The Patrician

“Yes; you were smiling.”

“I was dreaming that I could fly.”

“Fancy!”

“I could see everything spread out below me, as close as I see you; I was hovering like a buzzard hawk. I felt that I could come down exactly where I wanted. It was fascinating. I had perfect power, Stacey.”

And throwing her neck back, she closed her eyes again. The sunlight streamed in on her between the half-drawn curtains.

The queerest impulse to put out a hand and stroke that full white throat shot through the maid’s mind.

“These flying machines are stupid,” murmured Barbara; “the pleasure’s in one’s body – wings!”

“I can see Lady Casterley in the garden.”

Barbara sprang out of bed. Close by the statue of Diana Lady Casterley was standing, gazing down at some flowers, a tiny, grey figure. Barbara sighed. With her, in her dream, had been another buzzard hawk, and she was filled with a sort of surprise, and queer pleasure that ran down her in little shivers while she bathed and dressed.

In her haste she took no hat; and still busy with the fastening of her linen frock, hurried down the stairs and Georgian corridor, towards the garden. At the end of it she almost ran into the arms of Courtier.

Awakening early this morning, he had begun first thinking of Audrey Noel, threatened by scandal; then of his yesterday’s companion, that glorious young creature, whose image had so gripped and taken possession of him. In the pleasure of this memory he had steeped himself. She was youth itself! That perfect thing, a young girl without callowness.

And his words, when she nearly ran into him, were: “The Winged Victory!”

Barbara’s answer was equally symbolic: “A buzzard hawk! Do you know, I dreamed we were flying, Mr. Courtier.”

Courtier gravely answered

“If the gods give me that dream – ”

From the garden door Barbara turned her head, smiled, and passed through.

Lady Casterley, in the company of little Ann, who had perceived that it was novel to be in the garden at this hour, had been scrutinizing some newly founded colonies of a flower with which she was not familiar. On seeing her granddaughter approach, she said at once:

“What is this thing?”

“Nemesia.”

“Never heard of it.”

“It’s rather the fashion, Granny.”

“Nemesia?” repeated Lady Casterley. “What has Nemesis to do with flowers? I have no patience with gardeners, and these idiotic names. Where is your hat? I like that duck’s egg colour in your frock. There’s a button undone.” And reaching up her little spidery hand, wonderfully steady considering its age, she buttoned the top button but one of Barbara’s bodice.

“You look very blooming, my dear,” she said. “How far is it to this woman’s cottage? We’ll go there now.”

“She wouldn’t be up.”

Lady Casterley’s eyes gleamed maliciously.

“You tell me she’s so nice,” she said. “No nice unencumbered woman lies in bed after half-past seven. Which is the very shortest way? No, Ann, we can’t take you.”

Little Ann, after regarding her great-grandmother rather too intently, replied:

“Well, I can’t come, you see, because I’ve got to go.”

“Very well,” said Lady Casterley, “then trot along.”

Little Ann, tightening her lips, walked to the next colony of Nemesia, and bent over the colonists with concentration, showing clearly that she had found something more interesting than had yet been encountered.

“Ha!” said Lady Casterley, and led on at her brisk pace towards the avenue.

All the way down the drive she discoursed on woodcraft, glancing sharply at the trees. Forestry – she said-like building, and all other pursuits which required, faith and patient industry, was a lost art in this second-hand age. She had made Barbara’s grandfather practise it, so that at Catton (her country place) and even at Ravensham, the trees were worth looking at. Here, at Monkland, they were monstrously neglected. To have the finest Italian cypress in the country, for example, and not take more care of it, was a downright scandal!

Barbara listened, smiling lazily. Granny was so amusing in her energy and precision, and her turns of speech, so deliberately homespun, as if she – than whom none could better use a stiff and polished phrase, or the refinements of the French language – were determined to take what liberties she liked. To the girl, haunted still by the feeling that she could fly, almost drunk on the sweetness of the air that summer morning, it seemed funny that anyone should be like that. Then for a second she saw her grandmother’s face in repose, off guard, grim with anxious purpose, as if questioning its hold on life; and in one of those flashes of intuition which come to women – even when young and conquering like Barbara – she felt suddenly sorry, as though she had caught sight of the pale spectre never yet seen by her. “Poor old dear,” she thought; “what a pity to be old!”

