I remember well that evening, mild with the prelude of spring, when I evolved for James’ benefit the System. It was a device which was to preserve my friend’s liberty and, at the same time, to preserve my friend’s honour. How perfect in its irony!
Margaret Goodwin, mark you, was not to know he could afford to marry her, and my system was an instrument to hide from her the truth.
He employed that system. It gave him the holiday he asked for. He went into Society.
Among his acquaintances were the Gunton-Cresswells, and at their house he met Eva. Whether his determination to treat Eva as he had treated Margaret came to him instantly, or by degrees I do not know. Inwardly he may have had his scheme matured in embryo, but outwardly he was still the accomplished hypocrite. He was the soul of honour—outwardly. He was the essence of sympathetic tact as far as his specious exterior went. Then came the 27th of May. On that date the first of James Orlebar Cloyster’s masks was removed.
I had breakfasted earlier than usual, so that by the time I had walked from Rupert Court to Walpole Street it was not yet four o’clock.
James was out. I thought I would wait for him. I stood at his window. Then I saw Margaret Goodwin. What features! What a complexion! “And James,” I murmured, “is actually giving this the miss in baulk!” I discovered, at that instant, that I did not know James. He was a fool.
In a few hours I was to discover he was a villain, too.
She came in and I introduced myself to her. I almost forget what pretext I manufactured, but I remember I persuaded her to go back to Guernsey that very day. I think I said that James was spending Friday till Monday in the country, and had left no address. I was determined that they should not meet. She was far too good for a man who obviously did not appreciate her in the least.
We had a very pleasant chat. She was charming. At first she was apt to touch on James a shade too frequently, but before long I succeeded in diverting our conversation into less uninteresting topics.
She talked of Guernsey, I of London. I said I felt I had known her all my life. She said that one had, undeniably, one’s affinities.