertaining story woven around the "New Thought," which is finding +expression in Christian Science, Divine Healing, etc., in the course of +which Miss Philura makes drafts upon the All-Encircling Good for a +husband and various other things, and the All-Encircling Good does not +disappoint her. + +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, +NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; +otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the +author's words and intent. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. +WHITTAKER*** + + +******* This file should be named 35414-8.txt or 35414-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/5/4/1/35414 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker</p> +<p> A Novel</p> +<p>Author: John Strange Winter</p> +<p>Release Date: February 27, 2011 [eBook #35414]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. WHITTAKER***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by D Alexander<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 313px;"> +<img src="images/icover.jpg" width="313" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<h1>THE LITTLE VANITIES OF<br /> +MRS. WHITTAKER</h1> + +<p class="center">A Novel</p> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>JOHN STRANGE WINTER</h2> + +<p class="center">AUTHOR OF</p> + +<p class="center">“<i>Bootles’ Baby</i>,” “<i>The Truth-Tellers</i>,” “<i>A Blaze of Glory</i>,”<br /> +“<i>Marty</i>,” “<i>Little Joan</i>,” “<i>Cherry’s Child</i>,”<br /> +“<i>A Blameless Woman</i>,” <i>etc.</i></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 90px;"> +<img src="images/ititle.jpg" width="90" height="100" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h2>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY</h2> + +<h3>NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +1904</h3> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Copyright</span>, 1904, <span class="smcap">by</span><br /> +<br /> +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +[Published, June, 1904]</p> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS"> + +<tr> +<td align="right"><small>CHAPTER</small></td> +<td align="left"> </td> +<td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">I.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Regina Brown</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">II.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mrs. Alfred Whittaker</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">III.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ye Dene</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_26">26</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">IV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Skating on Thin Ice</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">V.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The S. R. W.</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">VI.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Regina’s Views</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">VII.</td> +<td align="left">“<span class="smcap">Little Piglets of English</span>”</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">VIII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Candid Opinions</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">IX.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Girls’ Domain</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">X.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Weighty Business</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XI.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Ambitions</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_101">101</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Twopenny Dinners</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XIII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Details</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_119">119</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XIV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Diamond Earrings</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_127">127</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Golden Day</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XVI.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Other Gods</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XVII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Regina Comes to a Conclusion</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XVIII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The First Little Vanities</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XIX.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Broken-Hearted Miranda</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_168">168</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XX.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Family Criticism</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXI.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Dear Dieppe</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_183">183</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Regina on the Warpath</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_190">190</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXIII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Dressing-Room</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_198">198</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXIV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Rumor</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_208">208</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Poor Mother</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_216">216</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXVI.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Straight and Narrow Path</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_224">224</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXVII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Round Everywhere</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_233">233</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXVIII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Rejuvenated Regina</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXIX.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Wary and Patient</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXX.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Daddy’s Heart</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_255">255</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXXI.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Regina Sets Foot on the Down Grade</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_263">263</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXXII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Wise Julia</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_270">270</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXXIII.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Grasp Your Nettle</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_277">277</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXXIV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Trenchant Question</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_284">284</a></td></tr> + +<tr> +<td align="right">XXXV.</td> +<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The End of it All</span></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_292">292</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p><h1>The Little Vanities of<br /> +Mrs. Whittaker</h1> + +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>REGINA BROWN</h3> + +<p class="center">There are many who think that the unfamiliar is best.</p> + +<p>To begin my story properly, I must go back to the time when the Empress +Eugenie had not started the vogue of the crinoline, when the Indian +Mutiny had not stained the pages of history, and the Crimean War was as +yet but a cloud the size of a man’s hand on the horizon of the +world—that is to say, to the very early fifties.</p> + +<p>It was then that a little girl-child was born into the world, a little +girl who was called by the name of Regina, and whose father and mother +bore the homely appellation of Mr. and Mrs. Brown; yes, plain, simple +and homely Brown, without even so much as an “e” placed at the tail +thereof to give it a distinction from all the other Browns.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span></p><p>So far as I have ever heard, the young childhood of Regina Brown was +passed in quite an ordinary and conventional atmosphere. Her parents +were well-meaning, honest, kindly, well-disposed, middle-class persons. +According to their lights they educated their daughter extremely well; +that is to say, she was sent to a genteel seminary, she was always +nicely dressed, and she wore her hair in ringlets.</p> + +<p>This state of things continued, without any particular change, until +Regina was nearly twenty years old. By that time the great +Franco-Prussian War had beaten itself into peace, the horrors of the +Commune of Paris had come and gone, and the sun of Regina Brown’s +twentieth birthday rose upon a world in which nations had come once +more, at least to outward seeming, to the conclusion that all men are +brothers. It might have been some long-forgotten echo from the early +days when France and England fought against Russia, or it might have +been in a measure owing to the conflict, so long, so deadly and so +bloody, between France and Germany, but certain is it that, when Regina +Brown realized that she was twenty years old, she came to the conclusion +that she was leading a wasted life.</p> + +<p>If the period in which she lived had been that of to-day, I think Regina +Brown would have entered herself at any hospital that would have +accepted her and would have trained for a nurse; but, in the early +seventies, nursing was not, as now, the almost regulation answer to the +question, “What shall we do with our girls?”</p> + +<p>“What shall I do with my life?” she said, looking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>in the modest little +glass which swung above her toilet-table. “What shall I do with my life? +Live here, pandering to my father and mother, listening to my father’s +accounts of how some man at the club wagered a shilling on a matter +which could make no difference to anyone; hearing mother’s elaborate +account of the delinquencies of Charlotte Ann, who really is not such a +bad girl, after all. I can’t go on like this—I can’t bear it any +longer. It’s a waste of life; it’s a waste of a strong, capable, +original brain. I must get out into the world and do something.”</p> + +<p>In the course of life one comes across so many people who are always +yearning to go out into the world and do something, but Regina Brown was +not a young woman who could or would content herself with mere yearning. +With her to think was to do. With her a resolve was a fact practically +accomplished.</p> + +<p>“I will go in for the higher education,” she said to herself. “What do I +know now? I can dance a little, play a little, paint a little. I know no +useful things. My mother sews my clothes and makes my under-linen; my +mother orders the dinner, and never will entrust the making of the +pastry to any hand but her own. What is there left for me? Nothing! I +must go out into the world. There is only one line in which I am likely +to make success, and I am not the class of woman who makes for failure. +I will become a great teacher. To become a great teacher, I must qualify +myself. I must work, and work hard. I must enter at some regular school +of learning, or, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>failing that, I must find a first-class tutor to work +with me.”</p> + +<p>Eventually Regina Brown adopted the latter course. As a matter of fact, +she was not sufficiently advanced in any branch of education to enter at +any school of learning which admitted women to its curriculum. To Regina +it mattered little or nothing. For the next ten years she lived in an +atmosphere of hard learning. She proved herself a worker of no mean +ability. She passed all manner of examinations, she took numberless +degrees, and on the day on which she was thirty years old, she found +herself once more gazing at her face in the glass and wondering what she +was going to do with the knowledge that she had so laboriously acquired.</p> + +<p>“Regina Brown,” she said to herself, “you are no nearer to becoming a +great teacher than you were ten years ago this very day. Will anyone +ever put you in charge of a high school? Will anyone give you a +responsible post in any of the spheres where women can prove that they +are the equals, and more than the equals, of men? It is very doubtful. +You know much, but you have no influence. Ten years ago to-day, Regina +Brown, you told yourself that your mode of existence was a waste of +life. Well, you are wasting your life still. The best thing you can do, +Regina Brown, is to get yourself married.”</p> + +<p>So Regina Brown got herself married.</p> + +<p>Now, to put such an action in those words is not a romantic way of +describing the most—or what should be the most—romantic episode of a +woman’s life; but <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>I use Regina’s own words, and I say that she got +herself married.</p> + +<p>She was not wholly unattractive. She had a pinky skin and frank grey +eyes, but her figure was of the pincushion order, and much study had +done away with that lissomness which is one of the most attractive +attributes of womenkind. Her hands were white, strong, determined; white +because they were mostly occupied about books and papers, strong because +she herself was strong, and determined because it was her nature to be +so. Her feet, frankly speaking, were large. She was a young woman who +sat solidly on a solid chair, and looked thoroughly in place. Her +features otherwise were neither bad nor good, and I think she was +probably one of the worst dressers that the world has ever seen. It was +no uncommon thing for Regina Brown to wear a salmon-pink ribbon twisted +about her ample waist and to crown her toilet with a covering of +turquoise blue.</p> + +<p>It was about this time that Regina received a valentine—the first in +her life. She held it sacred from any eye but her own, in fact she put +it into the fire before any of the family had time to see it. The words +ran thus:—</p> + +<div class="centerbox bbox"><p>“Regina Brown, Regina Brown,<br /> +You think yourself a beauty;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In pink and green</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And yellow sheen</span><br /> +You go to do your duty.<br /> +<br /> +Regina Brown, Regina Brown,<br /> +Whenever will you learn<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 2em;">That pink and green</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And golden sheen</span><br /> +Are colors you should spurn?<br /> +<br /> +Regina Brown, Regina Brown,<br /> +Take lesson from the lily,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">A lesson meek,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Not far to seek,</span><br /> +’Twill keep you from being silly!”</p></div> + +<p>I cannot truthfully say that the valentine did Regina the smallest +amount of good. You know, my gentle reader, if we only look at things +the right way, we can find good in everything. As some poet has +beautifully put it in a couplet about sermons in stones and running +brooks—“And good in everything,” Regina might even have found good out +of that malicious and spiteful valentine with its excellent likeness, +done in water colors, of herself clad in weird and wonderful garments, +the like of which even she had never attempted. But Regina consigned it +to the flames, and went on her way precisely as she had done before, for +Regina was a woman of strong nature and settled convictions. I give you +this piece of information because you will find by the story which I +shall tell and you will read, that this curious dominance of nature +proved to be one of the mainsprings of this remarkable character.</p> + +<p>So Regina went on her way and she got married. I don’t say that it was a +brilliant alliance—by no means. The man was young, younger than Regina. +He was weak-looking and pretty, of a pink-and-white, wax-doll type, with +shining fair hair and rather watery blue eyes. To his weakness Regina’s +dominant <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>nature strongly appealed; perhaps, also, in some measure the +fact that she was the sole child of her father’s house, and that her +father lived upon his means, and described himself as “gentleman” in the +various papers connected with the politics of his country which from +time to time reached him. Be that as it may, an engagement came about +between Regina Brown and this young man, who was “something in the city” +and who rejoiced in the name of Alfred Whittaker.</p> + +<p>I must confess that it was somewhat of a shock to Regina when she found +that among his fellows—young, vapid, rather raffish young men—he was +known by the abbreviative of “Alf.”</p> + +<p>“Dearest,” she said to him one day, after this unpalatable information +had come to her, “I noticed that your friend, Mr. Fitzsimmons, called +you ‘Alf’ last night.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, the fellows mostly do,” he replied.</p> + +<p>“But you were not called Alf at home, dearest,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>She laid her substantial hand upon his arm and looked at him yearningly.</p> + +<p>“My mother and my sisters always called me Alfie,” said he, returning +the gaze with interest, for he admired Regina with an admiration which +was wholly genuine.</p> + +<p>“I really couldn’t call you Alfie,” she said.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why you couldn’t, Regina,” he replied. “It seems to me such +an awful thing for people who love one another to be saying ‘Regina’ and +‘Alfred.’ There is something so chilly about it. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>Did your people never +call you by a pet name?”</p> + +<p>“Never,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“I should like to,” said Alfred, still more yearningly.</p> + +<p>“If you can think of a pet name that will not be derogatory to my +dignity—” Regina began, when the weak and weedy Alfred insinuated an +arm about her ample waist and drew her nearer to him.</p> + +<p>Without some effort on the part of Regina Brown, I doubt if his +intention could have been carried into effect, but Regina yielded +herself to his tenderness with a shy coyness which was sufficiently +marked to have merited even the pet name of Tiny.</p> + +<p>“What would you like me to call you—Alfred?” she asked, with the +faintest possible pause before the last word.</p> + +<p>“Call me Alfie,” said he in manly and imperative tones.</p> + +<p>“Dear Alfie!” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Darling!” said Alfie.</p> + +<p>“You couldn’t call me darling as a name,” said Regina, coyly.</p> + +<p>“I shall always call you darling,” he gurgled. “But I should like, as a +name, to call you Queenie.”</p> + +<p>“You shall call me Anna Maria Stubbs if you like,” said Regina, with a +sudden surrender of her dignity.</p> + +<p>And forthwith, from that moment, between themselves she was known no +longer by her real name, but sank into a state of hopeless adoration, +and was called Queenie.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>MRS. ALFRED WHITTAKER</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>It is curious how the possession of humble things satisfies the +souls of naturally ambitious people.</p></div> + +<p>In due course Regina Brown merged her identity into that of Mrs. Alfred +Whittaker.</p> + +<p>They were not married in a hurry. Regina had come of old-fashioned +people, who held firmly to the belief that courting time is the sweetest +of a woman’s life; that it is good for man to look and long for the +woman of his heart, and for woman to be coy and to hold him who will +eventually become her liege lord at arm’s length for a suitable period. +To people of the Brown, and indeed of the Whittaker class, there is +something in a short engagement and a hurried-on marriage which borders +almost upon immodesty.</p> + +<p>“We won’t be engaged very long,” said Alfred, when he had been made the +happiest man in the world for nearly six weeks.</p> + +<p>“No, not long,” returned Regina. “My father and mother were engaged for +seven years.”</p> + +<p>“Good God!” exclaimed Alfred, who was somewhat given to strong language, +as many weak men are. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>“Good God, Regina, you have taken my breath +away!”</p> + +<p>“I wasn’t proposing to be engaged to <i>you</i> for seven years, Alfie dear,” +she said to him, with an indulgent air. “Oh no. I always thought that +father and mother made such a mistake, although you couldn’t get mother +to own it.”</p> + +<p>“I should think so, indeed. Seven years! Seven months is nearer my idea +of the proper time for being engaged.”</p> + +<p>“Seven months? Oh, that would be too soon. I couldn’t possibly get my +things ready.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, <i>things</i>,” said he, with a manly disregard of chiffons which +appealed to Regina as nothing else would have done.</p> + +<p>“I must have things, Alfie.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, darling, I know you must. And I don’t say that a good start-out +wouldn’t be very useful to us; but you won’t spin it out too long, will +you?”</p> + +<p>“I never was brought up to sew,” said Regina, “I am learning now.”</p> + +<p>“Can’t you buy ’em ready-made?”</p> + +<p>“They don’t last,” said Regina. “And mother’s idea of the trousseau is +to give me three dozen of everything. And they’ve all got to be made. +I’m sewing white seams now, although I can’t cut out and plan. Look at +my finger.”</p> + +<p>He possessed himself of the firm, strong, first finger of his +<i>fiancée’s</i> left hand and kissed it rapturously. “Poor little finger,” +said he, “poor dear little finger! Can’t you have people in to do the +things?”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid that would go against mother’s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>ideas,” Regina returned, +“but I’ll sound her on the point.”</p> + +<p>Eventually Regina Brown’s three dozen of everything were got together, +neatly folded, and tied up in half-dozens with delicate shades of +ribbon, and the wedding day was fixed to take place just fourteen months +after the engagement had come about.</p> + +<p>The bride’s parents came down handsomely on the occasion. It was a great +event, that wedding. Eight bridesmaids, four in pink and four in blue, +followed Regina to the altar. Regina herself was dressed as a bride in a +shiny white silk, with a voluminous veil. There was a large company, and +much flying to and fro of hired carriages—mostly with white +horses—distributing of favors, and a popping of champagne corks, when +all was over and the two had been made man and wife. And then there was +a heart-broken parting, when Regina was torn away from the ample bosom +of her adoring mother, and a wild shower of rice and satin slippers, +such as strewed the road before the Brown domicile for many days after +the wedding was over.</p> + +<p>So Regina Brown became Mrs. Alfred Whittaker, and her place in her +father’s house knew her no more.</p> + +<p>All things considered, she made an admirable wife. If Alfred adored +Regina, Regina worshipped Alfred, and under her care, and in the +sunshine of her lavish and outspoken admiration of his personal beauty, +he grew sleek and prosperous.</p> + +<p>If only a son had been born to them, a little son who would have carried +on the traditions of both <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>families, who could have been called +Brown-Whittaker, and gladdened the hearts of three separate households. +But no son came—never a sign of a son. On the contrary, about a year +after their marriage a little daughter arrived on the scene, who was +welcomed as a precursor of the unborn Brown-Whittaker, and was named +Maud. And little Maud Whittaker grew and throve apace, went through the +usual early infantile troubles, and, about two years later, the process +which is known among domestic people as having her nose put out of +joint.</p> + +<p>And again it was a girl.</p> + +<p>For some reason not explained to the whole world, the second baby was +christened Julia, and forthwith became a very important item in the +world.</p> + +<p>“The next one <i>must</i> be a boy,” said Mrs. Alfred Whittaker, as she +cuddled the new arrival to her side.</p> + +<p>But there never was a next one, and slowly, as the second baby got +through her troubles and began to toddle about and to play games with +her sister, the truth was borne in upon her parents that what Maud had +begun Julia had finished—that no boy would come to gladden the hearts +of the Whittaker and Brown households, that no little Brown-Whittaker +would ever make history.</p> + +<p>Well, it was when Julia Whittaker was about six years old that her +mother’s mind underwent a curious change. She was then just forty years +old, a fine, buxom, healthy woman, a good deal given to looking upon the +rest of the world with a superior eye, to feeling that whereas the other +married ladies of her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>set had been content with the genteel education +of a private seminary, she had gone further and had received the +wide-minded and broad education of a professional man.</p> + +<p>It was true enough. There was no subject on which Mrs. Alfred Whittaker +was not able to demonstrate an exceedingly pronounced and autocratic +opinion. She seldom wasted her time, even after her marriage, in reading +what she called trash, and other people spoke of as a “circulating +library.” Deep thoughts filled her mind, great questions entranced her +interest, and high views dominated her life. She was keen on politics of +the most Radical order. She had sifted religion, and found it wanting. +She was an advanced Socialist—in her views, that is to say—and deep +down in her heart, although as yet it had never found expression, was an +innate admiration of men and an equal contempt for women. She felt, and +often she said, that she had a man’s mind in an extremely feminine body.</p> + +<p>“I cannot,” she declared one day, when discussing a great social +question with a clever friend of Alfred’s, “shut my eyes to the fact +that I do not look on a question of this kind as an ordinary woman +would. An ordinary woman jumps to conclusions without knowing why or +wherefore. I, on the contrary, have a clear and logical mind, which gets +me perhaps to the same goal by a clear and definite process of +reasoning. We may come from the same, and we may arrive at the same, and +yet we are so different that neither has any sympathy with the other.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span></p><p>And out of this conversation there arose in Regina Whittaker’s mind an +idea that, after all, another decade had gone by, and she was still +wasting her life.</p> + +<p>“I asked myself a question at twenty,” her thoughts ran. “I asked it +again at thirty, and now I have touched my fortieth birthday, here I am +asking it yet once more. I have fulfilled the functions of wife and +mother, and nothing else. Yet I am an extraordinary woman, far out of +the common in intelligence, brain power, logic, and in all mental +attributes. It only shows me that the time is not yet ripe for woman to +become the equal of man. It is not the fault of the woman. Through many +generations—nay, hundreds of years—she has been kept ignorant, +inefficient, downtrodden by her lord and master. She has been used as a +toy, and her one mission in life has been a mere function of nature—the +reproduction of the race. It makes me savage,” she went on, talking to +herself, “when I hear it cited as an immense work that a woman has +produced so many babies. How many, I wonder, have produced those babies +with any love of duty, poor feeble souls? After all, there is so little +duty about it, and no choice midway. Well, here am I, who should be in a +big position in the world, I who should have made myself a name, I who +could have put George Eliot and all her set in the shade. I have +absolutely wasted my life. I suppose I began too late. I am out of the +common, but I do not rank as a woman out of the common. Still, I have +daughters. From this moment I dedicate my life to my little Maud <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>and +Julia. They shall not begin their mission in the world too late. I would +rather have been the mother of boys, but as I have proved to be only the +mother of girls, I will try to make those girls what I have missed being +myself. They shall be out of the common; they shall belong to the New +Womanhood; they shall be brought up at least to be the equals of men.”</p> + +<p>Now by this time the “something in the city” on which Regina and Alfred +had started housekeeping had resolved itself into a very solid and +prosperous position, though Alfred Whittaker—make no mistake about +it—was not, and was never likely to be, a millionaire, or even a very +wealthy man. But he was prosperous in a comfortable, assured, +middle-class way. He was ambitious too—I mean socially ambitious—and +he liked to feel that his wife was in a good set in the suburb in which +they lived. He liked to go to church occasionally, and to have his own +seat when he did so. He liked his rector to come to him as an +open-handed, clean-living man on whom he could depend for contributions +suitable to his style of living. He liked to be able to take his wife to +a theatre, and to dine her beforehand, and to give her a bit of supper +afterwards. He liked to go to the seaside for August, and to take a trip +to Paris at Easter if he was so inclined. And, above all things, Alfred +Whittaker liked a good dinner, a pretty, tasteful table, and a neat +handmaiden to wait upon him. To do him justice, he never lost his early +admiration for Regina. It was wonderful that he had not done so, for +with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>her improved circumstances and her improved position, Regina’s +taste in dress had not advanced. Sometimes, on a birthday, or some +anniversary kept religiously by them, such as their day of engagement, +their wedding day, the day on which they first met, the day on which +they moved into the house they occupied—such domestic altars as most of +us erect during the course of our lives—he would bring her home a +present of a bonnet. He called it a bonnet, but it was generally a hat. +Alfred always called it a bonnet nevertheless, and Regina invariably +accepted it with blushes of admiration, and wore it with what, in +another woman, would have been the courage of a martyr. It was no +martyrdom to Regina. I have seen her with all her fair hair turned back +from her large face, crowned with a <i>modiste’s</i> edifice which would have +proved trying to a lovely girl of eighteen.</p> + +<p>“You like my hat?” said Regina, one day to a friend. “Isn’t it lovely? +Dear Alfie brought it for me from town. I believe he sent to Paris for +it. It has a French name in the crown. Much more extravagant than I +should have got for myself—these white feathers won’t wear, and all +this lovely sky-blue velvet and these delicate pearl ornaments are far +beyond what I should have chosen on my own responsibility. But I can’t +help seeing how it becomes me.”</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you have a waistcoat of the same color—a front, you +know—this part?” asked her friend, making a line from her throat to her +belt buckle.</p> + +<p>“There is a sameness about the idea,” said Regina, superbly. “I have +always flattered myself, Mrs. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>Marston, that I am one of the few women +who can bear to mix her colors. You remember the old story of the young +man who asked Sir Joshua Reynolds what he mixed his colors with, and his +reply—‘Brains, sir, brains.’”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>YE DENE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>There is something very alluring in the idea of kicking down +conventions, yet if this be carried too far, it is possible that +all the feminine virtues will follow suit. A woman bereft of all +the feminine virtues is as pitiable a sight as a head which has +been shorn of its locks.</p></div> + +<p>A couple of years went by, and again the circumstances of the Alfred +Whittakers were improved. For the old lady whose husband had courted her +for seven long years was taken ill and quite suddenly died. Her death +affected and upset Regina very much. It happened that she had not been +over to her old home for several days, though Regina, although she was +such a good wife, had continued to be also an extremely good daughter, +and usually contrived to visit the old people at least twice a week. +Just at this time, however, some trifling indisposition of little +Julia’s had kept her from paying her usual visit to her parents.</p> + +<p>“Here is a letter from my father,” she said one morning at breakfast to +Alfred. “He seems to think mother is not very well.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, poor dear, poor dear. You had better go across and see her.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p><p>“Yes. I should have gone yesterday but for the child not being quite +well,” Regina responded.</p> + +<p>“Anyway, she’s all right to-day—well enough for you to leave her with +nurse. You had better go across and spend the day, and I’ll come round +that way and fetch you home in the evening.”</p> + +<p>To this arrangement Regina agreed, and she went over to her father’s +house as soon as she had concluded arrangements for the children’s +meals. She did not, however, return to Fairview—as their house was +called—that evening with Alfred. No, she remained under the paternal +roof for a few days, and then, when she at length returned to her home +and her children, she was accompanied by the old man, who was as a ship +without a rudder when he found himself bereft of the wife for whom he +had served, even as Jacob served seven years for Rachel.</p> + +<p>It was the beginning of the end for old Mr. Brown. He declined +absolutely to go back to the house where he had lived so long and so +happily, and took up his permanent abode at Fairview. Very soon the +better part of the furniture, and certain priceless possessions with +which there was no thought of parting, were transferred from the one +house to the other, the old domicile was done up and eventually let, and +then, as so often happens with old people who have been uprooted from +their regular life, Mr. Brown sank into extreme illness.</p> + +<p>Poor man, he had never been ill in his life, and he took to it badly. +One paralytic stroke succeeded another, and, at last, after a few months +of much repining and wearing suffering, he passed quietly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>away, his +last words being that he was going to rejoin his dear wife on the other +side.</p> + +<p>It was then that the Alfred Whittakers left Fairview.</p> + +<p>“I shall never fancy the house again since poor father’s death,” said +Regina on the evening of the funeral.</p> + +<p>“No, I can quite believe that,” returned Alfred Whittaker, +sympathetically. “Well,” he added after a pause, “you will be able to +afford a larger house if you want it.”</p> + +<p>“I should like a larger garden,” said Regina. “I think children brought +up without a garden are generally unhappy little creatures, and ours are +getting big enough to enjoy it.”</p> + +<p>By that time Julia was nine years old, and Maud, of course, two years +older still. Their father and mother therefore gave notice to their +landlord, and cast about in their minds for some new and desirable +neighborhood which would contain a new and desirable residence.</p> + +<p>They decided eventually on purchasing a house in the most artistic +suburb of London, that which is known among Londoners as Northampton +Park. They were lucky enough to find a house to be sold at a reasonable +price in the main road of this quaint little village. It stood well back +from the traffic, having a long garden between the gate and the +entrance. The gate was rustic and wooden, and was decorated with an art +copper plate of irregular shape, on which the name of the house was +embossed in quaint letters extremely difficult to read—“Ye Dene.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p><p>“Why,” asked Julia, when she and her sister were taken to see the new +domicile, “why do you call our new house Ye Den? Is it a den?”</p> + +<p>“Ye <i>Dene</i>, dearest—Ye <i>Dene</i>. It is old English spelling,” said +Regina. “I think it is rather pretty, don’t you Alfie?”</p> + +<p>“H’m, the house is nice enough, and you youngsters will enjoy the +garden, which is far better than you have ever had before. I believe it +costs a lot of money to alter the name of a house; in fact, I don’t know +whether one is allowed to or not. I’ll find out.”</p> + +<p>But, somehow, they took possession of their new home without finding out +whether it was possible to alter the name thereof.</p> + +<p>“What about headed paper, Queenie?” said Alfred, when they were at +breakfast on the second morning after their entrance into the new +domicile.</p> + +<p>“Headed paper? Oh yes, we must have that, dear.”</p> + +<p>“Well, will you stick to calling the house Ye Dene?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Regina, “I went for a little turn yesterday, and I took +note of all the houses and what their names were. I passed Charles Lodge +and George Cottage, and The Poplars, The Elms, The Quarry, The Nook, +Ingleside, High Elms, The Briars, and a dozen different variations of +the same, such as Briar Cottage, High Elms Cottage, and so on; but I +didn’t see any other house that seemed to be connected with this one. I +rather like the name, and that queer, irregular-shaped copper plate will +be a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>sort of landmark when our friends come from town to see us.”</p> + +<p>“How would it be,” suggested Alfred, “to have the shape of the plate +reproduced for our address—a kind of scroll the shape of that with ‘Ye +Dene’ in the middle?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s a good idea,” said Regina. “But you will have to put +Northampton Park within the shield, or else it will look very odd.”</p> + +<p>“Well, look here,” said he, “I’ll take the pattern of it and see what +Cuthberts can suggest.”</p> + +<p>The result of this conversation was that Cuthberts, the celebrated +notepaper dealers, made a very pretty suggestion embodying the shield, +the name of Ye Dene and the further postal address, and the Whittakers +finally decided that they would not trouble to alter the name of their +new residence.</p> + +<p>It was at the Park—for I may as well follow the customs of its +inhabitants and speak of it as they do—that Mrs. Whittaker began to +seriously think of the education of her children.</p> + +<p>They made friends slowly. In due course the vicar called upon them, and +was followed a little later by his wife. Then the wife of a doctor just +across the road made it her business to welcome the newcomers, and the +neighbors on either side of Ye Dene called; but, all the same, they made +friends slowly.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Whittaker made many and searching inquiries into the possibilities +of education, and she finally concluded that she would send them to the +High School, at which all the youth of the Park received their learning. +So, morning after morning, the two <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>quaint little figures set out from +Ye Dene at a little after nine o’clock, returning punctually at +half-past twelve and sallying forth again about a quarter-past two for +the afternoon school, which lasted until four.</p> + +<p>What queer, quaint little maids they were! Regina’s own curious taste in +dress she did not reproduce in her children. She held lofty theories +that little girls should not be made vain by curled hair and flounced +frocks. Their hair was therefore cut close to their heads, as if they +had been two boys, and they wore curious little Quaker-brown jackets and +hoods, which gave them an air of having come out of the ark.</p> + +<p>“I regard it as terrible that children, who should be wholly +irresponsible and whose troubles will come soon enough, should ever have +to think of the care of their clothes,” she said one day to the doctor’s +wife across the road.</p> + +<p>“For my part,” the lady replied, “I don’t think that you can too early +inculcate a proper care of the person into little girls. My own child, +who was ten last week, is as particular about the fit and style of her +clothes as I am about mine. If you bring girls up, dear lady, to run +quite wild, do you not think that you do away with their domesticity, +that most precious quality of all women?”</p> + +<p>“I am only too anxious to do away with their domesticity,” said Mrs. +Whittaker, quietly but very firmly. “You see, Mrs. M’Quade, I am no +ordinary woman myself. I have had the education of a man. I have a man’s +brain. I believe that in the near <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>future the position of women will be +entirely altered.”</p> + +<p>“Then you are going to bring your girls up to professions?”</p> + +<p>“I am going to bring my girls up to follow the natural bent of their +minds. If they show any aptitude for and desire to follow one of the +learned professions, neither their father nor I will put any +stumbling-block in their way.”</p> + +<p>“I see. Have you pushed them on already?”</p> + +<p>“No, that is altogether against my principles. I never do anything +against my principles. I think that all children should reach the age of +seven years before they imbibe any learning, except such as comes +through the eye and in a perfectly natural and simple manner. After the +age of seven, until ten years old, I believe that lessons should be of +the simplest and most harmless description. After that, the brain is +strong and is better able to bear forcing.”</p> + +<p>“I see. Well, your plan may be a good one; my plan may be a good one. I +sent my little girl to a kindergarten when she was four years old, +because she was lonely; she was not happy, she was always bored, always +wanting somebody to play with her, and she yearned for playmates and +little occupations. When she went to the kindergarten, she took to it +like a duck to water. She loved her school then, and now that she is in +a more advanced class, she is well on with her studies.”</p> + +<p>“I see. And you dress her very elaborately?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, not elaborately,” said Mrs. M’Quade. “I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>always try to dress her +daintily and smartly, but never elaborately.”</p> + +<p>“It is not in accordance with my principles,” said Regina, loftily. “I +have a set fashion for my children, and I intend to keep them to it +until they are old enough to choose for themselves. Then they will take +to the task of dressing themselves with minds untrammeled by the +opinions of other people, even of their own mother. I have always tried +so to bring up my girls as to make them thoroughly original in every +possible way. They are not quite like other children. They are children +as much out of the ordinary as their mother was before them; convention +has no part, and shall have no part in their lives whatsoever. Indeed, I +may say that conventions is one of the greatest bugbears of my +existence.”</p> + +<p>“But we must have conventions,” said the doctor’s wife.</p> + +<p>“Must we?” said Mrs. Whittaker, with a superior smile. “Ah, I see that +you and I, dear Mrs. M’Quade, must agree to differ. Let me give you some +tea. I assure you it is quite conventional tea.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you very much,” said Mrs. M’Quade, smiling.</p> + +<p>In retailing the conversation to her husband that evening, Mrs. M’Quade +remarked that it was quite conventional tea. “I should think about +one-and-twopence a pound,” was her comment.</p> + +<p>“And how did you like the lady?” her husband asked.</p> + +<p>“She is an extraordinary woman, a very extraordinary woman. I don’t know +that I like her; on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>the other hand, I don’t know whether there is +anything about her to dislike.”</p> + +<p>“What age—what size—what sort of a woman is she?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“In age something over forty; in person plump and rather comely. A +large, solid woman, with no idea of making the best of herself. She had +a tea-gown on to-day that would have made the very angels weep.”</p> + +<p>“Would any tea-gown make the angels weep?”</p> + +<p>“I think that one would. It was a dingy brown and a salmon-pink. +Wherever it was brown you wished it was salmon-pink, and wherever it was +salmon-pink you wished it was brown, except when you were wishing that +it was black altogether, without any relief at all.”</p> + +<p>“Dear me! What was it like?”</p> + +<p>“Well, it was just the one garment that she should never have worn. She +wears old-fashioned stays, and though people may think they don’t matter +in a tea-gown, I think stays have more effect on the general cut of a +tea-gown than they have on any other garment. I should like to have +dressed that lady in a plain coat and skirt from my own tailor, with a +loose white front, and a good black hat. But I don’t think anybody would +know her.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s no business of yours, little woman,” said the doctor, +cheerily. “And, after all, it’s a new family—children—infantile +diseases—servants—people apparently thoroughly well-to-do. Bought the +house—done it up inside and out. It isn’t for you and I to quarrel with +our bread and butter.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>SKATING ON THIN ICE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Was it, I wonder, a mother who first evolved the proverb: “Where +ignorance is bliss ’twere folly to be wise”?</p></div> + +<p>It cannot be said that as a family the inhabitants of Ye Dene were a +success at Northampton Park. I have already said that they made friends +slowly, and in saying so I was of course speaking of Mr. and Mrs. +Whittaker and not of the children. The children, on the contrary, made +friends very quickly and as quickly got through them. I doubt indeed if +two more unpopular children had ever attended the Northampton Park High +School. Fortunately for them, I mean for their peace of mind as the time +went by, Mrs. Whittaker was not aware of the real reason for this state +of affairs.</p> + +<p>“I hear,” she remarked one day to long-legged Maud, who had been for a +couple of years advanced to the dignity of a pigtail, “I hear that +Gwendoline Hammond had a party yesterday.”</p> + +<p>Maudie went very red and looked extremely uncomfortable. “I—I—did hear +something about it,” she stammered.</p> + +<p>“How was it that you were not asked?” inquired <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>Regina, with an air very +much like that of a porcupine suddenly shooting its quills into +evidence.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Gwendoline Hammond is a mean little sneak!” burst out Julia, who +was much the bolder of the sisters.</p> + +<p>“A sneak? How a sneak? What had she to sneak about?” demanded Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, it was like this, mother. Gwendoline is an awful bully, you +know, and poor little Tuppenny was being frightfully bullied by her +one day, and she’s a dear little thing, she can’t take care of +herself—somebody’s got to stand up for her—and Maudie punched her +head.”</p> + +<p>“Punched her head! And what was she doing?”</p> + +<p>“Well, she was twisting poor little Tuppenny’s arm around.”</p> + +<p>“What! That mere child? And Gwendoline head and shoulders taller than +she?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“And you say Maudie—punched her head?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, and she punched it hard, too. And then Gwendoline went blubbering +home, and Mrs. Hammond came to Miss Drummond, and—” Well, really, my +reader, I hesitate to say what happened next, but as this is a true +chronicle I had better make the plunge and get it over and done +with—“and then,” said Julia, solemnly, “there was the devil to pay!”</p> + +<p>“You had better not put it in that way,” said Regina, hurriedly. I must +confess that she had the greatest difficulty to choke down a laugh. “You +had better not put it in that way. ‘The devil to pay’ is next door to +swearing itself, to say nothing of being <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>what a great many people would +call excessively vulgar; and if you were heard to say such a thing at +school, you would get yourselves into dreadful trouble, and me too. I +shall be obliged, Julia, if you will not use that expression again.”</p> + +<p>“Very well, mother,” said Julia, with an air of great meekness, which, I +may say in passing, she was far from feeling.</p> + +<p>“With regard,” went on Regina in her most magnificent manner, “with +regard to Gwendoline Hammond and her miserable party, I consider it +distinctly a feather in your cap, Maudie, that you were left uninvited. +If it were told to me, as I presume it was told to Mrs. Hammond, that +one of you had been brutally cruel to a child many sizes smaller than +yourself and incapable of self-defence, I should mete out the severest +punishment that it was possible for me to give you. You have never been +punished, because it has never been necessary. Some mothers,” she +continued, “would punish you for using such a term as ‘the devil to +pay.’ I regard that as a venial offence which your own common-sense will +teach you is inexpedient as a phrase for everyday conversation. But +brutal cowardice is a matter which I should find it very difficult to +forgive, and I am extremely proud that you should have taken the part of +a poor little child who was not able to do it for herself. I shall tell +your father when he comes home, and I shall ask him to reward you in a +suitable manner; and meantime, when I see Miss Drummond—”</p> + +<p>“If you please, mother,” broke in Julia, who was, as I have said, the +dominant one of the two sisters, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>“if you please, mother, just drop it +about Miss Drummond. We are quite able to fight our own battles at +school—we don’t want Miss Drummond, or anybody else, to think that we +come peaching to you telling you everything. We tell you because we are +fond of you and you ask, and—and—we don’t like to lie to you.” She +stammered a little, because on occasion no one could tell a prettier lie +than Julia Whittaker. “In fact,” ended Julia, “our lives wouldn’t be +worth living if it was known that we came peaching home.”</p> + +<p>“It is your duty to tell me everything,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, you might say the same about Gwendoline Hammond,” remarked Julia, +with a matter-of-fact air.</p> + +<p>“You are within your right,” said Mrs. Whittaker; “you are within your +right. I apologize.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, please don’t do that,” said Julia, magnanimously; “it isn’t at all +necessary. But you please won’t say anything to Miss Drummond about +it—not unless she should speak to you, which she won’t. She was very +indignant with Gwendoline when she found the whole truth out, and I +believe she—at least I did hear that she paid a special visit to Mrs. +Hammond and made things extremely unpleasant for Gwendoline. I don’t +wonder she didn’t ask Maudie to her party, because her father happened +to be there, and he was very angry about it. He almost stopped her +having her party altogether, only Mrs. Hammond had asked some people and +she did not like to go back upon her word and disgrace Gwendoline before +everybody. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>So you understand, mother, not a word, please, to Miss +Drummond.”</p> + +<p>“My dear child,” said Regina, “my dear original, splendid child!”</p> + +<p>Julia coughed. She would have liked to have taken the praise to herself, +but with Maudie standing open-mouthed at her side it was not altogether +feasible. She coughed again. “You—you forget Maudie,” she remarked +mildly.</p> + +<p>“My dear, noble, generous child! I forget nothing—and I will forget +nothing for either of you. Here,” she went on, in ringing accents which +would have brought down the house if Regina had been speaking at any +public meeting, “is a small recognition from your mother, and at +dinner-time to-night your father shall speak to you.”</p> + +<p>“I think,” remarked Julia, ten minutes later, when she and her sister +were on the safe ground of that part of the garden which belonged +exclusively to them, “I think we got out of that uncommonly well, +Maudie, don’t you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but it was skating on thin ice,” said Maudie. “I don’t know how +you dared, Ju. You told mother you didn’t like telling lies!”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Julia, “it is to be hoped it will never come out, for if it +does there will be the devil to pay and no mistake about it.”</p> + +<p>It was as well for Regina’s peace of mind that the thin ice never broke, +and that the actual truth never came to light. You know what the poet +says—“A lie that is half a lie is ever the hardest to fight.” Well, the +same idea holds good for a truth that is half a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>truth. I don’t say that +Julia’s account of the difference between themselves and Gwendoline +Hammond was wholly a lie, but it was certainly not wholly the truth; +indeed, it was such a garbled account that nobody concerned therein but +would have found it difficult to recognize it.</p> + +<p>“Wasn’t mother’s little sermon about the devil to pay lovely?” said +Julia, swinging idly to and fro while Maudie stood contemplating her +gravely.</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Maudie, “but she was quite right. That’s the best of +mother—she’s always so full of sound common-sense.”</p> + +<p>“Except when she calls you her brave, noble child!” rejoined the sharp +wit.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” said Maudie, reflectively, “that that was altogether +mother’s fault.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it wasn’t. It will be just as well for you and for both of us +as far as that goes, if mother doesn’t happen to just mention the matter +to Tuppenny’s mother. I think I was a fool not to have safeguarded that +point.”</p> + +<p>“There’s time enough,” said Maudie. “You can lead up to it when you go +in, because, you know, Ju, if they ever do find out—”</p> + +<p>“Yes, there <i>will</i> be the devil to pay,” put in Julia. “You are quite +right.”</p> + +<p>It was astonishing how sweet a morsel the phrase seemed to be to the +child.</p> + +<p>“You’ll get saying it to Miss Drummond,” said Maudie, warningly.</p> + +<p>“Well, if I do,” retorted Julia, “I shall have had the pleasure of +saying it—that will be something.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p><p>Now this was but one of many similar instances which occurred during the +childhood of Regina’s two girls. They were so sharp—at least Julia +was—and as she was devoted to Maudie, she always put her wits at the +service of her sister, and the other children whom they knew not +unnaturally resented the fact that they were invariably to be found in +the wrong box in any discussion in which the Whittaker children had a +share. So they became more and more isolated as the years went by.</p> + +<p>“Why don’t we like the Whittakers?” said a girl to her mother, who had +met Mrs. Whittaker and thought her a very remarkable woman. “Well, +because we don’t.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but why?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, we don’t exactly know why—but we don’t. They’re queer.”</p> + +<p>Have you noticed, dear reader, how frequent it is to set down those who +are too sharp for you as “queer?” Well, it was just so at Northampton +Park, and what the girl didn’t choose to put into plain words, she +stigmatized as queer.</p> + +<p>“And what do you mean by queer?” the mother asked.</p> + +<p>“Well, they <i>are</i> queer. I think their mother must be queer, too, +because their dress is so funny.”</p> + +<p>“Is it?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, awfully. They always wear brown.”</p> + +<p>“What are they like?”</p> + +<p>“Well, Maudie is fairish and Julia is darkish. Maudie has quite a +straight nose and Julia’s turns up—oh, it isn’t an ugly turn-up nose, I +didn’t mean <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>that. But they are such guys, and what is worse, they don’t +care a bit.”</p> + +<p>“Really? What sort of guys?” asked the mother, who was immensely amused.</p> + +<p>“Well, they never have anything like anybody else. They’ve got long, +pokey frocks made of tough brown stuff, like—er—like—er—pictures of +Dutch children. And over them they wear long holland pinafores.”</p> + +<p>“It sounds very sensible,” remarked the mother. “And when they come out +of school?”</p> + +<p>“In the winter they’ve got long brown coats, with little bits here—you +know.”</p> + +<p>“You mean a yoke?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what you call it, mother—little bits, and skirts from it, +and poke bonnets, and brown wool gloves; brown stockings and brown +shoes, and little brown muffs. Oh, they really are awfully queer!”</p> + +<p>“And in the summer?”</p> + +<p>“In the summer? Well, in the summer they wear brown holland things. +They’re queer, mother, I can’t tell you any more—they’re queer.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” said the mother. “But in themselves,” she persisted, “what are +they like in themselves?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know. Nobody likes them much.”</p> + +<p>“Poor children! I wish you would be a little kind to them.”</p> + +<p>“Do you?” said the girl, rather wistfully. “Well, I will if you like, +but it would be an awful bore, and they wouldn’t thank us.”</p> + +<p>“I see,” said the mother. But she was wrong; she only thought she saw.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>So time sped on, and these two children grew more and more long-legged, +more and more definite in character, and as they progressed towards what +Mrs. Whittaker fondly believed to be originality and unconventionalism, +so did her mother’s heart bound and yearn within her.</p> + +<p>“I am amply satisfied with the result of our scheme of education,” she +was wont to say. “No, it is not easy—it is much easier to bring up +children in the conventional way. But the result—oh, my dear lady, the +result, when you feel a thrill of pride that your children are different +to others, is worth the sacrifice.”</p> + +<p>“Now I wonder what,” said the lady in question in the bosom of her +family, “did that foolish woman particularly have to sacrifice? The +general feeling in the Park seems to be that the Whittakers are horrid +children—disagreeable, ill-bred, sententious, and altogether +ridiculous; too sharp in one way, too stupid for words in another. And +yet she talks about sacrifice!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Maudie isn’t sharp—at least, not particularly so,” said her own +girl, who, being a couple of years older than Maudie Whittaker, knew +fairly well the lie of the land. “Julia’s sharp—a needle isn’t in it. +It’s Julia who backs Maudie up in everything, and Julia is a horrid +little beast whom everybody hates and loathes. She tried it on with me +once when I was at school, but I soon put the young lady in her right +place with a good setting down, and she never tried it on any more. +They’d have been all right if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>they had been properly brought up, which +they weren’t.”</p> + +<p>“You think not?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, mother. You have no idea how intensely silly Mrs. Whittaker is.”</p> + +<p>“Is she? I thought she was such a brilliant woman.”</p> + +<p>“I believe she calls herself so; nobody else agrees with her.”</p> + +<p>“Do you know what I heard about Mrs. Whittaker only yesterday?” said the +mother, with a sudden gleam of remembrance. “She has gone in for public +speaking. They say it’s too killing for words.”</p> + +<p>“Speaking on what?” asked the girl.</p> + +<p>“On the improvement of the condition of women.”</p> + +<p>“What! a political affair?”</p> + +<p>“No, no; not political at all; a something quite disconnected with +politics—quite above them. She has been chosen President of a new +society which is to be called ‘The Society for the Regeneration of +Women.’”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE S.R.W.</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Why is it that women are so fond of founding societies both for the +improvement of themselves and of each other? Is it a confession of +weakness, or is it one of the signs of the coming of the millenium?</p></div> + +<p>Mrs. Whittaker was a woman who never did things by halves. She +distinctly prided herself thereupon.</p> + +<p>“If a thing, my dear, is worth doing,” I heard her say about the time of +which I am writing, “it is worth doing <i>well</i>. I have great +faith—although I have gone so far above the old-world thoughts of +religion—in the verse which says: ‘Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, +do it with all thy might.’ It is a grand precept, one that I instil into +my children—er—er—”</p> + +<p>“For all you are worth,” remarked a flippant young woman who was +listening.</p> + +<p>“I—I shouldn’t have expressed it in that way,” stammered Regina, +somewhat taken aback. “But—but—er—it’s what I mean.”</p> + +<p>“And your children, are they the same?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I am proud to say that my children are very much like me in that +respect. When they play, they play; when they work, they work; when they +idle <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>they idle; and I am sure if ever they were naughty, that they +would be naughty with all their might.”</p> + +<p>Poor Regina! Well, to make the story somewhat shorter, I must tell you +that when Regina Whittaker went into public life, she did so in no +half-hearted manner.</p> + +<p>“I am convinced,” she remarked to the lord of her bosom, “I am convinced +that I am taking a step in the right direction. What do you think, +Alfie?”</p> + +<p>“My dear,” said Alfred Whittaker, somewhat sleepily, for he had had a +hard day in the city and had eaten an extremely good dinner, “if it +pleases you, it pleases me. You have such a clear, sensible head,” he +went on, feeling that perhaps he had been a little too unsympathetic, +“you have such a clear, sensible head, that I am sure you will take up +no question that is not a good one—an advantageous one.”</p> + +<p>“I thought you would see it in that light, dear Alfie,” said Mrs. +Whittaker in tones which betokened much pleasure. “You are so generous +and so just. Some men would hate to feel that their wives had any +interest outside their own homes.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my dear heart and soul!” exclaimed Alfred Whittaker, looking up in +a very wide-awake sort of way, “surely this is a land of liberty. I +don’t want to tie you down to being no better than my slave. God knows +you fag enough and slave enough for all of us. It would be hard if you +couldn’t have a few opinions and a few interests of your own.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, dear; but it isn’t quite that. It is not only of opinions that I +am speaking, it is the encouraging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>way in which you consent to my +entering on this somewhat pronounced question.”</p> + +<p>“I have absolute faith in your judgment,” said Alfred Whittaker; and +again he composed himself for his after-dinner nap.</p> + +<p>Regina sat looking at him as he slumbered. Her heart was very full, for +she was an affectionate woman, and, in spite of her little airs and +pretensions, she was really a good woman at bottom. Her heart swelled +with pride to think that this was her husband, this handsome, portly, +dignified man with a presence, an air of being somebody, this man who +was so good, so easy to live with, such a good husband and such an +affectionate father. And to think that he was hers! As I have said +already, her heart thrilled within her.</p> + +<p>It was true that others might not have agreed with Regina in her +estimate of her husband. The outer world might have thought him anything +but handsome, might have thought that he had anything rather than a +presence. What Regina called portly, a less tender critic might have +described in an extremely unpleasant manner; but, you see, Regina looked +at him with eyes of possession, and the eyes of possession are ever +somewhat biassed.</p> + +<p>So her thoughts ran pleasantly on. Yes, it was indeed sweet to be so +blessed as she was in her home life. She had once believed that her life +was a wasted one. Well, that was in the foolish days, before she had +tried her wings. Not that she ever regarded her flights into the world +of higher thought with the very smallest regret; that could never be. +Enlightenment is always enlightenment, whether it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>actually paying in +a monetary sense or not. She firmly believed that an elaborate and +somewhat masculine education had enabled her to become a better wife and +mother than she would have been had she been contented with the genteel +education which her parents had thought good enough, further than which +indeed their minds had never attempted to fly. Perhaps, her thoughts +ran, her mission in life was to bring enlightenment to the minds of +other women, in a somewhat different way to that which she had hitherto +accepted as the most reasonable. Be that as it may, Regina entered upon +her duties as President of the S.R.W., armed with the full sanction of +her husband’s permission and approval.</p> + +<p>To all her friends she was an amazing and, at the same time, an amusing +study about this epoch.</p> + +<p>“I am perfectly certain,” remarked Mrs. M’Quade to the mother of the +little girl who at school was called Tuppenny, “I am perfectly certain +that Mrs. Whittaker has at last found her <i>metier</i>. Are you going to +join her scheme for the regeneration of women?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think so,” replied the lady who lived at Highthorn. “My husband +is so very sneering when anything of the kind is mentioned. I shouldn’t +mind for myself; I think it would be rather fun. They are going to have +tea-parties and <i>soirées</i>, and all sorts of amusements. But George would +be so full of his fun, that I don’t feel somehow it would be good enough +for me to go into. Besides, it’s three guineas a year. As far as I can +tell,” she continued, “from what Mrs. Whittaker has told me, there won’t +be any real regeneration of women in our day. It may come in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>day of +our grandchildren, but I don’t feel inclined to work for that.”</p> + +<p>“That shows a great want of public spirit,” remarked the doctor’s wife, +laughingly.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I daresay it does, but I don’t believe women are public-spirited, +except here and there—generally when they have made a failure of their +own lives, as my old man always says.”</p> + +<p>“But Mrs. Whittaker hasn’t made a failure of her life.”</p> + +<p>“Well, she has and she hasn’t. She has failed to become anything very +much out of the ordinary. She is very fond of calling herself an +unconventional woman who never does anything like anybody else, but I +fail to see very much in it excepting that she makes horrible guys of +her girls.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I am going to join the society,” said Mrs. M’Quade, with the air +of one who is prepared to receive ridicule. “No, I don’t pretend for a +moment that I want regenerating myself—or even that other women do—but +Mrs. Whittaker has been a very good patient to the doctor one way and +another, and she’s stuck to us, and I think the least I can do is to +join her pet scheme—and, mind you, it <i>is</i> a pet scheme.”</p> + +<p>“I call that absolutely Machiavellian,” said her friend.</p> + +<p>“Oh, a doctor’s wife has to be Machiavellian, my dear, and a thousand +other things,” said Mrs. M’Quade, easily. “I have been fifteen years in +the Park, and I have kept in with everybody—never had a wrong word with +a single one of Jack’s patients. You <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>may call it Machiavellian, and +doubtless you are right, but I call it ripping good management myself.”</p> + +<p>“So it is, my dear, so it is. And you shall have the full credit of it,” +said Tuppenny’s mother, who was a genial soul and loved a joke as well +as most people.</p> + +<p>And Regina meantime was taking life with considerable seriousness. She +fell into a habit of speaking of the S.R.W. as of her life’s work; +indeed, she became a very important woman. No sooner was it known that +she was an excellent and dominant President of the S.R.W. than she came +into request for other societies of a kindred nature—no, I don’t mean +societies solely for the regeneration of women, not a bit of it. There +was one for the sensible education of children between three and seven +years old, whose committee she was asked to join not many weeks after +the birth of the S.R.W.; and there was another society which bore the +name of “The Robin Redbreast,” and provided the poor children of a south +London district with dinners for a halfpenny a head, and a number of +others that they provided with dinners for nothing at all. Then there +was a Shakespeare Society, which had long existed in the Park, and which +until Regina became a full-blown president had never thought of asking +her to come on to its committee.</p> + +<p>Now all this took Regina a good deal away from her home, and the result +of her absence and of these wider interests in life was that the two +girls at Ye Dene were enabled to shape their lives very much more in +their own way than ever they had done before. Regina had, it is true, +always aimed at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>inculcating a spirit of independence in her children. +She required them to do certain things during the course of the day, to +be punctual at meals, especially at breakfast, to report themselves when +they were going to school and when they returned; but otherwise, she +left them fairly free to spend the rest of their time as their own +inclinations led them. They had their own sitting-room and their own +tea-table, at which they could invite any children belonging to their +school, or indeed, for the matter of that, any of the children living in +the Park; and up to the advent of the S.R.W. it must be owned that this +system worked as well as any system could have worked with children of +such pronounced characters as the young Whittakers. But after their +mother became a public woman, Maudie and Julia may be said to have run +absolutely wild. No longer did they report themselves in the old way, +because they had a very complete contempt for servants, and there was +usually no one else to whom they could report themselves.</p> + +<p>“Does your mother never want to know where you are?” asked a +schoolfellow when Maudie was just sixteen.</p> + +<p>“Well, yes, we always tell her at night what we have done during the +day.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, do you?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” returned Maudie. “Mother is most deeply interested in all our +doings. Did you think she wasn’t? How funny of you! Isn’t your mother +interested in what you do?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, of course mine is. But then mine is <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>rather different to yours. +Mine is not a public character.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t know that our mother is exactly a public character,” said +Julia, who was keenly on the watch for a single word which would in any +way pour ridicule or contempt upon her mother.</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, she is. Father says she’s a philanthropist.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, does he? Well, I don’t know I’m sure. Perhaps she is. I know she’s +a jolly hard-worked woman, and if she wasn’t as clever as daylight she +wouldn’t be able to keep going as she does. As for her being a +philanthropist—well, after all, what is a philanthropist?”</p> + +<p>“Well, I did ask father, and he explained it, but he didn’t make it very +clear. It seems to be a sort of person who goes about doing good.”</p> + +<p>“That’s mother all over,” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Then who mends your stockings?” asked Evelyn Gage.</p> + +<p>“Our stockings? Why, mother has never mended our stockings. Sewing is +one of the things mother isn’t great on. You couldn’t expect it.”</p> + +<p>“Why not? Mine does.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, but our mother is rather different. You see, she was educated +like a man.”</p> + +<p>“How funny!” giggled Evelyn.</p> + +<p>“I think,” said Maudie to Julia, half an hour later, when Evelyn Gage +had gone home and the two were getting out their lesson-books for their +home work, “I think it would be rather funny to have a mother like an +ordinary woman, don’t you, Ju?”<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t know,” returned Julia. “Evelyn’s mother makes jam and +pickles and pastry and lovely little rock cakes, and things that our +mother never seems to think of. <i>She</i> is always too much taken up with +great questions to bother herself with little etceteras, as old nurse +always called such things.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps, though, we should find it rather a bore to have a mother who +worried about our stockings and things, just an ordinary, average kind +of mother. But anyway, we haven’t got a mother like that, so we must +make the best of what we have got.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>REGINA’S VIEWS</h3> + +<p class="center">A Parisian finishing school is for English girls like putting +French polish on British oak.</p> + +<p>Nothing of any importance happened in the household at Ye Dene for two +years after this. Then it became time for Maudie to be introduced into +society. With most girls this epoch in life is one eagerly looked +forward to, tremulously entered upon, and very frequently looked back to +with a certain amount of disappointment. Regina herself, I am bound to +confess, thought with no small misgiving of the time when she should +have to be a wallflower for her daughter’s sake.</p> + +<p>“The child must have her chance like other girls,” she remarked to +Alfred one night when they were sitting together in the drawing-room at +Ye Dene. “She is very beautiful. She will not go empty-handed to her +husband. She ought to make a brilliant marriage.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, she is a nice-looking girl,” said Alfred Whittaker.</p> + +<p>“My daughters,” said Regina, with an air of dignity which was very +pardonable in a mother, “are both beautiful in different styles. Maudie +is purely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>Greek in type; Julia is purely Irish—or I might say French. +I noticed when we were in Brittany, two years ago, how thoroughly Irish +one type of the peasantry was.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, she’s a good-looking girl. They’re both all right,” said Alfred +Whittaker, with the easy indifference of an ordinary father. “I daresay +you’ll have your hands full a little bit further on, old lady, when we +get shoals of young men about Ye Dene, and you have to think out little +dances and suppers and theatre parties, and other things of that kind, +instead of giving up all your time to making other people happy.”</p> + +<p>“Well, whatever I have to do, I hope I shall do it with all my might,” +said Regina.</p> + +<p>“I am sure you will,” said Alfred, tenderly; “I am sure you will, +Queenie.”</p> + +<p>For his peace of mind’s sake, it was just as well that Alfred Whittaker +was at business during the greater part of each day, for he might have +been upset, not to say scandalized, by the extremely independent, not to +say free-and-easy, life which was led by his two daughters.</p> + +<p>Regina herself was very strong on this point. “I like to hear everything +that my girls tell me,” she said, in discussing the question about this +time with the doctor’s wife, “but I don’t demand it as a right. Nobody +would demand of a boy of nearly eighteen that he should tell his mother +everything that he has said, done and thought during the twenty-four +hours of the day. Why shouldn’t a girl be brought up on the same +system?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p><p>“It is not the custom, that’s all. I was amenable to my mother,” Mrs. +M’Quade replied, “and I expect my daughter to be amenable to me. It is +not a question of want of independence; the child is independent +enough—but a girl’s mind and a boy’s mind are not the same, they’re +different.”</p> + +<p>“Only because men and foolish mothers have made them so,” persisted +Regina.</p> + +<p>“Ah, well, you and I agree to differ on those points,—don’t we, Mrs. +Whittaker? Heaven forbid that I should make my girl less independent +than I would wish to be myself, but to shut the mother out of her life +is no particular sign of a girl’s independence—at least, that is the +way in which I look at it. Then I suppose,” went on the doctor’s wife, +“that you will, a little later on, allow your girls to have a latchkey?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly, if they wish to have a latchkey. Why not?” Mrs. Whittaker +demanded. “I should not expect them to come in at three o’clock in the +morning because I gave them the privilege of a latchkey. If they misused +the privilege, I should take it away from them.”</p> + +<p>“You are beyond me,” the doctor’s wife cried. “With regard to my +Georgie, all I can say is, that until she is married she will have to +live just as I lived until I was married; that is to say, she will do +what I tell her, she will wear what I advise her to wear, or what I give +her to wear; she will have a very good time, but she will not have a +separate existence from mine until she goes into a home of her own, or +until I am carried out to my last long resting-place.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>“We are good friends,” said Regina, with an air of superb tolerance, “we +are good friends, Mrs. M’Quade, and I hope we shall always continue so; +but in some of our ideas we are diametrically opposed to each other, and +we must agree to differ.”</p> + +<p>But to go back to the question of the entrance of Maud Whittaker into +society, not a little to her parents’ surprise, Maud absolutely declined +to do anything of the kind.</p> + +<p>“Come out—go into society!” she echoed. “Oh, there will be time enough +for that when Ju is ready.”</p> + +<p>“Julia? Why, she is two years younger than you,” Mrs. Whittaker +exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“Yes, dearest, I know it; but I am young for my age and Julia is old for +hers. If she comes out in another year, I can wait until she is ready.”</p> + +<p>“But why? I never heard of such a thing!”</p> + +<p>“I am not very great on society,” said Maud. “I would rather wait until +Ju is fully fledged.”</p> + +<p>“And you will stay at school?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I’d just as soon, only when one comes to think of it, I’ve learnt +all they can teach me, as far as I know. We are both of us much too big +to be at that school—it’s a perfect farce. Why don’t you take us away +and give us a course of lessons? That is the proper thing to do—like +they do in Paris. Or why don’t you send us to Paris for a year? Then we +may contrive to speak French that is French, and not Park polyglot.”</p> + +<p>“Maudie!” cried Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know, dearest. You may say ‘Maudie!’ <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>but facts are facts. The +other day, being, or being supposed to be, the best French speaker in +the school, I was put up to talk to a French lady who was staying at the +Vicarage. You know Mrs. Charlton speaks French like a native—indeed, I +think she has French relations, and I think this was an old +schoolfellow. Anyway, I was put up to talk to her as being the show girl +at French conversation.”</p> + +<p>“Well?” Regina’s tone was as the sniff of a war-horse who scents the +battle from afar.</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t make head or tail of her,” said Maudie. “Ju did—at least, +in a kind of way she did. All the same she had to repeat everything she +said three times over, and then whatever-her-name-was had to make shots +at her meaning.”</p> + +<p>“But, my dear children,” exclaimed Regina, aghast. “I hear you talking +French to each other every day!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know,” said Ju; “but you hear us talking something that isn’t +French.”</p> + +<p>“My education,” said Regina, “did not include many modern subjects. That +was one reason why I was so very anxious that you two should learn +French and German.”</p> + +<p>“Then you had better send us to Paris—because French is just what we +cannot speak. When we want to talk without the servants knowing, we +speak what we call the Park polyglot, but it doesn’t go down with French +people. I could see that that friend of Mrs. Charlton’s caught a word +here and there, and her native wit supplied the rest.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps she was not a person of position, and did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>not speak good +French,” said Regina, who was loath to admit that a child of hers could +do anything badly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, not a bit of it! Mrs. Charlton kept calling her Comtesse. She was +all right.”</p> + +<p>“And how did Miss Drummond come off?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, Miss Drummond speaks a little honest English-French, which +has no pretense of being the real thing.”</p> + +<p>It is not surprising that after this, Regina’s two girls were withdrawn +from the school at Northampton Park, and were, as she particularly told +everybody, by their own request sent to a school kept by a French lady +on the outskirts of Paris, to be particular in that off-shoot of Paris +which Regina called “Nully.”</p> + +<p>During the year that followed, Regina worked harder than ever; indeed, +even her complacent husband now and again uttered a mild protest that +his wife should be absolutely absorbed by work which brought him neither +comfort nor emolument.</p> + +<p>“I had a wife, once,” he said in joke to the doctor, one night when the +M’Quades were dining at Ye Dene; “but now I often think I’ve only got a +Chairman of Committee.”</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, he said it with an air of pride, and later, when Regina +asked him seriously whether he would prefer that she should give up her +public duties and once more merge her identity into his, he exclaimed, +“God forbid! What makes you happy, my dear, makes me happy, as long as +you still regard me as the linch-pin of your existence.”</p> + +<p>“I do, my dear Alfie, I do,” she cried. “Indeed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>I’m the same Queenie +that you married all those years ago. My heart has never altered or +changed in the very least. No other man has ever crossed its threshold +since you first took possession of it.”</p> + +<p>“As long as you feel that, my dear girl,” he returned, putting his arm +about her ample waist and looking at her with fond eyes of loving, if +somewhat sleepy, devotion, “as long as you feel like that, you can do +what work you like and have what interests you like. And good luck go +with you, for I am sure you must be a great comfort to a good many +people.”</p> + +<p>And Regina did work, like the traditional negro slave. Still, she never +neglected her home duties. Regularly every week she wrote to her girls, +and sometimes when she was dog-tired and found her eyes closing over the +sheet on which she was writing, she shook herself quite fiercely, and +reminded herself of her duty; then blamed herself passionately that her +letters to her girls, her own girls, who thought of her, loved her, +trusted her, made her the recipient of their hopes, doubts and fears, +joys and pleasures, and even such simple sorrows as had as yet entered +into their lives, should ever have come to be a duty—a mere duty.</p> + +<p>Poor Regina! I will not pretend that the two girls never wished to hear +from their mother, or that they would not have been bitterly +disappointed had she wholly and totally neglected them; but they were +happy in their school life, and they did not spend their time watching +for the arrival of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span><i>facteur de poste</i>, as Regina fondly believed of +them. No, they quietly accepted their mother’s letters when they +received them, read them, discussed them, and then put them on one side +to think about them no more.</p> + +<p>So time went on until the Christmas holidays arrived. The two girls did +not come home to the Park for their vacation, but their father and +mother made a little break in their respective callings and went to +Paris, where the girls joined them at a modest but comfortable +boarding-house.</p> + +<p>Now the boarding-house had been recommended by the lady of the school at +which the sisters were being educated. It was one kept by a French lady, +to which but few English people were in the habit of going. Of the +charming language of our neighbors across the Channel, Alfred Whittaker +did not know one word beyond a form of salutation which he called <i>bong +jour!</i> and an equally useful word which he was pleased to call <i>messy</i>. +These two old people were therefore absolutely at the mercy of their +young daughters; and the young daughters themselves thanked Heaven many +times, during the three weeks which they passed together in Paris, that +French had not been included in the curriculum of either their father’s +or mother’s education. Oh, they meant no harm, don’t think it for a +moment. There was no harm in either the one or the other. They were +modern, human girls, into whom a life of independence had been instilled +as a religion. Independent their mother wished them to be, and +independent they were to an abnormal and an aggressive degree. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>They +were as sharp as needles, exactly as their old schoolfellow had said +years before; they had acquired a knowledge of Paris which was simply +extraordinary considering that they had been immured in a <i>pensionnat</i> +for demoiselles. They knew all the great emporiums quite intimately, and +having extracted some money from their father on the score that it was +no use their mother coming to Paris without buying clothes, and also +that their own wardrobes required renewing, they whisked their mother +from the <i>Louvre</i>, to the <i>Bon Marché</i>, from the <i>Bon Marché</i> to the +<i>Mimosa</i>, and even got wind of that wonderful old market down in the +Temple, where the Jews hold high revel between the hours of nine o’clock +in the morning and noon.</p> + +<p>What a time it was. “My girls,” said Regina to an elderly English lady +with whom she foregathered in one of the pretty little white <i>crêmeries</i> +in the Rue de la Paix, “speak French like natives. I was educated in all +sorts of ways—I have taken degrees and done all sorts of things that +most women don’t do—but when you put me down in Paris, I am utterly +undone. I never realized before what a terrible thing want of education +is.”</p> + +<p>“And yet you have taken degrees,” said the lady, admiringly.</p> + +<p>“Yes, but they are not much good when you come to Paris. But my +daughters,” she added, with pride, “speak French like Parisians.”</p> + +<p>It was a little wide of the mark. The girls did speak French with +considerable fluency, and they had the advantage of not being shy, and +of never allowing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>want of knowledge to keep them back from +communicating with their fellow-beings. And as they gabbled on, as +Alfred Whittaker frequently declared, nineteen to the dozen, Regina +stood by and admired.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>“LITTLE PIGLETS OF ENGLISH”</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>I doubt if even a universal <i>entente cordiale</i> will ever make the +French mind and the English mind think alike.</p></div> + +<p>Now it happened before Regina and her husband left Paris that Madame de +la Barre intimated through the girls that she would like to have a +little confidential chat with her pupils’ mother.</p> + +<p>“Mother,” said Julia to Regina, “Madame wants to see you.”</p> + +<p>“She has seen me,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes, mother, but she wants to see you <i>toute seule</i>. I suppose she +wants to tell you some delinquencies of ours, or something.”</p> + +<p>“I hope not,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, dear, you must expect us to be human, like other girls. We have +never been in any trouble since we came here, and I don’t know why she +wants to see you, but, anyway, she asks if you will do her the favor of +taking tea with her to-morrow afternoon at four o’clock.”</p> + +<p>“I will,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“She doesn’t speak one word of English, you know,” said Julia.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p><p>“We shall communicate somehow,” said Regina, with a superb air.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know how,” said Julia, “since you can’t speak two words of +French—”</p> + +<p>“<i>Excuse</i> me,” said Regina, pointedly.</p> + +<p>“Well, excuse me too, mother—I didn’t mean to be rude. But your French +isn’t equal to your Latin, is it?”</p> + +<p>“I will be there,” said Regina, with a distinct accession of dignity.</p> + +<p>And so, punctual to the moment, Regina appeared in the <i>salon</i> of the +schoolmistress. Their mode of communication was original, it was also a +little difficult, but both being determined women, they overcame the +difficulties of the situation with a supreme indifference to the effect +the one might have upon the other. As a matter of fact, Julia had been a +little wide of the mark when she had declared to her mother that Madame +did not speak one word of English. Madame spoke a little more English +than Regina spoke French, and by a series of contortions, +gesticulations, and other efforts which I need not attempt to reproduce +here, Madame de la Barre contrived to make known to Mrs. Whittaker her +object in seeking for the interview. And her object in seeking the +interview was that she should explain to her that she considered the +taste in dress of the demoiselles Whittaker to be something too +atrocious for words.</p> + +<p>“<i>C’est affreux! c’est affreux</i>,” she exclaimed, when she found that +Regina was a little dense of understanding. “Horreeble—horreeble!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p><p>“I have never,” said Regina, speaking very slowly and distinctly, and +with an indulgent air as if she were communicating with someone a little +short of being an idiot, “I have never trained my children to care about +those matters.”</p> + +<p>“But they are young ladies! It is most important,” Madame exclaimed, +with quite a tragic air.</p> + +<p>“It will come,” said Regina, waving her substantial hand with a vast +gesture, as if good taste in dressing was likely to drop from the +clouds, “it will come. I never worry about things that are not +essential.”</p> + +<p>“But it is essential for a young lady—a demoiselle—it is—it is for +her life.”</p> + +<p>Poor Madame de la Barre! She tried very hard indeed to explain that the +many purchases made by the young ladies were not such as should have +been made by young girls not yet entered into the great world. She made +no impression upon Regina.</p> + +<p>“These are small matters,” she said, with a magnificent air; “not +essentials in any way. They will make mistakes at first—I don’t doubt +it, Madame—we have all done it in our day, but they will learn, oh, +they will learn.”</p> + +<p>Madame shrugged her shoulders. She felt that she was dealing with a fool +of the first water, upon whom valuable breath was wasted. After all, +these were <i>English</i> girls. What did it matter? They were going to live +in a land where it is the rule for women to make themselves such objects +as Madame Whittaker herself. It is no exaggeration to say that when Mrs. +Whittaker had finally swept out of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>schoolmistress’s presence, +Madame de la Barre sat down and closed her eyes with a genuine shudder.</p> + +<p>“What does it matter, these pigs of English, what they wear? Thou art +too good-natured, Helöise,” she went on, apostrophizing herself. “Thou +canst forbid these little piglets of English from wearing their too +disgraceful garments. What happens to them after they have left thy roof +is no concern of thine. Thou art too good-natured, Helöise!”</p> + +<p>So the “little piglets of English” continued unchecked in their career +of vicious millinery, and when the time came for them to return to the +paternal roof, they went, taking with them a stock of garments +calculated to make the Park, as they put it, “sit up.”</p> + +<p>And truly the Park did sit up, for the appearance of Regina’s two girls +was something quite out of the common.</p> + +<p>“It is the latest fashion,” said Regina, with an air of conviction to a +neighbor who remarked that Maudie’s hat was a little startling. “The +girls brought all their things from Paris. It is the seat of good +dressing.”</p> + +<p>You will observe that Regina never left any doubt in expressing her +opinions. Hers was a positive nature. She would say, “My daughters <i>are</i> +beautiful, my daughters <i>are</i> elegant, my daughters attract an enormous +amount of attention,” but never “I <i>think</i> my daughters are”—this, +that, or the other.</p> + +<p>So she gave forth, with the air of one whose fiat could not be +questioned, the intimation that as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>Maudie and Julia’s things had come +from Paris, they must be the <i>dernier cri</i>.</p> + +<p>And the Park thought they were horrid.</p> + +<p>Poor Regina! She was very happy in the return of her girls, so happy +that she took a little holiday from her public work, and spent a whole +week in talking things over, in arranging and rearranging their rooms, +in examining all their purchases, in discussing what kind of life they +should live in the immediate future.</p> + +<p>“Now, what are your own ideas?” she demanded, on the second day after +the return home of the girls, when they had settled down to tea and +muffins.</p> + +<p>Maudie looked at Julia. As usual, Julia answered for Maudie. Regina +herself was full of suppressed eagerness.</p> + +<p>“Well, if you really wish us to tell you exactly what we do want, +mother,” said Julia, “we will put it in a nutshell. We want father to +give us an allowance.”</p> + +<p>“A decent allowance,” put in Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes, dears; yes, yes,” murmured Regina, who had prepared herself +for an unfolding of great schemes, such as would have swayed her at her +girls’ age.</p> + +<p>“The kind of allowance,” Julia went on, “that he ought to give to girls +of our age and position—that is to say, of <i>our</i> age and <i>his</i> +position. Then we sha’n’t go making sillies of ourselves; we shall know +how to cut our coat according to our cloth.”</p> + +<p>“And how much do you think such an allowance ought to be?” Regina +inquired.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, about a hundred a year each,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“A hundred a year? That’s a very ample allowance. I never spend more +than that myself.”</p> + +<p>“Well, mother, it just depends on what you want us to be. If you want us +to be smart, well-dressed girls with some position in the world, we +couldn’t do it under. We have talked it over thoroughly with French +girls who know what society is, and with English girls of the same sort, +and they all say that a hundred a year is the least a girl can dress +herself decently on.”</p> + +<p>“And that would include—?” Regina questioned.</p> + +<p>“It would include our clothes, our club subscriptions—”</p> + +<p>“Your what?”</p> + +<p>“Our club subscriptions.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you are going to join a club, are you?”</p> + +<p>“Of course. You have a club, mother. We want some place where we can +rest the soles of our feet when we are in London. It isn’t as if you +lived right in Mayfair, you know.”</p> + +<p>“No, no; you are quite right. I have no objection to your joining a +club, or doing anything else that is reasonable. So it would include +your club subscriptions?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, it would have to do that. And our personal expenses. We +shouldn’t have to look to father for any money other than an occasional +present which he might like to give us if we were good, or if he could +afford it; or on some special occasion.”</p> + +<p>“I see.”</p> + +<p>“Then we should like to have—er—er” and here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Julia stopped short +and eyed her mother with a certain amount of apprehension.</p> + +<p>“Well, go on, my darling. You would like to have what?”</p> + +<p>“We should like to have a sitting-room of our own.”</p> + +<p>“Oh!”</p> + +<p>“To which,” Julia went on, emboldened by her mother’s mild expression of +face, “to which we could ask our friends without upsetting the house, +and—and—and—”</p> + +<p>“Go on,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, you see, most girls nowadays have an At Home day of their +own—just for their own friends, irrespective of their mothers.”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t time for an At Home day,” said Regina. “I used to have one, +but I gave it up when you went to Paris.”</p> + +<p>“I think that was rather foolish of you, mother,” said Julia. “A woman +is nothing nowadays if she doesn’t have an At Home day. I don’t quite +see myself what all your work brings you.”</p> + +<p>“Brings me?” echoed Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, brings you. What’s the good of working day and night, toiling into +the small hours of the morning for a lot of other people? What do they +ever do for you, mother?”</p> + +<p>“Do for me?” Regina seemed suddenly to have become an echo of her own +daughter. “I don’t know that anybody does anything for me.”</p> + +<p>“No, it is always Mrs. Albert Whittaker toiling and fagging and slaving +for other people’s glorification. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>I don’t see the force of it. It seems +to us,” she went on, with a certain air of severity which ought to have +amused Regina, but did nothing of the kind, “it seems to us that you get +the worst of it in every way. We think, mother, that you ought to be +very glad that we have come home to take care of you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! Then you,” said Regina, with a tinge of sarcasm in her tones, “you +and Maudie are to have all the independence, and I am to be taken care +of? That is very kind of you. Now, once for all let me speak, and then +for ever after hold my peace. I give you, as long as you remain in your +father’s house, I give you the same amount of liberty that I had in mine +and which I wish to have for myself now, but I give it you on one +condition, which is that you never abuse it. If ever you should +disappoint me by doing so—which not for one moment do I anticipate—I +should instantly withdraw that free gift of liberty. But I want you to +remember that while you have your liberty, I still need and require +mine. One is so apt to forget, and particularly when one is devotedly +attached to anyone, the rights and liberties of others. You are quite +welcome, my children, to have your day at home, and your father will +certainly not wish to curtail you in the matter of provision therefor. I +shall not expect that your little entertainments will come out of your +own personal income. At any time that you seek my advice on any matter, +it will be there ready for your use. I shall never give it to you +unsought, unless I should see you going absolutely wrong. I will only +ask you to remember that before <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>all things I have striven, since you +were tiny babies, first and foremost to preserve the originality of your +minds. The more original you are, the more completely will you please +me. There is so much in the circumstances and in the lives of women that +tend to trammel and to stifle their better judgment and their better +selves, that they have but little chance of letting any originality of +mind which they may possess have fair play. You are singularly blessed +in having an enlightened father and mother, who wish you to be in most +respects as free as air. Take care, therefore, children, that you don’t +lose sight of this precious opportunity. Let honor and originality go +hand in hand. With your gifts and your beauty, you must land yourselves +upon the very crest of the wave. There,” she went on, letting the +tension of her feelings find relief in a little laugh, “there ends my +little homily!” And she stretched forth her firm white hand and helped +herself to the last piece of muffin in the dish.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>CANDID OPINIONS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>We train up our children, kindly or harshly, according to our +temperaments, that they may walk along a certain road. The road is +usually one of several, and it is an almost invariable chance that +our children will take one contrary to that of our choice.</p></div> + +<p>Let there be no mistake about the Whittaker girls. They were not in any +way deceived or blinded by their mother’s partiality for them.</p> + +<p>“There is one thing you and I have got to make up our minds to, Maudie,” +said Julia, the day after they had had the little serious talk with +their mother. “It’s one thing to climb up a wall, it’s another to topple +over on the other side. If we don’t look out what we are doing, <i>we</i> +shall topple over the other side of our wall.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t understand you,” said Maudie; “at least not quite.”</p> + +<p>“Well, it’s like this,” remarked Julia. “We have got to take everything +that mother says as partly being mother’s way. I don’t know whether you +have ever noticed it, Maudie, but mother never half does things. That’s +why she’s such a splendid worker on all these committees she goes in +for. Mother calls us <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>beauties; she says you are purely Greek in type, +and that I am a cross between the French and Irish styles of beauty. +Well, that’s as may be. We can’t go against mother; it would be +rude—besides, it wouldn’t be any good—but you and I needn’t stuff each +other up—or even ourselves for that matter with the idea that we are +going to set the world on fire with our faces. We sha’n’t,” she ended +conclusively.</p> + +<p>“I think you are rather nice-looking, Ju,” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Do you? I don’t agree with you. But that’s neither here nor there. As +to your being purely Greek—well, don’t understand that either. I never +saw a Greek that was the least little bit like you. You remember those +girls at Madame’s? Why, they had a touch of the East about them; they +were next door to natives. I used to talk to them about it. I told them +that I never knew Greeks were so dark—I always had an idea Greeks were +fair people—but Zoe declared they were the common or garden pattern, +and that a fair Greek was a thing almost unheard of.”</p> + +<p>“That’s all rubbish and nonsense!” said Maudie in a more dominant tone +than was her wont. “Do you remember Maurice Dolmanides?”</p> + +<p>“The man who was at the boarding-house in Paris? Of course I do.”</p> + +<p>“Well, he was ginger.”</p> + +<p>“So he was—yes. And he was a Greek, wasn’t he? All the same, Maudie, he +had a Scotch mother, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, I see. Yes, that does make a difference.”</p> + +<p>“I assure you,” Julia went on, “that I talked it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>over with Zoe and +Olga, and they both declared that they were the ordinary Greek +type—round features, round black eyes, masses of coal-black hair, +palest of olive skins. There’s a touch of the Orient about it. But you, +you are blonde; your nose has got a bump in the middle of it, your mouth +is far from Greek—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my mouth,” cried Maudie, with a look at herself in the glass, “my +mouth is a regular shark’s mouth!”</p> + +<p>At this the two girls fell to laughing as heartily as if they were +discussing the merits of some animal rather than one of themselves.