The White Peacock Part 66

"Shall we go into the wood for a few minutes?" she said in a low, tremulous voice, as they turned aside.

The wood was high and warm. Along the ridings the forget-me-nots were knee deep, stretching, glimmering into the distance like the Milky Way through the night. They left the tall, flower-tangled paths to go in among the bluebells, breaking through the close-pressed flowers and ferns till they came to an oak which had fallen across the hazels, where they sat half screened. The hyacinths drooped magnificently with an overweight of purple, or they stood pale and erect, like unripe ears of purple corn. Heavy bees swung down in a blunder of extravagance among the purple flowers. They were intoxicated even with the sight of so much blue. The sound of their hearty, wanton humming came clear upon the solemn boom of the wind overhead. The sight of their clinging, clambering riot gave satisfaction to the soul. A rosy campion flower caught the sun and shone out. An elm sent down a shower of flesh-tinted sheaths upon them.

"If there were fauns and hamadryads!" she said softly, turning to him to soothe his misery. She took his cap from his head, ruffled his hair, saying:

"If you were a faun, I would put guelder roses round your hair, and make you look Baccha.n.a.lian." She left her hand lying on his knee, and looked up at the sky. Its blue looked pale and green in comparison with the purple tide ebbing about the wood. The clouds rose up like towers, and something had touched them into beauty, and poised them up among the winds. The clouds pa.s.sed on, and the pool of sky was clear.

"Look," she said, "how we are netted down-boughs with knots of green buds. If we were free on the winds!-But I'm glad we're not." She turned suddenly to him, and with the same movement, she gave him her hand, and he clasped it in both his. "I'm glad we're netted down here; if we were free in the winds-Ah!"

She laughed a peculiar little laugh, catching her breath.

"Look!" she said, "it's a palace, with the ash-trunks smooth like a girl's arm, and the elm-columns, ribbed and bossed and fretted, with the great steel shafts of beech, all rising up to hold an embroidered care-cloth over us; and every thread of the care-cloth vibrates with music for us, and the little broidered birds sing; and the hazel-bushes fling green spray round us, and the honeysuckle leans down to pour out scent over us. Look at the harvest of bluebells-ripened for us! Listen to the bee, sounding among all the organ-play-if he sounded exultant for us!" She looked at him, with tears coming up into her eyes, and a little, winsome, wistful smile hovering round her mouth. He was very pale, and dared not look at her. She put her hand in his, leaning softly against him. He watched, as if fascinated, a young thrush with full pale breast who hopped near to look at them-glancing with quick, shining eyes.

"The clouds are going on again," said Lettie.

"Look at that cloud face-see-gazing right up into the sky. The lips are opening-he is telling us something.-now the form is slipping away-it's gone-come, we must go too."

"No," he cried, "don't go-don't go away."

Her tenderness made her calm. She replied in a voice perfect in restrained sadness and resignation.

"No, my dear, no. The threads of my life were untwined; they drifted about like floating threads of gossamer; and you didn't put out your hand to take them and twist them up into the chord with yours. Now another has caught them up, and the chord of my life is being twisted, and I cannot wrench it free and untwine it again-I can't. I am not strong enough. Besides, you have twisted another thread far and tight into your chord; could you get free?"

"Tell me what to do-yes, if you tell me."

"I can't tell you-so let me go."

"No, Lettie," he pleaded, with terror and humility. "No, Lettie; don't go. What should I do with my life? n.o.body would love you like I do-and what should I do with my love for you?-hate it and fear it, because it's too much for me?"

She turned and kissed him gratefully. He then took her in a long, pa.s.sionate embrace, mouth to mouth. In the end it had so wearied her that she could only wait in his arms till he was too tired to hold her.

He was trembling already.

"Poor Meg!" she murmured to herself dully, her sensations having become vague.

He winced, and the pressure of his arms slackened. She loosened his hands and rose half dazed from her seat by him. She left him, while he sat dejected, raising no protest.

When I went out to look for them, when tea had already been waiting on the table half an hour or more, I found him leaning against the gatepost at the bottom of the hill. There was no blood in his face, and his tan showed livid; he was haggard as if he had been ill for some weeks.

"Whatever's the matter?" I said. "Where's Lettie?"

"She's gone home," he answered, and the sound of his own voice, and the meaning of his own words made him heave.

"Why?" I asked in alarm.

He looked at me as if to say "What are you talking about? I cannot listen!"

