Jessica found her voice with a supreme effort.
“Does—father know?”
“Not yet, but I shall break the tragic news tomorrow.”
“I wonder if you realise—what—tragic news it really will be,” she said slowly, and then a little shakily, “It will break mother’s heart, you know you have always been her favourite and that she thinks the world of you.”
Gordon turned abruptly away.
“It’s too good a chance to miss,” he repeated obstinately. “A chance which may never come again. After all, we must all make our own lives. I’ve had enough of this dreary starch-collar job-catching the same train to Town every morning— being polite to people who bore me to death. Monty agrees with me—he’s all for clearing out himself— though now he’s tied up with Paddy, I suppose it will make a difference. How the devil he expects to make a success of marriage with her, I’m hanged if I can see. You’re much more suited to him.”
He took a cigarette from his pocket, lit it and flung the match into the grate defiantly.
“Anyway, I’m going,” he repeated. “So that’s that.”
Yes, so that’s that! Jessica repeated in a whisper when she was alone. Gordon going—Paddy going— and—Monty!…It was as if some ruthless giant hand had suddenly turned her world upside down, emptying it of all that for so long had made life worth living.
There was still Selby, of course, but he had always been the aloof one of the family—entirely wrapped up in his own work, and even when he was at home, asking nothing more than solitude and the companionship of books which Paddy protested were ‘just double Dutch’ and that she couldn’t understand anyone bothering to publish them, let alone to read them.
“Gordon was talking through his hat, wasn’t he— about Australia? “Paddy asked later when, as usual, Jessica went to bid her good night. “The back of beyond!Ugh! It gives me the shudders. What’s wrong with London, I should like to know?” and then without waiting for a reply, “Which would you have if you were me, diamonds or sapphires for an engagement ring?”
It was a moment before Jessica spoke.
“Won’t you let—Monty choose for you?”
“If I did he’d buy some old-fashioned looking thing like our grandmothers used to wear.”- Paddy held out her left hand, regarding it critically. “I think perhaps I’ll have diamonds—they’re more attractive, don’t you agree?”
“I don’t know much about it.”
Paddy laughed. “I suppose if you had agreed to marry our dear John, he would have given you a plain signet ring or something, with your initials on it, and you’d have been perfectly satisfied! Well, perhaps it’s a good thing we all haven’t the same expensive tastes. Good night, old dear.”
But as Jessica reached the door, Paddy called to her again.
“I suppose Monty is really—in love with me, isn’t he?” she hazarded.
Jessica tried to laugh.
“Would he have asked you to marry him if he wasn’t, do you suppose?”
Paddy relaxed onto the pillows.
“I suppose not!…but he’s certainly got a funny way of showing his devotion,” she admitted. “Well, good night. Pleasant dreams——”
But there was no sleep for Jessica that night, and the long dark hours seemed interminable as she lay awake, longing for the daylight, the same troubled thoughts echoing again and again through her mind.
Gordon going!—Paddy going—and—Monty!…Whilst she—as Paddy had so often chaffed her—was to be left’high and dry on the rocks’.
Well, people said that there was usually one old maid in every family, she reminded herself humorously, when at last daylight came and with a sigh of relief she got up and dressed.
What would today bring forth, she wondered? So much seemed to have happened in the last few weeks —since Monty came—so many events of importance seem to have been crowded into such a short space of time.
Paddy did not put in an appearance at the breakfast-table.
“Too much fizz last night,” she told Jessica drowsily. “Is my future husband down yet?”
“Yes.”
“Well, give him my kind regards,” Paddy murmured. “And tell him I hope he’s not heart-broken because my place at the table is empty.”
But Monty did not even comment on Paddy’s absence—and it was a somewhat silent meal until, as Kirby rose to prepare to catch his train, Gordon said suddenly,
“Half a minute, Guv’, I want a word with you,” and he followed his father from the room.
Jessica looked after them with worried eyes, and when the door had closed behind them, she turned to Monty.
“Do you think he—Gordon—is really serious about going to Australia?”
Monty nodded. “Yes, and you can’t blame him. He hates City life. Should hate it myself—can’t tolerate London——”
There was an unconscious note of defiance in Jessica’s voice when she said, “But Paddy will expect to live in London.”
“Will she? Well, we shall see. It wouldn’t be your idea of bliss, I imagine, would it?”
She shook her head.
“No, if I could choose—if I were alone and were free to choose—I’d try to find a cottage in the country somewhere—in England, of course.”
He looked at her steadily.
“Then for once two great minds have but a single thought, because it is what I should do—if I were free to choose,” and then as she did not reply, he added deliberately, “And I think that—together— in such circumstances—you and I would find complete happiness, Jessica.”
There was a profound silence, during which Jessica felt her heart almost cease to beat as she just stared at him, the colour dying slowly from her face.
“I mean it,” he insisted quietly. “And—in spite of the—confounded fool I have been—I am going to tell you something which will perhaps give you the shock of your life, my dear, and it is that I love you— I think I have loved you from the first moment we met—when I stopped you that morning on the road and asked if you knew where KIRLOU was!…No, don’t say anything,” as she would have spoken, “I know I’m nothing to you—except—shall we call it an unwanted guest?—but I had to tell you—I had to tell you!…and now forget it.”
