He then pondered a moment on which of the remaining letters to open next. Fancying he knew what Elizabeth’s would say at last (and he would wish the time to savour it), he chose that in the unfamiliar hand.
‘Hear this, Fairbrother – the deucedest thing,’ he said, taking in its contents at a glance, a single sentence. ‘My dear Sir, if you would call at the rooms of Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A. of Russell-square, you might learn something to your advantage.’ He lowered the letter. ‘The stuff of theatre, eh?’
Fairbrother’s brow furrowed. ‘The Sir Thomas Lawrence?’
‘Just so. I wonder if Somervile did indeed sit for him before we left for the Cape. He certainly had ambitions in that direction. He said nothing of it, though.’
‘Mystery indeed,’ said Fairbrother, raising his Standard again.
Hervey was wrong in his imagining what were the contents of Elizabeth’s letter, however. Indeed, he had wholly misjudged it. Far from acknowledging her fault and reaffirming her acceptance of Peto’s proposal, she wrote that she was travelling to London soon in the company of Major Heinrici to attend a levee at St James’s Palace, which the King was giving for the former officers of The King’s German Legion. ‘My God, there’s no end to it,’ he groaned. ‘She’s lost all sense of decency!’
Fairbrother lowered his paper, looking pained. ‘You are not speaking of your sister?’
‘I am. She’s coming to London with . . . with this German.’
‘Well, I’m sure she will do so decorously.’
Hervey seemed not to hear. He shook his head. ‘I cannot believe it. I simply cannot believe it.’
They engaged a hackney cab to Russell Square. It was Fairbrother’s idea – to take his friend out of the huff and puff of the United Service’s smoking room so that he might stop his most unfraternal invective against Elizabeth. The letter from Sir Thomas Lawrence’s agent had admirably served his purpose.
‘It really would have been better to send word that we would call tomorrow,’ said Hervey as they turned into Bedford Square, where the Somerviles had taken a house when Sir Eyre Somervile had been at the Company’s headquarters in Leadenhall Street: was it that Sir Thomas Lawrence’s rooms were so near that he had been able to prevail on the illustrious painter?
‘I rather imagined you’d be detained at the Colonial Office – don’t you think?’
Hervey nodded. He ought perhaps to have gone that day, but the summons had carried no particular urgency. And in any case, he did not suppose that the under secretary would be at office of a May afternoon.
When they arrived at Russell Square they were admitted promptly and received by a Mr Archibald Keightley, who had sent the note. ‘I am sorry that Sir Thomas himself is not at home today, but I am his confidential agent.’
Hervey had abandoned his earlier distemper, and was now thoroughly intrigued. ‘How did you learn of my address?’
The agent showed them into a sitting room, and asked the footman to bring tea. ‘It has, I admit, been a considerable labour.’ He went on to explain how he had consulted the Army List, had written to the Horse Guards, then the Regiment at Hounslow, and then to the Cape Colony, but had lately read in The Times that there was to be an inquiry into the events at Waltham Abbey and that Colonel Hervey was returned to London to give evidence to the court. ‘It was then but a morning’s work to locate you at the United Service Club.’
Tea was brought.
Hervey inferred that the matter could not be in connection with Somervile’s aspiring commission, but could see little point in proceeding as if it were a game. ‘Well, sir, perhaps you will be good enough to inform me of the reason for such a prodigious effort to find me.’
‘Ah yes, indeed; forgive me.’ He glanced at Fairbrother. ‘It is . . . a very delicate matter.’
Hervey smiled indulgently. ‘I assure you Captain Fairbrother is capable of the utmost delicacy.’
‘What I meant to say was that it is of a very . . . personal nature.’
Hervey had a sudden, and ghastly, premonition of an outrageous jape of Kat’s. But having expressed his confidence in Fairbrother he could hardly exclude him now. ‘Proceed, sir,’ he said, cautiously.
Mr Archibald Keightley cleared his throat. ‘Very well. For some years past I have been making a catalogue of Sir Thomas’s work. You will understand that a painter of Sir Thomas’s eminence is much in demand, and has been so for two decades and more. By the very nature of portraiture individual commissions proceed at different rates, depending as much on the sitter’s availability as the artist’s. Some canvases remain only very partially finished for years.’