"Why?" I insisted.

"I don't know," he replied.

"They are waiting tea for you," I said.

He heard me, but took no notice.

"Come on," I repeated, "there's Meg and everybody waiting tea for you."

"I don't want any," he said.

I waited a minute or two. He was violently sick.

_"Vae meum Fervens difficile bile tumet jecur"_

I thought to myself.

When the sickness pa.s.sed over, he stood up away from the post, trembling and lugubrious. His eyelids drooped heavily over his eyes, and he looked at me, and smiled a faint, sick smile.

"Come and lie down in the loft," I said, "and I'll tell them you've got a bilious bout."

He obeyed me, not having energy to question; his strength had gone, and his splendid physique seemed shrunken; he walked weakly. I looked away from him, for in his feebleness he was already beginning to feel ludicrous.

We got into the barn unperceived, and I watched him climb the ladder to the loft. Then I went indoors to tell them.

I told them Lettie had promised to be at Highclose for tea, that George had a bilious attack, and was mooning about the barn till it was over; he had been badly sick. We ate tea without zest or enjoyment. Meg was wistful and ill at ease; the father talked to her and made much of her; the mother did not care for her much.

"I can't understand it," said the mother, "he so rarely has anything the matter with him-why, I've hardly known the day! Are you sure it's nothing serious, Cyril? It seems such a thing-and just when Meg happened to be down-just when Meg was coming--"

About half-past six I had again to go and look for him, to satisfy the anxiety of his mother and his sweetheart. I went whistling to let him know I was coming. He lay on a pile of hay in a corner, asleep. He had put his cap under his head to stop the tickling of the hay, and he lay half curled up, sleeping soundly. He was still very pale, and there was on his face the repose and pathos that a sorrow always leaves. As he wore no coat I was afraid he might be chilly, so I covered him up with a couple of sacks, and I left him. I would not have him disturbed-I helped the father about the cowsheds, and with the pigs.

Meg had to go at half-past seven. She was so disappointed that I said:

"Come and have a look at him-I'll tell him you did."

He had thrown off the sacks and spread out his limbs. As he lay on his back, flung out on the hay, he looked big again, and manly. His mouth had relaxed, and taken its old, easy lines. One felt for him now the warmth one feels for anyone who sleeps in an att.i.tude of abandon. She leaned over him, and looked at him with a little rapture of love and tenderness; she longed to caress him. Then he stretched himself, and his eyes opened. Their sudden unclosing gave her a thrill. He smiled sleepily, and murmured, "Allo, Meg!" Then I saw him awake. As he remembered, he turned with a great sighing yawn, hid his face again, and lay still.

"Come along, Meg," I whispered, "he'll be best asleep."

"I'd better cover him up," she said, taking the sack and laying it very gently over his shoulders. He kept perfectly still while I drew her away.

CHAPTER VIII

A POEM OF FRIENDSHIP

The magnificent promise of spring was broken before the May-blossom was fully out. All through the beloved month the wind rushed in upon us from the north and north-east, bringing the rain fierce and heavy. The tender-budded trees shuddered and moaned; when the wind was dry, the young leaves flapped limp. The gra.s.s and corn grew lush, but the light of the dandelions was quite extinguished, and it seemed that only a long time back had we made merry before the broad glare of these flowers. The bluebells lingered and lingered; they fringed the fields for weeks like purple fringe of mourning. The pink campions came out only to hang heavy with rain; hawthorn buds remained tight and hard as pearls, shrinking into the brilliant green foliage; the forget-me-nots, the poor pleiades of the wood, were ragged weeds. Often at the end of the day the sky opened, and stately clouds hung over the horizon infinitely far away, glowing, through the yellow distance, with an amber l.u.s.tre. They never came any nearer, always they remained far off, looking calmly and majestically over the shivering earth, then saddened, fearing their radiance might be dimmed, they drew away, and sank out of sight.

Sometimes, towards sunset, a great shield stretched dark from the west to the zenith, tangling the light along its edges. As the canopy rose higher, it broke, dispersed, and the sky was primrose coloured, high and pale above the crystal moon. Then the cattle crouched among the gorse, distressed by the cold, while the long-billed snipe flickered round high overhead, round and round in great circles, seeming to carry a serpent from its throat, and crying a tragedy, more painful than the poignant lamentations and protests of the peewits. Following these evenings came mornings cold and grey.