IV
The revulsion of feeling experienced by Bottles as he hurried back to
the Albany to dress for dinner--for he was to dine with his brother at
one of his clubs that night--was so extraordinary and overwhelming
that it took him, figuratively speaking, off his legs. As yet his
mind, so long accustomed to perpetual misfortune in this, the ruling
passion of his life, could not quite grasp his luck. That he should,
after all, have won back his lost Madeline seemed altogether too good
to be true.
As it happened, Sir Eustace had asked one or two men to meet him,
amongst them an Under-Secretary for the Colonies, who, having to
prepare for a severe cross-examination in the House upon South African
affairs, had jumped at the opportunity of sucking the brains of a man
thoroughly acquainted with the subject. But the expectant Under-
Secretary was destined to meet with a grievous disappointment, for out
of Bottles came no good thing. For the most part of the dinner he sat
silent, only speaking when directly addressed, and then answering so
much at random that the Under-Secretary quickly came to the conclusion
that Sir Eustace's brother was either a fool or that he had drunk too
much.
Sir Eustace himself saw that his brother's taciturnity had spoilt his
little dinner, and his temper was not improved thereby. He was not
accustomed to have his dinners spoiled, and felt that, so far as the
Under-Secretary was concerned, he had put himself into a false
position.
"My dear George," he said in a tone of bland exasperation when they
had got back to the Albany, "I wonder what can be the matter with you?
I told Atherleigh that you would be able to post him up thoroughly
about all this Bechuana mess, and he could not get a word out of you."
His brother absently filled his pipe before he answered:
"The Bechuanas? Oh, yes, I know all about them. I lived among them for
a year."
"Then why on earth didn't you tell him what you knew? You put me in
rather a false position."
"I am very sorry, Eustace," he answered humbly. "I will go and see him
if you like, and explain the thing to him to-morrow. The fact of the
matter is, I was thinking of something else."
Sir Eustace interrogated him with a look.
"I was thinking," he went on slowly, "about Mad--about Lady Croston."
"Oh!"
"I went to see her this afternoon, and I think, I hope, that I am
going to marry her."
If Bottles expected that this great news would be received by his
elder brother as such news ought to be received--with congratulatory
rejoicing--he was destined to be disappointed.
"Good heavens!" ejaculated Sir Eustace shortly, letting his eyeglass
drop.
"Why do you say that, Eustace?" Bottles asked uneasily.
"Because--because," answered his brother in the emphatic tone which
was his equivalent for strong language, "you must be mad to think of
such a thing."
"Why must I be mad?"
"Because you, still a young man, with all your life before you,
deliberately propose to tie yourself up to a middle-aged and /passee/
woman--she is extremely /passee/ by daylight, let me tell you--who has
already treated you like a dog, and is burdened with a couple of
children, and who, if she marries again, will bring you very little
except her luxurious tastes. But I expected this. I thought she would
try to catch you with those languishing black eyes of hers. You are
not the first; I know her of old."
"If," said his brother, rising in dudgeon, "you are going to abuse
Madeline to me, I think I had better say good night, for we shall
quarrel--which I would not do for anything."
Sir Eustace shrugged his shoulders. "Those whom the gods wish to
destroy they first make mad," he muttered, as he lit his hand candle.
"This is what comes of a course of South Africa."
But Sir Eustace was an amenable man. His favourite motto was "Live and
let live"; and having given the matter his best consideration during
the lengthy process of shaving himself on the following morning, he
came to the conclusion, reluctantly enough it must be owned, that it
was evident that his brother meant to have his own way, and therefore
the best thing to be done was to fall in with his views and trust to
the chapter of accidents to bring the thing to naught. Sir Eustace,
for all his apparent worldliness and cynicism, was a good fellow at
heart, and cherished a warm affection for his awkward, taciturn
brother. He also cherished a great dislike for Lady Croston, whose
character he thoroughly understood. He saw a good deal of her, it is
true, because he happened to be one of the executors of her husband's
will; and since he had come into the baronetcy it had struck him that
she had developed a considerable partiality for his society.
The idea of a marriage between his brother and his brother's old flame
was in every way distasteful to him. In the first place, under her
husband's will, Madeline would bring, comparatively speaking,
relatively little with her should she marry again. That was one
objection. Another, and still more forcible one from Sir Eustace's
point of view, was that at her time of life she was not likely to
present the house of Peritt with an heir. Now, Sir Eustace had not the
slightest intention of marrying. Matrimony was, he considered, an
excellent institution, and necessary to the carrying on of the world
in a respectable manner, but it was not one with which he was anxious
to identify himself. Therefore, if his brother married at all, it was
his earnest desire that the union should bring children to inherit the
title and estates. Prominent above both these excellent reasons, stood
his intense distrust and dislike of the lady.
