The haunted house
upon it—and in the dining-room, where he had been allowed on grand
occasions of childhood, in the old dining-room now panelled, damasked
and changed out of recognition, the abominable Ancestor grinning, and
the abominable “refectory” table, long, with carved legs, darkened, and
of the sort called antique.
He would change all that.
He was as certain that he would change all that as he was that he had
(virtually) the twenty thousand pounds; and of such is the kingdom of
twenty-three years old.
* * * * *
Aunt Hilda came in, not over-pleased with whatever she had been doing.
She had been calling on the county people, and she always felt after
doing that that she was not quite on their scale.
But before going out to call upon people (and she was so kind that
she had done it in her little car, leaving the big one for John and his
luggage), she had read two letters which had put her out not a little.
The first was John’s with its enclosure—and it made her hot with anger
to think of it. The second was from the Esthonian. He would not wait.
It was a shame, and it was silly. She had virtually sold the place. She
was quite sure that either Lord Hellup or dear Amathea’s husband would
buy. Why, it would probably be decided that very week-end. He could
perfectly well wait. She was sure he was only fussing in order to make
her renew. And _that_ she was determined she would _not_ do.
But this criticism of the Esthonian was uncharitable, and also unwise
in Aunt Hilda. The Esthonian was really suffering, for Esthonians who
have Europeans in their debt are yet often in debt themselves to bigger
Esthonians; and such was the condition of this Esthonian. And for all
I know, even the larger Esthonian up above was in debt to yet another
enormous Esthonian, until you got to the centre of the great spider’s
web in New York, to which nowadays even Frankfort and London bow down.
But anyhow, in this piffling matter of these few thousand pounds the
Esthonian was fussing abominably, and his letter was peremptory. The
date for payment fell in the very next week. He respectfully but very
urgently required her answer. Had she received anything on account?
Had she anything to show him in writing which he could show to others
(for the Esthonian was quite frank in this matter, as he sometimes was
when he thought it profitable to be so). He said he really needed the
money; and he really did—there was no reason why he should pretend not
to; quite the contrary. But it is true that the Esthonian did not need
the money so very much as he pretended.
Alas! poor Aunt Hilda had no writing yet to show! You cannot show in
writing the growing devotion of an American business man to a fine
figure of an Englishwoman not so old as himself. Nor the growing
appetite for a quiet country place in the wife of a Coalition Peer.
She had not answered the letter. She had temporised. And that made her
mood more irritable still.
It was in such a state of human tempers—Aunt Hilda exasperated and
John, as he believed, quiet and firm, but really more exasperated
still—that the meeting between them took place. She poured out tea for
him. He spoke vaguely of London and, knowing well that he was applying
an irritant, he told her with what anxiety to be under her roof he had
put off his engagement upon the Halls. She in her turn had exploded at
him and told him that she wanted to hear nothing about that horrible
side of life, and he had said:
“Very well, very well. There’s nothing in it, to be sure.”
She wanted to make the best of her party for her guests. She felt that
her nephew was popular with those whom he knew, and could make himself
popular with those whom he did not. She switched off on to who was
coming.
“I’ve told you who they are, John, there are only five, and only two
women. I had to ask Lord Hambourne, because he was so kind to me over
that unfortunate business of Oriel when _you_ refused to go to Oxford.
He was _most_ considerate. He made every allowance for you. I’ve always
been intending to have him down at the Catchings, and I’ve not had him
here all that time.”
John nodded.
“If only you had gone to Oxford, John, you would have had the advantage
of one of the greatest minds in the world. Lord Hambourne....”
John interrupted.
“Yes, I know,” he said. “They call him Hambone.”
“That’s silly and vulgar,” said Aunt Hilda.
“It is,” said John. “So is he.”
“He’s nothing of the sort. I met him often when I ran up there before
you came back to England when I was making the arrangements. He’s one
of the nicest men I have ever met. You only run him down because he’s
poor.”
“That may have something to do with it,” said John deliberately.
Aunt Hilda was on the point of violence, when she controlled herself
and turned it off to the other two.
“Then there’s Lord Hellup, and his daughter Isabeau.” Aunt Hilda looked
at her nephew for a moment, but he gave no response. “Have you met
them?” she said.
“Yes,” he answered rather surlily. “I’ve met them at the Pattles’.”
“There are no Pattles,” said Aunt Hilda majestically. “If you mean Lady
Pattle....”
“Yes, I mean old Mother Pattle,” said John, and Aunt Hilda sighed.
“Then there’s a man, John, I really want you to meet, and to be careful
about, if only for my sake.”
John said that for her sake he would do anything.
“Very young men like you, John, may do things that not only ruin their
own careers, but really hurt other people. I have asked Amathea—Amathea
de Beaurivage that is—and her husband.”
John looked at her innocently.
“Why not? Who are they?”
“You know perfectly well, John,” she said. “The man that was Sir George
Huggins, who did all that splendid work during the war.”
“Oh, Lord Mere de Boreevarge?” said John, charmingly and spontaneously.
