Across the Plains, with Other Memories and Essays

nourably paid him the five half-crowns he had won from her, and since then he had been living here alone with his father. This evening, his mother and Jessie were coming down from town, hi

nts which Lord Harlow sent or brought to her, morning, noon, and night. They were really

fished him out of the lake, and received a gold watch and chain for the rescue, for Blessington was always in and out of his room, taking coats and trousers away to have buttons more securely adjusted, and loading her work-basket with piles of his socks and underclothing in which her eyes, still needle-sharp for all her seventy-five years, had detected holes that required darning. This habit of hers sometimes drove William nearly mad, for Blessington would take away all Archie's washing when it came back from the laundry, in order to inspect it thoroughly, and when his distracted valet wanted clean clothes, and applied to her for them, she would often entir

*

t was to recall to him the days of his childhood, his naughtiness, the scrapes he got into, the whole patchwork of memories that retained still such lively and beloved colouring. And for him, too, during this last week, there had been in these talks a way of escape from this nightmare of his present experience; it was he himself, after all, who had put the coals on his mother's hearthrug, had fished for pike with William, had attended, in rapturous trepidation, the

thout success to squeeze himself into the imprisoning seat of his

d, "I can't understand to this day, Master Archie. I'

out that,"

sit in her room while she went out driving. And what must you do but empty all the fi

ted to a bottle on the table, and told his father that he ought to learn his lesson first before he gave Archie one... That had puzzled him at the time, though it was clear enough now. His father stil

to get back into the enchanted land which B

usiness, wasn't it, Blessington? What do you thin

know," said Blessington.

t's mischief?

a simple and d

hat Sapum wants you to do," said she, Sap

t's rather beastly of Sapum to take possession o

served Blessington. "But that was the naughtiest thing

as a rule?

" said Blessington. "Boys are more troub

o girls, too?" asked he, wit

t's the name of that place in Switzerland-I must say you were wonderfully good. It was as if some angel took pos

ackwards and forwards f

tin," he said at length. "Te

he hadn't the spirit for it. He didn't want to die, and right up to the end he thought he'd get better. You papa never loved any one like he loved him, and nobody could

h the sweet, easy tears of old-age ove

ays evenings were, weren't they? I wish Abracadabra came stil

ton beam

to come here, and you and she take a fancy to each other, dear. That

a bitter word was on the end of his tongue. T

Blessington," he said,

irting with any

ittle cackle of soft

e said. "Who ever h

ton, I believe there's somebody else after you. I

n looked s

ot nothing better to do than go and marry him. I didn't suffer any of his nonsense... And there's t

etter than Miss He

ded her head ve

t a nice young lady, too

er with her then

ed the incarnati

ful, and some as are not. Now, my dear, you must go and

young woman,"

lessington. "Eh, Master Archie, I l

*

re came on him now the maturer woes of love and manhood. Throughout his school life and his three years at Cambridge, he had never quite let go of Blessington's hand, which had been the first to direct and sustain his tottering attempts at locomotion. Now, too, she was the only member of his immediate circle who did not know of his trouble, and it was an unutterable relief to feel that he was not being pitied and sympathized with by somebody. For, though there is nothing in the world better than sympathy and pity, no sufferer smarting from a recent wound wa

ch, for all his affection for her, he found irritating, were on him. She was

said, looking at him with the te

kisse

," he said. "I have just

sing

said Lady Tintagel with eager cord

lled her mind. He was in its presence, and longed to get away from it. All the time another dist