</p> + +<p>“In short,” Julia went on, when they had somewhat recovered themselves, +“in short, you and I have got to consider, first and foremost, what we +can do to be original. We are not beauties, although mother, poor dear +lady, persists that we have inherited an amount of beauty which is +absolutely fatal. Dress us in an ordinary manner and we should look +horrid. If we want to be any good in the world at all, we must do +something a bit out of the common.”</p> + +<p>“Follow in our mother’s footsteps?” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Not a bit of it. What good does mother do by all her strenuous efforts +to improve the condition of women? Is mother’s condition one that +requires improvement? Not a bit of it. Is our condition one that +requires improvement? Not a bit of it.”</p> + +<p>“We don’t know yet,” said Maudie in a quiet, sensible tone.</p> + +<p>“No, we don’t. And until we get married and see how we get on with our +respective husbands, we shall have to remain in our ignorance. One thing +is very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>certain, Maudie, that neither you nor I are girls that can go +in leading-strings. We have been made original and unconventional and +independent; in fact, originality and unconventionalism and independence +have been rammed down our throats from the time we could remember +anything. It has been the key-note of mother’s life. But we have, before +we can do anything in our own set, to see to our room and arrange all +our things. Now that old playroom is just as we left it. It’s an awfully +jolly room, capable of great things in the way of adornment. We must get +daddy to have it done up for us, and to give us a certain amount for +furnishing it. And we must have a piano.”</p> + +<p>“A piano?” said Maudie. “I don’t think a piano is at all a necessary +article. Clean paper and paint, a decent something to walk on—yes, that +we can fairly ask father to give us, and I’m sure he won’t grudge it; +but seeing that neither you, nor I, nor mother knows one tune from +another, and that there is a piano that cost a hundred and twenty +guineas in the drawing-room, I don’t think it would be fair to ask +father to spend even half that sum in such an instrument for our +exclusive use.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps you are right,” said Julia. “I must think that over. But a +piano we <i>must</i> have. If we are going to have an At Home day we must be +able to have music, even though we can’t make it ourselves.”</p> + +<p>“But why not have our At Home day in mother’s drawing-room?”</p> + +<p>“Because that would very quickly degenerate into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>mother’s At Home day, +and you know what mother’s At Home day means—seven women, two girls, +and half a man. No, if we have an At Home day of our own, it must be in +our own room. I’ll tell you what we’ll do, Maudie, we’ll go up to town +and choose a little piano somewhere, the kind of piano that you see in +the Army and Navy Stores’ list as suitable for yachts, and we’ll pay for +it out of our allowance.”</p> + +<p>“But we can’t.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, we can. We can take three years to pay for it. If we spend thirty +pounds on a piano, that’s quite enough. People can’t walk into your room +and ask you whether your piano cost thirty pounds or ninety pounds. It +wouldn’t be very much out of our allowance for each of us to pay fifteen +pounds in three years—only five pounds a year—then the piano will be +ours.”</p> + +<p>“And suppose one of us gets married?” asked Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Well, if one of us gets married, she must leave it for the other one.”</p> + +<p>“And the other one?”</p> + +<p>“Well, if the other one gets married, she must leave it for the use of +the home.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I see.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Julia, briskly, putting down the book that she held in her +hand, “let us go into the playroom and just cast our eyes over its +capabilities.”</p> + +<p>So the two girls went off to their old playroom, which was just as they +had left it when they had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>departed for their school in Paris two years +before.</p> + +<p>“It’s a good shape,” said Julia. “That bow window and those two little +windows on that side give it great possibilities. We ought to have a +cosy corner there.”</p> + +<p>“That will cost five-and-twenty guineas,” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Oh no; I mean a rigged-up cosy corner. We’ll take in <i>Home Blither</i> for +a few weeks. We are sure to get an idea out of that.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve never,” remarked Maudie, “seen anything about a cosy corner in +<i>Home Blither</i> that did not combine a washstand with it. We don’t want a +washstand, Julia.”</p> + +<p>“No, not in this room—certainly not. I propose that we have a delicate +French paper with bouquets of roses—perhaps a white satin stripe with +bouquets of roses tied up with delicate blue or mauve ribbons. That will +give us an interesting background to work upon.”</p> + +<p>“Then for the curtains?” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Well, for the curtains I should have—well, now, what should I have? +Well, I’ll tell you. I should have chintz.”</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t; I should have cretonne. It will look warmer.”</p> + +<p>“We don’t want to look warm; we want to look dainty. Or we might have +lace curtains.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, we might. And we might have those lovely dewdrops to hang in front +of the window, but of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>course it looks into the garden, and it would be +rather a pity to shut the garden out in any way.”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Julia. “A little desk there,” she went on; “white wood, you +know, the kind of thing that you get in the High Street all ready for +painting, or poker work. We might sketch all over it, or get our friends +to autograph it.”</p> + +<p>“Autograph it?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. And then varnish it over with a very clear, colorless varnish. It +would look very beautiful, and it would be original too.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, it would be original. Supposing we have all the furniture like +that?”</p> + +<p>“No, no, not all the furniture—only the writing-table. There’s +something appropriate about autographs on a writing-table,” Julia +declared.</p> + +<p>Eventually Mr. Whittaker agreed to have the room done up according to +the girls’ ideas, and to give them a certain sum for furnishing it +according to their own taste.</p> + +<p>“Now I do beg, dear Alfie,” said Mrs. Whittaker, who, in spite of her +desire that her girls should be original, was a person who loved to have +a finger in every pie, “now I do beg, Alfie, that you will not be too +lavish. Have the room thoroughly done up according to their ideas; that +is only right. I like the notion of delicate bouquets of roses, tied +together with a sky-blue ribbon, on a white satin stripe. It is elegant, +refined, and capable of great things in the general effect. I would have +a suitable ceiling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>paper to match, and you must give them a pretty +electric light arrangement in place of this simple one. After that, +leave everything to the girls. Yes, dears, the paint will have to be +touched up. It won’t require newly painting, because, you see, it has +been white, and it is not in very bad condition. So have it entirely +done, Alfie—ceiling, walls, paint—then give them a sum of money, just +enough for them to exercise their ingenuity in making it go the very +furthest.”</p> + +<p>“I’ll give you thirty pounds,” said Alfred Whittaker, slapping his +pocket and thrusting his hand into it with an air of firm determination. +“Thirty pounds after I have done the decoration, and no more. If you +can’t make a room look smart with thirty pounds, you don’t deserve to +have a room of your own.”</p> + +<p>“All right, daddy. Thank you very much,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“Yes, daddy dear, we’ll make it do very nicely,” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>And then they sat down to hold another council of war.</p> + +<p>“Maudie,” said Julia, “thirty pounds won’t go very far.”</p> + +<p>“No,” replied Maudie. “We can’t possibly buy a carpet under ten pounds +for a room of that size.”</p> + +<p>“Well, then, I’ll tell you what we’ll do—we’ll polish the floor, and +we’ll have two or three nice rugs. We shall get them for about a guinea +or <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>thirty shillings apiece. And we must go in for bamboo.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I hate bamboo,” Maudie cried.</p> + +<p>“We could enamel it white.”</p> + +<p>“H’m—bamboo enamelled white,” said Maudie, dubiously; “it doesn’t sound +particularly fascinating.”</p> + +<p>“Well, that was rather a nice stand we saw up at Derry & Tom’s the other +day, wasn’t it, with three sticks of bamboo arranged so as to hold a pot +in the middle? Enamelled white it would be rather fetching, particularly +if we had a nice trailing plant in it. Then we’ve got to get a fender; +and they’ve got some lovely basket chairs at Barker’s, I know they have; +and I saw some tables at two-and-eleven in a shop down the High +Street—I don’t know what the name is. Oh, we shall find it easy enough; +you can do a good deal at furnishing a room when you can get a table for +two-and-eleven.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I daresay you’re right. You’ve got a wonderful headpiece, Ju. +Then, I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll get our room papered and +painted, and then we’ll have the floor done up—that’s all quite plain +sailing—and then we shall be better able to decide whether we’ll have a +small square of carpet or two or three rugs. We needn’t have very +expensive ones; it isn’t as if we had got a lot of boys to come clumping +about with muddy boots, is it?”</p> + +<p>“No, there’s something in that. And I’ll tell you what, Maudie—if we +have chintz for the curtains, we could have chintz covers for the big +old couch and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>the large armchair that we had in the room from the +beginning. One thing is very certain,” Julia continued impressively, +“that we shall have to weigh every penny before we spend it.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>THE GIRLS’ DOMAIN</h3> + +<p class="center">We learn most through our mistakes.</p> + +<p>You know what the British workman is. Believe me, that the particular +specimen of the British workman who haunts Northampton Park has no fewer +sins than his fellow who inhabits the heart of London. The days dragged +on, dragged on, dragged on. Oh, that lovely sitting-room of Maudie and +Julia Whittaker’s imagination, day by day it seemed as if it was +receding further and further into the Never-Never-Land.</p> + +<p>First of all, there was a difficulty about the paper. After a week’s +delay, various samples of paper were submitted to them, papers that were +marvellously cheap, marvellously dainty. The choice being left entirely +to the girls, it fell upon one at two-and-four the piece. It was an +elegant paper; stripes of white satin alternated with a wide white rib, +upon which were flung at regular intervals delicate bouquets of banksia +roses and violets. The ribbon which tied each bouquet and meandered on +to the next was of the most delicate blue. The ceiling was of embossed +white satin (apparently), and the frieze, which was rather <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>deep, was +composed of long festoons of the tiny roses caught at intervals with +bunches of violets. Oh, it was a lovely paper! But they had to wait for +it. For some occult reason, best known to the decorator who had +undertaken the work of transforming that particular room at Ye +Dene—which, by-the-bye, the girls determined to christen the +<i>parloir</i>—that particular paper was out of stock. Impatient Julia +suggested that they should choose another one, but the decorator blandly +informed her that it was such a favorite with fashionable people in the +West End that the manufacturers were reprinting, and he expected the +consignment for their room—which he had already ordered—to arrive at +any moment.</p> + +<p>And the days went by after the manner of days when there is a little +house-decorating on hand. The decorator suggested that they could get on +with the rest of the work, so on a duly-appointed day several gentlemen, +dressed in lily-white garments, arrived and began to work their will +upon the empty room. They swept the chimney—not the lily-white +gentlemen, but a black one who seemed to be on friendly terms with them; +they tore off the existing paper and they washed the ceiling, and then +they went away and thought about things. They thought about things for +several days, until at last the Whittaker girls hied them to the head +office and made representation to the master of the business. Then they +came and papered half the ceiling.</p> + +<p>“How lovely it looks, doesn’t it?” said Maudie to Julia.</p> + +<p>“It would look lovelier if it were all done. I expect <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>we shall have to +go and fetch them to paper the other half.”</p> + +<p>It was quite true. But still, bit by bit, the room progressed towards a +thing of beauty, and at length, after a period of about five weeks, the +foreman in charge of the work announced in a tone of triumph that they +had come to bid the household at Ye Dene adieu. He didn’t put it in +those words, my reader, but that was his meaning.</p> + +<p>“I am sure we are very much obliged to you,” said Julia. “You have been +a very long time about it.”</p> + +<p>“Well, lady, the workman gets blamed when the blame belongs to somebody +else. You see, we had to wait for the paper, and when we got the paper +we had to wait for the frieze, and then when we got the frieze we had to +wait for that bit of paint just to finish off the doors. Still, it’ll +last much longer because it has been slow in doin’.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, really, will it?” said Julia, rather taken aback. “Oh, I’m glad of +that, because, of course, as it takes such a long time doing, one +doesn’t want to be often turned out of one’s room for so long. Thank you +so much. Would you like a glass of beer?”</p> + +<p>“Well, lady, a glass of beer never comes amiss to a man at the end of a +hard day’s work,” rejoined the foreman. “Me and my mates thank you very +much.”</p> + +<p>So Julia called to one of the servants and ordered “Beer for these +gentlemen” with a lavish air which the more frugal Regina might not have +approved had she happened to be at home. Regina was, however, at that +moment gracing with her dignified presence a platform devoted at that +hour to the restriction of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>sale of strong drinks, and the incident +never came to her knowledge.</p> + +<p>“Now, Maudie,” said Julia, “have you any suggestions to make?”</p> + +<p>Maudie stood looking round and round the room which was to be their +especial domain.</p> + +<p>“It’s awfully pretty,” she said. “Well, as to suggestions, I should +suggest that we get the floor done before we do anything else.”</p> + +<p>“Yes. And then I suggest that we choose the chintz,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“I like cretonne better than chintz,” replied Maudie.</p> + +<p>“No, cretonne is like flannelette at fourpence-ha’penny a yard—looks +like the loveliest flannel, and you make up your blouse and think you +have got a treasure that’s going to last you for six weeks without +washing. You find out your mistake in about six days, and when you send +it to the wash, it comes back as rough as a badger and can never be worn +more than once afterwards. No, dear girl, let us have chintz.”</p> + +<p>“I suppose,” said Maudie, “if you want chintz you’ll have chintz.”</p> + +<p>“Well, we’ll go up to the High Street to-morrow morning and we’ll look +at both—”</p> + +<p>“Excuse me making so bold,” said a voice at the door, “but if I might be +allowed to speak to you ladies—”</p> + +<p>They both turned with a start. The foreman, politely pressing the back +of his hand across his lips, was standing in the hall. “Well?” they said +in the same breath.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>“If I might make so bold, ladies, as to suggest, our guv’nor is a one-er +on chintzes.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, really?”</p> + +<p>“Loose covers is his special’ty—his special’ty.” He again passed the +back of his hand across his lips. “Thank you very much for the drink, +ladies. It was very welcome. If I might make so bold as to—”</p> + +<p>“You had better have another,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“I’m not saying no, miss. It’s very polite of you, and I accepts it as +it’s offered. If I might make so bold, I would suggest that I just speak +to the guv’nor as I go past the head office, and he’d send his book of +patterns up in the morning. He could send them up and then you could +look at them in the room itself. It’s always more satisfactory than +seeing them at a distance. It isn’t everyone,” the foreman went on, +“that can hold a scheme of color in the heye and carry it to a shop +miles away, and take the exact match of it.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Maudie, “I suppose not.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I can,” said Julia, with decision. “If there’s one thing I can +do, it is to carry a scheme of color in my eye; but at the same time you +might as well tell Mr. Broxby to send in his book of chintz patterns, +and we’ll have a look at them. But who shall we get to make them?”</p> + +<p>“Makin’ loose covers is one of Mr. Broxby’s special’ties,” said the +foreman. He turned and held out his glass that he might have it +refilled. “My respects to you, ladies,” he said politely, raising his +glass towards the two girls, “my respects to you. It isn’t often that a +man in my position <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>finishes a job with such pleasure as it’s been to us +fellows to do this ’ere room for you young ladies, and if I can put any +little tip in your way, it’s a great pleasure to me to do it.”</p> + +<p>“Thank you,” said Julia. “You are very kind. You have done the room +beautifully, we are most satisfied. And if you’ll tell Mr. Broxby to +send us his chintzes to-morrow morning, we can look at them.”</p> + +<p>Then began another period of waiting. Mr. Broxby arrived himself with +the books of patterns. He viewed the great roomy old couch on which for +years the girls had played, and which they had, as Julia frankly said, +used abominably, and he made one or two suggestions for adding to its +comfort at no great outlay of money. And finally they chose a chintz for +the curtains of the three windows, and for covers for the couch and the +large armchair. The cost thereof was a question into which Mr. Broxby +found it difficult to go.</p> + +<p>“I couldn’t exactly say, Miss Whittaker, what the price will be, but it +won’t be very much,” he remarked. “You see, cretonne is cheaper than +chintz, that is why so many people chooses cretonne in preference to the +other; but when you come to the question of wear—why, chintz has it all +its own way.”</p> + +<p>“Just what I said,” said Julia, “just what I said. Well, now, look here, +Maudie, we’ll have this chintz, and as to the cost—well, we must leave +it to Mr. Broxby’s honor that he doesn’t ruin us. If you ruin us,” she +said, “you won’t get your bill paid as soon, or nearly as soon, as if +you keep the prices down. Our father has given us a sum of money to do +this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>room up with. He pays for the papering, but he gives us a fixed +sum of money for everything else, and if you charge us too much you’ll +have to leave half your bill till next year.”</p> + +<p>“And who’ll pay it then?” asked Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, you and I will have to pay it.”</p> + +<p>“I see.”</p> + +<p>Now Maudie was a careful soul who detested procrastination: at any time +she preferred to go out in a pair of extremely dirty gloves rather than +procure others by forestalling her next quarter’s money (for I must tell +you that for several years these girls had had a small allowance paid +quarterly which provided them with gloves and ties).</p> + +<p>Then there set in another period of waiting. The chintz, like the +wall-paper, was not in stock, and on learning this fact the two girls +went round and explained to Mr. Broxby that they would just as soon +choose another.</p> + +<p>“Now, young ladies, if you would allow me to advise you,” said Mr. +Broxby—“it’s the same thing to me, of course—but if you would allow me +to advise you, I should say wait and have the chintz that exactly suits +your wall-paper. There isn’t another chintz in the book that exactly +goes with the wall-paper. If you chance on one that clashes with the +paper, well, your room is spoilt at once. I’ll hurry them on all I know, +but I must say that it will give me more satisfaction to make things up +with a legitimate end in view.”</p> + +<p>“There’s something in that,” said Maudie. “I should wait.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p><p>“Very well,” said Julia, “but if I have to wait another five weeks, all +I can say is, Mr. Broxby, that I shall come every morning and I shall +worry you until we do get the covers.”</p> + +<p>“Young ladies, you will not come too often to please me,” said Mr. +Broxby, gallantly. At which the two girls laughed, and literally took to +their heels and fled.</p> + +<p>I won’t say that they waited quite five weeks for the chintz, but they +did have to wait; and when at length Mr. Broxby announced that he had +received the chintz, they had to wait yet a little time longer while the +curtains and covers were put together.</p> + +<p>“But doesn’t it look sweet now it’s done?” said Julia. “Isn’t it sweet? +Yes, it’s true they’ve cost a lot—you’re quite right there, Maudie; and +they’ll make a big hole in our thirty pounds. Of course, we ought to +have an Aubusson carpet, but we can’t possibly afford that.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Maudie, shaking her head resolutely, “that is certain, as +certain as that one day we shall both die. The best thing we can do is +to go for one of those square things we saw at Barker’s the other +day—‘cord squares,’ I think they called them.”</p> + +<p>“I wanted a carpet our feet would sink in,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“You can’t have it, my dear. Besides, it wouldn’t be much in keeping +with a girls’ room. Have a pretty dark blue cord square. We shall get it +for about three pounds. We shall have endless bother with people +slipping about and smashing things if we try and make these boards look +like parquet.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p><p>“You don’t slip on parquet as you do on boards,” said Julia. “You see, +we haven’t very much left, and we must have two big basket chairs, a +couple of small chairs, and a stool or two; and we must have a +writing-table. And then we haven’t got any sort of an over-mantel, no +sort of a looking-glass, and no pictures, so say nothing of a stand or +two to put plants in. I don’t see where it is all coming from—still +less the piano. Oh, I haven’t given up all idea of the piano. That we +must squeeze out of our dress allowance.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t think,” said Maudie, “that we could put the piano off for +another year?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Julia, decidedly, “it’s no good spoiling the ship for a +ha’porth of tar.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>A WEIGHTY BUSINESS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>I have always had a tender feeling about the great Idiot Asylum +which teaches its children by means of keeping shop, with real +pennies and real sweeties.</p></div> + +<p>Now if there was one thing on which Julia Whittaker prided herself, it +was that she could carry color in her eye. A great many people have the +same belief, and it is a point upon which a very large number entirely +deceive themselves.</p> + +<p>On the very afternoon of the day that they had decided on the chintz for +the curtains and covers, the sisters hied themselves to that part of +London which is familiarly known as “the High Street.” Knowing that +their mother would be away from the Park during all the hours which +intervened between breakfast and dinner, so the girls determined that +they would get something which would serve as lunch in one of the large +shops in Kensington High Street which catered for that particular meal. +Thus they had several hours before them for selection and consideration.</p> + +<p>“Maudie,” said Julia, as they walked into the carpet room at John +Barker’s, “there’s one thing we’ve never given a thought to.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p><p>“What’s that?” asked Maudie.</p> + +<p>“The blinds. And, mind you, the blinds will cost us a pretty penny.”</p> + +<p>“Won’t those we have do?” Maudie suggested.</p> + +<p>“Oh Maudie!”</p> + +<p>“No, I suppose they won’t,” Maudie admitted.</p> + +<p>“Of course,” Julia went on, “mother was right enough when she had those +green blinds to match the bedrooms at the back of the house—they were +quite good enough for a playroom, but they would be horrid for us. Well, +that keeps us down to the idea of a cord for the carpet. We want to look +at carpets,” she said to a gentlemanly young man who came up asking her +pleasure. “No, nothing so expensive as that,” she continued, casting +reflective eyes upon a very beautiful carpet square. “We want something +that will be—I think you call them a cord—something in deep blue, or +deep crimson, or a rich green.”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid,” said the young man, shaking his head doubtfully, “that we +haven’t anything quite in those colors. We have a blue, and we have a +terra-cotta. What size, madam?”</p> + +<p>Well, I needn’t go through the process of buying a cheap carpet. The +transaction ended by the two girls purchasing a carpet which, as Julia +remarked, was really almost too ugly for words. It was not an ugly +carpet as carpets for that price go—it would have been admirable in a +bedroom, but for a sitting-room with a delicate Louis XV paper, with +exquisite chintzes to match, it was certainly not a little out of +keeping.</p> + +<p>“After all, the carpet doesn’t matter,” said Julia, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>with an air of +making the best of it, “so long as it’s unobtrusive and neat.”</p> + +<p>“I believe plain felt would have been the best,” said Maudie, eyeing the +carpet with much disfavor.</p> + +<p>“They don’t wear, do they?” said Julia, appealing to the young man.</p> + +<p>“No, a felt carpet doesn’t wear, madam. It sweeps up into a good deal of +fluff, and it’s apt to induce moths in the house, and we really don’t +find them very satisfactory. It looks very nice at first,” he ended with +a flourish, as if their brains were enough to fill up the rest of the +sentence.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I think so, too. Well, we’ll have it, Maudie, eh? It will do for +us to begin with,” she added in a whisper. “Now tell us, where are the +blinds?”</p> + +<p>“I can show you the blinds, madam. They are in the other end of the +department.”</p> + +<p>I must confess that the blinds were another blow. Mind you there were +five windows to provide for—two single windows and a large bay of three +lights.</p> + +<p>“These blinds are ruinous,” remarked Maudie, as the young man drew down +one rich linen and lace specimen after another.</p> + +<p>“I am afraid,” said Julia, “we must have something more simple than +that.”</p> + +<p>“A good blind, madam, is worth its money. Blinds don’t wear out like +carpets,” said the young gentleman. “I should personally recommend this +one. Yes, it is rather dear to begin with, but it gives the window an +air, and it will clean again and again and again. Perhaps your house is +in a very smoky district.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span></p><p>“No, it isn’t. We live in Northampton Park.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, then I should recommend these—I should really. They will be more +satisfaction to you afterwards. A carpet is a very different thing. You +are walking on a carpet every day, and it’s hidden by other things, but +blinds, unless you are having curtains quite stretched across the +window, blinds are always in view. Really, I should recommend these.”</p> + +<p>And eventually they did buy them; and then they bade their tempter adieu +and went across the road to look into furniture. Well, the furnishing of +a room is always more or less a matter of taste, a matter of individual +taste, I may say, and the two girls that afternoon displayed their +individual taste in a most extraordinary manner. They bought the most +curious and unnecessary articles. First of all they fell in love with a +most elaborate over-mantel, which was ready to be enameled in any color +that the purchaser desired, or which might be stained to simulate oak. +For its centre it had a square of looking-glass with beveled edges, and +it had many little cupboards and shelves and pillars. It was a most +elaborate creation. Then Maudie fell in love with a couple of Japanese +vases. They were exceedingly meretricious in their art; they were the +most modern specimens of that style of Japanese handicraft which is +produced exclusively for the English market. The English have much to +answer for, and the prostitution of Japanese art, like the prostitution +of art in India, is among the sins for which one day England will surely +be called upon to justify herself. The price of these vases was +twelve-and-nine-pence. You know perhaps <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>what it is to buy your first +piece of porcelain, either new or old. It’s like that first downward +step out of the rigid paths of honesty which leads eventually to the +gallows. The Whittaker girls took the step at a jump.</p> + +<p>The consequences were disastrous. Oh, the rubbish they bought that day, +the absurd little tables that turned over almost with being looked at, +the ridiculous plant stands, the preposterous little cupboards for +hanging on the wall. Then they must needs have a horrible curtain of +reeds and beads and string, and a three-fold screen, which was a marvel +of cheapness because it was the last one left in stock. Then their taste +went to Venetian glass—such Venetian glass!—some modern faïence from +Rouen, and some Wedgewood which surely would cause the originator of +that great art to turn in his grave could he have beheld it. Fans they +bought also, and a gypsy pot for a coal pan, and then they remembered +that they must have a fender, and they did themselves rather nicely in a +black curb with a brass railing. Then they reminded each other that they +must have a set of fireirons, and then they went off to see the basket +chairs.</p> + +<p>“They’re very ugly,” said Maudie.</p> + +<p>“And they’re not very comfortable,” rejoined Julia. “But there, we have +spent such a lot of money already that we certainly must get our chairs +before we think of anything else.”</p> + +<p>“And we have no small chairs.”</p> + +<p>“No, we haven’t. I don’t know where we shall <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>get small chairs—we can’t +possibly afford expensive ones.”</p> + +<p>“If I were you, ladies, I should go and look in the second-hand +furniture department,” suggested the young lady who was convoying them +round the basket department.</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s a good idea. We might pick up some odd chairs there. That’s +a good idea,” said Julia. “Well, then, Maudie, if we have those two big +lounge chairs and those two little occasional chairs, that ought to do +us very well.”</p> + +<p>“Will you have them cushioned, madam?”</p> + +<p>“Cushioned? Of course we ought to have them cushioned. Is there much +difference in the price?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, madam, not very much. Cushions in a pretty cretonne are quite +inexpensive.”</p> + +<p>So eventually, without any reference either to the carpet or the +wall-paper, or the chintz curtains and covers, they chose a pretty +cretonne of a nice salmon-pink shade. And then they went to the +second-hand department and looked out two or three occasional chairs, +which were in reality the most sensible purchases that they made.</p> + +<p>I wish I could adequately paint the scene the following morning, when +the van conveying all the purchases, with the exception of the blinds +and the chairs, which had still to be cushioned, drew up at the door of +Ye Dene. First of all came the carpet, which was promptly laid down and +tacked into position.</p> + +<p>“It clashes with everything,” said Maudie, quite tragically.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think it does. It goes quite well with that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>blue in the +wall-paper. I carried the color in my eye,” said Julia. “And, after all, +it won’t show much. There’s a lot to go on it.”</p> + +<p>And true enough, compared with the other things, the carpet was +absolutely inoffensive.</p> + +<p>“You would like the over-mantel put up, lady?” said the workman who laid +the carpet.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I think so.”</p> + +<p>“You wouldn’t like to have it enameled first?”</p> + +<p>“No, I think we’ll keep it as it is,” Julia replied. “Don’t you think +so, Maudie?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes,” said Maudie, in a voice of complete despair, “keep it as it +is.”</p> + +<p>Honestly, I do not know how to describe this room, the room that had +started so well. With a few articles of real Louis Quinze furniture to +give it a tone, and the rest decently shrouded in the exquisite chintz +which the girls had chosen, the room might have been one whose equal was +not to be found in the length and breadth of the Park. As it was, it +ended by having the air of a bazaar stall, put together by somebody who +did not properly understand the business.</p> + +<p>“There, that looks awfully nice and cosy behind the couch,” said Julia, +eyeing with much satisfaction the three-fold screen, which was of a +vivid scarlet embroidered in garish colors. “At least it will do when +the couch gets its pretty new frock on.”</p> + +<p>“And what are you going to do with this?” asked Maudie, holding up a +mass of bright-colored beads and string depending from a lath.</p> + +<p>“I thought we would hang it over that window.”</p> + +<p>“But you want them over all the windows.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p><p>“Well, do you know I really don’t know what we did have that for. Look +here, we’ve gone on the conventional line in this room, let’s start and +have something that’s not at all conventional. We’ll hang it on one side +of the bay window—yes, just up there.”</p> + +<p>“Well, we can’t fix it up ourselves. We’ll have to get one of Broxby’s +men to come in.”</p> + +<p>“It will look awfully well,” said Julia, “and it will screen off that +part of the room. Maudie,” she went on, breaking off sharp as a new idea +struck her, “what on earth were we thinking of? We ought to have had a +window seat.”</p> + +<p>“That would have been a good idea—I wonder we never thought of it,” +Maudie cried.</p> + +<p>“Well, we can’t now,” said Julia in a very matter-of-fact tone, “because +we haven’t any money left. As it is, I don’t believe thirty pounds will +cover all we spent yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“Neither do I, for when the blinds come you’ll find they will be ever so +much dearer than we bargained for. Shall we stand this tall bamboo thing +for plants here?”</p> + +<p>“Yes—just in front of where the reed and bead curtain is to go. Well, +then, since we haven’t a window seat,” Julia went on, “we must put one +of the big wicker chairs there.”</p> + +<p>“But who’s going to sit there alone?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, we can put a small occasional chair beside it. The man can sit on +that.”</p> + +<p>“And a table?”</p> + +<p>“Yes—oh yes, I should put a table for their tea-cups. Well, then, when +the piano comes—and by-the-bye <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>don’t forget we have to go up to-day +and choose it—when the piano comes, what do you say to standing it out +here?”</p> + +<p>“It would not look bad.”</p> + +<p>“And this wicker chair like that—a little table there—”</p> + +<p>“Oh, it will be exquisite! There won’t be another room in the Park like +it.”</p> + +<p>“And there are all these things, Julia,” said Maudie, looking down upon +a great dust-sheet on which were spread the rest of their many +purchases. “I don’t know where we shall put everything. All these little +knick-knacks and odds and ends, they are awfully quaint and funny and +pretty, but I’m sure I don’t know what we are to do with them. Here, you +have got the eye; you must say just where they are to go.”</p> + +<p>And Julia, having the eye, did say where they were to go; in fact, with +her own energetic hands she spread them about the room—crawling +beetles, grinning devils, spotted cats with exaggerated green eyes, odds +and ends of pottery, glass and porcelain.</p> + +<p>“Do you think we need have that over-mantel enameled?” she asked Maudie +at last.</p> + +<p>“No, I should have it stained black—ebonized, that’s the word,” said +Maudie, looking round. “As it is, the room is too new, too ornate, too +dazzlingly modern. There isn’t a touch of shadow in it anywhere—it’s +like a face without any eyelashes.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>AMBITIONS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Many people look upon mental blindness as they do upon physical +blindness—as a terrible affliction. Yet, when the mentally blind +suddenly see, their condition is not usually improved thereby.</p></div> + +<p>If the Whittaker girls had been unpopular as children, they certainly +made up for it, so far as Northampton Park was concerned, when they +became young women. The innovation of having an At Home day of their +own, at which their mother made a point of not appearing, was so daring +that every girl in the Park made it her duty to be present thereat, and +when it was bruited abroad that it was really a girl’s At Home, with no +overshadowing mothers and such like sober persons, that the girls had +their own room and their own tea-things, and excellent provision in the +way of cakes, and that cigarettes were allowed after six o’clock, then +not only the girls, but also their brothers, soon came flocking into Ye +Dene in considerable numbers. The whole winter did this state of things +continue, until the At Home days at Ye Dene were no longer a nine days’ +wonder but an established fact.</p> + +<p>Then Maudie and Julia began to meet with other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>girls further afield +than their own immediate vicinity, girls who were connections or friends +of the girls who lived in the Park, and invitations began to shower in +upon Regina’s daughters. They were perfectly independent—Regina wished +them to be so, and prided herself on the fact that they were so—and as +their comings and goings did not interfere with the comfort of their +father, Alfred Whittaker saw nothing to which he could frame any +reasonable objection in his daughters’ mode of life.</p> + +<p>It happened one afternoon that the two girls were having tea and muffins +in their own sitting-room. It was just before Easter, that week when the +tide of suburban entertaining lulls a little, and the two were sitting +by a blazing fire in big wicker chairs drawn close up to the fender, the +low Moorish tea-table conveniently placed between them.</p> + +<p>“Maudie,” said Julia, suddenly, “I think we shall have to pull up.”</p> + +<p>“Pull up! why?” Maudie’s tone was blank, for she herself had a +particular reason for not wanting to pull up in any shape or form just +then.</p> + +<p>“We’re getting too cheap,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“Cheap! and we’ve spent nearly all our dress allowance!” Maudie +exclaimed.</p> + +<p>“I don’t mean cheap in that way. No, we’re getting cheap socially. +Anybody thinks they can come to our days and bring anyone they like, and +we do half the entertaining of the Park for people who do nothing for +us.”</p> + +<p>“It makes us popular,” said Maudie, helping herself to another piece of +muffin.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, yes, but is such popularity worth it?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know.”</p> + +<p>“Are we going on right through the season?”</p> + +<p>“Well, you know, Ju, the season doesn’t make much difference to us.”</p> + +<p>“It’s going to,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“Is it going to this season?” Maudie demanded. “That’s the question—is +it going to this season?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t see why not. We’ve got any amount of invitations for next +month, and not more than a third of them are in the Park. A third? A +quarter, I should say. Now I’ll tell you what I propose doing.”</p> + +<p>“Well?”</p> + +<p>“I propose, as it is the regulation thing to do, to chuck our ‘day’ +until next autumn.”</p> + +<p>“Julia!” Maudie was so taken back that she was surprised into giving her +sister her full name, the diminutive thereof not seeming to express +sufficiently what was in her mind.</p> + +<p>“You may say ‘Julia,’ but my head is screwed on the right way. I suppose +I shall never get mother and the dad to move away from Ye Dene.”</p> + +<p>“From the Park?”</p> + +<p>“Yes. We have got too much of the Park about us. It’s all Park. Dad is +very well off, mother has money of her own—why shouldn’t we go and live +in Kensington? We could shunt all these Park people, excepting just the +best—those we have been the most intimate with—and get into a real +good set. What’s the use of having a well-off father and a very +distinguished mother if we hide our light under a bushel in such a place +as this?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p><p>“The people that live here are just as good as we are.”</p> + +<p>“Well, perhaps they are, and perhaps they’re not, Maudie,” Julia +retorted sharply. “If we satisfy them, I’m quite sure they don’t satisfy +me. I don’t believe myself in sitting on the bottom rung of the ladder +when you can easily and comfortably climb up to the top.”</p> + +<p>“But shall we ever get to the top?”</p> + +<p>“No, never; that means strawberry leaves. But there are a dozen reasons +for getting out of Ye Dene. In the first place, the dad has to get up at +an ungodly hour in the morning so as to get to his office at the usual +time. Mother spends half her life in the train, and you know neither of +them are as young as they were. I went up to town with mother yesterday, +and I’m sure it was pitiful to see her dragging herself up those steep +station stairs. She ought to be able to get into a cab and go to her +meetings, a woman of her substance.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps. But we shall never get a house like this—never, never, Ju. We +shall have to do without our own sitting-room, or else have a little box +somewhere at the back of the house, looking into a yard. We shall have +to have clean curtains every fortnight like the Brookeses. We shall have +to sleep up on the third or fourth story—and it will all be horrid, +horrid, horrid!”</p> + +<p>“Not at all. My dear, there are plenty of houses quite as good as this +in Kensington.”</p> + +<p>“They’ll be three times the rent.”</p> + +<p>“Not a bit of it, not the least bit of it. Look <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>at that house where the +Ponsonby-Piggots live; garden—charming garden, tea-house at the end, +greenhouse, shrubs, lawn, three lovely sitting-rooms on the entrance +floor, and only two stories above. We don’t want a castle with eight or +nine bedrooms—what should we do with them? <i>Why, the Ponsonby-Piggots +keep fowls!</i>”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, I suppose you’ll have your own way. You had better talk to +mother about it.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve learned a lot from the Ponsonby-Piggots,” Julia went on. “They +don’t just trust to tea and cakes and cigarettes, and a song or two, to +make them somebody. Each of those three plain girls—and <i>that’s</i> rather +paying them a compliment—has got some special line of her own. Gwenny +is engaged to the ugliest man in London, and she makes a parade of +having his presentment everywhere—statuettes, photographs, pastels, +miniatures, everything you can think of—to bring the man into +prominence. And he hasn’t got twopence; and though he’s a gentleman, +they probably won’t be able to marry for the next ten years. Theo +collects Napoleon relics. Didn’t you notice that the end of their +sitting-room is devoted to Napoleon?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I did, but I didn’t know why,” said Maudie in rather a wondering +tone.</p> + +<p>“Well, that’s why. And Stella, the little one with the curley red hair, +she collects half-a-dozen things—postcards, autographs, souvenir +teaspoons, and old lustre ware. These girls only have an allowance of +forty pounds a year for their dresses—each, I mean,” <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>she added +hurriedly. “And if they want more they make it.”</p> + +<p>“But how?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, in various ways. Gwenny, I believe, is secretary to a big doctor up +in town. She only has to attend from ten till five, and she gets a +rousing good salary, and she’s putting it all away towards house +furnishing. Then Theo, she does a bit of journalism, and Stella, well, +she’s the most original of all. She’s a regular little Jew.”</p> + +<p>“How do you mean—regular little Jew?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’s always chopping and changing among her collections. She made +a hundred and twenty pounds last year in selling things at a thoroughly +good profit that she had picked up for nothing. If her mother would let +her, she’d go into a flat with Theo and open a regular business. But +Mrs. Ponsonby-Piggot says that the girls have plenty of money for their +needs, and always will have.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if so, why should they? You wouldn’t like to open a shop?”</p> + +<p>“I’d do anything rather than stick in the mud,” said Julia, “anything in +the wide world.”</p> + +<p>“Stick in the mud!” echoed Maudie. “And this is all that has come of +mother’s higher education!”</p> + +<p>“Well, mother higher-educated herself. She made a huge mistake, and +nobody knows it better than mother. She is up in all sorts of learned +and abstruse subjects that she has never been able to turn to account in +any shape or form, and the ordinary things that women ought to know she +is perfectly ignorant of. Fancy setting mother to make a pie!”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p><p>“Fancy setting <i>you</i> to make a pie,” retorted Maudie.</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, I’ve been thinking it wouldn’t be half a bad idea if we were +to enter at the Park Polytechnic and take a course of dressmaking, +another of millinery, another of cooking, and, for the matter of that, +we might take a fourth at housekeeping.”</p> + +<p>“How should we get it all in?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, that’s easy enough. You pay two guineas a year, and you can +join any class you like. The classes are going on all day long, so Rita +Mackenzie tells me, and you pay sixpence each as a sort of entrance +fee.”</p> + +<p>“Then we couldn’t do that if we left Ye Dene.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, but we sha’n’t leave Ye Dene to-day, nor to-morrow—I never thought +of that for a moment. But if we once graft into the dad’s head that it +is possible we may one day want to leave Ye Dene, he’ll put himself in +the right channel for getting good offers for it. Don’t make any mistake +about the value of Ye Dene. It’s freehold, it is in the main road, and +it is in the best position in the main road. It’s in perfect repair +inside and out. I don’t believe, if the dad was to put it in the hands +of two or three good agents, that we should be here two months.”</p> + +<p>“What is Rita Mackenzie going in for?”</p> + +<p>“House decoration. My dear, I went in to see her yesterday—I forgot to +tell you; it was when you were over at the Marksbys’. You know there’s a +studio to their house?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes.”</p> + +<p>“Well, her father has made it over to her. She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>took a course of +lessons, and she’s decorated it herself. It’s a dream!” said Julia. +“When I look round this room and think of Rita’s, it makes me feel +sick.”</p> + +<p>“What’s the matter with this room?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, what’s the matter! Just this, Maudie, that since we evolved this +room out of our own ignorant, vulgar minds, I’ve been getting educated.”</p> + +<p>“My dear, I thought we had finished our education long ago,” said +Maudie, somewhat taken aback.</p> + +<p>“That’s where your limitations come in, Maudie. If ever you get married, +you’ll find that you have everything to learn that will make life happy +and comfortable to you, unless you enter yourself at the Polytechnic +beforehand.”</p> + +<p>“I might do worse,” said Maudie, looking round. She honestly couldn’t +see, poor, prosaic girl that she was, that anything was amiss with their +own especial sanctum. It was bright, cheerful, dainty, and scrupulously +clean. There were evidences on all sides that it was a room in which +people lived a great share of their lives. A great Persian cat lay on a +blue velvet cushion on one side of the hearth, and a very presentable +black spaniel was curled up in a padded basket on the other. “I’m sure,” +she said, looking into the blazing depths of the fire, and then helping +herself to another piece of muffin, “I’m sure there’s not a prettier +room in the Park than ours.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my dear, don’t talk nonsense! It’s horrid. We’ve got a Louis Quinze +paper, Louis Quinze chintz, and make-believe Japanese bead and reed +curtains. We’ve got cheap bazaar rubbish all over the place, and not one +scrap of furniture worth calling furniture <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>in it. The carpet gets up +and hits the walls, and the walls in their turn slap the screen, and the +screen clashes with the chintz, and you and I clash with everything +else. Oh, it’s dreadful, it’s horrible!”</p> + +<p>“We’ve spent most of our dress allowance on it,” wailed Maudie.</p> + +<p>“That’s the piano. You know, Maudie, you would have a good one. And +by-the-bye,” she added, letting her remark fly into the air like a +bombshell, “and by-the-bye, if either of us gets married before the +piano is paid for, will the other poor wretch have to finish off the +payments by herself?”</p> + +<p>“Well, even if she does,” said Maudie, “the one that has to finish off +the payments will have the piano.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>TWOPENNY DINNERS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Possession to some natures seems always to demand value in what is +possessed; to others it has exactly the opposite effect.</p></div> + +<p>Julia duly implanted in her parents’ minds the preliminary idea that a +change from Ye Dene might be desirable. But the Whittakers did not leave +the Park just then, for it was only a few days after the conversation +between the two girls on the subject of removal, that quiet, unoriginal +Maudie cast a veritable bombshell into the family circle. For Maudie got +engaged to be married.</p> + +<p>I have spoken earlier in this story of a house in the immediate +neighborhood of Ye Dene which was called Ingleside, and I have just +mentioned a family of the name of Marksby. The Marksbys lived at +Ingleside, and Ingleside was almost exactly opposite to Ye Dene; the +Marksbys, indeed, were next-door neighbors of the M’Quades. They had not +very long been in possession of that desirable residence, and, mind you, +Ingleside was a most desirable residence, one of the best to be found in +the length and breadth of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>Park. The family consisted of the father +and mother, two daughters and a son. Mr. Marksby, as far as the Park was +concerned, was that mysterious “something in the city” which covers such +a multitude of sins, or if not sins, at least of blemishes, social and +otherwise. They did themselves and their neighbors extremely well, kept +good-class servants, had the smartest window curtains and flower-boxes +in the Park, went to church regularly, gave largely in charity and +entertained freely. What wonder that, in their case, people did not too +closely inquire into the exact definition of “something in the city.”</p> + +<p>From the very first it had been Maudie rather than Julia who had caught +on with the Marksbys. The Marksby girls were quiet and singularly +unassuming, and as Maudie Whittaker grew older she was attracted, +perhaps because of Julia’s excessive energy, by quietness rather than +the reverse, and was indeed herself a girl of singularly few words. But +if the Marksby girls were quiet, then young Harry Marksby did not share +their nature. He was himself the gayest of the gay, one who, a century +ago, would have been called an “agreeable rattle;” indeed he was a young +man who prided himself on stirring things up. He by no means approved of +the fact that his father and mother had turned their backs upon +convenient Bayswater in favor of the more distant Park. He was a young +man who worked hard when he worked, and who abandoned himself to +amusement when he was not working. But he was a sensible young man and +did not see the force of burning the candle at both ends, so that he +stayed a great deal more at home in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>evenings than many a young man +of his age and general proclivities would have done; and thus it was +that he came somehow to fall in love with Regina Whittaker’s eldest +girl. And, as I said, the news fell upon the Whittaker family like a +bombshell.</p> + +<p>Not that they were displeased! Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker had been too happy +in their own married life to grudge either of their girls entering upon +the same joys. But they had not seen it coming. Parents are often like +that, and so the news came upon them with startling suddenness.</p> + +<p>“I am not surprised, though,” said Regina to her husband and Julia when +the great news had been broached and Harry Marksby had gone to seek his +lady-love in the seclusion of the girls’ own sitting-room, “I am not +surprised. She is very beautiful.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, mother, how can you stuff her up like that?” cried Julia. “Nobody +thinks Maudie very beautiful but yourself—not even Harry. You shouldn’t +do it, dear. It gives us such a wrong idea of ourselves, or it might do +if we hadn’t got the sense to see what we see in our looking-glasses.”</p> + +<p>“Your modesty,” said Regina, “is most becoming. I honor and admire you +for it—”</p> + +<p>“I’m off to my housekeeping class,” said Julia, whisking herself out of +the room.</p> + +<p>“That is the most wonderful thing about our girls,” said Regina to +Alfred, when they found themselves alone, “that is the most wonderful +thing about our girls—their utter absence of self-consciousness. Beauty +has never been a bane to them, because they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>have never had a vain +thought between them. It is a beautiful and wonderful thing.”</p> + +<p>“They’re good-looking enough,” said Alfred, “but they’ll never, either +of them, be a patch upon you, dearest.”</p> + +<p>“Upon <i>me</i>?” She blushed rosy red in spite of her fifty and odd years. +“Why, Alfie, looks were never my strong point. They get their looks from +you.”</p> + +<p>“Nobody but yourself ever thought so, Queenie,” said Alfred Whittaker, +with an indulgent glance at his wife; “and everybody may not think of +our girls just as you do.”</p> + +<p>“And as you do, Alfie?”</p> + +<p>“And as I do. All the same, I don’t know that I should call them +beautiful myself. They’re good-looking, wholesome, straight, clean, +desirable girls, as good as gold and as merry as grigs. By the way,” he +added, “the Marksbys must be very well off.”</p> + +<p>“Indeed! What makes you think so?”</p> + +<p>“From what he told me of his circumstances.”</p> + +<p>“But what <i>are</i> the Marksbys?” asked Regina.</p> + +<p>“He’s in his father’s business.”</p> + +<p>“But what <i>is</i> his father’s business?”</p> + +<p>Alfred Whittaker stretched out his hand and took hold of his wife’s. +“Queenie,” he said, “we have never been very proud people, have we?”</p> + +<p>“I hope we have always had proper pride, and no more,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“He is a nice young chap,” Alfred went on, as if he were following out a +train of thought; “and Maudie seems to be very much taken with him—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p><p>“Alfie,” said Regina in a tone of apprehension, “you are trying to break +something to me.”</p> + +<p>“Well, in one sense, I am,” he said, smiling; “and on the other hand I +am not. Myself I believe in honest character and good solid comfort +before all other considerations, and I feel that you will be sensible +and do the same. Maudie has still to learn, as far as I know, the exact +nature of the way in which the Marksbys’ money is made.”</p> + +<p>“Go on,” said Regina, impatiently.</p> + +<p>“Well, to go on,” said Mr. Whittaker, “is to let the blow fall without +any further fuss.”</p> + +<p>“Let it fall!” cried Regina in a tone of tragedy.</p> + +<p>“Marksby,” returned Alfred, “is their private name. They trade under a +different one.”</p> + +<p>“Yes?”</p> + +<p>“And Marksby,” went on Alfred, slowly, “is the Twopenny Dinner King.”</p> + +<p>“The Twopenny Dinner King!” cried Regina. “You mean they sell twopenny +dinners?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Queenie—twopenny dinners. I’m told they are excellent—indeed, +young Harry told me so himself just now. He has invited me to go down +and have lunch with him one day, and he promises he will give me the +regular twopenny fare—not by way of entertaining me, but rather in +order to show me that it really could be done at such a price.”</p> + +<p>“And—and—does Harry wear an apron—and—and <i>serve</i> twopenny dinners?”</p> + +<p>“No, no! The concern’s too big for that,” Mr. Whittaker replied. “He has +never done anything of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>that kind. It’s a regular going concern—they +employ hundreds of hands, make all their own sausages, make their own +beef, mutton, veal, pork and ham pies, cook their own potatoes and green +vegetables. They’ve got about thirty of these shops—Bundaby’s Eating +Houses they are called. They must be coining money.”</p> + +<p>“<i>My</i> daughter married to a sausage-maker!” said Regina in a bewildered +tone.</p> + +<p>“There’s nothing in that,” Alfred Whittaker rejoined; “there’s nothing +in that, my dear girl, provided he makes his sausages good and wholesome +and enough of ’em. But I was afraid it would be a bit of a blow to you.”</p> + +<p>“My daughter—<i>my</i> daughter married to a sausage-maker!” Regina +repeated.</p> + +<p>“Now, come, come, Queenie, you mustn’t—you mustn’t—hang it all, I +don’t know what you mustn’t do! The girl fancies the boy, and he has +plenty of money. He’s a nice, gentlemanly chap, and she’ll live in +style. He’s going to have a motor car; she’ll live in far better style +than we’ve ever done.”</p> + +<p>“But you are not a sausage-maker,” said Regina. “Alfie, Alfie, I’m +afraid I couldn’t have married you if you had been a sausage-maker.”</p> + +<p>The word “sausage” seemed positively to stick in Regina’s throat.</p> + +<p>“Queenie,” said Alfred, “you know perfectly well that what I was had +nothing to do with your feelings towards me. If I had been a +crossing-sweeper—”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p><p>“Alfie,” said she, interrupting him, “a duke might sweep a crossing and +sweep it nobly, and remain a duke, unsullied and unsoiled; but a duke +would never make sausages!”</p> + +<p>“No, but sausages may make a duke,” said Alfred, promptly. “I know just +how you feel, my dear girl—I felt a sort of a lump come in my throat +myself when he told me—but he was frank and unashamed. I should hate +one of my girls to marry a man who was ashamed of his calling, whatever +it was.”</p> + +<p>“My noble Alfred!” cried Regina.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know that I’m particularly noble,” said Alfred. “I never feel +it if I am. I’m afraid it’s only your eyes that see me in such a light. +But I did feel a bit of a lump in my throat, a sort of extra big stone +in my gizzard, don’t you know. And then it came over me that it is the +girl’s own choice, and that it is not for me to damp it.”</p> + +<p>“But Maudie doesn’t know.”</p> + +<p>“In a way she does, and in another way she doesn’t. I asked young Harry +if he had told her the exact nature of his business. He said no, he +hadn’t. He had told her he was in business in the city, that they had a +great many branches, but he had not told her the exact nature of it. ‘We +never think about it,’ he said ‘excepting as the business; and if our +friends don’t know that Bundaby’s Eating Houses belong to us, well, we +don’t see why we should enlighten them.’”</p> + +<p>“If nobody knows—” began Regina.</p> + +<p>“Come, come, old lady, you’ll have to swallow it, and we shall have to +break it to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>the little girl, unless young Harry does it himself.”</p> + +<p>It was eleven o’clock before they had any opportunity of speaking on the +subject to Maudie; indeed, they were still talking the affair over when +they heard the pair come into the hall, and Maudie opened the door of +the room in which they were sitting.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I must go now,” said Harry Marksby. “I’ve got to be up so +fearfully early in the morning. To-morrow night I shall be able to stay +a bit later.”</p> + +<p>He came in, as he said, just to say good-night, and his way of saying +good-night to Maudie’s mother did a good deal to wipe the word “sausage” +off the slate of Regina’s impressionability.</p> + +<p>“I’ve only come in for a minute, Mrs. Whittaker,” he said. “I must be +off home, because I’ve got to be up awfully early in the morning. I made +half-a-dozen business appointments for to-morrow ever so early, before I +knew that Maudie and I would quite come to an understanding to-night. +May I come to-morrow evening?”</p> + +<p>“You may come whenever you like,” said Regina. “You had better begin, +Harry, as you mean to go on. I have no son of my own, and the young men +who take my girls away from me must not think they are going to rob me +of my daughters—on the contrary, they must make me forget that I never +had sons.”</p> + +<p>“I shall be very willing to do that,” Harry Marksby <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>returned. “I’ve +always managed to get on with my own mother all right, and I don’t see +why I shouldn’t get on with my mother-in-law. It won’t be my fault if I +don’t.”</p> + +<p>“I’m sure it won’t be mine,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“No, I’m sure it won’t,” said he heartily. “Well, good-night, Mrs. +Whittaker.” He bent down and kissed her just as frankly as if she had +been his own mother, and Regina choked a little as the boy and girl went +out of the room together.</p> + +<p>In a couple of minutes or so Maudie came back, came in with quite a rush +for one of her quiet nature, and flung herself down at her mother’s +feet.</p> + +<p>“I am so happy, mother dear,” she said. “You have been happy in your +married life, and you can understand what I feel. To-morrow will be a +great day for me. I’m going to meet Harry in Bond Street at four +o’clock, and we’re going to choose our ring together; and after that I’m +going right down to the city with him, and I’m going to have my tea at +one of the Bundaby shops. I always did think I should like to keep a +shop mother,” she went on, “you have heard me say so lots of times, but +I never thought that I should one day be at the head of at least +thirty!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>DETAILS</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>The young rush along the pathway of life cheerfully surmounting or +overturning every obstacle, while their more cautious elders look +on aghast at their nerve.</p></div> + +<p>When once Harry Marksby had taken the plunge and was accepted as a lover +of Maudie’s, he was determined not to let the grass grow under his feet. +May was then about three parts over, and Harry insisted that the wedding +should be, as he called it, “pulled off” before the end of July.</p> + +<p>“But why this hurry?” asked Regina, who, in spite of her modernity, +still retained some traces of her aboriginal ways of thought.</p> + +<p>“No hurry at all; but why waste time, Mrs. Whittaker?” said Harry. “What +is there to wait for? We have plenty of money. I always go away for +August, and, for an occasion like this, my father won’t think anything +of it if I take a good share of September too. A man only gets married +now and again, you know.”</p> + +<p>“But why not leave it till the autumn?”</p> + +<p>“Because I want to take Maudie for a good trip abroad. She wishes it—I +wish it. What do you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>say? Clothes? Oh, surely we needn’t consider a few +clothes. Get as little as she can do with for a continental trip—lay +the wedding gown up in lavender, and let Maudie buy the rest of her +things in Paris as we come home.”</p> + +<p>“There’s reason in it,” said Alfred Whittaker, from the depths of his +big chair.</p> + +<p>“I don’t like my daughter being married in such a hurry as this,” said +Regina, half hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>“But why? Hurried marriages are the fashion nowadays. Royalty pulls it +off in a couple of months or so—long engagements are out of date. I +knew a man once,” Harry went on—“I didn’t know him very well, but I met +him—who had been engaged to a girl for thirteen years, and they somehow +or other didn’t altogether hit it off when they did get married. There’s +nothing to be gained by waiting. You don’t really get to know one +another until the knot is actually tied. I know Maudie as well now as I +should know her if I was engaged to her for seven years.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t want you to wait seven years,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, I should hope not,” replied Harry.</p> + +<p>“But as many months—” began Regina, when Harry Marksby impetuously +interrupted her.</p> + +<p>“Oh no, Mrs. Whittaker,” he exclaimed. “Maudie would be worn to +fiddlestrings long before seven months were over. The end of July, if +you please. I can work all my business up to that point—then +everything’s slack, it’s a sort of off-time, so to speak—and I can go +away with a clear conscience and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>give my wife a ripping honeymoon—get +a ripping honeymoon myself, for the matter of that.”</p> + +<p>“You have decided where you want to go?” Regina inquired.</p> + +<p>“Yes, we’re going to Switzerland, taking the Rhine on our way and the +Italian lakes as we come back; get a fortnight in Paris, or if we drive +it too late for that, stay three or four days in Paris, and perhaps go +back again for a few days in the early autumn—if Maudie wants clothes, +that is to say.”</p> + +<p>“I sha’n’t,” said Maudie. “I am not going to get my dresses in Paris. +I’ve come to see now that we made fools of ourselves when we came home +from school with everything Parisian. They were horrid, and were a full +year in advance of the fashions here. I hate being a year ahead of the +fashions—it’s quite as bad as being two years behind them. I would much +rather not have all my things bought now, mother. I think Harry is quite +right. A couple of good tailor-dresses, a few muslins, my wedding dress, +and a tea-gown, and other things of that kind, are necessary, but I can +get my further trousseau as I want it.”</p> + +<p>“I call that a practical suggestion,” put in Alfred Whittaker.</p> + +<p>“Most practical,” agreed Harry. “That was why I was fascinated in the +first instance by Maudie—she is so practical.”</p> + +<p>“Do you want a wife to be altogether practical?” demanded Julia, while +Maudie looked up anxiously, as if her beloved Harry was about to find +some flaw in her.</p> + +<p>A most odd look flashed across the young man’s <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>keen face. “You’ll +understand one day,” he said, addressing Julia directly. “You’ll +understand, and you’ll sympathize with me. A fellow likes a wife who +knows how many beans make five. A fool has no charm for any man, except +he’s too big a black-guard to want his wife to find him out. As regards +frocks, and the spending of money, and the business side of life, a man +does like his wife to be altogether practical.”</p> + +<p>“That implies another side of the picture,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“Yes, it does. And the other side of the picture is me and those that +may come after me; and if a man is a straight, clean wholesome man, he +likes his wife to be altogether sentimental as regards him, and those +that come after him. You will understand me some day, Julia, my dear.”</p> + +<p>Maudie’s face dropped instantly, and something like the flash of +diamonds came into her eyes. She heaved a great sigh, a tremulous sigh, +not one of pain; and hearing it, Harry Marksby caught hold of her hand +and tried to pull her ring off. And Maudie began to laugh with those +tell-tale little twinkling drops bedewing her eyelashes, and Regina +looked on, much as an elephant might regard her offspring at play, with +a look which only required a little encouragement for her to put it into +words. And if that look had been put into words, they would have been +but three—“<i>My noble boy!</i>”</p> + +<p>“Ah, well,” said Julia, now busy a few yards away, “you are not half +good enough for our Maudie, Harry. You are taking away the biggest part +of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>my life, and of course you are very cock o’ whoop about it; but if +you’re not good to her, Harry, you will have to reckon with <i>me</i>.”</p> + +<p>“All right, I’ll be there when you want me,” Harry replied. “Then we may +take it, Mrs. Whittaker,” he continued, with a change of tone, “that the +end of July will be the date to work to?”</p> + +<p>“I suppose so,” said Regina, “if her father has no objection.”</p> + +<p>“I detest long engagements myself,” said Alfred Whittaker. “I never +could see the good of them. I was engaged much too long to you, my +dear.”</p> + +<p>“It was the happiest time of my life—” Regina began, somewhat +wistfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t say that,” her husband interrupted, “don’t say that. It might +have been happier than any time that went before—I know it was for +me—but at best it is only a foreshadowing, it’s only like water to +wine, like moonlight to sunlight. There, there, children,” he said, +flinging out his hands with a deprecating gesture, “there, there, your +old dad doesn’t often get so sentimental as that. The end of July let it +be, and after that we shall all go away and breathe freely.”</p> + +<p>As a matter of fact, after that Ye Dene became like a seething +whirlpool. Such a coming and going, such a dumping of parcels and +patterns and presents, such sending out of invitations and receiving of +congratulations there was, that more than once even Regina herself +admitted that two months was quite <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>long enough for a young couple to be +engaged in these modern days.</p> + +<p>The Marksby family were frankly and undeniably delighted and overjoyed +at the new state of affairs. They received Maudie with wide-open arms, +lavished their love and admiration and gifts upon her. Papa Marksby came +across to Ye Dene one evening, and was solemnly closeted with Alfred +Whittaker for the space of a whole hour, during which time they smoked +extremely long cigars, drank whisky-and-soda out of extremely long +tumblers, and went solemnly, although in very friendly fashion, into +extremely long figures.</p> + +<p>And then Alfred Whittaker introduced his future son-in-law’s father into +the circle in the drawing-room, and Papa Marksby informed Regina in a +voice of much satisfaction and some oiliness, that he and his good +friend and neighbor had settled all the little details of future ways +and means for the young couple.</p> + +<p>“Fifty thousand pounds, my dear Queenie,” said Alfred Whittaker, when he +found himself once more alone with his wife.</p> + +<p>“Fifty thousand pounds, Alfie? What do you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Fifty thousand pounds, as our neighbor across the road puts it, ‘to be +tied to Maudie’s tail!’”</p> + +<p>“You mean to say he’s going to settle fifty thousand pounds upon her?”</p> + +<p>“I do. Papa Marksby isn’t the man to do things by halves. He puts it +very clearly and in a very business-like manner, that he has set aside +the sum <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds to be divided equally, +on their marriage, between his two daughters and his prospective +daughter-in-law. He says he can well afford it, that it won’t affect the +business the least little bit in the world, and, whatever happens, the +three girls will always be safe, they and their children after them. +It’s a wonderful thing,” he went on, “that two girls like Rachel and +Emmeline Marksby, with fifty thousand pounds apiece to their fortune—to +their immediate fortune, one may say—should remain unmarried, and our +little Maudie, who hasn’t and never will have, more than a third of that +sum, should snap up a big prize as she has done.”</p> + +<p>“I knew they were well off,” said Regina, “I knew it in many ways as +soon as they came here, but I am not surprised that Maudie has made this +wealthy marriage. She is very beautiful—<i>very</i> beautiful. What +surprises me is that the Marksbys should turn out to have so much money. +He gave over a hundred pounds for her engagement ring, and next week +he’s going to buy her a diamond necklace. Think of <i>my</i> daughter with a +diamond necklace.”</p> + +<p>“That is as it should be,” said Alfred, complacently. “Even when it is +made out of sausages.”</p> + +<p>“Dear, dear, Alfie, how you do harp on those sausages!”</p> + +<p>“My dear, I went and lunched on them the other day—excellent, +excellent! Don’t know how they do it for the money. I saw the whole +process—went over the factory. Everything as clean as a new pin; you +could eat your dinner off the floor.”</p> + +<p>“I—I—don’t know,” said Regina. “It seems a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>little.—However, having +put my hand to the plough, I am not one to look back. Once my daughter +has married sausages, I will honor sausages!”</p> + +<p>“You will certainly be able to honor a good deal that sausages will give +her,” said Alfred Whittaker. “And now, Queenie, there’s a subject on +which I have been trying to get a word with you for the last week or +more. What are we going to give, Queenie, for our wedding present?”</p> + +<p>But that was not a question to be answered off-hand. It was a matter +requiring much consideration, consultation—divination, I might say. The +major points of the coming ceremony were all arranged; the bride’s +dress, the costumes of the maids, the favors for the men, and the +wording of the invitations. It was the last and greatest, and perhaps +the least easy to decide—what should be the present of the father and +mother of the bride.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>DIAMOND EARRINGS</h3> + +<p class="center">It is an accepted rule that a gift is enhanced if it comes in the +nature of a surprise.</p> + +<p>The great question was not settled exclusively by Mr. and Mrs. +Whittaker.</p> + +<p>“You must,” said Alfred to his wife in the sanctity of their sleeping +apartment, “find out what Maudie would like to have for her wedding +present from us. I wouldn’t buy her ‘a pig in a poke,’ she’ll have too +many of such articles, and it is important that she should have +something from us that she really wants.”</p> + +<p>“The question is,” said Regina to her lord, “what your ideas are on the +subject.”</p> + +<p>“No, my dear Queenie, my ideas will not make the least difference,” he +returned, as he carefully examined one side of his respectable face to +see if he had scraped it sufficiently clean. “I can afford, my dear +Queenie, to give you a free hand in this matter. I only stipulate that +it shall be something that Maudie wants—really wants. A grand piano?”</p> + +<p>“Not a grand piano,” said Regina. “Mr. Marksby’s rich aunt is giving +them that.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p><p>“Bless me! I didn’t know they had a rich aunt. I thought Mr. Marksby had +made all the money in the family. Well, there are plenty of things to +make a choice of, silver for the table, furniture for the drawing-room, +a brougham—anything else that she likes and that you like.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I will have a little chat with Julia,” said Regina, with that +rapt air of contemplation which was all her own. “Julia is a girl with +ideas, Julia is far removed from the commonplace, Julia is a genius.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Alfred Whittaker, “I don’t know that it takes much genius +to choose a wedding present.”</p> + +<p>“In a sense, dear Alfie, in a sense. But there is one question, dearest, +that you must decide. How much is our wedding present to cost?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Alfred, as he gave his face a final rub with the towel, +“thank God I am able to give a hundred pounds for my girl’s wedding +present, to give her a decent trousseau and to give her a decent dot. +What you like to add to that is your own affair. There, now,” he said, +as he threw the towel on the rail by the washstand, “I can’t waste +another moment, I must get my tub, charming as your conversation always +is.”</p> + +<p>He whisked out of the room, a quaint figure enough in his demi-toilette. +But Regina saw nothing quaint about her lord and master. “A handsome man +with a presence,” was her usual description of him. But there are +moments when the state of being which we describe as “a presence” has +its grotesque aspects, and surely the flight to the bathroom is one of +them. Mrs. Whittaker might have been the little blind god <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>herself for +all she saw of the grotesque in her noble Alfred.</p> + +<p>“A hundred pounds,” she murmured, stopping in the process of arranging +her hair for the day in order to rest the end of her hair brush on the +edge of the toilet-table, and gazing at herself fixedly in the glass. “A +hundred pounds! And, thank goodness, I can if need be put a hundred +pounds of my own to it; I have only two darlings. I must consult Julia.”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Whittaker took the earliest opportunity of a chat with her younger +flower. It was not many minutes after Alfred Whittaker had departed for +his office that a maid-servant came running across from Ingleside with a +message to the effect that three large parcels had come for the bride, +as she was affectionately called on both sides of the road, and would +Miss Maudie please come across and open them, as the young ladies were +dying to know what they contained. So Maudie disappeared in the +direction of Ingleside, and Mrs. Whittaker seized the opportunity of +broaching the important subject that was uppermost in her mind to Julia.</p> + +<p>“Don’t go away, Julia,” she said, almost nervously.</p> + +<p>“Yes, mother darling, what is the matter?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing is the matter. But I want to consult you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh,” said Julia, with a little air of conscious pride, “and what do you +want to consult me about?”</p> + +<p>“It is about our present—your father’s and mine.”</p> + +<p>“I should ask Maudie herself.”</p> + +<p>“No, your father wants it to be a surprise, quite a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>surprise. I thought +if you knew, or could find out something she really wants, I could go to +town and meet your father and get it settled.”</p> + +<p>“What is daddy’s idea?”</p> + +<p>“Your father’s idea is a grand piano, but Mr. Marksby’s aunt is giving +them that.”</p> + +<p>“Well, they don’t want two,” said Julia, sensibly. “The employees are +giving them table silver, and the directors are giving them three silver +bowls. If I were you I should give Maudie diamond earrings.”</p> + +<p>“You think she would like them?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, dear mother; every woman who has had her ears pierced likes +diamond earrings.”</p> + +<p>“What sort of diamond earrings?”</p> + +<p>“Oh,” said Julia, “there can be no doubt the sort. Have the biggest +single stones that you can squeeze out of the money.”</p> + +<p>So the great question was settled, and a day or two later Mrs. Whittaker +and Julia went up to town and lunched with the noble Alfred. They +lunched at a very cosy little restaurant not a thousand yards from +Charing Cross. A spoonful of white soup, a scrap of salmon, a serve of +chicken stewed in the French fashion in the pot, and some asparagus, +washed down by some excellent white wine, and followed by a black coffee +and a liqueur, made the trio very much inclined to look on the rosy side +of life. Then they got into a hansom, Julia sitting bodkin-wise, and +drove off to the jeweler’s at which Mrs. Whittaker had decided that they +would buy Maudie’s earrings. Their choice fell upon a pair which the +shopman described as “fit for an empress.” They were not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>vulgarly +large, but they were of the purest water, and of the most dazzling +brilliance.</p> + +<p>“You think,” said Mrs. Whittaker to Julia, “you think that Maudie would +like these better than the larger ones?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, mother, there’s no comparison. The big ones don’t look better +than paste; these are unmistakably the real thing.”</p> + +<p>“It is a pleasure to sell diamonds to so good a judge,” said the +gentleman who was attending to them.</p> + +<p>“I should have thought,” said Alfred Whittaker, in his most prosaic +manner, “that as long as you sold your goods it would not matter to whom +you sold them.”</p> + +<p>“Excuse me, sir, that is where you make a mistake. We have a lady +customer—she is a duchess—who frequently brings her jewels to be +cleaned. She says her maid is a child at jewel-cleaning. It is not our +business to say to the contrary, but that lady kills every diamond in +her possession.”</p> + +<p>“How kills?” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“I cannot say, madam. Something in her magnetism causes the stones to +look dead and slatey. The stones that she has had in her possession and +worn continually for the last twenty years are not now worth a twentieth +part of what was originally paid for them—all the fire has gone out of +them. Whether they would recover themselves by being worn by a magnetic +wearer I do not know. We have a young lady here in our establishment of +quite radiant magnetism. She does no work, but gets a good salary and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>simply remains here and occupies herself as she likes and wears certain +jewels a certain number of times. Sometimes when that particular +lady—the duchess—is anxious to make a great appearance on some special +occasion, we have her best stones for a month or even longer. This young +lady of ours wears them all day long, and I can assure you it is an odd +sight to see her with her two hands covered with rings, even her thumbs, +her arms loaded with bracelets, one diamond necklace worn in the +ordinary way, and another one worn over her shoulders.”</p> + +<p>“And the diamonds recover their color?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, madam, but these are only the stones that her Grace wears +occasionally. I have been told,” he went on, “that their brilliance +never lasts with her, and that long before the Drawing-room, or whatever +the function may be, is over, they look as if they had been +black-leaded. You can quite understand, sir,” he said, turning to Alfred +Whittaker, “that it is positive pain to me to sell any of our best +diamonds to such a wearer.”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Alfred, “the lady who is going to wear these earrings will +never, I think, trouble you in the same way.”</p> + +<p>“Oh no!” said Julia.</p> + +<p>And then, somehow, the idea was born that Alfred Whittaker should give a +little trifle of remembrance to Regina and their daughter. The little +trifle of remembrance consisted of a very handsome turquoise ring for +the mother and a very smart bangle for the girl.</p> + +<p>“I had no idea, dear daddy,” said Julia, “of your <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>buying me anything +to-day. I have been wanting one of these bangles for, oh! such a long +time.”</p> + +<p>“And you never breathed it!” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“I never thought of it,” said Julia; “but I am all the more delighted +because I did not think of anything for myself.”</p> + +<p>Then they departed carrying with them the lovely earrings which Maudie +was to wear in remembrance of home as long as she should live.</p> + +<p>“They know you in that shop, daddy,” said Julia, as they walked back +toward Piccadilly.</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, I have gone there for years; but how do you know that they knew +me?”</p> + +<p>“Oh—from the way they said ‘good day’ to you when you went in, and then +you brought the earrings away with you and only paid for them by +cheque—to say nothing of my beautiful bangle and mother’s ring.”</p> + +<p>At this Alfred Whittaker laughed and said that being known at shops like +this was one of the advantages of having a solid business behind one. +Then they looked into one or two windows, and Mrs. Whittaker beguiled +Alfred into a certain lace shop under the excuse that she was going to +wear a lace garment at the wedding and that she wanted him to help her +to choose it. Then they went to some very smart tea-rooms and refreshed +themselves after the usual manner of five o’clock, and then they went +home to Ye Dene, where they found Maudie, who had just come in, +struggling with a perfect avalanche of presents.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>“Where did you get that heart?” said Julia, looking fixedly at her +sister.</p> + +<p>Maudie’s hand, the one with the diamonds on it, touched the jewel. “Oh, +my heart,” she said in her soft, cooing voice. “Harry has been over, he +brought it from town—he wants me to wear it always. See, it’s got a +little miniature of him at the back. He thought I should like to have it +to be married in—just his heart, you know—because I had decided not to +wear my necklace, or—my—er—fender.”</p> + +<p>“A very pretty idea,” said Regina, beaming proudly upon the bride-elect, +with an expression as if the thought had emanated from her brain instead +of that of the bridegroom-to-be. “We have come from town, your father +and I, and we have brought you a present.”</p> + +<p>“Oh! you darlings! What have you brought me? But I know it is something +nice.”</p> + +<p>“It’s not very big,” said her father, producing the little packet from +his waistcoat pocket, “but we hope you will like it all the same.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, a ring,” cried Maudie, as she caught sight of the box. “I love +rings more than anything else, and it is so sweet and kind of you to +remember my little tastes, and to give me something that I can carry +about with me always when I am not living here any more.”</p> + +<p>Regina looked hard out of the window. In spite of her pride at her +girl’s approaching marriage, it was a bitter wrench to her to think that +she soon would have only one child in the home nest. Indeed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>she looked +forward further still to the time when she and Alfred would be Darby and +Joan, with no young life to disturb the serenity of their daily round. +It was the voice of Julia which brought her back to earth again.</p> + +<p>“Now come, don’t stand there rhapsodizing about it, but open your +parcel, old lady, and see what luck will send you,” she said to her +sister. “I am sure Harry has given you rings enough. You don’t credit +mother and father with over-much sense when you think they would give +you something of which Harry has already given you a dozen.”</p> + +<p>At this moment Maudie gave a faint scream. “Oh, you darlings! you +darlings! I never thought of this; I don’t know which of you to kiss +first. Oh, oh, what will Harry say? Oh! Julia, you had a hand in this. +Single stone earrings! Oh, they are too good for me.”</p> + +<p>“Why should you say they are too good for you?” said Regina. “Nothing is +too good for me to give my daughter.”</p> + +<p>“But you were right in one thing,” said Julia, as Maudie slipped one of +the sparkling stones from its nest of white velvet, and insinuated the +gold ring into her ear, “they have given you something that you can wear +every day.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>A GOLDEN DAY</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Most people detest tears at a wedding, and yet weddings give much +more cause for tears than funerals.</p></div> + +<p>At last Maudie Whittaker’s wedding day dawned—a golden July day, fair +and still, without being oppressively hot. I think I have already said +that the houses of Marksby and Whittaker were situated in one of the +main roads of that favorite residential locality which is known to +Londoners as Northampton Park, and to its residents as “the Park,” +without any distinguishing prefix. A stranger passing along Milton +Avenue might have wondered what great function was afoot, for at both +houses flags were flying, and on lines stretched across from house to +house, amidst streaming pennons, was a great green and white marriage +bell. From the gate to the porch of Ye Dene Alfred Whittaker had, some +two years before, erected a covered glass way, almost a conservatory. +This was lined with flowers and carpeted with red felt. A couple of +stalwart commissionaires stood at either side of the entrance, and a +crowd of the poorer denizens of the Park had gathered to watch the +coming and going of the wedding guests. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>I must tell you at once that on +this occasion Regina was truly great.</p> + +<p>“Mother,” Maudie had said on the previous evening, when she bade her +parents good-night for the last time as Maudie Whittaker. “Mother +darling, there’s one thing that you must not do to-morrow.”</p> + +<p>“What is that, my love?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“You will not cry when you get to church, and you will not cry when we +go away, will you? Remember that in Harry you are gaining a son, not +losing a daughter.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Regina, “no, I shall not disgrace you. At the same time, +Maudie, my love, if I am not losing a daughter I am losing my little +girl.”</p> + +<p>“Not a bit of it, mother,” said Julia, chiming in to support her sister +and resolutely keeping her thoughts turned from the fact that on the +morrow half her life would be torn away; “you mustn’t think that, +dearest. You know the old saying, ‘my son is my son till he gets him a +wife, but my daughter’s my daughter all the days of my life.’”</p> + +<p>“Then I hope,” said Regina, solemnly, to the bride-elect, “that you will +never make that poor little woman across the road feel that <i>her</i> son is +her son till he gets him a wife. But rest assured of one thing, Maudie +darling, your mother will not disgrace you on your wedding day. I was at +a wedding a few years ago when the bride’s mother howled persistently +all through the ceremony and till the bride departed on her honeymoon. +They had not been on such terms as we have always been—in fact, if +Constance Colquhoun had not fortunately found a husband, it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>is very +certain that Mrs. Colquhoun and she would have parted company rather +than have gone on living together in a continual state of wrangling. I +have no regrets for the past and very few fears for the future. You will +have your ups and downs, my darling, as your mother has had before you +and as your children will have after you. You must look for them in this +vale of tears, but anticipation of them on a joyful occasion is foolish +even to criminality.”</p> + +<p>Probably no sweeter bride had ever passed up the aisle of the fantastic +little church which was alike the spiritual and material centre of +Northampton Park. It was not that Maudie Whittaker was a very pretty +girl—no one but her mother had ever given a second thought to personal +beauty as one of her attributes—but she was soft and round and fair, +with radiant eyes and a winning smile. Her bridal gown was simple and +girlish, and her veil of plain tulle enveloped her like a cloud of +innocence. Her only jewel was the diamond heart which her bridegroom had +given her for his wedding-day present. Her bouquet was a real ornament, +a loosely-arranged posy of flowers tied with broad white ribbon—not the +usual over-weighted bundle of blossoms showering from the hand to the +ground, conveying the idea that if the bride was sufficiently unlucky to +tread upon the mass of trails, the result would be the complete downfall +of bride and bouquet alike. The bridesmaids were quite reasonably +attired. Maudie had been inflexible on that point. “My dear Ju,” she had +said to her sister when the question was first mooted, “the bride ought +to choose the bridesmaids’ dresses. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>I have seen bridesmaids in Charles +II. dresses, in Tudor dresses, in Directoire costumes, and such close +copies of Boughton’s Dutch maidens, that one felt they only wanted +sabots to be entirely correct. I have seen bridesmaids with their +gathers under their arms, and with pouches down to their knees. I am +going to have none of these monstrosities. You and I are +ordinary-looking girls, but, between ourselves, we are dreams of style +compared with Rachel and Emmeline Marksby.”</p> + +<p>“Harry seems to have monopolized all the style in the Marksby family,” +said Julia, with a judicial air.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Harry has style enough,” rejoined Maudie, with not a little pride +in her tones.</p> + +<p>“Yes, you are quite right, Rachel and Emmeline are two dear little +girls, but they are dumpy and snub-nosed, and would look ridiculous in +any sort of fancy dress. You could hardly find a greater contrast than +the Ponsonby-Piggots.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, my dear, where could you find a greater contrast than the +Ponsonby-Piggots themselves? One girl as tall as a lamp post, has +straight features, and is definite and rather commanding; and the other +is a little slip of a thing, with curly red hair, misty blue eyes, and +an air of fragility which completely deceives the ordinary observer. So +no monstrosities and eccentricities of bridesmaids’ dresses for me. I +should like white <i>crêpe de chine</i> frocks over turquoise blue +petticoats, belts of some handsome embroidery with clasps studded with +big blue stones that will look like turquoise, and big black hats with a +touch of blue under the brim; Harry is going to give them blue enamel +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>watches. There, I think that is as smart an idea for bridesmaids’ +dresses as we need trouble about.”</p> + +<p>So it was decided, and the eight bridesmaids who followed Maudie +Whittaker to the altar were all dressed alike, as I have just described. +On her left breast each wore the enamel watch given by the bridegroom, +while the bride’s gifts to her bridesmaids were the embroidered belts +studded with blue stones.</p> + +<p>Yes, it was a very pretty wedding, and Regina, resplendent in ruby +velvet, with a white feather waving in her coronet bonnet, and over her +ample shoulders a large cape arrangement of rich lace, sailed up the +aisle on the arm of Mr. Marksby. She had an air of “alone I did it” +about her which was at the same time touching and misleading. In her +tightly-gloved hand she carried a large posy of roses, and truly there +was nothing of Niobe in her expression and demeanor. The service went +off without a hitch, the decorations were lavish, and the little boys, +who were all that could be mustered of the regular choir, wore clean +surplices. The favors were extremely choice, and the happy face of the +bride was more than matched by the radiant self-satisfaction of the +bridegroom. “A delightful wedding” was the general verdict. And then +there was the streaming back to the house just down the road, there was +the string of carriages belonging to friends from town, the Park guests +having followed the simpler plan of going afoot. How shall I describe it +all? The palms, the flowers, the gay dresses, the gently-murmured +felicitations, the health drinking, the speech making, the cake cutting, +the present inspecting, which is the usual course of the smart wedding. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>These things were all there, for the Alfred Whittakers had given their +daughter what is generally called “a good send-off.”</p> + +<p>Then there came the terrible moment when Regina might have been forgiven +for breaking down. But Regina was equal to the occasion—Regina was a +woman of her word.</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, I am not at all inclined to break down,” she said in reply to a +friend who was offering judicious sympathy. “I feel that in my girl’s +husband I have gained what I have always longed for—a son. I am going +to be a mother-in-law quite out of the ordinary run, and I am not going +to begin by making him feel himself a cruel marauder who is taking away +my most valued possession. I should not like to have children who did +not marry; it is a natural thing, and Maudie’s choice is so absolutely +ours that I have nothing to regret and everything to be delighted with.”</p> + +<p>“But did not Maudie choose her own husband?” said someone who was +standing by.</p> + +<p>“Oh, of course she did, but if we had chosen her husband our choice +would have been Harry Marksby.”</p> + +<p>It chanced that Harry was just entering the house, having been across +the road to change his wedding garments for traveling gear. He was in +time to hear the whole of his mother-in-law’s reply to the question as +to whether Maudie had chosen her own husband. He slipped his hand under +her arm and twisted her round a little.</p> + +<p>“You are not going to be a mother-in-law out of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>the common,” he said, +“because you are one. Nothing you could do would be in the common. But I +cannot thank you enough for saying that if you had chosen Maudie’s +husband you would have chosen me. And I’m so glad,” he went on in a +lower tone, “that you did not think it necessary to treat us to the +usual shower of maternal tears on this occasion.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps I should have done,” cried Mrs. Whittaker, “if I were not so +perfectly happy in Maudie’s choice. Why should I want to weep over my +girl’s happiness? Why should your mother want to make herself look a +silly fright because you have married the girl of your heart? We are +agreed, are we not, Mrs. Marksby?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, I always did believe in young men getting married as soon as +they are in a position to marry comfortably. As I said to Harry as we +were having a little talk last night, ‘Remember, my boy, that you are +marrying in a very different position to what pa and me did. Pa and me +married to a little house with three bedrooms in the southeast district, +with never a thought that we should end up west, and see our boy married +as we have seen him married this day’—didn’t we pa?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, mother, we did. And I don’t know that we’ve had any cause to +regret it.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know about you, pa,” said Mrs. Marksby, bridling visibly.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t say but that you might have done better,” said Mr. Marksby, +“but we were very happy in that little house, and I only hope that the +young <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>people will be as happy in their beginning as we were in ours.”</p> + +<p>“We shall not be less happy because we are able to afford a decent house +in the West End,” said Harry, sensibly. “If we are, you may take it as +certain that we should have been just as unhappy in the cottage with +three bedrooms. But, I say, Mrs. Whittaker, isn’t Maudie nearly ready? +We sha’n’t catch that train if we don’t look out. Ah, here she is. Come +along, my dear girl, come along; we’ve got none too much time to spare.”</p> + +<p>Perhaps it was as well. There was a moment’s hesitation as Maudie said +“good-bye” to her mother; for one instant, Julia standing by, vigilant +and keen, feared that her mother was going to break down in spite of all +her good resolves. But Mrs. Whittaker was a valiant soul; she pulled +herself up sharply as the little bride, holding her father’s hand, went +out to face the storm of rice and old slippers which was awaiting them +outside the house.</p> + +<p>“I know,” she said, her voice a little tremulous in spite of her +self-control, “I know she will make a good wife, because she has been +such a good daughter.”</p> + +<p>“We can cry quits, Mrs. Whittaker,” said the mother of the bridegroom, +“for a better boy to his father and mother than our Harry I don’t +believe you could find from one end of the earth to the other.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>OTHER GODS</h3> + +<p class="center">How little noise people make when they are suddenly stricken with +great mental anguish.</p> + +<p>They say that after a storm there comes a calm, and a very true saying +it is. After the storm of orange blossoms that raged around Ye Dene on +that July day, there came a calm which was broken only by the excitement +of watching for the postman. The most valuable of the wedding presents +were safely packed up on the evening of the wedding day and consigned to +Alfred Whittaker’s private safe. The others were left in the girls’ +sitting-room, carefully covered up, in preparation for the long trip in +which the bride and bridegroom were indulging themselves, prior to +regular housekeeping.</p> + +<p>For years the Whittakers had made a point of seeking a fresh holiday +resort with each summer, and this year, by a kind of instinct, they +decided not to go to an English watering-place. Perhaps the feeling that +the bride and groom were enjoying themselves in the Bernese Oberland, +and meant to cover a good deal of ground before they turned their +footsteps homewards, made them feel that the contrast of an <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>English +watering-place would be too much. They therefore decided that Dieppe +would be a bright and convenient change for them; but they were not due +to leave home until some ten days after the wedding.</p> + +<p>Now, it happened that Regina, instead of following the usual course of +mothers, and making the little absent bride into a sort of deity, was +possessed of a feeling that she would like in some way to reward her +younger girl for her helpfulness at the time of the wedding, and the +unselfish manner in which she had deferred in every possible way to her +sister’s wishes. She therefore determined that she would give Julia a +little surprise present. No, it was not a birthday, it was not any kind +of commemoration, but she felt that this was an occasion on which she +could appropriately spend a little money. Now Regina was amply blessed +with this world’s goods—I mean in her own right. Alfred Whittaker had +done extremely well in the world, and whereas Regina had once loomed in +his horizon as an heiress in a modest way, she was now the wife of an +exceedingly warm man, and happy in the possession of a tidy little +income of her own. She breathed not a word of her purpose to a soul. She +did not intend her little gift to take the form of raiment. Julia’s +father gave her an ample dress allowance, and Regina was in the habit of +adding to it with special offerings at such times as birthdays and the +season of Christmas. It was not difficult for her to carry out her +purpose, for she had but seldom gone to town in company with her girls. +She was so busy a woman, she had so many excuses, so many appointments +and engagements of a semi-business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span>kind, that her comings and goings +were not often questioned.</p> + +<p>“What are you doing to-day, Julia?” she asked, one morning at breakfast, +about a week after the wedding.</p> + +<p>“To-day, mother dear? Well, I have to go out with Emmeline Marksby this +morning, and unless you want me I am going to lunch there. And then I am +going to get my new white frock fitted on, and I am going to tea at the +Dravens.”