3. V. ON THE VERGE OF POSSESSION
In anticipation of his marriage Pierston had taken a new red house of
the approved Kensington pattern, with a new studio at the back as large
as a mediaeval barn. Hither, in collusion with the elder Avice--whose
health had mended somewhat--he invited mother and daughter to spend a
week or two with him, thinking thereby to exercise on the latter's
imagination an influence which was not practicable while he was a guest
at their house; and by interesting his betrothed in the fitting and
furnishing of this residence to create in her an ambition to be its
mistress.
It was a pleasant, reposeful time to be in town. There was nobody to
interrupt them in their proceedings, and, it being out of the season,
the largest tradesmen were as attentive to their wants as if those
firms had never before been honoured with a single customer whom they
really liked. Pierston and his guests, almost equally inexperienced--
for the sculptor had nearly forgotten what knowledge of householding he
had acquired earlier in life--could consider and practise thoroughly a
species of skeleton-drill in receiving visitors when the pair should
announce themselves as married and at home in the coming winter season.
Avice was charming, even if a little cold. He congratulated himself
yet again that time should have reserved for him this final chance for
one of the line. She was somewhat like her mother, whom he had loved
in the flesh, but she had the soul of her grandmother, whom he had
loved in the spirit--and, for that matter, loved now. Only one
criticism had he to pass upon his choice: though in outward semblance
her grandam idealized, she had not the first Avice's candour, but
rather her mother's closeness. He never knew exactly what she was
thinking and feeling. Yet he seemed to have such prescriptive rights
in women of her blood that her occasional want of confidence did not
deeply trouble him.
It was one of those ripe and mellow afternoons that sometimes colour
London with their golden light at this time of the year, and produce
those marvellous sunset effects which, if they were not known to be
made up of kitchen coal-smoke and animal exhalations, would be
rapturously applauded. Behind the perpendicular, oblique, zigzagged,
and curved zinc 'tall-boys,' that formed a grey pattern not unlike
early Gothic numerals against the sky, the men and women on the tops of
the omnibuses saw an irradiation of topaz hues, darkened here and there
into richest russet.
There had been a sharp shower during the afternoon, and Pierston--who
had to take care of himself--had worn a pair of goloshes on his short
walk in the street. He noiselessly entered the studio, inside which
some gleams of the same mellow light had managed to creep, and where he
guessed he should find his prospective wife and mother-in-law awaiting
him with tea. But only Avice was there, seated beside the teapot of
brown delf, which, as artists, they affected, her back being toward
him. She was holding her handkerchief to her eyes, and he saw that she
was weeping silently.
In another moment he perceived that she was weeping over a book. By
this time she had heard him, and came forward. He made it appear that
he had not noticed her distress, and they discussed some arrangements
of furniture. When he had taken a cup of tea she went away, leaving
the book behind her.
Pierston took it up. The volume was an old school-book; Stievenard's
'Lectures Francaises,' with her name in it as a pupil at Sandbourne
High School, and date-markings denoting lessons taken at a
comparatively recent time, for Avice had been but a novice as governess
when he discovered her.
For a school-girl--which she virtually was--to weep over a school-book
was strange. Could she have been affected by some subject in the
readings? Impossible. Pierston fell to thinking, and zest died for
the process of furnishing, which he had undertaken so gaily. Somehow,
the bloom was again disappearing from his approaching marriage. Yet he
loved Avice more and more tenderly; he feared sometimes that in the
solicitousness of his affection he was spoiling her by indulging her
every whim.
He looked round the large and ambitious apartment, now becoming clouded
with shades, out of which the white and cadaverous countenances of his
studies, casts, and other lumber peered meditatively at him, as if they
were saying, 'What are you going to do now, old boy?' They had never
looked like that while standing in his past homely workshop, where all
the real labours of his life had been carried out. What should a man
of his age, who had not for years done anything to speak of--certainly
not to add to his reputation as an artist--want with a new place like
this? It was all because of the elect lady, and she apparently did not
want him.
Pierston did not observe anything further in Avice to cause him
misgiving till one dinner-time, a week later, towards the end of the
visit. Then, as he sat himself between her and her mother at their
limited table, he was struck with her nervousness, and was tempted to
say, 'Why are you troubled, my little dearest?' in tones which
disclosed that he was as troubled as she.
'Am I troubled?' she said with a start, turning her gentle hazel eyes
upon him. 'Yes, I suppose I am. It is because I have received a
letter--from an old friend.'
'You didn't show it to me,' said her mother.
'No--I tore it up.'
