CHAPTER XXV--THE LAST BATTLE
Lady Arabella had instructed her solicitors to hurry on with the
conveyance of Diana's Grove, so no time was lost in letting Adam
Salton have formal possession of the estate. After his interview
with Sir Nathaniel, he had taken steps to begin putting his plan
into action. In order to accumulate the necessary amount of fine
sea-sand, he ordered the steward to prepare for an elaborate system
of top-dressing all the grounds. A great heap of the sand, brought
from bays on the Welsh coast, began to grow at the back of the
Grove. No one seemed to suspect that it was there for any purpose
other than what had been given out.
Lady Arabella, who alone could have guessed, was now so absorbed in
her matrimonial pursuit of Edgar Caswall, that she had neither time
nor inclination for thought extraneous to this. She had not yet
moved from the house, though she had formally handed over the
estate.
Adam put up a rough corrugated-iron shed behind the Grove, in which
he stored his explosives. All being ready for his great attempt
whenever the time should come, he was now content to wait, and, in
order to pass the time, interested himself in other things--even in
Caswall's great kite, which still flew from the high tower of Castra
Regis.
The mound of fine sand grew to proportions so vast as to puzzle the
bailiffs and farmers round the Brow. The hour of the intended
cataclysm was approaching apace. Adam wished--but in vain--for an
opportunity, which would appear to be natural, of visiting Caswall
in the turret of Castra Regis. At last, one morning, he met Lady
Arabella moving towards the Castle, so he took his courage E DEUX
MAINS and asked to be allowed to accompany her. She was glad, for
her own purposes, to comply with his wishes. So together they
entered, and found their way to the turret-room. Caswall was much
surprised to see Adam come to his house, but lent himself to the
task of seeming to be pleased. He played the host so well as to
deceive even Adam. They all went out on the turret roof, where he
explained to his guests the mechanism for raising and lowering the
kite, taking also the opportunity of testing the movements of the
multitudes of birds, how they answered almost instantaneously to the
lowering or raising of the kite.
As Lady Arabella walked home with Adam from Castra Regis, she asked
him if she might make a request. Permission having been accorded,
she explained that before she finally left Diana's Grove, where she
had lived so long, she had a desire to know the depth of the well-
hole. Adam was really happy to meet her wishes, not from any
sentiment, but because he wished to give some valid and ostensible
reason for examining the passage of the Worm, which would obviate
any suspicion resulting from his being on the premises. He brought
from London a Kelvin sounding apparatus, with a sufficient length of
piano-wire for testing any probable depth. The wire passed easily
over the running wheel, and when this was once fixed over the hole,
he was satisfied to wait till the most advantageous time for his
final experiment.
In the meantime, affairs had been going quietly at Mercy Farm.
Lilla, of course, felt lonely in the absence of her cousin, but the
even tenor of life went on for her as for others. After the first
shock of parting was over, things went back to their accustomed
routine. In one respect, however, there was a marked difference.
So long as home conditions had remained unchanged, Lilla was content
to put ambition far from her, and to settle down to the life which
had been hers as long as she could remember. But Mimi's marriage
set her thinking; naturally, she came to the conclusion that she too
might have a mate. There was not for her much choice--there was
little movement in the matrimonial direction at the farmhouse. She
did not approve of the personality of Edgar Caswall, and his
struggle with Mimi had frightened her; but he was unmistakably an
excellent PARTI, much better than she could have any right to
expect. This weighs much with a woman, and more particularly one of
her class. So, on the whole, she was content to let things take
their course, and to abide by the issue.
As time went on, she had reason to believe that things did not point
to happiness. She could not shut her eyes to certain disturbing
facts, amongst which were the existence of Lady Arabella and her
growing intimacy with Edgar Caswall; as well as his own cold and
haughty nature, so little in accord with the ardour which is the
foundation of a young maid's dreams of happiness. How things would,
of necessity, alter if she were to marry, she was afraid to think.
All told, the prospect was not happy for her, and she had a secret
longing that something might occur to upset the order of things as
at present arranged.
When Lilla received a note from Edgar Caswall asking if he might
come to tea on the following afternoon, her heart sank within her.
If it was only for her father's sake, she must not refuse him or
show any disinclination which he might construe into incivility.
She missed Mimi more than she could say or even dared to think.
Hitherto, she had always looked to her cousin for sympathy, for
understanding, for loyal support. Now she and all these things, and
a thousand others--gentle, assuring, supporting--were gone. And
instead there was a horrible aching void.
For the whole afternoon and evening, and for the following forenoon,
poor Lilla's loneliness grew to be a positive agony. For the first
time she began to realise the sense of her loss, as though all the
previous suffering had been merely a preparation. Everything she
looked at, everything she remembered or thought of, became laden
with poignant memory. Then on the top of all was a new sense of
dread. The reaction from the sense of security, which had
surrounded her all her life, to a never-quieted apprehension, was at
times almost more than she could bear. It so filled her with fear
that she had a haunting feeling that she would as soon die as live.
However, whatever might be her own feelings, duty had to be done,
and as she had been brought up to consider duty first, she braced
herself to go through, to the very best of her ability, what was
before her.
