The Return of the Soldier

and waits for one at the breakfast table; for under Kitty's fixed gaze I had to open a letter which bore the Bo

R J

so I'd better begin at the beginning. Last Thursday I got a wire from Chris, saying that he had had concussion, though not seriously, and was in a hospital about a mile from Boulogne, where he would be glad to see me. It struck me as odd that it had been sent to Ollenshaws, where I was curate fifteen years ago.

ross, with fair-sized grounds and plenty of nice dry paths under the tilleuls. I could not see Chris for an hour, so I sat down on a bench by a funny, little round pond, with a stone coping, very French. Some wounded soldiers who came out to sit i

rous. He seemed glad to see me, and told me he could remember nothing about his concussion, but that he wanted to get back to Harrowweald. He talked a lot about the wood and the upper pond and wanted to know if the daffies were out yet, and when he would be allowed to travel, because he fe

surprise, and said, "Ever since I went down to stay with Uncle Ambrose at Dorney after I'd got my B.Sc." Fifteen years ago! I was still staring at him, unable to believe this barefaced admission of a deception carried on for years, when he went on to say that, though he had wired to her and she had wired a message in return, she hadn't said anything about coming over to see h

ed me with a sneer that we parsons are inveterately eighteenth century and have our minds perpetually inflamed by visions of squires' sons seducing country wenches, and declared that he meant to marry this Margaret Allington. "Oh, indeed!" I said. "And may I ask what Kitty

e been the fourth"-you know my wretched memory for dates-"of February, in 1906." He turned very pale and asked what year this was. "1916," I told him. He fell back in a fainting condition. The nurse came, and said

lve years ago." He said, "Good God! can't you say he died," and he turned over and lay with his back to me. I have never before seen a strong man weep, and it is indeed a terrible sight. He moaned a lot, and began to call for this Margaret. Then he turned over again and said, "Now tell us all about this Kitty that I've married." I told him she was a beautiful little woman, and mentioned that she had a charming and cultivated sopra

tending over a period of fifteen years. He says that though, of course, it will be an occasion of great trial to us all, he thinks that, in view of Chris's expressed longing for

ho was to see my poor cousin through these dark days, but convey to her my deepest sympathy. Indeed, I never realized the horror of w

rs

AN

oulder Kit

Then she gripped my arm and shrieked in a pos

er, they broug

by day, took me down after lunch to the greenhouses and had a snappishly competent conversation about the year's vegetables with Pipe, the gardener. Then Kitty went into the drawing-room and filled the house with the desolate merriment of an inattentively played pianola, while I sat in the hall and wrote letters and noticed how sad dance-music has sounded ever since the war began. After that she started a savage r

as a kind of death from which he would emerge ghostlike, impalpable. And then he stood in the doorway, the gloom blurring his outlines like fur, the faint, clear candle-light catching the fair down on his face. He did not see me, in my dark dress, or huddled Kitty, a

that his hair was of three color

the head, he found

he said, and g

instead of twenty. For his eyes had hardened in the midst of his welcome, as though he had trusted

convalescent type." He might as well have said,

"it's so wonderful

nd continued to hold my hands. There was a r

him. He knew not because memory had given him any insight into her heart, but because there is an instinctive kindliness in him which makes him wise about all suffering, that it would hurt her if he asked if this was his w

e was a weak, wailing

the scene less wounding, and stooped to kiss her; but he could not. The thought o

into the shadows as though she were a symbol of this new life by which he was baffled and oppressed, until the darkness outside became filled with the sound like th

the room, as though she were speak

to go to bed early." She said it very smartly, with her head on one side like a bird, as if she w

up had I not held him back; for the little room in the south wing, with the fishing-rods and the old

e lifted her arms as though she struggled through a fog, and fell behind. When he reached the top she was standing half-way down the stairs, her hands clasped under her chin. But he did not see