But they had entered the footpath crossing three long meadows which climbed up towards Mrs. Noel’s. It was so golden-sweet here amongst the million tiny saffron cups frosted with lingering dewshine; there was such flying glory in the limes and ash-trees; so delicate a scent from the late whins and may-flower; and, on every tree a greybird calling to be sorry was not possible!

In the far corner of the first field a chestnut mare was standing, with ears pricked at some distant sound whose charm she alone perceived. On viewing the intruders, she laid those ears back, and a little vicious star gleamed out at the corner of her eye. They passed her and entered the second field. Half way across, Barbara said quietly:

“Granny, that’s a bull!”

It was indeed an enormous bull, who had been standing behind a clump of bushes. He was moving slowly towards them, still distant about two hundred yards; a great red beast, with the huge development of neck and front which makes the bull, of all living creatures, the symbol of brute force.

Lady Casterley envisaged him severely.

“I dislike bulls,” she said; “I think I must walk backward.”

“You can’t; it’s too uphill.”

“I am not going to turn back,” said Lady Casterley. “The bull ought not to be here. Whose fault is it? I shall speak to someone. Stand still and look at him. We must prevent his coming nearer.”

They stood still and looked at the bull, who continued to approach.

“It doesn’t stop him,” said Lady Casterley. “We must take no notice. Give me your arm, my dear; my legs feel rather funny.”

Barbara put her arm round the little figure. They walked on.

“I have not been used to bulls lately,” said Lady Casterley. The bull came nearer.

“Granny,” said Barbara, “you must go quietly on to the stile. When you’re over I’ll come too.”

“Certainly not,” said Lady Casterley, “we will go together. Take no notice of him; I have great faith in that.”

“Granny darling, you must do as I say, please; I remember this bull, he is one of ours.”

At those rather ominous words Lady Casterley gave her a sharp glance.

“I shall not go,” she said. “My legs feel quite strong now. We can run, if necessary.”

“So can the bull,” said Barbara.

“I’m not going to leave you,” muttered Lady Casterley. “If he turns vicious I shall talk to him. He won’t touch me. You can run faster than I; so that’s settled.”

“Don’t be absurd, dear,” answered Barbara; “I am not afraid of bulls.”

Lady Casterley flashed a look at her which had a gleam of amusement.

“I can feel you,” she said; “you’re just as trembly as I am.”

The bull was now distant some eighty yards, and they were still quite a hundred from the stile.

“Granny,” said Barbara, “if you don’t go on as I tell you, I shall just leave you, and go and meet him! You mustn’t be obstinate!”

Lady Casterley’s answer was to grip her granddaughter round the waist; the nervous force of that thin arm was surprising.

“You will do nothing of the sort,” she said. “I refuse to have anything more to do with this bull; I shall simply pay no attention.”

The bull now began very slowly ambling towards them.

“Take no notice,” said Lady Casterley, who was walking faster than she had ever walked before.

“The ground is level now,” said Barbara; “can you run?”

“I think so,” gasped Lady Casterley; and suddenly she found herself half-lifted from the ground, and, as it were, flying towards the stile. She heard a noise behind; then Barbara’s voice:

“We must stop. He’s on us. Get behind me.”

She felt herself caught and pinioned by two arms that seemed set on the wrong way. Instinct, and a general softness told her that she was back to back with her granddaughter.

“Let me go!” she gasped; “let me go!”

And suddenly she felt herself being propelled by that softness forward towards the stile.

“Shoo!” she said; “shoo!”

“Granny,” Barbara’s voice came, calm and breathless, “don’t! You only excite him! Are we near the stile?”

“Ten yards,” panted Lady Casterley.

“Look out, then!” There was a sort of warm flurry round her, a rush, a heave, a scramble; she was beyond the stile. The bull and Barbara, a yard or two apart, were just the other side. Lady Casterley raised her handkerchief and fluttered it. The bull looked up; Barbara, all legs and arms, came slipping down beside her.

Without wasting a moment Lady Casterley leaned forward and addressed the bull:

“You awful brute!” she said; “I will have you well flogged.”

Gently pawing the ground, the bull snuffled.

“Are you any the worse, child?”

“Not a scrap,” said Barbara’s serene, still breathless voice.

Lady Casterley put up her hands, and took the girl’s face between them.

“What legs you have!” she said. “Give me a kiss!”

Having received a hot, rather quivering kiss, she walked on, holding somewhat firmly to Barbara’s arm.