“Yes, I’ve read about him. A great financial brain. I read that only
to-day, as I was coming down, in the paper—which paper, upon my soul,
I forget. Or was it in _The Howl_?—which belongs to Cad Toronto.”
“For God’s sake, John,” said Aunt Hilda, exasperated, “behave yourself,
at any rate when you meet him! And why do you call him De Bo-ree-varge?”
“Because it’s spelt that way. And I’ve always read it like that.”
“Well, I don’t know if you’re telling the truth. But please to
understand that it’s Bruvvish.”
“I will,” said John solemnly. “I’ll call him Mere Bruvvish, and her,
Lady Mere Bruvvish. Bruvvish all the time.”
Aunt Hilda got up from her chair and stood in front of the fire looking
at her nephew. She had something to say. It might be the wrong time
to say it, when they were half-quarrelling; but she wanted to get it
over, and perhaps a certain softness of manner would come better after
a passage like this than later on, when the trouble might begin again.
“John,” she said, “I want to put it to you quite frankly. I think it
would be wrong to hide it from you, though I have a perfect right to do
what I am doing. I want to tell you everything, so that nothing shall
go wrong, because these next few days are so important to me; and to
you too, my dear. And to Rackham Catchings.”
“Never mind me, Aunt Hilda,” said John quietly. “And for the matter of
that, don’t take too much trouble about the Catchings.”
Aunt Hilda controlled herself again.
“Both those men are prepared to make an offer. I shall ask £60,000 for
£50,000. And I happen to know, privately, that both are thinking of it.”
“I didn’t know Hambone was worth it,” said John quietly.
“Nonsense,” snapped his aunt. “Hambourne indeed! Lord Hambourne! And
please don’t call him Hambone, like a schoolboy. No! Lord Hellup, and
Amathea and her husband may either, or both, make an offer. There.
I’ve told you, and you ought to know. Remember, John,” she went on
hurriedly, “that you are the only one I have, and when I am gone”
(after which illogical sentence she heaved a profound sigh from her
considerable chest—which had, as might be, thirty more years of life
in it), “it really concerns you as much as it does myself. I tell you
quite frankly, and quite plainly, that I am not going to take less than
£50,000.”
For half a minute or so John gave no answer. She had said nothing about
his letter. He looked in the fire, as though it were an old friend with
whom he was consulting, and leaned his solid young head on his left
hand. Then he rose slowly in his turn, and without facing Aunt Hilda,
putting both hands upon the mantelpiece and still gazing into the fire,
he said:
“Aunt Hilda, I can’t offer you £50,000; but you’ve had my letter, there
you have it in black and white, after so much palaver. I can and do
offer you £20,000. It’s firm.”
The effect of this remark upon Aunt Hilda may be compared to that
produced by the slipping of a piece of ice down the neck of a neighbour
at dinner during an ardent conversation; a practical joke which I hope
is no longer fashionable. The victim is at first oddly shocked, as by
a spasm—then stabbed into language. So Aunt Hilda. After a gasp she
flamed up, turned round, found her nephew no longer staring at the fire
in gentle distraction but facing her, square, firm, and defiant. She
had received his challenge, she repeated the old insult.
“Twenty thousand pounds? Why, you haven’t got twenty thousand pence!”
The insolence of his proposition! The insufficiency of it! The wild
impossibility of his being able to fulfil it! His assurance! Why, he
was her dependent——
John Maple was like a wrestler in his attitude and in his mood,
standing ready for the spring. He tried hard not to quiver, but he was
quivering all the same.
“I have said twenty thousand more than once, Aunt Hilda, and now I’ve
written it and given you the paper to accept,” he answered, “I _mean_
twenty thousand.”
Her reply was complete. She told him not to make a fool of himself.
They both sat down to cool off.
“Well, John, it’s no good quarrelling over nonsense, is it?”
“It isn’t nonsense,” said John. “There may be a day,” he added darkly,
“when you will think better of it.”
Aunt Hilda groaned. She had not had much to do with young people, but
she had heard they were all like that. She recovered her temper.
“There may be, John,” she said, laughing uneasily, “but at any rate not
yet, and not for Rackham Catchings.”
“I didn’t offer it for the Catchings. I know the Catchings would cost
more. I offered it for Rackham.”
And he went out to cool off further. They saw each other no more till
dinner.
* * * * *
At dinner a truce was declared. They talked of anything: principally of
the County. Hilda Maple was longing to do two things: first, to relieve
her nerves by asking him to be particularly good when the guests came
on the morrow, Saturday—but she had had the sense to hold her tongue—it
would only have provoked a new quarrel, and after all, she could trust
John Maple to behave himself if he felt inclined. She also knew that
nothing would prevent his saying something to upset the _ci-devant_
Huggins and his wife if he did not feel inclined. With Hellup she felt
he was safe, and as he had no particular grudge against lords as
such or dons as such, but rather a natural sympathy with poor men, she
felt he would be safe with Lord Hambourne—though she could not get over
the disrespectful allusion to Hambone; but she thought he might have
picked it up from his Oxford acquaintances in London, and she let it
lie.
The second thing she wanted to do was to examine him on this very point
of Lord Hambourne. She herself hardly knew the man. She had observed