Capricious Caroline Part 54

"I will start at once, if it will give you any satisfaction, my dear,"

he said, in his gentle way.

CHAPTER XIX

The children were in the wildest state of excitement at the prospect of seeing "mother." They quarrelled when they were having their hair brushed as to the time she would arrive, and what she would come in.

Baby declared Mummy would arrive in a boat, at which Betty scoffed openly.

"A boat doesn't go on the road. She'll come in a motor."

And Betty was right.

Camilla arrived in the smartest and latest of automobiles; she was exquisitely dressed in white, and caused a flutter in the little toy watering-place, which, with so many of its kind, stud the coast of Normandy. She came not alone. There were two men and another woman with her.

Mrs. Brenton and Caroline and the children were down on the digue when she arrived, and as the children caught sight of their pretty mother and rushed to greet her, Agnes Brenton caught Caroline by the wrist.

"There is no occasion to send for Sammy," she said; "Camilla has brought him."

And when a little mist had cleared away from Caroline's eyes she saw that Mrs. Brenton had made no mistake.

It was Broxbourne himself. He looked sheepish and uncomfortable as he caught Caroline's eyes, and he made no attempt to approach her.

There was never any one so gay as Camilla. The moment she arrived she seemed to radiate the whole place. The little crowded digue concentrated its whole attention on her. She provoked universal admiration.

When the whole party made a move towards the hotel for luncheon, she caught Caroline by the hand.

"I want you, Caroline--I want to ask you something," she said. She sent the children on ahead; then, when there was no one near, she said, "Can you give me news of Rupert?"

"No," said Caroline, "but I have no doubt Mrs. Brenton can."

Camilla threw back her long gauze veil.

"Oh dear, how hot it is here!" she said; "there is absolutely no air.

The place lies in such a hole, but the chicks look splendid." Then, in her restless way, "Well, if you know nothing, I must ask Agnes, for we have heard the most extraordinary rumour about him"--she meant Haverford. "I thought perhaps you could tell me if it was true; I mean about his having gone to America because he has found some relations of Matthew Woolgar, and that he intends to give them all the money."

Caroline answered almost impatiently.

"I a.s.sure you I know nothing whatever about Mr. Haverford, or what he is doing. How should I?"

"Well, I hope to goodness there is no truth in this report," said Mrs.

Cuthbert Baynhurst. "If there is, it is a very bad look-out for all of us."

Caroline crimsoned.

"Have you not enough already?"

This made Camilla look at her; then she stood still and gave Caroline a little pull.

"Now, don't be cross with me," she said, and, just like Betty, she added, "Nasty, unkind Caroline!" Then, becoming serious again, "You know it is not at all impossible that he might do this. He is so extraordinary about some things. I wonder who put the idea into his mind? I always understood that old Woolgar had no relations."

They walked on, and then, with a little laugh, Camilla said--

"If you want to know the truth, we have not got _half_ enough. I find Cuthbert is every bit as extravagant as I am. I wanted him to come with me to-day, but do you think I could get him away from the 'pet.i.ts chevaux'? Not I! And let me tell you one can lose a fair amount of money at that game, silly as it is."

Caroline stood still; there were tears in her eyes.

"Oh, dearest!" she said, "is ... is it always to be the same? Is...."

Camilla whipped her round, and they walked sharply back towards the sands.

"You shan't cry for me," she said; "I'm a beast. I'm not worth it. You don't know how little I deserve your tears."

"Yes, I do," said Caroline; "but I can't help crying; because I love you, because you are the first person, you and the children, who have belonged to me, who have made life real, and because I want the children to have a proper mother. Not just a pretty doll dressed up every time they see her in something new. You had it in your power once to turn your back deliberately on all this worthlessness; but I won't go into that now.... Only I must speak, I must try to let you realize...." Once again her voice broke; then, with an effort, Caroline said, "Though you have lost so much, there is still so much left.... I know it will be a little bit harder for you now, but still you can do it if you like. Everybody can rise...." The words ended abruptly.

"Don't!" said Camilla, and then she added, "When I am with you I want to be as you want me to be, but when I am away I have not the strength to change, and it all seems so useless; the trying, I mean...." There was real depth in her voice as she said, "Do you think I don't know what I have lost? I have known it more and more every day. I expect I shall know it a good deal more surely before I come to the end of my life. It's only this excitement that makes me want to go on at all."

"I thought you were happy," Caroline said in a low, moved voice.

The other woman shrugged her shoulders and said nothing. Then, quite abruptly, she began speaking about Broxbourne.

"Do you know that ever so many people a.s.sured me you were going to marry him. I wouldn't believe it, and when I saw him in Dieppe yesterday I determined all at once that I would speak to him myself. I don't mind telling you, Caroline, that I have been deadly afraid of Sammy all this time; he ... I mean ... I did something to make an enemy of him, and he can be horribly nasty when he likes.... But yesterday, the moment I saw him, I was no longer afraid."

Caroline was staring at the white-flecked sea. Her heart was throbbing in her throat; to speak was beyond her.

"Yes," said Camilla, "I saw at once that the worst of his anger had burned out, and so I took my courage in both hands and went straight up to him, and I asked him boldly if I had to congratulate him. I think I rather startled him," Camilla said composedly; "anyhow, he would not speak at first, and then, when he had thawed, he told me that he had proposed to you half a dozen times, but that you would not have anything to do with him. He said something more; that you were the best sort he had ever come across, and that if there was anybody in the world who could pull him up and make a decent fellow of him, he thought you were the person who could do it, and I could see he was in earnest.

Fancy you and Sammy being such friends. You funny, quiet Caroline!

Perhaps it is you who have made him so amiable to me!" But Camilla rejected this idea even as she said it. "No, I expect he knows I have done for myself this time, and as I am going to be paid out for all my sins, he feels, perhaps, he can afford to be a little generous. Anyhow, I am glad you won't have anything to do with him. I have a good mind to make up a match between him and this girl who is with us to-day. She would jump at him, if only for his t.i.tle. Funny," Camilla mused. "That was never one of my weaknesses."

At this moment Betty came flying after them, announcing that _dejeuner_ was ready, and that everybody was waiting.

It was a merry meal, thanks entirely to Camilla and the children, and very shortly afterwards the motor-party started again from Dieppe. When they were gone, Mrs. Brenton said to Caroline--

"I don't fancy Sammy will come here any more. I tried to get five minutes alone with him, but he avoided me."

Betty pushed a letter into Caroline's hands.

"You're to read that when you're quite alone. Sammy gived it to me,"

she said mysteriously; then she danced off, and Mrs. Brenton, with one quick glance at the girl, turned and went into the hotel.

Caroline walked into the garden. She crossed the bridge under which the clear white water of the mountain spring ran down to the sea, and opened Broxbourne's letter. Inside the envelope there was a sheet of paper on which nothing was written. Inside this paper there was a cheque.

She just glanced at it and then crushed it in her hand.