The Dust of Conflict Part 29

"I think so. If, as you seem to a.s.sume, the person were a woman she would probably discover the truth herself. Deceptions seldom continue, and if the awakening must come it would come better sooner than later."

Nettie was watching Tony, who lay now endeavoring to pluck a daisy out of the turf. The task seemed to occupy all his attention. "You haven't decided yet?" she said.

Tony a.s.sumed an att.i.tude of languid reflection, though it was evident to Nettie that his fingers, stained a little with the soil, were not quite steady. He may have realized this, for he rubbed them in the gra.s.s with slow deliberation.

"Well," he said, "it seems to me that if one is dreaming something very nice it would be better to let him sleep as long as possible, and a blunder to waken him to unpleasant realities. There's another point, too. You seem to have overlooked the person who did the wrong."

"I don't think I mentioned that there was one!"

"Still, you led us to believe that wrong had been done. That, of course, implies that somebody must have perpetrated it, and I expect you will think me warranted in a.s.suming it was a man. Well, you see, he mayn't have meant to do any harm at all, and be sincerely sorry. Wouldn't he deserve a little consideration? People are forced into doing a thing they don't want to now and then."

Nettie watched him thoughtfully. Tony's face was indifferent, but she fancied that he, at least, desired to convince himself.

"Tony's question is unnecessary," said Violet Wayne. "If the man were sincerely sorry there would be an end of the difficulty. He would put it straight by making reparation."

"He might find it difficult," said Hester.

Tony seemed to wince, and once more turned his attention to the daisy, but when the rest sat silent he glanced at Violet.

"I rather think we are getting away from the point, but since you seem to expect it I'll take up that man's brief," he said. "Well, we will a.s.sume that he is a well-intentioned person who has only slipped up once, and is trying to make up for what he has done. Now, if he were left alone, such a man might go straight all the rest of his life."

"That's specious, but distinctly unorthodox," said Hester. "Who had those beautifully illuminated tables of the law put up in Northrop church, Tony?"

Nettie laughed to conceal her interest. "But John P. Robinson, he says they didn't know everything down in Judee. That's latter day American, but it's what a good many people seem to think. Please go on, Mr.

Palliser."

"I can't go very far. Still, we'll try to picture such a man giving liberally where it's wanted, going straight, and doing what good he can all round. We'll say the lives of other people who believe in him are bound up in his, and their happiness depends upon his holding their confidence. Now, would it be a kindness to anybody to bring everything down crashing about his head?"

He stopped, and glanced with a curious half-veiled appeal in his eyes at Violet, but she shook her head, and the gravity Nettie had once or twice wondered at crept into her face. It showed perfect in its contour and modelling under the big hat, but its clear pallor was more noticeable just then, and it seemed to Nettie very cold. Then she smiled faintly.

"It is a very old question. Can a man be pardoned and retain the offence? Still, I think it was answered decisively," she said.

Tony said nothing, and, as none of the others appeared inclined to talk, the stillness of the afternoon made itself felt. The pale yellow sunshine lay hot upon the lawn, and the soft murmur of the river came up across the corn, which, broken by dusky woodlands steeped in slumbrous shadow and meadow no longer green, rolled back in waves of ruddy bronze into the valley. Beyond it the hillsides, narrowing in, faded blurred and dim into the hazy distance. Still, the eyes of Tony and Violet Wayne were fixed upon the raw blotch of brickwork rising against the green woods above a flashing pool of the river. The rushy meadows and barren hillside environing it were now worth the best plough land on the Northrop estate, and, as both of those who looked at them remembered then, they had been intended as Appleby's inheritance.

It was Hester who broke the silence. "Your question has been answered, Nettie," she said. "It is decided that the person who did the wrong is the one to right it; and now we'll change the topic. The entertainment we had at Darsley was, as you know, an immense success, so great, indeed, that as we still want money we have decided to have another."

"Still, it seems to me you can't consistently inflict any more tickets on the Darsley tradesmen," said Tony, who appeared desirous of concealing his relief. "The fact is, I was rather sorry for one or two of them. Rawley told me he had to buy at least two half-crown tickets from each of his leading supporters. I don't think it would be decent to bleed them any more."

