Bird of Paradise Part 24

"Why?" she said. "Do you very particularly want me to?"

"Very. And I'll tell you the reason. It's to please Mary."

"Why should Mary care?"

"Bertha, I give you my word that she'll be terribly disappointed and offended if you don't. And"--he waited a moment--"I hardly know how to explain--it'll do me harm if you don't come--you and Percy. I can't exactly explain. Do me this good turn, Bertha. A special favour, won't you?"

He was artfully trying to suggest what he supposed to be the exact contrary to the fact. He knew Mary would be wild with joy if Bertha did not come, though he had no idea how extremely astonished and furious she would be if she should arrive, considering she had accepted. Of course in reality Mary thought nothing of the acceptance. She was both certain and determined that her "door would not be darkened" by Bertha's presence.

Bertha had not intended to go since she saw Percy's pleasure and relief at the cessation of the intimacy. But now? After all, Percy couldn't mind going in with her for a few minutes if she begged him.

"If you tell me it'll do you a good turn, Nigel--but I don't understand!"

"Do you wish me to explain?"

"No, I don't. I'll take your word. But all the more I don't want you to be always calling. I'm afraid Mary doesn't like me."

"It isn't that exactly."

Bertha thought of her own happiness with Percy. Her warm, kind heart made her say gently:

"Nigel, I hope you're nice and considerate to Mary? You make her happy?"

"Doesn't this look like it?" he answered. "She'll be in a state if you don't turn up." He sighed. "I've never said a word about it, but she's rather trying and tiresome if you want to know."

"Then I'm very, very sorry for her," said Bertha, "and you can't do enough for her. ... Why, with those lovely children I'm sure she'd be ideally happy if----"

"Oh, you think, of course, it's my fault. It never occurs to you whether I'm happy!"

A look from her which she tried to repress reminded him of his deliberate choice. He thought the time had come to make her a little sorry for him, knowing her extreme tenderness of heart. He spoke in a lower voice, and looked away.

"If I'm sometimes a bit miserable, it serves me right."

"Be good to her," said Bertha.

"I'll do anything on earth you'll tell me."

"What are the children's names?"

"Nigel and Marjorie."

"Darling pets, I suppose?"

"Isn't it extraordinary, Bertha," he said. "I've no right to say it to you, but that's my great trouble."

"What?"

"She doesn't care much about them."

"I don't believe it," said Bertha, shaking her head. "It's you who are mistaken."

"Am I?"

"Nigel, remember, I know you pretty well."

"And you think I'm trying to make you sorry for me?"

"I won't say that. But you ought to be happy, and so ought your wife."

He spoke in a different tone, with his usual cheery smile.

"Well, if you will grace our entertainment, I promise we will be happy.

Do come, Bertha!" He was taking all this trouble simply so as not to have a boring evening at his own home!

"Very well, Nigel," she answered, with a kind, frank smile. "I'll come.

Lately Percy's had so much work that in the evenings he hasn't been very keen on going out to parties."

"And you don't go without him?" he asked with curiosity.

"No. Aren't I unfas.h.i.+onable?"

"You're delightful."

"Good-bye," she said, holding out her hand.

He took it, and held it, saying:

"And now I sha'n't see you again until a few minutes at the party, and heaven knows when after that."

"I'll bring Madeline. Shall I?"

"Oh yes, do. It'll be _some_ party, as the Americans say, and Charlie won't be there."

"Good-bye again."

"What are you going to wear?" he asked, in his old, brotherly voice, lingering by the door.

"Salmon-coloured chiffon with a mayonnaise sash," she answered, fairly pus.h.i.+ng him out of the room. "Do go."

CHAPTER XIX

A DEVOTED WIFE

To anyone who knew Percy Kellynch and his wife, it would have been a matter of some surprise to observe the extreme enthusiasm and devotion that she showed for him. He was an excellent fellow, and had many good qualities, but he was not mentally by any means anything at all extraordinary; she was a very much more highly organised being in every possible way than he was. Percy was exceedingly kind and straight, yet there were, doubtless, many thousands of men exactly like him in England. In his rather simple and commonplace point of view he was, perhaps more like an ordinary English soldier than a barrister. He did not wors.h.i.+p false G.o.ds, but, not being a soldier, and having perhaps learnt more of life in some respects than they generally do, he was inclined to be rather surprised at his own cleverness. In a quiet way he had a high opinion of himself. He had been disposed to be a superior young man at twenty, and now, at thirty, he was not without a tinge of self-satisfaction, even pompousness. That his quickly discerning, subtle little wife should like and appreciate his good qualities; that she should, being of an affectionate nature, value him, was not surprising; but that, with her sense of humour and remarkable quickness, even depth of intellect, she should absolutely wors.h.i.+p and adore him--for it amounted to that--was rather a matter of astonishment. But it must be remembered that her first love, Nigel Hillier, when she was eighteen, was, obviously, just exactly what one would have expected to dazzle her--quick, lively, fascinating and witty--this early romance had been a terrible disappointment. Bertha had bravely been prepared to wait for years, or to marry him on the moment; she had not the faintest idea that the money difficulties would be used to put an end to it on _his_ side.

When he had broken it off, saying that he feared her father was right, and that it was for her sake, she was terribly pained, seeing at once that his love was not of the same quality as hers. But when, in less than a week after that, he told her of his other engagement, it very nearly broke her heart, as the phrase goes. Yet she cured herself; and considering how young she was, she had an astonis.h.i.+ng power of self-control; she was almost cured of her love, if not her grief, in a fortnight! She accepted Percy at the time without romance, though with a great liking, and looking up to him with a certain trust, but very soon the good qualities, in which he differed so remarkably from Nigel, and even the points in which he was deficient and in which Nigel excelled, made her care for him more. As the years went on, Bertha, who could do nothing by halves, began to adore Percy more and more. She thought absolutely nothing of Nigel at all, so very little that she had let him dangle about without a thought of the past, being under the impression that he was contented in his married life. When he began again to find excuses to see her, and to start a sort of friends.h.i.+p, she did not discourage it, for the very reason that she wanted him to see that chapter in her life was absolutely closed and forgotten.