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Page 98
"Well, sir," said Mr. Wilkins heartily, "here we are, here we
are"--and having gripped his hand with an understanding that only
wasn't mutual because Arbuthnot did not yet know what he was in for in
the way of trouble, he looked at him as a man should, squarely in the
eyes, and allowed his look to convey as plainly as a look can that in
him would be found staunchness, integrity, reliability--in fact a
friend in need. Mrs. Arbuthnot was very much flushed, Mr. Wilkins
noticed. He had not seen her flushed like that before. "Well, I'm
their man," he thought.
Lotty's greeting was effusive. It was done with both hands.
"Didn't I tell you?" she laughed to Rose over her shoulder while
Frederick was shaking her hands in both his.
"What did you tell her?" asked Frederick, in order to say
something. The way they were all welcoming him was confusing. They
had evidently all expected him, not only Rose.
The sandy but agreeable young woman didn't answer his question,
but looked extraordinarily pleased to see him. Why should she be
extraordinarily pleased to see him?
"What a delightful place this is," said Frederick, confused, and
making the first remark that occurred to him.
"It's a tub of love," said the sandy young woman earnestly; which
confused him more than ever.
And his confusion became excessive at the next words he heard--
spoken, these, by the old lady, who said: "We won't wait. Lady
Caroline is always late"--for he only then, on hearing her name, really
and properly remembered Lady Caroline, and the thought of her confused
him to excess.
He went into the dining-room like a man in a dream. He had come
out to this place to see Lady Caroline, and had told her so. He had
even told her in his fatuousness--it was true, but how fatuous--that he
hadn't been able to help coming. She didn't know he was married. She
thought his name was Arundel. Everybody in London thought his name was
Arundel. He had used it and written under it so long that he almost
thought it was himself. In the short time since she had left him on
the seat in the garden, where he told her he had come because he
couldn't help it, he had found Rose again, had passionately embraced
and been embraced, and had forgotten Lady Caroline. It would be an
extraordinary piece of good fortune if Lady Caroline's being late meant
she was tired or bored and would not come to dinner at all. Then he
could--no, he couldn't. He turned a deeper red even than usual, he
being a man of full habit and red anyhow, at the thought of such
cowardice. No, he couldn't go away after dinner and catch his train
and disappear to Rome; not unless, that is, Rose came with him. But
even so, what a running away. No, he couldn't.
When they got to the dining-room Mrs. Fisher went to the head of
the table--was this Mrs. Fisher's house? He asked himself. He didn't
know; he didn't know anything--and Rose, who in her earlier day of
defying Mrs. Fisher had taken the other end as her place, for after all
no one could say by looking at a table which was its top and which its
bottom, led Frederick to the seat next to her. If only, he thought, he
could have been alone with Rose; just five minutes more alone with
Rose, so that he could have asked her--
But probably he wouldn't have asked her anything, and only gone
on kissing her.
He looked round. The sandy young woman was telling the man they
called Briggs to go and sit beside Mrs. Fisher--was the house, then,
the sandy young woman's and not Mrs. Fisher's? He didn't know; he
didn't know anything--and she herself sat down on Rose's other side, so
that she was opposite him, Frederick, and next to the genial man who
had said "Here we are," when it was only too evident that there they
were indeed.
Next to Frederick, and between him and Briggs, was an empty
chair: Lady Caroline's. No more than Lady Caroline knew of the
presence in Frederick's life of Rose was Rose aware of the presence in
Frederick's life of Lady Caroline. What would each think? He didn't
know; he didn't know anything. Yes, he did know something, and that
was that his wife had made it up with him--suddenly, miraculously,
unaccountably, and divinely. Beyond that he knew nothing. The
situation was one with which he felt he could not cope. It must lead
him whither it would. He could only drift.
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