The Reef

by Edith Wharton

  XXV

  Anna stood in the middle of the room, her eyes on the door. Darrow'squestioning gaze was still on her, and she said to herself with aquick-drawn breath: "If only he doesn't come near me!"

  It seemed to her that she had been suddenly endowed with the fatal giftof reading the secret sense of every seemingly spontaneous look andmovement, and that in his least gesture of affection she would detect acold design.

  For a moment longer he continued to look at her enquiringly; then heturned away and took up his habitual stand by the mantel-piece. She drewa deep breath of relief.

  "Won't you please explain?" he said.

  "I can't explain: I don't know. I didn't even know--till she toldyou--that she really meant to break her engagement. All I know is thatshe came to me just now and said she wished to leave Givre today; andthat Owen, when he heard of it--for she hadn't told him--at once accusedher of going away with the secret intention of throwing him over."

  "And you think it's a definite break?" She perceived, as she spoke, thathis brow had cleared.

  "How should I know? Perhaps you can tell me."

  "I?" She fancied his face clouded again, but he did not move from histranquil attitude.

  "As I told you," she went on, "Owen has worked himself up to imaginingthat for some mysterious reason you've influenced Sophy against him."

  Darrow still visibly wondered. "It must indeed be a mysterious reason!He knows how slightly I know Miss Viner. Why should he imagine anythingso wildly improbable?"

  "I don't know that either."

  "But he must have hinted at some reason."

  "No: he admits he doesn't know your reason. He simply says that Sophy'smanner to him has changed since she came back to Givre and that he'sseen you together several times--in the park, the spring-house, I don'tknow where--talking alone in a way that seemed confidential--almostsecret; and he draws the preposterous conclusion that you've used yourinfluence to turn her against him."

  "My influence? What kind of influence?"

  "He doesn't say."

  Darrow again seemed to turn over the facts she gave him. His faceremained grave, but without the least trace of discomposure. "And whatdoes Miss Viner say?"

  "She says it's perfectly natural that she should occasionally talk tomy friends when she's under my roof--and refuses to give him any otherexplanation."

  "That at least is perfectly natural!"

  Anna felt her cheeks flush as she answered: "Yes--but there issomething----"

  "Something----?"

  "Some reason for her sudden decision to break her engagement. I canunderstand Owen's feeling, sorry as I am for his way of showing it. Thegirl owes him some sort of explanation, and as long as she refuses togive it his imagination is sure to run wild."

  "She would have given it, no doubt, if he'd asked it in a differenttone."

  "I don't defend Owen's tone--but she knew what it was before sheaccepted him. She knows he's excitable and undisciplined."

  "Well, she's been disciplining him a little--probably the best thingthat could happen. Why not let the matter rest there?"

  "Leave Owen with the idea that you HAVE been the cause of the break?"

  He met the question with his easy smile. "Oh, as to that--leave him withany idea of me he chooses! But leave him, at any rate, free."

  "Free?" she echoed in surprise.

  "Simply let things be. You've surely done all you could for him and MissViner. If they don't hit it off it's their own affair. What possiblemotive can you have for trying to interfere now?"

  Her gaze widened to a deeper wonder. "Why--naturally, what he says ofyou!"

  "I don't care a straw what he says of me! In such a situation a boy inlove will snatch at the most far-fetched reason rather than face themortifying fact that the lady may simply be tired of him."

  "You don t quite understand Owen. Things go deep with him, and lastlong. It took him a long time to recover from his other unlucky loveaffair. He's romantic and extravagant: he can't live on the interestof his feelings. He worships Sophy and she seemed to be fond of him. Ifshe's changed it's been very sudden. And if they part like this, angrilyand inarticulately, it will hurt him horribly--hurt his very soul.But that, as you say, is between the two. What concerns me is hisassociating you with their quarrel. Owen's like my own son--if you'dseen him when I first came here you'd know why. We were like twoprisoners who talk to each other by tapping on the wall. He's neverforgotten it, nor I. Whether he breaks with Sophy, or whether they makeit up, I can't let him think you had anything to do with it."

  She raised her eyes entreatingly to Darrow's, and read in them theforbearance of the man resigned to the discussion of non-existentproblems.