‘I did not know it, but I perfectly understand,’ replied Hervey, laying down his cup. ‘There is, I take it, such a canvas that is of interest to me?’
Keightley cleared his throat again. ‘I believe there may be, yes.’
The footman and another returned carrying a full-length canvas covered with a dust sheet.
‘Ah, here we have it. Colonel Hervey, rather than prolong this with explanations, I would that you first saw this uncompleted work.’ He nodded to the footman, who let drop the sheet.
Hervey gasped. He stood up, his mouth open, the colour gone from his face. ‘My God!’
Fairbrother took his arm in support, knowing instinctively who was the artist’s subject.
Keightley sighed. ‘I am sorry that it should come as so great a shock, Colonel; but I am gratified that my enquiries have not been in vain. It is, then, a true likeness?’
Hervey shook his head slowly. ‘It is the most astonishing likeness I ever saw.’
Fairbrother saw that his eyes were filled with tears.
Hervey sat down again, still transfixed by the canvas. ‘In all these years I never had her true likeness – not a miniature, not even a pencil drawing.’ (The posthumous miniature he had had done in Bath had been a poor substitute.)
In a while, when he had composed himself, he asked what was known of the commission.
Keightley opened his notebook, but scarcely needed to consult it. ‘Sir Thomas keeps very particular records of his work. The portrait was commissioned in 1816 – while Sir Thomas was waiting to travel to Vienna to paint the Congress – and there were four sittings, the fourth in February of 1817, which is why the face and hands are complete. For the rest of the portrait, as you see, there is a very serviceable drawing: Lady Henrietta was, apparently, most particular that it should be a blue riding habit of hers, which she was either unwilling or unable to leave with Sir Thomas. Which, I imagine, is the reason it was unfinished before . . . before . . .’He cleared his throat again.
‘Just so,’ said Hervey softly, nodding.
1816: it was while he was in India the first time, the year before their marriage. Henrietta intended it – evidently – as a present for him, which his return to England the following year, and the wedding, and then . . . had stood in the way of completing.
He swallowed hard. ‘But I am astonished it has remained for so long thus.’
Keightley inclined his head, with a sigh that spoke of his own regret. ‘Sir Thomas travelled to Vienna in 1818 and stayed there, and in Rome, two years. You may imagine the work awaiting his return.’
Indeed he could, and if the sitter were not pressing him . . . He shook his head once more. ‘Well, it is the most extraordinary thing I ever knew. Tell me, Mr Keightley, what is to be done now?’
Sir Thomas’s agent consulted his notebook. ‘Forgive me, Colonel, but I assume you mean the pecuniary arrangements?’
Hervey was thinking more of the completion of the portrait. ‘Go on.’
‘The fee was four hundred pounds, and Lady Henrietta paid two hundred on account.’
‘Naturally I will pay the balance. Do the terms remain the same; or is there increase? It can be completed, can it not?’
‘There is no increase, Colonel. In the circumstances Sir Thomas would not hear of it.’ (Hervey would learn later that the President of the Royal Academy’s fe
e was now seven hundred guineas.) ‘And yes, it can be completed by a pupil. I do not suppose that the particular blue riding habit is to hand, but—’
‘I . . .’ (he could not – or would not – bring himself to recall its whereabouts) ‘I think I may be able to . . . arrange something.’
‘Very well, sir.’
He recovered himself somewhat. ‘And . . . I should like very much that Sir Thomas himself makes a copy of the head and shoulders.’
The agent looked doubtful. ‘Sir Thomas has a great many commissions to detain him, Colonel Hervey. But a pupil could execute a very faithful copy.’
‘No, I should like the hand of the man for whom my late wife sat.’
Keightley looked troubled, but recognized the powerful sentiment. ‘I shall most certainly see what can be done, Colonel.’