</p> + +<p>“So you will be occupied all day?”</p> + +<p>“Why, do you want me?”</p> + +<p>“Not at all, dear child, only I feel that you must be lonely now that +Maudie has gone, and I have at least a dozen things to occupy me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, don’t worry yourself about me; I shall be busy right up to dinner +time.”</p> + +<p>So they went their separate ways, and two hours later Mrs. Whittaker +might have been seen deliberately pacing up the arcade in which was +situated the shop at which Maudie’s earrings had been bought. A +smooth-spoken young gentleman came forward to receive her. Regina +explained her pleasure; she wanted earrings. No, not for the bride; for +the young lady who was with her when she bought the bride’s earrings. +Solitaire earrings? Yes. Turquoise were very nice, but she fancied that +Miss Whittaker did not care much about turquoise. Did she fancy pink +coral? Yes, that was a happy idea, so suitable for a young lady. So +Regina was shown various solitaire earrings in that most delicate and +girlish substance. But even then she was not satisfied, and the pink +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>coral earrings were set in diamonds. No, it was not the expense; that +was not the question, but Mrs. Whittaker thought that not even tiny +diamonds should find a place in the jewel-box of a very young girl.</p> + +<p>“Pink coral without—?”</p> + +<p>“Just a few sparks, madam,” said the gentleman on the other side of the +counter, “they will be a little—well, a little insignificant—as +earrings.”</p> + +<p>“Perhaps,” Mrs. Whittaker admitted, “you might let me see the turquoise, +I could have those without diamonds.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, or pearls. Solitaire pearls are quite young ladies’ jewelry.”</p> + +<p>“And are they very expensive?” asked Regina.</p> + +<p>“Oh no, madam. Let me show you the pearls.”</p> + +<p>So another tray was handed out, and yet another tray; one containing all +manner of turquoise studs for the ears, and the other showing an +assortment of pearl earrings, from modest ones at five guineas a pair to +some which were far beyond Regina’s means or Julia’s necessities. +Eventually a pair of pearl solitaires were chosen and paid for.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I shall take them with me,” said Regina, opening her smart black +and gold wrist bag in order that the little jewel-case might be +comfortably nested in company with her small purse and her +pocket-handkerchief.</p> + +<p>“I hope, madam,” said the shopman, “that you liked Mr. Whittaker’s last +present to you.”</p> + +<p>“I like it very much,” said Regina, smoothing the back of her hand, and +gazing admiringly at the big <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>turquoise ring that adorned it, “I think +it is a very handsome ring.” Then she looked straight into the young +man’s eyes, “You were not speaking of this?” she said, with a gesture of +her hand to show that she was speaking of the ring.</p> + +<p>“No, madam,” he stammered, “I remember Mr. Whittaker buying the ring and +the bangle for the young lady—I—I was thinking of quite another +customer.”</p> + +<p>At that moment another figure came from the office behind the shop. It +was, indeed, the assistant who had actually attended to their wants on +the occasion of her previous visit.</p> + +<p>“I hope,” said he, “that the bracelet that Mr. Whittaker bought the +other day met with your approval, madam.”</p> + +<p>For a moment Regina felt as if the earth were opening under her feet; a +wild impulse seized her to catch violently hold of something, and scream +in a series of sharp intermittent yelps as a locomotive does when +something has gone wrong, and a wild instinct to catch the two +smooth-faced young men on the other side of the counter by the ears and +bang their heads together—a feeling as if heaven and earth were +slipping away from her. But Regina was a remarkable woman! She had her +vanities and her weaknesses, but in all the emergencies of life Regina +might be counted upon for not losing her head. In spite of the sea of +tempestuous emotions which surged within her at that moment, she +maintained her dignity and her common-sense.</p> + +<p>“No,” said she, “I have not yet seen it. I am <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>afraid that you have +given my husband away; as a matter of fact I have a birthday next week.”</p> + +<p>It was the first plump and deliberate lie that Regina had ever told in +her life. She did not hurry out of the shop—she even went so far as to +choose a little present for her lord, going back with a curious +persistence to the idea of pink coral, and bought for him what Julia +would have described as a perfectly sweet tie pin, consisting of a bit +of pink coral set between two small but fiery diamonds.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Johnson,” said the younger of the two assistants, as the door +closed behind Regina, “you have put your foot in it this time.”</p> + +<p>“Why—how—what d’you mean?”</p> + +<p>“Simply this, that Mr. Alfred Whittaker, of Ye Dene, Northampton Park, +won’t thank you for letting on to that good lady that he was here last +week buying a bracelet that she don’t know anything about.”</p> + +<p>“Oh Lord! I never thought of it. She said she had a birthday next week.”</p> + +<p>“She said, yes, she <i>said</i>, but that ain’t any proof to me; I never saw +an old girl pull herself together in a neater manner; she even went so +far as to buy a tie pin on the strength of it. But, mark my words, Mr. +Alfred Whittaker won’t thank you for letting on to that lady that he was +here last week buying that bracelet.”</p> + +<p>“If I thought that,” said Mr. Johnson, “I’d put my head straight in a +bag.”</p> + +<p>“If it had been me,” said the other, “being a youngster I might have +been excused, but an old hand like you—tittle-tattling about other +customers’ purchases—you ought to know better.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span></p><p>“You are quite right; I deserve anything that may come of it; I don’t +think that I have ever done such an idiotic thing in my life. What can I +do to make up for it?”</p> + +<p>“Nothing,” said the other. “If anything is said, swear that Mr. +Whittaker told you that the present was for his wife.”</p> + +<p>“I think he did.”</p> + +<p>“That’s as may be. Anyway, stick to it through thick and thin that he +mentioned that it actually was for his wife.”</p> + +<p>“Well, don’t tell any of the others, Dick.”</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t dream of doing that, it isn’t likely. I might make a slip +myself one day, so I am not going to point out the slips of other +people.” Which, considering the very near shave the young gentleman had +had of making the very same slip not ten minutes before, might be +considered a very feeling remark.</p> + +<p>Meantime Regina had gone blindly along the arcade. She was dressed in +summer garments, and not a few very curious glances were cast at her. +Twice she stopped to look in shop windows with eyes that saw nothing. +The first was a gunsmith’s, and the second was a man’s window of a +distinguished bootmaker’s. Regina never knew the exact objects at which +she had gazed during that painful peregrination. When she got to the end +of the arcade she turned and walked back again, and all the time there +beat to and fro in her brain an idea which said that Alfred, her noble +Alfred, had gone after other gods—after other gods! Well, in the worst +trials of life, in the griefs and shocks and sorrows of the newest and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>most unaccustomed kind, a woman cannot walk up and down a fashionable +arcade forever. When she again reached the entrance by which she had +gone in, it occurred to her that she must sit down and think—she must +go somewhere where she could be quiet, where she could face this new +sensation which had come into her life. Her club? No, not her club. She +would meet there women who were interested in the same work as herself. +If she lunched, and she could not be there in the lunch hour without +lunching, someone would join her. There was a little pastry-cook’s where +she sometimes lunched when she was in a hurry; she had never seen +anybody there she knew, she would go there. To eat! No—no!—not to eat! +Regina Whittaker was sure that she would never eat with relish again. So +she bent her steps toward this little side-street haven, and, like all +women in dire trouble, ordered tea and a muffin!</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>REGINA COMES TO A CONCLUSION</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Have you ever noticed how accurately women judge from small +circumstances. Men call this intuition, and men think of intuition +as being on the same level as instinct.</p></div> + +<p>If Regina had ordered a plate of soup it would have been brought to her +immediately, because at one o’clock that comestible would have been +ready and awaiting the wishes of customers. But Regina, as I have said, +like most women in trouble, ordered the food and drink that were nearest +her heart, and therefore she had to wait while the tea was brewed and +the muffin toasted. The waiting did her good. She was alone, as it +happened, in the comfortable room over the shop, and thus she was able +to grasp the situation more clearly than she had done while still +talking to the jeweler’s assistant, when she had had to consider the +ordinary conventions of existence. Poor Regina! She sat there by the +tall mantelshelf and stared at the paper roses which filled the summer +grate. Her Alfred, her noble Alfred, had fallen from his pedestal—he +was hers no longer! In all the years of their married life, indeed in +their knowledge of each other, she had never wronged Alfred by even so +much as a doubt of his nobility. To her he had been noble, truly noble, +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>kind, affectionate, dignified and a highly successful man—and now all +was over; her house of matrimony had fallen about her ears like a pack +of cards—she had been supplanted by another. Truly Regina’s thoughts +were very bitter. She had been supplanted by another—what was she going +to do? It came to her memory that in times gone by, when other women had +fallen upon evil days of a like description, she had helped to bear +their sorrows with a very light heart. Well, it had not then entered her +head that their portion might one day be hers; but now the blow had +fallen upon herself, and she must perforce give herself the same advice +that she had given to others. “My dear,” she had remarked once to a poor +little woman whose husband had been spoiled by over-much adoration, “you +have made one mistake in your life: you have been too good to that +husband of yours. What? Nobody could be too good to him? You have, my +dear, and it doesn’t do to be too good to a man for all time whether he +behaves himself or not; it doesn’t do to put all your wares in your +front window. Keep something back; let there be always some little +corner of womanly dignity which men, even husbands, must respect.” “But, +Mrs. Whittaker,” the little woman had replied, “I haven’t any dignity +where Jack is concerned; I don’t want any dignity, I only want Jack, and +he has gone away and left me.” How well she remembered the words as she +sat alone in the pastry-cook’s shop in Regent Street, how well she +remembered! Well, she felt very much as that little woman had felt—she +did not care about her dignity any more; she only wanted Alfred, and if +Alfred was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>deceiving her, if Alfred was living a double life and +sharing his heart with another, she only wanted to go back to the +blissful time of blind ignorance, when to her he had been the embodiment +of manly dignity and robust virtue.</p> + +<p>She got up and looked at herself in the long strip of glass which was +set between the two tall windows. It was not a becoming glass, nor was +it placed in a particularly becoming light, and Regina, who had been +through a storm of tempestuous emotion, and who bore upon her strongly +marked countenance the visible signs of her mental upheaval, looked, +frankly speaking, quite hideous. At that moment the young lady who had +taken her order for tea and muffin came into the room carrying a little +tray, and Regina made a slight pretence of adjusting her hair before she +went back to the table.</p> + +<p>“Would you prefer to sit here, or by the window?”</p> + +<p>“I think by the window,” said Regina. Her tone was admirably +careless—so careless that it almost deceived herself.</p> + +<p>“Will you have cream also with your tea?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I think I will have cream. Thank you very much.”</p> + +<p>A couple of minutes later Regina was once more alone. Certainly the open +window was more comfortable than the empty fireplace with its paper +roses. The tea was freshly made, and was good of its kind, the cream was +rich, and the muffin was the perfection of a muffin, and Regina sat with +the summer wind fanning her troubled brow, and ate and drank her simple +fare and was comforted. As she sat she stole a glance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>at herself in +another strip of looking-glass, in which she could see herself by +turning her head an inch or two. And as she sat there and her +storm-tossed soul was soothed and comforted by her little meal, she +began to turn things over in her mind with a less tragic spirit than she +had done before. Perhaps if Alfred had been drawn away to other gods it +had been her own fault; Alfred was so handsome, so manly, had such a +presence, and she had despised all the trifling feminine womanly things. +She had given up so much of her time to the regeneration of women that +she had let the material part of Regina Whittaker take its own course, +and Nature, left to take its own course, is never very attractive. She +was too stout. There are people of the plump little partridge order who +would look frightful in a nearer approach to their bones, but Regina had +gone fat in lumps, and Regina’s eyes had never been aware of the fact +until this morning. Too much chin, too much nape of the neck, too much +at the top of the arms, too much of that which, even back in Scripture +days when coupled with “a proud look,” was ever a subject for derision.</p> + +<p>“Never proud to my Alfred,” said she, leaning back in her chair; “but,” +and here she crossed her hands just below her waist, “the other is an +indisputable fact.”</p> + +<p>As she decided the question in her own mind she laid her hand upon the +little bell which stood beside her on the table.</p> + +<p>“Did I ring?” said she. “Oh, I was not conscious of it. I think I made a +mistake in having this kind of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>meal. I am not accustomed to it, I feel +as if I had taken nothing.”</p> + +<p>“Try a sandwich, madam,” said the young lady.</p> + +<p>“Sandwich? I think I am not equal to sandwich to-day. Something has +happened to me; I have had a shock, and you know how we weak women fly +to feminine articles of food when we are in trouble.”</p> + +<p>“I am sorry you are in trouble, madam.”</p> + +<p>“I came in here knowing I should be quiet, and it is very quiet.”</p> + +<p>“It is the end of July. In another week we shall be more quiet still, +and after that, when the country people come, we shall not know where to +turn. When you come back from abroad or from your sojourn by the sea we +shall be as you always see us.”</p> + +<p>“I think I will have another muffin.”</p> + +<p>“I would, madam. I will tell them to put plenty of butter on it. And a +pot of tea, and a little more cream?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Regina, rather weakly. The girl disappeared again, and +Regina sat back in her chair, a very comfortable one, and felt that it +was pleasant to be ministered to, and then fell to thinking about +herself again. How strange that she had never noticed any change in +Alfred! He had never seemed to find her wanting in any way. More than +once, even of late years, he had told her that the girls would never be +a patch upon her for looks, and she had accepted his tribute to her +charms in all good faith. And then she turned to the glass again and +regarded herself with new eyes—critical eyes—and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>she saw that her +dress was hideous, her bonnet a travesty, her hair, fine in quality and +very decent in color, made nothing of, her gloves were too small or her +hands too large. What did it matter, the result was the same; she was +inelegant, unfashionable, grotesquely stout—she was all wrong, and it +seemed as if all she had done by her work for the regeneration of +womanhood had been to cut herself adrift from her own husband.</p> + +<p>I have said that Regina Whittaker was a very remarkable character, and I +have tried to show that she was a woman who was accustomed to judge for +herself in most circumstances of life, and who, even if she took the +wrong line, took it on her own, so to speak. Now, in what I may honestly +say was the bitterest moment of her life, she decided, judged and +determined on her own line of action just as she had done in previous +times. At this moment the relay of muffin and fresh tea arrived, and +Regina, with a smile of thanks, began with an excellent appetite to eat +the second half of her meal, and as she ate her thoughts were working +busily.</p> + +<p>Alfred had fallen a victim to a hussy! That she was a hussy of tender +years, as compared with Regina herself, was evident. There was no +evidence to prove it, but once the idea had entered Regina’s mind it +remained there and throve apace. This ignorant, youthful, gay little +hussy <i>must be supplanted</i>, her influence must be undermined, and Alfred +must be lured back to his original nobility. It was curious that no +shadow of blame for the noble Alfred presented itself to Regina. If he +had been <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>unfaithful it was because he had been tempted by a hussy from +the allegiance which had stood the test of over twenty years. If he had +left her for other divinities it was because she had not made herself +sufficiently alluring to him; and Regina, as she ate the last piece of +the second muffin, determined there and then that she would mend her +ways.</p> + +<p>“I will go to a beauty doctor,” she told herself. “I will get rid of +every blemish that has lessened my attractions for him; I will put +myself in the hands of an expert dressmaker; she shall dress me like a +fashion-plate; I will be young, I will be slim, I will be attractive, I +will win my husband’s heart back again.”</p> + +<p>Then her thoughts ran towards the Society for the Regeneration of +Women—that darling project of her later years, which she now realized +had cost her very dear. From that she must free herself; not publicly, +not with any ostensible reason, except that she had worked sufficiently +long. Others must take the reins from her hands and she must put forward +the plea that new blood was necessary, even essential, in all such +undertakings. When she had arrived at this point she was already quite +cheerful. She took out her purse from her black and gold bag and +deposited a bright new sixpence under her muffin plate as a delicate +little reward to the girl whose kindly words had been her first solace, +then satisfied herself with a long look at Julia’s earrings, and then +she opened the little case which contained the tie pin that she intended +as an offering to her lord and master. This she determined she would not +present <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>to him. A curious fancy took possession of her that she would +give him some little symbol of her unaltered affection for him. She had +never heard that pink coral was coupled with any particular meaning; it +had no place among what may be called the birthday stones. Now, Alfred’s +birthday was in October, so she would choose him an opal—yes, a little +tie pin of opals with a single diamond like a crystallized tear-drop, +and she could say to him, “This opal is to bring you luck in your later +years, and the diamond has a meaning which I will tell you at some +future time—not now.”</p> + +<p>Then Regina rose up, strong in her new resolve, and, having paid her +money at the desk, went out into the summer sunshine.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>THE FIRST LITTLE VANITIES</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>We are often blamed for not speaking out as soon as a doubt enters +our mind, yet oftentimes the reticence which such a doubt begets is +a saving grace which redeems and sanctifies our whole character.</p></div> + +<p>It was with quite a cheerful countenance that Regina went through the +rest of her day’s work. Arriving home at Ye Dene in time for dinner she +changed her dress for a cool and light tea-gown, in which, I am bound to +confess, she looked more than anything like a gigantic perambulating +baby’s bassinette. She laved her face with a little scented water, and, +for the first time in her life, she dusted her countenance with a little +powder. She did not herself possess such things as a powder-box and +puff, but in Maudie’s deserted bedroom she found on her dressing-table +the one which she had used up to the morning of her marriage, for she +had naturally taken with her on her wedding-tour the smartly fitted +dressing-case which had been among her husband’s wedding presents to +her. It was with quite unaccustomed hands that Regina sought for the +powder-box, and she used the powder too thickly. Maudie had had a pretty +taste in powder, and prided herself <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>on never using a common kind. Being +so very fair she used that of a pure white tint, and when Mrs. Whittaker +had finished her application of it I must confess she looked ghastly.</p> + +<p>“How dreadful!” her thoughts ran. “How can women ever use this stuff?”</p> + +<p>Then she took a towel from the towel-rail and rubbed her face +vigorously, shook the puff out of the window, and started again, +succeeding this time in merely making herself of a delicate pallor. As +she descended the stairs her husband turned in at the gate and came +along the covered way to the porch. He noticed at once that there was +something unusual in her appearance.</p> + +<p>“Well, Regina, my love,” he remarked, “have you been grilling in town +this hot day?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I have been to town, Alfred,” she replied, trying hard to make her +tone quite an ordinary one.</p> + +<p>“You must have over-tired yourself, my dear; you are as pale as a +sheet,” he remarked, looking at her keenly. “Here, come with me.” He led +the way into the dining-room, that large, cool, pleasant apartment in +which Regina had so often sat admiring him, and, going to the sideboard, +poured her out a glass of port.</p> + +<p>“Here, drink this down at once. I am sure you have been over-doing it. +Have you been to any of those beastly meetings?”</p> + +<p>“I have not been to a meeting, though I looked in at the offices of the +S.R.W.”</p> + +<p>“I feel very much inclined to say ‘Damn the S.R.W.,’” said Alfred +Whittaker, warmly. “I can’t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>bear to see you looking so jaded and +worn-out as you do now. Here, drink this down; it will pull you together +better than anything else.”</p> + +<p>He was an old-fashioned man, who believed in a glass of port, and +Regina, with unwonted meekness and the same happy feeling of being +ministered to that she had felt in the pastry-cook’s shop, obediently +swallowed the pleasant potion.</p> + +<p>“I shall be very glad,” Alfred Whittaker continued, “when we are off on +our holiday, for I never felt the need of one so badly as I do this +year. I suppose it is the excitement of Maudie’s wedding, but I can’t +bear to see you looking as you do now.”</p> + +<p>“I am better—I feel better,” said Regina, nervously. It was hard for +her to resist the inclination to fling herself upon Alfred’s broad bosom +and tell him everything that was in her mind. It would have been better +if she had done so, but she resisted the inclination from a desire not +to give way to unusual weakness.</p> + +<p>“Now sit down quietly by the window and rest while I run up and change +my coat.”</p> + +<p>It was his habit to make what might be called a half-toilette for +dinner—to take off his frock-coat and substitute for it a sort of +smoking-jacket, quite a glorified garment, in which Regina admired him +as some women admire their husbands when they get drunk, with that +curious admiration for the breaking off of shackles, even merely +conventional ones. It was a delight to Regina, strong-minded, +commanding, magnetic, almost eccentric nature that she was, to give her +husband’s behests instant obedience, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>she sat down in the huge +armchair by the window with a sigh of relief. Well, some hussy might +have got hold of him, yes—but his heart was with her.</p> + +<p>She owned to herself that there was a little bit of the hypocrite in +her, but she forgave herself the infinitesimal sin because Alfred had +noticed instantly that she was paler than usual. Ought she to have told +him that she had been using powder, and that she was not really more +worn-out than usual? Perhaps so, and yet, she told herself, no woman on +earth could have forced herself to be so strictly just. Then there was a +sound of the gong in the hall, and Alfred came down, Julia coming with +him.</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid, my bird,” he was saying, as they crossed the threshold, +“that you miss Maudie more every day that goes by, and soon you’ll be +marrying yourself, and there’ll only be old Darby and Joan to jog along +together.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve not gone yet, daddy,” said Julia. “Maudie had what we may call +adequate temptation. I may go on for years before I meet anybody who +takes my fancy as completely as Harry took hers.”</p> + +<p>“Meantime, I think you ought to go out with your mother a little more. +She looks worn-out to-day.”</p> + +<p>“Do you, darling?” looking toward the large white figure at the window. +“I declare you do. Why, you told me that you would be busy all day and +wouldn’t want me.”</p> + +<p>“Did I?” said Regina. “I do not think quite that, dearest. But it was +true, I did not want you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>with me to-day; I was full of business of one +sort or another.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well, come to dinner,” said Alfred, genially, “come to dinner. We +needn’t live to eat, but we must eat to live, and here is a bit of +salmon that would gladden the heart of a king.”</p> + +<p>He was very full of joke that night, telling wife and daughter of one or +two little incidents which had happened to him during the day, and +making merry exceedingly.</p> + +<p>“You’re very mischievous and gay to-night,” said Julia. “What have you +been doing to-day?”</p> + +<p>Regina looked across the table involuntarily.</p> + +<p>“Oh, I have been doing the usual thing, my dear—making money for you to +spend. By the way, I have had an excellent offer for the house.”</p> + +<p>“For the house!” cried Julia. “Have you taken it?”</p> + +<p>“I’ve not taken it; I shouldn’t think of doing so until I have consulted +your mother. It is a good offer, and I have a week to think it over in. +The question is, Do we really want to leave the Park?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“What do you say, Queenie?”</p> + +<p>“I do not know.”</p> + +<p>“But, mother, you find it such a fag and such a drag getting to and fro +to your committees.”</p> + +<p>For a moment Regina did not speak; she put her fish knife and fork down +upon her plate.</p> + +<p>“I don’t know that we need consider my committees,” she said quietly. “I +am thinking of giving them all up.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>“Your committees!” cried Julia in a tone that was almost frightened.</p> + +<p>“My dear—!” said Alfred.</p> + +<p>“I have worked for others during the last ten years, Alfred,” said +Regina, leaning back in her chair and looking at her husband, “but I am +not sure if I’ve done quite the right thing in giving up so much of my +time to outside work.”</p> + +<p>“My dear, I have never complained.”</p> + +<p>“No, dear, you have never complained. I do not know that you might not +have done.”</p> + +<p>“My dear girl, what does it matter to me how you amuse yourself while I +am at business?”</p> + +<p>“No, there’s something in that. On the other hand, in a sense it does +matter. I have worked long enough; I think I want to be a little more in +my own home—I’m not so young as I was.”</p> + +<p>“You’re worn-out, that’s about the English of it,” said Alfred +Whittaker, putting his knife and fork on his plate and sitting back. “As +long as it amused you it was all right; it was as good as spending your +life in running from one hot, stuffy party to another. Cut it, my dear, +cut it. There’s one axiom in business that never fails, ‘cut your +loss’—at least, I have never known it fail yet. By-the-bye,” he said, +“I have brought you a little present.”</p> + +<p>Regina almost screamed aloud. So she had been wrong all the time; there +was no hussy, his solicitude for her pale looks had been the solicitude +of the old affectionate Alfred who had been ever and always her <i>beau +ideal</i> of what a husband should be. She gasped a little. “Yes,” she said +faintly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p><p>“Something nice?” said Julia. “Jewelry?”</p> + +<p>“Well,” said Alfred Whittaker, and his face wore a curious little smile, +“yes—it’s jewelry. I came by it in an odd fashion. I had some business +up west this morning, a very unexpected bit of business; it took me +right out of my regular track. I was going along a little street at the +back of Manchester Square and I saw something in a little shop that +attracted my attention. It was a quaint little shop, half jeweler’s and +half curiosity dealer’s.”</p> + +<p>“And you stopped and bought it?”</p> + +<p>“Not at all; I stopped and looked at it. It was a tea-service of that +scale blue Worcester which fetches such tremendous prices at Christie’s, +only I don’t think that particular set will ever have a show at +Christie’s, handsome as it is, and while I was looking at it I noticed +this. I haven’t seen such a thing for ages, and I’ve never seen anything +like it at the price before, so I bought it and paid for it, and here it +is.” He took a little parcel from his pocket wrapped in tissue paper, +and pushed it along the table to Julia. “Give that to your mother. No, I +did not buy anything for you.”</p> + +<p>“Then you did not go to Templeton’s for it?” said Regina, as her fingers +closed over the little parcel.</p> + +<p>“Templeton’s? Oh, no, this is not modern; it is an antique. The people +haven’t the faintest idea of its value; it is worth ten times what I +gave for it. It happened to be one of the things in which I am +interested and which I understand. No, when I want jewels, I go to +Templeton’s. I don’t understand gems and I can trust them.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p><p>“And their discretion?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, if it were necessary I would trust their discretion too. Now, what +do you think of that?”</p> + +<p>Regina opened the parcel with fingers which visibly trembled. He had +bought her a present; his mind, at the moment of looking into that +little shop, half jeweler’s, half curiosity shop, on seeing something in +which he was personally interested, had instantly flown to her. He might +have given a bracelet to a hussy, but his interest had remained with +Regina.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>BROKEN-HEARTED MIRANDA</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>When we are in trouble we often take means to comfort ourselves +that we should utterly despise in others.</p></div> + +<p>Mrs. Whittaker in no way faltered in her resolve to win back Alfred to +his old allegiance. The dinner was excellent.</p> + +<p>“A very good bit of salmon,” said Alfred, looking inquiringly at his +wife as he held the fish server and fork suggestively toward the dish; +“you will have a bit more, dearest?”</p> + +<p>“A little bit more,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>In spite of the blow which had fallen upon her she was honestly and +genuinely hungry. To a woman who lives well and eats her three meals a +day, to say nothing of a very good tea thrown in, the loss of a meal is +a very serious matter. Muffins, though consoling, are not possessed of +much staying power, and Regina was, in spite of being so upset, +genuinely famished.</p> + +<p>“Cook is improving in her sharp sauce,” Alfred went on cheerfully as he +helped himself a second time. “I often think,” he continued, “what a +lucky thing it is that salmon is a summer fish, it is such a refreshing +dish in hot weather.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, I confess I like a bit of salmon myself,” said Regina, rather +tamely.</p> + +<p>Julia looked up. Something in her mother’s tone struck her as unusual. +“Don’t you feel well to-day, mother?” she asked.</p> + +<p>Alfred looked up sharply. “Don’t you feel all right?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, quite all right,” she replied; “I think I want to get away.”</p> + +<p>“You’re over-doing it,” said Alfred in genial yet uneasy tones. “Why +don’t you take a little rest—not a holiday, but a rest from your +outside work? You’re over-doing it.”</p> + +<p>“I think so too,” said Regina. “I went down to the offices to-day and +told them to prepare my resignation as President of the S.R.W.”</p> + +<p>“Mother!” cried Julia in sharp staccato accents.</p> + +<p>“Oh, come, come, you needn’t say ‘mother’ in that tone. It is the best +bit of news I have heard for a long time. My dear, I look toward +you—Stay, we’ll have a glass of fizz on the strength of it. Margaret, +here, take my keys, go down to the cellar, look in bin marked number +three and bring up a bottle.”</p> + +<p>“Large or small, sir?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, a large one.”</p> + +<p>“If you did not like it, Alfred, I wish you had told me before,” said +Regina, as the door closed behind Margaret.</p> + +<p>“It isn’t that I did not like it, or that I grudged your amusing +yourself in your own way, or making your life interests in your own way, +but when I see you looking so worn and harried, so pulled down and +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>fagged out—well, I naturally begin to wonder where it is going to +end.”</p> + +<p>“I’m getting older,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Nonsense, nonsense, fiddle-faddle! we’re all getting older, as a matter +of fact, but you are still a young woman in the very prime of life. When +you have had a good change and a little sea air, when you give yourself +a little more ease and a little more personal indulgence, you’ll look +ten years younger, my dear child, ten years younger.”</p> + +<p>Regina only replied by a smile. At that moment Margaret came back +carrying, with the care of a thoroughly well-trained parlor-maid, the +bottle of champagne in which they were to drink, as Alfred put it five +minutes later, to the degeneration of Mrs. Whittaker.</p> + +<p>“They’ll be very angry, they’ll never replace you,” he went on, leaning +back in his chair and nursing his stomach in the manner peculiar to +elderly gentlemen who do not despise their dinner; “I think they ought +to give you a diamond star to show their appreciation of the star you +have been to them.”</p> + +<p>“I hope not,” said Regina, decidedly.</p> + +<p>“Don’t fuss yourself,” put in Julia, whose fears for her mother were +somewhat allayed; “they won’t. I notice that when women give things to +women it is generally something they’ve got cheap. They’ll give you an +illuminated address, no doubt, and you can frame it and hang it in the +hall.”</p> + +<p>“Not in the hall,” said Regina, who was not strong in the point of +humor, “not in the hall, Julia darling.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>After that the evening passed over very quietly. Julia ran over to the +house of Marksby and was seen no more till bed-time. Alfred sat down in +his own special easy-chair in the cool, pleasant drawing-room, and, over +a pretence of reading the newest art journal, gently dosed off into +slumber, and Regina, in her corresponding chair in the big bow window, +sat and thought she would leave nothing to chance. As for fate, she +would brave it. Like her husband, she was making a pretence of reading, +and as she sat thinking things over she became conscious that she was +looking at the portrait of a very beautiful woman, exquisite in face, +elegant in figure, luxuriously gowned. The journal she was holding in +her hand was one devoted to feminine interests, and this was an +interview with a lady very highly placed in Society. Some impulse made +Regina turn to the beginning of the article and read it. “Devoted +mother, idolized wife, adored <i>châtelaine</i>, the lady bountiful of her +village, her highest aim is gratified in being her husband’s countess.” +There was a portrait of the husband, who, in Regina’s eyes, was not to +be named in the same twelvemonth with the noble Alfred sleeping on the +other side of the room. There were pictures of the children, of her +ladyship’s boudoir, of her village school and her cottage hospital. “The +world has but little attraction for the beautiful subject of our +sketch,” the article ended; “she is seen occasionally at Court and at +great functions, as a part of her duties, but that is all. Her heart is +in her beautiful country home with her husband and her children, and +there she shares the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>joys and sorrows of all who are brought in touch +with the great historic name which she bears.”</p> + +<p>Regina’s heart was stirred by new and conflicting emotions. She had, all +her life, thought much of those who could be credited with working for +eternity, whose toil was to benefit the whole world, to whom the +personal touch had but small value. The picture of this great lady with +her indisputable charms of beauty and disposition, came to her with an +alluring sense of restfulness; here was one who wished to be far removed +from the struggles of a contentious world, and somehow there came a +second picture which linked itself with the first in a strange +sweetness, the picture of an anxious, busy housewife, eager to honor the +great guest, and through the summer night there seemed to float to +Regina’s disturbed senses that simple, soft and sweet reproach, that was +only a little bit of a reproach, “she hath chosen the better part and it +shall not be taken away.” Yes, she was glad that she had laid the train +for the resignation of her presidential office, she was glad that she +was going to be all in all to her husband and children—well, husband +and child. Perhaps before long Julia would take wings and fly away from +the old nest as her sister had done before her. But Alfred would remain, +and she determined in that soft summer evening hour that for Alfred’s +sake she would choose the better part, and her title to honor should be +within rather than without doors. Having arrived at this point in her +thoughts, she began idly turning over the leaves of the journal in her +hand. It contained nothing of particular interest to Regina; there were +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>accounts of entertainments given by people to whom she was unknown; +there was a page devoted to fashionable weddings, including a portrait +of her own girl and of Harry Marksby, and a glowing account of the +wedding just gone by; and then she came to a column of answers to +correspondents which appeared under the heading of “Feminine Wants.” +Regina’s heart gave a sick thrill as she saw the two words, “Feminine +Wants.” The woes of womanhood seemed to crowd in upon her in an +overwhelming wave of sorrow and desolation. Doubtless other women had +suffered more than she had done. The first answer ran, “Humming Bird. I +am so sorry for you, poor little thing, bravely struggling along in your +little flat without a servant to do the rough work. Keep a brave heart, +little wife, and always make a toilette for dinner. I know this may +sound ridiculous, and I do not mean you to put on a low-necked dress, or +commit any folly of that kind, but when you have set your dinner in +train, go and dress yourself. Change your day dress for a silk blouse, +do your hair smartly and neatly, have a smile ready for ‘him’ when he +comes home, for he is just as tired and ready for refreshment as you +are. You will enjoy your dinner twice as well if you have a little +change in your gear, and you can easily put the dinner things on one +side to be washed up in the morning. Be sure, after doing any dirty +work, to wash your hands thoroughly with a spoonful of Lux in the water, +then rub in a mixture of equal parts of glycerine and lemon juice. This +will keep your hands soft and white. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>Write to me again if there is any +way in which I can help you.”</p> + +<p>Regina drew a long breath. It was hard on the little soul to have no +servant, but, after all, they were boy and girl together; no hussy had +crept in to dispute her kingdom. At that moment Regina would cheerfully +have consented to wash dishes and clean doorsteps for the price of +Alfred’s undivided affection.</p> + +<p>“Sad Maudie,” was the next reply. “Yes, you are, indeed a sad Maudie, +and I am truly sorry for you, for I well know the trouble that acne +gives.” “Acne—that’s something to do with the skin,” said Regina to +herself. “Send me a stamped and addressed envelope, and I will send you +a prescription which will do wonders for this troublesome complaint. I +would insert it here, but my editor does not like me to deal with +medical matters in this column.”</p> + +<p>“Cheerful Sally. It is <i>not</i> etiquette to introduce callers when they +meet in your drawing-room. Life would become utterly impossible if one +were liable to meet one’s next-door neighbor, whom one had taken +infinite pains to avoid, when merely paying a call. I should be very +strict on this point if I were you, particularly as you are a newcomer +in your neighborhood.”</p> + +<p>Regina gave a sniff of disgust and passed on.</p> + +<p>“Delia W. My dear Delia, you can’t be old and faded at your age, but you +have let anxiety and worry get the better of you, and you should remedy +these ill-effects at once. Go to Mrs. Vansittant, the famous beauty +specialist, and put yourself unreservedly in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>her hands. It will cost +you a few guineas, but to win your heart’s love, what is that?”</p> + +<p>A sudden resolution seized hold of Regina. She would write to the +editress of “Feminine Wants.” She got up softly and went to her +writing-table.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“<span class="smcap">Dear Editress</span>,” she wrote, “I am a woman of middle age. I have +reason to believe that my husband has swerved from his allegiance +to me. Tell me, what can I do to win him back? I am too stout, I +have never taken care of my skin, I have let my hair take care of +itself, I do not think I have good taste in dress. Pray advise your +broken-hearted</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 2em;">“<span class="smcap">Miranda</span>.”</span></p></div> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>FAMILY CRITICISM</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Sometimes it is a good thing to be aroused out of sleep, especially +if the sleep has been a fool’s paradise.</p></div> + +<p>Mrs. Whittaker crept softly out of the room, and went as softly out of +the house. There was a pillar-box a little way along the road, and it +was not an infrequent habit with her to carry her own letters to the +post without troubling to make any sort of outdoor toilette. So on that +soft summer night she gathered up her voluminous skirts, and with the +letter in her hand went down the covered way to the gate and walked as +far as the pillar-box.</p> + +<p>“My dear,” said a neighbor, who had been to the club and was on his way +home, as he entered the room where his wife was sitting, “I met Mrs. +Whittaker just now. I never saw anything so remarkable.”</p> + +<p>“Really! She’s always rather remarkable in her dress, but how?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, but it was white; it looked like a voluminous exaggerated +nightgown.”</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Whittaker in a nightgown, Charley? She must have been out of her +mind, or was she walking in her sleep, do you think?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, no, I don’t think she was; she was evidently going to the post-box, +but her gown—’Pon my word, she looked like a dressed-up figure in a +carnival.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, she is quite mad,” said the little wife; “they say she’s very nice, +but quite mad.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Regina, all unconscious of the strictures which had been +passed upon her appearance, had gone back into Ye Dene, and lingered in +the covered way adjusting a plant here and a leaf there, as if she had +no higher object in life than the arrangement of her house. It happened +that Alfred woke up as his wife gently closed the door behind her.</p> + +<p>“I thought Queenie was here. Dear me, it is quite chilly—what a fool I +was to go to sleep here! I suppose it’s a sign of old age.”</p> + +<p>Then he stretched out one arm and then the other one.</p> + +<p>“I suppose I ought to write that letter to Jenkinson,” was his next +thought. So he heaved himself up out of his comfortable chair, picked up +the art magazine, and sought his own little sanctum, which was behind +the dining-room. There he wrote a letter of three lines making an +appointment for the next morning, and then he too set off for the +pillar-box.</p> + +<p>“Hullo! Queenie, are you here?” he exclaimed, as he saw the tall figure +in the voluminous white draperies. “Walk up as far as the post with me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, are you going to the post?” she said. “I have just been. Yes, I +will come with you, certainly.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>He opened the gate to let her pass out in front of him.</p> + +<p>“You won’t take cold?” he said anxiously.</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, not a night like this.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know,” he remarked, as they sauntered up the pathway together, +“that there is much protection in a frock like this.”</p> + +<p>“It’s not a frock, dear, it’s a tea-gown.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, is it?”</p> + +<p>“What the French call <i>saute de lit</i>.”</p> + +<p>“It’s flimsy. I don’t know that I altogether like it,” said Alfred, +slipping his hand under her arm.</p> + +<p>“It has the advantage of being cool,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I daresay it is cool, but this kind of gown makes you look—” He +wobbled his hand about to express something that was not very clear to +either of them.</p> + +<p>“I know, it makes me look too fat,” said Regina in quite a crushed tone. +“I am <i>too</i> fat.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know—you’re just comfortable.”</p> + +<p>“No, Alfred, I’m too fat,” Regina reiterated with an air of firm +conviction.</p> + +<p>“Well, as to that,” said Alfred, slipping the letter into the +letter-box, and wheeling round, still keeping hold of his wife’s arm, “I +never did admire the ‘two-deal-board’ style of woman myself.”</p> + +<p>Regina immediately decided in her own mind that the hussy was of the +plump little partridge order.</p> + +<p>“When I take hold of a lady’s arm,” continued Alfred, with the facetious +air of a heavy father, “I like an arm that I can feel; I object to +taking hold of a bone. No, no, my dear, you are not at all too fat, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>but +I don’t think you ought to wear gowns, except purely for reasons of +comfort, that tend to increase your apparent size.”</p> + +<p>“But you don’t think it matters much?”</p> + +<p>“I’m sure it does not matter very much.”</p> + +<p>“Alfred, do you think that I am greatly altered?” She asked the question +wistfully, as if the issue of life and death hung upon his reply.</p> + +<p>“As a matter of fact,” said Alfred Whittaker, promptly, “I think you are +the least altered of any woman I ever knew in my life. I see other women +going to pieces in the most extraordinary manner. Now, Mrs. Chamberlain +came into the office this morning. My goodness, what a wreck! Yellow as +a guinea, her face lined all over—she made me think of a mummy.”</p> + +<p>“Yet she is younger than I am,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Oh, years—they have nothing to do with the case. You have been a happy +woman, a prosperous woman, a healthy woman; there has been nothing in +your life to seam your face with lines and generally stamp you with all +the worry that is too plainly visible on poor Mrs. Chamberlain’s +features. Well, here we are, and here is Julia skipping across the +road.”</p> + +<p>As the words left his lips a slim young figure in white emerged from the +rustic gate that gave entrance and egress to the house of Marksby. They +stood until Julia came running across the road.</p> + +<p>“Have you two dear things been out for an airing?” she exclaimed as she +reached the foot-path.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p><p>“No, only to the post-box,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Mother dear,” said Julia, “you look exactly as if you were walking +about in your nightgown—a very voluminous and sublimated nightgown, but +a nightgown all the same.”</p> + +<p>For a moment Regina was too dashed to speak. The thought came fluttering +through her mind, and seemed to fall to the floor of her heart with a +great crash, that surely it was hopeless for her ever to try to win back +Alfred from the hussy by personal means. Evidently she was hopelessly +out of it as regards all questions of dress and the toilette.</p> + +<p>“Of course,” she hastened to reply, for she did not wish Julia to think +that she was annoyed by her criticism, “it really is a bedroom garment. +I put it on because I was so hot to-day, and in this little country sort +of place I thought going to the post in it would not matter, and—we—we +did not meet anyone, did we, Alfred?”</p> + +<p>“It would not have mattered if you had,” said Julia; “what you wear is a +matter for your own consideration. But it does look like a nightgown.”</p> + +<p>“And your mother,” said Alfred, “looks better in a sort of glorified +nightgown than most women do in their best frocks. And now don’t you +think we had better go off to bed? You will have the least as ever was, +dear?”</p> + +<p>Regina’s face broke into a smile. “The least as ever was,” she replied. +So the two went into the dining-room, where, as usual, the refreshment +tray was set out upon the table. Julia, with a laughing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>declaration +that she did not want even the least as ever was, went gayly upstairs to +her bedroom.</p> + +<p>“I shall be very glad to get away,” said Alfred, sitting on the edge of +the oaken dining-table and holding his whisky-and-soda up to the light. +“I want a change badly this year. We are not as young as we were, +Queenie; I’ve taken a lot out of myself lately.”</p> + +<p>“You’ve been so busy.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, we’ve never had such a good year in business as the last one, but +there’s something wrong with Chamberlain.”</p> + +<p>“How wrong?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, I can’t make it out. Whether there’s a screw loose at +home, or whether his wife’s health is worrying him, I don’t know.”</p> + +<p>“Does she own to being ill?”</p> + +<p>“No, never. This morning I quite offended her by telling her that she +did not look very well.”</p> + +<p>“And they are not going away till September?”</p> + +<p>“No, she has just come back.”</p> + +<p>“She has been to the sea?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Then she came up specially for Maudie’s wedding?”</p> + +<p>“I suppose so. I did not know she had been away till Chamberlain told me +this morning. He seems dull and gloomy—ah, there’s a screw loose there, +but I don’t know just where it is. Anyway, I know I want my holiday very +badly this year and glad I shall be when we have packed up and are off +for La Belle France.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p><p>“And I,” said Regina, with a sigh which, though quickly suppressed, was +full of meaning. Somehow, she could not sleep that night; during the day +some of her most cherished ideals had been ruthlessly torn up by the +roots. Never in all her life before had she had even so much as a +suspicion of her noble Alfred’s matrimonial integrity, and she had come +to see flaws in her own life and rents in her own robes. Indeed, had she +not been, as it were, aroused out of sleep, the regeneration of women +had been like to cost her very dear. But, God be thanked! she had been +awakened in time, and in future she would leave the great question of +womanhood to look after itself, and she would devote her time and +thought and the use of her astute brain to regaining her husband’s love. +“Think,” her thoughts ran, “think—Maudie is married, Julia is young and +beautiful, and fascinating to the opposite sex, you cannot hope to keep +her long in the home nest; think what your life would be living alone +with a husband whose heart was wholly gone from you.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>DEAR DIEPPE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>There is occasionally a time in our life which proves a veritable +oasis in a desert of doubt and suspicion.</p></div> + +<p>During the month which they spent in the fascinating little town on the +northern coast, Regina lived a very <i>dolce far niente</i> kind of life. Her +anxieties as to the hussy were, for a time, lulled to sleep. They stayed +at a comfortable hotel on the front, had rooms overlooking that +wonderful stretch of sea which is one of the great charms of Dieppe, and +they did themselves remarkably well; that is to say, they went without +nothing that would give them pleasure. As soon as they arrived and were +settled down, Alfred Whittaker went to the extravagance of engaging a +motor car for their exclusive use during their stay. It was a very +comfortable car, and held six persons in addition to the chauffeur, and +almost every day they made excursions into the green heart of the quiet +country, lunching at some snug French hostelry on homely but delicious +fare. Personally, I have always thought that one of the chief reasons +why art and sentiment nourish and thrive apace in sunny France is +because the people live upon food so much <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>less gross than is the case +with ourselves. In the poorest little inn on the other side of the +Channel one is always sure of an excellent soup, a delicious omelette, +bread and butter that are beyond reproach, and a sound and excellent +drink, be it of red wine or only of homely cider. To Regina, the freedom +from household cares, which she detested, and from all questions of +orderings and caterings, made this quite the most charming holiday of +her whole life. She was happy, too, that Julia was happy, that Julia +made many friends of her own age and condition, that she, as the phrase +goes, danced her feet off four nights a week, and was able to enter with +zest and enjoyment into the young life of the place. As for Alfred +Whittaker himself, he so thoroughly enjoyed the rest and change, seemed +so happy and contented with himself and everything around him, that +sometimes Regina caught herself wondering if she had been entirely +mistaken in imagining that there was, after all, a hussy in the +background. He was loud in his expressions of satisfaction in the new +ground which they had broken. How they ever came to go year after year +to a dull English watering-place, and never thought of coming abroad, +was really beyond him.</p> + +<p>“But we have been abroad,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, for a trip, for a fortnight in Paris, for tours in different parts +of Europe; there’s no rest in that kind of thing, it is an excitement, +an opening of one’s mind—quite different to this,” he rejoined. “It’s +very improving to one’s mind to go up the Rhine in a steamer, and go +round all the sights of Cologne; to gaze at Ehrenbreitstein, and wonder +whether it really <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span>is like Gibraltar or not; to feed the carp at +Frankfort; to gaze at the falls at Schaffhausen; but it is not restful, +it is not really a holiday. It is a nice fillip for a placid, blank or +uneventful life, but for a man overdone with the stress of business, +give me this. Restful without being dull, interesting without being +overwhelming, and bright and gay without being fagging.”</p> + +<p>“You are always so sensible,” said Regina. She felt at that moment that +the hussy was farther away than ever. Yet, a little later, when she and +Alfred were taking a stroll down the Grande Rue, it being market +morning, and therefore unusually interesting, she was reminded of the +skeleton in her cupboard as sharply and unexpectedly as the jerk with +which the proverbial bird, tied by a string to the leg, is stopped in +its peregrinations. As a rule on market morning the world promenades in +the middle of the street, in the actual roadway, but it happened on this +occasion that Alfred and Regina met a carriage and pair coming slowly +between the market people squalling on the edge of the pavement. To +avoid the carriage they stepped on to the <i>trottoir</i>, and this brought +them under the awning of a jeweler’s shop.</p> + +<p>“I think I ought to buy you a present,” said Alfred, “for I won last +night.”</p> + +<p>“Did you? You never told me.”</p> + +<p>“I didn’t think of it. I was so sleepy I was glad to tumble into bed and +forget everything,” Alfred replied. “I only had five louis in my pocket +when I went into the Casino, and this morning I find that I have +twenty-five. Now, twenty louis is sixteen pounds. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>If I keep it I shall +lose it all back to the tables again, whether it is at the fascinating +little horses or the more fascinating green cloth in the Grand Cercle. +Come, what would you like? Here’s a jeweler’s shop; there are sixteen +good English pounds lying at your feet, make your choice.”</p> + +<p>“In francs?” asked Regina.</p> + +<p>“In francs—well, in francs it’s four hundred. Now, there’s a ring, I +call that a very good bargain for four hundred francs—there’s something +for your money, there’s body in it.” He pointed to a large and +deep-colored sapphire set in a circle of diamonds. Regina saw that the +ring was beautiful, but, womanlike, her eyes wandered to the other +gewgaws displayed in the window.</p> + +<p>“I have a good many rings,” she said hesitatingly. Then her eyes fell +upon a thick gold curb bracelet clasped by a horse-shoe of diamonds.</p> + +<p>“This is handsome,” she said. Her voice was quite faint, for she felt +that she was approaching that subject which had troubled her so much.</p> + +<p>“Oh, horrid!” said he. “I love to see you with plenty of rings, but as +to bracelets—I can’t endure them.”</p> + +<p>“Never?” said Regina. “Never?”</p> + +<p>“No, I never buy a bracelet for anybody. I like to give you something +that you can wear for weeks or years together. Bracelets always seem in +the way, they don’t set off a pretty wrist, and they draw attention to +an ugly one. Besides, they are intensely disagreeable if you happen to +put your arm around my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>neck. Come, let us go inside and see how the +sapphire suits your hand.”</p> + +<p>He led the way into the shop, as a man always does when he is going to +buy something for a woman. Have you ever noticed, my reader, how the +most polite of men, who stands aside on all occasions for the lady to +precede him, marches into a shop right in front of her when he is going +to make her a present?</p> + +<p>Now, Alfred Whittaker’s knowledge of French was what may be described as +infinitesimal, and it being his habit to state his business whenever he +entered a shop of any kind, he did not wait for Regina’s faulty but more +understandable explanations.</p> + +<p>“<i>Vous-avez un ring la</i>,” pointing with a sturdy British thumb toward +the window, “<i>sappheer</i>.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Ah, ah, une broche, monsieur?</i>”</p> + +<p>“Regina, what does she mean by that?”</p> + +<p>Now, for the life of her Regina could not think of the French word for +ring.</p> + +<p>“She means ‘brooch’ of course,” she replied. “I really don’t know what +ring is in French.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Pas une broche?</i>” the lady of the establishment demanded.</p> + +<p>“No, not a brooch,” Alfred Whittaker shouted at her, as if her +understanding lay at the back of deaf ears.</p> + +<p>“<i>Un bracelet, peut-etre?</i>” the Frenchwoman asked, touching her wrist +with a gesture that conveyed more than her words.</p> + +<p>“No, no,” said Alfred, tapping his first finger.</p> + +<p>“<i>Ah, ah, une bague.</i>” She quickly opened the window and brought out +several sapphire rings, including <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>the one which had taken Alfred’s +fancy, and then, as he had already, being a business man, grasped the +initial weakness of the Norman character, there began a period of +haggling which Alfred Whittaker would never have thought of employing in +the case of the establishment of Templeton. Eventually Regina left the +shop with the beautiful sapphire ring upon her finger.</p> + +<p>“My dear girl,” said Alfred (he always called her his dear girl when he +was best pleased), “eighteen pounds for a ring like that is dirt cheap +She said it was an occasion, what did she mean by ‘an occasion’?”</p> + +<p>“I haven’t the least idea, but she certainly said it.”</p> + +<p>“However, no matter what she may have meant, the ring is given away at +the price—it’s worth thirty pounds if it’s worth a penny. You found it, +so to speak, for I won the money that paid for it.”</p> + +<p>“Not quite all.”</p> + +<p>“No, not quite all, but the other was a mere bagatelle. I like to see +you with plenty of rings; some women have not the hands to show them +off.”</p> + +<p>It occurred to Regina that the hussy’s hands were of the kind that look +best in gloves. Then a second thought came, one of blame and reproach to +herself for even thinking of the hussy at such a moment when Alfred had +generously been thinking only of her.</p> + +<p>“It is a beautiful ring, dear Alfred,” she said, putting her hand under +his arm and squeezing it very gratefully, “it is a beautiful ring and +you are very good to me, and I’m not quite sure that I deserve it.”</p> + +<p>She meant what she said. A curious idea had taken <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>possession of her +that while Alfred was so kind and generous to her she ought not to +inquire or wish to inquire into his outer life; there might be fifty +explanations, and while she was evidently first with him it was her duty +to remain content. It was wonderful how that little present, which, +after all, had not cost Alfred Whittaker very much, soothed Regina’s +suspicions and lulled them to sleep. And so, in perfect happiness and +harmony, that month went by, and it was with genuine regret that they +bade adieu to the town of many colors and turned their faces toward the +duller tones of home.</p> + +<p>“We will come back again next year,” said Regina, gazing sentimentally +at the fast-receding shore, now looking most uninteresting. “Dear +Dieppe, we have been so happy and had such a good time, we will come +again next year.”</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Alfred Whittaker, in a tone of +ludicrous jocosity, “I shouldn’t be surprised, for my part, if Darby and +Joan found themselves at Dieppe by themselves. Just you and I, you know, +Queenie.”</p> + +<p>“Wherever you are, Alfred,” said she, leaning over the side of the ship +and keeping her eyes carefully from observing the motion of the water, +“wherever you are I am always perfectly happy and content.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>REGINA ON THE WARPATH</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>There is much more value in the many “cures” that we take nowadays +than is at first apparent to the eye. One cannot take a cure for +the renovation of any part of one’s body without, at the same time, +renovating part of one’s mind.</p></div> + +<p>The immediate effect of going home again was to make Regina more +convinced than ever that the hussy had a very real and tangible +existence. On the very first day Alfred made haste to catch the earlier +of the two trains by which he had been in the habit of traveling to +town. There was nothing in that circumstance—oh no. He had been away +for a full month, and Regina’s opinion of her husband’s partner was but +small. He had brought the bulk of the money into the firm, while Alfred +had supplied the major part of the brains, and had, in fact, built up +the business to its present flourishing state; so, of course, there was +nothing in the actual circumstance that Alfred should hurry through his +breakfast so as to catch the earlier train. He fussed and fumed a +little, too, and let fall a word to the effect that he knew he should +find everything at sixes and sevens, and that he wanted to have one or +two things settled before the Chamberlains went away for their autumn +holiday. Regina too, on her side, was naturally extremely busy that +morning. She had to look after her housekeeping, to lay in supplies, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>to +hold consultations with each of her servants, and to look out a couple +of dresses of slightly more solid material than those which she had worn +at Dieppe—not that she needed them for warmth, for the weather was, as +the weather so frequently is in September, mild even to sultriness. The +sun and the sea air had made the gowns which Regina had taken to Dieppe +appear to her worn and shabby, and she therefore would have to fall back +upon a couple of spring gowns until she could get her new autumn +clothes, the clothes with which she was to win back Alfred. Now, the +hussy had been for some time far from Regina’s thoughts, her suspicions +had been lulled to rest, not only by Alfred’s devotion, but by his +naturalness of demeanor. In a sort of gush of tenderness toward him she +almost determined that she would do nothing to regain his allegiance; +she would only be herself. Then her tidy eye fell upon a piece of paper +lying on the carpet between Alfred’s chair and the door. She went across +the room and picked it up, following the house-wifely instinct which +moves nine women out of ten, and glanced at it to see whether it was +something to keep or something to throw away. It was only a folded sheet +of paper on which was written in a woman’s handwriting, 27 Terrisina +Road, St. John’s Wood, N. W. For a moment Regina was almost too stunned +to speak; she stared at the paper. Luckily, Julia had already gone down +to that part of the Park called the town to get some flowers with which +to deck the house. All the doubts and suspicions of the past came back +in great waves, and broke cruelly upon Regina’s palpitating <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span>heart. +There was a hussy! This had been written by the hussy! This was where +the hussy dwelt, 27 Terrisina Road, St. John’s Wood, N. W. It was far +removed from the side of London on which the Park was situate; he had +laid his plans carefully and well—or she had. Well, 27 Terrisina Road +should not get him or keep him without a struggle; it should be war to +the knife. Doubtless this was a little soft-eyed creature young enough +to be Regina’s child. But Regina would be soft-eyed, Regina would +rejuvenate herself, Regina would win all along the line. It was in this +spirit that Regina went upstairs and examined her wardrobe. She would +leave the house to take care of itself, merely throwing out a few hints +as to dinner, and betake herself to town in order to consult the +specialists whom she had had in her mind during the last month. She +picked out the smartest of the frocks which she had not taken away with +her, and, casting off her white cambric wrapper in which she had +breakfasted, she began to dress herself with feverishly eager fingers.</p> + +<p>Alack and alas! The effect of careering through the fresh country air, +tinged as it was with the brine of the ocean, had been to make Regina +thoroughly enjoy the lunches by the wayside, and the more elaborate +dinners of the evening hour. We all know the effect of good French soup, +various kinds of omelettes, in short, of excellent bourgeois cooking, +and this effect had stolen upon Regina like a thief in the night, and +neither by coaxing nor force could she get herself into the garment in +which she desired to travel to town.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p><p>“Good heavens!” she exclaimed in a tone of anxiety, “I must have put on +stones while I have been away. The old proverb says ‘Laugh and grow +fat,’ and I take it that laughter and happiness have the same effect if +one has a tendency that way. What shall I do?”</p> + +<p>There was only one thing to be done, and that was to get into one of the +despised and discarded gowns in which she had loomed large and important +on the French horizon, and take herself in quest of new ones as quickly +as possible. Then she remembered that she had sent a little message on +the wings of unanimity, a little message which had been signed, “Your +broken-hearted Miranda.” Surely by now there would be a reply to it. She +finished her toilette, hiding as much of her gown as she could by the +addition of a large lace cape which she had bought as a bargain in the +little French town where she had been so happy, and then she went +downstairs and sought for the back numbers of the ladies’ periodical to +which she had written. They were in their accustomed place, the four +numbers which she had not yet seen. She began with the last. “Faded +Iras,” “White Heather,” “White Rose,” “Pussy Cat,” were the first words +which met her eyes. There was no “Broken-hearted Miranda,” and she went +on to the next number, and there, at the top of the column, was the name +she was seeking.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“My poor broken-hearted Miranda,” the reply ran, “how grieved and sorry +I am for you! Are you sure that your conjectures are correct? I have +known wives who made themselves very unhappy on very <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>small grounds—not +that I wish to imply that your grounds for uneasiness are small, but are +you quite sure? If I were you I would take every means of finding out. +With regard to what you tell me of yourself, I can see you, my poor +Miranda, in my mind’s eye, and I hasten to assure you that, whether you +are right or wrong, you will not regret taking yourself in hand in the +beauty sense. For your adipose tissue, I would recommend you to try +Madame Winifred Polson’s little brown tablets. They are wonderful in +their effect on stout figures, particularly in reducing bulk below the +waist. If you begin them, be sure that you give them a very good trial, +and that you carry out her instructions fully and to the very letter. +Now, for your complexion, I can advise you no better than to go to +Madame Alvara. You needn’t be the least nervous of going to her, as it +is not a shop, but she has an elegant private house on the best side of +Grosvenor Square. You will probably meet three duchesses on the stairs, +and may have to wait some time, unless you make an appointment. Place +yourself unreservedly in Madame Alvara’s hands; she will restore to you +the skin of your childhood. For your hair—well, that is difficult. I +think you ought to write to me again and tell me what kind of hair you +have, whether it is thin or grey, that I may advise you whether to go to +a hair specialist or an artiste in <i>toupes</i>. Write to me again, my dear +Miranda, and pray believe that nothing is too much trouble if I have the +reward of knowing that I have helped you to your legitimate end.”</p></div> + +<p>Involuntarily Regina put up her hands and passed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>them over her head. +She had let her hair take care of itself—that did not mean that she was +grey or that she had a mere whisp; she had thick and luxuriant hair, +turned back from her face and done into a simple coil at the turn of the +head.</p> + +<p>“I will not write to-day,” she said to herself; “I will go and see the +face specialist and the beauty specialist, and I will pay a visit to the +lady of the little brown tablets, and then I will go to my tailor. +Something I must have to wear every day. If I get a smart coat and +skirt, something loose and <i>chic</i>, I can put off the rest of my wardrobe +until I have got my figure down to its normal size.”</p> + +<p>She went into the hall intending to leave a message with the cook for +Julia, but the parlor-maid happened to be going through the dining-room +to the pantry with a tray of silver things in her hands.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Margaret, tell Miss Julia I shall, in all probability, not be in to +lunch, and tell her not to wait for me. She will be occupied during the +rest of the day.”</p> + +<p>“Very good, ma’am.”</p> + +<p>Then Regina sailed down the covered way and got into the omnibus which +would carry her to the railway station. What a day of disappointments it +was! She found the beauty specialist had not yet returned to town, and +there was nobody to take her place. Not that she was unceremoniously +told this at the door—oh no; she was shown into a room, and the great +lady’s secretary informed her that Madame Alvara had been very +unwell—she had had such a terribly heavy season—carriages standing a +dozen deep at the door all day <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>long—everybody clamoring for Madame’s +own opinion—and she was so popular, socially.</p> + +<p>“Madame will not be back until the end of the month; I can make an +appointment for the first week in October.”</p> + +<p>“Can you recommend me any harmless lotion to begin with?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Oh no, I should not dare to interfere in Madame’s province; I am only +the secretary; I arrange appointments, and so on.”</p> + +<p>“But you have a skin like a rose leaf,” said Regina, wistfully.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I have to thank Madame Alvara for that. You see, if I were to give +you my recipe you might ruin your skin. Oh, every case has quite +individual attention and treatment. The staff only work under Madame +Alvara’s directions. Yes, they are busy, fairly busy, continuing the +treatment of cases which were begun last season. No new cases will be +taken till Madame Alvara returns.”</p> + +<p>So Regina had no choice but to make an appointment for the 5th of +October, that being the first hour which could be placed at her +disposal. She then went off, after disappointment one, to Madame +Winifred Polson. She had difficulty in finding the place, and when she +did find it, it did not commend itself to her ideas of shrewd +common-sense. However, she left a couple of guineas behind her and +brought away instead a little box of something which rattled. Then she +went and had some lunch—not tea and muffins this time, but a good hot +lunch at a famous drapery establishment which she frequently patronized. +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>After that she made some purchases, and then she went in search of an +establishment whose advertisements she had noticed in a ladies’ paper +which she had taken up while waiting for her lunch to be served. “To +Ladies,” it said. “If you have no lady’s maid you cannot possibly care +for your own hair as the glory of womanhood should be cared for. Go and +consult the ladies who run The Dressing-Room. You can have special +treatment for hair that is not quite in health, special brushings for +hair that merely needs attention, and can consult with experts as to the +most becoming way of wearing your hair.”</p> + +<p>“That is the place for me,” said Regina, taking note of the address. And +so, after paying her two guineas to Madame Polson, she next turned her +steps toward the street wherein she should find The Dressing-Room.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE DRESSING-ROOM</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>I am convinced that there is a huge opening for what I would call +an all-round advice bureau. Its claims would reach far and wide, +its clients would be drawn from all classes. Among them would be +the women who have no taste in dress. The only difficulty would be +to convince them of the fact.</p></div> + +<p>Regina found The Dressing-Room without difficulty. To be exact, it was +situated in Berners Street and the number was forty-five. Regina gained +admittance, was greeted pleasantly, and expressed a certain portion of +her wishes.</p> + +<p>“You would like to have your hair brushed?” said the charming little +lady who received her. “Oh, but you have beautiful hair,” she said, +having enveloped Regina in a snowy garment, unfastened the still +abundant coils, and allowed the locks to stray over her shoulders. “O, +you have lovely hair, but how little you make of it!”</p> + +<p>“That is exactly why I have come”—her tone was pathetic in its +eagerness. “How would you advise me to wear it?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know, I never like to give an opinion off-hand. I’ll brush it +thoroughly, see how it lies, study you face and figure—”</p> + +<p>“Oh—my figure!” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Why, what is the matter with it?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p><p>“Too fat,” Regina sighed.</p> + +<p>“Too fat? I’d be glad of a little of your complaint,” said the little +woman, who was herself about as fat as a match.</p> + +<p>“But I am too fat,” Regina cried.</p> + +<p>“Well, perhaps you might do with a little less, but I shouldn’t overdo +it in the other direction. Of course, there is no doubt that +good-looking women are generally those who are inclined to be stout, but +keep themselves within reasonable limits. They have the best skin, the +best hair, they have so few lines and so few wrinkles, and they escape +the withered look of age.”</p> + +<p>She was brushing softly yet vigorously at Regina’s soft brown locks.</p> + +<p>“You are beginning to wear your hair off your forehead.”</p> + +<p>“I have always worn it off my forehead,” said Regina, with dignity.</p> + +<p>“No—I don’t mean that, I mean that the continued brushing in one +direction has begun to wear it away, and your forehead seems higher than +it really is.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, it is wearing back.”</p> + +<p>“Now, we ought to contradict that tendency.”</p> + +<p>“I can’t wear a fringe,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“No, a fringe would be out of keeping with your general appearance, and +I never advocate a fringe if it can be dispensed with, but you have been +wearing your hair so tightly dressed. Now, would you let me shampoo your +hair?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, do what you like,” said Regina, with child-like faith and very +unchild-like patience.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span></p><p>“It will help you a little—in this way, it gives the hair a fresh +start. One should never try to dress one’s hair in a new fashion without +shaking off as much as possible the old way.”</p> + +<p>So Regina’s hair was washed and dried, and then came the great question +of what style of hair-dressing she should adopt.</p> + +<p>“I would like you not to look in the glass,” said Madame Florence, as +the little lady had asked Regina to call her. “I should like you to see +the finished picture of yourself without your seeing the process. So +often what comes to one as a surprise is so much better than what comes +gradually.”</p> + +<p>She opened a large box on a table at her right hand, and chose from it a +light frame of the exact color of Regina’s hair. This she put on +Regina’s head, then she deftly manipulated the abundant tresses, +gathered them loosely over the frame into a knot at the top of the head, +fixing it here and there with combs, and then slightly waved the looser +portions of hair.</p> + +<p>“In most instances,” she said when she had reached this point, “I should +recommend the wearing of a net, but your hair is so much of a length, +and so unlikely to become untidy, that I should not recommend you to +trouble to do more than I have done. Now look at yourself.”</p> + +<p>It was such a glorified vision of Regina that met that lady’s gaze when +she looked at herself that she positively jumped out of her seat.</p> + +<p>“It is really me?” she cried.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, it is really you,” said Madame Florence.</p> + +<p>“But how shall I be able to do it myself, I—I do not keep a maid.”</p> + +<p>“Well, wear it to-day, see how you like it, see how your people +appreciate it, do it as well as you can and come back again to me +to-morrow. I will do it for you until your hair has got into condition +and takes these lines naturally. How do you like it?”</p> + +<p>“I think I must have looked a perfect fright before,” said Regina in a +burst of confidence.</p> + +<p>“Well, compared with what you do now, you certainly did. It was a sin to +see all that lovely hair wasted and made nothing of. By the way, about +your combs—I have put you in my ordinary combs; would you like to have +a proper set?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes,” said Regina, “I will have everything that is necessary,” for, +as I have already explained, money was not a matter of paramount +importance to her.</p> + +<p>“I have put in ordinary imitation tortoise-shell combs just to try. Take +the glass, if you please, and look at yourself all round. See, I will +turn on the light. Do you like the shape of the head? You see the combs +improve it. I should advise you to have real tortoise-shell; it is +better for the hair, and more in accordance with your age and position +than little cheap ones.”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, I will have good combs.”</p> + +<p>Madame Florence touched a bell and immediately there came into the room +a young girl of intelligent aspect and stylish exterior.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>“Miss Margaret,” said Madame Florence, “will you get me the good combs?”</p> + +<p>“In sets?” said Miss Margaret.</p> + +<p>“Yes, like these, only real.”</p> + +<p>“Certainly.”</p> + +<p>As the girl left the room Regina turned to Madame Florence. “You have a +quaint custom here of using the Christian name,” she said.</p> + +<p>“We wish to be impersonal,” said Madame Florence. “Our establishment is +called The Dressing-Room, that is sufficient for our purpose, and as we +must have some distinguishing mark, my partner and I are Madame Florence +and Madame Cynthia, and our helpers are Miss Margaret, Miss Bertha and +Miss Violet. It gives us a personality here which has nothing to do with +our private personality. We find that it works excellently well.” She +broke off as Miss Margaret came back into the room carrying a large box. +Regina chose a set of combs and Madame Florence adjusted them in her +hair, taking away the cheaper ones with which she had first dressed it.</p> + +<p>“Now,” she said, “you may find your toque a little difficult—well, I +should like to see your toque on.”</p> + +<p>The effect was terrible, for Regina’s toques were never things of +beauty, and this one was less beautiful than most of her headgear.</p> + +<p>“It is impossible!”</p> + +<p>“Well, it is rather impossible. Forgive me for saying so, but how could +you buy such a thing?”</p> + +<p>“Madame Florence,” said Regina, “you are a lady.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p>“I hope so; I have always believed myself to be such.”</p> + +<p>“I recognized it. I recognize it still more as I remain in your +presence. I will be frank with you, I will be candid. I see you have a +copy of the <i>Illustrated Ladies’ Joy</i> on the table. I should like to +speak to you alone,” she said in an undertone.</p> + +<p>Madame Florence gave a look at the younger lady, which she interpreted, +and immediately disappeared from the room.</p> + +<p>“I may speak to you in confidence?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly.”</p> + +<p>“Give me the number of the <i>Illustrated Ladies’ Joy</i> for the week before +last.”</p> + +<p>“Certainly. Here it is.”</p> + +<p>Regina turned with trembling fingers to the answers to correspondents on +matters connected with the toilette. “Read that,” she said, pointing to +the answer which was headed “broken-hearted Miranda.”</p> + +<p>“I am that woman; I am ‘broken-hearted Miranda.’”</p> + +<p>“Dear, dear, dear,” said Madame Florence, “are you really sure that it +is so?”</p> + +<p>“I am afraid so. My husband is the noblest of men—generous, brave, +true-hearted—he has been got hold of, Madame Florence.”</p> + +<p>“And you must get him back again,” said Madame Florence in sharp +staccato accents. “You are a good-looking woman, a little stout, but +that can be got rid of by judicious means.”</p> + +<p>“I have taken means; I have just bought some of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>Madame Winifred +Polson’s little brown tablets.”</p> + +<p>“Two guineas’ worth?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“I would not take them if I were you. They will eat away the lining of +your stomach, they will make you dyspeptic, they will perforate your +bowels and do all sorts of horrible things. They are made of iodine and +sea wrack. Put them into the fire, my dear lady.”</p> + +<p>“But I paid two guineas for them,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>Madame Florence laughed. “Well, take them home with you if you like, and +look at them occasionally and say ‘These cost me two guineas,’ but don’t +take them. If you want to get thin, go to a medical man who thoroughly +understands the science of food and fat—or fat and food.”</p> + +<p>“Are there such people?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes. You say you like simple diet, and take all sorts of starchy +foods and think that makes your skin fine and clear. My dear lady, it is +not the milky foods you take, the bread and butter and cream and the +extra two lumps of sugar in your tea that make your skin fine and clear; +it is simply that you were born with a fine skin, and have been doing +everything you could to ruin it during the whole of your life.”</p> + +<p>“You think that under diet my skin will regain its normal beauty?”</p> + +<p>“Of course it will. If you put yourself into proper hands, you won’t +know yourself. When I say ‘proper hands’ I do not mean my own. My +business is connected entirely with the hair, nothing else, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>but I know +who are skilled in all matters of diet. I will give you the name and +address of a doctor in Harley Street who will charge you a fixed sum for +your course, and who will give you the smallest and closest directions +for getting rid of your superfluous fat without making you in the least +bit skinny or withered.”</p> + +<p>“I am very grateful to you,” said Regina; “I wish I had not gone to +Madame Polson. Not that two guineas is a matter of very great +importance, but I hate being done.”</p> + +<p>“Of course you do, all nice, sensible people do. But you will not take +those tablets, will you?”</p> + +<p>“Not in the face of what you have told me. Will you give me the address +of the doctor in Harley Street? I will go to him now.”</p> + +<p>“You cannot go to him now; you see it is past his hours—you have been +here so long. Let me give you a cup of tea.”</p> + +<p>“You are very kind.”</p> + +<p>“And you will let me do your hair for a week?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I will come every day for a week. Tell me, how do you charge for +your treatments?”</p> + +<p>“Well, we give so many for a guinea. A simple treatment is brushing it +and arranging it in the ordinary way. Shampooing is extra, the combs are +extra, the frame is extra, and waving the hair is again another charge. +We will put your treatment to-day at a lump sum—half-a-guinea. You +should take another guinea’s worth of simple treatments—that is to say, +I will brush your hair every day for a week, wave it and dress it like +this for a guinea. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>After that, if you come to me once a week you will +find that your hair will be kept in perfect condition. Occasionally you +will care to have a shampoo, but that is as you feel. I have many +clients who never have their heads touched except with my hair brushes.”</p> + +<p>“But about my toque? I cannot go out like this. I must put my hair back +to-day. I <i>must</i> get home.”</p> + +<p>“I never like,” said Madame Florence, “I never like to recommend special +means if my clients are restricted in the way of money. I—er—it is the +season of changing one’s clothes; you will be buying new toques?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes.”</p> + +<p>“We have another business—nothing to do with me—but another business +is run under this roof,” said Madame Florence. “Would you care to see +some toques?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, have you? Then I will have a new toque,” said Regina. “I—I will be +frank and candid with you. I am a very remarkable woman—I am Mrs. +Alfred Whittaker. I have been for many years President of the Society +for the Regeneration of Womanhood—I have regenerated all sorts of +things connected with women, and now I want to regenerate myself. I have +given up my presidency, I have worked for others long enough, and some +hussy has, in a measure, supplanted me with my husband. I want—I want +to learn a great deal, I want to go to school again. I have never known +how to dress myself, I have never known how to make the most of myself. +Dear Madame Florence, I like you; you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>have faithful eyes, I can see you +are a woman to be trusted—it has been my business for years past to +judge characters by exteriors—you inspire me with confidence. Will you +help me, will you come and choose something to put on my head?”</p> + +<p>I am bound to say that it was with great difficulty that Madame Florence +restrained the broadest of broad smiles.</p> + +<p>“Madame Clementine,” she said, “has a suite of rooms on the first floor. +If you will come with me I will introduce her to you. No, I would not +put your toque on, it is so ugly. Best not to let her know you have ever +worn anything so unbecoming. I will send a message down to make sure she +is alone.” She touched a bell, and again Miss Margaret came into the +room. “Just go down and see if Madame Clementine is below and alone. +This lady is going down to choose a toque.”</p> + +<p>Two minutes later Regina found herself following Madame Florence down +the stairs leading to the first floor.</p> + +<p>“Good afternoon, Madame Clementine,” said Madame Florence, cheerfully, +“I have brought you a new client. This is Mrs. Alfred Whittaker—so well +known—all women know the name of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker. I have been +arranging her hair, and I want you to crown my efforts with the +prettiest toque you have in your show-rooms.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>RUMOR</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Have you ever noticed how a lie spreads and grows as it flies +along? What a pity it is that the truth does not increase in the +same proportion!</p></div> + +<p>“Pray be seated, madame,” said Madame Clementine. “I am delighted to be +honored by a visit from so distinguished a lady. Certainly I know your +name well, everyone interested in the cause of womanhood knows the name +of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker.”</p> + +<p>Regina smiled and bowed. She was well accustomed to this kind of +flattery, but it had never lost its charm for her, and now, after all +those years, she accepted it at its face value.</p> + +<p>“Mademoiselle Gabrielle,” called Madame Clementine.</p> + +<p>“<i>Mais oui</i>, Madame,” answered a voice from another room, and +immediately a little French girl came running in.</p> + +<p>“Now, mademoiselle, here is a very distinguished lady—This is my right +hand,” said Madame Clementine, turning to Regina. “Now, something very +<i>chic</i>. Yes, look Mrs. Whittaker well over. You see, Gabrielle looks +from this point and from that point, she takes in the whole. It is not +with us to sell any hat that comes first, but to sell madame a hat that +will <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>always give madame satisfaction when she looks in the glass.”</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Whittaker has not been very pleased with her milliner heretofore,” +said Madame Florence.</p> + +<p>“Ah madame, now you will never go anywhere else. My clients never leave +me, because I believe in what you English call ‘the personal note.’ We +have models—oh yes, that is absolutely necessary, because we have +ladies who come in and say, ‘I want a hat, I want to wear it now,’ and +they pay for it and go away. Well, we must supply their needs, but, when +we have regular clients, we like to have a day or two of notice, to see +the dress madame is wearing, the mood madame is in, and her state of +health, then we make a toque that is madame’s toque, not a toque that +you will meet three times between this and Oxford Street.”</p> + +<p>“If you suit me,” said Regina, “and give me something that I can go home +in, I will put myself unreservedly in your hands in the future. I know +little or nothing about dress,” she went on, with a superior, platform +kind of air—an assertion which made the lively Frenchwoman positively +shudder—“yet I am feminine enough to wish to be well dressed.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, we will satisfy madame. Well, Gabrielle?”</p> + +<p>“I think,” said little Mademoiselle Gabrielle, “that madame will find +the toque that came down yesterday would suit her as well as anything +not specially made for her. I will get it, madame.”</p> + +<p>She disappeared into the next room, returning with a large black toque +in her hand. It was light in fabric, it was bright with jet, and a +couple of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span>handsome black plumes fell over the coiffure at the back.</p> + +<p>“Ah, yes, Gabrielle, yes. Now try it on, madame. Not with those pins, +they do not fit with the style of the hat. Madame will not mind to buy +hat-pins?”</p> + +<p>“If they are not ruinous,” said Regina, who was in a very much “in for a +penny, in for a pound” kind of mind.</p> + +<p>“Antoinette, Antoinette, bring the box of ’at-pins,” said Mademoiselle +Gabrielle.</p> + +<p>Immediately another little French girl came out carrying a large tray of +hat-pins.</p> + +<p>“Madame is not in mourning? We will not have jet—no, no! Now these?”</p> + +<p>She pounced upon some cut-steel hat-pins which matched the ornaments on +the hat, and then with deft and soft little fingers she firmly fixed the +toque on Regina’s head.</p> + +<p>“You see,” said Madame Clementine, spreading her hands, and looking at +Madame Florence for approval. “Yes, that is the hat for madame. Regard +yourself, madame—give madame the ’and-glass.”</p> + +<p>Regina got up and walked with stately mien to the long glass set so as +to catch the best light from the windows. Indeed, the toque was most +becoming. She saw herself a different woman, more like those gracious, +well-furnished superb British matrons whom she was accustomed to see +sitting behind prancing horses and powdered footmen on those rare +occasions when she had allowed herself to be inveigled into the Park. It +was not a cheap toque, but Regina had the sense to see that it was worth +the money asked for it.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p><p>“It is not ver’ cheap,” said Madame Clementine, “non, but it is good, it +will last, it is not a toque for a day and then another for to-morrow. +Then these plumes, they will come in again and again.”</p> + +<p>“I will have it,” said Regina; “I am quite satisfied with it. I only +feel, Madame Clementine, that—er—my—my upper part is, well—is +superior to my lower part, what in our vernacular we call ‘a ha’-penny +head and a farthing tail.’”</p> + +<p>“Oh, ver’ good, ver’ good,” cried Madame Clementine, with your true +Parisienne’s shriek of laughter. “You see, Gabrielle, the gros sou for +the head and the little sou for the tail. Oh, that is most expressive. +But, madame, you can remedy that.”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, I suppose I can,” said Regina, doubtfully, “I wish you were a +dressmaker.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, indeed, no! It does not do, you have not <i>chic</i> if you mix all +sorts together. To be <i>modiste</i> and to be <i>couturière</i> is like being a +painter and a singer at the same time. But I can tell you of a little +Frenchwoman—she could dress you—ah—eugh!” And she kissed the tips of +her fingers.</p> + +<p>“Well, if you will give me her address I will go to her,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“To-day? But it is too late,” said Madame Florence. “Mrs. Whittaker is +coming upstairs to have tea with me,” she added; “it will be ready now.”</p> + +<p>“Does your friend live far away?” said Regina to Madame Clementine.</p> + +<p>“No, not very far, just three streets away. It is <i>une vraie +artiste</i>—no great price, she is not known. By-and-bye she will +be—unattainable, excepting to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>her old clients. Antoinette, write down +the address of Madame d’Estelle. And when you have arranged your gowns +with her, you will come back to me for suitable toques?”</p> + +<p>“Yes,” said Regina, “I will put myself unreservedly in your hands. I +feel you are a woman of taste, an artiste. I frankly confess that I +am—<i>not</i>.”</p> + +<p>It was with many wreathed smiles, becks and bows and assurances of +welcome when she should come again that Regina was finally allowed to +return to The Dressing-Room for the tea which was waiting her. Finally, +after having written a cheque for her preliminary treatments, she found +herself walking along Berners Street in the direction of Oxford Street, +and a feeling took possession of her that, after all, fashionable women +knew what they were doing when they patronized private establishments. +She had heard of them, because details of dress had not wholly ebbed by +leaving her high and dry on the shore of high principle, devoid of the +herbage of feminine grace. She had heard that no well-dressed woman, no +really well-dressed woman, would ever get her clothes at a shop, and her +keen and busy brain turned over the subject as she walked away from The +Dressing-Room. After all, she had learned much during her years at the +helm of the Society for the Regeneration of Women, and she had learned, +above all things, to set a true value on the quality which is called +individualism. She had learned that you cannot herd humanity with +success, and she was now learning that you cannot dress humanity <i>en +bloc</i>. She felt a curious shyness as she caught sight of her +unaccustomed appearance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>in the shop windows as she passed, and once she +stopped as she was walking along Oxford Street, at a large furniture +establishment, and looked at herself searchingly. Yes, in spite of the +feeling of looseness about her head which worried her not a little, she +could see the intense becomingness of the new way in which her hair was +arranged. It was then after five o’clock, but she steadily pursued her +way in search of Madame d’Estelle. I need not go into the details of her +visit. Madame d’Estelle made short work of her new client.</p> + +<p>“Yes, madame,” she said, “you want a little frock built for that toque. +Well, leave it to me, leave it to me; I will make you a little +frock—say ten guineas? (Take madame’s measure.) While they take your +measurements I will walk round and study you. You will come again in +three days for a fitting, then, if it is necessary you will come again +three days after that, then in three days more you will have your frock. +I will make you something consistent with your personality—it will be a +little black frock, nothing very important, but it will give us a +sufficient start. (Write, madame, a note—ten guineas—and the day of +the fitting.) Leave yourself to me, madame, it will be all right.”</p> + +<p>Then Regina went home. She felt that everybody in the Park was looking +at her. So they were, for the story had gone round that Mrs. Whittaker +had become a little wrong in her head. The story had been going round +that she had been seen walking up the road in her nightgown and many +variations of it had already found credence. “Have you heard the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>news? +That Mrs. Whittaker of Ye Dene has gone off her dot.” “Oh, my dear!” +“Well, Charley says he met her walking up the road in her nightgown.” +“Oh, nonsense.” “Well, that’s what I said, but Charley met her himself.” +“Was she walking in her sleep?” “Charley didn’t seem to think so.” Then +a little later, “You know Mrs. Whittaker of Ye Dene, they’re saying +she’s got a tile off.” “Well, I always did think she was a peculiar kind +of woman; no woman would dress like that who was altogether right in her +head.” “Yes, but I didn’t think she was as bad as that. Why! she, the +President of some society for making new women. Who says she’s got a +tile off?” “Well, my sister was at the Wingfield-Jacksons’ yesterday, +and Mrs. Jackson told her that Charley had seen her walking up the road +in her nightgown, so she must be quite dotty, you know.” A few days +after the story spread still further. “You’ve heard the latest, of +course.” “No, I’ve heard nothing particular, most people are away.” +“They’ve taken poor Mrs. Whittaker away to a lunatic asylum.” “Oh, my +dear, you don’t say so. What for?” “Well, I suppose she’s gone out of +her mind. Perhaps the wedding, the fuss—so many presents—ah, I thought +at the time they were rather over-doing it.” “But I thought she was such +a strong-minded woman.” “Ah, but don’t you think there’s always +something abnormal about these strong-minded women. Just as my Harry +said when he told me—<i>he</i> got it from the club, of course; all the +gossip in the place comes from the club—as he said, it’s all very well +to take women out of their rightful sphere and let <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>them regenerate the +world, but it doesn’t pay; that that’s just how we ordinary women, who +haven’t got souls above our natural duties, may take comfort to +ourselves.” “When did it happen?” “I don’t know, but when they were +supposed to go abroad she was taken away to a lunatic asylum. They say +she’s at Bolitho House, and I did hear that she is kept in a padded +room.” “But, my dear,” said the other woman, “just turn your eyes to the +window. There’s Mrs. Whittaker walking down the road with her hair +dressed a new way and the smartest hat on her head that I’ve ever seen +in my life!” “Well, I never!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>POOR MOTHER</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>I think that nothing in the world shows truer affection than that +curious resentment against any change in the appearance of those we +love.</p></div> + +<p>Regina, all unconscious of the gossip that with her for its central +figure was floating about the Park, went slowly down the road in the +direction of Ye Dene. Truth to tell, she was a little shy of facing her +family in her new guise. It was then after six o’clock; in fact, it was +fast approaching the hour of seven. Now it happened that Julia had been +off on an expedition to town with one of the Marksby girls, and had only +arrived home about ten minutes previously, and being tired had gone into +the pleasant sitting-room which she and Maudie had hitherto shared +between them. When Mrs. Whittaker came up the covered way Julia saw her +from where she was sitting, for both the sitting-room door and the front +door were wide open.</p> + +<p>“Hullo, mother, are you back?” she called out.</p> + +<p>Regina with a certain accession of color and a certain acceleration of +heart beating, replied with a pleasant word and walked into Julia’s +sitting-room.</p> + +<p>“Oh, you’ve not been back long?” she said.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p><p>Julia did not reply. It was not perhaps a remark that called for any +special attention in the way of answer, but if it had it would have been +all the same.</p> + +<p>“Why, <i>mother</i>—” and she stared at Regina as if she were indeed fitted +for the padded room which had been mentioned a few minutes previously.</p> + +<p>“I have got a new toque,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Oh, the toque is all right—a little big—”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think so. It was chosen for me by a Frenchwoman whose taste is +indisputable.”