A Bottle in the Smoke Part 18

Before she had finished speaking Mrs. Fellowes' eyes were upon her knitting again. Her face looked grave and troubled, but she made no remark.

"But won't you just come once and see what a happy afternoon we have?"

asked Hester in a coaxing tone. "We have some beautiful patterns for clothes, and there is reading aloud and singing," she urged, looking into the bitter face with a winning smile of which her friend, glancing up suddenly, seemed to catch the pathos, as a ray of sunlight from aslant the green blinds lit up the fair young face till it looked as an angel's might. Mrs. Fellowes sighed deeply as she bent over her work again, and did not let her eyes rest further on the stranger.

"Well, I'll not come to your meeting! That's flat! But no offence meant.

I say, does your husband happen to be at home?" asked the girl sharply.

"It's with La'yer Rayner I've got a bit of business."

"Oh, you want to see my husband on business, do you? You are one of his clients, perhaps? He is at the High Court, but you might see him by appointment," said Hester, thinking after all she had made a stupid mistake.

"Oh, as to thatt, I'm not particular anxious to face those business dens. Maybe I'll get a peep of him yet, and a word of him too, nearer home, some day. I'll be stepping now. Sorry I can't oblige you about the cla.s.s," she added, glancing down with malicious air at Mrs.

Fellowes, who still sat with her eyes fixed on her knitting. "Maybe you'll be good enough to mention to Mister Rayner as how Leila Baltus called--his client--is that how you name it?" she asked, with a t.i.tter; then, drawing her tawdry black lace scarf round her handsome shoulders, she walked away and disappeared into the bright sunshine beyond the green blinds.

"Well, we haven't made much of Miss Leila Baltus after all," said Hester, throwing herself into her chair. "I suppose you came to the conclusion at once that she wasn't a hopeful 'Friendly?'"

"I did, my dear," returned Mrs. Fellowes gravely. "I don't want to discourage you, but I fear for the present at least we can't reach that bit of stony ground. And if you will not think me hard, I should advise you to leave Miss Leila Baltus severely alone."

Mrs. Fellowes was of the type that "hopeth all things"; her advice, therefore, took Hester by surprise, but her great respect for her opinion on all matters made her wish to discuss the subject further.

Just then, however, the conversation was interrupted by the gong sounding for tiffin.

As Mrs. Fellowes pa.s.sed through the drawing-room on her young hostess's arm there was a shadow on her face which had not left it since the appearance of the mysterious visitor, and which returned to it in after hours when she recalled the unpleasant incident.

Meanwhile Leila Baltus with rapid steps had left the Rayners' compound, and stood glancing up and down the road as if in search of someone.

Presently she perceived an elderly woman lurking behind a jungly hedge, and joined her, saying bitterly:

"No manner of use--only wasted our shoe leather! You were quite out of your reckoning, mother, in thinkin' we'd catch him at tiffin time. Alf ain't so easy caught, worse luck!"

"So you haven't seen him?" said the older woman, with a dispirited sigh. "Why, but this was to be your trump card, you boasted--and it's failed!"

"Not quite, for I've been inside the verandah, and seen her in her own house that should have been mine. I could have put a knife into her, for all that she's a pleasant, soft-spoken lady. Somehow I didn't get my tongue proper loosed on her! But I hate her, yes, I hate her, all the more that she's so fair and prettee"; and the girl raised a clenched fist and shook it in the air.

"Ay, you mind, Leila, how he twitted me with our being black half-castes? But I'll be even with Alfred Rayner yet!" cried the old woman shrilly, swaying from very weariness as she tramped along the hot, dusty road.

"Come, mother, I'll tell you what she was dressed in. It'll shorten the road," said the girl, with an effort to be cheerful, as she cast a pitying glance at the stumbling figure by her side, and drew her mother's arm into hers.

"Well, her dress wasn't silk, it wasn't even fine sprigged muslin, but just cotton, think of that--no better than bazaar dungerie, or your own morning wrapper. But, oh, it was such a beautee! It was pale blue, and it had lovelee gathers on the bodice, smockin', I think they call it.

You see it in the fashion plates. It's my belief I could imitate thatt if only money weren't so hard to get," she wound up with a sigh.

"Trust me, Leila, I'll have another and a bigger note out of him in no time. I've taken the measure of him. He's a coward as well as a villain.

I declare he's no better than if he was a native. Did you ever notice his hands? There's no strength there--just slim, long fingers like a half-caste's. Yes, I'll be even with that young man yet," cried the woman, with undaunted spirit as she trudged along, weary and footsore.

The chairs and tables of the verandah at Clive's Road were still strewn with Hester's purchases when her husband returned from the High Court.

She was delighted with his sympathetic att.i.tude and with his approval of her choice of gifts. He was eager also to help her in affixing cards with the names, so dear and familiar to her, and loving Christmas wishes on each. His zeal even reached the unwonted climax of rummaging in a G.o.down for tin-lined cases and helping her to pack her offerings. At length all was finished, and they sank on their lounging chairs with a sense of a well-earned rest.

Never had Hester felt in closer unison with her husband or more radiantly happy. The deal packing case lay near, requiring only the coming of the "tinie-smith" in the morning to solder its lining down.

Every now and then she cast loving looks upon it, seeing visions of what pleasure its arrival would bring to the beloved inmates of the Rectory, while her husband gaily congratulated her in having made a hundred rupees buy so many pretty things. "And from Ismail too, a hard-fisted rascal, follows the profession of a _soukar_, a money-lender--as well as that of a hawker--swindled a client of mine lately."