'Why?'
'It was not necessary to keep it, so I destroyed it.'
Mrs. Pierston did not press her further on the subject, and Avice
showed no disposition to continue it. They retired rather early, as
they always did, but Pierston remained pacing about his studio a long
while, musing on many things, not the least being the perception that
to wed a woman may be by no means the same thing as to be united with
her. The 'old friend' of Avice's remark had sounded very much like
'lover.' Otherwise why should the letter have so greatly disturbed
her?
There seemed to be something uncanny, after all, about London, in its
relation to his contemplated marriage. When she had first come up she
was easier with him than now. And yet his bringing her there had
helped his cause; the house had decidedly impressed her--almost
overawed her, and though he owned that by no law of nature or reason
had her mother or himself any right to urge on Avice partnership with
him against her inclination, he resolved to make the most of having her
under his influence by getting the wedding details settled before she
and her mother left.
The next morning he proceeded to do this. When he encountered Avice
there was a trace of apprehension on her face; but he set that down to
a fear that she had offended him the night before by her taciturnity.
Directly he requested her mother, in Avice's presence, to get her to
fix the day quite early, Mrs. Pierston became brighter and brisker.
She, too, plainly had doubts about the wisdom of delay, and turning to
her daughter said, 'Now, my dear, do you hear?'
It was ultimately agreed that the widow and her daughter should go back
in a day or two, to await Pierston's arrival on the wedding-eve,
immediately after their return.
* * *
In pursuance of the arrangement Pierston found himself on the south
shore of England in the gloom of the aforesaid evening, the isle, as he
looked across at it with his approach, being just discernible as a
moping countenance, a creature sullen with a sense that he was about to
withdraw from its keeping the rarest object it had ever owned. He had
come alone, not to embarrass them, and had intended to halt a couple of
hours in the neighbouring seaport to give some orders relating to the
wedding, but the little railway train being in waiting to take him on,
he proceeded with a natural impatience, resolving to do his business
here by messenger from the isle.
He passed the ruins of the Tudor castle and the long featureless rib of
grinding pebbles that screened off the outer sea, which could be heard
lifting and dipping rhythmically in the wide vagueness of the Bay. At
the under-hill island townlet of the Wells there were no flys, and
leaving his things to be brought on, as he often did, he climbed the
eminence on foot.
Half-way up the steepest part of the pass he saw in the dusk a figure
pausing--the single person on the incline. Though it was too dark to
identify faces, Pierston gathered from the way in which the halting
stranger was supporting himself by the handrail, which here bordered
the road to assist climbers, that the person was exhausted.
'Anything the matter?' he said.
'O no--not much,' was returned by the other. 'But it is steep just
here.'
The accent was not quite that of an Englishman, and struck him as
hailing from one of the Channel Islands. 'Can't I help you up to the
top?' he said, for the voice, though that of a young man, seemed faint
and shaken.
'No, thank you. I have been ill; but I thought I was all right again;
and as the night was fine I walked into the island by the road. It
turned out to be rather too much for me, as there is some weakness left
still; and this stiff incline brought it out.'
'Naturally. You'd better take hold of my arm--at any rate to the brow
here.'
Thus pressed the stranger did so, and they went on towards the ridge,
till, reaching the lime-kiln standing there the stranger abandoned his
hold, saying: 'Thank you for your assistance, sir. Good-night.'
'I don't think I recognize your voice as a native's?'
'No, it is not. I am a Jersey man. Goodnight, sir.'
'Good-night, if you are sure you can get on. Here, take this stick--it
is no use to me.' Saying which, Pierston put his walking-stick into
the young man's hand.
'Thank you again. I shall be quite recovered when I have rested a
minute or two. Don't let me detain you, please.'
The stranger as he spoke turned his face towards the south, where the
Beal light had just come into view, and stood regarding it with an
obstinate fixity. As he evidently wished to be left to himself Jocelyn
went on, and troubled no more about him, though the desire of the young
man to be rid of his company, after accepting his walking-stick and his
arm, had come with a suddenness that was almost emotional; and
impressionable as Jocelyn was, no less now than in youth, he was
saddened for a minute by the sense that there were people in the world
who did not like even his sympathy.
However, a pleasure which obliterated all this arose when Pierston drew
near to the house that was likely to be his dear home on all future
visits to the isle, perhaps even his permanent home as he grew older
and the associations of his youth re-asserted themselves. It had been,
too, his father's house, the house in which he was born, and he amused
his fancy with plans for its enlargement under the supervision of Avice
and himself. It was a still greater pleasure to behold a tall and
shapely figure standing against the light of the open door and
presumably awaiting him.