Forget it!…Jessica had unconsciously stretched a hand to him when suddenly the door was burst open, and Kirby entered the room, his face flushed and his hair ruffled as it always was when he suddenly lost his temper.
“What do you think’s happened now? “he almost roared. “What the devil do you think Gordon has just been telling me? Or do you know? “he accused Jessica. “That he’s going abroad—going to Australia—turning his back on the old country—clearing put to the backwoods where——”
Jessica rose quickly to her feet. “Oh, please— don’t talk so loudly. Mother will hear, and if she does, it will only make her ill again. Oh please, Daddy.”
But Kirby was too much carried away to keep silence.
“Well, she’s got to hear sooner or later, hasn’t she? She’s got to know what a damned ungrateful——” He broke off as Jessica slipped past him and out of the room, closing the door behind her.
There was a moment of silence before Kirby turned to Monty and burst out afresh.
“Did you know about this? Did you put him up to it? The boy’s a damned fool, that’s all I can say. A nice mess he’ll make of a sheep-farm—if he ever gets one—bigger mess than he makes of things in my office. Well, if he does go, I wash my hands of him once and for all, and I’ve told him so! Wait till his Mother hears of this Tom-fool idea——” he broke off choking in furious wrath, and Monty said quietly—
“Surely not such a Tom-fool idea, sir, though I have every sympathy with your point of view, but as a matter of fact, I am thinking of emigrating myself——”
Kirby burst forth afresh.
“Then you did put him up to it! I might have guessed you were responsible. Why the devil can’t you mind your own business—behaving
as if the house belonged to you!…I’ve had enough of it I can tell you— more than enough! and the sooner you find some other fools who will treat you as well as you’ve been treated here, the better I shall be pleased——” His rage had reached boiling point, and he raved on at the top of his voice—” You may as well know now, that we never intended to have you —or wanted you here! I was against it from the start as Gordon can tell you—if he’s got the pluck to speak the truth——” He paused again for breath just as the door opened and Paddy appeared, looking wide-eyed and apprehensive.
“What is the matter? “she demanded. “I could hear you shouting from my room, Father—though the door was shut——” She looked from one to the other before catching Monty by the arm—” What has happened?— Monty, what is the trouble?Tell me!”
Monty met her anxious gaze unsmilingly as he answered—
“There is no trouble—quite the contrary—merely that the—unpaying guest—is packing up, and leaving this house today.”
Chapter VIII
The Silence of Eternity Seemed to Fall Over everyone following Monty’s blunt announcement, and for once even Paddy was utterly at a loss for words. She just stared at her father’s flushed, furious face with blank eyes, not even moving or speaking when Monty strode past her and out of the room.
“And good riddance! “Kirby muttered, and then as Paddy would have spoken, he swung round, “And you’d better go with him,” he challenged her. “A nice grateful family I’ ve got! Self, self—nothing but self! No consideration for your Mother or for me, after all we’ve done for you. And a nice mess three will make of things in the Colonies——”
Paddy interrupted him with shrill determination. “But what’s it all about?—I don’t know what you mean, or what has happened!…Who is going to the Colonies? And what has Monty done? “
Kirby glared at her.
” Ask him! or ask your brother!…I’ve done with the lot of you,” and flinging a chair aside with angry violence, he took his departure.
Paddy passed a hand across her eyes as if to make sure she was not dreaming, before she ran out into the hall, calling Monty’s name. “Monty!…Where are you, Monty?”
There was no reply, though after a moment Dilly appeared from the kitchen looking thoroughly scared.
“Mr. Monty’s gone out,” she whispered. “Gone without his hat, too! I see him go down the road— walking that fast he was—What is the matter, Miss Paddy?”
Paddy shrugged her shoulders with an indifference she was far from feeling.
“Nothing I…only Father in one of his tempers—” she tried to laugh. “It will blow over, as it always does. I’ll just run after Mr. Monty—” and then, realising she was still in her dressing-gown— “Oh, bother!… I can’t go like this,” and she hurried up to her room, meeting Jessica on the landing.
“What has happened? “Jessica asked in a whisper. “Father has gone off to Town without saying goodbye to mother——”
Paddy laughed. “Slamming the gate behind him too, I suppose,” she submitted. “Well, I don’t know what the trouble actually is—but Monty says he’s leaving us today—though I don’t suppose he really means it,” she added hopefully.
Jessica followed her into her bedroom.
“But the trouble started over Gordon,” she said in anxious bewilderment. “He told father he is thinking of emigrating—but that is nothing to do with Monty, is it?”
Paddy let her dressing-gown fall to the floor, and pulled a frock over her head with impatient fingers.
“I’m sick to death of things,” she declared. “Every day something seems to go wrong. However, if Monty does go, I shall go with him. At least I shall be free to do as I like once I’m out of this blessed KIRLOU—What did you say? “she demanded.
