In the lane above the park they met an apologetic chauffeur, waving a spanner. The car had struck work by the top lodge, and Christian got out to assist.
“I’m glad the silly old thing stuck!” Mrs. Slinker observed, as they drove on, leaving him to follow. “Fate doesn’t mean you to pass me by on the other side—that’s clear, anyhow. You can’t ever really hate me again, now you have done me a kindness!
“You won’t speak, I know,” she went on impatiently, turning on her silent companion. “Your class never does! But I’m not afraid of speaking, and I’m just sick and tired of the whole position. It’s been a wretched muddle from beginning to end. I invited myself to that tea-fight to-night, as you may or may not know. It isn’t exactly a habit of mine—going where I’m not wanted—but I’d have done more than that for the chance of straightening things out with you. You mustn’t treat me as though I’d deliberately harmed you. It hurts; and it isn’t fair. I’ve got my own punishment to grin and bide, as it is. Anyhow, life’s hard enough without going round collecting enemies for amusement. Won’t you try to tolerate me? Can’t you be kind to me, as though Stanley had never existed?”
“‘Kindness’ would be an insult, surely!” Deb said slowly. “I don’t hate you, of course. I’m not as absurd as that. And you were the more wronged of the two. But it is an impossible situation. We can never be friends.”
“‘Never’ is a long word!” Nettie said stoutly. “I deserved what I got, if it comes to that. I should have stayed with my husband, instead of leaving him free to run after other more attractive people. But I had to be quit of him—I can’t pretend anything else. It’s no use blinking facts, my dear—neither you nor I had any business with Slinker at all, and we were rightly served. Vanity was the pebble I tripped on—I won’t ask what was yours. Anyway, there’s no sense in not making the best of things, and I want to be friends with you—I do! I’m not going back to Canada if I can help it,” she added, smiling wistfully in the dark, “so you’ll have to learn to make the best of me. Oh, you will!” she finished passionately, and fell silent; but when she offered her hand at Crump steps, it was not refused.
The car had caught them up, and Christian, jumping out, was at the carriage-door when they stopped. He wished to come on to Kilne, but Deborah would not hear of it, and, as she drove away, took with her that glimpse of him standing on the steps, smiling; and though she did not know it, a new spell wove a shuttle through the old. Crump had her now for all eternity.
CHAPTER XII
Even at the gates of Heron Grant sighed, for sounds of song came roystering down the drive to meet him. A tambourine rattled bravely, a piano banged, and that last instrument of depravity—the bones—chattered cheerily in his ears. Verity’s Pierrots were getting into their stride. The concert was beginning to loom definitely on the horizon, and their repute had gone forth on all sides. It behoved them to strain every nerve.
In the hall he found Larruppin’ Lyndesay sitting on a hard, polished chair, hugging a large pile of music, and gloomily studying the pattern of the parquet floor. He raised his head to nod funereally, and to point to a second hard, polished chair beside him.
“It’s no use your tryin’ to see her,” he observed cheeringly. “If you walk inside, she’ll only get the plumber or the fish-man to throw you out again, an’ there’s no sense in takin’ risks. I’m just let in to deal the music, an’ then I have to git. If you’ve come inspectin’, I can give you my word that everythin’s O.K. and as strict as Leviticus. Think it sounds a bit rowdy from outside? Oh, well, that’s music, old man,—there’s no helpin’ that! Music is a great and glorious gift of God—Martin Luther or some other Johnny said so, so you can’t be disapprovin’. Inside, it’s as flat as a funeral an’ as dull as a donkey-race. It’s somethin’ distressin’ to see them strainin’ themselves an’ gettin’ thin, tryin’ to be humorous. Verity’s nothin’ but skin an’ bone. As for Larry Lyndesay, I haven’t had a decent dinner this week, aeroplanin’ over to practices!”