"Oh, that reminds me, Alfred. There was a client of yours in search of you here just before tiffin----"

"A client? Young Hyde from Palaveram?"

"Oh, no, I wish it had been, poor fellow! No, it was a haughty, inscrutable-looking young woman, to whom Mrs. Fellowes seemed to take an instinctive dislike, and she's generally so charitable. Poor thing, I thought at first she was coming to enrol for our 'Friendly.' But I think I once asked you before if you knew her by name," said Hester, suddenly pausing. She certainly had not connected Alfred's outburst of temper with the name of this girl, but she felt she ought to have remembered that the very mention of any Eurasian seemed to make her husband angry.

"Dear me, Hester, how you do meander on!" said Mr. Rayner irritably.

"What was the girl's name?"

"Leila Baltus," answered Hester meekly. "She said you would know who she was--in fact, it was you she came to see."

"Never heard of such a person in my life! She's no client of mine, be a.s.sured of that--more likely a lying half-caste beggar!"

Hester saw that her husband looked blanched as if by uncontrollable anger--or was it agitation? He was silent for a moment, then he asked, evidently with an effort to a.s.sume an unconcerned tone: "Did the creature say what she wanted? Did she give any reason for her visit?"

"Not in the least! I think she said she would see you some other time.

She certainly called herself a client," replied Hester dejectedly, for it was borne in upon her that her husband's sudden source of annoyance came after all from the mention of this girl's name. He did know Leila Baltus, though he denied all knowledge of her! It was a staggering revelation to the young wife. She turned her clear eyes on her husband's averted profile and longed to say: "This secrecy, this prevarication is much harder to bear than anything you may have to tell me!"

On his side, Alfred Rayner was dwelling, with as much honest regret as his nature was capable of, on his having been unfortunate enough to have been betrayed into useless lying concerning a matter which he might have dealt with more effectually by acknowledging his former flirtation--now hateful to him--with this Eurasian girl. To have a.s.sured Hester, as he had a.s.sured the old woman on the road, that her daughter had no possible hold on him, but was simply blackmailing. But what would the straight-forward Hester think if he laid bare the whole matter now when she recalled that not five minutes ago he had disavowed all knowledge of the girl? No, the remedy would be worse than the trouble, he decided peevishly. He rose from his chair complaining of a headache, and went sullenly to bed.

CHAPTER XIX.

Christmas gaieties were now in the air. The pleasant life-long a.s.sociations which cl.u.s.ter round that season for Anglo-Indians seem to urge them to almost feverish anxiety to celebrate it with increased zeal in their exile. The whole community in fact catches the contagion. The natives, both civil and sepoy, look forward to "Kismas" as a time of gifts and _tomashas_; while the Eurasian community vie with each other in imitating its time-honoured rites.

To Hester Rayner its approach brought more than a suspicion of homesickness. She remembered sadly that the glad old greetings would sound for other ears than hers in the dear home far away, while to her husband, the chief preoccupation seemed the success of the impending dinner-party on which he had set his heart. The invitations had been duly issued by Hester, and to his satisfaction the hoped-for guests had all responded, two covers being reserved for the Collector of Puranapore and his a.s.sistant.

The dinner had been arranged on an even more lavish scale than any of their former entertainments. The rarest flowers procurable were ordered.

The menu was to be purveyed by D'Angelis, a clever Italian chef, who sent forth the daintiest of entrees and savouries, and the most delectable of ice-puddings.

"All must be of the most elegant and select," said Mr. Rayner, looking up from his lists before him. "I want old Worsley to see what a first-rate dinner 'La'yer Rayner' can give. I've ordered cases of the best hock and champagne to please his fastidious palate. I hear his boy is an excellent caterer, and no doubt Worsley is a _bonne fourchette_."

But disappointment came in the shape of a note from Mark Cheveril to Hester, to tell her that he and his chief were engaged for Christmas Eve. She read Mark's letter aloud in faltering tones, knowing the chagrin it would bring to her husband, who said bitterly:

"A very lukewarm friend, Hester! He might easily have arranged to come to us if he had cared to. Yet what friendship he professed for you and the whole Bellairs family! But you see it is just in such selfish moves that his half-caste blood comes out!"

Hester did not like her husband throwing the blame on Mark, yet she could not help feeling that her old friend might have remembered how much it would mean to her to see a home face among the new acquaintances who were to gather round their board. Mr. Rayner seemed anxious to ignore the disappointment.

"I can easily provide subst.i.tutes," he remarked airily, "who will be proud to sit at my table." But Hester felt that this artificial occasion would only remind her sorrowfully of the happy gatherings of Pinkthorpe days; the excitement of decorating the village church, the frosty sunsets, the joys of holly and misletoe, and the festive air which seemed to pervade everything.

Christmas Eve came round. She had already dressed for dinner, wearing, at her husband's request, her wedding dress, with beautiful, white camellias at her waist and on her fair wavy hair.

"Oh, ma'm, how booful you looking," said her ayah, with many e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns of admiration; and she called Rosie to have a peep at the beautiful Dosani.

Hester had just fastened her gold cross with its tiny chain on her neck when her husband entered the room.

"How fortunate I've remembered, Hester! I've just excavated your diamonds from my safe. I believe you wanted to give them a premature burial there! Not so shall you treat my loving gifts, my love! Off with that trumpery cross and let me see my gems sparkling on your beautiful neck!"