Still, the severe and prolonged struggle for self-control told upon
Lilla. She looked, as she felt, ill and weak. She was really in a
nerveless and prostrate condition, with black circles round her
eyes, pale even to her lips, and with an instinctive trembling which
she was quite unable to repress. It was for her a sad mischance
that Mimi was away, for her love would have seen through all
obscuring causes, and have brought to light the girl's unhappy
condition of health. Lilla was utterly unable to do anything to
escape from the ordeal before her; but her cousin, with the
experience of her former struggles with Mr. Caswall and of the
condition in which these left her, would have taken steps--even
peremptory ones, if necessary--to prevent a repetition.
Edgar arrived punctually to the time appointed by herself. When
Lilla, through the great window, saw him approaching the house, her
condition of nervous upset was pitiable. She braced herself up,
however, and managed to get through the interview in its preliminary
stages without any perceptible change in her normal appearance and
bearing. It had been to her an added terror that the black shadow
of Oolanga, whom she dreaded, would follow hard on his master. A
load was lifted from her mind when he did not make his usual
stealthy approach. She had also feared, though in lesser degree,
lest Lady Arabella should be present to make trouble for her as
before.
With a woman's natural forethought in a difficult position, she had
provided the furnishing of the tea-table as a subtle indication of
the social difference between her and her guest. She had chosen the
implements of service, as well as all the provender set forth, of
the humblest kind. Instead of arranging the silver teapot and china
cups, she had set out an earthen tea-pot, such as was in common use
in the farm kitchen. The same idea was carried out in the cups and
saucers of thick homely delft, and in the cream-jug of similar kind.
The bread was of simple whole-meal, home-baked. The butter was
good, since she had made it herself, while the preserves and honey
came from her own garden. Her face beamed with satisfaction when
the guest eyed the appointments with a supercilious glance. It was
a shock to the poor girl herself, for she enjoyed offering to a
guest the little hospitalities possible to her; but that had to be
sacrificed with other pleasures.
Caswall's face was more set and iron-clad than ever--his piercing
eyes seemed from the very beginning to look her through and through.
Her heart quailed when she thought of what would follow--of what
would be the end, when this was only the beginning. As some
protection, though it could be only of a sentimental kind, she
brought from her own room the photographs of Mimi, of her
grandfather, and of Adam Salton, whom by now she had grown to look
on with reliance, as a brother whom she could trust. She kept the
pictures near her heart, to which her hand naturally strayed when
her feelings of constraint, distrust, or fear became so poignant as
to interfere with the calm which she felt was necessary to help her
through her ordeal.
At first Edgar Caswall was courteous and polite, even thoughtful;
but after a little while, when he found her resistance to his
domination grow, he abandoned all forms of self-control and appeared
in the same dominance as he had previously shown. She was prepared,
however, for this, both by her former experience and the natural
fighting instinct within her. By this means, as the minutes went
on, both developed the power and preserved the equality in which
they had begun.
Without warning, the psychic battle between the two individualities
began afresh. This time both the positive and negative causes were
all in favour of the man. The woman was alone and in bad spirits,
unsupported; nothing at all was in her favour except the memory of
the two victorious contests; whereas the man, though unaided, as
before, by either Lady Arabella or Oolanga, was in full strength,
well rested, and in flourishing circumstances. It was not,
therefore, to be wondered at that his native dominance of character
had full opportunity of asserting itself. He began his preliminary
stare with a conscious sense of power, and, as it appeared to have
immediate effect on the girl, he felt an ever-growing conviction of
ultimate victory.
After a little Lilla's resolution began to flag. She felt that the
contest was unequal--that she was unable to put forth her best
efforts. As she was an unselfish person, she could not fight so
well in her own battle as in that of someone whom she loved and to
whom she was devoted. Edgar saw the relaxing of the muscles of face
and brow, and the almost collapse of the heavy eyelids which seemed
tumbling downward in sleep. Lilla made gallant efforts to brace her
dwindling powers, but for a time unsuccessfully. At length there
came an interruption, which seemed like a powerful stimulant.
Through the wide window she saw Lady Arabella enter the plain
gateway of the farm, and advance towards the hall door. She was
clad as usual in tight-fitting white, which accentuated her thin,
sinuous figure.
The sight did for Lilla what no voluntary effort could have done.
Her eyes flashed, and in an instant she felt as though a new life
had suddenly developed within her. Lady Arabella's entry, in her
usual unconcerned, haughty, supercilious way, heightened the effect,
so that when the two stood close to each other battle was joined.
Mr. Caswall, too, took new courage from her coming, and all his
masterfulness and power came back to him. His looks, intensified,
had more obvious effect than had been noticeable that day. Lilla
seemed at last overcome by his dominance. Her face became red and
pale--violently red and ghastly pale--by rapid turns. Her strength
seemed gone. Her knees collapsed, and she was actually sinking on
the floor, when to her surprise and joy Mimi came into the room,
running hurriedly and breathing heavily.
Lilla rushed to her, and the two clasped hands. With that, a new
sense of power, greater than Lilla had ever seen in her, seemed to
quicken her cousin. Her hand swept the air in front of Edgar
Caswall, seeming to drive him backward more and more by each
movement, till at last he seemed to be actually hurled through the
door which Mimi's entrance had left open, and fell at full length on
the gravel path without.
Then came the final and complete collapse of Lilla, who, without a
sound, sank down on the floor.