Archie?" said

peration sudd

am very well," he said. "I a

e managed better t

ith me," she said. "There's time before we need dress

that alcohol broke down his sense of being stunned, of being made of wood. Now he drank for another reason: by drink he got rid of the misery of normal consciousness and emerged into some sort of life again. It stimulated his brain, he could by its means escape for a little from that one perpetual thought of Helena that went round in his head like a stick in a backwater, and get into the current again. Sometimes he would go to his room, taking a whisk

en as they were strolling across the lawn to get the croquet-balls from their box, she a little ahead of him as he nursed a match for his cigarette, he looked up, and there in front of him might have been

the mat

he said. "I've left my cigare

his father's study. Lord Tintagel was sitting in the big leathe

ie. "Hullo, they're not here yet. It doesn't

ke," said the other drowsily. "

isky. The soda-water was nearly exhausted, but the dregs of it gur

ing to do now?"

a game wi

be a cocktail for you then. Infernal lazy fellows the servants are no

sdom of her plan that he should leave London and seek a change of mind in a change of scene. He had done some writing since he had been here; he seemed pleased with the way it was going, and she talked hopefully to Jessie when they held a rather protracte

," said Lady Tintagel. "He goes and talks to her every evening as he always did. I th

in his place; she could understand how much easier it was to behave normally with those who did not know than with those who did. Yet Archie's father knew, and all through dinner she had seen how friendly and intimate the two had become. Archie used to be constrained and awkward with his father, while his father used to be rather contemptuous of him. But this evening there had been none o

his father. He did not communicate the grounds for his merriment, but, looking a

her darlin

love yearned

augh," she said. "What have you an

uble Archie now. The sunny hours would stretch unclouded until

shall I tell her, or would

like," said L

er, the whole contents of the last hour or two, seemed stale and stuffy. The air of them was thick with the fumes of wine, with the fancies and images that it evoked, smoke-wreaths that hung heavy in the atmosphere, swirling and turning like dancers and melting into other shapes. But for that moment when the night-air came in from the crystal-clear dusk outside, that liquid tabernacle of sapphire in the holy night, where stars

ere," he said. "Will

ss

seemed prepared for some human love-duet, when lovers fancy that nature is arranging her most sensuous effects for their benefit, though in reality she is but pursuing the path ordained for her by the wheeling seasons, and predicted by barometers and apparatus that is concerned only with heat and movements of the moon. And, of lovers, there was one of each pair absent, as the two walked quietly towards

d like that, and Jessie had sunned herself and responded to those silly things; but now she knew, as well as he, that the babble was no more than blown sea-foam. It made her heart ache that he should talk it to her, for, though she made no claim on his love, it was miserable that he could not recognize how true a

e surface. And then Archie's foolish chatter died, and he was silent as he watched the rayed ri

She knew: don't tell me she didn't know! Do answer me. Didn't she know? All the time that we were in town together she knew. And she let me go on. She

e first reproach of his spe

dn't she?" he cried. "

ombustible material in

nybody," she said. "Oh

ve loved and lost. Anyhow, a worse thing is to have loved and not found. That's what has happened to me, and she made me think I had found. She meant to

arm: now she shook his hand off,

t," she said. "And I ou

body. I withdra

n," said he. "You don't wi

said was only my opinion, and I with

p your opini

. I have withdrawn what I

face empty, swept, and garnished, ready for any occupant who might take possession. The sweet, clean water of his nature must have run out on to desert sands; the cistern of the b

there? Is it you?" She heard a

he said. "I answer t

sense that he had something in his pocket worth having, even though it was not gold. She would have gleefully melted all her love into a currency that could have enriched him, for he did not want her love

m awfully grateful to you. You won't play

on me the better I shall be pleased. I'm stupid at saying things, but, oh Archie, if a friend is any

