Mufti Part 25

To each and everyone there is one spot hallowed by special memory, and that spot claims pride of place in day dreams. But when the mind rambles on, and the lumber-room of the past is open--to all who have tasted of its peaceful spell there comes the thought of The River.

Spell it with Capitals; there is only one. Whether it be Bourne End with its broad reach and the sailing punts, or the wooded heights by Clieveden; whether it be Boulter's Lock on Ascot Sunday, or the quiet stretch near Goring--there is only one River. Henley, Wargrave, Cookham--it matters not. . . . They all go to form The River. And it's one of them, or some of them, or all of them that brings that faint smile of reminiscence to the wanderer's face as he stirs the fire with his boot.

It's so wonderful to drift--just once in a while. And those of the River always drift when they wors.h.i.+p at her shrine. Only people who make money in tinned goods and things, and are in all respects dreadful, go on the River in launches, which smell and offend people.

And they are not of the River. . . .

"If," said Joan lazily, "you had suggested paddling to Reading, or punting several miles towards Henley, I should have burst into tears.

And yet there are some people who deliberately set out to go somewhere. . . ."

"There are two things which precluded such an insane possibility," he said. "The first is Binks; he likes to run about. And the second is that unless I have a kiss within one second I shall blow up. . . ."

"Of course you've known Binks longer than me, so I suppose I mustn't object to the order of precedence." She looked at him mockingly, then, with a quick, fierce movement, she took his face between her hands.

And an intelligent and bewhiskered old water rat regarded the subsequent proceedings with a tolerant eye.

"More of 'em at it, my dear," he told his spouse, in his fastness under a gnarled tree root. "However, there's no objection to the children having a look if it amuses them." He cast a discriminating eye round the larder, and frowned heavily. "h.e.l.l! you don't mean to say that we've got that d.a.m.ned ham bone again," he growled. "However, we ought to pick up something when they've finished the exhibition and get down to their lunch. . . ." He thoughtfully pulled his left whisker. "And by the way, my love, tell Jane not to go wandering about this afternoon, even if she is in love. There's an abominable dog of the most dangerous description on the warpath. Let me know when those fools stop."

He composed himself for a nap, and the wash of a pa.s.sing launch which flopped against the punt outside lulled him to sleep. . . . He was a prosaic old gentleman, that water rat, so his peevishness may be forgiven him. After all, a ham bone is a ham bone and pretty poor at that, and when one has been the father of several hundreds, the romantic side of life pales considerably in the light of the possibilities of lunch.

But up above, in the punt, the fools were busy according to their foolishness, quite unmindful of their disapproving audience. Maybe it is dangerous to try to cheat reality; but success justifies any experiment. And the day was successful beyond their wildest dreams.

Binks grubbed about in the bank and incidentally gave the love-sick Jane the fright of her young life; until at last, tired and dirty and happy, he lay down on the gra.s.s just above Vane's head, and went on hunting in his dreams. . . .

As for the two chief fools, the day pa.s.sed as such days have always pa.s.sed since Time began. And the absolute happiness which comes with the sudden touch of a hand, the quick, unexpected glance, the long, pa.s.sionate kiss, is not to be put on paper. They talked a little about aimless, intimate things; they were silent a great deal--those wonderful silences which become possible only with perfect understanding. And gradually the shadows lengthened, and the grey water began to grow darker. . . . Sometimes from the old bridge came the noise of a pa.s.sing car, and once an electric canoe went past them in the main stream, with a gramophone playing on board. The sound of the record came to them clearly over the water--the Barcarolle from "Les Contes d'Hoffmann," and they listened until it died faintly away in the distance.

Then at last, with a great sigh Vane stood up and stretched himself.

For a long while he looked down at the girl, and it seemed to her that his face was sad. Without a word he untied the punt, and, still in silence, they paddled slowly back towards the hotel.

It was only as they were drifting under the bridge that he spoke, just one short sentence, in a voice which shook a little.

"My dear," he whispered, "I thank you," and very gently he raised her hand to his lips. . . .

But at dinner he had banished all traces of sadness from his mood.

They both bubbled with the spontaneous happiness of two children.

Binks, to his intense disgust, had to submit to the indignity of a table napkin tied round his neck, and all the occupants of the hotel thought them mad. Incidentally they were--quite mad, which was just as it should be after such a day. Only when they were leaving did they become sane again for a moment.