“As for that bull,” she murmured, “the brute – to attack women!”

Barbara looked down at her.

“Granny,” she said, “are you sure you’re not shaken?”

Lady Casterley, whose lips were quivering, pressed them together very hard.

“Not a b-b-bit.”

“Don’t you think,” said Barbara, “that we had better go back, at once – the other way?”

“Certainly not. There are no more bulls, I suppose, between us and this woman?”

“But are you fit to see her?”

Lady Casterley passed her handkerchief over her lips, to remove their quivering.

“Perfectly,” she answered.

“Then, dear,” said Barbara, “stand still a minute, while I dust you behind.”

This having been accomplished, they proceeded in the direction of Mrs. Noel’s cottage.

At sight of it, Lady Casterley said:

“I shall put my foot down. It’s out of the question for a man of Miltoun’s prospects. I look forward to seeing him Prime Minister some day.” Hearing Barbara’s voice murmuring above her, she paused: “What’s that you say?”

“I said: What is the use of our being what we are, if we can’t love whom we like?”

“Love!” said Lady Casterley; “I was talking of marriage.”

“I am glad you admit the distinction, Granny dear.”

“You are pleased to be sarcastic,” said Lady Casterley. “Listen to me! It’s the greatest nonsense to suppose that people in our caste are free to do as they please. The sooner you realize that, the better, Babs. I am talking to you seriously. The preservation of our position as a class depends on our observing certain decencies. What do you imagine would happen to the Royal Family if they were allowed to marry as they liked? All this marrying with Gaiety girls, and American money, and people with pasts, and writers, and so forth, is most damaging. There’s far too much of it, and it ought to be stopped. It may be tolerated for a few cranks, or silly young men, and these new women, but for Eustace – ” Lady Casterley paused again, and her fingers pinched Barbara’s arm, “or for you – there’s only one sort of marriage possible. As for Eustace, I shall speak to this good lady, and see that he doesn’t get entangled further.”

Absorbed in the intensity of her purpose, she did not observe a peculiar little smile playing round Barbara’s lips.

“You had better speak to Nature, too, Granny!”

Lady Casterley stopped short, and looked up in her granddaughter’s face.

“Now what do you mean by that?” she said “Tell me!”

But noticing that Barbara’s lips had closed tightly, she gave her arm a hard – if unintentional-pinch, and walked on.

CHAPTER XII

Lady Casterley’s rather malicious diagnosis of Audrey Noel was correct. The unencumbered woman was up and in her garden when Barbara and her grandmother appeared at the Wicket gate; but being near the lime-tree at the far end she did not hear the rapid colloquy which passed between them.

“You are going to be good, Granny?”

“As to that – it will depend.”

“You promised.”

“H’m!”

Lady Casterley could not possibly have provided herself with a better introduction than Barbara, whom Mrs. Noel never met without the sheer pleasure felt by a sympathetic woman when she sees embodied in someone else that ‘joy in life’ which Fate has not permitted to herself.

She came forward with her head a little on one side, a trick of hers not at all affected, and stood waiting.

The unembarrassed Barbara began at once:

“We’ve just had an encounter with a bull. This is my grandmother, Lady Casterley.”

The little old lady’s demeanour, confronted with this very pretty face and figure was a thought less autocratic and abrupt than usual. Her shrewd eyes saw at once that she had no common adventuress to deal with. She was woman of the world enough, too, to know that ‘birth’ was not what it had been in her young days, that even money was rather rococo, and that good looks, manners, and a knowledge of literature, art, and music (and this woman looked like one of that sort), were often considered socially more valuable. She was therefore both wary and affable.

“How do you do?” she said. “I have heard of you. May we sit down for a minute in your garden? The bull was a wretch!”

But even in speaking, she was uneasily conscious that Mrs. Noel’s clear eyes were seeing very well what she had come for. The look in them indeed was almost cynical; and in spite of her sympathetic murmurs, she did not somehow seem to believe in the bull. This was disconcerting. Why had Barbara condescended to mention the wretched brute? And she decided to take him by the horns.

“Babs,” she said, “go to the Inn and order me a ‘fly.’ I shall drive back, I feel very shaky,” and, as Mrs. Noel offered to send her maid, she added:

“No, no, my granddaughter will go.”

