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Page 76
Scrap had noticed it, and vaguely wondered at it, for some time
before Mr. Wilkins inquired of her one morning as he arranged her
cushions for her--he had established the daily assisting of Lady
Caroline into her chair as his special privilege--whether there was
anything the matter with Mrs. Fisher.
At that moment Mrs. Fisher was standing by the eastern parapet,
shading her eyes and carefully scrutinizing the distant white houses of
Mezzago. They could see her through the branches of the daphnes.
"I don't know," said Scrap.
"She is a lady, I take it," said Mr. Wilkins, "who would be
unlikely to have anything on her mind?"
"I should imagine so," said Scrap, smiling.
"If she has, and her restlessness appears to suggest it, I should
be more than glad to assist her with advice."
"I am sure you would be most kind."
"Of course she has her own legal adviser, but he is not on the
spot. I am. And a lawyer on the spot," said Mr. Wilkins, who
endeavoured to make her conversation when he talked to Lady Caroline
light, aware that one must be light with young ladies, "is worth two
in--we won't be ordinary and complete the proverb, but say London."
"You should ask her."
"Ask her if she needs assistance? Would you advise it? Would it
not be a little--a little delicate to touch on such a question, the
question whether or no a lady has something on her mind?"
"Perhaps she will tell you if you go and talk to her. I think it
must be lonely to be Mrs. Fisher."
"You are all thoughtfulness and consideration," declared Mr.
Wilkins, wishing, for the first time in his life, that he were a
foreigner so that he might respectfully kiss her hand on withdrawing to
go obediently and relieve Mrs. Fisher's loneliness.
It was wonderful what a variety of exits from her corner Scrap
contrived for Mr. Wilkins. Each morning she found a different one,
which sent him off pleased after he had arranged her cushions for her.
She allowed him to arrange the cushions because she instantly had
discovered, the very first five minutes of the very first evening, that
her fears lest he should cling to her and stare in dreadful admiration
were baseless. Mr. Wilkins did not admire like that. It was not only,
she instinctively felt, not in him, but if it had been he would not
have dared to in her case. He was all respectfulness. She could
direct his movements in regard to herself with the raising of an
eyelash. His one concern was to obey. She had been prepared to like
him if he would only be so obliging as not to admire her, and she did
like him. She did not forget his moving defencelessness the first
morning in his towel, and he amused her, and he was kind to Lotty. It
is true she liked him most when he wasn't there, but then she usually
liked everybody most when they weren't there. Certainly he did seem to
be one of those men, rare in her experience, who never looked at a
woman from the predatory angle. The comfort of this, the
simplification it brought into the relations of the party, was immense.
From this point of view Mr. Wilkins was simply ideal; he was unique and
precious. Whenever she thought of him, and was perhaps inclined to
dwell on the aspects of him that were a little boring, she remembered
this and murmured, "But what a treasure."
Indeed it was Mr. Wilkins's one aim during his stay at San
Salvatore to be a treasure. At all costs the three ladies who were not
his wife must like him and trust him. Then presently when trouble
arose in their lives--and in what lives did not trouble sooner or later
arise?--they would recollect how reliable he was and how sympathetic,
and turn to him for advice. Ladies with something on their minds were
exactly what he wanted. Lady Caroline, he judged, had nothing on hers
at the moment, but so much beauty--for he could not but see what was
evident--must have had its difficulties in the past and would have more
of them before it had done. In the past he had not been at hand; in
the future he hoped to be. And meanwhile the behaviour of Mrs. Fisher,
the next in importance of the ladies from the professional appoint of
view, showed definite promise. It was almost certain that Mrs. Fisher
had something on her mind. He had been observing her attentively, and
it was almost certain.
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