They walked back to the United Service. Fairbrother had taken note of the route by which they had driven to Russell Square, and when Hervey, whose mind was unquestionably elsewhere, said that he would like to take a little exercise – by which Fairbrother supposed he meant air – he was perfectly able to conduct his friend to Charles Street. They exchanged scarcely a word in the best part of the hour that it took them to negotiate the pedestrians and hawkers, horses and conveyances, which at times conjoined into a solid barrier to movement. When they reached the club they ordered hot baths, agreeing that they would dine quietly, and requested two well-chilled bottles of hock to be sent upstairs.
At eight o’clock they took a table by an open window on to the street. ‘I am conscious we have not had much entertainment since we came here,’ said Hervey absently, seeing the line of carriages waiting to deposit their occupants at the Theatre Royal in the Haymarket.
‘I’m sure there will be opportunity,’ replied Fairbrother, seeking to reassure him; he was most conscious, still, of their encounter with the past in Russell Square.
A waiter brought them the menu. This was the day of the month that it changed, although there remained the staple of grills. But Hervey had little appetite for study, and when Fairbrother said he favoured the turbot and then cutlets, he was content merely to follow.
‘And to drink, gentlemen?’ asked the wine steward when their order was taken.
Fairbrother looked to Hervey, in part to tempt him back to the here and now. But Hervey seemed unable to make the effort. ‘Continue with the hock, I think . . . and a burgundy, perhaps. Might you choose for us, James?’
The wine steward made various suggestions; Hervey nodded inconclusively, until the steward saw that he must take the choice upon himself.
When he was gone, Hervey sighed and shook his head. ‘You will forgive me, Fairbrother: I do not think I may confess it to any other man . . . but the painting . . . it was the most thoroughgoing shock to me.’
Fairbrother smiled sympathetically. ‘Of course, Hervey; of course.’
‘I have her picture in my mind’s eye still with easy facility; I always have had. But to see her likeness so, standing wholly independent of any effort of imagination . . .’
‘It is as if she were here yet.’
‘Exactly so, exactly so.’ Hervey shook his head slowly, emphasizing his disbelief that it could be thus. ‘It is a very trite thing to speak of seeing a ghost. I have seen no ghost, Fairbrother. I saw her as if flesh and blood.’
Fairbrother showed not the least discomfort in either the intimacy or the sentiment. He nodded, gently, to reassure his friend. ‘I am sure.’
They began their supper with potted shrimps and desultory conversation. Fairbrother was ever patient, however. Here was not the man he had ridden with at the Cape; here was a man fettered, almost paralysed. For his friend, it seemed to him, was bound by a notion of duty that had run too far – in the case of regiment, so far as to render him (perhaps for ever) a mere compliant; and in the case of private affairs it impelled him down a road to nowhere he could rightly wish to be (certainly not to the peace he sought). But how might these things be spoken of? He had tried, and his friend had shown scant inclination to hear. Did he, Hervey, know these things already, and yet find himself unable to do what he knew he must? Was ‘duty’ but a refuge? But from what (he had seen no want of courage at the Cape)?
The turbot was brought, which provoked some talk of the sea, and inevitably of Peto. Fairbrother was dismayed at the vehemence, still, with which Hervey spoke of Elizabeth’s intentions. Here, too, was a distortion of duty. He tried once more to moderate his friend’s opinion, but with not the least success.
The cutlets, with a very good Marsala sauce, provided a quarter of an hour’s respite (they spoke of what they might see at the theatre), but the savoury of smoked oysters somehow provoked mention of the court of inquiry. Another bottle of burgundy was brought.
A stew of apples partly restored Hervey’s spirits, so that he began speaking with evident pleasure of the invitation to dine with Kat, assuring Fairbrother that the evening was bound to be diverting, for Lady Katherine Greville presided at the most excellent of soirées.
It had become dark outside, but for the street lamps, though it was still warm, even balmy – like an early summer’s evening at the Cape. Hervey asked his friend if he would like port or more burgundy with his Stilton. Fairbrother chose port, and a bottle was decanted.
Hervey poured a little carelessly, so that he had to dab at the table cloth with his napkin. ‘Damned glass too small!’
