第78章

To his mother,his sisters,his young brother,he seemed to spend this Vacation in 'seeing fellows,'and his evenings sleepily at home.They could not propose anything in daylight that did not meet with the one response:"Sorry;I've got to see a fellow";and he was put to extraordinary shifts to get in and out of the house unobserved in riding clothes;until,being made a member of the Goat's Club,he was able to transport them there,where he could change unregarded and slip off on his hack to Richmond Park.He kept his growing sentiment religiously to himself.Not for a world would he breathe to the 'fellows,'whom he was not 'seeing,'anything so ridiculous from the point of view of their creed and his.But he could not help its destroying his other appetites.It was coming between him and the legitimate pleasures of youth at last on its own in a way which must,he knew,make him a milksop in the eyes of Crum.All he cared for was to dress in his last-created riding togs,and steal away to the Robin Hill Gate,where presently the silver roan would come demurely sidling with its slim and dark-haired rider,and in the glades bare of leaves they would go off side by side,not talking very much,riding races sometimes,and sometimes holding hands.More than once of an evening,in a moment of expansion,he had been tempted to tell his mother how this shy sweet cousin had stolen in upon him and wrecked his 'life.'But bitter experience,that all persons above thirty-five were spoil-sports,prevented him.After all,he supposed he would have to go through with College,and she would have to 'come out,'before they could be married;so why complicate things,so long as he could see her?Sisters were teasing and unsympathetic beings,a brother worse,so there was no one to,confide in.Ah!And this beastly divorce business!What a misfortune to have a name which other people hadn't!If only he had been called Gordon or Scott or Howard or something fairly common!But Dartie--there wasn't another in the directory!One might as well have been named Morkin for all the covert it afforded!So matters went on,till one day in the middle of January the silver-roan palfrey and its rider were missing at the tryst.Lingering in the cold,he debated whether he should ride on to the house:But Jolly might be there,and the memory of their dark encounter was still fresh within him.One could not be always fighting with her brother!So he returned dismally to town and spent an evening plunged in gloom.At breakfast next day he noticed that his mother had on an unfamiliar dress and was wearing her hat.The dress was black with a glimpse of peacock blue,the hat black and large--she looked exceptionally well.But when after breakfast she said to him,"Come in here,Val,"and led the way to the drawing-room,he was at once beset by qualms.Winifred carefully shut the door and passed her handkerchief over her lips;inhaling the violette de Parme with which it had been soaked,Val thought:'Has she found out about Holly?'

Her voice interrupted "Are you going to be nice to me,dear boy?"Val grinned doubtfully.

"Will you come with me this morning."

"I've got to see."began Val,but something in her face stopped him."I say,"he said,"you don't mean .""Yes,I have to go to the Court this morning."Already!--that d---d business which he had almost succeeded in forgetting,since nobody ever mentioned it.In self-commiseration he stood picking little bits of skin off his fingers.Then noticing that his mother's lips were all awry,he said impulsively:"All right,mother;I'll come.The brutes!"What brutes he did not know,but the expression exactly summed up their joint feeling,and restored a measure of equanimity.

"I suppose I'd better change into a 'shooter,"'he muttered,escaping to his room.He put on the 'shooter,'a higher collar,a pearl pin,and his neatest grey spats,to a somewhat blasphemous accompaniment.Looking at himself in the glass,he said,"Well,I'm damned if I'm going to show anything!"and went down.He found his grandfather's carriage at the door,and his mother in furs,with the appearance of one going to a Mansion House Assembly.They seated themselves side by side in the closed barouche,and all the way to the Courts of Justice Val made but one allusion to the business in hand."There'll be nothing about those pearls,will there?"The little tufted white tails of Winifred's muff began to shiver.

"Oh,no,"she said,"it'll be quite harmless to-day.Your grandmother wanted to come too,but I wouldn't let her.I thought you could take care of me.You look so nice,Val.Just pull your coat collar up a little more at the back--that's right.""If they bully you."began Val.

"Oh!they won't.I shall be very cool.It's the only way.""They won't want me to give evidence or anything?""No,dear;it's all arranged."And she patted his hand.The determined front she was putting on it stayed the turmoil in Val's chest,and he busied himself in drawing his gloves off and on.He had taken what he now saw was the wrong pair to go with his spats;they should have been grey,but were deerskin of a dark tan;whether to keep them on or not he could not decide.They arrived soon after ten.It was his first visit to the Law Courts,and the building struck him at once.

"By Jove!"he said as they passed into the hall,"this'd make four or five jolly good racket courts."Soames was awaiting them at the foot of some stairs.

"Here you are!"he said,without shaking hands,as if the event had made them too familiar for such formalities."It's Happerly Browne,Court I.We shall be on first."A sensation such as he had known when going in to bat was playing now in the top of Val's chest,but he followed his mother and uncle doggedly,looking at no more than he could help,and thinking that the place smelled 'fuggy.'People seemed to be lurking everywhere,and he plucked Soames by the sleeve.