"Just one more look at the river, my lady," said Vane to her, "before we start. There's a little path I know of, leading out of the rose garden where one can't be seen, and we've just got to say our good-bye to the water alone."

He led the way and Joan followed with Binks trotting sedately between them. And then with his arm round her waist, and her head on his shoulder, they stood and watched the black water flowing smoothly by.

"I've stuck to the rule, grey girl." Vane's arm tightened round her; "I've said not a word about the future. But to-morrow I am going to come to you; to-morrow you've got to decide."

He felt her s.h.i.+ver slightly against him, and he bent and kissed her pa.s.sionately. "There can only be one answer," he whispered fiercely.

"There shall only be one answer. We're just made for one another. . . ."

But it seemed to both of them that the air had become colder. . . .

"You'll come in, Derek," said Joan as the car drew up in Ashley Gardens. "Come in and have a drink; my aunt would like to see you."

Barely a word had been spoken on the drive home, and as Vane followed her into the flat it struck him that her face seemed a little white.

"Are you feeling cold, dear?" he asked anxiously. "I ought to have taken another rug."

"Not a bit," Joan smiled at him. "Only a little tired. . . . Even the laziest days are sometimes a little exacting!" She laughed softly.

"And you're rather an exacting person, you know. . . ."

She led the way into the drawing-room, and Vane was duly introduced to Lady Auldfearn.

"There are some letters for you, Joan," said her aunt. "I see there's one from your father. Perhaps he'll say in that whether he intends coming up to town or not. . . ."

With a murmured apology Joan opened her mail, and Vane stood chatting with the old lady.

"I hope you won't think me rude, Captain Vane," she said after a few commonplaces; "but I have arrived at the age when to remain out of bed for one instant after one wishes to go there strikes me as an act of insanity." She moved towards the door and Vane opened it for her with a laugh. "I hope I shall see you again." She held out her hand, and Vane bent over it.

"It's very good of you, Lady Auldfearn," he answered. "I should like to come and call. . . ."

"You can ask at the door if Joan is in," she continued. "If she isn't, I sha'n't be at all offended if you go away again."

Vane closed the door behind her, and strolled back towards the fireplace. "A woman of great discernment is your aunt, Joan." He turned towards her, and suddenly stood very still. "What is it, my dear? . . . Have you had bad news?"

With a letter crumpled up in her hand she was staring at the floor, and she gave a little, bitter laugh. "Not even one day, Derek; the kindly Fates wouldn't even give us that. . . ."

She looked at the letter once again, and read part of it, while Vane watched her with a hopeless feeling of impending trouble.

"You'd better read it," she said wearily. "It's from Father." She handed it to him, and then pointed to the place. "That bit there. . . . 'So I'm sorry to say, little Joan, it's come at last.

I've been hoping against hope that I might be able to pull things through, but it simply can't be done. The less will not contain the greater, and my irreducible minimum expenditure is more than my income.

Humanly speaking, as far as one can see, there can be no considerable fall in the cost of living and income tax for many years after the war.' . . ."

Vane's eyes skimmed on over the short, angular writing, picking up a phrase here and there. "Gordon to be considered. . . . It means practical penury at Blandford, comparative affluence if we go. . . .

"If I could lay my hand on a hundred thousand it might pull things through till the country is more or less settled once again; that is if it ever does get settled. If labour goes on as it is at present, I suppose we shall have to be grateful for being allowed to live at all. . . ."

Vane looked at Joan, who was still staring at the floor in front of her, and almost mechanically he returned her the letter. . . .

"You've known this was coming, Joan," he said at last. . . .

"Of course," she answered. "But it doesn't make it any better now it has. One always hopes." She shrugged her shoulders, and looked up at him. "Give me a cigarette, Derek, I don't think I'd have minded quite so much if it hadn't come to-day. . . ."

He held out the match for her, and then with his elbow on the mantelpiece he stood watching her. She seemed inert, lifeless, and the contrast with the laughing, happy girl at dinner hit him like a blow.

If only he could help--do something; but a hundred thousand was an absurdity. His total income was only about fifteen hundred a year.

And as if to torment him still more there rose before his mind the cold, confident face of Henry Baxter. . . .

"Joan--does it matter so frightfully much giving up Blandford?"

She looked at him for a moment, with a sort of amazement on her face.

"My dear," she said, "I simply can't imagine life without Blandford.

It's just part of me. . . ."

"But when you marry you wouldn't live there yourself," he argued.