Needs must, however, when the devil (by whom he understood Madeline)
drives. He was not going to quarrel with his only brother and
presumptive heir because he chose to marry a woman who was not to his
taste. So he shrugged his shoulders--having finished his shaving and
his reflections together--and determined to put the best possible face
on his disappointment.
"Well, George," he said to his brother at breakfast, "so you are going
to marry Lady Croston?"
Bottles looked up surprised. "Yes, Eustace," he answered, "if she will
marry me."
Sir Eustace glanced at him. "I thought the affair was settled," he
said.
Bottles rubbed his big nose reflectively as he answered, "Well, no. I
don't think that marriage was mentioned. But I suppose she means to
marry me. In short, I don't see how she could mean anything else."
Sir Eustace breathed more freely, guessing what had taken place. So
there was as yet no actual engagement.
"When are you going to see her again?"
"To-morrow. She is engaged all to-day."
His brother took out a pocket-book and consulted it. "Then I am more
fortunate than you are," he said; "I have an appointment with Lady
Croston this evening after dinner. Don't look jealous, old fellow, it
is only about some executor's business. I think I told you that I am
one of her husband's executors, blessings on his memory. She is a
peculiar woman, your /inamorata/, and swears that she won't trust her
lawyers, so I have to do all the dirty work myself, worse luck. You
had better come too."
"Shan't I be in the way?" asked Bottles doubtfully, struggling feebly
against the bribe.
"It is evident, my dear fellow, that you cannot be /de trop/. I shall
present my papers for signature and vanish. You ought to be infinitely
obliged to me for giving you such a chance. We will consider that
settled. We will dine together, and go round to Grosvenor Street
afterwards."
Bottles agreed. Could he have seen the little scheme that was dawning
in his brother's brain, perhaps he would not have assented so readily.
When her old lover went away reluctantly to dress for dinner on the
previous day, Madeline Croston sat down to have a good think, and the
result was not entirely satisfactory. It had been very pleasant to see
him, and his passionate declaration of enduring love thrilled her
through and through, and even woke an echo in her own breast. It made
her proud to think that this man, who, notwithstanding his ugliness
and awkwardness, was yet, her instinct told her, worth half a dozen
smart London fashionables, still loved her and had never ceased to
love her. Poor Bottles! she had been very fond of him once. They had
grown up together, and it really gave her some cruel hours when a
sense of what she owed to herself and her family had forced her to
discard him.
She remembered, as she sat there this evening, how at the time she had
wondered if it was worth it--if life would not be brighter and happier
if she made up her mind to fight through it by her honest lover's
side. Well, she could answer that question now. It had been well worth
it. She had not liked her husband, it is true; but on the whole she
had enjoyed a good time and plenty of money, and the power that money
brings. The wisdom of her later days had confirmed the judgment of her
youth. As regards Bottles himself, she had soon got over that fancy;
for years she had scarcely thought of him, till Sir Eustace told her
that he was coming home, and she had that curious dream about him. Now
he had come and made love to her, not in a civilised, philandering
sort of a way, such as she was accustomed to, but with a passion and a
fire and an utter self-abandonment which, while it thrilled her nerves
with a curious sensation of mingled pleasure and pain, not unlike that
she once experienced at a Spanish bull-fight when she saw a man
tossed, was yet extremely awkward to deal with and rather alarming.
Now, too, the old question had come up again, and what was to be done?
She had sheered him off the question that afternoon, but he would want
to marry her, she felt sure of that. If she consented, what were they
to live on? Her own juncture, in the event of her re-marriage, would
be cut down to a thousand a year--she had four now, and was pinched on
that; and as for Bottles, she knew what he had--eight hundred, for Sir
Eustace had told her. He was next heir to the baronetcy, it was true,
but Sir Eustace looked as though he would live for ever, and besides,
he might marry after all.
For a few minutes Lady Croston contemplated the possibility of
existing on eighteen hundred a year, and what Chancery would give her
as guardian of her children in a poky house somewhere down at
Kensington. Soon she realised that the thing was not to be done.
"Unless Sir Eustace will do something for him, it is very clear that
we cannot be married," she said to herself with a sigh. "However, I
need not tell him that just yet, or he will be rushing back to South
Africa or something."