Jessie,

y half across the lawn that lay dripping with dew. Her thin satin shoes were soaked, and the hem of her dress trailed on

more emotion in his voice than if he

'm dead, but will you watch by the corpse? It likes to know you are there. There's no compl

n't talk such non

dirty, and the knocker and door-handle, which were so well rubbed and polished, get dull. There used to be curtains in the windows, and in the evening passers-by in the street could see chinks of light from within, and perhaps hear sounds of laughter. But now there are no curtai

that lay loose in t

give me such a he

to mother, or you, or anybody, just remember that I'm an empt

he house, and for the present Archie had no more to say, and was evidently meaning to go indoors again. Upstairs all was dark, but below, the five windows of the drawing-room, uncurtained and open, cast oblongs of light on to the gravel, and next to them

called. "Come in and see m

r," said he, "we'

hat she guessed what had given him this sudden animation. Perhaps it was only the knowledge of his father's habits that informed her, perhaps it was a brain-wave passing

to sit up long,

nd sometimes I do some writing before I go to bed. It's quite a good t

at Silorno that you wr

he beach, and go for a swim at intervals. Lord! What

at Lady Tintagel had already gone upstairs. Archie stood by Jessie, shi

talk with my mother. And, do you know, my father's waiting for me; I think I'll jo

he said. "That's something left, isn't

lau

in the dust on the wind

father. Good-n

*

paper when Archie entered. Archie noticed, with some su

p. "Give me my drink, Archie, there's a goo

the news?" a

sia against the Austrian ultimatum. I wonder if Germany can really be at the bottom of

u?" asked Archie, br

be war; we're always having these scares, and they always come to nothing. But if dealers are

sting it, now that he had got it. Delay, when the delay was voluntary, would but add

tching the bubbles stream up from

threw dow

fference. But if they go down I shall have to pay the difference at the next account. If the shares are each worth L8 now, and at the next account are only standing at L6, I shall have to pay L2 on each share. If I li

down again, I suppose your sh

ther l

late: it's a rotten business. I've got into the habit now, but I recommend you not to take to it. It's easy enough to tak

wine-cup for his tall glass, he might have stepped straight from some temple-frieze, and his father wondered how any girl in her senses could have chosen the precise, pedantic man whom she was soon going to marry, when Archie was but waiting, as she must have known, for his moment. He, poor fellow, was often a very dreary and dispirited boy all day; but in the evening he came to himself again, and was what he used to be. And yet, though it seemed to Lord Tintagel a cruel thing t

warning had seemed coming from lips that had lost all precision of utterance. But he told himself that he was not going to commit any such absurdity: he was perfectly sober, indeed it seemed very likely that it had never entered Archie's head to think of him as a dru

second glass wit

said, "and you mustn't be vexed with me, because I'm only doi

ed at him i

I shall, father," h

chair quite steadily, for he leaned

ut, which they say is so easy to keep clear of, but so hard to break. You drink rather freely, you know, whereas a few months ag

ive merriment at this solemn adjuration delivered by a man who spoke very carefully for fear of his words all running into each o

fter dinner is dangerous, father," he said.

drink he had mixed for him but a few moments before. Lord Tintagel

irium tremens in every glass of wine. But-though you may never have heard it-your grandfather was

th broadened

tion now and then,

turned shar

at?" he

ly beheld himself with Archie's eyes, even as, thirty years ago, he had beheld his father when he spoke to him on pre

from me, Archie," he said. "It's ri

y with a pathetic,

road, and I should be sorry to see you following me. I should indeed. Just now I

, kindly, moralizing stage in his cups that Archie had often noticed before. Certainly he himself did not want to become like that, but he felt that he was not within measurable distance of the need of making any resolution on the subject, so far was he from

hall we, father? And don't imagine for a moment that I am vexed with you.

tated a

t-cap with me," he sai

y; God bless you! We'll

ions would do him no harm, and the keeping of them would undoubtedly do him good, for, instead of the firm, masterful man whom Archie had known as the rather prodigious denizen of that formidable room, there sat there now a weak, entangled creature. Archie could

; there the screen behind which, as he had subsequently ascertained, William had hidden with a trumpet and the servants' dinner-bell, there the side-door into the gardens through which, pleasingly excited, he had hurried with the box for coffin of the dead bird which the cat had killed... A hundred memories crowded abo

g the handle of the door with swiftness and silence. There was his father by the

or a book," he said