Jaffery

ybody who attended from the officiating clergy to the shyest of poor relations. With the cold accuracy of an encyclop?dia, and with expert technical discrimination, they mention the various fabrics o

astonishing in its detail. Their accounts naturally lack imagination. Otherwise they would not be faithful records of fact. But they do

escribe the wedding of Doria and A

h a long thing like a paper snake. "This is a full report of the wedding. I kept it. I fe

espair. It leaves me admiring but cold. It fails to conjure up to my min

ibe the wedding

's troops of friends supported him. Doria, dark eyed, without a tinge of colour in the strange ivory of her cheek, looked more elfin than ever beneath the white veil. Jaffery, who was best man, vast in a loose frock coat, loomed like a monstrous effigy by the altar-rails. Susan, at the head of the bridesmaids, kept the stern set face of one at grapple with awful responsibility. She told

the ring but the symbol of the fetters of slavery? The rice, but the expression of a hope for a prolific union? The satin slipper tied on to the carriage or thrown after it? Good luc

hat?" said Barbara sweetly. "Did you n

Bagshawe's hat to do with the subject und

d laughed. "No, you dea

the essential inconv

e influence that infused vitality into the deadly and decorous mob. It was a miracle wrought by a rich Silenic personality. I had never guessed before the magnetic power of Jaffery Chayne. Indeed I had often wondered how the overgrown and apparently irresponsible schoolboy who couldn't make head or tail of Nietzsche and from whom the music of Shelley was hid, had managed to make a journalistic reputation as a great war and foreign correspondent. Now the veil of the mystery was drawn an inch or two aside. I saw him min

arriage and pair-and, unconscious of anthropological truth, threw the slipper of woman's humiliation. The carriage drove off amid the cheers of the multitude. Jaffery stood and watched it until it disappeared round the curve. In my eagerness to throw the unnecessarily symbolic rice I had followed and stayed a foot or two away from him; and then I

o to Hell or Honolulu-wherever you chose without a care? Ho! ho! ho!" He linked his arm in mine, and

and siphons were set out. Jaffery helped himself to a

o want that,"

his frock coat and patent leather boots. "For gossamer comfo

shadow of pain and despair, and I knew that the discomfort of the garments of

thlands that afternoon, calling at his club for a suit-case. In the car he tucked a very tired and comfort-desiring Susan in the shelter of his great arm. There was something pathetically tender in the ga

f. What a was

ou speak with the tongue of an angel, where

laugh. She touched my

nt like that," she sai

tified by Barbara as int

ttle later, "whether those

utual admiration society of

. They were both of them dears and the marriage was g

y, "if Jaffery had come along first and there had be

u have made one match-you, and you'll pardon me for saying so, not Heav

he said, "doesn't

n my brain, kissed her and retired to my dressing-

ry mother. She discussed his homelessness-she had an eerie way of treading on delicate

ead of game stored in the London Repository, to say nothing of skins and as fine a collect

ers or a pillow slip or a boo

ry. "They're waiting to be calle

en a man has, say, a thousand pounds wherewith to buy that much money's worth of household clutter, he certa

you go at once to Harrod's Stores

ery, "I'm starting off for the interi

choed Barb

a?" I re?choed, with

o hysterics if I said I was going to Boulogne. Let him come

not say that I declined it. I should be as happy in the interior of C

wo," he repl

said I, "to be born with no

s pass pretty qui

a lifetim

is job, the valuable copy he would send to his paper. I proved to him it was but the mere lust of savagery. And he could not understand why we s

d I. "Suppose I told you I was starting to-morro

you were a lia

t together like a colossal fly. The joke

quiet backwater of our life, but also because we knew that he went away a less happy man than he had come. This time it was not sheer Wanderlust that had driven him into the wilderness. He had fled in the

is loyalty and lovable childishness, was better away from the neighbour's

she led him a dog's life. Of course I remonstrated, argued, implored. It was like asking a hurricane politely not to blow. Her name I remember was Gwenny. One summer evening she had promised to meet him outside the house in Tavistock Square-he had arranged to take her to some Earl's Court Exhibition, where she could satiate a depraved passion for switch-backs, water-chutes and scenic railways. At the appointed hour Jaffery stood in waiting on the pavement. I sat on the first floor balcony, alternately reading a novel and watching him with a sardonic eye. Presently Gwenny turned the corner of the square-our house was a few doors up-and she appeared, on the opposite side of the road, by the squa

Take the twopence and go away

etreated

e twopence? I shou

the twopence. I think the scrubby man had the mak

!" said he, re

but at Gwenny's shrieks, neighbouring windows were thrown up and eager heads appeared. It was very funny. There was Jaffery holding a squalling girl in one arm and with the other exploring available pockets for his latchkey. I had one of the inspirations of my life. I rushed into my bedroom, caught up the ewer from my washstand, went out onto the extreme edge of the balcony and cast the gallon or so of water over the heads of the struggling pair. The effect was amazing. Jaffery dropped the girl. The girl, once on her feet, fled like a cat. Jaffery looked up idiotically. I flourished the empty jug. I think I threatene

tary. After all, it was his business in life to visit the dark places of the earth and keep the world informed of history in the making.