So it seemed. For when Susie came back David had gone, and Teresa’s pale little face bore evidence of having paid dearly for her inability to (as she thought) flirt with her love for Mrs. Potter. It is impossible to say whether David carried his idea of the runaway horse any further, or comforted himself with the possibility of deflecting the course of Teresa’s passion for regeneration.
CHAPTER XIV
“I am going to Aldwych to call on the Prices. Will you come with me, dear Dicky? I wish you would,” said Susie.
Teresa said she would. Sometime the idea of Aldwych without David must be recognised and dealt with. She also wished her mother to forget that “a girl may regret some day” having refused a beautiful old place in the country and a really good husband “just for an idea.” Poor little Teresa supposed that any show of reluctance to go back to the house might be taken as evidence of a weak spot in her armour. Neither she nor Evangeline had ever known how much of the world their mother detected from behind her veil of misty sweetness. Anything more candid than her words and actions could hardly be imagined, and yet somehow, as Evangeline had said, omelets were mysteriously made in hats, and whether Susie or the Powers of Darkness made them none of her audience could discern. Cyril had his ideas on the subject and we have seen how deeply they wounded her.
Mrs. Price was found in the garden, talking in her best manner to one of “the county” who had called; a crushing sort of woman who made it quite clear to Mrs. Price that she had called in obedience to the tradition that “noblesse oblige.” She was known as Mrs. Archie Lake, and newcomers were supposed to be “all right” if she called on them. She had conferred the stamp of recognition on Mrs. Price for several reasons. First, “out of decency to Milly Varens”; secondly, because the Hunt was not in a very flourishing condition, and Mr. Price was reported to be rich and ambitious; thirdly, “just to see what they were like.” Someone had met Joseph Price and reported that he was quite possible and that the girls would probably have money too in the end——. Here Mrs. Lake let her train of thought lose itself because one does not think these things out in so many words. Her son was rather a worry to her, but it is impossible to make plans of that sort. The French do, but we don’t. Anyhow she called, and Susie and Teresa found her there. Mrs. Price was getting on well with her new manner. “How charming of you to come, Mrs. Fulton. Of course you know this part of the world well. And how is the General?” She did not wish Mrs. Lake to suppose that Millport was going to be allowed to track her down here, but Susie, of course, was different. She welcomed her.
“Yes, I think we have met somewhere, haven’t we?” said Mrs. Lake, raising her eyes sleepily to Susie. Mrs. Price made a mental note and tried to look a little sleepy too.
“I am sure you are enjoying the country,” Susie said to her. “Everything is looking so exquisite just now. We want to go away ourselves as soon as we can, but my husband finds it very difficult to get away. He doesn’t care for the sea and so many of his Staff have children that he likes to let them off when the schools break up and take his own holiday when the hunting begins.”
“But isn’t Millport on the sea somewhere?” asked Mrs. Lake. Mrs. Price flushed. “We hardly think of a great port like that as the seaside,” she said. “Of course when my husband’s ancestor went there first and practically built what there was it was on the sea, but that is so long ago and everything is so altered he would hardly recognise it if he were alive. There are very few people nowadays who have the courage of those pioneers who went down to the sea in ships and opened up communications with the East. My husband cares so much more for sport and racing and all that, that I tell him he is not half proud enough of the old family he comes from. Something so rugged and adventurous about the sea, isn’t there?”
“They used to import slaves, didn’t they?” Mrs. Lake inquired, looking quite vacant. “I wish they would begin again now. I am fed up with the search for servants, aren’t you?”
“Oh, but don’t you think that was terribly wrong?” said Susie. “I can’t bear to think of it. I am sure that most of the labour troubles now are largely owing to people having been so inconsiderate for others in the past. Teresa and I both work a great deal in that way, and we see so much of it.”