</p> + +<p>“I have not always found French taste indisputable,” said Julia, +remembering with a certain shame some of the purchases that she and +Maudie had made in days gone by. “Your toque’s all right, but what have +you been doing to your hair?”</p> + +<p>“I have had my hair shampooed and brushed, and I intend to wear it in +another mode.”</p> + +<p>“It looks horrid!” said Julia.</p> + +<p>“I don’t think so,” answered Regina, her color still heightened and a +great accession of dignity in her manner. “You do not always wear your +hair the same, why should I? I have got to that time of life when what +suited me at thirty does not still suit me at fifty, and my hair showed +signs of wearing off the forehead, and I do not like a bald forehead +either in a man or a woman.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I daresay you are right. Of course, you are at liberty to make +whatever sort of a guy you like of yourself, only don’t ask me to admire +it, that’s all.”</p> + +<p>The tone was rude, and Regina felt stabbed to the heart.</p> + +<p>“I do not always admire your taste in dress, Julia,” <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>she said very +quietly. “I sometimes think that if a mother had all her life had a +frightful wart on her nose, her children would resent its removal +because they had grown accustomed to it. I have chosen, my dear, to do +my hair in a new fashion, and I am not to be turned from my purpose by +even your wishes. I have come to the conclusion that I have paid too +little attention in the past to the details which most women think of +paramount importance. I am going to change all that and I have begun +with my hair and my toque.”</p> + +<p>She did not wait for Julia to reply, but turned and went quietly and +quickly out of the room, leaving Julia speechless and astonished.</p> + +<p>“Now, what has happened to her?” said Julia. “Why should she, all at +once, take to altering herself like that? Surely mother isn’t going to +be frivolous in her old age. I wonder what daddy will say. She’s going +to ‘alter all that.’ Well, of course—she’s at liberty to please +herself. I suppose I ought not to have jumped on her like that—poor +mother!”</p> + +<p>She got up and ran up the broad and shallow stairs, knocked at her +mother’s door, and, without waiting for an answer, entered the room.</p> + +<p>“I say, mother,” she said.</p> + +<p>Regina was standing before the glass, evidently in the act of taking the +pins out of her hat. She turned round.</p> + +<p>“You want me?” she asked. Her tone was quite pleasant and sweet, but +there was an indefinable sense of woundedness about it which touched +Julia to the very quick.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, I say, mother, I was beastly rude to you just now. But I didn’t +mean to be.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure you didn’t.”</p> + +<p>“You see, when one has a mother that one thinks an awful lot of, and who +always wears her hair the same, one feels sort of blank when she makes +herself look different. But I was rude, and I’m awfully sorry; I didn’t +mean it for that.”</p> + +<p>She came to the side of the dressing-table and stood looking at her +mother with honest, troubled eyes. Regina caught her by the hand and +drew her to her ample bosom.</p> + +<p>“I felt myself growing such a frump,” she said. “I don’t know when, I +think it was about the time of Maudie’s wedding, that I felt, all at +once, that I was getting into a fossil like all other women workers. I +never saw it all those years till about that time, and I hated myself +for being frumpy and ridiculous.”</p> + +<p>“You never were that to us,” said Julia, with quick reproach. “I hope +you never thought we thought so, for we never did.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well, well, I will wear my hair this way for a little while, and +if you and dear father do not like it I will put it back into the old +way again. It is bad for the hair to dress it always in the same +fashion.”</p> + +<p>“Well, now I come to think of it, it looks awfully nice, and you’ve +lovely hair and a glorious complexion.”</p> + +<p>At this the color on Regina’s cheeks deepened into a veritable rose +blush. Julia hurried on—“It’s a beautiful hat,” she said. “Where did +you get it? How did you light on this Frenchwoman? Was it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>very +expensive? It’s worth it, whatever it cost.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Regina, “it was four guineas; I don’t call that very +expensive for a hat with good feathers.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, not a bit! And even if it was, you can afford it. I think you are +quite right, now you have chucked the regeneration business, to start +regenerating your own person. I admit it gave me a shock when you came +in. You know, somehow one doesn’t like the first idea of one’s mother +being tampered with.”</p> + +<p>Then Regina told Julia how she came to put herself in the hands of +Madame Florence and the little Frenchwoman on the first floor—that is +to say, she told her in part, not giving her reasons, her actual +reasons, or the source of her information concerning them.</p> + +<p>“But how will you do your hair to-morrow morning?”</p> + +<p>“I do not know quite how I shall do it. I am going to Madame Florence +every day for a week, so that she may do it and get it into the proper +set. When she had arranged my hair she gave me a lesson on a dummy, so +that I really do know how things should be, and she thinks after a week +I shall be quite able to do it myself. Besides, as she says, it makes +such a difference—the way your hair is accustomed to go.”</p> + +<p>“You’ll never be able to wave your own hair, mother.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t like to think about that part of it,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Darling,” said Julia, feeling that she had smoothed over her previous +indiscretions, “why don’t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>you have a maid? She would be so useful to +both of us. Think of somebody who would be able to make smart blouses, +do up frocks and touch up hats and generally make life easy and +comfortable. Why don’t you have a maid?”</p> + +<p>“It seems such an expense,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“But you can afford it—I shall talk to father.”</p> + +<p>“If I did have a maid I should pay her myself; I shouldn’t think of +coming on your father for an extravagance of that sort.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you have more money than you ever spend. Dearest, you have got +into the habit of going without things, and we have got into the habit +of regarding you as a person of no vanities, so that we resent it when +you show the smallest sign of anything feminine in your nature. Now I +come to look at you again,” said Julia, with her head on one side, “I +think I do like you better like this. It is more important looking; it +seems to make your head more of a size with the rest of you. I like you +in black—you know, mother, you never wear black. Do you mind if I try +it on?”</p> + +<p>“Why of course not.” It was with pride that Regina stood by and saw her +daughter poise the beautiful black toque upon her own abundant locks.</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, it’s a ravishing hat,” Julia declared. “I think I must go and +see your Madame Clementine. You won’t mind?—Ah, there is daddy coming.”</p> + +<p>At that moment Alfred’s solid footstep was heard upon the landing. +“Hullo, young woman,” he said a moment later as he entered the room, +“got a new hat?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p><p>“<i>It’s mother’s hat</i>,” said Julia with emphasis and awaited +developments.</p> + +<p>“Your mother’s? Well, my dear, you have been doing yourself very well. +Why—bless my soul—what have you been doing to your head?”</p> + +<p>“I have been having my hair brushed and cared for,” said Regina, feeling +that she must take her bull by the horns and grasp her nettle without +delay.</p> + +<p>“Why didn’t they put it up as it was—let me look at you. I don’t +know”—and he passed his thumb down one cheek and his fingers down the +other till they met at the lowest point of his chin, “I don’t know—it +isn’t you, you see.”</p> + +<p>“Don’t say you dislike it, Alfred,” said Regina, with pathetic +wistfulness.</p> + +<p>“I don’t say I dislike it, at the same time—it isn’t you,” he replied. +“Put the hat on—let’s see you in it. Yes—I don’t know. It’s a pity to +hide a forehead like yours with all that loose hair. I know women are +all wearing it so; but at the same time, I think it is a pity.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve got to look such a frump, Alfred,” said Regina, taking the hat off +again and patting her hair into place.</p> + +<p>“No, my dear, that you never did. You have a distinctiveness all your +own. As to this new-fangled arrangement—well, if it pleases you to do +it that way, you must do it that way and we must get used to it. +Perhaps, in a little while, we shall like it better than as it was +before.”</p> + +<p>“But it does not meet with your unqualified approval, Alfred?” said +Regina.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span></p><p>“No, I can’t say that it does.”</p> + +<p>“It makes me look younger,” she asserted.</p> + +<p>“But I don’t want you to look younger. We were a very good match for +each other as we were, and I don’t know that it <i>does</i> make you look +younger. Well, well, let it be for a day or two till one gets accustomed +to the change. As it is, it doesn’t seem right to have you, of all women +in the world, thinking about vanities.”</p> + +<p>“Why not?” said Regina in a very small voice.</p> + +<p>At that moment Julia betook herself out of the room, shutting the door +as if she did not want to hear any more of what passed between her +parents.</p> + +<p>“Why not?” repeated Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, they don’t seem to be in keeping with you. One never thinks of +you as having nerves or the megrims, of being offended about nothing and +having to be coaxed back again into a good temper. You are the kind of +woman one gives a present to because one desires to give you pleasure, +not because you are to be made to forget some vexation or some +disappointment. You are unlike other women, Regina.”</p> + +<p>And Regina immediately decided that the hussy was a person of moods!</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>It is odd that, while business is a mantle sufficiently ample to +cover a whole lifetime of sins, we usually credit any pastime with +being the cloak of a good deal of wickedness.</p></div> + +<p>In the face of the indisputable fact that neither husband nor child +approved of the change she had made in her coiffure, Regina entered +upon a course of what can only be called complete prevarication. The +following day she rose betimes in the morning as was her wont, as one of +her fixed habits was always, under all circumstances short of absolute +illness, to be ready for breakfast in time to give Alfred a quiet and +ample meal. She had from the very beginning conceived it to be her bare +duty to be the one to speed him on his daily quest into the city, +and to welcome him when he returned to his home in the evening, and to +do her full justice, Regina had rarely failed in this particular. She +had left her children more or less to shape their own lives, and +being of extremely dominant personalities, they had shaped them +accordingly—Maudie in the direction of the soft, domestic, luxurious +type, which later developes into the “feather bed;” Julia in a keen, +alert, downright, make-your-own-world-as-you-go fashion. She had +arranged her domestic affairs so that when <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span>she took up the regeneration +of women her housekeeping arrangements did not suffer by her absence, +and as I have said, she was always down in ample time to breakfast, +always having made a decently becoming toilette, and she was always or +almost always the first person that Alfred saw when he came home again +in time for dinner. On this occasion she knew it would be impossible for +her to arrange her hair in a new and unaccustomed way with anything like +success and at the same time be ready at the usual breakfast time. So +she merely combed her hair up and twisted it into a knot on the top of +her head. Truth to tell, it was much more becoming than any style she +had done it in before, though less elaborate than the arrangement of +Madame Florence. She donned a plain white cambric wrapper, touched her +face with powder, and tied a broad blue ribbon round her waist, bringing +the bow low down, and pinning it with a huge brooch at a point about +six inches lower than she usually wore her buckle. In the past one of +Regina’s landmarks had been what is usually called the Holbein curve, +and the mere fact of pinning her waist ribbon a few inches lower than +usual was sufficient to transform Regina if not from the ridiculous to +the sublime, at least from the grotesque to the prevailing mode. She was +already in the spacious and comfortable dining-room reading her letters +when Alfred made his appearance.</p> + +<p>“Whew!” he said, “it’s going to be a blazing hot day; the city will be +like a grill room!”</p> + +<p>“And I suppose you are too busy to take an hour or two off?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p><p>“Why, do you want me to go anywhere?”</p> + +<p>“No, I was thinking it would be good for you if you could take an hour +or two off and get a little fresh air.”</p> + +<p>“Utterly impossible, my dear. With any other partner, perhaps, but not +with Chamberlain. To put it plainly, my dear, Chamberlain put in the +money when I wanted to spread myself, and I did spread myself. The +experiment was a success, and I am saddled with Chamberlain for the rest +of my natural life.”</p> + +<p>“Is he no help to you?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, he is less than no help. I think I shall be obliged to suggest +taking in another partner; the business is too big now to have the whole +responsibility on one pair of shoulders. I must have a holiday now and +again—goodness knows, it isn’t often for a man of my substance—but +anything like the muddle in which I found things I never imagined even +Chamberlain could accomplish. He’s a dear chap, too full of apologies, +perfectly aware of his own shortcomings, always in a domestic +pickle—which is not to be wondered at—but as a partner he is +hopeless.”</p> + +<p>“My poor Alfred!” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Ah, you may well say that. Of course, when one just comes back off a +holiday, one doesn’t feel like doing collar work all the time, all +uphill and no easement. But it will pass, and I must seriously think of +taking someone else in.”</p> + +<p>“Have you anyone in your eye?”</p> + +<p>“Well, of course, Tomkinson’s a splendid man. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>One wouldn’t give him a +full share, wouldn’t make him an equal exactly, but I think it would be +a wise thing if we were to make him a junior partner. Besides that, +someone else might get hold of him; he is well known as a first-class +man.”</p> + +<p>“I should, my dear. But why should you go on working and toiling like +this? If you were to realize, and with what money I have we should be +quite comfortable.”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, oh no, thank you, Queenie, not while I am strong and well. I +should like a little more time to myself; I should like to be able to +run over to Paris for a week or to spend a few days by the seaside. I’m +thinking of taking up golf—I began to take an interest in the game at +Dieppe. It’s good for the liver; a mild craze for golf has saved many a +man from an attack of paralysis.”</p> + +<p>“You would join a golf club?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, one of those clubs round London.”</p> + +<p>“And you would get an afternoon twice a week or so? Could I—could—I +walk round with you?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t think so; I don’t think they allow ladies’ on men’s golf +links. No, no, if you want to start playing yourself, my dear, you must +join a ladies’ club and play on your own. It would be good for you.”</p> + +<p>“Yes—it would. Won’t you have any more coffee?”</p> + +<p>“No, thanks. I may be late for dinner; possibly I may not be able to get +back—I’ll send you a wire. By the way, when we leave Ye Dene we will +have a telephone put up.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p><p>“Yes,” she said, “it would be most convenient.”</p> + +<p>For some time after he had caught his ’bus and gone off to town she sat +thinking. Golf, two afternoons a week—that would mean enjoyments in +which she could take no part. She knew she was growing suspicious—well, +she had enough to make her so. When the scales fall from blind eyes the +eyes are not to be blamed for seeing. Some five minutes after Regina had +come to this conclusion the door opened and Julia came in.</p> + +<p>“All alone, ducky?” she remarked. “Well, I <i>am</i> late. I’d no idea daddy +was gone.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, you are late, or I fancy, to be correct, he was unusually early. +He is almost killed with work—or I should say, over-work. However, he +thinks he will get things straight in a few days and then it will be a +little easier.”</p> + +<p>“Dear daddy! I really don’t see what use Mr. Chamberlain is to him,” +said Julia, holding out her hand for the coffee cup which her mother had +just filled.</p> + +<p>“No, he is no help in a business sense, but he put the money into the +concern. What are you going to do to-day, Julia?”</p> + +<p>Julia looked up in unmitigated astonishment. “To-day—oh—ah—I shall be +out and about all day,” she returned promptly.</p> + +<p>“I rather wanted you to go to town with me.”</p> + +<p>“Awfully sorry, dear, I can’t go to-day,” Julia answered.</p> + +<p>Regina felt exactly as she might have felt if someone had flung a pail +of cold water in her face.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p><p>“I was going to the West End,” she said half hesitatingly. “I thought +you might like to go and see this new milliner of mine.”</p> + +<p>“I should have loved it,” said Julia, “if I had known before, but I’ve +made several engagements for to-day.”</p> + +<p>She did not vouchsafe any information as to her movements, and Regina +hastened to explain things for Julia.</p> + +<p>“You are going with one of the Marksbys?”</p> + +<p>“No, I’m not. I’m going to lunch at the club, then I’m going to do a +little shopping and later I’m going to tea with the Ponsonby-Piggots.”</p> + +<p>“Really! Are you lunching at the club with somebody?”</p> + +<p>“No, I’ve somebody lunching with me.”</p> + +<p>Again Regina felt that curious sensation of a douche of cold water +administered over her entire person. Well, she had brought up her +children to be independent, to have wills, caprices, likes and dislikes +of their own, she could not blame them if they were not of the clinging, +great-chum-with-mother type which she would have preferred them to be at +this moment.</p> + +<p>“Suppose we make it a fixture for the day after to-morrow?” said Julia, +helping herself to more delicate strips of bacon from the covered silver +dish before her.</p> + +<p>“Yes, certainly.”</p> + +<p>“Shall we lunch here or in town?” Julia went on.</p> + +<p>“Whichever you like.”</p> + +<p>“Your club is such a long way,” said Julia, with a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span>faint accent of +disparagement in her tones; “to my mind that is the worst of +professional clubs; they’re always so ultra-professional that one can’t +find a corner for anything at all fashionable. Suppose you come and +lunch with me, mother dear? If you are giving up your societies why +don’t you join a good West-End club? You’d find it so useful, living out +as far as we do.”</p> + +<p>“I think I must.”</p> + +<p>“I shouldn’t recommend mine. It’s all very well for me, but it’s a cheap +little club and it wouldn’t do for you. Now, why don’t you join one of +the big clubs in Petticoat Lane?”</p> + +<p>“Petticoat Lane!”</p> + +<p>“Oh—I beg your pardon, mummy, I meant Dover Street. There are +half-a-dozen of them. Shall I see if I can get your name put up? I +daresay you will have to wait some little time. Which would you +like—one that improves your mind or one that improves your +convenience?”</p> + +<p>“Certainly not one that improves my mind.”</p> + +<p>“No, I think you are quite right; I hate clubs where they have lectures +and debates and other beastly things that they never have in men’s +clubs. Now there’s the Kaiserin, that would suit you very well: handsome +clubhouse, excellent cooking arrangements, spacious entertaining-room +which you can hire and have all to yourself, every necessity and comfort +to make a club thoroughly comfy—in fact, a second home without any +bother.”</p> + +<p>“But how do you know?” said Regina in a curiously small voice.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, I know several women who belong to the Kaiserin,” Julia answered +carelessly. “What are you going to do to-day, dearest? Going to see your +milliner again?”</p> + +<p>“No, I’m going to have my hair dressed; I can’t do it properly myself +for a few days, and I have one or two other things to do.”</p> + +<p>Now it happened that of the one or two other things that Regina had to +do, the most important was a visit to the distinguished specialist in +whose hands the fashionable world was content to put itself with a view +to getting rid of superfluous tissue. It was just on the stroke of noon +when Regina found herself walking across Cavendish Square in the +direction of that street of sighs which most of us know, alas! too well. +She was kept waiting some little time, but the dining-room in which she +spent the period of detention, along with three other ladies much fatter +than herself, was cheerful, and the papers were of the newest (which is +not always the case, let me remind you, in the houses of medical +specialists). At last her turn came to penetrate to the sanctum of the +great man. Regina was quite nervous, needlessly so, but in five minutes +the bland and friendly personality whom she had come to consult had put +her quite at ease. She was weighed! I do not think it would be exactly +delicate to tell you the precise weight at which she turned the scale, +but I have always held her up to you as a woman of that type which is +called “a fine figure.”</p> + +<p>“Let me see, you want to get rid of four stones,” said the doctor, +genially; “well, that’s not a very severe case. It will take you four or +five months; you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>must take no liberties with yourself and I will send +you a card this evening telling you exactly what you may and may not eat +and drink. You must live by the card, literally by the card. Remember, +no vagaries, no irregularities, no coquetting with the ‘one time that +never hurts one.’ You must make up your mind that you will give up your +own will until you have reached the required standard, and believe me, +dear lady, you will be a happier woman, a healthier woman and a +handsomer woman when you have attained your object.”</p> + +<p>Regina wrote a check and went out into the sunlight, out of the land of +liberty and into the straight and narrow path of a strict and severe +<i>régime</i>.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>ROUND EVERYWHERE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>Young eyes see so clearly that we must often be very thankful that +young people do not have the deciding voice in our lives.</p></div> + +<p>Regina duly received the promised card or diet sheet. I may say that she +took it from its enveloping wrapper with a certain feeling of mystery +akin to awe, and she studied its items carefully. Its directions were +many and explicit; it not only gave the foods which she might eat, but +also the foods which she might not eat, the drinks she might take and +the drinks she might not take, and it gave the weights of each portion +and the number of each special biscuit. Acting according to the +instructions from the specialist, Regina had ordered a sufficient +quantity of the specially prepared diet biscuits which were part of the +<i>régime</i>, and it occurred to her, when the parcel arrived a little later +than the diet sheet reached her, that she would have to account to her +husband and family for the startling change in her diet. Now, Regina was +perfectly sure of one thing: that she would be most unwise to tell +Alfred the exact nature of the <i>régime</i> on which she was about to start. +She felt that a wife who was taking elaborate <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>means, and undergoing +great self-sacrifice, putting herself into prison, so to speak, for the +sole and express purpose of thinning herself down, would show to great +disadvantage beside a person of the plump order who was probably twenty +years her junior, and able to peck greedily at the most fattening kinds +of food. So Regina entered upon a course of what I may call harmless +prevarication.</p> + +<p>“I have something to tell you, dear Alfred,” she said that evening when +he had well dined and had not noticed that she had passed about half the +items of dinner; “I want to have a little talk with you.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, my dear girl, about having a celebration of the home-coming? Oh +yes, you would wish it, and, of course it was arranged before the +wedding.”</p> + +<p>“No, it is about myself.”</p> + +<p>“Yourself, dearest? And what about yourself?”</p> + +<p>“Alfred, I have not been feeling myself lately.”</p> + +<p>“Why—how—what d’you mean? You’re not ill, are you?”</p> + +<p>“Well, not exactly ill; I can’t truthfully say that; yet I’ve not been +myself, I’ve not felt myself, I’ve not looked myself—”</p> + +<p>“No, I’ve noticed how very much paler you have grown; you seem to have +lost your nice fresh color.”</p> + +<p>She <i>had</i> lost her nice fresh color; it had disappeared with the advent +of the powder box, and Alfred had not, to use a very slang phrase, +dropped down to the fact.</p> + +<p>“Well, I don’t believe in leaving these things to mend themselves,” +Regina went on, busily pleating and unpleating the deep black lace which +adorned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>the sleeves of her handsome tea-gown, “it’s better to stop +anything of that sort at the outset.”</p> + +<p>“Well, you’ve been to a doctor?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I’ve been strongly advised to go to Dr. Money-Berry in Harley +Street. You see, I’ve got so very stout lately, Alfred, and he thinks my +having gained in weight has put me all wrong. My heart is very +feeble—compared with what it used to be.”</p> + +<p>“My—<i>dear</i>! Ough! Tut, tut, tut—think of our going on and living our +ordinary life and all the time you are suffering—it’s dreadful to think +of.”</p> + +<p>“Well, not exactly suffering; I’m not quite an invalid. Dr. Money-Berry +advised me to live very carefully during the next few months; he thinks +I shall be all right if I leave off starchy foods—they are so bad for +the valves of the heart and—and I don’t want to leave you, Alfred,” she +said in a pathetic little voice.</p> + +<p>“Good heavens! Go away and leave me! What are you talking of, Queenie? +If you were to go away and leave me—for another man—I should blow my +brains out,” and here he began to walk about the room. “And if I didn’t, +I should go to the devil.”</p> + +<p>I am ashamed to record that there arose in Regina’s mind a picture of +Alfred, her noble Alfred! going headlong to the devil with a hussy of +plump proportions.</p> + +<p>Alfred continued excitedly, “And if you were to leave me in the other +sense—I don’t know what I should do.”</p> + +<p>“Dear Alfred, you would probably marry again,” she observed quietly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p><p>“Never—never! Put that thought out of your mind once and for all. I +should live out the rest of my life as best I could—but I really can’t +talk about it. You were perfectly right to go to a specialist, and you +must follow out his treatment to the very letter. Now, promise me you +will do everything he tells you, take all the medicine he gives you, and +live by line and rule until he tells you that you are really out of +danger.”</p> + +<p>The heart of Regina was sick within her. She knew she was deceiving +Alfred; she felt herself to be the basest and blackest and most +ungrateful woman that had ever been born into the world, and yet, she +told herself, her deception was a harmless one, that if she was sinning +against him, she was sinning to a good end. And so Regina entered upon +her course of penal servitude, for I can call it nothing more or less. +The same explanation which was given to Alfred was given to Julia, and +henceforth Regina, although she ate at the same table, ate alone. She +did not in any way attempt to curtail the meals of her husband and +child, but supplied the table in exactly the usual manner.</p> + +<p>“Why do you buy salmon when you can’t touch it yourself?” Alfred asked +over and over again.</p> + +<p>“Because you work hard and want your meals. If you had the same +necessity for living as I do, I should keep you up to it.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t believe you would buy salmon for yourself,” said Alfred, almost +vexedly; “it must be a temptation to you, so fond of it as you are.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p><p>“Oh, no, because I have an object in view. Believe me, I often have +sweetbreads for lunch.”</p> + +<p>“But you do not fling them in my face at dinner; that is quite another +matter.”</p> + +<p>So the martyrdom went on, and Regina’s figure became smaller by degrees +and beautifully less. When she had been dieting for about two months she +had lost a couple of stones in weight. She had a couple of smart gowns +from Madame d’Estelle in which she had allowed that adroit lady free +play for her taste and imagination. The result was that she gradually +presented to the eyes of her family a subdued and refined Regina, much +more attractive to the outer world, but not the Regina to whom the +inhabitants of Ye Dene had been accustomed.</p> + +<p>It was about two months from the beginning of Regina’s martyrdom that +Alfred Whittaker began to be aware that his wife was losing flesh. “My +dear,” he said one morning, as he sat opposite his wife at the +breakfast-table, “I’m not quite satisfied with that doctor of yours.”</p> + +<p>“Why not, dear?”</p> + +<p>“Why, I don’t think he’s doing well by you.”</p> + +<p>“But I am so much better.”</p> + +<p>“You don’t look it; you’re half the size you were.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, no, Alfred! There’s still plenty of me.”</p> + +<p>“You are much smaller, and since you have taken to wearing black and +indefinable gray gowns, you seem to be wasting away to nothing. When is +it going to stop?”</p> + +<p>“When he is satisfied that I am just the right <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>weight. I am much +stronger, Alfred; I can walk miles!”</p> + +<p>“Can you? Well, I don’t know that it is necessary for you to walk miles; +you can afford to take a cab whenever you want one.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, dear, but I am much better.”</p> + +<p>“I know you say so, and you’ve been awfully plucky about your diet and +so on, but when is it going to end? I don’t want a wife like a thread +paper.”</p> + +<p>Julia had come into the room while he was speaking. “Dear daddy,” she +said, “you’re very dense. Mother’s getting vain in her old age. She’s +got a French milliner, she’s got a French dressmaker, she does her hair +a new way, and she’s getting her figure back again. She’s quite a new +woman, she’s given up working for womanhood generally, and she’s getting +frivolous. She’s got a club—I mean a real club—in the West End, and +one of these days she’s going to give a dinner party and ask you and me +to it.”</p> + +<p>“Well, well, well, if you’re quite sure you are not doing anything +foolish,” said Alfred Whittaker; “I only want you to be happy in your +own way. But I want you to be <i>quite</i> sure that you are not doing +anything foolish. It’s not natural for a woman of your age to be starved +down to skin and bone.”</p> + +<p>“My dear Alfred! Think of the breakfast I have made this morning; I have +had twice as much as you.”</p> + +<p>“I rather doubt that,” said Alfred, patting himself in the region he had +just filled, “I rather doubt that. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>But I should be more satisfied if +you went to a heart specialist. Who is Dr. Money-Berry? What’s his +line?”</p> + +<p>“He is a specialist,” said Regina, with an air, “on all matters +connected with the internal organs above the belt, and those bound in +the chains of fatty degeneration of the heart, he sets free. To those +whose food does not digest properly, he seems able to give a new +digestion. I have full faith in his integrity and his skill, and I beg, +dear Alfred, that you will not worry yourself. I am quite a new woman, +regenerated, rejuvenated.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know, but you are getting so thin.”</p> + +<p>“And don’t you like me better thinner?”</p> + +<p>“No, I couldn’t like you better, that’s impossible, but if you are +better in health for being thinner it’s all very well. But if you are +going on reducing yourself to a miserable skeleton nothing will make me +believe it is good for you or make me declare I admire you, for I never +shall.”</p> + +<p>After he had gone she sat with a flushed and uneasy expression on her +smooth face. As the gate clicked behind her father’s departing form +Julia burst into laughter.</p> + +<p>“Lor’, mother,” she said, “how can you bamboozle poor daddy as you do?”</p> + +<p>“Julia!”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I mean it. Poor daddy doesn’t see one inch before his nose, and +you are a sensible woman. You let him think that Dr. Money-Berry is a +specialist for fat round the heart.”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p><p>“Well, Dr. Money-Berry is a specialist for fat round everywhere, whom +fashionable women go to to have their figures made sylph-like. If Dr. +Money-Berry depended upon cases of heart trouble he wouldn’t hang out +very long in Harley Street, and nobody knows that better than you, +mother.”</p> + +<p>“Julia!”</p> + +<p>“But,” Julia continued, “you’ve changed immensely during the last few +months. I don’t know what made you throw up your societies and try to +make yourself into a mere domestic woman; but you have regenerated +yourself, that’s true enough.”</p> + +<p>“I was too fat, Julia; it was not wholesome.”</p> + +<p>“You were not more fat than you had been for the last ten years. I never +remember you so thin as you are now. You have changed your milliner, you +have changed your dressmaker, you do your hair a new way—you are a +totally different woman, and I think daddy is quite right when he asks, +‘Where is it going to end?’”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2> + +<h3>A REJUVENATED REGINA</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>How one admires a woman who takes an unexpected facer without +making a scene!</p></div> + +<p>Regina had come to the end of her period of martyrdom. Her weight was +ten stones seven pounds, her waist was twenty-five inches. Her family +had grown used to what both father and daughter stigmatized as “mother’s +little vanities.” She was now a radiantly healthy, pleasing, +well-dressed person of comely, middle-aged womanhood. It is true that +she was hopelessly dependent upon Madame d’Estelle for her taste in +dress and upon Madame Clementine for her choice of millinery. She was +still an excellent customer at The Dressing-Room, and went there +regularly to have her luxuriant hair brushed and waved in the fashion to +which Alfred Whittaker and Julia no longer raised any objection. She had +started a day at her club so that friends at a distance might take a cup +of tea with her without journeying out to Northampton Park. She was not +yet the chaperon of her daughter, for her daughter had long ago got into +the habit of arranging her own life, but she was fully convinced that +the new ways were a wide <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>advance upon the old ways, and nothing would +have induced her to go back to her original state of benighted +self-sufficiency. Never had Regina Whittaker known herself so thoroughly +as since she had become aware of the existence of the hussy. And yet, it +must be confessed that although she had absolutely remodeled her life, +changed her way of being, taken a new standpoint from which to look out +upon the world, she was no nearer the consummation of her dearest hopes, +she was no more certain than she had been six months before that the +heart of Alfred was indisputably hers and hers alone.</p> + +<p>“You are going to dine in town again!” she said to him one dreary winter +morning.</p> + +<p>“My dear girl, you may rest assured that I should not dine in town if +there were the ghost of a chance of my being able to get my dinner here, +but I shall not be back till late, and I don’t know why you and the +child should ruin your dinner because I can’t get back in reasonable +time.”</p> + +<p>“But Maudie and Harry are coming.”</p> + +<p>“I can’t help that; you must explain to them. My dear girl, there’s such +a lot at stake just now that I simply dare not leave it to chance. Come, +come, be reasonable. One would think,” and he smiled benevolently down +upon her, “that we were a young couple like our turtle doves, and that +one could not dine without the other. I admit that I shall not enjoy it +so much.”</p> + +<p>“Shall you not?”</p> + +<p>“Now, how can I? Probably there isn’t a man in London who is fonder of +his home than I am, but at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>the same time one wants to do the right +thing by one’s home as well as to enjoy it.”</p> + +<p>“But, Alfred, you don’t wish me to understand that the firm is in +difficulties?”</p> + +<p>“No, no, not in the sense you mean, but in another sense it is. The fact +is, Queenie, I must stick to the ship now at whatever inconvenience to +myself.”</p> + +<p>“And to me,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, dearest, and to you. But, come now, you are a strong-minded +woman, you know how many beans make five as well as any woman I have +ever met—better than most. I’ve got myself tied up with the biggest ass +in London, whether he’s going out of his great mind, or whether he’s +going to continue on, a danger to everyone with whom he comes in touch, +I don’t know. The fact is, he’s not mad enough to be shut up in a +lunatic asylum and he’s not sane enough to be allowed to come and go as +he likes.”</p> + +<p>“But you took in Tomkinson to relieve you.”</p> + +<p>“And so he will in time, but he isn’t the head of the firm and I am. +He’s a splendid man and I should have been furious if any other house in +the same line had got hold of him; at the same time you can’t expect a +man to take my place in the first six months of becoming a partner; it +wouldn’t be reasonable, particularly as Chamberlain is such a difficult +card to handle.”</p> + +<p>“And where are you dining?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Well, to-night I’ve got to dine possibly at the Criterion and talk over +a business matter that Chamberlain has let himself in for, and which he +is most anxious to get clear of with as little publicity <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>and fuss as +possible. Of course the situation with his wife is very difficult; she +is a jealous, absurd, sensitive woman, and he makes her a shocking bad +husband. It’s a pity he was not born to be a clerk with a pound a week, +to have to keep his nose down to the grindstone to provide board and +lodging; then he would have managed to keep himself straight. I shall +get things straightened out in a few months if I can manage it, and then +we will take that trip South that we were talking about. You’d like +that, wouldn’t you?”</p> + +<p>“I shall be happy anywhere with you.”</p> + +<p>“We’ll take that trip South, it will do you good, and it will be a +heaven-sent holiday for me, but I can’t go as things are now, and you +mustn’t worry until I have got matters into something like order.”</p> + +<p>“You are sure we are not spending too much money?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, no, no, it isn’t a question of money, but in one way it’s a +question of business. Now I must be off.”</p> + +<p>It happened that Julia had been listening during the entire +conversation. “I say, mother,” she said, “if daddy is not coming home to +dinner, why give Harry and Maudie the fag of coming out here? Let’s go +and dine at the Trocadero and do a theatre afterward; it isn’t often +that you and I have the chance of getting off on the loose by ourselves. +We could easily send a wire or I could run over and see Maudie, and she +could ’phone to Harry from their house.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that’s a very good idea,” said Regina, who <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>certainly did not want +to sit at her own table in the absence of her lord and master and +explain the exact circumstances of his absence. “You’d better wire, +or—no—you might run over.”</p> + +<p>“Then I’ll lunch with Maudie.”</p> + +<p>“All right. We’ll dine at seven o’clock.”</p> + +<p>“What theatre shall we go to?”</p> + +<p>“You can settle that with Maudie, can’t you? Then you can ’phone from +her house to any theatre you want to go to.”</p> + +<p>“Very good. Do you know, mother, I think daddy is very worried. I wonder +why everything seems to be Mr. Chamberlain; our house seems to be +dominated by Mr. Chamberlain. I don’t know why daddy doesn’t get rid of +him; he’s no good to anybody.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, that’s easier said than done with a partner of any kind. Mr. +Chamberlain may be a little wrong in his head, but he knows right enough +when he is in for a good thing; it’s no use thinking about that, so we +may as well make the best of it.”</p> + +<p>So at seven o’clock a well-dressed and extremely happy quartette arrived +in pairs at the Trocadero and took up a position at a table in the +gallery. The dinner was excellent, the music was alluring, the company +was abundant and well-dressed, and Regina, released from the thraldom of +Dr. Money-Berry, was at liberty to eat whatever came in due course. +Harry Marksby had chosen the champagne, and all was merry as a marriage +bell, when suddenly Julia made a remark, “Why, there’s daddy,” she said, +looking over the balustrade.</p> + +<p>Regina looked in the opposite direction. “Really! <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span>he said he was going +to dine at the Criterion or somewhere. I suppose his friend preferred to +come here.”</p> + +<p>“His friend is a lady,” said Julia.</p> + +<p>Regina’s heart gave a sick throb, her eyes followed the direction of +Julia’s gaze, and the next instant she beheld her noble Alfred sitting +with his elbow on the table talking earnestly to a young and pretty +woman.</p> + +<p>“Don’t faint, darling,” said Julia in a soft undertone.</p> + +<p>“I’m not in the least likely to faint,” said Regina, with superb +dignity. “Doubtless your father will give a perfectly simple explanation +of his being here with a lady. Thank you, Harry, I will have a little +more champagne.”</p> + +<p>Oh, she was a plucky woman, Regina Whittaker! It was not in her nature +to show the white feather! Her suspicions had crystallized themselves +into human form. There was the hussy who had haunted her for months +past, there she was in the flesh! “And I must say,” said Regina to her +own heart, “that Alfred does not look as if he were enjoying himself.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX</h2> + +<h3>WARY AND PATIENT</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>As a rule, especially in the greater issues of life, little or +nothing is to be gained by precipitancy.</p></div> + +<p>During the rest of the dinner Regina made a valiant effort to appear as +thoroughly at ease as if the portly gentleman down below was no kith or +kin of hers. When she had once pulled herself together and realized the +worst, she became the life and soul of the table, and Regina, mind you, +was a woman of intellect, a woman of wit, when it pleased her to exert +herself in that respect. She did not again allude to the fact that her +husband was dining under the same roof as herself, until they made a +move, intending to go to the theatre. Then Maudie, who was not endowed +with much tact, demurred at leaving without making their presence known +to her father.</p> + +<p>“I must go and speak to daddy,” she said.</p> + +<p>“Nothing of the kind,” said Regina in a fierce whisper, “nothing of the +kind; I absolutely forbid it. Harry, you will back me up in this?”</p> + +<p>Her tone was one of anxious entreaty, and Harry Marksby, who had been +rather a gay dog in his very young days, although always tempered with a +large amount of common-sense which had saved him from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>getting into a +hole, took in his mother-in-law’s meaning at a glance.</p> + +<p>“No, you can’t go downstairs now, my dear,” he said, giving her a +vigorous nudge with his elbow, and Maudie, without in the least +understanding, took the hint and said no more. “We’ll meet you at the +theatre,” he added.</p> + +<p>So presently Regina found herself sitting in a hansom with Julia beside +her.</p> + +<p>“I say, mother,” said Julia, as the cab started from the doorway, “that +was a little awkward, wasn’t it? And how silly of Maudie! I really +thought she had more sense.”</p> + +<p>“Not one word of this to your father,” said Mrs. Whittaker in the same +tone of fierce repression. “You children are quite mistaken, I +understand it perfectly. You will not speak to your father of our having +seen him? He would not be able to explain the circumstances to you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, certainly, not if you don’t wish it, darling. You’d better tell +Harry to give Maudie warning because she’s sure to blab it out. Who is +she?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what her name is,” said Regina; “she is a person your +father has some business with—business connected with the firm,” she +added, with a dexterity of explanation which astounded even herself. “I +have known of her existence for some time; your father has been almost +worried out of his life about it, and it would worry him much more if he +thought you children misconstrued his actions.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, well, I suppose daddy is perfectly at liberty to do as he likes as +long as he makes matters clear to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>you. We have no right to dictate who +he shall take to the Trocadero to dine.”</p> + +<p>“My dear child—my precious child—” said Regina almost breaking down, +but recovering herself with a snap as it were. Then she went on in the +same fierce tone, “I shall not forget this, Julia, my darling; one can +always rely on you in a moment of emergency, Maudie has not half your +sound common-sense—she’s a feather head compared to you.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, she’ll be all right. You tip Harry the wink—”</p> + +<p>“What!”</p> + +<p>“Oh! I beg your pardon, mummy, I forgot. Shall I tell Harry to stop +Maudie blabbing?”</p> + +<p>“I wish you would. You might explain to him a little. Now, here we are, +here we are, now don’t let us speak of it again; it’s all much more +simple than you children think.”</p> + +<p>Now it happened that on the way down to the theatre, Harry Marksby had +given Maudie a hint, or, as Julia would have put it, tipped her the +wink, to say nothing whatever about what had occurred.</p> + +<p>“I don’t understand why,” she had replied. “Why should daddy be dining +with that bold-looking woman when mother thought he was dining with a +friend at the Criterion?”</p> + +<p>“Well, you can’t tell. As long as your mother doesn’t want it spoken of, +it’s no business of ours. Now, hold your tongue, Maudie darling; I rely +upon you not to say a word, you’ll only upset everybody’s apple-cart if +you do.”</p> + +<p>“Well, I’m not likely to say anything against my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>own father. All the +same,” said Maudie, with the suspicion of a pout, “I do think that +father ought to feel it incumbent upon him not to disgrace us in public +places. If he was only dining with a friend why couldn’t I go and speak +to him—I’m his own child? And if he was dining with somebody he +wouldn’t like to take home—”</p> + +<p>“And you can bet your bottom dollar he wouldn’t,” said Harry.</p> + +<p>“Then I think he ought to give an account of himself.”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, I know, that’s justice, man’s justice. Come, come, come, Mrs. +Harry Marksby,” said Harry in a tone of cheerful warning; “and here we +are at the theatre. Now, don’t say a word to your mother, she’s upset +enough, poor old lady.”</p> + +<p>Now, as Mrs. Whittaker had dined the little party, it became Harry’s +pleasing duty to give them supper, and from the theatre they went to a +certain fashionable supper-room, again by means of a couple of hansoms. +This time it was Julia who shared the hansom of her brother-in-law.</p> + +<p>“Now, look here, Harry,” she said, “for goodness’ sake don’t say +anything about having seen daddy to-night.”</p> + +<p>“Why, what do you take me for? Do you think I was born yesterday—or the +day after to-morrow?”</p> + +<p>“But mother says she knows all about it, and that it’s much more simple +than we think, and she thinks that Maudie will go blabbing it out.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s all right, I have given her a hint already. At the same +time, I think your father <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>ought to—well—ought to make things a little +more secure.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know, but he had not the least idea that we were dining out +to-night; it was quite an impromptu arrangement and daddy might be vexed +if Maudie said anything to him about it—‘We saw you dining with a lady +the other night’—you know, that sort of thing.”</p> + +<p>“Is he—um—um—”</p> + +<p>“What do you mean by um—?”</p> + +<p>“Is he touchy?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, take him all round he is the most amiable person I know; but +there are limits to every man’s patience, and if daddy is bothered with +the firm’s business, as mother seems to imply, it might vex him; +besides, mother doesn’t wish it mentioned, and that’s enough; he’s <i>her</i> +husband.”</p> + +<p>“And, Julia,” said Harry Marksby, as they drove up to the door of the +restaurant, “if every woman was as wise as your mother, there wouldn’t +be much domestic broiling to worry the world.” And then he jumped out +and held out his hand for Julia to alight.</p> + +<p>Regina behaved admirably at this juncture; she kept it up, she made a +very good supper; but then, you know, that was one of Regina’s excellent +qualities; when in tribulation her appetite did not fail her. Finally +Regina and Julia drove down to the nearest station on the district +railway and took train for the Park. They found Mr. Whittaker already +come in.</p> + +<p>“Well, dearest,” he said, as they rustled into the dining-room where he +was sitting reading, “you never told me you were going to galavant.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p><p>“No; for, you see, we took it into our heads that we would go to a +theatre, and then Harry and Maudie gave us supper at the Golden +Butterfly afterwards. We have had a great time, haven’t we, Julia?”</p> + +<p>“A great time,” said Julia. “I like a little supper after a theatre, it +always seems so dull, bundling out and scrambling off to one’s train. +And how long have you been home, daddy?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, ever so long; I got home before ten. And what theatre did you go +to?”</p> + +<p>Regina explained, and Alfred mixed her a little whisky-and-soda, and +Julia said she would go to bed, for she was dead beat, and so on; and +still Regina said nothing beyond throwing out a feeler in order that her +husband might confide anything to her if he wished to do so.</p> + +<p>“You got through your business, Alfred?”</p> + +<p>“Yes—yes, yes.”</p> + +<p>“And brought it to a successful issue?”</p> + +<p>“Well—I can’t exactly say that, but I have put things in train.” He +gave a short angry sigh, as if he were vexed with himself and the world +in general.</p> + +<p>It was on the tip of Regina’s tongue to ask where he had dined. Perhaps +if she had done so an explanation would have taken place between them +and her mind have been set at rest; but a certain delicacy overcame her +as if she, in dining at the Trocadero, without giving her husband due +warning of the fact, had committed an indiscretion. So she simulated a +fatigue which she was far from feeling and she went off to bed, followed +two minutes later by Alfred, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>who declared himself to be tired out, and +it was not until Regina found herself in bed in the dark, with her +husband sleeping the sleep of the—shall we say?—just, beside her that +she gave herself up to reviewing the situation. Well, “hope deferred +maketh the heart sick.” It may be so, but certain it is that Regina’s +heart was very sore and sorry that night. Hope was deferred no longer, +uncertainty had become certainty; she knew the worst! She had seen the +hussy! It was beyond her understanding to know why Alfred could have +allowed himself to be entangled by such a creature—so common, +attractive only with a common attractiveness, pretty only in a common +type of prettiness; young, yet not blooming. He had not looked happy; he +sighed in his sleep.</p> + +<p>“What shall I do?” said Regina to herself. “Tell him? No, no; never, +never own for one instant that I have the smallest knowledge or +suspicion that my husband is shared by a creature like that.”</p> + +<p>She lay awake for hours during that night, and when the first faint +streaks of morning came struggling in at the window, she had come to the +conclusion that he was unhappy in that relationship, that he had been +entangled and that freedom would be infinitely precious to him.</p> + +<p>“I must work hard at my task of supplanting such a person,” she told +herself, “I must be wary and wily and sweet, and must make myself +attractive. Alfred has been most attentive to me since I went to Madame +d’Estelle, and since Clementine made my hats for me and Florence +rearranged my hair. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>must be wary and patient, always wary and +patient, give him no excuse for wanting to go away from home, give him +no sense of rest in any other place than under his own roof. It will not +be easy—no, it will be most difficult. Poor fellow! he’s so set on +keeping faith with me that he even resents any little thing that I do to +change myself. I hate that woman! Yes, I have never hated anyone in my +life as I hate that woman!”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX</h2> + +<h3>DADDY’S HEART</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>I wonder is there a woman in the world who is not touched by a gift +of beautiful furs?</p></div> + +<p>It was fortunate for Regina that she had been in the past accustomed to +live her life a good deal to herself. An ordinary wife and mother who +started out on a scheme of rejuvenation as elaborate as that of Mrs. +Whittaker’s would find it extremely difficult to account for the hours +which she would have to spend outside her own house. The ordinary young +girl in decent society usually has to explain to her mother what she has +done with her day, sometimes what she is going to do, and must generally +gain permission for any expedition which she desires to make. I have +known young girls who considered surveillance to be what they +indignantly termed espionage, and I have known much heart burning, much +kicking against the pricks from the girls of the family because they +were not, like their brothers, free as the wind, to go where they +listed. But I must tell my readers that the espionage of mothers over +daughters is as nothing compared to the espionage of daughters over a +popular mother.</p> + +<p>In a certain household with which I am intimately <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span>acquainted, these are +some scraps of conversation which may frequently be heard:</p> + +<p>“Well, darling, where are you going to-day?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m going out and about; I want to go along the High Street, and +then perhaps I’ll go to tea with So-and-So, and I half promised to go to +Fuller’s to tea with such and such a boy. I’m not going far away. I +shall be out and about. Why—do you want me?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, dear. Be in by dinner time.”</p> + +<p>On the other hand, this is a scrap or conversation from the same family:</p> + +<p>“Are you going out to-day, mother?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Where are you going?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I’m going out.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, but where?” Then follows a string of questions—“What are you +going to do? What are you going to get? What time shall you be in? Do +you want me to go with you? Is daddy going with you?” and so on. The +simple answer, “I’m going out and about,” or “I’m going for a walk,” +would in no wise serve that mother. If she managed to slip out without +her family knowing the exact details of her programme she would +certainly have to explain how she had spent every minute of her time +when she got home again. “Well, where did you go? Who did you see? Where +did you have tea? How many teas did you have? Did you have a good time? +Are you tired? Why didn’t you let me know you were going? I wanted to go +with you.” These are only a few of the questions that this particular +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>mother has to answer whenever she happens to go out without attendance; +and I say lucky it was for Regina that she had early inculcated the +liberty of the subject into the hearts of her daughters twain.</p> + +<p>Just at first, after giving up public life, she had made a feeble effort +to assert the ordinary <i>rôle</i> of motherhood, but she had found herself +brought sharply to a realization of her own principles, that she was +free as air, to do as she liked, and that Julia had the same privileges +as herself. Fortunate it was for Regina that it was so, for she was able +to continue her work of regeneration, carried out on the most +twentieth-century lines, without being hindered by objections and +comments from her husband and daughters. For Julia was accustomed to +spend her days among her own friends and to follow her own inclinations, +and Regina had been for many years accustomed to come and go without +hindrance or comment.</p> + +<p>Now, at this time, she became almost too busy to worry about even the +existence of the hussy. Twice a week she spent an hour at The +Dressing-Room, having her hair brushed and kept beautiful. Twice a week +she attended the <i>salons</i> of her beauty specialist, who did all manner +of quaint things to her complexion, smoothing, washing, patting, +kneading, dabbing, spraying, using electricity and washes, and employing +various other modes of rendering her skin beautifully smooth. Then twice +a week she attended the classes of a fashionable expert in physical +culture, and at her bidding Regina, clad in black satin knickers and a +white blouse, innocent of corsets or any other artificial <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>means of +making a figure, went through a series of antics, from blowing her nose +scientifically to hopping about in attitudes suggestive of a gigantic +frog—only that Regina grew less and less gigantic, and more and more +approached to the proportions of her daughters. And then Regina took to +learning the bicycle. Her modesty suggested that she should start on a +machine with three wheels, but the professor of that art, who ran a show +in Regent’s Park—well removed from Regina’s own domain—assured her +that it was absurd for a person of her age and generally healthy aspect +to begin on a machine that he would recommend to anyone old enough to be +her mother. So Regina, with many misgivings, set out to learn the +bicycle. She was not an easy pupil to teach, but there is no doubt that +the nose blowing, hopping, rolling over and over on the floor, and going +through the many exercises which the expert in physical culture ordained +for her had given her a degree of lissomeness which she had never +enjoyed in the whole course of her existence.</p> + +<p>These pursuits necessitated her lunching in town every single day in the +week, and, having some time still on her hands, she devoted one hour in +the week to learning fencing, and then she joined a bridge class +connected with her club. And truly she proved what marvelous changes an +ordinary, stout, podgy, somewhat self-indulgent woman, getting near her +half century, can make in herself if she chooses.</p> + +<p>“Regina,” said Alfred, one evening when she came down to dinner wearing +a bewitching little confection <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>of silk and lace, which, if he had only +known it, was called a coffee-coat, “my dear, are you still going to +that doctor of yours?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“How often?”</p> + +<p>“Once a week, or so.”</p> + +<p>“I feel very anxious about you.”</p> + +<p>“But why, when I’m so well?”</p> + +<p>“My dear girl, you are fading away, you are going to nothing, you are +not as well covered as you were when we were married.”</p> + +<p>“I am not skinny, Alfred!” said Regina, with dignity.</p> + +<p>“Skinny! God forbid! But where are you going to stop?”</p> + +<p>“In your heart, Alfred,” said Regina, looking at him very sweetly.</p> + +<p>“But if you go on as you are at present, there won’t be anything of you +left to stop!”</p> + +<p>“Oh, you don’t understand. I had so given myself up to public life that +I had let myself grow fat and ungainly, and I despised things that all +women should think much of. But I have seen the error of my ways—and I +feel as gay as a bird, as light as air. I only wish, dearest, that you +would pay a little more attention to yourself.”</p> + +<p>“I? Dear, dear, dear! You don’t mean to say that you want me to live on +dog biscuits. I decline to do it, Regina, even to please you. I lead a +busy life, although, thank God! I am able to make money. I often scamp +my lunch—just taking anything that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>comes handy, but my good breakfast +in the morning and my good dinner at night I insist upon having.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, those good dinners!” said Regina, but she said it good-naturedly, +and Alfred only laughed and began to serve the soup.</p> + +<p>“Now try a little of this, Palestine soup—your favorite.”</p> + +<p>“No, not soup, dear.”</p> + +<p>“Why punish yourself? You are as thin as a match already.”</p> + +<p>“Dr. Money-Berry warned me against soups.”</p> + +<p>“Well, this once? I bought something for you to-day. Now, to please me +you must have a little of this.”</p> + +<p>“Very well.”</p> + +<p>“Your sins shall be upon my head,” said Alfred.</p> + +<p>“No, I will take my sins on my own shoulders,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>It was not until the maid had left them alone that she asked him what +the present was that he had bought for her that day.</p> + +<p>“Ah, you wait till after dinner, old lady. I had the chance of buying +something very nice at a quite reasonable price, and I took it, as I had +to take it or leave it without any chance of consulting you. If you +don’t like it you can hand it over to one of the girls.”</p> + +<p>“I shall like it,” said Regina, and she asked no further questions.</p> + +<p>It was after dinner, when they had retired to the pleasant drawing-room, +that Alfred brought forth his purchase. It was a rather flat parcel, +looking like a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>rather large cardboard box done up in brown paper. With +masculine pride Alfred snipped the string, undid the wrappings and +brought to view the cardboard box that Regina had expected. Within were +more wrappings of tissue paper, and these undone disclosed a large +tippet or stole and a big muff of the order usually called “granny,” +made of the finest dark sables.</p> + +<p>“Alfred!” cried Regina, all in a flutter.</p> + +<p>“Ah, I thought you’d say that. No question of handing them over to the +girls, eh?”</p> + +<p>“I should think not indeed. Why, darling boy, you must have given a +fortune for them.”</p> + +<p>He slipped the tippet over her head and kissed her at the same time. +“Not too much for you, Queenie, but they did cost, well, a penny or two, +but it was a bargain all the same. Now, put your hands in the muff and +look at yourself.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, Alfred—oh, Alfred, you do love me?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Love you! Ever have cause to doubt it?” he asked quite sharply.</p> + +<p>Regina was almost choked by her emotion. The psychic moment had arrived +for her to make her confession, to tell him all her doubts and fears, +all her efforts to make herself lovely in his eyes. “My Alfred, my noble +Alfred,” she exclaimed, flinging her arms round his neck and clasping +the muff against his head. She was on the point of saying, “I <i>have</i> +something to tell you,” but she hesitated, in a manner unusual with her, +for a choice of words. In the rush of gratitude she almost let slip that +she had something <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>to confess when the door opened, and Maudie, followed +by her husband, came into the room.</p> + +<p>“Furs! Dark sables! Darling, daddy <i>has</i> been opening his heart to you.”</p> + +<p>“Daddy’s heart is always open to me,” said Regina.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI</h2> + +<h3>REGINA SETS FOOT ON THE DOWN GRADE</h3> + +<p class="center">There is a great deal of wisdom in the old saying “Truth will out.”</p> + +<p>Somehow those sables served to put Regina further from her husband +instead of drawing her nearer to him. I’m sure that Alfred Whittaker +himself would have been shocked had he known the effect that his gift +had upon his spouse. Every day—nay, every hour tended to confirm her +belief that the hussy she had seen dining with Alfred at the Trocadero +had complete ascendancy over him, and yet those sables stopped her time +after time from broaching the subject to him. They were, so to speak, a +sop in the pot, and whenever Regina was on the point of laying her hand +on Alfred’s shoulder and saying to him, plump and straight, “Alfred, is +your heart still mine?” a vision of dark sables seemed to rise up and +choke the very words in her throat. Most women would love to have a +danger-signal in the shape of dark sables, rich and elegant, soft and +cosy, at once luxurious and comforting, but there were times when Regina +almost hated her sables because they seemed to have raised an extra +barrier between herself and Alfred.</p> + +<p>“Mother,” said Julia, one morning, when Regina <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>was about to leave the +house on one of her strictly-personal expeditions, “are you going to Dr. +Money-Berry again?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, dear, I am. Why?”</p> + +<p>“Do you think he is doing very much good?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I do, indeed! I consider that he has set me free, body and soul, +from the burden that I used to carry about with me.”</p> + +<p>“Oh—you mean—fat, darling? Don’t you think it suits you to be a little +fat?”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think it suits anybody to be fat,” said Regina, with the +enthusiasm of the recent convert.</p> + +<p>“And yet I have heard you describe daddy as a man of commanding +presence. How would you like it if daddy were to starve himself down +until all the command of his presence disappeared into nothingness?”</p> + +<p>“Ah, but I was gross,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“I never knew you when you were gross,” said Julia. “I thought at +Maudie’s wedding you looked lovely, and daddy said to me—”</p> + +<p>“What did your father say to you?”</p> + +<p>Julia drew a step nearer to her mother, and smoothed down, with tender +yet nervous fingers, the stole of soft gray fur which was around her +shoulders.</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you ever wear your sables?” she asked irrelevantly.</p> + +<p>“My sables?” said Regina. “Oh, I don’t like to wear them every day.”</p> + +<p>“But when you are going to town, among smart West-End physicians—that +doesn’t mean every day. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>I don’t suggest that you should put them on to +go up the village in. Don’t you like them?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, no woman in the world would dislike them.”</p> + +<p>“That’s what I thought. You know, mother dear, you’re cooking up +something about daddy.”</p> + +<p>“No, I would rather not discuss it with you, my darling.”</p> + +<p>“Sometimes,” said Julia, still smoothing the stole up and down, +“sometimes it’s better to get it off your chest.”</p> + +<p>“What a very vulgar remark!” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, perhaps, but very practical. Now, I’ve been watching you.”</p> + +<p>“I wish you wouldn’t,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, we all wish others wouldn’t. You see, that night at the Trocadero +let us all behind the scenes a little. Yes—I must speak, it’s been +trembling on the tip of my tongue for weeks past, but, somehow, you +always put me off. I believe that daddy could explain it all.”</p> + +<p>“There is no necessity for explanation.”</p> + +<p>She looked very stern, very severe; but Julia was minded to speak, and +when Julia was minded to speak she generally had her say.</p> + +<p>“You are quite a different woman to what you were when Maudie was +married. You’re not fretting after her, that’s certain—an outsider +might think so, but I know better. You’ve never told daddy a word about +our having seen him at the Trocadero that night. You didn’t notice him +very much; you resolutely kept your eyes away from him. I had no such +delicacy of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>feeling, I watched him very closely. That woman is nothing +to him. I don’t know why he was dining with her, I don’t know why he +didn’t tell you about it, but he was bored and annoyed. He was trying to +pull something off, and he couldn’t get what he wanted. If she ever had +any sort of hold over him, that hold has long since ceased to be an +attractive one—he was bored to death with her. I don’t know that Maudie +wasn’t right.”</p> + +<p>“You have discussed it with Maudie?”</p> + +<p>“I have, or rather she has discussed it with me. She was all for going +down and tackling daddy right away, and I believe her instinct was +right, and that daddy would rather you knew he was there.”</p> + +<p>“And Maudie thinks—?”</p> + +<p>“Maudie? Oh, Maudie’s mind works in quite a different way to +mine—always did. Maudie thinks it is just an ordinary affair of that +kind, and left alone she would have gone down and taxed him with it, but +Harry wouldn’t hear of it. But daddy was there and she was there—and a +horrid-looking brute she was—but whoever she was, and whatever she may +be, I am perfectly sure there is not the slightest occasion for you to +worry about her, one way or the other.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t—” Regina began, but Julia promptly cut her short.</p> + +<p>“Oh, yes, darling, you do. You were quite a changed woman after that +night—ah, and before that night, too. I know perfectly well that you +are worrying, I could burst out crying sometimes to see the look on your +face, and poor old daddy is quite unconscious, he hasn’t the least idea +why you are so quiet and so <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>unlike yourself. He asked me quite +anxiously the other day if I thought you were over-doing the treatment +with Dr. Money-Berry.”</p> + +<p>“I believe,” said Regina, who before all things was loyal to her Alfred, +“I believe that all persons inclining to stoutness would be better in +health, and in mind too, if they would take means to keep themselves to +proper proportions. Oh, Dr. Money-Berry is quite right in saying that +fat is a disease, and should be treated as such. I have been to him once +or twice lately because I was not sure that my symptoms were desirable. +I am really going to him to-day to say good-by for the second time. +Don’t worry about me, darling child, and don’t discuss your father with +Maudie. I have never entered into details of business and I never intend +to. Your father distinctly told me that he was dining with somebody on +business; it would be intolerable for him, placed as he is, if his wife +were to worry him to death every time he spoke to another woman. Dear +little girl, you’ll be marrying one of these days, and you’ll have a +husband of your own; then you will realize that between husband and wife +discretion is truly the better part of valor. And I wish you would put +that incident right out of your head—regard it as a business +matter—and not think of it every time you think I am not looking as gay +as usual. You know, my darling, I have many thoughts busying to and fro +in my brain. I have never been a mere machine for ordering dinner, and +although I have given up public life, I have not given up all my +thoughts—I still have an intellect. Your father is the best and noblest +man I ever knew. One <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span>of these days he will explain what, so far, he has +only told me in part. But I must be going, I am rather late already. +Tell me, are you occupied all day?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, that is to say, I am lunching with Maudie, and then I am going on +to my club.”</p> + +<p>“No, come and have tea at mine. I shall expect you between half-past +four and five.”</p> + +<p>“Right you are, mother.”</p> + +<p>And then Mrs. Whittaker went out, passed down the tessellated covered +way and turned her face toward the station, conscious that she had that +day graduated as a first-class liar. Well, if she had lied, she had lied +in a good cause. If she had succeeded in restoring the faith of her +child in husband and father, she had lied to some purpose, and surely +the recording angel would drop showers of tears over the spot, and it +would be blotted out forever. Her thoughts had reached this point when +she reached the ticket office. She had to stand and wait for some time +while two ladies fumbled with their purses, and while they discussed +whether they would travel first or second.</p> + +<p>“First-class to Baker Street—oh, yes, it’s horrid on that line, I +always go first to Baker Street—and, my dear, if I didn’t meet him the +very next day, walking along with a creature—oh! Twopence more? Thank +you, I’m so sorry to give you so much trouble—yes, I met him walking +with a bold, brazen hussy, and I never saw a man looking so crestfallen +as Mr. Whittaker did when he saw me.”</p> + +<p>There was a little waiting-room hard by the ticket office and Regina +turned sharply round and took refuge in this dingy little retreat.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p><p>“My dear!” said the lady who had been listening to the one who had +mentioned Mr. Whittaker’s name, “you have done the most awful thing you +ever did in your life. Mrs. Whittaker was standing just behind you, and +she heard every word you said.”</p> + +<p>“Poor woman! Did she, really? I <i>am</i> sorry! Well, I never believe in +making mischief between husband and wife, but it’s a shame, and I do +think that a man who is carrying on a double game ought to be found +out.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII</h2> + +<h3>WISE JULIA</h3> + +<p class="center">There is a certain class of woman who loves a fracas of any kind.</p> + +<p>The waiting-room at Northampton Park boasted of no attendant, so Regina +was able to sit down by the bare mahogany table and wait until the storm +which possessed her had passed by. Poor Regina! The first thought that +came to her was that after all she had lied to no purpose. It was no +small thing to a woman of her sturdy and open mind that she had spun a +perfect tissue of lies to her own child. She knew that she had lied in a +double sense, for she had not deceived Julia, and she knew now that +others were on the track of Alfred’s wrongdoings. She was shaking now, +shaking like a leaf, and as she sat there, her sad eyes roaming over the +customary literature that one finds on the table of a suburban +waiting-room, she wished she had been left in her fool’s paradise. She +realized with a great shock the truth of the old saw, “If ignorance is +bliss, ’twere folly to be wise.” Yes, she would rather have been left in +her fool’s paradise! But there, since the outer world was already +talking of Alfred’s doings, it was small wonder that she had lit upon +the truth also.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><p>Her talk with Julia, and the little incident that had caused her to take +refuge in the waiting-room, had made her hopelessly late for her +appointments, but that, Regina felt, could not be helped. She turned, +when she left the waiting-room, and walked across the green into the +Post-Office, where she sent off a couple of telegrams, and then she took +the next train to London and went straight to her club, where she +lunched by herself. I need not go into the details of her day. She kept +her appointments, behaved herself in a perfectly rational manner, and +went home, poor woman, with a heart as heavy as lead. When she got home +a terrible shock was waiting for her. Mr. Whittaker had come home, +inquired for her, and gone off with a portmanteau and left a note for +her on the dining-room mantelshelf.</p> + +<p>“The master was so put out,” the intelligent parlor-maid declared, +looking quite reproachfully at Regina, “he came in at five o’clock; of +course there wasn’t a soul at home. I knew Miss Julia had gone to Mrs. +Marksby’s, and I told master so, and he went to the telephone to speak +through to Miss Maudie—I mean Mrs. Marksby, but the young ladies, they +were gone out somewhere or other, and Mr. Harry wasn’t in, and I’d no +idea where you was. Master <i>was</i> put out! He had a cup of tea, and +packed his bag and he tramped up and down the road, and then he said to +me, ‘Margaret,’ said he, ‘I must go or I sha’n’t catch my train, but +I’ve written a note to the mistress, and be sure you take care of her +whilst I am away.’ Those were his last words, ‘be sure you take care of +her whilst I am away!’”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p><p>“Well, well,” said Regina, who did not believe in giving way in the +presence of servants, “well, well, your master has had to go away on +business, no doubt. His letter will explain everything.”</p> + +<p>Her exterior was calm, but her heart was beating fast as she turned into +the dining-room and took the letter off the chimney-shelf. She felt that +the fatal moment had come, and that Alfred was gone. Alfred <i>was</i> gone, +but not in the sense in which her doubting heart had feared.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“<span class="smcap">Dearest Queenie</span>”—the letter ran—“I am dreadfully upset not to +find you at home, as I ’phoned up to you directly I knew that I +should have to go away on most important business. I am just off to +Paris. Just imagine my going to Paris without you, dearest! It +seems preposterous. If I get my business through in a day or two, +perhaps you will join me there? If I don’t get my business through, +I may have to go on elsewhere, and I could not drag you about, on +what may be a wild-goose chase, half over Europe. I could have +given you an outline of the story if you had been at home, but I +haven’t time to write it. When I think of myself, a respectable +British householder, tearing off on this mad errand, I feel +inclined to pinch myself to make sure that I am awake. Till we +meet.—Your fond and devoted</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 2em;">“<span class="smcap">Alfred</span>.”</span></p></div> + +<p>Regina sat down and gasped. What did it mean? Surely the hussy was not +at the bottom of this. Just then Julia came in, having run across the +road to speak to one of the Marksby girls whom she had seen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>standing at +the gate as they came toward Ye Dene.</p> + +<p>“What’s this Margaret says about daddy?” she asked.</p> + +<p>“Nothing, my dear, nothing,” Regina rejoined, quite airily. “Your father +has had to go away on business for a few days.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I thought, from Margaret’s demeanor, that daddy had gone away for +good and all.”</p> + +<p>“Julia!”</p> + +<p>“Well, Margaret seemed to make such a mouthful of it.”</p> + +<p>“He came home very much fussed not to find us at home, and I suppose +Margaret imagined that something serious had happened. It’s nothing at +all. Here, you can read the letter.”</p> + +<p>“Paris!” said Julia, when she reached that point of information as she +read her father’s good-by note.</p> + +<p>“Well—how nice! If you do join him you will have a lovely time—a +little honeymoon trip. Perhaps he will ask me to go, too—that would be +lovely. How silly of Margaret to be so mysterious about it! Well, I’ll +go and tidy for dinner.”</p> + +<p>Mother and daughter were quite cheerful as they discussed the evening +meal. At about nine o’clock there was a sound of electricity, and Julia +lifted her head from her book.</p> + +<p>“I believe that’s Harry and Maudie; it sounded like their brougham.”</p> + +<p>Then there was a peal at the bell, and Julia ran out into the hall.</p> + +<p>“Maudie, is it you?” she asked.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p><p>“Yes, we thought we would come out and see you. How’s mother?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, all right. I thought you were going to a theatre?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, we did think about it, but we changed our minds. Julia, has +anything happened?”</p> + +<p>“No—at least, only that daddy has gone to Paris for a few days. We came +home and found he had been here, fussed because mother wasn’t in, packed +his own bag, and left a note to say where he has gone and to say +‘good-by’ and—<i>voilà tout</i>.”</p> + +<p>“But it isn’t all,” cried Maudie, “it’s only the beginning of it. My +dear, daddy’s gone to Paris with <i>her</i>! It was by the merest chance we +know. Harry was coming up the Strand—walking—he came up with a man in +his cab as far as Charing Cross because they wanted to talk business; he +got out at the corner of Villiers Street, and as he crossed over to the +entrance of the station he saw daddy drive up in a cab with a +portmanteau on the top. Immediately after, he saw a four-wheeled cab +with <i>her</i> inside.”</p> + +<p>“What—you mean the woman we saw at the Trocadero?”</p> + +<p>“Yes—he was so struck by the coincidence of their both being at Charing +Cross with luggage at the same time that he just walked quietly in and +saw them both go off together.”</p> + +<p>“Not together—Maudie!”</p> + +<p>“Together—in the same carriage—a reserved compartment. And Harry says +he bought a sheaf of papers and positively threw them at her.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p><p>“It’s a mystery!” ejaculated Julia, blankly. “His letter to mother was +everything that a letter could be. He laughs at himself ever so for +going away on a mad errand, suggests that she should join him in a few +days’ time, and signs himself, ‘till we meet, your fond and devoted +Alfred.’”</p> + +<p>“I tell you what it is, Ju,” said Maudie, dropping her young married +woman air and becoming Maudie Whittaker once more, “I’m sorry to say it +because he’s my father, but between you and me, daddy’s a regular bad +lot.”</p> + +<p>“It does seem so,” said Julia, “and the curious part of it is that he +looks so respectable. Mother won’t believe it, you know. I was talking +to her only to-day, she won’t believe a word against him.”</p> + +<p>“Well, so much the better for her, that’s what Harry says, but we came +to tell her—”</p> + +<p>“Not to tell her—?”</p> + +<p>“Oh no, I wouldn’t tell her for the world. Let her go on believing in +him as long as she can; the awakening will come soon enough.”</p> + +<p>“Then what did you come for?” asked Julia, practical as usual.</p> + +<p>“My dear, I thought if daddy had gone off and perhaps left mother a +letter to say that he was never coming back, she would want somebody to +stand by her—and Harry and I are prepared to do that.”</p> + +<p>“And where do I come in?” asked Julia, a little scornfully.</p> + +<p>“Oh, Ju, darling, you are always the practical common-sense one, you are +a tower of strength, and many are the times I have leaned upon you; but +if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>the worst had happened you might have been too stunned yourself to +help mother very much. I think a woman needs a man at such a crisis of +her life.”</p> + +<p>“There isn’t going to be any crisis,” said Julia, quite prosaically, +“there isn’t going to be any crisis. But it was nice of you to come, and +I do think you and Harry are two dear things. There’s an explanation to +all this. There’s nothing of the real bad lot about daddy, and as for +mother—there’s no doubt about it, he worships her. Don’t tell me that +when a man is tired of a woman he brings home dark sables without so +much as a hint that they will be welcome—it isn’t human nature, at all +events it isn’t man nature.”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII</h2> + +<h3>GRASP YOUR NETTLE</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>There is a wide difference between grasping your nettle and rushing +in where angels fear to tread.</p></div> + +<p>Several days had gone by and still the anxiously-looked-for summons had +not arrived from Alfred Whittaker to his wife. To outward seeming Regina +was as calm in the face of this new development of events as if no trace +of cloud had ever arisen to come between her and her noble Alfred, but +in her heart of hearts she watched every post with an anxiety that was +absolutely at fever heat. At night, poor soul, she seemed to have given +up sleeping, and Regina was a woman who needed, and had always taken, a +fixed amount of time in bed—when I say that I mean of actual, sound, +solid sleep. She was one of those persons who, docked of sleep, show the +signs of wear and tear with fatal rapidity.</p> + +<p>During the greater part of the week she did not go out of the Park, but +left word with the sympathetic Margaret, who was perfectly aware that +something out of the common was on foot, that in case of a telegram she +was to be fetched from such and such a house. Then Maudie came gliding +along in her motor brougham, full of sympathy, and, I must confess, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span>at +the same time, full of anxiety as to her mother’s condition.</p> + +<p>“How is it you are coming to the Park every day now?” Mrs. Whittaker +asked on the sixth morning when Maudie arrived about lunch time.</p> + +<p>“I was anxious about you, I thought you were not looking very well,” +Maudie remarked.</p> + +<p>“I am perfectly well.”</p> + +<p>“Are you, dear? I fancied you were not quite yourself.”</p> + +<p>Julia was safely out of the road, or perhaps young Mrs. Marksby would +not have said so much.</p> + +<p>“I do wish, dear, you would get out of this depressing neighborhood. I +assure you I feel quite a different woman since I was married and got +away from this depressing place.”</p> + +<p>“One generally does when one gets married,” said Regina, with a slight +smile.</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know, dear, but it takes a month of Sundays to get here even +with a motor. I wish you would persuade daddy to come and live in the +West End.”</p> + +<p>“It is not at all unlikely that we may do so, dear, a little later on. +Oh—what’s that?”</p> + +<p>“That” was nothing more important than the knock of the postman.</p> + +<p>“I will go,” said Maudie, and Maudie did go. “Two letters for Julia and +four for you.”</p> + +<p>“One from your father?” said Mrs. Whittaker, with an eagerness which, +for the life of her, she could not suppress.</p> + +<p>“Nothing in daddy’s handwriting,” said Maudie. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>“Mother dear, have you +heard from daddy since he left home?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, darling.”</p> + +<p>“Every day?”</p> + +<p>“Not every day,” said Regina, “no, not every day.”</p> + +<p>“Before I was married,” said Maudie in her most severe tone, “on the few +occasions when daddy went away without you, he made a rule of writing +every day.”</p> + +<p>“He’s on business,” said Regina, feebly.</p> + +<p>“Yes, darling, but he was on business then. You <i>have</i> heard from him?”</p> + +<p>“I have,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Oh, mother—I may as well tell you what’s in my mind.”</p> + +<p>“I think you had better not,” said Regina faintly.</p> + +<p>“I’m sure I ought to do so. I can’t bear to go on deceiving you any +longer.”</p> + +<p>“Deceiving me?” said Regina. Her tone was feeble but questioning.</p> + +<p>“Yes, deceiving you,” cried Maudie. “Daddy—daddy’s not gone away in an +ordinary manner on business—oh yes, he calls it business, but he’s gone +away with that woman.”</p> + +<p>“Maud!”</p> + +<p>“Harry saw them go away together, and you are watching for letters that +never come—my poor, crushed darling,” Maudie cried.</p> + +<p>“Harry saw them go? Them? You mean that person, that creature we saw +dining with daddy at the Trocadero?”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p><p>Then Maudie burst forth with the entire story as she had told it to +Julia.</p> + +<p>“And that is why I come every day. I knew you would want some support, +and as I am a married woman, I knew I should be more support than Julia, +although she <i>is</i> so farseeing. It’s a bitter blow, darling, but bear it +like the martyr you are. Of course, Harry will be awfully angry with me; +he says you never ought to interfere between husband and wife, even when +they are your own father and mother.”</p> + +<p>“I would rather know the worst,” said Regina; “it is no kindness to keep +a woman of my calibre in the dark. I can’t discuss it, Maudie darling, +even with you. If your father has really left me for that other person I +will bear the blow and face the world with what dignity I can. You—you +had better not tell Harry that you have told me the truth, we will keep +it a little secret between ourselves. I shouldn’t like to feel that +because of your sense of justice to me the first little rift had come +between yourself and your husband. You are lunching with me to-day, +dear?”</p> + +<p>She turned the conversation into a conventional channel with a skill +which was truly admirable, and Maudie, who was inclined to take her +color from another, took her cue on that occasion from her mother and +answered in the same strain.</p> + +<p>“No, I’m lunching with Harry’s mother. I’d rather stay here with you, +darling, but if I don’t go now and again without Harry the old lady is +inclined to be a bit cranky, and I want to keep in with her, you know.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p><p>“Certainly! Most wise of you! By all means keep in with your husband’s +people; there is nothing to be gained by not doing so,” said Regina. +“Then you and I will say no more just now, darling. You will come across +before you go back?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, mother dear, I will. I have ordered the brougham for four +o’clock.”</p> + +<p>“Engagements in town?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, one or two things on,” Maudie answered. She talked as if their +conversation had been all along of a most unimportant and trivial +character.</p> + +<p>“Then I shall see you again,” said Regina. “Good-by, dearest.”</p> + +<p>She sat just where Maudie had left her for some little time after young +Mrs. Marksby had disappeared into the ancestral mansion across the road, +a dozen schemes revolving in her active brain. What should she do? +Should she sit down meekly and tamely under this new revelation, and let +Alfred deal with their lives as he would, or should she make a +determined step and meet disaster face to face? “Grasp your nettle” had +ever been a favorite saying with Regina, and she felt very much like +grasping her nettle now. Then Margaret came in and told her that +luncheon was served, and Regina went into the dining-room and +thoughtfully helped herself. Appetite she had none. Now, let me tell +you, when Regina’s appetite failed her, then indeed she was in a +distinctly bad way.</p> + +<p>“Something has happened in this ’ere house,” said Margaret in the +confidential atmosphere of the kitchen. “Missus have had no lunch +to-day, not enough to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>keep a fly alive. Just look at this plate, and +that little dish you tossed up is one of her favorites. Why, she hasn’t +even picked the mushrooms out of it.”</p> + +<p>“Lor’! she must be bad,” said the faithful cook. “Poor missus! I wonder +if it’s true what they be saying, that master’s gone away for good and +all. Six days he’s been away and only one post-card has he sent home. +Why, generally he writes home every day and sometimes twice. Ah, men! +they’re all alike, not a pin to choose between ’em. Now the last place +that I was in, I only stayed my month, for the lady she had fifteen +servants in one year and she only kept two, so you can guess what sort +of a place I had lighted on. Master, he carried on something shameful, +not that I blame him, for a man what comes home and can’t get his meals +regular and never knows whether missus will be in or out and everything +else in the same way—well, you can’t expect a house to be run what you +can call comfortable, at least it never is, and this was a poor, +feckless thing that didn’t understand how to order a dinner for a +gentleman, and didn’t understand how to let the cook make a suggestion. +All the same, the way that man carried on was fair disgraceful. Now, +master here has kept his doings dark, and indeed if it hadn’t been for +what you overheard Miss Maudie that was tell Miss Julia, I don’t know +that we should have been any wiser than we were before. But there, men +are all alike. Look at Bill Jackson, he kept company with Annie +Hodgkinson for five years and a half, and then he up and fair jilts her +for the sake of a little bit of a girl that doesn’t know one end of a +ham from the other. Of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>course he’s miserable and he doesn’t deserve to +be anything else.”</p> + +<p>“For the matter of that,” retorted the fair Margaret, “neither does she; +she knew well enough what she was doing when she set her cap at Bill +Jackson. Don’t tell me that those innocent eyes don’t see more than they +pretend to, nasty little hussy! I’m sure, whatever happens in this +house, missus has my profoundest sympathy, and that’s more than I’d say +for any missus, and as for master, he’s like all the rest of them—fair +disgraceful, I call it.”</p> + +<p>“Me too,” said the cook, “me too.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Regina was sitting pecking, I can call it nothing else, at a +dainty little pudding. Her thoughts were very bitter and her heart was +full of a stern resolve. Yes, she would grasp her nettle, she would +remain in doubt not a single day longer. She would just take a handbag, +as Alfred had done, and she would leave a note for Julia, and she would +go off to Paris by the night boat. She would grasp her nettle; she +would, at least, learn the worst. If Alfred were no longer hers—well, +she would shape her life accordingly. There should be no half measures, +it should be all or nothing. Truly she had given all that she had to +give freely. She had, as she believed, accepted and valued the whole of +her husband’s love. There should be no betwixt and between, it should be +her or the other one, Regina or the hussy. And then Regina remembered +that to carry out her scheme she must at once put on her things and go +to the bank and get some money.</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXXIV</h2> + +<h3>A TRENCHANT QUESTION</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>When months of doubt have been crystallized into one simple +question how easy the way seems!</p></div> + +<p>Mrs. Whittaker laid her plans for leaving Ye Dene with the skill of a +diplomat and the secrecy of a detective. She determined that she would +take nobody into her confidence. If there was going to be a hideous +scene with Alfred when she got to the end of her journey, she preferred +to have it without witnesses, especially either of her own children. She +went down to the bank and drew out sufficient money to cover all +expenses and a little over, and then returned home in order to prepare +for her journey. She chose her plainest frock, a rough brown tweed, +tailor built, according to the advice and under the direction of Madame +d’Estelle, who did not make tailor gowns herself, but introduced clients +to a gentleman in that line, and generally supervised the taste of her +customers. On her carefully arranged coiffure she wore a toque to match +her dress—when I say “to match her dress” I mean it was a creation of +brown velvet, with a strip of sable, some gold buckles and a twist of +yellowish lace. Over her shoulders she put the dark sables which Alfred +had given her, took the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>muff upon her arm, and then she went down to +her own desk, where she wrote a letter to Julia:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“<span class="smcap">Dearest</span>”—she wrote—“I am going to join your father in Paris. I +leave you ten pounds; if you want more money than this before I +return, which is not very likely, here are a couple of signed +cheeks for you to use. I know that you won’t mind being left alone +for a few days. If you do, you might go and stay with Maudie. I am +leaving by the Calais-Dover route and will let you know as soon as +I arrive in Paris.—Your fond and loving</p> + +<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 2em;">“<span class="smcap">Mother</span>.”</span></p></div> + +<p>Then Mrs. Whittaker called the servants in one by one, paid their wages, +told them to look after Miss Julia, and said that she was going to Paris +to join the master for a few days.</p> + +<p>“Which it’s very funny,” remarked the cook to Margaret, a few minutes +after Mrs. Whittaker and her small portmanteau had gone off in a cab to +the station, “which it’s very funny. Missus have had no letter from +master since the day after he went away, when she had a post-card which +I took in myself and likewise read, saying, ‘Arrived safe. Hope all well +at home. Writing later.’ Which he never have written later. There was no +telegram for missus to-day?”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Margaret, “there’s no telegram come to this house to-day.”</p> + +<p>“Then, you know, missus might have been rung up on the telephone from +the office.”</p> + +<p>“She might, but I’ve not heard her on the telephone all day, and I’ve +not heard the telephone go once. Anyway, missus she have gone to Paris +to join <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span>master, and I’m sure, poor lady, I hope she won’t find a pretty +to-do when she gets there.”</p> + +<p>It was barely half an hour later when Maudie Marksby’s motor brougham +came spinning up to the door of the house opposite.</p> + +<p>“There’s Mrs. Marksby’s carriage,” said Margaret, craning her head over +the muslin blinds that shrouded the doings of the kitchen from the +passers-by. “I wonder if missus told her she was going to Paris. Oh, +here she comes.”</p> + +<p>Maudie herself, with her gait of swimming importance, came mincing +across the road. Margaret went down to the outer porch to meet her.</p> + +<p>“Is my mother in, Margaret?”</p> + +<p>“Lor’! Mrs. Marksby, missus have gone away!”</p> + +<p>“Away! Where?”</p> + +<p>“She’s gone to Paris to join master.”</p> + +<p>“Did she have a telegram?”</p> + +<p>“No, miss—I beg your pardon, I mean ma’am.”</p> + +<p>“Oh—oh—she’s gone to Paris, has she? Well, it’s no use my waiting +then, is it?”</p> + +<p>“What did she look like?” said the cook.</p> + +<p>“She looked struck all of a heap,” said Margaret. “It’s my opinion that +missus has taken French leave, and she’s going to steal a march on them +both.”</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Regina, full of her stern resolve, was already on her way to +Dover, not being minded to wait for the regular boat train, and perhaps +risk a scene from one or other of her daughters, finding her on the +platform and attempting to dissuade her from taking the fatal step.</p> + +<p>“I must be firm, I must be resolute, I must know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>exactly what I’m going +to do,” she told herself as the luxurious train whizzed past the +suburbs. “I will have a good dinner when I get to Dover; I wish to +arrive in Paris as calm and unmoved as a rock.”</p> + +<p>Now, take it all round, this was extremely sensible advice to give +herself. Regina had a cup of tea on board the train. She made a valiant +effort to read one or two magazines which she had with her, and arrived +at Dover, she went on board the steamer, chose her berth, and then went +into the town to seek a suitable place for dinner. I feel that it is +much to her credit that she chose the best hotel in the town. And yet it +was a very haggard and sad-eyed Regina who reached the terminus at +Paris. Still, she never turned from her resolve. She chartered her +<i>fiacre</i>, and involuntarily, as they drove down the Rue Amsterdam, her +eyes turned to the wonderful bazaar in which in former days she and +Alfred had spent some money and a certain amount of time, experiencing +at a very small cost the delirious joy of shopping in Paris. So on, +through the bright Paris streets, already teeming with life, and down +into the heart of the city where was situate the hotel from which Alfred +had written. It was not one at which Regina had ever stayed herself—no, +it was small and unpretentious, with a quaint little courtyard adorned +by a few shrubs in square wooden boxes painted a brighter green than the +leaves.</p> + +<p>“Yes, M. Vittequere, he is staying in the hotel,” so the handsome and +voluble landlady informed her.</p> + +<p>“With a lady?” Regina asked.</p> + +<p>“Well,” she admitted, there was a lady, but she was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>not staying in the +hotel; she was not Mr. Whittaker’s wife; on the contrary, she was a +client, and madame had found her an excellent lodging in an adjacent +house—one, in fact, belonging to the mother of madame herself. “And she +is a Frenchwoman; she knows her Paris well.”</p> + +<p>“A Frenchwoman?” Regina echoed. “And monsieur, he is risen?”</p> + +<p>“If monsieur has risen he is but just descended from his bedchamber.”</p> + +<p>She called to a passing waiter, and demanded to know whether M. +Whittaker, <i>numéro treize</i>, was yet descended.</p> + +<p>“Monsieur is at breakfast with madame,” was the man’s reply.</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman, who had taken in the situation at a glance, and knew +from Regina’s general appearance, and perhaps especially from her +sables, that this was the legitimate Madame Whittaker, frowned at the +man, who, as Regina plainly saw, cast about mentally for a way of +retrieving his mistake.</p> + +<p>“Show me the way,” said Regina. “No, it is not necessary to warn +monsieur; I know him extremely well. Ah, in the <i>salle</i>? I will go by +myself.”</p> + +<p>“<i>Polisson—bête</i>,” hissed the Frenchwoman in the waiter’s ear. But +abuse was worse than useless, for Regina was already sailing, head up, +in the direction of the dining-room. She made her entrance without being +perceived. Alfred was, indeed, turned three-parts away from the door by +which she had entered, and he was leaning over the table studying some +papers. Knowing him so well, she perceived by his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>attitude that he was +thoroughly engrossed by business. His companion, who wore a hat, and who +was much smarter and more Parisian in appearance than when Regina saw +her at the Trocadero, was steadily eating her breakfast. At last, Alfred +Whittaker put the sheet he was reading down on several others like it, +and patted his hand upon it as much as to say, “That is settled and done +with,” upon which Regina went forward. She gently laid her hand upon her +husband’s shoulder.</p> + +<p>“Alfred,” she said in a very quiet tone. I am bound to confess that +Alfred nearly jumped out of his skin.</p> + +<p>“My God! Queenie, is that you? Oh, my dear, what a turn you gave me. I’d +no idea you were within a hundred miles of me. What’s the matter?” He +sprang out of his chair and held her by both her elbows. “If anything’s +the matter tell me at once; don’t break it to me.”</p> + +<p>“Nothing’s the matter; I will explain it to you afterwards—I wanted to +come to Paris, and I thought I might as well join you. Who is this +lady?”