‘Or the hand unsteady: I am glad you do not point a Cape rifle above my head!’
The Cape Riflemen practised by holding targets thus for their fellows to snipe. Hervey and Fairbrother had even practised the same.
‘Or a bow?’
Fairbrother smiled the more. There had been archery one afternoon at Walden (Kezia was a considerable proficient), at which neither of them had distinguished themselves. ‘Especially a bow!’
They dug into the Stilton with renewed appetite, replenishing their glasses, remarking on this or that, Hervey no longer so low in spirits. At length he put down his glass, and eyed his friend in some earnest. ‘You found Walden agreeable, did you not?’
Fairbrother was at once all attention. ‘Walden is, indeed, a most agreeable place.’
Hervey hesitated. ‘I mean, you found . . . you found my affianced . . . you approve of her?’
Fairbrother was troubled by the turn of conversation. ‘My dear fellow, what can possess you to ask me such a question?’
‘You have made no remark on it.’
Fairbrother was momentarily in some confusion: he had indeed made no remark; it was undeniable. ‘Would you expect me to?’ he asked in a tone of surprise, hoping thereby to throw his friend off any scent – false or otherwise. ‘Forgive me, Hervey, if I have not congratulated you.’
‘I would have been glad of your good opinion,’ Hervey said, a little unsteadily, the wine at length having its effect.
Fairbrother had perhaps drunk more, but he had begun the evening with his sensibility unimpaired. He sighed.
‘Why do you sigh?’
‘There is no good reason.’
‘Is there any reason?’
Fairbrother studied his friend intently. They had not known each other long in the usual measure of things, but the fellowship of the veld, the common cause against Xhosa and Zulu, made for the most singular bond between them. And if he was to be true to that bond, he must speak his mind now, for there would scarce be better opportunity.
‘My dear friend,’ he began, reluctantly, laying down his glass. ‘I have something to say which may at first give offence, but which yet I must say and trust that you will hear with every certainty that I say it only out of the very deepest affection for you.’
Hervey looked at him uncertainly. ‘Why indeed might I take offence?’
Fairbrother sighed again, trying manfully, however, to keep the sigh to himself. ‘Hear me, Hervey. I am your good friend. Were I to know there was another who could claim a better connection I should be glad to let him have the respo
nsibility, but I do not. I believe I know your mind on a great many things, and I may say also your heart. I have observed you keenly these past weeks, and I observed Lady Lankester too . . .’
‘What is it you say? Come, man!’
‘It is perfectly clear to me that this marriage is ill conceived.’
Hervey made at once to protest, but Fairbrother held up a hand. ‘Hear me, Hervey. Do me the honour – nay, courtesy – of listening to my opinion, for you have sought it.’
Hervey sat back in his chair, his eyes narrowed.
‘For Lady Lankester I cannot speak, though I am equally sure of her feelings. For your part, I have not the slightest doubt that you will make of her a fine commanding officer’s wife, and the equal figure of a mother for your daughter—’
He lifted a hand again to stay another protest.
‘But in a few years’ time – perhaps more than a few, but it must be so eventually – you will meet another with whom your true feelings shall be engaged, and being the man you are you will be unable to act on them. But you will never be happy. Neither do I believe shall she.’
Hervey rose. ‘You forget yourself, sir!’ he said coldly.
Several heads turned, but Fairbrother took no notice.
‘I trust I do not. I trust I speak as a true friend.’
Hervey threw down his napkin. ‘You have not the slightest notion of what you speak!’
Fairbrother held the angry scowl defiantly, and then Hervey stalked from the room like a goaded beast.
At nine the following morning, as Fairbrother lay half asleep, a tray of tea beside his bed and The Times unopened, there was a knock at the door. ‘Yes,’ he called wearily.
Hervey opened the door, cautiously. He was fully dressed, and with all the appearance of one who had been so for some hours.
The valet had half drawn the curtains; Fairbrother squinted in the bright sunlight, and groaned. ‘What? Is the building afire? Do the Zulu attack? I did not hear “alarm”.’
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