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Page 14
And this seemed to Mrs. Arbuthnot too the right attitude. Surely
it was they who were taking Mrs. Fisher into their party, and not Mrs.
Fisher who was taking them into it?
For answer Mrs. Fisher, leaning on her stick, went to the
writing-table and in a firm hand wrote down three names and offered
them to Mrs. Wilkins, and the names were so respectable, more, they
were so momentous, they were so nearly august, that just to read them
was enough. The President of the Royal Academy, the Archbishop of
Canterbury, and the Governor of the Bank of England--who would dare
disturb such personages in their meditations with inquires as to
whether a female friend of theirs was all she should be?
"They have know me since I was little," said Mrs. Fisher--
everybody seemed to have known Mrs. Fisher since or when she was
little.
"I don't think references are nice things at all between--between
ordinary decent women," burst out Mrs. Wilkins, made courageous by
being, as she felt, at bay; for she very well knew that the only
reference she could give without getting into trouble was Shoolbred,
and she had little confidence in that, as it would be entirely based on
Mellersh's fish. "We're not business people. We needn't distrust each
other--"
And Mrs. Arbuthnot said, with a dignity that yet was sweet, "I'm
afraid references do bring an atmosphere into our holiday plan that
isn't quite what we want, and I don't think we'll take yours up or give
you any ourselves. So that I suppose you won't wish to join us."
And she held out her hand in good-bye.
Then Mrs. Fisher, her gaze diverted to Mrs. Arbuthnot, who
inspired trust and liking even in Tube officials, felt that she would
be idiotic to lose the opportunity of being in Italy in the particular
conditions offered, and that she and this calm-browed woman between
them would certainly be able to curb the other one when she had her
attacks. So she said, taking Mrs. Arbuthnot's offered hand, "Very
well. I waive references."
She waived references.
The two as they walked to the station in Kensington High Street
could not help thinking that this way of putting it was lofty. Even
Mrs. Arbuthnot, spendthrift of excuses for lapses, thought Mrs. Fisher
might have used other words; and Mrs. Wilkins, by the time she got to
the station, and the walk and the struggle on the crowded pavement with
other people's umbrellas had warmed her blood, actually suggested
waiving Mrs. Fisher.
"If there is any waiving to be done, do let us be the ones who
waive," she said eagerly.
But Mrs. Arbuthnot, as usual, held on to Mrs. Wilkins; and
presently, having cooled down in the train, Mrs. Wilkins announced that
at San Salvatore Mrs. Fisher would find her level. "I see her finding
her level there," she said, her eyes very bright.
Whereupon Mrs. Arbuthnot, sitting with her quiet hands folded,
turned over in her mind how best she could help Mrs. Wilkins not to see
quite so much; or at least, if she must see, to see in silence.
Chapter 4
It had been arranged that Mrs. Arbuthnot and Mrs. Wilkins,
traveling together, should arrive at San Salvatore on the evening of
March 31st--the owner, who told them how to get there, appreciated
their disinclination to begin their time in it on April 1st--and Lady
Caroline and Mrs. Fisher, as yet unacquainted and therefore under no
obligations to bore each other on the journey, for only towards the end
would they find out by a process of sifting who they were, were to
arrive on the mourning of April 2nd. In this way everything would be
got nicely ready for the two who seemed, in spite of the equality of
the sharing, yet to have something about them of guests.
There were disagreeable incidents towards the end of March, when
Mrs. Wilkins, her heart in her mouth and her face a mixture of guilt,
terror and determination, told her husband that she had been invited to
Italy, and he declined to believe it. Of course he declined to believe
it. Nobody had ever invited his wife to Italy before. There was no
precedent. He required proofs. The only proof was Mrs. Arbuthnot, and
Mrs. Wilkins had produced her; but after what entreaties, what
passionate persuading! Mrs. Arbuthnot had not imagined she would have
to face Mr. Wilkins and say things to him that were short of the truth,
and it brought home to her what she had for some time suspected, that
she was slipping more and more away from God.
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