Barbara having departed with a quizzical look, Lady Casterley patted the rustic seat, and said:

“Do come and sit down, I want to talk to you:”

Mrs. Noel obeyed. And at once Lady Casterley perceived that “she had a most difficult task before her. She had not expected a woman with whom one could take no liberties. Those clear dark eyes, and that soft, perfectly graceful manner – to a person so ‘sympathetic’ one should be able to say anything, and – one couldn’t! It was awkward. And suddenly she noticed that Mrs. Noel was sitting perfectly upright, as upright – more upright, than she was herself. A bad, sign – a very bad sign! Taking out her handkerchief, she put it to her lips.

“I suppose you think,” she said, “that we were not chased by a bull.”

“I am sure you were.”

“Indeed! Ah! But I’ve something else to talk to you about.”

Mrs. Noel’s face quivered back, as a flower might when it was going to be plucked; and again Lady Casterley put her handkerchief to her lips. This time she rubbed them hard. There was nothing to come off; to do so, therefore, was a satisfaction.

“I am an old woman,” she said, “and you mustn’t mind what I say.”

Mrs. Noel did not answer, but looked straight at her visitor; to whom it seemed suddenly that this was another person. What was it about that face, staring at her! In a weird way it reminded her of a child that one had hurt – with those great eyes and that soft hair, and the mouth thin, in a line, all of a sudden. And as if it had been jerked out of her, she said:

“I don’t want to hurt you, my dear. It’s about my grandson, of course.”

But Mrs. Noel made neither sign nor motion; and the feeling of irritation which so rapidly attacks the old when confronted by the unexpected, came to Lady Casterley’s aid.

“His name,” she said, “is being coupled with yours in a way that’s doing him a great deal of harm. You don’t wish to injure him, I’m sure.”

Mrs. Noel shook her head, and Lady Casterley went on:

“I don’t know what they’re not saying since the evening your friend Mr. Courtier hurt his knee. Miltoun has been most unwise. You had not perhaps realized that.”

Mrs. Noel’s answer was bitterly distinct:

“I didn’t know anyone was sufficiently interested in my doings.”

Lady Casterley suffered a gesture of exasperation to escape her.

“Good heavens!” she said; “every common person is interested in a woman whose position is anomalous. Living alone as you do, and not a widow, you’re fair game for everybody, especially in the country.”

Mrs. Noel’s sidelong glance, very clear and cynical, seemed to say: “Even for you.”

“I am not entitled to ask your story,” Lady Casterley went on, “but if you make mysteries you must expect the worst interpretation put on them. My grandson is a man of the highest principle; he does not see things with the eyes of the world, and that should have made you doubly careful not to compromise him, especially at a time like this.”

Mrs. Noel smiled. This smile startled Lady Casterley; it seemed, by concealing everything, to reveal depths of strength and subtlety. Would the woman never show her hand? And she said abruptly:

“Anything serious, of course, is out of the question.”

“Quite.”

That word, which of all others seemed the right one, was spoken so that Lady Casterley did not know in the least what it meant. Though occasionally employing irony, she detested it in others. No woman should be allowed to use it as a weapon! But in these days, when they were so foolish as to want votes, one never knew what women would be at. This particular woman, however, did not look like one of that sort. She was feminine – very feminine – the sort of creature that spoiled men by being too nice to them. And though she had come determined to find out all about everything and put an end to it, she saw Barbara re-entering the wicket gate with considerable relief.

“I am ready to walk home now,” she said. And getting up from the rustic seat, she made Mrs. Noel a satirical little bow.

“Thank you for letting me rest. Give me your arm, child.”

Barbara gave her arm, and over her shoulder threw a swift smile at Mrs. Noel, who did not answer it, but stood looking quietly after them, her eyes immensely dark and large.

Out in the lane Lady Casterley walked on, very silent, digesting her emotions.

“What about the ‘fly,’ Granny?”

“What ‘fly’?”

“The one you told me to order.”

“You don’t mean to say that you took me seriously?”

“No,” said Barbara.

“Ha!”

They proceeded some little way farther before Lady Casterley said suddenly:

“She is deep.”

“And dark,” said Barbara. “I am afraid you were not good!”

Lady Casterley glanced upwards.

“I detest this habit,” she said, “amongst you young people, of taking nothing seriously. Not even bulls,” she added, with a grim smile.

Barbara threw back her head and sighed.

“Nor ‘flys,” she said.