  "I'll do whatever you want me to," he said; "but I don't yet know whatit is."

  His smile seemed to charge her with inconsequence, and the prick to herpride made her continue: "After all, it's not so unnatural that Owen,knowing you and Sophy to be almost strangers, should wonder what youwere saying to each other when he saw you talking together."

  She felt a warning tremor as she spoke, as though some instinct deeperthan reason surged up in defense of its treasure. But Darrow's face wasunstirred save by the flit of his half-amused smile.

  "Well, my dear--and couldn't you have told him?" "I?" she faltered outthrough her blush.

  "You seem to forget, one and all of you, the position you put me in whenI came down here: your appeal to me to see Owen through, your assuranceto him that I would, Madame de Chantelle's attempt to win me over; andmost of all, my own sense of the fact you've just recalled to me: theimportance, for both of us, that Owen should like me. It seemed to methat the first thing to do was to get as much light as I could on thewhole situation; and the obvious way of doing it was to try to know MissViner better. Of course I've talked with her alone--I've talked with heras often as I could. I've tried my best to find out if you were right inencouraging Owen to marry her."

  She listened with a growing sense of reassurance, struggling to separatethe abstract sense of his words from the persuasion in which his eyesand voice enveloped them.

  "I see--I do see," she murmured.

  "You must see, also, that I could hardly say this to Owen withoutoffending him still more, and perhaps increasing the breach between MissViner and himself. What sort of figure should I cut if I told him I'dbeen trying to find out if he'd made a proper choice? In any case, it'snone of my business to offer an explanation of what she justly saysdoesn't need one. If she declines to speak, it's obviously on the groundthat Owen's insinuations are absurd; and that surely pledges me tosilence."

  "Yes, yes! I see," Anna repeated. "But I don't want you to explainanything to Owen."

  "You haven't yet told me what you do want."

  She hesitated, conscious of the difficulty of justifying her request;then: "I want you to speak to Sophy," she said.

  Darrow broke into an incredulous laugh. "Considering what my previousattempts have resulted in----!"

  She raised her eyes quickly. "They haven't, at least, resulted in yourliking her less, in your thinking less well of her than you've told me?"

  She fancied he frowned a little. "I wonder why you go back to that?"

  "I want to be sure--I owe it to Owen. Won't you tell me the exactimpression she's produced on you?"

  "I have told you--I like Miss Viner."

  "Do you still believe she's in love with Owen?"

  "There was nothing in our short talks to throw any particular light onthat."

  "You still believe, though, that there's no reason why he shouldn'tmarry her?"

  Again he betrayed a restrained impatience. "How can I answer thatwithout knowing her reasons for breaking with him?"

  "That's just what I want you to find out from her."

  "And why in the world should she tell me?"

  "Because, whatever grievance she has against Owen, she can certainlyhave none against me. She can't want to have Owen connect me in his mindwith this wretched quarrel;
and she must see that he will until he'sconvinced you've had no share in it."

  Darrow's elbow dropped from the mantel-piece and he took a restless stepor two across the room. Then he halted before her.

  "Why can't you tell her this yourself?"

  "Don't you see?"

  He eyed her intently, and she pressed on: "You must have guessed thatOwen's jealous of you."

  "Jealous of me?" The blood flew up under his brown skin.

  "Blind with it--what else would drive him to this folly? And I can'thave her think me jealous too! I've said all I could, short of makingher think so; and she's refused a word more to either of us. Our onlychance now is that she should listen to you--that you should make hersee the harm her silence may do."

  Darrow uttered a protesting exclamation. "It's all toopreposterous--what you suggest! I can't, at any rate, appeal to her onsuch a ground as that!"

  Anna laid her hand on his arm. "Appeal to her on the ground that I'malmost Owen's mother, and that any estrangement between you and himwould kill me. She knows what he is--she'll understand. Tell her to sayanything, do anything, she wishes; but not to go away without speaking,not to leave THAT between us when she goes!"

  She drew back a step and lifted her face to his, trying to look into hiseyes more deeply than she had ever looked; but before she could discernwhat they expressed he had taken hold of her hands and bent his head tokiss them.

  "You'll see her? You'll see her?" she entreated; and he answered: "I'lldo anything in the world you want me to."