Avice, who it was, gave a little jump when she recognized him, but
dutifully allowed him to kiss her when he reached her side; though her
nervousness was only too apparent, and was like a child's towards a
parent who may prove stern.
'How dear of you to guess that I might come on at once instead of
later!' said Jocelyn. 'Well, if I had stayed in the town to go to the
shops and so on, I could not have got here till the last train. How is
mother?--our mother, as I shall call her soon.'
Avice said that her mother had not been so well--she feared not nearly
so well since her return from London, so that she was obliged to keep
her room. The visit had perhaps been too much for her. 'But she will
not acknowledge that she is much weaker, because she will not disturb
my happiness.'
Jocelyn was in a mood to let trifles of manner pass, and he took no
notice of the effort which had accompanied the last word. They went
upstairs to Mrs. Pierston, whose obvious relief and thankfulness at
sight of him was grateful to her visitor.
'I am so, O so glad you are come!' she said huskily, as she held out
her thin hand and stifled a sob. 'I have been so--'
She could get no further for a moment, and Avice turned away weeping,
and abruptly left the room.
'I have so set my heart on this,' Mrs. Pierston went on, 'that I have
not been able to sleep of late, for I have feared I might drop off
suddenly before she is yours, and lose the comfort of seeing you
actually united. Your being so kind to me in old times has made me so
sure that she will find a good husband in you, that I am over anxious,
I know. Indeed, I have not liked to let her know quite how anxious I
am.'
Thus they talked till Jocelyn bade her goodnight, it being noticeable
that Mrs. Pierston, chastened by her illnesses, maintained no longer
any reserve on her gladness to acquire him as her son-in-law; and her
feelings destroyed any remaining scruples he might have had from
perceiving that Avice's consent was rather an obedience than a desire.
As he went downstairs, and found Avice awaiting his descent, he
wondered if anything had occurred here during his absence to give Mrs.
Pierston new uneasiness about the marriage, but it was an inquiry he
could not address to a girl whose actions could alone be the cause of
such uneasiness.
He looked round for her as he supped, but though she had come into the
room with him she was not there now. He remembered her telling him
that she had had supper with her mother, and Jocelyn sat on quietly
musing and sipping his wine for something near half-an-hour. Wondering
then for the first time what had become of her, he rose and went to the
door. Avice was quite near him after all--only standing at the front
door as she had been doing when he came, looking into the light of the
full moon, which had risen since his arrival. His sudden opening of
the dining-room door seemed to agitate her.
'What is it, dear?' he asked.
'As mother is much better and doesn't want me, I ought to go and see
somebody I promised to take a parcel to--I feel I ought. And yet, as
you have just come to see me--I suppose you don't approve of my going
out while you are here?'
'Who is the person?'
'Somebody down that way,' she said indefinitely. 'It is not very far
off. I am not afraid--I go out often by myself at night hereabout.'
He reassured her good-humouredly. 'If you really wish to go, my dear,
of course I don't object. I have no authority to do that till
tomorrow, and you know that if I had it I shouldn't use it.'
'O but you have! Mother being an invalid, you are in her place, apart
from--to-morrow.'
'Nonsense, darling. Run across to your friend's house by all means if
you want to.'
'And you'll be here when I come in?'
'No, I am going down to the inn to see if my things are brought up.'
'But hasn't mother asked you to stay here? The spare room was got
ready for you. . . . Dear me, I am afraid I ought to have told you.'
'She did ask me. But I have some things coming, directed to the inn,
and I had better be there. So I'll wish you good-night, though it is
not late. I will come in quite early to-morrow, to inquire how your
mother is going on, and to wish you good-morning. You will be back
again quickly this evening?'
'O yes.'
'And I needn't go with you for company?'
'O no, thank you. It is no distance.'
Pierston then departed, thinking how entirely her manner was that of
one to whom a question of doing anything was a question of permission
and not of judgment. He had no sooner gone than Avice took a parcel
from a cupboard, put on her hat and cloak, and following by the way he
had taken till she reached the entrance to Sylvania Castle, there stood
still. She could hear Pierston's footsteps passing down East Quarriers
to the inn; but she went no further in that direction. Turning into
the lane on the right, of which mention has so often been made, she
went quickly past the last cottage, and having entered the gorge beyond
she clambered into the ruin of the Red King's or Bow-and-Arrow Castle,
standing as a square black mass against the moonlit, indefinite sea.
