第71章

"I hope that my wife--how do you do?--will give you a decent lunch,"was his opening."I left instructions,but we live in a rough-and-ready way.She expects you back to tea,too,after you have had a look at Howards End.I wonder what you'll think of the place.I wouldn't touch it with tongs myself.Do sit down!It's a measly little place.""I shall enjoy seeing it,"said Margaret,feeling,for the first time,shy.

"You'll see it at its worst,for Bryce decamped abroad last Monday without even arranging for a charwoman to clear up after him.I never saw such a disgraceful mess.It's unbelievable.

He wasn't in the house a month."

"I've more than a little bone to pick with Bryce,"called Henry from the inner chamber.

"Why did he go so suddenly?"

"Invalid type;couldn't sleep."

"Poor fellow!"

"Poor fiddlesticks!"said Mr.Wilcox,joining them.

"He had the impudence to put up notice-boards without as much as saying with your leave or by your leave.Charles flung them down.""Yes,I flung them down,"said Charles modestly.

"I've sent a telegram after him,and a pretty sharp one,too.He,and he in person is responsible for the upkeep of that house for the next three years.""The keys are at the farm;we wouldn't have the keys.""Quite right."

"Dolly would have taken them,but I was in,fortunately.""What's Mr.Bryce like?"asked Margaret.

But nobody cared.Mr.Bryce was the tenant,who had no right to sublet;to have defined him further was a waste of time.On his misdeeds they descanted profusely,until the girl who had been typing the strong letter came out with it.Mr.Wilcox added his signature."Now we'll be off,"said he.

A motor-drive,a form of felicity detested by Margaret,awaited her.Charles saw them in,civil to the last,and in a moment the offices of the Imperial and West African Rubber Company faded away.

But it was not an impressive drive.Perhaps the weather was to blame,being grey and banked high with weary clouds.Perhaps Hertfordshire is scarcely intended for motorists.Did not a gentleman once motor so quickly through Westmoreland that he missed it?and if Westmoreland can be missed,it will fare ill with a county whose delicate structure particularly needs the attentive eye.Hertfordshire is England at its quietest,with little emphasis of river and hill;it is England meditative.

If Drayton were with us again to write a new edition of his incomparable poem,he would sing the nymphs of Hertfordshire as indeterminate of feature,with hair obfuscated by the London smoke.Their eyes would be sad,and averted from their fate towards the Northern flats,their leader not Isis or Sabrina,but the slowly flowing Lea.No glory of raiment would be theirs,no urgency of dance;but they would be real nymphs.

The chauffeur could not travel as quickly as he had hoped,for the Great North Road was full of Easter traffic.But he went quite quick enough for Margaret,a poor-spirited creature,who had chickens and children on the brain.

"They're all right,"said Mr.Wilcox."They'll learn--like the swallows and the telegraph-wires.""Yes,but,while they're learning--"

"The motor's come to stay,"he answered."One must get about.There's a pretty church--oh,you aren't sharp enough.

Well,look out,if the road worries you--right outward at the scenery.

"She looked at the scenery.It heaved and merged like porridge.Presently it congealed.They had arrived.

Charles's house on the left;on the right the swelling forms of the Six Hills.Their appearance in such a neighbourhood surprised her.They interrupted the stream of residences that was thickening up towards Hilton.Beyond them she saw meadows and a wood,and beneath them she settled that soldiers of the best kind lay buried.

She hated war and liked soldiers--it was one of her amiable inconsistencies.

But here was Dolly,dressed up to the nines,standing at the door to greet them,and here were the first drops of the rain.

They ran in gaily,and after a long wait in the drawing-room sat down to the rough-and-ready lunch,every dish in which concealed or exuded cream.

Mr.Bryce was the chief topic of conversation.Dolly described his visit with the key,while her father-in-law gave satisfaction by chaffing her and contradicting all she said.It was evidently the custom to laugh at Dolly.He chaffed Margaret,too,and Margaret,roused from a grave meditation,was pleased,and chaffed him back.Dolly seemed surprised,and eyed her curiously.After lunch the two children came down.Margaret disliked babies,but hit it off better with the two-year-old,and sent Dolly into fits of laughter by talking sense to him."Kiss them now,and come away,"said Mr.Wilcox.She came,but refused to kiss them:it was such hard luck on the little things,she said,and though Dolly proffered Chorly-worly and Porgly-woggles in turn,she was obdurate.

By this time it was raining steadily.The car came round with the hood up,and again she lost all sense of space.

In a few minutes they stopped,and Crane opened the door of the car.

"What's happened?"asked Margaret.

"What do you suppose?"said Henry.

A little porch was close up against her face.

"Are we there already?"

"We are."