The Garden Party, and Other Stories
house. But it all seemed blurred, unreal, like a picture in the
newspaper. I’ll remember it again after the party’s over, she decided.
And somehow that seemed quite the best plan....
Lunch was over by half-past one. By half-past two they were all ready
for the fray. The green-coated band had arrived and was established in
a corner of the tennis-court.
“My dear!” trilled Kitty Maitland, “aren’t they too like frogs for
words? You ought to have arranged them round the pond with the
conductor in the middle on a leaf.”
Laurie arrived and hailed them on his way to dress. At the sight of him
Laura remembered the accident again. She wanted to tell him. If Laurie
agreed with the others, then it was bound to be all right. And she
followed him into the hall.
“Laurie!”
“Hallo!” He was half-way upstairs, but when he turned round and saw
Laura he suddenly puffed out his cheeks and goggled his eyes at her.
“My word, Laura! You do look stunning,” said Laurie. “What an
absolutely topping hat!”
Laura said faintly “Is it?” and smiled up at Laurie, and didn’t tell
him after all.
Soon after that people began coming in streams. The band struck up; the
hired waiters ran from the house to the marquee. Wherever you looked
there were couples strolling, bending to the flowers, greeting, moving
on over the lawn. They were like bright birds that had alighted in the
Sheridans’ garden for this one afternoon, on their way to—where? Ah,
what happiness it is to be with people who all are happy, to press
hands, press cheeks, smile into eyes.
“Darling Laura, how well you look!”
“What a becoming hat, child!”
“Laura, you look quite Spanish. I’ve never seen you look so striking.”
And Laura, glowing, answered softly, “Have you had tea? Won’t you have
an ice? The passion-fruit ices really are rather special.” She ran to
her father and begged him. “Daddy darling, can’t the band have
something to drink?”
And the perfect afternoon slowly ripened, slowly faded, slowly its
petals closed.
“Never a more delightful garden-party....” “The greatest success....”
“Quite the most....”
Laura helped her mother with the good-byes. They stood side by side in
the porch till it was all over.
“All over, all over, thank heaven,” said Mrs. Sheridan. “Round up the
others, Laura. Let’s go and have some fresh coffee. I’m exhausted. Yes,
it’s been very successful. But oh, these parties, these parties! Why
will you children insist on giving parties!” And they all of them sat
down in the deserted marquee.
“Have a sandwich, daddy dear. I wrote the flag.”
“Thanks.” Mr. Sheridan took a bite and the sandwich was gone. He took
another. “I suppose you didn’t hear of a beastly accident that happened
to-day?” he said.
“My dear,” said Mrs. Sheridan, holding up her hand, “we did. It nearly
ruined the party. Laura insisted we should put it off.”
“Oh, mother!” Laura didn’t want to be teased about it.
“It was a horrible affair all the same,” said Mr. Sheridan. “The chap
was married too. Lived just below in the lane, and leaves a wife and
half a dozen kiddies, so they say.”
An awkward little silence fell. Mrs. Sheridan fidgeted with her cup.
Really, it was very tactless of father....
Suddenly she looked up. There on the table were all those sandwiches,
cakes, puffs, all uneaten, all going to be wasted. She had one of her
brilliant ideas.
“I know,” she said. “Let’s make up a basket. Let’s send that poor
creature some of this perfectly good food. At any rate, it will be the
greatest treat for the children. Don’t you agree? And she’s sure to
have neighbours calling in and so on. What a point to have it all ready
prepared. Laura!” She jumped up. “Get me the big basket out of the
stairs cupboard.”
“But, mother, do you really think it’s a good idea?” said Laura.
Again, how curious, she seemed to be different from them all. To take
scraps from their party. Would the poor woman really like that?
“Of course! What’s the matter with you to-day? An hour or two ago you
were insisting on us being sympathetic, and now—”
Oh well! Laura ran for the basket. It was filled, it was heaped by her
mother.
“Take it yourself, darling,” said she. “Run down just as you are. No,
wait, take the arum lilies too. People of that class are so impressed
by arum lilies.”
“The stems will ruin her lace frock,” said practical Jose.
So they would. Just in time. “Only the basket, then. And, Laura!”—her
mother followed her out of the marquee—“don’t on any account—”
“What mother?”
No, better not put such ideas into the child’s head! “Nothing! Run
along.”
It was just growing dusky as Laura shut their garden gates. A big dog
ran by like a shadow. The road gleamed white, and down below in the
hollow the little cottages were in deep shade. How quiet it seemed
after the afternoon. Here she was going down the hill to somewhere
where a man lay dead, and she couldn’t realize it. Why couldn’t she?
She stopped a minute. And it seemed to her that kisses, voices,
tinkling spoons, laughter, the smell of crushed grass were somehow
inside her. She had no room for anything else. How strange! She looked
up at the pale sky, and all she thought was, “Yes, it was the most
successful party.”
Now the broad road was crossed. The lane began, smoky and dark. Women
in shawls and men’s tweed caps hurried by. Men hung over the palings;
the children played in the doorways. A low hum came from the mean
little cottages. In some of them there was a flicker of light, and a
shadow, crab-like, moved across the window. Laura bent her head and
hurried on. She wished now she had put on a coat. How her frock shone!
And the big hat with the velvet streamer—if only it was another hat!
Were the people looking at her? They must be. It was a mistake to have
come; she knew all along it was a mistake. Should she go back even now?