rself with a

servant brightness of old, well-polished wood, seemed terribly aware. Strangeness had come into the house, and everything was appalled by it, even time. For the moments dragged. It seemed to me, half an hour later, that I had been standing for an infinite period in the drawing-room, remembering that in the old days the blinds had never been drawn in this room

cruelly bright, to her white, small breasts; because she held some needlework to her bosom, I saw that her right hand was stiff with rings and her left hand bare save for her wedding-ring. She dropped her load of flannel on a work-table and sat down, spreading out her skirts, in an arm-chair by the fire. With her lower lip thrust out, as if she were considering a menu, she lowered her head and looked down on herself. She frowned t

while one of the servants spoke helpfully. Kitty knitted her brows, for she hates grac

e did not listen, because she was controlling her face into harmony with the appea

is disorder the sight of Kitty, her face and hands and bosom shining like the snow, her gown enfolding her, and her gold hair crowning her with radiance, and the white fire

should not remember me," she

wered

is gaze shifted to the shadows in the corners of the room, and the blood r

hands as if to

, and nearer things he fingered as though sight were not intimate enough a contact. His hand caressed the arm of his chair, because he remembered the black gleam of it, stole out and touched the recollected salt-cellar. It was his furtiveness that was heartrending; it was as though he were an outcast, and we who loved him stout policemen. Was Baldry Court so sleek a place that the unhappy felt offenders there? Then we had all been living wickedly, and he, too. As his fingers glided here and there he talked bravely about non-committal things: to what ponies we had been strapped when at the age of five we were introduced to the hunting-field; how we had

hook he

n't k

sseous, where Griffiths was rotund; dark, where Griffiths had been merrily mottled; strange, where Griffit

ot Griffiths had left th

I know; but whe

go," said Kitty, he

ply in a shud

. He was a

red my

re, Chris, but they love

o smile at us both,

n't know tha

nny the woman. All the inhabitants at this new tract of time were his enemies, all its circumstances his prison-bars. There

y. His mother had been a hard-rid

"We-we've a lot of responsibilities, you and I. With all of the

ddled carelessly by the fire, her hands over her face, unheeding by its red glow she looked not so virginal and bride-like; so I think she was too distracted even to plan. I went to

n it's the war that's caused all this. I could have told that you

ndered if things like this happened when Purcell wrote such music, empty of everything except laughter and simple greeds and satisfactions and at worst the wail of unrequited love. Why had modern life brought forth these horrors, w

it

was sweet and ob

nd him the search-light wheeled while he gripped the sides of t

arls into her flesh. "She lives near here," she said easily. "I will send

fell to h

re all being so kind-" He disen

more amazed to find that it had made her f

w, so that he might not hear it as he passe

ity meant so much in our Kitty, whose law of

ings all the wrong way,

n sit down to it. Other women do. Teddy Rex keeps a Gaiety girl, and Mrs. Rex has to grin and bear it." She shrugged in answer to my silence. "What else is it, do you thin

itty! how

k mouth went on ma

d at the end of an unpardonabl

care what I did to stop her. I gripped her small shoulders with my large hands, and shook her till her jewe

e from the

through his hair unhappily. "Let's all be decent to each other," he sa

herself neat

tors'? It's how you feel, I know." She gathered up her

aps because I was flushed and looked younger, he felt more intimate with me than he had yet done since his return. Indeed, in the warm, friendly silence that followed he was like a patient when tiring visitors have gone and he is left alone with his trusted nurs

remember

bows when you meet her in the street, how she dresses when she goes to church

ber Kitty. All that a wife s

ers as though there were a draft. His silence compelled me to look at

is thi

y's been a

am old, that"-he waved a hand

ts of ways, believe me, and fifteen years have passed. Why, Chris, can't you see that I have grown o

saw that deep down in him, not to be moved by

o you," I begged. "Chris,

es were wet and bright. Then suddenly he lifted his chin and laughed, like a happy swimmer breaking through a wave that has swept him far inshore. He glowed with a radiance th