LITMIR.BIZ

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he replied in another short burst of laughter, quickly twisting his moustache again and looking down at his feet.

      He was twenty-nine years old; had been a soldier in China for five years, was now farming his fathers’ farm at Papplewick, where Emily was schoolmistress. He had been at home eighteen months. His father was an old man of seventy who had had his right hand chopped to bits in the chopping machine. So they told me. I liked Tom for his handsome bearing and his fresh, winsome way. He was exceedingly manly: that is to say, he did not dream of questioning or analysing anything. All that came his way was ready labelled nice or nasty, good or bad. He did not imagine that anything could be other than just what it appeared to be-and with this appearance, he was quite content. He looked up to Emily as one wiser, nobler, nearer to God than himself.

      “I am a thousand years older than he,” she said to me, laughing. “Just as you are centuries older than I.”

      “And you love him for his youth?” I asked.

      “Yes,” she replied. “For that and — he is wonderfully sagacious — and so gentle.”

      “And I was never gentle, was I?” I said.

      “No! As restless and as urgent as the wind,” she said, and I saw a last flicker of the old terror.

      “Where is George?” I asked.

      “In bed,” she replies briefly. “He’s recovering from one of his orgies. If I were Meg I would not live with him.”

      “Is he so bad?” I asked.

      “Bad!” she replied. “He’s disgusting, and I’m sure he’s dangerous. I’d have him removed to an inebriates’ home.”

      “You’d have to persuade him to go,” said Tom, who had come into the room again. “He does have dreadful bouts, though! He’s killing himself, sure enough. I feel awfully sorry for the fellow.”

      “It seems so contemptible to me,” said Emily, “to become enslaved to one of your likings till it makes a beast of you. Look what a spectacle he is for his children, and what a disgusting disgrace for his wife.”

      “Well, if he can’t help it, he can’t, poor chap,” said Tom. “Though I do think a man should have more backbone.” We heard heavy noises from the room above.

      “He is getting up,” said Emily. “I suppose I’d better see if he’ll have any breakfast.” She waited, however. Presently the door opened, and there stood George with his hand on the knob, leaning, looking in.

      “I thought I heard three voices,” he said, as if it freed him from a certain apprehension. He smiled. His waistcoat hung open over his woollen shirt, he wore no coat and was slipper-less. His hair and his moustache were dishevelled, his face pale and stupid with sleep, his eyes small. He turned aside from our looks as from a bright light. His hand as I shook it was flaccid and chill.

      “How do you come to be here, Cyril?” he said subduedly, faintly smiling.

      “Will you have any breakfast?” Emily asked him coldly. “I’ll have a bit if there’s any for me,” he replied.

      “It has been waiting for you long enough,” she answered. He turned and went with a dull thud of his stockinged feet across to the dining-room. Emily rang for the maid, I followed George, leaving the betrothed together. I found my host moving about the dining-room, looking behind the chairs and in the corners.

      “I wonder where the devil my slippers are!” he muttered explanatorily. Meanwhile he continued his search. I noticed he did not ring the bell to have them found for him. Presently he came to the fire, spreading his hands over it. As he was smashing the slowly burning coal the maid came in with the tray. He desisted, and put the poker carefully down. While the maid spread his meal on one corner of the table, he looked in the fire, paying her no heed. When she had finished:

      “It’s fried white-bait,” she said. “Shall you have that?”

      He lifted his head and looked at the plate.

      “Ay,” he said. “Have you brought the vinegar?”

      Without answering, she took the cruet from the sideboard and set it on the table. As she was closing the door, she looked back to say:

      “You’d better eat it now, while it’s hot.”

      He took no notice, but sat looking in the fire.

      “And how are you going on?” he asked me.

      “I? Oh, very well! And you —?”

      “As you see,” he replied, turning his head on one side with a little gesture of irony.

      “As I am very sorry to see,” I rejoined.

      He sat forward with his elbows on his knees, tapping the back of his hand with one finger, in monotonous two-pulse like heart-beats.

      “Aren’t you going to have breakfast?” I urged. The clock at that moment began to ring a sonorous twelve. He looked up at it with subdued irritation.

      “Ay, I suppose so,” he answered me, when the clock had finished striking. He rose heavily and went to the table. As he poured out a cup of tea he spilled it on the cloth, and stood looking at the stain. It was still some time before he began to eat. He poured vinegar freely over the hot fish, and ate with an indifference that made eating ugly, pausing now and again to wipe the tea off his moustache, or to pick a bit of fish from off his knee.

      “You are not married, I suppose?” he said in one of his pauses.

      “No,” I replied. “I expect I shall have to be looking round.”

      “You’re wiser not,” he replied, quiet and bitter.

      A moment or two later the maid came in with a letter. “This came this morning,” she said, as she laid it on the table beside him. He looked at it, then he said:

      “You didn’t give me a knife for the marmalade.”

      “Didn’t I?” she replied. “I thought you wouldn’t want it. You don’t as a rule.”

      “And do you know where my slippers are?” he asked.

      “They ought to be in their usual place.” She went and looked in the corner. “I suppose Miss Gertie’s put them somewhere. I’ll get you another pair.”

      As he waited for her he read the letter. He read it twice, then he put it back in the envelope, quietly, without any change of expression. But he ate no more breakfast, even after the maid had brought the knife and his slippers, and though he had had but a few mouthfuls.

      At half-past twelve there was an imperious woman’s voice in the house. Meg came to the door. As she entered the room, and saw me, she stood still. She sniffed, glanced at the table, and exclaimed, coming forward effusively:

      “Well I never, Cyril! Who’d a thought of seeing you here this morning! How are you?”

      She waited for the last of my words, then immediately she turned to George, and said:

      “I must say you’re in a nice state for Cyril to see you! Have you finished? — If you have, Kate can take that tray out. It smells quite sickly. Have you finished?”

      He did not answer, but drained his cup of tea and pushed it away with the back of his hand. Meg rang the bell, and having taken off her gloves, began to put the things on the tray, tipping the fragments of fish and bones from the edge of his plate to the middle with short, disgusted jerks of the fork. Her attitude and expression were of resentment and disgust. The maid came in.

      “Clear the table, Kate, and open the window. Have you opened the bedroom windows?”

      “No’m — not yet”— she glanced at George as if to say he had only been down a few minutes.

      “Then do it when you have taken the tray,” said Meg. “You don’t open this window,” said

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