Hester laughed. "That difficulty has been provided for, and I told everybody that I sent tickets to that it would be conducive to success if when they broached the subject they paid their bills. This time we intend to put the screw on our friends. You see, it is some time since we had any little relaxation among ourselves."

"A concert isn't really very amusing," said Tony. "Anyway, not when you have to sing at it."

"That depends. This one will be; and since it isn't exactly a concert it will have the virtue of novelty. We intend to hold it here by moonlight and limelight on the lawn. The tickets will be invitation ones at half- a-guinea."

"Where will you get your limelights from? I believe that kind of thing costs a good deal," said Tony.

"I don't know. The privilege of being allowed to supply them has been allotted to Mr. Anthony Palliser. He is also put down for a song."

Tony made a gesture of resignation. "It will most likely rain."

"Still, the tickets will have been sold, and if it does rain the people who can't get into the big billiard room can sit out in couples in the hall, which will probably please them just as well. We, however, mean to have it outside if we can. We want the limelights for the tableaux and costume dancing."

"Who have you got to dance?" said Tony with evident concern.

"Miss Clavier-the young woman who pleased everybody that night at Darsley. The vicar doesn't mind. Have you very strong objections to skirt dancing, Tony?"

"No," said Tony slowly, and Nettie fancied his voice was a trifle strained. "Of course I haven't. Still, you must not depend too much on me. I mean I'll get the limelights, and buy as many tickets as can be reasonably expected of me, but whether I'll be there or not is another affair. I have to go up to London now and then, you see."

The last was so evidently an inspiration that Hester laughed as she glanced at him. "We will contrive to fix a night that will suit you,"

she said. "I fancy you had better submit quietly, Tony."

Tony murmured something which was not wholly flattering to the promoters of such entertainments, and when he and Violet Wayne took their leave Hester glanced at Nettie.

"I wonder why Tony is anxious not to meet Miss Clavier again," she said.

As it happened, Nettie was asking herself the same question, but she decided that there was nothing to be gained by mentioning it.

"The girl who dances! You think he didn't want to meet her?" she said.

"Of course! He showed it. Everybody can tell what Tony is thinking. He is almost painfully transparent."

"Well," said Nettie slowly, "I don't quite know. I have come across other men like him and found that they take one in. You fancy you can look right through them, and yet you see very little of what is inside them."

"The trouble is that there is nothing in Tony except good nature," said Hester.

Nettie appeared reflective, and once more expressed herself in the same fashion. "I don't quite know. Still, I hope you are right," she said.

"You see, I'm quite fond of Violet Wayne."

XIX - POSITIVE PROOF

HESTER EARLE'S entertainment promised to prove as successful as the other had been, for a clear moon hung low above the hillside when Tony drove Violet Wayne and her mother to Low Wood down the Northrop valley.

The night was pleasantly warm, and the murmur of the river which slid in and out of the mist wisps in the hollow beneath the white road rose faintly musical out of the silence. Beyond the long hedgerows the stubble lay steeped in silvery light save where the long shadows lay black as ebony in the wake of the gleaming sheaves. A smell of honeysuckle drifted out from the blackness of a coppice they flitted through, and Tony turned with a little laugh to the girl beside him, while the clip-clop of the hoofs rang amidst the trees.

"I wonder if you and I are thinking of the same thing," he said. "It happened just about this hour a year ago, and it was such another night."

His voice had a faint thrill in it, and Violet laughed softly as she glanced at her left hand.

"You were horribly nervous that evening, Tony," she said. "I don't think I ever mentioned it, but when you put the ring on it scarred my finger.

That might have had a significance with superst.i.tious people."

Tony glanced over his shoulder, and saw that Mrs. Wayne, who sat behind them, was apparently interested in something her companion was saying.

"I think that was quite natural," he said lightly. "You see, the situation was disconcertingly novel to me."

"So you told me!" said the girl with a little laugh. "If I remember, you laid some stress upon the fact. It was also a proof of my credulity that I believed you."