</p> + +<p>The noble Alfred drew a long breath of relief, gripped his wife’s elbows +very hard indeed, and then bent forward and touched her lightly on +either cheek.</p> + +<p>“This lady is a client of the firm,” he said. “Let me make her known to +you—Madame Raumonier.”</p> + +<p>The Frenchwoman sprang to her feet, looking the very image of guilty +surprise. “This is madame your wife?” she said, speaking excellent +English.</p> + +<p>“This is Mrs. Whittaker, my wife. Sit down, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>Queenie. <i>Garçon, garçon</i>, +breakfast for madame. They make an excellent <i>omelette aux fines herbes</i> +here, Queenie. Fresh coffee for madame. Sit down, Madame Raumonier, sit +down.”</p> + +<p>“You would like to be alone with madame your wife?”</p> + +<p>“Not at all; I shall be alone with her presently, when you have finished +breakfast.” He turned back to Regina. “Queenie,” he said, “I can’t tell +you how glad I am to see you. This just concludes the business which +brought me over to Paris. I’ve had the greatest difficulty and trouble +to get things settled. It’s such a disadvantage to a man in my position +not to speak French well, and I am in the position of not speaking +French at all, so I have had to do everything by means of madame’s +translations, and she does not see the legal aspect as I should if I +could read French as well as she can. I was going to telegraph to you +this very day to beg you to come over. Some wave thought must have +warned you that I was thinking of it.”</p> + +<p>“No,” said Regina, deliberately sitting down by the table, and beginning +carefully to peel the gloves off her hands. “No, Alfred, I do not think +it was a wave thought. I wanted to come to Paris, and I came.”</p> + +<p>“They are all well at home? You brought Julia with you?”</p> + +<p>“No, I did not bring Julia; she can come across in a few days by +herself.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, yes, we can talk of that later.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p><p>Then Madame Raumonier made another effort to escape.</p> + +<p>“I am sure you would like to be alone with madame, your wife. I have +quite finished breakfast. If you wish to see me will you intimate +through madame the landlady? May I wish you good morning, madame?”</p> + +<p>Regina rose and ceremoniously shook hands with the Frenchwoman; Alfred +bowed, followed her across the room, stayed a moment talking, bowed +again, rubbed his hands, and came back with that curious air of a +conqueror with which a man meets a woman who is much to him on all +occasions after a parting.</p> + +<p>“Queenie, my darling, thank God that woman’s gone. I must apologize to +you,” and here he put his hand over hers and held it very close, “I must +apologize to you for having, of necessity, made her known to you. She is +not a person for you to know; she’s—she’s a woman with a history.”</p> + +<p>“Then, Alfred,” said Regina, not moving her hand, but looking at him +with eyes which were like the eyes of the angel with the naming sword. +“Then, Alfred, if she is not fit for me to know, what does she do here +with you?”</p> + +<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXV" id="CHAPTER_XXXV"></a>CHAPTER XXXV</h2> + +<h3>THE END OF IT ALL</h3> + +<div class="blockquot2 hangingindent"><p>A woman who can prove herself generous and wide-minded is the woman +who gets the greatest advantage in every circumstance of life.</p></div> + +<p>“How is it,” said Regina, “that she is here with you?”</p> + +<p>The words dropped out one by one. There was a world of torture and +suffering, tinged with reproach and bitterness, in Mrs. Whittaker’s +tones. Alfred Whittaker gave a great start, and drew his wife down to +her seat.</p> + +<p>“Queenie,” he said, “you haven’t had it in your mind that that creature +is anything to me?”</p> + +<p>“I’m afraid I have,” said Regina, and under the comfort of the word +“creature” her voice took a softer tone.</p> + +<p>“That mixture of fire and vulgarity! Oh, my dear!—Come, come, you’ve +been traveling all night, you must have your breakfast. Here is the +finest omelette in Paris. I say, waiter, <i>garçon</i>, try if you can’t get +madame a few strawberries to follow the <i>bifteck Chateaubriand</i>.—I’m +sure, Queenie,” he went on as the waiter whisked the cover off and +betook himself away, “that a good breakfast is more important to you at +this moment than even the state of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>my morals. You see, I’ve had my +breakfast, so you can hear all about Madame Raumonier while you are +taking yours. Now, what could have put it into your head, since you knew +I was over here on her business—”</p> + +<p>“But I didn’t,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“Then what made you come?”</p> + +<p>The omelette was good and hot, and Regina took two mouthfuls before she +answered.</p> + +<p>“Alfred,” she said, “this has been going on for a long time. I know +everything.”</p> + +<p>“Then you are a clever woman. Now, what do you know?”</p> + +<p>“You bought her a bracelet.”</p> + +<p>“I? I’ve never bought a bracelet for anyone but you in my life.”</p> + +<p>“Well, Templeton told me so.”</p> + +<p>At this Alfred Whittaker burst out laughing. “I did buy a bracelet, you +are quite right, but it was for Mrs. Chamberlain.”</p> + +<p>“You gave a bracelet to Mrs. Chamberlain?” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“No, no, no, I didn’t do anything of the kind. I bought the bracelet for +Chamberlain to give his wife. Chamberlain had been in an extremely ugly +corner for some time past. I didn’t tell you anything about it, because +I thought it more than likely that Mrs. Chamberlain might come round +pumping you. If you didn’t know anything, I felt you wouldn’t be able to +tell her anything.”</p> + +<p>“Surely you might have trusted me?”</p> + +<p>“It isn’t that I couldn’t trust you, for I can and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>always have done. As +it happened, Mrs. Chamberlain was, as you know, by way of being an +heiress, and Chamberlain was ridiculously in love.”</p> + +<p>“Can a man be ridiculously in love?” put in Regina.</p> + +<p>“Yes, very much so. When I married you I told you everything that had +happened to me, good, bad and indifferent—Chamberlain didn’t, and Mrs. +Chamberlain is possessed of a demon of jealousy. She got fixed in her +silly little head that Chamberlain had been a sort of King Arthur until +she met him. A moment’s reflection would have told the silly little fool +that the less she inquired into her husband’s past the better, and +Chamberlain was so much in love with her, and in such a hurry to catch +the little heiress, that he did not completely sever ties that he had +contracted previously, and trusted to luck to go on shelling out to this +Frenchwoman who had had an affair with him lasting some years before his +marriage. The French lady did not like being put on short commons, still +less did she like being pensioned off, and she began to make herself +unpleasant. Poor old Chamberlain got himself into an awful muddle, and +confided everything to me. I thought him a fool, and I told him so very +plainly; but he’s my partner, and I couldn’t refuse to help him out. The +day that I went to Templeton’s and bought that bracelet, Chamberlain +went in quite a different direction to have an interview with Madame +Raumonier and try to bring her to reason. At that time Mrs. Chamberlain +used to make stringent inquiries as to how he had spent every moment of +his time. As a matter of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>fact she had come to the office for him that +very day, and was told that he had already gone. When he got home she +was told some necessary and harmless lies to the effect that he had been +to Templeton’s to buy her a bracelet. Heaven only knows what would have +happened if she had found out that Chamberlain had never been near +Templeton’s.”</p> + +<p>“But why were you dragged into it?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I was trying to get a settlement.”</p> + +<p>“Why did you bring her to Paris?”</p> + +<p>“Well, it was like this. Chamberlain and I finally agreed between +ourselves that the only way to get a settlement of the affair was to +provide Madame Raumonier with an income sufficient to live upon for the +rest of her life. He didn’t grudge that, he’s not a mean man, and he +offered to settle five pounds a week upon her on one condition: that she +cleared out of England and never crossed the Channel again.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I see. But why did you have to come to Paris to settle that?”</p> + +<p>“My dear child, Madame Raumonier is no fool. She had no notion of being +cut adrift from Chamberlain and left stranded at her age—she must be at +least five-and-thirty—without the certainty of a provision being made +for her. I took her out to dinner one night—dined at the Trocadero—”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I saw you,” said Regina.</p> + +<p>“What!”</p> + +<p>“I was there.”</p> + +<p>“You were dining at the Trocadero the night I took Madame Raumonier +there?”</p> + +<p>“I was.”</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p><p>“And you never told me!”</p> + +<p>“No, Alfred, I never told you.” Regina finished the last bit of omelette +with relish, and sat back in her chair and waited for the rest of the +story.</p> + +<p>“You never told me!” repeated Alfred. “You cooked it up—you mean to +tell me that you thought I was dining with her on my own account?”</p> + +<p>“What else was I to think?”</p> + +<p>“Who were you dining with?”</p> + +<p>“I was not dining with a gentleman, at least not by myself,” said +Regina. “Julia and I were dining with Maudie and Harry.”</p> + +<p>“And they saw—?”</p> + +<p>“They did.”</p> + +<p>“And they thought—?”</p> + +<p>“They did.”</p> + +<p>“That I was dining on my own with that creature! I never felt so +insulted in my life.”</p> + +<p>“Insulted, Alfred?”</p> + +<p>“Insulted, Queenie. When I take to dining ladies on my own, they shall +be women who are something to look at. Damn it all!” he went on, “I’ve +been accustomed to taking a smart woman about. This creature wasn’t even +amusing, and what’s more, she’s the least French of any Frenchwoman I +ever came across in my life.”</p> + +<p>“Well, go on. You were telling me—?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, I don’t know what I was telling you—I don’t know what I was +telling you. Oh, well, I know, I was telling you about dining her at the +Trocadero. Yes, she was willing enough to have the settlement, she was +willing enough to go back to her beloved <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>France; she hated London and +everything in it—didn’t know why she ever left sunny France. But like +all Frenchwomen, she was a woman of business, and she didn’t mean to +leave go her hold upon poor old Chamberlain unless her settlement was +perfectly secure. My dear, if she had been a lawyer fifty times over she +couldn’t have been sharper at her job.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t blame her,” said Regina, “I never blame a woman for getting the +better of a man.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, I know, my dear, you always held that opinion. But the long and +the short of it was that she would accept nothing but a definite +settlement in Paris, and I can tell you, even when you come over with +the money in your hand, it’s not such a simple matter as it would seem +to arrange a bit of business in this land of liberty, equality and +brotherhood. From the way these people have spun it out one would have +thought that I was getting something out of them, instead of making an +ample settlement on one of their countrywomen. And the funniest part of +the whole thing has been that every one of them thinks that Chamberlain +and I are one and the same person. Gad! You thought so too! My dear,” +putting his hand on the papers again, “this is the final note; this will +be signed this afternoon; I shall hand Madame Raumonier bank-notes for a +hundred pounds, and then I shall wash my hands of her altogether for +good and all.”</p> + +<p>For a moment Regina did not speak, but applied her attention entirely to +the very excellent <i>bifteck</i> on <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>her plate. Then she looked up at her +husband with penitent eyes.</p> + +<p>“Alfred,” she said, “I really feel I ought to apologize to you.”</p> + +<p>“Apologize?” said Alfred, “apologize? Nay, if any apology is needed it +is from me to you for having apparently given you cause for uneasiness; +but, thank God! Queenie, there is no need of apology on either side. +There’s been a little misapprehension, but it’s all over now, and we are +as much together again as we were when we set out on our honeymoon. Did +it make you very miserable, Queenie?” He laid his hand on hers as he +spoke, and Regina looked up at him with shining eyes.</p> + +<p>“I’ve been so miserable, Alfred,” she said, “that I almost wished I +could die, and I think I should have died or put myself out of the +road—or something—if I hadn’t resolved to win you back at any cost.”</p> + +<p>“But you are satisfied now?”</p> + +<p>“Satisfied! Oh, I’m so happy—so happy. I’ll never let such a cloud come +between us—next time I’ll tell you the very first suspicion that +crosses my mind.”</p> + +<p>“There isn’t going to be a next time,” said Alfred. “Poor old +Chamberlain! he’s come to the end of his tether now.”</p> + +<p>“Alfred,” said Regina, after a long pause, “I don’t think I would waste +any pity on ‘poor old Chamberlain’; it seems to me that he has met with +more than his deserts. If I have any feeling of pity for any of the +three it is for the unfortunate Frenchwoman who trusted him where he was +not fit <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span>to be trusted. These people in the hotel thought I was going to +spring a mine upon you; I saw the landlady frown at the waiter when he +said you were breakfasting together. I have always been a wide-minded +woman, Alfred, and I am a very happy one this morning. Let us ask Madame +Raumonier to join us to-night by way of celebrating the settlement of +her affairs.”</p> + +<p>For a moment Alfred did not—indeed, could not—speak.</p> + +<p>“Queenie,” he said, “I have always admired you, I have always loved you, +but this morning, at this moment, I feel that, compared with you in your +benevolence, your real wide-mindedness, I am a mere worm.”</p> + +<p>“My noble Alfred!” said Regina, “my noble Alfred!”</p> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"><h2>LOVE AND THE<br /> +SOUL HUNTERS</h2> + +<h3>By John Oliver Hobbes</h3> + +<p class="center"><i>Author of</i> “<i>The Gods, Some Morals, and Lord Wickenham</i>”,<br /> +“<i>The Herb Moon</i>,” “<i>Schools for Saints</i>”,<br /> +“<i>Robert Grange</i>,” <i>etc., etc.</i></p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:35px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">I</span>n this new novel Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) has made, according +to her own statement, the great effort of her life. It is the most +brilliant creation of an author whose talent and versatility have +surprised readers and critics in both Europe and America for several +years. It treats of unique examples of human nature as they are, and not +merely as they ought to be. Swayed by complex motives, they are always +attractive, but often do what is least expected of them. The story is +graphically told, and is full of action. Each personage is distinctively +drawn to the life.</p> + +<p><span style="font-size: 90%;">“There is much that is worth remembering in her writings.”—<i>Mail and +Express</i>, New York.</span></p> + +<p><span style="font-size: 90%;">“More than any other woman who is now writing, Mrs. Craigie is, in the +true manly sense, a woman of letters. She is not a woman with a few +personal emotions to express: she is what a woman so rarely is—an +artist.”—<i>The Star</i>, London.</span></p> + +<p><span style="font-size: 90%;">“Few English writers have so lapidarian a style of writing as Mrs. +Craigie, and few such a capacity for writing epigrams.”—<i>The Toronto +Globe.</i></span></p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p class="center"><span style="font-size: 90%;"><i>12mo, Cloth. $1.50</i></span></p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<h3>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers</h3> +<h4>NEW YORK & LONDON</h4></div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"><h4>A BRILLIANT SATIRE ON MILITARISM</h4> +<h2>CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO</h2> + +<h3>By Ernest Crosby</h3> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:35px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span> satirical novel based on the military history of the United States +since the outbreak of the Spanish War. It is a smiting denunciation of +militarism and the military spirit, and a biting burlesque on cheap hero +worship. The parallel between savagery and soldiery is unerringly drawn. +It is full of wit and sarcasm.</p> + +<p><span style="font-size: 90%;"><i>The Philadelphia Item</i>, March 8: “It is the best bit of satire that has +seen the light for years. It is more than clever: it is brilliant. Its +sarcasm is like pointed steel, while its humor is of the most rollicking +order. In fact, it is hilarious with fun, while its pungency in satire +is remarkable for keenness, and for the incisive way in which every +point is driven home.”</span></p> + +<p><span style="font-size: 90%;"><i>Worcester Spy</i>, Worcester, Mass., March 9: “Beard’s illustrations are +equally clever and original, the best that he has ever made. As a +collection of cartoons alone the book should make a hit.”</span></p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p class="center"><i>Twenty-five Clever Drawings by Dan Beard. 12mo, Cloth. Ornamental<br /> +Cover. Price. $1.50, post-paid.</i></p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<h4>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>,</h4> +<h5><span class="smcap">New York & London</span></h5></div> + +<hr class="large" /> + +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"><p><i>St. Louis Globe-Democrat:</i> “It is a simple, gentle, quietly-humorous +narrative, with several love affairs in it.”</p> + +<h2><span style="text-indent: -5em;">UNDER MY</span><br /> +<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-right: -5em;">OWN ROOF</span></span></h2> + +<h3>By Adelaide L. Rouse</h3> + +<p class="center"><span style="font-size: 90%;"><i>Author of</i> “<i>The Deane Girls</i>,” “<i>Westover House</i>,” <i>etc.</i></span></p> + +<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:35px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span> story of a “nesting impulse” and what came of it. A newspaper woman +determines to build a home for herself in a Jersey suburb. The story of +its planning is delightfully told, simply and with a literary-humorous +flavor that will appeal to lovers of books and of the fireside.</p> + +<p>Before the house-building details are allowed to tire the reader, a love +story is begun, and catches the interest. It concerns the home-builder, +an old flame, and an old friend, the third of whom has become a +next-door neighbor. With this romance are entwined a number of heart +affairs as well as warm friendships.</p> + +<p>The style is bright, and the humor genial and pervasive. The “literary +worker” and the “suburbanite” particularly will enjoy the book. Women of +culture everywhere should appreciate its delicate style.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p class="center">Illustrations by Harrie A. Stoner. 12mo, Cloth.<br /> +Price, $1.20, net; postage, 13 cents.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<h4>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>,</h4> +<h5><span class="smcap">New York & London</span></h5></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<div class="centerbox2 bbox2"><h2>THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES</h2> + +<p class="center"><i>A Series of Entertaining Novelettes<br /> Illustrated and Issued in Dainty +Dress.</i></p> + +<p class="center">Small 12mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents per volume. +Postage, 5 cents.</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<h4>I.</h4> + +<h3><span style="text-indent: -5em;">THE COURTSHIP <i>of</i></span><br /> +<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-right: -10em;">SWEET ANNE PAGE</span></span></h3> + +<p class="center">By Ellen V. Talbot</p> + +<p>A brisk, dainty little love story incidental to “The Merry Wives of +Windsor,” full of fun and frolic and telling of the courtship of Sweet +Anne Page by the three lovers: Abraham Slender, the tallow-faced gawk, +chosen by her father; Dr. Caius, the garlic-scented favorite of her +mother; and the “gallant Fenton,” the choice of her own wilful self.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h4>II.</h4> + +<h3>THE SANDALS</h3> + +<p class="center">By Rev. Z. Grenell</p> + +<p>A beautiful little idyl of sacred story about the sandals of Christ. It +tells of their wanderings and who were their wearers, from the time that +they fell to the lot of a Roman soldier when Christ’s garments were +parted among his crucifiers to the day when they came back to Mary, the +Mother of Jesus. The book exhibits both strength and beauty of literary +style.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h4>III.</h4> + +<h3><span style="text-indent: -5em;">THE TRANSFIGURATION <i>of</i></span><br /> +<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="margin-right: -10em;">MISS PHILURA</span></span></h3> + +<p class="center">By Florence Morse Kingsley<br /> +<i>Author of</i> “<i>Titus</i>,” “<i>Prisoners of the Sea</i>,” <i>etc.</i></p> + +<p>An entertaining story woven around the “New Thought,” which is finding +expression in Christian Science, Divine Healing, etc., in the course of +which Miss Philura makes drafts upon the All-Encircling Good for a +husband and various other things, and the All-Encircling Good does not +disappoint her.</p> + +<hr class="medium" /> + +<h4>FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>,</h4> +<h5><span class="smcap">New York & London</span></h5></div> + +<hr class="large" /> +<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber’s Note:</span></h3> + +<p>Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters’ errors; otherwise, +every effort has been made to remain true to the author’s words and +intent.</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="pg" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Little Vanities of Mrs. Whittaker + A Novel + + +Author: John Strange Winter + + + +Release Date: February 27, 2011 [eBook #35414] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. +WHITTAKER*** + + +E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. WHITTAKER + +A Novel + +by + +JOHN STRANGE WINTER + +Author of +"_Bootles' Baby_," "_The Truth-Tellers_," "_A Blaze of Glory_," +"_Marty_," "_Little Joan_," "_Cherry's Child_," +"_A Blameless Woman_," _etc._ + + + + + + + +Funk & Wagnalls Company +New York and London +1904 + +Copyright, 1904, by +Funk & Wagnalls Company + +[Published, June, 1904] + + + + +CONTENTS + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. REGINA BROWN 9 + II. MRS. ALFRED WHITTAKER 17 + III. YE DENE 26 + IV. SKATING ON THIN ICE 35 + V. THE S. R. W. 45 + VI. REGINA'S VIEWS 54 + VII. "LITTLE PIGLETS OF ENGLISH" 64 + VIII. CANDID OPINIONS 73 + IX. THE GIRLS' DOMAIN 83 + X. A WEIGHTY BUSINESS 92 + XI. AMBITIONS 101 + XII. TWOPENNY DINNERS 110 + XIII. DETAILS 119 + XIV. DIAMOND EARRINGS 127 + XV. A GOLDEN DAY 136 + XVI. OTHER GODS 144 + XVII. REGINA COMES TO A CONCLUSION 152 + XVIII. THE FIRST LITTLE VANITIES 160 + XIX. BROKEN-HEARTED MIRANDA 168 + XX. FAMILY CRITICISM 176 + XXI. DEAR DIEPPE 183 + XXII. REGINA ON THE WARPATH 190 + XXIII. THE DRESSING-ROOM 198 + XXIV. RUMOR 208 + XXV. POOR MOTHER 216 + XXVI. THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH 224 + XXVII. ROUND EVERYWHERE 233 + XXVIII. A REJUVENATED REGINA 241 + XXIX. WARY AND PATIENT 247 + XXX. DADDY'S HEART 255 + XXXI. REGINA SETS FOOT ON THE DOWN GRADE 263 + XXXII. WISE JULIA 270 + XXXIII. GRASP YOUR NETTLE 277 + XXXIV. A TRENCHANT QUESTION 284 + XXXV. THE END OF IT ALL 292 + + + + +The Little Vanities of +Mrs. Whittaker + + + + +CHAPTER I + +REGINA BROWN + + There are many who think that the unfamiliar is best. + + +To begin my story properly, I must go back to the time when the Empress +Eugenie had not started the vogue of the crinoline, when the Indian +Mutiny had not stained the pages of history, and the Crimean War was as +yet but a cloud the size of a man's hand on the horizon of the +world--that is to say, to the very early fifties. + +It was then that a little girl-child was born into the world, a little +girl who was called by the name of Regina, and whose father and mother +bore the homely appellation of Mr. and Mrs. Brown; yes, plain, simple +and homely Brown, without even so much as an "e" placed at the tail +thereof to give it a distinction from all the other Browns. + +So far as I have ever heard, the young childhood of Regina Brown was +passed in quite an ordinary and conventional atmosphere. Her parents +were well-meaning, honest, kindly, well-disposed, middle-class persons. +According to their lights they educated their daughter extremely well; +that is to say, she was sent to a genteel seminary, she was always +nicely dressed, and she wore her hair in ringlets. + +This state of things continued, without any particular change, +until Regina was nearly twenty years old. By that time the great +Franco-Prussian War had beaten itself into peace, the horrors of the +Commune of Paris had come and gone, and the sun of Regina Brown's +twentieth birthday rose upon a world in which nations had come once +more, at least to outward seeming, to the conclusion that all men are +brothers. It might have been some long-forgotten echo from the early +days when France and England fought against Russia, or it might have +been in a measure owing to the conflict, so long, so deadly and so +bloody, between France and Germany, but certain is it that, when Regina +Brown realized that she was twenty years old, she came to the conclusion +that she was leading a wasted life. + +If the period in which she lived had been that of to-day, I think Regina +Brown would have entered herself at any hospital that would have +accepted her and would have trained for a nurse; but, in the early +seventies, nursing was not, as now, the almost regulation answer to the +question, "What shall we do with our girls?" + +"What shall I do with my life?" she said, looking in the modest little +glass which swung above her toilet-table. "What shall I do with my life? +Live here, pandering to my father and mother, listening to my father's +accounts of how some man at the club wagered a shilling on a matter +which could make no difference to anyone; hearing mother's elaborate +account of the delinquencies of Charlotte Ann, who really is not such a +bad girl, after all. I can't go on like this--I can't bear it any +longer. It's a waste of life; it's a waste of a strong, capable, +original brain. I must get out into the world and do something." + +In the course of life one comes across so many people who are always +yearning to go out into the world and do something, but Regina Brown was +not a young woman who could or would content herself with mere yearning. +With her to think was to do. With her a resolve was a fact practically +accomplished. + +"I will go in for the higher education," she said to herself. "What do I +know now? I can dance a little, play a little, paint a little. I know no +useful things. My mother sews my clothes and makes my under-linen; my +mother orders the dinner, and never will entrust the making of the +pastry to any hand but her own. What is there left for me? Nothing! I +must go out into the world. There is only one line in which I am likely +to make success, and I am not the class of woman who makes for failure. +I will become a great teacher. To become a great teacher, I must qualify +myself. I must work, and work hard. I must enter at some regular school +of learning, or, failing that, I must find a first-class tutor to work +with me." + +Eventually Regina Brown adopted the latter course. As a matter of fact, +she was not sufficiently advanced in any branch of education to enter at +any school of learning which admitted women to its curriculum. To Regina +it mattered little or nothing. For the next ten years she lived in an +atmosphere of hard learning. She proved herself a worker of no mean +ability. She passed all manner of examinations, she took numberless +degrees, and on the day on which she was thirty years old, she found +herself once more gazing at her face in the glass and wondering what she +was going to do with the knowledge that she had so laboriously acquired. + +"Regina Brown," she said to herself, "you are no nearer to becoming a +great teacher than you were ten years ago this very day. Will anyone +ever put you in charge of a high school? Will anyone give you a +responsible post in any of the spheres where women can prove that they +are the equals, and more than the equals, of men? It is very doubtful. +You know much, but you have no influence. Ten years ago to-day, Regina +Brown, you told yourself that your mode of existence was a waste of +life. Well, you are wasting your life still. The best thing you can do, +Regina Brown, is to get yourself married." + +So Regina Brown got herself married. + +Now, to put such an action in those words is not a romantic way of +describing the most--or what should be the most--romantic episode of a +woman's life; but I use Regina's own words, and I say that she got +herself married. + +She was not wholly unattractive. She had a pinky skin and frank grey +eyes, but her figure was of the pincushion order, and much study had +done away with that lissomness which is one of the most attractive +attributes of womenkind. Her hands were white, strong, determined; white +because they were mostly occupied about books and papers, strong because +she herself was strong, and determined because it was her nature to be +so. Her feet, frankly speaking, were large. She was a young woman who +sat solidly on a solid chair, and looked thoroughly in place. Her +features otherwise were neither bad nor good, and I think she was +probably one of the worst dressers that the world has ever seen. It was +no uncommon thing for Regina Brown to wear a salmon-pink ribbon twisted +about her ample waist and to crown her toilet with a covering of +turquoise blue. + +It was about this time that Regina received a valentine--the first in +her life. She held it sacred from any eye but her own, in fact she put +it into the fire before any of the family had time to see it. The words +ran thus:-- + + "Regina Brown, Regina Brown, + You think yourself a beauty; + In pink and green + And yellow sheen + You go to do your duty. + + Regina Brown, Regina Brown, + Whenever will you learn + That pink and green + And golden sheen + Are colors you should spurn? + + Regina Brown, Regina Brown, + Take lesson from the lily, + A lesson meek, + Not far to seek, + 'Twill keep you from being silly!" + +I cannot truthfully say that the valentine did Regina the smallest +amount of good. You know, my gentle reader, if we only look at things +the right way, we can find good in everything. As some poet has +beautifully put it in a couplet about sermons in stones and running +brooks--"And good in everything," Regina might even have found good out +of that malicious and spiteful valentine with its excellent likeness, +done in water colors, of herself clad in weird and wonderful garments, +the like of which even she had never attempted. But Regina consigned it +to the flames, and went on her way precisely as she had done before, for +Regina was a woman of strong nature and settled convictions. I give you +this piece of information because you will find by the story which I +shall tell and you will read, that this curious dominance of nature +proved to be one of the mainsprings of this remarkable character. + +So Regina went on her way and she got married. I don't say that it was a +brilliant alliance--by no means. The man was young, younger than Regina. +He was weak-looking and pretty, of a pink-and-white, wax-doll type, with +shining fair hair and rather watery blue eyes. To his weakness Regina's +dominant nature strongly appealed; perhaps, also, in some measure the +fact that she was the sole child of her father's house, and that her +father lived upon his means, and described himself as "gentleman" in the +various papers connected with the politics of his country which from +time to time reached him. Be that as it may, an engagement came about +between Regina Brown and this young man, who was "something in the city" +and who rejoiced in the name of Alfred Whittaker. + +I must confess that it was somewhat of a shock to Regina when she found +that among his fellows--young, vapid, rather raffish young men--he was +known by the abbreviative of "Alf." + +"Dearest," she said to him one day, after this unpalatable information +had come to her, "I noticed that your friend, Mr. Fitzsimmons, called +you 'Alf' last night." + +"Yes, the fellows mostly do," he replied. + +"But you were not called Alf at home, dearest," said Regina. + +She laid her substantial hand upon his arm and looked at him yearningly. + +"My mother and my sisters always called me Alfie," said he, returning +the gaze with interest, for he admired Regina with an admiration which +was wholly genuine. + +"I really couldn't call you Alfie," she said. + +"I don't see why you couldn't, Regina," he replied. "It seems to me such +an awful thing for people who love one another to be saying 'Regina' and +'Alfred.' There is something so chilly about it. Did your people never +call you by a pet name?" + +"Never," said Regina. + +"I should like to," said Alfred, still more yearningly. + +"If you can think of a pet name that will not be derogatory to my +dignity--" Regina began, when the weak and weedy Alfred insinuated an +arm about her ample waist and drew her nearer to him. + +Without some effort on the part of Regina Brown, I doubt if his +intention could have been carried into effect, but Regina yielded +herself to his tenderness with a shy coyness which was sufficiently +marked to have merited even the pet name of Tiny. + +"What would you like me to call you--Alfred?" she asked, with the +faintest possible pause before the last word. + +"Call me Alfie," said he in manly and imperative tones. + +"Dear Alfie!" said Regina. + +"Darling!" said Alfie. + +"You couldn't call me darling as a name," said Regina, coyly. + +"I shall always call you darling," he gurgled. "But I should like, as a +name, to call you Queenie." + +"You shall call me Anna Maria Stubbs if you like," said Regina, with a +sudden surrender of her dignity. + +And forthwith, from that moment, between themselves she was known no +longer by her real name, but sank into a state of hopeless adoration, +and was called Queenie. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MRS. ALFRED WHITTAKER + + It is curious how the possession of humble things satisfies the + souls of naturally ambitious people. + + +In due course Regina Brown merged her identity into that of Mrs. Alfred +Whittaker. + +They were not married in a hurry. Regina had come of old-fashioned +people, who held firmly to the belief that courting time is the sweetest +of a woman's life; that it is good for man to look and long for the +woman of his heart, and for woman to be coy and to hold him who will +eventually become her liege lord at arm's length for a suitable period. +To people of the Brown, and indeed of the Whittaker class, there is +something in a short engagement and a hurried-on marriage which borders +almost upon immodesty. + +"We won't be engaged very long," said Alfred, when he had been made the +happiest man in the world for nearly six weeks. + +"No, not long," returned Regina. "My father and mother were engaged for +seven years." + +"Good God!" exclaimed Alfred, who was somewhat given to strong language, +as many weak men are. "Good God, Regina, you have taken my breath +away!" + +"I wasn't proposing to be engaged to _you_ for seven years, Alfie dear," +she said to him, with an indulgent air. "Oh no. I always thought that +father and mother made such a mistake, although you couldn't get mother +to own it." + +"I should think so, indeed. Seven years! Seven months is nearer my idea +of the proper time for being engaged." + +"Seven months? Oh, that would be too soon. I couldn't possibly get my +things ready." + +"Oh, _things_," said he, with a manly disregard of chiffons which +appealed to Regina as nothing else would have done. + +"I must have things, Alfie." + +"Yes, darling, I know you must. And I don't say that a good start-out +wouldn't be very useful to us; but you won't spin it out too long, will +you?" + +"I never was brought up to sew," said Regina, "I am learning now." + +"Can't you buy 'em ready-made?" + +"They don't last," said Regina. "And mother's idea of the trousseau is +to give me three dozen of everything. And they've all got to be made. +I'm sewing white seams now, although I can't cut out and plan. Look at +my finger." + +He possessed himself of the firm, strong, first finger of his +_fiancee's_ left hand and kissed it rapturously. "Poor little finger," +said he, "poor dear little finger! Can't you have people in to do the +things?" + +"I am afraid that would go against mother's ideas," Regina returned, +"but I'll sound her on the point." + +Eventually Regina Brown's three dozen of everything were got together, +neatly folded, and tied up in half-dozens with delicate shades of +ribbon, and the wedding day was fixed to take place just fourteen months +after the engagement had come about. + +The bride's parents came down handsomely on the occasion. It was a great +event, that wedding. Eight bridesmaids, four in pink and four in blue, +followed Regina to the altar. Regina herself was dressed as a bride in +a shiny white silk, with a voluminous veil. There was a large company, +and much flying to and fro of hired carriages--mostly with white +horses--distributing of favors, and a popping of champagne corks, when +all was over and the two had been made man and wife. And then there was +a heart-broken parting, when Regina was torn away from the ample bosom +of her adoring mother, and a wild shower of rice and satin slippers, +such as strewed the road before the Brown domicile for many days after +the wedding was over. + +So Regina Brown became Mrs. Alfred Whittaker, and her place in her +father's house knew her no more. + +All things considered, she made an admirable wife. If Alfred adored +Regina, Regina worshipped Alfred, and under her care, and in the +sunshine of her lavish and outspoken admiration of his personal beauty, +he grew sleek and prosperous. + +If only a son had been born to them, a little son who would have carried +on the traditions of both families, who could have been called +Brown-Whittaker, and gladdened the hearts of three separate households. +But no son came--never a sign of a son. On the contrary, about a year +after their marriage a little daughter arrived on the scene, who was +welcomed as a precursor of the unborn Brown-Whittaker, and was named +Maud. And little Maud Whittaker grew and throve apace, went through the +usual early infantile troubles, and, about two years later, the process +which is known among domestic people as having her nose put out of +joint. + +And again it was a girl. + +For some reason not explained to the whole world, the second baby was +christened Julia, and forthwith became a very important item in the +world. + +"The next one _must_ be a boy," said Mrs. Alfred Whittaker, as she +cuddled the new arrival to her side. + +But there never was a next one, and slowly, as the second baby got +through her troubles and began to toddle about and to play games with +her sister, the truth was borne in upon her parents that what Maud had +begun Julia had finished--that no boy would come to gladden the hearts +of the Whittaker and Brown households, that no little Brown-Whittaker +would ever make history. + +Well, it was when Julia Whittaker was about six years old that her +mother's mind underwent a curious change. She was then just forty years +old, a fine, buxom, healthy woman, a good deal given to looking upon the +rest of the world with a superior eye, to feeling that whereas the other +married ladies of her set had been content with the genteel education +of a private seminary, she had gone further and had received the +wide-minded and broad education of a professional man. + +It was true enough. There was no subject on which Mrs. Alfred Whittaker +was not able to demonstrate an exceedingly pronounced and autocratic +opinion. She seldom wasted her time, even after her marriage, in reading +what she called trash, and other people spoke of as a "circulating +library." Deep thoughts filled her mind, great questions entranced her +interest, and high views dominated her life. She was keen on politics of +the most Radical order. She had sifted religion, and found it wanting. +She was an advanced Socialist--in her views, that is to say--and deep +down in her heart, although as yet it had never found expression, was an +innate admiration of men and an equal contempt for women. She felt, and +often she said, that she had a man's mind in an extremely feminine body. + +"I cannot," she declared one day, when discussing a great social +question with a clever friend of Alfred's, "shut my eyes to the fact +that I do not look on a question of this kind as an ordinary woman +would. An ordinary woman jumps to conclusions without knowing why or +wherefore. I, on the contrary, have a clear and logical mind, which gets +me perhaps to the same goal by a clear and definite process of +reasoning. We may come from the same, and we may arrive at the same, and +yet we are so different that neither has any sympathy with the other." + +And out of this conversation there arose in Regina Whittaker's mind an +idea that, after all, another decade had gone by, and she was still +wasting her life. + +"I asked myself a question at twenty," her thoughts ran. "I asked it +again at thirty, and now I have touched my fortieth birthday, here I am +asking it yet once more. I have fulfilled the functions of wife and +mother, and nothing else. Yet I am an extraordinary woman, far out of +the common in intelligence, brain power, logic, and in all mental +attributes. It only shows me that the time is not yet ripe for woman to +become the equal of man. It is not the fault of the woman. Through many +generations--nay, hundreds of years--she has been kept ignorant, +inefficient, downtrodden by her lord and master. She has been used as a +toy, and her one mission in life has been a mere function of nature--the +reproduction of the race. It makes me savage," she went on, talking to +herself, "when I hear it cited as an immense work that a woman has +produced so many babies. How many, I wonder, have produced those babies +with any love of duty, poor feeble souls? After all, there is so little +duty about it, and no choice midway. Well, here am I, who should be in a +big position in the world, I who should have made myself a name, I who +could have put George Eliot and all her set in the shade. I have +absolutely wasted my life. I suppose I began too late. I am out of the +common, but I do not rank as a woman out of the common. Still, I have +daughters. From this moment I dedicate my life to my little Maud and +Julia. They shall not begin their mission in the world too late. I would +rather have been the mother of boys, but as I have proved to be only the +mother of girls, I will try to make those girls what I have missed being +myself. They shall be out of the common; they shall belong to the New +Womanhood; they shall be brought up at least to be the equals of men." + +Now by this time the "something in the city" on which Regina and Alfred +had started housekeeping had resolved itself into a very solid and +prosperous position, though Alfred Whittaker--make no mistake about +it--was not, and was never likely to be, a millionaire, or even a +very wealthy man. But he was prosperous in a comfortable, assured, +middle-class way. He was ambitious too--I mean socially ambitious--and +he liked to feel that his wife was in a good set in the suburb in which +they lived. He liked to go to church occasionally, and to have his +own seat when he did so. He liked his rector to come to him as an +open-handed, clean-living man on whom he could depend for contributions +suitable to his style of living. He liked to be able to take his wife to +a theatre, and to dine her beforehand, and to give her a bit of supper +afterwards. He liked to go to the seaside for August, and to take a trip +to Paris at Easter if he was so inclined. And, above all things, Alfred +Whittaker liked a good dinner, a pretty, tasteful table, and a neat +handmaiden to wait upon him. To do him justice, he never lost his early +admiration for Regina. It was wonderful that he had not done so, for +with her improved circumstances and her improved position, Regina's +taste in dress had not advanced. Sometimes, on a birthday, or some +anniversary kept religiously by them, such as their day of engagement, +their wedding day, the day on which they first met, the day on which +they moved into the house they occupied--such domestic altars as most of +us erect during the course of our lives--he would bring her home a +present of a bonnet. He called it a bonnet, but it was generally a hat. +Alfred always called it a bonnet nevertheless, and Regina invariably +accepted it with blushes of admiration, and wore it with what, in +another woman, would have been the courage of a martyr. It was no +martyrdom to Regina. I have seen her with all her fair hair turned back +from her large face, crowned with a _modiste's_ edifice which would have +proved trying to a lovely girl of eighteen. + +"You like my hat?" said Regina, one day to a friend. "Isn't it lovely? +Dear Alfie brought it for me from town. I believe he sent to Paris for +it. It has a French name in the crown. Much more extravagant than I +should have got for myself--these white feathers won't wear, and all +this lovely sky-blue velvet and these delicate pearl ornaments are far +beyond what I should have chosen on my own responsibility. But I can't +help seeing how it becomes me." + +"Why don't you have a waistcoat of the same color--a front, you +know--this part?" asked her friend, making a line from her throat to +her belt buckle. + +"There is a sameness about the idea," said Regina, superbly. "I have +always flattered myself, Mrs. Marston, that I am one of the few women +who can bear to mix her colors. You remember the old story of the young +man who asked Sir Joshua Reynolds what he mixed his colors with, and his +reply--'Brains, sir, brains.'" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +YE DENE + + There is something very alluring in the idea of kicking down + conventions, yet if this be carried too far, it is possible + that all the feminine virtues will follow suit. A woman bereft + of all the feminine virtues is as pitiable a sight as a head + which has been shorn of its locks. + + +A couple of years went by, and again the circumstances of the Alfred +Whittakers were improved. For the old lady whose husband had courted her +for seven long years was taken ill and quite suddenly died. Her death +affected and upset Regina very much. It happened that she had not been +over to her old home for several days, though Regina, although she was +such a good wife, had continued to be also an extremely good daughter, +and usually contrived to visit the old people at least twice a week. +Just at this time, however, some trifling indisposition of little +Julia's had kept her from paying her usual visit to her parents. + +"Here is a letter from my father," she said one morning at breakfast to +Alfred. "He seems to think mother is not very well." + +"Oh, poor dear, poor dear. You had better go across and see her." + +"Yes. I should have gone yesterday but for the child not being quite +well," Regina responded. + +"Anyway, she's all right to-day--well enough for you to leave her with +nurse. You had better go across and spend the day, and I'll come round +that way and fetch you home in the evening." + +To this arrangement Regina agreed, and she went over to her father's +house as soon as she had concluded arrangements for the children's +meals. She did not, however, return to Fairview--as their house was +called--that evening with Alfred. No, she remained under the paternal +roof for a few days, and then, when she at length returned to her home +and her children, she was accompanied by the old man, who was as a ship +without a rudder when he found himself bereft of the wife for whom he +had served, even as Jacob served seven years for Rachel. + +It was the beginning of the end for old Mr. Brown. He declined +absolutely to go back to the house where he had lived so long and so +happily, and took up his permanent abode at Fairview. Very soon the +better part of the furniture, and certain priceless possessions with +which there was no thought of parting, were transferred from the one +house to the other, the old domicile was done up and eventually let, and +then, as so often happens with old people who have been uprooted from +their regular life, Mr. Brown sank into extreme illness. + +Poor man, he had never been ill in his life, and he took to it badly. +One paralytic stroke succeeded another, and, at last, after a few months +of much repining and wearing suffering, he passed quietly away, his +last words being that he was going to rejoin his dear wife on the other +side. + +It was then that the Alfred Whittakers left Fairview. + +"I shall never fancy the house again since poor father's death," said +Regina on the evening of the funeral. + +"No, I can quite believe that," returned Alfred Whittaker, +sympathetically. "Well," he added after a pause, "you will be able to +afford a larger house if you want it." + +"I should like a larger garden," said Regina. "I think children brought +up without a garden are generally unhappy little creatures, and ours are +getting big enough to enjoy it." + +By that time Julia was nine years old, and Maud, of course, two years +older still. Their father and mother therefore gave notice to their +landlord, and cast about in their minds for some new and desirable +neighborhood which would contain a new and desirable residence. + +They decided eventually on purchasing a house in the most artistic +suburb of London, that which is known among Londoners as Northampton +Park. They were lucky enough to find a house to be sold at a reasonable +price in the main road of this quaint little village. It stood well back +from the traffic, having a long garden between the gate and the +entrance. The gate was rustic and wooden, and was decorated with an art +copper plate of irregular shape, on which the name of the house was +embossed in quaint letters extremely difficult to read--"Ye Dene." + +"Why," asked Julia, when she and her sister were taken to see the new +domicile, "why do you call our new house Ye Den? Is it a den?" + +"Ye _Dene_, dearest--Ye _Dene_. It is old English spelling," said +Regina. "I think it is rather pretty, don't you Alfie?" + +"H'm, the house is nice enough, and you youngsters will enjoy the +garden, which is far better than you have ever had before. I believe it +costs a lot of money to alter the name of a house; in fact, I don't know +whether one is allowed to or not. I'll find out." + +But, somehow, they took possession of their new home without finding out +whether it was possible to alter the name thereof. + +"What about headed paper, Queenie?" said Alfred, when they were at +breakfast on the second morning after their entrance into the new +domicile. + +"Headed paper? Oh yes, we must have that, dear." + +"Well, will you stick to calling the house Ye Dene?" + +"Well," said Regina, "I went for a little turn yesterday, and I took +note of all the houses and what their names were. I passed Charles Lodge +and George Cottage, and The Poplars, The Elms, The Quarry, The Nook, +Ingleside, High Elms, The Briars, and a dozen different variations of +the same, such as Briar Cottage, High Elms Cottage, and so on; but I +didn't see any other house that seemed to be connected with this one. I +rather like the name, and that queer, irregular-shaped copper plate will +be a sort of landmark when our friends come from town to see us." + +"How would it be," suggested Alfred, "to have the shape of the plate +reproduced for our address--a kind of scroll the shape of that with 'Ye +Dene' in the middle?" + +"Yes, that's a good idea," said Regina. "But you will have to put +Northampton Park within the shield, or else it will look very odd." + +"Well, look here," said he, "I'll take the pattern of it and see what +Cuthberts can suggest." + +The result of this conversation was that Cuthberts, the celebrated +notepaper dealers, made a very pretty suggestion embodying the shield, +the name of Ye Dene and the further postal address, and the Whittakers +finally decided that they would not trouble to alter the name of their +new residence. + +It was at the Park--for I may as well follow the customs of its +inhabitants and speak of it as they do--that Mrs. Whittaker began to +seriously think of the education of her children. + +They made friends slowly. In due course the vicar called upon them, and +was followed a little later by his wife. Then the wife of a doctor just +across the road made it her business to welcome the newcomers, and the +neighbors on either side of Ye Dene called; but, all the same, they made +friends slowly. + +Mrs. Whittaker made many and searching inquiries into the possibilities +of education, and she finally concluded that she would send them to the +High School, at which all the youth of the Park received their learning. +So, morning after morning, the two quaint little figures set out from +Ye Dene at a little after nine o'clock, returning punctually at +half-past twelve and sallying forth again about a quarter-past two for +the afternoon school, which lasted until four. + +What queer, quaint little maids they were! Regina's own curious taste in +dress she did not reproduce in her children. She held lofty theories +that little girls should not be made vain by curled hair and flounced +frocks. Their hair was therefore cut close to their heads, as if they +had been two boys, and they wore curious little Quaker-brown jackets and +hoods, which gave them an air of having come out of the ark. + +"I regard it as terrible that children, who should be wholly +irresponsible and whose troubles will come soon enough, should ever have +to think of the care of their clothes," she said one day to the doctor's +wife across the road. + +"For my part," the lady replied, "I don't think that you can too early +inculcate a proper care of the person into little girls. My own child, +who was ten last week, is as particular about the fit and style of her +clothes as I am about mine. If you bring girls up, dear lady, to run +quite wild, do you not think that you do away with their domesticity, +that most precious quality of all women?" + +"I am only too anxious to do away with their domesticity," said Mrs. +Whittaker, quietly but very firmly. "You see, Mrs. M'Quade, I am no +ordinary woman myself. I have had the education of a man. I have a man's +brain. I believe that in the near future the position of women will be +entirely altered." + +"Then you are going to bring your girls up to professions?" + +"I am going to bring my girls up to follow the natural bent of their +minds. If they show any aptitude for and desire to follow one of the +learned professions, neither their father nor I will put any +stumbling-block in their way." + +"I see. Have you pushed them on already?" + +"No, that is altogether against my principles. I never do anything +against my principles. I think that all children should reach the age of +seven years before they imbibe any learning, except such as comes +through the eye and in a perfectly natural and simple manner. After the +age of seven, until ten years old, I believe that lessons should be of +the simplest and most harmless description. After that, the brain is +strong and is better able to bear forcing." + +"I see. Well, your plan may be a good one; my plan may be a good one. I +sent my little girl to a kindergarten when she was four years old, +because she was lonely; she was not happy, she was always bored, always +wanting somebody to play with her, and she yearned for playmates and +little occupations. When she went to the kindergarten, she took to it +like a duck to water. She loved her school then, and now that she is in +a more advanced class, she is well on with her studies." + +"I see. And you dress her very elaborately?" + +"Oh no, not elaborately," said Mrs. M'Quade. "I always try to dress her +daintily and smartly, but never elaborately." + +"It is not in accordance with my principles," said Regina, loftily. "I +have a set fashion for my children, and I intend to keep them to it +until they are old enough to choose for themselves. Then they will take +to the task of dressing themselves with minds untrammeled by the +opinions of other people, even of their own mother. I have always tried +so to bring up my girls as to make them thoroughly original in every +possible way. They are not quite like other children. They are children +as much out of the ordinary as their mother was before them; convention +has no part, and shall have no part in their lives whatsoever. Indeed, I +may say that conventions is one of the greatest bugbears of my +existence." + +"But we must have conventions," said the doctor's wife. + +"Must we?" said Mrs. Whittaker, with a superior smile. "Ah, I see that +you and I, dear Mrs. M'Quade, must agree to differ. Let me give you some +tea. I assure you it is quite conventional tea." + +"Thank you very much," said Mrs. M'Quade, smiling. + +In retailing the conversation to her husband that evening, Mrs. M'Quade +remarked that it was quite conventional tea. "I should think about +one-and-twopence a pound," was her comment. + +"And how did you like the lady?" her husband asked. + +"She is an extraordinary woman, a very extraordinary woman. I don't know +that I like her; on the other hand, I don't know whether there is +anything about her to dislike." + +"What age--what size--what sort of a woman is she?" he asked. + +"In age something over forty; in person plump and rather comely. A +large, solid woman, with no idea of making the best of herself. She had +a tea-gown on to-day that would have made the very angels weep." + +"Would any tea-gown make the angels weep?" + +"I think that one would. It was a dingy brown and a salmon-pink. +Wherever it was brown you wished it was salmon-pink, and wherever it was +salmon-pink you wished it was brown, except when you were wishing that +it was black altogether, without any relief at all." + +"Dear me! What was it like?" + +"Well, it was just the one garment that she should never have worn. She +wears old-fashioned stays, and though people may think they don't matter +in a tea-gown, I think stays have more effect on the general cut of a +tea-gown than they have on any other garment. I should like to have +dressed that lady in a plain coat and skirt from my own tailor, with a +loose white front, and a good black hat. But I don't think anybody would +know her." + +"Well, it's no business of yours, little woman," said the doctor, +cheerily. "And, after all, it's a new family--children--infantile +diseases--servants--people apparently thoroughly well-to-do. Bought the +house--done it up inside and out. It isn't for you and I to quarrel with +our bread and butter." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +SKATING ON THIN ICE + + Was it, I wonder, a mother who first evolved the proverb: "Where + ignorance is bliss 'twere folly to be wise"? + + +It cannot be said that as a family the inhabitants of Ye Dene were a +success at Northampton Park. I have already said that they made friends +slowly, and in saying so I was of course speaking of Mr. and Mrs. +Whittaker and not of the children. The children, on the contrary, made +friends very quickly and as quickly got through them. I doubt indeed if +two more unpopular children had ever attended the Northampton Park High +School. Fortunately for them, I mean for their peace of mind as the time +went by, Mrs. Whittaker was not aware of the real reason for this state +of affairs. + +"I hear," she remarked one day to long-legged Maud, who had been for a +couple of years advanced to the dignity of a pigtail, "I hear that +Gwendoline Hammond had a party yesterday." + +Maudie went very red and looked extremely uncomfortable. "I--I--did hear +something about it," she stammered. + +"How was it that you were not asked?" inquired Regina, with an air very +much like that of a porcupine suddenly shooting its quills into +evidence. + +"Oh, Gwendoline Hammond is a mean little sneak!" burst out Julia, who +was much the bolder of the sisters. + +"A sneak? How a sneak? What had she to sneak about?" demanded Regina. + +"Well, it was like this, mother. Gwendoline is an awful bully, you +know, and poor little Tuppenny was being frightfully bullied by her +one day, and she's a dear little thing, she can't take care of +herself--somebody's got to stand up for her--and Maudie punched her +head." + +"Punched her head! And what was she doing?" + +"Well, she was twisting poor little Tuppenny's arm around." + +"What! That mere child? And Gwendoline head and shoulders taller than +she?" + +"Yes." + +"And you say Maudie--punched her head?" + +"Yes, and she punched it hard, too. And then Gwendoline went blubbering +home, and Mrs. Hammond came to Miss Drummond, and--" Well, really, my +reader, I hesitate to say what happened next, but as this is a true +chronicle I had better make the plunge and get it over and done +with--"and then," said Julia, solemnly, "there was the devil to pay!" + +"You had better not put it in that way," said Regina, hurriedly. I must +confess that she had the greatest difficulty to choke down a laugh. "You +had better not put it in that way. 'The devil to pay' is next door to +swearing itself, to say nothing of being what a great many people would +call excessively vulgar; and if you were heard to say such a thing at +school, you would get yourselves into dreadful trouble, and me too. I +shall be obliged, Julia, if you will not use that expression again." + +"Very well, mother," said Julia, with an air of great meekness, which, I +may say in passing, she was far from feeling. + +"With regard," went on Regina in her most magnificent manner, "with +regard to Gwendoline Hammond and her miserable party, I consider it +distinctly a feather in your cap, Maudie, that you were left uninvited. +If it were told to me, as I presume it was told to Mrs. Hammond, that +one of you had been brutally cruel to a child many sizes smaller than +yourself and incapable of self-defence, I should mete out the severest +punishment that it was possible for me to give you. You have never been +punished, because it has never been necessary. Some mothers," she +continued, "would punish you for using such a term as 'the devil to +pay.' I regard that as a venial offence which your own common-sense will +teach you is inexpedient as a phrase for everyday conversation. But +brutal cowardice is a matter which I should find it very difficult to +forgive, and I am extremely proud that you should have taken the part of +a poor little child who was not able to do it for herself. I shall tell +your father when he comes home, and I shall ask him to reward you in a +suitable manner; and meantime, when I see Miss Drummond--" + +"If you please, mother," broke in Julia, who was, as I have said, the +dominant one of the two sisters, "if you please, mother, just drop it +about Miss Drummond. We are quite able to fight our own battles at +school--we don't want Miss Drummond, or anybody else, to think that we +come peaching to you telling you everything. We tell you because we are +fond of you and you ask, and--and--we don't like to lie to you." She +stammered a little, because on occasion no one could tell a prettier lie +than Julia Whittaker. "In fact," ended Julia, "our lives wouldn't be +worth living if it was known that we came peaching home." + +"It is your duty to tell me everything," said Regina. + +"Well, you might say the same about Gwendoline Hammond," remarked Julia, +with a matter-of-fact air. + +"You are within your right," said Mrs. Whittaker; "you are within your +right. I apologize." + +"Oh, please don't do that," said Julia, magnanimously; "it isn't at all +necessary. But you please won't say anything to Miss Drummond about +it--not unless she should speak to you, which she won't. She was very +indignant with Gwendoline when she found the whole truth out, and I +believe she--at least I did hear that she paid a special visit to Mrs. +Hammond and made things extremely unpleasant for Gwendoline. I don't +wonder she didn't ask Maudie to her party, because her father happened +to be there, and he was very angry about it. He almost stopped her +having her party altogether, only Mrs. Hammond had asked some people and +she did not like to go back upon her word and disgrace Gwendoline before +everybody. So you understand, mother, not a word, please, to Miss +Drummond." + +"My dear child," said Regina, "my dear original, splendid child!" + +Julia coughed. She would have liked to have taken the praise to herself, +but with Maudie standing open-mouthed at her side it was not altogether +feasible. She coughed again. "You--you forget Maudie," she remarked +mildly. + +"My dear, noble, generous child! I forget nothing--and I will forget +nothing for either of you. Here," she went on, in ringing accents which +would have brought down the house if Regina had been speaking at any +public meeting, "is a small recognition from your mother, and at +dinner-time to-night your father shall speak to you." + +"I think," remarked Julia, ten minutes later, when she and her sister +were on the safe ground of that part of the garden which belonged +exclusively to them, "I think we got out of that uncommonly well, +Maudie, don't you?" + +"Yes, but it was skating on thin ice," said Maudie. "I don't know how +you dared, Ju. You told mother you didn't like telling lies!" + +"Well," said Julia, "it is to be hoped it will never come out, for if it +does there will be the devil to pay and no mistake about it." + +It was as well for Regina's peace of mind that the thin ice never broke, +and that the actual truth never came to light. You know what the poet +says--"A lie that is half a lie is ever the hardest to fight." Well, the +same idea holds good for a truth that is half a truth. I don't say that +Julia's account of the difference between themselves and Gwendoline +Hammond was wholly a lie, but it was certainly not wholly the truth; +indeed, it was such a garbled account that nobody concerned therein but +would have found it difficult to recognize it. + +"Wasn't mother's little sermon about the devil to pay lovely?" said +Julia, swinging idly to and fro while Maudie stood contemplating her +gravely. + +"Yes," said Maudie, "but she was quite right. That's the best of +mother--she's always so full of sound common-sense." + +"Except when she calls you her brave, noble child!" rejoined the sharp +wit. + +"I don't know," said Maudie, reflectively, "that that was altogether +mother's fault." + +"Perhaps it wasn't. It will be just as well for you and for both of us +as far as that goes, if mother doesn't happen to just mention the matter +to Tuppenny's mother. I think I was a fool not to have safeguarded that +point." + +"There's time enough," said Maudie. "You can lead up to it when you go +in, because, you know, Ju, if they ever do find out--" + +"Yes, there _will_ be the devil to pay," put in Julia. "You are quite +right." + +It was astonishing how sweet a morsel the phrase seemed to be to the +child. + +"You'll get saying it to Miss Drummond," said Maudie, warningly. + +"Well, if I do," retorted Julia, "I shall have had the pleasure of +saying it--that will be something." + +Now this was but one of many similar instances which occurred during the +childhood of Regina's two girls. They were so sharp--at least Julia +was--and as she was devoted to Maudie, she always put her wits at the +service of her sister, and the other children whom they knew not +unnaturally resented the fact that they were invariably to be found in +the wrong box in any discussion in which the Whittaker children had a +share. So they became more and more isolated as the years went by. + +"Why don't we like the Whittakers?" said a girl to her mother, who had +met Mrs. Whittaker and thought her a very remarkable woman. "Well, +because we don't." + +"Yes, but why?" + +"Oh, well, we don't exactly know why--but we don't. They're queer." + +Have you noticed, dear reader, how frequent it is to set down those who +are too sharp for you as "queer?" Well, it was just so at Northampton +Park, and what the girl didn't choose to put into plain words, she +stigmatized as queer. + +"And what do you mean by queer?" the mother asked. + +"Well, they _are_ queer. I think their mother must be queer, too, +because their dress is so funny." + +"Is it?" + +"Oh, awfully. They always wear brown." + +"What are they like?" + +"Well, Maudie is fairish and Julia is darkish. Maudie has quite a +straight nose and Julia's turns up--oh, it isn't an ugly turn-up nose, I +didn't mean that. But they are such guys, and what is worse, they don't +care a bit." + +"Really? What sort of guys?" asked the mother, who was immensely amused. + +"Well, they never have anything like anybody else. They've got long, +pokey frocks made of tough brown stuff, like--er--like--er--pictures of +Dutch children. And over them they wear long holland pinafores." + +"It sounds very sensible," remarked the mother. "And when they come out +of school?" + +"In the winter they've got long brown coats, with little bits here--you +know." + +"You mean a yoke?" + +"I don't know what you call it, mother--little bits, and skirts from it, +and poke bonnets, and brown wool gloves; brown stockings and brown +shoes, and little brown muffs. Oh, they really are awfully queer!" + +"And in the summer?" + +"In the summer? Well, in the summer they wear brown holland things. +They're queer, mother, I can't tell you any more--they're queer." + +"I see," said the mother. "But in themselves," she persisted, "what are +they like in themselves?" + +"Oh, I don't know. Nobody likes them much." + +"Poor children! I wish you would be a little kind to them." + +"Do you?" said the girl, rather wistfully. "Well, I will if you like, +but it would be an awful bore, and they wouldn't thank us." + +"I see," said the mother. But she was wrong; she only thought she saw. + +So time sped on, and these two children grew more and more long-legged, +more and more definite in character, and as they progressed towards what +Mrs. Whittaker fondly believed to be originality and unconventionalism, +so did her mother's heart bound and yearn within her. + +"I am amply satisfied with the result of our scheme of education," she +was wont to say. "No, it is not easy--it is much easier to bring up +children in the conventional way. But the result--oh, my dear lady, the +result, when you feel a thrill of pride that your children are different +to others, is worth the sacrifice." + +"Now I wonder what," said the lady in question in the bosom of her +family, "did that foolish woman particularly have to sacrifice? The +general feeling in the Park seems to be that the Whittakers are +horrid children--disagreeable, ill-bred, sententious, and altogether +ridiculous; too sharp in one way, too stupid for words in another. And +yet she talks about sacrifice!" + +"Oh, Maudie isn't sharp--at least, not particularly so," said her own +girl, who, being a couple of years older than Maudie Whittaker, knew +fairly well the lie of the land. "Julia's sharp--a needle isn't in it. +It's Julia who backs Maudie up in everything, and Julia is a horrid +little beast whom everybody hates and loathes. She tried it on with me +once when I was at school, but I soon put the young lady in her right +place with a good setting down, and she never tried it on any more. +They'd have been all right if they had been properly brought up, which +they weren't." + +"You think not?" + +"Oh no, mother. You have no idea how intensely silly Mrs. Whittaker is." + +"Is she? I thought she was such a brilliant woman." + +"I believe she calls herself so; nobody else agrees with her." + +"Do you know what I heard about Mrs. Whittaker only yesterday?" said the +mother, with a sudden gleam of remembrance. "She has gone in for public +speaking. They say it's too killing for words." + +"Speaking on what?" asked the girl. + +"On the improvement of the condition of women." + +"What! a political affair?" + +"No, no; not political at all; a something quite disconnected with +politics--quite above them. She has been chosen President of a new +society which is to be called 'The Society for the Regeneration of +Women.'" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE S.R.W. + + Why is it that women are so fond of founding societies both for the + improvement of themselves and of each other? Is it a confession + of weakness, or is it one of the signs of the coming of the + millenium? + + +Mrs. Whittaker was a woman who never did things by halves. She +distinctly prided herself thereupon. + +"If a thing, my dear, is worth doing," I heard her say about the +time of which I am writing, "it is worth doing _well_. I have great +faith--although I have gone so far above the old-world thoughts of +religion--in the verse which says: 'Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, +do it with all thy might.' It is a grand precept, one that I instil +into my children--er--er--" + +"For all you are worth," remarked a flippant young woman who was +listening. + +"I--I shouldn't have expressed it in that way," stammered Regina, +somewhat taken aback. "But--but--er--it's what I mean." + +"And your children, are they the same?" + +"Yes, I am proud to say that my children are very much like me in that +respect. When they play, they play; when they work, they work; when they +idle they idle; and I am sure if ever they were naughty, that they +would be naughty with all their might." + +Poor Regina! Well, to make the story somewhat shorter, I must tell you +that when Regina Whittaker went into public life, she did so in no +half-hearted manner. + +"I am convinced," she remarked to the lord of her bosom, "I am convinced +that I am taking a step in the right direction. What do you think, +Alfie?" + +"My dear," said Alfred Whittaker, somewhat sleepily, for he had had a +hard day in the city and had eaten an extremely good dinner, "if it +pleases you, it pleases me. You have such a clear, sensible head," he +went on, feeling that perhaps he had been a little too unsympathetic, +"you have such a clear, sensible head, that I am sure you will take up +no question that is not a good one--an advantageous one." + +"I thought you would see it in that light, dear Alfie," said Mrs. +Whittaker in tones which betokened much pleasure. "You are so generous +and so just. Some men would hate to feel that their wives had any +interest outside their own homes." + +"Oh, my dear heart and soul!" exclaimed Alfred Whittaker, looking up in +a very wide-awake sort of way, "surely this is a land of liberty. I +don't want to tie you down to being no better than my slave. God knows +you fag enough and slave enough for all of us. It would be hard if you +couldn't have a few opinions and a few interests of your own." + +"Yes, dear; but it isn't quite that. It is not only of opinions that I +am speaking, it is the encouraging way in which you consent to my +entering on this somewhat pronounced question." + +"I have absolute faith in your judgment," said Alfred Whittaker; and +again he composed himself for his after-dinner nap. + +Regina sat looking at him as he slumbered. Her heart was very full, for +she was an affectionate woman, and, in spite of her little airs and +pretensions, she was really a good woman at bottom. Her heart swelled +with pride to think that this was her husband, this handsome, portly, +dignified man with a presence, an air of being somebody, this man who +was so good, so easy to live with, such a good husband and such an +affectionate father. And to think that he was hers! As I have said +already, her heart thrilled within her. + +It was true that others might not have agreed with Regina in her +estimate of her husband. The outer world might have thought him anything +but handsome, might have thought that he had anything rather than a +presence. What Regina called portly, a less tender critic might have +described in an extremely unpleasant manner; but, you see, Regina looked +at him with eyes of possession, and the eyes of possession are ever +somewhat biassed. + +So her thoughts ran pleasantly on. Yes, it was indeed sweet to be so +blessed as she was in her home life. She had once believed that her life +was a wasted one. Well, that was in the foolish days, before she had +tried her wings. Not that she ever regarded her flights into the world +of higher thought with the very smallest regret; that could never be. +Enlightenment is always enlightenment, whether it is actually paying in +a monetary sense or not. She firmly believed that an elaborate and +somewhat masculine education had enabled her to become a better wife and +mother than she would have been had she been contented with the genteel +education which her parents had thought good enough, further than which +indeed their minds had never attempted to fly. Perhaps, her thoughts +ran, her mission in life was to bring enlightenment to the minds of +other women, in a somewhat different way to that which she had hitherto +accepted as the most reasonable. Be that as it may, Regina entered upon +her duties as President of the S.R.W., armed with the full sanction of +her husband's permission and approval. + +To all her friends she was an amazing and, at the same time, an amusing +study about this epoch. + +"I am perfectly certain," remarked Mrs. M'Quade to the mother of the +little girl who at school was called Tuppenny, "I am perfectly certain +that Mrs. Whittaker has at last found her _metier_. Are you going to +join her scheme for the regeneration of women?" + +"I don't think so," replied the lady who lived at Highthorn. "My husband +is so very sneering when anything of the kind is mentioned. I shouldn't +mind for myself; I think it would be rather fun. They are going to have +tea-parties and _soirees_, and all sorts of amusements. But George would +be so full of his fun, that I don't feel somehow it would be good enough +for me to go into. Besides, it's three guineas a year. As far as I can +tell," she continued, "from what Mrs. Whittaker has told me, there won't +be any real regeneration of women in our day. It may come in the day of +our grandchildren, but I don't feel inclined to work for that." + +"That shows a great want of public spirit," remarked the doctor's wife, +laughingly. + +"Yes, I daresay it does, but I don't believe women are public-spirited, +except here and there--generally when they have made a failure of their +own lives, as my old man always says." + +"But Mrs. Whittaker hasn't made a failure of her life." + +"Well, she has and she hasn't. She has failed to become anything very +much out of the ordinary. She is very fond of calling herself an +unconventional woman who never does anything like anybody else, but I +fail to see very much in it excepting that she makes horrible guys of +her girls." + +"Well, I am going to join the society," said Mrs. M'Quade, with the air +of one who is prepared to receive ridicule. "No, I don't pretend for a +moment that I want regenerating myself--or even that other women do--but +Mrs. Whittaker has been a very good patient to the doctor one way and +another, and she's stuck to us, and I think the least I can do is to +join her pet scheme--and, mind you, it _is_ a pet scheme." + +"I call that absolutely Machiavellian," said her friend. + +"Oh, a doctor's wife has to be Machiavellian, my dear, and a thousand +other things," said Mrs. M'Quade, easily. "I have been fifteen years in +the Park, and I have kept in with everybody--never had a wrong word with +a single one of Jack's patients. You may call it Machiavellian, and +doubtless you are right, but I call it ripping good management myself." + +"So it is, my dear, so it is. And you shall have the full credit of it," +said Tuppenny's mother, who was a genial soul and loved a joke as well +as most people. + +And Regina meantime was taking life with considerable seriousness. She +fell into a habit of speaking of the S.R.W. as of her life's work; +indeed, she became a very important woman. No sooner was it known that +she was an excellent and dominant President of the S.R.W. than she came +into request for other societies of a kindred nature--no, I don't mean +societies solely for the regeneration of women, not a bit of it. There +was one for the sensible education of children between three and seven +years old, whose committee she was asked to join not many weeks after +the birth of the S.R.W.; and there was another society which bore the +name of "The Robin Redbreast," and provided the poor children of a south +London district with dinners for a halfpenny a head, and a number of +others that they provided with dinners for nothing at all. Then there +was a Shakespeare Society, which had long existed in the Park, and which +until Regina became a full-blown president had never thought of asking +her to come on to its committee. + +Now all this took Regina a good deal away from her home, and the result +of her absence and of these wider interests in life was that the two +girls at Ye Dene were enabled to shape their lives very much more in +their own way than ever they had done before. Regina had, it is true, +always aimed at inculcating a spirit of independence in her children. +She required them to do certain things during the course of the day, to +be punctual at meals, especially at breakfast, to report themselves when +they were going to school and when they returned; but otherwise, she +left them fairly free to spend the rest of their time as their own +inclinations led them. They had their own sitting-room and their own +tea-table, at which they could invite any children belonging to their +school, or indeed, for the matter of that, any of the children living in +the Park; and up to the advent of the S.R.W. it must be owned that this +system worked as well as any system could have worked with children of +such pronounced characters as the young Whittakers. But after their +mother became a public woman, Maudie and Julia may be said to have run +absolutely wild. No longer did they report themselves in the old way, +because they had a very complete contempt for servants, and there was +usually no one else to whom they could report themselves. + +"Does your mother never want to know where you are?" asked a +schoolfellow when Maudie was just sixteen. + +"Well, yes, we always tell her at night what we have done during the +day." + +"Oh, do you?" + +"Yes," returned Maudie. "Mother is most deeply interested in all our +doings. Did you think she wasn't? How funny of you! Isn't your mother +interested in what you do?" + +"Oh yes, of course mine is. But then mine is rather different to yours. +Mine is not a public character." + +"Well, I don't know that our mother is exactly a public character," said +Julia, who was keenly on the watch for a single word which would in any +way pour ridicule or contempt upon her mother. + +"Oh yes, she is. Father says she's a philanthropist." + +"Oh, does he? Well, I don't know I'm sure. Perhaps she is. I know she's +a jolly hard-worked woman, and if she wasn't as clever as daylight she +wouldn't be able to keep going as she does. As for her being a +philanthropist--well, after all, what is a philanthropist?" + +"Well, I did ask father, and he explained it, but he didn't make it very +clear. It seems to be a sort of person who goes about doing good." + +"That's mother all over," said Maudie. + +"Then who mends your stockings?" asked Evelyn Gage. + +"Our stockings? Why, mother has never mended our stockings. Sewing is +one of the things mother isn't great on. You couldn't expect it." + +"Why not? Mine does." + +"Oh, yes, but our mother is rather different. You see, she was educated +like a man." + +"How funny!" giggled Evelyn. + +"I think," said Maudie to Julia, half an hour later, when Evelyn Gage +had gone home and the two were getting out their lesson-books for their +home work, "I think it would be rather funny to have a mother like an +ordinary woman, don't you, Ju?" + +"Well, I don't know," returned Julia. "Evelyn's mother makes jam and +pickles and pastry and lovely little rock cakes, and things that our +mother never seems to think of. _She_ is always too much taken up with +great questions to bother herself with little etceteras, as old nurse +always called such things." + +"Perhaps, though, we should find it rather a bore to have a mother who +worried about our stockings and things, just an ordinary, average kind +of mother. But anyway, we haven't got a mother like that, so we must +make the best of what we have got." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +REGINA'S VIEWS + + A Parisian finishing school is for English girls like putting + French polish on British oak. + + +Nothing of any importance happened in the household at Ye Dene for two +years after this. Then it became time for Maudie to be introduced into +society. With most girls this epoch in life is one eagerly looked +forward to, tremulously entered upon, and very frequently looked back to +with a certain amount of disappointment. Regina herself, I am bound to +confess, thought with no small misgiving of the time when she should +have to be a wallflower for her daughter's sake. + +"The child must have her chance like other girls," she remarked to +Alfred one night when they were sitting together in the drawing-room at +Ye Dene. "She is very beautiful. She will not go empty-handed to her +husband. She ought to make a brilliant marriage." + +"Yes, she is a nice-looking girl," said Alfred Whittaker. + +"My daughters," said Regina, with an air of dignity which was very +pardonable in a mother, "are both beautiful in different styles. Maudie +is purely Greek in type; Julia is purely Irish--or I might say French. +I noticed when we were in Brittany, two years ago, how thoroughly Irish +one type of the peasantry was." + +"Yes, she's a good-looking girl. They're both all right," said Alfred +Whittaker, with the easy indifference of an ordinary father. "I daresay +you'll have your hands full a little bit further on, old lady, when we +get shoals of young men about Ye Dene, and you have to think out little +dances and suppers and theatre parties, and other things of that kind, +instead of giving up all your time to making other people happy." + +"Well, whatever I have to do, I hope I shall do it with all my might," +said Regina. + +"I am sure you will," said Alfred, tenderly; "I am sure you will, +Queenie." + +For his peace of mind's sake, it was just as well that Alfred Whittaker +was at business during the greater part of each day, for he might have +been upset, not to say scandalized, by the extremely independent, not to +say free-and-easy, life which was led by his two daughters. + +Regina herself was very strong on this point. "I like to hear everything +that my girls tell me," she said, in discussing the question about this +time with the doctor's wife, "but I don't demand it as a right. Nobody +would demand of a boy of nearly eighteen that he should tell his mother +everything that he has said, done and thought during the twenty-four +hours of the day. Why shouldn't a girl be brought up on the same +system?" + +"It is not the custom, that's all. I was amenable to my mother," Mrs. +M'Quade replied, "and I expect my daughter to be amenable to me. It is +not a question of want of independence; the child is independent +enough--but a girl's mind and a boy's mind are not the same, they're +different." + +"Only because men and foolish mothers have made them so," persisted +Regina. + +"Ah, well, you and I agree to differ on those points,--don't we, Mrs. +Whittaker? Heaven forbid that I should make my girl less independent +than I would wish to be myself, but to shut the mother out of her life +is no particular sign of a girl's independence--at least, that is the +way in which I look at it. Then I suppose," went on the doctor's wife, +"that you will, a little later on, allow your girls to have a latchkey?" + +"Certainly, if they wish to have a latchkey. Why not?" Mrs. Whittaker +demanded. "I should not expect them to come in at three o'clock in the +morning because I gave them the privilege of a latchkey. If they misused +the privilege, I should take it away from them." + +"You are beyond me," the doctor's wife cried. "With regard to my +Georgie, all I can say is, that until she is married she will have to +live just as I lived until I was married; that is to say, she will do +what I tell her, she will wear what I advise her to wear, or what I give +her to wear; she will have a very good time, but she will not have a +separate existence from mine until she goes into a home of her own, or +until I am carried out to my last long resting-place." + +"We are good friends," said Regina, with an air of superb tolerance, "we +are good friends, Mrs. M'Quade, and I hope we shall always continue so; +but in some of our ideas we are diametrically opposed to each other, and +we must agree to differ." + +But to go back to the question of the entrance of Maud Whittaker into +society, not a little to her parents' surprise, Maud absolutely declined +to do anything of the kind. + +"Come out--go into society!" she echoed. "Oh, there will be time enough +for that when Ju is ready." + +"Julia? Why, she is two years younger than you," Mrs. Whittaker +exclaimed. + +"Yes, dearest, I know it; but I am young for my age and Julia is old for +hers. If she comes out in another year, I can wait until she is ready." + +"But why? I never heard of such a thing!" + +"I am not very great on society," said Maud. "I would rather wait until +Ju is fully fledged." + +"And you will stay at school?" + +"Yes, I'd just as soon, only when one comes to think of it, I've learnt +all they can teach me, as far as I know. We are both of us much too big +to be at that school--it's a perfect farce. Why don't you take us away +and give us a course of lessons? That is the proper thing to do--like +they do in Paris. Or why don't you send us to Paris for a year? Then we +may contrive to speak French that is French, and not Park polyglot." + +"Maudie!" cried Regina. + +"Yes, I know, dearest. You may say 'Maudie!' but facts are facts. The +other day, being, or being supposed to be, the best French speaker in +the school, I was put up to talk to a French lady who was staying at the +Vicarage. You know Mrs. Charlton speaks French like a native--indeed, +I think she has French relations, and I think this was an old +schoolfellow. Anyway, I was put up to talk to her as being the show +girl at French conversation." + +"Well?" Regina's tone was as the sniff of a war-horse who scents the +battle from afar. + +"I couldn't make head or tail of her," said Maudie. "Ju did--at least, +in a kind of way she did. All the same she had to repeat everything she +said three times over, and then whatever-her-name-was had to make shots +at her meaning." + +"But, my dear children," exclaimed Regina, aghast. "I hear you talking +French to each other every day!" + +"Yes, I know," said Ju; "but you hear us talking something that isn't +French." + +"My education," said Regina, "did not include many modern subjects. That +was one reason why I was so very anxious that you two should learn +French and German." + +"Then you had better send us to Paris--because French is just what we +cannot speak. When we want to talk without the servants knowing, we +speak what we call the Park polyglot, but it doesn't go down with French +people. I could see that that friend of Mrs. Charlton's caught a word +here and there, and her native wit supplied the rest." + +"Perhaps she was not a person of position, and did not speak good +French," said Regina, who was loath to admit that a child of hers could +do anything badly. + +"Oh, not a bit of it! Mrs. Charlton kept calling her Comtesse. She was +all right." + +"And how did Miss Drummond come off?" + +"Oh, well, Miss Drummond speaks a little honest English-French, which +has no pretense of being the real thing." + +It is not surprising that after this, Regina's two girls were withdrawn +from the school at Northampton Park, and were, as she particularly told +everybody, by their own request sent to a school kept by a French lady +on the outskirts of Paris, to be particular in that off-shoot of Paris +which Regina called "Nully." + +During the year that followed, Regina worked harder than ever; indeed, +even her complacent husband now and again uttered a mild protest that +his wife should be absolutely absorbed by work which brought him neither +comfort nor emolument. + +"I had a wife, once," he said in joke to the doctor, one night when the +M'Quades were dining at Ye Dene; "but now I often think I've only got a +Chairman of Committee." + +Nevertheless, he said it with an air of pride, and later, when Regina +asked him seriously whether he would prefer that she should give up her +public duties and once more merge her identity into his, he exclaimed, +"God forbid! What makes you happy, my dear, makes me happy, as long as +you still regard me as the linch-pin of your existence." + +"I do, my dear Alfie, I do," she cried. "Indeed I'm the same Queenie +that you married all those years ago. My heart has never altered or +changed in the very least. No other man has ever crossed its threshold +since you first took possession of it." + +"As long as you feel that, my dear girl," he returned, putting his arm +about her ample waist and looking at her with fond eyes of loving, if +somewhat sleepy, devotion, "as long as you feel like that, you can do +what work you like and have what interests you like. And good luck go +with you, for I am sure you must be a great comfort to a good many +people." + +And Regina did work, like the traditional negro slave. Still, she never +neglected her home duties. Regularly every week she wrote to her girls, +and sometimes when she was dog-tired and found her eyes closing over the +sheet on which she was writing, she shook herself quite fiercely, and +reminded herself of her duty; then blamed herself passionately that her +letters to her girls, her own girls, who thought of her, loved her, +trusted her, made her the recipient of their hopes, doubts and fears, +joys and pleasures, and even such simple sorrows as had as yet entered +into their lives, should ever have come to be a duty--a mere duty. + +Poor Regina! I will not pretend that the two girls never wished to +hear from their mother, or that they would not have been bitterly +disappointed had she wholly and totally neglected them; but they were +happy in their school life, and they did not spend their time watching +for the arrival of the _facteur de poste_, as Regina fondly believed of +them. No, they quietly accepted their mother's letters when they +received them, read them, discussed them, and then put them on one side +to think about them no more. + +So time went on until the Christmas holidays arrived. The two girls did +not come home to the Park for their vacation, but their father and +mother made a little break in their respective callings and went to +Paris, where the girls joined them at a modest but comfortable +boarding-house. + +Now the boarding-house had been recommended by the lady of the school at +which the sisters were being educated. It was one kept by a French lady, +to which but few English people were in the habit of going. Of the +charming language of our neighbors across the Channel, Alfred Whittaker +did not know one word beyond a form of salutation which he called _bong +jour!_ and an equally useful word which he was pleased to call _messy_. +These two old people were therefore absolutely at the mercy of their +young daughters; and the young daughters themselves thanked Heaven many +times, during the three weeks which they passed together in Paris, that +French had not been included in the curriculum of either their father's +or mother's education. Oh, they meant no harm, don't think it for a +moment. There was no harm in either the one or the other. They were +modern, human girls, into whom a life of independence had been instilled +as a religion. Independent their mother wished them to be, and +independent they were to an abnormal and an aggressive degree. They +were as sharp as needles, exactly as their old schoolfellow had said +years before; they had acquired a knowledge of Paris which was simply +extraordinary considering that they had been immured in a _pensionnat_ +for demoiselles. They knew all the great emporiums quite intimately, and +having extracted some money from their father on the score that it was +no use their mother coming to Paris without buying clothes, and also +that their own wardrobes required renewing, they whisked their mother +from the _Louvre_, to the _Bon Marche_, from the _Bon Marche_ to the +_Mimosa_, and even got wind of that wonderful old market down in the +Temple, where the Jews hold high revel between the hours of nine o'clock +in the morning and noon. + +What a time it was. "My girls," said Regina to an elderly English lady +with whom she foregathered in one of the pretty little white _cremeries_ +in the Rue de la Paix, "speak French like natives. I was educated in all +sorts of ways--I have taken degrees and done all sorts of things that +most women don't do--but when you put me down in Paris, I am utterly +undone. I never realized before what a terrible thing want of education +is." + +"And yet you have taken degrees," said the lady, admiringly. + +"Yes, but they are not much good when you come to Paris. But my +daughters," she added, with pride, "speak French like Parisians." + +It was a little wide of the mark. The girls did speak French with +considerable fluency, and they had the advantage of not being shy, +and of never allowing want of knowledge to keep them back from +communicating with their fellow-beings. And as they gabbled on, as +Alfred Whittaker frequently declared, nineteen to the dozen, Regina +stood by and admired. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +"LITTLE PIGLETS OF ENGLISH" + + I doubt if even a universal _entente cordiale_ will ever make the + French mind and the English mind think alike. + + +Now it happened before Regina and her husband left Paris that Madame de +la Barre intimated through the girls that she would like to have a +little confidential chat with her pupils' mother. + +"Mother," said Julia to Regina, "Madame wants to see you." + +"She has seen me," said Regina. + +"Yes, yes, mother, but she wants to see you _toute seule_. I suppose she +wants to tell you some delinquencies of ours, or something." + +"I hope not," said Regina. + +"Well, dear, you must expect us to be human, like other girls. We have +never been in any trouble since we came here, and I don't know why she +wants to see you, but, anyway, she asks if you will do her the favor of +taking tea with her to-morrow afternoon at four o'clock." + +"I will," said Regina. + +"She doesn't speak one word of English, you know," said Julia. + +"We shall communicate somehow," said Regina, with a superb air. + +"I don't know how," said Julia, "since you can't speak two words of +French--" + +"_Excuse_ me," said Regina, pointedly. + +"Well, excuse me too, mother--I didn't mean to be rude. But your French +isn't equal to your Latin, is it?" + +"I will be there," said Regina, with a distinct accession of dignity. + +And so, punctual to the moment, Regina appeared in the _salon_ of the +schoolmistress. Their mode of communication was original, it was also +a little difficult, but both being determined women, they overcame the +difficulties of the situation with a supreme indifference to the effect +the one might have upon the other. As a matter of fact, Julia had been +a little wide of the mark when she had declared to her mother that +Madame did not speak one word of English. Madame spoke a little more +English than Regina spoke French, and by a series of contortions, +gesticulations, and other efforts which I need not attempt to reproduce +here, Madame de la Barre contrived to make known to Mrs. Whittaker her +object in seeking for the interview. And her object in seeking the +interview was that she should explain to her that she considered the +taste in dress of the demoiselles Whittaker to be something too +atrocious for words. + +"_C'est affreux! c'est affreux_," she exclaimed, when she found that +Regina was a little dense of understanding. "Horreeble--horreeble!" + +"I have never," said Regina, speaking very slowly and distinctly, and +with an indulgent air as if she were communicating with someone a little +short of being an idiot, "I have never trained my children to care about +those matters." + +"But they are young ladies! It is most important," Madame exclaimed, +with quite a tragic air. + +"It will come," said Regina, waving her substantial hand with a vast +gesture, as if good taste in dressing was likely to drop from the +clouds, "it will come. I never worry about things that are not +essential." + +"But it is essential for a young lady--a demoiselle--it is--it is for +her life." + +Poor Madame de la Barre! She tried very hard indeed to explain that the +many purchases made by the young ladies were not such as should have +been made by young girls not yet entered into the great world. She made +no impression upon Regina. + +"These are small matters," she said, with a magnificent air; "not +essentials in any way. They will make mistakes at first--I don't doubt +it, Madame--we have all done it in our day, but they will learn, oh, +they will learn." + +Madame shrugged her shoulders. She felt that she was dealing with a fool +of the first water, upon whom valuable breath was wasted. After all, +these were _English_ girls. What did it matter? They were going to live +in a land where it is the rule for women to make themselves such objects +as Madame Whittaker herself. It is no exaggeration to say that when +Mrs. Whittaker had finally swept out of the schoolmistress's presence, +Madame de la Barre sat down and closed her eyes with a genuine shudder. + +"What does it matter, these pigs of English, what they wear? Thou art +too good-natured, Heloise," she went on, apostrophizing herself. "Thou +canst forbid these little piglets of English from wearing their too +disgraceful garments. What happens to them after they have left thy roof +is no concern of thine. Thou art too good-natured, Heloise!" + +So the "little piglets of English" continued unchecked in their career +of vicious millinery, and when the time came for them to return to the +paternal roof, they went, taking with them a stock of garments +calculated to make the Park, as they put it, "sit up." + +And truly the Park did sit up, for the appearance of Regina's two girls +was something quite out of the common. + +"It is the latest fashion," said Regina, with an air of conviction to a +neighbor who remarked that Maudie's hat was a little startling. "The +girls brought all their things from Paris. It is the seat of good +dressing." + +You will observe that Regina never left any doubt in expressing her +opinions. Hers was a positive nature. She would say, "My daughters _are_ +beautiful, my daughters _are_ elegant, my daughters attract an enormous +amount of attention," but never "I _think_ my daughters are"--this, +that, or the other. + +So she gave forth, with the air of one whose fiat could not be +questioned, the intimation that as Maudie and Julia's things had come +from Paris, they must be the _dernier cri_. + +And the Park thought they were horrid. + +Poor Regina! She was very happy in the return of her girls, so happy +that she took a little holiday from her public work, and spent a whole +week in talking things over, in arranging and rearranging their rooms, +in examining all their purchases, in discussing what kind of life they +should live in the immediate future. + +"Now, what are your own ideas?" she demanded, on the second day after +the return home of the girls, when they had settled down to tea and +muffins. + +Maudie looked at Julia. As usual, Julia answered for Maudie. Regina +herself was full of suppressed eagerness. + +"Well, if you really wish us to tell you exactly what we do want, +mother," said Julia, "we will put it in a nutshell. We want father to +give us an allowance." + +"A decent allowance," put in Maudie. + +"Yes, yes, dears; yes, yes," murmured Regina, who had prepared herself +for an unfolding of great schemes, such as would have swayed her at her +girls' age. + +"The kind of allowance," Julia went on, "that he ought to give to +girls of our age and position--that is to say, of _our_ age and _his_ +position. Then we sha'n't go making sillies of ourselves; we shall know +how to cut our coat according to our cloth." + +"And how much do you think such an allowance ought to be?" Regina +inquired. + +"Oh, about a hundred a year each," said Julia. + +"A hundred a year? That's a very ample allowance. I never spend more +than that myself." + +"Well, mother, it just depends on what you want us to be. If you want +us to be smart, well-dressed girls with some position in the world, we +couldn't do it under. We have talked it over thoroughly with French +girls who know what society is, and with English girls of the same sort, +and they all say that a hundred a year is the least a girl can dress +herself decently on." + +"And that would include--?" Regina questioned. + +"It would include our clothes, our club subscriptions--" + +"Your what?" + +"Our club subscriptions." + +"Oh, you are going to join a club, are you?" + +"Of course. You have a club, mother. We want some place where we can +rest the soles of our feet when we are in London. It isn't as if you +lived right in Mayfair, you know." + +"No, no; you are quite right. I have no objection to your joining a +club, or doing anything else that is reasonable. So it would include +your club subscriptions?" + +"Oh yes, it would have to do that. And our personal expenses. We +shouldn't have to look to father for any money other than an occasional +present which he might like to give us if we were good, or if he could +afford it; or on some special occasion." + +"I see." + +"Then we should like to have--er--er" and here Julia stopped short +and eyed her mother with a certain amount of apprehension. + +"Well, go on, my darling. You would like to have what?" + +"We should like to have a sitting-room of our own." + +"Oh!" + +"To which," Julia went on, emboldened by her mother's mild expression +of face, "to which we could ask our friends without upsetting the house, +and--and--and--" + +"Go on," said Regina. + +"Well, you see, most girls nowadays have an At Home day of their +own--just for their own friends, irrespective of their mothers." + +"I haven't time for an At Home day," said Regina. "I used to have one, +but I gave it up when you went to Paris." + +"I think that was rather foolish of you, mother," said Julia. "A woman +is nothing nowadays if she doesn't have an At Home day. I don't quite +see myself what all your work brings you." + +"Brings me?" echoed Regina. + +"Yes, brings you. What's the good of working day and night, toiling into +the small hours of the morning for a lot of other people? What do they +ever do for you, mother?" + +"Do for me?" Regina seemed suddenly to have become an echo of her own +daughter. "I don't know that anybody does anything for me." + +"No, it is always Mrs. Albert Whittaker toiling and fagging and slaving +for other people's glorification. I don't see the force of it. It seems +to us," she went on, with a certain air of severity which ought to have +amused Regina, but did nothing of the kind, "it seems to us that you get +the worst of it in every way. We think, mother, that you ought to be +very glad that we have come home to take care of you." + +"Oh! Then you," said Regina, with a tinge of sarcasm in her tones, "you +and Maudie are to have all the independence, and I am to be taken care +of? That is very kind of you. Now, once for all let me speak, and then +for ever after hold my peace. I give you, as long as you remain in your +father's house, I give you the same amount of liberty that I had in mine +and which I wish to have for myself now, but I give it you on one +condition, which is that you never abuse it. If ever you should +disappoint me by doing so--which not for one moment do I anticipate--I +should instantly withdraw that free gift of liberty. But I want you to +remember that while you have your liberty, I still need and require +mine. One is so apt to forget, and particularly when one is devotedly +attached to anyone, the rights and liberties of others. You are quite +welcome, my children, to have your day at home, and your father will +certainly not wish to curtail you in the matter of provision therefor. I +shall not expect that your little entertainments will come out of your +own personal income. At any time that you seek my advice on any matter, +it will be there ready for your use. I shall never give it to you +unsought, unless I should see you going absolutely wrong. I will only +ask you to remember that before all things I have striven, since you +were tiny babies, first and foremost to preserve the originality of your +minds. The more original you are, the more completely will you please +me. There is so much in the circumstances and in the lives of women that +tend to trammel and to stifle their better judgment and their better +selves, that they have but little chance of letting any originality of +mind which they may possess have fair play. You are singularly blessed +in having an enlightened father and mother, who wish you to be in most +respects as free as air. Take care, therefore, children, that you don't +lose sight of this precious opportunity. Let honor and originality go +hand in hand. With your gifts and your beauty, you must land yourselves +upon the very crest of the wave. There," she went on, letting the +tension of her feelings find relief in a little laugh, "there ends my +little homily!" And she stretched forth her firm white hand and helped +herself to the last piece of muffin in the dish. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +CANDID OPINIONS + + We train up our children, kindly or harshly, according to our + temperaments, that they may walk along a certain road. The + road is usually one of several, and it is an almost invariable + chance that our children will take one contrary to that of our + choice. + + +Let there be no mistake about the Whittaker girls. They were not in any +way deceived or blinded by their mother's partiality for them. + +"There is one thing you and I have got to make up our minds to, Maudie," +said Julia, the day after they had had the little serious talk with +their mother. "It's one thing to climb up a wall, it's another to topple +over on the other side. If we don't look out what we are doing, _we_ +shall topple over the other side of our wall." + +"I don't understand you," said Maudie; "at least not quite." + +"Well, it's like this," remarked Julia. "We have got to take everything +that mother says as partly being mother's way. I don't know whether you +have ever noticed it, Maudie, but mother never half does things. That's +why she's such a splendid worker on all these committees she goes in +for. Mother calls us beauties; she says you are purely Greek in type, +and that I am a cross between the French and Irish styles of beauty. +Well, that's as may be. We can't go against mother; it would be +rude--besides, it wouldn't be any good--but you and I needn't stuff each +other up--or even ourselves for that matter with the idea that we are +going to set the world on fire with our faces. We sha'n't," she ended +conclusively. + +"I think you are rather nice-looking, Ju," said Maudie. + +"Do you? I don't agree with you. But that's neither here nor there. As +to your being purely Greek--well, don't understand that either. I never +saw a Greek that was the least little bit like you. You remember those +girls at Madame's? Why, they had a touch of the East about them; they +were next door to natives. I used to talk to them about it. I told them +that I never knew Greeks were so dark--I always had an idea Greeks were +fair people--but Zoe declared they were the common or garden pattern, +and that a fair Greek was a thing almost unheard of." + +"That's all rubbish and nonsense!" said Maudie in a more dominant tone +than was her wont. "Do you remember Maurice Dolmanides?" + +"The man who was at the boarding-house in Paris? Of course I do." + +"Well, he was ginger." + +"So he was--yes. And he was a Greek, wasn't he? All the same, Maudie, he +had a Scotch mother, you know." + +"Ah, I see. Yes, that does make a difference." + +"I assure you," Julia went on, "that I talked it over with Zoe and +Olga, and they both declared that they were the ordinary Greek +type--round features, round black eyes, masses of coal-black hair, +palest of olive skins. There's a touch of the Orient about it. But you, +you are blonde; your nose has got a bump in the middle of it, your mouth +is far from Greek--" + +"Oh, my mouth," cried Maudie, with a look at herself in the glass, "my +mouth is a regular shark's mouth!" + +At this the two girls fell to laughing as heartily as if they were +discussing the merits of some animal rather than one of themselves. + +"In short," Julia went on, when they had somewhat recovered themselves, +"in short, you and I have got to consider, first and foremost, what we +can do to be original. We are not beauties, although mother, poor dear +lady, persists that we have inherited an amount of beauty which is +absolutely fatal. Dress us in an ordinary manner and we should look +horrid. If we want to be any good in the world at all, we must do +something a bit out of the common." + +"Follow in our mother's footsteps?" said Maudie. + +"Not a bit of it. What good does mother do by all her strenuous efforts +to improve the condition of women? Is mother's condition one that +requires improvement? Not a bit of it. Is our condition one that +requires improvement? Not a bit of it." + +"We don't know yet," said Maudie in a quiet, sensible tone. + +"No, we don't. And until we get married and see how we get on with our +respective husbands, we shall have to remain in our ignorance. One thing +is very certain, Maudie, that neither you nor I are girls that can go +in leading-strings. We have been made original and unconventional and +independent; in fact, originality and unconventionalism and independence +have been rammed down our throats from the time we could remember +anything. It has been the key-note of mother's life. But we have, before +we can do anything in our own set, to see to our room and arrange all +our things. Now that old playroom is just as we left it. It's an awfully +jolly room, capable of great things in the way of adornment. We must get +daddy to have it done up for us, and to give us a certain amount for +furnishing it. And we must have a piano." + +"A piano?" said Maudie. "I don't think a piano is at all a necessary +article. Clean paper and paint, a decent something to walk on--yes, that +we can fairly ask father to give us, and I'm sure he won't grudge it; +but seeing that neither you, nor I, nor mother knows one tune from +another, and that there is a piano that cost a hundred and twenty +guineas in the drawing-room, I don't think it would be fair to ask +father to spend even half that sum in such an instrument for our +exclusive use." + +"Perhaps you are right," said Julia. "I must think that over. But a +piano we _must_ have. If we are going to have an At Home day we must be +able to have music, even though we can't make it ourselves." + +"But why not have our At Home day in mother's drawing-room?" + +"Because that would very quickly degenerate into mother's At Home day, +and you know what mother's At Home day means--seven women, two girls, +and half a man. No, if we have an At Home day of our own, it must be in +our own room. I'll tell you what we'll do, Maudie, we'll go up to town +and choose a little piano somewhere, the kind of piano that you see in +the Army and Navy Stores' list as suitable for yachts, and we'll pay for +it out of our allowance." + +"But we can't." + +"Yes, we can. We can take three years to pay for it. If we spend thirty +pounds on a piano, that's quite enough. People can't walk into your room +and ask you whether your piano cost thirty pounds or ninety pounds. It +wouldn't be very much out of our allowance for each of us to pay fifteen +pounds in three years--only five pounds a year--then the piano will be +ours." + +"And suppose one of us gets married?" asked Maudie. + +"Well, if one of us gets married, she must leave it for the other one." + +"And the other one?" + +"Well, if the other one gets married, she must leave it for the use of +the home." + +"Oh, I see." + +"Well," said Julia, briskly, putting down the book that she held in her +hand, "let us go into the playroom and just cast our eyes over its +capabilities." + +So the two girls went off to their old playroom, which was just as they +had left it when they had departed for their school in Paris two years +before. + +"It's a good shape," said Julia. "That bow window and those two little +windows on that side give it great possibilities. We ought to have a +cosy corner there." + +"That will cost five-and-twenty guineas," said Maudie. + +"Oh no; I mean a rigged-up cosy corner. We'll take in _Home Blither_ for +a few weeks. We are sure to get an idea out of that." + +"I've never," remarked Maudie, "seen anything about a cosy corner in +_Home Blither_ that did not combine a washstand with it. We don't want a +washstand, Julia." + +"No, not in this room--certainly not. I propose that we have a delicate +French paper with bouquets of roses--perhaps a white satin stripe with +bouquets of roses tied up with delicate blue or mauve ribbons. That will +give us an interesting background to work upon." + +"Then for the curtains?" said Maudie. + +"Well, for the curtains I should have--well, now, what should I have? +Well, I'll tell you. I should have chintz." + +"I shouldn't; I should have cretonne. It will look warmer." + +"We don't want to look warm; we want to look dainty. Or we might have +lace curtains." + +"Yes, we might. And we might have those lovely dewdrops to hang in front +of the window, but of course it looks into the garden, and it would be +rather a pity to shut the garden out in any way." + +"Yes," said Julia. "A little desk there," she went on; "white wood, you +know, the kind of thing that you get in the High Street all ready for +painting, or poker work. We might sketch all over it, or get our friends +to autograph it." + +"Autograph it?" + +"Yes. And then varnish it over with a very clear, colorless varnish. It +would look very beautiful, and it would be original too." + +"Yes, it would be original. Supposing we have all the furniture like +that?" + +"No, no, not all the furniture--only the writing-table. There's +something appropriate about autographs on a writing-table," Julia +declared. + +Eventually Mr. Whittaker agreed to have the room done up according to +the girls' ideas, and to give them a certain sum for furnishing it +according to their own taste. + +"Now I do beg, dear Alfie," said Mrs. Whittaker, who, in spite of her +desire that her girls should be original, was a person who loved to have +a finger in every pie, "now I do beg, Alfie, that you will not be too +lavish. Have the room thoroughly done up according to their ideas; that +is only right. I like the notion of delicate bouquets of roses, tied +together with a sky-blue ribbon, on a white satin stripe. It is elegant, +refined, and capable of great things in the general effect. I would have +a suitable ceiling paper to match, and you must give them a pretty +electric light arrangement in place of this simple one. After that, +leave everything to the girls. Yes, dears, the paint will have to be +touched up. It won't require newly painting, because, you see, it has +been white, and it is not in very bad condition. So have it entirely +done, Alfie--ceiling, walls, paint--then give them a sum of money, just +enough for them to exercise their ingenuity in making it go the very +furthest." + +"I'll give you thirty pounds," said Alfred Whittaker, slapping his +pocket and thrusting his hand into it with an air of firm determination. +"Thirty pounds after I have done the decoration, and no more. If you +can't make a room look smart with thirty pounds, you don't deserve to +have a room of your own." + +"All right, daddy. Thank you very much," said Julia. + +"Yes, daddy dear, we'll make it do very nicely," said Maudie. + +And then they sat down to hold another council of war. + +"Maudie," said Julia, "thirty pounds won't go very far." + +"No," replied Maudie. "We can't possibly buy a carpet under ten pounds +for a room of that size." + +"Well, then, I'll tell you what we'll do--we'll polish the floor, and +we'll have two or three nice rugs. We shall get them for about a guinea +or thirty shillings apiece. And we must go in for bamboo." + +"Oh, I hate bamboo," Maudie cried. + +"We could enamel it white." + +"H'm--bamboo enamelled white," said Maudie, dubiously; "it doesn't sound +particularly fascinating." + +"Well, that was rather a nice stand we saw up at Derry & Tom's the other +day, wasn't it, with three sticks of bamboo arranged so as to hold a pot +in the middle? Enamelled white it would be rather fetching, particularly +if we had a nice trailing plant in it. Then we've got to get a fender; +and they've got some lovely basket chairs at Barker's, I know they have; +and I saw some tables at two-and-eleven in a shop down the High +Street--I don't know what the name is. Oh, we shall find it easy enough; +you can do a good deal at furnishing a room when you can get a table for +two-and-eleven." + +"Yes, I daresay you're right. You've got a wonderful headpiece, Ju. +Then, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll get our room papered and +painted, and then we'll have the floor done up--that's all quite plain +sailing--and then we shall be better able to decide whether we'll have a +small square of carpet or two or three rugs. We needn't have very +expensive ones; it isn't as if we had got a lot of boys to come clumping +about with muddy boots, is it?" + +"No, there's something in that. And I'll tell you what, Maudie--if we +have chintz for the curtains, we could have chintz covers for the big +old couch and the large armchair that we had in the room from the +beginning. One thing is very certain," Julia continued impressively, +"that we shall have to weigh every penny before we spend it." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE GIRLS' DOMAIN + + We learn most through our mistakes. + + +You know what the British workman is. Believe me, that the particular +specimen of the British workman who haunts Northampton Park has no fewer +sins than his fellow who inhabits the heart of London. The days dragged +on, dragged on, dragged on. Oh, that lovely sitting-room of Maudie and +Julia Whittaker's imagination, day by day it seemed as if it was +receding further and further into the Never-Never-Land. + +First of all, there was a difficulty about the paper. After a week's +delay, various samples of paper were submitted to them, papers that were +marvellously cheap, marvellously dainty. The choice being left entirely +to the girls, it fell upon one at two-and-four the piece. It was an +elegant paper; stripes of white satin alternated with a wide white rib, +upon which were flung at regular intervals delicate bouquets of banksia +roses and violets. The ribbon which tied each bouquet and meandered on +to the next was of the most delicate blue. The ceiling was of embossed +white satin (apparently), and the frieze, which was rather deep, was +composed of long festoons of the tiny roses caught at intervals with +bunches of violets. Oh, it was a lovely paper! But they had to wait for +it. For some occult reason, best known to the decorator who had +undertaken the work of transforming that particular room at Ye +Dene--which, by-the-bye, the girls determined to christen the +_parloir_--that particular paper was out of stock. Impatient Julia +suggested that they should choose another one, but the decorator blandly +informed her that it was such a favorite with fashionable people in the +West End that the manufacturers were reprinting, and he expected the +consignment for their room--which he had already ordered--to arrive at +any moment. + +And the days went by after the manner of days when there is a little +house-decorating on hand. The decorator suggested that they could get on +with the rest of the work, so on a duly-appointed day several gentlemen, +dressed in lily-white garments, arrived and began to work their will +upon the empty room. They swept the chimney--not the lily-white +gentlemen, but a black one who seemed to be on friendly terms with them; +they tore off the existing paper and they washed the ceiling, and then +they went away and thought about things. They thought about things for +several days, until at last the Whittaker girls hied them to the head +office and made representation to the master of the business. Then they +came and papered half the ceiling. + +"How lovely it looks, doesn't it?" said Maudie to Julia. + +"It would look lovelier if it were all done. I expect we shall have to +go and fetch them to paper the other half." + +It was quite true. But still, bit by bit, the room progressed towards a +thing of beauty, and at length, after a period of about five weeks, the +foreman in charge of the work announced in a tone of triumph that they +had come to bid the household at Ye Dene adieu. He didn't put it in +those words, my reader, but that was his meaning. + +"I am sure we are very much obliged to you," said Julia. "You have been +a very long time about it." + +"Well, lady, the workman gets blamed when the blame belongs to somebody +else. You see, we had to wait for the paper, and when we got the paper +we had to wait for the frieze, and then when we got the frieze we had to +wait for that bit of paint just to finish off the doors. Still, it'll +last much longer because it has been slow in doin'." + +"Oh, really, will it?" said Julia, rather taken aback. "Oh, I'm glad of +that, because, of course, as it takes such a long time doing, one +doesn't want to be often turned out of one's room for so long. Thank you +so much. Would you like a glass of beer?" + +"Well, lady, a glass of beer never comes amiss to a man at the end of a +hard day's work," rejoined the foreman. "Me and my mates thank you very +much." + +So Julia called to one of the servants and ordered "Beer for these +gentlemen" with a lavish air which the more frugal Regina might not have +approved had she happened to be at home. Regina was, however, at that +moment gracing with her dignified presence a platform devoted at that +hour to the restriction of the sale of strong drinks, and the incident +never came to her knowledge. + +"Now, Maudie," said Julia, "have you any suggestions to make?" + +Maudie stood looking round and round the room which was to be their +especial domain. + +"It's awfully pretty," she said. "Well, as to suggestions, I should +suggest that we get the floor done before we do anything else." + +"Yes. And then I suggest that we choose the chintz," said Julia. + +"I like cretonne better than chintz," replied Maudie. + +"No, cretonne is like flannelette at fourpence-ha'penny a yard--looks +like the loveliest flannel, and you make up your blouse and think you +have got a treasure that's going to last you for six weeks without +washing. You find out your mistake in about six days, and when you send +it to the wash, it comes back as rough as a badger and can never be worn +more than once afterwards. No, dear girl, let us have chintz." + +"I suppose," said Maudie, "if you want chintz you'll have chintz." + +"Well, we'll go up to the High Street to-morrow morning and we'll look +at both--" + +"Excuse me making so bold," said a voice at the door, "but if I might be +allowed to speak to you ladies--" + +They both turned with a start. The foreman, politely pressing the back +of his hand across his lips, was standing in the hall. "Well?" they said +in the same breath. + +"If I might make so bold, ladies, as to suggest, our guv'nor is a one-er +on chintzes." + +"Oh, really?" + +"Loose covers is his special'ty--his special'ty." He again passed the +back of his hand across his lips. "Thank you very much for the drink, +ladies. It was very welcome. If I might make so bold as to--" + +"You had better have another," said Julia. + +"I'm not saying no, miss. It's very polite of you, and I accepts it as +it's offered. If I might make so bold, I would suggest that I just speak +to the guv'nor as I go past the head office, and he'd send his book of +patterns up in the morning. He could send them up and then you could +look at them in the room itself. It's always more satisfactory than +seeing them at a distance. It isn't everyone," the foreman went on, +"that can hold a scheme of color in the heye and carry it to a shop +miles away, and take the exact match of it." + +"No," said Maudie, "I suppose not." + +"Well, I can," said Julia, with decision. "If there's one thing I can +do, it is to carry a scheme of color in my eye; but at the same time you +might as well tell Mr. Broxby to send in his book of chintz patterns, +and we'll have a look at them. But who shall we get to make them?" + +"Makin' loose covers is one of Mr. Broxby's special'ties," said the +foreman. He turned and held out his glass that he might have it +refilled. "My respects to you, ladies," he said politely, raising his +glass towards the two girls, "my respects to you. It isn't often that a +man in my position finishes a job with such pleasure as it's been to us +fellows to do this 'ere room for you young ladies, and if I can put any +little tip in your way, it's a great pleasure to me to do it." + +"Thank you," said Julia. "You are very kind. You have done the room +beautifully, we are most satisfied. And if you'll tell Mr. Broxby to +send us his chintzes to-morrow morning, we can look at them." + +Then began another period of waiting. Mr. Broxby arrived himself with +the books of patterns. He viewed the great roomy old couch on which for +years the girls had played, and which they had, as Julia frankly said, +used abominably, and he made one or two suggestions for adding to its +comfort at no great outlay of money. And finally they chose a chintz for +the curtains of the three windows, and for covers for the couch and the +large armchair. The cost thereof was a question into which Mr. Broxby +found it difficult to go. + +"I couldn't exactly say, Miss Whittaker, what the price will be, but it +won't be very much," he remarked. "You see, cretonne is cheaper than +chintz, that is why so many people chooses cretonne in preference to the +other; but when you come to the question of wear--why, chintz has it all +its own way." + +"Just what I said," said Julia, "just what I said. Well, now, look here, +Maudie, we'll have this chintz, and as to the cost--well, we must leave +it to Mr. Broxby's honor that he doesn't ruin us. If you ruin us," she +said, "you won't get your bill paid as soon, or nearly as soon, as if +you keep the prices down. Our father has given us a sum of money to do +this room up with. He pays for the papering, but he gives us a fixed +sum of money for everything else, and if you charge us too much you'll +have to leave half your bill till next year." + +"And who'll pay it then?" asked Maudie. + +"Oh, well, you and I will have to pay it." + +"I see." + +Now Maudie was a careful soul who detested procrastination: at any time +she preferred to go out in a pair of extremely dirty gloves rather than +procure others by forestalling her next quarter's money (for I must tell +you that for several years these girls had had a small allowance paid +quarterly which provided them with gloves and ties). + +Then there set in another period of waiting. The chintz, like the +wall-paper, was not in stock, and on learning this fact the two girls +went round and explained to Mr. Broxby that they would just as soon +choose another. + +"Now, young ladies, if you would allow me to advise you," said Mr. +Broxby--"it's the same thing to me, of course--but if you would allow me +to advise you, I should say wait and have the chintz that exactly suits +your wall-paper. There isn't another chintz in the book that exactly +goes with the wall-paper. If you chance on one that clashes with the +paper, well, your room is spoilt at once. I'll hurry them on all I know, +but I must say that it will give me more satisfaction to make things up +with a legitimate end in view." + +"There's something in that," said Maudie. "I should wait." + +"Very well," said Julia, "but if I have to wait another five weeks, all +I can say is, Mr. Broxby, that I shall come every morning and I shall +worry you until we do get the covers." + +"Young ladies, you will not come too often to please me," said Mr. +Broxby, gallantly. At which the two girls laughed, and literally took to +their heels and fled. + +I won't say that they waited quite five weeks for the chintz, but they +did have to wait; and when at length Mr. Broxby announced that he had +received the chintz, they had to wait yet a little time longer while the +curtains and covers were put together. + +"But doesn't it look sweet now it's done?" said Julia. "Isn't it sweet? +Yes, it's true they've cost a lot--you're quite right there, Maudie; and +they'll make a big hole in our thirty pounds. Of course, we ought to +have an Aubusson carpet, but we can't possibly afford that." + +"No," said Maudie, shaking her head resolutely, "that is certain, as +certain as that one day we shall both die. The best thing we can do is +to go for one of those square things we saw at Barker's the other +day--'cord squares,' I think they called them." + +"I wanted a carpet our feet would sink in," said Julia. + +"You can't have it, my dear. Besides, it wouldn't be much in keeping +with a girls' room. Have a pretty dark blue cord square. We shall get it +for about three pounds. We shall have endless bother with people +slipping about and smashing things if we try and make these boards look +like parquet." + +"You don't slip on parquet as you do on boards," said Julia. "You see, +we haven't very much left, and we must have two big basket chairs, a +couple of small chairs, and a stool or two; and we must have a +writing-table. And then we haven't got any sort of an over-mantel, no +sort of a looking-glass, and no pictures, so say nothing of a stand or +two to put plants in. I don't see where it is all coming from--still +less the piano. Oh, I haven't given up all idea of the piano. That we +must squeeze out of our dress allowance." + +"You don't think," said Maudie, "that we could put the piano off for +another year?" + +"No," said Julia, decidedly, "it's no good spoiling the ship for a +ha'porth of tar." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A WEIGHTY BUSINESS + + I have always had a tender feeling about the great Idiot Asylum + which teaches its children by means of keeping shop, with + real pennies and real sweeties. + + +Now if there was one thing on which Julia Whittaker prided herself, it +was that she could carry color in her eye. A great many people have the +same belief, and it is a point upon which a very large number entirely +deceive themselves. + +On the very afternoon of the day that they had decided on the chintz for +the curtains and covers, the sisters hied themselves to that part of +London which is familiarly known as "the High Street." Knowing that +their mother would be away from the Park during all the hours which +intervened between breakfast and dinner, so the girls determined that +they would get something which would serve as lunch in one of the large +shops in Kensington High Street which catered for that particular meal. +Thus they had several hours before them for selection and consideration. + +"Maudie," said Julia, as they walked into the carpet room at John +Barker's, "there's one thing we've never given a thought to." + +"What's that?" asked Maudie. + +"The blinds. And, mind you, the blinds will cost us a pretty penny." + +"Won't those we have do?" Maudie suggested. + +"Oh Maudie!" + +"No, I suppose they won't," Maudie admitted. + +"Of course," Julia went on, "mother was right enough when she had those +green blinds to match the bedrooms at the back of the house--they were +quite good enough for a playroom, but they would be horrid for us. Well, +that keeps us down to the idea of a cord for the carpet. We want to look +at carpets," she said to a gentlemanly young man who came up asking her +pleasure. "No, nothing so expensive as that," she continued, casting +reflective eyes upon a very beautiful carpet square. "We want something +that will be--I think you call them a cord--something in deep blue, or +deep crimson, or a rich green." + +"I'm afraid," said the young man, shaking his head doubtfully, "that we +haven't anything quite in those colors. We have a blue, and we have a +terra-cotta. What size, madam?" + +Well, I needn't go through the process of buying a cheap carpet. The +transaction ended by the two girls purchasing a carpet which, as Julia +remarked, was really almost too ugly for words. It was not an ugly +carpet as carpets for that price go--it would have been admirable in a +bedroom, but for a sitting-room with a delicate Louis XV paper, with +exquisite chintzes to match, it was certainly not a little out of +keeping. + +"After all, the carpet doesn't matter," said Julia, with an air of +making the best of it, "so long as it's unobtrusive and neat." + +"I believe plain felt would have been the best," said Maudie, eyeing the +carpet with much disfavor. + +"They don't wear, do they?" said Julia, appealing to the young man. + +"No, a felt carpet doesn't wear, madam. It sweeps up into a good deal of +fluff, and it's apt to induce moths in the house, and we really don't +find them very satisfactory. It looks very nice at first," he ended with +a flourish, as if their brains were enough to fill up the rest of the +sentence. + +"Yes, I think so, too. Well, we'll have it, Maudie, eh? It will do for +us to begin with," she added in a whisper. "Now tell us, where are the +blinds?" + +"I can show you the blinds, madam. They are in the other end of the +department." + +I must confess that the blinds were another blow. Mind you there were +five windows to provide for--two single windows and a large bay of three +lights. + +"These blinds are ruinous," remarked Maudie, as the young man drew down +one rich linen and lace specimen after another. + +"I am afraid," said Julia, "we must have something more simple than +that." + +"A good blind, madam, is worth its money. Blinds don't wear out like +carpets," said the young gentleman. "I should personally recommend this +one. Yes, it is rather dear to begin with, but it gives the window an +air, and it will clean again and again and again. Perhaps your house is +in a very smoky district." + +"No, it isn't. We live in Northampton Park." + +"Ah, then I should recommend these--I should really. They will be more +satisfaction to you afterwards. A carpet is a very different thing. You +are walking on a carpet every day, and it's hidden by other things, but +blinds, unless you are having curtains quite stretched across the +window, blinds are always in view. Really, I should recommend these." + +And eventually they did buy them; and then they bade their tempter adieu +and went across the road to look into furniture. Well, the furnishing of +a room is always more or less a matter of taste, a matter of individual +taste, I may say, and the two girls that afternoon displayed their +individual taste in a most extraordinary manner. They bought the most +curious and unnecessary articles. First of all they fell in love with a +most elaborate over-mantel, which was ready to be enameled in any color +that the purchaser desired, or which might be stained to simulate oak. +For its centre it had a square of looking-glass with beveled edges, and +it had many little cupboards and shelves and pillars. It was a most +elaborate creation. Then Maudie fell in love with a couple of Japanese +vases. They were exceedingly meretricious in their art; they were the +most modern specimens of that style of Japanese handicraft which is +produced exclusively for the English market. The English have much to +answer for, and the prostitution of Japanese art, like the prostitution +of art in India, is among the sins for which one day England will surely +be called upon to justify herself. The price of these vases was +twelve-and-nine-pence. You know perhaps what it is to buy your first +piece of porcelain, either new or old. It's like that first downward +step out of the rigid paths of honesty which leads eventually to the +gallows. The Whittaker girls took the step at a jump. + +The consequences were disastrous. Oh, the rubbish they bought that day, +the absurd little tables that turned over almost with being looked at, +the ridiculous plant stands, the preposterous little cupboards for +hanging on the wall. Then they must needs have a horrible curtain of +reeds and beads and string, and a three-fold screen, which was a marvel +of cheapness because it was the last one left in stock. Then their taste +went to Venetian glass--such Venetian glass!--some modern faience from +Rouen, and some Wedgewood which surely would cause the originator of +that great art to turn in his grave could he have beheld it. Fans they +bought also, and a gypsy pot for a coal pan, and then they remembered +that they must have a fender, and they did themselves rather nicely in a +black curb with a brass railing. Then they reminded each other that they +must have a set of fireirons, and then they went off to see the basket +chairs. + +"They're very ugly," said Maudie. + +"And they're not very comfortable," rejoined Julia. "But there, we have +spent such a lot of money already that we certainly must get our chairs +before we think of anything else." + +"And we have no small chairs." + +"No, we haven't. I don't know where we shall get small chairs--we can't +possibly afford expensive ones." + +"If I were you, ladies, I should go and look in the second-hand +furniture department," suggested the young lady who was convoying them +round the basket department. + +"Yes, that's a good idea. We might pick up some odd chairs there. That's +a good idea," said Julia. "Well, then, Maudie, if we have those two big +lounge chairs and those two little occasional chairs, that ought to do +us very well." + +"Will you have them cushioned, madam?" + +"Cushioned? Of course we ought to have them cushioned. Is there much +difference in the price?" + +"Oh, no, madam, not very much. Cushions in a pretty cretonne are quite +inexpensive." + +So eventually, without any reference either to the carpet or the +wall-paper, or the chintz curtains and covers, they chose a pretty +cretonne of a nice salmon-pink shade. And then they went to the +second-hand department and looked out two or three occasional chairs, +which were in reality the most sensible purchases that they made. + +I wish I could adequately paint the scene the following morning, when +the van conveying all the purchases, with the exception of the blinds +and the chairs, which had still to be cushioned, drew up at the door of +Ye Dene. First of all came the carpet, which was promptly laid down and +tacked into position. + +"It clashes with everything," said Maudie, quite tragically. + +"I don't think it does. It goes quite well with that blue in the +wall-paper. I carried the color in my eye," said Julia. "And, after all, +it won't show much. There's a lot to go on it." + +And true enough, compared with the other things, the carpet was +absolutely inoffensive. + +"You would like the over-mantel put up, lady?" said the workman who laid +the carpet. + +"Yes, I think so." + +"You wouldn't like to have it enameled first?" + +"No, I think we'll keep it as it is," Julia replied. "Don't you think +so, Maudie?" + +"Oh yes," said Maudie, in a voice of complete despair, "keep it as it +is." + +Honestly, I do not know how to describe this room, the room that had +started so well. With a few articles of real Louis Quinze furniture to +give it a tone, and the rest decently shrouded in the exquisite chintz +which the girls had chosen, the room might have been one whose equal was +not to be found in the length and breadth of the Park. As it was, it +ended by having the air of a bazaar stall, put together by somebody who +did not properly understand the business. + +"There, that looks awfully nice and cosy behind the couch," said Julia, +eyeing with much satisfaction the three-fold screen, which was of a +vivid scarlet embroidered in garish colors. "At least it will do when +the couch gets its pretty new frock on." + +"And what are you going to do with this?" asked Maudie, holding up a +mass of bright-colored beads and string depending from a lath. + +"I thought we would hang it over that window." + +"But you want them over all the windows." + +"Well, do you know I really don't know what we did have that for. Look +here, we've gone on the conventional line in this room, let's start and +have something that's not at all conventional. We'll hang it on one side +of the bay window--yes, just up there." + +"Well, we can't fix it up ourselves. We'll have to get one of Broxby's +men to come in." + +"It will look awfully well," said Julia, "and it will screen off that +part of the room. Maudie," she went on, breaking off sharp as a new idea +struck her, "what on earth were we thinking of? We ought to have had a +window seat." + +"That would have been a good idea--I wonder we never thought of it," +Maudie cried. + +"Well, we can't now," said Julia in a very matter-of-fact tone, "because +we haven't any money left. As it is, I don't believe thirty pounds will +cover all we spent yesterday." + +"Neither do I, for when the blinds come you'll find they will be ever so +much dearer than we bargained for. Shall we stand this tall bamboo thing +for plants here?" + +"Yes--just in front of where the reed and bead curtain is to go. Well, +then, since we haven't a window seat," Julia went on, "we must put one +of the big wicker chairs there." + +"But who's going to sit there alone?" + +"Oh, we can put a small occasional chair beside it. The man can sit on +that." + +"And a table?" + +"Yes--oh yes, I should put a table for their tea-cups. Well, then, when +the piano comes--and by-the-bye don't forget we have to go up to-day +and choose it--when the piano comes, what do you say to standing it out +here?" + +"It would not look bad." + +"And this wicker chair like that--a little table there--" + +"Oh, it will be exquisite! There won't be another room in the Park like +it." + +"And there are all these things, Julia," said Maudie, looking down upon +a great dust-sheet on which were spread the rest of their many +purchases. "I don't know where we shall put everything. All these little +knick-knacks and odds and ends, they are awfully quaint and funny and +pretty, but I'm sure I don't know what we are to do with them. Here, you +have got the eye; you must say just where they are to go." + +And Julia, having the eye, did say where they were to go; in fact, with +her own energetic hands she spread them about the room--crawling +beetles, grinning devils, spotted cats with exaggerated green eyes, odds +and ends of pottery, glass and porcelain. + +"Do you think we need have that over-mantel enameled?" she asked Maudie +at last. + +"No, I should have it stained black--ebonized, that's the word," said +Maudie, looking round. "As it is, the room is too new, too ornate, too +dazzlingly modern. There isn't a touch of shadow in it anywhere--it's +like a face without any eyelashes." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AMBITIONS + + Many people look upon mental blindness as they do upon physical + blindness--as a terrible affliction. Yet, when the mentally + blind suddenly see, their condition is not usually improved + thereby. + + +If the Whittaker girls had been unpopular as children, they certainly +made up for it, so far as Northampton Park was concerned, when they +became young women. The innovation of having an At Home day of their +own, at which their mother made a point of not appearing, was so daring +that every girl in the Park made it her duty to be present thereat, and +when it was bruited abroad that it was really a girl's At Home, with no +overshadowing mothers and such like sober persons, that the girls had +their own room and their own tea-things, and excellent provision in the +way of cakes, and that cigarettes were allowed after six o'clock, then +not only the girls, but also their brothers, soon came flocking into Ye +Dene in considerable numbers. The whole winter did this state of things +continue, until the At Home days at Ye Dene were no longer a nine days' +wonder but an established fact. + +Then Maudie and Julia began to meet with other girls further afield +than their own immediate vicinity, girls who were connections or friends +of the girls who lived in the Park, and invitations began to shower in +upon Regina's daughters. They were perfectly independent--Regina wished +them to be so, and prided herself on the fact that they were so--and as +their comings and goings did not interfere with the comfort of their +father, Alfred Whittaker saw nothing to which he could frame any +reasonable objection in his daughters' mode of life. + +It happened one afternoon that the two girls were having tea and muffins +in their own sitting-room. It was just before Easter, that week when the +tide of suburban entertaining lulls a little, and the two were sitting +by a blazing fire in big wicker chairs drawn close up to the fender, the +low Moorish tea-table conveniently placed between them. + +"Maudie," said Julia, suddenly, "I think we shall have to pull up." + +"Pull up! why?" Maudie's tone was blank, for she herself had a +particular reason for not wanting to pull up in any shape or form just +then. + +"We're getting too cheap," said Julia. + +"Cheap! and we've spent nearly all our dress allowance!" Maudie +exclaimed. + +"I don't mean cheap in that way. No, we're getting cheap socially. +Anybody thinks they can come to our days and bring anyone they like, and +we do half the entertaining of the Park for people who do nothing for +us." + +"It makes us popular," said Maudie, helping herself to another piece of +muffin. + +"Yes, yes, but is such popularity worth it?" + +"I don't know." + +"Are we going on right through the season?" + +"Well, you know, Ju, the season doesn't make much difference to us." + +"It's going to," said Julia. + +"Is it going to this season?" Maudie demanded. "That's the question--is +it going to this season?" + +"I don't see why not. We've got any amount of invitations for next +month, and not more than a third of them are in the Park. A third? A +quarter, I should say. Now I'll tell you what I propose doing." + +"Well?" + +"I propose, as it is the regulation thing to do, to chuck our 'day' +until next autumn." + +"Julia!" Maudie was so taken back that she was surprised into giving her +sister her full name, the diminutive thereof not seeming to express +sufficiently what was in her mind. + +"You may say 'Julia,' but my head is screwed on the right way. I suppose +I shall never get mother and the dad to move away from Ye Dene." + +"From the Park?" + +"Yes. We have got too much of the Park about us. It's all Park. Dad is +very well off, mother has money of her own--why shouldn't we go and live +in Kensington? We could shunt all these Park people, excepting just the +best--those we have been the most intimate with--and get into a real +good set. What's the use of having a well-off father and a very +distinguished mother if we hide our light under a bushel in such a place +as this?" + +"The people that live here are just as good as we are." + +"Well, perhaps they are, and perhaps they're not, Maudie," Julia +retorted sharply. "If we satisfy them, I'm quite sure they don't satisfy +me. I don't believe myself in sitting on the bottom rung of the ladder +when you can easily and comfortably climb up to the top." + +"But shall we ever get to the top?" + +"No, never; that means strawberry leaves. But there are a dozen reasons +for getting out of Ye Dene. In the first place, the dad has to get up at +an ungodly hour in the morning so as to get to his office at the usual +time. Mother spends half her life in the train, and you know neither of +them are as young as they were. I went up to town with mother yesterday, +and I'm sure it was pitiful to see her dragging herself up those steep +station stairs. She ought to be able to get into a cab and go to her +meetings, a woman of her substance." + +"Perhaps. But we shall never get a house like this--never, never, Ju. We +shall have to do without our own sitting-room, or else have a little box +somewhere at the back of the house, looking into a yard. We shall have +to have clean curtains every fortnight like the Brookeses. We shall have +to sleep up on the third or fourth story--and it will all be horrid, +horrid, horrid!" + +"Not at all. My dear, there are plenty of houses quite as good as this +in Kensington." + +"They'll be three times the rent." + +"Not a bit of it, not the least bit of it. Look at that house where the +Ponsonby-Piggots live; garden--charming garden, tea-house at the end, +greenhouse, shrubs, lawn, three lovely sitting-rooms on the entrance +floor, and only two stories above. We don't want a castle with eight or +nine bedrooms--what should we do with them? _Why, the Ponsonby-Piggots +keep fowls!_" + +"Oh, well, I suppose you'll have your own way. You had better talk to +mother about it." + +"I've learned a lot from the Ponsonby-Piggots," Julia went on. "They +don't just trust to tea and cakes and cigarettes, and a song or two, to +make them somebody. Each of those three plain girls--and _that's_ rather +paying them a compliment--has got some special line of her own. Gwenny +is engaged to the ugliest man in London, and she makes a parade of +having his presentment everywhere--statuettes, photographs, pastels, +miniatures, everything you can think of--to bring the man into +prominence. And he hasn't got twopence; and though he's a gentleman, +they probably won't be able to marry for the next ten years. Theo +collects Napoleon relics. Didn't you notice that the end of their +sitting-room is devoted to Napoleon?" + +"Yes, I did, but I didn't know why," said Maudie in rather a wondering +tone. + +"Well, that's why. And Stella, the little one with the curley red hair, +she collects half-a-dozen things--postcards, autographs, souvenir +teaspoons, and old lustre ware. These girls only have an allowance of +forty pounds a year for their dresses--each, I mean," she added +hurriedly. "And if they want more they make it." + +"But how?" + +"Oh, in various ways. Gwenny, I believe, is secretary to a big doctor up +in town. She only has to attend from ten till five, and she gets a +rousing good salary, and she's putting it all away towards house +furnishing. Then Theo, she does a bit of journalism, and Stella, well, +she's the most original of all. She's a regular little Jew." + +"How do you mean--regular little Jew?" + +"Oh, she's always chopping and changing among her collections. She made +a hundred and twenty pounds last year in selling things at a thoroughly +good profit that she had picked up for nothing. If her mother would let +her, she'd go into a flat with Theo and open a regular business. But +Mrs. Ponsonby-Piggot says that the girls have plenty of money for their +needs, and always will have." + +"Well, if so, why should they? You wouldn't like to open a shop?" + +"I'd do anything rather than stick in the mud," said Julia, "anything in +the wide world." + +"Stick in the mud!" echoed Maudie. "And this is all that has come of +mother's higher education!" + +"Well, mother higher-educated herself. She made a huge mistake, and +nobody knows it better than mother. She is up in all sorts of learned +and abstruse subjects that she has never been able to turn to account in +any shape or form, and the ordinary things that women ought to know she +is perfectly ignorant of. Fancy setting mother to make a pie!" + +"Fancy setting _you_ to make a pie," retorted Maudie. + +"Oh, well, I've been thinking it wouldn't be half a bad idea if we were +to enter at the Park Polytechnic and take a course of dressmaking, +another of millinery, another of cooking, and, for the matter of that, +we might take a fourth at housekeeping." + +"How should we get it all in?" + +"Oh, well, that's easy enough. You pay two guineas a year, and you can +join any class you like. The classes are going on all day long, so Rita +Mackenzie tells me, and you pay sixpence each as a sort of entrance +fee." + +"Then we couldn't do that if we left Ye Dene." + +"Ah, but we sha'n't leave Ye Dene to-day, nor to-morrow--I never thought +of that for a moment. But if we once graft into the dad's head that it +is possible we may one day want to leave Ye Dene, he'll put himself in +the right channel for getting good offers for it. Don't make any mistake +about the value of Ye Dene. It's freehold, it is in the main road, and +it is in the best position in the main road. It's in perfect repair +inside and out. I don't believe, if the dad was to put it in the hands +of two or three good agents, that we should be here two months." + +"What is Rita Mackenzie going in for?" + +"House decoration. My dear, I went in to see her yesterday--I forgot to +tell you; it was when you were over at the Marksbys'. You know there's a +studio to their house?" + +"Oh, yes." + +"Well, her father has made it over to her. She took a course of +lessons, and she's decorated it herself. It's a dream!" said Julia. +"When I look round this room and think of Rita's, it makes me feel +sick." + +"What's the matter with this room?" + +"Oh, what's the matter! Just this, Maudie, that since we evolved this +room out of our own ignorant, vulgar minds, I've been getting educated." + +"My dear, I thought we had finished our education long ago," said +Maudie, somewhat taken aback. + +"That's where your limitations come in, Maudie. If ever you get married, +you'll find that you have everything to learn that will make life happy +and comfortable to you, unless you enter yourself at the Polytechnic +beforehand." + +"I might do worse," said Maudie, looking round. She honestly couldn't +see, poor, prosaic girl that she was, that anything was amiss with their +own especial sanctum. It was bright, cheerful, dainty, and scrupulously +clean. There were evidences on all sides that it was a room in which +people lived a great share of their lives. A great Persian cat lay on a +blue velvet cushion on one side of the hearth, and a very presentable +black spaniel was curled up in a padded basket on the other. "I'm sure," +she said, looking into the blazing depths of the fire, and then helping +herself to another piece of muffin, "I'm sure there's not a prettier +room in the Park than ours." + +"Oh, my dear, don't talk nonsense! It's horrid. We've got a Louis Quinze +paper, Louis Quinze chintz, and make-believe Japanese bead and reed +curtains. We've got cheap bazaar rubbish all over the place, and not one +scrap of furniture worth calling furniture in it. The carpet gets up +and hits the walls, and the walls in their turn slap the screen, and the +screen clashes with the chintz, and you and I clash with everything +else. Oh, it's dreadful, it's horrible!" + +"We've spent most of our dress allowance on it," wailed Maudie. + +"That's the piano. You know, Maudie, you would have a good one. And +by-the-bye," she added, letting her remark fly into the air like a +bombshell, "and by-the-bye, if either of us gets married before the +piano is paid for, will the other poor wretch have to finish off the +payments by herself?" + +"Well, even if she does," said Maudie, "the one that has to finish off +the payments will have the piano." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +TWOPENNY DINNERS + + Possession to some natures seems always to demand value in what is + possessed; to others it has exactly the opposite effect. + + +Julia duly implanted in her parents' minds the preliminary idea that a +change from Ye Dene might be desirable. But the Whittakers did not leave +the Park just then, for it was only a few days after the conversation +between the two girls on the subject of removal, that quiet, unoriginal +Maudie cast a veritable bombshell into the family circle. For Maudie got +engaged to be married. + +I have spoken earlier in this story of a house in the immediate +neighborhood of Ye Dene which was called Ingleside, and I have just +mentioned a family of the name of Marksby. The Marksbys lived at +Ingleside, and Ingleside was almost exactly opposite to Ye Dene; the +Marksbys, indeed, were next-door neighbors of the M'Quades. They had not +very long been in possession of that desirable residence, and, mind you, +Ingleside was a most desirable residence, one of the best to be found in +the length and breadth of the Park. The family consisted of the father +and mother, two daughters and a son. Mr. Marksby, as far as the Park was +concerned, was that mysterious "something in the city" which covers such +a multitude of sins, or if not sins, at least of blemishes, social and +otherwise. They did themselves and their neighbors extremely well, kept +good-class servants, had the smartest window curtains and flower-boxes +in the Park, went to church regularly, gave largely in charity and +entertained freely. What wonder that, in their case, people did not too +closely inquire into the exact definition of "something in the city." + +From the very first it had been Maudie rather than Julia who had caught +on with the Marksbys. The Marksby girls were quiet and singularly +unassuming, and as Maudie Whittaker grew older she was attracted, +perhaps because of Julia's excessive energy, by quietness rather than +the reverse, and was indeed herself a girl of singularly few words. But +if the Marksby girls were quiet, then young Harry Marksby did not share +their nature. He was himself the gayest of the gay, one who, a century +ago, would have been called an "agreeable rattle;" indeed he was a young +man who prided himself on stirring things up. He by no means approved of +the fact that his father and mother had turned their backs upon +convenient Bayswater in favor of the more distant Park. He was a young +man who worked hard when he worked, and who abandoned himself to +amusement when he was not working. But he was a sensible young man and +did not see the force of burning the candle at both ends, so that he +stayed a great deal more at home in the evenings than many a young man +of his age and general proclivities would have done; and thus it was +that he came somehow to fall in love with Regina Whittaker's eldest +girl. And, as I said, the news fell upon the Whittaker family like a +bombshell. + +Not that they were displeased! Mr. and Mrs. Whittaker had been too happy +in their own married life to grudge either of their girls entering upon +the same joys. But they had not seen it coming. Parents are often like +that, and so the news came upon them with startling suddenness. + +"I am not surprised, though," said Regina to her husband and Julia when +the great news had been broached and Harry Marksby had gone to seek his +lady-love in the seclusion of the girls' own sitting-room, "I am not +surprised. She is very beautiful." + +"Oh, mother, how can you stuff her up like that?" cried Julia. "Nobody +thinks Maudie very beautiful but yourself--not even Harry. You shouldn't +do it, dear. It gives us such a wrong idea of ourselves, or it might do +if we hadn't got the sense to see what we see in our looking-glasses." + +"Your modesty," said Regina, "is most becoming. I honor and admire you +for it--" + +"I'm off to my housekeeping class," said Julia, whisking herself out of +the room. + +"That is the most wonderful thing about our girls," said Regina to +Alfred, when they found themselves alone, "that is the most wonderful +thing about our girls--their utter absence of self-consciousness. Beauty +has never been a bane to them, because they have never had a vain +thought between them. It is a beautiful and wonderful thing." + +"They're good-looking enough," said Alfred, "but they'll never, either +of them, be a patch upon you, dearest." + +"Upon _me_?" She blushed rosy red in spite of her fifty and odd years. +"Why, Alfie, looks were never my strong point. They get their looks from +you." + +"Nobody but yourself ever thought so, Queenie," said Alfred Whittaker, +with an indulgent glance at his wife; "and everybody may not think of +our girls just as you do." + +"And as you do, Alfie?" + +"And as I do. All the same, I don't know that I should call them +beautiful myself. They're good-looking, wholesome, straight, clean, +desirable girls, as good as gold and as merry as grigs. By the way," he +added, "the Marksbys must be very well off." + +"Indeed! What makes you think so?" + +"From what he told me of his circumstances." + +"But what _are_ the Marksbys?" asked Regina. + +"He's in his father's business." + +"But what _is_ his father's business?" + +Alfred Whittaker stretched out his hand and took hold of his wife's. +"Queenie," he said, "we have never been very proud people, have we?" + +"I hope we have always had proper pride, and no more," said Regina. + +"He is a nice young chap," Alfred went on, as if he were following out a +train of thought; "and Maudie seems to be very much taken with him--" + +"Alfie," said Regina in a tone of apprehension, "you are trying to break +something to me." + +"Well, in one sense, I am," he said, smiling; "and on the other hand I +am not. Myself I believe in honest character and good solid comfort +before all other considerations, and I feel that you will be sensible +and do the same. Maudie has still to learn, as far as I know, the exact +nature of the way in which the Marksbys' money is made." + +"Go on," said Regina, impatiently. + +"Well, to go on," said Mr. Whittaker, "is to let the blow fall without +any further fuss." + +"Let it fall!" cried Regina in a tone of tragedy. + +"Marksby," returned Alfred, "is their private name. They trade under a +different one." + +"Yes?" + +"And Marksby," went on Alfred, slowly, "is the Twopenny Dinner King." + +"The Twopenny Dinner King!" cried Regina. "You mean they sell twopenny +dinners?" + +"Yes, Queenie--twopenny dinners. I'm told they are excellent--indeed, +young Harry told me so himself just now. He has invited me to go down +and have lunch with him one day, and he promises he will give me the +regular twopenny fare--not by way of entertaining me, but rather in +order to show me that it really could be done at such a price." + +"And--and--does Harry wear an apron--and--and _serve_ twopenny dinners?" + +"No, no! The concern's too big for that," Mr. Whittaker replied. "He has +never done anything of that kind. It's a regular going concern--they +employ hundreds of hands, make all their own sausages, make their own +beef, mutton, veal, pork and ham pies, cook their own potatoes and green +vegetables. They've got about thirty of these shops--Bundaby's Eating +Houses they are called. They must be coining money." + +"_My_ daughter married to a sausage-maker!" said Regina in a bewildered +tone. + +"There's nothing in that," Alfred Whittaker rejoined; "there's nothing +in that, my dear girl, provided he makes his sausages good and wholesome +and enough of 'em. But I was afraid it would be a bit of a blow to you." + +"My daughter--_my_ daughter married to a sausage-maker!" Regina +repeated. + +"Now, come, come, Queenie, you mustn't--you mustn't--hang it all, I +don't know what you mustn't do! The girl fancies the boy, and he has +plenty of money. He's a nice, gentlemanly chap, and she'll live in +style. He's going to have a motor car; she'll live in far better style +than we've ever done." + +"But you are not a sausage-maker," said Regina. "Alfie, Alfie, I'm +afraid I couldn't have married you if you had been a sausage-maker." + +The word "sausage" seemed positively to stick in Regina's throat. + +"Queenie," said Alfred, "you know perfectly well that what I was had +nothing to do with your feelings towards me. If I had been a +crossing-sweeper--" + +"Alfie," said she, interrupting him, "a duke might sweep a crossing and +sweep it nobly, and remain a duke, unsullied and unsoiled; but a duke +would never make sausages!" + +"No, but sausages may make a duke," said Alfred, promptly. "I know just +how you feel, my dear girl--I felt a sort of a lump come in my throat +myself when he told me--but he was frank and unashamed. I should hate +one of my girls to marry a man who was ashamed of his calling, whatever +it was." + +"My noble Alfred!" cried Regina. + +"I don't know that I'm particularly noble," said Alfred. "I never feel +it if I am. I'm afraid it's only your eyes that see me in such a light. +But I did feel a bit of a lump in my throat, a sort of extra big stone +in my gizzard, don't you know. And then it came over me that it is the +girl's own choice, and that it is not for me to damp it." + +"But Maudie doesn't know." + +"In a way she does, and in another way she doesn't. I asked young Harry +if he had told her the exact nature of his business. He said no, he +hadn't. He had told her he was in business in the city, that they had a +great many branches, but he had not told her the exact nature of it. 'We +never think about it,' he said 'excepting as the business; and if our +friends don't know that Bundaby's Eating Houses belong to us, well, we +don't see why we should enlighten them.'" + +"If nobody knows--" began Regina. + +"Come, come, old lady, you'll have to swallow it, and we shall have to +break it to the little girl, unless young Harry does it himself." + +It was eleven o'clock before they had any opportunity of speaking on the +subject to Maudie; indeed, they were still talking the affair over when +they heard the pair come into the hall, and Maudie opened the door of +the room in which they were sitting. + +"Yes, I must go now," said Harry Marksby. "I've got to be up so +fearfully early in the morning. To-morrow night I shall be able to stay +a bit later." + +He came in, as he said, just to say good-night, and his way of saying +good-night to Maudie's mother did a good deal to wipe the word "sausage" +off the slate of Regina's impressionability. + +"I've only come in for a minute, Mrs. Whittaker," he said. "I must be +off home, because I've got to be up awfully early in the morning. I made +half-a-dozen business appointments for to-morrow ever so early, before I +knew that Maudie and I would quite come to an understanding to-night. +May I come to-morrow evening?" + +"You may come whenever you like," said Regina. "You had better begin, +Harry, as you mean to go on. I have no son of my own, and the young men +who take my girls away from me must not think they are going to rob me +of my daughters--on the contrary, they must make me forget that I never +had sons." + +"I shall be very willing to do that," Harry Marksby returned. "I've +always managed to get on with my own mother all right, and I don't see +why I shouldn't get on with my mother-in-law. It won't be my fault if I +don't." + +"I'm sure it won't be mine," said Regina. + +"No, I'm sure it won't," said he heartily. "Well, good-night, Mrs. +Whittaker." He bent down and kissed her just as frankly as if she had +been his own mother, and Regina choked a little as the boy and girl went +out of the room together. + +In a couple of minutes or so Maudie came back, came in with quite a rush +for one of her quiet nature, and flung herself down at her mother's +feet. + +"I am so happy, mother dear," she said. "You have been happy in your +married life, and you can understand what I feel. To-morrow will be a +great day for me. I'm going to meet Harry in Bond Street at four +o'clock, and we're going to choose our ring together; and after that I'm +going right down to the city with him, and I'm going to have my tea at +one of the Bundaby shops. I always did think I should like to keep a +shop mother," she went on, "you have heard me say so lots of times, but +I never thought that I should one day be at the head of at least +thirty!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +DETAILS + + The young rush along the pathway of life cheerfully surmounting or + overturning every obstacle, while their more cautious elders + look on aghast at their nerve. + + +When once Harry Marksby had taken the plunge and was accepted as a lover +of Maudie's, he was determined not to let the grass grow under his feet. +May was then about three parts over, and Harry insisted that the wedding +should be, as he called it, "pulled off" before the end of July. + +"But why this hurry?" asked Regina, who, in spite of her modernity, +still retained some traces of her aboriginal ways of thought. + +"No hurry at all; but why waste time, Mrs. Whittaker?" said Harry. "What +is there to wait for? We have plenty of money. I always go away for +August, and, for an occasion like this, my father won't think anything +of it if I take a good share of September too. A man only gets married +now and again, you know." + +"But why not leave it till the autumn?" + +"Because I want to take Maudie for a good trip abroad. She wishes it--I +wish it. What do you say? Clothes? Oh, surely we needn't consider a few +clothes. Get as little as she can do with for a continental trip--lay +the wedding gown up in lavender, and let Maudie buy the rest of her +things in Paris as we come home." + +"There's reason in it," said Alfred Whittaker, from the depths of his +big chair. + +"I don't like my daughter being married in such a hurry as this," said +Regina, half hesitatingly. + +"But why? Hurried marriages are the fashion nowadays. Royalty pulls it +off in a couple of months or so--long engagements are out of date. I +knew a man once," Harry went on--"I didn't know him very well, but I met +him--who had been engaged to a girl for thirteen years, and they somehow +or other didn't altogether hit it off when they did get married. There's +nothing to be gained by waiting. You don't really get to know one +another until the knot is actually tied. I know Maudie as well now as I +should know her if I was engaged to her for seven years." + +"I don't want you to wait seven years," said Regina. + +"Well, I should hope not," replied Harry. + +"But as many months--" began Regina, when Harry Marksby impetuously +interrupted her. + +"Oh no, Mrs. Whittaker," he exclaimed. "Maudie would be worn to +fiddlestrings long before seven months were over. The end of July, if +you please. I can work all my business up to that point--then +everything's slack, it's a sort of off-time, so to speak--and I can go +away with a clear conscience and give my wife a ripping honeymoon--get +a ripping honeymoon myself, for the matter of that." + +"You have decided where you want to go?" Regina inquired. + +"Yes, we're going to Switzerland, taking the Rhine on our way and the +Italian lakes as we come back; get a fortnight in Paris, or if we drive +it too late for that, stay three or four days in Paris, and perhaps go +back again for a few days in the early autumn--if Maudie wants clothes, +that is to say." + +"I sha'n't," said Maudie. "I am not going to get my dresses in Paris. +I've come to see now that we made fools of ourselves when we came home +from school with everything Parisian. They were horrid, and were a full +year in advance of the fashions here. I hate being a year ahead of the +fashions--it's quite as bad as being two years behind them. I would much +rather not have all my things bought now, mother. I think Harry is quite +right. A couple of good tailor-dresses, a few muslins, my wedding dress, +and a tea-gown, and other things of that kind, are necessary, but I can +get my further trousseau as I want it." + +"I call that a practical suggestion," put in Alfred Whittaker. + +"Most practical," agreed Harry. "That was why I was fascinated in the +first instance by Maudie--she is so practical." + +"Do you want a wife to be altogether practical?" demanded Julia, while +Maudie looked up anxiously, as if her beloved Harry was about to find +some flaw in her. + +A most odd look flashed across the young man's keen face. "You'll +understand one day," he said, addressing Julia directly. "You'll +understand, and you'll sympathize with me. A fellow likes a wife who +knows how many beans make five. A fool has no charm for any man, except +he's too big a black-guard to want his wife to find him out. As regards +frocks, and the spending of money, and the business side of life, a man +does like his wife to be altogether practical." + +"That implies another side of the picture," said Julia. + +"Yes, it does. And the other side of the picture is me and those that +may come after me; and if a man is a straight, clean wholesome man, he +likes his wife to be altogether sentimental as regards him, and those +that come after him. You will understand me some day, Julia, my dear." + +Maudie's face dropped instantly, and something like the flash of +diamonds came into her eyes. She heaved a great sigh, a tremulous sigh, +not one of pain; and hearing it, Harry Marksby caught hold of her hand +and tried to pull her ring off. And Maudie began to laugh with those +tell-tale little twinkling drops bedewing her eyelashes, and Regina +looked on, much as an elephant might regard her offspring at play, with +a look which only required a little encouragement for her to put it into +words. And if that look had been put into words, they would have been +but three--"_My noble boy!_" + +"Ah, well," said Julia, now busy a few yards away, "you are not half +good enough for our Maudie, Harry. You are taking away the biggest part +of my life, and of course you are very cock o' whoop about it; but if +you're not good to her, Harry, you will have to reckon with _me_." + +"All right, I'll be there when you want me," Harry replied. "Then we may +take it, Mrs. Whittaker," he continued, with a change of tone, "that the +end of July will be the date to work to?" + +"I suppose so," said Regina, "if her father has no objection." + +"I detest long engagements myself," said Alfred Whittaker. "I never +could see the good of them. I was engaged much too long to you, my +dear." + +"It was the happiest time of my life--" Regina began, somewhat +wistfully. + +"Oh, don't say that," her husband interrupted, "don't say that. It might +have been happier than any time that went before--I know it was for +me--but at best it is only a foreshadowing, it's only like water to +wine, like moonlight to sunlight. There, there, children," he said, +flinging out his hands with a deprecating gesture, "there, there, your +old dad doesn't often get so sentimental as that. The end of July let it +be, and after that we shall all go away and breathe freely." + +As a matter of fact, after that Ye Dene became like a seething +whirlpool. Such a coming and going, such a dumping of parcels and +patterns and presents, such sending out of invitations and receiving of +congratulations there was, that more than once even Regina herself +admitted that two months was quite long enough for a young couple to be +engaged in these modern days. + +The Marksby family were frankly and undeniably delighted and overjoyed +at the new state of affairs. They received Maudie with wide-open arms, +lavished their love and admiration and gifts upon her. Papa Marksby came +across to Ye Dene one evening, and was solemnly closeted with Alfred +Whittaker for the space of a whole hour, during which time they smoked +extremely long cigars, drank whisky-and-soda out of extremely long +tumblers, and went solemnly, although in very friendly fashion, into +extremely long figures. + +And then Alfred Whittaker introduced his future son-in-law's father into +the circle in the drawing-room, and Papa Marksby informed Regina in a +voice of much satisfaction and some oiliness, that he and his good +friend and neighbor had settled all the little details of future ways +and means for the young couple. + +"Fifty thousand pounds, my dear Queenie," said Alfred Whittaker, when he +found himself once more alone with his wife. + +"Fifty thousand pounds, Alfie? What do you mean?" + +"Fifty thousand pounds, as our neighbor across the road puts it, 'to be +tied to Maudie's tail!'" + +"You mean to say he's going to settle fifty thousand pounds upon her?" + +"I do. Papa Marksby isn't the man to do things by halves. He puts it +very clearly and in a very business-like manner, that he has set aside +the sum of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds to be divided equally, +on their marriage, between his two daughters and his prospective +daughter-in-law. He says he can well afford it, that it won't affect the +business the least little bit in the world, and, whatever happens, the +three girls will always be safe, they and their children after them. +It's a wonderful thing," he went on, "that two girls like Rachel and +Emmeline Marksby, with fifty thousand pounds apiece to their fortune--to +their immediate fortune, one may say--should remain unmarried, and our +little Maudie, who hasn't and never will have, more than a third of that +sum, should snap up a big prize as she has done." + +"I knew they were well off," said Regina, "I knew it in many ways as +soon as they came here, but I am not surprised that Maudie has made this +wealthy marriage. She is very beautiful--_very_ beautiful. What +surprises me is that the Marksbys should turn out to have so much money. +He gave over a hundred pounds for her engagement ring, and next week +he's going to buy her a diamond necklace. Think of _my_ daughter with a +diamond necklace." + +"That is as it should be," said Alfred, complacently. "Even when it is +made out of sausages." + +"Dear, dear, Alfie, how you do harp on those sausages!" + +"My dear, I went and lunched on them the other day--excellent, +excellent! Don't know how they do it for the money. I saw the whole +process--went over the factory. Everything as clean as a new pin; you +could eat your dinner off the floor." + +"I--I--don't know," said Regina. "It seems a little.--However, having +put my hand to the plough, I am not one to look back. Once my daughter +has married sausages, I will honor sausages!" + +"You will certainly be able to honor a good deal that sausages will give +her," said Alfred Whittaker. "And now, Queenie, there's a subject on +which I have been trying to get a word with you for the last week or +more. What are we going to give, Queenie, for our wedding present?" + +But that was not a question to be answered off-hand. It was a matter +requiring much consideration, consultation--divination, I might say. The +major points of the coming ceremony were all arranged; the bride's +dress, the costumes of the maids, the favors for the men, and the +wording of the invitations. It was the last and greatest, and perhaps +the least easy to decide--what should be the present of the father and +mother of the bride. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +DIAMOND EARRINGS + + It is an accepted rule that a gift is enhanced if it comes in the + nature of a surprise. + + +The great question was not settled exclusively by Mr. and Mrs. +Whittaker. + +"You must," said Alfred to his wife in the sanctity of their sleeping +apartment, "find out what Maudie would like to have for her wedding +present from us. I wouldn't buy her 'a pig in a poke,' she'll have too +many of such articles, and it is important that she should have +something from us that she really wants." + +"The question is," said Regina to her lord, "what your ideas are on the +subject." + +"No, my dear Queenie, my ideas will not make the least difference," he +returned, as he carefully examined one side of his respectable face to +see if he had scraped it sufficiently clean. "I can afford, my dear +Queenie, to give you a free hand in this matter. I only stipulate that +it shall be something that Maudie wants--really wants. A grand piano?" + +"Not a grand piano," said Regina. "Mr. Marksby's rich aunt is giving +them that." + +"Bless me! I didn't know they had a rich aunt. I thought Mr. Marksby had +made all the money in the family. Well, there are plenty of things to +make a choice of, silver for the table, furniture for the drawing-room, +a brougham--anything else that she likes and that you like." + +"Well, I will have a little chat with Julia," said Regina, with that +rapt air of contemplation which was all her own. "Julia is a girl with +ideas, Julia is far removed from the commonplace, Julia is a genius." + +"Well," said Alfred Whittaker, "I don't know that it takes much genius +to choose a wedding present." + +"In a sense, dear Alfie, in a sense. But there is one question, dearest, +that you must decide. How much is our wedding present to cost?" + +"Well," said Alfred, as he gave his face a final rub with the towel, +"thank God I am able to give a hundred pounds for my girl's wedding +present, to give her a decent trousseau and to give her a decent dot. +What you like to add to that is your own affair. There, now," he said, +as he threw the towel on the rail by the washstand, "I can't waste +another moment, I must get my tub, charming as your conversation always +is." + +He whisked out of the room, a quaint figure enough in his demi-toilette. +But Regina saw nothing quaint about her lord and master. "A handsome man +with a presence," was her usual description of him. But there are +moments when the state of being which we describe as "a presence" has +its grotesque aspects, and surely the flight to the bathroom is one of +them. Mrs. Whittaker might have been the little blind god herself for +all she saw of the grotesque in her noble Alfred. + +"A hundred pounds," she murmured, stopping in the process of arranging +her hair for the day in order to rest the end of her hair brush on the +edge of the toilet-table, and gazing at herself fixedly in the glass. "A +hundred pounds! And, thank goodness, I can if need be put a hundred +pounds of my own to it; I have only two darlings. I must consult Julia." + +Mrs. Whittaker took the earliest opportunity of a chat with her younger +flower. It was not many minutes after Alfred Whittaker had departed for +his office that a maid-servant came running across from Ingleside with a +message to the effect that three large parcels had come for the bride, +as she was affectionately called on both sides of the road, and would +Miss Maudie please come across and open them, as the young ladies were +dying to know what they contained. So Maudie disappeared in the +direction of Ingleside, and Mrs. Whittaker seized the opportunity of +broaching the important subject that was uppermost in her mind to Julia. + +"Don't go away, Julia," she said, almost nervously. + +"Yes, mother darling, what is the matter?" + +"Nothing is the matter. But I want to consult you." + +"Oh," said Julia, with a little air of conscious pride, "and what do you +want to consult me about?" + +"It is about our present--your father's and mine." + +"I should ask Maudie herself." + +"No, your father wants it to be a surprise, quite a surprise. I thought +if you knew, or could find out something she really wants, I could go to +town and meet your father and get it settled." + +"What is daddy's idea?" + +"Your father's idea is a grand piano, but Mr. Marksby's aunt is giving +them that." + +"Well, they don't want two," said Julia, sensibly. "The employees are +giving them table silver, and the directors are giving them three silver +bowls. If I were you I should give Maudie diamond earrings." + +"You think she would like them?" + +"Yes, dear mother; every woman who has had her ears pierced likes +diamond earrings." + +"What sort of diamond earrings?" + +"Oh," said Julia, "there can be no doubt the sort. Have the biggest +single stones that you can squeeze out of the money." + +So the great question was settled, and a day or two later Mrs. Whittaker +and Julia went up to town and lunched with the noble Alfred. They +lunched at a very cosy little restaurant not a thousand yards from +Charing Cross. A spoonful of white soup, a scrap of salmon, a serve of +chicken stewed in the French fashion in the pot, and some asparagus, +washed down by some excellent white wine, and followed by a black coffee +and a liqueur, made the trio very much inclined to look on the rosy side +of life. Then they got into a hansom, Julia sitting bodkin-wise, and +drove off to the jeweler's at which Mrs. Whittaker had decided that they +would buy Maudie's earrings. Their choice fell upon a pair which the +shopman described as "fit for an empress." They were not vulgarly +large, but they were of the purest water, and of the most dazzling +brilliance. + +"You think," said Mrs. Whittaker to Julia, "you think that Maudie would +like these better than the larger ones?" + +"Oh yes, mother, there's no comparison. The big ones don't look better +than paste; these are unmistakably the real thing." + +"It is a pleasure to sell diamonds to so good a judge," said the +gentleman who was attending to them. + +"I should have thought," said Alfred Whittaker, in his most prosaic +manner, "that as long as you sold your goods it would not matter to whom +you sold them." + +"Excuse me, sir, that is where you make a mistake. We have a lady +customer--she is a duchess--who frequently brings her jewels to be +cleaned. She says her maid is a child at jewel-cleaning. It is not our +business to say to the contrary, but that lady kills every diamond in +her possession." + +"How kills?" said Julia. + +"I cannot say, madam. Something in her magnetism causes the stones to +look dead and slatey. The stones that she has had in her possession and +worn continually for the last twenty years are not now worth a twentieth +part of what was originally paid for them--all the fire has gone out of +them. Whether they would recover themselves by being worn by a magnetic +wearer I do not know. We have a young lady here in our establishment of +quite radiant magnetism. She does no work, but gets a good salary and +simply remains here and occupies herself as she likes and wears certain +jewels a certain number of times. Sometimes when that particular +lady--the duchess--is anxious to make a great appearance on some special +occasion, we have her best stones for a month or even longer. This young +lady of ours wears them all day long, and I can assure you it is an odd +sight to see her with her two hands covered with rings, even her thumbs, +her arms loaded with bracelets, one diamond necklace worn in the +ordinary way, and another one worn over her shoulders." + +"And the diamonds recover their color?" + +"Oh yes, madam, but these are only the stones that her Grace wears +occasionally. I have been told," he went on, "that their brilliance +never lasts with her, and that long before the Drawing-room, or +whatever the function may be, is over, they look as if they had been +black-leaded. You can quite understand, sir," he said, turning to +Alfred Whittaker, "that it is positive pain to me to sell any of our +best diamonds to such a wearer." + +"Well," said Alfred, "the lady who is going to wear these earrings will +never, I think, trouble you in the same way." + +"Oh no!" said Julia. + +And then, somehow, the idea was born that Alfred Whittaker should give a +little trifle of remembrance to Regina and their daughter. The little +trifle of remembrance consisted of a very handsome turquoise ring for +the mother and a very smart bangle for the girl. + +"I had no idea, dear daddy," said Julia, "of your buying me anything +to-day. I have been wanting one of these bangles for, oh! such a long +time." + +"And you never breathed it!" said Regina. + +"I never thought of it," said Julia; "but I am all the more delighted +because I did not think of anything for myself." + +Then they departed carrying with them the lovely earrings which Maudie +was to wear in remembrance of home as long as she should live. + +"They know you in that shop, daddy," said Julia, as they walked back +toward Piccadilly. + +"Oh yes, I have gone there for years; but how do you know that they knew +me?" + +"Oh--from the way they said 'good day' to you when you went in, and then +you brought the earrings away with you and only paid for them by +cheque--to say nothing of my beautiful bangle and mother's ring." + +At this Alfred Whittaker laughed and said that being known at shops like +this was one of the advantages of having a solid business behind one. +Then they looked into one or two windows, and Mrs. Whittaker beguiled +Alfred into a certain lace shop under the excuse that she was going to +wear a lace garment at the wedding and that she wanted him to help her +to choose it. Then they went to some very smart tea-rooms and refreshed +themselves after the usual manner of five o'clock, and then they went +home to Ye Dene, where they found Maudie, who had just come in, +struggling with a perfect avalanche of presents. + +"Where did you get that heart?" said Julia, looking fixedly at her +sister. + +Maudie's hand, the one with the diamonds on it, touched the jewel. "Oh, +my heart," she said in her soft, cooing voice. "Harry has been over, he +brought it from town--he wants me to wear it always. See, it's got a +little miniature of him at the back. He thought I should like to have it +to be married in--just his heart, you know--because I had decided not to +wear my necklace, or--my--er--fender." + +"A very pretty idea," said Regina, beaming proudly upon the bride-elect, +with an expression as if the thought had emanated from her brain instead +of that of the bridegroom-to-be. "We have come from town, your father +and I, and we have brought you a present." + +"Oh! you darlings! What have you brought me? But I know it is something +nice." + +"It's not very big," said her father, producing the little packet from +his waistcoat pocket, "but we hope you will like it all the same." + +"Oh, a ring," cried Maudie, as she caught sight of the box. "I love +rings more than anything else, and it is so sweet and kind of you to +remember my little tastes, and to give me something that I can carry +about with me always when I am not living here any more." + +Regina looked hard out of the window. In spite of her pride at her +girl's approaching marriage, it was a bitter wrench to her to think that +she soon would have only one child in the home nest. Indeed, she looked +forward further still to the time when she and Alfred would be Darby and +Joan, with no young life to disturb the serenity of their daily round. +It was the voice of Julia which brought her back to earth again. + +"Now come, don't stand there rhapsodizing about it, but open your +parcel, old lady, and see what luck will send you," she said to her +sister. "I am sure Harry has given you rings enough. You don't credit +mother and father with over-much sense when you think they would give +you something of which Harry has already given you a dozen." + +At this moment Maudie gave a faint scream. "Oh, you darlings! you +darlings! I never thought of this; I don't know which of you to kiss +first. Oh, oh, what will Harry say? Oh! Julia, you had a hand in this. +Single stone earrings! Oh, they are too good for me." + +"Why should you say they are too good for you?" said Regina. "Nothing is +too good for me to give my daughter." + +"But you were right in one thing," said Julia, as Maudie slipped one of +the sparkling stones from its nest of white velvet, and insinuated the +gold ring into her ear, "they have given you something that you can wear +every day." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A GOLDEN DAY + + Most people detest tears at a wedding, and yet weddings give much + more cause for tears than funerals. + + +At last Maudie Whittaker's wedding day dawned--a golden July day, fair +and still, without being oppressively hot. I think I have already said +that the houses of Marksby and Whittaker were situated in one of the +main roads of that favorite residential locality which is known to +Londoners as Northampton Park, and to its residents as "the Park," +without any distinguishing prefix. A stranger passing along Milton +Avenue might have wondered what great function was afoot, for at both +houses flags were flying, and on lines stretched across from house to +house, amidst streaming pennons, was a great green and white marriage +bell. From the gate to the porch of Ye Dene Alfred Whittaker had, some +two years before, erected a covered glass way, almost a conservatory. +This was lined with flowers and carpeted with red felt. A couple of +stalwart commissionaires stood at either side of the entrance, and a +crowd of the poorer denizens of the Park had gathered to watch the +coming and going of the wedding guests. I must tell you at once that on +this occasion Regina was truly great. + +"Mother," Maudie had said on the previous evening, when she bade her +parents good-night for the last time as Maudie Whittaker. "Mother +darling, there's one thing that you must not do to-morrow." + +"What is that, my love?" said Regina. + +"You will not cry when you get to church, and you will not cry when we +go away, will you? Remember that in Harry you are gaining a son, not +losing a daughter." + +"No," said Regina, "no, I shall not disgrace you. At the same time, +Maudie, my love, if I am not losing a daughter I am losing my little +girl." + +"Not a bit of it, mother," said Julia, chiming in to support her sister +and resolutely keeping her thoughts turned from the fact that on the +morrow half her life would be torn away; "you mustn't think that, +dearest. You know the old saying, 'my son is my son till he gets him a +wife, but my daughter's my daughter all the days of my life.'" + +"Then I hope," said Regina, solemnly, to the bride-elect, "that you will +never make that poor little woman across the road feel that _her_ son is +her son till he gets him a wife. But rest assured of one thing, Maudie +darling, your mother will not disgrace you on your wedding day. I was at +a wedding a few years ago when the bride's mother howled persistently +all through the ceremony and till the bride departed on her honeymoon. +They had not been on such terms as we have always been--in fact, if +Constance Colquhoun had not fortunately found a husband, it is very +certain that Mrs. Colquhoun and she would have parted company rather +than have gone on living together in a continual state of wrangling. I +have no regrets for the past and very few fears for the future. You will +have your ups and downs, my darling, as your mother has had before you +and as your children will have after you. You must look for them in this +vale of tears, but anticipation of them on a joyful occasion is foolish +even to criminality." + +Probably no sweeter bride had ever passed up the aisle of the fantastic +little church which was alike the spiritual and material centre of +Northampton Park. It was not that Maudie Whittaker was a very pretty +girl--no one but her mother had ever given a second thought to personal +beauty as one of her attributes--but she was soft and round and fair, +with radiant eyes and a winning smile. Her bridal gown was simple and +girlish, and her veil of plain tulle enveloped her like a cloud of +innocence. Her only jewel was the diamond heart which her bridegroom had +given her for his wedding-day present. Her bouquet was a real ornament, +a loosely-arranged posy of flowers tied with broad white ribbon--not the +usual over-weighted bundle of blossoms showering from the hand to the +ground, conveying the idea that if the bride was sufficiently unlucky to +tread upon the mass of trails, the result would be the complete downfall +of bride and bouquet alike. The bridesmaids were quite reasonably +attired. Maudie had been inflexible on that point. "My dear Ju," she had +said to her sister when the question was first mooted, "the bride ought +to choose the bridesmaids' dresses. I have seen bridesmaids in Charles +II. dresses, in Tudor dresses, in Directoire costumes, and such close +copies of Boughton's Dutch maidens, that one felt they only wanted +sabots to be entirely correct. I have seen bridesmaids with their +gathers under their arms, and with pouches down to their knees. +I am going to have none of these monstrosities. You and I are +ordinary-looking girls, but, between ourselves, we are dreams of +style compared with Rachel and Emmeline Marksby." + +"Harry seems to have monopolized all the style in the Marksby family," +said Julia, with a judicial air. + +"Oh, Harry has style enough," rejoined Maudie, with not a little pride +in her tones. + +"Yes, you are quite right, Rachel and Emmeline are two dear little +girls, but they are dumpy and snub-nosed, and would look ridiculous in +any sort of fancy dress. You could hardly find a greater contrast than +the Ponsonby-Piggots." + +"Oh, my dear, where could you find a greater contrast than the +Ponsonby-Piggots themselves? One girl as tall as a lamp post, has +straight features, and is definite and rather commanding; and the other +is a little slip of a thing, with curly red hair, misty blue eyes, and +an air of fragility which completely deceives the ordinary observer. So +no monstrosities and eccentricities of bridesmaids' dresses for me. I +should like white _crepe de chine_ frocks over turquoise blue +petticoats, belts of some handsome embroidery with clasps studded with +big blue stones that will look like turquoise, and big black hats with a +touch of blue under the brim; Harry is going to give them blue enamel +watches. There, I think that is as smart an idea for bridesmaids' +dresses as we need trouble about." + +So it was decided, and the eight bridesmaids who followed Maudie +Whittaker to the altar were all dressed alike, as I have just described. +On her left breast each wore the enamel watch given by the bridegroom, +while the bride's gifts to her bridesmaids were the embroidered belts +studded with blue stones. + +Yes, it was a very pretty wedding, and Regina, resplendent in ruby +velvet, with a white feather waving in her coronet bonnet, and over her +ample shoulders a large cape arrangement of rich lace, sailed up the +aisle on the arm of Mr. Marksby. She had an air of "alone I did it" +about her which was at the same time touching and misleading. In her +tightly-gloved hand she carried a large posy of roses, and truly there +was nothing of Niobe in her expression and demeanor. The service went +off without a hitch, the decorations were lavish, and the little boys, +who were all that could be mustered of the regular choir, wore clean +surplices. The favors were extremely choice, and the happy face of the +bride was more than matched by the radiant self-satisfaction of the +bridegroom. "A delightful wedding" was the general verdict. And then +there was the streaming back to the house just down the road, there was +the string of carriages belonging to friends from town, the Park guests +having followed the simpler plan of going afoot. How shall I describe it +all? The palms, the flowers, the gay dresses, the gently-murmured +felicitations, the health drinking, the speech making, the cake cutting, +the present inspecting, which is the usual course of the smart wedding. +These things were all there, for the Alfred Whittakers had given their +daughter what is generally called "a good send-off." + +Then there came the terrible moment when Regina might have been forgiven +for breaking down. But Regina was equal to the occasion--Regina was a +woman of her word. + +"Oh, no, I am not at all inclined to break down," she said in reply to a +friend who was offering judicious sympathy. "I feel that in my girl's +husband I have gained what I have always longed for--a son. I am going +to be a mother-in-law quite out of the ordinary run, and I am not going +to begin by making him feel himself a cruel marauder who is taking away +my most valued possession. I should not like to have children who did +not marry; it is a natural thing, and Maudie's choice is so absolutely +ours that I have nothing to regret and everything to be delighted with." + +"But did not Maudie choose her own husband?" said someone who was +standing by. + +"Oh, of course she did, but if we had chosen her husband our choice +would have been Harry Marksby." + +It chanced that Harry was just entering the house, having been across +the road to change his wedding garments for traveling gear. He was in +time to hear the whole of his mother-in-law's reply to the question as +to whether Maudie had chosen her own husband. He slipped his hand under +her arm and twisted her round a little. + +"You are not going to be a mother-in-law out of the common," he said, +"because you are one. Nothing you could do would be in the common. But I +cannot thank you enough for saying that if you had chosen Maudie's +husband you would have chosen me. And I'm so glad," he went on in a +lower tone, "that you did not think it necessary to treat us to the +usual shower of maternal tears on this occasion." + +"Perhaps I should have done," cried Mrs. Whittaker, "if I were not so +perfectly happy in Maudie's choice. Why should I want to weep over my +girl's happiness? Why should your mother want to make herself look a +silly fright because you have married the girl of your heart? We are +agreed, are we not, Mrs. Marksby?" + +"Oh, yes, I always did believe in young men getting married as soon as +they are in a position to marry comfortably. As I said to Harry as we +were having a little talk last night, 'Remember, my boy, that you are +marrying in a very different position to what pa and me did. Pa and me +married to a little house with three bedrooms in the southeast district, +with never a thought that we should end up west, and see our boy married +as we have seen him married this day'--didn't we pa?" + +"Yes, mother, we did. And I don't know that we've had any cause to +regret it." + +"I don't know about you, pa," said Mrs. Marksby, bridling visibly. + +"Oh, I don't say but that you might have done better," said Mr. Marksby, +"but we were very happy in that little house, and I only hope that the +young people will be as happy in their beginning as we were in ours." + +"We shall not be less happy because we are able to afford a decent house +in the West End," said Harry, sensibly. "If we are, you may take it as +certain that we should have been just as unhappy in the cottage with +three bedrooms. But, I say, Mrs. Whittaker, isn't Maudie nearly ready? +We sha'n't catch that train if we don't look out. Ah, here she is. Come +along, my dear girl, come along; we've got none too much time to spare." + +Perhaps it was as well. There was a moment's hesitation as Maudie said +"good-bye" to her mother; for one instant, Julia standing by, vigilant +and keen, feared that her mother was going to break down in spite of all +her good resolves. But Mrs. Whittaker was a valiant soul; she pulled +herself up sharply as the little bride, holding her father's hand, went +out to face the storm of rice and old slippers which was awaiting them +outside the house. + +"I know," she said, her voice a little tremulous in spite of her +self-control, "I know she will make a good wife, because she has been +such a good daughter." + +"We can cry quits, Mrs. Whittaker," said the mother of the bridegroom, +"for a better boy to his father and mother than our Harry I don't +believe you could find from one end of the earth to the other." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +OTHER GODS + + How little noise people make when they are suddenly stricken with + great mental anguish. + + +They say that after a storm there comes a calm, and a very true saying +it is. After the storm of orange blossoms that raged around Ye Dene on +that July day, there came a calm which was broken only by the excitement +of watching for the postman. The most valuable of the wedding presents +were safely packed up on the evening of the wedding day and consigned to +Alfred Whittaker's private safe. The others were left in the girls' +sitting-room, carefully covered up, in preparation for the long trip in +which the bride and bridegroom were indulging themselves, prior to +regular housekeeping. + +For years the Whittakers had made a point of seeking a fresh holiday +resort with each summer, and this year, by a kind of instinct, they +decided not to go to an English watering-place. Perhaps the feeling that +the bride and groom were enjoying themselves in the Bernese Oberland, +and meant to cover a good deal of ground before they turned their +footsteps homewards, made them feel that the contrast of an English +watering-place would be too much. They therefore decided that Dieppe +would be a bright and convenient change for them; but they were not due +to leave home until some ten days after the wedding. + +Now, it happened that Regina, instead of following the usual course of +mothers, and making the little absent bride into a sort of deity, was +possessed of a feeling that she would like in some way to reward her +younger girl for her helpfulness at the time of the wedding, and the +unselfish manner in which she had deferred in every possible way to her +sister's wishes. She therefore determined that she would give Julia a +little surprise present. No, it was not a birthday, it was not any kind +of commemoration, but she felt that this was an occasion on which she +could appropriately spend a little money. Now Regina was amply blessed +with this world's goods--I mean in her own right. Alfred Whittaker had +done extremely well in the world, and whereas Regina had once loomed in +his horizon as an heiress in a modest way, she was now the wife of an +exceedingly warm man, and happy in the possession of a tidy little +income of her own. She breathed not a word of her purpose to a soul. She +did not intend her little gift to take the form of raiment. Julia's +father gave her an ample dress allowance, and Regina was in the habit of +adding to it with special offerings at such times as birthdays and the +season of Christmas. It was not difficult for her to carry out her +purpose, for she had but seldom gone to town in company with her girls. +She was so busy a woman, she had so many excuses, so many appointments +and engagements of a semi-business kind, that her comings and goings +were not often questioned. + +"What are you doing to-day, Julia?" she asked, one morning at breakfast, +about a week after the wedding. + +"To-day, mother dear? Well, I have to go out with Emmeline Marksby this +morning, and unless you want me I am going to lunch there. And then I am +going to get my new white frock fitted on, and I am going to tea at the +Dravens." + +"So you will be occupied all day?" + +"Why, do you want me?" + +"Not at all, dear child, only I feel that you must be lonely now that +Maudie has gone, and I have at least a dozen things to occupy me." + +"Oh, don't worry yourself about me; I shall be busy right up to dinner +time." + +So they went their separate ways, and two hours later Mrs. Whittaker +might have been seen deliberately pacing up the arcade in which was +situated the shop at which Maudie's earrings had been bought. A +smooth-spoken young gentleman came forward to receive her. Regina +explained her pleasure; she wanted earrings. No, not for the bride; for +the young lady who was with her when she bought the bride's earrings. +Solitaire earrings? Yes. Turquoise were very nice, but she fancied that +Miss Whittaker did not care much about turquoise. Did she fancy pink +coral? Yes, that was a happy idea, so suitable for a young lady. So +Regina was shown various solitaire earrings in that most delicate and +girlish substance. But even then she was not satisfied, and the pink +coral earrings were set in diamonds. No, it was not the expense; that +was not the question, but Mrs. Whittaker thought that not even tiny +diamonds should find a place in the jewel-box of a very young girl. + +"Pink coral without--?" + +"Just a few sparks, madam," said the gentleman on the other side of the +counter, "they will be a little--well, a little insignificant--as +earrings." + +"Perhaps," Mrs. Whittaker admitted, "you might let me see the turquoise, +I could have those without diamonds." + +"Yes, or pearls. Solitaire pearls are quite young ladies' jewelry." + +"And are they very expensive?" asked Regina. + +"Oh no, madam. Let me show you the pearls." + +So another tray was handed out, and yet another tray; one containing all +manner of turquoise studs for the ears, and the other showing an +assortment of pearl earrings, from modest ones at five guineas a pair to +some which were far beyond Regina's means or Julia's necessities. +Eventually a pair of pearl solitaires were chosen and paid for. + +"Yes, I shall take them with me," said Regina, opening her smart black +and gold wrist bag in order that the little jewel-case might be +comfortably nested in company with her small purse and her +pocket-handkerchief. + +"I hope, madam," said the shopman, "that you liked Mr. Whittaker's last +present to you." + +"I like it very much," said Regina, smoothing the back of her hand, and +gazing admiringly at the big turquoise ring that adorned it, "I think +it is a very handsome ring." Then she looked straight into the young +man's eyes, "You were not speaking of this?" she said, with a gesture of +her hand to show that she was speaking of the ring. + +"No, madam," he stammered, "I remember Mr. Whittaker buying the ring and +the bangle for the young lady--I--I was thinking of quite another +customer." + +At that moment another figure came from the office behind the shop. It +was, indeed, the assistant who had actually attended to their wants on +the occasion of her previous visit. + +"I hope," said he, "that the bracelet that Mr. Whittaker bought the +other day met with your approval, madam." + +For a moment Regina felt as if the earth were opening under her feet; a +wild impulse seized her to catch violently hold of something, and scream +in a series of sharp intermittent yelps as a locomotive does when +something has gone wrong, and a wild instinct to catch the two +smooth-faced young men on the other side of the counter by the ears and +bang their heads together--a feeling as if heaven and earth were +slipping away from her. But Regina was a remarkable woman! She had her +vanities and her weaknesses, but in all the emergencies of life Regina +might be counted upon for not losing her head. In spite of the sea of +tempestuous emotions which surged within her at that moment, she +maintained her dignity and her common-sense. + +"No," said she, "I have not yet seen it. I am afraid that you have +given my husband away; as a matter of fact I have a birthday next week." + +It was the first plump and deliberate lie that Regina had ever told in +her life. She did not hurry out of the shop--she even went so far as to +choose a little present for her lord, going back with a curious +persistence to the idea of pink coral, and bought for him what Julia +would have described as a perfectly sweet tie pin, consisting of a bit +of pink coral set between two small but fiery diamonds. + +"Mr. Johnson," said the younger of the two assistants, as the door +closed behind Regina, "you have put your foot in it this time." + +"Why--how--what d'you mean?" + +"Simply this, that Mr. Alfred Whittaker, of Ye Dene, Northampton Park, +won't thank you for letting on to that good lady that he was here last +week buying a bracelet that she don't know anything about." + +"Oh Lord! I never thought of it. She said she had a birthday next week." + +"She said, yes, she _said_, but that ain't any proof to me; I never saw +an old girl pull herself together in a neater manner; she even went so +far as to buy a tie pin on the strength of it. But, mark my words, Mr. +Alfred Whittaker won't thank you for letting on to that lady that he was +here last week buying that bracelet." + +"If I thought that," said Mr. Johnson, "I'd put my head straight in a +bag." + +"If it had been me," said the other, "being a youngster I might have +been excused, but an old hand like you--tittle-tattling about other +customers' purchases--you ought to know better." + +"You are quite right; I deserve anything that may come of it; I don't +think that I have ever done such an idiotic thing in my life. What can I +do to make up for it?" + +"Nothing," said the other. "If anything is said, swear that Mr. +Whittaker told you that the present was for his wife." + +"I think he did." + +"That's as may be. Anyway, stick to it through thick and thin that he +mentioned that it actually was for his wife." + +"Well, don't tell any of the others, Dick." + +"I shouldn't dream of doing that, it isn't likely. I might make a slip +myself one day, so I am not going to point out the slips of other +people." Which, considering the very near shave the young gentleman had +had of making the very same slip not ten minutes before, might be +considered a very feeling remark. + +Meantime Regina had gone blindly along the arcade. She was dressed in +summer garments, and not a few very curious glances were cast at her. +Twice she stopped to look in shop windows with eyes that saw nothing. +The first was a gunsmith's, and the second was a man's window of a +distinguished bootmaker's. Regina never knew the exact objects at which +she had gazed during that painful peregrination. When she got to the end +of the arcade she turned and walked back again, and all the time there +beat to and fro in her brain an idea which said that Alfred, her noble +Alfred, had gone after other gods--after other gods! Well, in the worst +trials of life, in the griefs and shocks and sorrows of the newest and +most unaccustomed kind, a woman cannot walk up and down a fashionable +arcade forever. When she again reached the entrance by which she had +gone in, it occurred to her that she must sit down and think--she must +go somewhere where she could be quiet, where she could face this new +sensation which had come into her life. Her club? No, not her club. She +would meet there women who were interested in the same work as herself. +If she lunched, and she could not be there in the lunch hour without +lunching, someone would join her. There was a little pastry-cook's where +she sometimes lunched when she was in a hurry; she had never seen +anybody there she knew, she would go there. To eat! No--no!--not to eat! +Regina Whittaker was sure that she would never eat with relish again. So +she bent her steps toward this little side-street haven, and, like all +women in dire trouble, ordered tea and a muffin! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +REGINA COMES TO A CONCLUSION + + Have you ever noticed how accurately women judge from small + circumstances. Men call this intuition, and men think of + intuition as being on the same level as instinct. + + +If Regina had ordered a plate of soup it would have been brought to her +immediately, because at one o'clock that comestible would have been +ready and awaiting the wishes of customers. But Regina, as I have said, +like most women in trouble, ordered the food and drink that were nearest +her heart, and therefore she had to wait while the tea was brewed and +the muffin toasted. The waiting did her good. She was alone, as it +happened, in the comfortable room over the shop, and thus she was able +to grasp the situation more clearly than she had done while still +talking to the jeweler's assistant, when she had had to consider the +ordinary conventions of existence. Poor Regina! She sat there by the +tall mantelshelf and stared at the paper roses which filled the summer +grate. Her Alfred, her noble Alfred, had fallen from his pedestal--he +was hers no longer! In all the years of their married life, indeed in +their knowledge of each other, she had never wronged Alfred by even so +much as a doubt of his nobility. To her he had been noble, truly noble, +kind, affectionate, dignified and a highly successful man--and now all +was over; her house of matrimony had fallen about her ears like a pack +of cards--she had been supplanted by another. Truly Regina's thoughts +were very bitter. She had been supplanted by another--what was she going +to do? It came to her memory that in times gone by, when other women had +fallen upon evil days of a like description, she had helped to bear +their sorrows with a very light heart. Well, it had not then entered her +head that their portion might one day be hers; but now the blow had +fallen upon herself, and she must perforce give herself the same advice +that she had given to others. "My dear," she had remarked once to a poor +little woman whose husband had been spoiled by over-much adoration, "you +have made one mistake in your life: you have been too good to that +husband of yours. What? Nobody could be too good to him? You have, my +dear, and it doesn't do to be too good to a man for all time whether he +behaves himself or not; it doesn't do to put all your wares in your +front window. Keep something back; let there be always some little +corner of womanly dignity which men, even husbands, must respect." "But, +Mrs. Whittaker," the little woman had replied, "I haven't any dignity +where Jack is concerned; I don't want any dignity, I only want Jack, and +he has gone away and left me." How well she remembered the words as she +sat alone in the pastry-cook's shop in Regent Street, how well she +remembered! Well, she felt very much as that little woman had felt--she +did not care about her dignity any more; she only wanted Alfred, and +if Alfred was deceiving her, if Alfred was living a double life and +sharing his heart with another, she only wanted to go back to the +blissful time of blind ignorance, when to her he had been the embodiment +of manly dignity and robust virtue. + +She got up and looked at herself in the long strip of glass which was +set between the two tall windows. It was not a becoming glass, nor was +it placed in a particularly becoming light, and Regina, who had been +through a storm of tempestuous emotion, and who bore upon her strongly +marked countenance the visible signs of her mental upheaval, looked, +frankly speaking, quite hideous. At that moment the young lady who had +taken her order for tea and muffin came into the room carrying a little +tray, and Regina made a slight pretence of adjusting her hair before she +went back to the table. + +"Would you prefer to sit here, or by the window?" + +"I think by the window," said Regina. Her tone was admirably +careless--so careless that it almost deceived herself. + +"Will you have cream also with your tea?" + +"Yes, I think I will have cream. Thank you very much." + +A couple of minutes later Regina was once more alone. Certainly the open +window was more comfortable than the empty fireplace with its paper +roses. The tea was freshly made, and was good of its kind, the cream was +rich, and the muffin was the perfection of a muffin, and Regina sat with +the summer wind fanning her troubled brow, and ate and drank her simple +fare and was comforted. As she sat she stole a glance at herself in +another strip of looking-glass, in which she could see herself by +turning her head an inch or two. And as she sat there and her +storm-tossed soul was soothed and comforted by her little meal, she +began to turn things over in her mind with a less tragic spirit than she +had done before. Perhaps if Alfred had been drawn away to other gods it +had been her own fault; Alfred was so handsome, so manly, had such a +presence, and she had despised all the trifling feminine womanly things. +She had given up so much of her time to the regeneration of women that +she had let the material part of Regina Whittaker take its own course, +and Nature, left to take its own course, is never very attractive. She +was too stout. There are people of the plump little partridge order who +would look frightful in a nearer approach to their bones, but Regina had +gone fat in lumps, and Regina's eyes had never been aware of the fact +until this morning. Too much chin, too much nape of the neck, too much +at the top of the arms, too much of that which, even back in Scripture +days when coupled with "a proud look," was ever a subject for derision. + +"Never proud to my Alfred," said she, leaning back in her chair; "but," +and here she crossed her hands just below her waist, "the other is an +indisputable fact." + +As she decided the question in her own mind she laid her hand upon the +little bell which stood beside her on the table. + +"Did I ring?" said she. "Oh, I was not conscious of it. I think I made a +mistake in having this kind of meal. I am not accustomed to it, I feel +as if I had taken nothing." + +"Try a sandwich, madam," said the young lady. + +"Sandwich? I think I am not equal to sandwich to-day. Something has +happened to me; I have had a shock, and you know how we weak women fly +to feminine articles of food when we are in trouble." + +"I am sorry you are in trouble, madam." + +"I came in here knowing I should be quiet, and it is very quiet." + +"It is the end of July. In another week we shall be more quiet still, +and after that, when the country people come, we shall not know where to +turn. When you come back from abroad or from your sojourn by the sea we +shall be as you always see us." + +"I think I will have another muffin." + +"I would, madam. I will tell them to put plenty of butter on it. And a +pot of tea, and a little more cream?" + +"Yes," said Regina, rather weakly. The girl disappeared again, and +Regina sat back in her chair, a very comfortable one, and felt that it +was pleasant to be ministered to, and then fell to thinking about +herself again. How strange that she had never noticed any change in +Alfred! He had never seemed to find her wanting in any way. More than +once, even of late years, he had told her that the girls would never be +a patch upon her for looks, and she had accepted his tribute to her +charms in all good faith. And then she turned to the glass again and +regarded herself with new eyes--critical eyes--and she saw that her +dress was hideous, her bonnet a travesty, her hair, fine in quality and +very decent in color, made nothing of, her gloves were too small or her +hands too large. What did it matter, the result was the same; she was +inelegant, unfashionable, grotesquely stout--she was all wrong, and it +seemed as if all she had done by her work for the regeneration of +womanhood had been to cut herself adrift from her own husband. + +I have said that Regina Whittaker was a very remarkable character, and I +have tried to show that she was a woman who was accustomed to judge for +herself in most circumstances of life, and who, even if she took the +wrong line, took it on her own, so to speak. Now, in what I may honestly +say was the bitterest moment of her life, she decided, judged and +determined on her own line of action just as she had done in previous +times. At this moment the relay of muffin and fresh tea arrived, and +Regina, with a smile of thanks, began with an excellent appetite to eat +the second half of her meal, and as she ate her thoughts were working +busily. + +Alfred had fallen a victim to a hussy! That she was a hussy of tender +years, as compared with Regina herself, was evident. There was no +evidence to prove it, but once the idea had entered Regina's mind it +remained there and throve apace. This ignorant, youthful, gay little +hussy _must be supplanted_, her influence must be undermined, and Alfred +must be lured back to his original nobility. It was curious that no +shadow of blame for the noble Alfred presented itself to Regina. If he +had been unfaithful it was because he had been tempted by a hussy from +the allegiance which had stood the test of over twenty years. If he had +left her for other divinities it was because she had not made herself +sufficiently alluring to him; and Regina, as she ate the last piece of +the second muffin, determined there and then that she would mend her +ways. + +"I will go to a beauty doctor," she told herself. "I will get rid of +every blemish that has lessened my attractions for him; I will put +myself in the hands of an expert dressmaker; she shall dress me like a +fashion-plate; I will be young, I will be slim, I will be attractive, I +will win my husband's heart back again." + +Then her thoughts ran towards the Society for the Regeneration of +Women--that darling project of her later years, which she now realized +had cost her very dear. From that she must free herself; not publicly, +not with any ostensible reason, except that she had worked sufficiently +long. Others must take the reins from her hands and she must put forward +the plea that new blood was necessary, even essential, in all such +undertakings. When she had arrived at this point she was already quite +cheerful. She took out her purse from her black and gold bag and +deposited a bright new sixpence under her muffin plate as a delicate +little reward to the girl whose kindly words had been her first solace, +then satisfied herself with a long look at Julia's earrings, and then +she opened the little case which contained the tie pin that she intended +as an offering to her lord and master. This she determined she would not +present to him. A curious fancy took possession of her that she would +give him some little symbol of her unaltered affection for him. She had +never heard that pink coral was coupled with any particular meaning; it +had no place among what may be called the birthday stones. Now, Alfred's +birthday was in October, so she would choose him an opal--yes, a little +tie pin of opals with a single diamond like a crystallized tear-drop, +and she could say to him, "This opal is to bring you luck in your later +years, and the diamond has a meaning which I will tell you at some +future time--not now." + +Then Regina rose up, strong in her new resolve, and, having paid her +money at the desk, went out into the summer sunshine. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE FIRST LITTLE VANITIES + + We are often blamed for not speaking out as soon as a doubt enters + our mind, yet oftentimes the reticence which such a doubt begets + is a saving grace which redeems and sanctifies our whole + character. + + +It was with quite a cheerful countenance that Regina went through the +rest of her day's work. Arriving home at Ye Dene in time for dinner she +changed her dress for a cool and light tea-gown, in which, I am bound to +confess, she looked more than anything like a gigantic perambulating +baby's bassinette. She laved her face with a little scented water, and, +for the first time in her life, she dusted her countenance with a little +powder. She did not herself possess such things as a powder-box and +puff, but in Maudie's deserted bedroom she found on her dressing-table +the one which she had used up to the morning of her marriage, for she +had naturally taken with her on her wedding-tour the smartly fitted +dressing-case which had been among her husband's wedding presents to +her. It was with quite unaccustomed hands that Regina sought for the +powder-box, and she used the powder too thickly. Maudie had had a pretty +taste in powder, and prided herself on never using a common kind. Being +so very fair she used that of a pure white tint, and when Mrs. Whittaker +had finished her application of it I must confess she looked ghastly. + +"How dreadful!" her thoughts ran. "How can women ever use this stuff?" + +Then she took a towel from the towel-rail and rubbed her face +vigorously, shook the puff out of the window, and started again, +succeeding this time in merely making herself of a delicate pallor. As +she descended the stairs her husband turned in at the gate and came +along the covered way to the porch. He noticed at once that there was +something unusual in her appearance. + +"Well, Regina, my love," he remarked, "have you been grilling in town +this hot day?" + +"Yes, I have been to town, Alfred," she replied, trying hard to make her +tone quite an ordinary one. + +"You must have over-tired yourself, my dear; you are as pale as a +sheet," he remarked, looking at her keenly. "Here, come with me." He led +the way into the dining-room, that large, cool, pleasant apartment in +which Regina had so often sat admiring him, and, going to the sideboard, +poured her out a glass of port. + +"Here, drink this down at once. I am sure you have been over-doing it. +Have you been to any of those beastly meetings?" + +"I have not been to a meeting, though I looked in at the offices of the +S.R.W." + +"I feel very much inclined to say 'Damn the S.R.W.,'" said Alfred +Whittaker, warmly. "I can't bear to see you looking so jaded and +worn-out as you do now. Here, drink this down; it will pull you together +better than anything else." + +He was an old-fashioned man, who believed in a glass of port, and +Regina, with unwonted meekness and the same happy feeling of being +ministered to that she had felt in the pastry-cook's shop, obediently +swallowed the pleasant potion. + +"I shall be very glad," Alfred Whittaker continued, "when we are off on +our holiday, for I never felt the need of one so badly as I do this +year. I suppose it is the excitement of Maudie's wedding, but I can't +bear to see you looking as you do now." + +"I am better--I feel better," said Regina, nervously. It was hard for +her to resist the inclination to fling herself upon Alfred's broad bosom +and tell him everything that was in her mind. It would have been better +if she had done so, but she resisted the inclination from a desire not +to give way to unusual weakness. + +"Now sit down quietly by the window and rest while I run up and change +my coat." + +It was his habit to make what might be called a half-toilette for +dinner--to take off his frock-coat and substitute for it a sort of +smoking-jacket, quite a glorified garment, in which Regina admired him +as some women admire their husbands when they get drunk, with that +curious admiration for the breaking off of shackles, even merely +conventional ones. It was a delight to Regina, strong-minded, +commanding, magnetic, almost eccentric nature that she was, to give her +husband's behests instant obedience, and she sat down in the huge +armchair by the window with a sigh of relief. Well, some hussy might +have got hold of him, yes--but his heart was with her. + +She owned to herself that there was a little bit of the hypocrite in +her, but she forgave herself the infinitesimal sin because Alfred had +noticed instantly that she was paler than usual. Ought she to have told +him that she had been using powder, and that she was not really more +worn-out than usual? Perhaps so, and yet, she told herself, no woman on +earth could have forced herself to be so strictly just. Then there was a +sound of the gong in the hall, and Alfred came down, Julia coming with +him. + +"I'm afraid, my bird," he was saying, as they crossed the threshold, +"that you miss Maudie more every day that goes by, and soon you'll be +marrying yourself, and there'll only be old Darby and Joan to jog along +together." + +"I've not gone yet, daddy," said Julia. "Maudie had what we may call +adequate temptation. I may go on for years before I meet anybody who +takes my fancy as completely as Harry took hers." + +"Meantime, I think you ought to go out with your mother a little more. +She looks worn-out to-day." + +"Do you, darling?" looking toward the large white figure at the window. +"I declare you do. Why, you told me that you would be busy all day and +wouldn't want me." + +"Did I?" said Regina. "I do not think quite that, dearest. But it was +true, I did not want you with me to-day; I was full of business of one +sort or another." + +"Well, well, come to dinner," said Alfred, genially, "come to dinner. We +needn't live to eat, but we must eat to live, and here is a bit of +salmon that would gladden the heart of a king." + +He was very full of joke that night, telling wife and daughter of one or +two little incidents which had happened to him during the day, and +making merry exceedingly. + +"You're very mischievous and gay to-night," said Julia. "What have you +been doing to-day?" + +Regina looked across the table involuntarily. + +"Oh, I have been doing the usual thing, my dear--making money for you to +spend. By the way, I have had an excellent offer for the house." + +"For the house!" cried Julia. "Have you taken it?" + +"I've not taken it; I shouldn't think of doing so until I have consulted +your mother. It is a good offer, and I have a week to think it over in. +The question is, Do we really want to leave the Park?" + +"Yes," said Julia. + +"What do you say, Queenie?" + +"I do not know." + +"But, mother, you find it such a fag and such a drag getting to and fro +to your committees." + +For a moment Regina did not speak; she put her fish knife and fork down +upon her plate. + +"I don't know that we need consider my committees," she said quietly. "I +am thinking of giving them all up." + +"Your committees!" cried Julia in a tone that was almost frightened. + +"My dear--!" said Alfred. + +"I have worked for others during the last ten years, Alfred," said +Regina, leaning back in her chair and looking at her husband, "but I am +not sure if I've done quite the right thing in giving up so much of my +time to outside work." + +"My dear, I have never complained." + +"No, dear, you have never complained. I do not know that you might not +have done." + +"My dear girl, what does it matter to me how you amuse yourself while I +am at business?" + +"No, there's something in that. On the other hand, in a sense it does +matter. I have worked long enough; I think I want to be a little more in +my own home--I'm not so young as I was." + +"You're worn-out, that's about the English of it," said Alfred +Whittaker, putting his knife and fork on his plate and sitting back. "As +long as it amused you it was all right; it was as good as spending your +life in running from one hot, stuffy party to another. Cut it, my dear, +cut it. There's one axiom in business that never fails, 'cut your +loss'--at least, I have never known it fail yet. By-the-bye," he said, +"I have brought you a little present." + +Regina almost screamed aloud. So she had been wrong all the time; there +was no hussy, his solicitude for her pale looks had been the solicitude +of the old affectionate Alfred who had been ever and always her _beau +ideal_ of what a husband should be. She gasped a little. "Yes," she said +faintly. + +"Something nice?" said Julia. "Jewelry?" + +"Well," said Alfred Whittaker, and his face wore a curious little smile, +"yes--it's jewelry. I came by it in an odd fashion. I had some business +up west this morning, a very unexpected bit of business; it took me +right out of my regular track. I was going along a little street at the +back of Manchester Square and I saw something in a little shop that +attracted my attention. It was a quaint little shop, half jeweler's and +half curiosity dealer's." + +"And you stopped and bought it?" + +"Not at all; I stopped and looked at it. It was a tea-service of that +scale blue Worcester which fetches such tremendous prices at Christie's, +only I don't think that particular set will ever have a show at +Christie's, handsome as it is, and while I was looking at it I noticed +this. I haven't seen such a thing for ages, and I've never seen anything +like it at the price before, so I bought it and paid for it, and here it +is." He took a little parcel from his pocket wrapped in tissue paper, +and pushed it along the table to Julia. "Give that to your mother. No, I +did not buy anything for you." + +"Then you did not go to Templeton's for it?" said Regina, as her fingers +closed over the little parcel. + +"Templeton's? Oh, no, this is not modern; it is an antique. The people +haven't the faintest idea of its value; it is worth ten times what I +gave for it. It happened to be one of the things in which I am +interested and which I understand. No, when I want jewels, I go to +Templeton's. I don't understand gems and I can trust them." + +"And their discretion?" said Regina. + +"Yes, if it were necessary I would trust their discretion too. Now, what +do you think of that?" + +Regina opened the parcel with fingers which visibly trembled. He had +bought her a present; his mind, at the moment of looking into that +little shop, half jeweler's, half curiosity shop, on seeing something in +which he was personally interested, had instantly flown to her. He might +have given a bracelet to a hussy, but his interest had remained with +Regina. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +BROKEN-HEARTED MIRANDA + + When we are in trouble we often take means to comfort ourselves + that we should utterly despise in others. + + +Mrs. Whittaker in no way faltered in her resolve to win back Alfred to +his old allegiance. The dinner was excellent. + +"A very good bit of salmon," said Alfred, looking inquiringly at his +wife as he held the fish server and fork suggestively toward the dish; +"you will have a bit more, dearest?" + +"A little bit more," said Regina. + +In spite of the blow which had fallen upon her she was honestly and +genuinely hungry. To a woman who lives well and eats her three meals a +day, to say nothing of a very good tea thrown in, the loss of a meal is +a very serious matter. Muffins, though consoling, are not possessed of +much staying power, and Regina was, in spite of being so upset, +genuinely famished. + +"Cook is improving in her sharp sauce," Alfred went on cheerfully as he +helped himself a second time. "I often think," he continued, "what a +lucky thing it is that salmon is a summer fish, it is such a refreshing +dish in hot weather." + +"Yes, I confess I like a bit of salmon myself," said Regina, rather +tamely. + +Julia looked up. Something in her mother's tone struck her as unusual. +"Don't you feel well to-day, mother?" she asked. + +Alfred looked up sharply. "Don't you feel all right?" + +"Yes, quite all right," she replied; "I think I want to get away." + +"You're over-doing it," said Alfred in genial yet uneasy tones. "Why +don't you take a little rest--not a holiday, but a rest from your +outside work? You're over-doing it." + +"I think so too," said Regina. "I went down to the offices to-day and +told them to prepare my resignation as President of the S.R.W." + +"Mother!" cried Julia in sharp staccato accents. + +"Oh, come, come, you needn't say 'mother' in that tone. It is the best +bit of news I have heard for a long time. My dear, I look toward +you--Stay, we'll have a glass of fizz on the strength of it. Margaret, +here, take my keys, go down to the cellar, look in bin marked number +three and bring up a bottle." + +"Large or small, sir?" + +"Oh, a large one." + +"If you did not like it, Alfred, I wish you had told me before," said +Regina, as the door closed behind Margaret. + +"It isn't that I did not like it, or that I grudged your amusing +yourself in your own way, or making your life interests in your own way, +but when I see you looking so worn and harried, so pulled down and +fagged out--well, I naturally begin to wonder where it is going to +end." + +"I'm getting older," said Regina. + +"Nonsense, nonsense, fiddle-faddle! we're all getting older, as a matter +of fact, but you are still a young woman in the very prime of life. When +you have had a good change and a little sea air, when you give yourself +a little more ease and a little more personal indulgence, you'll look +ten years younger, my dear child, ten years younger." + +Regina only replied by a smile. At that moment Margaret came back +carrying, with the care of a thoroughly well-trained parlor-maid, the +bottle of champagne in which they were to drink, as Alfred put it five +minutes later, to the degeneration of Mrs. Whittaker. + +"They'll be very angry, they'll never replace you," he went on, leaning +back in his chair and nursing his stomach in the manner peculiar to +elderly gentlemen who do not despise their dinner; "I think they ought +to give you a diamond star to show their appreciation of the star you +have been to them." + +"I hope not," said Regina, decidedly. + +"Don't fuss yourself," put in Julia, whose fears for her mother were +somewhat allayed; "they won't. I notice that when women give things to +women it is generally something they've got cheap. They'll give you an +illuminated address, no doubt, and you can frame it and hang it in the +hall." + +"Not in the hall," said Regina, who was not strong in the point of +humor, "not in the hall, Julia darling." + +After that the evening passed over very quietly. Julia ran over to the +house of Marksby and was seen no more till bed-time. Alfred sat down in +his own special easy-chair in the cool, pleasant drawing-room, and, over +a pretence of reading the newest art journal, gently dosed off into +slumber, and Regina, in her corresponding chair in the big bow window, +sat and thought she would leave nothing to chance. As for fate, she +would brave it. Like her husband, she was making a pretence of reading, +and as she sat thinking things over she became conscious that she was +looking at the portrait of a very beautiful woman, exquisite in face, +elegant in figure, luxuriously gowned. The journal she was holding in +her hand was one devoted to feminine interests, and this was an +interview with a lady very highly placed in Society. Some impulse made +Regina turn to the beginning of the article and read it. "Devoted +mother, idolized wife, adored _chatelaine_, the lady bountiful of her +village, her highest aim is gratified in being her husband's countess." +There was a portrait of the husband, who, in Regina's eyes, was not to +be named in the same twelvemonth with the noble Alfred sleeping on the +other side of the room. There were pictures of the children, of her +ladyship's boudoir, of her village school and her cottage hospital. "The +world has but little attraction for the beautiful subject of our +sketch," the article ended; "she is seen occasionally at Court and at +great functions, as a part of her duties, but that is all. Her heart is +in her beautiful country home with her husband and her children, and +there she shares the joys and sorrows of all who are brought in touch +with the great historic name which she bears." + +Regina's heart was stirred by new and conflicting emotions. She had, all +her life, thought much of those who could be credited with working for +eternity, whose toil was to benefit the whole world, to whom the +personal touch had but small value. The picture of this great lady with +her indisputable charms of beauty and disposition, came to her with an +alluring sense of restfulness; here was one who wished to be far removed +from the struggles of a contentious world, and somehow there came a +second picture which linked itself with the first in a strange +sweetness, the picture of an anxious, busy housewife, eager to honor the +great guest, and through the summer night there seemed to float to +Regina's disturbed senses that simple, soft and sweet reproach, that was +only a little bit of a reproach, "she hath chosen the better part and it +shall not be taken away." Yes, she was glad that she had laid the train +for the resignation of her presidential office, she was glad that she +was going to be all in all to her husband and children--well, husband +and child. Perhaps before long Julia would take wings and fly away from +the old nest as her sister had done before her. But Alfred would remain, +and she determined in that soft summer evening hour that for Alfred's +sake she would choose the better part, and her title to honor should be +within rather than without doors. Having arrived at this point in her +thoughts, she began idly turning over the leaves of the journal in her +hand. It contained nothing of particular interest to Regina; there were +accounts of entertainments given by people to whom she was unknown; +there was a page devoted to fashionable weddings, including a portrait +of her own girl and of Harry Marksby, and a glowing account of the +wedding just gone by; and then she came to a column of answers to +correspondents which appeared under the heading of "Feminine Wants." +Regina's heart gave a sick thrill as she saw the two words, "Feminine +Wants." The woes of womanhood seemed to crowd in upon her in an +overwhelming wave of sorrow and desolation. Doubtless other women had +suffered more than she had done. The first answer ran, "Humming Bird. I +am so sorry for you, poor little thing, bravely struggling along in your +little flat without a servant to do the rough work. Keep a brave heart, +little wife, and always make a toilette for dinner. I know this may +sound ridiculous, and I do not mean you to put on a low-necked dress, or +commit any folly of that kind, but when you have set your dinner in +train, go and dress yourself. Change your day dress for a silk blouse, +do your hair smartly and neatly, have a smile ready for 'him' when he +comes home, for he is just as tired and ready for refreshment as you +are. You will enjoy your dinner twice as well if you have a little +change in your gear, and you can easily put the dinner things on one +side to be washed up in the morning. Be sure, after doing any dirty +work, to wash your hands thoroughly with a spoonful of Lux in the water, +then rub in a mixture of equal parts of glycerine and lemon juice. This +will keep your hands soft and white. Write to me again if there is any +way in which I can help you." + +Regina drew a long breath. It was hard on the little soul to have no +servant, but, after all, they were boy and girl together; no hussy had +crept in to dispute her kingdom. At that moment Regina would cheerfully +have consented to wash dishes and clean doorsteps for the price of +Alfred's undivided affection. + +"Sad Maudie," was the next reply. "Yes, you are, indeed a sad Maudie, +and I am truly sorry for you, for I well know the trouble that acne +gives." "Acne--that's something to do with the skin," said Regina to +herself. "Send me a stamped and addressed envelope, and I will send you +a prescription which will do wonders for this troublesome complaint. I +would insert it here, but my editor does not like me to deal with +medical matters in this column." + +"Cheerful Sally. It is _not_ etiquette to introduce callers when they +meet in your drawing-room. Life would become utterly impossible if one +were liable to meet one's next-door neighbor, whom one had taken +infinite pains to avoid, when merely paying a call. I should be very +strict on this point if I were you, particularly as you are a newcomer +in your neighborhood." + +Regina gave a sniff of disgust and passed on. + +"Delia W. My dear Delia, you can't be old and faded at your age, but you +have let anxiety and worry get the better of you, and you should remedy +these ill-effects at once. Go to Mrs. Vansittant, the famous beauty +specialist, and put yourself unreservedly in her hands. It will cost +you a few guineas, but to win your heart's love, what is that?" + +A sudden resolution seized hold of Regina. She would write to the +editress of "Feminine Wants." She got up softly and went to her +writing-table. + + "DEAR EDITRESS," she wrote, "I am a woman of middle age. I have + reason to believe that my husband has swerved from his allegiance + to me. Tell me, what can I do to win him back? I am too stout, I + have never taken care of my skin, I have let my hair take care of + itself, I do not think I have good taste in dress. Pray advise your + broken-hearted + + "MIRANDA." + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +FAMILY CRITICISM + + Sometimes it is a good thing to be aroused out of sleep, especially + if the sleep has been a fool's paradise. + + +Mrs. Whittaker crept softly out of the room, and went as softly out of +the house. There was a pillar-box a little way along the road, and it +was not an infrequent habit with her to carry her own letters to the +post without troubling to make any sort of outdoor toilette. So on that +soft summer night she gathered up her voluminous skirts, and with the +letter in her hand went down the covered way to the gate and walked as +far as the pillar-box. + +"My dear," said a neighbor, who had been to the club and was on his way +home, as he entered the room where his wife was sitting, "I met Mrs. +Whittaker just now. I never saw anything so remarkable." + +"Really! She's always rather remarkable in her dress, but how?" + +"I don't know, but it was white; it looked like a voluminous exaggerated +nightgown." + +"Mrs. Whittaker in a nightgown, Charley? She must have been out of her +mind, or was she walking in her sleep, do you think?" + +"Oh, no, I don't think she was; she was evidently going to the post-box, +but her gown--'Pon my word, she looked like a dressed-up figure in a +carnival." + +"Oh, she is quite mad," said the little wife; "they say she's very nice, +but quite mad." + +Meanwhile, Regina, all unconscious of the strictures which had been +passed upon her appearance, had gone back into Ye Dene, and lingered in +the covered way adjusting a plant here and a leaf there, as if she had +no higher object in life than the arrangement of her house. It happened +that Alfred woke up as his wife gently closed the door behind her. + +"I thought Queenie was here. Dear me, it is quite chilly--what a fool I +was to go to sleep here! I suppose it's a sign of old age." + +Then he stretched out one arm and then the other one. + +"I suppose I ought to write that letter to Jenkinson," was his next +thought. So he heaved himself up out of his comfortable chair, picked up +the art magazine, and sought his own little sanctum, which was behind +the dining-room. There he wrote a letter of three lines making an +appointment for the next morning, and then he too set off for the +pillar-box. + +"Hullo! Queenie, are you here?" he exclaimed, as he saw the tall figure +in the voluminous white draperies. "Walk up as far as the post with me." + +"Oh, are you going to the post?" she said. "I have just been. Yes, I +will come with you, certainly." + +He opened the gate to let her pass out in front of him. + +"You won't take cold?" he said anxiously. + +"Oh, no, not a night like this." + +"I don't know," he remarked, as they sauntered up the pathway together, +"that there is much protection in a frock like this." + +"It's not a frock, dear, it's a tea-gown." + +"Oh, is it?" + +"What the French call _saute de lit_." + +"It's flimsy. I don't know that I altogether like it," said Alfred, +slipping his hand under her arm. + +"It has the advantage of being cool," said Regina. + +"Yes, I daresay it is cool, but this kind of gown makes you look--" He +wobbled his hand about to express something that was not very clear to +either of them. + +"I know, it makes me look too fat," said Regina in quite a crushed tone. +"I am _too_ fat." + +"Oh, I don't know--you're just comfortable." + +"No, Alfred, I'm too fat," Regina reiterated with an air of firm +conviction. + +"Well, as to that," said Alfred, slipping the letter into the +letter-box, and wheeling round, still keeping hold of his wife's arm, "I +never did admire the 'two-deal-board' style of woman myself." + +Regina immediately decided in her own mind that the hussy was of the +plump little partridge order. + +"When I take hold of a lady's arm," continued Alfred, with the facetious +air of a heavy father, "I like an arm that I can feel; I object to +taking hold of a bone. No, no, my dear, you are not at all too fat, but +I don't think you ought to wear gowns, except purely for reasons of +comfort, that tend to increase your apparent size." + +"But you don't think it matters much?" + +"I'm sure it does not matter very much." + +"Alfred, do you think that I am greatly altered?" She asked the question +wistfully, as if the issue of life and death hung upon his reply. + +"As a matter of fact," said Alfred Whittaker, promptly, "I think you are +the least altered of any woman I ever knew in my life. I see other women +going to pieces in the most extraordinary manner. Now, Mrs. Chamberlain +came into the office this morning. My goodness, what a wreck! Yellow as +a guinea, her face lined all over--she made me think of a mummy." + +"Yet she is younger than I am," said Regina. + +"Oh, years--they have nothing to do with the case. You have been a happy +woman, a prosperous woman, a healthy woman; there has been nothing in +your life to seam your face with lines and generally stamp you with all +the worry that is too plainly visible on poor Mrs. Chamberlain's +features. Well, here we are, and here is Julia skipping across the +road." + +As the words left his lips a slim young figure in white emerged from the +rustic gate that gave entrance and egress to the house of Marksby. They +stood until Julia came running across the road. + +"Have you two dear things been out for an airing?" she exclaimed as she +reached the foot-path. + +"No, only to the post-box," said Regina. + +"Mother dear," said Julia, "you look exactly as if you were walking +about in your nightgown--a very voluminous and sublimated nightgown, but +a nightgown all the same." + +For a moment Regina was too dashed to speak. The thought came fluttering +through her mind, and seemed to fall to the floor of her heart with a +great crash, that surely it was hopeless for her ever to try to win back +Alfred from the hussy by personal means. Evidently she was hopelessly +out of it as regards all questions of dress and the toilette. + +"Of course," she hastened to reply, for she did not wish Julia to think +that she was annoyed by her criticism, "it really is a bedroom garment. +I put it on because I was so hot to-day, and in this little country sort +of place I thought going to the post in it would not matter, and--we--we +did not meet anyone, did we, Alfred?" + +"It would not have mattered if you had," said Julia; "what you wear is a +matter for your own consideration. But it does look like a nightgown." + +"And your mother," said Alfred, "looks better in a sort of glorified +nightgown than most women do in their best frocks. And now don't you +think we had better go off to bed? You will have the least as ever was, +dear?" + +Regina's face broke into a smile. "The least as ever was," she replied. +So the two went into the dining-room, where, as usual, the refreshment +tray was set out upon the table. Julia, with a laughing declaration +that she did not want even the least as ever was, went gayly upstairs to +her bedroom. + +"I shall be very glad to get away," said Alfred, sitting on the edge of +the oaken dining-table and holding his whisky-and-soda up to the light. +"I want a change badly this year. We are not as young as we were, +Queenie; I've taken a lot out of myself lately." + +"You've been so busy." + +"Yes, we've never had such a good year in business as the last one, but +there's something wrong with Chamberlain." + +"How wrong?" + +"I don't know, I can't make it out. Whether there's a screw loose at +home, or whether his wife's health is worrying him, I don't know." + +"Does she own to being ill?" + +"No, never. This morning I quite offended her by telling her that she +did not look very well." + +"And they are not going away till September?" + +"No, she has just come back." + +"She has been to the sea?" + +"Yes." + +"Then she came up specially for Maudie's wedding?" + +"I suppose so. I did not know she had been away till Chamberlain told me +this morning. He seems dull and gloomy--ah, there's a screw loose there, +but I don't know just where it is. Anyway, I know I want my holiday very +badly this year and glad I shall be when we have packed up and are off +for La Belle France." + +"And I," said Regina, with a sigh which, though quickly suppressed, was +full of meaning. Somehow, she could not sleep that night; during the day +some of her most cherished ideals had been ruthlessly torn up by the +roots. Never in all her life before had she had even so much as a +suspicion of her noble Alfred's matrimonial integrity, and she had come +to see flaws in her own life and rents in her own robes. Indeed, had she +not been, as it were, aroused out of sleep, the regeneration of women +had been like to cost her very dear. But, God be thanked! she had been +awakened in time, and in future she would leave the great question of +womanhood to look after itself, and she would devote her time and +thought and the use of her astute brain to regaining her husband's love. +"Think," her thoughts ran, "think--Maudie is married, Julia is young and +beautiful, and fascinating to the opposite sex, you cannot hope to keep +her long in the home nest; think what your life would be living alone +with a husband whose heart was wholly gone from you." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +DEAR DIEPPE + + There is occasionally a time in our life which proves a veritable + oasis in a desert of doubt and suspicion. + + +During the month which they spent in the fascinating little town on the +northern coast, Regina lived a very _dolce far niente_ kind of life. Her +anxieties as to the hussy were, for a time, lulled to sleep. They stayed +at a comfortable hotel on the front, had rooms overlooking that +wonderful stretch of sea which is one of the great charms of Dieppe, and +they did themselves remarkably well; that is to say, they went without +nothing that would give them pleasure. As soon as they arrived and were +settled down, Alfred Whittaker went to the extravagance of engaging a +motor car for their exclusive use during their stay. It was a very +comfortable car, and held six persons in addition to the chauffeur, and +almost every day they made excursions into the green heart of the quiet +country, lunching at some snug French hostelry on homely but delicious +fare. Personally, I have always thought that one of the chief reasons +why art and sentiment nourish and thrive apace in sunny France is +because the people live upon food so much less gross than is the case +with ourselves. In the poorest little inn on the other side of the +Channel one is always sure of an excellent soup, a delicious omelette, +bread and butter that are beyond reproach, and a sound and excellent +drink, be it of red wine or only of homely cider. To Regina, the freedom +from household cares, which she detested, and from all questions of +orderings and caterings, made this quite the most charming holiday of +her whole life. She was happy, too, that Julia was happy, that Julia +made many friends of her own age and condition, that she, as the phrase +goes, danced her feet off four nights a week, and was able to enter with +zest and enjoyment into the young life of the place. As for Alfred +Whittaker himself, he so thoroughly enjoyed the rest and change, seemed +so happy and contented with himself and everything around him, that +sometimes Regina caught herself wondering if she had been entirely +mistaken in imagining that there was, after all, a hussy in the +background. He was loud in his expressions of satisfaction in the new +ground which they had broken. How they ever came to go year after year +to a dull English watering-place, and never thought of coming abroad, +was really beyond him. + +"But we have been abroad," said Regina. + +"Yes, for a trip, for a fortnight in Paris, for tours in different parts +of Europe; there's no rest in that kind of thing, it is an excitement, +an opening of one's mind--quite different to this," he rejoined. "It's +very improving to one's mind to go up the Rhine in a steamer, and go +round all the sights of Cologne; to gaze at Ehrenbreitstein, and wonder +whether it really is like Gibraltar or not; to feed the carp at +Frankfort; to gaze at the falls at Schaffhausen; but it is not restful, +it is not really a holiday. It is a nice fillip for a placid, blank or +uneventful life, but for a man overdone with the stress of business, +give me this. Restful without being dull, interesting without being +overwhelming, and bright and gay without being fagging." + +"You are always so sensible," said Regina. She felt at that moment that +the hussy was farther away than ever. Yet, a little later, when she and +Alfred were taking a stroll down the Grande Rue, it being market +morning, and therefore unusually interesting, she was reminded of the +skeleton in her cupboard as sharply and unexpectedly as the jerk with +which the proverbial bird, tied by a string to the leg, is stopped in +its peregrinations. As a rule on market morning the world promenades in +the middle of the street, in the actual roadway, but it happened on this +occasion that Alfred and Regina met a carriage and pair coming slowly +between the market people squalling on the edge of the pavement. To +avoid the carriage they stepped on to the _trottoir_, and this brought +them under the awning of a jeweler's shop. + +"I think I ought to buy you a present," said Alfred, "for I won last +night." + +"Did you? You never told me." + +"I didn't think of it. I was so sleepy I was glad to tumble into bed and +forget everything," Alfred replied. "I only had five louis in my pocket +when I went into the Casino, and this morning I find that I have +twenty-five. Now, twenty louis is sixteen pounds. If I keep it I shall +lose it all back to the tables again, whether it is at the fascinating +little horses or the more fascinating green cloth in the Grand Cercle. +Come, what would you like? Here's a jeweler's shop; there are sixteen +good English pounds lying at your feet, make your choice." + +"In francs?" asked Regina. + +"In francs--well, in francs it's four hundred. Now, there's a ring, I +call that a very good bargain for four hundred francs--there's something +for your money, there's body in it." He pointed to a large and +deep-colored sapphire set in a circle of diamonds. Regina saw that the +ring was beautiful, but, womanlike, her eyes wandered to the other +gewgaws displayed in the window. + +"I have a good many rings," she said hesitatingly. Then her eyes fell +upon a thick gold curb bracelet clasped by a horse-shoe of diamonds. + +"This is handsome," she said. Her voice was quite faint, for she felt +that she was approaching that subject which had troubled her so much. + +"Oh, horrid!" said he. "I love to see you with plenty of rings, but as +to bracelets--I can't endure them." + +"Never?" said Regina. "Never?" + +"No, I never buy a bracelet for anybody. I like to give you something +that you can wear for weeks or years together. Bracelets always seem in +the way, they don't set off a pretty wrist, and they draw attention to +an ugly one. Besides, they are intensely disagreeable if you happen to +put your arm around my neck. Come, let us go inside and see how the +sapphire suits your hand." + +He led the way into the shop, as a man always does when he is going to +buy something for a woman. Have you ever noticed, my reader, how the +most polite of men, who stands aside on all occasions for the lady to +precede him, marches into a shop right in front of her when he is going +to make her a present? + +Now, Alfred Whittaker's knowledge of French was what may be described as +infinitesimal, and it being his habit to state his business whenever he +entered a shop of any kind, he did not wait for Regina's faulty but more +understandable explanations. + +"_Vous-avez un ring la_," pointing with a sturdy British thumb toward +the window, "_sappheer_." + +"_Ah, ah, une broche, monsieur?_" + +"Regina, what does she mean by that?" + +Now, for the life of her Regina could not think of the French word for +ring. + +"She means 'brooch' of course," she replied. "I really don't know what +ring is in French." + +"_Pas une broche?_" the lady of the establishment demanded. + +"No, not a brooch," Alfred Whittaker shouted at her, as if her +understanding lay at the back of deaf ears. + +"_Un bracelet, peut-etre?_" the Frenchwoman asked, touching her wrist +with a gesture that conveyed more than her words. + +"No, no," said Alfred, tapping his first finger. + +"_Ah, ah, une bague._" She quickly opened the window and brought out +several sapphire rings, including the one which had taken Alfred's +fancy, and then, as he had already, being a business man, grasped the +initial weakness of the Norman character, there began a period of +haggling which Alfred Whittaker would never have thought of employing in +the case of the establishment of Templeton. Eventually Regina left the +shop with the beautiful sapphire ring upon her finger. + +"My dear girl," said Alfred (he always called her his dear girl when he +was best pleased), "eighteen pounds for a ring like that is dirt cheap +She said it was an occasion, what did she mean by 'an occasion'?" + +"I haven't the least idea, but she certainly said it." + +"However, no matter what she may have meant, the ring is given away at +the price--it's worth thirty pounds if it's worth a penny. You found it, +so to speak, for I won the money that paid for it." + +"Not quite all." + +"No, not quite all, but the other was a mere bagatelle. I like to see +you with plenty of rings; some women have not the hands to show them +off." + +It occurred to Regina that the hussy's hands were of the kind that look +best in gloves. Then a second thought came, one of blame and reproach to +herself for even thinking of the hussy at such a moment when Alfred had +generously been thinking only of her. + +"It is a beautiful ring, dear Alfred," she said, putting her hand under +his arm and squeezing it very gratefully, "it is a beautiful ring and +you are very good to me, and I'm not quite sure that I deserve it." + +She meant what she said. A curious idea had taken possession of her +that while Alfred was so kind and generous to her she ought not to +inquire or wish to inquire into his outer life; there might be fifty +explanations, and while she was evidently first with him it was her duty +to remain content. It was wonderful how that little present, which, +after all, had not cost Alfred Whittaker very much, soothed Regina's +suspicions and lulled them to sleep. And so, in perfect happiness and +harmony, that month went by, and it was with genuine regret that they +bade adieu to the town of many colors and turned their faces toward the +duller tones of home. + +"We will come back again next year," said Regina, gazing sentimentally +at the fast-receding shore, now looking most uninteresting. "Dear +Dieppe, we have been so happy and had such a good time, we will come +again next year." + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Alfred Whittaker, in a tone of +ludicrous jocosity, "I shouldn't be surprised, for my part, if Darby and +Joan found themselves at Dieppe by themselves. Just you and I, you know, +Queenie." + +"Wherever you are, Alfred," said she, leaning over the side of the ship +and keeping her eyes carefully from observing the motion of the water, +"wherever you are I am always perfectly happy and content." + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +REGINA ON THE WARPATH + + There is much more value in the many "cures" that we take nowadays + than is at first apparent to the eye. One cannot take a cure for + the renovation of any part of one's body without, at the same + time, renovating part of one's mind. + + +The immediate effect of going home again was to make Regina more +convinced than ever that the hussy had a very real and tangible +existence. On the very first day Alfred made haste to catch the earlier +of the two trains by which he had been in the habit of traveling to +town. There was nothing in that circumstance--oh no. He had been away +for a full month, and Regina's opinion of her husband's partner was but +small. He had brought the bulk of the money into the firm, while Alfred +had supplied the major part of the brains, and had, in fact, built up +the business to its present flourishing state; so, of course, there was +nothing in the actual circumstance that Alfred should hurry through his +breakfast so as to catch the earlier train. He fussed and fumed a +little, too, and let fall a word to the effect that he knew he should +find everything at sixes and sevens, and that he wanted to have one or +two things settled before the Chamberlains went away for their autumn +holiday. Regina too, on her side, was naturally extremely busy that +morning. She had to look after her housekeeping, to lay in supplies, to +hold consultations with each of her servants, and to look out a couple +of dresses of slightly more solid material than those which she had worn +at Dieppe--not that she needed them for warmth, for the weather was, as +the weather so frequently is in September, mild even to sultriness. The +sun and the sea air had made the gowns which Regina had taken to Dieppe +appear to her worn and shabby, and she therefore would have to fall back +upon a couple of spring gowns until she could get her new autumn +clothes, the clothes with which she was to win back Alfred. Now, the +hussy had been for some time far from Regina's thoughts, her suspicions +had been lulled to rest, not only by Alfred's devotion, but by his +naturalness of demeanor. In a sort of gush of tenderness toward him she +almost determined that she would do nothing to regain his allegiance; +she would only be herself. Then her tidy eye fell upon a piece of paper +lying on the carpet between Alfred's chair and the door. She went across +the room and picked it up, following the house-wifely instinct which +moves nine women out of ten, and glanced at it to see whether it was +something to keep or something to throw away. It was only a folded sheet +of paper on which was written in a woman's handwriting, 27 Terrisina +Road, St. John's Wood, N. W. For a moment Regina was almost too stunned +to speak; she stared at the paper. Luckily, Julia had already gone down +to that part of the Park called the town to get some flowers with which +to deck the house. All the doubts and suspicions of the past came back +in great waves, and broke cruelly upon Regina's palpitating heart. +There was a hussy! This had been written by the hussy! This was where +the hussy dwelt, 27 Terrisina Road, St. John's Wood, N. W. It was far +removed from the side of London on which the Park was situate; he had +laid his plans carefully and well--or she had. Well, 27 Terrisina Road +should not get him or keep him without a struggle; it should be war to +the knife. Doubtless this was a little soft-eyed creature young enough +to be Regina's child. But Regina would be soft-eyed, Regina would +rejuvenate herself, Regina would win all along the line. It was in this +spirit that Regina went upstairs and examined her wardrobe. She would +leave the house to take care of itself, merely throwing out a few hints +as to dinner, and betake herself to town in order to consult the +specialists whom she had had in her mind during the last month. She +picked out the smartest of the frocks which she had not taken away with +her, and, casting off her white cambric wrapper in which she had +breakfasted, she began to dress herself with feverishly eager fingers. + +Alack and alas! The effect of careering through the fresh country air, +tinged as it was with the brine of the ocean, had been to make Regina +thoroughly enjoy the lunches by the wayside, and the more elaborate +dinners of the evening hour. We all know the effect of good French soup, +various kinds of omelettes, in short, of excellent bourgeois cooking, +and this effect had stolen upon Regina like a thief in the night, and +neither by coaxing nor force could she get herself into the garment in +which she desired to travel to town. + +"Good heavens!" she exclaimed in a tone of anxiety, "I must have put on +stones while I have been away. The old proverb says 'Laugh and grow +fat,' and I take it that laughter and happiness have the same effect if +one has a tendency that way. What shall I do?" + +There was only one thing to be done, and that was to get into one of the +despised and discarded gowns in which she had loomed large and important +on the French horizon, and take herself in quest of new ones as quickly +as possible. Then she remembered that she had sent a little message on +the wings of unanimity, a little message which had been signed, "Your +broken-hearted Miranda." Surely by now there would be a reply to it. She +finished her toilette, hiding as much of her gown as she could by the +addition of a large lace cape which she had bought as a bargain in the +little French town where she had been so happy, and then she went +downstairs and sought for the back numbers of the ladies' periodical to +which she had written. They were in their accustomed place, the four +numbers which she had not yet seen. She began with the last. "Faded +Iras," "White Heather," "White Rose," "Pussy Cat," were the first words +which met her eyes. There was no "Broken-hearted Miranda," and she went +on to the next number, and there, at the top of the column, was the name +she was seeking. + + "My poor broken-hearted Miranda," the reply ran, "how grieved and + sorry I am for you! Are you sure that your conjectures are correct? + I have known wives who made themselves very unhappy on very small + grounds--not that I wish to imply that your grounds for uneasiness + are small, but are you quite sure? If I were you I would take every + means of finding out. With regard to what you tell me of yourself, I + can see you, my poor Miranda, in my mind's eye, and I hasten to + assure you that, whether you are right or wrong, you will not regret + taking yourself in hand in the beauty sense. For your adipose + tissue, I would recommend you to try Madame Winifred Polson's little + brown tablets. They are wonderful in their effect on stout figures, + particularly in reducing bulk below the waist. If you begin them, be + sure that you give them a very good trial, and that you carry out + her instructions fully and to the very letter. Now, for your + complexion, I can advise you no better than to go to Madame Alvara. + You needn't be the least nervous of going to her, as it is not a + shop, but she has an elegant private house on the best side of + Grosvenor Square. You will probably meet three duchesses on the + stairs, and may have to wait some time, unless you make an + appointment. Place yourself unreservedly in Madame Alvara's hands; + she will restore to you the skin of your childhood. For your + hair--well, that is difficult. I think you ought to write to me + again and tell me what kind of hair you have, whether it is thin or + grey, that I may advise you whether to go to a hair specialist or an + artiste in _toupes_. Write to me again, my dear Miranda, and pray + believe that nothing is too much trouble if I have the reward of + knowing that I have helped you to your legitimate end." + +Involuntarily Regina put up her hands and passed them over her head. +She had let her hair take care of itself--that did not mean that she was +grey or that she had a mere whisp; she had thick and luxuriant hair, +turned back from her face and done into a simple coil at the turn of the +head. + +"I will not write to-day," she said to herself; "I will go and see the +face specialist and the beauty specialist, and I will pay a visit to the +lady of the little brown tablets, and then I will go to my tailor. +Something I must have to wear every day. If I get a smart coat and +skirt, something loose and _chic_, I can put off the rest of my wardrobe +until I have got my figure down to its normal size." + +She went into the hall intending to leave a message with the cook for +Julia, but the parlor-maid happened to be going through the dining-room +to the pantry with a tray of silver things in her hands. + +"Oh, Margaret, tell Miss Julia I shall, in all probability, not be in to +lunch, and tell her not to wait for me. She will be occupied during the +rest of the day." + +"Very good, ma'am." + +Then Regina sailed down the covered way and got into the omnibus which +would carry her to the railway station. What a day of disappointments it +was! She found the beauty specialist had not yet returned to town, and +there was nobody to take her place. Not that she was unceremoniously +told this at the door--oh no; she was shown into a room, and the great +lady's secretary informed her that Madame Alvara had been very +unwell--she had had such a terribly heavy season--carriages standing a +dozen deep at the door all day long--everybody clamoring for Madame's +own opinion--and she was so popular, socially. + +"Madame will not be back until the end of the month; I can make an +appointment for the first week in October." + +"Can you recommend me any harmless lotion to begin with?" said Regina. + +"Oh no, I should not dare to interfere in Madame's province; I am only +the secretary; I arrange appointments, and so on." + +"But you have a skin like a rose leaf," said Regina, wistfully. + +"Yes, I have to thank Madame Alvara for that. You see, if I were to give +you my recipe you might ruin your skin. Oh, every case has quite +individual attention and treatment. The staff only work under Madame +Alvara's directions. Yes, they are busy, fairly busy, continuing the +treatment of cases which were begun last season. No new cases will be +taken till Madame Alvara returns." + +So Regina had no choice but to make an appointment for the 5th of +October, that being the first hour which could be placed at her +disposal. She then went off, after disappointment one, to Madame +Winifred Polson. She had difficulty in finding the place, and when she +did find it, it did not commend itself to her ideas of shrewd +common-sense. However, she left a couple of guineas behind her and +brought away instead a little box of something which rattled. Then she +went and had some lunch--not tea and muffins this time, but a good hot +lunch at a famous drapery establishment which she frequently patronized. +After that she made some purchases, and then she went in search of an +establishment whose advertisements she had noticed in a ladies' paper +which she had taken up while waiting for her lunch to be served. "To +Ladies," it said. "If you have no lady's maid you cannot possibly care +for your own hair as the glory of womanhood should be cared for. Go and +consult the ladies who run The Dressing-Room. You can have special +treatment for hair that is not quite in health, special brushings for +hair that merely needs attention, and can consult with experts as to the +most becoming way of wearing your hair." + +"That is the place for me," said Regina, taking note of the address. And +so, after paying her two guineas to Madame Polson, she next turned her +steps toward the street wherein she should find The Dressing-Room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE DRESSING-ROOM + + I am convinced that there is a huge opening for what I would call + an all-round advice bureau. Its claims would reach far and wide, + its clients would be drawn from all classes. Among them would be + the women who have no taste in dress. The only difficulty would + be to convince them of the fact. + + +Regina found The Dressing-Room without difficulty. To be exact, it was +situated in Berners Street and the number was forty-five. Regina gained +admittance, was greeted pleasantly, and expressed a certain portion of +her wishes. + +"You would like to have your hair brushed?" said the charming little +lady who received her. "Oh, but you have beautiful hair," she said, +having enveloped Regina in a snowy garment, unfastened the still +abundant coils, and allowed the locks to stray over her shoulders. "O, +you have lovely hair, but how little you make of it!" + +"That is exactly why I have come"--her tone was pathetic in its +eagerness. "How would you advise me to wear it?" + +"I don't know, I never like to give an opinion off-hand. I'll brush it +thoroughly, see how it lies, study you face and figure--" + +"Oh--my figure!" said Regina. + +"Why, what is the matter with it?" + +"Too fat," Regina sighed. + +"Too fat? I'd be glad of a little of your complaint," said the little +woman, who was herself about as fat as a match. + +"But I am too fat," Regina cried. + +"Well, perhaps you might do with a little less, but I shouldn't +overdo it in the other direction. Of course, there is no doubt that +good-looking women are generally those who are inclined to be stout, but +keep themselves within reasonable limits. They have the best skin, the +best hair, they have so few lines and so few wrinkles, and they escape +the withered look of age." + +She was brushing softly yet vigorously at Regina's soft brown locks. + +"You are beginning to wear your hair off your forehead." + +"I have always worn it off my forehead," said Regina, with dignity. + +"No--I don't mean that, I mean that the continued brushing in one +direction has begun to wear it away, and your forehead seems higher than +it really is." + +"Yes, it is wearing back." + +"Now, we ought to contradict that tendency." + +"I can't wear a fringe," said Regina. + +"No, a fringe would be out of keeping with your general appearance, and +I never advocate a fringe if it can be dispensed with, but you have been +wearing your hair so tightly dressed. Now, would you let me shampoo your +hair?" + +"Oh yes, do what you like," said Regina, with child-like faith and very +unchild-like patience. + +"It will help you a little--in this way, it gives the hair a fresh +start. One should never try to dress one's hair in a new fashion without +shaking off as much as possible the old way." + +So Regina's hair was washed and dried, and then came the great question +of what style of hair-dressing she should adopt. + +"I would like you not to look in the glass," said Madame Florence, as +the little lady had asked Regina to call her. "I should like you to see +the finished picture of yourself without your seeing the process. So +often what comes to one as a surprise is so much better than what comes +gradually." + +She opened a large box on a table at her right hand, and chose from it a +light frame of the exact color of Regina's hair. This she put on +Regina's head, then she deftly manipulated the abundant tresses, +gathered them loosely over the frame into a knot at the top of the head, +fixing it here and there with combs, and then slightly waved the looser +portions of hair. + +"In most instances," she said when she had reached this point, "I should +recommend the wearing of a net, but your hair is so much of a length, +and so unlikely to become untidy, that I should not recommend you to +trouble to do more than I have done. Now look at yourself." + +It was such a glorified vision of Regina that met that lady's gaze when +she looked at herself that she positively jumped out of her seat. + +"It is really me?" she cried. + +"Yes, it is really you," said Madame Florence. + +"But how shall I be able to do it myself, I--I do not keep a maid." + +"Well, wear it to-day, see how you like it, see how your people +appreciate it, do it as well as you can and come back again to me +to-morrow. I will do it for you until your hair has got into condition +and takes these lines naturally. How do you like it?" + +"I think I must have looked a perfect fright before," said Regina in a +burst of confidence. + +"Well, compared with what you do now, you certainly did. It was a sin to +see all that lovely hair wasted and made nothing of. By the way, about +your combs--I have put you in my ordinary combs; would you like to have +a proper set?" + +"Oh yes," said Regina, "I will have everything that is necessary," for, +as I have already explained, money was not a matter of paramount +importance to her. + +"I have put in ordinary imitation tortoise-shell combs just to try. Take +the glass, if you please, and look at yourself all round. See, I will +turn on the light. Do you like the shape of the head? You see the combs +improve it. I should advise you to have real tortoise-shell; it is +better for the hair, and more in accordance with your age and position +than little cheap ones." + +"Oh yes, I will have good combs." + +Madame Florence touched a bell and immediately there came into the room +a young girl of intelligent aspect and stylish exterior. + +"Miss Margaret," said Madame Florence, "will you get me the good combs?" + +"In sets?" said Miss Margaret. + +"Yes, like these, only real." + +"Certainly." + +As the girl left the room Regina turned to Madame Florence. "You have a +quaint custom here of using the Christian name," she said. + +"We wish to be impersonal," said Madame Florence. "Our establishment is +called The Dressing-Room, that is sufficient for our purpose, and as we +must have some distinguishing mark, my partner and I are Madame Florence +and Madame Cynthia, and our helpers are Miss Margaret, Miss Bertha and +Miss Violet. It gives us a personality here which has nothing to do with +our private personality. We find that it works excellently well." She +broke off as Miss Margaret came back into the room carrying a large box. +Regina chose a set of combs and Madame Florence adjusted them in her +hair, taking away the cheaper ones with which she had first dressed it. + +"Now," she said, "you may find your toque a little difficult--well, I +should like to see your toque on." + +The effect was terrible, for Regina's toques were never things of +beauty, and this one was less beautiful than most of her headgear. + +"It is impossible!" + +"Well, it is rather impossible. Forgive me for saying so, but how could +you buy such a thing?" + +"Madame Florence," said Regina, "you are a lady." + +"I hope so; I have always believed myself to be such." + +"I recognized it. I recognize it still more as I remain in your +presence. I will be frank with you, I will be candid. I see you have a +copy of the _Illustrated Ladies' Joy_ on the table. I should like to +speak to you alone," she said in an undertone. + +Madame Florence gave a look at the younger lady, which she interpreted, +and immediately disappeared from the room. + +"I may speak to you in confidence?" + +"Certainly." + +"Give me the number of the _Illustrated Ladies' Joy_ for the week before +last." + +"Certainly. Here it is." + +Regina turned with trembling fingers to the answers to correspondents on +matters connected with the toilette. "Read that," she said, pointing to +the answer which was headed "broken-hearted Miranda." + +"I am that woman; I am 'broken-hearted Miranda.'" + +"Dear, dear, dear," said Madame Florence, "are you really sure that it +is so?" + +"I am afraid so. My husband is the noblest of men--generous, brave, +true-hearted--he has been got hold of, Madame Florence." + +"And you must get him back again," said Madame Florence in sharp +staccato accents. "You are a good-looking woman, a little stout, but +that can be got rid of by judicious means." + +"I have taken means; I have just bought some of Madame Winifred +Polson's little brown tablets." + +"Two guineas' worth?" + +"Yes." + +"I would not take them if I were you. They will eat away the lining of +your stomach, they will make you dyspeptic, they will perforate your +bowels and do all sorts of horrible things. They are made of iodine and +sea wrack. Put them into the fire, my dear lady." + +"But I paid two guineas for them," said Regina. + +Madame Florence laughed. "Well, take them home with you if you like, and +look at them occasionally and say 'These cost me two guineas,' but don't +take them. If you want to get thin, go to a medical man who thoroughly +understands the science of food and fat--or fat and food." + +"Are there such people?" + +"Oh yes. You say you like simple diet, and take all sorts of starchy +foods and think that makes your skin fine and clear. My dear lady, it is +not the milky foods you take, the bread and butter and cream and the +extra two lumps of sugar in your tea that make your skin fine and clear; +it is simply that you were born with a fine skin, and have been doing +everything you could to ruin it during the whole of your life." + +"You think that under diet my skin will regain its normal beauty?" + +"Of course it will. If you put yourself into proper hands, you won't +know yourself. When I say 'proper hands' I do not mean my own. My +business is connected entirely with the hair, nothing else, but I know +who are skilled in all matters of diet. I will give you the name and +address of a doctor in Harley Street who will charge you a fixed sum for +your course, and who will give you the smallest and closest directions +for getting rid of your superfluous fat without making you in the least +bit skinny or withered." + +"I am very grateful to you," said Regina; "I wish I had not gone to +Madame Polson. Not that two guineas is a matter of very great +importance, but I hate being done." + +"Of course you do, all nice, sensible people do. But you will not take +those tablets, will you?" + +"Not in the face of what you have told me. Will you give me the address +of the doctor in Harley Street? I will go to him now." + +"You cannot go to him now; you see it is past his hours--you have been +here so long. Let me give you a cup of tea." + +"You are very kind." + +"And you will let me do your hair for a week?" + +"Yes, I will come every day for a week. Tell me, how do you charge for +your treatments?" + +"Well, we give so many for a guinea. A simple treatment is brushing it +and arranging it in the ordinary way. Shampooing is extra, the combs are +extra, the frame is extra, and waving the hair is again another charge. +We will put your treatment to-day at a lump sum--half-a-guinea. You +should take another guinea's worth of simple treatments--that is to say, +I will brush your hair every day for a week, wave it and dress it like +this for a guinea. After that, if you come to me once a week you will +find that your hair will be kept in perfect condition. Occasionally you +will care to have a shampoo, but that is as you feel. I have many +clients who never have their heads touched except with my hair brushes." + +"But about my toque? I cannot go out like this. I must put my hair back +to-day. I _must_ get home." + +"I never like," said Madame Florence, "I never like to recommend special +means if my clients are restricted in the way of money. I--er--it is the +season of changing one's clothes; you will be buying new toques?" + +"Oh yes." + +"We have another business--nothing to do with me--but another business +is run under this roof," said Madame Florence. "Would you care to see +some toques?" + +"Oh, have you? Then I will have a new toque," said Regina. "I--I will be +frank and candid with you. I am a very remarkable woman--I am Mrs. +Alfred Whittaker. I have been for many years President of the Society +for the Regeneration of Womanhood--I have regenerated all sorts of +things connected with women, and now I want to regenerate myself. I have +given up my presidency, I have worked for others long enough, and some +hussy has, in a measure, supplanted me with my husband. I want--I want +to learn a great deal, I want to go to school again. I have never known +how to dress myself, I have never known how to make the most of myself. +Dear Madame Florence, I like you; you have faithful eyes, I can see you +are a woman to be trusted--it has been my business for years past to +judge characters by exteriors--you inspire me with confidence. Will you +help me, will you come and choose something to put on my head?" + +I am bound to say that it was with great difficulty that Madame Florence +restrained the broadest of broad smiles. + +"Madame Clementine," she said, "has a suite of rooms on the first floor. +If you will come with me I will introduce her to you. No, I would not +put your toque on, it is so ugly. Best not to let her know you have ever +worn anything so unbecoming. I will send a message down to make sure she +is alone." She touched a bell, and again Miss Margaret came into the +room. "Just go down and see if Madame Clementine is below and alone. +This lady is going down to choose a toque." + +Two minutes later Regina found herself following Madame Florence down +the stairs leading to the first floor. + +"Good afternoon, Madame Clementine," said Madame Florence, cheerfully, +"I have brought you a new client. This is Mrs. Alfred Whittaker--so well +known--all women know the name of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker. I have been +arranging her hair, and I want you to crown my efforts with the +prettiest toque you have in your show-rooms." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +RUMOR + + Have you ever noticed how a lie spreads and grows as it flies + along? What a pity it is that the truth does not increase in + the same proportion! + + +"Pray be seated, madame," said Madame Clementine. "I am delighted to be +honored by a visit from so distinguished a lady. Certainly I know your +name well, everyone interested in the cause of womanhood knows the name +of Mrs. Alfred Whittaker." + +Regina smiled and bowed. She was well accustomed to this kind of +flattery, but it had never lost its charm for her, and now, after all +those years, she accepted it at its face value. + +"Mademoiselle Gabrielle," called Madame Clementine. + +"_Mais oui_, Madame," answered a voice from another room, and +immediately a little French girl came running in. + +"Now, mademoiselle, here is a very distinguished lady--This is my right +hand," said Madame Clementine, turning to Regina. "Now, something very +_chic_. Yes, look Mrs. Whittaker well over. You see, Gabrielle looks +from this point and from that point, she takes in the whole. It is not +with us to sell any hat that comes first, but to sell madame a hat that +will always give madame satisfaction when she looks in the glass." + +"Mrs. Whittaker has not been very pleased with her milliner heretofore," +said Madame Florence. + +"Ah madame, now you will never go anywhere else. My clients never leave +me, because I believe in what you English call 'the personal note.' We +have models--oh yes, that is absolutely necessary, because we have +ladies who come in and say, 'I want a hat, I want to wear it now,' and +they pay for it and go away. Well, we must supply their needs, but, when +we have regular clients, we like to have a day or two of notice, to see +the dress madame is wearing, the mood madame is in, and her state of +health, then we make a toque that is madame's toque, not a toque that +you will meet three times between this and Oxford Street." + +"If you suit me," said Regina, "and give me something that I can go home +in, I will put myself unreservedly in your hands in the future. I know +little or nothing about dress," she went on, with a superior, platform +kind of air--an assertion which made the lively Frenchwoman positively +shudder--"yet I am feminine enough to wish to be well dressed." + +"Ah, we will satisfy madame. Well, Gabrielle?" + +"I think," said little Mademoiselle Gabrielle, "that madame will find +the toque that came down yesterday would suit her as well as anything +not specially made for her. I will get it, madame." + +She disappeared into the next room, returning with a large black toque +in her hand. It was light in fabric, it was bright with jet, and a +couple of handsome black plumes fell over the coiffure at the back. + +"Ah, yes, Gabrielle, yes. Now try it on, madame. Not with those pins, +they do not fit with the style of the hat. Madame will not mind to buy +hat-pins?" + +"If they are not ruinous," said Regina, who was in a very much "in for a +penny, in for a pound" kind of mind. + +"Antoinette, Antoinette, bring the box of 'at-pins," said Mademoiselle +Gabrielle. + +Immediately another little French girl came out carrying a large tray of +hat-pins. + +"Madame is not in mourning? We will not have jet--no, no! Now these?" + +She pounced upon some cut-steel hat-pins which matched the ornaments on +the hat, and then with deft and soft little fingers she firmly fixed the +toque on Regina's head. + +"You see," said Madame Clementine, spreading her hands, and looking at +Madame Florence for approval. "Yes, that is the hat for madame. Regard +yourself, madame--give madame the 'and-glass." + +Regina got up and walked with stately mien to the long glass set so as +to catch the best light from the windows. Indeed, the toque was most +becoming. She saw herself a different woman, more like those gracious, +well-furnished superb British matrons whom she was accustomed to see +sitting behind prancing horses and powdered footmen on those rare +occasions when she had allowed herself to be inveigled into the Park. It +was not a cheap toque, but Regina had the sense to see that it was worth +the money asked for it. + +"It is not ver' cheap," said Madame Clementine, "non, but it is good, it +will last, it is not a toque for a day and then another for to-morrow. +Then these plumes, they will come in again and again." + +"I will have it," said Regina; "I am quite satisfied with it. I only +feel, Madame Clementine, that--er--my--my upper part is, well--is +superior to my lower part, what in our vernacular we call 'a ha'-penny +head and a farthing tail.'" + +"Oh, ver' good, ver' good," cried Madame Clementine, with your true +Parisienne's shriek of laughter. "You see, Gabrielle, the gros sou for +the head and the little sou for the tail. Oh, that is most expressive. +But, madame, you can remedy that." + +"Oh yes, I suppose I can," said Regina, doubtfully, "I wish you were a +dressmaker." + +"Oh, indeed, no! It does not do, you have not _chic_ if you mix all +sorts together. To be _modiste_ and to be _couturiere_ is like being a +painter and a singer at the same time. But I can tell you of a little +Frenchwoman--she could dress you--ah--eugh!" And she kissed the tips of +her fingers. + +"Well, if you will give me her address I will go to her," said Regina. + +"To-day? But it is too late," said Madame Florence. "Mrs. Whittaker is +coming upstairs to have tea with me," she added; "it will be ready now." + +"Does your friend live far away?" said Regina to Madame Clementine. + +"No, not very far, just three streets away. It is _une vraie +artiste_--no great price, she is not known. By-and-bye she will +be--unattainable, excepting to her old clients. Antoinette, write down +the address of Madame d'Estelle. And when you have arranged your gowns +with her, you will come back to me for suitable toques?" + +"Yes," said Regina, "I will put myself unreservedly in your hands. I +feel you are a woman of taste, an artiste. I frankly confess that I +am--_not_." + +It was with many wreathed smiles, becks and bows and assurances of +welcome when she should come again that Regina was finally allowed to +return to The Dressing-Room for the tea which was waiting her. Finally, +after having written a cheque for her preliminary treatments, she found +herself walking along Berners Street in the direction of Oxford Street, +and a feeling took possession of her that, after all, fashionable women +knew what they were doing when they patronized private establishments. +She had heard of them, because details of dress had not wholly ebbed by +leaving her high and dry on the shore of high principle, devoid of the +herbage of feminine grace. She had heard that no well-dressed woman, no +really well-dressed woman, would ever get her clothes at a shop, and her +keen and busy brain turned over the subject as she walked away from The +Dressing-Room. After all, she had learned much during her years at the +helm of the Society for the Regeneration of Women, and she had learned, +above all things, to set a true value on the quality which is called +individualism. She had learned that you cannot herd humanity with +success, and she was now learning that you cannot dress humanity +_en bloc_. She felt a curious shyness as she caught sight of her +unaccustomed appearance in the shop windows as she passed, and once she +stopped as she was walking along Oxford Street, at a large furniture +establishment, and looked at herself searchingly. Yes, in spite of the +feeling of looseness about her head which worried her not a little, she +could see the intense becomingness of the new way in which her hair was +arranged. It was then after five o'clock, but she steadily pursued her +way in search of Madame d'Estelle. I need not go into the details of her +visit. Madame d'Estelle made short work of her new client. + +"Yes, madame," she said, "you want a little frock built for that toque. +Well, leave it to me, leave it to me; I will make you a little +frock--say ten guineas? (Take madame's measure.) While they take your +measurements I will walk round and study you. You will come again in +three days for a fitting, then, if it is necessary you will come again +three days after that, then in three days more you will have your frock. +I will make you something consistent with your personality--it will be a +little black frock, nothing very important, but it will give us a +sufficient start. (Write, madame, a note--ten guineas--and the day of +the fitting.) Leave yourself to me, madame, it will be all right." + +Then Regina went home. She felt that everybody in the Park was looking +at her. So they were, for the story had gone round that Mrs. Whittaker +had become a little wrong in her head. The story had been going round +that she had been seen walking up the road in her nightgown and many +variations of it had already found credence. "Have you heard the news? +That Mrs. Whittaker of Ye Dene has gone off her dot." "Oh, my dear!" +"Well, Charley says he met her walking up the road in her nightgown." +"Oh, nonsense." "Well, that's what I said, but Charley met her himself." +"Was she walking in her sleep?" "Charley didn't seem to think so." Then +a little later, "You know Mrs. Whittaker of Ye Dene, they're saying +she's got a tile off." "Well, I always did think she was a peculiar kind +of woman; no woman would dress like that who was altogether right in her +head." "Yes, but I didn't think she was as bad as that. Why! she, the +President of some society for making new women. Who says she's got a +tile off?" "Well, my sister was at the Wingfield-Jacksons' yesterday, +and Mrs. Jackson told her that Charley had seen her walking up the road +in her nightgown, so she must be quite dotty, you know." A few days +after the story spread still further. "You've heard the latest, of +course." "No, I've heard nothing particular, most people are away." +"They've taken poor Mrs. Whittaker away to a lunatic asylum." "Oh, my +dear, you don't say so. What for?" "Well, I suppose she's gone out of +her mind. Perhaps the wedding, the fuss--so many presents--ah, I thought +at the time they were rather over-doing it." "But I thought she was such +a strong-minded woman." "Ah, but don't you think there's always +something abnormal about these strong-minded women. Just as my Harry +said when he told me--_he_ got it from the club, of course; all the +gossip in the place comes from the club--as he said, it's all very well +to take women out of their rightful sphere and let them regenerate the +world, but it doesn't pay; that that's just how we ordinary women, who +haven't got souls above our natural duties, may take comfort to +ourselves." "When did it happen?" "I don't know, but when they were +supposed to go abroad she was taken away to a lunatic asylum. They say +she's at Bolitho House, and I did hear that she is kept in a padded +room." "But, my dear," said the other woman, "just turn your eyes to the +window. There's Mrs. Whittaker walking down the road with her hair +dressed a new way and the smartest hat on her head that I've ever seen +in my life!" "Well, I never!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +POOR MOTHER + + I think that nothing in the world shows truer affection than that + curious resentment against any change in the appearance of those + we love. + + +Regina, all unconscious of the gossip that with her for its central +figure was floating about the Park, went slowly down the road in the +direction of Ye Dene. Truth to tell, she was a little shy of facing her +family in her new guise. It was then after six o'clock; in fact, it was +fast approaching the hour of seven. Now it happened that Julia had been +off on an expedition to town with one of the Marksby girls, and had only +arrived home about ten minutes previously, and being tired had gone into +the pleasant sitting-room which she and Maudie had hitherto shared +between them. When Mrs. Whittaker came up the covered way Julia saw her +from where she was sitting, for both the sitting-room door and the front +door were wide open. + +"Hullo, mother, are you back?" she called out. + +Regina with a certain accession of color and a certain acceleration of +heart beating, replied with a pleasant word and walked into Julia's +sitting-room. + +"Oh, you've not been back long?" she said. + +Julia did not reply. It was not perhaps a remark that called for any +special attention in the way of answer, but if it had it would have been +all the same. + +"Why, _mother_--" and she stared at Regina as if she were indeed fitted +for the padded room which had been mentioned a few minutes previously. + +"I have got a new toque," said Regina. + +"Oh, the toque is all right--a little big--" + +"I don't think so. It was chosen for me by a Frenchwoman whose taste is +indisputable." + +"I have not always found French taste indisputable," said Julia, +remembering with a certain shame some of the purchases that she and +Maudie had made in days gone by. "Your toque's all right, but what have +you been doing to your hair?" + +"I have had my hair shampooed and brushed, and I intend to wear it in +another mode." + +"It looks horrid!" said Julia. + +"I don't think so," answered Regina, her color still heightened and a +great accession of dignity in her manner. "You do not always wear your +hair the same, why should I? I have got to that time of life when what +suited me at thirty does not still suit me at fifty, and my hair showed +signs of wearing off the forehead, and I do not like a bald forehead +either in a man or a woman." + +"Oh, I daresay you are right. Of course, you are at liberty to make +whatever sort of a guy you like of yourself, only don't ask me to admire +it, that's all." + +The tone was rude, and Regina felt stabbed to the heart. + +"I do not always admire your taste in dress, Julia," she said very +quietly. "I sometimes think that if a mother had all her life had a +frightful wart on her nose, her children would resent its removal +because they had grown accustomed to it. I have chosen, my dear, to do +my hair in a new fashion, and I am not to be turned from my purpose by +even your wishes. I have come to the conclusion that I have paid too +little attention in the past to the details which most women think of +paramount importance. I am going to change all that and I have begun +with my hair and my toque." + +She did not wait for Julia to reply, but turned and went quietly and +quickly out of the room, leaving Julia speechless and astonished. + +"Now, what has happened to her?" said Julia. "Why should she, all at +once, take to altering herself like that? Surely mother isn't going to +be frivolous in her old age. I wonder what daddy will say. She's going +to 'alter all that.' Well, of course--she's at liberty to please +herself. I suppose I ought not to have jumped on her like that--poor +mother!" + +She got up and ran up the broad and shallow stairs, knocked at her +mother's door, and, without waiting for an answer, entered the room. + +"I say, mother," she said. + +Regina was standing before the glass, evidently in the act of taking the +pins out of her hat. She turned round. + +"You want me?" she asked. Her tone was quite pleasant and sweet, but +there was an indefinable sense of woundedness about it which touched +Julia to the very quick. + +"Oh, I say, mother, I was beastly rude to you just now. But I didn't +mean to be." + +"I am sure you didn't." + +"You see, when one has a mother that one thinks an awful lot of, and who +always wears her hair the same, one feels sort of blank when she makes +herself look different. But I was rude, and I'm awfully sorry; I didn't +mean it for that." + +She came to the side of the dressing-table and stood looking at her +mother with honest, troubled eyes. Regina caught her by the hand and +drew her to her ample bosom. + +"I felt myself growing such a frump," she said. "I don't know when, I +think it was about the time of Maudie's wedding, that I felt, all at +once, that I was getting into a fossil like all other women workers. I +never saw it all those years till about that time, and I hated myself +for being frumpy and ridiculous." + +"You never were that to us," said Julia, with quick reproach. "I hope +you never thought we thought so, for we never did." + +"Well, well, well, I will wear my hair this way for a little while, and +if you and dear father do not like it I will put it back into the old +way again. It is bad for the hair to dress it always in the same +fashion." + +"Well, now I come to think of it, it looks awfully nice, and you've +lovely hair and a glorious complexion." + +At this the color on Regina's cheeks deepened into a veritable rose +blush. Julia hurried on--"It's a beautiful hat," she said. "Where did +you get it? How did you light on this Frenchwoman? Was it very +expensive? It's worth it, whatever it cost." + +"No," said Regina, "it was four guineas; I don't call that very +expensive for a hat with good feathers." + +"Oh, not a bit! And even if it was, you can afford it. I think you are +quite right, now you have chucked the regeneration business, to start +regenerating your own person. I admit it gave me a shock when you came +in. You know, somehow one doesn't like the first idea of one's mother +being tampered with." + +Then Regina told Julia how she came to put herself in the hands of +Madame Florence and the little Frenchwoman on the first floor--that is +to say, she told her in part, not giving her reasons, her actual +reasons, or the source of her information concerning them. + +"But how will you do your hair to-morrow morning?" + +"I do not know quite how I shall do it. I am going to Madame Florence +every day for a week, so that she may do it and get it into the proper +set. When she had arranged my hair she gave me a lesson on a dummy, so +that I really do know how things should be, and she thinks after a week +I shall be quite able to do it myself. Besides, as she says, it makes +such a difference--the way your hair is accustomed to go." + +"You'll never be able to wave your own hair, mother." + +"Well, I don't like to think about that part of it," said Regina. + +"Darling," said Julia, feeling that she had smoothed over her previous +indiscretions, "why don't you have a maid? She would be so useful to +both of us. Think of somebody who would be able to make smart blouses, +do up frocks and touch up hats and generally make life easy and +comfortable. Why don't you have a maid?" + +"It seems such an expense," said Regina. + +"But you can afford it--I shall talk to father." + +"If I did have a maid I should pay her myself; I shouldn't think of +coming on your father for an extravagance of that sort." + +"Well, you have more money than you ever spend. Dearest, you have got +into the habit of going without things, and we have got into the habit +of regarding you as a person of no vanities, so that we resent it when +you show the smallest sign of anything feminine in your nature. Now I +come to look at you again," said Julia, with her head on one side, "I +think I do like you better like this. It is more important looking; it +seems to make your head more of a size with the rest of you. I like you +in black--you know, mother, you never wear black. Do you mind if I try +it on?" + +"Why of course not." It was with pride that Regina stood by and saw her +daughter poise the beautiful black toque upon her own abundant locks. + +"Oh yes, it's a ravishing hat," Julia declared. "I think I must go and +see your Madame Clementine. You won't mind?