Lady Casterley saw that she had closed her eyes and opened her lips. And she thought:

“She’s a very beautiful girl. I had no idea she was so beautiful – but too big!” And she added aloud:

“Shut your mouth! You will get one down!”

They spoke no more till they had entered the avenue; then Lady Casterley said sharply:

“Who is this coming down the drive?”

“Mr. Courtier, I think.”

“What does he mean by it, with that leg?”

“He is coming to talk to you, Granny.”

Lady Casterley stopped short.

“You are a cat,” she said; “a sly cat. Now mind, Babs, I won’t have it!”

“No, darling,” murmured Barbara; “you shan’t have it – I’ll take him off your hands.”

“What does your mother mean,” stammered Lady Casterley, “letting you grow up like this! You’re as bad as she was at your age!”

“Worse!” said Barbara. “I dreamed last night that I could fly!”

“If you try that,” said Lady Casterley grimly, “you’ll soon come to grief. Good-morning, sir; you ought to be in bed!”

Courtier raised his hat.

“Surely it is not for me to be where you are not!” And he added gloomily: “The war scare’s dead!”

“Ah!” said Lady Casterley: “your occupation’s gone then. You’ll go back to London now, I suppose.” Looking suddenly at Barbara she saw that the girl’s eyes were half-closed, and that she was smiling; it seemed to Lady Casterley too or was it fancy? – that she shook her head.

CHAPTER XIII

Thanks to Lady Valleys, a patroness of birds, no owl was ever shot on the Monkland Court estate, and those soft-flying spirits of the dusk hooted and hunted, to the great benefit of all except the creeping voles. By every farm, cottage, and field, they passed invisible, quartering the dark air. Their voyages of discovery stretched up on to the moor as far as the wild stone man, whose origin their wisdom perhaps knew. Round Audrey Noel’s cottage they were as thick as thieves, for they had just there two habitations in a long, old, holly-grown wall, and almost seemed to be guarding the mistress of that thatched dwelling – so numerous were their fluttering rushes, so tenderly prolonged their soft sentinel callings. Now that the weather was really warm, so that joy of life was in the voles, they found those succulent creatures of an extraordinarily pleasant flavour, and on them each pair was bringing up a family of exceptionally fine little owls, very solemn, with big heads, bright large eyes, and wings as yet only able to fly downwards. There was scarcely any hour from noon of the day (for some of them had horns) to the small sweet hours when no one heard them, that they forgot to salute the very large, quiet, wingless owl whom they could espy moving about by day above their mouse-runs, or preening her white and sometimes blue and sometimes grey feathers morning and evening in a large square hole high up in the front wall. And they could not understand at all why no swift depredating graces nor any habit of long soft hooting belonged to that lady-bird.

On the evening of the day when she received that early morning call, as soon as dusk had fallen, wrapped in a long thin cloak, with black lace over her dark hair, Audrey Noel herself fluttered out into the lanes, as if to join the grave winged hunters of the invisible night. Those far, continual sounds, not stilled in the country till long after the sun dies, had but just ceased from haunting the air, where the late May-scent clung as close as fragrance clings to a woman’s robe. There was just the barking of a dog, the boom of migrating chafers, the song of the stream, and of the owls, to proclaim the beating in the heart of this sweet Night. Nor was there any light by which Night’s face could be seen; it was hidden, anonymous; so that when a lamp in a cottage threw a blink over the opposite bank, it was as if some wandering painter had wrought a picture of stones and leaves on the black air, framed it in purple, and left it hanging. Yet, if it could only have been come at, the Night was as full of emotion as this woman who wandered, shrinking away against the banks if anyone passed, stopping to cool her hot face with the dew on the ferns, walking swiftly to console her warm heart. Anonymous Night seeking for a symbol could have found none better than this errant figure, to express its hidden longings, the fluttering, unseen rushes of its dark wings, and all its secret passion of revolt against its own anonymity…

At Monkland Court, save for little Ann, the morning passed but dumbly, everyone feeling that something must be done, and no one knowing what. At lunch, the only allusion to the situation had been Harbinger’s inquiry:

“When does Miltoun return?”

He had wired, it seemed, to say that he was motoring down that night.

“The sooner the better,” Sir William murmured: “we’ve still a fortnight.”

But all had felt from the tone in which he spoke these words, how serious was the position in the eyes of that experienced campaigner.