Jessica shook her head. “Nothing!…I didn’t speak,” but in imagination she seemed to be hearing Monty’s voice, saying again with quiet deliberation,
“In a cottage, somewhere in the country—in England of course—I think that together, you and I, would find complete happiness, Jessica.”
A beautiful dream, which like all dreams, could never materialise.
Paddy was hastily powdering her face at the mirror, and she said, “Dilly tells me she saw Monty go out— down the road—so I’m going to find him and bring him back,” and snatching up a coat from the back of a chair, she ran downstairs, and out of the house only to find to her annoyance that it was drizzling with rain.
“It would!” she told herself cynically. “Nothing is ever quite right! …I suppose I must go back for a detestable gamp or something——”
But as she was hesitating at the gate a car came along the road, and the driver seeing her, stopped. “Want a lift? “he enquired opening the door, and it was Gerard Winter.
“Thank goodness,” Paddy ejaculated, as she climbed in beside him, and then, with a return of her usual coquetry, “Why haven’t we seen you for so long?”
Gerard shrugged his shoulders.
“I imagine my place to be adequately filled,” he told her, and then as she remained silent, “Is it true that you are engaged to this—chap from Ceylon?”
Paddy opened her eyes wide.
“Why—how did you know? “she enquired. “The great event only happened yesterday.” She held her left hand towards him. “As yet I haven’t even received the outward and visible sign.”
Gerard smiled rather grimly.
“Hoping for the Koh-i-noor? “he submitted.
Paddy laughed. “Well, you never know. By the way, I suppose you didn’t see Monty anywhere as you came along the road?”
“I hadn’t that pleasure—why? Is he trying to make his escape already, and are you on his track?”
“Don’t be silly—but—well, as a matter of fact he’s had a few words with my dear parent—you know what father is when he loses his temper——”
“Perhaps the old man doesn’t fancy him as a future son-in-law?”
“Who cares?” Paddy retorted. “Anyway, I’m going to marry him and the sooner the better.”
There was an eloquent silence before Winter spoke.
“So you have abandoned your life-long idea of marrying for money, is that it? and have fallen for the old’ love in a cottage’ business.”
Paddy made a little grimace.
“Love in a cottage!…Ugh!…It gives me the creeps. No—thank goodness Monty’s got all the money we shall want—and I mean to have a flat in London and to travel and see the world—at last!”
Gerard changed gear with an uncomfortable jerk of the car. F
“To travel—on what?” he enquired calmly. “And how far do you imagine you can get on the limited income which is all our dear friend from Ceylon can boast about—or has he told you some fairy-story which you are—guileless enough to believe?”
Paddy flushed angrily.
“Stop the car and I’ll walk,” she said sharply. “You may not like Monty, I suppose I can hardly expect you to, but—I’m not listening to this sort of thing. Stop the car,” she repeated insistently, and as she foolishly tried to open the door, Gerard reluctantly obeyed.
“You’ll get wet through,” he warned her, and then as she moved to get out, he caught her arm in a determined grip.
“You were always a little fool,” he said with unusual emotion, “but I never thought you’d fall for a chap like Hallam. Why on earth don’t you marry me? I can give you all you want, whereas he——”
Paddy tried to free herself.
“Let me go!” She looked at him with furious eyes as he obeyed and she stepped out onto the road. “And I don’t ever wish to see you again,” she flung at him.
Gerard saluted with mock courtesy.
“Then one last word before we part, Miss Mansfield, and it is—that whatever tales of great fortune your unwanted guest has dazzled you with, it’s just poppycock!…And I can assure you that all he possesses now is a few hundreds a year—just about enough to pay his way—and yours—in
humble surroundings. Well, good morning,” and he drove rapidly away.
The rain was falling more heavily, and after a brief hesitation, Paddy impatiently turned her steps homeward.
No use getting wet through, and anyway, there was no sign of Monty down the deserted road, so perhaps after all he would be back at KIRLOU.
How detestable Gerard had been! jealous, of course, but who could have told him of her engagement? Detestable! that was the word, daring to say that the only money Monty possessed was a few hundreds a year, when she knew beyond doubt—that he was an exceedingly rich man.
She had a great mind to tell him what Gerard had said. Not that it mattered!…She increased her speed as she felt the cold rain trickling down her neck, and a sigh of relief escaped her when, as she reached the house, she saw Monty at the open door of the garage.
She ran towards him.
“Where have you been? Dilly told me she saw you go down the road, so I went after you. Why— what are you doing? “she asked breathlessly, as she saw that he had taken down one of the large empty cases he had brought with him on arrival and was filling it in haphazard manner with various possessions.
“Packing up—as requested,” Monty answered calmly. “I am afraid it will be a day or two before I can remove all my goods and chattels, but the unwanted guest will definitely take his departure this afternoon.”
“This afternoon!…Where will you go?”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Does it matter? No doubt I can persuade some Good Samaritan, in London to take pity on me.”
“In London!…Then—when will I see you again?”
It was a moment before he replied with a note of sarcasm.
The Man from Ceylon Page 12