--Ah, there is daddy coming." + +At that moment Alfred's solid footstep was heard upon the landing. +"Hullo, young woman," he said a moment later as he entered the room, +"got a new hat?" + +"_It's mother's hat_," said Julia with emphasis and awaited +developments. + +"Your mother's? Well, my dear, you have been doing yourself very well. +Why--bless my soul--what have you been doing to your head?" + +"I have been having my hair brushed and cared for," said Regina, feeling +that she must take her bull by the horns and grasp her nettle without +delay. + +"Why didn't they put it up as it was--let me look at you. I don't +know"--and he passed his thumb down one cheek and his fingers down the +other till they met at the lowest point of his chin, "I don't know--it +isn't you, you see." + +"Don't say you dislike it, Alfred," said Regina, with pathetic +wistfulness. + +"I don't say I dislike it, at the same time--it isn't you," he replied. +"Put the hat on--let's see you in it. Yes--I don't know. It's a pity to +hide a forehead like yours with all that loose hair. I know women are +all wearing it so; but at the same time, I think it is a pity." + +"I've got to look such a frump, Alfred," said Regina, taking the hat off +again and patting her hair into place. + +"No, my dear, that you never did. You have a distinctiveness all your +own. As to this new-fangled arrangement--well, if it pleases you to do +it that way, you must do it that way and we must get used to it. +Perhaps, in a little while, we shall like it better than as it was +before." + +"But it does not meet with your unqualified approval, Alfred?" said +Regina. + +"No, I can't say that it does." + +"It makes me look younger," she asserted. + +"But I don't want you to look younger. We were a very good match for +each other as we were, and I don't know that it _does_ make you look +younger. Well, well, let it be for a day or two till one gets accustomed +to the change. As it is, it doesn't seem right to have you, of all women +in the world, thinking about vanities." + +"Why not?" said Regina in a very small voice. + +At that moment Julia betook herself out of the room, shutting the door +as if she did not want to hear any more of what passed between her +parents. + +"Why not?" repeated Regina. + +"Well, they don't seem to be in keeping with you. One never thinks of +you as having nerves or the megrims, of being offended about nothing and +having to be coaxed back again into a good temper. You are the kind of +woman one gives a present to because one desires to give you pleasure, +not because you are to be made to forget some vexation or some +disappointment. You are unlike other women, Regina." + +And Regina immediately decided that the hussy was a person of moods! + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE STRAIGHT AND NARROW PATH + + It is odd that, while business is a mantle sufficiently ample to + cover a whole lifetime of sins, we usually credit any pastime + with being the cloak of a good deal of wickedness. + + +In the face of the indisputable fact that neither husband nor child +approved of the change she had made in her coiffure, Regina entered +upon a course of what can only be called complete prevarication. The +following day she rose betimes in the morning as was her wont, as one of +her fixed habits was always, under all circumstances short of absolute +illness, to be ready for breakfast in time to give Alfred a quiet and +ample meal. She had from the very beginning conceived it to be her bare +duty to be the one to speed him on his daily quest into the city, +and to welcome him when he returned to his home in the evening, and to +do her full justice, Regina had rarely failed in this particular. She +had left her children more or less to shape their own lives, and +being of extremely dominant personalities, they had shaped them +accordingly--Maudie in the direction of the soft, domestic, luxurious +type, which later developes into the "feather bed;" Julia in a keen, +alert, downright, make-your-own-world-as-you-go fashion. She had +arranged her domestic affairs so that when she took up the regeneration +of women her housekeeping arrangements did not suffer by her absence, +and as I have said, she was always down in ample time to breakfast, +always having made a decently becoming toilette, and she was always or +almost always the first person that Alfred saw when he came home again +in time for dinner. On this occasion she knew it would be impossible for +her to arrange her hair in a new and unaccustomed way with anything like +success and at the same time be ready at the usual breakfast time. So +she merely combed her hair up and twisted it into a knot on the top of +her head. Truth to tell, it was much more becoming than any style she +had done it in before, though less elaborate than the arrangement of +Madame Florence. She donned a plain white cambric wrapper, touched her +face with powder, and tied a broad blue ribbon round her waist, bringing +the bow low down, and pinning it with a huge brooch at a point about +six inches lower than she usually wore her buckle. In the past one of +Regina's landmarks had been what is usually called the Holbein curve, +and the mere fact of pinning her waist ribbon a few inches lower than +usual was sufficient to transform Regina if not from the ridiculous to +the sublime, at least from the grotesque to the prevailing mode. She was +already in the spacious and comfortable dining-room reading her letters +when Alfred made his appearance. + +"Whew!" he said, "it's going to be a blazing hot day; the city will be +like a grill room!" + +"And I suppose you are too busy to take an hour or two off?" + +"Why, do you want me to go anywhere?" + +"No, I was thinking it would be good for you if you could take an hour +or two off and get a little fresh air." + +"Utterly impossible, my dear. With any other partner, perhaps, but not +with Chamberlain. To put it plainly, my dear, Chamberlain put in the +money when I wanted to spread myself, and I did spread myself. The +experiment was a success, and I am saddled with Chamberlain for the rest +of my natural life." + +"Is he no help to you?" said Regina. + +"Well, he is less than no help. I think I shall be obliged to suggest +taking in another partner; the business is too big now to have the whole +responsibility on one pair of shoulders. I must have a holiday now and +again--goodness knows, it isn't often for a man of my substance--but +anything like the muddle in which I found things I never imagined even +Chamberlain could accomplish. He's a dear chap, too full of apologies, +perfectly aware of his own shortcomings, always in a domestic +pickle--which is not to be wondered at--but as a partner he is +hopeless." + +"My poor Alfred!" said Regina. + +"Ah, you may well say that. Of course, when one just comes back off a +holiday, one doesn't feel like doing collar work all the time, all +uphill and no easement. But it will pass, and I must seriously think of +taking someone else in." + +"Have you anyone in your eye?" + +"Well, of course, Tomkinson's a splendid man. One wouldn't give him a +full share, wouldn't make him an equal exactly, but I think it would be +a wise thing if we were to make him a junior partner. Besides that, +someone else might get hold of him; he is well known as a first-class +man." + +"I should, my dear. But why should you go on working and toiling like +this? If you were to realize, and with what money I have we should be +quite comfortable." + +"Oh no, oh no, thank you, Queenie, not while I am strong and well. I +should like a little more time to myself; I should like to be able to +run over to Paris for a week or to spend a few days by the seaside. I'm +thinking of taking up golf--I began to take an interest in the game at +Dieppe. It's good for the liver; a mild craze for golf has saved many a +man from an attack of paralysis." + +"You would join a golf club?" + +"Oh, yes, one of those clubs round London." + +"And you would get an afternoon twice a week or so? Could I--could--I +walk round with you?" + +"Oh, I don't think so; I don't think they allow ladies' on men's golf +links. No, no, if you want to start playing yourself, my dear, you must +join a ladies' club and play on your own. It would be good for you." + +"Yes--it would. Won't you have any more coffee?" + +"No, thanks. I may be late for dinner; possibly I may not be able to get +back--I'll send you a wire. By the way, when we leave Ye Dene we will +have a telephone put up." + +"Yes," she said, "it would be most convenient." + +For some time after he had caught his 'bus and gone off to town she sat +thinking. Golf, two afternoons a week--that would mean enjoyments in +which she could take no part. She knew she was growing suspicious--well, +she had enough to make her so. When the scales fall from blind eyes the +eyes are not to be blamed for seeing. Some five minutes after Regina had +come to this conclusion the door opened and Julia came in. + +"All alone, ducky?" she remarked. "Well, I _am_ late. I'd no idea daddy +was gone." + +"Yes, you are late, or I fancy, to be correct, he was unusually early. +He is almost killed with work--or I should say, over-work. However, he +thinks he will get things straight in a few days and then it will be a +little easier." + +"Dear daddy! I really don't see what use Mr. Chamberlain is to him," +said Julia, holding out her hand for the coffee cup which her mother had +just filled. + +"No, he is no help in a business sense, but he put the money into the +concern. What are you going to do to-day, Julia?" + +Julia looked up in unmitigated astonishment. "To-day--oh--ah--I shall be +out and about all day," she returned promptly. + +"I rather wanted you to go to town with me." + +"Awfully sorry, dear, I can't go to-day," Julia answered. + +Regina felt exactly as she might have felt if someone had flung a pail +of cold water in her face. + +"I was going to the West End," she said half hesitatingly. "I thought +you might like to go and see this new milliner of mine." + +"I should have loved it," said Julia, "if I had known before, but I've +made several engagements for to-day." + +She did not vouchsafe any information as to her movements, and Regina +hastened to explain things for Julia. + +"You are going with one of the Marksbys?" + +"No, I'm not. I'm going to lunch at the club, then I'm going to do a +little shopping and later I'm going to tea with the Ponsonby-Piggots." + +"Really! Are you lunching at the club with somebody?" + +"No, I've somebody lunching with me." + +Again Regina felt that curious sensation of a douche of cold water +administered over her entire person. Well, she had brought up her +children to be independent, to have wills, caprices, likes and dislikes +of their own, she could not blame them if they were not of the clinging, +great-chum-with-mother type which she would have preferred them to be at +this moment. + +"Suppose we make it a fixture for the day after to-morrow?" said Julia, +helping herself to more delicate strips of bacon from the covered silver +dish before her. + +"Yes, certainly." + +"Shall we lunch here or in town?" Julia went on. + +"Whichever you like." + +"Your club is such a long way," said Julia, with a faint accent +of disparagement in her tones; "to my mind that is the worst of +professional clubs; they're always so ultra-professional that one can't +find a corner for anything at all fashionable. Suppose you come and +lunch with me, mother dear? If you are giving up your societies why +don't you join a good West-End club? You'd find it so useful, living +out as far as we do." + +"I think I must." + +"I shouldn't recommend mine. It's all very well for me, but it's a cheap +little club and it wouldn't do for you. Now, why don't you join one of +the big clubs in Petticoat Lane?" + +"Petticoat Lane!" + +"Oh--I beg your pardon, mummy, I meant Dover Street. There are +half-a-dozen of them. Shall I see if I can get your name put up? I +daresay you will have to wait some little time. Which would you +like--one that improves your mind or one that improves your +convenience?" + +"Certainly not one that improves my mind." + +"No, I think you are quite right; I hate clubs where they have lectures +and debates and other beastly things that they never have in men's +clubs. Now there's the Kaiserin, that would suit you very well: handsome +clubhouse, excellent cooking arrangements, spacious entertaining-room +which you can hire and have all to yourself, every necessity and comfort +to make a club thoroughly comfy--in fact, a second home without any +bother." + +"But how do you know?" said Regina in a curiously small voice. + +"Oh, I know several women who belong to the Kaiserin," Julia answered +carelessly. "What are you going to do to-day, dearest? Going to see your +milliner again?" + +"No, I'm going to have my hair dressed; I can't do it properly myself +for a few days, and I have one or two other things to do." + +Now it happened that of the one or two other things that Regina had to +do, the most important was a visit to the distinguished specialist in +whose hands the fashionable world was content to put itself with a view +to getting rid of superfluous tissue. It was just on the stroke of noon +when Regina found herself walking across Cavendish Square in the +direction of that street of sighs which most of us know, alas! too well. +She was kept waiting some little time, but the dining-room in which she +spent the period of detention, along with three other ladies much fatter +than herself, was cheerful, and the papers were of the newest (which is +not always the case, let me remind you, in the houses of medical +specialists). At last her turn came to penetrate to the sanctum of the +great man. Regina was quite nervous, needlessly so, but in five minutes +the bland and friendly personality whom she had come to consult had put +her quite at ease. She was weighed! I do not think it would be exactly +delicate to tell you the precise weight at which she turned the scale, +but I have always held her up to you as a woman of that type which is +called "a fine figure." + +"Let me see, you want to get rid of four stones," said the doctor, +genially; "well, that's not a very severe case. It will take you four or +five months; you must take no liberties with yourself and I will send +you a card this evening telling you exactly what you may and may not eat +and drink. You must live by the card, literally by the card. Remember, +no vagaries, no irregularities, no coquetting with the 'one time that +never hurts one.' You must make up your mind that you will give up your +own will until you have reached the required standard, and believe me, +dear lady, you will be a happier woman, a healthier woman and a +handsomer woman when you have attained your object." + +Regina wrote a check and went out into the sunlight, out of the land of +liberty and into the straight and narrow path of a strict and severe +_regime_. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +ROUND EVERYWHERE + + Young eyes see so clearly that we must often be very thankful that + young people do not have the deciding voice in our lives. + + +Regina duly received the promised card or diet sheet. I may say that she +took it from its enveloping wrapper with a certain feeling of mystery +akin to awe, and she studied its items carefully. Its directions were +many and explicit; it not only gave the foods which she might eat, but +also the foods which she might not eat, the drinks she might take and +the drinks she might not take, and it gave the weights of each portion +and the number of each special biscuit. Acting according to the +instructions from the specialist, Regina had ordered a sufficient +quantity of the specially prepared diet biscuits which were part of the +_regime_, and it occurred to her, when the parcel arrived a little later +than the diet sheet reached her, that she would have to account to her +husband and family for the startling change in her diet. Now, Regina was +perfectly sure of one thing: that she would be most unwise to tell +Alfred the exact nature of the _regime_ on which she was about to start. +She felt that a wife who was taking elaborate means, and undergoing +great self-sacrifice, putting herself into prison, so to speak, for the +sole and express purpose of thinning herself down, would show to great +disadvantage beside a person of the plump order who was probably twenty +years her junior, and able to peck greedily at the most fattening kinds +of food. So Regina entered upon a course of what I may call harmless +prevarication. + +"I have something to tell you, dear Alfred," she said that evening when +he had well dined and had not noticed that she had passed about half the +items of dinner; "I want to have a little talk with you." + +"Yes, my dear girl, about having a celebration of the home-coming? Oh +yes, you would wish it, and, of course it was arranged before the +wedding." + +"No, it is about myself." + +"Yourself, dearest? And what about yourself?" + +"Alfred, I have not been feeling myself lately." + +"Why--how--what d'you mean? You're not ill, are you?" + +"Well, not exactly ill; I can't truthfully say that; yet I've not been +myself, I've not felt myself, I've not looked myself--" + +"No, I've noticed how very much paler you have grown; you seem to have +lost your nice fresh color." + +She _had_ lost her nice fresh color; it had disappeared with the advent +of the powder box, and Alfred had not, to use a very slang phrase, +dropped down to the fact. + +"Well, I don't believe in leaving these things to mend themselves," +Regina went on, busily pleating and unpleating the deep black lace which +adorned the sleeves of her handsome tea-gown, "it's better to stop +anything of that sort at the outset." + +"Well, you've been to a doctor?" + +"Yes, I've been strongly advised to go to Dr. Money-Berry in Harley +Street. You see, I've got so very stout lately, Alfred, and he thinks my +having gained in weight has put me all wrong. My heart is very +feeble--compared with what it used to be." + +"My--_dear_! Ough! Tut, tut, tut--think of our going on and living our +ordinary life and all the time you are suffering--it's dreadful to think +of." + +"Well, not exactly suffering; I'm not quite an invalid. Dr. Money-Berry +advised me to live very carefully during the next few months; he thinks +I shall be all right if I leave off starchy foods--they are so bad for +the valves of the heart and--and I don't want to leave you, Alfred," she +said in a pathetic little voice. + +"Good heavens! Go away and leave me! What are you talking of, Queenie? +If you were to go away and leave me--for another man--I should blow my +brains out," and here he began to walk about the room. "And if I didn't, +I should go to the devil." + +I am ashamed to record that there arose in Regina's mind a picture of +Alfred, her noble Alfred! going headlong to the devil with a hussy of +plump proportions. + +Alfred continued excitedly, "And if you were to leave me in the other +sense--I don't know what I should do." + +"Dear Alfred, you would probably marry again," she observed quietly. + +"Never--never! Put that thought out of your mind once and for all. I +should live out the rest of my life as best I could--but I really can't +talk about it. You were perfectly right to go to a specialist, and you +must follow out his treatment to the very letter. Now, promise me you +will do everything he tells you, take all the medicine he gives you, and +live by line and rule until he tells you that you are really out of +danger." + +The heart of Regina was sick within her. She knew she was deceiving +Alfred; she felt herself to be the basest and blackest and most +ungrateful woman that had ever been born into the world, and yet, she +told herself, her deception was a harmless one, that if she was sinning +against him, she was sinning to a good end. And so Regina entered upon +her course of penal servitude, for I can call it nothing more or less. +The same explanation which was given to Alfred was given to Julia, and +henceforth Regina, although she ate at the same table, ate alone. She +did not in any way attempt to curtail the meals of her husband and +child, but supplied the table in exactly the usual manner. + +"Why do you buy salmon when you can't touch it yourself?" Alfred asked +over and over again. + +"Because you work hard and want your meals. If you had the same +necessity for living as I do, I should keep you up to it." + +"I don't believe you would buy salmon for yourself," said Alfred, almost +vexedly; "it must be a temptation to you, so fond of it as you are." + +"Oh, no, because I have an object in view. Believe me, I often have +sweetbreads for lunch." + +"But you do not fling them in my face at dinner; that is quite another +matter." + +So the martyrdom went on, and Regina's figure became smaller by degrees +and beautifully less. When she had been dieting for about two months she +had lost a couple of stones in weight. She had a couple of smart gowns +from Madame d'Estelle in which she had allowed that adroit lady free +play for her taste and imagination. The result was that she gradually +presented to the eyes of her family a subdued and refined Regina, much +more attractive to the outer world, but not the Regina to whom the +inhabitants of Ye Dene had been accustomed. + +It was about two months from the beginning of Regina's martyrdom that +Alfred Whittaker began to be aware that his wife was losing flesh. "My +dear," he said one morning, as he sat opposite his wife at the +breakfast-table, "I'm not quite satisfied with that doctor of yours." + +"Why not, dear?" + +"Why, I don't think he's doing well by you." + +"But I am so much better." + +"You don't look it; you're half the size you were." + +"Oh, no, Alfred! There's still plenty of me." + +"You are much smaller, and since you have taken to wearing black and +indefinable gray gowns, you seem to be wasting away to nothing. When is +it going to stop?" + +"When he is satisfied that I am just the right weight. I am much +stronger, Alfred; I can walk miles!" + +"Can you? Well, I don't know that it is necessary for you to walk miles; +you can afford to take a cab whenever you want one." + +"Yes, dear, but I am much better." + +"I know you say so, and you've been awfully plucky about your diet and +so on, but when is it going to end? I don't want a wife like a thread +paper." + +Julia had come into the room while he was speaking. "Dear daddy," she +said, "you're very dense. Mother's getting vain in her old age. She's +got a French milliner, she's got a French dressmaker, she does her hair +a new way, and she's getting her figure back again. She's quite a new +woman, she's given up working for womanhood generally, and she's getting +frivolous. She's got a club--I mean a real club--in the West End, and +one of these days she's going to give a dinner party and ask you and me +to it." + +"Well, well, well, if you're quite sure you are not doing anything +foolish," said Alfred Whittaker; "I only want you to be happy in your +own way. But I want you to be _quite_ sure that you are not doing +anything foolish. It's not natural for a woman of your age to be starved +down to skin and bone." + +"My dear Alfred! Think of the breakfast I have made this morning; I have +had twice as much as you." + +"I rather doubt that," said Alfred, patting himself in the region he had +just filled, "I rather doubt that. But I should be more satisfied if +you went to a heart specialist. Who is Dr. Money-Berry? What's his +line?" + +"He is a specialist," said Regina, with an air, "on all matters +connected with the internal organs above the belt, and those bound in +the chains of fatty degeneration of the heart, he sets free. To those +whose food does not digest properly, he seems able to give a new +digestion. I have full faith in his integrity and his skill, and I beg, +dear Alfred, that you will not worry yourself. I am quite a new woman, +regenerated, rejuvenated." + +"Yes, I know, but you are getting so thin." + +"And don't you like me better thinner?" + +"No, I couldn't like you better, that's impossible, but if you are +better in health for being thinner it's all very well. But if you are +going on reducing yourself to a miserable skeleton nothing will make me +believe it is good for you or make me declare I admire you, for I never +shall." + +After he had gone she sat with a flushed and uneasy expression on her +smooth face. As the gate clicked behind her father's departing form +Julia burst into laughter. + +"Lor', mother," she said, "how can you bamboozle poor daddy as you do?" + +"Julia!" + +"Yes, I mean it. Poor daddy doesn't see one inch before his nose, and +you are a sensible woman. You let him think that Dr. Money-Berry is a +specialist for fat round the heart." + +"What do you mean?" + +"Well, Dr. Money-Berry is a specialist for fat round everywhere, whom +fashionable women go to to have their figures made sylph-like. If Dr. +Money-Berry depended upon cases of heart trouble he wouldn't hang out +very long in Harley Street, and nobody knows that better than you, +mother." + +"Julia!" + +"But," Julia continued, "you've changed immensely during the last few +months. I don't know what made you throw up your societies and try to +make yourself into a mere domestic woman; but you have regenerated +yourself, that's true enough." + +"I was too fat, Julia; it was not wholesome." + +"You were not more fat than you had been for the last ten years. I never +remember you so thin as you are now. You have changed your milliner, you +have changed your dressmaker, you do your hair a new way--you are a +totally different woman, and I think daddy is quite right when he asks, +'Where is it going to end?'" + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +A REJUVENATED REGINA + + How one admires a woman who takes an unexpected facer without + making a scene! + + +Regina had come to the end of her period of martyrdom. Her weight +was ten stones seven pounds, her waist was twenty-five inches. Her +family had grown used to what both father and daughter stigmatized as +"mother's little vanities." She was now a radiantly healthy, pleasing, +well-dressed person of comely, middle-aged womanhood. It is true that +she was hopelessly dependent upon Madame d'Estelle for her taste in +dress and upon Madame Clementine for her choice of millinery. She was +still an excellent customer at The Dressing-Room, and went there +regularly to have her luxuriant hair brushed and waved in the fashion to +which Alfred Whittaker and Julia no longer raised any objection. She had +started a day at her club so that friends at a distance might take a cup +of tea with her without journeying out to Northampton Park. She was not +yet the chaperon of her daughter, for her daughter had long ago got +into the habit of arranging her own life, but she was fully convinced +that the new ways were a wide advance upon the old ways, and nothing +would have induced her to go back to her original state of benighted +self-sufficiency. Never had Regina Whittaker known herself so thoroughly +as since she had become aware of the existence of the hussy. And yet, it +must be confessed that although she had absolutely remodeled her life, +changed her way of being, taken a new standpoint from which to look out +upon the world, she was no nearer the consummation of her dearest hopes, +she was no more certain than she had been six months before that the +heart of Alfred was indisputably hers and hers alone. + +"You are going to dine in town again!" she said to him one dreary winter +morning. + +"My dear girl, you may rest assured that I should not dine in town if +there were the ghost of a chance of my being able to get my dinner here, +but I shall not be back till late, and I don't know why you and the +child should ruin your dinner because I can't get back in reasonable +time." + +"But Maudie and Harry are coming." + +"I can't help that; you must explain to them. My dear girl, there's such +a lot at stake just now that I simply dare not leave it to chance. Come, +come, be reasonable. One would think," and he smiled benevolently down +upon her, "that we were a young couple like our turtle doves, and that +one could not dine without the other. I admit that I shall not enjoy it +so much." + +"Shall you not?" + +"Now, how can I? Probably there isn't a man in London who is fonder of +his home than I am, but at the same time one wants to do the right +thing by one's home as well as to enjoy it." + +"But, Alfred, you don't wish me to understand that the firm is in +difficulties?" + +"No, no, not in the sense you mean, but in another sense it is. The fact +is, Queenie, I must stick to the ship now at whatever inconvenience to +myself." + +"And to me," said Regina. + +"Well, dearest, and to you. But, come now, you are a strong-minded +woman, you know how many beans make five as well as any woman I have +ever met--better than most. I've got myself tied up with the biggest ass +in London, whether he's going out of his great mind, or whether he's +going to continue on, a danger to everyone with whom he comes in touch, +I don't know. The fact is, he's not mad enough to be shut up in a +lunatic asylum and he's not sane enough to be allowed to come and go as +he likes." + +"But you took in Tomkinson to relieve you." + +"And so he will in time, but he isn't the head of the firm and I am. +He's a splendid man and I should have been furious if any other house in +the same line had got hold of him; at the same time you can't expect a +man to take my place in the first six months of becoming a partner; it +wouldn't be reasonable, particularly as Chamberlain is such a difficult +card to handle." + +"And where are you dining?" said Regina. + +"Well, to-night I've got to dine possibly at the Criterion and talk over +a business matter that Chamberlain has let himself in for, and which he +is most anxious to get clear of with as little publicity and fuss as +possible. Of course the situation with his wife is very difficult; she +is a jealous, absurd, sensitive woman, and he makes her a shocking bad +husband. It's a pity he was not born to be a clerk with a pound a week, +to have to keep his nose down to the grindstone to provide board and +lodging; then he would have managed to keep himself straight. I shall +get things straightened out in a few months if I can manage it, and then +we will take that trip South that we were talking about. You'd like +that, wouldn't you?" + +"I shall be happy anywhere with you." + +"We'll take that trip South, it will do you good, and it will be a +heaven-sent holiday for me, but I can't go as things are now, and you +mustn't worry until I have got matters into something like order." + +"You are sure we are not spending too much money?" + +"Oh no, no, no, it isn't a question of money, but in one way it's a +question of business. Now I must be off." + +It happened that Julia had been listening during the entire +conversation. "I say, mother," she said, "if daddy is not coming home to +dinner, why give Harry and Maudie the fag of coming out here? Let's go +and dine at the Trocadero and do a theatre afterward; it isn't often +that you and I have the chance of getting off on the loose by ourselves. +We could easily send a wire or I could run over and see Maudie, and she +could 'phone to Harry from their house." + +"Yes, that's a very good idea," said Regina, who certainly did not want +to sit at her own table in the absence of her lord and master and +explain the exact circumstances of his absence. "You'd better wire, +or--no--you might run over." + +"Then I'll lunch with Maudie." + +"All right. We'll dine at seven o'clock." + +"What theatre shall we go to?" + +"You can settle that with Maudie, can't you? Then you can 'phone from +her house to any theatre you want to go to." + +"Very good. Do you know, mother, I think daddy is very worried. I wonder +why everything seems to be Mr. Chamberlain; our house seems to be +dominated by Mr. Chamberlain. I don't know why daddy doesn't get rid of +him; he's no good to anybody." + +"Ah, that's easier said than done with a partner of any kind. Mr. +Chamberlain may be a little wrong in his head, but he knows right enough +when he is in for a good thing; it's no use thinking about that, so we +may as well make the best of it." + +So at seven o'clock a well-dressed and extremely happy quartette arrived +in pairs at the Trocadero and took up a position at a table in the +gallery. The dinner was excellent, the music was alluring, the company +was abundant and well-dressed, and Regina, released from the thraldom of +Dr. Money-Berry, was at liberty to eat whatever came in due course. +Harry Marksby had chosen the champagne, and all was merry as a marriage +bell, when suddenly Julia made a remark, "Why, there's daddy," she said, +looking over the balustrade. + +Regina looked in the opposite direction. "Really! he said he was going +to dine at the Criterion or somewhere. I suppose his friend preferred to +come here." + +"His friend is a lady," said Julia. + +Regina's heart gave a sick throb, her eyes followed the direction of +Julia's gaze, and the next instant she beheld her noble Alfred sitting +with his elbow on the table talking earnestly to a young and pretty +woman. + +"Don't faint, darling," said Julia in a soft undertone. + +"I'm not in the least likely to faint," said Regina, with superb +dignity. "Doubtless your father will give a perfectly simple explanation +of his being here with a lady. Thank you, Harry, I will have a little +more champagne." + +Oh, she was a plucky woman, Regina Whittaker! It was not in her nature +to show the white feather! Her suspicions had crystallized themselves +into human form. There was the hussy who had haunted her for months +past, there she was in the flesh! "And I must say," said Regina to her +own heart, "that Alfred does not look as if he were enjoying himself." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +WARY AND PATIENT + + As a rule, especially in the greater issues of life, little or + nothing is to be gained by precipitancy. + + +During the rest of the dinner Regina made a valiant effort to appear as +thoroughly at ease as if the portly gentleman down below was no kith or +kin of hers. When she had once pulled herself together and realized the +worst, she became the life and soul of the table, and Regina, mind you, +was a woman of intellect, a woman of wit, when it pleased her to exert +herself in that respect. She did not again allude to the fact that her +husband was dining under the same roof as herself, until they made a +move, intending to go to the theatre. Then Maudie, who was not endowed +with much tact, demurred at leaving without making their presence known +to her father. + +"I must go and speak to daddy," she said. + +"Nothing of the kind," said Regina in a fierce whisper, "nothing of the +kind; I absolutely forbid it. Harry, you will back me up in this?" + +Her tone was one of anxious entreaty, and Harry Marksby, who had been +rather a gay dog in his very young days, although always tempered with a +large amount of common-sense which had saved him from getting into a +hole, took in his mother-in-law's meaning at a glance. + +"No, you can't go downstairs now, my dear," he said, giving her a +vigorous nudge with his elbow, and Maudie, without in the least +understanding, took the hint and said no more. "We'll meet you at the +theatre," he added. + +So presently Regina found herself sitting in a hansom with Julia beside +her. + +"I say, mother," said Julia, as the cab started from the doorway, "that +was a little awkward, wasn't it? And how silly of Maudie! I really +thought she had more sense." + +"Not one word of this to your father," said Mrs. Whittaker in the same +tone of fierce repression. "You children are quite mistaken, I +understand it perfectly. You will not speak to your father of our having +seen him? He would not be able to explain the circumstances to you." + +"Oh, certainly, not if you don't wish it, darling. You'd better tell +Harry to give Maudie warning because she's sure to blab it out. Who is +she?" + +"I don't know what her name is," said Regina; "she is a person your +father has some business with--business connected with the firm," she +added, with a dexterity of explanation which astounded even herself. "I +have known of her existence for some time; your father has been almost +worried out of his life about it, and it would worry him much more if he +thought you children misconstrued his actions." + +"Oh, well, I suppose daddy is perfectly at liberty to do as he likes as +long as he makes matters clear to you. We have no right to dictate who +he shall take to the Trocadero to dine." + +"My dear child--my precious child--" said Regina almost breaking down, +but recovering herself with a snap as it were. Then she went on in the +same fierce tone, "I shall not forget this, Julia, my darling; one can +always rely on you in a moment of emergency, Maudie has not half your +sound common-sense--she's a feather head compared to you." + +"Oh, she'll be all right. You tip Harry the wink--" + +"What!" + +"Oh! I beg your pardon, mummy, I forgot. Shall I tell Harry to stop +Maudie blabbing?" + +"I wish you would. You might explain to him a little. Now, here we are, +here we are, now don't let us speak of it again; it's all much more +simple than you children think." + +Now it happened that on the way down to the theatre, Harry Marksby had +given Maudie a hint, or, as Julia would have put it, tipped her the +wink, to say nothing whatever about what had occurred. + +"I don't understand why," she had replied. "Why should daddy be dining +with that bold-looking woman when mother thought he was dining with a +friend at the Criterion?" + +"Well, you can't tell. As long as your mother doesn't want it spoken of, +it's no business of ours. Now, hold your tongue, Maudie darling; I rely +upon you not to say a word, you'll only upset everybody's apple-cart if +you do." + +"Well, I'm not likely to say anything against my own father. All the +same," said Maudie, with the suspicion of a pout, "I do think that +father ought to feel it incumbent upon him not to disgrace us in public +places. If he was only dining with a friend why couldn't I go and speak +to him--I'm his own child? And if he was dining with somebody he +wouldn't like to take home--" + +"And you can bet your bottom dollar he wouldn't," said Harry. + +"Then I think he ought to give an account of himself." + +"Oh yes, I know, that's justice, man's justice. Come, come, come, Mrs. +Harry Marksby," said Harry in a tone of cheerful warning; "and here we +are at the theatre. Now, don't say a word to your mother, she's upset +enough, poor old lady." + +Now, as Mrs. Whittaker had dined the little party, it became Harry's +pleasing duty to give them supper, and from the theatre they went to a +certain fashionable supper-room, again by means of a couple of hansoms. +This time it was Julia who shared the hansom of her brother-in-law. + +"Now, look here, Harry," she said, "for goodness' sake don't say +anything about having seen daddy to-night." + +"Why, what do you take me for? Do you think I was born yesterday--or the +day after to-morrow?" + +"But mother says she knows all about it, and that it's much more simple +than we think, and she thinks that Maudie will go blabbing it out." + +"Oh, that's all right, I have given her a hint already. At the same +time, I think your father ought to--well--ought to make things a little +more secure." + +"Yes, I know, but he had not the least idea that we were dining out +to-night; it was quite an impromptu arrangement and daddy might be vexed +if Maudie said anything to him about it--'We saw you dining with a lady +the other night'--you know, that sort of thing." + +"Is he--um--um--" + +"What do you mean by um--?" + +"Is he touchy?" + +"Oh no, take him all round he is the most amiable person I know; but +there are limits to every man's patience, and if daddy is bothered with +the firm's business, as mother seems to imply, it might vex him; +besides, mother doesn't wish it mentioned, and that's enough; he's _her_ +husband." + +"And, Julia," said Harry Marksby, as they drove up to the door of the +restaurant, "if every woman was as wise as your mother, there wouldn't +be much domestic broiling to worry the world." And then he jumped out +and held out his hand for Julia to alight. + +Regina behaved admirably at this juncture; she kept it up, she made a +very good supper; but then, you know, that was one of Regina's excellent +qualities; when in tribulation her appetite did not fail her. Finally +Regina and Julia drove down to the nearest station on the district +railway and took train for the Park. They found Mr. Whittaker already +come in. + +"Well, dearest," he said, as they rustled into the dining-room where he +was sitting reading, "you never told me you were going to galavant." + +"No; for, you see, we took it into our heads that we would go to a +theatre, and then Harry and Maudie gave us supper at the Golden +Butterfly afterwards. We have had a great time, haven't we, Julia?" + +"A great time," said Julia. "I like a little supper after a theatre, it +always seems so dull, bundling out and scrambling off to one's train. +And how long have you been home, daddy?" + +"Oh, ever so long; I got home before ten. And what theatre did you go +to?" + +Regina explained, and Alfred mixed her a little whisky-and-soda, and +Julia said she would go to bed, for she was dead beat, and so on; and +still Regina said nothing beyond throwing out a feeler in order that her +husband might confide anything to her if he wished to do so. + +"You got through your business, Alfred?" + +"Yes--yes, yes." + +"And brought it to a successful issue?" + +"Well--I can't exactly say that, but I have put things in train." He +gave a short angry sigh, as if he were vexed with himself and the world +in general. + +It was on the tip of Regina's tongue to ask where he had dined. Perhaps +if she had done so an explanation would have taken place between them +and her mind have been set at rest; but a certain delicacy overcame her +as if she, in dining at the Trocadero, without giving her husband due +warning of the fact, had committed an indiscretion. So she simulated a +fatigue which she was far from feeling and she went off to bed, followed +two minutes later by Alfred, who declared himself to be tired out, and +it was not until Regina found herself in bed in the dark, with her +husband sleeping the sleep of the--shall we say?--just, beside her that +she gave herself up to reviewing the situation. Well, "hope deferred +maketh the heart sick." It may be so, but certain it is that Regina's +heart was very sore and sorry that night. Hope was deferred no longer, +uncertainty had become certainty; she knew the worst! She had seen the +hussy! It was beyond her understanding to know why Alfred could have +allowed himself to be entangled by such a creature--so common, +attractive only with a common attractiveness, pretty only in a common +type of prettiness; young, yet not blooming. He had not looked happy; he +sighed in his sleep. + +"What shall I do?" said Regina to herself. "Tell him? No, no; never, +never own for one instant that I have the smallest knowledge or +suspicion that my husband is shared by a creature like that." + +She lay awake for hours during that night, and when the first faint +streaks of morning came struggling in at the window, she had come to the +conclusion that he was unhappy in that relationship, that he had been +entangled and that freedom would be infinitely precious to him. + +"I must work hard at my task of supplanting such a person," she told +herself, "I must be wary and wily and sweet, and must make myself +attractive. Alfred has been most attentive to me since I went to Madame +d'Estelle, and since Clementine made my hats for me and Florence +rearranged my hair. I must be wary and patient, always wary and +patient, give him no excuse for wanting to go away from home, give him +no sense of rest in any other place than under his own roof. It will not +be easy--no, it will be most difficult. Poor fellow! he's so set on +keeping faith with me that he even resents any little thing that I do to +change myself. I hate that woman! Yes, I have never hated anyone in my +life as I hate that woman!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +DADDY'S HEART + + I wonder is there a woman in the world who is not touched by a gift + of beautiful furs? + + +It was fortunate for Regina that she had been in the past accustomed to +live her life a good deal to herself. An ordinary wife and mother who +started out on a scheme of rejuvenation as elaborate as that of Mrs. +Whittaker's would find it extremely difficult to account for the hours +which she would have to spend outside her own house. The ordinary young +girl in decent society usually has to explain to her mother what she has +done with her day, sometimes what she is going to do, and must generally +gain permission for any expedition which she desires to make. I have +known young girls who considered surveillance to be what they +indignantly termed espionage, and I have known much heart burning, much +kicking against the pricks from the girls of the family because they +were not, like their brothers, free as the wind, to go where they +listed. But I must tell my readers that the espionage of mothers over +daughters is as nothing compared to the espionage of daughters over a +popular mother. + +In a certain household with which I am intimately acquainted, these are +some scraps of conversation which may frequently be heard: + +"Well, darling, where are you going to-day?" + +"Oh, I'm going out and about; I want to go along the High Street, and +then perhaps I'll go to tea with So-and-So, and I half promised to go to +Fuller's to tea with such and such a boy. I'm not going far away. I +shall be out and about. Why--do you want me?" + +"Oh no, dear. Be in by dinner time." + +On the other hand, this is a scrap or conversation from the same family: + +"Are you going out to-day, mother?" + +"Yes." + +"Where are you going?" + +"Oh, I'm going out." + +"Yes, but where?" Then follows a string of questions--"What are you +going to do? What are you going to get? What time shall you be in? Do +you want me to go with you? Is daddy going with you?" and so on. The +simple answer, "I'm going out and about," or "I'm going for a walk," +would in no wise serve that mother. If she managed to slip out without +her family knowing the exact details of her programme she would +certainly have to explain how she had spent every minute of her time +when she got home again. "Well, where did you go? Who did you see? Where +did you have tea? How many teas did you have? Did you have a good time? +Are you tired? Why didn't you let me know you were going? I wanted to go +with you." These are only a few of the questions that this particular +mother has to answer whenever she happens to go out without attendance; +and I say lucky it was for Regina that she had early inculcated the +liberty of the subject into the hearts of her daughters twain. + +Just at first, after giving up public life, she had made a feeble effort +to assert the ordinary _role_ of motherhood, but she had found herself +brought sharply to a realization of her own principles, that she was +free as air, to do as she liked, and that Julia had the same privileges +as herself. Fortunate it was for Regina that it was so, for she was able +to continue her work of regeneration, carried out on the most +twentieth-century lines, without being hindered by objections and +comments from her husband and daughters. For Julia was accustomed to +spend her days among her own friends and to follow her own inclinations, +and Regina had been for many years accustomed to come and go without +hindrance or comment. + +Now, at this time, she became almost too busy to worry about even the +existence of the hussy. Twice a week she spent an hour at The +Dressing-Room, having her hair brushed and kept beautiful. Twice a week +she attended the _salons_ of her beauty specialist, who did all manner +of quaint things to her complexion, smoothing, washing, patting, +kneading, dabbing, spraying, using electricity and washes, and employing +various other modes of rendering her skin beautifully smooth. Then twice +a week she attended the classes of a fashionable expert in physical +culture, and at her bidding Regina, clad in black satin knickers and a +white blouse, innocent of corsets or any other artificial means of +making a figure, went through a series of antics, from blowing her nose +scientifically to hopping about in attitudes suggestive of a gigantic +frog--only that Regina grew less and less gigantic, and more and more +approached to the proportions of her daughters. And then Regina took to +learning the bicycle. Her modesty suggested that she should start on a +machine with three wheels, but the professor of that art, who ran a show +in Regent's Park--well removed from Regina's own domain--assured her +that it was absurd for a person of her age and generally healthy aspect +to begin on a machine that he would recommend to anyone old enough to be +her mother. So Regina, with many misgivings, set out to learn the +bicycle. She was not an easy pupil to teach, but there is no doubt that +the nose blowing, hopping, rolling over and over on the floor, and going +through the many exercises which the expert in physical culture ordained +for her had given her a degree of lissomeness which she had never +enjoyed in the whole course of her existence. + +These pursuits necessitated her lunching in town every single day in the +week, and, having some time still on her hands, she devoted one hour in +the week to learning fencing, and then she joined a bridge class +connected with her club. And truly she proved what marvelous changes an +ordinary, stout, podgy, somewhat self-indulgent woman, getting near her +half century, can make in herself if she chooses. + +"Regina," said Alfred, one evening when she came down to dinner wearing +a bewitching little confection of silk and lace, which, if he had only +known it, was called a coffee-coat, "my dear, are you still going to +that doctor of yours?" + +"Yes." + +"How often?" + +"Once a week, or so." + +"I feel very anxious about you." + +"But why, when I'm so well?" + +"My dear girl, you are fading away, you are going to nothing, you are +not as well covered as you were when we were married." + +"I am not skinny, Alfred!" said Regina, with dignity. + +"Skinny! God forbid! But where are you going to stop?" + +"In your heart, Alfred," said Regina, looking at him very sweetly. + +"But if you go on as you are at present, there won't be anything of you +left to stop!" + +"Oh, you don't understand. I had so given myself up to public life that +I had let myself grow fat and ungainly, and I despised things that all +women should think much of. But I have seen the error of my ways--and I +feel as gay as a bird, as light as air. I only wish, dearest, that you +would pay a little more attention to yourself." + +"I? Dear, dear, dear! You don't mean to say that you want me to live on +dog biscuits. I decline to do it, Regina, even to please you. I lead a +busy life, although, thank God! I am able to make money. I often scamp +my lunch--just taking anything that comes handy, but my good breakfast +in the morning and my good dinner at night I insist upon having." + +"Oh, those good dinners!" said Regina, but she said it good-naturedly, +and Alfred only laughed and began to serve the soup. + +"Now try a little of this, Palestine soup--your favorite." + +"No, not soup, dear." + +"Why punish yourself? You are as thin as a match already." + +"Dr. Money-Berry warned me against soups." + +"Well, this once? I bought something for you to-day. Now, to please me +you must have a little of this." + +"Very well." + +"Your sins shall be upon my head," said Alfred. + +"No, I will take my sins on my own shoulders," said Regina. + +It was not until the maid had left them alone that she asked him what +the present was that he had bought for her that day. + +"Ah, you wait till after dinner, old lady. I had the chance of buying +something very nice at a quite reasonable price, and I took it, as I had +to take it or leave it without any chance of consulting you. If you +don't like it you can hand it over to one of the girls." + +"I shall like it," said Regina, and she asked no further questions. + +It was after dinner, when they had retired to the pleasant drawing-room, +that Alfred brought forth his purchase. It was a rather flat parcel, +looking like a rather large cardboard box done up in brown paper. With +masculine pride Alfred snipped the string, undid the wrappings and +brought to view the cardboard box that Regina had expected. Within were +more wrappings of tissue paper, and these undone disclosed a large +tippet or stole and a big muff of the order usually called "granny," +made of the finest dark sables. + +"Alfred!" cried Regina, all in a flutter. + +"Ah, I thought you'd say that. No question of handing them over to the +girls, eh?" + +"I should think not indeed. Why, darling boy, you must have given a +fortune for them." + +He slipped the tippet over her head and kissed her at the same time. +"Not too much for you, Queenie, but they did cost, well, a penny or two, +but it was a bargain all the same. Now, put your hands in the muff and +look at yourself." + +"Oh, Alfred--oh, Alfred, you do love me?" said Regina. + +"Love you! Ever have cause to doubt it?" he asked quite sharply. + +Regina was almost choked by her emotion. The psychic moment had arrived +for her to make her confession, to tell him all her doubts and fears, +all her efforts to make herself lovely in his eyes. "My Alfred, my noble +Alfred," she exclaimed, flinging her arms round his neck and clasping +the muff against his head. She was on the point of saying, "I _have_ +something to tell you," but she hesitated, in a manner unusual with her, +for a choice of words. In the rush of gratitude she almost let slip that +she had something to confess when the door opened, and Maudie, followed +by her husband, came into the room. + +"Furs! Dark sables! Darling, daddy _has_ been opening his heart to you." + +"Daddy's heart is always open to me," said Regina. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +REGINA SETS FOOT ON THE DOWN GRADE + + There is a great deal of wisdom in the old saying "Truth will out." + + +Somehow those sables served to put Regina further from her husband +instead of drawing her nearer to him. I'm sure that Alfred Whittaker +himself would have been shocked had he known the effect that his gift +had upon his spouse. Every day--nay, every hour tended to confirm her +belief that the hussy she had seen dining with Alfred at the Trocadero +had complete ascendancy over him, and yet those sables stopped her time +after time from broaching the subject to him. They were, so to speak, a +sop in the pot, and whenever Regina was on the point of laying her hand +on Alfred's shoulder and saying to him, plump and straight, "Alfred, is +your heart still mine?" a vision of dark sables seemed to rise up and +choke the very words in her throat. Most women would love to have a +danger-signal in the shape of dark sables, rich and elegant, soft and +cosy, at once luxurious and comforting, but there were times when Regina +almost hated her sables because they seemed to have raised an extra +barrier between herself and Alfred. + +"Mother," said Julia, one morning, when Regina was about to leave the +house on one of her strictly-personal expeditions, "are you going to Dr. +Money-Berry again?" + +"Yes, dear, I am. Why?" + +"Do you think he is doing very much good?" + +"Oh, I do, indeed! I consider that he has set me free, body and soul, +from the burden that I used to carry about with me." + +"Oh--you mean--fat, darling? Don't you think it suits you to be a little +fat?" + +"I don't think it suits anybody to be fat," said Regina, with the +enthusiasm of the recent convert. + +"And yet I have heard you describe daddy as a man of commanding +presence. How would you like it if daddy were to starve himself down +until all the command of his presence disappeared into nothingness?" + +"Ah, but I was gross," said Regina. + +"I never knew you when you were gross," said Julia. "I thought at +Maudie's wedding you looked lovely, and daddy said to me--" + +"What did your father say to you?" + +Julia drew a step nearer to her mother, and smoothed down, with tender +yet nervous fingers, the stole of soft gray fur which was around her +shoulders. + +"Why don't you ever wear your sables?" she asked irrelevantly. + +"My sables?" said Regina. "Oh, I don't like to wear them every day." + +"But when you are going to town, among smart West-End physicians--that +doesn't mean every day. I don't suggest that you should put them on to +go up the village in. Don't you like them?" + +"Oh, yes, no woman in the world would dislike them." + +"That's what I thought. You know, mother dear, you're cooking up +something about daddy." + +"No, I would rather not discuss it with you, my darling." + +"Sometimes," said Julia, still smoothing the stole up and down, +"sometimes it's better to get it off your chest." + +"What a very vulgar remark!" said Regina. + +"Yes, perhaps, but very practical. Now, I've been watching you." + +"I wish you wouldn't," said Regina. + +"Yes, we all wish others wouldn't. You see, that night at the Trocadero +let us all behind the scenes a little. Yes--I must speak, it's been +trembling on the tip of my tongue for weeks past, but, somehow, you +always put me off. I believe that daddy could explain it all." + +"There is no necessity for explanation." + +She looked very stern, very severe; but Julia was minded to speak, and +when Julia was minded to speak she generally had her say. + +"You are quite a different woman to what you were when Maudie was +married. You're not fretting after her, that's certain--an outsider +might think so, but I know better. You've never told daddy a word about +our having seen him at the Trocadero that night. You didn't notice him +very much; you resolutely kept your eyes away from him. I had no such +delicacy of feeling, I watched him very closely. That woman is nothing +to him. I don't know why he was dining with her, I don't know why he +didn't tell you about it, but he was bored and annoyed. He was trying to +pull something off, and he couldn't get what he wanted. If she ever had +any sort of hold over him, that hold has long since ceased to be an +attractive one--he was bored to death with her. I don't know that Maudie +wasn't right." + +"You have discussed it with Maudie?" + +"I have, or rather she has discussed it with me. She was all for going +down and tackling daddy right away, and I believe her instinct was +right, and that daddy would rather you knew he was there." + +"And Maudie thinks--?" + +"Maudie? Oh, Maudie's mind works in quite a different way to +mine--always did. Maudie thinks it is just an ordinary affair of that +kind, and left alone she would have gone down and taxed him with it, but +Harry wouldn't hear of it. But daddy was there and she was there--and a +horrid-looking brute she was--but whoever she was, and whatever she may +be, I am perfectly sure there is not the slightest occasion for you to +worry about her, one way or the other." + +"I don't--" Regina began, but Julia promptly cut her short. + +"Oh, yes, darling, you do. You were quite a changed woman after that +night--ah, and before that night, too. I know perfectly well that you +are worrying, I could burst out crying sometimes to see the look on your +face, and poor old daddy is quite unconscious, he hasn't the least idea +why you are so quiet and so unlike yourself. He asked me quite +anxiously the other day if I thought you were over-doing the treatment +with Dr. Money-Berry." + +"I believe," said Regina, who before all things was loyal to her Alfred, +"I believe that all persons inclining to stoutness would be better in +health, and in mind too, if they would take means to keep themselves to +proper proportions. Oh, Dr. Money-Berry is quite right in saying that +fat is a disease, and should be treated as such. I have been to him once +or twice lately because I was not sure that my symptoms were desirable. +I am really going to him to-day to say good-by for the second time. +Don't worry about me, darling child, and don't discuss your father with +Maudie. I have never entered into details of business and I never intend +to. Your father distinctly told me that he was dining with somebody on +business; it would be intolerable for him, placed as he is, if his wife +were to worry him to death every time he spoke to another woman. Dear +little girl, you'll be marrying one of these days, and you'll have a +husband of your own; then you will realize that between husband and wife +discretion is truly the better part of valor. And I wish you would put +that incident right out of your head--regard it as a business +matter--and not think of it every time you think I am not looking as gay +as usual. You know, my darling, I have many thoughts busying to and fro +in my brain. I have never been a mere machine for ordering dinner, and +although I have given up public life, I have not given up all my +thoughts--I still have an intellect. Your father is the best and noblest +man I ever knew. One of these days he will explain what, so far, he has +only told me in part. But I must be going, I am rather late already. +Tell me, are you occupied all day?" + +"Yes, that is to say, I am lunching with Maudie, and then I am going on +to my club." + +"No, come and have tea at mine. I shall expect you between half-past +four and five." + +"Right you are, mother." + +And then Mrs. Whittaker went out, passed down the tessellated covered +way and turned her face toward the station, conscious that she had that +day graduated as a first-class liar. Well, if she had lied, she had lied +in a good cause. If she had succeeded in restoring the faith of her +child in husband and father, she had lied to some purpose, and surely +the recording angel would drop showers of tears over the spot, and it +would be blotted out forever. Her thoughts had reached this point when +she reached the ticket office. She had to stand and wait for some time +while two ladies fumbled with their purses, and while they discussed +whether they would travel first or second. + +"First-class to Baker Street--oh, yes, it's horrid on that line, I +always go first to Baker Street--and, my dear, if I didn't meet him the +very next day, walking along with a creature--oh! Twopence more? Thank +you, I'm so sorry to give you so much trouble--yes, I met him walking +with a bold, brazen hussy, and I never saw a man looking so crestfallen +as Mr. Whittaker did when he saw me." + +There was a little waiting-room hard by the ticket office and Regina +turned sharply round and took refuge in this dingy little retreat. + +"My dear!" said the lady who had been listening to the one who had +mentioned Mr. Whittaker's name, "you have done the most awful thing you +ever did in your life. Mrs. Whittaker was standing just behind you, and +she heard every word you said." + +"Poor woman! Did she, really? I _am_ sorry! Well, I never believe in +making mischief between husband and wife, but it's a shame, and I do +think that a man who is carrying on a double game ought to be found +out." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +WISE JULIA + + There is a certain class of woman who loves a fracas of any kind. + + +The waiting-room at Northampton Park boasted of no attendant, so Regina +was able to sit down by the bare mahogany table and wait until the storm +which possessed her had passed by. Poor Regina! The first thought that +came to her was that after all she had lied to no purpose. It was no +small thing to a woman of her sturdy and open mind that she had spun a +perfect tissue of lies to her own child. She knew that she had lied in a +double sense, for she had not deceived Julia, and she knew now that +others were on the track of Alfred's wrongdoings. She was shaking now, +shaking like a leaf, and as she sat there, her sad eyes roaming over the +customary literature that one finds on the table of a suburban +waiting-room, she wished she had been left in her fool's paradise. She +realized with a great shock the truth of the old saw, "If ignorance is +bliss, 'twere folly to be wise." Yes, she would rather have been left in +her fool's paradise! But there, since the outer world was already +talking of Alfred's doings, it was small wonder that she had lit upon +the truth also. + +Her talk with Julia, and the little incident that had caused her to take +refuge in the waiting-room, had made her hopelessly late for her +appointments, but that, Regina felt, could not be helped. She turned, +when she left the waiting-room, and walked across the green into the +Post-Office, where she sent off a couple of telegrams, and then she took +the next train to London and went straight to her club, where she +lunched by herself. I need not go into the details of her day. She kept +her appointments, behaved herself in a perfectly rational manner, and +went home, poor woman, with a heart as heavy as lead. When she got home +a terrible shock was waiting for her. Mr. Whittaker had come home, +inquired for her, and gone off with a portmanteau and left a note for +her on the dining-room mantelshelf. + +"The master was so put out," the intelligent parlor-maid declared, +looking quite reproachfully at Regina, "he came in at five o'clock; of +course there wasn't a soul at home. I knew Miss Julia had gone to Mrs. +Marksby's, and I told master so, and he went to the telephone to speak +through to Miss Maudie--I mean Mrs. Marksby, but the young ladies, they +were gone out somewhere or other, and Mr. Harry wasn't in, and I'd no +idea where you was. Master _was_ put out! He had a cup of tea, and +packed his bag and he tramped up and down the road, and then he said to +me, 'Margaret,' said he, 'I must go or I sha'n't catch my train, but +I've written a note to the mistress, and be sure you take care of her +whilst I am away.' Those were his last words, 'be sure you take care of +her whilst I am away!'" + +"Well, well," said Regina, who did not believe in giving way in the +presence of servants, "well, well, your master has had to go away on +business, no doubt. His letter will explain everything." + +Her exterior was calm, but her heart was beating fast as she turned into +the dining-room and took the letter off the chimney-shelf. She felt that +the fatal moment had come, and that Alfred was gone. Alfred _was_ gone, +but not in the sense in which her doubting heart had feared. + + "DEAREST QUEENIE"--the letter ran--"I am dreadfully upset not to + find you at home, as I 'phoned up to you directly I knew that I + should have to go away on most important business. I am just off to + Paris. Just imagine my going to Paris without you, dearest! It + seems preposterous. If I get my business through in a day or two, + perhaps you will join me there? If I don't get my business through, + I may have to go on elsewhere, and I could not drag you about, on + what may be a wild-goose chase, half over Europe. I could have + given you an outline of the story if you had been at home, but I + haven't time to write it. When I think of myself, a respectable + British householder, tearing off on this mad errand, I feel + inclined to pinch myself to make sure that I am awake. Till we + meet.--Your fond and devoted + + "ALFRED." + +Regina sat down and gasped. What did it mean? Surely the hussy was not +at the bottom of this. Just then Julia came in, having run across the +road to speak to one of the Marksby girls whom she had seen standing at +the gate as they came toward Ye Dene. + +"What's this Margaret says about daddy?" she asked. + +"Nothing, my dear, nothing," Regina rejoined, quite airily. "Your father +has had to go away on business for a few days." + +"Oh, I thought, from Margaret's demeanor, that daddy had gone away for +good and all." + +"Julia!" + +"Well, Margaret seemed to make such a mouthful of it." + +"He came home very much fussed not to find us at home, and I suppose +Margaret imagined that something serious had happened. It's nothing at +all. Here, you can read the letter." + +"Paris!" said Julia, when she reached that point of information as she +read her father's good-by note. + +"Well--how nice! If you do join him you will have a lovely time--a +little honeymoon trip. Perhaps he will ask me to go, too--that would be +lovely. How silly of Margaret to be so mysterious about it! Well, I'll +go and tidy for dinner." + +Mother and daughter were quite cheerful as they discussed the evening +meal. At about nine o'clock there was a sound of electricity, and Julia +lifted her head from her book. + +"I believe that's Harry and Maudie; it sounded like their brougham." + +Then there was a peal at the bell, and Julia ran out into the hall. + +"Maudie, is it you?" she asked. + +"Yes, we thought we would come out and see you. How's mother?" + +"Oh, all right. I thought you were going to a theatre?" + +"Yes, we did think about it, but we changed our minds. Julia, has +anything happened?" + +"No--at least, only that daddy has gone to Paris for a few days. We came +home and found he had been here, fussed because mother wasn't in, packed +his own bag, and left a note to say where he has gone and to say +'good-by' and--_voila tout_." + +"But it isn't all," cried Maudie, "it's only the beginning of it. My +dear, daddy's gone to Paris with _her_! It was by the merest chance we +know. Harry was coming up the Strand--walking--he came up with a man in +his cab as far as Charing Cross because they wanted to talk business; he +got out at the corner of Villiers Street, and as he crossed over to the +entrance of the station he saw daddy drive up in a cab with a +portmanteau on the top. Immediately after, he saw a four-wheeled cab +with _her_ inside." + +"What--you mean the woman we saw at the Trocadero?" + +"Yes--he was so struck by the coincidence of their both being at Charing +Cross with luggage at the same time that he just walked quietly in and +saw them both go off together." + +"Not together--Maudie!" + +"Together--in the same carriage--a reserved compartment. And Harry says +he bought a sheaf of papers and positively threw them at her." + +"It's a mystery!" ejaculated Julia, blankly. "His letter to mother was +everything that a letter could be. He laughs at himself ever so for +going away on a mad errand, suggests that she should join him in a few +days' time, and signs himself, 'till we meet, your fond and devoted +Alfred.'" + +"I tell you what it is, Ju," said Maudie, dropping her young married +woman air and becoming Maudie Whittaker once more, "I'm sorry to say it +because he's my father, but between you and me, daddy's a regular bad +lot." + +"It does seem so," said Julia, "and the curious part of it is that he +looks so respectable. Mother won't believe it, you know. I was talking +to her only to-day, she won't believe a word against him." + +"Well, so much the better for her, that's what Harry says, but we came +to tell her--" + +"Not to tell her--?" + +"Oh no, I wouldn't tell her for the world. Let her go on believing in +him as long as she can; the awakening will come soon enough." + +"Then what did you come for?" asked Julia, practical as usual. + +"My dear, I thought if daddy had gone off and perhaps left mother a +letter to say that he was never coming back, she would want somebody to +stand by her--and Harry and I are prepared to do that." + +"And where do I come in?" asked Julia, a little scornfully. + +"Oh, Ju, darling, you are always the practical common-sense one, you are +a tower of strength, and many are the times I have leaned upon you; but +if the worst had happened you might have been too stunned yourself to +help mother very much. I think a woman needs a man at such a crisis of +her life." + +"There isn't going to be any crisis," said Julia, quite prosaically, +"there isn't going to be any crisis. But it was nice of you to come, and +I do think you and Harry are two dear things. There's an explanation to +all this. There's nothing of the real bad lot about daddy, and as for +mother--there's no doubt about it, he worships her. Don't tell me that +when a man is tired of a woman he brings home dark sables without so +much as a hint that they will be welcome--it isn't human nature, at all +events it isn't man nature." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +GRASP YOUR NETTLE + + There is a wide difference between grasping your nettle and rushing + in where angels fear to tread. + + +Several days had gone by and still the anxiously-looked-for summons had +not arrived from Alfred Whittaker to his wife. To outward seeming Regina +was as calm in the face of this new development of events as if no trace +of cloud had ever arisen to come between her and her noble Alfred, but +in her heart of hearts she watched every post with an anxiety that was +absolutely at fever heat. At night, poor soul, she seemed to have given +up sleeping, and Regina was a woman who needed, and had always taken, a +fixed amount of time in bed--when I say that I mean of actual, sound, +solid sleep. She was one of those persons who, docked of sleep, show the +signs of wear and tear with fatal rapidity. + +During the greater part of the week she did not go out of the Park, but +left word with the sympathetic Margaret, who was perfectly aware that +something out of the common was on foot, that in case of a telegram she +was to be fetched from such and such a house. Then Maudie came gliding +along in her motor brougham, full of sympathy, and, I must confess, at +the same time, full of anxiety as to her mother's condition. + +"How is it you are coming to the Park every day now?" Mrs. Whittaker +asked on the sixth morning when Maudie arrived about lunch time. + +"I was anxious about you, I thought you were not looking very well," +Maudie remarked. + +"I am perfectly well." + +"Are you, dear? I fancied you were not quite yourself." + +Julia was safely out of the road, or perhaps young Mrs. Marksby would +not have said so much. + +"I do wish, dear, you would get out of this depressing neighborhood. I +assure you I feel quite a different woman since I was married and got +away from this depressing place." + +"One generally does when one gets married," said Regina, with a slight +smile. + +"Yes, I know, dear, but it takes a month of Sundays to get here even +with a motor. I wish you would persuade daddy to come and live in the +West End." + +"It is not at all unlikely that we may do so, dear, a little later on. +Oh--what's that?" + +"That" was nothing more important than the knock of the postman. + +"I will go," said Maudie, and Maudie did go. "Two letters for Julia and +four for you." + +"One from your father?" said Mrs. Whittaker, with an eagerness which, +for the life of her, she could not suppress. + +"Nothing in daddy's handwriting," said Maudie. "Mother dear, have you +heard from daddy since he left home?" + +"Oh yes, darling." + +"Every day?" + +"Not every day," said Regina, "no, not every day." + +"Before I was married," said Maudie in her most severe tone, "on the few +occasions when daddy went away without you, he made a rule of writing +every day." + +"He's on business," said Regina, feebly. + +"Yes, darling, but he was on business then. You _have_ heard from him?" + +"I have," said Regina. + +"Oh, mother--I may as well tell you what's in my mind." + +"I think you had better not," said Regina faintly. + +"I'm sure I ought to do so. I can't bear to go on deceiving you any +longer." + +"Deceiving me?" said Regina. Her tone was feeble but questioning. + +"Yes, deceiving you," cried Maudie. "Daddy--daddy's not gone away in an +ordinary manner on business--oh yes, he calls it business, but he's gone +away with that woman." + +"Maud!" + +"Harry saw them go away together, and you are watching for letters that +never come--my poor, crushed darling," Maudie cried. + +"Harry saw them go? Them? You mean that person, that creature we saw +dining with daddy at the Trocadero?" + +Then Maudie burst forth with the entire story as she had told it to +Julia. + +"And that is why I come every day. I knew you would want some support, +and as I am a married woman, I knew I should be more support than Julia, +although she _is_ so farseeing. It's a bitter blow, darling, but bear it +like the martyr you are. Of course, Harry will be awfully angry with me; +he says you never ought to interfere between husband and wife, even when +they are your own father and mother." + +"I would rather know the worst," said Regina; "it is no kindness to keep +a woman of my calibre in the dark. I can't discuss it, Maudie darling, +even with you. If your father has really left me for that other person I +will bear the blow and face the world with what dignity I can. You--you +had better not tell Harry that you have told me the truth, we will keep +it a little secret between ourselves. I shouldn't like to feel that +because of your sense of justice to me the first little rift had come +between yourself and your husband. You are lunching with me to-day, +dear?" + +She turned the conversation into a conventional channel with a skill +which was truly admirable, and Maudie, who was inclined to take her +color from another, took her cue on that occasion from her mother and +answered in the same strain. + +"No, I'm lunching with Harry's mother. I'd rather stay here with you, +darling, but if I don't go now and again without Harry the old lady is +inclined to be a bit cranky, and I want to keep in with her, you know." + +"Certainly! Most wise of you! By all means keep in with your husband's +people; there is nothing to be gained by not doing so," said Regina. +"Then you and I will say no more just now, darling. You will come across +before you go back?" + +"Yes, mother dear, I will. I have ordered the brougham for four +o'clock." + +"Engagements in town?" said Regina. + +"Yes, one or two things on," Maudie answered. She talked as if their +conversation had been all along of a most unimportant and trivial +character. + +"Then I shall see you again," said Regina. "Good-by, dearest." + +She sat just where Maudie had left her for some little time after young +Mrs. Marksby had disappeared into the ancestral mansion across the road, +a dozen schemes revolving in her active brain. What should she do? +Should she sit down meekly and tamely under this new revelation, and let +Alfred deal with their lives as he would, or should she make a +determined step and meet disaster face to face? "Grasp your nettle" had +ever been a favorite saying with Regina, and she felt very much like +grasping her nettle now. Then Margaret came in and told her that +luncheon was served, and Regina went into the dining-room and +thoughtfully helped herself. Appetite she had none. Now, let me tell +you, when Regina's appetite failed her, then indeed she was in a +distinctly bad way. + +"Something has happened in this 'ere house," said Margaret in the +confidential atmosphere of the kitchen. "Missus have had no lunch +to-day, not enough to keep a fly alive. Just look at this plate, and +that little dish you tossed up is one of her favorites. Why, she hasn't +even picked the mushrooms out of it." + +"Lor'! she must be bad," said the faithful cook. "Poor missus! I wonder +if it's true what they be saying, that master's gone away for good and +all. Six days he's been away and only one post-card has he sent home. +Why, generally he writes home every day and sometimes twice. Ah, men! +they're all alike, not a pin to choose between 'em. Now the last place +that I was in, I only stayed my month, for the lady she had fifteen +servants in one year and she only kept two, so you can guess what sort +of a place I had lighted on. Master, he carried on something shameful, +not that I blame him, for a man what comes home and can't get his meals +regular and never knows whether missus will be in or out and everything +else in the same way--well, you can't expect a house to be run what you +can call comfortable, at least it never is, and this was a poor, +feckless thing that didn't understand how to order a dinner for a +gentleman, and didn't understand how to let the cook make a suggestion. +All the same, the way that man carried on was fair disgraceful. Now, +master here has kept his doings dark, and indeed if it hadn't been for +what you overheard Miss Maudie that was tell Miss Julia, I don't know +that we should have been any wiser than we were before. But there, men +are all alike. Look at Bill Jackson, he kept company with Annie +Hodgkinson for five years and a half, and then he up and fair jilts her +for the sake of a little bit of a girl that doesn't know one end of a +ham from the other. Of course he's miserable and he doesn't deserve to +be anything else." + +"For the matter of that," retorted the fair Margaret, "neither does she; +she knew well enough what she was doing when she set her cap at Bill +Jackson. Don't tell me that those innocent eyes don't see more than they +pretend to, nasty little hussy! I'm sure, whatever happens in this +house, missus has my profoundest sympathy, and that's more than I'd say +for any missus, and as for master, he's like all the rest of them--fair +disgraceful, I call it." + +"Me too," said the cook, "me too." + +Meanwhile Regina was sitting pecking, I can call it nothing else, at a +dainty little pudding. Her thoughts were very bitter and her heart was +full of a stern resolve. Yes, she would grasp her nettle, she would +remain in doubt not a single day longer. She would just take a handbag, +as Alfred had done, and she would leave a note for Julia, and she would +go off to Paris by the night boat. She would grasp her nettle; she +would, at least, learn the worst. If Alfred were no longer hers--well, +she would shape her life accordingly. There should be no half measures, +it should be all or nothing. Truly she had given all that she had to +give freely. She had, as she believed, accepted and valued the whole of +her husband's love. There should be no betwixt and between, it should be +her or the other one, Regina or the hussy. And then Regina remembered +that to carry out her scheme she must at once put on her things and go +to the bank and get some money. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +A TRENCHANT QUESTION + + When months of doubt have been crystallized into one simple + question how easy the way seems! + + +Mrs. Whittaker laid her plans for leaving Ye Dene with the skill of a +diplomat and the secrecy of a detective. She determined that she would +take nobody into her confidence. If there was going to be a hideous +scene with Alfred when she got to the end of her journey, she preferred +to have it without witnesses, especially either of her own children. She +went down to the bank and drew out sufficient money to cover all +expenses and a little over, and then returned home in order to prepare +for her journey. She chose her plainest frock, a rough brown tweed, +tailor built, according to the advice and under the direction of Madame +d'Estelle, who did not make tailor gowns herself, but introduced clients +to a gentleman in that line, and generally supervised the taste of her +customers. On her carefully arranged coiffure she wore a toque to match +her dress--when I say "to match her dress" I mean it was a creation of +brown velvet, with a strip of sable, some gold buckles and a twist of +yellowish lace. Over her shoulders she put the dark sables which Alfred +had given her, took the muff upon her arm, and then she went down to +her own desk, where she wrote a letter to Julia:-- + + "DEAREST"--she wrote--"I am going to join your father in Paris. I + leave you ten pounds; if you want more money than this before I + return, which is not very likely, here are a couple of signed + cheeks for you to use. I know that you won't mind being left alone + for a few days. If you do, you might go and stay with Maudie. I am + leaving by the Calais-Dover route and will let you know as soon as + I arrive in Paris.--Your fond and loving + + "MOTHER." + +Then Mrs. Whittaker called the servants in one by one, paid their wages, +told them to look after Miss Julia, and said that she was going to Paris +to join the master for a few days. + +"Which it's very funny," remarked the cook to Margaret, a few minutes +after Mrs. Whittaker and her small portmanteau had gone off in a cab to +the station, "which it's very funny. Missus have had no letter from +master since the day after he went away, when she had a post-card which +I took in myself and likewise read, saying, 'Arrived safe. Hope all well +at home. Writing later.' Which he never have written later. There was no +telegram for missus to-day?" + +"No," said Margaret, "there's no telegram come to this house to-day." + +"Then, you know, missus might have been rung up on the telephone from +the office." + +"She might, but I've not heard her on the telephone all day, and I've +not heard the telephone go once. Anyway, missus she have gone to Paris +to join master, and I'm sure, poor lady, I hope she won't find a pretty +to-do when she gets there." + +It was barely half an hour later when Maudie Marksby's motor brougham +came spinning up to the door of the house opposite. + +"There's Mrs. Marksby's carriage," said Margaret, craning her head over +the muslin blinds that shrouded the doings of the kitchen from the +passers-by. "I wonder if missus told her she was going to Paris. Oh, +here she comes." + +Maudie herself, with her gait of swimming importance, came mincing +across the road. Margaret went down to the outer porch to meet her. + +"Is my mother in, Margaret?" + +"Lor'! Mrs. Marksby, missus have gone away!" + +"Away! Where?" + +"She's gone to Paris to join master." + +"Did she have a telegram?" + +"No, miss--I beg your pardon, I mean ma'am." + +"Oh--oh--she's gone to Paris, has she? Well, it's no use my waiting +then, is it?" + +"What did she look like?" said the cook. + +"She looked struck all of a heap," said Margaret. "It's my opinion that +missus has taken French leave, and she's going to steal a march on them +both." + +Meanwhile, Regina, full of her stern resolve, was already on her way to +Dover, not being minded to wait for the regular boat train, and perhaps +risk a scene from one or other of her daughters, finding her on the +platform and attempting to dissuade her from taking the fatal step. + +"I must be firm, I must be resolute, I must know exactly what I'm going +to do," she told herself as the luxurious train whizzed past the +suburbs. "I will have a good dinner when I get to Dover; I wish to +arrive in Paris as calm and unmoved as a rock." + +Now, take it all round, this was extremely sensible advice to give +herself. Regina had a cup of tea on board the train. She made a valiant +effort to read one or two magazines which she had with her, and arrived +at Dover, she went on board the steamer, chose her berth, and then went +into the town to seek a suitable place for dinner. I feel that it is +much to her credit that she chose the best hotel in the town. And yet it +was a very haggard and sad-eyed Regina who reached the terminus at +Paris. Still, she never turned from her resolve. She chartered her +_fiacre_, and involuntarily, as they drove down the Rue Amsterdam, her +eyes turned to the wonderful bazaar in which in former days she and +Alfred had spent some money and a certain amount of time, experiencing +at a very small cost the delirious joy of shopping in Paris. So on, +through the bright Paris streets, already teeming with life, and down +into the heart of the city where was situate the hotel from which Alfred +had written. It was not one at which Regina had ever stayed herself--no, +it was small and unpretentious, with a quaint little courtyard adorned +by a few shrubs in square wooden boxes painted a brighter green than the +leaves. + +"Yes, M. Vittequere, he is staying in the hotel," so the handsome and +voluble landlady informed her. + +"With a lady?" Regina asked. + +"Well," she admitted, there was a lady, but she was not staying in the +hotel; she was not Mr. Whittaker's wife; on the contrary, she was a +client, and madame had found her an excellent lodging in an adjacent +house--one, in fact, belonging to the mother of madame herself. "And she +is a Frenchwoman; she knows her Paris well." + +"A Frenchwoman?" Regina echoed. "And monsieur, he is risen?" + +"If monsieur has risen he is but just descended from his bedchamber." + +She called to a passing waiter, and demanded to know whether M. +Whittaker, _numero treize_, was yet descended. + +"Monsieur is at breakfast with madame," was the man's reply. + +The Frenchwoman, who had taken in the situation at a glance, and knew +from Regina's general appearance, and perhaps especially from her +sables, that this was the legitimate Madame Whittaker, frowned at the +man, who, as Regina plainly saw, cast about mentally for a way of +retrieving his mistake. + +"Show me the way," said Regina. "No, it is not necessary to warn +monsieur; I know him extremely well. Ah, in the _salle_? I will go by +myself." + +"_Polisson--bete_," hissed the Frenchwoman in the waiter's ear. But +abuse was worse than useless, for Regina was already sailing, head up, +in the direction of the dining-room. She made her entrance without being +perceived. Alfred was, indeed, turned three-parts away from the door by +which she had entered, and he was leaning over the table studying some +papers. Knowing him so well, she perceived by his attitude that he was +thoroughly engrossed by business. His companion, who wore a hat, and who +was much smarter and more Parisian in appearance than when Regina saw +her at the Trocadero, was steadily eating her breakfast. At last, Alfred +Whittaker put the sheet he was reading down on several others like it, +and patted his hand upon it as much as to say, "That is settled and done +with," upon which Regina went forward. She gently laid her hand upon her +husband's shoulder. + +"Alfred," she said in a very quiet tone. I am bound to confess that +Alfred nearly jumped out of his skin. + +"My God! Queenie, is that you? Oh, my dear, what a turn you gave me. I'd +no idea you were within a hundred miles of me. What's the matter?" He +sprang out of his chair and held her by both her elbows. "If anything's +the matter tell me at once; don't break it to me." + +"Nothing's the matter; I will explain it to you afterwards--I wanted to +come to Paris, and I thought I might as well join you. Who is this +lady?" + +The noble Alfred drew a long breath of relief, gripped his wife's elbows +very hard indeed, and then bent forward and touched her lightly on +either cheek. + +"This lady is a client of the firm," he said. "Let me make her known to +you--Madame Raumonier." + +The Frenchwoman sprang to her feet, looking the very image of guilty +surprise. "This is madame your wife?" she said, speaking excellent +English. + +"This is Mrs. Whittaker, my wife. Sit down, Queenie. _Garcon, garcon_, +breakfast for madame. They make an excellent _omelette aux fines herbes_ +here, Queenie. Fresh coffee for madame. Sit down, Madame Raumonier, sit +down." + +"You would like to be alone with madame your wife?" + +"Not at all; I shall be alone with her presently, when you have finished +breakfast." He turned back to Regina. "Queenie," he said, "I can't tell +you how glad I am to see you. This just concludes the business which +brought me over to Paris. I've had the greatest difficulty and trouble +to get things settled. It's such a disadvantage to a man in my position +not to speak French well, and I am in the position of not speaking +French at all, so I have had to do everything by means of madame's +translations, and she does not see the legal aspect as I should if I +could read French as well as she can. I was going to telegraph to you +this very day to beg you to come over. Some wave thought must have +warned you that I was thinking of it." + +"No," said Regina, deliberately sitting down by the table, and beginning +carefully to peel the gloves off her hands. "No, Alfred, I do not think +it was a wave thought. I wanted to come to Paris, and I came." + +"They are all well at home? You brought Julia with you?" + +"No, I did not bring Julia; she can come across in a few days by +herself." + +"Ah, yes, we can talk of that later." + +Then Madame Raumonier made another effort to escape. + +"I am sure you would like to be alone with madame, your wife. I have +quite finished breakfast. If you wish to see me will you intimate +through madame the landlady? May I wish you good morning, madame?" + +Regina rose and ceremoniously shook hands with the Frenchwoman; Alfred +bowed, followed her across the room, stayed a moment talking, bowed +again, rubbed his hands, and came back with that curious air of a +conqueror with which a man meets a woman who is much to him on all +occasions after a parting. + +"Queenie, my darling, thank God that woman's gone. I must apologize to +you," and here he put his hand over hers and held it very close, "I must +apologize to you for having, of necessity, made her known to you. She is +not a person for you to know; she's--she's a woman with a history." + +"Then, Alfred," said Regina, not moving her hand, but looking at him +with eyes which were like the eyes of the angel with the naming sword. +"Then, Alfred, if she is not fit for me to know, what does she do here +with you?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE END OF IT ALL + + A woman who can prove herself generous and wide-minded is the woman + who gets the greatest advantage in every circumstance of life. + + +"How is it," said Regina, "that she is here with you?" + +The words dropped out one by one. There was a world of torture and +suffering, tinged with reproach and bitterness, in Mrs. Whittaker's +tones. Alfred Whittaker gave a great start, and drew his wife down to +her seat. + +"Queenie," he said, "you haven't had it in your mind that that creature +is anything to me?" + +"I'm afraid I have," said Regina, and under the comfort of the word +"creature" her voice took a softer tone. + +"That mixture of fire and vulgarity! Oh, my dear!--Come, come, you've +been traveling all night, you must have your breakfast. Here is the +finest omelette in Paris. I say, waiter, _garcon_, try if you can't get +madame a few strawberries to follow the _bifteck Chateaubriand_.--I'm +sure, Queenie," he went on as the waiter whisked the cover off and +betook himself away, "that a good breakfast is more important to you at +this moment than even the state of my morals. You see, I've had my +breakfast, so you can hear all about Madame Raumonier while you are +taking yours. Now, what could have put it into your head, since you knew +I was over here on her business--" + +"But I didn't," said Regina. + +"Then what made you come?" + +The omelette was good and hot, and Regina took two mouthfuls before she +answered. + +"Alfred," she said, "this has been going on for a long time. I know +everything." + +"Then you are a clever woman. Now, what do you know?" + +"You bought her a bracelet." + +"I? I've never bought a bracelet for anyone but you in my life." + +"Well, Templeton told me so." + +At this Alfred Whittaker burst out laughing. "I did buy a bracelet, you +are quite right, but it was for Mrs. Chamberlain." + +"You gave a bracelet to Mrs. Chamberlain?" said Regina. + +"No, no, no, I didn't do anything of the kind. I bought the bracelet for +Chamberlain to give his wife. Chamberlain had been in an extremely ugly +corner for some time past. I didn't tell you anything about it, because +I thought it more than likely that Mrs. Chamberlain might come round +pumping you. If you didn't know anything, I felt you wouldn't be able to +tell her anything." + +"Surely you might have trusted me?" + +"It isn't that I couldn't trust you, for I can and always have done. As +it happened, Mrs. Chamberlain was, as you know, by way of being an +heiress, and Chamberlain was ridiculously in love." + +"Can a man be ridiculously in love?" put in Regina. + +"Yes, very much so. When I married you I told you everything that had +happened to me, good, bad and indifferent--Chamberlain didn't, and Mrs. +Chamberlain is possessed of a demon of jealousy. She got fixed in her +silly little head that Chamberlain had been a sort of King Arthur until +she met him. A moment's reflection would have told the silly little fool +that the less she inquired into her husband's past the better, and +Chamberlain was so much in love with her, and in such a hurry to catch +the little heiress, that he did not completely sever ties that he had +contracted previously, and trusted to luck to go on shelling out to this +Frenchwoman who had had an affair with him lasting some years before his +marriage. The French lady did not like being put on short commons, still +less did she like being pensioned off, and she began to make herself +unpleasant. Poor old Chamberlain got himself into an awful muddle, and +confided everything to me. I thought him a fool, and I told him so very +plainly; but he's my partner, and I couldn't refuse to help him out. The +day that I went to Templeton's and bought that bracelet, Chamberlain +went in quite a different direction to have an interview with Madame +Raumonier and try to bring her to reason. At that time Mrs. Chamberlain +used to make stringent inquiries as to how he had spent every moment of +his time. As a matter of fact she had come to the office for him that +very day, and was told that he had already gone. When he got home she +was told some necessary and harmless lies to the effect that he had been +to Templeton's to buy her a bracelet. Heaven only knows what would have +happened if she had found out that Chamberlain had never been near +Templeton's." + +"But why were you dragged into it?" + +"Oh, I was trying to get a settlement." + +"Why did you bring her to Paris?" + +"Well, it was like this. Chamberlain and I finally agreed between +ourselves that the only way to get a settlement of the affair was to +provide Madame Raumonier with an income sufficient to live upon for the +rest of her life. He didn't grudge that, he's not a mean man, and he +offered to settle five pounds a week upon her on one condition: that she +cleared out of England and never crossed the Channel again." + +"Oh, I see. But why did you have to come to Paris to settle that?" + +"My dear child, Madame Raumonier is no fool. She had no notion of being +cut adrift from Chamberlain and left stranded at her age--she must be at +least five-and-thirty--without the certainty of a provision being made +for her. I took her out to dinner one night--dined at the Trocadero--" + +"Yes, I saw you," said Regina. + +"What!" + +"I was there." + +"You were dining at the Trocadero the night I took Madame Raumonier +there?" + +"I was." + +"And you never told me!" + +"No, Alfred, I never told you." Regina finished the last bit of omelette +with relish, and sat back in her chair and waited for the rest of the +story. + +"You never told me!" repeated Alfred. "You cooked it up--you mean to +tell me that you thought I was dining with her on my own account?" + +"What else was I to think?" + +"Who were you dining with?" + +"I was not dining with a gentleman, at least not by myself," said +Regina. "Julia and I were dining with Maudie and Harry." + +"And they saw--?" + +"They did." + +"And they thought--?" + +"They did." + +"That I was dining on my own with that creature! I never felt so +insulted in my life." + +"Insulted, Alfred?" + +"Insulted, Queenie. When I take to dining ladies on my own, they shall +be women who are something to look at. Damn it all!" he went on, "I've +been accustomed to taking a smart woman about. This creature wasn't even +amusing, and what's more, she's the least French of any Frenchwoman I +ever came across in my life." + +"Well, go on. You were telling me--?" + +"Oh, I don't know what I was telling you--I don't know what I was +telling you. Oh, well, I know, I was telling you about dining her at the +Trocadero. Yes, she was willing enough to have the settlement, she was +willing enough to go back to her beloved France; she hated London and +everything in it--didn't know why she ever left sunny France. But like +all Frenchwomen, she was a woman of business, and she didn't mean to +leave go her hold upon poor old Chamberlain unless her settlement was +perfectly secure. My dear, if she had been a lawyer fifty times over she +couldn't have been sharper at her job." + +"I don't blame her," said Regina, "I never blame a woman for getting the +better of a man." + +"Yes, I know, my dear, you always held that opinion. But the long and +the short of it was that she would accept nothing but a definite +settlement in Paris, and I can tell you, even when you come over with +the money in your hand, it's not such a simple matter as it would seem +to arrange a bit of business in this land of liberty, equality and +brotherhood. From the way these people have spun it out one would have +thought that I was getting something out of them, instead of making an +ample settlement on one of their countrywomen. And the funniest part of +the whole thing has been that every one of them thinks that Chamberlain +and I are one and the same person. Gad! You thought so too! My dear," +putting his hand on the papers again, "this is the final note; this will +be signed this afternoon; I shall hand Madame Raumonier bank-notes for a +hundred pounds, and then I shall wash my hands of her altogether for +good and all." + +For a moment Regina did not speak, but applied her attention entirely to +the very excellent _bifteck_ on her plate. Then she looked up at her +husband with penitent eyes. + +"Alfred," she said, "I really feel I ought to apologize to you." + +"Apologize?" said Alfred, "apologize? Nay, if any apology is needed it +is from me to you for having apparently given you cause for uneasiness; +but, thank God! Queenie, there is no need of apology on either side. +There's been a little misapprehension, but it's all over now, and we are +as much together again as we were when we set out on our honeymoon. Did +it make you very miserable, Queenie?" He laid his hand on hers as he +spoke, and Regina looked up at him with shining eyes. + +"I've been so miserable, Alfred," she said, "that I almost wished I +could die, and I think I should have died or put myself out of the +road--or something--if I hadn't resolved to win you back at any cost." + +"But you are satisfied now?" + +"Satisfied! Oh, I'm so happy--so happy. I'll never let such a cloud come +between us--next time I'll tell you the very first suspicion that +crosses my mind." + +"There isn't going to be a next time," said Alfred. "Poor old +Chamberlain! he's come to the end of his tether now." + +"Alfred," said Regina, after a long pause, "I don't think I would waste +any pity on 'poor old Chamberlain'; it seems to me that he has met with +more than his deserts. If I have any feeling of pity for any of the +three it is for the unfortunate Frenchwoman who trusted him where he was +not fit to be trusted. These people in the hotel thought I was going to +spring a mine upon you; I saw the landlady frown at the waiter when he +said you were breakfasting together. I have always been a wide-minded +woman, Alfred, and I am a very happy one this morning. Let us ask Madame +Raumonier to join us to-night by way of celebrating the settlement of +her affairs." + +For a moment Alfred did not--indeed, could not--speak. + +"Queenie," he said, "I have always admired you, I have always loved you, +but this morning, at this moment, I feel that, compared with you in your +benevolence, your real wide-mindedness, I am a mere worm." + +"My noble Alfred!" said Regina, "my noble Alfred!" + + THE END + + + + + LOVE AND THE + SOUL HUNTERS + +By John Oliver Hobbes + +_Author of_ "_The Gods, Some Morals, and Lord Wickenham_," "_The Herb +Moon_," "_Schools for Saints_," "_Robert Grange_," _etc., etc._ + + +In this new novel Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) has made, according +to her own statement, the great effort of her life. It is the most +brilliant creation of an author whose talent and versatility have +surprised readers and critics in both Europe and America for several +years. It treats of unique examples of human nature as they are, and not +merely as they ought to be. Swayed by complex motives, they are always +attractive, but often do what is least expected of them. The story is +graphically told, and is full of action. Each personage is distinctively +drawn to the life. + +"There is much that is worth remembering in her writings."--_Mail and +Express_, New York. + +"More than any other woman who is now writing, Mrs. Craigie is, in the +true manly sense, a woman of letters. She is not a woman with a few +personal emotions to express: she is what a woman so rarely is--an +artist."--_The Star_, London. + +"Few English writers have so lapidarian a style of writing as Mrs. +Craigie, and few such a capacity for writing epigrams."--_The Toronto +Globe._ + + _12mo, Cloth. $1.50_ + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers + NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + + A BRILLIANT SATIRE ON MILITARISM + CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO + +By Ernest Crosby + +A satirical novel based on the military history of the United States +since the outbreak of the Spanish War. It is a smiting denunciation of +militarism and the military spirit, and a biting burlesque on cheap hero +worship. The parallel between savagery and soldiery is unerringly drawn. +It is full of wit and sarcasm. + +_The Philadelphia Item_, March 8: "It is the best bit of satire that has +seen the light for years. It is more than clever: it is brilliant. Its +sarcasm is like pointed steel, while its humor is of the most rollicking +order. In fact, it is hilarious with fun, while its pungency in satire +is remarkable for keenness, and for the incisive way in which every +point is driven home." + +_Worcester Spy_, Worcester, Mass., March 9: "Beard's illustrations are +equally clever and original, the best that he has ever made. As a +collection of cartoons alone the book should make a hit." + +_Twenty-five Clever Drawings by Dan Beard. 12mo, Cloth. Ornamental +Cover. Price. $1.50, post-paid._ + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, + NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + +_St. Louis Globe-Democrat:_ "It is a simple, gentle, quietly-humorous +narrative, with several love affairs in it." + + UNDER MY + OWN ROOF + +By Adelaide L. Rouse + +_Author of_ "_The Deane Girls_," "_Westover House_," _etc._ + +A story of a "nesting impulse" and what came of it. A newspaper woman +determines to build a home for herself in a Jersey suburb. The story of +its planning is delightfully told, simply and with a literary-humorous +flavor that will appeal to lovers of books and of the fireside. + +Before the house-building details are allowed to tire the reader, a love +story is begun, and catches the interest. It concerns the home-builder, +an old flame, and an old friend, the third of whom has become a +next-door neighbor. With this romance are entwined a number of heart +affairs as well as warm friendships. + +The style is bright, and the humor genial and pervasive. The "literary +worker" and the "suburbanite" particularly will enjoy the book. Women of +culture everywhere should appreciate its delicate style. + +Illustrations by Harrie A. Stoner. 12mo, Cloth. Price, $1.20, net; +postage, 13 cents. + + FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, + NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + +THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES + +_A Series of Entertaining Novelettes Illustrated and Issued in Dainty +Dress._ + +Small 12mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents per volume. +Postage, 5 cents. + +I. + +THE COURTSHIP _of_ SWEET ANNE PAGE + +By Ellen V. Talbot + +A brisk, dainty little love story incidental to "The Merry Wives of +Windsor," full of fun and frolic and telling of the courtship of Sweet +Anne Page by the three lovers: Abraham Slender, the tallow-faced gawk, +chosen by her father; Dr. Caius, the garlic-scented favorite of her +mother; and the "gallant Fenton," the choice of her own wilful self. + +II. + +THE SANDALS + +By Rev. Z. Grenell + +A beautiful little idyl of sacred story about the sandals of Christ. It +tells of their wanderings and who were their wearers, from the time that +they fell to the lot of a Roman soldier when Christ's garments were +parted among his crucifiers to the day when they came back to Mary, the +Mother of Jesus. The book exhibits both strength and beauty of literary +style. + +III. + +THE TRANSFIGURATION _of_ MISS PHILURA + +By Florence Morse Kingsley + +_Author of_ "_Titus_," "_Prisoners of the Sea_," _etc._ + +An entertaining story woven around the "New Thought," which is finding +expression in Christian Science, Divine Healing, etc., in the course of +which Miss Philura makes drafts upon the All-Encircling Good for a +husband and various other things, and the All-Encircling Good does not +disappoint her. + +FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, +NEW YORK & LONDON + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + +Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; +otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the +author's words and intent. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LITTLE VANITIES OF MRS. +WHITTAKER*** + + +******* This file should be named 35414.txt or 35414.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/5/4/1/35414 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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