No, too late. This was the house. It must be. A dark knot of people
stood outside. Beside the gate an old, old woman with a crutch sat in a
chair, watching. She had her feet on a newspaper. The voices stopped as
Laura drew near. The group parted. It was as though she was expected,
as though they had known she was coming here.
Laura was terribly nervous. Tossing the velvet ribbon over her
shoulder, she said to a woman standing by, “Is this Mrs. Scott’s
house?” and the woman, smiling queerly, said, “It is, my lass.”
Oh, to be away from this! She actually said, “Help me, God,” as she
walked up the tiny path and knocked. To be away from those staring
eyes, or to be covered up in anything, one of those women’s shawls
even. I’ll just leave the basket and go, she decided. I shan’t even
wait for it to be emptied.
Then the door opened. A little woman in black showed in the gloom.
Laura said, “Are you Mrs. Scott?” But to her horror the woman answered,
“Walk in please, miss,” and she was shut in the passage.
“No,” said Laura, “I don’t want to come in. I only want to leave this
basket. Mother sent—”
The little woman in the gloomy passage seemed not to have heard her.
“Step this way, please, miss,” she said in an oily voice, and Laura
followed her.
She found herself in a wretched little low kitchen, lighted by a smoky
lamp. There was a woman sitting before the fire.
“Em,” said the little creature who had let her in. “Em! It’s a young
lady.” She turned to Laura. She said meaningly, “I’m ’er sister, miss.
You’ll excuse ’er, won’t you?”
“Oh, but of course!” said Laura. “Please, please don’t disturb her. I—I
only want to leave—”
But at that moment the woman at the fire turned round. Her face, puffed
up, red, with swollen eyes and swollen lips, looked terrible. She
seemed as though she couldn’t understand why Laura was there. What did
it mean? Why was this stranger standing in the kitchen with a basket?
What was it all about? And the poor face puckered up again.
“All right, my dear,” said the other. “I’ll thenk the young lady.”
And again she began, “You’ll excuse her, miss, I’m sure,” and her face,
swollen too, tried an oily smile.
Laura only wanted to get out, to get away. She was back in the passage.
The door opened. She walked straight through into the bedroom, where
the dead man was lying.
“You’d like a look at ’im, wouldn’t you?” said Em’s sister, and she
brushed past Laura over to the bed. “Don’t be afraid, my lass,”—and now
her voice sounded fond and sly, and fondly she drew down the sheet—“’e
looks a picture. There’s nothing to show. Come along, my dear.”
Laura came.
There lay a young man, fast asleep—sleeping so soundly, so deeply, that
he was far, far away from them both. Oh, so remote, so peaceful. He was
dreaming. Never wake him up again. His head was sunk in the pillow, his
eyes were closed; they were blind under the closed eyelids. He was
given up to his dream. What did garden-parties and baskets and lace
frocks matter to him? He was far from all those things. He was
wonderful, beautiful. While they were laughing and while the band was
playing, this marvel had come to the lane. Happy... happy.... All is
well, said that sleeping face. This is just as it should be. I am
content.
But all the same you had to cry, and she couldn’t go out of the room
without saying something to him. Laura gave a loud childish sob.
“Forgive my hat,” she said.
And this time she didn’t wait for Em’s sister. She found her way out of
the door, down the path, past all those dark people. At the corner of
the lane she met Laurie.
He stepped out of the shadow. “Is that you, Laura?”
“Yes.”
“Mother was getting anxious. Was it all right?”
“Yes, quite. Oh, Laurie!” She took his arm, she pressed up against him.
“I say, you’re not crying, are you?” asked her brother.
Laura shook her head. She was.
Laurie put his arm round her shoulder. “Don’t cry,” he said in his
warm, loving voice. “Was it awful?”
“No,” sobbed Laura. “It was simply marvellous. But Laurie—” She
stopped, she looked at her brother. “Isn’t life,” she stammered, “isn’t
life—” But what life was she couldn’t explain. No matter. He quite
understood.
“_Isn’t_ it, darling?” said Laurie.
The Daughters of the Late Colonel
I
The week after was one of the busiest weeks of their lives. Even when
they went to bed it was only their bodies that lay down and rested;
their minds went on, thinking things out, talking things over,
wondering, deciding, trying to remember where....
Constantia lay like a statue, her hands by her sides, her feet just
overlapping each other, the sheet up to her chin. She stared at the
ceiling.
“Do you think father would mind if we gave his top-hat to the porter?”
“The porter?” snapped Josephine. “Why ever the porter? What a very
extraordinary idea!”
“Because,” said Constantia slowly, “he must often have to go to
funerals. And I noticed at—at the cemetery that he only had a bowler.”
She paused. “I thought then how very much he’d appreciate a top-hat. We
ought to give him a present, too. He was always very nice to father.”
“But,” cried Josephine, flouncing on her pillow and staring across the
dark at Constantia, “father’s head!” And suddenly, for one awful
moment, she nearly giggled. Not, of course, that she felt in the least
like giggling. It must have been habit. Years ago, when they had stayed
awake at night talking, their beds had simply heaved. And now the
porter’s head, disappearing, popped out, like a candle, under father’s
hat.... The giggle mounted, mounted; she clenched her hands; she fought
it down; she frowned fiercely at the dark and said “Remember” terribly
sternly.
“We can decide to-morrow,” she said.
Constantia had noticed nothing; she sighed.
“Do you think we ought to have our dressing-gowns dyed as well?”
“Black?” almost shrieked Josephine.